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Epic Outdoors Podcast

EP 318: Nevada Mule Deer, Alberta Whitetail, New Mexico Elk and More!

Episode Description

In this episode the crew talks about moisture levels in Nevada and the outlook of the upcoming season for Mule deer, New Mexico Elk growth for this year and Colorado deer in one of our favorite units. We also take a look in depth at each of the hunt options in our upcoming member drive! This is the last week to enter, so get your tickets now at epicoutdoors.com or call in at 435-263-0777

Episode Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated, so it may contain errors. Listen to the episode for the real thing.

You're listening to the Epic Outdoors podcast. Check us out at epicoutdoors.com.

Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, John Peterson coming at you from Southern Utah. Has anybody got gum in today? Okay. Bronson, you smacking gum today? Because we've had some people remind us that we chew a little bit too much gum and I'm addicted to it. So sorry, I want to say sorry. Everybody, Bronson, do you want to say sorry? Not really. If you've got a phobia, turn your volume down a little bit. But we do appreciate you listening. And today, we only got a Diet Coke and a Monster or two. Hey, maybe we'll take a drink. Here. That gets to me. Right there. In fact, I'm going to do it too. Oh, geez. All right. Well, anyway, it's kind of fun. You know what's super exciting is, I don't know if you got your email, Bronson. The draws are over. Oh, yeah. But I got my email from Arizona. I got like 14 of them. Okay. I'm just making sure that you're aware.

Because you get family emails and then they all get forwarded. So you get all your women and children because you're responsible for their upkeep and feeding and nurturing. All that. And then they, so I get each of them and then they send it again. Yeah. They just want to make sure that they're not on the hook for when you forget to update your credit card for the 14 women and children you got. That's right. That you'll end up, you know, and you don't get your tag that you don't blame them. Or go before the Wildlife Board. How about that? What was that? You go before the Arizona Game and Fish Commission. Would you like to do that? They're the most brutal commission. From what I've watched, no. They're the most brutal commission. Mr. Bronson. Did the state do anything to prohibit you from applying correctly? No. Okay, the state. Have a seat. No. Over here. Take a hundred education class.

Game and Fish. Did your program work as expected? Yes. Was Mr. Bronson at fault? As far as we can tell. Mr. Bronson, what is your contention? I just accidentally made a mistake. I think you guys should do a little better at accommodating your customers. I scrolled the mouse. Mr. Bronson, we could give two craps about your application. Go sit and have a nice day. Call us back when you take that Hunter Ed course. I mean, jeez. Brutal. They're the worst. They're the worst ever. They have no feelings whatsoever. Well, and their system is, let's face it, you've got to check out for every species. And if you do two or three for five or six or eight family members, let alone a licensed application service, it's just archaic. And it's a half-day project. But, hey, they are turning around in 14 days. That happens to be tomorrow morning they're going to be charging cards, right? That's right.

So this should not hit the airwaves before they've already given me my successful notice. Because if there's a chance this is going to go out. I don't know. What do you think, Logie Bear? What's that? Is this going to hit tonight? Oh, yeah. Whoa. Gabe Bronson. You know me better than that. All right. Well, I'm a glass half full kind of guy. If we draw a tag in Arizona, we'll be doing another podcast tomorrow. But we were also talking about the commission and we're talking about the Game and Fish, two entities. As they've been very clear to point out in the past about the governor raffle tags, remember? Game and Fish got blown back. And they said, hey, this is the commission, not us. And it is unique that Game and Fish answer to the commission. The commission answers to themselves and a couple of people once in a while. Really, for the most part, they run their agenda.

And we're not singling out Arizona necessarily. All states. All states. They're run by a commission. And, you know, of course. What's interesting, though, is these people aren't like elected officials, but they're making big changes. Big. Monumental changes in some states. Enough changes I'd be nervous if I was them for my mortal welfare.

It's just because there's weirdos out there. Give me an example, Jason, of what you're referring to. I don't know.

Let's be clear. Not from you. No, not from me. No, not from you. Not from us. There's just a lot of weird people that are so passionate. It's beyond. Yeah. And, you know, I don't know if you guys have noticed it, but later in history we get, whatever, 2024, 2025, 2026. It's getting worse and worse and worse. People are ticked off. Well, COVID cooped people up, got them angry, and it just kind of carried over. Oh. It feels like. You know. They don't. Droughts. Lack of tags. You know, just things like that. Lack of opportunity, which it's warranted because of the overall population numbers in many instances. Whatever. Depends on what we're talking about. You know, are struggling. Yeah. You know. Quality's struggling. And so people are ticked. Everybody's. Yep. And now I'm trying to run cameras with buck on bucks that just have like seven-inch stumps coming out of their head.

Trying to judge if they're going to be 190 or 193. You know what I mean? I didn't see any of that this weekend. I would have liked to have seen a four-point. Hey, how about, how about, you want to talk about a pronghorn you saw? I saw a good pronghorn. No joke. No joke. I was, it was a highlight of my weekend. I'm not going to lie. Okay. Like, hey, when a pronghorn makes the highlight of my weekend. I mean, they've been growing since December or January, whenever their sheath falls. December. They're out scouting. All right. Yeah. And so they're, and deer and elk, you know, haven't. Elk are a lot further along, of course, but deer need, they need a, they need some time. We're eager to go, but man, there's just not much to show us yet. But anyway. A good friend of mine sent a picture from a unique buck that showed a little bit more growth than anything I've seen so far. So it's been rough.

