EP 393: The Nevada Dream Tags, Talking with a Real Dream Tag Winner and More on the 2026 Season Outlook

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Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, John Peterson, Devin. Devin's sleeping. What do you mean? I'm just here. A little bit sleepy. Kick back. Cash, how you doing? Good. Wyatt? Yeah, here. Welcome back from family vacation. Yeah. What did you do on your family vacation? We went to a water park. Yeah? You must like water. He's a complete officer, actually. Very surprising, huh? Well, you're a team player. Yeah. If the family vacation doesn't involve a spotting scope, I'm probably not very enjoyable. Are you kind of a bear to deal with?

You have to ask the family. Do they know? Yeah, I think they have a feeling. Could we call a couple of them on the podcast? It would be awesome. Just to get it from their mouth. Carly. What's Wyatt like on family vacation in St. George, Utah? Can you count on your fingers with one hand or two hands? How many words he said?

It's awesome. I do find it interesting that everybody wants to be in your B&B down at Lake Powell. When it's really hot weather. Yeah. Instead of a camp trailer. Yeah. Instead of a camp trailer, those Airbnbs come in handy. I'm going to say this. That would be me. Yeah. I'd be in that Airbnb. Running the AC. For some reason, they don't work very good. The AC doesn't work very good down there in Patriots. Especially in camp trailers. Yeah. Camp trailers. 105 degrees outside, you're in a camp trailer. So over it. Yeah. All right. Well, anyway, Logan, how are you doing? I'm doing good. Good. You got any stories? I guess you tried to set the world on fire. No. Over the weekend. I tried to stop the world from being set on fire. Oh, really? Oh, really? The world consists more than just Minersville, Logan. It does. I've never seen any proof. The world is Beaver County, and that's about it.

So, anyway, Smoke Plumes, how'd that treat you? It was good. I called it in real quick. Yeah. What happened? What was the lowdown on that? What they said was, Logie Bear, is this Smokey Bear? Yeah. What do we got going on here? He's in the family. I was driving down the road and look over and saw smoke coming from your rear view mirror. Rear view mirror. I know it.

About the place you set a drum camera using a self-tapper. The title of this podcast episode is going to be, Logan did not start a forward fire, contrary to what everybody says. I didn't even touch it. I didn't drill a self-tapper. I didn't. Yep. I shot randomly at rocks trying to create sparks. Did you shoot a rifle? I didn't even have a gun with me. What kind of man are you? That's what I want to report to. Oh, man, they can take care of business with my own two hands. Logan the Democrat.

Us red-blooded Americans have rifles. So, what happened? I was setting truck cameras and I was driving down the road and look out my passenger side window. And I'm like, huh, that kind of looks like smoke. And then I keep driving for a second. I'm like, holy cow, that is smoke. So, I pull over and pull up Onyx to make sure there's no cabin over there or anything that could have any way I'm looking. And finally, after a minute of sitting there and looking, I'm like, I need to call this in because it's dry out here. And it was Friday when it was really, really windy that day. And so, I call it in and they're like, yeah, somebody, we just got off the phone with another guy who just reported it. We figure it must be lightning strike. He must have been much closer than I was looking at it. Oh. Smoldering. Interesting. I would probably investigate that guy. I washed my hands of it.

I drove away. I let the government take care of it. Because they take care of everything. You trust the government. You know, kids your age would trust the government. No, they don't. And I do not, no. Kids your age want the chips inside their bodies. Well, I just, yeah, that's fine. Would you take a chip inside your body? If it's an Elon Musk trip and not a government chip. Same thing. Logan, same thing. Oh, no. Him and Trump deal with each other on the daily. It's true. It's a little too close. See what I mean? Maybe a chat GPT. There's no hope for this guy. He's already been won over by chat. Maybe if chat GPT comes out, the chip. Claude and what other fake people are out there? Grok. Grok. Grok's funny. What? Grok. Rumpelstiltskin. All the AI built by Elon. Are you a devout Elon follower? No. Not really. He's done some cool things. Yeah, I like Elon. I love the SpaceX stuff.

His AI is kind of cool, but I don't know. All right, let's move on. Something interesting. Bronson, what do we got left for the year? What can we apply for right now? Not much, but there's one more tag in Nevada, at least. There's like four of them, right? Desert sheep. One more deadline, I guess. Oh, deadline. I like it. So we've got the dream tags there in Nevada, and the deadline is when? Tomorrow. Okay? So time is of the essence. Pretty awesome. They're giving away four tags. It'd be deer, elk, antelope, and desert sheep. And so pretty awesome opportunity there. We've actually known quite a few guys over the years. Wouldn't you say what? Yeah. A handful of guys. Desert. One guy's drawn desert twice that I remember. Yeah. We seem to talk to the winner about every year. At least one of the winners per species or a species winner. Pretty regular. Yeah. Yeah.

So anyway, deadlines tomorrow, basically, let's call it midnight. June 30th. The 30th. June 30th. June 30th. In case you listen to it on June 30th. It's not tomorrow. Oh, yeah. Good point. Yeah. If somebody picks this podcast up tomorrow, don't be waiting until tomorrow after tomorrow. Yes, right. Exactly. Right? So let's call it Tuesday. Should we say that to? Yeah. Yeah. I'd like that. Tuesday night before you go to bed. Yeah. All right. So, Bronson, give us the load on. How do I get a ticket? Well, you can go, looks like, to nvdreamtag.org. They're $5 a pop plus $75 processing fee per ticket. So $5.75 a ticket. Unlimited number you can buy. Like I said, four species. And there's real people at the end of these. You've got desert sheep, deer, elk, antelope this year. But there's real people.

