Advertise on podcast: Pursuit With Cliff - Cliff Gray

Access decides more elk hunts than gear, calling, or strategy combined. Private land, resident tags, draw odds, generations of local knowledge. That one variable is why comparing yourself to other hunters is mostly useless, and why the only real measure is for you to calculate Coffee with Cliff, mostly unedited. Assessing your own progress is a harder, but more useful way to judge whether you're actually getting better, plus why the hunting content world keeps getting people in legal trouble chasing the same scoreboard.  --- FOLLOW CLIFF YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Cliffgry/ Facebook - https://facebook.com/PursuitWithCliff Pursuit With Cliff Podcast https://pursuitwithcliff.com/interviews-and-podcasts/ Cliff's Hunt Planning and Strategy Membership  https://pursuitwithcliff.com/membership/ Hunt. Fish. Spear.  (Experiences, Courses and Seminars) https://pursuitwithcliff.com/Experiences Merch https://pursuitwithcliff.com/shop/ SUBSCRIBE TO CLIFF'S NEWSLETTER: https://PursuitWithCliff.com/#Newsletter

Double rifles are the least understood firearms in hunting. They cost more than most trucks, the two barrels are regulated by hand one pair at a time, and most guys buy one for a charge that is never going to happen. I brought in Chris from Heym USA to explain the whole thing from the ground up. Why they cost what they cost. What barrel regulation actually is and why lasers cannot shortcut it. Why 50% of the weight has to sit between your hands. Why a 26 inch barreled double carries shorter than the 22 inch bolt gun in your truck. Then we get into the part that applies to anybody shooting a big bore. Why the 450/400 Nitro Express is the first double rifle cartridge he tells guys to buy. Why the professional hunter's rifle and the client's rifle are two completely different tools. Why the honest answer on recoil is the one nobody wants to hear. We finish on red dots, grizzly handguns, one hole versus two on a Cape buffalo, and my great great grandfather's Damascus barreled Francotte 12 gauge. In this episode: - Why barrel regulation makes a double rifle expensive, explained without the mystique - The 450/400 Nitro Express, 400 grains at 2100 fps, at roughly 375 H&H recoil - Weight between the hands, five frame sizes, and why barrel length is about balance, not velocity - Kinetic energy versus shot placement, and what a 700 Nitro Express actually did to an elephant skull - PH rifle versus client rifle, and the aspirational marketing that sells you recoil you will never practice with - Soft point in the right barrel, solid in the left, and why two holes beat one --- FOLLOW CLIFF YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Cliffgry/ Facebook - https://facebook.com/PursuitWithCliff Pursuit With Cliff Podcast https://pursuitwithcliff.com/interviews-and-podcasts/ Cliff's Hunt Planning and Strategy Membership  https://pursuitwithcliff.com/membership/ Hunt. Fish. Spear.  (Experiences, Courses and Seminars) https://pursuitwithcliff.com/Experiences Merch https://pursuitwithcliff.com/shop/ SUBSCRIBE TO CLIFF'S NEWSLETTER: https://PursuitWithCliff.com/#Newsletter

Most elk hunters don't lose animals because they don't know enough. They lose them because they bugle in the middle of a meadow, creep at 800 yards, sprint at 200, and talk themselves out of the stalk halfway up the mountain. Cliff sits down with outfitter Cade Cole and Eric to break down what actually went wrong, and right, for the guys who came through the in-person Elk Hunting Masterclass in Wyoming this season. This is the unfiltered debrief: pacing, careless vocalization, wind discipline, onX habits, and the trailhead bubble that leaves miles of glassable elk country untouched every September. Not theory. Every scenario in the course came from a hunt one of us blew. The elk class discussed - https://pursuitwithcliff.com/elk-hunting-master-class/ Eric Wilson's Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/do-not-go-quietly-w-eric-wilson In this episode: Why the biggest barrier to the course isn't experience, it's egoHow five days of scenarios stack more reps than five years of huntingThe pacing inversion: too slow at 800 yards, too fast inside 200Why guys bail halfway through a well-planned stalk, and the football parallel that explains itThe trailhead bubble and the outfitter bubble, and the unhunted elk between themWhy the overnight spike stalk works far more often than hunters believeWhat a Level 2 course would look like: spike camps and long stalks with no onX--- FOLLOW CLIFF YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Cliffgry/ Facebook - https://facebook.com/PursuitWithCliff Pursuit With Cliff Podcast https://pursuitwithcliff.com/interviews-and-podcasts/ Cliff's Hunt Planning and Strategy Membership  https://pursuitwithcliff.com/membership/ Hunt. Fish. Spear.  (Experiences, Courses and Seminars) https://pursuitwithcliff.com/Experiences Merch https://pursuitwithcliff.com/shop/ SUBSCRIBE TO CLIFF'S NEWSLETTER: https://PursuitWithCliff.com/#Newsletter

