התמלול המלא של Experienced Hunting Guide Tells Us What Brands To Trust And Not To Trust In The Field

honestly. Jim And Garrett: Okay, a follow up question to that. What is the farthest you would say you're guiding someone and they have a shot at that same distance? Say it's the same scenario. Would you advise against them shooting that, or would you be okay with them shooting that? Tate Bradfield: I've maybe only ever had one other guy shoot that far. Most of the elk and deer and antelope that I've guided for have been four hundred and fifty yards or less. I've had a few guys poke out to like five, six hundred yards, so here's a this is this'll open up a can of worms. When I first started guiding, I'm I'm I'm gonna it's I'm gonna tell a quick story and it'll help answer your question. When I first started guiding, it seemed like the guys that I guided, and I'm I mean, this is almost a decade ago, okay. Most of the guys I was guiding were hunters. and a lot of them were just barely getting into the long-range rifle setups and things like that. And those guys were very capable. And I only ever had one guy shoot past 450 yards in my first like three years of guiding. And it was a group of brothers had best of the west rifles, and they shot like I think all of them shot their elk at like seven hundred seven to eight hundred yards. But they were all really good shots, and nobody wounded an animal. but as time has gone on, I have seen more and more people that have gotten really confident shooting on a bench, and less and less of those people that are actually confident in the field. back in the day. where where guys were more experienced shooting in difficult Western shooting positions, I would have probably let them shoot a little bit further. Where now, especially with what I do with process-based hunter and I teach newer guys how to hunt, the vast majority of guys I would not allow to shoot that far the the cap I put on almost everybody's 450 yards. So unless we Yeah, yeah. It's a quarter mile or less. And Jim And Garrett: Okay, that's a reasonable distance I would say. Most people. Depends on the shooter, obviously, but Tate Bradfield: Yes, yeah. But I I have seen a downtick in in capability in clients that I've taken out, even before I started teaching. Jim And Garrett: Yeah, you know what I you know what I think there's a lot of that too? As we've been talking to people that come to shoot our challenges and stuff, we're hearing more and more that, you know, just as urbanization happens across America, just population increases and there's less just like when I go out to shoot, I'm going to the mountains and just blasting wherever I want, you know. You know, even if you live in a place like Salt Lake City, like yeah, there there's tons of mountain, but there's also like the mountains are pretty restricted around that area, right? Like you can't just blast quite like you used to. There are hikers and and four wheelers and stuff everywhere around there. And so more and more shooting is happening on ranges. And even if you live in a place like Texas, it's like, hey, wide open spaces, but it's all private. So if you don't have your, you know, 200 acres yourself, you're shooting at an official range. And if you're shooting at an official range, most ranges actually do let you, you know, go next to the, you know, to your bench or whatever and shoot from Tate Bradfield: Yeah. Jim And Garrett: the side to do positional. But many don't, and a lot of people I think it's just a little bit awkward f to go shoot positional shooting there at the range when there's an RO and stuff. And so I think that trend is gonna keep getting worse and worse because so much more of the shooting is happening at an official range and that's the only time they really shoot. Tate Bradfield: Yeah, I I a hundred percent agree with you because so and and it's not necessarily that the guys aren't capable of being able to do that even after just shooting a box of ammunition through a few different, you know, scenarios. It's that they've really never had the chance to do it. And then you put them on a really big incline and say, Hey, shoot that elk at four hundred yards, and they're like, I first of all, I can't breed, right? and then You know, you you're in a difficult shooting position that they've never been in before. They don't know how to build a stable shooting position, and then they miss, right? even pretty, pretty ethical hunting ranges, a lot of guys Jim And Garrett: Mm-hmm. Tate Bradfield: will miss. so no, I wouldn't let most people shoot that far. And honestly, I hold myself to that boundary the vast majority of the time. And I think I've only ever shot three animals, no, four animals past four hundred and fifty yards. One was an antelope I shot at five hundred and fifty yards. The other one I shot a elk, that elk at seven hundred sixty-five. I shot a coyote at seven hundred yards, and then I just shot an oddad in Mexico at six hundred and forty yards. but