Backbone Unlimited Podcast

Stop hunting random elk sign and start finding where mature bull elk actually live. In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down how to identify the 200–400 acre core area a mature bull may use when food, water, bedding, and security cover converge in the right terrain. Learn how to e-scout potential bull elk core areas, read rubs, beds, tracks, and wallows as a system, locate feeding-to-bedding travel routes, identify security terrain, and avoid the hunting pressure that can push a bull out of his home pocket. If you hunt public land elk, this episode will help you tu...

Wind ruins more elk stalks than bad shooting ever will. In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down how to manage wind and thermals while spot-and-stalk elk hunting, including how terrain affects airflow, why canyon and timber winds can fool you, how to plan a stalk route before you move, when thermal transitions become dangerous, how often to check your wind, and when backing out is the smartest move. If you hunt public-land elk, archery elk, or pressured Western elk, understanding these two wind systems can be the difference between closing inside bow range and watching the...

When should you bugle for elk, when should you cow call, and when is the best call no call at all? In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down a practical elk calling strategy for bowhunting pressured public-land bulls, including how to read solo bulls versus herd bulls, when to use cow calls, trailing bugles, challenge bugles and raking, why getting inside the 80–120 yard bubble can change a setup, how to use silence and movement to close distance, and why many elk calling failures are really positioning problems. If you want to improve your September elk calling, un...

Elk hunting thermals are one of the most misunderstood parts of hunting western elk — and if your entire strategy is “thermals rise in the morning and fall in the evening,” you’re going to get busted.

In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down elk hunting thermals for beginners and explains what actually controls thermal air movement in the mountains. Thermals aren’t controlled by the clock. They’re driven by ground temperature, sunlight, shade, slope angle, vegetation, terrain features, cloud cover, and the prevailing weather wind.

You’ll learn why cool overnight ground creates...

Hunting pressure can completely change elk behavior — and if you hunt pressured public-land elk the same way you hunt unpressured elk, you're making an already difficult hunt even harder. In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down 21 ways hunting pressure changes elk behavior and explains what those changes mean for the way you locate, approach, call, and hunt elk. We cover why pressured bulls become less vocal, reduce daylight movement, move into bedding and security cover earlier, leave later in the evening, abandon obvious trails and open terrain, compress into smaller security pockets, and become increasingly difficult to...

Finding elk on pressured public land isn’t about hiking farther than everyone else. It’s about understanding where hunting pressure comes from, how elk respond to it, and where security terrain gives them an advantage over hunters.

In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down a repeatable system for consistently finding elk in heavily hunted public-land country. Instead of trying to escape pressure completely, you’ll learn how to use roads, trails, access points, terrain, and predictable hunter behavior to eliminate low-percentage country and identify the security pockets where elk are most likely to concen...

Fresh Elk Sign But No Elk? You’re Probably Making This Mistake

You’re finding fresh elk tracks, droppings, beds, and rubs—but you still can’t actually find the elk. What are you missing?

In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down one of the most frustrating situations in elk hunting: finding fresh elk sign without finding elk. The problem usually isn’t a lack of elk. It’s failing to connect that sign with elk behavior, terrain, direction of travel, and time of day.

Matt explains how to determine whether you’...

Please note, this episode for how I locate and break down a transition zone to hunt silent bulls is a very visual piece of content you may want to watch here: https://youtu.be/dH5AdCe0xFI

What do you do when the elk simply aren’t talking?

Whether it’s early September, hunting pressure, predators, heat, drought, smoke, or just one of those frustrating days when the mountains are completely silent, you still need a way to consistently put yourself around elk.

In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down his...

What does the research actually say about finding, calling, and killing elk on pressured public land?

In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky sits down with Evan Hunter, creator of Elk Nerd, for a rapid-fire conversation built around 20 elk hunting questions. Evan takes a different approach to elk hunting strategy by combining real-world hunting experience with research, GPS-collar data, elk behavior studies, and hunting-pressure data.

We dig into how pressured elk actually use the landscape, why hunters may be getting to the mountains too late, where mature bulls go when pressure increases, how close...

Starting fresh on a new elk unit is one of the most disorienting situations in the sport — and most hunters respond by loading waypoints near the closest trailhead, glassing the biggest open basins they can reach, and burning the first two days on country that gets walked by every hunter with a tag in the unit. This episode covers the complete Backbone Unlimited new-area framework: how to zoom out and read an entire unit before you make a single on-the-ground decision, how to use road and trail systems to find the terrain gaps with the least access and the mo...

Finding elk sign doesn’t mean you’ve found the bull.

You can spend days hunting a torn-up wallow, a heavy rub line, or fresh-looking tracks—and never lay eyes on an elk. That’s the sign trap: treating evidence of where elk were as proof of where they are right now.

