Ep. 118: Phelps 2024 Recap, Highlights, and Gear Used
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Welcome back to another episode of Cutting the Distance. Today's episode will be the first here in 2025, and I just wanted to take the time to kind of recap my hunts from 2024, you know, tell some stories, and also talk about some of the gear that we used on those, and just kind of how the hunts turned out, you know, that we may not have told in those hunt recaps.

So we're going to start like every podcast. And if you have questions for me or our guests, feel free to email them to us at ctd at phelpsgamecalls.com. And we'll do our best to get them in here on the podcast. But these are just some of the questions that I've received, you know, that we get throughout the year. I just got this one the other day. If you could redo any of your hunts this year, which one would it be?

And I love every hunt this year. I had a great time, you know, from start to finish. But if I had to go back and redo one of my hunts this year, it would probably be that New Mexico archery elk hunt with Luke Combs for a couple of reasons.

Uh, you know, first he, you know, he's a, he's a blast to hang out with. We, we, we're laughing the whole time, but we had, I would say there's some unfinished business on that one. You know, we had lots of opportunities, you know, Luke passed on some bulls, um, you know, some arrows were let loose and, uh, I would really like a chance to, to get back there. And, um, you know, the, the hunt was pretty short.

Um, just kind of redo that one and see if we couldn't, you know, have, have a different outcome. Um, you know, we found some different areas there towards the end that, that were, you know, producing, you know, as far as bugles and had more elk in the area. Um, so that's probably the one, um, man, you know, the, the Alaska doll sheep is, is probably a real close second. You know, one of my dream hunts, the same thing, you know, if I could redo the Idaho mountain lion hunt, um, pretty good.

pretty good hunts and, uh, wish, wish I could, you know, redo those. But, uh, yeah, for, for unfinished business reasons in New Mexico archery, I'll come with Luke would, would be probably the highest on the list. Um,

The next question we get, you know, or just randomly throughout the year is kind of what's your favorite new gear or they'll see a picture, you know, in a new backpack or using a new knife. You know, what was my favorite new gear for 2025? And I didn't get a whole lot. I'm basically going to give you the list of what I tried new, but it did perform. And I was really, you know, kind of excited about how it how it works. So first off is one of our, you know, kind of a

inside of our own companies doing, um, Montana knife company and Steve worked together on a new stub horn knife. Um, before that I was using, uh, a bench made, uh, S90V. I don't know exactly what the model was, but it was kind of my go-to. I'd been using it for the last four or five years. Really liked it. But the, the stub horn, um, not to, not to get too far in the weeds uses a new magnet cut steel. It seemed like it held the edge a lot longer. Um, it was,

it was easier to sharpen and, and it has some really, really good, um,

you know, characteristics of a hunting knife for me. Um, yeah, I think when I was in Kansas, I used the knife on three white tails, never even touched it up. Um, you know, through elk season, we used it on three elk. I think I touched it up a couple of times. Um, the knife is for me, it's the right weight. It's the right length. Um, and you know, these little things as you're breaking down animals, you have the efficiency and the ability to kind of, to move a little faster. I really liked that, that new knife. Um, and then, um,

We just did an episode on the muzzleloaders. I can't say enough about that Remington 700 muzzleloader with the arrowhead breach. And then you take... The rules changed here in Washington where we were allowed to use a 1X red dot. So I topped it with the Leupold Freedom RDS, the red dot sight. And that thing...

Usually when I'm out with an older, let's say five years ago, we were out with a Northwest edition or style, Northwest legal muzzleloader, open sights. I was comfortable to 100, 150 in very perfect conditions. Yeah, it should be a primitive type weapon. Maybe that's where we should be limited to, but the rules are allowing us to, with modern ignitions, with the use of 1X sights,

um stretch our range out and just confidence at closer ranges i was able to loan the gun out to a couple other muzzleloader hunters and uh they just said the confidence they had on 120 to you know 120 yard shot 140 yard shot and to hit the elk exactly where they wanted um and and you kind of take some of that air out of what i would say the older muzzleloaders um introduced uh like i said the the

