Meet The New Blacktail Coach Pro Staff And Plan 2027

You can hunt blacktail for years and still feel like you’re doing everything right, until you realize you’re solving the wrong problem. We bring on Ryan Heuberger and Cully Scroggins, our newest Blacktail Coach pro staff members, to talk about what changed for them once they started matching their effort to the realities of Pacific Northwest blacktail deer behavior, habitat, and pressure. If you’ve ever stared at miles of “good looking” timber and hit vapor lock, this conversation is built to pull you out of that fog.

We walk through the learning path we keep seeing work: locating to find the right area, advanced locating to find the right spot, then establishing a set so your ground blind, tree stand, trail cameras, and drippers all work together. We spend real time on the bedroom door concept, what sign actually matters, and why chasing a perfect giant track can distract you from the highest-percentage pattern a mature buck is following. Ryan and Cully also share why in-person field days make thick cover finally click for visual learners.

Then we zoom out to community and momentum. We recap Hunters Gathering at Cascade Camp and Conference Center, what made it special, and where it’s headed next with more instructors and new hunting tracks, including predators. We also lay out the Blacktail Coach 2027 calendar, course capacities, deposits, package options, and how Patreon supports the show while giving you tools like early access and the Ask the Coach Zoom call with OnX screen sharing.

Subscribe, share this with a hunting buddy, and leave a review so more blacktail hunters can stop spinning their wheels and start hunting where the big bucks actually live.

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Transcript

Welcome And New Pro Staff

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome back to the Blacktail Coach Podcast. I'm Aaron. And I'm Dave. This week we're with Ryan Huberger and Cully Scroggins, and which you may remember him for success story episode we did last uh November. No October. October. You had an you had opening day buck last year.

SPEAKER_04 0:17

Opening day, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:18

Yes. But we brought them on because they are our two newest members of our pro staff, and we want to introduce you to them. We're going to do a wrap-up of this season, and then we're going to talk about next year. So we've moved up the first year we did Blacktail Coach 2025. I believe it was November 1st. And then last year, I think we did it in late September for Blacktail Coach 2026. And we realized that we need to plan a little earlier because we have people sign up earlier.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

It's a big learning curve with us, apparently.

SPEAKER_03 0:51

It only took three years. So this is Blacktail Coach 2027, and we have all of our dates released for if you want to go get signed up for a course, hunter's gathering, everything, and we'll cover everything. But the website is live now and ready to go. But we're going to start out, we're going to meet Ryan and Cully. So, Ryan, yes. Where did we meet? Which which what was that?

SPEAKER_01 1:17

This sounds like a bad dating game right now. We met online. Here we go. I think I was I've been hunting sin since I was right out of high school. Uh but never been successful hunting blacktail deer. And Google search led me to you guys. Didn't know much about you guys or your course, and I took a black tail trophy tactics course for my first one, and then come bend uh all of them that I could, some of them multiple times, and learn it every time I come. All the field days, too, right? Yes, yeah. No, probably not all of them, but all of them since I've been since I found you.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Was it a Google search for we get guys saying they found us because of the podcast, or we have a little bit on YouTube, not much.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

No, nobody finds us on YouTube. I look, I just put I think I was just putting black tail deer in, and then I saw the black tail coach.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Stumble across it and oh, right on. I'm like, well, this isn't because most of the stuff you find in southern Oregon or Northern California. Yeah, I that's a different, totally different style of hunting than we have.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Different habitat, a little bit more open.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

Cully, where did we meet? I know we talked about this. You came to one of the trophy tactics too.

SPEAKER_04 2:26

Yep, yep, in Woodland at the Green Grange Hall. Yep, I think. And I went to that class. Uh that's the first time I think I got to meet you, Aaron. And that was the first class I went to. But Dave and I had talked for like a year or two prior when connected with his son DJ at a youth camp. Okay. For church.

SPEAKER_03 2:43

So you meant DJ before.

SPEAKER_04 2:45

Yes. Okay. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

DJ came home and he's like, Dad, he goes, You got to meet this guy. He goes, he's really into hunting and he's a fisherman and all this. And he started talking about Cully and everything. And then all of a sudden I started getting text messages. And I'm like, okay, I don't know who this guy. But you know, I get him at work all the time. And I'm like, I don't know who half the guys are that but I'm like, okay. So we started this text message conversation, and it just kind of carried over for I don't know how many months, six, eight months.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

And then uh then we talked on the phone, and then he came to the trophy taxi class, and I think that's the first time that I met you in person.

SPEAKER_04 3:19

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Or no, it was the Sportsman Show.

SPEAKER_04 3:21

Sportsman show. Yeah, the Sportsman Show. Yep, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

And uh you said you had to talk your wife into it.

SPEAKER_04 3:26

Yeah. All worked out.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Yep, yep. She knows how to kill Big Blacktail now.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

Yep. Okay, so now actually, this is interesting because we have our two latest not finding us on the podcast. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Yeah, a lot of people find us because of the podcast. That's it.

SPEAKER_03 3:40

Let's hang it up. We're done. Yeah, it's proven not effective anymore. Cully, how'd you get your start hunting?

SPEAKER_04 3:48

My dad. Okay. Yeah. My dad was an avid hunter. And so from I used to just sit on his lap when he'd road hunt when I was just a little guy. And same with fishing and stuff, we'd be at the lake, trout fishing. Just grew up in the outdoors and then road hunting for deer. Shot my first deer with a rifle, it was a white tail doe, and then shot my first archery animal, and that was a black tail doe down at the coast, and then got my cow elk with a bow, and then that just kind of kicked it off for the archery and kind of went between rifle and archery. But I was eight years old when I got my hunting license.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Oh, that is young.

SPEAKER_04 4:27

Yeah, pretty young.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Yeah. Most people start about somewhere 10 to 12. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

Early adopter.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

Yeah. Ryan, how'd you get your start hunting?

SPEAKER_01 4:36

I didn't get my start until after I was out of high school and done playing sports. And a couple of my best friends were in into hunting. My best friend at the time, him and his dad were big archery elk hunters. And I just started tagging along, bought a bow, and pretty much been addicted to elk ever since. And the last five years have really focused on trying to get a black tail, and they have found a way to elude me.

SPEAKER_03 5:00

Yeah. Have you harvested a black tail?

SPEAKER_01 5:03

I have. Okay. I harvested one one of the first couple years I was hunting, and I actually got a little fork and horn rifle hunting. I've gone out a few times with a rifle, the traditional go out to a clear cut, a glass, and never find them. But most of my focus has always been in Eastern Oregon for elk. I've just is that because you think blacktail is too hard or just because you prefer elk? I'm usually working a lot during the second season, archery. Gotcha. And so I have never really dedicated the time. And so I would hunt my open weekends during September and then that was pretty much done. But it's pretty much a year-round obsession for me. I think my wife would probably tell you that if I'm not watching YouTube, I'm in the backyard shooting my bow or up in the woods looking for a new spot. So this has not helped my obsession anyway.

