Western Rookie - Bonus Episode: Cold Weather Gear

0:00This episode of the sportsman's empire is brought to you by interstate batteries. Since 1952, interstate batteries has been evoking compassion and a trustworthy spirit into the surrounding communities. Interstate batteries is a mission driven company fueled by purpose and guided by their values. If you need help locating a specific battery, stop into your local interstate batteries retail store and speak with a battery specialist. They even offer cell phone repairs. Did you know that parents rank teaching financial literacy as the toughest life skill? That's where Greenlight comes in. The debit card and money app made for families. With Greenlight, you can send money to kids quickly, set up chores, automate allowance, and track spending with real-time notifications. Kids learn how to earn, save, and spend responsibly, while parents have peace of mind knowing smart money habits are being built with guardrails in place. If you're a podcast host, listen up this one for you.

1:05My name is Ally Jackson. I'm the host of Finding Mr. Height, a dating and relationship podcast that I've been doing for four years now, sharing my positive and practical approach to dating that's built on my own life experience. And I wanted to share another experience that I've had, my secret behind monetizing my show. It's called Red Circle, and I was just telling my colleague about how much I love their platform. With Red Circle, not only am I getting a seamless hosting experience, but I also love the support I receive in AdSales. It's not just typical AdSales, either. It's targeted opportunities based on my show and my life. And the platform is super simple. You just set your preferences and Red Circle matches you with sponsors that align with your show. You can vet every opportunity, and their platform gives you great analytics. More recently, too, my Red Circle team has brought me opportunities outside of my podcast on social media. To really augment the podcast partnerships, bring them full circle, I just can't recommend them enough. If you want to give it a try, go to redcircle.com to get your free trial. That's redcircle.com for a free trial. All right, everybody. This is the hunting gear podcast. I'm your host, Dan Johnson.

2:06And today we are joined by Garrison Kinzel out of currently, out of Colorado soon to be a Texan again, correct? Yeah, born again, Texan. Born again, Texan. Can you really, is it hard to get rid of the Texas label or is it harder to become a Texan? Ooh. I'm going to say it's harder to become. Well, actually, no, Texas, Texas is actually pretty welcoming. Okay. You, if you're willing to leave some of your preconceived notions about Texas at the door, Texas is very welcoming. What's a preconceived notion of Texas? Oh, the world is dumb rednecks, the love guns and don't want the government involved in anything, which honestly can't be the second to a hundred percent true. Yeah. The second two things you said are 100% true. You gave me that far off.

3:07Yeah. So I guess, I guess be kind with your preconceived notions is my point there. But no, yeah, I guess it's probably easier to become a Texan, harder to leave the label at the door, but I'll tell you this, dude, living out here, I was pumped to leave that at the door. I was so excited to pull up the trailheads with my Colorado plates. The first season that I was hunting up here because I was like, I'm not a non-resident. No one can talk crap, but I, I mean, dude, I still feel like a non-resident, most days hunt and efficient here, but yeah, it's been fun. Yeah. I almost feel like I've only been to Texas via, no, I take that back. I went on a high fence, exotic hunt through a media hunt, several, like I was an invite deal several years ago, and I ended up shooting a ria. You know what a ria is? I do. I'll tell you I spent a lot of time on raches and stuff doing all this that you're talking about. And I'm no clue what that is. Dude, it's an ostrich. It's a giant bird. Oh, I know what you're talking about.

4:07Yes. A ria. That's what a ria. Yep. Maybe it's a giant, you know, it's a giant bird anyway. Can you eat it? I did. Interesting. Yep. They ground up whatever was in it for me, and then they sent it to me, and I made some kind of chicken, like a ria and rice dish. And so I ate it. It was ground. I ground it all up. So. Here I am telling everyone not to consider all the Texas just red necks, and I'm like, can you eat it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Anyway, I, I just figured like the way the world is with all these people moving to Texas. Now they're leaving like Illinois and California, New York, and they're moving to Texas. I just feel like the, the, the born and raised Texans are like, you're not Texan, you know, you're not a Texan. Yeah.

5:08They'll never be in Texas. Yeah. They're going to like Dallas and a lot of the major metros. It's not all that different than Denver. It can be kind of a melting pot and everyone's just kind of happy to be there. But yeah, if you go to some more rural parts of Texas and you're like, oh, we just moved here from California because it's so affordable, you're, yeah, you're going to get some looks. But they're sending it. Get out. Yeah. I had a buddy who's like my best friend from high school and we went to go visit a friend of ours in Austin because she's living there now, but we're both living here in Colorado. Yeah. We're visiting her and he's in a rental car, obviously, and it had California plates. And he said he pulled up to a gas station kind of outside of Austin. And he, he's pumping his gas and he's about to walk in and this guy pulls up in his duly. It goes, I just pan you assholes to move here now. And he goes, oh, I'm from San Antonio. That's a rental car. And he goes, oh, my God, I am so sorry, can I go buy you a coffee?

6:08Well, don't judge a book by a cut by its cover until you need to, right? Exactly. So that's funny, dude. That's funny. All right, before we get started today, I want to send a huge shout out to our partner over at Reveal Trail Cameras. We're talking cell cameras, right? And they have one of the best cell cameras, cell plans, cell services, apps that you download to your phone where it all connects to in the business, right? So if you want to find out more about about the ease of use, the, and I've said this before, I want my cell camera to take pictures of whatever I'm setting it up to and sending it to me. That's the basic function of a cell camera. And I have had zero problems yet with a Reveal Trail camera. So go check out tacktocham.com slash cameras, check out the newest ultra and read up on all the functionality and then go download the app and check out all the new functionality on the app as well.

