Live Elk Hunting Q&A with Corey Jacobsen - 6/16/20

all right it says we are live so welcome everybody appreciate you coming out tonight on this awesome Tuesday evening and joining Donnie and I for little elk & elk I'm Dean QA before we get rolling just a couple things real quickly here because I want to save a bunch of time for a bunch of questions if we can but for those who are joining us for the first time thanks for being here this is our first time doing a YouTube live Q&A that's open for the general public so we're excited to have everybody here we've done a couple over the past few weeks for members of the university of alicante an online course but we're excited to bring everybody in on this one I don't forget we've got the big ultimate elk hunt giveaway that's going on with mountain ops right now you can just go to elk 101.com forward slash hunt and sign up to win that it's an all-expense-paid incredible elk hunting opportunity in the state of Utah I'm going to be there if Donnie is up for he's going to be there we'll ask him that question in a minute and Casey harborton from Mountain ops going to be an incredible incredible hunt so all you got to do is just go to Elko no and.com ford slash hunt and sign up for that and for those of you that are online course members you know you've got extra chances for anybody that's not you can sign up for the university of elk hunting the online course and get 20 extra chances in that giveaway so this week also you can use the promo code cross 20 that's CRO ss-20 and you'll also have a chance to win the new Sig cross rifle topped with an awesome vortex rifle scope so what else we got real quickly here oh the new college scholarship program El Cajon Owens super excited to launch that in June and the deadline to apply for those scholarships is June 30th that is for University of elk hunting online course members and their children I'll just tell you right now if you have a son or a daughter who graduated high school in 2020 and is going to college at an accredited university this fall we have very very few applicants and we were giving out twenty five hundred dollars in college scholarships so if you have a son or a daughter that just graduated and is going to college and you are a member of the online course make sure and fill out that application Father's Day is coming up on Sunday happy early Father's Day to all the mentors and brothers and grandfathers and fathers and anyone who has a positive influence in the lives of our youth happy Father's Day to celebrate we are giving away two bows so prime archery has just been incredible for us this summer they've given us ten bows to give away to University of elk hunting online course members and we've got two bows to give away this week for Father's Day and all you have to do to enter is go to el cuento uncom forward slash dad fill in your name and email address and we will be picking the winner on Sunday you're going to get a prime synergy bow as well as a quest thrive bow which is a youth both so kind of a father-son father-daughter combo they're super excited for that and all EF you just go to El Cajon uncom forward slash dad let's see giveaways besides the bows we've got more giveaways tonight and those who have done this before or been to a seminar that we've done you know we like to give away gear so I've got more bugle tubes with the Sitka covers more diaphragm l calls the three pack here got a temptress call what else we got the new hats if you haven't ordered your new hat from el cuento on yet we've got two brand-new awesome hats you can go to elk 101 store.com to order those and got new t-shirts coming i'll maybe tease those here in a little bit and show you the design those are actually going to be available this week and look what I found I've got a tub of the sold-out Mountain ops ignite in bugle berry googleberry though we'll begin that way tonight and again just go to el cuento uncom ford / dad fill out the form there and that's how we will pick the winners of all of this gear plus the bows so I think that's all I need to talk about from my end so let's get to some questions Donny are you here Donny's not here but Donny's he's tuning in on the phone with us so he's going to go through some of the questions and kind of moderate those read those out to me because I am having trouble just watching the questions scroll by here so Donny is going to go through those questions pull out some good ones if your question doesn't get read take it up with Donny so you have a dad joke to start us out Donny put him on the spot all right yeah you have an elk hunting question for us and we've experienced this a few times it says how would you hunt an area that sheepherder very much yeah alright so let's kick it off that was Jacob did you say it was ask the question Jeb Anderson all right Jacob so we have actually some of the area's we hunt especially here in Idaho I know in Colorado it's an issue Montana's got it there's probably other states too but I've just I've noticed them in those states and that is sheep and how do sheep affect elk in my experience sheep are we call them land maggots and it's you no we aren't I know there are sheep herders and and ranchers that make their living off of it and you know not taking anything away from that but their land maggots because they eat everything they eat they eat the grass is right down to the dirt and really what we found is elk don't compete for that feed there there's no feed left and the elk will move out of those areas the other thing is sheep stink you get 3,000 sheep moving through an area and I think it really limits and Elks ability to use its nose because everything smells like sheep and the other thing is cheaper loud and it limits the Elks ability to use their ears and protect them with their sense of hearing so our experience hasn't been good in areas where there are sheep in fact we very rarely get into any elk now if that being said if the elk are there in the summer the sheep come through and they push the elk out sometimes it'll actually concentrate the elk over the ridge or into the next drainage away from where the sheep are so it's not like they completely disappear and sometimes what we found is we actually get into pockets where there seems to be more elk than normal so great question and stay away from from the sheep all right I love that question Josh so I typically try to have a lot of areas picked out through East Gauteng so if I'm going on an eight day hunt somewhere I've got at least eight areas picked up from a scouting so there's one for every day if I need it and that kind of answer is the second part of the question which is how long do I stay in an area if I'm not finding elk I have a hard time staying there through the morning hunt a lot of time you know we get into an area with hike in we get in three or four miles if we don't get in bugles or we aren't seeing super fresh sign and getting a good sense that there's there's a lot of elk in here and it could be good hunting we just don't for whatever reason that morning we might stick it out but if we aren't seeing that signer I'm hearing the bugles a lot of times we're packing up by 10:00 11:00 in the morning going back to the trailhead getting in the truck and going to plan B then on the Plan C just the same way so it's not at all uncommon to hit two different areas in one day a morning hunt somewhere and evening hunt somewhere and then go to a completely new area the next morning if we aren't getting into ELQ great question great question so I actually did a podcast I think it's coming out this week or next week with Jim Huntsman from the Western Huntsman podcast and he asked almost that exact same question pretend I know everything I know now but I'm a brand new hunter going hunting for the first time how does that change so the question is what would I go back in time and tell myself was a brand new elk hunter with with what I know now you know it's a tough once there's so many things that are learned along the way there's so many important things you know if you've if you've listened to me talk about elk hunting at all thermals have coming up have come up in that conversation and I believe thermals are probably the most important thing to understand because it's the number one thing elk used to stay alive so an understanding of thermals and wind is important I would probably bring that up if I went back in time and talk to myself way back then another thing would be hunting with a partner I spent probably eight or nine years trying to kill an elk with a bow by myself and it's tough and once I got a good hunting partner it really not only accelerated the learning curve and accelerated the success but it just increased the efficiency so much just right out of the gate so Colleen elk stuff if you have a partner so you can have a collar back behind it really maximizes your chances understanding the wind so you know how to approach and how to set up on an elk is is going to be critical so look two of the things that come to come to mind right off I'm sure if I sat here long enough there would there'd be a lot more that come to mind but you know as we look back over now 30 35 36 years of elk hunting there's been a lot of failures and a lot of things that were painful and things that would be nice to go back and tell my young self but at the same time those lessons have been invaluable and I've no doubt those those failures have contributed to the success that we have today all right some of the reads that are available Daniel Lucci says can you explain the difference between the orange green and white one cause it seems like you prefers a green based on the online course yeah so a great question on diaphragm calls I'm going to show you just keep in mind these are some prototype prototype calls we're working on and hopefully Kurt at Rocky Mountain hunting calls is okay with me showing them these are not what they're gonna look like these are just some some samples that we've gotten but I've got the white the green and the orange here so the orange is the champ the Green is the all-star the white is the contender and they're all built on the same frame but they're all built for different purposes and I'll start with the champ the champ is probably my favorite call overall it's the easiest one to use it lasts a long time it doesn't last quite as long as these other tips they have a little thicker latex different stretches on it but the champ if you're looking for a brand new diaphragm to put in and learn to call on it's probably going to be the easiest you can make sounds with it really easy coincidentally it's one that I've used the last two years at the world elk calling championships and you'd think that with a