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Doing It Live: Content, Chaos, and the Future of Hunting Media – James Visser
0 Playsin 12 hours
Drew Miles links up with his buddy James Visser of Bow Disciples for a loose, “we’ll do it live” hangout-style episode that bounces between hunting, content creation, and what it takes to build a modern outdoor brand. They talk about the grind of posting across every platform, why short-form clips are now a must, and how both of their teams are leveling up heading into 2026—including Tricer’s push to expand into a full-blown media company with more editing and production horsepower.
The conversation gets into real-world hunting logistics too: balancing DIY tags with the reality of harder-to-draw western hunts, the pros/cons of paid tags for scheduling, and why neither of them feels the need to hide what works for them. They swap stories from Africa, Hawaii, whitetail country, and javelina hunts, plus dive into gear and sponsor highlights (including Bow Disciples’ broadhead setup). They also hit on the importance of growing the hunting community to protect the future of the sport—and finish with rapid-fire “funniest moment” field stories that are pure chaos in the best way.
JAMES VISSER
BOW DISCIPLES
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/bowdisciples/
Website - https://www.bowdisciples.com
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/BowDisciples
TRICER USA
Website – https://tricerusa.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tricerusa/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/tricerusa/
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@tricer6985
#tricer #tricerpodcast #bowdisciples #huntingpodcast #outdoorpodcast #westernhunting #archeryhunting #bowhuntinglife #huntingcontent #outdoorcreators #huntingmedia #shortformcontent #huntingindustry #publiclandhunting #modernhunter #huntingculture #backcountryhunting #contentcreators #huntingstories #huntinglife
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Transcript
Introduction and Giveaway Announcement
00:00:00
Speaker
What's up guys, Drew from Tracer here. i want to tell you about our biggest giveaway of the year, the Bigger Than the Hunt giveaway, where all the proceeds go directly to help foster children in need. The Than the Hunt giveaway runs December first through 31st with over prizes. Every you donate is and gets you a chance to win one of these excellent prizes. We have gun packages, bow packages, glassing packages, whitetail packages, Western McGame packages, over $50,000 in gears up for grabs, and every penny you put in goes directly to help children and is 100% tax write-off.
Casual Start and Personal Anecdotes
00:00:36
Speaker
Go to tricer.com today and enter the Bigger Than Hunt giveaway December 1st 31st.
00:00:41
Speaker
We're just going to start. We're not even going to, we're not, we're just, we're just going live right now. We're just going live. We're doing it. We're not going to, uh, try my phone on, uh, on do not disturb mode. Yeah. I love it.
00:00:52
Speaker
We'll do it live. You seen that bill O'Reilly? We'll do it live. We'll do it live. Dude, shut up. Bill, Bill, a wild boy. Yeah. But, uh, but yeah, fun day. Well, you know, started off, went to breakfast. It's actually my birthday tomorrow. You didn't even know that. So a little pre-birthday little chill day with you, you know? does That puts you at like 35, 33, 33.
00:01:11
Speaker
thirty three thirty three yeah Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, but yeah, it's birthday tomorrow. I'm going to run up to Kawasaki, grab a rig crew cab. Oh, I love it. It's blue. So nice, but kind of fun. You know, we're both home at the same time, which isn't that common. So you had the idea of meet up and.
00:01:29
Speaker
Yeah, I know. probably should run of your house this month and do a pod with you on your podcast. Yeah, we should. Are you guys still busting a bunch of pods or not? Yeah, we try to do them every week. um if We're not as like on our video side, the Bodiceyeples main channel. We never miss, right? It's always coming out. But the podcast we try, we do occasionally miss one. But next year we're not going to miss any. So we'll have one a week. Yeah. And every Wednesday.
00:01:54
Speaker
Yeah, so if you guys are just – if you don't know who this voice is, this is James Visser, my good buddy, SoCal yeah ah native.
YouTube Channel and Content Strategy
00:02:02
Speaker
We live near each other. And um just a good friend of mine that I love just talking with and getting with and catching up with. And it's kind of cool to come up with them together, same time in the industry. And ah James has the Bodisciples YouTube channel. He's got the Bodisciples Instagram, TikTok. I mean, James is – I was, I just had a conversation last night with, um, i was on the Gritty podcast. I was talking about you, as bragging on you and I was saying the two people I know who have the most work ethic when it comes to content are James Vister and Eric Chesser.
00:02:32
Speaker
Yeah. appreciate that. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know, man. Um, you know, even when I was a bike rider and I started my bike career making content in 2007, right. Putting content on the internet. And did bikes for to through 2013. So, you know, what that's six years.
00:02:50
Speaker
And that was always what I did then, too, was just tremendous output, you know, always output. And that's always been my thing, you know, because i don't know, there's always two ways to do something. You can be like, ah you know, a person who puts out four videos a year, but they're the best thing anyone's ever seen. You know, and that's really cool. I have a lot of respect for that as well. But I've always just personally liked.
00:03:14
Speaker
Just always cranking stuff out, you know, at ah at a fast clip. More raw and just coming at
Expansion of Tracer into Media and Short-form Content
00:03:21
Speaker
you. YouTube rewards that better. I think so. i mean I think they reward like really good thumbnails and lots of content better.
00:03:29
Speaker
Yeah, and thumbnails are so key. I mean, Brianna does all the thumbnails. um and i think Yeah, every time we hang out, I have to get like... Brianna's like, okay, thumbnail picture. And then she like makes a thumbnail oh yeah out of it. Like it's... She's so much better than me at that stuff. Like I'm trying to figure that out. We're working on like... You know me. Like I'm really good at business side. or The media side, I'm not the best at. So like we actually...
00:03:49
Speaker
starting January 1st, full-time Luke Dusenberry is on staff. Yeah. We're hiring another filmer and editors. We're to two of the best filmers and editors in the industry working for Tracer full-time starting in January. we can kind of develop like the Tracer media company as well, alongside the tripod company with all of our hunts. And I'm trying to,
00:04:08
Speaker
I don't want to be the face of this thing anymore. i mean, I do want to be the face. I'm always going face, but I want to like share that burden. Cause burden. It's a burden for me. It really is. Like, it's just, there's all these hate pages now. i want to share that burden with my team. So it's like a team, like a team effort. know what i mean? Yeah, I get it. And we're going to put some super quality content out, but I also want to make sure that we're taking like, like I have, I think like eight films done right now that need to get edited.
00:04:33
Speaker
But like, to make sure take a bunch of content from that and make shorts stuff so I can keep it with you guys. You're constantly posting. You know what I haven't posted like a month or two. know what I mean? Like we post podcasts every week, we're not posting like, I feel like a podcast is different than content. Like it's like, it's like your, it's your podcast. It's not like you're getting to know me. know want to post a bunch of stuff so can get to know the brand and who we are as a whole.
00:04:55
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I think that, uh, Short form has become more and more and more and more ah important, I think, um because, you know, you could put out a video that's 20 minutes long and that's great. Long form audience is awesome. But a lot of times from that 20 minutes, realistically, you could probably cut 10 good shorts, which can go on.
00:05:22
Speaker
Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube, and now Spotify lets you put clips in, right? So for me, it's all about being to where you can't really miss our
Hunting Adventures and Reflections
00:05:33
Speaker
stuff. You're going to see it somewhere. And that's one thing I do love about podcasts is, you know, if you're on all the social medias, I named them all.
00:05:41
Speaker
But if you're on podcasts, now you're also hitting Apple and Spotify as well. So you're hitting two more platforms. So by the time you add them all up, I mean, we're consistently touching like eight to nine platforms yeah daily. Yeah.
