Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bear Hunting Magazine Hunt Cast with me
Speaker 1: Koby Moorehead. We're gonna nerd out on bears hunting and
Speaker 1: the outdoors. We'll tell stories, talk biology, tactics, gear, and
Speaker 1: the fight to protect the pursuits that we hold dear.
Speaker 1: So grab your binos, lace up your boots, load up
Speaker 1: your barrels, and gather the hounds we venture on this
Speaker 1: journey together. Welcome to another episode of the Bear Hunting
Speaker 1: Magazine Hunt Cast Man. We've been getting some news this week.
Speaker 1: First off, Proposition one twenty seven, the ballot box initiative
Speaker 1: up in Colorado has been squashed, so good job hunters.
Speaker 1: And then the presidential election went down this week and
Speaker 1: we have a new president, so we can just look
Speaker 1: forward to the future and see what all plays out
Speaker 1: from there. Today I'm joined by Doug Bows. Doug riots
Speaker 1: a column in every issue of Bear Hunting Magazine, and
Speaker 1: he's a wealth of information. Now his stomping grounds are
Speaker 1: up in Washington State, so it doesn't translate to everywhere,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of things that are universal inside
Speaker 1: of bear hunting. And today we're talking about what you
Speaker 1: bring and what you'll find is half of the conversation.
Speaker 1: We're talking about the things you bring that are not
Speaker 1: gear related, and it is universal to all of the
Speaker 1: pursuits of bear. And then we'll dive into a little
Speaker 1: gear and it's going to be leaning a little more
Speaker 1: towards what Doug does, but I bring up things concerning
Speaker 1: what you would do a little bit more in the south. Now,
Speaker 1: this isn't a deep gear dive. We'll do that stuff
Speaker 1: at a later point, but this is just kind of
Speaker 1: like a general thing. And ultimately the goal of this
Speaker 1: particular episode is just to encourage you to figure out
Speaker 1: what you like, what works for you, and to understand
Speaker 1: that the most important thing you bring with you is
Speaker 1: inside of you. This is meant to make it to
Speaker 1: where it's a little bit easier for you to get
Speaker 1: in the outdoors, especially if you're starting out. Share with
Speaker 1: the buddy that's interested, and let's get into it.
Speaker 2: Hey Doug, Hey Golby, how are you, sir? Thanks for
Speaker 2: having me on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm doing good. We're in the thick of waitetail
Speaker 1: season here.
Speaker 2: Well I'm jealous. Our dear season ended well a week
Speaker 2: or two ago, and so now the special draw people
Speaker 2: will get to go out and hunt a little bit,
Speaker 2: but my dear, season's pretty much done with.
Speaker 1: So you're actually you're in Washington state, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, don't hate me. I'm in Washington. I'm sixty miles
Speaker 2: north of Seattle. So when people ask me where I live,
Speaker 2: I say the Seattle area, But in reality, I live
Speaker 2: in a little town that's got a bar and a
Speaker 2: post office, and so I'm pretty backwoods when it comes
Speaker 2: to that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I've fallen in love with the Pacific Northwest,
Speaker 1: and I've been there two or three times in the
Speaker 1: last year and a half, and I just I love
Speaker 1: it out there, and it's so vast, it's so rule
Speaker 1: and if you just thought of it from you know,
Speaker 1: what you see on the news or whatever, you would
Speaker 1: think it was just like cities everywhere. But it's it's
Speaker 1: not really the case. It's a beautiful and sometimes treacherous place.
Speaker 2: It can't be. I think the North Cascades National Park
Speaker 2: is leads the country for people who go missing or
Speaker 2: people who have died in it, So it's a dangerous park.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how many sasquatch sidings?
Speaker 2: I get one every time I look in the mirror, Ashley.
Speaker 1: I like it, but no like out in the West,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of draws. There's a lot of things
Speaker 1: you have to put in for years and build up points.
Speaker 1: Some of them are pure lottery systems to where it's
Speaker 1: just luck of the draw every time, where everybody has
Speaker 1: equal opportunity at drawing something. And the one exception to
Speaker 1: a lot of those draws are actually bears. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of these Western states to where you can get
Speaker 1: a bear tag over the counter, And that's one of
Speaker 1: the reasons bears are just so special because they can
Speaker 1: get you into places where you might have to wait
Speaker 1: a really long time to get into a particular unit
Speaker 1: or area to hunt anything else. I really love that
Speaker 1: about bears, that there's just so much I mean, you
Speaker 1: can just go hunt most anywhere with the bear tag.
Speaker 2: That's what I love about bear too. Like in Washington
Speaker 2: currently it's August first till November fifteenth, that's our bear season.
Speaker 2: And so even though like deer and elk is over
Speaker 2: for me, I still got till I got another what
Speaker 2: ten days of bear season, and I'm gonna go out
Speaker 2: and in the next couple of days and give it
Speaker 2: a shot. But yeah, I mean, it's a great time.
Speaker 2: You can you can start early, and you almost finish
Speaker 2: out the year with it. So it's it's a lot
Speaker 2: of fun. It's it's different, it's different experience, and it
Speaker 2: keeps you out in the woods longer.
