Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bear Hunting Magazine Hunt Cast with me
Speaker 1: Koby Morehead. We're gonna nerd out on bears hunting in
Speaker 1: the outdoors. We'll tell stories, talk biology, tactics, gear, and
Speaker 1: the fight to protect the pursuits that we hold dear, So,
Speaker 1: grab your bino's, lace up your boots, load up your barrels,
Speaker 1: and gather the helnds as we venture on this journey together.
Speaker 1: All right, welcome to another episode of the Bear Hunting
Speaker 1: Magazine Hunt Cast. So last the last episode we had
Speaker 1: talked about what you bring to a hunt, talking about
Speaker 1: getting into hunting and the things that you bring. And
Speaker 1: this time is instead of jumping into tactics or anything,
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about something that is really coore
Speaker 1: to your experience in the outdoors, which is finding your
Speaker 1: tribe or finding the people to surround yourself with whenever
Speaker 1: you are out in the outdoors. And I'm bringing in
Speaker 1: one of my good buddies today to talk about this.
Speaker 1: Who is all about community in regards to the outdoors.
Speaker 2: So Jared Newman.
Speaker 1: He's the founder of the Hunt League podcast, I mean
Speaker 1: the Hunt League app. And basically what the Hunt League
Speaker 1: app is, this is a personal journal where you can
Speaker 1: log all your hunts, you can go back and look
Speaker 1: through the experiences that you had and what notes that
Speaker 1: you take. And then there's also it's deeply community based
Speaker 1: so that you can share. You can share aspects of
Speaker 1: your hunt. You can share photos on a community wall,
Speaker 1: and they just have a really good collective community there
Speaker 1: of just and if if there's any stinkers, they get
Speaker 1: they get the boot.
Speaker 3: True.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but uh, anyways, and I'm not saying that you
Speaker 1: know your tribe is something that you have to find.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: For me, let me just give a little context. The
Speaker 1: reason that I want to have this conversation is there's
Speaker 1: a buck that I've been after for two years and
Speaker 1: I finally caught up to him about a week and
Speaker 1: a half ago, and just a stud of a buck.
Speaker 1: I've got a lot of history, uh with this deer,
Speaker 1: but it was something that was so special to me.
Speaker 1: My first thought was not to go put it on
Speaker 1: social media, Like I still haven't put it on social media,
Speaker 1: but I sent that photo out to my tribe to
Speaker 1: like all of my close friends who I really who
Speaker 1: have heard about this buck, who have been close to
Speaker 1: the process, who would just celebrate with me and uh,
Speaker 1: and that's something that is important. Just killing that buck
Speaker 1: and just achieving that goal wouldn't have meant as much.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't have been important to me if I didn't
Speaker 1: have the people to share it with. And so I
Speaker 1: think that having that built around you is something that
Speaker 1: is very core to your outdoor experience and your longevity
Speaker 1: inside of hunting. Like we all want people to celebrate
Speaker 1: with that have our back center going to support us,
Speaker 1: and then you know, hopefully they have have something to
Speaker 1: add to your process. You know, they can help you
Speaker 1: in different aspects as far as troubleshooting, like, oh, maybe
Speaker 1: you should key in on this and on this particular
Speaker 1: time and and keen on this food source right now.
Speaker 1: Like there's a lot to be to be shared and
Speaker 1: gathered from from your tribe. And so welcome Jared.
Speaker 4: It is an honor to be here. And I got
Speaker 4: to say congratulations on finally attacking that buck. I mean
Speaker 4: that was a moment that we got to celebrate together.
Speaker 4: I mean the morning you shot at getting that text
Speaker 4: message from you, you know, when came together.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's what it's all about. It's fun.
Speaker 1: Oh you heard a lot about that buck because last
Speaker 1: year we were going to Oregon, and that was I mean,
Speaker 1: we spent what over forty five fifty hours plus and
Speaker 1: a truck together over a week and a half.
Speaker 3: Got to hear you sing all your favorite Garth Brooks tunes.
Speaker 3: It was good.
Speaker 1: It's true, It's true. I'm a Garth Brooks fan. I'm
Speaker 1: on a Luke Comb's kick right now.
Speaker 3: Okay, But.
Speaker 4: You know when you talk about like community in that,
Speaker 4: I go back to a moment of just I used
Speaker 4: to love mountain bike. I still do, but when I
Speaker 4: was in college, used to love mountain biking, and I
Speaker 4: remember when I would go with buddies, we used to
Speaker 4: always say, like it wasn't you didn't really ride unless
Speaker 4: you flipped over your handlebars at least once. Yeah, at
Speaker 4: least once for it the counters ride. And I remember
Speaker 4: riding with buddies and I absolutely loved it. But then
Speaker 4: I would also go solo and those times where you
Speaker 4: would endo when your solo and you flip over your handlebars,
Speaker 4: and I just remember, like all those thoughts, like.
Speaker 3: What am I doing out here?
Speaker 4: Would I why would I put myself in a position
Speaker 4: where I could get hurt? Nobody's out here to help me?
Speaker 4: All those types of things. And then but when you
Speaker 4: would do it with a friend, even if you were hurt,
Speaker 4: like it hurt bad, like you could laugh about it,
Speaker 4: you'd be like, oh my gosh. But like being there
Speaker 4: with somebody made all the difference in the world. So
Speaker 4: when it comes to like those outdoor experiences, and I
Speaker 4: think about that from solo hunts, you know, getting a
Speaker 4: solo bowl in twenty nineteen and then having nobody to
Speaker 4: like high five share it with, it's like, man, it
Speaker 4: actually does take something away from that experience. It's an
Speaker 4: awesome accomplishment, but finding your tribe and having people there
Speaker 4: to celebrate the ups and downs, you know, being able
Speaker 4: to shed tears. I mean I had that happen with
Speaker 4: a group of guys that one of my buddies this
Speaker 4: year has been hunting for fourteen years, trying to get
Speaker 4: an elk with his bow. He's had seven tags all
Speaker 4: those years. He lives in Mississippi. He came out this
Speaker 4: year finally tagged his first ball and being able to
Speaker 4: celebrate that there were four of us out there, you know, hugging, praying, crying.
