Running Water Podcast with Jordan Budd

Gear Breakdown: Preparing for the Utah Archery Hunt

• Jordan Budd • Episode 2

Share episode

Send us a text

I'm prepping for an archery mule deer hunt down in Utah. Hot temperatures, low populations and big country are going to make for a tough hunt! Want to know what I'm bringing for gear? 


 Also, get ready for some practical insights into using a Bino adapter to attach binoculars to a tripod and other useful gear tips. Gear up and join me on this exciting journey into the wild!


Speaker 1:

Hey everyone, welcome to the Toolkit. I'm Jordan Bodd. This is our first episode and today we're going to run through a packing list that I'm using for an upcoming Utah archery mule deer hunt. I'm literally packing for it as we speak. As I record this, I'm leaving tomorrow. It is late August. I'm expecting it to be pretty dang hot. It's going to be supposedly 80 degrees during the day, 55, 60 degrees during the night. Not much for rain showers in the forecast currently, but maybe an afternoon pop-up thunderstorm is something that I always plan for.

Speaker 1:

The unit is super diverse. It's got high country basins and very high desert broken terrain, pretty deserty. A lot of the lower country. The four-wheeler and side-by-side trails are all over the place. I'm going to take my side-by-side the Can-Am Defender. With that I'm taking our cargo trailer which converts into a camper after we pull the Can-Am out. We did that a few years ago. I think this is going to be our fourth season with it. We'll definitely be doing an episode on that in the future.

Speaker 1:

There are a few places. Most places can be accessed daily in Can-Am and the side-by-side. There are a few spots that could be accessed with just backpacking equipment. I'm thinking if that happens, I'll probably will have spotted the deer from the road or just from a daily access type spot. I want to go in for max of two nights, but probably just an overnight. I'm taking some of my lightweight backpacking gear for that. For the most part, I can expect to be just camping out of the trailer, out of the camper and then running around on the four-wheeler and just hitting different spots and trying to look at as much country as I can to see as many bucks as I can.

Speaker 1:

With that, let's head to the garage and go through that gear. We are here in the garage ready to go over what I'm going to use in Utah. This is the pack that I'm going to use, probably for the most part. This is the Stone Glacier Approach 2800. Honestly, I went into Shields and saw that they had this bag on display and just the setup of it. I was like dang. This is probably one of my favorite setups as far as just trying to day hunt, especially when you want to have all your optics very easily accessible. I ended up buying one that night. This is what I'm going to take with me and I'll go over here.

Speaker 1:

One of the reasons I really like this is it's just a decent-sized main bag but your tripod and your spotting scope are easy to get to. There's a spotting scope pocket. Here in the back there's a strap that goes all the way around it. Just clip that strap off and pull your spotting scope out. This is the Sig Oscar 880 millimeter spotter. I do have the all-in digiscoping adapter on to it so I can put my phone on it really quick. Then right next to the spotting scope pocket is basically a spot for your tripod. Then towards the bottom of the bag there's a little slot that your legs go into. Then there's just one simple little strappy pop off there at the top and that will let the tripod come out.

Speaker 1:

This is the Slick 624. It's carbon fiber tripod twist lock legs. Very compact, good for sitting you can kind of kneel with it but you can't stand with it. Just a good like backpacking, backcountry type, like nice to carry tripod. I think this, as far as I have used this, is the best bang for your buck.

Speaker 1:

As far as tripods go for a head, I like to go a little bit more extreme with the head. Spend a little more money, get a better head. This is the outdoorsman's pan head. This is actually the 2.0 model that they just redesigned in 2023. One thing that is super slick about this is it can take the outdoorsman's plates they're, you know, generic plates or it can take an arca plate all in the same head. So if you have arca and you have outdoorsman's plates, you can swap them back and forth super easy. They also made what they did with this we're going to have to dive into it on another podcast but this head can basically support 20 pounds now, instead of used to be like six or eight. Now it can hold 20. So that is awesome for a rating for such a small head. So excited to use that more.

