The Hunting Stories Podcast
Elk. Bear. Hog. Turkey. Deer and More. Hunting Stories that will make you laugh or maybe cry; real life chronicles from the field.
The Hunting Stories Podcast
Ep 128 The Hunting Stories Podcast: Eric Christensen
Eric Christensen, a spirited entrepreneur and expert hunting guide from southern Utah, joins us to share his thrilling journey into the world of hunting. Growing up in Wyoming with a family connection to the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, Eric's passion for the outdoors blossomed early. He takes us through his first transformative elk guiding experience in southern Utah, turning self-doubt into a lifelong dedication. Discover how Eric finds joy and fulfillment in guiding others through the unpredictable and exhilarating escapades of hunting.
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Howdy folks and welcome to the hunting stories podcast. I'm your host, michael, and as usual, we got a good episode for you today. Today, we actually connect with Eric Christensen, who reached out to me. He's actually based out of South Utah, yeah, man, and he is an entrepreneur, he is a guide, he is a hunter and he had some really fun stories for me today. So thank you so much for coming on the podcast and reaching out. I really do appreciate that. And to you listeners, please check out all the show notes. Eric's doing some really cool stuff, some cool digiscoping and all sorts of miscellaneous things. Please check them out. And while you're doing that, whatever you're listening to us on right now, give us a review. Let's go ahead and kick this thing off right.
Speaker 2:Why don't we let Eric now tell you some of his stories. Thank you All. Right, Eric, welcome to the Hunting Stories Podcast.
Speaker 1:How are you, man? Good man, thanks for having me on. Appreciate it, of course, man, I'm excited to have you here. We've been chatting back and forth a little bit, talking about maybe even some fun business things we can do together, but that's not what the people want to hear or talk about today. What they want to hear is some hunting stories from you. So let's start with this why don't you introduce yourself, eric? Let them know who they're going to be hearing some stories from today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my name is Eric Christensen. I live in southern Utah. Hunting is like most people, that's in your audience. I just always loved and tried to be involved. I've outfitted for a long time in Utah, nevada, for a friend of mine and Idaho for a couple years, so I've always been involved in it in some sort and always tried a couple schemes to stay within the industry. I worked for Sportsman's Warehouse for a long time as the hunting manager with guidance stuff, and so every aspect of my adult life has been involved in hunting at some some point or way.
Speaker 1:yeah, that's awesome, man, let me ask you a question. This is I don't normally like dig too deep into this kind of stuff, but how does one go about like starting being a guide, like where do, where do you approach that? Or how did you fall into it? What's?
Speaker 2:you know, growing up I grew up in Wyoming and my dad worked for the Forest Service and he was an engineer for developing roads and different things, and so we were always on the mountain and he had some friends that owned a company called the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, I believe. But we used to go catch crawdads in the ditch and sell them for nickel and then we'd go pick up sheds I mean back in the day when shed hunting was unknown, you'd go fill up a truck, I mean stuff like that. But they actually they were super good family friends and they let me go up in August, like late August, on some hunts and set up their camp with their mules and I would stay a little bit longer than I probably should, but man, their clients would come in and my dad would pull me out. But that's really what hooked me was just that, that atmosphere of going up and seeing that and just being part of it and whatever it is that draws me to nature. I love just being there. Just you just feel home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I get that, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that developed a bug. And then when I was I just graduated high school here in southern Utah and a friend was guiding and he's like man, I need some help. You want to come do it? I'm like dude, I can't even kill stuff myself. You want me to take clients? But I always loved chasing elk and stuff. And so I took these three guys from Washington State and they were just a blast man, three of the best guys in the world. We had fun, we killed a couple of bulls and then it was cocaine to the veins. Man Just loved it.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That's amazing, man. I've always just dreamt of the idea of just going off and doing that for a couple months, but I have no idea how to get into it. But that's a cool story and I bet when you were little and you were showing up at those camps, they were probably like, ah, whatever, free labor, this kid won't, we don't have to pay him and he'll help us out with camp. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yep, and it's funny because I hate horses Like I've always hated horses. I hated riding them and tending them and stuff, but it was man. I was abused as a kid but it was good. It was good.
Speaker 1:Abused, but you loved it, cool man. Well, hey, eric, it's nice to actually meet you. That's a great background and it reminded me a little bit of my own. I'm from Colorado, but the crawdad hunting is something that I definitely remember when I was a little kid. That's the earliest hunting I did, actual hunting, although I didn't start until about a decade ago, still relatively new to this and still struggling through it. But whatever, it's about being out there it's, but whatever it's about being out there.
Speaker 2:It's not right. You gotta start somewhere, man. There's people starting every day that's right, man, that's right.
Speaker 1:Um cool, anything else you want to add to your introduction? If not, let's just jump into some stories yeah, dude, we can jump in all right why don't you set the stage?
Speaker 2:uh, just reminded me of a story. Uh, with those first hunters there were, there were three friends and uh, they were just nonstop jokes, talking and laughing at each other. They started off with they'd try and do one hunt a year, so they'd try and coordinate and get going on one hunt and this time they were hunting elk down here in the Dutton and they had some archery tags and anyway. So the one kind of the nerdy hunter I guess liked to read books, like we'd hike up on the mountain, read books, around camp, read books. So he was famous for taking these books and he would wrap them in like saran wrap. So at the airport the edges didn't get beat up and stuff. Oh interesting.
Speaker 1:Real book nerd yeah.
Speaker 2:It was actually the year of 9-11, because we were up on the mountain, we came out to eat, we were like watching the news, like oh my God. But so they flew out and they had cut his book open and put a piece of metal in there with some some like gay porn pictures and stuff, a whole bunch. And then we wrapped. So when it went through the scanner they obviously detected, detected metal. And then they cut it open. He said it was just like a movie, man, the pages, just the little pictures, just fell over the floor. Yeah, I was peeing my pants. It was one of the best stories.
Speaker 1:Man, that's too funny, yeah we did that, so I had a coach in in. I think it was high school, maybe it was, I think it was college. We went on a flight and we filled his like brief with all sorts of miscellaneous pornography, yeah, and he got very upset and we had to run a lot of lines, so retroceded. Totally worth it. Funny now, funny then, but not in between for that little bit. But yeah, that's a great story, man, totally worth it man.
