Long Range Tactics 84 – Light Rifles, Is It Trend You Should Chase?

you're about to listen to a podcast from the Firearms Radio Network. For more, visit firearmsradio.net. What up, everybody? How you doing? I can actually somewhat speak again. It's been nuts. I'm still a little bit sick, but it's been almost close to two months that I've been freaking sick. So it's been absolutely craziness. It's just another excuse, but man, I could talk or anything. I guess there's quite a few people who have had it.

Again, finally I'm getting over it, but we're back. Matt's been...

You know traveling doing some things and we wanted to kind of go over Some of the things that we've been doing in the meantime. I know he's been super busy with AT drill You know for you guys that have done that in the past. You know how busy that gets And then he's done some matches and I of course has been doing some Doing some building rifles and just trying to keep my head above water with baseball for the kids and everything else so it's been kind of crazy but

I don't know. Let's introduce some of our sponsor stuff and see how it goes. So of course, you know, MDT has been there with us. And I've got to beat up Matt a little bit because I saw a stock that somebody teased on

And by summit i mean martin if you listening martin can't do shit like that uh... but he is teased uh... you know this new stock and i want to know about it so what is this new stock that has been seen on the interwebs Matthew

So the one you're talking about, Martin posted a picture of and it is a new carbon fiber, like completely carbon fiber stock. And it's kind of fallen in line with the agent T line. And it's as cool as it looks like in person. It's in development for a while in MBT. I can speak to a little bit of it. They've expanded their carbon fiber operations and it is awesome. Super lightweight, super rigid.

everything you'd go to expect. So I actually use an HNT for my Antelope gun, my Antelope tag here coming up. And hopefully if I can get my hands on one of those, I'll use it. So pretty awesome. Yeah, we've been, I've been pushing all those HNTs lately for

One of the big things that people don't think about when it comes to chassis is a lot of chassis get cold so if you're hunting late season. I hunted with my little boy in November the end of November last year and i had a great chassis love the chassis but i hate the chassis when it's cold and that was one of those times that i wish i had the hnt because it is all carbon i mean there's.

there's some great ultralight chassis out there but again it's it's not like a stock you know the stock you can hold on to it and you don't have to have two pairs of gloves and a hand warmer to hold on to the freaking thing so i think that's one of the big things that set apart and that they've got the folding adapters i think down pack pretty damn good the the folders have been on point i mean there haven't been loose that's that was one of the other big issues that i had with some of the other chassis is their folders especially after

you know, a little bit, they get super loose. So I always liked that HNT. And that's gonna be a standard stock with the HNT4 and all carbon, right?

Well, it's got its own foreign. So it's all one piece and then it'll have the hunting bottom metal in it and it'll be really really light and super rigid So that's one thing I do love about the HNT is is the recoil impulse on that chassis is way different than you'd expect It's it's really unique because I've got one of my 300 PRC and then I've got this one 165 PRC and I love actually really enjoyed shooting them even though the 65 PRC that I've got with a can weighs about nine pounds minus bipod But it shoots really well. That's it's awesome

Yeah That that was another thing is the the the bottom metal that they that they came out with the locks You know so the bottom metal doesn't drop and that was kind of one of those things that I saw when I think we were shot and they kind of showed it to me I was I was like that it was good stuff, but

Anyway, keep your eyes out. I know it's gonna be coming out soon. I put a picture of it up You know a while back and if you know go check it go check it out Of course Utah air guns they've been with us forever. I'm still gonna get Matt on an air gun I know he's gonna we're gonna get him going. We gotta get him up here. Maybe this summer and

Go do some night airgun shooting and stuff like that. Man, that's fun. It is. It's probably one of my new favorite guns. I love my voodoo forever, but I think the FX from Utah air guns is taking the cake, especially when people want to shoot it and I don't have to worry about them.

shooting a lapua or a frequent SK or something through it that I don't want to get more of. And you can buy a bunch of rounds from it for hardly anything, so that's always a solid point. So go check that out. I know they've got a bunch of stuff in stock and they can build it out for you, which is badass. For them to be able to custom build you something and send it right to your house that's tuned and everything to the bullet.

I mean, it's fun. You just pull it out of the box and go shoot it and take out pigeons or whatever else you want to shoot, you know, steel or so, whatever. I mean, we've shot them out with 300 yards, no problem, so it's kind of cool. I shoot at 25 cal. It's really cool stuff, but anyway, how the hell you been, dude?

I'm good, just super busy, man. Trying to figure out how to fit more matches back in my schedule. So I drew two Nevada tags and I ended up in a deer tag, both first choice. I don't know how it looked into that, but trying to work two tags this late summer and fall is going to be tough. So I'm kind of, I just booked travel to the South Dakota PRS match right now, actually before we hopped on this, so I can go shoot that two day PRS match up there. And yeah, and then looking at

Starting over already again for next year. I know the hunter finales in August Hopefully I can make that don't know yet But yeah, man, and then actually I did have something I want to bring up because we had conversations in the past about military and long-range shooting and everything like that But I actually got to do something pretty cool with my soldiers If you don't know I'm a company commander for an engineer company here in Las Vegas. We went in the middle of nowhere in Nevada to a little

Army Depot thing lived in the hills. Yeah, just did dirty kid stuff for free in 10 days. But we got to do a machine gun range. It was super fun. So we got 240s and 249s and I made them mount optics and my company hasn't touched optics on machine guns ever. So I taught all these new shooters how to do field zeros.

with those optics and we had targets still a target set up all at 800 meters so every 100 meters we had targets and we feel zeroed on this big APC shell at about 470 meters and for that MGO that's an L-Can is who makes it the MGO and

Yeah, we slung lead all the way out to 800 meters with it, and it was pretty cool. I got videos and everything. It was just neat. So utilizing one of those techniques for zeroing, field-zaring rifles, and it crossed over to the Dubelford machine guns, and it was highly accurate. So I thought that was pretty neat, man. I was kind of saying there how to like a proud dad moment. So it was pretty cool.

