Hunting in Nevada with Deputy Director Jack Robb. In this episode of the Epic Outdoors Podcast we talk with the Nevada Department of Wildlife Deputy Director, Jack Robb. We discuss the state of affairs in Nevada with COVID-19 and some of the changes and challenges that face the state in these unique circumstances. Nevada is one of our must apply for states with an abundance of quality hunts. With the Nevada Application deadline quickly approaching we wanted to get our listeners the latest info straight from the source. We hope you enjoy it.
Disclaimer: this text was produced through an automated transcription service and likely contains errors. Please listen to the original audio for exact content.
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We apply for everything. We gain points. You have a squared point system. There’s a lot of good reasons to apply.
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We put out more desert Bighorn sheep tags for non-residents than all other states combined.
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Anything to do with Western big games.
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Welcome
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To the Epic Outdoors Podcast, powered by Under Armour.
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Hey everybody. Jason Carter. Adam Bronson here in southern Utah with the Epic Outdoors Podcast. Kind of feels like Washington out there today. Bronson, what’s going on? Kind
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Of rainy. Kind of rainy, but it’s sure. Getting green out there. It’s amazing. It
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Is. It’s unbelievable. And so anyway, we’ve got a great guest coming on before we bring you on. We’d like to thank Under Armour for sponsoring this podcast. We appreciate them, their support for us here at Epic Outdoors. And all we got going here, which is a lot. It’s busy even in these covid times.
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Yep. Flying people left and right. And one of those that’s on the front burner right now of course is Nevada. And that tees up our guest today. Jack Roth.
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Yeah. Y Jack. How are
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You guys today? Doing good. Jack’s the deputy director. That sounds better than second in charge, right? Jack,
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Just tell us, just tell us you’re in charge.
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I have a lot of bosses, I’ll tell you that.
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Well, we’ve, we’ve known Jack for several years. We’ve had him on before. But being that Nevada is on the front burner right now, we thought would be be good to visit with Jack about kind of the state of the state of the state for Nevada, and just talk about some of the hunting issues involved there and, and things like that. So maybe just how do you want to t we, we’ve had ’em on before, but maybe just have a brief intro Jack of, of you and, and where you come from in case somebody didn’t listen to the first one ever.
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Nobody misses the, you nobody missed the fact that you’re from Ratton, ofaw country. I don’t think. No,
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I was gonna say, you trying to walk into the ton Ofaw comment again.
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Well,
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I, you you gotta go back to the roots, wherever that is.
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Hey, I, I, I said it last time I was on, and I, I, I’m still proud to say I’m from to Ofaw and I’m proud Nevada. And, and I know that brings up a chuckle with you guys, but I, I truly am. It made me what I am and there are a lot of good people down that country. And, and proud to say I’m from Taw and moved to Reno when I was in high school and then had multiple careers along the way. And what really got me into wildlife was Jewish sheep tag in 95. And that turned into going on Nevada Bighorns Unlimited, but started doing projects with them and was on Nevada Bighorns Unlimited Board. And that turned into sheep committees with Wildlife Commission. And then that turned into sitting on the Wildlife Commission a couple times was on under a governor, off under governor, back on under another governor.
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And second time I was on the commission. I owned my own business and ’cause they called me crash in Reno and then they economy me was coming back and it was time to go off the commission. I’d served my second term and sold a business, went off the commission at the same time in summer of 2014. And come November, 2014, director Tony Waley, Nevada Department of Wildlife offered me this job. And I, I haven’t regretted it. It’s, it’s been a lot of fun. I’ve been very rewarding. It’s, it’s a eye-opening experience to see the passion of all the, all the employees of the Department of Wildlife, whether they’re non-game fisheries, conservation, education, the game management, everybody. It’s just a, a great place to work. And I, I couldn’t be happier with my career paths. I really couldn’t time. I’m glad where I’m at and I know we’re making a difference. I I truly believe that. And we have great people. And
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I’m sure in as deputy director, there’s no stress right where you’re at. No stress.
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No stress, no.
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Just a normal eight to five or with an hour lunch.
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Yeah. Everybody calls to gimme their good news. You know, nobody ever calls us the bad news. Just all the good news,
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No legal battles with lions trapping black bears, anything like that. Right.
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We, we, yeah, that’s, that’s a major part of my job.
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I know
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The, the, the legal battles. And, and at one time I think we had seven different court actions or lawsuits going and, and it, it keeps us busy, but in the end, it makes an agency dot their i’s and cross their t’s and yeah,
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It’s probably good. It,
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It, it, it does make you a stronger agency. I truly believe that when you have people that are critics on both sides of every issue we deal with, you do make sure that you do things extremely well and, and you dot your i’s cross your t’s and, and know you have defendable positions either way. So that, that’s our job.
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Well, it’s kinda like Bronson and I, everybody just assumes we get paid to wet a line and hunt and fish and there’s a lot more that goes on behind the scenes, just like you guys a lot more than just picking some fun season dates and adjusting tag numbers, you know, that goes on.
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Like I said, I’ve been around this stuff starting in 97, going to all the commission meetings and stuff. And it, it’s truly amazing how much I’ve learned in the last five years just about wildlife and wildlife management. It’s, it’s been an eye-opener. Some good, some bad. I used to have a lot more fun going out to hunt and not have to worry about some things. Now I get out there and it’s hard to turn off work when you’re in the field looking at different things occurring or, or what’s going on around you. There’s different eyes you look through,
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You teed up something. The question I had too with, you know, we’re coming upon, this is a new, I guess a new month or so that we’ve been dealing with nationwide, with your commission meetings and proposals and recommendations and things like that. Maybe just fill us in or those that are interested in on that process where it’s in, obviously the application period’s open until May 4th, but you’ve got, you know, these commission meetings, I guess through YouTube and things like that. Since you don’t have public meetings going on right now, there have been some things that have had to be, I guess, dropped off of the commission agenda, if you will, because, you know, they weren’t able to go through the full public process initially. Right. Maybe just tee us up a little bit on some of that stuff that’s on the front burner.
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And you brought up the application period open through May 4th. The same exact day that we opened our application period in Nevada is the day we started working from home. So 100% of our application period, we will have accomplished with no staff in the office. It’s, it’s been a change. It’s, it’s made our agency, it’s going to be, when we come out of this thing, we’re gonna be a better agency. Times like this do make you stronger. You, you, you’re forced to learn things that you wouldn’t have learned otherwise. The number of meetings we have on Microsoft Teams and on Zoom, it was a technology that Tony and I really avoided, director Ley. And now it’s, it’s a, a, a tool that keeps us afloat. It really is Wildlife Commission meetings. We’ve taken those agendas as down to bare bones. We, we try to include a lot of information items in those commission meetings to, to let sportsmen and commission know the things that are going on with wildlife.
