In this episode we go over every aspect of the new Idaho general nonresident draw. If you are considering hunting the Idaho general as a nonresident, you need to listen to this podcast. We also get to hear about John’s Nevada Mule deer experience. John spent over 20 days in the Nevada desert and was able to make it happen on a great buck, with a little last day magic.
Disclaimer: this text was produced through an automated transcription service and likely contains errors. Please listen to the original audio for exact content.
You are listening to the Epic Outdoors Podcast, brought to you by Fierce Firearms, epic Outdoors choice for custom hunting rifles.
Hey everybody. Jason Carter. Adam Bronson. Of course. We got John Peterson. Devin, how are you Devin? Good. And we got Logie Bear. Hey,
Logie Bear. How are
You? What’s up Logan?
I’m good. Nothing’s up. He
Nothing up.
It’s a Friday evening. He has no date. He doesn’t care when we do the podcast. We could do it at midnight. You have no problems with it. That’d
Be just fine. Jeeze
Is a problem. Logan.
Jeeze, stay clocked in all the way till midnight.
You know they make apps for that so you can always have a date. What apps? Oh, like Tinder.
You wanna set me up a profile? You set me up the profile. Oh,
You it. You give me a hundred percent access and freedom. We already did
You make it? I’ll send you the pictures. Make it.
You remember when we had the app and we were choosing gals and you had success with that?
It was good. Wyatt has the Riz.
What was that? What’s
Riz is a game.
It’s game with the with the ladies. You’re behind. The times heard.
You’d be shocked.
You start, start talking like
Devin’s got stories. Hey Devin, why it’s not here. We can, when you’re not here, you have
You four foot control lose you,
Four foot license.
You’re deep. Beto power.
That’s
Right. We wanna make this podcast go from an hour to 23 minutes.
About an hour and 23.
You mean from editing? Yes.
Logan’s got all night. He just said, so
Logan, do you need help on your dating, on your dating side of things? Are you all right?
I, I think I’m all right. I don’t know. I never turned down. I never turned down referrals.
Usually gals like a wazoo hunter, gatherer guy. And you killed some things, right? I have Colorado had a wazoo gay old time. Yeah,
We had a really, really straight time. Jason.
Happy
Time. Jason’s trying to build them up. Jason, he use his words like that. Jason, that’s the definitions of no risk. No. Hey, A
Zero risk. Logan had a good time. I didn’t by choice. We we had a good time. Didn’t kill one, but we had a good time. Where
Are you talking, Colorado? Yeah.
Oh yeah. Colorado’s a love hate deal. But let’s get started here for real quick. All right, so wanna thank Fierce for sponsoring this podcast they’re doing about everything for us as far as sponsorship. We sell the rifles if you need one, call us fierce firearms.com. Okay. If we got fierce arms.com, excuse me, go check ’em out. And if you wanna buy one, go through us. ’cause
We’re cheap Christmas present for somebody. We got ’em in stock. Doesn’t we got a handful or so? I don’t remember
A Christmas gift nowadays. Six
Eight. Yep.
Some of them are being built within two weeks, depending
On the model. But we also have a left on
The show. What do we order? A lefty. The other left yesterday.
6.5 PRC left. 20 inch barrel.
Well it’ll be here in a week and
A half. It was less. Less than 2K. Nothing
Wrong with that.
And it’ll be here in a week and a half. Yeah. For Christmas. I mean, can you, anyway, pretty awesome.
But we got guns on the shelf too for righties.
Lots of varieties. Lefties
Are usually special order.
Then we had a good client come in just barely. And anyway, SIG, I don’t know what happened. It’s an old, old sig. Hey. Hey. What do you mean anyway? And Audi walked with the eight K. He still had his profile in my phone from it. May have doing the dual rifle. Fallen off a cliff or something. Rifle. No, we didn’t do that. No, no, no. His
Older
Old boy. Yeah, he had issues, but, but it’s awesome. I mean, great guy, great client gun shoot’s. Amazing
New, new eight k singing in about three and a half minutes. Three
And a half minutes. I still have the profile. Crushed it. Anyway, he’s gonna be smashing Oke in the morning. So if you want something, let us know. We’ve got guns here, we have scopes here. We mount ’em, we go out, shoot ’em off you go. And you’re smashing stuff the next day if you want. Hey, I don’t care. Don’t you don’t wanna kill anything. Don’t kill anything you want to gather. Go gather. We hunt around here, right Logan? That’s right. Alright, so anyway. And then special shout out to hordy horny.com. Go check ’em out. We’re shooting their, the different rounds in a number of different rifles. The six five sevens. We got a seven PRC seven prcs man. Hundred 75 grand El LDX. Yeah. Smashing stuff. Janis sheep. I don’t know how many COEs kids game
Elk, ORX,
Deer. All, all kinds Whitetailed deer. The six five. I just killed a white tail with the six five outta 1 43. It was awesome.
One shot Kill Jay
Smash and grab, was
It a one shot kill?
I was there. You weren’t? I don’t have to tell the truth. No, it was, it was a one shot kill. It was done. I mean, I’m like looking at it. Fold it. Oh, folding good. I mean in about 10 yards. Rifle was
Like,
What rifle was that? He was a mountain reaper. It was pretty fun. Awesome. Yeah, it was kind of, it was not bad to sign. So that my cut out rifle. Right. Let’s just be honest. We can just say it. I was like, Ashley, and I’ll share this other rifle we’ve got that’s a seven PRC, little bit, little bit beef here, you know? Yeah. The white tail can be pretty beef, you know. I’m like, eh, let’s do that. Go out there and then end up splitting up in two different stands.
The very last night. ’cause you’re like, we gotta up our
Chest. Yeah. Well kinda it was, yeah. Well, Roger had killed his and he was like, he didn’t want to go home. He was like, I wanna stay and be part of this. It’s a three day total gig, like Ash. And I’ll sit in the stand and I’m like, all right, fine. But I knew what was gonna happen. You know,
Buck to walk in front
Of you. Yeah. Walks in front of me. But he did anyway. Ash had a chance to, but it was awesome. Anyway, end of story. I, when I left the house, I’m like, I’m gonna shoot this six five mountain reaper and just smash all the coyotes. You realize they have two day predator contests. Okay. Okay. And this is in Oklahoma. And I don’t know how many teams sign up every single weekend. Okay. You know how many dogs they’ll kill and they don’t. Even if you kill under 40 dogs in 24 hours, two dudes.
What
You do not show up. You don’t even play. You don’t even show up. You don’t even show up. Tournament in
What? Yes. It’s kinda like being in a bass contest and showing up with it at the,
I had a, I had a, I had a group of eight dogs in front of me at like seven, 700 yards. This go around. I’m my gosh, look at,
Could you ever line two three up and well
Probably flock, shoot. Geez. Wow. I mean, in hunter safety, you’re not supposed to do that
On coyotes flock.
Shoot. Well, I mean, it is a living. They are organism. They’re
Vermin.
I’d say let a rip.
That’s when I think you’re all right.
Hey kids. Whatever they told you about being kind animals and EVs skyline when it comes to ki when it comes to coyotes, you just kill ’em when you see ’em. But,
Well, I think thought we had a problem out here, but
I guess, oh no, that’s crazy.
I
Had no idea. Oh yeah. Stupid, huh. So, but anyway, had it set up and then sure enough ended up shooting a deer with it. And I was like, ah. All right.
Yeah, it works. Yeah.
Yeah. Hey, there you have it. First big game. Kill on the board. It’s usually my long range dog gun. So where are we at? Awesome. Hordy. Great ammo. I don’t know how many game, we’ve never lost an animal when we shot. I mean,
We’ve shot a lot of their
Stuff. Both
Reload factory.
You’ve
Shot reloads of factory. I
Many grus
Of it. I dunno how many sheep or, or myself and or hunters.
And it is a soft skin game. But I mean, dozens
You never get away. Dozen, dozens with the 1 43 ELDX
On the six, five dozens.
PRC, dozens of sheep. Bullet.
Pretty awesome. Anyway, all good stuff. All dozens with it. Let’s, let’s move right in. We’ve gotta do father of the year, which I mean, if we’re not eligible, I guess somebody else should win
One of these a hundred odd people ought to be eligible.
How are we gonna, how are we gonna do it? Logan’s do do it
Spinner.
