00:00:00 Speaker 1: Hey, this is Tyler Jones and you're listening to the Element podcast. Now swam across and meets you on the outside, and I'm not sure why we even have five threw up being in the same situation PreO between. It's caused a lot of frustration. Brother lesgiving games blood in the river and that's why the college What's happening on the woods people today is a very different experience for us personally. Um, for all the listeners of this podcast, we are actually videoing this thing, so we have not done many of these, so uh, there could be one media format or the other that kind of gets ignored. So smarty that happens. But we felt like we've had several questions about, um, what what our camo system looks like or a certain piece of camo because we wear some higher and stuff and guys don't want to, Um, they don't want to go spend like three bucks on like a jacket if it's not exactly what they want, Like you know what I mean. I totally understand that because I'm the same way. But today it's everything camo. What do you got there? Yeah, everything camo and this is the green stuff. So but it's all white tail Camo today. We're not talking anything really too much about like what our elk set up looks like or anything, which mine currently is still in the process of developing. There, we do use the green stuff and the elevated stuff the gray stuff in both for white tail, so uh, multi purpose pieces around here. Yeah. So, um, anyway, it's all camo today. It's all white tail Camo. We're gonna talk about our systems. We're gonna lay everything out for the listener, and we are going to uh start with the next to skin stuff, I guess right. Alright, so our systems are a little bit different probably, We've got different pieces of gear that we utilize. Um, and so Tyler, I mean overall, I think that you maybe are touch more cold natured than I am. Not much, but just a little bit. So a lot of times will be doing a little bit different stuff in the stand for sure, Like I have like fifteen layers on. You won't think it's because your long limbs, right could. I know, like my granddad he's six six and he has circulation issues with his just got super long legs, you know, So uh that I think that's a real deal for sure. But at the same time, like it may just be an excuse for me because I'm not like overly large, you know what I mean, I don't know. But anyway, Um, so starting I'll just start um with like the bottom side of things and if I can find it, Man, I got stuff everywhere and I actually, um like had a there's this is sad I got uh Like I haven't pulled this stuff out in a while, right, so it's pretty dusty and I start pulling the stuff out and I have like an allergy attack right before we get on here. Anyway, these are uh, this is what I've been wearing actually on my atoms. Um this is Marino and its first light and I bought this going into a sheep hunt on and um it's just the first light Marino. Um. I can't tell you a whole lot about this stuff because I'm not a gear nerd case he's a lot better with the names and stuff like that. But anyway, um, this stuff is awesome. Like you can wear this several days in a row. It doesn't stink. I mean I've wore eight days in a row and in British Columbian I could couldn't really smell like from the garment, I couldn't smell myself, you know, so um, and then I wore that for several years too, which is our wh's the same thing, Marino bass layer up top and one of them is like a quarter zip and one of them just a standard shirt, same thing that you think are a little different. I don't know. I think so thinks. I think, yeah, I think if I remember right, these are lightweight ones, right, yeah, and I think that's gonna be a one ninety. Wait Marino, I don't care for sure, but if you can check me on that, you know. But I doubled them up because they're not super warm, but they were. They were good. They're good when you're like out either walking on the ground with white tails or if your sheep planning. Obviously, Well, this is what I got this first lap for. I was told by the guy I was going with that the first lap Marino was the least itchy stuff that he had tried on, so I went ahead and got it. So anyway, Uh, you're running more, Yeah, I run more synthetic stuff for basse layers. Now, I do have a piece that you're gonna talk about here in a second. That's Sita don't you have a piece like a lightweight Marina Sitka. Well yeah, so, um, I have that, But let's talk about the synthetic stuff. I where actually, um, pretty much, no matter where I'm hunting and what I'm doing, if it is anything to where that's cool, right, Like even if it's gonna warm up during the day, but if it's cool in the morning, I'm gonna put on a pair of these synthetic These are Russell liked, might have been like nine dollars I think at Walmart synthetic bottom bass layers, and I feel like these do a couple of things. Uh, they helped me keep from chafing, which is pretty handy. We've actually been talking about that today because we did a bunch of white tail scouting and putting out cameras and uh, it was ready nasty out there, but they help with that. They do get a little bit more funky, but they're cheap, so you're about three or four pair, especially if you're not on a backpack hunt. Not a big deal, but I really, I mean it's like pretty much my go to thing in the morning, no matter what time of year it is. And then if I probably should entertain something like that, because if you're walking some distance in a marino and you get it kind of sweaty, it can get to where. I mean, they don't drive very quickly. They don't dry all these right here, they drive quick so they're they're pretty pretty handy for that. Uh. And then I got let's see here, I have another base lay or something somewhere. Everything social for something like this. Yes, that's what I'm looking for, but I have one somewhere. Anyways. This is the sit core lightweight. Also kind of my go