Puffy Jackets, Hunting Applications, & Other B.S.

You're listening to the Sportsman's Empire Podcast Network. You're home for real, relatable outdoor podcasts. Whether you're hunting the back 40 or chasing game deep in the back country, the all-new Razor Guide Pack from Outdoor Edge has it all. Coming in at only 12 ounces and in a premium wax canvas roll pack for compact storage and travel, the Razor Guide Pack is seven blades in total, including a five-inch replaceable blade folding knife, a three-inch replaceable blade caping knife, and the flip and zip saw for wood or bone. For more information, visit OutdoorEdge.com. Welcome back to the Honey Gear Podcast. I'm your host Dan Johnson. Today we're going to be talking with Jacob Coons. Jacob reached out to me and he's like, dude, I have a YouTube channel where I just compare and review a whole bunch of different products. We talk about how he does his product reviews in the hunting industry, the hunting space. There's two main focuses today on some of the latest reviews that he's done and that's Puffy Jackets and Hunting Apps. We talk about brands like Sitka and the Ku-Yoo in First Light and then Off-Brand, not necessarily hunting brands like Columbia and Eddie Bauer and things like that. Then we start talking about companies as far as the hunting app is concerned. We start talking about Hunt Stand, OnX, what else do we talk about? Spartan Forge and then some of the other hunting apps that are out there. It's a great conversation, man. There's a lot we talk about in the space of direct-to-consumer, right? One thing that I've noticed is that direct-to-consumer, used to be, hey man, we're saving money because we're going direct-to-consumer because they don't have a middleman, thus they don't need to have as big a margins between what they sell it for because there's only one sale. It's not two sales. What we've noticed is that direct-to-consumer is just the same price as everything else. It's just direct-to-consumer meaning their margins are way bigger than the other companies meaning they're making more money. It's smart. I mean, can't fault them for doing it especially if they're successful. But this is kind of one thing we talk about. On top of that, we talk about how Jacob kind of does his reviews. We talk about what he looks for in products that he's purchasing or how the products that we want to do or that he wants to do reviews on. I forgot we talked about headlamps, things like that. It's a really good BS conversation about hunting gear and equipment. Hopefully you guys enjoy it. Before we get down to the brass tax though, we are going to do... What do we got here? Oh, we got tethered. If you're looking for a saddleman, go check out tethered. Tethered is one of those companies that has built a really good community around its product and they do that by having top-notch saddle, saddle-hunting accessories, platforms, climbing sticks. But the community that they've created around their brand really is focused on helping you become a better hunter helping you become more educated in the world of saddle hunting. And it's just awesome to see. So go check out tetherednation.com. We have Hunt Stand. We talk about Hunt Stand today and where they ranked in his review and it's towards the top. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. And all the functionality that goes along with Hunt Stand. I mean Hunt Stand for the value, you know, for the price that they charge to have a membership and the functionality that comes along with it, the value is just amazing. Right? So they, you know, all the maps and all the satellite imagery you hear us talk about that today. So huge shout out to HuntStand. HuntStand.com. And then last but not least is Tacticam. Right? So if you're the type of person who likes to document their hunts, so you can go back and show your kids, so you can go back and show your wife if she didn't believe you, you saw the Michigan 30-point buck, then, then, and it's just awesome to save that, go back and say, hey, I saw that buck last year, or, hey man, I think I'm not sure where I hit this deer. I'm going to review the footage, and then it's going to tell me if I should wait, or if I should go back and start tracking immediately. So go check out Tacticam, the new 6.0 version. What do they have that has an LCD screen and records in 4K. It has image stabilization. And, man, that's cool. So go check it out. If you're into action camps and things like that. So Tacticam, go check them out. And that's it. Let's get into today's, I guess we're going to call it kind of like a BS hunting session where we talk about puffy jackets. We talk about hunting apps and much more with Jacob Coons. Hopefully you guys enjoy it. Three, two, one. All right, on the phone with me today, joining us on the Hunting Gear podcast, Mr. Jacob Coons. Jacob, man, what's up? Not much, Dan. I appreciate you having me. I'm just ready for, I mean, I hate to wish for the fall to get here, but I'm just chomping at the bit to, you know, to get out west or to hunt whitales or, you know, just to shoot, you know, do all that stuff. But things are going good here. How about you? I'm doing good, man. It's currently raining. It went from last week to 70s and 80s here in Iowa, just like the perfect weather. No humidity, just gorgeous. You know, you can feel the warmth on the back of your net type of days. And then now it's back down into the 40s and 50s and the next handful of days. It's going to be raining. And, but that only means that when the mushrooms come, I'll be ready for them. Mm. Okay. Wow. Yeah, I used to live in Iowa. I bounced around a little bit. I live in Kentucky now. I know there are. I have a few friends that are sort of in the mushroom game. That's not, that's not my game. I haven't played that game, but you should play. You should play. You should play it. You should play it. Do you have your spots marked on like your mapping system? Oh, yeah. Well, I don't even trust the mapping systems for my mushroom spots. Okay. They're all right here. They're all in the head. So when I die, they die. I don't share them with anybody. Oh, wow. It's crazy. Like, I don't know about you, but, you know, a guy will talk about his hunting spots a little bit. He'll talk about, you know, where he's seen a big buck. He'll talk about, you know, for the most part, there are some guys who are just, you know, sealed lips and things like that. But it, when it comes to mushroom hunting, I've found that the people who take mushroom hunting really serious, they don't share spots. They don't share any information with anybody. They'll go. They'll clean house. And then it's almost like they're Navy seals, man. They go into the woods and you never, you never even know they were there. Other than maybe you'll run across the whole bunch of mushroom stems that have been already been picked. But where did you used to live when you were in Iowa? I lived in Davenport. I was, uh, I was right out of college. It was a while. It was a long time ago. And I had sort of was, I mean, talk about the mushroom game. I was sort of out of the hunting game because I was in, you know, corporate America. I was thinking about my career and all that kind of stuff. Um, so, uh, I was up there. I remember trying to scout