A Four Day Gathering Builds Better Hunters Through Practice

Four days can change the way you hunt when the learning is real, the egos are gone, and the “secret sauce” is actually shared. We’re wrapping up the Hunters Gathering with quick testimonials from the people who lived it, from our instructors to the hunters who showed up hungry to learn and left with a plan.

Trent Fisher talks about the difference between seminar knowledge and field coaching, and why seeing a setup in the woods creates the light bulb moment. Richard shares how elk hunting felt intimidating and impossible until he learned a simple system for locating elk and watched it applied on the ground. Jeff breaks down why this kind of weekend matters for legacy and for protecting the hunting heritage we care about, and Wyatt Fisher gives an honest take on growth, mistakes, and why helping someone else succeed can feel better than punching your own tag.

You’ll also hear what made the event feel like “adult summer camp” in the best way: meals together, campfire stories, an embarrassing story contest, and the kind of connections that turn into real hunting partners across Washington, Oregon, and California. If you’re looking for practical hunting education, mentorship for new hunters, and tactics for blacktail deer, elk, turkey, and bear, this one shows what the weekend is like from the other side of the table. Want to join next year? We’ll be back the same weekend in early April, and huntersgathering.com goes live by June 1 for sign-ups.

Subscribe, share the episode with a hunting buddy, and leave a review so more hunters can find this community.

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Transcript

Welcome And Event Recap

SPEAKER_06 0:09

Welcome back to the Blacktail Coach Podcast. I'm Aaron, and it's just me this week because we are wrapping up the Hunters Gathering, and we're going to have some quick testimonials from the guys who attended this year. It was an incredible event. We had Trent Fisher teaching elk, both in the classroom field work, Heather Aldrich, Alex Cheney teaching turkey. Heather was teaching bear. Dave was teaching Blacktail, phenomenal weekend. Everybody was participating, just part of what we were doing. This was, I have to say, we've been doing these boot camps, Blacktail Boot Camp for the last three years, and we were finally able to expand it. Dream we've had, starting with Asha from when we first started the Blacktail Coach. And we're just now realizing this dream of being able to bring in other teachers and just expand on what people are learning about hunting. And this year we had someone who's never hunted before came here to start learning some skills. We've had experienced hunters who've been hunting for years, who just wanted to sharpen their skills, and everybody in between. I can't express enough how much I appreciate these weekends just hanging out with guys. We were around the fire pit at the end of the night, every night, sharing stories. We had an embarrassing story contest. Congratulations, Kirk, on winning that. But for everybody else who attended, thank you for joining us. Thank you for being part of this first one. We were so glad to have you. We're so glad to host you. But we want to hear from everybody or from some of the guys who attended. And if you're thinking about coming next year, it'll be the same weekend, early April. The website will be live by June 1st to sign up. It's going to be a great weekend. And I just can't say it enough. Sign up because it's more than just learning, it's expanding your community. It's getting some new hunting partners. It's just a great weekend overall. So let's start off. We're going to have guys come in and we'll just record their testimonials. I'll ask them a couple of questions about the response to the weekend and just to give you an idea what of what it was like on the other side of the this table, what it was like for those guys to be part of what we were doing. First up, Trent Fisher, one of our teachers for the course. So your first year, what impressions of the gathering?

SPEAKER_03 2:34

Unbelievable as far as the community that we've gathered in four days. You know what I mean? Yeah. It just you come in, and I think we said this a couple different times as men, as just people alone, we're okay. How do we fit in here? How does this work? How and now you fast forward four days, and it's we are all brothers and sisters, and we're all giving each other hugs, and we're all supporting each other, and we're all hoping for each other's established success down the road. So it's it's it's a community now.

SPEAKER_06 3:02

Uh-huh. Yeah. So, what was your experience? And we talked a bit about this about you've done the seminar style and everything, but this was your first chance to really do some field work with it. Yeah. A lot of great feedback. How did you feel about being able to do the fieldwork?

SPEAKER_03 3:16

Probably my biggest takeaway in this whole thing, because I've done a lot of seminars, and usually the seminar is about an hour long or an hour and a half, and you go through the steps and you go through what you do. But when you get in the field and when we can get out there and you can see that light bulb turn on in people, you can see that. Okay, now I see what you're saying about mimicking this or doing this or bouncing this, or there's a ton of things that you're going to learn in this class. And that was a big aha moment for me. Okay, maybe I need to do more field work, maybe a little bit less classroom work. Give them the building blocks that they need and take them in the field and say, All right, now I want you to do this.

SPEAKER_06 3:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:54

And that helps a lot.

SPEAKER_06 3:55

Ush and I've having an education background. And I used to do a lot of professional development trainings and stuff. And it's interesting. So there's this statistic that if you just sit through a static training, you're just sitting there and taking in information. There's about a 5% implementation.

