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What's up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Hunting Gear Podcast.
It is Friday.
I know when you're listening to this it's going to be a Friday.
I don't even know the date. Let me check real quick.
It's going to be the 24th, Friday, March 24th.
Every single person except my wife has had the flu this week
and we've all been barfing and pooping and doing...
Just like rough.
It's been rough the past week and everybody's been sick
and we're coming out of it now.
That's a good thing.
Finally, today is actually the 23rd.
You're listening to this on the 24th.
I had a guy bail on me today because I had to bail on him yesterday
because I had the flu.
I reached out to my new buddy, Brian Krabs.
Brian is the host of the Western rookies podcast.
He's also the host of the Two Bucks Podcast.
I got him on today and we're going to talk about
hunting gear and equipment.
It's a BS session and really what we're talking about is budgeting
and spending and buy once, cry once, mentality
and once you've made your purchases and have your gear kind of organized
and set up for your hunting style,
then it becomes very inexpensive to hunt in a given year.
That's what today's conversation is about.
It's a good one and so I'm going to keep this.
My voice is still not right.
Before it burns out, I'm going to go ahead and do the commercials
and then just get right into today's episode.
I know you guys are going to enjoy it.
Let's see here.
Where are we at?
If you are looking for a saddle, go check out Tetherd.
Man, I can't wait to...
I'm taking a couple more white tail trips this year.
It's going to be less spot in stock and more death from above
and so I'm going to be relying on my saddle
in order to get me to where I need to go
in a very low profile type of way.
If you're looking for saddle, saddle hunting accessories,
if you're looking for climbing sticks
or saddles themselves or platforms, go check out Tetherd.
Along with that, they have a huge library of content
dedicated to making you a better saddle hunter.
Go check out Tetherd Nation and just read up on everything
that they have.
It's just a good resource.
Next on the list is Hunt Stand.
If you are looking to become a better hunter
and what I mean by that is just keeping your head in the game
all year round and if you want to document and journal
absolutely everything that you see in the woods
or out in the field or on the mountain,
you can definitely do that by leaving pins,
dropping waypoints or whatever it is that they call those
little pins that they drop.
You leave those and then what that does is it tells you a story
and then you reference that story every time you're waiting
for the bus to arrive or you're on the toilet
or you're in the parking lot waiting for your kids to get out of school.
You pull up Hunt Stand, you reference that
and the next thing you know you have this awesome journal.
These journal entries that you can reference.
If you're looking for a very high quality hunting app,
go check out HuntStand.com and while you're there,
read up on the Pro White Tail platform as well.
Tons of new functionality that they've released earlier this year
and if you're a serious white tail guy, it's a no brainer.
Next on the list we have Tacticam and now Tacticam is one of those
companies that if you are interested in documenting your hunts,
whether you have a YouTube channel or not or whether you want to
share them on social or not.
Very high quality imagery, the new 6.0 version has an LCD screen.
It has an image stabilization.
It has the ability to record in 4K and it can be mounted to your gun
or your bow so you can show your kids or your family members
what you saw that night and it also helps with shot placement.
You put a shot on the deer, you don't know if it was a great shot
or not.
You review the footage.
The footage shows, hey, I need to wait or I can go after this deer.
There's tons of benefits from having a Tacticam on your weapon.
Go check out Tacticam's website and that's it man.
Those are the three here for the hunting gear podcast.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed today's episode.
It's a really fun BS session with Brian Krebs.
Enjoy.
All right, on the phone with me today, Mr. Brian Krebs,
Brian, man, what's up?
Not much, man.
Just looking forward to some warmer weather.
Oh, dude, you and me both.
I love how spring in the Midwest is like a tease, right?
They're just like, okay, here's a couple of days of 50.
The sun's going to feel warm on the back of your neck and then we're going to
follow that up with one whole week of clouds and 30 degree weather with ice
and snow.
Yeah, it's wild.
I was driving back from the chiropractor this morning and there's a turkey like
full strut out in the middle of a parking lot and I'm just thinking like,
man, it's got to be here.
The turkeys are all full strut.
Spring has got to be cooked soon.
Right, right.
And as you can tell by that cough there, I'm just getting over the flu.
So I had to bail on a guy yesterday.
He had to bail on me today.
And so I texted you and I was like, hey, dude, you got you available right now.
And so last minute we're making this work.
And I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to do this, man.
Hey, it's never a bad day to talk about gear.
I mean, all of us hunters are probably like, we probably talk about it too
much and our wives are like, can you just like go find someone else to talk about this with?
Yeah, I don't know, man.
I feel like, let me ask you this.
Do you consider yourself a gear nut?
I don't know if I'm a gear nut in the sense that I need to go try everything on the market.
I don't have that bug, but what I do have is the gear that I choose is going to be the
best I can find for what I need.
And once I find it, I quit trying other things until there's an issue.
So I don't know where that lands me in the gear nut category, but I do like the buy once,
cry once mentality.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What would you give that title, that person?
Because I wouldn't consider what you're doing being a gear nut either.
I look at a gear nut as someone who buys something different every year,
tinkerers with it, decides whether or not they like it.
But regardless of the outcome, they're still buying new gear every year.
Yeah, I agree.
That's what I think of when I say like a true gear nut.