some public land, but I was in my early twenties and, you know, when I was hunting, when I would hunt as a kid, there was no strategy or tactics around it. It was like, go find a good tree and, and, and just sit there all day. And, and it wasn't until later, as I got older, when I discovered that there could be some strategy and tactics employed that I got back into it. And so I would say for the past better part of a decade or more, I've been, uh, sort of hardcore about, you know, white tales and elk and, and just, you know, all that, all that kind of stuff. Yeah. Awesome. Uh, okay. So you're now in Kentucky. What do you do for a living? So I'm in medical sales. I work for a small company out of California. Um, and the cool thing about being in sales, is there a lot of, there's a lot of autonomy and you, you know, I have the whole state of Kentucky and then part of Indiana and I get to see but, you know, the beautiful country that we have in this part of this part of the country. So, um, so yeah, I'm in sales and I enjoy it. Um, it's, uh, cancer drugs. Okay. Yeah. And, uh, to the, you know, the health systems across, you know, this region and, um, it really is just about bringing, you know, a lot of times people think sales can be kind of slimy, but really it's just about bringing value to people and bringing information. And you, you know, I learned long ago through, you know, by getting kicked in the teeth that sales is not about you personally or what your goals are, what your needs are. It's really about the other person and, uh, understanding what metrics they're measured on and then trying to align to that. So, uh, you know, so it took me a while to figure that out and, but I used to think sales was just bothering people all the time and it's not that at all. So, so I really enjoy what I do and, and I've sort of stuck with it for that for, you know, gosh, 25 years again, and I'm almost 49. So, okay, I'm getting really old. All right. So, and so now, you know, when you were younger, you mentioned you were trying to climb the corporate ladder. Are you making time now over this last 25 years to get out in the woods and do some hunting? Yeah, you know, um, years ago, Dan, I saw an article, I mean, it was out to her life or filled and stream and it was about hunting pronghorn out west. And like that sparked a fire in me. And so I, like I said, for the better part of a decade, I've been trying to, you know, I've been hunting white tails and sort of running gun fashion, but, uh, but also been going out west and couple, couple years ago, I killed an elk in Montana on a general tag with my bow. And I told my wife that I was like, you know, I've got to do this sort of thing every year. I mean, I'm getting in my late 40s. I mean, you know, in a decade, Dan, it'll be gone like that. I'll be 60 years old and I'll be like, what did I do with my freaking life, you know, so, so yeah, I have been making a lot of time because I was in sort of the corporate game. And, and, and really that's, you know, I did like flag football and, or, or, you know, sports and fantasy football and all this other goofy stuff that didn't really mean anything. And then I found hunting again. And now it's like the only thing I really want to do. So, um, but I remember coming back to him from that Montana trip and I was like three days later, I was like, balling, I was cold up in a ball crying to my wife how much. I wanted to go back. It was like a life changing experience. So, um, you know, some of us that do that, that Western thing we, you know, we have that sort of experience and it's like, Oh my gosh, you know, I want to change my life around those experiences. So, yeah, well that's awesome, man. It's almost like you. I just got done talking, you know, you're 40, almost 49. I just got done done talking with a guy earlier this week, who's 28, right. So basically 20 years younger than than you. And he's just now bounced back into hunting. And so one, one of the things I really find interesting is amongst all these interviews that I do, whether it's about hunting gear and equipment. Or, you know, just a BS session with someone or a hunter profile that I pull someone apart basically and talk about how they got involved into hunting. The foundation is that there's this, like, this passion that there's something about hunting and fishing that literally can, like it just, it just grabs a hold of you. And it stays there. It's not like, I don't know, it's not like a football team, or let's say a sports team there. Well, they're having a really bad year. And I'm not going to watch their games next year or whatever they because they got a bad year hunting if the hunting's bad man, I still want to go again. If the fishing's bad, I still want to go again. And there's something about it. And it just, it changes people's lives for the better. And I just wish everybody could experience that. You know, my son will, he's 14 and he'll say, Dad, have fun hunting and I'm like, Grant, hunting isn't fun. And it's, and I think it's the difficulty within it that makes it so rewarding. I mean, if I, I mean, we've all done difficult things, maybe run, you know, five Ks or marathons or whatever. And those are cool, but you know, there's just a different type of endurance with hunting, whether you're hunting my tails or turkeys or elk or mule deer or whatever. I mean, I know you're on an endurance challenge of your own with mule deer. And so, and you're not like going to fold, you know, fold the ten up and go home. You're like, I'm going back out after it. And I know you're going to, that, you know, that filling that tags going to be that much sweeter when you do. So it's, it's, it's an interesting dynamic. And I wish I would have, I wish I would have woken up when I am in my early twenties instead of my late thirties or whatever. So, yeah, I, I, I'm in the same boat. I'm in the same boat. It sucks that you feel like you've had this wasted time. You know, you've wasted time doing something that you now love and you didn't know that you loved it as much back then because there was a whole bunch of other things in your life that you thought were a priority. But really, we're just wasting time. Yeah, yeah, I mean, life takes you down different avenues and for better for worse. And, you know, I, you know, honestly, if it were up to me, I would have moved out west. That would have lived an incredibly selfish life. I might not be married or have kids and, and, you know, all those things are, are, you know, a real blessing. But, but it's been good. I've been doubling down on, I mean, I got, I hunted Elkin, Pennsylvania last year. And that was incredible. And I've, you know, I've filled a tag with an incredible bull and, and I've been able to, you know, have other opportunities. I've hunted Elk here in Kentucky and, and like I mentioned out west and, and so I continue to try to fill the bucket as full as it can be. And my wife is understanding because she, she sees that how much I support her in, in her endeavors. It's, it's, you know, it's like, what can I do to lift her up. And she knows how important this is to me. And so, and I'm a good dad and a good father. Good husband. So it's, I think she understands that it's not like I'm going on big golf trips to get drunk all