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But with some of the governor directives, we’re just taking care of the essential business to go forward. There’s been some petitions brought forward, there’s some regulation processes that we’ve ceased doing until we can have a, a public venue that we can vet it a little more extensively. So we’ve held off on regulation changes and, and petitions and different things and just stuck to our core business of setting seasons. We just had a Zoom commission meeting April 10th to kind of kick the tires, see how it goes before the big game season setting, which is crucial to our business. And we’re gonna do everything we can to keep our meetings on schedule, to keep our results coming out at the time that our, our customers expect and want them. We truly believe that our, our commission chairman said at this, this application period is probably the most anticipated application period for a lot of people because they’re stuck at home. And this hunting season’s going to be special because we’ll be able to be out of our house again. And we’re recreating in a manner where we we’re accustomed to. And it, it’ll take us back to good times and good memories.
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Well, I think it, I think it’s important to, to note too, you guys, you know, while you’re working from home, it seems, I mean, you’re painting the picture of bare bones meetings, bare bones, you know, stuff that you’re dealing with and what’s very important, all having said that you guys, I just received an email from your agency saying, Hey, we’re here to help you. I can’t remember the hours, but it seems like it’s seven to seven. I can’t, I, you can correct me. I was just going from memory, but there was, you know, an email just saying, you know, call us if you need help, we’re here to help you. We’re here, we’ll help you apply. And I think that sets you apart from other state agencies. Not that we don’t have some good ones. We work with Bronson, we work with Arizona, New Mexico, Utah.
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There’s a few great ones that are really helpful, but endow is top of the list when it comes to that, realizing that the, their customer is the hunter and, and you want to help them, not just, Hey, good luck to you and, and maybe, you know, if you’re lucky, you’ll figure out how to do it and get through a few of these, you know, whether it be login issues or whatever. And it just seemed like that email was very customer friendly. Maybe dive into that a little bit on your theory and then as that moves into maybe also, you know, when is this permit meeting and how can you know it’s available for the public to view and how can they view it?
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Yes. And when, when we went live with Cal a few years ago, we realized that the customer’s gonna need a little extra handholding. We’d been with a, a system consultants for 20 years, and when you get people that ingrained, there’s a learning curve. And we made a conscious decision that we were going to have people at our office from seven to seven, seven days a week. If the phones were still ringing at seven, we’d stay till nine. If the phones still rang at nine, we stayed till 11.
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Well, and you personally stayed till 11 or midnight answering the phone, if I remember right,
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Multiple times. That’s towards the end of the application period. The last four or five days we’re there till 11, 11 30 every night making sure people get in. That’s, that’s key to our business. Customer satisfaction is what keeps you in business. You can’t just meet expectations. We try to exceed expectations every time we can. We’re, we’re open on Easter Sunday every year and people go, I can’t believe you’re open on Easter Sunday, but that’s when families historically get together and it, it’s been a big day in our application period forever. So we make sure that we have people available and, and it’s, we don’t mandate overtime for anybody. We’re, we are one endow. We have people from fisheries, we have people from gain conservation, education, physical services, people that know the state, know sportsmen and can help people through the process. It’s, it’s on a volunteer basis. We let people sign up for this over time and, and we, we do wanna meet customer expectations. So as long as the application period’s open, we’re seven to seven minimum. And a lot of days longer than that, it’s just meeting customer, not expectations, but meeting customer’s needs is what we’re trying to do.
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What, so with the meeting and, and with what you’ve teed up there with getting people in the draw, obviously that’s the main front burner thing for on everybody’s mind for Nevada right now. When is the permit setting meeting and how, how can people view that, make it easier? We can obviously mention that, you know, a little bit later
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Too. It’ll be, it’ll be the first Friday in May and you can watch it on endow commission on YouTube. There’s a little bit with the lay the commission actually. We, we did this for the first time, a Zoom meeting last time in April, April 10th. And the commission participates on Zoom department staff is called in on the zoom meeting by the chairman, the commission. And then people can watch it on YouTube at endow commission on YouTube. Like I said, just a slight delay. And then when it comes time for public comment, people can email in their public comments and then the commission takes a recess to allow people to email and then receive those comments and, and go through the comments. And then they come back into session and continue going. It took a, a special resolution outta the governor to allow a meeting. Any meeting in the state of Nevada, there’s a public participation component.
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You had to have a, a location. But with c Ovid 19 locations aren’t the smartest ideas. So we have a special exemption to have meetings and we’re doing the best we can. And the last one worked out fairly well. We went over heritage auction tags. We had four auction tags that did not go because their events were canceled due to this pandemic. So we had to figure out how to get rid of a California bighorn sheep tag, a desert bighorn sheep tag, an elk tag, and an antelope tag that did not sell at auction. So with the commission’s guidance, Nevada Bighorns Unlimited is working with online hunting auctions.com and May 9th is the conclusion of that auction. And people can get on hunting auctions.com online hunting auctions.com and see what is out there. N B U does have additional opportunities other than those four tags. So it’s, it’s a good fundraising endeavor for them. And it’s, it’s going to make sure that the heritage money does come back to Nevada because we use that money for habitat projects, big game transplant trap and transplant disease surveillance, a lot, a whole host of things, Guler projects. So it, it’s an important revenue stream that we needed to make sure went forward. So that was accomplished in that last commission meeting. The next commission meeting, we’re gonna keep a bare bones and just do the season setting. Yeah,
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I’m showing, or
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Now season setting, but quota setting.
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Okay. Yeah. And we’re showing May 1st and second 2020, you know, technically outta Reno, let’s call it YouTube. Yes. And then big game status report and quota setting. And that’s, we always, we always like that you guys have got some, you know, preliminary numbers out there. Of course they’re not set in stone and, and then I guess people can email in some comments and different things like that. There is some few changes. There’s some, you know, some of that north east country, I guess proposal to increase some deer numbers and deer tags and few things. And so anyway, it’s always an exciting time. Of course we’re, we want big, big deer. So
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Yeah. And, and it, it, it is noticed as the first and second, but I believe with the abbreviated agenda, we will get through that on that Friday and it’ll be a one day meeting. Oh, okay.
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Gotcha.
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Well that’s, so yeah, permit numbers will technically be set before the, before the end of the application period. You guys scooted that back a couple of weeks this year, May 4th. Is there any particular reason for that or just, just, you know, this was obviously well, well advance of, of C Ovid 19 and everything else, but I don’t think too many people have complained about a slightly later application period. But where’d that come from, Jack?
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Well, we historically opened mid-March and used to close mid-April, but that opening and closing was predicated on taking paper applications. So the first year we went with Akamai, we went online only no paper. So the first year we wanted to keep some familiarity with our deadlines. So we kept the deadlines last year we added two weeks and it just gives customers more time. Life happens. We, we wanna make sure people can get in. This year we extended it one more week. So we’ve put on additional three weeks the past couple years. And, and a lot of it is the western big game application dance that a lot of hunters do. They wait for one to open to get results back to understand what they’re doing in the next one. And, and this gets us behind a few state’s results. And, and I think it gives some non-residents additional opportunity to look for opportunities to hunt and Nevada’s a great place to come and, and we’re trying to market that and get more people from outta state applying and, and see the great things we have to offer them in Nevada.
