EP 72: Hunt Application Deadlines and Alaska Dall Sheep Giveaway

It was a dream hunt I've always dreamed of going on. They've got some later rifle seasons. You can hunt the entire rut with a bow, and then they've also got a real late season. Non-residents have already applied for their elk. The draw results are out. 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, coming at you from Adam's house here in Cedar City, Utah. So, anyway, pretty excited. Of course, this time of year, it's hard not to be. All the draws are in, and we're just seeing, well, not all of them. There's a few. And we'll talk about that here in not too long. But we are excited for a few draw results that are going to come out, namely Colorado should be out tomorrow for the sheep and goat. Mooses, they're going to make us wait. At least the sheep and goat gives you an extra 30 days to get your butt in shape if you do draw. That's right. So, anyway, before we get started, we want to thank Under Armour. For sponsoring these podcasts, and, of course, sponsoring a lot of different

things that we do, as well as the Epic Outdoors magazine and whatnot. Super great partner of ours, as well as many others that you'll find in the Epic Outdoors magazine. Comes out each month, December through June, and then bi-monthly after that for nine issues a year or so. Anyway, we also have Aaron Bronson here with us today. He's Adam's brother. Super good dude. He's working with us on a few different things that you'll see shortly here in the next 10 months or so. But, anyway, welcome Aaron here with us. Go ahead, Bronson. I said we're five or one. Maybe we'll see how fast he gets some stuff. Yeah, we'll see how much will work at the end. How busy are you going to be in the next month or so, Aaron? We're about to find out. So, anyway. Yeah, we'll talk with him here maybe after we go through some of the states that we covered in the May issue.

We'll have Aaron talk with us a little bit about his doll sheep hunt in Alaska last year, which was with one of our Epic Approved Outfitters, Listen Guide Service, and we're giving a hunt away, a 14-day combo hunt away with them right now for members that join or anybody that refers, somebody that joins by June 1st, I believe. That's right. Yeah, that's right. So, we'll get into that. Of course, we also got another giveaway going where we're giving away a pair of Swarovski optics for anybody that lets us know what they've drawn in the past, past member experience. If you load that up, you'll get an entry into the hat, one for every unit or place that you've been. So, anyway, feel free to load that up. You can get on epicoutdoors.com and do that and get in there before May 15th. So, anyway, with our May issue, May 2018 came out. It's pretty awesome. We just got ours in the mail.

You should be getting yours shortly. It's jammed. It's jammed with Wyoming deer and antelope, Idaho elk deer and antelope, as well as covering Iowa and Washington, the sheep, goat, and moose in Washington. That's right. A lot of these last two magazines come out real close together because a lot of states have their application deadlines in May and early June. And so, you just simply can't do a monthly magazine now. So, we cranked two out back-to-back. This one, the May magazine is the first of those two. And so, yeah, let's maybe just dive into it a little bit. We'll talk about each of those states briefly, about the key points. Obviously, all members can view the eMag online. And like Jason said, your magazine's on its way to your mailbox as we speak. Should be getting it any day. So, maybe let's kick off with Idaho, deer, elk, and antelope. Yeah, deer, elk, and antelope.

We love to go to Idaho. There's a lot of different options in Idaho. We covered many of them within the magazine. And anyway, it doesn't matter if you're a trophy hunter or just like to go up there and spend some time, have some easy drawing odds or whatever. They've got something for everyone. We've spent a lot of time in Idaho. All of us have. And Jeff Dignier raised there, probably born there. Who knows? But anyway, we've spent a lot of time, you know, in some unlimited areas, a little bit on the over-the-counter, clear back in the 90s, all the way to current day. So, anyway, have drawn some cool tags up there and spent a lot of time, killed a few good animals. And so, as well as Jeff's boy this last year, killed an elk on kind of a new little season going on there in Unit 52. So, pretty fun. But anyway, Idaho has something for everybody. We did cover it pretty aggressively.

And, in fact, Adam, you spent some time up there with your boy as well. Yeah, he drew the youth mule deer tag, killed a great buck, went up there, only had about two or three days to hunt, got very fortunate, found a great buck for him. And, yeah, got him home without missing, I think, more than one day of school, which was nice. That's awesome. Yeah, Adam and I have both drawn trophy deer tags up there. We usually get our butts kicked. But at the same time, we see some great bucks. And the drawing odds are awesome. You know, as many of you know, your first choice is the one that really counts. And there's so many things to choose from that it makes it to where it kind of divvies out the drawing odds and makes it to where it's palatable. Yeah, you've got some archery. You've got, obviously, the bulk of the tags are in the rifle hunt. They do have muzzleloader tags, kind of sparingly.

