The MeatEater Podcast - Ep. 004

Episode Date: March 6, 2015

Bozeman, Montana. After 4 days of elk hunting in the Sweetgrass Hills of Montana, Steven Rinella talks with Ryan Callaghan, Janis Putelis and first time hunters Brittany Brothers and Helen Cho. Subjects discussed include: good hunts for first time hunters; searching for hearts and livers in gut piles left by other hunters; hunter's safety courses; what happens when you carry a New Yorker magazine, an Alaska driver’s license, and a pocket knife on a NYC subway; how to say "MeatEater Podcast" in Latvian; the fact that Janis Putelis, a.k.a. Long Tong, has been in on 100 elk kills; women hunters; the conundrum of hunter recruitment; and getting really depressed when a hunt goes bad. Mentioned links and notes: Squarespace.com - use the code MEATEATER at checkout to get 10% off and help support the MeatEater Podcast. Ryan Callaghan once addressing a bear "Smell us now, lady". Sweetgrass Hills Colonial Rifle and Pistol Club in Staten Island Podsurvey.com/MeatEater Connect with Steve and MeatEaterSteve on Instagram and TwitterMeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YoutubeShop MeatEater Merch Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey folks, exciting news for those who live or hunt in Canada. You might not be able to join our raffles and sweepstakes and all that because of raffle and sweepstakes law, but hear this. OnX Hunt is now in Canada. It is now at your fingertips, you Canadians. The great features that you love in OnX are available for your hunts this season. Now the Hunt app is a fully functioning GPS with hunting maps that include public and crown land, hunting zones, aerial imagery, 24K topo maps, waypoints and tracking. You can even use offline maps to see where you are

without cell phone service as a special offer. You can get a free three months to try out OnX if you visit onxmaps.com slash meet. Okay, today, Giannis, I want you to say welcome to the Meat Eater Podcast in Latvian. You can't give me just a little bit of a heads up. Come on, just say welcome to the Meat Eater Podcast in Latvian and then introduce everyone in Latvian.

I don't speak Latvian, so you can say it. Kelly can't do it. Come on, Yanni. Svejcinati. That's it? That's it. That's it. That was amazing. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen.

In Latvian, we're recording the Meteor podcast out of Bozeman, Montana we're in a place called Flats on Main joined by Ryan Callahan of he's famous for working at First Light and he's famous for

his mustache and he's famous for saying once addressing a bear smell us now lady and Brittany Brothers once addressing a bear. Smell us now, lady. And Brittany Brothers, who works with us at Meat Eater. Helen Cho, who works with us at Meat Eater.

And then the Labian lover, Giannis Poutelis, who works with us at Meat Eater. And we just got back from Helen and Brittany's first hunt. We're going to talk about first hunts. But first, i want to talk about something that happened to me and janice this morning we're driving back from damn near canada just east of glacier national park where you enter the plains there's these little island mountain chains out there and we were hunting there and we're driving back today and we happen to stop in and visit with uh we have to stop in the long the long drive home and visit with this outfitter and we we pull in there and there's a a mule deer laying on a piece of plywood laying between two saw horses and it was funny because mule deer season had been closed for some time and it's laying there and

it had in the snow around it was all these magpie tracks and it's frozen rock solid and we were told this story about how some guy was out and had killed it a couple weeks earlier and didn't want it and they were going to donate it and did we

want it and it had been there two weeks, and I was so depressed leaving there, and I had a big crisis. We almost took it. Almost took it. We offered to take it, but we found out that it was going to a family. There was some family that was going to get it. It's like, I don't's like just the whole thing is weird

and ugly and it put me into a funk they were driving on the road and I'm like talking about game wasters and how much I how much I don't like them and Yanni has some comment was like well yeah but not everyone had a upbringing where that stuff was respected you know and it's like an education thing more than anything else and as I'm saying is I'm almost ready to tell Yannis about how I was like I was gonna tell him this story where I was like my old man would even go check other guys gut piles to get the heart and liver out of a gut pile and as I'm about ready to tell Giannis this, we blow past a gut pile off in a field on the side of the road. A fresh gut pile, and we actually heard the hunting story.

We saw that, too. Correlated. Right. You guys did, too. So apparently these guys up in this area had gotten onto a herd of elk that came out of the flat. And I heard rumor. I can't say this is true. And I say rumor because it's very illegal.

But they apparently got after these elk with cell phones. And there was a herd of like 27 cows and two spikes. And it was all said and done. All the cows were dead. What? And I mean, legally tagged. But I don't even know if that's true. That's just what a guy said.

That might have not been true at all. But anyways, here's this gut pile on the side of the road out in the ag field. And I said, you know what? Turn around. And I'm so upset about what happened earlier that day. I'm like, turn around. I'm going to go and get the heart and the liver out of that gut pile. So Yanni turns around, drives back.

I walk out in the field with my knife. Start digging through the gut pile. I'm looking for a Ziploc bag. I'm looking for a Ziploc bag in the back of the truck. And the heart and liver had been taken by the hunter. Wow. That's awesome. And then I was back into a good mood again. Meat season.

Groceries. And then I was back in a good mood. And then I was back in a good mood. And then I was back in a good mood. We had a nice drive home. Wow. That's like a. We saw that same gut pile. Yeah.

Did you guys check if her heart and liver? Nah. We did not check. You can tell I've been there. Yep. When I, when I blew through, the guys were out there. They were gutting another one across the street. Yeah.

I guess you'd call it a cross county road. They were gutting another one. Did you stop in and ask about the heart and liver? I did not. That brings us to what we were doing up in this chain of hills. And why don't you guys introduce yourselves, Brittany and Helen. Helen's been on the podcast before. That's right.

You guys took me fly fishing for the first time. You know, lots of firsts for Helen. Crumpeter with Catch and Release Fishing. Did you release anything that day? before that's right you guys took me fly fishing for the first time you know ruined me forever lots of firsts for helen corrupted her with catch and release fishing did you release anything that day no you sure didn't release it she sure didn't release her elk so talk a little about what you do and and and what we did don't talk about what we did talk about what you do like how you came to be introduced to all this oh um well so i worked for zpz i worked for meat eater worked with you probably for four years yeah four years four years um yeah basically we started the social media since the wild within when you were on travel channel and built the meat eater um social presence from the ground up. That was your introduction to hunting, obviously.

Yeah, I met you through your photos, actually. I remember one of my first jobs at CPZ was to scan all these photos from this personal archive. I'm going through this photo album, and it's like this kid. I don't know. He was maybe four years old or something. know like archive and i'm going through this photo album and it's like you know it's like this kid i don't know he's like maybe four years old or something like it gets progressively like this kid gets older and older and it's like every single animal you know it's like snakes raccoons like noah's ark and like who the hell is this dude um but yeah that's how i was introduced to

you first and i was like wow i mean it's like every i mean you know i grew up in new york it's like i i'd never seen a moose like someone holding a moose like that or like you know like deer um hanging i mean everything it was just amazing born helen was born and raised and lives were you born and raised in manhattan i was born in manhattan raised in brooklyn still live in manhattan today and even went to you went to nyu for college yeah so you're the point is you're new york to the core yeah so i mean my she's mad mad new york no no no no no trying to learn how to have he's trying been trying to learn how to have a zippier way of communicating. He's learned mad.

What else? Brick. Brick. I don't even know that one. Apparently, it's very cold. But anyways, yeah. Me? Yeah.

So I've also worked for ZPZ. I worked for ZPZ for like four years now i think and um have worked for meat eater since the beginning in some capacity or another i started out in the equipment room started out down in the deep south started out in the deep south yeah i'm from charleston south carolina um but yeah i have been lived in new york for seven years you guys still flying that Confederate flag down there? No. What? No, they took that one down.

They did what? Thank goodness. Because they lost. Right. A long time ago. I guess they're kind of sorely. Yeah. Us Northerners had to come down there and show you guys how it's done.