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How does, how does that later application period affect your draw results? It seems like you’re still planning to come out with basically the same timeframe, but I want, I’d like to see the draw results on, on May 5th. I don’t know why you guys can’t do that, Jack, so, but anyway, and, and the rest of the world does too, this day and age, we’re not very patient. But just tell us, I think you’re trying to maintain the draw results while extending the application period. Is that correct?
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We are and and that’s a goal of ours. And we have historically come out to Friday before Memorial Day weekend. It’s been that way for a long time since we started doing online results. Not the mailbox results we used to sit, look, look forward to. But it’s the Friday before Memorial Day weekend and we’re gonna adhere to that. If we can beat it by a couple days, we will. Yeah,
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Yeah. Who’s gonna complain about that?
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May 6th just,
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He drives a hard bargain, Jack. I mean, just
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Mean, well it’s like you said, there’s so many. We are, it is a balancing, you know, act on non-resident applicants, let’s just say, you know, I mean we’re dealing with New Mexico and Bronson, like Wyoming, like we’re plugging and playing on elk up there and different things ’cause you can steal ’em in and all these different things. And so, you know, it is a, it is a balancing act and we all, you know, your schedule takes shape every day, takes a little bit more shape to it. And so anyway. But have you given you a hard time
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And even during these hard times, we’re lucky with team and Zooms and good staff. We are, we’re keeping the wheels on the bus around here. It we’re down about eight and a half percent total license sales, hunting and fishing license sales this year. And our big game applications, we’re seeing daily down 15 to 20%. So really our our, our push is a little bit lighter and in the past some of that could be, we’ve extended the length. That’s
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Yeah, that’s what I
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Think. Yeah. Probably part of it. Yep. I would agree. I mean I, I would, it’s natural to assume it might be down some, but, but people procrastinate, hunters are good at it. Just,
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Well, especially
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If you’re waiting
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On, let’s just be honest, Jack, you guys, you’re not super cheap out as far as applying. But with that, there’s so many different tag opportunities. There’s p i w there’s silver states, there’s all kinds of things that are going on within Nevada. That’s why we like Nevada. We apply for everything. We gain points. You have a squared point system. There’s a lot of good reasons to to apply. But I think what’s going on in this Corona environment is people are just holding back a little bit. They know they’ve got until May 4th, you know what I mean? And so I think there’s plenty of, plenty of time. I don’t, honestly, Adam,
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We don’t fool, we
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Don’t have people dropping out.
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No. Maybe a slight change to points only for some people that, that definitively know my plans have changed. I I can’t go or I couldn’t afford an outfitter if I drew the tag I wanted. But not a mass. Just from like, I’m just tapping out of all, all applications. That’s not what we’ve really seen in other states at all. Even in some of the states that, that require you to front the money up front. That wasn’t a mass, no exodus, you know, Nevada is not one of those that requires you to pay the permit fees up front. Just an application fee and a hunting, license fee, hunting
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License, application fees. And, and, and of course, you know, they’re very inexpensive to apply our kids. We’re cranking out kids like crazy. Everybody should You’re
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You’re cranking
00:21:49:02 –> 00:21:51:13
Out kids? Well, no, I’m done cranking out kids. Oh,
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Okay. But
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I just, I’m cranking out kid apps. Okay. Like it’s my job. Okay. You know what I mean? Making
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Sure didn’t know if you were announcing something on the podcast.
00:22:00:02 –> 00:22:00:23
No, no.
00:22:01:10 –> 00:22:42:29
We we did do that during our license simplification. We want to encourage people to bring their, their sons and daughters to Nevada. So 12 to 18 years old, it’s a $15 domination to hunt fish license. Cheap. We, we, we want to encourage ’em to bring their kids if, if they draw a tag, bring ’em when they’re scouting and, and try out some of our stream fishing and, and when they come back hunting, we, we simplified the license to include trout stamps, duck stamps, state duck stamps, not federal duck stamps, but, and there’s no stamps required. So when you come hunting, bring your shotgun. Let’s get some bird hunting in here.
00:22:42:29 –> 00:22:43:22
Chokers. Yeah.
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Chucker oil.
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Nevada’s one of the best states for that water. Even waterfowl, you don’t look at it as a waterfowl state. But even that or upland game. And I mean it’s unbelievable the resource that’s in Nevada, you know, and that’s not just pumping Nevada. ’cause Jack’s on the podcast.
00:23:01:10 –> 00:23:20:17
I mean, it’s surprising for what your, maybe your expectations are because it is the dry state in the nation and, and you just feel like, geez, it’s just void of anything and all the big No, that’s the opposite. There’s no general season tags for antelope, deer, elk. It’s all draw. And you just think, oh, they don’t have very much. Boy, it’s not, not that way. No,
00:23:20:23 –> 00:23:34:02
I’ve been out scouting deer, Jack, come back to my truck and I’ve got chuckers on the top of my hood of my truck, the hood, the cab in the bed. I mean that there are at times there are so many gamers, it’s unbelievable in, in your state.
00:23:34:26 –> 00:23:59:28
Yeah. And it’s a lot of fun. And that’s, we, we are trying to encourage people to get to full experience when they come to Nevada to be game hunt that up the high mountain streams, they’re, they’re not trophy trout, but they sure are good to eat. So yeah, we encourage people to, to get the most out of their license dollars when they come and it’s all included.
00:24:00:25 –> 00:24:31:16
One thing I wanted to to to maybe make reference regarding, we talked about the youth, but also for adults that maybe have never applied in Nevada before. If you’re born after 9/19/60, what in 1960 or later, and it’s your first time to apply, which it may be for your kids or even yourself, which is a, what, 60 year old you have to register your hunter education card. That’s quick math, right? Well, we’re in 2020, so it’s 60 to, that
00:24:31:16 –> 00:24:33:12
Was quick math. I mean I still thought it was pretty quick.
00:24:33:14 –> 00:24:39:19
We’re on even numbers, you know, you get at three more years from now and I it would just say, yeah, 50 or 60, but after
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1960, you do need a hundred ed card. That’s right. And it’s easy to
00:24:42:23 –> 00:25:08:29
Register, it’s easy to do. So if you go online to apply, don’t let that catch off guard on May 4th because you’re gonna have to make an account online, get a customer ID on number, then you’re gonna have to take a photo or send proof of a hunting license or something with your hundred ed number from your own state. It is valid from your other state. You gotta send that in to the folks that could call me. And then they’ll, you know, basically unlock your account. Say you’re good to go and go apply. Right Jack. Or
00:25:08:29 –> 00:25:13:10
You could even yeah. Even take your online hunting course there. Yeah. Hunter ed course there
00:25:13:15 –> 00:25:14:17
If you’ve never had one. That’s right.
00:25:15:01 –> 00:26:05:10
That, that is correct. And our, we do have a pretty strict hunter education component, but we think it does pay off in a safety aspect. You said don’t wait till May 4th. That would help us. But I can tell you we don’t turn people away. Yeah. We just put more bodies on the phones to certify those hunter ed cards. This year we did have to cancel our in-person hundred ED classes. If you’re under, if you’re over 21, you can take online class and that will suffice under 21. We, we do require the field component still of the hundred ed, but with everything going on this year, we canceled all of our classes and we are allowing the youth 11 and older to take the online hunter ed course and count it and use that
00:26:05:13 –> 00:26:06:10
For this year. Yeah.