simple beginner type diaphragm that it wouldn't be able to do all the things that a diaphragm needs to do but it absolutely does so it makes really soft sweet cow calls it still screams a great bugle but seven eight days on this thing screaming with elk every day the latex is going to stretch and it's going to get a little too light to hit the high notes on the bugle but I'll just demonstrate it real quick here so Cal call and then imbue bill so again really easy to use and has great range of sound it's my go-to just because you know you get up in the morning hiking out of breath just it's it's the easiest one to operate under any circumstance next one is the allstar again same frame same concept she's got a little thicker latex little tighter stretch which makes it a little more difficulty at that full range especially on those soft sweet Cal signs you've got to put a little more tongue pressure a little more air pressure into it so you don't have quite as much versatility with that being said this is probably the best one for all-around sound and that you know you might lose a little bit on the on the cow call but you gain it in the bugle and it's going to last a long time this is probably the one that I'd recommend for somebody who's been using a diaphragm for a year or two and especially if you blow a little bit harder this is a great one you'll hear the difference in the sound the Cal Cal just isn't quite as soft quite as sweet but it still sounds good but then the bugle you can really get into the bugle and hold that high clear note really well so again you need a lot more volume with that as well because of that tighter stretch a little bit heavier latex and the last one from the elk 101 series is the contender this is the one that we spent a lot of time dialing in the latex we're looking for latex is versatile that was gonna last a long time but still was was fairly easy to use if you're a brand new out color I'd probably not suggest this one to start with just because it does take a little more controlled tongue pressure a little more control to air pressure but if you've been using one for a while especially if you like like a double reed latex which I don't recommend for elk calling just because you do lose some of the controls some of the range but if you do like to blow a little harder on the latex this is the thickest latex that we have and it's got a good stretch that still allows you to make those cow calls and bugles so here's what it sounds like and that's the one that you want to make sure that you are in front of your hunting partner when you use it because it is loud you can really get some air into that really projected out there with a lot of volume so great question hopefully that answers your your question the diaphragms are sold in a 3-pack so all three of them come together in a 3-pack on the elk 101 store it's almost like buying two and getting one free I think it's like 18 or 19 dollars for three diaphragms if you buy it in a 3-pack so you want to try all three of them or just want a good range of diaphragm calls that's a good option there for sure alright Donnie what do we got next when you do a location Google yeah so will great question how far can a cannibal they'll cure you when you do a location bugle and it really depends and that you know the terrain the area you're hunting the you know so if the bull is straight across from you line of sight I've had Bulls people at me it over a mile away but I've also had elk that I didn't hear bugle and and they didn't hear me bugle that were 300 yards away so I think you know realistically if you get into a basin and you can see across that Basin and see the ridges anything within line of sight should be able to hear you and you should be able to hear it if you get out there you know 800 yards and there's a ridge and that bowl that you know the ridge is here and the bull is on the backside of the ridge from you my guess is he can probably hear you better than you can hear him so he might hear you and respond and you might not hear him just because their hearing is so much better than ours but it really you know you get on some of that wide-open flatland like New Mexico Arizona you'll hear a Buick when you'll be glassing a hillside a half a mile in front of you saying it's got to be right there I mean you'll glass down in the flat a mile away and there's a bowl out there and you know you'll hear a bugle you look through the binoculars and actually see em raise his head mouth open come back down and like four seconds later you'll hear the bugle and so it's you know you can hear from a long ways away but again when we hunt Roosevelt over in Oregon it's really thick education a lot of really cut-up ridges and draws and sometimes to 300 yards away you might not be able to hear a bull bugle especially if they let out a pretty quiet little bugle so it's really hard to say but hopefully in a nutshell that kind of helps understand basically if you can see the hillside across from yet and it's within a mile you should be able to hear an elk bugle if he's gonna respond there good question well how long do you try to call before assuming the elk aren't talking and head off to spawn stock so that's a loaded question how long how long do you give the elk before you just assume they aren't talking and you decide the spot in stock if you're smart you'll do it a lot faster than I do I hunted with Randy in New Mexico a couple years ago and I think we hunted seven days there I killed my bull on the last evening of the last day and that morning was the first time we had switched gears to spot in stock up until then the first six days I think we had called in two bulls maybe three and they weren't real great Collins it wasn't like we had great opportunity it was just hot it was dry it was full moon there were a lot of hunters it was all the things that make colleen tough but still we're in new mexico we were in a good unit it was the last week of September it should have been better and it just wasn't and you know I think Randy had put a little pressure on me and said if anybody can call in an elk in here you can and so I was hoping to be able to prove him right but in the end we resorted the spot in stock and fortunately had an opportunity and made good on it on that last evening but I think realistically you know if I get to a ridge and I let out a bugle and something doesn't answer me all that out another location bugle if it doesn't answer me within a minute and a half two minutes we're usually hiking and we don't stand there and try to pry a bugle out of an elk you know more in an acute setting like that in the morning but day after day if I'm not hearing bugles within three or four days and we just realize hey it's not going to work to call in an elk I would say by the halfway point in the hunt if we're smart and if we're wanting to kill an elk we'd we'd better be switching tactics good question if you call in a bowl and things don't go down to go back in the next day or move on how do you circulate your areas but also prevent too much hunting pressure on New York it's a great question if if we go in and call in an elk but we don't get a shot or we shoot and miss do we go back in after that elk or do we move to a new area and let that kind of settle down and if so how do we rotate our areas so that we aren't going into one area and really just hammering it it depends on the area it depends on the timing of the season if the elk are more susceptible to getting pushed out of an area because of terrain because of hunting pressure because of several different factors we're probably going to be more likely to go to a new area for the next couple of hunts if it's a bigger bowl if it's a bowl that you know we luck into and find a big boulder that we're targeting we might go back into there and spend a little more time if we have especially in that kind of a situation if there's a chance that there are other hunters and they're gonna come in there we might you know be there two hours before daylight parked at that trailhead the next morning to discourage them from going in there I think ideally we would have two or three different areas that we could rotate and hunt and give that area at least two days of a break before we went back in there lker elk are fickle you know they're gonna they're gonna get pushed and if there's too much pressure it doesn't take too much to push them into a new area or to just make them go quiet for a couple days so definitely don't want to overdo it but at the same time you know if that Bulls fired up and we had a really close encounter I won't hesitate to go back in there probably the next day I probably wouldn't do that in the morning and then go back in that same evening if we kind of bugger them in the morning so at least 24 hours if the Bulls fired up if it's a little bit more pre-rut something like that I might give them a couple days before going in there again depending on the situation I'm seeing quite a few questions over there asking how my calf is doing so those of you who are hoping to win the elk hunt with Donnie and I this fall and worried that you might have to be packing me around or that I'm not gonna be able to keep up have no fear the calf is doing good I went to I think four weeks of physical therapy I've got two more weeks left of that I'm working with a personal trainer and just working on some other muscles that weren't firing and and weren't doing their job which led to over exertion on the calf and I would say right now on my calf I'm at 90 percent I could go and hunt with a backpack on today if elk season opened today I'll just say that in two months two and a half months when elk season gets here you'll car gonna be in trouble so Cass doin good thanks for asking ceiling much faster than than anticipated and with those muscle injuries are way better than a than a tendon injury so I was blessed and it was a best-case scenario for sure and it's kind of giving me a new direction and new exercises to do that'll make me even stronger this fall all right Donnie an elk any question that's kind of an elk ending question I guess so jason great question and it's that google and run bull the runner and I think before talking about what we can do to prevent that or what we can do to get in on that bull it's really important to understand why that Bulls running and I've done that there's there's an article on elk 101 it's been gosh probably four years ago 2016 but if you search on there I think the title of it was something like why do you elk bugle and run but in that I break down I think there were four different things that I broke down and talked about reasons why a bull elk will bugle and run so a couple common ones are a younger bull