The Blacktail Coach Podcast
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The Blacktail Coach Podcast
Interview With Gary Sims From Blacktail Solution
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Think blacktail won’t daylight over bait? They’re not stubborn; they’re spoiled for choice. We bring on Gary Sims—cofounder of Limbsaver and the mind behind Blacktail Solution—to explain how flavor, precision nutrients, and smart timing flip the script on nocturnal patterns while building a stronger herd. Gary grew up on the Oregon coast with elk and blacktail everywhere, and that background led him to a simple idea with big consequences: if a blacktail likes it, every other ungulate will eat it. The trick is getting them to like it consistently.
We dive into why west-side deer often ignore salt blocks, and how a true supplement fills the gaps: protein for tissue and antlers, calcium and phosphorus for bone density, selenium and zinc for immunity, and iron for oxygen-rich blood. Palatability is the hinge—blacktail are picky—so Gary micro-batches every bag for identical flavor and nutrient delivery. Then comes the behavior shift: put out a small amount in mid-afternoon to create urgency. Early visitors win, late visitors lose, and bucks start sliding into that 4:30 to last-light window instead of 10 p.m.
Along the way, we talk antler jumps from solid frames to genuine trophy class, better doe lactation and fawn vigor, and why this mix draws elk yet tends to be ignored by bears. We cover post-rut recovery, winter stress, and how targeted feeding can reduce wasted effort for weekend warriors. We also address the realities of bait bans, selective harvest, and what real herd health support should look like when seasons are short and pressure is high.
If your goal is bigger racks, healthier fawns, and more daylight chances, this conversation lays out the playbook: precision ingredients, consistent flavor, and timing that changes behavior. Tap to listen, then tell us your smartest feeding tweak or timing trick. If you enjoyed the show, follow, share it with a hunting buddy, and leave a quick review so more folks can find us.
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Welcome back to the Blacktail Coach Podcast. I'm Aaron. And I'm Dave. This week we're here with Gary Sims from Blacktail Solution. It's the mineral that we use. And we wanted to talk to him about why we need minerals, what they're good for, with the deer for both bucks and does, and just talk about how you got your start. So thanks for coming on to the show, Gary. Hey, great to be here.
SPEAKER_00:Great to be with you guys. I've been watching you for years.
SPEAKER_03:So we met you a couple of years ago. I believe it was up at the Pew Allop show. You're based out of Shelton, Washington, correct? Correct. Okay. So we met you up there and you started talking about a new product that you used. And it was back when we could still bait in Washington. So this will be for our Oregon guys or out-of-state guys. And I would say that this product for any ungulate, so elk, deer, and it wouldn't matter if it were mule deer or whitetail, it's gonna be effective for all of them. Correct. As well. Correct. Yeah. Why don't we get started here? How did you get your start in the outdoor industry?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I grew up in Astoria, Oregon on the coast. Okay. And my father had 190 acres, so I had Roosevelt Elk of Blacktail coming out our ears.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:190 acres. What a paradise. And then behind, we were the last power line, and I could go all the way to Jewel Vernonia, almost to Portland, Oregon, on gravel. So I grew up in the wild. We didn't, we were the last into the pavement, the last power line.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, wow. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:That's where every hunter wants to be, right? Oh yeah. No. It was paradise. I mean, I can't tell you I was the luckiest kid in the world.
SPEAKER_03:Nice. Always in the outdoors. What moved you into wanting to work in the outdoor industry? Because you got your started with four black tail solution. You worked with Limpsaver. Okay. Oh, really?
SPEAKER_00:I still work with Limps.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, you still work with Limpsaver.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Yeah, my brother and I started that company over 23 years ago. We do firearm and archery accessories for vibration. We do slings. We do all your recoil pads. Okay. Okay. We do all your archery vibration dampeners, stabilizers. In fact, we're working on a brand new recurved bow right now. Oh, okay. So I did not know you were affiliated with LimSaver. Yeah. I'm guessing Sims Vibration Laboratories. My brother's Steve Sims from Sims Vibration Laboratory. Oh.
SPEAKER_06:It's funny I didn't put that together. I just knew him as Gary. I didn't know he was Gary Sims. Well, that's awesome. That goes back quite a few years.
SPEAKER_03:So, Dave, you're familiar with his other products too.
SPEAKER_06:Decades. Okay. I remember when LimSaver came out, and that was decades ago.