weekend or whatever. So, yeah. All right. So this, though, is the hunting gear podcast. And you reached out to me and you basically said, Hey, man, I've done these reviews. I, you know, I do these reviews. I do a whole bunch of different things in regards to hunting gear and equipment. And so obviously we have this passion for hunting. But why do you take that an extra step and talk a lot about, because you have a YouTube channel? And you have, you know, talk where you talk a lot about, you know, trying to find value for the consumer, you know, by product comparison and things like that. And so just why, why are you such a hunting gear nut? So, you know, Dan, I mean, you know, this better than anyone over the past 10 years, the shift from, you know, advertising dollars and magazines and the outdoor channel have shifted to YouTube and Instagram and all that. And so we have a lot of the cool thing is that we have a lot of companies with the awesome gear, because I used to have a 30 pound gorilla, a climber that was banging, you know, a lot of people. And so I was banging, you know, through the woods and announcing my presence. And so, you know, as you know, that has shifted now with, you know, our hunting content on YouTube and podcasts and all that. We have a lot more people saying, try this, wear this, do this, and some of this gear is incredibly expensive. And so, and I've looked at Hunt Software as well. And I'm trying to find the intersection of value and performance so that because, I mean, there's, you know, there's Columbia and North Face and Eddie Bauer and LOB and all these other brands that were such a niche that they don't market to us. But I'm guessing they have gear that could help us. And so, you know, like that's one of the recent things that I looked at were seven different puppy jackets and really taking them through a temperature challenge in terms of how quickly they what they could get my core temperature up. And, and then looking at the sounds and the composition because we hear so much about synthetic down and then down fill and down weight and it could be kind of confusing. And so I wanted to sort of take a look at the, you know, these different jackets and just look purely at performance like, and so that that was one of the things that I've broken down and we can certainly go into that. I did do some, the Hunt map apps, the software platforms of, you know, hunt stand, hunt wise on X, go hunt, base map and Spartan Forge and really again tried to look for the intersection of value and performance for folks like you and I that hunt not only one state but multiple states for different types of game and so I just, it's for me it's a creative outlet. It's something that I'm very analytical in nature and it's just something that I personally enjoy doing. You know, in my free time when I'm not hunting I'm obviously like most of us thinking about hunting. So it's really, that's sort of the impetus behind it. Other than the puffy jackets in the hunting app comparisons what other types of products have you like compared or reviewed. So I was looking at, I did a review of nine different headlamps. Looking for value in sort of the hunting headlamps space. I've looked at, I've broken down nine different weather apps because there are some real junk weather apps that we download and we think that they're worthwhile. Dan, one of the weather apps that's free that it will give you like, so like on your iPhone Dan. It comes with like a weather forecast tool, right? I have an Android. So, yeah, so oh man, you're like, oh, you're one of those people. It's like I'm white trash or something. Wait, you said I have an Android. It sounded like you said I'm married. My eyes are up here, Jake. So, you know, we have, we generally have some sort of weather app on our phone, but those weather apps usually just have one forecasting model. And there's a billion different forecasting models, Dan, and how cool would it be to have a weather app that has six different forecasting models that you can look at simultaneously to look at the wind, to look at the temperature change, look at precipitation. And I'll just share it like Wendy is an app that, and there's a couple other ones called like that sound very similar, but Wendy gives you those different models for free. It gives you the weather camps across the country for free. So, if you're traveling to Colorado, you can just with a click of a button, you can see what the weather looks like exactly in Denver, Colorado or Lincoln, Nebraska or wherever. And so, you know, again, I'm just trying to find value for myself and sort of share it with others. And so, you know, there's junk weather apps like weather bug or, you know, there's other ones that are just looking to take your money. But, you know, there were of the nine, there were three that I really liked it. Wendy is one of them. So, you know, another, another thing that I looked at is the performance of merino versus silk versus polyester gloves for early season archery and, and, and what I found there was really interesting. So, you know, I just kind of try to find things that are interesting to me and sort of put that out for, you know, the public to consume. So, so that kind of answers it, but I'm going to ask the question anyway, and maybe you can elaborate on it. Why are you doing all this? I think, you know, it's more of just a creative outlet because I enjoy learning about the video editing and I'm trying to get better at that and maybe even start recording some of my hunts. I hope to go on an old hunt this year and I would love to make a hunt film around that. But it's just purely a creative outlet, Dan. It's, yeah, it's, it's, I wish it was more elaborate of an answer that, you know, I'm an evil genius and I'm going to take over the world. And, but it's just when I'm not, like I said, when I'm not hunting, it's fun to, to, to dive deep in some of this hunting stuff. And honestly, this is, when I was a kid, I used to, this is, I'm going to get real nerdy here. I used to make cassette tapes about how I would call it bluegill or smallmouth or largemouth bass, like for nobody at all, just for my own purpose. It was, it was kind of weird, but I would, I don't know, I just like to collect that information and put it sort of organize it. So almost like what a doctor would do or is like, today is April 20th, I caught four bluegill using a Mr. Twister or a bobber and worm. I caught this. And like, so just like document, be a voice on a cassette tape. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. And I journaling. Yeah, as when I was in grade school, and I don't even, you know, I had no intentions. I don't know what I was going to do with it, but just at that time it was just, yeah. So it's sort of the same thing. I haven't really changed much since, since grade school, Dan, I guess that's, I guess that's the bigger point. I haven't matured at all. I'll tell you that right now. I still laugh at fart jokes or when my, my sons or daughters, you know, say something really stupid. I'll laugh at it. Yeah, that's because I've, I'm only one step above eight. Like, I'm not very, like, I laugh at those kind of things. So, um, one, one thing that comes up in the, the, any, any purchasing space, right? Any retail space with your buying, especially in our realm. It's the outdoors hunting gear and equipment. Does, you know, through all of the research that you've done on certain products, do you feel that price reflects quality, or do you feel that there are instances where people are potentially getting ripped off. So when I've done these reviews or looked at like the hunt map apps, I know that they're, that's a company of people, each of those six companies that are working hard to provide value for their customers. Now, maybe, maybe they're a little off target or maybe they're focusing on a particular niche. And so I don't, you know, I don't ever disparage a company, whether it's like a first light or a sicka or a, you know, a Spartan forge or a hunt stand or whatever, because I know those people are working hard. I just think that we want to be long in tribes as, I mean, we obviously want to be in the hunting tribe, but you know, you've seen it Dan with, with different hunting gear, the, you know, lone wolf custom gear or tethered or what have you. And so when we align with those tribes, sometimes we buy with our emotions, and we, and we, and because we do that, we make assumptions about that gear that's that might be really darn expensive and maybe, maybe overpriced in the marketplace. And so, so, you know, like, lone wolf custom gear makes amazing gear and I would love to have some of that gear, but I, I generally hunt out of a saddle. But, you know, if I were to go look into that space, I wonder if there's something that is of equal value or similar value with no VIX or with, you know, elevate tree stands or whatever. And because, you know, again, if I'm in, if I'm in that tribe though, I might just buy the latest and greatest thing that they put out and I might not view. So, so to answer your question, I do think that certainly, you know, price can reflect, you know, value at times, but I think it's just important as hunters, because we put so much emotion in our, and what we do and how much we love it and we, you know, are this the part of this, the beginning of this interview, we just talked about how much, you know, it's life changing in some cases. I think that we really just have to have a critical eye to see like what, you know, what is the value that this piece of gear is going to provide. So, when I looked at the seven puppy jackets, it was a, a sick gear jacket that the, oh gosh, it was the Kelvin light. And the first light brooks down, and then the, the Ku Yu, a keen eye. And, and then it was a Columbia thermal ball and then, they're doing that. Yeah, I think it was a thermal ball and then there was a north face jacket. I'd have to look at the sheet and then an edit power. And then, and so, you know, I looked at those, and like my head, my core temperature at 59 degrees. I was staying outside in a t-shirt, and I had a remote, a remote, a remote, a thermometer that, you know, when I got down to 58 59 degrees, I would put one of those jackets on. And then for the next five minutes, I would measure the temperature change at one, two, three, four, and five minutes. And, and so most of those jackets got me up to 69 70 degrees. That the sick Kelvin light got me to 70. I remember the, the Columbia. I'm sorry, the north face jacket got me up to 70 degrees, which was really surprising. And then the Eddie Bauer jacket. I think it was the, the stratus. It got me to 70 degrees at minute four and maintained it at minute five. And so the composition of all those jackets was widely different. I mean, some of them were natural down, plus a synthetic down, some of them were only synthetic. One of them was 90% down with 10% feathers. So it was all natural. And then the Eddie Bauer jacket was a 650 fill jacket. It was 80% down, 20% feathers. And it outperformed the honey jackets. And that Eddie Bauer jacket retails for $99. The sick jacket retails for $359. And so, you know, I, you know, again, if I'm, you know, if I'm a hunter and I'm trying to figure out, you know, it depends on what you're doing. I mean, if you're going to Alaska, there may be more value in that sick jacket because of, you know, some of, you know, some feature that you like, because it's part, it has some synthetic down. Or maybe you want a jacket that's only synthetic. And so you want to spend a little more on a jacket that you believe in. But, but for me, if I'm hunting out west or if I'm hunting whitetails here and it's a chilly November morning or I'm hunting elk in September, that Eddie Bauer jacket for, you know, was on sale for 50 bucks when I bought it. It was retail 99. I bought it for 50 bucks. And it got me to 70 degrees at a court temperature in four minutes. And it beat every other jacket that I evaluated. And so, so to answer your question, sometimes there is, you know, sometimes there, was it cry once, you know, buy once cry once. Yeah, sometimes that that is the case. But other times it's not. And it just depends on the product category. Yeah. And I'll tell you what, the, the reason that you started doing this is the reason that I started looking outside of the hunting space for some of my, my clothing options. And it's not necessarily because I don't like the tribalism. I guess you would say that comes along with a I wear first letter I wear Sitco or I do this or I do that. And I was like, I don't know if I was going to go back to the next class. And I was like, I don't know if I was going to go back to the next class. And I was like, I don't know if I was going to go back to the next class. And I was like, I don't know if I was going to go back to the next class. So, wow. Okay. And so I can attest that that's a badass jacket. And I can attest because I bought it for 80 bucks. I bought it. Yeah, for 80 bucks in an Eddie Bauer store on like a clearance rack or something and it had a retail price of like 100 bucks or something like that. And so I've had that now for a handful of years and it's durable and I take care of it and I can smush it all the way down to the size of a basically softball and I love that. But there's a lot of things. And so this is where, you know, if we're talking about value and performance, I can get, I get that. I can, I can say that Eddie Bauer jacket outperformed all these other jackets. And it is much more affordable than some of the other jackets. And so my question, my next question to you is, why do you think the, they're probably all made overseas at some point, right? I don't know any brand that's 100% made in the United States as far as clothing and apparel is concerned. Why do you think Sitka charges that much or why do why do these other quote unquote hunting brands charge way more for their product, despite being outperformed, like in this example outperformed by a non hunting brand. So, great question. And, you know, I mean, if you read the information on the sick of jacket, I mean, it's hooded, which the Eddie Bauer jacket is not. And I'm going to pull first light in here that jacket got me to that jacket never got to 70 degrees. Yeah, the first light Brooks down, they got to sit the top most we get to was 66 degrees and I'm not trying to bash that brand or that company I'm just saying that the performance of that particular jacket. I've got tons of sick of years, tons of first light gear. So I'm not, you