The Blacktail Coach Podcast
We're here to share tips, strategies, and stories of hunting the Pacific Northwest.
Whether you're a seasoned hunter or just getting started, we'll help you turn preparation into achievement and passion into results.
So gear up and get ready, because SUCCESS IS NO ACCIDENT!
The Blacktail Coach Podcast
A Hodgepodge of an Episode
The hunting season approaches, and the Blacktail Coach team is back with essential preparation guidance. This episode addresses the questions hunters are asking right now – from gear priorities on limited budgets to the effectiveness of their system for rifle hunters. The answers reveal a practical approach focused on what genuinely improves success rates rather than marketing hype.
Dave and Aaron share exciting news about their expanding team, welcoming Mark Boone and Dan Bonnell as new Pro Staff members. Both hunters achieved remarkable success last season, harvesting their largest blacktail bucks ever after implementing the Blacktail Coach system. What makes their stories particularly valuable is that they followed different learning paths but achieved similar outstanding results – proving the system's effectiveness regardless of how you learn it.
Looking forward, the Boot Camp dates for April 10-12, 2026 have been set, strategically positioned before turkey season begins to accommodate hunters with diverse interests. The hosts hint at potential big changes coming to this signature event, including possible appearances by prominent hunting personalities.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn behind the production curtain, revealing the equipment and editing processes that create the podcast's professional sound quality. This transparency extends to their Patreon program, where they outline how listener support enables continuous improvement while offering direct access to coaches through monthly Q&A sessions.
Whether you're trying to maximize your hunting budget, prepare your gear effectively, or simply understand blacktail behavior better, this episode delivers practical knowledge from experienced hunters who genuinely want to see you succeed. Ready to transform your approach this season? The blueprint is here.
Welcome back to the Blacktail Coach Podcast. I'm Aaron.
Speaker 2:And I'm Dave.
Speaker 1:So we have Dave back.
Speaker 2:Back from a special assignment.
Speaker 1:Out a few weeks. So we wanted to. Actually, dave wanted to be part of the series that we did with Heather, with the Bear series, but trying to coordinate three schedules can get a bit difficult and it's always like if we have a special guest, it's we work around their schedule and it just didn't work out. You on a day that you thought you had off and then you didn't have off, which at some point we're going to have that because I think it would be beneficial. You know, I always have like the beginner's perspective, the beginner's hunting hunter perspective, but there's some, like I just thought, like some deep dive questions that you possibly could have been asking her.
Speaker 1:so oh, absolutely, yeah, so I think maybe in the future, maybe if we can get her back on to do a part two of just you asking some deep dive questions, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2:she did a fantastic job. Yeah, I mean it's the timing of it is perfect, because we're going into fall bear, you know, and and with everything that's gone on, with the whole baiting bear and running hounds and all that getting taken away, guys are still wondering how do I do this, you know, and she really really covered a lot of stuff really well, yeah, really well. So I'm very happy with it.
Speaker 1:And it was interesting Like there were some things that made sense about how and when I would see bear on some of my sets. Like to me it was a complete mystery why my halfway set the bear, disappeared. I only saw him during the summer and then they disappeared. Well, it's not that time of year. They don't hang out in that particular area, which works well for me for deer hunting. But yeah, that was an interesting thing to learn. Downside is is I have to go find another place to potentially hunt bear because that set might not work unless I can get in you know, and that's all dependent on whether or not Sierra Pacific closes.
Speaker 1:So this week we're going to do a little bit different of a week, kind of a hodgepodge of different topics we're going to cover as we're leading into season, kind of wrapping up a few things and talking about just some more random topics. And we've got a lot of questions recently so I wanted to pose those to Dave and let you answer some of those.
Speaker 2:A lot of future stuff coming up too. Yeah, Big plans.
Speaker 1:We'll talk about what's coming up, not only class and what we're offering. There's some new stuff, that potentially some really big plans coming up, and we're excited to talk about it, but some of it's a little too soon, but we can. At least we've got some dates for next year's boot camp, which some guys have been asking about. But so let's start off with some of the questions that you guys have been sending in, and if you send any questions in, whether it's through the website, if you hit that, send us a text, fan mail. Yeah, we will respond to all of those. Just a heads up that if you hit that send us a text, it'll send it to Buzzsprout, which is our hosting platform, but I can't respond from that platform directly to you. So we will respond during the episodes or we create little mini episodes, question and answers as they come up. But probably the best way to get a direct response from us is just to email us through the website. Yeah, or blacktailcoach at gmailcom or even Facebook or Facebook.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, yeah, that's true. Type out a comment or whatever, and we'll get to it.
