#057 - Brian Barney | Winners are Made in the Offseason

In this episode of The Hunt Stealth Podcast, Ryan Uffens sits down with bowhunting icon Brian Barney host of Eastmans’ Elevated, writer for Eastmans’ Hunting Journal, and a true backcountry hunting machine. Brian shares his incredible journey from a Pacific Northwest wrestler to one of the most respected DIY public land hunters in the West.

The two dive deep into what it really takes to succeed in the mountains: offseason preparation, high opportunity hunts, mental toughness, and building a life that supports your passion. Brian walks through the mindset shifts that make the difference between tagging out and going home early and recounts the emotional rollercoaster of his high-country mule deer hunt above 12,000 feet.

This is more than just a hunting episode it's a masterclass in grit, passion, and living with purpose, both on and off the mountain.

🏹 7 Key Takeaways:

Winners Are Made in the Offseason - Mental and physical preparation year-round is essential—there is no real offseason if you want to be a next-level bowhunter.

High-Opportunity Hunts Build Skill - Targeting hunts with more reps (like antelope or whitetail does) can accelerate learning and help refine stalking and shooting under pressure.

E-Scouting Isn’t Enough—Get Boots on the Ground - Digital tools can only take you so far. Scouting trips build terrain familiarity, hone instincts, and simulate real hunt scenarios.

Mental Toughness is the #1 Skill - Success often comes to those who don’t quit. Brian’s story of missing a dream buck—then hiking over 50,000 vertical feet to tag another—is a raw lesson in resilience.

Use Pressure to Your Advantage - Brian strategically avoids high-pressure areas, hunts mid-week or second-week seasons, and constantly adapts to stay one step ahead.

Be a Present Father and Hunter - Bowhunting isn’t just about the kill. The lessons from the mountain—discipline, patience, focus—carry over into being a better husband, father, and leader.

Shrink the Mountain Through Preparation - “Shrink the mountain” became a recurring theme. When you're physically and mentally dialed, the terrain feels less intimidating, and success becomes more accessible.

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Transcript

Ryan Uffens (00:00)
You're listening to the Hunt Stealth Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Uffens. Enjoy the show.

Ryan Uffens (00:10)
Hey guys excited to have Brian Barney on the podcast today. Brian is a highly respected figure in the Western hunting community. He's known for his expertise in bow hunting and his dedication to public land pursuits. He is based in Annis Montana. And as we were talking before, Brian said he spends at least 100 days each year in the field chasing big game across the rugged landscapes of the American West. Brian is also the host of the Eastman's elevated podcast and

He shares a ton of in-depth hunting strategies, gear insights, and his personal stories that resonate with seasoned hunters as well as newcomers like myself. So ⁓ he's also a writer for the Eastman's Hunting Journal where he further showcases his commitment to ethical hunting practices and continuous improvement to the craft. Brian, thanks for joining me, man.

Brian Barney (01:01)
Yeah, thanks for having me. It's really nice to meet you, Ryan. That's a heck of an intro. You sound like a podcast pro over there. That's pretty good.

Ryan Uffens (01:08)
Well, I might not be a great hunter, but I'm getting good at doing podcast intro. So anyway, well, it's super appreciative of you being willing to make the time and come on. I think you do have great insight and you do a ton of fun stuff. And for people that are new to the game, they should definitely give you a follow and we'll put links to the show notes ⁓ to your profiles and, and websites, things like that. So Brian, as

Brian Barney (01:12)
Yeah, good deal.

Ryan Uffens (01:36)
Is there anything else about hunting that that kind of like in your background maybe I didn't touch on there that maybe you'd like to share with folks?

Brian Barney (01:44)
⁓ Yeah, I think the reason why guys like to listen to the podcast is just I have a common thread with most guys that I'm doing it like you're doing it, like everybody listening is doing it publicly and self-guided, do it yourself. And really I've just poured a bunch of passion into it. And so I was a wrestler in high school and I learned some great lessons just about the harder I worked at something, the more I could achieve.

⁓ so I really learned like work ethic and, ⁓ had such a passion for it and the harder I worked, the better I got. And so as I got done with, wrestling, needed a place for my passion and my family had always hunted, but nobody had bow hunted and, kind of fell in love with bow hunting and, ⁓ just had like this immense amount of passion that I poured into it. And so, ⁓ moved from the Pacific Northwest to Ennis, Montana when I was 19 and

just immersed myself in the outdoors, everything I could do every season I could hunt. And that was bow and rifle seasons. was hunting shed horns, hunting spring bears, and then started to have some success locally and really fell in love with like the challenge of the bow and getting close. And so was about 2004, 2005, I committed a hundred percent to the bow.

Started traveling around the West like taking on these different challenges of different species and different environments and really mastering my craft of bow hunting and From there. I've just shared my journey with guys Started the podcast now. We're in our tenth year of Eastman's elevated. So that's been ⁓ a Huge success for me is to start that and just like you Ryan like I learned so much from the podcast I'm able to have like these great

in-depth conversations with other successful hunters. So it's just been a great journey. I think every year I'm more fired up for the fall hunting season. So ⁓ it's a bit of an addiction, but a healthy addiction.

Ryan Uffens (03:46)
Yeah, no, couldn't agree more. It's a ton of fun. And I like you have started when I got started, I'm like, I'm only going to do bow hunting. And, ⁓ you know, as I've done these different podcasts interviews and tell people that they're like, dude, you started with like the most difficult type of hunting you could possibly do. And I think it's because part of it's the challenge. Part of it's like the like you said, like getting in close to the animal and trying to be stealth. And and maybe it's like a poll to like our

primal instincts to be able to provide. I think all the time about the mountain man that first came out west. And I'm going, if I was one of the first guys and I was just getting started at my age, I would have been one of the dudes found frozen on the side of the mountain. Because I don't know what the heck I'm doing. But I'm starting to figure it out. Like you said, you just sit down and have these in-depth conversations. And as you go back and replay things, that experiences you had, it helps make you better at what you do.

Like I said, I'm getting it done this year. I'm going to be putting something down.

Brian Barney (04:47)
Yeah.

You nailed it, Ryan. Yeah, it is like taking these pieces and parts away and applying it to your own hunting and your own experiences. experience is the best teacher. So you're putting days under your belt, which is great. And yeah, it is. They say there's a quote from Fred Bear that says, history of mankind is the history of the bow and arrow. I screwed that all up. But basically saying the...

You know, the reason that we exist as ⁓ humans is because of our skill set or our ability to hunt that's tied back 200,000 years or more. And so, yeah, man, it is in our DNA. And with a bow and arrow, it really feels like it's the most intimate relationship with nature you can have because you're really taking part in this predator-prey relationship. And not that you're not doing that with a rifle, but just with the bow.

trying to get close, that challenge of trying to be undetected and then to keep it all together under that fog of adrenaline and make a shot, it's just been the ultimate for me that I just keep chasing and there's no ceiling to how good you can get at it as you work on your craft of bow hunting. It takes all these different skill sets from physical fitness to mental toughness to ⁓ execution of a shot to ⁓ map research and study to

to your instincts and being able to stalk and get in close. so, yeah, man, I'm totally hooked like it sounds like you are too.

Ryan Uffens (06:23)
Yeah. Yeah, sometimes I wish there was like, ⁓ like a bow hunting boot camp. Like, I mean, minus like the waterboarding that the seals go through, but something like that, that could just like take you to a next level. Because, like once you there's guys that are willing to help you, but they're all trying to do their own pursuit, right? So, I mean, they'll give you advice and give you things, but unless you just get out there, there's really no other way for you like immerse yourself into, you know, learning how to become a good bow hunter. So

As you had mentioned, quotes, there was one that I talked with you kind of before we started recording and it's you had said, winners are made in the off season. Elaborate on that because as you had mentioned, like when you had first come from the Pacific Northwest out to Montana, you decided you were going to go all in on it. How did you how do you or how would you recommend somebody who ⁓ is an adult onset hunter, engage in that and be able to be physically prepared for when the

when the hunting season arrives.

