EP 244: Finding Last Minute Hunt Opportunities and NV Dream Tag

It's been a tough draw year. The tags, they're unmatched, they're statewide. For a good quality outfitter, it's best to get in and get in early. It is one heck of a hunting opportunity. Anything to do with Western big game.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast, powered by Under Armour. Hey everybody here, Adam Bronson, Devin Archibald, Josh Pollock here. We got a skeleton crew, we'll call it that, here today in southern Utah. We got just busy. Stuff's going on. It's that time of year everybody's got something going on, but we're holding down the fort. We had a few things we needed to go over today. Hadn't done a podcast for a minute. First off, I want to get a shout out to Under Armour, sponsoring this podcast. A lot of what we've done here from the start at Epic Outdoors, we appreciate them and their support. We're hopefully looking forward to them loading a lot of the new hunting gear online here very soon that we can peruse and get on order, be able to use this fall. So appreciate Under Armour and their support of us here at Epic Outdoors. And hey guys, we're getting a little bit of rain.

I know not as much as, seems like New Mexico has been getting crushed. The early monsoon forecast that we heard months ago is coming to fruition. Arizona and New Mexico getting crushed. It's bleeding a little bit into eastern Utah last week and a little bit into southern Utah this week. But June is not a normal month we get rain here. No, pretty isolated really. I mean, the mountains have been getting it. The valleys not so much, but that's okay. How about Idaho? The mountains can use it too. Idaho and northern Utah. Geez, how they had the track this spring. Just northern Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, eastern Montana. Remember like four months ago they were like so dry. And they've had rain, rain, rain, flooding, all this kind of stuff. So yeah, we're kind of a little bit caught in between in southern Utah. We're okay. We're better than last year.

We're optimistic because of the good fall we had last year going in. And it definitely greened up and got pretty around, which we didn't see any green last year in the spring. So hopefully we got more things to come in terms of rain and a strong monsoon in these southern states. We'll sure take it. But anyway, speaking, I guess, of Arizona too, by the time many of you hear this, keep an eye on your credit card. As of the morning of June 28th or later, you might start to see charges if you're successful for sheep and deer. I know. Was it you, Josh, that called it that was luck? Or was that why? Somebody in a group text was like calling their shot, basically. He was trying to speak it into fruition. Yeah, that's true. I was going to manifest it. I was manifesting that we were all going to clean sweep. Well, considering how bad, I know I'm a broken record here, but this is a bad year for me.

Archibald earned one from points in Arizona for deer, or elk, sorry. Josh, I don't know about you. You got dedicated in Utah. Yeah. But Jason, his family's drawn a few. Wyatt, I guess you got antelope. But the stuff you drew, antelope and Wyoming, and you and Wyatt and your elk, you'd pretty much force the draw. Yeah. It's been a tough draw year. I'm left with the Utah general right now so far. No surprises, really. I don't know. I thought Wyatt had a full schedule, though. Doesn't he have a pretty full schedule, it seems? I mean, I thought. Well, he's full of other things on his schedule. I don't know. It was Garth last week. Where is he today? Who was it on the weekend? Well, I think it was probably like Miranda Lambert. Now Mondays, he's just something. He's not here. Yeah. Well, that makes me wonder.

We somehow watched the crowd cam at days to see how excited or exuberant Wyatt got at these things. Maybe that explains why he's not here Monday morning. So I don't know. Yeah. It's not random that it's been two weeks in a row. And I think he's still got a list, doesn't he? He's got a significant list. He said he was going to the whole Country Jam. Is he? But not to Country Jam itself. He's just going to see every person that was at Country Jam, but their own individual concert. Take Country Jam and divide it by eight. Yeah. Different weekends. Something like that. Well, and I think Wyatt, most of us here like country music. Wyatt's wife, I know, Carly really likes it.

So Wyatt's trying to win Husband of the Year Award in June and July, which is exactly when you try to win it. Because when it comes later in August, September, October, you're losing ground. Faster. It's too late by then. Yeah. And by the time then, you get back to the normal things of holidays, of Thanksgiving, Christmas. And if you're around for those times of year, they don't really count because you're supposed to be around. You're counted on being around. So now's the time, Wyatt. I guess, you know, pay your dues. And I know he acts like he's kicking and screaming, but I think he's having a good time. Even though I don't know who all these people is. I've been to more concerts with Wyatt than anybody. He likes them. Yeah. So he tries to act like he's being strong-armed by his wife.

But, hey, I know he at least bought some of them because we were here in the office when he got Garth tickets in Salt Lake. So, anyway, not complaining. I'd like to see Garth. I just, I'm not a, I don't, I'm not a concert junkie, I guess. I just, I'm not. Never have been. But Archibald.

Where'd you go this weekend? I went to Salt Lake. What'd we do? What'd you do? I went to a concert. Did you? Wow. Where was that? Delta Center, or what's it called? It was across the street. No. It was a little brick place across the street from the Salt Palace. Okay. Does it have a name? Or is it just called? Soundwell or something. Like a one room. There's like a homeless shelter there. Am I kind of close somewhere? Actually, yeah, I think so. How many people, like, who did you go see? The legend. Ray Wiley Hubbard. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We saw a little footage. We saw a little footage when he came to work today. Looks like some vintage work. How many? And I know who he is. I can't profess to be a fan, but old school country musician. Musician. Been doing it for 46 years or something, he said. Yeah. Finally. Well, he's from Oklahoma. He's from Oklahoma, but he lives in West Texas now.

