EP 168: Hunting Grizzly in Alaska and the Epic Hunt Giveaway 2020

If you think you're ready to hunt in Alaska tough enough mentally prepared you're not. We got until Friday midnight to be able to apply for this membership drive. You're 19th. Anything to do with Western Big Game.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast powered by Under Armour. Hey everybody Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, John Peterson here with us today. How you doing John? I'm barely here. Whoa. Really? You look great. I don't know. We'll see. I heard through the grapevine you've been cleansing. I've got this. I don't know. My wife's got some full body cleanse or something. She's got me on. So before it starts she's like hey we're going to do this. I'll eat anything. Just put it in front of me. I'm good. So that's what I tell her. Then she gives me this giant vessel of something this morning. Vessel. And I open it up and I'm like this is nasty. Did you ask? Yeah. So then I called like what the heck is in this? And she said it's just grapefruit juice and carrots. And it was thick, thick, thick. Like a slushie but a thick slushie. I want to gag. No sugar. It was so bad. I got a Jen story.

So she, you guys remember, I don't know if you remember this, but you invited us over for dinner once and you thought you were going to, you told us you were feeding us chicken. Yes. And I first taste I'm like that's not chicken. It's not chicken. It's mushy. And then Jen got this grin and I said, what is that? And it turned out it was your pet rabbits.

Now pet is. You kids named them. They fed them and they were odd colors, John. They were not. We were rabbit farming. They were big, fluffy, beautiful pets. And you guys ate them. Ate your pets. And I was like, that's gross. If you've got 25 or more at a time, they're not pets. And you're soon to have. You'll soon to have 100. Adam, have you ever seen that picture of John and Carter? Is it John and Carter, your boy Carter? Tyler. Tyler with the axe and chickens. Huh? No, it's a huge turkey. Or turkey. Oh, yeah. You named one Thanksgiving and you named one Christmas. We did. You named them. We did. You named them. They were named Thanksgiving and Christmas.

That's where food comes from. So I like it. I really do. I like it. One way to teach your kids where food comes from. I like it. I do. They were removed. That's where we all came from. We all had, well, not we, ancestors. We all had clubs and rocks at some point. And that's how we killed their food. John's going back to clubs and rocks. We went through a phase where I thought, ah, it's a good deal. The kids know where their food comes from. So we raised rabbits and chickens and all that. We did. I took Tyler on his first deer hunt. And I'm like, are you going to be okay skinning this, you know, and processing? And he's like, dad, you made me kill our pets. It's true, John. And then we feed them to our friends. At six years old. And we had them over for a friend barbecue. This is no big deal. We told Jason it was a chicken from the store. And he was eating rabbit. He was eating Frankie.

I mean, geez. This reminds me. We had a scout camp one summer. And it was, remember, there's like the wilderness survival merit badge. And you have to go out and build a shelter, find food, blah, blah, blah. Right? And you have to, you know, get through a night. Stay overnight. And I know it's like, you remember this. Oh, yeah. Keep going. So we thought, and it was kind of in the spirit of what John talked about, let's get these kids to figure out where food comes from, how you are going to survive if you need to. Right? You can't kill pine hens because it's June or July and it's out of season. Right? So you're not going to do that. So we brought up four or five chickens. Live chickens up onto the mountain. And it was, we were into our, started our hike and we had them in a, like a pet carrier out part on the hike.

And it was like, now's the point of the, that we're, we got to hunt food for dinner. And that's what we're going to do. And we open it and they just took off running and they had to catch them. And like, we're not kidding. This is your dinner tonight. This is it. We're not, we're not even joking. And they freaking, you want to see the barbarian come out in teenage boys? I mean, but they killed them and we plucked them, cleaned them, cooked them. A couple of them had eggs. We fried them. It was, I, that's where food comes from. And, but some of the moms, when they got home and told, they weren't happy with us. They weren't happy with us. On to more serious notes. But that is serious because John, I feel for your bowels right now, but keep drinking water. You've gone through a bunch today and watched. But what else are we going to talk about today? We are kind of an exciting week.

Membership drive, deadline week. The home stretch. Yeah. We had a home stretch last week when we got to the Arizona sheep and deer deadline. That June 9th, June 10th felt like a holiday, but it was a Wednesday. So, holidays never fall on Wednesdays. But it felt like one. But we celebrated. We did. It was a, it was a long, it's a long push. A lot of states to come. We even celebrated and took Friday off, which was the worst decision of our business career. I don't know if it was. It was busy. It was busy. We had a lot of missed calls. But it was, it was due to the office staff that just really put in a lot of, a lot of grinding hours time, getting applications in, taking care, you know, with the magazines and then applications. It was, we decided to make that executive decision. We did. And my phone showed a hundred missed calls. How many did your show? A little 102. But we caught up.

