Joe Eppele - The Edge TV Show

Join Ricky Brule for a conversation with Joe Eppele, co-host of The Edge TV Show on Wild TV. Joe grew up in a small logging town in British Columbia, hunting, fishing and foraging for table fare. After a successful career as a professional athlete, Joe was given an opportunity to host The Edge TV Show with fellow host Steve Ecklund, a previous guest on The Range Podcast. The boys at The Edge TV have been loyal users of Vapor Trail and Stokerized products for several years, and have fostered an amazing partnership with the brand. Ricky has an exciting announcement regarding the growth of the podcast.

The Range Podcast can be found on all major platforms, including iTunes, Spotify and Google. Video versions of the podcast can also be found on the Vapor Trail YouTube Channel. 

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. We are proud to be a part of the @sportsmens_empire network. 

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

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to the partnership that we have and the things that it leads to is amazing. And I appreciate that. No, absolutely. And like I mentioned earlier, we appreciate you guys. It makes it easy on our end having partners that are just so easy to get in touch with talking about the show specifically obviously we really care about the quality of the product we work with, but we also care about the individuals behind the product in that we focus more on say partnerships versus sponsorships.

We want companies that we enjoy working with. So if I have product questions or if I have anything. feedback. I can call you. I know I can reach out to you guys. You guys are very accessible. You're very down to earth. And I think that makes a big difference with regards to the customer experience. It makes it easy for us to authentically and, truly speak about you guys and say, we truly enjoy working with you guys.

Anytime I have questions about products or features or anything like that, I can reach out to you guys and you're very knowledgeable. Thank you for saying that. Yeah, I know. I know we don't get a lot of opportunities to tell each other how we, how much we appreciate each other. So this is great. Little bro minutes moment right now.

Yep.

Welcome to the range [00:01:00] podcast. I'm Ricky Bruley and with me is Jake Hollywood Iverson. Join us at the archery range where we'll tell stories from the hunt, discuss technical bow shooting tactics and gear, and pick the 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 bowstrings money can buy originators of limb driven arrow rest technology and innovators of stokerized stabilizer systems. Welcome to the range, everybody. I'm Ricky Bruley, your host, and thank you for joining us today. You can also find the video version of this episode on our Vapor Trail YouTube channel.

So please head on over there and subscribe. Very excited to chat with our guests today. Joe Appel, co host of The Edge on Wild TV right alongside our previous [00:02:00] guest, Steve Eklund. Joe grew up in a small logging town in British Columbia. Hunting, fishing, and foraging to put food on the table after a professional athletic career.

One thing led to another, and here we are having a chat about that journey. Hey Joe, how's it going, man? How you been? Ricky, I have been busy to say the least, but that's status quo for this time of year. How about yourself, man? How you been? We haven't caught up in a while. Yeah, it's been wild.

We're over the hump of the busy season now, and still just trying to get our bearings back and. Our previous general manager, he found a new job, actually bought a business Johnny, Johnny and and so we haven't had him, so we've been trying to fill those shoes between, five of us here in the building and and so just again, trying to, now that the smoke is cleared, just trying to get reorganized and and recoup.

So that's where we're at with that. Those are some big shoes to fill. I'm sure you guys got a lot of work going on. At least it's, happening in the peak busiest time of year for you guys when everything's crazy [00:03:00] to begin with. Honestly, there really isn't a good time for that sort of thing to happen.

But yeah, at least he he moved on. I think it was just before the busy season hit us. But again, it wasn't really, he bought a business, so it wasn't really a choice for him. You know what I mean? When it happened is when it happened. So that's how it went down, but wish the best for him.

He's doing awesome over there and I still communicate with him quite a bit. But yeah, so for our listeners that that maybe don't know you, I know you've got a pretty good following. But for the listeners that don't know you just give us a little introduction on, what's the origin story of what got you into hunting and where you are now.

That's a big question. How much time do we have? Let's see what got me into hunting. I grew up here coastal British Columbia up here in Canada, small little logging town and growing up. Like we were just your typical logging town family. We hunted to put food on table, hunt, fish, mushroom, do all of that stuff.

From a very young age, but then what got me more [00:04:00] into. What I'm doing nowadays is throughout my life, I had a professional athletic career and got into a few different careers after I retired from football, but my passion, my real love has always been the outdoors and hunting and I was fortunate enough.

I had a job opportunity open up with wild TV. The station, the network that our show is on and through my relationships there, a kind of an opening came up with the show, the edge to host a show with Steve Eklund and it just so happened that Steve and I got along pretty well. I guess we're going into year five now, I've been running around the hills and having fun and with a cameraman and getting to share my stories with everybody.