Speaker 2:Oh, mom, what's another story? That's awesome. So I mean, it's just some of the crazy things you see in the mountains. As a guide, I mean, you deal with a lot of great people and you deal with some that aren't so great. And this one repeat client we were up on a beaver on a particular elk and this drainage you have to hike into and you have to commit and stay the day.
Speaker 2:We're sitting there eating. We're kind of chilling out, kind of half dozing off, half waiting for the elk to get up. We see all these cattle come out of this bottom, about 300 yards out of this bottom of this drainage along this river, Of course, to catch your attention, what's going on? Why are these cattle coming out? And we see a horse guy up in the pushing them at the top of the, the drainage from the trees. Dude, as he comes out, we're both kind of we're not really paying attention at this point because he's just pushing cows out for the summer range, off the summer range.
Speaker 2:And the client looks at me. He's like dude, I don't think that guy's wearing clothes. And I'm like what are you talking about? So we pull up. So of course you have to throw your second train wreck. You throw your binos up and you're like what Dude? The dude was on a horse with just his chaps on pushing cows. Man, You're just watching this as a train wreck and you're like am I really seeing this right now? And look, seeing this right now? And look at each other. And it's just one of those times you just never forget on the mountain yeah, just just chaps, nothing, nothing else I had no idea how the the nuggets weren't getting crushed, crushed on that saddle, but dude it was.
Speaker 2:I've never seen anything like them.
Speaker 1:I've guided almost my whole life, that's so funny those top memorable moments I can believe that you don't forget that. That gets burned into your retinas. I'm going to make a safe assumption that you probably didn't go have a conversation with that gentleman.
Speaker 2:No, we let him roll with the cows man. I think Brokeback Mountain was out around that same time.
Speaker 1:That's too good man. Let me ask you this, just because you've got all this guiding experience and I don't get too many folks, plenty of folks with a little bit of guiding but we dive into all these other places and I never think to ask this what is the worst? And you can keep specifics out of it what is the worst experience you've had as a guide, whether it's because of a terrible hunt, terrible weather or kind of? What I'm leaning towards is like a terrible guest. Have you ever had just a guest that you were like this guy? I can't handle him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably the one that comes to mind is this gentleman booked a hunt and he was pretty nice. He was a dentist and had a brother that was sort of local to Utah. This guy was from Nevada. He was a dentist in Nevada and drew a pretty good archery tag and at this point I was pretty established. I mean, there's not a lot of things in life I was good at, but killing elk was one and so it really helped. But anyway, so he booked a hunt and he wanted to bring his brother, and at the time I really didn't have a lot of non-guests and so I was like, yeah, man, it's fine. So he was in camp and it was fine.
Speaker 2:The first day we kind of hiked a little harder and the dentist wasn't in shape, which is always a nightmare for guiding because clients are never in shape. But so we, the first day we're on this elk. I don't know, excuse me, this guy booked a rifle on this elk. I don't know, excuse me, this guy booked a rifle. Um, so we were the first day we were, uh, chasing the bull that we were chasing during archery. That was a big bull and it was like a three, three ten bull was sitting there with some cows and um, the brothers wanted the the client to shoot it and I'm like no dude, that's not what this guy wants and it's not the other bulls here somewhere. We just got to hunt for him. So we had to go on this big hike and the dentist, the client, got all sore and um was kind of complaining and so we took it easy the next day, just kind of would drive around, just glass out of the truck and if we wanted to see something, go after it.
Speaker 2:So that night the the brother kind of pulls me aside. He's like man, you screwed up um, that that bull. We should have killed that bull that was laying there in that that field the first day. I'm like, well, well, I disagree, man, like you hired me for a reason. So let's you know if you trust me, let's keep hunting.
Speaker 2:So it kind of simmered down and then that was the first time I'd actually been confronted as a guide. But then the next morning we're going back in the same area where we passed the bull, but this big bull, he's there somewhere. Yeah, this freaking same bull comes out and we're sitting there and about 150 yards and this thing lays down in the same field the cows and we're kind of stuck but we're trying to figure out. Is that mid-morning where your your morning's kind of over so you got to retool and go somewhere else? His brother is like I'm like let's go, and the brother's like, but the client's just like you're out of your effing mind, we're killing this bull. So me and him like basically start yelling at each other.
Speaker 1:Is it the brother or the actual guy who has the tag, or do they both have tags?
Speaker 2:No, the client, the guy with the tag, didn't say, he's just kind of like, he's just there. Yeah, he's not really saying yay or nay, trust me, but the brothers thinks he's he's from utah. Man and I, there's a lot of good dudes from utah, but there's a lot of freaking. There's a lot of guys from utah, if you know what I'm saying you can say that, you can say that about every state. I think the utah reason is is for this guy.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I've heard that before. Okay, keep going.
Speaker 2:Sorry, you guys are arguing, we're arguing about this and I'm like man, I, if you, if you don't want to trust me as a guy, then let's talk about that. But if this guy he wants a certain type of bull, and that's what he's going after, this does not qualify at it at all. And so we leave and me and this guy are like we're kind of simmered down. But then we get back to camp and it fires back up and this guy's riding my shit and I'm like I look at the client and I'm like back up and this guy's writing my shit.
Speaker 2:And I'm like I look at the client, I'm like, bro, like I, I don't have problem with you, but I'm not dealing with this and here's your check. I wrote him back his check and I said I'm done, I got better things to do. This is I'm spending time away from my family. You guys hired me for my experience and whatever man. So then they go back. So so they leave camp like it's just a mess, right, I'm unloading camp and I leave to go to another area where we had some other clients to help out, and then, like three weeks later, that client calls and he's like man, I apologize, you know my brother was. I shouldn't have trusted my brother and all that. I'm like yeah, it's your brother, blood's blood man. So they killed that bull and it was like a 300-inch bull and he was all pissed off and upset. But that was by far the worst. I've never had to give a client back their money.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. So I mean, a 300-inch bull is not a bad bull, but what kind of bull was he holding out for and what was realistic for that unit?
