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Elk In California? California RMEF Regional Director – Brandon Nelson
223 Plays3 months ago
This week on the Tricer Podcast, Drew talks with Brandon Nelson, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation @rmef regional director for California. Drew and Brandon talk about all things elk in CA. They discuss the variety of elk species from Tule to Roosevelts, to Rocky Mountains, California has them all but they aren’t the easiest tags to obtain. If you’re interested in hunting California this is a great podcast. These guys talk about more than just elk.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN ELK FOUNDATION
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Website - https://www.rmef.org
TRICER USA
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Theme
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to the Tricer Podcast, where we talk all things hunting, gear, and the great outdoors. Before we begin, let's start things out right and put God first. Lord Jesus, I thank you for Tricer, and I ask that you can use this podcast as a way to bring joy to all of our listeners. We lay Tricer and this podcast at your feet. Amen.
Beach Recording with Brandon Nelson
00:00:25
Speaker
All right, sorry for the wind. We're gonna try and keep our mics from ah catching too much wind right now, but I'm hanging out here with Brandon Nelson from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and we're doing a beach podcast because I'm beach camping this week, and he is the California director of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. He lives here in San Diego, and I figured, Brandon, if we're gonna do it,
00:00:49
Speaker
So Cal Style, let's do it at the beach, dude. Yeah, it's not a bad spot to podcast at all. Thanks for having me on. Not a bad spot to podcast at all.
Archery Shop as Social Hub
00:00:58
Speaker
So I've known Brandon now for probably three years or so. We've seen each other at shows locally. We talked a lot. I think he goes to archery shop as much, if not more than me. I've seen him at the archery shop multiple times. Our local archery shop is kind of like a bar. You just go in there and hang out.
00:01:16
Speaker
You walk in for you know a pack of judo tips and you're there for four hours just talking to everybody in there and all your friends show up, so it's a good time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stop by and talk to those guys quite a bit. um They actually support the organization quite a bit. They've donated a bow and ah you know time and you know targets and all kinds of stuff you know to the organization to fundraise with. and They're a great set of dudes over there, so they they definitely take care of take take care of us as an organization for sure.
Elk Hunting in California
00:01:43
Speaker
And I mean, whether people know it or not, like we hunt elk in California. We have elk in California. We actually have all three species, which no other state could say in California. We've got the the Rockies, the Rosies and the Thule's here in California. We do. We just don't get to hunt as much as everybody else does.
00:02:02
Speaker
Yeah, so that's ah you know currently they they issue about 360-ish draw tags. um And then you have the Private Land tags. You also have the Share Program tags, which Share this year is about 85 tags. PLMs are a little bit different. That's ah that's definitely a pay-to-play situation. But they issue about 280, 290 tags there. So overall, you know we issue about 600 tags a year. um you know We are the only western state without an archery season, so you know as an archery you and I both talk about going to the bow shop. That's one thing we're really working on right now with Fish and Wildlife is trying to get them to allot some archery tags. Just because our success rate is so high with the tags we do issue. yeah you know We're at 60-70% success rate across the state, um which the closest state is Wyoming at 47%. So we're trying to drop that down a little bit, get you know get some archery tags out there, and maybe works through and work through some of these points. you know get lower lower lower the point creep down so we can Lower the point creep down so we can actually get some more you know elk tags for everybody out there.
00:03:11
Speaker
Push it into your mouth. That's fine. You can leave it. There you go. Yeah, it's pretty there. Yeah, you're good There we go, you know, you don't block with your hand. It's good So I were trying to figure out a way to make the wind not sound in So yeah, and then our elk tags are I mean some of these units like the units I put in for I mean, they're like a hundred percent success rate I mean, it's like you're gonna kill an elk if you can control this tag if you don't kill an elk someone went really wrong I know that I have a buddy that I just hunted with in Maui and he's drawn the share tag twice though Yeah, so the share tag is just like a straight lottery ticket. So, you know, you you you you put in the 15 or 20 bucks or whatever it is for the the ticket and you draw it.
Commercialization and Landowner Involvement in Hunting
00:03:50
Speaker
And you draw it and you go on the hunt, you know, all the the the way the share works is the landowner dictates.
00:03:56
Speaker
you know, kind of how you hunt, what days you hunt. They kind of dictate everything. that They will also dictate the the weapon you use, right? So if they don't want you archery hunting, if they're not an archer, they can require, a you know, rifle only and they can actually require calibers, all those things. um And there's no, it doesn't cost any points. It doesn't do anything. ah The money raised from that goes into the big game fund and a portion of that money actually goes into ah paying the landowner and compensating the landowner.
00:04:23
Speaker
So yeah, it's not a bad not a bad program. And that is one thing with our elk herd here is it is is almost a pay to play sport, a rich man sport in California, which does suck. And we're selling tule elk tags now for $50,000 plus.
00:04:41
Speaker
because you get landowner tags somewhere in New Mexico and you could sell those tags. So, and the vast majority, we have some public land Thule elk, you know, and like up in the Bishop area and stuff, Lone Pine area, literally live in the Thule's. But ah the vast majority of these elk are going to be like, kind of like Central California, Coastal,
00:05:04
Speaker
um not, what am I, I don't know what I'm thinking, out like kind of a, Yeah, almost like a plane. The King City king king skiy kind of area, and they're going to be on private land, and you're going to have to basically buy a tag from these owners to go hunt these off.
00:05:19
Speaker
Yeah, so so the lowest elk are actually Tehachapi area, so that's going to be Tejon Ranch. Those are actually going to be Rocky Mountain. ah When it comes to toolies, they're over in Owens Valley, so Bishop area. ah Most of that is actually public land. ah When you go over to the central coast, you're going to go kind of Paso Robles in the north. Paso Robles? That's where we're going to go. Paso Robles. If you cut over Paso all the way across to Bakersfield and go up, that's where all the toolies are at. um From there north, all the way up into you know San Jose, um pretty far north.
00:05:48
Speaker
mid majority of that area is going to be private property um there there are some public there's some public land out there um it's hard to access because there's no necessarily parking or access points but there is some public access out there with elk on it ah so if you were to draw a tag in that area you could go and hunt some of that public land Fortunately or or unfortunately right the private landowner they have ponds they have food they have water You know and so the elk the elk definitely congregate to those places But you know one of the places you can go to to though allows public hunting is Camp Roberts So if you were to draw a tag in that area You do have to take their hunting course and they do charge a fee up a trespass fee um but you actually have a
00:06:28
Speaker
So it's not a guide, but it's like an on-base representative that takes you around the base, because it is an active military base and they don't want people just roaming around the base.
Hunting on Military Bases
00:06:37
Speaker
um So you have an on-base escort, I'll say, because you we if you say a guy, they have to have a guide license, it's just an escort. And they escort you around, so it's just about like having a guide, except for it's an escort, and they escort you around and you look at you know, elk all day and you pick the one you want and there there are some very large elk on Camp Roberts. So if you draw a tule tag in that area, um one of the best units to hunt is actually Fort Hunter Liget, which is slightly north of there. yeah ah Camp Roberts, their first elk hunt was last year. yeah So, yeah I mean, they got some big elk on there.
00:07:08
Speaker
And then the other one we have is Grizzly Island, right? that Is that what it is, Grizzly Island? griy island yep You can draw that tag as well. yep good tag And that's like an August tag. yep Again, one of those units where it's pretty much a guaranteed kill if you get this tag.
