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6 Ranch Podcast
6 Ranch Podcast
Honest Gear Review
Here’s my honest review of some of the gear I used during this hunting season. I’ll make $0 from any of these companies by saying anything positive or negative about the products. These are all items I’ve used personally and used hard in the field. Enjoy.
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I got the Yeti 250 this year and it is the smallest. Cooler they make that. You can fit a whole elk in bone in big bulls cows whatever you can fit them in there. These are stories of outdoor adventure and expert advice from folks with calloused hands. I'm James Nash and this is the Six Ranch Podcast.
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Speaker 1:Alrighty friends, we're into November and I almost can't believe it. I feel like yesterday was august, but that's probably because I've been non-stop since then. So I I have either been hunting, traveling or guiding every day, except for four days since the end of august. It's been a whirlwind. I think I'm done guiding elk for the year now, which, uh, which has been great. I helped people get 13 elk this year. I got a cow elk myself, so I'm set for meat. I've got a couple more hunts to do with friends and family, which is awesome, and there's a chance you never know what happens Like. Sometimes things just come up and somebody needs help on a governor's tag or something special like that, or a late season cow hunt. But more than likely I'm done guiding and I am oh so tired. I think I averaged about four hours of sleep per night during archery season and I was getting about five and a half during rifle season and while I was hunting in Australia it was between five and six hours a night. So I am infinitely behind on sleep, but I'm hoping to catch up on that in December when I'm done with the rest of these, these hunts.
Speaker 1:What I'm going to do today is a solo gear review on a handful of items that I used this season. Now a lot of gear reviews come at you from folks who are getting paid to talk about that product. Right, and I'm not going to throw shade at that at all, because people are making money and there's still people who can do that and be completely honest with you about it. But it does make it tough because if you're getting paid by that company, they kind of have an expectation that you're just going to say nice things. And I get paid by companies too. I do that's that's what keeps me going. That's how. That's how I make a living. But the gear that I'm going to talk about today is all products that none of these companies have an affiliation with me, where they're paying me to talk about this right. Some of them have sent me these products. Some of these are things that I've bought myself, but I have absolutely zero obligation to say anything nice about any of these products. So I'm just going to lay out for you what it is, how I used it kind of, who I think it's suited for and whether it's right for you. So getting straight into it First thing you do when you wake up in a hunting camp.
Speaker 1:You step outside it's hot, it's cold, whatever. You run into somebody on your way to, you know, go brew up a cup of coffee or whatever. They're going to say how did you sleep? You're going to ask how did you sleep? Because, no matter what, about a third of the time that you are alive you are spent sleeping, unless you're a dummy like me and you guide people and you don't get enough sleep. But the sleep that you get needs to be of the highest quality, incredibly important. If you take the number of people who can function at a hundred percent and get less than six hours of sleep per night and you round that number to a whole number, it's zero, zero percent. So less than 0.5% of the population can operate at their highest level and get less than six hours of sleep per night. Most recommendations are eight hours of sleep per night. I know that's tough to do, it's very hard for me to get, but when I do get it and it's high quality sleep. Man, I am a superhuman for the next day.
Speaker 1:So how do we get sleep when we're out there in the woods or on a trip? Um, typically it's going to be in a sleeping bag If you were to step into my shop right now, where my podcast studios built, built inside of, and look at the wall, there are seven or eight sleeping bags that are hanging up on the wall, and they're all different temperature ratings. There are different fills, some of them are synthetic, some of them are down, some of them are waterproof down. I've got everything from minus 20 degree bags up to 50 degree bags, and what I used to do is, before I was going out on a trip, I would look at the weather, think about what the conditions are going to be like and then I would grab the sleeping bag that suited that situation. But because of this problem, I had thousands of dollars worth of sleeping bags hanging up on my wall, most of which were never getting used, right, um.
Speaker 1:So then, what a lot of folks end up doing is defaulting to a coldest sleeping bag. Right, if you're going to only have one, you need it to work in all conditions. So they'll end up with a zero degree bag or a 20 degree bag, and then, when they go out and nights are only getting down into the forts, say they're spring bear hunting or turkey hunting, hunting, archery season. Well, they're laying there sweating, like sticking to this bag all night long, unzipping it like, flapping it around. They're not getting good quality sleeve and then they can't function as well, they can't hunt as well, the next day it's bonkers. So what I got this year was the badger bed from born outdoor.