to. I'm gonna wear this white tail hunting pretty much every time I go in the woods no matter what a It kind of helps keep um nasty funk off of my Like nicer pieces they don't like to put in the washing machine. I'll wash this thing a hundred times, right, and uh, it's always good to have, like if you're walking to the standard whatever, if it's still warm. Um, this is gonna be something that dries out pretty quick. I've gotten like soaked in sweat and then made to the stand and this and drying being drying like twenty or thirty minutes. So and I wore this, So I wore the first slight stuff in um and prior to as well. But this is what I wore max the skin all year two. It's a synthetic UM, so it dries out much quicker than a merino and it's actually really pretty comfortable for a synthetic I think. So yeah, I love them. I mean it's a kind of a shirt that I just don't mind wearing anyways. Entertained buying a brown one or something. You mean, yeah, for sure. So when it does like start getting to touch warmer um or colder, I'm starting to need to be warmer, I'll usually put these on. These are a real tree synthetic naice layer, kind of a glorified sweatpant pretty much, but just enough to kind of have a little extra layer of insulation on there. They're they're pretty much a fleece, is about what they are. UM. And there's kind of a reason why I can go with this, and we'll talk about that later, But this whole thing is about really about layering, right, So UM, having one type of adder layer allows you to kind of go a different direction of some of your under layers. So that's my touch warmer. We do quite a bit of walking or if we're on the ground. Obviously we're walking a lot when we're hunting, but um, we do quite a bit of walking. So when you're walking to a stand, um, when you're on public for instance, like you may need to walk in quite a way is just to get past where people are gonna be hunting. And uh, layering is so key. And also you know, having those synthetics and stuff like that to keep the sweat, you know, now carrying clothes with you. I mean, we were talking about that today on the way into some of the places that we scouted. It was like you were talking about how you usually carry extra socks and that you used to carry a whole change of set back set of clothes back in. If I was going way far back and I was sitting all day on them, those hits too, so would be worth it. I would just wear like street clothes in and and then put those in my backpack like stripped down naked at like four thirty in the morning, which is not fun sometimes, and then put all my hunt clothes on, climb up in the tree and then draw my my stuff up and that that works pretty well. And one of the things to talk about on that is that if you're not doing that. Sometimes you kind of have to commit to your bottom layer, except for maybe your your shell, and we'll talk about that more later. But like with these, I kind of have to decide, at least for a morning or evening hunt, what I'm gonna wear. So if we're gonna be more active, I'm probably gonna go to where I'm maybe a touch cold on my lowers, just so that I'm not burning up because it stinks to be cold, but it's really probably worse to be burning up because it's it's one of these things you can't really stand. You mentioned socks will ago, and I guess that's kind of part of the bass layer kind of thing. That's I'm kind of serious about socks these days. I need some advice. Okay, So I've locked to there's two pairs of socks that I have that are really like and I really enjoy. Um. Can I feel those? Yes? You can. They're clean, they're inside out too sore, not quite that here, let's turn one of them out right side out so they look right. Maybe if people are trying to buy them off the shelf or whatever these are, I believe farm defeat is what they are. Your farm Defeat American. Yeah, they're they're kind of a specialty that all they do is make socks. They're not like a big brand that happens to have some socks. So they have a little bit of cushion in the toe and the heel and then a little bit of I don't know, something ribbing on top or whatever. But I found that these are cool when they need to be and they're warm when they need to be. So uh and there ercent Marino. We are not, but they are Marino. I think it's gonna be a little bit of polly blend in there, some elasticity, but uh, anyways, Uh, these are farm Defeat also have a pair of smart Wolves that I like that are very similar in design, but not quite as fancy. These suckers right here, I can wear four or five days and not be smelling in which is pretty cool. That is cool. Yeah, And then you pair those with the right pair of boots, and I mean, I've been warmed down to some really cold temps, so I think something I figured out. Uh, and we might discuss this more with boots and a little bit. But you kind of tend to want to really stack a bunch of socks together to stay warm, and I figured out the more room I can have in my boot, the warm of my foot stays, probably because I'm compressing my foot and restricting circulations. So if I can just put on a thin pair of warm socks, I stay way warmer than I do if I like try to, because I've got this giant pair of like nasty wolf socks over here too that are kind of itchy or whatever, and if you put those on over man, I think it's cold. It's kind of counterintuitive. Yeah, that's I used to wear a ton of those like itchy wolf socks and my dad bought me everything. Oh yeah, And so I mean they're good in some duck waiters for sure. Yeah. But the thing is in duck waiters, you're usually pretty active for the outlost the morning, and uh, it's like at nine o'clock you're like heading back to get McDonald's. Exactly what's different, um for for like on top of the synthetic type of stuff or the or the very base layer I've got, I wore these things a lot, and this these um so sometimes, uh, sick as system kind of confuses me a little