00:05:56
Speaker
That's wild. and But it's necessary, right? and I think so, yeah. I just need to get the right team behind me to do that for me, to to to grow that stuff. And the the short form stuff is fun. like I just filmed my father-in-law. I just got back. well This is a podcast. If you guys are listening, it's going to be all over the place. We're going with it. I just filmed two hunts. I had a professional filmer film. My kid's deer hunt in Arizona. He got that one done. And I filmed my father-in-law's bull hunt myself, which was hard because I was carrying around like an 80-pound pack with all of his gear, camera gear,
00:06:24
Speaker
trying to guide and film. But like, dude, there's some gold in that short form. Like dude, like one time he fell out of his chair his life alert went off. It's great. His life alert goes off. It was like an owl. Like you fall and I'm just crying laughing. That's great. Like one time I'm like, it's, it was super cool, dude. And I'm like, uh, dude, how you feel? He's like, my tits are freezing off. It's just so cold. Yeah. See, I, I, I'm really proud of, I mean,
00:06:50
Speaker
I used to not really value shorts that much. Um, I mean, I would make them, we would make them, um, but I never really cared about them, like as far as the views or whatever, but now dude, I've, I've changed my whole perspective. I'm really proud of our short form stuff. And I love, like you said, a good, you know, real or YouTube short. That's just hilarious. And and I find myself watching them on other people's stuff, like, you know, whether it's motocross or whatever,
00:07:17
Speaker
watch in short form so i think both are so important and i do think having luke on board and all those you know your editors and stuff that'll be awesome and maybe we'll even be able to have them do ah a a boat disciples hunt have them follow me around for a tricer video we need to go do it we need to go do a boat like we've never hunted together yeah i know which is but we're it's funny because like me and james have been like I'm in Hawaii and then James is there the week after me or I'm in Africa. james Like we kind of went to the same places this year, but we weren't ever together. yeah Right. And, uh, we need to see it figure. It's hard though, dude. Like, like going to some paid hunts this year. Like I'm going to go home aboard and raise. I think going to do something like an l outcome with them. Probably
Hunting Ethics and Public Perception
00:07:56
Speaker
on odd. I would Brian, like honestly, when you pay for a hunt, makes it a lot easier for my schedule.
00:08:00
Speaker
Way easier. Cause you're trying to get tags with people. really hard. It's really And I'm very selfish when it comes to my tax. Like, it's like, I, you know what i mean? Like I want to go and do my hunt and like, it's hard to like collaborate to hunt. Like my team, my team wanted to do tricer bear hunt this year. I'm like, no, come out on that. Like, I don't want to bring 10 of you guys Western big game hunting. be by myself and go bears. I'm going with me and Livestay. We're going to go hunt together. I love Mark. I'm going with him in July. then I can't wait. Oh, I can't wait. I have a feeling we're going to have some tall boys, you know, Mark, but, uh, but yeah, I mean, there's something to be said. I, I, uh, you know, I just went on that mule deer hunt and you were talking about doing some hunts you pay to go get a landowner tag or different country or whatever.
00:08:43
Speaker
Honestly, i know a lot of people, like, as soon as you say you do something like that, just are like, Oh, like you're not as core as me or whatever, but I just feel really blessed and proud that either of us are even in a position to be able to do that.
00:08:56
Speaker
It's so cool that we can go hunt wherever we want and have the opportunity to do hunts that if you would have told Drew and James in 2019, we probably wouldn't have even believed it's true.
00:09:06
Speaker
oh yeah. You know, and... and not Not even questioned. Exactly. And it's so cool that, I don't know, I just feel very blessed that we've, both of us have been able to scale to a point where, um, we're able to do stuff that didn't seem possible. Not all that long ago. It's really cool. dude And I still killed a D 16 San
Sponsorships and Industry Insights
00:09:25
Speaker
Diego buck this year. For sure. Yeah. Pretty good buck. A little three by three. I mean, San Diego is a decent buck.
00:09:30
Speaker
Like it's, uh, like I still have that in me. I want to do it. It's just, um, I mean, I got a 96 inch coos deer spot and stock. In the desert, you know, this January, I shot one OTC in August. You know, it's like I still love the hard hunts. I just did over-the-counter bull with my bow. You know what I mean? like I love the hard stuff, but there's nothing wrong with doing, you know, doing things multiple ways. What we're running it into now in the West, too, is like the tags are getting so hard to get. yeah you know what I mean? So even when you have three or four points, it's a bad tag now.
00:10:01
Speaker
So like you can get a landowner mule deer tax on these tags for two to three grand. It's not terrible no that's all to go do a hunt and you're like, okay, well it's going to take me five years of saving up and three grand is really not that bad to go do that. And there's some better deals up there. Like, do we do Alaska? I told you, you need to go to Alaska.
00:10:18
Speaker
We do Alaska for like three grand a piece. Yeah. It's not bad. Two deer fly and hunt. I mean like it's cheap to go do that versus like trying to draw a tag and drive there and do the whole thing down here. And, it's a good adventure. So I just, it's just, there's a balance there, right? Like I've never done a landowner tag.
00:10:35
Speaker
Um, this year, my first year doing it, like we're going to do, like, I want to go do a hunt with, um, yeah Whatever, we'll talk about it. I'm pretty sure this deal's done with born and raised, coming on in Tricer. I'm pretty sure it's done. Nice. And i was like, okay, they want to go do hunt with me. I'm like, sweet. But let's just buy an elk tag.
00:10:51
Speaker
I have a buddy, Elk Bros down in New Mexico. we're just buy an elk tag because like I don't want to deal with us trying to figure out who has what points in what state and then having to split points or I have more points than you. And average, I'll just go buy a tag yeah you know and go hunting together. It's just easier to do that for scheduling-wise as well. because like Way better. I won't even know like the Colorado draw results until like June. You know what i mean? Like it's just, if if I'm going to schedule out my life, I do have to do some of these more paid hunts now. Yeah. I don't think that's something to be embarrassed about or like hide, you know? I don't care. I don't either. But I mean, there was a point where I probably like felt like, oh, people are going to judge me if I do that. Now it's like, I don't really care. I've become a lot more, um, I don't know. I don't really get affected by,
00:11:32
Speaker
people talking crap or or being mean to me anymore. It used to really affect me, but now it's like, I think I've just been in the space for so long that I'm like, look, I'm confident in my abilities as a hunter. I'm, that's probably what I'm most confident in, in about myself is I know my skills are there. So I don't, I don't care if people want to say always trash at hunting, like that doesn't bother me anymore, you know, but there was a time it did, you know, but I think just growing over time and,
00:12:00
Speaker
And getting more confident, getting a little age under, under your belt. Like, you know, neither you or I are the same guy we were, you know, when we started. No, not at all. It's of growth it's funny too. Cause like I see it even with like my 12 year old, right? My 12 year old, he went to Africa, shot three animals with me.
00:12:19
Speaker
He shot us. His first buck, it's like a stomp for like one 60, this big, I mean, giant G2 is like giant buck in New Mexico this year. mean, for a kid, it's, it's yeah it's not, I mean, one 60 is not giant, but it's a, it's a good, it's a three by one 60. I mean, it's a big, heavy, it's like seven inch eye guards. It's sick. Well, went over to this, this hunt over in Arizona and it was brutal.
00:12:39
Speaker
Like we were competing for a forgy with a three outfitters. It was funny. Cause like, I knew the guys day three. So we were kind of like, there's like one group we, we got, we left a three
Challenges and Opportunities in Hunting Promotion
00:12:50
Speaker
because we didn't want to compete with them. And we could not find a deer. We hunted like three days. Could not find a deer rain slate, the whole nine. See how they're trying to find this. You couldn't find a buck. So we went back to these deer and we're kind of like competing for the same group of deer. And we joked, we shot the herd, the herd fork out of it. A three and I'm shooting a spike. I mean you know, it's about a three is shooting spikes. what mean? Like a three outfitters, uh, we just couldn't find bucks.
00:13:11
Speaker
And my kid shoots his forky and he was like embarrassed. And I'm like, he's 12 years old. And I'm like, dude, like, No, no, no way. Dude. Like you're supposed to, you're supposed to shoot Forkies. You're, you're, you're 12 years old. Like you're supposed to shoot Forks. you don't be embarrassed about it. Like, you know what I mean? Don't feel bad about it. Like you're supposed to shoot Forkies, dude. You're 12 years old. Like this is, and I was like, we'll call Tresor Fork films. I don't care. if you want to come at me and be like, Oh, you could be a great buck next year. Like,
00:13:37
Speaker
man, po say I'm saying like, I don't even care anymore. Like we'll shoot a small buck. We'll shoot a rag corn, whatever. yep um I'm not, obviously I'm trying to kill more mature animals, but like on a 12 year old's deer hunt, like if you want to come on there and bash my 12 year old for shooting a deer, three you know, I don't think it was in his home. Like it's like, get out, get over yourself. know what i mean? Yeah, for sure. I mean, some of, some of the hunts that we filmed that have done really well are like, you know, shooting does doing doe patrol out of a tree stand and smoking several white tail does or whatever. Like, people just want to watch good hunting and feel like they're a part of something cool. I just like, yeah, it's cool to kill big stuff. That's great. But at the same time, I think people just have a connection with hunting. That's a little bit deeper than just the size of the animal. You know, at least I feel that way when I, when I went, dude, it was so funny when I went to Oklahoma for my first time, right. It was a badlands hunt.