Brian Barney (07:24)
Yeah, I do think winners are made in the off season and it's you get out of it what you put into it. And so, you you think if you're if you really love it and you're really passionate about it, if you work at the different skill sets it takes to be a great bow hunter, you can improve. You know, even if it's a tenth of a percent per day or a hundredth of a percent per day, pretty soon you add up 10 days or 100 days and you've got one percent better than you were last season. And so

What I really focus on, I focus on the physical fitness. Definitely want to be in great shape to hunt the mountains. And through physical fitness and through the discipline of making myself do it day in and day out, I'm also adding these layers of mental toughness. And whatever we want to do in life, it all starts and ends with the mind. It's just deciding we want to do something, deciding we want to be a good bow hunter, and then it's working on those skill sets. And so,

You know, it's working, you every day I can run or I can ⁓ do like a, like a mountain tough workout or CrossFit style workout. Every day I can shoot my bow. ⁓ Every day, instead of sitting in front of the TV, I can be on my on X on my Google Earth. can be looking at units, trying to get a hunt plan for the season. And then, you know, I think along with that, it's adding like a lot of these high opportunity hunts. Like as a bow hunter, we need reps, we need practice stalking and

we learn ⁓ far greater by our mistakes than we do our successes, you know? And so failing and moving in and like say you move in on a buck and you know your brain's telling you to hurry up and get to the spot where you can see him and you hurry up but he hears you and he looks in your direction and he catches that movement and he blows out of there.

You know, that hurts because you've been hunting the back country for how many days to get this opportunity. You rushed it in the end and you busted this buck. So that like gets processed, you know, into your hard drive. Like, okay, I need to really take my time when I get close. I need to not get too excited. I need to keep the element of surprise. So then that goes into your decision making for the next one and really helps like hone your instincts. So these high opportunity hunts like Antelope, ⁓

⁓ with a bow are really difficult. It's open country, but you know deer elk you may get three to five stocks a season. Antelope you can get three to five stocks a day. And so that's like a good high opportunity hunt. White-tailed does in the river bottom are a great high opportunity hunt and a lot of rutting muley hunts ⁓ like late season muley hunts with good populations or early seasons ones for that matter. You know, you can still get decent reps. It's a high opportunity hunt. So

I try to add a lot of those high opportunity hunts to get those reps and stalking and shooting. But yeah, being a good bow hunter, it's a year round pursuit and it's a lifestyle. And so really there are, there is no off season for me. I continue to work hard to be at my very best when I get to these hunts in the fall.

Ryan Uffens (10:31)
Yeah. So this might be a stupid question, but as you were talking about giving yourself opportunities and you know, this will be one of the first years that I've really that for what, for my hunts that I'm doing, I'm to go out and try and do some like scouting in advance. Cause a lot of times like, you know, you do the on X and go hunt and you get out there and you try and do your best, but

not everybody has the opportunity to, you know, spend 100 days, let alone 30 days. mean, you might, you know, when I first started, I had like a couple weekends I was able to go and try and, ⁓ you know, I got in on one elk and it was great. And that was what hooked me. It was like my very first experience, but didn't get a shot on him. But but as I was thinking, like, if you're out doing scouting, and you're new, would it be a bad idea to like,

I'm going to act like I'm going to try and get in close to this animal to see if I can get close enough to give a shot. I had never thought of that until you were talking about that. Is that stupid? Maybe, maybe not.

Brian Barney (11:33)
No,

it's a great idea, man. You can stock mule deer does, mule deer bucks that you find, and really this scouting trip is a way to get extra days experience. It's really a trial run for hunting season, and you're doing everything but the shot. But yeah, you get to work on your ⁓ woodsman skills, like to be able to make camp, choose safe place. You just get comfortable with the woods. You cover country in the miles, and...

Yeah, you can e-scout, but e-scout is defined like likely terrain and likely spots. And I've been doing it for so many years that I know what a bucky location or an elk location looks like. It's still no guarantee there's going to be animals there. And so I find these likely spots and then I have to go check them during season or during scouting. so, yeah, I would use the opportunity this summer to do bonsai scouting trips. And that's going to be exactly what I'm doing as well is ⁓

Yeah, once I've got all my hunts figured out, I'll kind of make a scouting plan and I'll go for two to three days and I'll cover a bunch of miles and I'll camp along the way and I'll be glassing up deer, glassing up and locating them. It's really great if you're scouting for early season mule deer because where you find them in the summer is where they'll be late August, early September when you're hunting them. ⁓ Even if you have a late September, early October tag, knowing where those deer

primary grounds or primary living area is, is great information because they do tighten up their programs when they shed their velvet, they get their gray coats on, they feel hunting pressure, they move what's down to what's like I call secondary living, which is still extreme terrain. It's just about a thousand feet off the top and it's more in shoots and slides and they've got their gray coats on so they're not showing themselves as much during daylight hours. So

Scouting is always a good idea. It's a great idea for high country mule deer to know where those bucks are hanging. For elk, like when I'm scouting for elk, I'm looking for sign, I'm looking for tracks and scrapes and wallows that says that this is rutting grounds. I'm also looking for the cows and I'm not looking for any bulls that time of year. The bulls are in bachelor herds and they're like in more extreme country. And as soon as the rut kicks off, even the pre-rut, like around the 5th of September,

those bulls are gonna start to move to those cows to try to breed them, to try to get their harem and break them up. So when I'm scouting elk, I'm scouting sign, but even if you're not finding the exact animals, you're getting familiar with the terrain. Like on X and Google Earth seem to shrink the terrain where it always looks like it's smaller than it is. And then you get there and it's huge and you can only cover a third or a quarter of what you planned on. So it's good to get eyes on country. It's good to go hike through it.

Ryan Uffens (14:20)
Yeah

Brian Barney (14:24)
It's good to find where the access points are because even though roads are marked and trailheads are marked, you know, some roads are closed, some roads are open. It's just good to get a feel for the unit, get your boots to ground. So scouting trips are awesome.

Ryan Uffens (14:40)
Yeah, I remember going out on our my first, you know, ⁓ elk hunt and I had an area I was told this is about where it's at. You know, they're not giving me pins, but they're like, you're about in this area. And we're like three and a half miles in. I'm like, I mean, not far, but I'm like, this is like, this is the area. This on the maps, like we should be there. And I'm like,

Nope, we were still a mile and a half out. like to your point where like you look at something on a map, like I'm trying to get whatever connection I can. I'm like, I have to be in the right place. And then you can start digging down to go and try and, you know, find the different areas that you want to get into. I'm like, yep, nope, this is not the right finger to try and go down. And you come back and reset. So that was a learning experience for sure. ⁓

Brian, one of the things that you said that because you've done so much e-scouting and that you've just had so much time in the field, when you talk about looking for areas that are like bucky, right? Like what do you look for? Like is someone that's new that's just doing, maybe they can only do e-scouting. Like what would you look for as far as like the different types of terrains if you wouldn't mind sharing that?

Brian Barney (15:55)
Yeah, yeah, happy to share. So, ⁓ you know, there is a human element to the way that game animals interact with the landscape. so hunting pressure ⁓ is a variable. And in most of the places that we're going to draw are going to be high pressure hunting. And so I definitely take that into account. And so I know that there's going to be a bunch of guys that park at the trailhead. I know that guys are going to be accessing off roads. And then I also know

the trails in the wilderness or the highways of the backcountry. And so when I'm looking at things like on the map instantly, I start drawing a mile by each road and I cross that country out. It's not that there won't be game animals in there. It's not that you can't find them. But for me, looking for an older age class animal, that's not typically going to be the spot that I'm going to find them.

I also draw a two mile circle around the trailhead because that's about the length that guys can day hunt out of there. They can go a little bit further, but I don't even start hunting. So I'm almost like crossing spots off the map as I go through. And then I can see like where these zones of pressure are going to be from these humans. And I can find these places that don't have trails that don't have roads that are maybe tough to access to go in. And I know these animals are going to refuge in those spots. So that's like.

one thing that I'm factoring in and as far as yep.