the another new i got a new bow but really just for the kansas white tail i hunted with my my bow from last year uh a darton veracity 35 um in the mexico elk and you know i didn't hunt a lot um on that hunt but i did get a new uh sequel 35 st2

prior to the Kansas whitetail hunt. And I just, I love the boat draws great. It's, you know, got some tunability to, to get my broad heads dialed in real quick if they're not hitting perfect with my field points. So there's not a bunch of chasing with my site. Um,

really, really liked that, that, um, bow, um, set up with fairly heavy arrows. I'm not a, I'm not that guy that wants to be crazy heavy. I carried my arrows over from my old setup and I was shooting 270 feet per second, but the bow just shot really, really well. It was really easy to tune and really, really consistent. So I really, um, you know, like that bow. Um,

Yeah, some people may say it's a little long, 35 inches out of a tree stand, but for a guy like myself, I like the string angle, it full draw. Everything just fits me well and it's comfortable to shoot.

And then really the only other thing I used this year, you know, in the past, I was always using a duplex frame from Kefaro. I did use that same pack on the dull sheep hunt, but in between the sheep hunt and starting my elk hunts in between August and September, I was able to get my hands on one of the new Kefaro arc frames with a new hoodlum bag. And I really, really liked that setup.

Um, you know, I'm, I'm six foot three. I am all torso. So the frame was a little short, you know, I think it's only 25 inch, um, frame, you know, I've been used to 26 is, and then, um, my buddy Aaron Snyder used to make me 28, um, kind of custom, um, for my longer torso so I can get some lift, but the arc 25, even though it's maybe a little bit short for a guy like myself, um,

I would say it's going to perform great for 95% of the people out there. It did a very good job, you know, on some heavy loads, both on the White River and

I'm reading off my notes here, you know, my white river elk tag. And it also did really, really well on the Idaho mule deer tag. Um, you know, where I had some heavy loads for long trips and it, it performed as good as can be, you know, expected with heavy loads that are going to be uncomfortable, no matter what pack yet you have on, uh, performed really well. So I was, I, you know, those are really my only new pieces of gear. Um, it performed really, really well. Um,

um, you know, I've, I did try some new crispies out, um, you know, the mountain pro in the brick stall line. Um, you know, but I've always, the brick stalls have always fit my feet well on the sheep hunt. I've tried those, they, they performed really well. Um, so it's not really new gear, but they, um, it was in kind of a new model, a taller boot for me. And

Um, really liked the performance of those as well, but that kind of wraps it up as far as new stuff that I tried. I'm a pretty simple guy. Um, if it works, it works. I don't need to be changing all the time. Um, but, but those were, you know, kind of the standouts I do really like, you know, from, from first light, I really liked that 308 pant. Um,

I'm not just saying that because they're a sister company, you know, to Phillips game calls. I really do like that pant. And I believe it's a big improvement over what we've, you know, what I've had in the past from them. Um, so, um, like that. And then if I had to pick a favorite hunt of the year, what would it be? Um, man, in this year of 2024, I got to check some of my, my dream hunts, my bucket list hunts off. And I would say it's a tie. Um,

You know, I was probably more excited about the dull sheep hunt just because there was such a long buildup. I had booked that hunt back in 2020. Um, and it was one I really look forward to. So I had four years of waiting for it to get here and prepare for it. And then the Idaho mountain lion, um, hunt was kind of a, it kind of sprung on you real quick. You had, you know, you'd be hunting within a month or two.

But it was a chance to finally hunt, you know, big mature toms behind the dogs. So I would say it's kind of split the Idaho mountain lion hunt and then the Alaska doll sheep hunt. And then both of them, you know,

I'm not one of those guys that the experience is important, but I also look at a hunt and then like for how did, what were, what were the results? And unfortunately for me on both of those hunts, um, you know, I was able to take very good representations of those species on those hunts. And so, um, yeah, I, I really liked those, those two as they'll probably be the only time, maybe the only time I ever get to do it. So, um,

Favorite hunts of the year, Idaho mountain lion and Alaska doll sheep, you know, mountain lion hunt. I loved it. The people you're around, great people, Alaska doll sheep, same thing. You know, Matt Snyder, um, was awesome to be around and just the country that you get to see on that, you know, those sheep hunts and, um, it is pretty dang cool. So those are my favorite hunts of the year.

