In this episode of The Epic Outdoors Podcast we talk with Jim Reardon of the NRA. We discuss the importance of protecting our gun rights as well as the program known as Friends of the NRA. Jim helps us understand how the NRA is set up and how we can be more involved in raising money and awareness for shooters and hunters.
Disclaimer: this podcast has been transcribed from the original audio and likely contains errors. This transcription does not reflect the views and opinions of Epic Outdoors LLC. Please consult the original audio with any concerns.
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Don’t ever take your gun rights for granted because it can happen in a heartbeat.
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Here in the west, we’re hunters, the gun owners are hunters. It seems like
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The legislation was not presented for any debate on the
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Floor, anything to do with Western Big Games.
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Welcome
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To the Epic Outdoors Podcast, powered by Under Armour.
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Hey everybody, Jason Carter and Adam Bronson here with the Epic Outdoors Podcast. Got a great guest here, actually in the studio with us here today is Jim Rearden, the National Rifle Association Field Rep for here in Utah. So we’ve visited with him a little bit over the course of a year now and kind of excited to have him here in the studio with us. But before we get started, we do wanna throw a little shout out out to Under Armour for sponsoring this Epic Outdoors podcast, as well as some of the different things we’re doing here at Epic Outdoors with the magazine and whatnot. So anyway, we appreciate them, we appreciate their support and all that they do for us and some of the different projects we’re working on. So anyway, well Jim, welcome to the studio here with Al and I. It’s
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Great to be here. Thank you guys, and thanks to Under Armour.
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You betcha. So anyway, well, why don’t you just tell us a little bit about yourself. I know we’ve got a great podcast lined up here today. We wanna learn a lot about what the N R A is doing. The N R A has many different facets and a lot of different programs they’re involved in. And so we might kind of rely on you a little bit to educate us and then how we can help you guys as well, which in turns helps us, helps us. So, okay. Anyway, yeah, just introduce yourself and, and a little bit about your background.
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Alright. Was actually born and raised in New York. We actually moved to Connecticut when I was about 12 years old and moved into the country. And I was in my element. I really, really loved the country and loved the outdoors. And when I wasn’t playing sports in school, I was running into the woods or going fishing. And my brother-in-law was the one that introduced me to hunting first time around. And where I grew up in Connecticut, we didn’t have big game, of course, we had a lot of small game pheasants, rabbit squirrels, those types of things. So that’s how I kind of got my start in the hunting segment and went off to college in New York. And after college I moved back to New York from Connecticut. And that’s when I started more big game hunting and hunting white-tailed deer. And eventually when they restocked the turkeys, I began Turkey hunting and just always loved the outdoors.
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And you know, life got busy after college, you know, and ended up having a family and having a child. And ran my own business for 25 years and always wanted to hunt the west. So about 15, 15 years ago, I guess it was, I made my first trip out west to hunt and just was hooked. You know, I’ve always loved the Rocky Mountains. And last year I had the opportunity to move to Utah and had the, the wisdom to start building points many years ago. So I’m in a great position being in the West now with some points saved up and hopefully gonna get some good tags here in the next few years.
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That’s awesome. And so when you say you ran your own business for 25 years, I mean, is it something where you, like you retired from it, did you sell it and and what was it that you were doing?
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Yeah, well I started out in a landscaping business and I was a land landscape contractor doing maintenance and installation. And in the wintertime of course it was slow and you know, I’d plow a little bit of snow here and there. But you know, back east we didn’t get a whole lot of snow. So I was always looking for something to do in the wintertime. And I went to work for these people that owned a flower shop and I was doing deliveries for them and they happened to want to retire and it was a great business. And the time that I bought it, the company was about 90 years old. Wow. And very well established in the community and ended up buying it from them when they retired. And I ran that for 15 years and I decided that I wanted a little bit more freedom in my life and decided to sell.
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And I had bought the real estate also. So in 2006 I ended up selling it and I still wanted to work. And I said, you know, if I’m gonna continue to work, I want to get involved in something I’m really passionate about, which was the outdoors. So at that time I went to work for Gander Mountain part-time, and one thing led to another and I ended up moving up into management and was, ended up working for them full-time, but did that for three and a half years. But I just, I really didn’t like the corporate mentality, re retail and all. Yeah, yeah. Tough, tough business. You know, it’s all numbers driven, bottom line. And I ended up doing that for three and a half years and left that, and I had a good friend, I was heavily involved with friends of N R A back in New York as a volunteer on a local committee and a good friend through that program, Jay Ock, who was the field rep for Upper New York, he says, Jim, why don’t you apply for an n r A job? You’d be perfect for it. Yeah. So one thing led to another, and I actually interviewed four times before they hired me, but I finally wore ’em down. So in February of 2014, I went to work for the National Rifle Association as the field rep for Area three, which consisted of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, lower New York, and New Jersey. Wow. Yeah.
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That’s crazy. So you’re there about a year or so only, it sounds like before
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Two and a half years. Two and a half before you came out. Yep. The fellow that had the job here in Utah had resigned and there was an opening and they put the word out if anybody was interested in the transfer. And to be honest with you, I was very concerned because having started in in area three, just two and a half years prior, I wasn’t sure they would want to turn over the field, reposition that quickly with a brand
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New guy, more US out
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West. And I was having great success back back there. 2015 was a banner year. The most money that territory had I’ve ever raised. I actually was given an, an award as the rookie of the year for 2015. Wow. For the work that I had done with the committees back there. So I was kind of skeptical. I didn’t know know if you really wanted to leave either well made away. Yeah. Because doing, I knew I wanted to leave. Oh, I knew I wanted to leave. Oh, come
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To the Rockies. But
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My boss actually said to me, you know, I, I sent him an email. I said, I’m definitely interested. And he sent me an email back and he says, well, we wanna make sure that’s what you want to do because if you go to Utah and you don’t like it, there’s no place for you to go back to. And I said, really? I said, don’t worry about that.
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That’s funny.
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I said, I’m gonna love Utah. I think I’ll manage in Utah.
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Yeah. And so that brings us to Utah. So you come out to Utah and they interviewed you four times, you passed, everything was good. They probably did a background check. Oh
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Yeah.
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They can share. You could, you could have a handgun or something. But anyway, came out to Utah and never looked back. You’re happy here.
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I’m ecstatic to be here. You know, having come from the East and you know, people ask me, who, who’s Jim Ridin? And I say, well, Jim Ridin is a red, white, and blue blooded patriot. I believe in the United States of America. Love our flag. I strongly believe in the Constitution and the Second Amendment. And I was living in an area where they didn’t hesitate to take your gun rights away from you. And after moving to Utah, my whole outlook on life has changed. Yeah. And I guess I just didn’t realize how unhappy I was living back there. Yeah. Because of this restrictive government. And once I got out here, it was like a whole new start for me. Well, what’s
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Crazy, tell us about it. Yeah, yeah. And Adam, I don’t mean to cut you off, but what’s crazy about it, Adam and I and you were talking not, you know, right before we started this, is, is how crazy is it that there’s different gun restrictions from state to state when we’re all live under the second Amendment? I just don’t understand that it’s, it’s and and, and I dare somebody try to take Utah’s guns away, you know, even if it’s a handgun or, or restrict us to a degree. Like it’s just not gonna happen. I just don’t see it happening. I hate to say it that way because the minute you say it, it happens. Yep. But what’s it like that’s just seems foreign to Adam and I, wouldn’t you think?
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Well, and you know, what I’ll say to you is no one should ever, I don’t care where you live, don’t ever take your gun rights for granted because it can happen in a heartbeat. When the Safe Act was passed after Sandy Hook, you know, the gover governor was very motivated to put something in place which he felt was going to be a good thing for everybody, especially for him politically.
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So tell me, back it up a little, just for people that don’t know what the Safe Act is, let’s talk Tell what is that?
