SITKA Gear - INSIGHT 002

SITKA INSIGHT ISSUE 002 FALL 2015

Watch Athlete Cole Kramer as he guides our own Jeff Sposito and Athlete Adam Foss on their quest to arrow a pair of Kodiak Island mountain goats.

DROPPING THIS FALL AT SITKAFILMS.COM

#PROJECTELK

His name is Dennis Loosier, but his crew calls him Dr. Duck. He studies birds with the curiosity and rigor of a physician, and dissects the Arkansas timbers like a surgeon. The Doctor will see you now.

Are hunters the Earth’s true conservationists? #PROJECTELK explores the origins, science, and evolution of conservation through the eyes of biologists, wildlife experts, anti-hunters, and hunters.

DEER YEAR EPISODES 3-8

DR. DUCK

The rut might be the climax, but it’s not the full story. Over eight short episodes, Deer Year traces the rhythms of whitetail country and the year-round effort to scout, manage, and hunt it.

Tech Corner Windstopper pg. 06

Beyond the Layers pg. 28

This Season pg. 10

Tips & Tricks

pg. 40

Tech Corner Insulation pg. 24

THE APPROACH — 05 TECH CORNER WINDSTOPPER — 06 THIS SEASON — 10 TECH CORNER KEEP YOUR HEAT — 24 TRIBE NOTE SHACKET — 26 BEYOND THE LAYERS — 28 PACK BREAK — 34 TRCP SUMMIT RECAP — 36 ELK SEASON — 38 TIPS & TRICKS IMPROVE YOUR CALLING — 40 #PROJECT ELK — 44 BOZEMAN — 46 THOUGHTS FROM THE HART — 50

OUR WARRANTY: We stand behind every product we make. If you are unhappy with any of our products at the time you receive them, feel free to send them back.

Damage due to wear and tear will be repaired at a reasonable cost. For more details, visit www.SITKAgear.com/info/warranty.

GORE-TEX®, GUARANTEED TO KEEP YOU DRY®, PACLITE®, WINDSTOPPER®, OPTIFADE® & designs are trademarks of W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. PHOTOGRAPHY: 39º North / Clear Fork Collective / Dusan Smetana / Jason Matzinger / Jay Beyer / Massive Studios / Rockhouse Motion / Seacat Creative / SITKA Team / Wild Sheep Foundation FRONT COVER: Suspended in a web of branches, Jeff Simpson is a patient spider. PHOTO: Kevin Swedin BACK COVER: Dr. Duck (Dennis Loosier) and Timber taking a ride to scout the evening flight in Arkansas. PHOTO: CANA Outdoors.

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CONSERVATION THE SITKA GEAR APPROACH

For better or worse, we are all part of this machine – hippies, hunters, politicians, deer, elk, ducks, and geese. We are all connected. Like it or not, we humans are responsible for fine tuning our management of this place. And as hunter conservationists, we accept that responsibility.

We can be heroic in our individual efforts. But when we come together as businesses, as non-profits – and as a tribe – we compound our efforts in a powerful way. Momentum gathers, trajectories shift, and we begin to get a line of sight on the future: a world that will look different and better than it does today for humans, wildlife, and hunters.

For SITKA, supporting conservation is not only good business, it is simply the right thing to do. We use our time, attention, effort, and dollars to back hunting conservation organizations that are experts at this, totally focused, with their eye on the ball. We hope you’ll join us.

JONATHAN HART SITKA GEAR FOUNDER

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TECH TECH CORNER CORNER - THE - THE DAKOTA DAKOTA SERIES SERIES

WINDSTOPPER WINDSTOPPER™ ™

BY BY JIMJIM SAUBIER SAUBIER WATERFOWL WATERFOWL PRODUCT PRODUCT MANAGER MANAGER

It was It was thethe start start of of this this year’s year’s migration migration in in Saskatchewan Saskatchewan that that reminded reminded meme what what I like I like soso much much about about thethe Dakota Dakota series. series.

Temperatures Temperatures swung swung fromfrom a lowa inlow thein30s theto30s a high to a in high the 60s. in the Throw 60s. inThrow a little in bit a little of rain, bit aoflittle rain,bit a little of wind, bit of and wind, we had and ourselves we had ourselves a nice diversity a nice of diversity weather, of which moderate is pretty weather, common which foristhe pretty early common seasonfor upthe there. early And season that’sup exactly there.what And the that’s Dakota exactly pieces whatare thefor.

Dakota I was pieces comfortable are for. to Ithe was point comfortable of not noticing to themy point gear,ofno not matter noticing whatmy I was gear, doing. no matter I just got what to be I was in the doing. moment.