I keep an eye on the market and what's coming out, but I would maybe call it like,
I'm very tied to my gear.
I'm very connected to my gear.
You know, it means a lot to me and it means a lot to have good times outdoors.
And gear is a big part of that for me.
So that's why I, you know, maybe gear dependent.
Yeah, gear depend.
Well, you're also efficient with it.
So like, I think that's how I personally make most of my decisions based off of,
is it the right thing for me?
Can I beat the crap out of it?
I mean, and it's all situational.
So I have different gear, like when I go out West and I'm spot and stock and mule deer
or out in the mountains versus the, you know, the tree stand.
And so I have a different pack for each one of those scenarios because they require me
to carry more or less gear depending on what scenario I'm in.
And so, I don't know, man, I feel like I'm to the point, just like you where I think I used to be
a tinker back in the day, maybe two or three years ago, but not so much anymore.
I feel like I have found the equipment in the gear that not only am I comfortable with,
but are perfect for me in the environments that I hunt.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's a big thing to me with gear is, is I don't need to have a lot.
I don't need to have new stuff all the time.
What I need to have is stuff that I know is going to work and I'm not going to be out
on my nine day elk hunt wondering, man, should I have switched my pack?
This one just doesn't feel right.
I'm running into issues.
And so that's where I really just want to know what I have is going to help me be successful.
Yeah.
Yeah.
One second, I got a go shut off a space heater.
I don't know why.
I just decided that.
I love when things like that happen.
I have this dumb ass space heater in my office and it breaks like two months ago.
And all of a sudden just right now it decides to kick back on.
It blows my mind.
It blows my mind.
Perfect timing.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So, um, so let's talk about budgeting because I think this is where a lot of people, I don't
know, like I consider myself serious.
I don't have any other hobbies, but I still have to buy.
You know, I'm lucky I'm in the industry in some way, shape or form so I can get discounts.
If I know a lot of people, if I really wanted to, I could reach out and get discounts.
I could, you know, I strike up some sponsorship deals, which usually results in free product here and there.
But there are, there is still a lot of stuff that I have to budget for every year.
And so let me ask you this, just very, uh, very vague, high level question.
How do you usually budget for any new, you know, purchases, hunting gear and equipment and, and is, does that also fall into your tags and license budget?
Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a great question because it's important and you'd never want to come to October and you're like, oh shit, like I don't have money for Kags.
And so I wasn't, I was not great at it for, you know, my early single years out of college, I was making money.
I didn't have a girlfriend or a wife. And so I was just like, my finances were like, hey, I got money. I'll spend money.
Oh, things are tight. I quit. You know, I was just kind of like go with the flow.
Yeah. And my fiance at the time, well, not my wife, she, she did not operate that way.
She was very structured and that gave her like a lot of anxiety.
Yeah. And so I started, I started getting better. She really helped me get better. And so now I just have a sinking fund.
Every paycheck, hundred and eighty five bucks goes in the hunting fund. Yeah. So you do that. That's about three hundred and seventy dollars a month.
You're just shy of about, you're getting about forty five hundred bucks a year, right? Into the sinking fund. Yeah.
And that's intended to cover points, Hags, and then gear, right? And some trips. And so what really throws a ranch and stuff is taxidermy, right?
When you have been to shoot a big bowl that you want to shoulder mount. Now you got a, that's a bet. Like, that's, like a different process.
But that's how I do it. I set aside money. If something big comes up, then we just do like a different type of sinking fund. Like, like this summer, I want to get a redneck blind or a bank's outdoors blind for our farm.
Yeah. We got a new piece. And so that's something where it's like twenty five hundred bucks. Me and my dad are going to split it.
But you just got to start putting a hundred dollars, a hundred dollars a month away towards it. Yeah. And you got to plan these things out.
And you're going to be a lot less stressed. Your partner in life is going to be a lot less stressed when you have a plan like this. So it's gone way better.
Yeah. Man, that's the, that's here. I'm going to be full disclosure, brutally blunt.
My wife has a problem with me and the, I don't, I, and I, and I don't think it's the amount of money that I spend. I think it's the amount of time that I allocate to hunting.
And so, and it really does come, it doesn't compare to the time that I spend with a family because obviously I'm with the family all year round.
And so I do this, let's just say max five weeks out of an entire year, I dedicate to hunting. Whether that's shed hunting, whether that's turkey hunting, whether that's, you know, a week in South Dakota, a week in Nebraska, a week in Iowa, really, it's probably less than that. But, but like when I go to, when I go and I buy, let's say like I bought, I bought a quiet cat this, this past year, I bought a quiet cat.
I think I got it in September is when it finally arrived. And so I did a hunt without it and then I did a hunt with it. And that, that cost me $3,000.
Okay. And I'll tell you this, that's with a 50% discount because I knew a guy who worked at Quiet Cat. So I, I got a huge discount. And so I got a really good bike for half the, half the price.
And like she, she did, I don't, she thought it was cool, but I don't think she liked it because I spent $3,000 on that instead of the family.
And, and so when we go on, let's say like a, we go to the Wisconsin Dels sometimes or we go on a family trip, that's like one third of, of that, of that cost. So like the family trips and the vacations and things like that.