Ryan Uffens (17:17)
Is that Brian, is that the

same for whether you're like, like looking for like Bucky areas or like bully areas? I mean, I would imagine those two things would probably parallel. Yeah.

Brian Barney (17:28)
That's exactly right. Yeah, it's,

⁓ you know, it's, am looking for the buckiest features or the best features, but I know if it's right next to a main road, guys are gonna see it and they're gonna make a play on those elk or they're gonna make stocks on those bucks and they're gonna push them into the country that's unpressured. So I definitely factor that in to where bucky and, and a elky country is. And then as far as like the terrain or the country that I'm looking at, I really focus on the food source. So,

I'm looking for, you know, if it's early season, I'm probably looking in the high country and I'm looking at Alpine Basins. So I'm looking at for lush green grass. I really like grass top mountains instead of rock top mountains. So when they have grass tops or grass basins where these snow drifts can melt off creates like this neon green grass right there, which creates really good food for the mule deer.

And so I know to kind of look for these places now, mule deer need cover as well. So I'm looking for little patches of timber, little vertical ⁓ slices of timber that they can kind of find cover in, in the steep so they can feed that basin and go on to the next. And then really again, with e-scouting, I'm looking at likely country that I, that I circle that it's just like, man, it just looks like mule deer country to me. It's got the bold basins that I like. It's got grass tops. They've got cover.

I circle it, there is no guarantee that there'll be bucks there, but I try to find like four five of those basins that link up together from a ridge line where it's like, okay, I can go into this ridge line and now I can glass this basin. If the bucks aren't there, I keep moving. And then I've got another basin to look at and another basin and another one. if I don't find them in this area.

Can I pack up my tent and move three miles back and look at totally different country? So I'm really looking to connect country and I'm finding these likely spots that I'm searching, even though there isn't a guarantee there's an animal, there's a high likelihood that if I hit enough of them, like I'll find that bachelor herd of bucks that I'm looking for.

Ryan Uffens (19:29)
That's great advice. Yeah, that's, it's those little things that I mean, you think about it, but either way you described it, it makes it easy to kind of go through, make a checklist and do some e scouting and be like, okay, now I know whereabouts in this unit I want to go and dig into. So I appreciate you sharing that with us.

Brian Barney (19:48)
Yeah, yeah for sure. Elk I look for a lot of pocket parks and a lot of feed. Elk need water every single day which is different from mule deer that get a lot of their water content from their feed and the dew on the grasses. So you don't see big bucks drink that often unless you're ⁓ hunting the south like hunting the desert and different places like that. And those places I do key in on water and I'll walk for tracks around water holes and things and look for tracks and focus on those but...

Basically, elk need water every day. So water has got to factor into your e-scouting where there's major creeks, major drainages where they can get water every single day. And so as I'm scouting for elk, like I start to find lush bottoms are like really good, like meadowy bottoms, and they really like pocket parks. Like they don't want a wide open, huge south face hillside that's wide open. They feel exposed on it.

So instead they'd love to be like on a north side with a really lush pocket park that they can hit or a combination of pocket parks or a really lush bottom that they can hit. then elk love to disappear into that thick timber for the day. So they love like north side, thick timber. And then inside that thick timber, I don't chase them in the timber too often unless they're on their feet and bugling, but you can find benches in that country and those benches make perfect spots for those elk to bed down.

So really looking for cover, pocket parks, lush bottom. So I'm still looking for feed, but I'm not on the very top of the mountain. And of course, like elk can start up there in Colorado and things, and every area is different. But these are just like common themes that I look for when I'm looking for elk. They tend to be a thousand, 2000 feet off the tops where the mule deer want to be right on the tops.

Ryan Uffens (21:32)
That's good advice. I, you know, as I look back at some of the things that I've done, I went out some of those areas you described that I found, but it was like way too early in the season. Like it was still so hot and I'm like, they're not like you saw you. I would find some signs, but I'm like. Maybe they'll come. I mean what what I'm seeing I could tell like they had been there, but it's been awhile like they haven't been there recently and as a new hunter I make you know some.

questionable decisions where I'm like, well, I'm gonna hang out and see if something shows up. And yeah, nothing has but ⁓

Brian Barney (22:08)
So I

think elk is being really nomadic. And so you have to be nomadic too. They have a network of feeding features and bedding features that they use on a mountain range. And there's a lot of places that elk aren't. They're in pockets. And elk move through this mountain range. And so you may have been in a great spot. Maybe that spot was just great next week or the week before. And so when I'm hunting elk, I keep really mobile and I cover a bunch of country. I don't set a base camp for 10 days.

I'm really moving around and I, I'll go hunt up a drainage and if I don't find elk, I'm out of there and then I'm, I'm mobile. I'm moving to another drainage or I'm going to move my camp, but I keep moving. Just like you stated, like I don't do good waiting for elk to show up. I do good covering country and going to find them. So I'm heat checking all these spots day in, day out looking for elk. And then once I find them elk like being around other elk. So you hear a bull bugle, you see a cow and a bull.

maybe go over to where they're at. Sometimes you'll find out that there's three or four herds of elk and four or five bulls in there chopping it up. And so I really keep mobile when I'm hunting elk. And again, the e-scouting is for likely spots, but you want to have four, five, six, seven of those spots in your back pocket. Go in there, heat check it, see if the elk are there. And by heat checking it, you got to be in there at the right times. If you leave at daybreak and you get back to the good elk spot at 10 in the morning,

Well, those bulls are put away. They're not bugling anymore and they're in the thick trees and it looks like nothing's there. And so it's really doing those little things of hiking in the dark, being back into that drainage when the lights come on. And then you can listen for bugles and look for elk. If you don't see them in a session back there, I mean, sometimes I'll stretch it to an evening session. If I really feel like elk are in there, I can cover it. But for the most part, if I don't see him or hear him and I'm there at the right times, that gets crossed off the list and I'm into the next spot.

Ryan Uffens (24:04)
Yeah, I think that's one of the things well, not I think that is one of the things that I would do wrong. It's like I, would get up and try and get in there early in the morning. And then I stay there all day because like the area there is that I've been going into the past couple years as far as hunting elk and that go. I mean, I've seen moose I've seen mule deer back there, coyotes, bears, like I've seen everything but the elk that I'm after. And and I think

A lot of it is like I'm just going in either I'm going in too early and then I just sit it to see what happens. And in the beginning, I 100 % didn't understand like the winds and thermals and things like that. So like, yeah, I've talked to a couple of guys and they're like, yeah, no, you're you're letting them know, like, don't come back here. Because I mean, you don't know what you don't know. But that's why you get out there and learn. So.

I think that's, I think that's great advice, like to figure out what time you need to go in there. And I've even talked to a couple other guys that they said like, yeah, in the evening, once they start bugling, like if you have the ability, like walk the canyons, you know, and see if you can figure out if you can hear any of them. And then once you do, you can come up with a game plan for the next day to try and like move or, or get on that, uh, that slot that has, you know, potentially some milk in there. I if you're hearing them up there, they're there.

The hard part is the area that I'd been like the only bugling I had heard were other people trying to bugle. And I'm like, that is not elk close, but like I don't even try and bugle. can't, I'm the worst. Like I think if there was like the worst bugle award, like that would be something that I could win in hunting. But you don't bugle or call elk in, do you?

Brian Barney (25:53)
No, that's right. I just want to give you a couple tips that'll help you out in that country too. your buddies are giving you really good advice and you have like such a great approach and way that you're like looking objectively at your hunting and how you can improve it. So the key to killing elk is being into elk. And that's like one of the biggest skill sets of elk hunting is finding and being into elk, making plays, trying to make something happen. And through locating them, it is being in the right spots at the right times.