Hey, how about these new binos? We've been selling them like crazy. Oh yeah. Let's do a reminder of that. It's no joke. These NL 14s, they're really like a 14.4. Some companies are saying 14.7, but I want them to be a 15. And they probably identify as a 15. So let's identify them as the next 15. We identify them as a 14 plus. And so therefore that's what we're calling them. Okay. 14 pluses. That was the last podcast, right? We haven't had one in between this one and that, right? Right. So if you want to listen all about that, you missed it, go listen to it. Yeah. Greatest thing since sliced bread. Pretty awesome. Definitely. Definitely. We're getting the first three pair that are coming in probably two or three weeks, right? Plus or minus. Plus or minus. Let's call it four weeks. Call it. Just to be safe. Call it plus. But yeah. Okay. I like the plus. We've got a big waiting list.

But we are assured that they're going to be able to meet that demand within reason. So if you made the decision or about to, get a call. Call in. We'll take your card. Put it down. You get them out before hunting season. So anyway. Pretty awesome. We've got a lot of draws. A few draws left. So not a lot. A few. So let's just say credit cards will be charged for Arizona. We're going to have sheep and deer people somewhat excited. Generally come out here in a week, week and a half for official results. And then what, Bronson? We've got Idaho. Well, tomorrow we should have. Well. Go ahead. Go ahead. What is that? Tomorrow. The 18th. We should have Wyoming deer and antelope. Same time we're expecting charges from Arizona. So hey. For me, that's a wrap. It's going to be a good day. I put in for sheep in Idaho. So I'm not looking forward to it. Some people are excited about Iowa.

That's coming out here mid-July. Yeah. And then Idaho. Deer elk and antelope. Yeah. I already did sheep like you. So we're out on that one. So we're out on that one. So anyway, we'll be getting some calls on that one. That's about it. We'll see. Yeah. Well, yeah. That's about it. So if you're lacking on getting a tag or wanting a hunt or whatever, something world-class that's otherwise tough to find or book, you might consider our epic membership drive, our summer membership drive. John, tell us a little bit about that. This is the last for all here. Pretty much. So it's over. We're last week. This is the last week alert on this drive. And man, it's just really, really fun to draw these hunts and send people on hunts that maybe they wouldn't have the chance to go on typically and win something that's world-class, something that we would want to do.

Somebody asked me, what's the difference in your drawing? And I said, it's the quality, truly the quality of hunts that you can get. These are things that we would love to win. We would love to get this. We're one of the few that offer sweepstakes type hunts or a membership drive that will actually call our people back after the hunt's over. Like, we're proud of it because they probably had an incredible hunt, generally. And you've heard from some of those guys that are willing to come on to the podcast and whatnot. And of course, we try not to, you know, call every single one every single time and abuse them. Yeah. But it is something that these are hunts that we're proud of and giving away is pretty fun. So, John, I mean, you can get in by, if you're a brand new member, if you've never subscribed to Epic before and you subscribe, you can be into this draw. Yeah.

If you refer a buddy, which your buddy's a cheapskate and using your mag or whatever, fine. It's a good time to get him in. He gets a name. You get a name. As long as you tell us. Buy his membership. You can retain both entries yourself if you want to do it that way. Talk to Wendy or John about that. Yeah. And all you have to do is you choose your hunt just so you don't get just thrown into a random hunt. You can choose whichever, a ticket in for whichever hunt you want, the doll, sheep, the moose, anything you choose. And we send you a ticket for that. All right. And then you can, of course, we have ticket packages you can purchase and kind of buy your way in if you're, you know, have already got your buddies in or whatnot. And remember, current members that you were in once too already when you first joined, whenever that was.

And so, anyway, sure appreciate your support, current members, as well as potential future members. And so, we kind of want to go over these hunts real quick and just remind everybody what they're getting in for and what the options are. So, Bronson, you want to start us off? And I've got a little something special that's going to be up on the television. Come on. Logan's going to put it up there. Who approved? I did. So, I've got, I've collected some extra photos that you guys might not have seen in the magazine and kind of look at while we're talking about these hunts. So, Logan will put those up on there. Optimistic. When are you going to do that, Logan? Right now. Right now. You guys will look at them while you're talking about it. We're ready. So, of these eight hunts, six of them are for this fall. So, if you've got room in your schedule, you need more, there's six of them that are

for this year. Two of them are for 2025. Maybe I'll start out just talking about a couple of those. First one is Alaska Doll Sheep Hunt in the Wrangle Mountains with Alaska Wild Wind Adventures. Cabot has an awesome area. He's an awesome pilot. Has a lot of members hunt there over the years. Just some stud, beautiful looking sheep. I mean, this is not just checking a box with a squeaker ram. It's a great area. The Wrangles in general and other outfitters as well maybe have not been hit as hard with some of the winters that have had them across parts of Alaska. Of course, we had to buy this a year or two ago like you have to, you know, when you book a hunt yourself. This hunt is for August 21st to 30th of 2025. 10-day backpack hunt. Option to add a grizzly. Things like that. I mean, it was a $38,000 hunt when we bought it.