Calling, setting deeks, ears ringing from the sounds of birds and barrels, I just got to Sure, be inthere the moment. are plenty of times you’ll be tested by harsher weather, which means you need more extreme protection.

Sure, there But the areDakota plenty Series of times with its you’ll WINDSTOPPER® be tested by construction harsher weather, is my personal which means choiceyou for need 80% of more all hunts. extreme You’ve protection. got that But barrier the Dakota against Series thewith wind its WINDSTOPPER® that also has really construction high breathability, is my personal and that choice combination for 80% keeps of all you hunts. comfortable You’ve gotover thata much barrierwider against range the of temperatures wind that also and has conditions. really high The breathability, reason it works and that is that combination the breathability keeps you prevents comfortable moisture over buildup a much wider and range overheating, of temperatures especially and when conditions. you’re working The reason hard setting it worksa big is that spread the or breathability hiking in with prevents a lot of gear. moisture The challenge, buildup and whether overheating, hunting especially in water or when the field, you’re is the working ability hard to manage setting amoisture, big spread because or hiking if in you’re with awet lot when of gear. you Thegochallenge, static, you’re whether going hunting to feel in water the cold or the a whole field, is lotthe more, ability and to you’re managegoing moisture, to enjoy because the if experience you’re wet a whole when lot youless. go static, you’re going to feel the cold a whole lot more, and you’re going to enjoy the experience a whole lot less.

Cody Tangsrud tears down a snow goose set in Saskatchewan.

PHOTO: Matt McCormick

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SITKA GEAR: How much wind/weather protection does the Dakota Series provide?

Jim: Windproof and water resistant is the best way to describe the WINDSTOPPER® laminate used in the Dakota Hoody, Jacket, Vest and Beanie. For light rain – or snow or sleet – the amount of protection is plenty, while providing a higher level of breathability than GORE-TEX®. Not a replacement by any means for when the weather is really wet, but certainly appropriate for a large percentage of waterfowl hunting situations.

SITKA GEAR: The Dakota Hoody looks a lot like an oldschool cotton hoody that waterfowl hunters were wearing decades ago. Was that intentional?

Jim: There are definitely some features that resonate with the traditional waterfowl hunter. Namely, the full passthrough pocket that a pullover style garment allows. But that’s where the similarity ends. The Dakota is a technical garment featuring a GORE® WINDSTOPPER® laminate that provides both protection from the elements and breathability for moving moisture away from the body. A hooded cotton sweatshirt leaves a lot to be desired in terms of hood functionality, so we spent a lot of time working on getting the hood just right, so that it moves with you and preserves your peripheral vision. And while the old cotton knit hoodies are comfortable for sitting still on mild, dry days, if you layer with one and do anything active, it’s just a sponge for moisture. The accumulation of moisture is a liability in the fight to keep comfortable and warm when your activity level or the temperature drops.

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DAKOTA SITKA GEAR: When should hunters use the Dakota Jacket?

Jim: The intention of the Dakota Jacket is to provide an outer shell with all of the pocketing and features in the rest of our outerwear line, while keeping you comfortable on relatively mild days where it might start out quite cool in the morning and heat up as the hunt progresses. The WINDSTOPPER® membrane helps maintain comfort for a wide range of conditions, so this piece will really shine in the early season, as well as late in the spring when the mercury starts to rise and you’re chasing the spring snow goose migration.

SITKA GEAR: When should hunters use the Dakota Jacket?

Jim: The Dakota Jacket and the Dakota Hoody are very different pieces with completely different design objectives.

The Dakota Hoody is quite a bit warmer with its high-loft berber fleece backer, and it’s completely streamlined so you can wear it as an outer, but also as insulation layer under a waterproof outer when the temperatures plummet or a storm rolls in. The Dakota Jacket, on the other hand, is less insulated for warmer conditions, and is built to be a dedicated outer layer, so it has a full set of pockets, reinforced elbows and lower back, and a rubberized cuff for decoy work in flooded fields.

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SITKA GEAR: What are some of the major design differences of the Dakota Jacket and Vest?

Jim: Well, one has sleeves and a hood and the other doesn’t. But seriously, the Dakota vest is a versatile piece we designed to provide protection to the core while allowing the ultimate in mobility. I often find myself wearing the vest over a Core Heavyweight Hoody or the old Traverse Shirt. It allows me to have the pockets I want and a lot of warmth, but without the bulk in the arms. When I get chilled, or if it begins to rain, I can simply add a shell without ever feeling like I need to remove the vest. The vest features a high collar that really is nice for keeping the body heat from escaping around the neck area.