Tell us the story. Something about what he paid for his fence around his house and then what he paid for the gate. He said he wrote the song Drunken Poets Dream with Hayes Carl so he could pay for a fence to go around his house. A couple songs later. The royalties and all that? Yeah. A couple songs later, he wrote Dangerous or Desperate Man with Eric Church. I didn't know he helped write that, but he did, huh? Yeah, yeah. He said, I got some royalties from that so I could buy a gate. He's one of the best, one of the greatest of all time, man. He's been doing it forever. Yeah. So you took your wife there, and what did you tell her when you walked in? Well, we drove by, and I was like, oh, there's not even a line. I thought we'd be late, you know. Then there was a line by the time we walked over there, and I said, I'm pretty sure you're the youngest person here by a long shot. What, she?

We had to help a guy with a cane, get back to his chair from the front of the stage. We didn't fit the demographic. How old's Ray? 70s? Gotta be, yeah. Wow. Well. Still rocking, though, man. He's pretty awesome. Pick a guitar, blow on a harmonica, and sing at the same time. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Old school stuff. Well, fun. Well, for everybody listening out there, go find your Ray Wiley Hubbard moment. Because what that means is try to win. And I don't know, Archibald, you took your wife on a date, so it can't be all that bad. Wyatt's taking his wife on dates. But try to win husband and father of the year from May till August, because that's the best three months you got a chance to do that. Okay? Summertime. Buck and bulls are still growing. Sun's shining. The lake's warm. Go and do. Go find your Ray Wiley Hubbard moment. All right?

Well, what else? Hey, we got a little something in the mail. And I don't know. Get ready for some high-quality H2O. We had some listeners here, Tim and Autumn. They're from Siloam Springs, Arkansas. And they sent a nice little card here and a few tall boys of water. That's exactly what I was going to call them. I mean... Yep. And they said, there's a card. I'm going to read this. And we're going to have an unveiling right here on the Epic Outdoors podcast. And for those of you who don't remember, I don't know what number it was, but Archibald is a connoisseur of water. And back then, I had no idea really how much water meant to this guy. Like pure water. Good tasting water. Bobby Boucher. He just can't grab something off the shelf and drink it. He can't. Anyway. So we had the bright idea one podcast years ago to put them in cups. Put, I think it was Arrowhead. There was five of them.

Tap water. Aquafina. Tap water. Walmart. I don't know. Four or five of them. He claimed that he could taste them and he could tell you which one they were. And we all called bull crap. There's no way. No, it's just water. Well, he nailed every one of them. So, and with like a blindfold. No, we had them in cups. So you didn't, it's not like you had a thin, you know, blindfold. They all look the same except for the one that had some bubbles in it. And that was definitely tap water. Yeah. It was semi-carbonated through the streets of Cedar City. But anyway, Tim and Autumn. They must have listened to that podcast. And they said, hey, Jason and guys, it's Tim and Autumn Fidler. Or Fidler. I'm sorry if I butchered that. Fidler, I believe. Scouting season is quickly approaching and we thought it was time for another water podcast.

This is supposedly the best water and it's from our home state of Arkansas. Let us know what you think. Stay hydrated, my friends. So, I guess we're going to try this water today. And we have Archibald here today. A couple things. 25.36 fluid ounces. How did they get that number? That's not, that's, oh, it's 750 milliliters. Oh, that's why. That's the randomness to it. But most things come in a liter or half liter, but. I've been to Arkansas. I don't remember any mountain valleys, but it sure is cold. Does it say that? Okay. Well, I'm going to listen. Oh, there you go. These are metal cans. Aluminum thick.

Doesn't it smell like duck? Since 1871.

I don't think I could get those anymore full. Well. Here goes Adam here. Hey, I'm thirsty, so I'm telling you right now I'm biased.

Tastes just like cold water to me. Try that Nestle, see if it's any different. Okay, I'll do it. This is a room temperature Nestle. The one thing I would say is these are in the metal cans. And I do think, I do think these probably, I don't have anything scientific to base this on, but I think they're going to retain their temperature better. I don't like the look at Archibald's face because Tim and Autumn. That's good water. Tim and Autumn. It is. It's ice cold, though. I like it. That cold. He wouldn't shoot. I mean, I know you sent us three bottles of water here, and we appreciate that. We really do. But if it wasn't good, he'd tell you it wasn't good. It's pretty good. Pretty good. And it's cold.

You can't even hold it. It's so cold. I mean.

Archibald's slashing his palate. You've got to swish it around a little. It's good. Okay. But I'm going to say something about, what's Arkansas known for? Ducks. Duck honey? Swamps? I mean. It's good, though. I mean, if it came from there. It says this comes from the. What? Washita Mountains. In Arkansas. I didn't even read this. I wonder what. Mountain Valley Spring. It's a mountain. That sounds like somewhere in Washington State. Washita Mountains, USA. Quinch it. Quinch. Quachita. Owa. That's an O. Well, we appreciate, you know, you, Tim, and Autumn thinking out for us. We'll shout out to the Mountain Valley Spring Water. The Mountain Valley Spring Water. The best since 1871. Hey, good. Tastes great on a late June day. I know that. If it got Archibald, if he'll finish the full 25.36 fluid ounces, I'm telling you, it's fine. Yeah, it's good water. Okay. Good.