00:26:06:23 –> 00:26:21:15
U use that for this year. But we are gonna circle back with those youth and, and ask them if they would like to participate in the field day. They’ve already, they’ve already met the requirement. They, they’re not bound to by law, but we’re going, we’re going to offer that. And I think it’s an important component.
00:26:21:24 –> 00:26:38:21
So my son’s got a, my son’s dating a gal and she didn’t have Hunter Ed and I said, well go on to Nevada’s site and take it. And so anyway, I sent them the link to it and I don’t know, five or six hours later she’s got a hunter ed card. Yeah. She’s here in our state in Utah.
00:26:38:26 –> 00:26:41:12
She’s what, 16, 17? Yeah. She’s under,
00:26:41:13 –> 00:26:51:17
She’s known. She’s, yeah, 17. Gonna turn 18. But anyway, she went on, did your course, spit out a card and, and she went Turkey hunting in Arizona. How about that? There you go.
00:26:51:24 –> 00:27:21:26
Yeah, I, I appreciate that. And, and other states are in the same boat. You know, everybody shut down their hunter ed classes and, and because of these of our hunter ed courses that we, we see a lot of people from other states coming to us to, to meet that hunter ed requirement because Hunter, ed Hunter ed cards are reciprocal between states. So if they can come here and get it, they can use it in their home state. And we’re seeing a lot of that and
00:27:22:08 –> 00:27:22:20
It’s awesome.
00:27:22:29 –> 00:27:32:17
We’re, we’re, we’re not discouraging it, we’re encouraging it, as you can tell. And yeah, we’re just trying to meet the need and hopefully turn them into a Nevada customer. Also,
00:27:33:03 –> 00:28:15:00
One thing I wanted to circle back real quick before we go on, you mentioned the online hunting auctions.com and we’ve got a lot of tags within the state of Utah. Other places, there’s other hunts, fully guided hunts and different things and your tags, your heritage tags and different things like that. We’re gonna be auctioned off at the N B U banquet dinner in, in other places. Just want to direct people to online hunting auctions.com. There’s a lot of tags, conservation tags, governor tags, whatever that are being sold on online hunting auctions.com. And so anyway, Bronson and I, we watch it daily. We, we refer people to it. There’s Utah elk tags, there’s Nevada tags, there’s all kinds of tags. Antelope,
00:28:15:00 –> 00:28:15:11
Carter
00:28:15:15 –> 00:28:21:17
Antelope, there was, you know, Jack, you guys have your Heritage Antelope tag on there. The minimum bid was four grand. I was like,
00:28:21:26 –> 00:28:22:26
He was tempted. Oh,
00:28:22:27 –> 00:28:57:08
I was. And then a guy, our, our buddy beat me to it. So anyway, at least I’d have said I could bid on it and or I did bid on it. But all in, in all seriousness, I I clicked on, what is it, what do they call him? A bidder’s premium. The buyer’s premium. And there’s nothing, you guys don’t have a buyer’s premium on there or anything. And so, and then they’ve got some, you know, there’s a little bit of strategy in it. There’s some, depending on where the auction’s at as far and the bidding increments, the increments change. And so anyway, I just wanted to circle back on that and reiterate that. I think when Bronson, was it May 9th, that’s
00:28:57:08 –> 00:29:01:09
When it ends. I believe it was yesterday, it was 19 days from yesterday, whatever that is. So
00:29:01:17 –> 00:29:48:28
Yeah, it is, it, it is May 9th. And, and we’re lucky you talked about the bidder premium buyer premium there, there is was our partnership with Nevada Big Orange Unlimited. They’re covering all the auction costs and there is no bidder premium. It, it will put all the money back into the state of Nevada. And like I said, that that heritage account is vital for projects that have enhanced wildlife for years. And N B U believes in that and luckily they’re a good partner while Sheep Foundation, they, they also put in an offer to, to do it for free. We, we, we had multiple good offers with good partners and we’re just lucky that that common goal with a lot of people so out,
00:29:48:28 –> 00:30:13:00
Well it makes sense to the, to use that with the N N B U being, you know, they, they were the initial recipients at least of the California Big Horn and the desert Big horn tags. And so it makes sense to help them facilitate that. Be the ones where the checks are written to as a 5 0 1 C three group within the state of Nevada. It’s done so much for you. You’re partner with them, you know, partners with everybody, but specialties with them where they’re based in, in Nevada as well.
00:30:13:03 –> 00:30:16:08
So yeah. And that little website’s becoming kind of a hub for guys to watch.
00:30:17:01 –> 00:30:20:17
Yeah. Nobody knew about it hardly it feels like until no,
00:30:20:24 –> 00:30:26:28
This year that is, that that company has, has grown with Covid. Yeah.
00:30:26:28 –> 00:30:27:12
That that’s
00:30:27:12 –> 00:30:29:08
Something, you know what I mean? That’s right. That’s one of the,
00:30:29:18 –> 00:30:30:00
One of the
00:30:30:00 –> 00:31:04:09
2%. And we’re finding tags are still cranking. The economy’s still cranking. That’s the one thing Bronson, I think of what we wanted to talk with Jack A. Little bit. I mean, even though they’re down is showing they’re down technically on paper, 8.5%. We’re seeing nothing but positive tag prices are positive. The, the overall outlook is positive. People are planning to hunt, we’re planning to hunt. And I was just wondering what your take was, Jack, it’s kind of what Bronson brought up at the first, the state of the state address, so to speak. This, you know, how’s the state of Nevada looking at 2020 fall hunting
00:31:05:00 –> 00:31:10:18
Weather included, you know, weather, moisture, just general game trends and all that. And
00:31:10:18 –> 00:31:20:17
There’s, and it, and is it even conceivable or even possible that Nevada wouldn’t allow hunting this fall? I mean, that’s what people are thinking. That’s what people are thinking. So
00:31:20:17 –> 00:31:22:09
I’m just saying. Well, they’re afraid of it. But I
00:31:22:17 –> 00:31:48:29
I I I can tell you that we’re lucky in Nevada, we’re 85% public land. And if you want to get away from people in Nevada, it’s pretty easy to do. So at, at this point, I, I don’t see a shutdown coming. I, like I said, I’m planning on going there. I can’t give you a firm guarantee, but I can tell you that I am planning on hunting this fall with, without a doubt. Well,
00:31:48:29 –> 00:32:10:02
The underlying tone within the state. There’s some people that are, you know, there’s some states that are scared of any little thing. I just feel like Nevada’s fairly thick skin, you guys are gonna look at it as even hunting, social distancing no matter what. I just, I just see it, I just see it happening where, you know, hunting is gonna occur in 2020 for, for Nevada. That’s the way I look at it. So I
00:32:10:05 –> 00:32:28:08
I I truly believe so. But like I said, I can’t give a, I’m 99% sure can’t give you that a hundred percent guarantee. But I, I have a good feeling about it. And you know, you brought up the weather. I know you guys say it’s raining down there today. I I think the southern end of the state, central, southern end of the Nevada, this year’s
00:32:29:00 –> 00:32:29:15
Crushed
00:32:30:09 –> 00:32:31:02
Great moisture.