Yeah. Well, you know, my family's from the North originally. I was born in Michigan. Oh, really? So I don't have know my family is from the north originally. I was born in Michigan. Oh, really? So I don't have that history. You guys were carpenters? You were born in Michigan? I was born in Ann Arbor.

Yeah, so I don't have this. So you're like a carpenters? Your family is like a carpetbagger family. Sure. That's what you want to call it. That's good. But yeah, eventually made my way to New York, went to college, and yeah, started working for ZBZ in equipment.

Well, as an intern for Helen, actually, Helen hired me. So we go way back. Is that right? Yeah. She hired me as an intern. Are there some highs and lows that went along with that? Just all highs, right? All highs.

One of my first jobs as an intern at ZBZ was trying to find a powder blue tuxedo for Ron Jeremy. Is that right? That's a true that's a true story story yeah um and that's my life has never been the same since that's yeah um but i started working on a meter and equipment um and packed all the gear and it was always just like the dirtiest messiest gear that we got back I was just like I don't know what goes on oh always something broken what do you mean by gear what type of equipment like camera gear um I mean we were in charge of camping gear too so we you know sometimes you would come down to

the second floor and like all the tents were out it looked like nobody wanted to come to the second floor. Yeah, that's terrible. Like the smelliest, disgusting. Smelly man smell. Yeah. That must not have been my tent. I don't know whose tent it was. My tent smells like a lady. Does it? That's weird. That's a personal problem.

Well, I just slept on the cot next to you, and I want to be specific about saying I slept on the cot next to you for the last four nights, and i never smelled a lady you never got a lady smell no yeah so i worked in equipment the gear was always horribly messy and dirty and i spent many nights cleaning it um and uh i was just always kind of curious what went on what was going on out there yeah exactly um and you grew up thinking that um the hunters were like the devil spawn well you know i grew up i can't have a cocktail and i'm not saying this is all you know southern hunters but i grew up thinking that they were just a bunch of like hillbillies drinking beer and shooting things for the hell of it well there's aspects of that i'm sure there

are a handful of those people but i literally never thought of hunting as like a source of food at all i just thought it was just like again like people just like to go out and shoot things yeah i didn't know anyone who ate wild game no never at all i mean even today like none of our friends eat wild game i mean i have people who work people who work you know on the show obviously but i know a handful of people now now back home and i mean i never realized before but yeah but then from equipment i worked started working in social media strangely enough um and pretty much solely worked i mean we you know we had all our other shows but media was sort of like the main show that i worked on and that's really like how i came to know you

how you like came to know the crew a lot better um not just our smells and the dirty also from smells to smiles from smells to smiles oh my god um yeah and then and then i worked on that cookbook shoot last year because dan got super sick and so i kind of had to like take over the logistics of that um which was super fun yeah that was a crash course in all things wild game oh that book's not coming out for another year right but i mean you know just to mention it and we started all talking about we started talking about doing this trip one year ago was it really a year ago yeah it might be more than a year feels like long yeah longer than that no i think it was no well yeah probably a year yeah well we kept bugging you yeah like one you know and i don't know if you guys remember

but we talked about this at in Vegas at Shot Show last year and I said antelope that's right

that would have no shot's too far I don't think it is I think we talked about it at Shot no I'm saying no we did

we definitely talked about it at Shot we might have talked about it but I would have said the shots are too far oh no no okay i got you not shot shots shot show that's what i'm real quick there's this big trade it's like all shooting sportsman's hunting outdoor trade that's what it stands for but it's all it's all um all firearm industry stuff so stuff from like mall cop stuff to hunter stuff to i think callahan put it best when he was saying that you're talking to people and one guy comes up and he's a mall cop the next guy come up and he's killed 100 people in afghanistan

and it's very difficult to tell which one is which correct all firearm related folk from hunting to military yes i make it make a strong point to just be very polite no in all circumstances because you just can't tell what's going on there so we were at this thing shot show and it's gigantic trade show and apparently we talked about perhaps going antelope hunting it took a long time to settle on the elk thing that we we just are coming right now today we left camp this morning from hunting cow elk in you know up near the montana alberta line and um and you guys i was pressuring you guys to do a something easier i wanted to go to Doug Duren's place and

hunt whitetails. I just found out that they had the worst whitetail opening day on record. Oh my god. Wow. Glad that we didn't do that. Doug said he couldn't see 75 yards. Why is that? Fog, rain, snow. Driving snow and fog.

Nothing happened. No one got anything worse year on record so you guys got lucky and I tried talking to doing that I tried talking to doing all manner of things and you guys said you wanted to go to Montana Alaska Montana Alaska then what was cool about it is you got you guys um had to do hunter safety mm-hmm how'd that go I mean what was cool about it is you guys had to do hunter safety. How'd that go? I mean, what was your impression?

I mean, it was an eight-hour online course, and then a five-hour classroom session with a very interesting instructor. Super nice guy. And surprisingly enough, we got a bunch of people from ZPZ to do it it too not only just one session but like a second session that we were not a part of like we were surprised by how many people are interested at least like 15 or 20 years at that point you don't even shot a gun yet right had not I had shot a gun at on the cookbook shoot with you oh we did a lot of shooting That was the first time I ever shot a gun in my life. But yeah, I'd never shot a gun.

So you're in hunter safety. Mm-hmm. And was it like, because here's the thing, most people, like most people that grow up around hunting, like you've already been

hunting a lot or been around it and then you go to hunter safety and you have a formality. Mm-hmm. You know? Yeah. But you went,

having really, no, it was was like it probably was presented you as like honestly new material yeah it was i remember doing the online course part of it on the subway and they have i'm not kidding awesome part of like i remember it was like an interactive you know each course would be somewhat. So there was one part where they were showing you the different parts of, like, the rifle. And you can click on the bolt, you know, it shows you. And it would be like, click this to, like, you know, move the bolt. And it would just show you how everything moves. So you can click the different parts of the rifle. Like, now, pull the, like, click on the trigger to pull the trigger.

And you do it on the subway. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, it was an's an eight hour course they didn't arrest you no i'm sure you get a lot of weird glances you know i got picked up in the new york subway for having a knife did you hear the story no yeah i was in are we talking like crocodile dundee knife? No, no. Just like this right here, like a clip-on knife. But it has to be a certain, you can't have something, it's like a certain length though. It was this.

This is a SOG Pentagon Elite. The one that I lost was a Benchmade, same style deal, years ago. Had it clipped to my pocket, okay? And I'm walking. I got off at the 14th. I was going to do a business thing. I'm going to, I'm at the 14th street union square station and I'm walking to go to a meeting at a restaurant. And we were actually meeting with the people who run the restaurant.

So I'm walking and I got the knife put to my pocket and all of a sudden there's like a hobo figure next to me, but he's not. I just think he is. And he flashes a badge. It says, what are you doing with that knife? I said, I just carry this knife around. And I was living in Alaska.

I had an Alaska driver's license. So first they take me to this little police station in the subway station and they got my driver's license and they're grilling me about sarah palin okay what yeah and then they're like why do you have the knife i'm like i just have the knife it's like i don't i'm not it's like you know the only thing i had my hand i would have the only thing i had in my hand was a a new yorker magazine and a bench made knife clipped in my pocket and an alaska driver's. And they're baffled by what I'm doing here and why I have what I have. And in the end, they steal my knife, or I guess they would say confiscated it, and give me a summons to appear in court for having a

concealed or some kind of weapon. And I said, but I thought it had to be that it was like a long or three inches or whatever. And he said, it's a open assist knife, meaning you can add a thumb stud on it and you can open it with one hand, which made it an illegal thing to have. Now, one thing leads to another and a well-connected gentleman makes a couple phone calls, and within 45 minutes, I'm instructed to tear my summons up. Wow. Yep. Got to be good to be Steve Rinella. And I asked, well, what about the knife?

