EP 41: Phoneskope with Cheston Davis

I can see movement in the trees over to the left and I make out a silhouette of a mountain lion. That changed the game. Because we were holding our cameras up to our spotting scope. Had my elbows locked on my knees. Anything to do with Western big game.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast, powered by Under Armour. Hey everybody, Jason Carter and Adam Bronson here with the Epic Outdoors podcast. Looking to do another podcast today. So anyway, I appreciate all you listeners out there listening to the different podcasts we've got done. We've had a ton of response from those and we appreciate that. We appreciate your support. Having said that, if you want to kind of email in some ideas on who might be good or who you'd like to hear from, do that at info at epicoutdoors.com. We'd love to hear from you and some of your ideas. We want to keep this going. We've got some extreme momentum going with this and it's awesome. We'd like to visit with some of the different people in the industry and see what they've got going on. So anyway, having said that, we've got PhoneScope coming on board here. We've dealt with Cheston for many years.

We've actually got a great relationship with him, his company, PhoneScope, with Epic Outdoors, which is Adam and I and the guys here in the office. So anyway, we'll be visiting with him, talking about where he's been and how he's got to where he's at today. And looking forward to visiting with him. Before we get started, we'd like to thank Under Armour for supporting Epic Outdoors podcast as well as Epic Outdoors in general with our magazine and different things that we're doing. We really appreciate them. They've stepped up and have worked with us from the start when this was all just an idea. And so just want to say hey to them. A little shout out. They've got a lot of good things coming, which we will bring out in the magazine as well as on some different podcasts and YouTube episodes.

So anyway, thanks Under Armour for all they're doing for us as well as our other advertisers in the magazine and different ways that they sponsor Epic Outdoors. We appreciate you all. So anyway, as we get started, we'll get Cheston online and go from there. Cheston, you on? I'm here, buddy. Right on. And well, thanks. Just want to say thanks for spending some time with us here today. I know it's probably cutting into your scouting time a little bit or else maybe some of your work life or Lake Powell life or I don't know. What life are you leading right now? You know, basically just work life six days a week it feels like. And scouting life, yeah, man. That seemed like that went out the window about 40 years ago. You know, that's what's funny, you know. You're working, of course, we'll get into all this, but you're working in the industry and Adam and I work in the industry.

And you think normally that that would mean that you get to hunt and, you know, you get paid to wet a line and just hunt and fish. And it just doesn't quite work out that way, does it? No, you know, everybody's looking from the outside in thinking, man, living the dream. Well, they don't understand that dream is the same dream that they're living. It's not really a dream. It's just a work schedule. It's a work schedule. That's right. Yeah, working for yourself. It ain't no 40 hours. The nice thing about working, you know, a normal, regular job, what I would call a normal, regular job, you get a clock out, go home and kind of forget about it. But when you're doing your own business, you never do quite forget about it. And it's not quite a 40-hour work week, is it?

Plays a toll on you mentally as well as your wife, the family, all the above, because it's always on the back of your mind even when it shouldn't be. You mean to tell me your wife doesn't just wish you well and want you to work more hours? Oh, I can totally bet she doesn't. Right on. Well, cool, man. Well, let's see. I guess before we dive in, like, where have you been? Like, what have you been seeing out there? You know, it's looking really good, honestly. Seen some great antler growth. This moisture we're getting right now is awesome because it's bringing back some really good feed. Everything from what I've seen has been great, but I'm not going to lie, I've probably been out the least this year over the last three years. I can count on one hand how many trail cameras I have out. I mean, it's just been a tough year.

I've been busy and also been trying to fit in the family time right now because once August hits, it's kind of hard to fit those type of trips in. Well, this is probably a good time to go ahead and tell you about some of our endorsed outfitters, Cheston. We might be able to hook you up with an outfitter and some of these Southern Utah tags here in your backyard and help you out and see if we can't get you a big critter. That's a good idea there. All right. I'm just giving you grief. That's funny. Well, maybe, yeah, before we get too much into what you got going this year and whatnot, let's get into your background a little bit. Help us all understand where you're from, where you came from, a little bit about yourself, things like that. You know, I'm a small town guy. Just grew up in a small town in Beaver, Utah.

I feel blessed to be able to come from such a place because it's just got amazing mountains and terrain surrounded 360 degrees. It's got amazing animals. But, you know, I grew up as a big sports guy. I loved hunting, but sports was my main passion. What sports did you like the most? I was big into baseball. Baseball was what just really did it for me. But I compound fractured my leg. I sheared off the growth plate, my two bones, a fib and a tip. And with that, the doctors couldn't pin my leg, and they wouldn't release me to play sports. So my mom and dad could have, but they was told the best thing for me was not to play sports. It killed me. It wrecked me. How old were you when that happened? I was 15. We just started in conditioning for football. It was just, it was tough. So, you know, I sat there and my dad just told me, he says, look, you can't just sit around and not do anything.

You need to start doing something fun. You need to do something to keep you active. So that's kind of when I took up hunting really serious. Started getting out, spending a lot of time in the mountains. That was still before trail cameras, but it was still when I would be out and just physically watching the animals. And I also took up business. I started my own business back when I was 15. I had an online eBay store. I don't think I actually wasn't old enough. And I think I signed up under my mom's name because my dad wouldn't sign up for me. We're going to send you to prison right on this podcast. I know, man. This might be bad, honestly. Sweatshop, child labor. Some mail fraud because I was mailing some shiz out. Oh, that's federal, Chester. That's federal. Oh, dude. It's too funny. What kind of business were you doing? If it's not illegal, too, tell us what you were doing.

No, it wasn't. It was shipping dope. It was shipping dope. Yeah. The funny thing is, is Carter was in on that business with me, too. Hey. I was a silent partner, buddy. Oh, that's right. Oh, geez. Well, that's cool. I didn't know you were doing that. What were you doing? What were you doing? Yeah. So I sold a bunch of, my uncle had a Davis Freight Company, and so he had a bunch of damaged freight. And it was just sitting in these trailers in St. George. And so I would get it and turn around and sell it and sold quite a bit of it. I learned at a young age, basically, what you put in is what you get out, whether it was with hunting or whether it was with business. I mean, it was the same philosophy, sports, all of the above. What you put in is what you get out. And it was a very valuable lesson. Looking back now, the best thing that could have happened in my life is for me breaking

my leg like I did, because it transitioned me into looking at life differently than just hitting the ball, throwing the ball, that type of stuff. So, you know, it's tough to see those type of, you know, impacts on your life as positive. But it's funny how we crawl older and look back like, wow, that was a blessing in disguise. I know everybody has these type of experiences. Yeah. Well, that's awesome. Yeah. I mean, on top of some business skills, you're learning, you know, you buy low and sell high. I mean, you're selling, you know, damaged freight or whatever. You're probably buying it for nothing and selling it for what it's worth. And yet, you know, the whole marketing schematic as a young kid and probably when eBay, I don't know, when did it come out versus when you were utilizing it? Yeah, it was fairly brand new when it first came out.

