Hunt the Nucleus & Blind Calling: Dillon Deitz’s 12-Year Triumph

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 of the pod is brought to you by Stone Glacier. I've been running Stone Glacier packs a long time, packed a lot of stuff out with a Stone Glacier pack. And this year I'm running the new Archer 6400 pack. And the thing I like about it is big enough that I can do a 10 day backcountry hunt or it's streamlined enough that I can use it as a day pack. And one of the things I really love about Stone Glacier is they're very lightweight. They're kind of a minimalist design which I like. I, I pack enough crap, I don't need my bag to weigh a bunch too. So love the design. It's super lightweight. It works as a day pack, no problems whatsoever. So if you're looking for a new pack, check out Stone Glacier. They got everything from your day packs all the way up to, you know, expedition long, huge backpacks. So check them out. Stoneglacier.com they make great stuff. Today's episode is brought to you by Tricer Tripods. You need something to put that fancy new maven optics on. Get yourself a Tricer tripod and and one of their pan heads. Man. Drew, good friend of mine started this Tricer tripod company and his innovation is so crazy, the number of new products he's come out with and is coming out with hint, hint, wink, wink is amazing. My setup Tricer ad with a Tricer LP panhead. The LP is a sweet panhead, very lightweight, man. Don't even know it's there. Super smooth, all that can handle pretty big optics as well. So if you're looking for a very lightweight elk hunting tripod setup, the LP Panhead, great little, great little addition. And if you get the, the bino clamp adapter, get all on there, great little setup. Check them out tricer.com use the code TRO and you'll save yourself 10% off and get yourself a full setup. If you're looking for a new tripod, great option. Check them out. Dylan. What's up dog? How are you?

What's up, player? I'm, hey, I'm doing pretty damn good.

Hey, how does it feel to not have a tag in your pocket on September 23rd?

Actually like kind of sucks. Like I have the Last, like, since I killed my first ever archery bull after 12 years of trying. This year, dude, I hunted 35 days for a legal bowl last year. I hunted for six days. This year, like, and I've said it before, dude, I'm the best to ever do it. And if anyone out there needs tips, dude, you, you hit the dms. But no, what sucks is filling a tag early.

Yeah.

And just twiddling my thumbs doing house projects and at work you're like, put me in, coach.

I'm ready to go.

Sucks, man. I'm texting everybody I know, like, hey, have you ever hunted elk before? Would you like to, to try? You know, because I just want to be, I just want to be out there still, dude.

I'm kind of in a similar boat in that. Well, I've actually tagged out very early before and been through that whole, like, yeah, like, what do I do with my thumb, my hands? This year though, this is the least I've ever archery elk hunted. And like, I'm totally blessed in that, like, I got to go on a mountain goat hunt this year. I have a really great ride.

Yeah, dude.

That we're going on. And like, so my season was kind of built around really great rifle tag and a goat tag. So it's like, okay, I. And something I never do is take a buddy hunting. So taking a buddy hunting this year. And I was like, okay, that's the priority and whatever happens, happens. And I like text my wife because, you know, we got basically one week, I think six or seven days. And I was like, that's the shortest archery elk season I've ever had. And it kind of sucks. I'm like, how do people do this? How do people have a one week season? Like, I could never like, it just, man, it feels like, yeah, dude. Shooting my bow was a waste of time. I was like, gosh, I barely even hunted.

Yeah. Didn't even need to practice as much. But no, like, I'm, I'm leaving Thursday for a backcountry trip with a couple buddies. And this is the trip we went on last year. Called in that 340 bull for my friend. His, his first archery bull. 12 hours later. Helped call in that bull's buddy for my other friend. So we packed Two Elk out in 24 hours. It was awesome. And they haven't even been out a single day yet. I'm like, guys, how, how are you? How is this okay to you? Like, it's so foreign to me. And they're just like, yeah, we'll just do the one. Yeah, we. We got four days. Like, I would hang myself from a Ponderosa. I couldn't do it.

I did.

I was basketball, and that's how they live their life, and they're happy. I. I just couldn't do it, man. All power to them. But I get to be dedicated caller this year. And packing in a 10 millimeter carbine in case I see a black bear.

Nice.

Uh, so it's gonna be. It's gonna be fun. But I. Dude, I could not. I filled a tag early, which was like, wow, I can't believe that just happened. This never works out like this for me. And now I'm just like, I just want to be out there. And when I took, like, the content thing full time, as of a couple weeks ago, I was like, I'm gonna get to hunt so much, dude. I've never been busier in my life.

He. This was. This was a sign. You went full time content creator and you kill an elk. Like, that was what it took. Dude, I told you this whole time, you should just quit your job.

I guess that's what it was. The. The benefit is I, like, I have, like, a hunt schedule because my wife's like, look, I would like us to stay married. And I said, I concur. And she's like, let's figure out what days you're hunting during the week. Which is great because I'm home most weekends and I get to hunt during the weekdays. The. The downside is no one's available to come help pack out, so. And I'm sure we'll get into that later, but. But I'm just, like, away from people, and then I'm home, you know, office. Monday, Tuesday, I'm out. Wednesday is a full office day. Edit the podcast, product videos, all that stuff. Thursday, we'll play it by ear. Maybe a little morning hunt that turns into a full day. Or if I didn't, I procrastinated all the other stuff. You know, we'll catch up. Friday, my wife is off work. I'm obviously off work. That's always been like, our day. And she's like, get out of the house on Fridays. I want to be alone with no children while they're at school. So I'll take another hunt day, and I'm home on the weekend. Man, It's. It's. It's beautiful, dude.

I. I was talking to my buddy about this, this last time. Um, you know, I don't hunt with people, and that gives me a lot of freedom, right? And, like, I'VE never really. We talked about this before the podcast, but like, I was hunting on a private, some private this year and took a buddy. Like, it was kind of like, hey, come get an elk. Right? And the downside of that is like, I'm. I would have just left. Like, I was like, oh, things are like cooled down, right? And we can kind of get in the story. But I love the whole, like, having the flexibility to be like, oh, man, elk aren't where they're supposed to be. I'm going home for two days, I'll come back, right? And then when you have that long time frame and you know, you can hunt weekdays or whatever, it's like, I'll go home, hang out with the kids for the weekend. But when you're stuck on like a five day rhythm, it's like, well, I only got three more days. Might as well grind it out. You know, it's like not productive, not fun. And like, whatever is what it is. But like, I realized this this year how spoiled I have been in the past of having like, oh, these three weeks. But I'm going to be back and forth a lot and so like, that be able to hunt Monday through Friday, home on the weekends is like, dude, clutch.

Yeah, it's awesome.

You have the choice. Design your life that way.

