Hunting Gear BS Session

In this episode of the Hunting Gear Podcast, Dan Johnson and Bob Polanek discuss their love for college football and their favorite teams. They also share their thoughts on hunting gear and products hitting the market. The conversation covers topics such as fan rivalries, the importance of confidence in hunting, and the reliability of hunting equipment. They also touch on the recent limb issues with Matthews bows. Overall, the episode combines their passion for hunting and college football. In this conversation, Dan and Bob discuss various topics related to hunting, including equipment, preparation, and experiences in the backcountry. They talk about the importance of having a reliable truck topper, the issues with limb failure in bows, the gear they use for elk hunting, such as backpacks and boots, and the challenges of staying clean and comfortable in the backcountry. They also touch on the effects of high altitude on the body, the importance of proper nutrition, and the tuning of arrows and broadheads. Bob shares his plans for an upcoming elk hunt and his wife's involvement in the hunt as well.

Takeaways:

• College football and hunting are two of the hosts' favorite things.
• Confidence plays a crucial role in hunting success.
• The hosts discuss their thoughts on hunting gear and products hitting the market.
• The recent limb issues with Matthews bows are a topic of concern. Having a reliable truck topper is important for hunting trips
• Limb failure in bows can be a significant issue
• Choosing the right gear, such as backpacks and boots, is crucial for a successful hunt
• High altitude can have a significant impact on the body
• Proper nutrition is important for maintaining energy levels during hunting trips
• Tuning arrows and broadheads is essential for accuracy
• Planning and preparation are key for a successful hunt

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Dan Johnson (00:00.711)
All right, everybody, welcome to another episode of the Hunting Gear Podcast. Today I am joined by my very confused friend, Bob Polanek. He seems to think that it's cool to be a Michigan fan. I somehow disagree.

Bob Polanic (00:19.312)
said it was cool. I was raised a Michigan fan from the time I was in the high chair. It's in my blood. Did I go there? No. But I agree. I agree.

Dan Johnson (00:20.817)
No.

Dan Johnson (00:26.609)
No. It doesn't matter where you went, right? It's just the fact like, I'll take this. I'll say this though about Michigan fans. Anytime I've, anytime Michigan has come to Iowa in the past and played us and I've been to a game or in the area, Michigan fans are somewhat cool, right? There's always a little bit of this, I'm Iowa, you're big, you're Michigan, blah, blah, blah, whatever.

But I think we can both agree that Ohio State fans are some of the biggest D -bags that I've ever met personally.

Bob Polanic (01:04.35)
They are and I think they're kind of delusional and I think it's comical that they have lost three in a row to us. So yeah, I mean we've been on the opposite side of that for way, way too long. So we still have a lot of ground to make up. But I don't know dude, I'll be honest, Michigan fans, they can be pretty arrogant, pretty stuck up, especially the alumni. so, but then you got a lot of state fans throughout this term, Walmart Wolverine. And it's like, dude, if,

Dan Johnson (01:11.408)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (01:23.582)
yeah

Bob Polanic (01:34.266)
If you could only root for a college team because you were an alumni, college football would not be what it is today. It needs fans that didn't go to the college, right? So.

Dan Johnson (01:48.187)
yeah. yeah. I, I, it is my, it's, we're coming up on my favorite time of year for a reason. It's my two favorite things, hunting and college football period. And, and my brother, likes to watch pro games a lot because he's made a good point. It's college football, just faster. and like basically it's the best of the best of the best, but there's something about the tradition of

Bob Polanic (02:01.545)
Yeah.

Bob Polanic (02:12.073)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Dan Johnson (02:18.269)
let's say watching Michigan -Ohio State play or Alabama -Auburn or Iowa -Iowa State, you know, like the rivalries and things like that. And then at the same time, like, I just like watching good coached football. Like, I forget his name, know, Dabo Sweeney out of Clemson and the guy from Oklahoma State. What's his name?

Bob Polanic (02:31.602)
Yeah.

Bob Polanic (02:41.556)
Is that Mike Gundyr? that,

Dan Johnson (02:44.007)
The guy who has the mullet. I can't believe I forget his name because I love him. I love the coach.

Bob Polanic (02:51.048)
I know who you're talking about, but yeah. Yeah.

Dan Johnson (02:52.401)
Yeah, yeah. Anyway, so, and then, you know, of course, Iowa fan. And so we have been living in the Western division and being good by default, if you must ask, to having our record be where it's at. Got a new offensive coordinator this year. I'm pretty jacked about that.

Bob Polanic (03:05.736)
Yeah.

Bob Polanic (03:13.682)
Yeah, your offense can only be better.

Dan Johnson (03:15.721)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So we got that. then, but here's the issue. We get a new offensive coordinator. We thinking, okay, let's do this. Now guess who's coming to the big 10, Oregon, Washington, UCLA, USC. And now it's going to get ugly. Like, like we, I think we play Washington here this year at, at Iowa and

Bob Polanic (03:44.91)
You should be fine. don't think Washington's gonna be. They lost half their team and they lost their coach. yeah.

Dan Johnson (03:49.952)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, there's still, mean, it's still gonna be a good team. then, I mean, do you guys play any of those new teams this year?

Bob Polanic (04:00.322)
yeah, dude. Well, first of all, non our second game is a non -conference game. We have Texas. So that's going to be brutal. And then we've got our fourth game. We've got USC. We've got Oregon. We've got we're at Washington. We don't think we play UCLA. So, yeah, but we don't play Penn State this year.

Dan Johnson (04:06.322)
Mm

Bob Polanic (04:25.492)
Obviously we play Ohio State. So yeah, we've got USC, Oregon, Washington and then Texas. So we've got a hard schedule, but I think we got a pretty good ball club coming back. then doesn't Iowa, does Cade McNamara still there? I know he got hurt last year. He was Michigan's quarterback a couple of years ago that won the big 10 and...