00:14:29
Speaker
And I'm, I'm, From California. This is where I grew up hunting. I've hunted all the surrounding states. So I'm used to getting one, maybe two tags a year if I'm lucky. I show up to Oklahoma and they go, all right, so you could shoot two bucks and three does. And I go, well, I'm sorry, what was that? And they go, you could shoot three does and two bucks. And then if you shoot those does, we can get you more. And I'm like.
00:14:51
Speaker
Oh, dude, put me in the stand and I was just piping does, dude, because that's so foreign to us, you know, to have that many tags. And I just remember having so much fun. All the meat got donated um and it was just so much fun. Those are my first white tails. But that's i was going to ask, I have never shot one. I've shot three does and that's it. Oh, you haven't tried a buck yet? Not yet. No, I haven't tried a buck. I want to do it like we're becoming like an Eastern brand now. right We're like west of the Rockies. We're kind of king.
00:15:18
Speaker
but, uh, like Colorado East, we're really kind of merged into that. and like my COO is from Pennsylvania. I'm marketing guys from Illinois. like, and they just love this whitetail thing. And I, and I, I want to go experience it and go try it and see how it is. So dude, like small pipe and does like plug to Bomar beast broadheads. You're like, dude, you're like a beast. I didn't realize this till this morning at breakfast. Like you're sponsored by beast broadheads now.
00:15:41
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I've been on with beast for shoot. I mean, um, Probably almost a full year now. Great ads. I mean, I've run. I've shot 10 things this year with my bow and just killer performance. I mean, the the blood's insane. The blood trail's insane. But the the mule deer I just posted that I shot last week, the most common comment on the picture was like, dude, you could drive a bus through that thing. The the hole that the beast put is just ridiculous.
00:16:10
Speaker
And so I used to run the 2.3 inch beast, but I've actually, so well, I should say I used to run the 2.3 on animals, deer or smaller, bigger. I would go the two inch, but dude, I've got to the point now where I run the two inch all the time because it does such a devastating hole and it penetrates a lot better just because it has a little best, little bit less drag being a tiny bit smaller. And bro, you saw the size of that cut. It's like,
00:16:35
Speaker
you don't need it to be any bigger yeah i was i was kind of like i actually met josh yeah um and i was actually super stoked on meeting him like he's super cool dude yeah um he did like misconcessions from the industry right with josh right and you can meet him like this guy's super nice and then i got he gave me a co-pax's broadheads and i'm like spring load these are gimmick and then like dude i've killed a bunch stuff with them oh yeah and they they they are the real deal like They are the real deal, like blood trails for days. like It looks like a freaking crime scene. Yeah. They're phenomenal, and they shoot so good.
00:17:08
Speaker
Yeah, they shoot straight. I mean, the cool part, though, with the spring loaded is it's obviously cool. I mean, the hassle is if one pops open in your quiver. That's the part that I only play for Josh. That can be tough. Josh is like, oh, just grab it. Yeah, that's what I do. But it is still scary. It scares the hell out of me. It's so scary. It's so scary.
00:17:27
Speaker
But the cool part about the spring loaded is that when the blades deploy and you hit, like, let's say a you clip a rib, the blade will actually retract and then pop back open. So. You know, the the knock people always have about mechanicals is, oh, they don't penetrate as well, which is theoretically true. Like a fixed blade, small single bevel is going to penetrate better.
00:17:51
Speaker
But the beast does a good job of putting a devastating wound channel, but then also still penetrating well because of the technology baked in. So I don't know. I've i've had only good results. um This is my second year using them, you know.
00:18:05
Speaker
As far as hunting. So yeah, I've been good. And um yeah, we're, we're just super frigging dude. The group of sponsors we got, I can't even like believe it. Like once again, I wouldn't have believed it in 2020. So you, you have Kawasaki, which is insane. Yeah. So Kawasaki now you're running, and you're running the side, but they gave you the side by side. Now you're they're letting you run the crew ca crew cab, picks all minds which
Future Aspirations and Content Growth
00:18:28
Speaker
is sick. Yeah. So I've ran, I've ran that a couple of times. So yeah, I mean, our roster dude is so sick, you know, like obviously,
00:18:35
Speaker
I work with Tricer and just, you know, I'll always support Tricer just because we came up together and it is what it is. I love it. And then, yeah, Kawasaki, Victory Arrows, which is a local company, really cool.
00:18:48
Speaker
ah Boning Veins are out of Michigan. um Beast Broadheads, Bomar Archery, which runs like nose buttons, things like that. Gas Bow Strings, Insane Strings, Bowtech.
00:19:01
Speaker
um And then let's see here. Badlands. Oh, Badlands. Of course. Of course. Yeah. And I think that's about it. We're working on a couple more. I might've forgot somebody, but Oh, Bushnell, um, as well. And like, like you said, I mean, it's just, I just feel so fortunate that the vision in the very beginning,
00:19:21
Speaker
And a lot of hard work, you know, has led to this point. And I say it all the time, but I still feel like we're just barely getting started. That's how I feel. I feel say same thing i feel like I'm not even, i haven't even passed the first finish line jump yet. You know?
00:19:37
Speaker
Yeah. My team, like I, it's crazy. Cause I have this whole team now where I'm working with me. we've hired a whole team on this year and really just changed the face of the company. that's all And ah they all we talk about 2026. they love winning because we're winning. We're just winning. where we go Everything we make is a winning product. And they're so excited for 26. Like they're basically calling it like with the way my team describes Trister in 26 is a new company.
00:19:58
Speaker
Like we're redoing, like we've got, ah you know, an image and they're redoing everything in 26 and they're so excited for it. And it's cool to see like the winning and I feel like we're just getting started. Yeah, exactly. um I don't know. I've just learned to kind of, you know, shoot, I don't know. I guess the biggest tip that I've kind of,
00:20:17
Speaker
grabbed onto is just when you have good, cool opportunities, you got to just do it and do stuff that makes you nervous because If you do stuff and you're just comfortable all of the time, okay, I learned how to do this. Now I'm comfortable with it And you just keep doing that. You got to push yourself outside that and do stuff that makes you nervous.
00:20:38
Speaker
For example, walking across the border on the CBX to go fly out of Mexico made me nervous, right? I had never texted me so many times. yeah i ah You're going to be fine, James. right but now okay But now that I've done it, you know what I mean? I'm not nervous about it anymore.
00:20:51
Speaker
And that's the same with anything, a hunt, a business, filming something, whatever it may be. So that I, I just think people got to always continually find something that makes you a little bit nervous, conquer it.
00:21:04
Speaker
And then boom, one, one new thing is in your quiver that you're no longer intimidated by. And if you just keep doing that before you know it, you're so proficient at a lot of things. Yeah. You know?
00:21:15
Speaker
Yeah, dude. Um, It's been really neat to see you guys do that and what what you guys have been able to accomplish in last last couple of years Yeah, you too. But more than like, if you guys follow James, he is a hunting, obviously hunting is kind of what everything revolves around hunting for James, right? It's like he shoots his bows, he can hunt, but he's kind of like developed in this like hybrid archery challenge. No one's really doing like, and he's done really well with like shooting advanced tacks, but dude, you're, you're, I always tell people all the time, like you're probably one of the best shooters I've ever shot with when it comes like 3d. Thank you.
00:21:45
Speaker
But now you're going to try and compete. Yeah. Well, yeah, and I mean, I've always competed, but just said local stuff, smaller stuff. But now we're going to compete on like the highest and biggest contests, you know, so it's totally different. I'm going be shooting ah target rigs, you know, so 8x lenses, 27 inch bars, V bars, 39 inch bow, like I'm shooting a full blown target rig, which I've never done. We're going to be shooting indoor for the first time doing Vegas, which is like the super bowl going to do ASAs, uh, all this, you know big, big competition stuff. And, uh, I'm really excited for it because, you know, like you said, um, yeah, we do a lot of hunting. I do think that's what I'm best at, but, um,
00:22:30
Speaker
I think that it's such an untapped market, number one. No one's filming these big shoots hardly. If not, not in a way that I think maybe is super compelling. So I think it's going to be really entertaining, really fun.