Yeah, if, if. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's tough when, like before, it's like, I could have taken this full time probably at the start of last year, but, you know, still had kind of a Golden Handcuffs job. It's like, why would I. I'm. I can do both. It's not ideal. And my attention is just so split. Like when I'm at the day job, my mind is on all the stuff I have to do for my own business, which is obviously more fun. And like, that's the thing you want to do. So, like building bikes for people and that's fun too. And then. But it's different when you have like all this, not all this, but extra money that's just set aside that, ooh, here's the list of fun tax write offs I want to do and tags and. But now when it's like, I have to pay my electricity bill with this, we got to tighten the ship up. It's different. And then the government wants 30,000% of it for no reason. And it's different and we're getting used to it. But, um, I picked up a extra shift at the bike shop this last week and I was like, oh, God, how did I do this for 34 years and then. And the bike shop job is, like, literally the best day job I've ever had. Bosses are awesome. It's the only job I've ever had where I genuinely enjoy being around every other person who works there. And it was just like, gosh dang, how did I. Dude, I have a job. So long.

Yeah, dude, we got to get into the story. So you killed no. This year?

Yes.

What's yes. What a. We'll get into, like, what's the difference on that? But, like, let's. Let's hit it first. You have this thing tied up before season, so you got some shady business going on. I don't know if I can believe you were successful. Legally, the government.

Legally the government. I signed an NDA, so I can't confirm nor deny.

Okay.

That the elk was placed on the ground dead. And I cannot confirm nor deny that all the footage I have of this whole thing going down, AI generated. Advanced. AI generated. I'll let you guys decide.

Yeah. AI comes out, they have AI videos, and magically, Dylan kills an elk on video this year. I don't. No coincidence. I don't know. I don't know.

Here's what my wife says all the time. Pisses me off more than anything, but I still kind of like it. Love me or hate me, it's still an obsession.

Right?

She says that to me when we're in genuine arguments. Pisses me off so bad, but part of me respects it. Anyways, what's different this year?

Why were you successful? Do you need to wear elk work?

I think there's a couple things. I think last year I didn't even have a bowl in range with my bow. And that was the first time in, like, six or seven years. So I get pretty close every year. And we've talked about this. I'm hunting in a region in Montana that's not known for great elk numbers. If you hear a bugle a week, that's like, man, what a good week of hunting. You know? Um, this year, I hunted really hard in rifle season last year. Um, and this. That was the first year where I was just seeing elk pretty much every time I went out. Um, really kind of just figuring out what elk are doing in that timeframe. And I saw, I don't know, glassed up 200 plus elk over 15 days. I think all cows and spikes. We talked about this last year. Like, I could not find a legal bull to save my life. I knew where the legal bulls were hanging out, and they would come out and feed at the top of the mountain and be back in bed on the other side of the mountain before sunlight even fully came up, you know, so it was just so tough to find them. But coming into archery this year, I was like, I'm going back to these spots. Because in my experience, at least up here in the thicker timber, like, the cows don't really move throughout the year. They're pretty much maybe different elevations throughout the year, but they're there year after year after year after year. Like, I don't even have to scout. I know in these three or four spots, elk are just here throughout the year. And so, yeah, September 8th, I spent opening day and more of one of my whitetail spots to check cameras and just kind of see what was going on. And hunters everywhere. And from 30 minutes before light, these guys drove through my camp and just walked past me. I'm like, all right. So good old public land. They tried to get sneaky. They saw my truck because I camped at the gate. They backed up and just drove like 50 yards above me and just went. I'm like, all right. And I ended up sneaking in behind them. And they never knew I was there because I wasn't making calls. That's another thing that I did differently. I was way more patient, I think I chronically over call every year, just hoping to stumbling through the woods, just desperately estrus calling. And because it's worked in the past, but they'll just come in silent. Like, I was never really taking time to like set up and like wait 30, 40 minutes to see if something's going to come in anyway. So these guys from 30 minutes before light are raking challenge bugling before even locate bugling. Just. I have some of it on footage. It's hilarious. So from like 30 minutes before light till 2pm every 30 seconds, they are making an ungodly amount of noise. And I. I was mad at them because they walked right through my. Right through my camp, essentially. So I saw them. I sneak. I snuck like a hundred, 200 yards above them. So all my wind blew back to where they were hunting just as a like. And they had no idea I was there the entire day. It was. It was cool. And I was just laughing to myself the whole time. And I just got up on a ridge where I knew elk sometimes travel up and just sat the whole day. I didn't make a single call. I texted you from my satellite phone. I like, we're eight hours into the opener. I haven't even put a read in my mouth. I hope you're proud of me. But yeah. Then September 8th, went up to the spot where I rifle hunted super hard. And yeah, saw elk from the first day. Was hearing bugles from the first day in the past from buddies hunting this place. Everyone hunts it like the bottom third of the mountain. I had to be on the top third of the mountain the whole time. And that's like, it's a mile and a quarter to the top third of the mountain. And in that mile, it's 3,500ft of elevation gain. So it's. You have to go. And I was like, I am guessing early season bulls are still going to be toward the top. I was right. And you know, let out one, just kind of locate or cow call and boom. Two elk bugle a couple hundred yards above me. And they were really haphazard. So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna shut up. I waited like 10 minutes, did another one just to like, fine tune where they were. Bugles again. Two bulls. Two different bulls. I'm like, all right, I'm gonna sneak up there, make a and just try to see them and then make a play on them. And that was the mindset this whole year. Find the elk first, then make a play. Don't just desperately call and hope to get lucky. And the time I. At that time, I decided, all right, let's get up above this ridge, sneak up here and kind of glass this big bowl. I know there's alders up there. I know there's betting areas, and they've got to be kind of working their way up there. Um, I take like 10 steps and I hear, and that bull had just hard charged from like 400 yards. And at that time, the wind was kind of starting to switch or swirl on this ridge. He barks at me, blows out. I'm like, all right, well, he came in really fast. And long story short, I ended up just dogging this herd the entire day. It was like 85 degrees. I had the bull. I ended up killing this five by five. I like to think he's just one step above a rag horn. He's a five by five. He's not a rag horn. He is a five by five. Almost mature.

Can we pause for a second just on that topic? I. So we kill. Spoiler alert. We killed a bull. And my good buddy Jared shot. It's a really cool bowl. It's like a five.

He's awesome.

Yeah, he's like five by clubby. Crazy thing. And like, for sure a mature ish bull. Like, I didn't feel like a ragnar. Like I don't know if they just small because of whatever. But we get home and I showed Wade and he's like, oh, it's a great raghorn.

I was like, dude, Wade is a freaking legend.

Brutal dude. It's like called it a rag twice decent raghorn.

