EP 286: The Early Days of Conservation with Eddie Pribyl

Anything to do with Western big game.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast, powered by Under Armour.

Hey everybody, Jason Carter and John Peterson. We do not have Adam, he's on vacation, which I'm headed on vacation here shortly. John, you've been on vacation here. I've been on vacation. Feels crazy. Guy needs to do that once in a while. So it's been a minute since we've podcasted. It feels like we're doing two or three a week. Logan, why do you make us do two or three a week? It's ridiculous. Because I have a lot of fun with these podcasts. Oh, okay. I do it all for me. It probably feels like two or three. It probably averages out at 1.3. I don't know. How many? Yeah, well, for the past two weeks we've done two a week. And then we've been pretty good at one a week for this whole year. Anyway, we always wonder what the heck we're going to talk about. This one will be an interesting one.

John, I mean, you know, Nevada's right here close to us. And the desert sheep, we spend a lot of time over there. You know, Adam as well. And just an awesome, awesome hunt over there. You know, it's a great time of year and whatnot. And I've had some requests to have a specific guest on the podcast, Eddie Pribble. And, man, he's, you know, everybody tells us that he's forgotten more about desert sheep than all of us combined. The guy just has devoted his entire life to sheep and whatnot. And so I'm super excited to have him on and sure appreciate him in advance for being able to come on with us and talk a little bit about it. And kind of, I love getting these, and I can call him an old timer. You know, he is an old timer and he's seen a lot.

And I just love having some of these guests on once in a while record their history a little bit and share with, you know, the hunting public some of what they've experienced. Yeah, he was starting conservation organizations before we were born. Way before we were born. Way before we were born, yeah. I mean, we weren't even an egg. No.

Or the other side. Yeah, yeah. We were, I mean, we weren't even a concept. Our parents were maybe in puberty. Maybe. But anyway, he's just, yeah, so he was, he started, you know, the fraternity of Desert Bighorns there in Nevada, I think back in 64. Yeah. Which is like, which is like the oldest conservation organization I've ever heard of, maybe in the entire world from what I understand. So, anyway, all right. Well, what do you think, John? Should we give him a holler real quick? Yeah, let's give him a holler. It's going to be interesting because just reading some of the things on his bio, it seems like he doesn't love to take credit for some of the things that he does. He doesn't even know he has a bio. He doesn't even know what we've read. We've been secretly fed some information on him. So, it will be interesting. But, yeah, just know, I mean, this guy has done so much.

Just reading through the stuff that he's done and had the foresight to start being proactive to help sheep so long ago. Yeah. It's pretty cool. Pretty crazy. All right. Well, let's give him a holler and just bend his ear for a sec and hear some of this good stuff these old timers have. So.

Hello. Eddie, it's Jason Carter and John Peterson. How are you? Good. Good. Are you sitting down with a cold drink? It's hot over there in Nevada right now. Boy, it is. It's really hot. How hot is it? Well, they say today it's going to be 108 and tomorrow 111 and then the next day the hotter than that. That's pretty hot. Yeah, that's pretty hot. Do you guys have some central air conditioner or swamp coolers or something over there to keep you cool? I go to the mountain. Oh, do you? Every day? I have a little hobby farm up in Lincoln County. Oh, do you really? Yeah, up above Eagle Valley Reservoir, up above Spring Valley. Oh, I've probably been right there to it and didn't even know it. You probably have, yeah. Wow. It's in Burnt Canyon. Oh, okay. Yeah. I think there's some water projects over there. Yeah, there's Burnt Canyon, one, two, or three. They're spread around, yeah. Yeah.

Worked on most of them. Have you? Yeah. Well, so I don't even really know where to start. From my understanding, you're the founding member of the Fraternity of Desert Bighorn in Nevada. Is that correct? I'm one of the eight. I'm about the last one left that's still active. The rest of them are gone or they're not active anymore. Yeah. There was actually eight people that was in the room when we decided to start this organization. And that was back in 1964? 64, 65, yes. So what brought you to that point? What brought the eight of you to the table on this? Okay. Well, there was a little sportsman's club that was here in Las Vegas at the time called just local sportsman or something. Okay. And Endow was looking and they said, you know, we're losing our bighorn sheep. We have to do something if we don't do something. So they sent a biologist down here called Bob McQuibby.

And Bob came to that meeting, our little sportsman meeting, and he made the announcement of what he was here for and what he was going to do and that he needed help. Yeah. And so I said, I'm going to be at the horse corrals at Lake Mead there out of Boulder City Saturday morning. And if you guys, any of you would like to come, we're going to put some tags on some sheep and stuff. And eight of us showed up. Okay. And that was it. And that was it. Wow. Yeah. And then we helped him and then just continued helping him up to a point. And then somebody, well, you know, we should form an organization, which they did, you know. And that's how the Fraternity Desert Bighorn started. And so why did they figure they were losing them? Was it disease back then? Was it water? Yeah. Loss of habitat. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And the only place that the sheep were doing well was along the Colorado River. Okay.