I don't find much middle of the day. Sometimes they can be worked up and they can bugle throughout the day, but really I focus on that morning and night. Where do I want to be at that first light for those first couple hours? What country do I want to cover? And I will run master vantage points that show off a lot of country, but the majority of the times I'm just hunting through country, either a ridge line and I'm glassing every little opening I can see and I come across and I'll work those two hours in the morning. If I don't locate elk.

It's like, then where do I want to be at night? Like, where do I want to be in the evening session? So then I'm covering a new spot then. And like your buddies say, like hiking in and hiking out in the dark, do the majority of their rutting at night in the dark. And so you'll hear them walking in and walking out. And once you hear them, like you're on bulls, like you've located one, now you're hunting them, key to killing them is being in tomb. The other thing I do is like, use the night. So.

Ryan Uffens (26:55)
Mm.

Brian Barney (27:17)
I'm not hunting them at night with my bow, but I will cover country at night and whether that's driving logging roads and stopping every couple miles and I just get out and I just listen and some guys will put bugles out there and try to get answers. think like the elk bugle, no matter if we're calling at them or not, but it's not a bad tactic, but I just stop every couple miles and I listen. And not this past year, but the year before I killed a good bull doing that where I made a hike in the evening into this spot. Saw a few cows, didn't see a bull.

And then I was driving out to meet my buddy. We were going to camp that night. I was just stopping every couple miles and I heard a bull bugle up in the timber. And then the next morning I was on them and ended up arrow in that bowl. And so, ⁓ like if you use that night, you can either, you know, be driving roads and stopping here and there, or just camp at a spot where you're like listening, where you think elk would be like an amphitheater, like above a drainage. And if you camp there, if those bulls sound off at night, like now you got a bull to go to in the morning. So.

Yeah, it's so important. I forgot your question there, Ryan. I just wanted to touch on that for Locate Nail.

Ryan Uffens (28:19)
Yeah, no, I think that's great. And I don't know that I had a question more than it was just me recognizing some of the things that I had done wrong. And yeah, so, you know, as, as you

You've talked a little bit about the mental side and getting in there and the physical training and the year round preparation that you do. What's your take on as a bow hunter? How important is developing that mental toughness?

Brian Barney (28:52)
I think it's the best attribute you could have. It's a backcountry hunter. I really think the mind, like you're gonna have to ride in, ride out ups and downs of a hunt and just to keep yourself in it. So like a positive attitude and I know

Like it's a bit cliche to talk about a positive attitude, but you, get into hunting areas and all of a sudden the elk aren't there or you get into a hunting area and all of a sudden there's hunting pressure and guys hunting it. And it's really easy to be down in that situation in, in which you are, you're disappointed. You've come into this area and now the elk aren't there. And so now you've got to recalibrate. You've got to look at the situation and I just kind of focus on my next move. Like I theorize.

Okay, so they're not here. Where is my plan B spot? Where am I hiking into tonight to go find elk? Okay, there's guys in here. They got to be pushing the elk somewhere. Maybe the elk are lower. Maybe I'll go lower tomorrow and I'll go look. like keeping that positive attitude and then it's like extremely difficult. And so like to it's like a ⁓ long form endurance, like day after day, putting out that output and putting in that effort, like eventually equals getting into elk and killing a bull.

And so like just keeping myself up every day and putting in full effort to try to find these things, to try to make a play. And, and just, ⁓ it's real easy to focus on problems you have in your life. When you're in the back country, like all of a sudden you're thinking of your household or your job and you're thinking, what the heck am I doing back here? But, but this is something that I've waited for all year long that I've trained for, that I've looked forward to, and I knew it was going to be difficult. so I just try to like frame it in my mind that way. And so.

Gosh, when you're mentally tough, there's no bowl that's too far. There's no basin that's too far. you really keep this positive attitude of really enjoying the experience back there. The goal is to arrow a bowl or arrow a buck, but if I don't enjoy it along the way, what am I really doing? And it's not fun all the time when you're climbing 3000 vert or making these huge hikes, but I've almost...

like enjoy the suffering, I enjoy the difficulty of it, I enjoy the challenge of it. And the longer I do it, like some of my best hunts are my unsuccessful ones, but I had action and I was chasing the buck or bull that I wanted the whole time and putting forth full effort, know, lose five pounds on the hunt or whatever the case is. those are some of my best memories. So yeah, I think a strong ⁓ mental attitude, mental fortitude.

⁓ mental resilience, just like being able to continue to press forward towards your overall goals. I think in the end, that's what gets me to the finish line, after hunt.

Ryan Uffens (31:42)
Yeah. Brian, is there like a specific like, instance, when like you had to exercise that mental fortitude where it played like a crucial role in like hunting success that that comes to mind that that maybe helped you develop to who you are as a hunter now?

Brian Barney (32:04)
yeah, that's a good question about like helping me develop. think, you know, I've definitely quit early and I've gone home and I go home and I sit there and I think about what am I doing? I had 10 days to hunt and here I am on day five because I couldn't find a bull and I'm back at my house. I really want to be back up there.

or having an off season where I didn't give full effort, I didn't fill my tag, and then I have to live with it the whole off season. And so I've really learned to like leave it all on the mountain and then I feel pretty good about it. So an instance of like mental toughness, ⁓ mule deer, like I love hunting all species with my bow, but that early season mule deer and that it's like the most extreme environment, the lower 48 that you can go hunt. They live where sheep and goats do.

And then their instincts are so keen to stock within a stone's throw of them. Like they evolved from thousands of years of avoiding mountain lions, which are way sneakier than I could ever dream of being. And so they are the ultimate challenge for me. and, takes top physical shape. takes preparation. And then it's like the purest form of bow hunting where I carry everything on my back and I have 10 days. so last year I had an early season high country hunt. This was all above 12,000 feet in elevation.

place I had been before, of course I want to explore and expand a little bit. But I went in there, I actually went in with the cameraman. I was 11 days from doorstep to doorstep from when I left to when I got home. And through those 11 days did a couple, two, three days of scouting, started hunting bucks. I found this great buck man. had like matching stickers in his front fork, this great big three by four frame like.

probably like in the one 90s is for a mule deer, but just a great high country mule deer buck. And I hunted that buck and I made plays at him. And day five, I finally got a play where I had to climb like 3000 vertical, make my way all the way around him. And I was coming down on him and I peeked around the timber, around this evergreen tree. And he was right there where I left him in his bed, looking away from me. Perfect scenario. And so I like...

I cover my mouth, cover my hand over my mouth as mule deer, they're named mule deer because of their big ears and their hearing. And I whisper to my cameraman, said, Hey, he's right here. We're going to shoot him right here. And he goes, where's he at? And trying to get the camera on him. He's kind of behind the evergreen. And when I look back at that mule deer, he's staring right up at me. So he had heard those whispers. And so now this buck staring at me and now I'm in a standoff. Like I don't move, the buck doesn't move and five minutes goes by.

And nobody moves, nobody says a word. And the buck tries to escape to the left. And I have a range on him. He's 56 yards. He stops broadside. I come to full draw. We get him into camera, into frame, execute a shot. And you can watch that arrow in the air. And about when it's midway to him, he bolts and jumps the sound of that arrow. So the speed of sound travels quicker than the speed of my arrow. So we heard that sound and he was gone and that arrow hit behind his butt. And this is day five of hunting.

Ryan Uffens (35:02)
Ugh.

