Ep. 72: North Country Ghost Bulls
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Hey everybody, we're back with another episode of Cutting the Distance Podcast. I'm Dirk Durham and we have a special guest today. I know I kind of admit sometimes, I think every time I say we have a special guest today, but really today is a very special guest. My good friend and videographer, personal videographer,

Hello. Nice to be here with you, Dirk. Yeah. Yeah. Dusty lives in the same town as me, kind of, pretty much. We're probably 15 minutes away from each other. Yeah. And we get together a few times a year besides elk season. We do some podcasts. Sometimes we do just some other cool video stuff. Yeah. Today, I thought...

It would be great to bring Dusty on here and talk to you guys about our film that just launched. And...

I want to back up just a little bit, just before we get too far. I'm kind of putting the cart before the horse. If you guys don't know who Dusty is, if you didn't listen to our previous podcasts, there was a, I don't know, we did them last summer about filming. It was about cinematography and what it takes to get into it, what it takes to get the job done, what makes good films, what doesn't make good films. You want to look that back up. It's a few episodes ago. I can't remember exactly.

What the number it was. I think it might be 50. Wow. Not that I'm paying attention or anything. You pulled that out of your sleeve like Ron Burgundy pulled a flute out of his sleeve. Yeah.

Well played. Thank you. Well played. You probably have the link handwritten on your hand too if you want to. Okay. Backslash, backslash, HTPS. Colon. Colon. Exclamation point. Yeah. Anyhow, Dusty for the last few years has followed me around during elk season filming me, making me look good.

Um, uh, as good as I can look. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I think it looks good, but you know, other people probably think it's kind of mediocre, but anyhow, all kidding aside, Dusty has a great, he's got a great eye for, for film and he's got a really good, uh, demeanor and personality to go film elk hunting and any other kind of hunting trips. He's one of those guys that just, he

he doesn't complain. He, we are out there in some really, um, awkward, difficult situations in the woods where some people might want to say, screw this, we're going home. And I look at Dusty, I'm like, how's it going? And he's just like, I'm good. I'm good. You know, no matter how much he's dying inside, he hides it well. Uh, and then when I do my, um,

I call it my trailer park cuisine. I make gourmet meals out of very common everyday food that not a lot of people may think is good.

but Dusty always compliments me about my, about my cuisine, you know, so he's not a picky eater. Um, he will drink a cold beer from time to time with me, which is nice. Um, and he said he's not scared of bears and I have not seen him be scared of anything yet. So that's good. That's really good. Um, anyway, he, uh, owns and operates depth of field. Yeah. Productions. Yeah. Owner operator, uh,

head bottle washer you name it right yeah you do it all you do it all Dusty you know he's he's edited quite a few films for us in the past the last few I've got to do that but he's very talented big help anyway thank you Dusty for coming on today welcome thank you thank you Dirk

So I mentioned earlier that we had a film come out just recently on the Phelps Game Calls YouTube channel, and it's called Ghost Bulls of the North. And we didn't really designate the state, what state it is. I guess it's probably one of those things, if you know, you know, and if you don't,

you'll probably figure it out one way or another. But anyway, we're hunting in some northern boreal forests, if you would, if you will. And they're very thick, they're very lush, lots of timber, lots of brush. The film is about an elk hunt. This was in 2022, right? It wasn't 2023. So, in 2022, we went elk hunting in this place. And, you know,

I think we had probably 10 hours of just footage alone, you know, that would film throughout the days that we were hunting. And you have to trim that down to 45 minutes or approximately 45 minutes or less, you know, just to give it some watchability on YouTube, because if it gets too much longer than that,

it's really hard to keep people's attention unless it's like nonstop monster bugling bulls. And even then sometimes I think, um, I know I find myself watching, um, videos and even after like a while, you know, you start losing, start, you start losing the audience a little bit, I think even on something that's spectacular. So it was, it was a tough hunt. Um,

We didn't have a lot of great video of big bulls coming in up close and bugling their head off and, you know, the things that all filmmakers dream of. But we kind of wanted to show the reality of what, you know, hunting in such a place like this. This is a over-the-counter type unit, public land. At one time in the 90s, this place was loaded with elk.

Fast forward a few years to where wolves infiltrated the landscape and the numbers have just continued to decline. And there's just not a lot of elk in this area. You know, it's not a, it's not a target rich environment.

But it's one of those places that just kind of gets into your soul. You folks may understand that, you know, you may have some places that maybe you hunted with family or you've spent time in the woods with family or friends and it just kind of gets, you have a special spot for that place.

and, um, you want to go back every year. Um, and no matter how, how many times it lets you down, you're just like, yeah, but I really love that place. Cause you have so many fond memories of it. And, uh, anyway, that was kind of place we were at and we got three call-ins on video. Um, and we heard a few bulls during that, that week, but we had three call-ins and, um,

we kind of show, you know, the raw and real of, of what it looks like, you know, trudging through the landscape. If, if I had to have you give me a, to describe in your own words, Dusty, what that landscape, I can sit here all day and tell people about it, but I, you know, from another person, because I'm kind of used to that place. I kind of spent a lot of time in those kinds of places, those kinds of areas. So I have my,

my, my, the way I see the world, um, to describe it, but I'd like for you to describe it in your own words and then maybe compare and contrast to what kind of hunting and woods, um, that you were, had experienced before. Maybe before you, um, you start following me around, um, maybe, maybe you have some regrets in that regard of following me around after going to these places. I don't know. Tell me about it. What, what do you think? What,

Yeah. Um, first I would say it's beautiful. Um, I think Northern place where we were is, uh, was very beautiful. Um, but very thick, like you said, um, what I'm used to, um, where I hunted a lot for bow, bow hunting for elk is in Colorado. So as far as steepness goes, um, I was used to the steepness. Um,

but not the thickness, a lot of brush and getting within 15 yards of a bull elk and still barely able to see them, um, is quite a, a shocker. It's so different. And filming in that is even more difficult. Um, so, um,

it almost seems crazy at times in the places that you and I have, I've been in. It's like, what are we doing down in here? Right. Yeah. Yeah. It just, and then you're thinking if we get one of these big creatures, wow, how are we going to get this thing out of here? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but it definitely is fun. Um,

I like it a lot because you can get so close to them and you can move a lot more because of the thickness. Um, and so you can get in close. We get those bugles 15 yards away, um, which is just, yeah, there's no, there's no other sound like that, you know? Um,

So I love, I love it even though it is crazy, but it also, I would say is very dangerous, especially when it's raining. Um, yeah, it's a dangerous place to be when it's wet for sure. So, um, that just puts a whole nother, um, obstacle in the way when things get wet. So it's, yeah, it's, it's a lot, it's a totally different way of thinking a different way of hunting, um,

all of that. It's definitely different. Yeah. I like to compare it to maybe like Western Oregon, Western Washington, kind of to the rainforest areas.

