EP 277: The State of Nevada with Mike Scott, Talkin' Mule Deer, Sheep, Elk and Antelope

Anything to do with Western big game.

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What up, everybody? It's Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, coming at you from Southern Utah. We're talking about Nevada today, Bronson, one of our favorite states ever. Well, especially when it rains, finally. Chip it. So, it's obviously no secret it's a dry state. Utah is, I think, technically number two behind Nevada, dry state in the nation. Which is weird because it feels like Arizona should be, or New Mexico. Well, they get so much monsoonal rain down there that I think it just catches up. Yeah. But, anyway, yeah, it's on the front burner. It's May. Can you believe that? I can't believe it. It's May 2nd. We're two days into May. It's amazing. Well, Bronson, so we've had a heavy weekend. Yeah, it has been five or six days we had. Maybe. Utah deadline the 27th. Kansas is 28th. Idaho the 30th. Yeah. Montana moose, sheep, goats yesterday. And a magazine for the June, California, Arizona.

Which marks the first of our bi-monthlies, basically. So, June, July is basically the last of our monthly. The last of the state mags, which is basically, May 1st is always, Uno de Mayo is always a holiday in our time. Okay. I like it. I like it. Usually by May 1st, we are done, and it happened to be May 2nd. Let's do this. Let's give away something because. It's Uno de Mayo. Uno de Mayo. I like it. It's the epic holiday, dude. I mean, think about it. Yesterday, we were ecstatic. Why? Because our life changed. Instead of coming in at 3 in the morning, we now get to come in at 8 and do a normal 8 to 5 or if. May 1st. The first morning that I golfed before work. Both of us. And I was here. I was only here eight minutes late. I was here at 8.08. Hey. And I still golf 9. Retrieving trucks in the middle of nowhere. So, Justin. So, Justin. He's out turkey hunting with ash. They're killing it.

You know, and making me proud. Of course, I'm working or whatever. Doing other things that I'm supposed to be doing. Other dad projects over the weekend. And they slide into a ditch, and he runs a stick through the radiator, and it's like puts a hole like double my thumb. And thank goodness for J.B. Will. That had to be a. I mean. Cedar. Oh, I don't know. Yeah, you're in Cedar Country, so I assume. Meaning that's a tough stick. That doesn't. If it was a brittle stick, it would have snapped in 40 pieces. Oh, I had to basically take vice grips to get it out. Like it was jammed in there, and it actually bent. It curled up the skid plate. Just totally curled it up and then jammed in there. And I thought. And I can't get a box trailer in there like a dump trailer that I have or whatever to load it up, haul it out. So, you've got to limp this thing out of here somehow. Somehow.

And do you drag it through four-foot big old washes from the runoff? You've got all these big ditches, and I'm just like, this is a problem. This thing's out of water. It's down low. So, I take J.B. Well, I take a torch, freaking light it up, and just get it cleaned off, and then throw a whole freaking deal. The entire thing of J.B. Weld in it. And then just left it over the weekend. Went back. That sounds ASE certified. Hey. Hey. Hey. I know this. It doesn't leak a drop. It doesn't leak a drop, Bronson. Justin's like, I think I'm going to pay for a radiator. I just don't want to be stranded, Dad. Yes. I'm like. Do that. I don't know. I think it's fine. No. Come on. I think it's fine. All right. Let's get it to be 120 degrees. Stuff swells, shrinks. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll throw bars leak in it just for good measure because that's fine pepper.

You know, all that plugs those little fine holes. Huh? Want to throw sawdust in there? Well, I don't know. I don't know. Some goo? Anyway, we got it home. So, Bronson, when I went and did that this morning and then we both rolled in about 815, 820, it's the first time I can remember. Oh, yeah. Yep. It's nice. It's the sun shining and deadlines just mean there's a few less front burner projects. Doesn't mean there's not front burner projects, but the dimensions are leaving and having to write another magazines over and all those, like we just said. If you want to go check out the e-mag, it's online. Yeah. How about that? It's online right now for Arizona and California. You can't apply in California. You can't apply in Arizona yet. It's not hot on their website. I don't know. But California is hot. California is, and Arizona has published their regs.

So, hey, I thought you'd be able to apply, but not yet. Moved it up a week. They've got some internal difficulties. There's been some people, you know, retire from the department, and I think some of the reports reflect that. But anyway, they do good work down there, especially on these wet years. How about that? I mean, what are we complaining about? Pretty awesome. We're so excited. Bronson, I think we should outline your hunting schedule because you've got a hole or two. And maybe a listener has an idea of what you should focus. I don't have much. A hole or two? In your schedule. I need something on my schedule. You got some plans. Well, yeah. You got some plans. But I mean, it's really the next 45 days is honestly all year long. You're always optimistic to try to draw an Arizona elk or New Mexico, random, draw something. But really, most of my stuff. But I want to be.

But these latter states, I'm going all in. What does that mean? Nevada, Utah. You've always gone all in. Colorado. What does that mean? Well, it's just changing the mentality. What I do find interesting. I didn't really want Arizona to New Mexico anyway. Is you've been plugging and playing in Nevada because you can. Yeah, I love that. And you just kind of change your ordering. And then it makes me want to change my ordering. And so I go look and plug and play. I look at my kids' stuff. And by the way, May 8th is the last man day for Wyoming. And Wyoming elk, you brought it up. And I went in and made sure my kids, everybody was good. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I do remember playing for that. I lost track. January is a long time ago. It was. We've been through a lot since then. We have been through a lot. A lot of early mornings. It feels like a lot's transpired. So let's give something away.

It's freaking Uno de Mayo. De Cinco de Mayo, whatever. Uno de Mayo. I like it. Uno de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo is Friday. Epic Uno de Mayo holiday. What are we going to give away? It's trail camera season. Yeah, let's do it. Let's give away three of them. Three? Huh? To one person? Or what do you think? Yeah. I don't know. Do you want to do one or do you want to do three individuals? Logan's good. Let's do three individuals. What do you think? Spread the love. One camera seems chintzy. I like the all or nothing giveaways. Yeah. Okay. All right. And it's easy, right? That's what you're thinking of, Logan. No, I don't. It makes your job easy. Okay. Out of the enter, Logan. What do they got to do here? I mean, what do you got to do? Usually we got to do something horrible. Well, let's tag Uno de Mayo. No. So, U-N-O-D-E-M-A-Y-O. Uno de Mayo. Yeah. Hit translate into your phone and spit it out.