International Hunting Experiences
00:22:44
Speaker
Hopefully help the sport of target archery because it needs it needs some help.
00:22:47
Speaker
Hopefully bring some eyeballs to it, bring some new shooters in, hopefully grow the sport. And then with that, hopefully grow our channel to a whole new audience. So now we'll have the outdoor show.
00:22:58
Speaker
TAC type people that watch hunters that watch and now maybe target people that watch. So you're going to do Vegas. Yeah. Which is the big March and a March. Now, what about, are you going to do like writing anything? Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. If my schedule permits, definitely going to be there. I believe I need to sign up pretty quick, but yeah, I want to do reading bad. So like, that's where like, like, don't think it's wrong way, but like, yeah.
00:23:20
Speaker
that's your bread and butter. Like I think you could thrive. I brag on you all the time. Like how good you are at yeah at shooting, shooting 3d. Like I'd love to see you go dominate in the 3d world. Oh, for sure. And, and, and the cool part is, so I'm going have three bows. So bow tech comes out with a new bow at ATA in January.
00:23:37
Speaker
So I'm going to shoot that as my hunting bow. I'm going to shoot the proven 34, which is what I shoot now for hunting as my outdoor bow, but I'm going to redo it all for target. Right. So it'll have lenses. It'll have the whole deal. but still in a hunting frame, it's just going be weighted more for target shooting. And then I'll have my indoor bow, which is my target rig, this 39 inch axle to axle and made just, you know the drills drill dots at 20 yards. So I'm go have three different rigs all set for, you know, specific things. So are you going to get like the whole like bow tech outfit? Like, no, I'm going to make my own jerseys. So we're going to have our own jerseys. Cause we, you know, we gotta, we gotta do things different. So yeah, that's the thing. So like, don't take this wrong target archery. Well, but like,
00:24:19
Speaker
they're kind of nerds. yeah like I mean, Bodhi Turner's Bodhi's cool, right? But like, yeah you go out there and most of them don't, don't hunt.
00:24:29
Speaker
yeah I mean, like, dude, I saw some guys from the U.S. Olympic team when we were at years that you, they've never hunted before. yeah Yeah. I mean, they're sick dudes, but like, they never hunted. Like, they don't really like, it doesn't like, i think it'd be kind of cool for you to transcend that a little bit. of like what Hayden's doing with freaking Supercross, right? They kind of like bring some like,
00:24:44
Speaker
Some new blood into this world of like, like target archery. Like when I go to like some of the stuff we live in San Diego, so we have like the U S Olympic team here. Right. So we do a lot of events in the, I've gone to a few of them and it's like, it's almost like these parents like pushing their kids to like be really good at shooting. they get a scholarship.
00:25:01
Speaker
it's not like this like laid back, like tack, like cracking a beer and shooting, you know, throwing back some monsters. It's a little bit different. You know what mean? But like, it needs some fun. It needs some new blood. It needs some fun there. That's my, that's like, I'm not knocking it. Those guys are such bad shots. But like, it needs, like for me to get into it, it needs something like you to do it to like make little more fun. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, that's kind of the goal, you know, is, um, you know, my, I've always said that I want to just, um,
00:25:28
Speaker
get more people to know that you can shoot your bow year round and have a lot of fun doing it, you know? And I, and I want to do the same thing in target, let people know you can go compete and, uh, in a serious sport and still have a riot doing it and, uh, hopefully grow the sport because, um, that's, that's what I want to do. I want more people to shoot bows and have fun year round shooting. So if I can do that on indoor now, something entirely new, then great, you know? And, uh,
00:25:55
Speaker
I look at it as a win-win. Obviously, i'm and I'm training hard and I want to do really well. That's important to me. But if I don't, if for whatever reason the wheels fall off and I don't do good, the content's great either way. So for me, I can't really lose. You know what I mean? We're going to make it this just... it's I don't know. I'm so excited. I've kind of looked at each year of of our content journey as like this year, this is going to be the thing we focus on. This year, it's going to be this. This year, it's going to be this. And target's been one on my list for years i'm like i can't wait for the year that's like the competitive year and it's finally yeah 26 baby dude you know what too like i seen you do a little bit of the trick shot stuff lately like some stuff up mom dad's house and some long range stuff like dude it'd be fun to go down to ocotillo or something and just drop some bombs oh yeah you should shoot so far shoot so far down ocotillo do we have we have we have like the place to do it right like
00:26:48
Speaker
do you have any that in your future? Like can you perfect type archery stuff coming up or not your niche? Uh, no, eventually. Yeah, probably not this year. I'm really going to be focused on, you know, hunts and competitions.
00:26:59
Speaker
Um, but certainly in the next few years, yeah, we are going to do some trick shot stuff and some maybe world record stuff. Some of that might actually happen this year where we're doing some research. So, you know, just, I don't know. I just want to keep people on their toes, keep it
Future Plans and Media Projects
00:27:14
Speaker
fun. And,
00:27:15
Speaker
and um Yeah, i'm I'm here to entertain people and make people realize you can have fun shooting a bow. That's it. I don't try to be the education guy. i mean, occasionally we'll we'll, you know, if there's something good, I'll do the education stuff. But that's never been my thing. I'm i'm here to be an entertainer. and I want people to turn on the TV and just have a blast watching it and then go, I want to go shoot my bow. That's what I want. Yeah, 100%. 100%. Yeah.
00:27:41
Speaker
Yeah, because you did, ah you did campaigns this year. ah That was last year, actually. Yeah, 24. 24? Mm-hmm. This year I did Working Class Bowhunter podcast. Oh, you? I did Hunter podcast. I did, ah ah shoot, I don't know. I think Elkshape might have been this year as well. I've done- Yeah, you did Elkshape for me because I did Elkshape this year well. This year, yeah. so I mean, I don't know. I was thinking about this the other day. and Dude, I think that we've done probably more of the big podcasts in the space than almost anybody. It's like almost every big podcast you can name- We've done it. You know, Josh and Brandon's podcast. did Cody's podcast. Cody's. Did you do do do go on yet or no?
00:28:21
Speaker
No, not yet. But I mean, like everything you could name in the archery and hunting space, you've done most of them. And I just feel blessed on that because every time we hit a new show is hopefully more people that we can encourage to shoot bows and have fun.
00:28:35
Speaker
Yeah, don't, as people don't understand about the grind of like, like get a knock for being like an influencer, right? That's fine. Until you understand like the grind of these guys who are really doing it, like it's nonstop. Oh, for sure. Like it's nonstop travel, nonstop just basically building yourself up to, you know, to get more audience, to do it, to do collaborations. That's always like trying to push you to collabs people. Like, hey, collab with this guy. love collabs. Yeah, love collabs.
00:28:58
Speaker
But yeah, man, you guys have done really well with that stuff. so Yeah. You're gonna do Vegas. You're going to do Redding. You're doing Target stuff. um What about lakes and what hunts you got planned? well just got back from Mexico. That video will be out Sunday. Killer video. I'm going to watch that one. Yeah, it's going to be it's going to be good. Yeah, and then ah January, obviously, going to head over to a state I can't say. I don't want to spot burn, but I'm going to go hunt in January, film hopefully a few javelina, few deer. have Really hard to figure out what state this is. Have fun doing that. And then February, yeah.
00:29:32
Speaker
Might go try to film with Paige again. um That would be a lot of fun. I know we're doing something the end of the month. I just can't remember what. Doing something. And then, yeah, doing Axis deer in July. That'll be fun first for me. never done Axis? No, never. They taste so good. That's what everyone says. It's not even like, it smokes elk. It's the best meat you can have. I swear. can't wait. do like the burgers. you Traeger or anything? Like smoker? No, I don't even have a grill at my place. You don't have grill there? You can have a George Foreman or whatever. We'll do just like Axis burgers with a cheese on top and like an egg on there for breakfast. Dude, the Axis is phenomenal. It's the best thing I've ever had. Like it's not even close. Everyone says that. I've heard everyone say that. And can smoke like a ton of them. Yeah, I can't wait. I'm super excited. You're bringing Livesey on that one.