I will say we're fortunate that we don't have all the briars. They have Devil's Club. They have Blackberry Briars. They have a lot of pokey things that want to kill you in comparison to what we have. I mean, the stuff we have is not super pokey. There's no thorns to speak of, but it's a tangled mess. You have Huckleberry Brush that...

um can be you know thigh thigh high to to ankle high but most of it's at least waist deep yeah and you have some that's even chest deep and then you have there's a lot of different kinds of brush you know and then you can get in these tag tag alder thickets where if you've ever seen tag alders um

It's a deciduous type bush, but it grows downhill at a downward angle. And then it grows downhill and then it kind of swoops up. And one, I don't know if you'd call it a...

They grow in big clusters, but one stalk, one little bush or tree, whatever you would call it, it could be 12, 15 feet long. So it starts low to the ground and then kind of goes for like five or 10 feet and then swoops up another four or five feet. And then it's a big cluster. So trying to penetrate some of that is rough. So you kind of learn...

you try not to go through those unless that's your only alternative. And some, a lot of times, you know, the deer and elk don't like to do it on a daily basis either. A lot of times they'll have a little trail above it, or maybe there'll be one right through the middle where it kind of gets a little thinner, but usually find these places on those north facing slopes where there's a spring or some, some place where the snow will linger really long. And it's a, it, where the, the soil stays damp. Those tag alders love wet,

wet ground. You have mountain maple, which elk love the leaves off the mountain maple or red stem maple. And those can get pretty thick and pretty tall. And then there's this yellow brush. I don't even know what you call it. Some people call it buck brush. I just call it yellow brush because in

In the early September, it's green, but as the frost hits it, it turns kind of a bright yellow throughout the fall into October. And if you're lucky, you can get a little snow on it in late October and all the leaves will fall off. And then it's like you can see right through it, but you can't hardly shoot through it with a 338 wind mag. It's still, the branches are so thick. Yeah.

And then it's pretty vertical too. So, right, there's a lot of this vertical stuff to wade through. Now you talked about the dangers. It can be dangerous when it rains. What are you talking about? Are you talking about

Slip and fall. Are you talking about hypothermia? Are you talking about kind of all of the above? Right. It could be all of the above. I mean, you get wet within two feet of walking through that stuff. You're pretty much drenched in water. So that can be bad. And then, yeah, just the slipping. Like you said, those alder berry blisters.

Bushes, is that what they're called? Alder brush. Alder brush. You're thinking of elderberries. Elderberries, yeah. They have those sometimes too. And the berries are dark purple and you can make wine out of them. And if you want to play a trick on your buddy, say, oh, these are delicious. They taste just like blueberries and act like you eat some because they're bitter as gall. I mean, they're horrible. Yeah.

So. Yes. Wait, have I, dang it, maybe I just screwed up. I probably should have waited and fooled you before I told that little, that little funny secret. Thank you for that. I got my son Austin pretty good with that a couple of times. That's funny. Anyway, sorry. Yeah, no, no, no. Yeah. Yeah. So very, very slippery. I'm stepping on those and the, and the bear, uh,

Brush. Bear grass. Bear grass. There it is. That stuff. That stuff. Whoa. Yeah. I mean, you fall so fast. I mean, sometimes you just fall. You don't even know you fell. You just look up and you're like, I'm on the ground. Yeah, exactly. My knee hurts. So, yeah. So, very, very scary at times walking through that stuff. So, yeah.

And one thing it's hard to navigate in the dark. Let's say it's like, you know, you've fought your way through the brush down to the bottom of this canyon and you hunted till dark. And now you got to hike out in the dark. Well, a standard headlamp illuminates the brush that's about a foot or two in front of your face. So then you can't see the ground beneath you. So you're kind of blinded by all these leaves.

So then you're kind of stumbling around. So I've always, uh, made a practice of having a headlamp and a handheld flashlight, because then I can take my handheld flashlight, hold it below my waist and scan the ground with it to make sure I'm not stepping in a hole or stepping on a slick log or on a slick something, um, blowdowns. I mean, blowdowns are terrible there too. Um,

Yeah. Yeah. It's a wonderful place. It is. It's magical. So what kind of, um, what kind of obstacles does that create for someone trying to film a hunt in that kind of conditions? Whether it's not wet or whether it's dry, you know, whether it's wet or dry. Right. Uh, well, the obstacle would be, you know, if a bull is coming in, just

Trying to see the bull, trying to get it on camera, right? That's very difficult at times because sometimes I don't even know where he's at because I can't see him, but I know the direction he is because I can hear him, right? So I'll just...

try to focus in that area and zoom in over there and hope that it grabs something, an antler or something. Picks it up. Yeah. Um, even though my own eyes can't even see through that stuff. So that, that is definitely very difficult, um, and very hard. Um, and then, um,

Of course, with all the falling and stuff, that's its own thing. You're carrying thousands of dollars worth of gear in your hand and trying not to fall or get the lens scratched up or any of that stuff. Yeah, it's a different place. Yeah. Well, I know that also, one thing to keep in mind once it rains, the...

brush stays wet. Let's say it rains one day and then it turns off beautiful the next. The brush stays wet for a couple days. And so it's like day two and you're like, oh, this is probably not going to be too bad, but it's still a slippery mess. It's still, you're soaked to the bone 30 yards from the truck, from the waist down, or even like from your armpits down. So yeah, it's definitely a new place. And, you know, trying to keep your lens clean.

uh, the water droplets off the lens. That's, that's a full-time job. It seems like even on a pretty nice day, there's always a little drop of water that's going to get on there. It seems like unless it's just hot and dry, you know? Right, right. Yeah. And that definitely makes it more difficult, especially when it's super wet because then eventually the, the little rag that you use to wipe your lens that eventually gets wet, you know, soaked. And then,

You're just smearing wet all over your lens. It's not even coming off, right? So yeah, it's definitely another obstacle. So typically when it's actively raining, we don't typically get out and run through the brush too much. We're not trying to hunt in the rain.

Well, I am kind of a fair weather hunter. I'm going to admit, I don't like wading through that stuff when it's coming, when it's coming from the bottom and the top, you know, you got to rain on your head and coming through your, your, your pants and everything. And you can wear, you know, rain gear, but even then it's tough. It's tough. Cause then if you may overheat in your rain gear, so then you get wet from sweat. So it's not super comfortable just cause it's so difficult to walk through that brush.

But so typically if it's raining pretty good, we will not hunt during that time. We don't want to ruin the camera equipment because, you know, as good as it is, you can't go out there and get it wet and then now your camera's messed up. And well, we were going to film this hunt and it's going to be nice tomorrow. And well, we ruined our camera. Great. So we kind of try to pick our battles.