Hashtag Uno de Mayo. What do we want to see? We're going to go on there. Epic. We have to put the word Epic in there because there's probably Uno de Mayo. Well, tag our account. I'm going to look right now on the hashtag. Hold on. Tag our Epic Hunts account. Use hashtag Epic Uno de Mayo. Epic. Huh? Say that again. Tag our Epic Hunts account and then use hashtag Uno de Mayo. Dude, Uno de Mayo has 5,000 plus posts. Yes, that's what I mean. Do Epic Uno de Mayo. It's probably none. Zero. Less than five. Okay. Let me do that. Let's see. If you add a word, it's going to be easy. Tags. Does not exist. That's right. There is not one. Okay. So E-P-I-C-U-N-O-D-E-M-A-Y-O. It's not every day you can make a brand new hashtag. Well, we just do it. We seem to do it often. So if all you do is tag Epic Uno de Mayo and you tag Epic Hunts, obviously, in your little

write-up, little verbiage, then we're going to do a random drawing and let's do it by Friday. I want it fast. Before synchronous. I want the odds to be good. Bronson, I'm sick of the bad odds. Let's make the odds good. By Friday. Short application period. Okay. Which reminds me of our Epic Membership Drive. A short application period. By Friday, at what time are you going to draw the line of sound? Logan, what time do you want to leave work that day? That's basically what it comes down to. Oh, Logan, do you even work? I try my best to work. We've got the Gen Z clocking in. No, he's out of school right now. So he's got his plates light too. You know, De Mayo means something to this guy too. Do you want full-time work, part-time work? What are we doing with you? What are we doing with Logan? Don't put it at midnight. Logan does whatever he wants. It's 11.59. He's got to be here at midnight.

Yeah. Let's keep Logan here. No. Let's just do a good- Like 4 or 5 p.m.? Yeah. Mountain. Mountain time. Let's do 4. Not Arizona either. Let's do 4 o'clock. Straight up. 4 o'clock. You run the draw. 4.20. You get out of here by 5. All right. Okay. What do we want to see, though? What are they posting? Well, I don't know. Whatever they want. Just some kind of trail cam pick or something. Okay. Whatever you want. Don't you think? A scouting pick. I don't care what it is. If it's hunting-related. Right, Bronson? Yeah. Hunting-related. Okay. Epic hunts. Tag epic hunts. Use the hashtag. If your anniversary was Uno de Mayo, we don't want to see pictures of that. We just want to see hunting-related pictures. That's right. And we're not going to. There is not a single post on there. We're not going to put a post on there. If there's only three freaking people on there.

We might make this an annual. Might make it an annual. Yeah. It is kind of. We tease always that May 1st is like a holiday around here, and we're going to turn it into one. Within five years, I want it in the Google Calendar on your iPhone. Come on. Come on. I want Google to put it on the Google Calendar. How about that? I don't know. Same as Mother's Day. Pretty important day. Uno de Mayo. Epic uno de Mayo. All right. So, anyway, Bronson, you know what else I like about Nevada? I freaking love the turnaround. We're going to know draw results before May 20th. Yeah. Four or five years ago. I can't remember exactly when it was. It's always been that they had 48 hours after they run the draw to do it, but they could take a month and a half to run the draw. Right. Right. But now it's like legit. It's legit. You're done the 10th, and we're talking tens or hundreds of thousands of applications,

and they turn it around in less than 10 days. Yeah, they do. They have a quick turnaround, which makes it awesome because you can make plans. You can schedule vacations. You can just get excited. We know for a fact. Normally, you have to wait for the April and May spring moisture to know if you can have big deer, and we were dealing with that during drought periods. Now, I don't know that it matters what happens in May. I don't know that it matters. Not this year. There's so much water. No, the snow is not even close to melting. No, no. Not even close. So fun. So fun to think about. What an incredible opportunity for those few guys that draw. They have come down to tag numbers, but the quality experience is like none other. For all species, really. Nevada. That's what I like. Yeah. So I think, Bronson, let's call Mike Scott deputy director.

He's the new deputy director, and we both know Mike from way back. He's dealt with all of this Panaca, Pioch, southeastern state. Yeah. Was he a biologist there? Yeah. Yep. And, of course, he was out in the hills running cameras and hunting and loved big deer and hit it just as hard as anybody we knew. So, I don't know. Let's give him a holler. I just want to talk. Let's just talk about Nevada. Yeah. The state of the nation. The state of the state. The state of the silver state. The silver state. What's the price of silver right now? What's the price of copper in Nevada right now? Will you look up the price of silver? I just want to know. Yeah. I mean, I've got just a little bit of it. I don't know. $24, $25 an ounce. What's that? Who cares? Well, there was a guy that. It's not gold. Gold in the silver state. It's not gold.

And when he died, there were millions of dollars in the bottom of the state. We're talking gold. I know. Not silver. I know, but I still want to know. What does it say? $25, $45 an ounce. Yeah. How about that? How about that? Okay. Things are getting good. Of course, with inflation, that probably means about $10 an ounce. But anyway, let's call Mike and see what he's got to say about his own state.

Hey there. What do you got going today? Not too much. Really? It's raining in Reno? Oh, yeah. It's raining good in Reno. No way. Let's look up the radar and make sure. Wow. You never know. Maybe we're getting a little bit of that, hopefully. Mike, how many meetings have you had today?

Say that again? How many meetings have you had today? It's been a slow day. I've had four. Well, we teed up just, this is Adam, but we teed up a little bit that you're wearing a new hat in the department. So, yeah, we appreciate you taking time with us. We've also talked about knowing you for 15, 20 years ago, and you lived just across the border from where we live and where your roots were. But, yeah, I appreciate you taking some time out of your schedule to talk about the state of Nevada, Department of Wildlife, and hunting, and, of course, the application period's coming to a close in the next seven, eight days. Yeah, and you've even got, it looks like, a commission meeting coming up, of course, with tag numbers and whatnot. I guess you're ready for that. Yeah, yeah. That's, well, Friday and Saturday, but Saturday's the big day where we'll go through all the quotas.

And, you know, get final approval on those. So, you know, that's always kind of a long day with us. But, you know, it's engaging. It's fun to sit and listen and be a part of that. So I still like being a part of it. You know, maybe talk about that process just a little bit. We've got biology and sound management and all of these different things that come into play. But then you've also got the politics and social aspect of making people happy, right? Your customer, the client, hunters, you know, and things you guys like to personally see on the landscape. You know, and obviously you're seeing it from a different perspective now being the deputy director. Tell us a little bit about that process and all the different aspects that you're taking into consideration when you make your proposals. Yeah. So, you know, I am wearing a different hat now.

And, you know, it was really hard not to be in the room with all the game biologists and supervisors this year, staff, coming up with their quotas. And, you know, that's the first time in over 30 years that I haven't been in the room. And I did pop in for a bit, you know, here and there just to kind of see what was going on. But, you know, it's a long process. And, you know, we're trying to use all the science that we can. And, you know, we fly all these populations. We count them. You know, we have population models that we put the data into. And, you know, we end up with these population estimates. And we run them through the arrays that distributes tags to the different weapons groups. And, you know, there's, I mean, we manage by buck ratios and bull ratios, ram, you know, I mean, we do a lot of that. And so, you know, it's an interesting process. It's still fascinating to me.