00:30:18
Speaker
Yeah, actually actually it was kind of his thing and I think he threw my name in the hat to get invited. So I mean... Pretty cool. I'm stoked. I love Mark, so it'll be a lot of fun to hang out again with him and share camp with some people and try to shoot some deer. Brianna's coming. Axis is like her dream. Is it? Yeah, so that'll be cool. and then otherwise They're like rats, dude. like If you're on a good ranch, like they're like there's so many of them. you're just like like we would see herds of 200 deer. It's crazy. Oh, can't wait. And then the pigs are everywhere, too. So you're shooting axes, shooting pigs. like Everything's when you're ha Hawaii. It's like... Talk about spot burning. Hawaii's untapped. I was telling you. Spot burning. Like, dude, like, like, I mean, the access is cool for me. I actually kind of like the big island more. I like going to do the goat and the sheep stuff because it's public land. you can do it year round and it doesn't cost you anything. Like it literally just costs you a plane ticket and a spot to stay.
00:31:06
Speaker
You can go hunt goat and sheep year round. I shot a goat public land this year in in May. In Hawaii? Yep. Yeah. Nasty country, dude. They smell so bad, don't they? I didn't really notice the scent on it but dude, like I'm telling you, that was the that was wild terrain. Were you on were you on the like lava rock stuff or no?
00:31:24
Speaker
Yeah, like cliffs, cliff bands, like crazy stuff. And we had to hike like to get these get these suckers We had to hike in probably three, four miles and then sit up and. Oh, dude. Yeah. The big island. You just pull off the side of the road. You're just smoking goats. No, I don't know. We were on the main one people vacation. You were Honolulu. You're as many of them. We were in Honolulu and frigging had drove out and busted our tail to get a goat. And, uh, it was cool seeing the comments. Cause like, you know, some of the followers are from there and they're like, dude,
00:31:55
Speaker
Respect we know it is not easy to hunt those goats in this area. no, not that island.
Representation and Responsibility in Hunting Media
00:32:00
Speaker
It's so, so steep, dude, and you have to go so far, and everything has thorns and, like,
00:32:06
Speaker
Oh my gosh. it It was fun. I love it. Cause I, I, really enjoy super hard hunts. That's what I like, you know? And, uh, I want to go do the goats again on that, on that same spot. Cause I just loved how, i mean, you could die. That's how steep it is. Like, you know, huge cliff walls and it's gnarly, really gnarly. So what, uh, um, you did that, you did, all you did Africa. We both did Africa this year and I want to go back. I thought I was, i was like, I don't want Africa, Africa's shooting fish in a barrel. And now I'm like, I want to go back every year. I felt the same way. It's so funny. Yeah, I felt the same way. um And yeah, I would definitely go back.
00:32:43
Speaker
i i Now I say that I've been... um I feel it's the it's the quickest way to get a ton of hunting reps. You know what I'm saying? We only spot and stalk with my bow. So wish I shot five animals all spot and stalk with a bow.
00:33:00
Speaker
And I felt the same way. I thought it going be so easy. you know Oh, it's not easy. You can do, like there are hunts where you can basically sit there it's like a slot machine, right? They pull up and you're like okay how much is that one? There are hunts like that, but where I went, not easy. We were doing like three-mile stalks. I mean, it was gnarly. Oh, dude, yeah. Spotting stock in anything with a bow, dude, is not easy. And, you know, something like a zebra, for example. you shoot a zebra? Yeah, it took me like six, seven hours to stock in and get within bow range. And even then I had to reach out and touch them a little bit.
00:33:29
Speaker
Um, and then, yeah, everything else I spot and stocked as well with a bow. Are you doing a rug on your zebra? No, i didn't. I didn't do any texture. You didn't, but we ate everything. We tried everything. I'm doing, I'm doing a rug on my zebra. I want, I want, like I went to Argentina in like 2017 or something like that with some customers before Tricer.
00:33:47
Speaker
And the guy had like a ah zebra on the wall. And I was like, I want that. So I think I'm the biggest thing. So I'm going to do the rug like in my, we're moving Arizona here this month. There'll be there'll be a zebra rug on the floor of my, in my office, and the tricer office. I probably should have, but I mean, you know me, it's like, I don't know. I've never been for some reason. I've been on this rabbit hole on YouTube lately where it's like house tours of people with a lot of taxidermy. And, uh, I mean, it's impressive.
00:34:14
Speaker
I just never have had, I just never have had the desire. Like I'd rather be the guy with like, just, you know, nice Europeans displayed. Well, that's what I've do. Well, you can see my, I mean, you saw my kitchen in the office here. I've got like 10 deer to stay in here that aren't finished. Yeah. I've got so many euros. Cause like, I'm not going I don't mount anything. or We mounted like my kids, big buck. I mounted like a one 10 cruise. I shot. But like even this year, like when I go to Mexico, i don't have a tag. Um, like I, I don't want to shoot buckets less than like one 20. So like, unless I see a bucket, like one 20. I'm not even going to hunt. Like, yeah you know, if, if I something like that, Oh, I'll buy a tag and go hunt a deer. But like, I'm just going to guide these guys. Cause like, don't know. I don't want to put a bunch of, you know, mounts all of my house. It just takes a lot of space, a lot of space, lot of money, you know? And, um, I don't know for me,
00:35:03
Speaker
ah yeah A good photo is so important. I spend a lot of time on my hunting photos that like they're always dialed. You'll never see a hunting image from me. That's not like really, really good. it's because we spend a lot of time to make sure the animals propped right. We pick a good spot to move them to like good camera angle.
00:35:24
Speaker
All of it's dialed. Are you running full frame cameras now for that stuff? Yeah, I mean, we have a DSLR, yeah, so we'll run that body. and um But my point is, I treasure the photos more so than a head on the wall that's going to get old and one day my kid going to have to throw it away or something. I don't know. Or like my kids where they kick the soccer ball and break the nose off every single deer I have in the house. Every freaking deer I have, dude, the nose is missing. What happened? And I do love taxidermy. I think it's beautiful.
00:35:57
Speaker
But, you know, I got five or six shoulder mounts and I'm like, you know, that's enough for me. If was up to Brianna, I would mount everything. She would have me mount everything. You need bigger house. Yeah, I said, yeah, maybe in a couple of years, you know. Yeah, I like the Euros. And honestly, in my ideal world, I guess at some point I'll like a big garage. I just put the Euros in there to stack them on the wall because we just kill lot of stuff. And don't need to have, I might do some of those skull hangers, like the corner things. Oh, the tree.
Community Support and Charitable Efforts
00:36:23
Speaker
Yeah, I have one. The trees be sick. I love it. I've seen it at the shows. You bring the shows and stuff, right? yeah, yeah. love my school I should do couple trees maybe in my office because like I said, like you saw my fridge in there. There's like 10 euros on there for the last two years. I have mine all spread across the wall. So I have them like mounted on the wall and then I have some on a tree and then like we have a mantle all set some on, you know, because I got a ton of them. Do you do your own euros?
00:36:44
Speaker
Yeah, usually. Yeah, not always, but yeah, usually. So do you, are you boiling or are you? Boil. Boil. so I'm doing now, I need to get the grax off, but I'm just doing the maceration thing where actually use a horse heater and i horse heat it to like heat the water up in a cooler to like one third and let it go for like a day and then just wash it right off. Yeah. And I've heard you don't even have to skin them for that.
00:37:03
Speaker
With the graxol, they don't even skin their hair off. That's what I've heard. Which is gross, but they're doing it. That's crazy. I need to get one of the ones from graxol. Those guys are super good guys. They actually do bigger than the hunt. Those guys came through huge for us.
00:37:15
Speaker
Yeah, that's a cool, you know, that's a really cool thing you guys are doing, giving away so much value. And obviously giving back to, you know, an important cause is really, really cool. I love doing giveaways. Like yep we just, we've done three back. Well, actually shoot. You're doing a Tracer one right now. Well, yeah, two of them back to back. so I just saw that this morning on my Facebook. It was like you giving away a Tracer tripod. It was real sick. Yep, yep. BC, LP, shout out to Tracer. We're doing two of them back to back actually. But we did giveaways a week, every week, just for free. Nothing you had to do to sign up on Instagram. I think we did like six or seven of them.
00:37:51
Speaker
And then we did a huge giveaway for November, Black Friday, and a Christmas giveaway. And I mean, dude, like lot of lot of stuff. Like, for example, the December one is a Bowtech full package bow ready to hunt with.
00:38:08
Speaker
Bushnell binos and range finder, Badlands bino harness, and a BC and LP. You're frigging dialed right there. That's whole package. Yeah, exactly. You're a $3,000 package. Literally. Or more like a bow in their $4,000 package. yeah Exactly. And your guys' is, is you know, $50,000 package. That's insane.