know, they had made great products but that particular jacket was failed miserably I wouldn't even take it out that first light one but, you know, they have these proprietary blends of down and a synthetic, and you know they, it didn't state it but I, you know, the noise on the surface of some of these jackets was really loud and suggested that there was some sort of DWR finish to it. Like a rain, a water proofing sort of finish because the sick and the first light jackets were incredibly loud I looked at the decibels of just a stick going across the sleeve. And, and so I don't know why there's so much more expensive, you know, my guess is that there are for profit company, like most companies are. And, like I mentioned we buy with emotions a lot of times as hunters, and they long to try. And companies have nailed that down. They have, they have figured out the whole, hey, you want to, you want to be cool, wear this, you know, and then it's almost like hey I'm part of this club, the performance of the actual product. I'm not saying that just about those, but those two specific brands, because there's other brands out there that in the hunting space that do the same thing we're cool, come hang out with us, buy our stuff, and then you'll be cool like us. And that frustrates me that real like that is a, that's a triggering point for me. And I look at, like there are companies that are tripping over themselves to get into the tent space to get in other product categories to, I think, in my opinion, a little bit exploit hunters. I looked at headlamp performance, and there's a company that goes by the name of peaks that sells a $90 headlamp. It's sort of a tube headlamp. You know, you have sort of a traditional box style headlamp, like a black diamond or a pet soul, and then you have these tube headlamps that are more new to the market. And that thing is $90. And so I compared it to eight other headlamps. And I looked at, you know, I dumped them all in a tub of water, just to see if any of them would fail in a tub of water. And none of them did. The $10 Amazon headlamp that looks almost exactly the same, Dan. It looks like it's manufactured in the same facility as the peaks headlamp performed as well, if not better. And it's $10. And that headlamp was 90. And I, and the only difference is that there's somebody on a YouTube channel, a couple guys that I love to watch that are talking how great this $90 headlamp is. There's nobody talking about that $10 headlamp. And so, you know, and I looked at, you know, all the different factors. Does it lock? Does it, does it have a red beam? Does it, you know, what is the, the luxe, which is the amount of light that hits a certain spot? I bought a luxe meter to look at the luxe, you know, you know, at 10 feet away. What's, you know, how powerful is that light? And so, in my analysis, the performance and value just wasn't there with a headlamp that's $90. Now, the Black Diamond headlamp, which was, I think, in the $30 or $40, incredible headlamp loved it. Not necessarily would I use it, but I really like that headlamp. It's a brand name, but it has a lot of capabilities that I liked with it. And so, I agree, there is a little bit of, you know, where we, as hunters get right over the cold sometimes, if we're not careful. Yeah. Man, I got a, I have two, I have two headlamps. One is an energizer brand, right? I don't know why I bought it. It was sitting there with the battery pack all combined into one until I was like, hey, I'm just going to buy this just in case. I keep it in my truck all the time. And then I have a Black Diamond as well. I think I paid $75 for that one. It's crazy good, right? But it runs out of batteries faster because I think it just, obviously, it just takes more power to what I'm using it for, like, walking, like, out of the, you know, out west, you know, when I'm traversing, you know, steep inclines or declines, I want as much light as possible. So I can see my footings. And meanwhile, the energizer one, I mean, I feel like it lasts forever, probably because I'm using it less and it's not as powerful. But just kind of goes to show you that, could I get away with that energizer brand? Yes, I could definitely. And exactly what you said, I went out looking for headlamps. And I was like, man, that looks a lot like that energizer brand. And it's probably another brand using the exact same thing. They're licensing the name and it's built in the same factory in China somewhere. And it's the exact same product. So I don't know. I get it out of that stuff. It's a, you know, it's a, it maybe it's not a secret, but it's a dirty little secret, especially with some product categories. And, you know, the headlamps I was looking at, you know, a lot of them were like a thousand lumens or 1100 lumens. I think that black diamond was, I'm looking at it now, it was 400 lumens. And, you know, and none of them were really bad. But again, it just goes back to what you as a hunter, how you want to spend your, your hard earned dollar. Right. Right. And so, and so far, do you feel, do you feel that price does reflect quality then? I don't know. I mean, it depends on the product category. I mean, it really does. I think like I'm my next focus is in this video isn't out, but because I'm working on it now. Are these are vinyl harnesses, Dan? I mean, holy smokes. There's like a, it's the gold rush. There's so many different versions of vinyl harnesses. And they're all priced. They're all kind of expensive, but they're all, you know, some have some variability in that. And I've pulled in some, some cheaper ones, because I really want to understand where is the value and performance intersect with vinyl harnesses. I mean, I have, I've had one for a number of years that is fine. It's okay. But now I'm going to look at the new one from First Light. It's just launched yesterday. I'm going to look at the one from Sitya that they, the primary one that they have, the one from Gosh, it's not. Marsupial year, I think is the name of the company. And the First Light one is FHF here, just to be clear. They, they bought that company years ago. So, you know, and then I'm going to look at Badlands and then a couple other ones. And again, I just want to understand what is the noise factor. Can I fit all my, my wind checker and rangefinder and all that stuff. And then when I, when I go to use it, is it going to be, is it going to work for me in a stalking situation or not? Or is it going to make a bunch of noise or. And so, you know, I want to sort of look at it from a whole bunch of parameters, but, you know, cost is one of them. And some of them are really pricey, including that FHF gear one. Yeah. But, but I guess, I think, you know, like you just, you bought an e-bike and you've talked about that. And, you know, there are e-bikes out there that are 750 watt, you know, whatever for a thousand bucks. And then you can go way high in that category with back who or with quiet cat or, you know, with some of those brands. There's, you know, some other big brands and you, you know, you can go. You can spend a lot of money on an e-bike, but, but I, I don't know where, how, like what makes it, you know, a quiet cat different than a rat hand e-bike that's a thousand or a back who, you know, that, that's