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It is. And then you talk about how crazy all this other stuff is. What did I tell you about halfway through that hunt? I said, Dusty, if I ever say I want to come hunting up here, I want you to look me dead in the eye and say, you fool. Yes. What's wrong with you? Are you crazy? You're never going hunting there. I mean, I need the voice of reason to kind of snap me back into reality because I do get these thoughts.

I get this euphoria of like old romanticism of like, Oh, it's going to be great. It's so pretty. And I've had success. And, and, and then I start like, then reality starts slapping you in the face. Like there's no spot in stock hunting here. If the elk don't bugle, you're spun out. And with the elk being for few and far between, you know, you can go for a couple of three days without hearing anything. So I'm telling you this, um,

What did you think about that? Did you tell me that during the hunt? You know, every time I started getting that old time feeling? Yes. Yes. Yeah. After that, once you, as soon as you would hear bull, right, then you'd start thinking, oh, we got to go.

this is the greatest place ever, right? All that installs and start coming back and I'd have to yell at you, you know? I'd have to call you a fool. Reality check. It's kind of like that meme, you know, that...

Like every time I'd hear an elk bugle or I'd see a gigantic rub or something, then it's like you start seeing all the equations like floating around in my head. I'm like, okay, next year I can come down here. I can put a salt lake here. I could probably take a machete and hack a trail in. I could do this, that, and the other thing. And I'd start telling Dusty this. And what would you say?

I would call you a fool. You fool. Then I'd have to remind you of what it's like that you're comparing this to like a crazy ex-girlfriend, right? Yeah. You know, we've all had that crazy ex-girlfriend that you break up with them, you feel, okay, I'm glad that's over with. Then all of a sudden you see her again. Then you think, well, maybe she wasn't as bad as I thought.

And so you start talking to her again and start engaging again. And it never ends well. It's the same thing. It ends in heartbreak. Heartbreak every time. Every time. Yeah. It's like old Ma Nature starts shaking her hiney at you. And you're like, Dirk?

Come on now. Come on. You know, it's like talking to your buddy down from a ledge. Right. Yeah. You got to have that good friend that's going to slap you in the face. Yeah. Well, that's the kind of place it is. And it's a love-hate relationship, definitely. I love it because of the nostalgia. It reminds me of good times with good friends and family. And the backdrop is beautiful. It's pretty unparalleled to a lot of other places we've been.

Um, it's just a very beautiful place, but, um, yeah, I don't know, man. It's, it's a, it's a tough place to, to tag a bull. Um, it can be, it can happen, but everything's got to go just right. Yeah. Yeah.

but anyway, that's where the film takes place. And I don't want to, I don't want to give too much away, uh, to, to our listeners. I want them to go check it out. It's on the Phelps game calls channel. Um, it's called ghost bowls of the North. It's got a kind of a cool little thumbnail of a ghost bowl on the front and, um, yeah, check it out. It's about 45 minutes. Um,

If you like it, comment below, tell us, you know, what'd you think? What'd you think? We did, we, you know, we, we got Sir David Attenborough to do some voiceover for us. It was incredible. You know, you know, I didn't know if we could pull it off, but, but he did. He's a great guy. Yeah. And it's a little bit, it got a little different twist than our normal elk hunting films, but we've had tons of really good feedback so far.

So go watch it. If you like it, comment. If you didn't like it, let me know. It seems like there's always that one person that comments and says, the music's stupid. Like, I don't like the music. They'll have some little jab, you know, about the music. And we haven't got that person yet. But I always kind of poke back a little bit. I'm like, okay, if you're going to give negative feedback,

Please let us know what you didn't like about it. Was it too loud? Was it too often? Was it the genre? Was it... What didn't you like about the music? So if you don't like the music, let me know. If you love the music, let us know that too. Because believe it or not, we're trying to refine these films as good as we can. We want the next one to be better and the next one to be better and the next one to be better. So...

For the editors, I edited this one. For the filmer, Dusty, you know, getting the shots. We're always just trying to refine and make this as good as it possibly can. And the bad part is we can't show you everything done.

that happened so it gives a little more context of why we do and kind of i guess we could have voiced over certain sections and kind of told you why um things kind of play out but sometimes i feel like the voiceover can be a little distracting too it's like i kind of like to just immerse myself in watching things unfold so i don't know let us know if you like the voiceover um telling you you know step by step what's going on or maybe

Maybe you don't like that. Maybe you just like to watch it unfold and figure it out in your head. Um, but we will kind of go over some stuff, um, since we didn't do any voiceover on there and kind of let you know, um, what happened during the hunt here in a minute, but first let's shift gears and, um,

I just want to say, as always, if you guys have any questions regarding elk calling, elk hunting, why the Maverick diaphragm is better than the pink diaphragm that Phelps likes, you can call in to our super secret hotline. It's 208-219-7701. You have three minutes to leave a message. You can leave a message and tell us how cool Dusty is and what a good filmer he is. You can tell us why Jason Phelps is not a great caller.

Both of those truths. Both of those truths. I mean, or if you have a question, you know, we'll play your question or your statement on the air and we'll address it or answer your question best we can.

So moving on. So tips and tactics on the three bull scenarios that we had in the film, kind of wanted to talk about and kind of break down. The bull number one, the first bull that we had an encounter with, a good buddy of mine was camping up there. Him and his son had heard that bull the day before and bugling. And him and his son kind of walked over the hill there and kind of bugled at him a little bit.

And he's like, man, I need to tell Dirk about that. So he told me and we were kind of spun out where we were out, not having much luck. So we went over there and found the bull right away. And, you know, I feel like there's a lot of folks out there in the elk calling education world. Maybe they have a silver bullet. You know, you do this, you make this certain call every time and it'll just make the bulls come in.

You know, whether that's a bugle or a certain cow call or a estrous buzz or what have you, you know, there's a lot of phrases and names of these different calls that kind of been thrown around, but I've always been kind of a different, of a different mindset. I feel like I'm always kind of like the student of the game. I'm always trying to figure it out. Um,

I spent a lot of time elk calling every year. And for the last 35 years, I've spent a lot of time in the elk woods. And one thing I've found for me is I haven't found that one perfect call that does it all. I feel like I kind of go into it as an experiment every time. I'm having an experiment on what that bull is going to react to.

And some bulls react well to like a really high pitched, a lot of bulls react really well to a really high pitched bugle. Some don't. Some react well if you do a lot of chuckling or grunting. Some react really well with cow calls and they don't want to answer bugles, but they'll answer cow calls. So what I'm doing is I'm trying to find out, when I first start calling to a bull, I'm trying to figure out

what he wants to reply to. So I'll try three different bugles right off the beginning as I call to him, whether I know an elk's there or not. I'll do three different bugles. My first one is just a long, high note, locator type bugle. Very non-aggressive, just a, hey, hey.

how you doing? You know, I'm over here guys, you know, just a non-threatening, Hey everybody, I'm an elk. I'm over here. The next one, I ramp it up a little bit. I escalate a little bit and I give a full bugle from the low note to the high note to the low note. And I'll throw in like three or four chuckles or grunts, but they're not going to be aggressive. Um, just it's, it's just, I've taken it up a notch.