that's not a bull butt is with the herd and is thinking he's a hurtful he knows that if a herd bull comes in there if I mature bull comes in there he doesn't have a chance and the cows are gonna leave him if the herd bull doesn't come in and beat him up so he's timid he doesn't want to fight he wants to keep pushing the cows hoping that he can get away from this pole that's pretty aggressive behind him which is you the hunter and he doesn't want to take a chance coming in another one is you know if you're hunting an area that there's a lot of hunting pressure and the elk have just continually heard Google after Google they've smelled humans every day they're just wary and they're gonna distance themselves from that they are going to take a chance they know there's danger in the area and they're just not going to be as likely to come in those bulls probably aren't going to be as loud and it's vocally there but they'll still bugle a lot of times and just be a lot more timid to understand him that hey if I go in there I've smelled humans every day I've been pumped several times there's people everywhere here it's not gonna take a chance and so that's another reason another probably more common reason that most of us struggle with is that big mature herd bull who has a herd of cows he's established his harem and he's got a cow that's in estrus and ready to be bred his focus is on that cow and so he's still going to be very aggressive very vocal but he's probably not even going to really engage in a conversation with you he's not even going to turn around and come at all he's focused on that cow and so now as far as tactics for each of those you know that younger bull that's got cows it doesn't want to lose them you're not gonna probably be able to just scream aggressive bugle after aggressive bugle and close that distance on him so you know he's got cows he's interested in cows maybe some subtle cow calls as you move in you know if you hang up and give him some really desperate cow calls that plead to that emotion of wanting to breed that bull might come back but typically on any of these situations your best thing to do is going to be to work in using whatever a calling strategy will work for that situation but also having that caller back behind you so that you as the shooter can in 20 40 60 yards whatever it is keep moving in closing that distance and then wait for that bowl to make a mistake either to come back to stand his ground to come back to look for that cow to come back chasing a cow in estrus whatever it might be those Bulls at Google and run your best chance is going to be going in stealthy as a shooter having that collar back behind keeping that bull interested in what he wants to hear now I will say with with the mature bull a herd bull that has cows and he's got a cow that's in estrus and he's following her the cows are making their way back up the mountain to their bedding area you've got this pole that does not want to take a chance of leaving the cows and coming back down to you hay because his cows are going to move off and maybe get intercepted by another bowl be because it becomes John loses a fight then you go up there and take over his cows it's got a couple reasons not to but if you can put enough pressure on that bowl which you've probably got to get inside a hundred yards of a herd bull that has a cow in estrus you've got to get in tight and you've got to challenge them and you've got to make him know that hey I'm pushing I'm pushing I want this cow I want this time I'm willing to fight for it you get in close when he responds you hammer him with that challenge but you've got to be close he's not going to come very far and when he does come it's going to be fast so it's worked for us you know even that last week of September you've got Fall Equinox you've got cows in estrus you've got all the elk are herded up the Bulls are really focused on breeding you can still calling those herd bulls but it's going to take a lot more work it's going to take more pressure it's going to be very dynamic you're gonna be running behind that herd up the mountain keeping up with them yeah put that pressure on that bull and then get inside that magic window to make it happen so that's it and then nutshell like so there's a lot more detail in that article if you can find it on elf 101 I think the title was why do Bulls bugle and run if I'm remembering correctly lease out says besides hunting besides your weapon and boots what is the most important piece of gear can you create so excellent question and I love to answer this question because the very most the top of the list the undeniable unarguable piece of gear that every elk hunter needs and sometimes I think especially new elk hunters overlook it that number one piece of gear is you and you might be laughs and going oh seriously but seriously you are the most important thing that you will take into the alkaloids and so many of us spend way too much money on a new bow on backpacks on boots on all of these things that we think are gonna make us successful and we forget to to invest in ourselves and so you putting in time learning about elk you put it in time getting in good shape you putting in time being the very best you can be with the weapon you have those are going to do far more for you than a new bow which you know a new bow is great and those have come a long way and they continue to advance each year so they definitely contribute to success but the most important piece of gear that you have you already have and for a new elk country I can't stress it enough invest in yourself make sure physically you're in good shape invest in learning as much as you can about elk and elk come team invest in that first the gear will make you better but that foundation is so important so that's that's my answer to number one piece of gear waited on Donnie's bouldering madness last year I'm assuming four thermals what are the reasons which would cause you to pause how do you know when to be aggressive or sit so Wade great question and when it comes to that mid day actually any time of the day you have to understand when those thermals are going change and be ready to back out be ready to circle around even not even be ready but sometimes we look at it and say that bull is moving up the mountain we've only got a half hour of good thermals here why don't we just jump over on the next ridge go up the mountain a mile and engage with them up there once the wind switches so on Donnie's hunt last year is opening day so August 30th here in Idaho it's warm so the thermals are switching early in the morning you get that switch at 7:00 7:30 sometimes sometimes right at daylight the thermals are already coming up the mountain and that day was no different they switched early we were in a good set up we were actually the we were in a ravine the bull was on one side we were on the other so he had to come down and come up to us so with the thermals coming up we were good he came in once and there was a little rock left louis li couldn't get up to us to come all the way in and once you went back across it's really hard to call them back across the ravine twice so he's on the other side now so we really had to kind of wait for him to move up onto the main ridge we circled around got up ahead of him on the main ridge and he bugles from kind of out across from us and we weren't sure if he was going up farther to bed or if he was going to bed down there so rather than take a chance of circling around and ending up below him and having him smell us or going straight out to him and having him be above us and smell us we just we decided to lay back wait for the thermals to change and then know that we could get below him wherever he was and hope for a good evening hunt and fortunately it worked out we actually circled around to where we thought he might have been bedding the highest point never got a bugle and dropped back down an adjacent ridge we never went over on the ridge that we knew he was on we stayed on an adjacent Ridge and it worked great because we got over about his level he answered down in the draw from us and it allowed us to really work around and play those thermals so super important to know the thermals to know what it's doing then know what it's doing in a half hour know what it's doing in four hours and make your decision based on the thermals which is is what we did I usually don't too aggressive with thermals unless there's a really good reason to I can't think off the top of my mind what a good reason to get aggressive with thermals or to take a chance if we're in an area where the winds are kind of swirling sometimes we'll say hey down in the draw it's gonna be a little better let's drop down in there taking a chance on those swirling winds sometimes you know if we've got a bowl that's really fired up and we know we've only got fifteen or twenty minutes before the thermal switch we might take a chance and push in there and hope to get it done really quick but most of the time we're gonna obey the thermals in the wind and not push it too much on that side of the envelope are you shooting this year yeah so a great question I had a chance last fall before they came out to shoot the prime black five and I absolutely loved it and so I'm shooting the same bow I shot last fall I'll be shooting it as of right now I haven't actually seen anything new from prime yet this summer so not sure if I'll have an opportunity that's my first opportunity to ever shoot a bow before it actually came out I don't know if that'll work out again if it doesn't I will not be the least bit disappointed because that Black Series from prime is incredible so that's my setup I've got the HHA optimizer sight on it with the HHA virtus rest love both of those shooting the crossover stabilizer which if you've watched any of our hunts you know what that is and can't say enough good things about that stabilizer the arrow I've been shooting the Black Eagle Spartan 300 spine arrow for four years now and again have no no reason to switch from that I do put a thirty Greengrass weight on the back of the insert on those arrows so it gives me a lot more FOC I think I'm up around 14% with setup with the 350s when I shoot in the 350 spine arrows they're a little lighter so you put that weight on the front and I think as up around 16% on the FOC the 300 spines a little heavier so it distributes that weight back towards the center a little more so I think I'm at 14% with that brathwaite shooting the g5 broadheads shot the striker v2 last year I loved it loved the strikers they're just super sharp they do have the new mon tech this year as well as the new striker X which is the four blade I've got both of those that I've been shooting a