bit. And like complete transparency guys. Um, a lot of the sick that we have was given to us. So, I mean we did buy some of it. We did buy some of it, but at the same time, we've had a lot of this given to us. So, um, that's all we have so much, you know. So but it's good because we can sit here and talk about it and like you can go, oh, I want this one, but I don't want that one. You can make decisions based on that. Hopefully that's what the aim of this is. So this, I don't know what's a They have these like core lightweights and okay, so I knew this was a Marino heavyweight. This is a Marino lightweight, and I mean it's see through pretty much, but it's for moisture waking and purposes. I guess right. I have both these pieces. Couldn't find them when I was coming over here, so I figured Tyler had him, so we could both share them. Uh, if I can interject a little bit on them. Uh, if you're a Southern hunter, I don't know if this Marino lightweight piece has a spot in your lineup because it's, um, it's not really that warm. Okay, it's made for like a lightweight duty and if you get sweaty in this thing, it takes a long time to dry out. I mean a long time. Like I wore this in early season Hunt last year where it rained to touch and I mean I didn't dry out the whole morning. And uh, I feel like just it's the same thing as the synthetic one, but maybe it's got a touch more of you know, older protection or whatever. That's kind of so I stacked these two together just so these being the lightweight in the heavyweight, and they don't This is almost like an insert to this. It doesn't come out the whole season usually, you know, or first several weeks at a time. So it's kind of like it's kind of like, um, you know, put the synthetic on first, then put these on, and it's it's kind of that layering like you were talking about. It's just just a matter of layering and hopefully like creating a little bit of barrier in between. Because to me, this heavyweight is pretty like something that I use quite a bit. It's very essential and I don't want that, like I don't want this to get wet whatever at all, you know, like whatever costs. So um, I usually hope that like if there does leak through any sweating, that that it'll get on this. And so when I go in, I usually actually have these two put together, and I don't. I don't always wear these when I'm walking in. It's it's a lot of times it's just the synthetic. If it's a pretty good even it's frosty, frostye, you know, the first five minutes you can deal with until you warm up. Yeah, exactly, I'm with you. That Marinal Heavyweight is one of my more favorite pieces. It's not very expensive, it's legit. It's leg Yeah, it's a it's a good, good piece, and I think that kind of the counterpart to it, um is my sick of fanatic hoodie, which um, I've warned this a lot and you'd come in before we got on your Mr monkeey Man has holes over here in the sleeve. But um, I think that I like the Marina Heavyweight way more than I do this. Like, if there was a hood on that thing, it would be the perfect piece, like for around here in Texas except for like the really cold days, like that's what you would wear. But at the same time, like a hood on an outer is really all that I would kind of want anywhere, you know, like if you if this is all you're wearing, was that was your last layer? But like when he gets cold is usually when I need a hood, and so like I don't want too many hoods like stacked up in my layer, you know, because give you that your head forward or whatever. Um, but I'm with you, like it's the I like the heavyweight better. Yeah, and honestly, like this is the sucker gets kind of restricting a little bit, you know what I mean? For sure? After this is one of the first pieces I bought, is this and the jacket I have I think in some pants and uh, after wearing it a lot, this I don't actually take this near as often as what I used to. And it's I don't know, it's a synthetic piece. I don't feel like it's that warm. There's no wind protection in it. I mean it's yes, it's comfortable. Uh, it might be better for the like as a right around town piece or something like that, you know, but it's still okay. Like the ninja mask in it, like it'll keep that'll keep your face, which I tend to carry um buff now um. So I don't really need that, but when I have used it that it'll keep your face really warm. Yeah, it's not. It didn't take much to make your face warming. To utilize that more than I do. Yeah, And I didn't use it much this year. Either used to dip a long time ago. So I've really got used to never having anything over my face because it doesn't end well. I don't do that anymore, but it's still kind of have this thing where I don't like things cover my mouth and face, but when it's too cold, it's it's worth it. One thing about the Fanatic is that it has these little ninja mint things on it. And I'm not gonna say this cost me dear, but it impaired my ability to shoot a public land deer in sixteen because I forgot I had this mitten on, so at full draw, I pulled it off with my teeth and it was kind of a weird deal. Well, what it did was it took forty yard like broadside standing still shot with a deer that was super relaxed. Two, I gotta pull this thing off my teeth. Now he's at thirty and removing and I have to grunt stop him, and he's quartering two, and I'm skinning hair off his back because he's so amped up at that point. So yeah, exactly that's what the issue was. And and hopefully if I can find that footage, I'll interjected in the video here. I bet you can. Before are you moving on to outer stuff? Um? I was just gonna move on to like pants, you got something else? I'm just gonna throw a couple of things in that I used for bases. This is a pair of cheap Bass Pro Extra Heavy synthetics that I have. I bought these in uh and still use them. I think they're actually made for skiing more than they are for hunting, and they are super duper