also pretty expensive. Yeah. So I think it just depends on the category, honestly. Yeah. And, and I'll be completely honest with you, man, I was not going to be able to afford that, that e-bike, if I had to pay full retail value for it. I mean, I, I sure, I straight up new guy that worked there. I got an employee discount. That's 50% off. And so instead of paying, I think it was like $6,500 for it. I paid $3,500 for it. And, and so that's a gigantic discount, you know, for me that on a product that I otherwise wouldn't have bought now. Is it awesome? Yes, it's awesome. Like walking, walking six miles and riding a bike six miles in like one eighth of the time, you know, like up and down and like when I was in South Dakota this year, man, it's just such a huge deal. I mean, I got back. I didn't see any meal there, but I still got back there, right? And so it was, it was interesting. Now, there is a, there is this conversation that every time I talk about this, this topic, people say, you know, Eddie Bauer, these people may be against hunting or, you know, Columbia, these guys may be against hunting. I think, man, one of the bigger retailers, REI, or I'm trying to think if it was REI or back country, I can't, it was a brand like that. Basically came out and was against hunting, right? And so now you have these brands that might be not necessarily for hunting, yet as a hunter, you're giving your dollars to them, right? For nothing but added that, you know, nothing but a cheaper product, right? That may, it may perform well, but your dollar is going to a company that doesn't support. Now, we know that first light is a hunting brand, right? They support hunters, Sitka, they support hunters. Both of those companies donate to conservation. Both of those companies, you know, are a talk to talk and walk the walk type of company when it comes to giving back to the natural resource that we all take away from every single year in many aspects. And so when it comes to making a decision based off that alone, what are your thoughts? It's a really good question, Dan, because, you know, I hear you like, I think Jetboil, the company that makes Jetboil isn't for hunting, but, you know, like MSR is a competing brand that I think it does is okay with hunting or whatever. So, and I have a Jetboil, so I'm a communist. You asshole. You asshole. So, you know, here's what I would say is, you know, if you bought the Eddie Bauer jacket and you saved 300 bucks or a couple hundred bucks or whatever, spend, put that money towards, you know, sportsman's alliance, or how, you know, one of those organizations that are fighting for hunter rights in our states where we're getting attacked. So, you know, sportsman's alliance is out of Ohio. I'm a member of that group. And, you know, and I would encourage folks to just, if you feel bad about making that purchase from Eddie Bauer, you know, give some money to sportsman's alliance or how how I think is out west and because we are under attack constantly. And I think, yes, you know, first slide, it's Sitka and, and Ku Yu, they support, you know, they put money back into conservation and those sorts of things. And, you know, part of the Pittman Robinson Act is, you know, that our hunting gear is taxed and that money goes into conservation sort of indirectly. And, you know, I think that's the way we make those purchases. But, but I think that's how I would handle it because at the end of the day, Dan, I mean, I have limited resources for my job and my income as do you. And, and I just have to make the best purchase decision that fits my needs and my family. And somebody is really outspoken like, you know, then I guess, you know, I probably would try to go a different direction like if they were really outspoken against hunting and really create issues for us, then I would definitely avoid them. But like when it comes to some of the brands, I don't even, I don't really, I don't know if they've communicated a stance. So for me, I think I'm okay with that. But maybe I'm, you know, maybe I'm a jerk. But at the same time, man, like at the end of the day, money is the ultimate factor. Right. I mean, yeah. Some people don't have X number of dollars to go buy the, the pop. How would I say this? How would I say people don't have the money to buy the sick of the first lights of the world, but they do have the money to buy a product that does equal roughly equal. Right. I know some conditions, wet conditions or, or the actual make up of the material and things has a play and how things function in the wild. But, but, you know, the Eddie Bowers of the world, you know, it's cheaper does the same thing. Like, like, how do you, how do you say that? I don't even know how to say it other than, Hey, man, it's cheaper, but does the same thing. So just buy it. Yeah, it, it, it goes back to I have to buy a new vehicle and sometime this year and it's like, yeah, do I buy American made or do I buy something, you know, that's not American. And it's, it's, it's got a, it's a tough decision because you have to look at like, well, what's the durability? What's the, you know, how long is this going to create a lot of problems if I buy this particular brand. And do I want to again go back into that tribalism thing where I need to be part of the Ford tribe or the Chevy tribe or whatever. So, you know, I think, you know, again, it just goes back to that product category. If you know, Dan, I have a friend up in Alaska and there's a chance that I may go hunt Alaska in a couple years. And if that's the case, then maybe, you know, I might take a more critical look at some of my rain gear. Or the gear where I'm going, my synthetic, you know, my sleeping bag. I might want something that's synthetic and I might want something that where I know it's been tested in those environments. And I will be willing to spend more. But if I'm just going to be going, you know, walking a hundred yards into the woods to hunt, you know, some farm or if I'm hunting, you know, running gun here in Kentucky or even in, you know, mountains of Montana. I feel like I can, you know, be okay with something that's not built for the most extreme weather and situation. Right. So I think everybody has to sort of make those decisions based on their personal situation. But it's a tough question because, again, we want to support hunters. We want to sort of hunting brands, people that build into us. I mean, they create incredible hunting content, which I consume. So, you know, it's, they're sort of a give and take there. But, but sometimes it does seem like the price, the prices are a little out of whack. And so we have to vote with a vote with our dollar to say, Hey, that's, that's not an appropriate price. Right. And that's the only way we can do it. So, and this is, this is what boggles my mind on some of these direct to consumer companies. Okay. Is first light still 100% direct to consumer that you know of or are they, are they in stores now? You know, they switched to that. I think a couple years ago to direct to consumer. And I, yeah, yeah. So, I think they are a Kuya is obviously the sort of the original DTC. And then, but I think Sitka is in, in the Kabela is in Bass Pro shop still. Okay. Yeah, I know Sitka isn't. But, so this is what blows my mind about brands