Expectation and Fulfillment with Josh Wells

In this episode, Ricky and Hollywood have a chat with Josh Wells of the Wells Outdoor Journal

Josh is an all-around outdoor maniac. In the Spring you’ll find him spending most of his time in the Turkey woods and guiding for bears on the western landscape. Whether it be with a gun, compound bow, longbow or muzzleloader, in the Fall he’ll be filling the freezer with multiple species in anyway possible. There is no season where Josh doesn’t have a fishing rod in his hands and he is also an accomplished taxidermist. 

Josh tells the story about what led him to where he is today. Discussions about what fulfillment means for him, the dangers of expectation, and the importance of embracing the moments we have in the valleys are among the main topics. 

*NEW* Because of the popularity of our Shiny Objects segment, we’ve decided to give it a dedicated episode. You heard that right, episodes of The Range will be out every Monday starting now. 

Enter Promo Code trp15 during checkout at www.vaportrailarchery.com to receive 15% off VTX Bowstrings and Branded Apparel.

The Range Podcast is brought to you by Vapor Trail Archery and Stokerized Stabilizers.

Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant, outdoor content!

‍

[00:00:00] And I love going through your page. And there's funny stuff, there's inspirational stuff, and then also Hey, I might have some success, but look, I'm just like you and everybody else. Yeah. I have my struggles too. Yeah, man. So I love those qualities. I think ultimately, like that's where social media gets its bad rap, it's a highlight reel, right?

Yeah. I like rolling in and going, this shit sucks. It's it's not. I'm gonna show you. I just, I totally screwed up bad, and mentally, where am I at? It's not good. And and you'll get some heat from that, but I think that's just, we're so conditioned to everything being a highlight reel.

Yeah. And you'll have people that'll say, oh, you're just looking for attention and whoa. Waste me stuff. But it's not, it's the full ride man. If you bow hunt or you just hunt, period, like it's a rollercoaster. And if you're only showing the peaks and skipping the valleys, man you're missing the ride.

Welcome to the Range Podcast. I'm Ricky Bruley, and with me is Jake Hollywood Iversson. Join us at the Archery Range where we'll tell stories from the hunt, discuss technical bow shooting tactics and gear, and pick the [00:01:00] brains of some of the most successful people to ever shoot a bow. Whether you're about to shoot that X for the win, or send an arrow at a trophy buck.

This podcast is for you.

The Range Podcast is brought to you by Vapor Trail Archery makers of the best BOL strings money can buy. Originators of limb driven arrow rest technology and innovators of stoker eyes stabilizer systems. Welcome to the Range everybody. I'm Ricky Bruley, and joining me is always the one and only soon to be Homeowner Hollywood.

How's it going, man? I'm good. How you doing, bud? Pretty good. It's a crazy day. Awesome. Yeah, it's been pretty wild day trying to get this stuff all going. Thank you all for joining us today. You can also find the video version of this episode on our YouTube channel the Vapor Trail YouTube channel. So please head on over and subscribe Today.

We have a local hero in the studio, even more so than Hollywood, if you [00:02:00] can believe that. This dude is an all around out outdoor maniac. His content ranges from comedic to inspirational, and yet through all of his success, he remains a very humble man. A combination of qualities that are hard to find these days.

But enough about me. Let's welcome Josh Wells to the range. Everybody, I'm happy to be here. Thanks guys. That was a, he hell of an intro. I started to tear up a little bit. This guy's way bigger than I am. He actually kills stuff, so Yeah. Yeah. But in all seriousness, I don't really think that highly of myself, but I do aspire to be that way.

Yeah. So Josh, how did you get here? What brought you to where you are? Not exactly Vapor Trail, but maybe right. Maybe Vapor Trail, but, where are you at, man? I guess background wise I mean it started really young for me. My grandfather was a veterinarian, so I was lucky enough to grow up on, 30 different farms and Oh yeah.

It was the type where everybody had cattle and livestock and hogs and you put on a jumpsuit and they make TV shows about that now, but, that's how I knew, that's how I grew up. And. And he was a [00:03:00] habitat pioneer. He duck hunting and waterfall were were bigger than Christmas in my family.

And same here. Yeah. And so he he was inducted into the Minnesota Waterfall Hall of Fame, and I got to do a big speech for a lot of amazing people that have done a lot of amazing stuff for the state. He's won county conservation awards. He's made over a hundred wetlands. Like I said, he was a Wow.

He was a pioneer. So for me, growing up in that environment, like I just took to hunting. And just being out, just ultimately being outside. And I think that's where it all kind of starts. Yep. And yeah. And it, it just I duck hunting with my grandma when I was super little.

It just, it was just a thing. And then I grew up in kinda graduated into deer hunting and my uncle's bow hunting and it just kinda just, it really festered. It's the only argument my grandpa and I ever got in. Was, he said, when you get older you're gonna slow down. And I hope he is watching, going, goddammit, not yet.

You were wrong. And it just kinda ultimately I was given the opportunity to explore my interests and have that freedom. And I just ran with this whole thing and I love it and I ultimately, I [00:04:00] can't do it enough. Yeah. I can come back from a trip and people like you take a few days or a week, and it's, I'm grabbing my stuff and leaving for the next thing.

Just, I just, and you had brought something up earlier about balance and that's ultimately what it is is you gotta find out what your balance is. But Yeah. And then I started doing I, I actually went to school and I got a degree in graphic design. So I was visual communications where I was editing and doing graphics and photography and stuff like that.

And ultimately this was a way to put the two of 'em together. And I started my own. My own platform, which is now a Wells outdoor journal, and it's just a way that I can show photographs. I really enjoy writing. And through that over the years, I've done it for a long time and done some videos on YouTube and made a lot of connections and which ultimately has put me in this seat.

So yeah. Super grateful for all the different platforms and things that we have access to now. Yeah. That's the inner web's pretty amazing dude. Yeah. For sure. As much as we want to get away from it, right? Yeah. Yeah. It still has its place. Yeah. Ultimately, if you use it [00:05:00] for what it's, the positiveness, what it's used for.

Yeah. It's an amazing tool. And not even just a tool, just a way to stay connected and meet new people. And like I said, net networking is absolutely everything now. Yeah, for sure. You have so much packed in there Wells Outdoor Journal. Yeah. How long ago when did you start that?

When did that run? I wanna say I originally started that in 2007. Wow. Okay. And it, and that just came through again, people that I met and they just, I'm pretty animated. And I tell a lot of stories and they're like, you need to write these. And that's when blogs were getting to be big.

Yeah. And I started a blog. And it just slowly turned into this and that. And I really liked photography and taking pictures. Then I started doing a little filming. I had an old, like one shot that did, HD footage. So I started filming stuff and I was putting it on YouTube and that really, a lot of that stuff, like my early stuff really blew up and then, it transformed into it.

It was ulti what transpired back into that was, it was the Minnesota Outdoor Journal. [00:06:00] But I just do so much stuff. I've, like I said, I, from this circle to made my circle bigger. And now I'm venturing out and I'm doing a ton of stuff outside of Minnesota. So that's why I decided to somewhat rebrand it to Wells Outdoor Journal.

Okay. Yeah, I've been following it. You know right when we talked a little bit earlier about this, but right when we were talking about doing the podcast, one of our employees had mentioned you, cuz you shoot some of our products too. And so then I was just like, man, I can't believe I, yeah.

Never seen or heard and just, and I love going through your page and there's funny stuff. There's, like I said in the intro, inspirational stuff. And then also hey, I might have some success, but look, I'm just like you and everybody else. Yeah. I have my struggles too. Yeah, man. I love those qualities.

I think ultimately, like that's where a lot of people lack is, that's where social media gets its bad rap, it's a highlight reel, right? Yeah. I like rolling in and going, this shit sucks. It's it's not. I'm gonna show you I, I just, I totally screwed up bad, and mentally, where am I at? It's not good. And and you'll get some heat from [00:07:00] that, but I think that's just, we're so conditioned to everything being a highlight reel. Yeah. And you'll have people that'll say, oh, you're just looking for attention and whoa. Waste me stuff. But it's not, it's the full ride man.

If you bow hunt or you just hunt, period, like it's a rollercoaster. And if you're only showing the peaks and skipping the valleys, man you're missing the rod. Yeah. For sure. And I, I think like when you say that it's, to me, I think there's a, it adds a genuineness to a person, right?

Yeah. But again, you still have all those individuals that. They're gonna find a way to r you or whatever it may be. Yeah. And but then, so I'm like playing through like a bunch of the reels that I watched of yours today and one of 'em struck me and I was just like, oh man, cuz you go, no, I don't want to guess the score of your deer.

Yeah. And I was like, shoot, I recently just did a post like that, which again doesn't, it doesn't make me like, oh, I gotta delete it or take it off, whatever. Yeah no. But it's funny cuz I looked at, I thought about that and I was like yeah, [00:08:00] you, I posted that me and everybody else, there's nothing unique about it, but still Yeah.

Trying to find ways to get people to engage with you Yeah. Yeah. Is so hard. Yeah. And even in that, it's maybe I might get 2% engagement even with something like that. So I'm just like, yes, what do you do? It's sometimes it's just stepping in and saying something that like everybody wants to say, but they're just not saying it.

And a lot of people will just go, Ooh, I'm not, I don't want to like, Put my name on that or whatever. Hell yeah. You know what I mean? So it's like a lot of the times when you don't get a lot of interaction, like the amount of people that are really sitting back, and looking at it going that kind of smirk and stuff.

Like it's astronomical. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. There's, you could just roll like me, like I almost always stay off of the social media. Yeah. Like I check it just cuz I'm like, yep. I don't know we're, yep. We've got vendors and dealers and everything. Yep. So I just. Keep an eye on what they're doing. Yep.

Check for the support, but when I support or when I finally post I think Instagram just gives me a boost cuz it's oh, that guy's still alive. So yeah. I have greater respect for those guys though, that are posting like, like Matt Singer and [00:09:00] yourself, both of you guys will say, I didn't get 'em this time, or something like that.