And this gentleman looked at me like I was a moron and said, forget about your knife. And that was the end of it because i've heard a couple of times mr caliana are you aware that you have a bench worn out nobody told me to tear anything up then no i was like that was it now and i learned not to not advance from then on when i'm on those subways and thank God I'm done ever being on those subways ever again I'm real nervous about

betraying interest in any kind of weaponry Hey folks, exciting news for those who live or hunt in Canada and boy my goodness do we hear from the Canadians whenever we do a raffle or a sweepstakes and our raffle and sweepstakes law

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Now you guys in the Great White North can be part of it, be part of the excitement. You can even use offline maps to see where you are without cell phone service. That's a sweet function. As part of your membership, you'll gain access to exclusive pricing on products and services handpicked by the OnX Hunt team. Some of our favorites are First Light, Schnee's, Vortex Federal, and more. As a special offer, you can get a free three months to try OnX out if you visit onxmaps.com slash meet. onxmaps.com slash meet.

Welcome to the OnX club, y'all. So I'll even, you know, I'll be reading a sporting magazine, and I always feel like people are looking at, you know, they're kind of like, give me the stink eye. It's just paranoia. So there you are studying for hunter safety on that thing. Yeah. So you guys did hunter safety, then you had to learn to shoot.

Yep. Yeah. That was interesting. It was very interesting. I mean, who knew that there was a shooting range out on Staten Island? Well, yeah, so how... They shot at a range on Staten Island. You had to help a lot, right?

One time. How are the steps in order to be like, okay, guns, bullets, shooting range? We spent quite some time out there, though. They closed the range down the first time we went out there Yeah I think they were a little nervous We told them we're coming out And we're going to be shooting They closed down because we wanted to come out and film

But a buddy of mine Is a member in good standing at this Staten Island range And we went out there and they treated you guys Like royalty out there man How far can you shoot? On an east Coast gun range. 200 yards?

They have a 200-yard bank. It's like the oldest or longest or something, like longest running. It's called Colonial Gun Range. And this is a gun range in an urban area, and they spend most of their time and energy keeping themselves open it's like every day is a new challenge to keep this range open great dudes tons like tons of former cops my friend out there is a driver drives for the city so he'll drive like politicians and stuff for the city but he's a member out there tons of former law enforcement guys or members

out there and they go there and shoot and we went out and started learning how the first time we went out we took a 17 hmr i think sure seven millimeter remington magnum you might take your maybe 270 yeah i think we took something i think it was a 270 and more powerful yeah because you guys were telling me one was crazy loud one was super loud 270? Yeah. I think it was a 270 and... More powerful. Yeah. Because you guys were telling me one was crazy loud. One was super loud and really packed a punch. Yeah.

Which one was that? I think that was a 270, no? Yeah, it might have been a 270. We shot a whole bunch. We shot a ton of rimfire rounds at targets. And then we... All from the bench. And you guys shot some center fire like some bigger rounds and then you kept going back so how many times like how many range sessions you had a number of range sessions after that with joe we went like once a month i would say for three or

four months yeah yeah to the point where yannis and i before this hunt, Giannis and I, we went down to the range here outside of Bozeman. And you guys were shooting fantastic groups. Brittany, you hit a gong at, what's the farthest gong there? 430. Hit a gong at 2, hit a gong at 3, right? Hit one at 430 and then all of your shots were within a palm sized group at 100 yards shooting from the bench prone over a backpack and sitting with a with a bipod yep all very good shooting i gotta just say like i think that's amazing and

and it's fantastic but it kind of irks me at the same time because i know so many people that have never ever practiced those shots no you go to the range and shoot and then you think that's it yeah they shoot three shots at paper and they're like oh oh yeah, that's two inches high at 100. More or less. Time to go hunting. You know, so yeah. And you're never going to shoot a big game animal from a bench. Well, I shouldn't say never, but it's like, it's unlikely.

Yes. It's unlikely. Yes. That's a lot of what we, Helen and I and Giannis, we all covered this week. It was like, things are not going to be perfect. The more you can have in your head that things are not going to be perfect. It's not going to be like some, okay, we're going to set up, get things rock solid, the elk's going to step out, done deal.

Get the bench set up. Get the sandbags out. Yeah, you guys got cracking on the rifles and then we took off and the hunt we did was uh there's there's this area up there where in Montana the way it works is uh you buy was called a general elk license and the general elk license depending on you many units are in so the state's divided into seven regions each region is divided into a bunch of units 10 or more units per region and when you buy a general elk tag it's like that tag has different value so to speak depending on what unit and region you're in and we're hunting in a region where a general elk tag is not good for a bull generally a general elk tag is good for a branch antlered bull and brow time bull brow time bull and not a cow but in this unit a general elk license is good for a antlerless or cow elk so we were on a cow elk hunt and leading up to it i i correct me if i'm wrong

i think i said many times that success or failure on the hunt will come down to um walking up and down hills you did say that it's true y, what was your first impression when it was like, okay, first time hunt, we're going after elk? You have to do it in Latvia, no? I'm joking. Lana, Donna. Like, is it a good idea to do elk for the first hunt? Yes. Like, hey, we're taking and britney from 30 feet above

sea level i'm assuming somewhere i don't think it's that high no it's like straight up at sea it depends on what apartment you're in yeah third floor apartment yeah what's my elevation i don't know like what floor am i on it starts Third floor above sea level. Yeah, I think it depends on the crowd and the character, but they're rambunctious girls. They're ready to jump both feet in. It'd be nice to start with a squirrel hunt

and then go to a... Let me put it this way. We didn't want that. Just because we're women, we didn't want to be, you know, like. It has nothing to do with being women. I'm just saying. I'm just saying.

Did you take Joe Rogan and Brian Allen on a squirrel hunt? Nope. Deer. Deer. Exactly. And then they went to hunt deer at Bubbly Dogs. Not the first time. The first time they went to Montana.

To hunt deer. Not in the damn mountains. Not elk. Giannis, how long did it take you and i'm sure you're you know you're a rambunctious male how long did it take you to kill an elk took me three years i grew up in montana bumbling around the woods why a weird deal because my first elk hunt was it was the drop camp and then we did so poorly in the first four days

that the outfitter that put us in this cabin who's we my father and a friend of his we did so poorly they invited us over for dinner we were like there's no elk in these hills we got ripped off we roll over to the main camp you're telling us over supper yeah we rolled in to the main camp they're like oh we killed six bulls and we were tagged out three days ago you know we're like really there's elk in these hills huh so the outfitter took pity and took us up the hill next day about killed my dad and his buddy going up the hill. I had to stop him and be like, dude, seriously, I think my dad's going to not make it up this hill if we don't slow down.

Anyways, we make it up there. He takes me into the woods. We've been hunting the same area all week. We walk in there. He bugles one time. I'm like, wow, that's kind of cool. We're sitting there, and like 30 seconds later, here, stick pops, and here comes a herd. Really?

Just coming up through the timber. This is the outfitter. He took me out. Like 20 cows filtered through the timber, like 50, 60 yards. Then two five-point bulls come up to about 50, 60 yards. And the first one turns around and starts sparring with the second one. And they spar in front of us for like 10 minutes. It's like a nice, light little, you know, kind of a later October sparring session.

But definitely inspired by the bugle. The outfitter said so, of course. It was like, yeah, I bugled once. It was the assembly bugle. That gets them fighting. No, no, no. That just made them come up through this area anyways i gotta hang out with that guy

what's this guy's number round up the herd yeah he doesn't he retired but uh yeah i hit the bull but but i lost him oh you did yeah the first bull i ever killed i didn't find him somebody else found him like four days later we lost him no wow I didn't know that but that right there put the drive in me to you know make better next time

but then basically by a year later 365 days 365 days later I was an elk hunting guide with the same outfitter oh he took a shine to you

those 30 minutes maybe 60 minutes together in the woods, and then me calling him the following month saying, hey, I need one of those beagle tubes. How did you do that? Yada, yada, yada.

