Running Water Podcast with Jordan Budd

My Archery Setup and new First Lite Jackets

• Jordan Budd • Season 2 • Episode 5

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In this episode I run through my archery setup this year, what I chose and why. Plus we discuss the new North Slope and Suppressor jackets from First Lite. Links down below.


  • Mathews Phase 4 29", 65lb 
  • QAD Ultrarest Integrate
  • Spot Hogg Fast Eddie double pin w/ double pointer
  • Tight Spot 5 arrow quiver
  • Black Eagle Rampage w/ 125 gr Iron Will single bevel or Day 6 double bevel
  • Carter Too Simple release
  • T&K Hunter Gear Bow Sling
  • Pelican Air Bow Case
  • Sig Sauer 8k Rangefinder - archery mode

Extra field kit items:

  • Mathews S.A.S system
  • D-loop
  • Serving
  • Levels
  • Field points, a couple
  • Wax
  • Kobalt mini allen key set
  • Extra release
  • Extra peep 


Visit Our Website - www.Jordan-Budd.com

Follow me on social media @jordan.budd




00:00:00 Jordan Budd: All right everyone, welcome back to Running Water Podcast Jordan Budd here. Going to roll solo on this episode. And we are closing in on season. I'm super excited. Uh doing I've got my first hunt coming up technically opens August 15th, and hopefully I'll get to scout that for kind of the week before sort of scout. Uh, but I have a plan. Uh, for that, I am going to go in, uh, probably the next episode, going to go over my total gear list and kind of what I'm planning for that type of hunt plan to be, uh, super mobile, kind of in and out of different spots until I, uh, find deer just because I haven't been able to scout that all summer and, like, really, you know, find a deer to narrow down on. So, um, I have a lot of country to cover in a short amount of time. I'm just gonna end up bouncing in and out. But I'll go over that kind of in a future episode and my entire gear list of kind of what I'm planning for that. But in this episode, I want to go through what my current archery setup is. I think I may have gone through my archery setup before, but, uh, I believe that was with my previous bow, so. And I changed like a couple of things I'm going to go over, so wanted to dig into that. But before I go into that, I wanted to just like touch on a couple of things. So, uh, my elk film with Meat Eater the previous episode, I kind of went into that in more detail, but if you haven't gone and watched that, this is just a friendly reminder if you want to. If you don't, that's fine too. Um, and then we are doing a giveaway. Uh, running water hunting is doing a giveaway with tactical reveal trail cameras. So to enter that, uh, you play basically a game through the reveal trail camera app. So, um, tact cam reveal cel cams just in general. I've been using them for the last. Four seasons, maybe that first season they came out, I bought a couple of them and then, uh, just kind of slowly integrated my whole system over to those. And it's just through all the trail cameras I've used, especially cel cams. They're just definitely, like, the most reliable. Um, I know I'm gonna get photos from those cameras. And if there's an issue, it's going to let me know instead of, um, just not working at all. So they're they're great cameras. And if you have one and you have the app, there's a new feature inside the app called Shoot or Pass. And it's basically a game. So as you get pictures, you can submit them to Shooter Pass. And other members will vote on those photos and say like, yep, I'd shoot it or no, I'd pass it. And The more shoots that you get, uh, you can win certain seasons and then go into be entered to win, um, this giveaway with us. So if you have attacked cam, reveal trail cam or would like one, you can like get on there, set the app up, look at the shooter pass game and that's how you get entered to win a hunt with us here in Nebraska for 2026. And yeah, it'll be good. And another, uh, giveaway going on. First light's doing a giveaway for like $7,500 worth of stuff. There's like crispy boots. There's first light kit. Mountain House is on there. There's just like a ton of brands on there. And they're doing that giveaway. So you can enter the link in the show notes. And also from First Light, a couple new things coming out. They've been rolling out some of their new gear for this year. We've talked about the navigator hoodie, which I really like. We've talked about the lightweight, um, kind of the they have like the origin mid-layer that fleece mid-layer. This is like a slimmed down. Uh, lighter version of that, which, in my opinion, is the choice for backcountry hunting. So we've talked about those before, but they have a couple new ones out. So new puffy jacket and a new soft shell, which people have been asking for for a long time, including myself. So I'm going to do the soft shell first. So, uh, they call it the suppressor soft shell jacket comes in a men's and a women's cut. And of course, I've been wearing the women's, and the overall fit of women's has just got so much better. And they also make a vest in the men's, which I also really like. Um, so the soft shell, if you've been around the catalyst soft shell at all, that was a, uh, that was just a really quiet jacket. It didn't have. Like, of course it cut the wind. Just as you layer more, the wind just seems to get cut more. But it didn't have wind proof features, didn't have any venting. And it was just it was a really comfortable jacket, great to layer with, but it was lacking in some of the soft shell like classic soft shell feels. Um, this new suppressor changed that. So it is, uh, wind proof it is. The outer material is still quiet, but is a little bit, uh, it's still durable, I would say has some element, um, protection to it, you know, just like DW just lets that water beat up on the outside and then, um, yeah, is windproof. So people really were asking for that. And then they did add venting. But instead of, you know, kind of your classic pit zips, they added chest vents, which, uh, is kind of was native to their, their, um, rain jackets. Sorry. And basically what that is the vents run kind of diagonal on your chest on your upper chest. Then, um, your classic pit zips to me for one. They're easier to zip and unzip, and for two, they do open up more, I