Speaker 1:

Then, here on the side of the bag towards the bottom, on one of the sides, they have the same little slot pocket that was used for the tripod legs, and I have my glassing stool in here. So in the past, I've always just used a like a glassing seat or I've just sat on my pack, honestly. But this is a Hill Sound BTR. This is the 14 inch stool. They also make a 17 inch stool. Basically, it's a collapsible stool, so you pull it out and your legs extend. Take this little elasticy thingy off, let's see, and then you can pop the legs out and you have a really nice little stool to use. Let's see if I can figure this out. There we go. You have a nice little tripod stool to use.

Speaker 1:

I have noticed online that there's folks are like breaking them. They do have a weight limit on it and unfortunately, just like the bigger for the bigger guys they're probably. It's probably just not going to work very well, but it's worked pretty well for me so far. So, getting into actually, here on the side on the left hip belt, I have just a little accessories pocket headlamp, camera, batteries, my phone. Sometimes you know, basic, basic stuff, personal preference, whatever you want. Then here on my right hip belt, a little more horsepower. This is a JC custom kydex holster here on the right hip belt and I have a SIG P365 XL in it. That's just in a 9mm. People are nuts and I'm by myself a lot out in the field, and so it just makes me feel a little bit better. Then I have a water bottle pocket sitting right behind that with just an extra tall Nalgene, and for anyone with a Nalgene, you should get the human gear cap cap lid with it as well. It just makes it easier to drink out of Then going into the pack here, zipping open the main bag, gonna get into a little bit into clothing.

Speaker 1:

This is the Brooks Down. They call it the sweater. The Brooks Down sweater. It's a down lightweight, puffy jacket. It is supposed to be really hot down there but if it dips into you know mid 50s or low 50s and you tack a breeze onto it, it's going to be kind of chilly. So this is a super lightweight option to carry Packs down, really small and provides a lot of warmth. So just a lightweight down jacket. And then again, with it being hot, I might want to get out of the sun. So I brought, I'm going to bring, the Ikifaru sheep tarp. This is their smallest tarp. It's nice to just pitch with the trekking pole and tie it to trees, whatever you can, just to get some of that sunshine off of you.

Speaker 1:

Then for game bags, taking the Argali ultralight, the high country pack of game bags, I also have a little bit more paracord in here in case I need to hang quarters up and I need more rope. And then I have the Argali seric knife in here as well, and then here in the bottom of the bag. As usual, I always carry my first aid kit. Something kind of interesting that we ran into was I used to have them in just like a kafaru pullout. But I had like 16 kafaru pullouts with different stuff in them and they all look the same. So if anybody else needed to find my first aid kit, it'd be tough. So I got a yellow one and a markered first aid on it. It works. So I just have basic, basic first aid stuff in there. There is a tourniquet, basic repair type stuff, patches for sleeping pad, just it's just tenacious tape. If I need a patch of sleeping pad and just basic repair stuff, I always have in there. We'll go in depth on that on a different podcast.

Speaker 1:

All right, and then the last thing before I get rid of the pack the Argali Carbon X trekking poles. This is actually just one pole. I'll take two with me and leave one in the vehicle. At least, if I feel like I need to, I'll bring them, but for the most part, just one trekking pole. If, like, you're packing out or you're on really steep ground or you're doing a crick crossing or something like that or you're pitching a tarp, a trekking pole is just you'd be surprised at how many things is. Just it's nice to have.

Speaker 1:

So I'm gonna set the pack down here for a second and dive into clothing and the rest of my optics here. So, clothing-wise again, it's gonna be really hot. So I'm just gonna wear a t-shirt this is an Aero wool t-shirt, really comfy, like it's just nice to have a t-shirt with all the airflow is just nice. And then I'm gonna take the trace pant. This is also from First Light. First Light just has hip side, hip vents, so you can dump a lot of heat. It is a fabric that is just really airy and just breathes really well anyways, and yeah, so that is what I'm taking for pants, and then I have the trace shirt to match it. I will always have this with me.