SPEAKER_03:All I know is being new to the hunting world myself for the last few years, that I just really liked your product when it came by. And you believed in your product, and you sent us a couple to try out, and I did. And yeah, we'll get I'll get more into the testimony, my testimony of how it's worked at the end and stuff. But okay, you've been doing outdoor stuff and hunting and everything. What led you to minerals?
SPEAKER_00:What I've come up with, I want it has all the potassium, sodium, copper, iron, magnesium, zinc, all that stuff's in it. It's not a mineral though. It's not like you would think like a trace mineral, like I'll kind on the east side, I would pour out 50 pounds and they'd eat it to the to China. It's not that kind, it's a supplement, and that's to help fill the gaps in the nutrition of the animal. Okay. But the problem wasn't how did I get into it? Yeah. Like you, I'm I compete against my hunting partners. Okay. And I want a bigger buck than they do. I want to get more deer than they do. This is the truth. I'm telling you the truth. My brothers and I competed our whole lives who got the biggest buck, right? And who was the best hunter. But the thing was with black tail, white tail, blacktail have it easier than a white tail or a mule deer because white tails and mule deers live in a harsh environment. They don't get near the nutrition and the nutrients that a black tail does because it's all washed away before it ever gets there.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. Understood.
SPEAKER_00:That's why if you put some salt out on the east side of Oregon or Washington, they eat it to China. You go put it down there in that story on the beach. What do they do? They don't even touch it. They walk by, yeah. That's right, because they have everything. So, how do I get a this blacktail bucks? I know we all have done this. We have them on camera at night. They always come in after two hours after shooting light and then leave about two hours before first light you can get them. So I thought, they're so picky. And why isn't a black tail so picky? He gets everything. He's you know, we always talk about I'm gonna hunt white tail, I'm gonna sit above this food plot, wait for him to come up in December. Well, a black tail's food plot's every direction he turns. Yeah, he eats everything. So, how do I get him to get his mindset that hey, this is good? So I had to come up with something not only that, and I'm gonna tell you guys, I tried years, I've tried everything they sell in a store to get blacktail to come down, and I can't.
SPEAKER_03:And we have as well, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, and I found something that's not only good for them, for the nutrition, helps their bone growth and helps their immune system, but they love the flavor. No more than you and me. I don't want to eat dried molasses, right? But you put everything together, they like flavor just like we do. Like if you ever put apples out for blacktail, I've always found that if I really like that apple, my black tail love that apple. Yeah. If I really don't like that apple that good, they don't like it either. I don't know. My deer are picky at my house.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's actually something that we covered talking with Heather Aldrich when we did our bear series. And we've realized this with black tail as well. That while there's some generalities, there's individual taste too. Like some bears really like mushrooms and some don't, or some animals really like this, but they don't like this other, like humans where we have our preferences for foods. But absolutely, yeah. So you gotta find that you gotta find deer pizza that everybody loves it.
SPEAKER_00:Well, if you can get a black tail to like it, every other game animal will love it. Whitetail will love it, mule deer will love it, Rosie Bell elk love it, Rocky Mountain elk love it. But if you can get something that Whitetail really likes, yeah, Blacktail ain't gonna eat it. He don't want it. Uh-huh. Okay, because he's picky.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Because he's got options.
SPEAKER_06:And I like the fact that you brought out, Gary, just because you put food out there doesn't mean they're gonna daylight on that food. So anybody who's tried to bait black tail, and it's popular, every I think it's just a there's a there's a a delusional mindset out there that if you put the food, they're gonna be there. Big bucks are gonna daylight it, makes it easy. Yes, and nothing could be farther from the truth.
SPEAKER_00:That's true. And what I have found, I can I'm gonna give up my secret here, and I just hit it by hit and miss, like you guys, trying everything. I found that when I feed my deer this supplement that I come up with, I put it out at three in the afternoon. I only put out enough there for like 10 deer to get it. If you come late, guess what? You don't get it. So what happened was I don't let them feed all that because if I keep it in there a bunch, then the bucks show up at nine, ten o'clock because there's plenty for them. Oh, they like it too. What I found is by letting them run out, they come earlier. So now my bucks start showing up at 4:30, 5 o'clock, 5 30. You still get that one big buck will come in there at that last 15 minutes, but at least I get a shot at him.