Those, those really add up fast as opposed to my one big purchase a year. And if I don't make a purchase going to, I don't know, going, and I don't know where I'm going with this.
I'm just, I'm shooting right from the hip here. Like going, when I go to on a trip out West, right?
I already have everything I need for the most part. You know, this year was an exception with that, with that Quiet Cat. But man, I sleep in the back of my truck.
I eat food out of a cooler. I really don't eat. You know, I don't go out to eat.
Everything I bring is with me. And so it's, it's way cheaper than going on, on these vacations. Yet I think, I think more of it has to do with time.
Then it does with, oh, you're going on three trips. Well, my three trips equal one of our family trips or one of, and I almost, I said this to her the other day.
Hey, listen, if you want, you guys are more than welcome to come with me, but you're going to sleep in the back of a truck, where you're going to sleep in a tent.
You know, we can go do as many of those trips and vacations as you want because they're really affordable. Actually, we can do more of them throughout a year because they're affordable.
No one wants to sacrifice a hotel room and a shower and going out to eat and things like that. So we're, that's not necessarily about gear. That's just getting that off my chest right now.
Yeah, I mean, it's when you talk about budget, the time budget is, you know, the money budget might be the talking point, but I feel like a lot of people, the real root of the conflict is the time.
Right. It's the time away from home. And so you got to, you just got to be very open. You know, me and my wife, we found out that back to back Western hunts don't work for us when I'm gone for nine days. I'm home for three and then I'm gone for seven more.
Like, so we just, I just plan my hunts accordingly now and try to, you know, move things around. So I'm at home long enough to get, you know, re-entried into my house and to our relationship and I'm home long enough that we can talk and we can relax.
It's not like, Hey, we got to hit these five things right now because I'm leaving in two days. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's the, that's the toughest thing. I like, I can go out and, and I, I get the benefit.
And I know a lot of people who are listening to this right now, they don't get the benefit of this. I can say, dude, I'm doing this for my job. Right. As opposed to, you know, Joe Blow, who's working the factory job.
And he tries to drop three grand. It doesn't matter how much money he's making. If he decides to drop three grand on a quiet cat or a big expenditure like that, he can't use that excuse and his wife.
His wife, like, that's a tax write off for me, which kind of brings me to my next point. I know guys, and I don't know. I'm sure you know guys too, who they start in LLC.
Just to write off their, their hunting expenses.
Well, I, I don't have an LLC, but I do have a sole proprietorship. Yeah, that's what I have to. And you can, you can do the same thing.
Yeah. The LLC is just a, it's a, it's a protection vehicle for whatever you're doing. You could still be taxed as a sole proprietor and just have it in an LLC for protection.
But yeah, it's very, I mean, I tell people all the time, like, Hey, start a T shirt business when in whatever demographic your passion is it? Yeah.
So if you're in a hunter, start a funny T shirt hunting, like a funny hunting T shirt business. Yeah. And now every time you go out West and you bring your shirts and you bring your camera and you're taking content, you can start to play a lot of different tricks with legal tricks with the tax season and you get a accountant that knows what he's doing.
And he's gonna, he's gonna guide you and he says, you know, this is pushing it. You know, you can't sell two shirts a year and write off $20,000.
But if you really love it, you're probably gonna grow it. It's probably gonna turn into something. But then like, you know, miles can be written off. Sometimes hotels can be written off.
Cameras can be written off. There's all, you gotta eventually make profit. I mean, that's where you, if you're gonna do that, I really strongly encourage you to get an accountant and, and over at the two book podcast, I had my accountant down and he can, he's licensed for the whole country.
So if you're looking for someone, you know, but do it, do it smart. But yeah, there's a lot of benefit to be in a W to employee with the side gate.
Yeah, that's a fact. So kind of, kind of coming back to budget here. What, like, how do you determine, you know, you, you've already talked about putting 185 bucks a month into an account.
And what does that usually get you a year? I don't have a calculator in front of me. Oh, so I did 185 a paycheck. So 370 a month. That comes into just, just under $4,500 a year. It's probably like 4440.
So $4,500 roughly a year. And does that, does that cover everything? Because I look at something like that and you're going on an elk hunt and then another out of state hunt as well, right? At least two out of state hunts a year.
Typically, I'll do an elk hunt, maybe a four day deer hunt. I've always done like a five day fishing trip in Canada, maybe a couple weekend shed hunts and the gas on a like a weekend hunt. That's kind of neither here nor there. That's just the monthly budget.
I would say it's a strong base. Yeah. You don't get, you don't get yourself into deep trouble when you start with a base like that. Now, some years it's a little light. You know, I went, I drew that North Dakota elk tag. I think we talked about it on previous podcast, but I was scouting every week.
I had a super duty. I was doing like $600 a month in fuel. And then I had a nine day Montana hunt. I was home for two days and then I left for another elk hunt. So that, and then I had to tax every bill, right?
Right. So like it, sometimes it's not enough, but it's a good base. I would strongly encourage you to start with what you can. Right? If that's 50 bucks a paycheck, if that's skipping beers with your buddies at the bar, invite them over, buy a 24 pack and invite them to the garage. You'll have more fun.
It'll be way cheaper. Throw that 50 bucks in at least you're starting somewhere and you'll start to know if it's got to go up or down. Yeah. Yeah. And that's kind of how I play it. And what's awesome about about this, this buy once, cry once mentality that you that you talked about.