Tim Sundles is back on to talk about the Africa trip we did together, the near-charge that convinced him to stop pushing into thick brush, and what he thinks about internet experts who have never killed the animal they're arguing about. We also get into the part of African hunting nobody advertises: taxidermy commissions, booking kickbacks, and the difference between disclosing what you make and hiding it. In this episode: Why first-time Africa hunters come home changed, and why film can't capture it Three bachelor bulls at 15 feet in brush too thick to walk through Why an undisturbed buffalo dies fast and an alerted one turns bulletproof The case for a double rifle, and the real disadvantage nobody mentions Taxidermy and travel commissions that go undisclosed on most safaris Put-and-take stocking versus genuine genetic management on a game reserve Why six of Jim Shockey's bear guides would all pick a .30-06 over a 7mm Rem Mag Bullet diameter, bullet construction, and matching the bullet to impact velocity The Africa film: https://youtu.be/7OUa1L606s4 Tim's new YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TimSundles-BuffaloBoreAmmuniti --- FOLLOW CLIFF YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Cliffgry/ Facebook - https://facebook.com/PursuitWithCliff Pursuit With Cliff Podcast https://pursuitwithcliff.com/interviews-and-podcasts/ Cliff's Hunt Planning and Strategy Membership  https://pursuitwithcliff.com/membership/ Hunt. Fish. Spear.  (Experiences, Courses and Seminars) https://pursuitwithcliff.com/Experiences Merch https://pursuitwithcliff.com/shop/ SUBSCRIBE TO CLIFF'S NEWSLETTER: https://PursuitWithCliff.com/#Newsletter

I guided an archery elk hunt last week and it had everything. A shooter bull at 25 yards on the first night that didn't work out. Slow days where bulls ignored every call. A last-night shot under 20 yards on a bull that was found three days later, 1,300 yards away, with a bear on top of him. This is an uncut coffee with Cliff recap. We get into early rut bull behavior in the first half of September, why you need to practice shooting from the edges of your setup radius, and how one blown opportunity can wreck the rest of a hunt if you let it. Then the hard part: how my own brain convinced me I was looking at fletchings when it was the broadhead on the exit, tracking a single lung bull in flat country, and why rutting bulls push wounded bulls farther than you'd expect. In this episode: Early rut behavior: spikes acting like herd bulls, big bulls roaming solo Why your hunter couldn't draw on a bull at 25 yards (and the fix) Resetting after a blown opportunity so it doesn't plague your hunt Why guides are hesitant to celebrate any archery hit Losing blood in flat terrain, and when to back out overnight How angles and bone shrink elk vitals --- FOLLOW CLIFF YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Cliffgry/ Facebook - https://facebook.com/PursuitWithCliff Pursuit With Cliff Podcast https://pursuitwithcliff.com/interviews-and-podcasts/ Cliff's Hunt Planning and Strategy Membership  https://pursuitwithcliff.com/membership/ Hunt. Fish. Spear.  (Experiences, Courses and Seminars) https://pursuitwithcliff.com/Experiences Merch https://pursuitwithcliff.com/shop/ SUBSCRIBE TO CLIFF'S NEWSLETTER: https://PursuitWithCliff.com/#Newsletter

Most guys don't quit a backcountry hunt because the area sucked. They quit because they're in a calorie deficit, they haven't slept, and they blew their anaerobic tank on day one. After decades of guiding, outfitting, and packing hunters into wilderness areas, this is the physiology behind the urge to quit and the three prescriptions that fix it. In this episode: Why the first two to three days are learning days, and why quitting at 50% means giving up 80–90% of your real opportunity The 72-hour wall: how appetite decline at altitude drives muscle glycogen and cerebral glucose down at the same time The daily calorie bag system. 3,500–4,000 calories, and the discipline mechanism that makes you actually eat them How sleep loss collapses your dopamine receptors and kills your motivation to hunt Why an ultralight sleep system on a non-ultralight hunt is a mistake, plus hydration timing and the pee bottle Aerobic vs. anaerobic pace, and why I'd take five hours on a stalk I could do in forty-five minutes   --- FOLLOW CLIFF YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Cliffgry/ Facebook - https://facebook.com/PursuitWithCliff Pursuit With Cliff Podcast https://pursuitwithcliff.com/interviews-and-podcasts/ Cliff's Hunt Planning and Strategy Membership  https://pursuitwithcliff.com/membership/ Hunt. Fish. Spear.  (Experiences, Courses and Seminars) https://pursuitwithcliff.com/Experiences Merch https://pursuitwithcliff.com/shop/ SUBSCRIBE TO CLIFF'S NEWSLETTER: https://PursuitWithCliff.com/#Newsletter