believe, than pit zips. And they just they scoop air better so you can just cool down and dump some heat faster. So I really like them. And then uh, the next thing the, the pockets. So just like a little bit of insider story on this, just kind of like the little things that you change that I think are interesting to listen to. So the very first prototype I got of these, they just had, you know, your regular pockets that you can think of for a soft shell like, you know, lower, just easy to put your hands in and out of. And then the second prototype that I got, I didn't make any like suggestions or anything on those pockets. The next prototype I got, the pockets were really high, um, with the idea being so you can still like obviously use them when you have your pack belt on, but with those ones, they were almost they were too high. And that when you have your bino harness on which you probably you have your bino harness on more than you have a pack on, you couldn't get to those pockets with your bino harness. So I kind of spoke up about that and was like, you know you have your bino harness on more than anything. Especially, I think anytime you're going to be wearing a soft shell, like you're gonna have your bino harness on over the top of it. So those pockets need to be accessible. So they actually did move them. Um, they told me they were going to, but I hadn't seen any version of it until they came out with the final and they did move them. So now they're in a really good middle ground between. You can still put a pack belt on and use them. You can still put your bino harness on and use them. And yeah, it's just a it's a little insider story there. It's pretty cool. So and then the cuffs. Um, the cuffs were I didn't love the cuffs. They were kind of an elastic, uh, tighter cuff on the old catalyst jacket. They, uh, adjusted that, and now they're just have, like, an adjustable Velcro cuff that when you have it velcroed over, you adjust it. Um, no matter where it is, it it folds flat. So you can still, like, layer with a puffy jacket over it and really easy. And it doesn't, like bunch up and get in the way. It's just like a super good design. I really like that suppressor soft shell and then comes in, um, yeah, men's and women's. And just overall, the women's fit has just come a long ways. So I'm 510 165. Pretty dang long arms. That jacket fits me really well, and I'm a large in the women's and medium in the men's. Both of them, um, fit me really well. I really, really like that jacket. And then the second one is the North Range Puffy jacket, which is basically an updated version of the Uncompahgre jacket. And if you have been around first light much, you've probably have heard of the unk or the unpronounceable the Unk compadre jacket. And, uh, there's been a couple different versions of that there currently on unk 2.0, and this could be like an Unk 3.0, but they changed the name to the North Range. Um, it is a synthetic insulation and they changed it to a primaloft gold insulation, which in my opinion from wearing both these jackets a lot is an update over that 37.5 synthetic insulation in the Unk 2.0. Um, and anybody who's like, been around the Uncompahgre at all. It's just it is like just that one jacket, like, if you're going to buy one puffy jacket, this is what I would buy is like this new North range. Um, the UNC is known for being just a go to puffy jacket for a ton of people. Bomb proof. Um, you know, that synthetic isn't gonna go down on you as far as, like, compressing, um, down with if you get wet. Um, it's just great. But this new, um, updated insulation with the Primaloft gold is just an overall update, in my opinion, from wearing both these jackets, uh, the primaloft seems to stay a little loftier, therefore just resulting in better warmth. Um, and yeah, I just it's just good. So there's 133g of that insulation, um, 23oz total weight of the jacket. And then, uh, a couple features that they have changed that I do really like. So your basic, uh, zippered hand pockets, they are a little elevated. So if you have a pack belt on, you can still get in your pockets. Um, they have chest pocket. And then in the inside there's a mesh pocket that you can. It's like a mesh stretchy pocket. So you can put like, gloves or your phone or whatever you want to in it. But with that mesh, say like you have a beanie on and you're hiking up and it kind of got wet. You can toss that inside the mesh pocket in the heat from your body will help dry that beanie out. Um, so that's a good feature. Another good feature. They went to a drop hood that is removable, so the hood zips on and off. Whether you're a hood person or not, you can now just kind of choose which direction you want to go. And with that drop hood, what it's really good for is it basically separates the collar from the hood. So if you do like having a hood, but at the time you don't want to use it. You want to zip up to get the best seal around your neck to keep, uh, your warm air into your body. You can do that. And it seals up really nice and comfortably. Um, but you don't have a hood that's, like, also trying to bunch up in the back of your neck. And, um, because the hood's trying to go up as well as you do the zipper there now, um, basically, like two sewn, two different. They're just two different pieces, basically. Um, so I think that's oh, the cuffs. I did want to talk about cuffs. So on the 2.0, kind of like the the catalyst jacket I was just talking about, they had elastic cuffs that really sucked around your wrist. And there is an argument for that of like, if you have that, then the cold air isn't going to go up your sleeve. In my opinion, it was kind of a pain in the ass because that elastic cuff would always get around your watch. My watch anyway. And and it would also suck around any layers that you had underneath. And so when you went to take it off it always try to like take layers with it or the sleeve would always go inside out. And not that big of a deal, but it was just like kind of a pain point for me. So they changed the cuffs on the new North Range there. They have a bigger opening than the previous version, and they just kind of end like there's no adjustability to them. Um, there's not any like different material