Speaker 1:Okay, this thing costs about 800 with the whole kit that I have and it rolls up into a big bedroll. This isn't something that you're going to be backpacking with. This is something that you throw in your vehicle, your car camping. If I was packing in with horses, for sure I would bring this when I'm taking my jet boat out to a remote location in a wilderness area to go hunt, for sure.
Speaker 1:This thing is coming, rolls up, goes in a duffel bag and when you roll it out it is this big, wide sleeping pad. A big, thick, wide sleeping pad that is mostly self inflating, although I've always had to blow into it a little bit more to get it to the kind of the firmness that I'm looking for, and it it does get like really firm, um, more more firm than I want. So then I let a little bit of air out until it's just right. Now this thing is like nestled inside of its own case, which it rolls up into. And then it comes with a fitted sheet that straps down over the air mattress. And this fitted sheet is like this really nice flannel material that is just so comfy and you don't stick to it if you get hot so I'm a huge fan of that right off the bat, and then there's a top sheet that goes over that and then there's one or two down quilts that are covered in that normal sleeping bag material that go over that. All this stuff like clips in to the bottom of the sleeping pad and the quilts actually snap together. So what I've found is that I don't kick all the covers off during the night. I've got all this room to lay out, I can roll over, I can do whatever I need to do to get comfortable, and I can make this, this whole system, modular for whatever sleeping conditions I'm going to be in.
Speaker 1:So, man, if I'd had this thing in Australia, it would have been great, because I would have just slept with that flannel sheet on and it would have been perfect. That would have been all that I needed. If I'm in you know, those 40 degree type of nighttime temperatures, I'm only going to use one of those quilts On one of the Elkhunts that I just guided, it was getting down to like single digits, 10 degrees. At night. You'd wake up and all the water from like washing dishes. Uh, at night even our drinking water would be frozen. Um it, it was cold conditions like sure enough cold. As soon as it got dark, it got cold, stayed cold all night, got colder throughout the night night, got colder throughout the night and I was comfortable with these, these two down quilts.
Speaker 1:Um, I also, you know, I've got this, uh, this Garmin watch that, like, tells me everything about my life, tells me my stress and, um, you know just kind of how, how I'm living in in so many different ways, and and compiles that into data. Um, what I was seeing on my watch for my sleep data is that I was actually getting better sleep in those cold conditions out there in the field in a tent than I do when I'm back in my own bed at home. Now, there's a lot of factors that go into that. Of course, I was super tired because I was putting on lots of miles. I like being in nature, but I've never gotten data that shows me that I'm getting that high of a quality of sleep when I'm outside, as I have when I'm in this badger bed. So $800, I know it's a lot, but if you start looking at how you're spending your money and breaking it down throughout your trip, you just need to realize that about a third of the time you're going to be sleeping and you should be so maybe consider like putting a little bit more cash into your sleeping system. But, for sure, if you're car camping, if you're using livestock to get in, if you're using some kind of a vehicle to get into the place where you're going to be camping, like this is a super convenient modular system that is going to replace that wall of sleeping bags that I have. So, yeah, I might have some sleeping bags for sale here soon, because the badger bed is absolutely where it's at.
Speaker 1:Since I talked about it a little bit, I've been wearing a garmin tactics for, uh, for several years. I was using a garmin tactics 7 ballistics edition and it was a great watch. One of the downfalls to it was that the screen was a little bit hard to read, especially if it was in bright conditions. Oddly enough, garmin went ahead and updated that and they have an AMOLED, an LED edition, and boy, howdy is it nice, I was getting like 21 days out of the old watch on a charge and this one I'm getting an honest 32 days. So I charged it up before I went to australia. I used it the whole time down there. I was using the flashlight on it a lot, I was using the gps and the map and some of those things that eat up a lot more data or not not data, but eat up a lot more battery life. Still made it through that full 25 day trip and I knew what time it was for for my flights and everything on the way home. That's pretty incredible if you only have to charge your watch like 12 times a year. Uh, that's, that's pretty cool. And this thing looks cool, does all kinds of cool stuff. Uh, I wasn't planning on talking about it, so I don't even know how much money it costs, but it's a good watch. I like it a lot.
