WEBVTT - Ep. 8: Sam Soholt 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:06.280 Hey, everybody, welcome Episode number eight The Hunting Collective. I'm 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:11.160 Ben or Brian. Today we are joined by pure nomad 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:15.360 Sam Soholt. Sam somebody I met five or six years 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:18.400 ago and as a young photographer in the hunting industry, 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:21.120 and somebody that I became fast friends with, and somebody 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:23.800 who not only did I respect who he was and 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:25.840 what he did by respect that he's creative vision in 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:28.520 his work and all the things he did with a camera, 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:32.840 with a rifle, with a bow, whatever. And Sam's also 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:35.680 somebody who lives a life that a lot of people 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:40.200 could respect. He lives as a nomad, kind of doesn't 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:43.400 have an address. It's hard to pin him down. I 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:45.400 know he used to live in Montana and sometimes in 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:49.240 South Dakota, but he kind of always was everywhere and 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:52.880 doing things, living life the way all of us would 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:56.000 want to, just with a ton of freedom. And most recently, 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:59.360 Sam has built a bus. He didn't build a bus, 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:01.480 He bought a US and then turn it into a 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:05.800 camp mobile hunting camp and took it around and used 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.479 that bus to highlight public lands um and he's also 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:11.920 has a company called public Land Tease that he started 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:16.279 that money goes back into backhuns and anglers for public 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.920 lands from each purchase. So all these things put together 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:23.840 makes Sam a force in the hunting world and somebody 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:25.959 I call a friend and I'm happy to do so. 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.319 So hopefully episode number eight will be a good one 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:47.559 for you. Please enjoy Sam. So, Sam, what's up? What's 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:52.920 going on? Not much? Um? I am actually just sitting 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:54.600 in my pick out at the moment. I figured that 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:58.360 would be the quietest place where I could record this week. Yeah, 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:00.960 we've done a few. This will be our second, or 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:03.440 at least one of the participants, if not. Both were 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:05.320 in a pickup, and I find that to be okay. 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:07.680 I have no problem with that. Yeah, yeah, it works 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.720 as long as you're not driving. You and cawhanded it 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:13.440 in in the pickup in the show, didn't you, Yeah, 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:16.600 which is a bit of a Russian nesting doll of weirdness. Yes, 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:20.760 we did. Um. Yeah, so you're not driving the truck 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:23.440 though it's stationary. I'm not driving. No, I'm not driving. 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:26.679 I parked, um, but I thought it seems fitting. I'm 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:29.959 a fairly you know, travel a fair bit, so that's good. 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:32.760 I might as well do it in my home. Well, 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:34.920 you know, what I mean. Yeah, I feel like the 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:37.720 first thing to talk about is that it's turkey season, 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:42.120 because that's the only thing to think about right now. 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:44.800 If anybody else's as a hunter and they're thinking about 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:50.320 anything about turkeys, they're foolish. And I've had pretty much 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:54.720 turkeys and snow geese. Yeah, you know, like whatever, whatever, 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:58.440 snow geese, whatever, let's get okay in February, you can 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:02.959 hut snow geese that track. Yeah, you got some turkey 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:05.840 plants coming up? I do. Yeah, I'm gonna do a 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:08.400 little turkey tour in the bus. Um. I'm gonna go 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:10.560 chase some in Nebraska first before I go out to 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:14.560 Boise for the b h A rendezvous, and then depending 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:18.240 on timing, probably chase some in my home state in 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:22.880 South Dakota, and then uh, you never know. It's the turkeys. 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:24.480 With turkeys is kind of nice. You don't have to 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.520 plan like a ten day trip. You know, somebody can 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:29.359 call you and be like, hey, I've got turkeys something like, 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:31.440 all right, I'll be there in the morning and and 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:34.080 you go and shoot a turkey. You're right about that 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:37.960 always the case. I know, it's not always the case 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:39.880 for turkey hunting. But a lot of times, you know, 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:43.119 it's not like you know, chasing Mulder or Elk, where 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:45.400 you gotta have plenty of days to make sure you 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:47.240 get it done. We're talking about this the other day. 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:50.120 Do you feel like there's a way to do a 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:54.120 public land grand slam in the States. There's gotta be 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:57.080 Let's make that a thing. Yeah, there's gotta be. Let's 0:03:57.120 --> 0:03:58.760 make that a thing. Because I don't know that anybody's 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:01.400 ever said or did that. I just shot an Osceola 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:06.880 in Florida. I don't know if there Yeah, but I 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:09.880 was looking around on the maps and the Onyx maps 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:12.280 trying to figure out if there was public where you 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.480 could turkey hunt, because I feel like that's the only 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:16.880 missing piece. I mean, there's I know you can hunt 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:22.680 easterns Rio's and Miriam's in public ground. I know that. Yeah, 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:26.400 if we can find the secret public around spot for Osceola's, 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:29.600 we're in. I feel like between you and I though, 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:32.160 like we know enough people in Florida where we could 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:34.400 make that happen. Yeah, we just can't tell anybody if 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.680 we find like the golden spot for Osceola's, No, we can't. 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:39.760 It have to be like, I don't know how we 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:41.719 pull that off. We just we have to do it 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.840 very publicly but very secretive. At the same time. We 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:46.920 would make we would just probably make up names. We 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:50.520 wouldn't say what's really going on, that's right, Yeah, because 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:53.120 I can't imagine there's somebody from Florida can right in 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:55.480 and tell us all about the public land turkey. Yeah, 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:57.120 but I can't imagine there's a whole lot of that 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:01.000 going on. Yeah, I wouldn't imagine. So, but it seems 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:03.400 like a good goal that we need to figure out 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:05.520 how to pull off in the next couple of years. 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:08.160 It's it's true. Tell just tell everybody, why do you 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:10.760 think turkey hunting is the best type of hunting there is? 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:15.760 Because that's I mean, obviously that's the reality. I mean, 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:19.839 I don't know if it's okay, I'll just start. Turkey 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:24.039 hunting is amazing. Uh, first of all, of springtime, like everything, 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:26.280 you know, like just spring in general is great. It's 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:28.880 kind of like the transition out of the deep freeze. 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:31.080 And you know, if you live in the northern part 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:35.320 of the US and everything starts, you know, everything's growing 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:37.599 back and everything's turning green, and everything smells good, and 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:40.520 then you go out and you chase these like twelve 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:45.320 to twenty pound dinosaurs that basically yell at you and 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:47.400 to try to attack you, and then you shoot him 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:50.960 in self defense. Most of the time, it's it's uh, 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:53.480 I don't know. I it took me a long time 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:55.240 to get into turkey hunting. I never thought I would, 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:57.880 Like I didn't like watching movies that you know, uh, 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:00.360 you know, I didn't like watching turkey hunting. Is it 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:02.640 just time side? It was just super boring. But I 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:04.719 only did it one time, and I was like, I 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:08.640 get it now, this is pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah, that's 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.839 like almost saying, like, tell me why Donald Trump is 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:17.120 the greatest president or the best president? Yeah, you really 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:21.800 phrase that. I feel like turkey hunting. Rogan talk ship 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:23.880 on turkey hunting when he went with Ronella, and I 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:26.400 feel like there's other people around that are popular to 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:28.839 talk ship on turkey hunting. So I just feel like 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:31.680 I need to be a voice for the greatness. Yeah, 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:34.039 did they go kill did they kill any turkeys? I 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:36.239 feel like I don't know if Rogan killed a turkey 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.320 or not. Probably not. Well, that's that's probably why he's 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:41.080 talking shit. On it. I don't know, but if he did, 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.000 I'll get him eventually. But I just feel I feel 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:47.520 like turkey hunting is just underrated. It's seen as like 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:51.640 a redneck pursuit, which maybe it is. I'm a redneck. 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:55.480 But even even if it is, it's worth it. Yeah, 0:06:56.600 --> 0:07:02.000 you're talking to a giant raptor with giant yeah terms. Yeah, 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:05.039 And so here's the question, uh for you and you've 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:07.359 you've done a lot more turkey hunting than I have. Um, 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:09.840 And a lot of people say that they're, you know, 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:14.800 an incredibly smart bird. In my personal opinion, I think 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:17.560 that they are so dumb that they are hard to hunt. 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:23.000 Like they they flie down from the roost, they have 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:26.040 no idea what they're doing. They're like a ping pong ball. 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:28.920 It's just like, you know, it's like a it's like 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:33.800 a puffed up the turn and then and then they 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:35.760 just keep they go and they hit that field edge 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:37.480 and then they just turn it just you know, just 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:40.920 strutting around up. Yeah. Yeah, I mean that could be either. 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:44.400 There's times when your turkey hunting and it seems like 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:47.440 the most simplest thing you could ever do. See you 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:49.720 go out there, you make something, you shut the carridor 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:51.920 and they start gobbling, they come running and you shoot them. 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:55.040 Like I've had things like that happened where you just asked, 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.400 like last year, two years ago in Florida. But the 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:00.760 turkeys are tough. All morning, they weren't really goblin. We 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.360 didn't get into much. And we were walking back to 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:06.560 the truck on this paved road and there was a 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:09.560 little food plot just down over this little palmetto ridge 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:13.800 and we were talking full voices, and I think this 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:18.000 turkey gobbled at our voices was the first time it gobbled. 