if if you guys are good with it, I'll open up another can of worms about when it would be more appropriate to shoot that far, in my mind. Jim And Garrett: Yeah. Can I add one thing in that discussion? The Tate Bradfield: Yeah. Jim And Garrett: the setup that I love the most for taking it like anybody hearing this that is, you know, concerned, like, hey, this could be me. I haven't had an opportunity to shoot a lot of, you know, positional stuff. There's one setup that is just a fail safe. It works every single time. Anyone can do it, need no practice, and you're just so stable. It is tripod to clamp onto the front of the gun and then you need something for your back because Tate Bradfield: Yeah. Jim And Garrett: if if you're you know you're seated or something you say this is a good this is a good setup because you're seated stable right but most people like for me like unless you have amazing ab strength like sitting Indian style is not comfortable right and so you're really not Tate Bradfield: Ha ha. Jim And Garrett: that stable and so I have when I

hunt especially with my kids and I've taken a couple of times with newer hunters now, that I will bring one of those like coyote hunting backpacks that has, you know, like the the pole legs, kind of like a camp chair almost, like from the I don't know how to describe it, like it's just like a little day pack and then it has two like carbon fiber rods that extend out behind the backpack. So you can sit down on the ground and lean against it like an actual chair on your back. Does that is that making sense? Tate Bradfield: It's making sense. I I I Jim And Garrett: I think so. I think I know what you're talking about. Tate Bradfield: c I caught your drift. Jim And Garrett: Yeah, if if you've seen one of those, the coyote hunters, turkey hunters use them all the time that have the l the seat on the on the actual backpack. If you've got one of those and a tripod in the front, you're just good to go. Like you're gonna be so Tate Bradfield: Yeah. Jim And Garrett: stable. I mean the kids call it the turret. It's so stable. The only problem with the setup is You gotta be a little bit quick with the tripod. If you're in a kind of a s more dynamic situation that you're not gonna have the time to set up a tripod, just takes too long. But if you do, Tate Bradfield: Yeah. Jim And Garrett: man, that's that position is stable. If you don't have that, I mean just use your whoever's spotting, just have set up their tripod right next to you and lean up against their leg or something. Yeah, yeah. That works. That yeah, that would work. Tate Bradfield: We w I've been very I've been pretty I don't know the word I've I've been creative in shooting positions at times. You know, you're trying to figure out the best and most stable position and if you just hiked a really long ways and you don't have a tripod or it's on a you know, if you're got short time and you don't have time to set it up, there's a lot of ways you can get stable. Jim And Garrett: Now we've heard when it comes to hunting positions, a lot of people have told us 'cause we shoot prone pretty much all the time at the range. And when people come out and shoot the challenges, they're like, yeah, when I go hunt, I never, you know, I never get a chance to go prone when I take the kill shot. But like every almost every hunt we've been on, we've been able to find a spot where we can get prone. I which side of of that line have you found yourself on the most? Are you able to find a prone Tate Bradfield: I mean Jim And Garrett: pos a steady prone position most of the time Tate Bradfield: what I tell my clients and myself and like all the students I take out is you gotta fight to go prone, because that's gonna be your most stable shooting position, right? Jim And Garrett: Mm-hmm. Tate Bradfield: but there's a lot of times where I have not been able to go prone. one of those times was actually almost every time I've shot something in Alaska, I was not able to go prone. because there's like when I shot my first moose, you know, the the grass is Four feet tall. If I was to lay down, I wouldn't see anything. and I had to, I actually shot my first moose standing over a tripod, right? second moose, I used a Spartan Precision Springbok tripod. And all five of us shot our moose over that springbok sty tripod standing. are there other times where you could not go prone? Probably. There's a few places where there's like taller sagebrush where it's flat. so there are scenarios like that, but I would say that they're also if you're on like a really steep mountain and you're looking across a mountain. a lot of times it's gonna be all harder to go prone, like when you're shooting at something across a canyon and you're already halfway down that canyon, especially in a really steep area, that's gonna be a hard time to go prone as well. But Jim And Garrett: Right. Okay, so we're working on a video. Garrett and I are going caribou hunting in Alaska in a couple of weeks. And