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Speaker 1: Welcome back to another episode of Hunting the Distance. Today,

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Speaker 1: I'm recording live from Alaska. Just finished up a dull

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Speaker 1: sheep hunt that I've had in the works for about

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Speaker 1: four years, and it's a dream hunt. It's everything I

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Speaker 1: imagined when you dream of, you know, being able to

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Speaker 1: sheep hunt, the amazing country that Alaska has to offer.

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Speaker 1: It was it was everything you know I wanted it

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Speaker 1: to be. I'm here with my guide outfitter Matt Snyder

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Speaker 1: with the Alaska Hunting Adventures. Welcome to the show, Matt, Yep,

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Speaker 1: Thank you. It's it's kind of funny. You should have

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Speaker 1: saved a look on if you could only saw a

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Speaker 1: look on his face when I said, Hey, if we

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Speaker 1: have time here, do you want to be on a podcast?

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Speaker 1: And you kind of looked at me with this this

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Speaker 1: goofy look. One thing I've got to learn about Matt

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Speaker 1: is he he grew up kind of like me, you know,

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Speaker 1: very kind of secretive, kind of quiet, you know, just goes,

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Speaker 1: you know, a very humble guy for all of his successes.

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Speaker 1: And so I'm really stoked to have Matt on the

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Speaker 1: podcast because he is one of those guys that eats, sleeps, lives,

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Speaker 1: Alaska hunting. He's we're going to dive into his story

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Speaker 1: here in a little bit, but I'm excited to have

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Speaker 1: him on. These are some of my favorite guests. So Matt,

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Speaker 1: give us a little background of how you ended up here.

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Speaker 1: You're near tok, Alaska, and how long have you been here?

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Speaker 1: Kind of how did it all happen?

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Speaker 2: Well, I guess it all happened because my mom was

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Speaker 2: into the outdoors. She grew up in Pennsylvania on a

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Speaker 2: dairy farm, and anyways, I guess I may have been

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Speaker 2: an accident, but she had me pretty young, and her

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Speaker 2: and my real father only because of her decided to

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Speaker 2: make a run to or drive up to Alaska and

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Speaker 2: seventy three, and long story short, they weren't getting long

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Speaker 2: they divorced. She liked Alaska much obviously, we stayed been

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Speaker 2: here ever since. She met my stepfather, Frank and Sminger,

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Speaker 2: and they've been together since seventy five. They were, you know,

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Speaker 2: originally in the Fairbanks North Pole area, and then he

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Speaker 2: always liked this area down here south of tok on

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Speaker 2: the Toe cutoffs, and we moved here in nineteen seventy

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Speaker 2: seven have been here ever since. And he was a taxidermist,

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Speaker 2: but loved hunting also. He was from Montana. Originally came

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Speaker 2: up the day after graduat his graduation in nineteen sixty two.

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Speaker 2: Been here ever since. But anyways, we've been here in

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Speaker 2: the tok area since seventy seven hunting, and I went

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Speaker 2: on to you know, went through high school here in

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Speaker 2: tok then went got an airframe and power plant mechanic license,

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Speaker 2: but kind of wanted to stay in this area, and

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Speaker 2: guiding was one way to maybe do that. Since I'm

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Speaker 2: so far from town, it's a long commute. If I

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Speaker 2: was doing some forty hour week job, I just didn't

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Speaker 2: really compute. But I also I commercial fished in the

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Speaker 2: summers from about eighty four up into the you know,

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Speaker 2: early two thousands anyways or whatever, salmon and herring depending

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Speaker 2: various time different anyways, but anyways, I commercial fished. Got

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Speaker 2: into guiding shortly after amp school, worked for other guides

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Speaker 2: over the years, got my registered license, started the business,

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Speaker 2: and yeah, currently just doing a handful of clients or

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Speaker 2: less every year, keeping it small and simple and working

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Speaker 2: out a home. And it's been working out pretty well.

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Speaker 1: And like we talked, you know, one thing I like

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Speaker 1: about Matt is he's he's recognized that, you know, maybe

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Speaker 1: and we're going to get into this a little bit,

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Speaker 1: sheep puntings went down, and so you know, he's taken

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Speaker 1: less clients because he wants to keep that success at

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Speaker 1: a level where you know, his clients are successful, he's

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Speaker 1: able to kind of keep that same quality of a hunt,

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Speaker 1: even though the sheep numbers, you know, last four or

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Speaker 1: ten years have started to really you know, drop off

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Speaker 1: for unknown reasons. We'll dive into some of those reasons,

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Speaker 1: but yeah, you're you're here to and I've seen it

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Speaker 1: on this hunt, like you're here to provide your clients

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Speaker 1: a good trip, a successful trip, be in animals, even

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Speaker 1: though the state of you know, sheep you know in

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Speaker 1: particular isn't the greatest right now.

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Speaker 2: Yes, So yeah, when I kind of got my foot

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Speaker 2: in the door and started having, you know, from the

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Speaker 2: opportunity to book a client or two, my folks were

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Speaker 2: helping me. So we'd take you know, maybe six sheep hunters,

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Speaker 2: you know, between the three of us. But now I'm

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Speaker 2: down to two in the non permitted area, and sometimes

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Speaker 2: I think I'm overdoing it, just there's more hunters out

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Speaker 2: in the woods residents, and you know, I'm trying to

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Speaker 2: go where I don't think I'm going to run into anybody,

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Speaker 2: but a lot of the places I used to hunt,

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Speaker 2: there's people there. So I'm moving into different directions and

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Speaker 2: sooner or later they'll probably find out. You know, there's

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Speaker 2: no guarantee I'll I could run into anybody anytime. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: I don't want to go on a seven day camping

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Speaker 2: trip and trip and not have an opportunity to maybe

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Speaker 2: show the guy a legal ram. Anyways, Yeah, that's the

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Speaker 2: short of it.

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Speaker 1: So you're I've got to you know, before the hunt,

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Speaker 1: you know a little bit since we've returned back from

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Speaker 1: from the field. You know, got to look at a

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Speaker 1: lot of your picture albums. You're a humble guy, So

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Speaker 1: I'm going to try to pry this out of you.

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Speaker 1: It's obvious by by the successes. You know, the pictures

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Speaker 1: on your walls. You've you've did a great job document

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Speaker 1: and basically your history. You know, I was flipping through

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Speaker 1: last night, you know, your first caribou, your first ram,

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Speaker 1: like it's all there, you know, and and so it's

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Speaker 1: it's evident to me that you've been very successful. But

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Speaker 1: your mom is also you told her she was still

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Speaker 1: hunting sheep at seventy one. My mom's very accomplished as

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Speaker 1: well as as a sheep hunter. So go into a

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Speaker 1: little bit about you know, your your successes, your mom successes,

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Speaker 1: your guys, clients' success you know, what have you did

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Speaker 1: in the sheep real you know, in your career? I

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Speaker 1: guess your last forty seven years year between you your mom, Frank, you.

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Speaker 2: Know, well we've between the three of us, we've taken

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Speaker 2: a lot of sheep. I can't even probably give you

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Speaker 2: your number. And but we where we live, we qualified

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Speaker 2: to hunt the wrangle Saint Elias Park, so we kind

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Speaker 2: of chose to hunt there and not compete in the

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Speaker 2: regular area where you know, the residents from the non

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Speaker 2: rural communities would be. You know, we took you know,

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Speaker 2: obviously we took advantage of it, and we killed some

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Speaker 2: nice sheep over the years, and you know, and definitely

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Speaker 2: made the time to go do it. It was they

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Speaker 2: were and hard hunts. I mean, you can't fly in

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Speaker 2: or anything like that. But yeah, as guiding went on,

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Speaker 2: I kind of had to make a living, so I

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Speaker 2: did less and less of those hunts personal hunts and

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Speaker 2: more of the guided hunts. But I when sheep populations

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Speaker 2: were good, we got a lot of hunted in and

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Speaker 2: I'm glad I did, because it ain't It definitely is

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Speaker 2: not the same.

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Speaker 1: Man. How many sheep is your mom that you? I

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Speaker 1: think you had mentioned that. Maybe twenty five?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think she's over in the twenty five range. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: so she started hunting with Frank and yeah, seventy five.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Frank's similar number, maybe even more.

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Speaker 2: She more And then he started in sixty two or three,

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Speaker 2: I guess after he became a resident and he hunted

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Speaker 2: the Brooks and I think I don't know if it

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Speaker 2: was right that when he got to Alaska, but there

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Speaker 2: was a time when the Brooks Range had a two

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Speaker 2: sheep harvest. I don't know that he ever got in

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Speaker 2: on it, but I mean he had a lot of opportunity,

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Speaker 2: and he definitely took the time to do it. I

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Speaker 2: mean it was like on the top of the list

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Speaker 2: to go do every year every fall.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. And then yeah, once you guys stopped personally hunting,

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Speaker 1: you sprinkled it in there and then you know it's

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Speaker 1: your client success becomes your success at that point, you guys,

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Speaker 1: judging by all the pictures you and your mom are in,

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Speaker 1: uh you know, and even Frank with with some clients.

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Speaker 1: It looks like you guys continued that success you had

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Speaker 1: personally into your local area. Yeah, you know the open

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Speaker 1: units and.

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Speaker 2: No, we've done real well. And then the the TMA,

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Speaker 2: the Tooke Management Area is a draw area and we've

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Speaker 2: always promoted it and you know, when we get a

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Speaker 2: client to draw, lucky be lucky enough to draw from it.

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Speaker 2: We've had pretty good success. Yeah, so yeah, that's anyways, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and it was managed for a trophy area or it

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Speaker 2: still is trying to but you know, with numbers so low,

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Speaker 2: it's yeah. When that when that was the inception of

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Speaker 2: the draw area, Tom, it was one hundred and twenty

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Speaker 2: permits and anw we're at ten, so it just yeah,

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Speaker 2: I mean it flux weighted in between, not from ten

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Speaker 2: but like sixty to one hundred for quite a few years.

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Speaker 2: And then we had some bad winners and you know,

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Speaker 2: so on and now we're at ten and that's one

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Speaker 2: non resident because it's only.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, ninety ten there. What else is so aside from

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Speaker 1: sheep hunting, you know, taking you know, maybe two hunters

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Speaker 1: with your mom kind of stepping back from you know,

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Speaker 1: sheep sheep guiding, you're you're kind of the last guide,

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Speaker 1: and then you do have some some assistant guides that

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Speaker 1: are helping you out here. Yep.

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Speaker 2: I got one guy working for me. He kind of

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Speaker 2: he did some packing in the in the beginning and

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Speaker 2: got assistant license. Now he has a regish license and

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Speaker 2: he's actually he's still helping me, and he's doing a

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Speaker 2: couple of hunts of his own. And you know in

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Speaker 2: other areas. Yeah, yeah, just booking agent or a contracting guide.

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Speaker 1: So keep a small, small operation, you know, keep your

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Speaker 1: client success up and try to focus on that as

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Speaker 1: your fighting goal.

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Speaker 2: I stress out too much. I couldn't. I don't think

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Speaker 2: I could run a big operation with yeah, lots of employees, clients.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's all good guides are outfitters. I've got the

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Speaker 1: you know, you my buddy Brian Sanders, you know Bradley

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Speaker 1: Dammering with IDAHA white Tail guides. You guys all share this.

