EP 177: Brendan Burns of KUIU

Archery opener coming up. It's a pretty versatile pattern, obviously, with a lighter nature. You learn what you can and can't get away with when you've got a bow in your head and you're just trying to sneak up on something on the ground. Anything to do with Western big game. Welcome to the Epic Outdoors Podcast, powered by Under Armour. Hey, everybody. Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, Chris Peterson. Chris is at the keyboard. Makes us sound really good. Covers our tracks. Butts. Butts, too. Have you ever played Cover Your Assets? Is that a board game? Yeah, no, it's like a little bit of a card game, and it's kind of fun. Anyway, I've been playing that with the kids and wife. Digression. Trying to get a little variety in my life, other than just hunting. So, I play once in a while a card game with the kids and call it good. I put it on the calendar, too, so we all remember that I did something.

Nothing different than hunting. Gotcha. Alright, well anyway. Well, it's August, Carter. It's August. What does that mean? Well, it usually means stuff's gonna start dying in Nevada. August 10th, archery opener coming up. And they've had the archery animal pun. Seen a couple die. Yeah, we had one, had a member send a great buck to us yesterday wearing the new QU pattern. Probably, I don't know, probably the first pattern I've seen. I'm sure somebody's gonna correct me. Behind a dead animal. I think the first dead animal I've seen with that, but I think they had some prototypes last year. Seems like I saw Schaefer kill the sheep with it, but I'm talking inside. Yeah, but he's in the company. That's right. He's had this for a year. That's not even fair. That's right. Him and Burns could wear that. They've had a pajama set for probably

a year. A pajama set. So, we do need to... Let's call it. Let's find out. We do need to... Yeah, let's give him a holler and see what he has to say, you know. He's probably quarantined in Bozeman. He usually likes to go up north hunting sheep with him or somebody else. Excuse you, do you think they're making him go to California once in a while or just... I'm gonna find out. All right, I'm calling. All right.

Mr. Bronson. What's up, man? Oh, you know, same old stuff. How about you? Well, I got Jason and Chris here doing a podcast. We're just checking on you. We were talking about first kill picks of the year starting to come in for the most part. We had an antelope come in yesterday with the probably, I know, not, it seems like the first kill pick with the valo. He killed an archery. It's archery. But not counting you and Shafer. Valo. Valo. Sorry. Valo. Valo. Yeah. Hard A. Let's keep it with a hard A. Okay. You gotta line him out, Burns. All right. Yeah, it's all good. I didn't get that in the media kit, so I didn't get the Merriam-Webster, you know, the phonetical pronunciation part of it, so I apologize. Probably a video clip on it somewhere. Yeah, actually, the first...

Was that Schaefer? Who killed something with it for you? I know Schaefer wore it on his sheep hunts, but I'm talking about non-insider. We joked that you guys probably have had pajamas and briefs for a year now, and Velo, you and Schaefer. It's not fair, because you guys are on the inside. Yeah, that's right. I'm talking a normal hunter. Yeah, Greg McHale killed a bison with it, and yeah, we've had a bunch of stuff this spring, obviously. My buddy Will Waldrop and Matt Forrest had a killed three grizzly bears up in Alaska. Obviously, not a lot of operators up there, but they got a bunch of stuff done this spring. Yeah, I think Justin had the actual first production camo velo kill.

It's a great, very low kill. Gotcha. Well, how about we just qualify? This is the first antelope kill, probably. The fall hunting season. How about we just call it the first antelope? With Pine Peak Outfitters, did a great job. Great buck. You probably saw it. Posted it on our Instagram yesterday. Just kind of cool. I mean, you're seeing it showing up, and we will a lot more. Yeah, it's a pretty versatile pattern, obviously, with a lighter nature and less contrast. I think it's like this time of year, I was going to see a ton of it. So, yeah. Actually, Greg McHale, I just got a picture of the day. Greg McHale, My wife just shot an absolute slob of a tall sheep up in the Yukon to rub in the fact that none of us are out there. Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that. Like, I know you've been up there a bunch. Did you have anything planned this year or no for Canada?

