EP 196: Utah Deadline, Tags, and a New Polaris

There's going to be some tips and tricks and all kinds of things coming out on this podcast. Utah deadline looming March 4th. Warmer, likely drier days ahead for Utah this spring. Anything to do with Western big game.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast, powered by Under Armour. Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, John Peterson, Chris Peterson. Got the brothers in the room here coming at you from Southern Utah. Before we get started, we want to thank Under Armour. Probably haven't done that, although Chris does a heck of a job on the Under Armour intro. Every single time, we do appreciate Under Armour and all that they do for us here at Epic Outdoors and the hunting community. Providing us with incredible gear. We've got a lot of stuff coming out this summer. Normally, their stuff comes out in July. It's a little, sometimes it's frustrating because I want the best stuff right now. Especially when I'm out shed hunting with my kids. Show them up. But anyway, it'll be out in July. It'll be loaded on their website. So you can check it out, UA.com. That's about all I know. Go ahead, Bronson.

What do you want to say? What have you had to drink this morning? I'm eating for heaven's sake. There's going to be some stuff come out. That was smooth, man. There's going to be some tips and tricks and all kinds of things come out on this podcast. Of course, we're going to be talking about our favorite state, Utah, because the deadline is due here in a day and a half. Bronson, you got your abs in? Did you plug and play? Pull and reapply? I don't know if I can keep up with you today, Carter. Oh, yeah. I'm feeling left in the dust just in the intro. Oh, no. Hey, that was just an intro. I know. I'm going to calm down here in about 45 minutes. But, yeah, you're right. Utah deadline looming. March 4th. By the time you hear that, this could be over. Who knows? No, we're publishing this tonight, Chris. March 4th at 11 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.

Now, if you do miss the March 4th deadline or you are only applying for points only, that is extended until March 18th, the points only deadline. So, got a little bit of time there. Don't let it freak you out. But, hey, it's upon us. What else is new, Carter? I don't know, Bronson. There's a lot of other ways to get tags. I know that. Yeah, well, I mean, normally we have obviously the state draws. We talk about raffle tags occasionally out there. But with this era of COVID, we've had a lot of tags in Utah. I hate the word COVID. What do you want me to call it? I don't know. I hate it. It's like bovine. I just hate it. I don't like those words. Okay. All right. Keep going. In this era of a pandemic, what do you want me to say? I've heard it called a planned-demic. But, yeah, keep going. How about in these crazy times we live in? Okay. Crazy.

You can't go to all the banquets that we normally used to. And in Utah, we have a lot of different conservation-type tags. We talked about it a month or so ago with the convention tags that are normally at the Western Hunting Conservation Expo. They got rid of those in a different manner. And now, through HuntAndFishConnection.com, here, I believe, Sports and Fish and Wildlife, Mule Deer Foundation, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation tags here in Utah are, for the remainder of this year, for 2021, going to be pushed and marketed through that website. Yeah.

HuntAndFishConnection.com. HuntAndFishConnection.com. These are auction tags. They're not raffle tags. But they have them for all species. There's turkey tags on there now. There's deer, elk, antelope, bush, sheep, goat. We'll just throw them all out there. Cow, elk, if you're interested in. Fill in the freezer, Carter. Something. Yeah. Anything. Something for everyone. That's right. Even turkey hunters. And they'll be released weekly from now, probably for, I would imagine, a couple of months. So, keep an eye on the website there. HuntAndFishConnection.com. We've also got a few ads that we've placed on there. Well, what I like about these, and it's not necessarily that we buy a lot of them, but it's always fun to watch an auction. I love to go on there and just see what things are going for. It's pretty fun. You go on there. It's pretty easy. You make an account.

Put on a credit card on there. Not going to necessarily charge it unless you bid. You can also, I guess, you can have an obscure username so people don't know who you are. And see if you can snag a tag that way. We talked about the difficulty to find and book hunts. It is. It is the lower 48 with Canada closures, worldwide closures. These types of tags, for some people, we've had a lot of requests to, hey, how are they getting rid of these? Well, we're just telling you. HuntAndFishConnection.com. Keep an eye on it. Starting now. It's the 1st of March. They've already sold a few tags on there, but there's going to be a bunch more over the next roughly two months. So check it out and maybe see what you can snag. They're addicting, dude. So the last auction, I mean, okay. I think it was like Valentine's dinner. Remember? You remember?

And I mean, dude, during that, I mean, I had this thing rolling and then at night, I want to watch the auctions. I love watching an auction. See what things are going for. So anyway, it's a good place to go. You might set it as a bookmark on your browser or whatever. Just check it on a regular basis. You never know, there might be tags on there you'd be interested in. Definitely going to be the way of the future, so to speak. There's going to be a lot of tags being sold on HuntAndFishConnection.com. Let's talk about Utah slightly as an update. I mean, it feels like about draw a line in the half of Utah. And from the northern half, their moisture's turned out okay. They've got a lot of storms central and northern part of the state in the last 20, 30 days. Well, I went up there, let's see, on Saturday, and it was winter wonderland compared to down here. Yeah, down here we're golfing.

I mean, I'm ready to go. Well, you live on a golf course. You could just walk out there and start doing it. I mean, they are. I'm not a golfer, but could you do that? Just walk out there and start playing and not even do a check-in or pay? The whole protocol. The whole right by your house. I mean, I could, but. They need you perks for getting your windows knocked out or, you know, living on the edge. The golf cart noise, you know. That's not a problem. No, that's not etiquette. You go check in because. They're electric, aren't they? They don't have any gassers. No. Dude. Diesel. Hey, I'm a fan of the diesels right now. This little Colorado diesel's impressive. The Pedal Monster. Free plug. Pedal Monster by Banks Power. Legit. Legit, Chris. Yes. Okay, so you have this little equal diesel out here that's a pretty awesome truck. You did all the deleting and the illegal emissions, right?