They have, I guess, the most, I guess we'll call primitive, legal muzzleloading restrictions, along with, you know, Oregon, Washington, in terms of, you know, lead bullet only, all lead, you know, exposed ignition, number 11 percussion cap. Some of you people don't even know what those are, probably. Might even be able to use a flintlock if you can find one. That's right. So a little bit limited there. But consequently, the drawing odds are pretty good. That was the last tag I drew was a muzzleloader tag. But, you know, unlimited deer tags that you do have to apply for, but they're guaranteed. Obviously, they have some great quality deer hunts if you want to go for some of the best of the best and have tougher drawing odds. But like Jason said, it's a state that you can play around with year to year, a little bit like New Mexico because there's not a point system. So you're not out much.

You do have a one-year waiting period on some of the antler tags you've drawn, but that's still not much of a deterrent to only hold out for X or Y. Just go, you know, roll the dice. We bounce around year to year. We don't just stick for, we usually look at weapon types or our schedules and, you know, have wide varying season opportunities from August with archery and, you know, some September rifle, October to early November rifle and October, November muzzleloaders. I mean, two, three months, even some of the December elk hunts. So, yeah. They go deep. Yeah. Yeah. Lots of different options. And, of course, again, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but if you do choose to apply for the sheep, goat, or moose, you're not really eligible to apply for the main draw and the normal limited quota units for the deer, elk, and antelope.

But if you decide to do the deer, elk, and antelope, then great. You know, you can do all three of those as long as you didn't do the sheep, goat, and moose. And so, anyway, that's what we're talking about as far as in this particular magazine. The May issue covers Idaho in depth, well worth a non-refundable hunting license fee of $154.75 and a minimal application fee to jump into the draw. And then if you draw them, then you have to come up with the money. They have a few little stamps and convenience fees and crap. Tax license and registration. You're out a little bit more. All that stuff we seem to be used to. The deadline to apply is June 5th for Idaho deer, elk, and antelope. So, got a little bit of time there. It's one of those states that you can use as a, I guess, last resort. Sit it out since there's no point system.

If you've got something or enough on your schedule already, just sit it out. If you don't, it's one that you can try to get in the last minute up until June 5th. We normally will know, you know, Utah, Colorado, Nevada results all by the time you've got to apply for Idaho. So, it's kind of one of the last states. The only one, I guess, later would be Arizona for deer and sheep. That's right. I never thought of it, but actually, it's probably better revenue generating if you have an earlier deadline just because everybody jump in on it where you can kind of wait in Idaho. Yeah. If you've got a tag or two and don't want to add to it, there's no points only, no points option at all. So, yeah. Sit it out. But, anyway, another state, I guess, similar to that is Wyoming. They have a bunch of different application deadlines, but specifically now we're talking about the

deer and the antelope for non-residents here. The residents are also applying for the deer, elk, and antelope all in the month of May. But the non-residents have already applied for their elk. The draw results are out. Their sheep, moose, goat, bison results should be out by May 10th. The deadline to apply for those was the end of February. So, for right now, we're just talking about non-resident deer and antelope. And the deadline to apply for those is May 31st. A lot of opportunities. You can't, I mean, we'll talk about antelope first. I mean, we cover, you know, 30 or 35 units. I forget how many right now. Now, in the May magazine, as far as breaking down drawing odds, kill rates, we really don't talk about kill rates on antelope. They're always 85 to 100 percent. So, it's kind of a broken record. You go to Wyoming, you're going to kill one. Yeah, there's antelope everywhere.

It's more of a product of how many points do you have? Do you want to go this year? Do you want to play the special drawing odds or special draw? Pay the extra money? Try to increase your drawing odds to go, which generally on antelope you'll see. Most of the time, a special application will help that, usually dramatically. Not always, but generally. Or do you just want to do the regular draw? Stick to this, you know, top handful or two units, you know, red desert and adjoining areas, and try to hunt trophy bucks. But really, you've got big bucks in all parts of Wyoming. It's just a matter as you move from west to central, still maintain a lot of public land. As you get from central to eastern, especially the far eastern part of the state, your private land goes way, way up. And, you know, the drawing odds are easy, but you're probably going to have to secure a place to hunt

or use an outfitter because of that. But something like we talked about with Idaho, something for everything in Wyoming when it comes to antelope. If you've got three points, you can force the draw and draw something. If you've got 12 points max and you want to go this year, you can force the draw and make it happen. And everything in between you can as well. So they do make you front the permit fees up front when you apply. It's online. It's easy to do. They have a quick turnaround, usually by the 20th or so, 20 to 25th of June, you've got your results back. So it's a real quick turnaround. You can also, you know, sneak an application in right towards the very end, just like you can in Idaho if you haven't drawn anything else. Yeah, put your points on the line for it. As far as deer, Jason, I mean, we've been to Wyoming. I actually had a tag there last year, burned my maximum points.