Mmm, that is cool to kind of let everybody else get to do something they haven't and you know Of course somebody teaches them that has done it so they're not trying to fight against it forever Those one of those hard things is learning how to do it in the beginning You're so you guys are engineers, right?

Yep, horizontal. This company is horizontal vertical. So it's basically a big construction. So I got earth moving out concrete. I got electricians. I got like 50 different MOSs that are under me. Okay. If you guys listen, MOS is military, military occupational specialty. We got to use freaking terms. A lot of people don't understand what the hell they mean to listen, but

Some do some do some don't if you do. How you doing? We know who you are Yeah, but so you you went up to oh Canada our friends to the north and shot a match How was it? Was that an inner moment? It was an inner 100 yep, and a 100 match the Canadian Rocky Mountain Hunter So I ended up flying up to Bellingham, Washington Ryan McLean of MDT came with the water got me said at his house and then we drove the

Shoot eight-ish hours. I didn't, I honestly, this is so dumb. This is American thing to say. I didn't realize how huge British Columbia was mass-wise. Dude, huge.

Uh, yeah. So, and we still didn't see all of it, but we drove from Chilliwack, which is, you know, pretty west and low. And then we went through the Rockies, the Canadian Rockies, and it was like one Bob Ross painting after another. It was like the most scenic drive I've ever seen in farmlands and these gorgeous and everything.

It was insanely pretty, and we wound up at three bars, guest ranch, which the Beckley's Ranch of Tyler, and a son Chase, who shoots tons of matches, PRS, and internal hunter. It was a great family. They wanted to host a hunter match, and they did an outstanding job. And then we got these cabins, we stayed on the property, and there was a nice bar after we were done shooting, and just insanely good. They had whole herds of elk wandering on their fields and stuff, and it was just like, yeah, no big deal.

And then pretty sure we saw a big bear up on the side of the hill and then bald eagle floating around and stuff. And it was crazy cool. So I rode. So I shot all 19 stages on Friday and then worked in our road the other two days and then came back on Monday. And it was just so cool.

It was probably the most insanely cool shooting experiences I've had. That's crazy. As an NRL hunter person, being in our own shooting 19 stages in one day, that's freaking nuts. That's all I'm asking. It's a marathon. And it was good. I got to see a lot of people. Well, met a ton of new Canadians. I mean, they're all nice. I don't think Canadians have a bad day.

But they're all so nice, and I got to see some people I just haven't seen in a while, and it was a crazy cool experience. And then on the way back, I stayed an extra day, and then toured all the new MBT stuff. It's been a while since I've been up to office, but wow, that company's grown, and they've put money in good places. That's the one thing I will say. The money is going to the places that matters the most, and it's insanely cool. And I just put a new fulfillment center in Idaho, didn't I?

Twin falls. Mm-hmm. Yeah, cuz I know I ordered an agent I ordered an HNT and a mag the other day and I got it the next morning. I'm like, holy shit. That's delivery. Yeah, I was I it's Idaho Falls. Yeah. Yeah For my the whole part is here. It's one day overnight Trigging craziness

, and

Crap early and then I'm back You know, I don't get home till like eight or nine o'clock at night And then with our my other businesses go on it's just been nuts, but I definitely got to get more of these coming We've got a lot of great people wanting to come on and we've got a either I've got to do you know More single year or just get our schedules together. It's hard when you got you know two or three or four people To try and schedule together and try and get everything going but it is what it is How are your barrels doing they still feeling?

You're barrel still shooting?

Oh yeah, rifles are hammering. I just wish I had more time to go use them. So I'm taking the 6.5 Creed with me to South Dakota next month. That's one of my shoot. It just loves the 140 ELDs, man. It can do no wrong. So that's that's on the roll with South Dakota from what I remember has some decent wins and that that's going to be a good one. They're not switching there. Are they just more constant or what?

Yeah. And the direction of the fire pretty, pretty, pretty well. Like it's like that, uh, that range that we shot last time, big, beautiful property is kind of on an L. So I mean, most of the day you're shooting this way and the other part of the day you're shooting this way. So it was pretty easy. You're not doing a bunch of switching positions and twenties and shooting off like knobs and stuff. So it's pretty cool. Um, I do want to cover something that the NRL Hunter match though, the bit me pretty good cost me a second place, but I had third overall in that one. Um,

So I took a new pair of like a 10 by 42 pros and I didn't I was pretty brand new I got them to like the day before and I had the 32s but I took the 42s with me.

Um, I didn't map out exactly where that laser was and that reticle and it got me. It burned me pretty good. There was some fly. There were some flat ground targets that with no backdrop. And if you didn't hit that post or that target perfectly, like you weren't getting a range. You'd either get like 200.

And the target was like at six or you got like nine something. So there's nothing in between. So it burned me pretty good. So as the reminder again, for laser range finding, or range finders, learn where your reticle is in relation to this. Jose did a Jose Gardner. One of our reviewers did a video about that on the SIGs because you got a circle. So how do you know in the circle where it hits? So he did a video on that. So if you guys want to go learn more about that, go check it out on our YouTube page.