Brian Barney (35:06)
probably day eight of being out there, like you talk about a low, like I am just crushed, know, thousands, tens of thousands of arrows to reach this moment for this dream buck of mine. And, you know, we got out of the way of that arrow, but you know, I've been there before. It's like, you know, I can either throw my bow and I can give up and I can go home and I can sit my sadness and my sorrow, or I pick myself up and I get back after it. And so that buck actually stayed, but after he knew I was hunting him, after I missed him,

he stayed in this thick buck brush and he wouldn't come out during daylight. And so I could see him in there. One night I spent, you know, the whole night, 120 yards from him, but he just wouldn't come out of the buck brush and the buck brush was over my head. And so eventually I had to make the tough decision and I'm like, man, we just, we got to go find a different buck to hunt that doesn't know we're hunting them. And so we packed up our camp. had two days worth of stuff left. ⁓ And we moved our camp, moved our camp to a spot.

and started glassing and sure enough I turned up this giant three and and I'd passed quite a few threes on the hunt but this one was special it's like a super heavy and bladed and long fronts long back I actually had a four on the one side eye guards and then this giant body with this belly and any more like the age starts to get me excited like this is a deer that's grown up and avoided hunters for

Seven eight nine years in this backcountry including rifle hunters bow hunters and I spot them and I make a stock up above them And it's a perfect play I've got thermals coming up at me and I wait for three and a half hours for him to stand and then put a perfect arrow on that buck on camera on Was day ten and then we packed him out day eleven and drove home

Ryan Uffens (36:41)
Mm.

Brian Barney (36:48)
So you talk about mental toughness and mental fortitude. I think I climbed like over 50,000 vertical feet on that hunt and close to a hundred miles I put in. And in the end, arrowed like the buck of my dreams, like a great big, heavy bladed one, old buck, you know? And so, yeah, that's where like I just give it my all. And a lot of times it works out for me. My buddies tell me I'm good at getting lucky, you know? But I think that mental toughness creates that luck for sure.

Ryan Uffens (37:17)
Well, and it's the old adage, the harder you work, the luckier you get, right? I mean, to your point, you've just got to be willing to go out there and put in the work and put the miles in and climb the mountains. And when things don't go as planned, you have to be willing to pivot and shift and be like, okay, well, we're going to abandon this plan and go see if we can find something else. fortunately, like you had said, you'd had a backup plan that you were able to move to. I think, well, not I think, I know.

That's one things that I do is like, have gone in in the past with like one plan and I hadn't had a lot of time to really go out and spend, you know, 10 days hunting something. But, uh, you know, I'm going to put, I'm going to put the time in this year for sure. Um,

Brian Barney (37:59)
times the equalizer man. So you got the great plans. Like give yourself time on these hunts for whether it's scouting or whether it's hunting. Like ⁓ it can turn on a dime and great things happen when you spend time a field like that. You you start to dial them in. So I think you got the right plan, Ryan.

Ryan Uffens (38:16)
Yeah, it took some it took some convincing with the wife for sure. Because I mean, she didn't grow up in a hunting family. I didn't grow up in a hunting family. And she's like, Wait, you're gonna spend how much time you're gonna be gone for how long. And I'm like, babe, just here, take the girls go on a trip. Just go do something fun. Go make like a weekend of it. Go up to Park City whenever I don't know, sacrifices, right, you have to make sacrifices in order to make, you know, time for you to be able to go and pursue these things. But

The cool thing is that she does support it because I spent a lot of time coaching my kids, my boy, my daughters, I didn't coach soccer, but my girls played soccer, my boy played a lot of baseball, basketball, tennis, and I put a lot of hours into working with my kids. And my baby's 19 now.

my wife kind of saw me, she's like, you need to find something to do because there was no more baseball, basketball practice like every single night. So she is supportive. But yeah, it takes some planning and coercion for sure if you want to be able to negotiate the time to get out and be able to have a successful hunt. mean, it's just it is what it is.

Brian Barney (39:30)
Yep. You're setting yourself up for success. Like having that difficult conversation with your wife, with your boss, planning for those days off now. So you're not scrambling once you get to hunting season, hoping you get some days as great and like having those important conversations with your wife. Like what it means to you, like, gosh, to have passion in my life, you know, it's going to make me come back, you know, like I'm able to get away from things and get away from the stress of life and think about how important my wife is or my kids are to me.

Like it makes me have passion in my life. so, you know, how you do one thing is how you do everything. So it's not just being a great bow hunter. It's like, you know, I also want to be a great husband. I want to be a great father, you know, and put that time in, but it's good to lead by example to your kids and show them what passion is, you know, to put your everything into something and then to explain it to your wife. like, you know, it does, you know, it's the same with me. I'm doing family vacations that yeah, I

I'm doing those in the summertime and it is really good time with my wife and with my kids, but it's not what I would plan for time off. But I know that it's important to them and it's important to me to spend quality time with them. so yeah, it's putting in that quality time and just day in, day out, being a father is really like just ⁓ engaging with your kids too, is not getting zoned out or bringing work home with you. It's like when we have dinner at night, you want to be laughing and joking with your kids, having these conversations with them and...

Sports is such a great arena, like teach toughness and grit, to teach hard work, teach, like it teaches these lessons really well. And so like, I'm always trying to ⁓ encourage my kids in sports as well, to be there for their team, to find discipline, to find hard work, you know? And so like, I think you carry those lessons on to life. anyways, I'm rambling on, but I think that, I think you're taking the task on,

head on having those difficult conversations now so you get that time during hunting season to give yourself a chance at success. I think that's great.

Ryan Uffens (41:31)
Yeah, thanks. It's definitely easier if they understand the deal and you're hunting when you first start dating and then move on to the engagement and stuff like that. ⁓ like you said, it does make you better. Like that's one of the things for me, and I've talked about this in like previous shows, like just shooting my bow.

For a while there, I did really good. I was out shooting like every day. Even if it was just like one shot, I gotta take one shot. And I remember hearing, I wanna say it was like, I think it was Cam Haynes who like shoots every single day. And I'm like, oh, that's easy. That's not easy. Especially like out here, like in Utah, like the winters get fricking cold, man. And like to go set up or get away from the house, set up and shoot, like it's a grind. But I will say,

it helps me focus because when you are like at full draw, and, and I'm doing like all sorts of different like shots, like not just like a 20 yard shot, right? Like I'm practicing 110 yard shot, and I'm shooting from a knee and I'm trying to like hold my draw for two minutes before I let it go like real life scenarios that I could potentially face. It helps makes me makes me better. And I have seen that

spill over into my professional career, my time with my kids. I've got a granddaughter who's two and when I'm, she is like, she loves me, she adores me and it's like the greatest thing in the world. But when I'm with her, she gets my undivided attention and ⁓ it just helps grow your connections with your family and that. So there are things that if you can take that same passion as you had said, Brian.

and apply it to your family life, your professional career, it will make you better at everything that you do.

Brian Barney (43:24)
100 % man. ⁓ that archery, I think it focuses you to be present in that moment as well. Like you don't get to think about your problems, you don't get to think about the future, the past. Like you have to be present right there and you're immersed in it, like executing a good shot, breaking that arrow, putting it to the target. And I think that living in that present moment is so important.

We are all addicted to our smartphones. Everybody included. don't think there's many people that aren't. It's just the level of addiction, right? But we spend so much time on those screens. But to put that down and to be present with our family, you're like putting in more quality time than the average guys, even if you are gone 10 days hunting or 100 days hunting or it's like, but when I'm home, I am home and I'm dad and I'm...

Gonna be present with my girls and I'm gonna interact with them and we're gonna have fun around it So yeah, I think there's like some takeaways from that for sure I love like living in that that present moment It does seem like archery and bow hunting forces me to be in it, which is a good thing

Ryan Uffens (44:30)
Well, and I would challenge people out there, if you're into archery, go out next time you're shooting and start thinking about everything else as you start drawing back and see what happens to your shot. And then just realize, like in your professional career, in your role as a husband or father, when you are allowing those other distractions, things to pull you away, it's taking your eye off of what's most important, what's in front of you. So yeah.

I'm a huge proponent of putting down the phone. There are days where my wife and I, she likes to, well, she likes to walk a lot and we'll go for like a four or five mile walk and just, we leave our phones at home. And we get back, we have one daughter married, she's got two kids. She's like, you guys didn't answer your phone, what's going on? We're like, it's okay.