I did. I had a hunt booked in the Yukon, and yeah, it was just kind of a bummer. I mean, you start such a weird thing to have it like, We're like, well, you know, we'll put it off a little while, and we'll kind of see how it goes. Then it was kind of about, for me, it was about July 1st, was kind of a line in the sand time, where it's like, yeah, kind of got to know. And, you know, I can be pretty impulsive, and I can be pretty react, you know, react pretty quickly to stuff, but you got to have a little time to know when you're going to go, and just kept headed further and further down that path. And, you know, it's a real bummer for all those outfitters, but, you know, there's not really,

There's still not even a plan in place that I can find. It's kind of a bummer because there's no plan to see those guys be able to operate. It's not like, if the number of cases hits this, and if the US is doing this, this will trigger this, and this can open up. It's just like, hey, we'll revisit in a month, which isn't really a plan. Month to month, yeah. A lot of guys live month to month, and we're told that you try to get out from under that scenario, right? Yeah. That's what I was taught in college. But anyway, where are you at? One thing before we called you, are you in Montana? You don't have to go to California at all during this, do you? I have not been to California since February, and I honestly can't foresee with the travel stuff being in California in the next, maybe for a long time.

So, you know, I've got obviously my office here, and we're on kind of like a lot of companies, no corporate travel, just don't want to. Yeah. And you know what, as the chief hunting officer, I don't really need to be down there that much anymore. Oh, yeah. So, it's been pretty good. I'm like you guys, man. This is teaching. I want to spend that time scouting. Yeah, well, and this is, I think, teaching in your company, but a lot of companies that are Zooming and all the other things, teaching them, you've probably, I don't want to say waste. When I say waste, that sounds like a harsh word, and I'm not talking about QU specifically, but we'll just talk about corporate America. Could be wasting a lot of freaking money flying people around to meetings all the time, and I think it's probably going to change the way people do business a lot more.

Like, you can get a lot done sitting, staring at each other on the computer, hang up, and go and do, instead of fly in for the same meeting. But anyway, moving along with the more important stuff, what are you hearing? So, you heard from Greg's why she killed a great, obviously, their residents up there. You've got a big connection. I know a lot of the guys that have hunted, like Johnny and those guys. Jason and I were talking about it today. What a year. Can you imagine being a BC resident this year, a sheep hunter BC resident? And would it be like... It would be unbelievable. I mean, I can't even imagine. Don't think, Burns, don't you foresee a free-for-all for the locals up there? Just being able to go and do and not have the competition of the outfitters and paid clients. You don't have the urgency.

And you don't have the urgency of, I better kill this thing opening day before, you know, blah, blah, blah. I mean, it's just a, it's interesting. It's an interesting scenario. Yeah, it's gotta be. It's, and I don't have any super insight into who's going on. I try not to ask, because I don't want to have to lie to anybody if I know. But yeah, I mean, it's gotta be a little bit terrifying for a lot of outfitters, too, just knowing that. I think a lot of guys are in there They're watching their areas. But no, I mean, I think a lot of the resident guys, and especially guys that were normally guiding, I think the bigger thing is guys that were normally busy guiding are now, they're off for the fall. They're hunting for themselves. And so, they get a chance to go in there and dig into where they've always wanted to hunt.

This is the year they get one for themselves, if they've got a little stash of cash that they can survive. This is their money time of year. It's a sad deal, as we've already talked Yeah, that's a bummer. I mean, guys like you and me, Adam, we, you know, I killed a doll, obviously, at Ultimate Tooley last year, and you were the year before. So, this is the first year in, boy, a long time in my life where, like, it doesn't matter what it is. Like, I'm not going to kill a sheep this year. I mean, I don't even have the option. Like, I cannot go to Alaska as you can. And NWT, UConn, BC, Alberta, all that stuff is closed down. It's a county thing. So, yeah, it's like unless some alternate tag phone call from a state comes, it's not going to happen. Yeah. Yeah, I'll be picking up those Nevada calls quickly.