Speaker 1:I'm not on Facebook so I always forget about that being a potential there. But so some of the questions we've got. First one I've been listening to a lot of your podcasts. I'm not an archery hunter. I primarily hunt with a shotgun, rifle, barrel, slug gun. Would the boot camp apply to guys like me? I live in kellett's county at this time. I only hunt blacktail, so what do you?
Speaker 2:so my response to that person is it'll. It'll apply to you if you hunt blacktail.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I mean straight across the board, because the system that we're doing is scent based and and I don't care if it's synthetics, guys, they work just as good as as the real stuff. I've never had a problem with them. But the bootcamp is great because it's it's the scents and where we put them and when we put them and why we put them, but it's the locating, yeah, and that's the huge part of any kind of hunt. You can't kill what you can't find. So we teach you the habitat you're looking for. We teach you why big bucks like that habitat.
Speaker 2:What keeps them there? Why are they there? When are they there? You know, because they'll, seasonally, they'll, they'll move around a little bit, you know. But we talk about range, we talk about habitat, we talk about deer behavior, we talk about the rut, all of that all encompassing. So, yeah, it'll definitely help you. It'll open your eyes to why deer are doing what they're doing, when they're doing it. You know there's a purpose to everything that they do and it's about the survival and the furtherance of the species.
Speaker 1:So you know it, it's definitely gonna help you yeah, and as far as so asking about, does it work during modern? And it absolutely does.
Speaker 2:I do modern.
Speaker 1:I had two bucks in front of me and actually three or four bucks daylighted. One of them was in between early modern, late modern, but I had three during season that daylighted in front of me and one was just massive. Yeah, unfortunately he showed up the last day after I'd already.
Speaker 2:Filled his tag. Filled my tag.
Speaker 1:But Dan Bunnell and Mark Boone.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:They both filled their tags during early modern, modern season. I should say Yep, Even though Mark was archery.
Speaker 2:He's using archery equipment, but yeah, it was during rifle season.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Dan was using a rifle and you know, I think he shot his. What was it? Halloween day 17 yards. I don't even think it was that much 17, 20. Was it 20 yards?
Speaker 1:Oh, maybe he was 17. Yeah, because Alex was 20. Yeah, alex was 20. I mean, it's never more than 20 yards, was 20. Yeah, alex was 20. I mean, it's never more than 20 yards. So, yeah, yeah, that's kind of the way it goes. So, yes, absolutely works during rifle or modern. Yeah, it would absolutely work for for what you're you're doing there. So this next one I can't afford to waste money on things that don't work and that's actually that's really a great kind of I don't know to be aware of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Not just chasing. I think that's kind of a universal feeling. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because there's been so many things that have come down the pipeline that guys look at and say, well, it's gimmicky. You know it's just a gimmick.
Speaker 1:But and then some people have the money to, or they're just willing to buy everything and find out later that it's not gimmicky Anyway, so they don't have. You know, can't afford to waste money on things that don't work. I'd really like a good set of earbuds that cancel gunfire and enhance lighter noise. Any recommendations?
Speaker 2:Well, our sponsor is Walker Walker Game Ears and man, they make a great set of earbuds. Yeah, I had to. I and you know, when we were at the pro staff meeting was last year yeah, was last year and we were out shooting the guns. Cva is our, it's our sponsor and they always come with muzzle loaders and rifles and we get to shoot all the new stuff and some of the old stuff and and then walker game here is there and we get to try all of their their noise canceling headphones and earbuds and everything. Well, they opened up a box and gave me a set of the earbuds to to use while I was there and I'm telling you, wow, and that was awesome.
Speaker 1:Those things are great. They really are. And so this was one that was actually emailed to us, emailed in to us, and so we responded, you know, walker. That being said so, walker, they make a great product.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're probably top of the line. Yeah, I think in that field.
Speaker 1:But with the caveat. But with the caveat, now you can spend $250, I think, on a really good $300 on a really good set of earbuds. You know as opposed to the over-the-ear version, which can be a lot less. I bought an over-the-ear $30 set 10 years ago.
Speaker 2:The earmuffs yeah.
Speaker 1:And they're still working just fine.
Speaker 1:Right, right, and it goes back to taking care of your equipment, though, too, you know and yeah, and like, the battery cover on mine is long gone, it broke off and you know, but they still work. And it's been one of those like, oh, I should, I should get a new pair, but it's like, well, they still work, so I'm gonna just keep keep using them. So it brought up a really good point that you and I talked about, that if you're limited on what you want to spend money on, it's probably a better idea to spend money on something that's going to improve your odds.