7:09So there's that. All right, we're talking, you were on the Western rookie podcast a couple of weeks ago. And we talked about late season Mule deer, like rifle season, Mule deer, rifle season, elk hunting and Colorado. And I thought it would be a good idea to get you on here and talk about maybe the differences between, you know, September, rut, elk, the clothes that you need for that versus the clothes that you need or the gear that you need, the weapon that you need for that late season, high elevation, cold, weather, tamp, so what's the, how is the vibe different between your, your archery elk versus your late season rifle elk? For gear. Uh, okay, so the vibe, the general vibe, how's the vibe different? I will say that in Colorado, at least nothing I'm going to say is, is full proof, right?

8:13Uh, I've had some early season hunts that you could have convinced anybody, especially some guy from out east, you know, that it was the middle of November. Um, and I've had the opposite, actually, I've more often had the opposite, right? More recently, I've had a lot of these November hunts that I would, I would have swore it was, it was the middle of August. Yeah. Um, so nothing I'm going to say is full proof, but in a nutshell, um, the early season hunts are, um, I put more of an emphasis on lightweight, right? Like I want to be able to move around, um, I want to be mobile, I want to be flexible and I want to try to do all that without sweating my butt off, right, um, because it's going to be hot, uh, that said, it gets cold quick, right? A lot of these early season hunts, especially for deer and elk, take place, you know, 9,000 feet in above and you would be shocked at how quick you can go from dump and sweat in the sun, chase an elk to shivering, uh, because you can't get your downpuffey on,

9:17you know, quick enough, um, so that my focus for, for gear in the early season only really changes for the late season because of snow and because of, uh, I kind of lose that lightweight factor a little bit. Now, that's not every hunt. There's a lot of like second and third season hunts where I really want to go deep and and I will focus on lightweight gear. But I'm not usually covering as much country in these early elk hunts, um, light, lightweight is, is king because you need to be able to, to chase them down and cover miles, um, some of these late season hunts, I know where I'm going. So even if I'm going three to five miles deep, I'm usually going to go three to five miles deep and sit my butt down. Um, so I can afford to bring a little bit heavier, more durable gear and I should because like I just mentioned, you're going to be stationary a little bit more in that late season. Yeah. Yeah. What's it like or let's talk base layers just for a moment, um, are the, are the base

10:20layers the same for September and then December? For me, uh, yes, um, I will say I, I do change my, my socks a lot. Those are different, um, this is going to sound funny and, and no one make too much fun of me. But I do, I run different boxers in the late season. I will wear more of those, uh, I don't even know what they're called, but they're more like briefs, right? Like don't go to your calf, um, or all the way down your calf or no, like, like just above your knee. Yeah. Anyways, uh, like the full long john look, whereas in the early season, this is where my friends make fun of me. I will legit wear like cotton boxers. I don't know why, but I like to feel of like paper, eat thin cotton boxers when I'm hot. Um, yeah, I know they get sweaty and everything, but it feels better to me, um, but I usually don't do that in the late season. It's just too cold. Right. The thing that I will, I almost bring on every hunt with me, no matter the time of

11:23year is, uh, those zip off long johns. I love those things, um, because they're so easy, uh, to work with no matter what's going on, because, you know, I just said in the late season, I do a lot more sitting and glassing versus running. There's a lot of times in, in early season, though, that, that I do the same thing. I run, run, run, run, run, run, run, and then all of a sudden, it's time to sit. And wait and I've been sweaty, but now I know that I'm about to sit somewhere. Maybe I'm going to sit over a wallow, right? For hours on in and it's cold. It's so easy to zip those on and off without having to get, you know, fully undressed and dismantled. Um, so it's like a insulation layer type, uh, puffy paint. Yeah, I'm hesitant to call it an insulation layer. The puffy pants I almost always bring on every hunt. I used to think those were ridiculous and I love them, even on the late season, uh, but this, what I'm talking about is more of those zip off long johns where you basically just drop your drawers. I don't have to take my gators off.

12:23I don't have to take my boots off and I can zip these long johns on and off because they zip off on the left and right side. Yeah. Um, I love those. And I, and I, uh, excuse me. I tell a lot of guys that are coming up here for the first time. That's, that's one of my favorite pieces of gear. Um, because as I'm sure you have seen and are aware of guys that come out here for the first couple of times are very reluctant to take off their cold weather gear, even when they know they're about to get sweaty. Yeah. Um, cause it's cold at the trailhead. I get it, but man, a simple on and off layer can change everything because you're like, okay, I'll take that off for now because I know I can throw it back on really easy. Yeah. Yeah. How do you manage that? Um, cause I've been, I've been in scenarios where it's been warmer, like a warmer morning, like 50 degrees and I've had to hike in two miles.

13:24And I'm sweating my balls off because it's, there's not a lot of wind. How do you manage that when it's 20 degrees outside, you're having to hike like you're going to sweat no matter what the temperature is outside because your body's working. Is there a, is there a way to manage that even in colder, like, or even dare I say, extremely cold temperatures where even if there's a little wind, it hurts, you're still, your body still pumping, but the wind is still cold. Yeah. I got a really great, uh, personal case study in this this year. Okay. I had a certain hillside that I think between second, third and fourth um, I probably climbed up this hillside in the dark between four and six a.m. eight or nine different times. Um, and this ranged from like late October all the way to fourth season, which is right before Thanksgiving. So I got to do

14:25this same hike in a ton of different, uh, temperature ranges. And I will tell you by the end of the season, I figured out my formula. And this, I think the last time I did it, it might have been like 17 degrees. Um, I do almost everything except my base layers off like all in my pack. I do like my pants, um, and granted every hike is different, right? If you're going to do like rolling terrain and you feel like you're not going to sweat, this is different, but I'm talking about your average pretty steep hike to a glassing spot, you know, a funnel or whatever. Um, I do my pants, a thin layer of socks, um, a base layer shirt, maybe a really light, you know, base layer type jacket, um, like a wind, not a windbreaker, but like, you know, the little VNX, the quarter's ups, sometimes orders it. Yeah. But dude, everything else goes in my pack. Um, I put an extra pair of socks in my pack that I can change into when I get up there for

