EP 283: Scouting tips for 2023, Porcupette Awareness and Trail Cam Season

Anything to do with Western big game.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast, powered by Under Armour.

Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, the entire Epic Outdoors crew coming at you from southern Utah. It rained all night, it's crazy. Bronson, we're out here trying to run some cameras and we got nothing but rain, streams, water, copious amounts of water. Exactly what we want, but then we don't want. Why? Well, because certain things you're looking forward to, then you maybe can't. You know, cameras, they're not going to be as effective this year. No. Absolutely not. There's water everywhere, it's raining all the time, and that's okay. I don't like glassing bucks up anyway. What do you think? What's your favorite way to find a buck? I would agree. I'm much more of a glasser than I am a trail camera guy too. Yeah. I do have a few out this year, so. Well, anyway. Well, we're here, we're going to talk a little bit about that later. Yeah. A lot of draw results. Wyoming just came out.

If you find yourself where you don't have a hunt, you might consider putting your name in the hat for Epic Hunt, an optics giveaway, our summer membership drive here at Epic Outdoors. We've got a lot of hunts. We've got doll sheep, a couple of elk, three mule deer, if you can believe it. It's kind of crazy. A couple of antelope tags. We've got a Barbary sheep hunt as well as an optics gun bow package. It includes them all. It's a $15,500 type package. So, anyway, we're coming down to the final four days. Basically, today's the 15th. It expires on the 19th. Midnight. 11.59, we should say, I guess. On the 19th, Monday, is the last day to get your name in the hat. So, make sure you get your buddies to join and you get credit for it. Of course, you'll get a ticket for one of the hunts, a hunt of your choice in there for doing that. You can get as many of your buddies to join as possible.

Whatever. You can send it as Father's Day gifts, pay for them, whatever you want to do, no problem. If you want to purchase tickets, you sure can do that as well. One ticket is $25, five for $100, 10 for $200, and 30 tickets for $500. With the $200 and $500 package, you'll also get a headlamp sent to you. The Epic Outdoors logoed out, wazoo headlamp, pretty awesome. And with the $500 package, you'll also get a ticket into the bonus package, which is the rifle, bow, and optics package. So, coming down. Four days, that's right. You can call us either at Office 435-263-0777, or it's probably easiest to go online at epicoutdoors.com. Follow the links on there. You can do that again up until 11.59 on Monday the 19th. But if you'd rather call, we'll be here Monday. Or Monday. We'll be here. We're not here tomorrow. Yeah. We're doing four-day work weeks during this.

Well, I mean, there's going to be somebody answering the phone, I think, tomorrow. Not going to be us. Yeah. It's time to scout. You know, the last deadline, which was Arizona, usually means a little bit of reprieve, and it's time to start scouting, either finding something big. Shooting your bow, shooting your guns, which there's a lot of that that's got to happen. Yeah. Everybody's got toys to do that with. Some of us new. Some of us old. Speaking of it, we need to chronograph some things. Yeah, we do. I was thinking about that the other day, yesterday. It's time. Yeah, it's time to do that. So, anyway, if you're looking to get a name in the hat, why now's the time to do it, it's awesome. I mean, dang near $200,000 in hunts. So, pretty great opportunity. And, man, odds seem to be pretty incredible. So, something to consider. We do have some more draw results coming.

Iowa, Idaho, Arizona, namely. Wyoming just came out. If you're lucky, hopefully you guys got the tag of your dreams up there. Antelope and Deer just came out. And, even though they had a tough winter, there are going to be some good animals taken. And, there's plenty of guys that have gotten tags. We've had quite a few calls today. So, it's been fun.

Anyway, I guess, what should we talk about today, Bronson? Do you have any ideas? Well, kind of what we're all maybe up to. Scouting. How to scout. How to take on a new unit or an old unit. Old unit. One you've been to in a while, maybe. Or brand new. I've got a couple new ones. Well, a couple. Which ones? I'm not even, I can't even think about which ones. Why don't we just keep that between us? Oh. Come on. Okay. Well, I mean, so what are you going to do? What do you got, Carter? Well, I've got some tags. Everybody knows I'm hunting whitetail. Okay. How are you going to scout those? I've got more tags than I know what to do with. What are you doing to scout the whitetails right now? Nothing. I've got some cameras, I think, in Iowa. I'm texting and using social media.

No, it's been, it's fun. It's a different one. There's a lot. So, there's some tags you can't scout. There's just some things you, you know, like these guys that drew 128 in Wyoming. We've got lots of people that have drawn that, considering how few tags, considering there's 50 tags. Yeah. You know, we've got a lot of guys that have called in, and how are you going to scout the rut? Like, you're not necessarily going to, right? But you're going to call us. You're going to talk to people that have had that tag in the past. You're going to book an outfitter, and you're going to have your gear ready. I did have a guy call in and say, you know, hey, I'm going to go with so-and-so. What can I do? Like, what should I do to be prepared to go on this hunt? And I'm like, well, you should, he was a muzzleloader hunt. And I said, well, you should have a turreted, scoped muzzleloader that's capable.

Okay. He's letting me use my guide. You know, I'm going to be using the guide's muzzleloader. And then I said, you should be physically capable. You should have your optics ready to go. And then he was going to do some scouting on his own, even though he'd booked a hunt. It's, you know, it was up here on the Ponce Comp. But anyway, and so he's going to crank, you know, he's going to come up here, bring the trader up. And even though he's booked a guided hunt, he's going to come up. I mean, that's part of the fun. Participate in your. Yeah. Participate. I get guys ask me every year like that. I'm on sheep or stuff. They want to maybe come scout a weekend with you because when it's go times, if you've hopefully done your homework, it might be done fast. It could be a short hunt. Yeah. But that's what you're there for at that point. So, yeah, there's a lot. You mentioned a few other things.

You know, your gear, rifles, bows, optics, all those types of things. But also physically. I don't know about all you guys, but after, you know, six good months behind the desk, I could lose a little grease. So, I mean. This is how bad it was. I was hiking a couple weekends ago. And, you know, like your Apple Watch, it'll give you, you know, tell you what you're doing. I need one of those. Mine, it'll give you an alert, like, you're standing. Like, what are you doing? You're standing. You should be sitting. You're holding still. You know? Yeah. No, it's like, why are you standing? You sit. You've been sitting the last six months. Why are you standing now? But the other day, it gave me one. It was like, I think your watch is stolen because clearly you're not wearing it anymore because someone is physically walking and their heart is beating more than 60 beats per minute.

I've never seen beats in the last eight months. Yeah. Yeah. I reached some whole new levels. So when you live a sedentary lifestyle for six months and then you just walk. Did it say something? Oh, yeah. It's like your activity has dramatically increased. What's changed in your life? Yes. Yes. That's why it was giving me a report. Like, it may be stolen. You may want to look into this. I might need one of those Apple Watches, but I don't want Biden knowing everything we're doing. No. You just give up and figure they're going to know. He's the least of your worries. That's true. Well, who's the most? Not him. China? China? He doesn't even. Can't remember your name after he hears it. But it's the TikTokers? I mean, what are we? It was good. I took my dogs out. I have a couple of younger dogs and then this big old fat lab. And I hiked him into the dirt. So that made me feel good.

At least I wasn't the only one that had to stop every 20 feet to breathe. Cancerous tumors. Oh, yeah. It was pretty bad. I actually thought for a minute. I was like, I don't. I might lose that dog. Yeah. I was like, I'm probably going to kill him today. Jeez. And we were only halfway into the hike. And I had a lot farther to go. And I wasn't going back to the truck. Like, he either is going to stay up or he's not going home with me. Then you got back up in there and what? Cellulars wouldn't lock onto a cell tower. Yeah. It was a mess. And then I didn't. I don't know. I didn't have a pistol or anything with me. So then there were thoughts of, what do I do if he, like, goes down? I'm not going to sit here and rub his head for six hours while he dies. And I'm not packing him out of here because he's, like, 100 pounds. Jeez. You went to that level? Jeez.