Speaker 2:Right, right, absolutely. And I mean I get because I don't have the best hearing. I've actually failed every hearing test I've ever taken growing up, through middle school, elementary, high school. All of that stuff Failed every one of them. But that's a great point, aaron, that you're making there.
Speaker 2:It's like if you're going to spend money, spend it on the things that are going to up your odds of success. You know things like optics. Optics do a lot of footwork that you don't necessarily have to do with a good pair. You know if you've got a good pair of optics you can glass. Or if it's a rifle scope, you're able to see with clarity the light gathering. All of that stuff. That's where you want to put your money. You know you can like I archery hut. You know they sell package deals. You know if you're just trying to get into archery, you know they sell package deals. You know if you're just trying to get into archery, you know, for 500 bucks, well, you know a flagship bow is going to run you about 1200, 12 to 1400 now just for the bow and then now fitting yeah, you gotta outfit it you know it's like well, no, I tell guys all the time you can kill with that package bow easily.
Speaker 2:I remember when the top speed on bows was 200 feet per second and now they're like 320 to 350 and still climbing and stuff. There's been so much innovation but you still want, you know, the things that make you successful, can you? You know a good sight, good optics, good broad heads, that kind of stuff you can. You can squeeze by with some of the other stuff. Well, maybe you don't have the best camo, so what Does it keep you warm?
Speaker 1:Does it keep you dry?
Speaker 2:Does it keep you dry? I don't care about the pattern it's about. Can you get out there and stay warm and continue to hunt?
Speaker 1:So when we're thinking about, you've got $300, let's say Okay. That's not necessarily in. I think the point is earbuds aren't necessarily the first thing that we're going to spend that 300.
Speaker 2:Do we have our Ozonics Unless you're hard of hearing, and then it becomes an essential. But yeah, the Ozonics. It's a great example. There you go. I would rather have that. That's a game changer for me.
Speaker 1:Or a Hex suit electronics it's a great example. There you go. I would rather have that. That's a game changer for me, or a hex suit.
Speaker 1:You know, there there are other things that that might take priority right you know over maybe a pair of game ears and you know the over the ear. The only downside and it might be an issue with the earbuds I don't know if people get tired of wearing those. I do know that I wear the earmuff style and I can go about two hours and then I've got to take them off because they're just kind of driving me nuts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they get a little uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:But they're still a great thing to have and at some point I am going to upgrade to some walkers and maybe some earbuds.
Speaker 2:About 30 years. You got another 30 in those.
Speaker 1:Probably See, that's the thing is like when they first make them. It's like they make them really super high quality, yeah, yeah, even though they're it's like refrigerators refrigerators built in the 70s are still running yep yep, but a refrigerator built in 2010 is broken yeah, yeah, five years. You got five years and then they had another follow-up question can Can you recommend a good, easy to blow fun and distress call?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, larry D Jones. Yes, he had the easiest one on the market. Phelps has a fun and distress right, yes, they do yeah. Now, I have not used that one, but Phelps is a pretty reputable game call company.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, they do a lot of them too.
Speaker 2:But larry d jones man and I've seen it in action it brings in I wouldn't say big bucks, I would say a lot of forked horns and does, if you're just, if you're a meat hunter man, that thing works, especially in september, in october, early october, or, you know, before the rut kicks in. It really, really, really works. I mean, they don't come walking in, they come running in. So Larry D Jones is probably the best I've seen. Again, I haven't tried the Phelps, but that Larry D Jones, that's a great fauna distress call.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and when I think, when I responded to the email, I just mentioned Phelps because I know that they do just really good right calls yep, and then because you were working out of town, so it was a couple days later. I asked you and you mentioned the larry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and, and you know, phelps, they man, they got a whole plethora of calls.
Speaker 1:You know, bear cub calls and that's the one I I really want to buy. Because that, because I want to go bear hunting and I'm like, hmm, hmm, a bear cub call.
Speaker 2:It's like man, what is I mean? He's come up with a lot of different calls. You know, yeah and so, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, last question we had is someone was asking about the bootcamp dates and we actually have that, so it's next year April 10th through 12th.
Speaker 2:Okay, guys, this is just as much a surprise to me as it is to you. Yes, I don't. I'm not involved in any of the date setting. I just show up when I'm told. So April 10th through the 12th.
Speaker 1:Through the 12th.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And we were trying to. So we did first weekend in May last year, which worked out great. The weather was great.
Speaker 2:Perfect, yeah, it was.
Speaker 1:But it was in the middle of turkey and spring bear for people who wanted to go to Oregon, idaho, so we moved it up a month, so we were trying to get before turkey started. You're welcome, alex. So yeah, alex, one of our pro staff guys who does the turkey hunting.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We were asking him to prioritize us over his turkey, and that's just crazy talk. So april 10th is 12th and there there could be some big announcements. It will at minimum be the same boot camp that we've done where just getting the class and indoor outdoor experience and everything, but there there could be some big changes coming to the boot camp.