SPEAKER_03 5:48

It really doesn't, especially when like Dave's, and we've talked about this like ad nauseum, but after going through the class and realizing what the right blacktail habitat is for the big bucks, you just driving down the highway or driving down the road, you're constantly looking out in the Oh, oh that's a good spot. I should go maybe I should go out later and check that spot.

How Ryan And Cully Found Us

SPEAKER_03 6:10

Oh, that's even better. Maybe I should go check that's not any good over there. Yeah. And then you're running off the road at 70 miles an hour.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Because you're looking at Onyx, trying to figure out who owns the property.

SPEAKER_03 6:19

Yes, you're trying to figure out who owns the property and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

I just want to put this disclaimer in though that black out the blacktail coach is not responsible for or nor do we reimburse for any marital counseling or damage to vehicles. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 6:34

You're on your own. Now, what species? Just elk or have you and blacktail, or have you hunted other species as well?

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Mostly elk. I've hunted rosies and Rockies and up to this point so far, just blacktailed deer.

SPEAKER_03 6:46

Okay. Now you did go to hunters gathering this year. I did. And so any temptation from Alex to to go after turkey or for bear with Heather?

SPEAKER_01 6:58

I mean, I spent a lot of time driving around looking for turkeys that were not on private property than I never could find and didn't dedicate a whole bunch of time to it. But I seem to find I have quite the knack for finding bears on camera. I think next year I'm gonna put a little more effort into maybe eliminating one or two. Yeah. But up to this point, no. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 7:19

Bear's delicious. We encourage everybody. I'm just gonna say, yeah, they do taste.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

It is good.

SPEAKER_03 7:24

Cully does have a bear on his one of his sets. He sent me the picture this morning. Yeah. Nice looking bear.

SPEAKER_04 7:29

And I don't think we did they push the fall season back for black bear. As far as I know, it's and no. Is it September now or is it still August?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Last I knew it was still August. I'm counting on it being August. Yeah. But I haven't looked at the regs to be 100% sure. It used to be August 1st.

SPEAKER_03 7:47

So Heather Aldrich, we did uh sat down with her last year and did a three-part series for bear hunting, but we're gonna get her back on, get a little refresher course for coming up here to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Everybody's juices flowing on that again.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

Yeah, go get a bear. And hopefully we can start working on cougar as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Yeah, gonna eliminate some predators.

SPEAKER_03 8:07

Yeah. Cougar would be awesome. They taste good too. According to Dave.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Yeah, it's like pork. Like a pork chop. It's a white meat and everything. And yeah. I couldn't tell it was feline. Tastes like a pork chop to me.

SPEAKER_03 8:21

Other than other than black tail, whitetail, deer. What else have you hunted?

SPEAKER_04 8:26

Mule deer. Okay. I've got one bear under my belt. Oh, nice. Down at the coast. And that bear was 30 yards from me with my 300 wind mag. That was quite the long shot. That was quite the surprise. I was elk scouting and ran into that bear and it happened super fast. That was pretty cool. And then uh ducks, geese, turkeys. I didn't hunt turkeys this year or last year, just trying to save a little bit more and focus focus more on black till and where my money's going, but uh quite a few animals, just deer and elk and stuff. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 9:03

Nice, nice. Okay. And are you carving out for next year to be part of Hunter's Gathering?

SPEAKER_04 9:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 9:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:10

Yeah, I'm I want to put that date down for sure. I'd like to experience that. Excellent.

SPEAKER_03 9:15

That's uh that is a highlight. I uh we enjoy doing the classes and everything else that we do, but that event's just different. It's just the everybody hanging out, and now that we've expanded to Hunter's Gathering with Trent there and Heather and Alex, everybody just the stories that everybody tells, and it's a great time.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

It is a great time. It's our big event for the year, and we all look forward to it. And uh yeah, guys got really they got really excited this year when we started talking. Okay, we're gonna do and I try not to take it personal because we said we're not gonna do just black tail. And they for some reason just all started cheering. But bringing in Born and Raised and Heather and Alex, it's just really it's taking it from something that was good and made it something spectacular.

SPEAKER_03 10:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

And we've got a lot to I won't say announce, but we've got a lot of exciting things happening as far as uh next year and the hunters gathering and all our events. It's just things are really just taking off, and we're really appreciative of everybody who listens and participates and has come by the booth at the shows and whatnot. Guys are just awesome.

SPEAKER_03 10:21

So hopefully next year we're doing other shows. We'll definitely be back in Pew Allop in Portland. Uh we're we're trying to get into potentially a couple more shows. Yes. So we'll see. We will let you know about those. But let's wrap up 2026. So, first thing I want to talk about is Dave and I joined NOAA, which is the Northwest Outdoor Writers Association. And I would say if there's anybody out there who is in any way related to or involved in the outdoor industry as far as podcasts, YouTube, just social media, maybe you write articles, blog posts, substacks, things like that. Look them up and consider joining. I went out to their conference this year, so I ended up joining, getting joined up right at the start of April and realized that their conference was going to be down in Coos Bay at the end of the month. And I was able to go out to that. And it was a really good time for being able to pick brains as far as how to create a better product, how to market things, just to do things better, I would say. And plus, it was just really interesting. We, as if anybody's been to a conference, they have different uh speakers who come out, and so we had a couple people talking about cryptids, which was always interesting. Bigfoot, what was the Cadberasaurus and something else? But it was a lot of fun uh going out there and meeting a lot of really good people who are part of the outdoor industry who TV shows and writing articles and yeah, podcasts. Yeah, and I've included those actually in a couple of new podcasts, podcasts that we recommend. And if you go look on that, I know Nkaholics and P and Wild, and there's a few of them that we recommend to go give a listen to if you've haven't heard those. But

Hunting Origins And Favorite Species

SPEAKER_03 12:10

we have uh two more events coming up this year. We have Cross the Divide that we do the Blacktail Trophy Tactics course. So it's a full-day course and cross the divide. We did a podcast with them, with Mo, their director, and they are a ministry that works with veterans and active duty, and they provide experiences for the outdoors, whether it's the black tail class, I've saw some horseback stuff. They do things for couples retreats, they do women's uh events, outdoor-related, all across the U.S. that they're doing different things like that. So we have that class, and it's actually when this comes out, it'll be this Saturday, June 6th, up in Silverdale. So if you are active duty or a veteran, this class is free to you. Go to crossthedivide.us and you can get signed up for that. I believe that there's currently over 50 people signed up. I believe and I think they can cap out at 100. But yeah, get signed up if you want to come out to the class. If you've active duty, that is our way. We've been working with them of saying thank you for your service.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 13:19

And yeah, serving that community. We also have establishing a set. So for everybody who's gone through our class who want a little more help with, if you're thinking, how do I do those drags again? How many cents? Yeah, wait, what cents do I do? This is where do I put my ground blind? Where do I put my tree stamps?