Speaker 1:The six ranch podcast is brought to you by nick's handmade boots, a family-owned company in spokane, washington. For many of my listeners, you've waited and prepared all year for this, whether your pursuit is with a rifle or a bow, early or late season, big game or birds, another hunting season is finally upon us. Nick's Boots and the Six Ranch want to wish you luck as you head out into the field. This season I'm wearing the Nick's Boots Game Breakers, beginning with the archery elk season. Having worn this boot throughout the summer around the Six Ranch, I continue to be impressed with how quiet the boot is. The rough out leather, leather laces and 365 stitch down construction create a simple boot that is supportive, durable, comfortable and, most importantly, quieter than most synthetic hunting boots. For 60 years, nix has been building work boots for wildland, firefighters, tradespeople, hunters and ranchers, as well as heritage styles for anyone who values quality footwear made in America. Visit nixbootscom today to find your next pair of high-quality American-made work boots. Add a pair of boots and a work belt to your cart and use the code 6RANCH that's the number 6 and the word RANCH to receive the belt for free.
Speaker 1:Okay, next item is the SIG Zulu 6 HDX Pro. Now, I used to work with SIG. I had a great time working there for several years. However, no longer have any type of formal affiliation with them whatsoever, but got my hands on these binoculars because I saw that there's new stabilized binoculars came out the old stabilized binoculars, the SIG HDX. They're great and I still use them most of the time. Okay, I really like the 12 powers. Everybody I show those things to is blown away. They, they really understand that this is.
Speaker 1:The most valuable thing that you can do for your optical system is to go ahead and stabilize that image, and it makes all the difference in detecting and identifying whatever it is you're trying to look at, whether that's birdwatching, whether that's hunting. You know you can use these things from an airplane driving down the road like it's. It's just, it's incredible when I got these pros. They're a lot bigger, they take two batteries, they have a larger objective and I didn't feel like I could use them one-handed as well, which is very much the case, right, I think there are two-handed binocular, whereas the old ones I mostly just use those one handed. And I thought, you know, these things are just going to live in my house. I'll use them to look at deer that are in the field or like people that are going down my driveway Not my driveway, but the county road next to my driveway. They're just going to be house binoculars.
Speaker 1:Uh, but during this last hunt, my battery was dead in my, in my SIG uh HDX 12 power that I've been using. So rather than going through the uh, you know the agony of digging around and finding another AA battery it was four o'clock in the morning. I had to go I just grabbed these binoculars. They fit in my Everly stock vinyl harness. It's like fine, we're going to roll with this. It's a little bit heavier, so what? It's rifle hunting.
Speaker 1:I'm out on the Prairie, I'm looking at farther distances. The ones I have are 14 power, like I'll just try it, we'll just try it, just see. And what I noticed is that I don't know if I'm actually getting a meaningful amount more light for that first and last light. I don't know that I'm seeing more than I was with uh, with the 12 powers. They are heavier. But on my Bina harness I didn't notice, did have to use two hands, but that was fine because I wasn't carrying a rifle or a bow, it was just guiding. So that wasn't a big drama by any means. What I really noticed was that the tracking is better. So they blended that target mode and the regular scanning mode. So now there's only one mode of stabilization on there and it is really really smooth. So that's a meaningful upgrade. And it is really really smooth so that's a meaningful upgrade when I'm panning across a hillside. These new Pros are significantly more stable Flat out. They're a better optic because of that. Downside is they're bigger and heavier and these things will cost you $1,500 if you're interested. So that's that.
Speaker 1:Next thing, the UBCO Hunt electric bike. So I got the Hunt model. It's similar to some of the other models that they have. So this is a two-wheel drive electric bike. It doesn't have pedals. It's kind of like an electric motorcycle, but not really. The fastest I ever got it to go was 34 miles an hour and that was going downhill. It advertises a 70 mile range. The most I ever got on a charge was around 50 miles.
Speaker 1:I've been using this thing since August thing. Since August it's got a great suspension, even for me you know I was with the weight that I was carrying, sometimes in storage and stuff like that. I probably had 360, 370 pounds on the bike. Suspension is still really comfortable, even on like pretty gnarly terrain. The two wheel drive feature is super cool. When you go through a mud puddle that front tire keeps turning. They're hub driven motors that are very, very quiet. I would say that they're probably quieter than the hub driven motor on like my Baku scooter that I've talked with you guys about in the past. It's got an app that you know you can like learn everything about the bike and change settings and stuff on your phone. It's got a really cool phone mount so you can just magnetically click your phone on there. That's pretty handy Sometimes it's hard to find a good place for your phone on on bikes big, wide seat with a bunch of storage underneath and then huge, really sturdy storage platforms on the front and the rear of the bike so I could easily put two packs on the bike and my rifle or my bow and just take off.