What else is new on the docket? We've had a lot of calls from people regarding the secondary draw in Colorado. And we're just going to boil it down real quick. In the past, that leftover draw was truly undersubscribed tags. A lot of doe tags, cow elk tags, private land only tags, and some buck and bull tags that were, you know, majority of it like first and fourth season tags in units that were over the counter for archery and mazel order. Or sorry, yeah. Archery and second and third rifle. Well, and in the past, you know, yeah. So you might call them less desirable tags. Yeah. They're tags everybody had a chance at. And nobody wanted these. Okay. So on the outside, if you're like, yeah, you want to do a draw like that and then make youth get preference in the secondary draw now, it sounds great. The curveball, to use a baseball analogy, since we're right in the heart of summer.

And I watched the Dodgers had a great come from behind win last night against the Braves. Freddie Freeman's return to Atlanta. Kind of emotional for him. Anyway, moving right along.

So now we've got a curveball in Colorado. When they run the draw, they have, what is it, about a 10-day, two-week period in between the time you know you draw a tag and when the payments are due. If your card went bad or something like that, you have that amount of time to go update your card online so you can get it paid for. Or you can actually just push it back and say, the last couple years at least, push it back and say, I don't want the tag. My plans have changed. Don't charge me for it. And I want to keep my points. And that's different than, oh, you get the tag and you decide later this summer and 30 days before the hunt, you push your tag back and you either get your money or your points.

So that 10- to 14-day period from when the draw happens to the payment deadline, if your card doesn't go through or you decide you don't want the tag you put in for, your plans have changed, you push it back, and they put that on the leftover list. And there's a heck of a lot of good tags on there. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, it's some really good tags. So I wouldn't look at it and say, hey, that's going to be my second choice next year because that unit was available in a secondary draw. Unless there is copious amounts of tags on there, I wouldn't gauge that per se. But great options. Yeah. For use. Those Gunnison Basin tags, second and third season, they want to earn a subscribe. Don't put that as a second choice next year thinking you can get your hopes up. Those are a pushback or a tag that nobody paid for.

A couple of key things to remember is they are 100% shown preference to youth applicants in this secondary draw. And that's the biggest, most important thing. A, if you have kids that are of age 12 to 17, no-brainer.

Doesn't matter if you bought them a license the first go-round or not, didn't have to apply in the first go-round or not, their license is cheap at like $1.25 or something like that, Josh. $1.50. It's like nothing. I mean. So for $1.50 for a license and then like $9 something. $9.17. To get them applied. Yeah. Apply them per deer. And that comes with four choices, right? Yeah. Yeah. And if you analyze the drawing odds, youth are given preference for first through four choices. They don't do the draw first choice for youth and then let's see who did that unit first choice for adults. They don't do that. Because we looked at the drawing odds from last year and it's very apparent. You saw youth draw first, second, third, fourth choices on there and then they ran out of tags and no adults drew. So you know they ran all the preference, one through four, for kids. Yep.

So adults, you're going to have to pick something. And I don't know what kind of strategy you're going to have. You're going to have to look at something. Yeah, something a little different. Something a little different. Yeah. A little off the ball. Off the – you're going to have a better chance probably claiming a true turn back tag August or later this year if you're an adult for one of these type of units that your eyes are lighting up right now. From August until the hunts later this fall, even though that's a pain to jump online and try to beat Mr. Freddy Fast Fingers and beat everybody online and buy them. Quick on the click. Wow. Jason was looking for – I like that better than Freddy Fast Fingers. Jason was looking for some like three-legged high country doe antelope hunt or something like that that maybe kids wouldn't apply for. You got a doe antelope that requires –

Just to get a tag. Just to get a kill. A doe antelope tag requires a pack-in and a walt-it. You might have a chance. Yeah. But some third or fourth season in the Gunnison Basin. Or second. Just – Yeah. There were some elk tags that we did notice as we're looking. Even some seconds and thirds or first – remember these first and fourth season rifle elk tags? They're drawn in units that are over the counter for second and third. So first rifle elk season is like the 15th to the 19th. Fourth is like what, 23rd or something to 27th of November. And they're a draw. And they're – but they're usually pretty liberal quotas. So there may be truly leftovers of those on there. If you have time in your schedule and if you're like me and you don't have enough hunts, might be looking at some of those. Just because, you know, those are probably – a lot of those could be tags kids already got.

Or there's enough of or they're truly undersubscribed tags after the draw and everybody had a chance to get one, got one, and now there's a bunch left over. But if you want my two cents and you're an adult, you better look off the beaten path on units or archery or muzzleloader, some high country rifle, some things like that that are probably not typically units kids 12 to 17 are going to be putting in for high country hunts. Maybe physical, maybe pack in, or just, you know, archery. Not all kids are ready to start hunting with bulls heavily at 12 to 14, you know, or, you know, some are. But some aren't. So that would be my angle. Seconds and thirds. There was 20 to 30 youth on most of those second and third rifles, especially the better ones, you know, for – Last year. One to three. Yeah, last year's odds, one to three odds. So, I mean, you don't even really –

And for the youth, it doesn't consider your residency. No, yeah. Residence and non-residence are in a hat together. It does not use your bonus points or you don't get a bonus point. You can't apply for a bonus point now. If you missed the Colorado draw earlier in the year, I think like Nevada and their secondary draw, you can jump online and buy points only. First off, they'll still take your money. This isn't like that in Colorado. You can't jump online and get a deer point because you missed the draw this year. But, yeah, this is essentially for the good tags, a kid youth draw.