Dan Johnson (04:34.536)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dan Johnson (04:48.231)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think he's, I think he's still, still here. And I think, yeah, I think you're right. He did get hurt. And I, I mean, I honestly haven't been able to keep up with it. Usually what happens is the day of the first game, I get all caught up, like read all the posts and the boards and, and like look at the roster and things like that. So I, all I know is it's a joke now is that we had, we had the

Bob Polanic (05:06.793)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (05:17.831)
Cornerback our Iowa cornerback that was a stud go go pro, right? And now now we have another starting white quarterback and so it's funny like the joke the joke around college football is that Iowa is now not only like a defensive powerhouse, know that keeps teams somewhat close and always holds them under their average yards per game and things like that But now we're feeding the NFL white cornerbacks

Bob Polanic (05:22.376)
Yeah.

Bob Polanic (05:39.017)
Yeah.

Bob Polanic (05:45.651)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (05:45.937)
which has been kind of a joke. I don't know, I found that kind of funny. Okay. Anyway, college football. Anyway, it's my favorite time of year. Like there's nothing better than going to a morning hunt, getting up, getting out, watching a good football game or part of it, and then going back out for the rest of the day after that, right? Nothing better, dude. Bowl of chili, know, smoked meats or whatever. don't.

Bob Polanic (05:51.154)
Yeah. Anyway.

Bob Polanic (05:57.363)
Yeah.

Bob Polanic (06:06.962)
Mm -hmm.

Dan Johnson (06:15.357)
I just get fired up about that. I know. Yup, I know. It's also that time of year where, dude, I have seen some absolutely ridiculous pieces of hunting product hit the market this year. Have you seen the mock rub kit? It has scent on it, but it's like a...

Bob Polanic (06:15.368)
Yep. We're a week away, We're a week away. Yeah.

Bob Polanic (06:32.393)
Yeah.

Bob Polanic (06:40.785)
No.

Dan Johnson (06:45.865)
piece of fabric or a blanket you wrap around a tree.

Bob Polanic (06:48.178)
Yes I have. I have seen that. I have seen that. Yep. Why?

Dan Johnson (06:56.04)
I just don't get it. Like I understand what I understand. Some guy has an idea. Hey, this deer maybe saw, maybe smelled this scent post of a rub. And now I need to bring one into the tree or into my property with me in order to.

somehow get dear closer to me. And I just, until I see it work, I would be very, very, very skeptical of any product like that.

Bob Polanic (07:26.462)
Well, what happens when a mature buck goes and tries to touch that up and it rips off the tree and now you just, and then he carries it a hundred yards. Now you just have, now you just have a piece of fabric laying in the woods on your property. I don't know. It's weird.

Dan Johnson (07:36.464)
you

Dan Johnson (07:41.223)
Yeah, yeah, I, I just like there's certain products like that that the older I get, like I used to be all I mean, to be honest with you, I was a skeptic of ozonics and ozone. Now I'm a huge fan of how ozone works, not necessarily out in the woods per se, but how I treat my clothing with it afterwards. I do still bring an ozonics in the tree with me. But like I was skeptic at first and then I was like, OK, this is awesome.

Bob Polanic (08:02.269)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (08:12.129)
Like I used to do mock scrapes a little bit, but now, you know, I use pre -orbital gel and trail camera like a kit and dude, I've had really good success with those. So maybe it's something that I just before I talk trash on it, I just need to, but I just don't see it. Like I can, I could possibly see, okay, you know, pre -orbital gel on a mock, like with a mock scrape, I could possibly see something like ozone science.

tells me that but this man just seems a bit ridiculous.

Bob Polanic (08:43.668)
It's a visual thing. Why don't you just go up to a tree with a saw and just make your own rub? Spend 60 seconds doing that and you could probably scar up a tree pretty good and make it look like a rub. I don't know.

Dan Johnson (08:56.029)
Yep, yep. I know guys who used to do that with a piece of metal, a flat piece of metal, and then they would cut a wedge in like a stick or like a, I don't know, about two or three inch branch, and then they would go up to this tree and they would rub it raw. And then, then I guess you could also do some pre -orbital gel on that as well. Yeah.

Bob Polanic (09:12.901)
Yeah.

Bob Polanic (09:16.942)
That would make way more sense than strapping a piece of fat. I mean, also that's like basically free and you're not buying, I don't know. It's kind of a, I get some of it, mock scrapes. I'm a fan. I like to use vines for them. I don't really use any sense on those and I've had good luck with deer just hitting them naturally.

Dan Johnson (09:29.884)
Yeah. Yeah.

Bob Polanic (09:39.784)
The the ozonics I'm still Skeptical of it, but I still use it. It definitely works on clothes Like I'll go elk hunting and I'll sweat out my t -shirt day after day after day where every evening I take it off and it stinks and I'll throw it in a tote run the ozonics on it probably throw down in the morning and it has zero odor, which is just I've done it to boots that just stink to high hell. It will it deodorizes those as far as using it

Dan Johnson (09:43.9)
Yeah.

Bob Polanic (10:10.07)
Actually in the tree I still I bring it I've definitely seen it work and I've definitely seen I've seen deer like completely disregard my set I've seen deer definitely smell like the ozonics, but like they don't associate it with a Threat or a predator and then I've seen deer just absolutely wig out from it and go the other way

Dan Johnson (10:24.389)
Mm

Dan Johnson (10:30.002)
Mm

Bob Polanic (10:33.828)
So, but the wig out thing has only happened like one or two times and who knows, maybe I had absolute dog breath that morning and it was just too much for the Ozonics to overpower, you know? So let's be honest.

Dan Johnson (10:33.841)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (10:42.984)
you

Dan Johnson (10:50.562)
Bob Palanek and his holotosis.

