Ep 265: Wildfires, Mule deer and El Niño

Anything to do with Western big game.

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Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, and Josh and John. Logan, how are y'all? Doing good. Doing great. I like it. You know what I think is interesting, Bronson? Bronson tells me to bring a monster, bring your endgame. Like he's going to have one, right? I walk in here, he's got fresca. Who buys a fresca? The body. You've heard of intermittent fasting? Okay. I fast from a monster one day a week. That's today? Just today. That's right. Isn't that? Why? Did you have some bloating and retention of water, Bronson, recently? I don't know. I think my body at times gets confused. I love salty snacks like pistachios, like a lot. And they're super salty. And the wife is thinking she's buying her way to your heart by buying you the biggest bag possible. And she is. Yeah. Yeah. But then what does super high amounts of caffeine do? It's like they're diuretics. Yeah, they say it's diuretic. Yeah.

Which you do. You have to pee like. Okay. And so your body's, I eat a lot of salt. Like it's just a tradition. You can't call it a tradition. It's a nightly ritual. So you're doing salt tablets for all intents and purposes. While I'm drinking, Buster. And you're not doing. My body doesn't know what it's supposed to do. And you're not doing 100K. That's the only reason people do salt tablets. My body doesn't know what it's supposed to do. And I'm not even sweating. Yes. To your point. I don't need to replace any salt. So you're doing a dribble. You're doing a little. You're trying to pee, but it's a dribble. I'm having a full bladder. I don't know. I'm just wondering what the. What do we have to look forward to in our 50s, 60s, and 70s? Probably artificially. Probably putting myself through almost what Wyatt went through a while back. But there's. You know. But you need to go.

You feel like you need to go. But your other parts of your body are holding every drop in. I had. I had kidney stones. It was no problem at all. You did? Yeah. And it was no problem? Really? I had kidney stones. It was a problem. You two did that? Oh, it was like child labor. Well, all I know was there. Don't say that too loud. I'm not going to tell you all the personal details. Women don't want to hear that. But I'm pretty sure they were kidney stones. They measure it in microns. They measure, you know, heads in centimeters. Centimeters. Yeah. Okay.

Anyway.

Yeah. But anyway. Nope. No problems here. So I just kept drinking them. So anyway. So, Bronson, let's see. I did not know you two had both been through what Wyatt had been through. Well, I hadn't. I never crawled to my truck. I walked.

I didn't have any problems. I didn't have any major pain. There was just a weird, just a really weird sensation. I was like, dude. I don't know. You didn't really have them. Yeah. You had a. Well, they had. John, you can pass three millimeter ones or centimeters. Microns. Microns. Microns. Whatever. Maybe it was a baby one. Yes. Yes. You have a big daddy. And there was other evidences that I had them. And I'm not going to talk about it. Okay. And, you know. So, anyway. All right. Well, let's see. So, thus I'm drinking a Fesca. Yes, I am. And it's delicious. That's where we're at today. Josh, what are you drinking? Yeah. Diet Mountain Dew. Diet Mountain Dew. Not too hot. Disgusting. Hey. Disgusting. Sometimes you need a break. Yeah. Mix it up. So, anyway. All right. So, we are getting prepared for the expo. We're kind of excited about it, actually. Although, there again.

Kind of like Bronson and his salt tablets. And caffeinated drinks. It's like, I'm a little conflicted. It's really exciting to go. But, man. It's a grind. That shows a grind. You know what I mean? So, there's kind of a. Just four days of talking and standing on your feet. Yeah. It's good to see everybody. You see some of them once a year. Sometimes longer. But, yeah. You're worn out. We come back Monday. And it's one of the few shows that goes through Sunday. So, we don't get home until wee hours. Yeah. Monday. And then, Jason expects to sit in our seats at 8 o'clock. Monday morning. So, you know. If it was up to me, I'd probably do some different things. Come on. Like what? Well, tell me when I can come to work. 8 o'clock. Okay.

Hey. I'll be here at 8 o'clock. It's a grind. It's a grind. But, anyway. We're looking forward to that. To your point. Yeah. See some of the biggest stuff. Biggest stuff. Yeah. And we might. Josh, we thought about some new stuff we might start doing. We'll maybe talk about it at the Expo. But maybe some new. What? We'll pull in some old relics up. Oh. A lot of times, we maybe bring stuff of the last year or so or two to the Expo. And it's really cool to see that. And we'll never stop doing that. Yeah. By popular demand, we've had some requests from, you know, bucks from 2007 or something like that. Also, Josh. Josh garners it up on the web. Instagram. Hey, there's multiple people in this office that have a password to that account. Prove that it came from me. It did. All right. Well, anyway. So, yeah. We're going to be there. We've got a big booth. 50-foot booth.

We're also going to be there. We're going to bring a stack of freaking optics. A stack. Are we going to make that announcement about the 07 buck? What's up? Oh, the 07. Yeah. Yeah. Let's consult. You can. Let's consult the gram and see what they say. Okay. Go ahead. 93% of people that voted say yes. The other seven are friends and haters. I haven't even seen this today. No, they're not Democrats. They're not. They're actually just haters. They're just wondering. The survey was because I didn't even look today. I didn't see it. What is it? Me or John in the dark? What are we voting on? The question was, who thinks we need to bring Chief to the Expo? There was a picture of two young men sitting real close to each other behind the big Well, I mean. Because Bronson's trying to not have the rack cover his face. That's all. That's all I'm doing. A little bit of support there.

Don't want the tanks covering my face. No. That's all I was trying to do. And it was like seven degrees that night. Yeah. That goes down another. I do believe we've never had Chief at the Expo. Oh, we had him there. Years. Are you sure? Yeah, we did. Years. Maybe year one. I do not remember. So long ago. Wow. Maybe year one of Epic Outdoors. I don't remember. But anyway. So long ago. So what's the. Should we bring him? 93% of like 7,000 votes. 7,000? Yeah. How long has that been up? A couple hours? No, since yesterday. 12 hours. Huh? Since yesterday. So anyway. Keep going. 93% of people say yes. What are the. 7% say they work for PETA or they're Democrats or whatever. Hey, we have Democrats that we help get on hunts. I want to. I want to. Let's vet the seven. It kind of begs me to wonder like. Who is it? Oh, no. They're friends. They're just guys screwed with. There's a couple people.

