In this episode of the Epic Outdoors podcast we talk with Brendan Burns of KUIU. Brendan is a long time elk fanatic with Many giant bulls to his credit. We talk about some of his most memorable hunts as well as Bighorn sheep hunting. We dive into the topics of social media, meat hunting versus trophy hunting and our opinions on the subjects.
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.
00:00:01:15 –> 00:00:03:20
A bull was in there, bugling going crazy. And I,
00:00:03:29 –> 00:00:08:28
I, I’ll always be proud of that deer, just like a lot of the bigger deer that I’ve killed later in my life. And
00:00:08:29 –> 00:00:12:21
I, I smoked him, just smashed him. He ran about 50 yards and died. And it was
00:00:13:04 –> 00:00:14:13
Anything to do with Western Big Games.
00:00:17:22 –> 00:00:18:07
Welcome
00:00:18:07 –> 00:00:21:10
To the Epic Outdoors Podcast, powered by Under Armour.
00:00:22:05 –> 00:00:47:01
Hey everybody, Adam Bronson and Jason Carter here doing another Epic Outdoors podcast sponsored by Under Armour. We appreciate those guys and all that they do, and they sponsor everything we’re doing here at Epic Outdoors. So thanks to Under Armour today, we’ve got an awesome guest. Somebody that Adam and I have known for a long, long time, have a bunch of respect for, he’s killed a lot of things. Anyway, we’ve got Brendan Burns with q you on the phone with us. How you doing, Brendan?
00:00:48:05 –> 00:00:49:15
I’m doing well. How you guys doing today?
00:00:49:26 –> 00:00:51:29
Doing good. Pretty good doing From
00:00:51:29 –> 00:00:56:15
The world headquarters in Bozeman. Huh? The Bozeman chapter of Q you, I guess, right?
00:00:57:16 –> 00:01:06:26
Yeah, I got a, got a nice little office here. It’s a pretty nasty day here in Bozeman. It’s really ugly, but yeah, well, pretty nice place to, pretty much safe to have an office that’s Sure.
00:01:07:11 –> 00:01:43:01
You bet. Before we get cranking too much, I do wanna like let our listeners know. I mean, you know, it’s, it’s hard to toot your own horn, but Brendan, I mean, we’ve known you to kill Giant Elk and done it for years and years and years on general tags there in Montana. And of course you, I don’t know how many sheep you’ve killed, but it’s been a bunch and with some, with a bow as well. And so we’ll get into some of that. But just, just wanna let everybody know, you know, some of your credentials and some of the different things you’ve done. I mean, you consider yourself like an elk, sheep nut, is that pretty much describe Brendan Burns.
00:01:43:29 –> 00:02:15:01
Yeah, I, I prefer to hunt elk and sheep. I mean, I, I know sheep more the more opportunities I had, but I, I, I’ve always, elk’s always been my thing. I mean, I, I think you’re drawn to what you’re good at or had success at and, you know, those are, those are my favorite things to do probably from where I grew up. And you guys are mul deer guys. You grew up in mul deer country. I, you know, this is elk country, so Yeah, I mean, I, I prefer to those, those are what I spend the majority of my time on. I’ve, you know, on an extensively in Alaska and all over, but those are definitely my favorite for sure.
00:02:15:18 –> 00:02:26:04
Well, talk to us a little bit about, you know, just growing up, where did you grow up? How did you get started in hunting? Was it something that you’ve always done or just give us a little background into, into who you are.
00:02:27:10 –> 00:03:17:00
Yeah, I grew up in Livingston, Montana, and yeah, I, I, hunting has just always been a part of my life. My dad got in me into it super young, and it’s just, well, you know, there’s a few things that you just become obsessed with and I, I, I was into it at a, at a super young age. I mean, the joke in my family, my mom used to say when I was a little kid, I saved my money to buy Bow Hunter Magazine or whatever. And she was always like, wow, don’t worry. It’s he’ll grow out of it. And it’s just still the joke today. It’s like, yeah, he, he’ll grow out of it. Like, so yeah, just grew up in an area with a lot of opportunity, you know, great parents that gave me tons of opportunity to, to do what, what I wanted to do and, and hunt a lot with, with my dad. And just, you know, again, just, just really loved the sport and, and it’s been my favorite thing since I was little, so I really don’t know much else, so
00:03:17:25 –> 00:04:06:18
Well, yeah. You know, we’ve, we’ve known you for probably 15 years or so it feels like, and you know, in that 15 years it feels like you’ve killed everything. And I know you’ve killed a lot prior to us knowing you and you killed some of your first giant bulls before we really got to know you. But before you got to that, and before we dive into maybe just elk hunting and, and all that, we know you had, you know, you did have some other passions throughout your teenage years and college years, your competitive wrestler and whatnot. Talk to us a little bit about, you know, we’re not wrestlers. I’m a tall gangly dude, so I do not have a body to wrestle, nor do you know, would I have been good at it had I had a body to do it? I’m sure. But I know you’re pretty accomplished when it comes to the world of wrestling, both in high school and collegiately. So tell us a little bit about that, where that took you.
00:04:08:05 –> 00:04:56:08
Yeah, I was, I was a high school and college wrestler. That was kind of really the only other thing I did growing up. And yeah, I was a pretty good high school wrestler. Got, got recruited to quite a few schools, ended up wrestling at Ohio State University and in college, and then finished up my career in a small school in Montana. You know, had a, had a, had a good high school, college career. Was a one couple time all American high school one time in college. Yeah, it was kind of my, my second passion. Definitely didn’t love it as much as, as hunting, but it was a great sport to grow up in and it, it really translates well into hunting. I mean, wrestling is one of those sports that when it’s over, it’s over. I mean, you know, you hear about intramural wrestling or it’s not really something you can transition to and that, but you know, being an individual sport and being a high pressure sport where really it all falls on you is
00:04:56:10 –> 00:04:57:08
Individual. Yeah.
00:04:57:08 –> 00:05:10:17
Real comparable to the same thing that, that, that hunting is, you know, I mean, you, you need, you need training partners and you need people’s help and all that stuff, but at the end of the day it, it really always all falls on you. And that’s that I feel it’s definitely helped me in Yeah. In hunting for sure.
00:05:10:24 –> 00:05:20:11
A lot of parallels. What weight did you mean obviously varied as you got from, you know, a freshman in high school to maybe college, but what, what weights were you at back in the day?
00:05:20:28 –> 00:05:22:17
Oh, I wasn’t the biggest dude ever, but I,
00:05:22:28 –> 00:05:23:01
I
00:05:23:01 –> 00:05:24:18
Was gonna say pretty heavy. Are you,
00:05:24:29 –> 00:05:32:18
Was that back in the, did they have the 90, would they have the 98 weight back then? I remember in high school I played basketball. I remember they used to have a 98.
00:05:34:11 –> 00:05:40:10
I wasn’t, I wasn’t d small, there was some real little guys, but no, I was, I was 157 pounder in college. Oh, there you
00:05:40:10 –> 00:05:40:12
Go.
00:05:40:12 –> 00:05:41:00
Yeah. Geez.
00:05:41:02 –> 00:05:57:24
Yeah, so pretty, yeah, it was, it was good. Yeah, I always fun. It’s a, it’s a fun, it’s a, it’s a good sport. It’s a tough sport. It teaches you a lot of both in business and in, you know, in, in hunting it, it, it translate very well. It’s, it’s a tough sport. I mean, you, you don’t guys that
00:05:57:24 –> 00:05:58:26
Aren’t long discipline. Yeah,
00:05:59:06 –> 00:06:06:06
Yeah. You, you gotta be able to grind it to, to do it. So it’s, it’s, I encourage anybody to put their kids in it, that’s for sure.
00:06:06:19 –> 00:06:20:14
I’ve always been intrigued and scratched my head a little bit about the nice round numbers of wrestling weights. 98, 1 57. Yeah. I mean we’re, I mean, what, what about 1 55 or one 60? Yeah.
00:06:20:14 –> 00:06:21:12
Where do those guys fit in?
00:06:21:12 –> 00:06:27:18
Yeah, where, I mean like why the one 50 sevens? Is there anything behind that? I’m not a wrestler, so I’m ignorant. So,
00:06:28:02 –> 00:06:40:13
Well, they actually used to be a lot more rounded. And then when I actually, when I was a freshman in college, they bumped everybody up. They, they went from 24 hour WANs to one one hour before WANs, which kind of changed the whole game. And so they basically gave
00:06:40:13 –> 00:06:41:19
You two pounds basically.
00:06:42:25 –> 00:06:47:08
Oh, they gave you like seven. Yeah, it was a huge, huge difference. And so it changed, changed a lot. Seven
00:06:47:08 –> 00:06:47:17
Pounds.
00:06:48:11 –> 00:06:52:21
Wow. No killing some freaking 400 inch bulls. It doesn’t compare, does it?
00:06:53:01 –> 00:07:18:24
Nah, yeah. I mean, I, it’s always been my number one passion for sure is, is, I mean, wrestling is great and it’s fun to win and yeah, it’s, it’s great. But yeah, the hunting, I, I prefer Facebook, big bull. That’s, that’s for sure. And it translates into, you know, a lot better into life. I mean, it’s, it’s funny. I mean, Russell’s you’re either, you’re either going to the Olympics or you’re gonna be a coach or, but it, it really is not a sport. I mean, Adam, I’m sure you can roll down a gym and still grab that.
00:07:18:25 –> 00:07:25:15
Yeah. There’s no pick. I can pick up basketball games. There’s no pick up old man wrestling tournaments. You just don’t see ’em around. No. And
00:07:25:15 –> 00:07:27:23
You’re, and even at basketball, you’re worried about an ankle.
00:07:28:17 –> 00:07:41:11
I’m worried about blowing my Achilles and my knee. It’s just, it’s a tick and time bomb. I’ve quit playing for about three years. ’cause I’m scared to death that, that I’m not gonna be able to hunt sheep because I’m gonna be on a year rehab of an Achilles or something blowing. So, yeah.
00:07:42:05 –> 00:07:57:09
So yeah. Speaking of giant bulls, when did you, so you, you, you’re cranking out hunting. When did the trophy hunting really kick in for you or, you know, chasing after giant giants bull. Yeah. When did you kill your first giant or what, give us kind of a rough timeline.
00:07:58:27 –> 00:08:43:16
Well, I think it’s a progression. I mean, I, I, I was just after any elk for a long time. I mean, I’m, I’m a little about my background. My, my dad was injured in a horse accident when I was two years old. So my dad was in a wheelchair since I was two. So I am basically self-taught that my dad and I hunted together and he basically taught me everything that, that he could. But at the end of the day, you know, when you, when it goes to heading to the mountains hunting elk, he couldn’t go with me. And, and in, in hindsight, it was actually a, a, a blessing for me because, you know, that, that old saying of, you know, give a man a fish, you’ll feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, you’ll feed him for a lifetime. That kind of applied to me, no one that really ever took me elk hunting.
00:08:43:19 –> 00:09:17:16
So my dad showed me from early age how to read maps and how to look at country and everything, how to really could do stuff apart that, that’s awesome. Everything that he to do to find out versus wow. I mean, you know, guys that, you know, their dad took ’em elk hunting. This was their elk hunting spot. And and they’re still hunting those spots today. Yeah, sure. You know, they just, like, that’s where we go elk hunting. That that wasn’t how I grew up. It was my dad would drive me to the trailhead and drop me off and, you know, I’d get back at night and he’d pick me up and we’d talk about what we saw and, and wow. Make a, make a game plan for the next time. So it was, you know, pretty self-taught and then a little
00:09:17:16 –> 00:09:28:01
Bit of a sink or swim. Yeah, a sink or swim. I go out there and I’ll see it dark. And you made you or the architect of every, every step that day on the hill, basically by yourself.
00:09:29:01 –> 00:09:33:06
Yeah. And so it took me a long time to kill a, to kill a bull with my bow. And
00:09:34:16 –> 00:09:37:28
A long time, meaning meaning years or what do we, what do you think? Yeah,
00:09:37:28 –> 00:09:38:10
Four years.
00:09:38:15 –> 00:09:46:07
Okay. Four years. So it was like your goal, like, I’m gonna kill high, I’m gonna kill a bow with, with my bow. And and that was kind of your goal? That was one of your first goals?
00:09:46:14 –> 00:09:48:14
Any elk that would stand in front of me at that point
00:09:48:14 –> 00:09:49:14
In time. Okay. Yeah.
00:09:49:29 –> 00:09:52:08
Yeah. Like we all started pretty much. Yeah.
00:09:52:21 –> 00:10:17:08
Yeah. And, and then, you know, I got got got a pretty good one. My first one was just, you know, it’s a little six point and then yeah, just always looked up to guys that, that were killing it. It always seemed kind of unachievable, like, you know, guys got elk, but man, the guys that got, you know, good bulls and and consistent were, they were fewer and further between back then, I mean, in the, in the early nineties. I mean, a guy that killed a six point bull every year, that, that was, that was a
00:10:17:08 –> 00:10:18:18
Big deal. I mean, was he was Oh, yeah.
00:10:19:01 –> 00:10:23:08
Yeah. There was way less elk than there are now was way, you know, I know everybody thinks that it’s better.
00:10:23:17 –> 00:10:35:13
Well, and back then the goal was a six point, like even my dad was clear back in the eighties, late eighties, early nineties, it was just a six point. It wasn’t score, it wasn’t score wise or this or that, or it was just straight up six.
00:10:37:08 –> 00:10:49:07
Yeah. Just to get a, or, you know, just to get a bull. I mean, it’s, we’re in the good days now. There’s just a lot more elk and, yeah. So I killed my first really good bull with a bow. It was like three 20 when I was, when I was 18.
00:10:49:23 –> 00:10:51:02
What year roughly are we talking?
00:10:52:05 –> 00:10:55:13
96 maybe. Okay. About 1996. Mid
00:10:55:13 –> 00:10:57:11
And then, so mid nineties. Your, your kid.
00:10:57:11 –> 00:11:27:08
Yeah. 96 or you’re seven. Yep. Yep. And then, and then college. I didn’t get to elk hunt much in college. I would, I would come back and in early September when I had a little bit of time, I usually had a couple days, but it, it, it really lit the fire in me. Like I, I really appreciated it more after, you know, when you’re gone for college. It just wasn’t practical when you’re wrestling in college, I mean, that’s a full-time job that, that’s your life. And then when I ended up coming back to Montana, that was at, in, in 2000 was the, was the year that I killed that great big bull.