SPEAKER_03:That's good, that's some good strategy. I had never even thought about you create a sense of urgency in the animal.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. Because look, when we white till hunting, we put out two bales of alfalfa. I put out 40 pounds of corn, a mineral block, and then my camera shows all these beautiful bucks all night long. But then I sit there all, I see nothing. And then when I leave, I I leave at 5:30 in the afternoon, go back to my truck. The camera says a six o'clock. There's that trophy five by five I've been looking for. Because he'd been watching me on the hill so he can come down and eat all night.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, yeah, because they pattern you as much as you pattern them.
SPEAKER_00:Right. And the other thing I want to say real quick before I forget, on this black tail solution, it's a filler. Okay. It's not to be you could feed I have a six-pound bag, you could probably feed one pound of that a week.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And I just got because this is my first sportsman show with the stuff. I didn't realize guys use this guy came by and he says he feel he feeds 50 pounds a day of corn. And he wanted to pour my solution and I'm like, hold on a minute.
SPEAKER_03:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00:Do they need it?
SPEAKER_03:Do they? Yeah. Good point.
SPEAKER_00:And if I was me with a feeder, I haven't tried it. It might clog your feeder because if you guys seen it, it's pretty powdery.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It's really ground. So what I would suggest is you put it out in a little tray underneath your feeder so if they want it, they can come get it.
SPEAKER_04:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. But they're going to come get it because they love the flavor of it. Yeah. But it's not meant to be fed like in 50-pound bags. Because all that nutrition, it's spiked with nutrition.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:And they'll eat it just because they like it, but you want them eating it, you want them to eat it to come to it because they like it, but you want them to eat it in a controlled way so that it helps them most beneficially.
SPEAKER_00:That's if I'm taking care if I'm feeding deer year-round. Okay, we're talking about two different things here. There's feeding this, using the supplement. You use a little bit. If you give them a pound a week for 20 deer, you're doing great. That's all they need. Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. That's how you use this for if you're a year-round feeder and you want to grow bigger antlers.
SPEAKER_04:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00:I'm telling you, you need to be feeding this stuff right now because come spring, they're going to want to get bone mass. The first thing that's going to happen, all this protein is going to go to the bone. That buck's growing. He's got to grow. Then it says horns later. Well, if he's getting all the nutrition he needs, it goes right away from spring. I'm growing horns too. I got plenty.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, plenty to spare. Plenty to spare. And we've seen that with the four-year mark. Dan Dave's, he's talked a lot about that. The four-year mark, does have because their bodies are done growing, they don't need the nutrition. And so then it can go into, for does, healthier fawns. Right. For bucks, bigger wrecks.
SPEAKER_00:Now, let's you and me go hunting together and you're going to set your tree stand 400 yards south of me. Okay. I'm going to poach your bucks. I'm going to take this stuff. I'm putting out, I'm not, I might put a little corn down. I'm putting half a bag or a bag out.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. The day before the season opens. And then the day I go in, I like well last year I went whitetail hunting. I put out half a bag.
SPEAKER_06:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:The next morning I came in, it was all gone. I put out another half a bag, got in my ground blind, and shot my buck.
SPEAKER_06:Okay. Nice. Okay, good for you.
SPEAKER_00:But I'm like, you I want to pull that buck. We both know that big guy's there. We're all trying for him.
SPEAKER_06:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00:I didn't only tell my I stuck the sort of stuff around and I would sneak it out and put it, and he'd be like, How'd you get him? And that was my secret.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Because we all have the secret sauce. You watch alligator hunter, those guys, well, hey, it ain't no different white tail and black tail hunting. I want to beat you because we compete. So for hunting, don't be afraid of it. Use it. It's 25 bucks online, 20 bucks here at the show. But hey, I spend, I don't know about you guys, but if I'll spend, well, five of us rent a house for$2,900 a month for 10 days. We're hunting. Okay. And then we buy our tags and then the food and the restaurants. So I'm already into a hunt pretty good. What's going to hurt me to throw two bags,$20,$50 of this product out of the ground for a chance to come home?
SPEAKER_03:And yeah, if you're on a limited hunt, like you're doing a limit public land, say you're headed to another state. Yeah, you want your best possible shot in the in your limited time. So like our guys who head down to Southern Oregon and they only have a week. Or yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, it's even worse than that. I call it the weekend warrior. I work five days a week. I get to take off Friday night, show up Friday morning Saturday morning to hunt. I got to leave Sunday afternoon. And I got to do this two weekend, three weekends in a row before they close the season on me because they make it shorter and shorter and shorter. I need every advantage I can get.