Speaker 1: So yeah, the thing we're gonna mainly deal with today
Speaker 1: is we're gonna be talking about things that we need.
Speaker 1: This is a part where I feel like people really
Speaker 1: start to get snagged up and start to feel overwhelmed.
Speaker 1: And so before we dive into other episodes where we
Speaker 1: talk about tactics of actually hunting a bear, finding a bear,
Speaker 1: you know, just different tips and tactics, we're gonna start
Speaker 1: out with the actual gear because that's a lot of
Speaker 1: the pre work that you have to put in. It's
Speaker 1: just good to be prepared and not to feel overwhelmed
Speaker 1: before you even get started, you know.
Speaker 2: So uh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and here you I want. One of the things
Speaker 1: I wanted to say is like, before you get into
Speaker 1: actually like physical things, I call them real number ones
Speaker 1: on a kind of a list that I wrote down,
Speaker 1: one was having like really good friends or a mentor
Speaker 1: to go out there and bear hunter get into hunting.
Speaker 1: I think the greatest thing you can have, and I
Speaker 1: think this is universal for all things is just a
Speaker 1: good attitude and just good positive mental attitude whenever you're
Speaker 1: going out there or even thinking about going out there.
Speaker 1: Because it's a boy, you get whooped with a frustration
Speaker 1: stick real quick.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of non tangible needs in hunting
Speaker 2: in general, like abilities that you need, so perseverance, patience, determination,
Speaker 2: a strong mental ability, strong physical ability. You know, if
Speaker 2: we could go on that's that's a whole episode in itself, really,
Speaker 2: but I agree with you, like you gotta have you
Speaker 2: gotta have patience and if you don't have a good
Speaker 2: mentor kicking back to what you said earlier, that's half
Speaker 2: the reason that wrote my book The Ultimate Guide to
Speaker 2: Black Bear Hunting is so if you're an adult on
Speaker 2: set hunter or somebody who's never hunted bear and stuff
Speaker 2: like that, you can check that out and that will
Speaker 2: give you an edge, that will that will calm down
Speaker 2: that learning curve that kicks a lot of people in
Speaker 2: the butt for several years. Yeah, if you burn through
Speaker 2: that book.
Speaker 1: So, and one thing that I find whenever I'm talking
Speaker 1: to people that are just getting into hunting, like it's
Speaker 1: not about the tips or the tactics, Like it's not
Speaker 1: about how to find this or find that or when
Speaker 1: to go. I think the most beneficial thing that I
Speaker 1: tell them is just like don't get frustrated, Like you
Speaker 1: got to celebrate the fact that you saw something or
Speaker 1: that you found sign or that you you know, say
Speaker 1: they make a bad shot where they just totally miss
Speaker 1: the animal they're shooting at. It's like, how was it
Speaker 1: you got on one? Like you had the opportunity, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you missed, but how was it? You know, Yeah, whether
Speaker 1: you're the mentor of the mentee. I think that's something
Speaker 1: to really remember, is like you have to you really
Speaker 1: have to celebrate the wins, Like find every win to
Speaker 1: celebrate because that gives you the momentum. And it also
Speaker 1: like builds a really strong, you know, mental game, And
Speaker 1: if you don't have a strong mental game, then it's
Speaker 1: just not gonna make it, you know, or.
Speaker 2: Degree and then you know that's something in life, so
Speaker 2: you know, you need to have a strong mental game
Speaker 2: to be successful. And then once you're successful, you need
Speaker 2: to have that strong mental game to get that animal out.
Speaker 2: You know, if you if you give up in life
Speaker 2: or give up on things when things get hard, that
Speaker 2: ain't gonna help you. I mean, cause it can be
Speaker 2: a ground and getting these things out, dear Elk, whatever
Speaker 2: it may be, and you just gotta you gotta toughen
Speaker 2: it out. Yeah, and along what you said, you know,
Speaker 2: I have to remind myself sometimes to just enjoy the moment. Right,
Speaker 2: Sometimes something's coming in or something you want to get
Speaker 2: it on camera or whatever or on you know, on
Speaker 2: your phone, and and I'll stop myself and be like,
Speaker 2: just enjoy this, Like you don't have to capture everything
Speaker 2: and post everything and compete with other people. Just take
Speaker 2: the time to enjoy the moment that has been given
Speaker 2: to you. I think that's really important that people stop
Speaker 2: and do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this year, I haven't really been trying to film
Speaker 1: or record much. I've just really am working on becoming
Speaker 1: a better woodsman or just seeing what I can learn
Speaker 1: and getting rid of some of the distractions. Because one
Speaker 1: of the biggest things that goes against us is comparing
Speaker 1: ourselves or letting ourselves be shaped by what we see
Speaker 1: portrayed to us on you know, whatever outlet, whether it
Speaker 1: be social media or you know, some sort of show
Speaker 1: we're watching. There's you can't put everything in something that
Speaker 1: you do post work on. So there's no sense in
Speaker 1: comparing yourself to say that, oh, this is my first
Speaker 1: time out, but I need to go for a mature animal.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's like you got to get some reps in at
Speaker 1: some point, you know. And I'm not saying go out
Speaker 1: there and go after a cub or something, but you know,
Speaker 1: you need to go out there and just experience it,
Speaker 1: and you need to experience success. And I don't think
Speaker 1: that whenever you I mean, we don't expect kids to
Speaker 1: be really selective whenever they're going out, you know, like
Speaker 1: when you carry a kid out deer hunt, you're like, hey,
Speaker 1: there's a spike, shoot.