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:21.120 And then I just went down over the hill and 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:23.200 hit the call one time and it came running through 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:27.480 this palmetto and I shot at like five yards. So 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:29.880 then you're thinking like, mmm, I gotta tell you this 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:34.600 can't be the hardest thing when that's when that's going on. Yeah, 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:38.360 But I just I think that we hunt them and 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:40.079 just like a white tailed deer, if you were only 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:43.040 hunting white tailed deer in November, you would think they're 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:47.240 the dumbest, you know, pussy hungry things there ever was. Um, 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:50.240 So I think we we and then you know they've 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:54.040 habititated or they've cohabitated enough that we'll see him in 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:56.960 our backyards and you see him in parks sometimes, and 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.080 so anything you see in those environments you think might 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:02.960 not be that's smart. But I've hunted swamp gobblers in 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:06.160 Louisiana that you just thought, there's no way I'll you'll 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:08.120 ever trick it into coming near you. I mean, they're 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:10.120 just he just feels like you'd never get it done. 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:15.600 So I think yes, and yeah, yeah, yeah, it's all situational. Yeah. 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:19.200 So I'm I'm reading an article now, uh from our boys, 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:23.079 Steve Hiccoff. You ever met Steve Hickoff. I don't think 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:27.440 I have. He's a turkey killing genius. So he has 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:30.200 an article on realtory dot com called how to get 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:36.280 your Turkey hunting Grand Slam on public Land. He wrote 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:40.160 it in January, so he so the first thing he says, 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.880 good news three quarters the grand slam of public land 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:47.400 is easy. Bad news the quarter not accounted for as 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:53.000 as Florida's Asceola subspecies. Tagging a public land Osceola is tough, 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:56.520 I think, goes on. He goes on the list of 0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:00.880 how tough it actually is. Oh, yeah, seems worth, seems 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:03.080 worth trying. Seems worth. See, that's it. We just gotta 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:05.720 spend like a whole month in Florida scouting, sitting on 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:09.000 the beach, drinking booze. That's what we gotta do. That's 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.640 the only way it doesn't seem terrible. Hopefully Steve Hicks 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:14.600 to this and can help us. I'll get an air 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:19.760 condition or putting the bus and we can roll that down. Yeah. Yeah, man, Yeah, 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:21.199 you get a lot of a lot of ladies get 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:23.440 on that bus. Like when the bus pulls up and 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:26.000 they see inside, a lot of a lot of young 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:30.880 ladies want to get in there. Are you asking that question? Yeah, 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:35.199 that's a question. No, they don't know. That's not a thing. 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:39.720 It's you know, surprisingly enough, luckily I have a girlfriends. 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:44.520 But it's not exactly. I wouldn't call it a female 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:48.280 magnet um a big green and white school bus. It's 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:51.559 not exact to the opposite. Second, Yeah, I would say 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:54.000 for any regular listeners, I'm feeling a little bit more 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:57.760 free flowing with the verbage today just because I'm drinking beer. 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:00.839 And that's okay. Sam and I are good friends, we're 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:06.960 not just acquaintances, so it's gonna Yeah, we've been in 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:09.440 a few camps together. Yeah, a couple of times, been 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:12.920 here and there. Um, so just this since we already 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:16.120 touched on the bus. For those who don't know, give 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:19.840 us the bus rundown and don't be shotting the details, okay. 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:23.400 Um So, I it's funny. I was, I was thinking 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:26.960 about this before we we hopped on the phone, and 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:29.679 I was trying to figure out like when the bus 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:33.960 idea first originated. And I actually remember telling the first 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:37.079 time you and I that was up in BC with Rogan, 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:39.920 and I remember telling you guys that I was thinking 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:43.240 about buying a bus and that was what was that November? 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:48.280 Yes almost yeah, be four years ago this fall? Yeah, 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:51.720 so um yeah, I remember, like and I think it 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:57.920 was like that's like spring of the the bus idea 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:00.920 had like popped into my and and I was actually, 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:03.600 you know, my brother and I had had talked about, 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:05.640 you know, buying a school bus, and and actually we 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:09.320 had originally talked about doing like a twelve state Turkey 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:12.720 tour in a school bus. So this, you know, like 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:15.920 what we talked about earlier, kind of segways nicely into this. 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:19.880 But um no, I said, it took me a while 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:22.360 to kind of wrapped my hand around actually purchasing long 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:27.480 And it was not this last fall, but the fall 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.040 before I was kind of coming off the hunting season, 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:32.160 and I was just, you know, I had a good year, 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:34.840 and it was had traveled a bunch and shooting photos 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:38.199 and and hunting for myself, and and uh, the bus 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:41.320 idea just hadn't gone away in at that point, I 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:45.240 was like, you know what, I'm turning thirty this year. UM, Like, 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.920 the amount of time in my life where I can 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:51.040 do something like purchase a full size school bus and 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.480 build it out into a camper is It's comminishing quickly. 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:57.800 So I finally I was like, well, I'll just do it. 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:01.080 And if I hay it, well then I know I 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:02.800 hate it. But if I don't do it, I'm always 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:06.120 gonna regret not you know, pulling the triggering doing this 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:10.320 crazy adventure. And it was right after I decided to 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:13.640 find a bus and buy one. UM, I actually called you, 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:16.520 uh to talk to you about an idea that I 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:20.600 had um with the bus project and actually relating it 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:24.760 all to UM public land transfer awareness and trying to 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:26.720 get the word out there, you know, to as many 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:30.040 people as possible about the possibility of losing our public lands, 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:32.640 and uh, you and I kind of spit ball back 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:34.760 and forth on the phone, and like you know, I 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:36.839 got in touch with b H and I have been 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:38.520 working with them and have been working with a few 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:41.800 other UM companies, you know, outdoor Life and those types 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:43.719 of people to to get the word out there. But 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:48.240 ye ha, it all originated the fall of and I 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.120 bought a school bus from Colorado and and turned it 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:55.640 into my rolling hunting camp. And how like when you 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:57.760 see when you get is you bought a Bluebird? What 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:01.480 year was your Bluebird school bus? That? Yeah? So uh 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:04.000 some of the specs on it now so I yeah, 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:10.200 it was the Bluebird U full size, so full size 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:15.680 passenger UM and I bought it four so it's listed 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:17.559 for fifty d And I was able to talk the 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:22.960 guy down to thirty hundred sous I had at that point, 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:27.160 I owned thirty seven ft long. Um. Yeah, so I 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:32.160 owned thirty seven feet of vehicle. Dude. Right now, I'm 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:36.920 I'm on eBay googling used school buses and this is scene. 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:41.800 What's out there. There's a lot, It's amazing, unbelievable. I'm 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:44.000 certainly not I'm not the first person to buy a 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:47.200 school buss and turn it into a camper. No, but 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.080 I am the first one to do it in the 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:54.800 hunting industry and related all to public lands. I'll take that. 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:58.240 It's like a small credit. Here's the guy that wants 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:03.720 dollars or a twenty four pastor like a short bus. Well, 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:09.440 what years it is a four wheel drive? I don't know, man, 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:13.440 it doesn't look like look like something. It's probably just 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:18.080 a year. Yeah, dude, four wheel drive short bus. Come on, man, 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:22.160 like that's another you should you should tow that behind 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:29.160 the bigger bus to deploy an all fer situations. Yeah. Yeah, 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:31.640 I'm gonna get a van, a four wheel drive van 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:37.040 and build that out. Any anyway, continue, you've purchased this bus. 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:41.200 Purchased the bus? Um, I bought in Colorado and actually 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:43.840 parked it. My brother owns a hunting shop in Fort 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:46.080 Collins and he's got a big lot behind his place, 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:48.640 and I bought it and I parked it there for 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:52.240 a while. Um Because, to be honest, I didn't really have, 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:55.600 um any goal other than getting the bus, and then 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:57.840 I was going to figure it out from there. Um. 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:00.040 So I bought it and then I went to a 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:03.800 show and I had, I talked to a bunch of 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:06.960 companies about the project and what I was doing and 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:10.440 um and that's where the like the connection to outdoor 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:12.880 life came from. But it was at this point it 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:14.480 was still just I owned a school bus and that 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:18.560 was it. And yeah, so you know, and in the 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:21.480 time between UM I bought it on New Year's Eave. 