down at the cuff, the material or the outer piece of the jacket basically just kind of folds over as sewn in and stops for me. I think that that's great. It's easier to get on and off if you do wear a watch. You're not like battling, trying to get it out and then getting it stuck when you take it off. And you know, overall a puffy jacket is going to be layered over stuff and those other layers should be more form fitting around your arms. Therefore, just keeping any of that cold air from being able to get up your arms anyways. So to me, like all good things, this, uh, this jacket, the North range, I would say if you're, if you have like a really lightweight puffy now and you're looking to get into something that can take you deeper into the late season, or if you're just in the market for a puffy jacket, that's kind of like the bomb proof do all like, not bulky, not super bulky to pack into the early season, but is still warm enough that you can layer under it in the late season and get by. The North Range jacket is what I would point you towards. So now that we're through that, I would like to go through my archery setup. So I have a couple of archery hunts coming up this year. Drew an Idaho tag that opens August 15th. And it's not like a super special unit. You know, it's a it's a general unit, but basically drawing that archery tag just lets me start a couple weeks earlier, which I have never shot. A velvet buck to this day. Came close on the Utah deer. Um, but he stripped by the time I went back and actually got him killed. So I'm super just pumped to be able to shoot a buck in the velvet, or have a better chance at shooting a buck in the velvet, at least. So, uh, really excited about doing that. I have a South Dakota mule deer tag in October, so that is going to be archery. And yeah, just been doing more rifle hunts the last few years. Um, and just trying to dive back into archery. So really, really excited. I've changed some things. I actually I had to get a new bow completely a couple years ago. Um, because partially because I'm kind of an idiot and just wasn't paying attention, and partially because people suck and they stole it. So, um, I guess basically what happened? We were in Colorado on an archery hunt. We were hunting this little section, BLM trying to catch some, um, elk coming off of private onto public. There was another, at least one other set of hunters in there hunting them as well. And we got done for the morning. And the guy that we were, I had a camera guy with me, and then the guy that we were with was kind of hunting a different area. Me and the camera guy got back to the vehicle early, and it had been pretty cold in the morning. We'd been running around trying to cut these elk off, so we were pretty sweaty. It was starting to warm up, so as we were waiting, we kind of just splayed all of our gear out all over the place. Um, when the other guy got back and unlocked his vehicle, we packed up all of our stuff and I looked in the back seat, saw my fletching color, and saw the cam of a matthews fuse and said, all right, I got my bow. Good to go. And in about an hour I was like, where's my bow? There's only one in the back seat. And in kind of all the, you know, whatever. And catching up from the morning and just packing up other stuff and apparently not paying that much attention, I left my bow. We went back to that spot and it was gone. Looked around, asked people at camps, and nobody had seen it. So either somebody stuck it in a tree and I still just didn't find it, or somebody stole it, which kind of was what I think happened. So with that sob story, uh, that leads me into I had to get a new bow. So previously I was shooting a matthews V3. X really liked that bow. I had it set up with a ham ski rest and a black gold backcountry Hunter five pin, um, on a slider. And then what else did I have? I had, um, Matthews that year had come out with their own quiver that fit super tight to a bow, really similar to a tight spot which I used before. So I just got that. And then they also came out with some new stabilizers. So I was using, um, just a matthews front bar, I think a 12 inch. And so that's kind of how that was set up beforehand. So when I knew I wanted to stick with Matthews because I've just I've bounced around a little bit, gone to PSC, I've shot Hoyts before, I didn't I liked the Hoyts, um, didn't really like the PSC personally and the Matthews to me. I always just shot them the best. They always felt the best to me. So, um, I decided just to stick with that and not change. I purchased, um, I bought a matthews phase four. They had just come out with a lift. Um, but I wanted to save a little bit of money. So I went with the phase four, 29, £965 limbs. Basically the same setup I had with my V3 ex. Uh, but another reason that I wanted I chose to go with that phase four was, uh, there was a component that interchanged between the V3 and the, the phase four that I already had, and that is I should have looked this up. Matthews basically calls it like your field equipment changer. No, it's basically like a field bow press. So what it is, is all it is, is basically a length of of bow string. And they have these little hooks on your limbs or sorry, on your cams that you can attach this to. And it basically takes tension off of your string. So it kind of acts as a press, a field bow press that you can let that tension off your string and you can fix things like your peep sight. Um, depending on how you have your peep tied in. I literally have had hunters here before that have had their peeps fly out, um, as they're shooting. And we're a long ways from any kind of a bow shop. So I've had to put new peeps in for people and stuff before, but this new system that Matthews has is just like, awesome. It literally is just a bow string. You can put it in your field kit on a backcountry hunt. It weighs nothing and it can just save you like so much time. So kudos to Matthews for coming up with something like that. But I already had that that string and it was interchangeable between the V3 X and the phase four, and it wasn't between the lift. So I just chose to go with phase four, save a little bit of cash and um, yeah, it's great bow. So with that, I had to get a new rest