Like I grew up in a time where like you called, you left a message and then you waited for the call to come back. Like everyone's so used to that like instant response. You call, they don't answer, you leave a voicemail and you don't get a response and so then you send a follow-up text message regarding the message that you had left and what you're originally calling them about. It's like we are a society that has become so overstimulated that sometimes take a break.

disconnect and just relax a little bit like It will help it will help decompress your mind and your body your soul your spirit like everything It'll put you back in a better place to where you know You can move on with the other things that you want to move on in in your life But enough of that we've dug down into the mental here and now it's turning into I guess it is men's mental health month So maybe it's a good thing that we talked about that for a minute, but but hey with

Brian, with your vast hunting experience that you have, is there a particular hunt, I mean that last one that you shared was great, but is there one that stands out that's like especially memorable or like transformative for you?

Brian Barney (46:33)
Yeah, think every season I have these like wild adventures that are life-changing. So the ones that come to mind are just from past season. So I had that early season one. I killed my best bull to date last year, a 7.7. Also killed another nice six point last year. And I would say like I did a late season mule deer hunt. So I had a couple different tags, two different states. I hunted over 20 days and the...

The November rut hunt takes a different kind of toughness. Like the cold takes a different kind of toughness. Like ⁓ deep snow, bitter cold, big mountains. And now all of a sudden these miles that I'm so used to doing, I'm having to do in a foot or two feet of snow. It's well below zero degrees in a lot of these days that I'm hunting and gnarly snow storms. And I'm looking for a big next level late season buck. yeah, I hunted two different states over 20 different days.

and ⁓ a ton of miles, a ton of elevation and finally came together on a great buck. He had an extra on his front, ended up going like 182, like real heavy older deer. And yeah, that hunt took everything. I had a cameraman for a week or so, five, six days, maybe seven days. I think it was seven days I had him for, and we did not fill out in those seven days. We chased some great bucks. It just didn't come together.

⁓ I hunted with my dad for a handful of days, hunted a bunch of weekends in here and there, and then finally made another trip back solo. And ⁓ I ditched the cameraman, so this one won't be a film. The one I last talked about, that High Country Buck, it's gonna be a film that's already cut and edited, and it's probably one of the best films I've put together. And also that 7-7 that I killed last year is gonna make a film as well.

And I've seen the edit of that. I'm really happy and proud of that. But that late season buck took everything I had. And finally able to put a perfect arrow in tomb and I killed him by myself up on the mountain on a, think I was gone for three or four days that trip and just meant a heck of a lot to me. yeah, it changes me. It realizes, you know, like I get these ideas in my head then about shrinking mountains about.

Being able to have the mountain seem smaller because I am in that kind of shape like doesn't seem as far to me like I can I can grind it out and so like I have these these thoughts to Even have a better season than I had last year and to do that I know it's not gonna come easy and I know I have to put in the work so it isn't many days when I get done from one of those hunts that I'm back to training and back to thinking about the next season which is now this season

And so I've got some huge plans for this season for scouting and for hunting and really getting back and hunting some ⁓ really rugged wilderness, rugged places for elk and for mule deer. so yeah, the training just starts, but man, it has really transformed my life over the years, like the different adventures I've been able to have and tough hunts and have it come together in the end or not come together.

⁓ It really has made me the man that I am. And I've learned so many lessons from it that it does make me better at everything else. yeah, just reiterates that hard work does pay off. I'm just a blue collar guy. Still, I was working construction before I hopped on the podcast with you. I still run the construction company and then do the outdoor stuff.

Yeah, it's just I'm really fortunate. I get to live a really fulfilling, passionate life. But yeah, those hunts last year, it pretty wild, man. was like everything I touched turned to gold, which is, it's always good to have a season like that.

Ryan Uffens (50:28)
Brian Barney, the Midas man. That's where we're gonna start calling you. That's awesome. That's super cool, man. I appreciate you sharing that. And I think it is cool, because this is not my full-time gig, by any stretch of the imagination. This is just, I'm doing this podcast out of a passion. I wished I'd had hunting my entire life. But also conversely is, had I been hunting my entire life,

I might not be doing this and I get to meet so many cool people and hear so many fun stories that just get me like so jacked like that story of their early season buck like I can't wait for that film to drop now having heard your experience. I can only imagine what the film is going to be like. So you've got that thing you've seen the edit on that do you know do you have like an ETA can I ask when you think that's going to be dropped like roughly.

Brian Barney (51:15)
Yeah, I think it's this summer. So I think it's this month or next. So it'll be within the next six weeks, I would say it'll be out. And yeah, it's, ⁓ you know, I started filming these hunts and it is an added degree of difficulty to be able to arrow an animal on public ground and then get it on camera as well. ⁓ And it's something that when I first started, I'm like, I do the craziest wildest adventures. My videos are going to be the best ones out there. And then I...

I get out there and I forget how to talk into that camera or express myself. then, you know, I get out there or I get home and then I see the shots that helped move the story along because you do have to condense time and you have to tell this story. so throughout the years of, know, I don't know how many hunts I've filmed now, but probably close to 20, through those years, I've gotten better at it. And I just, like when you don't want the camera on is the time to turn it on. during those lows, like that miss on that buck or.

riding out a gnarly ⁓ lightning storm up in the high country, know, that it's raining and pouring and lightning flashing all around. When you don't want the camera on, it's like about the best time to turn it on and then just really try to express my feelings around it. And so you can see my appreciation for the landscape in this year in this place was like a one in 10 year because they had got moisture throughout the summer. So it was green everywhere. So it's super lush.

It's all above 12,000 feet with just gnarly vertical and great bucks and chasing them around. And then you get to see me about lose my mind trying to get an arrow in one of these things because they're so dang difficult. But then you get to watch me accomplish it and then watch the thrill and the excitement. And then me share with the camera is just like, man, I just want everybody to feel this wants to put your everything into something, whether it's a hunt or.

in whatever it is in life and then to come out on top, like that feeling is about as good as it gets. And I'm able to like relive that and then show it to my family, show it to my friends and now show it to everybody in the entire audience to be able to look over that film and watch it and be able to like feel those same feelings that I had. So yeah, man, it's pretty cool. I'm really excited for it.

Ryan Uffens (53:30)
Definitely let us know for sure. We'll definitely share it with the folks. Have them go check it out. So you said something to me that I hadn't heard before when you were talking about like being in shape and shrinking the mountain. And I want your thoughts because I know that you're an advocate for public land hunting. And you want everybody to be to do that. like where do you think the balance lies in? I mean, because you're very generous in sharing like your hunting knowledge.

and you want to share the information, help everybody become a better hunter and have a good experience. where does that come as far as sustainability? you talked, and maybe you already answered it, but you talked about, I find the trailheads and okay, I circled the one mile and I'm not touching there and then that. how do you, because there's so many people, hunting had kind of gone by the wayside. It kind of fell out of favor, but now,

with guys like yourself, but then you've got, know, Cam Haynes and Joe Rogan and Jaco and all these, you know, big names that have these huge followings are talking about like them getting into hunting. It's pushing. I mean, guys like myself, like into the game. Where do you find the balance between? I mean, is there frustration on your part? And maybe there's not in any way. How do you view like sharing those spaces?