I got it. I did it already. Devin requested that I make it pretty last time. So I did. So I added some rainbow color. Yes. Geez.
I didn’t know that. Rainbows, Devin. Yeah.
Well this works. Fire that
Thing up. So remind everybody who maybe didn’t play this. Yeah. Have anything to enter because they weren’t a good dad this year. Well, or whatever. No, I’m just saying. Or their, how did I win that? But there were parameters. You had to take a kid hunting and fishing.
Yeah. You had to take a kid hunting.
Not fishing. Hunting.
Just hunting. And would
Somebody Logan’s age be considered a kid? ’cause really, he’s a kid.
Yeah. Did, did Paul send anything in?
No, I was, as he lick his mustache, I
Was son of the year. That’s gross. Year gross. Were
You? Oh you were? What
Do you mean? He went with you and talked you off the cliff as your truck was teetering?
He wasn’t there. That I was by myself. That Logan
Would make a great human trail camera.
Yeah,
He would be that suck. Here’s
Your notepad and paper.
Be that.
I was What qualities? Well,
Hey listen. Make you eligible.
I made a great human truck
Camera. Think about this. Yeah. That now that truck cameras in Utah, Nevada are done. July 31. We need human trail cameras.
We need logo. What would you charge us to be a human TRO camera?
Sit in a blind and document date time. And I feel like
We’d have to make sure, sure. You didn’t have starlink or service. Do I have service? That was my first question. Do I have service? No,
I don’t think so either. I feel like you would miss some perfect prime time.
Well, listen, if, if Logan’s there and he takes a picture of a buck. If you take a picture of a buck coming into the spring and text it to you, is that like a transmitting same as the transmitting subject?
Well, I mean, no,
I mean, but
I mean, you would sign documents that don’t talk about the trail camera aspect. You would sign your documents of employment would be like, you’re just there to observe.
I’m a photographer.
I think there’s parameters on there. It has to be triggered by like movement and or heat. And in this case, it’s your finger. So I think we’d be good.
I think you’d be all right. I feel good. These are good questions.
Back in the day, Jason got paid like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Whoa.
Friends and family rage. Jason,
Did you get a Pepsi? I was able to. A Pepsi. Oh, come on. Mountain Dew. I liked Mountain Dew, but I would, I was allowed to come out for 30 minutes, literally all day til the dark in the summertime. Okay. You know how long many hours there are hours. And you know what you put around your waist? It’s about they kill people. Now you’re in a tree. You’re supposed Yes. Yeah.
Yes
You are in an aral human trail camera. Oh,
Come on.
No, I mean you’re straight literal
To a tree. That’s what we’re talking about. And he had, I
Do remember back in the day, here’s
A note pad of the pencil. Yes. What come in date time? Six pencil.
We didn’t have phones to keep notes. No. And so you can’t remember, can you imagine like you
Have to
Fall swaying in an aspen and you’re way up there. Right. And then you know what the, the safety harness was? It was that loop A rope. The titans as you, if you were to fall, it just cinch around. Slipped knot. Dead slip knot.
You’re
Dead. Yeah. You remember him? Oh
Yeah. Yeah. If you would’ve went the other way, you’d be hanging upside down and no, no chance you’re gonna get out. You’re gonna dangle there to the blood and the pressure in your skull. I
Used to put up truck out, or excuse me, I used to put up the tree stands like I climb up to the top. Yeah. Okay. What’s, what’s the youngest? How are we not dead? What’s the youngest you started this? Oh, John. I don’t know.
Kindergarten. When did, when did you learn to read and write? Eight years old or what?
I didn’t speak until I was three. And so I had to be after three. They said that. And you couldn’t write
Till you were five.
Yeah. I don’t know about any of those things. I just remember in kindergarten we took naps. We had a little, a little towel pad. Towel. Like a beach towel.
Yoga. Like a yoga mat these days.
Yeah. I’m like, okay, everybody take a nap. You know? Does that even happen now? I
Remember that they have all day. I couldn’t do it. They have all kind camp.
I could see Devin sitting there. Yeah, you
Had your, you had your color on the floor. Everybody lay down. I’m like, this ain’t gonna happen. No. And I just sit there.
So beside
Personal space, I
Could not sleep. Let’s find the most amazing dad on planet Earth.
Let’s do it for all the dads that didn’t make their kids do
That. So for you, you dads that took your kids hunting this year. Yeah. You in this drawing, it’s
Them or their kids posted up a picture and ended their fathers for father of the year on I Instagram. What were giving away. I can’t giving away a epic ultra tripod combo. Jeez.
Chicken
Feed. Taking care of his dad.
So Rooster feed, alright,
Let’s see who’s winning right
There. Ended
Up in the
Blue. That’s the winner.
Gordon Jolly one father of the year. Boom.
What did he do? Is there any way to look what, what the post was?
Well I could search it. It up. It’ll take, it’ll take him a minute. You
Gonna repost this photo and Yeah. It’s just, hopefully congratulations. Something cool. Yeah, it’ll be awesome. Hopefully something cool. Yeah. That’s
Awesome.
Yeah. Congratulations Jordan. We’ll contact you and get your tripod out to you.
Pretty awesome. Awesome. Epic tripod by, by the way. We have tons of ’em. And then we ordered tons. Yeah, A lot more. Yep.
So not gonna run out ever. John.
It may or may not run
Out. We’re not.
All right. So Bronson, where, where are we going with all this? I think we’ve got an important announcement. We got this what Idaho general draw going on right
Now. I haven’t heard about that.
Tell us about that.
It’s pretty amazing. What were we talking about? It was one of those things. So this is one of those things that used to be over the counter tags. Then they were kind of like first come, first serves, you get in a big old long queue, you know, electronic computerized queue. And when your turn comes up you scramble to grab the tag that you can. Now they finally went to a draw. Not even charging you an app fee, just just, you gotta buy a hunting license for 2026. Valid hunting license to apply. But now there’s a ton of demand for it. Yeah. Because it’s an official draw.
Well, and you gotta pay 200 and something bucks. Yeah. To buy the license. Well, yeah, with the hundred 85
Online
Fees. 2 0 4 or something. Yeah. 2 0 4.
Yeah. 185 plus your
Access. Access validations access. Yeah. 3% or 2.5 or whatever. So a couple hundred bucks. You can also apply for the controlled hunts later on. You
Know. And so once you buy that hunting license, good for the whole year. So if you’re gonna do it anyway, have at
It do the controlled moose sheep or goat or the deer, elk and antelope controlled stuff later. If you, some of you people that just heard what I said are confused thinking this was the controlled hunt drawing. This is not, ’cause there’s
No, yeah, this is confused. The controlled hunt draw. Like there’s still gonna be a regular elk and deer draw for Devin. Go ahead, take
It over. I didn’t say anything.
I mean
The only thing I would add on my end is like if you’re looking to go guide it, you know some of the outfitters who hold the permits for some of those general areas, they get a lot of allocated tags. No, you don’t need to draw. So if you do draw and then, Hmm. You know, that can be difficult to find a guide. So I would say if you
Have an area, they have an outfitter allocated tag that they sell hunts to. Correct.
Yeah. So you wouldn’t need to draw, if you wanted to hunt that place with the outfitter, you could get an allocated tag. But if you draw and then call you, you know, you might, it might
Cool.
Lot of these most likely be, and it’s in this supplement, it’s in this what we call a general tag supplement. And it says, and tags allocated to outfitters. You can see where the tag, the outfitter allocated tags are. And so yeah, when you draw a tag and wanna go find an outfitter there prob might be like, you know, we don’t have space for you. But generally I’ve had a how many bro, how many general tags have I eaten over the years? Okay. I’ve, I’ve funded single handedly funded an entire DWR wage off of the general tags that I’ve eaten.
You know, Jason and I bought Yamaha TWS based on the Idaho gym. Okay. Why
Do we have to talk about that? Because
It just stings me to this day.
I have, we, I have a Yamaha TW 200. Anybody wants it?
Call me. Hey, mine’s less miles than his And that they’re, they’re both
Under,
They’re both under 80 miles.
They are mine’s at 79 miles.