Speaker 3: It's a I mean, that's what it's about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's so special to share those moments
Speaker 1: with someone and to share them with people that understand
Speaker 1: what you're going through. I think that you can share
Speaker 1: them with somebody will be like, oh, that's cool, but
Speaker 1: not have the context and the depth of understanding of
Speaker 1: what all went into that experience, you.
Speaker 2: Know, so well cool, Well absolutely so.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of different ways, and basically like this
Speaker 1: would be a good you know, refresher, you know for
Speaker 1: guys that have hunted all their lives, but you know,
Speaker 1: particularly talking to people that are interested in getting into
Speaker 1: hunting or you know, maybe did it a while back,
Speaker 1: just you know, finding their way back into it or whatever.
Speaker 1: But how do you there's all different kinds of ways,
Speaker 1: But how.
Speaker 3: Do you.
Speaker 1: Find a hunting buddy or like find your tribe or
Speaker 1: the people that you share your experiences with.
Speaker 4: That is a great question, and it's probably something that
Speaker 4: is not necessarily universally going to be accepted or adopted
Speaker 4: by people. I think for me, I recognize one of
Speaker 4: the biggest barriers to hunting is you know, not receiving
Speaker 4: an invitation. Like there's a lot of people that would
Speaker 4: love to go, but they've never been invited. They don't
Speaker 4: know how to take the first step. They don't know,
Speaker 4: you know, they don't know how do I even get
Speaker 4: a tag? Once I get a tag, where do I go?
Speaker 4: There's a lot of obstacles, and I think hunting can
Speaker 4: be intimidating, and I am constantly aware that the best
Speaker 4: way for people to start that journey is a simple invitation.
Speaker 4: And I am probably different from a lot of hunters
Speaker 4: and the fact that I care more about inviting people
Speaker 4: and getting people involved than I do my own personal success.
Speaker 4: So I used to do a lot more solo hunting,
Speaker 4: and it meant more for me to fill a tag.
Speaker 4: I don't know if it's just stage of life or
Speaker 4: where I'm at, or the enjoyment that I get from
Speaker 4: taking others. At this point in the game, it's all
Speaker 4: about the invitation. So to me, I'm constantly inviting, maybe
Speaker 4: to my wife's even chagrin there or she's like, how
Speaker 4: many hunting trips can you do? Or you have people
Speaker 4: calling you all the time from different states, from all
Speaker 4: sorts of places, Hey, could you come do this hunt
Speaker 4: with me? Could I come out to Colorado and do
Speaker 4: this hunt with you? And you know, to be honest, like,
Speaker 4: I'm really open handed with that invitation, and I've taken
Speaker 4: a lot of strangers into the woods, which a lot
Speaker 4: of people are not going to be comfortable or not
Speaker 4: going to be happy about, because they have a particular
Speaker 4: outcome that they're looking for in the hunt, or they
Speaker 4: want to pursue game in a particular way like some
Speaker 4: you know, elk cunning is really my bread and butter
Speaker 4: out here in Colorado. I've done some bear hunting and
Speaker 4: some other types, but you know, for me, I think
Speaker 4: I'm pretty open handed with that community, and I love
Speaker 4: sharing those experiences because I know if I get to
Speaker 4: have a shared experience with somebody in the woods, that
Speaker 4: creates like a bond that almost I mean, it's like
Speaker 4: it lasts a lifetime. I just met a guy, Joseph
Speaker 4: Murphy from Mississippi that came out hunted for the first
Speaker 4: time with the guy take cunning hand this year, took
Speaker 4: a twelve year old boy, took a sixteen year old boy,
Speaker 4: like my season.
Speaker 3: If I look back at it, I'm like.
Speaker 4: These are all first time hunters or first time elk
Speaker 4: hunters or that kind of thing that I got to
Speaker 4: share those experiences with, and that's going to be something
Speaker 4: that I carry forward the rest of my life, you know.
Speaker 4: So I would say I'm a little bit different than
Speaker 4: a lot of people. A lot of people like finding
Speaker 4: their specific three guys that they may go share with
Speaker 4: and they hunt with those same guys year over year.
Speaker 3: To me, that guy is Noah Bodkin.
Speaker 4: He's the first guy that invited me to go on
Speaker 4: an elk count with him. I think we did that
Speaker 4: in two thousand and seven. And Noah and I outside
Speaker 4: of I think one or two years. One year was
Speaker 4: an injury year that we had a motorcycle accident up
Speaker 4: in the high country right before an elk season that
Speaker 4: delayed us from being able to hunt that year together.
Speaker 4: But outside of that, we hunt every elk season together.
Speaker 3: So I still have.
Speaker 4: My tribe with like close guys that I hunt with
Speaker 4: year over year. But then I'm always looking to expand
Speaker 4: that tribe and have an open invitation to outsiders.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it was that your entrance into the outdoors
Speaker 1: or entrance into hunting, you.
Speaker 4: Know, as a little boy, anytime I was near water,
Speaker 4: wild open spaces, I was up early trying to hunt, fish,
Speaker 4: do something. But I had very little big game hunting
Speaker 4: experience until I moved to Colorado, and it was when
Speaker 4: I started doing those elk hunts with Noah is what
Speaker 4: really opened my eyes. And having those shared experiences. There
Speaker 4: was nothing else that I did in life that I
Speaker 4: felt like connected me with another, you know, with somebody else,
Speaker 4: and like the way that like a week of elk
Speaker 4: hunting did like the I don't know, there's something unique
Speaker 4: about it. Whether it's because it's so elemental and just
Speaker 4: you know, basic survival skills of what you're doing, or
Speaker 4: you know, instinct tribal type things, but it was those
Speaker 4: relationships that I feel like I forged in the woods
Speaker 4: and on these hunts are something that I think transcend
Speaker 4: a lot of just other relationships that I think get built.