In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky explains why successful elk hunting requires shifting from a location-based approach to an animal-based approach. Elk sign can put you in productive country, but it cannot replace locating a living bull, understanding his current priorities, and adju...

The Best Training Tool for Elk Hunting

Most elk hunters don’t fail because they didn’t work hard enough before season. They fail because their training didn’t prepare them for what elk hunting actually demands.

Steep climbs. High elevation. Consecutive hard days. Long hours on your feet. A loaded hunting pack. And, if everything goes right, a brutal pack-out when your legs are already exhausted.

In this episode of the Backbone Unlimited Podcast, Matt Hartsky breaks down the best training tool for elk hunting: ruck training — and explains how to use weighted pack training...

August is one of the best months of the year to locate mature mule deer bucks — but finding a big velvet buck is only valuable if you understand what his summer pattern is actually telling you.

In this episode of the Backbone Unlimited Podcast, Matt Hartsky breaks down how to scout for mature mule deer bucks in August, where big bucks are most likely to spend the summer, how to glass them effectively, and how to turn August scouting information into a hunting plan for September and October.

Mature mule deer in August are highly fo...

Most elk hunters see a blue line on a digital map, mark it as water, and start hiking. Two days later, they’ve checked multiple dry creeks, pressured good country, and still haven’t found elk.

That’s not scouting. That’s hiking.

In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down how to find high-probability elk water on a map before you ever set foot in the mountains. You’ll learn how to separate reliable September water from seasonal drainages, locate hidden springs and seeps using satellite imagery, and identify the unmarked water sources ot...

Early season elk hunting and hunting rutting bulls require two completely different strategies. Yet every September, hunters arrive with the same calls, the same marked locations, and the same plan—whether they’re hunting September 1 or September 20.

In this episode, Matt Hartsky explains why using rut tactics on early season elk can destroy predictable patterns, educate bulls, and make the rest of your season harder. He also breaks down why patient, structure-based early season tactics become a liability once the rut begins and elk start reorganizing their movement around cows and breeding.

You’ll learn how to...

At 49 years old, after 34 years of hunting and guiding elk across the West, I’ve made enough mistakes to know which ones cost hunters the most.

This episode isn’t about the bulls I’ve killed, the hunts that went according to plan, or the decisions that made me look like I had everything figured out. It’s an honest breakdown of the elk hunting mistakes that cost me opportunities, unfilled tags, wounded confidence, and—in one case—an animal I never recovered.

Experience doesn’t automatically make you a better elk hunter. Honest experience does.

I...

Most elk hunters have a plan for opening morning. Very few have a clear elk hunting strategy for days 4, 6, 8, or 10.

That’s why so many promising 10-day elk hunts start falling apart halfway through the trip. Fatigue builds, the elk aren’t cooperating, confidence drops, and hunters begin making emotional decisions they should’ve made before ever reaching the trailhead.

In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down a complete day-by-day plan for a 10-day elk hunt. Instead of treating the entire hunt like one long push, you’ll learn how to divide it into...

How do you find and kill elk when glassing isn’t an option?

In thick timber elk country, visibility may be limited to 50 yards or less. There are no open basins to glass, no distant ridgelines to scan, and no opportunity to locate elk from miles away. Your binoculars become less important, and tracks, beds, rubs, wallows, sound, scent, terrain, and wind become your primary tools.

In this episode, I break down a complete system for hunting elk in dark timber. You’ll learn how to use topographic maps to identify north-facing benches, hidden water, fing...

Day three of a solo elk hunt can break a hunter. Your body hurts, camp is cold, the elk aren’t cooperating, and there’s nobody beside you to rebuild your confidence or push you out of the tent the next morning.

In this episode, I break down why most solo elk hunts don’t fail because of calling, physical conditioning, or a bad setup. They fail because the accountability, perspective, and mental structure normally provided by a hunting partner are gone—and the hunter never built a system to replace them.

You’ll learn how to pre...

Living at low elevation doesn’t mean you have to spend the first several days of your elk hunt struggling to breathe, fighting heavy legs, and waiting for your body to catch up.

In this episode, I break down how to prepare for hunting elk between 8,000 and 11,000 feet—even if you never train in the mountains. We’ll cover the specific aerobic conditioning, ruck training, incline work, downhill strength, breathing practice, and arrival strategy that help low-elevation hunters perform better at altitude.

You’ll learn why general fitness isn’t always enough, why last-minute training usually fa...

You had a bull responding. He was closing the distance. Then he slowed down, stopped, circled, went silent, or disappeared completely.

Most elk hunters assume the call failed. In many cases, the sound wasn’t the problem. The decisions surrounding the call were.