00:07:23
Speaker
yep Yeah, so Grizzly Island is probably has one of the like highest populations of elk for us. Grizzly Island's great great hunting. um They issue quite a few tags in Grizzly Island as well. so that you know mean That's kind of awesome if you're hunting tulees. Me personally, i actually I do archery, Fort Hunter Liget, or that Camp Roberts area myself. I don't know much about Grizzly Island. I've i've had a couple of volunteers shoot some bulls in there. um We also release elk into Grizzly Island from from the preserve ah outside of Los Banos there.
00:07:52
Speaker
So you mean there great all of our elk are doing great. you know We're between 15,000 to 18,000 elk across the state of California, which is about the same population as what Nevada has. so and nevada Nevada issues about 4,500 tags a year on their 17,000 elk. And we're only issuing 600.
00:08:12
Speaker
Yeah, I mean you're gonna kill ah you're gonna kill a good bull if you know what you're doing Oh for sure all this tag and I only put in for the Tully hunts and there are we do have some big Roosevelt. We actually had the record book Roosevelt come out of California last year 400 and like 40 something inches Rosie it looks like freaking like a Tree trunks tree trunks coming off this thing split off the top. Yep And the guy is like super quiet about it yeah he is killed it. I saw pictures of it like behind the scenes. Some of these people sent me some pictures. Like, you can't show anybody. But yeah it's a giant buck bowl. And I think it's going to be some of the shows and stuff, but I'm i' not mistaken. I can't remember. yeah i'm i'm i'm sure like At some point, someone's going to pay him enough money to to be able to take it and show it off, right? but
00:08:58
Speaker
um You know like hunting in California is really like underrated right because it people people we we get a bad rap because you know They they have the bear ban a couple years ago But like we have you know some of the best bear hunting, you know while it's harder because we can't bait or run dogs um We have huge bulls, you know tone ranch is world-renowned for shooting 400 inch bulls on their property and and they they have 15 tags a year. They shoot 10 bulls out of there a year that are on average are 400 plus inches. Again, that's a
Cost and Accessibility of Hunting Tags
00:09:30
Speaker
rich man sport though. That's like a $25,000 plus tag, right? tha So tags 60, 65 grand just for the tag to hunt it. And then ah you know guide and tip and all that stuff. I think a guy last year shot a 436 inch bull. I think out the door it ended up costing about 80 grand.
00:09:48
Speaker
so And if you could afford it, like I'm not going to knock it for me. Even if I could afford it, I'm not going to do it. Because I just would have more enjoyment drawing that tag and getting out there and finding one on public land. yeah Now they have tools on that property of Rockies. It's all Rockies. they're rock it's actually it was a It was actually a population of Rockies that were brought in from from Wyoming as a private herd.
00:10:09
Speaker
um There was a fire they let them go and they have since you know grown to where they're actually off the ranch now So 220,000 acres they're not on the ranch. They're actually also in Tehachapi, which is a public draw tag now So you can draw a tag the problem is that unit is 90 95% you know Private property, so you're paying a trespass fee But they're actually making it all the way over to like Lake Isabel. So there there's There's some really big Rockies running around down there. There's there's some private land, BLM um you can get to. But in terms of the toolies, it's mainly the Owens Valley, which they always kill big bulls out there. um And then obviously the the central coast over there. and you know It's pretty checkered, so it's it's hard to find that public land. But the military bases are a good way to get on um and and shoot some bulls and and get that opportunity, as well as all those bases have pigs and other things. So if you're up there,
00:11:01
Speaker
you know, grab that pig validation for 2025. We have that new validation where you just have to buy, yeah buy it once and you can go shoot a bunch of pigs. And yeah, so it's not too bad. Yeah, man, I put in for it every year. I think I got like 12 points now in California for L. Can I put in every year? I have one tag that I put in for, I'm not gonna mention it, but theres it's a random, even with points, you just take points, but it's a tag that if you put in for it, because it's only one tag, if there's only one tag, it'll be a random. No matter what, there's always a random, and these aren't in our draws. yep So i kind of look I kind of play the game a little differently for that, just because it's a long game to draw a tag here. yeah you could I could draw a Roosevelt tag,
00:11:38
Speaker
which would you be fun. um I really want that tool of elk because eventually i I mean I'm not like a big like slam guy but living here in California I kind of want to kill the kill the Rosie. Yeah and and i my experience with the elk too has always been like I don't really hunt pigs that much anymore but when I used to hunt pigs up there like passing roadways I would see the elk on their properties right so like they do pig hunts year-round and then they run elk right now like my buddy who I was just over in Hawaii with conservative game management shout out. ah He's got 15,000 acres that his family owns and I think he has a total like 60,000 acres and they've got a ton of elk and they're wearing those hunts right now and they're selling out like two years in advance for those hunts because everybody wants to come here and get that tule man and and come out of here and get their you know a lot of guys want to do it with doing archery too and get that archery because they want to get their you know Grand Slam archery and so they're doing it it's people are doing it man. Yeah, Chase chase sells them out every year. yeah mean i've I've talked to him about it and you know he and I have actually talked a lot about elk counts and things like that on his property just because ah you know the way the elk tag situation works is we have to have accurate counts. um So that's one thing we've we've really been working on is trying to figure out how to work with Fish and Game and get them to actually accept counts and actually increase
00:12:49
Speaker
you know the number of elk on the landscape. you know because once we once we get Once we actually have an ah accurate count of elk, we can actually figure out you know how many tags to issue or we can issue more tags. um you know the The elk management plan It was a 10 year plan started in 2018. It goes to 2028. So once 2028 hits, they're going to have to redo the plan again. Once they redo that plan, you know, one thing that like we're really working on with Fish and Game as ah as an organization is getting them to actually get better counts and more accurate
Predator Management Challenges
00:13:19
Speaker
counts. um Kind of like the bears, right? You know, they said, oh, there's 25 to 30,000 bears. When they do the counts, it's like there's 60 to 80,000 bears now.
00:13:26
Speaker
Yeah there's bears everywhere. I'm gonna hunt bears this year probably Thanksgiving time. I'm gonna go up north and hunt bears because we have great bear hunting and I'm gonna go out there and just go spot-in-stock bear hunt and have a good time and when we get we get bad rap for hunting over here but the the bears are awesome. I mean our deer are small. I mean not gonna lie that we have small have small deer. They're not full-size mule deer like we have you know across you know even our best units You know, you should have 160, you're pretty still at .8. You're not gonna shoot 200 bucks in California. no We do have bears everywhere. It'd be fun to go do those guys for sure. Yeah, yeah and the nice thing, like and that's the thing, so for us is, you know, now that they're counting the bears, now we know how many bears there are, right? and
00:14:07
Speaker
You know, that's the next thing with elk is when they redo this plant, we want to recount the elk because we probably have the highest calving rate and the highest, you know, ah survivability rate out of any state because we don't have harsh winters, especially on the toolies, right? The toolies are they're almost, you know, they're out in the wide open. They don't have a lot of predators um up north. We know we're starting to get some wolves into California for now, dude, because we are are they are going to be busing those wolves in when they get the chance.