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Alright, well the Safe Act was instituted in 2011 after Sandy Hook and the Safe Act Outlawed, strictly outlawed, no more what they call assault rifles. What we know as AR 15 rifles Yeah. Could be purchased in the state of New York anymore, if you owned one already, you had to register it with the state. They outlawed high capacity magazines. So if you had any, for example, 30 round magazines for an AR 15, you either had to permanently alter them so that there were no more than 10 rounds or you had to sell ’em. They also put in a magazine restriction for handguns of seven rounds, which ended up being overturned by the Western District Court in New York because it was ruled arbitrary and capricious because seven round magazines aren’t readily available for most guns. That’s right. Alright. So they put in a background check system, supposedly for ammunition, but they didn’t have any way to do the background checks. Geez. And they were hoping that the F B I was gonna allow them to use the NIC system and the F b I said, no, you can’t use our NIC system. So now they have no way to do the background checks. So they said, okay, we’re gonna waive that requirement for now. But the legislation is still in the law. They say they are going to try and develop a system so that you have to pass a background check to buy ammunition. So, you know, a very, very, very restrictive,
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Well, here you gotta be, what, 18 at ’em to buy. So, or without your parents standing there, at least my kids can’t buy gun, you know, ammunition. Well, there’s no background check for ammo. Right.
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Yeah. And it’s, you know, it was a political move.
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Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, and that, and that’s what happens right now. And we’re not through in this country, those Sandy Hook terrible events like that doesn’t matter where you’re at. The ones in Colorado on the movie theater, it, they’ll happen everywhere and they will never stop. So you’re probably safer to say, keep vigilant in and keep your guard up against, you know, anti-gun type movements because you’re one or two bad instances like that away from the wrong congressman or, or what, trying to run something and ram route it through. You
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Know, the bad thing about the Safe Act too was that, you know, this was kind of done in the dark of the night and the, the legislation was not presented for any debate on the floor. There was, they had an opportunity to comment, but there was no debate. It was enacted at what out of what they call an act of necessity. So it didn’t require the 72 hour period
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Safeguards and all these other things,
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72 hour period for review. And the legislators were presented the Safe Act, the legislation itself, 45 minutes before the vote. And
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That’s how through happened. Yeah. Yep. So I’m interested, so you, you outlied your, your background back there, but you talked about an immediate ’cause We’re lifelong residents here of Utah, so we probably, I know we take a lot for granted. We take, you know, some of our parks and things like that, that we live half an hour, an hour from and, and all of the diversity and our way of life. So tell us about, when you said, I thought I found myself, what did you mean when you came to Utah and got immersed by us Utahans? What did, what did you mean by that?
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Well, as I said before, you know, I’ve always loved the Rocky Mountains. You know, when I started making the trips out here many years ago to, to go hunting, I just totally fell in love with the environment. I had been out here back in the seventies. I took a trip and I toured all over the Western United States and I fell in love with it, you know, and I say that that Yellowstone ecosystem is my favorite place that I’ve ever been, you know, and always had that desire to be out here. So when the opportunity arose, I jumped on it. And now that I’m here, I mean, you know, I guess, you know, I was, I was young, I was 21 years old back in the seventies when I came out here, and maybe I didn’t
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When you made your first trip, just
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Yeah. Yep. Maybe I, I didn’t realize as much the beauty of it all. I mean, this Wasatch front where I live up there around Salt Lake is just, you know, anywhere you are in the valley, that’s what you’re looking at constantly. Yeah. You know, and it’s just, it’s breathtaking, you know,
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A little bit of pollution. A little bit of pollution. Yeah.
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That’s, that’s, that’s the downside.
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The only detriment. That’s
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The downside. But it’s
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Beautiful out here. You know, there’s no
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Question about it. I’m, I’m three miles from Big Cottonwood Canyon and I’m, yeah, I’m five miles from little Cottonwood Canyon and you know, the other day I went up, I went up into Big Cottonwood and I shot my bow, you know, I mean, I can take a ride and be up there in the, in the mountains and the clean air and it’s just, you know. Yeah. It’s, it’s spectacular. It really is. Yeah. You know,
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There’s a different set of freedoms. You know, we all have freedoms in this country, but you’re right, the, the ability to just go and do maybe the things that you’ve really been having to suppress living back east for so much the wide open, let me just go grab my gun, grab my bow, or just grab my hiking boots and go do so. Yeah.
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I don’t, we, we talk about hunting and you know, I used to tell people all the time when I lived back east, I said, you know, I’m, I’m a two to three day drive if I wanna go hunting for the type of hunting I want to do. Yeah. Yeah. Right now I’m living in, in Utah, I’m, I’m, yeah. I’m the hub of the wheel
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And one day drive, Arizona,
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Nevada, Montana, Wyoming. And
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That’s the way Adam and I feel, within 12 hours we could be, you know, Wyoming, Montana to Mexico, anything, any
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State,
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Nevada pretty much wanna hunt. Yep. You know, overnight, we usually do a one trip, you know, overnight and start hunting in the morning and we can, you know, do all that. And so anyway, we, it’s awesome. Ja, you are in the hub. That’s, there’s no question about that. Yep. So, yeah, I, I can, and, and I know why you, you know, when you come out here in the seventies and of course makes kind of an impression on a guy. I don’t know anybody that’s like, man, I loved it back east. I can’t wait to get back east. But having said that, we’re surrounded by people in the west. It’s just, every time I go out there, all I see is just a, you know, wall of trees and I can’t, you just feel a little bit claustrophobic back there. But I’m sure, you know, you gotta learn how to hunt and love every, you know, wherever he is at. But anyway, we, we do, it is beautiful out here. Like Adam said, we do take some of these parks, we get Zion National Park and some of these things right here in our backyard. And, and it is pretty, pretty beautiful. So
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I’ve been here for a year. I’ve been to Zion four times already. Yeah.
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That’s probably three, three more times than Adam. And I’ve been here, you know, I’ve been to the park. So anyway, we do take it for granted. But, and so I know you, you say you’ve hunted quite a bit. I mean, have you elk hunted, deer hunted and been through the, some of the different Western states? Or give us a little bit of your hunting background.
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Elk hunted in Montana, I actually drew a unit two 70 mule deer tag. Wow. Geez.
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That’s pretty
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Rare. Back, I don’t know, around 2007, somewhere in there. Yeah.
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Good hunt.
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Yeah, I had a great time. Biggest bucks I saw were on private land, unfortunately. Yeah. But I, you know, I shot a one 70 buck, which, you know, I was content with. I had actually that, that year I actually, that’s when I still owned my business. And I had, I used to work seven days a week, year round. But when it came, when it, when it came September, and it was time when bugle season came in, I was in the west. So I went over and I hunted elk for three weeks with some buddies and we hunted in the gravel range. And then I went west over to unit two 70 and I hunted with the bow for two weeks, didn’t tag out. So I went back home for about 12 days and then I flew back out and I hunted with the rifle and I ended up, you know, harvesting that buck with the rifle. That’s great. I’ve hunted Colorado over the counter hunted in Idaho, over the counter shot a nice seven by seven with the bow there up in the Tex Creek area. And then I’ve hunted orcs down in New Mexico in White Sands missile range. Wow. Drew that tag in. I don’t know, it had to be about 2008, somewhere in there.
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So, you know, I’ve done several hunts out here from 2002 to 2009. I pretty much went every year. Yeah. And then,
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So what’s on the, what’s on the list of, what haven’t you done that you really want to, or what is your favorite thing? Like mul deer or elk or what, what do you want do every year now that you’re in the west? What do you always wanna make time for? Or what are you hoping to draw?
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Well, they’re all my favorite. You know, I just, I love being in mountains and I, my passion is the bow hunt. I really love the bow hunt. I, I, I dunno if I mentioned, I drew a Nevada 2 21, 2 23 tag. Didn’t, har didn’t harvest. Oh, that was back in elk
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Or deer
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2005 mule deer. Saw some awesome deer there, but I could never get anything close enough. I had some small deer close, but, you know, just never saw anything close enough. I could punch my tag on. But boy, I saw some awesome bucks. And that was, you know, like the Mount Grafton
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Area. Yeah. Mount Grafton. Yeah. Virginia, Dell and all that stuff to the north. It just loaded the
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Books. Yeah. I, I’d love to get that tag again. Yep.
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Now that you’re living here closer now. Exactly.
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Yep. So, so actually this year I drew a Wyoming unit 58 antelope tag. Did you? Oh wow. Yeah. I actually talked to you, Adam on the phone.
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That’s one of the better ones. Did you have max points? Yeah,
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I had max points. Yeah. I had 11 points.
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Well that’s another one living out west. And now you feel like, you know, an antelope is a harder one to maybe justify leaving New York and come clear out for an antelope. But when you’re here now it’s a three hour drive up there and you’re, you’re hunting. Yeah.