Speaker 2:Some potentially big names. Yes, so not going to say who, but potentially big names, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so we're working on it. We'll have more definitive answers probably in a couple of months. So last year we did the Blacktail Coach 2025 episode. So we'll do a Blacktail Coach 2026 with pricing and all of our dates and all of the specifics again sometime, probably towards the end of October, early November, so that people can start getting signed up for all of that Right on Last year was our biggest crowd too.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we had a lot of guys at boot camp. We did. It was a great time. Yeah, always is, though Always is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really. We've got a great location with the Cascades Camp and Conference Center. Good food, great food, although I did sleep on one of the twin beds and, yeah, I might bring a topper mattress for that, but I'm old Getting there. Yeah, yeah, it just happens so, actually, and I forgot to write it in our notes. So some news Mark Boone and Dan Bunnell are actually now Blacktail Coach Pro Staff.
Speaker 2:Two new Pro Staffers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great guys.
Speaker 2:Great guys Both new pro staffers yeah, great guys. Great guys. Both were successful last year. Both last year was their first year using the system and both killed the biggest blacktail buck of their lives. And just great guys, though. I mean, really that's what we're looking for. We're not looking for guys that are necessarily great hunters or blacktail you know great blacktail hunters because we can teach that. You know what I mean. We're looking for people with character. We want people that are wanting to help others be successful. That's what the whole purpose of the blacktail coach is is to help others and to teach you know how to be not just successful. If you want to fill the freezer, we can show you how to do that. If you want to hunt trophies, we can show you how to do that. You know that's our goal.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, we just want it to be enjoyable.
Speaker 1:And these guys really help us reach our goal. And you know, an interesting thing is different paths. They kind of mark different paths to success. So, mark, having taken the I think the field days and the online class, dan just went through boot camp and he went through boot camp again this year. He liked it so much.
Speaker 2:Well, he did a one-day, Didn't he do the one-day in person?
Speaker 1:Well, he did the locating field day this year, but he was successful just by what he learned from the boot camp oh yeah, for last year. Well, he did the locating field day this year, but he was successful just by what he learned from the boot camp oh yeah, for last year. So it's really guys are having success because we have questions Well, what should I take? The in-person or the online? Should I go to the field day? Should I take the boot camp? You know, we offer different ways to learn all of this. Guys have been successful in taking different combinations of should I take the coaching? Should I not take the coach? Go through the coaching. We've had guys be successful taking multiple different paths. So and that's really encouraging that we're actually creating a product that's leading to success. So, whether you want it in person or online, yeah, it's just kind of whatever works for you, but there's always that ongoing support too.
Speaker 1:Right, right, you know email us a question we're going to answer. I think it's just, you know, gives David an opportunity to talk more hunting.
Speaker 1:Tell more stories, and that's yeah, that's always a good thing. So those are some of the questions. Feel free to keep them coming. We've gotten lots of comments recently on the podcast. Really appreciate those.
Speaker 1:One of the things I actually wanted to talk about was, like, the gear, the stuff that we use to put on the podcast. So my thing read four articles, five articles and whatever they agree on. That's what I go by. Originally, we and the mixer that we used was a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. It's a two-channel. We use the Samsung Q2U microphones. We have microphone setups, regular headphones $30 pair of headphones. I actually use my Bose headphones because that's what I had. And yeah, it's one of those things where I started another podcast, figured out some of the initial bugs and then we started this podcast. So it's still kind of a learning process.
Speaker 1:But we've been able to add to the equipment. I bought a Zoom PodTrack P4 podcast recorder, basically another mixer that's a four channel but that one makes it easy, like if I go and record. It's very portable, like I don't need my laptop and I can record because it'll record directly to an SD card and I can plug it in. It's either battery operated or I can plug it into like a little battery pack or something, so it makes everything kind of portable. But yeah, it's been really interesting. We've played around with our platform is Buzzsprout. It's a great platform. It sends it out to Apple and Spotify and just pretty much everybody. But yeah, it's still. It's been interesting learning.
Speaker 1:We've tried some of the AI editing, and this has been in the last couple of months, so if you've heard some odd clicks here and there, I think it's some of this new AI editing software that I've been trying. We started with one called ReSound. It was really great because it would edit and then I could go in and clean up the edits. And then I got another one called Clean Voice, which is what I have now, and I don't like it as much and it's a little cheaper. It does some things better but it doesn't let me edit in the software or online where it does the AI editing Getting rid of filler words like ums and long pauses, things like that. Multiple words, right, right.