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:26.000 In the time between Ben and UM April, I was 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:29.040 just drawing plans and you know, thinking of ideas and 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:32.080 UM not ashamed to say that I've done a lot 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:35.320 of browsing on Pinterest, because apparently everybody else with a 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:38.760 school bus puts all of their stuff on Pinterest, so 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:42.360 there's there's a lot of each oior design ideas. UM, 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:45.120 and I just gotta you know, I kind of tried 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:46.680 to figure out what I wanted it to look like, 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:50.760 and then it at the very end, uh so I 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:54.440 ripped all the seats out in February, uh March I 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:57.000 was traveling for work. And then in April I drove 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:00.240 the bus back to South Dakota, um my, so that 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:02.160 I could park it at their lake place and do 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:05.320 the whole build there. And which worked great for me 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:07.359 because I got to leave it the lake and wake 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:10.200 up and go work on the school bus. But I, um, 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:12.280 at the end of it wasn't until the end of 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.560 May that I finally painted the ceiling and actually got 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:19.960 to work on the interior. Um. So I painted the 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:23.920 ceiling and and then I put down the floor and 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:25.639 see paint the ceiling, put down the floor, and then 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:27.719 I put up all of the framework on the walls, 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:29.639 so then I could put up all of the pine 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:32.560 on the walls and and and bolt everything to the 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:36.320 outside so that way but wouldn't shift around. But I yeah, 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:39.679 I turned it into I took it from yellow school 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:43.639 bus with no seats to mobile hunting camp in uh 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:46.919 I guess nine weeks. Yeah, so you just went you 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:49.000 just had like a did you draw a blueprint and 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:50.840 then went to home depot or did you just kind 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.240 of go? I mean you had a layout right before 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:55.359 you went, and yeah, yeah, I had a layout. So 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:59.240 after UM, so, I painted the ceiling and then I 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:01.159 went in there. I went in there with like just 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:05.119 masking tape and um kind of the measurements of everything 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:07.240 I wanted to put in there. Uh So, like the 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:10.320 queen bed is in the back, so I'm putting masking 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:12.480 tape on the floor where the queen bed was gonna sit. 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:16.600 And then I kind of just roughly like guess like 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:18.760 how much space I would want between that bed and 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:21.639 like the bunk beds, you know, and then I massed 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:23.840 off the bunk beds where those were gonna sit. And 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:26.080 then you know, I just worked my way from the 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:28.480 back to the front um. And so I've got a 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:31.080 queen bed in the back, I've got team sets of 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:33.600 bunk beds um in front of that, so I can 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:37.960 sleep five or six in the bus um and then 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:39.480 in front of the bunk beds and the bunk beds 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:43.000 all open up for tons of storage um, which is nice. 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:45.760 I can keep most of my gear in the bunks 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:48.399 or underneath the queen bed. And then in front of that, 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:52.640 I have on the we'll say on on the starboard 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:56.239 side of the bus. We I have like kitchen, uh 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:59.560 kitchen areas. So I've got cabinets up top um for 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:01.840 all of my cooking stuff or like all you know, 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:05.000 spices and oil and like anything I would need to 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:07.800 cook a meal. And then I've got a kitchen countertop 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:11.040 that I've made out of old barnwood. And then I 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:15.080 apoxed it, and I built built a cabinet that houses 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:18.320 both my battery system and then storage for my um 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:21.800 stoves and pots and pans and all that kind of stuff. 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:25.480 And then on the same side, I've got a little 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:28.639 desk where I throw all of my photo editing video editing. 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:31.520 And then on the side in front of the bunks, 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:34.679 I've got a little room that was intended to be 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:37.000 a bathroom, and I bought a portable toilet for it, 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:39.280 but I have yet to use it. I just it 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:41.320 turned into a just kind of like a little storage 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:44.520 closet and hang a bunch of clothes in there and stuff. 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:48.240 Most of the time, I just use Great Mother Nature 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:53.840 for any outdoor facility needs. And then uh yeah, and 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:56.919 then I've got any space from my appropriate fireplace in 0:19:56.920 --> 0:20:00.399 front of that, and then a couch and yeah that 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:02.960 the inside is great for just like if it's just me, 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:06.600 it's it's a ton of room and um, it's a 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:09.520 great living space. And then any time I've got more people, 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:12.240 I had a custom I custom built the framework, but 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:16.080 then had that cam is sewed for it. I have 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:18.640 a ten by twenty and closed awning that's it's next 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:21.359 to the bus. So all in total, I have a 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:23.720 little over four square feet of space when I have 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:28.560 camps out. Man, Yeah, that's I don't know that how 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.960 in the if I'm have any ingenuity in my body, 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:34.359 but probably not enough to pull that off in the 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:37.760 time that you did, and that I'm hoping you saved 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:41.280 all the instant story material from those from those deals 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:44.280 because that was Yeah, yeah, I've got a lot of 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:48.199 I got a lot of content, um just saved on 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:50.840 the computer and the phone. Are they save it on Instagram? 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:52.640 And then now you can save Instagram stories to your 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:55.480 feed or to your page. Can people go and look 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:59.360 at that the build out on your so not right now? 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:01.720 I could actually go back. Um, I could go back 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:04.719 and add a bunch of stuff, but I'm during what 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:06.919 I'm gonna do is during this Turkey tour or like 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:09.600 this Turkey and I'm doing the next couple of weeks. Um, 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:12.600 I'm going to completely set up camp like everything, and 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:16.120 then I'm gonna do a full walk through tour kind 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:19.280 of my yeah, my entire design and what's in there. 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:21.479 And then once i get that, if you at, I'm 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:23.320 gonna let well and then I'm gonna try to do 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:25.919 it like a live Instagram feed where I can people 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:28.600 that have watched the video can ask questions about any 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:31.400 part of it, the business and so your your general 0:21:32.240 --> 0:21:36.280 advice to folks would be that you need some ingenuity, 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:40.320 a school bus and a ton of time and you 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:44.720 can do it. Yeah, yep, yeah, I mean luckily for me, 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:47.560 as you know, unless I'm on a photo trip, I 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:49.920 don't have you know, there's not all that much going 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:52.639 on in between in between trips, and so I was 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:55.880 able to you know, I'd wake up it whatever seven 0:21:55.920 --> 0:21:58.920 am and make a pot of coffee and send a 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:00.440 couple of unitals if I need two, and that I 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:02.600 would walk outside of the bus and get my home 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:07.840 my table, son skill son minor by the compressor for 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:11.720 my mail gun, and just work until it was duck. Yeah. 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:17.560 I don't even want to add how many hours, like 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:20.800 two things like how many hours I spent inside of 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:22.560 it just building it, and then how many times I 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:25.439 walked in and out of it like just you know, 0:22:25.920 --> 0:22:28.040 go in, measure one thing, go out kind of board, 0:22:28.119 --> 0:22:32.280 go back here, like I mean ten thousand times in 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:35.640 two months. I think the more like the more interesting 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:39.439 part of it is how you have come to have 0:22:39.560 --> 0:22:42.919 that free time, right because a lot of people that 0:22:42.960 --> 0:22:45.560 are listening to this on their way to work or 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:51.480 at work or in a cubicle, and they would love 0:22:51.560 --> 0:22:54.399 and most people would love to have the freedom that 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:57.719 you have, right because it's just tell Polkes what your 0:22:58.119 --> 0:23:02.120 your job is currently and kind of what what that entails. Yeah, 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:05.920 I guess my title would just be, uh, professional photographer 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:10.040 in the hunting industry. Um, I don't know if that's yeah. 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:11.879 I mean, I do a lot of a lot of things, 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:14.280 but yeah, that's that's probably like as general as I 0:23:14.280 --> 0:23:17.280 can as I can get. Um but yeah, I started. 0:23:17.359 --> 0:23:19.400 I mean, it took me a long time for sure 0:23:19.480 --> 0:23:25.280 to get where I'm at. But um I jokingly I 0:23:25.359 --> 0:23:28.760 tell people I retired out of college basically, um but 0:23:28.840 --> 0:23:32.640 I my first job in the industry was I worked, Um, 0:23:32.920 --> 0:23:38.440 I was camerap and um video producer for Midwest Whitetail. 0:23:39.160 --> 0:23:42.879 I was finishing up my uh Masters of Business at 0:23:42.880 --> 0:23:45.000 North Dakota State. UM but I all I had was 0:23:45.000 --> 0:23:47.159 an online class left and so I took an internship 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:51.800 with Midwest white Tail and moved to Albia and spent 0:23:52.920 --> 0:23:57.080 all roughly six months UM in Albia and was either 0:23:57.160 --> 0:24:01.560 hunting or filming twice a day and producing videos. Was 0:24:01.640 --> 0:24:06.679 producing the Michigan and Minnesota like weekly web shows, and 0:24:06.720 --> 0:24:08.639 then I was filming for the main show from Midwest, 0:24:08.640 --> 0:24:11.800 White Tale, and really picked up a lot of my 0:24:12.080 --> 0:24:14.680 you know, video education from from all the guys that 0:24:14.720 --> 0:24:17.840 I was working with now there and then that transition, 0:24:17.880 --> 0:24:20.080 and I moved to Colorado after that, and I was 0:24:20.080 --> 0:24:22.680 helping manage UM. Like I said before, my brother owns 0:24:22.680 --> 0:24:24.760 at that country hunting store, but I was helping manage that. 0:24:25.080 --> 0:24:27.840 UM it's called the Gannett Ridge, and I was producing 0:24:27.920 --> 0:24:32.080 video content for for that shop. And then I moved 0:24:32.119 --> 0:24:35.400 to Montana and the sales are up. Actually I um 0:24:35.720 --> 0:24:39.280 took a job through UH the owner of a rep 0:24:39.359 --> 0:24:42.240 age and see who sold to my brother and UH 0:24:42.440 --> 0:24:44.800 move in Montana. But shortly after that, I had an 0:24:44.840 --> 0:24:47.679 opportunity to move to Alaska and film a couple of 0:24:47.680 --> 0:24:52.000 different national TV shows for the Weather Channel and the 0:24:52.040 --> 0:24:55.520 History Channel, UM Coast Guard Alaska and then The Hunt 0:24:55.560 --> 0:24:57.800 for the History Channel, and I jumped on that, moved 0:24:57.800 --> 0:25:02.080 to Kodiak for about five months so and then from 0:25:02.160 --> 0:25:03.800 that it's just you know, it's from there, it's just 0:25:03.840 --> 0:25:06.080 been all networking stuff. So you know, I meet one 0:25:06.080 --> 0:25:09.080 person on one show, and then that led to History Channel, 0:25:09.080 --> 0:25:12.439 and then that led to me meeting Chris Ellis, who 0:25:12.560 --> 0:25:15.960 you know pretty well. And yeah, and Chris is a 0:25:16.080 --> 0:25:18.240 PR guy for in the industry, and he hired me 0:25:18.280 --> 0:25:23.119 to do my first professional photo shoot, um for Remington's. 0:25:24.200 --> 0:25:26.240 And then through all of those events that you know 0:25:26.280 --> 0:25:28.480 I met, it was actually a Reckington event where I 0:25:28.560 --> 0:25:32.720 met Mike Scobie who then forwarded you my portfolio and 0:25:32.760 --> 0:25:36.840 then hired to go up to b C. So it's um, 0:25:36.880 --> 0:25:39.879 I became a photographer. You know, I feel like I 0:25:39.920 --> 0:25:42.359 have a pretty good eye for photography. But I I 0:25:42.400 --> 0:25:46.080 think I'd became successful in what I do because of 0:25:46.440 --> 0:25:49.800 just networking as much as possible and just meeting you know, 0:25:50.600 --> 0:25:53.840 as many people as I could on every single trip. Yeah, 0:25:53.880 --> 0:25:55.919 I think that's I'm sure that's a huge part of it. 0:25:55.960 --> 0:25:59.800 I mean, but there's some innate need, not to say, 0:26:00.040 --> 0:26:03.000 a desk that I think drives people to fine. I'm 0:26:03.000 --> 0:26:06.640 sure you found like what what's the what's the thing 0:26:06.720 --> 0:26:09.480 that's going to get me free or keep me free? 0:26:09.760 --> 0:26:11.680 And if it was networking, that would have been it. 0:26:11.920 --> 0:26:14.320 You know that that yeah, was it? Or if it's 0:26:14.760 --> 0:26:16.960 I need to be talented in these areas, Yeah, that's 0:26:17.000 --> 0:26:19.720 what you need to do. Yeah. No, I think I 0:26:19.720 --> 0:26:22.320 think forever, you know, up, I think I was. I 0:26:22.359 --> 0:26:25.800 was never destined to be, you know, at a quote 0:26:25.840 --> 0:26:29.960 unquote normal job. I always wanted to, you know, be 0:26:30.080 --> 0:26:33.440 in the outdoors. Um a long time, had a dream 0:26:33.480 --> 0:26:37.080 to be doing something in the hunting industry. And I 0:26:37.080 --> 0:26:39.199 think that the further I went down the past that 0:26:39.240 --> 0:26:43.680 I'm on, the more I realized how how much I 0:26:43.680 --> 0:26:47.120 didn't want to be like, you know, building every day. 0:26:47.280 --> 0:26:50.200 And um, Fortunately for me, I just you know, I 0:26:50.280 --> 0:26:52.720 was was able to keep that going and work my 0:26:52.760 --> 0:26:55.879 ass after where I am now so um, but I can't, 0:26:55.920 --> 0:26:58.960 I mean after doing it for so long and you know, 0:26:59.000 --> 0:27:01.719 and having the type of flexibility that I do, you know, 0:27:01.760 --> 0:27:06.159 and and it'd be I can hardly imagine you know, 0:27:06.280 --> 0:27:08.959 trying to work for a company or works or whoever 0:27:09.040 --> 0:27:11.560 you know, and where I clock in it whatever seven 0:27:11.600 --> 0:27:13.560 am and clock out of five or whatever it might be. 0:27:13.600 --> 0:27:16.760 It that would be really tough for me. You know. 0:27:16.880 --> 0:27:18.680 It might be really good for about six months and 0:27:18.720 --> 0:27:22.520 then be pooped up and pitching to go so right now. 0:27:22.560 --> 0:27:26.280 It only takes me about three days before move on 0:27:26.320 --> 0:27:29.119 to the next adventure. Yeah, I'm with you, man, I 0:27:29.160 --> 0:27:33.600 am tortured by that that balance as they call work 0:27:33.680 --> 0:27:36.720 life balance, but I just call it like life balance. 