15:30I'm freezing cold, um, because I've had mornings where I sit down to glass and I'm so stubborn that by the time I'm done glassing, my, my feet are not only like, I can't feel them there in pain because my toes are so cold. Um, but I've learned that if I'm not too stubborn and I get up there with time, I'll take my boots off and put a whole new thing of socks on. Yeah. Um, but here's my, the biggest thing I learned in, in this whole case study, it is more often than not your extremities that are tricking you into thinking that you're really cold. Right. It's usually your fingers and your ears and your nose and your toes. Right. It's, it's usually the extremities that, that give off this illusion of like, oh my god, I have to put on more layers. I'm freezing cold. Well, in reality, you're, you're sweating, your pits are sweating, your, your butts sweating. It's like you mentioned, like, I, I know I'm going to be sweating, but for some reason my brain wants me to, to put on more layers. So I often sometimes look like

16:31a absolute idiot because I am in like base layers, looking skinny. And then I've got these mittens on like the Michelin man on my extremities, right? Like I've got a, I've got a beanie on my head. And I usually end up kind of folding that up. I've got these mittens on my hands. So I, I look kind of dumb, but I figured out that's what works for me. Yeah. Yeah. How, when, when you're hiking in those colder temperatures, how long are, once you get up there, do you, do you let your body cool down and the sweat evaporate a little bit before you start to layer up or do you use that heat to kind of insulate your body? Like what's your, what's your process there? Yeah, the, the biggest tip I can give on like your average late season morning. And this is for Colorado, but I imagine it, you know, extends to Utah and, and especially some of these later hunts in, in Montana, like for deer. The biggest tip I can give for getting ready to, to sit down

17:37later in the season is sweat management by how you hike, right? I will be, like I said, I could, I could be almost butt naked for the first part of the hike because I know like, Hey, it's, say it's a three mile hike. For the first two and a half miles, I'm just focused on getting there, right? I'm trucking, I'm moving. Yeah, I'll cover my extremities like I mentioned. So I'm not freezing cold, but I'm focused on getting there because after the first 10 minutes from the truck, you don't really feel anything, right? Like, yeah, it's 20 degrees outside, it's 10 degrees outside, whatever it is, but like I'm moving. So I'm, I'm hot. I might be a little uncomfortable, but I'm getting there. The last half mile though, before I get where I'm going, I will slow down. And there's, there's two things to keep in mind here. A, you need to consciously remember that you're getting close and, and think to slow down, but B, this is probably the harder part. You need to be getting where you're going with time to slow down. And it, this took me a long time to learn

18:37because it's so easy in the morning to wake up and go, okay, well, if it's going to take me an hour to hike in and I take me 15 minutes to get my boots on, or you, you try to squeeze every last second you can out of your sleep. Dude, add on an extra 15, add on an extra 30. You're already getting up early. You're already going to be sucking wind getting there. Just get up a little earlier so that when you get to this glassing spot, you're not running in there, dump and sweat, suck in air, going, I gotta get there because the sun's coming up. Get there in time to slow down because if I slow down in that last half mile and I take a couple more breaks and I pace myself, usually I'm not showing up, dumping sweat. And when I get there, I can put my layers on and I'm not wet because getting wet in the late season sucks. It doesn't matter how much puffy gear you have and, and how great your cuu is and how much money you've spent on it. If you're wet, it just sucks. Yeah. Yeah. I found that out before I transferred over to marino base layers, back in the day where I

19:37was wearing cotton, everything, my base layers were like cotton long johns and things like that and they get wet and then they're wet until you hang them out on the clothesline and we get back to the house or camp or something like that. And so the marino definitely helps. There's also some moisture wicking synthetics that I've used in the warmer months that have really helped me get dry out, but I can't agree, dude. It doesn't matter. You get wet and then you layer on top of wet. That wet eventually gets cold or, I don't know, muggy maybe is the word. Yeah, I don't know how to describe it. You can't win. No, and I think there's two issues there. A, the cold is going to, like that wet is going to get cold. If you're sitting there long enough, you kind of can trick yourself into thinking, well, like, if I just throw all this gear on while I'm hot, like it'll, it'll trap everything and it will for a little while. And then longer you sit there, the more that

20:38wet gets cold and you're now you're really cold. The second thing though is like you said, it traps kind of that muggyness. And I've noticed it'll, if you just keep doing that after a couple of days, you start to smell like crap. I will say this on the marino topic. This may not work for everybody, but I found that it works for me in the early seasons when I'm scouting and I'm, you know, I'm going to go back home in a day or two, right? Or I'm, you know, day scouting somewhere and I'm going to come back to the truck and I've got a whole, you know, closet full of fresh clothes. I will wear just one of those long sleeve, mine is stone glacier, but I know all the brands make them. Long sleeve, like kind of quartersips that are, it's just a long sleeve t-shirt with a hoodie and it's got like a quartersip right here and you can zip it all the way down to your belly button and let all the air out, but it keeps you from getting sunburn and everything and it's got the hood that you can put over when you're glassing. You know, I love those, but I've gotten so comfortable with those that I also always for some reason want to wear them as my base layer in the late season.