Brian Barney (54:56)
Yeah, that's a really good question. And it's ⁓ like, I've thought about it a lot. And yeah, it is a limited resource, but I feel like there's still opportunity for all of us out there. I feel like there's opportunity to go have your own experience in the woods. And, you you may run into a guy here or there, but a guy like most of the people that I run into are really respectful and they want to go their own way as well. And so if I can just have a quick

conversation and like, where are you headed or what's your plan? Or, Hey, this is what I'm thinking. I saw a bull over here. And so this is where I'm going, but I just, I still feel like there's opportunity to go out there where I'm not combat hunting. Cause I refuse to combat hunt with other guys around. Like I'm going to go find my own place. I'm going to go find my own deer, my own elk, where people don't want to go where those animals are pressured to. And so I don't share specific spots and I try not to share specific states as well.

because that's not the skill set. The skill set is not to be good at stealing somebody's spot or where they're hunting. And furthermore, like I'd hate to be chasing my vapor trail. If you're going where I was hunting, I probably spooked all the good bucks in there, the good bulls in there, you know, like I've ran them around and gave them pressured. So the skill set is to like build your own skills to be able to find these new spots on your own. And then as spots change or as things ⁓ evolve or adapt like...

you evolve or adapt to the situation. So spots don't stay good forever. You kill some good bucks out of there. You kill some good bulls, maybe the pressure people find out about it. Then you got to go find a new spot. so like where I've came with promoting hunting and I have made it like I've helped like with the writing and podcasting and filming, like I am bringing eyeballs and I'm sharing like what means so much to me. ⁓ but it's like out there for the guys that want it. And I still feel like it is so extremely difficult.

that if you don't really want it, if you don't enjoy the process or if you want success for the wrong reasons to post on Instagram or to be somebody, know, some hero to your buddies, it's just not going to last that long. So the guys that really want to use that information, improve their skillset and get better, they do. And it just doesn't seem to affect me a whole lot. Like I'm able to find good spots, you know, the same as I was 15 years ago. I just have to adapt a little bit. And so

I do think we need a big voice as hunters as we're on attack on all fronts. So if we don't have a bunch of people enjoying this endeavor that we all like, like pretty soon, they're just gonna push us out where we're not gonna be able to bow hunt or rifle hunt, or they're gonna take away our public lands. But we have like this huge group of people in this voice and these different organizations that can organize us to be able to take the fight to when they're trying to take away. ⁓

a bear season or when they're trying to take away a bow season or a rifle season. So we need to have the numbers to vote to protect what we love to do and to protect our public lands. I also, I just think there's enough for everybody out there. There's still secret spots. I'm still finding new spots every year where I killed that seven seven bowl last year. It's the first time I've ever been in there. There was nobody in there. It's in a high pressure unit. There was elk everywhere. I killed that bowl and then

I think I saw five bulls that day and then I helped my buddy Dan Heverin. He's my good friend and he had the same tag as I did. I shared that one with him. He hunted it hard and ended up taking a nice six point out of there. And so I still feel like there's opportunity out there. It's just like, it's not about having this magical spot. It's about

building your skill set of bow hunting and showing up to the trailhead and being undeniable. it doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen in one week, one month, even one year, even four years. Like it is a lifetime, like realize I've been doing it for 25, 30 years of putting everything into bow hunting. And so when I go out there, yeah, I expect to find a great buck and arrow or expect to find a great bull. And thus far I can still go do it. There's still wild places. I can still get away from people and

Sometimes I do play the pressure, like you talk about trail heads, about roads. The other things I'll do is I can hunt during the week when everybody, know, lot of guys have to hunt during the weekend. Other thing I can do is like, did this on a Nevada hunt a couple of years back where everybody shows up for openers and the mountain is just full of guys. And then they start to clear out about day five. And then the second week of the hunt, there's nobody there. And I have the mountains all to myself. So I do have tactics to get away from this hunting pressure.

but I just still feel like there's enough out there for all of us guys to go have an experience.

Ryan Uffens (59:39)
Yeah, no, I think that's a great mindset to have. mean, it's as you mean when you when you kind of try and put it into perspective, if you have an abundance mindset like. I mean, we talked about, know, like, hey, just be positive. Well, if you go into like there's plenty of room right on the on the mountain for people to go out there and do what they want to do and I can go do what I want to do. And you know the way you're describing it.

is for me, I never go out like on the first couple weeks of the hunt. Well, every time I go out, it's usually like the last week of the hunt. And I'm like, well, that's just the way the schedule's worked that I've been able to get out and I don't get a ton of time out there. But it sounds like it's almost like the gym on January 1st, right? Opening season comes, everybody's there, and within a couple weeks, it starts to kind of thin out.

And ⁓ if it's something that you're passionate about, you just stay out there or plan around that and keep grinding and give yourself the opportunity. So I think I think that's a good mindset to have just abundance, share the love, get people on the same page, because we are going to need ⁓ hunters to coordinate together to be able to continue to fight, to have the rights to be able to go out and hunt on public lands. I mean, you look at you look at what happened

just recently with the bills that were out there and it got loud enough that didn't pass and saved a ton of land. So it's things like that that I think is inspiring and I think it's cool when the hunting community does come together. So appreciate having guys like yourself out there that are willing to go and be the voice for other guys that like for me until I had really gotten into it, you know, this past year, I mean, I got into it. I wanted to do it.

I didn't have a ton of time, but I was kind of like lukewarm into it. I loved it. I wanted to go. I'd go have like my four or five days, but then I was done and it was back to regular life. And then it got to the point where it was consuming me. And I'm learning more and more about like the different states and the legislatures and the different things that they're doing. it's like people have to be paying attention because like the average Joe Hunter, like you said, they're going to go out opening weekend.

I remember all the time, like growing up playing baseball, it's like, Hey, we got games, you know, fall ball. I'm not here. It's opening season. Well, they're gone for the weekend. Come back. you get anything? Nope. But we're done. So we're back for the, for the rest of the fall ball season. It's like, okay. I didn't understand it then, but, ⁓ but I do think it's fun. It's not always, and you had alluded to this about. Eroine and animal.

You get to go out and spend time with family. mean, like I said, the kids that were saying they're going out, they're going out with their dad and their grandpa and their uncles. And I didn't have it, but man, I played a lot of baseball growing up. I I loved it. And it's just different for everybody. So I think it's good just to have a mindset like, hey, help everybody. You don't necessarily have to drop your pinpoints to people, but encourage people to get out there.

And give them some advice when they're on the side of the mountain that they can try and have success or give themselves a chance to have success. So as I've rambled on there, Brian, I have kind of just as we wrap up, I wanted to pick your brain just on gear a little bit. Is there anything in your hunting gear list that might be new or like some recent innovation that maybe won't make you a better hunter, but you're like, man, it's nice to have that just.

give you a little creature comforts out there on the side of the mountain.

Brian Barney (1:03:32)
Yeah, definitely. I've got my kit pretty well dialed. I'm a minimalist. It seems like the weight on your back is the equalizer as well as elevation and even my day pack. Like, you know, right now hunting bears, I'm hunting in grizzly country. And so I've made a rule that I carry my pistol whenever I'm hunting bears or whenever I'm hunting grizzly country, like arrowing ⁓ even a black bear or big one. It's different than shooting a deer and elk like a

They roar like a lion, can get aggressive. so anyways, I carry my pistol, but my day packs 21 pounds, which is ridiculous. I don't even have anything in there. You know, my rain jacket, my puffy jacket, I've got my kill kit and a headlamp. And then I've, I do have my scope for hunting bears. I'm looking for a big mature boar and I want to make sure that it's not a sow. I want to get a good look at them. So I do have my scope, my tripod, my pistol, but yeah, 21 pounds.

So my backpack kit, like even for nine or 10 days, like I can have that thing down around 42, 44 pounds depending on how much water I have to bring in. Now things that really change, like everything is really important to me in the back country. But I'd say like my clothing kit like is really dialed to be able to ride out any gnarly weather. I'd say like there used to be some items like the the hooded shirt.

or like was a game changer for me is like to have a sun shirt on a high country mule deer hunt. Cause that sun is so intense at 10,000, 11,000, 12,000 feet. So to be able to cover my ears, to be able to cover my face a little bit, uh, that was a game changer, but good breathable clothing during those hot weather hunts. So I'd say clothing's like a big part of it. I'm a minimalist. So I use a Bivvy tent, which is like a combination between a Bivvy sack and a tent.

Basically, it's a single wall design, sets up with a trekking pole. Mine has a bathtub floor in it, but it weighs a pound and a half. And, you I've just got all these, this entire kit and this entire system where it just works and I just have exactly what I need. you know, one of the game changers for me are those image stabilizing binas from Sig Sauer. They're the only company doing it. And it's pretty wild, like what an advantage it gives me. I've probably been using them the last five years.

they're on their generation three of these image stabilizing binos. But it's basically like glassing from a tripod everywhere you go. It doesn't matter. You come over a windy ridge and the wind's blowing and it's just rock solid. And if you look through these optics, like you look through them and you don't flip the switch for the image stabilization and you just see this slight shake all the time that you're kind of glassing through. And then you flip that switch and it's just rock solid, really steady.