00:38:26
Speaker
Yeah, we have $50,000 in prizes, 45 brands. It's pretty cool, man. I'm a little discouraged. Not going lie. Like, I've only had 400 entries. We've raised 17 grand so far. 13,000 people visit the webpage for it and only 400 people have entered.
00:38:40
Speaker
It's only 10 bucks. 100% of the money goes to, don't know it's even going to come out and and maybe my maybe my but after December, if you listen to this thing, man, go give money. Go go give, every $10 you put in gets you an enter entry into this giveaway and it gets, goes directly with to the kids. that that That account that the money goes into is directly linked to my foster ministry. I'll never see a penny of it. 100% of the funds go to help kids. yeah But I was little discouraged. I'm like, I saw my team, like I've just been paying for so long and I really thought the hunting industry would, The industry came together well.
00:39:07
Speaker
mean, I have Yeti. I've got Christians in Arms, Bergara, Vortex. You name it. push Every big brand is going to order this thing. But then, like, the Hunters, man, like, they're just not – I'm not sure like I thought they would. it And this is me being discouraged. I'm trying to actually be discouraged. I'm like, man, I thought for sure that, dude, if 13,000 dudes put $10 in, that would be $130,000 for these kids. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, I would keep in mind, too, it's only December ninth stuff like that. Usually people drag their feet until the end. And it's also holiday season. So people are probably Christmas shopping, uh, getting stuff for the families. I bet you, you see a pretty significant spike after Christmas, the last like five days. If I had to if I to, I hope so. I really did. My really, I really want to try and raise a hundred thousand dollars these kids. That would be awesome. Like Tricer itself gave one hundred thousand dollars to those kids this year over. Yeah. And we wrote that check. Best checker right every month, right? I'm check every month.
00:39:58
Speaker
And I was like, no, we can the interesting and come together and do this. And I'm, I'm not going to be discouraged. I know a lot my local friends have gotten on board it, but I'm like, man, like I thought this was just going to blow up. People are going to want to come together and support these kids. And, and I'm not saying you don't, if you don't give money, but I'm saying like, and I thought for sure the hunters would be like, I'll throw 20 bucks in, I'll throw 50 bucks in like, and do it. I just, it says something so dear to me, right. Being a foster parent, you've met my son. was just in here a little bit ago. Uh, you know, it's just, I want to help his kids everywhere I can. Yeah. That's awesome. And I know it's like my conviction or other people's convictions, but I'm just like, Oh man, And my team put so much time into it. We put, we have so much money. have $10,000 advertising going behind this thing right now. Yeah. You know, we've only raised 10 grand. Yeah. And I'm like, or 15 or 17 grand. I'm like, dude, we really need to figure this out. So I think next year's gonna a lot better than this year. We're learning a lot this year for minute, but I really hope we come together, at least raise 50 grand for these kids and give them money. Yeah. I think, I think you will. Like I said, about the five days after Christmas, I also think that December, I mean, I know it's kind of funny cause we're doing a giveaway and we did one last month, but
00:41:00
Speaker
I don't think November, December is the best month to do them. I think next year we'll do them like in the summer or something when other people aren't doing them. The problem of doing giveaways right now is everyone else's as well.
00:41:10
Speaker
So I think it's better to kind of go, okay, I'm gonna let everyone else do them then. And we'll do ours in March. You know what I'm saying? Like, I think it's better because then people aren't, I don't know. They're not torn between 12 different things. yeah They can just go, Oh, the only giveaway I even know about. is a boat disciples one in March. And then they're, you know what I'm saying? We're doing a big one in January and February called the war on dogs, war on hogs. Oh, that's cool. Oh, coyotes and pigs. Cots and pigs. Yeah. Like I want, like, fun I think it's your job as a hunter to go kill coyotes.
00:41:42
Speaker
Like, I think you should be out there doing it. Like I, I, I killed, I think six of them in in October. hunting. Um, and so I was out there and i was like, do let's do this thing called, I made it up. It's called save a fawn-a-thon. It was like, i love baby deer. And like my team was like, I'm not wearing that shirt. That's so lame. yeah But like I gave them the idea then they ran it and they turned it into war on hogs, war on dogs. We're going to this giveaway. And it's like, it's like a $15,000 rifle package, two of them.
Advocacy and Political Challenges in Hunting
00:42:05
Speaker
That's cool. Like so the whole nine, but it's, so it's a giveaway where like, if you, every time you buy tricer shooting product, you're going to get a free war on dogs or war hogs shirt.
00:42:16
Speaker
And if you tag us, you enter to win one of these things. If you kill if you kill a coyote and tag us, you're enter to win. Oh, I love that. So you have to out and – because, like, dude, those things hammer our deer. Oh, yeah. Hammer our deer. They hammer our turkeys. Yep.
00:42:28
Speaker
Everywhere. Go out there and shoot a freaking bobcat. Go shoot a coyote. Not in California. Don't shoot bobcat in California. Yeah. god for heaven forbid yeah forbid, the endangered Bobcat that I see frigging 20 of a season now, but don't put him here. go shoot a lion, go shoot, you know, grizzly, whatever it is, go shoot him. and We'll give you a t-shirt for doing it.
00:42:47
Speaker
yeah Um, dude, I love that. I think that's a really good idea. Also, you know, speaking of mountain lion, you know, uh, well, obviously lions too, but Bobcats being banned in California the last few years, dude, this is why i tell people time and time again, that it's so important.
00:43:06
Speaker
that the hunter the number of hunters grows. Because if it doesn't, bro, all that stuff's going to get banned over time. Because California is always the leader. always Always. And then when the other states get on board, the only way you're going to keep stuff from not legislat legislatively being banned is if you have strength in numbers. So all these guys, these hunt quietly guys, bro, they're wrong.
00:43:33
Speaker
They're wrong. There's no other way about it. They're incorrect. And if you have, here's the deal too. Younger folks, our age or younger are not replacing people falling off hunting at the older end, not even close. So you have to ramp that pace so much harder or we're cooked. I told you, it's like the skate park. I go to skate park with my kid every day.
00:43:55
Speaker
And there is no one. We were at my kid, but my six year old was BMX. There is no one there ever, James. It's the same thing for hunting, right? It's the same thing. They're always on Instagram and TikTok and like say on their phones yeah and they're they're playing video games rather than going and doing it. Same thing for hunting. Yeah. yeah The hunt quietly thing, dude, like I haven't, I'm sure going to make his page at some point. So I'm trying not to totally piss you on his page. Oh yeah. But my point is like, I know guys, I know plenty of people that have that mentality and I'm like, look,
00:44:21
Speaker
The reality is most people that think that I've been applying for tags out West longer than most of them. I've been, my whole life I've been applying for tags and yeah, it's gotten a little bit harder to draw, but if, if you are, if you are for selfish reasons saying, I don't want to share hunting, I don't want anyone to know about it because I want to draw more tags.
00:44:42
Speaker
That's such a selfish and short sighted point of view. When hunters are constantly under attack by more and more and more states, And unless we have the numbers, which we know we're going to fall off a cliff when the older folks start to either die off or quit hunting, you have to replace them with young folk, you know, fresh blood coming in. And if you don't, you're in big trouble.
00:45:05
Speaker
Yeah. Um, it's a weird thing is like with, like with Matt or no, like I've never met Matt. Um, I reached to him, actually, to come on the podcast because they do something for, like, public access. I really respect what they're doing. And they actually go on, like, he does a lot of really cool stuff for conservation, right? But at the same time, it's like, well whatever he's doing is right and everyone else is wrong. It's just this weird, like, it's kind of weird. Like, he has, like, 25,000 followers now or something, 20,000 followers, but then, like, but he's anti...
00:45:31
Speaker
Instagram. yeah You know what I mean? How you got to promote a social media thing on social media. Yeah, but it's like, but I mean, I don't know. I hope don't get burned for this by Matt, but like, that's all I really do. Like if you listen to this, like what he's doing with the public accessing is sick. Like they do a thing, James, where they go out and like they raise money and they, they give private land, like they'll help build a barn or build fences for them. Like it will help you. That's great. Give us access. Like we're going to go out and do it. And like, it's really cool. Like yeah I would really love to have the on the podcast. I really would. And like, yeah obviously we're not going agree on everything. Cause obviously like,
00:46:00
Speaker
I am the issue he has with hunting. Like I pay all the guys he hates. Like I pay them to work with me and like build my brand. And I kill a lot of deer every year. i mean, like I don't, I'd be embarrassed to see how many animals we killed this year. Like, but we do give away every single, we gave the last four deer away.