Speaker 4: We're meeting at a coffee shop with somebody.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it sounds like your entrance into a
Speaker 1: big game with Noah would have been a blueprint that
Speaker 1: produced the way that you go into things now of
Speaker 1: like taking somebody else along in the woods and stuff.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, maybe it imprinted something on you,
Speaker 1: you know, and I think inside of you know, if
Speaker 1: we were going to talk about bear hunting specifically, you
Speaker 1: really see that kind of pattern inside of predominantly hound hunters,
Speaker 1: especially up in Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, there's a they can
Speaker 1: give their tags to someone else, and so there's a
Speaker 1: lot of hound hunters that are taken special needs kids
Speaker 1: out on their first bear hunting experience that want to
Speaker 1: want to get a bear. And you just really see
Speaker 1: a rich culture where guys who just want to get
Speaker 1: out there and run their hounds take someone else as
Speaker 1: as the hunter and get them introduced into the outdoors.
Speaker 1: I mean, even down here in Arkansas, it's much easier
Speaker 1: to take somebody, you know, small game hunting, like if
Speaker 1: you're if you're wanting to get into big game hunting yourself.
Speaker 1: There's a few things that I would a few ways
Speaker 1: that I see people connecting.
Speaker 2: Just throughout my life.
Speaker 1: One is if you just go out and you're hunting
Speaker 1: a specific area, like you just key in on that area.
Speaker 1: A lot of times you'll start seeing the same vehicle
Speaker 1: you know, around the same area that you're hunting, and
Speaker 1: eventually you'll see him come out and you just like
Speaker 1: strike up a conversation. And it's something I've seen down here,
Speaker 1: and I've also you know, Garrett Weaver up in Oregon,
Speaker 1: I've hunt I go up there. I've gone up there
Speaker 1: several times over the last few years and hunted with
Speaker 1: him and Cody and some of his best hunting buddies
Speaker 1: he met that way, you know, even you know up
Speaker 1: in the West, I've seen my dad growing up.
Speaker 2: We would always be on the river.
Speaker 1: Uh, and he's met really good hunting buddies that way.
Speaker 1: And Uh, there's something about just getting out and then
Speaker 1: being somebody who is pursuing something when you talk to
Speaker 1: someone else who's you know, pursuing the same thing. You know,
Speaker 1: if you can get over that awkwardness of like, hey,
Speaker 1: you're after the same uh stuff I'm after in the
Speaker 1: same area. Like if you can get over that competition
Speaker 1: and just like have a converse station, you can have
Speaker 1: some really really good relationships grow out of that. And
Speaker 1: even with the buck I killed this year, I got
Speaker 1: connected with one of the neighbors and we've been sharing,
Speaker 1: like we've been sharing all of the information of bucks
Speaker 1: from our cameras. And that was another cool scenario that
Speaker 1: helped me, and it actually helped me know what that
Speaker 1: buck was doing. And because I had gone into his
Speaker 1: bed and jumped a deer and I was wondering if
Speaker 1: if it was that buck or not. And all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, just that night, that buck started showing up
Speaker 1: at his place, and so I knew that I had
Speaker 1: bumped that buck out of his bed in this area,
Speaker 1: you know, and it was a place that he had
Speaker 1: been before, and at least I had a strong suspicion.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: You know, when you talk about hunting a specific area
Speaker 4: and how that works, you know, I'll be more specific
Speaker 4: to where I'm at in the West, you know, I
Speaker 4: do a lot of backcountry wilderness hunts, you know, where
Speaker 4: you're four or five miles deep in certain canyons, certain places,
Speaker 4: and a lot of times I'm kind of looking for
Speaker 4: places that other people don't want to go. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: so when you find somebody else back there, it's an
Speaker 4: easy conversation because you already recognize there's some like mindedness
Speaker 4: between us, Like when you talk about going to a
Speaker 4: certain area, like out here in Colorado, Like if I
Speaker 4: pull up to a trailhead and the same truck is there,
Speaker 4: or those kind of things. A lot of times I
Speaker 4: realize we're probably hunting the same species. We probably have
Speaker 4: a passion for, you know, something similar. We're probably looking
Speaker 4: at similar trains. When we're doing e scouting and other
Speaker 4: things like that, Like you start realizing there's probably some
Speaker 4: overlap in the way that we see our.
Speaker 3: Approach to hunting.
Speaker 4: So I think a lot of times when people are
Speaker 4: trying to find a hunting buddy, they're looking for some
Speaker 4: level of compatibility in the way.
Speaker 3: They want to it's their game.
Speaker 4: And I think when you pull up to a trailhead
Speaker 4: and somebody else is at that same trailhead, rather than
Speaker 4: seeing that as competition or an enemy or man, this
Speaker 4: is just the frustration of public land. I mean, right,
Speaker 4: and yeah, those those things exist, like there's some some
Speaker 4: level of truth to that, but I also see that
Speaker 4: as man, these are probably some like minded people, and
Speaker 4: these are these are my new buddies. Yeah, there's just
Speaker 4: you know, like a laboratory retriever out there. You're just
Speaker 4: so happy to see somebody you need something. And I mean,
Speaker 4: I can't tell you how many times too, when you're
Speaker 4: back in a canyon and you meet somebody and if
Speaker 4: somebody's got an elk down like it's but yeah, you
Speaker 4: can help people, like legitimately help people, and you know
Speaker 4: in the midst of that, like you help pack somebody's
Speaker 4: animal out like you get.
Speaker 1: A bond, yeah, you know. And the other thing that
Speaker 1: I mean, even a platform. I'm like Hunt League. I mean,
Speaker 1: whenever I went up to Oregon, a lot of those
Speaker 1: guys that are really helping each other each other out
Speaker 1: met each other through the through the app, and so
Speaker 1: it could be something like even an app, I mean.