So that's, it's been a fun journey. That's a very, 10, 000 foot overview, but that's a little bit about what got me to where I am today. Okay, cool, cool. That's awesome. And so you're a family man. You got, I love watching the stuff that you're doing with your boy, I believe.

he Was born almost the same time my daughter was. They're pretty close. My daughter's [00:05:00] just a little over three. And but I just recently saw, that you were, you guys were out on a hunt, a family hunt, and your wife had some success and you had your boy with you. So that was really cool. Tell us a little bit about being a dad.

Like how's that been? And it's every, all the good things about being a dad. It's been great from start. I've got a very patient wife. The one thing that is. A challenge is, just balancing the commitment between the outdoors and your family life. It's a lot easier when it's just you and your partner and now all of a sudden you mix a kid into it.

Especially when I'm out on some of these longer trips. In September I was home for three days, a total of three days in September. And you definitely do start feeling a little bit of that guilt. You should be at home being around your kids, that kind of thing. But but yeah, no, being able to raise my son and start getting him interested in the outdoors as we go along.

Obviously junior is not quite two, so he's still a youngster, but he's big he's a big boy. But we've had him out on spring bear hunts. We've had him out on blacktail hunts, as you mentioned, just the other [00:06:00] week. We had him out on. A mule deer hunt for my wife and we got our mule deer but just trying to introduce him to the outdoors and make sure he loves it.

It's a lot of fun. It keeps life exciting and it it lets you be a kid again in a little bit of a way when you get to be out there and see that first time excitement in his eyes. And Again, he's only two, so he still doesn't really fully grasp what's going on out there.

So over the years as I get to take him through all of that, it's going to be a lot more fun. Yeah, that's fantastic. I love that perspective too, about how it brings you back to when you were a boy and all that. And just the good times, you think about that. My, my daughter is, she just, she absolutely loves the outdoors.

She's not much for the cold though. She's just starting to figure out for some reasons, she's a bit of a feral child, so she really loves to run around naked and the other day she just bolted out, I opened the door and she bolted out the front door completely naked and she was like, Oh my God, it's just cold out here and ran back in.

But, and of course I was like, no, I'll get back in here. You gotta put some clothes on, but[00:07:00] yeah, it's just awesome. I've taken her turkey hunting too. And she had a blast, just sitting in the. And the blinds kept telling me to be quiet because my chair was creaking and all that. So it was pretty fun to see the enjoyment that she gets out of that.

And like I said it's really cool to see the experiences that you're having with your boy. So I appreciate that. I think it sounds like our children are very similar in the fact that they like to be feral and run around naked. I don't know if you saw, I threw up that one little picture the other day, my son, I turned around and my son is.

Fully naked crouched down like Tarzan drinking out of our dog dish or the dog's water bowl while my dog I've got an 80 pound Italian mastiff She's eating out of her food dish and he's drinking out of the water bowl right next to her I was like, okay, maybe we're raising him a little too feral But as long as he's wild I'll take that over video games and all of that any day, for sure It makes me think of the jungle book Mowgli running around so you've had a pretty good season so far correct me if I'm wrong.

Cause I'm going based off your social media [00:08:00] and I, I follow along and I pay attention, but we have so many pages that I got to pay attention to. But it looks like you've gotten a caribou, you got a stone sheep an elk. And then of course your wife she had, no, that was a mule deer that she shot.

Yeah. Okay. But what I really want to talk about is I want to go back to, I think it was in February. When you went ODAD hunting with with Aaron Snyder with your bow. Yeah, that was February. I think it was, I'm trying to remember exact dates, but mid February roughly, yeah, down in Texas. So yeah, not to minimize the other animals that you've taken so far this year but this is an archery podcast.

So I want to focus on an archery kill. So tell us a little bit about that hunt and how it all went down. We'll be right back. Hey everybody. Ricky Bruley here, Vapor Trail. We're really excited about some new features that we've just added to the Gen Integrate X LimbDriver AeroRef.[00:09:00]

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It was a lot of fun going down there. First thing you learn right away when you set foot in I think it's Riverton, Texas, it is windy as can be, cause it is flat and when you're archery hunting that like those extreme winds, like crazy, like I'm six, eight, 280 pounds and I'm leaning into the wind when we're moving around.

And so that right out of the gates makes it a very challenging, fun hunt. And then one thing I really enjoyed about it is the landscape there is have these flat. I guess almost like farmer's field type country with these mesquite bushes and like really sparse. So they're spread out really open areas, and then they drop off deep into these steep canyons along the Palo Duro Canyon there.

[00:11:00] So you go from this flat kind of. The best thing for us up here in Canada, I'd say it's like sagebrush country, but the Mesquite's like a giant sagebrush. You go from that kind of stuff right into these steep canyons. So you're hunting in that kind of terrain. And then these Audad, they're an introduced species, but they stay herded up year round.

So when you're going after a ram. You're not just going in tiptoeing and squeaking through this country after just the one ram. They've got 30 to 40 ewes with them at all times if you're going after the big ram. So it's a fun hunt. It's a challenging hunt. When I went down, Aaron definitely asked me a few times.