You were thinking about doing your own dogging. I was worried I was going to have to kill him to eat him, for one, because I didn't know if I was going to get out of there. Hey, life is hard. Well, the. Life is hard, Pollock. Well, I had a. I was out of shape feeling last weekend, but I didn't get to those depths of despair. I didn't either. I wasn't about to shoot my dog. I didn't shoot myself. Pollock's ready. Pollock's ready to do his dogging and then turn it on himself. Yeah, it wasn't a pretty weekend. We got cameras up. He's going to the party on us. I'm still here. So you got cameras up. Everything was good. You had a couple of extra cameras laying around in the pack. Yeah. Threw them up. Everything's good. And then you've also were the first guy in the office to have pictures to share. Yeah. Or at least, let me say this, you were the first guy to share. That's true.

Because I'm sure Wyatt's got something we don't know about. I think Wyatt's just got them out. Wyatt's got a 230 buck. I just barely got them out. Just barely got rolling. Wyatt's already got something. Who knows? I wish. It was pretty crazy, though, to see, like, the feed and the water. Like you were saying with the trail camera thing. Even I've just noticed, you know, having some out. And some of them are on spots where I had them last year. Like the activity. You kind of get them. And last year when you'd get a notification, you have pictures. And you'd go look at them. You're like, oh, this is exciting. And now it's like, oh, there's a doe there. Yeah. It's just there's water. Not going to be as effective this year. There's water running in places that hasn't the last four to five years. Back to these eyewatches.

So, Sean's girlfriend's brother was up north and he wrecked on a dirt bike. And it notified her. So, either the watch has fallen from long distance, whatever, like he dropped it off of a bridge or something. Or so-and-so's gotten a wreck. And, yeah, he got in a wreck. So, she got on. Yeah, sure enough. One of the selling points. The ambulance was coming. That's pretty cool. On the commercials. Oh, I mean, cleared out there. You go off the car in your wreck and it rolls it. It knows. But I've never rolled in a wreck. But these Apple watches, they make, I guess, some wazoo cases because I'd break that sucker. I don't know if I could physically wear one. I don't. I can't either. I can't wear watches. I got one for Christmas about a year and a half ago. I've never used it. You want to sell it? I just gave it to my daughter. Oh. Re-gifted.

And that doesn't go over well when your wife gets you a well-thought-out gift. No. I'm sorry. What am I going to do with this? Yes. But I think she got over it. Yeah, for sure. So they have to. But I told them that. I'm like, yeah, I don't wear watches. I just don't. So we're gearing up, Bronson. You guys, everybody's, you guys shooting your balls? I've shot once. Okay. It's time. Yeah. Right? I've got to do the same thing. My kids are shooting long distance right now. And they're going to smoke me if I'm not careful. So it's time. But it's also that time where, like I was out last night, and you know, you guys are too. Everybody's out going and is juggling that time of being in the hills scouting versus and then making time to work out and shoot your bow or shoot your rifle, chronograph everything. Make those adjustments. So there's a lot going on. Bronson, you ordered some new boots.

I did. Yep. Got a new pair of Desert Guide Kenetrax. That's the ones I use usually for my desert sheep hunts. They don't have any insulation or waterproof membrane. I don't really need that on those. Just keep them a little bit cooler. And, yeah, should be here today. Get them broke in before September. So, yeah. Right on. Well, Archibald, what have you been up to lately? How are you getting ready to scout? You guys talk about all this fun stuff. Oh, you got your race coming up. You're training. He's been on school playgrounds. No, I didn't. The monkey bars? You been doing the monkey bars? I was going to go to the monkey bars and there were some people. I'm like, I'm not doing it. Do you be some grown man on the monkey bars? I thought this was like a running race. Do you got to do pull-ups and stuff in the mountains?

The only one I won't do is the rope climb that goes like, I don't know, 20 feet. I won't do it. I can probably do it, but I'm not doing it. Break my leg. Season ender. So what are these races? I thought they were mountain run. Yeah, it's like 3,000, 4,000 feet. But as you go up and down, you have obstacles. I didn't know that. Oh, yeah. Jump through fire? Kind of like a heptathlon. Yeah. Just monkey bar type stuff? I'll have mustard packets this year. I mean, I'm going to be prepared. When's the date for that? When's that coming up? July 9th.

So I've been... Same place as last time? Yeah, I think so. Wasn't that on the... It's a ski resort. Oh, I thought that was... What was the one on kneeball? Was that just a training endeavor? That was just my practice run. Yeah, that was my practice. It was a massive fail. Well, you got on a knife edge, and basically... I didn't make it to the knife edge. That's right. Blisters. Yeah, that's what I've been doing a lot of. Training for that. Well... Yeah. Family stuff. I'm ready to get out. It's time. It is a good time of year. June's a big family month for a lot of us here, too. I mean, the heavy lifting, if we want to call it that, is somewhat over. And you got time to breathe. The daylight's getting longer. Like I said, time to shoot the bow at night. That's... I get a few hours in every night now. The backyard's nice, but... Gathering the gear. I don't think I need gear.

I thought it was raining. What? But I know a lot of other people do. Tripods or optics. Well, that's that time of year to upgrade. Maybe you got a great tag, and you feel like, hey, this puts me over the edge. Or maybe you're just like, hey, I've saved up. I worked hard. Or I need to do it. But we are well stocked up. This is, you know, what, third or fourth year now of selling optics. And we've lived through all the COVID crunch of supply chain stuff. Very little of that remains. So, anyway, give us a call if you're looking for something. Whether it be spotting scopes. Whether it be regular binos. Rangefinder binos. Stand-alone rangefinders.

You know, spotting scopes. It all makes models and sizes for backpacking all around. Whatever. We've got it. And we've got some tripods in stock, too. So, don't wait until it's too late. Inventory does change. But, I mean, we've got a lot right now. And it's time to use it. And, you know. That's right. I mean, we're loaded. Best pricing out there. There's nobody better priced. And we can get it to you right away. So, if you're looking for something, why, let us know for sure. And, anyway. So, pretty awesome. There's a lot going on. Lots of moving parts. Desperation. A lot of moving parts. Archibald. Maybe talk about, too, is if people don't have hunts. When there's plenty of things coming down the pipe, you're constantly getting new openings. Oh, yeah. All the time. I mean, in a wide variety of species. You just never know. Yeah. Keep guys on the hot list.

And we also, I mean, there's going to be a lot of New Mexico hunts coming out soon. So, yeah. If you're looking for something, everything's out there still. For the most part. Yep. Yep. Get in touch with us. Give Devin a call if you're on a hot list for certain species. You know, we've even had a couple sheep hunts come up. We've had a moose hunt cancellation. We've had a pair of great Utah elk tags a couple days ago.

And we'll say, it's also the time you can't think about stuff too long. You've got to kind of have your mind made up of kind of what you really want. You may get a call, and it may be minutes or hours that you've got to make a decision on that. Because stuff doesn't stick around in June. There's too many people wanting it. And if we've got a list and we're going down it, there's not a lot of time to hold it. And anyway, so hopefully you can, you know, be there, take a call from Devin if he calls you or one of us and jump on something here. So let's say you, you know, guys that are getting tags, I mean, the first thing they should do is call and let us know, right? Like they should be calling, visiting with us, and maybe there's somebody here that has gotten the type, had the type of tag they've had or whatever, and can definitely give them a head start.

We obviously know people that have had their tag most likely and then can give them a list of members who've drawn their tag in the past. That's a huge resource. And, you know, you need to get the maps and whatnot. You can call a local biologist or game warden and things like that. But what do you guys do? Like what do you find that's helpful in scouting? I mean, obviously you've got to look at like when the season dates and when that tag is to occur. And then that dictates a lot of things. Is there migration or not? I mean, you've got to kind of learn everything about the dynamic of the game that you're hunting and the season date and the unit and things like that. But how are you going about scouting your tags? I'd say one of the first things that I would do that, and guys, at the same time, guys sometimes don't like it or they mock it a little bit,

is I would try and contact the biologist even if, and I guess a lot of guys don't like it because they say, well, all I do is I call him and he just tells me, well, I see elk here or see elk there or whatever. But there are some particular things about certain units. I can think of a few instances where, like say the poncegant antelope, the poncegant is a significant unit. It rolls down, clear down by Kanab and all that. And there are some out there south of Kanab. But I remember as a biologist, once I had a guy call me and he's like, hey, I've been scouting all this, doing all this e-scouting. Look at it. There looks like some awesome antelope country like down through a bunch of that buckskin stuff and all down through there. I'm like, yeah, it would be, but there's actually no antelope there. Well, he had planned his whole. It's within the unit boundary.