I'm not going to qualify that entirely, I guess. But when I say good, I guess what I think of is good. Yeah. Good second or third or fourth tags. You know, there's some deer rifle tags out there. There's some either sex. There's some private land only. There's different angles out there that if you have things that you have ability to go make something work, it's there. It's not going to take your points. It's a way to jump online, apply between now and, what, 8 p.m., I think, July 5th. July 5th, yeah. Also, there's no, well, we may have said it, no group applications either. So you can't apply. I've got two kids that I'll throw in somewhere. They can't be applied as a group. Yeah, kind of. We kind of would want to put two together so you know, all right, we're all in on that.

If they got two instead of one or you don't dare put them in separate units really now or maybe one through four choices, how do you do that with two kids? Because one might draw the first, one might draw their second or third. Yeah. Now you're like, oh, I can't be in two places at once. But those are first world problems. You sold out litter. If you're a youth out there, that's a, there's some, and we looked at the odds, like there's some great, great odds. They did put the odds last year. Now, if you're looking for a hunt, they have the list published online for Colorado. And if you're looking at the list this year and you go back at last year's secondary drawing odds and you're trying to find this year's hunt and what it was last year and it doesn't exist, that simply just means there wasn't any leftover tags for that unit. So bear that in mind.

If you see a unit on this year's leftover list and you're curious, I wonder how popular that was last year. And you go look there and it's not on there. It's just means there wasn't any there last year. So just like this year's list will be a little bit different next year. So bear that in mind, but it does give you an idea, but we did look at quite a few of the deer and there were, yeah, 15 to 30 was kind of a pretty common number of youth. I was going to say 20-ish, low 20s. Yeah, for a lot of them. And most of those had two to five or six. Yeah. That's just one choice, right? That was first choice only, yeah. So anyway, but if you're a beggar, you can't be a chooser. And if you're willing to part with nine bucks, give it a shot. Our advice would be look off the beaten path just a little bit, I guess, or something odd if it fits your schedule.

I'm not trying to tell you to go grab something that's, you know. Don't do just what Jason does and just get something for the kill of it, you know. Well, and I mean, it's a great opportunity for youth. If you don't, be careful, another quote for him, be careful what you wish for. Yeah, he says that all the time. And on the other side of his mouth, he's getting the meat wagon ready. Yes. To haul out again. Oh, yeah. Because what did we talk him into the other day? Oh, yeah. A couple cows. I guess we can't say because his kids may listen. We can't spoil any plans. I just hope they like antelope meat.

That's some good water, huh? It's not bad, yeah. It's good. It really is. Is it? Anyways. Good. Yeah, it's good. Okay. Good. Well, what else is on the front burner for you guys? You guys starting to scout a little bit? Yeah. It's the end of June. Well, a little bit early. I've got some cameras out. I've also been gathering cameras from the four corners of the earth, it seems like. Now I've got Nevada and Utah that both have to have cameras pulled down in the areas that I'm going to be hunting or hunting with hunters by the 31st of July. So in Utah especially where that wasn't the law last year, Nevada that's been in place for several years, but Utah wasn't. I'm already simplifying my life come the end of July. And I'm already pulling cameras down where I was lazier last fall and left some up.

And I'm pulling them down just so I don't have a – I don't want to have to pull three all-nighters in a row. Yeah. But how about you, Arch? I mean, I know you've been – Well, I don't have five tags. Not one of them is in Utah. That's right. So, yeah, you're – and gas is 525 a gallon. It's a long ways. I don't have a tag within five hours of my house. Yes. Maybe even six. And gas is expensive. Well, yeah. And some of them, I'm trying to think your deer you've been to before. Elk is kind of a rut hunt, so you can go scout and learn the unit, but it's like the rut will change stuff there. Your antelope in Wyoming is simply grab some mountain land valley spring water from Arkansas and drive around.

I mean, you're not going to scout that. I mean, it's sagebrush and two tracks. But I have plans. What am I missing? That's three. Colorado. Yeah. What am I missing? Kansas. Okay, yeah, you're going to Whitetail. I'm not driving to Kansas. No. Yeah, so it's – No, Kansas is an archery Whitetail, right? You're going to do that. Some other units that I – I have a lot of general deer points that I'm waiting. Yeah. Because it's just – yeah, they're just stuff to look at. Well, they've cut so many tags. I'm not crushing Utah like I have in the past. They've cut so many tags in Utah. It's going to be interesting to see if something can respond, if we can get back in a normal weather pattern to grow some deer, grow some ponds. But it's looking good. I'm excited. It's going to be good. Just not looking forward to driving that far. No.