And, you know, even, like I said, it was hard not being in the room this year. But, you know, we have a different social dynamic in Nevada. You know, we really try to manage for quality animals with all of our species. And, you know, there are people that believe we should have more tags. And there are people that believe we should have fewer tags. And, you know, we try to find a balance where we can please our customers as best we can. Well, and it's, you know, you got these sideboards as well with, you know, drought like we're, you know, coming out of, you know, 15 years of. But, you know, real rough drought the last three or four years until this winter. And so, you know, with, you know, antelope and sheep and deer, you know, production being way off, you got, you know, populations doing one thing.

And obviously we've seen what's happened with the tag numbers the last two or three years as well for some of those species. Most notably the deer and in some cases sheep too. And, you know, it's a balancing act. And I don't know. I don't know what percentage of keeping people happy is a win for you guys because it feels like, I don't know, 51% is not even attainable sometimes. But you know what I mean? You've got your balance in a lot. And we have our version of your cab meetings. We call them the RAC meetings in Utah. And you go through those, you know, regional or local level, you know, county advisory board meetings where you, you know, present your recommendations on a more local level. Individual units have a lot of people to attend and give their input on individual units.

And then those, you know, get incorporated, you know, on up to the commission meeting and go through different layers. And this is now the final, I guess, vetting weekend that you guys got coming up to say, all right, you know, factor everything in, what we presented. Because your permit numbers have been out as far as your recommended permit numbers out for a couple weeks now, whatever it is. And so now it's time to, you know, finalize those and tweak them, if any, based on input from public or biologists and things like that. Well, what I find interesting is you turn that over to the board. And so you take it from the scientific side of things and what you guys put it out to the public. Your professional recommendations are this. And then we turn it over to this board that's made up of lots of different facets of society.

And I guess they make the final rule and final decision on some of this stuff. Yeah. And that's. Yeah. You know, it's, it's, I've, I've always, I mean, I grew up with the Nevada system where we have county game boards. And, and each one of those boards has anywhere from five to, I think one of them has nine members. And they're, they're, they're generally engaged sportsmen of some, of some form. Some are, are true trophy hunters and some are, are people that, that just, you know, that, that just want to tag. Some are upland game bird hunters. Some are big game. I mean, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a pretty broad group of people and they represent each county. We only have 17 counties in Nevada and really two counties are, are, don't really have active county game boards.

I guess maybe one county really only doesn't, but the rest of the counties generally put in some, some information and, you know, they might, they might disagree with our recommendation. They might agree with them. And, you know, if, if most of the, the quotas that we, that we recommend, you know, it's an estimate. It's a, you know, we're, we're putting out a, you know, a population estimate with a number of tags. And sometimes people want a few fewer tags. Sometimes people want a few more. And generally we don't get too wrapped up in, in the, the, the small numbers of, you know, changes that people want to make. You know, it's, it's rarely do we ever make any mistake that is, is so drastic that we can't fix it the next year.

And we manage for such high buck ratios, bull ratios, ram ratio, you know, in Nevada that, that generally, if we, if we have a, a, a number of, you know, a quota that's, that's too high, we might get down to what we're trying to manage for, you know, for deer, we might get down to 30 bucks per hundred does. Is that what you're trying to manage for just roughly? Yeah. Just across? Across, across Nevada for, in general, for the, for the standard units. Now we have, you know, we, we manage for, for three different types of units. We have standard, we have non-standard, and we have alternative. And the alternative units are the, the units that I guess some people would, would call them quality or trophy type units, where we generally manage for about a 35 bucks per hundred in those units. But most of the other units are, are at 30.

And then there are some units that we don't, we don't even survey. They're the, the real low density units. And we try to manage for about a 45% success rate in those units. And so if we, if we see higher success, we, we might raise tags a bit. If we see lower success, we, we lower tags in those units. But the other one. Real arid desert units that you just can't do, have a quality survey on. Yep. Yep. Exactly. So. On the alternative trophy ones, I mean, are you, is there just a standard, you know, is it the 241, 245, 231, 220s? I mean, or, or, I mean, you know, what units are those?

So up in the Northern part of the state, it's 014, which is North of Reno up by Gerlach. Yeah. I believe the, the Sheldon, which is 033 is managed that way. Over in the Eastern region, unit 081 and 065 are both alternative units. And then down in the South, it's areas 23 and I think 22, 23 and 24 are all managed that way. And back in the day, just for the listeners that, you know, maybe are new to Nevada, you used to be back, you used to be in areas. So area 22 would be 221 to 223. Area 24, 241, 245. Area 23 would be 231. And so just, you know, that, that carries on that, that terminology carried, carries on. I don't know how many years ago you guys got away from. I know. We get, we get, you know, stuck in our ways of how we, how we talk about things and, and, you know, I, I hear a lot of things from back in, you know, early in my career, you know, cause we have three regions.

And it's the, the, the Western region and the Eastern region, which are in the Northern, Northern half of the state and the Southern region. And so when I started, they were regions one, region two, region three. And, you know, so you still hear that terminology and same thing with the areas. We, you know, we fall into that, that trap where we, we still use the old language. So somebody got, somebody got jealous that the, somebody was region one. So they just, now they're the West region. You're not one. You're no longer number one. Well, well, so with everything that's, that's out now, what's, what's about to go to the commission meeting. Um, let, let's maybe just jump in, I guess, and get your general feeling and thoughts about, you know, as we've alluded, we've, we know we're coming off some extreme drought years.

And obviously this last fall and winter has been really, really good throughout all of Nevada and Utah. And of course we need more of those to come, but what's the general, what's the general vibe feel? And what does that look like in terms of, I guess, general permit recommendations throughout Nevada this year? Yeah. You know, I, I, I have been an avid, avid hunter for, you know, really my whole life. And, um, uh, you know, I mean, I feel like if, if somebody draws a tag in Nevada, they should have an opportunity, not, not going to say a guarantee, but an opportunity to see a quality animal or to hunt a quality animal. And, and I think we're still doing that. Um, we've, we've tried to do that through my whole career. We've always been really conservative on the number of tags that we, that we put out. And, um, and I, I still believe in that.