like Kuya in first light, right? And then you compare them to, let's just say a company like Sitka, which is not direct to consumer. They sell in retails. Right. And the whole thing is the whole motivation of direct to consumer is to, you know, like, Hey, there's no middleman. Right. We're selling our product directly to you. And therefore, the attractiveness is our margins don't have to be it. You know, our final product doesn't have to be as expensive on a consumer level because we're not having to resell it again to make our profit. Right. So, but what I've started to find in this is especially in the hunting space that that's not the case. Right. Their product, like Kuya's product and first light product, I would say are at the same price point as those two companies are direct to consumer as a Sitka lineup. And you can say this about any category in any brand, trail cameras are another one. Right. Where the price for a direct to consumer is like the benefit. There's like a risk versus reward. The risk is if I buy direct to consumer, something doesn't fit. I have to send it back. Now, if I go to a store, I can try it on right then and there. And I don't have to do any of that extra stuff. I just can buy it because I know it fits. And so, but now the price points the exact same so the attractiveness of something being direct to consumer just isn't there anymore. I would agree. I, and, and you're going to, I think this podcast is going to make sure that I never get sponsored by anything. Whatever. And that's okay. I'm okay with that. That's why I'm doing this for fun, not to create another job for myself but I, the, I had an experience with first light. I ordered a vest from them a couple years ago. And they were like, Hey, this is too big. I need to size down. And they're like, Okay, well, here's the address. And I'm like, well, does your shipping label? And they're like, No, and I'm like, wait a minute. I, you know, you don't have a store for me to try it on. I can't just, you can't just give me a shipping label. So it was an additional 12 bucks to send back. And that really, you know, that was irritating. Now, I'll be honest with you. I still buy some of their gear. I have a bunch of their, a Marino stuff and other items. I don't have anything against them personally. But I do agree that the DTC model, while it's like, Hey, we're cutting out the middleman so we can give you a better deal. It doesn't necessarily translate into a better deal for, for you and I. It seems like it's, especially when you see, like, if we were to do optics, like I know Maven optics is a DTC optics, whereas, you know, you have vortex and you have loophole. It would be interesting to sort of see them side by side. And that's probably not something I'll be doing. But, but looking at, you know, the clarity of something from loophole and vortex and then Maven and also sort of the price points to see if, like, Oh, wow, the Maven is because it's just DTC. It's significantly better. It's in another tier, or is it just as good as some of the other ones. So, yeah, like, like if you were to compare it to Swarovski's instead of, yeah, right there. And that's what I heard about Maven was there like the sort, the, the direct to consumer version of Swarovski's. And so I probably said that name wrong. But anyway, I'm interested here. And then, you know, to finish out this podcast here. I'm interesting to know how you went about comparing the hunting apps to each other. And, and came up with the end result there because there is a lot of really cool things that I know things like hunt stand are doing. And what's the other one? Gosh, I shouldn't know this. I just talked with the guy the other day. Spartan for, yeah, Spartan for what what they're doing as well. I mean, they're doing some really cool things. What apps did you compare to each other? How did you compare them to each other? And then what was the end result? So, I looked at base map go hunt and base maps been around for a little bit go hunt is, you know, that Western, they're out of Las Vegas and they have an insider thing platform for both. And so they went into mapping hunt, hunt stand hunt wise, which are both a little confusing on X and Spartan forage. And then I recently, I'm going to be rolling out a video that looks like Gaia GPS. Gaia isn't isn't a hunting platform per se, but I wanted to see how it compared to see if I could use it as a hunting platform. And so I looked at, you know, the free trials, the annual price for 50 states. The, you know, the, can you download the maps and what, how much of, how much can you download the download style? Is it dynamic or is it static? The tracking feature, the waypoints, the, do they have a 3D desktop? I looked at all the layers and on, I have, on my Instagram profile, Dan, I have cheat sheets for pretty much every analysis that I've done so that you can print it off and see everything that I've shared and studied. So, because this, you know, the mapping thing, there's so many layers with some of these platforms, like it's, it's extensive. And so I looked at, and I gave each layer of rating. I gave the, I looked at the waypoints and gave that, that a rating. And I gave, I looked at the type of topo mapping, or topographic mapping. And I looked at the tools and gave that a rating as well. And so the, what was interesting is that, you know, some of them had, and again, I guess I should state this, I was looking at it from the standpoint of someone like myself that hunts many states locally in the Midwest or South, and then somebody that goes West. You know, can I use it for both? And so, you know, the final scores, and I'll just share them right now. I mean, I'll start with them from worst to first. Let's see, coming in last, and this was, you know, I'm not trying to disparage this company, but Spartan Forge came in, in Dead Last. They scored a 32 out of a possible 80. Now, I know they've made some updates. They've added 3D desktop. They've added a shading tool. They've had 3D now on their handheld. But, but at the time they didn't have that. And, and they didn't, they don't have hunt units out West. I think they're starting to add that. They didn't have a lot of things that the other platforms had. And so they finished last. Out of curiosity. Out of curiosity. Did you compare the forecasting? Because I think, like, I think the main, the main feature that or what they advertise on Spartan Forge is the, the deer movement forecasting, kind of like deer cast. And I think Hunt Stan, yeah, Hunt Stan has some, some stuff like that as well. Yeah, so I included those features as, as an additional benefit. Okay. But I, you know, if you're in the mapping game and you're, you're doing waypoints and you're doing public land and private land and, and topographic layers. And if you're in the hunting game, then I included you in the evaluation. Gotcha. And, and, and, and so, you know, I, you know, the gentleman that, the founder, he reached out to me and we sort of exchanged notes. And, and again, I, I know that they're going to evolve into something different. But that at the time, they're $39.99 and they're sent, and they, I understand they have the deer prediction model. You know, and I get that, but so do other platforms. And I know understand