Speaker 2: It, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think we need to do the same
Speaker 1: thing with people that are get trying to get into
Speaker 1: these things as adults, where it's like, you know, you
Speaker 1: have a enough pressures trying to do something the first time.
Speaker 1: Just find a win, celebrate a win, and don't worry about,
Speaker 1: you know, what other people are going to say or think.
Speaker 1: And ultimately, like your first animal, you don't want to
Speaker 1: be a big animal because that's a lot of work
Speaker 1: all the way through. Like last year in Arkansas, I
Speaker 1: killed a bear that we think was around five hundred pounds.
Speaker 1: And by the end of that night, when I got
Speaker 1: home in the single digits of the morning, I was like,
Speaker 1: what am I doing with my life? Like I was,
Speaker 1: I was beat up and whooped, you know. And anyways,
Speaker 1: don't bite off more than you can get you and
Speaker 1: don't take on something that's like two way outside of
Speaker 1: your reach or your experience. But anyways, we better jump
Speaker 1: into this to this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're going.
Speaker 1: What was kind of the first thing you wrote down
Speaker 1: on your list?
Speaker 2: Okay, so I wrote down ten things, but the first
Speaker 2: and foremost thing was like a quality weapon with quality
Speaker 2: ammo or you know, broadheads, aeroshafts, that type of stuff,
Speaker 2: and the skill to use it. So I know that.
Speaker 2: I mean that goes for all hunting, right, but don't
Speaker 2: give your don't get yourself a decent weapon and then
Speaker 2: put in a crap bullet that's that's cheap and will
Speaker 2: shatter upon hitting the animal like I have done that before.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh this, you know, this box is
Speaker 2: five dollars cheaper than the other box or whatever, and
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do that. And then it shoots and it
Speaker 2: blows apart and it doesn't retain its weight, and you
Speaker 2: know it might wound the animal or something like that.
Speaker 2: Take the time and the money and lots of times
Speaker 2: it's not much money or extra money to buy yourself
Speaker 2: a quality weapon and become familiar with it. You know,
Speaker 2: don't borrow your buddy's gun for the first time and
Speaker 2: then go out. Spend time to get to know your
Speaker 2: weapon or bow or whatever, you know, whatever your weapon
Speaker 2: of choice is. And you know, like for me, when
Speaker 2: I'm hunting, it's it's almost muscle memory, like if it's
Speaker 2: time to shoot or something that I don't think about safety,
Speaker 2: the safety on the gun, I don't think about anything.
Speaker 2: It's it's all muscle memory. It comes up, I click
Speaker 2: the safety off, I find a spot. You know, the
Speaker 2: same thing with the bow. So quality, quality weapons and skill.
Speaker 1: It's it's funny I put that further down the list.
Speaker 1: And for me, you know, we don't shoot far here
Speaker 1: in the South. We just really don't like especially if
Speaker 1: you're if you're hunting bears, they're typically in the You're
Speaker 1: not gonna be shooting them in the field here. Like
Speaker 1: you you might have one hundred yards that you might
Speaker 1: see a bear through the woods, and at that point
Speaker 1: they're probably gonna look like just a shadow, and so
Speaker 1: we're not having to stretch out like in the West.
Speaker 1: And so actually the first buck I ever killed, I
Speaker 1: killed with the Mossburg five hundred day twelve gauge with
Speaker 1: number four buckshot had he had pellets, he up in
Speaker 1: his neck, broke his back leg like it was just
Speaker 1: like cloud caught.
Speaker 2: The first buck I ever killed was with a shotgun too,
Speaker 2: a buck shot, and it was it was a spike.
Speaker 2: And it's similar over here in western Washington as well.
Speaker 2: So like most of my shots are probably fifty yards
Speaker 2: or less on bear, and sometimes a lot closer. I really,
Speaker 2: I mean I could shoot farther obviously, but I even
Speaker 2: in eastern Washington, where it's more arid, more open, I
Speaker 2: don't take three, four or five hundred yard shots. I
Speaker 2: just don't. I like to get close. Even last year
Speaker 2: when I got this white tail, I saw him from
Speaker 2: like six hundred yards and I crept up to within
Speaker 2: one hundred yards of them and then shot him just
Speaker 2: because I like to get close. And so, yeah, you
Speaker 2: and I are very similar in that respect.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've gotten where I'll stretch it out more and
Speaker 1: there's guys that's like nothing to him to take a
Speaker 1: six hundred yard shot, you know, but that's what they
Speaker 1: like to do. Yeah, and so you got to figure
Speaker 1: out your method. But for me, you know, it doesn't
Speaker 1: take a lot to specifically with a firearm to be
Speaker 1: able to be proficient with it, especially at like one
Speaker 1: hundred yards or like sub two hundred yards. One thing
Speaker 1: I will say about gear when you're talking about a
Speaker 1: rifle and scope and ammo, I think the AMMO is
Speaker 1: the most important thing in the equation. And then also
Speaker 1: I would say, make sure you don't get too powerful
Speaker 1: of an optic, like you want to low powered scope
Speaker 1: when you're in like a southern forested kind of area,
Speaker 1: like you want like a two to ten you know,
Speaker 1: would be a good choice. And then but in the South,
Speaker 1: your best opportunity is going to be more with archery.