And, you know, I want everybody to, I mean, I wish we could give everybody tags. We just don't have the numbers to do it. And, you know, but, um, I, I do, I mean, I'm an avid hunter and, um, you know, while I want to have a tag, I, I want to have the opportunity to, to hunt a quality animal. And so, um, you know, that, that management scheme, I think it's just in general, that's how, how Nevada manages. And, and, uh, it's, you know, this, this, it's not my, it's not, you know, I haven't dictated any of that. It's just been what we've done. And, um, through my whole career, we've, we've tried to maintain high quality in Nevada and we're still doing that. Um, so, you know, you, you talked about, um, the drought that, that we've been under and, um, it's been, it's been really tough. Um, drought has, has really ravaged Nevada.

Um, different parts of Nevada have been worse than others, particularly the Northwest and then the South. Um, we've had, had some issues with, with desert sheep. And, you know, just a couple of years ago, we were filling guzzlers with helicopters because it was, it was so dry. Almost like you couldn't Bronson. Like Adam literally saving sheep because in some of these places, there's, there's not free water. There's not like no seep springs, all that to feed, to water. Five, 700 sheep in the muddies. And we remember it's almost like you couldn't fill them fast enough. Like there's so many guzzlers in Nevada. Yeah. I mean, you guys were having to fill, we were having to fill them multiple times. It wasn't, it wasn't like we could go and fill them up one time and, and, you know, and walk away. We had to fill them up and then we had to fill them up again.

And then we had to fill them up again. And so, um, you know, I, I think we ended up flying in, in one summer, we flew in like 265,000 gallons of water into, into various. Water sources, you know, guzzlers down in Southern Nevada, Eastern Nevada, Western Nevada. You know, we, we did a lot of work that way. And that, that was just a couple of years ago. And so, you know, here we are with, you know, we've been trapping a lot of animals, putting collars on a lot of deer, um, the last few years. And we've been seeing body condition is, is poor. And, you know, it, it's, it's troubling because, um, you know, a doe that gives birth to a, an underweight fawn, that fawn will never, never grow to the size of a healthy fawn. And, you know, that if it's a buck fawn, he won't have the size antlers that he would have. His whole life. His whole life. Yeah. He's never going to catch up.

And so, you know, we, we've been dealing with that. And then to see this winter and this winter has been tough. Um, and you know, uh, all, all of, all of the fisheries people are, are just jumping up and down because there's, there's a ton of water, which is, which is, you know, which is awesome. Um, but it's been tough on some of our big game herds. Yeah. So I think deer, deer have been hit particularly hard and, um, you know, we're going to see some reductions in, in deer tags, but, uh, the conditions that are out there are going to be phenomenal. And if, if anybody is ever thinking of, of drawing a deer tag in Nevada, this would be the year to do it. So I think, I think when you were talking about poor body conditions, you're talking about pre 2023 fall. Like it feels like all the game animals came into the winter in incredible shape. This winter specifically is different. Yeah.

And then now they're coming out of the winter with the exception, and we'll get to that. Let's say area six, area 10, you know, area seven parts of it or whatever, you know, where we had some, maybe some winter loss. Other than that down here in the trophy areas, maybe even over where you're at, things, things are incredible. And the, the animals that are alive around the landscape are going to be maxed out trophy potential wise. And I, I think that's in layman term, what you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. I think, uh, with respect to body condition, um, animals should, should be coming, you know, now that, that winter's, I would say winter's over, even though, like I said, I'm looking outside and watching it rain here in Reno. And, and, uh, you know, rain, rain is a good thing in Nevada.

Um, we don't get enough of it and, um, you know, we don't see enough of it, but rain, rain makes things grow and it, it, uh, it puts fat on animals. It puts, you know, it makes those animals in good body condition and, and, uh, that, that results in, in better horn growth as well, better antler growth. And so, um, you know, I, I would expect that this year is going to be a phenomenal year to, to have a tag in Nevada. Um, you know, like I said, the tag numbers are going to be down, but if you do, do draw a tag, you're going to be in good shape. There's going to be, you know, there should be some quality animals out there and, and less competition with, with other hunters, just because there are fewer tags being recommended. It's the very, that's the very stuff we've been talking about. Exactly. Yeah.

It's like, if you, if the big, if, if you can get a tag, if you can get a tag, if you can get a tag, it's, it's the year you want. Even these odd units, you know, Mike, you've been through enough of these droughts. And then we see Bronson, you, you and I hunted in Nevada very aggressively over the years. When you see, even in the drought era, you know, you'll see a slight with, let's call it a, you know, you have a wet April and May and all of a sudden the antlers just come on deer specifically. Um, you know, we'd, we'd have on trail camera, like 20 bucks over 200 inches. And then if you go into a dry year and then have a dry spring on top of it and you just have marginal conditions overall, you can't find one. Maybe one, maybe one, maybe one. And, and, uh, same exact places you found them the year before. Well, in the same deer, same camera. You have the same deer.

You know, that deer has a split ear. He's this, he's this. Look at the difference. There's five bucks here. There's five bucks here again. Yeah. 40 inches off or whatever. Yeah. Or 40 inches better. And that's the year we're having right now. So the downside is not as many tags yet. And so draw, you know, drawing odds will be tougher and whatnot. But when you're out there, those who get the tag, you're going to have less people, less teams, and you're going to have big animals. And, you know, antelope too. Bronson, I think we over, we overlook the antelope in Nevada. It's unbelievable. We talk about it a lot. But we, but they're hard to get, but they are. Oh, they're special. So Bronson this morning has been plugging and playing on his antelope choices. And it's the, it's the, it's the species that, I mean, just kind of is overlooked in my mind. It's just overshadowed and overlooked.

And go, go try to kill a booner and see how hard it is. And Nevada is known for it. Well, it goes back to what we've been taught. We've always had this philosophy of Nevada, and Mike's reinforced it, is they do. They, it is a state with scarce resources from a big scale wildlife population standpoint. Considering Utah or Colorado or something. Yeah, or all the western states. It's the driest state in the nation. So my point was what we've been saying is, yes, they, even before the drought, it's always been, you start managing. And that, that 30 bucks per hundred does that you manage for, that's a post-season ratio, right, Mark? Yeah, that's a post-season. We're going, we're starting. That's impressive. After the hunts. I mean. That's impressive. Yeah. We manage Utah's best limited entries for 35 plus. Yeah. Best. We're talking the three or four. Henry's, Ponce, that's it. Two.

And, well, those are called the premiums, but even though, and Oaks, Oaks is awesome, but we don't manage it for that. Those are 25 or 30. I know. That's the same. I know. So my point is, and, and the same translates to elk, which they don't really have, people ask us a lot of times, how, I just want better odds, I just want to shoot a six point bull in Nevada. Well, okay, there's no better, like, they're all better than that. Way better than that. Way better than that. And way great quality. Well, we'll have guys that'll say, we want 330 bulls, you can do that on every unit. Yes, that's right. That's our point. There's no like, hey, I just want to shoot a five point bull. Well, there's nothing where they just give a ton of tags to just go shoot five point bulls. That doesn't exist in Nevada. It's a quality product. And to your point, antelope is one of those too.