Speaker 2:Oh, 360 plus is pretty no way. Okay, I mean, this is a limited entry. This is one of you know 15 tags, so it's it's not like you're like in colorado, it's not like you're competing for, yeah, every elk on the mountain.
Speaker 1:It's pretty limited okay, I was gonna say man I would happily have a 300 inch bull but yeah, if 360 is an option, then maybe I'll pass on a 300, but yeah, okay yeah, and it's just relative to the unit.
Speaker 2:I mean, that was what we were killing consistently was there and above. That just goes to. I mean I have experience man, You've never really killed and hunted those you don't know, and when one looks big, it can look big, and this is what it did to his brother and he was holding his ground. I was young and I'm a pretty stubborn dude. When my fuse gets lit, it's pretty hard to diffuse it, but that's what's worse.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in your story you sound very level-headed. I'm sure in real life maybe it wasn't quite as cool calm and collected.
Speaker 2:No, not the second time, but you did a good job. The second time I lost it I was like I'm done, we're going back to settling this.
Speaker 1:There you go. There you go. Well, interesting, okay. Yeah, I was curious. I was curious how that dynamic goes and, just like you know, if every client's good, I assume they all came in like every client comes in, probably a few pounds heavier than you'd like them to be, but beyond that, I was curious of the bigger story. So thank you for sharing. Yeah, no problem man. Yeah, unless any other stories have popped into your mind. You said you had one with your kids. I'd love you to dive into that one, if you, if you could you know.
Speaker 2:So I, I'm, I'm 48 and I've been guiding men since I was 19 um. The last maybe six years I really haven't guided a lot, excuse me, four years, but but I mean, hunting is what we do. If we can go hunting, we're gonna go. And I finally have a kid that a boy that loves to go, and he killed up. He got lucky and killed a freaking. He killed a 365 bull last year, just got on a unit but he wasn't.
Speaker 2:We were supposed we were gonna kill a raghorn and it's just luck no way all came out and we, freaking, we dumped him in his, so he was he's hooked, like me and then he had a deer tag this year and started playing football.
Speaker 2:So we didn't have a lot of time. But you're just on the mountain there just sitting with your kid and nature and glass and and teaching him and watching him get excited about seeing deer. And with this new system that I got coming out, we were I get the luxury of testing it and we threw some binos up and it's been a hard hunt for for two days and we were getting after but, um, he had actually glassed up a bedded buck from pretty far away and it's just the whole spot in stock is what is what? I just I don't know. That's where I've really drawn to really love, and so we were kind of running out of time and you're just cruising down to try and get position on this buck to hopefully it's a shooter and we can get a shot off, and because it's your, your kid and, um, just to vote for a rifle.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry, I didn't ask earlier.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, sorry, it's a rifle deer hunt here in utah. Okay cool, utah is a dedicated hunter I'm not sure if you're familiar with that so you can draw it and then, um, you get a hunt for three years on that tag, the same unit, but you can only kill two deer in the three years and you have to go do 32 hours of service of some kind to qualify for this program.
Speaker 1:I've never even heard of that. That's pretty cool. It's amazing that you have it for multiple years, multiple deer and that you have to give back for it. That's pretty cool. For multiple years, multiple deer and that you have to give back for it that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so we've been planting a lot of bitter brush in the same unit, which is cool, so he gets to kind of see the work. There's more to hunting than just pulling the trigger and stuff. It's an awesome program.
Speaker 1:That's great.
Speaker 2:So this is the second year of this program. He didn't kill a deer. The first year and the second year we hadn't seen very many deer, but this was a isn't pretty nice buck. So you're half there trying to take the lead, but you're, you're kind of realizing as a dad, you're like, hey, I gotta let this kid kind of make some decisions and start learning. And so I he started going down like hey, where are we gonna go, where you can go set up on this buck? And he's making decisions to go certain areas and you're kind of like, are you sure about that? That Like, maybe up here is your kind of guide. So it's that part of being there without guiding him but not letting you know, letting the controller him, you know, kind of make a bigger mistake.
Speaker 2:And so we go set up on this deer and it doesn't work. We have to keep going down and we finally get set up, but it's getting dark, we have 15 minutes of light and it's 590, so it's a poke. But we're set up with a good rig and I'm like dude, I'm just going to howl man. I don't know what else to do, so I just do this stupid coyote howl, and the deer stands up. Really, he turns perfect for us and I'm like you got him. And he's like, yeah, perfect force. And I'm like you got him and he's like, yeah, and there's a. There was like a bush that maybe was thicker than where. I'm like I don't know, do you can? You got a, you got a shot, and it was like the best moment for him to say, dad, I don't, I don't have a shot, you know, and you're like, you're kind of like dude, blow through that. I'm like it's your call.
Speaker 2:You're shooting. And he's like like well, we got 10 minutes now. So I howl again and this freaking buck takes two steps and he shoots and dumps him, and it's just no way yeah, just to see his face and sharing that moment as a dad. That's what, man that? I don't care if that buck was a spike, it was awesome, that was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was fun that's cool, especially to like kind of give him the leash or give him a little slack on the leash. Right, you're guiding him but you want him to make his own decisions, and that's pretty. That's a good mentality. I think I say it often. I say it on this podcast, I say it in my life. But, like, the best lessons are self-taught right, you got to make mistakes to really learn the good lessons. And giving him room to do that and not letting your guide instinct kick in is that's good on you, man.
Speaker 2:That's tough and it's good, but that's I mean, that's where, when he asked questions about things, it's like dude, like this, all this knowledge is because of all of the mistakes I've made. It's not because I just have this magic power. It's freaking. I haven't blown a lot of stuff out and ruins, ruins a lot of stuff. So, yeah, it's, it's pretty special when you have kids get into it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome man, that's awesome. Um, I have a five-year-old. I can't wait till he's fired up and ready to get out there with me. He wants to, he he. Actually I told him he needs to walk a long ways cause he's always asking to be carried. I was like you can't, you can't be carried in the woods if you're going to go hunting with dad. And uh, this week he changed his tone to dad, I want mom to take hayley, our three-year-old daughter, and he's like and then you and I are gonna walk home. And I'm like you're gonna walk home from school. I'm like that's a good walk, man. And I was like I'm not gonna carry you. He's like I know, but if I do it we can go hunting, right. And I'm like I will. I mean, mate, we'll go turkey hunting, we can do some, we can do something, but you're not gonna go hunt elk. He's like I want to kill elk out Dad. So he's got the itch, which is great.