and I had gone to the hamsi rest. But I had used the Qad ultra rest in the past, and I really liked that. Qad. I think I've just been around it more. Um, the Hamsi is an awesome rest. It's, uh, the one I was using was lim driven this Q8 and it was really easy to set up. Um, but this shad comes with that little clip to clip around your cable. Um, some people prefer to integrate that into the cable. So basically press your bow, split the cable, and be able to put that in and just tie it in a little tighter. You don't have to worry about it loosening up. Um, in my opinion, there's all kinds of things that can happen in the back country that, uh, cable can get snapped between your rest and whatever. So I want to be able to adjust it. So I just use the little clip that comes with, um, that comes with those ultra rest, basically, so I can make adjustments to it. Uh, as I need to and not ha not need a press because I don't have a press. I've considered getting them. They're pretty. It's a pretty steep learning curve and I just don't. There's the bows really freak me out because they're under they're under pressure. And I know that's why you get a press is so you depressurize them and you can make changes and stuff. Um, I don't know if I'm like, very first setting up a bow. I like to just take it to a shop, let them do some of that stuff. Double check. Timing kind of get me set up. But then there's a few things that I just like to do a certain way so I can do them and make adjustments to them when I'm at home. And that's one of them. And I'm going to go through, um, after I go through my whole setup here, I want to go through a few things that I like personally do, um, because I like knowing how things work, and I like to be able to make adjustments to things and more, more than anything, be able to stay in the field and not have to drive. Who knows how far to go to a bow shop to fix something? Um, as simple as losing a peep sight. So I'm going to go through all that later. But anyways, I did the, uh, I went back to the ultra rest and I, uh, paid a little extra and went the integrate route. And essentially what that integrate is, I think there's more bows doing it now. Matthews kind of flagship this I know Hoyt is doing it as well. Um, but Matthews added, instead of using a bolt to bolt your rest on, they, uh, did a dovetail. So basically on the back of the riser, there's a dovetail that this rest attaches to instead of, uh, doing it via bolt and basically what that does, it just kind of slim lines. The whole bow keeps it. Um, you don't have as much stuff sticking out on the side. Just makes it just makes it a little slimmer, if that makes sense. Um, so I just went ahead and paid a little extra and went that route. And again, just the qad ultra rest for me. It's an awesome rest. I've never had any issues with it and it's easy to adjust, easy to set up. And so that's what I do. And next for a site, um, I did have a dialed site that I had gotten in the mail from Dialed Yanny, and I got it when we were doing the Meat Eater podcast. We each got one. Um, I didn't have a chance to put it on that v3 x I already had that set up with that Black Country or, um, black gold back country hunter. And so I just didn't really want to change it. We were getting ready to go on a caribou hunt in Alaska, and I just didn't really want to change it. And so I didn't. And then I didn't for the whole season. And then when, uh, it got swiped or I lost it, however you want to look at that, I still had that dialed. So the first thing I did is I put that dialed side on and I played around with it a little bit. Um, I personally it wasn't my favorite. Um, I don't really know why. I know a ton of people really like them. Um, I personally was just kind of like a I kind of want to go back to a spot hog like I used to shoot, so I did. I went, I think even through, like, rockslide classifieds or something. I bought a spot hog, Fast Eddie, and I did something a little different than I have in the past. I went with a double pin and a double pointer, and in the past I've always just gone with five pins on a slider with my bottom pin as my reference pin, and that was just a really versatile system for from elk hunting to deer hunting. I thought that that was kind of the bee's knees. Um, but I just kind of went out on a limb and went with this double pin. And basically what that is, is it just gives you two pins, their fixed distance. If they are fixed distance apart, you can't change them. Um, and I used my top pin as my reference for the slider. But one thing that this Fast Eddie has is what is called a double pointer. So there are two pointers on your sight tape, and I set my whole sight tape up for my top pin. But what the double pointer does, the bottom pointer will point to where the bottom pin is. So essentially what that gives you is like two different ranges that you can use. If, like an elk is moving in and out, you get a deer out of his bed and instead of giving you a shot, maybe he just starts walking. You don't get a shot and he moves out and you're still at full draw. You still have a reference for a longer shot. And to me that's important over like a single pin, because you can't always make adjustments. And in that scenario you have a bucket 40 yards and he stands up and he goes out to, you know, 55 or whatever till you get a shot, um, with a single pin, you can't you just don't have any reference. So I wanted to try to go to fewer pins, but I didn't want to be able to lose having a reference. So in my mind, the double pin was with the double pointer is kind of where it was where it was at for me. So that's what I've got. Sparhawk. Fast Eddie. Double pin, double pointer. So far. Really like it. Haven't shot any animals with it yet, but hopefully that'll change. Um, and then I, I went back to kind of the old trusty for my quiver. Uh, tight spot, five arrow. Those tight spots are awesome. They just fit super tight to the bow and very adjustable to whatever area you're shooting. And I just really like that. And adjustable also in a bunch of different ways, you can kind of use them as a way to balance your bow to you, kind of, or just however you like it. And then, uh, something else I actually don't even have yet, but