At the end of these, these are obviously not, you know, not going to be something you're going to have good odds at drawing. But, hey, you know, we've talked to people, like I said, every year. Not only here, but other states that draw equivalent type tags. So this is one of the last things you've got, you know, a little jingle in your pocket, you know. From a refund, maybe a Wyoming antelope refund. Yeah. Right? Did you get that? Oh, yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah. I don't know what to do with it. Now you do. I mean, I need tires at $2,000. Is that? Okay. The cool thing about these tags is you can hunt any open season in the state of Nevada. Yeah. So it's kind of like a PIW deer tag. Yes, exactly. Any open season. Right? So it's not like a governor tag where it's. State-wise. State-wise. Yeah, August 1 or whatever. End of December. So. Anyway, but any open season.

And there's a lot of seasons out there is the good thing. Yeah. Deer. Oh. Clear into December. If a guy doesn't get divorced at the end of this one, he didn't do it right. He didn't give it his all. You know what I mean? Yeah, I know what you mean. I mean, this is one of them things that breaks your family apart.

It's just, let's talk about it. Or brings them together, Jason. It's good. You could. Do some scouting. That's right. A lot of quality time with the family, friends. Quality time. 105 degree weather. And good people. Running trail cams right now. Or wait until November and freeze to death and do it that way. Yeah. Good. So, let's just say, Devin, let's put you on the spot. You win the deer tech. The dream deer tech. What are you going to do? Turn it back. Grab your. Can I get my points back? Well, I do. I do like. I really do like my family. They are. They are. You do have a good family just getting started there. Yeah. But, you know, now is a good time to put your foot down and show her that you're going to be a man of that. You guys wouldn't see me for quite some time. Okay. Where would you be? Somewhere out there. August 10th, probably. Yes. Opening demo season.

Heavy archery and muzzle. Would you? Yeah. You know what? My favorite season is muzzle. Bronson, what's your favorite season? Archery and muzzle. Yeah. I'm going to go archery first just because you're first. But muzzle is when you actually might be able to kill them. Kill what you've been chasing. Yeah. Jason and I lived through that one year together where he had a muzzle and I had an archery tag and I chased heavily on opening day. He smashed it. Waka. I love the muzzle. Smashed the buck. One of the two bucks we chased the whole archery. It does feel like you can kill them with a muzzle even though the effective range isn't a lot. I've done that. Open sights. Well, 100 yards is just 150 is just when it's getting interesting with the bow. Yeah. That's what I did. I hunted a deer with a bow for 10, 12 days. First day of muzzle. Waka. Yep. Headed home. Exactly. Threw them in the truck.

Drove as hard as you could drive. Pretty hard. To get home. Yeah. It would be interesting. I feel like if you ended up, if you were in December in elk or deer, then you got problems. You got problems. That would be a little stressful. It'd be stressful. Because you know you've already put in a lot of time. Oh, you're wiped out. You went through a certain tires. You're going to need to trade in a deer tag guy in December. You're going to get a car fax. You're going to go download that car fax again. See how many oil changes you went through. Yeah, it would be better.

Devin came in today, did a car fax just to kind of, and I think it's good. Get a little history on timing chain, belts, or whatever, huh? Some things you should write down. But there's some things you don't want to know. I have a folder. Like this truck almost got a rebuilt title. What if that would have said something like that? It was within $10 of being totaled. Exactly. Insurance claim. But it didn't quite go there, so it's just clean. I couldn't remember certain things, and it's like lower ball joints, just things. Yeah. That I probably asked the guy, and I remember it seemed okay, but then two years go by, and you can't remember. Oh, dude. Trust me. So, yeah, I got scammed by, yeah. I don't want to talk about it. You didn't get scammed? No. You learned some things. Not really. Yeah. On that report? Not really. It just showed you your track. Showed me mine, which are very detailed.

Since you owned it. I don't understand. He put his own oil in. That's right. He might have. Might put some Deez and some Delo 400 in there. He was that kind of guy. That's partly why I bought it. He probably would. Yeah, he knew what he was doing. It was good. Let's put it this way. He took so good care of it, Devin, he didn't trust the dealerships to take care of it for him. That's what you need to go to bed and sleep thinking about tonight. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. No. Perfect. He knew what he was doing. He babied that thing better than the dealership. I'd just call a guy and ask him all the questions you have. How many years ago did you buy this truck? 2024. Exactly. I was going to just call him and say, hey, man, sorry to bug you. I have a question. I can't remember. How's the timing belt been done?

I haven't done it in lots of years. If somebody did that to me, I wouldn't care. I'd be okay with you. Yeah, I'd be fine. Wyatt, you get the elk tag, the elk dream tag. What are you going to do? I hunt hard archery early. Oh, good day. Even though I hate rattlesnakes, I'd still be out there. He'd be out there like three days. He'd just go up high. That's like the last time, Wyatt. I hope. Wyatt? I'd go for that. Wyatt did a smash and grab. Hard hike, smash, grab. Grab. Back out. No. Tag and drag? Yeah. Kind of. Plus or minus. It was deep. Yeah. That's some rugged country. That's some reinforcement. That was a little bit nastier of a hike. Would you leave Ely or stick to Ely a bit? I think I'd probably stick to those core units right there. Yeah. They've been good forever. Yeah. It's hard to beat them. Bronson, you get a desert tag. What are you going to do? Well, I'd head south.

Phone a friend. Phone a friend. Go down south and bounce around the units. There's a few minor restrictions on some of the sheep with some extracurricular tags and how some of the other tags, you know, Heritage and Silver State and others. Additional harvest, you know, can play into what units are available to this hunter. But that's going to happen before you even hunt. You know, Heritage and Silver State can hunt our deer in the air and kill their rams. And so that could invalidate a unit here or two. But, hey, it doesn't really matter. Yeah, I like it. So let's talk to a guy real quick about the elk tag he had last year, the dream tag for elk last year. Jason, you on? Yeah. What's going on? How you doing, man? Good. You're on the Epic Outdoors podcast. Got all the guys in the room here. How's it going? Oh, shoot. Good. Hopefully that wasn't a bait and switch.