And I feel like that gives me a major advantage. I switched all my buddies to using them. Like they just build a great set of binos. So I'd say that's probably like the biggest revolution that's hit the hunting industry in the last 10 years are those image stabilizing binos. Those things are crazy. I really like those. So I think that gives me an advantage. So yeah, I don't know about that one item you're talking about that makes my life easier. It's kind of like all of them are really important to me. Like every piece like plays a

⁓ integral role like into my back country hunting.

Ryan Uffens (1:06:54)
Well, I could see how having like those image stabilizing binos could be a game changer. ⁓

Yeah, I could see that. And you said that Sig Sauer makes those, right?

Brian Barney (1:07:10)
Yeah,

Sig Sauer makes them. They're, uh, think my favorite pair for around the Chester, the set of 12 by 42 generation twos. Uh, those ones are sweet. Uh, sometimes I'll run like the 16 by fifties, the generation threes in my pack, but I think the best overall all around by know that 12 by 42 is a great set for Western hunting. Yeah. Sig Sauer makes them the only company doing them. Like once you look through them, it's tough to look through anything else. And I, uh, I had

Swarovski, I had Zeiss and Sig Sauer has really put their high-end HDX glass in these binos, so it's good glass in there. And then the image stabilization, you just turn up so many more critters. And like I say, me and all my buddies have been using them probably the last five years, and we just spot more animals with them with that stationary glass. So yeah, that's like one of the biggest game changers, I think.

Ryan Uffens (1:08:04)
Hmm. That's great advice. You have to definitely check those out. So as somebody who has their gear list completely dialed in, what is one thing that you think is like completely overrated that people could do without?

Brian Barney (1:08:23)
really good question. It's not often I get stumped like that. ⁓ One thing that they could do without... gosh you just...

Ryan Uffens (1:08:31)
or maybe

that's just like overrated. don't, I don't know.

Brian Barney (1:08:34)
Yeah,

no, it's a great question and it's wild, stumped me. Like what I, you know, I think, I think a lot of times you can do away with the scope and tripod, which is a lot of weight, but I like to see what I'm going after and I can look at great distances and feel judge them and do a lot of the walking with my eyes. So I wouldn't really say that that's overrated. I think backpacks are like a place where you can really save some weight.

It's really tough to save weight on your kit, but if your backpack starts at four pounds instead of eight pounds, like that's four pounds out of your kit. So I think looking for those backpacks and you can also go too light. I've gone down to three pounds and then the backpack doesn't hold up to the abuse I give it and doesn't pack weight very good. So I found that middle of the road, like around that four or five pounds. I really like, I think one of my advantages hunting mule deer is

The mule deer don't need water and I don't need much water to survive. I can survive off to about 50 ounces a day, but just having the capacity to be able to carry that much water, because a lot of guys, they carry a 32-ounce Nalgene, it's full, they make it to the top of the mountain, and then as soon as they make it up there, they have to turn around and go down and fill a water camp next to water, where I can pack.

you know, 160 ounces of water, can do three days living on the top of the mountain up there without any water around. So that's like one of the advantages I think I gain. I think it's just like, you can't like, it's not about the gear, it's about the hunter. So when I was really young, I picked out, it was like back in the day, this is going to date me a bit, but in the Cabela's magazine, you could flip through it they'd send you this catalog every year. And I picked through all this gear that would make me better, make me better in the mountains. And then I went out and I spent

$1,500 or $2,000. And this is when I was young when, ⁓ you know, inflation hasn't hit, but I spent just a ton of money on this gear. And then I didn't have the money to put gas in my truck or the time to take off work to actually go hunting. didn't make me more successful at all. And so I think look through your kit and you find that one or two pieces of gear that you can upgrade a year and you upgrade those pieces. But really it like comes down to grit and toughness and like making it through the mountains in.

Ryan Uffens (1:10:24)
Hmm.

Brian Barney (1:10:46)
And sharpening your skills as a woodsman too, like knowing how to build those fires when it gets super wet, knowing that you can trust your shelter, trust your clothing because you've got your puffy jacket, your puffy pants, you've got your rain jacket. You know, I usually don't pack rain pants because they're really constricted. I'll pack like gators in there, you know, and then like just having this gear that I can trust that I know will keep me safe out there, I think makes a makes a big difference. So just dialing in your kit.

upgrade one to two things a year and then spend your money on gas and time in the field.

Ryan Uffens (1:11:21)
think that's great advice. I really appreciate that ⁓ insight. And I've had a couple other people that I've talked to, they're like, yeah, if you've got some extra money, spend it on gas. Get out there, do the scouting beforehand if you can, different things like that. But last question that I have for you, Brian, is you've spent a lifetime in wild places chasing wild animals. When it's all said and done, what legacy do you hope to leave the hunting world?

Brian Barney (1:11:52)
Another great question. Yeah, I think I'm so proud of my reputation that I've built in the hunting industry and this reputation of hard work and ⁓ dedication to the craft. And I think in the end, you know, I'm not too worried about what

what my legacy or what I leave behind or what people think of me. Like I'm really proud of my reputation. And when faced with right and wrong decisions, I always try to take the right decision or that road. And there's a lot of gray areas, but I always try to be on the right side. I try to be like a, a really good hunting partner to my buddies is I want them to be as, as successful as I am, like giving plays, giving stocks, like just being generous with locations as well as like, Hey, try this spot out, you know, to my

to my good friends or, so I think for me, like, ⁓ just, wanna be a good human being. I wanna be a good friend to my hunting buddies. And really, I just wanna enjoy life to the fullest. Like, I wanna continue to do these big wild adventures in places and continue to like get the most out of myself.

physically and mentally and also get the most out of these units with like challenging myself with really like these mind blowing critters that I believe is possible. Like I think the bucks of our dreams, the ones that are wide kickers and stickers in lines, like those bucks are out there. The bulls that we dream about, like the seven seven I killed last year, those bulls are out there. It's just whether or not, you know, like I'm willing to put in the work or the sacrifice to get there and continue to get there and then adapt as

things change as we're in the information day and age. And so as far as legacy left behind, I wanna be honest with guys. I wanna share my experience. ⁓ I wanna continue to have this reputation of hard work and grit and determination. So like those characteristics I admire and so I want those in myself. And ⁓ I think if I can do that, ⁓ I can ride off into the sunset. I mean, really in the hunting industry,

I could walk away tomorrow like a happy man. Like I've accomplished everything I need to accomplish and you'll still find me bow hunting the wild mountains next year, whether I've got a camera guy or I've got a podcast or I write articles or not. Like I truly love it with every fiber of my being. And so I think that's what I'd want my legacy to be.

Ryan Uffens (1:14:11)
Mm.

Awesome man, I think that's great. And I think that like you said, there's something to be said about just being a good human. So I think you're checking that box too. You're checking all of them, man. You could write off in the sunset right now, but don't do that. ⁓ Stay hungry, stay out there. Brian, really, really appreciate your time. You guys, I hope that you've enjoyed this podcast. If you have, I hope that you will share it with a friend or somebody else who just has a passion for hunting. ⁓ Make sure and go give ⁓

Brian to follow on Instagram, it's Brian underscore Barney. ⁓ And then check out his podcast as well, Eastman's Elevated. ⁓ And again, you are listening to the Hunt Stealth podcast, the fastest growing podcast in the hunting industry, maybe second next to Brian's. anyway, you guys, really appreciate you guys listening. Give us a like, share it with a friend or loved one.

⁓ And yeah, if there's something in there that you've liked or if there's something that you'd like us to talk about in the future, ⁓ hit us in the DM on Instagram and definitely make sure to give us a follow. So everyone stay safe and God bless.