SPEAKER_03 4:10

No kidding. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 4:12

If you add the field work, and this is what's really interesting. If you add the field work, it jumps up to about 20 to 25% of implementation. And that actually guided a lot of what we do and why we added coaching. So if you can get a coach or a mentor to help you through this process, it actually jumps up 95% implementation.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

No kidding.

SPEAKER_06 4:32

Yeah. And it's a big reason why we do the mentorship, why we had our three, Kelly Reardon from WDFW. Yeah. And I know every state has that, the mentorship for hunting and everything like that. And you definitely encouraged like reaching out to other hunters and yourself. Absolutely. I know you were you gave out your number to a couple of guys who were just getting started to encourage them. And yeah. And it's I and I start before everybody came in, I did my little intro. Having done this now, this is our fourth year, but the first year of the hunters gathering, I'm amazed just how flawless and seamless everything went. I felt like there was one little tiny flub that was my fault. But honestly, I don't think you noticed or Dave or anybody else. I didn't. Yeah. It was just in your teaching. Like I was always, yeah, I don't really want to elk hunt.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

Yeah. And now I'm like, maybe I do. That's what's been so awesome. There's a few guys in here that never even thought about bow hunting, let alone elk hunting. Yeah. And they're like, buying a bow, going elk hunting this next year. Go and elk hunting. Okay. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_06 5:36

Going forward, yeah. What do you think as far as how you might be teaching or presenting? And I know field work and stuff, but yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:44

No, that's a great question. This was my first long form, for lack of a better word, way of teaching. And uh and there's definitely things after years and then talking to you and Dave and everything and doing it for years and years. He honed it down and fine-tuned it a lot. And there's a lot of things that I can do better. I think that'll suit. And I won't say the word better. I think we did a great job, but I think that maybe that will just drive something home a little bit more. So there's a lot of that stuff that I think I can do. And the big thing that I like is the inner interaction with the people. Yeah. So you get to get that feedback. What do you want? What information do you want? What information do you need? We learned that around the campfire last night. We had a big round table just with everybody here. And it was just like, hey, what do you guys, what would help you get over that hump of either I'm scared to go hunting or I'm I'm not too versed in calling elk, or I'm not the blacktail thing, just it's tough for me. All those tiny little questions, just okay, let's cater, let's see, let's get you where you want to be.

SPEAKER_06 6:42

Exactly. And the there's that aspect of for us, for Dave and the way he teaches, and it's not that to make it better, but how do we become more effective teachers? Yeah. So that the person, the student who goes through this, who comes through the either the camp or any classes or seminars we do, how are how can we maximize that time?

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 7:04

And it's really great to Heather was had mentioned the same thing about I get five hours to teach, and she was so excited because she usually doesn't get more than about three. And so having that extra time and being able to go into some depth about some things and everything, it's you can get a lot of information across. Yeah. And then there's still, oh, but if I only said this, or that's gonna haunt me for probably the next year, probably. You know what I mean? But it's one of those and you talked a lot about the around the campfire, about staying positive.

SPEAKER_03 7:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 7:33

And we it was funny because we all talked about like our failures at hunting and me leaving my rifle on the roof of my car and driving off and just all these stuffing the uh the deer into my trunk of my Hyundai. Oh, yeah. All of those type of things. But it's even like with teaching, it's like that positivity of this is an opportunity. This is an opportunity so that I can grow and I can pass along the best information going forward and everything. So it was great having you. Oh, thank you for joining us. It fit right in because the big thing, number one, is it's the community. And it was, I've said it before, it was our unintended consequence the first year. Yeah, and one of the things, so Dave and I being friends 30 years, 30 plus years now, he could never get me hunting. And our pro staff, Scott Cullum and Alex Cheney, who taught the turkey, they were at our first black tail boot camp. And seeing those guys connect and how they reached out to me as a new hunter that year, yeah, they were the ones who actually convinced me to hunt. That's so cool. Because of that community, that's what drew me in. And yeah, you helped foster that with within your, I know your community of the born and raised community and stuff. And as we bring all of these communities together, it's yeah, a really great thing.

SPEAKER_03 8:53

Yeah, man, it's one of those things where it's if you think you can or you can't, you're probably right.

SPEAKER_06 8:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:58

So, guys, anybody can do what we're doing. Anybody can.

SPEAKER_06 9:02

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 9:03

Anybody can with the with the skills and just a little technique and make it your own. Anybody can do it. Anybody listening to this, man, I would just encourage you just to, you know what? I want to do something different. I want to get off the couch or I want it, I want to get out in the woods, or I just want the next level of I love hiking, but now I want to go procure my own meat. Yeah, something of that nature. Anybody can do this, and uh, we are more than happy to see you and to help you through that process.