Speaker 1: And whenever I got my big buck, there was a
Speaker 1: guy that I had met at the archery shop that
Speaker 1: we exchanged info, like you seem like a pretty good dude,
Speaker 1: and we've been keeping up. Well, he can help me
Speaker 1: drag out my buck the other day. Now we're gonna
Speaker 1: go hunt some public land tonight, you know, together after
Speaker 1: we record this. And so I think it's one of
Speaker 1: those things where you have to have a mindset where
Speaker 1: you know you're not against other hunters and you just
Speaker 1: have to have kind of that that thought that there.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not something you want to walk out alone.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, you also don't go into it
Speaker 1: like starving for like needy, you know, or or trying
Speaker 1: to like puff yourself up like you are the best
Speaker 1: hunter in the world, like you just have to. Really,
Speaker 1: I think authenticity is the thing that has sold me
Speaker 1: on everyone that I hunt with or that I exchange
Speaker 1: information with. It's people aren't aren't like ruffling up their
Speaker 1: feathers and puffing up like. It's just good guys who
Speaker 1: are authentic, who like to do the same things that
Speaker 1: I like to do.
Speaker 2: And it doesn't even have to be.
Speaker 1: Like you know, Garrett and Cody up in Oregon, like
Speaker 1: I like to use them because it's they're just really
Speaker 1: good guys and I know everything that's going on in
Speaker 1: their elk season, in their blacktail season, like, and those
Speaker 1: are animals that I don't chase, but I mean, we're
Speaker 1: a voice of support for each other. We're just like
Speaker 1: they get excited and pumped up for when I succeed.
Speaker 1: I get pumped up and excited for when they succeed.
Speaker 1: And that's really what you're looking for. It doesn't always
Speaker 1: have to be someone local. It doesn't have to be
Speaker 1: somebody you know, I think. I think sometimes you just
Speaker 1: have to have the mentality that you know, you cast
Speaker 1: a wide net, and who you connect with and really
Speaker 1: jive with is who you you know, who you just
Speaker 1: jive with, you know?
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, I mean I think about like what the
Speaker 4: hunting gap has done for me When I created it,
Speaker 4: I wanted to have the opportunity, like I really built
Speaker 4: it just for me and my friends for are elk counting,
Speaker 4: Like I wanted to have a detailed journal where we
Speaker 4: could sit in at the end of an elk season,
Speaker 4: we could go through our notes together, we could share
Speaker 4: some notes, we could see, all, right, what time of
Speaker 4: year was this happening? This happening, so that we could
Speaker 4: actually become better elk hunters. We could use the information
Speaker 4: that we were gathering in the field and hopefully record
Speaker 4: it in a way that we weren't going to forget it.
Speaker 4: So the original intent of Hunt League was really just
Speaker 4: building an app that me and my buddies could use
Speaker 4: to become better elk hunters.
Speaker 3: As you start.
Speaker 4: Building it, you realize like, well, you don't really just
Speaker 4: release like an app in the app Store that is
Speaker 4: like a private app just for you and your buddies.
Speaker 4: So it expanded to other species. It expanded to like, well,
Speaker 4: I was like, well, surely, like if this is good
Speaker 4: for me and my buddies, like other people and their
Speaker 4: buddies would love to use this, And through as it evolved,
Speaker 4: you know, then there became leagues, and there became a
Speaker 4: community page or people are sharing. So when you're talking
Speaker 4: about Cody, like Cody's in Montana right now, you know,
Speaker 4: out on his mule to your hunt, He's hoping that
Speaker 4: the wind is going to die down because it's been
Speaker 4: thirty five mile an hour the last couple of days. Yeah,
Speaker 4: And I'm like, I know all these things because like
Speaker 4: through this app, like it's connected with these guys, and
Speaker 4: these are guys that like you've hunted with Colby, and
Speaker 4: it's through this connection of Hunt League that like all
Speaker 4: these types of things have come together. You know, Garrett
Speaker 4: was who you talked about, was instrumental and like he
Speaker 4: invited me and my son. My son got his first
Speaker 4: bear and organ when he was eleven years old, you know,
Speaker 4: thanks to that invitation from Garrett. You know, like that's
Speaker 4: something that wasn't on our radar, that wasn't something that
Speaker 4: seemed like in the realm of possibility. But that's where
Speaker 4: like that simple invitation, the open door, the conversation, it's
Speaker 4: really easy for sometimes I think some of the guys
Speaker 4: that really struggle finding community or like man, I don't
Speaker 4: have anybody, and they kind of it's guys that are
Speaker 4: just trying to brag and show their own accomplishments and
Speaker 4: they just need somebody to praise them for that. Well,
Speaker 4: you put two of those guys in the same room
Speaker 4: and they walk out as enemies because it was never
Speaker 4: about celebrating the success of the other person. It was
Speaker 4: I just need somebody to celebrate me and my success
Speaker 4: in my ego. And it's like what I love about
Speaker 4: the humbley gap is like, yeah, we have these leagues,
Speaker 4: and we have these it's competitive where somebody wins, you know,
Speaker 4: a league title. Like just this past week we announced
Speaker 4: the Sweet September League winner, which is an archery ELK league,
Speaker 4: you know, and we had three finalists, one from California,
Speaker 4: one from Oregon, one from Mississippi. Two of those guys
Speaker 4: hunted out of state. One guy hunted Arizona, one guy
Speaker 4: hunted Colorado.
Speaker 3: The Oregon guy hunted his own state.