Because it's pretty hard for them to mess with them there. They're kind of on their own. Yeah. And other herds in different mountains because lots of habitat from no springs drying up or white masts getting on the springs and using the water. So there are other things. Yeah. Just growth there in Vegas and all the surrounding communities as well or no? It's just like everything else. Habitat around the world, the worst enemy they have is loss of habitat. And that is as bad as any place. Yeah. But that's how it got started. And we just kept doing things and doing things. And then we started to do some projects here and there. And then the BLM just said, hey, you guys, you just cannot go out and build something wherever you want. You have to go through a process. And our people have to look at it. And then we have to okay it. Yeah.

And he said, the two things you've done, we want you to go disable them. Oh. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. And that was in the 70s, early 70s. And what we're going to do, we're going to do HMPs in all of the mountain ranges from Tonopah South, Habitat Management Plan. And Endow was involved in that. And so at that time, for five years, basically, the fraternity just kind of went into limbo. Yeah. And at that time, too, they were starting, wilderness was starting to rear up, you know, and they were making different areas, habitat, wilderness, you know, habitat for wilderness and wilderness and some areas. Anyway, they got their habitat plan finished in 1979. And then they said, here, this is what we got. This mountain here, like the last chance range, it has habitat. It has feed. The way bigger we'll support 250 animals, but it doesn't have any water.

So if you guys want to get with the BLM and put water in there, go for it. Huh. And it started in 1979 or 1980. And from then on, we were building at least six guzzlers a year. Geez. Wow. And so who was, how were you getting the funding for them? When there, was the BLM helping you on that? Or how were you doing that with such a... The BLM, the BLM Bureau of Land Management, they had funding to build three a year. Okay. So they furnished the material and we built them. And Dow had a little bit of money. And then, of course, the fraternity was doing things to raise money. Yeah. And we were getting money anywhere we can that we could. And if we didn't, and we had great support from the rest of the state. I know if we needed money to do something, I'd call NBU. And in a week, there'd be a check. Geez. So Nevada Bighorns Unlimited would help you as well. So you kind of worked together.

In those days, we all worked together. It was just one big organization. Wow. And so we just kept on, kept going. And then we started getting money from private people. People saw what was going on and said, hey, I'd like to sponsor a guzzler. Here's $10,000 or $15,000 to build one and just put my name on it. And it just, things grew, you know. Yeah. And so there's a lot of guzzlers. Of course, the guzzlers are named. But some of them, like you said, are named after people that either built them or after people's mustaches that built them.

That's possible.

Like a Cleo in the Last Chance Range. Yeah. And my genie, Cleo just came up and said, here, I got $10,000, $15,000. If you can build a guzzler with it, build it. Yeah. So we did. And then genie at the time was the BLM biologist. And we had great, great relationships with the Bureau of Land Management. And she was so much help on everything. We got a name of wire projects for genie.

And full, I guess there's a full curl one after. Yeah. There's a full curl one. Yeah. From a handlebar mustache, I heard. That was it, yeah.

So good. Well, and so you were, were you a mechanic, from what I understand, kind of had the wherewithal to be able to build these guzzlers?

Pardon me that again. So were you, you were a mechanic by trade?

Yeah. And so you just, and so you just were naturally able, not everybody can just go build a guzzler. And there probably wasn't, you know, set plans and guzzler plans like, you know, maybe nowadays. But, you know, it seems, I'm sure it was, you know, hard work and kind of from scratch to a degree back in the, with the first guzzlers you were doing. Yeah. Yeah. Even though when you had, you had the site where you were going to build it, you had to apply, you had to give all that to the BLM. Yeah. And even back then, it took about a year and a half. Yeah. If you, you submitted a site where you want to propose to put a guzzler, it would take them a year and a half before they would give you the okay to build it on that site. Yeah. Just takes forever. Now it's, yeah. It all, everybody worked together. Everybody followed the law, followed the rules, you know.

The best thing was don't try and cut corners. If they want it, do it. Yeah. You know. So tell me about the first guzzler. It seems like were you, I mean, did you build that one yourself? No, that one was built by the fraternity of the Desert Bighorn. I was, what was the, it's in the Arrow Canyon Range. Okay. And I was helping a hunter across the road over in the Las Vegas Range on the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. And we were, you know, getting ready in places, different things to do. And I looked across and that saddle was there. And I just said, right there in the arrows is the perfect place for us to build our first guzzler. No kidding. And that, and we did it. Wow. And that was, you were helping a hunter on that one when you found it? Yeah. I was, I was with a person that had a tag over there. And I was out hunting with him, you know, helping him out. Wow.

But the one I basically built by myself was in the enclosure on the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. Oh, okay. Tell me about that one. It was just one where they, they had a bunch of sheep in an enclosure. And they were being studied by the University of Arizona or one university down there on noise. Okay. About military noise and what happened to them. They had, they put sensors in them. They had all kinds of stuff. And they needed another water site in there. So Bruce Seller, who was the biologist at the time, he said, Ed, you think you could get a couple guys together and we'll go ahead and build a project in the enclosure? And I said, yeah, we'll make that work. So Bruce and I, we got the materials all lined up. And he got a lot of the materials off of the bombing range. There's surplus for out there. Okay. And we hauled it into the site. And then we got it there.