00:46:16
Speaker
families like we give every like families my church are all getting deer now from us which is awesome like we we eat everything we kill right yeah and in my point it was not i just used the i just used the name as like the name for it like he's the movement for it right but i wasn't i wasn't speaking about matt at all as an individual i'm just speaking about people who that's their mentality right now is i want to hunt more so i don't want to tell people about it to me that's I think just think it's totally flawed logic.
00:46:44
Speaker
Especially when the other side is not going talk about it. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. The other side is going just freaking go crazy. They're going to pushing hard. You have to have a presence in that space. You have to. And also, it's such a naive view, unrealistic view that one day social media is just like, people are going to stop posting. That never going to happen.
00:47:06
Speaker
That's like saying, I hope cars cease to exist and we go back to buggies. It's never going to happen. yeah Like you're you're creating this thing, this outcome of, oh, if we just squash social media and no hunters post, well, you're talking about Candyland. This is Willy Wonka. It's not a real thing.
00:47:24
Speaker
That's never going to happen unless TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, all just their their servers collapse and they're all gone. never going to happen. It's never going to happen. Never going to happen. And it's no different to- have to be realistic. you know and like is I understand some of it. like I'm not like opposed to everything Matt says, honestly. of course not. I do and like as you try. and like I see it with myself. like I'm always being more careful with things. And some stuff that's crazy is like you could post a picture.
00:47:53
Speaker
and like I posted a picture deer I killed this year Someone sent me a message from AI. They kind of knew the area I was in. ah from the skyline. They AI'd it and they're like, oh, you were on this. It wasn't exactly right. I'm like, okay, cool. You're within, you know, five miles where I was. But like, like you know what I mean? Like that is a little freaky, dude. Like yeah am and I am kind of like a little bit more stepping back with like even talking about some of the states I'm in and like that kind of stuff. But at the same time, like we're starting a media company. We're but we're making videos, doing all these things. Like i love doing it. I love promoting hunting. I love talking to people hunting. yeah I love being out with my friends and doing it. And love sharing those experiences with the world.
00:48:28
Speaker
it's no different than like Nike selling Nikes with football players or basketball know what i mean? Like, it's just like, no, it's it's, it's part of it. Like it's like for me to have a life lifestyle want to have and grow the brand I want to grow. Like I'm going to have to have influencers and have to do those things. It's just, it's all part of this thing. It's, but it's no different.
00:48:43
Speaker
It's no different than like, you know, football. No. And I mean, baseball. And I mean, there's, There's there's ways to do it, right? When we were a smaller channel, I would you know post what states were in possibly even the unit numbers numbers. I don't remember. Maybe we did. But now, dude, we never say what state we're in.
00:49:01
Speaker
Now, if it's like a once in a lifetime draw, like for example, when I filmed a bison hunt for my buddy, I'll put the state on that. Cause I'm like, you guys do like a book cliff Utah. It was book cliffs. I'm like, you're not going to draw it anyways. I'll tell you where it is, you know, but, but like, other than that, we never say what state we're in. No, nothing. So I think there are ways to, you know, do it responsibly, especially it also matters what scale you're at. You know, like when you have 60 views on a video, it, it,
00:49:29
Speaker
it sort of doesn't really matter as much, but when you're getting lots and lots and lots of viewership, I think it's important to, uh, you know, be self-aware and handle it the best way you can. You don't want to spot burn or things like that. So it's just about learning, but ultimately I do think it's important to have more people that are allies of hunting. And that's why i always say i I try to grow archers. People that shoot bows for fun year round. I don't care if they hunt or not, but if they shoot bows year round and they're a fan of bow disciples and people like us, guaranteed they're hunting allies.
00:50:04
Speaker
That's what I care about. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, 100%. How did you make the Hunt Qualley page? I don't even remember. It was, I think, um I don't know, similar thing. Talking stats sort of like this. I was saying how I think it was actually the line where I said that, you know, the hunting numbers are actually declining.
00:50:25
Speaker
And he said he found some cherry pick, some chart and said that wasn't true. But yeah, it is true. Yeah, man. Yeah. I don't know. It's, it's a weird, it's a weird time we're living in again. Like again, he's kind of like the anti-hero, right? So it's like, he's still doing everything that I'm doing, but his stuff's good. And it's like, so we don't people work like that, right? Like we're supposed to be working together. Yeah. And it's like, and it's like this, like, well, what I'm conserving is better than what you're conserving. And what my organization does is better than yours. And then even like,
00:50:55
Speaker
One thing that got me with him is he put like, he's not supposed to sponsor people, but then like he posted something to smash it on like marsupial gear. a hundred percent made in the USA. Yeah. And he like posted some false thing about him with another brand.
00:51:07
Speaker
And like, even the other Bino Harf was like, no dude, like we're basically doing the same thing. Like, you know what mean? And it's like, and you're just like, why are you trying to bring down a brand, you know what mean? Who's doing great things and a great family. And it's just like, I don't know, man. Like, so he'll promote things. Like, it's like he promotes what he thinks is right, but not with everything. if If you don't fully agree with him, then you're not right.
00:51:32
Speaker
You know, but I don't know, man. It's his thing. He has every right to do it. It's a America. He could do it. He could do all you want. I'm like, of course and Matt is right on some things. It's like, I do check out his stuff for once a while. Like i don't follow him. I don't think, I don't have social media. I just have Instagram. So once in a while, like somebody will tell me like, Oh, you see how quietly got this one. Like Johnny's like big on that guy. Like Johnny loves him. So he'll send me stuff. I'll check them out, you know?
00:51:51
Speaker
But, uh, don't know. I'm about to conversation with him. Just talk to him and feel him out. Cause I, I, one of my favorite things about hunting uh, I tell the time, like you go to sheep show, you don't know if the guy you're talking to you has one hundred million dollars or $10 in his pocket. Yeah. And like, dude, like some of my best hunting partners are Democrats. Like, it's not like, like, it's like, it's, we just love hunting. yeah Right. And yeah like, we're in this time where like, you're not allowed to have a different opinion, which I hate.
00:52:18
Speaker
Yeah. Same. Like I, like if, if I were to tell you that like every Republican thing we do is great, I'd be lying to you because there's a lot things Republicans doing now with public land that I hate. For sure. Yeah, I agree. I hate. Yeah. And like, but like, it's like almost like if you don't fully agree with whatever this guy says, you're wrong. Yeah. that's And it's not the case. know what mean? Like if I don't fully agree with that, it it doesn't mean that I'm wrong. It's we have different opinions or a lot of different opinions. Yeah. I mean, there's so much nuance in in life and there's never stuff is hardly ever.
00:52:47
Speaker
black and white. Yes, there are things that are, but oftentimes there's like a debate to be had. And, and, you know, there's probably some good ideas on each side of the coin and it's just about hearing it out and then responding with your POV, you know, it is what it is. And then maybe you pick something up couple percent from, from the other point of view, couple percent from your point of view. and I think you're absolutely right. I think where it becomes problematic is when you say, No, only this way is correct.
00:53:18
Speaker
And every other way is wrong. And that goes for anything in life, not just hunting. That goes for voting. It goes for fitness. You know, like people go, oh, well, you should only do incline bench. And if you do decline bench, you're wrong. It's like, you know what I'm saying? Like, oh there's always some new fad. There's always some new ah diet they're doing. Of course.
00:53:38
Speaker
Of course. But, you know, I think, I think just being a well-rounded person, you know, and, and trying to think about stuff. not emotionally, but just like, look at what is happening and then come up with the best. Well, the issue with me too is like, I couldn't even play Howard Cross. They were mad on this stuff. Cause like, he just smoked me. Cause like, I just don't care enough about it. Like know enough about like some of these topics, what mean? Like politics and stuff like where I would get to smoke. Cause even if I was, he was wrong, I'd be just like,
00:54:06
Speaker
I don't know how to answer that. Sure. You're right. Whatever the stats, you're right. You know? Yeah. But, um, yeah, man, it's just a matter. It's the balance. You know, I don't think we should be telling Like, I know there's a site out there like gay three Scott outdoors. And it's like, we're on that thing all the time.
