Pursuit With Cliff - Cliff Gray

Latest Episodes:

The Nuances Most Elk Hunters NEVER Figure Out Aug 10, 2026

Show notes

Three of us sat down after four days in the field. Cade, Cliff and Ryan (a student who just came off the elk class) and got into the small stuff that actually separates hunters who kill from hunters who don't. Not tactics you can read in an article. The judgment calls. When to move fast, when to sit down and wait, how much country you're actually willing to cross, and how much of your own hunting style you should be fighting versus leaning into.
Ryan's primarily an archer with real backcountry experience and that's most of what makes this one worth listening to. Two guys who've spent careers guiding, one guy who hunts the way most of you hunt, working through the same problems from three different angles.
Schedule for next year's classes: https://pursuitwithcliff.com/elk-hunting-master-class/
In this episode:
Why roughly 70% of the elk I kill guiding come from long, ugly stalks not from camp
The outfitter bubble, the trailhead bubble, and the huge unhunted country in between
How archers wreck their own odds by tunnel-visioning on bugling instead of glassing
Spot-and-stalking a bedded bull, and why almost nobody has it in their toolkit
Why nearly every student skips ranging and marking the animal before the stalk
Style-based hunting: why we don't tell a fast hunter to slow down
The honest math. You can do everything right and still be wrong a third of the time

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Trained 40 Elk Hunters - What I learned Aug 05, 2026

Show notes

Over the last two months I put 40 hunters through live elk training in the field. Not lectures. Real stalks, real glassing, real archery setups that run two or three hours. The same three failures showed up over and over, and every one of them traces back to the flood of content hunters are drowning in right now.
This isn't an anti-content rant. There are hundreds of skill videos on this channel and you need that baseline. The problem is what happens when guys try to apply every framework at once: analysis paralysis, decision fatigue. I break down handicapping your options instead of hunting a flowchart, why inaction is almost always the worst probability you can pick, how to actually mark an animal with OnX, landmarks, and terrain reading before you commit to a stalk, and why proximity (not calling sequences) is the dominant factor in archery elk.

Should I Feel BAD About Shooting an ELEPHANT? - With Corey Knowlton Jul 29, 2026

Show notes

I sit down with Corey Knowlton, one of the most experienced international hunters alive, to talk elephant hunting, North American hunting and double rifles. From there we dig into the Jim Shockey era of hunting TV, why North American trophy hunting opportunity is never coming back, and why a $30,000 archery elk hunt makes almost no sense when you look at what that money buys in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, or Tanzania.
In this episode:
Why it's easy to win the elephant argument logically — and impossible emotionally
The Jim Shockey years: how those shows actually got made
Elephant overpopulation and why management has to happen
How to plan an elephant hunt: heat, full moons, tracks, and judging old bulls
Double rifles vs. bolt actions — and why the front trigger comes first
Why hunters will end hunting themselves, not anti-hunters

OVER A TWO DECADES Guiding Flat Tops ELK — Lessons Most Hunters Miss - Evan Koster Jul 20, 2026

Show notes

Evan Koster has guided archery elk hunts in Colorado's Flat Tops for over a decade. This conversation covers everything that actually matters going into an archery elk season — and plenty of what hunters think matters that doesn't.
Colorado is in a historic drought, and Evan breaks down what that means for where elk will be in September — it's not about elevation, it's about feed quality, and aspens are the answer. From there we get into how to search unknown country efficiently, why elevation and trailhead distance are myths that kill more hunts than help them, and Evan's counterintuitive wind rule: he doesn't think about it until he's within 500 yards. We dig into the stalk psychology mistake most hunters make, how to locate elk with a bugle using line-of-sight, how to read a bull's commitment level, and the one-sentence answer Evan would give any archer who wanted to kill more elk: take chances. We close on the honest reality of horseback elk hunting.
In this episode:
Colorado drought 2027 — what it means for elk distribution in September
Feed quality over elevation — why aspens are the concentration zone in a dry year
How to search unknown country vs. country you know
The elevation myth and the trailhead distance myth — both cost hunters elk
Wind: the 500-yard rule and why most hunters have the psychology completely backwards
Bugling as a two-way radio — why line-of-sight matters for locating elk
When to move on from a spot and when to go back in close
The one thing Evan would change about any archer to make them more successful
Horseback elk reality — "don't, unless you're already into horses"
Booking 2027 hunts with LKS Outfitters now
Guest: Evan Koster — Lead guide, LKS Outfitters / Flat Tops Wilderness Guides.
ftguides.com
https://www.instagram.com/flattopswildernessguides/

Why 90% of Hunters Pick The WRONG SUPPRESSOR - Cliff Brewer Jul 13, 2026

Show notes

We explain suppressors for the hunting use cases, from basic concepts to advanced.

Most hunters obsess over decibels and a do-it-all can they move between rifles. This conversation makes the case that they've got it backwards — that length is the real king of a hunting suppressor, that the published sound numbers are mostly unreliable, and that a suppressor belongs to one rifle. We get into the engineering, the failure modes, and where this fast-moving market is actually headed.

