Guys, thanks for listening to the Jay Scott Outdoors podcast. I also want to thank the following sponsors for their support of this podcast. Without them, this podcast would not be possible.

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Then I use the mountain hunter for my sheep hunts, specifically desert sheep. Any of that's more technical terrain. Latherpin Suns has a phenomenal 3D mapping imprints and tracing kit. They make custom orthotics. Just really, really comfortable. Very user friendly boots and custom insoles.

Go to LatherpinSuns.com to find out more information. You can also check out Latherpin Suns on Instagram. They have three custom boot options, the mountain hunter, the mountain hunter elite, and the mountain hunter in Compass, as well as the high country synergy footbeds custom. They also make all of these custom footbeds in wide and super wide, as well as the boots, which is rare for a boot manufacturer.

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Guys, welcome to the JScotOutdoors podcast. Today I have Pat McCarty of Shadow Valley Outfitters on the line. Pat, how are you doing?

Doing great, Jay. Thank you very much for having us on.

You bet. I'm excited to talk to you about Arizona Elk and Antelope. Before we kind of dive into that, what are your overall thoughts on guys that are looking at this upcoming draw here next week?

Trying to figure out what they're going to apply for Elk and Antelope. What are your overall thoughts from an outlook perspective on maybe a 30,000-foot view of how things are shaping up and how things are looking as far as moisture and conditions going into the draw?

Yeah, that's been the question that we've gotten most frequently this year talking to hunters, and compared to years past, I'm very, very optimistic about what the 2023 hunting season is going to look like, the amount of moisture that we've had at the right time, and also the amounts has just been awesome.

And then when you kind of piggyback that onto a really strong monsoon season last year, so the moisture in the soil is already pretty high. All the ponds were full, all the drinkers were full, and now you're stacking anywhere from 12 to 24 inches of snow in some areas, it looks really good.

I'm really excited to see what happens. The Elk were in really great shape going into the winter, they've gotten good timely moisture, and there's still plenty of feed, so I would definitely be applying if anybody's not sure if they're going to apply or not, I would definitely apply.

Okay, so all indicators from everything you look at is it should be a really good year, you talk about prior monsoon seasons, you talk about pond, tanks being full, and moisture content in the soil, and then you have good winter moisture.

Obviously, if the valve shut off between now and monsoon season, that wouldn't be good, but it looks like there's some forecasts for a handful of storms that we can see over the next couple of weeks to month out, so I mean everything I'm hearing as well as indicating towards could be a really, really good antler growth year, especially for the Elk in Arizona.

Yeah, I agree 100%, and like you said, if it turns off tomorrow, we don't get another drop, that's Arizona, that's hunting the west, you never know, but going off the information that we have right now, putting into consideration what we've had in the past, I'm looking forward to a good green up in the spring, and I still think there'll be plenty of food to get them in to where if we do have a dry spring,

there's plenty of water, they'll be fine, we just need some kind of monsoon to have an average year, and if we have a decent monsoon and okay spring, we could very well be looking at a great year.

You know, you spend a lot of your personal time guiding in unit nine, let's start there first.

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