I've already bought once. And so most of my budget then for the year actually goes into transportation of getting me to and from hunts and the food and the tags. So really, so, so gas, food and tags.
And so now that I've, I have almost everything that I need. You know, I got this quiet cat, which really opened up things for me this year. My only expenses are going to be food, gas and tags. And so last year, man, I want to say I went on.
And this does include hotels during the rut in Iowa where I got a hotel during the days that it rained. And so all my Western trips. I did one day of hotels in a two week period, like a combined two week period.
And so I did. I want to say, I went on three week long trips throughout the entire year, this year. And it was under two under three thousand dollars for all of that.
And so I look at something like that, I go three trips for three under three grand. That's, that's an amazing to me as opposed to having to go, you know, if I had to go buy a full sitka sit up or set up or if I had to go.
What's the, what's another, like if I bought a brand new bow or a brand rifle or something like that on top of that, then it starts to escalate a little bit more. But the best part about this is once you have everything you need.
That's when you can start and you've refined your gear, not only have I, have I bide once, cried once, but I've also refined that gear to the point where now I have everything I need.
And my budget is just wide open on tags and travel.
Yeah, I'm the same way. I mean, I bought a rifle two years ago and that was the last significant hunting gear purchase. And up until then I was, I was borrowing rifles because our family just had enough.
Yeah.
Yeah, like I run kind of Trek boots. I haven't bought new boots in five years. I haven't had blisters in five years. I have a mystery ramp pack.
I kept my old pack that time just because my wife would need one eventually. But, you know, these are investments and gear. It's lifetime stuff. You know, I'm running sick and I do have to send in a jacket right now because it, it's six years old and it has one tiny rip this season shed hunting.
Yeah.
And so it's like I'll send that in. It'll get fixed under warranty. But I haven't bought hunting clothes. And so I'm at that same point. I'm in a maintenance phase already with gear. Now there's big stuff coming, right? We're going to buy a tractor.
And eventually we're going to have a four wheeler. That's completely different. Like that's a whole different budget. Yeah. But I'm at the point now where I basically can round out what I need every year. The ebbs and flows with like birthday and Christmases.
Yeah.
Like my whole family hunts on both sides. Right. And so I can put a sicka hoodie on the list. I could put a trail cam on the list. A lot of the things that really adds up.
You start talking about like trail camera hardware, these brackets and mounts. The Houdag grippers. Like all this stuff that's like only 30 bucks. All of a sudden you got like $300 a year and that stuff.
And those are great Christmas gifts because it's 30 bucks a piece. Right. So yeah, I got through the years I've found tips and tricks to really cut down on spending.
And I don't know if you want to get into that here or not. But there's some ways where you can really save some significant dollars on hunting gear.
Let's do that. But remind me because I got something else that the transition into yours is going to be easier than what I want to talk about. So let's talk about it. How do you save money?
So right off the bat, one of the easiest ways to save money is you go on. I've went on Amazon and you can get an air mattress that's custom fit to your truck bed. So if you've got a crew cab, almost everyone's got crew caps these days.
You can get this air mattress where there's a base section that fills up the footwell area of your back seat and that comes up and then it's flat. So it's basically like a twin size bed. It's going to be more comfortable than a cot.
You have heat and air conditioning depending on what season it is with your pickup. You just auto start it or start it, run it for 15 minutes.
And so I do that anytime I'm hunting alone, no matter the weather conditions. I've done it down to 15 below. I've done it up to 85 at night. You just tailor your sleeping bag and your sleep system to the weather.
But you can do it 15 below without running the heater if you have a good bag. Maybe one blanket on top. So you got 70 bucks into that air mattress. There's not a hotel anywhere anymore for $70.
And so you save it. That's like instant return on its money. You save two nights and you got the whole thing paid for. And so like you, every time I'm alone, I'm sleeping in my pickup.
So that's a great one just to save those hotel bills because those significantly add up. And then a little known secret is if you're a firearm safety instructor, you qualify for the IHEA International Hunter Education Association.
And they have a program called Expert Voice where there is a ton of discounts on there. All of the GSM brands are a part of it. Not every product.
But I mean, you're in the industry. GSM has basically the one stop shop for hunting aside from weapons. GSM's got it all. Trailcams, blinds, everything.
They're on there. They got some pretty good discounts. I mean, like 30% off stealth cam, 40% off Hawk. They have Vortex. Vortex is on the Expert Voice Program 40% off on optics.
And so you got to go through a little bit of work on this one. It's free to become a firearm safety instructor in most states. But you got to actually go out and help kids and get back to your community. But by doing so, you can get some heck of a good deals on some of this stuff.
And then everyone I think now actually knows about Camel Fire. But you give it enough time on the Camel Fire app. It's like a hunting surplus app. Every day there's new deals.
You give it like 12 months. You can usually find what you're looking for.
Right. Right. Hey, same thing with there's other websites out there. Oh, God. HuntingGearDeals.com. HuntingGearDeals, I believe it is. HuntingGearDeals.com.
And the sole purpose of that website is to go out scrub the internet, look for discounts on HuntingGear and equipment and go and find them and bring them to you. Right. So there's that.
