Ep. 70: Report Card Time! Listener Call-Ins with Dirk
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Last week, I put a post out on Instagram asking for everybody's two cents on how they did in 2023. This is a really great way to kind of self-assess, look back, analyze, think about it. I had to think about it a lot myself. In fact, I'm probably harder on myself than anyone. Punish myself for the next few months until we hit September again.

I ask everybody to call in to our super secret hotline. I guess it's not that secret. Had them call in and leave a message and let me know, how did their season go? Did they kick ass or did they suck ass? And we had a few people call in, leave messages. So I'm going to play those in a little bit and kind of...

go over their thoughts and maybe put a couple of my two cents in as well. But in the meantime, I'm going to kind of go over my season and let you know how I did if I kicked ass or if I sucked ass. And I'm going to go ahead and just, hey, I'm going to raise my hand right now. I'm the first guy to admit I kind of sucked ass last year. Man, it was a tough, tough September for me. And, you know,

I was like, well, you know, maybe it's not an elk year. Maybe it'll be a deer year. You know, maybe elk season wasn't very robust, but deer season would be awesome and I would make up for it. Deer season is a little bit soft too. But anyway, I was going to go ahead and kind of go over some of these thoughts that I had on my report card from 2023. And I would probably give myself maybe...

Maybe a C. I've always been kind of a C student. But anyway, did you guys kick ass or did you suck ass? I sucked ass. And I'm just going to dive in on kind of some of my screw ups here. My screw up number one, I didn't do my research on the unit to see how many hunters I could expect to see here in Idaho. There's a whole new unit for me.

It was a unit that was close to where my son could come and join me for the hunt, spend a few days. It'd be easy with his work shift. And I thought, yeah, this will work great. I did all my summer scouting, learned the area, put out trail cameras, saw lots of nice bulls on trail cam. And then fast forward to September, and I got to go up a little bit early. I got to go up a few days before Austin could –

come up and hunt before Dusty could come up and film. And I hunted the first three days of season before the big Labor Day season or the Labor Day weekend rush got there. And

Bulls were pretty quiet. I did hear some bugles and I was able to get right on them and get in there and spend some time with them, but they were not aggressive at all. And if I pushed up on them and eased up on them very much, they would just kind of be quiet or just move off. So,

So anyway, that kind of set the stage. I'm like, okay, I know where these bulls are at. This is going to be great here in a few days when Austin can come up, him and Dusty will be up there, and we're going to dive in and call some bulls in. It's going to be awesome. Fast forward a few days.

I left the woods for the big weekend because I knew it was just going to be a rat race. You know, lots of people out and enjoying the woods, riding their side-by-sides and four-wheelers and dirt bikes around. You have the recreationalists and you have the hunters. And one thing I found when...

The last day I was there before the big weekend was a whole bunch of guys and gals running around in pickups hunting hounds. So a lot of the roads hadn't been closed yet. So I was kind of banking on some of these roads being closed. Well, I should have dug in a little bit deeper in my off-season scouting and looked at when road closures happened. And a lot of these road closures didn't happen until in October.

And here we are in September and got folks, you know, everywhere on every road that they can get a machine on. And there was folks, you know, hound hunting for bears. We had folks just out elk hunting and just, you know, covering every little piece of ground. So, of course, if you've elk hunted very much in your life, you understand what disturbance is all about once people start hunting.

penetrating the forest more than they have all summer, start making a lot of stink just by walking around out there. A lot of people calling, a lot of people running dogs, chasing bears, you know, that gets, that gets the animals on, on edge. And they know it's like, well, put a big old X on the calendar. It's hunting season time. So anyway, when we got back, when I went, got back there with the guys, uh,

after the big weekend, um, it didn't look like we'd lost a lot of people. Um, a lot of the recreationalists had gone home, but a lot of the, the hunting camps, uh, were still there and we're getting more on the daily every day, more hunters showed up. So all the places that I had had been, that I'd found early, um,

Had now other hunters had found those as well and were in there. So we started turning over rocks, you know, we got to leave no stone unturned and find a spot we can get in on and hunt some undisturbed elk, relatively speaking. So every time we'd find a bull that would bugle.

Um, maybe he wasn't real hot. Like we'd find him mid morning or so. We wouldn't find, you know, as luck would have it, we wouldn't find him right at the break of dawn. You know, we would, where we were at, at first light, there was no action. So we go to the next place and the next place, you know, go from a plans, a, B, C, D, E, all the way down the line. And, you know, we would find a bull mid morning or, um, almost at noon and the

the bull wasn't going to be very reactive to calling. So we would be like, all right, cool. Well, tomorrow morning we'll be here at first light and we'll be on them. So the next morning we'd get, we'd be there ready to go. Well, somebody else would be there too. So you can't blame anybody else there. You know, it's public land, everybody out there trying to have fun doing the same thing we are. But it does get a little frustrating sometimes.

So then we decided to broaden our horizons. We branched out and there's a really big unit. There's several units within this elk hunting zone here in Idaho. And so it's time to just start canvassing the zone. So we spread out, drove all over the zone, just trying to find areas where the people weren't. And we just could not find anywhere else.

There wasn't a lot of people. And every time we'd find a bull that would talk, then we'd have company within no time at all. So we called the hunt a couple of days early because I had a Montana elk tag and I thought, well, you know what? Why burn up time here? Just beating our head against the wall, wasting a bunch of gas, trying to drive from one spot to the next, trying to get the good spot done.

So we bailed and this was early season. I don't think the rut was nowhere close to being heated up where we kind of want it to be. So we went home. Austin was like, that's fine. I got to do some chores anyway. So Dusty and I headed out. We stopped in Southeast Idaho.

and hunted for a few days for him where he had a, had a tag and it was kind of the same thing. There was a lot of folks over there hunting and the same reaction from elk. Elk were just not very vocal. They were, um, they were, they would bugle just a little bit, but if you got close to them, they would just be quiet. They would just clam up or just move off. So, um,

Then we're like, okay, well, let's get head on up to Montana. So that is where my screw up number two kind of took place.

Um, typically I like to hunt kind of in a, or I like to camp in kind of a central spot to the hunting area. That way I'm allowed to, um, canvas the area really easily. Uh, I don't want to camp on one far end of the hunting area. I want to kind of camp right in the middle. That way I can, I can go out like a spoke from the center. I can try all the different places I want to hunt from the center.

So, we started out kind of like that, but what we found is the first couple places we wanted to hunt, there was just nothing. We weren't getting into any elk sign. We weren't seeing any. We were glass and we were calling from dawn till dusk. We just weren't turning any elk up. So, and then we had a huge storm roll in.

A lot of high winds, a lot of rain. And we got this crappy little tent that we're using for September. I like to have a pretty lightweight mobile camp. So cameraman Dusty and I, we packed up our stuff and we went back to town to a friend's house and we camped in his big shop. And so he's within striking distance of a lot of good elk hunting from his place there. So I'm like, well, during this crappy weather period, we'll just camp here.

and um buzz up every day so the the storm passed but you know we kind of got lulled into that that

the, the niceties and the, the comfort of, uh, staying and staying somewhere where you can shower every night. You know, typically we're out in the woods and we don't get a shower every night. We don't get a shower till maybe the hunt's over sometimes. I think the longest we've gone is like nine or 10 days without a shower, man. It's gross. I'm here to tell you, I mean, I'm sure there's folks out there that have done the same thing we have. And, uh, you get out there and, uh,

Um, maybe you're in an area, there's just no good clean running water or lakes or ponds or anything to, to get into, to get yourself clean. Or maybe there's not any, you know, there's no civilization nearby where you can find a place to go pay and take a shower. So, um,

Anyway, we were kind of liking that, and I think we kind of liked that too much. I feel like as soon as the stormy weather passed, we should have probably moved camp and moved closer. Here's the screw up. We should have been closer to our hunting area.