And I wait, you know, so for after the first bugle, we may wait five minutes, second bugle, wait another five minutes. And the third bugle I'm going to do is going to be the biggest, meanest, nastiest lip ball bugle with thunderous ground shaking grunts at the end.

And a lip ball bugle, if you're not familiar, that's when you buzz your lips on your tube to make that real guttural bass growl sound. And then it goes to a really high note and then it comes back off and then lots of big thunderous grunts. And if I don't usually hear anything from those three bugles, we move on. Also, I kind of forgot to say this,

Between those bugles, and I may even just start out with this before I make any other vocalization, I will make a cow call. Two, three very quiet, light cow calls to begin with. Because especially in that thick country, you don't know if there's an elk 50, 60 yards from you, right? That one time we got out of the truck and bugled and there was a bull that answered what?

60 yards just right out of sight and we almost killed that sucker. This was when I had my mouth tab. I shoot my mouth tab and it

If I'd have been shooting a normal bow, I'd have killed that sucker dead to rights because we were in that thick forest. And then there were some branches. I could have shot through between the branches with a little bit of squatting in my stance. But to squat and pull it back, pull the bow back with a mouth tab with your teeth. And it was just, I couldn't do it. I couldn't make the shot. So I didn't do it. But I mean, we were really close. So you just never know. So start out with a really quiet call from the beginning.

just to make sure you don't have one right there. Then your next calls, my next cow calls, I'm going to escalate. I'm going to make them really loud to where if like we're at the edge of a big canyon, I want those calls to reach across several hundred yards to an animal, to a bull that's over there to get a reply. And if I don't hear nothing then, that's when I do that first locator bugle. Anyhow, when we got

that bull to answer the first time he answered one of my locator bugles. I don't, I don't even know if I even chuckled. I can't remember or grunted. You'll see on the video, but as we, as we, once we kind of pinpointed where he was at, we hiked in on him and as we kind of got closer, we got about halfway to him and it hits a jungle. So I had to, I had to call again and kind of try to, all right, let's get our navigation or get our bearings here. Where's he at?

And I called a couple of times and I had did like big full bugles and he wouldn't answer. He wouldn't answer. And then he kind of, and then I called a little bit and I remembered he kind of did kind of a moany type bugle. And I thought, well, maybe I'll do a moany type bugle. So I gave kind of a moany bugle. Bam, he answered. I'm like, okay, he likes the moany bugles, but he don't like those high pitched aggressive bugles at all.

So as you watch the film unfold, you'll notice I'm not really doing too much of that real high-pitched bugling. I do kind of a grunt or a bark at the beginning, and then I give kind of a low, moany bugle. And that kind of kept us in the game with him. It kept him talking, and he kind of stood his ground. So we got up there, got real close to him. Finally, he comes out, and we can kind of see him.

And then he kind of disappears. I'm like, okay, typically when those bulls are that close and he's, and he's coming your way next time he bugles. And he, and when he bugled again, it was seemed to be a little more aggressive. So I thought, okay, it's time for me to escalate. So I escalate a little bit. So I gave him a little more than a, than a, than a money bugle. He didn't like it away. He went, so we kind of pursue him a little bit. And, um,

I'd given him, I think a couple, three of those big high-pitched bugles and maybe some grunts. He didn't like it. And then I went back to, to Moni Bugles and I, at that point, the jig was up. So I think the takeaway on that is, you know, don't,

Don't escalate too soon, especially if you get that feeling. I had kind of the gut feeling that he wasn't an aggressive bull anyway, and I should have kind of stuck with my gut on the thing. I should have just like, well, we're just going to just play this with kid gloves the whole time. But sometimes you get a little excited, and I think I turn half elk anyway when I get in close like that. I want to bugle. I want to fight. I want to fight, man. And

So I think my excitement might've got the best of me too. So if I had to play that over again, I definitely would have maybe stuck with the Mooney Bugles right up to, you know, that's all, that's all you get. That's, that's where I live. That's where I make, and that's what he likes. And I don't want to intimidate him and I want him to,

because I think he came in out of curiosity more than anger. He was, he raked a little bit, but he didn't, he never escalated with his voice. He never got really mad. And a lot of times they'll rake for a little bit and then they'll escalate their calls. And then pretty soon the bull will make a bugle that it's undoubtedly he means business. He's upset.

And I always go like, oh, he's mad. And usually after they make a bugle like that and I cut them off with my own bugle, similar status, then pretty soon here he comes. But he never gave that bugle. So I think he was more curious than anything.

So then we had the long walk out of there and that place was a crap hole, wasn't it? There was blowdowns on blowdowns. There'd been like a microburst and part of that place and you didn't get to see it all on the video, but there was down timber and brush and it was wet and it was,

And I think I made note to Dusty, I told him at one point, I was like, you know, maybe I'm glad that we didn't get that elk because we'd have had a heck of a time getting out of there. It wasn't super steep. It was kind of rolling. There were some steep spots, but it was so difficult to just walk on semi-flat ground. It would have been bad with 100 pounds on our back. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was rough. We would have done it though.

Oh, yeah. I would have been, I would have happily done it. Yeah. And after being done, we'd have been like, let's get out of here and never come back. So the bull number two, we heard from a long distance away. And Dusty, he thought he only heard one. I swore I heard two. I said, I heard just a kind of a wimpy bull and I heard a growly bull.

But I don't know, Dusty kind of looked at me, but he was like, I don't know. I don't remember hearing a growly bull. I'm like, I swear I heard it. And then we, we bugled from across his big drainage. So then we got over on the same side they were on, took this old trail, hiked in on them. We bugled from the trail and we heard a bugle. And I swear I heard a growly just a grunt.

down in there but I don't think Dusty heard it yeah he's just like okay Derek whatever you know I think he does that a lot he just like you know yes you

Yes, Dirk. Whatever you say, Dirk. He just like tries to like, you know, nod, just like, okay, whatever you think. Maybe I come up with this stuff in my own head. Maybe. I don't know. Hey, whatever keeps you going. I think, I think he does kind of look at me with funny, like a funny look in his face when I tell him we're going to go down there and he's like,

Okay. Yeah. I mean, that may be, he don't complain, but I think maybe the voice of reason is trying to come through his eyes at me. Like, like look at me in the eye and understand this is stupid. We're not going to go down in there. Is it that place? We went after that second bull. It's,

One of the brushiest places we've ever been in. The next drainage over a couple of years ago, we went down in that same type of stuff. And at that point, we kind of said the same things like, this is the worst place we've ever been in. This place was worse than that because from top to bottom, it was bad. It was. And we get in there and this bull would bugle kind of off and on.