Speaker 1: And so if you're not proficient with with a bow,
Speaker 1: a lot of times you can use a crossbow and
Speaker 1: that that really cuts the learning curve down, you know,
Speaker 1: So a lot of things can go wrong if you're
Speaker 1: not willing to put in a lot of time shooting
Speaker 1: targets with a compound. So if you if you feel
Speaker 1: like you're somebody that's not diligent and feel like you're
Speaker 1: not gonna get out there and put your reps in. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I would say crossbow would be the way
Speaker 1: to go. My number one was mapping software. I use
Speaker 1: Onyx on every single thing that I do.
Speaker 2: That was ten.
Speaker 1: Well. So the reason I put that is I can
Speaker 1: go into an area I'm unfamiliar with and navigate it's
Speaker 1: easy to get turned around. And I'm thinking about this
Speaker 1: from terms of somebody just getting into into hunting that
Speaker 1: doesn't have the wismanship, doesn't have like anything any history
Speaker 1: to lean on, probably what a boy scout but wants
Speaker 1: to get out there and do it, And especially when
Speaker 1: you're in areas where there's a lot of public and
Speaker 1: private merging, like we don't always have huge tracks in
Speaker 1: the South for you know, public land, so you could
Speaker 1: easily get on somebody else's property and sometimes it looks
Speaker 1: like a checkerboard. And so for me, like a mapping
Speaker 1: software is really important.
Speaker 2: Totally agree on X has has helped me, you know, enormously,
Speaker 2: and it's it's gotten our hunt cap hunt camp. A
Speaker 2: couple of deer like you go by and you don't
Speaker 2: realize that that piece of property is owned by the
Speaker 2: state or something and it is no one's hunting it.
Speaker 2: We go in there and ended up getting a deer
Speaker 2: and quick story on that. I actually went to our
Speaker 2: jeweler in town the other day and a couple of
Speaker 2: years ago he was telling me a story. He was
Speaker 2: out hiking in this place called Paradise out out in
Speaker 2: the mountains Washington. He got turned around and he got lost.
Speaker 2: I think it was for like a day. It was.
Speaker 2: I think it was overnight. He got way turned around,
Speaker 2: but it was in it was in August. It was,
Speaker 2: you know, cooler or decent weather. Long story short, he
Speaker 2: got turned around, found his way out, but he was
Speaker 2: all tore up, beat up. He was an older guy.
Speaker 2: And I told him about on X and this this
Speaker 2: last week when I went in there, and he said
Speaker 2: he had bought that and been using it and he's
Speaker 2: he was like, man, this thing's a godsend. It's you know,
Speaker 2: I wish it would have had it before. And how you
Speaker 2: can save maps so when you're not online. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: a great tool.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Another thing that just a little quick tip on
Speaker 1: on X. If you're ever looking for an animal and
Speaker 1: you're blood trailing or whatever, like, immediately start a new
Speaker 1: track and you can see where you've walked and where
Speaker 1: you've gritted, and you're not like, you know, going over
Speaker 1: the same area over and over and over again. So
Speaker 1: it works well, I'm told with when guys are going
Speaker 1: and looking for sheds as well to grid out an area.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, my number two. I really put a lot
Speaker 1: of thought into my boots. Specifically in a western hunt.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter as much to me here in the South.
Speaker 1: There's not a lot of I mean, when you leave
Speaker 1: the road, I mean, if you just walk a couple miles,
Speaker 1: you'll probably come to another another road. Like, it's just
Speaker 1: not as big of a deal. A lot of times
Speaker 1: I'm torn between where my mountain boots and and my
Speaker 1: knee boots here where I'm at. But having the right
Speaker 1: boot for whatever you're doing, Like, you got to take
Speaker 1: care of your feet, and I think that that's a
Speaker 1: really important thing whenever I'm thinking about where I'm going
Speaker 1: or what I'm going to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you got to have you got to have healthy feet. Right.
Speaker 2: You don't realize how much you use your feet or
Speaker 2: your back until you hurt it, and then you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: I use this all the freaking time, and it hurts.