0:27:37.560 --> 0:27:40.040 Work is work is what you do that interrupts your 0:27:40.080 --> 0:27:45.000 life for sure. Well, I think you know it's as 0:27:45.040 --> 0:27:47.440 cliche as it sounds. I mean, we only get one 0:27:47.520 --> 0:27:51.680 shot at this whole thing. So I know, a long 0:27:51.720 --> 0:27:55.040 time ago I decided, like why, you know, I don't 0:27:55.080 --> 0:27:58.399 want to I don't want to waste my not that 0:27:58.600 --> 0:28:00.320 you know, working is wasting your life, but I just 0:28:00.359 --> 0:28:04.119 wanted to do as many things I would have just 0:28:04.160 --> 0:28:07.440 been completely more out at the end of my event. Yeah, 0:28:07.520 --> 0:28:10.480 and uh, I do that working a normal job for 0:28:10.560 --> 0:28:13.400 me personally was not going to get me there. Yeah. 0:28:13.440 --> 0:28:15.280 I mean that's good. I mean the good advice for 0:28:15.320 --> 0:28:18.280 people that are in that situation or who are are 0:28:18.800 --> 0:28:21.800 realizing that that their path maybe took them in a 0:28:21.840 --> 0:28:23.760 wrong direction, where your path I think took you in 0:28:23.760 --> 0:28:28.320 the right direction for you is that you know you 0:28:28.359 --> 0:28:30.800 can always change that. I mean, there isn't you there 0:28:30.880 --> 0:28:34.160 was no template for you like that, Nobody laid out 0:28:34.240 --> 0:28:36.560 like hey, Sam, if you if you go on this 0:28:36.600 --> 0:28:40.360 moose hunt with Ben and Joe Rogan and and take 0:28:40.400 --> 0:28:44.400 some photos, next thing you know, you'll have a career. 0:28:45.240 --> 0:28:47.400 Or hey, if you you want to shoot some Remington 0:28:47.480 --> 0:28:50.040 photos for some of some guns at a at a 0:28:50.080 --> 0:28:52.600 media event, Yeah, that next thing, you know, you'll be 0:28:52.640 --> 0:28:55.040 hanging out with Joe Rogan. Like, if you reverse the 0:28:55.120 --> 0:28:58.080 steps that led you to where you are, you wouldn't 0:28:58.360 --> 0:29:00.760 at each step you wouldn't believe the other. And that's 0:29:00.760 --> 0:29:04.840 how I am too, not a chiance. Yeah, you wouldn't. 0:29:04.840 --> 0:29:06.920 When you were in that Remington shoot, somebody said, hey, 0:29:06.920 --> 0:29:09.280 the next thing you're gonna do is take photos of 0:29:09.360 --> 0:29:12.440 Joe Rogan for a Peterson's Hunting cover in British Columbia 0:29:12.440 --> 0:29:14.560 and the moose You've been Like, shut up, dude, there's 0:29:15.000 --> 0:29:22.640 no way you're high. Yeah. Absolutely, well we should probably 0:29:22.640 --> 0:29:27.080 talk about that that hunt because you just posted, um yeah, 0:29:27.200 --> 0:29:30.840 this week wasted A couple of days ago. Was that 0:29:30.920 --> 0:29:33.360 it was a three year anniversary when I saw it 0:29:33.440 --> 0:29:36.600 hit the shelf first time? Yeah, so this is yeah, 0:29:37.880 --> 0:29:42.320 it was. I was actually in Arizona leaving a Remington 0:29:43.000 --> 0:29:47.600 New Products seminar media event and um, yeah, I got 0:29:47.640 --> 0:29:49.680 into the airport and there it was on the shelf. 0:29:50.320 --> 0:29:52.720 So this was the whole backstory on this. We kind 0:29:52.720 --> 0:29:55.480 of touched on a lot of it because I think 0:29:55.480 --> 0:29:57.680 it just it just is kind of the thread that 0:29:57.720 --> 0:30:01.560 pulls that that you're eyes relationship, just because it was 0:30:01.640 --> 0:30:04.320 such a great beyond just what it was like that 0:30:04.480 --> 0:30:09.040 the time spent together was so good that I was 0:30:09.160 --> 0:30:11.240 my position at the time. This would have been like 0:30:13.040 --> 0:30:16.920 I was a managing editor at Peterson Shunning magazine and 0:30:17.000 --> 0:30:20.959 we were we had done one issue the year prior 0:30:21.680 --> 0:30:23.880 that was. We called it the meat Eater Edition of 0:30:23.960 --> 0:30:27.240 Peterson Shunning and it was a giant piece of bloody 0:30:27.240 --> 0:30:32.360 meat April would have been April thirteen. A giant piece 0:30:32.400 --> 0:30:35.760 of bloody meat on the end of a knife, and 0:30:35.800 --> 0:30:41.320 there was. It was widely acclaimed and widely criticized. That cover, 0:30:42.120 --> 0:30:47.160 which you know, which is which, yeah, which turns out 0:30:47.200 --> 0:30:50.000 was a good thing, right, you know. And in that conversation, 0:30:50.040 --> 0:30:53.640 Steven Ronella was a big part of that article and 0:30:54.080 --> 0:30:57.680 he said to me, hey, man, I actually I asked 0:30:57.760 --> 0:30:59.560 him who else is is? Do you think it's just 0:30:59.640 --> 0:31:01.400 hunting of the meat or people that you know they 0:31:01.400 --> 0:31:02.760 are kind of new to hunting and are picking it 0:31:02.840 --> 0:31:05.880 up just for meat. And he said Joe Rogan, And 0:31:06.000 --> 0:31:09.920 I said, the guy from Fear Factor. Are you sure 0:31:10.120 --> 0:31:13.719 we're talking about the same guy. Uh. He's like yeah, yeah, man, 0:31:13.760 --> 0:31:15.880 I take him hunting, you know, a few months ago 0:31:16.240 --> 0:31:18.240 and as first time hunting. But he just cares about 0:31:18.280 --> 0:31:19.760 the meat. That's all he wants to do. And I 0:31:19.840 --> 0:31:23.880 was like, well, I'd better call that guy and get 0:31:23.920 --> 0:31:25.520 it and get the low down from So I ended 0:31:25.600 --> 0:31:27.240 up calling him. We talked for a couple of hours 0:31:28.160 --> 0:31:32.959 and he got like a sidebar in that April feature 0:31:33.080 --> 0:31:36.800 article that included Ronnella. But then when we were thinking 0:31:36.800 --> 0:31:40.600 about like what's the April Meat Eater, because we wanted 0:31:40.600 --> 0:31:44.280 it to be an annual thing, what's the April cover 0:31:44.440 --> 0:31:46.200 going to be? My first thought was like, it's got 0:31:46.200 --> 0:31:48.840 to be Rogan, just for who he is, and through 0:31:48.880 --> 0:31:50.160 that time I had got to know him a little 0:31:50.200 --> 0:31:54.000 bit better. And so then we decide we were gonna 0:31:54.040 --> 0:31:56.800 get moose hunting because Joe said that's the most possible 0:31:56.800 --> 0:31:59.560 meat he could get is from a moose, and I agreed. 0:32:00.080 --> 0:32:02.680 We found an outfitter who was my Cockers, who's up 0:32:02.680 --> 0:32:05.200 in Quesnel, British Columbia and then we were at the 0:32:05.320 --> 0:32:07.840 last minute like, man, we need obviously need a photographer. 0:32:08.520 --> 0:32:11.840 A bunch of people weren't able to do it. Um 0:32:12.120 --> 0:32:14.600 and and Scobie came by. I was like, man, I 0:32:14.640 --> 0:32:17.120 met this young guy, this this guy Sam at this 0:32:17.360 --> 0:32:21.520 Remington writers event and he's super talented and he'll go 0:32:21.600 --> 0:32:24.720 with you prom and he'll do a great job. And 0:32:24.760 --> 0:32:26.080 so I think, I don't know if I called you 0:32:26.160 --> 0:32:28.600 or emails you the next thing you know you were 0:32:28.640 --> 0:32:31.200 signed up to come right, Yeah, I think I got 0:32:31.200 --> 0:32:33.800 an email and then you and Scobie both called me 0:32:33.880 --> 0:32:37.320 to wear like a little conference call, and uh yeah. 0:32:37.320 --> 0:32:39.200 I was basically like, hey, can you be in d 0:32:39.320 --> 0:32:41.880 C from November step to the ninth. And I don't 0:32:41.880 --> 0:32:43.760 I don't think you even finished the sentence. I was like, Yep, 0:32:44.840 --> 0:32:50.080 I'll be there. Yep. Sounds good. Perfect. Yeah. Most most hunters, 0:32:50.080 --> 0:32:52.120 when you say come to British columby November, they're like, yeah, 0:32:52.120 --> 0:32:55.360 I can do Yeah, Yep, I can do that. Yep, 0:32:55.640 --> 0:32:58.280 I can make that happen. Yeah. So then we we 0:32:58.360 --> 0:33:00.160 went up there. The first time I met you, first 0:33:00.200 --> 0:33:03.240 time I met Joe in person, um, the first time 0:33:03.280 --> 0:33:05.640 I met Mike Hawkridge in person, and next thing you know, 0:33:05.680 --> 0:33:08.960 we're rolling around and a beat up pickup truck, chasing 0:33:09.400 --> 0:33:13.440 glass and cut blocks for moose and laughing our ass off. 0:33:13.680 --> 0:33:16.120 And that was one of the few times where you 0:33:16.240 --> 0:33:19.280 literally meet people for the first time and the next 0:33:19.280 --> 0:33:20.880 thing you know, you're having the time of your life 0:33:20.880 --> 0:33:22.920 with him. Whether you were hunting or not, I don't 0:33:22.960 --> 0:33:26.080 think it wouldn't matter, No, it would. Yeah, that wasn't 0:33:26.120 --> 0:33:29.120 bounding right trip, and there's you know, I need to 0:33:29.120 --> 0:33:33.000 go on a lot of different trips, and that the 0:33:33.000 --> 0:33:34.920 the feeling. You know, again, the truck in the camp 0:33:35.000 --> 0:33:38.560 is not always just that. Um so that was yeah, 0:33:38.600 --> 0:33:41.840 that was pretty cool. Yeah. So then we and it 0:33:41.920 --> 0:33:47.160 ended up being a hell of a successful trip. Yeah yeah, 0:33:45.920 --> 0:33:50.640 I mean we you know, like it's not the it's 0:33:50.680 --> 0:33:52.160 not the middle of the rut, so we're not you know, 0:33:52.240 --> 0:33:54.520 calling in bold from half mile away or whatever. But 0:33:54.600 --> 0:33:57.160 it was you know, we just spent a lot of 0:33:57.160 --> 0:34:00.720 time going to you know, different places and signing, finding 0:34:00.760 --> 0:34:03.400 any moose and possibly Tod and I think that, you know, 0:34:03.520 --> 0:34:06.800 still one of my favorite memories, not any h was 0:34:06.840 --> 0:34:12.719 when we spotted Joe's moose and not very big. I 0:34:12.760 --> 0:34:17.400 don't care, you know, you know, and then he shoots 0:34:17.400 --> 0:34:19.799 the moose and then we uh, you know, the next 0:34:19.880 --> 0:34:22.239 day we uh you know, I forgot the mute. I'll 0:34:22.239 --> 0:34:23.920 seeing up in there. And then we took that photo. 0:34:24.000 --> 0:34:27.560 And then the next day we go out and you shoot, 0:34:28.640 --> 0:34:32.279 I was right there, just sprinting down the road. Yeah, 0:34:32.440 --> 0:34:36.480 you know, I still have that photo of the moose, like, 0:34:36.680 --> 0:34:41.520 you know, like just like in the background, Joe's just running, Yeah, 0:34:41.719 --> 0:34:43.879 just running. Well that was a whole like, so I'm 0:34:43.880 --> 0:34:45.560 looking at the cover now, I got my years wrong. 0:34:45.640 --> 0:34:48.279 The first cover was April fourteen, the second cover was 0:34:48.320 --> 0:34:51.520 April of fifteen. These things that happen, Yeah, these things 0:34:51.520 --> 0:34:55.960 happen different years, obviously, Um, but yeah, I mean I remember, 0:34:56.440 --> 0:34:58.239 like I look at the cover now, if you look 0:34:58.239 --> 0:35:02.680 at the April May her uh pigeons hunting. I'm sure 0:35:02.719 --> 0:35:06.720 you could just google Joe Rogan Peterson Hunting, you'll see it. Uh. 0:35:06.760 --> 0:35:08.880 It says eat what you killed. Down the left side, 0:35:08.960 --> 0:35:12.000 Joe Rogan celebrates the wild meat movement. Has a bunch 0:35:12.040 --> 0:35:15.520 of other blurbs and stuff around it, but it's just 0:35:15.560 --> 0:35:18.920 a picture of Joe holding the giant moose quarter for 0:35:19.160 --> 0:35:20.880 just I mean, there really is no reason to be 0:35:20.880 --> 0:35:23.040 holding it like that other than to just show people 0:35:23.239 --> 0:35:26.800 this is this is it, bitches, this is what so 0:35:26.800 --> 0:35:29.239 what we do. And I remember we shot a bunt. 0:35:29.239 --> 0:35:30.800 We had a bunch of ideas for how to shoot 0:35:30.800 --> 0:35:32.600 the cover and we we tried those and they just 0:35:32.640 --> 0:35:36.759 didn't quite work. And this, the cover of him holding 0:35:36.800 --> 0:35:39.440 the moose quarter, was kind of an afterthought. And we 0:35:39.440 --> 0:35:42.920 were standing in this weird like kind of dead field 0:35:42.960 --> 0:35:46.040 with not a whole lot going on. Yeah, it was 0:35:46.080 --> 0:35:49.440 almost just like a little, you know whatever, an acre 0:35:49.520 --> 0:35:53.040 of pasture land. And he had enough, you know, there 0:35:53.080 --> 0:35:54.640 was enough of a rise where he was standing on 0:35:54.680 --> 0:35:56.080 the top of the rise and I was able to 0:35:56.120 --> 0:35:58.120 get low enough to get you know, a little bit 0:35:58.120 --> 0:36:00.040 more clear sky or great sky in the back on 0:36:00.239 --> 0:36:03.880 and uh yeah, yeah, because we I don't know how 0:36:03.880 --> 0:36:06.279 many different types of photos we shot. It was a lot, 0:36:07.160 --> 0:36:10.719 but I'm happy with the one that they ended up picking. Yeah. 0:36:10.760 --> 0:36:13.080 I remember in with the art director. I sat in 0:36:13.760 --> 0:36:15.920 he picked that photo and once I saw it in 0:36:15.960 --> 0:36:18.359 the cover, I thought, holy ship, that's gonna be good. 0:36:20.000 --> 0:36:21.759 When I saw and I and the other thing I 0:36:21.800 --> 0:36:25.080 remember is that Joe was bitch in the whole time. 0:36:25.200 --> 0:36:26.759 He didn't want to do it because he wanted to 0:36:26.760 --> 0:36:30.120 go hunt. He wanted me to get moved right like 0:36:30.200 --> 0:36:33.320 you still hit uncut tagging. So he was just chomping 0:36:33.320 --> 0:36:35.319 at the bit, you know. And I mean we didn't 0:36:35.360 --> 0:36:38.400 we didn't spend an overly long amount of time, you know, 0:36:38.520 --> 0:36:40.359 like it was the past few hours that we were, 0:36:40.440 --> 0:36:42.800 you know, playing with different ideas and stuff and sending 0:36:42.880 --> 0:36:45.359 it off whatever. But the whole time he was just 0:36:45.360 --> 0:36:50.520 like any time he had to, you know, pick something up, ever, 0:36:51.280 --> 0:36:53.560 he was just you know, basically his white knuckling it 0:36:53.680 --> 0:36:56.960 wanted to be out there chasing animals and not dealing 0:36:57.000 --> 0:36:59.160 with what do you what we were doing. I think 0:36:59.239 --> 0:37:01.680 later he trust at us though, like once he saw yeah, 0:37:01.719 --> 0:37:03.759 I think he was like, Okay, I get it. But yeah, 0:37:03.760 --> 0:37:06.279 So we we shot this thing and jump in the 0:37:06.320 --> 0:37:08.879 truck and we're driving out to a couple lock where 0:37:08.880 --> 0:37:12.759 he's seen a bull in the days prior to that. 0:37:13.000 --> 0:37:17.719 And come we're driving on the road and two big 0:37:17.760 --> 0:37:20.320 bulls run across a big for that area run across 0:37:20.360 --> 0:37:23.480 the road. So we parked the truck, get out, I 0:37:23.520 --> 0:37:26.320 jump out. I'm shooting a Blazar R eight straight pool 0:37:26.320 --> 0:37:30.000 action rifle. I jump out, getting the bar ditch, get 0:37:30.080 --> 0:37:32.560 up on the side these moves, run around this corner, 0:37:33.640 --> 0:37:36.600 and I shoot him. I just started wailing away. I mean, 0:37:36.600 --> 0:37:38.400 it's the last day or second the last day of 0:37:38.400 --> 0:37:41.160 the hunt, and we have we've liked, and we've classed, 0:37:41.160 --> 0:37:43.080 and like we haven't seen him moves anywhere near the 0:37:43.120 --> 0:37:46.359 size of either one of these bulls. So I'm up 0:37:46.360 --> 0:37:49.120 in this little area above the bar ditch and I shoot, 0:37:49.239 --> 0:37:53.360 hit it, Shoot hit the bull. He's stumbling around and 0:37:53.440 --> 0:37:56.319 I go to reload. He's dead at this point, on 0:37:56.360 --> 0:37:59.400 his feet. And I go to reload and rogue in 0:37:59.480 --> 0:38:04.080 his r and he started running down the road towards 0:38:04.120 --> 0:38:08.640 this bull who was stumbling back and falling around. By 0:38:08.640 --> 0:38:11.000 the time I get the gun back reloaded and back 0:38:11.040 --> 0:38:14.160 to my shoulder, he's halfway to the animal and it's 0:38:14.280 --> 0:38:18.279 just now fallen over and dieing. And and what did 0:38:18.280 --> 0:38:20.560 he say? Like, what do you say afterwards? I just 0:38:20.600 --> 0:38:22.840 wanted to be there when it died, or I wanted 0:38:22.880 --> 0:38:26.480 to see it die, or I can't. He's like he's 0:38:26.520 --> 0:38:31.319 like he's like I don't know, Like he went full 0:38:31.360 --> 0:38:34.800 Forrest gump on us, didn't he He just started for running. 