SPEAKER_05:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, that's smart thinking, Gary. But I just want to put in a little disclaimer here. He did not use the word poaching like you and I are thinking right now. No, yeah, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_03:It's like poaching employees.
SPEAKER_00:We're all above board here. Yeah, all above board. I'm trying to get that. I want that deer to come to my stand, not yours.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So let's talk about the minerals. Actually, first, the big picture of like how's this helping the bucks and how is this helping the does? What is it doing for the bucks and what is it doing for the does?
SPEAKER_00:Great question. So, what we have found, I started this product in research on it about three years ago. Before I even bagged the first stuff, I was making them myself. My kids, I have three younger kids, they all shoot black-tailed bucks. We all shoot that little basket threes, those fours. We started feeding this, and all of a sudden, the year later, we earnest antler growth. I didn't bring in new genetics. The genetics were there, but the protein wasn't there or the nutrition they needed. All of a sudden, my antlers started getting huge. Okay. My daughter shot a 20-inch two-point two years ago. Oh my god. Oh wow. It's a monster. And then you've seen that other buck, she got that really nice four-point with the map. That thing scored number 18 in Washington State. She got that the year before they banned the feeding.
SPEAKER_03:The feeding, okay. And so it's it's helping for antler growth for the bucks.
SPEAKER_00:And dole lactation. Okay. Okay, I'm gonna have to back up and tell you how did I come up with this? I'm gonna tell you guys the truth. Um I hate doing this. I was white tail hunting in Nissan, Washington three years ago.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:We were standing that, like I told you in Airbnb. Every night we're driving to this farmer. He owns about 4,000 acres.
SPEAKER_04:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00:So he's got, and he's got every white tail in the county that we're trying to hunt on his property. Yeah. And he's not gonna let us hunt. But we're driving by and he had this roof, a big tin roof, about 50 long yards long building, and something was up there about eight feet high, and on top of that stuff that was eight feet high was every giant buck you ever wanted to see in your life. Every night was standing on top of that. What is that? So it drove me crazy. So I went back over that summer and I spent five days to find this guy. I finally met his daughter in a truck coming at me. She said, Oh, that's my dad. And he's way out there in this huge field on a tractor. So I went out to him. I went up to this man, he's in a giant, I don't even know what kind of tractor was green. I yelled up at him, he opened his door, and I said, What is that? And he said, They like it. That's what's on the front of my bag. Okay. That's from him. And what that was a thing he came up with to feed his dairy cows to increase their milk.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. Oh.
SPEAKER_00:So I added that to my formula. So not only do I want great antler growth, I wanted my does to have better fawns and more milk. So I at my house, we had one dough last year, had three fawns. Oh, wow. Three. Yeah. A lot of double. Of course, I got the cougars and stuff like you guys got. So some got lost, and the cars are hard on them, too.
SPEAKER_03:But as we've talked about, the more fawns and the healthier fawns, the more likely you're gonna have surviving fawns, even with predators in the game. Exactly. Yeah, yep.
SPEAKER_06:What would you say is the average increase in anthro antler growth on a four and a half plus deer that you're seeing per year?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, he's going from a 90-inch 110. They were hitting that 125 to well, hers was one. I got that one's 141. I still haven't got my 150 black tail yet, but I've we're pushing it now.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Wow. I imagine at some point you're going to.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Oh, and one other thing I wanted to back up. I'm these guys I've been meeting at the show have thousands of acres that most of us don't.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So I I have the advantage to feed every day. I go home from work and I get to take care of my deer, but the average guy don't. And I had to remember that. And that's what this product lets me do. Uh we were talking about it. I was going to do a TV show once for Limp Saver called Weekend Warrior and was going to have the 60-minute clock, knocking on the farmer's door, getting permission. Hey, that's the other thing. Don't be afraid to ask somebody if you can hunt on their property. I was really shy about that. Please, please ask instead of trespass.
SPEAKER_06:Please.
SPEAKER_00:Hey, you come to my house, I catch you my property, I call the cops. I had a guy come knock on my door, was a buck in my field, this elderly gentleman with his wife, and I said, Sir, you come back tomorrow and we'll get you a buck. He came back, I put him in my barn, and we shot a beautiful three-point the next day. Nice.
SPEAKER_03:And that's as a hunter, that's very generous of you to be willing to offer a stranger, but he was polite. He was. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:He asked.
SPEAKER_03:He asked.