And it's that's the true Oh yeah. Valleys of hunting like you're saying and then all of this work we put in Yeah. Then, sure you can post that too, but as long as you're transparent, show it and you have a stage, show everyone that you're just as normal as us, I did a, I call it the trilogy of me shooting a bear with a longbow. It took me three years and, I hit animals, I didn't recover and I showed everything, all of it, like and I took some major heat, but it's yeah, I'm not gonna not show you this. Yeah. Because ultimately that's the buildup, right?

Like the only reason something is just like, Euphoric, cosmic. Just like when you get there. It's just like that's because that buildup was so great. You know what I mean? Like that journey and that grind and all this bad crap. Like without all that, this isn't gonna be that great.

If you roll into their, your second evening, you shoot the thing. Don't get me wrong, you're still gonna be outta your skin. But when you have a three year buildup to something and you're standing over it and it finally came to fruition and there it is yeah, dude, like you said, that's cosmic man.

Yeah, sure. It's huge. Yeah. So it's I'm not gonna [00:10:00] show you like that. To me, that's good content. So like when we do finally get to that moment like you were with for all this, and it's yeah. You know what I mean? I think all of your people that are following you are that much more excited for you too.

This supports really there. It's like when it's just highlight reel, it gets almost, you get desensitized cuz it's not reality. When you see this guy that's wow, this guy, like he went through a little sucky deal here. That sucks.

Yeah. I think a lot of people can relate to that like, Why is a song good? Is because it ultimately a song that takes off so big is because it's so relatable. Yeah. I feel like you wrote that about me kind of thing, and when you can watch something and some guy's like really struggling, and most people in the hunting world, especially archery, can really relate to that.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was just gonna say, look at the success rates, not that great. Yeah. I was just gonna say, if you haven't been bow hunting for, longer than six months, you've definitely wounded or been in that spot Yeah. Where you've missed Oh yeah. And if you haven't, you're just incredibly lucky your time's coming.

Oh, absolutely. It's happened to all of us. Us Absolutely. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, to go back to what you're talking about, about, some of the, just the things that you go through on a daily basis in, in the wilderness or whatever. Yeah. [00:11:00] And like the reel that you did where it was like November and in the eighties and you're walking through, I don't know what, you had your pants rolled up to your knees and you're in waiter boots, and.

You're just like, what the heck? Oh yeah. That, yeah, that yep. Just things like that. That was this last fall. Yeah. And you're like, this is ridiculous. What's going on? Simple things like that. You Yeah. That in that particular hunt I saved that block for that farm.

Like whitetail prime time. Like I saved that block of time, that which are my magic dates. And then, you wait all year for that like literally a week, or not even, and it's, 85 degrees and you're like, come on dude. Yeah. Yeah, gimme a break.

Yeah. It's what? Hell, that's happened to me in the Dakotas before too, like mid-October. And I'm, in the, during the day I'm trying to, get into position or get somewhere and it's you have to seek shade. Oh yeah. Because if I don't, oh yeah. I'm gonna literally shrivel up and die.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Cause it's so hot. The sun is just cooking me another one of the videos where, If I hadn't seen some of your content already, I may not have guessed it, but [00:12:00] the the tip that you gave on how to get the burrs off of your clothes. Oh, yeah. You like that and it works every time.

Yeah, it will never not work too. Sure. Yeah. And I'll let people go and look at it. Yeah. I won't give it away. Yeah. But I'll just say this. So as I'm watching it, I'm thinking, okay, I know where this is going, and then you took it up a level. So he'll always surprise you. So it's good content.

So definitely go check out some of his stuff. It's a riot. Is that on the Instagram? I think I saw it on Facebook. Facebook, yeah. Yeah. But yeah, dude, you, you're in everything. You're fishing, you're you're hunting, of course you're in Minnesota. You gotta do some ice fishing, of course, right?

Yeah. Taxidermy yeah, just a DIY guy. Yeah. You do so much stuff on your own, which is really cool. Cause I love doing all that kind of stuff too. Yeah. I try to do as much as I can and then I, sometimes it just takes me one time to go, okay, I'm gonna have the professionals do this. Yeah. But yeah, we were talking earlier about what you're doing to your longbow most recently.

Oh yeah. Can you tell that story? Yeah. So I was guiding some bear hunts in West Idaho and there's rattlesnakes all over the [00:13:00] place and you can harvest them and they're on the roads and, and it's a actual functioning ranch with cattle, so we dispatch 'em and I would save them. And I just guess I'm I don't I try to find some cool way to use everything or save stuff.

And yeah. And I've got a long bow that I, I use currently and I'm just, Gonna be backing it with the snake skin. So it's my first time doing it, and it's, I said it was a learning curve, but I'm excited to do it again because it's not perfect. But I learned a lot in the process and now, it still turned out really awesome.

I think the people, once I show it complete, like they'll be pretty Yeah. Pretty pumped about it, yeah. Yeah. I was super fun. Stuff like that. Just kinda I don't know, making your own stuff unique and, per a little personable, it makes the journey a little bit cooler, and, yeah. Yeah, that's, it's pretty sweet. I when I first really learned about you, it was through a hunting partner. You might know him, Sam. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. He's always, Turkey season, so my scope for you was just like, oh, this guy's just like a Turkey [00:14:00] guy. Yeah.

For, but then I find out for, you're like doing everything. But, it was like two or three years ago when we were in the blind, he's oh, Josh, John Wells, he just killed Bird. It's just he's you gotta watch him, you gotta follow him. You gotta see what he is doing. And then lo and behold, I finally killed my bird last year, and he's I'll take care of the fan.

I'll take care of the fan. Yeah. I didn't see it forever. Yeah. And I'm like, what did he do with it? I didn't really totally care. Yeah. Like the memory was there. So I'm like, cool. I know he is. Got it. I can go pick it up whenever from him. And then I, all of a sudden he is your fan's done. I'm like, what do you mean it's done?

So yeah, he surprised me with Josh's work and it's pretty stellar. It's awesome. I can't wait to have it in my house. I'll probably tear it outta here when I get our house. But yeah it's an awesome fan to have in the shop. It's sweet, knowing that you're a hunter and. Fisher and guide and everything else.

Yeah. And you're doing taxter Me somehow. How do you fit all that in? It's, everything is it's pretty, it's all pretty seasonal, yeah. So it's like this block of time is this block of time is this and this block of time is this. So it's, it doesn't overlap too much in the Turkey [00:15:00] fans is I just really love, enjoy it, enjoy doing it, and it's another way to express creativity.

In, into something that I enjoy. And to me, it's like when I walk in and anywhere in anybody's home that they have a piece of art that I did is that's the highest honor Yeah. For me as a creative person. But like in that sense, it's a win-win because. It's just a little side hustle for me that helps me pay for fuel and some gas and or some tags and whatnot, so yeah, I really enjoy that. And I, and again too, like I really love turkeys and to me it's like just a super honorable display when you can make 'em look as beautiful as you can and other people enjoy it. I just think that's the ultimate. Yeah. Having it here in the pro shop, there's a lot of people that stop, sorry, Rick. You've got your fans up there, but then I've got that one and everyone just like stops and they're like staring at it and looking at it and they're like, where'd you get the fan? I'm like, oh, I might know the guy that did it. So it's you ever kill one, hit him up. Yeah, for sure.

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And when he brought it in I was like, look at it. I was like, oh, see now I really liked the way that he did this and I, so now I want to change mine to be a little bit more like that. [00:16:00] But no, I think it looks really good. Appreci, you did a great appreciate job and so I, I like how they got the beads on there and the way that you put the spurs on it looks really awesome.

Yeah, you did a really good job. It's funny too, cuz like when I found out that you did it Yeah. Sam finally texted me, said that you did it. I was like, oh cool. And like still unknowing. Yeah. Yeah. I talked to the guy out back that follows you. Yeah. Qui pretty heavily. He's no way Josh did yours.

And I'm like, oh, yeah. Oh yeah, I brought it in. He's too, that thing's so sweet. So he's pretty pumped. Yeah. But yeah, that's, it's awesome the amount of support that you seem to have that's just it's, yeah, it's awesome. Is it growing pretty big right now? Yeah. Yeah. It's, yeah. It just it just never really stops.

And the more I get into different things and just with everything else too, it's, you have a niche, audience, but it, yeah, it just, it keeps growing. Again, too, there's a lot of people that, it's amazing how many people will watch your stuff, and you don't even realize that I can be in Shields or something and somebody will stop you.

And I've been at, ice fishing and people recognize you and it's and it's things that you never, it's just. I'm just an ordinary dude [00:17:00] from Southern Minnesota do. You know what I mean? And I, I think where I come in that's a little bit different and unique is I can say that I've been on both ends of the spectrum where, I had the, the life that, you think you're supposed to live through society where, you get the good job with the good benefits.

You have the long term relationship, and you have that thing. And I did that, man, I did that for a long time. Had a great union job and I just was like, I just, I always have a really hot burning internal belly fire, right? Even when I get super swamped with routine and I just was not happy dude.

Like my relationship was super, complacent and just, I guess that's probably the best word for where my life was at. Just complacent, and I had built the journal and all this stuff through that time, but there was, a 12 year chunk where I owned my own house, lived in it myself.

Like again, long-term relationship, all this stuff, and it's It was just like there's gotta be more, I just had that there's just so monotonous, there's so many things that I want to do that I know I'm not gonna be able to do if I keep this cycle up.

Yeah. Hollywood here, the Vapor Trail Pro Shop is a one-stop shop for all of your archery needs. New for the [00:18:00] 2023 archery season is our brand new online arrow Customizer Build Your Victory or Eastern Arrows with multiple vein options, configurations, and custom arrow wraps in a large array of designs and colors.

Spine indexing and expedited build options are also available. So you can get back out in the field and fill flinging in style. Check out the Vapor Trail Arrow customizer at www.vaportrailarchery.com/arrow customizer. Yeah. And it's amazing how fast like your life can change. And it's I lost, I left that job.

The job I left for didn't turn out to be what it was. My long-term relationship ended My, my old man was killed in the car accident. Just some really heavy, substantial stuff. No kidding. Within probably a year and a half, two year period. And it's like my life completely. And it's funny you brought up Debon and it was, I got locked into my house during a, the other recession before this.

And 12 years went by like that. 12 years. It was literally, it went by like that 12 years. And I just kept doing it. I was doing it, and that's why I started doing helping a [00:19:00] taxidermist out. And I kept my house and I just eventually got to the point where I'm like, let's sell this house.