I had a 128 late tag, had a really fun hunt. Lots of game, tons of game. I've never been on a hunt where we saw more game. You know, moose, deer, elk, antelope, big horn sheep, wolves. I mean, it was unbelievable. I called it Wild Kingdom. It was everywhere. Had a fun hunt. A lot of nice bucks, as expected. Not a lot of big, big, what I would call trophy deer. Ended up did killing a really nice deer. Second to last day of the hunt. Had a fun time. My points are gone. I'm looking forward to going back on general tags. But I don't know, get your thoughts. But the deer, capable of a lot more than what I think we're getting out of Wyoming in terms of real trophy limited entry deer units. But they're capable of producing big deer. Oh, yeah. No question about it. And most people that know Wyoming and know the deer and whatnot up there know that they like opportunity.

Even our good friend, Kurt, who down here for a business meeting, we should have him on because he's some classic stories. Wyoming native. Especially when it comes to antelope. But anyway, antelope and shovels. But anyway, good guy. Anyway, he could tell us all about it. And his family's from there. They're from Cameron. And so they get to partake in some of these, especially when they were residents, over-the-counter general hunts. And the Wyoming residents just don't want to do away with that. And so they hate seeing, as a general, generally speaking. They just don't like seeing their opportunities disappear. And we've seen that across the West. We've talked about it a lot. Adam and I have. You know, especially these early mornings, we're cranking out magazines and whatnot, watching these opportunities disappear across the West. And so I don't blame them. I see that.

At the same time, we have limited entry units such as 102, 101. You know, back in the day, we had the, you know, late 82 hunt, which was an amazing hunt for that particular state. You know, 128, which you partook in this last year, Adam and Drew a tag. I mean, some of these are, you know, they could be managed better. And, you know, and they're even offering more tags in 102 this year, putting another 50 on top. So now we're at 250 total and doubling the tags in 101. And I know it's only 50, but it's a lot for that particular unit. And so we've just talked about, you know, managing statewide from a general perspective versus if they're going to be limited entry, let's really, truly manage them for quality. And we just haven't seen that in that particular state. Yeah, it's one with maximum points being, you know, 12 and everybody's waiting and holding on to them.

I personally just had been not hunting regions G or H, which can be hunted, you know, region H every other year or two. Region G every four to six years, depending on if you do regular special, things like that. And I just, I'm always busy. It seems like in September with other things I have going. So I hadn't, hadn't burned the points. Just time to put it. I put a late season hunt down there and got rid of them. I just don't see anything on the near horizon blossoming. I mean, you've got unit 130, which is the, you know, southern end of the Wind River range that last two years has produced some really, really good deer. As good as deer as anywhere in the state. But it only goes to October 31st. And if you get that hunt in a year where you don't have a lot of early storms and things like that, you can be left out there hunting very limited deer numbers. Last two years is good.

They did cut the tags there from 25 to 15. I know it gets attention from commissioner tags and things like that. But when I say big deer, I mean, you're talking 185 to 195. Those are great bucks. And you're going to have to have maximum points to draw unit 130. You get other units like Jason talked about, 101, 102, 128, 87, 90. You know, I'd round out probably the top six or seven in my mind of limited entry. You're realistically hunting 170 to 180 bucks with a little bit of better potential than that. And there's 180 to, I guess you'd say, 200-inch potential on them. But just not that many. If you had to break down the number of 200-inchers killed, they're by far coming from the general regions versus these limited quarters. Like G&H and maybe even the private land regions and other parts of the state, wouldn't you say? Yeah, for sure.

And a lot of that, just like we've talked about, is just due to the number of hunters in the field. And, of course, Region G&H does have some amazing genetics. And they do have some escapement. And so they end up getting a few bucks that get some age on them. And there's so many guys in the field, they're going to knock a couple of them down. So anyway, but that kind of covers it. That kind of covers it. I mean, there's something for everybody up there. And we're gaining points. I mean, we are. I'm gaining points for it and whatnot and hope maybe someday we learn about something and go knock down an absolute monster. You know, we've both hunted antelope up there. And what an amazing state for antelope. Yeah, we may end up applying this year. We'll see what our schedules look like by the end of May. Like I said, the deadline for deer and antelope is the end of May.

If you decide not to apply right now, their points only option is July 2nd through October 31st in Wyoming. So if you're only wanting to do points for deer and antelope or any species, you do have until October 31st to apply for points only from July 3rd through October. So keep that in mind. So anyway, it's kind of the time of the year, I guess. We're also talking about gear. And we're talking about what do we need. I know as draw results come out, sometimes that dictates whether you get a new bow, new optics, new gear, packs, whatever. Just wanted to thank a couple of our sponsors that we have here at Epic Outdoors and highlight a couple pieces of their gear that they have for us. So I'd like to just mention QU. They've been a company with us that's been with us from the very, very start.