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So, and you know, my, my thinking this year, I didn’t apply. That’s the only tag I applied for. I just had my knee replaced a month ago. So I said, you know, I’m not really gonna be in my cardio fitness is gone. I haven’t been able to do anything in two years. Yeah. And I was gonna have the knee replaced last year, but then I ended up moving to Utah, so I postponed it another year. Yeah. So my cardio fitness is just totally gone. So I’m gonna do that antelope punt and then I’m gonna hammer away over the winter and the spring and the summer and get back in the mountain shape, shape,
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Get legs, everything back. And
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Then, so how’s the knee? How’s the knee doing? Good. Oh,
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It’s doing great. Yeah. Good.
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You wouldn’t have known, I mean, you walked in here today, I mean, I know, it’s amazing. They can cut basically your leg in half Yep. And put a joint in there and sew it up. And you’re walking around, well, a month, but you’ve probably been walking for a week or two. ’cause you don’t, you’re not my
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Father-in-law had his knees replacing. It was rough. Yeah. I don’t know. You know, I, I know everybody has a different experience, but just, I don’t know. Right after and just all the stretching and all the things that you gotta do. It just, I mean, he was sheer pain.
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Get through it. So. Well, you know, I, I tell people all the time ’cause they, they ask me in the hospital and, you know, physical therapists and they says, what’s your pain level? And I said, I don’t have any pain. You gotta have a brain before you can have any pain. All, all I’ve have experienced is soreness and tightness. Really? Not really pain. That’s crazy. Never taking a painkiller. Wow. So I’m bouncing back quick and, you know, I’m excited. And next year, I mean, I’m
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Be willing to go,
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I’m applying for every tag I can next year. Good.
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Yeah.
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Good antelope this year. Maybe kill a buck kid. ’cause that that unit’s got ’em. Yeah,
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That’s definitely got ’em. And you know, anyway, Adam Adam’s actually killed a big old antelope in Arizona. It’s kind of got the bug. We’ve, we’ve been applying and getting points across the west and yeah. It’s one of those, another one of those kind of species that we maybe take for granted a little bit just because we’ve been immersed in them. Yep. You know, and
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But anything big is, is exciting. Yeah.
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Anything especially milder, but yes. But yeah, anything big inside, big, an
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Analog, big bear, you know, things that we don’t maybe plant old fall around, but we get a tag for them. You’d make the most of it. That’s right. Well, I
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Look around the walls at this place and it definitely, the mule deer allegiance is present.
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I don’t, we need to get an antelope on the wall somewhere. I guess
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We do need to Maybe your bike.
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Well maybe
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I’ll bring it. You gonna mount that thing 87 inch? Your guy ought mount it. It’s,
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It’s getting mounted. So full body. No, no.
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Alright, well, so what’s on your, you know, bucket list, so to speak? I mean, are you into sheep or what do you really, what do you dream about? Any hunts that you’re really looking forward to getting someday?
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Well, I, I would love to do a sheep hunt and I’ve been building points for, for sheep. You know, the reality of the situation is, we all know it’s, it’s a lottery once in a lifetime tag. And I’ll be very fortunate to Yeah. To draw one. It’s not gonna stop me from applying. That’s true. And I’m not getting any younger, so I gotta hope that I’m gonna draw it here within the next few years. I really, really would like to take a moose with my bow. That’s one of the, the tags I, I really would like to draw. I’ve got like 14 in Wyoming now, so I should be in pretty good shape to draw a tag there pretty quick. Hopefully, you know, the, to to the sad part is in Utah when I was living back east as a non-resident, I could build points for everything.
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Now you have to, now I live here. What did you pick? And I can’t, what did you, what did you settle on? What two did you settle on when you
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Moved here? Well, I did, I did elk and sheep.
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Okay. And that’s smart right. In my opinion. I mean, if you had the 14 moose in Wyoming, like I said, just Yeah. Pick one of the sheep here in Utah. Yeah.
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I, you know, I’m trying to get a desert tag and then, you know, I’ve got next year’s app I’ll have 15 for elk in Utah. So that’s
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Getting, getting into with Ry Elk position. You’re in a good spot. Yeah. That’s, yeah. You’ll get a good tech here, so. Yep.
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Yep.
00:22:03:15 –> 00:22:05:16
Bro. And outfitters take him out, huh? Yep.
00:22:05:26 –> 00:22:09:16
I’m not as good an out outcome as, as he probably need to help him kill a big bull.
00:22:11:14 –> 00:22:27:17
Oh man. We’ve been scouting a lot this year and, and we always joke about Adam’s known for sheep, but he’s also got a lot of those clients that want him to kill big bulls. And we’ve got ’em here in Utah and they know where they’re at and they’re, they work ’em too, but, you know, his loves for the sheep and deer and different things, so. Yeah.
00:22:29:03 –> 00:23:01:23
Well, good. Well let’s, let’s, maybe let’s talk about the N R A a little bit. And there’s, it’s, there’s many different facets of the N R A and then, you know, your involvement and which, which part you’re involved in. And then just kind of teach people. I mean, we all know the N R A is a good thing, right? And we all want to, and we all take part in that and are members of it and support ’em. But sometimes it’s hard to know exactly what we’re supporting. I mean, you know, it’s just, it’s, it’s quite of a, a big program with a lot of different entities involved. Huge
00:23:01:23 –> 00:23:07:23
Entity. Yep. We know there’s a lot of good, but Yeah, break it down for us in terms of the arms of the N R A or if you will. Yeah, yeah.
00:23:08:06 –> 00:23:30:27
Well, what a lot of people don’t realize is that the, the N R A itself is the oldest civil rights organization in the country. You know, it was founded back in 1871 and, you know, their objective when they first started was to educate and train people in firearms usage. So more
00:23:30:27 –> 00:23:33:16
Like safety type thing in, in that way? Well,
00:23:33:19 –> 00:24:13:01
No, it was because there was two, the two generals that founded the N R A were appalled at the marksmanship of the soldiers, soldiers that fought in the Civil War. They wanted a training camp to become marksmen better in a way. And they wanted to educate and train people in firearms usage. And, you know, the, the N R A of course has evolved over the years and, you know, has moved over and done a lot of other things. But now when I talk about civil rights is that, you know, the Second Amendment is a right and it’s something that’s protected under the Constitution and that all Americans have or should have.
00:24:13:04 –> 00:24:22:08
That’s what, what, that’s what’s concerning when we first started this podcast, when we’re talking about the different areas and within the lower 48 that maybe they don’t have it, it feels like they don’t have.
00:24:22:29 –> 00:25:00:25
So, you know, that was kind of the evolving of the, the organization into that part of it. And the N R A basically is a very big company, 650 employees. There’s the membership side, which is falls under general operations, which is membership recruitment and retention. People pay their membership fees and then, you know, the, the magazines that they receive with their membership fall under that side. You know, there’s a multitude of different departments. I mean, there’s a legal team there, there’s a, the publications division, there’s the N R A store where they sell N R A merchandise.
00:25:02:29 –> 00:26:07:23
There’s all different divisions that fall under that. Then you have the N R A foundation, which is the 5 0 1 C three not-for-profit under i r s law. And that was formed in 1992. And the objective when they formed that was to create a program that was gonna raise money and put it back into the shooting sports. Put money on the ground. My main responsibility as field rep is to oversee that structure of that program here in Utah and work with volunteer committees and help them be successful doing those fundraising events. Talking banquets. Yeah. Yeah. Much like Rocky Mountain Elk and Mule Deer Foundation and Wild Turkey and Ducks Unlimited Sportsman for Wildlife. You know, we have banquets and it amazed me when you guys had said, you know, we really don’t know anything about the program. So, you know, my, my mission here, I was charged when I moved out here, was to grow the program. We know there’s potential here. It’s often said that we’re the best kept secret there is that nobody’s heard of Friends of N R a,
00:26:07:27 –> 00:26:10:10
Which isn’t good if you’re trying to generate revenue. Right.