Speaker 1:Who do? I think this is for dudes checking game cameras. Uh, you know you want to rip around really quietly, put on some miles, um, go through some steep terrain. You know you want to rip around really quietly, put on some miles, go through some steep terrain. You know you're bombing down login roads and single track and even elk trails and stuff like that. This thing's going to eat it up and you can throw a bunch of cameras on here, you can throw a bunch of batteries on there and you can just roll. Uh, it's. It's really great for stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Predator hunters don't sleep on. This thing Like this is so cool. It even has a stealth mode where all the lights go off. So if you're writing it at night with night vision like I do, man, uh, it's so nice not to have any LEDs that are glowing back at you and fricking with that night vision. So I think that predator hunters, people who are scouting uh you know people that want to go in and deer hunt, want to go in an antelope hunt big knobby tires like you're going to be able to get there.
Speaker 1:And uh, I've ridden it in the snow. Uh, it's doing great. Ridden it in the mud, ridden in the rocks, ridden it in the dust's. So far it's just eating up everything that I throw at it. It's a really cool bike. Downsides, uh, when the front tire spins out on mine, it turns it into like some kind of limp mode. I haven't figured out what that is yet, but just hit the button twice and like restart it and then we're off again. So I've got to kind of roll the throttle slowly to get going and then, once we're going, everything's fine.
Speaker 1:It's a little bit heavy for like picking up and throwing in the back of your truck, but it's not. It's not like so bad that I can't do it. It's just a little bit heavy for something like that. Another plus side since the battery's on the bottom and the seat's pretty low, uh, and it's still got a huge amount of ground clearance so you can go over logs and stuff like that, no problem. But because that center of gravity is so low, man, it's really comfortable. It's not scary to ride at all and it tends to like stick really well on corners and stuff like that. I haven't had that scary like I'm going to going to slide out on you know ball bearing gravel and go down um, haven't wrecked it at all, actually, even though I did take it off a couple sweet jumps. Um, no pedals I think I talked about that. Some of these e-bikes that have pedals, like if your battery dies, the bikes are so heavy that, like that's, it's just not realistic that you're going to be pedaling anywhere and still enjoying your life. So I kind of like that, like that. This is just a pure e-bike. Uh, I think that that's sweet. If you're interested in the ubco hunt bike, that thing is going to run you about 6500. Now we're going to get into some stuff that's a little bit more budget and we're going to add on stuff. That's really not Okay.
Speaker 1:The Victor Knox sheep skinner Now, if you go into an actual butcher shop a sure enough butcher shop with professional butchers that are cutting meat and that's their job more than likely you're going to see people using Victor Knox knives or Mercer knives or something like that. They're going to see people using Victorinox knives or Mercer knives or something like that. They're going to have a plastic handle Dexter's another brand, right. They're going to have a plastic handle. They're going to have a stainless steel blade that is thin and has varying degrees of flexibility depending upon that knife's job.
Speaker 1:Now, the Sheep Skinner is, frankly, an ugly knife. It has a black handle, the the blade sweeps back a little bit. It's rounded on the end, almost like a butter knife. You're not going to look at this thing be like damn, that's sexy, because it's not. It's just not.
Speaker 1:However, the shape of this knife is ideal. It is ideal for skinning and the thinness of the blade is absolutely fantastic. It's so easy to clean. It's a very light and I have no reason to believe that anybody who's hunting with this knife will ever wear it out. I think this knife would last you your entire life. Butchers are making it through years of cutting me every day with the same knife. All right, this thing is just fantastic and it's very lightweight. Because of that plastic handle, because of the thinness of the blade, this thing is going to weigh about a third or maybe less than that of, say, like in uh, you know I'm not going to going to name name names here, but there's some like hunting knife companies that are selling something similar that doesn't work as good and it costs 350 dollars. This thing costs 37 dollars and 40 cents. Victor, knock sheep skin. If there's a better knife for skinning bears and deer and elk, I haven't seen it Flat out like this is the way.
