Backbone Unlimited Podcast

Most elk hunters don’t run out of desire in September. They run out of legs. In this episode of the Backbone Unlimited Podcast, Matt Hartsky breaks down exactly what your body has to handle during a western public-land elk hunt and why most hunter fitness plans fail before the season even starts. This isn’t a generic workout conversation. It’s a specific elk hunting fitness framework built around mountain miles, steep descents, loaded packs, broken sleep, altitude, recovery capacity, and the mental reserve required to keep making good decisions deep into a hunt. Matt draws from more than 30 years as a professional strength, conditioning, and nutrition coach and more than 34 years hunting and guiding western big game to explain the physical demands of elk hunting, the biggest training mistakes hunters make, and the complete 60-day Backbone Unlimited training approach for becoming mountain ready by September. You’ll learn why flat running isn’t enough, why pack training is non-negotiable, why leg endurance under load matters more than gym numbers, and how to build the aerobic base, strength, rucking capacity, and recovery needed for real elk country. If you hunt western elk, mule deer, or public-land mountain terrain and want to show up stronger, sharper, and more prepared this fall, this episode gives you the plan.

Learn more about Backbone Unlimited training plans, nutrition plans, elk hunting ebooks, Team Backbone, and hunt plan audits at backboneunlimited.com.

Most elk hunters wait until September to start looking for elk. That’s already too late. In this episode, I break down a complete June and July elk scouting system to help you build a real September elk hunting plan before the season ever starts.

You’ll learn how to use summer elk scouting to locate bachelor bull elk in velvet, find cow elk groups, identify active elk wallows, mark feed, bedding, water, travel corridors, and build your elk hunting map around confirmed sign instead of guesswork. We’ll cover why cow groups matter more than most hunters realize, how July elk scouting can reveal the areas bulls are likely to show up during archery elk hunting, and why public land elk hunting success starts long before opening morning.

If you want to know how to find elk more consistently, stop hoping September works out and start scouting now. 

Elk Hunting E-Book Series (the complete system — 34 years OF ELK HUNTING) → BackboneUnlimited.com

📋 Elk Hunt Plan Audit — Matt reviews your specific maps, terrain, zones, access, and strategy before season → BackboneUnlimited.com

👥 Team Backbone — Weekly guidance, accountability, and a community of serious western hunters → BackboneUnlimited.com

"The hunters who are ready in September are the ones who start tightening the plan now."

Build the plan at BackboneUnlimited.com

What terrain should you focus on when hunting elk? In this episode, I break down elk hunting terrain and how to find elk by looking beyond obvious map features like benches, saddles, drainages, dark timber, meadows, and glassable basins. Elk don’t use country just because it looks good on a topo map — they use terrain that helps them feed, bed, stay cool, use wind and thermals, avoid hunting pressure, and escape when something feels wrong.

If you’re hunting public land elk, this episode will help you understand elk bedding areas, elk benches, elk saddles, elk drainages, thick timber, open basins, feed-to-bed movement, escape routes, security cover, and pressure-driven elk behavior. The goal isn’t to find one good-looking spot. The goal is to connect the terrain features that create a huntable elk system.

If you want better elk hunting tips and a more consistent way to read elk country, stop hunting isolated terrain features and start hunting the relationships between feed, water, bedding, wind, thermals, security, escape, and pressure.

Elk Hunting E-Book Series (the complete system — 34 years OF ELK HUNTING) → BackboneUnlimited.com

📋 Elk Hunt Plan Audit — Matt reviews your specific maps, terrain, zones, access, and strategy before season → BackboneUnlimited.com

👥 Team Backbone — Weekly guidance, accountability, and a community of serious western hunters → BackboneUnlimited.com

"The hunters who are ready in September are the ones who start tightening the plan now."

Build the plan at BackboneUnlimited.com

Everybody wants to know the best elk hunting area — the best OTC unit, the best public land drainage, the best non-resident hunt, the best basin.

But most hunters are asking the wrong question.

In this episode of the Backbone Unlimited Podcast, Matt Hartsky breaks down why the “best” elk area on paper can be the worst area for you to actually hunt, and how to evaluate elk country through a better filter: access, security, feed, water, huntable terrain, terrain variety, a real three-day plan, and room to adjust when pressure hits. If you’re trying to narrow down elk country, build a smarter hunt plan, understand hunting pressure, read terrain better, or stop chasing hyped-up areas that fall apart once season starts, this episode will help you think differently.

The right elk area isn’t just where elk live — it’s where elk can stay secure, hunters become inefficient, and you can build a plan you can actually execute.

Elk Hunting E-Book Series (the complete system — 34 years OF ELK HUNTING) → BackboneUnlimited.com

📋 Elk Hunt Plan Audit — Matt reviews your specific maps, terrain, zones, access, and strategy before season → BackboneUnlimited.com

👥 Team Backbone — Weekly guidance, accountability, and a community of serious western hunters → BackboneUnlimited.com

"The hunters who are ready in September are the ones who start tightening the plan now."

Build the plan at BackboneUnlimited.com

Most hunters find elk sign and think they've found elk. They haven't. They've found evidence that elk were there — and that distinction can cost you an entire season. In this episode, Matt Hartsky breaks down the complete system for reading elk sign as a question, not a conclusion.

