5 Never Forgets: Solo Episode

Foreign. This is the Elk Hunt podcast. Home to everything elk hunting. I'm your host, Cody rich. From fellow DIYers to elk hunting legends, we have elk hunting stories, tips, tactics and more to get you pumped for elk season. Join us every week for great elk hunting content. Today's episode is brought to you by Onx Hunt. And I want to tell you about a really cool feature that I use a lot. And it's actually just sharing my weight, my info, my waypoints, my hunt plans with say, my hunting partner, good buddy and I, Jaden run together this year. And it's so cool because you can put all your waypoints and your areas, your, you know, whether it's like glassing knobs or tracks, like how we're going to get there, put, put it all in a folder, share the folder with your, your hunting partner. And now you both have the same plan in your, in your maps, which is really cool. Cool feature. If you didn't know, now you know. So check it out. 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Stoneglacier.com they make great stuff. Alrighty guys. Welcome to the Elk on podcast. Today we're doing a solo episode. It's like a mid season, I can't call it an update. Mid season refresher. That's what we're gonna call it. Today is the day before I leave to go on my first hunt and I'm actually going mountain goat hunting before. So pretty stoked. Stoke level is high. Going mountain hunting. Mountain goat hunting tomorrow and then I get back literally straigh into elk hunting and two elk hunts right in a row. So anyway, today I want to jump on and kind of go through some of the things to remember. Actually we're going to go over the Five Never Forgets. And I actually got this idea from one of the listeners, one of you guys who hit me on Instagram and said, hey, what are your five Never Forgets? So the shout out to Briggs Randstorm, who sent me this. So I sat down and I thought about my five Never Forgets. We're going to go through that. We're going to go through some 80, 20 lessons and we're gonna go through what to do when the mountain punches you in the face. So today is probably October or sorry, September 10th. ISH 11th. ISH 10th. Today is September 10th and I'm recording this a week before. So September 10th, some of you have kind of gone through the. All your plans fell apart, you showed up in season, you got kicked in the mouth. So we're gonna go through some of that. But I think most of you are probably just getting ready to hit elk camp, hit it hard, and you're probably on your way. So I want to give you guys some motivation, some last minute, you know, things to think of, things to keep fresh in your memory and maybe hopefully they help you out on this season. Ah, so stoked. It's here. September. All right, let's dive in. First to the Never Forgets. And I love this question because there's a few things in my head every time I want to elk hunt that I never want to forget. And the first one, I think, man, this. And I've talked about this before, but some of you guys are new, so you probably haven't heard me talk about this, but years ago I gave up on a hunt. And yeah, it still haunts me to this day, if you're wondering. But anyway, kind of called it quits. I was in Idaho getting my butt kicked. I broke out my back window. My boots were. Two boots were soaked. I melted a pair of boots next to a fire and elk were not cooperating. And I said, you know what? Screw it, I'm out of here. And I did that. And I tell you what, two days later, I regretted that decision. And for the next 11 months I regretted it. And I'll never forget that moment because. And I told myself this many times in the middle of season, which is September is very short. And in a week from now, two weeks from now, three weeks from now, you are going to be Dreaming about September for the next 11 months. So never forget that September is short. Even if this hunt sucks, stick it out. It's just such a short time window, and you will regret it if you leave. So that's first and foremost. I will never forget that September is short. That's a big one for me. Okay. The next thing kind of on the same lines is never forget that it can happen in a second. It can happen in two minutes. And if you have never been there, this can be so difficult because you just don't have the proof, right? Like, create the proof that you can do things, but also just remember, maybe fake it till you make it is it can all happen in a minute. And when you're getting kicked in the teeth and it feels like elk season sucks this year, the elk aren't talking. There's too many people. Like, we've all been there. We've all had that experience. And you know what? A number of guests on my podcast have felt the same way or have been in areas where this was happening to them. And you know what? Two minutes later, they had a dead elk. That can happen. And you have to remind yourself constantly, it just takes. Just takes one. You know, you could have. You could go nine days, not hear a bugle, hear a bugle run down there and shoot that thing. And, you know, in retrospect, it was a great, successful hunt, but the first nine days were brutal. So just remember, it only takes a second. All you got to do is keep your head up, keep positive. You know, you can go three or four days. Like, trust me, that's not that bad. It seems terrible in the moment, but going three or four days without hearing an elk, it's not that bad. In fact, it's probably normal. You've been watching too much primos again. Jeff. Jeffrey. And you think there's elk around every tree, but there's