Did he know this was happening, Jason? Well, I mean, he just called on my phone. I figured, geez. It's just happenstance. We're talking about the dream tags and Jason's calling us. Oh, random. No. No. Meant to be. You drew the dream tag last year for elk. I know I talked to you a bit. Devin talked to you quite a bit. Tell us how it went. Like, how did this go down? What's it like getting that kind of call from Endo? Or maybe how many tickets did you buy? We have a lot of questions, but some of which you don't have to answer. I bought around $300 worth of tickets. Okay. All right. Did you spread them out or just mostly elk? Mostly elk. Okay. I also didn't realize how amazing elk hunting was in Nevada until I drew that tag. I researched it. It's unbelievable. It is unbelievable. It was a huntable lifetime. Many lifetimes. I mean, I got to enjoy it until the last two days.

I mean, I hunted archery, muzzleloader, early rifle, and late rifle. Dude, you're the guy we were talking about that gets divorced when this ends. Yeah.

Are you okay? I'm fine. Yes. You're good. All right. I got a wonderful wife that supported me through it, and yeah, it was amazing. Wow. You got the absolute most of this tag. Yeah. I spent probably 45 days in the field, 45 plus, out there in Nevada. Did you hunt archery, hunt heavy early on, before the muzzleloader rifles? I hunted rifle, archery. I probably spent 16 plus days on the archery hunt. Struggled early. I mean, the first week, a rainstorm came in, right? Kind of threw it off. Then the heat, the full moon, kind of archery wasn't the greatest. I mean, we did see some giant bulls for sure. Had some good opportunities on some giant bulls. Just wasn't able to get done. So giant, like 370 plus, 380 plus, 390 plus? One, I mean, two that I know are 390 plus, and then some 380 plus. Did you go guided, or were you just totally self-guided? Self-guided. Wow.

And I debated back and forth, right, throughout the whole process. Should I hire a guy? Got to talk to a couple good guys that gave me some information, right? But at the end, I decided I wanted to do it on my own and enjoy the experience with my son and some of my close friends. Awesome. And I wouldn't change it. You know, the results wasn't the bull. I mean, at the end of the day, he's a bull of a lifetime, you know, and very happy with the results. I was all about the experience, right? In my age, where I'm at with hunting, it's all about the experience. Never been a huge trophy hunter. No, but it never hurts to be hunting 390 bulls. No, no, I'm trying to figure out how do I get out there again. You know, the deadline is tomorrow. I want to hunt. Tomorrow night. You know, a guy can win two years in a row. But, yeah, I mean, it's phenomenal. It's unreal.

I mean, and I had to learn a lot, and I got to learn a lot of information, right? Actually, you guys gave me some good intel early on to help me, you know, and it helped me early on in the hunt. And the muzzleloader, and I think, I mean, to be honest, the muzzleloader hunt was probably the best. I've seen the big bulls. So, toward the mid to end of October, it was good. It was really low tag numbers on that hunt, too. There's hardly anybody at first. And it's the first firearm, really. Yeah. And the rifle hunts, right? We didn't get any snow or any weather. It was dry and hot. So, it kind of messed up the rifle hunt, too. How many, so did, on the rifle, I mean, I kind of would like you to explain each hunt, but, like, were you hunting different bulls on the muzzle than you were archery and different bulls on the rifle than you were muzzle?

I had some of the same bulls on the muzzle that we did archery, but rifle was some of those bulls. I mean, they were hard to find. Turn up on the rifle hunt, the ones that we'd seen during archery and the muzzle. And new bulls? Did you find new bulls that you hadn't seen? Found a lot of new bulls we hadn't seen, and also found some giants, but they're, you know, half a beam broke off, busted off. So, I decided to pass on those. And they lived. Obviously, we've got giant bulls alive walking around. Yeah. So. Wow. But, no. Close encounters? Did you have some close encounters? Just didn't quite make it happen on the archery? Or maybe kind of walk us through what that looked like? Probably the fifth day of the archery, I had a, I would say, I mean, 390 class bull that got up to 80 yards. But there's a really strong crosswind.

And tried to close the distance a little bit more and bumped a spike. Jeez. So, I, you know, second guess, passing, you know what I mean? Had him broadsided 80 yards. Not like it just didn't feel good with the wind. You know what I mean? So, tried to close the distance, get within 60, and went out around some brush and bumped a spike. Didn't know that there was actually elk over off that side. So, then muzzle lottery had some close encounters as well. Just wasn't able to make it happen. I passed on a really crazy, beautiful 5x6 that most people would have shot. And I still, to this day, question why I didn't shoot him. But I told myself going into the hunt, I wanted a 6x6. Yeah. Beautiful. But he was a gnarly, unique 5x6, probably a 370 class, 3x6. Had him at 180 yards on the muzzleloader hunt. Passed on him.

The bull I ended up taking on the rifle hunt, I passed on him in the early rifle. I watched him for probably an hour at 400 yards. Decided to pass. Went back and forth. Was he the best you found on the rifle hunts? No, I found some bigger ones early on. But it got tough when you got into late rifle. It seems like Nevada really stacks the tag numbers towards those rifle hunts. And late season dates can make them very difficult. Oh, yeah. For sure. It was hot out there, too. I was out there. It was warm. It was hot. It was hot. It was very hot and dry. Adormally warm. Did you hunt other, did you just kind of stick to those core ELE type units? Or were you contemplating hunting other parts of the state? I mean, you can go any open season. That's what's hard, right? It's tough to decide what to do and what units. And I decided to go all in around ELE. You know what I mean?