SPEAKER_00 13:36

My drippers, my my camera, kill spot, all of that stuff on everything that I go and just what I do for my set and how I do it, why I do it, where I do it, all of that stuff. I go over and again, we field all the questions uh that everybody has. And hopefully our goal is by the end that that you don't need me anymore. You can go out and do it yourself and be your own guide.

SPEAKER_03 13:57

You attended one the one last year, didn't you? I did. Yeah. What did you think about did it did the visualization of seeing that? Because we know we hear the locating.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

We hear locating in Dave Preach's uh habitat and how thick a cover he's looking for. And until you go out and witness it firsthand, you do not appreciate what Dave means when he says thick. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

We hear that a lot. I mean, it because it's it's subjective. It's my definition versus your definition, my thought versus your thought. And until we get out there in the woods and they're looking at firsthand, because I take them right to where some of my sets used to be. Uh some of my sets uh from last year. Take them there, they look at it and we go over habitat that's up and coming, habitat that's prime, and habitat that's primed out, and the reasons why I think all of those. And then Bud'll show up and he'll talk over some of the stuff that he looks for. And if anybody's heard Bud uh give him all the credit in the world, that guy's taken what I showed him about locating and gone way beyond what I ever dreamed. And he that guy can find big bucks. I don't care where he's at.

SPEAKER_03 15:06

Yeah, we try to so with the establishing a set, and that's coming up in August, I believe, August 8th. And still room in that one? Yes, yes. So that one, it's trying to that whole where do I put stuff? Where is this? It's only 20 yards off our sets max, but Ryan, did that help you with figuring how to set up? Absolutely. Did you have so having gone through the class, did you have a picture in your mind of what you should be doing?

SPEAKER_01 15:36

And then once you got out there, did it crystallize that or kind of it crystallized it. It uh made me realize that I wasn't originally looking in the right spot. Uh it is definitely a class that I would suggest coming to. Having a actual visual on the habitat that you need is huge. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

So this is funny because before we started and before we got on air here, uh Ryan was talking about the hunters gathering and how because we do a set out there, but we do both a ground blind and a tree stand. And you were surprised by the ground blind, but you did not expect to see the tree stand in the same tree right under the I didn't.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

I wasn't for the tree stand. I knew there was there one there somewhere, but I didn't look directly above the blind to see the tree stand. And you didn't even see the blind coming in. Only because I knew the blind was there. I knew where the blind was at. I didn't know where the tree stand was at, and it was right above the blind. So yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:27

But it's that's what establishing a set is all of that, those details, those last minute, okay. I'm season starts in two weeks. I know where I want to hunt, but what do I do? How do I set this up the correct way? And part of it, like the set that you guys did. Uh you went into one of my sets that I actually hunted last year, but just adjusting things of and figuring out, and Dave goes takes you through of getting manipulating the deer to go walk in the right way or leave the right way so that you get that good shot, or yeah, just where you want to go from thinking about the wind, all of those details.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

Yeah. August is the perfect time to take the class too, because it's right before season, it's not too late. You still have plenty of time to adjust. Yeah, it's suggested class, it's really something you need to come see.

SPEAKER_03 17:18

Yeah. So with uh the cross the divide class that we have coming up, I was adding up everybody who'd taken the online course, the two in-person classes that we did, and cross the divide. We've trained, and I didn't even count the Hunters Gathering. With Hunters Gathering, we will be at least 130 people trained this year, which is about 35% more than we had last year. And it could be even more. But 135 guys have gone sat through the trophy tactics course for this year.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Yeah, yeah. All our classes, I think before we finished the Puallop show, every class was full.

SPEAKER_03 17:56

Yeah. I think we had stuff that was full before we even got to which is why we realized we need to do this earlier.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Yeah, guys are signing up

2026 Wrap Up And NOAA Lessons

SPEAKER_00 18:05

earlier and earlier every year. It's filling up faster.

SPEAKER_03 18:07

So yeah, we just decided we should probably do this earlier to give people the information that they need. So, yeah, because by the time we'll be at the shows and we want to chat with you. But if you wait till then to sign up, yeah, there might not be a whole lot left to sign up. We did a pilot, and one of the things, and I'll talk about it at the end, I mentioned it a few times before, is Patreon. And we have Patreon supporters, and this that money goes to sending me paying my dues to join NOAA and sending me to the conference and buying a bunch of not a bunch, but the equipment that we need to record these podcasts and for paying for the monthly fees for the podcast and all of that. That support really helps out. But the and there are advantages to being part of Patreon because we it's not just give us money and okay, goodbye, but we try to give some value to that. But one of the things that we did, which was a surprise part of it this year, and which is how Ryan was able to go along. We opened up, we wanted, we talked about doing a new class called Advanced Locating. So we'd had guys who'd taken the locating class or the locating field day. And that tells you where the good habitat is. But we had a lot of questions come up. Okay, I found that, and I think even Ryan had some of okay, I found the right habitat, but am I in the right spot? Yep. And some of the conversations you and I had over text or over uh asked the coach Zoom call was trying to dial that in. And I thought we we should probably do an advanced locating, which is finding the bedroom door.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Yes, I was gonna say a lot of guys were just they were confused as to okay, so now I found this thick habitat. How do I locate the bedroom door? What does that look like? And then after I've located it, how do I build my hunt around that? And what's the significance of this bedroom door versus this one over here at this other bedding area and whatnot? And kind of going into all the little intricacies about locating that bedroom door. And the one thing is guys, so we talk about it in the class and everything about the range of the black tail and uh and 52 acres, and but to think that he's only got one bedding spot, there may be two or three bedding spots there, but there's that one that he likes the most, and that's the one we're trying to locate. And showing the guys what I do, the process of doing that, once I find a bedding area, how am I going around and locating the bedroom door for that area? And then again, how do I build my hunt around that? And so it was it was more in depth than the locating where we just go over habitat and I show you my set and I show you and explain why I'm there and whatnot. It was guys being able to go back to their spot and say, Okay, here's the bedroom. Where's the bedroom door? Yeah, how do I know this is the one that he's gonna be at? And we kind of go over that and we explain that in depth. And Collie, you were there as well, you and your father and stuff. What was your opinion?