little bit and it's really going to come down to which one I have the most confidence in but so far I know all of them are sharp all of them I'll kill an elk all of them fly good by the end of the summer I'll know which one flies the best for me and and my setup so I think that's that's my bow setup thanks pop quiver five arrow quiver on it I forgetting anything Donnie that's it release can't forget a release Donnie's forgot release before but we won't go there Zachary landing what are the feeding patterns of elk in the morning and midday is our specific vegetation that you look for to indicate presence so when I'm actually in the field hunting I'm not looking necessarily for specific vegetation I hope by that point I've kind of figured out where the elk are moving to lower elevation where they feed and water and bed at night up to the typical higher elevation where the thermals are good where they're protected during the middle of the day so I'm not as worried about finding the feed source in September I'm worried about finding the El can I use my bugle to do that so when it gets too poster and late season that's when the feed source has become more important and again we talked last week we had a live Q&A with University of Elkin team members and talking about specific education specific feed and it's so different even within the stage you know if you're at 7,500 feet in central Idaho they're gonna be feeding on something completely different than they are even two hours away at 3500 feet or at 5,000 feet and so I don't have a lot of knowledge just basically because I haven't made it important to know specifically what they're feeding on as you get into that later season though especially the late season so the November timeframe feed becomes critical and knowing where they're feeding and at that point again I'm not focused on the specific feed I'm focused on the sign that tells me the elk are here or the elk are traveling through here and you know typically November you're able to see some of that sign so I know that's kind of a cop-out answer because I don't know and I openly admit that I don't know the vegetation the specific I can see you know that in the in the winter they're feeding on the Willows along the creek bottom you can see the the bite marks and where they've chewed the leaves off of certain shrubs and different things so I can see they specifically eat on this but I'm that's not what I'm looking for when I'm in the field hunting I'm not looking for their feed I'm looking for them with the bugle tube during the rut after the rut I'm looking for tracks I'm glassing and what i'm glassing for is on those open hillsides that typically hold the feed so you know you're on the North Face and a lot of times there's a lot of brush a lot of branches a lot of things that's not typically going to be the best feed that speed is going to have a mix of sunlight mix of shade it's going to get some sun exposure to really get the nutrition but it's not going to be right out in a wide open hot dry hillside so looking for those open hillsides that I can glass on where the elk are going to come out the first hour of daylight and feed that might be in a clear cut if there's logging in the area it might be on the fringe of a burn if the been a burn in there looking more for areas where there are feed rather than that specific feed so long politician like answer probably for your question but hopefully that's helpful okay hold on before you ask before you ask the next question I think we need another dad joke hi Stubblefield is here hi Stubblefield is in the house hi how's it going packing quarters upside down I don't even know what that means time all right Donny you have a dad joke always one to get right down to the nitty-gritty important details yeah you know I probably more of a log user all right dad yogi I mentioned dad joke and all of a sudden there's a whole bunch of comments need another dad you were so so the reason Donny is using all these bad dad jokes right now is because we're saving the really good ones for destination lv3 that's coming up this fall so you can look forward to good dad jokes again and destination elf right Donny all right time for another elk hunting question all right we're looking I've got one here for every elk you harvest how many days on average did you actively hunt for it so I'll answer two questions there I typically don't target an elk so most of the elk that I have killed i've not hunted for that else and I'm not saying that with your specific question but if it was gosh I can't think of hardly any elk that I've that I've targeted and went back and hunted specifically for that multiple times and finally killed it with that being said I think average that we look and Donnie and I have talked about that before but I want to say we typically average about three days between elk kills so on a six-day hunt we typically will be able to kill two ok and again that's average there's some hunts where we go for eight days we don't kill anything other times I go out Donnie shoots one opening days so average though about three to three-and-a-half days of hunting per kill four for Donnie and I Donnie my is that right I remember we talked about that last fall that's we we planned a seven or eight day hunt hoping that two of us can fill a tag on that hunt and for the most part outside of our Roosevelt elk experience that is still a large chip on our shoulder we've been able to fill those two tags on most of the hunts all right get a question ready great question and there's a lot of a lot of things that sometimes we don't think about before we're successful that are really important post success you know how quickly does the does a meat spoil what do you need to do to be able to pack it out so that it doesn't spoil you know all of these differ things but that question specifically how cool does it need to be at night so the meat will stay good it's amazing how the meat will actually keep really good in really warm weather if you do a couple of things first thing that's most important is getting me high off of the elk as quickly as you can you know and when I say that it's it's sometimes you know you might not find meal you might let y'all go for an hour and then am I taking hour to find it by the time you take pictures and get everything ready you might be approaching three hours in warm weather before you actually get the height off of that elf the sooner you can get it off the better because what that does that height is just an insulator and it insulates the meat and that meat inside is hot the bone is just so hot inside there and with that insulation the hide on the meat that me are there the hot air the heat has nowhere to go it can't escape so it stays in there and if it stays in there too long and too hot without being able to transfer to the outside that meat can go bad I've seen me to actually start to go bad within two hours now that's with the elk dying fast literally laying on its side for two hours in 85 degree temperature on an open hillside and then getting to that that side that's been down so if you're in that situation I always try to roll the elk over and do the side that it's been laying on first because that's the side that's trapping heat between the hide and the ground it's it's the side that's insulating the heat the best I'll roll it over then get that hide off quickly can get the hide off quickly that heats going to come pouring out of there and if you've you know cold morning if you've ever opened up an elk or pulled the hide off of it it'll literally steam right there because of that heat transfer and the differential between the the hot meat and the cooler air so getting the high it off is number one critical number to hang it if you can hang that from a branch you know just get a makeshift meat pull there and hang it that way the air is able to circulate all the way around the meat it's able to get that cool air on all sides so that air can the heat can transfer out that's important if it's super hot if it's middle of the day and you need to take every extreme you can the last thing i'll do is take a knife and i'll just run it down along the bone especially on that hind quarter along that ham i'll just run a knife along that and open up that entire back ham all of the meat off of that and expose that bone and I think I can literally dissect each of them the pieces of meat each of the muscle groups off of that leaving it's still on the bone but opening it up so that bone heat can immediately and directly transfer to the outside air and sometimes will take a stick and put a stick there in that opening try those muscle groups open so that that bone stays exposed to the air if you do all of those things in hot weather I wouldn't be too worried if it's in the 60s at night it's plenty cool the important thing is that first hour getting the meat cooled that first hour after you get the hide off of it and hang it there if you can get that that process to happen at night it's going to be cool enough you know you can we always try to find a shady spot if we can get along a creek where it's gonna be cooler in that you know in the shade down low along that Creek still hanging it in the air not putting it in the creek but just there were the airs cooler I've never had a problem with losing me I've only lost one very small section of meat off of an elk it was here in Idaho it was super hot the elk had laid there for about two hours before we found it the side that that it that we actually lost little meat on was weighing you know it's laying on that side and it was the hind quarter it was just a small about a baseball-sized section of meat right against the back leg bone so that's where it's gonna happen first that bone sour is gonna happen right there and if you can open that up we didn't open it up on that one and my butcher is the one who enlightened me on that and said man just open that up that heats going to come out you're going to be just fine so great question and a very important part of successful comments and well Donna's looking for a question here thank you to everybody who's joining us tonight thanks for being here this this is awesome I love talking elk and I think this is this is better than a seminar for me because I'm able to sit here in the comforts of my office I'm able to interact and and see the questions that are on your mind and share my experiences and my thoughts on those questions so thanks for taking time out of your night and and being here with us we're going to try to do these on a regular basis here through the summer and into elk season and we've even talked if it works would be awesome if we have reception at elk camp during season two to do a live Q&A what are you