And once again, you have questions for me or my guests, please feel free to email them to us at ctd at phelpsgamecalls.com or get a hold of us on social media, any of our accounts, shoot the questions there, our personal social media accounts. And that's typically where I grab these questions from. So yeah. So now we're going to roll right into the 2024 hunt recap. I just talked about this hunt a little bit.

I was fortunate enough to be able to hunt, um, you know, mountain lions in Idaho, uh, behind mine hounds. Um, that's, that's great. So you're kind of, you know, you're, he's got some clients in, and so you're trying to look at the schedule. How's this all going to work? And when can, you know, we hunt, when are we going to have the right weather? Well, as luck would have it, it seems like at times, everything that I do doesn't seem to go to plan.

uh, Idaho had a horrible winter, um, with a little bit of early, um, you know, snow in early January when we could have got hunting, but, um, you know, had some other clients booked. And then we get into show season, consumer show season for both, um, myself and, and my buddy Bradley. And so we were trying to match schedules. And one of the mornings I woke up

Um, you know, I get up around six o'clock, get usually get my, my kids up for school and, you know, kind of get my morning started. I had a text as soon as I woke up from Bradley says, I think this is our window. You need to get over here. Um, so bless my wife, um, who's able to quickly, you know, pivot and, and put some more on her plate. Um, within about an hour, I was packed up completely and, uh, leaving for Idaho to go, you know, chase cats for, for a couple of days.

We get there. Bradley's doing a bunch of running around trying to just locate a cat. As we're pulling into Idaho, Bradley calls me. He's going back to get his dogs. He had cut a track and to meet us at a certain spot. So we all get there. The

We I bring I want to use my bow, which is, you know, sometimes I kind of chuckle like, what's it matter to the cats in a tree? Why do you you know, why does it matter if you use your bow or a gun at that point? It's just pulling the trigger. But I elected to bring my bow down and it was in a very steep location and a very tall tree. And so it created all kinds of issues with getting people.

um you know a decent shot angle and as we climbed up the hill so that we could start to look more level with the cat his vitals were blocked and we just had some issues um and thankfully uh we had brought a 30 30 along just in case the cat you know was able to get out of the tree wounded it doesn't get any dogs or we can finish it um you know quickly and

So, uh, we're, we're getting ready. We're kind of walking around, you know, the, the, the tree trying to find a shot angle. And you can see the cat start to back down the tree and ultimately gets about 20 feet from the ground and bails out over top of, of everybody's head. And we're chasing again. We had run up, let the dogs, we already had the dogs, you know, leashed so that the, you know, they don't try to chase the cat when it's wounded and everything. So we let them go. We're, we're chasing again. Well, um,

it was pretty awesome at turn of events. The cat ran away and then came right back on its backtrack and walked right under us. And we were able to see from the garment that the cat was gonna, so we actually got to watch the cat kind of sneak through and slither through. And the dogs were, you know, 20, 30 seconds behind it at that point. Um, and, and came up and then the cat, if some of you haven't seen the video on YouTube, um, the cat ends up, um,

you know, just baying up on a rock. The cat had had enough. He wasn't going back up a tree. He's going to sit there. And then the pressure was on. So the bow was out of the picture. We needed to kill the cat. You know, I can, Bradley's, you know, he's like, hey, you got to make a good shot. You know, you can kill my dogs. And so now I've got this extra pressure. And then they hand you a 30-30 that you've never shot.

And I don't know, you know, I instantly went back to my younger days when I'm out in the yard with my BB gun, remembering like, man, there's a lot of ways to kind of cite these open sites in, you know, did they hold, you know, did they cite in what the front...

the front post level. Some guys would sight in with front post halfway through so you can actually see over your target because you kind of block the bottom side. And so I start to ask a few questions and then I didn't want to overcomplicate it. And then me and Bradley are also talking a little bit about on the animal, like where we need to hit it to grab lung and spine and do all of this stuff so that we don't get any dogs injured. So now I'm