00:14:34
Speaker
Yeah well the well the interesting thing is we already have, there's already ah an understanding from Fish and Game and they've they've admitted that we have multiple packs in Northern California. yeah um so No, obviously as they move down, um i don't think there needs to be ah I don't think there'll be a push to reintroduce them, right? Because they're already introduced, they're already here. um you know with With the packs already expanding so much in Idaho and Oregon and all these other states and even Nevada, they're coming down into California no matter what. So at some point we'll have them. you know Unfortunately, as of right now, there's no management plan because they are protected. There will never be a management plan in California for wolves.
00:15:13
Speaker
yeah so never so it'll be it'll it'll be a tough one you know it kind of like trying to trying to reverse ah prop 117 with the mountain lions right like that's uh that's going to be nearly impossible but uh you know at some point obviously we have a mountain lion problem right so hopefully hopefully that'll eventually come up at some point, um you know, unfortunately or unfortunately the current governor, his father's the one that put that in place. So he would veto anything that came up. So, you know, I don't i don't know when he's up for reelection, but whenever that changes, you know, that hopefully the next person doesn't have the same ah the same hold on ah mountain lions as he does.
00:15:46
Speaker
and maybe we could try and revisit that. and you know People you know very much like CRWM right now in Colorado, right is you know we actually have to educate people in the right way. right and and I was kind of talking to someone the other day about this. is you know As hunters, we've got to come together on any any and every hunting we can, whether we hunt them or not.
00:16:08
Speaker
You know, cause we, we, oh, well I'm just a, you know, I'm a bird hunter or I'm an elk hunter and I don't care about birds or or whatever. I don't hunt predators. The thing is the predators are going to take all the hunting away for us. You know, if they're not managed and, and this, these other organizations that get money from everywhere.
00:16:25
Speaker
for anything. you know Like, oh, save this, save this animal, save that animal. And they lie and they don't tell the truth about it. But in reality, none of them are doing conservation work like what we do. you know we've We've put you know over a billion dollars on the landscape, conserving elk and habitat and other wildlife across the country. We've reintroduced elk into Kentucky and Virginia. you know we're We're constantly actually doing conservation work for wildlife.
00:16:49
Speaker
you know and the predators benefit as well. you know When we put in guzzlers and things like that, all all of the wildlife are benefiting from what we do. We've got to we got to we gotta to work on that. We've got to work on managing mountain lions and bobcats. and I think next year bobcats are actually up for review to re-hunt them again hopefully here in California. so We'll see how that goes. I don't have my hopes for that. I can tell you that when they had that freaking, I don't know, I don't want to like turn this into Rocky Mountain Hour Foundation, like Bash and Politics podcast. I know you guys got to work with these guys, but when I had that freaking libtards, they we went up there and they were like, these are biologists. Like these are the paid state biologists. And they're saying, I've never seen ah a bobcat in the wild.
00:17:34
Speaker
Dude, I saw six on one hunt last year, like in San Diego. There are so many bobcats. Mountain lions, I see more lions than I see deer on my game cameras now in San Diego. It's like, it's yeah no joke, like one lion from a square mile. Like if you got to run dogs here, you houndsmen would just have a heyday.
00:17:53
Speaker
California because there are so many lines and we're still killing 600 of them a year because now we're having all kinds of attacks They're going into neighborhoods I mean like we're seeing them in like like you know how you guys see coyotes where you guys live like in your neighborhoods We're seeing lines or neighborhoods all the time now. It's a common thing like freaking in LA in Hollywood Lions because there's so many of them getting pushed out We have to have too many lines are not getting managed and I was talking my daughter by the Saturday and she's like what why would you shoot that and um i was gonna kill um There's a raccoon that's been eating my chickens and I'm going to kill this raccoon. And she's like, well, you're not going to eat him though. And I'm like, yeah, but he's killing my chickens. You have to manage. You can't just like not manage certain animals and manage other animals. You can't go and build houses across all of California.
00:18:39
Speaker
hunt the deer, hunt the elk and then not hunt the predators because ye you have to it's an ecosystem. You have to manage the ecosystem, not just species. But again, we live in a state and you're seeing it, I mean, across the country, you're seeing Colorado repeat it right now. And my my biggest warning to everybody is once you lose it, you're probably not getting it back. yep Like once you lose lion hunting, they're probably not going to come back and vote to bring it back in.
00:19:00
Speaker
No. yeah that And that's the hardest the hardest thing is to switch that back. right it's Same thing with us. 1990 Prop 117. They lied and said the mountain lions were endangered. right But they're the only predator that spans all of North and South America. right like They're not endangered, but in California they are.
00:19:20
Speaker
you know So so that's that's ah that's a big issue we have, and then same thing with you know Colorado, they're talking about trophy hunting. what I saw a fun fact today from Howell in CRWM that posted that trophy hunting is already banned in Colorado. yeah It's kind of like bears, right? People are like, oh, you just shoot the bear and leave it there. That's trophy
Hunting Laws and Conservation Misunderstandings
00:19:39
Speaker
hunting. It's like, no, actually in the state of California, you actually have to take the meat.
00:19:43
Speaker
like you you So there's waste, not want, not laws in in a lot of these states. ah you know and And I'm i'm guessing you know most of the listeners, they already know these things, but it's the other side. It's when we talk to the other people, when we talk to these people that are out getting signatures, like, hey, did you know you know that like mountain lions aren't endangered? you know Trophy hunting isn't isn't legal anyway. You can't just shoot something to leave it. Mountain lion tastes great. you know Wolf tastes great. you know like all A lot of these animals that you know we're wanting to hunt in predators, you can eat them.
00:20:11
Speaker
You can cook them up and eat them. It's not a problem. and yeah so yeah More people need to get involved and make sure that they you know step up on these things. and same thing so The one with the bobcat thing, you know they got it stopped because there wasn't a management plan in place. you know and It's the same thing with the bears. He said there was no management plan in place, but luckily Fish and Game had been working on one. so Now the new bear management plan is coming back.
00:20:35
Speaker
i mean i think there already The new plan is going into place I think for next year of like revamping the hunting seasons and all of that. And so, you know, get, if you're a hunter, you need to get on those calls and make your voice heard because, I mean, there will be 300 people opposing any bear hunting at all on there.
00:20:57
Speaker
while whilelife Fortunately right now, our our Wildlife Game Commission has been pretty on the spot with listening and trusting you know fish and game and the biologists' recommendations on things.
00:21:10
Speaker
um You know, when it comes to the bobcats, you know, that's one thing that I hope fishing game over the last couple years since we lost bobcat hunting is coming back. Luckily, they had kind of squeaked in the backside that it would be up for review in 25. So, you know. Now what did it affect, I think, in 21, right? 21? Yeah, 20. Is that a four or five year deal?
00:21:30
Speaker
I think so, yeah. So, you know, as long as, you know, they're doing their due diligence, fish and game, and they have a plan in place, bobcat hunting will come back. Granted, I don't know necessarily how you count bobcats. You know, I know on the bears they did hair snares and things like that, so I don't know if they do the same thing for bobcat hunting. um Dude, it's it's just that they look cute.
00:21:51
Speaker
It's like they want to ban hunting across the board. They want to ban deer. They want to ban elk about it. Everything in California. California Foody Wants is a non-touch ecosystem. I don't know if you went right. We have very little guzzlers. We don't have drinking ponds. We don't do anything to like... They just want nature to take its course.