Speaker 4: But I'm talking to the judges about these three guys,
Speaker 4: and those are all guys like I shouldn't really know
Speaker 4: them in real life, you know, Like, but it's like
Speaker 4: through the app that we've connected. Rich came out here
Speaker 4: and hunted Colorado with me two years ago with a
Speaker 4: guy with Tucker from Vortex. Daniel is a mutual friend
Speaker 4: of my buddy Noah. He came out from Mississippi's been
Speaker 4: hunting with us. Oregon is Wolfgang trock Soul, who I
Speaker 4: met through the app.
Speaker 5: But like I know, I remember Wolfgang Wolang's man. You know,
Speaker 5: he's out blacktail hunting right now. He's got a blacktail season,
Speaker 5: and I know what's happening. So I'm talking to these judges.
Speaker 5: You know, So I got a judge from Missouri. I
Speaker 5: got Racksaw from Missouri, Austin. I don't know if you've
Speaker 5: met him. Colby's close to you, but awesome guy. You
Speaker 5: should definitely get to know Austin. So I'll help expand
Speaker 5: your circle in this car.
Speaker 4: Chris hog does you know archery because this is archery
Speaker 4: specific league, Lucas Paul from Hogu Hunting, and Tom Diceing
Speaker 4: who does mile high note game calls. Those guys were
Speaker 4: like our judges panel, helping select the finalists, helping select
Speaker 4: the winner. And I'm talking to them about each of
Speaker 4: these finalists and their stories, and they're you know, I
Speaker 4: can describe in detail all three of those finalists like season,
Speaker 4: and it's because I followed it the whole time. Day,
Speaker 4: shared pictures, day, shared stories, you know, and it's like
Speaker 4: we're already talking. Wolfgang asked me if I wanted to
Speaker 4: go hunt Montana with him, like either next year or
Speaker 4: the year after. Rich I think has five or six
Speaker 4: points out here in Colorado and he's planning to come, uh,
Speaker 4: you know, cashing those and I'll take him and we'll
Speaker 4: go into a special unit here in a year or
Speaker 4: two when he draws.
Speaker 3: You know, Daniel, I got to.
Speaker 4: Be there when he harvested his first ball this year,
Speaker 4: Like I wasn't with him when he shot or those things,
Speaker 4: but helped him with the packout. Like these guys have
Speaker 4: become my community, my friends, the guys I spend my
Speaker 4: fall with. And it's and it came about through you know,
Speaker 4: this app, which was really built just to kind of
Speaker 4: serve the group of guys that I hunt with, but
Speaker 4: it has really exponentially expanded my universe.
Speaker 3: And it's how you and I met Colby.
Speaker 4: And you know, I can't wait to hear hunting stories,
Speaker 4: whether it's turkey, snow goose hunting, the.
Speaker 2: Next I need to get better at logging stuff.
Speaker 1: I just never think about it.
Speaker 3: You're basically the worst, but.
Speaker 2: I really am.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm not ever going to fault people for
Speaker 4: that though, because everybody likes you know.
Speaker 3: It's like, what do you want out of a hunt?
Speaker 3: What do you want to record? What do you want
Speaker 3: to take away?
Speaker 4: I'm a guy that likes the I like the journal side.
Speaker 4: I liked I like tracking stuff. I like seeing where
Speaker 4: I've been. I like seeing how much work I've put
Speaker 4: into something like I can look in my app right
Speaker 4: now and tell you how many days I've worked out
Speaker 4: this year. I can tell you how many days you know,
Speaker 4: I've shot my goals at the beginning of the year.
Speaker 4: Where there's three daily checkboxes, there's uh, there's one that's.
Speaker 3: Called invest which is investing yourself for others.
Speaker 4: And that's a little bit of something where people can
Speaker 4: define that in a different way, meaning that could be
Speaker 4: your practicing, your ELK calls, your turkey calls, you're you're
Speaker 4: listening to podcasts, you're doing an ELK one oh one,
Speaker 4: like course, you know, like you're investing yourself, you're investing
Speaker 4: in others, you're mentoring somebody. It's a little bit ambiguous,
Speaker 4: but it's ambiguous for a reason because certain leagues might
Speaker 4: want to define that invest in a certain way, and
Speaker 4: so we kind of allow that to be. But like
Speaker 4: if I were to ask you, all right, you check
Speaker 4: this box one hundred and fifty times this year, what
Speaker 4: does that mean to you?
Speaker 3: Then you should be able to answer what that means?
Speaker 3: For me?
Speaker 4: That invest is I'm using it is my daily Bible reading.
Speaker 4: It's like I'm investing in myself and that has nothing
Speaker 4: to do with the hunt, but like that's what I'm
Speaker 4: chruo going to use that for because I know likes
Speaker 4: I stay connected, you know, with the Lord, and I'm
Speaker 4: full of the word like I'm a better person. I'm
Speaker 4: going to be better for everybody to hunt with. I'm
Speaker 4: going to be more at rest in my spirits, soul,
Speaker 4: all of that stuff. So that's an important part for
Speaker 4: me because I want to be able to go into
Speaker 4: a hunt, I want to be able to go into
Speaker 4: time with my family all of that stuff feeling like man,
Speaker 4: i am connected with the Lord and I'm walking in
Speaker 4: his power, not my own.
Speaker 3: So that's the invest for me.
Speaker 4: Their train is how many days I'm training in the gym,
Speaker 4: And you can only check that box once a day,
Speaker 4: So even if you did two in a day, you're not.
Speaker 4: You don't get two workouts, just one one checkbox a
Speaker 4: day and then the other one is shoot, so how
Speaker 4: many times you shot. So at the beginning of the year,
Speaker 4: I wanted to do at least three hundred invest, two
Speaker 4: hundred train, one hundred shoot, and I'm proud to say
Speaker 4: it is November twentieth and I have completed.
Speaker 3: I've already succeeded.
Speaker 4: I'm getting over three, two hundred and one hundred on
Speaker 4: all those things this year. But what's fun about that
Speaker 4: is I can see that like people that are using
Speaker 4: the app actively, Like I saw that Rich Mays who
Speaker 4: just won the Sweet September Archery League, he shot his
Speaker 4: bow over two hundred.