warm. But there's something that you can't walk in much or you will sweat really bad. So like if it's cold cold, I'll bust these out, but that's hardly ever. Um, so I just thought i'd throw them in there. Uh. One of the ways you can sometimes find cheaper hunting gear used to look outside the hunting space, and that's kind of where those came from. It's like it was over in the the winter sports area or whatever. Well, speaking of that, my the guy that I went sheep hunting with, Heath you know him, these people don't. But um he he like he's tested a lot of gear because he's been on lots of sheep hunts in Alaska, bear and all these different things, you know. And um he said that he thought like he would take what he would do for a wind chest is put his hand in like a sleeve and just blow on it and see like how windproof is this actual you know, windproof thing? And um he said that north Face was the best thing windproof wise that he had found. And so, like you said, outside the hunting spectrum, sometimes they're just companies that have been around a long time that know how to make mountaineering gear or whatever. It might be a little better than the camera companies. So but we are. But our camera companies are coming a long ways these days. And yeah, we're doing a lot better. In a word, back in uh you know, two year, two thousands exactly twelve. Uh, real quick, I'll just touch on my hats. Uh. This this is a hat you wear as well. It's just like a generic sick of hat. Um. This is when they they sent to us last year. But like it gets smoking hot in Texas in October. Um, and it's just as you can see maybe it's just mesh. It's see through. Uh mesh, it's super lightweight. And for me, I've got like really thick hair, and so the heat can build up in my you know, on my head really quickly. Uh if I didn't especially if I hadn't had a hair cut in a while. I mean, it's a real thing, and so like, um, you know, I can definitely feel like heat trapped in with this or if like you're just moving around, like if we're if we're stalking near on the ground and decoin or whatever. Um, you know, just a couple options here to think about. I guess of the things with that mesh one though, is it is not mosquito proof like the straight up and when you have as a buch skin on top of your head as I do, it's a bad deal. While we're on head where this is kind of my go to combo is uh this thing which we got at the t RCP Media Summit in twenties seventeen. Um, this thing is super duper warm. I love this. You have one too, I think, right, And kind of my go to set up is to wear that thicker hat and then just put this over the top of it, and I like having a hat bill like it's just something, you know, kind of like a security blanket. I mean, I've want to have my whole life, so I don't like having to take the hat off to put this on. And honestly, it kind of sits too far down on my head anyways. I don't like it to be able to see giant head and it doesn't sit down too far on I have a problem with that. I haven't. But it's big enough that it's just big enough that it can cover my ears. And I have a big head. So if you have a big head, I mean, this is stuff at you. But I think this is called I don't know what it's called. It looked for the the Priceier sick Beanie and this is it. It's like, I don't know, it's got, it's something or something like that. I can't remember, but it's got. It's made of the whatever the windproof right it's off and has uh the wind blocker or whatever it's called. But it's it's super warm, so that's something to have. And it's a touch water resistant too. Yeah, and it's um orange. So a lot of times like we can take this thing and put it on top of our head and it's got like this little fold, you know or whatever. If so that when you're walking in like you don't trap in too much heat. But if you you know, you've got like this warm it's like dual purpose. You get warmth and you've got the blaze. So pretty cool blaze. This This is my This is one of my pants. I wear a couple of different pants during the year, depending on what I'm doing, but if I'm tree stand hunting especially, you know, usually wear this right here. And they're like all kinds of stuff. And these pockets I carry like all this different stuff or like these are you know, public land hangers and uh ropes or whatever to hang stuff with and whatever we got. But anyway, just some kind of weird uh. This the belt that I actually got these from a buddy um who was on the podcast not too long ago. Um, and he, I guess, had taken the belt out, so I just have to use my old realtory belt here or whatever. So no big deal. Um, but these are the Equinox sick of Equinox pant and as you can tell, they get rowed hard during the season. This um it looks faded maybe from a distance on video, but it's not. It's just mud um from just cranking it out on the planes all season long. But these pants I do like. Um, they may be a touch heavy, I guess you could say, um, but I like what they're made of. I think that they are m durable for the most part. And um, we both we both have those. I kind of have some warmth to them because of the because of what they're made of too. I feel like, you know, I wear mine pretty often to um, but I do find that uh just I don't know the pants thing. I wear those a lot when it's earlier season, but a lot of the time if it's later season, I will end up wearing these their prawna zions. Um they I mean, if you look at that one, it's like perfect for tree color. It's not like what you'd call camo, but it's the right color. It's like that kind of darker kind of gray. And then I'll pair that with an extra outer layer pretty much pretty soon after I get in the tree stand. So even though it's not camo, works it really well for me. Um. I don't know. I think that those are just a touch heavy, but there made they're made to be a hiking pant there, made to be a tree stane stand, and they got some really convenient