Yeah, speaking of price of gas, I talked to somebody today, and this was in – this is one of our outfitters in Canada, in Whitehorse, I believe. He just – I happened to call him about something, and he answered the phone, and he says, It's not bad for just paying $325 to gas up my diesel. Come on. And I said, what? And I'm like, are you down here? Because he lives down here in the States. You know, he's up there. And they price it by the liter. I can't remember how much it was. Two-something a liter, which times that by four. It was nine – that was nine-something a gallon for diesel. Wow. Yeah. So, hey, just when you think Crazy Joe can't make things worse, Crazy Trudeau made it worse.

So, nine-something. And I'm like – he says, yeah, that was like – do you got a calculator? He said it was like 28 – I thought he said 28 gallons. I'm going to do quick math. Joe and Trudeau. It's crazy. 28 times nine. No, that's not even right.

I don't know what he said. But he said $325, and it was, you know, to fill up his diesel. I've been driving the old reliable. Yeah. Do our listeners know about this? Yeah, we've talked about it. You seem like one of the smarter guys on the planet right now to have a dual purpose. Yeah, but when I spent all the money to convert it to natural gas, everybody's like, what are you thinking? But, yeah, I did that when gas was high, and then it dropped. Yeah. And it didn't really matter. It doesn't matter then. But, yeah, I fill it up for $15, but I won't go farther than 100 miles from home in that truck. Well, and that's not just because it's a dual gas. No, it's just old. The natural gas. It's an older – It's had a good life. We've been on a lot of – It's just like an old dog that always gets asleep by the fireplace in your garage. You can't get rid of it. Yeah. That's weird.

I'm glad I did, and I was going to sell it. I fixed it, and I was going to sell it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you were right. And then I was like, man, gas is getting a little expensive. And I went and filled it, and it was $12. Well, the other thing that got hard is when COVID hit, remember how trucks – you couldn't find them. So you kind of were going to start looking for another run around because you have a newer truck that, you know, is – I guess you're – It almost didn't start the other day. Your new one? Yeah. Because it hasn't been used? It hasn't been used. Battery going dead in your driveway? Yeah. Well, so anyway, glad you have it. Hold on to your trucks right now. Yeah. You know? Because I'm in the opposite. You could always sell one to Jason Carter. He's looking when he's not looking. He was wanting to buy my carcass the other day. Yeah. Not my personal carcass, but the carcass of my –

The truck? Yeah. That the tranny went out in? Yeah. I know. Because it goes back to the kill, man. He's going to get a deal there. He's going to find some third-rate transmission. Ship it from Japan or something. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Assembled in Guatemala. And I'm not offending anybody here. Just something. And, you know, he'll make a grand or something like that. It'll be another project down the road. So. It sucks, though. I didn't realize how much – just not like how much I used that little truck. And even for just hauling away grass clippings and junk from the yard or whatever. Now you've got to go start your diesel. Yeah. And I don't want to have to put that lifted up into the back because it's taller. And anyway. Yeah. And then diesel so much. Yeah. It's three-quarter ton. Yeah. Anyway. I hope there's an end in sight. And I hope there's some reprieve before hunting season.

I don't know that it's going to happen. I'm not planning on it at all. But, yeah. It's tough. So, aren't we in kind of the peak of the travel time they say or the drive time sometime? Right. Yeah. So, it usually does come down in the fall because the peak time is from when kids get out of school that, you know, end of May to end of August, you know. Or what is that? Labor Day. Yeah. Weekend. You know, kind of. Well, anyway. Well, if you haven't drawn anything good enough, you might consider a Colorado secondary draw. Especially do it for your kids. But, if you're keeping the dream really alive, keep the dream tags in Nevada in mind. That deadline's coming up here this week. We plug that and other raffles like that from time to time. They've been good partners of ours here at Epic Outdoors.

You know, the deadline there is June 30th at 11.59 Pacific time to get your entries in for the Nevada dream tags. One tag for each big game species pretty much. Lajon hunt. Any open unit. With, you know, respective weapon, which doesn't really apply to like the sheep, but it does to the deer. Archery during archery. Elk. Archery during archery. Start archery August 10th and hunt. Yeah. 081 until some of those California border units until the end of the year. So, great tags. Good partners of ours. They're doing good things with it.

And with the money. The money's kind of a separate account. In fact, we made a phone call to Jack Grob with Endow. And we'll play that here at the end of the podcast here to just kind of talk with you about where that money comes. How it originated, where the money's spent and things like that. So, another chance to get a name in the hat if you're dreaming. I'm going to throw a couple in just because I'm a sucker. And, you know, it only takes once to change your life. Do a sheep tag or deer tag. Pretty awesome. It could change your life. But it could change your life in other ways, too. Like if you already had a full schedule. So, but if you don't, it's very flexible. Very flexible dates. So, we'll play that here at the end of the podcast so you can hear a little bit more about Nevada Dream Tags. But, again, the deadline, June 30th, 1159.

So, anything else, guys, we want to go over on the front burner? We've talked about Arizona. Stay tuned to your cards there. We're waiting on Idaho. Idaho, deer, elk, and antelope any day. For those of you that didn't do sheep, moose, and goat, if you draw tags in any of those states, give us a call. If you get charges on your Arizona card and you put two choices, it's not really going to be clear on what tag you got. There's no way to do it until they post it to your portal. There's no way to figure it out. Call them. They're not going to tell you. But if you do and you know one of two units, that's better than not calling if you're interested, especially in an outfitter, Devin. Give Devin or any of us here a call. We can help. Especially if you do a sheep tag and you know you're going to go guide it. Look at your first and second choice. Like, well, I'm guided on either one.