Oh, yeah. Nevada, Arizona, well, anyway. You guys are spoiled. This is the first year I'm not going to sheep hunt. Carter, you've... Yeah. Where are we? How far have we come, Burns? Yeah, I really would say since about 2010, I would say this is the first year I won't be on a thin horn hunt or any kind of sheep hunt, even going with somebody else. I mean, obviously, I'm not always hunting, but even going with somebody else. Yeah, it's a real bummer for all those outfitters out there. I actually just talked to Glenda yesterday, and they're basically just, there's nothing they can do.

It'd be one thing if it was in their control, but it's totally, like a lot of the stuff now, you know, like it's just a whole different world, and it's totally out of their control. You know, it's being led by other stuff, you know, government out east, and people were, you know, the outfitting is not really a huge priority, how it affects people's livelihoods. It's giant to the people there, but to the population base of all of Canada, it's like a drop in the bucket. You know what I mean? It's not important. It's Quebec and Montreal, and we're in Vancouver. For the population bases, that's where decisions get made. What do you have on the schedule? What do you have for hunts? Well, it's a pretty good year. I mean, obviously, no one could have predicted our current situation, but I finally cashed in my points in Wyoming.

I've got an Area 7 tag for elk in Wyoming, which put those in. My buddy, A.J. Kissel, and I will be going out to Wyoming. And then, after 29 years, I finally drew a goat tag in Montana. I think it's been, I think it's for the last 10 years at least, every year, I've heard your gnashing of teeth every time the Montana results come out. It's been for about 10 years, because you've had max points, which a lot of people do, but it's still, you applied before points even started, like you just alluded, and goats aren't sheep tags. Until this spring. You drew a sheep, I mean. Yeah. Until this spring, I was 0 for 28 on between 1 and 4 and 1 and 8 odds. That's pretty bad luck. Yeah, that's right. But you're going to run into a guy, when they see your pitcher with a dead Billy, and they say, you're so lucky, Burns. You know, you're always drawing something,

and you have to just back him up a little bit and say, Burns is good at that. He'll square him up. I'm confident. There's a guy that just moved here, you know, we're a local hunting company, a competitor that first year in Montana drew the exact same tag. First year? Oh my God. I think he's a resident one year. I'm 92 at the max. So, you never know. So, is that early September? I mean, I don't know what else you got on your... You got your Unit 7 in September sometime for Archery Elk, obviously, but... And then are you going to wait a little bit on goat, or are you going to go goat first? As soon as I find a Billy that I'm after, I've been out scouting a few times, not as much as I would have liked so far, but it's been really hot here.

The other morning I was out, I did a nine-miler with my son the other morning, and they were bedded in the rocks in the shadows by 6.45 a.m., so it's not a great time to see him right now. But no, I don't really care about hair. I'm looking for a great big Billy. If he's got more hair than a tennis ball, that's fine with me. I want to get it done with my bow early. And move on. And enjoy. Yeah, I've got a hunt that I've always wanted to do on this one. I'm going to actually do it. I'm going to do one part of it next week, and it's called the Devil's Backbone. It's about a 25-mile hike along this big ridge line. I'm going to go look into all those bases and see if I can find what I'm looking for. Yeah, we'll see. So, when the right goes in the right spot, that's when I'm going after. But I'm definitely not waiting. You know, this is the kind of country, like, every year, guys wave.

Like, I'm going to wait until they're haired up. Oh, not in Montana, no. And then all of a sudden, you're snowed out, and you go in and have to slug a nanny. There's a reason some of your units, they moved them from, I drew one with Goat in like 2003. I think the opener back there was like September 15th. I don't know, I went in the first part of October. And now they're like, they had a year or two that they had freak September snows. And so now it's like, is it September 5 or 1? September 1. Yeah, it's like... September 1 with a rifle. There's not even an archery hunt. Yeah, that's right. It's September 1 with a rifle. Yep. We want you in and out. We're done the research and rescue missions. Yeah. We could call live live. What do you guys got going? What do you have drawn that you're... Are you scouting sheep right now for hunters, or...? We're getting ready. Been in Nevada a bunch,