21:39Or like kind of in like the second and third season when it's like it could be hot, it could be, it's going to be cold in the morning, but it could be hot later. What I found that I really enjoy doing on these hunts where I know I'm going to be out there for five to seven days is I put a tight fitting marino t-shirt on as my base layer and then I put that quartersip really kind of thin, synthetic hoodie t-shirt on top because that, and I've got like 10 of those little marino t-shirts, they're kind of expensive, but I just pick one, you know, add one to the card every year. I can just get back to camp and rip that marino t-shirt off and yeah, it's smelly and it's sweaty and whatever, but all my other layers after that just got protected, right? Yeah. Because I just made the choice to put that marino t-shirt on as my as my skin type base layer. Right. And those don't cost me much in terms of weight, so I can bring two or three of those on like a backpack trip, rip through them, and then now my second layer, my quartersip hoodie type

22:46t-shirt, that doesn't smell as bad, and it feels fresh to me because I kept a couple of these lightweight tiny marino t-shirts. Interesting. I've never thought of that. Yeah, but I can say it doesn't work for everybody. I've pitched it to somebody and they're like, dude, I can't wear two t-shirts. I'm like, well, the marino doesn't really count. Super light. Yeah, I get that. Yeah. Talk to me a little bit about your sock boot combination. Only because like, dude, there's pluses and minuses, so I'll just use, I'll talk about my white tail boot. I wear the same boot, whether I'm out west or whether I'm in it's cold temperatures. It's just what I do after I sit down that changes the game for me. So talk to me about your sock boot combination and maybe the differences between the September and December timeframes.

23:48Yeah. The first thing I'll say to everybody is this is the one place, one piece of gear that is so different for everyone. They always say everyone's different with their archery shot. Everyone has a different process. It's a little more standard for guns, but the boots, the feet, for some reason, if you got a foot fetish, this is your game. It's so different for everybody. It's crazy. I can say that because I've had a lot of friends come up here and ask the same question of what boot should I get, what size, what fit, is this too big, is this too small, what brand, dude, it's so different for everybody. It's taken me a long time to learn what worked for me. It's also taken me a long time to learn that if you don't blister, dude, you can suck up anything else, right? Your feet are always going to be a little sweaty. It's always going to be

24:50a little uncomfortable. As long as you're not blistering, you can deal with it. Now, if you're blistering, you need to, something's got to give. You got to change your socks, your boots, your brand, something. But you won't know that until you've put some miles on. But for me, I keep a pair of, well, let me back up. I keep a pair of, I can't remember the brand, but they're cheaper, very light, not a very sturdy wall. You know what I mean? Like boot wall, they kind of bend and flex a lot. A pair of early season boots for, if I'm not going far from the truck, if I want to be quiet in the archery season, stuff like that, and I can't remember the brand there. But most companies make them, and you'll read flexible sidewall or whatever it is. Right. After that, I keep a pair of uninsulated, I think they're crispies. Just plain Jane leather boots. I think they have Gore Texanum, but I want to say, it's one of their flagship

25:56models. I have that same model though, insulated for the late season. What I've learned, dude, my feet are hot. My feet sweat. I'm a hot feet guy. Like I said, I've learned to take an extra pair of socks because of how much I sweat. My feet sweat a ton. I have tried using those insulated boots as kind of a shield for that. And what I'll do is I'll get up to the top. If I'm going to sit down for a while, I'll take my boots off. I'll put the new dry socks on and then I'll shove them back into insulated boots. To be honest, dude, I haven't noticed how much of a difference between insulated and uninsulated. And I think that's because of how hot my feet run. The socks are where I've noticed the biggest difference. Now, when I speak on the socks, this is only after I found the boot that works for me. So I've seen a lot of guys that will blame the sock when they haven't found the boot that works for them. And guys, I hate it. I absolutely hate it because you can't. I could shoot a gun for a

27:00little while. The side is not the gun for me and then probably resell it. I can't wear boots for 50 miles. Find out that they blister and then try to go sell those boots to somebody. You're going to have to eat a couple hundred bucks sometimes, figuring out what boot works for you. Right. But dude, for me, socks are the big, big deal. And that's why I said, I will bring different pairs of socks on on every trip. Find out which one I like, find out which one worked for me. And in nearly every case, if I'm leaving the truck for more than two to three hours, I will bring an extra pair of socks at a different weight or a different type and put them in my backpack. In case I find out that I don't like these socks. They don't work for me. They're not working right now. They're too hot. They're too cold. Or if I step in a creek, dude, then nothing will ruin your day quicker. And if you don't have a backup pair of socks. So I always keep a lot of socks on me. Yeah. What is your, what is your current boot sock combo?

28:00Like tell me the brands and what? Chris B's, like I said, it's one of their flagship models. It's like Nevada. I want to say it's the Chris B, Nevada's or the guys or something like that. But I've loved them. They've been great for me. Now I did go to the, I think it was the Western Hun X boat. And I walked, I went to the Chris B booth and I did the whole like sizing thing. So if you're curious and you want to try to skip that curve of, you know, buy new boots and sell them or returning them or whatever, just go to shields, right? Go to shields, go to Bass Pro, do the sizing thing and get it figured out instead of sitting online and trying to figure out what the hell to do, right? So I've got those two pairs of Chris B's. I can't, again, I cannot remember the early season boot that I have. I want to do, they might be like Irish setters. They're, they're very like simple cabela's boots and they just work for me. But the socks, dude, I can't even tell you. Did you know that parents rank teaching

29:01financial literacy as the toughest life skill? That's where green light comes in. The debit card and money app made for families. With green light, you can send money to kids quickly, set up chores, automate allowance, and track spending with real-time notifications. Kids learn how to earn, save, and spend responsibly while parents have peace of mind knowing smart money habits are being built with guardrails in place. Try green light risk free today at greenlight.com slash try green light. That's green light.com slash try green light. Inspired by 13 plus movie ratings and limits for who can contact teens plus teens under 16 can't change these default safety settings without parental approval. So parents can help teens connect safely. Instagram teen accounts, automatic protections for who can contact teens and the content they can see. Learn more at Instagram.com slash teen accounts. I got every damn sock

30:02brand in the game. I got darn tubs. I got all of them. And that's why I said, I bring different socks on different hunts. A, because they just don't cost much in terms of weight. They don't cost that much in terms of money. And I found different uses for different socks. And I've also found a lot for me in my case. I do a lot of hunting with buddies where it's their first time, you know, second or third hunt. They're still dialing their gear. Dude, I bring a ton of socks because I found that sometimes they don't, you know, have what they need. So I tempt my socks on a lot. So I have to bring a ton. Yeah. I found a sock. I don't know. Have you ever heard of Altara socks? They do. Yeah. I'm gonna write this down. Yeah. You gotta write them down, dude. They used to just make, yeah. They used to just make one. It was called the Prevail. But now they have these, they're called the Thrive. They're the lightweight lighter weight socks. They make a variety of different socks now and different lengths now. But they're alpaca socks.