That's kind of why I was all pumped and jazzed about it. I call you a dot-comer back then. Yeah. Yeah, no kidding. Well, that's cool. And so, and then like you were saying, I mean, as far as, you know, what you put in it is what you get out. And Adam and I are finding that, of course, I mean, with hunting, trail cameras, scouting, glassing. And what it, what the amount of energy you put in is what you get out. And on those years, we're a little bit lazy. We don't have as many big critters to hunt. And on those years, we work our guts out. Then we usually, you know, have something to hunt. So anyway. Very true. It's crazy how all that intertwines with hunting and business. So how long, uh, you did that for a while, I guess. And then did you have a few other stops business-wise on your own in between that when you decided

to maybe make your first attempt at a hunting industry type business or? Yeah. Yeah. You know, I did some web hosting companies and I did some other online stuff with a few kids that were kind of passionate about business that were in high school with me and, you know, had fun just because it just kind of gave me an outlook in life. It's like, man, here I am super young and I'm able to do something, you know, it was fun. And, and I also had a full-time job working over at Napa. Um, so I'd get off from a full-time normal job, you know, working from three to six. And then I would go over and work, uh, work for myself. And that was kind of when I learned that it's awesome working for yourself, but there's also a lot of stress and heartache and it's not just a normal eight to five clock out and go home type of deal either. So three to six, 3am to 6pm or three?

No, 3pm to 6 once I got out of school. Oh, okay. Oh, I see what you're saying. Just kind of a regular job, not a full-time job, but a regular job. Yeah. That totally makes sense. Well, yeah. And you know, what's funny about that? I mean, let's just go back to the town of Beaver. Your population of Beaver is what roughly? Uh, that I don't even know. Like, let's, let's call it a couple thousand, right? I was going to say 2,000, 1,800, 2,000. All right. And so just for the listeners to know, like, Jet Cheston comes out of Beaver, Utah, which is kind of, I've got a lot of relatives out of Beaver, Minersville. That's where my background's from. And yet, here you are, you know, developing businesses, working on eBay, doing all this kind of stuff, being an entrepreneur in a town of a couple thousand. That's what's cool about this day and age is it doesn't matter where you live.

You can, I mean, it really doesn't matter. As long as you got a post office and LTE, you know, sales service, you know, you can pretty much do anything. It's very true. You can be anybody that you want to be that you're willing to put the time in for. So was your, fast forward maybe just a little bit, I don't know how long, out of high school, whatever, um, maybe you went to college. Um, where did, uh, your first attempt at a business in the hunting industry go? Maybe that was phone scope, but maybe I don't know something else. So tell us about that. No, you know, I, uh, I had one other attempt in the hunting industry, you know, my dad always kind of told me that the famous saying, you know, if you enjoy what you're doing, you never have to work a day in your life. And so I knew that I had this big passion for hunting. And so I always kept my eyes open for something that I could do.

And before Facebook came around, I started a company with a couple of buddies called track my trophies and Jason. Oh, I remember that. Yep. And it was similar to like a Facebook, but it was, we was probably launched about six months before Facebook came out and we thought it was the coolest thing ever because you was able to track all your trophies throughout the years. And therefore, if anybody, you want to show them something, you just send them a link to your profile. And therefore it had a list of 2007 or a mule deer, you could break it down to whatever you wanted. And lo and behold, Facebook came out and totally smashed us. I mean, Facebook is just so powerful. And you know, what's interesting with that too is, is, uh, I had no interest in track my trophies and a lot of it was just the age. Like I wasn't really used to social media being the outlet where us hunters can get together

and see what everybody's doing and keep track of each other and keep track of animals. And, and, and now I can't imagine a day without social media in the hunting world. You know what I mean? And so, so it's almost like your track my trophies business was before it's time. It was destined to fail because it was a, it was such a good idea, but it was before anybody would use it. You needed Facebook to be as, be as big and successful as it was for hunters to think, we should do that for hunting. You know what I mean? Almost needed it to be six months after. Yeah. To train hunters to get, oh, this is a viable way to get on and track everybody down and keep track of what everybody's doing. Text, don't have to just text all your photos out to your 2,800 friends in your phone or whatever like that. Yeah. So it was, yeah, looking back on that and I still see some of your window stickers here

and there, but looking, but looking back on that, uh, and I'm not saying it failed when I said destined to fail. It wasn't that. It just felt like it, it just was before it's time. I wouldn't have gone on and tracked my trophies because I wasn't into social media, but social media just barely, you know, barely in the sense of several years has, uh, become the thing to do. No, it's very true. And that's exactly kind of what it came down to. And Facebook came out, said it was okay, showed it was cool. And where it's at now, it's amazing to see what we're able to utilize social media for. And I mean, honestly, you can sit down and do better scouting, checking out everybody else's phone, scope pictures on their page, and you can't go out running a trail cam line. You know what I mean? It's just, you can sit back and gain so much knowledge.

We might have to jump into that a little bit and just teach people how to, I mean, under even like searching location and stuff that I, I, I'm actually on social media pretty aggressively, but I, I, there's some things that I'm unaware of that's cool. So maybe we, uh, enlighten some people. I don't know. So anyway, all right. And so you do, you do the track, my trophies. Um, and I know your dad, you've talked about your dad and maybe this is a time to give him a plug, but it did, does feel like you guys have a great relationship. He's kind of a true entrepreneur, you know, as well as yourself. It seems like you were, you're more of a, to me, and I'm just going to throw this out there. I have no idea actually, but that you're more of a marketer. You cranked with social media before most businesses cranked on social media as far as the hunting industry. Yeah.

You know that when we came out with, when we started phone scope, you know, we, uh, we took all the money and budget that we had to be able to build the molds. I mean, it's not cheap building phone molds. My dad looks at me. He's like, okay, this is what you got to work with for marketing. And that's when you probably see me go to work, Jason, on social media of acquiring every person that I possibly could, that was doing good work that I knew would represent me well. And, uh, you know, social media is a very powerful tool. And I look back and I can only imagine how hard it would be to run a very successful company back in the day where you had to 100% just mail in order to reach customers. Yeah. I mean, uh, it would just be tough and it would take years to be able to reach coast to coast and saturate a market where social media, honestly, like you said earlier, it's, it's given so much

power to anybody that wants to try something and take a stab at something. It's, it's amazing. It really is. It's a dream. And again, you hit that one perfectly too, because now with the new algorithm algorithms and whatnot with, and I, and I'm, and I'm mentioning terms I know nothing about, but you know, with the new algorithms and whatnot, it's hard to get a following on social media, Instagram, Facebook and whatnot versus, you know, when you first started, when I first started, uh, even Adam and stuff, this just seems like the last six months, I mean, the followings are going the, the number of the gain, the percentage gain and followers is next to nothing and, and whatnot compared to when we first started that social media. So you hit that one perfect as well. Yeah, very true. You know, big credit to Facebook as much as I want, I want to sit back and it makes me

sick because they're brilliant. The way that they've set everything up, it gets you to acquire all these followers. And then it's like, Oh, you gotta, we get, you gotta pay in order to reach them. I mean, from a business standpoint, it's brilliant from a user standpoint, it sucks. Yeah. From a, from a user's are happy standpoint, it sucks, you know, but we're not going to get off of it. Right. Like, you know what I mean? We need it. It's like bread and water now. Yeah. Very true. So how did the, how did the concept of phone scope, who, whose was it? Was it yours, your dad's and how did it first come to you? Was it out of, and I'll just be frank here because Jason and I, and I know a lot of others, um, are saying to our, uh, self, um, why didn't we do that? Because we were holding our cameras up to our spotting scopes for, I don't know how many years, Jason. Years, Cheston. Years.