pockets and something. The pockets are grey. Yeah, like you can see these big cargo side pockets and then you they've got zips on top of that, you know, and these are big pockets. Also, this little thing right here like predect protects it from getting you know, scuffed up and eventually coming undone where you would put your pocket and eye or whatever, you know. So I like that kind of stuff. Uh, they've definitely thought about it, you know. Um. But yeah, like I understand what you're saying there because I I wear the same kind of thing on some I guess like last year after I shot Frank Frankenstein. Um, when I went back in there, like I wanted to kind of cammo up just in case, like if I see that deer he gets up or whatever and he's wounded and I gotta kneel down or something, then not let him see me. You know. I wanted to came up. So I did up top and I wore these which are um, I don't know the exact like uh model or whatever, but it's their wrangler made. They sold these in Walmart. If you can find them, good luck. Um, but they they may still have some. You found some on sale recently. They were twenty one when I bought them, bought in Montana, but because you forgot to bring pain and I didn't really I forgot about that, but I bought more when I got home. I've got like three pairs of these. You washed the pin in the pocket, Yeah, there's the two of them have like blue streaks on them, which doesn't matter too much. But they're stretchy. Yeah, same with them. Super comfortable. Actually wore those. You mean you both wore those today when we were at scouting and uh, pretty comfy. Uh. I noticed the bird stuck in them a little bit. But you're gonna find hard press find something that doesn't. So anyways, both pretty good pant choices, especially just for like an excurag's more expensive. I think that if you were to boy these at like an R E I or something, they're gonna be pushing seventy bucks if you get them on Amazon. If you watch, they'll drop down in the forties. And that's when I always wait, is when they're in they're in the forty. They kind of fluctuate up and down depending on the color. You can also get these in like mint and teal and all kinds of Yeah, yeah, can be ready for Easter. That's a different kind of hunting. Um yeah, so uh kind of going through here. I don't know where we go next, but I think we're just gonna go straight to outers unless you've kind of got like a mid well, let me, let me, let me kind of transitions to outers. My next piece that I wear like all the time is this Stratus vest. I bought this. Uh, I don't know. I guess before the twenty seventeen season. I think because I really had a hard time with the wind. I had an outer jacket that was warm, but anytime the wind blows, it cuts right through it. This has the wind stopper in it. Uh. The Stratus line is pretty much a wind stopper. So the Stratus line is just gonna be an outer shell that's a wind stopper pretty much. So uh, that's well. We'll talk about more of the other pieces in the Stratus, but this one is the vest. It's got the little handy pass through four year, which I think they're getting rid of that in the new system now I think I don't think they're doing like a little like a button zig zag thingy. It's like a button the what is this called color comes off or whatever? Yeah, yeah, And I actually feel like I had a little bit Tyler was part of the R and D on that that's funny. Well we get to the stand and we go to layer ring. Well we've got a harness on and get hooked in. You don't want to like have to unhook and be unsafe to put on more clothes. So sometimes you just end up putting that thing through the back of your your off there, which isn't that big of a deal, but it is nice to not have it kind of sticking up behind on the back of your head, especially when you got here that kind of gets caught. Anyways, this is one of my favorite pieces for sure. Um. I wear this thing a lot, even if you were at camp or whatever. I know you probably shouldn't for cent or whatever, but just make sure you're on the wind um anyways. Uh, it's got pockets in it that are pretty warm because your hand actually goes inside the wind stopper. I don't like to wear gloves at all really, unless it's just dead cold, and I have to. But uh, you can put your hands inside these pockets and then the blocks them from the wind and you stay pretty warm inside there. It's actual little dirty in there because I do that too much. But and then you got a little zipper chest pocket, which a lot of the sick of pieces do, but that's a pretty warm good piece to have for your upper And that's really the only wind blocker I need them up or because my arms don't really get that cold. Yeah, I um for like for my mid um. So actually I just just as a kind of a side note here, since we're kind of in that mid or whatever, I think this is a core midweight um and it's it's actually feels like every bit as big as that that heavyweight pretty much. I mean, I don't know, it just feels like that, but it may not be. UM anyway, I got this given to me for Christmas. It's in the subalpine, so like when we're running around on the planes or wherever we're running around or in the quotes or whatever, this is probably what I'll have kind of on the outside won't keep me from getting too hot. So um another thing that I wear UM so like I guess I've got a couple of Uh this this tends to be a mid I guess you could say, but this is a This is one of my favorite pieces of gear that I have. This was also given to me um as a Christmas president a couple of years ago, and I don't know the exact model, but scree and it's just a puffy. Um. This thing is like, yeah, it's a down puffy so it's real down on. Uh it's literally I mean it's so light. It's like twelve or thirteen ounces. It's not even a pound. Um. It has a stuff sack. I'm not sure if it's in the pocket or not, but I mean this thing is stuff down. Pretty cool. They sent me another