we got a pretty fun concept for a video going where and this is funny 'cause anyway, what we're gonna do is I'm bringing the like Gucci of everything, the like really expensive fancy thing, and Garrett is going like straight Walmart on everything. Tate Bradfield: Ha ha ha. Jim And Garrett: which is hilarious 'cause everybody's like, How did you convince him to do that? I don't really have much of a choice. Tate Bradfield: Well, I was gonna say you're you're tak you're taking him caribou hunting. That's how you convinced him to do it. That's the Jim And Garrett: Yeah, that's right. It's an all expensive paid caribou hunt. That's right. Now we are gonna have extra stuff for like safety. We're gonna make sure there's a cause like when you're in that area of n you know, North Brooks, Alaska in August, like it is actual survival. You must have an exceptional tent. Like that's just survival. And so we're gonna have like backups of the key gear, you know, everything. But everything else is like, you know, cheap boots, cheap rain gear, cheap everything going through. So The c the questi so it's gonna be a pretty cool video and then in the video we're going to reveal at the end, like Garrett's gonna rank what was the most annoying annoying thing that he went cheap on, to what like actually the cheap thing worked better or just as good. So I I think it's gonna be a pretty sweet video. But Tate Bradfield: You know, there's actually I I've been telling people that for your first hunt, like out west or anywhere, just go hunting with what you have, buy thrift store and Walmart stuff. And then when you get back from that hunt, choose the thing that would if you changed it would make you less miserable on the next one. And and upgrade that because like whatever made you the most miserable on your first hunt, that's what you need to start upgrading. Jim And Garrett: Yeah, that's smart. Tate Bradfield: Yeah. Jim And Garrett: So when hunters show up to camp with a variety of gear, I'm I'm gonna tell you different

categories. You know what rifle brand, bullet, optic boots, clothing, et cetera. We'll go through all these different categories. I want you to tell me what brand or model, whatever, which one do you just say, Ugh, I wish you hadn't a brought that for each one of these. Tate Bradfield: Ha ha. Jim And Garrett: Which do you feel the least confident in when it when a hunter walks in? So rifle brand. You, you just showed up to Hunter just showed up to camp with you, and he just said his rifle brand, and you're like, no. What brand is it for you? Tate Bradfield: Christians in arms. Jim And Garrett: well, all right. Solid, why do you say that? Tate Bradfield: I would say one in three Christians and arms rifles that shows up to my camp has issues. Jim And Garrett: Really, that many. I wouldn't have even ex said that. Yeah, we Tate Bradfield: Yeah. Jim And Garrett: when we hunted bison together, we we saw Christensen that had issues. Tate Bradfield: Yeah. Oddly enough, my favorite rifle I've ever shot was also a Christiansonarms. so like I do have to give the devil where it's due. I shot that one elk at seven hundred sixty five yards with a Christiansonarms rifle. So Jim And Garrett: Yeah, I definitely do hear from a lot of guys that like their Christianson and a lot of guys that don't. So yeah. Anyway, all right, bullet. What bullet did they bring Tate Bradfield: So I bullet. Jim And Garrett: that you're like, no other than just like an FMJ? Tate Bradfield: you know, as far as like shooting distance, you know, that four hundred and fifty yard mark, probably like an interlock. just one of the older style bullets that does not have a great BC. because where I hunt with my courses, a lot of the time there's usually alm there's almost always wind. Like it almost is never not windy, right? so anything we can do, any kind of a bullet that is gonna be better at bucking the wind and Just have a little bit less a little bit more forgiving if we make a mistake. That's what I'd prefer. But like I've had I've shot an elk with an interlock. I've shot a lot of deer with interlock. So it's not like it's a bad choice. It's just there's there's better choices now for shooting more extended ranges. So yeah. Jim And Garrett: Yeah, opening up at at distance. How about the optic? What what kind of scope do you not like seeing? Tate Bradfield: Man, it's so hard. You're asking such hard questions. Jim And Garrett: What's your favorite color, man? Tate Bradfield: blue Bushnell on average is not as reliable anymore as they used to be. I'm gonna Jim And Garrett: Okay. Tate Bradfield: I'm locked in final answer. And it's not that I think Bushnell is bad necessarily, but I think for the price anymore, you can find much better options. Jim And Garrett: The ones that I don't like is any time the scope came with the rifle. It's probably not good. Yeah. Tate Bradfield: Yeah. And and that's not necessarily a scope issue as much as it is the rings, the mounting, you know, Jim And