Shooting and Glassing Rests Explained With Ex Army Scout Sniper Mike Herne Jul 06, 2026

Show notes

You almost always have a rock-solid rear rest on your body — and most hunters never use it. Cliff sits down with Mike from Tricer to break it down.
This one gets into the weeds on glassing tripods vs. shooting tripods, stabilized binos vs. tripod-mounted glass, reading bullet trace, and the simple rear-rest tricks (a puffy jacket, your pack, even your bino harness) that turn a wobbly hold into a locked-in shot.
In this episode:
Why a tripod forces systematic glassing — and why stabilized binos may cost you animals
Filming every shot: recovering wounded game and solving "misses" that were actually hits
How to read bullet trace through a spotter
Matching your tripod to the hunts you actually do
The rear-rest position that gives you two points of contact with the ground
What NRL Hunter teaches hunters about building positions under time pressure
Mike Herne - https://www.instagram.com/mike_herne
Tricer - https://tricer.com/ (CLIFFG for 10% off)

HIGH FENCE vs. FREE RANGE - The Texas Experience IS CHANGING - Brian Gilroy Jun 29, 2026

Show notes

Brian Gilroy runs Wildlife Partners, the largest exotic animal breeding operation in North America and a Cape buffalo herd that didn't exist in private hands a decade ago. He's also hunted Dall sheep in remote Alaska, muskox on Nunivak Island, and elk in New Mexico. This episode is a reality check on how the hunting industry actually works and why the free-range vs. high-fence moral war is mostly mythology from Brian's perspective.
Texas is now on South Africa's radar as a direct competitor. Same animals, same large high-fence model, no 13-hour flight, five-star lodges, and populations of kudu, Cape buffalo, sable, and ibex growing every year. Brian explains the economics of exotic breeding as a tax strategy (why a self-reproducing kudu cow beats a tractor), why CWD has made native cervid breeding almost impossible, why put-and-take hunting is a dead model, and what a Wyoming or New Mexico application really costs over a lifetime. The episode closes with Brian's Alaska sheep story... the outfitter who knew every animal, flew him to the sheep, and pointed him at it. The honest question: why is that different from hunting 15,000 acres in Texas?
Texas vs. South Africa — why SA should be genuinely worried
Cape buffalo in Texas
Kudu, sable, red deer: population growth and what hunts will cost in five years
Why CWD killed native cervid breeding and exotics filled the gap
Exotic breeding as a business — 100% depreciation on an animal that reproduces itself
The real cost of a sheep draw, a BC Dall sheep, or a New Mexico application
The Alaska sheep story and why free range is less pure than most hunters believe
Guest: Brian Gilroy — CEO, Wildlife Partners. Exotic breeder and hunter. Boerne, TX. wildlifepartners.com

36 Years Guiding Elk Hunters and Colorado's New Draw - Scott Limmer Jun 22, 2026

Show notes

A 36-season Colorado wilderness outfitter, Scott Limmer, doesn't sugarcoat it: the new 50%-random draw is about to blow up point inflation and gut the predictability that made Colorado elk hunting plannable. We get into that, the big-bull reality most hunters won't admit, and a stack of Africa stories you won't hear anywhere else.
In this episode:
Why the 2028 draw overhaul tripled the exact point inflation it was meant to fix
The hard truth about how giant public-land bulls actually get killed
Glassing a burn, calling pressure, and why elk go nocturnal
Getting ambushed by the LRA on a bongo hunt in the Central African Republic
How Gaddafi's loose weapons fueled Africa's elephant-poaching wave
The wolf "crap show" and where Colorado's right-to-hunt fight stands
Scott Limmer - https://www.instagram.com/elimminator/
Scott's Outfitting Business - https://comanchewildernessoutfitters.com/

Real Leather, Hides With Crazy Backgrounds and Real American Made - AG Gregoroff Jun 18, 2026

Show notes

AG makes the most expensive and strongest flip-flops on earth. Sounds insane, but I like his business. This is a conversation about authentic materials, the economics of making something real, why almost everything in your life is fake, and what happens when an environmental group comes after you with a campaign.
AG is the founder of Toehold, a Las Vegas-based company that sources elephant, hippo, crocodile, shark, and zebra hides — old-world vegetable-tanned leather, made in America, by hand. We get into the murder hides specifically: a bull elephant called the Red Ghost, a man-eating croc, and hippos that have trampled people. From there the conversation expands into why real leather smells the way it does, why your car seat isn't what you think it is.
We finish the conversation with a discussion about spearfishing and freediving.
Guest: AG Gregoroff — Founder/CEO of Toehold.

Backcountry Elk Hunting with Horses and Mules - Truths NOBODY Tells YOU Jun 15, 2026

Show notes

A decade-plus of guiding off horses and mules, distilled into a Q&A with Vince who is going on his first horseback elk hunt. Cliff doesn't sugarcoat it: horses are always a cost, sometimes a massive advantage, and never the shortcut people think they are.

In this episode:

Why packing horses is something you do after you have horse experience — not how you get into it
Buying and culling stock: why disposition beats conformation every time
The "herd effect" — using seasoned animals to settle green ones in the mountains
Hobbles, picketing, hot fence, and why you never leave halters on turned-out shod horses
Sawbuck vs. Decker, crupper, cinches, blankets, and loading meat solo
Trail etiquette, saddle soreness, knife carry, tying up, and trucks/trailers on ice

Packing book mentioned - https://amzn.to/4oqCn3w

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