And I didn't want to get spread out. It was already tough trying not to get spread thin in those units, let alone the whole state. It's huge country. Yeah. Unbelievable. It is huge. How many, like, just off the cuff, like, how many 350-plus bulls did you feel like you saw? And then how many 370-plus? I couldn't even tell you how many 350-plus. Like 30, 40. Oh, 40-plus. 50-plus, yeah. Wow. That's pretty amazing. We started joking that, you know, 330 to 350-class bulls are like raghorns out there. Yeah, yeah. Like at two years old, they're 350.

Feels like it. And bull numbers are unbelievable out there. It is unbelievable. It's, I mean, I can't wait to get a tag in the future again. Like, I don't know, though. It's going to take maybe two more lifetimes to get another tag. So, how about 370-plus bulls? How many of them? I can't get over it. I can't get over it. I would say 370. I would say at least 15-plus. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. I mean, you've got to. It's. And I know we had some good luck, too, right? Because I talked to, especially during the archery hunt, talked to some guides, some outfitters that were hunting. And it was brutal for them trying to turn up the big ones. And I wonder if they're being honest. Like, I just wonder, like, if they were probably having pretty decent hunts, too. You know what I mean? Possibly. Just. Well, I know. They didn't tag out, though. I know they didn't tag out. Yeah.

Yeah. You know.

Geez. I don't know. Did you set everything else aside? I mean, you spent the whole year there. You know what I mean? The whole year? Yeah, all the hunts. Yeah. I mean, I had to go back for weeks, a few weeks here and there, right? Two days. But. Yeah. I mean, thankfully, my job, you know, able to work remotely. Yeah. And we're not out hunting. And, you know, so had that flexibility as well. Didn't have to split your assets. You still got your job. That's right. You killed a great bull. Killed a bull. Got to enjoy the, you know, 90% of the hunt with my son by my side, you know. How old is that? How old is your son? He's 20. Well, he's 23 now. So, yeah. He's 23. That's pretty awesome. Oh, yeah. It's good help, too. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Great help. Him and his good friend. And then my good friend, we actually coached baseball. We coached him in baseball years ago when they were younger.

So, it was amazing. It was awesome to get to spend that time with them. So, very grateful for their help, too. That's pretty rare. Rare tag to allow you to hunt so long for one animal and repeated seasons and all that. That's what's special about this tag. And, I mean, to be honest, if I had to do it over again, I probably would have sat a lot more water early on in the archery. But I get bored with that. I don't like sitting water. Yeah. That's hard to do. And having the opportunities and having that much time to hunt, right? Did you see any crazy non-typicals? Yeah, I did see one that had double main beams. Yeah. Kind of that kind of crazy bull. Freak. Crazy freak. Yeah. A really cool-looking bull. But no interest for a guy that's wanting a six-by.

That one wasn't big enough. I mean, it was a cool bull. It wasn't that big. Yeah. But that five-by-six, I mean, I didn't see him. I'm sure he's still out there today. They've had an albino bull a few over the years. Any albino bulls or anything like that? We just saw a calf is all. Oh, there you go. Still throwing a few of them out there. Yeah. Any big bucks? I knew this was coming. I knew this was coming. But my buddy that was with us, his favorite, you know, mule deer is his passion, right? Yeah. They kept thinking we'd see a bunch of giants. But no. Probably a 180, 180-inch buck was the biggest we'd seen. Yeah. Generally a tough one. Probably a lot now. Yeah. Probably a lot around 140, 150. Yeah. So. Oh, man. But no. Are you going to play it again? Did you get your name in the hat? Well, of course, I got a few more tickets in the hat. I mean, you never know. You never won't.

Tell us about when you won. Like, how did that happen? Did they call you? Or how did you find out the moment you found out? Via email. Yeah. That was it, huh? Wow. Yeah. Private moment late at night when the chime hits your phone. Right before you go to bed or something? Yeah. No, I was actually just left work driving home and saw the email come through. And I had to verify that. Just keep looking at it to make sure it wasn't a hoax. If you're looking at email, does that count as texting and driving? I don't know.

That email probably not. You think if they only had to call four, five, six winners, that'd call them. Wouldn't you? Make it. Answer all your questions. Did they give you a call?

Did they call you? Did anybody call you and congratulate you? Or just an email? No, I think I called them the next day with questions. Okay. Is this legitimate? Yes. Was this sitting there?

Pretty awesome. Pretty awesome. Wow. And I thank you guys for, you know, you definitely didn't steer me wrong until you, you know, fed me, especially for the argument. Once you get rolling, once you get rolling, then you've got your own new daily intel. You're seeing stuff yourself. Yeah. It's just a matter of getting started. And you got to decide where you're going to hunt somewhere. And for elk, probably more than even deer. Yeah. If you simplified it to those units, two or three unit groups right there, you're where 95% of the governor bulls are going to be. Yeah. If you spend time in area 16, you're probably wasting your time. Yeah. That's it. Or even the sixes and sevens. I mean, there's been big bulls up there, but, you know, just, you can't literally hunt the whole state. No. Effectively. So. No. He did the right thing. I would have left where he left either. No, I know.

Yeah, I wouldn't have either. Yeah. Did you take a trailer down, like a camp trailer and just, or. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, we did. Thankfully, my buddy took his down, kept it out there all fall. Yeah. Yeah. So, so check your email, I guess. Is the. Yeah. I mean, you think they caught him, like, what if you don't reply and just say, okay, cool, they're going to send you my tag in the mail. Yeah, what if that adds up in your spam? Exactly. How many times have we had guys say, yeah, I got my tag in the mail. I didn't know I drew. And we're just like, what? I would think they would call you after a few days if you didn't call the mail. There's not very many people to call. They probably would. I would think. They probably would, but. Yeah. Like I said, I called. Thanks for your business. I was so excited I called, right? I was so excited I called the next day to find out. Yeah.