And by the sounds of him, I'm just like, eh, he don't sound like a big bull. He just kind of sounds like a raghorn five point. But big bulls can sound wimpy until they turn it up a notch too. So there's always that little carrot that dangles out in front of your head. It's like, well, this thing may, he may just be a giant playing possum a little bit. So we got to go. And plus I swear, Dusty, I swear I heard a big growler down here. Come on. Yeah.

So we get down in there and he's, he bugles just enough to make, keep us interested. Like, so we get down in there and then the wind get a little, got a little wonky. So I'm like, all right, let's sit down and take a break. So we sat there for an hour or something, had a little snacky snack. And, uh, I don't know, we might even took a nap. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know.

And then once the kind of the wind started coming uphill to us, I was like, okay, let's make our move. So then we took in after him again and we get over on the same ridge he's on and, and, uh, he just, just taunts us. It's like he, we get a hundred yards and we're like, okay, this is time to work my magic. And then he would just move off. So then it's almost like leapfrog. We'd move up to where he was standing from the last time he bugled. And then he would be just a hundred yards further. Yeah.

So, which this is typical elk behavior, right? And he kind of liked those moany bugles too. So, you'll see in the video, I'm giving him those kind of moany bugles. I'm not giving him those beautiful prize winning bugles that everybody likes to do and hear, right? These are just these crappy bugles.

Mony Bugles, it's like a prepubescent boy trying to talk or something. And, you know, that kind of kept him talking. And then a couple times once we got up on top of that ridge, I thought,

I think we'll put a little bit of pressure on him and he's going to come in. He kind of started escalating a little bit. I'm like, okay, this is going to be good. We're just, we're, we got good wind. It's, it's very advantageous for the bull to come in at this spot, but he's going to have to come in close to see us. We can set up, we can call. So I escalated a little bit and he just kept on moving off when, and I thought, all right, we're going to step on this thing. So sometimes,

I take the aggressive just a little, the next step up. It's like, I'm just going to not maybe call as much, but I'm just going to start walking right to where I think he is. So we just start walking, start hoofing it because a lot of times those things will shut up and then it'll just stand there and wait for you to walk up. And they're like, Oh, there he is. Jigs up. Well, that stupid thing wouldn't even stand his ground long enough to even catch us, you know, try to catch a sneaking in or walking in on him. He saw he was clearly intimidated. He didn't want to fight.

And he just kept moving off. So at that point, I think we ran into like a couple bull moose, a couple bull moose. One was a giant, probably a Boone and Crockett Shire's moose. The other one was a little dinky one, like a 30-incher. The other one was a big hoss. And you filmed and tried to film. I'm like, there again, we talk about film and stuff. You think, I think I got it. I'm like, no. I'm like, I'm just canvassing the film. I'm like, I got to show these moose and

And they're black and they're really hard. They don't stand out in video at all. So. That tells you right there how, but a big moose like that and you still can't. Yeah. The thing's like a horse standing there. They're so tall and like, how do you not, how can you not? Right. That's how bad it is. Yeah. So.

We sat down for a while and just kind of let things calm down, hit a snack, another snack, you know, that's why we take lots of snacks. We got to keep our energy up for, for, you know, I'm about to blow away in the wind. I got to keep my metabolism up, you know? Yeah.

I've got a carb load. Hey, we eat healthy snacks though. Right. Fruit leathers and protein jerkies and snossages and stuff like that. That sounds good. Yeah. I don't know. You should have brought some. I should have broke open some jerky. Then everybody would have heard a smack on our lips. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. But anyhow, so...

After we kind of let things go quiet for a while, I like to do this thing where, and I've kind of done this in the last few years a lot, where the bugling has kind of gone stale. Well, we'll just find a good spot where the wind is good and we have a good vantage point where we can hear a lot of different directions. And we just sit in that one spot and just call. And we just start calling sparingly in the beginning, just a few cow calls. And then after a while, introduce a bugle.

It's almost like cold calling, right? And as, let's say we do this for 30 minutes. And as we get closer to that 30 minute mark, you know, we're constantly escalating. By the time we get to the 30 minute mark, I'm cow calling and I'm bugling almost every breath, right? And maybe I get up and run around or throw some sticks around or roll rocks down the hill. I want to paint this picture that there is a cow in heat. There's some kind of a rut fest melee going on up here.

And a lot of times during that, sometimes you'll hear a bugle, but more times than not, once you kind of quit doing that, and then you just, you turn it off. 30 minute mark, shut it off, sit down, be quiet, shut up, put your head on a swivel. And you, after about 10, 15 minutes, pretty soon you'll hear, you'll hear a bull about as far away sometimes as you can hear them. And pretty soon,

closer, pretty soon closer. Well, we did that and we didn't hear squat. We were bugling over into that next big, that next big canyon where that growler was supposed to be. And evidently he didn't get the memo. He's supposed to participate when he hears that sound. And so after sitting there for, I don't know, probably an hour, then we're just, okay,

nothing's happening. And that bull we've been chasing all morning, he shut up too. So it's like, well, let's get out of here. So then you have to do that terrible walk of shame out of there. And it's, you know, he talked about it before it's brushy and steep and yucky and it's hot. And by that time, you know, of course it's, it's warmed up and now we have the sun on the hillside wearing too many clothes. And yeah, it's, it's, it's fun. It is. It's, it builds character. It does. You know, it's,

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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.

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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. Anyhow, that was kind of the strategy on that bull is like, try not to work him up too hard, too quick, just kind of,

not be super aggressive until it became advantageous. We got out of that thick brush hole. He did, I guess I'll back up. He did come into probably 10 yards, 15 yards, maybe. I seen antler tips, but he kind of came in quiet and I heard him rubbing. And then I'm like, oh, dusty. And then I went and I called and he didn't come out. I'm like, all right, let's move up. So we moved up there and we were

I don't know, 10 yards maybe. And I, I seen an antler tip. I don't think Dusty could see it just from where I was standing. I kind of seen, it looked like maybe a five point just by the splits on his, on his antlers. And then he, he moved off of course. And then we, you know, followed suit after that. But yeah, it's, my advice is, I mean, you don't want to give up.

too quick. We could have, like when he moved off then, maybe the smart plan would have been, all right, let's pack it up, get out of here and go find one that does want to play better. But there's been times where if you just give them that little nudge, pretty soon