He's like, you know what? Why don't you come up and, you know, just play on spending three months in the fall with me. And what would you ever do? I would run around the woods for about an hour in the morning. Then I would like sand and stain cabins all day long

and then I would run around the woods for about an hour in the evening just educating yourself when did you take your first client out that next fall how old were you

20 wow did you kill an elk that year I think I had a couple misses but I didn't have anybody kill 20. Wow. Did you kill an elk that year? I think I had a couple misses. But I didn't have anybody kill. How many elk kills have you been in on in your career? Guided or including my own?

No, your own, you guiding, friends. I don't know. Close to 100 probably. Yeah. All right, you got to excuse us for a quick ad break. We will be right back. Building a website can be a pain in the ass. If you know your way around coding, which I certainly do not,

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Squarespace. Build it beautiful. Where were we? So, yeah. Oh, did you think it was a good idea to take these guys? No one gets to go on an elk hunt for their first hunt. I know, unless you know Steven Rinella. It's flat. It's unheard of. You know for their first hunt. I know, unless you know Steven Rinella. It's flat.

It's unheard of. You know what my first hunt was? Chipmunks. For, like, years, we hunted chipmunks. And we smiled about it. And we didn't have chipmunks to hunt. We hunted pine squirrels. If we didn't have that, we got the okay to hunt first starlings because they were introduced.

It's not that we don't want to hunt squirrels. We do. But you didn't want to do anything but elk. And I understand why. Well, no, we didn't specifically say, I don't remember ever saying we wanted to do elk. You wanted to hunt Montana or Alaska. Right. We wanted to do something that was going to be challenging.

And I love where your head's at. Montana or Alaska, that's, love it. Yeah. But elk is just, I mean, your head's at. Montana or Alaska, that's, love it. But elk is just, I mean, as you know now. Again, I don't think we specified elk. We did not specify elk. No. And in fact, at SHOT Show last year, we were sitting at dinner.

Remy was there. And he, I remember him saying, you should not go for elk as your first hunt because you guys, if you get an elk, you'll be ruined. Oh, is that right? That's what he said, yeah. I remember that. You remember that? Yeah. I told Brady this four or five times at least the other day.

Easily. I hunted elk. I moved to Montana in 1996 and hunted elk, you know, 20 or so days that year hunted elk 20 or so days the next year and then killed an elk the third year and by then i'd probably i probably killed my elk on my first elk which was a calf that i shot with my bow on probably my 45th day of elk hunting sounds about right yeah i don't know what the point of this yeah you guys trying to make us feel bad no i'm not i'm just saying like we're just it's a good idea to take people on their first ever any hunt of any kind on an elk hunt and it's just like it depends on the person

i'm trying to think of parallels i'm trying to think of parallels like i'm trying to think of parallels I'm trying to think of sexual things or food things or whatever it'd be like I think a lot of those aren't really appropriate you're saying it's so challenging like for me it was one of the biggest accomplishments

you know to date at that point I was like I actually I finally did it like this is an elk it just it finally happened because there were so many days and so many failures and so many days without ever seeing or hearing you know deciphering like you know two week old wind blown elk crap in the pintlers like i guess they're here you know i'll just keep walking you know i mean it's a very challenging hunt to start out with so um well what do you guys think should be like our first or what do you think would be a good

like first first five hunts for somebody who's new to hunting? I think a person should hunt squirrels and cottontail rabbits for a year. And then they should do some deer hunting. I think ducks and geese are fantastic too. Ducks and geese. Because you get a shoot. Not that there's anything wrong with what happened because you guys got the major crash

course. So we went up this place. We went up this small island mountain chain and mountain range. And we set up a tent camp in a little canyon bottom. And started hunting. We had four whole hunt days. And the way this place works, there's sort of this resident herd in this mountain range. And it numbers anywhere depending

on the year from 200 to 400 animals and they tend to depending on who you ask either they spend their entire year all balled up in a big ball or they once the weather turns bad they ball up into a big ball and if you've never hunted elk before it's like there's this there's this term used in elk hunting called like the herd right and if you imagine that you go to your buddy's farm he would never and you're hunting whitetails he would never be like the herd will come through here in the morning because like the deer maintain individual identities you know like there's like the deer maintain individual identities you know like there's like the white tail hangs out here and some white tails hang out there and like

they might come out into the field at night but that doesn't mean that they all are but in this mountain chain this range i keep calling the chain like a small range this big wad of elk is only in one place at any given time so it's essentially to to it to a degree it's almost is like you're hunting one animal but just happens to be many many tons and spread out over you know a big area this herd of elk that drifts around and the goal every day you wake up is to try to like the herd and it's 600 i don't know 300 eyeballs staring at you looking for you you know and you're trying to intercept this this moving target as this herd runs around so we started out just by climbing essentially climbing up into the into the high country to try to glass up animals and right nobody had ever hunted here before.

None of us had been there before. Talked to some guys that do hunt there. We open up some maps. We get given some maps. Yanni printed out some maps. A guy said, here's a couple good glassing spots. And the first morning we're out, I go to the first good glassing spot, and lo and behold, there's two people there.

And he said, like the guy that gave me the tip, failing that, go to this glassing spot and go there, and there's four people on that glass and spot and lo and behold there's two people there and he said like the guy that gave me the tip failing that go to this glass and spot and go there and there's four people on that glass and spot we saw that night after hunting all day we finally saw two spike bulls i think i was home with britney steve and britney were a team ryan callahan and Helen were a team. So our first day, we pounded the glass, saw more mule deer than a fella has a right to see. Every buck who had his nose up a doe's ass, just rutting way hard. Brittany glassed up a man, another hunter, who was defecating.

There were a lot of firsts that day. There were a lot of firsts that day. There were a lot of firsts. It struck me the indifference this man had to his little creation there. He didn't do anything about it. Just stepped off the trail, pulled down his pants, did his thing. His friends were like 20 feet in front of him. His friends were right in front of him. Does a very brisk little cleanup.

Just kind of throws the toilet paper to the wind. Pulls his pants back up. Takes two or three steps. Glances back, you know, just to see. Like he was checking on his health or whatever. And just followed his buddies back to the truck i never seen anything like it just we could have been the only people watching complete disregard for all the people who are just pounding glass that day and having to be wondering about

what was wrong with the guy or somebody that might be walking that trail that oh yeah or yeah or the guy whoever owns the land. So we glassed from a number of high points that day and saw a lot of bucks. And then we went back at dark, at dusk. We went back to another prominent point that was positioned way above camp and spotted up a couple spikes. But the problem is this area we're in um can't kill spikes gotta find cow elk and then climb down and you were that was your that was like your first elk right oh absolutely yeah yeah i mean it was it was incredible it was like first of all i'm looking all over the place

i finally spotted like some mule deer that's the first thing that i personally glassed up a rotten buck yeah um and then you spotted that which i was like i have no i couldn't find them on binoculars you pulled them up on the spotting scope pulled up coyote yep you guys saw a coyote yeah he's looking like he's all majestic up on his peak yeah we heard she got on the scope and found another one. He had a buddy with him. But yeah, that was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I had seen pictures of elk, but I had never seen one

probably in real life like that. So better than Google Images. Better than Google Images. Easily better than Google Images. We get down to camp that night and Callahan comes down and his his story is looking in the same area he saw a spike and maybe a cow there you know the dark one i just couldn't find horns in the spotting scope. Was that the only elk you guys found that day?

No. We saw a bull in the other drainage, all bedded down by himself, middle of the day. He was out. We saw him first thing in the morning. He was bedded down. And then at like 11 o'clock in the morning, he's out feeding on this wide open hillside. Oh, is that right? Really? And at that point, I was like, this is going to be good.