Yes, he had planned his whole nine days to go, and he was going to go start there. And I'm like, the odds of running into an antelope is almost zero down there, you know. And so there are actually sections of units where there could be void of the animal that you're trying to hunt. Or like elk on boulder or whatever. Like there's places you're not going to go. And with the Poncagant, the migration stuff can be tricky because depending on if you're there September 15th or October 15th, you're either going to be in deer or out of deer. And it would be, it's good to know when those triggers are. You don't, so just to get that sort of information from a biologist is good. So then you can narrow down where you need to be or where you need to start from. There's some of our general season units that, some of our general season units that do the same kind of thing.

And, you know, you could have a whole section of a unit where the deer migrate, but yet other portions of the unit, they stay. So I would think that's a good one to get. Even if, you know, you don't get some kind of a honey hole. And everybody always thought, well, you have collars on them. Don't you know where they're at? And, yeah, we do. But a lot of times just some good general information like that about a unit so that you can narrow things out and cut parts of a unit out that you don't have to worry about. Because we've all spent a lot of time looking at stuff, thinking, oh, that's going to be a great spot. And you get there, and it's not. Well, and I think, like you said, well, you have collars on them. Don't you know where they're at? Well, yeah, but, like, if you just take a drive through your unit, you're probably going to see some game. Yeah, yeah.

So now you know where they're at, right? I mean, no, no, that's not. You know, there's a lot more to be gained. Exactly. And I think the creative questions, I think there's guys that grind biologists out. Yeah. Or they grind us out. Yeah. Right? They are just grinders. And when you're asking for too much, for too long, and you're not considered at somebody's time, and they can feel that, the answers are going to become really short. Well, and the part is if, as a biologist, you don't know who you're talking to either, you know. You literally don't know who that is, their abilities, their skill level, all that kind of stuff. So to get some good, just solid information to go start with is very helpful. And a lot of times that's what you're going to get by calling a biologist. And you can't really expect a lot more than that, too, because at the same time, they're talking to 400 other guys.

That's massive. Well, and if you ask leading questions that they can tell, we've talked about this before, they can tell you've perused the maps, you know enough about the unit to ask leading questions and all that, you're going to get a little bit more out of them. Yeah. If you ask very generic, where should I be? You know, where's the, you know, very generic stuff, you're not going to get anything out of it. But if you talk about specific access or maybe this road or this road, or if it is a certain hunt or time of year that deer or elk are going to move from one end to the unit to another, and you ask leading questions like that. Hey, I got the late hunt on this area. Is there going to be a shift in any time, you know, from north to south? Looks like the best summer range is all up in this part of the area. Do they move out of that by the time I hunt?

You know, those types of leading questions, you're going to get a lot more better discussion out of it than just generic. Because the guys, you know, if you're a grinder, a lot of, I mean, sometimes they're grinders and they are well prepared. But sometimes, you know, grinding, you know, just long, long-winded questions are just asking every basic question about where should I sit at my tent? Where should I sleep at night? And then all of a sudden they're coming to your house. What do you mean? Throwing you in a side-by-side and, you know, pretty soon you're out and about on your, you know, precious time of your own. Like, I mean, you know, it's everything, right? Well, and the thing is, too, like, stuff can change significantly from year to year, just like we're talking about, to where patterns and movements and migrations and things can change with feed and water and all that.

So, really, a biologist could be telling you something that happened from last year's movements or whatever, and it could be totally different this year. And I think that's one thing that I've noticed.

It's coming down. I don't know if everybody can hear this, but it is stupid water. I had all my golf gear in the bed of my truck. That's why it's shiny. You look like you just ran a Spartan race. Yeah, I did. I really did. You ran out. Well, I have my shoes, and it doesn't matter too much, but your golf gloves get drenched, and then they shrivel up like a plump. O.J. Simpson gloves. Yeah. And so I had to go put it in the back seat. So, anyway, that's why it was gone for 60 seconds. Everybody got their windows up? I hope, because it's bad out there. But anyway. But I guess the other thing, too, is from that, don't be afraid to fail. I feel like these days, everybody wants everything they can, and they want it now. People are scared to fail. I would say that I love that saying, don't be afraid to fail. Because people are scared. Yeah, you're going to fail. You're going to fail.

And honestly. But quantify fail, what does that mean? You know what I mean? You're going to have the greatest idea in the world about what you're going to do when you get there, and you get there, and you're going to be doing something totally different. If you're willing to adapt, and I think you should be willing to roll. Yep. I mean, you've looked at some stuff, even. Just stuff around here, even. And you're just like, hey, you know, like, it's different. It's different. I'm looking at stuff. It's different. It is not the same unit. It's not the same unit. I mean, year to year, everything changes. I mean, you might have a hotspot one year, and the next year, it might be void of life. Yes. Well, yeah, this year is just, I can't think of two, in the last 20, two back-to-back different years. The most different. Than we're dealing with from last year, the last two years to now.

You know, in the southwestern states, you're talking about. I don't know what the Garden of Eden looked like, but it's similar to out here in the desert.

Let alone the mountain. Did you eat the fruit off the trees? You could. I wanted to. Last night, I'm like, I want to taste that flower. I mean. Juniper berries are that big. Yeah. They're stupid. So, I've got to show you a video, but Josh is out there running cameras, and he put a lag bolt through a cottonwood, and pulled the lag bolt out, and it's gurgling. Water? Gurgling water. Out of the tree? Out of the tree. Wow. I'm going to show it to you, and we may even post it up. Wow. For a teaser on this freaking podcast. Isn't that how they get, like, when they get syrup back east out of trees like that? Well, they milk them, yeah. Is that what it's called? Yeah. Milk? Yeah. Well, you can milk anything. No, Josh. No. It's not like that. Not like meat in the Fockers?

Look at this. Here. I'm just going to. All right. I mean. Pretty amazing.

Okay. Did he do this once? Watch. He's going to gurgle. Did he pull it out? Oh, yeah. Look at the gurgling. Yeah, I see it. You can see it. So, anyway. Whatever. Pretty amazing. Wow. Josh. Josh is. You're going to have to adapt this year. Yeah. You are. Well, I know. I can't show you. I said it today that I have a 50-50 bet with myself that in two weeks I'm pulling my cameras down and saying this is a waste of time. But I'm still putting cameras out for, you know, in other units, you know, this weekend, next weekend. Cameras don't work anyway. They've never. They have never shot a deer. They've never pulled the trigger. Well, it's also exciting. It's early part of summer. So, the bucks have not. I'm not going to go glass every morning right now because a lot of stubs that have a lot of potential right now. And lots got to finish. Right, Wyatt?

What if that stub had three five-inch eye guards on both sides? Well, that looks good. But we've all. That's a buck you probably want to find again. Yeah. But you still can't say, that's my buck. Well, and there could be seasons. Your camera right now is not really going to help you during your hunt or anything like that. I'm talking about deer. Like, that's what we're all talking about right now. But it's, they always do help. Just for the fact, if nothing else, you know, I've talked to guys and was like, look, we're going to have to take these cameras down well before your hunt starts. And the elk are obviously, they're going to be moved from wherever this camera is at. But at least you'll be able to gauge what antler growth looks like. And maybe you'll be able to tell potential of, hey, should I be shooting this buck if I see it or not? I know this. When I start early, I end well.