And then also here's one thing that I've found. And this was before really I was this deep into the industry. And I got I hate saying that. I just hate saying that because it makes me sound like a D bag.
And so but call the company up. Ask them questions about the product and then ask them over the phone. Hey, do you happen to have any any discounts available right now?
And I'm not going to guarantee this. But I have a feeling that if you said, Hey, man, I'm looking for you have a you have a small discount available.
They I bet you a lot of companies would go, you know what? I think we do have a discount available for you and it may be 5% it may be 10% but that's still better than, you know, paying full retail price for it.
And so if you look hard enough, you can find discount codes for just about anything on the market or a time of year, like Black Friday or or pre or post season.
They have they have codes available for you.
Yeah. Yeah. And then I would just say make a list prioritize it and just check one off at a time. Don't unless you're unless you're in a different class, I would not suggest just go into the store and fill in a basket of everything at one time.
I'm just checking off. I mean, you probably have the bare essentials already if you're at all into the hunting lifestyle.
So you got what you could go hunting with. So now if it's like, well, I could use a better pack. Mine doesn't really work to haul meat. I want to go out.
Okay. That's my priority one. Get the pack this year. Next year, maybe get a better pair of boots year after that. Maybe you get two pairs of pants.
Take it slow, you know, it's not worth being in a bad spot for 11 months to have fun one month.
Yeah. The only thing that I could really that could probably throw a wrench into a budget like that would be maybe like a once in a lifetime hunt where all of a sudden you're but.
You know, all of a sudden your buddy calls you up and goes, Hey, dude, I got a I got access to a.
A Yukon moose float trip hunt. It's going to be 10 days. Here's what we would need for it. And then then it would be like one of those.
Maybe I put that on a credit card type scenarios because it is such a one off once in a lifetime hunt and then you decide to maybe pay that off in the long and the long term.
And then, you know, basically make your budget zero after that and only hunt local. So outside of that, I think you're right. I mean, just slowly, slowly add up or slowly gather everything, everything you need.
Any other tips or tricks that you can that you can think about that would help somebody save money.
I would say, I would say the, you know, what's going to save you the most money in the long, long term is just taking care of the gear you have. Right. That's not dropping binos. It's not. I mean, I've dropped a final off the side of a cliff before.
And I'd I crawled down to get it and it was fine. And it was a little pulled so it's covered, but invest in good gear and then take care of it. Right. Like, make sure you're not having to replace your stuff every two, three years, you know, pants.
And it's a little different story. Like they eventually they just wear out. But like, make sure your glass for sure. You're not treating it bad. Your rifle is you're cleaning them. You're keeping them safe.
And that's just going to save you the most money in the long term is buy once, cry once and take care of it forever. There's a lot of things that will last forever now and then just be, I don't know, maybe be centered more on the why. Why are we doing this?
I enjoy the outdoors. It's not to have the coolest looking Instagram pictures with all the latest gear. Right. There's gear that comes out all the time that I'd love to have. I'd love to do tree saddles. But, you know, it's like, do I really need a saddle? Where am I going to use it? I hunt my own farm.
I have tree stands set everywhere I want. Right. I don't need it right now. So I put that off. I would love a lone wolf custom gear. Those stands look sweet. But do I really need it now? The lone wolf assaults are fine. Yeah. Right.
Yep. And just to piggyback off what you've said there, you mentioned warranties. And so I got one of the partners of the nine finger chronicles is Vortex Optics. And I like having a company.
I'd say, for example, Vortex Optics or Exodus Trail Cameras, they had a five year warranty on some of their trail cameras. And so when you, when I go in to make a purchase, that's another thing I look at because I can be really, really hard on my optics.
And I can go out and I can drag them through the dirt and I can use them really hard. And I know that I have a warranty to lean on if there's any damage done to them because I can just send my binoculars back in.
They fix it for free and then they send it back. And I wish, I wish all my hunting gear had that same type of warranty on it because it would make things a lot easier to, you know, hold on the crotch.
Let's go send it in, you know, hole in the boot. Let's go send it in, you know, broken, I don't know, broken riser because I dropped my bow out of the tree stand.
Send it in, you know, I wish every company had that, had that, unfortunately they don't. But buying, buying a product with a warranty like that is, I don't know, I almost don't even, I won't buy a product unless it has a product.
Unless it has a certain product, unless it has a warranty like that. I mean, it's almost industry in certain categories. It's almost industry standard right now.
Yeah, and Vortex is, I would say Vortex is the gold standard in customer service and warranty. Their warranty policy is even better than Leopold's and Leopold's has always been known for theirs.
And I'm right now I'm down the fence, 50-50, half of its L's, half of its V's, but lately I'm moving more and more towards Vortex just because of their customer service, their value.
I really do believe for the value, what you get for what you spend Vortex is right at the top of the pack.
Right, absolutely.
And so yeah, I'd like to actually have those guys on the Western Rookie Podcast to kind of talk through glass for anyone that's looking for some glass of like, what do I need, what's the difference between this and that?
How do I know what I'm looking at? I think it'd be really cool to hear from them on that. But yeah, like you said, nothing makes me mad more when it comes to gear than spending $100 to try to get away with, you know, like, I don't really need that.