And we're like, oh, yeah, this is, look, check out this awesome video. You know? I made DVDs, a little handmade DVDs of the, of the footage for my clients when I was guiding back in the day and I was holding it up. Why, why didn't I do that? Why didn't we do that? And we're smart, Cheston. We're smart. We should have done that. We are. We, we just simply every year got our cameras. We, you know, it was before we did anything with our phones, but, but we grabbed our cameras, went to the hills and that's what we did. We videoed bucks and bulls and rams through our spotting scope, handheld and man, I'm, I'm cherry. I had my elbows locked on my knees and I got some cherry footage, you know? And you know, so tell us, maybe that's how phone, phone scope came about. Um, but maybe tell us how your, the idea was hatched because it's obviously brilliant and

perfectly time for this, this world we live in now. And then the advancements of smartphones too. And let's not give Cheston too much credit here. Cause quite frankly, the evolution of the phones and the video and the transferability of phone files was amazing. And you guys coming out with that in that timeframe with the timeframe of social media. I mean, come on, that's perfect. That's brilliant. You know, honestly, I'm going to first start off and say we've been blessed. Honestly, it feels like, you know, very humble and grateful for the opportunity we've had where, where phone scope came about is I've had, I helped my camera up just like you guys did. I had the X, Y access ones where you had to thread it on. They had to move it over to the right, move it up to the left. And by the time you did all that, the animal was gone.

I mean, we can't tell them to hold on for five minutes when we already set up our system, you know? Yep. So, but my biggest problem I got to when I was running my camera is I got really bad at charging it and pulling the footage off of it. So I get out in the field and I need to have a full SD card or I'd have a dead battery or all the above. But when palms came out, palm trios, and this was too, this is a long time ago still too. Like those Palm pilot things? Yeah. Yeah. The Palm pilot. So there's the blast from the past. So I had one of the very first Palm cell phones that came out and I'm, I'm holding it up to my spotting scope one day. Me and my dad are hunting deer up on the Beaver mountain and which is a terrible place to hunt, right? Yeah. Terrible place. Nobody should ever hunt there. All right. No, no, no. All right. Keep going.

And I'm, I'm looking through the spotting scope, you know, we're looking at a smaller four point, going to be a nice buck one day and I can see movement in the trees over to the left. And I was like, man, what is that? And I get looking and I make out a silhouette of a mountain lion. And I'm like, Holy crap. I was like, dad, take a look at this. So my dad jumps over on the spotter and he's like, Whoa. Well, right then I grabbed my gun. Cause I was just going to fire a shot off and like scare the animal, scare the lion and the deer away. Not going to hit it. Not going to harm it. No, no, not going to harm by all means. Just scare it all the way. And, uh, you know, at that time I was like, no, no, no, no way. He's like, you really should probably try to video this and watch this because he's like, this might be once in a lifetime opportunity. Yeah.

And I'm seeing, I was like, man, so I'm, I'm trying to hold my phone up now. Cause I didn't have my camera. And like, this was something new to me. My dad looks at me and he's like, Justin, phones are evolving. He's like, why don't we work? Why don't we figure out a way to build a case that will hold the phone up to the spotting scope? And, and you know, on the head, Jason, my dad and I were very similar, but we're very competitive too, because we're so similar. I, I immediately am like, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of dad. They had them for cameras and I hated it. I was like, I'm better free handed. It was a gig. And I kind of left it at that, you know, well, the next day we, uh, the next day I'm up hunting by myself and the wind's blowing like no tomorrow. I'm up really high on the Beaver mountains and I'm trying to video another buck.

And I just, I can't hold myself steady. I'm like, dude, this is actually a pretty good idea. I go home and whip out a piece of PVC pipe and go over to my buddy that has a machine shop. And he teaches me how to use a lace a little bit. And we, we rigged it together and it looked pretty terrible, but the concept was born right there. Wow. And we was sitting in a patent attorney's office about a week and a half later. And that was kind of phone scope was built back in 2000 and 2010, early 2011. So, I mean, it was, it was back when phones were still running, you know, the four to five megapixel cameras and very low, low quality type cameras. Um, I think iPhone four just barely was starting to come out or maybe it was iPhone three. I can't remember. Wow. All I remember is the fours. I don't even remember the threes. There was threes. Don't worry. I remember them.

And so even though it was low resolution, it was still, that was what we had to work with. And you probably thought you had the cat's a there, you know? Oh, dude. Yeah. So, I mean, some of the footage that I used to think was cherry, I look back at it like, you know, palm quarters and I'm like, Oh, what is it? Is that a deer? You know, and I was counting cheaters back in the day. So, all right. So 2010. 2010. So you, so the idea was born at this point in time, uh, going back to what Adam's kind of bringing us to this point at this point in time, there's no other businesses. You got Napa and this PVC. That's what you're doing. PVC. Yeah. Yeah. Cause, cause, cause track my trophies was fizzled. I don't remember. Yep. Okay. Well, I think track my trophies was still kind of hanging around there, but I could kind of tell that I chalked it up as a loss.

And you know, here's one thing that I'm going to put out there. And this is the way that I kind of look at life. Anything that you lose at, you got, you gain more knowledge than you're ever going to lose. And so I've always looked at life a little differently. I love to lose because when I lose, I actually win in the long run. And I learned so much from that. And so I was still learning and trying to dissect what I did wrong, how I could fix it, perfect it, redo something. And that was when this opportunity came along that I was able to jump onto and grasp. And you know, you hear of so many people failing, but it only takes one win in order to succeed. I mean, how many feld stocks do you have, Jason, before you get one? You know what I'm saying? Oh, I don't want to talk about it. Don't bring that up. A lot, Cheston, a lot. On camera, I mean, it looks like Jason's perfect every time.

But honestly, I'm going to tell the real story. Jason fails a lot, everybody that's listening. But when he wins, he really wins, okay? He grand slams it. Well, I just think it's funny, Cheston. How old are you? 29. All right, you're 29. And you're giving us life lessons and quotes from a 29-year-old from your personal life experience. Business experience. But having said that, I've watched what you've done. And if anybody's out there capable of giving people life lessons and starting to give us some quotes to help us in life and business, it's you. It's been very impressive. Anybody that's in the hunting industry that has been affiliated with PhoneScope at all knows what it was born out of and what you built it up to be. And so I do want to give you a plug. I mean, all fun and games aside, it's pretty impressive what you and your dad have done.