One of the first to step up and put their brand and name and support behind us here at Epic Outdoors. A couple of new things to keep your eyes out for this year is their Venture 1800 Day Pack. It's one of their first standalone day packs. Most of their other packs, like their Icon Pro or Ultra Lines packs, have a frame. You can then interchange the bags from 1850 to 7200 or whatever. This is just a day pack, 1800 standalone, just barely over 3 pounds, 3.3 ounces. Great quality product. I haven't used it yet myself, but I don't need to know that it's going to be well built. Great for scouting, great for light, you know, maybe an overnight or something like that. But great scouting, throw your trail cameras in, all your optics, things like that. Great lightweight pack. The other thing they also have revamped a little bit is their ATT&CK Pro. They're calling their original pants.

We're obviously very, very famous. We've used them for years. They're coming out with the ATT&CK Pro this year. Just a little bit different fabric there to help it be a little bit more abrasion and prick resistant. You know, get those little picks and pulls a little fabric out on us. So look out for those, the ATT&CK Pro pants as well. And we really appreciate QU. They're great supporters of ours. You can always get in contact with them online, QU.com. That's the only way you can buy their gear. There's no dealers. There's no dealer markup, anything like that. You've got to go to the website and buy it. And I encourage you to do that. Great. Well, yeah, we do appreciate QU and all their support. And like Adam said, they've been with us from the start. So the other states that you'll find in our magazine are Iowa and Washington. We covered Iowa pretty aggressively.

As aggressive as you can. There's only one species up there. And, of course, a lot of you guys think that's the only species that exists. I know there's a lot of fanatics out there that are just absolutely addicted to whitetail. And my wife's just praying that I don't ever become addicted to them. So anyway, we've got enough addictions here in the West. So anyway, you'll find in there Roger Smithson. He killed a great buck. He kind of sets off the particular article for us. He's a good friend of ours and spent a lot of time up there and ends up doing well. And some of his ground is 20 to 40 to 60 acres. And so, you know, as many of you whitetail guys know, it doesn't take a lot of ground to get the job done. The application deadline is due June 3rd. And so we do cover it in the drawing odds in the different zones in Iowa.

Yeah, and it's one of those that you can pretty much predict when you're going to want to go. If you're an archery hunter, there's some zones that you can draw with zero to one points. But some of the other zones take three to four points before you're going to draw. So you can pretty much predict it. But you do need some points, especially if you're an archery hunter, to go. A lot of the shotgun and muzzleloader seasons, you can draw with zero points or one point. And we cover those in the magazine. Of course, they've got some later rifle seasons. You can hunt the entire rut with a bow. And then they've also got a real late season, you know, firearm hunt that's a pretty awesome muzzleloader type hunt. So anyway, it ends up being pretty good when those bucks are looking to put on some fat and dealing with the winter. So, yeah, just something for you to consider.

If you want to hunt a big whitetail at some point in your life, you're going to likely have to, you know, secure the access, book an outfit or something like that. It's not like most of the western states we cover where you have a lot of self-guided options. It's just that's not Iowa. And to a large extent, it's not Kansas either. But that's to be expected. And the last state that we cover in the May issue is Washington for most sheep and goat. The deadline, application deadline is May 23rd.

25 years into a point system. Square point system. And you can do the math on that yourself and decide whether that's worth it to you to jump in the hat and have your one name in the hat your first year versus somebody with, you know, four or five hundred. But the odds are generally very tough, but they have really good quality moose, sheep and goat hunts, if you do draw them. Sheep are probably the best of the three, although they do have some big goats. They really do. They have some new goat units opening up this year. Mount St. Helens, Mount Margaret hunts, big top heavy old goats in some of those units. So some highlights to look forward to there. $110 for an application for each species. You don't have to front the fees for it.

We do get some calls every year about why we don't cover the deer and the elk and whatnot, because there are some good deer and elk limited draw opportunities in Washington. But it's difficult from a non-resident perspective to justify that, because you have to purchase a non-resident general season deer or elk tag prior to or at the time you apply for the limited control drawings. And then if you don't draw those very hard to get, southeast elk tags or some of the better deer tags in the state, you end up buying a general season deer tag. You may have no interest in going to use. That's right. It's a little different when you live there. It's pretty easy to use it. Or even if you're in Oregon or Idaho and you're like, yeah, I'm going to go over there and hunt a general. But it makes sense to do it then. So that's why we don't cover it.