We're legal in Iron County. Yeah, we're talking about rural. You're legal if you live in Chicago. Illegal in Chicago, Illinois. So Chris can't leave Tonopah, Nevada, or he violates the emissions rule. So anyway, but if you add the Pedal Monster to that. I'm just telling you, Chris, I might even chip in half. I already have a deal on mine. Yeah, you got a deal, but you add the Pedal Monster, it's pretty. It's basically what I have. Is it? It's the equivalent. Okay. Well, anyway. Good going, my son. Jason's had it for two weeks and he's gone through a set of tires. Hey. Yeah. Hey. Those were factory shizzer tires anyway. So they needed to be replaced. They're good. Supposedly they're decent for factories. Nice. All right. So anyway, I'm a fan of the diesel golf cart and I think they should make more of them. No. Too loud. Too torquey. They'll spin out on the grass. Not going to work. No.

Not going to work. Especially if I was to drive around. That's right. Watch you guys play. I'd have, you know. Anyway. So as far as back to Utah, the southern end of the state, I mean, it's turned. We had a little three-week period of time that we thought, hey, that we're going to break out of this long dry spell and it's right back in the long dry spell. It was. It is. As if it almost felt like it didn't happen. And now we're going to have to have fun family activities in nice sunny weather. And the headline on the weather today says warmer, likely drier days ahead for Utah this spring. Yeah. Forecaster. I read that. And so even if we get out of the coronavirus mask mandate, the dust is going to be like last year. You're going to want to keep your coronavirus masks. Okay. I'm just saying. It was. Remember last year? Have you ever seen anything like it in your life? No.

The hunting conditions absolutely saved critters. Saved critters. Well, and it ruined lungs. Okay. I mean, Nevada. And there was an uptick in the sale of air cleaners for the trucks. The powder was unbelievable. Anyway. All right. So having said that, you know, what's your gut feeling? What does that mean? I mean, we're below normal. What do you? I want to hear from Jason Carter. Mule deer. Mule deer. Mule deer. Mule deer. Jason Mule deer. Mule deer. Mule deer. That's what I was going to do it for. Yep. What are Henry's, Poncagon, Southern General Units? Dude. How are they going to produce this year? Everybody wants to know. What do you think? They do want to produce. And I think the critical, and what you and I tell them is, hey, we went into it super dry. We had three to four weeks of pretty cool, awesome moisture. Right? Now we're ending up in another dry spell.

So having said that, April, May of the telling months, I really think. For deer. Especially for deer. And our elk, I mean, we've got Southwest Desert. We've got a few of these desert areas that are affected. But having said that, generally speaking, we have a lot of, you know, let's call it mid to high elevation. High to 11,000 feet. It's high for us, not high for Colorado. But 9 to 11,000 feet. Masks. You can grow some feet even on a trier year in that country. Yeah, it just seems like we don't see a huge decline in the antler growth. Not as big of swings on elk as there is deer. As there is motion. That's right. So anyway, apply, apply, apply. That's what we're saying. We're going to do it. We are applied. But, Bronson, you've applied. What would you say about moose antler growth this year? Okay.

I don't know. I think we're good. Like you said, northern half of Utah? I think the trophy is in the eye of the beholder. And every moose is a trophy moose. You just smoke them when you see them. Northern Utah is fine. And that's where they got moisture. So moving right along. They're taking vegetation from things like elk. And I think there needs to be less moose. So having said all that, Bronson. What? What I really like, and you and I consult with each other, regularly, and John and Chris as well, because we're here, and this is what we do. And we help each other feel better about our own hunt selections. And one thing you did mention was all of the options on, say, like the late muzzle deer on the general areas. We've talked about it on the last podcast that we discussed Utah. But there are so many options in Utah.

Well, and you have to consider those, even for residents, but for non-residents especially, if you just look at the number of limited entry deer tags there are on the top four units. Elk Ridge, Oak Creek, Ponce, Henry's. It's almost nonexistent. You could add them all up. Does it even add up to 20 tags? I don't know. Okay. Probably non-resident. Maybe not. Okay. And you could argue that it's not worth the $15 to apply. Yeah. From an odd standpoint. So just from a simple, and a lot of people that have been doing elk forever have whatever it is, 12 points built up whenever they open the floodgates and said non-residents can apply for all species. And everybody's 12 points in a lot of states, Colorado, that gives you a lot of options. Utah, none. Not so many, unless we look outside the box. That's all I'm saying. Maybe we look around a little bit.

And I also like how we've been talking a lot about these elk units. And some of these, they're not off-the-wall, oddball units, but they're less talked about. Manti, Fish Lake, Nebo. Late hunts, even. Yeah. Our late hunts, we don't give a lot of tags. Like New Mexico and Arizona, Arizona particularly, gives the bulk of their tags in the lay hunts. Utah late, hardly, still has hardly any tags. They're like limited entry elk hunts still. They're not crawling with hunters. There's a few people, you might say, you know, Manti or maybe some. Well, and there are, but that's arguably our largest elk herds. Yeah, they're giant. Collectively, they're still hunted very lightly. And apply with that accordingly. And you can go withdraw an application. If you hear something today on a podcast about anything, and you want to go withdraw your application and resubmit it by. Cost you 15 more bucks.

15 more bucks as a non-resident, 10 bucks as a resident, you can do that. If you're feeling like you did points only, you shouldn't have, which you shouldn't have. I'm not a big fan of points only unless you already have so many hunts booked and planned. Do you want to expand upon that a little bit more? Yeah. How are you going to get lucky? How are you going to get lucky ever? You need to have your name in a bin. And we've got friends that say, I have to have a name in every bin. And you should have a name in every bin. Even in these, let's call them drier years, there's going to be some good ones. If you're in the random dry anyway in Utah, you're not protecting 20-something points, you'd probably take an Oak Creek or a Ponce tag even in a less than desirable year if you're in no man's land for points. Utah does need to do some updating. We were looking at the website, of course.

You and I have to deal with that and applying, guys. And, you know, the premium hunts are listed for, let's say... There's a lot of drop-downs. You've got to hit the right one before they expand. And up comes, like, say, a Henry's and a Ponce. Well, Oaks may be arguably our best unit. And it's on just limited, actually. So, anyway, there's just a lot of options there. And then also, of course, you've got Dedicated, which is, you know, allowing us to hunt all the general season units. If you get that, you can do a point there. You can do a point on the general. You can do a point on the limited entry deer. So there's three deer points for all intents and purposes, as well as, you know, an option for the other species. Non-residents could apply for everything. Again, we've already covered this, but it's kind of... Just on the front burner. That's why we're talking about it. That's right.