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Speaker 1: I don't know what characteristic it is, but you can tell,

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Speaker 1: like the the stress isn't necessarily on it, but you

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Speaker 1: can tell you guys care enough that like it is

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Speaker 1: pressing a little bit there's a little bit of weight

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Speaker 1: on your shoulders, and I appreciate that. Like I think

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Speaker 1: any client that was ever to book with you guys,

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Speaker 1: like they know that you guys are doing everything in

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Speaker 1: your power to you know, to to make it, make

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Speaker 1: it happen for him, which is you know important, you know,

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Speaker 1: taking care of him and trying to see him, you know,

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Speaker 1: find success. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: No, I'm trying to, Yeah, give them the best opportunity

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Speaker 2: for sure.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. So in addition to sheep, what else do you

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Speaker 1: guys guide here?

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Speaker 2: But I do some moose hunts in the fall and

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Speaker 2: and then spring bear hunts and they're over bait and

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Speaker 2: Mom's the contracting guide currently for that. She Yeah, I

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Speaker 2: let her. She's dealing with the spring bears as the

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Speaker 2: contracting guide, doing the bookings, doing the paperwork, letting her

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Speaker 2: now that they're not cheap guiding due to age and

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Speaker 2: conditioning a physical condition whatever, but gives them a little

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Speaker 2: revenue and she pays me out of that like I

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Speaker 2: used to when I paid her on the on the

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Speaker 2: sheep side, Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. They live in absolutely beautiful place. Sounds like

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Speaker 1: they've got great success on no matter you know what

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Speaker 1: they're hunting. Whether it's moose, you know, spring bear sounds

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Speaker 1: like you guys have you know, if you're interested in

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Speaker 1: black bear, they might not have the biggest black bears,

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Speaker 1: but they're loaded up, covered up in them.

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Speaker 2: We have seems to be have plenty of bears. We

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Speaker 2: got tons of game cam pictures. But yes, our interior

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Speaker 2: bears are especially the black bears have no comparison to

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Speaker 2: a coastal bear even as far as size. Yeah, they're

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Speaker 2: pretty bears. We get face colored bears. We get some

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Speaker 2: big grizzlies, you know grizzlies, let's say, but you know,

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Speaker 2: not the norm obviously, we just get some once in

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Speaker 2: a while. And yeah, and I've done fall bear hunts too,

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Speaker 2: which is spot in stock. Some guys preferred that, but

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Speaker 2: between the sheep and the moose, it seems to keep

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Speaker 2: my fall fairly busy. You're busy enough.

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Speaker 1: And uh, for those that are interested, you guys offer

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Speaker 1: you know baited you know wheelerd in hunts. You guys

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Speaker 1: offer you know fly in baits.

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Speaker 2: Well it, yeah, there's one flyout bait and it there's

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Speaker 2: a lot of factors and it's on a river bar.

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Speaker 2: And I mean, if we got deep snow that winter

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Speaker 2: and then you know, it's springtime, so it's melt off.

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Speaker 2: Sometimes the airstrips underwater and I can't even use the bait.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so just hit or miss on that.

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Speaker 2: But the rest of them are, yeah, your your mom's housing,

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Speaker 2: you're you're being housed at the house, and then you

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Speaker 2: just go out for the day to the bait sites.

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Speaker 2: So it's a little totally different than the fall hunts

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Speaker 2: where you're in a tent yep and camping whole hunt.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so let's let's roll into you know, some of

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Speaker 1: the problems or troubles the doll Sheep are currently have

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Speaker 1: and if we want to jump into that, we we've

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Speaker 1: been able to. You know, we've been hunting together for

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Speaker 1: the last three days and I've been asking questions for

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Speaker 1: for four days straight. Yeah, just I show up to

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Speaker 1: a new place, don't really know, you know, so I'm

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Speaker 1: I'm asking Matt a thousand questions, what about this? What

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Speaker 1: about that? And so I've covered some of this, but

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Speaker 1: I want to kind of jump back into it, you know,

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Speaker 1: doll Sheep, and I'll let you lay it out, you know,

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Speaker 1: I don't want to miss miss quote. But you know,

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Speaker 1: like four years ago, a big drop maybe even ten

255
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Speaker 1: years ago. You go back, like we talked about like

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Speaker 1: harvest numbers being up around the eight hundred. Now you

257
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Speaker 1: think you know, last year's count was under four under

258
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Speaker 1: four hundred for the state wide harvest. Can I hear

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Speaker 1: your opinion on what's you know? They might not be

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Speaker 1: popular opinions, but let's hear what you think you know.

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Speaker 1: There's there's sickness, there's predators, there's bad winners, Like what

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Speaker 1: do you think cause.

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Speaker 2: Well fishing game? Definitely, winners are the most apparent or

264
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Speaker 2: has the biggest effect. A bad winter, deep snow, maybe

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Speaker 2: not enough wind to blow the snow off the ridges

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Speaker 2: or whatever. Maybe it's the wrong direction of snow or

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Speaker 2: wind that is, and they just can't get the food.

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Speaker 2: But so yeah, winners or bad weathers, the you know,

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Speaker 2: the bad one. I don't know. I some it's hard

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Speaker 2: to everybody has an opinion. I think there's more to it.

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Speaker 2: There's predation too, lambs. If you've got a real wet

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Speaker 2: spring right when they're being born, that's not good. And

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Speaker 2: then the Golden eagles or eagles in general, mainly goldens

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Speaker 2: is it seems like the population is thriving quite well

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Speaker 2: and I've personally seen them catch lambs even when they're

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Speaker 2: not newborns. You know, you know, three weeks old, you know,

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Speaker 2: they're already scampering around pretty good. And they still get

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Speaker 2: them or if they get the if they get they

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Speaker 2: almost it seems like you see them in pairs a

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Speaker 2: lot of times. I haven't seen him do it, but

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Speaker 2: I think they're trying to one's distracting the U and

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Speaker 2: the other one's getting the lamb. And anyways, I don't

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Speaker 2: think we'll get predator control on eagles.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's gonna be a tough cell to be able

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Speaker 1: to deal with.

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Speaker 2: But I think they need to be managed.

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Speaker 1: Yep.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. And obviously the wolves get some I've seen. I

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Speaker 2: don't know, just a personal opinion. I think one of

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Speaker 2: these real deep snow years, the snow never did set

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Speaker 2: up till way late in the winter. So and I

292
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Speaker 2: trap wolves, and I never really saw much for wolf

293
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Speaker 2: sign down low. It was like where are they? And

294
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Speaker 2: then I was flying through the mountains one day and

295
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Speaker 2: caught a wolf trail way up on the ridges and

296
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Speaker 2: it's like, huh, they must be up here where it's

297
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Speaker 2: getting some wind and it's hard packed and they're traveling.

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Speaker 2: They can travel and not just go down and just

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Speaker 2: be stuck. So my thought is they're probably picking on

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Speaker 2: a few sheep when they're up there, and then when

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Speaker 2: the snow set up, I started seeing signed down low

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Speaker 2: and then they're chasing moose.

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Speaker 1: Moose and caribou down low or what do they can't

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Speaker 1: get down there? Yeah? Because I mean, aside from you know,

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Speaker 1: grizzlies probably aren't a big predator form, right, it's wolves,

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Speaker 1: your eagles. And then you guys have been doing you

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Speaker 1: work with fishing game and I don't correct me if

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Speaker 1: I'm wrong, Like you guys, your guys. The system's confusing

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Speaker 1: because there's like the state fishing game and then there's

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Speaker 1: the federal and like you work with them quite a bit,

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Speaker 1: and so you've looked at like testing and you know,

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Speaker 1: are they are they showing up with like pneumonia? And

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Speaker 1: is factor? I did?

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Speaker 2: I found a dead sheep one summer flying I called

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Speaker 2: the local fishing game and the air taxi has a

316
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Speaker 2: chopper there. They went out and retrieved it and it

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Speaker 2: tested positive. That I mean, there were some other things

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Speaker 2: that tested positive for I think, but whatever the main

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Speaker 2: one was was one that we've been I don't know

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Speaker 2: the scientific name, but we call it movie. But it's

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Speaker 2: some type of you know sickness that's pneumonia type.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And we don't know if that's what killed the

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Speaker 2: ram or not. But obviously it wasn't a when I

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Speaker 2: saw it, it was a whole just laying there with its

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Speaker 2: head down. He could tell that it was dead, so

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Speaker 2: it wasn't the birds hadn't gone on it or nothing yet.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. The older gentleman we talked to when we

329
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Speaker 1: got went and got my sheet plugged, I'm down there,

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Speaker 1: was telling us a story about the mom, you know,

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Speaker 1: being dead from movie and then the lamb was sitting

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Speaker 1: there with it. They had to dispatch it and test

333
00:17:33,520 --> 00:17:35,399
Speaker 1: it in both and they both you know, had it,

334
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Speaker 1: and so it's like it is happening, but you wondered

335
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Speaker 1: to what extent? And then the I think I've always

336
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Speaker 1: wondered is where did this come from? Like if they

337
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Speaker 1: always had it, we just didn't have the ability to test,

338
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Speaker 1: or is it's something that's like been brought in from

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Speaker 1: domestic livestock.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think you might get both answers that, yeah,

341
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Speaker 2: there's always been a trace of it, and I don't know.

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Speaker 2: Maybe with their with the obviously, maybe it has more

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Speaker 2: in effect when there's a bad winter because they're run

344
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Speaker 2: down already, they get it. Maybe they could bust through it,

345
00:18:03,040 --> 00:18:04,840
Speaker 2: you know, their immune system if it if they're in

346
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Speaker 2: really good health, but if they're already in poor shape,

347
00:18:09,160 --> 00:18:11,520
Speaker 2: it has more of effect. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, yeah,

348
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Speaker 2: they're not able to tested positive for it.

349
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Speaker 1: Yeah, So what you're saying is if if it truly

350
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Speaker 1: you know, the main the main reason, which I think

351
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Speaker 1: most can agree on, are these bad winners. What it

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Speaker 1: does from a Hunters standpoint is it puts these holes

353
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Speaker 1: probably in your age classes. Right if those those lambs

354
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Speaker 1: that were going to be you know, eventually rams, at

355
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Speaker 1: some point you're now missing let's say you're ones and twos,

356
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Speaker 1: you're missing your fours and fives, you're and so as

357
00:18:36,840 --> 00:18:39,840
Speaker 1: a as a guide, you're you're you know, potentially lining up.

358
00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:41,560
Speaker 1: You know, if you have one or two bad years,

359
00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:44,040
Speaker 1: it's like, well, shoot, you know, these older rams may die,

360
00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:45,520
Speaker 1: you know, you may not have big ones. Then we

361
00:18:45,600 --> 00:18:47,760
Speaker 1: might have any eights and nine coming.

362
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Speaker 2: In twenty twelve was a bad year, bad winner, bad

363
00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:55,960
Speaker 2: lamb crop. And that's seven and eight years after one

364
00:18:55,960 --> 00:18:59,520
Speaker 2: of those winners, you notice it because there's no there

365
00:18:59,560 --> 00:19:02,360
Speaker 2: was no lamp I'm daring to speak of. And then yeah,

366
00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:04,800
Speaker 2: you when you're looking for your eight year old class

367
00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:05,800
Speaker 2: rams or just.

368
00:19:05,560 --> 00:19:07,960
Speaker 1: Just not there, not there, and you really need you

369
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,600
Speaker 1: know what realistically, you know, maybe a young a good

370
00:19:11,600 --> 00:19:14,160
Speaker 1: genetic seven eights and nine's, you know, maybe a ten

371
00:19:14,200 --> 00:19:16,040
Speaker 1: that sneaks in there. Is that going to be typically

372
00:19:16,080 --> 00:19:18,000
Speaker 1: your the age class you're looking forward to.