00:22:11
Speaker
But they also want to build vast expanses of freaking solar panels and windmills and all this other freaking stupid stuff that's hammering the habitat. We can't do anything to help animals because we want them to just be natural. We want to have wolves here and bears and they want basically us to be Yellowstone, yeah but with all the housing here.
00:22:32
Speaker
And it's not sustainable. and with the like And when it comes to cats and it comes to bears, it comes to dogs, because they want to be on coyote hunting too. They look like your animals you have at home and they're cute and everyone will get behind it. Why do you gotta kill that? why is this yeah It's it's crap, man. And they're gonna they're going to, I don't want, they wanted to be on dove hunting.
00:22:58
Speaker
yeah so i think it's like so Someone said this to me a long time ago, and i and i I didn't think about it this way, but somebody said, well, you know, if you go after the predators that people think are cute and cuddly because of Disney, right? Once the predator population gets so large that it decimates the elk and the deer and all the underlets, right? Once it decimates their populations, they'll be so low that you can't hunt them. Because if if someone came out right now and said, no more hunting elk,
00:23:24
Speaker
there'd be an outcry across the country, right? people Every single hunter would be like, well, the only place to hunt Thule's is California, right? So people would lose their minds, right? But here's the thing, if there's only 300 Thule's left in the world, they're not gonna let people hunt them.
00:23:41
Speaker
Right? yeah and And to do that, you let the predator you let the predators go out of control, and then now all of a sudden, now that the predators are out of control, they're eating so many elk, the 300 Thule's are gonna, they're not gonna live very long if there's lions, you know, and wolves and all this stuff, just decimating the herds. So someone said that to me a long time ago, and I was i was like, you know, i never I never really thought about it that way, because if you let the predators go unmanaged,
00:24:05
Speaker
And they will just consume until there's nothing left to consume. And then they starve and die. You know, that's happening now in Yellowstone, right? The wolf packs are, you know, dwindling and they're starving because there's not enough elk anymore. So, you know, that is one thing that you know people really need to get.
00:24:21
Speaker
you know, get, if it makes it to the ballot, you need to go vote and get, handle that like in in Colorado right now. In California, you need to be writing, you know, you need to get on HAL and take those actions and, you know, it send emails to Fish and Game demanding that they get a Bobcat management plan in place, because then at least we can have Bobcats and Coyotes at a minimum, right? And then from there, you know, we can also hunt bears, buy a bear tag, go out there, you see one, shoot one, you know, um Unfortunately, in California, you can't donate meat, but you know i'm I'm sure there's plenty of people that would take some bear meat. you know I'll take it if you shoot it, and you don't want it. um But yeah, so you know I think that you know predator management's huge. Here in California, we have so many bears, and looking forward to the new bear management plan to see how that comes out. And you know hopefully, they bring dog if they bring dogs back, I already am planning on becoming a houndsman. Dude, they're never going to bring dogs back, but if they brought dogs back, I would be a husband too. like i I would have kennels and do it because I just went and ran pigs with dogs.
00:25:25
Speaker
I never want to hunt pigs with a bow or a rifle ever again. It was so fun. It was so fun. Oh my gosh. I thought like for sure, like I was like, I don't know if I want to do it, you know, stabbing a pig and throwing. That really my thing. Oh dude, when you're like, when it goes off, the dogs are going and they're banging and the pigs are screaming. I'm going to put a video together for everyone.
00:25:46
Speaker
To watch it just that part people it's probably it's gonna definitely it's without a doubt is gonna get banned like without a doubt Which I'm fine with like I've been trying to get cancelled since 2020 like I don't care um But dude like you run in there and there's freaking dogs fighting where there's like multiple pigs there's piglets flying out of the bushes there's pigs trying to bite you and the dogs are on them and you're grabbing them and you're freaking stabbing the throat Oh man, I know this is not a good advertisement for Boundsman in bear hunting. But I'll tell you what, man, guys, the first time they were running dogs, I never got to run lions or anything. We can't do any of that in California. I definitely want to go run lions up in Montana. I have some friends that run dogs. I want to go run lions with them and do it. It's just like a whole nother form of hunting that it was really enjoyable. Obviously lions are getting tackled by the dog and barely any time they're getting treed. But man, it was just cool to see those dogs do
00:26:37
Speaker
like once they once like they have like tree and dogs and like tackle dogs yeah know like once it turned on those dogs were having the time of their lives oh yeah it was just to see them like they were like this is what i want to do yep yeah work When you watch a working dog work, it's awesome. yeah and and And the other thing, you know like pig pigs and pig hunting that that way is very different. um When it comes to, like you said, bears and mountain lions, you tree them. And and like what a lot of people don't realize is actually you tree the animal, and then you can identify their gender. You can identify if they're big enough. you Whereas right now, yeah a lot of guys
Hunting Styles Across the U.S.
00:27:14
Speaker
don't even shoot them. Yeah, a lot of guys just tree them, like, ah, that's, that you know, it's not it's not mature enough. It's not this, it's not that. Like, let's let that lion go out, or that bear go out and, you know, increase the population. So so the thing with treeing and baiting, what what a lot of the other side doesn't realize, is it's actually an identification. Whereas now, you go out in California, since it's spot in stock, a lot of people are out there walking, and it's it's an opportunity tag. they The first bear they see, they just shoot it.
00:27:42
Speaker
It might only be a hundred pounds while we have 500-pound bears running around. You know, they don't see that 500-pound bear because those ones are smart. They've been around the block for a while. They know what hunters look like, you know? And so, you know, the the the method of of treeing a bear, treeing a lion,
00:27:58
Speaker
and or and or baiting is so it's up for identification so you know you're taking out a an older male bear instead of taking out a female or you know taking out a you know a two-year-old cub that's only a hundred pounds or 75 pounds so a lot of people don't realize that it's actually better to have those methods whether it's baiting and or treating so Yeah, yeah, I don't just terminate against anybody man like if you ah if that's how you hunt them and like they did that in Hawaii I wanted to experience and do it and like they had time of their life doing it then it was like the most like It's almost like get into a fistfight with your buddies Like it was like we come out here like yeah high five because like you just went into like I don't want to say in the war but like you go into like you're going into a ditch and this pig trying to get you it's pretty cool yeah, like I just spent like ah three weekends in Texas and
00:28:49
Speaker
they hunt so different like it's almost like you look at it and you're like how is this even like you're driving in trucks and you're shooting deer and you have bait feeders and all the stuff and these blinds and I want to understand that more because they, they love hunting just as much as anyone else. So I'm actually going to go out there and spend a week with some of those guys. I've met a guy as a ranch, divided me out to the ranch in December to come out and just understand that's how hunting, cause it's still hunting. It's still a camaraderie. It's still being with your family. It's still doing it. It's much different than how I would like, what I like to do, right? Like what I like to do is be miserable and get rained on and not kill things. What they like to do is
00:29:30
Speaker
kill animals I mean they're 100% I mean I actually had a guy on who runs a high fence and had fun with the process and it's a 365 job to do that oh yeah to get that thing done it's not like you know it's not like farm animals but it's definitely there's a process to getting it and getting the right animals genetics and doing it like they know they love their animals and yeah it's hard to knock that you know Yeah, and you know, it's funny, as in Texas, I saw a fact of the other day, the most white-tailed deer in the in the country is killed in Texas. Oh, I'm sure. You know, and and the thing is is, you know, a lot of people don't realize that, you know, white-tailed deer will clear out, like, a football field size of corn in a night. like
00:30:10
Speaker
they They are eating machines, you know, they they they eat and they breed and they repeat, you know, and that's what they do. And if you if if you don't manage them, they will be out of control. So, um you know, the way they hunt in Texas, you know, with baiting also, you're managing the herd, right? You're looking at, oh, that's that's a younger buck. He's going to grow up and you know potentially be, you know,
00:30:34
Speaker
you know, going to make all of the deer better. You know, oh, there's a coal buck. It has weird antlers or it has bad genetics. They take it, they take, they're removing those ones out because they can. They may never have saw that if they didn't bait. yeah hundred You know, so, you know, a lot of those operations, they they have it really down and they know what they're doing and and they they make things happen. So, you know, and You know, we we as an organization aren't huge on high fence, but you know, those guys, they have a place, right? And people, you know, they kind of like here in California, they, I know they just got rid of it, but, you know, like people with, you know, disabilities and, you know, mobility impaired people can go, you know, go to those places and they get to hunt and stuff. Whereas, you know, going in the backcountry, like you and I have talked about, that's hard, you know, it's it's hard. It sucks. You're going out there, you're hiking miles and getting rained on, you know, and and you get out there and you do some of those things. and
00:31:26
Speaker
It's awesome, but you know there's a place for
Tricer's Gear and Product Design
00:31:28
Speaker
everybody. you mean There's a place for all the hunting. so and That's one thing I really appreciate about Tricer is like I'm going to travel a little more. and like I'm actually building tripods specific for Texas now. yeah like It's called the Tricer HK. It's coming out. It'll be out of prototypes in December, but it's freaking bad at the bow.