It doesn't matter if it's desert sheep, California bighorn, you know, goats, you know, elk, deer, antelope, and they're big. They're big and they're big. And so, I don't know, anything really big with potential, and they're hard to draw. And then you have to, what, a three or two, three year weight on an antelope. So, you kind of want to get a good one when you get a tag as a non-resident. And I think, anyway, it's pretty awesome. You get any kind of tag in Nevada. There are easier to draw units like four deer. Four deer and antelope. Archery deer, middle of the state area, 14, area 15, or some of these even up north. You know, there's units that are easier to draw, and that's fine. And there's plenty of guys that want those tags. You can work the odds a little bit more on archery antelope or archery deer, muzzleloader deer, or even rifle deer on those type of units. Yeah.

And, you know, even those units that are easier to draw, I guarantee you there are people that will shoot big deer, really beautiful animals out of those units. Well, what's crazy is a lot of those units have no population base of people to be out scouting and working it. Like, you drive across Nevada, you're by yourself. I mean, you better take some tire plugs. You might want to take an extra battery. I don't know, like gas. I mean, it's impressive. That's what I love about Nevada. It's a long way in between towns in Nevada. Yeah, it is. And so, anyway, pretty impressive. And so, yeah, I think to your point, there was a 250 buck member killed on that late archery in area 10. You know, I mean a literal giant. And it just reminds you, geez, don't be overlooking stuff. One of the hardest hunted unit clusters in the state for all intents and purposes.

And has good high deer numbers, but not necessarily known as one of the best producers, but there it is. You know, you just don't know where they're going to come from. Yeah. That's the type of year that's even truer in my mind. So, pretty incredible. Yeah. So, on the, you know, like desert sheep, obviously, you know, you guys are cutting tags a bit. That's in relation to what's out there on the landscape. You're still dealing with, I want to say, over 8,000 sheep alive in the state of Nevada. Yeah, 8,000 deserts. You know, the desert sheep, I mean, that resource, we're dealing with some disease issues. And there's units that are, you know, dropping off numbers, you know, related to disease. Some related to drought combined with disease. And, you know, there are some that are down a bit. But, in general, again, you know, it's a really, really quality hunt.

And, you know, I know I actually saw Adam on a hunt last year. I was just going to say, like, on most units, you still don't even ever see anybody. Like, the muddies on that is kind of, there's a lot of people there. But, like, it's almost rare to see anybody. But ran into Mike last year in Nevada. So, you ended up smoking a ram. I guess you guys kind of watched Bronson and smash a ram. I don't think so. I don't know. It was pretty funny because my buddy and I were there. And we were, you know, our other, the hunter was actually a little ways away. He was in a different part of the mountain. But my friend, you know, right at first light, he goes, hey, I found a ram. And I said, is it a good ram? And he says, yeah, it looks like a really good ram. And, you know, I'm messing around trying to get my phone scope up and everything. And all of a sudden we hear, boom.

And he looks at me and I look at him and he said, was that on our side of the mountain? And I said, you need to check out and see if that ram's still there. And he gets in his spot and scope and he looks and he says, oh, it's still there. But his feet are up in the air now. And Adam didn't even know anything about it. He had no idea you were there. We're all looking west. And, you know, that's where the sheep is. And we're, I don't know, roughly a mile in front of Mike or roughly, I don't know, a mile and a half, whatever it was. But so we're all looking one direction, you know. We knew where the ram was from the day before. And we had tunnel vision waiting for it to get light. And fortunately, they didn't move anywhere overnight.

And it wasn't until, yeah, we were walking up that we, you know, looked back and, you know, the other crew was coming up and say, hey, there's some other hunters back here, I think. As we looked back and see a truck, I'm like, well, probably hunters. But I guess we're, Adam said, he said, you wouldn't believe who I saw in the field. You wouldn't believe it. And what a beautiful ram. Gosh, that was just an absolutely gorgeous ram, too. So we, you know, congratulated you and your hunter on that. That was well done. That was down in the McCullough's, which is one of the best units in the state. It's pretty awesome. Very good. Like hunting Nevada desert sheep. It's usually, I'm done hunting them in Utah. It's usually warmer. I have been snowed on down there in southern Nevada before. Remember when we were rain? It was rain.

Yeah, I've been to the McCullough's and it snowed down there like that year, three or four years ago. It was nuts. But normally, you go down there, you enjoy the weather. You know, I'm sure Mike at the time, he's up around Reno. It's way warmer down there. It's not anybody asks you for help on the desert sheep hunt. It's it's real easy to say, yes, I'll head to the desert and have a have a fun time down there. It's a good time. So what a what a fun hunt. Yeah, it is. So anyway, we like you know what we like about Nevada, too, is they have actual set aside tags for nonresidents. And so you can go on and you can be guaranteed that there's going to be a tag or two or whatever issued five and in the muddies. But I mean, that are actually issued to nonresidents. So, you know, what you're drawing on, you know, yeah.

Conversely, to some states where it's an up to 10 percent and you're applying for maybe a statewide quota of 10 percent of the tags and you don't know what units those are going to be drawn from, like an Idaho or some cases, Montana. You know where they can come from in Montana, but doesn't guarantee you're going to get one there. So we like that. It does make it very definitive in terms of what you're what you're applying for. And while you're doing that, you might as well be applying for the California bighorns, elk, deer, antelope, anything of interest. Now you've got mountain goats for nonresidents. Yeah. New brought back in for this year. New back again this year. We did open up the mountain goat hunt for for a nonresident. So, again, you know, you got the Ruby Mountains and and what a what an amazing resource that is. Holy cow. Yeah.

I was fortunate enough to go and fly that with our biologist up there a year and a half ago in January. And, you know, being in southern Nevada, I had I had been in the rubies a few times and and hiked around and blast and seen goats and everything. But I'd never had the opportunity to fly them and actually go count them. And, you know, truly, that's one of the one of the most, you know, best days of my career was to just see as many goats. I mean, because, you know, we had a record survey of mountain goats and, you know, because they've been struggling a bit, too. And now we're seeing some growth in that population. We're seeing some some survival of kids. And and, you know, so that that's that's looking looking better. And, you know, it's exciting to see that that population starting to bounce back. Yeah. How are the Rockies doing?