Brian Barney has been hunting elk on Montana public land for 25 years. He's called in over 100 bulls. Yet, years ago he left his elk calls in the truck and never looked back. This conversation is about the spot and stalk system Brian has built that kills a quality six-point bull nearly every season on OTC public land. We cover how he made the transition from calling to full commitment to spot and stalk, what he calls "coyoting the herd" or shadowing, staying 100 to 300 yards back, taking what the elk give you, and looking for the chink in the armor. We get into cutting elk off rather than chasing them, why he hunts elk almost exclusively on their feet, the swirly wind problem, and how to see elk before they see you. We close on mental toughness... what it actually looks like when your brain starts justifying quitting, how Brian recognizes it, and why he says his most fun moments are when he's the most beat down. In this episode: Why Brian left his elk calls in the truck and why committing fully changed everything Shadowing the herd. 100 to 300 yards back, finding the chink in the armor Cutting elk off: getting in front of the herd instead of chasing the back of it Why he hunts elk on their feet and leaves bedded bulls alone until evening Swirling wind, the pocket that kept busting him and how he finally outsmarted it Seeing elk before they see you. The underappreciated skill that makes or breaks a stalk The mental toughness section: how your brain justifies quitting without you realizing it Guest: Brian Barney  Podcasts: Eastman's Elevated (11 years, weekly) and Eastman's Life of a Bow Hunter.  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brian__barney  --- FOLLOW CLIFF YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Cliffgry/ Facebook - https://facebook.com/PursuitWithCliff Pursuit With Cliff Podcast https://pursuitwithcliff.com/interviews-and-podcasts/ Cliff's Hunt Planning and Strategy Membership  https://pursuitwithcliff.com/membership/ Hunt. Fish. Spear.  (Experiences, Courses and Seminars) https://pursuitwithcliff.com/Experiences Merch https://pursuitwithcliff.com/shop/ SUBSCRIBE TO CLIFF'S NEWSLETTER: https://PursuitWithCliff.com/#Newsletter

Most elk hunters are either struggling with their diaphragm or over-relying on it. Cliff and Jim break down three non-vocal sounds that are easy to make, highly realistic, and will set you apart from every other caller in the woods. The three sounds: raking (the easiest elk call anyone can learn in five minutes), huffing (what close-range bulls do constantly that almost no one imitates), and glunking (the weird one that most hunters don't even know elk make). Jim and Cliff demonstrate each one and break down exactly how to produce it in the field. In this video: Raking — how to do it, what to rake on, and why it's deadly early season when bulls aren't vocalizing Huffing — breathing hard through your tube, what it sounds like, and when to use it Glunking — why rhythm matters more than tone, and the hand technique that adds resonance Why these sounds work on high-pressure public land where bugles call in hunters. Cliff's in-person elk course - https://pursuitwithcliff.com/elk-hunting-master-class/ --- FOLLOW CLIFF YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Cliffgry/ Facebook - https://facebook.com/PursuitWithCliff Pursuit With Cliff Podcast https://pursuitwithcliff.com/interviews-and-podcasts/ Cliff's Hunt Planning and Strategy Membership  https://pursuitwithcliff.com/membership/ Hunt. Fish. Spear.  (Experiences, Courses and Seminars) https://pursuitwithcliff.com/Experiences Merch https://pursuitwithcliff.com/shop/ SUBSCRIBE TO CLIFF'S NEWSLETTER: https://PursuitWithCliff.com/#Newsletter

James Nash is back, and this one is all elk. We get into why calling is the most overused tool in the elk woods, why your setup is doing 99% of the work, and how to think about wind, scent, and terrain from the bull's side of the equation instead of your own. 00:00 The patience game 00:52 Africa film and honest footage 04:52 99 peanuts on setup 06:49 Calling is just a nudge 11:42 Wind before everything else 15:59 The downwind myth 24:23 What's in it for the bull 28:18 Buttonhook and straggler bulls 34:52 Building the archery setup 42:30 The deaf hunter's advantage 47:21 The $100 calling budget Guest: James Nash — 6 Ranch Outfitters. https://www.instagram.com/6ranchoutfitters/   --- FOLLOW CLIFF YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Cliffgry/ Facebook - https://facebook.com/PursuitWithCliff Pursuit With Cliff Podcast https://pursuitwithcliff.com/interviews-and-podcasts/ Cliff's Hunt Planning and Strategy Membership  https://pursuitwithcliff.com/membership/ Hunt. Fish. Spear.  (Experiences, Courses and Seminars) https://pursuitwithcliff.com/Experiences Merch https://pursuitwithcliff.com/shop/ SUBSCRIBE TO CLIFF'S NEWSLETTER: https://PursuitWithCliff.com/#Newsletter