As mentioned, the Jacket is really a more focused piece for the early season, or in some of the warmer climates where all the virtues of WINDSTOPPERÂŽ can be showcased. Due to its versatility, the Dakota vest is the piece most referenced by the Sitka Tribe as one of their favorite pieces.

A SERIES LEFT: SITKA Waterfowl Marketer Bill Neff field testing the Dakota Hoody in Arkansas.

PHOTO: Matt McCormick CENTER: SITKA Waterfowl Product Manager Jim Saubier picking up the pieces in Saskatchewan PHOTO: David Rearick RIGHT: Cody Tangsrud assembles a rotary in Saskatchewan.

PHOTO: Matt McCormick

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THIS SEASON Fall rushes in with the pulse of a heartbeat, flushing out months of pent-up waiting with cool, clear breezes, leathery golden leaves, and a surge of tags and trips.

Its pulse sweeps every vein from the monotony of life, replenishing us with lessons and memories and meat.

Like a heartbeat, we can’t force autumn to arrive, nor can we prolong its stay. So if we have any wits about us, we’ll savor its hours. Any heart, and we’ll give thanks for its goodness. Any grit, and we’ll spend ourselves in the pursuit of its favor. This is our time, our heartbeat, and it only comes once a year. Get stoked.

Clear eyes, full quiver, can’t lose.

PHOTO: Jeff Simpson

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Haakon Johnson grips and grins with a winterkill skull in Montana.

PHOTO: Steven Drake

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Jordan Gill’s got a good head on his shoulders.

PHOTO: Steven Drake

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Athlete Mark Seacat puts the finishing touches on his pack for a September elk hunt in Montana.

PHOTO: Jordan Gill

Steve Vedders works the night shift.

PHOTO: Alec Goplen

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After years of putting in for the tag, a new day begins.

Sara Jensen with her first antelope in Wyoming.

PHOTO: Jay Beyer

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Isaac Nelson and Haakon Johnson warm up for a 14-mile pack out.

PHOTO: Steven Drake

Paul Drake breaks in the new Ballistic vest and cap in Montana.

PHOTO: Steven Drake

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Jeff Simpson pulls the chute on a sit in Kansas.

PHOTO: Ryan Heffron

Athlete Mark Seacat checks the forecast in Ohio.

PHOTO: Steven Drake

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The grass might be greener, but it’s not always stealthier.

PHOTO: Dustin Lutt

There’s rhythm in old bones.

PHOTO: Dustin Lutt

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Athlete Adam Foss keeps the focus in an Alberta storm.

PHOTO: Alec Goplen INSIGHT

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Athlete Bobby Warner drags out Ohio’s ‘Bladed Eight.’

PHOTO: Steven Drake

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Athletes Field and Clay Hudnall put out the early birds. Ohio River, Kentucky.

PHOTO: Matt McCormick

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Cody Tangsrud homes in on the X in North Dakota.

PHOTO: Matt McCormick

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The Clear Fork Outfitters crew becomes part of a Colorado Field.

PHOTO: Dustin Etheredge

Cody Tangsrud with his hands full in Saskatchewan.

PHOTO: Matt McCormick

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TECH CORNER

HOLD YOUR HEAT

BY DENNIS ZUCK WHITETAIL CATEGORY PRODUCT MANAGER

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“ THE PERFORMANCE OF AN INSULATION MATERIAL RELIES HEAVILY ON WHAT’S AROUND IT.

“

The world of insulation is pretty noisy. With tons of brands, materials, and stories, it’s hard to simply step back and think about what you’re trying to accomplish. So here’s the truth: there is no super insulation. And the reason is that insulation materials depend on what’s around them to make them function correctly. Think of your house. Roles of batting would be useless without plywood and studs to give them shape, siding to protect them from moisture, and drywall to keep them from releasing tufts of fiber into your house.

At the heart, insulation is all about creating and sustaining a comfortable microclimate. What’s a microclimate? It’s the air pocket created between your skin and the environment you’re in.

A key role of insulation is to create air gaps that allow the warmth you’re generating to be captured and held in place around your body. The higher the performance of an insulation, the more warmth it will hold and protect with less bulk and less weight.

But remember that the performance of an insulation material relies heavily on what’s around it. For instance, consider the warm air that is blown from a garment by wind and continually replaced by cold air. To protect from that kind of convective heat loss, we use technologies like GORE® WINDSTOPPER®, which we layer outside of the insulation package as a barrier between the cold wind and your microclimate. It sounds simple, but that outer membrane has to inhibit air transfer while still letting moisture vapor pass through, so that you don’t get soaked in your own sweat.