Obviously, we can't apply for them, you know, as non-residents. But it seems like things you went through some struggles there. It seems like things are you're looking decent. Yeah. Yeah. We are struggling. Our Rockies are struggling a little bit. And that's that's mainly disease issues. And we do have a couple of units that are still open. What's exciting is the Ruby Mountains is back open again. Yeah. And, you know, so and we're going to we're going to hopefully we'll we'll continue to see that population increase. And we're we're trying to solve some of the disease issues on some of the other units. We've got some we we've we're we're collaring some animals in some of the units over in the eastern side of the state trying to figure out why why we're not seeing mature rams. And, you know, why hunters aren't aren't able to find some of those those mature rams. We know they're there.

There's there's you know, we do get a report here and there of people seeing them. But good grief. It's it's been so difficult for our hunters to to actually find them. But we've we've closed some of those units and and, you know, left other ones, you know, opened up the rubies. And so it's it's a quality hunt. But again, a pretty low number of tags. And we're going to we're just going to be working on that, trying to increase those numbers and get that back to where we can can, you know, have a few more. I don't think it'll be too long in the rubies will produce those giant rams you guys were known for. Yeah, I hope so. I hope so. You know, what we like to Bronson, because we've had a lot of kids is the fifteen dollar hunt license fee for kids. It's kind of a no brainer when when Nevada started that.

I mean, at least but at least by the time they're 12 and 18, they get what, five or six points built up for, you know, or they've drawn tags. Maybe you might still need to be fairly aggressive. Anybody starting in Nevada should be maybe a little bit more aggressive about their application strategy, just because it is generally like we've talked about. It's a quality state for all species. It's not real easy to draw, but it does soften the blow from a pocketbook standpoint to play the kids. And yeah, until they're 18. And then then after that, you get, hey, you know, you gave them a gift for six years. Or and we get to decide how serious they are about it. And if they are serious, why dads a lot of times will keep going, keep helping them through college and whatnot. But I just love how it's so affordable. You know, you've got a ten dollar application fee with the exception of elk.

Of course, we've got a little predator fee and a few, you know, very small incidentals on that. But and then one hundred and fifty five non-refundable hunting license to gain points for not for the adult non-residents and then 15 for the kids. So includes fishing and everything else. It's just awesome. Combo. So, yeah, we're we're looking at doing some more things for for youths and juniors as well. You know, we're we're I don't know if you've applied for Nevada yet, but you can actually you can actually you can actually donate and buy a youth a license or a, you know, yeah, hunting fishing license now. And so we're we're looking at at trying to trying to increase the number of juniors that are involved. And, you know, we realize that, you know, we need to grow this sport and trying to trying to get people involved and keep them involved, get them into the outdoors.

You know, I mean, it's such a such a noble, you know, endeavor to try to try to get people outdoors and keep them involved in this in this sport. And, you know, we believe in that and we're going to invest in youths and juniors as best we can. So that's a that's a new thing for us this year. Awesome. Awesome. You know what else? Bronson, they've got these PIW tags. I've never been able to get one, but they give three non-resident deer PIW tags. Partnership and Wildlife allows you to hunt any open season. I mean, if I drew one of those, I'm probably giving up everything else in my life. Silver State. I mean, you add those on top of it. Yeah, you got Silver States who are good for either resident or non-resident. You know, August 1 to end of the year, roughly, maybe plus or minus on something. But bottom line, you get to hunt. But you're the lone ranger out there on that one.

You wouldn't even run to Mike Scott out there on a hunt like that. Oh, I hope not. Can you still write tickets, Mike? Can you still write a ticket if I were to do something bad in the hills? No, no, no, no. They took my gun and badge away a long time ago.

But, you know, I, you know, the biologists, all our biologists used to be commissioned. And we used to, you know, I used to drive around. And it gave me a really good reason to stop and talk to people. And I really enjoyed it. You know, it was really good. And, you know, I don't know. We're still dealing with a lot of the same issues that other states are. And trying to keep game wardens in the field and, you know, get people. I mean, one of the challenges for us is just in general. I think we have about a 20% vacancy rate right now in our agency. So, you know, there's times that we can't get to the phone or we can't call people back in, you know, in a timely manner. And it's simply because we're struggling to keep people employed. Yeah.

Well, it's just that day and age. It's tough. It's tough to keep up with inflation and other things and whatnot. It's just everything seems a little bit tough nowadays. But that's what I really like about Nevada is you don't sell your soul. You guys do what's right when it comes to tag numbers. I've known. I've personally seen some of the vehicles that you guys are running 150,000 miles of dirt road and whatnot. And living within the budget, just living within the budget and working your guts out and not, you know, you could decrease this to $20 per hundred does and issue a bunch more tags and maybe, you know, lighten the pressure of maintaining budgets and whatnot. So, anyway, and with the mentality of a trophy experience, a quality, call it a trophy quality experience for everybody, it's a great excuse to support Nevada. It's just I love that state. So, anyway. I do, too.

Well, I appreciate what you guys do. I know, you know, I've known you guys for a long time, and I've seen some of the pictures of the animals that you harvest. And, you know, I just admire the heck out of you, and I appreciate everything that you guys do for us. Well, there's a lot of residents that didn't like to see those Nevada bucks leave the state. You're talking to one. Hey, you got a tag, legal tag holder. I mean, it's the way the chips fall. You know what? Anybody that's willing to come to Nevada and work hard deserves to take home a quality animal. And, you know, I mean, I'll be the first one to be happy for you when you come to Nevada. Well, I think it's good, too, to remind people that all five choices count. And so you can do, there's some good and bad. I mean, it allows for lots of valid applications. And so, you know, which can be tough on draws.

But it also, Bronson, that's why you're plugging and playing so much. It's like, I can choose my top three or top one to three choices, and then what am I willing to accept on the bottom end? It's usually weapon types, you know. I still kind of want generally these handful or so units that I personally want. But then it turns to muzzle and archery usually, you know, versus maybe a late rifle hunt, of course, which is a pipe dream a lot of times. So, yeah, it allows you to do that. We encourage people to keep that in mind. Don't use up three or four of them on the best in the state thinking one better odds at the end is going to make sure you're going to get drawn. If you're, you know, have your criteria in mind that what you're willing to accept and hunt, given the parameters of this year, meaning most of Nevada, you know, is at or above normal.

Everywhere is above normal in terms of precip. And more average stuff is going to be able to produce above average animals to some extent this year. You're going to see a new state. I mean, I had a guy tell me, he says, you guys are going to have, you guys aren't even going to put $220 on the cover this year. I don't know if that's true, but you're going to see a new state. Well, it's been several years in a row. Like we used to say you never have two bad years in a row. Those threes have been blown out of the water. This drought had a death grip, man. We didn't know what we were talking about. No. But we're finally hopefully going to come out of that. And like's been said, it's going to be tough to get a tag. But we like Nevada. Just a purely random draw. Your points are squared. And so, you know, first year applicants got a chance.