Or this elk knows that this is a general tag cow only area. The king's ex. Yeah, nobody can touch him. But, I mean, for Helen, right, we saw a mule deer right off the bat. Later on, that would not be such a novelty and then we saw uh the two spikes that you guys saw but there was also a five point bowl in there that you guys didn't see that we saw and yeah i mean that that that pretty much was it. But then we saw what turned out to be the two spikes

come back out of the timber at last light after we spent all day on top of the mountain bucking the wind. And Giannis got in a lot of push-ups, got in a lot of team jumping jacks in a lot of team trying to keep up warm yeah our second day out we just talked about the second day or i was still the first day that was all the first day oh that was all the first day we did the big hike uh correct me if i'm wrong please but helen looks stunned helen looked like she had had the shock and awe campaign done to her that yes that when you got back to camp that night my impression also i i tried to pick the most

efficient uh way up the mountain that still got us to the top of the mountain in in a timely fashion and um what did you what were you so shocked and awed about i mean i don't know i mean everything you weren't yourself it was just mind-blowing for most of the trip you weren't yourself well really that's not true i think it was after the first day only the first day we kept me are you okay like yeah i'm okay why does why does everybody keep asking? I was just being quiet. I think I was just taking it all in. Right.

I think it was more that than being worked over or anything like that. Yeah, I know. Because you told me numerous times, you're like, man, I just can't believe I'm here. I can't believe I'm on the side of this mountain. I can't believe I'm way up on this mountain and looking at all this. It's just so much. That morning we got- Trophy country is what she was just sucking it in.

And that morning when we finally got to the top, we got to the top, and when we drove into this mountain range, the skies were clear everywhere, but the mountain was shrouded in clouds. Then we slept in our tents and woke up and climbed up before it got light out and got to the top of the mountain, and it was reversed. The top of the mountain was sunny, and you were looking out at a sea of clouds below you. That was amazing.

It was a beautiful thing. It was stunning. You were on an island. Yeah. It was like you were on Everest, man. It was amazing. And then it got clear a little bit, and there's snow on the ground, and mule deer to me are ghost-like against the snow.

Elk look like orange and warm. But, like, mule deer look just like little, like, ghosts, you know, like little haunted apparitions, man. They're just, like, crawling. That day, it was November 19, just bucks everywhere. That was an amazing day i think what's also really cool is like to see how trained the hunter's eye is you know like even when we're driving around like steve would be like oh look there's a man dragging a coyote in the backyard you're like where

you see that you know or like or like ryan would be just be like you know walking around and be like oh two bucks like i'm like looking to my binoculars like you know just be like walking around and be like, oh, two bucks. I'm like looking to my binoculars like shaking. Like where do you see that? He's like, you see that, Rich? I mean, you would spot things with your naked eye. Yeah, exactly. How in the world did you see that? Like it could be a tree.

It could be a bush. Like I don't understand. It's completely an acquired thing. Yeah, I felt like towards the end you know i was like more careful had a system going of like hot glass and like yeah it's totally acquired just like having a game eye it's just i think you get a sense of um the shapes like shapes and colors i don't i really don't i don't know movement, and colors. Like, animals like deer and elk, they have eyes that are out to the sides of their head. They have a poor ability to focus on things, but they have a great depth or what do you call it?

Peripheral. Great peripheral vision to see movement. I think, like, picking up on movement is really important. But we have, like, eyes centered in front like predators and um we can like make out shapes really well so i think it's just kind of like a movement shape thing and color thing because when you're hunting you spot your first something it might take you forever to fight spot your first something then you spot it and you know what you're looking for and all of a sudden the landscape comes alive with it you're like oh now i see what that thing looks like.

And then you're all of a sudden like, oh, there that is, there that is, there that is. Second day we go out, and Callahan had gone off after the spikes to see who else was hanging out there. We saw those leave. And then we had just a rip snorting of a climbing day. I don't think anything happened that day. No. I mean, that was the first day I think we attacked the scree slide area. No, something did happen that day. Right at dark.

We saw four cows and two spikes. Oh, that's right. Yep. Four cows and two spikes right at dark. Way far away. Way far away. Maybe 1,200 yards away. Going. Four calls and two spikes right at dark. Way far away. Way far away. Yeah. Maybe 1,200 yards away.

Going the other direction, spooked. But those you could see without binoculars easily. Yeah. Yeah. That was exciting. I was laying some deep stuff on you, too, when I spotted them. Oh, yeah. I can't remember what it was.

We were talking about female hunters. Yeah, we were talking about female hunters. What were you guys talking about? Were we talking about female hunters? Mm-hmm. I was giving the pros and cons. Pros and cons about female hunters. What were you guys talking about? Were we talking about female hunters? Mm-hmm. I was giving the pros and cons. Pros and cons of female hunters?

Yeah. Well, your cons were more... What are the cons of female hunters, Steve? The cons were more just like about new hunters in general. New hunters in general. My, like, for instance, my brother... I'll just explain this to Brittany. My brother... Okay, let me back up one step.

What was the most disappointing thing the first day we hunted? What was the thing we talked about most? Oh, how many hunters there were. Yeah, other hunters. Looks like a pumpkin patch on some of the hills, right? Orange vests everywhere, other hunters. Everyone knows, you go out hunting, and you see other hunters, you're like, son of a

bitch. No one wants to run into a bunch of other hunters. But on the other hand, I talk about and advocate, some extent hunter recruitment and my thinking is that if if we have more hunters we have more political clout and we have more clout on conservation issues and we're a stronger voice right my brother thinks that hunter recruitment he he's like, why would you ever want more hunters? Why would you want more times when you're out in the woods and there's no place to go? And he says, and the same people talk about hunter recruitment, talk about access issues. There's not enough access. Why is there not enough access? Because there's too many hunters for how much space we have to hunt. It's too hard to get tags. Like, you can draw your whole life

and not get such and such tags. And he says, the only people that really want to hunt a recruitment is the industry because they want to sell more gear to more people. And so they camouflage their desire

to make customers as being something that's for the betterment of hunting. Okay, and I was laying this all out. So, and all of a sudden, here's this elk going the other direction. and I optimistically thought we caught them or that we knew were there at bedding and they were coming out to feed that I looked a little bit nervous

and the next day we go down and realize that some guy had been running around on a side by side like a quad runner and he come right down through that timber patch and clearly had spit those elk out spooked him out of there that day or us did you lay any heavy stuff on helen i don't think so did i i think that until we saw that herd yeah and that ultimately made, it was like the highest high and the lowest low in the same moment, right? Oh, yeah. So, I mean, that was awesome. Well, why is that? What happened?

Well, we were sitting up on this mountain and... Ripping wind. Yeah, so, yeah, we were just trying to keep warm and while we were eating snacks and doing jumping jacks the herd of elk had the herd the herd yeah had just passed us by and we didn't we didn't even hear them we were making a very well yeah what are you doing you're having like a gym class up there of course you know the wind was you know the wind was howling and we're making a very common mistake. We make it often.

A lot of hunters make it often. We're sitting on top of some peak, and everybody's looking at like a half mile plus. Yeah. Nobody's even thinking about like 100 yards away. 200 to 400 yards. We just had that roll that like in less than every five minutes, you're going to walk out 200 yards and peak over that edge. A lot could be going on.

And obviously, a lot went on. And every time I went to peak, it was purely because I was freezing. So I was like, I'm going to walk down this hill and walk back up. And so at one of these points, you guys are having a little gym class up there. Strolls by, a couple hundred head out. Oh, I literally was making our second round of sandwiches for the day. You were on sandwich position? Yeah.

They don't have bonding. My better part there, Yanni, was like, don't have another bar, have a sandwich. And while you're at it make me one so how did you so you also we walked over and we're like yeah we're going to leave we're going to go for a tour we're too cold we're going to walk around and we see the tracks and everyone just stops and is like can you do you guys this is not, this didn't just happen, right? Like, we didn't just miss, like, hundreds of elk just going by right in front of us. We had tracks on top of our tracks, and one of the trails was, like, a foot and a half deep. Yeah. Like, it was a thundering herd.