It's curiosity gets the best of them, or maybe you fool them into getting mad. You know, it's almost like on the playground when there's a kid you want to start a fight with and you just start poking them a little bit and poking them just these little nudges. And finally you just, you break that barrier. It's like, all right, I've had enough. And I was kind of hoping we would get that, but-

Yeah. He, that guy was a rock. He was an Oak. He was an Oak. He was an Oak. He wasn't going to lose his temper. Yeah. He left. He probably listened to a lot of Jocko will link, you know, and like not listening to his temper, you know, he goes the enemy, right guys. Yeah. And he knew, you know, I'm not that tough. Yeah. I don't need to fight. I got nothing to prove here. Good.

the elk doesn't want to fight good good find another one and then the third bull that we got on um well one thing i will mention is this hunt we mid hunt i got news from home that my wife jessica was in the hospital she has appendicitis

And I'm like, oh, appendicitis. I know people that had that. That's not a big deal. I mean, they just do a couple of little poke incisions and they fix you up and you're out and it's not a big deal. I know two or three people and they act like, no, it's nothing. They were back to work within a day. Well, no, she had to get a major surgery. They had to cut her way open. They had to dig in. They had to remove some intestine. They had to like stitch it back together. It was a very, very major ordeal.

And we had to cut the hunt short. I'm like, okay, we got one more half day to hunt. We can hunt till noon and then we got to get out of here. So, because she didn't, you know, my kids were down there and then her friends were there. But I needed to get back home, you know, as quick as I could. So, I'm like, all right, after this hunt, this half day, we got to get home. So, yeah.

The night before that half day, we'd, we'd, we'd called down into this really steep, nasty, like almost vertical. Like you could see 800 vertical feet straight down. Um, and you could have probably thrown a baseball straight out and it would have hit the bottom. It was like, it was that vertical. Yeah.

And across the draw on the other hillside, bull answers. And as a five point, he started coming across and start, he was going to climb that hill to us. I'm like, Oh, if that sucker climbed this hill, I'm going to shoot him right here. But, um,

there again, we didn't get anything good on video because it's, he was a long ways away. And we don't have all these big telescopic lenses because we're in brush country USA. So, we don't have these big zoom lenses to zoom in and see the bulls. So, there wasn't really much to show there. So, we left that part out. But, so,

So the next morning we have this half day. I'm like, we got to get back in there. That thing was pretty hot. We'll just slip over there and get him to talk and we'll, we'll pinpoint him and then we'll go down that Ridge, walk down there, shoot him, pack him out. It's not that far of a pack. We'll be out of here at noon. Easy. Easy.

Well, the next morning we get there, that bull would not make a peep. I think he smelled us that night. I think he must have smelled us or something. And he, you know, fool me once, you know, you ain't going to be fooled twice. Elk are smart. So we stood there for quite a while calling. And then I pulled out my external call, the external open read cow call. And I always say those things like,

10% of the time they work every time. And I start blowing on it. My brother always makes fun of me. He's like, God, that thing does not sound like an elk. That sounds terrible. It sounds like a weird bird or something. I'm like, I know, but sometimes bulls like it for whatever reason.

Maybe I sound like old Mary Lou from last year. You know, Mary Lou, she's pretty. Crazy ex-girlfriend. See, elk have crazy ex-girlfriends too sometimes. Exactly. She wants child support. But anyway, I started, I blew on that thing and bam, we got an answer. And I'm like, Dusty, that's a big, that's a big bull. That's not that little one. So, yeah.

We make a quick plan. We throw our packs on, hike out this ridge. I'm like, oh yeah, he's just right on that ridge. You can, it sounds like he's just right over the roll of that ridge. We get down there, we set up, we start calling, nothing. Like, man, he's just like, gotta be right here. Nothing. Then he didn't bugle anymore. I'm like, man, well, we've walked this far. Let's walk a little bit further and bugle over this next little backside of this little ridge here and see if we can get a little better bird's eye on him. So we get over there. Boom. He answers.

He's not on the ridge we're on. He's across this big drainage on the other side of this canyon. Well, from our elevated position where we were calling, we could hear that bull from that other side of that other drainage. And the sound was traveling straight across that big ridge that we were standing on up to us up high. So we had this depth perception issue, like we thought he was on the ridge when he was

another 500 yards or further, 600 yards, you know, as the crow flies on the other side of this other drainage. So anyway, we get down there. I'm like, man, the clock is ticking. So we get down there and we do a bunch of calling. And it seemed like I kind of pinpointed him. And then about the time we get him pinpointed, he just shuts up. And I'm like, well, at this point, I'm feeling pretty low. It's just like, man, we're not getting an elk.

stupid place dusty what did i tell you to tell me what what are you supposed to be saying to me right now you fool yes i felt like a fool like man i just why do i come back to this place this is dumb i'm just i'm wasting my time and spinning my wheels you know i have that all those doubts you know this is i'm a fraud i'm a fake this this doesn't work what am i doing so we it's

Back to the snacks. We opened some snacks. And snacks always kind of make you feel a little better. You know, get a little bit of sugar in you. You know those organic mangoes, you know, you get at Costco. Those things are so good. I ate a bunch of them. I'm like, I'm going to eat all of them. Yeah. Because this is. You were pretty upset. Yeah. I was eating away at my emotions. Eating my emotions. You were. It's a good thing we didn't have any beer. I'm going to get hammered. Yeah.

I have to carry you out of there. Yeah, yeah. I said, hey, help. Here, carry my bow and my pack. Oh, man. But so then I got – so I was sad, and then I got pissed off. I'm like, all right, I'm just going to do my rut melee thing again. I'm just going to do my whole –

you know, start out low, just, and then just go crazy. Just do all these crazy bugles, just the nastiest lip ball, the nastiest lip, like almost every breath I was lip balling. And then I had that open read and I was blowing on that thing and I was making up stuff. It was like, these quivery, God awful calls. Like if any human would have heard that there had been like

good God, who is down there? What are they doing? That sounds terrible. My brother would have got up and left. He would have just shook his head like, I'm out of here. You're a fool. He had a double fool. Double fool. Yeah.

And I thought this will get that bold to bugle. And before that, he would bugle every now and then, but not much. Just kind of, oh, because he was bedded across this hillside, you know, and we're approaching the midday hour, the 12 o'clock midday madness hour. And I escalated to the crescendo and then I stopped. And I was like, ta-da, boom.

And he didn't bugle. Actually, he went completely radio silent on us. So I wish Dusty could have been like taking like eight different angles and me doing that because you guys probably would have been like... Oh, yeah. But I think at that point, Dusty's just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, hurry up, get it over with. This is not going to happen. Hurry up. We got to go. And...

So we just, I'm like, I just, I clammed up. I just clammed it up, which you're supposed to do. We sat there for, I don't know, 15 minutes. And then all of a sudden, bam, he answers. He bugles. And it's not just the old moany bed bugle. It was a pretty good, you know, mature growly sounding bugle. Almost sounded like a planer, like a wood planer. You put a fricking two by four on the old planer and it goes...