one and uh, I think I lost that one since which I think it's in this pocket. But anyway, UM, this thing, like you do not walk in this thing. Okay, don't go in wearing this because you will turn into a like plastic trash bag oven you know what I mean, Like if there's nothing that can come out sweat wise or whatever. But like when I get to the stand, this usually ends up being like after my my core heavyweight, this is what goes on and the down is the real deal, like and and I can attest to that also in we were on the mountain in October on that sheet hunt when um Winter arrived and Heath had on down Puffy of a different brand, and um like he had down uh puffy um bottoms as well, and like I was like, I had every layer on I could and I could not. I was so cold, I couldn't even glass, you know, And he's just over there just like, you know, doing whatever in the down. It's the real deal. So I love that piece when when it's pretty cold. Um. And then you know, on top of that, this is kind of one of my outers, I guess um the Celsius, which we both yeah, we both have one of those. That's uh. It was kind of another one of our first innovator first pieces we bought, uh, just because it was like the best way to get into a sick outer that's warm, that wasn't super expensive. I think these are two hundred retail or something like that, and uh, they are pretty warm. There's some some things with the design that's a little bit strange, Like the sides right here don't have quite the insulation for some reason. They do that on several pieces, I think too, don't. I think they just worried about it being bunched underneath your arms or something you don't want you to, you know, mischling man or what, which kind of makes sense. But and also this is designed as a mid layer. Yeah, so that I mean, I understand that, I guess. But we use as an outer, and a lot of people do. It's I mean, it's an outer until you need that like extra super fanatic or stratus jacket to go over it to keep you the wind or water off of you or whatever. You know. So, um, this paired with my stratus vest is usually pretty much all I'm gonna need as long as I've got a decent um lay underneath. And this is kind of designed to be like a puffy just synthetic. It's pretty much what it is. It's a lot heavier than a down puffy, but it's super comfortable, you know, like it's really soft everything. Um, I do feel like the sleeves and shoulders are touched hot. Yeah, minds excel. Yeah. And so that's one thing that I would say is if you're going to use it even as a mid, is you think this thing actually now I don't think you can buy this. I think it's the celsiest MIDI now, which is even a touch more puffy lock. It's got like a uh weave to it or something. I don't know, but it's probably just an improved version of what we have here. So probably pretty nice. But this is an XCEL as well, um, which these are? These are un really athletic. I guess you could say pretty pretty tight. So XL for that, XL for this for me because I like to put lots of ayeras on. Um. I know, like sometimes we'll be sitting the stand, like for instance, last year, we're sitting on one of the new permission pieces we got in the Midwest and it was seventeen degrees. I think that morning you're like, how many layers do you have on it? It was like like everything you had it was we don't stay warm. I think I had one lesson you did that morning. I don't know. It might have been the wind it was hitting you harder, I don't know, but it was that was a very very cold morning. Um. So um, this is a newer piece that I have. I haven't got to wear this as much, but I think I'm going to wear it more this season. This is the Equinox or Equinox depending who you are, hoodie, which kind of matches those pants that we had have. UM, I think this might replace the Fanatic hoodie for me because a lot of times I find myself with the Fanatic coodie. I don't really wear it in um, I usually put it on, so it's kind of difficult to put a true hoodie over your head while you're in the tree stand. And I think this it is gonna be a touch warmer than the Fanatic coody, but I think it's going to kind of take that place because it has the Ninja mask and everything. So I think it might take the place the Fanatic for me. Kind of as that you know, early to mid season piece. If you're in Texas, this might get you all the way to December. If you're in the Midwest, you know, it might be might do you good for the rut, just depending on the cold fronts. Like but kind of a neat little piece. Yeah, I Um, this was a new piece to me last year as well, And on that same day we were just talking about I used this. Um it's the Stratus jacket and so like there's I don't know. There's no insulation really, like it's just straight up supposed to be a wind blocker, and so to me, I just struggled to like feel like I get any warmth out of it. But I guess, you know, I guess it makes sense that it would be there. But it's got a zip zip putty that you can take off or whatever. And the one place that I used this that I thought it did a good job for me doing something outside of what it's supposed to do is like actually, um in the mist that we had and I guess it was late November there, we had a we had a misty day and we had too we had two bucks coming at the same time, and it was a just couldn't figure out how to get it done that morning, but they were in on us, but it was missing like the whole morning, and this kept me pretty dry. And I think that just like that windproof aspect is enough to like be water resistant pretty pretty heavily too. So I want one of those pretty bad. I think that I might buy one of those, uh, just because I like the rest of the Stratus stuff. I have the vest and then kind of the matching piece to that is this set of Stratus bibs bibs, so we split these up. We were these were given to us as well, and I have the pants because the Stratus pants Stratus jacket. Figured that