Speaker 1:If there's like heavy breathing or anything like that, and so it's one of those like always kind of learning. You know the focus, right. I like using this one, this mixer, and you might've heard in the past we have some sort of like distortion and I've been able to cut that out, but it's like this buffer rate thing and it took a long time to figure that one out. So it's really it's been interesting learning how to do all of this stuff. But hopefully you know and I'm just a stickler I want this to be really good quality, that you guys are getting like sound quality, like it would.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to listen to anything that sounds tinny or or just really bad Right, and so it's hard for me to like well, that's probably good enough and just let it go. That's really hard for me. I want it to be like really good quality and writing the scripts and everything. And there's been times I think two or three episodes where you and I I, I forced you to rerecord the episode because I just didn't like the way it turned out.
Speaker 2:Like now, this Did you talk too much this?
Speaker 1:isn't good, stop breathing heavy.
Speaker 2:So I will say this First of all. Number one I am surprised at how many people we get that ask us what we're using as far as mixers and mics and head. I'm like, wow, this is. There's like a whole group of people that this is their, their techie thing. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2:yeah, they're really, really into it. The second thing I would say and and probably the most important thing is is that you have done a fantastic job on this, aaron. I mean everybody out there listening. We get it all the time. We love the podcast. We love the podcast. We're always trying to.
Speaker 2:Right from the conception of the Blacktail Coach, our main goal was to put out quality stuff, not just the podcast, but the bootcamp, the seminars, all of that. We always have endeavored to have guys, when they walk away, going wow, I'm glad I did that. I learned so much and I'm so excited about hunting season and all that, and so that's been at the heart of the Blacktail Coach from the start and you really have taken this and ran with it and done a fantastic job. The quality you do all the scripts. He lines up everything, all the topics. Honestly, I just come and sit down and we talk and he kind of steers the whole thing and I'm just I don't even sit here and look pretty, I'm so old, I can't do that anymore. I just sit here and look pretty, I can't. I'm so old, I can't do that anymore. You know, I just sit here and talk.
Speaker 1:Fresh off mowing the lawn, doing, doing recording the show in our pajamas why not? Yeah, it's, I don't know it's still, it is a lot of fun. We've been getting a big boost and a big thank you, I think, to Heather Aldridge Absolutely yeah, because her putting it out to her audience. We've gotten a huge boost of listeners in the last couple of weeks and I know she just did a camp last week and I think we recruited a lot of listeners from that. So glad to have our new listeners aboard. Hope this is beneficial to you. But yeah, it's blown up where. I mean last week was our best week for downloads ever in almost a year.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then this week we will bypass last week. Really, we're way on, Wow. I mean I wouldn't be surprised if so, Monday through Sunday, and I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow we actually bypass what we did last week. Awesome, it's been that. It's been that good.
Speaker 2:Hopefully, a lot of guys get out there, a lot of people get out there and shoot some bears. Yeah, we got way too many of them.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And they taste delicious.
Speaker 1:Yes, and yeah, that was just delicious. Yes, and yeah, that was just. That was a lot of really good information and so me doing it and then when I go through and edit it, it's like oh, I forgot about that part. So you know the times I listened to him again it's like, oh, I forgot, I completely forgot about that. I'm the one who interviewed and there's like tons that I forgot. So, giving you a kind of a quick synopsis of what's coming up, so we have this episode. Next week we're going to do an episode prepping for season and prepping your gear. You know basically how Dave preps his gear, gets it all set up out in the garage, how Dave preps his set. If you've taken our class and you are interested in the establishing a set field day that is coming up this Saturday, no well.
Speaker 2:August 2nd.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it would be this Saturday because this drops Monday, on a Monday, so you missed it. Still time to attend. You're going to get a lot of really good information, but that's only open to guys who have taken the class or the boot camp, because contextually it just wouldn't make sense, whereas the locating that's open to anybody. But yeah, if you've taken the class and you might have some questions as we're going into season, this is where you would get questions answered.
Speaker 2:If you didn't take the class, you wouldn't have anything to reference from to understand why we're doing what we're doing.
Speaker 1:as far as the scents and drippers and all of that stuff, so we'll be talking about a lot of what are we ordering here in the next month, how we're getting our gear laid out, what are we doing to just completely prep and be ready for when season starts, so that we're not scrambling, we're not missing out on maybe some vital gear, some of those synthetic scents and things?
Speaker 2:like that Early season versus late season.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:How does that strategy change?