I sold my, literally I sold my house to do this and paid off all my debt and I just in the off season home base, I stay with family. And four months out of the year, I'm, most of that time in the fall I'm living out of the back of my truck. And now I'm doing more guiding and things like that where I'm not home and I am doing some, I don't know what kind, what you wanna call it?

Regular work, yeah. Almost freelance out state and stuff like that. Yeah. So it's it's amazing how you can go from this to this and I think that's where I'm a little bit different, where, cause I'm fortunate enough and n now in this position to say that I'm fortunate to go through that and to look at this and go, I've been here and I'm here.

And there's good and bad to both of them, but they, you and you have a lot of people that'll say, God, you're living the dream and all this stuff. And ultimately there's so much sacrifice, man. Oh yeah. I'm not married, I don't have any kids and a lot of that's cuz I do a lot of what I do, yeah. And that's super hard relationship wise and Right. And having a big, beautiful house I [00:20:00] get it. Like I love all that stuff too, but it's, it's it all comes down to the sacrifice and it boils down to your level of balance. Yeah. I've got a really, like outta whack balance, like it's up there.

Yeah. And it, it's good though. It, you're going a direction that you want to go when you're, and you're grabbing it. You got goals and you're setting 'em and you're reaching 'em, I'm guessing. Yeah. And again, like you said, I think as we get a little bit older, I'm less concerned about making more money.

I'm more concerned about having more time. Absolutely. And not only just having more time. Yeah. But again, like you said I wouldn't if I could sell my house tomorrow and buy an RV and Yeah. Yeah, buy 40 acres and go do that for a little while. Yeah, totally do it. It's just not feasible right now, two and a half year old, so we just can't do it.

But again, you just start to go through those, some of those things ha have less importance. Yeah. And it's hard to, I'm trying to my wife has a 19 year old daughter and she's got a really good head on her shoulders and she's really figuring things out. She's not really just trying to go right to the college [00:21:00] path and do all that.

She's trying to figure things out. She's actually looking at buying a home and investing in real estate, which blows my mind for a 19 year. Jeez. Yeah. That was far from any thought I ever even yeah. At 19. Yeah. But the thing, and again, so it's just trying to. If I could have told myself those things when I was that age or whatever, and again, I have no regrets about Yep.

Absolutely. About the path of my life. Cause I'm super happy, I'm super content with where I'm at. Yep. And I guess it, I don't wanna say content, I'm, IM ecstatic about Yep. Life. Yep. And especially just the opportunities that we get to spend in the outdoors and this podcast has just been awesome.

Just, connecting with new people. Yeah. And this whole environment is just really cool. It, it has its moments where it's I'm in the midst of editing and I'm just like, oh my gosh. And I got a deadline and we gotta do this. And then I got a hassle. Hollywood, he's busy and I'm like, Hey dude, I need you.

And he's I'm so busy and yeah. Only got 30 things going on. But that's what it is. It's that fire in your belly that you said it's just nonstop. And to go back to what you were talking about, [00:22:00] being creative I'm a graphic designer by trade as well, and that's what got me to this point.

And one of my favorite parts about this is the writing. Yep. I've always liked to write, but I just never really felt like I was very good at it. Yeah. And then, when it comes to the social media thing, it was like, it would be hard for me to make a post because I would sit there forever and try to type the perfect caption, and then I would never end up posting it.

And then, so I'd just end up wasting a ton of time. And this kind of helps me feed that outlet a little bit and it's, I don't know, it's just awesome. It's the opposite of ears. It's like whenever, like you got your post that's like a paragraph, like a Levi Morgan all these opportunities, all this, and then ears for a while there's just like a deer.

Like successful it's just that's how I am too. It's just yeah. I feel like sometimes, like I don't have the creative mindset like you guys do at all. I'm just, I can hold a bow and I shoot it. Okay. I do. All right. But, yeah. It's just I'm just plain and simple, just here it is.

Here's my stuff. Yeah. I've got the perfectionist issue and so I've had that too. Like when I first post the, posted the picture [00:23:00] of my bun and Crockett whitetail, it was just real simple cuz I would, it would've taken me years to post that. It was just like, thank you to everybody who was involved in this.

Yeah. You know who you are. Yep. Hashtag Yep. Huge ass deer in my life. Yeah. I think a big thing too that's wrapped up around all of the commun hunting communities. I feel like a lot of guys like look in from the outside and they're like, I want to do that. They've got their nine to five.

Yeah. And then they're like, I really wanna do that. I really wanna do that. And we've said it before on the podcast we work in the archery industry, but we're not like, Hunting all the time. Everyone can do it. Just put in the money toward the tags, and take the time off. But it's really you don't have all that much time.

You're yourself you're busy, you're jumping, state to state doing this and that. It's it's cool, but like you said, there's the sacrifices behind it. So much, much, yeah. That, and that can be just money or it can be family. And you look at some of these big hunters, like even Jason was saying last week, he's he's got two kids.

Yep. He barely sees 'em for part of the fall. Yep. It's you gotta really [00:24:00] understand There's more to just like being able to run up this mountain and post a picture like, Hey, look at me, I'm hunting and, cross country doing this shoot. Or that shoot's man there's a lot there.

And I ran into Sawyer last night and he's gonna be going to Ireland and that he's a target archer. So he is always traveling. Yeah. And especially during the summer and I didn't even think about it cuz he's got a girlfriend. I'm like, Okay, that could be like myself and my wife. And you see each other for a month maybe or less that time, then you're gone again.

Yeah. That's crazy. There's a huge balance in this industry. Yeah. And so you, when you say Sawyer, you're talking about Sawyer? Sullivan. Sawyer. Sawyer Sullivan. Yeah. He's a local kid. Really good target shooter. Yeah. Phenomenal target shooter. One of, one of the best. Yeah. Yeah. Just for the listeners so they know who you're talking about.

Just wanted to drop that, give you a little more street cred. Yeah. It's not just Sawyer. He's probably sick of it. He's one of the top in the US right now. He is on Team usa, so if you guys wanna check him out. I think a part to touch on, what you were just saying is a lot of people like.

The whole you're living the [00:25:00] dream and I wish I could do that more da. What I think what would be really helpful for a lot of people is if they were just completely raw, honest with themselves and said what do I want out of this? Yeah. What do I want out of it?

And then just go for that. I've learned a lot, like just being in the back of my truck, living in the back of my truck has taught me a lot and I don't do it. And I think people mistake it. They think I enjoy it. I don't, like if I could afford a hotel room with a hot tub and a hot shower and a toilet everywhere I went, yeah.

I would do it. Yeah. But it, that's what a, a affords me to be able to do a lot of it to, to all, to really be gone for four months hunting, like I have to. Yeah. And that's where I what ties into what I'm saying here is you gotta be honest with yourself and say what do I want out of this?

And circling back already, like being in the back of my truck, it's really taught me that I don't need much to be happy. Yeah. I really don't I've minimized my life so much. I could probably fit everything in one little trailer, and pile everything in my boat and that's, yeah.

Aside from mounts and things like that. But you really learn, you really, it humble, humbles you in the sense that so my big thing is like fulfillment, right? [00:26:00] I don't money, all that stuff. That is not my goal. That is not, full fulfillment right now because that 12 years went by so fast, and I'll be 44 this summer and it's like that I was never supposed to not be 26.

Yeah. You know what I mean? It literally went by that fast. I don't feel, I don't feel it. I don't like but it's, again, you gotta say, what do I want out of this? And what I'm choosing now over everything else right now, literally over everything else is fulfillment. Yeah.

Yeah. And I, and Matt's kind of my catch phrase as I say, at the end of the day when we float off to wherever we're gonna go I want to be the guy telling the stories. Yeah. Because I didn't do anything, man. I didn't do anything till I was like 38. Geez. I didn't do anything.

I just, I worked 60 hours a week in a sheet metal factory, and I fished a little bit of time that I had and hunted and did all the stuff that I could and a little bit of time, and, which I mean helped me become efficient. And now it's now there's, you couldn't, dude, I'm telling you like time is oh man, it's so precious.

It's it's unbelievable. A lot of the stuff that's, just what I've been through in my 43 years, almost 44 years is.[00:27:00] I'd like to say almost five lifetimes worth of some stuff. Good and bad. Yeah. And man I'm fulfillment's what I'm after. And I think a lot of people, ultimately, again, there's that balance thing, but you need to look at things.

And I think what ruins a lot of stuff for people, whether it's hunting or life, whatever, is just expectations. Yeah. You don't go into a hunt in a crappy unit that doesn't have a lot of trophy potential, densities are low and thinking you're, and people go, oh, this is my first outstate hunt, I'm gonna shoot this, huge mild there, and you go in there and it's hard to find one.

Yeah. You yet alone shoot one, yeah. There's a reason why they have those stats and they're just like, ah, this sucks, and all this it doesn't suck. You just went into it with. The wrong expectations. Yeah. And I think if you can carry that into a lot of different stuff in your life, like you'll realize that it doesn't suck.

I just had the wrong expectations. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy when you're, I have, my brain is leaving like 10 stations at once right now. I've got so many things I want talk about, but, so sorry, [00:28:00] Hollywood. I just got this thought that I wanted to put out there. So we had a customer in here the other day, and bless this man's wife's heart, she bought him a elk slash mule deer tag for Montana.

Nice. For his birthday. I was like, wow. That's amazing. And but we were talking and he was asking stuff about Al Cunning, and I've only gone on one trip, so I'm not like the world's leading expert. But still I learned this. Really good piece of information from the previous senior pastor of my church.

And I was just taken aback when I was talking to him about this elk hunting trip I was gonna go on. And he just point blank, looks me right in the eye and he goes, good luck. You won't get one. And I was like, just shocked, yeah. Cause I'm like, and of course I know that the odds are against me.

Yeah, of course. But still so everywhere we went, when we were out there, it was in Idaho and I had that in the back of my mind the whole time. Anytime I was just like getting tired or feeling the air was gonna get the best of me, I'm like, I'm gonna prove him wrong. Yeah. I'm gonna prove him wrong.

[00:29:00] Yep. And I didn't. But anyways, so I but. Expectation. Yeah. So again that helped me go into it with not too much expectation. Yeah. And again, just really just trying to enjoy Yeah. The trip in the moment. Yeah. Yeah. And obviously, the people that you have with you are really important as well.

Yeah. And when I was out there, I was with my buddy Joe, and he's, he is just athletic as all can be, so he has no problems running around. And so it, it got to me the first day or whatever, but still we were able to match each other's strengths, in a lot of ways and talk each other off ledges and do all that kind of stuff.

So that was really good on the trip too. But just like you said, or what I was saying to that customer is I was like if you look at the statistics, they're against you. Yeah. But again, just. Do everything you can to get your calling down. And I was like, make sure you Chuck Adams always said, if you got two tags in your pocket, pick one.

And so I'm like, I would focus on, if it was me, I would be focusing on elk. Heck, if I [00:30:00] see a mule deer, then maybe I'll then divert, but elk's gonna be my goal. And so I'm like, stick with that. And then again, just keep the expectations low. Yeah. Be prepared to have a blast either way.

Yeah. And that's another thing too, where social media comes in with the highlight reel, it does tend to get your expectations a little higher than it, cuz you're seeing the highlight reels. And I think it's tough, for a lot of people that don't experience it, and they're super jacked up for their first hunt and they go and they're just kinda takes the wind outta their lungs a little bit, and it's like you, you gotta understand though. That's, I know this is a whole nother can of worms, that's why it's ultimately it's called hunting. Yeah. You know what I mean? I know it's such a cliche phrase, but it's that's what you're going to do and that's what you got.

Like that tag is a, write a passage to do that. And when you get out there and you're actively hunting, mission accomplished, dude, like you're hunting. Yep. Yeah. The killing the thing, man. It'll come in due time, I promise. And when it does come, just enjoy the ride, enjoy as much as they suck when you're in them, but the valleys are [00:31:00] so important, man.

Yeah. And that, and again, that just falls into that expectation thing where, and I understand, you don't, and you don't really know, especially for Western stuff until you get out there. Yep. It's a ball kicker, man. It's not, and with people nowadays that are, Hunting and not hunting.

And I think again, that's why a lot of people don't, is just their expectations. They go out and they're like this sucks. I'm not pounding fish, or I'm not, flocks of birds coming in. It's not, yeah. You gotta have a little bit better expectations with stuff. And I think once you can get into that mindset, like you'll really start being more fulfilled on your hunts and ultimately that will lead you to a lot more filled tags. Yeah. Absolutely. And tell people I'm not I'm not some super awesome hunter. I just I'm probably one of the most persistent bullheaded dudes you'll ever meet. I've just persistent myself into opportunity. You just don't quit.

Even when you don't know, you just keep doing it and doing it. And it's man, you kill this and you kill that, and you kill that. And it's dude, like that doesn't just [00:32:00] happen. You know what I mean? I promise you, even just the struggles that I show, there's a hell of a lot more of 'em than even what you're seeing.

Oh yeah. So I, I think people like, We talk about odds and numbers, and I try not to get too into that like I do as far as like applying for tags and different things, but cuz that can really get in your head man. Like that guy I totally get where he was going. He wasn't trying to be malicious, telling you're not gonna get one.

Presentation maybe was a little sucky, yep. But ultimately that's what he was trying to say to you is and it can really get in your head. You used it for motivation. A lot of people don't. Yeah. I would say most people use it for they're getting close to tapping and then that pops into their head and they just, they tap early and they're just like, this is dumb.

We haven't, it's three days. We haven't seen one or four or five days. We haven't seen one. But you only have one tag in your pocket. You only need to see one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Some of those valleys that they're so important, I think. I think oh, that's crucial. Yeah.

That's how you learn to be better. And I'm still fairly young, I'll say, but like myself, I feel like I already know so much more just cause I've failed so many [00:33:00] times. That's right. So it's just like it every year I feel like I'm gonna be that much more successful. Yeah. But, and that's called growth.

Yeah. And having that mindset of expectation, I think definitely changes some things too, where, I think even Rick was just saying North Dakota, last year was the first year I ever made it out west, sure. I went there, honestly the first time just thinking, this is a scouting trip, I probably won't see much.

And it turned into, Totally different story. Yeah. But it's just like having, I didn't expect to kill, but like you said, life is so much highlight reel that it's just oh my God. The fear to fail is so huge. Yeah. Ultimately having that expectation of maybe I get one, maybe I don't.

It's whatever. But yeah. I like toward the end of that 12 day stint when I went back out there, it's just like I'm going all the way to the end. Yeah. Not giving up like Yep. And for us guys that like, live in the Midwest, it's like you're driving like, Rick, you were like 20 hours Yeah. Out to Idaho.

It's dude, you got one, one tag. Yep. And you took how many years to get it? You better go balls to the wall. Yeah. And you're gonna get those times where you [00:34:00] get kicked right in the nuts. Oh, big time the majority of the time. Yeah. And even like this here for Turkey hunting for yourself and myself.

You forget your bug spraying, man. You never posted about that. Actually. I think I did. I did. I posted my sponsor Sawyer. But yeah it's a good thing they're sending you to that 50 gallon drum every year with Sawyer friend. Yeah. And talked about, I think that was a big letdown for me, like you saying that expectation thing, that, that's definitely gonna be part of my hunt this year.

Cuz it took me six years to get a bear tag on private land and I was like, Easy money. Yeah. We see 'em all the time. It's gonna be a kill. Yeah. No question. Yeah. Never saw one once when I was out there. Yeah. And that was just so defeating. Yep. If I had more time, that would've worked, maybe more in my favor, but it's just like having that expectation, it just hurts so much more than the mule Deere did.

Yeah. Just cuz it was like, oh, this is easy kill. Yeah. Absolutely not. Yeah. Idaho going or going back to what you were talking about with the valleys too there. There's a, I had a couple thoughts there too. So when, I remember when [00:35:00] we were out there the bulls were not responding at all. So you can imagine how difficult that is.

Just like turkeys too, right? If you're not hearing any gobbles, you're like, now what? Roll the dice. Right? And I think there's a lot of people in that situation that would just be sitting up top and they'd be glassing and if they don't see anything, they're moving to the next ridge. Moving to the next ridge.

Moving to the next ridge. Yeah. And we were just diving in. Yeah. And going in. And I've learned so much. Yeah, we were blowing elk outta there. But and luckily there wasn't a lot of, we weren't ruining anybody else's hunt either. We're conscious about that too. We don't wanna be running around, cuz I hate that too, where you're sitting up there and then someone goes through there and blows 'em all up.

Yeah. But we're just like, all right, we gotta go down in there and see, it's completely forest covered hillsides, so you can't see in 'em. So we just go in there and just start slowly working our way through and getting through all that deadfall. And it's a nightmare. It's a thick nightmare.

But we learned so much. We learned where they were. We, they were beding down where they were [00:36:00] staging where, it set us up in ways that even though they're not responding, we have a pretty good idea of where they are. And so that, we wouldn't have had any opportunities, I had a few opportunities, wanted a really nice bowl.

One that I'd have been. Happy to put on the wall and hang it up. It was, not a 400 like Jason got last year, but, probably a 300 inch bowl that for my first would've been awesome. Amazing. But it just didn't work out. I got caught and I was really relying on my camo to to get me through it, and the bowl was like not having it, and he got out of there and then raked a eight foot pine tree into a toothpick and then never came back.

But yeah, just diving in there and working hard. Yeah. And that makes it all worth it too. Yeah. I think in a lot of times in that situation where you said people will be up on top glassing and just kinda looking, nothing's talking. What popped into my head in initially was that a lot of people would be back at their truck eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Bitching about how terrible it is. Yeah. And you just go, ah, whatever, and you [00:37:00] just bomb down in and it's yeah, it didn't, it still didn't as far as like killing something didn't work out, but man, we learned so much, blah, blah, blah. And it's that's the difference. That is the difference, right? Yeah. So then now you learn that, now you carry that over into your next one and your next thing and your next thing, and you just keep pressing and you keep pressing. If you can say okay, I learned this and I learned that Now you got all these tools, now you're at that much better into the next day and into the next day.

And yeah. And what it all pertains to is just putting time in. Yep. That is the number one thing is just putting your time in. And when that comes, that's not up to me. That's not up to you. The universe or whatever, the higher power dude, like whenever that meeting is meant to be arranged, that's when it's gonna happen.

Certainly. And if you're not putting your time in and you're not doing it. And anybody can do it when it's good. Yeah. Like you said, no, they're not. Nothing's talking. Same thing with turkeys. People will go out in the morning, birds aren't gobbling. They pitch down and like they'll sit for an hour.

Ah, this sucks. And they leave. 10 to two is you'll kill more turkeys if you stay out there from 10 to two when they come back to sound check. Yeah. The calling that you were doing [00:38:00] this morning. Yeah. Most people what happens, Turkey huntings, they'll be gobbling, they'll be gobbling on the roofs.

They pitch down, they gobble a little bit, they get with their, he, and they go away and they're like, ah. They went the other way. No, they like, turkeys are amazing. Like sound wise. They memorized. Where that hen was coming from. They'll go do their thing. They'll split up and then they'll start searching.

And that's when you kill 'em with pinpoint accuracy. My, literally, it's insane. I've watched 'em, they go total opposite way and they're on Yep. 90% of the people in that scenario go, ah, they went the other way. Or they sit for an hour thinking maybe they'll come back and then they leave.

Dude, bring a sandwich. Yeah. Give yourself some time, like and you'll like, you'll, it'll blow your mind how many more turkeys you'll kill. Sam likes taking a nap because you stayed, yeah. Whatever you gotta do. Yeah. Yeah. Johnny said that in the podcast too. He talked a lot about that, and I think you did too.

Yeah. About the, the mid ba midday birds. Midday, yeah. And then, I can't remember who it was. I think the hunting public would, I can't remember who they were interviewing, but he had said, he's if I can get a, if I can get a Turkey to gobble at one o'clock in the afternoon, [00:39:00] he's most likely gonna die.

Yeah. The odds of you killing him are exponential compared to any other kind. Shane Simpson is the same way. Like he likes that noon to two bird, like it's almost. A guarantee in a way that you're gonna kill. My problem, like I've said before, I work 10 to two. Yeah. So most of us do. So it's and I was trying to get 'em in the morning, then I have to bail, but yeah. For the weekend warrior, when you have the time off. Yeah. I stay for that time. And you get lucky sometimes when they come right away. Oh yeah. When when you're guiding, what is your main species or, what are you bear? Are you kind, you are bear, bear guide is the main thing.

Yeah. Cuz it's the time of year. Gotcha. So this year I took on spring bear hunting on a ranch in West Idaho and I just love it because it's that time of year, it's it's, there's Turkey hunting there so I can guide some Turkey hunts so it's, I'm not losing my entire Turkey season for myself.

So that, that's like the hard part for me. That's why I don't guide. Nearly as much in the fall as, because I'm not at that point in my life. I want to shoot stuff I want to hunt in the fall. Yeah. In the spring. [00:40:00] I I enjoy, I really like guiding turkeys and stuff like that now with all these people really getting into bear hunting.

Yeah. So I had an opportunity this last year to be a part of a ranch and moving forward in the future, I'm gonna continue to keep doing it. It's the spring bear stuff and it's amazing. It's, it is like hunting big game in the spring and summer. Dude, what yeah. And I just really through the years I've done a lot of trapping and it reminds me a lot of it.

I love the baiting process. I think it sucks the stigma, the bad stigma baiting gets, but like learning dude, you're in you're in a big, huge drainage and trying to figure out like, A 44,000 acre ranch, and it's like trying to figure out what these bears and what they're doing, and just setting the baits, right?

Like just setting these stations up. You're on a big drainage and you put a bait up in a chute and it's you have to figure out like, where's the wind gonna be coming and pulling through and out here. Where can we put clients that they're gonna be safe from the wind and the bear? There's so much involved.

Because the hard part [00:41:00] that. A lot of people don't realize what baiting is they know that those donuts and all that shit didn't grow there. Yeah. Like they know that. Yeah. Like it's an unnatural food source. So they know automatically going into this thing, there's an associated risk with me being in here.

Which heightenedly think of that. If you're a deer hunting and a deer knew that, like going through this, you built this funnel or like a tunnel and this deer had a pass with the tunnel, he'd be like, screw you. I'm never going through that. Yeah. So ultimately that's what you're doing and you try to get a daylight, a big bear and daylight and in these setups and then get, people on 'em and in front of 'em and just running the baits themselves, dude it's so much work.

Yeah. You would think from the outside looking in again, me waiting six plus years just to get a tag and then Yeah. It's yeah. Oh, it's so easy. Yeah, exactly. Oh, it's just a bait site. They go there all the time. Yeah. Wait till they wind. You like, turns out bears are as smart as turkeys sometimes.

It's crazy. It's really actually hard, actually. It's extremely hard. Everything fall through and then you do it on top of that with these drainages and 44,000 acres. I like, there's a lot more hills out in Idaho than there is here, so Yeah. And you got different [00:42:00] winds working. You're, and the ground we were in was some of the nastiest ground I've ever even seen.

It's rough stuff, and it's like the thing, like here in Minnesota, the problem you see a lot of people talk about with bear hunting, the b the big deal is guys will always say I've been hunting my bait and it's active. If it's getting hit I leave, I go hunt it, and then I leave and then the bear comes as soon as I leave.

Like, how can I get this bear to come to the daylight? Not be there. Yeah, he knows you're there. So like when a bear leaves and it, and then the bear's on your bait and you're watching this on your camera what they do. And it's a lot easier for 'em to do here because the vegetation is so thick.

They'll do a hundred yard, 200 yard circle around the bait and until they get your wind, because they know that bait, there's an associated risk to it. So in order to enter it and to go into it and be vulnerable like that, they're gonna do everything they can to make sure that it's safe to go in.

And bears will come and they'll circle it and they'll get your wind and they'll just go sit off. And then once they circle it again, your wind's gone. They're in. Yeah. They're like, how do I do this? And it's there's a lot of ways to remedy that. There's some and [00:43:00] sometimes they're, you just can't, you can't.

Yeah. And it's trying to put like and that all boils down to like location and trying to put some type of barrier or river or a stream, a pond, a slew, a swamp, a brush pile, something where that it's gonna. Hence they're circling you and trying to distract them from actually, if there's, say you put your bait station in, in 20 yards behind, it's a big lake.

They can't circle you. So if you set up your stand on that prevailing wind and he can't circle you, smart. There's a lot of stuff like that. And then once you learn what trails or entrance trails, setting your standup for the, prevailing below that.

Yeah. But then you've thrown an elevation and now you've got a whole different deal. Yeah. Because now you, in order to be wind good, elevation wise, you're down and your eye level with the stations. And as far as archery go, you got a little bit more play with rifle too.

But even rifle in the big country, like where we were in Idaho, it was still a challenge. Because the bears, they, it's huge, the areas that they occupy on [00:44:00] a daily basis. So it's, bear hunting, like that's where my head went to right away. As soon as you said that. Oh, it was slam dunk, and it's like people say the same thing.

A big, huge private ranch. Yeah, it's just. Pew pew. Whatever one you want. I want one. This color I want doesn't do that. Doesn't like, it's not guaranteed. It does not like that on a private ranch. The most the best conditions you could possibly get, it's still hunting.

Like I tell everybody you gotta understand these animals don't want to die. Yeah. Their number one job every day of every minute is to not die and they're damn good at it. Like they're really good at it, you wanna know how good they are at it. Look at all the technology we have.

Look at all this fancy stuff. We have all this time and all this gadgetry and all, just everything. We still and look at our success rates are still low. Yeah. Low. Yeah. That like, where's that, where's the hit the animal's credit here? Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. They don't have anything but their nose, their eyes and their ears.

Yeah. Yeah. And for bow hunter, it's it's crazy. All across the board, it's 8%. Yeah. And some units are probably lower than that. Yeah. If you're talking like, [00:45:00] we're obviously more bow hunting base, but it's dude, the number, everything's stacked against us. So it's like Absolutely.

A lot of people think it's fishing a barrel, but it is a chance not, man. Any, anyone who's haunted them knows it. Yeah. That's why I brought out this world record and the Ricky Bruley record book. That's my biggest bear. Heck yeah. It's a beautiful, but the story about that bear is same thing I, when you when you started talking about it, I was thinking my biggest challenge was to get him to come out in daylight. Daylight. Yeah. And I think the first bear I shot was maybe two or three years prior. And again, we have I think four or five guys hunting. We got 12 baits we're running. Wait, is that right?

I think you can do three a piece. Three a piece. Yeah. So whatever that equates to we had five guys, so 15 baits we were putting out, and we got three of 'em are hitting good, and then, I'm the only one who comes home with a bear. Yep. And I wasn't real picky, so it was a hundred, 130 pound sow average size.

Great bear say for Minnesota. But then, so again, same thing. A couple years later we [00:46:00] all draw tags and it was same situation. And everybody hunted The first weekend, bears weren't coming in. We had cameras out, we had footage of bears coming to Bates. Yep. We had color phase, we had all kinds of really unique bears, but none of them were coming out during the day.

And all those guys only hunted one weekend and then they bailed. They were done. Yep. And I was like screw that. I'm gonna fill my tag, yeah. Yeah. So I actually ended up going To this one particular bait. My mom lived up there, but what I started doing was I just went out and bought like this really bright l e d light and I was started going out and dumping bait in the middle of the night.

And again, we were always trying to be mindful of baiting at different times of the day, just to throw 'em off a little bit. Yep. But I'm super freaked out, cause I'm just like, oh man, and I got my pistol, and I'm just like, cuz you just don't know.

And so super freaked out. Get in there and I, dump the buckets out, throw 'em to the side, and then I'm gonna go swap the card on the camera and we out. We put 'em up, and. Like you said, they know what's [00:47:00] going on. So we have, so the guy who's setting up all the cameras, we have one guy set up cameras and he doesn't touch the food ever because they, they smell it, they go up, they rip it.

Yep. And you don't even have to have that, even just a human scent on it. They'll rip it down. So we put it up in the tree, which doesn't necessarily stop it from getting it. But, so I strap my stick on the tree and I start climbing up and this bear comes out from behind the, literally five feet away from me.

He's just chilling in a bush. Right there. Cuz to your point, he's just okay, I'm just gonna back out over here and just chill. Let him pour the bait. And then when he leaves, I'm gonna come back out. But he came busting out of there and I just fell out of the tree. It just freaked me out.

Yeah. So for everybody that tries to do that, it can be dangerous. So be careful. But it was but it worked because then he started coming out. Yeah. During daylight hours and I finally got the shot. And then, so that's him there, right there in front of you. But again, a little bit of persistence helps out, but it, that's an interesting, I never really [00:48:00] thought about trying to put that barrier there too.

Yeah. Cause I don't know if we ever really paid attention to that. We would often, we would be conscious about there being water nearby. Yeah. But when I think about a lot of the baits that we set, they were just out in the open. Yeah. Not in the open, but just we would look for dark places, but just No.

Then the problem with that is they can just circle you so easily. And even if you don't have a barrier, just trying to position your station in a sense where the bear is gonna hit that station before, like if he goes to circle you, he breaks cover. Because the thing with a bear is They're so amazing.

They're probably better at it than anything, but maybe than maybe lions. Just you don't see 'em. That's how good they are at just being not seen. Yeah. You can't go in a field, deer, elk and everything will expose themselves. Bears will not, bears just, you just don't see 'em.

If you see one rip across the road, it's like you're lucky, like and that's it. So for me, the thing always with shooting the bears, when you see 'em, you're just like, holy shit, they do exist. Yeah. Because it's like this fake sense of they're actually there, but are they, yeah.

You got trail camp pictures of 'em, but you never see 'em. The logs are scratched up, your stations are tore [00:49:00] up, but it's I don't know. I just, I don't know. Like they're almost mythical way. Yeah. Usually. And then when you see one, like he's there and you see him, to me it's just whoa.

It's like hunting Bigfoot, yeah. It really is. Yeah. I just love it. There's a certain Yeah. There's like a spiritual like thing that you get from shooting a bear and like you get through that whole process that you, you don't get from servants. It's, yeah.

It's special, man. It's cool. I love it. Yeah. And and there are, they're a huge predator. They're a large apex. Yeah. And there's something to be said for killing one of them, yeah. It's a super cool deal. You, like I said, you can't get from many other species.

Yeah. I'll be six years older by the time I have a chance again, but the way things are going, probably 12. Yeah. It might be more like 10. Yeah. I get there. Cause the points creep is just huge now. But yeah, the, like I, I've been out deer hunting before and I've seen 'em, and it's for, I always grew up thinking like it's a bear.

It's gotta be huge. It's gotta make a ton of noise. If a white tail makes a ton of noise or squirrel does Yeah. It's unreal. The bear has to be insanely loud. Yeah. I've seen them book it through the [00:50:00] woods. Oh yeah. And it didn't make a noise. I'm like, the only way I knew that I was there is because I happened to be looking that direction and I happened to be running.

I'm like, it's insane. It is. They are very quiet, very, under the radar. Isn that crazy. And that's where like a lot of people, like they, that's what they think. This big ba I'm just gonna come in hoing trees over, rip the barrel off the tree and throw it over their shoulder and bye.

Off they go. They're not I've killed a pile of bears and I want to say, just off the top of my head I've probably heard three of 'em before I seen them. That's the same, I, it's just, they're just amazingly stealthy. Yeah. They're just an amazing creature. And that's the same thing that goes for size too.

Like this is a great bear. I'll tell people you lay a 250 pound bear down on the ground and you lay a. 150 pounder next to it, there's really not a lot of difference. It's just their outline is an inch and a half bigger. Yeah. Yeah. You look at a a 350, 400 pound bear, it's huge bear.

And it's like most people, when they see one they're lucky enough to get one that big. They're like, that's it. Like that's cause they think there's gonna be this Yeah. This massively [00:51:00] huge thing laying there. But they're so dense. And they're so compact.

And when you see 'em, you don't have a lot to judge us where people, they're really hard to feel judge, yeah. Yeah. And it's like when they walk up on one, even if it's a really great bear, they're just blown away by how actually small they are. Yep. I've heard that a lot of people have that, the ground shrinkage thing with bears, even on big ones, yeah. They're hard to judge. I I drew a tag last year in the Boundary waters and I hunted them up there and it was interesting. I watched some videos and I know a lot of areas where I messed up.

I just didn't put in the work. Yeah. Because I did that, I got complacent with, I started looking on the Bwca website cuz you can start, you can look where there's been sightings. And so that's where I based, where I was gonna go. Cause I'm like, all right, there's been a lot of sightings right here.

And so I was like, that's gonna increase my chances. Cuz I didn't really want to bring in a ton of bait and mess around with all of that. And I didn't have an, originally I was planning on going in early and somebody gave me the idea to put scent in a Super soaker and spray it up in the trees, get it onto the leaves so the [00:52:00] rain doesn't wash away.

I was like, oh, that's a great idea, but I never had the opportunity to do that. So then, but then I'm just like, man, like two weeks up to when I hunted. There was some sightings in there. And these bears are not afraid of people at all. They just basically walk right up to your camp and they know you're gonna, most people are gonna run the other way.

Yeah. So they just get in, steal your pack, and they go, yeah. Yeah. And so I'm thinking, all right sweet. I'll just be frying up bacon in camp and lace one right. In camp. And it did not go that way. Yeah, it did. It was like, yeah, they, it's like suddenly the instincts kicking in. Yep. And they're like, I'm being hunted right now.

Yep. And that's the difference with bear hunting is because you are doing something that lets them know you're there. Yeah. Yeah. And with that comes, these animals know right off the bat, like. There's a state of vulnerability there that they have to heighten their senses to be careful around.

Yeah. And that's where that's where, circling all the way back to when we first were talking about how baiting gets a crummy stigma. And that's why. And it's it is so [00:53:00] unbelievably difficult and a lot of the bear groups and stuff that I belong to when I, people say I want to do this but not Bates, it's yeah.

It's I know what you're thinking dude. And it ain't, and it ain't that, it's probably your success rate from 10% to about two. Yeah. Really. Yeah. Good luck. Yeah. Yeah. They're yeah, just so elusive. And to go back to what you're talking about too, I remember just watching, I've got Film One Bear where he would lift his back leg up over just the smallest little quid, which is so cool.

Just not to make a sound or anything like that. And then going back to when I was in the boundary waters It as I was go paddling in, there was a guide that was coming out and he had two two other canoes behind him. And so he goes which campsite are you staying at? And I told him, which one?

And he goes, oh, there's a big bear over there. And he's 600 pounds. Easy. And what, I don't know. Maybe he knew, maybe he didn't, but I think everybody's a little bit deceived by their size for sure. So I took that with a grain of salt. Yeah. But at the same time, I was like six or seven miles [00:54:00] back and I'm thinking, gosh, if it really is a 600 pound bear, getting that thing outta here is gonna be a nightmare.

Yeah. Yeah. You're not sure. I'm sure you want it. I don't know if I wanna shoot a bear that big. Yeah. So that was going through my head. Yeah. The opportunity didn't come about. And so I had this idea where I was gonna fish. And I was gonna eat the fish and then I was gonna use the the carcasses or the guts for my bait and get up there.

And I'm slaying smallies all day long. And I was like, oh, this is great. I don't need to keep these. I'll come back out and try again later. Then weather come in. That's the bite dried up now. I no, the weather came in. I couldn't even get out on the lake. Oh, sure. Even worse. Cause I was solar.

Yeah. So I'm like, shoot, what do I do now? So then while I was shooting ducks off the shoreline Sure. And I was using the duck carcasses. And as I'm sitting in the tree I dunno if it was a pine Martin or Fisher, I can't tell the difference between the two, but it was coming in and stealing 'em.

Oh really? Yeah. What? Can't do nothing. Yeah. I can't, [00:55:00] they're not even in season, so I can't trap 'em. Yeah. Yeah. So I just got, so I'm just up there. I'm like, man, if I was in a survival situation right now, I'd be screwed. Totally screwed. You are surviving. But I've got dry, I've got dehydrated food and all that kind of stuff.

Yeah. I wanted to try to live off the land as much as I possibly could. Yeah. But yeah, it was super fun and I wanna do it again. I applied, but I didn't draw this year, so I was bummed out about that. I was surprised that I drew the first year. Yeah, that's, yeah. It's, but then I thought it's the boundary waters, there's probably not a lot of people trying it out, but then there's only 50 tags in that whole zone, that whole 22.

Yeah. And stuff like that too is you take into consideration, like driving, it's the farthest point to drive. And a lot of people don't, and then, you, especially with bear hunting where, you know, just even the other northern zones where, Going up there and baiting and ba that's what keeps a lot of people from Yeah.

DIY and bear hunts cuz it's just, there's just so much involved to it. Yeah. Yeah. The process leading up to it is the funnest part, for me. Oh, it's just the best dude every weekend going up and baiting and then just all of that and it's, [00:56:00] I dunno, killing the bear is still it still gets you going.

Oh yeah. But it's not as, for me anyways, as fun as the whole process leading up to it. Yeah. And even so upping the stakes and trying to add to the difficulty level by going to the boundary waters is awesome. I'm like super excited to do it again. I can't wait. Yeah. Cause I already know what I'm gonna change.

I already know what I'm gonna do different. Probably have a buddy up there with me, so if I need to go fishing, we can get out on the lake. Yeah. All those kinds of things, but yeah, they're just, they're not as easy as it sounds. And I don't know how else you would do it. No, honestly, if you didn't use dogs or bait or something.

Yeah. I think for all of hunting it's I always think of embrace the suck. Oh, absolutely. Everything's fun and like the hiking to your spot, like your glassing point. Yeah. This is cool. Great views and yeah, all of a sudden you kill this animal. It's yeah, we're all very thankful for the opportunity and we're going to eat, every bit that we can and not let it go to waste.

But then it's I feel like every time I'm bringing back a deer on just our private line, I'm like, Why [00:57:00] the hell am I doing this? I'm already beat, it's yeah. 9:10 PM at night. I need to be at work tomorrow morning. And it's dude, this sucks. Like my back is starting to hurt.

Yeah. It's embracing the suck, but in the end it's also worth it. Yeah. Grocery, grocery bill gets cut in half right there, so That's awesome. But it's the prep work is definitely so fun. It's awesome, leading up to it. But then after one, one, when I have that opportunity to, be something out west Yeah.

I think I'll truly know the suck. Yeah. Yeah. How much is really, yeah. The work is, some of the packouts can, be easy and some of them are just like, you can't even train for it. It's no. You're solo, you shoot a nice mature mule deer and you're four miles back.

Yeah. It's do you wanna make two trips or do you want to make one? And if you decide to make one Yeah. Yeah. That's, but like you said though, that's what. Doing a lot of these different hunts is, it reminds me a lot of like trout fishing, right? Trout aren't the biggest fish in the world.

They're not, the. Get some hate on this, but they're probably not the [00:58:00] best eating fish in the world. They're good, but they're not, but they live in the most beautiful places. Yeah. So like that suck of packing this thing out and it's I thought of climbing up a snow, like bombed in this little tiny chute that went up this plateau and like literally crawling up it with a mule deer on my back.

And God, it sucks so bad. But it's like, looking at it now, it's kinda like the trout fishing. It's it just makes you be in these different environments and these different situations that you would never put yourself in. If it wasn't for having that tag, and you go through the start to finish stuff and there's peaks and valleys to all of it.

There's peaks and valleys to the tagout or, the packout, there's peaks and valleys to the whole process. But it's just the fact that like when you go and you get that tag and it's like, Now I have this, contract to be in these places that are amazing and put myself in situations that I wouldn't normally be in.

And when you reflect on that, like years down the road, it's just dude, it's like I did that. Yeah. Like literally like you can sit there like when you can [00:59:00] sit back and you're just chilling and you got a moment to yourself and you just start reflecting. It's I did that. Or you see something on TV or social media that's just wild and you go, I can relate to that.

I did that. There's this, something happens inside you. Yeah. And I don't know what it is, but it's that belly fire that's connecting all these little deals that, that and to me, that's what fulfillment is, right? Yeah. Like you, you did that. And that's, to me, that's why you do it.

You chase that feeling of like it's fulfillment. Yeah, that suck is It's not like a, like when you have a sucky day hunting dude, I've had days where I've lost my mind. Throwing shit like, screw the deer, just like yelling it, like where're, just like mentally I broke down, and it's but then you hit these spots too, and you're just like, dude, that ride was wild, man. Yeah. You're dri I'm driving home. I got some Chicky tendee in my console, you know what I mean? Like I'm building the weight back up that I don't need to get whitetail fit. Yeah, dude. It's and I, and it's think, and then I just just subconsciously put [01:00:00] myself through the process again.

Like when I'm on the road and behind the wheel, it's like huge time of reflection for me, right? And it's like I start thinking of all the times like where I was like, man, just. So ready to tap and just, and it's and then you didn't, and then this good thing happened was that kind of, oh, a little bit of this, and then this super sucky thing happened and this, and just like the road where it led you.

Like I, my original plan was to start here and I didn't kill till here on day 16 or whatever, yeah. And it's like this year in Montana I spent 16 days hunting. From dark till dark. I had, I stayed in a hotel room two nights because the weather, it just, it wasn't safe. Yeah. But every other night, like I lived in the back of my truck and it never in those 16 days, like night, everything, it never got above freezing. And mentally at the end of it, I was smoked. Yeah. Like hiking in snow sucks. It's horrible. Tell me about it, man. It's like sand. It's like hiking in sand, yeah. And it's it's hard to wake up. It on day 13 and go, today's the day. [01:01:00] Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna, I'm gonna walk and I'm gonna be enthusiastic. I'm gonna be sharp. Today is the day, every day to wake up. And it's so my problem is in my truck doing the late season hunts is my water supply.

Yeah. So what I have to do is I've got a big chest cooler, and then I've got two like sport water bottles. And every morning before I leave, I've gotta boil water and fill those two up, drop 'em in there amongst my water supply, and then wrap the cooler in a blanket. And then I go hump all day and I come back and everything's cold.

It's not frozen. And then I make my meal and I eat and I catch up on social media and do all my texting and all this stuff and whatever. And then before I go to bed, I gotta boil the water again. And you gotta want it. Oh my gosh. And you go to bed in your clothes, you don't get outta your clothes, and you gotta, get warm in there.

And lots of wet white baths. Yeah. Staying clean like morally. Like you think, oh man, you must wreak and stink. Oh I don't, I'm clean. I like staying clean and finding ways to stay clean. Morally like you, that will help you exponentially more than anything other than getting good rest.

Yeah. So it's you like [01:02:00] that suck is and what I've found is, a lot of people have told me and over the years, like why do you do that? It's like you're purposely going outta your way to make things suck. Hence traditional archery doing the long bow. And it's because I love hunting.

Yeah. Yeah. I genuinely love hunting. I will probably spend the rest of my life and I won't shoot a lot of big deer that I could shoot because I love hunting. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not gonna pass up a beautiful 140 inch white tail so I can shoot 160 if the hunt's good and I'm on this.

And then the story's great. And the hunt's amazing I just love killing deer. Yeah, I love hunting. And again, it's expectations. I'll, there are guys that like, and there's levels of graduation and you just plateau in certain ones based on like your belly fire and what you're willing to do and like how bad you want it. But it's where I'm at and I've got friends that say, dude, why, some of the deer I shoot, and it's man, she, she could shoot a bigger one or you could do this and now you're putting all this time in. And it's I get it.

Like I don't really get too in, involved in, all this and that, but it's I just smile on whatever cuz like fulfillment's what I'm [01:03:00] after. Yeah. I'm cool with having a room full of one 40 s even one 30 s. Yeah. And like I can look at him and go, dude, remember that time?

You know what I mean? It's Yeah. Cuz I, I'm not like, I think a lot of people get too wrapped up in the whole number shit. You know what I mean? Yeah. And it robs him of a lot of joy. Because I, unless you're like graduating to a point where, you say, and I don't really like saying I wanna shoot 170 inch deer or bigger.

I'll just say, I would like a, a three and a half year old or bigger, a four and a half year old deer and I just, we just get so wrapped up in numbers and it just really robs a lot of people. And again, ultimately you could say that comes circles back to the expectations thing, yeah. And I just wish, and the same thing score my dear, score, my dear, we're so hyperly obsessed about numbers. And. Man, I'll never be that guy. It's just I'm not wired that way. Yeah. Like I realize if I sit in this tree for another seven days and I just, I pass up these one 50 s, there's a pretty solid chance I'll kill 160 inch deer.

But there's no way. I'm not passing that up. No. [01:04:00] Like the sun is beautiful, dude. I've been waiting for these conditions forever. This deer's got a beautiful cape. Like it's cut like I can smell 'em on the grill already. I don't, I'm not, I'm I, that's, I enjoy hunting.

Yeah. And there's a difference, and it, and you really gotta a, again, be honest with yourself and say, what do I want out of this? Yeah. This is because it, because if you go into it going, I want this big monster deer, what we all do. Yeah. Yeah. This is a little, it reminds me a little bit of our last episode with Jason's trophy version of trophy hunting or selective Yeah.

Selective hunting. And that's exactly what you're saying. It's if that's your fulfillment, that's what you want. Yeah. And that's gonna make you happy. The sun was just you can smell 'em on the grill, whatever it is. Yeah. You don't send it. Yeah. Whatever's one 20 or, you're waiting for this one 50, but dude, yeah.

Like the end when it's on that grill is like what you're there for the fulfillment that you know, what is your trophy? I wrote a post on that on Facebook, and it gained just an astronomical amount of traction, and it was like, shared everywhere. And I wrote a thing based on that, and it's and I [01:05:00] know there's a lot of people are like oh, when you see a post and it says, he's not the biggest, but Yeah.

Yeah. It's I can clearly see that. Yeah. Yeah. Could you and could you imagine if everything you killed was your biggest? It would suck, right? Yeah. Yeah. It would suck. Be excited about what you And it's Yeah. And it's you don't need to ma you could make that same exact post without that.

He's not the biggest part. Absolutely. Just chop that part off. Yeah. You don't need validation from somebody else. You don't need to explain to me. Why he's not 170 inches. I wanna know like how close did you get? Did tell me about it.

What was the story? And it's y you've got so many people that are just, I shouldn't say so many people. It's always the dicks that are the loud ones. You know what I mean? Yeah. And people in their head they get inside their own head and they're like, oh they'll walk up to an animal and be like, oh, and it's dude, are you kidding me?

Like this is a great bear. This is in it. You got a little fork buck. It's yeah. That's awesome. Do you know how many people that don't shoot a buck period? Yeah. That's a big deal. Tell me about it. Let's hear it. Yeah. And then you got guys like, what the hell did you shoot that and blah, blah, blah.

It's dude, go lay down, [01:06:00] man. Yeah. This ain't for you. This is hunting. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I mean it, that you were, we were just talking about that fork buck, and I brought it to the episode last time just to explain my philosophy on it, and you know how I've always just tried to just try to one up myself a little bit.

Yeah. You know what I mean? And then you and I've been in situations where I'm like, okay, that might not be, That might not be feasible. I can't, I don't see 160 inch mule deer in this area, but I see a one 40. Yep. And man, he looks like he'd be a lot of fun to stock and kill, so I'm gonna try.

Yep. Yeah. And again, I'm gonna try because everything, for you to even get within shooting range and then for everything to all fall into place after that is I guess maybe for some people like Cam Hays, he would knock it out of the park in a heartbeat. There's no chance he could miss or mess up, but whatsoever Yeah.

It's flawless performance. Yeah. To go, to, go back, I guess to, what you were talking about with oh shoot. I lost my train of [01:07:00] thought. Literally, I'm going, we need to have you on more because seriously, this is the way we want these episodes to go. Yeah. Because the conversation is so much more organic and I, this is one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on too, because you're real you're not afraid to be vulnerable.

You, you said some things that probably weren't easy for you to talk about, and so thank you for that. Yeah. And, for giving us some of that insight, cuz I'm over here too sometimes wanting to say, not in the but when I'm writing I'm like, oh, should I talk about that? Yeah. And I'm like, ah, that's too personal.

But then I'm like maybe it's not, it's not, and again, I'm not gonna, I would want it to come up more organically and not just start, boasting about me or whatever. But to go back to talking about just, oh, this is, this was my thought. So bingo, when you're talking about, I see the light bulb, like literally Yeah, I saw it.

I was like, oh shit. I'm gonna edit one into on the video. But so when you were talking about people asking you like, why do you do it? You know what I mean? [01:08:00] And I oftentimes ask myself that when you're sitting out and you, it's. Late November, and it's snowing and it's sideways, and you're sitting there for four hours and there's literally a layer of ice building up on one side of your body because it's just building up.

And you're just sitting there, you're shivering, you're freezing, you're cold. Why? Why do you do it? You know what I mean? Especially with as many times as you're gonna probably do that and maybe not even see a deer. Yeah. And that's where I think a lot of people they just think, oh there's a deer running around.

I see deer trails. I see this, I see that. There's definitely gotta be a deer that comes by. So then oftentimes, again, I'll have people ask me that, but I ask myself that, why? And then I'm like cuz you know, I need that. It's my therapy, right? Yeah. It's my, like you said on your drives, that's your moment to reflect, your time to reflect.

And more often than not, I find myself pulling out my phone and doing this. So again, I have to force myself put the phone away cuz that, that's just how I deal with my [01:09:00] adhd right. In the stand. But then I started thinking and this is not to take away from the love that you have for hunting, because I, that probably supersedes this by, by any means, but I start thinking about the subconscious thing as to why you might do it.

And you've got this new thing where people are doing these ice baths and they're kind putting themselves through these struggles, right? And they talk about it, if you're, if you go to church or if you have, if you're spiritual, they talk about that a lot too.

If you're on a bad road, just, this is the path, this is the, this is what's gonna get you to where you need to be. Sure. And you don't understand it now, but just you'll figure it out later. Yeah. And so that's where I feel sometimes too, is you, your body is always trying to stay in homeostasis, and so when you put yourself below, it slingshots you up.

So when you spend that time suffering Yeah. It just, when you come out of it. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It's just, oh yeah. So the first thing, amazing feeling, first thing that pops into my head when you say that is look at some of the most amazing art in the world. Yeah. Take [01:10:00] music songs, right? Some of the most amazing songs that were ever written, like people are in despair, they're in jail, they're going through the hardest, toughest crap of their life. And that's where I went back to what I was thinking about when you were talking about writing. I would say like, whenever you're in one of those, then write yeah.

Just write stuff down. And then you can use pieces of that for your post. But when you're in like emoting, Is what makes, that's what's relatable. That's what makes your content relatable. I can post deer till I'm blue in the face and there's always gonna, people be people that visually look at that and go, I love deer hunting, therefore, I love this picture.

When you put some beautiful words to it that said, I use my grandpa's old gun. Yeah. This deer means so much to me, somebody that's done that, like if somebody that hasn't done that's gonna look at that, they're gonna feel that emotion and be like, that just made that so much more than what it is.

And I think you can, and you're not gonna, you're not gonna hit everybody with it, but they're, but what this post, you hit these people and what this post a week later, you hit these people. Yeah. And when you can emote and be more like that. And I think a lot of it too [01:11:00] where you're talking right now is like the why I think for a lot of people that have a higher balance, it's just, it's a lot of that has to do with its primal.

Yeah. You have that hunter gene, you have that drive like that, that goes back. How many umpteen years. It's a primal thing in, in, in select people that just really can't get enough of it. And they enjoy this. Yeah. And the suck part of it is it's just as, it's just as wakeful as the high parts.

Yeah. Because it, because if you don't have one, you don't have the other, and it's just this thing that's, you're just going through stuff. And again, I think that all boils down to the primal part of it that. That's what pushes you, keeps pushing you into these situations and you're doing it.

And once you're there, you're like, man, this kind of sucks. Why am I doing it? And then this ha, wow, this was fun. What a good day. And then once it's all kind of wraps together and it's sitting there and you're sitting over your animal and you're done and you're eating like the literally the shittiest meal, but it's the best meal you've ever had because you just went through all this stuff.

It's two in the morning, all your [01:12:00] stuff's back, and you're, it's done. Yeah. It's done. And you're sitting there and you're like, I'm so emotional in those moments. And it's just this right here, I will chase this feeling that I have in my entire body right now for the rest of my life and nothing can stop me.

Yeah. That's how I feel right now. Yeah. It's like that the velvet Muley that I was showing you back there. Yeah. When I killed him, I watched him for four or five days. Yeah. Until the opportunity came. You created like this relationship, like it's so Yeah. And I, when I finally found the opportunity that I thought was the best.

And we've talked about this before too, if you haven't explored the area, like you have no idea what's between you and that day. Yeah. And I learned that the hard way. I literally rolled down that hill and my bow went flying and it was it was just without getting too much into detail.

Yeah. It just, it was bad. And I'm like, okay, this, my head goes to, okay, this wasn't meant to happen. Because what are the chances now at this point that I'm gonna dust myself off, get over there and he's still gonna be there. Yeah. Or he's still gonna present me with that opportunity, or my bow's not [01:13:00] jacked up and it's gonna fling my air away over here.

So I always keep judo heads in my quiver. And so I shot a couple. I'm like, all right, it's still on. I'm like, I didn't roll down this hill just to climb back up and not try. Worked my way in there, got in, got an opportunity, shot him, and then, that was it. But, and it was super just so much more fulfilling.

Yeah. Jason talked about how he was chasing after this really big mule deer. And when he finally got the opportunity, he got out of his truck, climbed under a fence, got his cross hairs on it, from the, from right off the road. Yeah. And then decided this just isn't right. Cause think about it, right?

Would you rather go out day one? Yeah. Fill your tag, shooting it off the road and then be done? Or do you want to at least get into your five or six or seven day hunt that you want to do? You gotta, the suffering part. Yeah. Just elevates everything. Yeah. And it gives you, I think that, I don't know.

That adrenaline rush that I think, we need, there's like a sixth side of us as hunters [01:14:00] where it's like we need to feel some sort of low Oh yeah. In order to just push us that much further. Yeah. It's just weird. Oh. It's I don't think many people outside of this community can understand like we need that suck and Yeah.

To suffer. Yep. And then it's hell yeah, it was worth it. Why am I gonna do it? I have no idea. But it's amazing. It feels great and I think a lot, I suck. Yeah. I think a lot of that unexplainable stuff is the primal stuff, cuz yeah. When people that don't have that and they look at you and they're like, Why the hell would you do that?

And you're literally like having trouble putting it into words and feelings like as to really why? And then you're driving away going, Jesus, why do I do this? And then you think of that moment where you're eating a like the most delicious, Bo Ramen noodles. And it's like this, the western star sky is there, and like you got all your meat bags hanging up and you're in your truck and you're just like, you're just so dehydrated.

And it's just like that. That's why. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I don't know how to say, I don't know how to, like you can explain that and describe that like beautifully to somebody, and it's still unless you're in that moment [01:15:00] feeling all those things and it just funneled down into that, it's like there is, there's, there is no media to, to be able to put that inside you.

Yeah. So you can experience that why. Just the way you told it. Just made my hair stand up, just Yes. Thinking about it, and then to actually be there and experience like nothing else. Yeah. And it's I can describe that scenario that I did, and literally that was a South Dakota experience.

I had bow hunting and it's but instantly it's a trigger for memories and fulfillment that you have. And you bring that to the forefront and it's oh yeah, like that time I was bear hunting and I'll, and to me, like that's in a nutshell, fulfillment is because at the end of the day, that's literally the only thing. What's in between your ears, you're taking with you. It is the only thing. It's the only thing that you get to have. For yeah. Forever. I can go buy another house. I can go, do you know what I mean? Yeah. I can't shoot that bear again.

I can't go through this season in Idaho again. I can't, like and all these one time and really that's what hunting and fishing and all that is it's, it can never happen again. That day is that day. Yeah. Yeah. You'll never ca you know, I don't wanna say you'll never catch that fish again, but it's these are all things that [01:16:00] are like, Once it happens.

And you have that right. And to me, like at the end, like at the end, whatever that is, like when you can look back and go you can feel good about. Being proactive with your balance. You know what I mean? And you can look back at it and go, cuz there's gonna come a time when, I mean there is an end game to this.

Your physical health and all that stuff is going to, you're not gonna be able to hike 10 miles in Yeah. In inclines and whatever. Not me. And you're gonna, but there's gonna come a time where you're gonna have to realize that this is gonna slow down whether you want it or not.

And are you gonna be okay with it when that time comes? And I think that's my mantra is the inspiration thing, but a little bit different of an angle at it. And it's, it, you just gotta start. If there was something that I could say to anybody for a little bit of advice, it would be just start working a little more at sacrificing some [01:17:00] comforts to do things that you enjoy to do.

Yeah. Yeah. Your life will improve exponentially. Definitely. I'm talking dude, like stuff like. Yeah. Downgrade your cable package. So you're saving 40 bucks a month. At the end of the year, dude, that's a couple tags or that's your gas is paid for fuel is the number one cost of stuff now.

Yeah. To drive out to Montana back your, now you got your fuel covered, you have no excuse now. And then you're like, oh, I got $800 that I could use for fuel. Just that little tiny thing. That belly fire, little stick on it. Yeah. And that to me is like the meaning of life, dude.

Just keeping that belly fire hot. Yeah. Rolling. It's keeping it hot. It's twofold. Cause if you're not sitting there watching tv, you're doing something maybe more productive reading a book or, anything like that too. Definitely. Hey man. We're gonna, we're gonna probably cut it short, but we're gonna, we gotta do this again for sure, man.

And I'm, you're close, so that's cool. Oh, yeah. We got your bow, we're gonna get some new strings on it. We're gonna get you some new arrows, so you'll be back for sure. So I don't know if [01:18:00] that'll work out Yeah. That soon, but definitely wanna do this again. Yeah. And we could talk for days I think.

Yeah. Yeah. This is awesome. Yeah, for sure. Seriously if, We could have broke everything. If I could have wrote an outline as you were talking, I'd have 10 questions after that. I know. Yeah. Just the stuff that you're saying. I'm like, okay. There. And then there's always like afterwards and you're done.

And again, when you're kinda reflecting, you're like, oh, I wish we, and then, oh this and ah, yeah. But yeah. I love to have you on again. Josh so where can where can our listeners find you out there in the digital world? I know you're on Facebook, right? Yep. Facebook and YouTube are pretty much my biggest, and I would say just for my demographic, I probably do the most of my stuff on Facebook.

Okay. And that's just Wells Outdoor Journal. Okay. Okay. Perfect. And we'll link to that too in the video. And we'll get a card in there too, a banner in there for you too, so we can maybe try to send some people your way. Heck yeah. Even though we have more to benefit. You do. Yeah. And so hopefully we get some of your people.

Yeah, that's exactly [01:19:00] right, man. It's a little barter system. Yeah. Is the YouTube the same then Wells Outdoor Journal? Yeah. Yep. Okay. Yep. Sweet. And I'm assuming that'll be linked on the Facebook as well. Yep. Yeah. Sweet. All. You can find us on the Range podcast on Instagram, on Facebook, and you can find me Jake Ivy three on Instagram and Jake Iversson and Hollywood in parentheses on Facebook.

That's really weird cuz right here I don't see all those commas. Where did all those what? You didn't like my I can redo it if you want. No, I'm just kidding. I to bust you bust your balls. Yeah, I liked doing it like that. That was really. We're leaving a lot of cliffhangers there.

Next mule deer. So y'all can find me at Ricky Wayne 80 ig and Ricky w Bruley on Facebook. Please be sure to head over to Vapor Trail YouTube channel. If you like the video, hit that thumbs up button and make sure to subscribe so you can be up to date and all things archery. Once again, thanks Josh for joining us, man.

Appreciate. You guys have last we definitely look forward to having you on again. He's coming [01:20:00] back. Absolutely. We got so many things to talk about. You're great dude. Thanks for putting yourself out there and doing all that. That's huge. And with that we're gonna pack up our bows and arrows and we're gonna leave the range.

Have a great day everybody. Peace. See ya. Vapor Trail is now offering an exclusive discount to the range podcast listeners. Enter promo code T R P 15. That's T r p 15 at checkout for 15% off VTX Post strings and Vapor Trail and still rise. Branded t-shirts, hats, and other gear.

‍