Speaker 1:

This is, and this is like a shirt that I'll always take in camouflage, because it's like, in a sense I think of it as like a stocking shirt. So it'll stay in my pack for most of the time. I try not to get it like super stinky, but then when you're ready to go in, you can toss this thing on, have a camouflage top as you're stocking in and then have like a nice little barrier from the sun, still an airy shirt, and then it's just, and then a nice little wind blocker as well, really. And then rain gear, just a lightweight set of rain pants and rain jacket. If I'm being totally honest, I'll kind of just look at the weather for the day and it seems, if it seems like there's a possibility of some thunderstorms, I might pack both. If there's a high probability, there's a super low probability, maybe just a short shower, I'll just take a rain jacket, but that is basically what I'm gonna be having on my person. And then, even though it's an early season hunt, a lightweight set of gloves is really nice to just, like you know, maybe cut a little bit of the coldness in the morning.

Speaker 1:

But when you're hiking and you're grabbing onto stuff especially down there we're talking high desert there's gonna be a lot of pokey stuff, a lot of sharp rocks, and these are nice. If you get into a crazy canyon you're trying to canyon-ear yourself out of, these specific ones are, uh-oh yeah, the first light. They're the shale. They call them the shale touch, and basically there's like a little bit of padding on the knuckles. So if you're crawling, it gives you your knuckles a little bit of padding and then it's like a wool on the outside and on the inside it's like kind of a lighter leather type material that, just like I use these on my sheep hunt and they're still. They're still kicking, so gonna take those with me and then footwear to go right along with the rest of my clothing. These are the crispy altitude boot.

Speaker 1:

I think this boot for like kind of a you know, a high desert you're not talking like super, super steep canyons or much of anything like that this boot flexes pretty good, like as you're walking. It has some flex to it that direction, but torsionally, and what I mean by that is, if you like, take a hold of the back of the boot, you take a hold of the front of the boot and you twist it. That's what I think of. As far as torsionally stiff and I think a lot of companies talk about that's like a technical. It's like a technical aspect of it, like when, torsionally, when they're really stiff, they a lot of times they call them a technical boot. So this is kind of a good in between.

Speaker 1:

They did use leather on both sides, that is like along the side of the boot. It does have a full leather end as well, but that leather on the side, especially in rocky terrain, like when you got a lot of like shale rocks and things that can just wreck a boot faster than anything. I have a story about when I went to Alaska, the footwear that I chose to wear there. It worked really good down here in the lower 48, and I took them up to Alaska. I was in so much like really sharp, jagged, like shale rocks just all the time it just shredded the side of that boot and in that country it did it. But down here where I typically hunt, like I couldn't really get them. I couldn't get them to get destroyed. And then I took them to Alaska and it didn't take long at all. So they have the leather on the sides, which is really nice for like abrasion, and then they have a synthetic tongue that, just you know, breathes a little bit better and sometimes you can get a little bit better fit, I think, with a tongue. I have a whole idea on the footwear podcast we're gonna do and who I'm gonna bring on to talk about those things. But anyways, that's the crispy altitude boot and then kind of rounding out my optics and what else I'm gonna wear on my person here my vinyl harness.

Speaker 1:

This is the FHF Fob. It's new for this year it's a forward folding has magnets but it's really hard to get them to snap. Sometimes folks say like magnets are too loud for hunting because they snap. If you're careful you can be really, really quiet with these magnets. So, binoculars set of Zulu 9s these are the 9 by 45s, wider field of view, nine power, same as like a 10 by 42. Just a solid set of binoculars. And then here I have the outdoorsman's tripod adapter stud screwed in here to the front of the binoculars. And then in front of this harness there's a little zippered pocket I like to carry an extra battery for my rangefinder Chapstick, which is always real good to have, and then tags Like carrying them there in the front. And then I put a little accessory pocket here on the side wing and that I've got my headlamp in. The specific headlamp is a black diamond storm. And then I have the outdoorsman's tripod adapter for my binos to put on my tripod. So got those things in the side pocket and then here on the side of a new nifty little pocket or a little pouch thing from Catamount gear Mounts perfectly right here on the side of the harness and it is made to fit the Garmin Inreach Mini and you can keep it right here in this little pouch and recharge it so you have access to your charging ports.