He's you sure you don't want to bring your rifle on this one? Because if you want to get a good ram, it's going to be a little bit of a challenge. But all in all, going down there, I wouldn't have done it any other way. It's a lot of fun. You get a lot of stalking opportunities. You get in close.

And then just with that many eyeballs, you get pinned behind the one mesquite shrub you can get to. And, every time you go to move, there's a, you staring at you or something's happening. Yeah, no, an absolute fun [00:12:00] hunt. And for us, we closed it right on the last kind of like last hour of the hunt, we were able to connect.

That's really cool. I love those hunts too, because I've had a few that, where you almost don't want to. You don't want to fill your tag too early because now the adventure's done. And so those are always great stories. When when it happens on the last day, I've got two of my biggest white tails happened on the last day of a specific hunt.

And again, just being able to have the story and everything that leads up to that moment is great. So did you guys stay with, maybe you said this already and I missed it. Were you with an outfitter then or like staying with an outfitter or how did that process work? Yeah. So Aaron's actually teamed up with top of top Oh, Texas outfitters down there, and they have two different camps that they hunt all that out of.

I believe they do some other species hunts down there as well, but we focused just on all that when I was with them. And we stayed at. At their one camp, they have a full lodge and an [00:13:00] area stay, but where we were, we just grabbed an Airbnb um, like a little hotel type, more of a motel in a small town and stayed there and just went out and hunted a few of the select areas along the ridge that, that Aaron had been down and scouted out for us a little bit.

Okay. Okay. And when you say we, that was you and the camera guy or last light media, is that who was with you? Yeah Greg was with us, our cameraman. So it was Greg and I were down there with Aaron. So it was just the three of us running around the hills most of the time and it's fun. I mentioned, it's really open and you have a lot of eyeballs on you and it's a challenging hunt.

It's a fun archery hunt, but now all of a sudden you got three big dudes because Aaron's not a small guy either. So you have three big dudes trying to creep around in the brush and There was a lot of times where we were chuckling because, your army crawling from one mesquite brush to the other.

And it's it looks like one of those old cartoons where there's giants running around and then they tuck behind this small brush, somehow disappear. And they jump back up and go to the next bush. Cause I was like, man, we are three of the biggest dudes running around out here trying to be sneaky. [00:14:00] Oh, that's funny.

Yeah. And. Congrats on that. And also a hats off to you for taking the challenge of using a bow. Really appreciate that. It's really cool to see that you had your bow with you. That always helps us. And as I had mentioned in the intro, you you and both you and Steve trust our products, both the limb driver, aero rest, and our Stoker stabilizer, so we appreciate that.

And happy to see you having success. Oh man. Wouldn't have it any other way. We've loved your guys gear, used it for a long time, and one of the biggest things is, we go on these trips and we put in so much time and preparation and, put so much resources into making all these trips happen, and we want to make sure that when we get there.

regardless of what we put our equipment through that our gear is going to perform and you guys have been lights out. It's one of those things where we never have to question the performance of our gear when we get down to those moments and that's why we love you guys, man. So we just appreciate the support from your end.

And yeah anytime we get to hunt, I know Steve and I are the same [00:15:00] Archery hunting is one of our it's our favorite. I truly enjoy archery hunting. Just sometimes with the demand of the schedule and stuff, we don't get to mix in as many archery hunts as we'd like to, especially when you're doing, Western style spot and stock.

It can be challenging at times. So it's like a lot of the time we set out with our bows and everybody laughs because you set out with your bows. You're like, this is going to be an archery hunt. And you get to the last two days, two days of the hunt. And you're like. It's a rifle hunt. Yeah. We got to get something on the dirt here.

Cause again, you're, you got, you, the cameraman and quite often, another hunter or something like that. So it makes it challenging, but yeah, no archery hunting is definitely where the true passion lies for sure. Yeah. And that's good. I'm happy to hear that. And, so I look at the opportunities that you guys have too.

And it's stone sheep. I would not. I don't know that I would even have a boat with me on a trip like that. You know what I mean? Just because the opportunity that's there and the, how critical it is that you make that happen. So totally get that, totally understand that.

No shaming on my end in that regard, but[00:16:00] so speaking of a couple of things that, that, what you just said, branched off into two other things that I want to talk about. But so speaking of you being a giant I know you said you haven't heard the episode with Steve yet, but I had talked about when I had first met him.

And I don't know if you remember when you and I first met at the ATA show. bUt when I was, I can't remember, I was texting back and forth with ears, trying to figure out where he was so I can meet up with him. And he had said that he was at. Such and such place. And he was there with with Steve Eklund.

And I was like, Oh, great. I haven't met him yet. I'll make my way over there. And I'm guessing it was probably the Hyatt. In Indianapolis or something like that. I can't remember exactly which one, one of the, one of the more popular locations where everybody goes to have beverages after the show.