The big three, you don't have to do that, obviously, because the odds of drawing are so slim. Apply. We cover all units for bull moose, all units for goat, and any ram hunts in our magazine. So check that out there again. And we were talking, Adam and I were talking about some of the drawing odds, and it's pretty tough. If you just say, let's take one in 1,000, which is obviously a lot more than that for some of the sheep, most of the sheep units. But one in 1,000, they average 15 points. Do you square them? Oh, I know. Okay. So now you have how many points in the hat versus your first year application? Your drawing odds may be one in 50,000. Yeah, it's one in 1,000 individuals in the hat. That's right. And then when you start factoring in, the average is maybe 15 points or something like that. Because it's 25 deep.

Yeah, you start talking 200 to 300 names in the hat for each person on average. It's hard to say, yeah, I'm going to start with one name in the hat. But next year you'd have two. Yeah. So anyway, that's what you're dealing with. And for $110, I mean, come on. So anyway, there's just a few things. It's challenging at best to really. But, you know, every year we do know a few guys that draw on. So it's one of those things. I mean. Non-residence even. Yeah. Not just residence. You do have a chance. You do. That's what we're saying. So anyway, that's pretty much. We've got a lot of good stories. And we appreciate all of our members who jump in with that. And you'll also find in our magazine, Kent's Optics. They're kind of a new company that's working with us. Of course, we've known these guys for absolutely years and years and years.

They've got an incredible assortment of optics that they represent and sell, as well as inventory in the back room. These guys are personal friends of ours. David Harrell we've dealt with for a long period of time. And he'll give you some of the best deals on optics that can be found. I know right now they've got the BTXs in stock. And so those are somewhat hard to find and awesome. Pretty amazing. One of the neatest pieces of optic gear that we've got in the last couple years. And so anyway, you might give him a call. Him and his brother at 435-257-7014. It doesn't matter what brand or whatever. They're probably dealing in it. They also deal in some trail cameras, a few packs, and different items of interest like that. Super hardcore hunters. You'll find in this magazine a particular story. I've heard about that. Freaking knocked down dang near a 400-inch bull in Idaho.

And so these guys are legit. And they're using what they're selling. They know pretty much everything there is to know about optics and the gear that they sell. These guys are good dudes. So anyway, feel free to give them a call one more time. 435-257. 7-0-1-4. They're located in northern Utah, so mountain time zone. So yeah, check them out. Great prices. They'll dang near beat anybody's anywhere. Yeah. Good question. Well, let's talk about this hunt giveaway that we've got going on right now. All right. Sounds good. We are giving away. If this sounds familiar, we did give a doll sheep hunt away in early March, I believe it was. We did our first drawing. While at the Western Hunting Conservation Expo, Epic Outdoors has been a sponsor of the Full Curl Society social that goes on there and draws a bunch of sheep tags for people that are there. We donate to that. We help sponsor that.

And as a result, they have a drawing for some of the sponsors that donate to that. And we were just lucky enough to win that hunt. So we had a lot of people ask us, hey, who's going to take the hunt? Who's going to take it? But it was pretty much right off of that. Let's just give it away to one of our members. I mean, it was pretty much that was how it went before we got home. So here we are. We took that hunt and went and basically bought a full price. We added some money to it. So it would be a big old wazoo combo hunt. Yeah. We won the hunt, but we had to pay more than what we won. So we bought a 14-day combo hunt with Litson Guide Service in the Alaska Range of Alaska. And obviously the primary species is a doll sheep. That's the, that's, I guess, the, you know, that's one everybody probably wants the most. It's a big ticket item. Yeah.

But you have the option to shoot a grizzly, black bear, caribou. You know, wolf, wolverine are throwing it no charge. But, you know, pretty much if it's, I guess you can't say if it's brown, it's down. Because some of those are white and black and things. But if it moves. Throw in some ptarmigan and grayling and we'll call it a combo. Cast and blast. That's right. So the hunt is actually in 2019. It's August 28th to September 10th. It's booked, fully paid for with our credit that we had, we won, as well as what we then upgraded to the, to make it a 14-day combo hunt. 14 hunting days. Includes three species that we paid for. Yeah. A doll, grizzly, black, or caribou. That's right. And then, obviously, like Adam said, wolf and wolverine free. So I'm sure with a few extra bucks you could kill everything. That's right. On the list. And so.