since I already purchased the Stratus vest, I'd take the bibs. You could take that, and then we both have a full suit pretty much. Um. I've had real tree bibs in the past and locked them a lot. The Stratus bibbs are one of my favorite things that I have because the side zipper comes way up past my hip, so all I have to do is unzip them, step right in and there on. Like it's about as easy as you're gonna ever add a layer on your bottom. Add that to the wind blocker and the fact that it comes up way up above you know, my chest, Like I mean, it's like a pair of waiters, Like it's way up there. So that's a huge extra layer of warmth that I get from these things. And I feel like that the one wind blocker and these things works really really well for me. My bottom half doesn't really get that cold anyways, so just these with a little bit of lower insulation. I've got these boots that come up to my knees. These are uh what are they? What's the brand? Lacrosse right, lacrosse a green uh fincilate. Uh. These were in the sick elevated too. At one point in time. They send it pretty much just turned gray because I go through so much weeds and stuff. Briars have pulled the uh, camouflage off of them, but they still work well. They're still very warm. They are quite heavy, but that's okay because you need some heavy, something heavy to stay warm in the tree stand. You put these on. They come all the way up nearly to your knee, and then you've got just you know, some thigh to worry about keeping warm. You can stay pretty toasty in combination with all this stuff. And these Stratus bibs fit pretty well over this big old boot, so you kind of wide leg. Yeah, they're kind of wide leg. A lot of times it's kind of a struggle to get something over a boot that bit sure. Yeah see that. And so I'm a little bit jealous because I love that. I like bibbs too, and um, these are not nearly as effective because, like I said earlier, we walk a lot of those. These are the Stratus pants. Sorry, so um they Um, I got the pants and the jacket, you got the bibs in the vest, and so these pants don't have a zipper on them, so you have to wear them. Man, we walk a lot, and I don't want to wear something that like it's wind proof. In other words, like there ain't gonna be no drying of your perspiration, you know what I mean? For like a private land guy, Oh sure, who has to just take a really slow, casual stroll down the standard whatever trying to not spook stuff. That's a really good pe for sure. I mean I've hunted spots where you know, walk two hundred yards or whatever. I mean, if I can do that, it's fine, that'd be awesome. You know. If I could drive how to you know, easy go or whatever they got uh nowadays that is electric and drives in and be fine. I wouldn't mind these at all. But for me, the bibbs is like I'm jelly bro for one. I want them for real. Well, I might have to. We might have to split the cost on the jacket and some bibbs. We'll split those up again this year. Yeah, but I think that's about it. Might It's like I've got like a bonus piece. So like we we talked about going across the plains a lot um. This is something I bought for l Cunting. It's the Traverse cold Weather hoodie. Super warm, not super lightweight. Um, but a great piece if you're gonna spend you well too. Yeah thanks man. If you're gonna spend some time on the ground, this thing is awesome because it's got berber fleece on the inside, warm pockets, It's got a ninja mask in it. Um. The sleeves have pretty tight cuffs, so it's not like a big I don't like this big floppy thing down here, you know. So it's pretty nice. That's it's one of my more favorite pieces that I have to so my wife like this one too. Have to keep it hidden from her. Girls like hoodies, like oversized hoodies. It's a thing that they do. Yeah. Yeah, so I like normal size todies. Actually I've got this is what I so, this is what I wear on most trips nowadays. Is I got some of these made last year. The just has our little logo on it or whatever. But over you, yeah, they're just black. But if you were like ground blinds sitting, I mean this is something that is perfectly fine too, but it's that's my that's my lounge where Anyway, those are on the website if you if you like that as well as those hats. They're um as far as uh, like the rest of the camera system goes. I guess my boots, um, I don't have Like I've got some boots that are great boots, but they're more like a Western approach style of boot. It's um there there happened to be a touch tight um. They had thirteens and I'm normally a fourteen, and so they are a touch tight, which, like you said earlier, a tight boot tends to cut circulation a little bit, so my my feet can get really cold in those. But I do have some uh. I think there are one thousand gram titslet um just like Redheads that my dad bought me Redhead brand boot um. They're huge. They look like they're outrageous looking. I mean on a fourteen, you know what I mean. So uh, and they've got so much tinselt in there, but there's good room in there. Uh. They like walking in long distance. You would think they just slide around and everything, but they're actually pretty comfortable to wear, and um, I just don't. I hadn't, hadn't, didn't bring them, h forgot to bring them. But I feel I've done that, um, even to a greater extent. Whenever I was hunt in the past, young and you know, didn't have a lot of money, I actually went to Walmart and bought the best pair of whatever their brand was, Wolverine or something like heavy fince lit boots. They're ugly, but they keep you warm fence litence lit, so like it's gonna keep you warm either way, and that's what I I think I had sized thirteen in those, and I have I watched sides the elevens, you know, so that way I actually have the extra room to put the extra socks on stuff. So that was kind of a nice thing that you don't always have to buy like really expensive boots to to keep your feet warm. You