Speaker 2: Baldy Boots is definitely up there. My number two was
Speaker 2: was a good knife or knife set and a sharpener
Speaker 2: with and so my knife set, I have kind of
Speaker 2: a heavier bladed knife. I have like a skinny knife,
Speaker 2: and I actually have a filet knife, and I have
Speaker 2: a little sharpener that I bring. And specifically with Bear,
Speaker 2: I have noticed that their hide, for whatever reason, seems
Speaker 2: to dull knives way faster than elk or deer. I
Speaker 2: don't know why it is. I don't know if it's
Speaker 2: just more coarse or the fat or what it is,
Speaker 2: but it's important to have a sharpener, to take the
Speaker 2: time to take a rest, grab a drink of water,
Speaker 2: sharpen those blades, and then continue on. I think that's
Speaker 2: really important with Bear.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean we've done a lot with just
Speaker 1: simple have lines and so whenever you're thinking about your gear,
Speaker 1: I had. I've got some friends in their role of
Speaker 1: thumb is whenever I buy a new tool that I've
Speaker 1: never used before, I'll go to Harbor Freight and just
Speaker 1: buy cheap one, and if I use that enough to
Speaker 1: wear it out, then I'll go get a different one,
Speaker 1: you know, Like I'll give a nice name Brandwin And
Speaker 1: I think that that's a good idea whenever you're coming
Speaker 1: into hunting, too, is like on X is kind of universal,
Speaker 1: like you know, just get it, but maybe not get
Speaker 1: the package for all the states. Just focus on the
Speaker 1: state that you're going to be hunting and get that
Speaker 1: package with boots. Get a pair of boots that fits you, like,
Speaker 1: fit your feet good. You know, it gives you good
Speaker 1: ankle support on the left and right roles. And but
Speaker 1: you don't have to go and buy the five hundred
Speaker 1: dollars mountain boot. You know, you could go and find
Speaker 1: a decent hiking boot like I've I've hunted in like
Speaker 1: a pair of hiking boots some Solomon's I was actually
Speaker 1: in in Washington and the Cascades, and they worked. They
Speaker 1: weren't as good as my my kinetrec said it I have,
Speaker 1: but they worked just fine. So you can always take breaks,
Speaker 1: but you know, you don't want to always break the bank,
Speaker 1: like go out there, use the stuff that you can afford,
Speaker 1: and just get out there and then start building up
Speaker 1: your pack from there. So start cheap and work your
Speaker 1: way up into the things that you know, give yourself
Speaker 1: time to to hone in your you know, your whole setup.
Speaker 2: I would agree with that, Like I don't. I don't
Speaker 2: think people need to out and completely break the bank.
Speaker 2: And I actually I kind of encourage that. Like, you know,
Speaker 2: our grandparents they were out there with blue jeans and
Speaker 2: flannel shirts, and they probably didn't stay out there as
Speaker 2: long as we do. Necessarily they didn't have as nice
Speaker 2: a gear. But there's been a lot of deer killed
Speaker 2: in blue jeans and bear too, right, So yeah, just
Speaker 2: get what you can afford and get quality stuff as
Speaker 2: best you can.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, especially bears. Bears don't care as much.
Speaker 1: And you know, I kind of like I've gotten nowhere.
Speaker 1: When I do get new gear, new technical gear, I
Speaker 1: typically buy the solid colors, Like I don't go as
Speaker 1: much for the cameo anymore. Like sure, there's benefits to it,
Speaker 1: but it's like some of these things are becoming so
Speaker 1: expensive that I'm just not willing to spend that much
Speaker 1: on something that I'm only going to get one use
Speaker 1: out of. And so it's like I'm going to use
Speaker 1: it when I'm in the woods, but I'm also gonna
Speaker 1: wear them to church.
Speaker 2: You know, or wherever.
Speaker 1: You know, they definitely cost more than dress slacks some
Speaker 1: of them. But I mean we can go ahead and
Speaker 1: talk about clothes. I mean I grew up hunting in
Speaker 1: just a pair of coveralls, and I would wear blue jeans,
Speaker 1: a T shirt sometimes pajamas underneath, and I you know,
Speaker 1: I just put on a pair of coveralls and that
Speaker 1: was good for you know, up to pretty cold temperature
Speaker 1: and temperatures. And back then there were you know, one
Speaker 1: hundred and something dollars. They're probably not too much more now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I kind of look like a collage
Speaker 2: of various gear when I go out there. So you know,
Speaker 2: I'll have like first light gators on and some you know,
Speaker 2: some one hundred and fifty dollars boots, and then I
Speaker 2: might have you know, like a wool long sleeve shirt on,
Speaker 2: and then you know, I'm just all hopoged together. I'm
Speaker 2: not like the Sitka model or the you know, Couu
Speaker 2: model or any of that stuff, but I have that stuff
Speaker 2: sparkled throughout my sprinkled throughout my outfit.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, no, whenever I first started buying my
Speaker 1: own stuff, and you know, I shopped, they used to
Speaker 1: have the bargain cave at Cabella's I got a bunch
Speaker 1: of stuff from there, and then camofire dot com. I've
Speaker 1: got a lot of stuff from there, and you know,
Speaker 1: just mix and match. It doesn't matter like you don't.