Bob Polanic (10:53.182)
Dude, well, you get deep into the rut and you're drinking beers every night and coffee in the morning and yeah, you can get some, well, I think you still can. You can have some tough mornings out there, you know, so.

Dan Johnson (10:59.814)
Not brushing your teeth, obviously.

Dan Johnson (11:05.063)
Yeah, yeah. I, yeah, I don't know, man. It's just...

I just care less the more I get into this. You know what I mean? Like, I don't even, like my scent, like my access routes are the thing here. Like I'm always locked tight on my access routes. But when I'm in the tree and if my wind's right, like dude, I don't shower every day during the rut or definitely on a Western hunt, right? Yeah, I mean, I'm just being, I don't care necessarily. I like camo.

Bob Polanic (11:14.302)
Yeah.

Bob Polanic (11:34.571)
no, yeah, you can't.

Dan Johnson (11:41.661)
I like camo in certain scenarios, but I'm also a solid color kind of guy as well. And so I just feel like, man, like the older I get, the more I get into this. Once you're in there and you get this woodsmanship and you have as many experiences as we have had, you learn like what works for you, right? And I heard something, I heard something the other day, I'm not gonna say who said it.

Bob Polanic (11:47.72)
Yeah.

Bob Polanic (12:03.933)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (12:10.249)
I'm not gonna say what it's in regards to, but there's people out there who like, they feel that price reflects quality. And in a way, I agree with that. However, there are people who spend that money in order to feel confident whether or not the product works or not, right? Does that make sense?

Bob Polanic (12:36.156)
It does. I... kind of back up a little bit. think the caring less thing, I think that's an age thing and an experience thing. Because I no longer give a damn what anyone thinks of me or what I kill or whatever. As far as... would say... There is something to be said that...

Dan Johnson (12:45.564)
Yep.

Dan Johnson (12:55.322)
Yeah. Yeah.

Bob Polanic (13:04.274)
I don't say it's always a one for one price reflects quality, but I do prefer to buy quality gear camo. And if I'm comfortable and warm, I'm going to last longer. And if my gear for whatever reason does make me more confident, confidence is you can't measure what that's worth on a hunt, but

Dan Johnson (13:12.646)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Bob Polanic (13:29.556)
If you are confident while you're hunting, you hunt better. If you are in a tree and you have no confidence, you are not engaged the same as if you have 100 % confidence. And I don't know how you measure that, but you're just mentally locked in more if you're hunting with confidence. And if gear or a set of binos or your bow or whatever,

adds to that confidence, then I think it's worth it in some aspect. So I mean, it still comes down to the guy at full draw if he can execute the shot. And then, you know, if you don't execute the shot, you can take all that confidence you just had and throw it out the window. So, yeah.

Dan Johnson (14:02.908)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dan Johnson (14:12.189)
Yeah, they say, you know, they've always said, and we've talked about it here, you know, maybe we're beating a dead horse, maybe we're not, but they've always said if you're thinking about your gear, then you don't have full faith in it. Right. Like if like my boots when I'm out west, I know I have a good pair of boots when I'm not like I'm not thinking about my feet or my my pack is on right. Or, yeah, my legs are going to get tired, but that doesn't mean shit. That's not my gear's fault.

Bob Polanic (14:34.441)
Yep.

Bob Polanic (14:41.768)
Alright.

Dan Johnson (14:42.641)
But if I'm somewhat warm or I'm somewhat cool, depending on whatever scenario I'm in, if I'm not thinking about that, that is the best. That's the best. It tells you your gear is working. And even on the weapon side of things, it's like, I've practiced enough, so my equipment is on point. I just now need to execute the shot. And so again, you're not thinking about, did I?

Did I do everything? I mean, a weapon standpoint, like a bow, a firearm, things like that, that's on you. That's not any of the fault of the product, like camo would be, or like layering systems or things like that, or a bootstrap breaks, or something like that goes wrong. However,

The weapon is I look at a weapon. I'm like dude if something goes wrong. It's your fault on that

Bob Polanic (15:41.148)
Yeah, dude, I got one for you on the weapon front. have the new Matthews lift and I don't know. mean, I don't know you're a part of like Matthews groups or anything like that on Facebook, but dude, so I've been watching for the, got mine back in May.

Dan Johnson (15:53.594)
I saw an email come out from McPherson.

Bob Polanic (16:00.646)
I've been watching all summer, well probably since June, all these limb splinters and stuff like that. And like every day I shoot my bow, every day I'm looking at it and I'm just waiting for one of my limbs to splinter. And I'm going elk hunting in a week and it's like that.

That's not cool to have. I'm just shooting it with like whatever. If it does splinter while I'm out there, I have read from enough guys on Facebook that they, their limbs have splintered and they've still shot like 75 to a hundred arrows through it with no issues. There's not limb failure, right? It's just like splintering and it's still accurate and tuned and all that. So like if one of my limbs splinters while I'm on a hunt,

It's probably going to mess with me mentally, but I'm probably just going to try to overcome that and still just, I mean, still just try to execute my shot. So it's terrifying.

Dan Johnson (16:57.573)
That whole scenario, yeah exactly. you know, I don't know, have you ever had a bow explode on you? Why, no. So I have, right? And a lot of it had to do with me being a dumb ass, okay? I'm not sure if I forgot to put an arrow in or not. And then I drew back and I was using a thumb release and I was new to it. And it slipped out of my hand while I was drawing it back and the bow exploded.

Bob Polanic (17:05.51)
No. No. Okay.

Dan Johnson (17:25.991)
And it's scary as shit. had the release bounce off the bow, come back and hit me in the face, and I had to go see if I needed stitches. So I didn't need stitches. Luckily they were able to glue it. But what I'm getting at is, that happened to Bow -Tech, I don't know if you remember that, a long time ago. Do you remember back when Bow -Tech had all those limb issues?

Bob Polanic (17:27.699)
Yeah.