I'm going to go back to, um, is a front and a rear, uh, and a back bar for my stabilizers. So, uh, I've never used this company before, but cutter stabilizers, I heard them on trails podcast with Go Hunt trails, game trails. And as a quick side note to before I forget about it, I listened to trail talk about how he sets up his bow, and that's a if you're interested in doing stuff like that. Um, he went through it in great detail and I thought it was a great podcast. So go listen to that. If you're interested in setting up your own bow. Um, I'm going to go through like some of the things that, that I like to do after a shop is done with the bow later, like I talked about. Um, but I am not an archery authority. I have just like trial and error. Kind of learned this stuff on my own. I'm going to share what I do because I think it's beneficial to hear what multiple people do. And so I'm going to go through that. But um, later. But back to the stabilizers. So this cutter stabilizer company, they are a USA made. maid, so I paid a little bit extra, um, to go with them. But for the front stabilizer, I'm doing a 12 or a 12 inch, and for my rear, I'm doing a six inch. And I've used front and back bars before. Uh, bee Stinger specifically. Uh, but I am so I actually have I have a bee stinger quick, um, like a quick disconnect for a back bar and that front bar that I'm going to use for these cutter stabilizers because I already have it. Um, but that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to do 12in out the front, six inches out the rear. And I think they come with three, three ounce weights on each of those. And I'll just play with that and kind of just really try to get things, um, solid. So it can just help me at full draw like stabilize that pin. So that's what I'm doing there. Um, I'm shooting the Black Eagle rampage or arrow with 125 grains. Um, with 125 grain head. I have not started shooting my broadheads yet. Um, I've just been, like, trying to. I haven't shot a lot, uh, which I'm usually like. I usually shoot my bow a lot, but we've just been super busy this year, and, um, with just setting it up and stuff, I've just been a little slower to get at it, but still shooting. Still just shooting field tips, just trying to dial some things in and just kind of get back into it. Um, but I think I'm going to go, well, I'm definitely going to stay 125 grain, but I'm either going to go to the iron will single bevel or um, back to the day six. So I did buy some of those, uh, single bevels that just like makes sense to me On how those things work and how they can be a little bit more effective than than the double bevel. But, uh, I've shot quite a few things with that day. Six double bevel, and I really like that. So I'm just going to shoot both of them and like, see how each of them fly, how they tune up and go from there. But overall, my total arrow weight is about 440 grains, I think. Um, I was shooting day six arrows a couple years ago with their heads up front, and I was closer to that 480 mark. And while I do like it, like I like having that heavier arrow, um, I did switch over to these these Black Eagle rampages and just kind of lightened everything up. And it just made my trajectory a bit flatter. And I think with having a really good, sharp head on the front. Um, so far, I just haven't seen any issues. Like I killed that killed that caribou, um, killed my Utah deer and just had passed through, and it was just. I just feel like it's a little bit better set up for me. A little lighter than I've run in the past, but I think with a super quality, as long as you make sure you have a really quality head on the front and you're tuned up, well, um, I like that flatter trajectory a little bit better, but that's kind of a middle ground. That's not a real light setup, but it's not as heavy as I used to run. So it just kind of that middle ground. Um, I had a, uh, I had a guy make those arrows up for me as well. And he was. I've got I'm running, um, three Fletch with a right, I think a a right helical. And with that, um, I do want to say for arrows like I don't have my own fletching jig. I should probably get them because they're pretty cheap and it's not rocket science. Um, but I do like supporting some companies. And like black Hovis has an office, has a has an awesome arrow builder. You can there's just a lot of different arrows to choose from. They'll cut them for you. They'll put the inserts in for you. You can choose a bunch of different wraps that you want if you want a wrap. Um, they have a lot of different, uh, a lot of different fletchings. You can do three, Fletch, four. Fletch. You can choose your offset, which direction you like it. Um, when I was getting my arrows through those guys, I really liked just a two degree. Right. Offset, um, just helped with that steering, but didn't give you, like, a crazy, you know, a helical or anything like that. Um, but with this, uh, custom arrow, this other custom arrow builder guy, um, I basically like, gave him my setup that I wanted him or I just basically gave him my setup like my poundage, my draw length, all those things. And he basically built an arrow for me that he thought would perform. So, um, we got a little bit of a deal through him, through Meat Eater. And so he went through that, I think, you know, moving forward, when I'm ready to change arrows, um, or need to get some more something, I'll probably just completely change things up and just go back through black ovis and kind of build my own arrows. It's just fun being able to build your own stuff like that too. And in my experience, uh, they've done a really good job. So check those out. If you're in the market for some custom arrows. And then let's see. Make sure this is it. Yeah. The, uh, my releases. So I've shot a thumb trigger for quite a lot of years now. Been considering going to like a hinge or a back tension for not for hunting, but just for target shooting purposes. Maybe try to just dial myself in a little bit more, but I'm still a pretty big believer in, uh, you know, something like a thumb trigger. I really like a thumb release. So I'm using the Carter too. Simple. And I started off with the Carter. I'm pretty sure it's just called a Carter. Simple. And then