SPEAKER_06 9:31

Exactly. Couldn't have said it better. So thanks for jumping on. Appreciate it. Thanks for talking to everybody. This is going to get people excited for next year. So be looking at the huntersgathering.com, be looking at the website. We're gonna go live pretty quick and start getting you signed up for next year.

SPEAKER_03 9:46

Absolutely. I look forward to seeing everybody.

SPEAKER_06 9:49

Cool. Next up, we have Richard. So Richard has the distinction of being our furthest away guest who who flew in from LA area. So let's talk about your experience with the camp. So, first, how did you what caused you to want to come to the camp?

SPEAKER_02 10:04

So it's really I've only been hunting for about three, four years. Uh-huh. And I've been looking, trying to find just a way to gain more knowledge of what it will take to be successful in the field. And I stumbled upon the podcast, the Black Tell Coach podcast, doing looking for bear tactics, uh-huh. And found the episodes with Heather and just kind of got hooked after that hearing you and Dave and all your guests talk about just the success you've had and the different things that we can do and learn to be successful in the field. And then when I heard about the Hunters Gathering and all the folks that were coming here, it was like, I need to be there.

SPEAKER_06 10:42

So as far as you got your bear tactics and stuff, secondary, what what really appealed to you, or was it all just I would say that one of the biggest things is before coming here, I had zero confidence about going into the elk woods. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

I was it was something you see on TV, YouTube, you see all over the place, everybody's elk hunting. And I just was so intimidated by it because the elk area is so vast. It's just like, how do you even know where to start? How do you know you're gonna find elk there? But then hearing the born and raised guys and their tactics and the techniques that they use, it's like I feel confident now that I can at least go out and locate. I may not get a bull the first time, but even just being confident to say I'm I can go out into the woods and locate elk or try to locate, and now I have an understanding of that. I think it's such a learning curve to be able to do that because before I I wouldn't have even attempted it on my own. And now it's like I feel comfortable being able to say I could go out and do that.

SPEAKER_06 11:43

And maybe in about the same amount of time hunting, it's also feeling that way of like never really interested in elk, and now it's maybe because it's that system, and everybody gave out a system. And sometimes it's in your opinion, was it easy to follow the system that everybody laid out and how they do everything?

SPEAKER_02 12:03

Yes, yeah. I felt the system, I think what really tied it all together is one learning the systems in the classroom, but then going into the field and seeing how it's applied because that was another element. Like I've I watch YouTube, listen to podcasts, read books, all this stuff that we're we do to try to gain knowledge on how to hunt, how to be successful. Yeah. The difference here is that you actually get to go in the field and apply it and see how it's applied, and then it clicks. And so I've already we left the black tail sets, and I'm already thinking in my head, oh, I know two or three places where that I've walked past that I could set this up. And so it's already going in my head on how to do this, how to be successful. Same with the bear tactics. I think with bear, my biggest thing was where do I set cameras up? How do I set them up to be successful? And listening to Heather and then learning how to understand where food, water, bedding, and all that is, and then the travel routes. Uh-huh. And now I feel like I could go and set up some cameras, and I'm excited to go do that and be successful.

SPEAKER_06 13:04

And actually, at this recording, tomorrow we're going to start a three-part series on trail cameras with someone who he's figured it all out. Listen to those because those will definitely help. So, apart from all the teaching and everything else, the facility, just everything about this location. So, we're at Cascades Camp and Conference Center up in Yelm, Washington. This is where we do this.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

What were your thoughts about just so I think the location was perfect because you're in the woods, you're in nature, right? We saw deer walking around, I saw a raccoon playing yesterday. But on top of that, it really creates a family type environment. You're eating all your meals together, bunking with individuals. You set up the campfire, everyone's sharing stories, and we've already got, we've exchanged numbers. Like I so I'm from California, and my chances of drawing elk tag there are very slim. It's gonna take 15, 20 years, but I've already talked to some of the guys here, and I said, Hey, do you need a caller? I'll come up to Wash, I'll come up to Oregon just to be in the elk woods. You want, do you want someone to go out there with you? And so some of those friendships, I think that's what really makes it is gonna make it successful because it's one thing getting the education and the knowledge. It's another to be able to find a group of folks that you now have a shared experience. And exactly, yeah, you've got some relationships and some friendships that are building, but then you can expand upon those by going to the woods together. Yeah. And being able to share success stories on how how that's how what we learned, how we're applying it in the field, and are we being successful with it?