Yeah. I end my scouting well. Prepared. Yeah. But when I start late, which late would be prime time, July 4th, whatever. Right? I don't like getting stuff out before, right after July 4th, because they get stolen July 4th, because people are out and about. But when I start July 4th, I end behind. I just don't. There's not enough time to get to do everything and to motor through everything. Well, and we're dealing with maybe our Utah State, maybe a neighboring one like Nevada or something right now, too. So, and Arizona hasn't even come out yet. So, who knows? One of us might have an Arizona tag. One of us has a New Mexico tag. I mean, we got tags, tags, tags. Oh, yeah, you do. No, let's go through the list of deer tags. I mean, or not. Okay, start with Wyatt. No, you. No. I'm just talking. Let's just count the number. We won't need to say. I don't know. I can't.

I need probably two hands to count yours. Got a lot. Go ahead. I guarantee they're not on one. I'm just doing them in my head. You tell me if I'm wrong.

I can't read your mind.

I've got six states and a Canadian province right now. Am I right? For you? That's a good chance of it. Yeah. And I'm sure I've forgotten two more. Anyway, same with you, boss. Same with you. No. Wyatt, Devin, our job is to be out and about and to hunt as many states as possible. So more or less is more doesn't really pertain when you're trying to be everywhere. It's good for us to be out and about. Oh, it is. It's our job. And there's been places we haven't been the last two, three years because of some of these dry years that we're going to be this year. But there's also tags that we're really concentrating on. I think it's a mindset. It's one thing to have those tags in your pocket. But it's another thing to really put the time in on the specific tags that need the time. That you want to put the time in. You know what I mean?

And be okay with eating a $200 or $300 or $500 tag or two or whatever if it makes sense because you spent too much time on your favorite tag. You know what I mean? Should we just go through by the show of raise of hands by species who has what species tag? It might be interesting. Who has an antelope tag in the office? Jeez. By raise of hands. This is a boring podcast. No, it's not. Nobody can see. No, but we're going to say the results. We're going to because sometimes I lose track. Wait. You had an antelope. Did you turn it back? Pushed it back. Okay. So nobody has antelope. We all have deer. Who has an elk?

Somebody's not being honest. Oh, Colorado over the counter? Yes. Well, that could be. I haven't bought it yet. I mean, just elk. We're talking elk. We don't have a lot of elk tags. Do you, Carter? I can't remember. I don't dare say everything. What do you want me to say? What do you want me to say? What do you want from me? Spikes. I want your head. Spikes. I just want to know who's hunting what species in the office because it's kind of happening. Cash. Cash, I'm in. Cash has deer. He hasn't said a word since we started. Any bull elk? Any bull, yeah. Do you really? Not yet, but I will. Okay. July 11. Whatever. Well, that's good. I just, honestly. Wyatt's starting to surf. I'm looking at the weather. Is rain really doing for us? I just wanted to kind of know, like, how many of you got elk? We have no once in lifetime tags in the office, do we? No, that's a bummer. Do we?

I think that's a bummer. I don't think we do. You know, none of us drew sheep, goat moose, bison. Hey, it's not over yet. We got Arizona, so got to think like that. But yeah, none of that. Heavy on deer, feels like a lot of us have multiples. Heavy on deer, plenty on elk. Plenty? Plenty. Yeah.

Plenty would mean everybody has one. Well, I don't know if that's your definition. We're not even 50%. Anyway, so, back to scouting. Bronson, how are you scouting? What's your plans? Well, I'm going to go out this weekend in an area I haven't hunted before. And I know what it looks like because it's not too far from here. It is in Nevada. But I got to, the way I first, my first overview, how do I know what? Yeah. How do you know where, where do you stop and say, I either need to put cameras here, glass here, I like this. How do you know? This first trip, there's going to be, it's going to be a lot of, I'm probably going to know more Sunday. Yeah. And I might even backtrack by Saturday night or Sunday and re-emphasize a certain area, whether it be glassing or, you know, put some cameras out. Once you get done with it, you'll be like, I need to go back.

Yeah, that actually, where I was over there Friday midday, is the best looking stuff that I feel. So, a couple of things. The feed should be really good, but even when it's really good, they're still really, really incredible places. So, this time of year, when everything that the deer are keying in on, especially if you're in areas where, if you're in areas like, I don't know, let's say Oak Creek or Henry's, where the whole unit's been burned and essentially has incredible summer range all over. It's going to be amazing everywhere. It's really hard to say, where's the deer going to be? Because they could be about anywhere on that unit. But in some of these other units, like in the, you got C's opinion juniper. I'm not going to be able to do anything with that with a bow. I'm not. You know what I mean? More than likely. You're going to key in on, all right, burns, chainings.

Where's the attraction going to be from a feeding? And then where's the bedding? That's where my mind's going first, is that. You've got to key in on that. And even though it's green in a lot of the places, you've got to be able to do something with it. Do you remember where we killed the stack? Okay. That proves to you, you shouldn't discount. That's my point about these places. You can't discount anything. Not this year. They can live in any, any place. And that year looked like the moon. It did. It was terrible. It was unbelievable. I mean, I would describe it as shizzy, crappy. Terrible. I still think I'm coughing out dust from the hunt. Deer was eating rocks. It was. And so that's what I'm, that's what I'm saying. And some of this stuff is like, what causes you? And I think that's where the local knowledge comes in.

And by the time you get done, you're going to feel like you have a little more local knowledge. You're going to cut tracks. You're going to maybe find some waters that stuff, stuff's using, but it's going to take multiple trips for me to feel like, all right, I think I have a game plan. And then, and then by early July, when I actually go there and stay overnight and try to be on a glassing, I'm going to locate glassing knobs right now. I'm not going to spend a lot of time doing it. I'm just going to locate the earth. Mark them so you can hit it at two hours before daylight. I can get there in the dark and get to it. I'm doing stuff like that because I'm talking about early season, August, September deer hunting, where, where they are now is where, is where they're going to be then. They're not migratory. Nothing. This is the biggest wrench I have with Nevada.

It throws it, a wrench into the whole, all your plans is it. Those archery hunts start August 10. Yeah. And between August 1 and August 10, boys become men. They're still growing. Like they grow 20 inches sometimes. And you're just like, what wasn't in your top five is now your number one. Well, the good thing this year is I think you're going to maybe have a top five. Yeah, you're going to have a top five. You didn't have a top. No. In the last two years. No. You didn't have a. Yeah, maybe a. So that's the good problem is you're going to have options, I think. Yeah, don't give up on a buck too early because, yeah, we've seen it, and they do start early. And there are bucks, we've all seen it in other states, that they, it's the 20th or 30th. Of August. And they're still baldy on them when people are killing them. And they had room to grow a little bit. Yeah, that's true.

But it's a, I don't know. You just got to. There's a gut feel to you. It's a gut feel in what you've seen. And it's the feeding, bedding routine. And overall, this year's going to be a totally different thing. It's not like the dry years where drier years, a little bit of better feed usually stands out. This year it's not going to as much. Like you say, you might find something in the desert floor that would never be living there except for this year. And I kind of like years like this for that reason. They're not, there's not one place to be. Things can happen anywhere, you know, on a good deer tag. Things can happen in a lot of places. I like both ways. Sometimes I like it where they're so concentrated that you, yeah, if you're the only one with a tag. But if everybody's hunting that same buck because they're so concentrated, that's not fun either.

But like, for example, we have clusters over here that include five units, right? And so like that's where the biologist comes in is you really only need to concentrate on two of those units. You know what I mean? You're not going to, if you concentrate on all five, you're going to do nothing justice. But Wyatt, you made a good point. When, you know, you're thinking about whatever, scouting, and you're out and about, and you're like, this year's so different. Like, who knows? Stuff's green that's never been green. Who knows? You have to just broaden your mind a little bit. Yeah. Check places you've never checked before. And, I mean, just concentrate on the feed. It's kind of like Adam's been saying right there. Just concentrate on the feed. But it's everywhere. So, yeah, it's just going to be.