That's Tuesday. Oh, we caught up. Everybody, please leave messages if we're not here. Anyway, so yeah, let's go over a little bit, I guess, about if you have procrastinated, if you've listened to our podcast for months or years on end and just not ever joined Epic Outdoors. Maybe here's another incentive. Maybe it's time to do it. There are member benefits that you get. We've talked about them a lot on the podcast. And most notably, we'll talk about the magazine, nine issues a year. It's dedicated to first six issues of the year are monthly. And they break down in detail the Western states applications from that year perspective. We don't go to print with a year old information. We get current information, research, put it in there from drawing odds, Harvard statistics and all the likes. But in addition to the magazine, you get ability to call and consult with us and make in your

application plans and strategy. I think a lot of people maybe forget about that or undervalue that. And we're here. It's all we do. We take calls all day helping people use points in the best way we think. You know, we had the similar situation. Landowner tags. We sell optics. Optics and trail cameras, stealth cam dealers, optic dealers for Zeiss, Vortex, Leica, Swarovski. And all of those, we have great deals for our members. We have a member experience program if you draw a tag. You want to talk with other members that have been there, done that. If we personally haven't, we've got that as a member benefit. A lot of member benefits. We've got online tools from drawing odds, map planning, planning your hunts, online. A lot of different tools on there. All that included for the $100 membership a year.

And why we're bringing this up is if you join now or refer somebody who joins before this Friday night at midnight, which is June 19th, you get an entry into our summer membership drive giveaway. We've got a bunch of great hunts. Maybe we'll just go through those six hunts right now. Just a little bit freshen up your mind. And if you're already a member of Epic Outdoors and all of your hunting buddies, you've already referred them and they're all members, maybe you just decide you want to buy some entries through tickets. We've got ticket packages that you can do that through again. The deadline being June 19th at midnight. So where do you want to start? Do you want to kick out off the top on Laskedal Sheep? Or what do you got to add to that? Nothing. You covered it all.

You crushed it. No, it's good. I think the drawing odds are better than ever. Literally. There's no question. We're not out there trying to lie about it. It's true. So anyway, it's a great time to play this particular membership drive. That's absolutely true. First hunt we've got here is an Alaskan Dull Sheep with Jonah's Alaskan Outfitters, August 18th to the 21st of 2021. So even though Alaska's open, by the way, we're going to maybe even call a guy that went there just barely off of our hunt, one of our hunt winners. But anyway, we did schedule this one for 2021. Awesome hunt. One of the best up there. Jonah's a super good guy. Good friend, great hunter, and doing an incredible job out there in the central Brooks Range of Alaska. Guys fly up there. They end up basing out of Coldfoot, Alaska. It's a little spot on Alaska, on that pipeline road out of Fairbanks.

And so anyway, great opportunity to kill a great ram. Super good guy. One of the best up there. When I was putting together the publication and putting together this hunt, there were so many giant Dull Sheep to choose from. I had a hard time because there were so many big, big, big Dulls. Jonah's great. And like Jason said, this is for 2021. Hunt booked August 18th, I believe, 2021. Got plenty of time to plan for it. Like you alluded, though, let's maybe call a previous winner, not specifically of Jonah's hunt, because we've got hunt winners going up there, I believe, this year. But we had a hunt winner, Chris Colville from Texas, that drew a membership drive hunt with us around the 1st of March. So at the end of the winter membership drive, he drew an interior grizzly hunt with Lance Kronberger for your freelance outdoor adventures.

And for a lot of the spring, it was looking like, oh, am I even going to be able to go there? But due to some of the COVID restrictions lifting, he was able to go. Let's give him a call. I know he just got back and find out how that hunt went.

Hello. Chris, Adam Bronson, Jason Carter. Hi. John Peterson. Hey, how are you? Hey, how are you doing today? I'm good. Well, hey, we teed up just a little bit. We're doing a podcast about our epic membership drive hunts that we're ending this week here for this current drive and teed it up a little bit of you being a past winner and just got back from what looked to be an awesome hunt up there with Lance Kronberger Freelance Outdoor Adventures in Alaska. So tell us a little bit about that. We teed it up also. It looked for quite a while this spring with what's going on in the world that you weren't going to be able to go. So maybe talk about that and what it was like to get into Alaska as far as any restrictions that you ran into and then we'll get into your hunt just a little bit. All right. Happy to do that. And thanks again for what you all put together. And I was fortunate to win.

And it was, I say this about a lot of my hunts, but it was a hunt of a lifetime. And I will compliment Lance. First of all, he was very professional in so many ways and ran such a tight organization. There was communication throughout the spring before the virus shut down. There was communication during the virus shut down. And then we actually had to, or he actually had to do some scrambling to keep the hunt together when it came to be that they were going to open on June 1st, which is what my hunt date was. So for example, he had five hunters scheduled for the June 1st hunt. And we had all booked flights to Anchorage and then spend the night, fly from Anchorage to Unicleet on a commercial airline that went bankrupt. Wow. And because of the Alaska quarantine rules, we actually were not supposed to spend a night in Anchorage.

