August 19, 2023 • 40 mins
Kile Jones is the Director of Marketing for Apex Ammunition. Kyle leads the development and management of marketing initiatives for the company and works with the current advertising, communications, and social media teams.
A lifelong hunter, Jones has been involved in the hunting and shooting industry for 15 years and was an Apex Ambassador before joining the company. Prior to that, he served as Marketing Specialist for Dive Bomb Industries where he assisted with product development and managed content creation, social media, and customer service. He also worked for Higdon Outdoors/Power Calls as National Sales Manager.
Kile is an avid turkey and waterfowl hunter. Jones was the 2008 Junior World Goose Calling Champion and World Goose Calling Champion in 2018 and 2019. He is a mentor with First Hunt Foundation and a volunteer with Ducks Unlimited. Kile, his wife, and two Labrador Retrievers reside in Michigan.
A lifelong hunter, Jones has been involved in the hunting and shooting industry for 15 years and was an Apex Ambassador before joining the company. Prior to that, he served as Marketing Specialist for Dive Bomb Industries where he assisted with product development and managed content creation, social media, and customer service. He also worked for Higdon Outdoors/Power Calls as National Sales Manager.
Kile is an avid turkey and waterfowl hunter. Jones was the 2008 Junior World Goose Calling Champion and World Goose Calling Champion in 2018 and 2019. He is a mentor with First Hunt Foundation and a volunteer with Ducks Unlimited. Kile, his wife, and two Labrador Retrievers reside in Michigan.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Tradition, conservation, family, theindoors. It matters to you, it
matters to us. This is HuntingMatters presented by Houston Safari Club Foundation.
Here's Joe Batar. Good morning andwelcome back to Hunting Matters on KPRC nine
(00:23):
fifties. This is your host,Joe Batar. I am Ramon Rublists.
We were back in the same cityagain. Yeah, how about that.
That's why the Earth moved off itsaccess a little bit because you were on
vacation up up in the Great Well, not Northwest, but Yellowstone area.
And then I went up to Montanafor work, some of us at for
work. Yeah, did you findthe note I left you? I did
(00:45):
the nut or the note? Thenote it was underman Pillow. It was
weird that we're staying in the samehotel two weeks apart. That's funny.
You enjoy yourself. I did.We did. We got a lot of
work done. We we have atwice twice twice a yearly meeting with all
the major non government organizations things likeyou know, while Turkey while Sheep NRA
(01:10):
and we get together and we talkedabout policy and legislation that's currently in progress
and things that we want to kindof pitch and move forward on and conservation
initiatives, wilife initiatives at home andabroad, and we were fortunate we had
the director of US Fish and Widlife, Martha Williams, come and join us
on the second day, and wetalked about quite a few things. The
thing that I really impressed me abouther is that they're trying to organize that
(01:34):
department. It's a you know,it's a federal agency. Yeah, it's
it appears that they're understaffed. Mostof them are still having to work from
home. There's some issues with continuity. They're trying to get their online permitting
system, so if you ship ananimal back into this country from a foreign
country, it has to have animport permit with it. There's a backlog
on several types of animals, andthey automated that system I think about four
(01:56):
or five years ago, believe itor not, only four or five years
ago, so to get some someglitches out of the way. But the
one thing that impressed me is,you know the topic of hunting another countries,
specifically African African nations and things likethat came up and she said,
look, she told the group shesaid, it is not our goal as
a department to legislate or to enforceour rules on hunting practices another country,
(02:22):
other countries. And that came upbecause of the fact that you know,
the UK is looking at banning allimports and trophy animals really close. I
mean, it's going to go it'sin the House of Lords right now and
going to committee. And so hergeneral statement that you know, we're not
trying to legislate other countries how theydo things, because you know, you
see these things from anti hunting folksand they don't understand that they're saying all
(02:43):
hunting is bad. You shouldn't huntin Africa, you shouldn't hut here,
you shouldn't o it there. Butthey're not living on the ground trying to
raise cattle and farms and dealing withanimal conflict, human animal conflicts where there's
interactions these things are stampeding their gardensand their farms, or where there's poaching
issues, or where there's an animalattack issues. You know, animal animal
human conflict is a huge, hugeproblem in those countries. So it made
(03:06):
me feel a little bit better thatsaid, you know, we're trying to
be fair and equitable and not tryingto manage their practice in other countries from
a different planet, basically. So, I've always felt it's our responsibility as
the United States to go back toGreat Britain and just take it over.