Speaker 3: Days this year, which that's just impressive. You know.
Speaker 4: It's like meditation and the works that these guys are
Speaker 4: putting in and I can see and keep track of
Speaker 4: that just in the app, which has been a really
Speaker 4: It's added a lot of value to me. But I'm
Speaker 4: not going to fault you Colby for not checking all.
Speaker 4: I know you work out three sixty five. I'd be
Speaker 4: a two a day guy, but yeah, yeah, yeah, you know,
Speaker 4: But I'm not going to fault you for not checking
Speaker 4: those boxes.
Speaker 1: Getting there, getting there, Well, we're kind of coming to
Speaker 1: a close on time. But the last thing that I
Speaker 1: want to say is I want to talk about a
Speaker 1: few red flags. So whenever you are finding these people,
Speaker 1: there's a few things that you should look for, or
Speaker 1: if you find yourself being this type of person, you
Speaker 1: might want to assess. But one thing is is I
Speaker 1: never want anybody to feel like they need to when
Speaker 1: they send something to me, like a photo of something
Speaker 1: that they got. I don't want them to feel like
Speaker 1: they ever have to say not the biggest, you know, decent,
Speaker 1: you know whatever. Like I don't want to have a
Speaker 1: relationship to where somebody feels like if they share something
Speaker 1: with me that I'm want to look at it with
Speaker 1: some sort of inferiority thing or that you know, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna come back with like should have let it
Speaker 1: whatever or should have whatever. It's like, oh man, that's awesome,
Speaker 1: Like I don't care if it's got a half a spike,
Speaker 1: you know, like uh, you know, and like as far
Speaker 1: as bears, I'm gonna celebrate. I'm gonna celebrate whatever. Anytime
Speaker 1: that somebody punches the tag it shit it's it. It success,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a cause for celebration. A plan came together,
Speaker 1: even if it was on accident, Like something came together
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, they've got they've got a fur,
Speaker 1: a hide, and maybe some antler. And and that's something
Speaker 1: that I see over and over again on social media,
Speaker 1: Like if you go on Facebook, people will unless they
Speaker 1: shoot a two hundred inch buck, they're gonna be like
Speaker 1: not the biggest or you know, you know, I'm happy
Speaker 1: with it, or you know whatever.
Speaker 2: And I hate that culture.
Speaker 1: And that's something that I really like about Hunt League
Speaker 1: is I don't see guys whenever they post stuff, putting
Speaker 1: that on the front end. It's like they know that
Speaker 1: everybody's gonna be pumped that that they succeeded. And a
Speaker 1: lot of guys are even you know, adult onset hunters,
Speaker 1: you know, guys getting into it. And I think that's
Speaker 1: really the culture that we need to build inside of
Speaker 1: the hunting community. You know, it's never going to be
Speaker 1: that way on social media. There's too many trolls and
Speaker 1: too many people wanting to show that they.
Speaker 2: Know more than the next guy or whatever.
Speaker 1: But when you want to surround yourself with people who
Speaker 1: you know first off are going to celebrate your accomplishments,
Speaker 1: celebrate your success, and then they'll reserve any critiques. If
Speaker 1: you're searching it out, you know, there might be things
Speaker 1: that you might have questions, like, well, I got this one,
Speaker 1: I was trying to get on the other one. Do
Speaker 1: you think, Like, how do you think I should? You know,
Speaker 1: if I'm wanting to to Just like, I had a
Speaker 1: guy the other day that he's just getting into whitetail
Speaker 1: hunting and he had decided that he wanted to start
Speaker 1: out with a trad bow and I was like, man,
Speaker 1: that'd be really cool if you can pull it off.
Speaker 1: And I was like, you know, just I just told him.
Speaker 1: I was like, you have to decide what your success
Speaker 1: equation is if it's tradbo and white tail. I'm like,
Speaker 1: be prepared to for frustration. I'm like, you're you're inviting
Speaker 1: a lot of hardship inside of a process that you
Speaker 1: know you're not gonna probably taste success for a while
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be a harder road. But if that's
Speaker 1: what you feel like you want to do and it's
Speaker 1: important to you because you want to make it hard, man,
Speaker 1: go get it. You know, it's like, but the thing
Speaker 1: is is we fall. We fall in this in this
Speaker 1: this rut to where either we're trying to push our
Speaker 1: goals and the things that are important to us on
Speaker 1: somebody else, or we are pulling that off of other
Speaker 1: people and trying to put it on our own selves.
Speaker 1: You know, like if you wanna if you want to
Speaker 1: hunt deer over a feeder, like over bait, like I
Speaker 1: do that sometimes I love it, but there's a lot
Speaker 1: of times like I'll never hunt the bait that I
Speaker 1: put out. I'll go hunt other areas. And you know,
Speaker 1: like it wouldn't matter if I'd killed this buck overbate
Speaker 1: or not. A lot of things had to go right
Speaker 1: for that to come together. I had to come up
Speaker 1: with a game plan. I had to have the wind right,
Speaker 1: I had to have the right scenario. I had to
Speaker 1: figure things out. It wasn't by accident, and even if
Speaker 1: it had been some other buck I had no history with,
Speaker 1: it would have been awesome and I don't. And I
Speaker 1: want to make sure that that's something that we're thinking
Speaker 1: about is you know, just need to be supportive for
Speaker 1: however people do it. And that's something that we see
Speaker 1: inside of the bear hunting world, where you know there
Speaker 1: are guys that are hard against baiting bears. They have
Speaker 1: no idea what it's like. Even if they say that
Speaker 1: they do. They have whatever experience they have, but their
Speaker 1: experience is going to be granular on on some level.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I could go into a whole discussion by that.