00:11:27:11 –> 00:11:33:13
You’d been like pinned up for three, four years without basically, and you’re like, I’m ready to go now. And
00:11:33:23 –> 00:11:41:01
What were you studying? Like, what was, what were you going out in or what was your initial goal? You know, besides wrestling off, obviously.
00:11:42:00 –> 00:11:43:02
You mean in college? Yeah.
00:11:43:04 –> 00:11:43:29
Degree wise. Yeah.
00:11:44:03 –> 00:11:46:02
Oh, I got a business degree. Yeah. I went into business.
00:11:46:13 –> 00:11:58:13
Okay. Okay. And so year 2000, you say, you know, that was your first over really big bull. Like, tell us about that bull. Like what was he, how did it happen? Did you find him first or did you find him the day you killed him? Or how did it all work?
00:11:58:18 –> 00:12:28:19
Yeah, it was pretty, it was pretty interesting. I, I, I finished up school after I left Ohio State, I finished up school, a small school in Montana. It was the kind of the only place that had wrestling in Montana. And that was the last year that I, I wrestled in college and there was a small mountain range. It’s actually well known now and it’s probably the, the toughest, best known area to draw in Montana. But when I moved back, there was a small mountain range just out of the, out of, out of the college there. And I, I drew a tag in 2000. There was, I think it was either 13 guys or 15 guys applied for 15 tags.
00:12:29:18 –> 00:12:31:18
Geez man. How times have changed
00:12:31:18 –> 00:12:44:00
And it’s hard take to, to draw in Montana. Oh yeah. It’s crazy because I, I, I literally, it’s like Will chamberlain’s Thousand Point game. I’ve literally run into 500 guys that say they’ve been applying for the area since the beginning. I was like, well, there was only 15 of us in the beginning,
00:12:45:27 –> 00:13:41:26
You know, everybody’s like, oh yeah, I knew about that. But anyways, it was basically kind of an emerging mountain range that had just gotten out. They, they had, they had just opened the season and yeah, I was out there co hunting in the wintertime and had come across the elk and I started doing some more investigating, looking around. And I, I drew that permit and I got a tip about a great big bull. I had no idea how big it was. I don’t think anybody did. And yeah, I just went out there and got pretty lucky. First couple days I was out there, I turned him up and I wasn’t the most skilled at the time. I didn’t know it, but I basically did just, just played my cards pretty smart at the time. And ended up, ended up getting an opportunity and killing this, this giant bull that everybody had been, had, had seen. And yeah, that kind of started me down a down a pretty cool path. And it’s, it’s, you know, it was, it’s, it’s still the largest non-typical ever killed a bow in Montana. It’s 4 25 grows, four 10 net, gee,
00:13:42:29 –> 00:13:44:24
20. The giant got the, so you’re 20
00:13:44:29 –> 00:13:49:05
Got the longest G three times in hi in history. They’re 31 inches long. Just a massive
00:13:49:13 –> 00:13:53:21
Come on in. A million in history of Montana or history. I don’t know that.
00:13:53:27 –> 00:13:55:11
No, in in Bo Crockett. They’re long. It feels
00:13:55:11 –> 00:14:06:10
Like the longest I’ve heard of. Yeah. Wow. Pretty nice bull Brendan. And you probably, it just probably, you know, you, you, I don’t know if you’re ever gonna kill ’em bigger than that, but if there’s somebody that could, it would be you got that drive.
00:14:06:19 –> 00:14:21:20
Yeah. I don’t know that you can set a goal to kill something. I mean, that’s like the Shaquille O’Neal of elk. And, and like I said at the time, I, you know, I’m just glad that I didn’t, I’m glad I didn’t screw it up. I could be that guy that’s sitting at the end of the bar going, I swear to God I had,
00:14:21:23 –> 00:14:29:18
He had 30 missed that bull. Yeah. What, so yeah. Did it, I mean, was it just happen like
00:14:30:19 –> 00:15:30:07
No, I, I watched him, I, I found the bull he had, he had 11 cows with him, and I found the bull and, and i, I, the wind was wrong and I, you know, against everything that I normally would’ve done, I I, I actually stayed away from him until I had a good opportunity to get close to him. I still hunted up on him and he was in this little bowl with, with the cows, and I had counted the cows up, which turned out to be the, you know, one of the smarter things I’d done on that hunt. And the cows started feeding out with this little, little brush patch, and I counted ’em up and then 11 cows came out and fed over the hill, and the bull was in there, bugling going crazy. And I, I, I basically, he was, I caught him at a weak mo and he was in a frenzy as, as you’ve seen him occasionally. And I basically ran right up to him the 12 yards. And, well, it was six yards from when I ran up to him. And, and, and then he rolled up out, he was laying on the ground, rolling around and, and I just got ready and he stood up, I let him walk out. I I I shot him at 12 yards and didn’t make the greatest shot on ’em in the world, but
00:15:30:12 –> 00:15:32:23
Even I could maybe hit that one. Yeah, yeah.
00:15:32:23 –> 00:16:07:19
Make the made, made an okay. I made a, made a, a good enough shot on ’em and then him finding ’em the next morning. Oh, right. Yeah. Just one of those things where right place at the right time and, you know, you get a few of those opportunities in life where you just, you know, for whatever reason I didn’t, I didn’t have that type of skill set at the time, but, but made it happen and, and, and, and killed him and just, just set me on a pretty cool path. Oh yeah. It was, you could look at something, you know, killing a giant bull like that, it as like, oh man, you’re never gonna repeat it. Or you never, like, I looked at it to me, I looked at it like, I don’t wanna be a one hit wonder. I,
00:16:07:23 –> 00:16:09:21
I wanna it lit a fire to do it again.
00:16:10:04 –> 00:16:21:25
Yeah. It really did. I was just like, man, you see, you guys kill one great big thing and then never heard from again. And that was, you know, more terrifying. Terrifying really than, than than anything like, man, I, I, you know, I want to do that again.
00:16:22:13 –> 00:16:25:02
Well, and then there’s the opposite. They kill one and you never,
00:16:26:04 –> 00:16:27:15
You do never hear from him again.
00:16:27:18 –> 00:16:29:09
You or you hear about ’em every day.
00:16:31:12 –> 00:16:31:21
Yeah,
00:16:31:29 –> 00:16:32:11
No, that,
00:16:33:00 –> 00:16:34:20
That’s, that’s, yeah,
00:16:35:12 –> 00:16:36:01
That definitely
00:16:36:01 –> 00:16:38:19
Happens quite a bit nowadays, that’s for sure. But yeah,
00:16:40:04 –> 00:16:40:27
Everybody would
00:16:40:27 –> 00:16:44:01
Look, don’t get the, don’t get the tattoo, that’s for sure.
00:16:44:01 –> 00:16:44:09
Yeah,
00:16:45:01 –> 00:16:46:11
That’s right. Yeah.
00:16:46:18 –> 00:16:57:25
But, but yeah, it was just a, it was a, obviously, you know, you look at it, you’re in the right place at the right time, something amazing happens. And that feeling and, and killing a Johann bull like that and doing everything right like that, that was, you know, I wanted to do that
00:16:57:25 –> 00:16:59:10
Pretty awesome. Yeah. Wanted
00:16:59:10 –> 00:17:07:16
To. Do you have buck or did you have buck fever? Like could you, I mean, just freaked out or was it just you’re in kill mode, you go up and you slam him and then it kind of sets in?
00:17:09:08 –> 00:17:33:21
No, I knew what it was when I was hunting. I knew, I mean, when I killed him, I thought it was the, I mean, I, I knew it was giant. I actually, you know, after I found him, I thought it was, you know, the new world record. It ended up being number three at the time in the world. But it was, I knew what it was and yeah, I just, you know, again, it kind of boiled down. I don’t know if, whether it’s wrestling or not, but being able to focus under pressure, you know, I mean, like, that was more pressure than I probably should’ve been able to handle. But, you know, I mean, again, you gotta, you gotta just breathe and make it happen. I mean,
00:17:34:04 –> 00:18:37:28
Do you think, now that’s a question I have. I mean, do you think if you had that same, this, that was your, that was your first giant and biggest bull, do you think now 20 years or whatever that’s been, maybe not quite, would you be more nervous now you find a bull like that and get in that same position, you think you’d be more nervous now? Or did, or you’ve killed several more? I’m gonna call anything three 80 plus in that same league, even though a 4 25 is in a different league all into itself. But in some ways I find myself, the more I’ve been around a big deer or something like that, I, the more nervous I get because I just, you love something so much, you want it even more, you know, you put one on the ground. It doesn’t just make it easier the next time, I guess is what I’m trying to say. Would you think you’d be more nervous in that same situation today versus a 22 year old? You know, even though you were pretty, you know, you had your college background, you discussed that. Would you be more nervous now, do you think, in that same bull 4 25 situation?
00:18:39:01 –> 00:19:08:24
I don’t know. I hope to get in that situation again, I guess. We’ll see. But I, I, I think it boils down to, you know, I, I was hunting with Randy Elmer in 2004 and I actually missed a, a, a really nice bull with my bow. And, and I was walking through this place and he, he ended up picking me up and we were driving out and I, I remember asking him, I said, you know what, what, what do you think the difference is? Because I was pretty bummed out. I missed it. It’s actually one of the first straight seven by sevens I ever got a chance at. And I just, I just made a mental area. I thought he was at cows crossed me at 20 and he walked out at, oh, actually the cows walked out at 40 and I arranged him at 40.
00:19:09:08 –> 00:19:47:05
And then the bull ran halfway to between me and them and stood there. And I freaking shot over his back. And I, I was just bummed out that I’d made that kind of an error on a, on a bull that I really wanted. And I, I asked him, I was like, you know, what’s the difference? You know, obviously that guy’s stone cold and he is like the last 10 seconds. Yeah. And he’s like, you know, it’s, everybody has the same reaction. You want to just jump outta your skin, you want to screw it up. Like, can you contain that in the last 10 seconds? I’ve always kept that with me. And, and, and the other thing about killing a giant bull, like, like the one I killed back in 2000 is I don’t look at it like an elk of a lifetime anymore. I mean, I, I look at every opportunity as, you know, I probably killed the biggest elk I’m ever gonna hunt.
00:19:47:08 –> 00:20:22:11
It’s not like I’m never gonna get another chance. It’s not like, you know, I got the biggest one I’m probably ever gonna hunt. Yeah. I don’t look at it like this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I look at, you know, this is another great opportunity if I execute right now. And I’m not saying I haven’t messed up or missed big bulls because I have, but I don’t look at it. I definitely don’t beat myself up when stuff doesn’t go right. I just go, Hey, onto the next one. Yeah. I have a super short memory. And when it goes really well, you just, you just try and be contained and, and, and be cool in the moment and you know, it’ll work out. ’cause you know, if, if you don’t, it won’t work out. I mean, if you, if you let it pull the head.
00:20:22:29 –> 00:21:18:09
Yeah. The hardest thing about some of that stuff nowadays, it’s just like these tags are hard to come by the of course you’re, and we’ll get into some of that. You’re, you’re making it happen in places you can, you can hunt every year as well. But these tags are so hard to come by nowadays. And, and we do want it to happen so bad and you end up putting two or three months or whatever in on a particular animal and then it comes down to last 10 seconds. It feels like to me that those last 10 seconds are, you know, the pressures mounted so much more back in 2000. You know, it’s not like you were Bryn you weren’t quote Brendan Burns. Everybody knows you as a killer now. And so there just feels like every, it’s an expectation that no matter what, you’re gonna be successful and, and when, you know, when in reality stuff happens to you too and excitement sets in or the wind changes or whatever. But, but everybody just expects a lot more out of you now too. And so just feels like, I don’t know, feels like there’d be a little more pressure there.
00:21:18:28 –> 00:22:04:08
Yeah. And you know, you gotta just look at it. None of that stuff’s really real. I mean, at the end of the day, I like hunting down because it’s the same challenge. It was 18 years ago. Sure. Every single big bull I chase, they got, you know, I mean I’m, I I’m, I’m getting better, but they’re still way better than me. I still gotta do a lot of things right. To get ’em killed. And, you know, it’s, it’s one of those things I, I don’t think I feel the pressure as much on that level. I’m, I’m disappointed when stuff doesn’t work out. But they don’t, it, it’s, it’s more of the challenge than I guess maybe the, the, the elk used to mean more than it does now to me. I mean, they’re all just hanging upside down in my garage. It’s not like I’m obsessed with, you know, the giant racks or anything like that.
00:22:04:11 –> 00:22:47:06
I, I do it for the challenge. I do it ’cause not a lot of guys can do it. And I just, I really enjoy, you know, the fact that I can chase these big bulls and I, you know, it never gets easy. They elk come hunting this year, doesn’t care what I’ve killed in the past. They always are the same exact challenges, especially big old bulls. And I don’t think people realize, you know, like, I mean until elk kid’s six, five or six, they’re not even that smart. I mean, you, I mean these great big huge bulls, every kid say, oh, I could kill this. I could kill. Like they’re a different animal. I mean they are just a different animal. They have, they have different habits. They’ve seen every trick in the book. They’re, they’re not dumb. So to, to hunt those kind of things, you gotta be as sharp as you can be every single time.
00:22:47:06 –> 00:23:10:06
And that’s why I enjoy it is, you know, it’s just like you, Jason with the big mul deer, you know, 140 inch, you know, three year, three year old mul deer. I mean, I’m not a mul deer expert, but they don’t seem that smart. And those great big bucks you guys are killing. They’re on a different level. Yeah. I mean they, they’re, there’s some of ’em that are, you know, I mean we, we both hunted animals that, you know, seem to be self-aware, you know, that, that know you’re after ’em and that makes it even tougher.
00:23:10:10 –> 00:23:34:19
Yeah, well there’s there you’re, yeah, there’s no question you’re hunting a different animal. It’s almost a different species. I mean, it’s one thing to, to shoot a, you know, two and a half, three and a half year old deer. It’s another thing to shoot a six and a half to nine year old deer. And same thing with these bulls, like you’re saying, you made a mention, I want to go back to these upside down on a rack. You know, just you’re 425 inch bull isn’t upside down on rack, is it?
00:23:35:03 –> 00:23:38:20
No, no, it’s, that’s actually inch inch sneeze and downtown bows.