And I don't know if you have other partners, but you and your dad is what I know of. And it seems like it's been just amazing. Well, I do appreciate that. And honestly, I just got lucky. But it's good to get lucky once in a while, right? Good timing, yeah. So I know it sounds probably a little bit rudimentary, but there may be listeners that have never used a PhoneScope. So, I mean, the idea was born to have a bracket system to hold your phone up to your spotting scope. So tell us basically how it works and how unique. And obviously in six, seven years now it's evolved maybe to where it is now. But, you know, for all smartphone varieties and scopes and everything like that, tell us about what you got for everybody. Yeah. So basically it's a two-piece system. And how we invented it and built it around was the consumer side. We've never been on the manufacturing side of things.

We've always been the consumer. We've always bought product, right? So we wanted to make it to where it was affordable for anybody to buy a new phone case if they get a new phone. So instead of making the adapter and phone case all in one mold, we're like, why don't we make a phone case that has a universal attachment to where if somebody gets a new phone, they don't have to buy the whole kit again. That way it's affordable for them. So we kind of looked at it differently than probably most people because we wanted it. If we was going to buy it, how would we buy it, right? That's what we wanted to build. So we built the two-piece system to where, A, you give us a call and tell us what phone you have, what optics you have. We put the kit together. You twist them together. You're rocking and rolling. Say you get a new phone in a year or two. You call us up, hey, I got a new iPhone 12.

We send you the case for the iPhone 12. You can still use your existing optic adapter. You never have to buy that adapter again. It's all made out of a nylon ABS material. So it's reinforced, super strong. We have a lifetime warranty on all of our products. But it's ultra lightweight, which is something all of us hunters are destined for is lightweight. So we tried metal. We tried all of the above. The problem is we had problems with it shrinking and expanding due to temperature. Temperature is a necessary evil that we all play with in the hunting industry. So anywhere from, what, Jason, 112 to negative 10? Yeah. I've used it in 112. I promise you that. So it's been amazing. And then I can see what you're saying with the metal. Like now with these cases, you kind of snap them in place. You need it to be a little bit pliable to snap it in and to have it fit tight and whatnot.

And then also you can keep it on. You know, most guys just keep it on all year round. And so, you know, you twist off the adapter. That doesn't ever stay on all the time just when you're going to video something. But the basic case is low profile, thin, fits in your pocket, you know, and it just stays on and protects your phone like a normal case would. Yeah. So, and so anyway, and so, and like you said with your adapters, you're adapting this thing to, you know, to the 15s, the 10s, any kind of binocular. Anything that has an optic in it, you can, is what you're working towards or, or have accomplished, right? As they're coming out with new models. Yeah, but yep. I mean, anything in the hunting industry, we basically adapt to. We've got a couple of mills and lace in our office here in Beaver to where we'll custom build stuff for people sending stuff in or sending us in their dimensions.

I mean, we custom build every single day. But we're also big into like healthcare industry, science departments. I mean, we're sending stuff to colleges. And so it's, it's quite a bit bigger than just the hunting industry, but hunting is where we started. Hunting is my passion. And so that's kind of where we, we plant our flag and take a lot of time and pride in is the, is the industry that's, that we find it's continuing to give back. And, you know, it's full of a bunch of great people and we enjoy, enjoy socializing and just BS and telling stories and lies, honestly. Yeah. Well, that's crazy how you've morphed that into birding. I mean, you're selling, you're selling stuff to anti-hunters. I just think it's hilarious. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you should try going to a birding show. I was there one time and this is, I'll tell a story. You guys are going to laugh. I'm at one of these shows.

I think I was in Columbus, Ohio. And I had a picture on my screensaver as my wife with the bull that she killed. And I go to show this lady how the phone scope works. And I turn it on and the lady's like, Oh, I was like, what, what's wrong? And she's like, that, that elk. I was like, Oh, it's asleep. Don't worry about it. And then I go straight into the video. Right. And so I'm showing her how it works. I'm probably a good three minutes later. All of a sudden she's like, tell me, how's that elk asleep and your wife's sitting by it? And I look at her. I was like, all right. Research project out here in Utah. They darted them. I was like, you got me. They made some measurements. My wife wanted to pet it. And so I took a picture. No, I was just totally in shock that it was like three minutes later. All of a sudden she's like, turns and asks me in the middle of a demonstration.

I'm like, so, I mean, chalk that one up as a lost cell. Basically, I'm going to have to teach this lady where meat's made. I'm going to have to teach her how Walmart gets meat. Oh, my gosh. That's hilarious. Yes. Well, yeah. And so now you got like, you know, vehicles wrapped. You got a birding vehicle. You got a hunting vehicle. Or I see like multiple vehicles. So I don't know if they're all phone scopes or if you're just kind of selling wraps or how that's all shaken out. Yeah, they're pretty much our employees' vehicles or vehicles we have here at the office. You know, that's kind of some of our advertising budget. But, yeah, we put some of our advertising budget into wrapping trucks and vehicles here at the office just because we're on the road a lot. It looks good. But, you know, if you want to know where my hunting spots are, just look for a phone scope truck. You'll find them.

That's one thing Jason told me at the very beginning. He's like, dude, you've got to get an unmarked truck or else people's going to know where you're hunting. Buy a new one every year. Or trucks. Or trucks. Or trucks, yeah. So any other products you guys offer, I mean, besides the phone scope stuff for any of your, maybe wraps and things like that. But is that what you mainly confined it to? It's obviously evolved in seven years, you know, as scopes, new scopes come out, new phone models. So it's not like you just, you know, you always are on top every single year or month, you know, a new Samsung or iPhone, whatever. It's like you're going to work all the time. Well, the best thing about your business is every time Samsung or iPhone comes out with a new model, you've got more sales. Oh, you know, it's the best thing and the worst thing.

Because it's up front money, up front time, all of the above. But then in the long run, it's like, oh, man, I'm grateful they did it. So at first, it's like, I got a lot of hate towards Samsung. And then in the long run, it's like, oh, man, I love these guys, you know, they're best friends. Yeah, same thing with the new, what, BTX and some of these optics. Yeah, oh, yeah. That's a love-hate situation right there. Sure. You got people like me pounding your door down trying to get an adapter. Oh, it's exactly it. You know, and I love it. I told Dean the other day, I was like, man, best thing you ever did was come out with that BTX. He's like, why? I was like, because now we just told him to punch more skews. I said, but the worst thing you did was come out with it, too, because now you put us so far behind. Yeah. We've got to come out with this, and he starts laughing.

He's like, you think you're behind?