Because there was a lot of clarity because there's conflict information. Information that states something stated you could use the rifle through all seasons, right? But then there's other things online that stated the weapon within seasons. People get confused with the heritage tag sometime and the silver state versus what these give you. But it's still pretty awesome tag on any unit, any season with the weapon going at that time. It's pretty, pretty awesome. Oh, yeah. Be interesting to know what that tag would sell for. Like, what's it worth on the open market? Probably $200. $200. Well, Wyatt, what does the silver state go for? Which is the equivalent? Silver state went for $300 last year. For the heritage, I should say. Yeah. $300. So, I mean. $350 this year, I think. That one you can literally hunt, what? August 1 until the end of the year with a rifle or anything, right? Yes.

December. So, that's all the flexibility. So, it's not worth that, but. But it's worth way more than a landowner tag. Yeah. So, then there's, you know. At least half that or more. It's a no joke tag that you just don't, obviously not available. Just interesting when a guy gets a tag like this. That had to be a rush. A few hundred bucks. They'll see an email like that. Yeah. Yeah. How would it be? How would it be, Jason? How would it be? Yeah. It's unbelievable. Well, did you pull over? To be honest. Did you pull over?

Pretty much. Yeah, I had to. You know what I mean? To look it up and see. Yeah. You know, call my son. Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty amazing. Pretty amazing. It was amazing. Yeah. I mean, in Nevada, I don't. I mean, I 500, you know, I'm out of Utah, right? So, I've hunted some good units in Utah, but I don't know. Nevada's a special place. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's nothing. There's not. There is. I feel like there's nothing like it. I feel like it's underappreciated. However, there's hardly any non-resident tags, so it's hard to get too excited. You know what I mean? Yeah. In the regular job. Absolutely. Yeah. I wish Utah would figure out how to manage their trophy animals like Nevada, but then you'd have a lot less opportunity, though. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When you get a tag in Nevada, you got something. You got something. You really do. Yeah. Absolutely. Even the antelope.

I know Jason plays that one even. Hey. They got some big bucks. It's unbelievable. It is. I think it's underappreciated for antelope, too. Thanks for bringing that up. You're welcome. Yeah. All right. All right. Well, we appreciate it. Well, thanks for letting us talk to a living, breathing person that's on the end of these statistics of these dream tags, Jason. Appreciate it. No. Thank you. Real people, real experiences. Sounds like you had an awesome hunt. Yeah, I did. I wouldn't change it at all. I mean, it was, like I said, I got to take it all the way to the end. My last second to last day to be able to hunt, I think three days before the late rifle ended. So, I got to ride it out for all it was worth. That's great. You made the absolute most of it. No, here in a week or 10 days or something. We'll be some lucky emails sent out. Yeah. All right. Good luck to everybody. Okay.

Thank you, guys. All right. Sounds good. Thanks for coming on. We sure appreciate it. Appreciate it, Jason. Thank you. You bet. Talk to you later. See ya. Bye. Bye. Devin, I. That is no joke. We could cut this part if we have to. But, Devin, did you see a giant five by six? Yeah. Like, literally. Like, you would have killed it. I had him within 100 yards twice. Last year? No, when he had a tag. Spike busted you. Spike busted me. Are you serious? True. I was there. Yeah. That bull was awesome. Like, you told me. I was going to say it when I was talking to him, but I'm like, I remember Devin saying I just missed a fifth point, right? Gorgeous bull. Sometimes I see the video, like, pop up in Memories or something, and I'm like, I don't like to talk about it. I saw him, and there was a spring across the draw from me. Were you there that time? I said, he's going to hit this water.

I can't remember if I was there. And you didn't take off running in the water? No, I didn't take off running, dude. He leaves his cows. Walks the water. His cows were on the way, but he left them early and went down there to the water. Oh, I was there, yes. You watched him. If you would have moved when you first saw him. I really was like, oh, he's an awesome bull, but like. How good is he really? You know, you're like, yeah, like this is the only time you're really. And sheds, the sheds would weigh 16 pounds plus. They were freaking. Yeah, he's an awesome bull. But then I looked at him some more, and yeah, I think. Was it that night I went after him? Or the next day? Or I know I went after him twice. Yeah, we went up on a morning. Yeah. Up in there after him. I thought so. I had to ask you, because I thought you were. He may have broke his fifth off in the velvet. There was something.

There was like something there. But yeah, he was basically a 6x5. What year did this guy have that tag? Last year. All of last year. 2025. Gotcha. I remember in 22 back in the day, the 6x5, that when we were guiding a guy and he didn't want to go after him, but his fifth was like. On the other side. Yeah. And then his other side, just a big old, I mean, beam, just going like this. You know what I mean? And he just didn't even, he's like, oh, he's a 5 point on that side. I'm like, yeah, but his fifth is like 21. On the other side. He's this long. Yeah, we can duplicate that. We can self-type it on. I would have killed that bull so fast. I mean, he was just so pretty. Those giant fives are hard to beat. I mean, I think they're pretty underrated for how impressive they are. They are. People need to kill more of them. Seems like they're in Southwest Desert. We need to clean them all about it.

Got them. 231 and Southwest Desert. I have a 5 point set to 370. Yeah. Wow. Hey, you've seen the 5 point set I have. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Thirds are like 24 inches or something. Yeah, they're, no. There's like 28. Yeah. Remember? Yeah. We should weigh those. They're unbelievable. That's 231.

Well, he'll help us. Cash, let's say you draw the antelope tag. I'm going through a set of tires, probably. Just driving. Maybe a whole truck. How about a starter? I'll probably gain some weight. Maybe an alternator? Probably gain some weight. Change the alternator. Get drunk home. You know? Eating snacks and drinking pop. Eating snacks and getting all fat and sassy. Going through bucks. Ends up in Battle Mountain at some point. Yeah, exactly. You never know. You never know where to end up on an antelope tag. That would be a hard one. Where are you going to go? Oh, that one. There's big bucks here. That one's probably the worst one of those. All those. It would be hard. At least the desert sheep, you're going to hunt these southern units down here. Yeah. Elk, you're going to hunt these three or four unit clusters here. Deer, you're going to go fight it out right here.