And then he went back and I said, hell, I'm not doing nothing. I'm just going to stay here and build it. Which I did. And. Jeez. Hopefully it was in the wintertime. Yes, it was. It wasn't real hot. So I just kept trucking away at it. And then I had everything in set. And I had the apron and everything screwed down with a couple of screws. And then Saturday morning, my son and Alan Campbell showed up and screwed it down. Wow. And the water truck came in and put water in it. No kidding. Is it operable? Is it operable today? Oh, yeah. They don't have the enclosure anymore. Yeah. Because they finished the study and then they took the fence down that they called the enclosure. But the sheep were tuned in to come in there. So, yeah, they still use it. Wow. How many years ago was that? Do you remember? Ooh.

Let's see.

I retired in 02. So it was right around then. Okay. Because I stayed there because I was done. I wasn't working. Okay. So it would be right around 02 or 03, somewhere in there. What's the typical lifespan on a guzzler that you've seen?

With the materials, quality materials, they should last 30 years. Okay. How has that process evolved or, you know, did things change over the years as, I'm sure, I don't know, developments came? Or what were some of those things that compared to the early ones? You know, what did you do now or whatnot? Yeah. The early ones were like tanks that hold 2,300 gallons of water. They were 8 feet tall and 8 feet around. And then from the tanks, it went to a drinker, and the drinker had a float valve in it. And then when the sheep would drink, it monitored the water. And the thing that we had the most problem with, say, get something stuck in the float valve, a piece of sand or something, or the float valve would stick. And then, of course, we'd lose all the water. Yeah.

So the new design now is to use tanks that are about 3 1⁄2 foot tall, and they're 8 by 16, and they still hold about 22 or 2,300 gallons of water. But then the drinker is hard piped right to the tank. So the water that's in the drinker is the same height as water's in the tank. So there's nothing to fail. Yeah. It just maintains its level. It maintains itself. So you can tell how much water you've got in the tanks by just looking at what's visible. And maybe a little water in the drinker, and you know what you've got. And most of those were three tanks when we built them, and then they were all upgraded to four or five tanks. Yeah. So it got more capacity. Wow. And that's where we are now. You know, we basically aren't building anything new. Very seldom. I think we built two new ones this year up in that 12 by Revely up there. Yeah. Area 25. Yeah. Everything else is remodeled. Yeah.

Well, there's a lot. You've got a lot of them. And, of course, there's bird guzzlers, too, and they're scattered everywhere. But these, the big game guzzlers that you, I mean, they're extensive. How many? Do you know how many there are? Oh, about 120. And, I mean, just to maintain them. And then in these tough drought years, you know, obviously they're helicoptering in water and dropping it on the apron. And, you know, at times it's just extensive to keep these things going. And it requires a lot of volunteer hours, of course, funds. And just, you know, nothing's free out there. But it's all been worth it. And I'm sure you've seen positive results from it. Oh, it's unbelievable. And, you know, even what happened in the state. But look what we've been able to do with neighboring states. Yeah. We've given sheep to the neighboring states so that they could start their herds up again.

Oh, Utah's had a bunch of them. And Colorado, Utah, Texas, have all come to Nevada to get sheep. We had excess sheep in areas that we could give them. So the populations have ranged anywhere from, it seems like, a low of about 2,000 to a high of, what, 14,000 or so? That's what they're estimating right now, yes. Isn't that crazy? Just crazy. Yeah, it is. And the goal of the fraternity members was to get free-roaming herds of desert bighorn sheep in all their historic habitat. So all of the historic habitat right now that's available to have sheep on has sheep on it. That game, that has been accomplished. That goal. Wow. Yeah, there's some areas that have domestic sheep or goats on them. Of course, they're not available. Yeah. So all the way, you've got desert sheep from Fallon all the way, you know, Tonopah, clear down to Vegas, Henderson up to Mesquite.

I mean, it's, Nevada was made for desert sheep. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. And then, like I mentioned earlier, just to see the states that are restarting their herds come and get sheep and then see the Indian reservations now that are also getting sheep and putting sheep on their reservations. It's very satisfying. Gratifying. Yeah, because you were one of the founding members. Yeah. And then, you know, and basically was, you know, formed, the fraternity was formed out of necessity, need. And then for you to still be able to watch and be able to watch everything grow and be able to really see the fruits of your labors and efforts and meetings and, you know, just, I can't imagine how gratifying it is. Yeah. This last summer or a summer before on this site, I made the meetings and everything, but I was a hindrance at the build sites.

I don't think anybody's going to tell you to go home, Eddie.

I mentioned the other day to the guys, I'm sorry, but, you know, I haven't made the build sites this year. They said, you just go sit down. You've done enough. You don't have to come to the build sites. They appreciated it. Yeah. Well, it's probably impossible to quantify, but the number of people from that group of eight people that started this, the results of how many hunters have had the opportunity to hunt desert sheep because of those eight people would be unbelievable. Yeah, unbelievable. Yeah. Wow. And, of course, with the desert Nelsons and everything, the avid hunters like myself and other people that their goal was to get a Grand Slam of bighorn sheep in the United States were able to accomplish that. I know I at least hunted with 43 or 44 guys that was their Grand Slam hunt. Wow. And it's just amazing. I know how I felt when I got mine.