not. So that's a good one. Never forget. It can happen in a minute, the next one. Never forget your execution. This is to you, Cody Rich. No, just kidding. But I really do think that, like, you know, in the. In the old cutting course, we talk a lot about, like, how to take luck out of the equation, which is control the controllables. Control the controllables, right? Like, when you think about your shot execution, your shot placement, all of those things that go in into the last 30 yards or the last, you know, not 1%, last 10%, whatever you want to call it, and, you know, making the shot, making it happen. And I think a lot of new hunters Self included, back in the day would fall apart at the last second. Like, man, you know, it takes years to get into that opportunity where you can actually shoot the elk. And you're like, holy crap, it's about to happen. And you're like, that little kid who lost his virginity and he's like, doesn't know what to do with himself. So don't be that kid, right? Like, you have to follow your shot sequence. This is why it's so important to have, you know, your shot sequence and your. Your. Your word, whatever. So when I come back, I say, level, steady, squeeze, right? Or as I'm. As a shot's about to happen. When I was in Alaska this year, this became my new thing. And I think it's going to be my thing this season. It's like, 12 rings only. 12 rings only. And it's like, it was me. Chickadee, check. And not to rush the situation, control the controllables. Like, I've made this shot a thousand, ten thousand times in my backyard. Execute. Don't let the execution fall apart. Like, how do you take that out of it, right? And so that's a big one is, I think, you know, get in that moment. It's easy to fall apart. It's easy to rush things. It's easy to feel like, oh, the bull's about to take off. It's like, you have some time, right? Don't rush it. Make it happen. 12 rings only. So it's another thing not to forget. The other one is, like, never take the win for granted. I think, you know, never forget the wind could be another way to say that. But we all, like, yeah, oh, check the wind, right? Never take the wind for granted. And never forget the wind, because she's gonna be spinning on you, right? And I think it's easy. You know, you get in those situations where, like, you check the wind, the wind was doing this, you move up and you kind of totally forgot about it, right? You're in the moment, trying to get close, trying to get in the red zone, and you totally forget that the wind, you know, might be swirling. And sometimes you come over a ridge, sometimes you're, like, moving closer, and the closer you get, all of a sudden the wind starts doing funny things. And I think we've all been there. We're like, wow. It's just. It's not quite blowing at him, you know, Just be constant. Never take it for granted. Never forget the wind. Keep that in the back of your mind, because been there, done that, forgot about the wind and Cost you, Right? So never forget to win. Oh, this is another very applicable to me 1. Never forget that somewhere on the mountain, elk are going bananas. This is something I've told myself for years. Back to the, like, mountains kicking them face right now, mountains kicking the teeth right now. Your plan's falling apart. You don't know what to do. There's no elk. There's two many people. There's no elk. There's too many people. All right, we've all been there. But the thing I always tell myself is, like, somewhere on this damn mountain is an elk that's running. Elk that's talking. I just gotta find him. And sometimes that means making your plans bigger. Sometimes that means adjusting your plans. Sometimes that means leaving bad elk to find good elk. Right? Like, that's another thing. It's like, somewhere on this mountain, there's a bull going crazy. I just got to find him. So for me, that's always been a good. Just reminder when things are in the dump, feel like I just cannot catch a win, or there's not an elk here. They're not talking this year. I like to remind myself, hey, somewhere on this mountain, there's a bull going crazy. I just got to find him. And, yeah, that's. Those are my five never forgets, if you will. And hopefully one of them you pick up this year, maybe one or two. They help you along the way. But, yeah, thanks, Briggs, for the question. Alrighty. Next is the 8020 rule. I love the 8020 rule. And this is also known as Pareto's principle, which, you know, was established in the 1800s. This Italian guy, you know, he said something about 80% of the land was owned by 20% of people. But the. The Pareto principle kind of fell into everything, really. And it's something people use in business. And in business, you look at things like, what 20% of my actions are getting, 80% of the results, those type of things. And the point of having an 8020 principle is to. Instead of focusing all your effort on all the things that aren't working, how do I focus my effort on the 20% of things that are. Have an outsized return? Right. So in elk hunting, we could say the 8020 rule, right. So the dawn, dusk thing, you know, you can hunt as hard as you want. You can be the hardest core. You hunt 20 hours a day, whatever it may be, and you get after it. But if you're not where you need to be or utilizing at least the, you know, last 30 minutes or the first 30 minutes of daylight, all of that work was fairly wasted. You know, you could say that 20% of elk probably, or 80% of elk probably get killed in less than or 20% of the daytime. Right. You know, those mornings