SPEAKER_04 21:01

Oh, it opened both of our eyes. Dad's been hunting for years, and I think it was awesome to hear him say, Man, I've drove by these areas for a long time, and you just can't hunt it. That that was his thought too. And I and it everybody does. It's too thick, you can't see in there, you can't hardly walk in it, it's loud if you're trying to walk in there, and it just opened up his eyes. Man, I've been missing it big time. And then for me, it was after going to the class putting that pictures and videos only do so much justice when you're seeing it on a screen of what the exact habitat looks like. But then once you're out there and it just clicks. Yeah, it helped me a ton. I was telling Dave that the whole time. This to me was better for me visually, because I'm a visual learner than sitting through the class was good to get all the notes, get lots of information, but then put it boots on the ground and see it.

SPEAKER_03 21:56

Yeah, it helped us out. The class is a very good big piece. picture. Yeah. And some people, a lot of people, actually that's all they need. But some really need that dial it down, dial it in with the visuals and things like that. But we did with the the Patreon, it was a pilot class. And so we invited our Patreon guys got invited out to this free class. And all we wanted was feedback. What did you think of it? What do we need to do for next year? Because it's something that we wanted to add for people to be able to take a look more learning to get more specific with stuff.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

But Ryan, Ryan, you've done the locating field day I'm thinking a couple times, right? I have. Okay. And then you went to this pilot class. Given what you know about the locating class and how you experienced that, how much do you agree with me when I say and this again, this is one of those things a lot of a lot of the black tail coach is me coming home from work and my wife and Erin going, you're going to do this. It's and I haven't really had a chance to think through entirely how everything fits together, but explain how you you feel the locating and then the advanced locating go together.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

For me I'm much like Coley. I'm a visual learner and so I think I've taken almost every single one of your guys' classes where you've done in the field things because that's where yes that's where I'm going to learn. But seeing the habitat uh being shown what to look for as far as trails in and out of the bedroom. It was huge. Walking into the bedroom just far enough that you're in their habitat where you might be able to get them to come out in daylight and then have people tell you how they would set it up. It's a game changer for a visual learner like me. Yeah because we're looking for we were looking for prints uh rubs yeah game trails how to read particular game trails yeah it was really getting into the seeing some sign actually now I'm thinking of it seeing sign okay this is no good because this is old and and you've got a bunch of people there that all have different ways of hunting some guys want to be in a tree some guys want to be in a ground blind and so you got to see okay if I was going to hunt this in a tree stand I would maybe look at these trees if I was going to use a ground blind this is where I the couple places I would look at putting a ground blind it's it helped anybody.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Because there were there were some areas where you couldn't do a tree stand or a tree saddle. They just didn't have the trees for it. They weren't old enough but you were like okay so how would I set up a ground blind in this situation? And the I like what you just said Aaron about the trails and reading the sign and whatnot. A lot of guys are looking for that big buck track and that's not what I'm looking for. Bedroom door is going to be tattered with dough tracks. That's what I'm looking for and I've said it in in many episodes I've and I've said it in many seminars the big mature bucks do not use the same trails as the does and the smaller bucks but when I get in the woods to hunt that big mature buck is looking for what? The does it's exactly right so it's if I'm looking for the trail he uses it doesn't have near the traffic it's going to be a lot harder to find I'm looking for the trail where the does are and yeah and it seems relatively easy to understand just talking about it here sitting around the table going yeah duh that makes sense. But like you guys are saying you get out there in the woods and for some reason we just we forget a lot of what we learn. We get excited and I don't know what it is but we kind of shut off our thinking process

Cross The Divide And Field Day Value

SPEAKER_00 25:20

and it's oh I knew that.

SPEAKER_03 25:21

And this went more into and there's always that and this is why Dave you having developed a system and done the system you've done it enough years that you get the nuance of it and this is learning more and you guys chime in if you want but you get more of the nuance this is a little bit of a tweak of being more specific or this isn't quite as important as I may have thought or yeah and I know just getting out there because I thought about this particular class of when you walk out there and it's 500 acres of good habitat now what do I do? Yeah because you got to figure out 500 acres it's all great habitat and there is there somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Yeah yeah but guys get overwhelmed with that though you know what I mean and they hit vapor lock and and it's understandable that's a that is a lot of land and you're trying to decipher just the whole contour of everything and how the deer would use that as travel corridors and bedding areas and feeding and all that stuff it's too much to take in like I said you hit vapor lock because you're just man this is just so huge how am I and you almost talk yourself into being unsuccessful. There's no way I'm going to figure this out there's no way I'm going to find that buck. And yeah when you can break it down into smaller chunks and you start looking at what you've learned and say okay don't let this overwhelm me these deer they don't move by just happenstance it isn't a day of meandering. Everything they do is a purpose they're going somewhere doesn't matter that there's no long walks on the beach there's no holding hands just going it isn't like that. They move with a purpose it is about life or death all the time it is always survival and there is no okay I'm just going to meander over here. Everything is done intentionally and when you realize that then you start okay I can figure these deer out.

SPEAKER_03 27:16

Yeah. And so that was the whole idea and it was one of those I'm pretty sure you walk Dave I got this idea for a new class. And it was based off of conversations I'd I'd been having with Ryan and a couple of three other people of I know I'm in the right area but I want to be in the right spot. And that is the point of the advanced locating locating is about finding the right area. Advanced locating is about finding the right spot in that area. Right. Which can take some time there's always that data collection I constantly talk about but it's that and then establishing a set so here's the breakdown of the three field days. Locating is about finding the area advanced locating is about finding the spot. And establishing a set is what do I do with this spot now that I'm here and now that I've found it.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Yeah. That's a good way of putting it 100%.

SPEAKER_03 28:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

It's a chronological order of how you should think on your hunt.

SPEAKER_03 28:12

Yeah. Okay. Last thing we'll wrap up here and then we'll get into next year what's coming up but hunter's gathering. So first year doing hunters gathering and black tail boot camp it was we always knew it was a stepping stone and it was always a plan to do the hunters gathering. Osha came up with this idea I believe in year one and I said slow down because she wanted to do it the second year. Nope we're not there yet we got to make sure that we did we're doing everything really well. And then finally I believe it was last year after the blacktail boot camp I said okay now we're ready. We're ready to move on and so then it was go.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Then I was like are you sure?

SPEAKER_03 28:51

So we got Trent was on board and Alex and Heather and it just kind of came together teachers who love to teach. They love teaching other people what they know about hunting. And that is always going to be our goal is that those are the people who are there teaching everybody at the hunter's gathering. It's people who want you to know everything they know so that you're a successful hunter.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

And I would go a step further than say that it's teachers who are extremely successful.