373
00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:20,719
Speaker 2: I like to be eight and above. For sure. It

374
00:19:20,840 --> 00:19:26,040
Speaker 2: hasn't always happened, but yeah, not well, Unfortunately the way

375
00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:28,200
Speaker 2: things are now, when you do find illegal RAM, it's

376
00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:31,600
Speaker 2: pretty hard to pass it up because he might be

377
00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:33,600
Speaker 2: going to the client might be going home empty handed.

378
00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:36,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you're while you're you know, deep down you

379
00:19:36,840 --> 00:19:39,960
Speaker 1: want to find him a good, respectable RAM, there's also

380
00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:42,439
Speaker 1: this side of like the success and if this client's

381
00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:44,120
Speaker 1: going to be happy with it, you know, as it's

382
00:19:44,119 --> 00:19:46,080
Speaker 1: a guide client, that's probably a tough position to be in.

383
00:19:46,119 --> 00:19:47,640
Speaker 1: You know, you want to find him something big.

384
00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:52,879
Speaker 2: But at the same time, yeah, and there's people are

385
00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:56,160
Speaker 2: out hunting, so there's enough competition out there that yeah,

386
00:19:56,320 --> 00:19:59,200
Speaker 2: it might not survive Anyways, if I'd see a nice

387
00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:00,920
Speaker 2: six year old and say, well, that's got to live

388
00:20:01,080 --> 00:20:03,199
Speaker 2: because he'll be way better next year, I'm not an

389
00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:05,560
Speaker 2: he's full curl. He might not make it just during

390
00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:09,000
Speaker 2: unseasoned I'm not. I mean I get it. You know,

391
00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:11,400
Speaker 2: one a new sheep hunter, when he sees the legal ram,

392
00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:19,000
Speaker 2: he wants to take it. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, I'm I'm

393
00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:23,000
Speaker 2: very fortunate that I got to hunt sheep, and you

394
00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:25,840
Speaker 2: know when they were populations are really good in my

395
00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:31,960
Speaker 2: younger years. For myself, Yeah, it was. Yeah, I'm good

396
00:20:31,960 --> 00:20:36,760
Speaker 2: thing I did it. Yeah, or I don't think even

397
00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:40,439
Speaker 2: a hardcore sheep are now, I mean, couldn't have to

398
00:20:40,520 --> 00:20:44,320
Speaker 2: kill twenty rams and the course at thirty five forty

399
00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:47,639
Speaker 2: years it could be pretty pretty tough.

400
00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:51,040
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. And you don't have to talk about this

401
00:20:51,119 --> 00:20:53,080
Speaker 1: if you don't, i know, pre state you were talking

402
00:20:53,080 --> 00:20:56,639
Speaker 1: about like the aggressive predator management, you know, and and

403
00:20:56,640 --> 00:20:58,960
Speaker 1: and you think that that's you know, whether we agree

404
00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:01,840
Speaker 1: whether it's right or wrong, what we will say is

405
00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:04,639
Speaker 1: that it seemed there weren't near the predator load on

406
00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:06,400
Speaker 1: the lands. Yes.

407
00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:11,400
Speaker 2: So yeah, when Frank came to this in the early sixties,

408
00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:16,280
Speaker 2: you know, there was you know, the wolves had a

409
00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:20,080
Speaker 2: bounty on him. I think there was, even if it

410
00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:22,800
Speaker 2: was not when he was here. Maybe prior to or

411
00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:27,000
Speaker 2: prior to statehood, there was a bounty on eagles, Dolly

412
00:21:27,119 --> 00:21:30,800
Speaker 2: Varden for salmon eggs or whatever, this z elf stuff

413
00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:37,119
Speaker 2: that I've heard secondhand, but but yeah, there was you know,

414
00:21:37,359 --> 00:21:45,080
Speaker 2: predator poisoning and whatever. When Frank came in those early years,

415
00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:47,840
Speaker 2: you know, in the mid sixties, you know, the mid sixties,

416
00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:52,720
Speaker 2: most populations and whatever, everything was thriving pretty good. Whether

417
00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:56,080
Speaker 2: it's right or wrong, I think it definitely.

418
00:21:56,359 --> 00:21:59,959
Speaker 1: Yeah, had a positive impact, will agree, like a positive

419
00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:03,280
Speaker 1: impact on and at that point, right, whether it's good

420
00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:05,000
Speaker 1: or bad or it's the right balance.

421
00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:09,680
Speaker 2: I think you know, yeah, they might have been targeting wolves,

422
00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:12,280
Speaker 2: let's say, but if you put poison out, it's probably

423
00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:14,719
Speaker 2: gonna it's gonna kill other predators.

424
00:22:14,359 --> 00:22:19,320
Speaker 1: For sure, yeah, secondary you know, even territortiary like down

425
00:22:19,320 --> 00:22:22,760
Speaker 1: the line that continues to kill. Yeah. Yeah, And so

426
00:22:23,200 --> 00:22:25,600
Speaker 1: you like to go full circle. If the eagles are

427
00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:27,560
Speaker 1: having a problem, you know, if you keep those down,

428
00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:30,000
Speaker 1: like it's maybe in aroundabout way good for sheep.

429
00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:34,480
Speaker 2: You know, even if that's not the intention, right, that

430
00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:40,000
Speaker 2: the Uh, everything's cyclic, but I will say that the sheep,

431
00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:44,399
Speaker 2: it's gonna be uh, it's gonna be a real slow cycle.

432
00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:48,560
Speaker 2: You know, for them, the recovery is gonna I'm not

433
00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:50,520
Speaker 2: going to see what I saw again.

434
00:22:50,520 --> 00:23:02,320
Speaker 1: I don't ever again in lifelifetime. Is there is there

435
00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:04,960
Speaker 1: any management plan or long term plan with fishing game.

436
00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:07,040
Speaker 1: I know you're on some advisory committees, you work with

437
00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:09,199
Speaker 1: them on doing some aerial surveys and do it, so

438
00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:12,000
Speaker 1: you're pretty involved in this. But do they have like

439
00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:15,040
Speaker 1: and it's hard to plan, like it's wildlife management, but

440
00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:17,320
Speaker 1: you can't control the weather, you can't control you know,

441
00:23:17,400 --> 00:23:21,080
Speaker 1: these things to a t is Alaska fishing game and

442
00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:23,879
Speaker 1: and the entities that make these decisions are they trying

443
00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:25,639
Speaker 1: to to.

444
00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:29,160
Speaker 2: I think they're getting everybody's asking what the heck's going on?

445
00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:33,000
Speaker 2: So uh, yeah, they're I think they're doing more studies

446
00:23:33,040 --> 00:23:37,639
Speaker 2: and I think, yeah, of course, don't quote me on

447
00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:41,000
Speaker 2: any of this stuff. But you know, moose and caribou

448
00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:44,679
Speaker 2: or what they call intensive management animals. Sheep are not

449
00:23:45,280 --> 00:23:48,720
Speaker 2: intensive management. So they're going to spend a little more

450
00:23:48,800 --> 00:23:50,800
Speaker 2: money on the moose and caribou, and I get it.

451
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:53,120
Speaker 2: That those are the ones that fill the freezer more,

452
00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:58,240
Speaker 2: you know, you know that that's more that subsistence animals

453
00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:04,040
Speaker 2: that people need or but I obviously I hunt sheep,

454
00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:08,040
Speaker 2: so I kind of yeah, I got a deep respect

455
00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:12,879
Speaker 2: for him, and I yeah, I want to see them throughout. Yeah, yeah,

456
00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:15,960
Speaker 2: I mean, and if it means me stop stop hunting them,

457
00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:19,679
Speaker 2: you know, I yeah, I I'll do that to make

458
00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:20,600
Speaker 2: sure that they stay.

459
00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:24,040
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, one of those tough, tough decisions where you

460
00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:27,280
Speaker 1: remove yourself and the resources old.

461
00:24:27,359 --> 00:24:31,280
Speaker 2: But I'm, you know, in my fifties, and yeah, if

462
00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:34,040
Speaker 2: I got cheap time sixty, I'll be thinking twice if

463
00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:34,960
Speaker 2: I'm going to continue.

464
00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:41,280
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah. So we just got out of the mountains.

465
00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:43,920
Speaker 1: You were telling me as a joke that you guys

466
00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:45,760
Speaker 1: got like seventeen inches of rain here a year, and

467
00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:47,240
Speaker 1: I was joking that I think I've been here for

468
00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:50,240
Speaker 1: half of it, but in reality hasn't rained that much.

469
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:52,760
Speaker 1: It's just so sporadic that we've been in our rain gear,

470
00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:55,120
Speaker 1: you know, the entire hunt, and you know, on the hunt.

471
00:24:55,280 --> 00:24:56,600
Speaker 1: But we got out of the mountains and let's just

472
00:24:56,880 --> 00:24:58,560
Speaker 1: I wanted to just kind of recap our hunt and

473
00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:00,280
Speaker 1: see you know what you thought of it versus is

474
00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:02,000
Speaker 1: you know, you get to do this every year for

475
00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:05,040
Speaker 1: the last forty five years, I show up, you know,

476
00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:08,320
Speaker 1: for one trip and still don't even scratch the surface

477
00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:10,960
Speaker 1: on understanding, you know, doll sheet, you know, aside from

478
00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:13,159
Speaker 1: what I've watched and read and then got to you know,

479
00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:17,719
Speaker 1: experience with you. So would you say, like just in

480
00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:21,520
Speaker 1: your scouting, what that this year was better than maybe

481
00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:23,680
Speaker 1: years loud, you know, years past, or is it kind

482
00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:24,840
Speaker 1: of just on par with.

483
00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:29,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess from what I saw last year, there

484
00:25:29,080 --> 00:25:32,359
Speaker 2: was definitely a good number seven eights girls, and there

485
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:34,000
Speaker 2: was a good number this of course there was seven

486
00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:37,240
Speaker 2: eights and three quarter last year. This year are still

487
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:39,920
Speaker 2: a good seven eighths. But I'd say I did see

488
00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:45,240
Speaker 2: a few more legal rams in preseason scouting. It's still

489
00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:49,760
Speaker 2: not high by any means, but this fall seemed better

490
00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:53,399
Speaker 2: than the previous two. But it's they're still low numbers.

491
00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:56,440
Speaker 2: That's just the bottom line.

492
00:25:57,040 --> 00:25:59,239
Speaker 1: And you're you're thinking about half or maybe even more

493
00:25:59,280 --> 00:26:02,880
Speaker 1: than half just five years ago, they're ten years ago,

494
00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:05,160
Speaker 1: would be were ten years ago for sure fifty percent

495
00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:05,960
Speaker 1: or more less.

496
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:08,919
Speaker 2: And I think there's pockets that even five years ago,

497
00:26:10,359 --> 00:26:13,439
Speaker 2: a little you know pocket of the you know, a

498
00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:18,720
Speaker 2: little block of a mountain range where it's half Yeah,

499
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:20,960
Speaker 2: because the TMA, like I said, they dropped it to ten,

500
00:26:21,119 --> 00:26:23,680
Speaker 2: like three or four years it was that was one

501
00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:26,600
Speaker 2: where yeah, within two years I think it was, the

502
00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:28,280
Speaker 2: survey account went down to half.

503
00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:30,440
Speaker 1: Gotcha just bad winner and.

504
00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:33,200
Speaker 2: Yeah just something yeah, right, two in a row.

505
00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:37,160
Speaker 1: Huh yeah. So you do you know, on our hunt

506
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:40,320
Speaker 1: we elected to go in by wheeler. You know you've

507
00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:43,239
Speaker 1: got you're an opportunist, I've learned. You know, you've got

508
00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:46,320
Speaker 1: multiple groups hunters. Some are flying in, some are hiking in,

509
00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:48,560
Speaker 1: some are wheeling in. You're just looking at what you

510
00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:52,000
Speaker 1: got to do you know on that hunt to be successful.