It's probably, if you're to book one now, it's probably $40,000 plus. It's just the way they go. We've blown through 50, not very long. But it's an awesome adventure. A 10-day hunt. Backpack hunt. August of 2025 gives you a full year to prepare in whatever way you need. Keep a calendar open. Prepare physically. Gather your gear up. Things like that. But as you can see, they're a bunch of awesome rams. The second one is an Alaska moose hunt in the Alaska range with Dillinger River Outfitters. This is in the last 10 days of the open season. September 10-20 of 2025. We've said it before, but Devin and Wyatt have killed giant 65-inch plus bulls there in the past. It's an awesome rut hunt. Great pilot. Great crew there. Limited harvest. You know, definitely great chance to kill a 60- to 70-inch moose. World-class hunt. Again, $40,000 plus hunt in today's prices. It's just crazy what it is.

But it is what it is. So there's another hunt for 2025. What I like about him is Aaron is a great pilot himself. And so there's just, you have options. When your guy's a pilot and you're not having to call back in for air support and whatnot, you know, from a third party, it can change your hunt potentially. Similar with Cabot. I like that in an Alaska Dall Sheep Outfitter, an outfitter that is their own pilot. You can react quick. You don't have to wait. But you're not one of three or four outfitters that a flying service is serving. And then you're at the mercy of when they can get you in. You can in-reach and say bull down, yada, yada. And maybe you're going out a little bit earlier. Or I need to get moved. We've hunted this area out in five or six days. Come get us tonight. We need to move so that we don't waste two more days, you know, trying to get moved.

And how often did Devin and Wyatt on a weekly basis talk about that moose hunt? I mean, it's every week. You know, something comes up and they talk about it. Them guys get on a rant, John, and they never quit. Man, it was a memorable hunt, I'll tell you that. So memorable, their book to go back. So we'll see how that goes. All right, so now we're sitting at a muskox hunt in the Northwest Territories, fall of 24, spring of 25. So anyway, with Canadian High Arctic Adventures in August to September 24 or March through April of 25, just a world-class hunt for something totally different, something we've never done before. Five-day hunt up there on the mainland with two remote islands in the Northwest Territories with a proven outfitter, Gary Adams. Just an incredible opportunity for a guy that's wanting to do something different. Way high success.

If you don't want to be in the latter part of winter next March and April, I mean, they're obviously haired up. It's a true adventure. You can see some of these pictures there. Pictures are amazing. You can go in the fall. And if you do go in the fall, you know, they're still haired up. I mean, it's not like... I don't know how many pictures you have here, John. Did you steal some stock photos off the web? No, no. They've killed a lot. Yeah, they killed a lot. You're 100%. They're all amazing. They're great. But if you want to go in the fall, you can do that. You can perhaps combo a caribou. If you go in the fall of 2024, that's going to be up to you. Obviously, if you go next winter, you're doing muskox only. But it obviously doesn't overlap a whole lot of other hunts. If you want to go next... I call it spring. March, April, spring here up there. It still looks like winter.

So, I don't know. If you're going to hunt this fall, it'd be ATV and boat for transportation. Otherwise, you're going to be snowing. There you go. Yeah, so they're fun. Yeah, and look how much hair. I'd be more of that guy. Well, I don't know. I want to kill some deer then. But anyway, or you'd be on Snow Machine. So, 100%, it just should be an incredible opportunity. All right. Now, let's talk about deer. We've got Nevada. What's your prediction for Nevada deer this year? Let's digress for that. I hate to... Well, let's... You know, cycles happen... You get paid the big bucks, Jason. Cycles happen at times, and you wonder why. I know drought. We know that's going to create cycles. Like, we can almost... When it's in a very extreme drought, you can predict that cycle. Especially deer. Yeah. But then sometimes there's just cycles.

You're just like, man, I actually thought it would be a better year than it turned out to be or whatever. But so far, things look really good. It's dried off, just like what we thought. It's a really dry... Let's call it a monsoon. We're not in the monsoon season, per se. We're right at the front of it. But it's still been very dry up to this point. Windy and dry the last 30 days. But up until then... Through March. Into March. Even April, May, we were pretty wet here. Yeah. Our weather gets a lot... And we're talking southeast Nevada, I guess, to be clear about that. That's kind of where... Well, I mean, that's where the biggest bucks are. Trophy zones are. That's where we are, and that's where we really concentrate. That's where we're giving away this hunt. So anyway, Bronson, you and I both were in Nevada this weekend, actually. So a different country.

I was partly in Utah and in Nevada. But it was the leaders on bitter brush and the bitter brush feed and whatnot. Next level, their ponds are a bit dry. But the feed's incredible. So it's actually kind of a good thing. Like, sometimes you don't want too much water when you're scouting. Like, it's nice. Last year, there was a lot more running water in ponds. Like, we had a bigger snow load, no question. And a lot later thaw, spring melt, if you want to call it that. So the water stretched way into the sun. By the time you had to pull trail cameras down in July, there were still... There were washes running water from snow melt still. Seems like you got stuck in a wash last year. And then this last weekend, you got stuck in a wash. And then you left some major divots in a wash down south, also the year prior to that. I'm sure somebody's not going to like it because there's some damage.