00:23:39:14 –> 00:23:41:02
Alright, alright, alright, alright.
00:23:41:03 –> 00:23:42:01
Since they killed it. But,
00:23:42:08 –> 00:23:43:04
But, so there’s 10
00:23:43:04 –> 00:23:45:12
Other great big ones that are just hanging in the ground, you know, I mean
00:23:45:21 –> 00:23:47:06
You can’t fit elk in a house, whatcha
00:23:47:06 –> 00:23:47:13
Gonna
00:23:47:13 –> 00:23:59:24
Do with all of ’em. And that’s what I’m, I’m at where, where I’m at with some of these deer too. Mostly my wife’s at that point, she just disgusted it if I take another one to the taxidermist. So anyway, but, but I remind her that they built the house, so
00:24:00:20 –> 00:24:01:13
Yeah. Well
00:24:01:27 –> 00:24:03:20
The er built the house. A lot of
00:24:03:20 –> 00:24:42:20
These, I look at a lot of big, you know, if I mounted every, you know, my, it used to be like, I’m gonna mount every bull over three 50 and, and then, you know, I’m glad I didn’t. ’cause now, you know, I’ll be able to sort through ’em all when I I’m gonna build a trophy room here coming up. But, you know, at the end of the day they, it’s cool and it’s a reminder of what you did. But you know, it’s not that important to stare at that stuff. And I look at tax anymore, you know, I got a bunch of sheep to get done. I think I got seven rams in the freezer right now. And I’ve got a couple mounted is all. But I I I look at tax anymore. It’s like I can, I can, I can get that stuff mounted and, and, and stare at stuff I’ve already done, or I can save that money and I can go do more cool shit. Yeah. That’s, that’s how I look at it, you know. Yeah. I mean,
00:24:43:11 –> 00:25:18:26
Well, and you are, I know, I mean, just what you’re saying is what we found with you, like, like your Instagram, there’s pretty much no posts on there, but yet you could load it up with giant bulls and, and Rams and all of these crazy experiences. And sometimes I wish you would, ’cause I think it, it’s good for business, it’s good for q you, it’s good for you, you know it in business wise, but, you know. Yeah. But this is my hunting and I do it for me, I don’t do it for Instagram. I don’t do it for the glory of the notoriety. Although, you know, it’s hard not to be noticed when you’re killing the kind of bulls you are year after year.
00:25:20:01 –> 00:25:23:28
Oh yeah. I mean, at some point in time may throw a couple of pictures up there or something, but I just, oh,
00:25:24:10 –> 00:25:25:07
Honestly, I just don’t. Yeah. Let’s is
00:25:25:25 –> 00:25:27:04
That’s gimme your password. We’re
00:25:27:04 –> 00:25:30:07
Just tag it. Just tag us. We like to, we’d like to see the first Yeah.
00:25:30:07 –> 00:25:32:22
Or give me your password. We’ll we’ll throw some posts up there of you.
00:25:33:04 –> 00:25:35:01
Oh yeah, no, I mean it’s one of
00:25:35:07 –> 00:25:40:11
Get so good from your wife or from who, how about from ton some camp when you were asleep at camp
00:25:40:16 –> 00:25:42:06
Or something with your mouth pack out, putting a quarter in the bag
00:25:42:09 –> 00:25:47:20
Your mouth open, drooling in a camp chair or something with ton one day. That’ll be your first one.
00:25:48:17 –> 00:25:49:26
I’m gonna post a couple of cat photos,
00:25:51:00 –> 00:25:51:08
Like
00:25:52:03 –> 00:25:53:22
House cat photos or something funny.
00:25:54:05 –> 00:26:00:17
Yeah. You pat your, hey, just decided to make this account, you know, me and Fluffy here enjoying the Bozeman Winter air.
00:26:02:05 –> 00:26:21:28
Yeah. I mean honestly, it just boils down. I I don’t have the time to man, you know, like, I mean yeah, that’s fine and everything, but at the end of the day, you know, like this, this, this job is, it’s a lot of work. I mean, I think people, you’d look at it and go, ah, that’s amazing. And it is amazing. It’s a, it’s an amazing job. Just like what we do. We, we love what we do, but it is a lot of work. I mean, it looks way better from the outset. No,
00:26:22:01 –> 00:26:22:19
From no
00:26:22:22 –> 00:26:27:02
Question from, you know, it, it, you know, they don’t, they don’t give you a paycheck ’cause it’s fun. Well that’s,
00:26:27:10 –> 00:26:37:01
That’s what we find. They don’t pay you to wet a line wine. That’s what Adam and I us always say. They don’t just pay you to wet a line to hunt and fish, fish. Like, it just doesn’t, you know, this is office work. You earn
00:26:37:01 –> 00:27:07:14
Everything we get. Yep. Well, and maybe transition to that, take a brief segue from just Elk, we’ll get right back to that. Some of the other bulls and obviously sheep. But you, you mentioned your job. So let’s talk about that. Your role within ku, you know, we’ve known you from the very, very start. But for everybody else, tell us how you became affiliated with, with, with Jason and ku and what’s your role really? I mean, it’s not changed in terms of what you do, but obviously it’s, it’s grown a lot since Q Q U has grown so well and
00:27:07:14 –> 00:27:10:23
We remember you guys coming down and visiting us clear at the office back when
00:27:10:25 –> 00:27:14:08
Yeah. It was like December of 2010 or something like that. Yeah. Long
00:27:14:08 –> 00:27:15:19
Time. Yeah. Sounds about right. Yep.
00:27:16:01 –> 00:27:53:07
Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah. So I knew Jason from his former company and we were, we were buddies and, and I had helped him at that company with some designing stuff and all that. And I was, you know, again, just, just kind of doing my thing. And then when, when he was starting Ku u he reached out to me and, and I was, I was building super high-end houses off the power grid. It was kind of what I was doing at the time and I was kinda over it, you know, the, the, the crash that just happened and, you know, construction was not as good as it had been in the past. And he reached out to me and, and asked me if I wanted to be a part of or cu u and, and it was a pretty, pretty no-brainer for me. Just,
00:27:53:08 –> 00:27:54:07
Just perfect timing. Yeah.
00:27:54:26 –> 00:28:29:28
Yeah. And just some other thing, I mean, you know, obviously Jason’s a super smart guy and when he explained the consumer direct model and showed me a carbon fiber backpack frame, I was like, whoa. You know, like yeah. You, you don’t get a lot of times where somebody invites you to be a part of a startup that you know is gonna be successful. And so, you know, it was a no brainer for me. And yeah, yeah, my role in the company, it’s, it’s changed a bunch. I mean, I was the first employee, first person he hired, so, you know, I ran that. You, you end up doing lots of different things, just like what you guys do. I mean, yeah, you, you empty the trash. You if you do whatever you need to do. But I, I run the Guy and Outfitters program at few.
00:28:30:01 –> 00:29:09:29
I do a lot of the development stuff. I don’t do all of it. Obviously we have a full-time development guys in the office, but I, I, I test a lot of our stuff. I, I obviously give input on a lot of stuff that, that what I wanna see us building, which is, which is really cool to see how, how big our line has got. I do a lot of the industry relations and kind of oversee, just give the green light on, on a lot of stuff that we’re doing. I mean, the authenticity is very important to you. I mean, if we don’t, we don’t do anything that’s fake. We don’t, you know, we wanna make sure all our stuff’s tested. We wanna make sure that it all makes sense and it’s translated well to to, to the consumer. And then I do a lot of advising hunters.
00:29:10:00 –> 00:29:52:25
I mean, when, when somebody calls up and they have a really difficult question, my phone rings and, and it’s whether it’s helping guys out with, with gear for their next son or advise them where to, where to book their next cheap on or, or, you know, giving ’em realistic expectations on, on what they should be looking at or, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s, that’s probably what I enjoy the most outta the job is interacting with our, with our customers. I mean, I’ve got so many really good friends I’ve developed that, that started as customers at ku. It’s, it’s really, really cool. So it’s fun. And then, you know, the industry guys like yourself. I mean we, I think we came down there, I think it was December of 2010 and we showed you the full, the full line which consisted of five pieces in a backpack, which was, you know, it was pretty amazing to look back on. But it was, it was cool to
00:29:53:08 –> 00:30:07:07
See. I have some of those pieces and, and, and I know you’ve given me crap when you see me in pictures with some of the first, you know, bias pattern would look different back then the lighter color you’ve given me crap. And you’re like, Bronson, why you still got that old stuff? I’m like, dude,
00:30:07:08 –> 00:30:10:25
It’s, Hey, I remember you, you got that, you got that spin drift from like 2010
00:30:10:25 –> 00:30:41:18
Turned. Oh, I still got the brown spin. Yeah. And you know, I wore just, I don’t know, when you go hunt and you throw a bunch of gear in and like when you’re gone for a week or 10 days, you know, you’re pulling stuff out. And I remember the day I killed my bear a couple years ago, I had the original, my original Marino, I don’t remember which weight it was, but it’s, it’s lighter colored. And I remember you gave me crap, like why are you wearing that old stuff? And I’m like, dude, I don’t know. Just what I had, it’s not wore out worse. Great. It, and anyway, yeah, that was the 2000 or the, whatever you call it, prototype
00:30:42:08 –> 00:30:45:10
Thousand 11. Well, it down the downside of making good products is they don’t wear out burnsy.
00:30:45:28 –> 00:30:57:23
Yep. They keep it around forever. So, so yeah. That’s, that’s, that’s what my job is. And that’s full-time. And, and I’ve got an office here in Bozeman. The main office is down in California, but I’ve got an office here in Bozeman. So it, it works out really good.
00:30:57:27 –> 00:31:02:16
Is it just you up there or, or you got another, you know, got somebody that works with you or
00:31:03:21 –> 00:31:25:14
Just me up here? We have, we have our, our supply chain guy, Jason Whitman works for full-time for the company. He lives in Missoula, but it’s just me here in Bozeman. And then, you know, with me with technology nowadays, I mean my assistant at the office, I literally push one number and her phone rings and we talk and it’s like me being in another office. So it works, works really good. And, and you know, I actually get way more done. Keep
00:31:25:14 –> 00:31:32:19
Your residency in Montana. Yeah. You’re maintain Montana re hunting residency, that’s a big deal. Instead of California,
00:31:32:23 –> 00:31:36:29
You’re able to hunt and scout and crush these giant bulls year after year.
00:31:37:21 –> 00:31:38:00
Yeah.
00:31:38:23 –> 00:31:39:00
So,
00:31:39:28 –> 00:32:20:01
So yeah, moving into that, I guess that, you know, as far as your, it’s you, you’ve had your head in the sand. If you’re in the hunting industry and not noticed where you guys have come in the last, I guess we’ll just say seven years, it’s been as rapid a rise as a lot of, a lot of outdoor industries. I mean, you, you can’t, you can’t really go from nothing literally to where you have without a lot of work and a lot of innovation, a lot of great products. And so you guys have, you guys have stormed on the scene so to speak, and I, and obviously you’re not, it’s not like you’re arrived and aren’t, aren’t still thinking about new things. And so we will, I’m sure continue to see awesome products from you guys in the, in the future. But
00:32:20:01 –> 00:32:26:06
Do you still do the Guiding Outfitter program mostly? Or is it Yep. You, I mean you’ve probably got many hats like you were saying, but
00:32:26:23 –> 00:33:16:25
Yeah. Yeah, you wear a bunch of different hats. But that’s, that’s my, one of my main gigs is, is the guide outfit program and then, you know, helping out with everything else you need to, I mean, yeah, you wear a lot of different hats and we got a great team down there. We have, you know, obviously Jason leading the whole deal, but we have grown from two people to three people that, I mean, I think we got about 37 people now and just a, just a great team of, of people, whether it’s customer service or development or you know, it or anything else. We’ve got just everybody is doing their job, which is really cool to see. It’s been cool to watch to, to watch the growth be on the inside and yeah, it’s just been, it’s been a great ride and, and it’s continuing on. I just got back, I was down there for a week. We had our company Christmas party and, and spent a week looking at new development stuff for 20 18, 20 19 stuff we got coming out. It’s, it’s
00:33:17:07 –> 00:33:23:05
Exciting. I saw pictures of you. It’s so exciting. I saw pictures of you hunting ducks. You weren’t doing all that work that you’re talking about.
00:33:24:01 –> 00:33:33:24
I, I did shoot a couple ducks. I had to out the, i we, we, we decoyed ’em all in and then there was, there was a group of mallards landed about 80 yards away and I told ’em, I said, I gotta go spot
00:33:34:11 –> 00:33:34:26
Stock. One
00:33:35:03 –> 00:33:35:10
IED
00:33:35:25 –> 00:33:38:04
With a bow and a flute flu or did you use a shotgun
00:33:38:11 –> 00:33:39:26
In in No, it was a shotgun.
00:33:40:05 –> 00:33:43:20
Did you even, did you even let him fly up off the water or did you just crush him right on the water?
00:33:44:09 –> 00:33:49:16
No, he got, he got there actually. Yeah, he got me air. Yeah. Just barely
00:33:50:11 –> 00:33:50:18
All
00:33:51:08 –> 00:33:54:26
Were still No, was that was pretty fun. So
00:33:54:28 –> 00:34:04:00
That’s awesome. Sweet. Well, cool. Well talk, tell us a little bit more, like maybe tell us about the one of your, besides the giant maybe, you know, it’s killed
00:34:04:00 –> 00:34:04:17
A lot of bulls in
00:34:04:17 –> 00:34:17:06
Montana Yeah. And other states and Wyoming. You hunt in Arizona. Like is there a particular story or something that, you know, what you’ve learned from some of these other bulls or, you know, tell us a little bit more about, you know, some of these giants you’ve killed.
00:34:18:13 –> 00:34:58:00
Yeah, I mean, you learn, you learn different. I mean, I, it’s hard to put your finger on what’s the favorite one. I mean, I can, I have a couple that, you know, where I’ve learned a bunch or, or implemented something that I didn’t, you know, that wasn’t in my arsenal before and, and was able to kill, you know, I killed a 3 95 street, six point in 2008 that probably the sneakiest stock I’ve ever pulled in my life. I mean, I, I basically, you know, crawled about 150 yards and couldn’t look up over 12 inches and slid right on ’em and, and ended up killing them. I, you know, that that one, geez. Just one that sticks in my mind of, you know, the, the size is not the biggest deal. It’s more the, I really love hunting bulls that I’m after that, that, you know, it’s
00:34:58:00 –> 00:35:00:05
One bull killed. Yeah. You’re had one just like deer that’s
00:35:00:05 –> 00:35:00:14
Like deer.