I would have passed him pop. Wade's gonna be such a killer dude. Laughing what a legend. I need Wade to hang around my soft ass kids for a week. What am I doing wrong? Yeah. Anyway, so just toughen them.

One above a rag horn. Five point solid five.

Yeah. So I had him three times that day within 50 yards with no shot. Got a little too calling right from my setup where he could pinpoint me, heard, busted me. This bull winded me three, four times and still was bugling, still was interested. The bull he was with that, that was interesting too is later on in the day I had, I heard calves chirping after I'd blown this herd out or they, they winded me, blew out of there. I'm like, ah, it's probably done. I'll just start heading, heading back to the truck. I'm exhausted already. And it's about one o'. Clock. I get stuck in a freak thunderstorm, hailstorm. I didn't pack rain gear. I am, I have base layer and thin merino pants on and I just get soaked for two hours. It just dumps on me and I'm just laughing. I'm freezing like that. Today's shot, I just start bombing down the mountain and then that, that herd, I end up just stumbling into the middle of that herd and I step on a branch and I just hear calves and I, I saw a video of Cliff Gray. Just like, hey, if you get into those calves, just start calf chirping at them. I did that. And then all of a sudden, calf comes four yards from me, is just staring at me at my downwind side mewing, you know, right in my face. She gets freaked out, kind of hops down to 20 yards. She's still there. I just keep calf chirping. And then all of a sudden, I've never been this close to an elk. I got great footage of her. Then my camera dies. And then five seconds later, another calf comes screaming down through the trees. It's. I'm standing here, my backpack is right on the ground to my left and that calf is on the other side of that. Like I am a half. I'm a foot away from this calf. Elk. I've never been that close to an elk. Before she just stops, she sniffs my backpack. She's looking at me in the face, like, chirping right in my face. I chirp right back at her. And she just said, dude, I could have scooped her up and took her home. It was so cool. And then, so I keep doing this because Cliff Gray, I saw, he's like, do that. And all of a sudden, like, bulls will just kind of come out of nowhere sometimes. And I look up like 300 yards and that five by five comes sprinting. Like, I've never seen an elk move like this, like just floating. He's moving so fast to this logging road a couple hundred yards above me. And he just stops and is staring down at this bowl doing this, just keeping track of where all of his cows and calves are. See him up there? Then it starts dumping rain again. I'm like, it is so loud. I'm so wet. I'm just going to run up to that road and kill him because he's just watching. So I do that. Ended up bumping him again because he had kind of moved down the hill. And I just keep sneaking along this road. There's cows everywhere, calves everywhere. It's just chaos. This is like four in the afternoon. Come around a corner, do a little calf chirp again, and two bulls just scream at me from like 60 yards. I knock an arrow really fast. I'm standing right in the middle of this logging road, and before I can, like, figure out what to do, that five by five again is just walking down the road right to me. He gets to 45 yards and I. I'm pinned and I just have my hat down like this. And I'm just kind of keeping an eye on him. He goes broadside, looks the other way for a minute, and then dinosaur bugle bugles up ahead of him and I'll look up. One of the biggest bulls I've ever seen on public land is 80 yards away. Just the giant, like, well, for me, a giant easily 320. And that's conservative, wide mass. Just one of the coolest bulls I've seen in person while I'm hunting. And what's interesting is, like, that bull, obviously the herd bull, but he's still like, palling around with the other bulls. Yeah, with cows. So it's like they were still figuring out herd dynamics maybe. I wanted to ask you about that because I've personally never seen that. Usually I thought, like, the big bulls are biting their time, but obviously this was this bull's cows. But he was still letting that five by five kind of have his. His way. Like they were still buddies, like still bachelor with cows. I've never seen that before. It's really interesting. So he's 80 yards, but that I've got this legal bull that 45 yards. And so I, I know that big bull's there, but I'm like, I don't live to look a gift elk in the mouth. I go to full draw and I'm feeling calm. I'm settling my pin and that bull just starts walking. And he's going to go down and win me. And I'm trying to stop him. I bark at him. He doesn't stop. So I let down. And the whole time I'm making sounds, I'm like, well, that the big. I'm not. This bull is going to win me. And the big bull, obviously, if I can see him, he can see me. I'm standing in the middle of a logging road. He doesn't look at me ever. He's just looking at the five by five to look at his reaction. That bull gets my wind and barks, so I bark back at him. I'm making all this noise. I'm. And the, the big bull doesn't even look at me. He's just looking at the reaction of the five point. That five point starts barking and kind of chomping around and the, the big bull never looked at me a single time. Just starts slowly walking away from me. It's like, I'll let this dummy kind of be the bait. Never looks at my cow calls. Nothing. He was just judging the reaction of the five point. It was really cool to see. So that bull kind of blows out, but the big bull is just kind of slowly walking. It's still raining. It's really quiet. I have kind of a small ridge. I sneak up to 70, 80 yards from the big bull and I'm like, dude, I'm going to kill this, this big thing. I don't have to make another sound. I just keep slowly sneaking. Then all of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, that five point comes screaming back up the hill. Stops, pin points me. I watch the big bull stop, look at him and then just trot away. Still never even looked back at me. Yeah, it was nuts. So I had that bull dead to rights multiple times. No shot opportunity. Couldn't get him to stop. Got great footage through the digiscope, the mountain mag of that bull. And yeah, spent the next several days in the same herd. Like they didn't move. Maybe a drainage or two over. I Explored another spot, had multiple bulls come in silent. I was just covered up in elk the whole time, so it was really cool. Then on the 13th, I. I just did a solo episode on my podcast doing this whole overview of this hunt. So I don't want to bore people that have already heard it, but same thing went up the drainage on the 13th. Three different bulls now are bugling, and you can tell they're more spread out. These bulls, like, okay, I think stuff's starting to kick off. There's probably a hot cow in the group because these bulls never shut up. I never had to make a peep. I was like, I should. I got up on the. The same ridge and just could not find them. It was big kind of open thing. It sounded like they were closer, but then they're for sure on the opposite ridge, 8, 900 yards away. So I'm just going to get up here and find them. And I glassed for two hours. Finally saw bull stand up from its bed, kind of mosey around, then bed back down. I'm like, dude, this is perfect. I'm going to wait for the thermals to come up. I'm going to come in above them, cow call behind this clump of trees, and then get up and around and shut up and let them try to come in and win me. I did that the second I made a peep. They. The bulls had moved over into the other drainage. And I just. The whole basin explodes. There's three or four different bulls. One of them's growling the whole time, doing this like. And he made that same noise 50 times in a row. I'm like, is that a hunter? That one might be a hunter. It wasn't. Anyways, that's what I did. Winds coming up. I think the bull was like 20 yards above me. And within a hundred yards, just slowly kept coming in. I shut up. I just let them get mad at each other. And you could tell there was separation, there was distance. They were responding to each other, chuckling at each other. Like, don't make the mistake of over calling. Once I knew the bull closest to me, you can just tell either he's turning to face me to bugle, or he's actually closing the distance. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna make a setup. I had one big kind of loping ridge in front of me. I called from down here. Just did a really excited cow calf sequence, like responding to the bull that was closest to me. And then I just sprinted up 80, 100 yards upwind and got on the Other side of that ridge, where I figured they might come up. And I just shut up for 10 minutes, and I could tell that bull closest to me all. Everything is still exploding. I could hear cows, calves from the other side of the basin. Multiple. Multiple bulls. And I just stopped talking. And then after 10 minutes, calf comes screaming through at 40 yards where I thought they might come up. Cause, yeah, I figured they'd move up and then come in above me so they could see down to where I was calling and try to win me. And I just stood there, and calf came through, turned the camera on, and no sooner had I did that, I see antlers coming through the. The brush. He stops behind a tree. I. I go full draw. He stops. And I had from, like, just the start of the vital V up, and I am at full draw. And he's just standing there. He lets out a. Just screams right there. From 40 yards. So cool. Everything in me. Cody wanted to try to punch an arrow in there. Literally my finger, you know, and I'm full draw and adrenaline. So I'm shaking really bad. And in years past, I would have tried. I would have tried to sneak one in there. And I don't know what was different this year, but I literally like my fingers out here. And I'd been practicing all year, dude, shooting so good. Hook the trigger and just squeeze till it surprises you. I got over a ton of trigger panic. My finger was out like this. Just wanting to freaking slap it, dude. And literally, like two or three times. I remember distinctively, my finger going like this. And I'm like, nope, nope, wait, wait. I'm at full draw for a full minute, and finally he starts moving. My mouth is so dry at this point, I can't even stop him. I can't. I can't make a call for my diaphragm, so I just wait. He finally stops. I settle the pin as best I can. I'm shaking so bad, I'm. I still have my 40 pin on him. He ended up kind of coming up to 30. So I shot hit high, and after I butchered him, I hit the top of both lungs and blew out the bottom of a vertebrae. And he just goes down. And I'm just in shock. I get another arrow. I run up there without ranging. I send one into Missoula. Like, I just see this area go. So I slow down. I range. The bull still has no idea I'm there. I don't think he knows what happened. And 30 yards, he's directly facing away from me. He turns a little Bit. I put one just absolutely perfect at 30 yards. Goes through his back ribs, both lungs, heart out the front shoulder. And I just see him kind of just start rolling, get up and whatever. So I just back out. I wait. I give it, I don't know, 40 minutes and I walk up there. He's dead right there. He died in seconds.