Bob Polanic (17:36.958)
Damn.

Bob Polanic (17:53.192)
feel like, was that like a solid decade ago? Yeah.

Dan Johnson (17:55.753)
Probably. mean, I'm guessing somewhere around 10 years ago. And and I did it really impacted. I from from the outside looking in, I feel like it really impacted their brand a lot. And now they're starting to recover because, dude, I love Bo Tech bows. I have one now. I've had them in the past. But Matthews seems like they're the cream of the crop, right? They're they're the top of the mountain. And I feel like I feel like there's enough people out there who

Bob Polanic (17:58.921)
Yeah.

Bob Polanic (18:12.361)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (18:26.547)
where they're gonna be okay from this. But it will make you question the next time you go purchase a bow, feel like, do I want a Matthews or do I wanna maybe go look at something else?

Bob Polanic (18:29.256)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Bob Polanic (18:39.91)
I think for the rest of this year, like it's gonna be, it's gonna deter a lot of people from buying that bow specifically. I think Matthews has made it where it doesn't matter if it's, if you buy a used lift a year or two down the road, forever that Matthews lift doesn't matter if you're the original owner or not. Those limbs will always be warrantied no matter what, because of the issue, which is a solid move on, on Matthews part. Cause originally Matthews is,

Dan Johnson (18:46.48)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (19:03.196)
Yeah.

Bob Polanic (19:10.107)
The warranty is only for the original owner and it's not transferable. So

Dan Johnson (19:14.566)
Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to look here. Yeah, it seems to be cracked limbs. Matthew's lift limbs cracked in less than a month. Yeah. And then did you?

Bob Polanic (19:26.852)
dude, guys are getting a second set or third set put on their bow and those are cracking. like...

Dan Johnson (19:32.817)
Yeah, so what is their warranty? They're just being fully replaced? Okay. And so then they just continue to be replaced until they're out of limbs or?

Bob Polanic (19:43.294)
Well they identified...

It sounds like they identified the issue. was, don't know if it was a source material or something like that that was going on. So I think they, they, I don't know. They look at like the serial number and like a period of time, but they've kind of tracked down like the bows that have the issue. And they did say that there still are bare bows on the shelf at archery shops, like in circulation that have the faulty limbs on them. But it sounds like, you know,

I think your bow shop might charge you like a labor fee, other than that, the limbs are covered.

Dan Johnson (20:20.956)
Yeah, yeah. Well, at least they're trying to do the right thing here. But like, I don't know. I would hear that. I just wouldn't even want to deal with it.

Bob Polanic (20:25.405)
Yeah.

Bob Polanic (20:31.668)
No, I'm totally annoyed that that's what's going on. And the bow is great. I love the bow. For $1 for a bare bow though, that's kind of, yeah, Yeah. Yeah.

Dan Johnson (20:45.011)
She many Christmas, dude. Like it doesn't even make me want to go bow shopping anymore because of the price. So I'm going on three years or four years with my bow, with my bow tech. And I just put new strings on it last year. So I'm good to go there. I was at the beginning of the year, I was looking for a bow really, I mean, really hard. And then all of a sudden I just stopped because I'm like, Jesus, man, everything in life is so expensive now. And I didn't like.

Bob Polanic (20:49.971)
Yeah.

Bob Polanic (21:12.488)
yeah.

Dan Johnson (21:15.24)
Dude, my daughter is gonna, we're gonna be paying $300 a month for her to do dance. My son, it's $500 a pop for each son. Not a month, but the fee to do that. And then like, Jesus, just life, man.

Bob Polanic (21:31.86)
Dude, yeah, I was listening to your podcast a week ago or whatever, how you went to the state fair and you spent $500 in a day and I was like, wow, wow.

Dan Johnson (21:40.489)
Dude, it's stupid. It's stupid. don't know if it was necessarily that much, but I will say that it cost like 65 or $70 to get in. And then now you're talking every drink, like if you wanted a lemonade or a corn dog is like eight bucks and shit like that. And then if you want to do rides, I I spent, I watched my kids go through $130 in about 30 minutes or less.

And I'm just like, holy shit, dude. so just that on top of all of the other, you know, rising costs and everything has kind of led me to stay, stay with where I'm at and just continue. And I love my bow where it's at right now. Eventually, I want to go get a new bow at some point. But I like where I'm at right now. I got my I got the arrows that I want. I got the broadheads that I want. I got the.

know, fletchings, the arrows, the rest, the sight, I got all that tuned. So now all I have to do is just continue to shoot right now. And so just ramp up the shooting. So, man, it would be hard. It would be hard to like have a once in a lifetime elk pull up on you and you draw back. It makes a noise that you've never heard it make before.

Bob Polanic (23:00.744)
Yeah, no, I'm terrified that that's gonna happen, but if it does, I do, but I'm not bringing it with me.

Dan Johnson (23:04.914)
Do you have a backup bow?

Why not, dude? Like, that's the best time to bring it with you.

Bob Polanic (23:12.774)
I understand that, but with I'm going early season elk hunting and I don't have a place to put that bow that it's not going to get insanely hot in my car. You know what I mean? And I'm very aware that you leave a bow in a car and it's sunny out and it gets up to a hundred degrees in your car and your bow sitting in their bacon. You're just asking for that one to delaminate and those limbs to be faulty.

Dan Johnson (23:17.244)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (23:42.865)
Yeah, maybe over the course of several days. Or, I don't know. Do you have a topper on your truck?

Bob Polanic (23:45.736)
Yeah, I don't know. But again, I've got a Tahoe, it's yeah, yeah, SUV. So yeah, I don't know. Like I said, I've read from several guys that they've still...

Dan Johnson (23:52.325)
Tahoe. Yeah, okay. Yeah. All right, well.