00:54:18
Speaker
They're, they're hammering tricer all the time. I guess, uh, I hung out the eight, three outfitter guys and they were telling me like, Oh, you're right. We like you. Cause you're always on the gay three Scott outdoors page. And I'm like, didn't even know that, she you know, but like, there's just, there's just a lot of haters out there who'd like to hate on the industry. And I think there's no room for that.
00:54:32
Speaker
No, I agree. I mean, I think a lot of times when a brand gets to a certain caliber or even a um an influencer, I think a lot of times people either get jealous and at which case then lash out against them or they start to not look at them as a real human. They look at them as just like...
00:54:54
Speaker
I don't know, some like, and yeah, something that's like, you can talk crap about and they're not going to
Human Effort and Positive Representation
00:54:59
Speaker
feel it. Exactly. And they don't realize that a real human is, is actually putting in the effort to grow that brand or that platform or whatever. um and I think that's really sad. I mean, I, I think it would be a far better position to try to always remember that, you know, everyone is a ah person and has feelings and thoughts and emotions. And it's, you know, you i don't, I don't think it's cool to just,
00:55:23
Speaker
demolish somebody or try to make them feel bad. And to be honest with you, I think that reflects worse on the people who are talking poorly about somebody than the guy who just takes the stones and never says anything back. Yeah.
Humorous Stories and Podcast Conclusion
00:55:36
Speaker
So, I mean, we, we didn't go into immigration, at least on this podcast. we We did kind of get, over we did that on the last so last one. yeah yeah but Trump's got the border secure now. we're not worried about that stuff, but dude, so I don't want to end on this like sad note of like quietly, but I want to do like,
00:55:51
Speaker
Yeah. Are we doing a rapid fire or what? No, we're going to like this. I want your funniest story from the field this year. I have a funny one. Like mine's embarrassingly funny, but you want me to do mine first? Yeah. yeahre going Yeah. All right. I don't even know why I'm telling the story online, but I'm going to tell it anyway. So people, you might gross you guys out. So anyways, I'm getting, I'm pushing 40.
00:56:09
Speaker
We spent, i just got back Elkhart and I ended up sleeping on a hot tent for six days. Super dehydrated. You're just out there. You're hiking a ton, sleeping a tent. You're sower. Dude, I had to take like a morning dump.
00:56:22
Speaker
It's like 15 degrees. I was freezing. I hiked in the spot. Dude, I reached my left arm back and my trap came like dislocated and like rock hard. My arm got locked behind me. So I'm in the bushes and I can't move my left arm. Oh my gosh. And I'm like coming out and i'm like, I can't move. I'm going to use my other hand i get to get it done with the dude wipes. And I'm like i finally like, what's wrong? I'm like, like,
00:56:44
Speaker
almost in tears it's so bad oh yeah that's the whole thing like came i don't know what the deal is my left trap like it but my backpack on happens i have on my back and they're having wiped my butt yeah i'm in the field dude like early six or in the morning like almost in tears my arms locked behind me and i'm like oh this is terrible i wish someone who was filming this right now because it's so funny yeah that's a short right there that's a short one that's a good short that's like i'm taking giving you some funny so what's some funny stuff give me a funny one dude all right i got a pretty good one so Last year we had a new unit for javelina. So we're trying to find the javelina and basically we end up doing this.
00:57:19
Speaker
You couldn't really glass it super well. So we came up with this plan that like, okay, we know javelina are living on this slope, um but you can't see it. There's nowhere good to see it from. So we're like, okay, we'll all start at the top and we'll just flank out like a couple hundred yards and we'll just all walk into the wind downhill super slow and just try to try to see one still hunt. Right.
00:57:39
Speaker
And then if someone sees them, we'll come join him. We'll do a group stock, you know? Yeah. So anyway, I'm creeping and creeping and creeping. My dad's over here. Brianna's over here, but I can't see either of them. Right.
00:57:52
Speaker
So finally I'm creeping along and I look and I see, I see, i see a fricking Peckery. Right. And I'm just standing there. He's maybe a hundred yards. So I cue them up and they come over to me. It takes them forever. They finally get over and i'm like, all right, let's go get in there. Right. So we stalk in and,
00:58:09
Speaker
there's like some cattle and some peccaries and we're getting in there. And, um, I'm like, well, we'll let Brianna shoot first, you know, so we get in there and all of a sudden we're kind of set up and the, the, the javelinas start to like move from over here and they're all crossing like right in front of us.
00:58:27
Speaker
And I'm like, they're probably 35, 40 yards. And I'm watching Brianna's in front of me. I'm filming from behind her and I'm just waiting for her to draw. Right. One goes by two, three, four, five. And I'm like, why is she not drawing the bow? Right. Like the the sun was right in her face. So I guess she's having trouble getting a ah yardage and I'm in, I'm panicking. I'm like, Brianna, they're going to leave. Like we're going to no more peccaries. I'm watching the group dwindle down.
00:58:56
Speaker
Finally, she draws back and frigging pipes a branch, right? So her arrow just goes flying on the last peccary. I'm like, oh my gosh, right? So they hustle off and thankfully kind of start, couple of them start feeding again.
00:59:12
Speaker
And she gets set up again, same thing. She's struggling to range, still into the sun, winds in her face, and she just is having trouble. This hit Javelina is rooting facing straight away from her. I'm filming. And this other one comes up and mounts it. Right. Starts going to town on this other Javelina.
00:59:31
Speaker
Brianna, I don't even think she noticed. Right. So she draws back and the one like jumps off the back of the other one and then turns just a little and she shoots and and like hits it, like spines it, drops it right there.
00:59:44
Speaker
So now my dad's standing there and I'm filming. I'm like, I'm blowing a gasket, right? How just chaotic the situation has been. My dad goes to take a few steps and frigging just trips playing like tennis with this big stick. It's just between his feet. and He's just like eating crap. And oh my gosh, it was pure chaos. But we did end up getting three javelina. But it was like, bro, my anxiety was...
01:00:10
Speaker
through the moon with just how long it was taking. You guys don't have a call. You guys don't call them. Uh, no, no. Here and there. I like calling. I mean, I've done come charging it. Yeah. I like stocking. I just love stocking. I'm to say when, like when you bust them off your dad trips, they didn't even bust. That was the funny part. Cause they were all like 40, 50 yards. So anyway, we ended up getting to mine was over again. Chaos as well. I shot.
01:00:36
Speaker
Thought I smoked on me, like went behind the bush and I was like, okay, he's dead right there. You know, went and filmed my dad shoot one. And I look and I'm like, he's gone, you know? And I see him running off. Turns out I had hit him a little bit low. So I am sprinting through the desert, right? For like a mile.
01:00:54
Speaker
Kept getting on him. he would run over the next hill. So I'm just sprint. I'm so winded, frigging sweating. Finally, I catch up to him and I frigging pipe him off this cliff and made a killer shot. But it was, I have never put in that much mileage. Dude, I was running. They're such tough. Like they're so hard to pattern because they don't like, they don't really pattern. They kind of like, they kind of are where they are. I love them. They kind of where they are, but it's a super fun hunt. I've shot a few.
01:01:19
Speaker
It's a really, I think if you're going to go like, i mean, you can kind of put two and two together where he's hunting, but. it's a fun hunt to go do archery in January and you could, you could draw multiple tags. It's the hunts you could draw multiple tags on still. I frigging, actually told my team, like, Hey, we we we should go do that hunt together. Cause like everyone could draw. It's very, but very low pressure. Right. Like where, like you're not stressing on, mean, it's a javelina. It's not like you're like, Oh, I need to shoot a boon and crock at javelina.
01:01:42
Speaker
Yeah. You know mean? But, they're such cool animals. I love them. I really love them. I think they're, they're so awesome. They're actually good eating. I'm not sure. I chorizo mine. If I eat a mind. Yeah, they're good. Um,
01:01:53
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, that's a good story, though. Both of those are good stories. That's a fun story, dude. That's from this year, too. Yeah, mine, too. Mine's from my last week. I'm getting old. I can't even wear my butt anymore. I'm stuck out in the mountain, dude, just freezing nuts off. But all right, dude. That was fun, bro.
01:02:10
Speaker
Thank you. Let's do it again. Anytime. Anytime. could check out, uh, boat disciples on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Tik TOK, any name of the website, boat disciples.com. Any of them is go find James news podcast. He's a hoot. He's up a good time, but thanks bro. Anytime. Thank you.
01:02:27
Speaker
oh 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 Tricer USA 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.