Pursuit With Cliff - Cliff Gray

Dr. Ed Ashby has records on 631 big game animals he's taken across 26 years, and only four were never recovered. He explains why most wounded game is hit too far back, why lack of penetration was the number one reason a hit wasn't lethal, and why hunters need to quit being afraid of the shoulder.

We get into his Natal Parks Board arrow research at Mkuzi Game Reserve, bowhunting rhino with a 115 lb longbow and 1,286 grain arrows, and why it took 650 grains to reliably break heavy bone. From there the conversation runs into double rifles and barrel regulation, the battery he carried in Africa, a PH who survived a leopard mauling, and the one hunt he'd still go back for.

In this episode:

Why four lost deer in 1980 started 40+ years of arrow research
154 animals in 30 days: what failed and what penetrated
Why hunters perceive quartering animals as broadside
Never mount another animal: Ed's one regret
Double rifle regulation, loads, and why most guys shoot them poorly
The guns, handguns, and shotgun he carried for leopard follow-ups

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Pursuit With Cliff Podcast
https://pursuitwithcliff.com/interviews-and-podcasts/

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 https://pursuitwithcliff.com/membership/

Hunt. Fish. Spear.  (Experiences, Courses and Seminars)
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 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. 

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FOLLOW CLIFF
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray
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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)
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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

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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
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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 ego
• How five days of scenarios stack more reps than five years of hunting
• The pacing inversion: too slow at 800 yards, too fast inside 200
• Why guys bail halfway through a well-planned stalk, and the football parallel that explains it
• The trailhead bubble and the outfitter bubble, and the unhunted elk between them
• Why the overnight spike stalk works far more often than hunters believe
• What a Level 2 course would look like: spike camps and long stalks with no onX

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FOLLOW CLIFF
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray
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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
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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

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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
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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

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YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray
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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
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 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

 

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FOLLOW CLIFF
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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

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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 

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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

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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/

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FOLLOW CLIFF
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/CliffGray
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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
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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/

 

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FOLLOW CLIFF
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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
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