seeing in the field you know we can give you an update on on how it's going for us and technology is an amazing thing and this whole situation we're in right now is as difficult as it's been in a lot of aspects has really given us opportunities to grow and and maybe reach outside of our comfort zone including doing a live Q&A on YouTube live so thanks for being here Donnie okay so how do you how do you play the wind if the breeze or the wind overrides the thermals and so before we get into that it's important to understand the difference between wind and thermals and I think me especially I always say wind but what I really typically mean most of the time is the thermals so in in a diurnal system which is what we have in the mountains the wind switches twice a day so died meaning twice diurnal wind diurnal diurnal thermals that's almost a tongue twister is the wind switches so as the Sun warms up the hillside in the morning that hot air cold air pressure differential switches and now the air starts pulling up as the air gets so throughout the day it's moving up in the evenings the shadow hits it starts cooling the ground again that temperature differential pulls the air back down and so you get that switch so your thermals during the middle of the day are going up in the evening through the night and in the morning the thermals are coming down but there are exceptions to that and we noticed it especially on the Oregon coast honey Roosevelt elk there are ocean winds and those winds will come in sometimes they'll be coming up the mountain it 15 miles an hour in the morning when it's cold and the thermal should be going down and so we do have to play that our plan is to attack from the bottom in the morning because the thermals are good but we get out in the morning realize there's a there's a wind coming from the bottom we have to play our approach differently in the mountains if middle of the day you get a you know it's really warm out but then you get complete cloud cover during the middle of the day it's going to drop the temperature and when it does that it's going to cool the ground and sometimes you'll get those competing winds early and so you'll get swirling wind sometimes you'll even get kind of a weird dominant wind going through there pressure systems as they move into an area ahead of a storm or after a storm can push a prominent wind through an area so you know you've got thermals that we typically are what we're typically concerned with obeying but then you'll also get a wrench thrown in there every once in a while of a swirling wind or a prevailing wind or along the ocean you know those those ocean breezes coming in and you know you really have to the nice thing about it other than those swirling winds most of the time they're fairly consistent thermals very consistent during the middle of the day once you get in that transition time it can get you know to where it swirls a bit but a prevalent wind is typically fairly consistent the wind coming in off of the ocean we've found has been fairly consistent and so you just have to play it the same as you would a thermal you want to always approach an area that you're gonna be using it the same way they're going to be using those winds to their advantage so you want to approach not walking with it out your back you want to if you get a bold of Google want to be aware of what that winds doing outside of a normal thermal so we play it the same as a thermal just recognizing it's not going to be what we're used to which is thermals coming down in the morning and going up during the middle of the day it might be going across the side it might be coming up first thing in the morning but our approach is still going to be predicated on what that wind is doing great question so cactus was at tactics in wolf country do we change tactics yes yeah so wolf country if you've not had the displeasure of hunting elk in wolf country it does change things and you know my favorite top three favorite elk hunting areas are in wolf country you know outside of you know Arizona or something like that which would be on my top if I could get tags for it regularly but you know over the counter in Idaho over the counter general tag in Wyoming general tag in Montana those are all heavy wolf areas where we hunt and we do have to change our tactics a little bit it's not so much the change of tactics we just have to understand that the elk have changed their habits a little and the way that we find them it's gonna be harder to find them they're way more mobile now the wolves have them continually moving rather than hanging out in one pocket for a month they hanging out in that pocket for a month googling their heads off the Wolves hear them they move in and they hunt them and if you don't adjust to that they're all going to get killed so they've learned to adjust if the Wolves come in there you'll move out and a lot of times now the alter just moving in this circuit continually on the move which makes it harder for the Wolves to find them and hunt them so the alter on the move takes a lot more of us being mobile a lot more of us on the move to to cross paths with the elk once we do find them there's no guarantee they're going to be in there the next day so that makes it more difficult so we do have to have backup areas we have think where they out going to get away from the Wolves the other thing they're a lot less vocal so there will be L in the pocket we're in that might not might not answer our calls and I always say you know if an elk doesn't answer my column and a walk right by him and go find an elk that will answer the call but in wolf country sometimes none of the elk in that area will answer the call so you have to change your tactics a little bit in that sense I still have found that if you get in close to the elk and aren't as loud and as aggressive with your calling the elk will answer back so we're talking you know just a growl we're talking chuckles which are softer quieter don't broadcast as far probably I'm gonna hear as much you know elk just sitting over on a hillside screaming his head off every 60 seconds during the peak rut which in an area that doesn't have wolves it might not be uncommon for a bull to sit there and bugle over and over and over if he's got a cow in estrus getting wolf country and a lot of times those bowls will just follow along donkey and that's all you'll hear and you know when they get aggressive it's not a loud challenge bugle now it's just a low aggressive growl so it does change how we hunt the elk but once I get in close with them my strategy stays the same it's I'm trying to start a fight with that elk I'll get more aggressive with the calls once I get close in he might not get as aggressive in fact I've had Bulls come in almost it seemed like they were coming in to tell me to shut up because we're in wolf country and Here I am being loud so a lot of times a little get aggressive they'll come marching in there quietly to tell me to be quiet with that being said there's times like in Wyoming there's there's areas in Wyoming where there are a huge packs of wolves where the elk are still very vocal and I don't know the difference it's got to be a demographic thing a bull the cow ratio or the bull the cow ratio is higher than it is here in Idaho or Montana where we hunt because in Idaho and Montana there's no doubt it affects the elk vocalization and their habits Wyoming haven't seen it as much in wolf country and I don't know for sure the only thing I can attribute it to is we're hunting areas where there are more Bowl and fewer cows and I don't know if that that's the factor there but if you hunt an area where there are no wolves or even grizzly bears grizzly bears will affect not as much the vocalization but just the the overall behavior of the elk if you hunt areas outside of that be grateful because those elk are easier to hunt not saying they're easy to hunt but they're easier than elk apples apples in wolf country long long explanation on that but hopefully that answered that question and for those that are looking at hunting in wolf country for the first time maybe this season hopefully that shed some light and a little bit of direction on on how to approach that that comes tomorrow night on Randy's Wapiti Wednesday live Q&A so I'm pretty sure that Randy's elk talk live on Wednesday night probably covers grouse hunting information and I'm just I'm an inexperienced enough grouse hunter that I don't feel comfortable providing a lot of information on grouse hunting I would absolutely defer to Randy because I if you followed along on that hunt first time I hunted with Randy in Montana it literally we would have a bull bugling down in a draw and we'd be slipping in there getting the wind good getting into a good setup and I'd look and here's Randy thirty yards ahead of me off to the side slipping along with his you know arrow nock I'm thinking what is he doing and pretty soon he comes to full draw and he shoots and I'd like to say he shoots a grouse but there were a lot of girl shot at on that trip and I'm like what are you doing he's like grouse grouse I'm like elk elk but Randy definitely it's hard to pull him away even a bugling bull doesn't pull him away from the grouse and as I've got to known him over the last few years knowing him a little better his wife is very particular about the fact that he brings grouse home and if he went home and told story to his wife that hey there was a bull bugling down the hill and he walked right by a grouse he may get in trouble on the home front so I can see you know he's trying to balance that but no doubt Randy as I like to say grouse killing machine but he is a grouse hunting machine so tune into his elk talk live over on his youtube live channel tomorrow night I don't never could six or seven o'clock mountain time but he wealth of knowledge over there especially on that growth side tonight to see if he could get information to tell people Andy okay well you're looking at I've got another one here on diaphragm elk calls Ryan Duffy asked about several different Rocky Mountain hunting calls trying to find the right one you ever recommend trimming the tape I notice creases and folds in mind I think causing me to lose air so what Ryan's talking about there is this outside the orange part is the tape this is the late that you never want to cut the latex don't ever do anything with the latex but on the tape I've seen people take it and trim especially on the edges a little bit so it'll fit in a narrower palate a little better I don't recommend it in fact even when my my kiddos were seven eight years old when I started him on diaphragms I didn't trim the tape even for their smaller mouths and the reason why is this tape is what