Many, many cases it might be the same guide. Deer, it might be the same guide. It might not be. But at least get the ball rolling. Have one or two options kind of in place as soon as you know what you draw. Definitely. Yeah, give us a call. Call quick. I know I talked to a guy just the other day that had a Utah tag, and he was just starting his search for outfitters, you know. Well, I got one today. The Drew a multi-season Utah elk tag. Yeah. Really? And it's just like, oh, we can get you some guys. But, you know, a lot of guys, they fill up pretty quick. Yeah, especially on a high profile. They're not the type of hunts that you can take five, six, eight guys on one unit or two in the high profile stuff. It's, you know, usually the expectations are high. Yeah. Both for the guide and the hunter. And so most outfitters will self-govern a little bit on some of those types of things. Yeah.

So for a good quality outfitter, it's best to get in and get in early. And I think you're getting yourself set up for a better hunt that way. Well, they have their, every outfitter has. It's just like us. We have our special places. Yeah. You've got lots of units, Devin. There's some places that I'm hoping a guy draws because I want to hunt it. Yeah. Exactly. And that's who we want to. Key in on a bit for you. And so, yeah, if you can beat the rush a little bit by, if you see a charge, want to call us with your choices. Sometimes we can give an educated guess on what we probably is based on the ranking, which one is first or second. Sometimes they're simply not. You know, if you're in the random draw, there's usually not a for sure way. We've been surprised many times. Well, it's probably your second choice because it was the easier of the two to draw.

And then all of a sudden they drew a 13B random tag and going to the strip. So, but anyway, good luck there. Good luck in Idaho. And, yeah, we'll be back probably full strength here by the end of the week, first to next. Some of the other guys. And, yeah. In the meantime, we're going to finish a drink of water here in southern Utah. That's right. Ice cold still in this middle bottle. That's right. I kind of like it. I do, too. We might have to save them. Kind of really usable. You know, find Devin in there dumping out his Aquafinas into the Mountain Valley water bottle. Put it in the freezer for about 26 minutes. I don't know why I think of ducks on ponds when I drink that. Arkansas is known. I was trying to look up where this is from. I think it is Arkansas. But there are some hills over there. It says it is. What do you mean? Where? Where does it say? Garland County, Arkansas. Oh, okay.

I just saw the Uichita Mountains. Okay. Down here at the bottom. I pronounced that perfectly. Garland County, Arkansas. Anyway. Pretty good. Well, appreciate you thinking out. Another shout out. Yeah. Thanks, Tim and Autumn Fiddler, for at least thinking about us and listening to the podcast. Appreciate everybody else as well. Hope you enjoyed this quick abbreviated version. Just kind of a few things to hit on. And, again, if you draw something under these last few states, give us a call here at Epic Outdoors, 435-263-0777. Otherwise, go wind out of the air. And a dream tag. Beep.

This is Jack. Hey, what are you doing? I'm on the road to another part of Nevada, but I got time to talk. Oh, well, good. It's Adam and Jason here. John, we're all here today. We're just wanting to talk about dream tags. You know, there's a lot of guys out there that weren't lucky in the draws or whatever and looking for a last-minute opportunity. Bronson will be a pleasure. Yeah, there's a reason you call it dream tags. It's like the last dream of anywhere. It's the last hope. A lot of states have been slamming the door hard in faces, mine included. So, anyway, we want to talk to you. Like, are these dream tags worth it, Jack? And tell us a little bit about this program. It's a program I largely believe in from the tag aspect as well as the aspect to where the funds are used. The tags, they're unmatched. They're statewide.

You do have to use the weapon of the open season, but you can hunt all the species statewide. So, that's a special opportunity in itself. And if you look at archery seasons open in August and a lot of our deer seasons run through December and our sheep seasons, we have some of them open in September and go through the end of December. It gives you a lot of time to be in the field. It's an unmatched opportunity. It really is. So, for that species that you draw, it's good for any open season. Right. So, any unit, any open season. Any unit, any open season. Just you have to use a weapon class that's open at that time. Yeah. So, yeah, a little bit different than the Silver State, but, geez, still, the flexibility, like you say, is off the charts. Pretty awesome. And talk with us, I guess, a little bit more about the deadline. It's June 30th, so it's coming up here right away.

It's coming up, but plenty of time to get in. And some of the special aspects of it, I have killed a desert bighorn sheep in Nevada, and my oldest boy has, but I want my youngest son, too. So, instead of putting in for myself, I put in for my youngest son. You can buy tickets for other people and just use them as a gift, use them as other ways to do it. Awesome. And there's no limit, necessarily, on each individual species. Like, you can buy one ticket, you can buy 10, 15. You can load it up, and I've seen people buy one ticket and win, and I've seen people buy 200 tickets and win. It's a raffle, and it's just an incredible opportunity. What's the price? Do you remember on that? On each ticket? Five dollars plus, it's five dollars per ticket, and then there is a processing fee. I think it's about 70 cents per ticket. So, it's minimal cost.