SPEAKER_03 29:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

Wanting to give away that knowledge and help everybody get their trophy.

SPEAKER_03 29:31

Yeah whatever whatever that now Ryan got to be part of our inaugural hunters gathering.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

Did we meet that goal? You did I left on overload lots of information lots of very passionate people from all walks of life and in different places in their hunting learning. I had guys that never hunted never harvested to guys that have been successful in a lot of the animals they've hunted but wanted to learn a different species. Yeah I was I was glad I went to the first one because it'll be fun to watch it grow. Lots of information lots and lots of information it was a good weekend.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

We we were joking around earlier that we only lost 12 guys for that weekend and so I think that's a pretty good ratio.

SPEAKER_03 30:13

Up in the woods up there somewhere Lord of the flies.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

They got everything they need to know on how to survive.

SPEAKER_03 30:19

But that was before we we started recording here we all sat down we had dinner together but that was one of the things Ryan that you had mentioned that it was and I'm paraphrasing here but basically it was people who had been hunting for a very long time and people we literally had someone who's never hunted before and a few guys who are just two three four years in.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

We always get some people that have never hunted.

SPEAKER_03 30:42

Yeah it seems like every year we have one person who is this is at least one this is our my first year I'm going to ever hunt.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

Yeah. And then you've got lots of guys like me that just go on camping trips every year.

SPEAKER_03 30:53

Yeah. You bring weapons but it's his camp rabid chipmunk attacks you got to be protected. But the idea of the way everybody interacted you didn't know who was who you didn't know who the successful long-term hunters were. You didn't really know who the new guys were because it was a bunch of people hanging out.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

Yeah there's no egos everybody hung out with everybody at some point during the weekend and every night everybody hung around the campfire together.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

Yeah. And you got a bunch of free stuff. Bunch of free stuff. Bunch of free gear.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

Bunch of free stuff.

SPEAKER_04 31:28

My buddy Anthony went and he's I think he's going to go again this next year but he said he absolutely loved it. Yeah I won't miss another one. He loved it.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

I awesome I really and we've had even with the boot camp we've had repeat customers people who come back I really think and that is our goal actually that it's there's something different every year. So next year we're going to add we're working on adding cougar

Establishing A Set Before Season

SPEAKER_03 31:55

we're working on adding potentially coyote hunting a predator track. Predators more predators but different hunting and maybe long term where we're talking about upland and beyond Turkey but up have on a bird track where it's waterfowl and bird and it there's always going to be more to learn and we're adding different electives.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

I think that's a great way of putting it different electives because we're always going to have certain the cer core. Yeah. Yeah yeah but there's going to be different electives as we uh grow and this thing gets and I'm telling you and I think Ryan you can verify this and colleagues here and what your buddy said and whatnot that just being there you can tell this thing is going to take off. This thing is going to grow big and I'm telling you it was a blast. It was an absolute blast. And I say this not to be begrudging or anything like that, but I think the blacktail boot camp is no more. I think that it's just and like Aaron was saying it was meant to get us ready for the hunters gathering. I think it's evolved into that and the hunter's gathering is just gonna engulf the blacktail boot camp and and because it's the blacktail boot camp and more. Yeah absolutely yeah absolutely so it's just more more importantly let's talk about the things that were really important. How was the food Ryan?

SPEAKER_01 33:11

I thought the food I thought the food was excellent. Yes I didn't go home hungry.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

I just had to go back and I had some more roast beef or prime rib and it was just like we tell everybody man you're going to eat like kings there.

SPEAKER_03 33:30

There was no prime rib there was roast beef there was no prime rib I think we had prime rib the first year. Or no that was the first year we did uh not this year but last year at the black tail boot camp wasn't there prime rib that one night there might have been I don't know maybe it's just me dreaming yeah you got I do though you got some uh what is it Dave's not fed well at home so it was it was actually baloney but that's how poorly he's fed by his wife that it seemed like prime rib I don't know what it was it said I'd have never seen prime rib spelled S-P A M.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

Yeah but you know that's fine.

SPEAKER_03 34:05

No it was the facilities are great and that's we we did an episode here a couple weeks ago talking about that with where I had everybody kind of sit down and stuff but everybody loves the facility everybody loved the food and the food is really wait we got to eat again didn't we just eat and yeah big pile of food on the table and you make friends you get phone numbers you stay in touch all year keep tabs on how everybody's doing during the year yeah answering questions asking questions it's a good time it's a good fellowship it's just good people. Yep and if you don't have a hunting community and you want one this is the place to come to you'll find your hunting community and we have people who will stay in touch whether and we've had even in years past just people different states but they keep in touch and encourage each other with their hunts or checking in with each other or they find somebody who's 30 minutes down the road and then that you've got somebody to help you put up your tree stand or brush in your ground blind and yeah they're going back and forth or going out together.

SPEAKER_00 35:09

Yeah and see to me that's that's icing on the cake oh it is the amount of information that you're given what you're taught there anybody who's been to my one day in person seminars and I absolutely just inundate you with facts and dear behavior and all that think of that but it's three and a half days of it and it's not just blacktail it's blacktail it's bears it's elk it's turkey and Ryan I think you said it earlier it was just information overload or something like that. You just yeah every presenter is top notch we really scored Heather Aldrich is just a black bear killing machine and guys I still still hear from guys are texting me while I'm at work yeah Heather's was the best she just did awesome and she knocked it out of the park. Trent from Born and Raised he came up he was all concerned about how did I do and all this how would you change it Dave and everything but just the fact that he has the heart to teach people and his group they did that calling and how they work the hourglass when they're doing their setups and everything man you're just not you're not going to get that stuff anywhere else.

SPEAKER_03 36:14

It's the field work.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

Yeah they just did phenomenal they they knocked it out of the park spending hours around the campfire teaching people how to call yeah yeah and then Alex doing the turkey stuff and taking out and showing decoy setups and everything that goes along with turkey hunting and the calls that yeah you walk away from there ready to go hunt. I was putting broadheads on the arrows I was washing the camo and camel wash I was like I know it's only what was it when was it this year? April 9th through the 12th April I knew it was only April but I was ready to ready to rock yeah Heather was going to go out and start notching some tags.

SPEAKER_03 36:47

And that was before Heather goes out for Spring Bear and Alex goes out to do his washing and slam

Advanced Locating And The Bedroom Door

SPEAKER_03 36:55

yeah we had to have it before then. Yeah so that's why that was the big reason why we moved it up to the weekend that particular weekend and and they will all be back. Everybody's coming back Trent's back Heather's back Alex is back Dave's back we Dave never gets a choice. We tell him that he has to go back and teach not just go back. He has to go back and teach and then there will be more it will be more than what it was this year. Yeah it's going to keep growing and so if it was a great thing this year just thinking year after year it's yeah I'm biting my lip right now.