SPEAKER_00:I had another guy come up. I go, What are you doing? He's gonna shoot that deer. I said, and he started screaming at me and gonna call the cops on me that I can't have no trespassing, and he has every right to shoot this deer that my little kids are watching in my front yard under my apple tree. Okay. He wants to shoot the thing, and I said no. But if he would have knocked, you know, it's how you ask.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And a good example is last year my daughter's boyfriend was down in Oregon near Astoria, and this lady had this huge property, and all the elk were on it. Nobody, oh, she's mean. No, they won't let you trust bat. He walked up, knocked on the door, and she said, Sure, young man, thank you for asking. And he got his bull.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. And then good for him. So, in instances with Dave being an electrician by trade, it's helpful to offer something in exchange, some electrical work or brush clearing. Anyone could do brush clearing.
SPEAKER_00:Clams, guys. We went to Montana with clams when we got the thousands of acres.
SPEAKER_03:There you go.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, you're right.
SPEAKER_03:And also, when you do harvest, this is another thing that I learned from Dave. But after you've harvest and you have whether it's deer steaks or if you've made some summer sausage or something, go bring them a gift of like, here, I'd like you to have some because I got it on your property. Thank you.
SPEAKER_06:Don't give them the scraps. Give them the choice. That's exactly right. Tenderloin. You got two of them, give them one.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, excellent. So let's get into talking about what's in there. You have the macros, the crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber. And I saw that, and I don't think I've ever seen that on a bag of supplement or mineral or anything like that. So, except for protein, that's one I'll see, and they'll put like 10%. So when you see like a bag of something that'll say 18%, that's the protein level. But you're putting the the fat and the fiber as well, and you're listing that as well. So, what's behind that?
SPEAKER_00:It's to show you that what I want to get to the horn growth or what I want to send for the milk. Okay. It's what I want to send for the bone. You know, I'm not a scientist, but I researched all this stuff. I sent this to a lab. It cost me quite a bit, but it took a month. I sent it to the lab to have this analyzed.
SPEAKER_05:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And that's why I list on my bag. I don't have everything, but I tell you basically what's in there. Okay.
SPEAKER_05:Uh-huh. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Selenium helps with bone strong, helps your dose too. Copper, a little bit of copper in there, so don't let your sheep get it. I'm just going to give you a heads up on it.
SPEAKER_03:I saw that. Don't let sheep. That's actually I wanted to bring that up. And I saw that don't let sheep have this. So ungulates. So if you're out hunting sheep, or if you're out hunting antelope or something, it might not be formulated for that particular species.
SPEAKER_00:True, but the the amount in there is so little. I talked to them, they said that they could eat it for 20 years, and it probably wouldn't hurt him.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. Okay. So it's not fatal. No. But it's not necessarily something that they need, or you'd want to make sure the hunting is a good one.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I've got to make sure some girl in the fair, you know, at a fair stands up feeding her sheep this stuff every day because she wants to make it healthy.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. It's the wrong product for that.
SPEAKER_00:It is. I am coming up with a barnyard blend. Oh, just letting you know for your horses, cows, oh, nice.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. Okay. And we do know, yeah, there are people who have horses, cattle, all that. So who might be interested. So yeah. Keep your eye out on the website. But if you have those macros, then there's calcium. Of course, that's bone growth and a lot of other things. And antlers. And antlers. And phosphorus. Now, is that related to the calcium?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and it also helps with the immune system. Oh. I got stuff in there that I researched that helps with the immunity. Because you know, deer get sick too. I mean, we don't want to stab with a horn. I don't know about you guys, but I'll see some of my does get pretty beat up after that rut. First, I thought it was a cougar was attacking my dose. Then I realized, no, it was that big buck my daughter shot. He was attacking my does. Okay. It's a good thing to get out of there. Yeah. I just want to make sure they have everything they do to give me a healthy herd. I look at the coats of my deer. I have a little buck right now. He's a little square stud. He's a little spike. I'm talking, he's not even a spike. He's a toe head. And he is the toughest guy up there. And I can just look at his frame and go, he's so healthy. He was born under this stuff. His mom's in my backyard. And I'm telling you, this buck's gonna be a stud.
SPEAKER_03:Nice. You know? Salt, sodium, potassium, those are all salts under the big umbrella. Right.
SPEAKER_00:And what is the very minimum of it?
SPEAKER_03:Yes. And yeah, these are all trace healthy amounts.