I mean, it's 30 degrees out, but I'm sweating to death because I've got to try to make a perfect shot on this cat that doesn't harm the harm the dogs. And, um, you know, so thankfully as I, as I squeeze the trigger on that 30, 30 kind of made sure to just walk myself through, you know, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. Uh,

was fortunate to hit the cat perfect on a pretty steep uphill shot. We went in about mid body and kind of just clipped the spine as it went out the other side and caught the other lung. And, um, the cat was thankfully dead as it fell off, you know, maybe a hundred foot rock on the other side. No dogs were injured. Uh, you know, everything worked out great and it was a great, great cat. So, um, yeah, those hunts, I love hunting with Idaho whitetail guides, you know, it,

you know, Bradley Damerman and Amy, they do a great job there. And it's just, it's a fun hunt. It's a lot of hard work for him because of the dogs and getting up early and running tracks. Um, you know, we get up early, but we don't have to do hardly any of the work. We just ride around in the side by side or, uh,

what would be you know what whatever it may be but for that day but it's a lot of fun i really enjoy you know drinking coffee and hanging out and talking about you know stories of past for the areas that we're in and you know what he's chased and what canyons um yeah so that was that was an awesome hunt um just got an update from phil sousey over there in libby montana he's actually mountain

um that cat for me this week so we've been working back and forth on um you know how how it needs to sit and be arranged we're really excited to see how that one turns out um then we kind of you know for us we changed gears a little bit we go turkey hunting um you know we were able to go to kansas and washington this year um i do want to share one thing i'm going to talk about on it's not necessarily gear but it's kind of a new system i found to keep ticks

off of me and away from me um at least on my legs which is where i would get 90 of them um

So, you know, we would always put gators on. Well, the one thing is if you have any loose spots on your gators, when you're sitting down or have your foot bent, if a tick, you know, 90% of them are going to come up off of your, your feet or your boots that are touching the ground. Anyways, they will climb up, get under there, get under your pant. And the majority of them, you know, you have where your gators will typically be tight at your shin. I was getting, you know, anything that I had latched on was right at that line because they'd be able to get up under my

Gator and under my pant leg and go up. So I got on Amazon and they have just these stretchy Velcro, um, things that are made for guys that write, you know, guys or gals that ride bikes to keep your pants out of your sprockets and whatnot. So what I do now is I pull my pants down over my boot as far as I can and tighten that thing. And I use two on each leg, basically Velcroing or elasticking my boot, um,

you know, my pant to my boot, or you could also use athletic tape, anything that you could get extremely tight and basically not allow anything up above that. And then I put my gator up and over, um, as well. And, and I, I was able to hunt Kansas and Washington this year with no ticks, um, which is a new record for me. Um, you know, I had a couple of lone star ticks, uh,

from Kansas a couple years ago and thankfully I must have not got the old alpha gal because I'm still able to eat red meat but it's just it's very nerve-wracking when you know that one in 50 you know to to one in 40 of those things could potentially give you you know alpha gal which I do not want I don't want to deal with not being able to eat red meat so this system worked and and you combine that with permethrin um I I wasn't you know I don't

I didn't get any ticks on me this year. You know, tuck your shirt in, at least your first layer of shirt. Wear a very tight belt, you know, as tight as you can handle it. I spray my net gaiter in permethrin and seems to work. Didn't have any issues. The two states, though, one thing, you know, obviously you're hunting a different bird. In Kansas, we're hunting Easterns. In Washington, we're hunting Merriams.

The funny thing is I enjoy them both, but they're completely different hunts. In Kansas, you will walk maybe 200 yards from wherever you park your buggy or your side-by-side, whatever it may be. I'm joking a little bit. We will run and gun. But a lot of times, we're just...