And then how about one last thing, Bronson? The guy says, I only want to do points for desert sheep. What's your response? Well, and I get it a lot from people that don't think they're prepared to hunt sheep right now with whatever they feel like they need to be prepared with. And sometimes maybe it's financial and you need to hire a guide. But sometimes it's just they think that they're going to be ready later in life. And the, hey, I got my 50. We get it every year. I built 15 or 20 points. Now I want to draw a desert sheep. What's that get me? Well, you just wasted 15 or 20 years of having no luck, you know, because it's going to take that. Yeah, you got to have your name in the hat. You never know. I drew sheep in Arizona. I had 22 points. If you looked at the odds, you would say 22 points doesn't really give you much of a prayer. I'm supposed to remind you, John.

Do you and your wife got your abs done? Not yet. Okay, well, John's in our system. I did my job and I'm on a hot mic. John's in our system. And let's make a note so that if John cannot come back on us. I know. I went to Holly and I said, hey, you got to remind me like three times this week. So I don't know. Our members get the reminders from us. John gets our text alerts. I know. John gets our text alerts. So I don't know what to do with. Well, you know, my plate's been a little full the last couple of days. Doing what, John? Doing what, John? Well, we got a magazine to print a few days ago. Hey, how about this? How about this? We got a new consultant in the house. How about that? John's been helping to get him set up, too. Let's talk about him for a minute. We'll probably get him on a podcast here in the near future. You guys have all heard him before on the podcast probably. We have.

Two, three, four times. I don't know. So he's worked for Utah Fishing Game as an officer as well as a biologist. Also known as Division of Wildlife. Division of Wildlife. Fishing, I don't know. That's right. How about game and fish? Because I don't really want to put fish before game. I don't think fish should come before game, ever. So anyway, name's Josh Pollack. We brought him on board full time. You're going to hear more from him. We're giving him just a little reprieve. We'd have him in here. But, you know. Don't want to scare him off all at once. He just got a computer yesterday. He just got some user IDs and a key to the office. But he's got heads going up today and he's making his office a home. So we're saying. Okay. It's good. It's going to be basically a home. What this means is we're just, we saw a great opportunity to bring on another consultant

that we feel strongly will help over time be able to help consult members, help us in our license application service, help us, help find hunts or outfitters after you draw. But all of the above, what Jason, I, Wyatt, Devin do on a daily basis, John and Chris at times and some of the stuff that they've hunted and done too, just allow more, just to have more. That's all. It's simply that. I think part of this, Bronson and John and Chris, is we as a company don't want to be underwater and we want to make sure our members are taken care of every single day. So when we leave, you guys have seen our desk. There's no sticky notes on there of guys that are open-ended or we're going to call them four days from now. That doesn't happen. And so anyway, to keep up with the modest growth that we've had, we needed to bring on another guy. It's time. And I think Josh is the perfect man for the job.

I know you guys agree. We've vetted him out extensively and dealt with him in a variety of fashions over the years and think highly of him. So anyway, we're hoping you guys get to know him out there. We're going to have him on the podcast, tease him a little bit. He's got a great sense of humor, great work ethic. He's an honest guy, and he's a hardcore hunter. So anyway, it's hard to find that in a guy. A, he's got a great background, educated, and he's able to – Been a game warden, an biologist here in Utah. Spent about, what, 10 years, was it, in Utah Division of Wildlife? Yeah, I think we can brag on him a little bit because he's not here. But his background is phenomenal. And he's passionate about it. Like yesterday, we were talking about those deer studies and the – Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was he done. Oh, yeah. It's so cool. He was instrumental in that.

I know we've talked about it on the podcast before, but he's just really deep on the biological end of things and into game. It's awesome. If you want to go listen to a podcast we did with Josh, that's episode 62. And we talked about mule deer and elk management here in Utah. He's awesome. Anyway, he's right next. We have offices that, if anybody's been in the office, windows that flow, the information flows from Bronson and myself as well as the other guys. And so we all are right in it together, and he's going to catch up to speed. We're going to have him doing some different projects here in-house as well as consulting and whatnot. So, anyway, we're super excited, just trying to stay ahead of the curve. We appreciate all the support of you guys, and the support of y'all is why this is happening. So, thank you. There was a y'all. Hey. Carter, how many? Not what? I don't know what.

How many have you had to drink today? I don't know what. I don't know. I mean, good drink. All right. So, let's move on. I want to talk about something totally fun and exciting. Okay? What if Polaris came out with golf carts? No.

Turbos? There's just an etiquette on a golf course. Slow? Slow is the etiquette? Quiet, non-turf tearing. Okay. And frumpy. Most of the time you have. Low to the ground and frumpy. You can tell Jason and I don't golf much. You know? We're like, turbo that thing. Well, I mean, yeah. You don't need suspension. We've all seen the Instagram videos of guys jumping golf carts all over the place. You know? They are not built for that. Well. And you fly out of them. You're going to get pinned and broke. I mean, those guys that do that are like, I don't know how many they've had to drink, Carter, but it's a lot. Well, let's call our buddy Colton Francis. Known him well over the years. We brought him on board. He sells Polaris products, specializes in all the updates with Polaris. It doesn't matter what it needs. Tires, lifts, rams. Brought him on board as far as an advertiser. That's right.

We're not hiring an ATV guy. Okay. Just clearing that up. We brought on a consultant, and now we're bringing on an advertiser. Super good dude. Minutes. Triple S Polaris. Triple S Polaris. Polaris dealer. Just type in triple S.com or something like that. It's not the triple S you're used to thinking of when you're wolf hunting.

Okay. Okay. I like that. I like that. Okay. Okay. Well.

Wolf hunting before the season, right? Is that what you're talking about? Before the institute. I mean, or in states where you can't even shoot them. All right. Well, we don't call on illegal activities. Here we go. Let's call Colton, see what he has to say, what kind of projects he's got going on. Of course, John. I know one project he's working on. John. Yeah. We've commissioned a razor. Okay. Four seat razor. And we talked with Colton, said, make it the ultimate hunting rig. Wow. So he's doing that right now. So we can go from animal to animal way faster. Ridge to ridge to ridge. Well, partly when we go on some. Use it as a golf court. I'm pretty sure that all the aftermarket stuff. I've heard golf courses have the best fishing. Huh? Yeah. Game and fish. HOAs don't like you to fish on golf courses. It's Cedar City. How about shed hunting? How'd you find that out?