Bob Polanic (24:00.478)
put several arrows through it with splintered limbs and it's been fine. I'm just, and Matthew's even said there is no limb fit, complete limb failure. Like there's no limbs snapping. They're just, they're just splintering and it looks like it's, I know if it's just the finish or what, but yeah, no, it's not good. So we'll see. I've got to sell a thousand arrows through it.

And there's a lot of guys that are on those Facebook pages or Archery Talk that are like, I've had mine since November or since February or whatever, and I've got a thousand or five thousand arrows through it. No issues. yeah.

Dan Johnson (24:35.601)
Yeah, maybe it was a maybe they can identify it being a specific run of limbs Okay. All right. Gotcha

Bob Polanic (24:40.392)
Yeah, I think they have. I think they have. So I should probably reach out to them and say, hey, this is my serial number. Do you know why my limbs are to break or not? So yeah.

Dan Johnson (24:49.574)
Yeah, hey, be that might even be, you know, taking the time to email their customer service with that, with those VIN numbers and just being like, hey, listen, I just I'm looking for peace of mind here. Yeah. All right. OK, so you're getting ready to go on an Elkhunt in a week. Do you have it like? I know from talking with you that you have a list of products that you use.

Bob Polanic (25:01.854)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dan Johnson (25:16.548)
every single year. Do you have any new products that you're bringing out west with you this year?

Bob Polanic (25:21.108)
Just yeah, just my pack and it's really not even that new. So I've been running the Mystery Ranch Metcalf for probably, I don't know, six, seven, eight years. They came out with some new ones. They've got like a Metcalf 5075 and I don't know, there's another one. I went with the Metcalf 50.

Just because it's like a full pound lighter and I I do a lot of day hunting My wife and I are planning on going in for like a three or four nighter and I'll probably use my bigger met calf for that But while I'm day hunting I'll probably use the met calf 50 that I have I've been I've been you know Backpack training with that thing and I've got a bunch of weight in it right now, but it just it's

Dan Johnson (25:46.396)
Mm

Bob Polanic (26:11.892)
That Metcalf 70 or the original Metcalf, I forget how big it is, it does cinch down nice into a day pack once you get in. But the 50, it packs down even smaller. Like I said, it is like a full pound lighter. And a pound doesn't seem like a lot, but you do 10 miles a day and you can shave a pound off here and there. It all ends up adding up. So yeah.

Dan Johnson (26:38.953)
Yeah, yeah. And so, what boots are you running this year? Same boots?

Bob Polanic (26:45.369)
Yeah, Crispy Summit 2s. I've been running those for a few years. probably seven, eight years as well. Big fan of those.

They last me four or five years and it's not like they even fall apart. It's just, think over time going through whatever prickers, cause I use them like on scouting trips and white tail hunting and stuff like that. So I think don't walk them through like a lot of prickers and stuff like that. Especially in the summertime when I'm doing scouting, you can just get like pinholes in that Gore -Tex lining. So they kind of lose a little bit of their waterproofness, but it takes, it takes a good three, four or five years for that to happen. So I'm on my second set in like probably eight years and they're still

they're still doing just fine. So they're nice, they're light and they're not insulated.

Dan Johnson (27:36.177)
I ended up going, like I have a pair of Crispy Thors that I've had for, my first pair of Crispy Thors I've had for a very long time. I think it was like five years. And then I bought another pair of the exact same boot. Those lasted me the same amount of time. But, so for me, I got some, I had some waterproofing issues, you know, over time all that wears off. And so I took waterproofing spray.

Waterproofing spray sprayed, you know, clean my boots Let them dry then sprayed that on and it seemed to work for the first year But then the second year that I did that did the same thing cleaned them off Let them dry sprayed the waterproofing on it didn't it didn't seem to work the the next couple times that I did it

Bob Polanic (28:15.869)
Okay.

Dan Johnson (28:27.772)
And so I feel like it was just time. And so then I went to, shit, can't, my third pair of crispy boots, and I think they might be the Summit 2s as well. They have a stiffer sole.

Bob Polanic (28:42.95)
It's like middle of the road, the summit too, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Dan Johnson (28:44.219)
Middle, yeah. Yeah, something or maybe it was either that or I had the Colorado. It's one of those two. Anyway, they have they have stiffer soles and you can definitely feel it. The stiffness on your feet. And so I'll be doing for the next like leading up to the my first hunt, you know, going into October in South Dakota, I'm going to be. Doing a lot of backpack training as well and hiking and.

just basically doing a daily three mile walk to get my legs situated, my feet, my boots, not my boots already broke in because I had them last year, but I'm talking about like getting my feet ready. And I didn't like that's one thing that I learned from a buddy of mine who hikes a lot is getting your feet ready, not necessarily breaking in your boots per se, because that is important, but your feet. so he's been reading on some hikers.

and they just go on walks with no shoes on. Yeah, so basically it it toughens up your feet, right? And so they'll just walk on, know, they'll go for walks out on their road or not necessarily gravel road, but like their street and they'll just go on a mile walk barefoot. yeah. So, are you're, you talked about sweating through your...

Bob Polanic (29:46.848)
wow.

Toughens your feet, yeah.

Bob Polanic (29:58.461)
Right.

Bob Polanic (30:02.846)
That makes sense.

Dan Johnson (30:09.276)
your t -shirts or whatever. What are you running Merino bass layers?

Bob Polanic (30:15.111)
Typically, if it's hot, if it's hot, like, yes, you know, early September, it can be a high 80 in Idaho where I'm And I'll wear the synthetic just because it dries out way faster. And then, yeah, like I said, especially if I'm day hunting, I'll just hit it with Ozone every night after the hunt.

Dan Johnson (30:30.578)
Mm

Bob Polanic (30:39.846)
If I'm going to go pack in for three, four days, I'll leave that synthetic top and I will wear a Moreno base layer the whole time. And that doesn't have nearly as much odor.