SPEAKER_00 37:28

Dave is we I've sworn what's in the making what could possibly happen and I'm trying I don't want to I can't say anything but it's gonna be awesome.

SPEAKER_03 37:38

Yeah so there's always room to grow there's always we'll leave it at that there's always room to grow and that is our goal is to keep growing so let's talk now or I I think I'm gonna actually do most of the talking here but the 2027 lineup of classes so they are live on the website. So you can find everything on the blacktailcoach.com or including the hunters gathering or you can go to the huntersgathering dot com to just see the website for hunters gathering and that will include any updates of any anything new that we add. So for the classes coming up trophy tactics in person which has a 25 person capacity and then we're doing two of those on March 13th up in Olympia March 20th in Woodland and we will do one online class which has a capacity of 15. So we are shrinking that one a little bit I believe 16 we had this year but we found that 15 is the max we want to have for the online course to maintain the quality and so that guys can ask questions and everything and or the ladies who are part of it. So which yeah we had everybody taking the class from Southern California I believe up into Canada or at least we had a lot of variations all over for the online course. So the cost of that is 500 there's a $100 deposit your spot isn't held until you make the deposit on on everything. Before we were holding spots with people just registering but we maxed out everything this year. So we have to have a deposit for your spot to be actually reserved for you. So just keep that in mind. But the online course if you are further away you can't make the hunters gathering or an in-person course that will be February 23rd through March 30th we meet on a two on Tuesday night for about an hour and a half two hours get signed up for that as soon as possible that one will probably I would say by October that one will probably be full just what we did last year. So with the classes one of the things and we have a little bit of information but if you are the head of a hunt club or a nonprofit that is related to the outdoors hunting and you want to do one of our classes our trophy tactics course so we have what we call the corporate rate where you have the facility you have the audience you have you provide them lunch you take care of all that and we just show up and teach and we're willing to go pretty much all up and down the West Coast to to do these courses. But if you are participating in a group where that is something that you might want to do just reach out to us blacktailcoach at gmail.com and just say I want I'd like to do talk to you about doing a corporate class. We can also do a blacktail boot camp so basically which is all the field work and the class as well we're talking with someone about doing one of those potentially down in California. If anything and if it's open we'll definitely let people know if people are doing a or if a group is doing one of these. So we have field days three are offered four are offered this year but there's two locating field days. So this is a standalone class where we cover the locating portion of our class in the morning at Bob's in Longview and then in the afternoon after lunch we go out and we do the field work. We show you the habitat that you're looking for so as I talked about you finding your area. So April 17th and May 15th next year the advanced locating is just field work. There's no classroom work and so this is finding the spot in your area the that focus and that's June 19th. Now the prereq to the advanced locating is you've had to have taken the locating course already. So because we're not we can't we don't have time to go over the particulars of habitat this is the good habitat this is not good habitat we just go straight out to good habitat and get specific so one establishing a set which is just field work we go out and we now that you have your area your spot what do I do with my spot so that's July 31st and that is just trophy tactics course prereq to take that so that's everything that we have for classes that the cost for each of those is 250 $50 deposit gets you into those get your spot reserved now we do have a package deal if you take the trophy tactics and sign up for all three field days that total would be $1250 we're gonna knock $250 off so it's a thousand dollars for three field days and the trophy tactics course either online or in person. That's what we got there. Hunters gathering it's the same weekend as it was this year April 8th through the 11th at Cascade Camp and Conference Center. The price for that $1795 with a $350 deposit like I mentioned Trent Heather Alex Dave all back plus more to be determined were big stuff. In big phone calls are happening now with rounding out who exactly all the others are but there's gonna be a lot more I can I will guarantee that. Big names so big names famous people. We already got Trent we got the famous and we got Dave he's famous too he's in my own mind. Yes he's Facebook famous I'm yearbook famous yearbook famous there you go so coaching $1250 that's the price $250 deposit coaching includes all three field days as well we meet once a month with coaching May through January it's a Zoom call about an hour and a half that's always on a Tuesday night as well and we walk you through the groups of no more than five but we walk you through your season so it's we help you with your spot dialing everything in you we've got all the field days that we meet so actually if you include the field days it could be April through January and then basically how to wrap up your season is part of that. So a couple of other things and we'll wrap up with this this year and Osha has told me to mention this so that we are committed to By the shows. Dave has in the last year and a half been working on his book. Oh, this was something I didn't know you've already done all the work.

SPEAKER_00 44:10

Well, what did I just get volunteered for now?

SPEAKER_03 44:12

Yeah, you've already done all the work. So you've got nothing left to do. So Dave is going to have a book out. I'm not sure what the title is. I don't think you guys have settled on the title yet.

SPEAKER_00 44:22

Poor man's black tail.

SPEAKER_03 44:24

What do you think? Kelly, do you have an idea, Ryan?

SPEAKER_00 44:26

Things not to do in the deer woods.

SPEAKER_03 44:28

I don't know. Best hunting tactics for incontinent men.

SPEAKER_01 44:32

Yeah, there you go. I truly don't know if Dave even has a say in it.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

No, he really doesn't. No, you know for a fact I don't.

SPEAKER_03 44:40

Yes. So basically, it's a lot of Dave's just what he's done. He's got it in book form. That will be coming out. We will have those ready by the shows at the latest. Also, another thing that we are playing around with. We're not quite there yet, but we've had a lot of requests for individual, I would say, locating or how do we say this?

SPEAKER_00 45:03

Just coming out to their spots and kind of giving an overview of what I would do. One on one.

Hunters Gathering Culture And Expansion

SPEAKER_00 45:10

How would we hunt that?

SPEAKER_03 45:11

Yeah. So one-on-one coaching in person on your place that you're gonna hunt. And that's in the works. If that is a yay, I'd love to hear that. Let us know. Leave a comment. Please sign me up. But we are working towards that. That either Dave or one of the pro staff are able to come out and help with that one-on-one coaching, walk in the woods with you, figuring out the locating, the advanced locating aspect, all basically all of that. But you get that personal attention one-on-one on your set. So that is in the works. We don't know if that will happen this year, but uh we really want feedback. Uh is that the next thing that we add? So I don't know. Would you guys be interested in that? Now that you're pro staff, you could ask Dave, hey, can you come out to my spot and help me?

SPEAKER_00 46:00

Let's you now just pretend like you don't know me. Would you be interested in having me come out to your spot?

SPEAKER_04 46:07

I think I've already sent Dave a multiple times text. Just I need to have you come look at this spot with me.