511
00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:56,679
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, and try to pick a spot where not

512
00:26:56,800 --> 00:27:02,800
Speaker 2: as likely to run into residents, you know, like uh yeah, anyways,

513
00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:05,040
Speaker 2: it's yeah, a lot of those mind a lot of

514
00:27:05,080 --> 00:27:07,320
Speaker 2: my scouting. As you fly over the drive to the

515
00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:11,119
Speaker 2: trailheads and see how many cars are parked there, it

516
00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:13,720
Speaker 2: gives you an idea who's out there, I mean, how

517
00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:14,520
Speaker 2: many are out there?

518
00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:17,239
Speaker 1: But yeah, so you do a little both. I know

519
00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:19,360
Speaker 1: when we had walked in, you said, you know you'd

520
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 1: you'd went in there, I think a week prior, confirm that,

521
00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:26,040
Speaker 1: you know, the the rams you'd saw, and that it

522
00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:27,840
Speaker 1: was a good enough group, and and kind of built

523
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:29,879
Speaker 1: the plan. So when I showed up, we had kind

524
00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:31,560
Speaker 1: of had an idea, we're going to go here, We're

525
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:33,280
Speaker 1: gonna do it this way. We're going to camp here

526
00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:37,199
Speaker 1: and hunt. So we kind of The first night I

527
00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:38,720
Speaker 1: got here was supposed to rain pretty hard. I don't

528
00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:40,000
Speaker 1: know if we would have win in that night anyways,

529
00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:42,480
Speaker 1: because we maybe didn't need to. So then we we

530
00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:45,480
Speaker 1: loaded up our gear we had. You know, you're more

531
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:48,240
Speaker 1: particular than anybody I've ever packed with. You know, we

532
00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:50,520
Speaker 1: always down look, you know, we always oh it's light,

533
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:53,280
Speaker 1: it's you know heavy. We went through all three of us,

534
00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:55,440
Speaker 1: me and you, and then Dave framed the camera guy,

535
00:27:55,520 --> 00:27:57,880
Speaker 1: went through like what do we need? Like this should

536
00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:00,240
Speaker 1: be enough gas to get us through cooking this. So

537
00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:02,840
Speaker 1: we really just limited. We didn't pack anything extra, and

538
00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:05,480
Speaker 1: you know, about the first morning of the actual hunt,

539
00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:07,800
Speaker 1: going up the hill, I started to realize, why, you know,

540
00:28:07,840 --> 00:28:09,720
Speaker 1: you just don't want to pack any extra gear. So

541
00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:13,640
Speaker 1: we spent i'd say half a day going through all right,

542
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:17,040
Speaker 1: this is our sleeping situation. You know, you carry this food.

543
00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:20,280
Speaker 1: We got all our food put together, and then you

544
00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:22,879
Speaker 1: offer a seven day hunt, you know some people. So

545
00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:26,560
Speaker 1: we we loaded up with seven days of food, all

546
00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:30,000
Speaker 1: of our all of our sleep stuff on our back,

547
00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:32,240
Speaker 1: you know, all of our gear, everything we needed to

548
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:34,520
Speaker 1: to basically live out of our pack for seven days.

549
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:36,680
Speaker 1: And and that was going to be the hunt. Like

550
00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:38,120
Speaker 1: we're gonna leave and we would come back. You know

551
00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:40,360
Speaker 1: if we called early, yea great, If not, we would

552
00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:44,080
Speaker 1: we would hunt. And so we we uh went into

553
00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:46,840
Speaker 1: this area and it kind of rainy, kind of crammy,

554
00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:51,520
Speaker 1: and you were able to spot skylined up ahead for

555
00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:56,600
Speaker 1: for rams. It appeared that two were probably.

556
00:28:56,240 --> 00:28:58,760
Speaker 2: Legal, definitely worth getting closer.

557
00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:01,440
Speaker 1: Closer look. And then I would this is where my

558
00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:04,280
Speaker 1: million questions, you know, being a meal deer hunter, being

559
00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:06,120
Speaker 1: an elk hunter, like knowing what I can get away with.

560
00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:08,000
Speaker 1: I'm like, well they can we can see them with

561
00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:10,120
Speaker 1: my naked eye, Like how you know, how comfortable are we?

562
00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:12,320
Speaker 1: And you said probably two thousand yards? But as you

563
00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:14,400
Speaker 1: start to approach and the open, so we we kept

564
00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:17,200
Speaker 1: camp back, you know, found a found a good spot

565
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:20,160
Speaker 1: and then rain moved back in of course, and we

566
00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:23,240
Speaker 1: just kind of you know, hit the sacks a little

567
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 1: bit early, you know, for for those that aren't used

568
00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:30,200
Speaker 1: to Alaska, your tent doesn't get dark till about eleven o'clock.

569
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:32,280
Speaker 1: So you're kind of laying in there in a bright

570
00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:34,840
Speaker 1: tent at nine o'clock knowing that we're going to get up,

571
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:37,160
Speaker 1: you know, fairly early. We're not going to be in

572
00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:38,760
Speaker 1: any hurry in the morning because you don't know if

573
00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:40,600
Speaker 1: those sheep are going to be right above you. And

574
00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:42,280
Speaker 1: and that's one thing that I learned, you know, hunt

575
00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:46,840
Speaker 1: with you is Matt hunts with ten by twenty five's.

576
00:29:47,240 --> 00:29:50,520
Speaker 2: My binoculars, yes, all pocket tie style.

577
00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:52,959
Speaker 1: Yep, he's got you know, we're minor and the binal harnesses,

578
00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:55,280
Speaker 1: which are great for protection. But Matt is able to

579
00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:57,160
Speaker 1: get his glasses out a lot quicker, a lot more,

580
00:29:57,240 --> 00:29:59,320
Speaker 1: which in sheep country, you know, all these nooks and

581
00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:02,440
Speaker 1: crannies seemed like he was, you know, able to. It

582
00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:05,360
Speaker 1: wasn't such an effort to get your binoculars out the glass.

583
00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:07,680
Speaker 1: He's always you know, able to, which you know for

584
00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:08,320
Speaker 1: sheep hunting.

585
00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:12,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it was in my eyes, very important. I mean,

586
00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:16,360
Speaker 2: they can something could pop up skylined, or or there's

587
00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:19,560
Speaker 2: just a ram horns and an eyeball sticking over the ridge,

588
00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:21,560
Speaker 2: and not that necessarily you're going to see it every time,

589
00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:26,000
Speaker 2: but it's good to scan every as you're going up

590
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:27,520
Speaker 2: the mountain, every time you take a break, if that

591
00:30:27,600 --> 00:30:28,080
Speaker 2: for that matter.

592
00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:30,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it seems like every hundred yards you move

593
00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:33,200
Speaker 1: a different part of the landscape open. Yeah, you know,

594
00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:35,720
Speaker 1: and and yeah, what sheep? Sometimes I will say you're

595
00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:38,320
Speaker 1: fairly easy to spot being bright white. There are times

596
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:40,280
Speaker 1: where you know, maybe the rocks are wet and everything's

597
00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:42,440
Speaker 1: kind of glaring white. So you still need to look

598
00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:43,680
Speaker 1: things over with your bino's or.

599
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:45,680
Speaker 2: Far like I said, if it's just a head over

600
00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:48,360
Speaker 2: the yeah, it's you're not really going to see hardly

601
00:30:48,360 --> 00:30:49,040
Speaker 2: anything white.

602
00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:51,760
Speaker 1: Ye. Yeah. And whether the sheep broadside versus facing the

603
00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:53,160
Speaker 1: way or towards you like, you might not get that

604
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:54,520
Speaker 1: big white exposure and.

605
00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:56,320
Speaker 2: Bright sunshine is always tough.

606
00:30:56,800 --> 00:30:59,280
Speaker 1: So day one, we got up, had some coffee and

607
00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:01,200
Speaker 1: I guess we did and really eat breakfast, just kind

608
00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:01,560
Speaker 1: of had some.

609
00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:04,840
Speaker 2: Water and we got ready to go, and.

610
00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:06,960
Speaker 1: You were having some heartburn. Whether we're going to go

611
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:08,320
Speaker 1: up the ridge to the left or the right, and

612
00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:09,960
Speaker 1: I think you kind of settled like, all right, we're

613
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:12,840
Speaker 1: gonna go to the right. You like that approach a

614
00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:13,440
Speaker 1: little bit better.

615
00:31:13,760 --> 00:31:16,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, just needed to get to up high and do

616
00:31:16,760 --> 00:31:19,840
Speaker 2: some glass and see what we find, figure out where

617
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:20,360
Speaker 2: they might be.

618
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:22,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, And one thing I'm gonna I'm gonna go about.

619
00:31:22,800 --> 00:31:24,880
Speaker 1: One thing I learned about Matt is it it's he

620
00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:28,320
Speaker 1: doesn't you know, people always want to answer it's hunting,

621
00:31:28,440 --> 00:31:30,960
Speaker 1: and uh, you know why sometimes I always want an answer,

622
00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:33,600
Speaker 1: you know, a definite answer. I love that Matt's like,

623
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:34,960
Speaker 1: I don't know what that they're gonna do their wild

624
00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:37,840
Speaker 1: sheep like you know, and so it truly is hunting.

625
00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:39,720
Speaker 1: And I like that part where he's not, you know,

626
00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:41,600
Speaker 1: it didn't claim to know exactly where the sheep were

627
00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:43,040
Speaker 1: gonna be or what they were going to be doing,

628
00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:45,360
Speaker 1: not that he maybe didn't have a good idea. Is

629
00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:48,080
Speaker 1: that it's it's always hunting and we're just gonna go hard.

630
00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:48,960
Speaker 2: Yeah.

631
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:51,320
Speaker 1: So for that first day we left camp where it

632
00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:53,280
Speaker 1: was knowing that we had a pretty big loop we

633
00:31:53,360 --> 00:31:57,040
Speaker 1: could make if we could traverse these ridges and get

634
00:31:57,040 --> 00:31:59,120
Speaker 1: to where we needed to. You had never hunted this

635
00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:01,720
Speaker 1: particular ridge that we decided to go up first thing

636
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 1: in the morning.

637
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:04,760
Speaker 2: I never walked the specific ridge.

638
00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:07,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, so up, up and away we go, you know,

639
00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:10,840
Speaker 1: the first thousand feet or through just some green, you know, outpine,

640
00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:13,200
Speaker 1: your typical sheep country, and then the green kind of

641
00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:16,560
Speaker 1: runs into the finger cliffs and screen patches, which I

642
00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:18,400
Speaker 1: was more comfortable there. We get up through those, and

643
00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:20,920
Speaker 1: then we get to the ridge top and Matt we

644
00:32:21,040 --> 00:32:22,440
Speaker 1: kind of stayed a little bit lower, kind of took

645
00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:24,120
Speaker 1: it just the quick break and Matt's I'm go o

646
00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:25,600
Speaker 1: up and look and he comes back and that well,

647
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:27,560
Speaker 1: so I remember you're exact wording. This is a little

648
00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:30,240
Speaker 1: nastier than I thought, or a little crummier ridge, And

649
00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:32,480
Speaker 1: we thought and I kind of walked over there and looked.