31:07Dude, here we go. I'm looking at it. Yep. Exactly. And dude, they are money. They are money socks. And they wick so well. I will say that I have a pair of crispy thores. They're not leather. But over time, though, they, I got to retreat them with waterproofing. The last pair of boots that I had from them, I towards the end of that life cycle before I bought a new pair of the exact same boot. I had to redo the, the water repellent on them and the waterproofing. But I would match that like early season. It's the Thrive. Late season, anything cold, colder, you know, like November hunting, late season, late season, when I went to South Dakota in December one time, and it was like 12 degrees outside. The high was 12. I was running the heavy weight prevails and things like that. And so that boot, that's the one that works for me, man.

32:10And so this is, this is a good price point for these, especially for alpaca. These are, this is awesome. I also just realized I do in some of the early season hunts, I have bombas because I use those for like the gym a lot. And they started coming out with like hiking socks. So I started running those this last year, and I'll give a shout out to those as well. I do like those. These look like a similar fit and style, but this alpaca, I've used alpaca on some, you know, hoodies and mid-weight stuff like that. So this could be, this could be awesome. Hell yeah. And I'll say this, man. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's just the way my foot is built or laid out, but I have never, and I'll say this with full confidence. I've never had a blister with crispy boots. Same period, right? My first ever elk hunt I went on was in 2014, I believe.

33:13And I went to Idaho, and I had a pair of danner pronghorns. And I got blister on my heel on one of those. And that boot fell apart. I don't want to say fairly quickly, like the first season it didn't, but going into the second season of wearing them, it did. And it just, the boot kind of fell apart, the lace holes. I don't know what they call those. The lace holes started popping out and things like that. And that was difficult to take, but, you know, it is what it is. And it ended up leading me towards crispy. And I had, dude, I had these one pair of crispies, not the ones I currently have, but the previous one were, dude, I had them for like seven years, five or seven years. And I beat the shit out of them. So if they, if they hold up like that, and where you can beat the shit out of them, and they still are functioning, like I said, I had to do the water

34:15proofing on them again. But man, that's a, that's a good, I like those types of products where you can beat the shit out of them and they last a long time, dude. That's what everybody wants. Yeah, that's what everyone wants. And I was told once that that's the sign of a good, well, this was fishing, but I was told once that's the sign of a good fishing guy. They have no nice stuff that they've beat the tar out of. Right. Because what they've, what that tells you is they've been around, they've been on the water long enough to figure out what works and what doesn't. And once they finally find what does, it's usually, you know, nice, it's usually a little more expensive. Yeah. And they beat the tar out of it. So yeah, I think that's what everyone wants. And I will say boots to me fall in the category of what you hear everyone say, the whole buy once, cry once. Yep. In fact, I would love it if, I think it'd be great for guys coming out here for the first time. If someone made a list of what actually falls under the buy once, cry once, and what yeah, really doesn't. Yeah. Because I think people would be surprised. The buy once, cry once does apply to a lot of stuff. But there's also some stuff that I like,

35:18my trekking poles, for example, I do, they're from Amazon, right? And because I beat the crap out of other more expensive trekking poles and then like, I'm not going to buy a new $300 pair of trekking poles every year. I'm going to buy these Amazon ones and beat them up. And I do, they hold up just fine. And if they don't, it was 30 bucks, right? Right. Boots, not that way, man. If you can sink the money into a good pair of boots, it's going to pay you back. And that's how I feel about my Krispies. And no one's paying me to say that. I love my Krispies. They've been good to me. May my trekking poles have seen a lot. And they have been, they have been second hand purchased off, like Facebook Marketplace or at a garage sale or one year of buddy just said, dude, I don't want these anymore. Do you want them? I'm like, yeah, sure. I'll take them. And so they've come with me. I beat the shit out of them and very low amount of money put into them. And they're bent. Some of them are bent. Yes. Even, you know, and all the plastic and rubber at the bottom of it is falling off

36:20the cork handles are all taped up now. And I don't, I don't put any money into that stuff. Some of them don't even collapse down anymore. I just have to, I just have to use it if I'm going to take it with me. So in cold weather, are you ever like backcountry, like setting up a spiked camp in like 10 degree weather? Talk to me about your tent, your sleeping bag, your cot. Do you have a, are you building a fire or have a camp stove? Run us through that stuff. Yeah. So when I was coming out here for the first couple of times, I was convinced and I had convinced myself that I had to buy a seek outside teepee with a stove. And I had it for three years and never used it, not once. Because I kept, I kept doing these hunts up here in second and third and even fourth season. And I would always build these game plans where I was like, all right, I'm going to look for low hanging fruit close to the road or within a day hike of the road. And then if I find by, you know, midway

37:21through the hunt that I need to go deeper, I'll pull out the seek and I'll go do the thing that I see on YouTube and go deep and what. And I just thankfully I never had to do it, right? I would find stuff closer and I was really practical about, you know, what I could achieve as kind of a rookie by myself. So I never ended up using it. I think I've used it on a couple fishing trips. And then I just never, anyways, long story short, I sold it. And then I probably went another year and got a little more experience under my belt and kind of started looking into more hunts where it did make sense. So then I went and bought the six man, like the big boy that had room for me and one or two dudes in the stove. And I did my first lengthy hunt, like not just a one night stay, like lengthy backpacked late season hunt. 2023, I think. And man, it was clutch. It really did