Well, that's awesome. And so let's see, like Adam's kind of alluding to about your other products, but at this point, you no longer work at Napa, right? Or do you? I still have them a little bit over here in the Beaver area. Okay. Just because it's a market that I've taken pride in, and I'm a very loyal person, which might be a problem of mine, but I love it because, you know, I've worked over here since I was 14. Yeah. So I helped Matt over here a little bit, but as far as actually a Monday through Friday type of job, now I'm 100% out working on my own. Okay. And I'm enjoying it, hating it at the same time, but you learn a lot when you start working for yourself, and that's something that you boys know exactly. You know, it's not for everybody, but it's also a great thing because you get to learn a lot. And so did Adam have it correct as far as the products?

You basically are still, I know you've got other businesses going. I just know you, but I mean, but PhoneScope, what you do at PhoneScope, is there any other products you sell? You know, we've kind of advanced it. Some of our number one questions that we've got, people call in, they're like, hey, my phone keeps dying when I'm out PhoneScoping. What should I do, Michael? Well, charge your phone. I mean, it's common sense, you know. The PhoneScope's not draining the battery. Yeah. Not at all. I'm using my phone and the battery's dying. Okay. So basically, you're going to come out with a PhoneScope battery, Cheston. That's the next thing. Yeah. Well, we came out with a PhoneScope battery bank. You know what I mean? Did you? Did you? Yeah. Oh, I thought I'd come up with a new idea for you. I guess I'm going to have to stretch a little longer. You did. I didn't know that, actually.

I didn't know that. So we've got our, you know, I had him engineer it around being ultra lightweight using some of the updated battery technology that's lightweight. But, yeah, it's going to give you 100% of the battery until it's totally dead. Get two and a half charges. You know, something that's kind of built around us that we can all utilize. You know, so that, like the shutter button, there's nothing worse than touching your screen and getting the shake when you're trying to take a picture. So we created that Bluetooth remote. It's engineered specifically for digiscoping. I mean, there's shutter buttons on the market. This one's made for digiscoping. You hold the button down, it bursts mode. It takes off. It turns off after once you leave it on your backpack because we know, all of us guys, we see a big buck. We take pictures. We throw all our stuff in our backpack and we're gone.

We don't turn stuff off, right? Right. So we've engineered a bunch of features into these type of ideas that, you know, the only way we learn about this stuff is by user experience and listening to our users. And so that's one thing that I've really enjoyed and taken pride in is listening to how we can advance and change our product and help out the users to be able to make their experience a better experience. Well, that's crazy. And so the shutter button, it's got its own little battery. It's super lightweight. Like it's an I don't even know if it's an ounce. I don't know. It's just retarded how light it is. But is it it does shut off automatically? It does have a switch on there, but you don't have to use it? No. So it'll automatically turn off. And then if you leave it on, then you'll just need to switch it to off and then back on in order to power it back on. Oh, OK.

That way it's just that we didn't want them draining batteries. That way I miss I just know that from experience, I leave mine all the time because I'm like, oh, crap, do you look at that buck? Pretty soon it's like I got to get to a higher point, throw it all in. And I totally forget it's even there. Pretty soon it's dead when I go to use it two weeks later or something. Yeah, makes sense. Well, cool. And then maybe maybe this is the time like you remember when it when we well, when phone scope was in its infancy, you and I were talking and you could actually touch the screen and hold it down. And it and it like will actually clarify. It gets everything clear in the scope and in your picture and it locks it. It puts on a lock mode on your phone, which is when you first learned about it. You know, when we talked about it, it was kind of one of those.

It was a kind of a big deal, you know, because that was that changed the game. We didn't have to just kind of hope it was in focus or touch the screen once. And then, you know, heat waves might adjust that focus and whatnot. And so is there any other tips or tricks and using this stuff that you found or, you know, how to make it easy for guys, you know, whether your phone's up and down, whether it's horizontal. But I don't know. Just kind of teach people, you know, the best way to use it and to use their phone. Yeah. Do you use your scope zoom or zoom on the phone? Yeah. How do you how do you compare that use the two and when to use them and things like that as well? Yeah. But I mean, so the best way to start off is to throw it on and figure out where the sweet spot of your scope is. And that by the sweet spot, I'm talking to eye relief. Yeah.

So I'll use it to throw my phone on even crooked and then twist it in and out the eye relief with the phone on and see when I get rid of that circle to get rid of the vignetting. Right. Yeah. Where I get the best picture, that's where it needs to be. So I'll pull it off, straighten it, put it back on and then use as much zoom of your scope as you possibly can. And eliminate the digital zoom as much as you possibly can. And digital zoom, let's just bring it back to layman's terms, so to speak, is not zooming in your phone itself and blowing up the screen. It's actually using the optical zoom of the scope. Optics. You know, and then use your digital. I actually use this digital zoom just a little bit once in a while to get rid of the black quickly, you know, so I don't have to pull it off, take it off, you know. Yeah, you're good for about 2 to 3x.

I mean, these newer phones are coming out, you're good for even further than that. Yeah. But we like to dial in as much as you can. The new iPhone 7 Plus is, dude, it's crazy because it's got that two times optical zoom. So it's basically a doubler. It's doubling your scope before you even have to do anything with it. Yeah. So there's a bunch of little key tips and tricks like that. You know the one on the head, locking in the manual focus, holding your finger down, and then just using the focus of your scope. And now you're basically transforming your scope and phone into an SLR feature. And it's pretty powerful. It's pretty amazing. I mean, you guys filmed some crazy stuff. I mean, Chris was filming all that stuff for Under Armour at long distance and aired it on outdoor TV.

Well, yeah, well, a lot of that, well, Chris ran the Wazoo cameras, you know, and then when we were looking through the spotting scope, I would actually just throw up my phone on it. And we used that. Chris would use that footage and, of course, the producers as well. Use that footage on TV from your phone. It was a game changer. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's crazy. To be able to do that. And, again, I mean, this was back even when I would say phone scope was somewhat infancy, 2013, 2012. Yeah, with a tripod, even a big Wazoo tripod-mounted camera, you can't film at the distances out there and tell what the bug is at a mile. We would use a TV footage at a mile, mile and a half. And yet, and I don't get that. I guess I'm not a videographer guy.

But you'd have to have, like, a zoom limb, what do you think, like three foot long to be able to actually, you know, 30 pounds of optics to be able to suck it in that deep. That's what was really cool about the, you know, and hunting and TV and the dynamics between bringing hunting to TV and not having optical ability to do that. You know, that's where phone scope was a game changer for our TV production, really. Yeah, true. It was pretty awesome. And then the better the phones get and the more transferable the files are with AirDrop and everything, it just, it was just, it's amazing. It's so awesome. So, anyway, and then, so we did. We would touch that screen, lock in the exposure and everything, but you can just kind of drag your finger up and down and change the exposure and whatnot. Because, as you know, I mean, sometimes you're filming at noon and it's bright.