Speaker 1:And here's another cost saver for you Costco Socks. Now you can get a six pack of Merino Blend Costco Socks for $23. That's amazing. So they're very inexpensive. That's, you know, costing you. You know about the same as like one pair of darn toughs or something like that. So they're cheap, they're comfortable, they're warm For my money, they're a little too thick. They're a little too thick for for what I like. So I'm going back and forth between my darn toughs, uh, which are, you know, about $23 per pair, and my Costco socks, which are $23 for six pairs, and that's really depending on the boot that I'm wearing that day. And you know, is this a boot that fits a little bit tight? Uh, well, I'm gonna need to go down to a thinner sock if it's a boot that fits a little bit loose, which my boots that need to keep my feet warm. I tend to get in a little bit larger size so I can throw a larger sock in there. This is pretty sweet. So shout out to costco. Uh, you're making some good deals on socks there and I have not worn any of them out. I've been wearing these things for uh for over a year now.
Speaker 1:Next item is the Evers Everly stock mainframe backpack. Now, this is a. This is a big pack that is an external frame like freighter pack. It's got zippers on both sides of it and eberly stock has a whole bunch of different bags that you can attach to this frame. You can basically pick the bag that you need for whichever mission set you have for that trip. So, is this an expedition hunt? Well, you might need might need like 5,000 cubic inches of capacity so that you can get all your gear, all your food, all that stuff in there. Um, if you're just day hunting like I am most of the time then a 2000 cubic inch pack is great in there. I've got a top pack on there as well. I don't know how many cubic inches that is. So the stuff that I need, you know, on the regular, like I need rapid access to a Snickers bar, that's going to go on the top pack my kill bag, headlamp, spare batteries, stuff like that goes in there.
Speaker 1:I ended up taking this pack to Australia and it fit inside my Everly Stock duffel and that's kind of a tricky thing, right, like you're going to, you're going through airports, you can't have a bunch of bags. You need a pack, um, but you need all of these extra clothes and extra gear. So I was able to strip this thing down and get it inside my duffel, which was great. It's like a roller duffel. It's you know, it's basically airport luggage, but it's got, um, like a rain fly that you can put over it. It's, it's a good piece of gear. It's got all the pockets, got big, heavy zippers, um, I like it. And then it's also got big straps that I can strap my bow case or my gun case to the outside so that I can navigate airports a lot more easily. Really nice, but that's the duffel For the mainframe.
Speaker 1:Got it to Australia. We're doing day hunts. It was over 100 degrees and I was able to get three liters of water in there, have my first aid kit, have all my knives and then snacks and just whatever I needed for the day, and it was definitely overkill for what I needed down there. But I didn't know if I was going to need something really sturdy for packing out, like a water buffalo skull or quarters of a water buffalo, as it was. We were able to drive to where I shot my water buffalo, so not that of a deal. But what was a big deal is that I needed to have a pack with me that could carry water, have that capacity and still be dead quiet for sneaking up on all these critters that I was hunting down there in really dry conditions with crunchy leaves and lots of limbs. I just I needed a pack that could do.
Speaker 1:Everything turned out as this pack. I've been using it for years. I did some review work for Eberle stock before there's some YouTube videos and stuff like that out there again. They're not paying me anything to talk about this. My relationship with the company is just as a friend. So that has been a great pack, continues to be a great pack. Stand by everything nice that I've ever said about it. The Everly stock mainframe is going to run you about 300 bucks.
Speaker 1:Okay, next one, we're going to carry more stuff around. This is the Paladin 33 loadout tote. Okay, paladin 33 is a company out of bend oregon. They make everything in america by americans, with american material, down to down to the thread, down to the zipper pretty amazing. And they're always looking for cutting edge, like highly technical fabrics, and they started using this stuff called x-pack fabric, and I don't know exactly what it is. I think it's a little bit like Dyneema and it's got some woven fibers through it. When you look at it you think that's too thin, that's going to break.
Speaker 1:I cannot physically tear this. I've dragged it around, um, I've I've got some smaller bags that are made out of the stuff that I've been really mean to and I can't even like wear a hole in it. It's, it's fabulous. What is crazy about this loadout tote? I'd asked them to make me a bag for my dive gear and my dive fins are like three feet long right, um, and I've got a wetsuit and I've got weight belts and I've got masks and I've got all my spearfishing stuff. Like it turns into this mountain of gear that really there aren't great bags that are suited for it. This still might not be the ideal bag for that, because that X-Pack material is waterproof. So while it's great on the way out when you're putting a wet wetsuit back into it, you're going to have to dry it out when you get home. Not the biggest drama, but just something to be aware of if you're using it for that application.