actually seals at the top of your mouth and the roof of your mouth and so what you're trying to do is keep air directed down along here so it gets down onto the latex so this tape actually works there's a little bit of a flap and it actually seals up against the roof of your mouth there and if it's too big on the sides you shouldn't lose air out the sides if you are trimming it could work but I would I would honestly probably suggest moving it around in your mouth to find a different location where it seals a little bit better and again you've got the hard frame in there you've got your teeth you've got your tongue you've got the roof of your mouth all these different factors and features going on there but one of the most critical parts to being able to get a good sound and control that sound and hold the high note is sealing that air so you aren't getting air escaping over the back of it and going over the the top of the diaphragm between the diaphragm and the roof of your mouth and then along the side you want to seal that I'd probably use my cheeks more to seal that on the side before I tried cutting the tape so cutting the tape would be last resort if it does stick out past your teeth too much you could cut it but you'd never want to cut it so that it was sliding up in between your teeth and causing some some stability issues there I had Donny back to you for a question hey Bryan are you doing different to prepare for elk season and have you changed up your tactics and style yet in the field so I'm guessing you're just asking that question in general Bryan because I'm certainly a long ways away from being an aging elk hunter but I've I've heard from a friend some things that you could do no it's it changes you know people always said when I was in my 20s it was always when you turned 30 you're gonna notice a difference you're gonna slow down and I think I skyrocketed into the 30s and you know as I approached 40s it was always as you when she turned 40 things are gonna change your eyesight it's gonna go bad you're gonna slow down you're gonna get fat you know I saw ty Stubblefield make a comment on Instagram when I hurt my calf they go good we're gonna see Corey get fat now and I haven't got there yet so but with all of that said there are changes and it does affect you know it what I found is it takes more input and more effort on my part to get the same output and that goes for physical preparation and the offseason during the season you know maybe I don't go 14 miles a day for seven straight days I start to wear down a little bit sooner so what I'm doing you know obviously with the calf injury it made me really a few things and fortunately I've got a great team surrounding me that kind of pointed out some of my weak links and I think addressing those are important I think you know as you hit your mid-40s you start noticing some of those weak links coming to the surface you know more knee pain well there's a reason for that knee pain what is it you know in Donny's case it's bone on bone currently just wore out my case knee pain is weak hamstrings or weak glute max muscles which I'm finding out you know I packed heavy weight on a pack I hike up and down the mountain all the time but I've been doing it wrong I've been on my tippy-toes using my calves as shock absorbers and you know my calf muscles are strong but they're also tight because my hamstrings are tight so I think you know things stretching is super important I talked to Tony Mudd who's a good friend of mine Tony's I think 57 or 58 and can probably out hike out lift out pull up out anything physical anybody tuning in including myself or anybody else probably just a absolute beast when it comes to to physical conditioning but when I was talking to him a few months ago he was talking about the importance of stretching you know and so stretching is important working the right muscles I think a lot of times in our 20s and 30s we go to the gym and we do bench press we do squats we do deadlift some of those things and we might be overlooking some of the really important muscles that might not be firing during those exercises so I'm definitely as I as I work through this I'm not in a position to give advice on it yet but as I work through this and working with physical therapist and a trainer I'm definitely gonna be sharing some of those things that that I found one of the basic things I couldn't get my hamstrings to fire on purpose I was using my quads just to hold my legs against the wall at a 90 degree angle and instead of pulling down with my hamstrings I was pushing in with my quads and trying to use my heels to dig with my quads which is completely wrong which caused some of my problems because I wasn't walking the right way with the right muscles so long answer probably went down a couple rabbit holes there but Brian to answer your question and and again I'm just relaying information from a friend because I'm not an aging elk country yet but yeah I think stretching is important doing the right exercises is important you know I don't think the heavy lifting is important anymore and I think might make us a little more prone to injury if we're trying to stack a couple 45s on a bar and just bench press if we're trying to you know squat a whole bunch of way I think that there's some smarter exercises we can do and and again like anything I think just having that backpack on being in the mountains and experiencing what we're going to experience in September is is great training yeah so decoys and real quick before we go to that I seat I mentioned foam rolling foam rolling is definitely a part of my regimens but you have a tight muscle I should have done it and I knew I should have done it my calf was sore for a week and a half before I injured it I woke up that morning and actually thought about using the foam roller on it instead I opted for stretching my hamstrings which did not stretch the gastroc muscle which is the one that ruptured had I used a foam roller on it I think it would have no doubt probably prevented the injury so ty great point there all right back to the the current question which is decoys I've seen a couple other questions come through on decoys for a solo hunter a couple other decoy related questions so I'll give you my take on decoys in in a nutshell decoys work there's no doubt but decoys also don't work so it's kind of a 50-50 thing and I've always approached it as I'll use a decoy and usually as a last resort it that that almost sounds desperate but I'll use a decoy if I've tried all of the normal things that usually work to bring a bowl in and he's not coming in then I'll use a decoy and the reason I say that there are times when when a bowl might come in - calling - raking he's just hung up he's looking for some thinner he's not quite comfortable so I don't want to just go and throw a decoy up if the decoys gonna scare him off and I say if because I don't know what it is that scares an elk off with the decoy versus brings it in we've been in - exact same setups exact same behavior from the elk one time we hold up the decoy he comes running in the next time that be turns and runs off and no same decoys same approach tactic from our side there's just some times that they want a visual and when they get a visual it makes them comfortable enough to say I'm gonna I'm okay going in a little closer and there are other times when they get that visual that for whatever reason I don't know if you know if they see a glare I don't know if they can tell it's 2d instead of 3d we kind of walk into ten yards or less from a decoy and still think it's real elk so I just I don't see the correlation or what the difference is I just I've come to just recognize or realize sometimes they work sometimes they don't so if I'm in a setup and I'm calling calling calling and the Bulls just I can tell he wants to see something he's hung up out there at a hundred yards a flashy decoy at him and I think that's the important key to using a decoy is not holding it up and just standing there holding it in the wide open I've not had that work very often but if you get in broken timber where you know and I'll you can hold it out there and if he sees just the head of the decoy it's enough for him to say okay there is an elk there where the sounds coming from two of my three senses are good right now I'm going to approach a little bit closer but if you can see that equate a whole time he's coming in he might only come ten more yards and stop so we're either in really broken timber where we can hold a decoy up he can get a glimpse of it and then as he walks in he can't see it anymore so he's got to come to another vantage point before he can see it it will flash it up a little bit and then drop it down the last thing I want to do is be out in the open and hold a static equate forms I just haven't had good luck a lot of times they'll circle around and then we're kind of pinned down we can't move he gets round gets our wind and it's a it's a no goes so I don't rely on decoys I usually have we have a decoy on our backpack most of the time but like Roosevelt elk hunting in Oregon they're they're worthless there because it's so thick that by the time the elk can see the decoy you should be able to get a shot at the elk if I'm hunting a place like New go Arizona where it's really open I'm gonna probably not rely on - on them as much get into the Wyoming the Montana the Idaho where you've got some broken timber some some open terrain with good timber a little bit more use of the decoy Doni Doni is still trying to find out where that limitation is but we don't you know and we've beat ourselves up before having to get an elk out of a big hole a long distance I don't remember what our far this pack is I know we had one in Wyoming that's five and a half miles one time Oregon that Oregon bull probably had to be four to five miles and it was heavy it was just the two of us packing that one but I've probably tried to forget about some of the more brutal ones but we don't if we have a bull bugling and we see an area that's good we don't stop to consider how far in are we going how are we gonna get the elk out fortunately we're still in good in a physical condition that we're able to get an elk out of out of some of those areas it is you know we are starting to look at other options hunting off of a motorcycle where there's motorized trails you saw last year on destination elk we used the backu ebikes for three of the elk to pack out all three of my children the elevation there there elk were packed out and that was more just a function of closed logging roads and be able to get back in on that with the bikes but man putting the whole elk on a trailer and riding it out on an e-bike that uh opened my