You never fill up the ruts. How about this? After you get unstuck, you never go fill up the ruts, do you? How about the BLM? It was in the roadway. You probably affected a desert tortoise. It was a perfect in the middle of a roadway. How could I be wrong? I don't know. You can't be, but you never know. Anyway, but hey. If you were on the Forest Circus ground, you have a problem. I was to the point, if my winch wasn't going to get me out because I had no trees. Oh, it's... It's when I had giant bitter brush, cliff rose trees. Luckily, the first one... Well, you just ripped it out of the ground. Did you replace that bush? Yeah, I did pack that back in its natural state, Jason. Okay, just making sure. But the second one pulled me out, and I was never grateful. That tree's going to have a bitter brush. Cliff rose is going to have... I stretched its roots.

It'll probably have exceptional growth now. It stretched its roots a little bit. It probably stimulated growth in leaders on that. So that one is always going to have a fun place in my heart because I was literally going through my phone thinking, whose weekend am I going to interrupt? I'm like, who's going to hate me? I told you before you left, I said, if you get stuck in a wash, you should have me on speed dial, and I'll bring a Mini-X or a skid or something. And you were like, oh, yeah, yeah, whatever. Sure enough. It happens somehow. You get front-ended, man. You get front-ended. That front bumper gets caught in there before you pop out, and then you start digging. Anyway. You were really fond of diesels last week. Where are they at on the spectrum this week? They're not a hunting truck. So you were axle-deep in the middle of the wash. Oh, I like that. Axel-deep.

Anyway, yeah. So Nevada Unit 231, we're giving this hunt away. This includes a landowner tag. Of course, we've got that tag. And then also with White Rock Outfitters, we give their hunts away probably every other year, along with Muggy on Rim Outfitters, Gray Crow, both of which are just incredible outfits and done great and know it very well. So you get your choice if you win this of archery, muzzle, or rifle season to be guided, landowner tag included. But then you can just stay. What can you ask for? Yeah, you can just stay. So you go guided. If you don't kill what you want, then you can stay, and you can hunt literally like every day from, say, August 10th, archery starts through the end of October for rifle. Every consecutive day. Staying near 80 days or something, right? Almost three months. You're going to hunt a big deer. You do that. Probably are.

Well, unless you're just an idiot. Well, John, I mean, you know, if you go there and you don't wake up until 9 a.m. and you don't stay until dark because you're scared of a couple snakes, it just is what it is, right? So anyway, by the way, rattlers are out. Quit talking about it. I haven't seen one yet. Just the fact you're bringing them up, I'm going to see one next time I go out. A couple may or may not have met their maker this weekend. It was no joke. But anyway, this is a pretty fun hunt to give away just because we know it's hard to have a bad hunt when it's a decent antler growth year or decent feed year in Nevada in these particular units. So unit 231. We're excited about it. Also, the Acoma Reservation elk hunt there in New Mexico. New Mexico, I don't know if it's ever quit raining. They have had like a monsoon the last month a lot. Not statewide, but in places.

It's been unbelievable. We watched it on the radar. So last year, well, we called this guy, didn't we? A podcast ago, two or three ago. Yeah. Logan, look up what number that was. Killed like a 381 or 383. Yeah, it was like a 385 bull. And he killed it last day. Yeah. Like, come on, you know. And had lots of opportunities. If you need a big elk, look at that bull. That's worth going and looking at or listening to that episode. Dry years is a little bit tougher in New Mexico as a whole. Not just on the Acoma, but as a whole, this is not one of those years. This is not shaping up. So anyway, September 30th to October 4th. And anyway, should be. Choose your weapon. Should be no joke. Choose your weapon. And September 30th, October 4th. Yeah. All right. Anyway. I mean, super excited about that. What number was that? Did you come up with that? Amazing. Yeah.

Number episode 315 was at Akoma Elkont story. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty fun. That was awesome. Pretty awesome. Proud to give them that hunt away. Worked with them for many years. We actually, you know, have somewhat of a partnership with them. Of course, we pay full price. Bronson, we pay full fare everywhere we go. Everything we do. Well, we don't, yeah. There's no favors expected. We want to book it just as if one of you are booking it or whatever. We want to fall in line just as if we're a regular paying client. We don't want to feel like, you know, A, we don't want a cheap discount hunt for a date that's inferior dates or less than when you'd want to be there. So, want to be there when you'd want to be there if you're booking yourself and spending hard-earned money. That's right. Yeah. We don't want you to feel like you're on a freebie hunt because you're not.

We paid full price for these. All right. Well, we got to, as customary, we usually have a couple of mule deer hunts. And this one is going to be Unit 61 third season rifle hunt this year, November 9th to the 15th. Gary Brothers Outfitters, we've given their hunt away before. Long-time multi-generational family outfitter there. They have, you know, all the BLM and forest permits as well as private land access there. Just a great opportunity. Seven-day hunt. Third season with landowner tag. Not much more to add than that. I mean, we like to be in Colorado most years. If we can find a tag, draw a tag, get a turnback tag, whatever, just for the... You can hunt Colorado until the day we die, which I don't know why because it's sometimes so frustrating. It is. It can be. But, I mean, it's hard. But this hunt is pretty consistent. It is.

