With the mountains and trails still held tight in winter’s icy talons, I obliged to begin my new lease on archery at the only available indoor range in town. I figured significant change wouldn’t occur overnight, but taking the approach of one arrow at a time, I could begin to eventually see a gradual improvement. I was about to be proven wrong.

As humans have expanded our reach across the North American continent, areas of raw-untouched natural beauty exist in dwindling numbers. Of the truly wild places left on this continent, those that weren’t carved out for National Parks have remained in their natural state only because of their ruggedness, remoteness, and lack of access. Few places embody these characteristics more than the North Coast of British Columbia. Towering glaciated peaks, rivers lines by sheer rock walls, valleys enveloped in thick fog and giant salt sprayed timber. Regardless of where your interests lie, if you partake in some form of outdoor recreation, British Columbia’s Coast is likely on your radar.

If there is a more commonly debated and frequently agonized category of equipment in the realm of mountain hunting I don’t know what it is. In every pre-trip planning process, I feel like my partners and I almost always hold off asking the question as long as we can, perhaps out of some sort of embarrassment or fear of being perceived as ignorant or incompetent. We always get there eventually though because making a poor footwear choice is far worse than being thought of as an idiot or inexperienced.

On this episode, Adam is joined by Greg McHale. Greg is the host of Greg McHale’s Wild Yukon, an incredibly well produced show that just debuted on the Sportsman Channel. He is also a past guest (Episode 35) so, if you haven’t listened to Greg’s original interview, it would be a good idea to check it out, as the subjects discussed on this show, are essentially an extension of his first interview.

The Wild Sheep Society of BC hosts the annual Spences Bridge Sheep Count in early April of each year, volunteers dust off their binoculars and spotters and make the journey to Spences Bridge to locate, identify and record bighorn sheep. This ground-based population inventory provides an estimate of total abundance and an index of the sex and age composition of the population for the bighorn sheep located between Lytton and Cache Creek, British Columbia.

At some point you leave the nest. In my case, it was post-college, after I took a teaching job in California. When I say leaving the nest, I don’t mean in the traditional sense -- moving away from home, making my own way. No, leaving the nest for me meant giving up the safety blanket of hunting with others. I had no one else to go with me, but my drive was there so I hiked the mountain to hunt alone.

On this show, Adam is joined by his good friend, and the star of Toeing the Line (TTL), Nolan Osborne. Anyone that has watched our TTL film will know that Nolan is one hell of a character. But, behind that goofy, and often laconic, demeanor is an incredibly committed and hard-working dude. With zero experience and zero skills, Nolan left his home province of Ontario to chase his dream of becoming a hunting guide. Since making the leap, he has worked throughout BC and the Yukon wrangling and guiding for Stone’s sheep, caribou, moose, grizzlies, and mountain goats. He is now living his dream. But the path was not easy. On this episode, Nolan shares the story of how he got to where he is today.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve likely noticed the 6.5’s have taken the shooting world by storm in recent years. Touting long, heavy for caliber, high ballistic-coefficient (BC) bullets, long-range competitors and hunters alike have reaped the benefits of the various cartridges designed around this caliber. Most recently the 6.5 Creedmoor, developed over a decade ago, has become one of the top-selling cartridges in North America.

Three years ago, my lifelong hunting mentor and — conveniently — my Father, George Lampreau, asked me if I wanted to put a Limited Entry Hunt (LEH) application in for any specific unit in B.C. for sheep. I had first set foot in the sheep mountains in 2009, though I had always hunted the general open seasons for mountain sheep. Needless to say, the excitement began to build at the thought of hunting a LEH zone for the first time.

In this episode, Adam and Chris talk about the story behind The Outdoorsmans (you’ll want to hear that one), and then take a deep dive into all things glassing related. Growing up in Arizona, Chris learned at an early age just how important effective glassing techniques, and of course equipment, are in wide open country. Since then, he has applied these techniques and tools across the West with substantial success.