650
00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:34,920
Speaker 1: And I also realized on this hunt that you can

651
00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:36,840
Speaker 1: walk more places in your eyes. Think you're going to

652
00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:39,600
Speaker 1: be able to walk on a sheep hunt. Not that

653
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:41,880
Speaker 1: it wasn't easy, you know, somewhat easy when we got

654
00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:44,040
Speaker 1: over there, but looking from afar, you're like, we can't,

655
00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:46,600
Speaker 1: we can't get through here, Like to me, you know,

656
00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:48,320
Speaker 1: you'd be in the train die. You're like, we just

657
00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:50,040
Speaker 1: got to go over there and look at it, and

658
00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:53,160
Speaker 1: so we start weaving and bobbing, you know, some verticals

659
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:55,520
Speaker 1: to get around some cliffy stuff, and you know, staying

660
00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:57,600
Speaker 1: the loose stuff is kind of what the plan looked like,

661
00:32:57,720 --> 00:32:59,200
Speaker 1: you know, and figure out where you're gonna be able

662
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:02,200
Speaker 1: to actually wrap the ridge and you know, put that

663
00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:05,880
Speaker 1: that steck section of cliffs together with the next section

664
00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:08,040
Speaker 1: of scree you know, and just we picked our way through.

665
00:33:08,840 --> 00:33:11,280
Speaker 1: It was probably what an hour of just kind of

666
00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:14,560
Speaker 1: slow technical. You're faster on the technical stuff for sure.

667
00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:16,720
Speaker 1: You're you're just comfortable digging your feet met up. Is

668
00:33:16,760 --> 00:33:18,959
Speaker 1: my foot gonna sit here for long enough? I'm going

669
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:19,959
Speaker 1: to make the next step? Right.

670
00:33:20,200 --> 00:33:22,240
Speaker 2: I think it took over three hours just to get

671
00:33:22,280 --> 00:33:24,600
Speaker 2: to the top of the ridge, the total climb, Yeah,

672
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:27,600
Speaker 2: from from right to know the end there?

673
00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:30,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, correct, Technical, And then so we're we're trying to

674
00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:33,240
Speaker 1: we're trying to get back to where those what we

675
00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:36,080
Speaker 1: thought were some rams that needed more attention the night

676
00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:41,440
Speaker 1: before and uh, in Matt's scouting he had seen nine

677
00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:43,280
Speaker 1: and we didn't know since the we were skylined if

678
00:33:43,320 --> 00:33:45,640
Speaker 1: we just only seen four of the nine or.

679
00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:48,560
Speaker 2: What, Yeah, something was over the ridge. Yeah, when I

680
00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:52,239
Speaker 2: when I went in there on foot and uh, you know,

681
00:33:52,520 --> 00:33:55,640
Speaker 2: late July, and looked at everything on through the spot

682
00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:59,200
Speaker 2: and scope. Yeah, I saw nine, and I assume that's

683
00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:00,400
Speaker 2: basically what is there.

684
00:34:00,840 --> 00:34:02,760
Speaker 1: So we finally get through what I would call the

685
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:05,360
Speaker 1: nastier stuff. It wasn't that bad once you're in there.

686
00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:07,240
Speaker 1: It looked bad from away as we get through there,

687
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:09,279
Speaker 1: and and I think we cress like one more. You know,

688
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:11,719
Speaker 1: every time you kind of wrap these little fingers, you

689
00:34:11,719 --> 00:34:15,280
Speaker 1: can open up new new new territory or a new basin.

690
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:18,000
Speaker 1: And we actually glass from the top. Me and you

691
00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:19,600
Speaker 1: had walked up in glass and then we I think

692
00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:21,440
Speaker 1: you had taken a full step up and over and

693
00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:24,400
Speaker 1: then kind of back to hey, there's sheep here. We

694
00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:26,080
Speaker 1: backed up. We all kind of dropped our pack on

695
00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:30,200
Speaker 1: the back side of this finger and uh, being very conservative,

696
00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:33,520
Speaker 1: I think me and me and Dave just stayed back

697
00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:35,520
Speaker 1: and you went forward with your spotter, and we're able

698
00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:37,400
Speaker 1: to get some eyes on them. They were moving on us, though.

699
00:34:37,440 --> 00:34:39,239
Speaker 1: I think you were able to spot five, but they

700
00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:40,480
Speaker 1: quickly kind of went and there.

701
00:34:40,520 --> 00:34:42,880
Speaker 2: It was still morning feed, yeah, so they were just

702
00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:44,719
Speaker 2: before they were getting ready to bed for part of

703
00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:45,040
Speaker 2: the day.

704
00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:46,640
Speaker 1: So you were able to get a good look. And

705
00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:50,640
Speaker 1: I need to add some information in the story. When

706
00:34:50,680 --> 00:34:53,799
Speaker 1: Matt is in sheep mode, he becomes even more quiet

707
00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:55,840
Speaker 1: than than normal or when I'm not asking him a

708
00:34:55,840 --> 00:34:58,279
Speaker 1: bunch of questions. So it was it was like trying

709
00:34:58,280 --> 00:35:00,399
Speaker 1: to decode a little bit exactly what's going on, because

710
00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:02,480
Speaker 1: he he did, you know, right off the bat, he

711
00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:05,120
Speaker 1: didn't say. And then I think after he realized there

712
00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:07,360
Speaker 1: was a legal one, as he was passing by me,

713
00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:08,880
Speaker 1: He's like, I think there's a good one in here.

714
00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:10,920
Speaker 1: I think it's something that was that effect. And so

715
00:35:10,960 --> 00:35:13,120
Speaker 1: I'm like, I think we maybe have a legal one.

716
00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:15,160
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't, but Matt he probably already knows.

717
00:35:15,200 --> 00:35:17,160
Speaker 1: He's just probably not trying to get me excited or

718
00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:20,480
Speaker 1: so then these things fed down into a little, a

719
00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:23,680
Speaker 1: little you know, something that we couldn't see, just a

720
00:35:23,680 --> 00:35:26,719
Speaker 1: little finger crevice, you know, in the rock, and we

721
00:35:26,760 --> 00:35:29,360
Speaker 1: couldn't see, so we elected to move. You thought we

722
00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:31,560
Speaker 1: could move maybe about fifty yards. No, it was more

723
00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:33,799
Speaker 1: than that, because we walked down that main ridge and

724
00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:36,480
Speaker 1: back up to that next point maybe hundred yards. We

725
00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:39,319
Speaker 1: moved maybe a hundred yards and reset up and there

726
00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:41,759
Speaker 1: you were able to catch one. The last one feeding in.

727
00:35:41,800 --> 00:35:45,040
Speaker 2: I saw two, yeah, feeding behind a you know, a

728
00:35:45,120 --> 00:35:48,400
Speaker 2: rock that was halfway between us and them, and I

729
00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:52,160
Speaker 2: thought they might have kept moving, so we and positioned

730
00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:54,279
Speaker 2: ourselves in case they reappeared.

731
00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:57,440
Speaker 1: Yep. Yeah, So then we we dropped maybe forty yards

732
00:35:57,480 --> 00:36:00,759
Speaker 1: from there because because the sheep were feeding straight up

733
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:02,800
Speaker 1: the mountain and we had we were on the I

734
00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:05,040
Speaker 1: guess the prominent ridge where as they fed up, we

735
00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:07,120
Speaker 1: just couldn't see off of the points right, So they

736
00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:10,359
Speaker 1: were basically feeding in the blind to us. Yeah, So

737
00:36:10,360 --> 00:36:13,440
Speaker 1: Matt said, well, let's move down another forty yards and

738
00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:16,239
Speaker 1: so we you know, and you knew the country, or

739
00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:17,920
Speaker 1: read the country well enough, you knew there was kind

740
00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:19,759
Speaker 1: of a little carve out on the ridge line and

741
00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:22,279
Speaker 1: like they should come out to this red rock. So

742
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:25,880
Speaker 1: we we took time, got all set up and steep

743
00:36:25,880 --> 00:36:29,439
Speaker 1: as heck. Like I'm I'm comfortable shooting, but I wasn't

744
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:31,600
Speaker 1: real comfortable shooting very far in some of these setups,

745
00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:33,360
Speaker 1: just because it was so steep You're trying to hold

746
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:35,400
Speaker 1: on and shoot off of a rock. But we we

747
00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:37,799
Speaker 1: got all set up there and we waited for what

748
00:36:37,840 --> 00:36:38,960
Speaker 1: maybe twenty five minutes.

749
00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:43,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and they weren't showing. Then I kind of

750
00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:45,839
Speaker 2: had a hunch that maybe they did bed down, so

751
00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:49,480
Speaker 2: I chose to move around a little bit and see

752
00:36:49,480 --> 00:36:53,080
Speaker 2: if I could see something, and I found it and

753
00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:57,359
Speaker 2: I saw once I spotted one bedded, so I knew

754
00:36:57,360 --> 00:36:59,720
Speaker 2: they're probably were done feeding for the morning.

755
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:02,839
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, because I stayed on the gun and Dave

756
00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:04,680
Speaker 1: was set up and we stayed there, and I think

757
00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:07,000
Speaker 1: you went up the ridge and rolled the ridge just

758
00:37:07,040 --> 00:37:08,640
Speaker 1: a little bit so you could see, and then came

759
00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:11,640
Speaker 1: back and said they're betted. And we had one more

760
00:37:11,719 --> 00:37:15,120
Speaker 1: little knob below us that was like the one last

761
00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:17,279
Speaker 1: spot that we knew, and we knew they were only

762
00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:19,880
Speaker 1: two hudred yards away at this point. Even where they

763
00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:22,600
Speaker 1: were betted, we had a knob that was maybe thirty

764
00:37:23,480 --> 00:37:25,879
Speaker 1: Everything seems farther basically because it's straight up and down,

765
00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:28,279
Speaker 1: but like horizontal, it might have been twenty, you know,

766
00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:31,760
Speaker 1: thirty yards out there. It wasn't too far. And then Matt,

767
00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:33,799
Speaker 1: you know, he looks at us and says, we're no

768
00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:35,840
Speaker 1: longer allowed to roll rocks. So's as we're going at

769
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:38,320
Speaker 1: a snail's pace, we're just gonna get down there super quiet,

770
00:37:39,400 --> 00:37:42,200
Speaker 1: and sure is the first thing I do when I leave.

771
00:37:42,200 --> 00:37:45,080
Speaker 1: There's a boulder, you know, a two to three man boulder,

772
00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:47,160
Speaker 1: and it's loose as all can be, and I'm like

773
00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:49,520
Speaker 1: trying to get it to sit still. But we get

774
00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:51,799
Speaker 1: down there about halfway and just kind of knowing that

775
00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:53,759
Speaker 1: Matt wanted to peek over first, we stayed back and

776
00:37:53,800 --> 00:37:55,720
Speaker 1: you were able to spot them right off the point,

777
00:37:55,920 --> 00:37:57,960
Speaker 1: and then realized the best shooting position would be for

778
00:37:58,040 --> 00:38:00,879
Speaker 1: us to kind of skirt to the right side of

779
00:38:00,920 --> 00:38:02,680
Speaker 1: that rock and to try to take a look at

780
00:38:02,719 --> 00:38:03,160
Speaker 1: him there.

781
00:38:03,520 --> 00:38:05,080
Speaker 2: Yes, yep.