He used a telephone pole to use the top. Yeah, that's a good one. So are the wires or something? Yeah. Yeah. So you find out where your limits of the reticle are, but that's a good, that's a good piece of advice to people and a lot of people don't know that and it took me a minute to figure that out when I first got my sick because I tried to rain something and

Like, I'm like, what the hell? How does it go from 300 to 800, just like that? Yeah, because it's picking up their own thing, because you're not pointing to the right place. And we had that issue setting up as a match director, like we went through three or four different rangefinders trying to figure out where the shit wasn't each one. And no matter what rangefinder I used, they were within, you know, if you're within five yards, 10 yards max, you know, you're probably still pretty okay on a target, if you can get it. But if you're more than that, you're in trouble, I think.

Yeah, when you hit that kind of six to 800 range, it tends to matter. So if you're not, and what I didn't realize, because my last pair that it was like in the bottom third of the circle, this one was dead even, but on the very right edge of the circle. And I could not catch this target. And I misarranged a couple and it cost me big points because it was flashing behind it. And I just didn't.

And the mirage is so thick, I just couldn't make sense of it. And so I'm making corrections, losing points. And it got me a zero on the stage while out of the running. So yeah, I mean, it's just hard lesson learned that I know I know better. I teach people this stuff. I know better. I just like, Oh, I'll deal with it.

And it got me. And another piece of advice I want to give people, especially a competitive mind frame, is drink way more water than you think you do. Because once you hit that point, there's no return. You can't rehydrate fast enough to get your brain function back to that level. So I try to drink a bottle, a standard plastic bottle, water, a stage. I know it sounds excessive.

But like I'm saying, you don't realize how much you sweat and you go through and if you're eaten too, how much food takes to process with water. So you just have to, especially if the temperatures above 80 degrees and it's sunny out and you're standing in the sun, no shade. Yeah, you're hosed.

I mean as a standard normal person's day you're supposed to drink a gallon of water and how many of us really do that but yeah if it's hot out and you're out in the sun and everything else you're trying to do it you've got to drink a lot of water for sure yeah

But yeah, I think that pretty much catches us up, man. Army stuff, a couple matches here and there. My local season here in Vegas wrapped up, and I was lucky enough to take first overall. It came down to the difference of a point.

I got you. Yeah, dude, that's the crazy thing though, as a lot of these matches nowadays, it all comes down to a point or two points or something like that is the cutting point and I think that's why it's got so crazy is because you've got to do it.

I don't want to bring up the match, but the night four CL are I know there was I saw a lot of crap about it on mine and I know as a match director how hard it is to put on a match so it's like I'm kind of seeing both sides of the story and especially with practice score when you don't have

ROs that know practice score and you don't have sync to write and you lose scores. I mean, it happens. Luckily, we did it to where we did two sets on the last time we did it, so they had to write it down and put it on the practice score just in case something died or something went awry.

You know, so if you're a match director, you're thinking about match directing, you really need to reach out to a lot of these match directors that have done this before and learn from the crap that they've had to deal with because, dude, it's a shit show trying to put some of the stuff on and learning from that. So we've kind of gone through the bad things and I learned a lot when I did it. I got my ass kicked a few times by putting on a match and I know you probably have to. Yeah, I'm actually a huge fan of paper backup.

So it's like competitor, paper, backup. And I'm a, I'm matchbooks or the cards. So internal 100 gives you a card. And I am a huge fan of that because it makes arbitration super easy. Someone initials it and you've got a digital and a paper copy and you can't refute it. Like the arbitration 30 minutes, like here you go, here's my card. There's nothing wrong or a score was missed or someone had to prove or there was an error with the scoring, like, hey, easy fix. And I'm, I am a, especially for two day matches, man. One days you can kind of,

Who cares like if you're that guy that's gonna argue for every single point then I don't know get better But today matches for sure. I'm a huge fan

Yeah, yeah Practice source great. I know there's that other one. They're using out out east. I can't remember what it's called But practice scores been around and it supported the sport and it's been you know It was there when we all needed something to use but there's definitely some change it and then you've got to have all the iPads you know I invested a bunch of money into those little mini

Solar things I still got them somewhere. There's the little solar packs that help keep the things charged because dude those things die so fast Especially if you don't put them on airplane mode But that is one problem if they're not if you're not putting in scores and you're not doing everything right It's not gonna go across and then people are gonna get pissed off at you. So you learn your lesson

Yeah. And so like we're in a local matches and stuff like I just buy the little Kindle nooks. I can usually find them on sale for like 30 bucks a piece. And they only last if you do put them on power saving in the airplane mode. And then we always have tons of those little battery packs around in the match tote. So yeah, and it sucks. And then the other scoring system is ultimate ballistics. But I haven't touched it. I've watched matches because it'll do it in real time. But you have to have Wi-Fi shared among everything. So you got to have Starlink or something out there.

That's a range. Or else none of it works. And I don't have a reason to change for practice score. And we've never had Starling. So it might be really nice to do it to where it just automatically updates. But then again, you got to take it off airplane mode, which is, you know, then it dies a whole ton faster if you're not doing it. You know, the NRL was nice when we did it because they brought their own iPads and had all that stuff. But if you're going to host your own, you got to know that you've got to invest in that stuff. And the battery packs are huge.

you know, reach out to some match directors and find out which battery packs are good, because I went through a bunch of them to find the ones that I like for sure, because the ones I started with, man, they were worse than the freaking iPads, and they were garbage.