Dan Johnson (30:51.068)
Yeah, I will say this, the Merino base layers do an excellent job of wicking away the moisture, right? And doing the whole odor thing. I had a pair of First Light base layers, the top that I had, and it was awesome. It eventually just wore out, like around the right here. It started getting real thin. And it was just because I had it a long time.

And now I run synthetics for my early season hunts for one reason, and it's pretty cool what synthetics do. They keep you cool, but they also keep you dry. And unlike a merino, which kind of holds the heat in, it's supposed to, but the merinos that I have used in the past have been the really thin ones. So it's more about wicking moisture than it has been about retaining heat. Cause I don't use it as a true base layer. I'm just using it as a long t -shirt, basically.

Bob Polanic (31:49.0)
Yep. Yep.

Dan Johnson (31:50.224)
And so, but the synthetics, I do the same thing with just the synthetics and it kind of keeps you cool as well. Now when I go into the deer hunting season and it's cooler out, then I will use it as a traditional bass layer. And I like a Merino, wooly, not necessarily a true synthetic at that point.

Bob Polanic (32:12.466)
Yep, I'm about the same. Yeah, once it to temp strap. Well, once I get into whitetail season, it's pretty always a Moreno base layer. So yeah, and I still still ozonics everything after every hunt. So.

Dan Johnson (32:21.853)
Yeah, what a, yeah, yeah. Okay, this is a weird question, but I was walking up here today and on my steps is a pair of dude wipes, okay? And so what dude wipes are, are dude wipes are biodegradable, basically a baby wipes that it's been,

I guess marketed towards men to use or whatever. And so I use those out in the back country or when I'm out, you know, even in my truck. Time to go number two, whip those babies out, dig a little hole, take a poop, wipe your butt, throw the stuff down in there and over time they dissolve and they're biodegradable. Do you have any special products that you use for potty time?

Bob Polanic (33:20.604)
yeah, dude wipes, dude wipes in a roll, dude wipes in a roll of TP. Yeah, can't, back country hunting man, cannot get the, yeah, the butt cheek chafe. You just can't, it can't happen. And like, when I start back country hunting, like the diet kind of goes down the window. Like, it's not like I'm eating junk food, but like.

Dan Johnson (33:21.917)
Dude.

Dan Johnson (33:30.815)
yeah.

Bob Polanic (33:39.764)
You're eating dehydrated meals. It's you're eating just a lot of processed shit that's not going to spoil in your backpack. You know what I mean? Like that does not keep me personally regular. There's a lot of fiber that that food's lacking. And so yeah, it's a

It's key to keep the cheeks clean and because you get pretty sweaty and whatnot and you get any sort of ass cheek chafe you are you're in trouble, especially trying to do six eight ten miles a day, whatever it might be. So yeah, yep.

Dan Johnson (34:11.228)
Yeah, do you ever? Do you bring Vaseline with you or a loop a lubricant? No I'll tell you this I did have that so over I was in South Dakota a couple years ago and I had a tube or well it was a jar of Vaseline that I keep in my my travel kit and Then I took a ziplock baggie kind of turned it inside out scooped a little bit in

Bob Polanic (34:18.01)
No. Nope. No.

Dan Johnson (34:39.517)
And then when I went out, I had some in my pack. dude, it saved me. It saved me from having to go back to my truck because I just made a little wipey wipe there. you know, had some like it's because I had to. had to. was.

Bob Polanic (34:45.608)
Got it.

Bob Polanic (34:49.715)
Yep.

Bob Polanic (34:59.43)
probably start moving a little faster all lubed up like that.

Dan Johnson (35:02.68)
Yeah, dude, I was going from that that penguin walk to the to like feeling like a sprinter after that's like man I'm lubed up and then obviously that's that stuff holds in the moisture like when you put Vaseline on a burn they tell you to do that so the moisture stays in or like a sunburn the moisture stays in your skin and And and then it also helps, you know, like you lay down you sleep. I sleep in a I always just bring a pair of

Bob Polanic (35:09.008)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dan Johnson (35:32.081)
sleep shorts, like I don't wear my tight underwear. I let everything air out, right? So I basically bring a pair of gym shorts with me. so, but I will say this, you were talking about processed food and what you're putting in your pack and bring along with you, man, it may not be convenient for like, it's not very packable and it's, they're not really like, you know,

Bob Polanic (35:41.79)
Got it.

Dan Johnson (36:01.544)
They're gonna get warm, but they're not necessarily gonna rot. Dude, I bring an apple with me every single day out there. And so even the time where I went out and I think it was like four nights, I was out in a tent in a spike camp. I brought four apples with me and they were not, you had to be careful with them so they didn't bruise and stuff like that. But I would eat that at the end of the night.

Bob Polanic (36:09.127)
Okay.

Bob Polanic (36:19.848)
Okay.

Dan Johnson (36:28.42)
or at the beginning of the morning or that one a day and it helps man it helps keep you flowing right if you catch my drift right yeah

Bob Polanic (36:35.582)
Yeah. yeah, for sure. yeah. I deal with, I deal with severe constipation when I get out there. So first, yeah, first four or five days, I don't, I don't even like have like a murmur of like a shit going on. And what I've like learned like over the last decade that like, I don't even really need to bring that many dude wipes or that much toilet paper because I'm probably not going to go for the first few days that I'm out there.

Dan Johnson (36:42.643)
yeah, I've been there. And that's why I do this.

Bob Polanic (37:03.29)
So, well what would...

Dan Johnson (37:04.801)
I feel uncomfortable when I do that. Like I feel slow and gross if I don't shit.