782
00:38:05,440 --> 00:38:08,359
Speaker 1: So Matt waves us down, tells me kind of where,

783
00:38:08,560 --> 00:38:10,840
Speaker 1: you know, don't go to where he originally went, just

784
00:38:10,880 --> 00:38:12,319
Speaker 1: come right to where I'm at. This is where you're

785
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:15,880
Speaker 1: gonna probably get to get to shoot from. And fortunately

786
00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:19,319
Speaker 1: we were able to to get down there undetected and

787
00:38:19,360 --> 00:38:21,080
Speaker 1: then try to see if you can even though you're

788
00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:24,760
Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty hundred nine yards away. The shooting

789
00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:27,799
Speaker 1: set up layout is just not great. Like I'm on

790
00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:31,160
Speaker 1: my tippy toes the guns like hunched over the backside

791
00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:32,600
Speaker 1: of a cliff, and then you're trying to like get

792
00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:34,640
Speaker 1: your eye relief to open up or get your shoulders

793
00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:36,920
Speaker 1: high enough and then get bent into the gun. So

794
00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:42,279
Speaker 1: we're sitting there, Matt, being you know, being super conservative, said, hey,

795
00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:44,000
Speaker 1: just I'm gonna look at these for a while, just

796
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:45,360
Speaker 1: some more, you know, you want to You knew that

797
00:38:45,400 --> 00:38:47,719
Speaker 1: it was legal, You'd already told us up above that right,

798
00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:49,000
Speaker 1: it is legal. But he's like, I just want to

799
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:50,799
Speaker 1: take a look. I want to just make sure look

800
00:38:50,840 --> 00:38:54,279
Speaker 1: everything over really well, I kind of I got off

801
00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:56,000
Speaker 1: the gun and actually back back down the cliff and

802
00:38:56,040 --> 00:38:57,560
Speaker 1: just kind of sat there and you know, kind of

803
00:38:57,600 --> 00:39:00,760
Speaker 1: tried to gain my composure while you Dave was getting

804
00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:02,439
Speaker 1: set up and you were kind of watching him, and.

805
00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:05,120
Speaker 2: So they didn't know where were there, so we were

806
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:06,439
Speaker 2: safe to take our time.

807
00:39:06,600 --> 00:39:06,759
Speaker 1: Yea.

808
00:39:07,560 --> 00:39:09,919
Speaker 2: And yeah, even look at him and he maybe aged

809
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:12,080
Speaker 2: the old one for just for.

810
00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:14,600
Speaker 1: Just to confirm you you want. And that's one thing Matt,

811
00:39:14,719 --> 00:39:17,120
Speaker 1: you know, wants to take older rams if possible, and

812
00:39:17,160 --> 00:39:18,880
Speaker 1: ones that aren't got you know, I don't want to

813
00:39:18,880 --> 00:39:20,680
Speaker 1: say don't have a ton of genetic potential, but just

814
00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:23,560
Speaker 1: ones that you know that are the right ones to take, I.

815
00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:26,279
Speaker 2: Guess, and whatever if I can aid, if I can

816
00:39:27,160 --> 00:39:29,280
Speaker 2: throw an age on him through a spot and scope

817
00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:31,359
Speaker 2: and then we harvest him and then see how well

818
00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:31,759
Speaker 2: I did.

819
00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:35,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, just testing yourself. Yeah, so everybody gets set

820
00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:37,880
Speaker 1: up Matt. Matt says, all right, where you know he's

821
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:40,560
Speaker 1: he's the middle one betted and and we confirmed, like

822
00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:42,759
Speaker 1: he's probably ready to beat me in the back of

823
00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:44,520
Speaker 1: the head, and said, yeah, we've agreed on which rams

824
00:39:44,600 --> 00:39:46,440
Speaker 1: legal ten times. But it's just one of those things.

825
00:39:46,560 --> 00:39:48,960
Speaker 1: It's we you know, said it ten different ways, like,

826
00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:51,399
Speaker 1: all right, there's two betted up top, two betted down low,

827
00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:53,160
Speaker 1: one in the middle, he's the farthest to the left.

828
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:54,840
Speaker 1: If you want to do that, he's one in the middle,

829
00:39:55,160 --> 00:39:57,040
Speaker 1: you know, one of the lower rams ended up moving

830
00:39:57,360 --> 00:40:00,000
Speaker 1: in the middle of us. Thinking around there, we had

831
00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:01,799
Speaker 1: three betted up top and him and I said, now

832
00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:03,200
Speaker 1: he's a fourth. You know we can from now he's

833
00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:04,920
Speaker 1: a fourth roe no farthest to the.

834
00:40:04,960 --> 00:40:08,279
Speaker 2: Left, and I'm I'm fine with that because I've had

835
00:40:08,320 --> 00:40:11,040
Speaker 2: to go the other way and there was a miscommunication

836
00:40:11,320 --> 00:40:14,600
Speaker 2: and that that's not what we want. We do not

837
00:40:14,640 --> 00:40:18,040
Speaker 2: want to shoot the wrong ram. It's happened for Frank

838
00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:20,680
Speaker 2: in the past, but luckily it was still illegal ram,

839
00:40:20,760 --> 00:40:22,640
Speaker 2: so there was no issue. It's just the big one

840
00:40:22,640 --> 00:40:23,080
Speaker 2: got away.

841
00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:25,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and we could. We even went as far

842
00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:27,239
Speaker 1: as confirming like look at his right horn, see how

843
00:40:27,239 --> 00:40:29,239
Speaker 1: it kind of spins, you know, yeah, really curls out.

844
00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:31,480
Speaker 1: And so we made sure, all right, now he's looking left. Yep,

845
00:40:31,520 --> 00:40:34,120
Speaker 1: he's looking left, you know, just probably way over the top.

846
00:40:34,120 --> 00:40:36,560
Speaker 1: We knew a tram was which one after about two clues,

847
00:40:36,600 --> 00:40:38,520
Speaker 1: but we went to you know, six and seven, just

848
00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:41,319
Speaker 1: to make sure we and then we agreed. We were

849
00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:43,560
Speaker 1: literally shooting straight down on his back like it was

850
00:40:43,600 --> 00:40:45,640
Speaker 1: that steep we you know, he was betted. We had

851
00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:47,080
Speaker 1: a little bit of an angle, but it was, you know,

852
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:51,000
Speaker 1: pretty pretty vertical of a shot. Yes, yes, So the

853
00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:54,000
Speaker 1: wind was I don't know, a constant ten or fifteen,

854
00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:55,800
Speaker 1: maybe with some gusts to twenty at that point in

855
00:40:55,840 --> 00:40:58,520
Speaker 1: the morning. Maybe a little less, yeah, fifteen.

856
00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:00,000
Speaker 2: It was worse up on top of the ridge.

857
00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:00,200
Speaker 1: Yeah.

858
00:41:00,200 --> 00:41:00,319
Speaker 2: Sure.

859
00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:04,160
Speaker 1: And then we dropped but yeah, no, I yeah, so

860
00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:06,120
Speaker 1: we I mean no more the vitals were we were

861
00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:08,279
Speaker 1: you know, I held it. I thought two inches to

862
00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:10,560
Speaker 1: the right of the spine where I wanted to hit

863
00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:14,920
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna eat some humble pie here eat crow.

864
00:41:15,200 --> 00:41:17,600
Speaker 1: You know a guy that prides himself in shooting. I'm

865
00:41:17,600 --> 00:41:19,799
Speaker 1: not going to make any excuses besides the rest or something.

866
00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:22,799
Speaker 1: I got to make some excuse. But first shot at

867
00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:25,600
Speaker 1: one whatever it was, one eighty five, one ninety. I

868
00:41:25,719 --> 00:41:28,239
Speaker 1: somehow what I thought was a good squeeze. I'd even

869
00:41:28,320 --> 00:41:31,040
Speaker 1: we're so close. I moved my scope to sixteen. Watching

870
00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:34,560
Speaker 1: the footage. Unless the bullets goes like it looks like

871
00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:36,560
Speaker 1: it hits out to the left and maybe up towards

872
00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:38,280
Speaker 1: his head, elevating and elevation.

873
00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:41,319
Speaker 2: It to me, it's what the footage it looked.

874
00:41:41,360 --> 00:41:42,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, it looks like a miss.

875
00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:43,960
Speaker 2: He shot high yep, miss.

876
00:41:44,400 --> 00:41:48,839
Speaker 1: So all right, you know you you reload. We got

877
00:41:48,880 --> 00:41:50,879
Speaker 1: different ways to communicate. We're trying to figure out which

878
00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:52,960
Speaker 1: one's him. Now that they've all ran together and kind

879
00:41:52,960 --> 00:41:53,680
Speaker 1: of bunched.

880
00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:55,200
Speaker 2: Up, they all jumped up from the bed position.

881
00:41:55,280 --> 00:41:58,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, and me thinking I had hit it because you

882
00:41:58,719 --> 00:42:00,680
Speaker 1: heard the flop, But evidently it was. That's what it

883
00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:02,960
Speaker 1: sounds like. One of their bullet goes into dirt and

884
00:42:03,040 --> 00:42:07,440
Speaker 1: rock one of the bigger ram that we I thought

885
00:42:07,520 --> 00:42:09,040
Speaker 1: was the whole time, You thought was the whole time

886
00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:11,520
Speaker 1: but we couldn't communicate on which one it was at times.

887
00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:13,640
Speaker 1: Finally put its head down, like either to sniff the

888
00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:16,200
Speaker 1: ground or to you know. Yeah, and we agreed, like

889
00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:17,960
Speaker 1: all right, he just dropped his head, you know, one

890
00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:19,760
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty. Now I had a good broadside shot

891
00:42:19,800 --> 00:42:23,000
Speaker 1: and hit him perfect, hit both lungs as well as

892
00:42:23,040 --> 00:42:24,600
Speaker 1: kind of shocked the spine. So it's kind of the

893
00:42:24,680 --> 00:42:28,440
Speaker 1: perfect perfect everything. You know, killed and you went down.

894
00:42:28,440 --> 00:42:30,759
Speaker 2: And uh and and fouled up.

895
00:42:31,320 --> 00:42:34,240
Speaker 1: Yep. Yeah, he listened to Matt's commands, the please please

896
00:42:34,280 --> 00:42:37,960
Speaker 1: stay still. So he actually died on an amazing spot

897
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:39,440
Speaker 1: for you know, the country that he was in.

898
00:42:39,520 --> 00:42:42,200
Speaker 2: Just to seat still, well, you wanted a life sized hide.

899
00:42:42,280 --> 00:42:45,440
Speaker 2: So had he rolled, he was going to have some

900
00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:49,160
Speaker 2: rock dings, I no doubt about it. But he stayed

901
00:42:49,160 --> 00:42:51,160
Speaker 2: in the little grass patch he was in, and you

902
00:42:51,239 --> 00:42:53,440
Speaker 2: know it was perfect, good for butchering everything.

903
00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:58,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, great, great spot to take care of him. You know. Uh,

904
00:42:59,200 --> 00:43:01,879
Speaker 1: I've always said like the wanton waste rules and and

905
00:43:02,080 --> 00:43:04,080
Speaker 1: Alaska always make me nervous. It's what we should all

906
00:43:04,080 --> 00:43:07,000
Speaker 1: be doing anyways, but like whose interpretation? And I can

907
00:43:07,040 --> 00:43:09,640
Speaker 1: guarantee you that there was less than one percent red

908
00:43:09,680 --> 00:43:12,520
Speaker 1: meat left on that carcass when we left, like two

909
00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:14,960
Speaker 1: of the bloodshot ribs. I think we're about all that

910
00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:17,320
Speaker 1: was left. Everything else we ri rolled off. We pulled

911
00:43:17,360 --> 00:43:19,920
Speaker 1: every piece of meat off. The little thing is what

912
00:43:19,920 --> 00:43:20,879
Speaker 1: everybody should be doing.

913
00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:25,080
Speaker 2: And I can contribute that to my mother. She does

914
00:43:25,120 --> 00:43:28,120
Speaker 2: not waste anything. She grew up on a dairy farm,

915
00:43:28,160 --> 00:43:32,759
Speaker 2: butchered hogs and beef with the family and uh yeah,

916
00:43:32,880 --> 00:43:37,280
Speaker 2: and uses a lot of stuff that the average person won't.