00:31:44
Speaker
i'm not you know Let's put it this way, I don't want to mention the company's name. but There's another company out there that makes some hunting tripods that are really heavy, and they're like the king of Texas, and you're about to get jacked up by some really nice Western-style shooting tripods. I tell you what, I was in Texas, and we didn't sell them nowhere near what I wanted to sell, because they were like, put your binoculars on a tripod? What? why What do you mean, put your binoculars on a tripod? What?
00:32:13
Speaker
I put my gun on a tripod. Yeah, they good they only use a tripod board so you can apply it with a gun on it. Like, why would I do that, you know? yeah That's my worst Texas accent, too. Like, I had a blast on there. Like, I have some good friends down there. I'm going to be going back, again, like I said, in December to hunt with them. yeah But like, they just, it's a whole other style of hunting, right? And like, I want to understand how they hunt on the East Coast as well. I'm like, it's kind of like, how can I facilitate and make things to make them better hunters? Yep. Because I respect how they do it. They've been doing it for hundreds of years.
00:32:43
Speaker
if you want to support them. Yeah, even Midwest, right? Like a lot of tree stand, you know, that's where I got my start hunting was actually out in Kansas shooting whitetails out of a tree stand. You know, it was more of like a, almost like a, you know, like a hut in a tree. They literally cut the trees, build a wooden box, you know, and, but yeah, you sit there and you got a heater inside and you wait for the deer to walk out and they walk out and they go, there's one, all right, you know.
00:33:10
Speaker
So, you know, everybody has their different hunting and, you know, the the west is, you know, light and fast, right? That's what that's what you're looking for. You mean the Tricer AD, and I have one of those myself. and my My company motto is fast, light, simple. Yeah, exactly. And back there, they're like exorbitant, fancy, bougie. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And it's cool. Well, when you put an expensive gun on there, right, you don't want it to fall off, you know? like oh So yeah, but you know I think that you know there's a place for for all the hunting, right? And we we we as hunters need to come together and you know support each other. even Hey, if you're not gonna go ever hunt a high fence or you're never gonna hunt to hone, that's fine. But hey, the people that are allowed to, let them let them hunt it. But you know the other, I would say, the anti-hunting side, they band together over anything and everything. you know we And we as hunters just need to need to do the same thing. Hey, if you're a hunter, you're a hunter. You're a bird hunter, awesome. Glad glad you're shooting birds. Hey, you're a waterfowl hunter, that's great. I mean they're trying to ban dogs at all for hunting, for birds too. I mean I've heard that one come out in a couple of years, like you want to ban like your lab, you're torturing your lab by taking him out to go do what he was bred to do. yep But if you leave him on it, you know, let him lay around your house and that's not torturing him, you know, it's craziness. But yeah man, I support wherever I can. I think a lot of guys too, like
00:34:26
Speaker
Even though I say like though like the private stuff isn't really my game, I still support it. A lot of guys who knock it, like oh because you can't afford it. I'm telling you right now, like if someone was like, hey Drew, I've got 40,000 acres of private land in Colorado, you want to come hunt it?
00:34:43
Speaker
all day long. i' going there I'm going to Colorado next week to public land. Gonna spend 10 to 14 days over there chasing elk. Probably not killing elk because it's a 7% success rate. And I'll guarantee you when I'm looking at those elk on that private ranch we'll be hunting next to, looking into, I'm sure there are a few of my pins.
00:35:02
Speaker
I would probably give my left nut to get on that Ranch of Killin' Elk on day eight when I'm just freaking miserable and wish I could get down there. So don't knock it. If people have the money to do it, do it. That money goes back into hunting. We need to do it. Yeah, it does. And that's the thing. I go knock on doors for turkey. I hunt private land for turkey.
00:35:22
Speaker
Fortunately, I have a landowner knocked on the door, you know, buddy and I, and we, hey, can we, you know, would you mind if I went to the turkeys? No, no problem. You can actually hunt on the back back of the property. We hunt for turkeys every year and we kill, we killed you know, this year we killed five birds on there over like really five three, four days. Birds everywhere. It's great.
00:35:40
Speaker
um I actually you know don't hunt in San Diego for turkeys because it's like, if you're hunting public land, it's like probably hard to kill turkeys in an elk. Oh, for sure, yeah. It's so hard. It's so hard. I'm running up north. it You can do it. Yeah. So I am hunting probably up north. OK. Yeah, much better. I did hunt ah up in Julian this year. A private landowner knocked on his door. This is a third year hunting at Nice Auto Bird this year um with my bow at like 60. It was the last day of the season for me, and you know I got ah got lucky. um But yeah, so, I mean, I prefer up north just because, you know, the amount of turkeys, but, you know, it's a lot of people, too, and ah it's very common, I would say, in the Midwest and on the east ah to knock on doors and ask for
Private Land Hunting Permissions
00:36:23
Speaker
permission. In the west, it's a little it's a little bit more taboo, but, I mean, I'll go knock on people. Hey, can I go shoot, you know, would you mind if I hunt, you know, for that deer or that turkey or, you know, not elk quite yet? but
00:36:33
Speaker
I'll go ask people if I can hunt on their property and you know a lot of times I get a no more often than not but hey every now and then yeah if you get that yes you're lucky you know you can hunt them. In my mind the springtime for me is for hunting like predators. I love hunting coyotes ye and then all of a sudden we start eating bears this year as well in the spring. yep um Do you think what you're saying is theyre doing the the bear plants up for up for Wednesday going until coming up again?
00:37:00
Speaker
ah so so they So the new rules, um so the bear like the bare number is out, so they're talking about it through this cycle into next year. So are we talking about spring bear hunting?