But even though it's everywhere, there's going to be some, there's stuff that's always a little bit different. Yeah. You know, cut above. I mean, there's green tall grass. Green tall grass isn't always, it's pretty and green, but it's not always deer attractant feed either. Green tall grass, whether it be that rye or, you know, needle and thread. It's like, it's green and pretty, but it's not necessarily deer feed. You know, you get a lot of the flowers, globe mallow, a lot of the flowering stuff underneath it. Of course, bitter brushes, yellow flowers everywhere right now. That type of stuff is, that's the ice cream. That's the stuff they're going to key in on this time of year, you know. Crazy. Crazy. So, do you have anything else to add? It seems like, I mean, we were talking about even tactics and, and you just got to, like, when you're laying awake at night, you're just thinking.

And there's places that I thought about last night that I'm like, I need to check. That hasn't had water for 10 years. I need to go check that. You know what I mean? And, and, and I have a place, I have a place that had cattails and it hasn't had water for 10 years. You couldn't ever even tell there was ever a cattail there. It's just. In three years they died. Dead. Well, like 10, whatever. Oh, longer than the last three. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And, but it had water and there was, there was a couple of giants there. It was like one of my favorite places in the world. And, and it was weird. The water just kind of seeped up. It was kind of level. It wasn't even in a draw. I mean, out in the desert. And then, and then now there's not, you can't even tell there's a cattail. But I'm like, I thought about it last night and I'm like, I need to go there. Like, this is one of those years, you know?

And maybe knowledge from 10 or 15 years ago comes back to you on something. You know what I mean? Even general, general stuff here in Utah. Yeah. Kind of experienced that too. This last weekend was scouting a unit that I've been familiar with. And just, you know, I felt like I had it pretty well covered with cameras. And then I get home and get thinking, I'm like, gosh, I didn't even check any of this stuff. And it's been stuff that's just been void of life for. Void of life. A handful of years. And this year it might be completely different. Yeah. I think there's going to be a lot, lot more surprises this year on some of these units in the Southwest. A lot more, the dispersion of, of animals, deer, we'll call it. Elk, elk at some point you start getting to the rut. But that refocuses them in places where the big cow-calf group. So we're talking about August, September deer.

Like when they can live and thrive in a lot of different places. And I think there's going to be a lot of surprises show up. You're not going to have, not that it's going to be named and earmarked and all that. There's going to be their first share of them. But there's going to be a lot of, a lot of, wow, I just, I got a buck to myself. I found him over here and it's me and him. Spread out in the weird little places. Because that's the one positive about less tags, you know, when you got these major tag cuts. If you end up with one of those tags or, you know, a lot of these states, if you end up with one of those tags, you end up with less pressure. You know, less deer, you know, less deer, less pressure. It's not good to have less deer, but, but sometimes it's nice to have less pressure. So, all right. Well, what about you, Cash? Just a deer tag. He's already told us. He's got one.

You're hoping to survive the winter, right? Yeah. Yeah, it's a later, later season tag. So, I don't know if I'll scout it much. I'm going to get there a few days before it is all. But I've got my usual spot that, that we'll scout this summer for my wife, for my wife. And a couple other people that I'm going to help out on hunts, help them scouting and whatnot. But I agree with everything I was just saying. And I think having a lot of green feed, you're going to see a lot more dispersion. And you're going to have to check weird, weird areas like that. I like years like this. I always liked it when the back of the real garden on the Henry's heavy. It was years like this. You could literally feel like you could kill a buck about almost anywhere. You could. And spreads out the deer. It spreads out the hunters. Yeah. Couldn't put you on top.

And those dry years when it's just tough, everybody's just looking at the same five to seven really elite bucks on the unit. And it felt like I didn't like that. Because then you're like, all right, everything has to go right. Everything has to go right. So I think, you know. Pollock, you were talking about that on elk. Like you were just like, you know, where you're seeing elk, you're just like, man, they're just onesies, twosies, five. Yeah. Yeah, they're really, really spread out. Not running together a bunch of them. There's a couple of them here and there. And I've seen it's pretty crazy with the feed. On the winter range. Yeah. You've still seen them the other day. Yeah, just scattered out. And I think the other thing that's interesting, too, was with feed. Literally, I've seen that I was in an area the other day where there may have been five to ten summering deer.

Because it was just kind of a sea of opinion juniper. And they've done some habitat treatment stuff in there. And the growth that's in there now, the feed that's in there that's never been in there in 40 years is there. And there's 30 to 40 deer in there. And it's not a summering place. It's a winter range. They just didn't move up. They literally didn't move up to their summer range. Because it's. I mean, the thing is, those does, it's like they're not. They're going to have their fawns there. And those fawns, like that's, it could be a whole new. That's their summer ground. Yeah, it's going to be those new fawns. Summer ground. And they're going to be standing there summer and winter ground. It's pretty interesting what could change on a year like this with the feed like that. And, yeah, it's strange. Yeah, it's interesting.

There's going to be, you know what I like about this kind of stuff. I mean, it just, it felt like the new age, new age created cameras and all the, and some technologies and things. But now it's kind of has a reset. Equalizer almost. Well, it's like you're going to have to, you're going to have to be glassing. And you're going to have to spend, like we're going to do, I'm going to do, you know, before work and after work. Can't do them both in one day because it's too hard. But like, you know, before work or after work and kind of toggle that and be glassing, dude. Like lots more, a lot more days and hours on the glass. Well, that's something that's, even there's areas that are better morning glasses than evenings, you know. And you could go there in the morning and not see anything. But then you could go there in an evening and see a lot more.

And just even there's, it comes down to the direction of the sun and the way you can pick things up, you know, or just all that kind of stuff. So you need to even think about that sort of thing. A lot more old school tactics. Yeah. More cameras. Yeah. Which you were around then. But, Logan, you've never hunted without cameras. No. Nope. My earliest hunting memories are hanging cameras. Mm-hmm. Yeah, my kids too. Falling your dad before you could even hunt. Yep. And nothing wrong with that. My kids were too. Onyx is huge for scouting too. And that's something we didn't have, you know, 10 years ago. Onyx has killed so many animals. We was pulling out some paper maps on the hood of the truck. Well, just the aerial imagery, you know, and the new burns, you know, things that you don't have to go there. You used to have to drive the unit with your own eyes to see the burn, what it looked like.

One thing I do with Onyx a lot, like, especially even like late season Colorado where it does you no good to go there in August, September. I'll map out all the places I want to hit, say, the day or two before the hunt. Like, does this road really truly get me or is it locked or whatever? You don't know those things without being there. Yeah. So I'll usually, I'll have notes, all that marked, and I show up and, okay, boom, boom, boom, I hit all that. Yeah. And then you know instantly. Weed it out before opening day. You don't want to be, that's the worst. Hitting a dead end or one ray road. Gate or lock or who knows. But I think it's good. The road can be washed out. But if you can have time to hit it now and then just, you call it waste in a day or two or three or an entire weekend like that. Do that in June. Like, you're going to wear a truck out this weekend.

Like, you're going to hit it hard. Better not. You're going to finish off on orange. It needs to last me 20,000 more. But you do. You hit it so hard. So what you do this weekend is different than what you do next weekend. Yeah. And it's different. And you're just going to kind of dissect it and grind through it. And you're going to mark glassing knobs. You're going to mark places you want to put cameras. You don't have time to do it because even if you do glass of bucks, what are they? You're not going to know. You know that's a deer I've got to go find. But mid-July on, that's when you have your phone scope and you have everything there with you. Because this is when, all right, July 15th on. All right. Now you're going to start to see. When Wyatt has a phone scope case. Attached to his phone here at work. 24-7. We know it's getting good. It's getting good.

But so far it's got the old standard case. It fits good in his pocket at lunch and everything else. Kind of like Groundhog Day. Whenever that goes on, everybody's packing. I've been watching. And last night I was looking for my phone scope case. And I don't know. I put it in another truck or something. But I'm going to. I'm going to pack. It's time. It's time. Yeah. But Wyatt doesn't think it is. And so I don't feel so bad yet. It's getting close though. Yeah. What's the biggest buck you saw this week last weekend? How developed? I didn't even really glass. I saw bucks out. Out of the window. Out to their ears. First fork? Were they forking all fours yet? No. First fork. Yeah. Yeah. Feels like things were a little late shedding in our world. I think they're a little behind. But I don't think that means they're going to be behind at the end. I just think they were. All right.