917
00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:40,239
Speaker 2: I mean we packed out the nuts and the heart and.

918
00:43:40,320 --> 00:43:44,080
Speaker 1: Kidney fat and yeah, the bottom jawn, kidney fat everything.

919
00:43:44,200 --> 00:43:46,960
Speaker 1: So no, and it's we've we've been fortunate to have

920
00:43:47,080 --> 00:43:49,719
Speaker 1: sheet meat, uh you know since we've got even some

921
00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:52,000
Speaker 1: other sheet meat before we left, and it's been it's

922
00:43:52,080 --> 00:43:57,319
Speaker 1: absolutely amazing, some amazing table fair. And so that then

923
00:43:57,360 --> 00:44:01,400
Speaker 1: the pack out and one thing, you know, it was

924
00:44:01,440 --> 00:44:03,840
Speaker 1: easy for me to train up, like I felt amazing

925
00:44:03,880 --> 00:44:05,680
Speaker 1: the whole hike up, even though we did claim you know,

926
00:44:05,719 --> 00:44:06,760
Speaker 1: two thousand yeah.

927
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:09,200
Speaker 2: Get winded, but still it wasn't horrible.

928
00:44:09,239 --> 00:44:10,799
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we were. It was windy and we were

929
00:44:10,840 --> 00:44:13,400
Speaker 1: dealing with that. But the downhill is what you can't

930
00:44:13,440 --> 00:44:16,200
Speaker 1: train for. The steepness and the rocks of this downhill

931
00:44:16,200 --> 00:44:18,080
Speaker 1: and so the pack out, you know, yeah, we had

932
00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:20,480
Speaker 1: three guys, which is pretty fortunate, you know, the full

933
00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:24,160
Speaker 1: but like downhill, like my legs they're not sore anymore.

934
00:44:24,200 --> 00:44:25,759
Speaker 1: Where a couple of days removed from the hunt, but

935
00:44:25,840 --> 00:44:28,000
Speaker 1: the next day like gosh, dang, you can't, you know,

936
00:44:28,360 --> 00:44:30,360
Speaker 1: train for this. So if you if you're coming to

937
00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:32,080
Speaker 1: Alaska on a sheep hunt, figure out some way to

938
00:44:32,120 --> 00:44:36,640
Speaker 1: train your legs for going down. And I'm not making excuses,

939
00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:38,680
Speaker 1: but I'm going to make an excuse. So I preface

940
00:44:38,760 --> 00:44:41,400
Speaker 1: that I had had to carry my gun out, so

941
00:44:41,400 --> 00:44:44,000
Speaker 1: I had to put my hiking pole away. And so

942
00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:46,040
Speaker 1: there I am like running down the hill with you know,

943
00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:47,800
Speaker 1: as we're packing this thing out and I can't stick

944
00:44:47,800 --> 00:44:51,040
Speaker 1: in you yeah, and they held like there are a

945
00:44:51,040 --> 00:44:52,400
Speaker 1: lot of I think I'm gonna start packing that all

946
00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:53,560
Speaker 1: the time because there's a lot of elk and deer

947
00:44:53,600 --> 00:44:55,440
Speaker 1: hunts where I put that hiking pole away, and I

948
00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:57,600
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be just as light as they are

949
00:44:57,680 --> 00:45:01,600
Speaker 1: in that nasty uneven trained their their life savers.

950
00:45:01,880 --> 00:45:04,960
Speaker 2: Uh No, I in my early years, I didn't. We

951
00:45:05,040 --> 00:45:07,040
Speaker 2: just carried our gun in our hand, and I used

952
00:45:07,040 --> 00:45:09,399
Speaker 2: it as a cane or that, so beat the hell

953
00:45:09,400 --> 00:45:12,839
Speaker 2: out of the stock. But h but now that I'm guiding, yeah,

954
00:45:12,880 --> 00:45:15,560
Speaker 2: I you know, I carry a pick or ice axe,

955
00:45:15,600 --> 00:45:21,680
Speaker 2: and if I didn't have it, yeah, I I'd go

956
00:45:21,760 --> 00:45:23,839
Speaker 2: back to the house and get it. If I got

957
00:45:23,880 --> 00:45:25,959
Speaker 2: to the trail head I didn't have it, it's like, yeah,

958
00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:28,080
Speaker 2: I need it that bad. I feel like I do.

959
00:45:28,960 --> 00:45:29,840
Speaker 2: It's very helpful.

960
00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:32,839
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's another thing. This is a pro tip if

961
00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:35,040
Speaker 1: you're going to book a doll sheep hunt, make sure

962
00:45:35,080 --> 00:45:37,600
Speaker 1: your guide uses an ice axe, not a walking stick.

963
00:45:37,640 --> 00:45:40,880
Speaker 1: I think that that adds some credibility to their to

964
00:45:40,920 --> 00:45:41,760
Speaker 1: their operation.

965
00:45:42,040 --> 00:45:46,960
Speaker 2: Well, it's yeah, it comes in handy for other things.

966
00:45:46,960 --> 00:45:49,000
Speaker 2: If I got a little excavation for a ten spot

967
00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:49,480
Speaker 2: or something.

968
00:45:49,880 --> 00:45:53,440
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, So we ended up we didn't really want

969
00:45:53,480 --> 00:45:55,080
Speaker 1: to go back through the same path we had walked

970
00:45:55,120 --> 00:45:57,520
Speaker 1: up that morning. Maybe not. I think it would have

971
00:45:57,560 --> 00:45:59,440
Speaker 1: been plenty safe, but we just we elected to go

972
00:45:59,480 --> 00:46:01,520
Speaker 1: down the rid instead of trying to go back through

973
00:46:01,520 --> 00:46:02,279
Speaker 1: the yew.

974
00:46:02,680 --> 00:46:04,960
Speaker 2: My age, I don't like to pack heavy loads up hill.

975
00:46:05,600 --> 00:46:08,480
Speaker 2: If we can do a little side hilling down and

976
00:46:08,480 --> 00:46:10,600
Speaker 2: around it, it's a little bit more time than effort. Then.

977
00:46:10,719 --> 00:46:13,839
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we we circumnavigated the mountain on the pack out,

978
00:46:13,880 --> 00:46:16,480
Speaker 1: pretty steep, but pretty easy going for the most part,

979
00:46:17,000 --> 00:46:20,560
Speaker 1: made it down, you know, just like this crazy Lasco weather.

980
00:46:20,600 --> 00:46:22,840
Speaker 1: The best the best six hours we had was that

981
00:46:22,920 --> 00:46:25,080
Speaker 1: morning hunt and then the forty mile an hour little

982
00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:27,880
Speaker 1: microburst and the rain all hit us. You're half flying

983
00:46:27,920 --> 00:46:30,520
Speaker 1: into the basin, you know. So we we got to

984
00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:33,440
Speaker 1: pack out in the rain the whole second half, and

985
00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:35,800
Speaker 1: on our route back, we were able to dump the sheep,

986
00:46:36,440 --> 00:46:38,239
Speaker 1: you know, so that we wouldn't have to pack the

987
00:46:38,280 --> 00:46:40,320
Speaker 1: sheep all the way back to camp. We stayed.

988
00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:43,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, we didn't need to pack the sheep any meat

989
00:46:43,520 --> 00:46:45,399
Speaker 2: any further and we had to, so we stashed it.

990
00:46:45,360 --> 00:46:48,360
Speaker 1: And went gray Grizzly Bear didn't get.

991
00:46:48,239 --> 00:46:49,720
Speaker 2: It in the middle of the night, and the chances

992
00:46:49,760 --> 00:46:50,279
Speaker 2: you have to take.

993
00:46:50,440 --> 00:46:52,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then about an hour hour and a half,

994
00:46:52,719 --> 00:46:55,080
Speaker 1: heke maybe back to camp. Decided to stay the night

995
00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:55,440
Speaker 1: there and.

996
00:46:55,400 --> 00:46:58,080
Speaker 2: Just relax from where the stashed the meat, yea.

997
00:46:58,160 --> 00:47:00,000
Speaker 1: And then we're able to load it up next morning,

998
00:47:00,080 --> 00:47:01,799
Speaker 1: kind of get up at our own pace. And the

999
00:47:01,840 --> 00:47:04,560
Speaker 1: next morning was pretty ding. It was nice, right, We

1000
00:47:04,560 --> 00:47:05,719
Speaker 1: did get a nice hike out.

1001
00:47:06,360 --> 00:47:10,040
Speaker 2: Yeah he's an ikeap but it was drizzling now and then.

1002
00:47:10,160 --> 00:47:15,120
Speaker 1: But yeah, so yeah, it's tough to If you could

1003
00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:17,000
Speaker 1: draw up a sheep hunt, you may want to kill

1004
00:47:17,040 --> 00:47:18,960
Speaker 1: on like day seven of a hard hunt, right to

1005
00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:20,680
Speaker 1: get as much sheep hunting as you can. But it's

1006
00:47:20,719 --> 00:47:22,839
Speaker 1: awful tough. You know. We had a three day hunt,

1007
00:47:23,120 --> 00:47:25,120
Speaker 1: you know, really from start to finish. Yeah, and we

1008
00:47:25,120 --> 00:47:26,279
Speaker 1: were able to kill on day one.

1009
00:47:26,400 --> 00:47:28,160
Speaker 2: So sometimes you're lucky.

1010
00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:30,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say lucky, you know, some would say

1011
00:47:30,719 --> 00:47:32,919
Speaker 1: lucky would be killing the same ram on day seven

1012
00:47:33,000 --> 00:47:35,080
Speaker 1: or eight. But that starts to put pressure on you.

1013
00:47:35,360 --> 00:47:37,239
Speaker 1: I know, I'd be nervous, wrecked by about day three

1014
00:47:37,320 --> 00:47:39,279
Speaker 1: or four if you're hunting and like, haven't killed one yet.

1015
00:47:39,440 --> 00:47:43,560
Speaker 1: You've got hunters out there right now that they've been

1016
00:47:43,600 --> 00:47:45,920
Speaker 1: stuck in a tent for four days straight. Yeah, because

1017
00:47:46,640 --> 00:47:49,680
Speaker 1: that's the other option. Like, is that better than he

1018
00:47:49,840 --> 00:47:51,600
Speaker 1: killing on day one? No?

1019
00:47:52,000 --> 00:47:57,520
Speaker 2: No, And yeah, can't predict the weather, but we seem

1020
00:47:57,560 --> 00:48:00,640
Speaker 2: to get her done in seven days. Yep, lions willing.

1021
00:48:00,920 --> 00:48:03,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, it's a pretty good track record, you know.

1022
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:08,040
Speaker 1: And I probably shouldn't say this, and and uh, you'll

1023
00:48:08,080 --> 00:48:09,440
Speaker 1: tell me if I shouldn't there, if you want to

1024
00:48:09,480 --> 00:48:12,839
Speaker 1: cut out. We were at the fishing game yesterday getting

1025
00:48:12,880 --> 00:48:15,160
Speaker 1: it plugged, and the older gentleman there, we went and

1026
00:48:15,160 --> 00:48:17,040
Speaker 1: looked to hit one of his giant moose in the

1027
00:48:17,040 --> 00:48:19,839
Speaker 1: place there, and uh, he's like, you know, fishing game,

1028
00:48:19,880 --> 00:48:22,360
Speaker 1: we can't really recommend guides and outfitters. But he's like,

1029
00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:24,280
Speaker 1: whoever told you to go with matter? However, you figured

1030
00:48:24,280 --> 00:48:25,680
Speaker 1: this guy out, like, you know, with the right one.