And so I get down there and he, yours is talking to you. And so then he introduced me to you, but it was really loud in there. So I couldn't really hear. We couldn't really hear a whole lot, but I shook your hand and, I, of course I [00:17:00] looked way, way up at you. And at first, I thought you were Steve.

And for the whole rest of the night, I thought you were Steve. And then I thought Steve was just like your mini sidekick guy. I'm sure Steve is going to love to hear that. Oh, he heard it. We talked about it. He was maybe sidekick . Oh. Oh, that's perfect. We talked about it on the podcast and he was actually not that he wasn't that bent outta shape about it because he was nervous thinking I was gonna say that.

He was like dancing on a pole or something like that when I first met him. , that would not be outta the question with Steve either. , I think that whole show we, we walked around and Steve told everybody I was his bodyguard. That was his line at the show and a lot of people believed it. So then the other thing that kind of branched off into is talking about wild TV.

And so the relationship that we have had with you. Has always been just awesome. You guys are great to work with, I don't have to really do much. You guys are very self sufficient and you just, you get the job done. You're really good about [00:18:00] supporting us and tagging us and things that you do.

And so I love that. That's amazing. And then not only that, but now because we did the episode with Steve Eklund that kind of gained some attention from wild TV. I had gotten an email from. From a gal from the wild TV and asked about an opportunity. So I inquired and then we had a discussion with Scott.

And so we are going to. Just signed a contract to put the range podcast on wild TV in Canada. So we're pretty excited about that. It's going to be our video version of the podcast. It'll be the same thing that we have on our YouTube channel, but now it will be available for subscribers of wild TV.

So we're really excited about getting that rolling. I just received an email from Scott and it's a long laundry list of things that we got to get taken care of that I haven't been able to get to yet. But as soon as all the red tape is done we'll have all of our episodes starting with zero all the way up to current, and then we'll be posting all future episodes from then on out.

So that's pretty exciting. And [00:19:00] again, to go back to the partnership that we have and the things that it leads to is amazing. And I appreciate that. No, absolutely. And like I mentioned earlier, we appreciate you guys. It makes it easy on our end. Having partners that are just so easy to get in touch with, and you guys are real, you're very we, for the, talking about the show specifically we like, obviously, we really care about the quality of the product we work with, but we also care about the individuals behind the product in that we focus more on, say, partnerships versus sponsorships, we want companies that we enjoy working with, so if I have product questions, or if I have anything, or feedback, or something's going weird.

I can call you. I know I can reach out to you guys. You guys are very accessible. You're very down to earth. You're very approachable. And I think that makes a big difference with regards to the customer experience and the partner experience on our end, which makes it easy for us to authentically and, truly speak about you guys and say, we truly enjoy working with you guys because sometimes when you get to the larger companies or, Okay.

I shouldn't say larger companies because you guys are a huge [00:20:00] company, but sometimes when you get to the more corporate companies, there's that disconnect which just makes it more of a cold transaction. And anytime I have questions about products or features or anything like that, I can reach out to you guys and you're very knowledgeable and you just.

You guys certainly know a lot more about it all than I do. So I appreciate you guys being there and answering my questions. Cause the Lord knows I have a lot of questions. Yeah. Anytime, and thank you for saying that. Yeah, I know. I know we don't get a lot of opportunities to tell each other how we, how much we appreciate each other.

So this is great. I'm happy that we have this platform to do so little bromance moment right now. Yep.

Going, speaking of your guys's content and everything that you do, that's the, that's one of the other things that I love about you guys. And I told Steve this too, is just how like fun you guys are with the posts and how you guys dog on each other, a little bit behind the scenes and things.

And so I just recently, and maybe you want to talk a little bit about this recent contest that you have going on right now, I'd just seen the post a couple of days or is that. [00:21:00] Let's see, is that contest still going on with Wolverine Guns and Tackle? Oh yeah, Wolverine Guns and Tackle. So they're a great retail partner we've had with the show for quite a while.

They've been partnered up with The Edge for quite some time. Unfortunately, some stuff happened with them with regards to their Agreement with their landlords and some other things so they're closing their doors Which is very sad to see because they've been phenomenal like they're a big part of their community where they are and we've really enjoyed working with them and jamie over there for a long time, but As they're closing their doors.

They wanted to do a fun little giveaway. So anybody that So right now they're auctioning off all of their inventory. I mean they've got You name it, the full spectrum of product and inventory over at their location. And like minimum of, I think 40 percent off on all their stuff. But if you have proof of purchase for any auction item on their website, you can enter to win this what we call the next level hunter bundle, which is, I think it's A little [00:22:00] pink BB gun pink unicorn, like the broomstick with the unicorn head on it and a pink, pink Yeti next level mug for Steve.

So it's we had to, Steve really wanted that package, so I had to fight Steve really hard to keep this as a prize. He's pretty upset about it. We might have to make Steve his own at the end of it. But but yeah, anybody who goes onto that website and supports them. And helps them, leave the scene in a good way.