So we were spending way too much time driving every morning to get there. And then in the evening, we're, you know, socked out, tired from hunting. Then we're driving all the way back into town. So that was a big mistake. I think we should have found somewhere to compromise on the mountain somewhere to where we could have still kind of hunted some of the places we wanted to go.

without having to drive so far. So I think that was a really big screw up and I knew better and I typically do it different, but you know how it is sometimes.

Sometimes the, you know, comforts or, you know, things. I feel like I can talk myself into things. If you can justify something, does it logically make sense to do something? Sometimes maybe it's easy to talk yourself into doing the wrong thing. So I hope I'm not the only one out there that does that. So, and then screw up number three. I've, you know, and I'm not going to just limit these screw ups. I mean, I've,

Who knows how many screw-ups I have every fall. But these were the three good takeaways I had that I thought, you know, I could have done better. But number three is I should have practiced more in the off-season with my bow. And when I mean practicing, like not just, you know, going out and shooting in your backyard, just getting reps. You know, that's really good. You know, you're building muscle memory. You're developing familiarity with your bow. You're getting your reps in. But...

Sometimes you and maybe not sometimes, a lot of times you should be practicing from uncomfortable shooting positions. For instance, maybe shooting from your knees at a wonky angle. You know, maybe you start out at a bad angle and then you have to position yourself and to where you can shoot accurately or not.

Maybe sit on the ground and then slowly get up to a kneeling or a standing position, finding your feet underneath you to where you're still standing in proper shooting form. That way you can execute a good shot. And here's why. So...

I can't remember what day of the hunt it was in Montana. Dusty and I were walking along this area and there was a fence line and we weren't too far from the fence. We're probably 20, 30 yards from the fence. And on the other side of the fence was all private. It was a huge piece of private land. And behind that, there were some bulls bugling. So I thought, you know, we'll kind of walk along just trying to see if we could find something that was going to come close to the fence.

and maybe come over on our side. So we were calling along there and, um, I heard something. I'm like, Oh man, something's running. Get ready, Dusty. And this, um, this spike bull jumps the fence and runs right over to us and almost commits suicide. Well, there you were hunting spikes were not legal to shoot. And I wasn't sure I,

I was like, some of these units, you can shoot a spike, some you can't. And I wasn't 100% sure. And at that point, we were, I think we were, oh, it was September 29th. So we were well within the season. I hadn't even drawn my bow back yet.

And I thought, man, I would shoot that spike. But I'm like, I wasn't sure. So I didn't want to do anything wrong there legally. So I passed on the spike and he ran off. And so we walked a little further and I bugled. And a bull bugled from kind of up where he went. And the bull kind of sounded wimpy. Just kind of this wimpy little...

kind of sound like a bull that, or a kid that's going through puberty, you know, his, his voice was all wobbly and cracked a little bit and kind of, kind of had that funny sound to it. And, um, I call back and forth a little bit and he was starting to call a little more, but he just would not come. He would not come and break and, and show himself. He wouldn't cross that fence. So I said, Dusty, we're going to try something.

You know what they say, curiosity killed the cat. So we're going to see if it'll kill the bull. So we moved away from the fence. We got 150 yards or more away from that fence. And as we moved away, I called like we were a bull with some cows and we were leaving.

I was following the cows down the hill. And then once we got down there, 150 yards, 200 yards, whatever, then I even, I even made my calls even more quiet. I, I, I muffled into my tube a little bit. Um, I called into my, into my gloved hand to kind of, kind of make it sound, give the illusion that these elk were further down the hill than 200 yards. Cause it's really, really open timber. And, uh,

A bull would be able to see a long, you know, a hundred yards and be able to see you if there were elk. So we got down there, we did that weird, you know, kind of fade away type calling. And then we just sat down and we've got quiet.

And I probably should have just stood up. But earlier that morning, I'd been standing for hours in one spot watching this bull. I was in some really big open timber, pretty exposed. And I was just inching up, inching up on this really nice six point, trying to get close. So anyway, all morning I'd been standing on one foot this way or one foot that way on steep ground. Man, my legs and ankle were shot. And...

I thought, well, since we're kind of playing the long game here, we're doing this slow play. I'm just going to go really slow and take my time and I'm going to just sit down. And, you know, I'll hear that bull. He'll make a noise or I'll hear him jump that fence or something. I'll hear, there'll be a telltale for me to know that he's on my side of the fence. So, yeah.

anyhow, we sat there and we'd sat there for quite a while, probably 45 minutes or longer, maybe an even an hour. And pretty soon I looked up and I could see the glint on some antlers coming. That bull was coming. He jumped over the fence. I didn't hear him. He got over that fence quietly and it was coming down, looking for us. He was just kind of walking along slowly. He'd pause and he'd look, walk along slow, pause and look.

And I was like, oh, man, I'm in trouble. I'm kind of facing – because it's kind of a steep hill. I've got – I'm facing downhill and kind of got my – I'm kind of pivoting at my knees and my waist. So I'm kind of over on – sitting on one cheek, kind of turned looking up the hill. And I'm like, I don't know how I'm going to draw my bow and shoot this sucker. So –

I was like, he went by a cluster of two or three trees. And as he went behind those, I just start slowly rising. And if anybody's done squats before,

to go from sitting on the ground to like, to raising yourself so slow that you can't be detected. That was hard. My, I was just like, oh man, don't screw this up. Just go molasses slow. If this is the only time you squat this year, then do it right. So I'm moving up really, really slowly and, and I'm kind of keeping on the ball and I got about halfway up and then, you know, he'd like,

I could see his eyes again and then he'd walk and he'd get behind another tree and I'd go up again, just real slow. And finally he's getting pretty close and I was standing all the way up. And as I, earlier as I had sat there, I had arranged all the trees. So it's kind of these, uh, as a big stand of Doug firs and you know, they're all evenly spaced out. And sometimes it's kind of hard to judge yardage in those kinds of places. If,

If you've been around those kind of areas, you know, it looks like this far, looks like that far. It's like, but I'd, I'd ranged all these trees and they all kind of looked the same, but there was one that was just a little bit of an odd color and it looked like he was heading towards that. And I'm like, oh yeah, I remember that. That tree right there was 50 yards.

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As he gets close to that tree, he goes behind another tree and I draw my bow super slow, just like molasses. And he doesn't spot me. And he, he comes out from behind that 50 yard tree and stops. Or, and because I, I cow call, I cow call, he stops. I put my 50 yard pin on him and I just start pulling, pulling, pulling the bow breaks, shot breaks and my arrow goes flying. And I'm like, Oh yeah. And he,

As the arrow flew, I could see it was high. I'm like, what the heck? And it went right over his back. And I'm like, what the heck? It went right over his back and he kind of ran off and then stopped. So I bugled at him and I thought, well, maybe he's

maybe, maybe I did hit him. Cause sometimes in the, in the flight of the arrow, you'll catch it on the way there. And with the arc, you know, especially at 50 yards, you know, at some point between you and the bull, that arrow is going to be higher than the bull's back. So I thought, well, maybe that was just the arc I saw. And maybe it just, you know, dropped right in. And then he kind of, he took off after I bugled. I thought, man, maybe I did hit him. So

We made sure he wasn't looking and stuff and Cal called and things kind of quiet down. So Dusty and I snuck up there and looked where he was standing. You could see where his feet kind of tore up the dirt when he took off. And we're looking and we're looking and we're looking. And I'm like, man, I cannot find the arrow. And I was shooting light at Knox too, but the sun was kind of in our eyes. So he had the sun at his back.