Speaker 4: I did my first baited bear hunt this year, and
Speaker 4: I can't even begin to tell you how much I
Speaker 4: learned Kolby through that experience. And I told I went
Speaker 4: with Arkain Optics, I went with Josh Greer, and he
Speaker 4: invited me on this bear hunt and I just said, hey, look,
Speaker 4: I've never done a baita hunt. I don't know exactly
Speaker 4: how I feel about it yet, and I don't ever
Speaker 4: want to shoot an animal that I don't feel. I
Speaker 4: don't ever want to feel pressure to shoot an animal like.
Speaker 4: I don't want to be in a situation and feel like,
Speaker 4: you know, if I don't kill something, it's not a success.
Speaker 4: And I told him upfront, I said, hey, success is
Speaker 4: going on this trip with you, getting this time, seeing
Speaker 4: animals up close, all of that, being able to capture
Speaker 4: some on camera. That is success for me. Whether or
Speaker 4: not I get an animal is not dependent on It's
Speaker 4: not how I define success.
Speaker 3: So I kind of let him know, and I was like, I.
Speaker 4: Just need you to be okay, Like if I get
Speaker 4: up there and I just don't feel good about shooting
Speaker 4: an animal over bait, are you okay with that? So
Speaker 4: we kind of had that discussion. But I could dive
Speaker 4: into that whole thing, and there's a whole story there
Speaker 4: of how much I learned, what I loved about, how
Speaker 4: much it actually can benefit the population. There's there's a
Speaker 4: whole story there that we won't go into. Party at
Speaker 4: the end of the time, Yeah, I would just say, like,
Speaker 4: you know, when it comes to the community side and
Speaker 4: how you respond when somebody sends you a message instead
Speaker 4: of like thinking about like projecting your thoughts about that.
Speaker 4: You know, it's most of the time, I mean almost
Speaker 4: every time if somebody sends you something, it's you know,
Speaker 4: they're looking for some kind of form of agreement, congratulations,
Speaker 4: just affirmation, like they're wanting to share their story. You know,
Speaker 4: it's like, this is my story. I want to share
Speaker 4: it with you, whether or not it's the story they
Speaker 4: want it or not. And then I think that a
Speaker 4: more appropriate response is, like you know, what did you
Speaker 4: learn from this experience? Like I think that's always the
Speaker 4: best because I want to be a constant learner. I
Speaker 4: want to learn every time. And like somebody may have
Speaker 4: taken that smaller buck for a reason, and rather than
Speaker 4: just judging somebody based on they shot a small buck,
Speaker 4: you know, that's there's somehow a fault in that. It's like, no,
Speaker 4: tell me the story, Like I want to know the
Speaker 4: story of everything that went into it. What made you
Speaker 4: pull the trigger on out? Why'd you decide? How did
Speaker 4: that make you feel?
Speaker 3: All that?
Speaker 4: And like if you shot that buck and you don't
Speaker 4: feel good about it, or you feel like you have
Speaker 4: to hide behind it or you you know, it's like, well,
Speaker 4: don't shoot another buck, like in the future, like if
Speaker 4: you're not going to feel good about it, Like, don't
Speaker 4: don't shoot an animal that isn't and it's not because
Speaker 4: the size the animal should be the thing that brings
Speaker 4: you joy. But it's like if you if it's not,
Speaker 4: if you don't feel good about it, like don't don't
Speaker 4: take the life of an animal, you know, But it's
Speaker 4: like you can learn from those experiences. So helping people
Speaker 4: self reflect on that and gain that experience. Like then
Speaker 4: they can make that determination next year and they can say,
Speaker 4: you know what, I was just as happy taking this
Speaker 4: button buck as I would have been this other one
Speaker 4: because it just did something for me. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 4: next year they're not going to feel bad about taking
Speaker 4: the same button buck because they they just you know,
Speaker 4: they're thankful and grateful for the opportunity.
Speaker 3: And all that. So I think looking for like what
Speaker 3: did you learn from it?
Speaker 4: Is all he is going to be a better takeaway
Speaker 4: than how you can tell somebody the lesson that they
Speaker 4: should have learned.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, And I think that we have to understand whenever
Speaker 1: you're starting something, there's a maturity process that goes through
Speaker 1: and like and also like the ending part of that
Speaker 1: maturity process is all related to you and not like
Speaker 1: a hunting community as a whole. You know, like at
Speaker 1: some end of a maturity process, some guys will just
Speaker 1: be hunting for meat. They're like, I've attained everything that
Speaker 1: I want. I just want to put meat in the freezer.
Speaker 1: Some guys are like, I want to hold out and
Speaker 1: kill the most mature animal that I can. Some guys
Speaker 1: go out and they're like, I want to do it
Speaker 1: the hardest method possible. I want to shoot a self
Speaker 1: bow with wooden shafts, you know, like yeah, this, that
Speaker 1: or the other. And I think that's important to know
Speaker 1: that you're that what it is, the way that you
Speaker 1: do it is, it's really a personal a personal development,
Speaker 1: Like it's a it's very personal to you and not
Speaker 1: anyone else. And you know, tying it back to community
Speaker 1: and tribal like you want people surrounding you that will
Speaker 1: support support the things that are important to you and
Speaker 1: without any any like pushing or pulling, you know, just
Speaker 1: people that authentically want you to do well and you know,
Speaker 1: and talking about success. You know, this year as of
Speaker 1: right now, I haven't killed a bear in Arkansas. We
Speaker 1: we baited. The weather was bad, well not the weather,
Speaker 1: the the hard mass like just dropped all at once
Speaker 1: and and early, and bears weren't hitting baits like we
Speaker 1: tagged out in our zone in less than.
Speaker 2: A full week or right out a full week last.
Speaker 1: Year, and we hadn't even I mean we're a couple
Speaker 1: months into the season now and we haven't even punched
Speaker 1: the initial quota and so it's just a hard year.
