Fall is here, and the questions are incoming, so we're going to take some time and answer a bunch of them on the air today.

Thanks for tuning in, folks. I'm Joseph von Benedict, and you're listening to the Backcountry Hunting Podcast.

Let's dive right in and go to our first question. This is from a listener that we'll call Ethan. And he writes, hello, Joseph,

I come to you with a question about preparation. I'm coming up on my Idaho, and he mentions a unit.

I'm not going to share that on the air here, but his rifle elk tag starts October 1st.

He continues, I worked up a load for my 338 rum, Remington Ultramagnum, right?

With 245 grain hammer HHT bullets going 3,2,800 feet per second.

I have a solid 100 yard zero with my trusty night force ATAC R perched on top.

I'll be verifying out to 800 to 1,000 yards tomorrow, with no intention of hunting out of that range.

I'm entering the unit four days early to scout with three glassing spots in mind to get ready.

I have my food, warming layers, shelter, sleeping bags, electronics and water purification all set up in totes.

My question is, what last minute things do you do to prepare for a hunt, especially one that you consider especially important. So I responded here to

Ethan and said, man, very cool. You know, this sounds like you're really well prepared and

have a solid plan of action. And I said, this is some of the best advice I can give you, folks.

I said, listen, for last minute prep, make sure you pack your tag.

I've seen hunting licenses and tags left behind all too often.

Now, a few other things that I tend to do right before going out on an important hunt is I wash all my hunting clothing

with a good scent killer type detergent, right? And then I make real sure that they're good

and dry and that they don't mildew, even a tiny bit in the washer or the dryer. So you've got to stay

on that. A mildew set of clothing will absolutely start to stink and will work against you and the sweat and the bacteria and that your body's producing exponentially faster than clean clothing without any mildew in it.

So anyway, I'm a little bit obsessive about that. Ideally, I'll hang my

hunting clothes, clothing out on an old-fashioned clothes drying line in the sunshine and wind for a day

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