There's a couple people I know that wouldn't want to see him. Well, I mean, yeah, I guess. No. Yeah, you know. You're right. Why talk about the negative? No. So basically what it means is we're maybe each year we're going to have to bring a throwback buck with us to the expo. Well, why not your bull, Josh? Oh, yeah. That's not a buck. We have. This is an expo, Western hunting conservation expo of all species. Species. What? Did you kill him in 2007? Seven. Did you kill the bull in seven? I was. Oh, my gosh. It's meant to be. Josh, are you bringing your bull? What day? November 20. Sounds like five days after Thanksgiving. Plus, remember. Whatever Thanksgiving. All right. We got to go look, right? Hey, open your calendar. Did you tag him or not? Jason, what day did you kill him? Come on. What kind of question is that? I know it was about approximately three to four days after Thanksgiving.

It's amazing how fast your phone is. So it was either the 22nd or 29th. So it would have been the 22nd. So we smashed him, what, on the Monday, the 26th-ish. Something like that. How about you? Yours was already dead. Yeah, he was dead. 12th or 15th-ish? 12th. Yeah. Jeez. My wedding anniversary is the 11th. Oh, okay. And we celebrate it on the 12th. You do? I mean, there's only so many really happy days in your life. The 12th is kind of special. But the 11th was nice, too. So the 11th happened one year in 2007. And in 2008, the 11th came around. And you kind of were excited. But the next day, when the bowl came home from the taxidermist for a year out, it was amazing. And ever since, you just asked your wife, could we just celebrate our anniversary on the 12th? Just to simplify things. There's certain days in a young boy's life that he'll never forget. And the 11th? 400-inch bowl.

He was at the top. Oh, okay. I thought you were going down the 11th road. No. Oh. Jeez. Oh, Haley, we're sorry. Jeez. I mean, I don't know what we're... You know what's funny? She knows exactly what she's getting. Exactly. Yeah. She's pretty fun to be around. She knows. Good grief. Well, I don't know. It's different to throw a buck in the backseat of a truck versus a 400 in the backseat of a truck. It's going to blow in the back of the truck. What is that bowl? Where did he go? 14-ish? He was... 16-ish? 4-7 and 7-8. He's acting like he doesn't remember. 4-7 and 7-8's gross. What did he net? What did he net? 4-11 and 3. Non-tip? Yeah. Non-tip. Wow. Jeez. Jeez. Well. Man, I guess it kind of makes me want to go try to... Duplicate it. Find an elk tag somewhere. Guy needs one of those in his life. Unbelievable. Yeah. Well, we'll work on that after the show. Yeah. We'll see what's possible.

But anyway. But we're looking forward to it. Hopefully, many of you have been able to join us up there at the Expo this year. Along with Chief, though, we're going to bring that little bronze. Yeah. We had a little bronze made of it. It was pretty awesome. These guys are... They're incredible. They came in. They scanned him. And I had him scan another pair of sheds just for fun. But anyway. It takes some time. It's crazy. It took... I don't know. They were there for a couple hours. It's crazy. And it's scanning. I mean, it's lasers and sensors and computers. Bells, whistles. Yeah. It's crazy. It's so impressive. And so every little divot... I mean, bloodlines and all of that shows up. It is awesome. It was amazing. And knowing Phil, it's going to be 100%. Like, nothing's going to get by him. Right. Yeah. He's pretty OCD with a lot of those kind of things.

Him and his crew and the painters. I mean, met him and they're going to make it right or they're going to keep working on it. Yeah. And so what I think is amazing is, you know, back in the day, bronzes were neat and they were done by artists, you know. And Phil's an artist, I mean, for all intents and purposes. Left brain, super detail-oriented guy. But you had to make it by hand or... Yeah. It's like... Before. It's like you were taking a spoon over there, you know, making what it looked like an animal or whatever. And now, I mean, with, you know, with computerized technology and whatnot, you've got your exact set of antlers. And they've scanned life-size animals, sheep and deer and other things. And then they'll slap those antlers on a, you know, an animal form or whatever. And it really makes them come to life. Chief was freaking ugly.

I mean, ox-headed, you know, split-eared, just giant old sand dweller. Yeah. He was a sand people. Sand person. And just like people, we're not all the same. He was a different breed. I mean, he reminds me... I don't know. This reminds me of... Big old farm boy. I mean, he reminds me of... Burly-ass milk cows for 50 years. Lawn thread bush or something.

Just a burly old big-headed sucker. And so, anyway... And you can see that in the photos. Face only a mama could love. Yeah. And so... And Jason. And you, dude. You were there. Well, he is. And the mount was very similar to how he looked. And so, certain mule deer mounts look very pretty, very showy, glistening in their eye, all that. Chief looks more like a freaking sand dweller. Oh. Face. Floppy mule deer. I remember, I mean, his great big old chest just went right into his gizzard and neck. I mean, it just... There was no neck or anything. It was just... He was rutting and just, you know, in the height of the rut and breeding. I mean... I mean... Swole. We basically... Yeah. We basically witnessed that. I mean, he kicked another buck 31-incher out and left. Kept the door. Kept the door. Left. Never came back. You know what I mean? Chief was just, listen, boss. And anyway, pretty fun.

Those are great experiences. And so, yeah. I mean, you guys, you know, with that bronze coming back and bringing him back to life. And those guys are getting cranking, doing just incredible work and approached me and said, hey, let's maybe put Chief in a bronze form. And I never even thought of it before or, you know, and kind of the farthest thing from my mind why we did it and pretty incredible. So, I don't know. Maybe we could call Phil and just visit with him for a quick second. They're going to be at the expo. So, anybody else out there that wants to maybe scan their animal or whatever, they would come and work a deal with you. And, you know, different from just buying a bronze of a sheep or buying a bronze of an elk or deer or whatever, you can have yours bronzed for all intents and purposes. And it's, you know, it's different than a real bronze. It's, you know, mine is.