And once in a while you get somebody, let's just get out of here. You know, their buddy has a Grand Slam, so they bought one. Most of the guys like, you know, like you, me, or myself, it's a huge accomplishment. It was my one accomplishment I wanted to do in my hunting career was to get a Grand Slam. And we made that possible for a lot of people. So have you been able to draw desert there in Nevada? Yeah, I've got two desert tags. I can't get the California bighorn. That's tough. Those odds are terrible. I cannot draw the California bighorn tag. So I gave up. I couldn't do the hunt. I couldn't. This is the first year I had max points. And I've hunted with four people, friends of mine that drew tags. In fact, my son drew one.

I got to go California bighorn hunting as a helper or a packer. Just then harvested one yourself. Yeah, but it's great. So you said you were a part of 43 hunts where they were going for their Grand Slam. Do you have any, like, even ballpark of how many hunts you were a part of that, you know, regardless of if it was their first sheep or their last?

About 110. Wow. That's pretty awesome. Yeah. I've been with at least a... Of course, I was a guide in outfit. You know that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just... So what units did you harvest your rams in?

Both in the muddies. No. No. I got my first ram in the blacks, and then I got my next ram in the muddies. They're the same sheep. They're the same sheep. Yep. 267, 268. They run across the north road like it wasn't there. Yeah. Did you hunt? Where were the best? In the blacks, did you hunt on the lakeside or just kind of in the guts of it or, you know, next to 268 boundary? Yeah. When I got my first ram, there wasn't any sheep in the muddies. Yeah. Because there was no water. There was no water in the muddies. Yeah. As soon as we put the water projects in there, it was amazing within two or three years how the sheep had just moved over there. Once in a while, if you had a real wet fall, there'd be some sheep from the blacks go over there and stay a month or two and then come back in the summer. Yeah. Now we have a population over there.

It was around 800, but I know they're cutting it way back. The thing that really makes me unhappy, my own personal thing, is when they started shooting ewes. I couldn't believe it. But they do. Yeah. They do. It's hard to see them shooting the mamas. But what about, so there is the Flipper guzzler and the Cliffside guzzler. I've been in, I've been to those. And they're pretty awesome. But tell us the story about those guzzlers. How did Flipper get its name?

The Cliffside, just from the location. Okay. Or it's built up in the cliffs, yeah. On the cliffside, yeah. Yeah. And Flipper. Flipper got its name when we were going in there to look at the site and to show the biologist where we were going to build it. We had a wild man on his four-wheeler thought he was Barney Oldford or something. So he said, oh, he can ride with me. Well, halfway in there, he endowed. Bye.

Did he hurt himself or was it okay? No, neither one. I think I scratched up a little bit and neither one really got hurt. But right then, there was no doubt. That's Flipper. So forevermore, he got to remember that he was the reason. He was the reason. Exactly. Wow. Wow. And five rams. We were out there looking around. And when we come up there, well, back, I think I was with a hunter at the time. Mm-hmm. And right on this one ridge we stopped. And every day, there'd be five rams laying there watching us. Yeah. So I said, we're going to build a guzzler down here. And we built it. We built it. And naturally, it was Flipper. And that's how it got its name. Jeez. That's pretty awesome. Such a great piece of history that'll live on forever, you know? Yeah. A lot of stories. A lot of stories like that. Wow. Yeah. And the people. You know, it wasn't me. I mean, for God's sake, I was there. Yeah.

The 50 or 40 or 50 people that were there all the time. I mean, they were just there all the time. If there was going to be a builder and so you'd help, they showed up. Yeah. And then we had people like Jalindo Taberti. Oh, I know him. And I know Jalindo wouldn't mention his name, but then other people that I'm not going to give their names that just started coming up with money. Yeah. Yeah. Just every spring, these checks would show up. And it was unbelievable. Because for the, during the 80s and the 90s, I mean, we were picking pennies up off the street to get enough money to build a guzzler, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Using materials off the bombing range, you know? Yeah. That's right. Anything we could do, of course. And then later on in the end of the 90s, and we, we, we, we didn't need to beg for money.

And we, we had a source of money then that we could, we could call, uh, and, and they would get, they would give us the money we needed. And that was, that was the Wild Sheep Foundation too, you know? At that time it was Finau's. Yeah. Oh, yeah. National Club. Yeah. I cannot remember asking Finau's for a check for five or ten thousand dollars that we didn't have it in a week. Wow. Always, they always came true. Wow. So, you know, it's good. It's been a great ride. Is there any, any specific ram that haunts you or that you remember just a, a majestic giant old ram or any stories like that? No.

We had a, uh, there must have been 10 or 12 one horn rams in the Muddies and, uh, in the McCullochs. There were, they were at least 180. I mean, they were just monstrous one horn rams. Wow. And you, you, you'd see them and you'd get on them and you'd take your hunter in on them and they'd stand up and turn, and they only got one horn. Oh.

And, I tell, I tell the hunters, man, I mean, that, that's a ram of a lifetime, you know? That, no, I want one that's got two horns. Oh, yeah. Oh. Oh. So, watching them walk away. So, you know, when they instituted the one horn ram last year? Yeah. I was, I was only putting in for California big run. I don't need another desert sheep. Yeah. I put in and I said, if I, if I draw that thing, I'm going to get the pleasure of getting in on one of them one horn rams and have them stand up and turn its butt towards me and wiggle it. And I'm going to shoot it. I've had to watch so many of them walk away. Oh, crazy. That's just my own fun little thing. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. Well, how about, so you've got a Grand Slam, you've got a doll and a stone. Yeah, I got two dolls and a stone and two deserts and one rocky. Tell us a little bit about them.