Well, you know, the other thing that even if you don't draw a tag, you know that we still have that first come, first serve system that's going. And so people that do draw tags and, you know, they might go scout. They might not find what they want to see or they might have, you know, some conflict that comes up and they turn their tags in. And we do have that first come, first serve system. And so people can log on to that. And if the right tag pops up at the right time, they can buy it and go hunt it. And I know a lot of people have been pretty happy about that. So we're excited about that. That is putting about, I don't know, anywhere from 1,000 to 1,100 people in the field before those tags were going unused. And so now we're putting those tags in people's pockets and letting them hunt. And I think you can turn those back to business day prior to the season starting.

And you can get all your points back. And so, you know, it's not a huge deal, so to speak. I mean, obviously. Lose some permit fees. But, I mean, your points may be worth a lot more than a permit fee if you really can't go do a hunt justice. That's it. And then you throw it back, and then some lucky guy that's watching the computer 24-7, I mean, literally. It's all night, all day, all night for seven days a week. You know, somebody's going to get lucky and snag a tag, you know. Yeah, they do. Really cool system. So, yeah, again, you can apply for desert sheep, California bighorns, elk, deer, antelope, goats. You can also do the silver state tags that are good for one person to hunt the entire state for months on end. Yeah, it's the same as the heritage tag. You know, it's the governor's tag. Yeah, and we kind of make fun that those are bad odds, and they are.

But every year, Carter, we know multiple PIW, the silver state guys, every year. Maybe even half the tags will call us. They're real people at the end of those statistics. They're live, breathing hunters. Yeah, and that tag's not coming available on the first comfort serve. No, they're not. But you've got to have a name in the hat, and I'll be the first to say it. My name's in there. It's in there. I don't care. I'm a sucker for stuff like that. It is what it is. The what-if scenarios, the upside is pretty up. Yeah. Real quick, Mike, you guys had, I mean, a great winter, but with that, rarely do you have winter loss. Had a little bit experience, mostly in the 101 to 109 rubies country, and Area 6, a little bit, and Area 7, a little bit. Yeah, Area 10 was hit probably the hardest of all of them, but we did see some loss in both Area 6 and Area 7. Yeah.

Um, those, you know, we did, we did reduce tags pretty dramatically in 10 and a little bit less so in, in, uh, six and seven. And, you know, those are our big deer areas. Um, but you know, um, we're gonna, we should see them bounce back. It might take a couple of years, uh, for those numbers to, to bounce back to where we'd like to see them. But, you know, we've been working on mule deer for a couple of years now, just trying to, you know, trying to, we, we've started a mule deer enhancement program. And, um, we have, uh, 14 different subcommittees around the state of Nevada that identify what they think the limiting factors are. And, and, uh, they, you know, then they propose, uh, projects to address those limiting factors. And, um, so we've actually started, uh, spending a lot of money on some of those projects for, for the benefit of mule deer.

And, you know, we recognize that if we do good things for mule deer, it's going to benefit all the other species that are out on the landscape. And so, um, you know, it's a, it's a, a good program. Um, we're continuing it, uh, this year and, and, you know, into the future. And, uh, you know, um, I mean, it's, it's, it's tough when you, when you want to increase mule deer to see a really tough winter come along and, and knock you back. But, um, like we say, the habitat conditions this year should be ideal and we should see, you know, uh, I, I know a lot of the does around the state are going to be in good body condition and hopefully they'll, they'll end up having twins or triplets and, and, uh, we'll see some, some bounce back with, with, uh, you know, recruitment. But, um, you know, it's a, it's a tough deal when you see a tough winter like this and, um, only in part, only in part. Yeah.

Only in parts of it though. And I think with that, we have it here in Northern Utah, but then down South, I mean, people are giddy. Yeah. So excited. It's hard for us to be like that. Cause we realize there's other half of Utah that doesn't think as, as excitement about bring on, we're ready for rain now. That's right. Let's bring on the rain. Yeah. And they're flooding away. But, but it's just because what we've, we've been in a dust bowl for sitting along down here and Southern Nevada where we like to play around too. It's just been literally unbelievably dry. I guess I've never lived through anything in my adult life, you know, maybe as a kid, but I wouldn't pretend to know. I remember it was unbelievable. What I love what you guys doing, doing for me all day too, is like, you remember Bronson when you applied for deer and whatnot. And then it says, by the way, do you want a lion tag?

Are you sure you don't want a lion tag? So I like it. Hey, I got one. I'm just saying, I mean, and you guys are basically, you know, you're selling lion tags, but they're affordable. A hundred bucks. A hundred and four or something might not. You want people to have them while they're in the field. Yeah. Yeah. You know, we, we, we want people to, to be able to have multiple opportunities and, and, you know, if they happen to, to see a lion and, and have the opportunity. Great. Smash it. Which is, you know, helping again, helping deer. Yep. Yep. So. All right. Well, we appreciate you. Anything we left out, Mike, that we did, that you'd like to cover or highlight that you feel like is noteworthy that we missed on covering? Well, the only thing that we didn't really talk about much was elk. And, and I would say that elk are going to be, you know, they probably wintered better than,

than, you know, the deer did. But, um, our elk populations are, again, you know, they're, they're smaller than a lot of, a lot of the adjacent states, but, um, we do have some real high quality bull elk. We're talking world class. I think you're being humble at saying. They're amazing. Yep. When you get an elk tag in Nevada, and there's a reason why you have a, you know, a seven year wait after you draw. I mean, it's a one or two light in your lifetime as a non-resident and maybe even residents. I don't know. But, but it's, you really have something when you get an elk. Well, there's reasons that some of the landowner tags are going for 45 to $85,000. You know what I mean? Just for landowner tag. I think that's speaks volumes to, you know, the kind of quality tag that you can draw. And the year we're coming into anticipated antler growth wise, things like that. So you're right.

Yeah, it should be pretty good. It should be good too. So I don't know. We'll, we'll see. But, uh, you know, we, we, uh, there is a reason for optimism. And, you know, like I said, if there's ever a reason, um, any, anybody wants to apply in Nevada, this would be the year to do it. And, uh, you know, if you, if you do draw a tag, you stand a chance of drawing a really, really high quality tag and, and you might be able to, to hunt, uh, uh, an exceptional animal. Something special. There's one other thing we didn't cover, Bronson. What? Well, I was just wondering. Don't say chuckers. It's freaking chucker heaven. Okay. But what? I mean, it's stupid. I've been up there in that old five one and they were flying. Have you ever had thousands of chuckers before daylight? You're flying all around your truck because they're on the road. I mean, Mike, it's unbelievable.

But what were you going to say? No, I just, Mike's a trophy deer hunter. And I just want to know a Mike, have you applied and be what were your five first five choices? All five choices.