00:26:11:05 –> 00:26:54:08
What I can tell you is, well, lemme, let me just finish up on the, the organizational structure of the N R A. Then we have the, the N R A I L A Institute for Legislative Action, which is the political legal legislative division of the N R A. They’re the ones that do all of the campaign stuff and endorsed candidates, that type of thing. So those three separate divisions. And because the foundation is 5 0 1 C three, we can’t be involved in anything political. I r s law prohibits that. So if you come to one of my fundraising events, we can have people that are political office holders or candidates there, but we can’t allow them to campaign there,
00:26:54:19 –> 00:26:56:29
Give a speech and we endorse this guy or
00:26:57:18 –> 00:27:16:18
That. Yep. That’s a no-no. So that, that’s the basic structure of the N R A Underneath that Friends program. There’s, right now we held nine banquets in Utah this year. I’ve been charged with growing that segment of the program here in Utah. Both
00:27:17:00 –> 00:27:19:16
Locations, number of banquets as well as attendance, number
00:27:19:16 –> 00:28:08:09
Of banquets. Of course, we, I’ve already identified seven areas in Utah where I believe I can get banquets going. Some of those areas already had banquets, but they have stopped having banquets. So Cedar City here is one Canna, Moab Delta, Logan Vernal. Ella Vernal actually had a banquet stopped, and then I got them restarted this past year. Okay. Very successful for their first year back. The ni the nice thing to report is that we are 51% higher in revenue for 2017 than we were in 2016. So the people are interested, you have to give ’em a product they want. Yeah.
00:28:08:11 –> 00:28:13:13
You know, and they gotta know that you even have an event and, and what you’re doing with your money. Yeah. Yep. You
00:28:13:13 –> 00:28:15:01
Have to, you have to. Have
00:28:15:01 –> 00:28:16:14
You heard of them Adam? Like did you
00:28:16:19 –> 00:28:37:22
I I’ve heard of them in the past, the different banque, but I think Utah, you know, we have a lot of conservation groups in, in Utah, and so we have a lot of banquets. We’ve been, you know, 20 years or so where we have three a weekend around, you know, our neck of the woods. And so maybe it’s just kind of been hard for you guys to break in from that, that regard. I’ve heard of them. I’ve never attended one myself though. Yeah.
00:28:38:22 –> 00:28:55:19
It, you know, it’s a matter of getting the word out and, you know, people will support us. You know, they just have to know about it. And I know what I did, and I used something this year here in Utah that was never used before, was doing a mailing program and sending flyers. You’re
00:28:55:19 –> 00:28:57:10
Talking direct mail. Yeah. Just get lists and
00:28:57:10 –> 00:29:26:19
Send, get, get a flyer in front of people and let ’em know there’s gonna be an event. Yeah. And they, that wasn’t being done in the past. Yeah. So that’s been, that’s really helped us. What I can tell you is in Utah, since the inception of the program in 1992 to present day, this includes the money we raised in 2017. There’s been four 4 million, $88,321 and 16 cents in grant dollars raised in Utah and awarded. So
00:29:26:19 –> 00:29:30:22
What does that break that down? What does grant dollars mean? Well,
00:29:31:02 –> 00:29:31:15
That’s
00:29:31:15 –> 00:29:33:10
The money. Is that the net? Is that like the net?
00:29:33:20 –> 00:29:34:11
Yes. The way
00:29:34:11 –> 00:29:35:14
After the banquet, the way the
00:29:35:14 –> 00:29:58:14
Whole program is structured is we talk about this grant opportunities. Each one of these banquets in Utah raises X amount of dollars. So say, say the banquet grosses $70,000 net’s, $35,000. Well, the expenses that come out that of course are for the, the venue where it’s held food,
00:29:59:10 –> 00:30:00:04
Anything your guns,
00:30:00:17 –> 00:30:12:14
Whatever’s guns, you know, anything you use in a silent auction. Live auction. So you deduct all the expenses and if you’re doing a good job, your net to growth should be around 50%. Okay. So that $35,000 net then goes into the grant program.
00:30:13:07 –> 00:30:16:10
Does that stay in Utah’s grant program? How does that work? Yeah,
00:30:16:10 –> 00:30:46:22
That’s where I was leading to. All right. So what happens is 50% of the money, 50% of the net goes to national level programs and 50% stays in Utah. Okay. So last year we had $172,000 net for the entire state. So of that 72, about 81 thou, or no, 86,000 went into the grant program for Utah. Only the other half went to the national level.
00:30:46:29 –> 00:30:50:08
And national can use it for the legal thing, whatever. No,
00:30:50:08 –> 00:30:50:14
No,
00:30:50:15 –> 00:30:52:17
Just national shooting. This
00:30:52:17 –> 00:30:57:05
Is foundation money. So it has to stay under foundation umbrella.
00:30:57:08 –> 00:30:58:20
Give us some examples of those.
00:30:58:29 –> 00:31:02:22
And I don’t know if you, if if you’ve heard of the Eddie Eagle program.
00:31:03:08 –> 00:31:09:19
Yeah, that’s the Eddie. I remember my kids had videos when they were little about not, not picking up guns. If you see ’em in your Eddie
00:31:09:19 –> 00:31:18:20
Eagle program is we, we, we educate the little toddlers. If you see a gun, stop, turn around, run, run away.
00:31:18:21 –> 00:31:22:13
Don’t touch, leave the area. Tell an adult. Find an adult. Yep. I could still say
00:31:22:13 –> 00:31:22:23
That. Yep.
00:31:23:03 –> 00:31:25:02
My kids would be like, there’s a gun.
00:31:25:12 –> 00:31:26:13
Yeah. I wonder it’s
00:31:26:13 –> 00:31:36:23
Mine. Walk over, start, you know, my kids are well being raised when they’re raised around guns, it’s, it’s not anything new or exciting really.
00:31:37:07 –> 00:31:47:12
It’s more of a deal for their friends when they bring ’em over. You gotta tell your kids, Hey, that’s what I worry when you bring your friends over, remember this is a house that’s a little bit different, you know, than maybe the house they’ve been in, don’t you?
00:31:47:14 –> 00:31:59:06
I walk downstairs and my boys got a shotgun up on a couple of nails across the wall. I’m over here and he is got his AR over there. And I’m thinking, okay, it doesn’t seem the safest thing in the world, but my kids have been so raised around it.
00:31:59:22 –> 00:32:52:19
And again, that’s the culture difference between Yes. Here out West and back east. But anyway, at Eagle’s, one of the programs, we have a great program that I’m very fond of, called Yes. Youth Education Summit. And it actually just ended up last week. And what it is, it’s a scholarship program and students from all over the country are awarded scholarships and it’s open to high school, sophomores and juniors. And they submit an application and the applications are reviewed, candidates are selected, and then these kids receive a scholarship for $2,300 for each one of them. And they fly into Washington DC and they attend leadership conferences. They go to N R A headquarters, they visit the N R A museum, they go to all the monuments, Lincoln Memorial, you know, all of that type of thing. They go to the capitol and they actually talk with their congressmen while they’re there.
00:32:54:04 –> 00:33:26:07
Great, great program. And these kids are the cream of the crop. And I’ve had several over, over the years that have come to my banquets and spoken. And you, you’re just totally blown away by these kids at, you know, 16 years old and 17 years old and you know, just how eloquent they, they are. How polish they’re, yeah. And, you know, they’re our future leaders, you know, and that’s kind of the culture of our program. You know, we, we put money back into the shooting sports because we know we’re preserving the shooting sports and the hunting traditions for future gen generations. You know, that’s our whole objective.
00:33:26:13 –> 00:33:36:08
And so, you know, on the funding for the legal side of the N R A, does that come from membership? Does that come from, do they have donations? Probably other fundraising that the parent company does.
00:33:36:17 –> 00:34:03:17
There’s, you know, you guys are, are well aware, you know, when you’re an N R A member, there’s a lot of mail that comes to you. Yeah. So N R A I L A, which is the Institute for Legislative Action, they do their own fundraising efforts. Okay. Our money from the foundation can’t go into their fund. Okay. I r s law prohibits that. So they do their own fundraising and you know, they of course have a list of people that donate. They have a list of the N R A members and they target people.
00:34:03:28 –> 00:34:13:08
So if people wanna donate to that, cause you know, it wouldn’t be, it’s a separate donating to you. No. To you would be more, you know, with the youth from different programs like that.