So Lance and I guess his wife, Nikki, probably went to work and determined that if we could fly to Seattle, spend the night and then catch a morning flight from Seattle to Anchorage. Wow. And they would meet us directly at the airport and we would go directly to an FBO to fly a charter flight that they had booked. Wow. And so we never, we never put our head down in Alaska and, and became subject to the 14 day quarantine rule until we were actually in camp in Unicleet. So there you go. That's a good way to do it. I know there's a lot of guys thinking about that kind of thing and they, a lot of guys have just given up assuming there's a, you know, the 14 day restriction no matter what. Yeah. So it was a great workaround by him and his team. And I, I truly concluded up until a week before I was supposed to leave for my hunt that it just wasn't going to happen.

Um, and when Lance called and said, we've got to go through this workaround and we talked through it, it came together. The other, the other elements of it. So, you know, I had to eat my airfare on that airline that went bankrupt for a reservation I had from Anchorage to Unicleet. We also could not go into Unicleet because there's a, there was a town barrier there. So when we flew to Unicleet, we had to stay on the runway there while the, so the charter plane, which is a big plane flew back. And then, uh, and then, uh, the guy from flying wild Alaska is actually who they use to take people into camp. So he was an interesting fellow, Jim Tweedo. I don't know if you've ever seen that show. Watch it on TV. Yeah. Yep. And Furno was his wife and Furno was in a, in a runway with us. So the smaller plane that he flies came in and, and took us from there to camp.

So we were on the runway and had our first rainstorm, thunderstorm of the, of the trip, which is the first of many coming, uh, uh, hit us, but, but they got us out in the field. I originally was flying United Airlines. They, uh, had, I had reservations booked. They completely canceled my flight and I had to scramble to rebook through Alaska air. Um, air travel on Alaska air was actually, uh, pretty, pretty okay. We had to wear a mask and on the flight to Seattle, you got one bottle of water and one beer. And then from Seattle to Anchorage the next day, one bottle of water and one beer, because they didn't want the flight attendants interacting, you know, too, too much with the passengers and the passengers were seated every other seat. And it was, it wasn't really a concern of mine going through that process to getting to Anchorage that I was taking a real risk there.

It was, it was well run. The hotel, uh, stayed in Seattle right next to the airport. They were obviously their restaurant was shut down and, and they were very virus cautious, but I felt comfortable there. So I got to Alaska ready to hunt and, you know, thrilled, thrilled, thrilled that it was going to happen. So, well, you made it to Unicleet and then you got flown out. Tell us about your hunt, I guess. Uh, sounds like that's as, I don't know, as good as you could have hoped to get, get there, given everything you had to jump through to get there. And then how did it go from there? All right. Um, so I met a, they, they assigned me to a guide who was already in the location where our camp was and had our tent set up. And his name was Kai Wolf. A great young kid. He's, I think he turned 24 yesterday and he's been doing this four or five years. So camp was set up.

We landed on top of the tundra on top of a little hillside and, and dumped out there. And there, there was some communication from Lance. A lot of Lance's communication leading up to the hunt was, if you think you're ready to hunt in Alaska, you know, tough enough, mentally prepared, you're not. And I will say I've done, I've hunted in Alaska a lot. This turned out to be a very mentally challenging and been frankly, a very physically challenging hunt. And, um, a lot, the elements were a lot more severe than I expected. And maybe I, maybe I underestimated, um, because I thought, well, gee, you know, it's June in Alaska. Yeah. Summer everywhere. Sunshine. And we're going to sit there with our boots off and just glass bears frolicking. That's exactly right. Last year, last year we sent a guy and one of Lance's guides got attacked up there. Remember? Did Lance tell you about it? Yeah. Yeah.

Well, he, that guy is actually back hunting with Lance and was flew in on my flight from Seattle to Anchorage and then flew with us on the charter. He, he didn't turn out to be my guide, but I heard that story. First time. First time. I heard it was crazy. It wasn't, did he, did he tell you? I mean, I heard it was crazy. Yeah. Yeah. So his hunter wounded a bear and they think it got shot it and it ran into the bush. And so he had to go into the bush with his rifle. And he said it was so thick in there. He couldn't put his rifle on off safety because he was afraid an alder branch would cause it to fire. So he had it on safety. And the hunter sitting up on a bluff, watching into the brush where the bear went probably 150 yards. And he's working through the brush and the bear charges him and he pulls up the fire just instinctively from 20 yards.