Is there any shed hunting that occurs near golf courses? Yes. There's that and fishing. And my kids have found out. I've had knocks on the door. Yeah. That's right. I've had knocks on the door from old ladies that don't like their fish. That's right. And the shed's picked up. The shed's went on the golf course. That's right. So that's fine. I don't know those kids, man. Hike the hill if you want them. All right. Here we go. Let's call Colton and see what he's got going on.

Hello. This is Colton. Is this the Colton Francis with Triple S? I do work for Triple S. Come on. You own the place. Good lying.

How are you? Workers get vacations and don't have to work more than 40 hours a week. It owns me.

Welcome to Business Live. What do you got going on down there? Oh, just some more construction. We're putting floors down and the rest of the area that got damaged. And just bringing machines in and getting them all looking good. All right. So I guess we need to update people on what happened down there. You went through a fire. Of course, you've been growing. You bought the business and then you grew it exponentially, it feels like. And then in the middle of all of that, here comes a fire. Yeah. So back in August, my wife and I were out of town on a vacation and got a phone call from about 10 different people. Hey, your building's on fire. So we got some photos and, you know, obviously a picture of the worst. But 50 machines burnt to the ground. Yeah.

So anyway, we sped home and got here, or not home, but here to work. And so I saw the fire. It was up in the attic and broke through the ceiling and just burnt all the trusses. So it didn't look that bad at first, but it's just such an old building that everything kept compounding. So all the electrical had to be replaced throughout the whole building and all the plumbing and all that. We ripped the whole roof off. All new. Pretty much all new building. We vaulted the ceilings. My wife was actually kind of the designer behind all that. I just said, get my building back. And she took over. So it looks really good. Stand out of the way when a woman goes to work. And just give her 14 different credit cards because they're going to max out one by one.

Don't give them debit cards. That comes straight out of your account. At least you can find some of the charges. You can't dispute them. You can dispute credit card charges, not the debit so much. But at the same time, we were building this new mechanic shop out here in our lot as well. So we were kind of doing two things at once. But we got them both up and going. And like I said, we're just finishing the floors in some of the areas. And we're ready to roll for spring and summer. So what I think is crazy is you went from when you purchased the business, you were in a whole different location. And then you moved into a big, giant building. I remember walking into it. And I was like, holy crap. You don't need to do anything for like 10 years. And it felt like six months later, you're now bringing on this service side. I mean, the growth has been crazy that you've been experiencing.

It's been a wild ride. We were pretty nervous when COVID hit. But that was actually kind of a blessing to us. And everyone obviously just wants to get outside just because they can't travel as much. So we've just been trying to meet everybody's needs and make sure they have a good experience at the same time. It's been fun. Yeah, it's been awesome. So tell me, like some businesses struggle with COVID. I mean, anything. You couldn't buy Bronson. I mean, you couldn't buy camp traders, mountain bikes, machines. Oh, I know it. Nothing. Nothing. Anything. RVs, motorbikes, pedal bikes. Unicycles. Whatever. If it had to do with the outdoors. Anything outdoors. You know, a blow-up raft at Walmart was hard to find. It was. It was. And so that's good for business like you. But the downside is you probably had to turn a few guys away like, hey, I don't have that. I can't get it or whatever. Right.

Yeah. It was definitely interesting to watch. We saw the used market kind of take off, kind of almost similar to the housing industry as right now. Just everything was going for way too much. And, you know, most people were wanting to get a new one because of the price. But then they couldn't get one because they were all selling out. There were waiting lists. They would have to wait, you know, two, three months for their machine. Too much is all a relative term. We got $1.9 trillion Biden money coming at us. So that's all just relative. Hey, so tell us, like you've kept up with the growth. There's been, you know, your order machines left and right. It's a going concern down there. It's super impressive. And anyway, we just alerted to, you know, told the world about you a little bit and just wanted to kind of have you talk to us about your specialties.

I mean, obviously, you're building us a machine. And, you know, I've dealt with you for many years, Colton. You and I have known each other. I've had you work on my stuff, build up my machines and everything. Been super impressed in your attention to detail. And, and you're, I mean, the service department, everything is just first rate. And I just wanted to, you know, say that. And then also, you know, let you talk about what you're designing for us. Of course, you're dealing with John. John's as excited as anybody. Tearing, tearing things down and burning rubber. So anyway, maybe talk to us a little bit about the projects and some of the different things that you're capable of doing down there. Yeah, absolutely. There's really kind of two things that my wife and I have always tried to stay focused on. One was the customer experience. And then two was obviously the quality of the product.

So customer experience for me, you know, besides the customer coming in and being excited about the machine is more on my end of making sure that I have the people employed that are just good people. They have a personality. They're not, you know, just some guy off the street who's never done it before. You know, these guys all have a passion for it. They're super excited about it. They all have families, you know, they need the job type. And they're just good people. So that's kind of been our main focus of making sure that we have good people. So it's a good experience. You know, when customers come in here, we want them to, you know, feel like a Cabela's or a sportsman's warehouse type feel, you know, where they can just come in and hang out. And then as far as some of the things we specialize in is more kind of like what we're doing with your guys's vehicle.

We kind of customize them to your specific needs. Polaris makes a great all-around product. However, there's a lot of accessories out there that consumers just don't know about that might work better for their specific situation. So on your guises, for example, you know, you're going to be probably carrying a lot of gear. You're going to be, you know, maybe carrying a lot of weight up there as a deer and elk or whatever animal you're hunting at that specific time. So instead of messing with anything with clutching, we actually wanted to lower the transmission itself. It's just a lot safer that way. It's more reliable. So we're lowering the transmission. You mean the gear ratio? The gear ratio. Just so it's easier on the machine for that amount of weight. And then for, obviously you guys are going to go on some pretty wild places, I imagine.