00:32:31:14 –> 00:32:31:27
Unbelievable.
00:32:32:02 –> 00:33:44:02
Yeah. So, so you’re looking at that White pine Lincoln, Southern Nye County, even, you know, Northern Knight County, talking to some, some of my friends down there, they, they, they have a good moisture year northwest, northeast Nevada. We, we don’t have the moisture that we did the past couple years, but it’s fair. Not anything to to brag about, but we’re holding our own. But some of the numbers that we’ve came up with, I think are directly weather related. And Director Waley and I spoke about this just this week on Mule deer, our post postseason buck ratios, some of our success rates in 2018, we had 54% success rate on mule deer. 2019 it went down to 45%. But you look back at our weather during the hunting season, it just, we were warm. Oh right. We were dry and warm and we all know that we, we’d like to be out after a storm and it just didn’t happen.
00:33:45:01 –> 00:35:10:12
We like to be out after a storm because it does increase opportunity and that, that didn’t come about. And some of our post-season deer surveys didn’t show us the bucks that we think are on the landscape either. And some of that was, you guys probably were sheep hunting November 20th. We, we were dry right up until, got crushed day before sheep season. And then we just, it, it changed sheep hunting this in this state so much that first week between fog, rain, snow, wind, it was just a, a tough beginning of the season. But that’s the time that we’re out flying for, or post-season buck ratios too. So it weather has an impact on wildlife management in a lot of ways. And you, you guys look at it as antler growth. When you have moisture this time of year in a good winter and what you’re looking at for next year and wildlife biologists have to look at what the weather did last season that can have an influence on hunter harvest. Hunter take days in the field, all the things that go into setting these recommended quotas that the commission end reviews and make some final quotas. So we weather plays a, a factor 12 months a year, just not this time of year when you’re hoping to grow go antler, that’s for sure.
00:35:10:15 –> 00:35:40:01
Well, and it’s tough when you guys are selling tags and having people apply for tags and whatnot, you’re wanting ’em to be successful and you’re wanting to provide something for what they’re giving the state and, and at the same time not kill everything on the landscape. And so there’s a, there’s a fine balance. Last year was unbelievably different and in a lot of cases tough, you know, I think it saved deer in a lot of country. We had water during the seasons. They didn’t, they weren’t, the deer were, and sheep and anything that relied on water were spread out.
00:35:40:14 –> 00:35:55:23
Yeah. Late later on. Especially. And then earlier in the deer seasons, they had, you know, in southern Nevada had pine nuts everywhere. So it was like could feed and thick trees feed and just thick trees didn’t have to come out and chainings they had had candy under every pin tree. Yeah.
00:35:55:27 –> 00:36:43:14
So, and, and I talked about that 54% in 2018 and 45% in 2019. The other thing I wanna bring up with those two numbers is a good portion of the unsuccessful people, they fill out their return card, they had the opportunity to harvest and chose not to. And that’s because we do provide a quality product and, and people aren’t just out there to, some people do go out there to fill their freezer, but we have a component that goes out there to, to harvest a, an older mature animal and, and that they choose not to harvest. So that doesn’t mean that 54% was the only ones that had the or four fight percent
00:36:43:14 –> 00:36:43:20
Had a great
00:36:43:21 –> 00:37:16:26
Hunt and everybody tried to kill and that’s all it could. Yeah, no, we’ve, we’ve touted heavily, Jason and I, and all of us at up outdoors that Nevada, you know, does a great job at managing what you’d have to collectively label as a, as a more limited resource from a big game standpoint, you know, in a deer, elk antelope than maybe some other states because partly because of the arid environment, arid environment and train and all that. I mean, but when you get a Nevada tag, even though they’re sometimes hard to get, when you get a, a good deer tag, an antelope tag, an elk tag,
00:37:16:28 –> 00:37:18:05
You’ve got something, you’ve
00:37:18:05 –> 00:37:50:09
Got something. And of course sheep are are incredible too. So it’s, the rewards are really high, the potential rewards and there’s something for everybody if you’re more of an opportunist from a deer standpoint, there’s a lot of early season tags with a lot of lot of tags. You can get tags if you want ’em in Nevada. I would say most people maybe our, obviously ourselves included would are more willing to wait for the tags I want from a elk and a deer standpoint. But when you got something, get something in Nevada, you usually, you can sink your teeth into it and have a great hunt.
00:37:51:03 –> 00:38:00:25
Yeah. And you know, we, we have most of our area over 30 bucks per hundred dose and, and not many, I don’t know of any other state that can say that. No, no.
00:38:00:26 –> 00:38:01:03
And
00:38:01:08 –> 00:38:14:21
Our, our bowl ratio we’re, you know, 25 plus bowl of cow ratio on some of our marginal units worth 35 to 45 bulls per, per hundred cows in a lot of our units.
00:38:15:21 –> 00:38:17:01
That’s what we’re talking about. A
00:38:17:01 –> 00:38:38:06
Lot of people would call, a lot of states would call that a wasted resource. They would say, you’re not harvesting enough. You, you could generate more revenue. You know, I mean, let’s be honest. You, you know that Jack, you’ve dealt with how many other states? I mean you’re, you’re having huge interstate meetings with, I don’t know, 35, 40 states. I mean, you know Yeah. You know, know, you know what they’re managing and how their management practices are.
00:38:39:03 –> 00:39:31:21
Well, and one of the statistics on elk that I like to put out there is we shoot for a third of our elk that are harvested at least a third to have a 50 inch main bean. And what, when I was on the commission years ago, the first time I was on the commission, the department came and said they wanted to do a teeth study on elk to start aging elk. And at the same time we were aging the elk that were hunter harvested. We were asking those hunters to turn in their main bean length. And what we found is you get a 50 inch main beam, you’re looking at eight plus year old bowl. So we’re managing to have a third of the elk harvested with that 50 inch main beam. And you guys know as well as I do a 45 inch main beam bowl, a lot of people won’t walk by it. And, and so that’s
00:39:31:21 –> 00:39:39:04
A pretty hefty goal too, considering we’re talking about the general hunting public, everybody, the opportunists, the trophy hunters, everybody.
00:39:39:11 –> 00:40:05:11
Well, but when you’re managing for that and you have that component there, there is something for everybody that there’s something for opportunists, they’re tripping over bulls in, in a sense. And yes, the folks that wanna, alright, I’m, I’m taking my 10 days or two weeks off work from my November four to 20 rifle count. I’m gonna sink my tooth into this. There’s something for those guys to really try to overachieve or find the best of best type thing. So
00:40:05:26 –> 00:40:34:29
Yes. And you know, you look at our antelope success at 73%, our, our antelope opportunities are increasing. We’re, we’re have, we’ve had great success in trap and transplant, antelope, elk, bighorn sheep, all three species deserts, California Rockies. It’s, it’s really working out well for us and, and tremendous opportunities out there. And if, if we have a, a success story, it’s our Desert Bighorn She program and, and our California Rocky Bighorn she program,
00:40:37:07 –> 00:40:37:16
If I
00:40:37:24 –> 00:40:39:00
Remember, we’re, we’re putting out tags,
00:40:39:13 –> 00:40:58:02
If I remember correctly. This is back in, in one of my former lives when I wore a different hat working for Utah, D W R. We have a pretty productive antelope herd in Utah on the Parker Mountain. And I believe we gave an antelope to Nevada one of those years in trade for, we negotiated for desert Big one Jeep. So
00:40:58:02 –> 00:41:01:20
What are you saying? Are you saying that Utah’s responsible for all the success in Nevada?