and evenings are premier. So how are we guarding that 20? You're better off to spend a outsized effort in those 20% windows to gain that 80%. You know, again, if you're hunting all day, great, you're hardcore. But, like, if you're missing the morning and evening, it's not worth it. And, and so, like, how do we evaluate our 8020 when it comes to elk hunting? Another way I look at this, I would probably say this is fairly accurate, that within most hunting units, 80% of the elk are in 20% of the unit. So again, we can sit there and say, okay, where, where is this 20% of the unit where there's gonna be outsized returns? And I think we, we create these hunt plans, and sometimes we get too married to these hunt plans of just kind of hunting everywhere and not really taking into account that, like, we need to focus in on, on these places where it's outsized returns. Right? And so, like, what's the 8020 of the hunt area? What's the 8020 of the hunt time? What's the 8020 of the tactic? Right? So if I figure out what elk are responding to, instead of trying to do a million different things and all these other things, like, man, this is working. Focus on just doing that repeatedly. And so you can constantly do an 8020 evaluation throughout season to figure out where you're hunting, where, where the elk are, what the tactic is. And then obviously, the time of day is just something to remember, because we know that. But, like, those are three big ones that we can say. Like, are we looking at the 8020 rule? What. How do I get outsized returns? How do I focus on what I'm doing in the right place, the right time and being. Being there when I need to be there. So that's kind of my, my thing around the 8020 rule. Always good to revisit 820. All right, this next section, you got punched in the mouth. And now what? And maybe you're on your way to el camp and you have got punched in the mouth yet, but this is maybe a good section for you too. And this happens almost every hunt. So it's going to happen to you. Maybe not this year, but soon. So we all have a plan. We all have this hunt plan, grandiose plan. You know, whether we escouted it or actually scouted it. And sometimes the latter can be even worse because you're, you're, you're very sure that there's elk there. And then, you know, season shows up and, and a hundred Doug Flutie show up. And also the plans, the, the vibe on the mountain, everything changes, right? Everything is always changing. And, and so you. Let's just run through this. You got punched in mouth. And now what? I think first and foremost, you have to stay flexible. I love plans, but you have to stay flexible and you have to take in new information. You have to go back and do your 80, 20 analysis, right? Like, okay, what? Like, how do we find the 20% zone? Maybe we're not in it right now. It feels like we're in the 80% of people zone. Not the, not the 20%. That's 80% of the elk. Yeah, that made sense. Anyway, so we got to reevaluate, we got to look at the maps and we got to say, okay, how do we get away from these damn Doug Fluties? Where can we find, how do we find pockets, right? And so the first thing going back to the system is we gotta find out if we don't have elk to hunt, we don't have anything. So first and foremost, we gotta find elk. Probably gotta find new elk, right? And sometimes, sometimes this is just a matter of I gotta leave these elk because many of you are in elk right now and you're either chasing them with other people or they just got a really good system to where you're getting kicked in the teeth. And that happens too. So maybe it's time to leave elk to find elk. And we have to get real serious about that because now we're mid season, we don't have time to dink around. And if I had to go find elk, right, I'm going to take everything I know where I saw elk. Maybe on the drive in, maybe at night, maybe I heard a bugle. Like, I'm going to look at the maps. How do I get away from people? Where am I seeing the most people? Are they deep? Are they road hunting? What is like, where's the gap? So I'm constantly throughout the season trying to find the gap. What do I not see? What do I not see? Those are constantly me trying to find new elk. And I will go very hard at finding new. A new elk if I don't have elk to hunt. We're finding elk and we're not sleeping until we do. You could sleep in the middle of the day. So this goes Back to, like, do we need a cover ground and night bugle? Do we need to hike ridges and bugle, bugle, bugle. You know, do we need. If they're not answering anywhere, do we need to just hunt bottoms and look for tracks? You know, these things? How do we find elk if they're not bugling? Another really, really classic example is, like, I think a lot of you are only looking for bugles. And, you know, let's say it's September 10th right now. They might not be bugling next week. Somewhere on the mountain wants bugling. I did. I did say that. But, like, where you're at, like, look for sign, look for tracks, look for anything. Look for a damn elk crossing road. You know, a lot of times you'll see a whole herd that it cut across a dirt bank alongside the road. So you're looking for any kind of clue to find elk. That's what we need to find. We need to find elk to hunt. And if your plan is falling apart, you need to just analyze why and what we need to do about it. Do we need to get away from people, or do we need to find different elk, new elk, do we find elk, period? And I think that's first and foremost is like, can. Are these elk killable? Are they in huntable