00:35:00:17 –> 00:35:04:14
Jeez. You’re hunting one, you’re hunting and elk, not you’re, you’re not elk hunting. Yeah.
00:35:04:19 –> 00:35:47:29
Yeah. I mean I, I found a big bull this fall that I found him early and I just said, that’s the bull I’m gonna kill. And, and or, or not, I mean, and and spent the whole time hunting one individual bull and it was, you know, it’s just, I, that’s what I really enjoy. I enjoy that challenge of, I don’t feel like there’s a lot of element of luck when you pick one bull out and you focus totally on that bull and, and, and you can get him killed. I feel like yeah, there’s some luck involved and, and things have to go your way, but you put, you know, you have to do a lot of things right to make that opportunity happen. And they’re all different. I mean, I, you know, you know, some, some are big, some are are, you know, I’m, I’m always trying to kill the biggest bull I can find and that’s really all you can do.
00:35:48:03 –> 00:36:26:28
Yeah. You know, they’re not always gonna be mega giants, but Yeah. You feel, I I feel like hunting in individual bulls is, is just more fun for me. It’s, it’s cool to just to see if you can do it, you know? Yeah. For no other reason than, you know, that’s my goal and, you know, I’m a goal type guy and like, that’s, that’s a bull I wanted. I mean, for instance, this fall I hunted a bull. That’s probably the first time I’ve hunted a really giant bull that was a non-dominant bull. There was a, a bull that was probably about the same size as him and I decided this one was the one I was gonna go after. And the, and the bull I hunt this fall was, was non-dominant. He was the other bull ran him around. He did not like being around other elk.
00:36:26:29 –> 00:37:03:20
He wasn’t particularly aggressive. He would kind of steal a cow and disappear here and there, but he was the biggest elk in the area, but he didn’t really know it. He was a middle-aged bull. Not super old, but not a young bull. And so that was a unique opportunity. I lost him for seven days at one point in time and, you know, ended up, ended up finally 11 days after I found him, I got, I got an opportunity to, to kill him and, and got him, you know. And so it’s, that’s, it’s one of those things where the constant changing and challenge that it allows me to, you know, increase my skillset. And that was another, you know, feather in my cap with something that I’d never done before. And then all of a sudden you get ’em killed and you’re like, okay, I got that.
00:37:03:26 –> 00:37:35:19
I got that tucked in. I can use that on another one when I, when I turn up another elk that’s got those kind of elk characteristics that, that I’m hunting on that bull. And you know, each one is, is different. I, I, yeah, I mean the Wyoming bull is, that was really cool. I, I’ve only had two rifle, two elk tags that weren’t in rifle or in both season in 20 years. And that one, I mean, you, you guys, it’s funny, I’ve had a couple guys say, I don’t really believe that somebody gave you a governor’s tag. And I was like, and you guys both know Jeremy. Oh yeah. So it’s
00:37:35:19 –> 00:37:35:26
Not hard to,
00:37:35:28 –> 00:37:40:00
We believe it. We know, we believe it. I know how how busy he can get it. That actually
00:37:40:04 –> 00:37:55:06
Happened. I mean, he, he called me up and said, Hey man, I, I don’t have time to hunt this. Tag it, it was in the early November and, and said, Hey, I don’t have time to hunt the stag. Do you want this? And was the Wyoming one of the Wyoming governor’s stag? So it’s like, that’s a funny story that Yeah man, I’ll, I’ll take that.
00:37:55:25 –> 00:37:57:29
Went down there, lemme think about it. Yes. Yeah.
00:37:58:19 –> 00:38:27:07
Called, called a bunch of guys that, that knew the area and, and knew the, the state and went down there and hunted in the late season, which is, which is a big challenge. They’re a totally different animal that time of year. And so went and had heard about this great big bull that a bunch of guys had seen and, and nobody had really went after, which was really odd to me. But yeah. Went down there and spent some time in the late season and up turned up this great big bull and killed ’em with, killed ’em with a rifle. You know, it’s really still
00:38:27:08 –> 00:38:32:00
Gratifying. I mean, very big bull. Yeah. So whether it’s it’s a bow or a gun, it doesn’t
00:38:32:00 –> 00:38:50:19
Matter. Well, it goes back to that teach man fish kind of theory you talked about earlier is you can, it’s not like you’re just doing it at home. Like you go to Arizona, you’re hunting in Wyoming or, or whatever, elk or elk. And once you, you’ve learned how to hunt ’em as well as you have, you know, you can implement those tactics and you can be successful when a guy gives you a tag five days before you go hunt.
00:38:51:01 –> 00:39:37:19
Yeah. And part of it’s, part of it’s knowing the right guys to call and, and asking for the right help. I mean, I, I’m not an expert in Wyoming, but I called some guys that were, we put a good plan together and then, you know, I had, I had a lot of help from some, some local guys that, that knew what they were doing. And part of it’s, you know, knowing when to ask for some help and yeah, it was cool. And it’s another, you know, great big bull, which is, which is always awesome. Everything was the biggest elk killed in Wyoming that year. And, and to do it in the late season when, you know, that’s, that’s awesome. That’s probably one of the bigger challenges for me. I mean, like elk in the rutt, you know, they’re, they’re, you can find them. They, they have things that make vulnerable them vulnerable. Yeah. I mean, those late season bulls, when they pull in and they’re solo and they’re just living in a tiny little patch of something like thick trees, man, they’re pretty damn hard to kill. You know?
00:39:37:26 –> 00:39:44:16
That’s why, that’s why nobody was hunting. He was probably, he was in thick trees or just tough, you know, didn’t, didn’t have the confidence they could find him.
00:39:45:09 –> 00:39:45:18
Yeah.
00:39:46:26 –> 00:40:12:22
That’s awesome. And then, so I mean, the bull you killed this year to back up a little bit, I know you got him scored the other day and we’re talking about score only because it, it gives some people a reference. Like you, you’ve killed some giants and we’ve kind of brushed over a couple, another 3 95, you know, official six and all that. So I know this bull this year was really awesome looking straight six, if I remember kind of a piece that
00:40:12:22 –> 00:40:16:04
Long time. Yeah, straight six point, you got two little, two little shark teeth on the back
00:40:16:04 –> 00:40:17:16
Yeah. Points or something left
00:40:17:27 –> 00:40:18:14
Beam. Yeah.
00:40:18:26 –> 00:40:26:24
Like a low three eighties, 3 75 net, I guess 3 74 and seven eights. Right? It’s 3 74 and seven eights net.
00:40:26:29 –> 00:40:54:13
3 74 and seven eights net. Yeah. So one, one eight’s a little bit shy. He’s 34 wide. He’s not super wide, but he’s, yeah, a cool bull was basically about what I thought he was. So that was, you know, another great big bull. Those, those kind of bulls don’t come along that often. I haven’t killed a bull in that caliber since 2013, so Yeah, some other night bull. But those, they just, you just don’t see enough of ’em. I mean, you gotta make, you gotta make hay while the sun shines. Those opportunities don’t.
00:40:54:15 –> 00:40:58:23
Well, and that’s same thing with these deer, you know, it’s not like we’re killing ’em every single year, like,
00:40:58:28 –> 00:41:51:23
Or whatever. Yeah. That’s one thing I wanted to say is you, you said something, Hey, I lost him for seven days. Like, and you breezed on and like that was nothing, you’d probably hunted him how many, I don’t know how many days before that. And then when you refound him, I don’t know if it you killed him that day or if you hunt him for another week and killed him, but it just, that’s what it takes to kill one elk or to hunt one specific elk. One particular, you know, it’s however many days scouting, you hunt him for a while, you lose him for seven days, you keep on him. And fortunately, you know, archery seasons allow, allow some of that because in most every state that’s the most, most liberal season. And, and, and you get to go first. And so there’s those benefits, but I think that goes unnoticed. And I wanted to point that out is, yeah, you, most people, you lose, lose an animal for seven days during the hunt. 90% of people are probably moving on and a lot of going to something else. And we’ve
00:41:51:29 –> 00:42:01:22
Clients, we’ve got clients that are like, all right, we, we blew this animal out. And they look at you and go, where are we going next? What animal are we hunting next? And you’re like, Uhuh, we’re no, we’re we’re staying. Yeah,
00:42:01:22 –> 00:42:05:22
Today, today might be ruined. We’re, but tomorrow we’re gonna be right here again. You know?
00:42:06:17 –> 00:42:25:05
Yeah. I mean, and it takes a while. Like it didn’t happen overnight, but you have to be comfortable with the fact that you may eat your tag, eat ’em. I mean, if you truly, I mean everybody says that’s the one I want, but can you, can you walk, I mean, I sent you some video of that, that other great big bull that I passed up this fall. And when I say passed up, I mean 19 yards. You could kill him for sure. Not
00:42:25:05 –> 00:42:32:11
Wallowing. I decided not to. Yeah. He was wallowing, wasn’t he wallowing or tearing brush up or something? Yeah, I mean he was like dead pretty much if he wanted him. Yeah,
00:42:32:17 –> 00:42:54:25
Yeah. You, you just have to go like, okay, you know what, I’m gonna hunt one bull and, and I’m comfortable if I don’t fill my tag, which takes a long time to get to. I, I, I had said that in my mind before I was comfortable doing it. Yes. And, and until you do it a couple times and you go, okay, I’m, I’m comfortable with the outcome, this is what I’m gonna do then, then it, it’s just kind of whatever
00:42:54:25 –> 00:42:55:16
Happens, happens, get
00:42:55:16 –> 00:43:11:04
You to the next, do the best. Yeah. Kinda of get to the next level. I mean, you, you can’t, if you’re trying to kill your first elk, you, you can’t say, I’m, I’m three 50 or nothing. No. It’s a progression. And, and you know, those people don’t see the time, they see the great big bulls and they go, gee, you kill a huge one every year. Well, I don’t kill a huge one every year.
00:43:11:07 –> 00:43:12:19
No, you don’t. Yeah. You said it was,
00:43:12:24 –> 00:43:29:23
I kill the best bull I can find every year. I, but I think I added it up one time, I averaged, you know, about between hunting and scouting, about 29 days a piece between, between bulls, not with a couple of curve killers that, you know, you get on, you know, early in the hunt. Yeah. You don’t see that. You know, everybody just, you just see the pictures. You just see
00:43:29:27 –> 00:43:34:19
You’re lucky. You’re so lucky, Brendan. How do you just keep stumbling onto these big bulls and you’re just
00:43:35:01 –> 00:43:36:08
Must be doing it illegally,
00:43:36:16 –> 00:43:48:14
You know, or just Yeah, you’re Oh yeah. Rent what ranch? You’re killing ’em all on or whatever, you know, and it’s, it’s none of that. It’s, it’s a lot of in the trenches and eating tags and Yeah. You don’t, it
00:43:48:14 –> 00:43:49:19
Doesn’t matter what species it is.
00:43:49:23 –> 00:43:52:26
You don’t take pictures or, or, you know, Q is
00:43:52:26 –> 00:44:06:10
Not putting people nowadays, they, they, they love to point. I mean, the, the number one thing people love to point to is like money and access, whether it be tags or, or, or private land or whatever. And it’s like, ah, that’s, that’s, that makes it easy for people to, to, to be
00:44:06:10 –> 00:44:07:04
Legitimize, to feel
00:44:07:04 –> 00:44:50:03
Good about themselves. Yeah. Yeah. They feel good about themselves, but at the end of the day, you rarely hear a guy say, man, if, if, if I had put in the time and I had that skill, you know? Yeah. Which, which for me, the biggest factor, whether, you know, and I’ll hunt the best stuff I can on any given year. If somebody will let me hunt private ground, I’ll hunt private ground. I don’t pay to hunt in my home state. I, I know people don’t believe that, but that, that it just is what it is. I mean, that I didn’t pay a dime to hunt where I was hunting this year. It, it’s one of those things where the skill and the time, the time is the most important thing for me. Time. Absolutely. I mean, I, I would a, a five day hunt doesn’t even interest me. I’ve had, you know, opportunities to get on places for short periods of time. Like, I don’t even want to go on a short hunt. Those short New Mexico on
00:44:50:08 –> 00:44:54:29
The odds are not in your favor to get it done. They’re just simply not. Yeah. You
00:44:54:29 –> 00:45:12:04
Know, time, it’s a, it’s a weird pressure with a short, short timeframe. So, you know, I think it, it’s, it’s one of those things where, you know, time and then the skills you develop, you know, like I said, everybody wants to point the money and access and it’s like, well, there’s a lot of dudes you turn loose on a really good place with a really good tag gonna get
00:45:12:04 –> 00:45:14:03
Aren’t gonna kill the best below the wre gonna, yeah.
00:45:14:03 –> 00:45:35:15
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, there’re, it’s, it’s not that easy. It seems easy. And I think nowadays with, whether it’s social media or, or, or videos or, you know, it was CDs when they came out and there’s giant bulls bugling, like, man, most of my days spin elk hunting. Or me laying out in the heat like a rattlesnake looking at nothing, you know, getting my ass kicked. You know, that, that really is reality.
00:45:36:12 –> 00:45:46:28
And that’s the same thing with these videos of big deer out on these private ranches. And, you know, a lot of these, I don’t know, a all these bucks that are being photographed on in national parks or wherever, it’s just not that way out hunting.
00:45:47:05 –> 00:45:48:03
It’s not the reality.
