Jason Carter – Epic Outdoors Staff Member
Jason grew up in southern Utah and has a deep background in the hunting world. From the age of 5, he accompanied his father (who was a game warden for 20 years) in the field while he worked, doing various tasks including: big game counts and studies, fisheries, and big game transplants. As he grew older, he and his dad hunted across the West. Applying in many states became part of their regular yearly prehunt preparation and routine. Crossing state boundaries and driving hundreds of miles to hunt was just a part of life.
Throughout Jason’s college career, he continued to apply himself and build points in key states. After graduating college in 1997, with a Bachelor’s in Finance, Jason went to work at the new family business his father had begun. As the business was getting started, (during Jason’s senior year of college,) Jason would proofread articles and data and participate as much as his college classes would allow. The first publication was a newsletter with a staple in the corner that had various western big game hunting information and consisted of about 15 pages per month. From August of 1997 to February 2012, what was once titled Newsletter morphed into The Huntin’ Fool Magazine and service. Some of his responsibilities included: authoring many of the state breakdown information sections, booking hunts, applying clients in the draw, and purchasing and selling landowner tags. Around the year 2000, he started a guide business. He obtained BLM permits and insurance and started guiding and outfitting a few key areas, with a very limited clientele. It wasn’t long before he was helping his clients knock down some incredible trophies and, when time would allow, he hunted for himself. For the next 16+ years, guiding allowed him to afford to hunt for himself without dipping into the family budget too much. To this day he continues to take 1-2 clients a year.
In 2012, Jason initiated an outdoor TV show with Under Armour. The show, Ridge Reaper, mainly showcased big game hunts that took place in the western U.S., Canada, Alaska, and Mexico and was featured on the Outdoor Channel. This was quite an amazing time in Jason’s life; as host of Under Armour’s Ridge Reaper, he literally took part, on average, in 15+ filmed big game hunts across the West, each year. This exponentially enhanced the knowledge he had gained in the prior years of his life.
As a leading researcher for Epic Outdoors, Jason spends countless hours each year, gathering information and knowledge about every western state before writing the state sections in Epic Outdoors Magazine and updating our online hunt planner. The advice and information published in the Epic Outdoors Magazine, and accessible by phone and internet, is the most comprehensive available. As a member, you have direct access to that research.
Jason has a reputation of being one of the top Mule deer hunters in the world. If you are a faithful podcast listener or know anything about Jason, you’ll probably think of his crazy passion for giant Mule deer. But in fact, Jason’s experience goes far beyond Muleys. He’s always searching for the units that might produce the next true giant of any big game species—even if it’s antelope.
Jason’s success at researching and gathering useful knowledge has paid off in the field with true trophies, from Alaska to Mexico and across the West. Jason has been a professional hunting consultant since 1998. He eats, sleeps, and drinks western big game hunting and is solely focused on acquiring useful knowledge for our members. Jason and his wife Jana have four kids, all in their teens. In the fall, while Jason isn’t hunting for himself, he’s pursuing hunting opportunities for his kids.
Jason is very active on Instagram and Twitter. You can follow him on Instagram @ridgereaper03 and on Twitter at @ridgereaper03. He has proven to be a leader in the western big game industry and is here to stay!