Speaker 1: You just need to be able to make it out there,
Speaker 1: you know. And the biggest thing in the South is
Speaker 1: be still, you know, don't move a lot. And uh
Speaker 1: so it's it's a lot more skill. I mean there's
Speaker 1: guys that are really like good whitetail hunters, like what's
Speaker 1: his name, Cody to Cristio that he just goes out
Speaker 1: there in flannels and pants and you know, gets big
Speaker 1: old heer, you know. And it's one of those things
Speaker 1: to where there's diminished gains whenever you get past a
Speaker 1: certain threshold. And I talked to the guys up at
Speaker 1: Vortex here a few months back, and there's a big
Speaker 1: jump from like a you know, crossfire to a viper
Speaker 1: level inside of their line of scopes. But whenever you
Speaker 1: go from a viper to a razor, the margin of
Speaker 1: gain is a lot less like dollar for gain, you know.
Speaker 1: And so you don't always have to go and get
Speaker 1: the most expensive You just get something that works and
Speaker 1: the thing that you're gonna gain and I think we're
Speaker 1: just gonna get off the list and just talk about
Speaker 1: different things now, but just for the sake of time,
Speaker 1: because we're we're kind of there. But in terms of glass,
Speaker 1: as far as binos and stuff, we don't use a
Speaker 1: lot of buyos down here because you know, they just
Speaker 1: they're nice to have, but you don't have to have them.
Speaker 1: We've used rifle scopes, I use my I use my
Speaker 1: range finder all the time just to give me a
Speaker 1: little bit of extra clarity to what I'm looking at.
Speaker 1: And so here in the South you don't have to
Speaker 1: worry as much about wait and stuff, but out west,
Speaker 1: you know, And the more that we talk about this,
Speaker 1: the more it's like, man, we're gonna have to do
Speaker 1: specific talks at some point of what it looks like
Speaker 1: hunting in the South versus the West, because you know,
Speaker 1: it can be really simple in those areas for people
Speaker 1: that grew up there and lived there and know their areas.
Speaker 1: The main thing about this podcast is I just want
Speaker 1: people not to feel like they have to go and
Speaker 1: buy the most expensive thing, you know.
Speaker 2: No, I tell a lot of people that to like,
Speaker 2: just go out with what you have right, gather what
Speaker 2: you can get equality stuff when you can and just
Speaker 2: go out there and have fun and a lot of
Speaker 2: just especially when you're a beginner, a lot of it
Speaker 2: is just getting boots on the ground, getting to know
Speaker 2: your hunting areas, getting to know sign of bear and scat,
Speaker 2: and you know mark or trees and the trails that
Speaker 2: they use and stuff like that, so that can pay
Speaker 2: dividends down the road. You get a good knowledge of
Speaker 2: a hunting area, and your odds of success increase with
Speaker 2: your knowledge, and so that that'll pay out regardless of
Speaker 2: the gear that you have.
Speaker 1: So for me, one of the things that has changed
Speaker 1: the game when I'm out west specifically, or when I'm
Speaker 1: baiting bears and I'm packing bait in down here in
Speaker 1: the South, just anytime I'm carrying load or going up
Speaker 1: and down some steeper terrain, trekking polls have been a
Speaker 1: game changer for me. I I didn't grow up in
Speaker 1: the mountains. I grew up as a flat lander. You know,
Speaker 1: there were some hills there here and there, and I
Speaker 1: grew up in East Texas. Whenever I went up on
Speaker 1: my first hunt in Montana, I was so like I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have made it without trekking poles. Uh and uh,
Speaker 1: I'm glad I was listening to Randy Newberg back then.
Speaker 1: That was back when he started using them.
Speaker 2: They help, Like my dad has two faake knees and
Speaker 2: he's seventy eight and you know Marine Corvette Vietnam VET
Speaker 2: and the Trekking poles he uses. You know, they helped
Speaker 2: him quite a bit. And he you know, he still
Speaker 2: gets after it, you know. Game sack. That was my
Speaker 2: number four. I skipped number three. Number three was quality.
Speaker 1: Pack pack for me too. I was up there.
Speaker 2: But I use those Caribou game bags and I had
Speaker 2: found those to be very beneficial. You know, like the
Speaker 2: flies they can't they can't lay in them like uh,
Speaker 2: you know, put blow on their their a. You can
Speaker 2: wash them, you know. Uh, they have the nice dross
Speaker 2: ring on there. They're sturdy. So I I have used
Speaker 2: Caribou game bags for years. I'm not sponsored by them,
Speaker 2: but I do recommend them, and i've you know, I
Speaker 2: just wash them and bleach and and and keep you
Speaker 2: reusing them.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, yeah, I've got some Moregali ones I like,
Speaker 1: and uh, I've used some qu ones and but even
Speaker 1: those basic ones from from Kabela's like I've used them,
Speaker 1: and they do. They do fine too. They're they seem
Speaker 1: to have a little bit more access, like the gaps
Speaker 1: are wider in the in the weave, gotcha. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: one of the things like trekking polls, I like the
Speaker 1: Argalli's uh because they have a thing you can screw
Speaker 1: in the top of one of them that h makes
Speaker 1: it a rifle rest, uh too, And so that could
Speaker 1: be beneficial for because whenever I'm thinking about shooting some
Speaker 1: sort of firearm, one of the most important things to
Speaker 1: me over everything else is just being stable whenever I shoot,
Speaker 1: you know, like I could use the cheapest rifle and
Speaker 1: the cheapest scope, and a lot of times if I'm
Speaker 1: just if I can get stable and steady and somebody
Speaker 1: else can't, I'm probably gonna shoot better, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so, but a steady rest is definitely worth
Speaker 2: the effort to get that in your setup, whether it's
Speaker 2: a tree limb or you know, your pack or something.