and it's been a hot, miserable sucker, but getting an inventory of what's there. Carter's got 14 deer tags I've got a couple deer tags, Utah Generals. For archery deer, that opens up a week from Saturday, so August 15th. We've got deer tags. Of course, Jason's got a couple of kids that are hunting. My boy's first, he's got a couple of his kids, one of them at least, first time can shoot a bow or hunt with a bow, mine too. And so, you're showing them some bucks we're seeing, and they're like picking them out. Like, that one's for me, that one's for... And as if you can just pick a buck out. Ash is like, Dad, Justin gets that one, I get that one, and Sean can kill that one. It's like, just because you got them on camera or you glass them up pre-scouting doesn't mean they're dead. That's right. And I told my boy that, I'm like, you just... You're gonna find out what bow hunting's about.

Because he thinks he wants to spot and stalk, and you know, and that's truthfully how you learn how to hunt. With a bow in your hands, as a young teenager, that's how you learn how to hunt. You really do. It's how we learned how to hunt. I mean, not that you don't learn something on rifle hunts, but man, you learn what you can and can't get away with when you got a bow in your hands and you're just trying to sneak up on something on the ground. It's... Absolutely. That's the way you learn how to hunt. So, it's kind of fun. That's pretty exciting having all those young guys. Yeah, that is fun. So, it'll be fun. We've got tags too, and then, you know, a couple... I drew a goat tag. I think I talked to you about it up in Southeast Alaska. I've mentioned that on the podcast before, and really excited about that one.

I'm jealous of that one. I've been applying that one since about 2003 or four. I don't know when they started that, but yeah, you should have a hell bomb. Yeah. I mean, those are literally the biggest goats in the world. That's a fact. Yeah, it is. And like I said a minute ago, I killed one in Montana and just killed the goat. It was back when I was pouring rocks and didn't even... I just did a shoulder mount. Goats, if you kill a good one, they lend themselves to a life-size. So, I hope, I just told myself, if I ever hunt another goat, I want to kill a big one, and if conditions are right, it may life-size it. So, that's, I'm looking forward to that. I'm probably going to wait until end of September, early October. It's a little bit, I'm really flexible with when I go there, but in and around some of my guiding and other hunts. But, got a Utah.

Yeah, there are some, there are some giants there. I mean, there are literally goats in that unit that are bigger than antelope that a lot of guys kill. Wow. There's some monsters. Wow. And they're only spikes. Yeah, not two spikes. Yeah. But, so yeah, we're kind of spread all over. Carter's Kid's got some, an elk hunt in Arizona, and I got one for a family member here in Utah that we're gonna be a part of, and we'll go to Colorado Deer, that'll be a little bit later. But, in some regards, making, you know, a little bit, I mean, I don't want to poo-poo a goat tag in Alaska, because it seems like it happened so long ago, Because sometimes, I honestly forget, it was like December, and in February, you find out about it. Yeah, I drew the first two tags I put in for this year, and didn't draw hardly squat since.

So, other than guaranteed draw stuff, like Colorado deer and things that you're like, hey, I know I'm gonna get it. So, kind of a bit of everything. A bunch of sheep. I got, I don't know, 12 or so sheep hunters spread out, and so I'll have a lot of fun doing that. So, anyway, but that's getting ready to kick off here in a few weeks, too. Speaking of sheep, I know this is, I don't want everybody listening to this to think, hey, this is old news or whatever, but being that we're in Utah, you were a part of a pretty cool project with a sheep transplant that, you know, for those of you that don't know, in Utah, we have an island, a good-sized island in the middle of Great Salt Lake that have had California bighorn from Kamloops, BC on them, had them on there for 20-plus years.