They'll be entered to win that contest right there. It's so funny. I was watching the video on that and it's just, it's perfect. You're the setup is perfect. It's all, it's very professional and very serious. And then when you come back and I saw that I almost spit my coffee out.

And again, just going back to how much fun you guys are. And I love that you guys do that. And so I'll probably for the for the YouTube watchers I'll post a, I'll post up that video so they can see that. Cause it's hilarious. And then also be sure to head over to at Joe underscore appell, [00:23:00] check out his page, give him a follow, and then you can see some of that content down there as well.

On a more serious note I saw that you had one of your more maybe, yeah, this was about a month ago. You had made a post about predator management and. It's one of the things that's, it's a real hot button issue here in the state of Minnesota too. It's protected here in the state, wolves are specifically.

And so we have a huge population of wolves here. And it's just, it's silly how big the population is here. And they're still protected. We've had a couple of seasons in the last, within the last. I'm just going to say decade just to make sure that I get the timeframe, but, uh, and it's been just a handful of animals, I think the first season was it maxed out or the quota was 400 and they estimate that we have over several thousand.

So it, barely put a dent in the population. And then, since then, I'm sure that population has recovered, tenfold. So I'm just curious about how that [00:24:00] works in your area up in Canada, talk a little bit about. The population and what it does to the ungulates in your area and how it affects hunting as a whole.

Yeah up here in British Columbia, we've had a lot of back and forth with regards to the wolf population. It's something we've been consistently fighting against for as long as I've been around, I think as long as people have been hunting over here, especially because we have such a large logging industry, it creates these logging cuts that has this great new growth.

Where all the ungulates go to, to feed, and then it creates this kind of killing field for the wolves. But the biggest controversy lately has been the battle back and forth between these, photographers who go out and take these beautiful pictures of the wolves and position them as these, friendly dogs.

And they give them names and they give them these personalities, and then they create these petitions to stop. Try and stop the hunting of wolves or try and list the wolves as, um, protected or whatever it may be over here. But the challenge with that is [00:25:00] they are not your cuddly little dog.

They are not that, and they have such a huge, devastating impact on the ungulates. Like you mentioned, especially right now with the caribou, we're having a lot of issues with the caribou here in BC and the sheep as well, but the caribou the numbers are dropping year after year and it's, you can't deny it.

And the big push right now is not necessarily wiping wolves out of the province. It's We want to reduce the wolf population in these key areas where the caribou numbers are declining and hopefully give the caribou, use that as well as some, landscape protection and things like that to start seeing those caribou numbers come back up to protect the caribou's or the caribou.

And the main reason for that is historically, if you look at the amount of effort it takes to reestablish a caribou population in an area, like it is. Almost impossible. I think some of the areas they were looking at the funds that go into it and for the successful pending cause you have to take the pregnant cows, pen them, then get the lambs [00:26:00] or user, I guess it'd be land.

Or calves, I should say, and get them back out there. Anyways, I think it's upwards of 160, 000 per caribou that's successfully reestablished in that area. And it's still a very volatile sensitive population. Now, the biggest argument I have is that, historically, if you take wolves out of an area, You can take a small batch of wolves a few years later, reintroduce them, and they will thrive in no time.

And it doesn't take, it doesn't take 160, 000 per wolf to bring them back into an area. So what we're trying to do here, and what we're trying to argue for is, Remove the wolves from these areas, reestablish the caribou populations, and then down the road, you can reintroduce the wolves if you need to because historically, the one side can rebound.

The other side can't rebound. And I think what people need to understand is these, Demands of these cries for more wolves calling out of these area isn't an anti wolf cry. It's a pro caribou cry Like we want balance. We want animals of all sorts on the landscape [00:27:00] But we really want to see those caribou stick around and these other people that you know See these beautiful pictures of wolves and go.

Oh, you can't kill a wolf They don't understand that when they're contributing to these causes and pushing for all of this stuff They're really contributing to anti caribou and anti deer and anti moose movements as well. Yeah, so that's a fight that's going on up here in BC right now.

But fortunately we still do have a pretty open for, so for hunters to be able to harvest. So where I was, I took three wolves out of an area this year. Three wolves is the bag limit in that area. So that was the most I was allowed to take. But in my immediate area down here in the lower mainland, it's no bag limit.

So if I see wolves and it's your, it's almost year round. If I see wolves, I can pull them out. But wolves are tricky. They're fast. They don't spend much time in the open. So when we have an opportunity, I certainly put my foot down and try and. Try and even the odds a little bit when I can, and it's not that I hate wolves.