Where did you, where did you kill your doll sheep? Well, they were, they were, of course, my deserts actually here in the, my stone sheep. I got up in the British Columbia. Uh-huh. And it was just the standard, you know, the standard high country sheep hunt. Yeah. Do you know what year that was?

Well, it had to be 30, 35 years ago. I bought my, yeah, long, long time ago. Yeah. Yeah. So just for some, do you remember what that cost? Just for a little context. Yeah, for a little context. 10,000. 10,000. 10,000. Yeah. I remember back in the day. But back then. 10,000 was a lot. It might as well be a hunter. It was just a lot of money back then. Mm-hmm. But it was a, it was a self-guided hunt. I just had, it cost me that much to get there and get the tag. And it was a, it was a backpack then with four other guys. No kidding. So you, you took a group of you from, from down in Nevada or? No, just friends, friends of mine that wanted to go along. Okay. Yeah. That's great. We had, we had a great hunt. We had a really good time. Did you have plenty of sheep? Yeah. To do a lot of fishing. I got a nice ram. It's right at 40 inches. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Self-guided. That's crazy. Yeah.

Good for you. What about, and then, did you, did you go to Alaska for the doll? Mm-hmm. Went to, and my doll sheep, I hunted in the territories. Okay. I got one in Alaska and one in the territories. Okay. And the one in the territories is kind of a different deal. We, we were hunting, you know, up in the horseback. So to get to camp where you wanted to camp for the meadow woods, we had to swim across this river, the mountain river. Jeez. Going in, of course, and you'd take your gun out of the scabbard and pour the water out of it. Next morning when you leave camp, you go across so you're soaking wet. And so we were there a couple of days, and I went down, we had some fish lines out, and we were getting some dolly bars off the bank to eat. Yeah. So the guy said, why don't you go down and see if we caught us a fish? So I go down and look, and there's a grizzly coming up the river. Yeah.

We don't have those in Nevada. Yeah. So he just keeps coming. So I go back, and I said, hey, there's a bear. There's a bear coming up the river. And so he gets right across from camp there, and I watched him. And he stands up, and he kind of smears, and he gets down and he starts walking. Because he's cooking, he starts walking right towards camp. Jeez. Hollering, banging, you know, everything. And finally he stopped probably 50 yards out. And he stood up, and he started popping his teeth. And the guy said, if he drops down and starts coming at us, you're going to have to kill him. Yeah. He did his thing, and he dropped down, and it was just like somebody turned the switch off. And he just walked away. Oh. Oh. Darn it. The next day, we're up on the hill up there, and we get on this ram, nice 40-inch doll sheet. And he thought, we're going to take that ram.

So I get up there and pull the trigger, and the gun won't go off. Yeah. So I thought, well, maybe I didn't. Because I always carry an empty chamber. Maybe I didn't hit it hard enough when I chambered the shell. Well, I did. I did that about five times, and it wouldn't go off. And the guy says, what's wrong? And I said, the gun won't go off. And then, of course, it's a Remington, so the back of the bolt is exposed. Yeah. So we were able to tap on the bolt, and finally we got the bolt to drop. Wow. And a shot. So just a little bit of surface rust in there probably kept it. Right. Right. Yeah. I've had it happen. You could see the bolt just barely go down, and then two or three times it finally hit hard enough. So I put a shell in, and I was lucky enough to get the ram. And the guy looked at me, and he says, is that the gun you backed that Grizzly charged with last night? Yes, sir.

And I said, it's the only one I got. Oh, yeah. Probably out of oil, that bolt a little bit. That was just something that happened. It was a lot of fun. It wasn't fun. Anyway, we survived, and I got my ram. These are just different stories that happen on these hunts. Yeah. Make them interesting. How about the Rocky? Tell us about that one. The Rocky, we got on up out of Cranbrook, British Columbia. Okay. And he was up in this basin, and he was pretty much by himself. He's not a real big ram. Eight years old. Scores, I think, right up 170. And he was up there, and he was just staying there. And you really couldn't get there because they'd see you coming. Yeah. So I devised a plan. I'm going to crawl in there after dark. I'm going to stay there sleeping or try to sleep on the side of the mountain. So when it gets light, if he's still there, I can maybe get a shot at him.

That's exactly what happened. When it got light enough to see, he was standing there 50 yards away. Wow. But it was a rather uncomfortable night sleeping. Yeah. Absolutely.

Wow. And that was... That's my sheep. I was very fortunate to have some of my sons with me on my desert hunt. Yeah. And they've all got their deserts, too. Yeah. And, yeah, it's great. It's been a good ride. Yeah. Have you... Are you... Do you hunt mule deer, too? Mule deer and elk and other species as well? Or do you just really dedicate everything you got into putting sheep on the mountain? Yeah. That was it.

I was very fortunate that I had a very beautiful and happy wife. She liked to go in on the mountains just as much as I did. As long as there was clothes for the kids and there was food in the pantry, I could go hunt. Wow. There you go. Wow. She used to do some bird hunting with me.