And just due to the shrinking of the Great Salt Lake in dry years, you know, there was land bridges that formed and likely had some rams that wandered off and came back. I say rams, probably rams, but likely ran it off the mainland, caught something, brought it back, and anyway, had a massive die-off on Antelope Island to the point that, you know, they eliminated what was there and to start over. And you have some connections with the Rocky Boy Reservation in Montana, and talk a little bit about that transplant that you were able to do this last, I guess we'll call it winter, it wasn't really spring, January or something like that. And we got sheep back on Antelope Island through some of the stuff you were working with with QU and the reservation in the Rocky Boy. Yeah, it was a really cool project. It was basically the first ever all company and

It's not the only customer-funded, privately done sheep transplant ever. Yeah, the Indian Reservation was over-objective on their sheep numbers. And I actually put the transplant together originally with North Dakota, and then we had a year where basically the helicopter couldn't get there in time to get them transplanted, so it went an extra year. And then, obviously, with the lamb recruitment over the next year and numbers increasing, and we ended up with some extra sheep. And in the meantime, Antelope Island had died off, and Jayce Taylor and I and Travis Jensen We've been talking back and forth, you know, for potentially down the road, and we ended up with some, basically some extra sheep. So, we took, yeah, 25, 20 ewes and five rams to Antelope Island. They're obviously better, far better genetics than what you guys have.

They're big Rocky Mountain Bighorns, totally, you know, disease-free. And yeah, we put 25 back on Antelope Island. They're doing well. Right now, most ewes have had lambs, and it's been, it was just an awesome project to put together. You know, the initiative is called Conservation Direct, and it's basically just direct company and customer funded conservation projects. You know, there's a lot of things you can put your money into now. And there's a lot of, you know, and some of it does a lot of good, and some of it's kind of the same old stuff that's always been going on. I just thought, you know, with our Consumer Direct brand and, you know, a couple times a year, we want to get together with our customers and as a company and actually make an impact and do something different.

So, we put 30 sheep in North Dakota and two separate herds on Lake Sakakawea on a reservation called the Three Affiliates Tribe. So, we took 30 there, 25 ewes and five rams to North Dakota, started two herds there, and then took the 25 to Antelope Island. So, we put three new sheep herds on the planet. It was, again, all 100% funded by Kuyu and about 16 customers, footed the whole bill, planned the whole thing, everything. It was an awesome project. You can check it out on conservationdirect.com. It's got film and all that stuff. Yeah, you had a really rewarding project. Is it on your YouTube? I watched it when you put it. You had a YouTube video on Kuyu's YouTube channel about that. It was pretty cool. I gave credits to the guys that funded it. It was awesome. It was a well done video. It's awesome.

Yeah, it was a really fulfilling project. It was one of those things where I've always personally wanted to do one of those, and it's like, how hard is it to actually do a transplant? And it seems daunting, but kind of as we dove into it, I worked on it for about a year and a half. And yeah, it was just one of those things. I mean, there's a lot of testing and a few contracts here and there. At the end of the day, if you have an idea and you've got a place that wants them and you've got a place that has excess sheep, it wasn't that difficult. It was just really cool to have a customer involved. Like I said, I made 16 phone calls, raised over $100,000. We footed the entire bill, everything, disease testing, transport, everything that was like... We paid 100% of everything until they jumped out of the trailer, which was... Yeah, it was cool to have our project.

It's not like, oh, we got together with a thousand different organizations and stuff. No, we just did it, and it was super rewarding. And now you guys have some tremendous genetics on Antelope Island. The tribe was able to get rid of excess sheep, and there's two more sheep herds in North Dakota with superior genetics to what they had. And, you know, it's really one of those win-win-win-win situations. Everybody, it was a real plus for everybody. So, yeah, just an awesome thing to be a part of. Had 34 people show up to help out. We staffed the whole thing, aside from obviously the biologists and everybody that was the professionals that were there. It was just cool. It was cool to put your hands on some... I'd never touched a live one before. It was just pretty cool to collar and work on those sheep and get them ready to go.

Some of them I've been watching for a long time, and yeah, it was just a really cool project. Yeah, it is. Well, we appreciate it, too. As, you know, we'll see how big they go, because Carter and I are both in the rocky draw in Utah, and if they're giant, we have to pick species in Utah, in the once-a-lifetime realm as residents. So, we've both drawn deserts, and so we're both in the rocky pool now. We did grab one really nice ram, and actually, Doyle Moss had sent me a picture of He must have the deer hunter out there. He's got some cameras out there. When we caught him in February, he was, I think, 32 by 15 and a half as a three-year-old. That's awesome. He's going to be big. He's as big as a lot of rams get in parts of Utah and Wyoming and Colorado. Yeah, he's big as a lot of guys. He's pretty well maxed out for Utah.