You have to keep your insulation dry, from both the outside and the inside, because wet systems conduct heat, creating a direct bridge from the cold outside to your skin. Sitka systems use GORE-TEX® technology to manage rain, sleet and snow, and because it is breathable, it allows evaporated sweat to escape from your microclimate. To make sure that happens, we utilize moisture-wicking base layers, hydrophobic insulations, and highly breathable materials and shells, all of which work together to push moisture out of the system. Layers like cotton sweatshirts, on the other hand, attract water and aid in condensation, which compromises your system and causes cold bridging.

We have to do all of this while keeping the insulation from being overly compressed. If we allow the insulation’s loft to be reduced, we have less space to trap the warm air your body is generating. That’s why we size our cold-weather outer layers to fit over our insulating mid layers without dramatically compressing them. This is especially important with high-loft insulation pieces like the Celsius and Kelvin series. Combining high-loft insulation with non-compressible insulating fleece layers, like the Fanatic Hoody and Gradient series, offers additional coldweather protection.

And it’s not just about the materials, the construction, and your choice of layers. Think about the parts of your body that need insulation the most. The science around heat retention looks at blood flow as an indicator of which parts of your body will get cold first. That means fingers, toes, ears and noses, so make sure you’re protecting and insulating these critical points as well. So, it’s never about one facet of your system, but about how all the pieces of your system work together.

Good Hunting, DENNIS ZUCK

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NEW

CELSIUS SHACKET

Delivering warmth exactly where you need it, the Celsius Shacket plays multiple roles in your system by taking on the tasks of pullover, vest, and jacket. Ideal as an insulation piece for the mid and late season, it functions quite well as an outer layer once in the stand.

Years of our singular focus on functionality resulted in a piece like nothing you’ve ever worn. Better than a vest, the short sleeves hold in heat generated under your arms, while still leaving your elbows and forearms free. An ultra-quiet mircofleece face fabric sheaths the body-mapped 80 g/m2 and 100g/m2 PrimaLoftŽ Silver Hi-Loft insulation, a material that retains warmth even when wet, and dries remarkably quickly. The sandwich of silent microfleece and advanced synthetic insulation is quilted to minimize bulk. The safety harness pass-through port integrates with your connection point, while the diagonal zipper leaves your anchor points free and makes room for the built-in hand muff, which keeps your bare fingers warm, dexterous, and deadly.

Explore this product and all our new 2015 gear at SITKAgear.com

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CELSIUS SHACKET A NOTE FROM TRIBE MEMBER DUSTY LUTT When I first saw the Shacket on Dennis Zuck out in Montana, I had to laugh. It looked like someone trying to be different for different’s sake. But then he offered to let me try it, and he never got it back. The features and cut on this piece are pretty amazing. It’s deadly quiet, warmer than any vest, and the lack of forearms prevents bunching and bulk when layering up. I no longer have to worry about unnatural tension in my draw cycle or string contact. As it turned out, the Shacket was the missing piece in my setup.

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BEYOND

THE

LAYERS

AN INTERVIEW WITH ATHLETES CLAY & FIELD HUDNALL SITKA Athletes Clay and Field Hudnall turn and test Field Proven Calls in Kentucky on the banks of the Ohio River. As you’d imagine, they’re both remarkable callers and hunters, but the thing we like best about them is that they’re just plain fun to talk to. Clay’s no slouch on the calls, but he didn’t get into competitions because, “I didn’t want to donate all that entry money to my brother.” His humility isn’t exactly overstated. His younger brother Field has indeed done well on the circuits over the years. But when we asked him about his accomplishments, he told us the story of his first World Duck, when he was sitting on the bus, waiting nervously or his turn to call. His seat mate talked to him and encouraged him for the entire 3-1/2 hours without ever letting on who he was.

Field got knocked out early but went to watch the final round.

And that’s when he learned he’d been chatting that whole time with multiple-World-Champion Bernie Boyle.

We’ve printed parts of their interview here, but if you’d like to read all their colorful tangents and tales from the blind, check out sitkagear.com/insight/hudnall-interview.

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Clay and Field Hudnall on the steep bank in Kentucky.

PHOTO: Matt McCormick

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SITKA GEAR: You live in La Grange, so obviously there’s a lot of different types of hunting you guys could be doing.