So, and there's only two ways to have a name in the hat. And the one thing we want to make clear is we drew that drawing the 1st of April for that first doll sheep hunt. The slate is wiped clean. The only way to get your name in for this drawing here is to have joined Epic Outdoors since that day or referred somebody since that day that, that joins. That's right. So if you refer a buddy, have any buddies. And so this is naturally going to be the best drawing odds of the two because the first one had everybody that joined and renewed and, and referred somebody all the way. Anybody that was a member. That's right. Everybody that was a member was in that first one. This one, it takes, this is obviously kind of a thank you, but it's also, it's a, it's a membership drive, but it's a thank you to you guys. We could have drawn straws between the five or six of us in the office and had a one in

five or six drawing odds for a combo hunt. Those are pretty good odds. I would have taken those, but no, we decided we want to give it away. So if you want to buy your membership for a buddy, if you don't think a buddy's too cheap or something like that, it's not going to do it. If you just tell them to do it, you could buy it and get a name in the hat for buying it and one for a firm, two names in the hat for doing that. Whoever purchases, whoever purchases the membership gets to choose who gets the ticket. So if you're referring a guy, you're going to get a name in the hat. If you paid for it, you could get two names in the hat, your buddy's name and your name because you referred him and then you paid for the membership. And so anyway, if you've got, if it's something where you've got a business and you want to

sign up some of these guys or some of the, you know, different people you're working with, feel free to call in and do it. You're definitely going to get something out of it. You're going to get names in the hat for, you know, the best drawing odds for a combo hunt. There is, I would say there is period from any, any company anywhere. And so anyway, feel free to do that. You can do that online, epicoutdoorsmember.com backslash join.asp. And you can just go fish around on our website. If you can't remember that, epicoutdoors.com and, and enter to win. And so we're super excited to do that. Again, you cannot purchase tickets for this drawing. It is an absolute true membership drive. And so anyway, it'll be awesome. Got less than 30 days to, to get your name in the hat for it. If you're a podcast listener and have debated about joining our service and haven't, for

whatever reason, let this be the incentive you need. You're going to win it. The only thing you're going to have to pay is your airfare, your tags, you know, tip and all that getting up there. Everything else, uh, 22, 23 something thousand dollars. I don't remember fully paid for. So, uh, yeah, big chunk of money. Um, somebody is going to get an awesome hunt here. And, uh, part of the reason why we had Aaron on, on with us today. That's right. Aaron's driving down here all the way from up Northern Utah. That's right. Yeah. I thought I, I thought I won the hunt. That's what I thought I was here for.

Now, it's June 1st. Okay. So, but Aaron, uh, Aaron went up on this, uh, not on the 14 day combo hunt, but on one of the earlier doll sheep hunts last year, 2017. With Mike. Um, with Mike, um, along with some of our other members. Um, um, uh, we had a member, uh, do a story for the, uh, maybe it was the June magazine. We'll talk about that next week. Um, um, Sal from Idaho. So had a great hunt there. He was up there with Aaron. But anyway, let's just talk a little bit about that, Aaron, give everybody maybe an idea, at least for the sheep standpoint, what you might be looking forward to and, um, you know, what it was like. Um, obviously you brought a ram home, so we don't need to build that suspense too much. But, uh, what was, uh, what was this experience like for you up there with, with Litsons in the Laskin range? Uh, very good.

So, um, always wanted to go on a doll sheep hunt and I kind of had this one fall in my lap with the cancellation hunt. Had 42 days to convince the wife I need to go up North. And, uh, she had about 12 hours, but you had to convince her in 12, 42 before it happened. That's right. 42 days. And so put it all together and, and just from day one, Litson was, you know, top notch, um, from the beginning. Um, never been on a guided hunt before. So, uh, being a guide. Usually you're guiding. Right. Being the guide, I, I had a lot of questions not, um, for Alaska, you know, we're used to down here. So he was really good. You could get ahold of him, um, email, text, phone, all my questions answered. And I hurried up and got up there and, you know, my experience only got better. I mean, like I say, it was a, it was a dream hunt.

I've always dreamed of going on and, and the, in the place I went and, and the conditions and everything just, um, was exactly how I envisioned it. Yeah. All kinds of rams. I remember, I don't remember. I think I was, head was spinning at the time with the Henry's tag falling in my lap about, oh, yeah. Early August sometime. And that, the realization of that was like, well, Aaron's going to be hunting doll sheep and won't he be with us on the Henry's when I'm going to hunt this thing that I got kind of put in my lap last minute last year. So, um, divide and conquer, divide and conquer. Go north and I'm going to go, I guess, whatever east, I guess, from here and do a deer hunt. But, uh, I remember getting texts, uh, you know, from you and lots of rams. I mean, I remember the first day, I don't know how many rams you looked over, but yeah, it was tons. Passing rams.

Day one, it was sheep, right? I mean, I got into the airstrip and we left right after that to, to fly out to the mountain. And, um, right when we landed there, we spotted sheep and obviously we had to climb and take our camp with us and got up on top. And from there, it was just finding the ram that, that I liked. And, and, uh, you know, as, I was a little hesitant in the beginning with Alaska, you hear a lot of stories up there, you know, you got to shoot, shoot the first legal ram you see. And, and, and I did. A lot of cases that is true. Yeah. Yeah. And so Litson's kind of got it figured out up there and, and, uh, where his area is. And it was, I, after the first ram I passed, um, I, all my pressure and all my nerves were just calm. Cause it was like, there's, I'm going to, this is going to happen. I'm going to get one. And that was my biggest fear.