Both of these were offers
I never
Got when I was in the market for a dirt bike. So we didn’t know you were in the market. You remember, you remember they came up with a, with a deal for a last year’s model and you had a bike before we even knew you were interested. Yeah,
That’s true. When you told, when this is told the same as your bike when you told us
You’re not market
For anything, those
Tws are sweet. They’re point A to point B. Yeah. They’re trick,
They’re an old man. Motorcycle tricks
There. Let’s just say this, you had a really rough time and maybe wrecked 1400 times on one trip, right? Maybe bent some handlebars, maybe more potentially. Yeah. It’s all, it’s in good shape now. Okay. You don’t wreck a tw, you’re about a foot and a half off the
Ground. I did. I ripped mine really bad. Did you twice? I could think of twice.
I remember we went and hunted off Willer Peak for goats and there’s some motorbike trails.
That was my bike. Chris had my bike. Oh
Yes. Okay.
Bike. It had some bike. Your bike about to tell a story. Story of scratch,
Know what happened to your
Bike. That was my bike. Do you want
Me to tell you what happened to your
Bike? It, it had some
Scars. Okay. This is what happened. Devvin we’re going on the trail. This is
Before we even knew Devvin. Right. Okay. I didn’t know literally Chris know Chris. Pete brought
It from you. Yes. And
Brought, I had no idea
That was my bike. Do
You wanna know what happened? This is what happened
To your bike? I don’t, it don’t matter. It’s, this
Is like a, okay, we’re on a trail. Think picture this. The heel goes like this.
I’ve been on the trail.
Okay. The trail goes, it’s sketchy. Guess which way Chris rolled the bike
Off the edge
Off this way. Oh, 20 yards. I mean went this way. So he went, he could die. Yes. Yes. He didn’t fall toward the hill. He flew, he fell away from the hill down the downlow. The steepest part of the trail. Is it? I was, was we were like, we were all looking down there
When you go out the trail and it hits a north face and wraps around and it’s
Straight down. Yes. I’ve hiked straight down when we went over to the edge and looked down to try to find him. I mean it was, oh my gosh. And I didn’t know that was your bike. So there you have it. Was the bike over the same?
Yeah, it’s fine.
Okay. Yeah, they’re tough. Yeah.
It had an action packer on the back.
He was amazing. Chris filmed everything. It was awesome. It’s a legal trail by the way. So there’s, so this is why Bronson, you brought this up. We,
We did largely because of that. But because it allows you has a lot of single track options. Colorado has some Utah, not as much in Utah, but other states have a lot of single track where Utah has more, you know, 50 inch or less or side by side tracks. But anyway, we, we did it. I think I pulled the plug, maybe got a 50% refund sometime in spring. ’cause I felt like I had enough. I didn’t even go. So not something I’ve done. I did have to buy one one year when my son drew this is, this is how interesting this process, I don’t know what year that was. 2017.
He drew 54
You the
Youth deer tag on the second draw. Yes. What time of year is that Jason? August. mid-August. Yes. There were still general tags. I could go buy one right there over the counter
August and, and Accomp. Right. Accompany him. Yeah. As, as a mentor
For him to get the cheap deer tag. I had to buy a general deer tag for him to get that. But that’s how in seven, eight years, years, yes. I could buy ’em. They were over the counter. You could still buy ’em in August.
The last time I hunted Idaho actually hunted it. I bought my tag when I was on my way there.
Okay. So if you,
The last couple tags you set in my, but
I home. I just, it what is just a testament to how hard it is to get tags. Even general over the counter tags. It’s just hard to get tags, right? Yeah. And so no matter the quality or not, they, these are general by nature. They’re over the counter buy ’em at Walmart.
Yeah. Every
Resident for residents
Or at the, you know, gas
Station. Gas station, whatever.
Yeah. Anywhere.
And you say that to some non-residents that are like, what do you mean? I’m like, exactly what I said, every resident of Idaho that wants to buy one of these buys one of these before the hunt at gas stations.
I’m just saying like, and I went, I went and I’ve hunted it and it’s fun and it’s an, it is an opportunity. Like you have a tag in your pocket for mule deer. Like you can go hunt ’em. But it’s just, I feel like there’s gonna be some guys that are just disappointed a a bit. Just real thinking. This is is
A non-resident draw tag. Yes.
Yes. I think, I think it will affect, they draw the general Idaho and they may not apply in Colorado or other hunts because this, they have this tag. That’s kind of
Good though.
Yeah, that’s good. The rest, I’m just saying if just
As long as they know what they’ve
Got. If do you were gonna draw Colorado and you had a choice of one of the two.
Oh you’d go Colorado.
You’d go Colorado. Careful
A hundred percent of the time.
Careful what you wish.
Yeah. So, so anyway, it’s, so you got five choices. You apply December 5th to the 15th, you got five choices. There’s no points associated. You can apply in the controlled hunt, draw later. Yeah. And then swap the tags.
If you drew that,
If you drew this general,
Talk about the five choices real quick. Co It’s a little bit misleading.
Yeah. There’s choices. Choices. You know, Utah choices, how many choices are in Utah?
You can put five or water four down on Utah, four elk, you never
Draw. There’s something, you got five choices. There’s
Third or four choices. But
There’s two choices that really matter. Whereas in Idaho it’s always been one choice. Well we call ’em and say just to verify that the programming’s gonna be the same. Yes. They’re gonna look at everybody’s first choice before they go to anybody’s second. So for Elk, you’ve got Diamond Creek for most popular, best quality, let’s say. Yeah. The Diamond Creek most in actually if you got that tag, you got something. Yeah, that’s,
That’s good. But if every, if you put that and then rank four others that are not gonna be undersubscribed, you have zero chance to draw those.
If you don’t get that diamond, you, you’re in for Diamond. Yeah. You’re one of the 5,000.
Same thing for Deere. You know, most of these deer are not gonna be undersubscribed. I’m gonna
Say most, do you remember how many? Do you remember when you would get online and you’d be in that virtual room
In the queue? Oh, tens of thousands
Of people. 20,000. You’d be one of 20,
Whatever it was. Yeah, December 1st.
It’s, it’s gonna be like, I mean just think of what the applicant. Yeah, I don’t dunno. And we have applicants that are coming outta the woodwork.
I think it’ll increase
For sure.
Yeah. And just for, what was it, Jason? 15 years ago, you could buy an over the counter Chiba or
Oh yeah. Strip tab. Oh yeah. 13 a I did over the counter. 13 A and I mean
How many points does, does not just that, but even the Caba now, oh well
14. Oh yeah, no, they’re like 13 to 15 depending. I think it’ll jump a little bit.
It went from literally over the counter.
Yeah. It was literally over the
Counter to that. In 12 or 15 years. We
Had a good one. We were young. We get old. Wasn’t
It 2007 they switched That was it
Set? It was, I can’t even remember. Really
Close to
That.
Yes, it was no. ’cause I know for a fact in 2007 you could do the over the counter still.
Yes, we do know. We do know. There was a guy that did 13 A that had a limited entry rifle tag and ended up killing a buck in 13 A
Our 13. So he could not hunt his limited drop tag.
Couldn’t
Hunt the 12. And there was good, there’s some good bucks available that year. Better have been a big one
Was. So I’m just saying that was a But he killed a great buck too. So on on and over the counter. Let’s call it an OTC archery. What? That was a nice buck. I just think I just, I just think we had a good, you know, when we get to be 80, you know how we’re telling the old guys, look step aside, you had your chances. You guys hunted, you guys party on it. Right. When we, when a older guy gets mad that we’ve, at least we give the elders some preferential treat at ready to not never hunt again. We’d
At least never saw that. Our dad’s
Generation, the party they did, we did not. But when my, when our dad’s generation start whining that they’re not getting enough tags. ’cause they’re gonna die soon. I wanna say you,
You shot four for a hunt for ev, grandma and everybody else.
Oh, come on. Yeah. Five, I mean, oh seven, who knows. Whatever. Right. They saw times. We, we can only, we can’t even dream of ’em anymore. Exactly. And so I don’t, I guess people aren’t gonna look, feel bad for us either. ’cause when we look back, we’re like, and we knew those times were coming to an end. Yeah. We did the, we knew 13 A was coming to an end. We knew the Kaibab was coming to end. We still didn’t value it. No.
Just like we knew. It’s
Like over the counter sheep tags in Montana. Yeah.
Someday. That’ll be great. It could be going away B’S like, why didn’t I do that? Yeah.