You're one of one and that's yours. Yeah, exactly. And anyway, did a great job. But maybe we'll just see if we can get him on the phone. Just visit real quick about it. And just in large part, because they're going to be there. They've got a booth. Antler, Antler Tech. Yeah, that's the company name, right? Antler Tech. They kind of just got recently kicked up. They brought some other stuff with them that day, too. That was pretty cool. That little miniature, he killed that giant. It was like one of the first 400 inches, I think, in Utah. He said it was like the first. Yeah. Yeah. It was late, late 90s. Straight six. I remember that. He was like 16 years old. Or is it seven? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A little tiny, but it's Pavant Bull that was, you know, I don't know. He looked like he was 16. Yeah, I think he was about 16 or something.

It looks like, you know, those antlers that are hanging from your mirror, that kids will hang from their mirrors or adults or whatever. Anyway, it's about twice that size. And the bloodlines. Yeah, the detail. I mean, the little burrs and knobs. Jeez. See if he's in. All right. Well, anyway, let's just give him an antler tech. Holler and harass him. Phil Tuttle. He'll be at the X-Ball. Yeah. Hey, Jason. Hey, what are you doing? Just working away. Well, maybe you need to clock out. We got you on the Epic Outdoors podcast.

We're just excited about Chief and renditions of Chief and lots of other rendition possibilities. So we've been talking about it. What you got going on there at antler tech?

Sweet. Yeah, let's talk about it, man.

So we've talked about that you're going to be at the expo. We've talked, obviously, that this is very custom. I've reached out to a good number of my friends that have, you know, killed some special animals that I know would appreciate a bronze-like statue of whatever it is. And you guys, I know you guys called it kind of a statue in your little write-up. But anyway, anything's possible with the technology you guys got going. And you're an artist, Phil. Like, you know, I mean, you have a super appreciation for, you know, fine quality and whatnot. And I think that's what kind of set this apart is, I mean, the attention to detail, the little basal points, the little bloodlines and all of that in this tiny. And it's really not tiny. It's, you know, what is it, 14 inches long or whatever, but maybe even a little bit bigger, 12 pounds. I mean, pretty legit piece of artwork.

But the attention to detail is just incredible and something I really haven't seen before. And I think what makes it neat is that you could go make any kind of thing like that for anybody's trophy room or go to their house and do a scan and end up with a product like that. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's, you know, one thing that we kind of wanted to do is just sort of have an alternative to replicas. You know, I mean, I know a lot of guys that have replicas all over the place. They're almost even running out of room, you know, for replicas. But, yeah, just to have a different option and be able to create something that you can, you know, put on your bedside table or your office. And, you know, if you have an animal at one place but want to have an animal at a different, you know, at your house or your office and you can do, you can do any of that. So that's kind of cool. That's the idea.

You know, it's totally custom. It's your animal, you know. So if it's got a little bump here on the outside of its G2, it's going to have that bump on the outside of its G2, you know. And so that's cool, you know, to be able to create something that exact but just scaled, you know, scaled down. And we could do it even – we could do something even bigger than yours. You know, your listeners, Jason, that have seen yours, we could do it even a little bit bigger. You want a life-size elephant? I mean, talk to Phil maybe. I don't know. Something. You can dream it. It's kind of like Phil can – I don't know. How much resin do they make out there in the world?

But, yeah, there's – and you've got to – it's kind of one of those things you have to see and hold it. I mean, it's just like the really good replicas these days. They're completely different than 15, 20 years ago. So – and this stuff is, you know, next level, new age. We all know of, you know, 3D scanning, printing, all that type of stuff that we've seen in other applications, whether it be mapping and things like that. But this takes it to another level of personalized exactness. That's the best way I can put it. Personalized exactness, and you've got it. You've got it in your house in a much smaller scale than if you had a life-size bedded chief there that was five feet long and, you know, the base and everything else. Jason and Jana would be hitting with a vacuum every other day. But now you've got it in your desk, two feet by two feet or whatever it is.

Well, she makes the kids vacuum once in a while, but, yeah, it's scary. So, yeah. But, anyway, pretty much – I mean, pretty awesome. The applications, right, Phil? I mean – and this is, I believe, your first time at the expo and, you know, being able to show off and talk with people about what it is you can do and recreate for them. Yep, absolutely. Stop by the booth. Stop by Jason's booth. Check out that bronze we just did for him. And we'll have a couple at our booth, too, that you can check out. And, yeah, we'll just – we'd love to talk about a project. Hey, Phil, this is John. I've got a question for you. For some of us who don't have a 270-inch deer, you guys made a big deal out of this is exact proportions, you know. For an extra fee, could you maybe stretch that a little bit? You want the fisheye bronze, John? Yeah, maybe a fisheye bronze, you know. Phil will do whatever you want.

A 170-inch bunk, you know. John, with money, you can have anything you want.

I answered it for you, Phil. Yes, you can. No, I appreciate that. Yeah, we can do that. If you want to, you know, scale down the body but not scale down the outliers quite as much, yeah, we can make that happen. That's what I'm talking about. Trust me, you're going to get a lot of those requests at the expo. I mean, there's going to be a lot more of those than say, hey, duplicate my 270 buck. Anyway, pretty awesome. I know you're busy. I probably caught you at a tough time. But anyway, we just want to say hey and just allow the world to know that you're going to be there and what you guys are up to. No, I really appreciate it. And, yeah, come check us out. We'd love to chat about it. All right. Okay, talk to you guys. You bet. Yeah, see you right. So anyway, you know, when they got started, they basically wanted to kind of duplicate a shed. Like if somebody found a shed out in the hills.

Yeah. You know, they could mirror image it. Yeah, they could mirror image it. And then that morphs into the next thing, into the next thing, into the next thing. And who knows where this is going to end. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. They can do anything. Right? And he's a talented dude. I mean, I think there's him and another couple guys that video fly fishing videos and stuff. And I can't remember. I think they've won like the last 10 in a row, like these nationwide fly fishing video things that they get together and do. It's pretty unreal stuff. You watch one of his videos and you're like, man, I kind of want to go fishing. Yeah. Anyway, pretty awesome. Super good people. So anyway, Phil Tuttle, he's got a partner there at Antler Tech. And just, man, just solid earth guys. So anybody wants something special or to get your husband something special, I might think about it. It is.