You know, we're setting up in the morning. Easterns are pretty stubborn, so we'll sit and call. We'll maybe move ridge to ridge, but we don't really want to bump these birds or, you know, mess with them too much. So a lot of times Kansas will be a long morning sit. You're typically on, you know, gobbling birds.

and, and yeah, you know, you don't kill anything by 10. You go in for breakfast, Washington, you're hiking all day. There were days in Washington where, you know, we'd put 12, 14, 15 miles on. And I had to, had to laugh because our buddies from Kansas that we hunt with their Randy Coy, Brock, James, uh, Harrison, those guys all came out and they, they joked. They said that for the one bird that they killed, they had hiked more on that bird than all of their other birds combined. Uh,

Um, and it's just, it's just that difference of, you know, hunting, um, public Timberland ground. We're going to have to put miles on, you know, to get into the good spots where in Kansas, you know, hunting more ag ground, it's easier to get on the birds. You have to move as much. Um, and Washington, um, the time we were hunting there, we were early in Kansas, which seems to be better. And we were a little bit later into may in Washington. And so the, the hunting was good all day. And so we kind of hunted all day, um, put on a lot of ground and we're really trying to strike those birds, you know, middle of the day.

Um, but I was fortunate on those two hunts. Um, I'm mounting my first turkey ever.

I was able to kill a great four-year-old in Kansas and the Washington bird that I killed was probably the biggest Miriam I'll ever kill, but it was later in the season. And he was, you know, his, uh, you know, chest was all, you know, all the feathers were had fallen out and he was pretty rough, had a lot of pitch on him. And, um, so I, I elected that he was a very pretty bird though. Um, but probably my two best representations of those birds that I've, I've, you know, we'll ever kill or maybe, you know, they, they were good birds. Um,

Now, I always joke where it's like, yeah, they're a little smarter, but I don't know what I'm shooting when I'm shooting them. I just know that they're a long beard and it could be a two-year-old and they just happen to be four-year-olds. So, no, great.

great turkey hunts um i really enjoy you know some people don't like turkey hunting that's fine you don't have to like i like getting out in the spring it's also a good reminder on how bad out of shape i am from from the christmas carryover in the in the show season so it's a little it's a good little reminder to get my butt back in the gym uh back on the stair climber and uh get ready for for fall seasons we had a quick little stop next in um spring bear in idaho it was later um

you know, in, in June. So I just love watching the dogs work. Um, you know, Bradley started to give me a little bit of grief that every time I show up, we have, um, long races on bears that bay up and won't tree. So, um, my very first time with Bradley, we let off on a dog and I think we spent till two or three in the afternoon trying to get, get all the dogs back off a bear that just refused to go up of a tree. You know, a lot of his dogs were banged up.

So fast forward to this year, we let off on the first bear. Um, we, we get on and he takes us into no man's land. There was no easy way to get to this, you know, bear from any direction. And he would never tree. He was just bouncing back and forth and back and forth. Um, and, and roadless country. Um, there were roads on kind of each side, at least three sides of them roads, not so much on the other side. And thankfully that bear cooperated and didn't go out of the country, but, uh,

that, you know, a bad barrier ended up being about a 200 pound, um, boar. And as I mentioned on, on the, the lion hunt is there's some danger to the dogs on wounded animals. And so me and Bradley, um, were able to get the four layers close to these, you know, to the dogs and the bears we can. And it was just a mad dash to some cliff country, you know, sprint and running as fast as you can. And we got down in there and, uh, Bradley, uh,

you know, I was, we were right behind him, but Bradley decided on this one, he was just gonna, you know, take the bear. He doesn't like to as the guide, but he's always got a tag and able to, um, the, the bear was so beat. He was just laying in a puddle in a Creek and the dogs were still being pretty aggressive on him. And, um, Bradley was able to kind of shoot down on the bear and dispatch that one. And then, you know, for the next couple of days, the dogs ran great, but just long chases, like some that took us way out of the country, uh,

Um, and, uh, you know, just, just long chases with it, you know, hard on the dogs, um, you know, moving a lot of ground. And then we were able to treat a couple, but just some small, small young bears. But once again, you know, just getting to go over there and watch the dogs work. Um, I really, really enjoy that.