Speaker 2:Man massage that itch dude. Get him involved. Man, we need our youth involved as much. But that's a tough age because they can't sit still and they're talking. It's a little frustrating when you're young, but, dude, get them hooked as much as you can. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I'm going to take. I saw I shot an archery antelope this year and uh, I never want to do that again. That sucked everything about archery, soccer spot and stock antelope hunting. So I think that I'll still get a tag um and then maybe bring him along for that. Or maybe bring him along for one of my buddy's hunts where, like, you're kind of in the car a good amount of the time, right when you're driving around looking for antelope and the adults were one of the adults will get out, go stalk those antelope and he can sit there and watch with some binoculars. I think that that might be a good option for him for his first hunt.
Speaker 2:Um, because, you're right, he 10 minutes in a blind he'd be, he'd be bouncing off the walls yeah, but I mean blind, if you had something to kind of keep his attention, that, because then your animals are up close and they get that connection, that's really interesting.
Speaker 1:I have some connections in Texas. Maybe I'll sneak down there and find a way to get them on a hog hunt or something, Something that's not a big tag that I'm worried about not being able to fill right.
Speaker 2:Dude, if you've got connections in Texas, man, like I went down to do, I have this product called a quarter pad. So you lay it out and you uh, it's through base camp and, um, as a guiding, I got sick of, you know, trying to uh find like you buy like bed sheets and shower curtains and stuff to lay your meat on. And we developed this quarter pad where you can just lay it on. Um, it's just a super lightweight pad that's breathable, waterproof, make later mean on it to quarter and doesn't get dirty. And so I needed to go make this video but a controlled environment. So we I contacted the guy in texas when we shot some axis deer, some dough that's delicious love access.
Speaker 2:I'm like dude, can I bring my kids? He's like dude, there's no like correct me if I'm wrong, but or somebody. But I don't think there's like an age limit on what hunting texas, so like you could bring your boy down as long as you can shoot it.
Speaker 1:I think you could shoot something and so I think for certain species yeah, I think you're right there like for hogs, you can be a one month old with a rocket launcher, they don't care. But for like whitetail, like I think, you technically have to get like a license and do the whole hunter ed thing and all that stuff. So there is requirements there, but hogs and axis deer I don't, I don't believe there's any rules whatsoever yeah, he was saying bring them down.
Speaker 2:So we're I mean for, for us I'm not really a high fence guy um, I wouldn't like just go hunt one, just to go hunt it for like trophies, but dude, for, go down there for like it's like grocery shopping in the wild. It was the axis. So we're definitely going to try and go back this next spring and and, uh, I'll bring a couple of my boys to go shoot some stuff.
Speaker 1:But you can do that, it's so great, that'll hook him hard man yeah, well, you see my axis hide over my shoulder here. That's from uh. I went to molokai hawaii in june and there's some free range access out there it was fun.
Speaker 2:It was a hard hunt though it was absolutely phenomenal.
Speaker 1:I went with some great guys um, shed crazy, he's a utah guy. I don't know if you know rick trimmer, utah as well. Uh, ryan mickler, they were all there, all utah guys. Um, and uh, I think almost everybody got a deer and it's just so much fun and it was. It was cool because most of the hunting I've done it's like elk hunting, right, you're hoping for that one opportunity where you get to draw your bow back and you get to fling that one arrow. There are so many access to your own Molokai. They're like I had plenty of opportunities and I lost a lot of arrows because they are fast. I was shooting at 60 yards and I shot probably the. You know when you let go of a good arrow and you know that's a perfect arrow, you're like, yes, I had good arrow and you know that's a perfect arrow. You're like, yes, I had that feeling multiple times and the deer just like walked off, like just completely, I missed entirely. Like they're so fast and so jumpy like they just dug the string
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, or just ran off like they were gone. They it's not like I missed high or low, they were just gone. They just are that quick. Um, but it was cool to be able to make the adjustments. Like I had something on my bow that was rattling, so I took it off and then I moved forward a little bit and eventually, all of a sudden, I connected and I got myself a nice. I think it's like a 29 inch buck, which hell, I would have been happy with a doe. I just wanted meat, because it's my favorite eaten meat, axis deer, so good.
Speaker 2:So good. Axis is tremendously good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think moose. I shot a moose this year too, a cow moose and that's right there with Axis deer, they're both so tasty. My wife loves them both. She's not a big whitetail fan. I know there's plenty of whitetail hunters out there that love it. My wife I'm trying to trick her into liking it, so I'll get there eventually.
Speaker 2:For now moose for the last little while.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right and yep, definitely. I think it'll probably last a year and a half. I still have some from my elk from two years ago, so freezer's full right now, but I don't think I'm a very good hunter. I think I've had a good year and a half, so I'm glad I have plenty, because I might need it in a couple of years. Yeah, cool, eric. Well, what else you got for us, man? Any other fun stories that popped into your head?
Speaker 2:Man. I mean, they're just all kind of hunt stories. There's nothing special, you know. Like another story, let's talk about this.
Speaker 1:Okay, unless you have one on top of your head, what is the dumbest thing you or a buddy have done in the woods that you can remember, and why don't you give us that story, but not just what they did, kind of build up the story and let us know?
Speaker 2:And if you can't think of?
Speaker 1:anything, that's fine too.
Speaker 2:No, it's actually what developed Capture man, my new magnetic digiscope. So, like I said, I used to in uh before utah had late hunts. Well, actually we had late hunts at this time, but before we did um for the late elk, I would go to nevada and guide for a buddy of mine over there and this, uh, this was probably this was my last year with him. This was probably this was 2015 is when the idea came about. So he called me and booked a client and, uh, I hadn't really hunted the unit very much. I knew it a little bit, um, so I wasn't as prepared as I would like to be. So I'd go over meet this guy. And this is old, this guy's like 68 and he's got a. He brought his wife and she's an asian doctor from, I think they were from reno or somewhere.