Three of us sat down after four days in the field. Cade, Cliff and Ryan (a student who just came off the elk class) and got into the small stuff that actually separates hunters who kill from hunters who don't. Not tactics you can read in an article. The judgment calls. When to move fast, when to sit down and wait, how much country you're actually willing to cross, and how much of your own hunting style you should be fighting versus leaning into. Ryan's primarily an archer with real backcountry experience and that's most of what makes this one worth listening to. Two guys who've spent careers guiding, one guy who hunts the way most of you hunt, working through the same problems from three different angles. Schedule for next year's classes: https://pursuitwithcliff.com/elk-hunting-master-class/ In this episode: Why roughly 70% of the elk I kill guiding come from long, ugly stalks not from camp The outfitter bubble, the trailhead bubble, and the huge unhunted country in between How archers wreck their own odds by tunnel-visioning on bugling instead of glassing Spot-and-stalking a bedded bull, and why almost nobody has it in their toolkit Why nearly every student skips ranging and marking the animal before the stalk Style-based hunting: why we don't tell a fast hunter to slow down The honest math. You can do everything right and still be wrong a third of the time   --- FOLLOW CLIFF YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Cliffgry/ Facebook - https://facebook.com/PursuitWithCliff Pursuit With Cliff Podcast https://pursuitwithcliff.com/interviews-and-podcasts/ Cliff's Hunt Planning and Strategy Membership  https://pursuitwithcliff.com/membership/ Hunt. Fish. Spear.  (Experiences, Courses and Seminars) https://pursuitwithcliff.com/Experiences Merch https://pursuitwithcliff.com/shop/ SUBSCRIBE TO CLIFF'S NEWSLETTER: https://PursuitWithCliff.com/#Newsletter

Over the last two months I put 40 hunters through live elk training in the field. Not lectures. Real stalks, real glassing, real archery setups that run two or three hours. The same three failures showed up over and over, and every one of them traces back to the flood of content hunters are drowning in right now. This isn't an anti-content rant. There are hundreds of skill videos on this channel and you need that baseline. The problem is what happens when guys try to apply every framework at once: analysis paralysis, decision fatigue. I break down handicapping your options instead of hunting a flowchart, why inaction is almost always the worst probability you can pick, how to actually mark an animal with OnX, landmarks, and terrain reading before you commit to a stalk, and why proximity (not calling sequences) is the dominant factor in archery elk. --- FOLLOW CLIFF YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Cliffgry/ Facebook - https://facebook.com/PursuitWithCliff Pursuit With Cliff Podcast https://pursuitwithcliff.com/interviews-and-podcasts/ Cliff's Hunt Planning and Strategy Membership  https://pursuitwithcliff.com/membership/ Hunt. Fish. Spear.  (Experiences, Courses and Seminars) https://pursuitwithcliff.com/Experiences Merch https://pursuitwithcliff.com/shop/ SUBSCRIBE TO CLIFF'S NEWSLETTER: https://PursuitWithCliff.com/#Newsletter

I sit down with Corey Knowlton, one of the most experienced international hunters alive, to talk elephant hunting, North American hunting and double rifles. From there we dig into the Jim Shockey era of hunting TV, why North American trophy hunting opportunity is never coming back, and why a $30,000 archery elk hunt makes almost no sense when you look at what that money buys in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, or Tanzania. In this episode: Why it's easy to win the elephant argument logically — and impossible emotionally The Jim Shockey years: how those shows actually got made Elephant overpopulation and why management has to happen How to plan an elephant hunt: heat, full moons, tracks, and judging old bulls Double rifles vs. bolt actions — and why the front trigger comes first Why hunters will end hunting themselves, not anti-hunters --- FOLLOW CLIFF YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Cliffgry/ Facebook - https://facebook.com/PursuitWithCliff Pursuit With Cliff Podcast https://pursuitwithcliff.com/interviews-and-podcasts/ Cliff's Hunt Planning and Strategy Membership  https://pursuitwithcliff.com/membership/ Hunt. Fish. Spear.  (Experiences, Courses and Seminars) https://pursuitwithcliff.com/Experiences Merch https://pursuitwithcliff.com/shop/ SUBSCRIBE TO CLIFF'S NEWSLETTER: https://PursuitWithCliff.com/#Newsletter