Bob Polanic (37:09.426)
typically typically burning enough calories where I'm not I'm not getting I don't feel too I don't feel full or anything like that so I'm pretty used to it and then so I will eat pretty decently healthy the first few days because the first few days usually day hunt

Check a bunch of different trailheads and then come up with a game plan of where we want to go and to try to find elk and then go in for three four days and then once I go in for three four days, that's when I'm packing all my Dehydrated meals and stuff like that. But when I'm car camping like at the trailheads and stuff like that I've got cooler and typically eating, know,

chicken and lettuce wraps and stuff like that and making like decent food. And yeah, definitely have, you know, having some fruit and stuff like that. once, yeah, once I go pack in, it's all just about the lightest weight food, you know, highest calorie to ounce I can get and stuff like that. So, and just, it's just, three or four days of, I've kind of eaten not the best and it doesn't, it doesn't jam me up too bad. So.

Dan Johnson (37:48.732)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dan Johnson (38:15.133)
Yeah. Do you ever, whenever you go out and spike, I know some guys who have done this, they basically just bring a sleeping bag and they sleep right on the dirt and they don't have a tent or anything like that. You've never done that.

Bob Polanic (38:24.946)
Yeah. No.

Bob Polanic (38:32.274)
closest I've done to that is I brought a tarp that like the only way you keep it up is with your trekking poles and then we brought Tyvek like a sheet of Tyvek to lay on and then I had a very thin...

Dan Johnson (38:37.692)
Mm

Bob Polanic (38:44.372)
Sleeping pad it wasn't even inflatable. It's just one of those thin like thermarest ones and then yeah than a sleeping bag That was like the most minimalist way I've ever gone about it. I also had only brought in like 2200 calories per day and I'm about 225 and 2200 calories a day and doing 10

Dan Johnson (38:49.073)
Mm

Bob Polanic (39:06.516)
miles a day it was not enough for me. That was my first elk hunting I ever did. I went like absolute minimalist. That's how my buddy did it. It had got me into elk hunting. I think in five days I lost like 12 pounds. Yeah, I went yeah it was bad. I was also 10 years younger so I was able to kind of just like muscle through it. But nowadays I bring about 3 ,500 calories a day and I don't lose any weight when I'm elk hunting. I elk hunted for three weeks last year and I didn't lose. I mean got a little trim.

Dan Johnson (39:18.006)
yeah.

Bob Polanic (39:36.47)
trimmed up but I didn't lose any weight. yeah.

Dan Johnson (39:38.921)
Yeah, I'll tell you this. I think it was the second elk hunt I went on and it was a true like started at 10 ,000 feet went to 11 over 11 in Colorado. There was one day this or no excuse me two days. I lost 14 pounds in two days. And I was drinking so much water. I could not keep up with it. I couldn't keep up.

Bob Polanic (40:01.286)
wow. Holy shit.

Dan Johnson (40:09.132)
The first the first so we I spent the night in At lower elevation then the next day like I can't do this anymore like I can't drive all the way to a mountain and then start hiking I have my body has to acclimate because if it doesn't I'll get a headache and I'm fucked for the whole the whole week so I have I have to acclimate now and then and so

Bob Polanic (40:31.174)
yeah.

Dan Johnson (40:37.928)
I acclimated for over 24 hours, drove up to the cabin that we were staying in at 10 ,000 and then the next morning hiked up. So before we started doing really any hard physical like hiking, I had just under 48 hours in Colorado, which helped out dramatically or dramatically. But on my way up, I got a headache. I started drinking some water. It went away.

And then from that point on, it was just about lungs. You know what I mean? And so it was just the altitude. But I was in pretty good shape, but I was still, dude, I was dropping weight like it was nothing. Like it was just every day, I had to cinch my pants tighter and tighter and tighter. My gut was going away. You know what I mean? And all that in two days just blows my mind. Yeah. Yeah.

Bob Polanic (41:10.547)
Yeah.

Bob Polanic (41:14.112)
yeah.

Bob Polanic (41:25.624)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That is crazy. I don't hunt that high. I'm more at like seven to 8 ,000 feet and I do 10 ,000 feet. That air is thin. I've gotten up to like 995 and it's like, Ooh, that's a little different. So, but yeah, we, we, I've learned enough over the years. Like first hunter too, I'm taking it easy. That's why like,

Dan Johnson (41:41.626)
yeah.

Bob Polanic (41:53.362)
The first couple of days of hunting, we're just camping at a trailhead and we're just doing some of the low elevation, flatter ground, get the body used to it, stuff like that. I mean, we're training pretty good right now and kind of.

Dan Johnson (42:00.391)
Mm

Bob Polanic (42:07.796)
have the training system pretty dialed from doing this for 10 years. But also, yeah, I've got some good spots in some low country that there's been some historical wallows on that I can, I'm going to hang some tree stands on this year. And so we might do some like,

you know, in the morning, go up in the mountains and get that experience, check some things out. But if we ever get, you know, to have a big morning or something like that, we'll come out and then go pop in a tree stand for an evening and just conserve energy. Let the body, let the, like, no, no, just listen to your body. Really. It's not, again, it's, it's not one those things where I'm trying to make it harder than it needs to be. So yeah. Yeah.

Dan Johnson (42:41.874)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dan Johnson (42:47.431)
Yeah, yeah. I just kind of I want to kill an elk and I want to kill a high country mule deer at some point in my life. Those days, it's almost like every season that dream gets further and further away because it is so far away for me. And at the same time, that elevation man. Holy shit. When you live at like a thousand feet all year long, maybe even less than that. And then you try to go hunt in eight like out in South Dakota.

Bob Polanic (43:06.024)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Dan Johnson (43:17.04)
I believe the highest I've hunted in South Dakota is like anywhere from three to five. And it's not necessarily noticeable there, but you start getting above seven, then I can feel it. Right. And so I don't know, man, I just, I, I just, I don't know. I wish I'd lived in that environment and that way it's just normal for a person like that. I'm, I'm, I'm jealous of those guys who are out there in it all the time.

Bob Polanic (43:27.132)
Right, Yep. Yep.