What a great opportunity you have to have a custom piece of art in your house. And I love it. Like I, and I guess Bronson, maybe that just speaks to our age. Back in 07, if you told me, do you want a bronze? I'd be like, I got the real thing. What do I need a bronze for? Yeah. You know what I mean? But the older you get, you just appreciate this piece of art like that. So. That's true. Anyway. Absolutely. All right. What are we talking about next? Stacks of optics. About all those boxes out on that table out there. Josh, you've been busy getting ready, getting loaded up. But let's, I thought it might be interesting. We have a lot of stuff. But rather than say we have a lot of stuff, I want to, maybe we'll talk out about a few specifics for any of you that are going to be at the Western Hunting Conservation Expo. And you're needing some kind of optic.

Rifle scope, binocular, range finder, range finder binos, binos, spotting scope, anything. Come check us out. Here's some of the, maybe the highlights. And I just chicken scratch some things down. We have Swarovski NL Pures, 12s and 10s. We got whatever you want. And yeah, 12s. And we got, I don't know, we got 10 plus pairs. We got bets in the office that they won't last the Expo. Yeah. But hey, it's been a while since we've had them on the shelf. We've had them for the last few months. We have a lot of people that have bought them from us over the last couple of years. We're going to have those in stock. But also the EL range TAs, BTX, you know, all the, all the, all the Swarov, Swarov Bios, spotting scope, everything like that. We're going to have two, speaking of spotting scopes, two Zeiss Harpias. Jason, how hard are those to find? Extremely hard to find. Like even put them on order.

We'll have them on order for dang near a year. Yeah. You have two Harpia. And they're incredible. That's actually, I mean. 95, right? I hate to be on record saying something things. I probably won't, but maybe it's the best spotting scope they make of any brand anywhere. Unbelievable. Super crystal clear. We're going to have some of those on there. And a big assortment of Zeiss rifle scopes, sorry, V4s and V6s. Got a huge shipment into those. I feel like Zeiss, I feel like Zeiss kind of has a little bit of a corner on those rifle scopes. Like they have incredible reticles. They have incredible glass. They have incredible work. And a mid-range price point, too. You know, they're not cheap, but they're not $3,000, $4,000 scopes either. What you get for one of those scopes is well worth the price. Oh, illuminated.

You know, the range of dialability, whatever, the adjustment of, the elevation adjustment is unbelievable. Yeah. Yep. I mean, anyway, great, incredible long-range scopes. Before we left spotting scopes, we're going to have some awesome deals. We maybe even have some daily deals on some of these optics, including maybe some Vortex razors, both 65 and 85 millimeter objective Vortex spotting scopes, as well as we have the 500 Fury ABS. 5,000. 5,000. That was, Bronson, how long did we have those on? Those are on back order forever as well. And for the money, they're the least expensive range-finding ballistic solution bino. Yep. And they've been tested extensively, and the programming and software compete with just the very top-end equipment. Unbelievable, you know, accuracy on that. That's right. If you're after standalone rangefinders, we've got Revit BR4s there.

We've got SIG 8K ABS and 10K ABS stuff there. So, I mean, a lot of stuff. Some of it was hard to get for a lot of time. Some people might have gave up. A lot of it's got back in stock heavily in the last several months. And so we're bringing it all there. If you're interested, stop by, see it, check it out. Make a great deal with you there. Also a bunch of trail cams, Carter, from Stealth Cam. A lot of trail camers from Stealth Cam. Obviously, there's a few regulations. Arizona doesn't allow people to use them in regards to hunting. Of course, some people are still running some here and there. But anyway, there's seasons here in Utah and Nevada, and other places can obviously use them. You know, New Mexico doesn't really regulate a whole lot, although they did go to iron sites for muzzlers. But that's a little side note.

But anyway, generally speaking, everything goes there except for actual baiting during the season. You know, it's kind of like they're, you know, old school a little bit. Like they haven't, you know, we're seeing a lot of regulation changes and things happening and whatnot. And so, yeah, they did work over the primitive, you know, going back to more of an iron side or whatever for muzzler. But as far as trail camers and all that, you can use all that stuff year-round and cellulars, no problem, things like that. So we sell them. We're going to have them up there. Incredible pricing as well. And so if anybody needs any of that kind of stuff, why, you know, stop on by. Of course, probably can't take everything we got. And so, you know, even if you want to make an order or whatnot, we'll be able to help you when it comes to scouting. And, man, I can't wait for freaking scouting season.

I'm ready for this winter to end. I need longer days and less snow. I got a new Scott Bontscope for you. I've got a couple ATC oranges that just came in today, Carter. One might have your name on it. It might. And I'm fine with the orange. It's not bright orange. It's not like Hunter Orange. It's actually pretty cool. It's more burnt. It's not fluorescent. It's more like the orange you like for your truck. It's in between that. But, yeah. Yeah, it's not quite as poppy as. It would look good on a window mount. Out of that orange. Out of that orange. Orange, the R2. Yeah. Anyway. But we've got a couple of those we're going to have there. We have a few extra oranges. We have had people that specifically ordered oranges. Yeah. And they've got them. We'll bring some of those. That new ATC swirl. Lightweights. Tiny. Spotter. Put it in your back pocket.

And we don't have the normal color because they go pretty fast. Greener and more demand. No question. You'll be able to look at it. But you'll be able to look at it. See it. Well, you will until the two that we bring there are sold and gone. You might have to be there Thursday morning to see it. Yeah. But if you want one, be there Thursday at 10 o'clock. We should keep one and not sell it and just let it breathe for the whole show and then sell it on Sunday. Are you going to commit to that right now? Right now. We're going to sell one on Sunday. First one's there. It's Tuesday. What? Thursday at 10 o'clock. Thursday. The first one there gets it. Gets one. Gets one. The other one will stay there at the end of the show. Silent auction. And we'll sell it on Sunday. We'll sell it like you're thinking. Online hunting auctions.com? No. What do you mean? Epic auctions.