Dude. What was the emotions. It was crazy through you and you're like, finally did it. I feel like monkey, get off your.

Back a little bit. Yeah. And it. It was actually big time. Yeah. And it was almost like, man, I've never had a plan like work out that perfectly where I could. I almost knew what was going to happen before I went up there.

Interesting.

But it was just forcing myself this year to be call way less glass, way more if I'm by myself. And I know it worked perfect. Call from here. Shut up. Get up here where you think, you know they're gonna hang up or come check stuff out. It just worked out perfect. And I shot him at 11. Walked up on him like at 11:45. And he died in the sun. And it was 80 degrees already. So I was like, awesome. I didn't. I feel like I didn't have time. It took me a couple days to like let it soak in. Like, did I really just do that? Like, did this happen? Because I went right into like. I can't believe this. I've been after. I've been trying for this for 12 years. I finally just did it by myself solo in a place where people have a really hard time killing elk. Like, I freaking did the thing I set out to do for so long. And then like, I am by myself. I don't have time to text and see who's available. Cause I gotta get this meat cooled down. So I went right into like save the meat mode and start shuttling. Dude, I worked that bull by myself in an hour, 45 minutes. Deboned everything except the front quarters. Got all the meat off him and then just started shuttling it quarter mile at a time to a north facing kind of creek drainage. And then right at that time when I got my last load there and I just sat down because I'm exhausted. Now I can text people and see who's free to come help. Dude. Freak hailstorm came through. Covered all the meat in like a quarter inch of ice. It was. God is reveal. It was amazing, dude. Yeah, man. It's crazy. So awesome.

It's got to be kind of cool to do it by yourself. Like, I feel like I don't know, for me, if I was in your shoes, it'd be pretty special. Like, I like kind of bull by myself. Feeling like you really accomplished something. Like, I did the thing.

Yeah.

There's something weirdly satisfying about that. And then as soon as you have to do the work by yourself, it's not. But, man, super cool. One of the things. So I want to talk about something that I noticed this year, and I want to preface. And it's why I think you were successful. But I picked it up so interesting for the audience. I. This year, I was like, hey, I'm gonna hunt with my buddy. My buddy was like, I just want to kill enough. And I was like, cool. I want to shoot a big bull.

And he had never killed an elk.

He never killed no before. And he was just stoked to kill an elk. And so we had access, or we. We got access to pretty fancy ranch. And a good buddy of mine guided it all last year. Great. I mean, they were in elk every day. They killed an absolute giant. So I'm on cloud nine. Obviously. He's on cloud nine. I'm like, this is going to be an epic week. Right. Long story short, first day, I'll preface everything by saying I learned a lot during this week. It was one of the hardest, even of all the OTC hunts I've ever done. One of the hardest. The only time I've ever hunted private land. It was the hardest time I've ever done. I mean, a little bit. Like, I've had. Definitely had worse hunts.

Figure that one out.

Yeah, I mean, it was fine. It was just. It was like, uh, Travis and I at one point were like, they feel like we're on an OTC or Idaho hunt, where it's like, you hear a bugle and you get so excited, you're like, oh, my God, they do exist.

You know, like, it's my whole career, brother.