SPEAKER_03 46:12

Like see, please. But now that you're uh pro staff, he's kind of obligated as a thank you. Yes. Actually, we thanks, Dave. Kind of probably both are. Yeah. You've gone out a lot on helping with people. Uh just to lay eyes on it.

SPEAKER_02 46:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:28

It's I don't know. Five years ago, I would have never thought that was fun at all. Now I actually love doing it because it's that putting that puzzle together. It's just it's a lot of fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:40

Can I find a big buck in this area? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:43

It's the anticipation of it. It's just uh addicting game. It is. It is so fun.

SPEAKER_00 46:49

The locating, and I tell guys this, and Bud is a prime example. Uh man, once you get the locating down, it's just fun locating big bucks.

SPEAKER_03 46:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:59

And I remember that first year Bud actually just it like the light switch flipped for him, and he totally grasped it. And he had nine shooters in one season. Holy smokes. I'm talking nine record book bucks. And you throw that in contrast to guys that say there's no big black tail bucks around here anymore. And I'm like, no, I beg to differ. Yep. You guys are just looking in the wrong spot. And that's a common thing that that I think everybody says about their area. And the reality is, no, there's a lot of big bucks, and they're dying of old age because nobody's hunting them where they are.

SPEAKER_04 47:29

And uh when you figure it out, Chris's buck is massive, yeah, huge, absolute giant, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

And then Bud, his first three bucks have all just been just toads. Wow. Toads. And it's like prior to doing the system, prior to getting that locating down. He hunted 16 years and he I think he killed one or two deer. One was a doe, and I think a small buck.

SPEAKER_03 47:52

I think yeah, two or three or something. But yeah, a couple of days and a small buck.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

That's fine. The size of the animal doesn't it's your trophy, it's whatever you want. But what I am saying is that once he figured this out, he was finding dominant, mature dominant black tail bucks and making it look real easy.

SPEAKER_03 48:09

And that that guy was just every time he put a set out, but the idea not wanting the not just that feeling of spinning your wheels.

SPEAKER_00 48:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 48:18

Yeah. And this that's the whole point of this hunter's gathering. Is I'm spinning my wheels when I go out there and I have fun, but I'd really like to have fun and harvest an animal.

SPEAKER_05 48:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:30

Because then it would be even more fun.

SPEAKER_04 48:32

And if that's the measure of success. Yeah. It reminds me when we were doing that locating class, and you kind of put it into perspective with fishing. Because you were talking about confidence. And I'm just like, how do you know that this is gonna work? You know what I mean? And you're like, you've got a couple baits that you no matter if you catch them, you don't catch them the first day on it, you go back the next day, you're still gonna throw that bait because you know it catches them. And I think that's I can really relate that to the river here because on tidal water fishing for bass, there's a lot of bass out there, but once it clicks and you get the confidence, it's weird. Once it clicked for me, and I got confidence, even summertime fishing for bass. Usually when it's tough, it's the hottest time of the year. It was just I could just pull up to a spot and catch fish, and you just know you know that they're there, yeah, and you know you're not wasting your time.

SPEAKER_00 49:21

It's that level of confidence that you have.

SPEAKER_04 49:23

Yeah, I think it's that same thing, and it takes time.

SPEAKER_00 49:27

You take boots on the ground and gaining that confidence and getting a few under your belt, and that's a good point, uh colleague, because I think that guys look, and I said the measure of success. I think that you need to look at your season different. I think that every season has another success in it in the sense that okay, did I get the locating down? Hey, I didn't kill a buck, but I got the locating down. That's a measure of success right there, where you're saying to yourself, okay, that's not just this season. Now that I got that under my belt, I can replicate this every season. Yep. And I've just proven to myself, point number two, that I can do this by myself. Because it doesn't matter how many times you sit through my seminars or anything like that, until you actually go out and do it, there's always going to be a level of doubt inside of you.

SPEAKER_05 50:12

Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 50:13

You know what I mean? And you're gonna be like second guessing yourself and questioning everything that you did, and boy, did I screw it up? And you over-examine and overanalyze, and you're just like, and you eventually talk yourself out of stuff that you should be doing.

SPEAKER_04 50:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 50:25

And so I think that with that first success, whether you kill a buck or not, you located it on your own. That's that's huge. Yeah, that's huge. And I know Ryan, this is your both you guys is a first year with us. Cully, I know you've got a you went through the trophy tactics class and killed a toad of a buck. Yeah, your first year. And uh, Ryan, I know you looked expressed.

SPEAKER_02 50:46

I was able to locate a big buck. I think you located the biggest buck of anybody last year.

SPEAKER_00 50:53

Last year, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:54

That's cool. And we're gonna get him on the ground this year.

SPEAKER_01 50:57

But then I broke Dave's cardinal rules in making the set. So live and learn. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 51:02

But you located now, you're gonna kill him.

SPEAKER_00 51:05

You already know you can locate him. Now it's just fine-tuning it and getting him in front of you, which is which honestly is the easiest part of the whole system. It's the locating that's the hardest part, but it's the funnest part because that's when you're pulling up your trail cam photos, going, Oh, I just got a ding on my phone.

SPEAKER_04 51:20

Or it's like Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 51:21

I just go home with the cards, and you're just like, okay, what do I got on it now? Did this spot pay off? Because I feel like there's gonna be a giant in here.

SPEAKER_03 51:29

And as soon as I got those pictures from you, like, hey, I got this buck on that. I don't know how if he's any good.

SPEAKER_00 51:35

Ryan goes, I don't know if he'll make book.

SPEAKER_03 51:37

I immediately went at Dave. Look at this buck. You gotta see this thing. And yeah, yeah, special buck.

SPEAKER_01 51:44

He's still there.

SPEAKER_03 51:45

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 51:45

One 130 class, 130, push him 140 class, but I want to see this picture.

SPEAKER_03 51:51

I'll have to look. I'm I know I've still got the picture.

SPEAKER_00 51:54

No, I've got the hat. He's gotta have it. Ryan's got a poster made right above his bed.