know. It's just what I mean, fencelet is a material, right, I mean there are some kind of processed material, so um, yeah, it makes sense. Um, there are other ways obviously to cut costs here, but hopefully you've got some value out of like the pieces that we have tried so far and what we had to say about them, help you spend your money more wisely if you're considering any of this stuff. Another thing you can go look at is our video that we just recently posted, but we actually did this video on Facebook Live UM at the A T A Show this past year in February, um UH. We were basically live with Chris, James, and John who all helped develop the new fanatic like two point oh or whatever in this system, right, and so that was cool. They talk about like how much they stalk, they put into like being quiet, which um is a pretty I mean, when you get deep in the woods hunting Texas public sometimes it can get pretty quiet back there, and then the further you go north, like I just feel like a lot of times if you're in those single digit double digits, you know, twenties or whatever, like the woods get real quiet and calm, you know. So that's when you have to really worry about that stuff. And then making sure it stays warm and it's something that's practical to wear. You get all those three things up, it gets kind of difficult to make piece. But they made some cool They've made some cool, very neat and practic, cool adjustments to the gear and so go check that out as well. Um, also, don't leave yet because we are doing a giveaway. We had one hundred thousand downloads pretty recently on the podcast. We hit that milestone and so we are doing a giveaway. UM that is an associated association with our podcast essentially, so if you're watching this on the video, you have to give us a review on the podcast to be eligible. So whatever app that would entail, I guess it needs to be pretty much. Apple Podcasts are the ones that we're going to be looking through. But we've got several items and things that we're going to be doing for this giveaway. The first one that we have decided on, which this is my pair and I actually haven't used these yet, but the the box is a little bit dirty. We have a clean box pair that's brand new of these uh diamondback Vortex ten by forty two right, so, um, I've used these for I think three years now. Actually got him as a gift for my grumsman got those for me and they've been money. I love tin Power bronocutas I think that's that's where you want to be. I don't like the eight power stuff. A lot of the walk Home eight powers. Ain't into it, Yeah, I don't either. I like it, man. I like the tens too. Man. So these are ten by for you two Vortex diamondback bindos, And that is one of the things we're gonna give away. Like I said, you have to do give a review to be eligible to win those. Uh, We'll be looking through the Apple podcast app and looking at our reviews um to see and we will randomly, uh you know, go through and check somebody or find somebody who has reviewed positively our podcast. That's right. We like five stars for sure. And also, don't despair if you gave us a review a while back, because this is for any review. Well you just feel like that's the only way to do this fairly, right, Like, we'd hate for you to be like, well, I've already give my review and I would have won like a sick of hat or whatever. We gave away fast years like those are Vortex binoculars. Uh, so don't feel bad. Um, there will be one through however, many reviews we have will be evaluated. We're gonna give away the Vortex's binoculars, a couple on x uh single state um premium memberships, and then if we get to three hundred reviews, I mean, there's no talent we'll give away. But I do know that we're gonna be giving something away that has to do a little bit with like a wide tell photography stuff. Maybe maybe like the type of photography you don't have to be there for. Yeah, so there's a there's definitely a lot of options coming up. We're gonna also see what we can derive to give a few more um potential possibilities for you guys to win in this in this giveway, because we really do appreciate all the downmodes, that's right, that's right. We appreciate the reviews and the the kind words too. And if you see something you like in this video and you want us to give it away, mention that in review and maybe maybe if you're the one we draw, will give you that. Sure. Yeah, And if you're watching the video same thing, go down here and comment in the bottom and let us know which piece you like, and maybe we can find a way to give that away as well. Yeah, a new one, you know, something that's not used. I don't know. I need to get rid of that fanatic cuttie. It's got some holes in it. But if this is your first time seeing us on YouTube or listening to us on the podcast, either way, go over the YouTube channel and subscribe to our channel because, um, we have been. Tyler's particularly works a lot on the YouTube channel. He's he's kind of the main video guy. I actually uploaded a video of the days of myself. Um. But um, the channel is like looking really good these days. Feature and watch Nameless because it's bad to the bone. Um, and subcribe to the channel because we've got some pretty big stuff coming up this season. We've got a lot of tags to feel this season, so hopefully there will be some video of said texts being filled. That's right, man. And uh, last year you feel the tag in the Elk Woods, which is a really good video. It's got about thirty thousand views on it now, so go check that out to Elk Hunt with Casey. He's self filmed. Um, and had basically just littered the ground with arrows, pieces of arrows and everything. Yeah, public land, why over the counter throwing arrows everywhere? Anyway. I hope you guys enjoyed this. Hope this is helpful to you, and just remember this is your element living it. Yeah,

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