Speaker 2: If you can steady yourself, that's definitely beneficial. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I know you get a call somewhere on your list.
Speaker 2: Yeah, call is number five, so that you know that's
Speaker 2: one of the that's one of the things that kind
Speaker 2: of varies from my deer season. Although I bring a
Speaker 2: call with me when I go deer hunting, but I
Speaker 2: definitely don't. I don't leave the door bear hunting without
Speaker 2: a predator call around my neck or or and or
Speaker 2: in my pack. So I usually have one or two
Speaker 2: with me, but I usually always have one around my
Speaker 2: neck in case I see a bear, you know, maybe
Speaker 2: in the brush or darting it out of a clear
Speaker 2: cut into the tree line or something. I will use
Speaker 2: that to try to coax that animal out to get
Speaker 2: a shot. And a lot of people, especially new predator
Speaker 2: callers or people who read my book or whatever, they're
Speaker 2: you know, oh, I don't I don't sound right. I
Speaker 2: sound horrible, you know, I don't sound like an alk
Speaker 2: or this or that. And I'm like, hey, man or lady,
Speaker 2: you don't have to sound perfect, right. Your whole goal
Speaker 2: is to just sound raspy, annoying, wounded, scared to kick
Speaker 2: that predator response. And so that adds that adds an
Speaker 2: advantage to those who don't carry it necessarily.
Speaker 1: So yeah, well, also, whenever you're walking through the woods
Speaker 1: and you make a loud sound or something, if you
Speaker 1: have a call, that sounds like an animal. Well, if
Speaker 1: you make that sound, they're not going to be thinking,
Speaker 1: oh person, They'll be like, oh whatever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, elk hunters will be able to relate to
Speaker 2: that because you know, I hunt up too. And if
Speaker 2: you're in a herd and you're making noise and you
Speaker 2: do a couple of cow calls or something, they and
Speaker 2: the wind is right, they don't care at all. Like
Speaker 2: you can be noisy in an elk herd. In fact,
Speaker 2: I think they almost prefer it because if you're sneaking
Speaker 2: around and then you kind of call there, eh, they're
Speaker 2: kind of iffy. But I've walked in herds with the
Speaker 2: right wind plenty noisy, and they just they think you're
Speaker 2: an elk unless they see you, obviously, But if it's
Speaker 2: super thick brush or something, you can get away with
Speaker 2: a lot as long as they think you're something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think this is a good start. I mean,
Speaker 1: I wish we could dive deeper into them, and I
Speaker 1: think we're going to have to, but I think it's
Speaker 1: a good start to just you know, a list a
Speaker 1: few things that people need. I mean, here's the thing,
Speaker 1: like I whenever I came on that hunt in Washington,
Speaker 1: there was some locals that came out and T shirts
Speaker 1: and just blue jeans in a Nissan Frontier. That bed
Speaker 1: was only held on by a ratchet strap. All three
Speaker 1: of them piled out in tennis shoes, and they went
Speaker 1: further than we went when we hacked back with our
Speaker 1: with all of our gear. You know, they were just
Speaker 1: I mean they went back miles just like one rifle.
Speaker 1: Three guys I don't even remember if they had backpacks
Speaker 1: on and tennis shoes, and so you just got to
Speaker 1: get out there.
Speaker 2: You know, gotta get after it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean here's the thing. You go out
Speaker 1: there and do the best you can with what you have,
Speaker 1: and then you upgrade after that. And in the grand
Speaker 1: scheme of things, if you talk to a lot of people,
Speaker 1: the first scene to upgrade would be like boots and glass,
Speaker 1: particularly in the West, like having really good glass to
Speaker 1: be able to see out further, maybe out of tripods
Speaker 1: so you're stable whenever your glass and just just you know,
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But those are things that you if
Speaker 1: you went and got the best from the get go,
Speaker 1: you have ten grand fast just out the door. You know.
Speaker 2: Glass is a good thing to spend money on, right
Speaker 2: because you don't want, especially in the in the West
Speaker 2: where it rains, foggy, whatever, we have a lot of moisture,
Speaker 2: and so if you go out to go deer hunting
Speaker 2: and your scopes flogged up, right, you can't shoot your scope,
Speaker 2: you can't shoot your rifle. So that's that's no good.