eyes to another method of packing Donnie's bull in Montana last year we packed it out with bo babies llamas and those it's a wilderness Ridge I think llamas so great option there but no we don't we don't have a limitation on how far in we go we're just starting to get creative on how we might pack them out if we if we find ourselves in there the area we're scouting in Idaho this year is going to be a prime example of going steep and deep and we've wanted to hunt these couple of areas for several years and just haven't made the opportunity and I think this year where we're gonna do it so we're looking at possibly using llamas we're looking at using motorcycles to get back in away from people and then hiking from there but once you get an elk on the ground we'll figure out the best way to pack it out but so far we haven't limited ourselves yet sorry Don not not the answer Donny was open to here tonight that is a very true true statement there so really quickly here it is 7:15 Mountain time you've been here with me for an hour and 15 minutes I am very respectful of everybody's time I know we could all sit here and probably talk elk hunting for several hours so let's start winding down a little bit it's 7/16 on my computer clock let's say about 8 or 9 more minutes so probably enough time for 4 or 5 more questions and then we'll do a wrap-up here a couple of reminders and little giveaways so Donny you got a question Jeremy Clark hunker down and not talk remove this last season and once rain and talk came in the advice women hunting in the rain so hunting in the rain yeah that's always a challenge for a lot of reasons real quickly though just saw a comment here I wanted to give a shout out to 10 year old Caleb bayer caleb good to see yet and then also saw one more here let me see if I can find it real quick sorry haha rumor has it you're flying Top Gun Jets to scout no Joe were no Top Gun Jets for us for scouting yet we did talk about doing shed hunting by helicopter last year but didn't end up doing that total our tree challenges yes we're going to try to make it at least to Big Sky if those are still happening in July possibly Park City in Utah and Northwest mountain challenge here at Tamarack which is just five miles from me where I'm sitting right here we're going to be there this weekend at least Friday night there's an elk calling contest and probably be there Saturday as well so anybody going to northwest Mountain challenge at Tamarack hope to see you there Friday night total archery challenge in Big Sky that'll be the priority so if I make it to only one I'll be at that one if I'm able to make it to both of them via Park City also so back to the question on rain so elk do hunker down in the rain most of the time get that peak rut and if it rains for two or three days those bowls are still gonna rut they're going to be less vocal probably you're not gonna be able to hear as well but for the most part elk to you they're like us you know it starts pouring rain pull on a rain jacket and sit out under a tree hope it passes in a couple hours terrains all day it might be a good day to head into town and do some laundry make a phone call grab a milkshake and a cheeseburger because yell q they'll hunker down they aren't moving so they're gonna be harder to find if it's September and you're reliant on a bugle it's gonna be harder to hear the bugles a lot of times that noise from the rain the wind from the rain all of that just makes it harder to hear elk and also it makes it harder for the elk to hear danger so they're gonna hunker down someplace it might be on an open Ridge and some open timber where they can use their eyes because their ears aren't working as good in the rain it kills scent so you're going to have that scent cone instead of fanning out down the mountain it might just kind of taper down a little bit and not the sense not going to get so an elk census are going to be limited which means they're going to limit their movements and they're not going to take a chance with danger putting themselves in a situation where their senses aren't able to keep them alive so those days you do have to cover a lot more country which isn't as fun when it's raining if it's just you know we're looking at the weather and we see there's a storm coming in Thursday night it's gonna rain but it breaks up at midnight or by the next morning it uh it lets up we might take the evening off and like I said just run into town grab a bite to eat rest hunker down I'm a big proponent of you can't kill an elk from Camp or you can't kill an elk if you aren't out there with them I don't like to miss a minute in the field during elk season but there's some times when if we do need a little break and need a rest looking at the weather that's probably the time to do it so least effective time to hunt is in the wind in the rain a new hunter he has to first time archery hunters going with me this year one is the body and the other is his youth steps on okay so new hunters especially when we're talking youth and I'll break these up into two categories so I've been fortunate enough to be able to mentor and teach and hunt with all three of my children and I've watched them progress and continue to progress and still have a need to progress as we all do but the thing I found I'm really high geared I'm really pushed and motivated and driven by success and so for me that's always been kind of the the gauge I love hunting don't get me wrong that they're you know their successes every day but at the end of the hunt there's a lot of disappointment if an elk isn't killed and you know is still even after hunting for 35 years that still drives me that's still a big I guess measuring stick for the for the overall success of the hunt and so when I started hunting with a 10 year old child wanting to push as hard as I could and Daniel attest to it I pushed on you know a lot of times it's it's just a natural shove toward what we need to do to be successful rather than just sitting back and saying you know maybe Donnie's enjoying this minute and I'm gonna let him just sit there even though he's not gonna get a shot where he's at I'll go up there so you've got to get up to that tree you've got to get there fast go go go and trying to do everything we can to make that hunt successful when you're hunting with youth you have to switch gears and I recognized that you know maybe not right away but you have to make the hunt about them and that's the most important thing if they're content and happy stocking and building a fire when you say if we build a fire and you get a bugle or if we build a fire you know the elk that might be right up here ahead of us we aren't going to be able to catch up to them or if you want to roll a snowball right now which might I took my youngest son Sam it's been four or five years ago he was probably seven or eight we were rifle hunting in late October it snowed and I look back and he's back there literally rolling a snowball on the trail and wanting to build a snowman so it's it's a fine balance there between trying to get into animals and have a successful hunt and keep their interest and make it about them but always make it about them those those young hunters you can't push you can't ruin them you can't hike up the hill to the point where they're gasping for air and having a terrible time yeah when they get home I wanted to say that was a hard hike dad was making me hike my lungs were burning that's okay when they sit down and start crying you've crossed that line so always keep in mind it's about them on the other the other category if it's you know somebody that's in their 20s it's in great shape they're just as never hunted before I think it's so important to stop at each point and teach them tell them why we're circling around the mountain here because of the thermals explain the thermals I take a lot for granted that I've learned in 35 years of elk hunting that it's been good to do that the online course made me stop and think about what I do why I do it in every phase of the hunt and I think breaking it down to a new hunter is so important so that they you know they can follow along and they can see what you're doing but they might not understand it they might not understand why you approach a certain way they might not understand why you stop and call here they might not understand why you drove past this trailhead and went to the next one so I think just being open to over explained everything is really important and hats off to anybody that's that's willing to take somebody under their wing and whether it's a fifty year old first time hunter whether it's your you know you and a buddy that you just want somebody to go with you so you have company on the hunt have a hunting partner and you're teaching them as you learn whether it's you taking your own own children now and I would strongly encourage don't wait don't wait until they're twelve to take them out hunting for the first time find a way to integrate them into what you're doing be with them out in the outdoors and you know lastly and probably most importantly are those who take the youth who might not have a parent who hunts or who might need an adult mentor as we're approaching Father's Day probably no better time and to just pat you on the back and say thank you for being a mentor even if you aren't the biological dad there you're being a mentor and helping those those youth out so thanks for doing that Donny maybe more questions alright this would be a fairly simple Andrew moon asks audiobook version of the course and I can listen to while driving yes what what was the name one that was Andrew Andrew moon so Andrew if you are a current member of the university of alicante an online course we have had the audio book out or a little over a year so yes the entire course except for the new module on Roosevelt umpteen and the new module on hunting cow elk the audio version has not been made available for those yet every other word all two hundred and ten thousand words or whatever it is in the online course is available in audiobook form on the web version on each page right under the header of each page there is an audio bar that you can listen to it and in the app version I don't know if I can pull it up here we can see it I might lose Donny and if I do I'll get back to him but in the app version when you go into the app and if this takes a little bit to pull up I'll just forego it alright so here we are in the app got all the different modules here within each module if you go into module two scouting for elk you've got the four chapters listed there the introduction the resources for scouting scouting with Google Earth and then boots on the ground and you may not be able to see that because