Speaker 2:Okay couple, but so we're getting, we're getting going to dinner, getting um kind of situated and asking him questions. I'm like, so what's your rifle? And he's like I got a 375 h and h. And I'm like what? And I'm like how far can you shoot? And he's like, oh, about 200 yards. And I'm like, bro, this is like I'm not gonna get you 200 yards.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking this kind of and saying it out, I'm like man, we, you need to be able to shoot further than that. So, uh, the we had a, uh, my friend had a rifle set up that from a gun works and so that we borrowed that. You just kind of range and and, uh, just to adjust your turret, and we, the biggest mistake started, started. Well, the first mistake started there. We should have went and shot. Um, after that first morning, look, we didn't really see anything. We wanted to go. Look, we should have went and shot the rifle. But I'm like man, you just, you just point, dial and shoot. It's not that hard and we've done it before.
Speaker 2:So we go for three or four days and then one of their other guides had finished and he came down to the spot and he found this bull down low. It's a pretty big bull. So we went hunting him for like two days, couldn't find him. And then we went back in the other end of the unit where we were seeing some other elk and and it was just a tough hunt and uh, as a guide, life, you deal with these people. But man, he kept, he kept freaking, blowing his nose and tissues right, and I have like this, I don't, I don't like tissues, I don't know what it is, but like used tissues is like this disgusting. So he was well understandable. He was blowing his tissues and I wasn't really paying attention. I thought he was shoving them in his pocket. But after the hunt I go up, I go over to clean up and my door, the little uh compartment, oh no, loaded with nasty tissues. Man, disgusting that was anyway. So he was a doctor, his wife was, I can't remember what he okay, he did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was gonna say, a doctor wouldn't be spreading germs like that gross okay, sorry no, yeah, so super sick, like worst, worst uh cleanup ever.
Speaker 2:But if she would just sit in the back and read books and like kind of talk every once in a while, but, and it's, it's one of the boring times because you're, as a guide, um, I'm, I don't. I'm not really like a social butterfly, like I talk, hunting, other things I have interest on, but just just to chit chat. I'm not like that guy, and so it was a lot of just silent drives and and then we would talk about hunting, or let's go look over here, do you think you could hike up here? And this guy only had maybe two good hikes in him or his legs would be burned out, but anyway. So we're trying to hunt this other bull this guy's seen and we don't see him. So we go to the other end of the unit and this other bull we've been looking for shows up, but he's broke and so this guy doesn't want to shoot him. So we've got two days left, and that morning we went down low and the one guy, kim, got us and said man, I see the bull that we're looking for down low, and it was a real pretty bull.
Speaker 2:So we go over, get this guy grab his stuff and start rolling out. And he grabbed his backpack and I hadn't really touched his backpacks this whole time, but it's like this old leather Indiana Jones style and it had freaking rollers on the bottom Like for airplanes. This was his backpack, dude. Okay, all right, okay. So we go after this elk and we're going as fast as we can. He does pretty good. So we go after this elk and we're going as fast as we can, he does pretty good. And we go set up on this elk and Phonescope had come out with a new adapter where the top had slid off and it was brand new and I just had a Browning phone. So I get everything set up. We're rolling on this elk filming and this guy's set up and then I dialed the range and he shoots and it's like 10 feet low and I'm like what the shit? I'm like, did you put it right on him? He's like, yeah, so he shoots again, same distance, low, and so I'm looking at it. Did it not move after the shots?
Speaker 1:It did a little bit, but it was.
Speaker 2:I mean, this was like 600 yards and for whatever reason they weren't spooked. He was in a group with like five or six cows and another small. Okay, okay, got it. So we get time for one more shot. Same thing way low, they run off and I'm like what the frick dude like. Anyway, I I had dialed the dope rom on the scope and screwed it up, so it's my fault. New gun we should have. We should have, uh, done our judo's and shot, been more familiar with our weapon. So 100 on me, yeah.
Speaker 2:But I go to grab my spawning scope and my camera's gone, my phone's gone and I'm like what the shit? Because it's kind of chaos. We're trying to run up there and go get on the cell and look down my phone had slid off and landed right, rock broke, done brand new phone. I'm like you gotta be shit. So we kind of get this point and I, I watch this bull go up in this canyon and the other elk's fed off, but this elk stays and we go over and get set up on this elk and he's somewhere in this little.
Speaker 2:We get up on this point and the wind's starting to be pretty good for us and the bull kind of runs out. He must have been below us and saw us the guy's set up for where we think the elk's going to come out and we got the dope set up right this time. But that elk had come out below us kind of quicker than we expected and I'm like you got to move and, dude, I'm kind of sitting, so this guy's laying prone and I'm sitting about mid rifle kind of where the scope is on his right side.
Speaker 2:And so he's got. He's got to pick it up and move around me a little bit as I'm trying to back up and he grabs the gun and boom, grabs the trigger. Didn't have it on safety, no, Like I didn't know man. This just scares the shit out of you. You're like looking around, like am I dead? Like what the hell just happened.
Speaker 1:Do I still have all my?
Speaker 2:limbs Jesus. So again, he shouldn't have had that weapon, but it is what it is and so.
Speaker 1:So he was trying to go from one side of you to the other side of you.
Speaker 2:He was just going to pick up his rifle and take like two little knee steps and reset and that's all we had to do to shoot this bullet. It was like 300 yards.
Speaker 1:Did he at least have? I mean, like, where did that round go? Did it go into the ground? Did it just into the sky?
Speaker 2:never be seen, we went up in the mountain. I mean it wasn't like straight up in there, but because like it was on a bipod right and so when he picked, went to pick it up.
Speaker 2:It just had shot up in the mountain. So it's we were. We were fine that way. But that's scary, man, that's so scary, scares the living crap out of you. So then the bull runs off. We don't get a shot, nothing and's nothing, and he's hunting. He didn't kill a bull and then my phone's broke. So on the way back from Nevada I'm sitting in my truck all pissed off at myself. And we didn't kill because it was a pretty good bull.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he cleaned a bunch of snotty little tissues.
Speaker 2:Oh, dude, that was horrible man. Horrible, I mean, he didn't kill an elk, but no tip. That's the worst when you don't get tipped as a guide, Because I can't control money.