Speaker 1:Yeah, what gear we might be pulling out if we're going out in September versus, you know, november, things like that. So that'll be next week and then for the following four weeks so that for our new listeners or for our previous listeners, we're going to pull the probably the best, most important four episodes. We've done that will help you, that we think are going to help you through your season, and we're going to just redo those.
Speaker 2:They're probably some of well, they're easily some of our most popular episodes.
Speaker 1:And that'll be like a big clue. But the five factors, the nose, nose, the things that are the one on the wind, the things that are going to help your season the most, we're going to take those top four episodes and replay those episodes so that you're ready for black tail season or hunting season in general, because a lot of that stuff is applicable across the board.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:After that we're going to come back and we should have the smoky cruise episodes. I am looking forward to that, so we have no idea how many episodes this could be. I've met Smokey several times, but I have it on your authority. He's a talker. He's got years and years of stories.
Speaker 2:Oh, he's forgotten more than I've ever known about hunting. The guy is just a wealth of knowledge you guys are going to like. You're going to like that Smokey is just phenomenal, phenomenal hunter. For those of you don't know him, he was a rep for Quaker Boy. He was known as Mr Roosevelt in the record books for decades. I mean the guy is connected with you know Glenn Berry, jim Horn, he knows a lot of TV personalities and they come over and they stay at his place and he's just a great, great man. And his wife, annette, they're both in the record books for caribou, for elk, for bear, for antelope, for deer, for mountain goat, for mountain goat moose.
Speaker 2:I mean the guy has done everything and he's very, very accomplished hunter yeah and and, like I said, just a wealth of knowledge, and and just a great. They're both just great people.
Speaker 1:I love them so we're hoping that we can bring some of that knowledge, pass it along to all of you. And, yeah, and just get those stories out there, because, like you said it was, cameron Haynes is the only mention.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he and his son. Well, all three of them, smokey, annette and their son, are mentioned in Cameron Haynes' book.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's one of those where really needs like his story out there and his stories out there so that people can hear him, just because of how amazing that knowledge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. So the last thing we want to touch on is so we've got the podcast and you'll get to hear the episodes and Dave will make the decision as to what's probably going to be the most beneficial to you, but wanted to talk about the Patreon, so another way to help you through the season, potentially. So wanted to talk about the Patreon as we're going into season because I think there's some guys this could be beneficial to you.
Speaker 2:I think it's probably our most underutilized resource, Absolutely. I mean, I don't understand and I think it'll, I think it'll grow, you know, given the time of year that we're going into and stuff.
Speaker 1:But it's like, but as we go into season. That's why I wanted to specifically talk about it. Now, the first thing if you do want to become a Patreon member, now the first thing if you do want to become a Patreon member, don't go through Apple. They add 50% to these levels and they keep it all, whereas if you just go to the Patreon page, like their website, yeah, it's the actual price. Apple, if you go through the app on your phone, they add 50% to the charge, which is crazy.
Speaker 2:That's how they get you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's why they're one of the wealthiest countries or companies in the world.
Speaker 1:So we have three tiers in the Patreon. First one is Hunting Buddy and it's $5 a month. We'll send you some stickers from the Patreon. First one is Hunting Buddy and it's $5 a month. We'll send you some stickers from the podcast. I actually ordered some nice new stickers. If we do any Q&A mini episodes, those will be on there. And then if or not if. But when you harvest your buck and you have your grip and grim pictures, you can send those to us and we will add you to our sportsman show trophy poster. So you will be on the poster that all the guys stop and look at when they're at the show.
Speaker 1:The basic is this you know this just helps us, helps fund the show along that. You know there's a couple of little benefits, but for the most part this is just hey, you want to help out the show $5. Next level Outfitter it's $10 a month. You get exclusive monthly video content and with that it's relevant to basically what we're doing that month. So I started out and I believe I started this in February and I started, like, with doing mineral sets and that was my video series and then I got a whole bunch of more videos for March and then they banned minerals and it like tanked like three months worth of content that I had, and now we're good with creating content, but you get some unique content every month. With that.
Speaker 1:There's a 10% merchandise discount at our events. So when we're at the shows or if we're at some other, like maybe an archery shoot, if we have merchandise there, you get 10% off. You get first access to limited seating events. So if we have anything that has a cap of 20 people or 30 people, you get priority for those and for our trainings. Plus, you get anything that the previous tier offered. Another thing you get is you get the video recordings of our Ask the Coach sessions. So that is with our Master Hunter level. That's $20 a month. So this includes and this is the biggie. This is kind of why I want to do Patreon was this Ask the Coach session Right? Third Thursday of the month we start at seven, so after dinner, and we go as long as we need to, or to like 10 or something if we need to go.