So it wasn't ideal for, for seeing the flight of the arrow or like where the, the, even the light had knocked my head, you know, with, with that much sun in my eyes, I didn't get to see it good, but now we're over there and there's a, you know, it's a kind of a steep hill. So that arrow should be just sticking right in the dirt right there. If I missed and I'm not fine in the air, I'm like, Dusty, I think I might've got him, but I don't think it did, but I might've. I said, okay.

Dusty, I'll have you stay here and look for the arrow and I'm going to just follow quietly. I'm going to follow his footprints quietly and I'm going to keep following them until I find blood. Maybe I'll get over here a ways and I'll, you know, because it's not uncommon after a shot to not find blood for sometimes a hundred yards. I've, you know, over the years I've, I've experienced that. Sometimes I've seen blood right at the shot. Sometimes I don't see it for a hundred yards or so, just depending on where the, the,

arrow hits the, hits the bull, you know? So as I'm following along, I'm just like looking, looking, no blood, no blood. I'm following footprints pretty good. Cause he was trotting and turning up quite a bit of, of, uh, grass and pine needles and stuff with his, with his hoofs. And, um, I get probably three, 400 yards and they're just not slowing down and there's no blood. Um,

And then I hear a bugle off in the distance. So if you were to go out another couple hundred yards in front and then back up, up back on the other side of the fence, I'm like, I bet that sucker went back to his side of the fence. So confident on not finding any blood there. I'm like, well, we got to find this arrow because I have to be 100% sure, right? This was September 29th.

I'd been hunting elk since the 30th of August and

I hadn't drawn my bow back until the 30th or this 29th of, of September. So, you know, every, all the cards were on the line right then and there. So not only, you know, we owe it to the animal to do our due diligence to make sure he he's not hit, but man, this was a hard earned shot and I wanted to be 110% sure I hadn't hit him. So I get back and to my dismay, uh,

Dusty standing there holding my arrow and there's no blood on it. Oh, I was heartbroken. I'm like, man, I thought for sure, you know, there's maybe some lucky chance I got him and, and now it flew right over his back. So anyway, uh, I said, Dusty,

I'm going to go back and stand down there where I shot from. I'll have you stand right here in these tracks and I'm going to arrange it because I don't know why I missed it. Maybe I just shanked it. Maybe, you know, anything's possible is kind of shooting from awkward position, but I get back down there and I arrange it in the tree. It's 40 yards. It's not 50 yards. So, um,

And at that distance, yeah, there's definitely enough, enough difference in my 40 yard pin and my 50 yard pin where I would shoot over his back. So, um, um, so I didn't beat myself up too much for, for not making an accurate shot, but I did beat myself up for not making better mental notes and keeping track of like, you know, carved in stone, like the, these are the artages I need to, you know, I need to know. Um, I had,

I had probably transposed one of the trees, you know, one of the other trees was 50 and that one was 40, you know, which maybe I'm just getting old, my old age. Um, I'm sure some, some folks out there can relate. So anyhow, that was, that wasn't screw up number three, well, number three. And then there was one that, um, kind of continues on that same lines in Kansas, Dusty and I were hunting and

And we were hunting out of a redneck blind. I'm not sure if you guys know what a redneck blind is. It's an elevated blind. This one is about 15 feet in the air. And it's kind of a big fiberglass enclosed blind. And it's got windows and stuff. It's kind of like the Taj Mahal of blinds, if you will. Our buddy Randy Milligan out there put this up and said,

had it ready to go. And it was on the last evening of the, of the hunt, literally the last 15 minutes in the last evening in the hunt. And this, we see a buck moving down this fence row next to the timber and he's on a mission, you know, but he, he don't have his head down. He has his head up and he's kind of walking real proud, real, real dominant looking. And he,

I'm like, man, I don't know. We got to get that deer to us. And he's a couple hundred yards away.

I'm like, well, I don't know how I'm going to do it because I'd been calling a deer earlier in the hunt and I just wasn't having much luck. And I, you know, had at a distance, you know, at a couple hundred yards, I'd seen some bucks, I'd snort wheezed and then I'd grunt and stuff. And that didn't really seem to help. And I'm, I'm honestly, I'm pretty new at this snort wheeze world, but I thought, okay, well, I'm not going to snort wheeze because I hadn't had any luck with it so far. So I'm like, I'm going to grunt at this thing until he looks over here. So,

I have this new sweet-ass prototype Philips deer grunt call. And I'm like, man, I got to get this thing's attention. So I started ripping some grunts on this thing. And these weren't just your normal tending, just short grunts. These were big, loud, aggressive grunts. They were brrrr.

Just ripping. And I did have like six or seven of them. I'm like, this is it. This is it. This is the end of the game, right? So if it doesn't work, I guess it didn't work. And we go home and he had it. But for some reason, if it works, then we're back in the game. And after like the sixth grunt, he stops in his tracks and he looks over at us. And I'm like, oh man, I got his attention. Yes, sir.

And no sooner that I thought that, he turned his head and started walking, continuing on his path. I'm like, oh, no, it didn't work. And I thought, all right. So this call also has a bleat call. So a doe bleat feature. So you blow in one side, it grunts. You suck in on the other side, it bleats. I'm like, okay.

Maybe I can give him some doe bleeds and that'll be like, oh, I got to go over there. So I ripped, I don't know, three or four big doe bleeds and these things were pretty loud and I'm just, it almost sounds like when you spine a deer and they make that terrible noise. It was almost that intensity, right?

And he didn't look our way at all. But what he did was it almost reminded me of like a big ship in the ocean where you don't really know what's happening, but you just started, you've seen us slowly start changing course. He just kind of slowly changed course. He made kind of a big circle and now he's heading right to us. And I'm just like, oh man, it's like a countdown on the, on the stopwatch of like, is he going to get here within shooting light or not?

Oh, man. And then he was aimed right at us like he's going to come. Well, at this point, I remember that every other night we've sat in this blind, I've had a Dave Smith decoy, a Redding Buck decoy out there by us just for a situation just like this. Well, yeah.

That night, Jason Phelps, good old Jason, he had the pickup and I had that decoy in the pickup. Well, he left camp before I did. So he took the pickup and the decoy. Unbeknownst to him, he didn't even know I had the decoy in the back. He wasn't paying attention. Well, we used an ATV to get to this spot. So anyway, we were without the decoy. Well, as this buck is coming, I was just like,

Damn it. I wish I had that fricking decoy right now because, you know, surely that would have been, you know, it was strategically placed. He would have come in well within yardage. He would have been, you know, checking out the buck, getting ready to fight. You know, he wouldn't have been paying attention to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, should have, would have could have, right? Well, whatever.

He starts coming to us through this cornfield, partially cut cornfield. And he's getting closer and getting closer and getting closer. But then at about 50 yards, he hits this cut in the corn. And then he kind of straightens his line out. He quits coming towards us. And I can see now he's not coming to us now. He's going to bypass us and keep on going on that straight line.

So I'd already arranged everything, arranged it again. I'm like, okay, it's 50 yards. I can make this shot. But there again, back to that screw up, practicing uncomfortable, tricky shots.