00:41:01:21 –> 00:41:06:06
No, no, no, no. It’s just on the theme of trap and
00:41:06:06 –> 00:41:06:20
Transplant.
00:41:06:26 –> 00:41:07:26
You know, and I don’t
00:41:08:02 –> 00:41:09:22
Remember we take deserts. Yeah.
00:41:10:06 –> 00:41:10:26
We, yes.
00:41:11:18 –> 00:41:11:27
You know,
00:41:12:08 –> 00:41:13:21
And how does that work? That’s right.
00:41:15:02 –> 00:41:18:12
And we have people, you know, mad about the 10%
00:41:19:18 –> 00:41:20:00
Ratios,
00:41:20:15 –> 00:41:23:29
Residents mad about the 10% goes to non-residents, but I can tell they’re mad.
00:41:24:06 –> 00:41:24:18
That’s
00:41:25:12 –> 00:41:42:12
That’s pretty standard, really. I mean it’s, yeah, there’s some that give more than that, but there’s a few that give under. And the ones that give two and a half to 5%, they probably have cause to have, you know, a lot of con you know, angry people, but ten’s pretty much, you know, almost the
00:41:42:14 –> 00:42:02:26
Standard, almost almost considered standard. And if they’re mad about it, we should talk about the difference in the disparity of tag prices. I don’t know, but I’m just saying residents shouldn’t complain too much. We’re we’re, you know, we’re definitely paying for paying for what we’re taking at the same time. 10 percent’s fairly fair, wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t you? Yeah. Wouldn’t you say? Yes. Well the,
00:42:03:13 –> 00:42:47:01
The main point that I was trying to get to is the California big orange sheep opportunities are elk opportunities. A lot of our antelope opportunities are a direct relation to other states being very, very generous with their resources. And without those other states and other sportsmen supporting those other states, giving those resources away, we wouldn’t have the opportunities we have here in Nevada. So, well we’re, we’re, we’re lucky that West Wide, everybody looks at opportunity to share an abundant resource to help somebody else. And it’s not giving stuff away, it’s just taking your turn. And, and I, I don’t know a state that hasn’t been a benefit of, of sharing resources. No. West Wide.
00:42:47:10 –> 00:42:54:10
I agree. Well, just, if, if we just look at Utah’s desert sheep, our, our best three or four units in the state right now came
00:42:54:10 –> 00:42:54:29
From Nevada sheep
00:42:55:02 –> 00:43:29:02
Are all sourced stock from Nevada. You know, they’re all in extreme southern end of Utah. All of them have Nevada desert sheep of different herds. But they’re, they’re our best in numbers and quality and everything right now. And, well, we actually started another one this last year on the minerals. So there’s another one that hasn’t been hunted yet, but I mean, been a huge benefactor of Nevada desert sheep over here in Utah and we appreciate it and we appreciate that you guys even have been willing to entertain in the past a proposal that included antelope for desert sheep.
00:43:29:19 –> 00:43:58:18
Well, but it’s awesome. My son drew a non-resident antelope tag there in, in Nevada, and we were adding, we were calculating out the drawing odds. His odds were terrible and, but he beat the odds killed a great buck. I’ve never, you know, I haven’t drawn an antelope attack, but I had a guy tell me, a resident tell me just yesterday, he said you could kill a Boer in any unit in the state of Nevada for, for antelope. Like there’s, I don’t know if it feels, does it feel like that to you, Jack? It’s an uptrend for antelope statewide just feels good.
00:43:59:15 –> 00:44:12:20
Definitely. So, and some of that is a lot of that elk country is burned up and, and it’s, it’s converted that, that has an impact on our mul deer because they, they need that tall brush and that cover
00:44:12:22 –> 00:44:14:24
Winter range. Yeah. Winter range feed and
00:44:15:12 –> 00:44:30:26
When, when it converts antelope and elk can thrive and, and it’s just tough on mill there. So, so our antelope numbers are increasing and, and you talked about quality, there is quality all over the state. So we’re, we’re lucky in a lot of ways with our quality.
00:44:31:19 –> 00:44:37:23
I just love Al Carter. I can, his gears are turning on how he can get an antelope tag in Nevada. That’s what I’m picking up right. This
00:44:37:23 –> 00:44:49:11
Brons. So just between you and I, Jack Bronson brings up antelope every day here in the office and just loves to tease me about ’em. But I do have a big antelope, big, big an a number of antelope tags this year. So anyway,
00:44:49:19 –> 00:44:57:11
That’s why we’re teasing him. He’s already got two and we’re trying to get him a trifecta, whatever you call four after that, we’ll maybe we’ll get a Nevada one.
00:44:57:29 –> 00:45:57:14
But no, I, I love Nevada. I’ve killed, you know, quite a few big deer in Nevada and spend a lot of time in Nevada. You know, often Adam and I consult on all the western states and Nevada would be one of the last states that we would ever consider not applying for, like we applied for Nevada. And it’s not just ’cause you’re on, that’s what we tell anybody that calls in the hunts, the opportunity, the experience is unmatched and unparalleled in my mind. And so anyway, as far as you said bare bones meetings, there was a few things on the docket for po possible discussion on change in different, different aspects. But overall not a bad thing. We’re not talk, you know, no change is still, is still okay. There’s the way you guys are managing, the way the processes were working were fine. They’ve worked for years and years and so anyway, nothing but positive in my mind. Is there anything that the, that you’d like the general public to know? Jack,
00:45:58:10 –> 00:46:21:24
We, we do have some changes that we were working on with the commission. One being when people put in as a party, if five people in a party and one person has 15 points and the rest of ’em don’t, we, we average the points and then what we’re finding a lot is the person with a high number of points turns their tag in and
00:46:23:17 –> 00:46:29:05
Does it all again. It’s the next year does it all again the next year with the same people or different people boosts ’em up. Yeah.
00:46:29:07 –> 00:46:32:00
Mom or grandma never incurs a waiting period and gains a point.
00:46:32:19 –> 00:47:02:20
Yeah. It’s point boost, point writing, whatever you wanna call it. But that was slated to be discussed and, and possibly changed to if, if you give back your points, if you give back that tag, that party used those points for the benefit of a tag. So the person that returned their tag would not get to keep all the earn points. They would get one point for the year that they turned in their tag. The other point that we
00:47:02:20 –> 00:47:03:11
Were trying to through
00:47:03:11 –> 00:47:05:25
Didn’t that that didn’t, that’s getting tabled is non-essential.