Deer, probably five or six. Antelope, statewide. Where are you going to go? Let's drive it. Where are you going to go? Who are you going to call? You literally could hunt the California border to the Idaho-Nevada border to the Utah-Nevada border. There was a giant one year right here on the border. Yeah. I mean, I'm not saying. Go ahead. Go hunt there. But I'm just saying. Yeah. I think I saw the same one. Yeah. Giant. It felt like 90-inch. Seriously. In the cedars. Yeah. That's right. Right here. I looked over and I was like. Yes. This is one of the biggest. Maybe the biggest buck I've ever seen. Sean and I were setting truck cams on Saturday and we saw a giant. I mean, prongy. I won't call him prongy. Prongy. Just prongy. Just wrapping prongs. And he was going to water. I was like, Sean, let's set a camera on that water. And he's like, what? You want an antelope?

You're going to get pictures of antelope? And I'm like, there might be a deer out here. You know what I mean? And I'm like, fine. This old dad's just going to keep driving. But I know better. That place needs a camera. Anyway, this buck was trailing right into water. It's probably 100 yards from the water. It was trailing right in. And I'm like, that's a great buck. Just the fact that there's water. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, even if it was a National Wildlife Refuge.

It was. It needs a camera still. It wasn't. But there are some places that I've never seen dry that are dry. Never. Duck ponds, refuges, things like that. White. I wonder, I should take a metal detector out there in those dry pond beds. Just, you know what I mean? For what? Old T-posts. Never mind. There's a simple fox in there. Fishing poles. Fishing poles. Old T-posts you could refurbish. I don't know why. Especially, like, low rocket lake pal. I've reused some T-posts. How much money is laying around in diamond rings or whatever else? Sunglasses. Maui gyms. Just in case people were swimming in there. Lay around. People like Wyatt. Aquaman Wyatt. Water lovers. Aquaman Wyatt. Aquaman. Dude, that might stick. That's what they called him in high school. They called you Aquaman? No.

I've never been referred to as Aquaman. Somebody's getting their butt whooped. Sorry, Wyatt. It's not true. I couldn't help it. All right. Well, anyway. Pretty. Those things crossed my mind. But, yeah. So, anyway. I actually thought the exact same thing over the weekend. I was thinking, like, there's probably some cool stuff at the bottom of this. Yeah. Pond. I've never seen dry in all my life. Yes, exactly. There's things, you know. Probably stuff you don't want to find, too. Old cars. Cool cars. 55-gallon drones. Like me. Think about like me. Yeah. 55-gallon drones. Oh, I got a 55-gallon drone. What's inside? Pop that open. Not flesh, but might be some bones. Yeah. All right. Moving along. We're so far off here. But, hey. Well. All right. More of the stories. Somebody's going to win these tags. Tomorrow night's your deadline. Tomorrow night being June 30th. We're assuming at 1159, John.

That's what everybody does. Yeah, I don't know. Midnight. And then within a week or 10 days, you get an email while you're driving home from work. Yep. Yep. I'm going to. Might as well be you. I'm going to text and drive and look at it. If I'm driving and I get that email, I'm going to look at it. Hit the brakes. Pull over. No. He's going to keep driving. And then hit forward all to all of us, Jason. Forward all. Forward all. All right. So, anyway. Pretty awesome opportunity. Get your tickets in there. Dreamtag.org. Is that what it's called? Yeah. There it is. Envy. Envy. Dreamtag.org. Get your tickets. It's affordable and worth doing. And, hey, there's a lot of people out there without a tag right now. Devin, you've got hunts popping up all the time, it seems like. Good opportunities. Guys looking at deer, elk.

If you've drawn a general Montana, anything, and you need a little help, give us a call. General openings. I mean, yeah, about everything. And this week, Prime New Mexico tags. There's going to be some of that come out, I'd imagine. Guided hunts. How about all these fires going on right now? Oh. Isn't it crazy? It's wild. Isn't it crazy, Logan? It is crazy.

Logan's got a one-acre fire thinking he's doing something. We're watching 100,000-acre fires or 30,000-acre fires. That one on the San Juan, I looked at it, and I swear, within hours later, I looked, and it was like the whole. Double the size. Yeah. Giant. I just want to know what you guys think as far as is it good or bad. Is it going to be a good thing or a bad thing? Some are good. Some are really bad. Long term, it can be good. But, I mean, you get, you don't like the beaver now. You add up these fires over the last 15 years, the whole unit's been burnt, essentially. Yeah. And the problem with this one is it was in the epicenter with all the calvins and that. That's the part that was missing. Yeah. And I'm not saying it was void on the others, but, man, this one just. It's sensitive. It hurts. That's the rough part of it. Humanistic part of it. As far as game?

As far as game and hunting? Yeah. I mean, overall, I mean, it's usually not a bad thing on summer ranges like that. You could look at some of these others like, you know, the one in the Utah-Colorado border and whatnot that are in more of a low desert cheatgrass, pinyon juniper. Those can now just be in a, you know, a cheatgrass cycle that now you can't ever get out of. You know what I mean? Like, we've seen that in Nevada in places, too, that just doesn't. Some of them don't just respond just because you eliminate the, you know, the tree cover and all that because there's not a seed bank there. Overall. Do you guys remember what year was the Milford Fire? The Milford Flat Fire? The big one. That went all the way through the Pavant.