Yeah, I know. It is just, again, like you said, kind of one of those things you have to ask around and figure out. Or any of it, because I know there's a ton of newer match directors trying to host like enter all 22 matches and stuff. And there's, there's just a lot. You think you're going to learn everything the first go. No, I think I've done close to 100 matches now. And I still learn stuff and I get my ass into me sometimes trying to make things go smoothly because things happen.

No, yeah. It's like politics can't keep everybody happy and you'll always do something wrong. And that was my problem when I tried to go outside the box and do a bunch of shit that had never been done before. It came back to bite me. But you know, you live and learn from it. And man, it's a lot of work. People are like, oh, I'm going to go make money. And I'm going to go host a match. And there's no money. You lose money. There's no money. You're doing it because you love the sport and you love seeing the people. That's pretty much what you do. And that's why the turnover rates so high on match directors

You know it's because it's so time consuming and you know by the time I was done with my two-day matches I thought I was gonna die I'd have take two or three days off to freakin get over the get over the heat stroke and everything else we were going through it was just crazy having granted we did it in June so it's hotter than hell but

I don't know it was it was definitely a learning experience and it taught me a lot about matches and gave me a very good appreciation for match directors but you can definitely see who puts the time of the money and everything back into it and who just is out there trying to make a little bit of money I guess doing it but

And, you know, everybody sees that and those matches, I guess, don't always get filled, but it is what it is. But, I mean, sadly, you're adding that night force phenomenal with the amount of shooters. He had a shit timing, almost 300 shooters. You know, it's gone down a little bit because he left and everything else, but I know those other guys are trying. I don't think there's any match director that wants to go out there and put on a match and just screw people over because that's the worst thing you could do.

I just don't think anybody wants to be a match director, whatever do that, especially those guys. You know, I don't know them that well, Peter, and who's the other one that does it with Peter? Yeah, we were going to have them on the podcast a while ago, and then something happened with

with audio or something. I can't remember what happened, but yeah, we're going to have them on and we're going to talk about it. Maybe it's a good time to talk about it and you don't live in. Yeah, they just they just wrapped up. I think that was a week or two ago that they did it. But from what I've read on social media, I think there was not not good things with scoring. So yeah.

Maybe it'd be okay to talk to him about that stuff. Um, I mean, I talked to him and spent a lot of time with Peter. So he's good dude. So whatever if there's legit issues, there's just issues. Hey, uh, one thing I did want to hit on, um, because I'm in my prep cycle. I don't, Hey, did you, did you get any tags for Utah or Wyoming or anything? I saw you posting about it, but did you?

No, my dumbass. I put in my Utah dates and my Wyoming dates and I mixed them. So I thought I still had time to put in for my Utah because I was busy and I didn't. So I screwed up. So I'm taking the kid in August to hunt gators in Florida and we're going to shoot cogs and go fish and then I'm just

I don't know. It's almost more fun for me to go help people hunt. So I try to help people every fall, you know, get something. But we are going to do, I do need to announce it. We are going to do an event with either two wounded veterans or two wounded LE officers here in northern Utah where you get to come stay at a private ranch, shoot with us.

use our guns, shoot our ammo, you get deer tags, it's doe deer or elk, I can't, I'm not sure what we're gonna do, but it's still fun to do. I've got a country singer coming to hang out with us and seeing us some tunes, we're gonna barbecue do things, that'll be in November of this year, so we're trying to do more stuff like that, and then we're gonna do a military veteran deal in Wyoming, or we're at least gonna try with some antelope, so we'll see how that goes, we're gonna try and start doing stuff like that every year with

doing more of the veteran law enforcement first responder type stuff. But anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to go off on it to engine. Oh, it's good. It's perfect. That sounds like a damn good time. So my question to you was, um,

So I have this nasty habit every time I get tags, because if you don't know, Nevada is pure lottery system. And so it's a privilege to hunt. And I don't like getting the grand scheme of things in the last like 10, 15 years, I haven't got to actually hunt a whole lot. I mean, I've harvested animals, but

you know, between our tree, which I don't do anymore. And then rifles like you don't actually get on a lot. So I end up just throwing money at things I probably shouldn't throw money at. My justification is, you know, buy in new stuff, spotting scopes and binos and rifles and different doodads and trailers and, you know, different stuff trucks even.

suspension. So anyway, so it's my justification for spending money. I got a habit for this. Anyway, so I'm trying not to do that this year because I've my old couple years back was really good and spent good money and was successful. So I'm trying to ride some of that stuff out. So how

How do you prepare for a good hunt like a good tackle you know like i'm gonna spend some time and effort on this not just your go go pop a dough and eat it like that not that sort of hunt but like a good hunt like a limited entry draw you know because like.

Yeah, it's some of the elk on some of the elk units here in Utah You might drive in 20 years if you're lucky. I mean it just yep, so I get what you're saying I mean there's quite a few things it boggles my mind how many hunters go to the range first off in preparing for wait, I'm gonna slow this down. I'm gonna slow sound okay

So you drew a tag and say it's six, eight months or however far it's like, I don't know when Utah's announced or whatever, but Nevada announced what last month, May 17th. Okay. So at what point do you start preparing?

Start there immediately because especially with your firearm. So do you have a gun? The biggest thing is do you have a firearm that you're 100% confident in because confidence is everything, especially when you're waiting that long for a tag. You want to make sure that it's not the rifle. It's going to be you because you're going to get buck fever or whatever yet.