And it makes that really gnarly sound. It's almost that level. And I'm like, I look at Dusty, I'm like, we got him. Do I call? No, do not call. And then pretty soon, you know, he went 15 minutes without calling and then he bugled. And then 30 seconds later, bugles again.

Pretty soon he bugles again. He's like, hey, what happened over there? They sounded like a party. Now there's no party. Where'd everybody go? I think I might want to go to the party. So I let him bugle three or four times on his own. And then I started calling again.

But when he went in, but I didn't go right to the bugle. When he bugled, like when I said, okay, I'm going to start answering now, I started giving him these cow calls. And I, the best way to describe them is kind of a longing type cow call. Like,

Yeah, like really high pitched, long, but then draw it down slow. Like, hey, like I'm talking directly to you, not this jerk. I'm talking to you. Come over here and save us. This guy's kind of a jerk. His horns aren't very big. I want you to come over because you sound pretty hot. That's what I'm trying to tell this bull. And when I would do that, he would answer. And then I would bugle. So he had moved. He had not moved the whole time we were there.

And as soon as I started doing that, the next thing you knew, he had moved from his original bedding spot halfway down the hill to the creek, which was probably a few hundred yards. Pretty soon, he bugles again. He's in the creek. I'm like, we got him, Dusty. We got him. So now-

we have to move. Like he knows exactly elk have radar. They have on X maps built into their brain and their ears. So I'm like, we got to move over here and get ready to waylay him unexpectedly. When he climbs up the hill, he'll be just walking up the hill right to where he last heard us. And we're going to get him. Well, he, he got to that crick.

I don't know if he laid in it or took an extra long drink, if he had to poop. I don't know what happened, but he stood down there forever. It seemed like forever. I'm like, I'm starting to get worried. I'm like, where is he? So finally I'm like, okay. So I made some cow calls and then I bugle and he answers. I'm like, okay, okay. He's right there. And then he climbs up and then he bugles again at like 60 yards.

but off to our left, not where we anticipated. Typically on these situations I have, they'll come in on a straight line right to me. If they're going to come all the way across that hill, they're not going to do no circle and nonsense. They're going to come in on a straight line. I've had this happen a lot. They just come in on a straight line. So I'm expecting him to come in on a straight line. Well, he came off that straight line and he was off to our left about 60 yards.

And we can't see him. It was just, I don't know how we couldn't see him. It was just like, it was right there. Right. And I'm like, well, he's going to walk across that little tiny opening and I'm going to zing him. We wait there. We sit there. Nothing and nothing. And on the film, you see this and it all happens very fast. But I cut out, you know,

an hour of us standing there on one foot, like waiting for something to happen. And the flies buzzing around, you know, you can hear bees and flies and birds flying over, but I cut all of that out. So it speeds up the process to make this video watchable and short. But anyway,

I'm like, I don't know what happened. And then next I'm like, I think, I think the jig's up dusty, I think. And then right up to where we, where we had our, our, our rut fest party, where we had the cow party, where people were, these, these elk were rut drunk, they were running around, they were cannonballing into the water. They were doing all sorts of crazy stuff. They were saying some stuff that,

It can never be repeated. He was standing right up there by our packs. Yeah. And he barks at us. Yep. And starts chuckling. Mind you, this is directly upwind. Right. Downwind. Downwind. I keep on saying it wrong. He was directly downwind up the hill, but downwind because all the thermals are blowing uphill. So he's downwind of us uphill and he's barking and chuckling. I'm like,

While he's chuckling, it's just not barking. So maybe there's a chance. So I go into bark-chuckle mode. So I start copycatting. Bark-chuckle. And a lot of times the bulls come in and they think something's amiss or they just want to see that other bull. They will bark. Like, hey, show yourself. So I start barking and chuckling. I'm like, well, maybe he's never smelled people before. I don't know. It don't make any sense to me. But at this point, we're...

We're in overtime. We're in the sudden death overtime. So I bark, chuckle. He barks and chuckles back and forth. We run up the hill, get up there. And I'm just like, okay, there's no way that...

he's going to be, he's going to just bark and chuckle and run off. So I, I make a beeline. I'm walking and I look up and there that sucker is standing there looking at me. Dusty, he's not right behind me. So he don't see him with the camera. And, but he does seem kind of escaping. You get a little shot of him escaping through this, the, in the shadows of this tree. And I, and I don't even have my tube in my hand. I just start because I've drawn my bow. As soon as I see him, I stop, I knock an arrow and draw my bow.

And I start barking with just my diaphragm in my mouth. I'm like, whoa, whoa. I just start barking. And finally he just stops. And I've got this kind of window to the trees there. I'm like, okay, how far is he? I think he's like 45, maybe 40. I don't know. So I put my 40 pin right in the middle of that. I'm like, I can see his shoulder right there. I'm like, all right. I send it.

it cuts off a branch and the arrow disappears. And then the next thing you know, I see the bolt run off. I'm like, did I get him? I think I got him. And then he barks at us and chuckles again. Like, I'm pretty sure I didn't get him. So-

We continue this cat and mouse game of barking and chuckling and advancing. And I would bark and chuckle. He'd bark and chuckle. And I'd run up, you know, as fast as a fat kid can up that steep hill. It didn't look that steep on the hill on the video, but it's steep as the back of your head. So we're running up the hill as fast as we can, panting out of breath.

And every time I hit a flat spot, he would be standing there waiting and I would catch him like turning and running because he didn't get a good look at us. He would just hear us coming and he would turn and they would run off to the next spot about 60, 80 yards, bark and chuckle. So we did this leapfrog thing up the hill. And finally, the last time I seen him, you can, on the video, you see just a little, little, little flash of him disappearing. I'm like, well, the jig is up.

So we sit there and man, it's time for the real pity party now. It's like, dude, that's, it's not the biggest bull I've ever seen in an over-the-counter unit. But it's probably the biggest bull on over-the-counter unit I've seen in 20 years. I don't want to throw crazy numbers around, but he was a very, very big mature bull, especially for that country. Usually you don't see him that big. So

I have my pity party. I talk about it a little bit and then we, let's go, you know, let's go check the arrow. You know, maybe, maybe I've heard bulls bugle that I've got hit before. We gotta, we gotta be a hundred percent sure. We go down there, look around, there's the arrow. And as I reached down to get the arrow, I,

He insults our injury by barking and chuckling at us again. And it was like he left and then he came back and stood right where we were standing the last time when we turned around. So I pick up the arrow. I'm like, well, there's no blood on it. It's clean as a whistle. So I put it away. Dusty, what do we do? I guess we run back up there and say, maybe, maybe.