Geez. I should have made that a
Preference. You know. But now, now that you have to draw on Idaho general, it’s, it feels like it’s being made. I mean, they’re emailing you out every three days or reminders of it and it just feels like it’s, it’s being made into something more extravagant and fantastic than it probably is. How do you, how do you quantify that? That,
You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, so yeah, it’s one of those, it’s just one of those things. It’s it’s general in nature. You’re gonna be out there with over the counter resident tags. But there it is a tag. Like if you want to tag and you just want to have a backup plan, apply for it, have at it. And we’re helping guys every day, you know, make some choices. We’re applying guys for it, all of that. There are some guys that are like, man, you guys aren’t giving this the emphasis that it needs. And I’m, and and that’s where, that’s where we just wanna make sure do you know what you’re applying for? Yeah. You know what I’m saying?
Yeah. It’s not like this is a new new, it’s a new way to get the tags. These tags went from over the counter to a quasi first line Q first come first serve Q to this. But to some people, this is like the first they’ve ever even heard of this in, in their life. And that’s what I guess I, we’ve a an had to answer a lot of questions about that and they’re like, oh geez, this, oh okay. Residents still do this over the counter. Well, okay, maybe it’s not what I wanted. They, I, I’ve talked to quite a few Utah residents that just, you know, want to go up there versus hunt the Utah general. And I say, well how’s the Utah general doing? Well we’re seeing plenty of bucks. Just nothing. Nothing trophy qualities. Go to go to Idaho. And I’m like, you think you could go somewhere brand new for the first time and hunt trophy deer on a general when you’re seeing a lot of bucks in your home state of Utah. You know, and not seeing trophy bucks. ’cause that’s just what general units don’t have very many of is trophy bug. So it’s, it might be the very same experience you’re having up there except for your better, more money and all that. So if you already have a general tag and, and have an option in your, in your state that’s good. And you’re,
And you have local knowledge
And you have local knowledge or you’re close enough, go do it. But I mean I talked to guys on the east coast putting in for this.
Yeah. And it’s good. Like I say it is, it is an opportunity. There are a few big deer that are taken for sure. Generally. Generally it’s from a resident that knows what he’s doing. He’s, he’s working it like it’s his only tag for the year. Yeah. You know, so there you have it December 5th to the 15th.
How about, be careful the kind of, the weird thing about this application booklet for these general tags is they don’t put in fine print. You don’t have the seasons. You have to look at last year’s regs online to see what your seasons were. And they could, they may or may not change for this year. Some of them also, there’s a few units on there that the general tags, you can only shoot a two pointer spike
Like unit 22. Like then it says, it says in there use this in conjunction with the regular.
Yeah. But when you read this little thing here, you see tags in some of those units like 40 and whatnot, you’re gonna get a,
A unlimit entry draw controlled hunt. Yeah.
So the general two pointer only two point only. Yeah. So, but it doesn’t say that there, you gotta look at last year’s regs to see that that was a two pointer only. Yeah. So just be B there’s a lot of things to just pump
Bit’s a Yeah. Yeah. Same thing. Like if you’re looking at type A, type B type tags on the elk. I mean we don’t wanna make it like so complicated, you know, you don’t understand it but just be careful what
What you’re grabbing. Yep. Consult, consult. The 2025 big deer, elk antelope. Big game rag booklet. It’s got a white tilled deer on on the cover of it. In conjunction with these, with these general
And the general is under tab elk. So go to the tab elk and you’d go to say the look at
Below B and see what you can do with a BT tag. Elk city zone versus an
A A archery only. Antler only, you know BT tag any weapon antler only with these season dates or, or it signifies a specific unit within the zone
In very general terms. The A tags for elk and apply favor the archery season and the BT tags favor the rifle season for mature bull. So that’s,
And in some cases there’s a muzz order only for Alas in December, say say the panhandle zone. So there’s a lot of nuances that are spelled out in the regs that aren’t spelled out in what we would call the
Supplement.
Yep, that’s right.
So just
Watch that anyway. Yeah, you, so you use ’em both in con and they’ll get better. They’ll, they’ll this note section that is
Empty six inches big that doesn’t have anything in it empty. You can put two point only there. You can, I mean there’s some guys, mark my words, they’re gonna buy a $400, two point tag non resin tag.
They are. And they got something. They got something they’re gonna feed the family. Right. They’re gonna hunt. Right. Logan, that’s important. Yes. They’re not gonna have to gather anymore. No, they’re gonna hunt.
We’re gathering, we’re, you know that second draw for unclaimed tags in late January. There’s gonna be a lot of those probably tags on there. People realize what they got
And you can amend, you gotta email ’em. In fact it said it on their little on hold message. But anyway you can amend, withdraw, reapply, whatever it is. Yeah.
Anyway. Can’t just do it in your portal or your account. Did
Did mention if you did draw one and apply on the controlled deer and drew that you can swap it out. Could swap. Did we mention
That too? We will. We did Just now. Okay, go ahead. There you go. So you can apply in, this one can upgrade and you can apply in the controlled hunt draw now you can apply in this one and for moose or sheep or goat and not do the controlled draw for deer, elk, and antelope. So you know how they have the either or generally that deals with the controlled draws. Yep. What else have we got?
I think that’s
Good. We kind of kind of covered it. If you want a tag that’s general in nature, not necessarily you know, limited entry, you know, managed tag for for quality, then you know this is an option for you. It’s just like, say like applying for a Utah general or a easy to draw unit say in Colorado or
Zero or one point similar.
I guess it’s a little different. I look at it a little different. Wyoming. Like Wyoming has over the counter for resident and and constantly curtailing our tags depending on their weather. Yeah. Right. If they have a rough winter and they have a big loss and they’ll cut our tags but leave over the counter for residents. But they have some big deal. Why? Just the nature of the country.
And I think it’s a different population type. I mean there’s less residents.
Yeah. It’s a less Yeah. Least populative state than Idaho and Idaho’s growing like crazy too. Yeah. Yeah.
I think that’s a factor.
And And I think too, it’s just, it’s gnarly like region GNH arguably some of the best deer hunting in the state of Wyoming. And it’s over the counter for residents. But it’s just, it’s just
Known. Got escapement.
You can’t kill ’em. You it’s got escapement. Yeah. A lot of escapement wilderness.
Grizzly bears.
Grizzly bears. So be
Prepared for that park. There’s another thing in here. They could have some really good pepper spray icons on some of the elk
Zones. Yeah, you could. Yeah. And little 10 mills. 10 mills. Like the little
10 mills. I have literally told guys I, I’ve worn ’em. Said well and they brought up like island park or some of the other island park’s got big bowls. Yeah they do. That’s great. But I said yeah, make sure you prepared for bears. Oh I already am. And the way I look at this, if I draw that I got a free rein to buy a 10 mm my wife, what’s she’s gonna say, I don’t want you to protect
Yourself.
I had literally a guy tell me that
It depends on how much life Adam she got. How about this? We, we have tws and I’ve got a 10:00 AM I’ve got one.
Have you used them?
No.
Because I’ve never, both of us do. But if
You get a wild
Hair, we have an option to go. Right’s. We have an option to go and have the equipment and if we need it, Jana, we’ve got all the equipment we need.
Like you told Jen, it’s kinda like food storage. It gives you options to survive. I can ride a motorcycle up the hill and I
Think she’s all in. I think she’s all in.
What else we gonna cover today?
Alright, so let’s see. We’re good. Let’s see. What if John, have we got a hunting story? It seems like
Colorado, John seems like you’ve
Been chomping at chopping at the bit to tell us the story. We got Nevada, maybe. Nevada. Yeah. We have Colorado stories like crazy. Yeah, I think
We’ll save that. That’s a whole really that’s a whole episode of truck problems and well,
Well we don’t even want to go there. We could limit it to the hunting, not the truck problems. ’cause we’ve all had a few of those this fall.
I mean, yeah, I’ve got a truck sitting in the garage pretty well. Made it back from Oklahoma. But I don’t know.
Adam has one sitting. Nevermind. Yeah.
Where
Do you, you got, oh you got one at the dealership. Text somebody right now. Anyway, John just say it
Snowed three or four days ago and Adam’s truck still has snow on it.
Oh,
Yep. Exactly.