And his gun didn't go because it was on safety. By the time he looked and put it on safety and got ready to fire, the bear was on him. So he shoved his rifle into the bear's mouth and fell down and went into an upside down fetal position. And the bear tossed the rifle aside and was on his clawing and chewing on his neck and in the back of his arms while he was trying to cover his head. And the hunter starts shooting. And you got a loaded gun off safety right next rolling around on. You got a hunter that made a not perfect shot now shooting at the bear that's on you. That's on him. Right.

And the guide, I'll think of his name in a minute, but the guide said, I could hear the concussion of the bullets hitting the ground around us. He said, I would have been perfectly happy if that bullet had just hit me. And he thought, I'm going to, I'm dying in a slow, painful death right now. Yeah. This is, this is going to, the other, and I think really even more compelling part of that story. Well, the rescue is pretty dramatic, but that's a long story. They ended up getting the Coast Guard and they flew in Black Hawk helicopters. All that's pretty neat. But here's the part of the story that I was just fascinated by was as he went down to the ground and the bear was on him, he hit SOS on his in-reach. Come on. Really? And what happened is, as he described it, SOS goes to a call center. The call center calls your emergency contact. To verify. His emergency contact was his wife.

So they're in the middle of the night, although it's 24 hour sun up there. His wife gets a call and says, we've got SOS contact from your husband. He must be in an emergency. Of course, she has, she's in, she's in Idaho. She has no idea what's going on. And I could just imagine, I told people, I said, you know, if my wife got that call, she would like, like the wicked witch of the West and wizard of ours, she would just melt it into a pool of water. The takeaway is to put your hand, buddy. I was just going to say, I'm going to go into my in-reach and I'm taking my wife out of that. And I'm going to put my brother or you, Jason, and I'll put me. Vice versa. Let's don't have our wives. Okay. That's what I've learned. Okay. Okay. I'm going to, I'm putting somebody else. Anyway, crazy story. So yeah. So when Bronson said bears frolicking, that just came to mind. I'm not.

It's frolicking at times. I don't know. Yeah. So when you say it was a mentally, I mean, you're a, it's a glassing, you're spotting stock. This is not, you know, elk hunting where stuff's screaming. You're, you're sitting on high points all day long, just glassing, right? It's meant you got to just mentally say, Hey, we're minutes away from something cresting a far ridge and we're going to make a move or, or we got to move another two miles to the next glassing point or whatever. That's pretty much right. Uh, my guide might suggest if you talk to him that I could have done more glassing than I did. Uh, but yeah, so, uh, we, the typical day was up at eight, you leave the tent at nine and you're carrying, you know, basically a full frame pack, you know, not, not a, not, not with tent and all of that, but you've got to take all kinds of weather gear.

You've got to take all kinds of warm gear. You got to take food and beverage for the day. And, and you, you go to, you, you hike and we had a really great siding mound or hill or mountain that you climb to. It was a pretty hard hike and it was probably a mile and a half hike would take us about an hour in the morning. Um, the very last part of it was sort of four touch points, you know, hand in hand. And then you get to the top and you're going to be there for 14, 16 hours and it's a beautiful country. It's beautiful country, but there is absolutely nothing to see. There's no, it's beautiful, but I'm not looking at anything.

There are no animals there. You know, there's no caribou. There's no moose. There's no elk. There's no eagles. There's no cows. And I didn't expect to see cows, but I mean, you are literally sitting there. You have distractions in the lower 48. You have distractions. Squirrels. You have wild horses in Nevada. You have something. Yeah. I was up there when I was brown bear hunting and I've done that once or twice, but you know, it's, it was death zone. Everything we saw was like bones. It was like, it wasn't, there was, it was gloomy. Hey, it was gloomy and there was nothing to see, but it was pretty same kind of thing. And it was just like bones. It was like bears and bones, bears and bones. I mean, exactly. All right. So tell us. And then, but I want to emphasize in that 14 or 16 hours that you're sitting there and,

and your guide's glassing all the time and he's making subtle hands that you should be glassing more. Like, like, like we usually do better when clients help us out. Yeah. Exactly. Focus, focus. You know, I hope you didn't have to pay a baggage fee for those binoculars.

By the way, I've been in reaching my wife. She's doing well. The business is doing good. Would you like me to reach any of your friends while you're glassing for us? Right. Right. And, and then, but here's the part that sort of surprised me was it gets cold and then the wind starts blowing 30 miles an hour and you're on the most exposed point in the whole, you know, five. I mean, we could see the other, one of the other campers tents or one of the other hunters tents from seven, eight miles away because we are at the very top of this knob and then the mosquitoes come and then a thunderstorm comes with hail and sometimes it's all of that. And it sounds like anything but nice June weather. Anything but nice June weather. Although there, there were, it changed every hour and, you know, so you're, you're, you're putting on and off rain clothes.

You're trying to get out of the hail storm and you're looking at your tent. That's a mile away and saying, you know, God dang, we could sure write this out in there. And Lance and his team doesn't do that. Well, if you add that to the absence of glassing, you might put him over the top.