0:38:35.680 --> 0:38:37.600 So we have that photo. Of course you have that 0:38:37.640 --> 0:38:41.759 photo and um and then we have we have that 0:38:41.800 --> 0:38:44.360 photo and then we have the cover photo. But I 0:38:44.400 --> 0:38:46.560 think just that hunt, I mean afterwards, we cut that 0:38:46.600 --> 0:38:49.520 bull up, took it back to camp to care of it, 0:38:50.239 --> 0:38:55.000 and then we went to uh two down in several 0:38:55.040 --> 0:38:59.400 bottles of what was it, spice Box Run, Oh god, 0:38:59.440 --> 0:39:05.200 spice by from Yeah, what a tear. Oh, we're just 0:39:05.239 --> 0:39:07.320 thinking about it. Yeah, no, I'm starting to gag a 0:39:07.400 --> 0:39:10.279 little bit. I'm just thinking about spice Box from now 0:39:10.320 --> 0:39:13.720 the makers. If anybody here works at the Spicebox from factory, 0:39:13.760 --> 0:39:16.640 let's listening to this. It's a fine product. It's just 0:39:16.680 --> 0:39:19.640 you can't drink. You can't drink two leaders of it 0:39:19.719 --> 0:39:23.000 expect to be all right. Yeah, I mean it's absolutely delicious. Yeah, 0:39:23.040 --> 0:39:25.680 it's spicy room. You know, you can't sit there and 0:39:25.680 --> 0:39:28.440 tell stories about the hunt and uh and keep you know, 0:39:28.520 --> 0:39:31.360 drinking glass after glass for several hours. Well, we ate 0:39:31.600 --> 0:39:35.720 we uh Joe was drilling up Moose liver and Moose 0:39:35.800 --> 0:39:39.760 heart and we were over there taking shots and partying 0:39:39.840 --> 0:39:45.400 with with our guide, my Hackage and having a fun party, 0:39:45.719 --> 0:39:48.440 and um just kind of got out of hand a 0:39:48.480 --> 0:39:51.040 little bit and we had a good time though. Yeah. 0:39:51.200 --> 0:39:55.279 And then uh, during like while we were eating and 0:39:55.320 --> 0:39:58.239 cooking and drinking spicebox, but over the UFC event going 0:39:58.280 --> 0:40:01.160 on and Joe of it up and streamed it and 0:40:01.160 --> 0:40:04.000 he was basically commentating for all of us sitting at 0:40:04.000 --> 0:40:08.520 the table. And didn't the road kill beaver show up 0:40:08.560 --> 0:40:15.759 at some point? Yes, yeah, we forgot about that. I 0:40:15.800 --> 0:40:20.239 have a photo of you and Hawker's and a beaver. Now, 0:40:22.280 --> 0:40:24.200 these are the things that happened in the haze of 0:40:24.800 --> 0:40:27.960 Spikes Box room. Like this was kind of the next thing, 0:40:28.000 --> 0:40:30.200 you know, a beaver shows up. There's nothing you can 0:40:30.239 --> 0:40:32.719 do about it. Yeah, Mike just came through the door 0:40:33.000 --> 0:40:35.160 like that. I mean that thing was giant. Yeah, one 0:40:35.160 --> 0:40:39.160 of his buddies that has killed a giant beaver, a 0:40:39.320 --> 0:40:41.360 road killed beaver. Found a beaver on the side of 0:40:41.360 --> 0:40:45.240 the road and they just brought it in. We uh, 0:40:45.400 --> 0:40:46.799 they were cutting it up to eat it and we 0:40:46.960 --> 0:40:51.000 took some pictures with it, which is totally respectful. I 0:40:51.000 --> 0:40:55.440 thought of the animal and it's it's life, you know, 0:40:55.480 --> 0:40:59.080 I think. Uh. We were in Canada though, you know, 0:40:59.160 --> 0:41:02.640 like the never Failed. There's always some weird stuff that happened, 0:41:03.000 --> 0:41:05.279 and there's a lovely country, but there's always going to 0:41:05.320 --> 0:41:08.359 be something strange. Yeah, I love, no doubt love you can, 0:41:08.640 --> 0:41:12.520 but yeah, sometimes you're messed up. Nothing you can do. 0:41:13.080 --> 0:41:15.319 But yeah, I mean, I just think everybody has a 0:41:15.400 --> 0:41:17.160 hunt like that. I think probably in their life. You 0:41:17.200 --> 0:41:20.920 know that that you I didn't know what to expect, 0:41:20.920 --> 0:41:24.279 and then it was it was something where even now 0:41:26.000 --> 0:41:28.120 when that image pops up, I don't really think about 0:41:28.800 --> 0:41:31.440 that cover and what people said about it later or 0:41:32.520 --> 0:41:35.160 anither reaction to it. I just think about the time 0:41:35.200 --> 0:41:38.960 we spent in camp and what that what that kind 0:41:38.960 --> 0:41:41.719 of meant for me. And you know, I also think 0:41:42.280 --> 0:41:45.520 that Joe during that hunt and you were there and 0:41:45.520 --> 0:41:47.040 you were kind of in on the conversation, Joe was like, 0:41:47.080 --> 0:41:50.440 you should start a podcast, Ben. I was like, yeah, well, 0:41:50.480 --> 0:41:52.960 I was like, listen, Rogan, I don't even know what 0:41:53.000 --> 0:41:57.640 that is. It's nobody podcasts. I think, what am I 0:41:57.640 --> 0:42:00.560 going to talk about for hours on end on podcast? 0:42:00.680 --> 0:42:03.160 He said you should do it, man, I'll help you out, 0:42:03.880 --> 0:42:05.600 and I was all fired up. I think I even 0:42:05.600 --> 0:42:08.000 called my dad, So I'm doing a podcast and then 0:42:08.040 --> 0:42:10.319 I just got back to the real world and let 0:42:10.320 --> 0:42:15.080 it go. Well, I think what what happened was, uh, 0:42:15.239 --> 0:42:17.040 we got back and then it was not that long 0:42:17.080 --> 0:42:19.799 after that that you accepted a job with what you're 0:42:19.800 --> 0:42:23.759 doing now. Yeah, you're yeah, so then it just kind 0:42:23.760 --> 0:42:26.839 of put on the back turner just from moving on 0:42:26.880 --> 0:42:30.319 another Yeah, that's true. Yeah, it was. It was yeah, 0:42:30.400 --> 0:42:33.600 maybe say three or four months after that. Then I 0:42:33.800 --> 0:42:36.839 met you at a shot show and I said, Dude, 0:42:36.840 --> 0:42:38.520 I'm I gotta tell you, I'm taking a new gig 0:42:38.560 --> 0:42:40.799 at Yeddi And you were like, well, Ship, yeah, I'm 0:42:40.800 --> 0:42:46.520 taking a gig at Yedi too. Ye that work ed, 0:42:47.400 --> 0:42:51.680 did ye are? But yeah, I mean that that Hunt 0:42:51.680 --> 0:42:55.520 I think changed a lot about the way I thought 0:42:55.520 --> 0:42:56.800 of things. I think it was the first time I 0:42:57.160 --> 0:43:01.279 realized that there could be and elevation and the conversation 0:43:01.360 --> 0:43:05.640 past our bubble. Because even with you as young as 0:43:05.680 --> 0:43:08.600 we both were at the time and still are, you 0:43:08.719 --> 0:43:10.640 kind of get into the industry bubble and you have 0:43:10.719 --> 0:43:13.920 your conversation and you feel like that's what it's always 0:43:13.960 --> 0:43:15.560 going to be, and then you meet somebody like Joe 0:43:15.600 --> 0:43:18.640 Rogan and you elevate the conversation with a with a 0:43:18.719 --> 0:43:22.040 cover like that and the image like that, and next thing, 0:43:22.080 --> 0:43:25.480 you know, you realize, man, we could talk to a 0:43:25.520 --> 0:43:28.520 lot more people. We could we could take this message 0:43:28.520 --> 0:43:33.160 and spread it a lot further than it's currently going. 0:43:33.280 --> 0:43:34.960 And so I think, I don't know about you, but 0:43:35.000 --> 0:43:38.399 for me, that was the first time I realized what 0:43:38.400 --> 0:43:40.960 what it could be. No, And I think in addition 0:43:41.040 --> 0:43:43.440 to that, do to mean if you if you're talking 0:43:43.480 --> 0:43:46.920 about like just eating the animals that you you know 0:43:46.960 --> 0:43:51.759 that you go out and shoot um. Like growing up, 0:43:51.800 --> 0:43:53.960 you know, we allgate whatever we did. We did a 0:43:54.000 --> 0:43:55.640 lot of bird hring when we had a lot of 0:43:55.640 --> 0:43:58.239 peasents and turned a lot of ducks into jerky and 0:43:58.440 --> 0:44:00.400 they do when we talt to do and you know, 0:44:00.400 --> 0:44:02.720 it was always all, you know, really good and tasted 0:44:02.880 --> 0:44:06.719 of it, but it it didn't it never seemed like 0:44:07.760 --> 0:44:10.200 something out of the ordinary because that's just what you did, 0:44:10.480 --> 0:44:13.160 you know, I mean, And once you once you look 0:44:13.200 --> 0:44:15.680 beyond that, you know, like heating it through the lens 0:44:15.760 --> 0:44:18.600 of that cover, and like the controversy that it stirred 0:44:18.680 --> 0:44:21.520 up and and that you know, allowing people to talk 0:44:21.640 --> 0:44:26.439 more about you know, um basically knowing where your food 0:44:26.480 --> 0:44:29.279 comes from and controlling the consumption of your beat that 0:44:29.360 --> 0:44:32.239 type of thing. It, uh it allows you to open 0:44:32.239 --> 0:44:36.640 a mind about what hunting means to society as a whole, 0:44:37.320 --> 0:44:40.040 and then to me it's personally and actually made me 0:44:40.160 --> 0:44:43.680 appreciate while getting me way more than I ever had 0:44:44.680 --> 0:44:46.200 and what that you know, like what that means to 0:44:46.280 --> 0:44:50.280 me in relation to everybody else. Yeah. Actually, that's probably 0:44:50.280 --> 0:44:55.080 the first time that I really, uh man, was able 0:44:55.160 --> 0:44:59.880 to drill down to to how I wanted to go forward, 0:45:00.160 --> 0:45:03.600 you know, how I wanted to talk to people about 0:45:04.600 --> 0:45:08.720 hunting becaus see and Joe, you know, Joe shot the bully. 0:45:08.800 --> 0:45:14.840 Shot was a forked horned forking antlerd H young moose. 0:45:14.960 --> 0:45:17.160 I was a young bull and he shot it off 0:45:17.160 --> 0:45:18.879 the you know, shot it just in the bar ditch 0:45:18.960 --> 0:45:21.759 off the road, much like I did. And so you know, 0:45:21.800 --> 0:45:24.799 if you were if I were to fast forward four 0:45:24.880 --> 0:45:27.279 years and say, what's that the hunting purity score of 0:45:27.320 --> 0:45:29.000 that hunt? I was like, oh, man, when when it 0:45:29.040 --> 0:45:32.280 came down to she came down of the actual hunting, 0:45:32.280 --> 0:45:35.799 it wasn't all that all that great. Um. It was 0:45:35.840 --> 0:45:38.960 a rough time of year, the weather was weird. But 0:45:39.360 --> 0:45:41.360 when you if you take that away and be like, 0:45:41.480 --> 0:45:44.320 we just got each of us got two hundred pounds 0:45:44.320 --> 0:45:49.320 of meat, more probably than that. And I know I 0:45:49.360 --> 0:45:52.959 remember Hawkard's driving that meat down over the border into 0:45:53.120 --> 0:45:57.640 l A to deliver it to Rogue and um, and 0:45:57.760 --> 0:46:00.520 I remember how excited he was to shoot this fork 0:46:00.640 --> 0:46:04.880 antlerd you know, moose and what it meant him to 0:46:04.920 --> 0:46:07.279 cut it up. And it was like, wow, Okay, here's 0:46:07.320 --> 0:46:10.960 somebody who's forty some forty five years old, never hunting before, 0:46:11.000 --> 0:46:13.720 and doesn't give two ships whether it's a fork, a antler, 0:46:14.160 --> 0:46:17.960 or it's a moose. And I don't know if that 0:46:18.040 --> 0:46:19.799 was the first time I've been around somebody like that, 0:46:19.840 --> 0:46:22.840 but it was the first time I was impacted that 0:46:22.840 --> 0:46:26.759 that's seriously by that idea. Yeah, no, I would. I 0:46:26.760 --> 0:46:28.360 would definitely agree with that. I mean because of you 0:46:28.400 --> 0:46:30.880 and I both grew up in hunting families, and so 0:46:31.840 --> 0:46:34.040 when you're breaking down an animal, it's like it's not 0:46:34.160 --> 0:46:37.600 this brand new experience. Um. Really, I mean like when 0:46:37.640 --> 0:46:40.640 you're a kid, it's a new experience. But your dad 0:46:40.719 --> 0:46:42.600 or your older brother or your uncle or whoever takes 0:46:42.640 --> 0:46:44.880 you out hunting, like has done it however many times, 0:46:44.880 --> 0:46:47.399 and so you know, they don't make like a big 0:46:47.440 --> 0:46:49.920 deal out of it. But to watch somebody who you know, 0:46:50.040 --> 0:46:53.000 got to from start to finish, you know, shot the animals, 0:46:53.040 --> 0:46:55.440 skin the animal cut of apart like you know, and 0:46:55.520 --> 0:46:57.640 Mike was kind of walking through it like the different 0:46:57.800 --> 0:47:00.239 you know, sections to start cutting out, and it was Yeah, 0:47:00.280 --> 0:47:05.920 it was really cool to be part of that whole experience. Yeah, yeah, 0:47:06.160 --> 0:47:08.279 it changes you a little bit. That that changed me. 0:47:08.320 --> 0:47:10.759 I don't know. I wrote even this week when you 0:47:10.800 --> 0:47:13.200 posted that, Hey, it's been whatever three or fourty years 0:47:13.239 --> 0:47:15.560 since that happened, and I look back at that now. 0:47:16.040 --> 0:47:18.879 I'm glad it happened the way it did. I could 0:47:18.880 --> 0:47:21.680 have never guessed that that would have been. How would 0:47:21.680 --> 0:47:23.480 I would have all went down? But it sure did, 0:47:23.680 --> 0:47:28.240 and I'm glad it did. That's yeah, Yeah, I wanted 0:47:28.280 --> 0:47:34.400 to go ahead. Yeah, on that trip, I was starting 0:47:34.400 --> 0:47:36.080 to get a little bit nervous because it was getting 0:47:36.160 --> 0:47:38.200 later in the weeks before we ended up knocking the 0:47:38.239 --> 0:47:41.359 first moose down, and uh, but I'm yeah, I'm glad 0:47:41.360 --> 0:47:44.960 it all panned out the way it ended up. Yeah, No, 0:47:45.120 --> 0:47:48.839 it did. And then I will I've got that the room. 0:47:48.840 --> 0:47:50.839 I'm sitting there now here with the bar h'm I've 0:47:50.880 --> 0:47:53.600 got that cover hanging on the wall. So it's something 0:47:53.640 --> 0:47:57.480 that I personally think means a lot, and hopefully it 0:47:57.480 --> 0:47:59.799 meant a lot to the you know, I certainly got 0:47:59.840 --> 0:48:01.839 a lot of compliments at the time, even more so 0:48:01.960 --> 0:48:06.960 later as as times going on. But um, yeah, I 0:48:06.960 --> 0:48:08.839 think it's seminal in the way that I see things. 0:48:09.800 --> 0:48:12.160 The other thing I wrote down that I wanted to 0:48:12.160 --> 0:48:13.960 talk to you about because I think maybe you'll have 0:48:14.000 --> 0:48:16.520 some similar experiences to me or will be able to 0:48:16.560 --> 0:48:20.080 share some stuff is when public lands has been a 0:48:20.120 --> 0:48:22.839 big part of what you've been doing recently, right with 0:48:23.120 --> 0:48:25.960 the bus and just just how you grew up in 0:48:26.360 --> 0:48:29.400 a big part of who you are. When what was 0:48:29.440 --> 0:48:31.920 the first time you realize what public lands were like, 0:48:31.960 --> 0:48:33.719 what they meant to the country, what they mean to 0:48:33.840 --> 0:48:35.560 use the hunter? What was the first time you feel 0:48:35.600 --> 0:48:38.799 like you really had true perspective on public lands? You know, 0:48:38.880 --> 0:48:42.000 I mean slightly embarrassingly like I probably didn't think about 0:48:42.000 --> 0:48:47.760 it enough until until there was a possibility of them 0:48:48.200 --> 0:48:51.680 be like losing them. Um, you know, I mean it 0:48:51.760 --> 0:48:53.840 was always something that was just there, and so I 0:48:53.840 --> 0:48:57.720 think it's it's definitely something that I took for granted. Um, 0:48:57.800 --> 0:48:59.879 you know, I mean, growing up in South Dakota, there's 0:49:00.200 --> 0:49:03.400 definitely some public land, but it's nothing compared to the West. 0:49:04.400 --> 0:49:07.840 I think, you know, once I once I moved west, 0:49:07.880 --> 0:49:10.360 you know, and and Montana resident. Now I think it 0:49:10.480 --> 0:49:13.160 definitely opened my eyes too. You know, you look at 0:49:13.160 --> 0:49:14.840 the you know, you look at the atlas or the 0:49:14.840 --> 0:49:16.680 map or Onyx maps or whatever it might be in 0:49:17.640 --> 0:49:20.359 um Whereas back home it was you know, you've got 0:49:20.840 --> 0:49:23.920 whatever maybe a half section or or a full section 0:49:23.960 --> 0:49:27.600 of public and different spots um. Whereas you know in 0:49:27.640 --> 0:49:30.239 Montana you've got, however, many millions of acres and when 0:49:30.280 --> 0:49:33.279 you can park at one trailhead and you can just like, 0:49:33.440 --> 0:49:34.680 all right, I don't need to look at the map 0:49:34.680 --> 0:49:37.160 anymore unless I need to. Don't figure out where I'm going, 0:49:37.239 --> 0:49:38.920 like I just know I'm going to be on public land. 0:49:38.960 --> 0:49:41.840 I think that was definitely a an eye opening experience. 