But you’ve chosen to focus your lives around waterfowl. Why? Field: Where we live, you wouldn’t think we’d become water fowl hunters because everybody around us, we’re not in a water fowl rich area. In fact, if you look at the way the flyways are marked, waterfowl actually avoid coming through our area. Everybody around us is turkey and deer. So the waterfowl hunting, I think it started as a camaraderie between my brother, my dad and myself, because we didn’t really hunt with anybody else. And it was just family time, because I can assure you where we were hunting was not good. It was actually awful. But once Clay got his license, we started kind of venturing out and man, you know, we actually had good hunting. It was like, “Wow, this is really fun, you know?” There’s nothing else that’s ever given us that adrenaline rush. Both of us, we’ll have a beer or two socially, but in high school, we never got caught up in drugs or any of that stuff. I’ve always said if there’s an adrenaline rush that’ stronger than that mallard back flapping or a Canada goose coming in, I don’t want no part of it, because I can’t, see, I couldn’t handle it.

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Some of the finer points of Ohio River hunting.

PHOTO: Matt McCormick

SITKA GEAR: How have you guys seen waterfowling change over time?

Clay: How have things changed… you know, our dad, he’d always tell us how good we had it. “When I got into it,” he’d say, “all we had was military clothing, and we used to put a couple lumps of charcoal in a coffee can and that was your heater. Men were men back in those days. You got it easy.” Our dad invested a lot of money in quality clothing, and I remember every year we’d look through the Cabela’s magazine and the Herder’s magazine, and he’d pour all this money into clothes, but I specifically remember thinking, “This jacket’s supposed to be waterproof and it’s not, it’s raining and I’m soaking wet and I’m miserable.” But now, it’s pretty safe for a parent to introduce a young kid into the outdoors, because there is the proper gear to where they’re comfortable, they’re safe, and they’re going to have a much more enjoyable experience.

SITKA GEAR: If you had one hunt, one more to go and you had to retire, what would it be? Where would you go?

Clay: The Ohio River. In fact I could literally put my finger on the best migrator day, and it’d be the Ohio River for a number of things. One, because we can hunt with some of our closest friends and two, because of the unknown, because you know you’re not going to hammer out your six mallards in 30 minutes. You’re not going to shoot 50 Canada geese in an hour. And you know, out of all the places I’ve traveled, there is no one hunt, there is no one perfect setup that every waterfowl hunter longs for. You can take three different people. You can take a guy from Stuttgart, Arkansas, a guy from Minnesota and a guy from the eastern shore of Maryland, and if you try to figure out who’s more excited or who loves waterfowl hunting more than the other, it’s not going to happen. The guy from eastern shore of Maryland is not jealous of the guy from Stuttgart because he might hunt timbers. And when you’re hunting with guys from Minnesota, they literally get goosebumps and start shaking when they start talking about hunting bluebills. Same thing with the guy on the eastern shore of Maryland. He’s a Canada goose hunter. He would rather shoot Canada geese than anything else because that’s what he’s grown up doing. I guess it’s the same thing with us.

Last hunt? I don’t want to go to some other state that I’m not familiar with and shoot ducks in a situation I’m not familiar with. I want to shoot, I want that perfect hunt that I can associate with, which is a complete mixed bag of every weird thing that comes down the river.

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SITKA GEAR: How has SITKA Gear affected your waterfowl experience.

Field: Well we learned our lessons on the gimmicks, so then when we first heard of the name, “Sitka,” well Sitka, what is a Sitka? Then you hear they’re doing waterfowl, and what’s their background in waterfowl? And then you hear, “Well it’s GORE-TEX,” and you start hearing more and more, and it’s like man, if it’s GORE-TEX, it’s got to be good, because they’ve made fabrics for so many people, for so many companies, and they’re still here after so many years. But I don’t think it’s until you try it that you really get it. We had a couple of pieces, and we let some of the other guys wear it so that way we were all wearing the same stuff. And we had to dang near fight them for the jackets back. The one buddy, I actually let him wear the Boreal Jacket the entire season, and he literally, he kept it, and I’m like, “Hey, I’m going to need to get that jacket back.” But he’s like “Man, come on,” and I said, “Sorry brother, I’ve got to get it back.”

The biggest challenge for us when we hunt is the boat ride, because it might be negative 5 and you’re going hammer down wide open to go 7 or 8 miles at 40 miles an hour. You want warm clothes and what I did was put the Duck Oven on first and then I put my Dakota vest on top of that, and then I put on the raincoat, I think it was the Delta Jacket. I put it on top, and literally with three pieces, plus the merino wool base layer, I never felt the air. I never felt the wind.

Before you could put on all the [compression layers] and all the other stuff you wanted, and that wind would still just cut right through you. That first boat ride was the testament to me, like man, this is some wicked stuff.

See Clay and Field’s full interview at SITKAgear.com/insight/hudnall-interview

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Ice flows down the Ohio as Clay and Field put the final touches on their set.