Exactly. So we did that, we did that four or five days and we saw the same group of sows with cubs and we did see one bear and went on a really rapid run off the mountain to another glassing point. And somehow we both saw a bear that we were convinced was a boar. And when we got there, it was a beautiful sow. And so we stayed on her thinking they had just swapped positions, but gave up and we didn't want to leave our scent down there. So we had to climb back up that mountain and resume watching. And that was it. And like you said, it's day. I mean, it's hour after hour after hour. And then we were, he said, I really need you to glass between nine and midnight. Right.

That's not a hint. In the last 23 hours, I've glassed 23 hours. And I need a one, I need one to three hour break. I need a half hour nap. Could you possibly help me with that? Exactly.

Some funny crap. The, uh, you know, of course the way it worked out is you can guess who saw the bear, me. Wow. Yeah. And, uh, it was right at nine o'clock and he's glassing backwards. I'm glassing forward. And, you know, there's a big bear, you know, crossing from right to left. So I turn around and yell bear, bear at him. And he grabs his binocs and says, where? And I said, well, out there, you know, because I, I was, I so wanted him to see it and see if it was what we were going to go after that. I didn't, I didn't pick a landmark or something. Yeah. I didn't pick a landmark, but he was, he was crossing across. So he saw it and he said, yeah, we got to go. But I mean, we got to really go and you're going to have to keep up and we're going to have to see if we intersecting. And I said, look, I can keep up. I promise you that. And so we peeled off real quickly.

We peeled off our heavy rain gear, peeled off, took out stove and the things we were having for hot cider on the mountain and, and went. And it took us about, and we actually went to the exact same point where we had gone on the stock for the, for the sow that turned out to be a sow. And we're going to try to get to that knob and just hope he had hung up somewhere and, and regroup from there. And we're about 500 yards from that knob. And I'm trailing Kai, you know, by 15 or 20 yards. He's, he's, he's going to go faster than I am, even though I was going as fast as I could. And I look up and the bear had crossed onto this side of the knob. So I'm trying to yell at Kai to stop and see the bear. And he does. And so then it became, it became a spot in stock at that point. So I, the, the wind was crossing.

And fortunately it should have been right to him, but it was, I think it was crossing just enough where it missed him. I crawled up on hands and knees to where Kai was. And then we were, he, he ranged it at 580 yards and I got my rifle right. I did not take a 580 yard shot. I promise. But he said, we got to wait for him to make a move and then we'll make a move. And so just be ready, leave your pack here, leave everything here. It's, it's, it's shooting time from this point forward. And after, I don't know, five, 10 minutes, the bear kind of just got up and, and started wandering again off to his left and kind of got in an area where he couldn't really see us moving. So we moved diagonally and he got in front of us, but we had closed the distance and kind of quartered and, and, and Kai said, I'm going to put my pack up. Are you comfortable shooting off the pack?

And fortunately, you know, I'm not, not an amateur in shootings, but I said, yeah, I can do that. And he said, how long shot can you take? I said, I can take a 300 yard shot. I'm confident of that. And so we, we sort of cut him off and he stopped and turned sideways, you know, broadside. And, and he said, I said, how far is it? And I'm getting on the pack. And he said, it's two 30. And I dialed my scope to two 30 and fricking fell over.

Yeah, it was it. And it was nine 30. You didn't have any mauling experience. There was nothing exciting. No thick brush alders over your head. No, none of that. Going in after a wounded bear. It was, it was, it was, and the weather cleared. So we got some great pictures and, and then fantastic. Yeah. He's a gorgeous bear. Your bear is the really blonde color with the dark legs, striking contra, beautiful bear. Incredible. Beautiful bear. Yeah. And he field measured, um, eight, four squared, which is pretty huge as I understand. And he was, he was one inch or less short of being a book bear. And he was great. And then the rest of the rest of the trip is you guys know how it takes four or five hours. Once the picture taking is done to, to scan and, and, and pack out. And then we had, you know, a couple miles to go back uphill to the, to the camp. And so that was a, that was a 20 hour day.

Early morning getting back. Yeah. Yeah. Actually we got, so the sun would set and I took another great picture. I'll send you guys if you'd like. I took it. We were back at the tent and the sun comes up at four. It goes down about one, but it just goes down behind the horizon. I took a great picture of our tent and the sun coming up at 4. AM right before we went into the tent after that day to sleep. Yeah. And, um, that's as good a memory as all. Wow. That's awesome. Well, congratulations. What a, what a world-class experience really. I mean, that's just you, your experience is kind of what spring bear in Alaska is. That's, it's a lot of glass and it's a lot of patience. Weather, cold, just you be prepared. You got the full gamut. Yeah. It is not for the faint of heart. You have got to be mentally strong. Long days.