Next up was the Alaska doll sheep. Like I mentioned earlier, booked it in 24. Um, I always kind of joke. I didn't think my wife would know how much the hunt cost if I paid for it for, you know, over four years and just made installments and it wouldn't seem as bad. So that was my, that was my joke. And I wanted to selfishly be the first time of the year with Matt. So the idea was, uh,

I'll book far enough out that I'm the very first son of the year. In my mind, it helps you with, you know, with a good summer scout and the sheep haven't been bothered by every hunter that, you know, the legal Rams been pushed around. Um, I was a little worried going into the hunt because there was a time on the third installment where they, he said, just keep your money. The sheep aren't looking good. We don't even know if we're going to have a season. So now I start to get worried, like, cause you're gonna have to refund my money. Am I even going to get the hunt? Um,

but Matt was able, you know, anybody that's got to hunt with Matt or knows Matt, like he's, he's determined, he's a hard worker and he was still getting his clients all shot opportunity. So the year before I went 2023, um, all three hunters got shots to hit one, missed a 300, I believe a 300 yard shot or a doable shot. Um, so I was excited. I had looked forward to this one for a long time, gotten really good shape and, uh,

The logistics to Alaska are an addition to the experience. You fly up there. For us, we were able to just do a Turo rental, which is kind of cool. I was able to find a truck that had four-wheel drive, and then it's a long drive in Alaska. You've only got a couple airports, and it was a six-hour drive from the airport.

um but then it was time to sheep hunt and it was everything i could dream of it was the country you've seen you know the the steepness of the country the ruggedness of the country um the sheep are just absolutely you know beautiful animals um and i was i was stoked to get to hunt that way i also love the idea that it's a spike out hunt right i at times i i miss those hunts um but

I loved that we were going to load up food for seven days and that was our... We were leaving...

was seven days. And when that food was gone, we were either going to have a sheep or not. We were living on the side of the mountain. We were going to live with them. Um, you know, Matt had a pretty good plan. He was able to go into this country and make sure there was some legal Rams. And then we just had to figure out how to hunt it. Um, right off the bat, I was a little nervous though. And you could tell Matt's an experienced guy. He kind of felt us out and could see that we could zip up through the rocks pretty well. But then we got into these big scree fields and

if you're not from Alaska or haven't spent a lot of time navigating that, when you looked across the Canyon and he kind of showed us our route, I kind of questioned him. I'm like, are we really going to be able to, or are we going to, you know, and so we, we get across there and from, it's not as bad when you get there and you, when you finally get confident enough that the big steep scree fields that you're in are eventually going to stop rolling and you're, you know, you're only going to drop a foot and, um,

Yeah, I mean, there were a couple little cliffy areas to navigate, which had some risk involved. But for the most part, once you get over there, you're able to do a lot more in the rocks than you could think just looking across at them. And it's just, man, I know it's financial issues.

you know, there's some financial constraints on everybody being able to do that hunt in Alaska, but man, I'm, I'm ready to go back. I don't, I don't necessarily say I've got the Alaska bug, but I'm definitely looking hard at doing a moose hunt or something of that nature. Um, just to get back to Alaska and kind of experience it's it's wildness and just,

how big it is. And, um, it just, it's, I like that. It seems like it's kind of, it hasn't been touched. It's, it's still 50, 60, 70 years behind where we're at down here. Um, you know, in the, in the lower 48. And I really liked that about Alaska.

Well, white river elk tag. So I killed an elk in 2023 that had hoof rot. I was put into a incentive draw. I was one of the lucky 19. And then within that lucky 19, I was able to get the tag that I wanted, which gave me an incentive tag, um, which I was, I was stoked about was the unit I wanted to hunt. Um, so you get all of your, your trail cams out and everything where you'd seen elk and just

The report from the trail cams is a little bit dismal. Nothing big was showing up where we thought it would. Nothing as big as in past had shown up. So we kind of go on a little scouting mission. My whole idea going into this is we'll just go up there on September 1st.

and you know quickly kill an elk when it's patternable before the rut really gets going well guess what there were no mature big bulls to kill um so we basically spent six or seven days up there walking and hiking um with nothing really worth hunting um i had to leave for the new mexico archery elk hunt which i'll get to in a little bit um and and then i was able to come back

And one of the conditions of this tag is you can hunt with any weapon when there's no other seasons in this unit. So, you know, before archery, between archery and muzzleloader. But if it's archery season, you have to hunt with your bow. If it's muzzleloader season, you have to switch to your muzzleloader for that time. And then, you know, you can alternate back and forth.