they came out with a Carter too simple, which basically just had a longer neck. And I just seemed that just seems to fit me a little bit better. I just like that release more. So I have a Carter two simple that I'm using, and then I have that. I keep that um, other my other thumb trigger. Just the Carter simple as a backup. Um, couple just like different accessory things. I've got the T and K bow sling. It's basically just a string. And they have a sight protector too that has a shoulder sling on it just for like, I don't always want to carry my giant case around. Um, but I obviously want to protect the most important things on that bow if I'm traveling, so I really do like that. Um, the string and sight protector, it goes over each cam. It's, uh, made out of Cordura and some, like, mesher space, uh, mesh spacing material. And it's just it's awesome. Totally worth the money, in my opinion. Um, I bought two of them out of my own pocket, so check them out. And then if you are in the market for like a, an archery case, like a hard case for your bow if you're traveling. When we were getting ready to go to Alaska, I actually didn't have like a hard bow case. Um, but we're getting ready. When we were getting ready to go to Alaska, I was looking around at different cases and was just gonna buy, uh, kind of a shorter rifle case and and cut my own cuts in the foam for it. But Pelican does make an archery specific, like bouquets. And honestly, it's worth it. It's totally worth it. Like, they've got little, um, organizer pockets that you can put in. Uh, they have spots for your arrows. They have kind of like an internal soft case that you can separate the bow. You like latching your bow with some clips, and it just will keep it separated from, like, any accessories or anything extra that you throw into that case to travel with. It's like 500 bucks. I think I cringed a lot when I bought it, but honestly, it's been awesome. So that is my setup for this year, just kind of going back through it quicker than I said it because I get sidetracked. Um. Matthews Phase four. 29 inch, £65 limbs. I have a 28 inch draw length. And then qad ultra rest. Integrate. Really like that rest. Uh, spot hog. Fast Eddie double pin with a double pointer. Like in that as well. Um. Tight spot, five arrow quiver. Awesome. Quiver. Um, cutter. Stabilizers, 12 inch front bar, six inch rear bar. Um, black Eagle rampage arrows with 125 grain head. And I'll either be doing the iron wheel, single bevel, or the day six double bevels with a bleeder. Uh, Carter two simple release and then capping it off with that T and K string and insight protector. Um, one thing too with the Carter release, I got an awesome thing. It's a little kydex holster for the release that attaches to my bino harness, so I also I will always have my release like on my bino harness. Easy to get to, ready to go. I don't have to remember which pocket I put it in or the thing about these things is like I don't have a wrist strap for it so you can set it down and leave it, or it can fall out of a pocket and you will leave it. Um, that's why I always carry a backup with me, because I don't want to lose it and then not have it at all. But that little kydex holster is freaking sweet, and I'll talk about it more. And I'm going to do a video for my YouTube as well, and, um, social, like my Instagram as well, talking about it, but it's pretty cool. So on to like field repair kit items. I think that you should always keep some kind of stuff with you, whether it's you're going to keep it in your vehicle. I personally think if you're doing a backcountry hunt, you should keep it just in your your overall kit and just like a real, real basic stuff like we're talking about, we're working with strings here, like things that get cut really fairly easily and there's a lot of abrasive rocks and snatching, um, you know, with like limbs and stuff on bowstrings and breaking stuff and like, literally anything can happen. Um, but for the most part, all this stuff to repair it is light, like we're talking about d-loop material, serving extra peeps, like all that stuff is light. So I'm going to go through what I carry with me, my little field kit. So first thing, extra release. I've talked about that. Um, second thing I've already talked about is that system from Matthews, and I am just going to look it up right now. Field Bow Press okay. They call it their stay a field system, and it's 40 bucks and it's literally bowstring material and it hooks around, um, a spot on your cams. And basically what it does is like, you take your string and you pull it towards your grip, and that will, uh, give some rotation to your cams, and you connect that system, that string to both cams. And when you let pressure off of that string, it will, um, keep the cams where they are. So it'll basically loosen that string and then you can make adjustments, um, to anything. Put a new. You can make an adjustment to you can move your peep and retie it in if you need, put a new peep in whatever lets you split your string and make adjustments to it. And it's literally like it says right here, less than half an ounce. I mean, it's awesome in my opinion. It's just a reason to buy a matthews in general if you can shoot them very well. So that system definitely bring that, bring a little bit of serving with me that serving is good for I mean obviously kind of all kinds of things. Uh, serving like your nocking points, you can redo your nocking points, you can reserve in your peep sight if you're serving gets snagged or you have to make adjustments and you have to cut it or whatever you can redo, you can retie that in, um, those are kind of the two bigger things that I can think about. Um, I do carry like an extra peep with me. Uh, the peep sight that I have in my bow now is a Hemsky Raptor peep. I do really like that peep, but I just got, like, a cheaper one to keep in my kit. Just a quarter. That's, um, just kind of a good, good thing to have. And then I do carry my levels. Um, so I have these little cheap I think I got them off Amazon. They're like little plastic levels. There's one that clips to your string and there's one that attaches to your arrow. And mostly like I do this maybe to just, like, double check if