And it's also, you know, we usually hunt, usually, the second or third or occasionally a fourth rifle because most of our other hunts, whether it be Utah, Nevada, are over with. And you can just show up to Colorado, hope you time the rut and weather right, and you have a great hunt. So, hopefully these dates again, November 9th to the 15th, should be awesome. Great opportunity. Great hunt. Great place to stay with this family operation. That unit's been consistently good since, like, late 90s. It's just, it's one of those that was managed before anything else was managed. That, and 21, and 10, and some of those classics from, we're talking, year 2000. Yep. Yep. And they have a slightly better age structure. They haven't had, they haven't had the peaks and valleys like maybe Gunnison has. You've seen. They don't have winter loss.

They don't, and you don't see the, yeah, the tags poured to it, the tags taken away. It's just fairly steady. Steady, Eddie. Steady. And one thing I like about it, too, is it's a limited draw unit for elk. Yeah. So, you don't have over-the-counter elk hunters everywhere. It is. It's refreshing, right? Now, when you go to town, you're dealing with OTC elk hunters that are coming out of 70 gassing up. Yeah. So, the feeling is like, ugh. But in the unit, it's, we've both hunted before. It's noticeably different. Oh, it's different. There's not the people there that are in an OTC elk unit. It's nice. All right. Next up, we've got the 2024 Alberta Trophy Whitetail Deer Hunt. This is a nine-day hunt in northern Alberta. With Alberta, Darkhorn, one of the absolute best there is up there. Very proven. And have a long-standing reputation.

I may be doing this. Look at some of these. I'm just saying. That buck right there. I mean, jeez. We snagged a second opening. I might take it, Bronson, if you're all right with them. I don't know. I'm just saying. I've been thinking. Do it. I think you should. But anyway, it's one of those hunts that we're pretty darn proud of. There's, I don't know how many photos. Like, 100. I don't know. So, anyway, all-inclusive rut hunt with a rifle in November.

I don't know. It's like 9,000 square miles. I don't even know how to wrap my arms around that. But next level stuff. I hunted it last year. Not with this guy. And in an area that probably wasn't quite as good as his at the moment. Just, you know, sometimes they have cycles in different areas within Alberta. It seems like we were still on Giants. We've talked about it in prior podcasts. But absolutely, if you're a giant white, need a giant whitetail or a trophy whitetail hunter, this would be one to get your name in for. Haven't ever given away a late-season Canadian whitetail hunt before. But, Bronson, I mean, we've looked at the photos over the course of time with guys that we book for and whatnot. And you always want one, but you never, it's just one of those things you just, what are the chances, you know,

you're trying to have the best opportunity you can and book with somebody that's legit and this would be the spot. Well, and it's just like hunting mule deer in November in the rut. It's like you just got to be somewhere that has them. But when you're hunting an elite mule deer, elite whitetail, call it a 175, 80 plus, hopefully, whitetail. Like, it's just, it's not going to happen every time you go. Just like killing a 190 mule deer is not going to happen every time you go. So, but this is definitely the zip code that can produce them. That's all you can ask for. Or, again, November, what, 11 to 19? Yeah, it's 11 to the 19th. Should be awesome. They, I mean, they'll hunt there at the 1st of November, clear to the end of November. I was at the last part of November. If I had to do it again. Yeah, I'd do it. That's kind of, well. You get your guides. You just really get rolling.

Everything gets rolling the first part of November. And then by mid-hunt, everybody's in their stride. And at the end of the third hunt, you kind of, they're trunky. You know, ready to go home. So, anyway, I just, I want that enthusiasm in the middle. And that's what we got. All right. Bronson, maybe let's talk about this New Mexico animal pun a little bit. Since your weekend was made by seeing one animal. I saw one good animal. One good animal. And it was the highlight. Yeah. I mean, well, if I'm on the other end of a shovel, I'm thinking that would have been my highlight, too. Yeah. Yeah. So, anyway. So, anyway, this is an opportunity, and it's unique that it's for two hunters. We decided, you know, this is a southern New Mexico hunt. Down there are TG's trophy hunts. Ty Gore, August 24 to 26. Private land hunt. You know, low hunting pressure. Should be great feed.

Should be great horn growth year down there this year. This is a three-day guided hunt. Private land with everything included with landowner tags for two hunters. So, if you've got a buddy, you've got a wife, you've got a husband, you've got a kid, you've got somebody you want to take down there, it's an awesome go. They've killed some awesome bucks. There's a number of great pitchers there that you'll see that. So, kind of a unique hunt there. This is a, everything's included, as is food and lodging. So, fun time, you know, end of August, you know, kicks off the hunting season. This is a rifle hunt. Can't go wrong with that. Hunting trophy bucks, you and a partner. So, anyway. Yep, I like it. It's just an incredible opportunity. And, again, down there, we're just expecting great things from all species in the state of New Mexico. Yeah, it is.