We could give it away, Bronson, on Sunday for, you know, I don't know. We could give it away for new members. Okay. We will promise that one of them will last all four days. That's right. All four days. And then what happens to that? We'll talk amongst friends here and decide. As in the flurry of forklifts buzzing in and around, a booth's dropping. A name may or may not be. We have usually done some type of giveaway, and we may or may not do that. Stop by Thursday to figure it out. Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. There you go. It happens. Good idea. But, hey, one of them. That'll let John think about it. Yeah, we'll take it over. Because he usually tries to bridle you and I, Bronson. No. We can outvote him. Might just be as simple as, say, you make an optics purchase or something over those four days. That's right. You get in for it. Something like that. You never know.

Over a dollar amount or something like that. That's right. And now you know. We'll dream it up. You get a glimpse of what it's like to work here. Right, John? Everything's changing. You never know at any moment what could be coming out of that back corner. Hey, let me. What do you guys think about this? Oh, yeah. We've got the Bronson bundle. Yeah. Bronson, are you going to have some bundles there? We've got a whiteboard. It's now called Devin's Deals. Yep. Devin's Deals. It'll be in Devin's handwriting. We've got him a couple whiteboards. He's going to hang one around his neck. I don't know. We're going to have some hunts, too. Hunts to book. That's right. Hunts openings there that you can talk to Devin and any of us about. Just a lot. You guys, most people know what we do on a daily basis. We talk to a lot of people. We're researching and writing the magazine.

But we're also talking to a lot of outfitters that have guaranteed tags. Hunts to book. Things like that. So we'll definitely have some of those there, too, in addition to all the other drought-related questions that we have. Wyoming, thank goodness the elk application will be over with by the time we go to the expo. I don't know. There's always guys like February 2nd. Hey, I'm thinking about Wyoming elk for next year. Well, you know what the question is? And we're out. You know what the question is? And I was like, yeah. I've applied, but I'm thinking of amended. Can I go for some unit options? So are you reminding everybody they can amend right now, Bronson? Because you're causing us. I think Wyoming took that option away this year. You can only go until May 8th. I mean, good grief, this will never die. I don't know what it is.

I think it's just the first, you know, first good restaurant in town. Everybody goes there. And you can tell when you can get drawn. You can look at it and say, what can I get? That's similar to Colorado. Colorado deer, yeah. And you can look at it. I like that. I like it. I like saying, I could get that tag, but maybe I want to stretch myself and play the random over here on this tag or whatever. That's interesting. If it's straight up random, you're just like, ugh. There's nothing. Just pick one and let her rip. Yeah. Can't plan for it. You can plan for Wyoming. And so, as such, outfitters are booking up. We're helping guys book outfitters. And you've got the threats to changing fees and draw systems and all that, even spurring people on more. Maybe doing a 90-10. Maybe changing up the point system at some point. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Yeah. You know what I mean? Potentially.

And so, we do have some things going through the legislature. Who knows what will come out? Even a new rendition, Bronson, I think you heard of. Yeah. There's a lot been kicked around. Different price structuring fees. Different increased rates or levels. Going to a straight squared bonus point or maybe a 50% of them. 50-50 split. Instead of a 75-25 like it is now. You know, just we'll wait. We'll wait and see what happens. But just the rumblings of change are spurring people on more. I think Wyoming's trying to keep the non-resident support to keep their budgets alive. No question. But then they're trying to answer to the need for change, what their perceived need for change. Oh, yeah. You can't eliminate basically random moose and sheep tags almost entirely, perhaps, for this year.

And just leave it that way forever and think your people are still going to pay your state $150 a year for points and apply. They're not. Right. Don't even have to enter their state. You get $150 each for. That's a cash cow. Nothing. You know. Yeah. Anyway. Blue sky. Yeah. So, kind of fun. Anyway, that's, you know, we've had a lot of consulting going on here at Epic. That's just that time of year where there's just a lot going on. And people making plants. Arizona's on the front burner, too. So, yeah. And then it'll change to the next thing. But, hey, we're there. We'll be there to talk with you all, you know, or just meet and greet and drink a monster like we've already advertised. We are going to have pallets of those, right, John? Yeah, we are. Jeez. So, pallets is a, did you say pallets with an S? Or a pallet? I don't know. You have to come by and see. A stack. Who knows?

How about we just say that? Stacks. Stacks upon stacks. Okay. I don't believe we've given the exact dates on this podcast yet. It's February 2nd through the 5th at the Salt Palace Convention Center. We did. You just weren't here. Salt Lake City. I just missed it. But say it again. All right. And hunnexpo.com if you want any more details. That's right. Get in for your $5 tag hunts if you know you're going to be there. Don't go online and buy those if you're not going to come to Salt Lake. Validate. A couple years ago, remember, they let you go do that. Yeah. COVID, they didn't have it. You could just buy them online and you're in the draw. Not anymore. Don't buy them and then not show up to Salt Lake. You just made a nice donation. Which is fine. Well, and it should, they like literally doubled the size. Last year we were parking trailers in that back. That is all booths now.

It's literally double the size of what it was. So, hopefully it'll spread some guys out on Saturday. The expo is double. Yeah. Size was double. Do you know where the trailer was last year? I remember that. That's all booths now. So, they doubled the expo, like truly doubled. Space. Square footage. I don't know how many booths and actual exhibitors. That's sick. Yeah. But size-wise. It's significant. Jeez. You're going to have PTSD from SHOT Show when you walk in there. I don't know. Nothing can compete with that. All I know, it was, we walked a few less miles this year. Didn't you guys film? Oh, yeah. It was like five and a half. Five and a half, yeah. We got stuck in that stairwell with the bathrooms last year. Like, remember, we were going up. Up and down. Up and down. There's the two stairwells in the bathroom in the middle. And it's just.

I think it was probably the dribble from Bronson. He's dealing with that whole, the whole salt, the salt pills and the caffeine. I guess maybe that was it. When you're there with three nearing 50-year-old men, you're kind of like, I gotta go. The Bronson dribble. Yeah. Back in the stairwell.

Hey, that might stick. Moving on. Your feet definitely did. On the floor. They did. They did. Quack, quack, quack, quack. Oh, felt like walking through the slush in our parking lot.