1031
00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:27,880
Speaker 1: So he's like, you know that that's a good testament

1032
00:48:27,920 --> 00:48:31,319
Speaker 1: to the operation match running. And they get to see

1033
00:48:31,320 --> 00:48:32,840
Speaker 1: all the sheep that come through this area. And so

1034
00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:35,319
Speaker 1: if you know, fishing game knows he's doing it right

1035
00:48:35,400 --> 00:48:38,959
Speaker 1: and and has there you know, the success he does. Yeah,

1036
00:48:39,080 --> 00:48:41,800
Speaker 1: it's a testament to the operation you're running in the success.

1037
00:48:42,200 --> 00:48:43,759
Speaker 2: Good word of mouth is always good. It's good to

1038
00:48:43,760 --> 00:48:45,160
Speaker 2: hear those positive stories.

1039
00:48:45,239 --> 00:48:48,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know. It's like I would, I would hang

1040
00:48:48,480 --> 00:48:50,959
Speaker 1: my hat on anybody that wants to sheep hunt with

1041
00:48:50,960 --> 00:48:52,839
Speaker 1: with Matt. He's as good as they get.

1042
00:48:52,880 --> 00:48:56,760
Speaker 2: And yeah, I just wish I had more opportunity to

1043
00:48:56,960 --> 00:48:58,879
Speaker 2: book the guys. You know, it's just I gotta call

1044
00:48:58,920 --> 00:49:01,479
Speaker 2: this now and it's just not enough sheep.

1045
00:49:02,200 --> 00:49:12,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, talking with Madam like you know, what

1046
00:49:12,120 --> 00:49:13,560
Speaker 1: shows do you go to? And he's like, I haven't

1047
00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:14,719
Speaker 1: had to go to a show in a while. Like

1048
00:49:14,760 --> 00:49:16,680
Speaker 1: it's all just word of mouth. That works easy. My

1049
00:49:16,719 --> 00:49:18,960
Speaker 1: overhead's lower, so I'll have to pay for these shows

1050
00:49:19,000 --> 00:49:21,440
Speaker 1: and go bs customers or clients.

1051
00:49:21,080 --> 00:49:22,920
Speaker 2: And honest, awesome, even when I did go to the

1052
00:49:22,920 --> 00:49:24,240
Speaker 2: show's word of mouth was better.

1053
00:49:24,480 --> 00:49:28,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, still got you more clients. So how do people

1054
00:49:28,080 --> 00:49:29,759
Speaker 1: find out about the operations? You know, you and your

1055
00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:31,520
Speaker 1: mom are running on the spring grizzly. You know you

1056
00:49:31,560 --> 00:49:34,280
Speaker 1: and you and your guys are running on on sheep.

1057
00:49:34,320 --> 00:49:35,880
Speaker 1: How you know websites are.

1058
00:49:36,520 --> 00:49:38,640
Speaker 2: Well, I have, we have some. We have a website.

1059
00:49:38,680 --> 00:49:43,040
Speaker 2: It needs updated of course all the time. But word

1060
00:49:43,080 --> 00:49:47,680
Speaker 2: of mouth is primary. Yeah, the folks still Frank does

1061
00:49:47,760 --> 00:49:50,879
Speaker 2: bronze art. They go to the shows, so they talk

1062
00:49:50,920 --> 00:49:53,160
Speaker 2: a little bit, even hunting, even though it's they're there

1063
00:49:53,200 --> 00:49:55,480
Speaker 2: for the and the booth for the bronze art. But

1064
00:49:55,960 --> 00:49:57,960
Speaker 2: and they've been doing it a long time, just with

1065
00:49:58,000 --> 00:49:59,640
Speaker 2: the bronze art, so everybody knows them and they know

1066
00:49:59,680 --> 00:50:03,560
Speaker 2: they hunt, and I'm associated with them, so that all helps.

1067
00:50:04,200 --> 00:50:07,839
Speaker 1: Yeah, So just your website and that what's your website again?

1068
00:50:07,920 --> 00:50:11,560
Speaker 2: The top management area dot com.

1069
00:50:11,120 --> 00:50:13,759
Speaker 1: Gotcha and you So you'll have people put in for

1070
00:50:13,800 --> 00:50:17,000
Speaker 1: special areas like the toke or the Delta is not yours,

1071
00:50:17,040 --> 00:50:17,359
Speaker 1: but you.

1072
00:50:17,360 --> 00:50:19,960
Speaker 2: Do apart it's not the delta, but not anymore, so

1073
00:50:20,120 --> 00:50:21,040
Speaker 2: we put in for the toke.

1074
00:50:21,120 --> 00:50:23,560
Speaker 1: And then you do have open unit hunts that you're

1075
00:50:23,560 --> 00:50:25,880
Speaker 1: booking out in the in the future, you know, a

1076
00:50:25,920 --> 00:50:28,680
Speaker 1: few years out. So if you're interested in doing an

1077
00:50:28,680 --> 00:50:30,840
Speaker 1: open sheep punt with Matt, feel free to get a

1078
00:50:30,840 --> 00:50:32,680
Speaker 1: hold of me or get a hold of him and

1079
00:50:32,960 --> 00:50:35,400
Speaker 1: I can pass on, you know, some contact after I

1080
00:50:35,520 --> 00:50:37,520
Speaker 1: you know, see see what you you know, where's the

1081
00:50:37,520 --> 00:50:39,439
Speaker 1: booking and how it goes? And uh, like I said,

1082
00:50:39,440 --> 00:50:41,480
Speaker 1: word of mouth is great. I actually will.

1083
00:50:41,360 --> 00:50:42,880
Speaker 2: Give me a call. I'll talk to you even if

1084
00:50:42,920 --> 00:50:44,000
Speaker 2: I don't got nothing to offer.

1085
00:50:45,920 --> 00:50:48,359
Speaker 1: Yeah. I I booked this hunt because my good buddy

1086
00:50:48,400 --> 00:50:49,840
Speaker 1: Chris Parrish Hauld come up and hunted with you in

1087
00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:53,040
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen. And I'd always had the sheep bug you.

1088
00:50:53,040 --> 00:50:54,520
Speaker 1: Everybody always asked me what my dream hunt. It was

1089
00:50:54,520 --> 00:50:57,240
Speaker 1: always a stone sheep, and then realized stone sheep aren't

1090
00:50:57,280 --> 00:50:59,360
Speaker 1: as affordable as all so let's switch to this. And

1091
00:50:59,400 --> 00:51:01,840
Speaker 1: so I switched I, you know, doll hunt and I

1092
00:51:02,239 --> 00:51:04,680
Speaker 1: talked to you in twenty twenty and one thing for me,

1093
00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:06,440
Speaker 1: not that it was important, but I'm like, well, how

1094
00:51:06,440 --> 00:51:08,000
Speaker 1: long until I could be the first hun of the year,

1095
00:51:08,040 --> 00:51:09,640
Speaker 1: you know. And and so I think that was twenty

1096
00:51:09,680 --> 00:51:11,359
Speaker 1: four was the first opening. And I think I had

1097
00:51:11,400 --> 00:51:14,040
Speaker 1: said I wanted to hunt with you specifically, so we

1098
00:51:14,040 --> 00:51:15,880
Speaker 1: we lined all that up and pushed it out to

1099
00:51:15,880 --> 00:51:18,640
Speaker 1: twenty four. And yeah, it was. It was a hunt

1100
00:51:18,640 --> 00:51:20,239
Speaker 1: of a lifetime. I wish we could have, you know,

1101
00:51:20,719 --> 00:51:22,200
Speaker 1: stretched it out to three or four, but at the

1102
00:51:22,239 --> 00:51:24,160
Speaker 1: same time, it would have been six or seven because

1103
00:51:24,160 --> 00:51:27,480
Speaker 1: the weather they've got. So I'll take I'll take the ramp.

1104
00:51:27,520 --> 00:51:30,640
Speaker 1: You know. It's a beautiful ram, you know, absolutely gorgeous,

1105
00:51:30,640 --> 00:51:33,680
Speaker 1: and a hunt of a lifetime, just a short hunt

1106
00:51:33,680 --> 00:51:36,200
Speaker 1: of a lifetime. So it was it was awesome. Yeah,

1107
00:51:36,200 --> 00:51:38,720
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you coming on here. This is probably

1108
00:51:38,760 --> 00:51:41,040
Speaker 1: the first and last podcast you ever hear Matt do.

1109
00:51:41,760 --> 00:51:43,359
Speaker 2: So unfortunately that's highly likely.

1110
00:51:45,160 --> 00:51:46,840
Speaker 1: We've been joking with him that after he has this

1111
00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:48,880
Speaker 1: much fun, I'll probably start his own podcast.

1112
00:51:49,160 --> 00:51:51,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, you heard Male's response.

1113
00:51:51,960 --> 00:51:52,680
Speaker 1: He just went.

1114
00:51:54,280 --> 00:51:54,840
Speaker 2: Probably not.

1115
00:51:55,800 --> 00:51:58,440
Speaker 1: So that's a wrap from the field here in Alaska.

1116
00:51:58,520 --> 00:52:01,600
Speaker 1: We've had an awesome time. I'm you know, Alaska is

1117
00:52:01,680 --> 00:52:05,319
Speaker 1: absolutely beautiful and I recommend everybody, you know, if it's

1118
00:52:05,360 --> 00:52:06,839
Speaker 1: in the cards or you can make it happen, come

1119
00:52:06,880 --> 00:52:09,279
Speaker 1: up to Alaska and kind of, you know, enjoy the

1120
00:52:09,800 --> 00:52:11,480
Speaker 1: what they've got to offer up here. It's a it's

1121
00:52:11,480 --> 00:52:13,960
Speaker 1: a crazy place to me. I can't still wrap my

1122
00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:17,920
Speaker 1: head around town being five or six hours away. You

1123
00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:19,600
Speaker 1: often to stay the night when you go to town,

1124
00:52:20,080 --> 00:52:22,839
Speaker 1: and if anything breaks down during the winter or at

1125
00:52:22,880 --> 00:52:24,759
Speaker 1: any time, you better know how to fix it. And

1126
00:52:24,800 --> 00:52:27,520
Speaker 1: so these uh it's it's kind of crazy just seeing

1127
00:52:27,520 --> 00:52:30,919
Speaker 1: the place around here like they are, uh in different world.

1128
00:52:31,000 --> 00:52:33,480
Speaker 2: So there's a lot of tools around here, depending on

1129
00:52:33,520 --> 00:52:37,839
Speaker 2: if you're plumbing, wiring, you know, changing oil on the car,

1130
00:52:38,320 --> 00:52:39,320
Speaker 2: the airplan whatever.

1131
00:52:39,480 --> 00:52:42,759
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's fixing the airplanes, building new airplanes. You got

1132
00:52:42,800 --> 00:52:46,480
Speaker 1: it all. So no, it's it's been awesome. Really appreciate everything, Matt.

1133
00:52:46,520 --> 00:52:48,440
Speaker 1: It's a it's a hun I'd recommend to anybody, and

1134
00:52:48,520 --> 00:52:51,520
Speaker 1: I can't thank you enough for for everything. Sounds good.

1135
00:52:55,400 --> 00:52:58,879
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining in the cutting the distance. Until next time,

1136
00:52:59,160 --> 00:53:02,520
Speaker 1: shoot straight and the it'll probably be middle elk season

1137
00:53:02,520 --> 00:53:05,040
Speaker 1: by time this this drops. I hope you all are

1138
00:53:05,080 --> 00:53:20,000
Speaker 1: having a luck out there on your elk hunts. M H.