00:45:48:15 –> 00:45:52:27
Run out to Nevada and see, see what you see, you know, it’s quite enjoyable. So
00:45:52:28 –> 00:45:59:16
Yeah. That all that stuff doesn’t make the highlight reel, the 10 minute highlight reel of the hunt. Yeah. On whether, what something out
00:45:59:18 –> 00:45:59:28
Or one
00:45:59:28 –> 00:46:11:17
Highlight or, yeah, it’s, people would lose interest if that was 98% of your video, which is what 98% of the hunt was. Like. They would lose interest and quit watching before they got
00:46:11:17 –> 00:46:16:12
To the end. Oh, here’s a, here’s a day in the life of Brendan Burns, September 1st. And you’d be like, all right. After
00:46:17:09 –> 00:46:22:14
10 days of that, they’ve tuned it out before they even get to, to the highlight, really view killing a bull. So,
00:46:22:17 –> 00:47:02:14
Yeah. And that’s part of that, that’s, that’s part of the growth as far as, you know, being, whether it’s, you know, whatever your chosen craft is, you know, mine’s sheep and elk is what I really, really love to hunt. But it’s, it’s being able to, can you, can you deal with the failure with the, not, not failure, but can you grind it out until you see the success? Can you, yeah. Can you handle the slow time? Yeah. Can you, you know, it’s like, you know, I, it’s, you know, to talk about sheep hunting a little bit, you know, like I just, I killed a ram this fall with my bow in British Columbia, stone sheep. It’s just, you know, a, a really, really hard thing to do. But it wasn’t until I had a few sheep under my belt that I could actually say, I’m gonna go home without one, or I’m gonna get one with my belt.
00:47:02:18 –> 00:47:03:10
Was that your, I kill
00:47:03:10 –> 00:47:03:23
One with a rifle.
00:47:03:23 –> 00:47:15:15
And was that, was that your mentality this year? I knew you’d killed one with, with j dueling six or Yep. Seven years ago. And so that probably eased that. Did you even take a gun with you up there this time?
00:47:15:28 –> 00:47:25:21
I didn’t. I didn’t take a rifle. No. Wow. And yeah, it, it changes that, that’s what changes about it is when I, I won that hunt in a drawing, the one I did with Jared Doling, and
00:47:25:28 –> 00:47:27:17
That was the year I was up there, I think.
00:47:27:27 –> 00:47:33:23
Yep. Oh, you guys, yeah. You guys flew in. Yeah, when we were, I was, I was sleeping I think when you guys flew in.
00:47:33:23 –> 00:47:38:11
Yeah. Sleeping, flew in, woke you up. You had to gimme some grief about my attire and
00:47:40:11 –> 00:47:51:29
Oh, yeah. Seven years ago on my first Don Hunt, I could not afford to leave without one. I didn’t know if I’d ever have an around Oh no. To get a stone sheep on.
00:47:52:03 –> 00:47:52:07
Absolutely
00:47:52:07 –> 00:47:55:01
Not. Not. And man, I had to kill one. Well, it’s
00:47:55:01 –> 00:48:04:27
Like your first doll sheep with, you know, Mike Litson 10 or 15 years ago. How long that’s been ago. Same thing. You didn’t know. This might be why one and only that’s it, you don’t know. Yep. That’s
00:48:04:27 –> 00:48:06:03
It. Well,
00:48:06:03 –> 00:48:06:29
Cool. Yep. And,
00:48:07:21 –> 00:48:17:09
And so fast forward to this year, you went to British Columbia with Gunda who Yep. And it was a bow only, and I know it was a grind, ’cause I know you were there for a long time.
00:48:17:13 –> 00:49:05:09
Yeah, I mean, stone sheep are one of those things where there’s just not a lot of ’em. I mean, anybody that’s on that stone, you know, doll sheep country, they’re white, you can see ’em, they’re generally population’s a little bit higher. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s a little more open. I mean, stone sheet, they’re like mul deer. They live in the timber. There’s not a lot of ’em. It’s tough on big, rugged country. It was really hot this year and yeah, I turned a, turned a band to rams up with, oh, something with the, the guy named Scott Erickson was my guide. And we turned a band of Rams up and washed him for a few days until they were in the right, until they were in the right spot to, to put a sneak on him. And, and that’s, that’s another thing that’s just kind of come over time, is being able to not go after everything when you find it. You know, to know that hey, that that sheep’s in a bad spot. Yeah. My percent, my, my odds of getting him are way higher if I just watch him. Yeah. Until he’s
00:49:05:09 –> 00:49:08:00
In a good spot, the last thing you want to do is blow him out and then timber
00:49:08:00 –> 00:49:08:23
Him up tight.
00:49:08:26 –> 00:49:13:24
Yeah. And you’re a day and a half, two days to get onto another rim or, or whatever, you know, plus,
00:49:15:11 –> 00:49:53:14
Yeah. I mean, it’s one of those things, my, my, my sheep hunting mentors got him, Ray and he, he killed the first Bruin Crockett sheep ever killed with a bow in 1968. Bruin, Crockett Bighorn in Montana, in a limited area in Montana. Yep. Wow. Yeah, he was grew, I just lucky enough that he, he’s from my hometown and I got to know him. Yeah. Back, back into about 2000. I met him and his saying was sheep hunting, which I didn’t get until I’d been on a lot of sheep hunts and, and didn’t quite understand What he was always saying is like, you can’t make it happen. You gotta let it happen. Yeah. And especially with bow hunting, it’s, man, it’s gotta be right. You, you can go chase ’em around and do, do your thing, but you gotta let it happen.
00:49:54:03 –> 00:50:11:20
There’s guys out there that try to run ’em down and, and force it, you know, force it. But but like you’re saying, I mean, and especially when you’re hunting specific animals, you know, obviously back to elk a little bit, but, you know, you just can’t, you can’t force it or you’re, you know, you lose ’em for maybe two weeks
00:50:12:12 –> 00:50:44:08
Or Yeah. If your season’s coming, you know. Yeah. Dwindling in like it could’ve been on your stone sheet. I don’t know what, what day you found these, this bunch of rams and, you know, if you’re up there for a, you know, bow hunts, sometimes they’ll, they’ll let you plan on a couple of more days. Not always, but you usually still confined to a 10 or 15 day hunt. You know, that’s a long, that’s a long hunt. So, but when you find your ram, it may be halfway through it and then you gotta wait for a few more days before the conditions arise. So, I dunno what day you’re on your hunt. It’s, it’s hard to do. I, I
00:50:44:11 –> 00:51:08:29
Actually was, I was there five days early. I killed it on the second day of the season, so I think it was the sixth or seventh day. But I was hunting with, you know, Jason and Donald Trump Jr. Were also in a, in a different area. So I ended up staying a total of 17 days after I killed my sheep. I, I hunted with both of them. With them. Yeah. And we covered a lot of country. It was a really tough hunt. But that was in a, in the 17 days I was there, that was the only opportunity I would’ve got. That was
00:51:08:29 –> 00:51:10:05
The week we saw three,
00:51:10:15 –> 00:51:19:00
We saw three legal rams. They killed two of ’em, and I killed the other one. And, and the only archery opportunity I would’ve had was that ram the one stock. Wow. When I killed my rams.
00:51:19:08 –> 00:51:31:10
So that, talk us through, ’cause I, I’ve mentally tried to put myself there. I’ve been fortunate to kill one and would love the opportunity to kill one with my bow now, but have not mentally gone there.
00:51:31:20 –> 00:51:36:07
It’s still a, well, I killed a real light one with dueling, but, but I just can’t imagine taking
00:51:36:07 –> 00:51:36:17
A bow.
00:51:36:20 –> 00:51:37:23
I just can’t imagine writing
00:51:37:25 –> 00:52:09:29
A check. And here we go. It’s me against him. So tell us about, I mean, there’s some pressure, maybe not to some extent ’cause you had killed one, it wasn’t the mindset of I want to kill it with a bow, and this is maybe my only stone sheep in my life, but still there’s, everything’s gotta go. Right. And, you know, with a bow hunting mule, deer or elk, whatever, generally it takes messing up even on one specific animal a couple of times before it comes together. And you don’t have that many opportunities to mess up on a sheep up there in a 10 to 15 day hunt, you know? So tell
00:52:09:29 –> 00:52:12:01
Us about the stock and what, what, what happened?
00:52:12:01 –> 00:52:44:07
It, it is a unique pressure and I always, I, I advise a lot of guys that are going on their first sheep on. I just tell ’em like, listen, you’re gonna feel the pressure you’ve never felt before, whether it, you know, with elk hunting and, and deer hunting and stuff that you can do down here. The thing is with me, you know, I mean, when it comes to elk hunting is I can always go back. I’ve got, like I said, time is the biggest factor. I, I feel like Yeah. Until the season ends, like six weeks, I didn’t get ’em. Yeah. I can always go back. The thing about a sheep hunt, it’s, it’s a finite amount of time. I mean, you, here’s your, here’s your timeframe and, and it’s over. And it’s a unique pressure, especially with, there’s a lot of money riding on it.
00:52:44:07 –> 00:53:38:12
Yeah. It is a lot of money. It it, you know, I don’t care if you’re a rich guy or you’ve, you’ve saved a ton of money. It’s a totally different pressure when there’s that riding on it. And there was something I didn’t realize. I mean, my first DOL sheet pun, I, I could not leave without one. I I I I, I was just, it’s a, it’s a totally different pressure. And the fact that when that last day ticks down and you’re gone, that’s it. You’re not getting it back. You can’t come back. You can’t relocate ’em. And like, it’s over. So it is a unique pressure that you’re gonna feel. And especially if it means something to you, you’ve sacrificed to be there and save money and, and everything else. And taking time away from family and, you know, it’s a real, it’s something that’s important to you. It’s, it’s a totally unique pressure. I had killed a stone sheet before, so I was just, I was prepared to, to not get one. And that’s kind of the only way you’re probably gonna get one with a bow is to say, I mean, to say you’re not
00:53:38:12 –> 00:53:45:05
Gonna, you willing to accept the fact that yeah, you might not, but you won’t kill one if you don’t only take a bow. Yeah. Yep.
00:53:45:15 –> 00:53:45:24
Yeah.
00:53:46:05 –> 00:53:53:06
So how about the s stock and you got in a good position and walk us through it, because I mean Yeah. Was killing the first time you tried or
00:53:54:07 –> 00:54:30:14
Yeah. Yep. I did. We, we had, we had, they had went down these cliffs and we’re just in a terrible spot. And we, I actually walked out on this point just to kind of keep an eye on ’em, thought they were, you know, in a, in a terrible spot. And we probably weren’t gonna get a run at ’em that day. It was just, just to keep an eye on ’em. And they had come up this cliff and, and, and were walking exactly down the same trail that they had went down that night. And they started getting kind of closer and closer to us. And then they started running at us and we’re, we’re, and I could tell where they were headed to feed where they had fed in the morning. And, and I didn’t think they were gonna head that direction. So I basically just grabbed my bow and I told Scott, I said, Hey, get a little higher.
00:54:30:15 –> 00:55:19:09
I’m gonna, I’m gonna see if I can cut ’em off. And I had to run about 500 yards. And they were just sheep being cheap. And, and they crossed this little saddle and were headed right towards me. And I, there was four of ’em. And I actually had thought he would, he was in the front and then he had kind of peeled off at some point in time. And I, I was stalking and I was about 90 yards from three of the rams, which I thought he was in. And I looked to my, to my right and he, I could just see the top of his head, just the top of his horn in front, even his eyes. And he was walking at me. I got an arrow in on my string and, and I just had got a range at 40, 48 yards. And he was, he was over the top of this little crest that was about 20 yards in front of me, but he was down the other side of it, so I could only see the top of his back.
00:55:19:17 –> 00:56:04:20
And then he, he saw me. He, he knew something was up. He didn’t, he didn’t know what I was. And you know, just from years of archery practice, I knew that if I picked a spot on his body, my arrow would arc over the top of the hill in front of me and hit him, you know, saw Fred bear killed his world record stone sheet back in the, in the fifties or sixties. And I had read about it and it, it was funny how things happened in your mind so fast. And I, and, and it popped into my head like that, my arrow’s gonna ark over the top. I’m, I can see where I, I’ll be, can see where I’m, I’m gonna hit. Yeah. Yeah. I can’t see where I’m gonna hit, but I can see where his body is angled. And I shot him for, I shot him for 49 yards, 48, 49 yards and just smashed him just one those times where make the right call. And Errol did exactly what I hoped it would do. AED over the top. And was
00:56:04:20 –> 00:56:04:28
Your pin
00:56:05:00 –> 00:56:07:02
Hit a mid body and took him out? Your
00:56:07:02 –> 00:56:09:28
Pin was your pin on the, on the ridge then On the ridge.
00:56:10:29 –> 00:56:11:05
Yep.
00:56:12:01 –> 00:56:26:02
Your pin was on dirt. Dirt. You just knew where the halfway between knew where you knew where the lungs were and just Yeah, halfway between you and him, you could see the top of his back or, or wherever. Yep. I don’t know how much you could see, but you put it on the ridge line between you and the sheep. That takes some gut to punch that
00:56:26:02 –> 00:56:32:11
Release on, on your, she, I mean, you sheep punt with an opportunity. Yeah. The whole, all that pressure that you’re talking about,
00:56:32:14 –> 00:56:37:26
Your 50 yard pin or whatever is on a ridge on a rock when you punched the release. Yep. Yeah.
00:56:38:20 –> 00:56:53:04
Yep. And it, and it worked. I mean, I, I smoked him, just smashed him. He ran about 50 yards and died and it was, yeah, it was really cool. And I, I took the shot because I could see the body angle. I knew exactly where he was. It wasn’t, it wasn’t like, yeah, it wasn’t blind. I was guessing where his body was. I knew exactly where his body was.
00:56:53:09 –> 00:56:59:24
You just couldn’t see the, the sweet spot behind the shoulder. 18 inches lower than you’d, you’d needed to see. Yeah.
00:57:00:16 –> 00:57:02:02
Yep. So, wow. That’s
00:57:02:06 –> 00:57:30:04
Cool. Pretty awesome, man. Cool. So that puts you halfway. I know, I know. I I know you killed a desert sheep last, well, I guess it was this year, technically this year technically, but it was, I call it last winter, but this year. But it was, you know, may even, I don’t know, it was hot. You guys, you were, you were down there. So that kind of finished your, your, your desert was your last one. You needed to kill all four species. But this one, what? Put you halfway, halfway after your rocky in Montana put you halfway to an archery, right?
00:57:30:29 –> 00:57:50:02
Yep, yep. Halfway, halfway to an archery slam. I finished my grand slam with a rifle. Yeah. I killed a 14 year old ram in, in Mexico in March. You know, really, really hot weather hunt. Big big one horn ram. And then, yeah, this is, I killed a, a big ram in Montana in 2015. Giant. Yeah. And then, and Ms. Stone sheep. So,
00:57:50:13 –> 00:58:01:11
So what’s your goals, Brandon? What’s your goals as far as the sheep hunting? And are you gonna, you know, you another, you’re gonna guided giant, another desert with a bow at some point, or, I mean, you know, what do you, what are your goals on that?