Right, Right. But one of the things that it. It was good for me because I went back to 201 hunting, and I told you this before the podcast, but it's like, I spend a lot of time trying to be a 301 hunter, which is very different than being to one. So I teach 201. I do 301, and I think there's a lot of lessons that cross over. But it was really good for me to, like, go back and, like, just spend a week, 201, trying to call in whatever I could get. We're just trying to kill a bull. Right? And it was really good. And it was like, you Know, I think about these things a lot. I spent a lot of time, like, how do I help people become better elk hunters? And, like, this was good for me to, like, go on a very tough hunt and try to kill any bull. Right, right. And the. Ironically, there's a couple lessons that I picked up, and one of them that I wanted to make a note of, and as you were talking, it made me think of, this is like, you have to be in the nucleus. So a lot of this, where we were hunting, first day, it was kind of weird because it's very early elk were still up on public, and they weren't. I wasn't super ready. So when you asked me the question, I want to follow up on this too. But, like, you asked me a question, I was like, oh, it was weird that it wasn't just a herd bowl. Was, like, the. This weird dynamic. A lot of times in early season that happens. Like, bulls come and go. They come together. Like, it was this week, I saw three bulls together that shouldn't have been together. They were. Who knows? You know, the first day, actually, we get up, and actually, we're on public, and we were like, hey, bulls are bugling. And I made. You know, I was talking to Trav was like, okay, this bull's bugling. This bowl down in the bottom sounds bigger. Let's just. Just wait. I was like, old me would go chase that bowl because it's the closest and it bugle. Right. But I was like, that bulls, what I would call the herd bull. And you can tell by the way he's bugling. I assume that'll be the nucleus. So old me would have chased the first bugle, and it would have shut up in, like, 20 minutes. And it would have been. And we would have lost everything. Right. Like, with a little bit experience, like, that's the bull everyone's following down there. Like, let's see what he does. Let's just be patient. Right. And.

Yeah.

So we did.

Now, when you say, if I can ask a question. Yeah. When you say, I could tell he was a herbal, by the way he was bugling, was it because he was.

Because he was display bugling.

So, like, you clearly talking to his cows.

Yeah, he's. He's trying to look big for his cows. He's got. It's not the. Do you know? It's. It's the more.

Yeah, it's.

It's got the. Yeah. He's saying, wow, right?

I'm learning, dude. Look at your boy.

And so it's like. And we Went through this timber patch. I could tell they were definitely living in there. So in my head I'm like, okay, he's down there, but he's coming up here. Let's just let him come to me. That takes a lot of experience. 20 year old Cody would be like, go get him, you know, and then you end up right back where you were.

Yeah.

So it's like we went down and we listened. We listen. I did some cow calling and stuff. And sure enough, over the next 20 minutes, here he comes. He came pretty slow, but he like, you know, picked his way up and was like, okay, we're right where they want to be. And then I hit him with kind of a buzz cow call when he got a little bit closer. And man, he lit up real hard on that. He never answered me when I'd bugle, but he'd answer me when I threw a little buzz in the cow call. And so we're like, all right, here he comes. So I put Travis out in front and we set up. And they're really slow moving, but they ended up coming right. And I. I hear the bull rip a solid bugle right in front of Travis. And I was like, oh, yeah, Travis is gonna smoke.

Yeah.

And it's like, you just, you just know, right? And a little bit time goes by, I'm kind of like letting curiosity kill the cat. And pretty soon I see him in the timber and I'm like, I still don't know exactly where Travis is because he's kind of gone over the hill. And I'm like, God, he's gotta be within range right there. Like, it's gotta be close, right? My bow's still sitting to the left. I didn't think I was gonna get a shot. So it's like, you know, down nowhere on it. Rookie moves.

Is it a nice bowl?

Yeah, it was a great bowl. It was really good bowl.

When you would have shot.

It was right at my line. And it was day one.

It was only three.48 easy pass.

You know, it was. I mean, yeah, it wasn't quite that big, but I anyway bull like all of a sudden, like, I see cows 30 yards from me and I'm like, oh. Like, I remember thinking, I wonder if they got by Travis. Like, what's going on here?

Yeah.

And then like instantly cow calf or at 25 from me, giving me the stereo and I see the bull coming behind him. And I was like, oh, I should probably get my bow ready. And another thing was like, I was definitely not expecting it to be A shooter. So I'm, you know, in my head, I'm like, you know, almost zero chance I'm gonna shoot this bull. So why.

Yeah.

And then he pops out and, you know, to your point, like, I could tell very quickly that he didn't seem very interested in those cows. Like, he was just like, well, at first I was like, okay, cows, cow calf at 20. He's coming around the bend. Like he's gonna come over to him in a second. I'll just give it a, you know, give it a minute and he'll come over. And then he kind of like just kept feeding away from him. And I was like, oh, he's not very interested. And then it was like, now I'm pinned down and I can't move towards him. And just like, it was what it was. But, you know, that, that encounter was like, first day, first morning. This is gonna be a good one.

Wow.

Yeah. And then, so we called in a really good bull. Long story short, you know, they kind of fed off. We never really got an opportunity that I think it was that night, whatever it was, you know, we got into a lot of first day and then it was like they all just left.

And it was like, interesting. What do you think?

I don't.

That was. Did they go higher? Did they like.

No, I. I think they probably got a little bit of pressure. I mean, a us. Like, that was kind of the intent, right? Like when you have access to the private, like, hey, go punt them on public. And if they go to private, shoot. Darn right. And I think there was. The neighbor was hunting them too. So I think they kind of got double pressure.

That all right. Because you were up on public, Right? Right in this morning. Okay.

Yeah. Anyway, long story short, you know, it just became difficult, right? Like, it just became. Okay, we weren't in the nucleus. And I was trying to explain. I like had this thought of, like most of when you're hunt. When you're 101 hunting, you're like, there's elk here. We're just trying to hunt these elk. And it's like, there's a huge difference between being in the situation you were in and then like just knowing, yeah, there's a five point hanging around here. So the rest of the week we had like a couple five points, you know, whatever, some rag horns hanging around. But like, if you're. It's super difficult to call even, you know, we had a lone six that would kind of come up this ridge every day. And even him, it was very difficult to Convince him. And I spent a lot of my career chasing those individual bulls that were just not hanging around the nucleus. When you're in the nucleus of elk behavior, like, the herd, and people have heard me talk about, like, it's almost easier to kill bulls when you're 301 hunting. Because on 301, I'm always in the nucleus. I'm always at the center of, like, epic elk behavior.

And when you're trying, what attributes to that?

Because you're trying to find the biggest bull. Right. And generally speaking, you're like, you always have to find the herd. I'm using that in air quotes. Like, and these can fragment. Right. And you can have, like, a bowl to pull two or three cows off, and that could be the biggest bull in the area. But a lot of times, you're always trying to find the herd where it's like 50 or 20 elk, and there's like, you know, they're all going kind of the same spot. And you're trying to figure that, like, sometimes you'll. You'll be hunting the. The onesie, twosies, threesies. But it is so much harder to hunt onesie, twosies, threesies than it is to, like, just be in the chaos. To your point is to your situation was like, this is where it was. I. I don't know if you could call it a herd and a herd bowl. Like, it's not that clean. It's just like, there's a pile of elk right here. And, yeah, they may be fragmented into multiple herds. Maybe it's one herds. But it's like, those satellites are so easy to kill because you don't have to convince them that there's elk there. They know there's elk there. Right. So it's just a little bit. And that's how you got away with bumping them multiple times. Like, the rest of the elk didn't.

Yeah.

So he was just, like, caught up in the moment of, like, the party.