Speaker 1:The loadout tote is 160 liters. Okay, it is massive. I can fit inside this thing Right. Like. This is a sure enough like body bag style thing. It weighs two pounds. It weighs two pounds. It is so incredibly light. Like why lift all the weight? Lift the weight of the stuff that you're carrying Absolutely phenomenal. You're going to pick this thing up and be like what in the world? It is incredible, and for it to be that light and that tough is phenomenal. I love when technology like takes a huge step forward and stuff like this. The fact that it's American made warms my heart. Hope it does yours too. The load out tote is 500 bucks. Man, when you look at this thing you're gonna think man, I don't know if I've got like a 500 job for this. If you get it, I promise you that it will.
Speaker 1:And uh, you know I've used it for all kinds of stuff. What I've used it for most recently is to take some really big, bulky items and put everything in there rather than it like rolling around in my truck somewhere. So I was able to, on this last trip, put two argali 8p tps with all the accessories like the liners and the floor, the sto stoves I brought two titanium stoves, I had four sleeping bags, I had extra sleeping pads, I had extra blankets, I had pillows, I put two cots in there, like all of this like sleeping stuff that usually takes up like more space than a human in my truck. I was able to put in this one bag, throw it in the back of my truck and it got rained on and snowed on on the way to camp. Everything showed up perfectly dry. Love that so much. Also use this.
Speaker 1:On an albacore spearfishing trip trying to spearfish for albacore tuna, we had to run over 50 miles offshore on the oregon coast and we're running into the ocean. So we had, you know, spray and stuff coming back into the boat on the way out. Uh, all my gear was perfect when, when we got there, the salt water didn't bother it in the slightest, which is also amazing, because salt water is the destroyer of everything in the world. But, yeah, this thing's cool, pretty sweet. Check it out. Um paladin, 33 500 bucks uh called the loadout tote.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm sure everybody has heard of yeti. They've been around. They've been making making coolers for like 20 years now at least. Um, big, tough, expensive coolers that keep ice for a long time. I've used Yetis for a very long time. Uh, they're tough. The reason that I use them is because I'm hard on stuff and I'm oftentimes out in remote areas where I need to keep my food cold for a long time. I don't need my eyes to melt. And do I have bears that get in camp? No, not really. They are bear resistant coolers. I don't really care about that. It's usually a bear season of one form or another, so if we end up with a bear in camp, it's going to turn into a bear hunt.
Speaker 1:I did have the Yeti 205 previous to this and I could get a whole elk into that quartered up, except that it it's kind of it's kind of tall, the cooler is, and it's not wide enough to get a full hind quarter in there, so I would have to cut the shanks off. The problem with doing that is now I the shanks are where the tenons are that I hang quarters up by, so I have to cut the shanks off now. I don't have a good way to hang those quarters once I get back home, because I'm usually going to continue hanging that meat and aging it for a while before I cut it up. So that was a little bit of a bummer. With the 205 it'd work for boned out bulls. Absolutely the 205 is a great way to go. I got the yeti 250 this year and it is the smallest cooler they make that.
Speaker 1:You can fit a whole elk in bone in big bulls, cows, whatever. You can fit them in there. I can also move this cooler if it's empty. If it's full I'm hopeless, but if it's empty I can move it by myself. So'm hopeless, but if it's empty I can move it by myself. So I can still get my hands out wide enough to grab hold of the ropes. I can pick it up. I can throw it in my truck If it's just inside the bed rails of my pickup and goes up against the cab great place for it to live.
Speaker 1:I used it on this cold weather trip that I was just talking about. I didn't have any ice in it, but my deal there was that it was cold outside. I needed to keep stuff from freezing because if you come back and all your food is frozen, you're going to have a really hard time cooking it because you know your clients are sitting around. It's like, oh gosh, this is not not an ideal situation. Not an ideal situation. Um so it. It did its job insulating and keeping my food cold, but not allowing it to freeze even in those single digit temperatures. Love that. Uh, this cooler costs a thousand dollars, definitely not free, but it is the smallest cooler I've ever used that I can fit a whole elk in bone in without breaking it down further. Uh, so for those of you who need something like that, now you know.