00:58:02:06 –> 00:58:59:00
Yeah, I, I, I wanna, I wanna get a grandson with my bow. It’s gonna be a process doll. Sheep have actually been the hardest one for me. I’ve got almost 45 days hunting doll sheep with my bow. And I’ve had one shot, which I did not connect on in super tough conditions. I, I drew a 14 seat tag in 2012. But I’ve, I’ve actually hunted the, the two hardest ones to get are, are, you know, if you, unless you draw a tag or, or big horn and stone and, and you got’em my biggest struggle. And so, yeah. So, and, and the desert, I’ll just wait, you know, like, I’m not in a rush. I’m not in, like, I, I’m enjoying, I enjoy hunting, just hunting sheep so much now that I, you know, when it happens, maybe it’ll be 10 years down the road. I mean, my next desert, I need a, I need a desert sheep tag at some point in time. And, and I’ll hunt out with my bow and, ’cause I’ve already got a desert and yeah, I’m looking forward to it. But the doll’s, my next, you know, I’m a hot doll this summer and we’ll see if I can get one filled with
00:58:59:00 –> 00:59:00:22
You’ve only taken your bow this time.
00:59:01:01 –> 00:59:02:18
I’m only, I’m only taking my bow.
00:59:02:21 –> 00:59:03:10
That’s awesome.
00:59:03:19 –> 00:59:05:28
Well have you on maybe this fall and see how, how
00:59:05:28 –> 00:59:51:13
It turns out. Heck yeah. Yeah. That’s awesome. Well, we’ve talked a lot about scores trophy hunting and all of that, and, and it seems like there’s a little bit of a shift, you know, and I, and I don’t know that there’s truly a shift, maybe just a few of these current, you know, somewhat maybe young guys in the hunting industry pushing for, you know, leaving the trophy out in the hills and taking the meat home and that you only hunt for meat and different things, and we shouldn’t be trophy hunting. And, and of course, that’s what drives us. And it’s not like trophy hunters aren’t meat eaters, but just kind of wanted to know your take on that. Like what’s Brendan Burns think about that and, and how trophy hunting plays a role in the hunting industry and buying gear and going, experiencing crazy places and hunting specific animals and, and all of that.
00:59:51:24 –> 01:00:17:13
Yeah, I mean, I mean the, the meat thing, the meat movement has been, it’s been a neat thing. It’s obviously raised awareness of hunting and it’s, it’s putting it, it’s made it popular and, and it’s, you know, a thing people can talk about. And I, I, I feel like it’s, it’s put something in the forefront that we’ve always known. I mean, that’s not, I mean, I, I guess the irritating thing to me is I, people think that we were throwing the meat away for the last 30 years or whatever. I
01:00:17:13 –> 01:00:20:10
Don’t, I know, yeah. I was cutting and wrapping meat in 1980 when I, I was five years old.
01:00:20:18 –> 01:00:20:27
Yeah.
01:00:21:15 –> 01:00:25:10
I mean, I, we ate all of our, I mean, it was, that’s
01:00:25:10 –> 01:00:26:22
All to this day. That’s how, so, so
01:00:26:22 –> 01:00:31:26
It’s kind of weird. Like, to me it’s weird to take pictures of it now. Like, it’s like, it’s a new thing, you know what I mean?
01:00:33:06 –> 01:00:42:11
Yeah. I mean it’s, it’s, I always tell, you know, you, you hear people say, well, I don’t have a problem with hunting as long as as long as you eat what you hunt. It’s like, well, you don’t have a problem with hunting. I mean, it’s, it’s, that’s
01:00:42:11 –> 01:00:44:21
Right. It’s legal. You legally have to take it. Yes.
01:00:44:25 –> 01:00:56:10
Take to meat. Yeah. And, and that’s great that, that people are raising the awareness and all that. But it’s, you know, it’s like I, I don’t have to get on Instagram every day to tell you. I didn’t rob a bank either. I mean, it’s illegal to leave the meat. Okay.
01:00:56:25 –> 01:00:57:04
Yeah,
01:00:57:18 –> 01:01:17:02
Absolutely. Like, that’s, that’s great. And that’s cool if you wanna say that. But like, you know, you know, like I said, my, my buddy Ray Alt, you know, has been hunting, you know, bow hunting since the sixties. And all, you know, he, he said, you know, it’s like you’re not the first people to take the meat. Like you’re the, it is great that people understand that, obviously for the general non-hunting public, that’s a great part. But yes, when it, when it comes to hunter hunters,
01:01:17:16 –> 01:01:19:22
Hunters, why do you have to tell me you’re taking
01:01:19:22 –> 01:01:27:03
Your baby? Why? You have to tell me why. And, and why is it bad to take to smile in a pitcher? Why is it, why is it bad to smile in a pitcher of you in a trophy or
01:01:27:04 –> 01:01:45:15
After 29 day average days like you described, or 30, or, you know, 29 days that really went over in some cases, multiple years, multiple seasons, you know, exactly. When you walk up to an animal and you know that animal, there’s elation, you, and there
01:01:45:24 –> 01:01:59:00
There’s a respect, there’s an amazing amount of respect that goes into each one of your animals, Brendan, just as it does each of my deer, sheep, Adam, all your trophies. I mean, there’s an amazing amount of respect. And to say that I smiled in a picture does not take away from that.
01:02:00:00 –> 01:02:52:23
Not for me. It, yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s one of those things that’s, I mean, I think if people understand like I hunt for more than just the meat and, and I’ll just say it. Yeah, that’s fine. I mean, I, I love the challenge. I, there’s something genetically in me, like I love to hunt animals. I’m, I’m not, I don’t shy away from that. It’s my, the favorite thing I’ve ever done. It’s, you know, it’s, it’s something that I look forward to every single day. I can’t imagine my life without it. I hunt for the challenge. I mean, just filling the freezer is just not that hard. I mean to, I, I hunt for the challenge, the, the, the meat. The fact that I feed my family with that and, and have forever, your whole life since as long as I’ve known. I mean, I, I grew up in Montana. I, I, my parents never bought a piece of meat ever in, in growing up at all. And it wasn’t because it was cool or it was like, oh, we’re into didn’t
01:02:52:23 –> 01:02:55:14
Trying to do it. It’s just we didn’t have to go, you didn’t have to go buy it.
01:02:55:21 –> 01:03:22:14
We didn’t either. I can’t even remember having a beef steak when I was a kid. No, I don’t, I can’t remember the last time I bought beef, you know, cut and wrapped a beef. I mean, per se, you know, never, we’ve got, my freezer is full of big game. Yeah. And, and like you said, it’s not that hard to fill your freezer if all you were is a meat eater and that’s all we should be, you would never leave your home state. You would hunt rabbits, upland game, you’d hunt waterfowl. You’d go out and shoot dough and cow elk and, and all of these things. That’s
01:03:22:14 –> 01:03:24:26
Totally fine’s. That’s perfectly fine for people
01:03:24:26 –> 01:03:29:21
To, you wouldn’t buy hunting gear. You wouldn’t buy expensive hunting gear or upgrade your equipment and all of these things just to fill your
01:03:29:25 –> 01:03:32:16
Go to hunting conventions or all that. You don’t need to go, wouldn’t,
01:03:32:16 –> 01:03:35:26
You wouldn’t walk the expo to talk about dough and cow elk. You wouldn’t.
01:03:36:05 –> 01:03:48:18
No. And and I always, you know, it’s always funny to me when guys like, ah, I, I don’t care. You know, big horns don’t matter to me. It’s, I I’m just about the meat. And I would say, no, you’re not. You know what those, you know what those big bowls are made out of meat. Lots of it. And more
01:03:48:29 –> 01:03:50:26
Love, more meat. I would than a spike. I would say.
01:03:50:26 –> 01:03:52:22
You really don’t love meat if you’re shooting a
01:03:52:22 –> 01:04:00:11
Smaller body bowl. That’s right. What about a forked horned deer? You can throw one on your back. Yeah. If you shoot a six-year-old deer, they’re freaking heavy. They got a lot of meat on them.
01:04:01:01 –> 01:04:01:10
Well,
01:04:01:26 –> 01:04:28:23
I mean, here’s the thing. I want it all. Okay. I want, I wanna have the challenge. I wanna hunt a great big bull. I love the fact that that that, that that big yellow hide is wrapped in a ton of meat. I enjoy eating that. I’m, I’m, I’m a pretty damn good cook. I got two smokers in my backyard. I, I don’t have to tell everybody every day what the recipe is that I’m using or whatever, but I love eating. I, I hammered out some, I hammered out some back straps last night. Asian style, which was, which was great. We had
01:04:29:08 –> 01:04:33:15
Deer backstrap last night. It was incredible. They were co deer are incredible.
01:04:33:15 –> 01:04:40:04
My wife, my wife made tacos out of deer, deer hamburger. But I didn’t, I didn’t Instagram it or tweet, tweet it out,
01:04:40:11 –> 01:04:48:02
You know. And I guess the thing, and I, I don’t wanna make too much light of it, but the point I, it seems like it’s in our face right now. So I guess that’s why we’re talking about it. But, well,
01:04:48:02 –> 01:04:49:17
We’re being criticized. Well,
01:04:49:17 –> 01:04:54:06
It feels like it. And we’re being criticized by hunters, by other hunters, which is what the hardest
01:04:54:06 –> 01:05:09:20
Thing for me. It feels like we we’re in politics. It feels like we’re Democrats and Republicans. It just feels like that whole fight within the hunting industry. You smiled in a pitcher, you should have set up a camera respect 10, 10 feet away and looked, you know, faked a picture of you looking and respecting
01:05:09:26 –> 01:05:21:19
Re the animal having, re having reverence there instead of a smile. When in all reality, we all have that feeling when we walk up upon a, on an animal. But, but sometimes I’m natural reaction, smile and excite, excited, sometimes excite,
01:05:21:25 –> 01:05:25:13
I scream out of excitement. I don’t feel bad about it. And I’m never gonna feel bad about it.
01:05:25:26 –> 01:05:26:02
No,
01:05:26:25 –> 01:06:07:24
No. I think it’s, it’s a bit of a cover, you know, and, and most of the guys we hang out with are or associate with. I don’t think that’s the case. And, and a lot of, you know, you, you only see a lot of it nowadays ’cause it’s, you know, it’s the lowest common denominator guy that, you know, Hey, I, I’m, I’m, I’m doing super average stuff at a high level. That’s, that’s the kind of guy like, well, that, that’s fine and that’s, that’s your gig, whatever. But like, I, I want it all, I can have, I can have the challenge, the meat, the whole thing, the trophy hunting. For me it’s, it’s the challenge. It’s not the, you know, if anybody, I would, if anybody thinks that it’s the handlers or anything that matters that much stop by my garage, they’re all just hanging in the garage. They’re
01:06:07:24 –> 01:06:12:04
Upside down. Got a 400 upside. I’ve got a 400 inch Wyoming bull upside down in my garage. Yeah.
01:06:12:07 –> 01:06:12:25
They’re, yeah.
01:06:12:29 –> 01:06:22:23
You know, and but the challenge of making the most of that tag, the challenge of going out, like if you wanted a bull, you’d have been done in, you know, 17 minutes down, you know, down the road or whatever.
01:06:22:28 –> 01:06:28:10
If you’re not in the, I mean, you would never hunt sheep if, if you, if it was just about that, how
01:06:28:10 –> 01:06:30:17
Could you justify it 45 days? The country
01:06:30:17 –> 01:06:41:13
You take. Yeah. The country. It takes you to the challenges that puts you through the, you know, there, there’s something to planning and saving and, and, and dreaming about something for, for, you know, five
01:06:41:13 –> 01:06:42:16
Years. Five years or a lifetime
01:06:42:26 –> 01:07:14:13
Taking part of your college, you know, your, your kids’ college fund or whatever. Like yeah. You could be saving. Like you can’t, it’s not that justifiable except for the fact we love it. It’s our industry. That’s what we do. That’s what drives us. That’s why Adam and I wake up in the morning. I mean, it’s everything. Constantly learning new things about new units, hunting four or five states a year, or six states a year. I mean, we would need 15 freezers plus, you know, if it was just about the meat. ’cause like you said, it’s just not that hard to, to, to, to obtain meat.
01:07:14:18 –> 01:08:03:00
Well, and as a hunter, we talked about it earlier. There’s the progression. We all started at a different level, you know, in Utah, I could, we could start hunting when I was 14, my first deer opening day archery season. My dad, he had a, he had a friend hunt with him, and they were gonna go up to the basin with the big bucks. And, and I had a couple little places that next to the cabin that we were packed into that had some four point bucks. But by, by the time open opening day came, it was either sex archery and I’m 14, and my brother Aaron was 11. And it was either sex, I told my dad the night, the morning of opening days as we’re getting ready, I said, dad, I, I might shoot a dough today. I’m so freaking amped up as a 14 year old, I get to carry my own weapon for the first time in my life.
01:08:03:00 –> 01:08:44:04
That’s right. And the first, first thing that presented to me was a forkey and I 43 yards. I’m shooting a 44 pound car bow at the time and a one in there. Alright. And, and it didn’t, I watched it go down and lay down and I watched it and watched it. And anyway, I figured I better give it the time Dad wasn’t around. So I went back, got my brother, went back there, we started tracking, found the deer still beded. And it, and you know, it was a young deer, so a big deer would’ve jumped up and blown off. We would’ve probably never found it again. So he is a dink. But the moral of the story, we had to get out the instructions. Like the outdoor life had a gut, a deer my dad had given me. I’d seen him before, but my dad’s not here.
01:08:44:08 –> 01:09:33:00
He’s up in the basin with his buddy. And this is opening morning. I got a dead deer now he’s, you know, we went back and he’s, he’s dead. Got a field dresser. We, yeah, we, we opened it up. We’ve looked at, you know, reaming, reaming the butt out and gutting it and doing all things that we’ve never done before and drug that thing back a thousand yards or so back to our camp. And that’s where it started. And I was, I’ll always be proud of that deer. Just like a lot of the bigger deer that I’ve killed later in my life. So you start and you go through a progression and, and at some point, you know, that doesn’t mean that I’m, I don’t value what I once did or what other people are doing or what I’m now experiencing with my kids. And just getting them opportunities and gaining experience on hunts is, is more important to them and, and is what I stress them.