So the biggest, the biggest question is because custom rifles, really good shooting rifles, they're going to take a couple months to get. And so that would be my first one is, hey, do I have a rifle I'm confident in that I'm not going to have any issues with that I know is going to shoot and then ammunition, you know, ammunition choices. What, you know, what am I going to be shooting? How far do I plan on shooting? You know, kind of taking some of that into effect. I want to shoot heavy bullets.

doing a shoot, monolithics, and then optics, of course, do I have a good scope, the tracks? And most importantly, do I know how to dial it and do I know how to read with it? And that's a big thing. So I think I would start out with my rifle and making sure I'm 100% confident in it. And then going down the list from there, usually what I do every year is I put together a list of

Everything that I need kind of like what you're talking about, you know, do I have a good rangefinder? You know and then the big thing is do I have batteries? This is batteries and everything little things the little things that you overlook and hunt are the biggest things Because if you're out there on the side of a mountain and you go to range something and you're free in range finders dead you're shit in your pants because they're like dude I didn't go through

Special forces warfare school where I can you know read with my reticle most people can't figure out how to do that So it's it's one of those things that you're preparing not only the big things but the little things to Make you a more efficient hunter, but you get I don't necessarily always carry

You know Spotter cuz they're freaking heavy unless you get the smaller ones. I've actually gone to a pair of 10 by 20s and then I go to a Para 18 power Binos because it doesn't like if you're not in in a

You're not in a spotter a lot. You get, you start messing with your head, you know, you get headaches, things like that. And it's been easier for me to sit for hours, you know, because I sit, I know we're deer and elk. I try to get, you know, spend the time before and try to figure out where they're going, how they're moving and everything else. So I sit up and I just kind of watch and I learn. And a lot of people can't sit behind a spotting scope for that long unless it's like, you know, when the STX, uh, Suarez or something with the double eye pieces, but

I really love the 18 vinyls. They are heavy and they are a little bit bigger, but they fit in your backpack just fine. And then I just keep my chest rag with my 10x50s or whatever you want to carry for the smaller. Cause I'll glass up.

And then I just try to zoom in. And a lot of times if you have a good enough rifle optic, you can use the rifle optic as a spot or two. You know, if you want to kind of zoom in and, you know, if you got a 25 power, you know, like a loop hold 25 power, you can always put it on 25 power and zoom in and see something and get a little bit closer. But a lot of it's, you know, planning on how much weight you're going to have in your backpack because if you have to pack out or any of that, you don't want all that extra shit in there.

Um, you know, and then figuring out, and then, I mean, heck, we could go down a gigantic list. One of the most important things I know everybody's got a good pair of boots. If you're going to be putting miles on the ground, you know, clothing and boots is one of those things that you want to sit back and you want to, you want to try and figure out what's going to be comfortable. You know, forever I was like,

Dude, I can go to Walmart, and I can just get the cheapest shit I can find, and I'll be fine. But once I figured out quality camo, you know, because I'm on Team Cryptic, got that good shit, Kuyu makes good stuff, sicko makes good stuff, you just gotta know what to buy, but it is worth it, 150% on quality clothing. I think it is staying warm, and then also, if it's warmer, you know, getting rid of the sweat and staying cooler too.

Boots is a huge thing, but there's so many different boots out there. That one's a hard one because everybody's feet's different kind of like telling somebody what scope to buy you know boots different, but Whether you go with yeah, yeah on the boot thing man like I so someone will give you a cup recommendation for boots and honestly like I can't I can't do anything with it because All of our feet in the way we carry load and everything is totally different so I and I'm not a foot and

boot anything extra but I've had some really expensive ones that I didn't like at all and I've had just some more affordable ones that I really liked. I mean you have to replace them more often but like damn they worked really well. Well that's like the crispies you know you talked about what do you start getting ready now. If you go get those high end boots you have to break them in. They're not just like a boot you can go throw on and stuff because most of them are leather and

You got a break. You can't be breaking that shit in or throwing it on your feet and trying to hunt in there. Your feet will be sorry because they suck, you know. And then of course the other thing is socks. You know, investing in good socks. Don't go to Walmart and buy the cheap shit. Go buy a really good set of moisture wicking socks and your feet will love you because that's a big thing. When you're out there walking, you want to be paying more attention to the side hills than how bad your feet freaking hurt from carrying all the stuff you got.

No, so speaking of Krispies, man, I had a pair and they were doing pretty well. I don't know if my feet changed or flattened out or something, but now I can't walk in them. I don't know what changed. It took about a year and a half, two years, almost. I don't know, something happened with me. It wasn't the boots, so I can't even wear them anymore. They're a little too small. But they were super rugged, and when I broke them, they felt good, but man, something happened to me. And it's probably from rockin' and army stuff. My feet probably flattened out or something that effect, I don't know.

That ruined my feet. I mean, the military and them trying to figure out what inserts to put in your combat boots just completely screwed up my feet and my shins. I got really bad shins from that shit now. From shitty freaking combat boots.

That's one of the things you've got to try and figure it out. But going to these shows, the expos, spending the time at the Han Expo and some of these other expos, you can kind of sit down and talk to people and get ideas of what you should be wearing and why you should choose this boot over that boot and what to be looking for. I've really liked the more crossover boots, like the tennis type.

You know, because they're super light. I had a pair of Rockies that I absolutely love. They're so freakin' light and they're agile and they move with my feet and they've been great. But again, to your point, they don't last quite as long as the ultra high end ones. My match shoe boots are the vans ones.