He's bigger than a lot of the Middle Fork salmon sheep that ever get killed in Idaho, places like that. Congratulations. Good work. That's cool. Awesome. Yeah, we appreciate it. It's awesome. And what else, New? Anything else we got to cover? I mean, we just thought we'd call you kind of out of the blue. We're all, everybody's stir crazy. We're just ready for the hunts. I know Carter and I were just like, once we get hunting, we don't watch the news. I mean, when we're gone a lot, we're just, it's the routine we look forward to the most, but we're also out of touch the most with We're going to have a trip with maybe some of the crazy crap, so we can just go be in the hills and be in our camp trailer and hunt. How many cameras are you guys running right now? Every day you're out, I assume, like this rare office day? Well, we had to scale back. We switched. Adam will go, I'll go.

So, we switched like every other day, we each covered for each other. Today, we're in the office together. Nevada's got trail camera law. You've got to pull them down by August 1st. So, both of us had to pull those down by last week for deer and sheep. And so, that, frankly, now we're still back to some Utah stuff mainly. Yeah, we're still... I mean, you still go out, but it's just not as much for cameras. Is that affecting stuff quite a bit? Is that kind of a bit of a change? I think mentally it's a huge change for guys. Like, even the outfitters, too. Like, it's something to know that deer watered last night, or the night before, or whatever. He's still in the area. But if you go a week, or a week without seeing a particular deer, you know, he's watering at night, but you don't know that he's watered at night, like, that affects you mentally.

But if you knew he watered two days ago, or last night, or three nights ago, it keeps you going, right? Or your water goes dry. You know, you're talking about some of these are little seeps in natural springs, and they're not all big. Where did he move to? Did he walk five miles, or two miles, or whatever? Yep. Or whatever. So, yeah, it's overall, it will, it saves some animals. But we're, I like running. It's fun, but it's... But I like the law. Like, I like it. Yeah, we don't mind it. Yeah, I mean, there's... It's easier. There's stuff living because of the law. There's no question. Yeah, there's a few deer that'll make it, you know, and so that's awesome. It'd be nice to feel like there's 250 buck out there or 260 buck out there, and Nevada rarely produces one of those, but maybe they will. Maybe there'll be more of them get away, you know.

You know what I mean? Yeah, well, it's funny. We just became legal to use them. It definitely takes them. It's funny because I think everybody thinks they will help everything. Like myself, I got about six or seven of them, which obviously isn't much. I'm incredible at taking pictures of cattle. I can't believe it. I could run some kind of an Angus sales ring with the photos I did. You got every angle, hind-quarter, flanks, front shoulders, neck. I mean, you got it. I've never gotten a picture. Last year, I had a bunch of them. We had a lot of water and stuff, but I never got a single picture of a bull elk on camera in a month. Yeah. And this has been usually dry down here, so it feels a little bit, they're more confined. But some years, like, and that's what, you know, trail cameras on Arizona Strip or a place like that, When the monsoon rains start hitting, it's over.

For scouting, like Arizona's talked about it, you know, making them to where you can't use them, and I mean, that would dramatically affect everything. Some of these drier states, no question. It would change people's lives, you know. I mean, deer, coos deer, mule deer, elk, I mean, these guides are running lots and lots of cameras, and hunters too, and it just lets them know what's in the area, you know, and it's a big help. It's huge, especially in the arid stuff. I don't know what you guys got. Montana-wise, I just, maybe it's not as effective. I don't know. Yeah, well, and it seems like mountain states in general, like you might even say Colorado, I mean, you know, or Wyoming. Well, you can't put out salt or even bait in Colorado. So, you got water, but there's a lot more water there than in Nevada, Utah. Yeah, so you're not going to trail cam water, so you're trail camming trails.