I'll just spend $100 and get this instead. And then I hunt it and I'm like, I'm just frustrated, right? It just angers me.
And then I end up spending the $200 anyway. Now I'm in it for $300 instead of $200. And I had, you know, I got frustrated in the meantime, maybe it kind of wrecked a hunt or something that didn't go the way I wanted it to.
And that, you know, so I just quit doing that.
Yeah. Are there any products that you treat as disposable? And what I mean by that is something that gets you through one season.
And that's all you care that it does.
Double A batteries.
Well, in fact, okay. All right. Outside of that.
Yeah, I got enough double A batteries to put tractor weights on our tractor.
Dude, dude, you want to know what's awesome?
And just as much as the 50% discount from, I got from the quiet cat deal.
So the network, the sportsman's empire network partner is interstate batteries.
Yeah. So every year the guy sends me like 240 or something like that, whatever it comes out to.
Yeah.
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before me. And so just throughout one year of working in those gloves, and that means
hanging tree stands, taking tree stands down, checking trail cameras, you know, going,
you know, crossing fences, climbing up shale, whatever, whatever, you know, crawling on
your hands and knees, things like that, no matter how durable a glove says it is, it
does not, it does not last an entire season with me, there's always holes in them somewhere.
And so at the beginning of every deer season, I go to Lowe's or a hardware store and I buy
another pair of mechanics gloves. And that is my hunting glove for the entire year. And
I've, I've gone through all the name brand hunt, like you name a brand of outdoor gear,
hunting gear specifically that sells gloves. I've probably had them and I've probably worn
them out in a single season. You see, that's funny because I've never, I've worn out one
pair of gloves. Sicka used to have this OG shooter glove that was perfect. It was kind
of like a tactical glove. Yeah. And I used to wear that elk hunting, I only wore them
elk hunting because you always grab and shit and fall in and yep. And so I wore those out
after like three or four years. But other than that, I mean, I have this the lightweight
sickle ones and they last forever. And then usually I'll upgrade to, I wear leather gloves
for anything if I'm not hunting. Like I'll just go get a pair of leather farm gloves.
If you want to flip them inside out, they last longer, but they look stupid. Yeah. Because
the rough out doesn't cut as fast. And then if it gets cold enough, I'll just switch to
my choppers. And I think my choppers were my dad's choppers. So they're like 40 years
old. Yeah. And so I can't remember the last time I've bought gloves and I've got so many
of those thin sickle ones now because I get them like every Christmas and a stock. Yeah.
Yeah. And I've never even worn a pair out, but they work great up until like October
because just if your hands get a little chilly, put them in your mouth or your jacket. Yeah.
And then sometimes I don't even hunt with gloves even when it's late season, I just put
them in my bibs and keep my hands warm. Yeah. So and so when I'm out West, I wear gloves
when I'm walking to and from a spot once I get to a spot, I take my gloves off, put
them in my pocket. If the weather's warm, right? Yeah. And I'm doing that because I
don't want to put my hand in a cactus or or, you know, on the rocks as I'm pulling myself
up a hillside or whatever. But then on top of that, I'm like you, I very rarely wear gloves
in the tree stand. I will say this though. I usually do you know, have you ever heard
of the it's basically a farm brand handy andies? They're the yellow, the yellow and red gloves.
Yellow and red. Yeah, there doesn't seem to come to mind. Okay. Anyway, they're like,
I wore them when I was bailing hay and things like that, you know, back in the day. And so
these handy andies, they're they're soft, but they're durable. And and in the during
the hunting seat, like during the, uh, uh, because because this is weird, because I
don't have a right index finger, I put my release on my bare hand and then I put my release
into the index finger on that hand and so into the empty finger pocket and then I can
wear my gloves over top of my release. And then when the moment of truth comes, right,
usually my gloves are off anyway and in like a muff at that point. But when I'm walking
tuned from the stands or things like that, I'm in a pair of handy andies. And so, uh,
I don't even wear it like those are those are just, I don't know, those are those are
more durable than any hunting glove I've ever had to purchase. They they last forever, but
that's what I'm using. So yeah, that's a sweet trick. Because I bet you don't
claim your, your release on your steps very often when it's up to you. Well, usually I
don't put my release on until I'm in the tree anyway. And so, and so that's just the secret
to keeping my hands warm. Cause I don't like I do not sticks out. Well, no, I don't like
having my release over top of a glove. Oh, no. Yeah, I just, I can't do it. I like to
punch it up. Yeah. I just love the sense, having the sensitivity of the finger directly
on the trigger. And so usually, uh, when a deer does come by that I feel like I want
to shoot, uh, I'm not thinking about the cold anyway, right? I'm like, it would have
to be really, really cold for a long period of time with that skin exposed for me to just
be like, Oh no, I'm cold. It's going to ruin my shot. So, um, I don't know. That's, that's
my glove situation anyway. Yeah, that's funny. That's the one. Yeah. But like you said, even
gloves, I mean, you're talking what 50, maybe a hundred if you're going top of the line gloves,
but the ones that you're getting at the fleet farm are not a hundred dollar gloves. And so,
really when it comes to gear, it sounds like you and I are pretty much at the same boat. Like,
we're not replacing gear every year. No. No. No, I'm deaf. I'm gonna, I feel like the only
piece of gear I'm going to have to replace this year in is going to be potentially,
I've had my a crispies now for going on five years and they still work really great. They're
not as waterproof as they were anymore. So I add a new coat of waterproofing to them every single
year and they do okay. I mean, when it's wet and damp out, they get, they get wet. They're not,
I mean, the waterproofing isn't on them anymore, but they're, they're very comfortable. They're
still, you know, they're still durable, right? I mean, they, they've lasted. I've kicked the
shit out of them. They've lasted long, but the other than that is a release. So, I feel like I'm
going to have to get a new release this year and I'll be playing around with different types of
releases between now and the hunting season to see what, what I like.