Speaker 1:Yeah, even when you don't kill. How often does that happen? That's, I don't know. This guy also stashes and sneezes in your door. Maybe that's just the character of the human, more so than anything else. But yeah, what would you say? 5% of the time you don't get tipped?
Speaker 2:It's less than that. I mean it's a, it's a service tip, right? So it's based on how you're doing as a guide and stuff, and so I didn't expect a big tip, but it's. You know this. The problem with this is this guy. It's a nevada of height, like I'm sure it took him 20 plus years to draw this tag because it's a late season Remo tag, so he had a ton of points into it and then I don't think he's ever booked a hunt, so he doesn't have any experience with it. Maybe he didn't know he's supposed to tip, I don't know. But I've been drafted a couple of times, but it's not very rare or very often.
Speaker 1:How often do people come in and assume where it sounds like like you guys are, it takes a couple points. How often do you get people that like have a couple points but don't have any hunting experience and they're kind of like first timers?
Speaker 2:uh, not so much in utah. Nevada is a little little more green, um, but I was up in idaho for two years a buddy. It's a little different up in idaho.
Speaker 2:So they, as an outfitter in idaho, you, uh, uh, as an outfitter, you get approved, you get an area, so you're, you're an area on a map and you're the only outfitter in there and you get, you can get certain tags and stuff and so it kind of gives you a little more security with that stuff. And so he had some private land. Um, this was, this was five years ago and he calls me, and ago, and he calls me and I didn't have anything solid. I was just kind of working at Pepsi at the time and he's like man, why don't you come run this? I'm going to buy this other outfitter allocations, that's five areas. Why don't you come run it? Set it up, we'll do some stuff. I'm like cool man, so I go set it up and anyway.
Speaker 2:So he ended up buying five areas in southeast Idaho and it was a different Utah and Nevada is trophy hunters, like it's different than it is Colorado, like everybody's pretty much chasing a number and it kind of ruins hunting. It ruined hunting for me a little bit. So Idaho was awesome because these guys would come in with zero experience or they had a lot of hunting experience but then killed like um I'll share another story man, so this guy, he booked a hunt, him and his buddy drew tags archery tags in 76 up in idaho. Pretty good unit, like for for idaho it's 300. Every once in a while they pull a 350 bull out. But you're, you're 280 to 300 is kind of what your target. Your target bull is okay, and so we're hunting, our freaking their butt off, and uh, we go into this, this kind of roll.
Speaker 2:This area and the elk are going just just crazy and it's foggy, it's just like a dream morning. And the bulls aren't responding as far as coming in, but they're just ripping and going and so we chase them all day and, uh, we're kind of working our way back because we're in there quite a ways and these, this bull's standing off, but then these, these cows kind of come on this opposite ridge as we're walking down the strainage. So we're walking down this drainage, there's a mature standing bull on our left bugling, and also an open on the right, there's some cows and then, uh, two spikes. So we're kind of stuck, we don't want to spook them and we're hoping this bull is going to come down and the spike steps out 40 yards and he's like I'm going to shoot that spike and I'm like no, you're not, like we're four miles back in here, dude. And I'm like and you got a bull? No, you're not. So he's like dude, he's like, he's like goes.
Speaker 2:Eric I've I've been hunting for 10 years. He was from Colorado, I want to say somewhere over by Denver, aurora or somewhere.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, that's a suburb for sure.
Speaker 2:He's like dude, I've hunted elk for 10 years and I've never killed an elk and I'm like well, I mean you're like well, dude, you're wearing hunting.
Speaker 1:I don't know what that means. I don't think I killed my first elk until 10 years. Eric, I don't know what you're saying here. That's just Colorado hunting. It's tough. There's a lot of hunters out there.
Speaker 2:For sure. He's like, no, I'm shooting this thing. I'm like, bro, no, we're four miles down here, dude, we just found a pileup. He, okay, but as yeah, as as uh, as he's getting lined up. I'm kind of filming my cell phone because we're 40 yards and I got my bugle tube by my knee and I'm shaking it like I'm trying to scare this freaking spike off behind this guy. I don't want to shoot it, that's probably horrible. But this right here, so he, he unleashes and smoked it and killed a spike, but he was, he was so happy man, so it was. It was cool to be part of of that, that hunting experience, right where people are like just enthusiastic and just the love for hunting.
Speaker 2:That's awesome utah you get so tainted with. Oh, it's numbers and this and that and it's the cultures. It's toxic with some people and a lot of the hunting community. But he was, it was cool man. I'm really glad he did. The packout was tough because I bet packing the spikes on your back is is not bad, but man, just like dude, you can at least kill a branch down the bullet or six point you know about.
Speaker 1:But that's too funny man yeah, he was probably very, very happy to have some meat in his freezer also. If he's been doing it for 10 years and never gotten any, I know that I I have a buddy that's in a similar category and every time he goes home his wife's like so what did you do out there then? So so, now the wife can go. Oh, you got an elk there, you go. All right, it was all worth it.
Speaker 2:So, and he, that's one of my best tips I've ever had. It was crazy one for for what he was out of the moon. So that's awesome. Your question kind of sparked that.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love that. And we did go down a little bit of a rabbit hole there. I know that you were actually talking about when your phone broke and then you had the idea for Capture, so we kind of diverted from that. But maybe you can go into that just a second.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So Capture we just launched last month, in November, and it's this story I use for my kids because it's just a nightmare to get an idea started because I don't have money, I don't come from money, so you need that investment to get going, but I have the idea. So, driving back from that Nevada trip, I'm like freak man. There's got to be a better way. And that's when I was like man. I wonder if you can do magnets on there. And that's when I was like man I wonder if you can do magnets on there. So the prototyping started in 2015. And then just trying to find an avenue to get this launched and find some money to back it and go With life I mean I had to provide versus an idea for the family, so the idea came last and so it's kind of just a roller coaster to try and get this launched.
Speaker 2:I went through two people and then, ironically enough, when I decided to go, uh, in 2020, 2019, with my buddy, the guy in idaho, um, he had some cow hunters. He's like, hey, come up to this private ground up, um in northern or, I guess, central idaho to take these cow hunters for me. So I go meet these two guys and they're they're firearms manufacturers out of mesa, arizona. And I'm like we're talking and they're engineers, and I manufacturers out of mesa, arizona. And I'm like we're talking and they're engineers, and I'm like, hey man, you guys got a machine shop. And they're like, yeah, I'm like, bro, I got an idea. Here's the thing.