Cause you know, it's, it's, it's a big expense. And for me, it was a one shot deal. You know, it's just like, I'm going to go up there and come home with one or, you know, or not come home. Cause my wife, I'm not going to go back. I want to, and yeah, we'll see how, what happens. But, but this was, she said, she said, she said, you know, when we finalize it, she's like, you're not going to talk about doll sheep anymore after this. I don't know. You know, I'm not sure what I said right at that time, but. Probably along the lines of nope, I won't. Yeah. Probably pretty close to that. With your fingers crossed behind your back. Yes. So with that being said, I, my expectations were, you know what, you know, I don't want to come home without one. And what do I pass? And so after, after seeing that first band of rams and sheep around, I was, I was very

confident and you know, let's just, let's enjoy it. Let's let it soak in. And we had good weather forecasts. And so I was just kind of living it up at a kidney candy store. I just didn't want it to end. Even though I shot on day three, I felt like I could have just kept on going and then looking at rams. But yeah, I saw lots of rams. Yeah. Did you see any other, you know, cool things while you were there? Of course it was a short. Yeah. But any other cool animals or. We had a sow and three cubs, not too far from our camp grizzly, but they didn't bother us. We had a lot of caribou and a big moose in there in flying over. The black bear. I mean, yeah, a lot of it just pretty much everything Alaska can throw at you. It was, it was awesome. Yeah. Where'd you fly into? So we flew into Anchorage and then from Anchorage commercial over to McGrath.

And then from McGrath, you take a small plane to the landing strip. And then from there, Mike, that's one thing about Mike is he is the guy, the flight, the pilot, excuse me. And yeah, so you're not waiting on, you know, someone else and someone else's schedule. It's Mike is there and that's what he's there for is he's, he's to, he's to welcome you and get you settled and get you your guide. And then he flies you out and then he flies and picks you up. So that's what he's doing. So as the outfitter, that was a big plus that he is the pilot. That is awesome. So when it came down to shooting, did you, I mean, found your ram. I mean, I know this story, so it's such a staged question, but I've watched the video. Yeah, everyone's seen the video. I know that, but it's, tell us about that, how far a shot was. What'd you take gun-wise? What'd you take up there?

Of course, the trusty Red Rock and 28 Nozzle was with me. We had seen the ram first thing in the morning. But in order to get to him, we had to go clear up and over the mountain. And I was fine with that because I was like, well, I want to see what's on the other side of the mountain. And so we hiked up and over and got over there. And at that point, I had seen several rams that day, and I had just rams going through my mind, you know, like, was this ram heavier? Was this ram longer? So I was, my guy was, I think, just about to give up on me. And I can picture this going down. Anybody that knows Aaron, he's a very detail-oriented guy, once-in-a-lifetime experience. I mean. Not going to shoot until he's ready. No. Right. In fact, he's dang lucky it didn't go five days past. Yeah. And get socked in with weather and not get one. Yeah. So it could have went either way.

So we get over there to the ram about 300. Nice. And I'm like, yeah, I like him. I, you know, but you think that in any way. That's when my guide was like, let's just, we can inch up a little closer and we look. And when I, and you saw the video, when you peek over that cliff and that ram's, you know, under 200 and he looks up at you, it's pretty much so the deal. He was, it was, it was game on. And, and at that point I hadn't even unstrapped my rifle yet in the trip. And when I walked over, grabbed the rifle and threw it around in and leaned over and shot, my guide was just like, whoa, when you decide, you decide. It was quick. So it happened real quick. And, you know, it was a chip shot for that gun. Yeah. Well, they're awesome guns. We've used them for years and a lot of other hunts. All of us have. We, yeah, they're obviously supporters of us here at Epic Outdoors too.

And we have an Epic Outdoors series rifle with Red Rock Precision dipped in UA Baron camo. So if you're interested in a great all around Western long range capable gun, call the guys, Todd, Kurt there at Red Rock Precision here out here in Utah. 801-391-7840. So as a wrap up on this hunt, like, is there anything, Mike, that you would have liked to have had on your particular hunt, your once in a lifetime hunt that you didn't experience? No. No. Like I say, from start to finish, he was just top notch. And he, he did everything I'd expect as, as a guide or a client. I mean, I'm very happy with the adventure up there. Some of the questions you said, you, you hit him up with questions. Of course, being in Alaska, it's a lot different than down here, but maybe just go through that real quick.