That's crazy. So then immediately, we, you know, go down that hill and try to follow them. Yeah, to see if, you know, I mean, it looks super fresh. So we're like, maybe they didn't go too far. And as we're walking, Ryan just like, slow down. Like, get down. They're right there. You know?

So what did we do? Did we do the slide down? We did the slide did the crab walk right yeah so uh it's like a yoga position or something almost right you're on your uh heels of your hands and the heels of your boots and you're like crab walking with your rifle in your lap. It's the most deadly approach. I think. We never did that. It's tough on me.

Yeah, we did. Ryan's like, check this one out. It's a deadly approach in some conditions. You have to be coming down. What's deadly about it is when you get what the thermals are right, or the wind's right, and the wind's blowing uphill and you're above elk and they always are not always they tend to look downhill with the exception of one their assumption is that trouble's coming from down there i'm at kind of the top anyways i just need to watch down and you're up above them and

you crab walking and you're crab walking down, sliding along with your weapon, bow or rifle, in your lap. And then when it happens, you just sit up and do it. You just sit up and shoot? Ellen? Well, I think it's also worth mentioning that when we go on hunts, it's not just like two people. We have cameramen. It's like not. So it's like a group of people you know we have cameramen it's like not you know so it's like

group of people trying to do the same thing trying to capture you know the herd i was complaining about that very fact today what that it's a group of people yeah well yes but how close did we get i mean with the group of people what like 40 yards less yeah 40 yards something insane you know because you could have shot with a bow. Yeah, it's an archery shot. But you didn't shoot it even with a rifle. However, what was the shooting situation? So we were looking downhill, and there they were.

And I was like, this is my moment. This is going to happen right now. And I'm looking through the scope, and Ryan's like, you have to and Ryan's like you have to find your shot you have to find your shot make sure there are no elk behind them um behind the cow so I'm scanning across and it's just they're everywhere I'm like I could shoot any one of these elk just pick one you know but as I'm scanning across it's like i could see i'm like i would stop at one and be like i've got a shot as soon as i thought i had a shot i would see a head from behind just creep up right behind it yeah or like a butt of one just like slowly move back you know so

and i guess one of them got spooked so the the situation is if you take that shot that bullet could potentially pass through that animal that gave you the the nice perfect google image shot opportunity and injure or kill another animal i've seen that happen on several occasions right it does happen right and i didn't feel comfortable taking the shot. I couldn't see what was behind it, so I wasn't for sure that it was a 100% clean shot. And how many animals were there? I mean, 200. I mean, something like 150 to 200 elk.

Both bulls and cows, you know. But I just couldn't see behind it. It was just, you know, too sloped and couldn't see how far back they were. And then all of a sudden, you know, we kept, you can never see through somebody else's scope, right? You can't see exactly what they're seeing. So I'm saying, well, look to the far left. Look to the far left look to the far

left there that one is in hell back 13 elk from the left yeah and it's literally it's like this swirling ball of elk and you know for a brief second one would you know from my perspective like stand out just slightly apart from the rest of the group. And then all of a sudden they were gone. And then they were gone. And I was like, oh my, I mean, long gone. Yeah, I was like, that's it. It's over.

And that was the end of your second hunt day. Yep. And I kept asking everyone, did I have a shot? Because I kept replaying that image. But there's no way to answer that question because that question is right it's for each person right I might be in a situation where I'm like I would put a box of shells into those out but wouldn't be a shot for a lot of other people and there's other people who would have said I would put two boxes of shells into those out you know I just yeah I didn't feel comfortable taking this. Helen kept saying to us was great.

There's 200 elk right in front of me and I couldn't even kill one. Like what, what would people think like 40 yards away at 200 elk, I can't even kill one. So that, that to me kind of stood out as like the lowest low of the whole hunt. Yeah. It was like, I mean, it was amazing to see like that many, you know, kind of stood out as, like, the lowest low of the whole hunt. Yeah. It was like.

I mean, it was amazing to see, like, that many, you know, that many animals, that many elk. But at the same time, it was like, it was, like, almost like a tease. Like, there were all these animals so close, yet I couldn't, you know, I couldn't make the shot. Yeah. So it was definitely like, you know, I had dreams about that, you know. you know yeah 80 000 pounds of elk standing out there but you know it wasn't a tease it happened exactly that way because it had to happen that way you know right the hunt went perfectly because had you killed it then i mean think about what you would have missed it happened then after 40 tons of elk so now we're on that's conservative day three day three here we wake up and i go down to reconnoiter the the the the five four or five

cows and two spikes we go down there to reconnoiter it run into a bull can't shoot him anyway realize that what bumped the elk out of the timber patch wasn't that they're just moving from that timber patch to feed and then back into that timber patch. But some guy was in there driving around and got a side-by-side stuck in the snow and spooked the elk out of the timber patch. Get set up in the windiest place on the planet. A calf elk comes pouring through a pass. We go to try to intercept the calf elk and intercept a gentleman named Kenny instead and had a long talk with Kenny. Never found the calf.

Then Kenny informed us that he, in fact, was trespassing. You're just going to call him out like that? Well, I'm not saying where he was or what his name was. You just said what his name was. Kenny? I think there's a handful of Kennys running around Montana. I i'm pretty sure it was kenny g the saxophonist i'll let it out it's kenny g the saxophonist and um he was standing on public land which he didn't realize but he had accessed it by cutting through some he's very frank about it we had a nice chat and um it seemed like that was a

common thing because as we broke camp told us that that's how it works yeah as we broke camp today another fella and a young gentleman came strolling up through our canyon we've been camping for four days you know that we had access to and they were just like hey yeah we're supposed to be here kind of really maybe you know what was funny there too he goes how'd you guys find out about this spot when i told kenny i was like as a matter of fact kenny well blm land not terribly wasn't like above surprised or happy or disappointed by that information. It's just irrelevant. Yep. So, try to put the moves on this calf.

Could never find it. Hey folks, exciting news for those who live or hunt in Canada. Boy, my goodness do we hear from the Canadians whenever we do a raffle or a sweepstakes. And our raffle and sweepstakes law makes it that they can't join our Northern brothers get irritated.

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here on the Meat Eater Podcast. Now you, you guys in the Great White North can be part of it, be part of the excitement. You can even use offline maps to see where you are without cell phone service. That's a sweet function. As part of your membership, you'll gain access to exclusive pricing on products and services handpicked by the OnX Hunt team. Some of our favorites are First Light, Schnee's, Vortex Federal, and more. As a special offer, you can get a free three months to try OnX out

if you visit onxmaps.com slash meet. onxmaps.com slash meet. Welcome to the OnX Club, y'all. I had just a miserable day. Wind. Wind. It was so windy. Glassed up some elk that were very far away on what became known as Stinkhole Mountain.

Yeah. Climbed up in there. Crawled a freaking mule deer, couldn't find the elk. But I just want to talk about that for a second because the whole time I've been trudging up these mountains, hills, whatever you want to call them,

but I want a little credit for hauling ass. You did. At that point. I gave you a pep talk yeah and it motivated you it did well and I mean it was just like well you're saying it was your motivation we have to get you know to cross all these other very large hilltops to get over there. And to clarify, too, I was like one of those people on a weight loss TV program. Were you?

I was so inspiring. What? It was like the Gettysburg Address. Yeah, absolutely. You need to find it in you to kill these elk. And she just was like, you're right, damn it. What? Yeah. That's exactly how it went. smart intelligent man let's go to that footage and see if that's really to clarify

though trudging is the correct term many many many times in hunting, it is one foot in front of the other. I got to be frank with you. On that chase, I didn't realize the hell hole that was between us and Stinkhole Mountain. And when we got to the bottom of that thing, I looked up. I'm like, you got to be kidding me. I did not feel like going up there. Then we tried to leave after dark by a strange route that brought us pretty much into Canada. We were three tenths of a mile from Canada. We saw Border Patrol

riding along on the Canada side. A bunch of people walked down the road with headlamps and rifles basically walking parallel to the border in the middle of the night. Montana militia heading north. Settle the score.