That's exciting. I can't wait for fresh phone scope video. Here in a month. Are you going to share it? Absolutely. Social media. Why wouldn't I? I want you guys to tell me whether I should shoot a deer or not. I want to be as excited. If I find something. I mean, we always usually do that. I've sent you guys videos of bucks. I don't know. I have a three point on a side. I'm not going to shoot him. The next day I saw him. Brow tines are disgusting. Then I saw the brow tines and a little insider. So I didn't shoot him. But a couple of you told me I was crazy. I mean, there was just basal points everywhere.

20 of them. I kind of turned my head. Anyway. So, yeah. It's fun to share. It's a fun time of year coming into. It's family holidays. We're all juggling that too. You know, weddings. Archibald had weddings. We've got other stuff coming up. But it's that time of year. It's a lot going on in everybody's life. But it's time to make hay really soon.

And I'm not a farmer.

Did we cover everything that we were on? You sticky notes? Oh, no. What do you got there? It's really irrelevant. Just like Scott Van Pelt, the best thing I saw all day. What is this thing? It was some of the best things I've heard all day. Go ahead. I know Adam's usually the one that brings in sticky notes with other people's sayings. What were some of those? I had to promise to Wyatt and Devin it was just going to be nice and easy, nothing personal. So I left everything in there. Until he started making this list off all our tags that we don't have. He was kind of hitting you pretty hard there for a minute. I just wanted to know the species. I didn't know the unit. I wanted to know the quantity. Makes me feel bad. You got more than the rest of us. So we're the ones feeling bad. Okay. So this is a squall. I'll let you guys decide who it came from. I'll read this off.

It says, the older I get, it's the simple things in life I appreciate. Like a cold fridge on a Monday morning. Oh, boy. That'd be Bronson. That was me. And then it was followed up with, just so you guys know, the fridge is three to five degrees colder on a Monday morning. It is. That's not even a myth. Less bores and sows open than it. That's right. When it sits unopened for three to four days, the first drink you get out of there that day, pretty legit. Pretty crisp. It was then followed by, man, the Monday fridge is the best fridge of the week. It's not even debatable. I challenge you all to try it in your own house. Ratchet strap your fridge shut all weekend. Make sure your wife and kids can't open it and have your favorite beverage in there for Monday morning. You open it up, it'll change your life. I agree with you, actually. I cheated the system. It's a noticeable difference.

Archibald, I know you three to five degrees on water bottle. Virgin ice. It's monumental. Oh, yeah. Archibald puts it in the freezer. I have a mini fridge. Where? So that it's always perfect. Yeah. What is the mini fridge? Just because it's, what is that? What is the mini fridge? It's a little fridge. It's just a little fridge. I know, but why can't your big fridge do what a mini fridge does? Because it's open all the time. Oh, one for drinks only, you mean. This is the man fridge. Water. Drink only. Is Miranda even allowed to open it? Yeah. A couple of mountains. A couple of mountains. A couple of mountains. A couple of mountains. It's not ratchet strapped, but. She doesn't feel like it's hers, though, right? Hey, you stock it, you get to drink them. I keep it stocked. All right. I like it. What else? Sometimes it's the simple things in life here. That was about it. That was it?

And then we just followed up. Easter Monday. It was 7.33 a.m. on Easter Monday. What? And it said, man, this first monster was so good, I think I'll have another. Bronson. That wasn't me. 7.33 in the morning. That wasn't me. That was you. That was an Easter? Wasn't that in April? Yeah, it was a long time ago. It's been a while. Geez, you've had that on your desk a long time, Paul. I was doing like what Wyatt did, and I started cleaning, and I zoomed them from somewhere. Okay, yeah. We did have some spring cleaning here around this week. As soon as Arizona was done. Yeah, we've all got stuff out of our office that we don't want. I do have a legitimate question for you guys, though, because June is kind of a month of awareness and celebration. Come on. Whatever. Come on. It's a flag day? Yeah. Well, no, there's just. Armed forces? I see what you mean. Certain dates.

We better just write this time down right now. No. This is all politically correct. There's lots of rainbows in June. Is that where you're going? No. Nope. Now I've got to write it down. Nope. June 15th. I don't know what to calendar. Let's see what June 15th. June 15th? No. Oh, that's a different day, Jude. That's a different day. I want to make sure today's not. Okay, June 15th. There's nothing today. I want to make today, June 15th, an awareness day for a certain species that I want to know physically when the last time you guys have seen a porcupine.

When? What? What are you pointing at? 2020. September. Yeah, Alaska. I took like a thousand videos of him because it was the first living creature we'd seen in days. Where was this? What state? Alaska. Alaska. Oh. Chilling by our tan? It's kind of weird looking. Southern Utah in general. When was the last time you seen a porcupine? Hit on the road? Just hit on the road now? Just. It's been a while. Porcupine. Where are the porcupines? Has anybody even thought about porcupines? No. 2021. Porcupine lives matter. I saw like 15 in a night. What? We were driving in the dark. We saw so many. Come on. I've never seen that many. Did you kill them all? No. No. Not quite. They do look like marmots for you. I kid you not. We saw so many porcupines. I don't want to kill them. I don't want to kill them. Badgers. They don't do anything. No. Unless they're by your cabins.

Like up in Canada, they chew all their cabins off. They hate them up there. But down here, they don't do anything. What you getting at? It's been a long time. What are you saying? What I'm getting at? You saw one. You saw one the other day. No. I didn't. That's why. I was thinking about it. I was like, I have not seen a porcupine. Pine has got a porcupine fetish. Yeah. They're all their cute little critters. There's something odd. What does this have to do with June 15? They're prickly. They kind of have little mustaches. I don't know. The porky day? I don't know. But I was just thinking about that hiking through the trees the other day. Okay. What do you want, guys? Well, part of it was I was like, man, I hope my dogs don't get into a porcupine. Yeah. They're all gone. Like, I don't even have to worry about it. I don't know where they went. I don't know where they vacationed.

I don't know if they're dead. I just have not seen a porcupine. I almost to the – I just feel like we need to make an awareness of porcupines. I don't think it's a species that's celebrated enough. Well, don't raise it too much or close our forests down for – Yellow-bellied marmits. No endangered species research. So, yeah. Anyway. Are you wanting guys to send you pictures of porcupines? I kind of want to do a giveaway. Let's do a giveaway. Let's do a porcupine shoot. If they send in a picture of a porcupine, you get two trail cameras. It's got to be – What? How do you have a date and time stamp on your picture? It's got to prove that it's in 2023. Just send one in. Do a nice. First guy to Pollock's inbox. A dated porcupine picture. Yeah. I think we need to flood social media with pictures of porcupines. No. Where are we going today? Take a direct message, Josh at –

Just throw it at Josh's email. Just josh at epicoutdoors.com. Josh at ppp.com. Anyway. I just want everybody to take a deep thought about what – This begs the question, Pollock. What do they think about, you know? I don't know what to say. There's just some long hours hiking by yourself in the hills. You were really worried about this dog situation. You had your dog and the kid. Yeah. I was just thinking, man, it would suck. Because I remember back in the day I'd take my dog. We'd go on the Boulder Mountain fishing and stuff. And it was like they would get into a porcupine. You'd have to keep your eye on them at all times or they'd get into a porcupine somewhere. Yeah. We hiked for three different days for all day long with a couple of stupid healer crosses. You were in snowdrifts.