38:24do everything that people say. It allowed me to stay out there. It gave me that morale boost because I could, you know, dry out my stuff. I could stay warm. Man, that fire is awesome. When it's when it's freezing cold and you are miles and miles from anything that could bring you any heat, that fire is life. So once I started using it, then I realized, okay, this is a really awesome tool. But you need to be practical about when you choose to use it. And I would say this about a lot of gear, like a lot of the backpacking gear. Don't trick yourself into buying gear and then setting up your hunt just to use said gear, right? You should center your hunt around the hunt, right? Don't, don't be buying a, I don't, we'll take another example, say like don't, don't go buy a BTX. And then only hunt your hunt around using the BTX, right? What's the BTX?

39:25The BTX is like big eyes. It's glassing. Oh, yeah, yeah. Twarovsky's got the mega spotter, right? BTX and any other big spotter like that. Don't buy a big spotting scope and then center your hunt around just using the spotting scope if the hunt doesn't require a spotting scope. You know what I mean? Yeah. Don't buy a late season TP with a stove and then center your hunt around using that just because you want to. You should do what the hunt requires to be successful. And yeah, that's what led me to sell it the first time. Now I have it. It's great. I've also learned to use it as kind of a, this is why I bought the six men. I learned to use it as like a wall tent and early season hunt. Just don't bring the stove and just pop some pots in there. We used it for a muzzle hunt this last year and it was our base camp. If you buy the six men or one of the bigger ones, it's effectively a wall tent for you and a buddy or two. So that's why it had a little more practical use there. But dude, yeah, I've done some late season hunts where that saved us and probably gave us what we needed to be successful. But

40:30in Colorado at least, there aren't that many places where it makes a ton of sense to hike five to 10 miles deep somewhere and base your whole hunt out of that deep spot to the point that you should stake down a TP with a stove and stay there. There's a lot more spots in Colorado that are one to three miles from a road. And if you, you're honestly doing yourself a disservice, if you take all that stuff in there and tie yourself down to one spot. If you're a podcast host, listen up this one's for you. My name is Ali Jackson. I'm the host of Finding Mr. Height, a dating and relationship podcast that I've been doing for four years now, sharing my positive and practical approach to dating that's built on my own life experience. And I wanted to share another experience that I've had, my secret behind monetizing my show. It's called Red Circle. And I was just telling my colleague about how much I love their platform with Red Circle, not only am I getting a seamless hosting experience, but I also love the support I receive in ad sales. It's not just typical ad sales either. It's targeted opportunities based on

41:33my show and my life. And the platform is super simple. You just set your preferences and Red Circle matches you with sponsors that align with your show. You can vet every opportunity, and their platform gives you great analytics. More recently too, my Red Circle team has brought me opportunities outside of my podcast on social media to really augment the podcast partnerships, bring them full circle. I just can't recommend them enough. If you want to give it a try, go to redcircle.com to get your free trial. That's redcircle.com for a free trial. Yeah. Okay. And so you're saying that the back country, the back country experience is fun. It's awesome. You have the gear for it, but it's not something you're doing all the time. No, I do it when when and where necessary. Yeah. And if you're coming out here for the first couple of times, I know that sounds, you know, that sounds easier said than done. You don't know what you don't know, right? Yeah. So even on these hunts that I do now, I keep it with me, right? It stays in the truck. And if I find Elk six miles back that I glassed up from the road, cool. I'm going to go kill him and I'm going to load that up. But I'm not going to load that up

42:35and go out their site unseen until I know that that's how deep I need to be. Yeah. I got you. All right. Makes sense. What's your sleeping bags scenario? You know, the tent that you mentioned when you do use it, the ground's exposed. So how are you removing yourself from the ground, separating you from the ground? So in a floorless tent set up late season, I bring Tyvek, I love Tyvek. I think it's awesome. You go buy a Tyvek sheet online or you go buy it Home Depot, so cut it to the size of your sleeping bag, plus a couple inches. That's my biggest recommendation. And I keep it at the very bottom of my pack, right? And it compresses down really easy. It's super lightweight, very durable. But I, side note, when you go buy the Tyvek, you have to run it through the wash a couple times. And there's some videos out there I think on this. I'd wash it one time

43:36before I did it for the first couple of times. Now I recommend it to everybody. I'll cut a couple Tyvek sheets and keep them in different places. But you got to run them through the wash and then they become real quiet. Don't put it in the dryer. Run it through the wash and then let it air dry. Don't put it in the dryer. But that is what I sleep on. So I'll go Tyvek first, and then my sleeping pad and sleeping bag. My sleeping bag in the late season is a zero degree big agnus. I think I also now acquired a 15 degree or a 20 degree. I can't remember, but just a little step up from that. Because like I said, I get hot sometimes. But I will say this if people don't already know, sleeping bags are not, they lie to you, right? The zero degree doesn't always mean zero degree. 15 degree doesn't always mean 15 degree. You should know that if you are going to go in sub freezing temps, you need something that's, I don't know, sub, it can't be rated

44:38at 32. Exactly. Yeah. And even then, even if it is a say it's 30 degrees outside and you're in a 20 degree bag, you're probably going to end up putting socks on. You're going to sleep in some extra layers. Sometimes I'm even wearing down inside a down sleeping bag. Yeah. Because I just don't like being cold. But that's my whole set up there. The other thing I was going to say on the Tyvek, that Tyvek, the reason I mentioned that it lives in the bottom of my pack, even when I'm not on a backpack hunt and I'm not going to sleep on the Tyvek, dude, it's awesome. It's just like a ground tarp to lay meat on, right? I'll lay that Tyvek out, throw my meat down on it, I'll throw whatever I need down on it to keep it up off the ground and keep it from getting debris and bugs and whatnot. And then when I get home, dude, I just throw it in the wash again. It's awesome. I love Tyvek. You can't speak highly enough on it. I never knew that you could wash Tyvek. Yeah. It's awesome. Now you can. Now I know.