Early 2007. 2007, it says. Yeah. But what, like, what month? July. July 6, 2007. So I remember hunting elk on the Pavant side and the burn was just blossoming with feed. So that would be in September. That is the one thing. And then they were just, they were only in the burn. I would say that about this. This is, because we had no winter. That's what I think. This is an earlier burn season than I've ever seen for being widespread around so many places. It is. It's June. Technically still. 2002, you know, like, you know. 2002 was. There wasn't a green blade of grass. They were burning on the Dutton. They were prescribed burning in April. Yeah. And because there was no snow. And then that thing took off and burnt half the mountain. But I mean, that's the one thing is if this monsoon that they keep talking about is going

to be strong and big and it does hit and it squelches all these, we're going to deal with flooding and bad runoff and all of that. Maybe they reseed it a little bit. But at least if it's a little earlier and we do get that, they could, they could green up really good before, you know, September. They really could. Bulls for everyone. Standing out. Everybody would pass. Standing out. Like a yellow school bus and a black drop. Need a little moisture but just not on the black drop. Just like Arizona. You don't want them back in the day. No. It wasn't. Pavon. All these units. They stick out. They go to their timber patch that they've been in their six, eight years or ten years of life and think they're safe and they're not. They're not so safe. No. It could be interesting. It's just interesting. It's just hard to watch.

So it's just this drought time is like something we have never seen before. It is wild. You know. Yeah. We get a little bit of rain early season. We get excited. I mean, we, one rainstorm and people are buying tags and trying to draw tags. And it's, I mean, we're just jaded. We just can't even remember the good days. You can't beat Mother Nature. Yeah. You just can't beat her sometimes. But hopefully, hopefully the sweat pattern. We had a little bit of a taste of it here a week or two ago. Yeah. Which is earlier than normal. This monsoon stuff that came up. Hopefully it happens. Well, just north of us was dealing with it this last weekend. Montana, Wyoming, Idaho. I mean, geez. They got a foot of snow on the mountains. More up there. And rain all over in the lower country. So, I don't know. That's coming out of Canada. Those people are living right.

Those people are living better than we are. Go to that DreamTags tag. That, I've got a shed. See that buck with the big inline in the back? I kept looking at that. Yeah. I got a shed that looks like that. A four point with a single front beam? No. Okay. Okay. Let me. Okay. Bronson? Well, I'm just wondering. That's a unique shed. Let me explain it. I'm going to bring it in. I'm going to bring it in because you all are laughing. That's a big inline in the back. Wasn't there another photo of him? Flip the other way. There is another one of him. Big inline in the back and a good front fork. It looks like he does that. Doubled was like 215-ish, something like that. Oh, it's just a mirror. Oh, they just mirrored it. That was some creative graphics, John. AI. John, did you do that? No, I did not do that. That was before AI. Somebody got paid a lot of money to do that. I remember that.

That picture's been there a while. Yeah. Anyway, the inline. It just reminds me, though. We were talking. Wyatt, we were talking about. Didn't we have. Who brought it up to us? Maybe it was Logan. Who brought it up to us? Somebody wanted to do a 250 podcast. Oh, yeah. Garrison Kinsel. Oh, yeah. We were talking about Instagram. And he was wanting like a 250 podcast, right? In lieu of like 250. Yeah, for America 250. Right? He wanted us to do 250 each. And so, Wyatt, what did we do? We sat down and tried to count up how many 250 deer have been killed in the last 10 years. 20 years. 20 years. Use Boone and Crockett search, actually, too. Man, yes. And then kind of not. And then a little bit of, you know, segregation of like, let's say Saskatchewan, probably not calling those guys. We're talking about the U.S. Yeah. The 250. Governor type tags, too, and other places, too.

Yeah, a couple of those. But really, were those entered? We haven't even seen many of those entered. No. You know? So, it was like, what did we come up with, Wyatt? Like two. Handful of us. Yeah, it was very slim. And then the ones we did remember, a couple of them that we did remember, aren't entered. And some of them we've actually already had on back on the 200th podcast when we talked about 200 inchers. Yeah. We had, or I think that's what it was. We'd add some of them on there. Yeah. On our podcast. But it shows you the times we're in. I think it just reiterates. Like that shed, that's a, I would do anything to find another shed like that. Yeah. And they just like, I'm just saying they don't exist. Is that fair? Big deer are one of the toughest things I've ever been, I believe. Oh. Yeah. What the heck? That's why we're hunting other stuff, too. Trying harder than ever.

Trying harder than ever. And just, it's just hard right now for a big old 200 inch deer. 210, 215. So, you hunt the animals as you can. Antelope, right? Cash? Antelope. Horns and stacks. Oh, yeah.

All right. What else? Anything else to add there, John? Are we now for Rendell? No, I think we did. Get our line by. Yeah, that's pretty much the only thing left. Yeah. I mean, we're just out and about. Everybody's setting trail cans. Wyatt, you've been out and about a little bit? Been out a little bit, yeah. Got a few cameras out. Here and there. Good. What other conditions are you seeing? Hot, dry. Hot, dry. Yeah, that's what I've been doing. I think you were also talking about a spot, just a random spot, comparing last year's photo to this day, to this year's photo this day. Quite a difference. Yeah, yeah, quite a difference. And quite a difference the wrong way, you know, drastic difference into the negative effect kind of deal. Yeah, yeah. Not as green as it was last year. Not even like close. Not as much grass as it was last year. Yeah. Kind of depressing a little bit.

Yeah, it doesn't mean everything we'll have to see, but it's just. Yeah, I still think there's bright spots out there, too. You know, spots are going to head a little bit harder with rain and moisture. Yeah, I think that's the thing for these spring storms. They weren't giant storms that hit all of southern Utah the same. Yeah. You've got other pockets that I've seen. I'm really surprised at how good it looks. Yeah, that's what you were saying. Yeah, it's shocking. And within 20, 30 miles of where Wyatt's talking, you know, like, obviously the same storms didn't hit it. And that's what I was seeing in Nevada. I was telling you, there was a unit or two. I'm like, holy crap. There's, like, blooming bitter brush everywhere right here. Even right now. Even this weekend. Still green. Still bloomed. Yeah. And then I'm like, and then there's some places I'm like. Didn't even have a leader.