PHOTO: Matt McCormick

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PACK BREAK B A

C

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G

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THE LAUNCHING PAD DENNIS ZUCK, WHITETAIL PRODUCT MANAGER

WE DESIGNED THE LAUNCHING PAD TO BE A MOBILE, ODOR RESISTANT GEAR CLOSET FOR CHANGING BY THE SIDE OF YOUR TRUCK.

“

THERE ARE A MILLION WAYS TO USE THE INTERIOR POCKET SYSTEM, BUT HERE’S HOW I LAY MINE OUT: A. This corner holds my base layers. From the roll-out changing mat, it’s the first pocket to the right, and I can start getting dressed with no light required.

B. The roll-out mat, the red carpet, the runway. Whatever you want to call it, it’s where I stand while my boots sit in the center panel.

C. This pocket houses my insulating Celsius midlayers, which I like to get into as quickly as possible on cold November mornings.

D. Our small accessories pocket keeps my O3 Generator, headlamp, extra batteries, and a backup pack of broadheads.

E. One of the two largest pockets, this holds my Fanatic or Incinerator Bibs, depending on the forecast.

F. This area is the center of the puzzle. The launching pad was designed to double as a bow case, but when I’ve got a hard case and a couple of treestands, this is where I keep and deodorize my boots, right next to the O3 generator.

G. The second large pocket, this is where I stowe my jacket, either Fanatic or Incinerator.

H. I like to move clockwise around the pad as I get dressed, so this pocket contains the last pieces of my system: Fanatic or Incinerator Gloves, Stratus Hat, backup trigger release, and hand warmers.

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PHOTO: Dusan Smetana

TRCP SUMMIT In 2003, a small group of outdoor journalists gathered in central Montana for three days of hunting, fishing, and discussion on critical conservation issues. The event was organized by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, and since then, these media summits have become an annual forum for the hunting and fishing community’s most insightful and powerful voices. Each year, editors, writers and broadcasters from leading media outlets learn about and investigate the most pressing conservation issues of our day, from energy development to climate change to funding for fish and wildlife.

This year, we had the honor of hosting the summit for a day at Sitka Gear world headquarters. David Brinker, our Big Game Marketing Manager, came away from the week loaded up with information and fired up to learn more. These are three of the formative realizations he came away with: 1. Teddy Roosevelt was a badass. During his presidency, he led the establishment of more than 230 million acres of public land. He spearheaded the idea of conservation through hunting. He is the reason any of us can all play outside at all without “no trespassing” signs and fences at every turn. The best part is he did all of it with very little support from the politicians around him, and managed to kick the political teeth in of those who could not dream along with him. Yep, he was a badass.

2. Conservation is thankless. I’ve walked up to many servicemen and women and thanked them for their service, and rightfully so. But I don’t often thank those who fight everyday with their whole being on capital hill or in their local governments to protect our public lands. They are completely different types of war, no doubt. One can take away life. The other can take away a way of life. Both are worthy fights. Let’s say “Thanks” a whole lot more.

3. There’s spinach, and then there’s ice cream. The spinach here is the science, people, and organizations that make conservation successes possible. The ice cream is enjoying the result of that conservation. Don’t forget the spinach and jump straight to the ice cream.

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PHOTO: Jay Beyer

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Athlete Mark Seacat pushes through a heavy pack out in Montana.

PHOTO: Steven Drake

Deep snow. Negative temperatures. A long, cold hike in. And now we’re here melting snow for water, day after day until the storm breaks. It’s exactly what we expected, but perhaps not what’s expected of us. It’s late in the season now, and my tag’s still intact.

But when I fill my Montana elk tag during archery season, I’m often left wondering what might have been. I don’t have that feeling of accomplishment in taking a bull with my bow, but rather feel like I missed out on the rest of the season. For me, it’s about the cumulative days of experience each fall. And it’s about a promise to myself to set a goal for what type of bull to harvest. I’m picky. I need to fall in love. And for me, love is easier to find in November -- or at least it has been. Let’s hope that’s the case here in a couple weeks.

I didn’t grow up a bowhunter, but came into it as an adult, and I’m still working to improve my craft. During archery season, I’m lucky to see a big bull once on public, let alone pattern it. I typically get a couple encounters each year with my bow, and it rarely works out.

So I’d rather find one when it’s frigid. When others are cozying up to a warm fire, I’d rather be hoping my firing pin hasn’t frozen.

I’d rather be hiking a bull out through knee-high drifts over the course of two days. Late season hunting isn’t just for the folks who couldn’t fill their tag early. It’s for the folks who love it for what it is.

Here’s to being late.