45:40One of the biggest investments I've ever made, spending the biggest amount of money was my sleeping bag. And I bought a Western mountaineering pack. It's awesome. Made in America. It's like, I think I bought a negative something to, I can't, I'd have to go out and look at it. It was like $650, $700 for that made in America. 20 years, the guys like, if you should be able to get 20 years out of this tent or this bag. And it's awesome, dude, especially when it gets to that 20 degree mark. But to your point, I also have a big agnus. And it's a 20 degree bag. And there was a time when I took that out to South Dakota. And during the day, it was like 50 to 60 degrees. But during the evenings, it would get down to 24 degrees. I think one night it got to 19. And I had a 20 degree bag. And I shivered the entire

46:48night. And I had to put my layers on in the sleeping bag because of, you know, and I had to learn my lesson, always go lower than what you, well, you know, it's only going to be 25 degrees. A 20 degree bag should be perfect. It's not. It's definitely not always, always go bigger. So anyway, that's one thing whenever I did do my backcountry, Hans, I had the sleeping bag that allowed me to get be really comfortable in it. And that was the western mountaineering. But it's also something that was to this day, probably my biggest purchase I've ever made for hunting gear. They're not cheap. They're not cheap. But I would totally put those in the in the buy once cry once. And that's if you're a serious backpack hunter. And, and, and I will say this, well, two things. When I was talking about my sleeping bags, I, yeah, I've got the zero degree. I think the other one, if I remember correctly, is like a 35 or 40, I can't remember. But it's, it's just above freezing, I think.

47:54Dude, I even bring that on my early season stuff because there's nothing stopping me if I'm hot from using it as a quilt. Right? I've heard a lot of guys talk about quilts. And, oh, that's, you know, better if you're really trying to count ounces. Dude, I'd rather bring the big one. And if I need it, because there's a snowstorm or something, I can bundle it up like a normal sleeping bag. But if it's hot, just open it up, sleep with it like a blanket. But I can't do that with a quilt. I can't make a quilt a sleeping bag, but I can make a sleeping bag of quilt by opening it up and just, you know, putting it on top of myself. But what I was going to say on, on the backpacking side, and I guess kind of talking about all the buy once, cry once stuff is, like I said, you really need to think practically about what kind of hunts you're doing, what you can afford, and what the mountain is going to command of you on those hunts. You can very easily in today's day and age of marketing, and YouTube, and Instagram get sucked into buying gear, and then going on hunts to use that gear.

48:56Think of the hunts you want to do. Think of what makes you happy, what you're going to do every year, and then buy the best gear you can for those types of hunts. And that's going to make you the most comfortable out there, which more often than not makes you the most successful, because the guys that are the most comfortable out there, they can stay out there the longest, they don't have to worry about going back to the truck or going home. Those are the guys that usually more often than not have higher success rates. But that's the trap that I would try to advise people to not fall and to just buy and stuff to buy it, because it looks badass. Oh, dude, I fell victim to that. Several years ago, when I started going on these elk hunts, I was like, dude, I need Sitka, I need Koo-yu, I need this, I need this, I need all these things, and I'm just like, yeah, you look good, but then you start to realize it does not impact your hunt at all, the certain certain things. And I was, you know, then you start to actually do some research, other brands

50:01that aren't as expensive, and you're not paying for that company's marketing budget, you know what I mean? Oh, yeah. And because a lot of that is marketing. There's other brands of clothes out there, and maybe it's a different camo or hell, maybe it's not camo at all, right? Like, I hate to say it, but you probably don't need a camo, any type of camo on a late season elk hunt with a rifle. Yeah, I'm a solid, yeah. And that's not by like design or anything. I'm not bad mouth and camo or whatever. I just, I found this all, it's work for me, and they don't seem to make much of a difference on late season hunts. Yeah, for sure, for sure. I mean, even in the white taro worlds, when you're in a tree stand, I don't feel like camo is that, that important man. When you're on the ground, I believe it does a little bit, and maybe it does a little bit in the elk woods, but I'd like, you can stand in front of a tree or behind a tree, and it's going

51:03to do the same thing, dude. So what other type of cold weather products do we need to discuss that we haven't yet? I don't know why this one came to my head, but I will gladly talk about it, and I cannot remember the brand, but let me look it up. We, so I have a buddy who I do a lot of my like high country fishing with, and he, he'll do like late season backpacking stuff sometimes, but he, he told me about this fire starting deal, and I don't know, I don't know if you start a lot of fires on your late season hunts. I, I will win the time and places right, I don't do them just for fun, but I've noticed when you need to start a fire, you want to start a fire, it's because you really want to start a fire. Yeah. And I don't like fiddling around with all this stuff, and grabbing the twigs, and, and then pulling out the little pyro putty, and I've used the pyro putty, it's great. But this buddy of mine, uh, goes, yeah, dude, uh, if I ever showed you my like Japanese

52:04firemaker, and I was like, what? He goes, yeah, man, it's basically a blowtorch in your pocket. Okay. And oh, it's so cool. So now I don't, I don't, if I want to make a late season fire and granted, like I said, if you're doing a late season backpack, ounces matter, weight matters, but if I'm day hiking from the truck, and this is happening to me a lot, if I'm day hiking from the truck, and I think I'm going to kill something a couple miles back, and it's going to get dark, and now I have to cut up an elk in the dark, and my hands are freezing. Do this thing is awesome. Um, it is, uh, Japanese mini torch. Oh, if I, if I can't figure it out right now, uh, I'll, I'll, look it up later and send it to you, but I basically, if you look up like Japanese mini torch, oh, there it is. All right. It's called the snow peak folding torch. Um, most of us, you know, from I experience are carrying around the little canisters, the fuel canisters to make coffee,