Just teasing. I'm just teasing. You really want me to say that? No. No. I just want to give you a hard time about it. Yeah. Carter, Carter won't even tell me his, Mike. So don't even go there with me trying to tell you. I, I did apply, but I would just about guarantee that, that, that all three of us are applying for probably the same areas. Okay. Okay. Back to his roots. Back to the roots. Even though you're based out of Reno, we're back to the roots. All right. Yep. Yep. Well, I still, I was down in Pioch for, for 15 years and I still have a love for that country. And, um, you know, I'll, I'll probably continue to apply there for, for, you know, the rest of my life. And, um, I just, I love the area and, um, you know, regardless of the number of tags up, down, whatever it is, I, I want to go hunt that area.

I don't, I mean, there are a lot of people that'll play the odds and look at different areas around the state and, and, uh, I respect that, that choice, but I want to go back to, you know, 22, 23, 24 and, and just see the country that I used to fly around in and, and, uh, you know, you know, different rock piles. You know it, you know it like the back of your hand. Yeah. You can, you can just say it. I know you do. Hunt the remnants of what he left there 20 years ago. I mean, you want to hurt the grandsons. Yeah. Yeah. I do. I do. I just got a question. It's not, not official business. Like, do you miss the good old days? Like when I was in Nevada in 2000 to 2005 and six and all that, let's call it pre-trail camera, just back in the good old days, you felt like if you, if you busted a tire, you're going to be there until you figure out how to get out. You know what I mean?

And I just, do you miss those good old days back then? I do. I do. Absolutely. Cause they really were good old days. Yeah. And, uh, you know, but at the same time, you know, these are the good old days for somebody else. So, um, you know, there's, we're, we're still living in a good time. Yeah. Yeah. We are. It's an incredible state. I just love how you can get lost out there and you can go all day and not see another truck and coyote hunt from one end to the other. I mean, just endless, endless, amazing country, but all right. Well, we have an affection for that. What Mike, real quick, what for the 15 years you were down there, what was your official job title down there? I was the game biologist for, for areas 22, 23, 24, and 27. Okay. Pretty special time in your life. Really? Yep. Yeah. Yeah. I miss it. Yeah. I miss it.

You know, uh, well now I deal with, now I deal with, uh, different things with the agency and, and I still have a passion for it. And I, I, I, you know, I grew up in this agency and, and, uh, I, I, you know, I, I really appreciate the, the purpose and the passion that all the, the, the employees have. And that's been one of the reasons why I've, I've stayed so long. I probably should have retired about three or four years ago. Are you past, past retirement eligibility? Yeah. I'm away fast now. 30 plus. Yeah. Wow. But, uh, well, you know, stick it out. So good. Yeah. You're doing good things. We appreciate it. Well, we'll be watching the commission meeting. We don't miss, we don't miss them. So. Okay. All right. See what happens. But thanks a lot. I appreciate your time. We appreciate your time, Mike. Thanks a lot. We'll have you on again sometime. Appreciate it. Very good. Thanks, Mike.

You guys take care. All right, buddy. Thank you. Bye.

Just because you can. Yeah. I love it. They're the king of the plug and play. I hate the states that don't allow you to amend. It's Arizona. This day and age of electronic, you can't even apply on paper in the same state. Like, how can you not get into it? I don't. Whatever. Well, I mean, officially, you know, not an easy plug and play. You can, yeah. Notary, notarize some stuff. I get it. I get it. I just like to play around, screw around. If you can apply the last five minutes or three minutes of a deadline, why can't you amend your application up to that same period? That doesn't make any sense. Yeah. Your application doesn't stick until 1145 or 1159 that night. Why can't you go change it? Anyway, if I was king of any state, that would be the first thing I do. Well, maybe not the first, but. Well, Bronson, you know, we've had a lot of big deer stories, elk stories with the guys,

everything. I don't know that we necessarily need to tell another Nevada story. We've experienced it. It's hard to, it's hard to talk a lot about it. Because. It's time to make more stories. Yeah. Which means we need tags. Oh, yeah. And so. It's true. Like you said, if there's a magic wand or if there's anything lucky that you have to rub, rabbit's foot, four leaf clovers, anything you have, rub it before, before May 10th. So, anyway. So. All right. Okay. Well. It's the year you want to tag in Nevada. There's no question. Force it. There is no question. Force the drop. Force the drop. That's not possible. It's not. It's not. Just. There's some weird units out there. We call them weird. It's just they're somebody's special place. It's like the local knowledge you can't, you can't, I can't overemphasize how important local knowledge is.

It's our, our weird unit, obscure unit is somebody's treasure and he's watching a big deer year to year. Well, it's like for us, like say the northern or northwest corner of the state, I don't personally have interest. I'm more like Mike. I want to hunt the units. Personally, I want to hunt myself. Where I'm familiar with. I broke lots of bread down here. That's right. And I know there's good deer to be had in other places way far away. Like we should be doing an 031 or something. I don't know. I just don't. But I, I like to take part a lot in my hunts. Those are a lot harder for us to scout. People from Oregon, Washington, California. That makes complete sense up there. But like you said, those type of units this year, you're going to see stuff come out of units that people are going to be like, I didn't think that was still possible. It's fun. It's so fun.

I can't wipe the freaking smile off my face. No one. We're going to have submissions like crazy from big deer, big, big antelope, desert sheep, California bighorns. Anyway. What'd you say the results date was? May 18th or 19th? Something like that? Yep. May 19th is kind of like posted honor before, but you know how that goes. Seems like that week of about the 15th. It won't be later than that. A 15th to the 19th is going to be a big, there's a lot going to come out of that. I mean, Utah could. Utah's a little bit delayed this year, their commission meeting. So it may be a little bit later than that. But Nevada, you know, Montana, moose, sheep, and goat should be right in that week. And then you get into early June and then you got a whole nother, you know, Colorado, stuff like that. It seems like that last two weeks in May, it just seems like it's every two days. There's that.

And then you got Idaho, moose, sheep, and goat. Another good reason we're resting up and only working 40 or 50 hours a week. You know? Yeah. We're gearing up for scouting season. Gearing up for everybody calling in. Telling us their results. All right. Well, listen to the podcast. Go tag us on Instagram like we talked about earlier. We're going to give away Uno de Mayo. Epic. Prize on Cinco de Mayo. On Cinco de Mayo. How about that? I like it. So anyway, we like it. I like it. Anything else we need to cover? No, dude. Heck no. I mean, we're doing good. We're getting trucks and geared up and it's always fun. Five o'clock somewhere. All right, guy. Yeah, it is five o'clock. Let's get out of here. We'd like to thank all of our sponsors here at Epic Outdoors. For top of the line hunting, clothing, and apparel in every environment, visit UnderArmor.com.

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