Speaker 1:

One thing I really like just carrying it in side of my vinyl harness or so it's attached to it. It's gonna just never leaves my body, like if something crazy were to happen and I fell away from my pack or something. I just if it's that bad, I just don't even want a chance of having it away from my pack or having it away from my body. So this way it's just stuck on the side of my harness. On the other side they make a three round little rifle holder thing, rifle cartridge holder, sorry. So I do have three rounds in there, but no rifle coming with me, so it's probably pointless, but if I take them out I'll forget. And then I have a rangefinder pocket here on the right hand wing, so I'm right handed, so I can get to it better. And then this is the Sig 5K. And the cool thing about this rangefinder is they actually have a new archery program. So if you have like a Sig, any of like the newer, like the 5K, the 8K, the 10K, you can update the firmware and get the archery mode in this, where you basically input your speed and some other data and it will give you an accurate cut chart basically automatically when you range right through here. So I like that little rangefinder a lot. So that is the Bino harness.

Speaker 1:

Food wise, this is gonna change just a little bit depending on if I go overnight or not. I'm staying in the camper so I can have like normal regular food. Peanut butter and jelly is mostly what I consume on that kind of a deal. But there is a chance that I'm gonna go. I could go overnight, I could spike out for a night or two trying to get close to a buck, if I find one. So I do have my backpacking gear that I'm gonna take with me. If I get to do that, I'm gonna go over here in a second. But food wise, if I end up doing that, I will just grab one of these packs right here that backpack logistics made for me. So basically, this is a website. It's called Backpack Logistics. You get on their website and you basically can custom make a meal pack, and so essentially what they are doing is they are just taking some of the work out of it for you. You can just get on and order the meal packs that you want, instead of going to the store and kind of doing it yourself. But anyways, it's really handy and it's a cool company and the Whitward dudes are awesome. So this says Jordan's custom meal kit.

Speaker 1:

And here I have for breakfast Quaker oatmeal, apples and cinnamon for this one. For lunch I have Kraft mac and cheese. Two pouches is what they give you and that is actually super clutch for even though it's like a warm meal in the middle of a hot day. The days are so long that oftentimes it's well needed and most of the time I'm going to be going back to the trailer anyways. So anyway, mac and cheese is great. Dinner in this one I have a peak refueled beef stroganoff. I just mixed and matched on the dinners and kind of did different things with the recent order that I made.

Speaker 1:

Snack number one I have the Cates peanut butter dark chocolate bars. Those are my absolute favorite. I love them. Snack number two Ritz cheese crackers keep it simple. Either the cheese or the peanut butter ones. They're so good and for some reason crackers I just like want to eat them if they have peanut butter or cheese in them. Snack three Snickers keep it simple. You don't need all these, like I mean unless you want to. But I always want to eat Snickers like sometimes you go with like some kind of a crazy organic bar or whatever. That sounds good or is like super high calories per ounce and it doesn't taste good. Snickers is always a good go to. Snack number four I have Smile. They call them Smile Fruit Pouches, fruit Snack Pouches. They're Walmart great value Smile Fruit Fruities, snackie thingies and they're really good. So I like those.

Speaker 1:

I have Wilderness Athlete, energy and focus just a drink mix. And then I have Wilderness Athlete, hydrate and Recover, the Blue Raspberry's Dlish and I have that in there. So that is a day of food. If I'm hunting out of the camper I might just pull this Peacree fuel out and not use it, but the snacks in there are pretty tried and true of what I eat on the daily. And then if I end up going on an overnighter I am going to take some backpacking gear. So I basically just have everything in this dry bag right now, just so it's all consolidated.

Speaker 1:

But the first thing, water is going to be a definite problem or a situation. So I just have a MSR 6 liter bladder. You can just haul 6 liters of water in. I'm personally counting on about 3 liters of water a day. I should probably drink more than that, but it's just a thing that usually I don't. So that would last me, like you know, a night and a half or so if I needed to Tent wise. So since I'm going to be by myself super pumped to be able to try this tent out, hopefully, this is the new Argali a Waihi. This is a one person tent pitches with one trekking pole, so it is pretty dang light. This is the canopy, and then I got the insert for it as well. Basically gives you a floor with bug netting again being hot, kind of high-deserty if there's a chance of snakes. Like no way in hell will you ever catch me without a boundary of some kind from those things.