Another thing, if you apply for big game in the state of Nevada, you have to have a hunting license, and this doesn't require a license. You get in and buy tickets. If you win, then you're required to get that license, but the DreamTag committee picks up the cost of the license and the tag. You're just in the cost of the ticket, and that's it. And so, you can apply for, they give one desert bighorn sheep, one California bighorn sheep, one elk, one deer, one antelope, and one black bear, right? That is correct. Yeah, and non-residents and residents can draw. Anybody can apply. There's no quotas per se or anything like that. Yep. It's free to everybody, and we see about a 50-50 split between non-resident and resident on both the Silver State Tag and the DreamTag. It's pretty evenly split year after year if you look at it over time.

A lot of non-residents win it, but a lot of residents are in the game, too. Well, and you mentioned a little bit earlier, Jack, about, I mean, you've got Silver State Tags. You've got Heritage Auction Tags. You've got these DreamTags here and the funding, the money. Talk with us a little bit about where that goes. Is it all into one DreamTag coffers? Is it spent on each individual species, or how is that spent? The DreamTag's a little bit different. It was brought in by a couple sportswomen in the state of Nevada. And brought in with Debbie Smith, who's a legislator, brought that forward. And it's set up totally separate outside of the Department of Wildlife. We cooperate with them well because the bulk of the money does come back through the department. But it's set up as a standalone board, the DreamTag board. And they really take it upon themselves. Their mission is wildfire rehab.

And since their inception, they've given us over $2 million to buy seed and to get seed on the ground for wildfire rehab. They're instrumental in that. With it being outside of the agency, it really gives us some flexibility to get some stuff done that sometimes, as you two are well aware, state money is sometimes slow in coming. When you need to react to something, you need something a little more nimble. And that's what the DreamTag has given us is that ability to be nimble and get some stuff done when the state process is too slow. So, emergency water hauls a couple of years ago, we found out we had those sheep in dire straits in the Muddy Mountains. Within a half hour of finding that out, I was on the phone with multiple DreamTag committee members. And I had funding secured to make sure we could get water on the ground right away. Wow. Yeah. Yeah.

A few years back when the federal government had their shutdown, we were trying to get seed on the ground during – you've got a small biological window to get seed on the ground. They had already given us like $250,000 to seed that year, but we needed another $250,000 to fly the seed on because the federal government cooperates a lot with us when it comes to seeding fire rehab. But they were down, so we called the DreamTag committee. They said, do you tell us what you need? And it really – it's instrumental. It's something that we've come to rely on in those emergency situations. And that's why I believe in this program is it's really nimble. It is one heck of a hunting opportunity, but it is just crucial to our ability to do good things for wildlife on the landscape. Pretty awesome. It's just an awesome opportunity.

You can kind of feel good about doing it, and I think everybody should have a name in the hat at least, at least have an opportunity. And you feel like you're supporting a fund that's needed and used wisely. Just an awesome opportunity. I guess the deadline, like we talked about, is June 30th there at 1159 Pacific time. And then there early July, you guys – it looks to me like you're going to call people personally, or somebody is. You're going to give them a call and an email. Definitely. So the Dream Tag Committee, we work with them to get that done. It's just a great, great opportunity. And I'd have to say 99% of the people who draw it tell us we didn't plan on drawing this. We were just supporting wildlife and wildlife habitat in Nevada. And now I get this opportunity. I can't believe I get this opportunity. How cool is that? Yeah. So just another option. These are state tags.

It's not necessarily like a private landowner tag or anything like that. This is a state tag, similar to a normal state-run raffle. It's done through nvdreamtag.org. nvdreamtag.org. You can go on there and purchase tickets and check out. It's pretty simple. And that's something that's coming down the pipe here shortly. It'll be June 30th. And then, of course, it seems like within a week or 10 days, and you're probably shooting for knowing you closer to 10 days is when the results will come out. Yeah. It gets slowed down a little bit with that June 30th deadline. And then you always throw 4th of July weekend in there. You get three days off. And so that slows us down a couple days. But the results come right out. And we make sure we contact individuals. And as those hunts come up quick, those first seasons, like I said, August, for pretty much

every species except for the sheep, that's September. So it's time to get in the game. So is there anything else? I mean, let's just talk Nevada in general, Jack. I mean, you're working it nonstop, around the clock. Any fun projects going on? I know you guys have got a capture happening in there in the muddies. And we'll end up transplanting some of those sheep up into a captive pen up here in Utah for purposes of retransplanting some of those sheep to other places and whatnot, just to have a little bit of a stockpile and to work that over. But I mean, anything else you guys got going on? We're looking at another sheep capture beginning of August. That one's a disease surveillance capture. You guys are aware that we have some underperforming populations. You have some animals that got sick and they continue to be shedders, chronic shedders. So we're in doing some disease sampling tests.

And if we happen to catch one that's a chronic shedder, we do remove it from the population just to make that population healthier. So we've got that coming up in August. We're actually buying some key lands to protect them for sportsmen into the future to make sure they don't get developed upon and turned into other uses, namely houses and developments. But we're trying to protect some key habitat. And we've got some projects like that going. Wow. The other thing that's key coming up is, I don't know if you guys have been watching, but Recovering America's Wildlife Act is continuing to move forward. And it made it through Congress last week. And that will be $24 million annual funding, dedicated funding for the state of Nevada. It's a nationwide thing coming out of Congress and the Senate. And we're halfway through that process. And it'll change how we manage wildlife.