Garrett: Yeah. Tate Bradfield: the scope the scope itself might actually be okay, but Jim And Garrett: Or if I can add one, if it was cited in by a sportsman's warehouse employee or some like if somebody brings their gun. No, not as good as you would think. Tate Bradfield: So w we've had a few people come to our courses. Like we recommend, you know, hey, here's the shooting positions you need to practice. Here's all this stuff, right? We've had a couple of people actually show up to our courses and they've never fired their rifle. Jim And Garrett: Yeah, that's not good. Tate Bradfield: yeah. So we we've had to work with them on that. We've gotten them pretty proficient, you know, within a box or so of ammunition. But it's a good we've gotten really good at bore siding. Let's put it that way. Jim And Garrett: There you go. How about Tate Bradfield: But yeah. Jim And Garrett: how about boots? Tate Bradfield: you know, I I've become a little bit more of a boot snob over the years. the first year I guided, I guided in steel-toed boots, like steel-toed work boots. And my feet were always wet, and I did not know what I was missing. And one of my clients handed me 350 bucks and he's like, Go buy yourself a pair of crispies. And I I do have to say that when in the western United States, there's three things that I would not skimp on, and that's boots, backpacks, and optics. that doesn't necessarily mean you have to spend tons and tons of money, but like a brand like that Walmart brand, like the I can't remember what it's called, Bruin or I can't remember what it's called, but I hate that brand. I hate it a lot. Jim And Garrett: You know, I I've kinda gone back and forth on the right booth. I mean, obviously every hunt is different, but man, I really like a tennis shoe kind of feel for a lot Tate Bradfield: Mm. Jim And Garrett: of hunts, but certainly not all. I've been on some hunts where you know, I have you know, my my crispy I I think I use the the summit GTX the most. And those are great. And I've been on some hunts where I thought, Man, if I didn't have these, I would have rolled my ankle like five times by now. that you're just going over crazy stuff and you really need that support and stuff, going over logs and things. And then other Tate Bradfield: Yeah, yeah. Jim And Garrett: hunts where I took and I just felt like, Man, why do I have these ankle weights on all day, every day? I should just be wearing Nikes and I would have been better Tate Bradfield: You gotta set a you gotta s Jim And Garrett: off. Tate Bradfield: you gotta set a Kenotrex and you're walking across flat ground hunting antelope, right? Jim And Garrett: Exactly. Tate Bradfield: I think one of my favorite boots, honestly, that I have right now that's on the cheaper end is the Irish setter vapor treks. they have been really good and I think they're only like a hundred and forty dollars. I mean only is you know, relative, right? But like as far as like high end boots, that that's

that's pretty low on the totem pole as far as price, but just got back from a so here's talking about boots. I just got back from an orcs hunt in New Mexico, right? And we're sitting here glassing across these lava rocks and I start smelling burning oil. And I was like, What is that smell? And the guy looked at me and he's like, It's it w it's your boots. Your boots are melting on the rocks. Jim And Garrett: my goodness. Tate Bradfield: So It was and it was like, you know, you it's not enough to tell, but you can definitely smell it. Jim And Garrett: Yeah, we get that in Saint George. We're, you know, very hot down here in southern Utah. We're not too far from Vegas. And you just you cannot wear shoes in your house. Like, you know, in you know, in Idaho or whatever, it's like, you know, some families are shoes on, families summer shoes off at the door. In Saint George you don't have an option. You have to take your shoes off because of that you'll get the soul just slightly melting and then you step on the carpet and it will ruin it. Mm-hmm. so You've you've gotta go shoes off in Saint George if you're walking on carpet. Tate Bradfield: Well, I believe I believe that now after doing that hunt, so Jim And Garrett: So what's if you you know, somebody has you know, a a good general setup for hunting and shooting, camping, all that stuff, ready for a for a hunt, what is one expensive, fancy Gucci just like really nice to have? Like, is there a piece of gear that's like, this one's expensive, but this one is worth it for me? Tate Bradfield: gear or like clothing? Jim And Garrett: Either way, just one piece that you'd like. Ooh, this is the one that is worth it. For me would be the the loophole BX six range finding binos. Those things are so sick. They're four thousand dollars. It's ridiculous. They're so expensive, but my gosh, are those things nice? Tate Bradfield: know, something that I've really I've used on a ton of hunts recently is Spartan Precision stuff. like I've got their like honestly, I