Speaker 1:

Sleeping pad I actually really love the sleeping pad. This is the X-pad ultra 5R. Absolutely love it. I got the wide version. Highly recommend getting the wide version of any sleeping pad that you're going to get. Just gives you a place for your elbows to go. Your arms don't end up on the ground as much. They're a little bit bigger packing size, weigh just a teensy bit more, but totally worth it. My opinion here.

Speaker 1:

Then, before we get to the quilt here I'm just going to dig into the stove so I just have one fuel canister and then I have the TOX 550 milliliter cup with an MSR pocket rocket deluxe stove. Absolutely love it. This is such a great system if one person is just going backpacking and or a lot of times like I'll carry this in the field with me if I'm gonna, if I know I'm gonna stay out all day, especially if it's gonna be cool, I want to make a hot meal in the middle of the day or like make coffee or tea or whatever I can do that. And then I just have a long spoon there in the bottom and I keep it all inside of this little FHF gear pocket. And then for the sleeping bag. It's actually a quilt.

Speaker 1:

This is a enlightened equipment enigma. It is a 15 degree quilt. I believe the footbox is sewn in. I've been so pumped about this quilt is so comfy to sleep in, unlike any other quilt. I've tried and it really like turn me around to be a believer in the high-end, like good quality quilts. So take that. And then, lastly, I think, yep, this is a little extra. I like being a little extra sometimes.

Speaker 1:

So this is a Nemo Filo Luxury Pillow, so really smooth, like kind of like a sweaty type comfortable surface on it. And it's an air pillow. He blow it up. She is a little big but it has a little bit of foam and air in it. So it is super comfy and it's just become quite the staple for me.

Speaker 1:

So I'll dive into the archery equipment that I will be using. So this is the Matthews V3X. I bought this last year so I've hunted it with a year. I took it to Alaska, shot a caribou with it. It's just been super smooth. It's like extremely quiet. Absolutely love it.

Speaker 1:

So what I've got on here? I'm pulling about 60 pounds. I have a 28-inch draw. I couldn't tell you what I'm getting for speed out of it. This is the 29-inch axle to axle. It's not it's the shorter one, it's not the long one. For release I'm shooting the Carter First Choice. It's a thumb release. I really like that.

Speaker 1:

Shooting a Matthews stabilizer here up front Matthews branded stabilizer and then for my sight I have the Black Gold Bat Country. This is the SNS archery version, I believe, and I have it in a five pin and then it's also an adjustable, so I do have my sight tape on it. I can adjust it and use my bottom pin as the reference. For the rest, I have the QAD Ultra-Rest. This one is made for the new integrated system that Matthews has. I have a Hamsky peep on here and then let's see what else For my quiver. Pop this thing off. This is just the Matthews the five arrow quiver. I believe this is just the one piece detachable Inside of it, the arrows that I'm shooting this year, or at least for deer. This year I think I'm gonna bump up to a bit heavier arrow for an elk hunt that I have coming up in the middle of September, but for deer, like mule deer here in the west and then Y-tail back in Nebraska, like this is gonna be great.

Speaker 1:

I think this was a custom build and these are the Black Eagle Rampage. These are the 350s I'm shooting 125 grain broad head up front. Day six that's a day six broad head, 125 grains. And then here on the end I have from DCA Custom Arrows. I have his personal fletchings on there and then he wrapped it with the meat eater wrap, which I thought was pretty cool.

Speaker 1:

So with this setup I'm like 445 grains. It's a little lighter than I've run in the past. Usually I've been up from the 480 to the 500 grain mark. Last year I was shooting 510 grains, shot of care boots 60 yards. He ran like 50 yards and toppled over. So super great setup. But this shooting 445 grains with that good broad head up front, I'm still super confident in this setup Gives me a little flatter trajectory. My pin gaps aren't quite so big, so going five in the quiver there. So, yeah, that pretty much rounds me out for what I'm taking to Utah and if you have any questions on this stuff, go to jordan-budcom and all the ways of submitting your questions are gonna be on there. So until next time, remember, gear's great but experience is key, so get out in the field. We'll talk to you guys later. All right, hopefully that answered a lot of questions for you. Hopefully it was beneficial.