00:34:13:09 –> 00:34:46:16
Correct. You know, our, our grant program, the, the biggest majority, about 80% of the money we raise goes to kids programs. Even in Boy Scouts. Yeah. Four H High school rifle teams, junior, R O T C programs, things like that. We also give money to Women on target events, which Women on Target is a program designed to get women that are nons shooters involved in a program and remove any type of peer pressure. They’re, they’re shooting with other women for the first time. So they don’t have this macho male guy there that, you know,
00:34:47:29 –> 00:34:51:22
The guys and she’s the lady showing up and is intimidated just, just rather go
00:34:51:22 –> 00:35:18:24
Home. Exactly. Doesn’t want to do this. You know, so women on Target, we put money into Hunter Safety Education, we put money into marksmanship training, we put money into shooting clubs and range development. It, it really boggles my mind. And again, it’s part of we being the best kept secret that there’s the opportunity for lots of organizations to receive funding from us, but nobody knows about it. Yeah. You know?
00:35:19:13 –> 00:35:30:00
Yeah. Little Mo you know, small town rifle range needs a couple grand to get the range up going or, or you know, all those types of things or school programs or these, you know, would
00:35:30:00 –> 00:35:32:20
Never have thought to call the friends of the N R A for that.
00:35:32:20 –> 00:36:48:21
Yeah. I can give you an example. You know, I was president of my, my gun club back home in New York. And over the course of years we had developed an air rifle program for kids. We developed a shotgun program for kids. We built skeet towers, we built a firing line for our rifle range. And that was all within our A grant dollars. You know, and those opportunities are there, again, awareness, make people aware that those things are there. And you know, the, the nice part about the program is it, it puts money back on the ground. And if you’re involved with a committee and have a banquet and apply for a grant, you’re gonna get funding. And, you know, I can tell you once a, what happens is once a year, delegates from each one of those committees that has a banquet within the state of Utah come to what we call our state fund committee meeting. And prior to that, I, from headquarters, I received the grant applications and distribute them to these delegates and they review all the applications. If they have any questions, they call the applicant directly and, you know, get an explanation. And then grant day, what happens is they all talk about those grants, decide who’s gonna get funding and how much funding they’re gonna get. N R a foundation has nothing to do with,
00:36:48:21 –> 00:36:49:04
So it’s
00:36:49:05 –> 00:36:50:15
Award of that money. It’s
00:36:50:15 –> 00:36:56:28
You and your eight or 10 chapter committee chairmans or whatever you wanna call ’em, that decide in Utah.
00:36:57:02 –> 00:36:59:20
And I, I have no decision making process. I see.
00:36:59:20 –> 00:37:01:14
It’s up to there to facilitate the meeting.
00:37:01:23 –> 00:37:07:04
I’m the recording secretary. Yeah. So the people that raise the money get to spend the money. And I,
00:37:07:21 –> 00:37:11:24
We could, we could do something here at our range or what we could at least apply. Sure,
00:37:12:05 –> 00:37:34:14
Sure. And so I would assume, I mean you may know exactly, but all, I mean, we’re in Utah and you represent Utah, but there would be someone in Arizona, Colorado, or New Mexico. Maybe there’s somebody that covers a couple of states. But all these western states, you know, where got people all the United States, probably there’s somebody in your position, no matter where you live. In the US there’s 50, it’s 52
00:37:34:14 –> 00:37:44:27
Field reps, 52 of you. Alright. Now, for example, I talked about area three back west where I covered four states plus part of New York, you know, California, there’s five different field reps, Texas.
00:37:45:18 –> 00:37:47:02
Okay. So it’s not Texas. You can
00:37:47:04 –> 00:38:03:05
Cover the state. Yeah. So there are people that co cover multiple states. There’s two guys in Alaska, you know. Yeah. But the point is, is that there’s grant funding available in every state in the United States. This program is in every state and works in every state.
00:38:03:24 –> 00:38:15:05
So you’re a field rep of the parent company, the N R A, but then their friends of the N R A you work with, but you’re not funded by the friends of the N R A? No, that’s not part of the expenses we’re
00:38:15:05 –> 00:38:32:12
Talking about. No, my, my salary, the, any money raised through friends of N R A goes directly into the grant program and 100% of that money goes back out. My salary, any overhead building, any of my travel expenses,
00:38:32:12 –> 00:38:34:08
Your mailings, all those, they come from the
00:38:34:11 –> 00:38:39:06
National, my truck expense, all of that. That comes from the general operations side, not from the foundation.
00:38:39:07 –> 00:38:47:25
And so is your only job the friends of the N r a, like, so your job responsibilities are the friends of the N R A or do you have other facets that come from the parent
00:38:48:02 –> 00:39:25:20
Company? Well, as a field rep, you are the face of the N R A in your territory. So for the state of Utah, if anybody has an N R A question, they can call me. Okay. All right. If it has to do with a political or a legal thing, I’ll re refer them to the proper people at I L a. Yeah. If it has to do with a membership question, I’ll send send ’em to the person. Okay. On that side of it. As far as other things that I do here in Utah, for example, that, you know, I don’t know if you guys are aware, but at about three weeks they have this, the Wild Horse and Borough Summit is gonna be up in Salt Lake. Okay. So I’m going to represent the N R A at that. So there’s a multitude of different things I do. And so
00:39:25:20 –> 00:39:26:24
What’s your stance on the wild horses?
00:39:27:19 –> 00:39:27:28
Well,
00:39:28:28 –> 00:39:30:24
You know, my, my personal opinion,
00:39:30:24 –> 00:39:33:11
It’s kind of an emotionally charged topic out here in the west. Yeah.
00:39:33:11 –> 00:39:49:05
My, per my personal opinion, and you know, I’m not speaking for the N R A when I say this, but my personal opinion is as an outdoorsman, that any wildlife in any habitat needs to be managed. Managed by science. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Not by
00:39:49:05 –> 00:39:50:10
Emotion and romantic,
00:39:50:11 –> 00:39:55:20
Not by a emotion and not by a bunch of lawyers in courts. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Leave it up to the experts know.
00:39:55:21 –> 00:40:04:11
So what’s the N R A what when you represent the R N R A at this summit, that’s gonna happen. I mean, why would they have the N R A there? Like what is it?
00:40:05:19 –> 00:40:52:28
Well, again, the N R A is just not about gun rights. Yeah. You know, we represent sportsman’s interests in hunting and believe in the conservation initiatives. The N R A has been involved in this coalition with the, of the, the, the WildHorse and Burrow management for a long time. A matter of fact, one of the women at the N R A, she’s not, she’s unable to attend this year. That’s why I’m going to represent. She was the one that originally chaired the whole thing. And they’ve been involved in it for a long, long time. And, you know, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, mule Deer, they’re all part of this coalition. And they all have come together as conservation groups and said that this is our position as far as how this should be managed. Something
00:40:52:28 –> 00:41:40:18
Needs to be done. Yeah. Yeah. That’s good. That’s awesomes a bigger voice than just Elk Foundation or, you know, deer alone. You’re all, well, that’s good. Hopefully high hope something comes and these, this election cycle in, because it’s way, way overdue. Anybody that’s really spent time in, in, you know, some of these western states, you know, Wyoming parts, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah, probably I’m, I don’t wanna leave some out, but those are probably the most affected, like you said, it doesn’t matter that they are horses. Most people, the romantic romanticize them as, you know, pets and the long flowing mains running free. Like, you know, they were, but they’re, they gotta realize they gotta eat, they gotta drink. And they, they destroy stuff out here. They destroy stuff stuff. They have no idea what some of these landscapes look like.
00:41:40:25 –> 00:41:50:06
It’s unbelievable. Some of these places, like, like Nevada’s a classic example. It’s an arid state. There’s only so much water. And then, and when you get horses that can hundreds
00:41:50:06 –> 00:41:50:14
Of ’em
00:41:50:17 –> 00:42:03:10
Breed and breed and breed and more and more, and they’re not managed, they just crush these little springs. I mean, they just crush ’em. Right. You know, and it, and it’s taken away from deer and elk and it’s affecting the landscape. The see some of the invasive vegetation,
00:42:03:12 –> 00:42:03:20
Invasive species
00:42:03:28 –> 00:43:07:20
Yes. Within two miles of a water source. It’s unbelievable what they’re doing. And so, and that’s what’s frustrating. I mean, it’d be nice to just kind of have a happy medium where everybody agrees that, you know, we can have some, but we, we we’re talking some, not as many as we can have, you know, and, and so you get these polar opposites and so, you know, people want anyway, you just can’t come to a happy medium. And I think that’s part of some, some of the gun rights we’ve talked about. You know, it’s hard to give up any of your gun rights, even though maybe I don’t care about machine guns necessarily for myself and my personal interests, you don’t want to give up any one of your rights because it starts that slippery slope of losing all your rights. Correct. You know what I mean? And so it’s, it’s a tough, it’s, it’s all tough deal. And, and just like we’ve talked about and before the podcast and you know, is it’s foreign to Adam and I to not be able to have a gun. It’s foreign to, like, for California, for example, maybe getting off subject about, you know, killing a mountain lion in some other state, having even the taxidermy done in another state and not being able to bring it into the state. Right. If California, like are is this America? Is this
00:43:07:20 –> 00:43:07:26
America?