Doesn’t no one or he doesn’t wanna talk about John, how was your hunt in Nevada? Nevada. Nevada. I’m kind of excited for, it
Was a great hunt. I mean had had chances at some, some big deer. Yeah. And was, was on some big deer and shot one on the last day. Okay. There was a good deer. Yeah. Not, not a giant, but a just
Turns out you, you had trail camera
Picks of this deer. Yeah. And I had trail camera picks of it 25 miles away from where my trail camera velt picks are. Ve Yeah. In Velvet
July obviously. ’cause you don’t run ’em past the 31st
John. No, no. And yeah, in fact I think, I think I think the picture was like July 7th or something like that. Yeah.
Yeah. I can’t believe he
Recognizable together. Yeah.
Sometimes there’s still all recognizable
Right then. Yeah. Well
Not this one.
No, he, he, yeah. It was definitely him. You know, the,
So John, you hit this hunt as hard or harder than anybody I’ve seen hit a hunt.
Yeah. Luckily it, it wasn’t super super far away, but
Like when you log mileage with the IRS, I’m thinking they’re gonna wanna audit
You. Yeah, definitely.
Well, and and after what happened in Colorado, hopefully you’re not
Doing 14,383
Miles. Hopefully you’re doing the actual expenses instead of mileage. Because I think you’re gonna come out better on the
Actual expenses
This year.
Itemized John itemized
My, my, my mechanic was like, you’re already ready for new tires. And I only went, I went 22,000 miles on that last set of tires and I, so I got a new set ’cause they were worn out. So I switched tire brands and everything. And then they look, he looked up and he’s like, you’ve gone 30,000 miles. What do
You mean? Instead of 22? It was
30. No, no, but between the last service that I had, you know, not the, not the tire, the tire thing was 22 between
Oil changes you
Made though. No, not between oil changes. Had some other heater issues and stuff. So anyway. But he was just like, in a
Year, either way you’re doing 30,000 in a year. Yeah, we’ll call it. Yeah. But, but it’s, Jason would say it’s still the best you’ve ever had.
It is by far. Yeah. All these problems are self-inflicted by you. Yeah.
I think I’ve put five grand into it in the last six months.
Have you? Yeah. Really?
Probably. Yeah. So, and I still, how many, I still got a many electronic, the the lockers in the back. What do you mean? I got a problem? I, yeah, the, apparently there’s a short in the electronic mechanism that engages the lockers and so it’s not like I can run it. It doesn’t How lockers, how do you find that? Oh, it, the dash tells me every time I start it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, me too. So anyway, lots and lots and lots of miles. But yeah, it was good. I ran,
Ran it hard, ran a lot of cameras. Yeah. Also glassed a ton
And hunted a lot of days actually with the open season. Yep. OC in October,
In fact. Yeah. What it was October
26 days or whatever,
Fifth through the 31st. And I think there was two days I didn’t hunt Logan.
Your dad had a hunt. So the hunt prior to John’s in this unit.
Yeah. Yeah.
And so you guys were kind of hooked up as far as the scouting? Yeah,
We did a lot of scouting together.
We’ve heard about some of, you know, had a couple podcasts ago, some of Logan’s scouting techniques, how to stretch, make gas stretch a little farther. You just water
It down a little bit. It last, I found a picture of my dad underneath the truck from that escapade the other day. Oh.
So anyways.
Yeah. Go.
How, how much did their scouting help you, John? Did they, like,
I would say, so
Interest
Thing is, you know, the, I think all of the trail camera work and we had just
Synergy
Volumes and volumes of pictures by the time my tag, you know, I mean, my deer was 25 miles away. So that
25 miles from where you got
Him on camera from where I got him on camera in July to where I killed him. And I didn’t know where he was or that, you know, that he was in that area. So I don’t know if, if that helped me as much, but it did, it did show me like areas, you know. And there were other areas,
Well, and trophy quality.
There were other areas available that those deer were still in the same place. Yeah. Which was interesting. Some of ’em
Don’t leave, they just stay
There.
Yeah.
Do you feel like, how many, how many bucks do you think you guys cataloged? Oh geez. Even if you didn’t save their photo, how many did you see or have? Pictures of?
Hundreds.
Yeah. Hundreds. Hundreds and hundreds. Yeah. Hundreds. Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
So that’s And
What sifted it down to two or three?
Yeah, two significant, two or three significant ones. And then I think I found one significant one on the hunt that I didn’t have pictures of. Although I had cameras in the area. Didn’t just wasn’t on him. Yeah. And so non-typical had it? Yeah. At least nine on each side. It was, it was a great deer. Me,
I haven’t heard this story. Yeah.
So I have, yeah, I watched him, I watched him get shot. Oh, he died, huh? Remember that
He died.
I know that story.
Oh, okay. That, that was a different non-typical than the other. Non-typical.
No, that was the, that was the non-typical
Same one. Yeah. Same, same, same
One. No, no. You’re, you’re thinking about a different one that I had on camera that I found another one that wasn’t on camera. That,
And you watched it get shot.
Yeah. Well, roughly You heard the shot, right? The guy who kept,
Oh, I was watching him through my scope. I mean, the deer we talked, I knew he was hunting the deer. I was hunting the deer. And did
The deer die or tipped over? Or he
Supposed he, he’s like, I’m gonna stay here till, till it’s dead like that. He was, I think he was
Posturing. He was posturing.
I, I don’t count that as a dead deer. I don’t,
I Well, he shot, he shot. And then I was like, okay. And then he left forever. No. So then the next morning I was like, if he’s, if he’s there on his knob that he missed, he missed down every time he missed. And he was there the next morning. And then the next night I watched him, you know, shoot again. I, I could see him also
His two different times.
Two. So he shot twice and then he was gone. The deer was gone, you know. Yeah. I, I never saw the deer
Again. Well, did you ever see him with I
Didn’t see him with the, with the deer on his back. Did
You ever see him as the big roll of orange flagging tape going up through the Sears?
No.
Probably want and waste a wildlife,
You know, tracking you here.
Sounds
Like you killed him the, the next night. I still, I don’t know.
Yeah, I think he killed him the second night. Did you hear
Till I see him? I mean, I don’t know. I’d hunt, I’d hunt the deer again
There. I did, I kept hunting. Okay. I mean, I kept hunting for days and never saw him again. So could, but dang. I mean, you
Had to have put in 20 plus days. 20, 25, 4 days if you
Days hunting two days. I didn’t hunt out of the season of
28. Reminds me the archery hunt the year before.
Six days or whatever. So that’s,
You were hard to get ahold of. I’m gonna say that.
Yeah. Well,
He had
Started. You were gone.
Elon kept you in touch with the world.
Gone. Yeah.
So how many times did you have to re-up that $50 thing from downloads?
Oh, I, I went to unlimited.
You did? How much is
That? 160. Oh
Hundred 60. A hundred More than the
First. Yeah. The first, the first half of it. I didn’t and I was 120 Yeah. On that. But there was Sure. Did that, I mean, we had, yeah,
We had a lot of work work to do. End at end day. Do you have anything else for us? Tell us the story that kill story about your deer.
Yeah, so it was nice the last week my brother Chris came out and, and helped me for a week. So that was Oh, cool.
I didn’t know
That. That was awesome. It was, that’s
The time we never
Saw each other, you know, and after you get like, you’re in it three weeks,
You need to pick me up.
Yeah. And he was like fresh and, you know,
Energetic. Oh
Yeah. So
Call somebody in that hasn’t hunted a day for
The year. It was fun. Did
He bring his little rock or Jeep out
There? No. No. He, he just,
He’s just like getting in your truck. All right, let’s scratch
This thing. Yeah. He had his truck, that Toyota that’s gone, you know, 500,000 miles earlier. The
One the wife
Sold Jason, his wife’s one. No,
It’s the, it’s still, they put a new
Tundra. Yeah. They put an engine engine I think in it. Yeah.
And it’s going good.
So Yeah. Yeah.
Those are kind of awesome trucks.
But yeah, he
Was, it would be the one these lion hunters like Yeah, dusty runs one.
He was, he was full of, full of energy. And so it was awesome. ’cause we, you know, he, he was just like in the middle of the day, find another spot and you know, then we’d go hit it again. And we were finding deer in the middle of the day. It was fun.
I think. That’s awesome.
Yeah. It was good. I will say like, after I went to Colorado after that, it was very interesting at how many, like, I shot a straight four by four
In Nevada.