SPEAKER_00:The amount of salt I have in here, I actually use part of the flavoring. Just like you put salt and pepper on your steak. I got a little bit in there. I actually add seven grams, six to seven grams of trace mineral.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Out of a little teaspoon. Well, that's the other thing. Let's back up. Every bag is made individually. I don't mass bulk all my materials and mix them together and then put them in a bag. I weigh each bag, gets the exact amount of what I want in it.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Gets mixed in a mixer, gets put Into the bag, ziplocked, and then sealed. So I know you're hunting with the same bag that I'm taking to the bottom of my tree.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And you're getting the same nutrition and they're getting the same joy.
SPEAKER_03:And you were telling me yesterday when we were chatting about that, because you tried to do a bulk mix, and some of the products that are in there are heavier than others. Exactly. You'll have the top of the batch is different from the bottom of the barrel, we'll say. And so doing it this way, a consistent product, so you can trust every bag.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah. I was like, oh, I'm going to save a ton of money, honey. I go in the house, I have a new way. I'm doing this book. I'm doing all this. Well, here's what happened, guys. I'm going to be truthful on this. A buddy calls me up. Hey, I want two bags. I bring him two bags of town. I was on my way, he gets them. I go home. I put it out. And then my dear, they're standing. I'm like, what's going on? And I thought, well, yeah, I didn't think anything. I get up the next morning. My feet is sitting there. I get a phone call at 10 o'clock that morning. Hey, what'd you do? I'm like, what are you talking about? My my bucks aren't touching this.
SPEAKER_04:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00:And I'm like, but it's the same stuff. Because they're not eating it. And I realized, oh, I had to pour 50, 100 pounds of that over my bank. Okay. It changed the flavor. It changed because just what you said. Some of that stuff's really heavy and falls through. And by the time I got it all shucked up and through to bag it up, I didn't have the same bag. And blacktail or picky. Now I'm sure a white tail would have eaten it. He'll eat anything. Okay. My blacktail said, no, man, where's the cream filling? Something's missing here.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, they'll let you know.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah, they'll come to your window. They come to my window now. If I miss a feeding, I got them all standing outside the house. Staring at you.
SPEAKER_06:What I like that you're bringing to the forefront here, Gary, is the fact that it's for the health of the herd. And I think a lot of guys miss that because when we start thinking minerals, we don't think minerals very often on this side. Because, like you said, they're not attracted to it. They don't, because we get a ton of rainfall. But there are those areas that are short in mineral and for the health of the herd to build the immunity. Exactly. Like Aaron said, and everything. And that is to me the big painful part of this new law, no baiting, because we can't put out minerals anymore in Washington State. And it affects the herd health. It really does. If we can supplement that, if we're allowed to supplement that, then we have healthier deer, healthier doughs put out healthier fawns, higher survival rate, healthier bucks produce bigger racks. It's just for the benefit of the herd overall. And losing that, I feel like we've lost an opportunity to really help our deer just survive and to reach a life of maximum potential. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:I'm trying to stay calm right now. I want to jump out of the chair. And you hit a nerve with me on this. And here's the deal: I'm not going to go against my governor in the state of Washington. They think they know what they're doing. Okay. But here's what they don't. It just didn't seem fair. They didn't have a hearing. They had it online. We all put in, and this decision was made so quick. Okay. They found one deer over there on the side of the road near Spokane that I think somebody brought from Idaho, but we're not even going to get into that. Okay. Let's say it's there. But there's not been one case west of the mountains there on our elk or black-tailed deer or anything. But here's what they did do. I have children. I'm a disabled vet. I have veterans I take hunting. Not no more. You just cut out every handicapped guy in the world. I can't drag them out, put them in a I can't bring them out, put them in a ground line, and give them an opportunity to get back to the thing they love, hunting. Yeah. Because you took that away. Because I need that attractive to give them a chance to get a buck. Now I'm not saying to shoot any, to get a nice buck. That's gone. All my children now, my kids grew up with guns. They never shot anybody for a pair of tennis shoes. They've never aimed a gun at anybody because they know what death they know from life. Hunting is critical to a young man and a young woman. I want to say young man, but my daughter is the number one hunter in my family. She's 23 years old, but she's harvested deer every year since she's 12, a buck. Okay. She's starting to pass me up. But the thing is, what we've lost, and here's the word of the thing. When we come up with the cure, it's serious. CWD's been in here for 30 years across America. You know, my buddy Ted News. Even longer. My buddy Ted, don't get Ted on this. The eagle is crazy. Okay. But when they come up with a cure, if you read it, go online right now, cure for CWD, you're going to find out it's going to be oral, guys. It's going to be something that you have to put in your food. They're not going to fly around in helicopters and shoot these guys with injections. Right, right. Yeah. It's going to be oral. So what do other states do when they get a case of CWD? They shut down that county for three years. And the existing county of 10 miles around that county gets shut down for two years. After three years, they open it back up. Okay. Our state in Washington, I don't know what you guys are thinking, they just banned it.