I mean, I don't know where John gets all these photos, I swear. Logan, did AI drum these up for you? I can certify these are real-life photos. From this guy? Yeah. You didn't poach him from somewhere else? We didn't even AI any of it. Jeez. Do you AI anything? No. Logan, are you telling the truth? How do you get through school? How did you get through school? Okay, well, I AI plenty of stuff. Okay, tell me about AI a little bit. What do you want to know about AI? Like, seriously, are these college kids using it? Is it whoever's best on AI has the best papers? No, they can detect it pretty easily. So, honestly, unless you're putting in more work than it's worth, you can't really get away with cheating with AI. No? Yeah, because they have detectives. I thought teachers were okay with running it. What? Some of them knew AI is happening. So, the way I would use it is I'd use it as a check.

Like, grammar corrector, make sure everything made sense. Make sure you're not missing anything. And that, they don't care. That's whatever. There's a million apps out there that will do it. Just a souped-up spell check from our old days. Souped-up spell check. Yeah. Make sure, like, if you're doing a church talk, just make sure you didn't miss a big subject. Yeah, exactly. Or some big thing, right? Yeah. And it'll generate you a 10-page paper, and you can hand it right into the teacher if you want. But they'll catch that. Will AI find you a girlfriend? I haven't tried that. Do you want me to try that? No, I was just wondering. Okay. He wants to be thinking, Jason, I've never thought of that. How about Siri? Siri, find me a girlfriend. I wonder who she'd call out of my contacts. I'd like a strawberry blonde. I don't know. Hey, let's try it. Maybe not on a hot mic. Let's try it.

You try it. I don't want to know who to call. No, when I say let's, I want him to ask his phone that. Report back. Or we'll stand around and see what it says. Logan reports whatever he wants to report. We never get the full story. That's why if you're not standing there, you're not going to know what it really is. You stand there, and you report back. Anyway, well, that's the eight hunts. We do also, we've talked about, you know, some of the packages. If you, we have, you know, tickets are $30, $125 for $5, $250 for $10. On that 10-ticket package, you either get your choice of a headlamp or a knife. And then we have a 500-ticket package. If you just need more tickets to spread out, there's that package on there. If you buy the $500 package for each one of those you purchase, you'll get an extra gear package ticket.

So for each $500 package you buy, you get 30 tickets plus a knife or a headlamp and one entry into the gear package, which is actually $15,000. It's no joke. Which is stuff. I mean, it's a rifle. It's a bow. Rifles, bows, optics, you know, all kinds of stuff. You know, Fierce Mountain Reaper. And if for some reason you got a felony on your record or something, Brunson, we'd throw in a bunch of muzzleloaders or something. Right? I'd swap out, what, two to three muzzleloaders. Three muzzleloaders for the Fierce Reaper. Call it a four. Dollar for dollar. Yeah. Whatever. Three or four muzzleloaders and a bow. But if you've got that problem. Right? And you're hooked up. Hey, that way everybody can participate. All right. All right. Okay. Jason, I'm glad you're thinking of that. Well, sometimes people have a record like that. Maybe it's not even warranted. Or whatever. Like Donald Trump, maybe.

Yeah. There you go. There you go. I had a good friend of mine say, he's making it fashionable. You know what? That's true. So anyway. This isn't a good road to go down. No. No. No. No. No. tripod epic ultra tripod and head so that's a fifteen thousand dollar package the only way you can get a ticket in for that is buying the five hundred dollar bonus package and uh anyway so that's kind of a wrap on everything and it's coming to an end i got a week from today right i gotta throw in another plug for that tripod our tripod if you don't win this crap sakes yeah you gotta buy one it's it's next level it's no joke this last i mean this last last shipment john didn't we throw a few centimeters on each leg just to give it just a little more more and uh it's still under four pounds for a stand-up tripod yeah and i i'm so sick of trying to video animals

and they move and i can't keep it in the frame and it's jumping out and it's not smooth how does ours fix that and very fluid ours is cherry it's so why is that john because you because i spent a year developing you were doing dealing with quality control and 14 layers later me and adam are happy to present our new tripod all all i'm saying is my dad has been a one tripod man one tripod brand man his whole life took about five minutes with that epic tripod for a switch over like that i had a well and it's true a good friend of mine got one for father's day because his wife's awesome okay she came in and snagged one for him and he's like anyway i would read you the text but it's a little it's what they call it explicit well just what did he say just i'll have the other just another check an amazing

broad beep i'm like hey all right i i get the point i love it yeah that's awesome so it was a positive very positive yeah i mean usually because it could be oh it could be negative that's why english is hard for people it could mean both things but no he just said he said uh let's see uh yeah okay he says no yeah no he actually didn't say that he said tripods you know with the b word you know like a female dog and then i am at the end thanks man okay well it is it is great and and what we the reason we did this obviously yeah obviously we're business we're an optics company we're optics dealer we want we want tripods we wanted it the way we wanted it we wanted features now tweak the features and i can use that word because it didn't mean what you guys think it means when i when i developed that tweaking that's right you can tweak you tweaked the crap out