01:09:33:02 –> 01:10:45:26
I mean, I’m hunting cow elk in the morning with my 12 year old, I mean, classic example. It’s, it’s about that. And you have to, you have to go through that. But he probably isn’t want to hunt cow elk in three or four more years that he’s like, dad, I’ve done that. Shot a couple cows, you know, let’s hunt bulls. I mean, my daughters shot cows. They shot a couple of cows, you know, and early on, and they don’t, they don’t wanna do it anymore because, you know, all right. They’ve done it and there’s natural progressions. And so I just, I guess the thing that bothers me most about it is somehow a trophy hunter feels a little bit under attack from the standpoint of the non appreciation, because there is nobody that appreciates more what I can hopefully harvest every year than me, because I’ve, I’ve been there through a lot of the other stuff. And it, it, it goes down to the challenge, like you said, it, it’s a personal challenge. It’s a Super Bowl. Jason and I use that metaphor all the time when we call each other dude, it happened. If Phil, you know, won the, you’re like, dude, you won the Superbowl, congrats won. You know, if it’s him and a VA on a deer or me somewhere, it’s that, it’s a pinnacle. And it doesn’t mean I’m making a light of the animal’s life or whatever. It’s just the culmination of a lot of emotion, a lot of
01:10:45:26 –> 01:10:47:20
Sweat time preparation. Yeah.
01:10:47:20 –> 01:10:50:04
Everything, everything has to go right when you’re hunting
01:10:50:15 –> 01:11:57:17
Out. And I think the definition of a trophy hunter, if you’re holding out for a three point, you’re a trophy hunter to a degree. If you’re holding out for a four point, you’re a trophy hunter a degree, that’s fine. And, and everybody’s definition of a trophy hunter is different. If you’re not holding out whatsoever, and you shoot the first buck that comes in front of you, if you have a buck tag, then yeah, I agree. You’re not a trophy hunter, but that is so rare. Most men, full grown men are holding out. What are you holding out for? Well, I want at least a four point. Why, why do you want a four point? They don’t say because he’s bitches five pounds more of meat. They don’t say that. He just not, he’s either a embarrassed as he’s a grown man shooting a forked horn, or he truly wants a little bigger deer. And if you want a little bigger deer and you have some kind of a goal to me, a trophy hunter, you’re a trophy hunter. And so it’s just interesting how all this is coming about. And what’s wrong with letting a deer grow, you know, mature and enjoy and breed and pass on genetics and shoot him at the, or harvest him at the end of his life, or, or toward the latter third of his life when he’s, when he’s got to grow, done
01:11:57:17 –> 01:11:57:20
All
01:11:57:22 –> 01:12:03:10
He gonna, versus shooting a forge horn that never, never did get to breed, didn’t get to have a life. You know what I’m saying? Burns.
01:12:04:11 –> 01:12:14:26
Yeah. I mean, I, I, it’s, it’s funny. I mean, the guys that say, yeah, I don’t really care about antler. I shoot the first bull I see, or whatever. And it’s funny how those guys spend two or three months looking for sheds in the springtime. Yeah.
01:12:15:08 –> 01:12:24:14
They don’t value the antler. And yet how much, how much money are they spending looking for sheds? Why don’t you collect doll skulls? Why don’t you collect cow skulls if they, if antler don’t mean anything?
01:12:25:09 –> 01:13:19:20
And, and everybody is like, it’s just natural. I mean, it’s like no one says, man, I just specialize in really small stuff. I mean, I may maybe, and again, it is a progression. I mean, the, the ultimate career in, in elk hunting is it would be to start at, you know, take a cow and then get a spike, and then get a drag horn, and then get a six point like, and work your way up. Yeah. I mean, and appreciate everyone as you go and, and, and just getting better and better. But yeah, no one specific, I mean, no, everybody calls back the cutest girl in high school that gives ’em their number. Okay. No, no one is like, well, you know what, I’m, I’m just, I’m, I’m really into just, just mean girls that, that have terrible attitudes. No, I mean, everybody, the the best jobs you can get, that you make the most money, that’s what you do. The biggest bull you can find in a herd, that’s the one you go after. The, the, you know, it, it’s, it’s, you know, nobody intentionally shoots a small bull out of a herd with a great big bull. And it no, no one, no
01:13:19:20 –> 01:13:21:16
One does that. No, no one person doesn’t happen.
01:13:22:01 –> 01:13:22:07
No.
01:13:22:21 –> 01:13:23:14
You know, so
01:13:23:14 –> 01:13:42:20
It’s, it, it’s one of those things. And a lot of it is, and I give a lot of those guys a pass. And the fact that, you know, you don’t know how little you know, until it becomes pretty obvious. I mean, you don’t, you don’t know that you’re not that good until you get a little bit better and you go, oh man, you know, and I was, I trust I’ve been there.
01:13:43:06 –> 01:13:45:13
Yeah. We’ve all made that have that realization.
01:13:45:13 –> 01:13:47:10
I used to think I knew what I was doing. Yes.
01:13:48:11 –> 01:14:45:12
You know, we all get humbled and realize, okay, that was something I didn’t think I would, you know, have to learn the hard way, but I did, and I’m not gonna let it happen again or whatever. And I, anyway, I guess back to this point, this hunters, you know, have a nose with anti-hunt and can’t, we all can initiatives and everything in every other state we’re dealing with, whether it’s, you know, used to be confined to like predatory animals, like the wolves, the bears, and the lions, you know, the more socially, you know, hot button type species, which have been, you know, all over western ballot initiatives in Western states. But it feels like more and more this, the way we’re pitting each other against each other. And, and it even happens amongst archery and rifle hunters. We see it in our own state here in Utah. And, and Jason and I, and to you to some extent, burns. I mean, you hunt, you hunt with whatever weapon, you may gravitate to the boat a lot more, but you freaking
01:14:45:15 –> 01:14:48:08
Hunt bulls in the rutt with archery. It’s a natural thing. You know,
01:14:48:10 –> 01:16:04:01
That’s when our states line up with the seasons. If you’re an elk hunter, more people will gravitate to a bow that really are serious because you get longer seasons in the right, all that. But we see the archeries, you know, we hunt with everything and, and I’m an archery hunter. I’m a rifle hunter. I hunt with a muzzle any angle I can get. But I see the archery and rifle hunters get so rabid in some of these public meetings against each other about how we’re gonna hunt the resource and who should get more days and first and all of that. And literally yelling and screaming much to the same, you know, to a lesser extent, the trophy hunter versus opportunity, appreciative hunter’s arguments going on right now, it feels like, I just think it’s kind of nonsense because we’re all on the, on the same team. You know, we want our sport to survive. We don’t want it to be opened up unnecessarily to public or non-hunting ridicule. We, none of us want that, obviously. And there’s things we can obviously tastefully tactfully do or don’t do to help that. But when the other stuff that doesn’t matter, like just leave it alone. Let people that wanna, wanna hunt a certain way, as long as it’s moral and legal, let ’em do it. And if I want to choose to do it my way Yeah. And it’s more on legal, don’t judge, let
01:16:04:01 –> 01:16:27:25
Me do it. Let me do it. I enjoy it. And same thing that, you know, I think the more people that back down if, you know, are succumbed to pressure of, of being quote a trophy hunter, if they do do that, I guess maybe the drawing odds in some of these tough tags, in some of the trophy tags will get better. I don’t know. I guess that’d be a positive way to look at it, you know, if there’s less trophy hunters, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
01:16:28:07 –> 01:17:28:02
No, that’s not gonna, that’s not happening. You know, it’s, it’s the same thing with, you know, bull versus rifle. I, I see it a lot with guided versus unguided. You know, it’s like when it comes to sheep hunting, you know, there’s, there’s this funny thing where everybody wants all the credit and, and, and they’re like, wow, it was a guided hunt. You know, it’s like, well, you, you can dismiss a guy that went on a guided hunt, especially like when you’re looking at it with sheep. But I’ll be honest with you, I’ve, I’ve been on I think, eight sheep hunts now that are legally required to be fully guided. And, and I say that because that’s, that’s just a fact. You have to have a guide. But those, those funds, nothing was taken away from me by, by having a guide with me. In fact, I I I’ve had nothing. But, you know, some of the best, you know, know long-term friends that I’ve met and best guides stuff that I learned, I’ve always enjoyed hunting with those guys. And, and I’ve picked stuff up. It hasn’t taken away from the hunt. It’s, it’s added to it. And, and there’s this funny thing where it’s like, oh, it’s all your credit and, oh, I did this on my own and like, man, I did it
01:17:28:08 –> 01:17:28:20
Myself.
01:17:28:22 –> 01:17:46:12
I haven’t found that. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I did it by myself or I did, you know, Hey man, everybody hunts the best opportunity they get every time they’re given. That’s like, you take the job that makes the most money, everybody is gonna go, you know, like, you know, everybody says, I’d never go on a guy to hunt until they got a little extra money. And then they go
01:17:46:22 –> 01:18:31:22
Or buy a landowner tag or something that not everybody can do. And you know, I’ve heard that regarding some of the deer sheep or whatever that we’ve done, and Jason has too, and I’m sure you burns you’ve been in, involved in, in some of the, well, not some of the highest priced tags tag are and sheep tags are in the world in, in Montana. And, and with mule deer and sheep, I’ve, I’ve been involved in that too, and saying, well, that guy doesn’t, he doesn’t deserve the dairy. Just got you. You know, he just walked in and he, he shot it. And, and for me, I take a little bit of offense to that because I was, I was hired to, to do my job and then I’ve been in some while, some love your job cheap. And I love it. I love, I love it.
01:18:31:24 –> 01:19:15:19
I’ve quit. I’m not in my life, I’m gonna apologize for it. Yeah. In my life, in the last 10, 15 years, I’ve quit two jobs knowingly to get to where I am right now, to be able to have a job and, and own a business like Epic Outdoors bro, and outfitting, I’ve quit two very solid sable jobs to get to where I am now. So, and that’s outta my, my choice. And it’s with a lot. I went from zero two different times to, to get to where I am. Yeah. And I, and I, I, I’ve dedicated my entire life to get to this point. Yes. So I take exception to that, to where if I, if I take a hunter, and in your case in Montana, it’d be the same if you are hired to do something to find the biggest or the best exceptional specimen of whatever it is, deer, elk, and we succeed.
01:19:15:23 –> 01:20:18:11
And then I get criticized, it really drives me nuts. It’s like, it’s like somebody that, alright, why, why don’t you just go build your own house then? Or who, who, who in the, who in civilization builds their own houses besides builders and would be comfortable building a, a house that them and their family could live in and be safe in very few people. You gotta go hire somebody. You used to do it. You hire the best person to build the best house to the max budget or, or close to it that you can afford. Alright. When you’re done, it’s no different than, oh, look at the house that Carter Burns built up on the hill. Geez. Well, they’re ssn on Snob Hill. But really, you know, that’s what we all do in life. Don’t, don’t shoot a guide or an outfitter or in your case, if we’re going to Northwest Territories or Alaska, you have to hire somebody and well, yeah, he just went up there and paid for Ram and all that. It really bothers me because there’s people in industry that, that work very, very hard. I’m one of them, Jason, you and there’s other guides and outfitters out there that that’s their living, that’s what they’re paid to do. They should make you succeed. Don’t fault them for it. So anyway, ran over.
01:20:19:15 –> 01:20:19:28
Ran over.
01:20:21:05 –> 01:20:43:20
Yeah. And it’s, it’s one of those things where I, I think right now, a lot of guy, a lot of you, you hear a lot of guys say, well, well, if I had this, I could do that. Or if I could, if I had this, I could do that. Or if I, if I was rich or if I had that much money or if I had access to that place or anything else, I would challenge anybody to, to say, you know, not if I had that or, or I wish I had that. Like, what do you gotta do to make that happen? I mean Yeah. You know,
01:20:44:01 –> 01:20:47:05
Quit your job and make your situation better. Just quit it.
01:20:47:05 –> 01:21:36:10
Yeah. I’ll give you a good example. And, you know, this is true. I, it took me nine and a half years to get a grand slam and I spent $23,000 total on my first grand slam. And, and Adam, you know exactly how I did it. Yeah. And I never looked at it like, man, that is unachievable. You gotta be a rich guy to do it. Like, no, I just went to figure out how I was gonna do it. It took a lot of hustle, it took some good luck. It took some help from some people, but at the end of the day, I, I went and figured it out and, and that, and that’s, I mean, I don’t know a lot of guys that could pull that off, but it’s, it was, I was obsessed with being able to do it. I wanted more opportunities to hunt sheep. And so I went after every, every opportunity, some stuff, nobody had ever even thought about trying. And I would say, instead of saying, Hey, you know, well, if I had that, I could do it. I’d look at, you know, look at this, look, look at what you want to do and figure out how to do it. Figure
01:21:36:10 –> 01:21:50:15
It out. Yeah, that’s right. You, you want a stone sheep hunt that do you save 30 plus thousand? That that helps obviously. Yeah. You put yourself about it. You, you put yourself in a position by going to a convention or a show and buying raffle tickets or however
01:21:50:23 –> 01:21:51:23
Happened Well, or get the deal on a desert sheep
01:21:51:23 –> 01:22:07:17
Or this that Yeah. You’re willing to go shoot a broken horned old desert ram. You’re willing to do that. I mean, some people’s, I don’t want that. Well, burns you’re talking outfitters and saying, Hey, you get an old ram somewhere. That’s an old crusty warrior. Yeah. The, that’s, that’s the better one horn that even adds to the character or
01:22:07:18 –> 01:22:36:17
The tos or whatever it is. And I think it’s just making the best of, of your situation, of your situation. If you’re a doctor, make a ton of money and go and, and go on those hunts do make, I mean, and, and people are critical. Like, well, you know, of us spending our money that we’ve earned from hunting, like we give epic membership money and they take that money and go hunting. All we’re doing is funding their hunting. Well, my teeth are funding some dentist hunting. Yeah. My teeth, my kids’ teeth, they’re using my money to go on hunts. Yeah.