But yeah, it should be. Hopefully that'll help alleviate a little bit of the crowding issues. Because sometimes Saturday gets very busy. I think that's mainly what it's targeted at, to spread out people more. Yeah, the doubling might be area. And it was tight. That original was tight. The first extension made it better. But it's still just as busy, it feels like. So spread them out and put, you know, whatever it is. Those freaking almonds that smell like freaking, you know, amazing. Put them in 14 corners there and let the minions spread out. They'll spread out. Yeah. Pretty awesome. Pretty fun. We're all excited. Super excited for this year. You know, it feels like. I guess maybe we should dive in just a little bit. Pollock, throw you on the spot for just a minute. But weren't we talking about maybe potentially, and I want to.

You don't have to have exact figures because we didn't prepare for this. But just basically that potentially this drought phase could be coming to an end. And why? And who told you that? And what have you kind of done a little research on that? Have you been out at Market Grill? No, no, I haven't. Where the farmers? Okay, I just didn't know. Farmer's almanac. No, but that would probably be good because the farmer's almanac has kind of been rough. You're talking about the temperature of the ocean. I mean, you came in one day and were like, okay. I don't know. I used to do wildland fire stuff. So weather is always big. Didn't you do that? Did you ever do that with Witwer? No, I didn't. My brothers did. Okay. Well, anyway, keep going. And so weather, you get a daily weather or an hourly weather update when you're on the fire and stuff. And I've seen some crazy crap.

And we've helped by Enterprise. Wasn't Metaqua out there? That place is cursed. No. Oh, yeah. It is? Oh, yeah. What do you mean? Like skinwalkers. What does the word Metaqua mean? I mean, that's really close to the Shivwitz Reservation. Well, Metaqua is not English. There's lots of stuff that happened in the Shivwitz. Or maybe we got a video of a Bigfoot that was down there. That guy says, remember that? That's a good point. Yeah. And Bronson just right off discounted it. Yeah, exactly. And Devin was down there. Was that where that supposedly was? I thought it was in Nevada. No, it was. No. Come on. Just let us believe in Santa Claus, Bronson. Why do you have to ruin it? Devin was down casting tracks. That's how sure we were. Devin. Devin. Down there with his ghillie suit. And, you know, he'd be a good guy to hunt in something. If it was real, Devin would find it. He's superstitious.

Well, he also grew up as a big baseball fan. And that also taints you for superstition. Baseball players are very superstitious. And it carries over to other phases of his life. That's true. All right. Anyway, I guess here's just a story for you, I guess. Do we have a minute for a story? Yeah. Did you? So, on fire, did you ever find any big sheds? Because every firefighter finds big sheds. We were looking for that one time. I can't remember the year. 2004. Space shuttle. Space shuttle. One inch by one inch piece of tile from the bathroom floor. Not one. In the space shuttle. You were looking for lots of tiles. A certain tile. That's what I was looking for. I picked up a piece from the space shuttle and it burnt my hand. It hurt. Really? Yeah. Yeah. I ran. It was. It was right that time frame. Yeah. And anyway, long story. I don't want to kind of, I don't want to really talk about it.

Because there were some big bulls right there. Yeah. We picked up our crew. So, we went out there to the grid for this little, it was literally like a piece of tile. I don't know where it came from. But something off the space shuttle. Did they say you could touch it with your bare hands? Oh, no. It was like you see it that we had to call in. See, that's what I'm wondering if I got radiated or somewhere. Because it did. It burned my fingers. It explains a lot. It explains a lot. Anyway. All right. Keep going. No, we found a giant set of elk sheds out there while we were there. And not only that year, but the year previous. Oh, yeah. This one, this girl. Utah side or Nevada side? We've talked about this. I thought we've talked about this. Utah pictures. It was a giant, big, huge, heavy bull. Nevada side? Honestly, yeah. Very close. Well, we were somewhere right there. Okay. All right.

It was two weeks of. It's debatable. Just. Gritting. Yes. Walking. Tiny. Trying to put out a fire. Looking for. Looking for tiles. No, there was no fire. There was not. It was looking for. You weren't even on fire patrol. You were just looking for tiles. But they hired wildland fighters. Oh, good. To find parts to go from space. Okay. Did you have to wear your big hot suit, too? Or just. No, no. Whatever. We had like our packs on. Okay. Can it keep going? Okay. But no. Anyway. We were on a fire out by Metaqua once. And we had just been all day long. And they called over the radio. And they said, there's this big, huge storm front coming through. We were way down there. There was me and another guy. We had a crew of 20 other like seasonals with us. And we were down there working. And they said, yeah, you guys, we need to pack up and get out of there.

Because the storm front was going to be coming through there. And you know what it's like out in that Metaqua junk out there. So we got all loaded up. We had. You mean like flooding, flash floods and stuff. Yes, yes. Okay. Shifting winds. So the fire could be going opposite direction. And so we were literally probably two miles from the way the fire was burning away from us. And we were at the back end of it working the edges. The fire was burning away from us. And it just hit this big, huge kind of a ridge up there. And so it wasn't even, the fire wasn't even a threat to us. And we'd gotten the trucks and we were starting to leave. Well, as we started to leave, right about then, one of the four-wheel drive on one of the trucks just went out. Just went out as we were trying to go up this hill. Was it a Ford? No, or was it the big Mercedes? No, it was a Dodge. No, it was a Dodge. Come on.

We had four-door. It's the best truck I've ever owned. Like these four-door trucks. And anyway, the four-wheel drive went in on it. And the kid that was driving it hadn't had a whole lot of experience, I guess, with driving them like that anyway. And they ended up getting stuck. Anyway, they couldn't get out. Well, me and the guy I was with, we had a winch on the front of our truck. So right about then, we said, we'll come down and get it. Well, literally within seconds, we looked up and the wind, that front came over right at that point. And the fire that was up on the ridge came and there was this big, huge green finger that was unburnt. It was burnt all around us except this big green finger right back from where the fire was, literally to that truck. And so we looked and we told all our crew and stuff.