Right. I don't know, Burns, can you guys use salt up there? What's your law on that? No, we can't do any of that stuff. No bait or salt or anything. And you got a lot of water, so... Yeah. I don't think I'm gonna run them for goats. I think I'm just gonna run them for glass. He's the first guy running cameras for goats. Yeah, I got a pinch point, a three-foot gap in the ledge that you might just hope one walks by. There you go. It'd be kind of cool. You should take it on as a personal project. Yeah, get a goat picture on there. We'll publish it in the mag later this fall. Take one on your trip. Throw it in a spot. Some natural way. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, it was funny. I took my son up the other day. Like I said, we did a nine-miler. When you're eight, that's a long walk. He kind of hit the wall at the end.

He was asleep in 0.0 seconds in the car, but he got it done. So, it was pretty fun to take him up to saw his first Ghost Live. And so, yeah, it was a good time. That's awesome. Yeah, it's an overall good time. Well, you're not far off, and a month or so away from hunting elk and goats both, you'll kick off a couple big hunts right out of the gate. So, that's awesome. We just want to call and you get caught up on that. Yeah, maybe the State of the Union address for QU. How are you guys doing? And overall future plans, and then your personal job responsibility, it looks like adjusted slightly.

It's been good, you know, like, you know, being consumer direct, I mean, we're kind of built for this. I mean, people are at home using their computers. We do have a showroom, which was shut down for a long time, but I think we launched, you know, obviously the launch of Velo was right in the middle of the COVID thing. I think we were probably the first brand to really put out a big initiative right in the middle of it all. And we just said, hey, we're just going to stick to our plan and do what we do. And things have went really well with it, obviously. And yeah, I mean, we're trying to keep everything normal. Obviously, there's a lot of corporate stuff that has been affected by it, but we've got a really great team. And a lot of us have been working remote for a long time, so we don't have to be able to kind of help everybody else.

I don't know if you guys have been in Zoom hell, but there are people that don't know how to have Zoom meetings, and so you've got to kind of get them lined out. This is the two-person. I've told a couple of people, like, hey man, a two-person Zoom meeting, that's called a phone call. Just pick up the phone. Just pick up the phone. Yeah. Or if you got an iPhone, you need to FaceTime me because you got to hold up something. Just FaceTime me. Yeah, good times. Good times. Anyway, well, that's awesome. Well, appreciate you spending a few minutes with us. We may call you again in a month or so, or if we're back and got a minute and get caught up on some hunts. Yeah, good luck on everything, Burns. You got a lot going on. Yeah, good luck to you guys. You'll kill a giant bull, giant Billy, I'm sure. Yeah. What do you got after that? You got just general?

I think my odds on the elk and the billies are both 50-50, either will or I won't. There you go. And then you got Montana generals after that, I guess, your elk. That'll come at some point later in September. Yeah, I'm going to bounce back and forth between Wyoming and Montana. They're actually not that far away. The place that I'm looking, it's a new country that I'm going to hunt. So, I'm going to be bouncing back and forth. And then in the middle, and I'm going moose hunting the last five days of September with Lance up there.

Yeah, so that'll be a cool hunt. It's gonna be a real short hunt. Up north or the stuff down south, cinder? Up north, yeah. Hopefully somebody's killed out. It's already scheduled, so I'm showing up around the 24th through the end of the month, and it'll be...it's actually a really cool moose hunt. I'm looking forward to it because it's, you know, usually it's too hot. I've killed six Alaskan moose. It's usually too hot. It's always kind of like down to the last days where it's not that great. And so, this one, I show up the last five days, it's either going to be awesome or it'll be normal. And we won't get like... Yeah. It's just usually the last couple days when the weather cranks up, the rut really gets going good. And we'll either get it done in five days or we won't. And, but it's not a huge time commitment, especially having these other tags. So, and that's about it for the fall.

I got a crazy... Basically, through October 10th, I'm pretty crazy. And after that, I've kind of calmed down. Might be a different winner for you, too. I mean, we got the announcement the other day that the Wild Sheep Foundation is postponed or canceled, whatever the right word is, the sheep show, and they're working on the details of how that's going to look, what that's going to look like. They've promised they're going to try to be really, you know, I guess, accommodating for, you know, exhibitors and, you know, attendees, of course, all that, whatever that's going to look like, but that may happen, and I could see that happening with a lot of the shows.