It'll be a good thing for all wildlife. And sportsmen and the non-consumptive user also. So pretty special. I mean, those, yeah, I've seen it in the news a few times. You know, obviously the potential impacts of it, if it does get passed and fully ratified for all states, because I think it's based on, I don't remember exactly how it was based on. I sped read it. But percentage of the license sales or sportsmen or whatever, however they divv that up by state, you know, more or less, that's usually how it goes. Isn't that right, Jack? Yeah, it is. And when you look at, we got between Pittman Robinson and Dingell Johnson, we get about $20 million annually if you look at an average. And this is $24 million in federal money. So between the two, $44 million in federal money. And then you throw on our sportsmen dollars and then programs like the Dream Tag and Silver State Tag.

And it really does start to add up and do good things on the landscape for wildlife. Pretty awesome. Well, that's great. Have you been out scouting or been out in the hills at all? How are things looking out there? I can tell you, Southern Nevada is kind of tough. We've already started hauling some water down there. We hauled water. And I know you two are familiar with that five ram project there in the Buddies. It's one of our biggest guzzlers. It probably is the biggest guzzler we have on the landscape. We filled it up and over a 21-day period we had nine inches of drawdown on that because it's just so dry on the landscape. So we need rain. We're showing some early monsoon starting to hit. We're starting to see a little bit underneath this from Arizona. Hopefully it starts pumping north and a little bit west even to you guys. We'll take it if it's early.

We'll take it whenever it comes, I guess. Yeah, it just happens every weekend I try to get out. It seems like it's windy and sprinkles a little bit, but not enough rain to make a difference yet. But we're still hopeful. I'm glad you're windy because I feel like we've been the only windy place on earth. Jeez. Terrible. Terrible wind. It's been a spring, beginning of summer, but windier than I can remember. Yeah. Crazy. Crazy. Yeah. Well, anything else we left out, Jack, regarding the dream tag? I mean, good cause. That's the moral here to the story. Good cause. Money in the coffers to be spent, you know, reactively when needed immediately. You type situations, emergency like you said. So, and yeah, keeps the dream alive to draw something pretty special. Hunt a statewide tag in a unit you want with appropriate weapon season. So can't really hardly beat that.

But the one thing I always like to put out there is Nevada's unlike any other place when we're 85% public land. You see it, go hunt it. I love that about Nevada. It's a special place. It is. Are you on the loneliest highway in America right now or where are you at? I am.

Number 50? Do you even see another car coming? Yeah, I'm on 50, but whoever named 50 the loneliest highway in America never even found Highway 6. I know it's lonely. I know you two are familiar with it. Back to your old stomping grounds. Is that where you're alluded to? Is that that highway? Yep. And you know me. If I draw, I do get in the game. Like I said, I want my son in the game on this dream tag. And if we get in the game, I think we're going to be hunting within an hour's drive of Tonopah, either north, south, east, or west. There you go. How's the shoe tree? How's the shoe tree out there? The shoe tree, it kind of cut down a few years ago. Yeah, it did. We've been flying to Reno, so we used to make that drive, and we always enjoyed seeing the shoe tree. It's really gone. They cut down the main one, but there was one that was an up-and-comer next to it.

They just transferred over that. They got a Russian Oliver at Tamarisk. There's not very many trees right there. It is a couple of cottonwoods. It had to be somebody from out of state cut that tree down because it had about probably a 60-inch base.

That took some planning. Nobody has a chainsaw like that. No. Nobody has a chainsaw like that in Nevada. We're just used to cutting. It had to be a logger from California, Washington, Oregon. Yeah, Oregon. That's right. A 60-inch bar? Wow. Yes. Somebody was motivated, I'll tell you that. That's sad because that's historic. Did you guys erect a monument there for it? No, they just, like I said, they moved next door to the tree next door. There's probably a couple thousand shoes in that tree. Wow. It stepped right up. It took its place. Anybody listening needs a pair of shoes. Middle of Nevada. Yeah. There's probably a few pairs that'll fit you. And you know it's always elk season when you come through and you see a little bit of somebody's elk hanging out of that tree, too. Some boots. A couple elk feet hanging out of there. That's funny. Well, drive safe, Jack.

We appreciate your time with us today. And you're doing good things in Nevada. And keep doing it. And I appreciate your support here. Encourage everybody to support Nevada. Go to nvdreamtag.org. Just a few bucks and you can get your name and another hat. Of course, I don't know anybody that's got too many tags. Especially you, Johnson. Bronson. You've yet to draw something really good. Yep. Jack, I can't remember the last year. Bronson's been... Ofered. Ofered. And he is at the moment. So, you'll be seeing his name come through.

So, that's good. I got a dream. I appreciate that.

Keep the dream alive. That's right. Keep the dream alive. All right. Well, appreciate it, Jack. I always appreciate your guys' support. You guys have been great. Appreciate it. Thank you. Travel safe. Talk to you later. Thank you. All right. Bye. At Epic Outdoors, we help you reach your hunting dreams. Whether it's helping you to develop a long-term application strategy or finding the perfect outfitter for your next hunt. As a member of Epic Outdoors, you'll also receive the Epic Outdoors magazine and have access to the best hunting consultants in the industry, online tools, and more. To join Epic Outdoors, visit epicoutdoors.com or call 435-263-0777.

Thank you. Thank you.