HOW TO FIND ELK IN THE FIRST 48 HOURS - THE ELK HUNTING SYSTEM | 🎙️ EP. 209

HOW TO FIND ELK IN THE FIRST 48 HOURS - THE ELK HUNTING SYSTEM | 🎙️ EP. 209

The first 48 hours of an elk hunt can determine whether you spend the rest of the week executing a plan—or wandering through public land hoping to get lucky. In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down a complete opening-day elk hunting system for locating elk, reading hunting pressure, evaluating fresh sign, identifying security cover, and finding one huntable group before you start forcing setups. Most elk hunters begin moving the moment they reach the trailhead. They hike miles because movement feels productive, stop at the first elk tracks they find, or immediately call to the first bull they hear. But covering ground without gathering the right information can burn access routes, educate elk, contaminate bedding areas, and make the rest of the hunt harder. Instead, the first two days should be treated as the fastest elk scouting and intelligence window of the entire season. You’ll learn how to: • Read trailheads, roads, camps, and terrain to understand public-land hunting pressure • Identify dark timber, steep benches, blowdown, and other elk security terrain • Locate the combination of bedding cover, feed, and water that consistently holds elk • Determine whether elk tracks, rubs, droppings, and wallows are fresh or outdated • Read fresh elk sign for direction, purpose, and time of day • Use bugles, cow calls, hoof sounds, and other natural sound to locate elk without burning country • Glass timber edges, avalanche chutes, burn edges, hidden parks, and overlooked feeding areas • Evaluate whether an elk herd is actually huntable before committing to a stalk or calling setup • Build a complete plan around feeding areas, bedding zones, wind, thermals, entry routes, and exit routes The objective isn’t to locate every elk in the unit. It’s to locate one group of elk you can approach, hunt, and exit without exposing your position or scent. Matt brings more than 34 years of western elk hunting and guiding experience, combined with over 30 years as a professional strength, conditioning, and nutrition coach. The lesson from both hunting and athletic performance is the same: complex problems aren’t solved by winging it. They’re solved by building a system, executing it with discipline, and allowing the information you gather to guide your next decision. This episode explains how to apply the Backbone Unlimited elk hunting process—Locate, Evaluate, Position, Execute, and Adjust—during the most important intelligence window of your hunt. Ready to build a stronger elk hunting plan? Study the complete Elk Hunting E-Book Series, join Team Backbone, book a personalized Elk Hunt Plan Audit, or explore hunt-specific training and nutrition programs at backboneunlimited.com.

10 ELK HUNTING MISTAKES MOST HUNTERS KEEP MAKING (HERE'S WHAT TO DO INSTEAD) | 🎙️ EP. 208

Most public land elk hunters don’t go home empty-handed because there weren’t enough elk, the unit was bad, or the weather ruined their hunt. They go home without a bull because of a series of small, preventable decisions that slowly cost them opportunities. In this episode of the Backbone Unlimited Podcast, Matt Hartsky breaks down the 10 elk hunting mistakes that consistently send hunters home with an empty pack. Drawing from more than 34 years of hunting and guiding western big game, Matt explains why elk hunters get beaten by shifting wind and thermals, hunt too close to roads and trailheads, arrive without enough preseason scouting, overcall from stationary positions, bugle too aggressively, choose poor setups, and fail to adjust when elk behavior changes. You’ll also learn how physical conditioning affects elk hunting decisions, why pressured elk often shift instead of leaving an area completely, how to improve bowhunting shot selection, and how to build a daily assessment process that helps you adapt throughout a multi-day hunt. This episode covers: • Wind management, mountain thermals, terrain and scent control • Finding pressured elk on western public land • E-scouting, preseason scouting and identifying elk habitat • Realistic elk calling strategies for educated bulls • Choosing better archery elk hunting setups • Mountain fitness, weighted hiking and pack-out preparation • Staying patient after bumping elk • Ethical shot selection and field-distance limits • Adjusting your elk hunting strategy as pressure, weather and rut activity change Every mistake in this episode is fixable. You don’t necessarily need a better elk unit or more cooperative bulls. You need better preparation, stronger systems and more disciplined decisions when the hunt gets difficult. Explore the complete Elk Hunting E-Book Series, TEAM Backbone, Elk Hunt Plan Audits, mountain hunting training programs and nutrition plans at BackboneUnlimited.com. Train harder. Hunt smarter. Never settle.