SPEAKER_03:Banned it all across. And we had used baiting, and that's more selective harvest opportunities. And that's even that's kind of a maybe, but a big part of it I'd say that we didn't like about it was the fact that we can't put out minerals. We can't attend to their health. And we want there to be deer out there. We want healthy herds. More than anybody. And this denies us this opportunity. So let's get back on track here. And we'll talk about it.
SPEAKER_00:One more thing. I hunt with a lot of guys up in Alaska, and we bear hunt. And they allow you to bait in Alaska.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:With a permit, and it's done right. And you got to clean up your area when you're gone. They come in and look, and they come to your bait when you we were hunting. The game warns flew in and they check out your site.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Six of us. Cameron Haynes was with me up there. You guys all know Cameron Haynes. Cameron Haynes is the one that turned us on to the spot. He filmed me shooting the biggest bear in my life. Okay. On bait. We never shot one sow with Cubs. Never shot a sow. I come home here to Shelton and my buddy comes in. Oh, we shot this bear and we didn't realize it had two cubs. If I hear that one more time, last year I heard three sows murdered with cubs because the guys don't have a there's no time to see. They see black, that it's running, they shoot it.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It's the most horrible thing I've ever seen going on. I understand baiting seems like it's not fair chase, but what it is, it's lets me pick the bore. It lets me pick the one that's time to be harvest. Selective harvest, you said it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Now I am going to bring us back here. Sporon, copper, iron, manganese, zinc, and selenium. Real quick, what are those minerals bringing to the deer, their health?
SPEAKER_00:Iron, good blood.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. For oxygen. Yeah. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's just the selenium, too, is also for the immune system. The zinc, too. It all those are all things that are going to help heal and grow the body.
SPEAKER_05:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Especially like a little fun. They're growing fast. Look how fast a little fung grows from wobbling on his legs, and by the end of summer, he can jump over a six-foot fence. He needs stuff in there.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. And even bucks after the rut. I mean, some bucks will rut themselves to death, literally to death. And you see how run down they get emaciated because they haven't been eating. They need that right away. And they're going into the toughest part of winter, the hardest part of winter. We're staring at the coldest temperatures of the year that are coming immediately after they get done with either that first rut, second rut, third rut, whatever happens to go on. They're immediately going into the harshest part of winter. Food sources are way down. So yeah, that becomes a real big issue.
SPEAKER_00:It is. The nutrition level is down. Right. Even if there's dry, black donor really don't like grass, but ain't this dry like the white tail, dry, yeah, they got to eat a ton to get the same amount they did for a pound during the summer.
SPEAKER_06:Black tail will result to trail vines, which is not very high in nutrition at all. Fortunately, a lot of the lichen or the moss in the trees will fall if we have a good storm. If we don't have a good storm, then it's not there on the ground.
SPEAKER_03:Exactly. So jumping into, and Dave, you can give a quick testimony. I, before they banned baiting and everything last year, I was doing some experimenting with various minerals or supplements in three different sets that I had going. And I was going to rotate in between the three sets, the three different brands that I was using. And one of them was yours. Yours, and I got in a couple of months before I was cut off, so I didn't get a finish. Yours was the most consistent that I saw, but I went back in and was attending to one of my sets December 31st of this year. I could still see, and I had mixed yours with a bucket, so five gallons of 12% sweet feed. And I believe it was about, it might have been like a whole half bag. Mixed it all in there and poured it out into a two by three, three by three area and had a camera on it. Ten months later, I went back out and you could still see the trench in the ground where they ate down into the dirt because they loved. And then in my other spot, same thing. You can still see where they ate down into the dirt going after this stuff. So they really, really liked it. I would say of all of the minerals, this is the most consistent, universal product that I've used.
SPEAKER_06:I would agree. I would absolutely agree.