In Nevada. I probably only saw two that were straight four by fours. Just symmetrical.
Because the others had little cheaters.
No, the others were like, just so many weird bucks. Yeah.
Trout bug stricken bucks. Three
Three by fours. Yeah. One sides all. And I had a lot of those on trail camera too. Just, just like handicapped deer.
You know what it compares all that downwind dust from back in the day area 51 affecting the deer and yeah. Generations to come.
It’s amazing how many of those
I’ll d stuff in the dirt. I’ll dip the DNA.
There’s a lot of those deer in Nevada and southern Utah this year.
There is, we saw unlimited numbers just to
So many. But I’ll, I’ll try to Arizona,
Northern Arizona.
Oh, so many. I haven’t published
Any photos on my Instagram or anything, but I’ll, I’ll try to do that right when this was coming out. So, hey, there’s
A, that’s called, that’s the definition of teaser.
Yeah. A little teaser there. So you can see kind of, this seems like
You some of
The came
Out with a little, when we did a little video.
Yeah. Just on our, on our, we posted it on ours. Yeah.
You posted up through, up a couple of big Yeah.
Couple of big deer. Yeah.
Would you do it again?
Oh, absolutely. It was great. Well, an hour
You’d go again. ’cause you
Yeah. You learn a unit
When Nevada says there, take pride in giving hunters a quality product, a quality tag, a hunt. Did do, did you feel like you had a quality?
Oh yes. Absolute quality experience. And I think the pressure was very low. Like, there were, there were areas
Long season.
Yeah. Long season. There were areas where there were other hunters, definitely. And
There’s areas you get to choose and there’s no
Hunters. But even, even the one where we were hunting the same deer, the burn was giant and he was on one side, I was on the other. So it was just by chance one night, you know, I’m on the deer. I, I saw him go into this little pocket of trees and I set up like, you know, 300 yards from it. And later he’s like, oh yeah, I, I watched you, you know, on him. And, you know, he came out this other area. I was like, oh, awesome. But it was one of those deals where if you’re up high, you can see what’s going on. But it was like a rollie burn. And when you’re down in it, when you in that with him, he had to come out and, you know, just Right. Just right. And so, yeah. But yeah, just not, I mean there, there were other hunters, but it just, the pressure was drastically different than like a Colorado hunt, you know?
Wow. But so yeah, it, it was great. And so then there was another, another deer that we had on trail camera that I did, I was on for four days. I saw him for four days in a row. Just not super wide, but kind of a compact buck, but extremely tall. A big, big deer. And I, I saw him, but it was like right before dark every time for like 15 seconds, five minutes. Oh yeah. Yeah. Just, just like, I barely saw him and I was like, okay, that’s him. You know? And then it was too dark and whatnot. Anyway. And then, yeah, so like I would spend four days in one place and have, you know, and then I, I saw, I saw him kind of crest out of over the, over the mountain where? Out of this area. And then four days I spent trying to find him again.
Hook farm over the hill in the next spot. Yeah. And so anyway, just, just different too, as far as like, number of deer. Some days there were lots of days I didn’t see any. Yeah. You know, no, no bucks, no dos, nothing. So, yeah. And, but I know, I mean, they’re there. There’s, there’s always a chance. And so that was kind of the exciting part of it is something could happen even though, you know, something might not happen either. You might spend a week seeing no deer. But anyway, it was great. So Chris came out the last week and we just had a blast. There just wasn’t, during that week, I would say we found, you know, several one 60 type, you know, box or one 70 and messed up on one side. Like just kind of funky stuff. And then we went to a place and Chris was kind of across the canyon, glassing.
And I, I had, I had worked this area before and knew kind of the patterns of the deer. And I just thought, well, you know, on a last day I’m gonna sit right here up this canyon and have Chris above where he could glass Chris was like across so he could glass Yeah. And whatnot. And it just turned out like I was right in the exact right place. And I, I got on our tripod. First time I’ve ever used the rifle claw. Pretty awesome. It was awesome. Like our, our our rifle clamp up or were you sitting? No, I was sitting down behind our tripod. So I was on the, the ultra tripod with the ri our rifle clamp on it. And it was kind of like, you know, I was just on a turt kind of thing, you know, because I couldn’t tell exactly where they would come. And they ended up coming just all around me, you know, really. And so, yeah. And then the, anyway, there was a fence in the middle of nothing, and it was public on both sides. But I’m like, ah, I just, I’m, I’m gonna wait until it jumps the fence, you know? Just because you,
Because you never know you shoot a wire that you don’t think you’re gonna hit. I mean,
People do that. I don’t know. Anyway, so, but it was also like, pretty dark before, like, anyway, so I’m like, okay, it’s getting light, it’s light enough now he’s gonna be crossing this fence in, you know, within 30 seconds. Yeah. So I just waited and he jumped the fence and I shot, and Chris afterwards was like, did he even hit the ground? You know,
That’s, that’s what a pent up 24 days of duty.
So I was like, I waited,
You know, waiting Well is questionable too, because I’ve seen it where you wait and 20 seconds into the 30 seconds you need it. Yeah.
Now they’re trusting. They
Smell you. So here’s
The other thing. I knew
Somebody else
Just quick off. I
Knew for sure right in front of you.
I knew for sure it was, it was public on both sides, but I would’ve had to carry the deer back and forth across the fence. So that’s
Why he let it show.
I love it. I like it. Hey, thinking ahead. Yeah.
See how close we can get the truck to this
Anyway. Might as
Well turns out only 150 yards from where I was. Oh, there you go. You know, after like, you know, good out to six, seven, kind
Of fun. Like was it fun?
It was fun. Fun Was draw blood fun. Yeah. And then, and then Chris came over and it was great. Yeah. It was just, you know, enjoyable. Yeah.
Didn’t have to self-timer all your pictures. He could take ’em for you.
He took ’em all and so good. Yeah, it was
Cools. Pretty awesome. That’s awesome.
Yep.
Good stuff. Yep. And then you went to Colorado,
Then I went to Colorado. We’ll we’ll save that and we’ll, we’ll save it. Yeah. ’cause I think we’ll
Just talk about episode deer itself or not.
No, wait, we can get into
Truck. You wanna wait?
It was
Good. Yeah, we might,
Well we can cut save a little for later. We
Gotta get, we gotta get
Wide. What else? We just had a December magazine come out. What all, what all’s in it? Bronson? Oh,
42 and a half inch. 1 75 stone. Right on the cover. Oh, how about, geez,
I need one.
I can make that happen. Don’t be how I gotta got a call. Do you want, you wanna
I want it for a 40 inch.
Okay. You write basis check. You already write the
Checks. I mean there’s checks.
There’s checks and there’s checks to bounce.
Yeah, exactly.
No, there’s a But that is a showstopper ram. Beautiful ram on there. Charles Ireland awesome Ram there on the cover. But we do a highlight for Alaskan there. That’s another thing we probably need to talk about today. Yep. The deadline is the 15th of, of December to apply. We have main point of emphasis being like the sheep and goat sheep more than even goats. But you don’t have to draw Alaska to hunt a doll, sheep or a goat. There’s plenty of places you can book hunts in registration areas or whatnot for goats and what you just label as over the counter general areas for, for doll sheep. But the problem is most of those for sheep are booked up two, three years in advance. Especially with some of the closures and reduced numbers throughout the state. So in some of their better areas or basically some of the areas that were closer to Anchorage, frankly they, they be a draw that she got and others draw for a lot of years now just ’cause not everybody could just go hunt sheep.
Yep. So they had to make a draw. So, but if to do that, if you want to call in, talk to Devon or one of us for sheep and goats, you do have to get a hunt agreement with a licensed outfitter and apply with their codes. Similar to maybe what you do in New Mexico and all that. So it’s similar to that. You gotta have that signed and in place before you do that for sheep and goats. But, but give us a call. It is a way to hunt sheep or goats in 2026. That’s the benefit. It is an uncertain way to do it. But if you’re antsy and want to, you know, roll the dice. There are some areas also though for sheep that if you’re not, don’t have the very best, there’s some that have a lot better odds up there and different outfitters around the state that do certain areas that are easier to draw than others to kill. Very good representative, you know, 30 rams, 30, 36, 38 inch rams. That’s right. And go this year. It does, it does mean you have to have the full price of the hunt this year. You know, you’re not paying 10 grand a year on a doll sheep hunt for a few years to go. So there’s some things like that you gotta weigh out. But
It also saves you a little bit of money if you draw a little bit for sheep or goat on the total hunt cost.