And, anyway, we adjusted some things like that. But that's what I kind of wanted to bring up is if there was any other, which you've enlightened us on some. Is there anything else you can think of that, you know, helps on the quality and whatnot? You know, other than that, I just recommend the shutter button for taking pictures. That way you have no motion at all. Yeah. A little bit of shake on the one side is a lot of shake once you're zoomed in. And is it, and as far as a phone being up there, horizontal versus vertical? It depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for Instagram stories, then vertical's actually the best. Okay. Which I would never say that as of last year. I was always, like, totally. Horizontal. Against it, yeah. Horizontal because that's just the aspect ratio that we watch it on our TVs, our computer monitors, all the above. Yeah.

But there's a lot of people that prefer running it vertical, so I just, I've kind of quit being so critical about it and said, hey, it's whatever you're looking for. But if you're looking for the best theatrical type production, you need to run it horizontal because you're going to be able to get that full frame. Okay. That's what I don't think many people understand. Like, so for YouTubers, you need to use it horizontal. Yeah. Horizontal. If not, you'll have the black bars on each side that you have to fill in. That's, yeah, that's good. That's good to know. And then also the phone settings. I mean, your phone will video in different formats and whatnot. Tell us about that real quick. Yeah. These phones now are cranking out 30 frames per second in 4K. I mean, you're slow-mo. You're getting clipped to 40 frames per second in, I think, 720.

I mean, you can video a vapor trail out of a rifle at 720 or 240 frames, and it's just amazing. I mean, the settings that these things are cranking out is just, I mean, they're exceeding outdoor channels resolution on satellite TV. Like, it's just crazy. Yeah. And you're talking storage that's gone up in the last five or six years. Oh, Adam and I don't buy a phone unless it's like 120-something. What is it? 128. Yeah, something or above. Yeah, and then the cloud, too. Yeah. The cloud has been such a blessing because then you can just roll unlimited footage and just keep trying to add into the cloud. Yeah. So, Samsung's still a blessing because they've got SD cards, which, you know. Yeah. That's nice. I love them for that, but. I would love to have an SD card. I, I, and I don't use the cloud like I should. Anyway, that's a whole other subject for another day.

I'm not very good at all this stuff. You mentioned, you know, cool footage and stuff like that. I'm sure you're getting people either tagging you on social media, you're getting people send you pictures or video from time to time. What are some of the, and it's maybe hard on the spot to talk about some of the coolest footage, but, you know, you start off talking about trying to film a mountain lion, trying to kill a deer, whatever. That's maybe how the whole concept was hatched, but have you ever, have you yourself, or what are some of the coolest stuff you've seen come across your desk by consumers that have had your product in their hands? You know, honestly, I've seen some amazing stuff. Anyone from kill shots. I mean, Jason, even, what was it, your brother-in-law's killing that sheep last year? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, dude, that was a hammer shot.

Yeah, that was my, well, actually, Jeff, who works here, you know, at Epic, it was his brother, drew the rocky sheep here in Utah, and it was an epic shot. It was awesome. Oh, dude, it was amazing. You know, anyone from kill shots, and we've seen a ton of them. So we've started our own new Instagram account, and it's Scope TV, and all it is is 100% just straight-up dirty, rotten kill shots, just ones that just make you, oh, just, you know, the ones that you, yeah. I didn't even know that. You do, I'm going to have to follow you. In fact, while we're talking, I might have to go on there and follow you. S-K-O-P-E TV? Yep, S-K-O-P-E-D TV. Follow for follow? There you go. I'll make sure we come here, Jeff. No underscore after Scoped? I don't think so, but since we're, I'll admit, I dropped my phone in Lake Powell a couple days ago, so I can't even log into it.

So I don't even know if, Tim usually handles all that type of stuff, so I'm sure that there's probably been something updated in the last day or two. But there's some pretty cool stuff that we'll be showing throughout that that we try to keep our other Instagram fairly professional, we'll say. Broad, yeah. Where we all know that we're far from professional. Yeah. You're trying to appeal to the broad spectrum of users. Exactly. From birders to hunters to, you know. Anybody that stumbles onto us. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, you want to sell your stuff to whoever wants to buy one. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But, yeah, exactly. You know, but from kill shots, even vapor trails, there's some awesome vapor trails we've seen. 1,500-yard shots, you can see the bullet just going straight up and coming straight down and ringing still.

But, I mean, I'd probably say the best video, I'd probably say it would be the one that Dale Pearson, a guy from up in northern Utah, videoed out on Antelope Island. It was a mature buck being taken down by three coyotes. Jeez. That was probably, that's probably the coolest. I'm not necessarily saying coolest because it's not cool that the deer was killed, but it was cool to see how, you know, unforgiving and nasty. Just the raw, natural video. Yeah, the raw that Mother Nature truly is. And how terrible these coyotes really are on our deer herd. I mean, it shows you that the deer out in Antelope Island are healthy as it gets, right? They're big. Yeah. And these coyotes just straight up take, and this deer is kicking and it's popping coyotes in the face. And they take it down and just kill it.

I mean, it's sad, but it also is eye-opening that, you know, we as sportsmen need to get out and do our part. And to try to save what we take pride in, you know, we all pass on big, we pass on good bucks to hope they grow bigger. But if we don't do our part on the management side, we might, we really might be missing the key feature. And that's kind of what this video shows. It opened my eyes big time because I was one of those guys, I'm like, deer coyotes not going to go out and kill a big buck. Yeah. I was wrong. Yeah. I was totally wrong. Yeah. That's crazy. So, being put on the spot, that's probably the one I would say just because it opened my eyes. Yeah. Well, I'm a little partial, but we videoed that, you know, 280-inch deer that Tyler Wayman killed in New Mexico. And that footage was unbelievable. Oh, yeah. And you remember it. But it was like, you know, 250 yards.

And, again, you know, to us nowadays, 250 yards is nothing. But, you know, without a phone scope, without using your phone, without trying to get that footage, it's just not possible. You know, it's just not going to happen. And, I mean, we videoed a shot toward the deer and all of that kind of stuff. And got to relive that and figure out where he hit. Oh, yeah. So, there was a lot of, there's just, you can tell where you hit or did this or did that. And so, anyway, there's just so much good that comes from, you know, videoing your stuff. And so, anyway. Well, cool. I know you've got a lot of footage out there that people are using it nonstop. And once it's just like a snowball effect, you know, people get going and everybody wants to share and just keep cranking. So, I'm sure you're just dealing with gobs and gobs of it. Yeah. You know, we're grateful and we love it.

We love seeing the footage. We're grateful for everybody. You know, at the end of the day, and I've said it before, we don't have customers. We've got friends and family. Anybody that supports us and buys from us, I mean, do we consider them all a friend? We're here for them. If they have any questions, need help on support, whatever. Yeah. Give us a call, shoot us a text, a message, whatever. We want to make sure anybody's getting the best footage they possibly can because that's kind of the name of the game. So, tell us, like, you're in Walmart now, right? Yeah. Where can they find you? So, they find you from Walmart? I mean, or is it just off the web? Or how do we do this? Yeah, they can buy them on the web. Walmart only stocks a few universal kits. So, they're not really the ideal kit for probably the people listening on this show.