48-40 or fight. in the middle of the night. Montana militia. Head north. Settle the score. Yeah, exactly. 48-40 or fight. That was our third day hunt. So we get a... We have sat in the same spot. Essentially the same spot. We glassed you guys up up there. Yeah. We glassed you guys too.

Right? Yeah, so we're... So you be hauling ass? So we're bouncing back and forth between two saddles all day long working on a hunch that these elk are going to magically appear in one of these saddles and we we're definitely seeing orange all day popping in and out of some of the lower saddles and even right up where we are. And we go as far as building a blind because the 40 mile per hour wind is right in your face. How did you construct that blind this was some pine or uh some lodgepole boughs we used uh juniper you know nice dents

um and stacked it in with a bunch of you know just deadfall and uh yeah it worked out worked out nice you can just see right into this saddle but the only problem was you just had this ripping wind right in your face yeah and it wears you down man it makes you feel like you're losing your mind yeah absolutely mo fallon told me last week he said he's like I don't know what it is when I'm standing in the wind I cannot think he's like I cannot form a thought and yeah I mean it definitely makes you think like that

or not think but so we're back once we got to the top we did not move all that much basically because we were every direction we got to the top, we did not move all that much. Basically, because every direction we wanted to go, there was somebody else already.

We came across some elk tracks. We followed the elk tracks. All of a sudden, there were boot tracks that dumped in on the elk tracks. I had that problem a lot. Turn around, go back the other direction. We're like, well, maybe we'll go up to the other saddle where the herd came through the other direction. We're like, well, maybe we'll go up to the other saddle where the herd came through the other day and I look up there and there's two people sitting up there. So I guess we're stuck

and then we get this distress call. It was a well-composed distress call, but it was we are going to need a pickup on the county road in canada basically we're gonna follow this drainage hope you brought your passport we we're gonna follow this drainage to alberta to Alberta. And I mean, we were probably an hour and a half from dark at that point. Yeah.

And, you know, we were all the way on top and wanted to play out the day. But, you know, our friends are facing a long, windy, cold couple hours on the road no matter what at that point. So that's definitely wearing on us.

Yeah, the road like the McCormick McCarthy novel, The Road. That's our journey. That's right. That's our journey turned into when hours and hours went by and no sign of Callahan. I mean, what, six miles or more that we walked on that road? We got off my map. We had a big map of the area.

I was like, I don't even know anymore because we just left the map miles ago. Now we're just out and, you know, trying to like, we're talking about trying to find a farmer and be like, oh, yeah, and my buddies with the guns who are out in the ditch. They're going to need a ride. They're going to send Giannis and I, like, you know, the friendliest guy on the crew, and then me, a woman, so it's not super creepy. And they'll be like, oh, I didn't mention my friends in the ditch with the rifles. They're hoping to catch a live, too. They're pretty cold, too. We were a second away from doing that before we heard from you.

Snacks and coffee. They love them. So I'm having this internal crisis that I'm trying not to relate to Helen. I got it. We're running out of time. All right. But I want to get this out. You want to finish up the hunt?

Yeah. I want to talk about what happened in the hunt. So the blind. When I'm constructing the blind, you're like does this ever work well it just seems so perfect you know you were making it level to like my perfect you know i was trying to get a good shot and whatnot and you're like yeah you know i think the things about these blinds is that you never stay here long enough for it to work. You know? So anyways, you get the distress call. No.

So like, well, we'll walk around to warm up. Then I want to end up at the blind. Because I just know the elk are going to come through that saddle for some stupid reason. And we end up at the blind. The wind is just still just ripping through that saddle. And, you know, the whole, you know, everybody's kind of like, well, should we just call it? Because we got to go pick those guys up.

And I'm torn. And I'm like, I want to sit. This is going to work. I want to sit here. And it's like, well, I'm trying to be positive. You know, let's just, you know, it's really windy. And I don't think anything's going to come out early. So let's just get up on top of the next little knob

so we can look all the way down the ridge and look at the whole timber line. And we walk 200 yards from the blind, and I look over, and there's seven cow elk staring at us. And I internally, immediately immediately i'm just like you dumb son of a bitch and you're like like i was saying no one stays in the blind long enough oh no did i mention and so like i sit down to lower our profile, and I'm half-heartedly like, yeah, get ready for the shot.

That's not going to happen because there's no way in hell these chicks are going to hang around long enough to provide a shot, and the grass is like three feet tall for some reason. I'm just beat mentally at that i was just like no and you know helen's like should i put around the chamber and at right at that point they all turn and blow into the timber gone like ghosts vaporize and i make second stupid decision of the day which i never do because i've learned so many times it's a terrible decision which is i leave our packs like just drop everything frustrated like just leave everything we're gonna run up here to the next tree and see if for some reason we get a shot at something so we drop our packs run up to the

next tree which always leads to the next tree and i'm just just sit here if they come back out again internal dialogue is reading as there's no in hell these cows are going they come back out again, internal dialogue is reading as there's no way in hell these cows are going to come back out again until dark. But if they come back out again, it's going to be right at dark. So just get set up for a shot.

As soon as you see a nose, throw around in the chamber. We've been talking about this all day. If you get a shot, shoot. I'm going to run back and grab her packs. So I take that opportunity to have a little alone time. And I walk back to the packs and beat myself up even more about how I just screwed up the perfect opportunity

that I just wasted an entire day of a four-day elk hunt setting up, and I totally blew it. And I'm like, I just ruined Helen's elk hunt. I just ruined the entire opportunity. You know, that was it. And I pick up the packs, I turn around, and it's like when uh, what, what are the, what do you, when people are frantically waving, I turn around and it's like, is there a word for that besides frantically waving?

Kind of like a jazz hands. Jazz hands. Yeah. It's like, they don't, they don't want to really wave because they're afraid they're going to scare something off. But it's like like it was a subdued frangie wave yeah jazz hands i think is what i was going for and so now i sprint down to the tree with packs and look around the tree and everybody's like oh my god, look at LEL. And I see like four bulls, like the very tail end of the herd.

And it's like 350 yards and 40 mile per hour wind. And so I'm like, okay, let's pick up the stuff. Let's go. We haul butt up around the timber, drop half the packs, drop the tripod that we've been packing around, drop Helen's pack, and basically get set for the sprint. And then we're cruising through the timber.

I mean, it's your story. Take it from there. What happened, Helen? i don't know you were doing all this crazy like crouch running and like crawling on the ground and i was i felt like i was so awkward at the movements like you were so graciously just like trudging through the snow and every movement seemed like you know it was like weight on me like i couldn't move fast enough you know we, I don't even remember what happened. Like we ran up to this one, we got to behind this one tree. The whole time we were like, we want to have some cover, right?

So we get to this tree and we don't have the tripod. And you're pointing them out again, the hunter's eye. Like I'm like, I can't see them. It's like all the adrenaline, you know, rushing through me. And I'm'm like i can't see them it's like all the adrenaline you know rushing through me and i'm like i can't see them you're like you're like breathe like you see right there you're pointing at all these different like landmarks you see the dark the dark patch of timber um i i find that in my scope but it runs away like basically as soon as I get in my scope, it just walks away. And I look at you, and I'm like, this is happening again.