Speaker 2:And they're like they're like dude, let's do it. So that was that was where it all started and they, uh, so took me five years to get somebody that was interested, super interested. So they, they made a prototype, we kind of fleshed it out and then we got the patents for it, which is why we haven't released until now. We were wanting to get protected, and so our system is fully patented and we are going to kind of, we will enforce some patent stuff down the road, but that's the journey that took it.
Speaker 2:That one incident that happened on that hunt has brought me to where we're launching capture.
Speaker 2:So it's a fully magnetic system and what I hated about the systems on the market is, um, the phone case is bulky and big and so I want an everyday case.
Speaker 2:Um, and then the other thing that drove me absolutely nuts is everybody does like a friction fit adapter so it goes over the outside of your your optics, eye cups, and when you're doing that, um, it's hard to glass through it's, it's obtrusive and, worst of all, when you're, when you're on a target and an animal, usually you don't have a few seconds to film, but if you're, if you're, zoomed in at all and you try and put your friction fit on that.
Speaker 2:That scope, it moves it, and that was like the content was was more important than anything and it would throw it off and it just drove me nuts. And so what's really cool about ours is you, we actually buy the eye cups from swarovski, koa and maven zeiss and we actually take out the inside piece and put our connect piece in, and so you, you remove your factory eye cup and thread ours on and it's built right into the optic and then you just attach it, that's amazing, yeah, and our adapter comes off so you can use your phone as an everyday case and use it when you don't want.
Speaker 2:You don't have to switch cases, and so we tried to. It took us years to get to here, so it's, it's exciting, but the roadblocks to get here, man, that's a whole, nother story. We were supposed to be out in August and September. October hit and then November we finally got launched. But now we've got to do the 16 cases and it's a process I'm sure man I'm sure.
Speaker 1:Every time I see somebody doing something like that, I'm always jealous of those systems. I have a buddy. He's got the new Sig Sauer binos that have the auto stabilization. He's got those and he couldn't find a system that would actually fit them, so he basically glued a magnet to the front of those and glued a magnet like a metal sheet onto his phone. So it's a bunch of duct tape basically on these really expensive, really nice things. But, man, you get some great, great footage and it's also just a relief on the eye, if you're going to do a lot of glassing, being able to just put your phone up there and sit back and look, rather than squinting down and getting your head in the right position. And that's where I struggle with glassing. I get real stiff. So I think what you're doing is cool, man, I've always wanted, basically, what do they call it? What is the term for that?
Speaker 2:Just Digiscope. Use your smartphone to optics, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's cool man, that's very cool. Do you have any other stories? Otherwise, I want to ask you a couple other things about some of your other products, because you mentioned a few.
Speaker 2:You know nothing. There's one more. It's pretty funny, let's do it. So this this uh, where was he from? His name was Denny and he was awesome Old dude. He was an old guy drew. Uh. Uh, the beaver mountains in Utah is like hard to drop tag, like I think right now it's it's mid to late, mid to high points to draw the tag as a resident, so very, very hard to draw. Um, he draws, I can't remember how many points, but archery and he's kind of an older guy can't get around. So it's you're kind of limited, but super, super good dude, just fun to hang out with. And, yeah, best stories. And he was from the midwest and so the mountains were. He'd never really been in the mountains much, but so we're kind of just going where we can with him and uh, one day he's like man, he says eric, I'm feeling good today, let's go on an all day and I'm like let's do this.
Speaker 2:So we uh, we get dropped off on this, on this higher point, and kind of it's going to take us all day to work down to the bottom and and we'll be picked up. And halfway through we're just that same time, that midday just nap time and kind of vegging and eating lunch, figure out stuff, and we're I'm like you're ready to go? And he's like yeah, and so I start loading up stuff out of my in my pack and he's like I gotta go use the bathroom, like all right. So he goes and does his biz and he comes back and we load up and, uh, he's kind of walking in front of me on this trail and I'm like I'm like bro, like did you step in it?
Speaker 2:Because it's like it's killing me right now. And he's like what do you mean? I'm like, bro, you smell straight up just poopy dude, you know. And we're looking around he's like no, and I'm like well, he's like maybe I just farted, it was funny. So I'm like I don't know, man, so we get hiking again. I'm like, bro, I can't, I can't stand behind you.
Speaker 2:It's, it's horrible, it's just getting in the face, man, it's straight up off the crap, and he's like I don't know. So we? So he gets like, well, maybe, maybe, uh, I got some toilet paper in my overalls and also he wore these overalls. These are coveralls. Well, no overalls, yeah, and uh. And so he throws his pack off and he's kind of looked around, he takes these overalls and snaps them and comes off and I'm like, oh my God. So he's facing away, dude, and there's just shit from his shoulders down to his butt.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I'm like dude, I'm like it's all over you and he's like what? And so he didn't when he squatted. How deep are you into the woods right now? Oh, we're back in their ways, bro.
Speaker 1:On an all-dayer Okay.
Speaker 2:He freaking didn't. When he went to go squat he didn't pull his coveralls all the way through, so he pooped on his back of his coveralls stood up, grabbed those suckers and just threw them on and it was all over him, dude.
Speaker 1:And he didn't like feel the warmth. He didn't smell it.
Speaker 2:He had like a kind of like a hoodie on, like a thicker he wouldn't have. I don't think he would have felt it, oh my goodness. Apparently he can't smell either, but it is gross dude.
Speaker 2:So there's a creek there's a creek a quarter mile away. Let's go over there to that creek. I mean, that's the only thing I can think of. So we go over and this dude takes off the coveralls and that everything he's got poop on, washes it out as best he can kind of we kind of clean up with what we could, and he's like, well, these are staying here. So this dude is walking out in boxers and just like a t-shirt and a backpack and just laughing the whole time. It was it made it worth it. But that was. That was one of those guiding moments where you're like I do not make enough money off this yeah, god, that's too funny.