SPEAKER_06 14:38

That is really true about that state borders. Like we all have our different laws and draw drawing tags, and there's all these different rules, but we've got basically hunting buddies all up and down the West Coast by these weekends. And it's just really great to see. That's always on our part. I constantly mention this. It's great seeing it. Was the unintended consequence of starting this camp. We thought we were just going to educate you guys, but seeing everybody, the no-ego. I just want to help you with your hunt.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

I just want to take a moment to touch on that because I was every presenter has had zero ego. They're just windling and wanting to teach. And they go, they'll you see so many times after a class when we're on a break, individuals are growing up in time and they don't turn them away. They don't be, oh no, I need to go get on my phone or I need to make this phone call. They are engaged, they have no ego, and they just they're willing to teach. And that's just such a big component and something I wasn't expecting that it was just like, wow, everyone here is just really passionate about helping you learn, and they want to see you be successful.

Jeff On Legacy And Advocacy

SPEAKER_06 15:47

Yes, absolutely. We absolutely do. So thank you for jumping on with us. Thank you for telling us about your experience and stuff. And I hope you wrote down my I or oh, I didn't yell out my number yet. I'll make sure everybody gets my number, and you can always feel free to contact me directly. Like I said, we love staying in contact with everybody and those quick little questions about this or that. Yeah, we want to stay connected. You're you are definitely part of this community. We're glad that you are part of this community, and thanks for coming. Yeah, you bet. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay, now we're here with Jeff. So, what cut what brought you to the hunter's gathering?

SPEAKER_01 16:24

So, my wife recognized that I was getting frustrated when it came to that final last 20 yards when it came to elk hunting. I came really close on different opportunities, but never had that connecting shot to harvest that animal. She has done it. She's done a very good job, whether it was elk, cougar, bear, deer. I've been very good with deer and wing shooting and waterfowl shooting. So she saw this and she surprised me for my birthday, and so was my birthday present for me. And so I got to come up here and it was awesome. I think the biggest thing my takeaway was just being in a room with other people that love to hunt, want to share the outdoor experience, want to pass that on to the next generation because we don't inherit the future. We build it and we build it now. And so let's build it. This helps a legacy that I think is not getting as much attention as it should for the national for a bunch of different reasons. That what I learned here was that all the instructors, all the people you had talk, they opened up their holy grail. They didn't hold back, they didn't keep the secret sauce. They shared the secret sauce. This is the setup, this is how you set up for blacktail, this is how you go out and find and locate elk. This is how you go out and find locate turkey and how you set these things up. Little things like I just have the decoys facing you for turkey. The most simplest thing you wouldn't think of because that is a dominance thing where that big Tom comes around and faces behind you. That way you can move and you can have your hands free. Or how you every hundred and some yards when you're up along a ridgeline, finding the elk and seeing where they're locating at and going in and setting that up in that hourglass they talk about.

SPEAKER_06 17:53

So you came primarily for elk, yes, but bear and turkey and and blacktail. So have you actually hunted any of those other species?

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Yes, I've we've I've hunted several back blacktail. I've been successful either with rifle or archery. Turkey is there's there's a lot of them where we live out of by the river in the Dallas. So we go, we do a lot of turkey hunting there, and that's fun. But you still learn something. Every day is a learning moment, right? And so if you're not learning something, you're not doing, you're not being a good human being, I think. And it's this, you just there's little tips that you hear and you can listen to, and you're like, wow, I didn't think of that. And so you take a little note and move it forward. And just share that with my wife because she's gonna want, she wants to make sure I took very extensive notes. And I'm like, honey, I listened more than I took notes. So I took a lot of pictures.

SPEAKER_06 18:36

And I know Asha handles all the registration stuff. She was she planning on coming or and then couldn't there was as Asha was telling me, I couldn't so there basically I'm wondering, are you coming back with her next year?

SPEAKER_01 18:49

I think it's primarily a Jeff thing, the husband thing to come here. No, yeah, I will bring my wife back. She will really enjoy it. I the reason why there was she made the Paul or made whole uh put a hold on the a deposit on the class was my real job, I am a state representative, and so I didn't know if I was gonna have a primary for the Senate run. And so this gave me the opportunity to be here because everything worked out the way I needed it. I missed a few of the classes because I had some other engagements I had to be at, but I came back up and it's well worth it. My wife is gonna want to come next year, and so I'm sure our kids will have to find a place for our kids to go hang out. There, but they love to hunt and fish too, so it's a great look, it's a great event.