Yeah, that makes ton of sense.

So I think it's easy to get caught up in, like, I know where this elk is. Let's go hunt this elk. And like, dude, that's infinitely more difficult to hunt that individual elk who won't say anything or bugles and then shuts up versus, like, when you're in the party, dude. When you're in the party, it's just like, elk are running everywhere. It's so easy to call in.

Yeah.

It's like you're in the thing. Right. And this is like, I think you can pull a Lot from like the 301 of like, man, find the herd. You want herd bowls. Like, you just get around elk. Like you'll kill satellites by accident. Like, it's just. It's what happens, Right? So long story short, you know, we basically don't have the Nicholas now we're like stuck with like, okay, we have to find some elk and kill them. Right. And so I was like, all right, let's go back to like some. Some 201 tactics. Blind calling. Everything's quiet, Nothing's talking. I can do that. Could play that game. So we're just doing these like blind setups, right? Like, we're moving into bedrooms. Sliding in is like what I talked about, how to hunt all day. And this would just be even late morning. We just slide in, set up a decoy, start calling. Right. And worked. I think I had. I went 4 for 4 at one point. We had a lot of other steps, didn't work out, but like, we went 4 for 4 on calling in elk. So on blind setups, right?

And they would come in quiet most times.

Yeah. So I basically grabbed Jeremy. I was like, hey, let's go. Kill, knock. So late morning, we went to one bedding area. Call, call, call, call, call. Travis was set up with us. We had like, I think we had like a one by three. Like just call it a spike or raghorn come in.

And are you putting Travis or Jarrett 50 yards ahead of you?

Yeah. And then so they. I split them up. I kind of put Jarrett where I thought the elk were going to come from. I put Travis kind of basically to cover the wind side. So if something came in this way, you'd see it.

Cover two.

Yeah.

Zone defense.

So not zone defense. Tuck myself in a place that's like. I want them where they can see well, good lanes. But me where something's going to have to play, you know, come find me. You know, it's not too open. Man, that setup is so key. So, so, so key.

And that's how we killed those two bulls on this trip last year.

Right.

It's just like caller here, cover both lanes. That bull might come. And it was easier because I don't think these elk had ever seen human beings before.

Right.

Well, they saw us and winded us the first night. You know, the bull mark Killed. Yeah. Winded him at six yards. Birds. And still both of them came in the next two days. And we killed both of them. But that setup is freaking awesome, Right?

And I like early season because elk haven't been buggered. Yet and like a hundred percent that's a real thing. I don't think, you know, these oak were on private, but I don't think it would have mattering they were. They were actually really spooky for being what they were. But I would think that later in the season that goes the harder that gets. Sure. So one of the. So we call in that bowl comes at 10 yards. Travis didn't want to shoot that one. And so anyway, he blows out of there. The next morning we work. We had a bowl like we sat set up, called all from daylight on and you know, bull get like a lazy bugle. I think it was just coming up lazy bugle. And I just kept cow calling. I. I don't even know what happened here. But like I think Jarrett moved to get a shot. I don't know if he spooked him or if the bull was running. To me, it was kind of a. We a sudden the bull's trotting to me. But then he like trotted through me. Like he just went right by. And that was not the perfect. It was the perfect setup until he passed us. And then the setup got hard because I'm. It's open enough that he can see, but it's not open enough that I can get a perfect shot. So could tell what was going on at about 80 to 100 yards. But you're going to need 40 to 50 before you can shoot. Like it's open but branches, you know, all those things.

Right.

We actually worked that bull up pretty good. So he went by me and then I calcalled a couple times and he bugled. I was like, well, I'll just play with him a little bit. So we bugle at him and it probably took me 20 more minutes to get him actually fired up. So I would just work.

And how did you do that? Like what is when you're like, you know, you can read a bull and okay, he's responding but you can tell he's not fired up. What is your process to like really get him fired up?

Yeah. So we were just doing cow calf sequences. I would say 15 minutes apart. When then that's what he responded to. Kept that going. Obviously he half ass bugled came through and he ran by me. And then I just kept the cow call calf sequence hit it a little bit harder just to try to draw him back because I knew he'd spooked. He gave me a half bugle and then I did another cow call calf call and kind of just got a little more excited with that. And hit. Hit a couple buzz calls. So just do kind of a loud but, like, almost throw. Trying to explain how you do that. Like, a buzz call just has like a on the end of it. So it's almost like the way you would start your boo. Like, you add that buzz. Yeah, yeah. So you add that. And then he responded again. I could tell he was like, I want to come down there, but I don't trust you anymore.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So then I. I kind of threw out a half chuckle.

What's your game? Yeah, you know, that's what he's.

That's what he's really doing. So I throw out a half chuckle bugle. And I. I actually kind of went with just sound like a calf that's getting chased by a bull. And then I just tapped the bugle with a couple glunks. And that got him a little more excited. And then I screamed back at him, and he didn't scream back. So I was like, okay, let's bring it back down a notch. So I. I thought maybe I could get him. And so it was like this battle going back and forth. And then I started raking. He started raking. He got a little more fired up, a little more fired up. And he started coming back. So now it's like, this is 10 minutes of this. So finally he starts coming back around. So I'm like, move over here. He's coming. And again, like, you could tell he wants to see something, to believe this whole story, you know? Like, he's like, I just went through there and, like, we can see him finally. I'm like, I gotta get him raking. Like, I gotta distract him. Because in my head, I'm like, shot clock is ticking. It's been a long time. Going to get bored of this. And he gets raking again. I get him raking and like, some raking bugle and all this stuff. And he's. I think he was probably 70 right there. And we're watching, but he's not raking hard enough that I can make Jared. Jared go. So, Right. You got. It's got to be raking hard enough that he can move. And this is. And the other problem is, like, I'm four yards from Jared, so it's really hard. Like, he's. I'm basically solo calling. Right. It was just the way it went.

Yeah.

So essentially I got him raking, but not hard enough. He would never really get going on a tree where you, like, tear it up, probably because I couldn't. I'm like, Trying to rake behind my back so I can't get super aggressive with my raking. And, like, ideally I'd be hidden and I'd be using, you know, a tree that I could move. And so it looks like it's moving and I could go crazy on it. Like, I like that. But, like, it just wasn't in the cards. Long story short, he did finally start to calm, and we had him at like, 64. And I'm like, jack, move over. Like, here's the window, you know? And he, like, looks back at me, gets up there, goes full draw. Cal called him. Stopped imperfect in a 60 yard window. Just didn't have enough time, you know, drew back. As soon as he got on him, I was like, all right. He slid off. And then he, you know, shot clock was up. He was kind of.

Yeah.