00:43:08:02 –> 00:43:42:11
Yeah. Is it America? I don’t, you know, and those are some of the things, it’s just such a foreign thought process. It’s not like we’re bringing a polar bear in. It’s not like we’re coming from, we’re coming from something that was killed in the lower 48 that can’t be brought into your home state, which is within the lower 40 eights. Amazing. Yep. You know, to even think about some of these things. And so, well the N r A is interesting. I it’s, it’s awesome that they’re taking part in conservation efforts too. I I didn’t really know that, you know, it wasn’t just about guns as far as like you’re talking about as far as having an interest in the WildHorse burro.
00:43:42:13 –> 00:43:51:16
Well, we advocate, we advocate, advocate for the hunter and the sportsman and for responsible management of wildlife and habitat.
00:43:52:07 –> 00:43:52:24
That’s great.
00:43:53:13 –> 00:44:10:00
So when it comes to your banquets, you’re, you’re the man. I mean you’re, you have committees around Utah, but, but, but you’re the man in Utah. You organize ’em in Utah. Do you have them, you know, maybe for Utah listeners, do you have ’em throughout the year? They target around the winter in spring months? What are your Well,
00:44:10:00 –> 00:44:23:05
Typically the be the most successful banquets are usually springtime. We find. And I think a big reason to that is because, you know, in the spring people kind of have cabin fever and they’re ready to bust outta the house, talk
00:44:23:05 –> 00:44:27:01
About hunting or go do something, mix and mingle with hunters or something like that. Yeah.
00:44:27:11 –> 00:45:08:08
You know, they’re, they’re coming off of the wintertime and maybe been cooped up in the house a little bit and paid off the Christmas bills. They’re a little money, they’re ready to get ready to get going and do something. You know, we do banquets, we’ll do banquets in the summer and we can do ’em in the fall. Being new to Utah, what I’ve heard from some people is, oh, you know, falls hunting season. So, you know, we’re, we really don’t wanna be involved and do something. And you know, I I, I don’t force any committees to do something under my scheduling. I say to them, I’m here to help you. You need to tell me what you need to do, what you want to do. And we’ll pick a date. Yeah.
00:45:08:13 –> 00:45:11:12
Well, as long as it’s, be honest with you, as long as it’s one a year, we, you know
00:45:11:15 –> 00:45:14:19
Yeah. Be honest with you, I I want to go hunting too. Yeah,
00:45:16:01 –> 00:45:20:11
Absolutely. That’s right. Those are not gonna be as well attended in, in,
00:45:20:14 –> 00:45:24:11
If all, all my TTS could be done by September 1st, I’d be in my glory. Yeah.
00:45:25:06 –> 00:45:25:14
Well
00:45:25:14 –> 00:46:06:02
And it’s true because a lot of the gun owners here in the west, and I don’t know what it’s like back east actually, but here in the west we’re hunters, the gun owners are hunters. It seems like. I don’t, I even know very few people, if any, I guess I could think about it for a minute, but very few people that just own guns and don’t hunt like I own guns. ’cause I love guns. I go out and target, shoot. And that’s kind of where it ends. It’s just not that way. We got a lot of our hunting community is what really are the, the gun bearers, you know? Sure. The guys that have guns usually hunt. Yeah. To a degree. Unless, unless it is for just, you know, protection and somebody, you know, women or whoever has something for protection and has a handgun or two. But, but anyway,
00:46:06:03 –> 00:46:13:12
Back back east, you know, there’s a, the, a bigger percentage of people that are gun owners back east are more into target shooting. Okay.
00:46:13:12 –> 00:46:13:26
Yeah. Yeah,
00:46:13:29 –> 00:46:16:28
Yeah. Yeah. Because there’s not maybe as much the variety
00:46:17:03 –> 00:46:17:22
Whitetail
00:46:17:22 –> 00:46:30:01
Deer and small game. And that’s, that’s about it. And depending on if you’re in an urban area, some, some place you can’t even use, you know, long rifles, you can’t even use it. You gotta use shotgun, shotgun muzz loaders only. So where
00:46:30:01 –> 00:46:33:12
I, where I was in New York, the county I lived in, you couldn’t hunt with a rifle. Yeah.
00:46:33:14 –> 00:46:42:24
I’ve had sheep hunters come from New York and they called and told me, says, I don’t own a center fire. And I said, what do you mean you drew a desert sheep tag? You, you need one of those. You know,
00:46:43:11 –> 00:46:44:00
That’s important
00:46:44:09 –> 00:46:49:13
Adam. And I’ve got a guy applying that just doesn’t own a rifle and he’s applying and he knows he needs to get one.
00:46:50:03 –> 00:47:48:08
And I, you know, I simply said, well, just save your money and I’ve got it taken care of because he lived in New York and he hunted archery heavily for his, his deer occasionally did the shotgun muzz loader, but, you know, dreamed to hunt. And we, and when you draw a desert sheep tag, you know, you’re not gonna bring a, a slug gun out. Right. You know, for it. So we, he used mine and took a great ram and took it home. So Yeah. I, you know, sometimes you hear some drills like that, that, and, and obviously when you got that many people, there’s, there’s laws that they need to make. We have places even in Utah where you can’t use center fires, you know? Right. Certain different places around urban areas and things. You know, the whole Wasatch front, for instance, has extended archery season for a reason, because you got, I dunno, whatever, 3 million people living at the foothills of that. So it makes sense. But, but anyway, so, well how does I, I mean, you run banquets in Utah, I assume, you know, our listeners are from all over the United States. So how does somebody find out what’s going on in their own neck of the woods with friends of the N R A and banquets and stuff? Well,
00:47:48:10 –> 00:48:21:06
As, as field rep, of course, I work with all of the committees. If somebody needs information about the NRA Foundation, they can go to ww.nra foundation.org. If they want information about friends of nra, they can get it there. Or they can go to ww dot friends of nra.org. And if you do that, it will pop up a map or you can click on, click on a link that says find an event and it’ll pop up a map of the United States. And then you can click on the state that you want. I see. And you can find out what schedule the events that are going on.
00:48:23:15 –> 00:49:27:19
You know, as I said, my, my job now that I’m here is I have these nine existing committees that I’ve identified seven areas where I think we can establish more committees. If anybody wants my information, they can get it off the website. If you go to that friends of n r A site, it’ll show me as the representative for Utah. And my boss is Jason Quick, who you guys know, and you know, Jason’s in California, and you can get ahold of myself or Jason. That way, you know, all my contact information will be there. And I’d be willing to talk to anybody. You, I, I, what I try to impress upon people is that this is such an important program because the money’s going back into the shooting sports and it’s creating that future for us. And it, it, when I, when I look at the program, it boggles my mind. I mean, since the program started in 1992, $750 million in grant funding has been raised.
00:49:27:26 –> 00:49:31:05
That’s really cool. You know, that’s, that’s net We’re talking net That
00:49:31:10 –> 00:49:31:29
Actually goes, that’s
00:49:31:29 –> 00:49:42:11
Grant money. Yeah. You know, we’re talking in the next few years, we’re gonna be at a billion dollars billion that’s been put back in the shooting sports. This is our 25th anniversary this year, 2017.