The Exos and those are probably my favorites. Are they gonna last for long? Probably not, but it's okay. I just weren't for matches. They're I think a six inch six inch top and Man, they're super comfortable. They look cool. They're water resistant. They're they're suede I saw waterproof them too and and they're pretty awesome And I think I paid like 105 bucks for them. What are your what are your combat? What boots do you wear in uniform?

So I have to this is gonna sound weird to people, but I have two different pair of boots So I have extensive pair of Nike's for my field and rock boots and then I have my garrison boots because I work in office most days And those are the Oakley light assaults that weigh absolutely nothing They're not durable at all. They're made for asphalt and carpet stuff So I've got two sets of boots. So daily I wear the Oakleys and then for field stuff I wear the Nike as you tried the Rocky F2Vs

I have. So those on carpet, if you wear them every day, the carpet. So carpet is super rough on boots. It wears the soles out so fast. So like I would go through a pair about a year and they're expensive. So.

Yeah, I've got STVs, but I'm never walking on carpet with it. They're usually my range of boot or something. I'm not hiking in them, but they're great. Yeah. But anyway, back to the point, you know, getting ready and getting your brain right. And kind of that point going back to shooting your rifle, it boggles my mind, just like coyote hunters. I see them all go shoot off the bench.

They're other shit in the truck and they're gone. It's like, what did that? Okay, your gun shoots great. But have you practiced what you're going to see in the field? Have you gone prone? Have you tried to get high and used your backpack as a rear support? Have you tried shooting off a tripod? Have you tried shooting off of something you can get? Because we know in a lot of situations in hunting, you have a very small window of actually making a shot.

So are you making are you practicing that at the range? You know, it's like coyote hunters a lot of them are sitting on their ass with a tripod or front sticks But they don't shoot it. They just go to the range shoot off the bench and away They go and they don't practice that then they wonder why they don't hit anything Well, here's your sign take a freaking chair a low chair to the range use your front sticks and shoot groups and see You'll get you'll get humbled very quick by practicing that kind of stuff

I mean, there is something we said for having a squared away rifle load. Like, yes, the bench work is necessary, but like to your point, if you don't ever use the positions that you're going to find yourself, you're going to be caught trying to figure them out.

when you don't need to be figuring them out. And that's for match shooting in classes and everything really coming to play. And if you value your time hunting coyotes or big game or whatever, you owe it to yourself to put yourself in as many awkward situations. And that's the beautiful thing about shooting matches is it's the cheapest training you're ever going to get. And they put you in a bunch of different stressors and positions and things. And it works out awesome. Some classes will do that in training facilities and do that too.

but their time is limited and those cost exponentially more to go through. But at least you can get some baseline knowledge on how to do those things, which is good as value added. But your cheapest thing is 30 to 50 bucks. You go shoot a match weekend, shoot 150 rounds or 80 to 150 rounds and away you go and you've learned some stuff.

You've missed the targets, you hit some stuff, and now you know. So if I have a newbie hunter that wants help and things, I bring him to rifle matches like him alone a rifle. Before we even think about animals, you got to learn how to use a rifle. And that's what we do. And I run him through it. And I know we beat the composition training thing up pretty good on this, but there's value in it. There's value and it bleeds over many different things as a target to target. So if you're not treating that animal,

with the utmost respect and taking the time to make sure that your your rifle ammo gear and everything's scored away and your scored away like just sling and let it something hoping it falls is not a good approach at all. Right and you know putting the stressors on you that's a big thing you know when you get excited when you're hunting the stressors of you know when you're in a match you've got the timer that's your stressor you know how many rounds can I get off what am I doing during that time

Am I holding the trigger to the rear and making sure I watch where that shot goes and then making a good correction? Or am I just flinging lead down range? You know, and that's people are like, oh, I don't need to shoot PRS. That's stupid. You got a big heavy gun and you don't need to do anything. But if you take it and break it down into those different things, like how am I reacting under pressure? How am I adjusting my shot? Can I see where I miss? That's a big thing that we've been seeing lately.

Straight jacket is a lot of people with ultra light rifles calling in and like man, I can't shoot this rifle and it's like I Get it the consensus is I want the lightest thing to pack right? I want something super light, but at the same time Super light is hard to manage recoil. It's hard to spot shots It's hard to you know keep under control when you're shooting and a lot of guys are starting to see the light bulb like holy shit, man

Maybe I need a little bit heavier rifle to manage that. I mean, I've taught myself how to manage an ultra light rifle, but I know it's going to kick. You know, you put a seven PRC and a six pound gun, you're going to get a little bit of recoil in it, you know, and you've got to understand that. But again, that goes back to the range and understanding your rifle and taking it through the steps that you need to put it through the scenarios that you're going to find.

That's kind of, that's kind of a big thing that I've seen a lot of lately is the super light, you know, trying to make it right and trying to control it. Well, I hate shooting super light rifles or big Magnum cartridges. I hate it. It bothers me. The recoil sucks. And two, like you don't get enough time with it because it just beats a crap idea. And three, I can't see what's going on downrange. Then you just can't. And that's the part that bugs me. I want to know where every shot lands. You shoot enough. You'll understand why that's important.

But that's, I mean, so my antelope rifle that I'm gonna use is off a lone peak action. It's my match action and match scope. Same thing, so I know it all works. It's gonna work. Same match trigger, I just add a pound to it. And then the mark five scopes that I've always used, same reticle and everything. And throw the 6.5 PRC barrel and bolt in it. And then I've already got a match load for it. And then I've got a hunting load for it. It's all good to go. So I'm gonna shoot.