MARK SEACAT SITKA GEAR ATHLETE INSIGHT INSIGHT

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3 TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR CALLING

Mark Seacat cow calls back in 2012, during the filming of Searching for West.

PHOTO: Jay Beyer

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1 “THERE IS ALSO A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A DUCK CALL OPERATOR AND A CALLER OF DUCKS”.

To borrow a quote from the late, great outdoor writer Mr. Nash Buckingham, “A duck call in the hands of the unskilled is conservation’s greatest asset.” I would also go onto say that, “There is a difference between a duck call operator and a caller of ducks.” That all being said, blowing a duck call proper is not rocket science, by no means. Once you learn how to make a proper quack, you can move pretty quickly. Use a word like, “Hut,””Hit,” “Hoot,” “Hot,” “Quit,” “Quack,” “Whack,” etc. Once you get a good quack mastered, remember that a string is put together by a series of quacks. So my tip would be to learn how to quack, then learn how to read ducks.

Jim Ronquest – Rich-N-Tone Call

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2 “NOW THIS IS GOING TO DRAW STRICTLY MATURE DEER.” The number one thing, the most overlooked, is the wheeze call – specifically for mature whitetails. You can do it without a call, just by pressing your upper teeth against your lower lip and blowing through it. Now this is going to draw strictly mature deer. It’s going to probably scare younger deer, and they’re not going to come in, because it’s the sound a buck makes warning another buck not to come in on his doe. But if I see a big buck and he’s out of range, the wheeze is typically the first thing I do. I even wheeze blind, you know, every so often throughout the day. If they’re around and they don’t have a doe, they’re likely to come in to that challenge sound.

Mike Mitten – SITKA Gear Athlete INSIGHT

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3 “IT’S HARD TO START A FIGHT WHEN YOU SOUND LIKE MARTY MCFLY.” In September, bull elk have two basic emotions they respond to: the desire to breed and the desire to fight. I usually start calling from 120-150 yards out, and I always use one of those two triggers to bring an elk closer. I start out with a few simple cow calls. If the bull is looking for a cow, that is usually all he needs to hear. However, if the bull isn’t moving my direction after a handful of cow calls, I bugle and try to start a fight with him.

When I’m trying to get a bull to come in for a fight, it’s important to put that emotion into my calls.

It’s hard to start a fight when you sound like Marty McFly. So I run my mouth. I insult him. I scream at him. If I expect an elk to respond based upon emotion, I have to give him emotion. If I can get close to a bull elk, and then challenge him and insult him relentlessly, I feel very confident in my chances of turning him my direction and getting him in close. Sometimes, they come in real close, and real fast, and that is exactly the experience I’m looking for!

Corey Jacobsen – SITKA Gear Athlete

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#PROJECTELK

For about a year, I was able to go onto a piece of property and just film, but not hunt.

That was amazing. For the first time in 30 plus years of living and hunting in Montana, I got the chance to just really observe the elk, and let elk be elk. Untouched, unharmed by human pressure.

I learned so much in the process that it made me realize I was sitting on something so much more than just one 22-minute episode for my TV show. So few people in the world get to see elk be elk, and I wanted to capture it better than it had ever been captured, the sounds, the depth of the bugle, how you feel when you’re out there, how it rattles you.

The first thought I had for the film was to make it about me. After that year of filming, I would get the chance to possibly kill the biggest elk I’ve ever killed in my life, and I thought, well, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll make a film about one hunter’s lifetime buildup to the biggest bull of his life.

But then when you’re filming this thing, you’re spending hours in a blind by yourself, and there’s a lot of time to think, and I just started thinking, “That’s a recipe for disaster.”

Taking something so big and beautiful and then making it about my personal quest would kind of shrink it. Plus, I’ve built my whole hunting career on hunting out on public, just like everybody else. And now that I had this opportunity to maybe hunt unpressured elk, I could just see people saying, “Well yeah, you killed the biggest bull in your life.

Look where you’re hunting, for God’s sake.”

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And I’d say the same thing if I was watching a film like that. So it was just this constant striving to figure out the storyline, and it really didn’t really meld until the last six months of the project, after three years of building.

At one point, I wanted it to be more like a full-on Frozen Planet or Planet Earth or Nat Geo, just full-on epicness from beginning to end. I didn’t want it to fall into that documentary feel with interviews and all. But the ultimate goal was not just to educate hunters about our responsibilities. It was also to educate non-hunters and help more people understand what we do. That’s where the Chisel guys came in. I knew I could create what hunters would like to see, and I could entertain, but I couldn’t speak meaningfully to people who don’t already love hunting and elk.