0:49:42.040 --> 0:49:44.000 You know, the fact that you can not only walk 0:49:44.120 --> 0:49:45.839 to that ridge, but you can walk to the ridge 0:49:45.840 --> 0:49:47.920 after that, and the ridge after that ridge after that, 0:49:48.719 --> 0:49:53.040 and you just you know, continue chasing animals. UM as 0:49:53.040 --> 0:49:56.040 far as your legs will carry you, um, but it 0:49:56.800 --> 0:49:59.880 should be perfectly honest. It wasn't until it was par 0:50:00.120 --> 0:50:04.880 of the platform to possibly transfer lands to the states, 0:50:04.920 --> 0:50:07.359 which for a lot of people out there that might 0:50:07.360 --> 0:50:11.640 not know if um is a cute way to package 0:50:11.640 --> 0:50:14.880 it up um and sell it to the general public. 0:50:14.960 --> 0:50:18.560 But as we've seen through history, a lot of the 0:50:18.600 --> 0:50:22.680 states that are given you know, land and it's managed 0:50:22.680 --> 0:50:24.480 by the states, a lot of times that ends up 0:50:24.480 --> 0:50:28.239 getting sold off. And uh so I think once I 0:50:28.280 --> 0:50:31.520 saw the possibility of you know, stuff being transferred, stuff 0:50:31.520 --> 0:50:34.400 being sold or you know, like land swaps of different stuff, 0:50:34.440 --> 0:50:37.400 I think it's it really opened my eyes to the 0:50:37.520 --> 0:50:41.120 opportunity that I've had in my life time to you know, 0:50:41.239 --> 0:50:46.400 spend and have experiences that have molded me into the 0:50:46.400 --> 0:50:50.279 person I am. UM. To have something like that go 0:50:50.360 --> 0:50:53.160 away for future generations was you know, kind of hit 0:50:53.200 --> 0:50:57.360 me pretty hard, for sure. And I think that was 0:50:58.160 --> 0:51:01.279 it was my exact same experience because that and that 0:51:01.360 --> 0:51:04.120 was my guessing of what your answer would be, because 0:51:04.160 --> 0:51:06.920 I think a lot of people I grew up on 0:51:07.000 --> 0:51:09.879 the East Coast in Maryland and we hunted Green Ridge 0:51:09.880 --> 0:51:12.480 State Forest like was our backyard, and we never I 0:51:12.719 --> 0:51:14.719 my dad never said hey, son, do you realize what 0:51:14.719 --> 0:51:16.880 we're doing right now? You realize what this land is, 0:51:17.400 --> 0:51:20.680 You realize what, who who it belongs to, and why 0:51:20.680 --> 0:51:24.160 it's important. It was just never much like everything growing up, 0:51:24.160 --> 0:51:27.120 it was just never a topic because it was the 0:51:27.160 --> 0:51:29.279 thing that you did, and there was never any need 0:51:29.360 --> 0:51:31.799 to explain it because it wasn't in peril and there 0:51:31.840 --> 0:51:34.120 wasn't There wasn't like, hey, you need to know this 0:51:34.160 --> 0:51:36.040 because you might lose it. It It was this is ours, 0:51:36.080 --> 0:51:39.880 it will always be ours, and this experience will be 0:51:39.920 --> 0:51:43.000 in perpetuity. And then when you start to get a 0:51:43.000 --> 0:51:44.920 little bit older and you see that maybe that's not 0:51:45.000 --> 0:51:48.520 the case, you start to want to learn and defend 0:51:48.560 --> 0:51:52.040 the thing that you grew up with as a reality 0:51:52.080 --> 0:51:55.120 of your life and just something that was always there 0:51:55.120 --> 0:51:58.640 for you, something that you probably needn't didn't even know 0:51:58.719 --> 0:52:03.799 you needed at some level. And so you so you 0:52:03.960 --> 0:52:05.960 learn a little bit more about public lands, probably through 0:52:06.000 --> 0:52:08.920 ross mosis, but also probably because it was important to you. 0:52:09.760 --> 0:52:14.279 Why why does then the you you know, flip the 0:52:14.320 --> 0:52:18.480 switch to activism as you have well, I don't know, 0:52:18.520 --> 0:52:23.840 I just um, it's you know, I growing up, you 0:52:23.880 --> 0:52:26.080 know I was a Ducks and Limited member, and I 0:52:26.160 --> 0:52:30.240 was Rocky mountin Al Foundation member, and you know, different 0:52:30.280 --> 0:52:33.399 conservation organizations. But it was you know, all of that, 0:52:33.600 --> 0:52:35.359 and there's nothing wrong with this, but all of that 0:52:35.520 --> 0:52:38.200 was more so about like you get the magazine and 0:52:38.239 --> 0:52:40.120 you go to the banquets and you you know, you 0:52:40.160 --> 0:52:42.319 hang out with other people that hunted that kind of thing. 0:52:42.360 --> 0:52:47.400 But I never you know, volunteered for creek clean up 0:52:47.520 --> 0:52:51.040 or nesting site clean up or fence removal or you know, 0:52:51.120 --> 0:52:54.120 whatever that was. And so I think there was probably 0:52:54.120 --> 0:52:56.160 a little bit of guilt there where I have been 0:52:56.640 --> 0:52:59.839 growing up in a in a country where I can 0:52:59.840 --> 0:53:01.959 go out and hunt, hunt, hunt, and I was never 0:53:02.000 --> 0:53:06.040 doing anything to give back. And so I think as 0:53:06.080 --> 0:53:09.719 the sportsman me like, I just looked at, you know, 0:53:09.800 --> 0:53:12.480 the voice that, even being a small voice that I 0:53:12.600 --> 0:53:15.799 have um in the hunting industry, and I just thought 0:53:15.800 --> 0:53:17.680 it felt like it was my duty as a sportsman 0:53:17.760 --> 0:53:20.320 to try to do what I can personally to protect 0:53:20.320 --> 0:53:25.600 that for future future generation. And so it was, you know, 0:53:25.680 --> 0:53:30.960 once that switch flipped, it was go time. And I 0:53:31.000 --> 0:53:32.759 was like, all right, I guess it's time to just 0:53:33.040 --> 0:53:35.279 talk about this and tell as many people and get 0:53:35.320 --> 0:53:38.800 involved and raise money, and um, you know, do whatever, 0:53:38.920 --> 0:53:43.160 do my part too, you know, have this be something 0:53:43.200 --> 0:53:46.320 that is an opportunity for anybody who not just people 0:53:46.320 --> 0:53:48.279 who are hunting now, but someone who might want to 0:53:48.280 --> 0:53:51.080 get into it, or you know, if I have kids, 0:53:51.120 --> 0:53:54.160 my kids and their kids, and you know, it's just 0:53:54.239 --> 0:53:56.080 it would be hard for me to live in a 0:53:56.080 --> 0:53:58.759 country where people can't grow up and have the same 0:53:58.920 --> 0:54:05.160 opportunity that I have right now. It's good for the soul. 0:54:05.239 --> 0:54:07.359 I don't know what else there is to say about it. 0:54:07.440 --> 0:54:12.600 I think without those wild places, there's no release. Um. 0:54:12.719 --> 0:54:14.759 And I think we, you know, we start to change 0:54:14.760 --> 0:54:17.759 as a society. Yeah, I mean I think, Um, I 0:54:17.800 --> 0:54:23.080 live in a country called Texas, and uh, it doesn't 0:54:23.120 --> 0:54:27.000 have the same ah doesn't have the same freedoms as 0:54:27.800 --> 0:54:30.319 the West has. I mean there's in Man. Before this, 0:54:30.360 --> 0:54:32.160 I lived in Illinois and it's the same way. So 0:54:32.160 --> 0:54:34.440 it's not it's not exclusive to Texas. I think are 0:54:35.200 --> 0:54:38.160 our idea of public lands and and the freedom to 0:54:38.280 --> 0:54:43.880 explore is decidedly a Western idea And that's probably for 0:54:43.920 --> 0:54:46.560 a lot of reasons want but mostly because a lot 0:54:46.600 --> 0:54:48.239 of that land is wilderness and a lot of that 0:54:48.360 --> 0:54:53.240 land can't be turned into a profit center, unlike Texas 0:54:53.280 --> 0:54:56.160 or Illinois might be able to with farm land and 0:54:56.160 --> 0:55:00.680 and um extractions. So yeah, I think that idea, Uh, 0:55:00.800 --> 0:55:03.840 it's kind of permeated in me and been been instilled 0:55:03.840 --> 0:55:06.360 in me over the last three or four years, maybe 0:55:06.400 --> 0:55:08.640 maybe five years, to the point where you know, I 0:55:08.640 --> 0:55:11.200 went from a twenty five year old person who loved 0:55:11.200 --> 0:55:14.080 to hunt and enjoyed, as you said, the same kind 0:55:14.080 --> 0:55:19.000 of banquet idea and the idea that my tag money 0:55:19.000 --> 0:55:23.440 went back to conservation to a person who's now early 0:55:23.560 --> 0:55:27.440 thirties who feels like there's a mission at hand, and 0:55:27.480 --> 0:55:30.160 if we don't all serve that mission, then to ten 0:55:30.200 --> 0:55:32.040 twenty years from now, we'll be sitting around and wishing 0:55:32.080 --> 0:55:37.719 we did. Right. Yeah, you feel like there's a generation 0:55:37.760 --> 0:55:41.279 gap there. My dad definitely always says to me, says 0:55:42.800 --> 0:55:45.840 he's proud of our generation for stepping up as we 0:55:45.920 --> 0:55:49.120 have because there's a need to step up. And I 0:55:49.160 --> 0:55:52.280 don't know that that the previous generation felt that need, 0:55:52.480 --> 0:55:57.759 and maybe there wasn't as pressing an environment. Yeah, I 0:55:57.760 --> 0:55:59.799 don't think it was as pressing for you know, like 0:56:00.120 --> 0:56:04.279 father's generation, simply because the generation before them had put 0:56:04.280 --> 0:56:08.040 into you know, the Pittman Robertson acting and I never 0:56:08.040 --> 0:56:10.840 remember what it's called on the fishing side, but a 0:56:10.920 --> 0:56:14.840 similar the what is it Dingle Johnson, which makes me giggle, 0:56:14.920 --> 0:56:19.920 Dingle Johnson, I'm a child, which is a fairly unfortunate name. 0:56:20.080 --> 0:56:25.160 But um no, I mean the previous generation had enacted 0:56:25.200 --> 0:56:29.480 both of those bills where you know, it was it 0:56:29.600 --> 0:56:32.600 was a huge stepping stone to you know, to to 0:56:32.760 --> 0:56:36.000 bring back the funding the conservation. And I think because 0:56:36.280 --> 0:56:40.520 like our father's generation was so huge, um, you know, 0:56:40.640 --> 0:56:42.799 in in hunting and fishing. I mean there were so 0:56:42.840 --> 0:56:46.359 many of them doing it that I think like their 0:56:46.520 --> 0:56:52.920 contribution simply from hunting licenses, fishing licenses, uh, conservation banquets, 0:56:52.920 --> 0:56:56.840 that type of thing is way bigger than anything that 0:56:56.880 --> 0:56:59.880 our generation is doing now because there are you know, 0:57:00.040 --> 0:57:03.919 there's the baby boomer generation is ten years from being 0:57:03.960 --> 0:57:09.520 done hunting and the you know that's of the current 0:57:09.560 --> 0:57:13.080 license holders, and there's there's nobody that's coming up to 0:57:13.160 --> 0:57:16.200 fill that gap. So I think it's our generation needs 0:57:16.240 --> 0:57:19.360 to do more. Um, Buying a hunting license is not enough. 0:57:19.400 --> 0:57:21.400 I mean it's great, Don't get me wrong. Like, I 0:57:21.400 --> 0:57:25.240 think anybody who has a hunter safety card, even if 0:57:25.240 --> 0:57:26.520 you're not going to help, to go out and buy 0:57:26.520 --> 0:57:29.360 a hunting license every year because it's a contribution to 0:57:29.400 --> 0:57:32.360 conservation and managing herds and managing land and that type 0:57:32.400 --> 0:57:36.520 of thing. But no, I think our generation definitely sees 0:57:36.600 --> 0:57:40.200 the need to take action and not just go hunt 0:57:40.280 --> 0:57:42.920 because it's not enough. Yeah, I mean it's it's hunting 0:57:43.000 --> 0:57:46.440 really peaked in the early eighties, and you looked at 0:57:46.480 --> 0:57:49.320 like when it really started to rise, it was it 0:57:49.400 --> 0:57:52.000 was post World War one, post World War two, and 0:57:52.000 --> 0:57:53.480 when a lot of people were coming back from the 0:57:53.480 --> 0:57:57.280 war and they had idle time, and technologies were starting 0:57:57.320 --> 0:58:00.320 to advance that allowed them to get for they're out 0:58:00.320 --> 0:58:02.880 into the wilderness and allow them to you know, even 0:58:02.920 --> 0:58:05.720 in the turn of the century talk about refrigeration and 0:58:05.880 --> 0:58:09.120 railways and just easier ways for people to get out 0:58:09.160 --> 0:58:12.640 and experienced hunting and they come back and enjoy the 0:58:12.680 --> 0:58:15.040 meat and it just enjoy the experience. And that I mean, 0:58:15.120 --> 0:58:20.040 I think that is where modern sport hunting came to be, 0:58:20.040 --> 0:58:22.720 because you know, people have hunted on this continent for 0:58:22.800 --> 0:58:25.840 many hundreds of years, as long as we've been on it. 0:58:25.880 --> 0:58:29.280 There's been hunting, but modern sport hunting right in the 0:58:30.320 --> 0:58:32.400 came to its peak in the early eighties as a 0:58:32.440 --> 0:58:34.720 part of our dad's generation, right, I mean that there 0:58:34.840 --> 0:58:40.600 was something like seventeen or eighteen million people purchase license 0:58:41.560 --> 0:58:44.640 um or worse, seventeen or eighteen million hunters or something 0:58:44.680 --> 0:58:46.960 like that, and that's kind of the peak. And I 0:58:47.000 --> 0:58:49.040 think that was the peak of our you know, around 0:58:49.080 --> 0:58:50.959 the time we would have been born, but also around 0:58:51.000 --> 0:58:54.640 the time when our fathers were in their prime. So yeah, 0:58:54.720 --> 0:58:58.720 ship man, they were part of the prime um in 0:58:58.760 --> 0:59:02.440 the history of modern sport and whatever. You know that 0:59:02.440 --> 0:59:05.840 it's been around. Yeah, And you know what's interesting about 0:59:05.840 --> 0:59:08.160 that to me though, is it was the prime for 0:59:08.320 --> 0:59:11.000 number of hunters, but it was nowhere close to the 0:59:11.040 --> 0:59:14.480 prime as far as number of species go, because like 0:59:14.880 --> 0:59:18.480 population numbers, Yeah, I mean I grew up waterfall hunting, 0:59:18.640 --> 0:59:21.800 and um, like the war fall numbers are the best 0:59:21.840 --> 0:59:25.120 they've ever been, and there's you know, like there's a 0:59:25.200 --> 0:59:27.720 less than half of the number of hunters there are 0:59:27.920 --> 0:59:31.240 that that we're in like the late nineteen seventies and 0:59:31.280 --> 0:59:35.520 there's like triple the birds or whatever the number is. UM. 0:59:35.560 --> 0:59:37.400 So it's kind of crazy man. It's it's been a 0:59:37.400 --> 0:59:41.880 strange shift, you know, away from uh, you know, people 0:59:42.000 --> 0:59:45.560 going away from hunting, and I think it's hunting isn't easy. 0:59:45.760 --> 0:59:49.400 It's not a you know, it's not a it's you know, 0:59:49.480 --> 0:59:53.560 in an age where instant gratification is you know, something 0:59:53.560 --> 0:59:59.240 that a lot of people seek, Hunting is not that. Yeah. No, 0:59:59.760 --> 1:00:02.760 I always describe it very much as like the the 1:00:02.800 --> 1:00:05.919 idea of I'd like to go hunting, and actually going 1:00:06.000 --> 1:00:09.400 hunting and being proficient is like walking a tighter across 1:00:09.400 --> 1:00:12.880 the Grand Canyon. I mean, there's no there's no way 1:00:12.920 --> 1:00:17.160 to separate the idea from the reality and how far 1:00:17.240 --> 1:00:19.960 it is from from just somebody who may listen to 1:00:20.000 --> 1:00:23.360 this or who may just think independently from this, I'd 1:00:23.360 --> 1:00:26.560 love to go hunting and then trying to find um 1:00:28.040 --> 1:00:32.400 that access that skill, the idea, you know, to to 1:00:32.520 --> 1:00:35.200 process all the ideas that go with killing another living 1:00:35.240 --> 1:00:38.080 thing and then and then going back and doing it 1:00:38.120 --> 1:00:41.600 again and again and again. I mean, all those things 1:00:41.640 --> 1:00:45.720 are are tough to do, and I think our our generation, 1:00:46.320 --> 1:00:48.760 unfortunately unfortunately whatever gets to do them in the public 1:00:48.800 --> 1:00:52.240 eye because we choose to through social media, um, through 1:00:52.280 --> 1:00:55.479 media and you and I are in a business where 1:00:55.520 --> 1:00:58.480 we both profit off of hunting in a lot of 1:00:58.520 --> 1:01:03.160 different ways, and uh, let's just change things, yeah, you know, 1:01:03.200 --> 1:01:05.840 and and kind of touching like adding to that, I 1:01:05.840 --> 1:01:08.480 think one thing we've done bad as an industry as 1:01:08.520 --> 1:01:11.320 a whole um. You know, we don't have we need 1:01:11.360 --> 1:01:14.120 a PR agent. The industry does. But the one thing 1:01:14.160 --> 1:01:15.920 we've I think we've done a bad job of is 1:01:16.080 --> 1:01:19.520 we we put so much emphasis on you know, white 1:01:19.520 --> 1:01:21.800 tailed deer hunting and elk hunting and mule their hunting 1:01:22.360 --> 1:01:25.760 and chasing all of these it's incredibly hard to hunt 1:01:25.880 --> 1:01:31.439 big game species, whereas like our fathers would have, Yeah, 1:01:31.480 --> 1:01:34.160 they deer hunt, but they also rabbit hunt, and they 1:01:34.200 --> 1:01:36.640 pheasant hunt, and they duck hunt, and they squirrel hunt, 1:01:37.080 --> 1:01:39.680 and they you know, they do a lot of other 1:01:39.800 --> 1:01:42.880 types of hunting and small game hunting. Where people now 1:01:43.040 --> 1:01:46.320 say they're thinking about getting into the sport and the 1:01:46.360 --> 1:01:49.960 person that they look up to, say is Joe Rogan, right, 1:01:50.440 --> 1:01:52.480 and like Joe Rogan got him into hunting. And then 1:01:52.520 --> 1:01:54.080 they go out and buy all the gear, and then 1:01:54.080 --> 1:01:56.280 they go out in the mountains and they get their 1:01:56.360 --> 1:02:00.400 asses absolutely kicked, and then they never go out again. 