SPEAKER_03:I would say we completely endorse to our listeners. If you're looking to buy this, if you can still legally bait, legally drop supplements, minerals, this is the brand that I would say you want to use. If you're chasing after ungulates and you want to keep them healthy, you want healthy doughs, you want healthy fawns, you want bucks with big racks, you're competing with and not competing with other people, even yourself. You want to see what you can do. I'd say this is the product to go for.
SPEAKER_06:And I would not only fully endorse that, Aaron, I would go as a little bit farther as to say that a lot of the minerals guys will mix, and I tell them this at the seminars when we're doing like boot camp or one day in person or whatever, that you want to put out protein and minerals, but you want to put them out together. So a lot of guys will supplement that mineral with a protein, and typically to get the deer to eat the protein, they're going to use something that has a sweetener in it of some sort. This, the deer will eat, and even though it has its own little bit of sweetener in it, the bears don't even bother with it. Ignore it. And it's weird because that same sweetener that you're using is in other stuff that we've used. And the bear will come in and absolutely annihilate it and tear the whole place up, and they'll basically mark it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Right? This they don't even touch it.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:But the deer and the elk, and I'm saying the elk too, because I've got it in places where there's a lot of hoof rot, and it doesn't cure hoof rot, but it prevents those that don't have it. It ups that immune system to help prevent getting it. So the elk love this too. So it's not just a blacktail thing, the rosies just absolutely will go crazy for it as well.
SPEAKER_00:They do. In fact, my hunt this year, I hope I see you guys down here. I'm going to Astoria for elk. Okay. And I'm going with a couple buddies, and you can guarantee you when I'm sneaking in there with me. Okay. You can guarantee I'm sitting next to Gary. In my backpack, there will be Blacktail Solution. Okay.
SPEAKER_06:That's funny.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that is funny. How can people reach out to you to purchase your website? What's the best way to just go online, blacktailsolution.com. Perfect. Yep. And shipping times after the show's done. Actually, the day you everybody hears this will be the day after, but how long out should they expect the product to arrive?
SPEAKER_00:I'm gonna have to get busy when I get home. Yeah, give me about two weeks to settle in. I got the product, it's just a matter of me doing the labor. And that's the other thing. Right now, on the I I work a full-time job just like you got. I get the slim saver at six in the morning every day, five days a week, six in the morning, and I get out of there by three. I try to get out of there by three, sometimes not.
SPEAKER_05:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. I'm still ahead of quality control there. I'm still in research and development there.
SPEAKER_05:Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. And it's hard to walk away. You know, I met a lot of great people in the industry and that thing of fame. I don't want to say I'm famous, but I've met a lot of great people, and it's hard to step away. But my life's in the woods, and I've been hunting blacktail my whole life. You know, Ted asked me, I've had people come and ask me, he come out to my place, and my brother has 40 acres down for me or 80 acres down for me. And we can hunt his place. They say, Hey, we got a trophy elk, we got a trophy white tail, we got a trophy be there. I don't have that trophy blacktail. And I'd always tell him, Don't come. Why? I go, because he's gonna be here every day. I'm talking to you on the phone, you're gonna drive the driveway, and he's gonna go, and he's never gonna come back till the day you drive off, he's gonna walk back up in the driveway.
SPEAKER_03:They have your phone stabbed, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But now I think I have a secret, and I think what you got, I don't know. Oh, yeah, like I say, I got rid of all my game cameras except for satellite.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00:And when you said bear a couple of weeks ago, I should show these photos of my phone. I'm like, uh oh. I get this, I'm at work and I get this picture. Oh no, a bear. Like you said, uh-oh. Usually when I get a bear in my feeding station, I don't feed for a week, he'll go away. Yeah, but I shut down for a couple of days, give that bear a chance to go to get somebody else's stuff. He walked right by it in that picture. So I'm like, that's where so the next photo comes in, and there's nothing, and then boom, here comes that bear again. I'm like, uh-oh. He walked right by it again. And that's happened three times.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. And I've had bear come on camera, curious, yes, but they don't stop. They don't, they're not, they didn't touch it when I used it and stuff. So we're gonna wrap up here. If you could go on, subscribe, like, follow, do all those things at your platform ass. We'd really appreciate it. Share this with your friends, and you will find the link to Blacktail Solution down in the description below. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you all next week. Thanks, Dave. Gary, thanks for joining us. And thank you. It's been great knowing you, and it's been great learning about your product and using your product. So thank you. Thanks for coming on. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Dave.
SPEAKER_06:Thank you.
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