And you got to be, you know, prepared for long days and, and you'll get along a lot better with your guide. If your glasses at least have as much as he does. Well, you just, you at least give him three hours a day. Yeah. Give him the other 21. And then just, and then an unlimited in-reach plan is helpful to keep your mind busy. That's true. But you save the day if you're the one that actually sees the bear. There you go. Now you could talk a little smack back at camp. He said, all I needed was three hours. He's like, you know, you would have started from day one. Maybe we would have been done earlier. I told him it was, it was age and experience. Well, he'll learn not to waste valuable glassing time. I would love to get him on a podcast and hear his side of it. Let's get his rendition. I don't think he's reachable.

Well, Chris, we appreciate you taking some time out of your schedule. You're, you're home. You've just been home a few days and, uh, you know, we got your pictures. Well, Lance in-reached me first from, from, you know, the bush where he was with a client and told me you're successful and killed a great bear. And it was a day or two later that you were back in wherever, cell phone civilization. Sent us the first couple pictures and, uh, great to hear a great report. We appreciate you coming on. Tell us about, about it. And, uh, you know, we've got a number drive going on right now. And you guys like you and many more are the recipient of some, some great hunts. We, we realized that many of these hunts, uh, hard to book. Um, it's kind of a different era and time right now, especially, but, um, your proof, I guess that somebody's at the end of this barrel when a ticket comes out and that's a

real person. So thanks for taking time with us today. Very happy to thank you guys again for putting that together. And I was, I was fortunate enough to win it, but I didn't let you down. Good job, Chris. We appreciate you. Have a great day. Take care. Bye. Well, that's a, that's a great experience from a winner. He just won that on the one that ended the end of February. We drew that around the first couple of days of March. And, uh, that was a quick turnaround for 99% of the time since he won that hunt. He didn't think he was going to be able to go. I didn't think he was going to be able to go. None of us really did. And then, uh, some of the quarantine things lifted loud. Some of the, fortunately some of our brown bear hunters that were supposed to hunt in, in May couldn't because the things didn't lift until first of June.

Like you said, this happened to be a June one to 15 hunt and fortunate enough to go up there and pull it off and kill an awesome looking bear. So anyway, uh, I was told they're going to do spring hunts again next year. Yeah. That's what they got to make up, make up for stuff. Yeah. And unfortunately they can do that in some certain instances. All right. So next on the list, hunt number two is, uh, Nevada 2020. That'd be this year, 231 there in Nevada. One of the best units in the state. So landowner tag, we've got it reserved sitting here in the office and guys that, uh, put it in their name can hunt all seasons. Archery muzzle rifle. Of course, this will be a seven day guided hunt with the season of your choice. Uh, with Greg Krog, one of the best outfitters out there getting it done nonstop on giant mule deer thought it was only fitting. We'd like to have world-class hunts.

Within our giveaways and our membership drives. And this is definitely one of them. Just an incredible opportunity with Greg Krog, muggy on rim outfitters. Um, get to choose muzzle, archery, rifle. It's, uh, the guide services included as well as a landowner tag, Bronson. We've been selling these for upwards of 13, five tag only. Yep. And this one's a guided package on top of that. So great experience there for somebody, uh, to win that hunt number two. Hunt number three is a Nevada unit 076 through 081 elk hunt. This is with a six day fully outfitted hunt with landowner tag, uh, with deadline outfitters. Hobie Gardner, um, winner has their hunt choice, either archery, muzzle or rifle. This is a 2020 hunt. This is valued about $17,000. Again, landowner tag, guided hunt included, um, entire and good for the entire unit group,

including all guides, service, food, lodging, everything on the hunt of your choice. Um, you know, Hobie knows that very, very well. He lives on the other side of the border in Idaho, guides the famed unit 54 in Idaho and these units border some of that country. So he knows that part of the, of Nevada and, uh, knows what these elk do. Been on some great bulls, uh, taking some great bulls with clients. So we worked with him for many, many years. So that's another great hunt again for 2020 coming up, uh, here in Nevada outcount 076 to 081. And you're going to be able to go. They're not going to be locking the borders in Nevada. We're pretty sure of that. So anyway, great opportunity. We have that landowner tag in our office as well. Ready to go. Um, the next hunt, number four would be, uh, 2021 Colorado mule deer hunting unit 68. We've all been to 68 pretty much.

Um, killed some absolute great bucks there. Uh, great opportunity, private and public, um, should be awesome with, uh, Hills guides and outfitters. Clay Hill does a great job. One of the better outfitters in the state of Colorado. So what an awesome opportunity. It will be next year. And the reason why we did next year, those late season dates, third season kicks as late as it's ever been. Our recollection, November 13 to 19, uh, in 2021, pretty awesome dates, uh, landowner unit and wide landowner tag and guide service included on that. What a great opportunity. So anyway. So next one is also a 2021 hunt in Mexico. And I just got back from there. Awesome. We've heard many times about the go back and listen to some of that. Luckily you didn't go to a Mexican hospital, John. But anyway, go ahead. Anyway.