So, anybody looking to buy a kit, I mean, obviously, our phonescope.com website has everything we have as well as anything custom that needs to be built can be purchased there. Sportsman's Warehouse has a brand new gondola we just put in. It's a spinner one. So, it's double-sided, sweet setup, and they've got a ton of product. So, if you've got a local Sportsman's Warehouse, swing by. They've got a great setup with a ton of product. It's also Cabela's has a great setup, Shields, and then a ton of local mom and pop shops. They're also a great place to buy. I mean, we've got a dealer locator on our website. You can jump on our website, pull up the dealer locator, see if something's close by. If not, I mean, you ship all day, every day. So, yeah, we can ship stuff pretty quick to you. All right, let's take a quick break. We want to do a little giveaway here on the Epic Outdoors podcast.

We're going to give away a free phone scope adapter for your phone that attaches to whatever optic you have. So, anyway, we're going to give one away with this particular episode. To win, you would go to epicoutdoors.com backslash podcast, and there is a podcast giveaway entry form on the right-hand side of the page. The podcast code for this particular giveaway will be THANKSPHONESCOPE. So, just one solid word, no spaces, T-H-A-N-K-S-P-H-O-N-E-S-K-O-P-E. Get on there and do it. We'll give it away here in one week. So, what other projects are you involved in? I don't know what you want to air out on here, but I know you were working on a few things that were kind of, you know. Yeah, you know, we've got one that I want to release it here on your show here in a month or two. Okay. So, I'm going to make you put my annoying butt back on the phone.

But, you know, we've got something really cool that we're excited to release that we've had a lot of our users asking for for a long time. And we've about got it perfected. It's taken us about four and a half years, but we're getting there. So, we're excited to drop that. Four and a half years. Well, we might need a little prototype, you know. Oh, yeah. You got a prototype that me and Adam can abuse here in the next month or two? Yeah, I could probably swing by one of these days since you guys live so far away from me. Yeah, cool. We're right on. All right. Well, I won't ask you any more about that. I don't want to, you know, divulge anything. Actually, you know, there was other businesses and different things that we've talked about. But, you know, I don't know where you're at on those. And so, we can leave it at that. But, tell us about your hunting schedule.

I know you've had all kinds of crazy, awesome tags. And, of course, now that you're working in the hunting industry, I know, you know, the opportunities are probably endless. Yeah, you know. You hunted in Mexico, Utah, Colorado. I mean, you've done a lot. And so, talk a little bit about that. Yeah, it's been fun. You know, you guys have drew me some great tags, too, which I would have never had the opportunity if it wasn't for you being like, dude, look, you're busy. Let me help you out. Yeah. And so, I'm grateful for you guys to be able to pull some of the tags for me. But this year, I'll be out in Nevada. You guys got me that one tag. Yeah. Hunting mule deer. I'll be Colorado third season. And, obviously, I'll be in Utah hunting deer and elk. And then, I've also, I was able to get a Wyoming commissioner's tag as well. So, we'll be able to. You're going to hunt elk? Yeah.

Or what species are you going to go after? Not sure yet. Still starting this side. No. Because on those, you get to do antelope, elk, and deer. I thought you'd probably use it on antelope. I was thinking antelope.

I'm just giving you grief. But, yeah, no, it is a state that's well known for antelope and some giants. Yeah, it's very true. You're probably thinking elk, huh? Yeah, you know, I don't know why people are so passionate about mule deer. Elk's where it's at. And sheep. I mean, I don't get people hunting sheep and mule deer, you know? This podcast might be over with. Sheep or spikes. Sheep or spikes. Elk are interesting. Yes, sheep or spikes. You love elk. I mean, that's probably. I mean, think about it. How fun is it being 15 yards away from a bull that's four times the size of you? Yeah. Tearing a tree, peeing all over. I mean, dude, there's just something about it. And Jason knows me, and I give him crap all the time. I don't know. I'm an elk now. And it's probably because I'm not a good enough hunter to hunt mule deer because they don't tell me where they're at.

So when I'm hunting, elk is like, oh, there's one over there. Let's go. Elk will scream and say, I'm over here. Come hunt me. From a mile away in thick trees, you can tell where the bulls are. Yeah. I mean, if mule deer ran around with, like, red balloons that popped up every so often, that might be my new favorite species. But, you know, until then, I'm just going to have to stick it out on these elk. Yeah. Well, Dan Evans, I talked to him one day, and he was, you know, of course, we all know he's an elk freak. But that's what he always said about elk. They tell you where they're at, and they trash the place. It's not hard to find where they're at. That's true, and I love it. Well, good. So probably doing elk. If you did, elk, let's just say if you did it, I mean, would you be hunting it with your bow, rifle, both? What are you thinking? You know, I haven't even thought that far ahead.

Justin, it's really close to August 1st. I know. I probably really should get thinking. By the way, we have some endorsed outfitters if you need some. You might need to secretly send that list over.

Well, it sounds like you've got a good lineup there from, yeah, a little bit of everything. Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada. Yeah, it should be a fun year. You know, the funnest hunt I've had in a long time was that one in New Mexico. It taught me a lot about myself. You know, I didn't kill a bull. We passed a lot of good bulls. But it was one of those, the old saying back to Grandma and Grandpa always tell you, it was going to school uphill both ways. Dude, that's how the Gila was where I was at. No joke about it. I'm pretty sure Davey put me out there because he's like, yeah, I'm not going to send any of my other clients out there. So he's like, here, dude, go out. Because literally we'd park the Can-Am and we'd have to hike up and over the mountain to get in the valley. You'd hunt all day and then you'd have to hike up and back out. Yeah. Yeah.

It was a good hunt and we learned a lot and had a great time. And that's kind of what hunting is all about to me is just getting out and having a good time. Yeah. So. Well, good. Is that, have you got a favorite hunting memory from way back or does that New Mexico not rank right up there? You know, I'd probably say when I killed my, I killed a 400-inch bull back when I was in high school. You did not. I did. I killed a tank on a beaver. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. Yeah. I didn't know that. Okay. High school. So we're talking two years ago? Yeah. Dude. I'm just teasing you. I bet if somebody sat me and you next to each other, they'd probably think there's a three-year age difference. I get it all the time. People are like, and I'm not saying you're looking young either, Carter. I'm saying I'm looking old. Let's get that out there too. So you drew an early rifle?

What weapon did you draw back in high school? It was actually a late rifle. It was the first year they did the late rifle. Wow. So my number one choice, I put a lot of time in and all the above, but the number one choice ended up being harvested, and it went 418. Ned or gross or non-typical? Typical? What is it? It was non-typical. That would have been gross. But anyways, and then I ended up killing mine, and it's pretty sad when a backup bulls frick in 402, you know? Wow. Well, that just goes to show you back in the day when we had those kind of bulls. What year was that? Do you remember? It would have been 2004, 2005. That's the sweet spot. Adam and I were talking about those days with a Utah biologist here in the office, you know, about an hour ago. Those were the days. 2000 to 2008 was, has never been better. Very true. And never will be the same. Awesome. Yeah. Nope. Never will be.