Evan Koster has guided archery elk hunts in Colorado's Flat Tops for over a decade. This conversation covers everything that actually matters going into an archery elk season — and plenty of what hunters think matters that doesn't. Colorado is in a historic drought, and Evan breaks down what that means for where elk will be in September — it's not about elevation, it's about feed quality, and aspens are the answer. From there we get into how to search unknown country efficiently, why elevation and trailhead distance are myths that kill more hunts than help them, and Evan's counterintuitive wind rule: he doesn't think about it until he's within 500 yards. We dig into the stalk psychology mistake most hunters make, how to locate elk with a bugle using line-of-sight, how to read a bull's commitment level, and the one-sentence answer Evan would give any archer who wanted to kill more elk: take chances. We close on the honest reality of horseback elk hunting. In this episode: Colorado drought 2027 — what it means for elk distribution in September Feed quality over elevation — why aspens are the concentration zone in a dry year How to search unknown country vs. country you know The elevation myth and the trailhead distance myth — both cost hunters elk Wind: the 500-yard rule and why most hunters have the psychology completely backwards Bugling as a two-way radio — why line-of-sight matters for locating elk When to move on from a spot and when to go back in close The one thing Evan would change about any archer to make them more successful Horseback elk reality — "don't, unless you're already into horses" Booking 2027 hunts with LKS Outfitters now Guest: Evan Koster — Lead guide, LKS Outfitters / Flat Tops Wilderness Guides. ftguides.com https://www.instagram.com/flattopswildernessguides/ --- FOLLOW CLIFF YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Cliffgry/ Facebook - https://facebook.com/PursuitWithCliff Pursuit With Cliff Podcast https://pursuitwithcliff.com/interviews-and-podcasts/ Cliff's Hunt Planning and Strategy Membership  https://pursuitwithcliff.com/membership/ Hunt. Fish. Spear.  (Experiences, Courses and Seminars) https://pursuitwithcliff.com/Experiences Merch https://pursuitwithcliff.com/shop/ SUBSCRIBE TO CLIFF'S NEWSLETTER: https://PursuitWithCliff.com/#Newsletter

We explain suppressors for the hunting use cases, from basic concepts to advanced. Most hunters obsess over decibels and a do-it-all can they move between rifles. This conversation makes the case that they've got it backwards — that length is the real king of a hunting suppressor, that the published sound numbers are mostly unreliable, and that a suppressor belongs to one rifle. We get into the engineering, the failure modes, and where this fast-moving market is actually headed. --- FOLLOW CLIFF YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Cliffgry/ Facebook - https://facebook.com/PursuitWithCliff Pursuit With Cliff Podcast https://pursuitwithcliff.com/interviews-and-podcasts/ Cliff's Hunt Planning and Strategy Membership  https://pursuitwithcliff.com/membership/ Hunt. Fish. Spear.  (Experiences, Courses and Seminars) https://pursuitwithcliff.com/Experiences Merch https://pursuitwithcliff.com/shop/ SUBSCRIBE TO CLIFF'S NEWSLETTER: https://PursuitWithCliff.com/#Newsletter

You almost always have a rock-solid rear rest on your body — and most hunters never use it. Cliff sits down with Mike from Tricer to break it down. This one gets into the weeds on glassing tripods vs. shooting tripods, stabilized binos vs. tripod-mounted glass, reading bullet trace, and the simple rear-rest tricks (a puffy jacket, your pack, even your bino harness) that turn a wobbly hold into a locked-in shot. In this episode: Why a tripod forces systematic glassing — and why stabilized binos may cost you animals Filming every shot: recovering wounded game and solving "misses" that were actually hits How to read bullet trace through a spotter Matching your tripod to the hunts you actually do The rear-rest position that gives you two points of contact with the ground What NRL Hunter teaches hunters about building positions under time pressure Mike Herne - https://www.instagram.com/mike_herne Tricer - https://tricer.com/ (CLIFFG for 10% off) --- FOLLOW CLIFF YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/Cliffgry/ Facebook - https://facebook.com/PursuitWithCliff Pursuit With Cliff Podcast https://pursuitwithcliff.com/interviews-and-podcasts/ Cliff's Hunt Planning and Strategy Membership  https://pursuitwithcliff.com/membership/ Hunt. Fish. Spear.  (Experiences, Courses and Seminars) https://pursuitwithcliff.com/Experiences Merch https://pursuitwithcliff.com/shop/ SUBSCRIBE TO CLIFF'S NEWSLETTER: https://PursuitWithCliff.com/#Newsletter