And as it was coming together, we realized we needed to prove the point of why hunting is so important. We needed to talk about how many families are fed by hunting and how devastating its loss would be to our economy. We needed to show how many dollars conversationist hunters put into the land, into habitat.

So that’s where the interviews became necessary. And really, the film is way better with perspectives. We interviewed everybody: Randy Newberg, Melissa Bachman, biologists, college professors, leaders at RMEF. What we ended up with is something like a documentary, and it’s really a different avenue from my TV show. I’m proud as heck that it landed on Sportsman Channel, but my ultimate goal for this is to get it on Netflix and Amazon Prime, and have it be a tool for hunter education classes across the United States. I want it to be used in high school biology classes.

And it’s starting. There are classes in Colorado using it. The Elk Foundation has expressed interest in working to create a curriculum based on the film that we can package and supply to hunter’s education classes.

Without having RMEF behind it, this film really would’ve lost its oomph. Way fewer people would be able to see it, and there wouldn’t be anything for people to do with the feelings they hopefully have when they’ve watched it.

I absolutely want it to light a fire in people. I want them to feel like there’s way more they could be doing. I hope it helps us become more well-rounded as sportsmen, and I hope people who never have donated to wildlife conservation will step up.

We’ve got 10 to 15 percent of hunters driving wildlife conservation, but there’s 80 percent of hunters out there who enjoy the heck out of wildlife without ever donating five cents for conservation.

JASON MATZINGER

Watch the trailer for #PROJECTELK at SITKAgear.com/insight/projectelk INSIGHT

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Sam and Jeff Sposito capture the moment during Sam’s first Montana archery hunt.

PHOTO: Jeff Sposito

BOZEMAN, MT OUR HOME

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Dennis Zuck analyzes his prototype testing results.

PHOTO: Jim Saubier

Andy Wunsch is convinced that the real meetings happen in the truck, on the raft, and around the fire, and prepares accordingly.

PHOTO: Alex Tenenbaum

John Barklow tees up on the Sitka Course.

Total Archery Challenge, Big Sky, MT. PHOTO: Alex Tenenbaum

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SITKA’s Corey Piersol, Jim Saubier and Bill Neff celebrate Athlete Clay Hudnall’s first fish on the fly.

PHOTO: Matt McCormick

Eric Gilmore on the chase for archery antelope.

PHOTO: Jim Saubier INSIGHT INSIGHT

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Five-year-old Ava Sloan’s first duck hunt.

PHOTO: K Sloan

Corey Piersol keeps it intimate on the Yellowstone.

PHOTO: Alex Tenenbaum

David Brinker nocks and hopes the door will be opened to him.

PHOTO: Jay Beyer

Carsten Hart with his Rio near Sonoma.

PHOTO: Jonathan Hart

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GOALS THOUGHTS FROM THE HART

A lot of people talk about goals. Professional, personal, recreational, whatever. But a goal is just a point on the path we’ve set out on.

What matters more less: Measurement. What we measure and how we measure it, that’s what sets the path and determines our goals. So if it’s meat we’re after, do we measure in pounds, nutritional value, or taste? If it’s bone, do we measure in inches, points, or beauty? If it’s time in the field, do we measure in days, miles, or the experience and perspective gained?

The metrics we measure will be the ones that improve. They’ll be the things we talk about and dream about, the things that drive our decisions and set our trajectories, our goals.

And over time, the things we measure will come to define us.

The same is true for companies, which makes sense. Great companies are groups of people who’ve come together around a common goal. One that can be measured.

At SITKA, we believe the hunt is an experience that cannot be replaced. Game meat, antlers, and bands can be reasonably substituted. But there is no equivalent for the hunting experience. It is rare, and it is important, and that is why we measure ourselves by our contribution to the world’s quality and quantity of hunting experiences.

That means we strive to design gear that gives hunters more time in the field and more focus on the experience. It means we strive to build and distribute enough of that gear to outfit the hunters who seek that experience. It means we use a significant portion of sales to support conservation groups with our dollars and our time to keep the hunting experience possible for future generations. It means telling stories, taking pictures, and making films so others can share in the beauty of the hunting experience. And it means running the business with a long-term view for profitability, so that we can expand and improve the hunting experience for years to come.

So that’s what and how we measure, a nd the logical goal that springs from it is this: to leave a legacy of hunting experiences that we are proud of, and that you are proud to be a part of. We hope this goal makes us a company, a team, and a brand, that others in the hunting world look to emulate. Because as hunters, we believe we’re all in the same boat.

JONATHAN HART SITKA GEAR FOUNDER INSIGHT

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SITKA Gear 1285 N. Rouse Ave., Suite 2A Bozeman, MT 59715

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