1:02:02.040 --> 1:02:06.680 Instead of starting with pheasant hunting or duck hunting or whatever, 1:02:06.800 --> 1:02:08.520 and you you know, you start with small game and 1:02:08.560 --> 1:02:13.480 you go out, you enjoy, simply enjoy the experience, and 1:02:13.600 --> 1:02:16.080 you might shoot a bird or two or rabbit or two, 1:02:16.760 --> 1:02:19.280 and it's it's it's all about everything else, you know, 1:02:19.320 --> 1:02:21.919 instead of focusing on a big game animal. I think 1:02:22.640 --> 1:02:24.440 I think that's made it really hard for people to 1:02:24.480 --> 1:02:28.240 get into it. Because the ultimate achievement, right, I mean 1:02:28.400 --> 1:02:31.120 killing with the bow, it should be the ultimate thing. 1:02:31.160 --> 1:02:33.480 I mean that should be something you work towards for 1:02:33.520 --> 1:02:35.880 your entire life, not something you walk up the mountain 1:02:35.880 --> 1:02:39.800 and do in a weekend. Yeah. And if if, if 1:02:39.840 --> 1:02:41.800 you've never hunted before, and you go out and you 1:02:41.840 --> 1:02:43.480 buy a bow and all the clothing whatever, and you 1:02:43.560 --> 1:02:46.400 drive out to Montan and you walk into the mountains, 1:02:46.560 --> 1:02:50.760 like is it's going to be mentally challenging. And when 1:02:50.760 --> 1:02:53.200 you don't shoot something, you're like, I just spent almost 1:02:53.200 --> 1:02:58.000 a thousand dollars on a tag. I spent clothing and 1:02:58.000 --> 1:03:00.000 a bow and all this stuff and fuel out here 1:03:00.040 --> 1:03:01.800 from all that, you know, I dropped ten grand to 1:03:01.800 --> 1:03:05.360 get into this, and then I didn't succeed in if 1:03:05.400 --> 1:03:07.480 you know, if success is killing an animal so that 1:03:07.800 --> 1:03:10.480 you know person's mentality. But it almost has to be, 1:03:10.600 --> 1:03:13.160 especially if you start pushing like we've done in the past, 1:03:13.240 --> 1:03:15.960 like meat is the meat is the goal, and well, 1:03:16.000 --> 1:03:18.240 of course killing something is the goal, because that's the 1:03:18.240 --> 1:03:21.080 only way that happened. There is no other way. I 1:03:21.200 --> 1:03:24.120 met a guy um two couple of days ago and 1:03:24.240 --> 1:03:26.480 here in Austin, and if you don't mind, I want 1:03:26.480 --> 1:03:28.680 to read I'm pulling it up now is when you're 1:03:28.680 --> 1:03:32.640 talking about this. This guy sent an email in to 1:03:32.760 --> 1:03:36.240 me through the Hunting Collective dot com, had listened to 1:03:36.280 --> 1:03:38.560 the podcast a few times, send an email in and 1:03:38.600 --> 1:03:40.400 then I actually got the medium a couple of days ago. 1:03:40.480 --> 1:03:44.920 But this guy's name was Daniel Porter, and he wrote 1:03:45.000 --> 1:03:48.360 and he said, Ben, I'm not a hunter yet. I 1:03:48.400 --> 1:03:50.800 grew up in a fairly liberal household in Washington, EC. 1:03:51.880 --> 1:03:54.000 Not only was I not connected with the hunting industry 1:03:54.040 --> 1:03:56.560 in any way, but in the middle of a concrete jungle, 1:03:56.800 --> 1:03:59.760 there's very little opportunity to do so in any way. 1:04:00.040 --> 1:04:02.400 And I also did not want to express my interest 1:04:02.960 --> 1:04:05.360 out of fear that I would be judged by my 1:04:05.440 --> 1:04:08.480 interest in guns. A year ago, I started listening to 1:04:08.560 --> 1:04:11.560 Joe Rogan. Through that podcast, I became familiar with John Dudley, 1:04:11.600 --> 1:04:14.280 Cam Haynes, Remmy Warren, Steve Ronilla, and a host of 1:04:14.280 --> 1:04:17.440 other individuals and companies that promote hunting. And then I 1:04:17.520 --> 1:04:19.760 heard you on the Gritty Bowman podcast, and it opened 1:04:19.760 --> 1:04:21.880 my eyes. Here was a guy with as simply a 1:04:21.920 --> 1:04:24.720 complex philosophy that I had been waiting for. The thought 1:04:24.760 --> 1:04:27.160 of killing an animal still bothers me, and I'm a 1:04:27.200 --> 1:04:29.560 forty four year old man. However, the idea that I 1:04:29.560 --> 1:04:33.040 could love animals still take one's life never occurred to 1:04:33.040 --> 1:04:36.320 me until I listen to what you and others had 1:04:36.360 --> 1:04:39.360 to say. It is a dichotomy that is truly, truly confusing, 1:04:39.520 --> 1:04:41.880 and yet one that I am desperately wishing to be 1:04:41.920 --> 1:04:44.600 immersed in. I have a twelve year old son, and 1:04:44.600 --> 1:04:46.320 I very much wanted him to be involved at hunting 1:04:46.520 --> 1:04:48.280 and to be aware of the history and how he 1:04:48.400 --> 1:04:51.640 got here in the first place as a species. We're 1:04:51.640 --> 1:04:54.480 going to go Haavelina hunting later this year so that 1:04:54.560 --> 1:04:56.800 we can both experience this together for the first time. 1:04:57.520 --> 1:05:01.480 And he goes on to say, a bunch of other stuff. Um. 1:05:01.520 --> 1:05:04.480 And I got to meet that guy, Daniel Porter the 1:05:04.480 --> 1:05:06.400 other day and we sat and talked for a long time, 1:05:06.560 --> 1:05:11.000 and he had um even the what you were just saying, Sam, Like, 1:05:11.240 --> 1:05:13.720 isn't that guy the archetype of what we were just 1:05:13.720 --> 1:05:16.720 talking about. I mean, listens to Joe Rogan, picks it up, 1:05:16.920 --> 1:05:19.880 wants to do it, and now has this great challenge 1:05:19.880 --> 1:05:22.640 of how the hell do I pull this off? Right? 1:05:23.880 --> 1:05:26.880 So he we talked about his biggest problem in Texas, 1:05:27.000 --> 1:05:29.880 living in Austin, Texas was access. So him and I 1:05:29.960 --> 1:05:32.360 talked through that for about an hour and I kind 1:05:32.360 --> 1:05:34.120 of gave him a bunch of ideas what access could 1:05:34.160 --> 1:05:36.720 be and then have you emailed with him and give 1:05:36.760 --> 1:05:38.720 him some ideas about where he might be able to go. 1:05:38.920 --> 1:05:42.000 But but he's trying to walk across that tightrope that 1:05:42.080 --> 1:05:45.320 is the Grand Canyon to get to the other side, um, 1:05:45.320 --> 1:05:48.520 which I find super interesting. I hope to follow this 1:05:48.920 --> 1:05:51.080 how followed Daniel and see how he gets gets it 1:05:51.120 --> 1:05:55.520 done because it's not easy. Yeah, And that's I mean, 1:05:55.560 --> 1:05:59.600 that's honestly, that's like a mini documentary in itself is 1:05:59.640 --> 1:06:02.200 follow to someone you know of that age who has 1:06:02.240 --> 1:06:05.560 never done it. Before and uh, you know, and followed 1:06:05.600 --> 1:06:09.520 their journey like into the sport. I think that would 1:06:09.520 --> 1:06:12.040 be super interesting to a lot of people who you know, 1:06:12.400 --> 1:06:14.720 may be on the fence about how they feel about 1:06:14.800 --> 1:06:17.840 hunting in general. Yeah, and I think I mean, we 1:06:17.840 --> 1:06:20.440 we know now as we start to do studies and 1:06:20.480 --> 1:06:23.480 look around as with that the baby boom or population 1:06:23.520 --> 1:06:28.520 that you mentioned, we know now that recruitment among or 1:06:28.520 --> 1:06:32.400 retention more of retention among young hunters who are introduced 1:06:32.520 --> 1:06:36.680 at the early age is much less effective than it 1:06:36.840 --> 1:06:42.280 is if somebody starts in their thirties. Now, because they started, 1:06:42.360 --> 1:06:44.440 they start just like you and I did, with very 1:06:44.440 --> 1:06:47.640 little understanding of like the the overall impact culturally and 1:06:48.040 --> 1:06:51.800 in our society. Then they get they turn eighteen, and 1:06:51.880 --> 1:06:54.160 they get a girlfriend, and they go to college, and 1:06:54.200 --> 1:06:57.120 they forget about hunting and a lot of them never 1:06:57.160 --> 1:06:59.680 go back to it. But if somebody starts in their thirties, 1:07:00.120 --> 1:07:02.040 when they have a child who they want to show 1:07:02.920 --> 1:07:06.840 um and they learn about it, it sticks because they 1:07:06.960 --> 1:07:09.720 they're already they're able to have the finances and the 1:07:09.760 --> 1:07:14.240 mental capacity to handle the damn thing and do it. Yep, yep. 1:07:15.800 --> 1:07:18.680 So then the real trick is how do we reach 1:07:18.760 --> 1:07:22.400 those people and how do we you know, cultivate that 1:07:22.600 --> 1:07:27.160 and get more of those people involved that If anybody 1:07:27.200 --> 1:07:31.160 has to answer that question, I have no idea, but 1:07:31.200 --> 1:07:33.200 I think there like so if you look at that 1:07:33.240 --> 1:07:36.360 thirty because I'm glad you brought that up. There's a 1:07:36.400 --> 1:07:38.919 great article. I'm trying to find it now. It's called 1:07:39.920 --> 1:07:42.160 there It is why we suck at recruiting new hunters, 1:07:42.160 --> 1:07:43.880 why it matters, and how it can fix it was 1:07:43.920 --> 1:07:49.080 written by Natalie Cribs in Outdoor Life recently here in 1:07:49.160 --> 1:07:52.440 Lasson in January, and she talks about a lot of 1:07:52.440 --> 1:07:55.320 stuff in this, but most I think, most importantly is 1:07:55.360 --> 1:07:58.160 if you take that thirty percent that's fifty five and older, 1:07:58.200 --> 1:08:01.600 that's a baby boomer, and you eliminate them from situation, 1:08:02.120 --> 1:08:04.760 we're kind of screwed. In fact, we're not kind of 1:08:05.120 --> 1:08:08.560 we're screwed when we're out of it. Where we went 1:08:08.600 --> 1:08:12.920 from seventeen million, hundred two to possibly and you know, 1:08:14.720 --> 1:08:20.080 six million or less. Yum. But I said, you know, 1:08:20.120 --> 1:08:24.559 and and and once they're done, I don't think continuing. Well, 1:08:25.200 --> 1:08:27.360 I like the phone the phone podcast. You get to 1:08:27.360 --> 1:08:30.479 do this, like you go, no, I'll go um. What 1:08:30.560 --> 1:08:32.360 I would say to that is, he's just like if 1:08:32.640 --> 1:08:36.000 somebody like Daniel so Daniels forty four and he and 1:08:36.120 --> 1:08:39.680 he listened to Joe and then found this podcast and 1:08:39.720 --> 1:08:43.200 other voices of people that have have helped him. But 1:08:43.280 --> 1:08:46.719 if he teaches his son, who's twelve, the new way, right, 1:08:46.800 --> 1:08:51.400 which isn't how we were taught, but is it's very um, 1:08:52.320 --> 1:08:56.719 I think very just understanding of the complexity of hunting 1:08:56.800 --> 1:09:00.480 and how it plays out in our society and urbanization 1:09:00.640 --> 1:09:03.040 and kind of the conversation that needs to happen for 1:09:03.560 --> 1:09:07.559 everyone to understand hunting. If that guy teaches his twelve 1:09:07.640 --> 1:09:11.160 year old son and you can get a hundred thousand 1:09:11.439 --> 1:09:15.040 or a million Daniels to teach their son, well then 1:09:15.080 --> 1:09:17.519 you have not only a new crop of hunters that 1:09:17.560 --> 1:09:20.880 are sub fifty five years of age, but then even 1:09:21.200 --> 1:09:25.000 a newer crop of hunters that are you know, youth 1:09:25.080 --> 1:09:28.800 hunters that are learning a new way. I think that's 1:09:28.800 --> 1:09:32.880 probably important overall. Yeah, I feel like that's probably the 1:09:32.920 --> 1:09:37.760 avenue we need to go down. Yeah, you know, quote 1:09:37.800 --> 1:09:40.240 unquote saved the hunting industry because I mean, once we 1:09:40.320 --> 1:09:43.200 you know, once we lose those hunting is not older 1:09:43.280 --> 1:09:47.080 hunting is not gone. Um, but our voice, you know, 1:09:47.200 --> 1:09:52.200 in any sort of policy making is is that's tough. Yeah. Yeah, 1:09:52.360 --> 1:09:54.840 well you and I are both early thirties, so you 1:09:56.280 --> 1:10:00.240 we're kind of in that gap generation. That's that's kind 1:10:00.240 --> 1:10:02.880 of wondering what happened before us and what will happen 1:10:02.880 --> 1:10:05.120 in the future. I mean, there just isn't there's no 1:10:05.200 --> 1:10:09.000 answer to why either one happened the way it did. Yeah, 1:10:09.560 --> 1:10:12.360 And uh so this is a kind of a different thought. 1:10:12.439 --> 1:10:14.679 But and you correct me if if you think I'm wrong. 1:10:14.720 --> 1:10:18.960 But I feel like there's there's less hunters now for sure. 1:10:19.000 --> 1:10:21.760 I mean that's in the math, but the hunters that 1:10:21.760 --> 1:10:25.080 are out there, I think through social media and through 1:10:25.360 --> 1:10:29.200 you know, watching people who hunt hard, I think that 1:10:29.520 --> 1:10:33.880 the people that are out there in the field are Um. 1:10:34.040 --> 1:10:37.000 Even though there's less hunters, if you go hunt public land, 1:10:37.240 --> 1:10:40.439 it feels like there's more hunter presence now more than 1:10:40.479 --> 1:10:44.240 ever because the mentality is like I gotta walk five 1:10:44.280 --> 1:10:47.600 miles in whereas it used to you know, whereas it 1:10:47.640 --> 1:10:50.040 used to be like I'm gonna go hunt, but you know, 1:10:51.000 --> 1:10:54.920 mile too off the road, Like that's good enough. Um, 1:10:54.960 --> 1:10:56.760 And I think, you know, I've seen it in a 1:10:56.760 --> 1:10:59.479 lot of places where I've been where there's not that 1:10:59.520 --> 1:11:01.599 many people hunting, but you end not bumping into people 1:11:01.600 --> 1:11:03.960 because they have the same mentality as as I do. 1:11:04.040 --> 1:11:07.080 Were I'm just gonna walk until I'm pretty sure I'm 1:11:07.080 --> 1:11:10.280 not going to see anybody, and then you know we're 1:11:10.280 --> 1:11:16.120 all sitting there on the same knob. Yeah, we're five 1:11:16.120 --> 1:11:18.120 miles in. I used to do it. I did that 1:11:18.160 --> 1:11:19.880 as a kid. I try to bawl the further I 1:11:19.920 --> 1:11:23.200 walked him. I'd run into like the highway and I'd 1:11:23.240 --> 1:11:26.640 be people and once I didn't seen anybody for the 1:11:26.640 --> 1:11:29.160 five miles I walked in. But yeah, I think we 1:11:29.200 --> 1:11:30.599 need to I think we need to recruit a new 1:11:30.640 --> 1:11:33.280 generation of road hunters. Yeah. New generation hunters are like 1:11:33.320 --> 1:11:35.320 the spook stuff into the core of the wilderness where 1:11:35.360 --> 1:11:38.679 we or we're waiting. Yeah. I would like to buy 1:11:38.680 --> 1:11:40.320 the license, but don't like to do all the work. 1:11:40.360 --> 1:11:42.200 They don't care about that. Pivot rarmers and tax I'll 1:11:42.240 --> 1:11:45.479 buy seven guns, that's fine, that's right. Yeah, fun this 1:11:45.640 --> 1:11:49.320 bit y. Yeah, I wonder I wonder how that'll how 1:11:49.360 --> 1:11:51.040 that'll all break down. I mean, it's going to take 1:11:51.040 --> 1:11:55.160 some decades for this all the shake loose and it's 1:11:55.200 --> 1:11:58.160 hard to talk about. It was just a bunch of numbers. Um. 1:11:58.600 --> 1:12:00.519 Natalie did a good job in that Outfore Life article 1:12:00.520 --> 1:12:02.960 of trying to break it down. But but it just 1:12:03.040 --> 1:12:04.600 it's gonna have to shake out. I mean, there was 1:12:04.640 --> 1:12:10.680 no way. There was nobody in you know, prognosticating what 1:12:10.720 --> 1:12:14.280 it would be. There's just no way. There's no way 1:12:14.360 --> 1:12:18.160 to know. And I guess my overall where I always 1:12:18.240 --> 1:12:21.960 stop when this line of line of conversation goes on 1:12:23.560 --> 1:12:27.759 is that I think urbanization is going to be hunting's 1:12:27.800 --> 1:12:30.280 biggest tool in the future, just because people are going 1:12:30.320 --> 1:12:32.000 to be living in these cities and they're gonna have 1:12:32.080 --> 1:12:36.040 this need to go outside and do something to connect 1:12:36.040 --> 1:12:38.040 them to nature, and then hunting is going to be 1:12:38.040 --> 1:12:39.960 They're waiting for him and they're like, oh this they 1:12:40.040 --> 1:12:42.519 do it one time, they're holy ship, this is awesome. 1:12:42.920 --> 1:12:47.240 Next thing. You know, I would agree with that. Well, 1:12:47.240 --> 1:12:50.559 shall see, we shall see what's next for the bus man. 1:12:52.160 --> 1:12:54.559 So the bus uh, I think it'll be a big 1:12:54.640 --> 1:12:58.160 year for the bus Um. Like I said before, I 1:12:58.280 --> 1:13:00.240 kicking it off with some turkey hunting and stuf Off 1:13:00.960 --> 1:13:03.120 rolling it out driving out to Boise for the b 1:13:03.320 --> 1:13:06.519 h A Rendezvous, and it's gonna be parked at um 1:13:06.520 --> 1:13:08.559 if anybody else is going out there that's listening to this, 1:13:08.960 --> 1:13:10.960 the bus is gonna be parked all weekend at White 1:13:11.000 --> 1:13:13.240 Dog Brewing, which is only about a block and a 1:13:13.280 --> 1:13:17.160 half away from the Boise Center. And I'm gonna trying 1:13:17.160 --> 1:13:20.559 to plan some event for Saturday, um with the bus 1:13:20.560 --> 1:13:22.960 and kind of be out there and given tours or whatever. 