SPEAKER_06 19:24

So, as state uh state representative in Oregon, yes, how like thinking about the information, everything that you learned and interacting, and not even what you learned, but just what you experienced, how is that forming and you're an outdoorsman, yeah. So you're a hunter, all of that. But thinking about now that you've seen this larger community, we've had close to 40 people here, change your message going forward because it did it alter and not that you wouldn't, oh, now I'm gonna advocate for all this because you probably have been, but I advocate I have always advocate for the Oregon Hunters Association, the NRA, Second Amendment, very staunch supporter of all those organizations.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

But I think what for me the takeaway was watching people's reactions and talking to them when I actually said, This is who I am, this is what I'm doing, this is how you can affect outcomes so we keep this heritage that we hold sacred moving forward because it's a shrinking group of people that are doing outdoors. And so now that people know who I am, and I'm we're able to have I'm I get to sit in the room and have those discussions and really advocate, even have more. But now I've been able to tell people this is how you can have an influence and have advocate for your passion because your voice may get silenced out, but you now there's somebody in the legislature that does the same thing you do for what you believe in and where you're at. And so you can support people like that. Same hobbies, exactly, same hobbies, right? It's just different things. Now you think people just realize that you're maybe a state representative and you're not like them. No, I'm normal everyday Joe guy. I was a police officer for 25 and a half years. I've done a lot of different things, and this is just an incredible opportunity to come be with people that want to learn and get successful because you can go out and be unsuccessful all day long if you don't change. You got to change, you just can't keep doing the same thing over and over.

SPEAKER_06 21:11

Oh open to learning. Yeah, and and it's amazing that like we've had people talk about boy. I heard something in Turkey, and that just makes sense for black tail hunting to do this this particular way. Or there's uh always that crossover. There's you can learn when you're not expecting to necessarily learn for something in a particular, you just think, oh, I'm just gonna learn about blacktail, but it's oh, that's making my elk hunting better, that's making my bear hunting better.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

It's the environment, it's like we there's three base things that people do survival for or for the animals. They have to survive, they have to reproduce, they have to eat. Those are three things that are very important. And so you take those three things and you apply it that to each one of the disciplines, and they all have crossover. Like when you talked about the X amount of yards off the road where the big buck can stay, like not going into the bedroom. That was a big one. Same thing for elk, same thing for turkey. If you rush those nests and stuff like that, that next generation of turkeys that's gonna Get born, may not get born because the predators come in, but they all have the same thing that they want to reproduce, they need to have food, they need to have water, and so you find those things, you're gonna find the animals. Now you just have to figure out which animal you're targeting and how to target it better.

SPEAKER_06 22:24

Excellent. So we'll wrap up with this. So the facilities and the combination, everything top-notch.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

The food was phenomenal. You if you go hungry in this place, you didn't go to the right place. The facility is great. Oh, they're hunting, they're elk out there elk calling. What are they doing? Oh, they're just this is what they do. No big deal. It's a beautiful facility. Great. I would recommend this for any venue when you're looking for something to do, because this is a very impressive place with the manager.

SPEAKER_06 22:53

And very reasonably priced, considering you know how much a lot of these can cost. But yes, if somebody wants to do an event, Cascades Camp and Conference Center in Yelm, definitely recommend recommending.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Oh, the views are tremendous.

SPEAKER_06 23:05

And the views, yeah. You're in the middle of the woods, there's no self-service, only Wi-Fi.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

That is the I didn't put my phone down, have to worry about it.

SPEAKER_06 23:13

Yeah, we have Wi-Fi in the buildings, but otherwise it's you get a focus on just being here and stuff. So thanks for joining us. Thanks for jumping on, and thanks for being here. Thanks for being part of the camp this year.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Yeah, this was great. I look forward to next year. Uh, I think my wife and I will be uh rock, paper, scissors to see who gets to come, or we both get to come, one of the two.

Wyatt On Growth Through Mistakes

SPEAKER_06 23:29

So right on. All right. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

Take care.

SPEAKER_06 23:32

Next up we have Wyatt Fisher here, Trent's son. Uh now, siblings, how many are there? I've got one sister, and yeah, she's 17. So you're the older brother? I am, yeah. Okay. So you got to come with your dad to the camp and it really helped teach everything. So having grown up in this thoughts about the camp as far as being part of it and everything.

SPEAKER_04 23:56

Yeah. If I'm gonna be completely honest, it was a last minute thing. I was kind of getting ready, getting packed up because I'm headed out for a work trip. And he's like, Hey, would you want to come on this hunter's gathering with me? And I was like, What is it? And we were talking about it, and I was like, Yeah, I guess I'll go. It's something to do, and I didn't know what to expect, to be honest. And uh, after coming here, it was just a complete eye-opener, honestly, and just like the people that we've met and that I've met, and that just you build that relationship. That's the coolest part for me because everybody gets to see us on the screen, and we don't really get to talk face to face with it. Well, they're just trying to pick up on what we do on camera, and coming to stuff like this, it was just like an incredible way to teach. And I think a lot of people like it was eye-opening for other people too, as in no, they're trying to figure out how to do it on their own, and they're trying to do that, and just coming here and just being like, this is what we do, and we're open about giving all information and just working with people was not only cool, I think, for them, but it was super cool for me to just that rewarding factor of helping somebody to better their season. Yeah, that's what's big for me, and uh just like I said, the relationship with people. First day we came here, we were in Dave's class, and Dave was asking questions, and everybody was nervous and quiet, and then day two, everybody got a little more talkative. And now with the campfire time and time we've got to spend together, we're all just running questions off each other and just chatting with each other, and even like building those connections where for people down the road that have questions to reach out and we can help them for their hunt. That's what not only makes it feel like a successful hunt for them, but it feels like a successful hunt for me because it feels like I was there because I wanted to and I got to help them through that, and that's even more rewarding than taking an animal for myself.