Speaker 1:I like that he had such a good attitude like he. He didn't shit himself, but he shit himself, right, and he's still just like yeah, well, you know, it is what it is, let's keep going yeah yeah, that's too funny, man.
Speaker 1:That was awesome um it reminds me, I'll tell you this story. It's actually one of the episodes, um, one of my early episodes. Uh, I'm trying to blank on the gentleman's name, so I'll have to remember here. Either way.
Speaker 1:He's hunting and he woke up that morning and he just didn't feel well. But he's like you know what I got a limited tag, I got to go out, I got to go hunting, and so he's out there DIY with his bow and his stomach's just grumbling and grumbling, and grumbling and all day he's just struggling with it and it just never quite feels right. And then he gets into some bulls and starts calling and he calls in this bull to I don't remember exactly what he says in the story. We'll say 20 yards for the case of continuing. But he calls his bulls in and he goes full draw and the bull stopped behind this bush and he's just waiting for this bull to come out and he's sitting there waiting and he feels his stomach grumble and all of a sudden he's got so much tension in his shoulders and his upper body he's not really paying attention to the tension that he needs to be paying attention to and he just lets go, not of his bow, but just shits himself.
Speaker 1:And he's telling me that it was just one of those scenarios where, like it filled his boots, it was not solid, Like it just went straight down boots full he's full, draw just a full, his pants just full of crap. It's just like and the bull got away.
Speaker 1:He did not shoot that bull, I don't think he wanted that bull anyways, but yeah, so a pretty ridiculous story. Um, I'm trying to remember the dude's name. I could look it up, but I'll have to. I'll put a link to it in the show notes so people can listen to that episode. Pretty funny stuff, man, and it's just a little bit in line with the story you just told Eric.
Speaker 2:Dude, I got so many poop stories. That's what's so weird about hunting man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, We'll have to do a poop episode someday, maybe, yeah, Well cool. Maybe, Um, yeah, well cool man. Um, unless you have any other stories you want to share, that was a great one to finish it off, Right, Um, otherwise, why don't you tell the folks a little bit more about? You said you had a couple other products. Do you want to share anything about those? We just want to keep it to capture today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean for the hunting crowd. I mean it's base camp with a K instead of a C. Um, we do C. We do have some premium freeze-dried meals, which is ironic because I pivoted to this capture. So we have some meals on there. They're like just kind of designed them to taste good and perform but we just couldn't get our cold packer in Utah just was a problem with COVID and then just the money suck on that and things. So we still have some of those available. But the quarter pads it does really well. It's just a six-ounce little pad that you can. It's waterproof, it's reusable, you can machine wash it. It's got little pockets for rocks and stakes. But it's just for a quarter man. You throw it out, you put your quarters on. It keeps them clean from the debris. You can some guys wrap them up and put them in their packs and then take them home and just spray it off and you can reuse it. That's cool.
Speaker 2:The deer one, I think, is $20, and the elk size one is $30.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's super cheap compared to most other miscellaneous random small tarps that you can buy from all the other companies. Yeah, hundreds of bucks, that's cool.
Speaker 2:It's a nylon ripstop and we are working on a newer version. Now that capture is launching, I can, I can breathe a little bit, but, um, but captures with a k, that's our new thing and that's where we're super excited, man. I mean it's, it's the time and effort to get here, to finding the right people to back it and partners and like so we just launched and, um, it's just nice to to see a product kind of people get excited about using and stuff, and yeah, the digiscope system isn't new. A product kind of people get excited about using and stuff and the Digiscope system isn't new. But we kind of feel like we're we put our name as being the best right. Like this is machined aluminum, it's a lifetime warranty. Like it's a legit modular system.
Speaker 2:In some cases, like if you have a binocular and a BTX, you can actually put the btx threaded eye cup on so you're ready to film. And then you could we have a tape version. So like your, uh, your sick buddy could put, put a number one ring on there and he could just go between the two without really swapping out any parts, because both his optics would be, uh, capture compatible, so he would just take his device off the adapter, you can swap out mag ring. So if it's a size, if it's the same size like a size two, you can go between optics without doing anything. Pop it right off the one optic and slap it on the other. No oversize, no way.
Speaker 1:That's cool. I don't think anybody else does that. That's awesome, and he's a little attached to his duct tape that he's got to put together there and his solid chunks of metal. But I'll let him know.
Speaker 2:Go for it man.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, eric man, where would you prefer people to find? You Find Capture, give them some of the links or the socials, and then we'll wrap this thing up, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's Capture Gear. I'm stuck on K, so it's Capture with a K. Capturegearcom is where the new magnetic system is. And then one thing I'll give a plug for is Killshot Central is something I started for. Killshot it's just an audience to market to. So Killshot Central is a pretty decent channel. If you've got Killshot, submit them in. I always tag and repost, but it's got a pretty big audience on Insta, facebook and then YouTube Awesome man, awesome, there we go.
Speaker 1:And booking and YouTube so awesome man, awesome, there we go, and I'll put everything links in the show notes. Make it easy for everybody. Eric man, this was fun. Um, I really enjoyed hearing your unique perspective. I don't get enough guide stories. I've always thought about having more guides on to tell those kinds of fun stories. Um, I feel like you get some more truth when it's not a story about themselves, right? They're telling about other people, right? So thank you, man, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:This was fun. I had a blast dude. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course, bud. Yeah, and everyone, please make sure you check out the show notes and go check out Capture. I'm pretty excited to check it out myself. So thank you, man.
Speaker 2:Yep, thanks dude.
Speaker 1:Alright, guys. That's it Another couple stories in the book. So I want to thank Eric again for coming on. I really enjoyed all the guide tales right, the grumpy customers, the customers shitting themselves, all the adventures that come with trying to help someone shoot an elk. So thank you, eric, I really do appreciate it. Listeners, please check out the links man, check out Capture Gear, check out Killshot, check out all the cool stuff that he's doing. All the links are easy for you in the notes of the show you're watching or listening to right now. Beyond that, guys, if you have a story or if you know someone who's got a crazy story, have them get in touch with me. Instagram's a great way to do it. I also have a link on there that you can kind of shoot me a note through a Google survey or something like that. But either way, make sure you review us, share us with your friends. Thank you, guys, for tuning in. Now get out there and make some stories of your own.