think that they're a little bit overpriced, but I think that they're like I've used them so much. And even for like clients hunting, I I can put an adapter on their gun because like three fourths of them don't show up with the right stuff. And I can just throw an adapter on a client's gun and then just go hunting with them and use my gear. It's super convenient. But a lot of their stuff is really expensive, right? But like I I really enjoy the the Springbok tripod more than anything, I think. I've shot so much stuff over that and and seen so much stuff get shot over that probably in the last year, I would say. Jim And Garrett: Yeah, that that one to me seems I I don't know. The the Spartan Precision stuff to me seems extremely well machined and stuff. Like really i it's it's well done. and yeah, the quality's nice. It it doesn't fit my ethos, I guess, of w what I generally like for support. like their bipods tend to be like you know, it's it's very lightweight minimalist and stuff and that the support is Tate Bradfield: Yeah. Jim And Garrett: one one place where personally I would like to spend a little bit more of my weight budget. on getting that stability. So I mean it's all personal preferences. It's certainly good quality gear, but for me, most of their offerings I'm like, I I wish it were just a little beefier and I would take the weight. Tate Bradfield: Yeah, I I'm the exact opposite. I I hunt enough. You know, I'm I there's times where I'll hunt for thirty days straight, right? and so when when you do stuff like that, you don't care. Like you just learn how to build a better position with less, is what I would say. but honestly, I've I've been able to Jim And Garrett: To some extent. I mean it to some extent, doesn't matter how much you do it, like it's just it's light and wiggly, right? Tate Bradfield: no, you'd be surprised. Like you could you can get it, but it all depends on what you're trying to go for. Are you trying to hit a pie plate at 300 yards, or you're trying to to to drill a hole at 200 or 100, right? It it it just depends on your goals, too. Like on an elk, your kill zone is the size of three milk jugs. You know, so like the heart itself is a milk jug. So In in my mind, like I I have a little bit more trial, you know, I have a little bit more room for error. I don't have to be n I mean, I'm not saying you shouldn't be steady when you take the shot, but what I am saying is that like you're hitting a pie plate, you're not trying to s hit the same hole you already shot. Jim And Garrett: yeah, I I definitely I see the Spartan Precision as like that classic saying the jack of all trades but master of none, 'cause it's you know, their big thing is like the adaptability. You can you know, they've got the adapters, you can you know like you said, you can just use the adapter and then throw on your stuff on somebody else's setup. So it's like it's convenient, but like it's not like spectacular at one thing. You know what I mean? Well the the Tate Bradfield: Well, and that that's that's the thing to me is it's like I I need something that versatile in what I do. Where if you're Jim And Garrett: yeah. Tate Bradfield: going on a very dedicated hunt, I never know what I'm getting into from day to day to a degree, right? where if you're going on a very specific hunt and you know you're not gonna have to walk that far or you know, you know how far you're gonna walk approximately or anything like that. Yeah. It it depends on who you are and and what you're doing. Like I can see how it'd be beneficial if if somebody's retired and they're hunting full time for for fun, right? And you're going on Jim And Garrett: Mm-hmm. Tate Bradfield: hunt after hunt after hunt. It would make sense to have something like the Spartan stuff. Or if you're a professional like me, where you're hunting constantly and you have to give the you know, in the field on the fly, you may have to give somebody the

most support you can when they didn't have something that was specific. Jim And Garrett: Now what's a what's an animal that's a lot harder to kill clean than people realize? Something that people expect to go down easy and it just never does. Tate Bradfield: there's so many animals that I've seen. All the African animals have shocked me, honestly. Like that oryx I shot in New Mexico. I hit it right through the lungs, the first shot, and it probably stayed on its feet for another two or three minutes. and I I finally put another one in it and it fell down. I was shooting it with a three out of Wind Mag. It wasn't a small cartridge. so all the African animals have always surprised me. you know, I wouldn't say it's a species thing. As much as it as it is an animal thing, like there are some anim like some elk just refuse to die. I watched one get shot five times through the vitals and I'm always of the opinion Tell my clients to shoot until it falls over. And also had a moose get shot and just fall over immediately with like a six-five tree bore. You