It's in my scope, and then it's gone. And you're like, there's another one right to the left of it. Do you see that one? How far away were they? Like 270 yards, maybe less, or more. The furthest was like 260, and the closest was 226 okay that's long shot and so joe so i see the one that he's talking about and i look at it in my scope but then there's a bull in front of it and i'm like this is this is like replaying this is like deja vu

just happening again i don't have a shot and as soon as i'm like you know i'm still waiting waiting the bull just slowly walks away and it's like the cow elk is clear and i don't know i was like so nervous but like we didn't have a stand i'm like trying to sit down trying to get a shot but there was all that um what was it sage or something what it was just grad yeah sweet grass right so i couldn't i couldn't see so you were like sit up you prop up the the backpack you know and uh and then i just look at ryan i'm like i'm gonna shoot this cow i'm gonna shoot this cow at that point i was kind of like whoa all of a sudden that's like the most firm statement i've ever heard helen make i'm gonna shoot her like oh and uh and then because it was so windy you had kind of pointed me to shoot um at the shoulder right yep and that was that and and and i couldn't tell like

my hands were shaking afterwards i was like i kept asking you like did i miss like you know and you you kept like walking like let's walk forward look through the binoculars have your rifle ready and you were like these things are tough like you might have to shoot it again and i looked at you like what like okay it was very clear at that moment that nobody had said hey sometimes yeah they'll be sitting there um so yeah we're getting closer to it and you kept looking through the binoculars i kept looking through my binoculars but my hands were shaking so you kept being like what do you see and i was like i can't see anything my hands were shaking um but yeah you know we approached it and it was amazing it was just like one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

Did you have remorse? I don't know. I was telling, I think I was telling you guys earlier, like I felt, I was really emotional when we made the first approach earlier that day to the two bulls. Then I was, you know, I think when I came up to it, I was just like in awe. Like how huge this animal was. Beautiful. Yeah, absolutely beautiful.

I want to make this quick. Yeah. So you guys had no fourth hunt day. You got to butcher. Yep. And hang out, socialize, be warm. That's not true. And me and Brittany were out pounding the mountain

and right off the bat we got we go up basically to where helen tagged out and got onto the herd and tried to catch them before they got in the timber but they're already in the timber and we picked up the trail which you can't miss anybody be able to track them it's like it looks like a rototiller yeah went through the snow yep and you could smell them too smell them loud and clear i had never you were like can you smell them and i was like oh and then all of a sudden i was just like wow yeah absolutely and we got just minutes into the timber 150 yards into the timber and it was just elk from what i mean just everywhere and it's a thick pecker pole lodge pole dog hair lodge pole however you want to put it and um it's just all these gaps and every gap is filled with some amount of elk

or parts of elk or tons of elk and we crab we crab walked and what happened tell about that chase tell about that chase then we're gonna wrap it up like just from your perspective okay yeah so i mean you pointed them out and i finally i saw them through the trees um we went after him you know you're like oh just like one camera guy and so i was like oh this is kind of how this is how it works like you know like the facade of scenes and we get we we find like a tree or something and you kind of you're like okay rest the rifle against this tree and chamber around like chambered around and i'm like looking through the scope and i'm like i mean i can't tell what's what i just see bodies i see heads i see butts i see but i don't see like you know a whole elk and i don't know what's behind it and there are so many trees that i

just don't feel comfortable and the herd starts side hilling and we're just ghosting it above probably 80 yards away. But the timber's so thick, I can just see glimpses. They can't see us. And we're moving along. I'm like, there has to be a gap in the timber or a scree slide or meadow, something like we're going to hit if we keep going. They're going to have to cross an opening.

We're going to lay out, and they turn. We do the same thing all over again. And it doesn't work. And so we eventually lose them, right? And so we're kind of tracking them. We find this big wad of tracks, basically. Go down this crazy steep hill. At some point, I'm not even trying to walk with my feet. I'm just sliding down

on my butt, basically. We go down and see... We hit the bottom. Before we hit the bottom, this was my last chance. We see those elk four or five cows right across

this little valley or whatever you call it um like a cross canyon shot yeah and you set me up on your um pack and i'm like looking through it and you um use your range finder and it's like what 370 yards or something like that 340 340 and you're like this is you know this is farther than we agreed on and it's super windy it's you know howling wind yeah um and i have like some branches in the scope like i have the elk in my scope but then there are branches and i just didn't feel comfortable at all like it was too far and meanwhile i'll step some spike about 60 yards

away it's like what's going on up there guys just like i was hanging around here in range um yeah and then they they left they went into the next patch of timber and then you know but we we tried to chase after him a little bit we followed the trail and lost the trail and that was it man yep it was a bummer for sure but I already emailed I already well a text message Doug when we got all done Brittany said

I want to go do the thing that I had originally suggested we're going to go but listen does that make you feel better no no listen no

I respected you like I respected your work ethic and I respected you professionally and now I respect you in the way that work ethic and I respected you professionally and now I respect you in the way that only comes from trudging through the mountains with someone and what's cool about you is I don't know if I was telling you this or someone else's most people think they're more they're they're capable of more than they actually are

right you're like oh yeah I'll go up that mountain no problem but you can't you're capable of more than you think you are or more than you let on so you'd be like i don't want to go up that mountain but you just go up the mountain most people are like oh yeah let's go and they get halfway around they're like oh i got a problem with my acl or like you know what i mean or they come up with something that's wrong shin splints coach yeah they come up with something like oh you know this boot like you know I put these new you know insoles and you know it's like you just like okay it's not gonna happen but you told me it was gonna happen and now it's

not I mean you know it wasn't without my chair of a complaint no you went up but it was funny because at the end of it I was exhausted No, but you went up. But I did it. It was funny because at the end of it, I was exhausted and I realized you went the same distance I went and it was, I'm glad. And without nearly the experience,

training, preparation that you have. Yeah. I'm glad and I'm glad to have a couple days off now. I'm just going to throw it out there

because I was there for a lot of this hiking, a lot of this trudging, humping, whatever you want to call it. We climbed big mountains, steep mountains, lots of elevation. And today we went on a little bonus hunt. The hunt was all – we were done filming.

We decided to go on another hunt. Me and Yanni and Cal. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I was no better. Try to get more meat in everyone's freezer. I actually was thinking, I was like was like well I'll just wake Brittany up and see where she wants to go and I was informed that I would get punched in the

mustache punched the mustache we'll save what happened on our hunt for another podcast because we're out of time but I will mention that all of us Steve included we're saying how we'll be glad to get a couple days off

of humping the hills and not do it again like tonight we'd rather just sit in a hotel room and got some dinner and get some rest unbelievable job though first time hunt I was going to give a teaser about what happened this first time hunt I was going to give a teaser

about what happened this morning but I'm not going to give a teaser about it oh I think we should just everybody had their own little private screw up oh absolutely

I think we should give some accolades to our first time hunters now I guess are they just hunters now or

I mean they're hunters first time I think I'm a hiker there you go that's the attitude i like that it was a it was a great it was a great journey it was a great year-long journey from my perspective and you guys did like a tremendous amount of like the education training taking the responsibility of shooting um you had i never heard of with helen or seen with you any desire to take shots that were out of your league a lot of restraint um you had like you went into it knowing what you wanted and how you're going to

do it and you didn't alter that in the moment in order to get one and let me try to hit it, that kind of bullshit. You guys did a fantastic job. I'll hunt with you again. Are we going to be on Doug's farm? I'd rather hunt with you guys than Olliani. I can't tell you the story. No, I'm joking.

No, unreal, man. I was incredibly impressed incredibly impressed so yeah hats hats off to both of you good job keep at it well i think i mean i don't know i don't i think we're just like incredibly fortunate that we could hunt with pretty much two of the best hunters that are out there. And not very many people get that opportunity. So we're very thankful for you guys. No, and it means a lot coming from you guys. It was fun.

Let's do it again. So Doug Dern, if you're listening, you'll have to put up a couple extra blinds. Heated blinds. Heated blinds on flat countries. They need to be the same elevation as the farmhouse. Yepated blinds. Heated blinds on flat countries. Yeah. They need to be the same elevation as the farmhouse. Yep, pretty much. And we would like mid-50, daytime high.

Maybe lows around 40. Sun would be nice. And some bucks rolling in. We don't want to be there too long before they show up. Some fresh cocktails at the end of the day. Maybe around 30 a.m some bucks will show up um and cocktails are five all right from bozeman montana helen cho britney brothers ryan callahan janice putellis and me steve ranella signing off meat eater podcast take care