00:37:12
Speaker
So, so on the docket is spring bear. Oh, god it wouldn't be for next year. It'd be for so it's 2425. They're talking about it. So it would, the regulation would be like next June would be the finalized new bear plan going into 2526. So spring bears on the docket, they talked about spring bear, they've talked about Do in multiple zones, so they're gonna actually do zones throughout California instead of it being a statewide thing So there's zones and then certain zones because of the the population density ah They're gonna issue like multiple tags so you can get two tags instead of one um And then people have talked about you know baiting and dogs is on it's on the list obviously we got to see how that that works out I don't i don't remember how Dogs got taken away if it was like a if it was a game commission thing or if it was a I don't think it was a vote
00:38:02
Speaker
um But all of that is is going to be talked about through this next, you know um like cycle of of um Potentially in 2026 I could spring bear hunt. Yes, man. That'll be so I If they did that, I would be shocked. yep But man, that would be so cool to have a spring bear season in California. I know they just took spring bear away in Oregon. They did. So yeah I don't know that we're going to do that. I mean, we're we really don't lead in any kind of thing like that. But if yeah yeah, we got spring bear here. That would be just rad, man.
00:38:35
Speaker
Yeah, you know, it's it's interesting because like the the Game Commission, fortunately, really is following what the biologists at Fish and Wildlife say. So as long as everyone at Fish and Wildlife is on board with that and they think that that's the best method of management, um I don't see the Game Commission voting the opposite direction.
00:38:57
Speaker
Gotcha. um you know So that's that's one thing I'm i'm really i'm optimistic about you know to see what they come up with on this this new plan. um yeah hope you know If we get Spring Bear, it's going to be it's goingnna be crazy in California.
00:39:11
Speaker
It would be such a good hunt. Oh, it would be. It'd be so crazy. It'd be such a good hunt. That would be the time to hunt those dang things. Oh my god, yeah. And we have so many bears here. Fall, it's tough hunt, I'll be honest, but they bring back spring. Oh my god, the bears are out roaming around, especially in the Sierras. They actually are coming out of hibernation. Yeah, after you're getting hibernated, you have the snow. The Sierras are the most beautiful place to hunt.
00:39:37
Speaker
I've been to. They're phenomenal. Deer populations are low. Bear populations drs are actually low on the eastern side, which is that side I like. But, it man, that'd be really cool. They're not low on the campgrounds in Mammoth, though. They're not low on the campgrounds in Mammoth, yeah. If you can get around the campgrounds, some of those campgrounds, you are going to get some bears. Yep. If you can, you can play that game. You can get in there and play that game from Tahoe, too. There's a sponsor you can get her around the campgrounds and kind of get above them and do it. yeah Just watch what you do. and Yeah, make sure you got Honex out and you're like, where's the line? You're a little sneaky about it because you get some freaking granola eater walking through and you're out there skinning a bear up. Oh my gosh, you're going to be on every Facebook group in the world, but I don't care. Honestly, like I said, I've been trying to get canceled for last five years and they still haven't canceled me yet. Yeah, I shot a bear in San Gabriel Mountains, right outside LA. I packed that thing down. There was mixed reviews on the way down, let me tell you. I had one woman yelling at me, telling me not to shoot anymore bears. I had one guy yelling at me, and then everyone else just wanted to take a picture. Like, can I just take a photo with your bear? It was on my back, you know, and they're like taking a selfie with the bear in my pack. That's awesome.
00:40:47
Speaker
so you know and Also, when when I when i you know pack out, you know I generally talk to people. I'm like, hey, like yeah like there's a ton of bears. They're they're not in danger. they're They taste great. I'm going to eat the bear. And then they're like, really? I didn't i didn't know you could do that. People are so naive in California to it. like like I go to a, I guess you call it a mega church, we have 3,000 members of our church, right? And like I am the hunter.
00:41:12
Speaker
like it's like It's like that. but There's a few guys that have gotten into hunting there, but like like I am the hunter. like it's not It's so taboo to hunt here. like There's really spots in San Diego like where I drive on the freeway, I see deer every day, and people have never seen a deer in San Diego, ever. There's no one they're looking for. There's deer everywhere. They're just so naive. They're like, oh my gosh, there's deer here? Oh my gosh, there's bears here. Same guys who just stand on their brakes, and they see a doe on the side of the road, causing traffic jams and stuff. ye um They just don't know.
00:41:39
Speaker
Yeah, you know, there's,
Youth Hunting Involvement Decline
00:41:41
Speaker
and and I think that that's a, you know, um I would say that's very indicative in our license sales, right? Is ah so over the last like 10 years, our youth hunting licenses in California have gone down by about 5,000 licenses. And I think that lends itself to the amount of adults that are not teaching their kids to hunt. Yeah. Right? And I would say through COVID, we've had a ah lot a significant amount of adult onset hunters, right? So the the adult licenses... Which I'm hoping kind of go... I mean, I know I shouldn't hope this, but I hope they kind of go down so to get my freaking points back, dude. I'm just like crazy. Yeah. Well, it and the thing is, you know, for me, you know, adult onset hunters, hey, the more hunters we have in the landscape, great. I'll be honest, I think you and I both are of the, you know, we hike far enough that most people don't ah aren't hiking back where we're going.
00:42:27
Speaker
um You know, but i I really think that a lot of people, you know, in California are just so distant from their food. You know, when I tell people, like, the only thing in my freezer is wild gay meat. They're like, no way. Really? yeah I'm like, yeah, here. and And it's funny as I, I'll give people, you know, I make little one pound.
00:42:47
Speaker
like deer grind and I'll give it to people all the time. You know, my kid plays basketball, I give it to like people just like, hey, would you be interested in this? I'll give them some deer, you know, give them some antelope, you know? And I'm like, here, try this, try this, you know? And yeah and the people that are willing to try it, they're like, oh, you know, and I've gotten quite a few people into, you know, trying to hunt and take them out and, you know, I'll take them out two or three times and and after that they can go out on their own. If they do. i've only I only have like one or two guys. Actually, I can say I only have one guy really that I've gotten into hunting who Well, I fought them all those too. There's a few. Most guys, they want to take you want to take you to their spot so they kill an animal.
00:43:22
Speaker
but they don't want to learn how to hunt, right? So like, I have friends who can really have sex, like, take me hunting. I'm like, no, I'm not taking hunting. Why not? I'm like, cause I don't want, I worked too hard to have you shoot my deer. Like yeah in San Diego, the city success rate's like 6%. Like killing a deer here is pretty hard. And you know, like I don't want to take you to kill my deer yeah or take my kids. On the kids point too, one thing that kind of sucks about California, I know we're I'm bashing California a lot, but whatever we're talking, we're good um they freaking cut the youth on the 15 yeah youth hunters cut off a 15 not 18 here so that sucks man like they should give us these opportunities up until 18 so like man i should just like we should get tricer so big that actually have like a big influence and i could go like run i thought it was 17 did they just change it 15 dude so your point you only get up to three points for your draw after that three bonus points you're out of the youth draws
00:44:16
Speaker
So 15 or 16 you're out. So 15 is the cutoff. So basically starting at 12. So you can build, you can start building points. You can basically only at three points is max points for kids for youth hunts. Oh my goodness. So talk with RMEF, like get in there and talk about that. And you want to get more kids hunting. Like why is it only 15? Actually, you should have, I should freaking tell me when you want to, I should go fly up there and deal with them. I have the time to do it now. So low hanging fruit, that's one thing with the archery tags. One thing that we had talked about is the lack of youth deer tags, lack of youth elk tags. There are zero youth sheep tags. Those are some hard hunts. So we're talking about, hey guys, let's look at opening up more deer youth stuff, being that we're down so many licenses. They had to buy an adult license at 16.