00:49:42:18 –> 00:49:49:26
So I noticed you guys help each other a little bit. Like you went to California and helped Jason in some of his stuff. Yeah. Does he do the same? He’ll come and help you when you got back
00:49:50:00 –> 00:50:41:12
Season. Just here. You know, we’re the, the field operations staff is, we’re a family, you know, and what I’ve found is that anybody that’s in in field operations will do anything thing they can to help you out. And as a field rep, especially when you come on board, when you’re new, all you need to do is ask. And you can pick up the phone, you can call any field rep anywhere in the country. You can call any one of the six regional directors like Jason, you can call. The big boss of all of us is Phil Gray. He lives in Ohio. You can call him. We have a support staff at headquarters. Sarah Anset is the director of Volun Volunteer fundraising. And she’s got a staff that works underneath her. And you can call anybody any time of the day. And when I say any of the time of day, I mean it, I mean, think of it, you got two field reps up in Alaska and think of the time difference from the East Coast to Alaska.
00:50:41:23 –> 00:51:20:20
You know, you could be doing a banquet in New York and it’d be one, two o’clock in the morning and you’re driving home and you can call one of those guys and ask ’em a question if you want eight o’clock at night. Yeah. You know, so great organization, you know, very family oriented. And twice a year we all get together. We have a meeting every summer and we have a meeting back at headquarters in December. And, you know, there’s a lot of camaraderie there. And you know, I say that, you know, the people that are involved with friends of N R A, whether it be us as field reps or whether it be our volunteers on these committees, are probably the most passionate Second Amendment supporters you will ever find.
00:51:20:23 –> 00:51:22:12
Yeah. You know, I can see
00:51:22:12 –> 00:51:33:04
That they’re in it for a reason, just like me. They believe in the constitution and they know that, you know, we’re, we’re building this culture for the future of the shooting sports and freedom.
00:51:33:12 –> 00:51:48:25
Yeah. You have to get these kids in it. ’cause that’s what I mean, that’s the future of all this. Sure. And to foster, it’s probably your biggest growing segment is to, to foster more people that are pro-gun. Yep. You know, that understand the valuable role they play in, in our lives Yeah.
00:51:49:09 –> 00:51:51:20
And have played, you know, in our, our country. That’s right.
00:51:51:20 –> 00:52:06:11
You know, have played. And so, and what about like, so let’s say we do a fundraising event here in Cedar. Do you try to let us have some funds here in Cedar? Or is it more just state, state by state? And so our funds may go to, you know, a Salt Lake shooting range or some kind of program. Just depends
00:52:06:11 –> 00:52:06:17
On
00:52:06:17 –> 00:52:09:07
That grant meeting where it ranks out. That one you alluded to
00:52:09:07 –> 00:52:13:26
Again, again it, you know, it’s up to the delegates. I don’t make any determination on where the money goes.
00:52:14:04 –> 00:52:16:17
And so on the delegates, Cedar City would have
00:52:17:08 –> 00:52:26:22
Two or three banquet committee threes. If Cedar City holds a banquet, Cedar City is gonna have a representative at that meeting. Okay. As long as they send one. Yeah. You know, and they should, and they get a vote on
00:52:26:26 –> 00:52:27:29
Money and how much money
00:52:27:29 –> 00:53:10:16
They should and they get the vote. And what I, what I can tell you is just from having done this for a number of years now and watching this grant process is they get these applications and they have their minds made up already. Each one of these delegates knows the organizations in their area that have applied for grants. Yeah. And they also know those organizations that have helped them with their banquet Yeah, sure. By attending supporting support, donating or whatever, you know, working at the banquet or whatever. And those applications are the ones that rise to the top. Yeah. You know, and the question will be asked. They’ll look at a grant application, they’ll say, do these people support us? Well, let’s put that one off to the side. We’ll go through these first. It’s an natural If there’s money, if there’s money left at the end Yeah. We’ll see what we can do. Yeah. You know, so.
00:53:10:18 –> 00:53:50:28
Well, that’s great. What, what I like and what you’ve tried to explain and, and I think it’s come across fairly well, is that it’s not just this giant organization that you donate funds to and you never understand where those go. Right. Like, there are ways to watch what good your money does, you know, and, and become involved and to take part in that and even maybe volunteer to cherish some of these events or, or whatever. And so I, you know, it takes people to, you know Yeah. It takes people to really put these events on and and whatnot. And so there’s donations, you know, monetarily wise, but also time-wise and they can probably all get ahold of you if they wanna Sure. Become involved more involved in some of those different
00:53:50:28 –> 00:54:15:05
Things. Yeah. I mean our, our volunteers are the key. We, we could not do this program if we had to pay help. We wouldn’t make any money, you know, without the volunteers. We, I don’t have a job and we don’t have a friends of N R A program and you know, it just, you stop and think about $750 million being raised by volunteer effort. Yeah. That boggles the mind. Yeah. You know? Yeah.
00:54:15:08 –> 00:54:25:29
Well, and they’re going on everywhere. It sounds like 52 filled reps throughout the United States. And so probably something within a few hours drive of wherever you’re at. I mean, there may be few.
00:54:25:29 –> 00:54:30:00
Those are field reps, not even including whatever you’ve got in all these different towns,
00:54:30:11 –> 00:54:32:12
Eight or 10 banquets under each one. You know, got,
00:54:32:12 –> 00:54:53:29
Basically, basically there’s a 1100 banquets a year in the United States, and it’s Phil Gray, our boss describes it. He says, think about this. Now you’ve got a business and you wanna go to a bank and you want to ask for money. And your business plan is, well we’ve got 1100 stores and each one of those stores is open one day of the year.
00:54:55:22 –> 00:54:59:26
You better make it count. You better pull off a pretty good event and make it count. Well,
00:54:59:26 –> 00:55:07:26
There’s a lot goes on. You know, the, the real successful committees, there’s a lot that goes on outside the event. Yeah. You know, they do pre-event drawings and they go out and solicitation
00:55:07:26 –> 00:55:12:17
Put on one day to put on the one day event is Yep. Four or five months in the making. Yeah. You know, they
00:55:12:17 –> 00:55:15:29
Raise, they raise a lot of money by all the work they do ahead of time. Yeah,
00:55:15:29 –> 00:55:48:00
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, and like here in Utah, like Adam and I talked about earlier, and we have so many different things, whether it’s SS f W, milder Foundation, army F, there’s so many banquets. Right. Some weekends have two and three banquets Sure. On a Friday and a Saturday. So you’re kind of trying to pick and choose which ones you’re gonna support and go to and Yep. And of course we sell tags and you know, my kids love to go to these things too ’cause they win little things Sure. And whatnot. But, but anyway, there’s, there’s a little bit of a challenge, you know, is there’s so many other options to, to choose out there, but I think this is a great,
00:55:48:11 –> 00:56:30:28
You know, yeah. I appreciate you, you know, educating us as much as even our listeners, because I don’t think maybe this is as, as well known amongst conservation or a hunter rights or gun owner rights organization and groups. Everybody knows what the N R A or thinks they know what it is, but probably doesn’t understand the frenzy n r a arm of that and how a hundred percent of it goes back. You know, I, I know you said either 50% goes to the national level and 50% stays, but all of it goes back to on the ground, you know, you know, a lot of it, you said 80% of it roughly into the youth oriented type programs, which is great to keep recruitment, replace us guys that are getting older that are gonna have to sometime put the gun on the shelf,
00:56:31:01 –> 00:56:32:19
Want 80% to go to guys like us.
00:56:34:01 –> 00:56:47:18
But no, very good. Very good presentation today. Very enlightening to me. I know. And, and once again, maybe for everybody again, since, you know, we’re based here in Utah, but tell the, tell ’em the website one more time. Was it friends of nra.org? Is that the one? Yeah,
00:56:47:23 –> 00:57:08:05
We can go to to, well, you can go to ww.nra foundation.org. There, you’re gonna find a lot of information separate. You can even, there’s a link there that if anybody’s interested in applying for a grant, you can click on a link. It says apply for a grant. Okay. The grant process actually opens tomorrow August 1st. And what does your, it’ll run
00:57:09:09 –> 00:57:10:04
And then runs the deadline.
00:57:10:05 –> 00:58:02:23
The deadline is gonna be November. Okay. I believe it’s November 8th. So it’s a, a totally online price process. They fill out the grant application online. They can start the grant application. They don’t have to complete it. It’ll save the information. They can go back, work on it some more. If they have any questions or problems, they can contact me and I can steer them to the people at the grant department. And the grant department can assist them with their application. There’s certain requirements that have to be met. You know, you need to fill out the application, you have to have letters of support, you have to prove you’re not-for-profit status, those types of things. But, you know, there’s plenty of time for people to fill out these applications and if there’s a, a Boy Scout troop or a four H club that has a shooting program, if there’s a gun range that needs to do improvements, I don’t know why they would not apply.