And I don't push things super fast. I'd rather that bullet get there accurately than get there in a blazing speed and miss or just hit something that I don't intend to hit.

But I started this, so this same rifle configuration, basically I've been shooting it for two years. I've got ammo for it. I've got everything I need to know. I know that thing inside and I'm just going to run those zero in no way we go. And I train all the time. So I actually, and I just got a new cam. I have one of those KGMR30Ks that I'm going to use. It's got a vented end camp and stuff and the recoil on it's pretty nice. So I'm going to use that. I'm going to shoot suppressed. I'm going to shoot my antelope and my deer this year suppressed.

I shoot everything suppressed. I've probably shot the last seven or eight animals suppressed. Number one, because my hearing loves it, and I don't have that sonic crack. Number two, a lot of times, and people don't think of this, and I've explained it to some people, is you get follow-up shots. You make a bad miss. The animal isn't, like, running off freaking out, because it hit it with a loud bang. It's sitting there like, what the hell is that? It just flew by.

A lot of times, and you get a good follow up shot. So that's been a big one. You know, my little boy, he shot his first elk this last year. He shot her. All the elk just stood there and looked around like, what the heck? I just thought I heard something, but it wasn't as loud. You know, my 28 nozzle, we shot a few elk and a few deer with it and it makes it a lot more enjoyable to shoot because my freaking head doesn't feel like it's getting punched in the side.

And granted, I think that's why a lot of people are going to 20 inch and 22 inch barrels, so they can put this pressure on there and they're not waving around a gigantic freaking lightsaber, you know, and that's a big thing. But because taking a couple inches off, but adding a can actually doesn't do a whole lot for velocity because your pressure's stuck up and back up in your can. But I mean, it'll still reduce, but not as bad as just taking it off.

I had a can on my 300 PRC rifle that I used for my elk, but I got to tell you the recoil with a can on that was just too much with an 8-pound rifle. It was just, I couldn't do it.

Yeah, my $28 is six and a half pounds. And, but, you know, I'm six, three, six, two, and a hundred or two hundred and I had the time I was 250 pounds. So it wasn't that wasn't it didn't kick me as hard, you know, but also a lot of times it's like when you get excited and you see an elk or a deer, you don't feel it anyway. Cause you're so freaking excited and you're just jumping up down and then later you're like, that hurt man shit.

Well, I shot that rifle to count on it, and then my follow-up, but I wasn't even the same zip code, man, that rifle bounced everywhere. I had no idea where I even started. So like, nope, I put a brake on it, just wear it at your pro, and it was fine. But that comes back to the preparation, you know, preparing for the hunt and everything else, and understanding what you need to get. But some other things that definitely need to look into is batteries. Of course, good walkie-talkies or a way to communicate if you're by yourself.

to whoever and then, you know, the clothing and all that kind of stuff. So there's definitely a list. I mean, maybe what we need to do is build a list for everybody and we can put it up on the website.

Because I've definitely got to do better at updating the website. We were doing great for a long time and it's kind of gone to shit. But I just need about 12 more hours in the day and I'll be perfect to get everything done. But that might be something to do. Yeah, my audio is fine on my end. But it's

There's some things that we need to hear from you guys that are listening, like, you know, what are some topics that you've been wondering and you don't necessarily believe everything you read on Facebook or the interwebs or whatever, and we can talk about. And if I don't, here's the thing, if I don't know, I'll find somebody that doesn't, we'll bring them on and we can have a podcast about it.

I've been in this industry for a long last time and I don't know a quarter of it, you know, and that's the thing you've got to understand as a hunter or as a shooter or is everything you don't know everything. There's been quite a few customers that I've had lately that think they know everything and you teach, you try to teach them, you know, the right way and try to teach them things and explain why certain things are like they are.

Yeah, just freaking stress form. And so the other part of that is everything evolves too. Everything keeps evolving. So I mean, things that we once I wish some of the older generation would understand. So I've been shooting for 50 years. I get that, man. But I mean, if you think of cars 50 years ago, lots changed. So yeah.

It's kind of the same thing. Everything's progressed. Yeah. And that's the thing is it's hard for a lot of people to change. Like change is not great for everybody. But here's the thing, especially with hunting. I think, and I use this word a lot, ethical. If you're going to be an ethical hunter,

and you're gonna go out there and do your thing and you give a shit about wildlife, you need to have the best stuff to make the right shot. You need to understand that a 6.5 creed is probably not the best gun to be shooting at an elk at a mile. You know, you've got to understand

What energy is it target, what velocity is it target, how far you want to shoot, you know, you've got to try and figure that out and then try to get a cartridge or a rifle or whatever you're going to shoot based off of that. That's one of the big thing that I see, man. It's like, and if you understand bullets and how they work,

The velocities on them. I mean we have a podcast about this But if you understand how all of it works There's there's a very small window for stuff to work and for stuff to expand and for things to work correctly and I've seen too many wounded elk and too many wounded deer and man I lose sleep over that kind of stuff I just feel sick especially if I lose something if I shoot something and I lose it man, it's like

I don't want to hunt anymore. I'm like, you know, I want, I want that to last and I want to do it. So that's something that you need to think about. You know, if you're going to be going into an area that the backwoods in Montana and your closest shots going to be 600 yards, you know, you're going to want to find something that has enough energy at 600 yards. That's a big thing.

and something you can manage

the ultralight rifle craze because I just, I don't get it. Like light manageable precision rifles, I get it. But I just, there's that push to go, the lightest possible thing getting the fours and fives is just mind blowing to me. I don't get it because you don't want to shoot that.