00:45:01
Speaker
Yeah, which is crazy. This is the only thing I've heard of that have to do that. You have to buy an adult license for your kid at 16. Now, my kids have lifetime licenses. But at the same time, it's like, that's jacked up. That's expensive. That's hard. like They're having to go to the adult draw. But if you look at a state like Utah, where like my kid's hunting, I can't say it, you're hunting a really good unit this year. It takes six, seven points for me to draw. It takes him one. Yep. That's going to get kids in the field. 100%. No offense, California. But dude.
00:45:32
Speaker
I've got five kids, four boys. When they're 13, 14 years old, they are terrible shots. I mean, they're they're killing animals, but like. They're still learning, you know what I mean? Just get them to 18. You can hunt up to 18 other states. You can buy your license, you can hunt your youth tag like your last year's 18. That's low hanging fruit that you want to see more kids hunting. Why shut them down at 15 from these doe tags and these good old buck tags and these good hunts out there?
00:46:02
Speaker
Yeah, and that's, you know, I will say that is one thing we're working on, you know, and that's something that just just came up recently when I was doing some licenses and I'd heard another podcast, they talked about how, you know, the number of hunters is up so high um compared to, you know, 10 years ago, which it's in California. It's going down. It's going down. Since COVID, like if you look at our, so this is just, maybe it's just California in general, but like it doesn't really transfer into all the states. If you go and go hunt and you look at number of applications in 2020, it's going down from now, like steeply.
00:46:32
Speaker
Yep. Oh, yeah. they These guys freaking locked us up so bad. It was so stupid. You couldn't walk into a 7-Eleven without a mask on without someone flipping out on you. Yep. Yeah. I like what Rogan says, like the masks are like the left's MAGA hat. You know, like you still see people driving around in their freaking Priuses with masks down here, these freaking morons. But like they show us something that everyone wants to hunt, like bow sails through the roof, gun sails through the roof. And now it's all come back around. Everyone's kind of like, oh, that's really hard. Yeah. yeah well Especially if you go out in San Diego and try and hunt, you're like, oh wow, this is like impossible. yeahp Adult onset, unless you have someone mentoring you, like it's really hard to figure this out. It is.
00:47:09
Speaker
you know um Yeah, but that's one thing, you know, I noticed recently is actually, so overall adult licenses are about the same as they were 10 years ago. um But youth licenses are down over 5,000 youth licenses. And part of that is opportunity, right? and because There's more opportunity. sixteen knows wi and high I didn't even know that. yeah um but now like but all you mean I will say before your child turns 10, at the age of nine, buy them a lifetime license. It's worth the investment, especially at 15. It's like 679 bucks. but
00:47:40
Speaker
So we're we're working on trying to talk to Fish and Game about making you know more deer more dear opportunities for youth, more elk opportunities for youth, especially in some of these conflict zones. you know We have four conflict zones and there are three conflict zones in the state where there's an abundance of elk and human elk conflict.
00:47:58
Speaker
issue 20 youth tags for each one of those. I mean, that'd be 60 extra tags just for kids, right? And and now all of a sudden, more kids are like, oh, I wanna go shoot an elk, like, let's go. Dude, oh people don't even know what elk looks like in California. They'd be stoked. But dude, I'll tell you right now, I have five kids.
00:48:18
Speaker
When you guys go, like, if you want me to come up and speak, do something, I'll fly up there and speak. Like, I'll go up there and sack, I've been to sack a bunch of times for my old company, I've done, I've done, like, the capital now with all the congressmen and all that stuff. yeah Like, if there's a commission you guys want me to fly up to, I'll definitely fly up there and do it, because I think that thing right there, like,
00:48:34
Speaker
I don't know i'm going to fire up about it right now but like that's it we should change we should change youth hunters should be and i don't know who i got talked about that but like it should be eighteen years old she got to run um god we had to give them insurance so they're twenty six but they can't hunt deer at sixteen yeah you know it's ah now that i know that you mean actually when we get off this podcast here in about eleven minutes i actually have a a wild game commission meeting with Fish and Wildlife. It's a four hour meeting. It starts at one o'clock today. and you know We're talking about you know various things within you know Fish and Wildlife. but you know that i Now that the age is so crazy, you know the it's really interesting is when you look at game and how they actually write their regulations. They generally look at other states and they compare how states around the state that they're working on and then they they actually adopt their stuff. So like the archery seasons that I had rode up for them as like an example, um I used New Mexico's you know two week two week season.
00:49:28
Speaker
And I was like, hey, two weeks here, two weeks here, you issue five tags per zone, it's an extra 260 tags a year. You know, we'll see how that goes. But now, um with the youth stuff, you mean that's entering that's something that's an easy thing to get changed. Because you're literally we and we don't let our kids touch their 12. So you're literally only giving kids three years to be a youth.
00:49:46
Speaker
yeah California. Yeah, that's crazy. You had three years to be a youth hunter, but hey, you know, you can't drive a car yet, but now you're an adult. You know what I mean? That's ridiculous. But... Yeah, we I'll talk with... So our lobbyist, you know, that we work with is Bill Gaines. You know Bill Gaines. Yeah, everybody does. So we I'm actually going to bring that up with him after this podcast. I'll have a conversation with him. He's going to be on that meeting. I'll be on here in a minute. And yeah, I'll bring that up with him and be like, hey, Bill, we got we got to address this because kids... They're still a kid. I mean, they're not an adult until they're 18 years old, you know? So, you know, we we got to get that change at least to 17, because I thought it was 17 for some reason, but obviously I'm wrong, so we got to get that changed. No, dude, run it until they're freaking, they could buy it when they're 17 and they turn 18 in June, who cares? yeah long is there As long as they're 17 on June 2nd when we do that damn draw, yep they could buy that youth tag. That's what it should be. yeah Another thing I want to bitch about while you're doing it is generally 11 minutes.
00:50:39
Speaker
huh I know you got 11 minutes about this thing. Yeah, if you're gonna talk to these guys San Diego has a month-long season deer season for rifle. Yeah, and then we also have like basically three month archery season whatever I'm fine with that we have some dope we give out 300 doe tags 3,000 tags in San Diego dude Let's break that up into three seasons. Like which break that art that right or two seasons that rifle season into two, two, two week seasons. Two, two week seasons or something like that. Like why are we doing the same thing? It's the same thing for like a D 14 and all of those other units. They're month long seasons with thousands of tags. Yep. Why not if you were to break it up to where four skies to get out, like, Hey, we're going to be like, we're going to do four one, one week seasons.
00:51:22
Speaker
Whatever it is, like even the two two-week seasons, it would, for one, lessen the pressure on the deer, yep it would force hunters to actually get out and hunt more. It's not like, oh, go this week, go this week. Like, why are we running a one-month season in San Diego with 3000 tags? Why not do five-day seasons or seven-day seasons?
00:51:41
Speaker
That's a great question. Like why? I don't understand. We're the only state that does that. Why do we give about 3,000 tags for a month? Why not do 1,500 tags to 1,500 tags for this? Yeah, and then you'd actually have less people afield each time. Yeah, so each time. You'd have less people in there. You know, I never thought about that.