In this episode of the Backbone Unlimited Podcast, Matt Hartsky breaks down eight elk calling mistakes that consistently cause bulls to hang up, circle downwind, shut down, or vanish before entering bow range. These mistakes happen before the first call, during the conversation, and inside the final 60 to 80 yards—when one bad deci...

Two elk hunters can hunt the same drainage, face the same pressure, and chase the same bulls—yet experience completely different results. One spends the week reacting, bumping elk, burning setups, and wondering why bulls keep hanging up. The other understands how to use terrain, wind, thermals, sightlines, funnels, sound, and elevation to make the mountain work in his favor.

In this episode of the Backbone Unlimited Podcast, Matt Hartsky explains how to use terrain as a weapon when hunting public-land elk. Terrain isn’t just the ground beneath your boots. It controls how your scent moves, wher...

Most elk hunters plan opening morning. Very few build an elk hunting strategy that carries them from day one through day ten.

In this episode of the Backbone Unlimited Podcast, Matt Hartsky breaks down a complete day-by-day system for planning and executing a 10-day elk hunt. Instead of treating the entire trip like one long push, you’ll learn how to divide your hunt into four distinct phases: orienting and finding elk during days 1–2, executing on fresh information during days 3–5, managing fatigue and making strategic adjustments during days 6–8, and closing the hunt with full commitment on days 9–10.

Matt...

The first 48 hours of an elk hunt can determine whether you spend the rest of the week executing a plan—or wandering through public land hoping to get lucky.

In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down a complete opening-day elk hunting system for locating elk, reading hunting pressure, evaluating fresh sign, identifying security cover, and finding one huntable group before you start forcing setups.

Most elk hunters begin moving the moment they reach the trailhead. They hike miles because movement feels productive, stop at the first elk tracks they find, or immediately ca...

Most public land elk hunters don’t go home empty-handed because there weren’t enough elk, the unit was bad, or the weather ruined their hunt. They go home without a bull because of a series of small, preventable decisions that slowly cost them opportunities.

In this episode of the Backbone Unlimited Podcast, Matt Hartsky breaks down the 10 elk hunting mistakes that consistently send hunters home with an empty pack. Drawing from more than 34 years of hunting and guiding western big game, Matt explains why elk hunters get beaten by shifting wind and thermals, hunt too close to r...

September elk hunting strategy starts long before the rut. In this episode of the Backbone Unlimited Podcast, Matt Hartsky breaks down why July elk scouting, summer bull patterns, cow elk behavior, and August transition signs all matter when you’re trying to find rutting bulls in September.

Most elk hunters spend July and August watching bachelor bulls, dropping pins, and building a plan around summer patterns. But when velvet drops, bachelor groups break up, bulls shift country, and archery elk season becomes a completely different game. The bulls you watched all summer may be gone — not because your...

Most elk hunters waste the middle of the day. They head back to camp, take a nap, or wait around for the evening hunt while a small percentage of disciplined hunters are still in the game. In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down the complete wallow hunting system for elk hunters — how to find the right wallow, read fresh sign, understand when bulls are using it, approach without blowing it up, and set up 40 to 60 yards off the wallow where a mature bull is most likely to commit before he ever reaches the mud. You’ll lear...

Most elk hunters look at topo maps, but they don’t actually read them. In this episode of the Backbone Unlimited Podcast, Matt Hartsky breaks down how to scout elk country from a map before you ever leave the truck. This is a complete map-reading lesson for western public-land elk hunters who want to stop guessing, stop picking random basins, and start identifying high-probability elk locations with a real system. Matt explains how to read contour lines, identify drainages, ridges, saddles, benches, aspect, north-facing security cover, south-facing feed, timber edges, water sources, springs, seeps, elevation bands, and terrain transitions th...

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 3...

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 hunter...

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 draina...

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 narro...

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 si...

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 t...

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...

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 ligh...

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

In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down the wolf effect on public land elk hunting and how predator pressure changes where mature bulls bed, move, and survive. This is not a political or emotional discussion. It is a practical elk behavior breakdown focused on how wolves and hunting pressure reshape elk security patterns, terrain use, bedding choices, movement windows, wind strategy, and vocal behavior. After 34 years of Western big game hunting and guiding, Matt explains why wolves do not always simply push elk out of a...

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 why mule deer bucks love benches and how serious Western deer hunters can use this misunderstood terrain feature to find more mature bucks. A bench is not valuable just because it is flat ground on a mountain. It matters when it gives a buck security, wind advantage, visibility, shade, escape routes, energy conservation, efficient travel, and access to feed. After 34 years of Western big game hunting and guiding, Matt explains how mature mule deer use benches as b...