Yeah. Yeah, that's a good one. And then like, you know, broad heads maybe, you know, you
bang up a broad head long enough. You, I shoot fixed blade single bevels now so I can sharpen
them for a long time. But eventually they just, you got to retire them arrows. A lot of people
may not know this, but your carbon will degrade in your arrow, right? Right. Everything works fine,
but you just lose that stiffness and that might be why your groups over time are just starting to
widen out a little bit. Yeah. So eventually you got to replace those things. I have in a boot cycle.
Me and my brother really like buying the next pair of boots about two thirds of the way through.
And now you have a good water pair when you need it. But if it's not raining,
don't wear your new pair. You keep that old pair going. That's a great idea. Yeah. And it,
you're going to need two pairs of boots anyway when you go out West. Like if you're going out
West without two pairs of boots, you're setting yourself up for one heck of a game of roulette.
Yeah. Yeah. I've been there actually not this year or this past year, but the year before,
we got caught in a rainstorm and soaked head to toe. We decided to go and get a hotel room. And
my boots did not dry even on a, on a boot dryer. They did not dry and they were not ready for the
next hunt. And luckily I brought a old pair of boots with me and I don't know, I would have
not been able to hunt that whole next day if I did not have those extra boots with me. And so,
man, that would have, that would have sucked not to be able to hunt.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'll hunt with wet feet, but you're going to pay the price. You're going to
give blisters. I mean, yeah, it's just uncomfortable. Yeah. Yeah. Let me ask you this, this, and this
is where I was going to go before we started talking about how to save money. And, and that is,
there's a couple, man, there are some products out there from some companies that are just,
and what I mean, top end, they're the top end of the top end. All right. And so, I, I actually,
you know, I don't want to judge this, this company yet, but I, because I want them,
I want them on the podcast to talk about what goes into the cost of this product. But expedition
has come out with a bow that's damn near $2,000 for a compound bow. And so, it, it, and I think it
is because of the material they use in their riser. It just costs more. And, and there's some,
there's some benefits to it. But what are your thoughts on products like that? Like, I mean,
do you ever see yourself buying a $2,000 bow? And, and what would that bow have to do
in order for you to justify spending that?
Ooh, on a bow, I would really have to see the tech, because I think everyone is kind of aware
that the, the technology of compound bows is really at a wall right now. Like, there's not a
lot they can do anymore, and besides fine tuning it. But, man, I would love to see, for that kind of
money I'm talking, like I'd wanted to have like a hundred feet per second jump in speed with
solid sacrificing, like, shootability, right? It's like, because, because, you know, if you read
the Ed Ashby studies, like there's guys with 50 pound recurbs killing the water buffalo,
every shop, like it's arrow construction, like, so my bow can kill anything in North America if
I put the arrow in the right spot with the right product. So do I need that? No. Do I want good
quality gear and other aspects? Sure, right? I mean, yeah, there's different definitely
like, try once, buy once policy applies to, to gear like that. And then I do like, I like being
at the top end of, of gear. I might take a long time to get it, right? Like, I, it took me five
years to fill out my Sitcup needs, right? The system. Yeah. But, you know, now I have that
incinerator set for late season hunts and I never, I haven't been cold since I bought it. Yeah. You
know, so yeah, there's some things that you talk about like 15, $1,600 for a set of clothes on
jacket and bibs. It's kind of on par with a $2,000 bow. Yeah. Unfortunately, the rest of the bows
aren't far behind them anymore either. So yeah, yeah. I don't know, man, I just, I look at some
of this and I go, you'd have to be, and it almost makes me want to do this. And this is, here's a
thought that I had this year. And I, if you're listening to me, there's, I would like the listeners
help on this. Go to the nine finger Chronicles Instagram page, send me a DM. I want to find the
cheapest compound bow that's currently available that, and there's some stipulations here. It would
be have to, it would have to have a 30 inch draw and it would have to have 70 pound draw weight.
Outside of that, I would really love to shoot the cheapest compound bow on the market this year,
this upcoming year, maybe think I'd think about it. And, and just see how like, what my confidence
level is after shooting it a whole bunch of times compared to some of these other flagship bows
and these really popular manufacturers of this. And if it is so night and day, that in fact, I,
you know, like I, I wouldn't feel confident shooting a deer with it. Does that make sense?
Oh yeah. I mean, what comes to mind is the mission craze. Those mission bows, like entry level,
they have like 18 to 30 inch draw adjustability and 15 to 70 pound weight adjustability. My nephew
shoot them because my brother bought them when they're growing. And it's like I can buy this one bow.