So, you know, we're doing a lift, taller tires, wheels, you know, bead locks. That way if you get a flat tire, you can still make it home. There's just a lot that goes into what you're using it for. And that's kind of where we specialize is, hey, you know what? Yeah, Polaris makes this accessory, but for your specific, you know, situation, I would recommend this one. And, you know, a lot of times it's even cheaper going that route. So we're not always out for, hey, let's upsell, upsell. It's more, like I said at the beginning, customer experience because we know if we make you happy the first time, you know, you're going to be coming back for service, for parts, to hang out, whatever the case may be. Hang out. Yeah. That's right. Good. We're going to come down there and hang out. You guys still. Yeah. Yeah. Give us a donut or something. Popcorn. Some fresh cookies.

Well, bring your wallet. Hey. So what I, yeah. So what I like about all that is just, it's just like you're saying, it's a customized experience and whatnot. You know, and there's one thing to putting on a lift at home. There's another thing to doing a lift right. There's also aftermarket axles and things that may, that it may need depending on the size of lift and tires and what works and the offsets. And, and that's what I like is your guys' attention to detail and you guys know it. It's not like, hey, we're just going to throw on a lift. Oh, thank you. You know what I mean? It's just like, no, we're going to do it right. You're not going to have issues or at least, okay, let's just preface that. We're going to have issues because we're out in the hills and we're hard on stuff. Right. Sure. But, but as far as, you know, as far as alleviating those issues as much as possible to user,

the user causing those issues, I think you guys are just awesome at that. And there's, there's quite a difference. Thank you. Anyway, it's a, yeah, it's awesome. Light bars, all the cabs. And there's some people who like loud music, right? I mean, you'll do anything, right? You'll throw in a Wazoo stereo system or whatever. Oh yeah. Yeah. We're putting a, we're putting a heater in an enclosure in yours. That way you guys can use it for some late season hunts. Yeah, that's right. And same thing, like what we're talking about, using it for John. I mean, I know John's got all kinds of plans and trailer ordered and who knows. What else do you get, John? We're going to wrap it? A little wrap. Yeah. In the epic. Design in the room. Which I will, Adam and I want to be invisible. Like we don't want the world to know where we're going. We'll take the doors off when you're going to have it. Yeah.

We'll have to disassemble it by the time you get done. But anyway, winch kits and there's winch kits and all kinds of stuff. Anyway, you know, you obviously sell four wheelers. Anything Polaris makes. So you'll take care of anybody besides just... Yeah. Right now, just speaking of four wheelers, we have a lot of lion hunters and bear hunters here in Cedar. A lot of them are our customers. We're building a six by six ATV for a lion hunter slash bear hunter. A six by six. He's going to build a dog box. Yeah. So six tires and wheels on a four wheeler. And it's got like a truck bed on the back and he's going to put his dogs back there. We're pretty excited. He's... Very cool. This is the first time we've ever done one of these. So it'll look pretty good. So that's a... And what's the base? Or is that proprietary? What's the base machine that you do?

You have to do an engine swap to run the extra rubber? No. So Polaris actually makes a six by six and we're just kind of dolling it up for him. Kind of like what we're doing with you guys. So we put taller tires on it. We made it a little bit wider for him just for stability with the dogs. We're building a dog box for him on the bed. We're going to lower gear the transmission on that one too just because of the amount of weight. You have to sign a liability waiver so when it's too top... You know, if it's top heavy or something. Have you seen a houndsman run a lot of shady stuff? That's the last thing they're worried about. I mean, I'm just going to say it. They will get by... Have you seen their trucks driving around town? Oh, man. Oh, yeah. I mean... Destroyed. So I don't think they're worried about it before we either leans on its side. I agree with you.

But Colton, hey, you're based in southern Utah. So make that clear to all of our listeners and whatnot. But obviously, tell us how... I mean, some people throughout the western U.S. may have a dealer close to them. But there's a lot of people throughout the west or the United States in general that don't. But they want a hunting ATV, UTV that they can use, you know, whether they doll it up to the extent maybe that you're doing with houndsmen or maybe us in certain situations. How do you recommend they go about that process? I mean, because we know you. We trust you. We live by you. Sure. And you're advertising the magazine. But how can you still help them outside of your normal, hey, drive to my shop, see what I have on my floor? Sure. So most of our customers actually aren't from Cedar or even in our local area.

But probably 80% of our customer base is Las Vegas, California, parts of Idaho and Wyoming. So we're... Yes, we're based out of southern Utah. But we have kind of connections everywhere as far as getting product places. We deliver by all means. So if you can't make the trip down, we'll come to you. That's awesome. Yeah. I think that's what I basically wanted to instill that. Yeah. This is... Even though, I mean, if you have a deal that you're dealing with, players do that, great. If you don't, give Colton a call because you've got a lot... You've been there, done that, and creating hunting-type machines, whether it be ATV, UTV, you know. Yeah, like I said, it's... You know, you can buy these anywhere. Everybody has access to the internet. They can, you know, get an idea of what the price costs. But, like I said, what it comes down to is just, you know, you're buying a toy.

You want it to be enjoyable. You want it to be an experience. You want to build it for the way you want it for what you're going to use it for. So, you know, it sounds silly to say as a business owner, we're not just in it for the money. We're kind of in it for the experience just because we know we'll, you know, get that later business from you guys later on, just as whether it's service or whether it's parts or whatever the case may be. Well, that's awesome. And that's what I think you guys are good at is the whole, for not just selling them and sending them down the road and hope they never come back. You, dude, you were hiring, you know, a bunch of mechanics and you're staying ahead of the growth curve and whatnot. Yeah, we got quite the crew. We went from nine employees to 18 now, so doubled them. That's awesome. We got five mechanics and four parts guys and a couple sales guys.

We're, yeah, we're having fun. That's awesome. So if we, if a guy calls you up and says, hey, I want to side by side, I mean, is this something you can do in fairly short order? How are we looking on backwards and things like that? Yeah, so right now, Polaris, another good thing about Polaris is they're just so massive. They have five or six factories throughout the U.S. where our closest competitor only has one. So they're really cranking out the product. Right now, on average, you're waiting about three weeks if the product isn't actually physically here. We are getting a lot of stocking inventory, so chances are we'll probably have it in stock. If there's something specific or like a specific color that you want, then it would take roughly about three weeks. So really not too bad. So that's not bad at all. Because we don't like to wait, Colton. Right? I don't like to wait.