You'll learn the 5-question evaluation framework — Age, Direction, Purpose, Pattern, and Huntability — and the 5-Level sign classification system that takes you from "elk were here sometime" all the way to "I can build a huntable setup from this pattern." Matt covers why stacking multiple pieces of fresh evidence beats any single clue, how hunting pressure changes what sign actually means, why the absence of sign in an area that should hold elk is some of the most valuable information you'll find, and the critical moment when finding fresh sign demands that you slow down — not speed up.

Whether you're reading tracks, droppings, beds, rubs, wallows, or feed sign, this is the graduate-level framework for turning elk evidence into elk encounters on public land.

Elk Hunting E-Book Series (the complete system — 34 years in the mountains) → BackboneUnlimited.com

High country elk hunting isn't just regular elk hunting with more elevation — and the hunters who treat it that way are learning that lesson the hard way. In this episode, Matt Hartsky breaks down exactly what the high country demands: the right kind of fitness, smarter basin selection, wind discipline in steep terrain, purposeful glassing, access planning that protects the hunt, calling strategy tied to position, real meat-care logistics, and the mental control that keeps everything from unraveling when the country gets big and the answers don't come fast.

Elk Hunting E-Book Series (the complete system — 34 years in the mountains) → BackboneUnlimited.com

If you've ever climbed into a beautiful basin and come home empty wondering what went wrong, this episode is for you.

In this episode:

— Why usable fitness matters more than raw fitness, and the difference between getting to the top and still being able to hunt when you get there

— Why basin selection has to go beyond what looks good on a satellite image — and the questions you need to be asking instead

— Why high country pressure doesn't always look like a crowded trailhead, and how elk respond to predictable human movement patterns

— How thermals work in steep, broken country — and why checking the wind once is never enough

— How to glass with purpose instead of just staring at mountains and hoping something moves

— Why access planning is about protecting the hunt, not just shortening the hike

— How calling fits into high country hunting — and why position is always the foundation

— What a real meat-care plan looks like when you kill an elk high and deep

— The mental reset process that keeps good hunters making clean decisions when the country beats them up

📋 Elk Hunt Plan Audit — Matt reviews your specific maps, terrain, zones, access, and strategy before season → BackboneUnlimited.com

👥 Team Backbone — Weekly guidance, accountability, and a community of serious western hunters → BackboneUnlimited.com

"The hunters who are ready in September are the ones who start tightening the plan now."

Build the plan at BackboneUnlimited.com

In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down the habit that causes most elk hunters to waste days, burn opportunities, and stay stuck in the wrong country. If you want to become a more consistent elk hunter, stop hunting the elk you hoped would be there. Start hunting the elk today’s conditions are creating.

Elk Hunting E-book Series — 👉 https://backboneunlimited.com/collections/elk-hunting-series-e-books

If you can’t find elk, the answer isn’t always to hike farther, call louder, or abandon the unit. In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt breaks down a repeatable elk hunting system for locating public land elk by reading current sign, diagnosing pressure, narrowing the seasonal elevation band, and connecting feed, water, bedding, wind, thermals, and security cover into a real hunt plan. This is how you stop hunting old information and start finding elk right now.

Elk Hunting e-Books 👉 https://backboneunlimited.com/collections/elk-hunting-series-e-books

Elk Hunting e-Books 👉 https://backboneunlimited.com/collections/elk-hunting-series-e-books

In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down elk hunting altitude and the conditioning system that helps prevent mountain failure. Altitude does not usually beat hunters all at once. It starts with heavy legs, short breathing, poor sleep, low appetite, headaches, high heart rate, and bad decisions until the hunt turns into survival instead of execution. After 34 years of Western big game hunting and guiding, and more than 30 years as a strength, conditioning, and nutrition coach, Matt explains why general fitness is not enough for elk country and why altitude exposes weaknesses in aerobic base, uphill power, pack tolerance, downhill durability, breathing control, hydration, nutrition, and recovery. You’ll learn how to pace the first 48 hours, train for repeated mountain days, build loaded strength endurance, control your breathing after hard climbs, recover better at elevation, and prepare your body for the real demands of public land elk hunting. If you want to hunt harder, think clearer, avoid burning out by Day 3, and stay effective in steep elk country, this episode will help you train for the mountain instead of just surviving it.

Mule Deer Hunting e-Books 👉 https://backboneunlimited.com/collections/mule-deer-hunting-e-book-series

In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down how to use light and shadow to your advantage when glassing mule deer. Mature mule deer bucks do not just use terrain for security. They use shade, contrast, sunlight, shadow lines, and broken light to disappear in country many hunters glass right past. After 34 years of Western big game hunting and guiding, Matt explains why hunters miss bucks by glassing too fast, staring only at bright open country, and failing to re-check high-probability bedding areas as light changes throughout the day. You’ll learn how to pick apart shadow pockets, focus on the edge where sunlight meets shade, use morning and midday light more effectively, recognize small visual clues like ear flicks, antler tips, backlines, and face patches, and avoid glare that destroys your ability to see detail. If you hunt public land mule deer and want to glass more effectively, find mature bucks in hidden bedding cover, understand how light affects visibility, and stop missing deer that were there the whole time, this episode will help you slow down, see more, and hunt smarter.