of it yeah we did we went back back and forth and uh i used it heavily this weekend i love it i'm not just saying that look at that antelope no no that was that thing had a cloud of dust and that was hand holding 12 this is all i had he was not sticking around i drove right up on him and it's just you know that's what you do you want sticking around you know if you if you would continue down the road in normal fashion he would have chased your truck well guaranteed stupid but anyway he had one doe and he he led the doe like he was not sticking around the doe was 50 yards behind him running like what does that tell you he's been shot at tells you she's had her kid she's dropped and she's out yeah yeah anyway you always joke about truck chasers but whenever i have a tag in my pocket that never happens to me

they do that when you're on they're on one side of the fence and they want to be on the other and you're going the same way they that's what you intercept them at the sometimes you feel bad for them and then at some point you get ticked and you're like you know what you deserve it sometimes oh yeah i'm gonna put it sometimes it's a game cruise at 38 mile an hour you're like we're gonna see how good these things really run i'm gonna test 40 43 minutes later that sucker's still going his tongue's not even hanging out no no they're like they're mounted they're perfect picture perfect they can just roll i did see i did see a bunch of little babies too this weekend so running around it was cool anyway it's awesome it's great back to the tripod real quickly it is for for the money this is not a low budget tripod a lot of tripods out there the tripod alone costs

what we cost the same as what we're selling our head and tripod for four hundred and sixty six dollars yeah okay for the tripod and the head that's right and a plate that goes in it that's right and and i promise you i promise you that is a heck of value when you get that there's for the quality this is not like a low budget tripod we wouldn't we wouldn't have made it it it's kind of pushed some competitors around a little bit price wise because i mean it's really easy to charge six seven eight hundred dollars if not over a grand it's unbelievable though because they they can't because they could and now it's when you have a great option that's really affordable then you're forced to look at your own pricing give it a shot we got tons in stock it's that time of year um yeah whether you want that one or the lightweight one well you know we're talking mainly about the ultra but if you want

the light if you're a high country mule deer hunter we've got a high country alpine goat or sheep pond or desert sheep something you want to trim weight on and you got a smaller spotting scope set up all that you might want to give the light out light light a try as well so same thing we great value uh on the epic tripod we also give members great pricing on optics and so many of which guys can pay for their membership by just the savings just by joining on one one buy one thing yeah that's right i'm just saying saying it out loud fine to say it out loud give us a holler and we'll tell you what it is yeah just give us a call if you're you're curious hey what's the price on this how much am i going to save all right so i guess overnight we need to make sure that our credit cards are valid in arizona okay so anybody that's listening to that tonight you have to like midnight go buy lunch on

your car go try to buy lunch on the card right now make sure it goes through you know 10 bucks whatever if it goes through you're golden as long as you have a your wife is using it in rome and then you end up getting an arizona charge and they they reject it that'd be a problem you know you've got problems well which card does she have the card she's got whatever card she wants and i don't know when that is i'll probably go look at recent you might have some problems tomorrow if i've got problems she's got problems because arizona better be able to charge my card okay well well the other thing is is make sure for like a sheep what's a sheep 1800 bucks yeah plus or minus okay you better actually i actually have it is it how much you're gonna make me look 18 15 okay slightly off well the 15 i think has already been taken so it's about 1800

is the number you want a sheep tag or would you want a deer tag for knowing what you applied for would what would you rather have you could have either one what would you rather have deer exactly i like it but but but arizona so you're hoping for a 300 charge it'll be 300 even because it's 15 yeah happy well i'm just saying is if you've got and the 18 will be 18 even too so you were actually right because it's 15 is the i think from the past buddies you and other people that have drawn desert sheep tags at 18 well it might have been less than that when i'd take that sheep tag again i would take a knowing how it ended i mean you're killing a 180 if you're 184 okay so if you're doing that you would take the sheep tag i don't know though actually i think this year is going to be next level for deer down there i just do so it's hard to say but but that's not an easy

choice where i put in for desert sheep i have a chance to kill 175 radiance rams too so it's not like that's a slouch it's not like i played the odds really either so i'll take either but i got room on my card for either one or 2100 i've got room i'm leaving the room there's credit for everyone okay end of story there's no excuse for arizona charging your card not being able to charge a card because credit card companies want to issue you credit right logan are you not hitting getting hit up all the time oh yeah letters to my house all the time yeah that's right you're you're in aren't you didn't just do points only oh no i mean okay all right i had you he was pretty discriminating though right i was yeah he went i had a hard time with arizona so do you have a tag yet i do have a tag now come on oh yeah okay does that count it does okay i thought it counted as a tag pure

procured what are we talking about uh a guaranteed tag of sorts i needed it colorado yeah yeah okay all right i think it's awesome okay i've got a little game and we are not eligible for this drawing right but it's a what would you do so i'm going to give you 30 entries i want to know what your strategy is and which where you would put your tickets it is really it will go through really hard because i like names and hats i'd be tempted to do them all on the doll sheet but i couldn't avoid the two mule deer as well as the elk and the alberta whitetail okay so what does that stress me to like what seven per hunt so you're going to do two on the whitetail five on each of the deer that now we're sitting at 12 and then you're going to do the remaining balance on the doll sheet well oh no two on the elk i would do more than two like i don't know five five five and