SPEAKER_06 25:58

Yeah. And it was actually really great that Dave's son DJ is here, and I think you guys are pretty close the same age. And but just to have that, you guys watching you two pitch in, help, teach guys that are we had we have somebody here who's never hunted before, yeah. And decided, and I remember talking to him at one of the sportsman shows that he just said, I want to learn to hunt. And he came to the hunters' gathering and he got some really great information. But you guys helping to mentor people who are just starting out, it's great to see.

SPEAKER_04 26:32

And I think a lot of that too is that's another reason I was excited to go, is because everybody here looks at Dave and looks at my dad. They're like, they already know what they're doing, they're the veteran hunters. That's gonna be hard for me to relate off them because I don't really know as much what I'm doing. And that's why I was like, I'm still growing up and I'm still learning. And I feel like it could help to share my story to relate to those people because I'm in the same shoes they are. Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out things just as much as they are all trying to figure it out. So even that little bit of one-on-one time or just jumping in and saying my part is I think it it helps a little bit in the aspect of kind of understanding a little bit for sure.

SPEAKER_06 27:13

And you were even beyond the L portion, you understand a lot of different species and a lot of different hunting. It was, but just uh you were turkey calling and it sounded really good. I'm like, wow, you know, that you're already at a level where but you still want to keep growing, you still want to, and there's that aspect, and I've seen this with DJ, I want to do this on my own. Yeah, I want to try doing this on my own. And granted, there's always that family part, there's always that you're going out and doing it together, but at some point you want to do that one set, maybe for black tail on your own. It just I want to see if I can judge that because that accomplishment, because there's that trophy, because there's a lot of different things that can be a trophy, and doing that on your own, yeah, can be that trophy 100%.

SPEAKER_04 28:01

And even like doing it on your own, you always want your family to be there, and you always want like my dad's grown up teaching me how to hunt, and you always want him there, but it's also that to me, it's that almost more rewarding factor that's wow, I learned this and now I did do it on my own. And a big thing for me too is like for the last what last four years when I've got been able to go out on my own and go do that, it's my dad and my family, because that's their job, they're gone all the time. And so it was honestly a lot of learning on my own how to hunt. Oh, nice, and so it was going out and just trial and error, trial and error, trying these things, and yeah, I had that mentorship and I had that guidance from what they do, but it was also I'm still out learning it on my own, too. And so just to have that like the knowledge of what I can do and what I should do, and then putting that to where, well, now I'm the one doing it because yeah, I don't always have that help. And when that all comes together, it's just to this day, I still every time I harvest an animal or anytime I have a successful hunt, I'm I break down because that's just it's such a cool excitement, and it's my biggest passion, and I take so much pride and just I don't even know the right word for it, but well, one of the things and listening to you trial and error, trial and error, trial that you understand, and and I know that you've picked this up from your family, your dad, and your uncle, and all that of the you're gonna fail at times, you're gonna make mistakes.

SPEAKER_06 29:39

Yeah, but just that keep going. Yeah, figure it out, okay. I made that mistake, now I know how not to make that mistake. Yeah, and you're getting all of that experience, but just be able to know from this community that we built here that you get to make those mistakes or admit those mistakes in front of a group of guys, and it's not yeah, you're not gonna get torn down. It's gonna be like, oh yeah, we've been there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:03

And some of the times making those mistakes is the biggest part of your entire hunt. Because if you can make those mistakes and you can come out with a good attitude, that makes every other time so much more exciting and fun because you know that you could fail. And that's but that's not what is that's not what you're focusing on. That last season it was my dad was gone, and I'm I've been hunting with one of my buddies, and we just we were on elk a lot, and we would try different call sets and we would do this and we would do that, and this call set didn't work, and then the next call set didn't work. And it could be I've had times where I've came and found elk on by myself, did a call set, it didn't work, and then came back with somebody else, and the same thing I did worked. Yeah, so it's not that always you're doing that wrong, it's just how the elk are gonna be. Yeah, just that particular day. Yeah, and it's just the cool dynamic of everything is you could put it all together and it might not work, and you could put it all together the same way and it might work a different time, and that's what it's like. You it if you had that attitude, that didn't work, that's all right because I'm gonna go try it again. That's if you keep that good attitude, that brings success to the hunt every single time, even if there's no arrows flung, even if there's no bullets going off. That's the more rewarding for me in some times than just actually harvesting an animal.