SUMMER ELK BEHAVIOR TELLS YOU EXACTLY WHERE TO HUNT ELK IN SEPTEMBER | 🎙️ EP. 207

September elk hunting strategy starts long before the rut. In this episode of the Backbone Unlimited Podcast, Matt Hartsky breaks down why July elk scouting, summer bull patterns, cow elk behavior, and August transition signs all matter when you’re trying to find rutting bulls in September. Most elk hunters spend July and August watching bachelor bulls, dropping pins, and building a plan around summer patterns. But when velvet drops, bachelor groups break up, bulls shift country, and archery elk season becomes a completely different game. The bulls you watched all summer may be gone — not because your scouting was worthless, but because September elk movement is driven by cows. This episode explains what summer bull scouting actually teaches you, how to read the August transition, why cow elk patterns are more dependable than rutting bull patterns, and how to focus your September elk hunt around mid-elevation transition zones, water, feed, cover, pressure, wind, and thermals. If you’re preparing for western elk hunting, public land elk hunting, archery elk season, or building a better elk hunt plan, this episode will help you stop chasing old summer pins and start hunting where September bulls are actually going to be. 📙 Elk Hunting E-Book Series (the complete elk hunting system) → https://backboneunlimited.com/collections/elk-hunting-series-e-books [https://backboneunlimited.com/collections/elk-hunting-series-e-books] If you want to take it further: 📋 Elk Hunt Plan Audit — I'll personally review your specific maps, terrain, access routes, pressure points, and wind strategy before you head into the field → https://backboneunlimited.com/pages/elk-hunt-plan-audit [https://backboneunlimited.com/pages/elk-hunt-plan-audit] 👥 Team Backbone — Daily guidance, accountability, and a community of serious western hunters putting in the work right alongside you → https://backboneunlimited.com/pages/membership [https://backboneunlimited.com/pages/membership] 🦵 Backbone Unlimited Training Plans — Built specifically for the physical demands of mountain elk hunting: legs, lungs, and the ability to handle miles under load day after day → https://backboneunlimited.com/pages/training [https://backboneunlimited.com/pages/training] 🥩 Nutrition Plans — Get leaner before season, fuel long days in the field, and dial in your in-season performance → https://backboneunlimited.com/pages/nutrition [https://backboneunlimited.com/pages/nutrition]

YOU'RE HUNTING ELK WALLOWS WRONG - HERE'S THE SETUP THAT ACTUALLY WORKS | 🎙️ EP. 206

Most elk hunters waste the middle of the day. They head back to camp, take a nap, or wait around for the evening hunt while a small percentage of disciplined hunters are still in the game. In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down the complete wallow hunting system for elk hunters — how to find the right wallow, read fresh sign, understand when bulls are using it, approach without blowing it up, and set up 40 to 60 yards off the wallow where a mature bull is most likely to commit before he ever reaches the mud. You’ll learn why wallows are best treated as a midday strategy, why hot and dry early-season conditions make them more valuable, how thermals control your entry, why you shouldn’t set up right on the wallow, and why calling can actually hurt you in this situation. This isn’t random wallow advice. It’s a practical system built from 34 years of hunting and guiding elk in the western mountains. If you want to make better use of dead time between morning and evening hunts, this episode will show you how to let the wallow do the work. 📙 Elk Hunting E-Book Series (the complete elk hunting system) → https://backboneunlimited.com/collections/elk-hunting-series-e-books [https://backboneunlimited.com/collections/elk-hunting-series-e-books] If you want to take it further: 📋 Elk Hunt Plan Audit — I'll personally review your specific maps, terrain, access routes, pressure points, and wind strategy before you head into the field → https://backboneunlimited.com/pages/elk-hunt-plan-audit [https://backboneunlimited.com/pages/elk-hunt-plan-audit] 👥 Team Backbone — Daily guidance, accountability, and a community of serious western hunters putting in the work right alongside you → https://backboneunlimited.com/pages/membership [https://backboneunlimited.com/pages/membership] 🦵 Backbone Unlimited Training Plans — Built specifically for the physical demands of mountain elk hunting: legs, lungs, and the ability to handle miles under load day after day → https://backboneunlimited.com/pages/training [https://backboneunlimited.com/pages/training] 🥩 Nutrition Plans — Get leaner before season, fuel long days in the field, and dial in your in-season performance → https://backboneunlimited.com/pages/nutrition [https://backboneunlimited.com/pages/nutrition]

STOP GUESSING WHERE ELK ARE | HOW TO READ A TOPO MAP FOR ELK HUNTING | 🎙️ EP. 205

Most elk hunters look at topo maps, but they don’t actually read them. In this episode of the Backbone Unlimited Podcast, Matt Hartsky breaks down how to scout elk country from a map before you ever leave the truck. This is a complete map-reading lesson for western public-land elk hunters who want to stop guessing, stop picking random basins, and start identifying high-probability elk locations with a real system. Matt explains how to read contour lines, identify drainages, ridges, saddles, benches, aspect, north-facing security cover, south-facing feed, timber edges, water sources, springs, seeps, elevation bands, and terrain transitions that elk actually use. You’ll learn why security terrain comes first, how elk use saddles to move between basins, why benches are often travel and staging areas instead of guaranteed bedding spots, and how to stack multiple map features into what Matt calls an elk address. If you hunt elk in the western mountains, especially on pressured public land, this episode will help you understand how elk behavior, pressure, terrain, wind, water, feed, and cover all connect on a topo map. Build your September elk hunt before you ever set foot in the mountains. For elk hunting ebooks, Team Backbone, elk hunt plan audits, training plans, and nutrition plans, go to backboneunlimited.com.