10 or something like that was that up to 30 five five five and 10 five five five five okay how about you how about this since bronson you just buy two 30 dollar ticket packages well that change now throw 30 in for the sheep then i would do 30 on the sheep okay 30 on the sheep and then i'd probably split the other 30 between those others okay okay you've only got one how much do we get only 30 you get 30 that's okay i don't know i'm doing 10 on the sheep and then splitting the others personally between the whitetail the two mule deer and the i like the two mule deer for sure probably whitetail in alberta because yeah why not right i want that one picture with the double drop i need a giant i just can't even i can't even imagine that oh i know and then uh the moose is legit no question about it 2025 give me time to really set my schedule aside

this september kind of changed things with justin and a few other things that things that my kids have got tag wise and plans for you know whatever their futures so anyway so next year would be better for me anyway so probably do doll sheep moose two elk and or excuse me two deer and elk and white tell why not throw one ticket you got to have your name in somewhere why not throw one ticket in for muskogs one in for animal okay john yeah since i want a doll sheep pretty bad i would probably do half in the doll sheep and then i would spread out between the john you know you know the favorite the famous favorite saying those are for sale every day yeah they make they sell sheep hunts every day yeah i know it's uh yeah we teach john because he is going to be booking a sheep but they don't give

them away yeah they don't don't give them away that's a good for sure i like that okay logan caveat what would you choose 10 nevada mule deer 10 a coma elk five whitetail five sheep okay nice geez yeah pretty cool can't argue with that no and for the guys who are like hey what what what it's what are good odds i mean that antelope's gonna be phenomenal it's a great antelope white took a late season canadian whitetail only appeals to trophy white and certain people yeah like some people it's busy if you're hunting your own white toe in parts of the world which a lot of people are they they already have one or two states yeah you know for that so they have their plan like you're not going to go get them out of their trees their favorite tree stand in mid-november and drive to a or fly to a kansas guys or northern alberta iowa guy or missouri guy like they're sitting so that one and the

and the antelope which you know value wise if you want to just call them dollar wise they are they're worth the quote least but i mean that's not always how it works muskox is going to be very tailored muskox is also another niche one it's we thought that would be a a neat addition those aren't in themselves totally expensive heavily sought after but they're also more of a niche like that's just an experience hunt you know go there for the experience and see the country if you go on uh march and april you go there to live to tell about it how do you mount a muskox do they just do the school or those aren't our problems that's that's for jeff baird to deal with i just i don't know what do you mean there's people life size those things john is it some people have i mean i'm i they're not because i mean they aren't as big as like a buffalo like they they're very shag yeah

shaggy they're not as tall at the shoulders you'd think either they're they're they're narrow side to side anyway that's the one i mean their coats are awesome their horns are awesome yeah some people some people just mount the whole rug and then do like a euro or something like that on the school so pretty cool but hey that's somebody else's teach their own on that yeah all right i'm done i mean are you guys done john you don't have any more games do you no no more games but uh i mean geez well and and just just reiterate i need to come up with more games jason you can get tickets easy go to epic outdoors.com you can call us 435-263-0777 deadline's the 24th right that's a week from tonight 11 59 run next monday end of it right yep monday night monday the 24th yeah okay so get get them get it in by then every every single person can participate and then as always we will

call the winners on the podcast two or three days after that yeah usually get them done and uh so fun podcast yeah we need we need time usually requires a little editing yeah if you purchase tickets well people swear a little if you purchase tickets you're going to get an email with a photo of your tickets going you know before they go in the bins yeah everybody gets those girls are good at that just it just uh solidifies everybody hey your tickets are made very very transparent here so yeah all right everybody good luck let's face it if your goal is to kill big stuff you need to draw quality tags quality tags are typically hard to draw to increase your odds of drawing good tags you need to apply in multiple states that's where an epic outdoors membership can help for only 150 bucks a year you get access to our consultants our online tools and to epic approved outfitters and members

only optics discounts with unlimited access to our team of consultants and access to the epic outdoors magazines applying in multiple states is easy no more worrying if you're applying for the best areas no more applying for a unit where there has been a die-off and no more missing opportunities where you could be in the field and not sitting at home go online at epic outdoors.com or call us today at 435-263-0777 to find out how you can become a member today kuyu is the most uncompromising camo on the market their new guide pro series is the toughest most comfortable camo you will ever own check out their new additions and shop men and women's camo now at kuyu.com that's k-u-i-u.com kenetrek makes boots for every hunt whether you're hunting sheep in the high rocky altitudes or low crawling sagebrush for

those desert muleys kenetrek has you covered check out their world-class mountain extreme line and their brand new bridger high boots at kenetrek.com k-e-n-e-t-r-e-k.com applying for tags in multiple western states can be time consuming at epic outdoors we have you covered whether you want to expand your hunting portfolio or simply ensure that you never miss a deadline again the epic outdoors license application service is exactly what you need it's like having the best cpas in the finance world do your taxes let the best hunting application gurus in the world do your tag applications you'll never miss a deadline you'll never apply for the wrong unit and you'll never apply for a unit that's having a die-off your time is valuable we do the work you draw the tags epic outdoors license app 435-263-0777

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Put This Intel to Work

The podcast is where we talk it through. The membership is where we help you do it: the hunt research magazine, draw odds and deadlines in the Epic Outdoors app, and one on one time with our consultants, $150 per year.