We're like, you guys get all your stuff and go into the black just as far as you can because obviously it wasn't going to burn that again. So we told them to go back there. We hurried and jumped in the truck and went back down there to get it. And it was within seconds. And I was outside trying to hook the winch up. And it was, I could see from probably here to that, the smoke and the wind and everything. I could see from about here to the 10 feet. Yeah. And trying to hook it up and it was getting hotter than heck. And you couldn't see the fire. It was just there somewhere. But it was making all kinds of noise and coming hard. And I was in there trying to hook the winch up. And we were trying to pull and back up and pull. And I jumped in and trying to drive it. That truck got smoked. And we finally decided if we're going to make it out with this other truck, we had to leave.

And so I hurried and went and jumped in the truck with him. And we tried to back up. And he couldn't even see backing up, like the bed of the truck. He couldn't see past the bed of the truck. So I jumped out and ran back there to the bed of the truck and was, like, backing him. And as I'm backing him, there's flames, like, hammering that other truck and the front of our truck. And we're trying to get back. And it was literally within seconds of we said to heck with it. But anyway, I'm walking backwards. And I kick something. And there's this rabbit that's on fire. Oh, my God. The fur? Oh, yeah. This whole thing was on fire. It took off running. And the faster he goes, the more flames go. It was just running. It's feeding. Anyway, we ended up. We got. Luckily, we got back to the top of that ridge. Ate rabbit. Yeah. They let us go home after that. We had to have some.

Did that truck get smoked? Oh, yeah. It burned to the ground. And there was chainsaws and packs. That's scary crap. Because we've always seen some of these monuments. There's one going by Glenwood, that King Mountain one there. I was see driving by. There's places like that. You're like, you know, it's two miles away. And then it's not. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's unbelievable. It was weird. You don't believe it until you see it. It's no joke. It's like, this is. It's no joke. It was crazy. So, anyway. Everybody was good. Everybody lived. We had to go sit in hotel rooms for a couple days in St. George and meet with a bunch of people. Tell them about how we stood up. Tell your story. And who. Whatever else. But tell it. And bringing up this weird weather event. Yes. Talk about La or El Niña or O. El Niña. Yeah. So, the last few years, they're talking a lot about La Niña. Let's talk about her.

Which is a dry pattern, basically. And it has to do something with warming and cooling of the ocean. Currents. Right. Currents near the equator and stuff. And when we're in a La Niña, basically, it means we're going to be dry. El Niño. And El Niño. Yep. El Niño means significant moisture. So, we were like in an El Niño in 2016, 17. Really? It was like a temporary? Yeah. It happens. It switches. Yeah. These currents. It's basically every few year thing. And there's nothing you can do about it. Yeah. That's where our weather comes from. I'm sure Uncle Joe and his presidency will try and do something. Al Gore has a lot to do with our weather. Yeah. Remember, he invented the internet. And, you know, global warming really took off when he was around. But, anyway. So, yeah.

Noah, who monitors basically the weather in the world, is saying that it's like an 83% chance that La Niña is going to end. And we're going to be in the spring and summer. The spring and summer. And we're going to be in the Niño. Yep. For right now, right? This year, next year. Yeah. And generally. That has more to do. Does it have more to do with spring and summer moisture than our winter? Because we've had a big winter. Or does it bleed over? It's both. It's just wet. A lot of times, what it means is on those El Niño years, you would get a lot of either winter moisture or spring moisture. And then, so we'd end up with six-foot-tall cheatgrass down in St. George. And you'd spend all summer down in St. George fighting those fires down there on that kind of stuff. So, you guys would pay attention to those.

Whereas La Niña, you end up a lot of times in Idaho in the timber because the timber takes a lot longer to dry out. After a couple years, the timber dries up and you spend more time up there kind of thing. So, that's why you always look at the weather stuff. Predict where the fire seasons are going to be. Latitude in the western U.S. is going to be maybe worse than others. Yeah. Yeah. And so, it affects that stuff. Anyway. Well, so, we're having a great winter. Hopefully, we can string a few together. I'd like to go to Lake Powell and use the places I've been to before. Jeez. Because right now, I don't even recognize the place. Yeah. No, you might hit rocks. I mean, it changes the whole lake. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And it's tinier. Yeah. Everybody's on top of everybody. Yeah. It's just not. It's only 130 miles long and. 15 feet wide right now.

It's river wide. It's river. Two miles wide instead of three or whatever. Yeah. But then you've got rocks in the middle. It's the Colorado River right now is what we've got down there. Yeah. Yeah. You have the greatest lake on Earth. You have grease on the side of your boats just to get past Antelope right now. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Greatest lake on Earth. Yeah, it is. Beautiful when it's rocked. Well, hopefully that keeps up, Josh. Yeah. So you were saying something about like we have cooler ocean water out there now, right? Yeah. So it basically changes the current from where the moisture goes. When it's La Nina, it pushes it up higher. That's why we've seen sometimes like Idaho's been getting good moisture and in Utah we've been getting skipped. So now it'll be more southerly flow that comes up from Mexico. Southern cattle. And that's when we get that. Those are big wet storms for us.

Green it all. Yeah. We are hearing though since we've done the last podcast. We are hearing it's tougher on tougher conditions, Northern Utah, Southern. Yeah. We knew that. We didn't want to, but our excitement couldn't be contained. It still can't be. We've had a rough freaking. It still can't be. If you, if you, if you Northern Utah people have been down here, you've got influenza from our dust on our roads for the last three, four years. It's just been unbelievable. Yeah. So, and it's just different up there. Obviously those deer. They've got nowhere to go. Their valleys were all populated. Um, also you've got heavy amounts of private land and, or, you know, management that's changed it differently. So sagebrush winter range is where, you know, got developed. And it's what, that's the winter range feed that's gone.

And the longer the winter gets, the stuff gets a little more deer get, you know, they get more nervous and stressed. In fact, I saw a KSL video today of a bunch of elk at like the mouth of Parley's Canyon. Somehow they'd funneled their way through stuff and they're about on the highway, a bunch of highway patrol. Now I don't know how it's going to end up, but like a whole herd of elk. There was some couple of bulls that showed up in the avenues or whatever that they had to go. Yeah. There's going to be restaurants selling elk. You want an elk burger? There's going to be red. Not the avenues. There's going to be red spots on I-80. Right. By dark. Yeah. The good news is, I guess if you're optimistic about it, you know, the deer have been in great condition the last two years. So they've, they've got a lot of fat going into winter. They're so fat.