She enjoyed... She came on a lot of the projects, helped build on the projects. So I've got to give her credit. She was right there all the time, supported me all the time. Wow. That's pretty lucky. Yeah. Really. Yep. And so... Wow. Well, good stuff.

It's just awesome. All of these stories, I'm sure. I mean, it takes hours and hours to go over them all. It just seems just incredible what you've accomplished and what the group has accomplished. And like you said, it takes money and it takes a group of guys and volunteer and then somebody that knows how to do all the paperwork. Because heaven knows working at the BLM now is not easy. I mean, not that they're against it. It's just a lot of paperwork. Yeah. It's getting more on tour. But what you said, what I've accomplished and what the group, it's what the group has accomplished. Yeah. I would never take credit just personally on myself before the fraternity is done. But you were able to be a part of something awesome. That's for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I was there. Led the way to a degree, Eddie. You know? One of the founding members.

And there at the build side of nearly most of the guzzlers during your lifetime that were built. Yeah. Right. I was there to give them a kick in the butt once in a while and they had somebody to cuss out.

When they were mad about something, they'd come cuss me out. It was my fault. I just wanted to ask you on all of the clients that you took on Sheep Hunts, is there any story that kind of stands out as special?

Not really.

They were all, you know, you have different things that happened at different times.

I guess one hunt, if people ask me this, I kind of say we had a hunter and we were hunting in the sheep range. And he had missed like 12 or 13 rounds. He just, I don't know. She just got sheep fever. You know? He just couldn't hit them. Yeah. So, and he had some cannon. I think he was afraid of the gun to start with. Yeah. And we had one week left to go and I said, we're going to knock off. We're going to go to town. And then we're going to come back with two days left in the hunt. And if you have another gun, for God's sake, bring it. He said, well, I got an old odd six that my dad gave me that's under my mattress in my bed. Perfect. I said, just make sure it goes off.

Leave that other gun at home and come on out. Yeah. So the second day, it was nasty day. It was cloudy and raining and half snowing. And we didn't get to hunt hardly at all. So he got back to camp and he said, that's it. He says, I'm done. I'm going to go. I'm like, let's hunt a half a day tomorrow. That was the last day of the hunt.

Well, let's just go out. And by noon, we don't see something. We'll give it up. So we get out and I see this ram and two ewes. They're up on the ledges and it's still nasty weather. And they're going back under this underhand like a little cave. Yeah. And I said, if we can get across this opening without them seeing us, we just got to go up this little set of ledges and we'll be right on it. Yeah. And so we get across and the wind blowing, swirling around.

You can get up this one little foot there over to the right and you can get up another one to the left. And I said, here's what we're going to do. I got a quarter in my pocket. Yeah. I'm going to take it out and flip it. And if it's heads, we're going up to the right. If it's tails, we're going up to the left. That sounds like a good plan. Well thought out. Plan of attack. Yeah. So we go up through there. We crawl up in there and we get on the ledge. And one of the ewes is standing under there and she's looking right at me. Yeah. And I got up by the pictures, put your shell in your gun and get ready because he's going to walk out of there and he'll probably stop for five seconds. He just, he doesn't, he hasn't seen us yet. But when that you go, he's knowing something's wrong. Yeah. And that's exactly what happened. And he turned to me and he says, is he legal?

You think I'd crawl up if I shoot the damn ram? It's illegal. It's a ram. And then of course that was, that was a great, that was a great, we hunted hard and he got his ram. Nate's story. Yeah. So great. In fact, I saw him about two months ago and he's, he's, we're still can't help talking and laughing about it. Yeah. Yeah. That, that's about it guys. All, all my hunters have been, you have one or two, but most, all over a hundred of them have been just wonderful guys. Yeah. Well, and it's just, I, I love, I love this conversation and just, it just proves how hunters are conservationists. And even though, you know, we all obviously want to harvest the sheep, but think about how many rams and, you know, sheep in general that you, you know, that, that your group has helped put on the mountain. And it's just allowed so many people to be able to experience that hunt, a desert sheep

hunt in their lifetime. It's nothing like a sheep fever is, it doesn't get any worse than that. Yeah. Yeah. Once you've got sheep fever, you're going to go hunting. And there's a lot of pressure. But then, you know, you get, you get, you get the other people on the other side, the Sierra Clubber side, and it says, well, they come on, what, what do you think about hunting? How can they, how come they're still hunting desert sheep? They shouldn't be hunting them. I look at them, I said, if it wasn't for the hunters, there wouldn't be any desert sheep. The only reason they're there is because of the hunter support that they got. That's 100% right. That's, that's, that's my answer to them. Wow. What can, what, in your opinion, what can people do that want to help? What can, what do you, what do you suggest? People that are listening to the podcast.

We have a banquet every year, you know, come and, come and support the banquet, of course. And then there's, there's a website that they're just redoing now for the Fraternity of the Desert Bighorn. And that's what it is. Yeah. www.fraternityofthedesertbighorn.com. Right. And they list that on one of the projects you're going to be in. And if you'd like to come out and help on the build, just call, you know, and, and tell them you're coming. And, uh, just support, just support, support it, you know? Yeah. Uh, if you got an extra $10 and spend it to the fraternity, it still takes money. Yeah. Well, and it's good. A lot of these heritage tags and whatnot have contributed and there's just, you know, there's just a better organization of, of manpower and funds and things like that nowadays. Yeah. We're, we're, we're in good shape right now. We got our endowment fund is almost totally funded.