know what I mean? So it it just depends on the animal. Like I've seen animals of all varieties have a will to live that was way beyond their size. And I've also seen s Jim And Garrett: What's one that's easier? Tate Bradfield: which one moose is w moose are way easier to kill than you would think, honestly. Because and it's not necessarily like they can soak up lead, but they don't run like other animals. You shoot and they just stand there. So you can Jim And Garrett: wow. Tate Bradfield: shoot yeah. Jim And Garrett: So you just you just rip shots into Just lay into till they go down. Tate Bradfield: Yeah. The first yeah, the first moose I shot, I shot five times. with a seven mag, all of them through the lungs. And it it was dead on the first shot. It just didn't know it yet. And it just stood there. Jim And Garrett: Mm-hmm. Tate Bradfield: second one I shot three times with a three thirty-eight RPM. And like I said, the first shot would have killed it, but I I'd shoot till they go down. The only way I've I've found to kill a moose in one shot and like have it go down very quickly is a heart shot. the ones that get heart shot are usually down within five or you know, ten, fifteen seconds, usually I would say. Jim And Garrett: Okay, you just got parachuted in to a n to new hunting area. You got a side by side, so you can move around, you know, get around the mountain and stuff, but it's you know, it's mid you know, October, November and you're trying to trying to find mule deer. What how how do you go about finding these animals? Tate Bradfield: when I go into a new unit and I'm guid like I'm guiding or I'm scouting or I'm just trying to learn something, I don't always I I generally don't even plan on hunting that first day. I'm gonna put myself in a position where I can see as much as I possibly can, maybe five, ten miles in every direction. or you know, three miles in one direction and maybe ten in the other or something like that. And I'm just gonna do my best to to survey the land around me. I can't tell you how many times I've been I've done that during the prime times of the day. I'll just sit in a spot and glass as far as I can, and then during the middle of the day I'll get out and try and find tracks and things like that. that's always been the way that I've been able to learn the unit the fastest. is get in a spot during the prime times of the day, morning and evening, that I can see huge distances during, and then cover country in the middle of the day when it's not as productive to sit in one spot. Jim And Garrett: That's smart. I think a lot of people would, you know, I don't wanna waste the prime morning or something on some random, you know, peak where, you know, there probably aren't gonna be animals right next to me. But you're using it just hey, that's when you're gonna find and then you can spend the other days moving in once you know the right area. Tate Bradfield: Exactly. And and and that's really what you're trying to do. You you gotta remember that there's let's take the Frank Church wilderness for example. There's I think when I did the math, there's like point three elk per square mile in the Frankchurch wilderness. and when you think about that, the average elk herd is anywhere from ten to thirty animals. In the Frank Church, it's actually smaller than that. They've they've kind of adapted to stay away from the wolves. They don't get in as big of herds, but You know, if you've gotta find a herd of thirty elk and there's only point three s elk per square mile, how many miles are you gonna have to cover before you find a herd of thirty elk? I mean, that's a lot of miles. I can't remember how many I did the math once, but it's a lot. It's like almost a hundred square miles you gotta cover to find one herd of elk. and then you you think about that as far as mule deer and other things like that. And let's even just say it's one per square mile. You gotta cover 30 square miles to find a herd of animals. So you're you're not gonna be able to hike that far, especially not in a day, but you're definitely gonna be able to see that far. And that's that's the point. Jim And Garrett: right, you take somebody who has no experience with hunting, but they're they're a really good shooter and you know, healthy person, whatever, and you you get to take on one hunt to convert to hunting. What is the best Tate Bradfield: Mm. Jim And Garrett: hunting experience out there? Tate Bradfield: See, th you gotta be careful with that one because like if you take on like my ultimate hunting experience would be like a mountain goat, right? But if you take a first time hunter on a mountain goat hunt, they're probably never gonna hunt again. Man, if you can get like in the sand hills or like the Rolling Hills mule deer hunting in a place where there's a lot of mule deer, it's like just enough of a challenge that people feel like they're on a real

