546 | DIY Solo Elk — Highs & Lows (A Listener Story)

The Hunt Backcountry Podcast

by Exo Mtn Gear

Sports, Sports:wilderness, Health & Fitness, Wilderness

4.4 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2025

⏱️ 94 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"I just got home from my second year in a row of successful backpack solo elk hunting with the bow — last year with a cow, and this year with my first bull. I know that several of my deliberate decisions during the hunt (which are things I learned from listening to your podcast) led to my success. So thank you!" —Ryan We received that email from today's guest, Ryan. But that email is only part of the story. Ryan spent many years hunting elk before becoming successful over the past couple of hunts. In today's podcast with Ryan, we discuss the highs and lows of do-it-yourself solo elk hunting, what Ryan learned over the years, how he changed his hunt strategy, and how his persistence paid off. The Hunt Backcountry Podcast is brought to you by Exo Mtn Gear: https://exomtngear.com/ Email Sign-up: https://exomtngear.com/newsletter Contact Us: [email protected] Leave A Message: https://speakpipe.com/huntbackcountry Podcast Episode Archive: https://exomtngear.com/podcast

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Huntback Country podcast. This is episode number 546, and our guest is one of you guys, a listener of the show, Ryan,
0:24.2	who joins us to share about his archery elk season from this year, as well as years previously
0:31.5	when he struggled to find, see, or kill an elk. This is a very realistic story at what it looks like
0:39.9	to hunt elk on your own, on public land,
0:43.1	and in Ryan's case, mostly solo as well.
0:47.4	So how did Ryan stick through the dry years
0:50.0	to then fill a tag last year on a cow
0:53.2	and then this year on his first bowl.
0:55.9	We get into all that and much more in this episode that I know you will enjoy and benefit from.
1:02.2	If you guys are enjoying the podcast, it does help us if you can leave a rating or review in your
1:07.5	podcast app. Hit pause and do that now if you can.
1:11.3	Or just consider sharing this show directly with a friend who may benefit from it as well.
1:16.3	Thank you guys for taking the time to do that.
1:18.9	Let's dive right in this conversation with Ryan.
1:33.4	Ryan, just to give listeners context a bit about who you are, where you come from hunting experience, like don't need to tell your life story, but give us a little glimpse.
1:40.6	Yeah, so I guess most people ask you what you do.
1:45.0	They're essentially asking you what you do for work.
1:48.0	So a little, I don't really like to describe myself as what I do for work, but I am, I guess, from a background of what I like to do.
2:02.2	I'm a mechanical engineer, and I do a lot of design work.
2:07.9	So that's one of the aspects of your podcast that I've enjoyed lately is listening to you guys talk about your design process and why you do things the way you do.
2:18.9	So I guess that does interest me.
2:23.3	Nice.
	...

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