something seems off. You can like double check just gives you more confidence. They literally weigh nothing. Um, and then if you have something happen, like your d-loop breaks, um, you can, you know, tie a new d-loop. If you don't have nocking points set, you can get that arrow parallel to your string. Um, so that's why I carry. And then we were at Lowe's the other day and cobalt makes a mini Allen key set. So I got those and going to take those with me this year and then, uh, bring a couple field trips with me and a little bit of string wax. Um, what that string wax is good for, too, is, like, you can put a little bit of string wax on your threads of your broadheads, and when you screw them in, it makes it a little tacky. So it's harder for those broadheads to to unscrew on their own. So that is that's what I carry with me. Now, all of this stuff d-loop material, serving the extra peep, like all of that stuff is useless if you don't know how to tie de loop. So make sure that you know how to tie de loop. Uh, Levi Morgan and the knock on guy on YouTube. Like super, super good resources. I really like the way that Levi Morgan ties in his peep sites. Um, it gives it a little flair. Kind of looks cool. Um, but it also just ties them in, like, super tight to where literally they can't move and they won't fly out. So, uh, I've taken my bow to pro shops before to kind of, like, get the initial setup or to do something kind of big, like if I don't know how to do it because I don't have a press or whatever. And if they do anything to my peep, I ask them to just soft tie that peep in. For one thing, with that serving, if you soft tie those, you can move your peep up and down to kind of like get it set exactly where you want it and you can do all of that, like, you know, shooting like later at the range or something when you have more time, you don't have somebody that's like kind of waiting on you. Um, I just have them soft tied in so I can make little adjustments to my, on my own, and then I can tie that peep sight in the way that Levi does. So it's nice and tight and I just like, do it myself so I know how to do it. Um, so that's one thing. He has an awesome YouTube video showing how to do that. And then there's all kinds of videos showing how to tie a d loop. I think he does it as well. Um, I like the way that the knock on guy does it. So definitely know how to tie your d loop. Um, bring like don't really skimp out. Like don't bring a whole roll, but don't skip out on the loop material because depending on the rest that you use, d-loop material will work. And in some cases, I think that it is probably a sort of dilute material that they use for your cable. Running from those drop away rests to your to your cable or to your limb or whatever. So you want to have enough that if something happens and that gets broken, you can have enough to fix that. So that. And then you're serving, um, you know, know how to tie in some certain things like I'm talking about with that with the, um, your peep site, but also with that serving. And another thing I like to do, if I'm having a pro shop kind of set things up, I ask them specifically to tie me to nocking points. So essentially what you're knocking points are, are your, you know, imagine your string or your nock snapped on your string and you have your D loop on either side of that nock. You will basically have a little piece of serving tied between the d loop and your nock. And that does a couple of things as I understand. Um, it can eliminate nock pinch. So what can happen is if you you don't have any nocking points and you only have your d-loop on either side of your nock, which is how all the pro shops used to do it for me. I never had a nocking point before. I started looking into some of this stuff and just digging into it a little bit more and trying to learn more about it. If you only have d-loop on the side of your nock, when you draw your bow back in, that string bends right at your where your Nocking point is, the D-loop can actually pinch your nock and it will make inconsistencies in your shots. Um, can cause some, you know, accuracy problems because of that inconsistency. And just like that, pinching your nock. So what? Nocking points do is they eliminate that from happening. And another thing they do is if you break your d-loop, it gives you a spot to go back to with your d-loop. Literally, if you have two pieces of serving tied on for a nocking point on the top and on the bottom, but a lot of people just do it on the bottom, so you can just do that too. You don't have to do it on the top and the bottom. Um, it makes sense to me to have them on the top and bottom, so that's always what I ask for. So if they're setting it up, I literally always ask them like, hey, can you tie me in Nocking point for the bottom and the top of my nock and they'll, like, do it, no problem. But maybe that's not how they usually set it up. Or maybe they're not going to do anything extra if you don't ask them to, but if you ask them to, they'll definitely do that for you. Um, but yeah, it eliminates nock pinch. And it gives you, more importantly in my mind, a reference point to reference. If your d-loop gets broken in the field and you have to retie your d-loop. So those are a couple of things that I always have a pro shop do. Um, and I think let me see. I think that's pretty much it. Um, another thing I usually do is like, you have to make sure that you. Oh, this is a big deal. Um, before I get to. Well, I'll just keep going with this. You have to shoot your broadheads before you go into the field. Um. Real important, real, real important thing. Because depending on the broadhead and depending on your tune and a bunch of things like your broadheads can be hitting way different than your field tips. The goal is to always have things tuned to where your broadheads feel fit or hit, where your field tips are. But if all you do is shoot all summer with field tips and then you screw on your broadheads literally as you're going into the field, like you can be shooting low left with those things and it'll cause you to miss or wounded deer. And we don't need any of that. So make sure you shoot your broadheads and tune in your broadheads. Um, usually that's just going to