Yeah. Most of the areas are either walk in or, you know what I mean? They don’t have extreme logistical challenges other than walking and hiking into ’em. So you, they’re not quite as expensive as some of the Canadian hunts or even other Alaska hunts. Yeah. So there’s other species you can put in for too. But again, the deadline is the 15th of December. Results come out, what? Third Friday, whatever it is in February.
So we also had that western big game breakdown. It goes through all the different states and species kind of gives you a general overview page after page. You can read about, you know, if you’re thinking about mule deer, here’s options. If you want mountain goat, here’s options. Here’s kind of the must apply for states. States that have them, but maybe not necessarily a must apply for type state depending on their situation and quality and relation to also tag acquisition drawing ons, things like that. So, so anyway, we kind of make some Yeah. Have some form some opinions on that.
Yeah. A little bit more of a 30,000 foot view of, of our application strategy or highlights of each state or each species. We kind of go by species and then kind of talk about the states that are probably like for sure, you know, must apply or you know, oh, okay. I might consider this one or not maybe worth it. So
Gives you, I would say if you’re new to or thinking about hunt in the west and you read that section, you will learn.
Yeah. Dev Dun done reading it and he was like, holy crap, you, you could use this for the whole year.
And I mean we’re anybody who hunts other states, it’s a good refresher and you will learn. I guarantee you’re gonna learn something new that you’re like, huh.
Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah. That
Made it worth it.
Or just reminds you, yeah. It just reminds you of some of the key things that might be something you would think about for this year.
For sure. And as you read that, then it kinda, you have a bigger picture mind in in mind in your brain as you then get January here in a few weeks and then you have to start digesting, you know, Arizona elk and antelope and Wyoming, you know, moose, sheep, goat, bison and elk and, okay. Yeah. They said Wyoming elk and Arizona elk. I should be doing it. And so it’s already on your mind. Yeah. You don’t have to get overwhelmed about, Hey, where do I need to apply? Each magazine’s gonna start coming now from January on, we’re gonna break down a state or two or three each month in the order. Their regulations become finalized and open, applications open. And that 30,000 foot overview in the December, we’ll just kind of give you a, maybe just a head start of kind of a general game plan of what you wanna do this year
We also had the Idaho non-resident general tag alert, which we covered earlier in this podcast. We have, you know, it’s written up on page 66, covered it. And, and then we also have other sections. There’s a gearing up section. I almost wanna do a gearing up section of the podcast. Yeah, I, John you talked about the epic rifle clamp. I I, and this isn’t just to sell stuff. I, it, it sells itself ’cause so I’m fine. Oh yeah. I’m not, I’m not out here trying to tell everybody what to buy. But I will tell you this, you should buy the sig stabilized binos. I mean, they’re no joke. I, I’ve got the 16 by 50 pros and I have ’em in the truck and you can throw up without putting a spotter up to figure out and you’re field judging and moving on. You’re quick.
You can throw the finals. Okay. I, yeah. So you can throw up without, and I thought you meant throw up
Throwing up up. No, I’m not up Chuck. I haven’t up chucked. How long has it been since you’ve up chucked? You might,
No, not since a bad apple apples. No, that was a trip. But not since I was bouncing with a red Gatorade over the mountain Dutton Burn in 2002.
You were doing a, we were flying the
Every morning
Aerial surveying game and fish days.
Well we, yeah it was, we were flying that mountain burning literally every morning you’d fly and where’s the burn been? And you’re right on the deck, right on the black and smoke with
All the thermals.
Thermals and bouncy.
Yeah. Why is it always red Gatorade disgust. I was hiking with my friend once and we were in the high country and he got sick and he sits down, I’m like, you’re gonna be okay. And he just, I didn’t know he had drank this huge red Gatorade. I thought He’s blood. I’m like, he’s dead.
You thought that was a,
You thought
He’s double along? Yeah,
I’m like, were, I just didn’t know what to say. I’m like, that’s disgusting. It’s too constrain blood. Like that can’t be good. But yeah, it’s always red Gatorade, man. I
Don’t
Know. Anyway, these, the six, six stabilized binos. They are no joke. Wyatt and I went out just to look at the winter range stuff. Same thing I had stabilized in the truck. I’m like, here you go. Why? Look at ’em. But so you don’t have to use a spotter every time it takes time
Or
Get out, get out, put something on a tripod. It’s safe.
Well sometimes you get a deer run into the trees and you just gotta know what it is like that.
I just wanna know right now. And you can just sit there and Unbelievable. Even low light. Unbelievable. Now the eighteens are a little different. You have less field of view. It’ll be a little bit darker. Yeah. You know, things like that. So I have the sixteens. I am, I would, I’d buy ’em again. It is probably the best piece of gear I’ve bought in a long time. I’m just not, I’m not lying. I mean it is no
True. But they’re not replacing your No. Your tens or twelves for your all around swir and on a tripod. I
Know a guy, you and I both know a guy. I don’t want to call him out ’cause I wasn’t, didn’t ask permission, but I I’ll Yeah. I mean, you know him. Yeah. And he’s replacing his entire lineup with Sig. Okay. Now I’m not that aggressive. I do like to sit on a tripod for three hours
With crystal clear
Grass. The absolute ble best glass. Yeah. Now these are amazing. Yeah. I, they have their place, but I’m not throwing these on a tripod to they
For three hours. You’re not gonna put ’em on your chest and walk around. They’re
No, not necessarily. Yeah, I would put, I put ’em in my pack though. Yeah, exactly. Like, I mean, it’s so fast.
Side by side truck.
I mean, Jana. Oh yeah. Horse. There was a guy horseback that was, they were driving in a side by side right here in northern Arizona on the Kaibab. And he was glassing with the stabilized sig while side by side is running 30 mile an hour. And he was glassing, he glassed a buck Stop, stop, stop. 30 inch buck right out there, Martin. I know. Yeah. So I’m not saying, hey, I’m not, like, I’m not advocating that we’re glassing while driving. I’m just saying it’s just, it’s a testament to how good they are. That’s all I’m, I’m gonna say about it.
Probably need to come with a sticker. Like certain things, things do not use while driving. Put ’em right on the vinyl
El range. I got el range eight and, and sent it back to the factory and had ’em put on the, you know, a, a stud so you can mount it to a tripod. They’re, they’re awesome. I love ’em. Alright, that’s it. Now Devin, gearing up section here at the end of the podcast. What piece of gear did you think everybody should buy?
Well guys, you talked about the epic rifle clamp. Now there’s a, you know, the giant metal clamps, all that? Yeah, I’ve used them. Yeah. But this one I threw in my backpack guy nail cunts. We smashed two bulls with it.
Well, yes.
It’s got one
Knob, no shooting stick. Forgot the, he forgot his bipod in the truck. We get up there and it’s a big rolling hill. Yeah. You can’t prone. Yeah.
You’re, it’s, you gotta be above the process. Literally
Set the gun in it. In my tripod, my, the one tripod we had the, the,
Seemed like one of the guys was an older gentleman.
Yeah. And we just got him comfortable. I said, okay, take two steps to your left. And we sat it down.
Pa
Fuck it just, yeah. It’s slick. It was awesome. And, and it’s just a little, it’s just a little thing that goes in my path. It’s kind of
All the time. I mean, you could beat
Somebody. Oh, it’s a piece of metal. No, it,
It needs to be though. It’s whole ain’t change rifles. It’ll to
Be like John said, you could sit back there and just then glass with your vinyls. Yeah. And your gun’s sitting there tight. Ready, ready. Just pivot the direct
Direction. I love it. For predator. The speed was, I love it for predator hunting. The other time we used it was in a blind in Oklahoma.
Good. Why not?
Yeah. I mean, it was always there already.
Well, it’s just there bulleting the chamber on safety, right? Yeah. Sitting there
Gun sit. And then I had six in the blind. No joke, dude. No problems. I, I love my life.