And he went off. He kept bugling. I just let him go. It was. It was super cool. Like, one of the things I wanted to get was like, get in a bugle fest. We definitely got. Yeah, Check. Awesome. Yeah. So I was like, all right, well, let's, you know, let's just go find a different elk. Like, this area is pretty tore up. Like, let's go find something else. So we slid up to a different area. Totally. Just looked at the map, map density. I was like, I think this is, you know, decent. And went in there. And as soon as I got there, I want to explain the setup because I do think this is so important. Again, the day before was, like, very thick, very thin. The morning was a little too thin. This was like. And it reminded me of where I used to hunt in Oregon. But there was, like, these old roads that were, you know, just grassroads. And it was actually like a V where these grassroads came up. And I was like, oh, this is great. Like, it's very thick, but we have these roads. Right? So I was like, I'm going to put this decoy right at the. Basically the V of this road. And I want you to go down. So you have.

Is that like the head of a drainage?

That it wasn't ahead of a drainage, but it was kind of just like it came up the hill. Right. So I went down into a drainage. Yes. But, like, I wouldn't call it the head. Anyway. It had two roads down in there. And I was like, just get in between those two roads where you can see left or right. And the signal was like, if I do two short calf calls, that means I see elk. If I go one long after, that's a Right. It's on the right road, and if I do nothing, it means it's on the left road. Like, big gamble there, right?

Good luck remembering that. When a driver.

Dude, I remembered it, and he remembered it. He saw the yoga before I did.

That's awesome.

So long story short, like, set up, go back to just soft. Cal calls. And I think another mistake, people, it's easy to make, is that you get into calling elk, and, like, you. You work up, you work up, you work up. You move 200 yards. It's easy to try to stay at that same cadence, but, like, you're starting over, right? So we moved. In this case, we move. We actually took, you know, side by side, moved a long ways, but it's like go back to, like, super soft. Like, you have to go all the way back to start your S sequence. So, like, start with just super soft calf calls, right? And Cal calls. So I did that man circuit happened. It actually happened pretty quick. But I'm gonna say, like, you know, 10 minutes, five minutes into it, whatever it was, I just see an elk butt standing there, and I'm like, oh, elk. You know, never said a word. Never said a peep. And so I gave the two quick, one long, and I was, you know, whatever. I'm watching him. I never saw really. I saw one glimpse of horn. I couldn't tell what it was, and I'm like, hopefully CZ is close. You know, I actually didn't know exactly where he was. He was probably 60 yards away from me. And so it's coming to me. And. And I think the decoy really helped because the bull, like, spooked. I heard him spook, and I calculate a couple times, real hard, fast, like, stop him. And I knew he stopped, but I didn't know, like, no idea, right? It's all.

Yeah.

Heard him take off and then stop. So I just kept going with, like, a whining calf call. And then I hear, you know, like, smoked him.

Oh, awesome.

Yeah. Movement takes off, and I'm, like, listening, listening. And, yeah, sure enough. So the bull, from Jared's perspective, like, sees the bulls come through. I think he, like, just, like, as he was picking up his bow or something at 30 yards, the bull kind of, like, must have caught some movement. And, yeah, Garrett thought he totally spooked out of there, but, you know, he's, like, thought it was over, and then all of a sudden, he sees a nose popping out of some trees. And, like, the bull just, like, feeds back, you know, out of some trees. Smoked him at 30 yards.

But that's so cool, man. I'm pumped for him. Dude. That's a. And what a cool bull too.

All right. And we had no idea.

Weird freak. Yeah.

He's like, how? I was like, what is it? He goes, oh, I think it's just a Ragworth. And I was like, man, I thought I saw a 5. But I could like, you know, his last fork. But I was like, I don't. I couldn't say what I saw or not, you know. And so neither one of us knew he had a big old club crazy thing on him.

Yeah.

So. Yeah.

It's like growing out of his eye socket.

Yeah.

Just like a pedestal.

So the pedestal broke down and then it like basically comes right over his eye and then just a huge beam with like so cool. Yeah. Cool bowl. Super cool first bowl, like. And he was very stoked. But the other left in there is like, you know, these blind call setups, man, like they like this still freaking work, man. And it was mid morning set up, never heard anything. It still works.

Yeah. So how do you know you're in elk then to do a cold calling setup? Like say you go up into a new area. Is it. Man, I smell elk sign looks fresh.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And like a lot of was a lot of it was like, man, every one of these timber pockets that we go into were pretty covered up in elk tracks, you know. Right. And a part of me was like, man, I don't know if there's anything left here because it does seem like the nucleus has definitely left the area. But like there's still got to be out there. And I think that's a good note. Or you know, just put it in the back of your head if you don't know. It's like just because elk left doesn't mean all the elk left. A lot of times like those younger bulls are just going to be hanging out where they were. It was like in their mind, they're like, man, the elk always hang out here. Like where. Where is everybody? Right. Like all my friends left.

Yeah.

I'm just gonna keep hanging out where I do. And like, I think that is definitely true is like you'll have. If you see a lot of old sign doesn't necessarily mean that no elk are there. You know, maybe they last. But like those blind call sequences can work really, really well in those situations. Cause like there's probably some five point hanging around somewhere.

Yeah. Yeah. That makes a ton of sense that. Man, that's awesome. I. I'm excited here in a couple Days to get go call for people. I think I love doing that more than anything. I, I. You just feel like your success rate goes through the roof right when you can actually have, okay, shooter here, 100 yards, shooter here. Cover both sides of where the bull might come up. You know, if I still have a tag, I've got an arrow knock just in. Casey sneaks by him or whatever and we're going. It's, it's like 10 or 12 miles on horses.

Oh, dude. Heck yeah.

And yeah, that feels good because it's.

Like, it feels like you can call anything when you're in those situations. You know, it's like, yeah, they even heard calls before.

Yeah, I mean that's what happened last year is like that 340 bull who was missing an eye, his right eye was like the size of a dime. Just, you know, he lost it fighting at some point in his life. It wasn't a fresh wound, like just old gnarly. And he was 700 yards away and I kept backing up the hill so. And just ended up bringing them right to David who killed him at 20 yards.

Yeah, I mean there's some benefit of.

Like, but it's like they had never been, never been called to. Well, tons of people go in on horses, but they just stick to the trail and we've got to go from where we camp. It's like another mile ride up a freaking cliff and I'm terrified of horses. Got over that. Had to get over that fear real quick last year. Up and over into this other hell hole which, yeah, we had to pack them both these bulls a mile up a 40 degree slope and it's like both trekking poles. You take two baby steps and rest for 30 seconds. Like it sucked and I can't wait. And I hope we get to do it again. You know, I'm so excited. But yeah, no pressure on me. I'm not even bringing my bow. Bringing a little a 10 millimeter carbine just to look cool and call for my friends. I can't wait.

