EP 1: Intro to Epic Outdoors

He'll look freaking stud, heavy, big, old eye-guarded. Happened to be a great moisture year, I drew you in at 10. You know, there are hunt opportunities for almost anyone out there every year. Anything to do with Western big game.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast, powered by Under Armour. Hey everybody, it's Jason Carter here with Epic Outdoors. I'm in the room here with the legendary Chris Peterson, John Peterson, and Adam Bronson. They're my partners here at Epic Outdoors. They're an awesome group of guys and just very, very knowledgeable for hunting the West. Before we really get started in on this podcast, I just want to introduce everybody. And also, this is our number one first episode of the Epic Outdoors podcast. It will be, as well as the future episodes, powered by Under Armour. We appreciate Under Armour and the awesome company they are. Dealt with them in partnerships over the last 10 plus years, including, but not limited to, the Ridge Reaper TV show, which was on the Outdoor Channel. Continue to be partnered with them in doing TV and filming hunts.

Really appreciate UA and all the support they give us. Of course, they make awesome, awesome hunting gear. And, in my opinion, have the best Western camel pattern there is. The Ridge Reaper Baron series. They did come out with the Ridge Reaper Forest series, which is more for the alpine environment. I use it as well. And we've used it in southeast Alaska and some of our higher elevation hunts. So, it's just been awesome. Anyway, thank you, Under Armour. Thank you to all your listeners out there. But, anyway, just looking forward to doing this podcast as well as many, many more to come. These Epic Outdoors podcasts will be formatted, in large part, very similar to the magazine and information service that we offer. Here at Epic Outdoors, we do a monthly publication from December through June. After that, it's bimonthly. It's 100% information-driven.

We talk about all the Western states, drawing odds, kill percentages, best units. We work with the best outfitters. We deal with landowner tags, guaranteed tags with outfitters, as well as, obviously, draw tags when we break the states down. So, anything Western big game, Canada, Alaska, Mexico, that's what we do. And that's all we're ever going to do. We're not going to do anything, really, in the East, although we do deal with Iowa a little bit, Kansas, but very little. For the most part, we're Western big game oriented, and that'll be our subject matter for the next 20 years. We charge $100 a year. That gives you a monthly publication, like I said, December through June, and then bimonthly after that, nine issues a year. And then you can call in with questions, and we can work with you as many times as you need.

We have guys call in for every state and just get a little bit of info on top of what we publish in the magazine. And then also we'll help you, consult you as far as outfitters and any information that we can help you with, particular details if we've hunted those specific units that you're asking about. We also offer a separate service. It's a license application service where we apply a good portion of our clients for the tags for them. We actually can choose the units, and in most cases we do, take into account the weapon types that they want to use, the trophy quality they want, their physical condition, and if they want to go guide it or not. And just kind of help them develop an overall plan, whether it be for the short term, one to five years, or ten years plus. And in most cases, people have a couple of different plans.

And so we make sure that we're building points for the future as well as trying to obtain some short term hunts and get everybody out hunting. And that's kind of the goal of Epic Outdoors. It's strictly to help guys get on world class hunts. And that's what we do. So kind of a short introduction to the guys here. Many of you know who we are and maybe have followed us over the course of time. We've all been in the hunting industry for lots and lots of years. Anyway, Chris Peterson, he's awesome. He's a guy that's actually kind of been in large part dealing with a lot of our digital media portions in this company as well as other companies as far as the videography work, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook. This podcast is made possible by Chris and all the hard work that he's done to get the right equipment as well as formats and to get it uploaded in various sites. So anyway, super talented guy.

He's a singer. Some of you know that. He's also done a lot of artwork. He's a cowboy. He loves horses. And overall outdoors, he can ride snowmobiles hard. There's nothing that Chris doesn't do or can't do as good or better than anybody else I know. So we're super lucky to have Chris on our team. And I don't know, Chris, say hey to everybody. Hey, what's up? What's happening? So anyways, anything I left out, Chris? Nope, just super excited for the future. Glad to be a part of Epic Outdoors. Yeah, lots of talent. And then I've got John Peterson. John has been with, you know, I've worked with John for, I don't know, more than 10 years, I'd say. I'd have to actually count it up. It's probably been 12. We started probably in 98. Yeah, it's a long time. Working together a little bit. It's almost 20 years, about as long as I've been married. So anyway, John is awesome at graphic design.

Of course, him and Chris are brothers, if anybody can believe that. They're brothers. So they basically have the same genetics. John, super artistic guy, can do about anything he sets his mind to, and is responsible for the awesome look and feel of our magazine. He will design anywhere from 100 to 150 plus pages every single month for, of course, December through June, as well as all of our brochures. He dives into our marketing and deals with a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff that you never see that kind of makes a business run. So anyway, he's done some different hunts, including a hunt that was showcased on Ridge Reaper on the Outdoor Channel. And so everything from artistic to hunting to anything outdoors, John's been a part of. John, do you have anything to say to us? Yeah, just excited for this, to get this rolling and to service our members.

We kind of pride ourselves in giving that personal touch. So if you need something or you've got a question, just feel free to call in and ask us, and we'll do our best to help you out. All right. One person that isn't with us today, he's on vacation, dang it, and I'm kind of jealous of him, is Jeff John. Jeff John is the husband to my wife's sister. And super good guy, super nice. For some of you who have actually called in and visited with Jeff, I'm sure you'll agree. He's one of the most personable guys you'll meet. And he deals with our outfitters with guaranteed tags, you know, as well as on the draw system. Just deals with the outfitters, the openings, and helps guys find hunts. And he will follow it through to the very end. And one of the most detailed guys and one of the most personable guys I know, like he loves this portion of the business.