Speaker 1:Okay, the last item, last item that I want to review on today's podcast is my pickup truck. So I drive an F one 50 King ranch. It's a 2018, it's black with some like gold flecky tannish trim. Uh, I bought it used at an auction, had 89,000 miles on it. I've put over 20,000 miles on it in the last year and a half. Uh, it's a fantastic truck. When I'm driving on the highway out there in in the real world, uh, with, with you know, the kind of off-road capable tires that I have on it, I'm still getting 19 miles a gallon 20 if I'm just driving like 55. So 19 miles per gallon is pretty good. I can haul my jet boat with it. I can tow my jet boat, which weighs around 7,000 pounds while it's on the trailer. I think that's only half of the vehicle's tow rating. When I'm towing that boat, I drop down to between 12 and 14 miles per gallon, which really isn't bad given that this is a 3.5 liter gas engine.
Speaker 1:It has four-wheel drive, but it also has part-time four-wheel drive which is safe to drive on dry pavement. What I like about that is that there's times a year where you're going to have dry pavement but you might run into some slick patches on, like shady corners in the canyons or whatever. I can go ahead and roll on that part-time four-wheel drive and then if I do get into those like intermittent slick situations, it's gonna click in and I think that that's cool. Has a diff lock as well, which is sweet. My old f-150 did not have that. The seats are incredibly comfortable. They have a massage feature and something that I never asked for, but it's kind of nice on a long road trip, kick the old seat heat on and hit the massage button and get a little massage while you're driving down the road.
Speaker 1:One of the most slept on features of this truck, in my opinion, is the lane assist. Now I was coming back from a trip I can't remember where. I think I was off spearfishing somewhere and I'd gotten sick, and on the way back, like the flu was getting me and I am not a tough person when I'm sick Um, I was not doing well and I was just trying to get home. It's like what do you do? Check into a hotel for the next three or four days when you're just like three or four miles from home? No, you're like I'm going to be dumb and I'm going to push through it, and that's what I did. I was in kind of in such bad shape that, looking back, I should have called somebody and like had somebody come get me because it wasn't great. But the lane assist, multiple times that day like made corrections to keep me on the road. So this truck was straight up like looking out for me and and keeping me safe when I was on the way home and just wasn't wasn't doing well that's. That's kind of amazing, and I know that technology has done incredible things since 2018. But man, this truck is pretty great. When I bought it at auction it was $35,000 and I think I changed the spark plugs and spark plug wires and a couple of oil changes since then and that's it. So no dramas whatsoever.
Speaker 1:Done some, you know, I would say, light to moderate off-roading with it. I don't like to drive off-road that much because I don't want to like tear up the ground. I do drive a lot of really rough roads and for a truck that you know honestly spends most of its life on a highway, it does fabulous. And I drive a ton of dirt roads that have a lot of bad washboards and usually that just rattles the truck to pieces and they're really rattly and squeaky, especially if you get them past the 100,000 mile mark. Knock on wood, my truck still isn't rattly, thank god, because that drives me absolutely crazy. Uh, f-150 king ranch good piece of gear, love it. And uh, yeah, I think that. I think that a lot of companies make a good truck, right? I'm not the the guy that's going to argue like ford, chevy, dodge, whatever. I think they all make make great vehicles, but this one has been a great rig for me and that's what I roll around in.
Speaker 1:So, friends, that's my. That's my podcast for today. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you know your hunting seasons and whatever you're doing in the world is going really well for you Falls just a tremendous time of year. October's past us. That's easily the best month of the year in the Northern hemisphere and looking forward to another, uh, another couple of deer hunts, maybe a little bit of waterfowl coming up and, yeah, I got another spearfishing trip coming up. It's gonna be real fun down in mexico.
Speaker 1:Gonna continue to um to bring a podcast from from wherever I'm at, and I hope that wherever you're at is exactly where you want to be and that you're successful and that everything that you try to do. So that's it for today, friends. Bye everybody, good luck. I just want to take a second and thank everyone who's written a review, who has sent mail, who's sent emails, who's sent messages. Your support is incredible and I also love running into you at trade shows and events and just out on the hillside when we're hunting. I think that that's fantastic. I hope you guys keep adventuring as hard and as often as you can. Art for the Six Ranch Podcast was created by John Chatelain and was digitized by Celia Harlander. Original music was written and performed by Justin Hay, and the Six Ranch Podcast is now produced by Six Ranch Media. Thank you all so much for your continued support of the show and I look forward to next week when we can bring you a brand new episode.