So it's a seven day hunt, uh, with, uh, Rancho Bonita trophy hunts and that'll be January 5th through 11th. And so that one's not too far away actually. So great hunt. Uh, those are good time and, and typically great food. And, and, uh, so it's one, uh, that you want to take advantage of. Well, that's one of the best outfitters for coos deer down there we've ever found. He's producing some amazing bucks. Bronson is something we're going to do. It's definitely on our bucket list. Yeah. You know, he's, he's got great properties, um, manages them well, doesn't over hunt them and scouts them very well. And, uh, this is going to, you know, he'll meet you. Um, he, he lives in the United States, but then meet you in Tucson, drive you through and all that. No problem. Um, everything's involved, included in that and helping you get, get there. So great hunt, uh, again, Mexico 2021.

And I was worried about going, but if you got somebody that takes you across the border, it's, it's no worries whatsoever. Yeah. It takes a while and you got to be prepared for that. But was there any guns pointed at you? No, not really. I mean, we had the military stop us and stuff, but it wasn't a big deal. It's all big deal. Yeah. They, they want you there. And so anyway, should be a great opportunity. Our last one right here. We've got a, uh, uh, 2021 Texas private land, Barbary sheep hunt. What a great outfitter. Uh, there, uh, Jim Brick being of high West outfitters. Great opportunity. Lots of property. Wyatt went on this hunt. Killed an absolute monster. He killed a giant 35 or something. I think they average about 35 and a half, but let's call it 35 and a quarter. Cause he probably embellished. But they still average 32 to 33. That's where their, their averages. Those are big.

He brought it into the office, put it on the wall and it's a monster. It's beautiful. It's a gorgeous mouth. Yeah. Made me want to go hunt. Yeah. It's on my bucket list. Yeah. They're cool. I don't care if they're called poor man's sheep. They're awesome. They're cool. So, uh, what?

Yeah, they are cool. I agree with you. Anyway. I agree. They're fun. And the flexibility of when you can go. This is a four day hunt. Good for February, March, or April of 2021. You pick a, pick a window of time, work it out with Jim Brick. He can work you in. So it's not, you're not locked into a very tight window at all. It's also a time of year. I mean, what else is going on February, March, and April in the hunting world? There's turkeys having to start gobbling most places. Bears are still denned up. So Texas, Texas is still a place to go smash and grab. That's right. That's right. Texas is awesome. And then we have the, the big ticket, uh, bonus package. It's basically if you're, if you, uh, purchase a $500 ticket package, you get an automatic entry into our optics, which cover optics from Leica, Zeiss, Swarovski, and Vortex.

I mean, rifle scopes, big spot and scopes, the obvious BTX, the great big binos, as well as, uh, 10 by binos, 15 power binos, a rangefinder from Vortex and a rifle scope. I mean, it's a good, it's a good over 12 grand, if I remember right. And that's, that's not, that's not $795. It's, it's a, it's a lot. And, uh, that gives you 30 tickets to spread out amongst your choice among, among all the hunts. And the only way to get in for the optics package is for that deal. Um, no way to buy individual optics packets tickets. Um, but anyway, that, that's just a little incentive. Also just to break down the ticket, uh, orders that they are one ticket for 25, five for a hundred, 10 for 200. If you do the $200 package, you also do get an outdoor edge, Epic Outdoor Series Razor Light knife, uh, 10 tickets and a knife gets you the 200 package. Or again, like we explained, you get the $500 package.

You get a free knife as well as an entry into the optics giveaway. So I've had a lot of guys say, well, I've already got a knife. Who doesn't need a knife in every door panel? I mean, every door panel. And there's four of them per truck. Okay. Have you guys, speaking of, yes, have you guys ever had to cut carpet? It's not easy to cut. Okay. Yes. And you remember the exacto knives that you use the old, where do you have one of those? My boys, he's, he's putting together a little truck and he wanted carpet in the bit of his truck. I'm like, why? I've never had that in my life. Well, just that so it doesn't rattle. We're going to have a little sleepover. We're going to have a little bonfire. We'll have some little honeys in there. It might rain. All right. And he knows what, he knows what will happen if that happens. So we don't need to go there on the what ifs.

Welcome to teenage boys, Adam. However, he's like, he comes out of the kitchen with the steak knife. And I'm like, what's that for? He goes, I got to cut that car. He says, no, that ain't going to cut it. I says, he's, he's, oh, I can't find the exacto knife anywhere. I says, right. Go get one of the Epic Outdoors razor light. That thing buttered. Butter. I says, get a fresh plate. It, it. Perfect lines. Perfect lines. And it's got the hard back. I mean, it was unbelievable. He's like, I'm shocked. He had to cut it out for the Will Wells and all this crap. And I'm like, whatever. You're going to put one dead animal in there and throw the carpet away.