It's just I hate what they're doing to the rest of the wildlife up here. And I I'm a believer that, wolves are important part of the [00:28:00] ecosystem, but to your point, if they get overpopulated, they don't have a lot of natural predators that can create some issues, and with having the ability to reintroduce them and do those types of things makes sense.

we Have a lot, this is an archery podcast, but we also have a lot of listeners who are, maybe just target shooters. They're not so much hunters. And I think there's a big misconception out there as to the whole idea of predator control. And I think a lot of that is, just created or conjured up by.

As an example, some of these photographers or maybe anti hunters or something like that, and I don't really particularly have a desire to hunt a wolf I would, if it's for the greater good, like you said to be pro caribou or I don't know, to me, it seems like there's definitely a lot of depredation on the deer population in the state of Minnesota, because when you get up into the Northern areas where the wolves are more prevalent, the deer populations are a lot lower.

I don't see in the state of Minnesota [00:29:00] this. But I do hear, I've heard a couple of times like out in Western, Western States, how wolves will actually hunt for sport. And I don't know how much truth there is to that because I haven't witnessed it myself, but do you see that up in BC as well? yEah, they'll kill.

So when hunting is good, they'll kill and just eat prime cuts or just eat the rear end or the guts out of certain animals because it's a high calorie areas or at times, basically the wolves don't know I guess it's my perception or what a lot of people out here understand is that the wolves don't understand what their next meal is going to be.

So if they can kill an animal, get it on the ground and go, okay there's more, let's go hunt and kill those. We'll come back to this one. Sometimes if they get on a trail and they can kill a lot out of a herd of elk or some caribou or something like that, they might not make it back to those first ones that they kill.

So that's, they wake up and they think about killing animals and making sure they're full before they go to bed. That's what wolves think about. So it's just their instinctual pattern. So they go out there.[00:30:00] And yeah, if there's an opportunity for them to stock something and kill it, they're going to do it, whether or not they get back to that meal, they're going to kill stuff to make sure that they have that reserve if they move out of that basin of that valley.

That's just what they're going to do. But, when I was up north on my caribou hunt this year, I saw firsthand the impact wolves can have on an area. It's supposed to be a large caribou migration through that area. And I saw a pack of wolves that were stationed across the entire draw or the valley, basically.

And I came across A lot of kill sites but we didn't see any caribou and then we pushed into some other areas which eventually led to me taking my stone sheep because I wasn't up there on a stone sheep hunt, but I came across stone sheep and with a resident tag in your pocket, you make it happen.

So I can't complain, but then I came back in, I removed 3 wolves from that pack. Push that pack of wolves out of the area. And I think it was three or four days later, the caribou started migrating through there again. Okay. It definitely has a large impact and when you are able to [00:31:00] keep those species in check it's about balance and for those listeners out there that, that may not be avid hunters or may not know that much about the predator management.

A lot of people as well think if you're not a hunter, or if you're not this, that, or the other, you're not having an impact on the wildlife and the predator prey balance, but things to understand, especially here in BC, we're in a mountain area where a lot of these The caribou, the elk, the mule deer, they rely in the winter months on the ability to go to areas that are not easy to access for the wolves because they have deeper snow higher up in the mountains, things like that.

A lot of recreational activities out here, create these highways for the wolves to get into those lake locations being cross country skiing, snowmobiling, backcountry hiking, snowshoeing even all of these off road overlanding groups. They create these packed snow paths. That now all of a sudden the wolves can go into these areas they didn't used to be able to get into.

So now all of a sudden that creates an unfair advantage for these wolves to go in and [00:32:00] have a bigger impact on these populations. So it really is everybody should be interested in this in some level with regards to predator management. It's a big issue. And I think sometimes the other side that's anti predator management, they just post a pretty picture and do some kind of tear jerking one liner.

And then people just glaze over the subject and don't really look at the long term impact of unstable predator populations. But it's one of those things that I think definitely needs a closer look. And if we don't correctly manage it in the long term, we're going to start seeing different wildlife populations falling off of the landscape.

For sure. Said. And yeah, thank you for that info. It's cause it's good to get different perspectives and I can only hope that. A season opens up here again at some point, and I actually tried to get in on it, but I didn't draw, and I believe most of the wolves that were taken in that year were trapped through trapping, because as you said, they're very elusive, they're very quick and [00:33:00] it's, trapping is probably the most effective method for doing so.

And I know the former owner Jared Fondy had a, he had a tag and he was actually able to fill his tag with I think he used a rifle actually. He had a bow with him, but I think he ended up using a rifle just to. Again, just to make sure that you can fill that tag, because I can't imagine how difficult it would be to take a wolf with a bow.

That's, if you can do that, especially like a spot and stalk hunt that's a feather in your cap for sure. That's a challenging hunt. It's a challenging hunt with a rifle. I've had opportunities in the past. This year I actually used a caribou decoy, a pop up decoy to sneak out on two of the wolves I took.

I howled the other one in onto a distant ridge, but then, yeah, two of them I actually used a pop up caribou decoy to come across a big open area. And the wolves were sitting there licking their lips, waiting for their meal, and I turned the tables on them a bit. But again, I was at 300 yards.