And the whole time, I don't understand this. The wind is blowing straight to him. I've never had this happen before. It defies every law of nature and everything that anybody's ever told you.

if I had somebody tell me this story, I'd call bullshit. You know, I would be just like, no, that's not, that didn't happen. Okay. All right. Okay. That's what happened. That's what happened. You know, Dusty's my witness. And we go right back up to the same spot. And we kind of did that same cat and mouse thing. And he didn't linger that long that time. He kind of just disappeared and quit talking. So,

At that point, we were.

very sad. And we had to walk back down the hill. Yeah. And drop down probably 300 feet, maybe. Yeah. Back down to the packs again, get our packs, and then make that long walk out. And it was, it was, it was a nice day though. It was beautiful. It was really clear. It was probably about 80 degrees. Beautiful day. So it was a really good day to, to trudge through that brush. Oh, it was great. All the way back up to the truck. You know, it was a, it was a nasty climb, but. Yeah. Um,

And on the way out, what did I say? I'm like, Dusty, yeah, right here I can start putting some trail cameras. I've got an idea. I could probably hack a little trail over here. I could put some trail cameras right there. And what did you say? You fool. You know, old Ma Nature, she just shook her tail at me again, shook her old tail feathers at me again. She did. And I was like, I was hooked. I was 100% all in.

coming back next year. I'm like, oh, you don't get away with it. That's all you talked about all the way home. All the way home. Yeah. Yeah. I was trying to convince you. It's just like a good buddy that tries to legitimize or talk sense to you and make you not feel like he's an idiot for running back to some crazy girl. Right. Yeah. That was a nice bowl though. Yeah.

That was a nice bull. It still hurts. So basically the, the title of the film is ghost bulls of the North. Um, because these bulls, they're like ghosts. Um, if you were to walk up there and look for tracks, you wouldn't see any tracks. And if you're not down in the crap hole, um,

where they're rubbing their antlers on trees and stuff, you would swear there's not a single elk around. There's not a lot of elk around. There are very few and far between. But if you figure out where they're at,

It can be amazing, but they're like ghosts. Some people don't believe in ghosts. I took my brother-in-law up there one summer scouting, and he's like, there's no elk here. There's no way I'm hunting here. I'm like, there's elk here. He's like, I'm not hunting here. I'm never hunting here. I couldn't talk him into it. Oh, wow. This was several years ago when it was better, when it was even better than it is now. This is before it's kind of like got to where it is now. It's like, ah, yeah.

That's funny. So, yeah. But they're like ghosts. They are. I had one person one time tell me, he called them vampires because he's like, once they shed their velvet, they're like a vampire. He's like, they do not show themselves in the light of day until they start rutting a bit and then they come out and rut around until that's done and then they just disappear again and just... Amazing. It's amazing. Yeah, it is. That's a great way to say it. Yeah. So...

What's your takeaways, Dusty, from the film? Do you recommend it? Do you wish that... What's your takeaways from the film? Will people like it? I think so. I think they would like it. I think it's a good film. I think it's entertaining. I think it holds your attention the whole time. And yeah, I mean, it shows the reality of...

of what most elk hunting is like. Yeah. You get close encounters and then nothing. And then close encounter and then nothing. It's an up hill, downhill battle. Just like hiking those hills. That's exactly what it is. Yeah. Great film. Yeah. And I think it just, you know, it just shows that

Every season can't be a 10. I've had some 10s up there and I've had some zeros up there. That was kind of a zero. I didn't notch a tag, but it was fun. We learned a lot of stuff. Again, we got into some new places I'd never hiked in before. And we hit some of the old spots, some of my old favorite spots. It didn't have a dang thing. We hiked in behind this gated road.

for, uh, felt like hours one day we hiked and hiked and it was warm. We hiked in, you know, for like noon and we're going to get up in there and be ready for the evening hunt. Just stack them up. We get up there and it looked like there had never been an elk in there in the last 10 years. It was just ghost town. No, no fresh scat. There was some old white scat from like last year. No rubs, no tracks. And it wasn't that many years ago that, uh,

Every year, any day of, you know, the last part of September, you could, could hear a bull in there, if not kill one. So, you know, the landscape changes every year.

So that's another big takeaway. You know, if you have your, your favorite places, no matter where you're at, no matter what state, no matter what kind of place it is, you know, from year to year, it changes. A lot of times it depends on snowpack. It depends on the moisture you get in the summer. Elk are just in different places. Um, you know, they, they're not always in those spots. So, um, you have to be willing to branch out and try other places, try different tactics. Yeah.

And another thing is you just can't give up. Like, yeah,

It's easy, easy to get up, give up at that point when the cards are down. But you just have to have that faith. You have to ride that leap of faith or have that little faith. It's like, this will happen. Because I know it'll happen because I've been there before. I've had success before doing these same things in these similar type places. And it's going to happen. And you just have to hold that faith. Because if you don't, if you give up and go home,

You lose. Yeah. If you stay, there's still a chance to win. Mm-hmm.

Well, are you ready to go back there this year? You fool. I kind of knew that was coming. But Dusty, hear me out. Hear me out. I'm going to put some trail cameras up there. I'm sure you are. I have some sitting up there. I put them – last summer I went up and I put trail cams on again. You did. And they're still there. Yeah.

I'm going to go this summer, check, go pull the cards and devise a plan. And we're going to be back in there again. And then this time it's going to be different. She's going to love me forever this time. You are a fool. Oh, thanks for coming on. Dusty, always enjoy your company and conversation. Thank you. It was fun reminiscing again on those hunts.

Even though it didn't get one, it was, it's a blast. So much fun. Yeah. Yeah. Where can people find you on, on the socials and the interwebs and. Instagram is a DOF productions, DOF productions, and then same websites, DOF productions.com. And I'm also on Facebook, but I'm just under my name, dusty Roop. So. All right. Yeah. All right. Cool.

And, uh, yeah, go give him a follow. Um, I keep telling Dusty, I'm like, you're a creative, you've got the juices, you need to make some cool, cool reels. That's the new thing. That's the new cool thing on, on Instagram reels. You know, they're trying to compete with TikTok. Right. And, uh,

Yeah. You just need to get yourself out there with some of those reels. If anybody needs a camera guy when I'm not using him, hit him up. Yeah. He'd definitely like to follow you around the elk woods, deer woods, fishing woods. Fishing woods. I mean, man. Yeah. Yeah. Or maybe you're a small business and need a little bit of help, you know, doing some cool film to promote your stuff. Yeah. That's just the man. We know.

We can talk. Yeah. But, uh, yep. Thanks again. And thanks everybody for listening. We'll catch you on the next episode. And remember monsters are coming. I always say that. I keep just going onto those next ghost bowls. There's a monster coming. All right. I'm ready. Thanks.

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