Speaker 1:

I do want to go through here. I do want to mention something I guess real quick. I do have some other stuff that I'm testing, some new gear that's coming out, actually next year. I can't talk about yet, but so I'll be intermixing some of that stuff. I also have the new outdoorsman's carbon and Niagara tripod, I think, like I brought up a little bit in the video, so I can be swapping some of that stuff out and just kind of like testing things and be able to speak to them. But for the most part, what I just went through is like my base setup. If I could only have that stuff with me and not have other things to switch out just to test, like I would totally get through. That hunch is fine. So yeah, with that I want to answer a listener question real quick. So let me I'm gonna key that up right now.

Speaker 1:

Jordan, do you use a Bino adapter to put the Bino's on a tripod? Good question. So yeah, I do. I think that that is really important as you're looking into getting into more optics and things like that. I think a really good pair of binoculars are like worth the money first and if you can put those things on a tripod, like even better. So, like I went into in the video a little bit, I did. I do have.

Speaker 1:

I use the outdoor, I use a lot of outdoors and stuff. I just really like their heads and I like their integration into different things, which I'll dive into a little further on some other episodes. But With that outdoorsman's head I do have to carry the little tripod adapter post that goes basically on your binoculars on the very front, like where you, where the Focus wheel is, on the very front of that Most binoculars there's just a little, it's a little threaded insert usually has the company's logo on it. You can unscrew that and from outdoorsman's you can get what they call a binoc stud and you can screw it Into there so it gives a little. I don't know. It's like a little nipple locking piece thing and then you carry a Tripod adapter by no adapter, it's a post. It clips on to your it like quick detaches and attaches on to your Binoculars and then it slides on to that outdoorsman's head. There are other options for that as well.

Speaker 1:

So right here Let me see. So right here I have the. It's an aziac binoclamp is what it's called. This is an awesome low binow adapter. So if you're listening to this you can't see it. It's basically it's a Circle piece. It's a circle clamp that will clamp on to the end of your binos or like the barrel of your binoculars, and Then on the bottom of it has a super low profile, little like built-in plate that is Arca compatible. So let me switch back views here so you can get a better look at it here.

Speaker 1:

So basically it clamps on to the barrel of your binoculars. It's low profile enough that I believe with any binocular they say it's gonna be able to clamp into your or it's gonna be able to fit into your binocular harness, whereas, like my outdoorsman's, with that post I have. The tall post just gives you a little bit more room to play with things. I guess on the head it's too long to fit into my Bino harness already on the binoculars, so I have to take it off. It's not that big of a deal. I put it in the front of my binocular harness. It always stays there, I like now. I never lose it, but it could be lost, I suppose.

Speaker 1:

Whereas, like, this little guy can clamp onto the binos and it can slide right into your Head. That's arches, swiss compatible, or there is actually a hole on the bottom of it that you can put whatever plate that you use. If you do that, you probably aren't gonna be able to slide it right in and out of your binocular harness. It's gonna be a little bulky that way, but it is this cool little thing it's. It's affordable, compact and it's a good option to mount your binos to a tripod. So go check that out.

Speaker 1:

That's from azq equipment. It's a binoclamp, is what they call it, and awesome. So that wraps up our first listener question. If you go to Jordan dash bud calm, you can write me a question via email, or there's also a link that will take you over to speak pipe, which is where I just played that voicemail from. So basically it lets you leave a an audio voicemail so you can like ask the question that you want and then it'll get played here on air. So it's kind of just a cool new way to type in your question and say whatever else you want to say. So any more questions or suggestions? And yeah with that, appreciate you tuning in to episode one and Look forward to episode two soon.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for listening to this episode of Jordan's toolkit. If you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, please visit the website Jordan dash bud calm and follow the links to submit an email or voicemail to be played on air. If you're listening on an audio platform, you can also watch this podcast on YouTube via Jordan buds personal channel.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Jordan Budd

Host
Head Shot

Lea Piper

Co-host