And like people, my, I had an ex-girlfriend a long time ago was shooting one at 40 pounds
at 24 inch draw. And she spot and stocked 154 and white tail on our farm, the six yards he was wounded
and double lunged them, passed through complete pass through. So it's like, like what you're saying,
like, I think what you're getting at is like, is the very entry level bow good enough to do what
I need to do. Right. And probably, it probably just isn't the same feel. But like with the ex-p-expedition
archery bow, $2,000 like that isn't that much different than the Matthews and the Hoyt flag
ships. They're at 1800 for their carbon bows. Yeah. That great point. Great. Yeah. I just can't,
I don't know, man. I have a, it's for some reason, I can't get behind a full carbon bow right now.
I had such a bad experience with a carbon bow in the past that I just did not like the way it felt.
And it's been a long time. So I'm sure there's been upgrades since then. But I just can't get
behind a hundred percent carbon. I just can't for some reason. And maybe I need to go shoot a
couple of these new bows to get the real feel. I've never shot one, but I, from what I understand,
the big, the big seller is weight, right? Right. Well, my bow weighs 10, 11 pounds anyway. So,
yeah, I don't care if I save eight ounces on the bare bow because I have a, a bar with weight out
front and a back bar. And that's what I hunt elk with. Like I carry this 10 pound bow, my rifle,
my elk hunting rifle weighs 13 and a half pounds after I put the Vortex Viper
50 power scope on it, or sorry, 50 millimeter scope on it. Yeah. So, I'm not, I'm not cutting
ounces. I'm a big dude. Like if I needed to save some weight, I could easily lose 50 pounds.
Same here, dude. I got the tire around the waist. If I were, if I wanted to cut weight, and I,
and I tried to actually, you know, you know, here coming up, I'll, I actually do try to lose weight
going into September and say 10 pounds off the knees, man, that's what that's the goal 10 pounds
off the knees. Yeah, right. So that's what that would be way better all around to use that 10
pounds than 10 ounces on a bow and pay another $800 for it. Right. Well, and another thing is,
is like on some of the places that I, that I hunt, I would rather take 10 pounds off my body
and then replace that with 10 pounds of water. You know, so I wouldn't have to go find water or I
wouldn't have to, you know, I don't know, go, go take care of that whole thing every single day. But
other than that, when it comes to, you know, budgeting or ways to save, you know, where, where,
where else is, is there anything else that we could talk about? Well, one thing that I do,
and this is going to be personal preference, but I live in a big enough city so they have
bio life plasma donation. And so right now they're paying 140 bucks a week. It's about an hour a
time, you know, two times a week. So it's doing two hours a week. It's coming out to just about
70 bucks an hour to go donate plasma. And if you do that for a month, I mean, you're talking 56,
you know, 560 bucks a month in extra cash. And so for someone like you, Dan or somebody else,
it just, you know, they got the bug hook line and sinker. They want to do as much as possible,
get all this different stuff in every year. And they're coming up to that, that pain point in the
relationship of like budget money, we got to say, that's one way where you can get some extra money
on the side without very much time. And all of a sudden, you know, you know, four months,
you could have the expedition boat or a redneck line, you do it one month, you could have a new
pair of boots or a new pack. And you said 100 and how much is it 180 bucks a week?
Right now it's 140 bucks a week. So you're doing 40 times 52. So that's, that comes out to seven
grand a year for one hour of your day. Twice a week, twice a week, two hours a week. Oh, two hours.
Oh, so it's twice a week. Okay. Twice a week, two hours a week. But still seven grand a year
for two hours a week. Yeah. And so yeah, that's one really cool way to get some gear, add some
trail cameras and not have to hit your family budget is hard. Yeah. That's a no brainer. And
you're doing something good for mankind in a way. In a way, I think there's a lot of they say
you're saving lives. I think it's a lot of corporate pharmaceutical dollars. Yeah. So one day as
yeah, it's not as noble as donating blood, but you're still helping in a way. Well, one day,
what's going to happen is you're going to be walking out somewhere and you're going to see an
exact replica of yourself. They're they're using your your your blood and plasma to clone humans.
And then it turns into a science fiction novel from there.
Hey, I'd love to have a replica of myself. I'd make him work all day and then I'd go past one.
That would be sweet. Well, and it to own a slave of yourself.
That's a whole that's a whole another topic. Yeah. I don't want to cover that.
Just just how cool would it be to have another version of your like if I had another version of
me that would be like, okay, you sit up on this ridge, you stay with your eyes on this,
and then I'm going to move into position to try to kill this neildeer. And you just kind of tell
me what which way he's going to go. Or, you know, I'll look back up at you with my binos and you're
going to give me signs and cloning humans. That would be sweet in a kind of way. Yeah. Hey,
you're going to be in build this, build this, help me pack this out, you know, cook for me.
I just got back to camp. Yeah. Yeah. That would be sweet, man. That would be sweet.
Well, I tell you what, I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to hop on and chat
today, man. Thank you very much. And, man, hopefully you don't spend too much money this season.
Yeah, no, we won't because we're going to be buying or building a house later this year.
My wife is finishing up her residency and so she'll be getting a full-time job. And then we've got
some big things to tackle. So, it's going to be an efficient year. I'll say that. Well,
good luck with that, my friend. Thank you. All right. Take care, man.
Yep.
All right.