spots? You know, can we make this happen? You know, it's like your buddy that you go deer hunting, and he wants to drive around and look at giant bucks on private, and it's like, that's cool. We're seeing bucks, but, like, I can't do anything about it, so we might as well go find new ones Sometimes. Sometimes elk are that way, and, you know, like, they're either completely silent or they're going into a drainage that just has terrible swirling wind. And you got to go find new elk. And I mean, anyone who's done this long enough knows that, like, man, some elk are very difficult to kill compared to others. So, you know, do we need to find new elk? That's a huge piece of it. So if you're getting punched in the mouth, finding new elk can be a huge difference. And from there, it's like, you know, do all the things we talk about in the podcast to find new elk. Night bugles, cover base or cover bottoms, looking for tracks, Just running roads, right? Like checking, checking, whatever. Everything you got to do to find elk and find new elk, that's the number one goal. Don't be. You know, if you feel like you're getting punched in the mouth, don't just keep Doing the same thing you're doing. I understand how blatantly obvious that sounds, but you'd be surprised. And I'm not picking on anyone in particular, but we've all been there. You know, the devil you know is better than the devil you don't. And sometimes Elkana can be that way. So if you're getting punched in the mouth, go find new elk. Cover ground if you have to. Move camp. It's not that hard. Don't get married to a camp. I know you got the lights set up. The Traegers got everything. It's great. It's a great camp. But don't get married. Cover ground. Be mobile. Find elk. That's a great way to get out of this rut, if you will, of getting punched in the mouth. Plans aren't working. Nothing's going the way you want. Find new elk. Somewhere on the mountain, there's elk bugling. Go find them. All right. The other thing I want to add to that, some. Some tactical advice, which is what to do when they're not talking. Right? You're like, man, I got oak. I just. I don't know what to do do. They're not talking. They're stuck in this nasty hole. And, you know, Primo said, I just bugle and I challenge people, and they come in. All right, if it is still early season, when you listen to this, don't. You don't have to chase bugles. Sometimes you just gotta hunt elk where they are, how they are. Right? And so. What's that mean? So I grew up hunting Roosevelts, and I'll give a shout out to Bo Brooks. He posted this the other day, and it was, like, such a good reminder. And he's a great elk hunter. Awesome dude, too. Great caller. And, you know, someone's like, oh, what do you do where I hunt? They don't. They don't talk. Okay. Most of the time, this is true. I feel like you guys watch too many, like, elk hunts on the San Carlos. But, like, you know, when I grew up, you. You were hunting elk that didn't talk, and that's just like. That's just normal. So what do we do if they don't talk? It's pretty simple, really. Like, you just got to get in the. You got to get in tight and. And call them in silent. Just because they're not bugling doesn't mean they're not coming. And they. More often than not. Like, I think I've called in bulls silent, like, than I have bugling. It's just the Way it is. And you get into these areas where they get a lot of pressure. You know, I don't know if you're hunting in Colorado or Oregon, Hell, Montana, in a lot of places. Like, there are places where just elk aren't talking times a day. They're not talking, but you're like, man, I got. I got this pile of elk all to myself and it's all good. I just can't. I don't know what to do with them. That. That's when it's like, hey, let's just slip in, do some light cow calling. Sound like elk in the woods. You don't have to go crazy sometimes you just call them in silent and, you know, slip into a good spot where you can see you got shooting lanes, but it's also concealed enough that, you know, they got to look for you a little bit. And you get in there and you start just, man, dude, like a 30 to an hour long setup, breaking trees, just sounding like elk in the woods. And I don't, I don't know if people forgot how to do this or if, like they're just gung ho on only killing an elk if he comes in screaming and pissed off. But this is such a great way to call a. Get elk in and kill an elk if they aren't talking and they aren't, you know, cooperating. Air quotes here. Elk or elk, you gotta hunt them where they are, and you gotta hunt them how they're gonna, you know, accept of that, if you will, because not all the time. They're gonna be bugling. So great little tactical advice, like, don't be afraid to do blind call setups, man, midday, even, like mid morning, late, early, early evening, late afternoon, whatever you call it, like, just slip in, do blinds, call setups. And, you know, I just show. I was showing. A good buddy of mine, he's pointed out, like, what these elk do. He was asking me, like, oh, man, they go up in this timber. Like, I'm just kind of. I don't really want to go up in the timber and hunt them. So I usually wait till they come back out. But like, you know, it just doesn't work out if you got that timber pocket, right? If you got where they're coming out at night, I mean, yeah, great, let's. Let's do that ideally. But if they're not coming or, you know, maybe they're not coming out in the daylight. Very common, right? Elk get a little bit of pressure and they know they got to