00:47:05:28 –> 00:48:24:09
That has it, it’s tabled, it’s it’s tabled. So it, and we have people saying, Hey, could the commission pass that? And it, it could change the way that they’re applying this year. It, it can’t get changed soon enough to be implement implemented this year. Once, once the commission goes through a process, we have to go through a legislative process to, to uphold the law and, and make it become law and to, to work through all those. It’s just not going to be in effect this year. The, the one point that I was really looking forward to was, in Nevada, you can return your tag up to the day before the season, which life happens. And we wanna make sure that people that put out a lot of bonus points have that opportunity to return that tag. The bad part is if a tag’s returned two weeks prior to the season, the department does its best to get it, to get it reissued to an alternate if it’s under two weeks. That was our cutoff to give people time to prepare and to get going. We’re looking for a step for those tags under two weeks that are returned that don’t get reissued. And just 400 deer tags were returned in that timeframe
00:48:24:14 –> 00:48:26:21
And not reissued. And not reissued. Not
00:48:26:24 –> 00:48:51:21
Reissued. Yeah. 227 antelope tags returned non reissued. Geez, this one’s gonna break your heart too. 10 desert big horn sheep tags. Ugh. 10 of the 310 tags returned, 10 of them returned, not reissued. So we’re looking at ways to either do a first come first serve on that, have people check a second box that says I’ll take that tag. Even if the season,
00:48:51:21 –> 00:48:52:24
Mid-season. Yeah,
00:48:53:11 –> 00:49:01:24
Well when your resident desert tag fees are 120 bucks in their mind they, they don’t realize maybe some of the residents aren’t calculating the drawings.
00:49:02:01 –> 00:49:03:26
I’ll get that again or whatever they’re
00:49:03:26 –> 00:49:09:29
Thinking. Yeah. Those 10 tags, I’ll bet nine outta 10 of ’em were residents. ’cause at $1,200
00:49:10:07 –> 00:49:15:06
Non-resident that did that needed to be checked for. Yeah. A lot more than covid. Yeah,
00:49:15:26 –> 00:49:16:05
Yeah,
00:49:16:05 –> 00:49:46:25
That’s right. But life does happen. Family. Yeah. I I I I sit on the other side of the phone on in a lot of these things, people don’t get it turned in. And that’s the other thing we’re looking at. We’re looking at extenuating circumstances. Yeah. That be being able to let a person, the rules are right now you have to return the tag before the season. But we have people heard in accidents, we have deaths in family, we have things that just, you know, heart attacks. Yeah.
00:49:46:29 –> 00:49:47:06
And
00:49:47:06 –> 00:50:09:02
Those are, they’re heartbreaking stories. Somebody’s burnt 22 points on a coveted hunt and they have a heart attack two days before, but they’re in the hospital so they can’t get the tag returned. It just, there’s, there’s a lot of things that we’re trying to change to make it better. Yeah. For the customers that have, have a long-term investment in, in buying points.
00:50:09:11 –> 00:50:50:17
But I think for the masses, you know, cut it off two weeks earlier, that’s gonna catch 95 or whatever percent of the people that plans have changed, employment’s changed, life’s changed, whatever. And then the other minimal percent after that, you, you guys or the commission could have the authority to, to hear a, you know, petition, you know, doctor’s note all those things for those super extenuating circumstances. That seems like it, that’s probably an easy way to fix it. And then still allow, since you have a two week head start now with turn back tags to now you get two weeks to reissue them before the seasons even start. And you’ll have a lot more of those get claimed. So, and
00:50:50:17 –> 00:51:10:26
You’ve got a long enough season dates. I mean, you could reissue ’em the day of the season beginning and opening, except with the exception of a, you know, a few of these, you know, orientation courses that are required by the man land managing agencies or whatever in, in a couple of the units. But overall people, the seasons are long enough. I take a tag during season,
00:51:10:26 –> 00:51:13:17
You’ll get somebody to take ’em if you just have enough time to call. Yep.
00:51:13:23 –> 00:51:24:20
And, and that’s what we’re looking at. That’s why we looked at the first come first serve. Because if somebody returns a tag, if a hunt’s starting on a Saturday and somebody returns a tag on a Friday afternoon,
00:51:25:18 –> 00:51:27:08
It’s Monday or Tuesday before you even
00:51:27:10 –> 00:51:56:16
Monday, Monday or Tuesday, it, it’s gonna take some process time on our end. And then we’re, we’re looking at an option that you can pay an extra fee to have that overnighted to you, or you can come into an endow office or a licensing agent and pick up that tag and get in the field. So we’re trying to be creative with this, you know, 1100 tags were returned in that two week window that, that, that’s just lost opportunities to our sportsmen. Wow. We’re we’re trying to fix some of those things. Yeah.
00:51:56:23 –> 00:52:09:15
Utah had to do a similar thing. They went to 30 days. Their numbers, I don’t have to off have ’em off the top of my head, but they were staggeringly high over here because ours was similar to Nevada’s over here. It was the day before. And people
00:52:09:21 –> 00:52:15:11
Prec scout, just prec scout right up into the season beginning and you don’t blame ’em. Yeah. They, they’re playing by the rules. They’re,
00:52:15:11 –> 00:52:25:07
They’re just using loopholes and left a lot of unused tax and in some cases, yeah, just a wasted opportunity for a lot of, lot of tax people would’ve taken. So I
00:52:25:07 –> 00:52:27:04
Look at it as more dear saved. Well,
00:52:27:05 –> 00:52:27:22
Yeah, I,
00:52:28:01 –> 00:52:47:10
I was, I, I was on the commission when we put in the two week scenario and I fought to have it shorter than that and people would say, well you, if you drew a sheep tag, you’d wanna go scout it. I said, yeah, I’d want to go scout it. But you give me a sheep tag with five days left in the season, I’m probably gonna take it. Oh
00:52:47:10 –> 00:52:49:10
Yeah, yeah. I’d take it five days. Yeah,
00:52:50:03 –> 00:53:16:14
Absolutely. Well, all good information. Anything else, Jack, you want to want to tie up here? Put a bow on before we appreciate your time. You know, it’s, obviously this’ll be posted here, it’s still time to apply. So we want to encourage everybody that’s interested in applying and Nevada to do it. It’s a great state, great resource. You got great hunting opportunities over there, but anything you wanna say that we maybe haven’t dressed or, or put a bow on top?
00:53:17:06 –> 00:53:53:15
Well, I wanna tie back to the one thing that does do, there’s a couple things that set Nevada apart. We put out more desert bighorn sheep tags for non-residents than all other states combined. We, we, if you’re, if you’re looking to fulfill a slam, Nevada’s a good, great opportunity to do that at a reasonable price, and then we’re 85% public land, it, that’s an opportunity that doesn’t exist any other western state. So it, it access to the resource is tremendous in Nevada. And that’s, those two things I think really set us apart.