Speaker 2: So you know, like loo loophold, they have, you know,
Speaker 2: the gold Ring standard, so if something happens, they have
Speaker 2: that lifetime warranty. I have loopholed scopes on all my
Speaker 2: guns that have scopes on them. Anyway, and as far
Speaker 2: as bear hunting goes, like, I rarely ever bring a
Speaker 2: spotter scope with me if I'm if I'm bear hunting,
Speaker 2: I'll do that maybe in eastern Washington as a as
Speaker 2: you know, if I'm gonna go l hunting, I'll bring
Speaker 2: that for for bear for fun. But bino's I in
Speaker 2: the West, I always have binos with me because similar
Speaker 2: to you, it's a lot of it's very close, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, it might be a couple hundred yards that
Speaker 2: you're looking, but a lot of a lot of the
Speaker 2: areas I hunt are Northwest jungles, like they're thick, so
Speaker 2: you don't really need a spotter scope, but quality glass,
Speaker 2: quality binos, that's important.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a there's a lot of places in southern
Speaker 1: Oregon where you need to glass further because of the
Speaker 1: way that the topography is, you really can't glass close,
Speaker 1: so you're going to be glassing cross canyon. And uh,
Speaker 1: whenever I was there last, I really wish that I
Speaker 1: had had a little bit more power behind my binos.
Speaker 1: So I usually run a ten by forty two. I
Speaker 1: was wishing I had at least some twelves if not,
Speaker 1: you know a little more, And it all depends on
Speaker 1: the area that you're in. But you can get by
Speaker 1: with ten by forty two is just about anywhere. It
Speaker 1: just you know, might be limiting at times to not
Speaker 1: be able to see a little further out, but a
Speaker 1: good tripod will stretch that. So like a tripod or
Speaker 1: something steady that you can look through takes all that
Speaker 1: extra movement that gets taken out is a game changer
Speaker 1: whenever you're going. I didn't own buy those before I
Speaker 1: started hunting the West, Like we just never used them
Speaker 1: growing up, And so these are things that I've had
Speaker 1: to learn as I've you know, started getting further and
Speaker 1: further out inside of the things that I do, and
Speaker 1: so I don't think that you need everything. But because
Speaker 1: like whenever I take my spoder, I just I hardly
Speaker 1: use it. I like to have it, especially now that
Speaker 1: they've gotten lighter. I've got one of those really light
Speaker 1: razors that Vortex makes, and it's all awesome, and but
Speaker 1: I end up I end up on those hunts looking
Speaker 1: at Elka mule deer. I don't know that I've looked
Speaker 1: at too many bears through that.
Speaker 2: You know, I like spotters, but it's almost a form
Speaker 2: of entertainment for me because I'll find myself where I
Speaker 2: go deer hunting, I'll be looking at mountain goats and
Speaker 2: I'll be like, oh man, these mountain goats are so cool,
Speaker 2: and I'll just watch them for hours, or you know,
Speaker 2: if I'm if I find a good glass knob. I
Speaker 2: just enjoy picking things apart with those spotter scopes. They
Speaker 2: are a lot of fun. But again, like I don't
Speaker 2: really use it for bear necessarily because most, like I said,
Speaker 2: most of my hunting's thick in western Washington. Eastern Washington
Speaker 2: is open, like you were you were talking about in Oregon.
Speaker 2: You know you're probably an Eastern Oregon or something of
Speaker 2: that effect, and that's pretty open yet.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, people at the
Speaker 1: end of this episode might be thinking, I don't know
Speaker 1: that I really know what gear to go for I
Speaker 1: learned anything in this And you know, it's like, well,
Speaker 1: that's kind of the point that gear doesn't matter. You're
Speaker 1: the thing that matters, you know, like it's all the
Speaker 1: other things that really truly matter. You know, these are
Speaker 1: just a few things on a list that could help
Speaker 1: you add to the things that you're bringing yourself into
Speaker 1: the equation.
Speaker 2: The one other thing that I would mention before we
Speaker 2: probably end this is like, at least where I hunt,
Speaker 2: leather gloves And that might sound kind of silly or
Speaker 2: whatever to some people, but some of the places I've
Speaker 2: killed bears, like it's an eight foot wall of BlackBerry
Speaker 2: thorn brush that you have to like either crawl through
Speaker 2: through a bear tunnel or cut your way through to
Speaker 2: get to the animal. So it can be pretty brutal
Speaker 2: on your hands. But leather gloves, you can just grab
Speaker 2: those thorns vines and just you know, move them out
Speaker 2: of your way. It's no big deal. Those are very
Speaker 2: handy for me, so and they help keep flies and
Speaker 2: mosquitoes and crap like that off your hands too.
Speaker 1: So yeah, Trekking pulls up with with briars and stuff too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I use those a lot. No, I usually keep a
Speaker 1: pair of leather gloves inside of my packs all the time.
Speaker 1: You just never know when you're gonna need them. So
Speaker 1: next time we talk, well, we'll dive into you know,
Speaker 1: what you look for whenever we are scouting for bears.
Speaker 1: We'll start talking about sign and just some of the
Speaker 1: things that you've written about inside of inside of the magazine.
Speaker 1: You know, we'll dive into sizing them, judging them, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk about some shot placement and stuff too. So cool.
Speaker 2: Well, thanks Doug, thank you for having me anytime, happy
Speaker 2: to help.
Speaker 1: Awesome, Thank you for listening.
Speaker 2: The Bear Hunting Magazine Hunt Cast is recorded by Bear
Speaker 2: Hunting Magazine and produced by Mountain Gravity Media.
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