Do you guys like waiting? When you want something, you want something. Right? Yeah, and yeah, that's right. And if you don't, you know, don't find it, you may move on. And we understand that in the world where when you're ready to do something, you're ready to do something. But it's never too early. I mean, it is winter still. And if you're thinking about something this summer or fall that you're going to use and put to use hard, you can't start too early putting it all together. So how do people get a hold of you, Jason? You want to give listeners that? Website, phone number, whatnot? You've got an 844 number. Is that a new 800 number? I don't even know. Yeah, that one works as well. Or you can call our local number, which is 435-865-0100. Or our website is ssspolaris.com. Okay. ssspolaris.com or 435-865-0100. And, you know, I like talking to you. Thanks. Likewise. Okay.

So when I call, I'm calling you. But anyway, is there somebody people should ask for, you know, or how do they go about, you know, just start initiating the conversation? Yeah. So, like I said, we've hired really, really good people. So I've given them the ability to work with the customer without going to a manager, without going to the owner. They know what the machine is. They know what they're supposed to. You know, this is our cost, you know, type thing. Don't go below it. So they have just as much power as I do as the owner. And that's kind of the way I wanted it set up. It's always such an impersonal feeling when you go to a dealership and like, well, let me go ask my manager. Let me go do this. Or let me go do this. It just doesn't give you that good, warm, fuzzy feeling.

So you want to deal with somebody that has the answers, that can actually sell you a machine right there on the spot. Yeah, exactly. That's what we do with optics. You're more than welcome to call me. Okay. That's what we do with optics here. It's the same price. Whether you talk to me or Devin or Wyatt or Adam or whatever. Yep. Well, good. We just wanted to chat at you. We appreciate you. Yeah, thank you. Welcome aboard. Appreciate it. Yeah. Anybody that's interested, give these guys a call, 435-865-0100 or ssspolaris.com. They can do anything and everything. At least they have for me. So, and here at Epic, huh, John? Yeah. Yeah. You'll also see them in the magazine, too. So if you, you know, see their ad, it'll always be there starting from the March issue on, right, John? Yeah, March issue should be in your mailbox, you know, pretty soon. It's at the printer.

What if they need a trailer? Do you have access to that kind of stuff? So we can recommend places to go. We're just running out of room. We wanted to do trailers, but we just don't have the room for it now. But you have people. You know people. Yeah. Yeah, we can definitely get you some recommendations. I still need to get John the measurements on this machine that you guys are getting, so I'll go get that. I'm sure John's going to hook us up good. He's excited. All right, guys. Well, have a great day. Wish you well. Likewise. I encourage anybody that's interested, give Colton a call. All right, guys. Appreciate it. Thanks, guys. You bet. Talk to you later. Bye. And I just wanted to add, one of the reasons we partnered with Colton is he's an avid hunter, and he knows, he's just one of us. So take care of you. It knows what we need as hunters, and just a great guy. Okay, moving on.

Bronson. We are getting ready. The land of enchantment? Is that where you're? Well, I do like New Mexico. I do. There's some things happening and some little bills to restrict some tags. They're not so fun, but we don't know where that's sitting yet. Yeah, and we've alluded to that in several states, whether it be Utah, Wyoming, Montana. We're not going to give a weekly play-by-play in every state because it changes and modifies. And when it's done, the dust settles. We'll react. We'll apply accordingly. We'll cover it. We'll highlight it here on the magazine. When stuff becomes live, it becomes law. But New Mexico, deadline coming up as well. We flipped the calendar to March. Deadline here to apply is 5 p.m. on March 17th. That's for all species. Maybe not. I don't know about turkeys and stuff, but the big game. Those aren't species. That goes in the fish department. All right.

So March 17th at 5 p.m. Draw results. We'll know by the end of April, about the 28th. Not a lot of huge changes in terms of stuff in New Mexico this year. A lot of plug and play. There is, but just like you're saying, the plug and play options are endless. You got three choices that matter. And then they'll go to the next guy. So, man, there's so much, so many options. And a couple years ago when they tightened up the interpretation of the current 84% resident quota, 10% outfitter guide quota, 6% non-resident unguided quota. They tightened up the interpretation. In a lot of cases, when there was 10 tags, they would round. They'd give eight to the resident pull, one in each other pulls. That didn't follow the literal interpretation of that. So they're rounding in favor of the 84% now. And that took a tag away from the non-resident, non-guided.

And so you need, the magic number is 13, 13 total tags in a hunt code for there to be one in the unguided and the guided pull. That's right. For non-resident. For non-resident, we're talking. So very bare minimum of 84. And that comes into play a lot on, especially antelope. You look at the number of antelope options. If you're a self-guided guy, there isn't that many. A lot of them are five or 10 tags. And part of the reason is they split them up into three or four hunts or two or three hunts. And they got low tag quarters. But that's something to bear in mind. We did a very good job in our mind of drawing your attention to that in the magazine. If you see that non-resident column that says, no tag available, must apply on the guide drop. Well, that's exactly what it means. The tag quarters are too low. You're not going to be able to apply for that and have any chance to draw.

So keep that in mind. We like New Mexico from the standpoint is I evaluate it every year with a new set of glasses on and how hungry I am to get a tag. Oakley's? Well, whatever. You know? Good ones. Just different set of glasses every year based on, A, what's my season? What is my season? If I'm heavy, I think in September, I have to avoid and maybe go to the October hunts with firearms. I like to do archery. Our best bulls would come from October seasons. Yeah, but John, last year you drew an archery tag early. I mean, the early season, the first to 14th can be good some years. Some years it can be tough, hot, dry. Last year was a little bit tougher in general. It was tough, but man, it was such a fun hunt. I wish I could get that tag every year. Yeah, that was an early archery. I didn't even kill a bull. September 1, right? What days did you go? September 1. I went 7 through the 14th.

Yeah, the last ones. Not the last ones. Did you come into the rut? No, not at all. Last year was a tough rut in the entire southwest region. I mean, there was a tiny bit of bugling, but it was still incredible. Yeah. Was it an incredible change in the tires that you had to change? Was that incredible? That wasn't incredible. Dude, you ruined how many tires? Just one, but I had to sleep next to the truck with the truck in the road. It was like 1 a.m. I was trying to learn new roads and went out to scout early and threw out the tent next to the truck. Why did you? Well, okay, so explain. Did you have a spare? I did have a spare. Okay. I did. It was just 1 a.m. Oh, I see. You're not going to want to just start. You're just going to sleep where you're at and wake up in the morning. I mean, it's the middle of nowhere. Well, I do think you did come back. I mean, it was a great experience.

