Are you thinking about or have already made the decision to hunt out west?  If so, now is the time to start preparing for your trip.  Mark Livesay with Treeline Pursuits comes on to talk about just that, providing tips about preparing for your first trip out west.  First, Mark tells a hilarious story about his first hunt out west and how making mistakes is part of the experience as you start your elk hunting journey.  He gives two great Facebook groups that are great for new hunters, those being "Non Resident Western Big Game Hunters" and "Elk Addicts''.  Mark gives all kinds of advice throughout this show, but the number one bit he has is don't let all of the little details that go into hunting out west detour you from making the leap.  Just do it.  The most important thing you should be focusing on is planning the hunt, things like gear are strictly secondary.  Spend your time developing your hunt plan around your group's capabilities, researching areas, multiple backup areas, etc.  Another thing to consider is the long game and looking at states that you may be able to hunt a few seasons down the road.  We even go down some rabbit holes about drawing in certain states and he explains what point creep is.  He also explains what Treeline Academy is and how it can help the new and seasoned non resident hunters alike better prepare themselves to locate elk.  He also talks about other services that he likes to utilize like GoHunt, Elk 101, OnX, Gaia GPS, Toprut, and others.  There is plenty of information Mark gives in this episode if you are thinking about taking the leap.     Missouri Woods & Water is Powered by Simplecast Our Sponsors: * Check out Thompson Cigars and use my code SE for a great deal: https://thompsoncigar.com * Check out Troll Co Clothing and use my code EMPIRE25 for a great deal: https://www.trollco.com/hunting Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy