Get Mobile w/ Rob Hummel

This week on The Average Conservationist Podcast, Marcus is joined by Rob Hummel. Rob is the owner of 2% Certified Mountain Man Deer Processing, a mobile deer processing company based in the tri-state area. Rob kicks things off talking about his upbringing in the outdoors and what got him into hunting. The guys talk about how Rob decided to start the company and how his process works. Rob discusses the importance of caring for the meat and what customers can expect from him when he shows up ready to process your deer. Rob uses the same care on his customers' deer as he would his own, so you can expect the absolute best quality. Rob and his team will process and give you whatever cuts you want, vacuumed sealed and ready to go by the time he leaves. If you're in the tri-state area and think you may need some help with your next deer, be sure and check them out!

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What is going on everybody? Happy Wednesday. Welcome back to the Average Conservationist Podcast, and I'm your host, Marcus Shing. All right. Today I am joined by Rob Hummel, and Rob is the owner and founder of 2% Certified Mountain Man Deer Processing. And what that is a mobile deer processing setup, which I think is just an incredible idea and.

Basically the way it works is in the area that Rob operates in, [00:02:00] if you're a hunter and you get a deer down and do you want to want help to get it processed call Rob out. He comes out there and basically breaks everything down for you. Cuts everything up, gives you the cuts and everything that you're looking for vacuum seals it and within, a couple hours time of Rob and him, either Rob and his team or just rob himself showing up.

You have your deer ready to go, ready to hit the freezer. And one of the nice things and Rob and I talk about this is. A lot of times when you take your deer to a processor, you're not 100% certain that the meat that you're getting back is actually yours. And with that comes, you don't know how the animal was cared for.

How it was handled prior to potentially showing up at the processor or wherever it is that you're bringing your meat. So there's a lot of questions out there. [00:03:00] What Rob does is, he puts your mind at ease. You know exactly what it is that you're getting and he's gonna make sure that you get every last ounce of, meat off of that deer that you're able to, and, Rob's been, an outdoors man, a hunter for, pretty much his entire life.

So he has a great deal of experience and takes a great deal of pride in the work that he does. He knows how important meat and, the work that goes into getting a deer on the ground how important that is. His approach his, philosophy is that, you as the customer are going to get or going to receive, the same care and attention to detail that he would have if, if he were processing his own deer.

So I think that says a, you know a lot about, what Rob's mindset is. And I think with that is going to come an extremely high level of quality from the work and from the cuts and everything that you're gonna get. Yeah, it's it's a super cool idea. [00:04:00] And, prior to speaking with Robin doing a little bit of research ahead of time, I was.

Aware of people that were out there doing this. And it makes a lot of sense because there's a lot of people who, don't have time to get it to a processor. If there's not one close. Don't have the means to process a deer themselves. And what Rob and his team do is that, they take a lot of the guesswork out of it and they just make it extremely easy to get things.

Packaged up and in your freezer and ready to go. Super fun episode. Yeah, it was one that. Was really enjoyable for me and I think you guys are gonna enjoy it too. And, if you guys are in, the tri-state area where Rob operates and you're looking for an alternative for processing your deer this season definitely be sure to look them up.

So episode 1 45 with Rob Hummel. Enjoy. Before we do that though get into the episode. Want to tell you about my friends and partners over at Stone Glacier. We're [00:05:00] coming up on Turkey season in Spring Bear. Now's a great time to pick up some gear for not only the spring hunting season, but also as you prepare for your potential out-of-state hunt or just your regular season as it is next fall.

Now's a great time to slide over to Stone Glacier and check out all their gear, whether it's, shelters, sleep systems mid layers, base layers, outer layers, whatever the case is. And, Most importantly a good pack. So head over to stone glacier.com, check them out. And if you haven't already, be sure to download the Stone Glacier app and stay up to date with everything that's going on there.

You can download that on the iTunes store or at Google Play whichever your device is. So again, check them out@stoneglacier.com. Alright, Rob Humel, welcome to the Average Conservationist Podcast. How are you today? Fine, thanks. How are you? Hey, I'm good. I appreciate you making some time. I know we had to reschedule last week.

You had some some sick family members there. Yeah. In the house running around and everything and I [00:06:00] had to push back our time tonight cuz it was my son's birthday today. And Festiv just they ran a little bit long. You know how those things going. Oh, absolutely. Happy birthday to him. Make some time.

So Rob, before we dive into this a little bit, why don't you tell the people a little bit about yourself and the name of your company? All right. My name's Rob Hummel and I started a company called Mountain Man Deer Processing. We are a mobile deer processor basically in the tri-state area.

And we saw that with the new laws and rules and everything else like that, being mobile was really the way to go. Cause we can go over state lines and process. Everybody's getting their deer that day. So what does your background look like? Were you, are you a butchered by trade or just something that being in the outdoors for a long time was just something you've become really comfortable with, really accustomed to and just figured you could help other people.

So I'm actually in law enforcement is my primary job. But I grew up in a hunting household. And that's how this whole thing got started. I learned from my dad who's been hunting my entire life, how to process and,[00:07:00] everything else like that. So I was always, cutting up deer and cutting them up for myself.

And then all my friends would call me up and ask me to process their deer. So after a while I decided, you know what? Let's see if I can make me make a couple bucks doing this. And it snowball. So how old were you when you first got into hunting and got into the outdoors? Honestly, I was pretty young, like my family had a cabin in the Northern Catskills, so ever since I was a baby we had been going up there, and it started with the fishing and, going out with my BB gun and, stuff like that. And it just, I lost it for a while. I ended up going away to college playing D one lacrosse.

And then once I started my job in law enforcement, I was around a lot of people who hunted and it came back to me and just never really looked back at that point. Yeah. All right, so I got some follow ups there. Where'd you play lacrosse at? Sacred Heart. Right on. No, it's, I always love when we get, when I, so I, [00:08:00] the people listening are tired of hearing this, but I played division two college football a long time ago.

So whenever I get another athlete on here, I'm always super excited. Especially like someone who's played at a higher level. Do one want Isaac gets as far as lacrosse, unless you go pro. Yeah. It's a lot of work, but I had the very similar. Kind of path where I grew up in a hunting family.

Did it also growing up, and then I would imagine, like even when you got into high school and lacrosse, is that in the spring or is that in the fall? Spring. Okay. So you at least had your falls wide open for deer hunting and whatnot. But yeah, you get into school and then yeah, sports takes over. And you don't really have any time for it. And. That was probably my mid twenties before I reconnected with the outdoors again and fell back into it. No, I can certainly appreciate the path that you took. Yeah, absolutely. So how was it that you heard about 2% for conservation?

Actually it was a another business owner from Westchester County[00:09:00] yearning Wild who has a a a pet. Pet treat business. Yep. And I don't remember who reached out to who or who started following who or whatever else, but I remember seeing him post up something about 2% for conservation.

And I reached out to him asking, what exactly is this? What does it do? Tell me about it. And he he filled me in. He was like, it's absolutely awesome. He was like, 1% of your time and it's 1% of your income and from the business and it goes towards, the organization or conservation group of your choice where you know your money's actually gonna be making a difference.

Yeah, no, that's that. Yeah. Yearning Wild. We've had them, I had them on the podcast. Yeah. Super cool idea that he came up with. Is that someone that you know personally or just came across through? Like social media? Same geographical area? No, just through social media. Yeah. Social media's a powerful thing.

It really is. Sometimes I can't stand it and I, I understand the [00:10:00] necessity of it, especially with small businesses and things like that, and trying to get your name out there and spread awareness by your brand. But there's times where sometimes it feels like a bit of a chore, right?

I don't feel like posting. But great things come out of it and this is certainly one of them. Yeah. Every once in a while I feel like I just need to just take a step back. Cuz it's a lot it's a lot of work for the whole social media aspect and keeping up and, knowing what's going on.

And how did you find yourself in law enforcement? Was that something. Did you have family members that were in it or, in college, it was just something that you recall? I didn't have any family in it. I actually was originally gonna be a teacher went to school for that. And it just, this just happened, I couldn't really see myself doing a job where, it was the same thing every.

You know where for me now, you never know which, you know what's gonna happen one day to the next. You know who you're gonna meet, you know what's gonna happen, things like that. So it's always.[00:11:00] It's not dull, I'll tell you that. Yeah, no I can certainly imagine. I've had some guests on who have worked in law enforcement previously, and yeah, that was the same reasons why they really fell in love with it, was it was something different every day.

They knew that they were making a difference serving their communities and things like that. No, I, I really respect and appreciate individuals who, who do that line of work. It oftentimes feels like a bit of a thankless job for, some people, have for whatever reason, negative perceptions and things like that, which I could not disagree with more.

So no, thank you for your service, Rob. I, we really appreciate that. Thank you. We don't, not anybody that I know, we don't do it for, for that, it's, we try to make a difference wherever we can. It doesn't always work, but you try, you do your best. Yeah. Yeah.

That's all we can ask. Back to Mountain Man gear processing. What first off, what does your setup look like? [00:12:00] As a, as essentially a mobile deer processor, mobile butcher. Yeah. If you will, what is the whole process? So I'm in, the tri-state areas. I get a deer down. I call you up and say, Hey, Rob.

Got a deer down, meet your help. Walk me through the process. All right. So we would get a phone call and it's usually a very good friend of mine Kevin Denberg who usually comes with me on on the jobs. And usually we get a phone call or I get the phone call person tells me, Hey, I just got a deer.

Can you process, can you butcher it for me? And I'm like, yep, absolutely. What, where are you located? We'll be there in this amount of time. And basically we show up, we pull right up. And then the price includes Cape Quarter process, whatever custom cuts of meat they want done.

And then everything gets vacuum sealed and labeled. And then and then we're outta there. What is, first, tri-state area, it's a fairly large area and especially being more of a metropolitan type area I [00:13:00] gotta imagine it can take anywhere from one to maybe three hours. I don't know.

I haven't been out that way, but what is, it's a process or to move around? No, to move around. It really depends, if this past year I was actually fighting an injury, so there really wasn't much that I could. So unfortunately I had to turn a bunch of people away. But they had already heard about how good our process was.

And that's why we kept getting phone calls. But Now, is it a flat rate? Like if people want like specific cuts, if they want, turn to have you cut up some, like tomahawks or something like that. Like I'm assuming that, that takes more time.

That's, it's more precise when it comes to breaking down the animal. What does that look like? So for us, the way I set up the the trailer, I have a six by 12 enclosed. And I have it all set up for. Basically everything minus the band saw and a couple other things. So basically you're [00:14:00] getting de-boned, steaks, roasts chop meat, stew meat things like that.

The chop meat. We do have beef fat or pork fat, depending on what people want. And then we add that to the chop meat. And usually we do 90 10, 90 venison, 10 to fat. So that you are getting that flavor more of the venison but you still don't need that fat content for the for the meat.

Yeah. Now, I guess going back to the previous question today, W how long does it take, once you get on site, because I'm assuming that, once the customer calls you, like they have the Deerfield dress, they probably maybe have it hung or they have it somewhere where it's airing out the meets, staying cool and everything like that.

Yep. Hopefully. We have we do offer field dressing for an additional charge but usually. If somebody calls me up, whether they use me or not I'll try to walk them through how to feel dressed, the deer. Cuz even if we're [00:15:00] not gonna be doing the processing, I want somebody to be able to get the, the best.

Product that they can, so I will walk people through field dressing and they can do it themselves. If not, and they are gonna use us. Sometimes I would prefer to do the field dressing and I won't always charge people for it. Just because I'm gonna do it the best way that we can for the processing to make sure, there's nothing on the meat that can taint it or cause any.

Do you ever find that happens a lot where someone feels trusty animal themselves and maybe they nick the guts or they tore up the tender loins or anything like that? Do you see that fairly regularly? Oh, absolutely. This past year I took a lot of photos and I saved them and I would actually send them to the costume.

Basically so that we both had a record of it and I, where I would bring them out and say, Hey, listen, before I go any further, I just want you to see this. I haven't touched it yet, but I'm only gonna be able to save one of your tenderloins. So that nobody accuses me [00:16:00] of, taking anything or doing anything.

And that's also the nice part about being mobile. Because people have literally sat there and had a beverage while we were sitting there cutting up their deer. Or going inside to watch football or, whatever else. Man, I think if it were me, I would, I know how to feel dressed an animal.

I, I can say that I've not. Broke it down and butchered it. My, like one myself, I've been a part of like deer camps where, you know, at the end of three or four days if we have, three or four deer or something like that, we'll all do it together. One of those types of things.

And we're not great with it. There's still a bunch of silver skin and stuff that we just tell everyone Hey, whatever you're gonna take you'll just trim it up after you thought and decide to eat it and whatnot. But for someone like me, it would be super interesting to see here and watch you work, right?

Like I would be the guy. Having a beer look, looking over your shoulder, but not trying to tell you to do something wrong. Yeah. But Hey, why'd you do this? How'd you do that? That kind of thing. It's I'd want to know for, for my own personal career. Oh, ab absolutely. And we actually did do a lot of that.

We [00:17:00] actually got to a point now where we've been offering classes. So if somebody calls us up they have a deer, we will show up, for whatever price it was. And basically we will break the whole thing down. We will do, show the customer the whole, how you do one side of the deer, how they want it done.

And then basically we sit there and walk them through how to do the other side which is, cool. And then, whatever questions they have we're right there to walk 'em through it and, teach people how to do it themselves. Yeah, cuz I think that hands-on experience, like being able to have someone talk you through while you're actually doing it is so much more beneficial than trying to watch a YouTube video sometimes.

Or have someone try to talk you through it, whether it's on the phone or even, standing, that's not standing next to you, but having someone while you're there doing it, I think, and allowing them to do it themselves. It's the start of that muscle memory, right? Like you. Retain a lot more of that information if you do it yourself, as opposed to, while you're [00:18:00] doing, you're telling me why you're doing it.

Because chances are next time they have a deer down, they're gonna go, shit, what the hell was Rob saying that day? God damn, I don't remember anything that he told me. Yeah. And that's what's nice, I don't remember exactly what the price was at the, in right now but the price included, literally, you call us at any point in time you get another deer and we'll walk you through it.

And that's actually. And that, my, my phone is always on, for those, good customers, good, people and, everything else like that. Yeah. So Holland Long, what would you say it takes you to actually you show up gear's. Gear's ready to go, start to finish. Once again. It also depends on what they want, what they're looking for. But it could usually take about an hour and a. Maybe two hours at most, and then we're out of there. Yeah, no, that's, community figure from the time you get a deer down, You get, feel dressed, you get it to a place, and then, assuming that you're, relatively close by, that's pretty good to have a deer on the ground in your freezer and under five hours potentially.

Oh. And that's fairly rare. And that's [00:19:00] also why we did it, looking back, I've never used a processor before but I had heard a lot of stories from people. They drove how far to go have their deer processed. They have to drop it off. They have to wait.

How long? You don't know if you're actually getting your deer back. And that was a big thing for us, where people know that exact same day that they call us, that they got their deer. It's gonna be in the freezer later that day, vacuum sealed and ready to go. Yeah. The, you're.

Or I guess knowing that the meat that you're getting back is your own that's a big thing. Because I've taken plenty of deer to processors and I feel like a lot of times what they'll do is, there's one particular, it's a smokehouse where they sell all sorts of, medicine or different types of Turkey and all that stuff.

But they have, a fairly good process in terms of you have the weighing line, you get to their scale, they help you get the deer out, they [00:20:00] weigh it and they can basically say, if the deer is 200 pounds, dressed like okay, you'll have a hundred pounds of meat. Or just for rough milk, right?

Yeah. Two weeks later you show back up cuz they say, you after you choose your cuts and all that stuff. You're just getting venison, I feel like at that point, yeah, there's almost no way to guarantee, and I would almost guess that they would not be able to guarantee that it's your deer. Oh, absolutely.

And that was another thing, like you don't know how somebody took care of their deer or if they, or if they did at all. We actually, we had to turn a few people away where I'm sure a couple other processors, like really big ones probably would've taken those deer. And we unfortunately had to turn people away because those deer were rotten and we don't want to, and we won't ever take a chance on processing deer for somebody that they could get sick off of.

Yeah. Barring last season, you said when you were fighting an injury on a typical year, let's say we're going into, the 2023 season. How many gear would you [00:21:00] say that you guys process? So this is a, this past year was really only the second year. Okay. Full first year, if anything.

We got I probably got well over 125 phone calls as a mobile processor, but we weren't able to do even close to that just because of the injuries and everyth. Yeah, that's a lot of deer. Yeah. That's like a, that's almost like a full-time job in and of itself. Oh, absolutely.

And it's all really thanks to social media and everything, and word of mouth and, it's, that helped a lot, starting off the first year, which we really didn't do a whole first. We had a bunch of repeat customers cuz they loved the process. We took a little extra off every piece, but there was no trimming.

There was, you took that meat out, you marinated, and you were good to go. And a lot of people really liked that. And we do for other people exactly what we would do for ourselves and I think that's why people were so happy. Yeah, I think there's something to be said about that, especially someone who can appreciate.

The [00:22:00] work that goes into processing your own gear and just being able to provide for yourself, for your family, with, all that wild meat. Like you want to treat that it's almost like gold, right? Yeah. Like I've told this story before, but. I have a like a deep freezer in the garage that for the most part, it's a lot of wild game meat.

And two summers ago, maybe three at this point my son, who was like two at the time we were out in the garage driveway goofing around. He was in the summertime and I, he ran over to the freezer and he was like messing around with it. And I wasn't really paying a. I go out to get some meat like a week and a half later, and he had turned the dial to defrost.

Oh boy. And I had no idea. I had at least a deer and a half in there. I had bare meat. I had, salmon, I had I had so much wild game and it almost didn't register with me at first. I opened the lid. I was like, man, this looks like something is off here. This doesn't look right.

And I like grabbed something [00:23:00] and I thought to myself like, huh, this isn't very cold. What's the deal here? To take that approach that you're gonna give someone the same quality and care that you would take with your own, I think says a lot. Absolutely. And when you have a business like this, that's the only way that you could really do it.

Y it's important to us and I think a lot of people really do appreciate that. Yeah, no, absolutely. So how long did it take, Growing up, in a hunting family and processing a lot of deer yourself, growing up, at what point did you really feel comfortable like breaking down a deer, not just field dressing, but like breaking it down, skinning it, de-boning it, hide all that stuff?

Yeah that's a good question. Probably 10, 15 years ago, just doing it so often. You you I don't wanna say get good at it, but, it's all right. It gets, comes second nature and, yeah. How much time do you actually get to spend in the field then?

If, if, like last year, for example if [00:24:00] you field it, over 125, cause now granted you weren't able to, help all those people out, but gosh, how much time did you even get in a tree stand? So it's honestly, it's a lot of preseason prep work, doing the cameras, getting out.

I'm still a big bow hunter, that's my thing. And I'll never lose that. But also family is really important to me, I learned a lot after last year and even the first year, it sucks to have my. At the time, my three-year-old daughter come over and say, Hey daddy, come play with me.

And it's Hey baby girl, I can't, I have to go cut up a deer. And after that I was like, what? I love the business, it's not my main source of income, and now this upcoming season I'm gonna do, I'm gonna take a lot of, good customers, but I'm gonna spend more time with my family.

I'm gonna, do the pumpkin picking and if when I can find time for me to hit the woods, I'm going to and if I can't take a call, then I'm not going to. If I could find people that could process for me, absolutely, that would be [00:25:00] awesome. I definitely wouldn't be making even close to the amount of money, but at least the business would still be working and, the name would still be out there and everything else.

Yeah. And there's that trade off, right? Making sure. You have the integrity that you want buying the business, you, you said it very well, like family's important. Like that kind of comes first for anything that majority of us, right? Like absolutely. It, like this past season for whatever reason, like it, the way things just worked out, like I think I spent.

Six or seven days hunting. Yeah. And that was it. I didn't get out with, I, I didn't get out during rifle season at all. It was all during bow season. Yeah. And yeah, that's just, it's the way it goes sometimes, right? Yeah. Like I don't regret it. Hopefully next year I can spend some more time.

You said, you mentioned your daughter was fairly young. My kids are right around that same age. One, my son just turned four today. And my daughter's six. Yeah. So like I know exactly what that's at the same time. You wanna be able to enjoy the time in the wood, kids are only young once.

Absolutely. No matter what family comes first. [00:26:00] Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. So do you ever think that. Hopefully as time goes that maybe you add like a second mobile unit or something like that so that it takes some of the burden off of you as long as, assuming you trust the people that are doing it and the quality of work that they're doing, that you can service more customers or you can cover, maybe a larger area.

Yeah, absolutely. I, I would love to have that, we actually set up a business expansion plan in order to do something like and once again, like you said, it's just, it's trying to find that those good workers, those, those hunters, those people that have a background in it that know their way around a knife that can, process anywhere.

We had been in talks with quite a few people and everything's at this point, fallen through with the way the economy is and everything else like that. But, we'll see. It's always a possibility. Yeah. So we touched on the 2% thing earlier, but what are some of the organizations that you've decided to [00:27:00] work with and get back to?

All right, so I love bear hunting. That's like my, deer whitetail is one thing. But I got really hooked into Black bear honey. I absolutely love it. To me it's a rush, whether you shoot something or not, it's just, it's more important for me to be able to go sit in the woods and relax.

And that's where I you do a lot of thinking, and that's where it's important. But the black bear, to have that bear come in so quiet and you don't really see him until the last second and everything else like that. Isn't it amazing though that an animal that size can be that quiet?

That's incredible because you think about, think about when you're bow hunting, right? Especially on a calm day, late October, right? A lot of leads are on the. If it's a dry day you can hear field mice. Oh yeah. And it sounds it's very loud. Now granted your senses are very heightened.

You're very in tune with your surroundings and what's going on. But a bear yeah. To be able to like, [00:28:00] move through the woods, like that's definitely is, it's super impressive. Oh it's incredible. So with that being said I recently got connected with the American Bear Foundation. And I spoke to the gentleman that runs that, organization and I really love what they're doing, and we lost for the past three years the bear hunt in New Jersey due to political reasons.

But what hunters and conservationists knew was going to happen is exactly what happened. The bear population absolutely explode. And now it's causing a lot of issues where bears are attacking people, bears are attacking, pets, bears are going for food in people's garages. They're getting hit by cars causing a lot of damage, causing injuries, caus, because that population needs to be kept in check, like every other population of animals.

Yeah. And I completely agree. It's sad. When decisions like that are put in the hands of [00:29:00] policy makers and not biologists Oh, absolutely. And, state game regulation, regulators and people who, who know and admitted their life's work to understand what the population can do if it's not kept in check, if there's, not bag limits on, on animals and things like that because it's like you said, I've been hearing about the New Jersey thing.

At least it's, the last five years and where it's gotten and it's it's hard to believe that someone won't step in or that, someone that's elected to political office has that clout to say, just because, certain constituent constituents maybe don't like hunting, right?

It's no, we don't, we can't hunt bears. That's no. It's You're gonna see what's gonna happen then if they're not kept in check. And lo and behold, it's Oh, absolutely, and it was gonna happen, but seeing what we can do for the populations to make them even better is what's important and what conservation is really all about, and making sure that we have all these [00:30:00] resources and everything else for the future for my kids, for my children's kids, and that's why conservation is so important, I love seeing them. I love seeing them in the woods. Do you ever do any of your processing like on Bear or is it just primarily whitetail?

I can it just, it also depends on time. In order to do a bear right, it takes a while. And I don't want to do anything. At all if I can't put everything into it and if I'm gonna be rushed and everything else like that. And do you wanna make sure you do it right? Oh, absolutely.

And that's the only way to do things, and a lot of the times when we actually did get phone calls we were actually in the middle of processing. Deer, so we were unable to take it. But there's a brick and mortar processor that's pretty close that I actually sent quite a few bears to, and, and we, weren't able to do a lot.

I sent a lot up to him and I learned a lot from him. And he's awesome. He's, I call him the original gangster cuz He's been doing this for a while. Og. All right. Oh yeah, [00:31:00] absolutely. And his name's Roger. He is a great guy, and I've been up there and I just, I just go up, I hang out and process a couple deer with him and I leave, and, just like to hang out and talk to him.

He's a great guy. As someone who, you know, for a side gig, a passion project, whatever we want to call the second, source of income. Which typically a lot of people that get into those things, like it is a passion project, right? Like it is something that is very near and dear to them.

As someone who, processes, close to hundreds of deer a year. What is your personal favorite cut on a deer? That's funny. A lot of people ask me that. Everybody always says the backstraps and the tenderloins and everything else like that. I, I. The top round and the bottom round, there's so much that you can do with those, it's, I love it. It's incredible. The steaks, the roast, the stew meat, there's a lot that you can, you can do a lot with 'em.

So I really, I love the roasts. Yeah. And, that's the back straps, the tendons, like you said, like [00:32:00] those are easy answers, right? In my opinion, like there's only one way to cook those, right? Like you cook it till it's rare. Yeah. Maybe medium rare. And you slice it and you go to temp. Oh, absolutely.

You don't need to, you don't need to do a lot with it. No, it's not. It's a good, it's just a really good steak and that's how you cook, in my opinion, a really good steak. Yep. But with those other cuts, like I feel like it takes a little bit of technique. And some of those cuts you can slow cook per hour.

Oh, absolutely. And really get the flavor. And everything out of that meat. I think that's what a lot of people tend to overlook, right? Like they just want gimme burgers, gimme steaks, gimme the tender loin, gimme the backstrap. Yeah, and I'm good. And or they'll take all the, the top round, the bottom round, they'll grind it up and, they'll make jerky and stuff and right to each their own.

But absolutely a lot of people miss the boat if they're not, cooking those things to their potential. Absolutely. Good question. This past season was your second full year. [00:33:00] What do you have in store? You've talked about, an expansion plan as time goes on, but, what does 20 20, 23 and maybe 2024 look like for you and the business?

That's a really good question. So I'm at this point I haven't really said anything yet to anybody. And I'm not really sure when this is gonna get, aired. I'm actually gonna be coming out with a couple of my own product. Right on that I know work, I've been using them for years, so they're, they're battle tested.

So we'll see what happens. There's a lot that could come from that, but it's also a lot of work and a lot of time that needs to be put into that. So I just gotta figure out exactly, how much I can, devote to that. Yeah. But I would love to at some point be able to keep the business but also be able to branch out and doing, a lot more of the hunting part of, I'll tell you what, so your episode will, air, will air sooner rather than later.

And it'll air this week, later this week. So when [00:34:00] and if that time comes that you're able to come up with your own products and stuff like that, we'll definitely get you back on so we can talk about those. What that process looked like, because first off, a name like Mountain Man Deer Processing, like the name itself lends its, it lends itself very well to a real outdoorsman, right?

It's got the name, like you think Jeremiah Johnson or something like that. You think of a real mountain man. Something like that. No, I think you're halfway hit with the name. Yeah. We'll see, we'll we'll see what happens. There's a lot of, Potential. Especially when it comes to hunting, but it, you also have to know that things can fail. Yeah. And as long as you're okay with that, and you're happy with, what you've done, you know that's what's, that's what's most important. Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree with that. You have to be prepared for, plan for things to go right.

If you go in there thinking, oh, this is. But no, you, you gotta go all way. Oh, absolutely. It doesn't end up working out. It [00:35:00] doesn't work out. At least, you busted your ass, you gave it your all, and that's all you can ask for at the end of the day. Yeah, no, absolutely. And I worked hard on, on this logo too, and everybody keeps telling me, wow, you have such a great logo.

That's awesome. And that's gonna, that's gonna keep following, but we'll see, I'm in the process of copyright, trademark and everything else like that on it. So we'll see what happens. Yeah. No, that's awesome. So how long did it take to like really fine tune your mobile setup?

Because, I think about, mobile setups when it comes to bow hunting, right? Whether it's a saddle, whether you're, you got a hang on that you're, like a lone wolf or something like that, that you're packing it out, all the time and everyone's always tinkering with and stuff like that.

Do you find it's the same way, with your mobile setup, like you're always tinkering with it, trying to figure out what. Knives and just general tools are with you. What does that process Oh, ab for you? Ab Absolutely, a hundred percent. That's a good question. And I'm the same way.

You're always trying to figure out, all right, how can I make this better? How can I, make it easier? How can I, streamline it? And you're always doing that, like there's [00:36:00] definitely, after building this trailer with everything it's got in it I definitely, at least twice this at this point, I've taken everything out.

And changed things, and added things and taken things out, and I'm sure it's not gonna end, it's not gonna stop. I'm gonna find different ways of doing things to streamline and make it easier, and there's still things now that I would also change, but it's also, it's a six by 12 enclosed.

If I got something bigger, I would have, definitely be able to do more and add more. But you also have to be careful with that, balancing act of not putting in too much. So that's a good question. Yeah. Now when it comes to the bow hunting side of things, are you more of a minimalist?

Are you more of a gear junkie, like you just. Maybe you try something you don't like, you get rid of it, you try something new. Are you always tinkering with the whitetail setup with your bow hunting setup? Honestly, not really. And I really am a minimalist. Yeah. I've got I have my lone wolf climber, I have my backpack, which is a small backpack.

I [00:37:00] have a limb hanger in there from my bow. My Actually I made a a strap that goes around the tree that I had a couple carabiners sewed into, and that's what I hang my harness on. But then I also hang my backpack on the other carabiner, so it's easy access for me. Yeah, I like that.

That's a really good idea, I have my knife, I have my rangefinder. I have a small binocular. I have a, a battery charger, in there for my phone and a bottle of water, and off I go, but I'm not going where I live. You're not going miles. I'm sure if I was in a different location I would have a lot.

Yeah I like the minimalist approach. Like I always think that I like a lot of different gear and stuff like that, but at the end of the day, like when I'm at the truck and I'm getting ready to go out, like I've got my binos, I got my range finder, I have a pack, but honestly, It's maybe like an extra layer if I need it.

[00:38:00] Maybe, where I, if it's, early, depending on the time of the year, like may wear, a baseball hat and throw a beanie in there if it gets cold. I really don't bring that much in, like usually a lot of our, my sets are like pre-hung. For the most part. Yeah. Until it gets later in the year.

I already have a bow hanger there. I don't find myself needing a ton of stuff. As much as I would like to have all this gear like, It would just either sit in my tote or it would sit in my backpack all day and I would never use it. Yeah. The one thing I usually have two of is a release.

Cause you never know. That's one of one of the things I never carry it back up, up. And I know like now that I'm actually like putting it out there and I've actually said it, it's gonna backfire, it's gonna bite me the, as one of these days, right? Like I'm gonna clip in and all of a sudden the thing's just gonna fall apart and be like, enough for that day.

Yeah. That and that happened to me. I got to one of my spots and. I reached into my bag and there's no release. And I was like that's it, I'm done, and packed up and out. I went, so after, after that, it was a second release. I was [00:39:00] always in the bag.

Yeah, no that's that, that should, that should be like a rule of thumb, right? It's like driving without a spare tire. As soon as you do, you're gonna buy one. Oh yeah. Oh, absolutely. But yeah. So Rob, before I, I let you get outta here and enjoy the rest of your evening.

Where can people learn more about Mountain Man? Where can you follow along or maybe see some, like tutorials or anything like that? So we're gonna be also trying to do a lot more of that with. We have a YouTube channel. We have the website that answers a lot of questions. It shows who we're affiliated with 2% for conservation, American Bear Foundation things like that.

So the website, Facebook, Instagram, all the above. And anybody has questions? What are all those? I'm sorry. Yeah. What are all those tags? So that, oh, mountain man deer process. Okay. Step forward. Yep. That's it. Mountain man, dear processing. Awesome. Rob, I appreciate the time today, man. It was great chatting with you, learning more about the company and kind of the origin story of it and all that.

And yeah, look forward to getting you on here again in the future. Hopefully we [00:40:00] can talk gear and talk some products. Oh, absolutely. That'd be great. No I really do thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to come on tonight. Yeah, absolutely. I enjoyed it, man. We'll take care of yourself and we'll talk to you soon.

Okay. Absolutely. All right. Thank you again to Rob for joining me today. I. I apologize about the audio on my end there. If you guys stuck that out I really appreciate it. I did not realize that there was that echo in my mic and in my sound until after we were all done recording and I started editing this and unfortunately there was just nothing I could do to get that echo outta my end.

But Rob was obviously very loud and clear. So that's good. And that's really. What matters is being able to hear Rob's story and everything like that. Again, I apologize but I would like to thank the partners of the podcast, hard Side Hydration, stone Glacier Go Hunt, and of course, 2% for conservation.

And if you're interested in learning more, about 2% for conservation, you can visit their website. Fish and wildlife.org. And over there you're gonna see all the certified brands that have committed to [00:41:00] conservation that you should support when you shop. I also encourage you guys to give 2% a follow on social media where it's gonna be only positive conservation driven content landing in your feed.

So again, if you'd like to learn more about 2% for con conservation, you can look for them online, on social media or@phishandwildlife.org. Thanks for joining me this week everyone. Hope you enjoyed the episode. Again, I sincerely apologize about the Echo, we audio on my end. I promise to do better next week.

So until next week, stay safe out there and remember that conservation starts with you.

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