53:07right? This thing plugs into your fuel canister that you use to make coffee, your little jet bowl canister, and it basically turns into a portable blowtorch. And I'm not getting, dude, you can make a pile of sticks, right? Not mess with the pyro putty, the lighter, any of that, make a pile of sticks, flip this thing on and just hold it over the pile of sticks, and it, it's a blowtorch, right? Yeah. So there is no messing around with starting my fire and then having it go out, dude, this thing just lights up the world. And, uh, gets that fire going instantly, even if like the woods a little wet, this would dry down. Oh, yeah. Um, and it has a handle, right? It comes with it. I mean, you literally can hold it just like a blowtorch. It's a little dangerous, um, but it's, it is awesome for starting fires. And I killed a bowl two years ago, and I was, I was alone and I killed him on a north slope. So I, I think I killed him at like two or three in the afternoon, killed him in his, in his bedroom. Uh, and I was so pumped because it was

54:11so cold that I was like, man, this is awesome. I killed him with the snow or the sun up. Um, I'm in the snow, but like I'll get this thing cut up before dark. We'll get out of here, dude. Cutting up elk alone, it just is never as quick as you think it's going to be. Um, and so long story short, the sun went down. I'm freezing, um, to the point that I'm having to like pry open my hands because they're frozen and cramping. And uh, I whip this thing out and make myself a little fire. I've got a real cool picture of my bowl next to the fire, but I literally just cut, cut, cut, go stick my hands next to the fire, get them back going again, cut, cut, cut. Um, but yeah, I, I love getting to make a big fire with that, not just like a little sissy fire. Uh, I hate making sissy fires and then having to tend to them. Yeah. So you just, so long story short, you used that product to build a fire that helped you stay warm while you were cutting up an elk that took you longer than what you thought too far away. I got. Yeah. Yeah. And if I, you know, you could, you could take that to anything else. If I was glassing, it would help me stay out there longer. If I was camping, it would help me stay out there longer. But in that sense, it honestly helped me

55:14from probably cutting, cutting myself, right? You know, sometimes when you, you get lazy and you're trying to get out of there quick, you've heard of a lot of bad accidents. I'm guys cutting themselves because they're moving too fast with a sharp knife. Yeah. Yeah. I feel that. I feel that, dude. Outside of that, anything else that you can think of, man, that that we need to know about for cold weather, western hunts, puffy pants, love the puffy pants, love bringing extra socks, like I mentioned, head coverings are big for me. I always have a beanie on me. And I usually put the beanie on and then I'll put my hood on over that just helps trap stuff. I'm a big two glove guy. I love having the skin tight layer of gloves first that give me finger dexterity. I like to have the ones that will let me text and play with Onyx. And then I have a bigger glove that I put on outside of that and I'm stationary when I'm glassing. Dude, down, down is going to be your best friend. There's a lot of synthetic stuff that I think works great and is practical. But down is,

56:20I would put down in the buy-ones cry once category, right? Like a down puffy, some of those puffy pants, things like that. I think the biggest thing I would stress to people is take the importance of gear that you would put on an early season hunt and just amplify it. It's going to be all that much more important on a late season hunt because of the elements. And it's colder, cold as bad. It's snowing. Wet is bad. I will say this though, the one thing I don't see a ton of guys keying in on. Dude, get really good rain gear and know that a lot of that can be used as a shell when there's a ton of snow. I'm using some of my nice rain gear as like an outer shell when it's really, really snowy because I just don't like the snow melting on my other stuff. So invest in good rain gear too. That will help you year long. It's not just late season. Gotcha.

57:20All right, brother. Well, I appreciate you taking time out of your data to hop on and be us with us about cold weather gear. Thank you for for spitting some truth to us. And man, have fun moving down, moving back to Texas. Yeah. Yeah. Won't be needing any late season gear down there. I don't imagine. There you go. I'll be I'll be getting as close to naked as I can most of the time. Dude, we do we do hunts in Texas, even in like November and December. And I literally will sit in a deer blind in my boxers because it's just that hot. That hot. Sometimes coming up here is just a fun escape for the weather. There you go. There you go. Hey, for all you listeners out there, do me a huge favor. Go to iTunes or Spotify wherever you listen to the hunting gear podcast. Please give it a five star review. Leave them a message about how this podcast is not only entertaining, but educational. Outside of that, the hunting gear podcast is now on YouTube. If you want, feel free to go over, subscribe to the hunting gear podcast YouTube channel. Leave

58:23a comment as well. And that would help us out. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Have a good one. If you're a podcast host, listen up this once for you. My name is Ally Jackson. I'm the host of Finding Mr. Height, a dating and relationship podcast that I've been doing for four years now, sharing my positive and practical approach to dating that's built on my own life experience. And I wanted to share another experience that I've had, my secret behind monetizing my show. It's called Red Circle. And I was just telling my colleague about how much I love their platform with Red Circle, not only am I getting a seamless hosting experience, but I also love the support I receive in ad sales. It's not just typical ad sales either. It's targeted opportunities based on my show and my life. And the platform is super simple. You just set your preferences and Red Circle matches you with sponsors that align with your show. You can vet every opportunity, and their platform gives you great analytics. More recently too, my Red Circle team has brought me opportunities outside of my podcast on social media to really augment the podcast partnerships, bring them full circle. I just can't recommend them enough. If you want to give it a try,

59:23go to redcircle.com to get your free trial. That's redcircle.com for a free trial.