So I had a couple of days left when I got home from New Mexico to hunt with a rifle. I'm thinking, all right, it's September. I don't remember what day, 25th or 26th. I had a couple of days left chasing beagles everywhere, beagling bulls and all over, but nothing with any size starting to get pretty frustrated.

Well, we end the, you know, it's the night before muzzleloader starts and we sit on what sounds like a big bull turned out not to be a very big bull. And so now I've got to switch over to my muzzleloader, um, and make things a little more different. You know, you got, now you've got a lot more people out in the woods with you. I'll be at only, I believe eight or 10 or something. I don't know how many, but you've got people with new energy, maybe more willing to get into the areas that you want it to. Once again, still nothing showing up on my trail cameras.

Um, and so it was a struggle. We spent, um, you know, a couple of days with the muzzleloader looking for, for elk and just couldn't find big ones or big enough ones. And then finally we hiked back into where we had heard the big bugle the last night of the rifle and was able to, there was a new bull in the area. Um, you know, a mature six point and it was, it allowed me to hunt the way I wanted to, you know, we were two and a half hours in on a trail, um, you know, in there,

Pretty deep. And I just, I didn't want to, in this unit, you could kill smaller bulls or even decent bulls off the road or near a road. And this was the way I wanted to do it. And so I was able to take a great bull in some beautiful country, some rugged country, and get that one out. So we talked about that New Mexico archery elk hunt with Luke. So probably if I had the most, you know, my most requested question of the year is probably, how is Luke in real life?

And I think everybody's like, oh, yeah, he's awesome because he might be listening to this. But you couldn't convince me that he isn't a guy that grew up right alongside me in my town. He is super funny. We always cracking jokes, keeping everything light, which I really appreciate. And he's just.

I, I, I want to hesitate using the word, you know, redneck or, you know, he's just a country boy that loves doing country things. He was very interested in wanting to know a lot. So I like people that don't just want to, you know, it could have been just real easy, you know, him tag along with me and Jeremy, but it was really a, he was asked a lot of good questions. Like he was paying attention. He wanted to know why they were doing this or why we were doing that. Um,

So it, it, it made for a really fun hunt, um, with a new hunter. And I have a ton of respect for Luke because we talked about it. He could have hunted anywhere at any time with any weapon, you know, with, with his, uh, ability and resources. And he elected to come do it on public land, um, alongside of a bunch of other hunters. And we, we made the most of it. You know, he passed on a couple, you know, chip shots on some legal bulls. Um, we've had some chances at some bigger ones. Um,

Um, you know, I just really enjoyed hanging out with Luke and then, um, you know, his buddy Carl that was there. Um, it was, it was a lot of fun and, uh, I hope to get to do it again this year. Um, we've got some plans in the work. So, um, yeah, New Mexico archery elk, it was tough though.

To recap the hunt, people driving side-by-sides where they shouldn't, areas where we had spent the time and energy and effort to hike into and then to get elk bumped by side-by-sides. Just kind of a bum deal. There are a lot of people in those units. The elk were all kind of congregated to the water. Typical public land elk hunt. You got to deal with people. Just unfortunate that some of them weren't playing by the rules at times.

Another strong runner up for one of my favorite hunts. So after all of that, we go to Idaho Mule Deer.

It had a strong runner up for one of my favorite hunts because we lived off of our back for eight days straight on this. This Idaho Mule Deer Elk Hunt was a collab that we were going to do with Tall Timber Productions. Focus on elk and we can find deer when convenient or when available. And I would say it flipped really quick when we were seeing elk everywhere without mature bulls and the bulls we were hearing beagle were still spikes.

And we were seeing some pretty good deer. And so the Idaho meal deer or the Idaho hunt turned into a deer hunt really, really quick. Um, and I just, I love hunting deer.

um, and on hunts that the logistics are a little difficult. Like, you know, you might have to drive here and side by side to here and then hike to here. And then every morning you've got to pick a different mountaintop to go glass from. And, you know, you, uh, after day one, you start to learn, you know, what faces or aspects or have deer on it. And then, you know, where's the sunlight. You don't want to glass into the wrong spots. Um,

The hunt was unseasonably warm, so we also knew that our morning glass and a little bit at night had to be, we were only going to see animals for very short windows in the morning and night. But really, really liked that. We were able to take two really good bucks out of the area and just really enjoyed hunting with my buddy Tyson and just mule deer in the mountains where I feel like it's a real level field.