00:51:57
Speaker
Dude, I need to be i always hunt i need a run for governor. I always hunt archery tags. I hunt A31 out of San Gabriel, so I'm hunting from the end of September to the end of December. Yeah, I have an A22 tag this year, so I basically have September 1st through December 31st, and it shuts down like during rifle season. It shuts down for like a month and a half. Dude, why have month-long seasons? Go look at the tags. Most of the hunts are a month-long, but over-the-counter
Critique of California's Hunting Seasons
00:52:25
Speaker
stuff. like our d r d Yeah, except for, you know, what's funny is the X-zones are that way though. The X-zones are the way you're talking about. Yeah. They're shorter. It's like two, three weeks. Two weeks. Three weeks. Yeah. But like, I'm just saying in San Diego for me personally, like I would much rather see like, and honestly the tag zone, so I would be able to buy a tag in most seasons anyways. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? But like, you know, kind of force guys to like. Actually pick some dates to hunt. Pick some dates to hunt and get out there and do it, man. And not just every weekend they're out there roaming around. Do three 10 day hunts.
00:52:53
Speaker
Whatever, man. You do something like that, it's just three tenths of your rack, then you break the the hunters down by a third out in the field pressuring things. Yeah, because then you'd have to pick. you're You're picking what, you know, you're picking your tag for your week or your ten days or two weeks or whatever. That's a good idea. I like that. I mean, because the elk, you know, it's funny, the elk seasons are that way.
00:53:12
Speaker
They're not months long. Yeah. You know, they're 10 days, two weeks. That's a good idea. Yeah, our ah our deer season runs from the third Sunday, I think it's like a third Friday or Saturday in October. They run through like the last weekend in November every year.
00:53:28
Speaker
Oh, yeah, never ah it's funny as I don't really look at a lot of rifle seasons. Yeah, my son my son turns 12 this November. So I'll be paying attention to that soon. But um yeah, you know, being being an archery guy, and I get an A31 and a AO tag every year. So I've never really never really looked at that. But I'm gonna have to start looking at that yeah i to think any better for our gear populations. We're having 3,000 guys in the field, even though it is only, some years it's 10%. That's 300 bucks getting killed out of San Diego. And maybe the success rate goes up a little bit because we start getting more deer the next couple of years. Maybe it's a better way to manage the deer rather than have everybody out there at one time trying to kill them for a month straight. yeah it Gives the deer a chance to live. Even if you split it up and gave it like a like a couple day gap. I don't know how much hunting you did in 2020, but like when everything was shut down, like I'd go out in the woods because there was nobody out there recreating.
00:54:16
Speaker
There's deer everywhere. Like, they they they their movements change completely because of the lack of people, which is huge. I just would like to see it. Even if they cut the tags down to like, for me, I'm like, dude, cut the tags down to 2,000 and split it up into two seasons and then give these deer a chance. We're we're never gonna have more than a five percent success rate if we're just hammering these deer for a month every year with 3,000 dudes. Like, we just grow it. I know you San Diego guys who are listening are gonna call me and text me and hammer me because you like to hunt deer. Shut up, man. We need to manage our animals better. We can't just freak the other hammering them.
00:54:46
Speaker
yeah and it would force you You'd probably kill more deer. your hardcore hunts you'd be out there and You'd be forced to actually hunt it like an out of state hunt where you had to spend five days in the field hunting instead of like every weekend. you know or yeah you know We'd probably be killing bigger deer too, right? Because that's the thing is worky we'd be giving them time to grow. You know what I mean? and That's the thing is you know you give them time to grow versus just hammering them all the time. And that's the other thing, right? is you know Everybody sees the first legal deer they see, they shoot it. 100% because there's so many people first legal deer is a big shock if you don't shoot it It's gonna go over the hill and somebody else is gonna shoot it like exactly. Yeah, it's just how it works here, man And I use excuse to be like oh is my kid
00:55:22
Speaker
<unk> my son's not the baby but I would know I just it's just how it is here it's just really you know yeah like we saw a 120 buck last year and that was like the biggest buck I mean we're probably one of the biggest bucks shock shots in here it's like 125 that's gonna we couldn't get him to come off the land he was on but it was it was a big buck man Yeah and you know i I will say some people kill some big bucks in San Diego um but you know when I go out like turkey hunting and stuff and fall and like run around up in Cuyamaca oh my god there's so many people and driving around and is there's a lot of road hunters and it's crazy. real they out there that
00:56:00
Speaker
Like the gunas, it's like a little or three dude. There's no archer hunters up there, but it's like du it's like guerrilla warfare burning church He stands down and ripping down cameras and did three stands and this fighting each other and set up with help each other. It's just yeah But dude, that's a that's a fun pot dude. I appreciate everything guys are doing. What are you guys doing? I know how can we help you guys?
00:56:20
Speaker
Yeah, so so one big thing for us, you know we're in every state.
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Involvement
00:56:23
Speaker
um you know we obviously We obviously are a member-based organization, so ah you know go on the website, ah you know look at an event near you, become a member. if you go to ah If you actually go to a banquet or an event and you buy a membership through an event, you'll actually get the invitation to that event. um for the next year or two or three years total. ah So go get become a member support us. ah You know in California we've put over 87 million dollars on the landscape in the state of California. um You know we and then half of that so that money is all the money we fundraise. So in the state of California we've raised over 170 million dollars. So half the money we raise comes back to the state in the form of grants.
00:57:03
Speaker
And, ah you know, like the Lemon Grove Rod and Gun Club, they're youth shooting trap team this year. We gave them some money. Their women on target team got some money this year. um We do projects, you know, throughout the state. Like Camp Roberts got some guzzlers this year. You know, we're doing some fence projects up north, you know, so we're doing a lot of that stuff. So, you know, become a member of RMEF. Your money will be well spent. And then from there, um come and attend a banquet. If you can't attend a banquet, become a volunteer.
00:57:30
Speaker
you know go and help some of these dinner banquets and do some fundraising. um Do that. and you know we We would love that. and From there, if you have anything reach out to me. You can find me on the um RMEF website.
Podcast Conclusion and Call to Action
00:57:40
Speaker
My contact information is on there. and then ah yeah From there, ah hopefully this next year we can work work on getting some Tricer stuff at every banquet. I've been, I've been a lot of banquets. yeah I've been a lot of, RMEF hits me up, we're in all kinds of banquets all over the place. We we never turned them down, let's put it that way. Yeah, you guys hooked us up last year at San Diego and ended up putting a tripod and stuff in the in the Yeti cooler, the mystery cooler, and the guy won, and he was like...
00:58:04
Speaker
Oh, is there a tripod in here? You know, and there was ah there was a Saguaro ATC spotter in there, so we got a new spotter with the tripod and the the LP head on there. He was pumped. He was so he was excited. so San Diego, when people know us, San Diego, for sure. Yeah, for sure. So, yeah. Thanks for having me on. It's awesome, Brandon, dude. Brandon Nelson, army half, supported local army half, get out there, and let's make these youth hunters be 18, dude. so Let's do it. Thanks, bro. Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it. Yeah.
00:58:33
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Tricer Podcast. Do us a favor and like and subscribe on whatever platform you're listening on. Give us a follow on Instagram and Facebook at TricerUSA and go and check out all of our innovative gear at www.tricerusa.com. Until next time, shoot straight, have fun, and always put God first.