SPEAKER_03 52:01

So we're gonna wrap up here talking about Patreon. If you go on and Soprion is, if you're not familiar with it, it is a way that you can support independent content creators. So you pledge a certain amount. We have a $5, $10, and a $20 level. Uh, but you can also go in there and create a free account. And with the free account, I post the uh blog post. So Sunday

2027 Dates Pricing And Deposits

SPEAKER_03 52:25

morning when I upload, so for the $5, you get early access to the podcast episode. You can listen to it Sunday morning. Now, if you have a free account, you can get access. It also, the AI stuff that I put it through, it creates a blog post about it so you can read what's coming up on the episode and get it and get an idea of it. That is a free account. And I'll there's another thing you can do with the free account at that I'll explain at the end. But hunting buddy, five dollars a month. You get early access. Uh, if you get a buck down, we'll put your picture on the poster that we put that we create every year for when we're at the shows. Outfitter, basically, it's ten dollar level, and you get video extra video content and a little bit extra other content as well. But we do our ask the coach sessions, we'll put those up. Uh, we'll go out when we're able to and create uh videos related to scouting or establishing in your set. There's a lot of different content. So there's a whole back catalog now that because we've been going for a little over a year, so we have a lot of content on there. That's part of the outfitter. Now, the Master Hunter, you get all that previous stuff as well. But the big bonus to the Master Hunter level, which is $20 a month, is the once-a-month Ask the Coach Zoom call. Third Thursday of the month, and we start at seven, go till up to 10 o'clock if we need to. But basically, we all jump on a zoom call and you could ask any hunting questions you want. So if it's turkey hunting, you can ask turkey hunting, elk, bear, pretty much anything. And our pro staff all have accounts. If they know something a little bit more than uh Dave might know, they can chime in. It's just a place to be able to come and ask questions as season gets closer. Or if you just want to sit around and talk about hunting stories, we do that a little bit as well. That's part of the month, Master Hunter. There's some other benefits, but those are the big benefits for each of those tier levels. Now, the Ask the Coach Zoom. If you have a free account and all you want to do is jump on, maybe we're getting close to season. You have a couple of questions, you took the class or you've been part of been listening to the podcast. I got some questions, and you just want to ask them. You can buy the Zoom call to be able to jump in, and that's $20. And you'll be able to jump in and ask the questions. Because it's Zoom, you can share your screen if you want. So if you have pictures of Lon X waypoints or anything like that, we've had guys share their screens with you and get some feedback. Where should I be looking? And that was even last this last Thursday, we had or asked the asked the coach. And yeah, it's like, okay, I got all this space. And here's where I've seen some sign. Where do I look? Or where should I be concentrating? And so you can get that feedback. And I think I shared some of my spots and just shared some of my thoughts of I'm looking here because of this reason or that reason. But it's just any questions that you have. But if you have to be able to purchase that that Zoom call, that particular ask the coach, it's you have to at least have a free account. And having a free account, you get Sunday morning, you can read the blog post with your coffee. So Ryan has been a longtime Patreon member. He's signed up for everything. We had to make him I know.

SPEAKER_00 55:43

I feel like we're gonna lose a lot of money in the business now that Ryan.

SPEAKER_03 55:46

We had to make him a patron. Just stop giving us money, man. You you're in. No, we really appreciate it. But like for the content, for the video and all of that. What's share your thoughts? Is it worth it? Has it been worth it? I know you've been you've been able to jump on to some of the ask the code zoom calls.

SPEAKER_01 56:04

It's been worth it. I've been able to just log in and listen to them because I was at work. I've been able to jump on from home, ask any questions I have, send them screenshots of Onyx, ask them their opinions on what I'm looking at. They put content up from time to time, uh showing what they're doing and when they're doing it. It's got it's got bonuses. It's a good thing to have. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:29

And it supports the show. So there you go. Buying the equipment, paying the fees to have all the hosting and we gotta make up some revenue from Ryan being on pro staff now, guys.

SPEAKER_00 56:40

So we need a lot of people to sign up.

SPEAKER_03 56:42

And it like with Noah, uh, like I mentioned before, being able to be part of the now uh Northwest Outdoor Writers Association next year. Their conference is Electric City outside of Grand Coulee Dam. So that is where their conference is at. They move it around the Pacific Northwest, but being able to go to that and learn more and yeah, it's as Dave and I get better, this show gets better, everything it improves the quality, and that's the goal behind all of this is to keep improving the quality of the show and just thinking of different ideas of what to do next. A big advantage of this, I didn't even mention this earlier, is so Dave and I have press credentials now. That gets us into Shot Show, potentially. That's a big deal. That's so I was talking to somebody who he goes down every other year to Shot Show, but there's 500 outdoor booths, and it's not open to the public. You have to be part of law enforcement, military, or that level and or media. And so it's to show new products and stuff. So we're able to connect with finding products that may might be great products and being able to talk about those products and really kind of checking them out and seeing if that's something that we

Patreon Ask The Coach And Closing

SPEAKER_03 57:55

think listeners or or pro staff are gonna want to use. And there's a lot of potential benefits here.

SPEAKER_00 58:01

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 58:01

And I'm really excited about that. And like I mentioned, if you are a podcaster, if you are you know you write articles, you have a YouTube channel, uh doesn't really matter about size, but go check Noah out, N-O-W-A, Northwest Outdoor Writers Association, and see about joining his membership and uh seeing if that's something that can help what you're doing in this industry and uh communications and all of that. But we're gonna wrap up. This is a very long episode. This is a commute to work and a commute home episode. There you go. So everybody wants longer episodes. Here you go. So, Cully, thank you for coming on. We're glad to have you as part of the pro staff. Ryan, thank you for coming on. We're very glad to have you part as a pro staff. A big part of it is uh, and this is something we learn from Buck Ventures. Serve first and then we hunt. And you guys epitomize that. You are wanting to serve people before before anything. And that's why we pick our pro staff. And it's almost one of those things where we meet somebody and it's almost in you can just tell this is a servant. We want to stay in touch, we want to stay in touch with everybody. But for pro staff, we want people who will serve others, and that is that is definitely you guys. One of the first things Ryan said, if hey, if you know of anybody who needs help putting up their tree stands, give my number. I can come help them out. That's awesome. Unprompted. You didn't need to know them. And I think I was like, Yeah, Ryan's our next pro staff. We're gonna we're gonna have him on as pro staff. So we decided we wanted you to be part of this months and months. I think that was last September that you said that. It was so yeah, we he said some I see it. Some questionable stuff.

SPEAKER_01 59:45

Now you're just looking for free labor. I see.

SPEAKER_03 59:48

Yes. Dave doesn't come and help me out at my set when I get a deer down, so I need somebody else.

SPEAKER_00 59:52

He's never gonna let me live that down. Never.

SPEAKER_01 59:55

Thank you guys. All right, honored to be a part.

SPEAKER_00 59:57

So it's it's great to have both you guys. Uh we were talking beforehand. You guys are both men of integrity, and uh yeah, just to be associated with you is truly a privilege for us. And so thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:08

Thank you. Yeah, yeah, thank you, Dave. And thank you, listeners. You have made this a great endeavor to do this podcast. Keep sending your ideas. We love getting those. Larts, subscribe, follow, do all of those things. Those really help with pushing this out to other people who might need help with their hunt. And we will talk to you next week.