Was he a straight, what was he? Straight six? He was a seven by eight. Oh. Double sword and just mass like you've never seen. Just sweet bull. Wow. Just an awesome bull. Well, I got a new goal then. I got to, we got to beat Cheston. There we go. Yeah. We got to take time to hunt elk sometimes. Well, Adam and I hunt elk, but not like you need to do to ever kill one of that magnitude. Yeah, I don't know about that now. I'm sure you've got one or two hidden in the trunk somewhere. I've killed a couple of good ones. Adam and I both killed bulls over 380, but just, you know, to take on that 400 inch type, you know, goal, you pretty much got to live for it for 10 solid years and make that, you know, the primary. I mean, you've got to be hunting elk in September, October, November. I mean, you've got to hunt some elk, you know. And not hunt deer and sheep or whatever else as much.

You've got to, yeah. Or get lucky or draw an incredible tag that you had no business to draw on and the right moisture year. It all lines up and that's kind of how we've been. But you could do that up there in Wyoming. It's really good right now. That's kind of what I'm hoping for. I'm really excited to see how it all looks and shapes out. So it should be a fun year. I just got to try to find some time now to take it out of the office. Some of those late hunts have been produced and you probably, I'm not telling you anything. I'm sure you've done your research, but they're, and you probably already have a plan, but you're being cautious. But I would say that's, I'm going to say those late hunts. Adam and I, you know, the people we've talked to. And, of course, Adam did a lot of research earlier this year. It's pretty amazing. Yeah, the late hunts looking pretty promising.

Just for spacing stuff out too. September, early October, everything's going. And mid to late November, not much. No, Thanksgiving and family time, I guess. Dive in the middle of that, so. Oh, yeah. All right. Well, Cheston, anything else you want to leave us with as we wrap this thing up? Hey, no, it's been fun, guys, really. It's, I enjoy it. Enjoy the podcast. Enjoy everything you guys have done and are continuing to do for the industry. Cool. And glad to be a part of everything. Cool. Well, we appreciate it. Want to tell you how much we appreciate you spending some time with us, as well as congratulate you on all the success you've had. And it's awesome to see some success. And our hunting industries, you know, it's not like a lot of professional sports. There's money in some professional sports. And this is probably, you know, one of those industries there's not a lot of money in.

No, but, you know, there's a lot of pride. And people take it serious. That's one thing that I like. And, you know, it's one thing we told ourselves, too. Since we've kind of figured out and got to where we're at, our goal is we've kind of stepped in and helped out. But we're starting to help out a few people that's got some great ideas. So, I mean, I guess I'll throw this out there. If some of you guys' listeners have some great ideas but not really sure where to go, where to take it to the next step and need some advice, give me a call. I mean, I'd love to help anybody out. I'd love to see people succeed. Yeah. So, that's kind of one thing I told myself I wanted to do is just really try to give back the best that I can without giving back by giving to Mule Deer Foundation, SFW, RMEF, stuff like that. I want to give back to the actual people that can make a big difference.

And that's all of us. You know, we all make a big difference. Yeah, maybe even be a silent partner or something and come up with some new Wazoo products, you know. Well, that's kind of where the cooler tray came from. And, you know, that kid came to us and had an idea that we all should have had years ago. We've all had problems with stuff floating in coolers and taking on water, mushy cheese. Yeah. And he just had no idea where to go and where to start. So, are you cranking on that one yet or is it coming? Yeah, it's cranking. I need to get some product over in your hands. It's selling pretty good, pretty quick. I had some watered-down bread yesterday. Okay. Well, it gets wet eventually in your gut. So, just choke it down, Carter. Oh, that's true. But, you know, where I learned it when I was on the Gila and we were so far away from the grocery store, about two hours, right? Yeah.

And by day 10, we had water getting into our ground beef. And it spoiled it, but we had no idea until we wanted to use it. That was a terrible day because we was there for 14 days. And now you're back to eating something without meat in it and you're starving to death because you're grabbing around. Choked it down. Well, don't worry. I don't ever starve to death. I take plenty of food. We don't have to worry about that. Right. But it might not have been, you know, gourmet five-star. Not as good. That's right. All right. Well, cool, man. Thanks a lot. It's been great. And congratulations on your success. It's a product we all use and need. And the timing and everything aligned perfectly. You were just the bright one to put it together. And so a lot to be committed for that. Well, I appreciate it, guys. It means a lot coming from you guys. All right. Sounds good, Cheston.

Looking forward to working with you, continuing to work with you here at Epic Outdoors and promoting each other and just being good partners. So anyway, thanks for everything and good luck this year. Okay. Take care, guys. Thanks. Here at Epic Outdoors, we produce a hunting magazine, nine issues a year. The first six issues are state-by-state research-driven issues, breaking down the states, the drawing odds, kill percentages, best places to go, whatever your goals are for that state, whether you should even apply for that state or not. Coming from January through June, we break those down. The rest of the year, we go every other month. Very informative magazine. $100 a year gets you that magazine as well as the ability to call and consult with us consultants, develop a strategy, bounce ideas off us, things like that. Yeah.

So with this magazine, you know, it just covers Western big game hunting. That's what we specialize in. That's what we stick to. So the Western states, Canada, Alaska, Mexico, from a big game hunting perspective. So $100 a year, and it should be everything to do with Western big game hunting. We also offer a full service license application service. If you're too busy, you find yourself missing deadlines or you travel a lot with your work, missing deadlines in some cases will put you years behind drawing a certain tag that you're after. We offer for a maximum of $500. We'll handle all of your Western state applications. We'll incorporate the information you give us. You can be as interactive with us in picking your units as you want. Or you give us a criteria. We can pick your units, match the weapon type, species, states, all those types of things that you're looking for.

We do that for a lot of guys. We help them draw a lot of tags. If you find yourself, like I said, too much going on in your life, whether it be business or travel or whatever, you miss deadlines, consider calling us for your license application service needs and be glad to help you out. With our license application service, of course, one of the big things besides just applying and submitting your license applications is the people doing it. So Adam and I, we touch all the applications and we actually choose the units for you depending on what you're looking for. And that's a big deal. We've done this for many, many years as well as for ourselves. And we've hunted all the Western states. We have quite a bit of experience with everybody here in the office. And this is what we've done for a living for a lot of years.

And so anyway, we feel like we offer some of the most knowledgeable consultants and the ability to really choose accurately what you're looking for so you don't waste your points or waste your money and especially waste your time in places that don't really suit you. And so anyway, like Adam said, for a maximum of 500, we can do anything and everything that pertains to applying for Western Big Game.