I'm like, Logan, I'm thinking, I don't dare drill, do a self-tapper right here. I'm going to start a fire. If it falls off the T-pose and hits the ground. I actually, I was drilling on a self-tapper and it started smoking. They're hot. They're hot. They get hot. I got to stop. I got to stop. I mean, my brakes might start a fire, you know, if you get a little bit of exhaust. Yeah. You're a muffler. But I remember doing that in 2002 and I was like, no, I've never heard of a fire starting this way. And I just ways through it. You know what I mean? There's a guy down in Bulldog Canyon, remember, on the Beaverdam Slope, remember? Yeah. Yeah. Did that. Started with his vehicle. Down by those guzzlers. That's when you take the catalytic converter off. Straight pipe it. It could have just been your muffler even at that point. But you're down, how hot is it down there in the summer? Hot. 10 or 15?

Yeah. Hot on a cold day. You know? So you have cheatgrass that even touches your muffler. Yeah. Boom. Over. Anyway, kind of interesting. We're just living crazy times. It's just interesting. Tags are tough. Economy's different. You know? Hunting season's coming. Hunting season's coming. But. And it's interesting. Better deal with what you're dealt and make the best of it and hope we get good rain and winter back on track. I think social media is ready for these live deer picks, though. We saw one today and it's like, oh, finally. I think there's been a lot of people, though. There's maybe some that's kind of indicating these are this year, but some of the others, I think, are teasers that are like, bro, that's been 10 years ago. I mean, I'd like to qualify them all. Logan would do something like that. I would never. Post up a trail cam pic from 1953. Crop out the date and time.

I wasn't even thought about in 1953. No, you weren't even a cell. No.

An old picture for me would be like 1993. Jeez, that hits home.

Logan. That's the year I graduated. That's really sensitive. Logan. Logan. That's a problem.

When were your mom and dad married? 98. No, no, no, no. 91. 91. Were they? I think so, because my oldest brother was born in like 93 or 4. Doesn't necessarily mean they were married.

You know, Paul. They were. All right. All right, everybody. Anybody that's interested in maybe, let's call it the last application period. I don't know what you call it. But anyway, NVDreamTag.org. Get your tickets in. And if you draw a tag, we want to hear from you. We'd love to visit with you. It's just fun to talk to guys that are lucky. You know, draw a tag here and there. It's just awesome. Especially a world-class tag like a Nevada DreamTag. So, you've got desert sheep, elk, deer, and antelope. And all of which would be well worth applying for and drawing that particular tag. So, anyway, good luck to you. I think if you've drawn a tag, you're looking at upgrading optics or any of your gear, like, we've got great deals. We've got really good stock right now. And that doesn't always last.

We've seen in the last couple years that just, you know, it seems like you can just call an order and get anything you want. All of a sudden, everything's gone. You just can't find it anywhere. There's a few things out there that are going, that are not available anymore that we have, like, new in box but are just, you know, have been replaced. SKUs that have been replaced. If you're looking for something just a great deal, ask Adam and I or somebody here in the office, Devin, Wyatt, and we'll definitely hook you up. Something like that that's just not available anymore. Yeah. But there's also some brand new items coming out. In fact, we're being sent some stuff. Yeah. Can we talk about it? We can't talk about it yet. No, we can't yet. Yeah. Give us a week. Give us a week or 10 days. Yeah.

The best brand in the industry is coming out with something new, and we've got them coming, actually being shipped to us. So we're pretty excited about that. Have we got anything else? Do you want to talk about anything, Logie Bear? We're good. I'm good. Smokey Bear, the Logie Bear. Yeah. Cash, you got anything? I plead the fifth. I'm just kidding. How's your truck? Is your truck running? It's running. Like a skin cat. Burn like a. Oh, yeah. Like a warranty. Warrantied it. Burn like a skin cat. That's more like a screech. No, he said running like a skin cat. You must be from Nepi or something. I don't know. I never heard that. No, he said, how's it running? And I said, like a skin cat. Come on. Never heard that say that way. I haven't either. It's a Nepi thing. There's a lot of different ones out there. I don't know. I don't think a skin cat's running very far.

I was going to say, that's more like a screech and a wail and a moan. The only thing I can think about is we got new kittens at the house. Do you? And Sean's been giving them a bath on a regular basis. What? They hate it. Doesn't the mom just lick them? No, mom. What do you mean? These ones are old enough. Come get our kittens. Okay, we need a couple. Mice hunters, you mean? Just around the place. Yeah, yeah. But, man, he's giving them a bath on the regular. Cats are. Cats in water, man. They hate it. I mean, they hate it. They're sitting there like they're dead. He's holding them up in the air. They're like, he's dead. Wyatt can relate.

Wyatt, we got anything we need to finish out with? No, I think we're good. We're good. John? Yeah, we're good. You know? By the time you hear this in a few days, though, the point's only application periods will open up. Right, Wyatt? Yeah. Might just plug those states that are doing that. Yeah, Wyoming and Montana. It's a must-do for Wyoming. Just get it over with. Yeah. Even if you applied for Wyoming, deer elk, and antelope and didn't draw, remember, you've got to go buy them. It's kind of a counterintuitive process, but they don't give them to you after the draw for those species. So, that'll open July 1. All right, everybody. Well, send some live pictures. We want to see some bucks and bulls. We want to see the antler growth out there. Bulls are about done. A lot of them are. Really close. They're right there. We're seeing some incredible bulls already.

And, anyway, wish you the absolute best. If you need help on any of these tags, give us a call. 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 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 epicoutdoors.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 dot 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 licensed 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.

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