Heck yeah, dude. Well, I'm, I'm, Jaden and I are gonna go rifle hunting October 1st opener. So we're gonna be awesome healing.

What take is, what take is that?

It's a Wyoming General.

Oh, Wyoming. Okay. Sweet. Yeah, I've always wanted to hunt Wyoming. You gotta get me on some of this stuff, man, because I don't know what I'm doing with tags and all this stuff. But the way I see it, like I'm, I'll be 35 in a couple weeks and how many.

Now's a good time to start putting in for points.

How many seasons do I have left? No, I've given up on that. I'm going to be an OTC guy probably forever. Maybe I'll draw a cool Montana tag one of these years, but I'm just looking for as many opportunities. I don't care how good the hunt is. I want to hunt as many states as possible, however I can, because it's like, dude, how long do I have till my. My knees go, you know?

Yeah.

I start thinking about that stuff. I'll be 50 in 15 years. That's devastating.

No, man, we're gonna be hunting. My goal is to be still elk hunting. At 72, dude, Chuck Adams is still killing giants. Like, that's. Yeah, that day.

Yeah, same.

Yeah. So anyway, yeah. What's your words of wisdom on the season?

Pray hard. Get lucky. Elk don't exist.

Elk don't exist.

Have more. Have if you have fun and take the pressure off of it. And just. That was like. What I would tell myself is like, you're. Yes, Dylan, you're retarded. Okay. Given fact. Got it. You know how to do this. You've never done it before, but you know a little bit what you're doing. Like, just hunt. Don't overthink. Just hunt the way 12 years of podcasts have taught you. You know, five years of being friends with Cody, and he has to repeat the same things and fix the same mistakes I make every year. Why don't you actually just listen and. And do it the way you know how to do it? So it wasn't overthinking stuff. Like, one bull bugles, and I go, please, please, please, please just hunt. And I don't know, I just hunted a lot more free this year. I don't know how else to explain it. I think if you're in elk, you can get lucky. Yes. There's some stuff, you know, especially. So everything just kind of has to go right. And knowing that, having no expectations, just like, I'm gonna go enjoy hunting. And I don't know, it just, like, freed up my headspace a little bit, I think. Didn't overthink stuff.

Yeah.

Just stuck with the game plan, changed it where I needed to, and it. And it happened to work out. And to anyone listening, if you've never killed a bull, it took me 10 years. Take. Kill one with a rifle. Next year I did it on public land, and then this year killed one with a bow after 12 years of trying. If it can happen for me. It can certainly happen for anybody. Yeah, you gotta believe, dude. Ted Lasso.

Believe, believe, dude.

That's my man.

Yeah. And I was thinking, honestly, get around elk. The more elk the better. You know, if you could find elk, you could stay in elk that like you could be a Dylan and still kill an elk if you're around.

Yeah, man. Yes. A blind finds a nut or whatever the saying is. Clip it.

Yeah, dude.

Sorry about that one, mom. Yeah, get around elk. And that was in my head too, of like cover ground till you, till you find elk and you know, talk to somebody's and met some people and they're like, dude, it's just not hearing elk. And that's always in my head. You've told me that before of like were the elk not talking or were you not even close to any elk? And this year that kind of proved true. Cuz everywhere I went, elk were talking. I just had to go hard in the paint and find them. And once I think that's huge piece.

Of it is like the whole nucleus of elk thing is like, sure, there's elk here. If they're not talking, I'm finding new elk. And like there are places where that's not like where you're just not gonna have talking elk. I just don't want to hunt hard elk. Right? Like, if you can hunt easy elk, hunt easy elk. And it does like feel like if you're in the nucleus of like the elk party, they're gonna be talking. Right? Like so I think a lot of people will spend too much time like, there's elk here. I see elk, there's oak sign. But like, it's the hardest elk to hunt in the world. The wind's all wrong, they're not talking. You're like, well, why are you hunting those elk? Like, go on easy, easier elk, try to find easier elk.

Yeah, it's easier said than done, brother. I made a brand called elk don't exist for that reason. Yeah, got a little lucky this year. But that came from hunting the same spots. That's another tip you told me. It's like so many people bounce and I think there's like, that's good. But like, I knew there's elk here. I saw them all rifle season. When I bear hunt here, I'm seeing cows at the same spots. We know there's elk here. And yeah, in my experience, like if you get into them, even elk that are silent once they get within a hundred yards, I feel like almost every time you at least hear cows Chirp.

Yeah, yeah.

Like they like to talk. I think some places they just don't. And. And listen. At the end of the day, never take hunting advice from me. Right. We all know that. We've established that. I think it's my fourth time on your podcast. This is just what happened to work for me. And next year could be a complete shit show again. Who knows? But yeah, dude, I just feel very, like, very thankful. Very lucky. People keep saying your brand is going to die. Hey, good. I want to get really good at this. I want to kill a six point this next year. You know, I've got three five by fives now or one's a three by four. Biggest frame bull I've ever killed. But yeah, this is my biggest bull too. So freaking jacked, dude.

Consistency. Consistency kills. All right, if people don't know Dylan has a brand called Elk Don't Exist, they got sweet merch. Go buy some merch from the Elk Don't Exist dot com.

And I wore the black on black Elk Don't Exist hat. It is lucky I've proven it. Found my first elk shed in that hat this last year.

What's that thing where, like, you say one thing but you're like secretly hoping for another and it's like, you know, if you wear a hat that says Elk don't exist, they'll be everywhere.

Yeah, dude, it's a reminder. Like, you. You see yourself on the camera, you look at yourself in the mirror and you're like, oh, yeah, this is all fun and stupid and government propaganda anyways. We might as well just go have a good time and then that frees you up to kill elk, apparently. I don't know. Yeah, check out elkdonexist.com that's how I make the majority of my income. So I appreciate everyone, all the new orders. I started a podcast a month ago. It's called Elk don't Exist. The pod with me, your host, Dylan Deets. That has been a ton of fun. A like and a review would go a long way for me. It is more humor and comedy entertainment forward with an emphasis on hunting. Have some great guests on there already. Cody, you were episode number one. That was a really fun pod. That was a really fun time. Just did a solo podcast recapping the hunt and then sharing questions. That's on. It's on YouTube. Dylan Deets. D I L L O N D E I T Z. Go to the podcast link and it's available. Video is on Spotify and YouTube and then audio everywhere else. And then follow me on Instagram, man. That's where I do most of my good work. Mediocre hunting jokes at Dylan Deets. D I L L O N D E I T E Z Nice man.

Well, good luck on the on the backcountry hunt. Hopefully you guys find great success.

Nice, dude. My wife.

All right, later man.

All right, thanks buddy. See you.

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.