And, uh, yeah, I really enjoyed it. Met some great people in and around the area. Yeah. There were a lot of people, but the deer hunting was still pretty decent. Um, if you worked for it.

We all took decent bucks on that hunt. The Tall Timber guys ended up with a couple of bulls there towards the end. We ended up leaving, but really excited to try to do that one again this year. Then to finish up my season, we'll go to Kansas again and our whitetail hunt that we do with our buddy Randy and Brock and Koi every year.

I I've really grown to, to like the whitetail hunt for different reasons. I just said, I really liked the Idaho mule deer hunt because we were backpacking in and that I really liked the whitetail hunt because it's the opposite. I sleep in a bed, a warm house, you know, a stove, an oven, a barbecue. We got the, you know, the, the gas stations got pizza. We got breakfast when we want it. It's the complete opposite. And it's really made by the people in the place. Um,

Some of these areas of Kansas, uh, the people you deal with are just salt of the earth as good as they get. You know, some of our friends that we get to hang out with are just great people, great storytellers. And I really, really like it. And, you know, just being around them and the atmosphere. And then there's just something about sitting in a tree stand, you know, in the morning when it's dark and kind of letting the world wake up around you. Um, I really enjoy that. Um,

And just, you know, the rustling of the leaves and, you know, hearing a deer come from a hundred yards away, cause you can hear them in the Oak leaves. Um, just everything about it. It's just, it, you know, it kind of excites your different senses than, than maybe sitting behind binoculars or a spotter all day. When you finally spot the one you want, um, it's different. And so I was very fortunate this year. Um, that one of my favorite stands, my favorite areas I get to hunt, um, on the top is what we call it.

I was very fortunate within an hour to, to have, you know, my best whitetail come in, um, and, and put a perfect arrow in it. Uh, such on the, my favorite gear from that, that Darton sequel, uh, 35 ST two, um, and iron will, you know, a lot of whitetail hunters, I would say the majority of them are shooting expandables nowadays. And they, they talk about, you know, bigger entrance holes and bigger exit holes and, you know, quicker, quicker, uh,

you know, the, the, the deer expires faster. I'm, uh, I'm going to start hitting stopwatches, um, or, or go back and review some of this footage. Uh, I ended up shooting three deer on that hunt, you know, one buck and two does. And, uh,

The iron wheels performed amazing. Like I, yeah, I don't know if a, of an expandable would have killed them any faster. You know, the buck was dead within seven seconds, maybe seven to 10. Um, the dough IQ, you know, within seven to 10 on a dead sprint made it 150 yards. Um, and then the one dough, you know, died on arrival. Um, I mean,

you know, hit it, hit it kind of a downwards frontal through the shoulder. Um, you know, was able to kind of just plan it and anchor it right there. Um, so I really liked that setup. The iron wills do great. Um, the, the bow is super comfortable to draw. Um, you know, I can imagine even if it was, you know, cold and people have trouble drawing their normal draw weight, like just really easy to, to make work on, on that hunt, uh, out of a tree. But

That's kind of my wrap for 24. I don't know what 25 brings. We're able to secure some tags already. We'll see what Washington brings. And then we've got, I've got some really good odds of drawing tags that I've been waiting for in Montana, Colorado, and Utah. So I'm gonna have to kind of figure out what I want to do, but I'm kind of, you know, we're just getting over with 2024 and I'm already in 2025 planning mode. So if you have any questions is, you know, for us, you know, I kind of nerd out on, you

on planning and I've got, you know, in this state, I'm going to do this in this state. I'm going to do this. If you have any questions on, on the draws or applications, we'll probably throw a podcast out on that coming up just on how we think about it and how we, we manage all of the applications and what we're looking for in each state. And, uh, you know, we can give our opinion on what each state provides.

But feel free to shoot those questions over to us. But we hope you all had a great 2024 and here's to a great 2025. And I can't thank you all enough for tuning in to Cutting the Distance. Take care.