00:53:53:28 –> 00:54:35:00
It’s kind of crazy. I have a, a son over there in, in Wisconsin and oh, he was, you know, dealing with a guy or two on some Turkey hunting and whatnot and talking to him about it and the public land, we take it for granted out here, but the public land is non-existent out there. He says, dad, if you wanna hunt out here, you either own property or you figure out how to have friends that own property, but there is no public land. I, I thought I, it’s just hard to fathom not being able to go out in the hills and camp. Yeah. Here in Utah and Nevada both we’re so fortunate to have Arizona, Wyoming, there’s so much, you know, Idaho, there’s so much public land. I just think out here, we take it for granted a little bit.
00:54:35:10 –> 00:54:45:09
Oh, I, that’s how we grew up and that’s just the norm for us. But not looking at property records, looking at Google Earth and Topo maps is how we scout.
00:54:46:07 –> 00:54:50:06
Right. Go where you want. Pretty well, pretty well can do that so
00:54:50:15 –> 00:55:25:12
Well I I, I do appreciate the cooperation with you guys and, and I I think we have a good relationship that benefits both sides. And I, I really do appreciate that and, and talk about that on a regular basis. When, when we give presentations around the country, we’ve given a couple this year and, and we, we really encourage other states to, to look at the relationships with with people that help people get in the field, like, like your organization does. And, and it’s a, it’s a good resource that that does prove benefits to state agencies. Without a doubt.
00:55:25:27 –> 00:55:49:07
It seemed like you were, we, we called you one day talking about some different things. As we were getting ready to publish the information on Nevada, you were headed back east and to do a presentation with, I don’t remember, 38 states or something. The directors maybe just clarify that and what are you guys meeting about? What are these, these states in pretty, pretty good communication with each other on, on how they’re running their processes or
00:55:49:29 –> 00:56:55:08
We, we are in great communication with each other. There’s a couple national campaigns that, that are started because you see the aging out of the hunters and anglers and we’re trying to bring that average age down in Nevada. We’ve tru truly done that and with our success of our new license simplification, our new license vendor, our customer service approach, we’ve drove the average age down a couple years, which is Bucks the national trend. So we’ve been asked to come and talk about things we do, but there’s the R three, I don’t know if you guys are familiar with R three, recruitment, retention, reactivation, hunters, people from all the country. We met in Monterey, first week in January. We meet every year, the first week in January that, that meeting moves around. But the R three people, the, the conservation education people from all over the country come together, share ideas on marketing and a lot of times over here in those places, yeah, we tried that.
00:56:55:08 –> 00:58:09:17
It didn’t work well. Did you try it on this day? And what was your weather? We look at so many factors when we’re putting out campaigns to, to gauge, click-through rates, open rates, purchase rates, all kinds of things. So we share that kind of information with each other and, and then there’s R B F F, the Recreation Boating and Fishing Foundation. That’s the one that we went back to. Atlanta, Georgia gave a, a presentation there to a couple hundred people and a lot of state directors and all the marketing people from those states were present. And then right after we got done with that, we went to Omaha and Nebraska and gave another presentation that’s North American Wildlife Conference to a room full of people too. Hundreds of people attend these events and, and we’re having success in Nevada and people are recognizing that. And our customer outreach simplification, things we’ve done to, to encourage people to get in the field is recognized and our numbers show it. And now we’re being asked to share our success stories. So we’ve been on a bit of a speaking tour and we’ve been a benefit of other people doing the same thing. So it’s our turn to share. Nice.
00:58:10:09 –> 00:59:12:14
All right. Well Jack, we sure appreciate your time today. We appreciate everything that you offer there in the state of Nevada. We appreciate the relationship as well on our side. It sure makes our job easy. We’re just trying to get information out to folks and you’ve been a huge tool and aiding that and helping us with it and keeping things square. So we appreciate as we wrap up, we just want to, you know, send people to, for more information on applying in Nevada, go to www.inw.orgndw.org. If you, if you wanna apply, you can go to www.endowlicensing.com, n dw licensing.com. You do have some of those auction tags up for bid. That would be on online hunting auctions.com. So those three places are where you can get more information about hunting in Nevada. The, the application period ends on May 4th, 2020. You can apply for points only until May 11th, 2020. In case you missed that fourth application period.
00:59:13:01 –> 00:59:16:22
Set it in. Thanks a lot Jack. Appreciate your time and stay safe,
00:59:17:18 –> 00:59:22:13
Appreciate your time and stay healthy and safe and hope everybody listens. Stays healthy and safe also.
00:59:22:18 –> 00:59:26:18
Yeah, that’s right. We’re looking forward to fall 2020 Jack. So definitely.
00:59:26:19 –> 00:59:27:12
So. Alright,
00:59:27:14 –> 00:59:48:26
Thank you. Alright, talk to you later. Alright, bye everybody. We just wanna throw a little shout out to M O A rifles. What a great system they got going. They sell a lot of things other than rifles, but rifles what they’re known for. Super accurate. Anyway, we appreciate them, their support here at Epic Outdoors. They’ve got an all new lightweight mountain rifle. It’s the ascent rifle. Bronson, I think you’ve got one named Sheila
00:59:49:05 –> 00:59:49:12
Six
00:59:49:12 –> 00:59:49:17
Five.
00:59:49:17 –> 00:59:51:29
Little Sheila P R c, the little killer. Yeah,
00:59:52:02 –> 01:00:22:04
It’s 2020 inch barrel, six five P R C. It’s under six pounds. It’s like five 14, I wanna say 5 12, 5 14. But we were shooting it out to 1200 plus yards. Pretty impressive. Give him a rifles a call at (541) 526-1820 m a rifles.com. Super good people. Quite a lineup of rifles. They also have some other gear set up for the shooter, including bipods and different things. Well worth the call 5 4 1 5 2 6 18 20. Tell ’em we sent you.
01:00:22:06 –> 01:00:58:17
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01:00:59:02 –> 01:01:46:18
Okay, all those of you out there that run cameras, make sure you think about stealth cam. We’re a dealer of stealth cam, we believe in their product. We run lots and lots of their cameras. So anyway, for more information about stealth CAM products, go to stealth cam.com. GSM outdoors.com. They got a lot of different products out there. Great partner of ours here at Epic Outdoors. We believe in ‘EM heavy. We’ve got a lot of cameras in stock if you’re looking for one. They also came out with a Fusion Cellular simplified available in at and t as well as Verizon. We’ve got some Verizon cams headed our way at some point. New technology. Kind of exciting. We’re excited to give ’em a try. So anyway, for more information, go to stealth cam.com. GSM outdoors.com or give us a holler here at Epic Outdoors.
01:01:46:22 –> 01:02:28:01
As you probably heard by now, we here at Epic Outdoors have launched a new division here, epic Optics. We’re glad to be doing it. It’s a natural for us here. We talk optics and gear with all of our hunters. We’re preparing for hunts and talking, planning and, and all that. So we’re dealers for Roski. Zes, like a vortex. Anything that you’re looking for, upgrading or getting something new, buying all his rifle scope, spotting scope, whatever it is, think of us. Give us a call. Got great pricing, give us a call. 4 3 5 2 6 3 0 7 7 7. Gonna be aggressive, honor pricing and look forward to, you know, visiting with you, helping you find the best optic for the need that you’re looking for.
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