there's probably differences there, but if you're going to be selling the mapping feature, you know, and in my analysis, I included you. So, and, but they do have some tools that I really do like and I do note that in the videos and in, in the spreadsheet. The goal hunt platform came in fifth and scored a 53 it's, it's geared really for that Western hunter. It's not designed for me to use in the east and in the west per se. It, it didn't, it had some holes in its game. And, and base maps scored a 55 it came in fourth, and then hunt stand and on X, both sort of tied for second. I was blown away like by hunt stand for 30 bucks you get an incredible amount of value. Yeah, daily satellite images are not daily monthly satellite images and hunt stand, which is, is, is I thought was fantastic, but hunt wise, won the competition it scored 69. And it just was so robust in terms of layers, tools, features, and waypoints for someone that hunts in the east and the west. It was very versatile as a platform. So, you know, I'm again Gaia. I was, I've been looking at it and it performed pretty well, but, but it's still, you know, it was sort of at the back of the pack. So, but it was a lot of fun to really break that down because you sometimes you feel like a hunting map app is a hunting map app. So if you want to use it in the way that you hunt, there are, there are a lot of differences. Yeah. Did you happen to break it down by ease of use and what I mean by that is from the time it takes to open the app to the time it takes to start using it. How many touches or clicks or swipes. What was the most, I guess, had the best ease of use. You know, I, that is, is, I didn't really include that because I know I'm very biased because I have used on X for so long. Yeah. And, and I tried to consume, I consumed every sort of YouTube video that each of these platforms put out there so that I understood how hunt stand work or how hunt wise or Spartan Forge even. And because I did want to give each of them a fair shake. I think if you, you and I played around with them enough Dan would probably be pretty fluent with any of them. I'm sure there's some. I mean, there are, there were some things with with hunt stand that I didn't love from an interface standpoint. But, but all told, you know, I think if you play around with them enough, you sort of. It's like speaking in a new language sort of thing like, you know. So, so they all did, you know, they were all pretty user friendly in that capacity. Gotcha. Cool. Cool. Any, any interesting finds in that, in that study that you're like, holy cow, this is cool. With the, with the mapping. Yeah, the mapping apps. Well, you know, some of them have a full tilt 3D and some of them only do a 30 degree tilt when you're doing 3D and I thought that that was kind of interesting. You know, the base map doesn't allow you. And this is going to bother this is going to hurt you Dan, but base map doesn't have 3D on an Android devices only on Apple devices. Sons of bitches. I know. All right, whatever. They don't even have based on it doesn't even have 3D on the desktop. They just have it on your Apple phone, which I thought was sort of backwards. But the, you know, I think there's, I'm trying to look through some of my notes right now because it's been a while since I did this one, but the base map didn't do really well, but they did have this feature where it's sort of like a rangefinder. Like let's say you see, let's say you're out west and you see a shed across a canyon or maybe you shot, you know, a bear or something across a canyon with your rifle. You can, you can use the rangefinder tool on the app, lock it in, and then it'll create sort of a trail up to it on, on your app so that you're like. Now, it might not be the best route, but it gives you like, okay, now as I hike down the canyon and back up, I can look and see, oh, I'm 100 yards away from that shed antler or my buck or whatever. And I thought that was a really neat tool. And I think we're going to see more and more of those things integrated with all the platforms. It's like a lot of things, what once was really new and innovative, eventually all of them will have and adopt and the baseline sort of goes up. But I thought that was a neat feature. Yeah. Let's see here. One of the last questions I have for you is after doing all these reviews, have you learned anything about maybe yourself and how you make purchasing decisions on your hunting gear and equipment and how that's going to be a great way to get into it. That could, that could translate into things that others should keep an eye out when making hunting gear purchases. I was going, I was so hell bent on buying a new bow this year Dan. I have a hoit vector, it's 10 years old, and I was hell bent on buying a new bow. And I just was like, I'm going to get one, I got to get one, I have to get one. It's the technology is so different. And yet I shot incredible with that bow last year. And I decided I talked myself off the ledge and bought a new site pin that has third axis adjustment. And then I bought new cables and strings and it shoots lights out. And I bought a few years ago, I bought a bow press. And so what I would just encourage everybody to do is just step back and think about like, instead of buying a new bow, maybe buy a bow press and become your own bow shop. And then you can have a bow for a decade that shoots lights out. And you don't have to sort of quote unquote upgrade because there's a new man to use or a new void or whatever. If you fruit well with it and if you try to get yourself out to longer distances, you'll figure out what you're doing wrong with your form or what you need to tune, then you can save yourself some coin. And again, like we opened up this interview, spend time on, spend money on tax and going out west and experiences and not your grand on a new bow set up. So I would just, that's sort of what I've learned about myself in terms of it. I talked myself into it unknowingly and then had to talk myself out. Yeah, gotcha. All right, cool man. Well, we're going to close her down here. Any other cool bits of information you'd like to share with the listeners of this podcast today about the stuff that you've been doing. I mean, I, you know, I'm on Instagram. It's J underscore coons underscore hunts. That's the same tagline for YouTube J underscore coons underscore hunts. If you go to my Instagram page. There's a link in my profile and you can find all of the research sheets there for free. You can find links to the YouTube channel. But again, I just, I'm not doing this to be mean or disparaging to, you know, the sick is their first lights of the world. I'm just trying to find value and performance for myself. And I just like to share it because of, like I said, it's a creative outlet. But, but yeah, you know, I appreciate the opportunity to talk about this stuff Dan and, and hope to have, you know, continue to pump out more stuff as I find things that are interesting to me. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I tell you what, Jacob, man, I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to hop on and be asked with me for a little bit. Thanks for your time and good luck this upcoming season. You as well. Thank you, Dan. You're welcome. Thank you.