Part of the time. Anyway. I don't know. Just a thought. Do I have to say this? One critter I just don't think about when I'm out scouting. Gosh, I didn't see a porcupine today. I wish I thought. Exactly. About a skunk. I saw one, but I mean, how about a skunk? It doesn't feel like there's that many skunks. I saw one right by my house. I think droughts killed skunks. Droughts killed skunks, I think. I'm dead serious. They didn't have cubs, kittens, litters, whatever the heck they have. Pups. Yeah. Pups and that. Like, because, yeah, we live out close to the fields and penguins every night. You couldn't even open your windows. I don't know how we went from big game to vermin. Yeah. Just like that. Exactly. That's what I'm trying to tell you guys. We're not thinking about some keystone species. I wish I thought about porcupines a lot more and a lot less of snakes when I'm out there.

It's true, too. I'd love to be thinking about porcupines instead of. Wyatt found them on the first trip. Yeah. One for one. The infamous albino. But it lived in white rocks. Yeah. Kind of a white environment. That's what I think. I think they become part. They're really good at adapting and becoming part of their environment somehow. Some of them seem to be more green. They don't change color like that, but they do. Yeah, they do. That's what they do. It's interesting. Let's not talk about it. Is it raining again? Coming down again? I don't know. Yes. I can hear it. Sounds like it. But anyway. All right. Are we going to give some? I think we should give something away. Bronson. For what? In the light of it's gearing up. Okay. We're not gearing up. Not in porcupine. Oh, I don't care about porcupine. I'm glad they're not around. See? I actually like them, though. I actually am not glad.

They're cool in us. I like. They were showing videos of, you know, badgers getting ripped apart and this and that. I like. I don't know if I'm getting soft. The older I get, I don't want them killed. I like them. I like badgers. I like porcupines. What do they do? That's what I feel like. Yeah. They eat. But when I was a young kid, I mean, geez. You know. Oh, yeah. I'm bloodthirsty. I cannot stand a badger. Now, the older you get, you get soft. Well, and porcupines. Yeah. If they're not around your house, cabin, all that. They're kind of cool when you see them. Yeah. Badgers are cool. Yeah. Yeah. They're cool when they're not chasing you back to your truck. Well, I mean. And the milk is great. What?

Hell. Pollock. Pollock. Milk and maple trees and cottonwoods and whatever else. I'm just here to make people think about things I haven't thought about before.

Are we. Let's give away some gear, Bronson. We talk a lot about deer. Let's give away. Do we. You guys know. What do we have on the shelf that we'd like to give it away? Anything you want. Anything you say. Do we have. We have it. Do we have a Vortex? Something or other. Yeah. Let's do it. What?

What do we have? It'll be a surprise. Just like seeing a porcupine.

Good. Okay. Hashtag the Vortex surprise. Yeah. Yeah. What do they have to do to get it? Come on. Logan's good at this part. Like. He's the one that checks it and queries it so that we don't leave out anybody when we actually make the list before we do the random spin wheel thing. What are we going to hashtag? Are we doing submissions of pictures of porcupines? Is that the. We won't have anybody enter if we do that. We need. We need it more open. That's too restrictive. The Vortex surprise. I couldn't even enter that. Doesn't have a single post. I like. I like Vortex surprise. The Vortex surprise. You can hashtag Vortex surprise and we're going to freaking load somebody. It's not going to be a joke. It's not going to be a little mini tripod hit or something like that. They can post whatever picture they want with that hashtag. It's not going to be the new tripod. Are we going to.

You can't limit it to a porcupine. I couldn't even enter. Could you enter that? No. It's going to be good odds. That's what I mean. Odds are so bad these days. We could care less. This could be a good odds contest. Okay. If you want to do that. Porcupines matter. And okay. And for the people. For the people that don't have one in their camera roll already. You've got how long? When's the deadline to go find a porcupine to take a picture of? And it has to be. Must be a selfie. Yeah. Well. Somebody's going to get. You can do a selfie with a porcupine. They don't. They don't run away fast. So. You can't just go to. Very slow. You can't go to Shutterfly or whatever those online places and get one and send it in to us. That doesn't work. No. It's got to be a selfie. It's legit. I think it's got to be selfie. Huh? Yeah. Oh, I think so. We'll give you. Just don't give them. Well, maybe a week.

Yeah. We might. Should we say next Friday? Yeah. Friday. Send us a picture or post a picture with a selfie of a porcupine. Not this Friday. Next Friday. Which is. Like 16th, 23rd-ish. What is that? Like. Yeah. That's the 23rd. Don't get too close. The porcupines matter. Hashtag has like four posts. Does it? Porcupines matter. I think we need to maybe open it up a little bit more and maybe go with a scouting photo or something. Like let's let some people enter. Okay. Do you want to do June 30th? If you don't get a porcupine picture, what is the other? A selfie of you and what? Snake. No. No. A scouting photo. Hey, there you go. Any old scouting photo. No, not old. How about a selfie of you and an animal? Wild animal of some kind. Any animal. Butterfly? Yeah. Who cares? Mammal? Freaking squirrel. Rock chuck? Dead or alive? Hey. We went to the dump yesterday and we saw a squirrel.

That would have worked. It has to be living. It's the vortex. It's the vortex surprise. Let's limit it to a mammal. What about something that surprised you while you were scouting? What about a bird? Oh, come on. That surprised me. That was a heck of a big squirrel. I was thinking like a big deer, but okay. Right, but I mean, that's your thinking. It's true. It's too genuine. All right. So what are we doing? Say it. So we are going to open it up beyond porcupine. I was going to look up the scientific name, but I bet it's really weird. If you get a porcupine, you get three names in the hat. Yeah. Yes. Bonus point. Great idea. Should we square them? Let's square them. Let's square them. If you load two photos, you get two times two is four names in the hat, plus one, plus this year's application. Plus one for the year.

Plus one for the year. Or should we do it like Colorado's weighted sheep, moose, and goat? No. Do it that way? You'll never go.

Let's just put, if you have a picture of a porcupine, you get ten entries in the hat. Ten. Selfie. Selfie. A selfie with a porcupine. Ten entries. Current. Selfie. And everything else is just one entry. Yeah. We don't need to bombard us with 20 scouting photos to get 20 entries. And then let's do hashtag epic scouting. Hashtag epic scouting. And then the vortex surprise. Hashtag epic scouting. Hashtag vortex surprise. You better check epic scouting. Is that? And we're talking like binos, a range finder, something good. Yes. Not a monocular. Something you actually, you'll use it.

I like it. Got to tag us. Got to be following us. And it has to be a feed post. Epic scouting only has three photos, so it'll work just fine. A feed post. The stories will disappear before we can get you entered, so make sure it's posted on your feed. It's got to be a post on your. Because this is awareness. This isn't something that's going to disappear in 24 hours. This is, we need to bring awareness. No, you need to be proud of this one. Yes. We're bringing awareness. I'm scouting. I pray. So epic scouting, there's only three posts. That'll work just fine. Epic scouting. I pray I see a porcupine this weekend. I thought I saw one once and it turned out to be a big old turkey. Another turkey story. That was the turkey. Yeah. Archibald, do you have a porcupine story? I don't. Other than that one. Maybe you will this weekend. We kind of bonded in Alaska. He just hung out with me. Did he?

Yeah. Did you throw him a moose shed to nibble on with you? Probably what he was after. No. I don't know. He didn't seem to really care that we were there. They're bad on those. He felt comfortable. He was not a good looking porcupine, though. He was like yellowish. He was weird looking. I thought he looked like every other porcupine I've ever seen. I still like to go back. Did you look into his soul like you in the owl? From here to that, cheap away. You looked right into his eyes and I thought, he's just different. I don't know. Something you're right. Kind of like that snake of a while. You profiled him. I'll show you the video. He's like, you know how sloths get like green fungus on them? Okay. That's what he looked like. Something wasn't right. Still begs the question of how cash saw 15 in one night. Exactly. Huh? Still begs the question of how cash saw 15 in one night.