00:58:03:24 –> 00:58:06:17
I think our Cedar City Gun range could use some improvements myself. Yep.
00:58:07:02 –> 00:58:09:01
You know, I told you about my club back east and all,
00:58:09:01 –> 00:58:10:10
There’s things everybody knows there’s something that could,
00:58:10:16 –> 00:58:25:20
All the things we did and we did it with N R A grant dollars. Yeah. You know, so it’s, it’s really, it benefits people to get involved in the program, help raise the money, because that’s gonna help you get money for all of these projects that need to be done. You
00:58:25:20 –> 00:58:35:06
Know, and that same website, they can also, when the time comes maybe winter and spring, they can target their, their local banquets near them. That same website. Correct.
00:58:35:06 –> 00:58:43:25
Well that, and then again, friends of NR ww dot, friends of nra.org is the easy way to find a grant, the banquet, the bank schedule, the bank’s more. Gotcha. Yep.
00:58:44:05 –> 00:59:05:06
It’s great. Well, that, it kind of wraps it up. It seems like, you know, you’ve given us what we need and I think it’s just a matter of, of getting on there and just a little bit of due diligence to figure it out and then maybe open our mail. It sounds like you’re doing some direct mail Yep. To, you know, to continue to let everybody know what’s going on. When do you guys allocate the grant funds? Like is it something you try to do before the end of the year or the,
00:59:05:10 –> 01:00:28:10
The grant meeting is usually held in January. Okay. Last week. It was the third weekend in January. And what I do is I do a grant meeting and I do a volunteer workshop and people from all of the committees come together and we have the grant meeting Saturday. And then the volunteer workshop on Sunday is a way for people to share ideas on how to make their money successful. And that happens once a year. And then after the grant meeting’s over, I send all the results into headquarters and everything goes through a legal review process. And usually by May that’s all finalized. As long as everybody has submitted all the documentation that was necessary, then the funds get awarded. Okay. All right. And if there’s the ability to, say somebody wants to do a shooting program and they need AM ammunition and they want to get some rifles, you know, 22 rifles or air guns, clay targets, you name it, eye eyes and ears, all of that type of stuff can actually come through the N R A store. But if it’s a range improvement where say you had to hire a contractor to come in and do some, some excavation work, then you would be issued a check and you’d receive a check in the mail to help offset the cost of that. And then all of this is contingent upon finalizing the project and finalizing the paperwork. And as long as everything matches up, you golden go, then you good to go? Yep. No.
01:00:28:14 –> 01:00:42:14
Yep. Can’t see why somebody that has a need where school program for it, like you said, wouldn’t take advantage of that. Everybody’s, well, a lot of us in the west have lived in a rural place where we didn’t have shooting ranges in Monticello, Utah. We had, you know,
01:00:42:29 –> 01:00:43:26
You went out, we you went out
01:00:44:03 –> 01:00:44:12
Just
01:00:44:29 –> 01:00:46:02
A couple miles outside of town.
01:00:46:02 –> 01:00:49:07
Yeah. Just where you would figure you wouldn’t wake somebody up early in the morning. And that’s,
01:00:49:11 –> 01:00:57:06
And we do a lot of that here in the west. And we take for, we, we do take it for granted a little bit how blessed we are. We can do that. Yeah. And, but it is nice to have, but there’s
01:00:57:06 –> 01:00:59:16
Also nice to have a to go and, and a,
01:01:00:05 –> 01:01:13:13
You know, something that’s more formal, but some of these places are so formal, you’re signing up in advance, they’re charging you, you know, every visit you want to do and, and assign you. It’s just so structured and we’re just not used to that here. We’re backward.
01:01:13:25 –> 01:01:51:23
I’ve, you know, I’ve actually, I’ve got a meeting tonight at the Hampton Inn trying to recruit some folks to put on a banquet and here in Cedar some, yeah. Some guys from the, the Trap Club are gonna be at that meeting tonight. Great. And find out about the program. And then tomorrow morning I’m actually going out to the trap club to take a look at it and you know, see if I can make any recommendations to them and Yeah. You know, and that, and that’s the type of thing that I’m trying to do. I’m trying to get into these communities and being new to Utah, I don’t know anybody. Yeah, yeah. You know, and that’s why you guys are real helpful because you can help spread the word for me. You can talk to people here in the local area and say, Hey, get ahold of Jim. You know,
01:01:51:27 –> 01:02:28:08
Well, quite frankly, the NRA iss so big, it’s not been an organization. I felt like if we wanted something done that we would go to the N R A and ask for funding. And so that’s what’s so awesome about having you here. You’re at least a face, you’ve enlightened us that they’re Yeah, yeah. You’re a face to the company and you’re, you’ve enlightened us that there are opportunities for that. Sure. I always thought they just fight legal battles. They’re a good thing. I’m gonna sign up as a membership member, but if we wanted to get something done, you know, of course, you know, we’re thinking about conservation groups and some of the other things that we’ve been affiliated with for years. And so it’s been a great podcast and been able to, you know, if Adam and I feel this way, there’s plenty of others that feel the same way. Yeah. You know? Yep. So
01:02:28:08 –> 01:02:31:26
Appreciate you coming on and Well, I appreciate boiling it down for us. Appreciate, I
01:02:31:26 –> 01:02:51:17
Appreciate you having me here and helping me get the word out. You know, it’s, for me, it’s, it’s not a job, it’s a way of life, you know, I’m passionate about it, I wanna see it grow. Sure. I wanna see it be successful and I know we can do great things here in Utah. And I’ll be honest with you, vernal years ago when the oil business was born was one of the, one of the top 10 banquets in the country.
01:02:51:25 –> 01:02:54:12
Well and it is on the conservation side too. Yeah.
01:02:54:12 –> 01:02:54:20
They,
01:02:54:24 –> 01:03:02:19
They, they’ve got a lot of funding up there and they’ve got a lot of passionate sportsmen. Yeah. We got a good friends in vernal. Yeah. And it’s just a great, great location for what you got
01:03:02:19 –> 01:03:10:24
Going. I know there’s, there’s unlimited potential here in Utah. We just have to get the word out and tap into it. So I appreciate what you’ve done having me here and helping me get it out. You bet.
01:03:10:25 –> 01:03:21:18
And yeah, we appreciate you being on and for those listeners out there, this isn’t just happening in Utah, this is happening everywhere across the, across the United States, so yeah. Anyway,
01:03:21:18 –> 01:03:23:11
Thanks Jim. Appreciate it. Alright, thanks James. Thank
01:03:23:11 –> 01:03:26:00
You guys. Appreciate, we’ll have you on again. Okay. Alright. Thanks buddy. Good
01:03:26:00 –> 01:03:26:13
Talking to you
01:03:26:17 –> 01:03:53:14
Here at Epic Outdoors, we publish a Western hunting magazine nine times a year. The first six months of the year are key to break down. The Western state draws every state, every species that issues their tags through a draw. We break it down, kill statistics, drawing odds, harvest rates, everything you need to do to do to kind of match up your personal hunting goals and strategies with the states and species and how they work and when you need to apply and all that.
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Yeah. And like you said, it’s a lot to deal with the Western big game. We, while we kill small game and we work with that, it’s not as much, you’re not drawing tags as much, although there are some Turkey draws and whatnot, but we are really concentrating on Western big game, including Iowa, Kansas, and a few of those. But, but for the most part, all the western states, you know, of course we work with Outfitters in Canada, Alaska, Mexico, there’s some other sections in the magazine as well. We’ve got the Hunter Next door article that our good friend Roger Smithson writes it, you know, kind of dives into the lives of some significant hunters. It’s super interesting, the unbelievable section, which is a new section, just kind of some crazy stories that happens out there in the hills. It really, really interesting. It’s gonna be a big hit. It’s, it’s just, I love those stories that are coming in on that, you know, as well as we have like the trophy section in the back where, you know, just kind of showcases a lot of our members’ success that are maybe not as APTT to, you know, write a full blown article. And so anyway,
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That’s right. Yeah. And even in later in the year we cover, you know, even stuff on Texas or, you know, bison in Arizona and, and Alaska. So Alaska
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