SPEAKER_06 31:29

It's that ability to build one season off the last. That's excellent. So we'll wrap up here, but facilities and the food here and all of that. What do you think about all this?

SPEAKER_04 31:40

Absolutely awesome. Just the area, the uh the food. Um I couldn't even eat half the food because I got too full.

SPEAKER_06 31:47

Yeah, they definitely overfeed us here. And we always get to lunch. It's like, oh, I just ate breakfast.

SPEAKER_04 31:53

Yeah, like you got a big pile of food in front of the SCP. But it's so good, you're like, I guess I'll have a bite, and then you eat it, and like, ah, now I'm full. Then dinner comes around. Oh man, I'm still full, but it looks so good.

SPEAKER_06 32:02

And then gotta drink some coffee or get some caffeine in you to stay awake through the afternoon and hope not go into a food coma. So thanks for joining us. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Absolutely. We were so glad that you guys were able to be here. Very much appreciate just you helping out everybody and helping out your dad with he put together a great presentation and just his teaching is phenomenal. Just everything about it was just it was great. And what was really neat also from my perspective is seeing how you guys work as a team and and that it just models for all the people here, just as working as a team, which encourages them to reach out to each other and exchange numbers and get new hunting buddies.

SPEAKER_04 32:44

I think the coolest part that I will say about this whole thing is we went in as complete strangers and we came out one big family. Yeah, for sure.

Nick On Community And Blacktail Breakthroughs

SPEAKER_06 32:53

Great way of stating that. Thank you. All right, thanks for joining us. Yeah, thank you for having me. So next up we have Nick. So, how did you hear about the hunters gathering? What brought you up for this weekend?

SPEAKER_05 33:05

Yeah, so I first saw it at the uh Pew Up Sportsman Show. Okay. I saw you guys are gonna be there and Dave was gonna do a talk. I was like, Oh, I'm definitely going to that seminar, that'll be great. And uh, I'll go to the booth afterwards and just talk to them. And I got my first black tail this year, so I was like, Oh, cool. Now let me it was kind of luck looking back on it now with everything I've learned too. I was like, oh wow, I'm looking, I everything we've learned, I accidentally stumbled in, but now I can intentionally do that.

SPEAKER_06 33:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 33:31

So saw Dave's seminar there, and I was like, okay, there's so much more, and there's an equation here. And I'm an engineer, I was like, I like that equation. Yes, it's it's very good for the engineer mind. Oh, yeah. And uh trying to find those puzzle pieces to put in. And so when I talked to you guys and you guys seem like a good group, and I saw the hunters gathering thing, I was like, wow, that looks really fun, but I don't know. I got a lot of stuff and hunting, hunting is a hobby that takes a lot of time and money away from family. So it does, it does. We'll see about that. I thought about it, talked to my wife, and she said, Well, it seems like a really good idea. You deserve it. I was like, Yeah, I don't know, but I don't like doing things for myself, I want to do it for my family. And then we went to the Portland show, and you guys are there again, and I see it again. I'm like, okay, and then she saw us, she goes, Oh, it's really cool. Yeah, you deserved it for yourself. I was like, I don't know. I was like, okay, yeah, I should do it. And uh if the wife is saying you should yeah, exactly, just go with it. But you gotta use those cards, but you can't just take them every time, you gotta use them at the right moment.

SPEAKER_06 34:28

Yeah, because if it's the a new bow or a new rifle or hunter's gate, you gotta weigh those pros.

SPEAKER_05 34:34

See, that's the thing. I also bought a new bow at the same time. There was a few things stacking, oh, and a new bag, and is like, okay, I'm doing a lot here. Uh what's worth it? I was like, I just got my bonus. So I was like, um, but yeah, she's like, we don't have kids yet. She goes, do it now, and then and that's something you'll always be able to use. I was like, yeah, that's a really good thing. You can't take away education from somebody.

SPEAKER_06 34:53

So we drew you in with the black tail, but you got to experience turkey and bear and elk. Have you hunted those species before?