the lighting I just realized there that a little better maybe there the lighting if we click on this I may go back show you the modules here so there's the different modules in the course within the module to scouting if we go into scouting with Google Earth when it pops up right up here on top this is your audiobook version and if you push play I don't know if it'll work someone phone with Donny but push play there that works if you have a connection so Wi-Fi or a cell connection but you can also download you just hit that download button and it will download it to the app so you can download all of these you can download the entire thing the audiobook if you wanted plug it in in your car wherever you're at you can listen to it on the plane with headphones you can connect it by bluetooth everything so the entire course is available by audiobook let me see if I can go back Donny you still there Donny either oh he's there excellent I didn't even lose Donny so alright let's go let's go two more questions because that one wasn't really elk really two more good elk related questions so how do i East out from out of state on on X Maps when they don't update the physical map so Onix does a pretty good job of updating their Maps I'll get notifications at least a couple times a year the different Maps need to be updated so a lot of the features do get updated with that being said there are something even with like Google Earth you know there might be a burn through an area but it doesn't get updated for two or three years on Google Earth before that burn actually shows up so there's a little bit of that that you have to recognize I do most of my a scouting with Google Earth and not on X on X is incredibly powerful in having you know that mobile app in my hand in the field is a huge advantage but most of my a scouting I use go hunt and Google Earth are the two resources I probably rely on most once I kind of pinned down the areas that I'm wanting to hunt I'll transfer waypoints to on X to my mobile app but as far as a scouting from the desk Google Earth is is what I'm using and I just look at the imagery bait you can see the date you can actually change two different maps on Google Earth and should be able get a pretty good idea they've come a long way the resolution on the maps is better the updates on the maps is becoming more and more current there's some awesome stuff coming out in the very near future that's going to make a scouting even better which I'm super excited for and we can definitely talk about in a future Q&A hopefully here in the next couple of weeks but as far as you know how do you do it with with the Maps not updating from what I found the features that I need and that I rely on are updated frequently enough and I haven't had an issue where something wasn't updated or wasn't accurate once I got in the field all right last question for you at the last question I'll just run through everything here really quickly we're giving away two prime bows if you're watching tonight go to Elk 101.com forward slash dad for Father's Day just a farm filling your name email address hit submit and you are entered to win those two bows additionally the gear the bow calls the elk 101 hats got two new hats I've got this which this is probably I'm probably going to have people lined up outside my office door that drove here hoping to kidnap me and steal the bugle berry but got the vehicle berry I got to do is just go to that site or that page Elcano uncom ford slash dad fill it out and you're automatically entered to win all of that so the prizes from tonight as well as the the two bows both of those bows will be given away to one person it's a father youth type of a setup so we've got an adult bow the prime synergy and then prime also manufactures the questline of bows so it's a quest thrive which is a phenomenal youth though it's the same bow that my daughter shot her L quit last year so we'll give that package away north west mountain challenge at Tamarack this weekend Friday nights the calling contest anybody that's there definitely swing by and say hi with the whole covin thing I don't know if I would say shake hands but maybe a elbow bump or something the L can't give away with mountain ops go to El Cajon 1.com forward slash hunt sign up for that if you're interested in signing up for the online course anyone who Auri news this week between today and Friday if you use the promo code cross 20 we are giving away a Sig cross rifle topped with a vortex rifle scope this week so sign up this week or renew and you'll be automatically entered for that I think that's it so last question before we do thank you again for being here we're going to do this again so online course members next Tuesday we'll be doing a live Q&A and I'll be sending out information for more of these YouTube live Q&A s for everybody to participate in and Donnie drumroll and last question tonight all right so Braden a couple things stood out there first off you're an Oregon resident so don't be overwhelmed by the fact that you shouldn't get a note left on your truck we being non-residents that's definitely something we contended with don't leave the residence there don't like non-residents as much but we've we've resolved that and hopefully you won't experience that you've narrowed it down to a unit which is a huge step in Oregon Roosevelt country because literally that whole coastal range I think is good roosevelt hunting and we've been fortunate to hunt think four different areas now very different like geographically separated by many miles and we found elk in all of it the thing that I've that I've realized is Roosevelt elk are not concentrated especially on that coastal side if you find a pocket of elk you might go a long ways to find the next pocket so scouting is is very important I would say like always find the cows this time of year find the cows put out a trail camera put out several trail cameras in different areas and look for the cows the cows are there they probably aren't going to arrange too far the Bulls typically don't range too far either so they're probably close by in Oregon if you're comfortable with it it's totally legal to use bait and salt so you could use that for your scouting put out a bag of salt and put a trail camera on it might tell you a little better idea of capturing pictures of the elk and knowing what's in there the other thing is if you're out hiking or even driving but hiking if you get on a ridge and keep in mind you know Braden as you probably know Roosevelt country is thick for anybody else that's thinking about hunting Roosevelt country just like I can't even explain how thick it is but as you're out hiking look for rugs for old rubs from last season and if there are rubs and they're from last season there's a good chance there's going to be a ball back in that exact same area this season so boots on the ground I'd be putting out trail cameras looking for pictures of cows I would be hiking looking for rubs from last season and a scouting I have not yet figured out a scouting for Roosevelt elk it's just everything looks the same everything looks like a North Face because it's all lush they can bed anywhere they can eat and bed and drink within a hundred yards typically so it is different for East couting with that being said most of that country holds Roosevelt elk so if you ski down spend a few days hiking you're gonna get a good idea of what's in there you're gonna find trails you're gonna get a good idea from trail cameras and if you find some old rubs you can be pretty confident poles are going to be back in that same area this September great question everybody thank you we've still got over 650 people here live with us the questions just scrolled through I just watched the the chat bar over here rolling through I know we didn't get to a lot of questions so with Donnie moderating these the next Q&A we do hopefully we can grab some that are not related to the questions we had the night not that we're going to remember all of them but maybe we can keep an eye out for some topics it didn't get addressed tonight so definitely come back join us for the next one I'll be emailing that out if you're not on our email list if you go to Elcano and Comm forward slash dad and sign up for the giveaways that'll add you to our mailing list and you'll get the emails for future Q&A as we try to to send those out this time of year I know with our big promotion going on with the q and A's with content and everything you're probably getting more emails from ELQ 101 then throughout the rest of the year I apologize if it's too much we just there's a lot going on and we're excited to share it with you so the promotion I hate being a marketing person I hate trying to sell things this is the one month a year the month of June when we have our big promotion for memberships to the online course so know after this that that'll die down quite a bit hopefully there's good content mixed in there things like this the QA and we've got some new videos coming out I'll have some new videos here on the YouTube channel but anyway that's my apology I'm not a very good marketer and promoter I feel guilty every time we send out an email cuz I don't want to flood your inbox or take advantage of that but if you are signed up on our newsletter we'll let you know in the next Q&A is and thanks again for being here with us happy Father's Day and we'll catch you here on the next one Donnie thanks for being here do you have a dad joke too to leave us with on the spot that is nuts speaking of speaking of food and I'm starving here it's after 7:30 I had dinner but my daughter my 15 year old daughter loved well she doesn't love dad jokes she rolls her eyes at dad jokes but she came up with on the other night and she said she sent me a text and said dad did you know that a pie piece of pie cost three dollars in the Bahamas and I I'm like that is so random so I texted her back and said something like can you go get me a piece and bring it to me and she replied and said they're more expensive there than I remember what she said was it - he'd hear something there are only two dollars in Tahiti and I replied and said that's the most random text I've ever received from you and she replied and said well dad those are just the Pirates of the Caribbean that wasn't good only I had a laugh at that one but more dad jokes - come on Future Q&A is definitely more to come on destination lv3 thanks for being here and we will catch everybody very soon and [Music]

Channel: Elk101com

Views: 32,716

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Keywords: elk, elk hunting, elk talk, elk101

Id: 8gcqyMIzGJY

Length: 101min 2sec (6062 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 16 2020