1:13:23.040 --> 1:13:25.560 But um, yeah, so going to the going to the rendezvous, 1:13:25.720 --> 1:13:30.639 and then UM, I'm gonna focus down. My original plan 1:13:30.720 --> 1:13:32.599 was to just live in the bus for a year, 1:13:33.360 --> 1:13:35.800 and uh, it turned I did that all last fall. 1:13:35.800 --> 1:13:38.800 It turns out I can't get anything done. I shoot 1:13:38.840 --> 1:13:40.400 a lot of photos and video, and I have all 1:13:40.439 --> 1:13:43.479 this great content, and but I don't have any time 1:13:43.520 --> 1:13:46.240 to sit down and and get it all, you know, 1:13:46.360 --> 1:13:48.360 get it out to the everybody who wants to see it. 1:13:48.439 --> 1:13:50.800 So I'm gonna focus down a little bit this year 1:13:50.880 --> 1:13:53.480 and doing one or two big trips a month. Um, 1:13:53.560 --> 1:13:56.160 so you know, spring Turkey gonna do some stuff. And 1:13:56.400 --> 1:13:59.360 Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota, a bunch of 1:13:59.360 --> 1:14:02.840 other publicly turkey hunting here and there. But um, going 1:14:02.840 --> 1:14:05.640 into the summer. In June, I'm doing a trip up 1:14:05.640 --> 1:14:08.200 to the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota. I'm gonna be 1:14:08.200 --> 1:14:11.280 doing talking a lot about the potential mind site up 1:14:11.320 --> 1:14:13.439 there and kind of what that means and and that 1:14:13.479 --> 1:14:18.360 whole wilderness area. And then uh, July, trying to work 1:14:18.360 --> 1:14:21.280 out some sort of you know, backpacking trip or something 1:14:21.320 --> 1:14:25.120 out on the National Forest and out west somewhere and um. 1:14:25.160 --> 1:14:27.559 But yeah, but basically gonna focus down one or two 1:14:27.600 --> 1:14:31.200 big trips a month and really you know, kick out 1:14:31.240 --> 1:14:33.360 a lot of content for people and and talk about 1:14:33.680 --> 1:14:37.360 talk more about public lands and and how they relate 1:14:37.400 --> 1:14:41.360 to private land and how we need both. And um, 1:14:41.400 --> 1:14:44.839 it's h Yeah, I'm gonna be doing a lot of traveling, 1:14:44.840 --> 1:14:48.120 a lot of photo and video stuff and obviously rolling 1:14:48.120 --> 1:14:51.479 into hunting season, it's gonna be it's gonna be busy, 1:14:51.600 --> 1:14:54.680 So it'll be It'll be a good year. I have 1:14:54.720 --> 1:14:56.920 no doubt about that. Do you are you realizing that 1:14:57.000 --> 1:14:59.720 I was just looking around on Instagram and uh, Instagram 1:14:59.720 --> 1:15:06.639 has that Joe Rogan cover on your page? Sensitive content? Yeah? 1:15:06.680 --> 1:15:09.040 I didn't. I wasn't able to see that, but I've 1:15:09.080 --> 1:15:11.519 had I don't know. People comment that that it was 1:15:11.680 --> 1:15:14.640 sensitive content, so man, I don't know. I mean it 1:15:14.720 --> 1:15:18.040 must be. Somebody must flag the post um, you know. 1:15:18.080 --> 1:15:21.120 It's like I had one person put a pretty negative 1:15:21.160 --> 1:15:23.360 comment on there, and so I deleted the comment because 1:15:23.400 --> 1:15:27.000 nobody needs that. And I'm assuming that they flagged it, 1:15:27.160 --> 1:15:31.759 you know, for whatever says this photo contains sensitive content 1:15:31.840 --> 1:15:36.519 which people may find offensive or disturbing. Just people in general, 1:15:36.600 --> 1:15:40.800 not certain types of people. But all right, yeah, which 1:15:40.840 --> 1:15:43.680 is pretty funny because it's literally just meat. It's a 1:15:43.720 --> 1:15:48.080 picture of meat. Man doing anything but holding a picture 1:15:48.120 --> 1:15:50.960 of meat. No, it's not like you know, it's not 1:15:51.000 --> 1:15:52.680 like Joe is holding it up like you're eating the 1:15:52.720 --> 1:15:57.760 giant turkey leg or something, which would be he's not 1:15:56.280 --> 1:16:02.280 even there. Yeah, oh god, this could be. We could 1:16:02.280 --> 1:16:04.360 go down and rat and all with this conversation. Holy 1:16:04.479 --> 1:16:07.040 sh it, I can't believe that photo is now sensitive 1:16:07.080 --> 1:16:12.439 content on the Internet. Anybody listens to this check my 1:16:12.520 --> 1:16:14.400 page because I can't. I guess you can't see if 1:16:14.400 --> 1:16:18.720 it's your own ships sensitive content. But yeah, it's nice 1:16:18.760 --> 1:16:20.160 to say. I think you and I post a lot 1:16:20.160 --> 1:16:24.680 of sensitive content. Yeah, a lot. Well that's good. I 1:16:24.760 --> 1:16:26.120 like to be in that, but which is fine. I 1:16:26.120 --> 1:16:28.120 think it made a lot more people look at it 1:16:28.200 --> 1:16:32.439 because you know, people want what they can't have, and 1:16:32.439 --> 1:16:34.200 they're like, I want to see what that is. Isn't 1:16:34.200 --> 1:16:36.880 that the funny part about that they think they're protecting people, 1:16:36.880 --> 1:16:38.960 but really that people are just drawn to whatever it 1:16:39.040 --> 1:16:42.439 is that they can't see. Yeah. Yeah, in this case 1:16:43.360 --> 1:16:48.240 Joseph Joe holding a moose leg. Only God damn moose leg. 1:16:49.400 --> 1:16:53.960 Yeah well yeah, good back to the bus. Um. I 1:16:53.960 --> 1:16:55.840 think I just personally appreciate what you're doing, and I 1:16:55.840 --> 1:16:59.240 think it's important in any effort to shine the light 1:16:59.280 --> 1:17:03.519 on you know, b h A or trc P or 1:17:03.640 --> 1:17:08.759 just just any piece of knowledge that folks can gain 1:17:09.280 --> 1:17:11.720 about these these subjects is important. I mean, I will 1:17:12.280 --> 1:17:14.559 you know, and all honestly, I'm a board member for 1:17:14.720 --> 1:17:17.800 b h A, but I don't. I think that just 1:17:17.880 --> 1:17:21.080 makes me more my my sense is a little more 1:17:21.120 --> 1:17:23.519 heightened when it comes to the public land discussion. Um. 1:17:23.560 --> 1:17:25.840 But I think it's important for people too. And you've 1:17:25.880 --> 1:17:29.080 done You've done a great job, especially with stuff in 1:17:29.120 --> 1:17:31.679 South Dakota you've been doing recently, and then Boundary Waters 1:17:32.120 --> 1:17:35.120 of just pushing people to get educated. You know, you 1:17:35.160 --> 1:17:39.559 can talk all day about how important it is and 1:17:39.600 --> 1:17:43.400 get all real fluffy about America and America the ideals 1:17:43.439 --> 1:17:46.160 and what public things mean. That's that's great. Anybody can 1:17:46.200 --> 1:17:49.760 fucking do that. Anybody can say that. Well, what but 1:17:49.880 --> 1:17:52.280 people can't say is let's educate you in the lane 1:17:52.320 --> 1:17:54.760 of Water Conservation Act, or let's educate you on the 1:17:54.800 --> 1:17:56.960 mind they're proposing for the boundary waters and what that 1:17:57.040 --> 1:17:59.439 really is and what that could mean for the future. 1:17:59.520 --> 1:18:02.760 I think those things are important. So I'm glad you're 1:18:03.080 --> 1:18:06.920 you're busting it making it happen. Yeah, you know, and 1:18:07.600 --> 1:18:10.840 you know, everything's of all right with ideas and whatever. 1:18:10.960 --> 1:18:13.040 My original idea with the bus was to travel all 1:18:13.040 --> 1:18:15.920 over the country and you know, go to different chunks 1:18:15.960 --> 1:18:19.040 and and then I realized that I I don't have 1:18:19.120 --> 1:18:21.599 to travel that far to tell the same story because 1:18:21.600 --> 1:18:24.320 it's you know, like I just want people to be 1:18:24.400 --> 1:18:27.479 able to relate to me and like what I'm doing 1:18:27.520 --> 1:18:29.960 and what I'm talking about with wherever they live. I mean, 1:18:30.000 --> 1:18:33.080 I don't have to go to you know whatever, I 1:18:33.120 --> 1:18:35.439 don't have to go to Utah to talk about, you know, 1:18:35.439 --> 1:18:37.320 how important public land is. I can you know, I 1:18:37.320 --> 1:18:40.320 can go hunt my old haunts or explore some new 1:18:40.320 --> 1:18:43.400 places and and do the you know, tell the same message. Um. 1:18:43.439 --> 1:18:45.320 The one hunt that I'm pretty excited about this fall. 1:18:45.400 --> 1:18:49.800 I just found out that I drew ah my North 1:18:49.840 --> 1:18:53.320 Dakota any Deer archery tag, which is fairly tough to draw, 1:18:54.200 --> 1:18:55.680 and so I'm gonna go chase mule deer with a 1:18:55.720 --> 1:18:58.479 buddy of mine who lives in North Dakota. Um. But 1:18:58.560 --> 1:19:02.519 I'm pretty pumped up that because that entire like a 1:19:02.520 --> 1:19:05.000 lot of the western part western edge of North Dakota 1:19:05.160 --> 1:19:09.679 is National grassland, but it's also home to the Bachan 1:19:09.720 --> 1:19:14.479 oil field, and it has been like the extraction and 1:19:14.520 --> 1:19:16.759 the roads and the wells and all of that stuff 1:19:16.800 --> 1:19:19.960 that's been built on there. I'm I'm excited to show what, 1:19:21.120 --> 1:19:24.439 you know, a national like a federally owned place that 1:19:24.560 --> 1:19:27.479 has been turned into oil extraction. It's going to look 1:19:27.520 --> 1:19:30.960 like or can look like. And you know, one of 1:19:31.000 --> 1:19:35.439 the places in the country that molded Teddy Roosevelts like 1:19:35.640 --> 1:19:38.679 view of land was the bad Lands in North Dakota. 1:19:39.240 --> 1:19:41.679 And so you know, I want to show a bunch 1:19:41.720 --> 1:19:44.400 of you know, video footage and photography of that area 1:19:44.520 --> 1:19:47.840 this year, and you know, you can, like if you 1:19:47.880 --> 1:19:49.840 remove all those roads and all those wells, you can 1:19:49.880 --> 1:19:51.320 kind of get an idea of what it would have 1:19:51.360 --> 1:19:54.479 looked like with none of that infrastructure in there. So 1:19:54.760 --> 1:19:57.160 that's you know, I think I think doing projects like 1:19:57.200 --> 1:20:01.280 that means more than like just instantly cruising around in 1:20:01.320 --> 1:20:05.559 the in the bus going hey, I'm you know, I'm 1:20:05.600 --> 1:20:07.840 in as I want to. I want to do things 1:20:07.840 --> 1:20:10.120 that are a little bit more meaningful. Well good, Yeah, 1:20:10.160 --> 1:20:11.920 I think those things are all important. And it's that 1:20:12.520 --> 1:20:16.280 you know, I've found recently, especially when like the Land 1:20:16.280 --> 1:20:19.240 and Water Conservation Act is up for for funding or 1:20:19.560 --> 1:20:23.880 up for defunding moreover um and people have started to 1:20:23.920 --> 1:20:26.200 talk about it. Well, I can guarantee there's a whole 1:20:26.240 --> 1:20:28.439 generation of people that have no idea what that is. 1:20:28.960 --> 1:20:32.240 And so you start to get this general idea about 1:20:32.280 --> 1:20:35.280 what that fund is and where it comes from, but 1:20:35.400 --> 1:20:37.719 you don't really see it in action, right you never, 1:20:37.800 --> 1:20:40.680 nobody ever does delivers you a tangible example of what 1:20:40.800 --> 1:20:43.800 that money from that fund goes towards or where it 1:20:43.840 --> 1:20:48.200 comes from, or you know, the whole process. IM same 1:20:48.240 --> 1:20:52.000 with Pittman Robertson, the same with with your tags and 1:20:52.080 --> 1:20:55.519 license fees. There's no, you don't buy the license, and 1:20:55.560 --> 1:20:57.240 then in the book it doesn't tell you where the 1:20:57.280 --> 1:20:59.800 money goes. H At least as far as I know, 1:21:00.040 --> 1:21:03.280 I've never seen that. No, you don't buy the rifle, 1:21:03.320 --> 1:21:06.880 and it doesn't tell you what where that tax went. Um, 1:21:07.000 --> 1:21:09.679 so I hope you know, things like what you're doing 1:21:09.680 --> 1:21:13.160 are just specific examples that people can use to give 1:21:13.360 --> 1:21:17.120 a tangible meaning to these ideas that were thrown around 1:21:17.120 --> 1:21:21.120 all the time. Yeah, yeah, bravo. And then you also 1:21:21.160 --> 1:21:25.920 have public land Tease. Yeah yeah, yep, so started a 1:21:25.960 --> 1:21:28.000 T shirt company to kind of kind of in conjunction 1:21:28.040 --> 1:21:30.920 with the bus project but um yeah, public land Tease 1:21:31.040 --> 1:21:36.080 dot com and five dollars from every shirt goes to 1:21:36.240 --> 1:21:39.320 back country hunters and anglers. And the reason, you know, 1:21:39.360 --> 1:21:41.320 a lot of people wonder why I chose d h A, 1:21:41.400 --> 1:21:44.639 And the reason I chose h A was because right 1:21:44.680 --> 1:21:47.840 now they have the large, like what I feel is 1:21:47.880 --> 1:21:51.280 the largest voice talking to both people that hunt and 1:21:51.360 --> 1:21:54.240 people that fish. And to be able to cross that 1:21:54.400 --> 1:21:56.600 line is a is a big deal for me. And 1:21:56.920 --> 1:21:59.080 to be able to raise money for an organization that 1:21:59.240 --> 1:22:02.160 is has a huge voice on in both of those 1:22:02.200 --> 1:22:05.400 communities is a big deal. So but yeah, public plan 1:22:05.800 --> 1:22:08.639 dot com and I do have some news and it's 1:22:08.680 --> 1:22:10.639 coming out soon. I just need to get them mocks 1:22:10.720 --> 1:22:13.240 up on the um on the digital signment and get 1:22:13.280 --> 1:22:15.080 them on the website. So a pre sale good. I'm 1:22:15.120 --> 1:22:18.080 sure they'll be sensitive content. I'm sure they'll be probably 1:22:18.360 --> 1:22:22.559 very sensitively. Yeah, well, good man. Well, I just want 1:22:22.560 --> 1:22:24.360 to have you on the talk. I know we talk 1:22:24.479 --> 1:22:27.080 all the time. We'll be hunting a bunch this year, 1:22:27.080 --> 1:22:30.320 probably together. I'm sure we can't see not do that, 1:22:30.479 --> 1:22:34.360 which which I um, what we really need to figure 1:22:34.360 --> 1:22:36.040 out is how to get to it on the bus 1:22:36.160 --> 1:22:38.760 at some point this year. Well, that shouldn't be hard, 1:22:39.200 --> 1:22:42.200 like um no, it will be. Well, I'll probably let's 1:22:42.240 --> 1:22:44.280 just say this, if you have an event at the Rondeby, 1:22:44.360 --> 1:22:47.000 I'll be on the bus. I'll probably be the drunk 1:22:47.040 --> 1:22:51.439 guy in the back sleeping on the queen bed. I'll 1:22:51.479 --> 1:22:53.840 be sure to lock up all of my valuable thing. Yeah, 1:22:53.880 --> 1:22:57.679 please please, But yeah, I mean I just think that 1:22:58.040 --> 1:23:02.280 as somebody who's relatively to most people a young man, 1:23:02.560 --> 1:23:04.800 and he's the same for yourself, Like, we've got a 1:23:04.840 --> 1:23:06.920 lot of years in this thing together, and it's good 1:23:06.960 --> 1:23:09.320 to know there's guys like you out there that care 1:23:09.320 --> 1:23:11.479 about the right stuff and they're doing the right stuff. 1:23:11.720 --> 1:23:14.519 And I'll close by saying thanks, buddy, I really appreciate 1:23:14.560 --> 1:23:18.480 all you're doing. Yeah, thanks for having me on beautiful 1:23:18.640 --> 1:23:24.400 talk to you man. Yeah, for sure, that's it episode 1:23:24.439 --> 1:23:28.840 number eight in the books. Appreciate Sam joining me talking 1:23:28.840 --> 1:23:32.320 about all things public lands, all things hunting. Same and 1:23:32.360 --> 1:23:34.080 I have a lot of stories to tell when it 1:23:34.120 --> 1:23:37.000 comes to big adventures. We've done a lot of them, 1:23:37.120 --> 1:23:40.519 and I appreciate always having Sam along. And uh, I 1:23:40.560 --> 1:23:45.200 always compare that guy too. If I he's my Johnnie, 1:23:45.439 --> 1:23:47.719 if I was Steve Ornell, he'd be my Joanna's pateel 1:23:47.800 --> 1:23:52.280 Us And all compliments to everybody involved in that analogy. 1:23:52.680 --> 1:23:55.759 I really enjoy Sam. He's a great dude. So hopefully 1:23:55.840 --> 1:23:59.720 that in conversation was enlightening for you guys. Thanks for 1:23:59.800 --> 1:24:02.920 check going us out. Go to the Hunting Collective dot 1:24:02.960 --> 1:24:06.400 com for more of this type of conversation. You can 1:24:06.400 --> 1:24:09.120 hear from Steve Ornella. You can hear from Ryan Callahan, 1:24:09.280 --> 1:24:13.560 John Dudley, Charles Post. You can hear from Shane Mahoney, 1:24:13.880 --> 1:24:18.400 Aubrey Marcus, anybody that we've had in the first seven 1:24:18.400 --> 1:24:20.840 episodes prior to this one is there at the Hunting 1:24:20.840 --> 1:24:25.240 Collective dot com. They're also on iTunes and Stitcher. You 1:24:25.280 --> 1:24:27.960 can also read articles and watch videos things that I've 1:24:27.960 --> 1:24:31.120 been involved in, not only on the website, but also 1:24:31.240 --> 1:24:35.760 at Benny ob three oh one on Instagram. Until the 1:24:35.880 --> 1:24:39.680 next time, folks, I really appreciate you all. Thanks for 1:24:39.760 --> 1:24:43.160 writing in, thanks for commenting. Please go subscribe on iTunes, 1:24:43.280 --> 1:24:45.719 Please follow us, Please tell your friends to the same. 1:24:46.439 --> 1:24:50.720 We'll keep cranking out content for you. Thank you, See 1:24:50.800 --> 1:25:06.640 you at bot time to f