If, if it'll warm up a little bit, which we're getting into the end of February, or the start of February, end of January. So our warmer months are going to be starting. Daylight's coming. Yeah. Longer. So hopefully we can just, yeah. Don't get any more critical. Southern Idaho, Western Wyoming, Northern Utah, parts, pockets in Colorado, but it's not severe catastrophic scary yet. Like those other years, it's already been scary. Yeah. By now. But hopefully if we can, it's not a lot forecast in the next week or 10 days either. No. So hopefully mill them out. But anyway, the Southern states are just licking their chops. When I say Southern, I don't mean Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida. I mean, New Mexico, Arizona, Southern Utah, Southern Nevada. We are licking our chops. No offense. You people in the deep South love your food. Do you? Yeah. Do you? Yeah. I do. I love all food.

But I just. Especially pistachios. Where do they? I think they're from California, but I don't know. Everything's from California, milk, cheese, all the happy cows. What else? Supposedly it's from there. Lots of stuff. That's good. Yeah. I don't know. Well, all right. Pretty awesome. We're, as you can tell, we're pretty, pretty excited about everything that's going on. We're excited about the show. It'll be interesting and it's always fun. We've got a lot of tags going to go up for sale too. And that kind of helps, you know, guys are obviously trying to apply and potentially get one of these $5 tags as well as what? I'll just say, you know, all are one in a thousand odds. Well, they're tough odds. Yeah. But then you buy your way into Bronson here and there. Like, meaning we have those opportunities. My brother's drawn two of the hardest ones you can draw.

So, I mean, it's hit close to home a couple times. And my son drew an Antelope Expo tag. That was probably one in a thousand or two. Right? It's hard, you know. But anyway, you've got to have your name in the hat. We do. Kind of fun to have Phil on there too, talking about, you know, the exciting projects they've got going on with their business and the Bronzes and whatnot. Again, antler underscore tech on Instagram. You can hit them up on the DM. On the IMDM. What else? Remember when IM was a thing? Instant messenger. But not on the DL.

Anyway, super good guys. And, of course, I can see this is going to go down some crazy, who knows, paths. Of pretty awesome artwork. So, anything, they can do about anything. Bronson, you were talking about. What? You need a trigger guard. Well, that's like, he said, that would be like the smallest thing we've ever done, ever, or thought of doing. But they can do it. So, if you think, I mean, if you need a truck part, hey, hit them up, maybe. I don't know. If you need a steering wheel, custom steering wheel, hey. If you have something to scan that you want duplicated, go walk by. Who knows? Scan my dog. My dog's getting ready to die. I want a bronze on my dog. I wonder if Jana would like a life-size bronze of you. Don't question she would. No matter the cost. No matter the cost. Do it. Does he want 21? Does she want 23, Jason, or 48? What does she want? No, 7, Jason. She says.

She says you're only like a fine wine. You get better at time. I don't even want to bring this up on a podcast. I'm actually a little bit scary about how many people listen to this thing. The other thing I keep getting. It's pretty sick. We had our wives on. It feels like 10 years ago. I don't know when it was. And I keep getting people asked. I don't. I'm scared. I don't know. What they'll say. Well. They're too candid. Just don't be too truthful. Sometimes. They don't hold back the older they get. And you're going to listen to what they have to say. And they're going to say it. And you're going to air it. And so anyway. It's better just not even go there. Yes, ma'am. Josh knows. I love November 12. But November 11 is my favorite day. But I love November 12. I'll never forget that. Neither will I. All right. Anyway. Pretty awesome. Anything else? I think we shouted out enough.

I told Logan we were going to throw him under the bus and talk about his personal life. No. Well, he's going to be there at the expo, though. So, you know. Logan. I was hoping you'd forget. We want something. We want something. Give us an update. What do you want an update on? How many honeys you dating? Oh, I'm down to zero right now. Come on. Hey. Did you know? So come by our booth. That's basically an advertisement. He's smart. He's got a hot mic. He edits this stuff. It will be on the final cut. And he's going to be at the expo. I mean, he's not stupid. I mean. So if you're a honey and you're single, come by the Epic Outdoors booth. Leave your Tinder app open. We'll sit down there with him. Hey. These guys laugh about Tinder. And Tinder was one thing 10 years ago. Now everybody's on it that's single. Right, Logan? Yes. Logan, do you have a Tinder downloaded onto your phone? Yes.

Well, I don't even think it's. I mean. It used to be funny. It's not anymore. It's serious. It's serious business. It is. It's just normal. So Logan.

Logan's working on some developments for Epic. We can't say everything that they are. But he's brought up some pretty good ideas for being a Gen Z. and just wondering, you know, Logan could come up with some pretty crazy apps that, you know, could potentially be Logan's dating app or something. Huntersonly.com. That probably exists already. Find a little hunter, a little honey that's a hunter. Females only. If you swipe up, you're subscribing only to me. There's no other men on the app.

Pay to download. Yeah. You'd have paid up. The monarchy dating app. He's the older one. He's king. You have to type in how much land your family owns before you can subscribe. Land. Upload some financials. Daddy's financials. Isn't that called fans only, Logan? Something like that. Logan. That is not where I was going. Only subscribe to me. I don't think guys do that well on that app, though. Well, I don't know. There might be something. Well, anyway. Some guys are doing some, you know, some paid apps for, you know, videography and photos of big animals and stuff like that. There might be something to that. Who knows? Guys can offer people something for money, John. Maybe we don't go there. I don't know. That's where we're going. Hunt advice? Hey, I could see a guy that does stuff on their videos, how to fix your truck. He could make money on that. Yeah, he could make money. No question.

Know what you're doing. Especially if you only have one garage in one city, but you can make money on everybody else in the U.S. watching your stuff. And I know there's YouTube. But I mean, hey, some guys, you learn a little bit. Hey, if you're a mechanic out there and you took this as an idea, I want 10%. Yeah, exactly. I want a royalty. All right. I don't know. Logan, you got anything else for us? I don't think so. No? You're going to have to come talk to me at the expo, I guess, because I'm dry. Hey, you've been eating too many pistachios. Apparently. Be careful. You have the Bronson dribble. All right, everybody. See you at the expo.