This was a tricky shot. I don't know if you guys have ever shot out of a redneck blind. They're not made for big guys. They're made for people who are about five foot four. So they have these vertical windows on the front of the blind, one in each corner. So I had that one open. It's about, I don't know, probably a foot wide. So, and probably...

four feet tall. So I had to get down on my knees. I'm like, man, Dusty, I'm sorry, but I hope you can get this. So he had to film through one of the windows, through the glass on one of the windows. And,

So we kind of changed positions. I got on my knees and I got scooched up and, and to where I could draw my bow and get a shot at this buck. And I drew my bow, put it on him. And I did the old classic, you know, like you see on all the, all the deer hunting videos. And it took about three of those to get him to stop. And finally he stops. I'm like, oh yeah. And I had my, had my 50 yard pin on him and I let it eat.

And I watched my arrow arc. And I'm shooting, like I said, I'm shooting lighted knocks. And this time we can see it. And it was like the longest, it was like the longest airborne shot of my life. It was like slow motion when I released that shot. And it arced out there and it just like shot out there. Just slow, slow, slow, low. And I'm like, oh yeah, it's going to get him. It's going to get him. And then it didn't.

And he kind of jumped and ran a little bit and then kind of circled back around and went back over and got on that same fence row that where we first spotted him. And he walked out of our lives forever. So went over, checked for blood, of course, no blood, found my arrow. That's the cool thing about having those light knocks when you can see that knock lit up is you can see, you know, it's easy to find your arrow and it's like, well, yeah, nothing but dirt on this thing. So anyway, um,

It definitely shanked the shot. It was a difficult shot to make from that kneeling spot. I don't typically like to shoot at animals that far. I'm usually about a 45-yard guy, but I'm like, ah, 50 yards, I can make that shot. I can make the shot when I'm practicing. He didn't seem super jumpy. I figured he wouldn't jump the string on me. So, anyhow...

I would like to say he ducked and that's why I missed. And that's kind of at first what I thought, but that's the, that's the beauty of, uh, when you record your hunts with a, with video is you get to go and review the video. Now I just shot right over him. Damn it. So, um, live and learn, right? So this year, uh, what are we going to do to fix these things? Well, I'm hunting a new spot in Idaho again with a buddy, um, a buddy, Cody Wilson from Wyoming. He's going to come over and we're gonna go hunt, um,

We did, we did some homework. There's quite a few people to hunt there, but there's a lot of rugged backpack type hunting country and we're going to hit it, you know, get away from people, get away from roads and, uh, we should be in them. Um,

Number two on the should have camped closer to the areas hunting. Yeah, we're going to definitely be more strategic. That's where this summer, I'm going to do a lot of summer work up there in this new area that I'm going to hunt. I'm going to figure it out, right? I'm going to figure out the optimal places to camp. And if we have to move camp two or three times, you know, that's okay. But we're not going to spend driving a freaking hour from town every morning and every evening. That just soaks up too much time and energy and gas.

And, and then third, um, yeah, practicing practice. I'm going to practice uncomfortable shots. I've been shooting out in the cold this winter. I'm going to continue to do that through the winter. Um,

And I'm just going to get used to shooting weird. I'm like, I've never really shot from sitting positions like in a chair. I don't usually do a lot of kneeling shooting because I don't like setting up for elk. I never set up kneeling just because as a bull comes in, if you're kneeling, he can come in from a different direction than you're anticipating. And then now you're screwed up.

It's really hard to reposition yourself for a shot if, let's say, you thought he was going to come in off to your left and you're right-handed, but he comes in off to your right and you're right-handed. It's just really difficult to make that shot. So I typically don't kneel. I usually let some brush and trees and stuff in my camouflage break up my outline. But anyway, I'm going to practice those tricky shots this year.

But that's enough of me blabbing about myself here. We're going to go over here to the super secret hotline. And what we're going to do is get some other people's opinions and their takes on the year and see how it goes. So caller number one, let's take a listen. Hey, this is Shane Fredrickson with Bose and BS on Instagram. And yeah,

It seemed to me like the wind was always against me, no matter which direction I was hiking. I could go from one drainage to the other, around a mountain, you know, come down up on top of the elk, you know, however I wanted to approach it to make the wind in my favor. It seemed like it always switched or swirled.

What are some of the methods that you use to try to beat that? And that's feels like an impossible situation, but let me know some of your tips and tricks of how you beat the wind. Thanks. Bye. Man, that can be really tough. Um, I experienced that a lot over the years. In fact, last fall, we, we had a lot of the same and, um,

A lot of times if I have bulls bugling in a spot and the wind just won't act right, sometimes we'll just sit down for an hour or two and kind of try to wait it out. And depending on time of day, um,

You know that once you get past two o'clock, one or two o'clock, winds can be kind of iffy. Especially what I've found, it's like the cloud cover a lot of times will really screw you up. You'll get these big puffy clouds that'll go over and they'll cast a shadow over.

on the terrain where you're standing. So you can kind of watch, you can look across a mountain and look over on the other side of the mountain. A lot of times you can see the shadow, these clouds are casting upon the timber. So on your side of the mountain, every time those shadows get cast to where you're trying to work a bowl or whatever earlier, you know, you had, let's say bright sunshine on them spots, um,

Um, you have your thermals with that warm air rising. Well, as soon as that shadow hits, man, all hell breaks loose. Um, it'll, you'll get currents that'll just immediately switch and blow downhill. Sometimes if it's, um, not real steep country, but you know, it's kind of maybe more rolling country, um,

That's not, that doesn't have a lot of real good, steep, pronounced tall ridges. You can get real swirly type winds in those places. And man, I, I always try to just push pause. I push pause on the game and just wait. It's like, well, I don't,

I don't want to go in there and screw it up with my scent before I even, you know, get a chance to, to screw it up on, on getting him called in. So I'm very careful. And, and some days, you know, I'll admit there's been sometimes we've,

We've sat there for an hour or two and maybe you can tell, you can look at the clouds or whatever, and it's just like, it's gotten from bad to worse. And you just know it's not going to happen today. So a lot of times we'll pull out, maybe go somewhere else, try to find somewhere else that has more favorable winds.

But, but I know sometimes, you know, folks that have limited time, you know, maybe you're doing the weekend warrior thing and it's just like, man, I gotta make it happen. The best advice I can do is if you have the, the, the uphill thermals and down drafts from that kind of a situation, see if there's kind of a common ground to where maybe if you go in on that, on that same contour line that the bowl is on,

to where maybe you're using the crosswind advantage instead of, you know, completely being downwind. Maybe you're coming in on a crosswind to where if it blows up or down, then you're good. But if it swirls, you know, like I say, it's game over. But that's my best advice. And, you know, sometimes...

Sometimes it just sucks. I've had it where you'll have three or four days in a row of that. And it's so frustrating. It's like, man, I hear bulls and we can't get close to them because we know they're going to blow them out of here. But yeah,

If you have a little bit of time to be patient, a lot of times it'll straighten up after a while. Sometimes I've had bluebird days, just like beautiful bluebird days, not a cloud in the sky, not, and then the winds just get really weird. And I'm sure a meteorologist or somebody could tell me why that is. But even in those days, I'm just, you know, we just play it safe.

Um, cause that's the one thing you can't really, you can't really fool is a bull's nose. Um, so just play it safe on those. That's what I'd recommend. 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 huntthegreatest.com. All right, caller two. Let's listen to his message here.

Hey, Dirt. My name's James. Don't really have a question. Just calling in to tell about the choke up. And I'd like to blame Phelps Game Calls for everything. Not really, just kidding. It was the last day of our hunt in Colorado. We're kind of sitting there twiddling our thumbs.