adventure. But it's also easy enough that they just really enjoy their time. And if you kill one, a mule deer's not so big that it's a horrible nightmare getting it out as well. So I'm gonna lock that in. Final answer. a mule deer hunt with with a g like a a really good mule deer hunt is what I would say. Jim And Garrett: Do you how do you feel about the western hunting versus, you know, hunting in Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, Midwest gun hunting? Tate Bradfield: I I love yeah, I actually really enjoy whitetail hunting. I that being said, I'm probably a pretty horrible whitetail hunter. but I I love whitetail hunting. I I like being able to just sit in the woods. You know, a lot of the time the style of whitetail hunting is like you sit in a spot and you wait, right? You're ambush hunting. And I really enjoy that, like just kind of almost trying to become a tree for a little while. You're just listening to everything that's going on around you. You're trying to listen for footsteps and, you know, noises that you may not pick up otherwise, where, you know, in Western hunting, you do that a lot as well in certain scenarios, but you also just kind of it's a lot of hurry up and wait. And so I would say I like both, but for different reasons. are a lot I will say this, there's a lot of people that bring their whitetail hunting conceptions to the Western United States, and it just doesn't work. Jim And Garrett: Do you have what's your favorite hunting rifle? Cartridge and bullets? Tate Bradfield: You know, I would have said seven PRC. I would have said my favorite rifle was my custom 7 PRC, but I just put I really liked my 7 Backcountry because it was a lot shorter. and I liked the folding stock that was on my seven PRC, but I just actually put my seven backcountry, my horizon seven backcountry on your chassis. And that I think is my new favorite rifle because it's like it's 16 inch barrel, got a six inch suppressor on it. I'm shooting bullets. I'm launching a 170 grain bullet at about 2,900 feet a second. mean, that's just such a nice, small, compact package for me. And then my favorite bullet to shoot out of the seven back country is gonna be the 175 Federal Fusion Tipped. That's the one that shoots the best out of my my gun, and it's it's a decent bullet. It's a bonded bullet. And out of that's the one that's performed best out of More of the seven back countries that I've shot. Jim And Garrett: so you mentioned you're gonna use the the Horizon seven backcountry in the in the backlight chassis, and you're using the the federal fusion bullet. I mean, that's it's a lot of cartridge to take on your general hunting. W what what is what's kinda your thought on the best general cartridges for hunting? Tate Bradfield: think a six five PRC is hard to hard to beat, honestly. six eight Western is also a really good one. You know, you don't necessarily need that sixteen inch barrel. Like like I said, I wanted a gun that I can carry with me, that's light, easy, that I can fit everywhere, that's convenient, you know, to have in my truck with me. And that's why I like that short barreled seven backcountry so much. But I think a six five PRC is hard to beat for just versatility. you're gonna hate me for this, but I think a thirty aught six is one of the most for most people, a thirty aught six or a three eight is plenty of gun for what they need, mostly because white tail hunting is the biggest sport in the United States. And I would say most guys, that's the majority of their time is gonna be white tail hunting. And a thirty aught six or a three eight is fine for shooting a hundred fifty yards. So Jim And Garrett: Now you like you you've mentioned lightweight a lot of times. You like lightweight. You you I mean you do a lot of backcountry hunting. how light would you say is too light for a gun? Say somebody's bringing Tate Bradfield: Mm. Jim And Garrett: I think a lot of I I would say maybe I'm off base, but I think most people hunt with magnum cartridges so how light would you say is too light for a magnum? Say like a seven PRC Tate Bradfield: I would say, you know that Weatherby Capra? I think that gun's really light. Unless it was more like just a backpacking gun that it's like, I have a tag and A deer happen to walk in front of me. I I feel like that gun's a little bit too light for my liking anyway. reason I like light so much is because I do like having a suppressor on it. I do like having a nice scope with good glass on it, and that will raise the weight of the rifle as a whole up. think most of my favorite guns still weigh somewhere between seven and eight and a half pounds fully set up. So it's not I mean, it's not like it's really, really light necessarily. It's just that it's lighter than buying an eight pound rifle and then throwing all that on there later. Jim And Garrett: Where do you draw the line? Like like this is absolutely is it six and a half pounds is seven pounds your line of too light for a seven PRC? Tate Bradfield: So one of my one seven PRC? Yeah, I mean Jim And Garrett: Full setup. We'll say