Just some of the different things, you know, boots, boot wise, or, you know, anything else that, that would be of interest if you had to go back and you thought, I'm going to talk to a first time sheep hunter in Alaska. This is what I'd recommend. Yeah. Well, down here out West, it's 15s only. And, and he laughed when I'm like, 15s or 10s? And he just laughed, you know, I'm like, well, I thought it was a legitimate question, but no, don't bring your 15s. You won't need them. Just 10s is all you need. So that just stuff like that. And then, you know, how to get your rifle to and from, like, I didn't, like, do I, I know I need a hard case, obviously, to fly commercial. Yeah. Do I need a soft case? You know, stuff like that. Yeah. For the super cub. And, and most guys don't, they just have a, you know, a, a, a gun, a gun scabbard or something that they put on the plane.

And, but again, I didn't know, you know, so that was, I know those were two of my main questions. And then, yeah, just, just your gear, you know, what, you know, what waterproof gear and boots and, you know, because we're used to out west and, and, and what things. And luckily I had all that. He did have me get some, uh, waders because if you're going to, some real lightweight backpacking waders. I think they're wigs. Yeah. Wigs waders. Yeah. Wiggies. Anyway, that was, I had to get those just for crossing those rivers. Yeah. Up there. Yeah. It's not like the type of thing, like, I don't know, going brown bear hunting or something where you're living in it all the time, but you need to cross a glacier stream a couple times a day. You put them on, cross it, take them off, throw them back in your pack. I grabbed some waders for this brown bear hunting.

My guide was like, you're going to live in them. Just, just kind of plan on it. Yeah. That's stuff. We're in the second drive straight in the nation and Jason, you hunt the first drive straight in the nation in Nevada. So we don't need waivers. Yeah. I'm going from Nevada to Alaska. It's going to suck. But anyway, uh, yeah, I did end up picking up, you know, on a new set of Kinetricks. And of course, Jim Wingen's a good friend of ours and advertiser in the Epic Magazine. And they're an awesome set of boots, but, and I've been training in them and I was thinking, man, maybe I need those like sourdough slippers or something. My guide's like, look, get rubber, just get rubber. You're going to live in them. They like rubber up there in Alaska. Yeah. And so, yeah, anything else?

Of course, gear, gear wise, I mean, you've got a plan for being wet 24 seven, maybe read a book or two if you have to be socked in on weather. Have a few podcasts on download. Right. Yep. Yeah, exactly. We were lucky. We had good weather. It was bluebird weather. And we, we just hunted, just went from basin to basin and looked at rams. It was awesome. Wow. Well, that's awesome. And I think that's, you know, there's no reason for us to, to believe or think that the winner of this hunt is not going to have a comparable experience. Although after three days or four days when you kill your ram, boom, change gears. You're hunting grizzlies, caribou, black bear. Like I said, wolf, wolf and wolverine are throwing in no additional charge. So there's no reason for us to believe that the, or we wouldn't have bought the hunt. You know, we bought a first doll sheep hunt for Mike.

Um, and then the second one, just because, you know, you know, great reputation does what he says he's going to do is his own pilot and a high success rate for an unlimited area in Alaska. Meaning you don't need to draw the hunt. So, uh, somebody's going to win it. Somebody's going to have a great, great experience. And so encourage you to either join our service at epic outdoors.com or call us, um, at the office 435-263-0777, um, by June 1st. So that's right. And don't forget, uh, of course the member membership experience, uh, get your experience in there for a free pair of binos. We're all doing it. We're always doing a little something, something kind of exciting here at Epic Outdoors. Again, may issue should be at your doorstep. Any point in time does cover Wyoming deer and antelope, Idaho elk deer and antelope, as well as Iowa and sheep, goat, moose in Washington.

So anyway, it's kind of a big issue. And then June, like Adam said early in the podcast, June, we cranked out within seven or eight days of, of putting out May just so you'd have it in time to crank through the remaining states. Arizona and California. And that one, uh, that one's at the printer finishing up now. So you're getting the emacs for both of them are online. Want to stress that, um, to y'all now to get a jump on that and, uh, stay tuned for the magazine. So. All right. With that, Aaron, hey, we appreciate you, buddy. Good work on that sheep. It was an awesome, everybody can go to Epic Outdoors YouTube, check it out. And, uh, um, he, he showed some true emotion on that particular hunt, knowing it was a once in a lifetime and killing a phenomenal ram.

And so we, we appreciate you, you know, videoing hard to video yourself out there, but taking that and, and being able to showcase it to all of us and as well as the membership and, uh, somebody else, somebody else's turn. So, uh, join Epic Outdoors. We'll find out who here in about 30 days. All right. Sounds good, guys. All right.