And we'd located the elk the night before and gone in there early in the morning. And we were kind of just waiting for something to make some noise. And all of a sudden, just laughing, thinking about what all happened. But all of a sudden, we heard a bugle. And we took off after it. And we got up above the elk. We were both huffing and puffing, catching our breath.

I looked at my buddy and I said, well, what do you think we should do? And he's like, I don't know. I was like, well, I'm just going to bugle, see if we can get him to pop off again. And so bugled and he chuckled right below us about,

I don't know, probably 60, 70 yards. And we started working our way up to this little saddle a little bit closer. And then all of a sudden I caught a look of the bull easing his way up the side of the ridge to where we were headed. And so I told my buddy to get down. And so I got down on my knees on the edge of the ridge. And there's probably like a real steep, real steep, like, I don't know, 30 degree slope, 45 degree slope, just super steep.

And I got on the edge of this little knife ridge and got drawn back on the bull. I was waiting for my pen to steady from all the adrenaline, touched the shot off, and I heard a loud thing and saw this black mouthpiece go flying out of the corner of my vision and watched the arrow go to the left of the bull. And the bull just stood there and I kept trying to

put an arrow on the string and pull it back again, but I couldn't because as I came to realize my string had derailed and, uh, that was, that was, that was the heartbreak. My bugle tube got in the way of the string and the cam and it,

The string hit the bugle tube and broke the bugle tube and the bull got away. And there's a lot longer backstory to the troubles from that bugle tube. But I think y'all sent me a lemon. Just kidding. Oh, dang it. So we only have a three minute limit on the messages. So he got caught off. Sorry about that. Appreciate you calling in. Dude, that...

That is a heartbreak right there. You work so hard to connect, to get that opportunity to draw your bow back and shoot a bull, and then that happens. And I could see that happening to just about anyone. I always say, like, elk hunting, you have to navigate a whole bunch of comedy of errors before you ever –

kill the bull, right? There's just so many twists and turns and things that can go wrong. And Murphy and his law that raises his damn head every time it seems like, and it, man, I feel for you. That's a, that's a tough deal. Yeah. Yeah. One thing, only advice I got there is, is just,

you know, double checking your setup, your stance, your, your equipment. And I know that that's super hard because, um,

In the moment, you know, you're focused, so focused on, you know, not getting picked off and getting your bow drawn, you know, making sure you know the yardage, you know, holding your bow right, trying to have the right stance. And that's just one other thing, you know, making sure you don't have a, have your bow or a call or binoculars or something that are going to interfere with your, your string. And man, that's a heartbreak. And man.

I'm sure that one's going to hurt for a while. So I'm really sorry to hear that. And man, next year you'll make up or this year, 2024, you'll make up for it. You'll probably kill a monster up there in that same spot. So good luck this fall. All right, caller three, let's hear what you got to say.

Hey, Dirk. It's Anthony Seip from Ennis, Montana. My offseason went great. Just wanted to pass it on to you. Scored my first bull with a bow. First bull ever. Actually, after 11 seasons of trying, I finally made it happen. Have a good one. Take care. Awesome. So he definitely kicked ass this year. Yeah. Yeah.

after 11 seasons, man, that's some staying power. That's hard. That's hard to do and hard to, to, to get that rejection every year and stick with it. You know, it's, it's easy to give up, um, on elk hunting and different, you know, aspects of the hunt. Um,

But that shows some real staying power and congratulations. I'm glad you got one. And when it happened, you probably thought, oh, geez, why didn't I do this all the other times? And I feel like every time I kill a bull that I feel that same way. It's like, oh, why didn't I do this before? But, you know, all the other times leading up to this, this season's just been a disaster. And then I finally, I get one.

But I think that that's, that's probably one of the biggest takeaways is not giving up, you know, being persistent. I hang on to the last day, to the last hour, you know, that, that buck this, this fall, this last fall had we called it and said, eh, you know, the weather's not great. Let's just, let's just have dinner and go home tomorrow. You know you know, we're going to hunt from the start bell to the finishing bell and

I'm not saying I'm perfect. You know, I've had, I had, um, I've had a couple of times in the past where I didn't hunt to the final bell. I threw in the towel a little bit short. Uh, remember in, um, 2021, uh,

in New Mexico. Uh, shared a camp with Ryan Lampers and Jason Phelps and those two ganged up and went hunting all, all the, the time we were there with their camera guy. And then, uh, Dusty and I, we hunted together for the whole week and we ran into him a couple of times on the, on the mountain. But, um, it was a tough hunt. It was a brutal hunt. Um, elk didn't act right. It seems like

You know, we say, yeah, the elk ain't acting right. I think that's kind of how elk act. You know, we want them to act a certain way and they just, you know, they, they have a difference of opinion on how they want to play their September. You know, it's not, not like textbook all the time, of course. So all week, you know, it, you know, we'd had some hot weather, but you would, we'd have a kind of a thunderstorm roll in several times that week. And every time

Um, that year a thunderstorm would roll in, you know, it'd kind of get clouded up and you'd get a tiny, tiny little bit of rain and some thunder and whatever the elk were doing, it would just clam them up. You know, let's say we did hear a few bugles. As soon as that happened, the elk would just shut up.

So it was our last day, last afternoon, and we'd climbed up this mountain. I'd seen this big bull. We'd been chasing the same big bull. I called him Grandpa Jones. And I don't normally name elk that I'm chasing unless there's something that's just remarkable about them. This bull...

I call him Grandpa Jones because he was definitely the most mature bull in the area we were hunting. And he wouldn't have been any kind of big record buck bull, but he had a weird ass rack. He had these... He had one brow tine that came kind of just straight out and then kind of dipped a little bit. And I'll swear to God, that thing was probably 27 inches long. It went out past his nose. And it was an incredible length for a brow tine. And then...

You know, the next two or three points were pretty long, you know, so he had real nice, the bottom ends of his, of his rack was good, but then it just petered out after the fourth point, um, short beamed, um, one side, it was a perfect five, but on the side, he had that weird point. He had like seven or eight on that point on that side. Um, but he was, he was no record book bull, but he had a, he had a nice heavy, big, heavy rack, um,

And the score might have surprised you if you were into measuring horns. Maybe, maybe not. I still think he was no big record book bull, but he had a giant body. And what overshadowed everything was he had this bugle that was just the most gnarly, nasty bugle. Just, you just, I heard that bull up on the hill. It's like, man, I got to see what that thing is. And Dusty and I climbed up the mountain.

And I'm like, man, we got to be getting pretty close. And I walked around a bush and there he was. This is no joke. This thing was probably four yards from me. He had his head down facing me eating and crying.

he had his eyes down focused at at the ground as i came around that bush and he didn't see me and i was like oh my god so i i slowly started pulling an arrow out getting it knocked because i wasn't ready of course i thought he was up the hill a ways further so i slowly trying to get an arrow knocked and as i was putting my arrow down on the rest um

I pushed it through the little retainer thing on the rest. And I didn't have any moleskin on my riser and my bow. Rookie mistake. And my arrow went clank and it accidentally clanked on the riser and the bull looked up. He looked right through me and he went, and he let out this really soft guttural growly bugle. And then he kind of put his head back down.

Start eating again. I was like, oh man, man, I'm going to get him. I'm going to get him. So I finally get my arrow on the string. I get my release on the string and I'm just starting to put some tension on it. And he looks up again and looks at me. And then you could literally see the recognition in his eyes. He just like, that's a fricking guy standing there. And soon as he, soon as he acknowledged that he was gone, he just whirled and took off.

And then he ran over and grabbed his cows and they bugled across the hillside, across the mountain and across the drainage and go over the other side. And there was bulls all around. There was probably eight different bulls there. It was an absolute rut fest. We hadn't had anything like that at all up until that point during that week. It had been pretty tough. And anyway...

