22 Elk in 23 Seasons: Public Land Lessons w/ Kevin Gower

Alright guys, today's episode is a good one. I'm sitting down with Kevin Gower — a Colorado public land guy who's been in the elk woods since he was 12 years old and has packed out more elk than the years he's been hunting. That's 22 elk in 23 seasons. Not luck. Not private land. Public dirt, over the counter, doing it the hard way.

We get into it — why most guys aren't consistent on public land, the "cover ground" era of learning to elk hunt, and why the YouTube backpack-hunting romance can actually work against you when you're trying to learn a mountain. We talk mindset — the "today's the day" mantra, why you can't write the story before the hunt is over, and why the guys who stack hard experiences early end up with the confidence to go get it done later.

Kevin also walks through his biggest bull — a solo four-mile pack out in thirteen inches of fresh snow — and why moments like that are what separate hunters who quit from hunters who figure it out. We dig into silent bulls and why they're some of the most killable elk in the woods, calling strategy, reading pressure on the edge of private land, when to leave elk to go find better elk, and why learning to hunt the storm front instead of fighting the wind might be one of the most underrated skills in elk hunting.

This one's packed with real public land wisdom from a guy who's put in two decades on the same mountain. Grab a notebook, this is a good one.

Sponsors

onX Hunt

Today's episode is brought to you by onX Hunt. If you haven't checked out our free 4-hour e-scouting course yet, go grab it at elkhunt201.com — it's completely free. Building a color-coded system of waypoints, markups, and tracks for your hunt is one of the most important things you can do before season. Too many guys draw a tag and just show up to figure it out — don't be that guy. If you're not an Elite member yet, Elite unlocks a ton of extra planning tools that'll make your prep this fall way more dialed in.

onxmaps.com Use code TRO when you upgrade to Elite.

Bridger Watch

This episode is also brought to you by Bridger Watch — a smartwatch built specifically for hunting. All your normal smartwatch features (health tracking, fitness tracking, texts) plus, in my opinion, the best mapping capability of any wearable on the market. You can save offline maps, ship them straight to your watch, and pan around right on your wrist with a screen that's genuinely impressive for its size. Bridger Watch also integrates directly with onX — share a whole hunt folder or a single waypoint from the field straight to your watch, so if your phone dies or you lose it, you've always got a backup.

bridgerwatch.com

Timestamped Chapters