Speaker 2:We've gone to 10 o'clock.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but this is, it's a Zoom call. You get the Zoom link and you get a call in. It's all face-to-face and Dave's there. Some of our other pro staff guys can be there. You get to ask questions about hunting. So if you're new to hunting or if you're new to a certain type of hunting, you know, even if it were just Dave there. I mean, you've hunted bear and elk and deer white tail, mule deer black tail.
Speaker 2:Successful on everything you've mentioned so far.
Speaker 1:Antelope, turkey, you're pretty much covered. You get to ask any question and we're going to be able to answer those questions. Now it's not if you're asking like, hey, what do I do now? Going to be one of those like tweaking your season or things like that. You know it's not a training session, but it's one of those where you kind of get into a situation or you're of just like hey, I don't know what to do here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we can help troubleshoot. Or we can just, you know, direct you in the you know well we can help troubleshoot. Or we can just, you know, direct you in the you know well, when you know, why do you do this? Why you know you can ask questions. Why do you? Why do you like archery? Why do you, you know, just anything to do with hunting. We're going to cover.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you know, that's just a big advantage and, honestly, the guys who are signed up for that level right now aren't taking advantage of that to the extent that I thought that they would. So if you are one of our Patreon members who are the Master Hunter level, thank you for your support. Absolutely, totally appreciate it. But please Sign on to Ask the Coach. Ask Dave some questions. Ask the guys some questions.
Speaker 2:I got a lot of information that I want to share guys.
Speaker 1:You know sometimes people can share I mean, because it's set up in Zoom you can share pictures. We can share, like if you want questions about like habitat, like if you have like your Onyx picture screenshot, something you know you can share your screen screen. You know it's a pretty open forum and stuff and so if anything you get to sit and chat about hunting for a few hours, you know we can all talk real long about that, you know yeah but the you know, the main goal of all of this is to help you be successful, and so that's what we're about, you know.
Speaker 2:So ask the coaches is it's? I mean, like Aaron said, we have pro staff there, myself and everything and it's like, no, we want you to be successful, we're going to take the time to teach you and to show you things you know and and, like you know, it's I don't understand. I mean, if we go to a one day seminar you got me for seven, eight hours, depending on how many guys are there, with this, you can come every month.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know every month and ask me you know questions, multiple questions. We're not limiting it to just one. You know it's whatever you want, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so, along with this, not only that, you get 10% discount on courses and coaching. So either the online or in-person one day course and the coaching program, so it's 10% off. That you get the e-version of our hunt planner and gear guide. We'll send that to you and we'll send you the new version as well, like next year. I think we usually have that ready by March. There's usually tweaks, there's tweaks that have to be made every year so by March.
Speaker 1:That's ready to go. But you get that and then you get all the previous tier offerings for all of that, so all the video content, and if you sign up, you actually get to see all the older videos so you can scroll back and watch the older videos and everything. I've got some on locating and on wind checking your wind of dominance versus a annual rub line. I did one of those like finding the bedroom door, and occasionally I just put up random posts Like I'll see something that's interesting and I'll take a picture and put out a post on there too. So I've done that a few times and that's just like some extra. So here's kind of what this says and so far it's been great is it covers the cost of doing the podcast every month. So there are monthly expenses with Buzzsprout and AI and all this other you know the online stuff that you know it's just monthly recurring expenses and it's covered that entirely.
Speaker 1:And it's helped us by, like that second mixer, the four, the four mic mixer. I was able to buy that because it was enough extra money. I got, you know, a third setup. So now, now we have three mics, three mic stands, you know, and the goal is to buy another one and so that we can have four if we want to do. And then it's if we want to bring on some pro staff and have a kind of round table discussion, things like that. So it lets us build up our equipment. I've got backups to everything. You know all those cords that every once in a while they just go bad and I don't have to worry about it because I've got backup cords. So it's been covering all of that. But going forward, one of the big things that we want to do, and this is what your support will help with.
Speaker 1:So there's OWA, the Outdoor Writers Association of America, and we were approached last year by John Cruz from America's Outdoor Radio.
Speaker 1:And you may have listened to him or seen him at the shows, because he's always got a booth at the Portland and Puyallup shows. But he was like, hey, you guys need to do this, you can get press credentials. Well, we're a year in now, so one of the things is you have to be a year in of doing your podcast or whatever you're doing to join and we want to join, and so then Dave and I would actually have press credentials. This opens up a lot of professionalism. There's the potential of going to their conference every year, which is actually coming up here in about a month. We're not going this year, but it actually coming up here in about a month. We're not going this year, but you know, it's something I'd like to do, but it's. We could get in as press to shot show, right, you know.