Bronson, and that was a unit you've never been to before. Never been to. Yeah. So I ran trail cameras and found some great bulls, and it was so dry, and there wasn't any. Did trail cameras help you find the bulls? I knew. Just teasing. I didn't know areas that there were trail camera issues in Arizona. Just kidding. Yeah. Anyway. All right. Well, having a good time here. You know, like you guys say, and Bronson, we've killed some great animals. In New Mexico, we apply for it every single year. No point system. Clean slate, like you said. New set of glasses. I mean, things may change. And you can pick new options. You're not held to anything. You don't feel like you're burning anything. You can sit it out. If you're not feeling the love in your schedule or whatever, you know, sit it out or go swing for the fence. They do look at all three choices.

I still get calls almost every week about that. And people just need to realize every state does their draw differently. This is not like Colorado where, you know, you can only draw your second or third choice if those tags are undersubscribed. New Mexico looks at all three choices before going to the next applicant. When your number is pulled, they try to fill your first choice. If the quote is full, they immediately look at the second and the third. So you can draw. I mean, a great tag is a third choice. It doesn't mean that it was undersubscribed. Don't just get that out of your mind. Arizona looks at two. You know, Utah looks at the first one. Colorado looks at the first one. But every state's different. So apply accordingly. But knowing those rules are important. Yeah, it is.

I mean, I wouldn't put a 16D second archery as my third choice and put a 51 and 52 archery as your first and second. Why not? Well, if you drew a really good random number, you're probably going to draw your 51 archery before you ever got considered by 16D. 16D's better? Was it awesome? You know, don't rank them. I mean, I know there's some touchy-feely, but those are vast differences in terms of numbers of playing and quotas and things like that and drawing odds. So it makes sense to generally rank them based on drawing odds because if you draw an incredible number and you put 51 first season archery as your first choice, you're never going to know what you could have drawn as a second or third choice. So anyway. Okay, sounds good. I like it. I like it. Let's move. Oh, our friend John Bear. I love that. I mean, that's addictive. When he does stuff, whatever. Anyway.

We all in and done on New Mexico? We all in and done. I like it. All right. So anyway, we got the Nevada Guide draw. The only thing we were saying, we did publish March 8. They came out and published March 8, but then they extended it and they told me. Sent the email out to everybody a week or so ago. Yeah. Master guides and all that. But it's because they normally have a point-only option that'll last a week later than the normal deadline. And so since that doesn't come into play here, you can get points in the regular draw. Didn't need to extend that. They didn't need to do it, so they extended it and it doesn't change when the results will come out. So anyway, having said that, if you need a guide to apply with, give us a holler. We can help you with that. No problem. Work with the best in the business. Absolute best. And we appreciate them and their support as well.

So mention that with New Mexico as well. That does apply only to the rifle deer in Nevada, but all species in New Mexico. If you are likely going to hire a guide or an outfitter, you should probably apply with one from the onset to generally have better drawing odds. It's not in every single case in the state, but by far the majority of cases, you'll experience better drawing odds if you enter the guide draw. Bigger portion of the tag. Exponentially better. So yeah, if you're going to hire somebody anyway, especially. If you're not sure, okay, yeah, and you want the flexibility, you better just enter the regular draw and then decide after you draw. There's a couple things we're not going to dive into, but we should briefly mention them. What? It'll be Colorado. We're going to be applying Colorado here shortly and cranking on. We'll probably do our own another podcast.

We talked about deer a little bit on the last episode with Mike Deplan, but we're going to, when we, when the magazine starts showing up and people are kind of in a frenzy, we'll cover the Montana deer and elk, Colorado. Which is due April 1st and then Colorado April 6th. And Montana sheep, moose, and goats not until May 1st, but it's included in the March issue as well. So we'll cover that in a week or so. We'll do another podcast with that. But what else? What else is on the front burner right now? Is this a memory game? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not good at memory games. If we end the podcast and you said we should have brought, no, no, just you wanted to cover something that was timely, we could. I do have, I haven't told you guys about the NL Pures. Okay. That I, I mean, they've been hard to get and we have them in stock now, the 10 by 42s.

I took a pair to Mexico and it was phenomenal. The thing that I noticed most that I wasn't expecting was the new coatings are amazing. You know, I'm glassing, not even really realizing, but almost directly into the sun. Like the sun is, is going down and I'm direct, I'm, I'm direct glassing directly below it. I find glass. It hurts your eyes, you know. But I didn't even realize it really, you know, because I could see. Side note, don't glass into the sun. Don't glass into the sun. Go ahead, John. Tell us how you glassed into the sun. If I looked up, yeah, blind me. But, you know. All right. Keep going. So, I find some coos deer, like normal. I flip them off and then put on the spotting scope to see it. I couldn't see anything. It was, it was totally white, foggy, you know, looking at the same spot. And I, and I was just shocked.

I put the NLs back up and it was clearer than heck, you know. So, I want to just ask you a personal question. Where's this going? Well, a year ago you did this trip, did you, and what did you kill? Great buck. I mean. Yeah, I killed a buck. Okay, but you killed two bucks this year. Yeah, I killed two bucks. Yeah. Was that because of the NLs? I could have been. Possibly. I think that's the only change I can think of. Last year, it was my first year, never been there, you know, never done it. He's probably passed a lot of them, comparing them to Mule there, like, that's a dink. And now he knows they're all little. And so, he crushed a couple and they're 100 plus inches and they're good bucks. Yeah, they're just little feathers. Yeah, great, thanks. Well, all right, we're going to have some draw results moving on. We're going to have some draw results coming out.

We had, dude, the Alaska sheep results came out, okay? Okay. We're just thinking about some of these things. Arizona. Oh, we're compending there. Yeah. So, let's talk about that. Well, and so, what we do offer here at Epic Outdoors, we have a member draw system. If you draw a tag, you need help, we can send you a list of members who've had that tag in the past, help you with outfitters. By signing up for that, you're also agreeing to help next guy that comes along down the road. That will be coming out literally almost any day. I mean, they were normally, you know, started hitting credit cards the day after you were supposed to update it. Which would have been Friday. But that was last Friday and that didn't happen. No. A lot of anxiety being caused by Arizona in the world right now, even though, I mean. Angry people. Yeah, anxiety is a light term. Angry birds.