stay in the timber till it's after dark. Been there. So what are you going to do? I would say, you know, that's a great opportunity in this particular place. Like, it had fields in the bottom, works up, moderate incline, you know, and then there's kind of a knob, and there's somewhere on that face. I'm sure they're bending different places all the time, but I guarantee either mid, like, late morning, even in the afternoon, like those, even midday. Like, this is a great tactic if you're gonna kill any elk. Like, you could go easily kill a satellite bull by doing this. So, you know, I was like, well, here's how I do it. I would slip up to this top ridge, and I'm just gonna do a calling sequence. Probably 15, 20 minutes, play it really chill, maybe sound like one or two cow calf, and then throw in some, like, small bugles. And I'm going to do that for 30 minutes before I ever even drop in. Because best case scenario, bullpipes off as soon as I start calculing. Great, he's there. You know, I know where he is now. I have a location and I can make a move. But if not more realistically, you know, bulls aren't talking, right? So I'm just going to slip down, I don't know, 2, 300 yards, maybe 200 yards, ease down, maybe I'll pop. I don't know. It doesn't really matter. I'll call up top. If I don't hear anything, I'll slip down, you know, a couple hundred yards, and I'll do the whole thing again as if nothing heard me. And either one of two things are gonna happen. Bull's gonna pipe off, you know, maybe 30 minutes later. Because every, every Tom, Dick, and Harry just bugled from the top of the hill and didn't do anything. So I'm gonna slip in and one or two things is gonna happen. He's gonna either answer me or a satellite is going to come in silent, right? So if I got a herd of elk, it's on this hill, and a herd bull sitting with the cows, and there's, I don't know, three or four satellite bulls hanging around. Those satellite bulls aren't gonna pipe off. They're gonna say, excuse me, dying. That's what they're gonna do. No, they're gonna. They're gonna come in and investigate, right? Man, I caught so many satellites in this way. Just. They're going to come in real quiet. They don't want to get in trouble. They want to know what's going on. They don't want to, like, be crazy, but, like, he just. That satellite just found some cows away from the herd, and he's like, what's. What's going on over here? I'm going to go check that out. And you know what? Like, that's a. That's a great way to, like, go play in the timber. But if nothing happens and, you know, no answer, nothing came in, I can back right back out the way I came. No harm, no foul. And I can go try to make a play on those elk in the evening. And that's another thing. It's like, yeah, whatever. I was. You could. I was gonna say, you know, I wouldn't necessarily force that, like, follow them all the way out. I'm gonna, like, come back. So I'm not messing with the bedroom, and I'm gonna, you know, try to make a play a little bit later. But that's a great midday tactic. I think you'd call a satellite that way. So when it comes to actual tactical advice, not. Not a bad one. That's kind of wraps it up. But one little motivational piece. It's September. I'm so stoked. Yeah. So for those who don't know, I going on my mountain goat hunt tomorrow. And I get back pretty stoked about that. Not gonna lie. I mean, if you're gonna miss first week of September, going mountain goat hunting, not a bad miss. And then I have my elk hunt. I've got a buddy coming out to hunt with me. Actually a couple buddies hunting with me this year, which is rare. And we're gonna be hunting a cool place, and we're gonna be hunting 13 to 21 ish. Really stoked about that. So I'm gonna come in, hunt the rut really hard. And then I got a week that I gotta catch up on some work. Hopefully maybe sneak out a day in there or a day or two in there if I don't have one killed yet. And then Jaden and I are headed to Wyoming at the end of the month for rifle opener in Wyoming, October 1st. So I. Yeah, I actually kind of got the pressure a little bit. So, yeah, I mean, I only got. Call it eight days. Ish. Eight days to archery, elk hunt. Gotta get it done. I kind of like it. Kind of like the pressure should be good, though. I'm gonna have fun. It's elk season. It's September, baby. I hope you guys are stoked. Take it in. Also, like, man, you only get so many Septembers. Just soak it in, like, enjoy the moment. Hope you guys are having a great season so far. And you know, trust your gut. That's my last thing. Trust your gut. Feel that killer instinct. Do you know, chase your. Follow your gut. Just make the moves, you know. And be aggressive, but leave room for tomorrow. Be aggressive, but leave room for tomorrow. I don't know if that makes sense, but dude, get after it. Send me pictures too. You guys kill one. Hope you guys get one. Hopefully by this time I have a goat down. Maybe I'll post some pictures on the Elkhon channel, but. Alrighty. Thanks guys for listening. Alrighty guys. Thanks for tuning into the show. If you like this episode, do us a huge favor and share it with one of your hunting buddies. Also, if you want a free hunt planner, be sure to go check the link in the show notes. It's a hundred percent free. You can download our hunt planning tool, which is a great resource for kind of keeping track of all of your hunts, your hunt plans, your points, all those things. Pretty great resource. Go check it out links in the show notes. Or you can check our website, www.elkhunt201.com. It.