Speaker 2:Get, get bigger names on on the and I don't I hate to say it like that because everybody that's come on. We've really enjoyed you guys. You guys have just been awesome but just some more TV personality type, professional hunter stuff and get the opportunity to sit down and pick their brain.
Speaker 1:I think that's it. It gives us an opportunity to be better media, and if we're better media, we can provide you with a better product. Now, no matter what, if it's just not financially feasible, that's okay. The podcast is never going anywhere and it's always going to be free, and you're more than welcome to email us questions. Listen, that's great. We are very happy to have you as a listener.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yes.
Speaker 1:And this is just an opportunity that, if you want to help support us, help drive the growth of this show and move it into some new areas that improve quality and everything, that's great. If you want to join the Master Hunter level and book up for your class next year and get your 10% off, and book up for coaching and get your 10% off, and and do ask the coach and at the end of season, drop down to the $5 level or just drop it entirely, okay, that's okay. Understand that, though. We've all done stuff like that.
Speaker 2:I don't think we started this to make money. You know what I mean. It was never our intention. Again, our mission statement, you know, is we're out here to help you guys. We want everybody to have a great experience. Hunting is on the decline. We're losing participants in this privileged right that we have to go out and enjoy the outdoors, and man, things are crazy around us. So why not help steer someone in the right direction, keep them out of trouble, you know, get out there and enjoy the outdoors, like we do, get some of our rights back? I've been just excited about what's going on up in, you know, up in Olympia, and everything with the hunting, the collation and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:It's like man there's actually some light at the end of the tunnel. I mean, it's given me some hope.
Speaker 1:Sports Alliance and some of the things they've done, and you know the new names with the commission, right, yeah?
Speaker 2:You know, it's like man we could possibly get who knows hound hunting back or baiting bear back. I mean, it seems far-fetched and has been you know something that I just never thought would happen, but now it's like there's like there's a slim chance after a lot of negative, dark years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to have it be able to come back, yeah, and you know, from perspective said a million times new to the hunting community myself, three years and but just to like think that, oh, we could be doing this or this, right, but also experiencing having something taken away with the baiting.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh and and this has been and you know, a great, you know dave's a great resource, because a lot of us using baiting and as part of this program, okay, well, how do we flex from that? Well, we can. We figured out how to, how to work around and how you know what's important and and all that. And those are the type of things where this community, if we're getting together and chatting about things, it's somebody might have something that, an idea, and that's just. The bigger the community, the more ideas you can have. Yep, yeah, so anyway, would love to have your support. Go, at least check it out. You can always sign up as a free member. I've tried. I try to post. Oh, one of the things I do is one of the AI aspects is it creates a blog post of the episodes and it'll. It writes a really good, accurate blog posts like a 1500 word or something like that.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:And or 800 words somewhere around in there. Some of them are longer, but I post those generally on Sunday before the episode comes out onto Patreon and I don't know if it lets me do it where it's just to anybody who signed up or if it's just the paid members now, because it used to be like I could set it where free members could have access to those the day before, but then you can read blog posts or you can actually share blog posts things like that as well on other websites or you know. However, you want to spread the word, but you know, comes down to it. We love serving you guys with this and we're excited to think of new ways that we can grow this to make it more educational, more opportunities and be more professional. So, if anybody also it's a great opportunity. If you have ideas for episodes that you'd like to hear, send them in.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. He's looking for that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:Because it's creating episodes of what you want to hear and if we can figure out how to do episodes. There's some topics that come up, like shed hunting. Someone asked us about an episode on shed hunting and that's not really something that's in our wheelhouse, but okay, I've got that in my back pocket and if I ever come across somebody who's really good and really knowledgeable about shed hunting, we could have an episode about shed hunting, so still want to do one on calling rattling.
Speaker 1:There's a lot out there that I'd love to do, or, if you have anybody that, some names of people who are just really good at calling and rattling or that particular topic, we'll have guests, yeah.
Speaker 2:Still trying to reach the unknown hunter.
Speaker 1:Yes, he's out there.
Speaker 2:Please, please, please. B to reach the unknown hunter. Yes, he's out there. Please, please, please.
Speaker 1:Bucky and the unknown hunter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, get in contact with us. Yes, that is a story that we have to get on. That is so funny.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Absolutely hilarious. I think the best story we've heard at the shows is Bucky In our four years that we've heard at the shows is in our four years that we've been doing the shows. Absolutely, I couldn't stop laughing.
Speaker 1:I was crying my stomach hurt Bucky and the Unknown Hunter. Anyway, that's our kind of our wrap up of our hodgepodge week here. We'll be coming back with some content next week and hope you'll join us.