But whatever. But that'll be a proud dad moment when he does. Well, yeah. Like I say. And I get to say, I told you so. Last night I used mine to open up a bag of Grub Killer. Grub? I did dad projects. Oh, yeah. You got Grub Killer on the lawn. Yeah. Here and there. Right? So there's a razor light. And my one door panel that I went for didn't have one. I'm like, yep, I need another one. Because I don't like looking around for knives. Well, trucks have four doors. Four doors. Four door panels. And when you have multiple trucks, pretty soon you need eight, nine knives. Four. That's the way it goes. Huh? Anyway, do that. You can also get an entry in if you refer a guy. So refer one of your buddies that's mooching off you. You know, you'll get a ticket for referring him. He'll get a ticket because he's a new member. Any of you out there that are listening and mooching, join. Okay?

It's time to join. Pay your dues. You're going to get a monthly publication December through June. By month is the remaining part of the year. Be able to call in. Be able to use your own drawing odds research tools online, your old hunt planner features. And if you want to buy optics, we'll look you up and see that you are a member. And we'll extend an awesome deal to you because you're a member of Epic Outdoors versus not. So anyway, there's other benefits in there that'll easily pay for that $100 membership a year. No question. Don't be a cheapskate. Join. And we're going to make all your hopes and dreams come true. Western big game hunting. That's what we do. Next week will be one of the fun traditions that we have is we record the calls. When we call the guys, we do it twice a year. It's one of the funnest things that we get to be a part of and just make people's dreams come true.

How often did you get to do that? It's pretty fun. And obviously, we're always thinking of ways to market our business to current members, potential members, new blood members. You know, you've got to market. And this is just a way that we do that. Hunts are what we all love to do, dream about, think about. And it's a carrot dangling out there to help people. Maybe it's an incentive, but it's a pretty big carrot. These are, some of them, $18,000 to $20,000 carrots. And the odds have never been better. And we're not just saying it. $18,000 to $20,000 carrots. A lot, worth a lot more than that carrot juice you pounded this morning. Yeah. Yeah, we were worried about the corona, you know, doing this giveaway during corona. And I think it has affected, you know, things somewhat. Trying to be sensitive to that. So the odds are really good due to that as well. It's also a shorter drive.

This is a 45- or 50-day drive. Part of the reason we've got to give some of these hunts away because they are 2020. You can't back out of them. You bought them. You bought the lantern attached. You booked the outfitter. You can't just say, maybe next year. And we don't. We don't back out. We don't quit. So I'm not going to do that. We're not quitters. Okay. Chris, you had a question. I was just going to talk about, guys, if you're listening and you're not a member, let me just, I'm just going to tell you from my perspective, okay, if you're interested in applying for big game in the West United States, that's expensive. And there's a lot that goes into it. A lot of time, a lot of money. For $100, you basically can ensure that you're doing the right thing, that you're putting that money to good use, that you get this magazine, you can look through.

And instead of just throwing your money out there, hoping that you're doing the right thing, you can have personalized service and someone that's going to help you to maximize your application strategy. So let's say I want to go to Colorado. I can go through this magazine and I can look and I can read about each unit and I can pick, okay, I want to do this. And then I can call in. That is well worth more than $100. And especially once you consider how much you're spending to apply. If you're going to put in the money to apply, you may as well spend $100 and have professional help and get the most out of your money. Most of these states are $100 to $200 non-reformable to apply for in each state. And then the tags are, let's just say deer and elk tags, $300 to $700 each when you draw.

You draw a bad one and then your time away from work, gas, you're in this, you know, $800 to a grand pretty easy on a hunt that's a self-guided hunt. And I would contend that some of the information that you read is going to either save you money that maybe is not maybe worth doing in a certain draw strategy based on you knew or your perspective or applying a totally different way so that you are getting the most out of your non-reformable money. So good point, Chris, in bringing all that up, that $100 is pretty easy to recapture in this whole scheme of applying in the Western United States. Well, and then if you draw a tag, the fact alone that we can give you a list of guys who've drawn that unit, you draw a tag out of state, you've never been there, that information. And just where to camp, places to start is invaluable. All right. If that's it, that's it.

We got until Friday midnight to be able to apply for this membership drive. June 19th. Get your buddies in. Get your name in the hat. Get your name in the hat. Love to draw it. Make sure you're in there. Can't be in too many draws. That's the way we look at it. That's right. Give us a call. We're here at the office, 435-263-0777 or online at epicoutdoors.com. You can buy tickets on there, buy your membership on there. If it's simpler to just give us a call, again, call us, 435-263-0777. And we hope to be calling you next week.