Yeah. And, uh, it's in the market. So when the market does good, uh, we have. Yeah. That's so good. The principle is, is, is protected. You can't draw anything off of the principle of the endowment. Yeah. But whatever the endowment makes that year. Yeah. Then that money can go into the general fund to be used for whatever the fraternity needs it for. Yeah. So that's nice to have that in your back pocket. Yeah.

Well, we sure appreciate you taking time today. What a, I mean, just what a, what a, what a great time. It's just been awesome to hear some of these old stories and how things get started. And, and, uh, it's been, it's been decades since you started this quest, uh, back in basically 1964 with a group of eight guys and to still be, you know, here in 2023 to still be fairly active and, uh, very active and, uh, still having some of those guys, those original guzzers continue to be maintained. It's just awesome. Oh, I enjoy it. I'm proud. I'm proud of them all. Yeah. We got some new people now and we are, the old guard is about to bail out and we got, we got, well, they're, they're, they're just, you know, uh, like our president now he's, he's retiring at the end of his term. Yeah. And we just, uh, we got, we got, we got some nice, nice eager going young people on the board. Yeah.

And we get them to step into these positions or we're going to be in great shape. That's awesome. All right. Well, that sounds good. Well, we sure appreciate you, Eddie. Thanks for all you've done for desert sheep and for conservation, uh, over, I don't know, six decades. Yeah. How awesome is that? Wow. What an example you are, you and your, your crew. It's just awesome. Yeah. All right. Great talking to you. All right, Eddie. Thanks for everything. All right. Have a good day. Okay. You too. Bye. Yep. Goodbye.

Pretty cool. Yeah. It's pretty cool. It just, yeah, shows that, I mean, he didn't want to take any credit for it, but you know, it's kind of a testament to probably a lot of people that were on those projects and helping out little things. I like those, um, humble dudes. Yeah. I mean, he builds a guzzler on his own. Yeah. Who's going to go do that right now? You know what I mean? Right. We're weak.

Gen Z, Logan. I knew it was coming. Go build you a guzzler, boss. We can do it. We Gen Zs are strong. You guys would, your AI would tell you every direction. Yep. The artificial intelligence would be running strong. That's right. What else do you need? Tell you what size of screws, where to buy them, the cheapest, what route. Steps one, two, ten. You'd have, in 30 seconds, you could have a whole build sheet, plans, maybe even, maybe even ordered and delivered. Your AI would take care of it all for you. Let's call Matt real quick. I just want to visit with him and kind of wrap this idea up with the Fraternity of Desert Bighorn. It's just so cool to kind of learn about a grassroots organization built in the 60s, maybe even the longest surviving, you know? Yeah. Well, yeah, specifically for wild sheep. I think it is the oldest. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. Hello. You got a minute?

Yes, I do. I got you on the podcast. Oh, dear.

I don't know why you did that. Just because we can once in a while. Gotcha. No, John Peterson here, too. Visited with Eddie. What a great guy. He really is. He's awesome. Yeah. He is. He's awesome. So tell us a little bit, just kind of a few of the details about the Fraternity of Desert Bighorn and, you know, how people can become affiliated with you all and give you a little bit of support and whatnot. And anything else that you would like to add? Just really appreciate the opportunity on this. Oh, yeah. No, thanks for taking the time and talking to him because it's, he's really an outstanding dude and he's responsible for the fraternity, as I'm sure you guys spoke about. Yeah. But the fraternity, like the best way to support him is just to help out on projects. Obviously, we need money, too. So there's always a fundraising event, which is our banquet. Yeah.

I think that's been moved to April 13th, 2024. Okay. The website's kind of touch and go. We need some help with that. Okay. Yeah. That's a lot of older guys like Eddie that have been a big part of this group for a long time. I was the past president for three years. Um, and we kind of got into social media and stuff, but it's not something that all of the members run with constantly. Right. So we don't really have an online presence. So the best way to get involved is to do projects. We'll be posting that, kind of sending that out. You can, uh, get a membership from the fraternity. It's like $25 for the year. Okay. Um, and that includes your whole family. Wow. Yeah. It's, it's really, we make no money on that type of stuff, but that's okay. Cause we're just trying to keep these projects going and, and stuff like that. So it takes a lot of money too. I'm sure he spoke about that too.

It's, it's not cheap to put water on the mountain, keep it there. So. Right. Um, yeah, I don't know. Uh, like volunteering said kind of the best thing you're aware of, but the three to one match that the state gets for the, the volunteer hours and in kind tool matching that we do and stuff. Yep. So that's kind of the best way to get involved is just go on some projects. We have some coming up in September. Um, generally we try to do them, um, after the hunting seasons in Nevada. So from January until it gets too hot to do them kind of May and June. Yeah. Um, we have at least one project, uh, um, a month during that time period. So. Okay. Wow. That's awesome. Well, it's just been crazy. Is this, to your understanding, is this the largest standing organization that you know? Yes. So if you Google it, it's the oldest wild sheep conservation group in the world. Wow. Isn't that crazy?