You know, we need to play that. You guys used to play that. I was a dick. I've never played it, but I know what you're talking about. So that's what I think of when I think about people in Arizona. So anyway. So, but yeah, that's coming. Good point, though. As you start, Arizona should be the first state we get as far as a western state. You know, Alaska is a western state, but you know what I mean. Most, a lot of the stuff you apply for up there to sheep and goat, you're already contractually obligated with an outfitter. You're not going to go do a bunch of research. You're taking care of that already. But. In the case of Arizona, that'll start the lower 48, you know, draw results coming out for elk and antelope at least. Give us a call if you're a member. If you're not a member and you draw a tag and you're a self-guided guy, keep the member experience database in mind as a tool.

That alone might be worth your hundred bucks to talk with other people that have recently been there, done that in your unit. It's a member benefit for Epic Outdoors members as well. So, anyway. I can't think of anything else, Bronson. I'm all out of monster. I'm out of energy. Anything else, Chris? I have no steam. Chris, happy birthday yesterday. Thank you. Holy crap. I can't say belated because we said it yesterday and we sung to you. We were acapella and for Chris being a musician he is, it was, we sounded rough. He just sat back and was like. He's just like, yeah, he's just, yeah, he's just, yeah, thanks guys. Yep. But we do our best. We were just chiming in. I'm not saying we're bad, but it just, when you sing to a musician, acapella, just 14 people gathering in a room and just. Well, it was. And it was the last birthday. What do you mean?

That he's going to have as a non-married guy. A single dude. I don't want to say single because he's engaged. What do you mean? Is that not a significant thing in your, do you ever remember your last birthday? I'm just looking for a reason to have a paid holiday. Just thinking about, just having a reason to have a paid holiday. Okay, well, I'm just saying your last birthday before you're married, usually that's not that significant, is it? Well, you can buy anything you want. I can't think of anything. I just wondered, does anybody remember that in their life? Well, yeah, there might have been some parties thrown. I could see bachelor parties. There might have been some parties thrown. Bachelor parties, yes. A dude's last single birthday. Okay. No, I don't know that that ever. We're always looking for a party around here. We're always looking for a reason to smile. And sing.

Yesterday, it was Chris's birthday. That's right. We did have cake and ice cream, so that's, and that's another benefit of having, add another person to the crew, we get another birthday. That's right. More cake. That's just what we need. In the winter months, when we're chained to a desk and on the phone. So this is what we need. So everybody out there, you know, Chris runs our Instagram, epic underscore hunts. All right, Bronson. We good. Let's give some shout-outs to some of our partners, advertisers. You support them, and they support us. And that's one of the ways we give you this free podcast. Like for like? Yeah, like for like. I'm just teasing. All right, keep going. One, let's give a shout-out to Red Rock Precision. And you can go to their website, redrockprecision.com. And they've got a really cool gun builder up there. You want to see what's possible.

All the different combinations. They build custom guns. So you choose. Kind of like Colton Francis at Triple S. Yeah. Yeah. Do what you want. Do what you want. Yeah. Customize your scope, your stock, your weight, which all that has to do with maybe your caliber. Everything. Your intended use of your rifle. We've got them. I've got a couple of them. I like them. I like them. And I'm actually getting kind of itchy with this warm weather to get out and shoot them a little bit. Right now we've got a giveaway going on with Red Rock Precision. Talk about that. Go check out our Instagram page. It's for a. Epic underscore hunts again. Epic underscore hunts. Where you're all going to go wish Chris happy birthday. Keep going. For a Zeiss Conquest V6 318 by 50. Wow. So that's a great scope. All you have to do is go on there and read the instructions. Awesome scope.

When's the deadline to do that, Chris? Do you know off the top of your head like the day? Yeah. So the deadline is March 8th at 5 p.m. Mountain Standard Time. The old guide draw deadline. Okay. Yeah. All right. Keep going. We're just full of deadlines. I run my life on deadlines. An old insignificant deadline. An old insignificant deadline that I can't get out of my head. All right. Keep going. All right. If you're looking for land and you got a little bit of money to spend on a ranch or two. Or sell one. Or sell one. That's right. Yeah. You want to sell some property. So our buddy Blaine St. James at St. James Sporting Properties. He is a ranch broker and he specializes in sporting properties. So. Big hunter. Yep. Go. You know, that's what I like about our partners. Just like Colton Francis or Blaine or whoever we're working with. These guys freaking hunt. You know what I mean?

I love that. Well, they have that perspective as well. Whether you're buying or selling. If you're buying with the intent to have some kind of a hunting property or selling. And want to use that as an angle in the selling. Blaine understands that. He's licensed at a bunch of states, John. So you want to give us contact info. Great crew of guys that got working for him as well. Yeah. Go check his website. It's sjsportingproperties.com. Yep. Or call him 877-354-7247. Great guy. And like I said, big hunter. Based in Colorado, but licensed in many of the western states. We list them all. We have before. But anyway, give him a call. I like it. Awesome dude. I like it. All right. Who's next? All right. One last one. Still cam. Hey, speaking of which, we just threw in a huge order. We're going to have cameras coming out our ears.

Well, we do a big, big order just so we don't have to do a bunch of little ones because last year we ran into, well, I don't know if people heard of COVID. He had some problems with deliveries and things like that. But not us. We didn't have them. We had them on the shelf. And when people figure out they need them. We had them on pallets, I think. Pallet. Yeah. Not shelves. But pallets. A lot. So anyway, yeah, we're a huge fan of Stealth Cam. Love them. Yep. If you want to go see their lineup, stealthcam.com. And like we said, we're a dealer. We can do customers. We order our favorite models, our faves. We're going to have loads of them. You can call us, get our opinions. But if you wanted to order something special and you did a quantity of a few, why, we would sure consider making a special order. Or the downside is you've got to wait. And we don't like waiting.

So anyway, having said that, we can do what you need. Anything that GSM sells, makes, or delivers. All right, guys. Anything else? Let's call it a day and go eat some. Get your wraps in. Go eat some maybe fish since we're close to the ocean. All right.