01:22:36:17 –> 01:22:37:06
My is
01:22:37:06 –> 01:22:38:18
No different. I’m using my money
01:22:39:15 –> 01:22:47:21
We earned from the business. My business orthopedic surgeon hunt has hunted sheep three outta the last four years. The guy that’s done work on my knees. Yeah. Well, I don’t fault him for that. For
01:22:47:21 –> 01:22:55:17
Am Yeah. I don’t fault him for it. Use my money that I gave you to fix my teeth for whatever you want. Go buy a new house, go buy a corvet of things,
01:22:55:28 –> 01:23:09:01
Whatever. Some, some guys can’t relate, you know? I mean, at the end of the day, I I I hear it like, oh man, sheep on that. That’s, you know, and, and coming from a guy who’s driving a $75,000 Chevy. Chevy has a hundred thousand dollars motor home and a $60,000 boat for summertime
01:23:09:02 –> 01:23:41:28
Ski, you don’t want a sheep pump. You don’t want a sheep pump bad enough. Yeah. Here’s an example. And it’s much like yours burns. I don’t know what popped on my head, but I, I started applying for sheep, probably like many people in, in the, my home state of Utah back when I was a teenager or late teens, you know, twenties. And you know, it’s, at the time I thought I’m 100 desert sheep. That’s, you know, I grew up around them. I want do it. And I could never have foreseen that. I still haven’t drawn my desert sheep here in Utah. I do. And I
01:23:41:29 –> 01:23:42:12
Was like, you
01:23:42:12 –> 01:23:43:14
And I, I’m White House
01:23:43:14 –> 01:23:46:01
Dude. I, and I used my points to get a desert.
01:23:46:04 –> 01:23:54:13
Yes. Jason drew it, you know, and, and that was, that was, was that your, that was your third ram. Yeah. You, you drew you killed a doll in a, in a rocky, I
01:23:54:13 –> 01:24:00:05
Killed a doll in the late nineties before I killed my Oregon, California big horn in 2004. And then I drew that desert. Yeah.
01:24:00:05 –> 01:24:29:23
So fast forward to me 20, 25, 23, 4 years later, it’s the last sheep I need for my slam now. And, and with the time I started playing, I figured it would be my first one and only one at a time. How perspective changes. But as you, as you go throughout your life, something means something to you. You’re gonna make something happen. You’re, you know, you know, I I I bought a cancellation doll sheet punt the first time for like 6,000 bucks. You know, something fell in the lap, but I was ready and I jumped on it, got lucky and drew a tag in Oregon. Oregon. Same you
01:24:29:23 –> 01:24:31:08
That would cost you 1500 bucks in gas
01:24:31:08 –> 01:25:02:00
Or whatever. Yeah. Whatever cost me, you know? Yeah. Gas money and whatever. So just what, whatever it is, whether it’s giant bulls, whether it’s a deer, whether it’s anything I, you know, I, I don’t like the blame game and I know we’ve been a little bit, I don’t, it doesn’t feel too negative. I just want to really point out that hunters, that hunters, we’re all hunters, we’re all on the same team. Let’s try to get over the reasons why we hunt. They’re, everybody’s reasons are, are, are important to them. As long as it’s not immoral or illegal. Yeah. Leave
01:25:02:00 –> 01:25:42:05
People alone. Well, it’s just like all like sheep hunters, you know, sheep hunters are rich and they’re this and they’re that. And it’s just like you said, burns back in mid nineties, what did a sheep hunt cost? I think I got mine for six or seven grand. I drew the Oregon tag. I’m into that one 1500 bucks or whatever. I drew my Utah desert. Nothing, nothing. I’m into that one, 500 bucks in fuel and dealing with whatever prec scouting. And then, you know, I gotta deal with dueling on a, on one of the last hunts available was supposed to kill a doll, ended up with a super light stone or, or fan. And, and he is super light, but technically I’m done. And, and I’m in it. Yeah. I’m in it. Very affordable. Just like you and Adam. And, and here we are. We’re guys, we are normal hunting guys that make a normal living.
01:25:42:23 –> 01:26:11:01
And, and yet we, we have a taste for that. Look what you’ve done, Brendan, you, you’re out there guiding, putting yourself in, you know, you’re, and, and we don’t need to go in at everything that you got going, but you’re killing giant Rockies and, and working with guys and you’re not doing it necessarily to put food on the table, although that helps a lot. But you’re also doing it to help Brendan have more opportunities to hunt more doll sheep with a bow and spend more time with your own personal hunting aspirations. And, and, and that’s awesome. Don,
01:26:11:01 –> 01:26:28:13
Don’t criticize. Don’t criticize them. Don’t criticize me for wanting to do it. I guess that’s, we’re all hunters and everybody’s situation changes. And be careful because you finger pointers now, maybe 20 years from now on the other side, very likely will, if you want something bad, bad enough, you will be on the other side of it. So,
01:26:28:22 –> 01:26:37:00
But I think there’s a lot of good in this industry as well. Like we, there’s nothing, Brendan, I mean, would you rather make a living in any other industry than what you’re doing?
01:26:38:05 –> 01:26:56:24
No, I, I love what I’m doing. I mean, it’s, it’s great and there’s, there’s just a lot of great people to be associated with and the opportunity to come with it. I mean, you know, it’s like, like you said, nowadays, I mean there’s, there’s so many great opportunities when you’re in this business. That, and, and I don’t, I wouldn’t shy away from saying that’s why I’ve had some great opportunities for sure.
01:26:57:17 –> 01:26:58:04
Absolutely. Me.
01:26:58:16 –> 01:27:47:08
You love it. We love it. And for the most, and for the most part, we deal with, like, you have these positive experiences dealing with your clients. And, and like you said, that’s one of the most, you know, the great enjoyments of your job is helping people obtain hunts and go on hunts. And you’re learning from them and, and helping ’em as well as outfitting them and q you and all the gear that you guys offer. And that’s, Adam and I, we’re, we’re dealing with hunters every day. And very, very, very rarely is there a negative. People are calling you because they’re excited, they’re happy, they’re excited to plan for Hunts and to plan for the future. And, and we’re excited to help ’em. We get fired up. We, we, we do a little research on antelope. On antelope, and we’re all fired up to kill an antelope. And it’s, I’m, everybody knows I’m not that excited about antelope and, and, and you get me fired up to freaking start wanting to kill a giant bull and, you know what I mean? And that’s just archery
01:27:47:08 –> 01:27:50:29
Hunt stone, you know? Yeah. See how big a boy I really am someday. Yeah. Use
01:27:50:29 –> 01:27:56:17
Your once in lifetime, you know, Nevada tag for a, to take a bow and see how big a boy you are. Yeah. You
01:27:56:17 –> 01:27:59:24
Know, if I’m gonna get one in Utah, I’d need to maybe think of that in another state.
01:28:00:02 –> 01:28:01:04
Exactly. That’s right.
01:28:01:25 –> 01:28:57:10
So yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s one of those things, like, it’s the world, the oldest and greatest sport. It’s, it’s fun to do. And, and you know, like I said, everybody’s got a different reason for why they do it and, and what they get out of it. But it’s not, you know, just ’cause the guy’s after big stuff, it’s not necessarily something that, or, or, or, yeah. It’s not a negative. It’s just that’s what I like to do. And which is, which is cool. I mean, I, I look at it like, you know, I’m a, there’s, there’s some quotes you can look at it like, you know, a lot of guys will, you’ll, you’ll find a way to make it happen. And a lot of guys will find a way out, you know, and if you don’t, if it’s not a priority, they’re not gonna make it happen. I mean, I would, I would say if you, you know, guys really wants to hunt sheep, you can figure out a way to make it happen. And that’s, that’s not being negative. That’s, that’s, that’s real inspiring people. I, I’ve done it. You can do it. I’ve done it. I mean, there’s, you know, if you’re ready to go, I mean, I, I have four or five of ’em a year. If you’re ready to go in August, your bags are packed and,
01:28:57:11 –> 01:28:59:10
And you’re in shape and you got some money set
01:28:59:10 –> 01:29:04:25
Aside and you’re on the lift and talking to a lot of guys, guys and ready to go. There’s a great deal to be had every single year. Yep.
01:29:05:00 –> 01:29:05:14
It’ll happen.
01:29:05:21 –> 01:29:20:05
Yep. Brendan, it can’t happen. As, you know, tell us some of the different shows that you’ll be out and you know, how people can get, get in touch with you, visit with you, be shown some of the gear and, and the different products that you got coming out and just kinda give us give
01:29:20:08 –> 01:29:22:13
Yeah, we’re getting into that show season here pretty quick.
01:29:24:11 –> 01:30:01:05
Yeah, I’ll do, I’ll be at every show this, we, we got, well, Dallas Safari Club Club is coming up a couple weeks and then I’ll go to Wild Sheep and I’m, I’m in the booth at every show. I mean that’s, I think that’s one cool thing people like about our brand is, you know, Jason and myself and the, the guys in the office that you talk to were, were in the booth chatting with guys you can swing by and that’s who’s there. If you have a question or wanna see some stuff, Dallas Safari Club, wild Sheep, safari Club, Al Beak, trans Slam, and then the Western Hunting Expo. It’s about to be show season, which is, which is the grind for sure for us.
01:30:01:11 –> 01:30:01:19
Yeah.
01:30:02:07 –> 01:30:03:14
Alright, we’ll roll on. Well
01:30:03:14 –> 01:30:19:06
Yeah, it’ll be great to see you there. I know we always have a hard time talking about too much there ’cause you’re, you’re jammed at those and we’re jam, you know, the ones that we do boost that we are as well. But we’ll definitely look forward to catching up with you maybe either before hours or, or after hours and Yeah,
01:30:19:06 –> 01:30:29:14
It’s all, it’s all good. But yeah, I appreciate you guys, you know, helping us out and appreciate you having me on. We bet. Yeah. It always, always fun to chat. I feel like we can go for three hours if we wanted to. Yeah, we
01:30:29:18 –> 01:30:31:20
Again, we’ve been an hour and a half. We’ll,
01:30:31:20 –> 01:30:40:16
It talk about there there’ll be more hunts this year, you know, hopefully more giant bulls and maybe a white ram on the ground with you and your bow or whatever stuff. Just
01:30:40:16 –> 01:30:43:26
Leave these mule deer alone, Brendan. Just leave the mule deer alone. That’s
01:30:43:26 –> 01:30:53:24
Right. You know what’s funny is I just don’t everybody’s, I, I get it all the time. Like when you gonna get in a mul deer, it’s like man, I don’t have time, energy. Yeah. Money or I can’t, you
01:30:53:24 –> 01:30:54:05
Can’t do it all. I
01:30:54:05 –> 01:30:55:10
Can’t take on another habit. Yeah,
01:30:55:10 –> 01:30:55:29
You can’t do it all. I
01:30:55:29 –> 01:30:56:17
Can’t take on another habit.
01:30:57:02 –> 01:30:59:04
It’s a little bit like us and elk can thing. Yeah.
01:30:59:04 –> 01:31:16:12
We, it’s like us and elk. I have to give up mul deer to really go at it, you know, and you can only go and I’ve only got two speeds either off or on. And that’s the way you are. Yeah. And you can either, you know, and I’ve gotta stop everything else and really focus or I’ll just keep killing nice bulls that you would pass. So Yep.
01:31:16:12 –> 01:31:23:29
That, that’s me. And that same thing come, we talked about it with white tails. We gotta give up November hunting mule there somewhere to go hunt giant white tails
01:31:23:29 –> 01:31:30:07
Somewhere. Nobody, nobody’s gonna give you a 200 inch white tail and that someday I’d like to kill one, but I’ve gotta stop everything and work on it to make it have for years,
01:31:30:16 –> 01:31:30:18
Probably
01:31:30:22 –> 01:31:32:13
Years, years and years. So
01:31:32:26 –> 01:31:33:08
Anyway,
01:31:33:09 –> 01:31:43:02
Yeah. The, yeah, the meal deer thing, I’m glad the bug hasn’t bit me and hopefully I can stay away from it. Not that I don’t like mul deer, but man, I just, yeah. I don’t have enough time. Yeah,
01:31:43:08 –> 01:32:07:10
Well it, it, it, it’ll happen at some point. You’ll get a great tag and it’ll kind of force you to be all in. ’cause we know you well enough that though. Yeah. When you get an opportunity, whether you make the time or you great. Draw a tag outta nowhere or something, you’ll make the time and, and, and you’ll crush it. So, but yeah, we appreciate your time today and all your support. You and Jason have been to us from the inception. That’s, you guys were one of the first,
01:32:07:14 –> 01:32:08:25
Jason was the first to
01:32:08:25 –> 01:32:33:22
Step, step up. He was the first that we’re on board with you guys at Epic. Yeah. We appreciate it. And you guys are class, class all the way and doesn’t go unnoticed. We great. Appreciate our friendship and didn’t really talk about his giant ram that you guys were a part of in California, but that’s maybe for another time too. And maybe we’ll grab you at one of the shows, put a mic in front of you and Jason Awesome. And have you talk to us about that hunt. ’cause that was pretty, yeah, that was pretty amazing. So
01:32:34:06 –> 01:32:42:13
That was pretty, that was pretty cool. They, those things are, those things are, those was a pretty special chiefs. So that was, it was, that was, it was a fun hunt for sure.
01:32:42:13 –> 01:32:47:07
Yeah. Well thanks Brendan. We sure appreciate you man. Keep killing and we’ll talk soon. See
01:32:47:07 –> 01:32:47:18
You at the shows.
01:32:47:27 –> 01:33:51:24
Speaking of the Western Hunt Expo, we are gonna be there, Adam Bronson, myself, the Petersons, everybody here at Epic Outdoors. Jeff, my brother-in-law. We’re gonna be there at the Hunt Expo. We’ll be at booth number 2 8 4 5 February 8th to the 11th. So come on by. We’re gonna have a 20 by 50 booth. We’re gonna have one of the largest shed antler collections ever assembled. It’s gonna be awesome and we’re really looking forward to it. So everybody that’s interested to show up at the Hunt Expo, you can register [email protected]. And of course there’s day events, night events. It’s just an awesome event. It’s, it’s one of those times where some of the most serious hardcore hunters, western big game hunters gather and visit, see what’s out there. Put our hands on some of the different critters that were killed this past year. So it’s always a great time. And, and we’ll be there. It’ll be the, one of the only shows that we actually have a booth at. We’re gonna attend many of the shows and, and walk the aisles and visit with people. But we will have a booth at this hunt expo here in Salt Lake City, Utah, February 8th to 11th, booth number 2 8 4 5. We’ll see you there.
Recent Comments