So 1964, it took, it took a little while for it to get off the ground and for them to do anything, but I think a lot of the chapters and affiliates of wild sheep foundation, um, would agree that they've kind of molded everything after what the fraternity has started. So it's because of Eddie and that small group of people that started it, that, that a lot of these other organizations exist. And, you know, the, the efforts of in Nevada, of course, you know, there's more wild sheep to hunt here than any other state. Right. Um, and that's a result of like Eddie and, and those, you know, those old timers, those original eight that turned into a few more as the years go by, you know? Yeah. Hundreds now. Yeah. So it's, it's really an amazing story. Eddie's central to that story. So I appreciate you taking the time to talk to him. Oh, it's awesome.

I appreciate you kind of urging us to do it and, and to record it. What a, I mean, just, it was, it was special. He's, uh, been there, done that. I mean, we're talking 60, 60 years, 60 years. Yeah. Yeah. This is going to be our 60th anniversary. This fundraising banquet that we have coming up next year. So kind of a big deal. Yeah. It's a big deal. He talked about 120 guzzlers now, and it just feels like even, even if you maintained what you've currently got, it's, it's, it's incredible. It's an incredible workload. Oh yeah. It's, uh, you know, it's set the state up for success. I mean, there's, there's a reason that, that the populations were upwards of 14,000 at the high. Of course you have, you know, ebbs and flows here as, as time goes on with different things, but, and challenges and droughts and, and there's disease and hundreds of things, right?

That factors and whatnot, but, but way more than the low of 2000. Yeah. Yeah. Direct, direct, direct result of which, you know, in large part it's waters the, the, the resource that everything hinges on out there in that, in Nevada. It's crazy. Right. I think Adam said it a couple of podcasts ago, talking about how Nevada is the driest state in the union, but more importantly, Clark County, where most of these projects are, it's the driest County in the United States too. So, you know, we're, that, that water is essential and it's, it's not cheap to keep them filled up. I mean, when we have to do emergency water hauls, it, it drains our funds, you know, tremendously because helicopter time is not cheap. No, it's not. And you're, you're familiar to a lot of these projects. It'd be great if we could drive up to them with a water truck and fill them up, but it's just not the case.

It's not the case. That's right. That's right. You might flip a four-wheeler getting to them. Who knows? Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. Anyway, so they can go to www.fraternityofthedessertbighorn.com. That, that used to be the website. I think that the best way is go on social media and you can contact us that way. Okay. Through Instagram. I think the website. Well, it's actually, I mean, it, it may be, but it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it does pull up, you know, but, but, but yeah. And then go on social media, whether Facebook and Instagram. Yeah. Yeah. Facebook. There's quite a few admins. If you send a message there, we'll definitely get in touch with you. And then Jackie is our secretary. She works at Red Star Fence company. Okay. So you can always call Red Star. It's here in Las Vegas. Okay. Talk to Jackie.

She can get you signed up as a member, direct you, whatever questions you have, volunteering and stuff. We can definitely get you in touch. So, okay. All right. All right. That sounds good. Sure. Appreciate you guys down there. It's awesome. Yeah. A lot of non-resident tags compared to many of the states and just, man, just a lot of opportunity for, for hunters in general. Hunters are truly, truly are conservationists. So. Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. Just great. All right. Okay. All right, Matt. Well, we sure appreciate you and all your efforts. Oh yeah. No problem. Thank you, Jason. You bet. Talk to you later. All right. Okay. All right. Bye. Bye.

Okay. Well, that's about it, boss. Yeah. That's, that's pretty cool. Just piece of history. How cool is it? Welcome to. These old timers like Eddie can't be duplicated. No. You know? Yeah. How cool is that? Just, just awesome. What a great podcast. Awesome. The fraternity of Desert Bighorn. If you, if you're out there and you're listening to that, at least join up. Can't hurt. Sounds like it, you know, you're going to have to stalk them a little bit. But, you know, it's worth it. A few challenges on, on, sounds like on the back end of, of things with volunteer organizations like this. Yeah. But, but worth, worth joining. All right. I guess that's about it. John, you got anything else? Yeah, that's it. Just good luck on upcoming hunts. Good luck on scouting. Just kind of exciting. It's a fun time of year. It's awesome.

I was, went out last night and I saw a group of six bucks and a lot of, a lot of Muleys Matters type bucks in there. But one, one real wide three point. Really? Yeah. I was like, he's just a three, but he's, he had a great frame. And anyway, good luck. Fun, fun stuff. Yeah. Boxy. Where at? Just out, out west. Oh yeah? Out west. All right. Well, that's, that's, that narrows it down. We're, we're coming up on a Q and a podcast and Logan gave me the questions that people have submitted. I'm like, come on. I'm not going to give you GPS coordinates of where everybody has the tag. What's your favorite glassing spot?

So that's coming up. Look forward to that. I think probably be our next podcast. All right, everybody. Sure. Appreciate it. Good luck out there. If you need help, give us a holler. 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. We'd like to thank Under Armour for being our title sponsor and making this podcast happen. Visit our website, epicoutdoors.com, for discount codes to Under Armour hunting apparel. Handcrafted, quality precision rifles from start to finish. Red Rock Precision is one of our sponsors and many of our staff uses Red Rock rifles. Visit redrockprecision.com to find out more. If you're in the market for a hunting property, our sponsor at St. James Sporting Properties specialize in premier hunting properties throughout the West.

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