The Hunt Backcountry Podcast

This week, in lieu of the Monday Minute, we have a full-length episode with Dan Staton of ElkShape.com. Mark and Dan discuss the topic of balancing family and hunting, and also cover some great elk hunting advice. Be sure to share your stories and strategies for balancing family and hunting with us by emailing podcast@exomountaingear.com

You have waited 5 years to draw a coveted Arizona archery elk tag. You have more than two weeks to hunt. You have spent time and scouted the area. Your one worry is that this hunt will be too short-lived, as you know opportunity abounds. But things do not go your way. The elk do not cooperate. You have some bad luck. And as your mindset is challenged, you make some mistakes. How do you bounce-back from "failure"? How do you continue, despite your mistakes? How do you deal with what seems...

In this Monday Minute we discuss a listener question on the topic of taking time away from the family to go hunt the backcountry, and how to keep a happy wife and a happy life. The struggle is real. What are your tips and experiences managing hunting and family? Let us know at podcast@exomountaingear.com ALSO... Land of the Free 2.0 launches this week! Check it out at BornAndRaisedOutdoors.com

We are back with the crew from Snowy Mountain Rifle to talk more about upgrading a factory rifle vs building a custom rifle. Our first podcast with them (#128) covered this topic and raised a lot of listener questions, so in this follow-up show we dive deeper and answer many of your specific questions. We cover where and when to spend your money, balancing light weight and long-range accuracy, barrel life and re-barreling, accurizing a factory action vs building off of a fully custom action,...

In this Monday Minute we hear about listener feedback for running stoves in your shelter, talk about ways to pass the time on late-season hunts when darkness falls early, and preview the next episode on custom vs factory rifles.

Steve Flores hunts whitetail in Appalachian mountains of the Eastern US and has also transitioned into hunting elk in the west. We talk with Steve about traditional whitetail tactics, as well as the unique tactics for hunting "mountain whitetail", and also learn how he adapted his hunting style when learning to hunt elk out west. Steve also shares an important lesson with us about "failure" and growth as a hunter. Learn more at http://ExoMountainGear.com/podcast

Help us design the Exo Mtn Gear 2019 packs. Sign-up before this Wednesday (10/24) to receive an invitation for the product design survey at ExoMountainGear.com/newsletter. If you do not sign-up before then, email podcast@exomountaingear.com to request access to the survey. In this Monday Minute episode, Mark and Steve talk about a once-in-a-lifetime Mountain Goat hunt that Steve was a part of last week. As pretty much all Mountain Goat hunts are, it was an adventure!

Tyler Boschma and Exo Mtn Gear co-founder, Steve Speck, share their recent experiences hunting elk in the midst of wolf activity. Hear about Steve accidentally calling-in and being surrounded by five wolves, Tyler's account of active wolves while recovering a bull he shot, and more. Whether you just want a good story from this past elk season, or you want to pick up a few elk hunting lessons that they learned, you'll enjoy this episode. http://ExoMountainGear.com/podcast

This Monday Minute is a bonus replay of a podcast we recorded a couple of years ago. The timely topic is hunting post-rut, late season elk. Most of the elk hunting information out there is about hunting elk during the rut, but in the late season you need to consider changing tactics to fill your tag. Our guest, Mark Kayser, shares many lessons he has learned about hunting post-rut elk.

In this week's show we speak with Troy from Benchmade Knives about the pros and cons of choosing a fixed-blade, folding, or replaceable blade knife. Then we dive deep into understand the anatomy of a hunting knife and what knife attributes should be considered for ultimate performance. If you want to learn more about blade steels, sizes, shapes, sharpening, and more, you will definitely benefit from this episode! http://ExoMountainGear.com/podcast

Now that September is over, we are back to podcasting weekly. In this Monday Minute episode we quickly recap what we were up to in September, talk about some of the good and bad from gear we tested in the backcountry over the past month, and explain what is coming for the podcast. Don't forget to share your stories and photos from September with us!... podcast@exomountaingear.com

Highs and lows. Mistakes made. Lessons learned. And a bit of good fortune. We dive into these aspects of Tim Connor's first elk hunt. His story is real, and familiar. As many of your are getting your start and building experience in western hunting, I am sure you will relate to and benefit from Tim's story. Learn more at http://ExoMountainGear.com/podcast

Just a couple of days ago Steve was hunting highcountry mule deer and spent a frigid, snowy night on the mountain...in August. Other days, it was 80s and sunny. Mountain weather, it seems, is consistently inconsistent. But there are patterns that we can look for. The weather forecast is worth paying attention to before any backcountry adventure. Our guest in this show, Eric Knoff, is an experienced outdoorsman and weather forecast, and he helps us understand weather in the mountains — what...

What are some of the differences between Roosevelt Elk and Rocky Mountain Elk, and how do tactics both differ and stay the same when hunting these elk sub-species? We cover this topic with our guests, Cory and Shannon, from Angry Spike Productions. The guys at Angry Spike have an incredible track record of killing big Roosevelt bulls in the Pacific Northwest, and although their specialty is Roosies, we learn a lot from their approach that can apply to us, as hunters of Rocky Mountain Elk. We...

Have you ever looked around at other hunter's success and wondered what their secret was? How did they become so successful? How did they fill so many tags? How did they find such amazing animals? There could be many answers to those questions, but for hunters that consistently get it done on public lands, it boils down to simple elements, such as focus, preparation, determination, time in the field, etc. Maybe what we need to do is focus on the basics, be persistent, and that becomes the...

What is altitude sickness? How can it be prevented? Do over-the-counter medications and supplements work? How can you tell the difference between serious illness and non-acute symptoms? If acute mountain sickness occurs, how should you treat it? We answer all of these questions, and more, with our guest Robert Roach. Robert is the Director of the Altitude Research Center at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and has spent years researching altitude sickness. Visit...

In this week's #HuntBackcountry podcast we speak with Aaron Van Woerkom of Muley Freak about the lessons he has learned from hunts gone wrong. Among other things, we discuss a tough hunt where Aaron lost a buck he shot. It has been said that if this hasn't happened to you, you just haven't hunted enough yet. Losing an animal you shoot is always a tough situation, and it is an important topic to consider for yourself, ideally before it happens to you.

Special guest, Trent Fisher of Born & Raised Outdoors, joins us to talk what's to come for the 2018 season. Of course, we couldn't let him go without asking for some last-minute elk hunting advice...

Paul "the Elk Nut" Medel has been on the #HuntBackcountry Podcast a couple of times before, and he's back again to share some last-minute advice for everyone heading into the elk woods this year. We always learn a lot when we talk to Paul, and in this episode Paul shares some things he's never shared before. You might want to have a notepad handy when you listen to this one! http://ExoMountainGear.com/podcast

What gear is the Exo crew using this year? Do you have to go "miles deep" to find game? How do we train while traveling? Oh, and don't forget about the #InMyExo giveaway... http://ExoMountainGear.com/InMyExo