Two of them is a sheep rifle. Yeah, sheep rifle. That's one thing because we build a few of those and those guys are nuts as it is and trying to pack into his back as Becca Stan or into the Brooks range or any of that. I'm like, man, I want some very small percentage of people.

So most of us, and I had that one of the very first podcasts that I did on this channel was with Scott Saturday. And he goes, dude, nine pound rifle. Take that all day on. He goes, I'll take some shit out of my packer. I'm going to go to the gym a little bit more, but a nine pound rifle is perfect for me. And you guys all need to understand that maybe it's a little bit different for everybody. You know, if you're a smaller guy,

You're gonna want a little bit more weight. If you're a big guy and you can handle it, but going to the range and understanding what you can do. If you're shooting, here's the thing. The biggest thing that I tell people is if you're shooting an MOA or bigger with your hunting rifle, do better. You gotta do better.

So I love that nine to 10 pound range. I love it. I absolutely for hunting guns, I think that's a sweet spot and I'll carry a 10 pound rifle. I don't have a problem with that. I usually have a triple pull sky pod strapped to the side of my bag. Anyway, I don't have the bipod on the rifle because I have a tripod and I have a bipod and I'll make it work. And it falls, fails, throw your back down and go to work. Right. So and that's something I practice too. So

And then shooting bags was me an ultra light shooting bag like I've shot off rocks. I've killed the animals off rocks fence posts I've done a number with a lightweight shooting bag So yeah, like but that nine ten pounds Scott's a hundred percent, but my experience that's that's exactly what mine is sitting out right now, so

Mm-hmm and most of my most of my rifles my hunting rifles are here between six and nine pounds depending on which ones which Whether it's in a chassis or what barrel it's got or what action that's got you know there's some different changes and I choose those depending on what I'm gonna hunt to

And I'm blessed and unlucky that way that I can choose, but a lot of people don't get that. So, you know, and a lot of people will call us at, you know, a straight jacket and they're like, well, I want to lose a few pounds. All right, let's look at it. You know, can we, can we change the barrel? Can we change it to a carbon? Could we change it a little bit shorter? You know, we can save a few pounds here and there with your existing setup. But it's definitely something you got to decide if it's something that you can give up, you know, and can you give that up somewhere else, like I said, but

Yeah, and I mean to your to your to your question like truck stuff and all that I mean is it needed? Maybe we're gonna hunt

It's more fun. Yeah. For the basics, it's just, you know, comfort, you know, are you going to be comfortable? You got good clothes. Well, I will tell you, camping stuff. My, my, oh, we put a thousand miles on dirt roads in four days. That's how much we traveled looking for help in this two gigantic areas that we had in Northern Nevada that were just massive. So we moved and just got first chance. Oh, yeah.

They just moved. Well, the problem was the weather hit so hard that the dynamic changed so rapidly. Those elk were pushed down out of the mountains and displaced and it took us forever. It took us four days and a thousand miles because I know that that's exactly how it is because I left my trip meter going and it was a lot. And then we had to go fill up about every day and make sure everything was topped off and everything. So yeah, the trucks suspension definitely paid dividends in that because

It was good. It was good. That's crazy. Yeah, here, here in Utah, you have, you know, pretty small units. So you don't have, you don't have a whole lot of range between the two. And then now you're getting so many people to where if you don't want to see a lot of people and you want to see animals, you got to just throw a pack on your back and away you go. You know, and then you've got to understand you're going to lightweight backpack. You got to lightweight sleeping bag. How is your bed roll? You know, that opens up another whole other

Frickin book of things and you're gonna use horses to get in there and then you to carry the meat out how you're gonna do that Picking a backpack. I mean hell it's a frickin It's a hole for sure. Yeah Sorry, I'm dying holy shit

Anyway, yeah, I look like crap. I feel like crap. It's going away though. It's got it's better than it was I can actually talk now. I couldn't even talk for a few days But sorry now I'm been a long day

But, I mean, I hope all of you get something from this. We're not just sitting here, you know, BSing, but we've all learned something and we want to share it with you listening, you know, and we appreciate you guys listening. And of course, it helps us out a ton if you leave feedback and

Again, people don't think that we actually listen and respond to messages and we do. So if there's something you want us to cover or somebody you want us to talk to or anything like that, send us a message and we're happy to do it. And of course, go check out Firearms Radio Network, which is the network we're on. There's a lot of great shows on there. There's tons of them. There's first aid. There's

Pistol there's we like shooting which is one of the main shows there's tons and tons of shows I know there's a new hunting show on there and they've asked me to come on I just haven't had time yet, but there's tons of cool shows on there and I've helped I've been on a few of them to you know John Patton and those guys and great shows so go check them out on on the network and Again, let us know what you want to hear is there anything you want to finish off before we go?

No, I just hope everyone's getting out and doing some outdoor summer activities and shooting a whole bunch and learning a whole bunch. And to your point, you said earlier, man, I feel like every lesson I've learned has been the hard way. Yeah. I've got luck at all. Yeah. But that's the thing is there's there's a lot of ways to learn. You know, you just got to ask the right questions. That's the biggest thing. And ask the right people and have not call you dumbass the whole time. But

Yeah, it is what it is. But I appreciate you all for listening until next time. This podcast has been a production of the Firearms Radio Network. For more, visit firearmsradio.net.