SPEAKER_05 35:00

I have never hunted turkey. I'm about to season starting soon. So I was like, I got a plan. Elk, I have okay. Last year I did hunt elk, and then the year before, yeah, it was like two days, but not really. So I'm trying to learn it. Like the elk was really well sold, like the full experience. Oh, I want to learn black tail, but I am so lost on elk. That's definitely gonna be worth it. So I've always wanted to try turkey. And like people say, well, bear hunting here in Washington is actually one of the better things you can do. I was like, it's a great value right here. Yeah, and it just gets you excited because I gotta do it all, I gotta do it all. But yeah, it's the yeah, getting sold at the uh the Portland show when my wife's like, honey, go do that. And it from what I expected, I was ex I was like super excited for it and to meet people. That was like the biggest thing. I don't know a lot of people in this area that much that hunt and try to make connections and even just for stories or guys who wants to tag along and stuff like that. I think there's a really good group of guys here that made a community, and everyone's like, hey, get let me get your number and we'll start something, at least let's show pictures. And but I was taken back on how much value I actually did get out of. Not that I had low expectations, but that was just like this was so much more impactful than I expected on the personal level, just great people, all the mentors and stuff, like being able to not, oh, I'm just going to a class, but no, I'm learning them as a person, which helps me actually understand their teaching and then their methodology in the field.

SPEAKER_06 36:20

Yeah. Other people have mentioned, and Dave talks about this, he doesn't hold back anything. And there's times where you talk to hunters and they're holding back a little bit of information, but this, and it was great about Heather and Alex and Dave and Trent, they just don't hold back with information. They want you absolutely to be successful with what you're doing in your hunts, and so that was one of the things like we just want that to come across.

SPEAKER_05 36:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 36:49

And if you aren't quite sure when season comes up, send us an email and we'll answer those emails, all of them. We're sometimes it takes a couple days, especially if if we're in season, but we want to have that community. But it is really cool that you stop and think, I've got now hunting buddies in Washington and in Oregon and in California. And even me myself, I can say I've got hunting friends, hunting buddies in California, in Oregon, in Washington, and I just started three years ago.

SPEAKER_05 37:23

Yeah, yeah, that's pretty great. Just like the community, it really felt like summer camp. It really did. And it's like without being kitschy, but it's wow, we're just having fun and doing the things we like and talking about the things we like and making friends.

SPEAKER_06 37:35

Adult summer camp.

SPEAKER_05 37:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 37:36

We'll wrap up here facilities, that just the camp as far as food and accommodations and the property and I'm gonna gain 20 pounds out here.

SPEAKER_05 37:45

It's so much food, so good. And and the staff is just so nice and genuine, really sweet people. Yeah, really cool piece of property out here, beautiful. We even had some deer come up to the window, which is not you know, talk about distracting for a room full of honors.

SPEAKER_06 37:59

Yeah, we're all just sitting there talking, hey, look, oh, look at the deer. Just walking by it. Yeah, and it's really great because they have a thousand acres, and then we have adjacent, like some timber property, but just to be able to go out there and do the field work. That and I know the field work is a lot of people that help so much.

SPEAKER_05 38:18

When we did the black tail portion of the field work, it was like a new Dave's method. We learned it in class, makes a lot of sense. And it's like, okay, I think I have some spots I can try that. When we went out there, I was like, I walked past this exact type of setup like five times this season. Yeah. And I know where they are. I'm like, I am excited now. Like, I'm gonna go in and I'm gonna investigate it more, and I'm gonna pick a spot and try to really see that what Dave was showing us.

SPEAKER_06 38:45

So, as a warning, and this is true for Dave, and now it's been true for me, you might need your wife to drive a little bit more because you start looking at habitat on the side of the road. Oh, that would be great. And you drive off the road. Yeah, yeah. And I did that on I5, like the closest where all of a sudden I'm about in dirt off the side of I5 because I'm staring up in. Oh, look at that habitat. And oh, I'm doing 75 here. I get it.

SPEAKER_05 39:12

Yeah, I've definitely been caught. At least like looking for deer. I'm like, I bet there's a deer in there. But now, yeah, looking at habitats, just looking at stuff like that's gonna be way more distracting.

SPEAKER_06 39:20

So, yes, just have your wife drive for a little while or certain during certain seasons, and you should live for next season and stuff. But thanks for coming out, thanks for being part of this community. We enjoy meeting everybody who comes out every year, and we're always amazed that in in four days when it was the black tail book camp in three days that we go from guys who are guarded because the hunting community and the ego potentially to just exchanging numbers and just sharing those stories and even like embarrassing stories. And we had the embarrassing story contest that was good, yeah. But people willing to share those stories and stuff. So, Nick, thanks for coming out to the yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:01

Thank you guys. It is well worth every single ounce of your time. Yeah, this is a hundred percent worth it for everybody.

Final Thanks And How To Join

SPEAKER_06 40:08

Great. Thank you for saying that. And again, it was great having you. Yeah, thank you. So that wraps everything up. I hope we were able with our guests here able to share the vision of our the future of the hunters' gathering, share what we did and what it was like to be part of this as someone who actually paid for it. So if you could like, subscribe, share, do all of those things, we really appreciate it. And we will talk to you all next week.