require, like, moving your wrist, but there's way better podcasts, um, on doing all of that and YouTube videos on how to do all that that you can reference. That's way better than me, but just make sure you do it. Um, and then another thing that I like to do when I leave a pro shop is double check all of the leveling on your site. Um, second and third axis, third axis especially. And there is a tool that Hemsky makes, just a ham ski level tool. They have like a third axis level tool and then they have like a pro level tool that does all kinds of stuff. Um, but essentially with that third axis is, is like, I like to think about it as like your sight can move. Like a like a wobble. Like. Not that anything's not tight, but your your whole sight can move. Like the left side will come to you and the right side will go out. So, like, if you're grabbing something and wobbling it, like, your whole sight can move like that. And basically that is your third axis adjustment. And what happens is if you don't have that set and you're shooting at angles, your level will actually not read correctly. So it'll make you level incorrectly and it will throw your shot off by a lot, depending on how far it is. Like you can be feet off. So third axis leveling is super, super important. So if a bow shop is setting your bow up, trust them to the point like trust but verify. So verify that everything is level on there, especially that third axis, especially if you're mountain hunting and you're shooting down. It can even happen the same in a tree stand. Although if you're at that much of an angle, you're probably pretty close. So it's not going to be as noticeable, but it can definitely make a difference. So level level level trust but verify. Always make sure that that is set up. So that is run through of my archery setup, my stupidity from a couple of years ago losing my bow, but um, kind of allowed me to jump back in to, I don't know, archery game a little bit. It's always fun. Like building out, building out a whole system. It's not fun paying for it. Um, but it is fun building out a system and and just understanding the equipment you have, how it works, and just being ultra confident in that system Stem going into the field. So, uh, yeah, that's my setup. Probably last thing I'll talk about. Um, I'm going to I'll do the whole gear rundown. But last thing that goes with archery equipment is a rangefinder. So I have a SIG 8-K. It's a handheld rangefinder. Um, one update that they did is they now have an archery mode in your in that rangefinder. And like the Five-k has it, the 8-K has it. The 10-K binoculars have it. I think the three K binoculars have it as well. Um they have like the image stabilizing. One has it as well. And basically what the archery mode is, is kind of like a ballistic profile for your bow based off of your arrow speed. So if you can shoot your bow at a chronograph, get a speed out of that, you can go over to archery mode, input that speed, and then that will give you a very reliable cut chart for angles. So just like a gun or anything, if you're at a really steep angle, the the gravity that is affecting that arrow is on the distance, the straight, the straight distance. Um, on. Let me see how to explain this. It is your straight distance from you to the animal, not the distance. Uh, not the line of sight distance. So you can be at a really steep angle. And it could say that, hey, this deer is 60 yards, but the actual gravity distance that gravity is affecting from you to the animal might only be. This is extreme, but it might only be 40 yards. So if you aim for 60 for your line of sight. and the gravity is only affecting that arrow for 40 yards. Well, you're going to miss him high every time. So you need a reliable system to be able to cut that distance. Now a lot of rangefinders will do that. But SIG having the archery mode that isn't only cutting it just for the distance you're at, but actually makes some adjustments based on what arrow speed you're shooting is huge. I mean, just overall impacts the, uh, the accuracy that you're going to shoot, the accuracy of the range that it's giving you, and therefore you're just going to shoot much more accurately. And just having all these things is just like adds confidence. And that's really most of what a lot of this is, is the confidence of you've been shooting all summer. You know how your equipment works. You know, after a week of pounding around in the mountains and not shooting. When that opportunity does pop up, opportunity might be 20s. You have the confidence that all of your equipment is tuned in where it should be. Your third axis is tuned in. You know that the bow is giving you a correct range and you can. All you have to think about is executing a good shot and placing it correctly. So that's my spiel. Been on here for almost an hour. It almost feels longer. So sorry about that. But, uh, yeah, that's my overall archery setup. You have any questions, shoot me a message on Instagram or you can get on the website Jordan Comm and reach out on there if you want. But, uh, yeah, that's that's all I got. Future podcasts. I'm going to go through my gear list for the backcountry archery hunt this year, and then, um, gonna just keep trying to do that as I, as I dive into hunts. And then this summer, I would also really like to do a little podcast series on picking out gear, um, that is, you know, correct for the hunt or things like that. I have a lot of like, new followers on Instagram that when I do questions, they're asking, like a lot of, you know, very basic questions. And I think some podcasts just dive way too deep to start with. So, uh. You know, folks might not really understand the gear piece just from the basics. And I want to try to just make that more clear so people can make better buying decisions. So I'm going to try to do that as well. So if you have any questions or things you'd like to add on that, just get Ahold of me and I'll do them as soon as I can. So hope everybody has a great, uh, rest of the summer and is getting ready for season.

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Jordan Budd

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Lea Piper

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