I wasn't at 30 yards. So if you can close that distance to archery range, that's, wolves aren't, wolves [00:34:00] are not stupid. They're very smart. Yeah, what do you got coming up now? You've had a pretty good season already. Do you have any upcoming hunts that you're really excited about or what do you got going on?

Yeah. Right now I still have quite a few tags left for the province. So I have here in British Columbia, we're allowed three deer. That's a combination of black tail. Or yeah, Columbia blacktail, mule deer and whitetail. So I'm definitely going to be getting my bow out finally doing some me time stalking around the timber and more or less driving myself crazy trying to get a Columbia blacktail with the bow uh, cause it is thick, nasty bush and yeah, you're killing yourself hiking around on these bluffs and trying to sneak in on, especially if you're trying to get a mature deer, it can be a challenge.

But yeah, no, I'll be going out. I'll be doing some black tail hunting. And then I do have one one hunt left in Alberta as well for white tail still this year. Tapering down. Oh, and I I actually have a cougar hunt coming up this winter as well, which will be an archery hunt. So that'll be a fun one as well.

Nice. Cool. Yeah. I want to talk [00:35:00] about that going through thick, brush and all that kind of stuff. You're a big dude, so I can't even imagine, but like I've had, I'm certain you've had those moments where you're. You get yourself into a situation where it doesn't matter which way you go, you're going to have to bushwhack your way through and, as hunters, we're always trying to be mindful of, not getting too sweated up and, creating too much, odor and, all that kind of stuff.

But you get to a point where you're almost driven somewhat. Insane just by the task that is at hand to get through the brush that you're in. And I, sometimes I'll sit down and go, why in the heck do I do this? What am I even doing to myself? And then of course, and in the end, and in retrospect, it's always, especially if the goal is met, right?

Like you fill a tag that's such an amazing feeling that you 10 times and it would be worth it. But then also just going back and knowing that. Putting yourself through the struggles and putting yourself through that pain, you always come out on the other side better in some way, shape or form.

[00:36:00] And I think if you didn't put yourself through those struggles you have a hard time being well rounded individual, I think. I think it makes us better hunters. I definitely, trust me, if you've ever hunted coastal British Columbia here, talking about thick brush and questioning why you're out there doing it, that's about 90 percent of my hunting when I'm out here is just in thick brush going, what the heck am I doing with my life?

But it's true type two fun where it's a challenge when you're in it. It does make you better. I think, especially if you archery hunt these zones, it just forces you to, it brings all of your weaknesses to light and it forces you to address some of those weaknesses. A lot of the areas we hunt out here, you just really have to play the wind.

You can't necessarily avoid sweating when you're going straight up and down and overall it's nasty stuff. So it becomes a big thing of just playing the wind for us out here. But like I spent 10 days during archery elk season this year running around the Kootenays, which is I guess it'd be.

Southeastern British [00:37:00] Columbia. Okay. And I was running around the mountains and it was weird. The rut didn't kick off the same time it normally does for us out here. So for the 1st 10 days of September, I was running around and you let out a cow chirp and the bulls would run away like it was weird. So we're like, we were still hunting him almost like you'd have to still hunt the black tail or a white tail and trying to work in on some of these bulls in thick timber.

On in these because it's not like the big like rolling open timber that like we have really thick, nasty country up here. So I actually I had one bull, a beautiful I think he was a six by five. It was tough because it was real thick brush. I had him at 40 yards and we had got into position, the cameraman and I was waiting for him to clear a branch.

And like he was there, he was feeding, he had no idea we were there and I'm getting ready to draw back. And it's picture perfect, just this really foggy, steamy morning. It was, I think this the last or second, last day of the hunt. And he's coming out and he's just about [00:38:00] to come out from behind this branch.

And it's going to be like, okay this is fairytale ending. And then all of a sudden. In these like alders right below us, there was a cow calf at about eight yards and they busted us and then they ran off and then he turned and looked at us and spun off and got out of there. But yeah, no, that was a big part of my goal this year was archery elk in the Kootenays and it did not pay out, but um, I took everything I learned on that hunt when I was out there for archery.

I went back in there with my rifle later in the season. I had a weekend to get out there and I was able to take a nice elk. But it was everything I learned about the area, about the elk in the area, about everything when I was in there doing the archery elk hunt that made it so I could go back in with my rifle, get quick success.

Yeah, no, that's great, man. And I'm super envious of the time and that you get to spend and where you get to spend it. I've only had the opportunity to hunt elk once I've had. Opportunities, but haven't been able to bring it to fruition, but I hunted once in Idaho and yeah, it was a [00:39:00] tough hunt simply because they just weren't, they weren't talking and I did have a few opportunities that didn't pan out.

