This week, we're looking back at the 2022 elk rut. I hunted elk all over the US this season with good friends, had a bunch of highs, and a bunch of lows. That's elk hunting. But, as always, I learned a lot of valuable lessons along the way. So this week on Cutting the Distance, I'm doing a post-mortem of my archery elk season, and highlighting the greatest lessons I've learned this year.

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On this solo edition of the Phelps Field Report, Jason Phelps details his September Idaho trip with Garrett Bowen of Top Priority Hunting, as well as offers his thoughts on recent trends in rutting activity. 

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When people think about hunting rutting whitetails, they typically think of ag land in the midwest. In this episode of Cutting the Distance, Jon Gabrio talks about hunting mountain whitetails in the state of Washington. Jon dives into scouting year round to figure these bucks out, setting stands once he has found a target buck, how he plays the wind with stand locations, and how he goes about getting a buck to walk by his stand.

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In this bonus episode of Cutting The Distance, Jason Phelps talks with Charlie Smith, as they recount some tough hunting and a deviation from the plan in Idaho. 

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Every year we get to hear hundreds, maybe thousands of stories that go like this: I was calling in a bull, he was all fired up and got to 80 yards, I could see him, he bugled a few times, and then left. In today’s episode, Jason and Dirk talk about how to prevent the “hang up” and what's important when setting up. They talk about using the wind, finding shooting lanes, when to be silent on the way in, and the calling strategy once setup.

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In this bonus episode of Cutting The Distance, Jason Phelps talks with MeatEater's very own Ryan Callaghan. They discuss the highs and lows of their recent archery elk hunt in New Mexico. 

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In today’s episode Jason is joined by Dirk Durham.  Dirk Durham is a world champion elk caller but more importantly has a ton of experience out in the woods where the elk are the judges.  Rather than sounding perfect the elk care more about timing, delivery and intensity of the calls.   They center today’s discussion around a lot of the decisions that are involved when calling an elk.  How do they determine whether to be aggressive or not, what specific calls they make and use while hunting, incorporating cow calls in the setups, and a bunch more.

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Trent Williams is one of those guys that finds consistent success and he’s able to do it on general units. In this episode Jason picks his brain on the decisions he makes throughout the day leading to notched tags.  We talk about figuring out where to start your day, what to do if you can’t locate elk, getting up at 3 am, glassing in the moonlight, locating non bugling elk and what some of his calling strategies are.

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Unfortunately, the best way to learn is by making mistakes. In today’s episode Jason talks with a RMEF Elk Calling world champion Tony Gilbertson. They share some of the mistakes they have made along the way and what they have found to be the correct way. They discuss mistakes regarding; scouting, showing up to an area and quickly finding elk, cheating the wind, confidence in calling, calling too small, setting up, and time spent in the woods.  

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After getting a chance to chase turkeys and ducks with my Weatherby Element over the last year, I decided to sit down with Luke Thorkildsen from Weatherby to go over their shotgun line.

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