Bob Polanic (43:39.56)
Yeah. Yeah. I need...

Yeah, I need about three days. get the, we always probably start off about 6 ,800, 7 ,000. I need about three days of that and now whatever, we'll get up to 76, 78, 8 ,000. But it'll take your time doing that. And especially going out early season.

It's not like full Rutt Fest, right? You might get some bulls bugling in the morning if it's a nice cold morning or they're just kind of checking things out, feeling their oats. yeah, it's pretty slow going the first few days of season and the days are long. know what mean? There's a big doubt. mean, from 11 to four, there's just nothing going on in the middle of day. So I'm normally just laying on the ground napping.

Dan Johnson (44:29.81)
Yep, Yeah, and that's the, I mean, that's the thing about early season hunting. Well, I'll tell you what, with that said, whenever I go out West, right, that's why binoculars are so important out in the prairie states where I hunt, you can hunt all day long. Hoppin' ridges, glassing, hoppin' ridges, glassing, and that's where like the boots and the optics are so important.

Bob Polanic (44:50.665)
Yeah.

Dan Johnson (45:01.032)
Yeah, so any final touches that you need to do as far as gears concerned before you're 100 % ready?

Bob Polanic (45:08.662)
yeah, I've got, I mean, I've got a fletch a bunch of arrows. I have been messing with arrows and fletching and stuff like that. I finally got that dialed in and I've just got like a dozen arrows that I got to finally make up because I decided on fletching and stuff like that that I'm doing. Other than that, yeah.

Dan Johnson (45:28.328)
Do you ever put angle in your fletchings or just straight?

Bob Polanic (45:31.27)
Yeah, they've got like a... I got the What is that fletching jig? I'm gonna...

Dan Johnson (45:38.482)
But it allows you to go like one, two, three degrees or something like. Okay. Yeah.

Bob Polanic (45:41.544)
Yeah, I think I've got a two and half degree helical on them. And I used to shoot like a four fletch and they were lower profile. Now I went to three fletch and a little bit bigger vein and just getting a little bit better, easier to tune with fixed blade broadheads. So.

So I had some issues with my old bow. I just could not get fixed blade broadheads to fly out of that thing right. I tried like how I'll brought to like, I'm not, can do some on my own, but I would bring it to the archery shop, paper tune, paper tune, paper tune. would, you know, a fixed two blade.

broadhead I could not get to fly right out of my bow and I even tried I don't know if it's I don't know if it's just me I tried with this new Matthews lift as well with a fixed two blade I still can't get them to they're better but I still can't get them to fly right but I throw a fixed three blade on an arrow and it shoots just like my field points so 125

Dan Johnson (46:48.882)
How many grains is your broadhead? Okay, and what brand is it?

Bob Polanic (46:54.457)
The two blade are the iron wills, the three blade are the QAD Exodus.

Dan Johnson (46:56.562)
Okay.

Okay, and so then how many fletchings do you run on the back end? Okay.

Bob Polanic (47:05.056)
Three. Yeah, last, my old bow is running four. So, yeah, I'm, it's just, I'm getting better. I'm good now. So yeah, I'm good now. Yeah. I just, for whatever reason, those two blades, could not get to tune. So, and I'm shooting about 285 feet per second. So I don't know if it's a speed thing. And like that two blade is just, and it's a, it's a solid blade. I don't shoot the vented cause the vented would just like whistle through the air.

Dan Johnson (47:14.886)
you're good. Okay. Gotcha.

Dan Johnson (47:33.528)
dude, I used to shoot like back in the day, an open broadhead. I cannot believe. So I shoot right now. I shoot the wasp jackhammer. It's a, it's a three blade expandable and that's quiet, but I'll tell you what you shoot a vented broadhead and, like from the bow, may not sound like anything. So I had my buddy shoot my bow and towards the target and you can hear it coming.

Bob Polanic (47:39.081)
Yep.

Bob Polanic (47:48.178)
Okay. Yep.

Bob Polanic (47:56.553)
rep.

Bob Polanic (48:02.856)
Mm -hmm.

Dan Johnson (48:03.048)
And it's not like, it's not crazy, like on a really windy, rustly day. And if they're close, there's no reaction time to it. But if it's coming at 60 yards or something like that, dude, you can definitely hear it.

Bob Polanic (48:13.192)
Yeah. Yep. Yeah, they're not jumping the string. They're ducking the freaking whistling arrow coming at them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Dan Johnson (48:21.23)
Yeah, exactly, So, all right, dude, that's enough BS for today, man. I really appreciate you taking time out of your day. Dude, I'm jacked for you. Hopefully you connect on an elk here in a couple weeks or shit, one week, it sounds like.

Bob Polanic (48:36.428)
Yeah. Yeah. Opening day is August 30th and we are, we're going to be there for it. So looking forward. yeah, I think right now kind of get that 15 day forecast out there. It's looking pretty decent. I wish it was going to be a little cooler looking like highs in mid low seventies and, overnight lows like down like low 40s. So it should be all right. And I've got pretty good knowledge of the area. So, we'll see. Yeah.

Dan Johnson (48:42.3)
I hope you have some good weather. Yeah.

Dan Johnson (48:58.78)
Awesome.

Cool, Cool. All right, dude. Well, hey, good luck. Is your wife, did your wife get a tag too?

Bob Polanic (49:08.498)
Yep, yep. We're both going for the first week and then she's going to fly home after the first week. And I'm going to hunt for about five days on my own and then come home. So, and if I, yeah, and I've got, I've got some Nebraska tags too and their season open September 1st. So if I tag out early, I'll start heading back home, but I'll stop in Nebraska, jump in a tree and try to connect there. So yeah, big.

Dan Johnson (49:20.584)
Perfect.

Dan Johnson (49:35.066)
Awesome, Good luck, and we'll talk to you later, man.

Bob Polanic (49:38.11)
Thanks man.

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