So, two more, I had two more encounters with that bull. Anyway, on the last encounter, he just, who do you need is he, we were up on that same hill and I don't know where that thing would go bed down, but he would go bed somewhere and he would not make a peep. We'd follow his tracks and then we kind of lose them. They get through some thick stuff and they get into some rocky stuff and we would lose their tracks. And I don't know where the hell the elk went.

It's so frustrating. And about the time that we'd lost them again, I just, we got our teeth kicked in all morning. Then a big thunderstorm rolls in. I was just like, well, we haven't, all week long, every time a thunderstorm rolled in, get a tiny little bit of rain and the elk shut up. I'm like, let's go. Just the last, there was, you know, we had just a few hours, you know, four or five hours left.

of the hunt and i'm like let's go let's go back pack our stuff up let's get an early head start home because we got a long ways to go home and uh if we get if we um if we get back with enough time on our hands we could maybe hunt in idaho a little bit

Well, Lampers and Phelps, they were out there still and they didn't, they didn't throw in the towel. They stuck it at the end and Lampers shot his bull right there at the ending bell, right at the last few minutes of light on the last day. They, they'd kind of changed areas. They went a couple of miles away from where we'd been chasing grandpa Jones and found a bunch more elk. And it was a melee. There was bulls bugling everywhere and he ended up shooting, shooting one. So anyway, uh,

Don't give up. Don't give up. I mean, that was stupid. You know, looking back, that was really stupid of me to, you know, sacrifice a few hours early start to where it's like, you know, we should have just stuck it with it, you know, but, you know, at the time I justified it and looking back now as a fool to do that. So that won't happen again. I can guarantee you I'll get, I'll get my teeth kicked in again, but I'm not going to give up early and go home.

All right. Caller number four. Sir, good to hear your voice. Always enjoy your videos and your advice input. Thanks, man. On elk hunting, 23 was a successful year for myself. Got some excitement throwing in the deal. Me and a brother, Ryan, needed to hike about a mile and a half to a certain ridge where we knew there was elk on the other side. We got there.

The first morning, just after daylight, then the elk busted us. The next morning, we were ahead of schedule, snuck into this ridge. It was dark yet, so we both laid down for a nap by some bluffs on top of this ridge. Took our packs off. I took my release off, laid my bow on the ground. After 30 minutes, we woke up. Just starting to get light. Sure enough, there was elk. So we were...

The wind was blowing a little bit left to right, and we were watching these elk trying to figure out where they were going to try to cross this ridge. And our hoods were up, and lo and behold, we heard a meow right behind us. We both looked, and there was a cat that had snuck up on us. It was crouching with its ears back, maybe about seven yards from us, sitting at the base of a tree.

came in totally quiet wow so that got our adrenaline growing my brother he neither of us had handguns or anything my bow was laying on the ground i don't know 20 feet away and he yelled at it to get out of there and it looked at us for a bit size this up i guess and decided

it could have an easier meal somewhere else. But if it hadn't meowed, we didn't know it was there. But focused our attention back on the elk and probably 16 minutes later, a small six point, he was busted off partway up one side. He was making his way towards us and at 60 yards, I drew my bow back. My brother was behind me. He let out a cow call and that thing just wheeled, turned straight towards us.

Right on a string. Come in, 11 yards, whacked him, and he did a 30-second death run. Anyways, good time. That was my younger brother. Last time I bow hunted elk with him and killed one is

Oh, man. That three-minute got him. Cut him off. I'm sorry about that. I would have liked to have heard the last detail into your story there. Thank you for calling. Appreciate that. Man, what a wild story. Having a mountain lion stalk you, spook it off, and then call in and kill a big bull. That's – I don't think –

it gets any better than that. That's, that's the ultimate. Um, I've never had a mountain lion stalk me that I know of, um, or a bear, um, or, or a wolf for that matter. But, um, it's a, it's a matter of time, right? Um, if you're out there, you know, it's just a game of odds. If you're out there, you put yourself out there enough times, um, you're going to have a run in, um, someday I'll probably have a run in with a cat, um,

wolf, bear, whatever, what have you. Hopefully it's a black bear, not a grizzly. But here's an old story from back in my olden days. As a young man, I remember, you

I remember talking to a guy and he'd had a similar situation with a cat during September and he was calling an elk and he got, he kind of got the willies, you know, he's just like, man, my hair stood up. And I was like, man, what the heck's going on? And he turned around and there's a mountain lion crouched just right behind him, just a few yards behind him. So he drew his bow. He had his arrow knocked, drew his bow, pulled back, shot. The cat jumped, rolled, took off.

Couldn't find it. Never found it. Bled some, but never could find it. Fast forward a few years. I can't remember how many years exactly, probably two or three. And in the newspaper, there was a picture of a guy with a mountain lion that he'd taken with dogs in the wintertime. And it only had one eye. And upon skinning the cat out,

They discovered he had a broadhead in his eye socket and follow the story a little further. It was in that same area where that other hunter had shot that one that was stalking him and that got away. So, you know, had the, had the broadheads to, you know, match it up and, and the, the little bit of the shaft of the arrow to, to confirm his story. So, yeah.

It is crazy. Crazy things can happen out there in the woods. You get predators stalking you, the hunter becomes the hunted. I hope I don't have a spooky run-in with one, but I'm sure it's going to happen at some point. Thanks for the story, man. That was awesome. Congratulations. Glad you guys kicked ass this year.

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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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.

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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 huntthegreatest.com. Let's see what the next caller, caller number five is.

I have to say. Oh, hey there. It's Dusty. Yeah, your cameraman. You know, the guy that filmed you this past fall? Dusty who? Yeah, I thought I'd call in and let the listeners hear the real list of Dirk Durham's shortcomings. Oh, here we go. I will say I actually wish more than anything that I could provide your listeners with some positive things that you did this past fall, but...

Let's just be real. You did nothing positive this past fall. What? Being the nice guy that I am, I thought it still might be helpful if I provided a list for you, Dirk, of a few things...

Thank you.

How many times does a man have to hit the snooze button before he gets up? For someone who acts like they love elk hunting, I think I know what you really love. Sleep. Or maybe it's snoring. Good night.

I don't know how the entire tent didn't cave in. I was actually looking forward to getting up so I didn't have to hear that nine horsepower chainsaw with blunt edges trying to cut through a tamarack tree all night. I'm sorry. Just get up. I'm just a man. I'm just a man, Dusty. Come on.

Now, how about this one? How about we tell your listeners about how you pretend to be driving around looking for the right canyon to bugle down into, when in reality, you're just driving around to let all the other elk hunters, or as you call them, your fans, that the bugler is here. I mean, we spent more time talking to the people than we did bugling for elk. I wonder why we didn't hear anything. Well, I do have a pen to sign autographs, you know. Oh, here's another thing you did wrong.

Maybe if you just spent more time in the woods instead of going back to town for a huckleberry milkshake, you might have had more opportunities to find elk.

Now I'm all confused. Do you like sleep more or milkshakes more? I really like milkshakes. You can talk about that on your silly little podcast. All right. You know what? That's all I'm going to give you. That should be enough to talk about on what's this called? Cutting the distance. Oh my goodness. There was no cutting the distance this past season, except from mountain to milkshake maybe. Yeah.

You know what? I actually might listen to this podcast and see how you're going to weasel yourself out of these shortcomings later. Dusty got me good. He got me good. All right. That's why we camped in town is so I could get my huckleberry milkshake every day.