So anyway, he's in the process of finding a home down here in Cedar City, Utah. He'll be moving down here and will be a significant part of the Epic team. So sad that he's not here with us today. But at the same time, you guys will definitely hear and see a lot more of him and be able to learn who he is. Yeah, I'd just like to add my two cents on Jeff. I've never seen anybody who cares more about getting, you know, finding that perfect hunt for one of our clients. If you call him and just tell him what you're after, maybe it's a 180 class mule deer or it's an elk of a certain size and you've got a budget. He just works nonstop to find that perfect opportunity for our clients. And his passion just rubs off on everybody. I also got Adam Bronson in the room. Many, many people out there know who Adam Bronson is. He's an awesome partner of ours. Worked with Adam for many years, 10 plus years.

And, you know, we've got Chris in the digital side. We've got John in the print side. And, of course, they've got 14 other hats that they wear. And then Adam and I deal in large part with the members as far as the actual consulting, the building of the guts of the magazine, all the statistics, the states, the biologists. And, of course, we deal with the Outfitters Heavy along with Jeff John. And we're working with Jeff and training him as he goes along. But, anyway, Adam's got an extreme amount of experience for hunting big game. He's hunted everything from Alaska, Canada, and most of the western states. He's drawn some extreme tags. And he's also been to Mexico and taken guys down there. So he's been a former wildlife biologist for the state of Utah and has his master's in wildlife biology. Super lucky to have Adam here on our team.

He's just one of those that just adds an extreme amount of depth. And that's what's cool about our partnership with all these guys. We all add something to the team. And we all do different things. And we all have different strengths and different weaknesses. And I think, you know, as any partnership goes, that's what makes it. We're very excited to be expanding our services. You know, in the last four years, we've done a licensed application service only. And through a lot of input from people in the outdoor industry and people that love to hunt western big game like we do, they put a lot of pressure, I guess, to get back doing what we do. And we love doing it. We've never stopped doing what we're doing. We kind of wake up every day thinking about opportunities in hunting the west

and now have made that a high priority to be able to translate that research and information that we get onto you as members. So we're really excited to be back doing the magazine, putting service first and talking, living, and, you know, breathing, hunting every day. To expound on that a little bit, Adam's one of Utah's premier outfitters. In fact, he's the number one outfitter as far as I'm concerned as far as the desert sheep. He's killed some phenomenal mule deer and big elk.

You know, super high demand for Adam's services out there. Anybody that draws a special tag in Utah definitely, you know, runs something by us and wants to hire Adam. Just really cuts his teeth, especially on sheep, and has done a lot of service with the Utah FNAWS, Foundation for North America Wild Sheep, and works with the Wild Sheep Foundation. So anyway, he's done a lot of different things within the state of Utah back when he was a biologist, including but not limited to transplants of different species and, of course, really in-depth management, actual management of big game. So super excited to have him on our team. Of course, we've been working together for years, and it's been awesome. Of course, you know, my name's Jason Carter. I've been in the hunting industry for all of my life. My father was a game warden. I grew up doing nothing but hunting.

Never really did much for sports. My dad just wasn't into it. All we did was hunt and kill stuff. So he, you know, with his job, he had to work on the normal hunting seasons throughout the year, and we just didn't have an opportunity to really dive into our own hunts here in the state because he had to be out in the field working and being a wildlife officer. And so we always researched the different western states and tried to find those oddball hunts that were in different time frames that we could actually go hunt, and hunted everywhere clear back in the 80s, 90s, early 90s, and just experienced a lot of things over the course of time. I graduated from Utah State with a degree in finance and then went right to work in the family business in which we just basically consulted hunting. Big game hunting is all we've known, and that was back in 97.

Just did that to supplement our income and be able to afford some landowner tags and do some hunting as well as drawing some tags. I know, you know, I drew one of the first sheep tags to be offered in the state of Oregon on the John Day. It was actually the first year it was open, in 2004. And just, you know, over the course of time and building points across the west, I've been able to, really fortunate to hunt many, many tags, draw many tags, and experience a lot, as well as these guys here in the room have as well. Adam's also drawn a sheep tag in Oregon, beat the odds. We all went up there and just had a great trip. And so we're living proof that it happens from deer, elk, sheep, whatever it is, we've drawn it. Well, I think a lot of what you somewhat alluded to, Jason, is we've been around the west a lot,

and it's just simply because we're not always satisfied with the one or two hunts we do right here in our backyard. We love our state of Utah. We've had a lot of great hunts here. But we're just programmed to find anything everywhere. And that's what we're looking forward to not only portraying in the magazine is the opportunities that exist out there, but through this podcast as well, month to month, you know, every week or two, we'll do one of these. Or whenever we feel like there's something noteworthy we need to highlight and talk about. Really, our goal with this podcast and all the podcasts in the future is to supplement our magazine and help our members. Our members are guys that are super serious about hunting, and we want to help them learn in any way they can. And so we're going to try to provide the best information out there.

We also want to bring on some significant guests that are kind of the same type of people we are as far as they're extreme hunters. They're the best at what they do, and we're going to learn from those guys. Just to encourage you to subscribe so you don't miss an episode when it gets uploaded. We're looking forward to bringing these to you and get to know us better and hopefully deliver really good content regarding just strictly Western big game. EpicOutdoors.com. You can join on there. You'll start getting the monthly magazine. And feel free to call in, visit with us, and we can go from there. We've had an overwhelming amount of support. We're not going anywhere. And you're going to be hearing more from us. Thank you. Thank you.