Speaker 1: Well after not seeing a bear the first day that
Speaker 1: we sat. I had had some cameras that were seeing
Speaker 1: bears pretty consistently on a pond on public and so
Speaker 1: I went out there and I and I sat down
Speaker 1: and hunted the evening. And the first time that I
Speaker 1: tried to go find a bear on public land, it's
Speaker 1: like I found a bear on public land. I had
Speaker 1: a bear come in. I could have shot it, and
Speaker 1: I decided to pass on it. But that was the
Speaker 1: biggest success that I could have had. And I didn't
Speaker 1: come out with some fur meat or anything, you know,
Speaker 1: And I saw the bear and it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: if it would have been anybody else, i'd have been like, hey,
Speaker 1: that's a bear that you saw in public, like shoot it.
Speaker 1: But for me, it's like I had just come back
Speaker 1: from I got a big bear in Canada. I don't
Speaker 1: need the meat, and to shoot this bear would just
Speaker 1: be like me punching the tag, like I don't need it.
Speaker 1: But the success was in finding a bear and seeing
Speaker 1: the bear and having an opportunity where I could have
Speaker 1: harvested it. And you know, I could attend ring this bear.
Speaker 1: I mean it was seventeen yards, it was standing still like.
Speaker 2: It would have been done.
Speaker 1: And but I decided to pass on it, and that
Speaker 1: bear went out there and started swimming around in the
Speaker 1: in the pond in front of me, and I was like,
Speaker 1: this is just the coolest experience. And if I'd have
Speaker 1: shot that bear would have taken away from the experience
Speaker 1: because it's like I value that more right now than
Speaker 1: I do actually pulling a critter out of the out
Speaker 1: of the wild. And so that's you have to decide
Speaker 1: what your success equation is. And then everybody that I
Speaker 1: shared that experience with, nobody was like, oh, you should
Speaker 1: have shot it. They were like, man, that's awesome, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh, and that's what you want. That's those are
Speaker 1: the people that you want sur to surround yourself with,
Speaker 1: and you want to be that person inside of your
Speaker 1: group two that you want people to share things with
Speaker 1: you and know that it's like you're just going to
Speaker 1: be there for then you know, absolute support.
Speaker 4: So yeah, you know, when I look at like social
Speaker 4: media stuff, a lot of times social media you want
Speaker 4: to highlight kind of the special success moments. You're only
Speaker 4: wanting to post the picture with you with the big
Speaker 4: animal or those types of things, and it's it's really
Speaker 4: more or less about the accomplishment and you're you're not
Speaker 4: sharing the journey. What I love about the Homtling community
Speaker 4: and the Honley Gap is I like seeing the post
Speaker 4: of like Cody you mentioned earlier, his post that he
Speaker 4: put up yesterday saying, hey, it was super Wendy. You know,
Speaker 4: the conditions were terrible, but we still were able to
Speaker 4: locate some that was a huge win. And I look
Speaker 4: at it and I'm like, those are the things where
Speaker 4: I'm like, man, I can't wait to hear what happens
Speaker 4: today because it builds on it and you're actually capturing
Speaker 4: the whole story, not just like the highlight moment or
Speaker 4: not just you know, the sitting behind the antlers or
Speaker 4: sitting behind the big bear piled up. It's like, I
Speaker 4: want to know every I love being a part of
Speaker 4: the journey. And I think what's special about hunt League
Speaker 4: is like it's a place where you can share what
Speaker 4: some people would call their failures or failed attempts, like
Speaker 4: your story of seeing that bear. That's what we celebrate
Speaker 4: inside the Huntley community because it's you know, it's like
Speaker 4: that's what it's all about, like getting out there and
Speaker 4: having those experiences, logging the fact that you saw a
Speaker 4: bear on public land.
Speaker 3: That's a big deal.
Speaker 4: And so you know that that's what we want to
Speaker 4: be able to celebrate, and that that's what I really
Speaker 4: love about, you know, the way that that app is
Speaker 4: designed compared maybe to like the highlight reel of what
Speaker 4: you would see like on a YouTube video or just
Speaker 4: a social media post.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well cool, Well I think that is a
Speaker 1: good place to shut her down. But uh yeah, uh,
Speaker 1: if you guys want to check out the Huntley Gap,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a pretty pretty cool app. I'm kind
Speaker 1: of curious how some of you hound guys could log
Speaker 1: stuff in there to keep up with what your dog's
Speaker 1: doing and how they're how the puffs are coming along
Speaker 1: a stuff too. I bet you guys can find some
Speaker 1: use out of that.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I'd be interested too, even getting some hound
Speaker 4: guys on there, just how they how they use the
Speaker 4: app and what they would maybe want to see happen,
Speaker 4: because I don't have experience with hound hunting, so I'd
Speaker 4: love to get some feedback even from some of those
Speaker 4: hound hunters saying, hey, you know, here's how you have
Speaker 4: this set up to like log these hunts. You know,
Speaker 4: here's what would be helpful for US houndsmen, because I
Speaker 4: think that would be a really cool thing.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of people they would love to see.
Speaker 4: What happens on a hound hunt just so they like
Speaker 4: see the experience of it. And if we had people
Speaker 4: journaling that, you know, it'd probably get a lot more
Speaker 4: people interested in wanting to go booking those trips that
Speaker 4: type of thing, just because they can see, you know,
Speaker 4: the inside story of what goes on inside of hunting.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Plus you can track.
Speaker 1: I mean, you'd be able to log how much a
Speaker 1: dog ran on a particular day, when's the last time
Speaker 1: you ran them, how many days you hunted that dog,
Speaker 1: and then whenever you go to do some trading around
Speaker 1: you can tell somebody exactly what kind of dog they're getting,
Speaker 1: how many bears they've been on, stuff like that.
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, well cool. Well thanks Jered, We'll catch
Speaker 2: you next time. Appreciate it, Thank you for listening.
Speaker 6: The Bear Hunting Magazine Hunt Cast is recorded by a
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