I don't know who, who screens these phone calls anyway. Um, yeah, we're going to have to have a talk later. Uh, and get, uh, screen these, uh, these, these callers a little better. I don't, I don't think, uh, we should be letting a guy named Dusty Roop, cameraman Dusty call in. Yeah.

Uh, he's something else. We have a great time hunting together and he's a heck of a camera guy and a good friend. So, um, thanks for calling in Dusty. I hope you weren't serious. Uh, if so, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was in a bad place. I needed to kill an elk. All right. All right. Caller number six.

Hey Dirk, it's your friend Richard from Heat Country and I'm calling to report in from this last September and give you my report card. You know, I was fortunate enough this last archery season to shoot a bull, however, that did not come without triumph.

I spent a total of 21 days in the elk woods and they were hard-fought days, no questions at all. So something that I think would be good to get your feedback on is the elk here in Idaho never really seemed to go crazy rut-fest and it was tough and there were two bulls

in my mind that I can recall that I spent a lot of time chasing because they just never fully went ready but they were extremely vocal bulls who just kept tugging me along. We actually named one of them the big boss baby bull because he seemed to be a pretty nice six point but he always just kept his distance and he liked to talk to us but we get to that

80 to 100 yards. And he just seemed to kind of get really leery and never really wanted to commit. So I guess the question is, is what tactics, calling or stalking,

do you prefer when it comes to bulls who are very vocal and will respond back to you even at close distances but just decide themselves to never actually close the distance and come in um tried a couple different tactics with shooter caller situations you know sending the shooter up and then pulling the collar back and everything but

These elk are smart and they don't get to be mature by being dumb. So it's something that we spent a lot of days this September doing. And I think it would be good to get your insight on. So next year can be a better year and maybe we don't have to spend 21 days in one state hunting elk. So I appreciate the feedback and I look forward to hearing your answer. Thanks.

Hey, thanks for calling in Richard. Um, Richard and his dad, they do, they have a YouTube channel called steep country outdoors. Um, I watched that video, um, of you, um, shooting that bull on YouTube. So, uh, cool film. So if you guys are bored and it's winter time and you want to kind of beat the, beat the winter blues, definitely, um,

Check that out. It's Steep Country. Country with a K-U. K-U-N-T-R. Anyway, thanks for the call and the question. Man, that...

That's exactly what I experienced last fall too. It's like the elk were social distancing. They never got pissed off. They would talk, they would talk, but I could not, I never got to the point where they would just lose their mind and just get really aggressive. And I've kind of talked about this on some of the other podcasts where earlier on where

I call it the year of the huckleberry, right? The year of the huckleberry, the elk don't rut hard. They don't bugle like they normally do. And if we equate this to what do you call it the year of the huckleberry? Well, on good huckleberry years, if you don't know what a huckleberry is, it's kind of like a blueberry, but they grow in the mountains of certain parts of Idaho, Montana, maybe some Wyoming. I haven't seen a lot of them in Wyoming, definitely Washington and Oregon.

But, uh, and they're delicious, man. Huckleberry milkshakes get out. Huckleberry pie, Huckleberry, anything is amazing. Um, anyway, on the ears, there's a bumper crop of Huckleberries, um,

That's attributed to a couple things, maybe a really good snowpack and a really wet summer. Maybe both, maybe one or the other one. But those huckleberries, to do really well, they need a lot of moisture. And sometimes in the summer, we have some pretty hot, dry summers in Idaho and the Northwest. And sometimes they don't do as good as others. And this year we had a lot of, we had a really good snowpack.

We had a lot of rain this summer, more than we have in the last few. And the huckleberries were good.

what the heck is elk eat huckleberries? Well, they do, but not on the scale like bears do. But the, the biggest takeaway is, um, if there's a lot of huckleberries, there's a lot of grass, there's a lot of feed norm, the other stuff, the elk, like, you know, whether it's browse, you know, you're, you're talking maples and mountain maples and you're talking, um, all sorts of other kind of little, um, brush and browse and then grass when

When there's a lot of water, there's a lot of that feed all over the mountains. So the elk don't seem to concentrate. And this is all theory. This is my theory. You know, maybe you guys have a different one. Be cool to hear it.

But when there's a lot of grass everywhere, they don't seem to concentrate as much into those places like on a dry year. On a dry year, the feed is not quite so pronounced. It's in more focused spots. And those elk tend to go to those focused spots and not only they compete for feed, but they're competitive.

They find each other there. And then there's more bulls competing for those females. And that creates a dynamic where they're a lot more rambunctious. They're fighting all the time or keeping those other bulls away all the time. And like dry years too, you see a lot of broken bulls and bulls.

Part of me thinks, well, this is because of dry and the antlers are more brittle. Maybe they didn't have as good a feed that year and they didn't have as much to put into their horns to make them strong. But on the second half, I mean, maybe it's because they're so scrappy because all those elk are concentrated on those food sources. So anyway.

I kind of digress there a little bit. Um, but anyway, I kind of experienced that same thing, um, this last fall. And, but on the flip side, I did, I did talk to some guys and gals that had really good luck. They had better than average luck, uh, in where they were hunting. So I'm not sure what the difference was. A lot of it's the same type of country, but not the same country, uh, where I was at. So, um,

Elk are always a head scratcher. You think right when you think you got, got them figured out, then they, they let you know that you don't have figured out. So, but that's why I always say this is a theory. But what I like to do in those instances where the bulls just kind of social, social distance themselves from me is,

It's imperative to have another caller. So you have a caller and a shooter. It's really difficult when you're just by yourself solo. Last fall I was solo and it was really difficult for me to call and then get close enough to the bull without him just kind of spooking off. So if you have a caller that can stay back 100, 200 yards and just talk.

you know, keep them talking, not get aggressive. Just keep them talking. Just like, Hey there. Oh, Hey, you know, you just, you're just maintaining contact with your calls to where you're just keeping that bulk talking. And that's when your shooter just gets quiet and gets over to that bowl and tries to sneak in on them. That's, that's my best recommendation on that stuff. Because, you know,

I know exactly what you mean. Just you put a little bit of pressure or you get a little bit, you take a couple steps towards them. You go a hundred yards towards them and they go 400 yards away. And that is so frustrating. I've, I've, I've, I've did this, that whole scenario all last September. Um,

So, maybe get your pops there to do the call and let you put the sneak on them or vice versa. I know I watched your video. I seen you guys kind of did some of that too. So, maybe focus on that a little bit more. Of course, it's not a perfect science. It's difficult, especially in country. It's got a little bit of cover. It's hard to sneak up on them. It's hard to be quiet. Those bulls will hear you coming if it's super brushy or thick. Yeah.

Anyway, thanks for calling, Richard. Good luck this fall. Look forward to see what you and your dad do this fall of 2024. Caller seven. Hey, Dirk. Dave McCotter here, Wyoming resident. So what I came over for 2023 season is do not ever think you have it in the bag or get too confident or too cocky. I drew an area that is right next to my home, an area that I've been hunting for years.

eight, nine years that I know like the back of my hand that for the past four years tagged out him. Okay. So when I draw two tags for that unit, you know, two people in my family, I'm like, Oh, easily we'll have two bulls. You know, every time I killed a bull there, the bull we've, we've had it killed, you know, within the first couple hours of the first day, you know, we always have bulls killed in days there. So I'm like, Oh, okay. Yeah. The first we'll have,

We'll have two bulls down in the first week of September. And then, you know, we'll go on to go do this hunt over in Western Wyoming. And then maybe we'll go out to do this hunt. Well, guess what? Everything was completely different this year and threw us a curve ball. I hunted that area for...