What is a group of porcupines called? Unreal. A herd. What a gaggle. A gaggle of porcupines. I don't know. Oh, geez. Well, all right. There it is. We've laid it out. I think it's time to go find, do, and conquer. Somebody do it. If you need a hunt, remember we've got this drive. It's going to end in four days. So we've got a membership drive here at Epic Outdoors. World-class hunts that we're all proud of that we would love to go on ourselves. And you can also get a hold of Archibald here especially. Of course, any of us can help you. But Archibald, he's the front man on getting the openings. He usually hears it before Adam and I do. And Josh and Wyatt and everybody else cash. So anyway, if you're looking for something and you want to do something, we're going to be able to help you. Just let us know. Openings are changing all the time.

And, of course, we've got some secondary draws, turn back tags, landowner tags. I mean, there's a lot of things going on. But we just felt a little bit of reprieve, Bronson, when the deadlines have come and gone for the most part. A few little lingering point-only stuff and things like that. That's right. Get a few entries in this time next week. We'll probably be right back in here with calling the winners. Maybe Thursday, Friday, somewhere like that later next week. Let's do one other call-out. We should do a question-answer podcast. Some question-answers because everybody's getting out and getting ready to start scouting. So if you have questions that you want answered, what do they do, Josh? DM us. Or Logan. What do you want to do? We'll put a post on it. Yeah, when we do this podcast, we'll put a little question submission bar on our – and you can also DM us.

Yeah, we'll do it – I was just trying to think. Last time we did some direct messages. Okay. That works really good, and then we can go on there. It can be whatever. We won't call you out by name, but it'll be stuff that we can answer on podcasts, and it also generates a lot of conversation, stories, things like that. It pulls a lot out, and they're awesome. It's a good time to do those in the summer. So, yeah, I guess if you – let's just plan on that. Let's just say that here now so everybody can hear it. Hit us up on our epic underscore hunts Instagram page. And a question, a question you have, whether it's about muzzleloaders or crossbows or porcupines, which it's called a prickle is what Cash apparently saw that night. What? It's a prickle of porcupines? No, it's not. A group of porcupines is called – Prove it. Prove it. I just Googled it. I swear on my life. A prickle?

A prickle of porcupines. Makes sense. I mean, it's not too far. But I don't know if it's porcupine or porcupines. I don't know. A group of porcupines. Porcupangs? A prickle. That's pretty creative. A pokey prickle. The internet's not always right. No, but – Good grief. That's pretty convincing. People rebuild vehicles, rebuild engines. That's what Cash saw. Cash, real quick. How many groups did you see to get up to 15? How many prickles? One prickle, if we're counting two as a prickle. There was two within 20 yards of each other. We were driving. And the rest were solo? No, pretty much. The other 13? Yeah. Come on. Serious. Is that believable? Believe it or not. We were driving, and it was dark, and we saw that many just driving in the dark. We saw a couple in the daylight. No actual prickles like four or five groups. No. No prickles. I've never seen a group of four or five. No.

I think they're pretty solitary. Oh. I've seen a mom with a couple, whatever. Yeah. Pricklets or whatever with falling or whatever. What's a baby called? Pricklet? A porcupine. Pricklet. A porcupine. A pricklet. I imagine they're not prolific breeders. I don't know. That brings up a whole new thought process we're going to talk about later. What's the gestation? I don't know. I'm more interested in the process. Maybe that's what we need to be aware about. What's the process? I know. Let's shut this thing down. That seems like a dangerous process. Yes. Good grief. I just want to know. Do you, the younger generation, do you guys feel bad when a porcupine gets killed or a badger? Or could care less? Or would actually participate in the slaughter of one? Well, I would. I mean, if I'm calling coyotes and a badger comes in, it's dying. You're smashing it. I'm smashing it in the face.

Because it's a good time. Yeah. But I wouldn't kill a porcupine. Just, yeah, don't do it on the next porcupine. But I'm not going to sob over it either. If you call in a big old boar a porcupine. I'm not sobbing. I'm not saying you are. Did you just call it a boar? Are they boars in the south? Oh, come on. Give me. I don't know what they are. For those of you that were curious. Hey, read it. For those of you that were curious. Let's just get it over with right now. The average gestation period of a porcupine. Now, it varies based on the different species and subspecies of porcupines. But the average is 90 days. 90 days. And what is a male and a female porcupine? Right here. Oh, I've got to give it a give. Porcupettes. It's right here. Porcupettes. Pets. Pets. Here. Slow-moving and lumbering porcupines range from the tundra of Alaska to the deserts of New Mexico.

Female porcupines will have one or two young, usually in the spring. These cute babies called porcupettes. Porcupettes. P-E-T-T-E-S. Okay, so if somebody takes a selfie with a prickle. Porcupettes. Are born with soft porcupines. Soft quills, and they harden within an hour. Wow. I was going to say, think about giving birth to a porcupine. No. Soft quills. Soft quills. Come on. I mean, talk about the boar breeding. I mean, talk about the mama birthing. I mean, where have we gone? How often? They breed once a year. They breed once a year. Males compete for it. They are called boars and sows. Are they? I'm dead serious. Breeding occurs in October, November. I'll bet that's when you see the most of them. They're out and about. That's when the porcupine rut is. It's the rumen. Porcupine roar. The roar. The porcupine roar.

I show here gestation 210 days after which the female gives birth to a single offspring. That's the longest one. There was a lot of them, though. It said the average was 90. Some of them were like 60. That's the Sonoran porcupine. That's what you're looking up, I think. Versus the Klondike. As many as 12. They din communally during courtship. That's probably what you said. What time of year was it? It was like end of September, beginning of October. That's what it was. It was a. See? It wasn't. It wasn't. But they weren't together. Listen to this. They weren't all together. Listen to this. They weren't all together. They are monogamous. Usually the pair mates for life. Whoa. So when you smash one, you're ruining a family. I can honestly say I've never killed a porcupine. I don't know that I have either. I've caught one with a swather. Quills. Quills everywhere. Everywhere. In a hay field?

Oh, yeah. In our hay field in Nephi one time. We cut one up in a swather. We found. Our dog was out in the field and it came back covered in quills. Like, we're in a freaking porcupine. We go down there and pile. Chopped it up. Here's a little question. See who knows this. Where are we going to stop? In the wild, how long are they known to live? 18 to 20 years. Holy crap. 18 years. As long as 18 years. How do you know this? Did you do your master's thesis on these things? No. I just woke up early and had a good dream. That's knocking on chimpanzee age. Geez. No, that's 65. It's pretty crazy. I watched a documentary about that. Let's leave that for another podcast. Wyatt's been done with this podcast. He's had his head set off twice. Can we go to lunch? Yes. One other thing. Well, I mean, it says here, what are they good for? What are they good for? What do you guys think they're good for?

What do they do? Pollinate flowers? What do they do? Exactly, right? Good question. I don't know. Do they just feed coyotes? I mean, what are they good for? Coyotes don't. So what good are porcupines? Well, glad you asked. They do eat trees, dropping branches along the way, which in turn provides habitat for other critters. Think of them as tree pruners. Really? A beaver. A bull elk rakes a tree and does the same thing. I mean, remember when Arizona and they were trying to save the aspen saplings? Anyway. Anyway. All right. Porcupine. We're done. A keystone species in the West. We're done. So we're giving away something wazoo. If you're confused about this giveaway, check the description. We'll have all the instructions written down in the podcast description. I'm going to give you a little video clip of this tree with water bubbling out of this tree. A lag boat. Kind of crazy.

It just shows you how much water is out there in the world. Open it up. Changing of the seasons. All right. We'd like to thank all of our sponsors here at Epic Outdoors. For top of the line hunting, clothing, and apparel in every environment, visit UnderArmor.com. We'd like to thank Under Armour for being our title sponsor and making this podcast happen. Visit our website, EpicOutdoors.com, for discount codes to Under Armour hunting apparel. Handcrafted, quality, precision rifles from start to finish. Red Rock Precision is one of our sponsors, and many of our staff uses Red Rock rifles. Visit RedRockPrecision.com to find out more. If you're in the market for a hunting property, our sponsor at St. James Sporting Properties specialize in premier hunting properties throughout the West. Check out available hunting properties at StJamesSportingProperties.com.

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