One of those things where it's you're like, Oh man, if I would've done this, or if I would've done that differently, I would've, it would've worked out, but those are the lessons that you learned. And I'm super excited to get back out, but back then this was 2019. I ended up just getting a over the counter elk tag and I had a buddy who had previously been out there, so he knew the ground pretty well, so we had an idea of what we were doing, what we were getting into and but now it's like a zoo trying to get things figured out over there in Idaho, so I'm going to stay far away from that, but yeah, looking forward to my next elk hunt and good job on, making it happen and, just again, I can't imagine, I've got a, five, 10 frame that I can squeeze through the brush.

And yeah, I don't know how you would get, I don't know how you'd get through all that, man. That's wild. Yeah. Everybody always sees me and they're like, Oh, that must be so nice being so big running around the Hills. Cause their first thought is when you pack an animal out, then you've got this giant frame, you can pack [00:40:00] animals out.

I'm like, yeah, but I'm like a fricking diesel. Trying to run around these hills and diesels burn a lot of gas, make a lot of noise and we're huge like it does not, it's not an advantage until after the kill and when the animals on the ground, then absolutely, I would say my size is an advantage, but it certainly works against me.

Everything else. But again, it's just one of those things. It makes it more challenging, it makes it more fun. And then, the true definition of type two fun is when it does pay off in the end and you can still look back at it all fondly. And laugh about it. . But you're normally laughing about it after it's all over.

Not while it's all happening. Yep. Yeah, exactly. And so for anybody that gets over to your page, there's, he's got a video where you're, I think you're packing your wife's mule deer out and. You make that thing look tiny, man. It's not a, yeah, it's not a small deer. It's not a huge rack on it.

Don't get me wrong for mule deer, but we had a day and a half to get my wife, the deer on the ground. And we wanted to get it back to the truck as in [00:41:00] one piece Cape on and everything, and we were a long way from the truck so my son could see it whole. I would not recommend doing that though, because it sucked.

Yeah, because when you're facing the camera, it, you make it look small, but then as you walk away and you see the back of it, you're like, Oh man, that is, that's actually a, that's a big deer. And the fact that you are hoofing that thing out of there like that is, is incredible. So I guess it has its pluses, yeah it's the advantage after the animal's down, but leading up to that moment, it's certainly a disadvantage at times, but Hey, you win some, you lose some, you take your lumps as they come. Yeah. And then trying to find a bow that's got your drawing, right? Like we've had to, we've had to fudge some links on strings and cables and stuff to try to make a bow work for you.

Yeah. And that is another thing that's so great about working with you guys. I call you up and I'm like, Hey man, I need an extra, quarter inch, half inch out of the sucker. What are we going to do? And we go to the drawing board and you guys when you guys say you do custom strength, you guys will do full custom, you'll get creative.[00:42:00]

Yeah. Yeah. We can do whatever we can, and thanks to Ryan Silver over there at G5 that was able to give us some insight onto. Specifically how that would work with the prime bows and everything like that. That was a huge help. He was able to get us get us some information on that.

And I was able to educate you on it a little bit too. So that was cool. Yeah, no, that was a lot of fun. And those little things, again go a long way, especially for us guys that are the outliers, I guess on the, I'm a long draw lefty. Nobody likes working with a long draw lefty. So you guys got to be pretty patient to work with me.

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Thanks so much for taking time out of your day. I know you're busy. If our listeners want to look you up, where can they find you on social media? And then also where can they find the edge TV as well? Yeah for me, it's just my first and last name. So Joe underscore Appel.

That's on Instagram and Facebook. I believe they just look up the same. But yeah, again, thanks, man. Really appreciate you being on. Hey, I appreciate you having me on. Always good catching up with you, man. And I hope you get a few more days in the [00:43:00] field before season's up. Yeah. Because it's the best time of year.

And I know it's a busy time for you guys. And you guys certainly have a lot more on your plate this year than you typically do. But it's the best time of the year. You got to take advantage of what you can. Yeah, for sure. I'll definitely be getting out. And good luck on the rest of your season, man.

I appreciate it. I'll keep you up to date on how things go with my blacktail. Fingers crossed. Sweet. Fingers crossed. I'll have some good stories for you. Definitely keep me in the loop on that. You betcha. Folks, that brings us to the end of this episode. You can find us at The Range Podcast on Instagram and on Facebook.

You can also find me on Instagram at rickywayne80. And you can find me on Facebook at Ricky W. Brewley. And then also be sure to head over to the Vapor Trail and Stoker Eye's social channels. Give us a follow there. And please be sure to head over to Vapor Trail YouTube channel. If you like the video, hit the thumbs up button.

And make sure to subscribe so you can be up to date on all things archery. If you're listening, do me a favor, give us a [00:44:00] rating and make certain you give us five stars. And with that, we are going to pack up our bows and we are going to hit the range. Have a great day everybody. Vapor Trail is now offering an exclusive discount to the range podcast listeners.

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