19 straight consecutive days and never killed a single bull. Didn't fill a single tag this year. So when you think it's, when you draw that, draw them tags and you think it's a home run based on previous seasons and previous experiences, yeah, don't do that. And I don't care about what anybody says.

Like, oh, I know a season like that. I know an area like the back of my hand. I can, you know, or those people that say, oh yeah, I consistently fill tags or consistent hunters. I don't care how good you are. An area can change year after year. It's not going to be the same every year. So don't ever think that you are so good that you got it in the bag. That's all I got to say. Man.

You hit the nail on the head so hard and so square right there. What is that movie? Is it? Dang it. It's the one with Ben Stiller and oh, it's Dodgeball.

One of the lines, the, one of the quotes off there, and it's so stupid. The quote, the quote is you don't score until you score. But every time I hear something like this, it reminds me of that quote, that quotation, like you don't score until you score. You might think you're going to score, but you're not like, it's easy to get that lulled into that, that confidence of,

oh yeah, I've got this area figured out, or I've got these elk figured out, or I'm, I'm, I've got this, I'm a pretty good hunter. And I'm just here to tell you, winning streaks are made to be broken. Um, I know some, some really, really great hunters that are on some killer winning streaks and man, I got the most respect for them. Um, but at some point,

You may get that broken. Now, depending on there's factors to where, why did your winning streak get broken? Was it just a comedy of errors like we talked earlier? Like, you know, you just can't catch a break. Bad wind, getting picked off, elk don't pugil, or...

You had opportunities, but maybe you were just really trying to get that one certain bull and it just never happened. That's a pretty fulfilling way to break a winning streak. It's frustrating as hell, but it's still fulfilling because you had a lot of fun. You could have taken a bull, but you weren't…

It wasn't in you, you weren't, your heart wasn't it. You just didn't want that one. You had your heart set on something else. You know, that's a, that's a pretty fulfilling way, but sometimes, um, try as hard as you want, um,

You cannot connect the dots. And those are about the worst way to end your winning streak. It's very frustrating. So, man, I feel you. And I've been there. I mean, I've had some pretty damn good winning streaks.

and be like oh yeah i'm hunting this spot i know it inside and out i've done my due diligence i've hunted there i know what the elk do and just get my teeth kicked in so you're not alone man and it's a very good point um so i think confidence kills

You can't be so confident that you maybe overlook some of the, just some little things, you know, that, that maybe contribute to success. Or just, you just get, you just get beat up and it just, you go home and you sit there in silence and stare at the wall for hours. Like what just happened? I can't believe my season ended like that.

But anyway, the good thing is, is 2024 is a new season and it's a great time to start a new winning streak and not a losing streak. We don't want to get on like on a losing streak. My buddy, Chuck, Charlie, he's on a hell of a losing streak. Man, I feel for that guy, but he's going to turn around one of these days because he's a heck of a hunter. He's a heck of a caller. But I know it's just, you got to,

he get bucked off you gotta climb back in the saddle again and just get after it so anyway thanks for that call all right here's the last caller caller number eight let's hear what uh caller eight has to say hey dirt this is tyler oaks with timber cruiser outdoors up here in north idaho our season our 2023 season actually went pretty dang good for us up here i uh bought a resident tag and i uh

non-resident tag and managed to fill both tags within about a week and a half of each other on bulls. And we ended up calling in about eight different bulls in a matter of a week and a half up here in North Idaho. And of course, you know how hunting Idaho is. It's pretty well thick and nasty, but we were able to get it done. I mean, it was a pretty rad season for us. So we learned a whole bunch and hope you had a decent season and can't wait to listen to it. But

Tyler Oaks. That guy's a, that guy's an elk killer. He's half elk. I think he, I met him. I did a seminar in North Idaho here three years ago. Jim Huntsman, my buddy Jim and I did a, put together a elk hunting seminar up there three years ago and met Tyler and the guy's half elk. He's tough. He's fit. He's,

He lives it. Um, he's a hell of an elk hunter and just a great guy. Um, so man, I can't, I can't tell you how happy I am for, for people like that who, who, who get it done, you know, good for you, man. That's, that's awesome. Um, sound like a fantastic year. There you go. Um,

A little different part of the state, Richard is beating his head against the wall because the elk won't rut hard. And Tyler's up there. He killed two of them. So, you just never know. And I always say, I always tell people to stay mobile, right? Don't get stuck in a rut and where you're hunting in that particular spot, maybe somewhere.

It's really easy to like, oh, I know there's elk here and I don't want to leave. And, but sometimes branching out and changing, going from one side of the, the hunting unit over to the other one, you know, depend on how big the unit is. You might be able to cover a hundred miles in between or something. And sometimes just changing those zip codes will produce big dividends, right?

Um, cause elk may not be doing squat where you've been hunting, but over on the other side of the unit, they're on fire. I've had that. I don't know how many times work out for me that way. So I always recommend it. Um,

and this year i did that a lot i jumped around all over the zip codes and i still got my teeth kicked in so i'm just you know it's it's it's a rebuilding year i'd like to say we're rebuilding we're gonna build back better um i hope this fall so no definitely it's gonna be a better better fall i'm gonna um new new slate new canvas yeah we're gonna we're gonna put in our summer work it's

It's going to be awesome. We're going to have a lot of fun. So anyhow. Yeah. And you know what? If you guys want to call in anytime and leave a message with a question on elk hunting,

deer hunting, turkey hunting, uh, bear hunting. If you want to be a smart ass and say something funny about Jason Phelps and how his, his, uh, pink diaphragms suck. I, those are the best. Those are even better. I'll, I will play those all day long. Um, because you know, we know who team Maverick is. Um, if you know, you know, uh, but anyway, if you want to call in, uh,

call the super secret hotline it's 208-219-7701 leave a message uh you have three minutes yes i know it's like how do i fit it all into three minutes fit it fit into three minutes we'll read we'll play it on the air we'll uh we'll kick it around we'll talk about it um and we'll we'll go from there um

If you guys follow on – if you guys have Instagram, Facebook, Jason Phelps, I mean, he's struggling. His Instagram sucks. He's got I don't know how many followers, hardly any on his personal one. Now, Phelps Game Calls is huge, right? And that's where he started out on some Phelps Game Calls.

page. So, but then he started a personal one and it's just not going so well for him. So, Hey, if you guys are on there and you like the podcast, you like our calls, you like what we do, we like following our adventures, go give Jason Phelps, it's Jason Glenn Phelps on Instagram, a follow.

Hit him up with a friend request on Facebook. He's probably got so many, he can't accept any more friends on Facebook, though. I'll bet he's one of those guys. But if you feel so inclined, you want to give me a follow, it's TheBugler, one word, on Instagram and Facebook.com.

and uh and and check out my youtube channel um there's some some uh how to use elk call videos on there they're really good walk you through all the steps of how to use the elk calls and there's some cool hunts on there too speaking of hunts february 5th i believe a new film is going to drop on the phelps game calls channel uh youtube channel and it's called ghost bulls of the north um

Dusty Roop and I, cameraman Dusty, in 2022, we were up in the North Country hunting bugling bulls. And

It's a pretty good film. Pretty good film. Go get a watch if you're bored and want to watch a little bit of Elk Hunting. Like I said, February 5th, it's going to come out. If you follow us on social, we'll make a big deal about it and put out some trailers and some teasers and some announcements to let you know when that drops in case you forget. But anyway, that's coming up. Pretty excited about it. So until next time, guys, thanks for listening and we'll catch you on the flip-flop.

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