I do have to admit, I, after
I, when you have the right gear, I mean,
After I put that clamp on there, I just left it on for like second half of the hunt. You know, once in a while. On the
Itself,
Yeah. On the rifle itself. I packed it around in,
In case you had to jump out was like,
You
Could slap
It on. I had, I had shooting sticks on and I had the clamp on and just depending on
The time, time, it’s 16 pound
Setup. I was like, no, my, my rifle’s really, really light. Oh, okay. So, so it it wasn’t bad at all. Yeah. But I don’t know, just after it being so quick and so versatile. Yeah. I’m just like, I’m just gonna leave it on. ’cause I’m packing it in my pack or I’m packing it on my rifle. It doesn’t matter.
This So swirl comes out with this new stabilized spotter, which you’ve all heard about. Everybody that’s listening has heard about it. So got the straight and the angled. How about that first angled spotter we sold, went to Mexico and he texts back and he goes, this seems incredible. Well, think about it in a high rack. Oh,
Guy took it to Mexico.
It, I broke the only, some of the only tripod legs I’ve broke have been on a high rack. ’cause you got dudes up there. Yeah. But they fall through the little grate. Yeah. Yeah.
And you twist it and you step on it. Snap.
Yeah. It snaps. Right now you can literally phone scope, like you can slap up your phone and hold it and film. Yeah. It, it is kind of a testament to how stabilized it is. Well, between six stabilized binos and that spotter, I mean, next it’s no joke’s. Next. Yeah.
Yeah.
No,
Anyway, tools in the toolbox.
Yeah. Just saying gear, little gearing up section. Like I’m buying that stuff again. You’re buying that stuff again, Devin. You’re gonna, you’re not going without a vinyl clamp
Or the rifle clamp or Yeah.
Excuse me. The rifle
Clamp. Yeah. No, it’s even for myself. I, I always pack it. You just never know.
Well, especially when you’re in mountain A train and brushing that train. Yeah. I mean there’s a lot of times I’ve shot standing up. My daughter and I both killed our orx. Standing, standing up. You know, there’s, you can’t sit down and see
Anything. Speaking of witch,
I have to put it to the test.
What
Do you mean? Oh, speaking which exactly that back, there’s a, there’s an epic pro tip. Devon use it or you lose it right there. It’s true. Stand up. You need it.
Okay. Thank you Adam. You’re
Welcome. I wouldn’t, I don’t remember those
Words. I didn’t know where you’re going, but just remember.
All right. So I, I’m good. You guys good? I mean, yeah. I don’t wanna I don’t wanna beat up the Idaho thing. Too bad. What, what I wanted to do though, and Bronson, I know you feel the same Devin you’re consulting on nonstop, is just, just understand what it is. Have
Some realistic expectations.
It’s general. If you’re driving
Across the country to hunt middle, middle area of Idaho and you’ve never been there and don’t really know what you’re getting yourself into,
You’ll be, you’ll be
Frustrated. It’s, it’s no joke country like Yeah. You, you
Steep,
Steep and deep. And a lot of, and a lot of people, it’s general in nature. Yes.
And
Yes, this is a limited entry draw now, but it’s not a limited entry type tag. No. It’s a way to div divvy out general tags. And so anyway, great, great opportunity. If you want to, you want to kill a buck, you should have one. Go, go grab one. Apply for it. You know, probably not applying myself, but dude, you’re talking to a guy bought my entire family one. You know what I’m saying? You did. I mean, me not, you know, back in the day like three or four years ago. Oh, well yeah. I supplemented the game and fish
You had early. Yeah, well early on, like when your kids have no points, my Oh yeah, Mike, he drew a controlled hunt in the second draw. But you took your kids on like generals?
No, no, no, no. Well, I got tags for ’em. Yes. And I ate them. Okay. As a dad. That’s right. I I would’ve been eligible for amazing dad thing. Yeah. But I had no photos to go with it. We would callate except for, except, except we had other opportunities come up. And so we do other things. Yeah.
Well, and, and and for, for some, a lot of us, but I mean a couple of us in Utah, you know, if you get a lifetime, we get a general every year in our state. That’s right. And then a lot of us are, whether you’re in dedicated for two, three years or
They points,
You got one here. And so to get another general next door without playing all the rest of the draws, you know, if you already have a general, like in our state, it’s a little harder to justify
And kids are hopeful. They’re like, yeah, dad, grab it. Like we can go. And then reality happens. They’re in college or doing other thing. And then we, we have to choose like we choose Utah General or the
Oh, you do something else. Yeah. And they do have a, they do have a return policy and you get 75% or 50% back later by
The, the time we figured out we could go. It’s just not even, it’s
Also the first big game application really in the lower
48.
And that’s, and you’re hungry for tags and you’re
Like, it’s this time of year you’re, you’re, some of us have
Real problem acquiring, acquiring tags almost of us. Almost as exciting as killing problem.
Some of us has problems, but for some of us that is not the medicine for the problem. It’s true. That’s me. That is true. I mean it’s just, I just, I hope to have better options this
Year.
So I do have a Utah tag. I mean, so it does play into fact loading three general tags in my pocket in December. Like other people have done before. You know, why
Would you point to me? I, your Arizona,
Arizona, Utah, Idaho. Before we were even to January 1st
The last two years and I did not, I avoided the Arizona o OTCs the first year in years
You showed restraint. I’m proud
Of you. Remember the one year we all got one, but you and you were like, why did you guys do this? And you’re like, well you were gone and we couldn’t get ahold of you.
I was, November didn’t
Know how to get
November 1st or second. Right. Yes. I didn’t have your data. I missed, I get back and I get missed voicemails. I’m like, what happened? And I found out I’m the only one in the office that didn’t get it. I felt,
And guess what? I had
FOMO a little bit,
But then not one person
Went. Not one of you went. And then I, you guys did it to make me feel better, but guys
Are doing well down there. Oh yeah. But you gotta make it your priority, like that’s your deal. Well, to some,
Some extent, yeah. If you don’t make it, we all have archery hunts going on up here and for some units go down, if you didn’t go down there and hunt in August and whatnot, the quotas filled in the units you might wanted to hunt before you got to the December hunts. You know what I mean? Yeah. So then it turned like, okay, I don’t want to go to the Cabeza or wherever.
Okay. That’s or Mexico
Border.
It’s much, it’s a little,
Okay. The Sonoran Desert. No,
I mean
You wanna drive,
There was some big bucks there at one point in history there
Was, there were, when it’s January and you’re walled out
And we’re kind of busy and
You’re busy, you don’t wanna drive 12 hours and to
Walk, walk around empty water bottles and plastics and clothes. That’s right. And whatever else, because
That’s what’s open. That’s unit still
Has tag quarter left.
Yeah. That’s what
Well, and that’s where people come across the border back before the Trump wall and you’re dealing with things down there. Alright, let’s move along. Are we done? We’re good. Let’s have a weekend.
Well, I just wanted to mention, we talked about the, the gear and up section in the magazine, but you don’t have to be a member to, to go onto our website and see the prices. You just have to register.
You make an, make an account for
Free.
Look,
It’s fast. We’ve got a lot of specials going on right now that you know, we haven’t necessarily talked about. But you can go on there and you can see all the discounts and, and now’s a great time to buy.
We also apply guys in the draws. We’ve got a whole section on that in this publication. Of course, we’re giving away hunts. John, we’re giving away a tag. You can actually hunt more days with this tag that we’ve given away more days than I You can hunt archery, muzzle and rifle. Yeah. Could you imagine if you had this tag?
Oh my gosh.
Yeah. You hunt
24 days. John, you,
Well,
You hunt 24 days on a 26 day season. Yeah. Imagine that in two more 30 days, seasons would,
Your house would have new locks.
You would have to ask
Gump after You have to ask your mother-in-law for the code.
I absolutely would’ve been there for the archery season. He’d come back
Like the dude on ca on.
Exactly.
I had a, I had a dad beard.
He’d be like the guy on Castaway. You know Tom Hayes on ca. Yeah,
Exactly.
Or for Scope. Same guy.
Same, same dude.
I lost weight can grow a had
A beard. You can grow a beard. How come it’s been a long time since you grew a beard.
You lost year? Oh no, just during that hunt I
Had a, oh, did you have a beard?
I, I had a huge beard at the end. Yeah. Groom.
I
Was gone. Yeah. I huge. Like how what? We talk like longer than years right
Now. Devon’s definition of
Well, yeah. Yeah. Huge. For
Me. Fears are different.
Let’s go have a weekend. Let’s go.
All right. All right everybody.
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