So, you may spend a lot of the winter in Bozeman. That's what I'm... I might take up trapping. Yeah, well, all right. Yeah, you guys have a good one. You too, man. I'll be called. Well, we'll get caught up again. It's kind of a crazy... during the fall, we say we're gonna call you in 30 days or 45. It may not happen, but we will talk about what you did and killed and all that here at some point later in the fall. We'll get caught up. Well, if I don't pick up, you'll know how it's going. That's right. That's right. All right, man. Take it easy. All right, guys. Hey, talk to you later.

Yeah, have a good one. Yeah, bye. Bye. So, anybody that's interested, you can go to QU, check up their new lineup, the Velo Camouflage. We appreciate Brendan on the podcast. What a great guy. They've done good work. They're in the hunting community, so give back. You can support them by supporting them. You know you're supporting hunting. We appreciate them. Go to QU.com, K-U-I-U.com. You can check it out, the V-A-L-O Camouflage. And you can check it out and go from there. We've got guys killing stuff. Using their camo, it's obviously working. Antelope, they're freaking hard to kill. You don't stock up and kill an antelope with a bow very easy. And guys are doing it with the Velo Camouflage. First out, right here, first part of August, killing stuff with the QU Camouflage.

Also, keep in mind here at Epic Outdoors, if you need optics, if the hunts are coming up, you find yourself needing to upgrade or haven't done it or put it off or whatever, Whether it's trail cameras with stealth cam, whether it's bino, spotting scopes, rifle scopes, range finders, whatever you're interested in, Zeiss, Leica, Vortex, SIG, Swarovski, give us a call, Epic Optics, 435-263-0777. We have some great prices. We mean it. When you call, you'll figure that out. And love to help you get something upgrade that you can use this year on your hunts. So, don't hesitate to give us a call. Check it out.

Like Adam said, we do cover Stealth Cam. We sell them every day. We appreciate them and their support. They've got a great lineup of cameras, from cellular cameras to regular point-and-shoot, as well as incredible video, 4K Maxes. Bronson, we've got some incredible 4K Max footage. Chris might even put it up on Instagram. Maybe a teaser, yeah. Unbelievable. The sound's unbelievable. The clarity, incredible. Anyway, you want to learn more, go to stealthcam.com, S-T-E-A-L-T-H-C-A-M.com, or gsmoutdoors.com. Great company, lots of products, incredible. Or just give us a call, and we'll tell you what we got in stock, and lock boxes. Those are hard to find. We got those in stock, too. Give us a call, and we'll sell you some. How about that? Tell you what works. Tell you what we're using. Is that where we're going with it?

Heck yeah. All right. Anything you want to add, Chris? You've been using Stealth Camasis? I have, actually. A lot of... Chris has been scouting a lot, Bronson, and not talking much about it. I've been finding nothing so far, but I've got a couple cameras out, been working hard, but still nothing to write home about. Nothing got you excited, huh? Good. Well, hopefully that changes. I've got bucks for my kids that they'll be very happy with, And they don't like me to say that because they think I'm holding out something big. He's like, what do you mean, bucks, for me? I'm like, well, you know, you've never killed a deer with a bow. We've got to just hunt every nice little buck in the body. No, that's not what I want. I want a buck that Dad would shoot. He's like, no, I want the one you say you want.

I'm like, yeah, but I don't know if I can even kill that one because, you know, I've got a couple of decent ones found. You know what? We ought to just give them a reality check and let's go get started. I think opening day, I'm just going to go for it. He's going to, it's going to, we're going to have, I'm just going to wait until he says uncle Because it's coming. When he says, uncle, we're gonna go shoot the bucks you were talking about. We're gonna go sip water in a barn, and we're gonna wait. We're gonna have treats and capri sun, because they don't make noise in the can. That's right. You don't have a pop can open. Good point. You just, pfft, there you go. Anyway. All right. It's gonna be fun. Okay, everybody. Appreciate you. We appreciate QU. Thanks, Brendan, for all you're doing for conservation. Hoping to see more. We'll go from there.