we'll just say full setup. Tate Bradfield: I I would say that the the the late the least you're gonna want at least I would wanna go with six pounds full setup. Jim And Garrett: Okay. Tate Bradfield: and that's that's like as light as you could possibly go and I'd prefer more like six and a half pounds. Jim And Garrett: That's pretty light. That's pretty light. I Tate Bradfield: It is. Jim And Garrett: personally I like it a little heavier. I would say more like eight and a half or nine is kind of where I would say. Tate Bradfield: know, I so what I found more with guns is that you can you can live with an extra pound or two. It's more Jim And Garrett: Mm-hmm. Tate Bradfield: it's more the convenience of carrying the rifle than it is and and like how that weight sits on you after you have a lot more weight on your back. So example, you shoot an elk, right? You you go in with a a rifle. It's

not that hard to carry a rifle in and of itself, and and all your gear, but then you shoot an elk and you're two and a half miles in. Now you've got to carry your rifle and all that gear, as well as a quarter of an elk, which probably weighs 65 to 80 pounds, depending on where you're at, like which quarter and everything. and now your pack is real heavy. And yeah, the pound or two on the rifle honestly doesn't make that big of a difference. What really makes a difference is how you're able to carry that rifle on your pack. Because if like the gun barrel with the suppressor sticking two feet over your back and you're going through brush and All kinds of stuff. All of a sudden it makes that weight so much harder to carry. Where that's why I I've started liking just short rifles. and that's why I really like that chassis that you made, Jim, is because I'm able to with that, even with a suppressor, I'm able to fold that to where I'm not hitting stuff. It's not like swinging back and forth on my backpack, making all the all the rest of the weight in my bag shift around in a in a really uncomfortable way. Jim And Garrett: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Now you've got a I mean, countless amount of hunters. If you had to like identify a hunter's odds based on five minutes of meeting them, you have to say, Okay, this guy is either going to have a successful hunt or he's not gonna have a successful hunt. But you got five minutes to know whether that's the case. Tate Bradfield: Mm. Jim And Garrett: What what are you looking for? Like personality traits or you know gun knowledge or whatever. Just what are you looking for to, you know, kind of get an idea of how successful this person could be? Tate Bradfield: Okay, I gotta preface this one with the fact that I've been wrong many times when I first judged a a new student or client. There like there was a guy last year, I was like, he's not gonna stand a chance. And he was the only one that killed one, honestly, it's it's more like if they come and they're like super cocky and they're like, dude, I can shoot a billion yards, just get me in front of Generally I'm I'm like, this guy's gonna struggle. He's gonna struggle Jim And Garrett: Mm-hmm. Tate Bradfield: because he's shot a whole bunch off of a bench and he is overconfident in his abilities. where if it's a guy that's like, know, there's something to be said for the whitetail hunter that's like, hey, I've str I've really practiced. I know I don't I don't know what I'm doing right now. I'd love to learn. I know I want to learn. I I I just I practiced in all these positions that you told me to. That's the kind of guy that it's like, so Generally speaking, when a guy comes out and all he does is focus on the kill. If he keeps talking about the kill and the shot and all those different things, when a guy focuses on the shot more than the actual process to get to that point, those guys generally struggle the most because what they've done is they've tried to control something that they can't actually control, like their gear, their gun. I mean, you can control your gun and the quality thereof and and like how good it's shooting and and you know, the dope and everything. But what you can't control is the rest of it. and if you if you've become hyper focused on gear, gun, and other things and you haven't even given forethought to what else you're gonna have to do to get to that point to actually take a shot, those are the guys that struggle the most. Jim And Garrett: Okay, cool. Good to know. Well, that's all the questions we got. It was good to have you, Tate. Hopefully, hopefully the questions weren't too hard. I know we had some hard questions in there. But you were honest, you gave Tate Bradfield: I didn't know we were gonna have a test. Jim And Garrett: some good answers, yeah. Yeah. Wait till we start asking roots. Yeah. Tate Bradfield: Ha ha. Jim And Garrett: Well, it was good to have you, Tate. thanks for coming on and we will see all of you back for our guns podcast listeners on the third, thirteenth, and twenty-third of every month.