Really, I feel that it's ourcivic patriotic duty to just fix that country,
(03:29):
give them the Second Amendment and justall right, guys, we're out.
Have you formed a militia that I'mkind of sleepy. It's theoretical hard.
It's hard these days to formula.Nobody wants to show who's going to
bring the covered dishes too high?Maybe in the fall, Yeah, you
know what, We'll start try toassemble, assemble the troops in the fall.
(03:52):
Well, I'm glad you're back.I'm glad it was a very fruitful
meeting. I'm envious that you gotto go to Montana. I found a
YouTube page. I forget the guy'sname, but he does a lot of
exploring in Alaska, does a lotof hunting, And of course I immediately
thought about you and thought, JoeBeautar doesn't stand a chance. Fifteen days
away? Is that true? Today? Fifteenth Today is the seventeenth n Yeah,
(04:14):
no, like the nineteen nineteen.I'm not even looking at the calendar
anyway. On the night of thethirtieth, which is my birthday, so
you'll be giving me a ride tothe airport and providing me with a cupcake
because I get on the airplane.I'll be leaving for Alaska on the night
on my birthday on August thirtieth.So your birthday is August thirtieth, all
right, I gotta remember that.So does that mean next Sunday or Saturday
I gotta bring in prison yep?Right, thirty beatar okay, yep,
(04:38):
how are you gonna be? AndI wear an extra large Okay, I'll
be fifty nine years old. No, I can't believe it, you know
what. I'm looking at the Apexwebsite. Yeah, and there's some apparel
I think I might buy you.There's some turkey turkey ammunition there too,
okay, that I need for nextspring. There's a lot of questions.
(04:58):
I have to talk to our guestabout it. But I know you got
some things you're gonna know. No, no, no, just to let
me give you you guys. TheHouston spart Club Foundation website. Go to
we hunt we give dot org.There's a lot of cool events coming up.
We're having one of our longtime lifemembers, Byron Sadler, talking about
his trip to Mount kill Him Jara. By the way, he was eighty
when he did that, just recentlyClimb to Kill Him Jara. And then
(05:18):
our big annual sporting Clay's tournaments comingup on October fifth at Greater Houston Sports
Club. And these events are alwaysopen to the general public, so you
can go to the website we huntwe give dot org sign up to come,
you know, learn about our organizationand meet some of the members.
Hopefully you'll sign up to become amember because you get discounts to come to
the events. You get discount ofprices to come to all the events,
and we do a big annual convention, which our annual convention next year is
(05:42):
going to be back in January onthe nineteenth or the twenty first, and
we are moving back to the Woodlandsout to the out of the Marriott Conference
Center. So go to the website, check out all the information there and
let's get on get onto our guest. Our guest today is Kyle Jones.
Kyle is with Apex. I meanhe's the director of Marketing and h I
(06:02):
know you've got a lot of questionsfor him and got a lot of money
to spend. It's more like aplead. I'm gonna plead with him about
it. I can I have someof that? You know, it's gonna
be embarrassing. Just be where,Kyle, you're ready for some heavy begging.
Absolutely absolutely. Thanks for having meon. Yeah, man, thank
you for joining us today. So, uh, where are you calling us
(06:24):
from today? Kyle? So Iam in a roundabout way, I'm I'm
I'm from and living in grand Ledge, Michigan right now. So but most
of you know all my buddies andif I've traveled, I've lived in like
four different states in the past threeyears, so they're like, where's he
gonna move to next? So asof right now, I have a home
(06:46):
in Grand Ledge, Michigan. Soif you were, if you were triangulating,
where are you from? Sheboygan orAtlanta, Michigan. So if you
laid your left hand flat on thetable and you looked at the back of
your hand, right in the middleof your palm is essentially like the backside
(07:11):
of your palm is where I'm at. I'm just west of Lansing, Michigan.
That is exactly how if you wereto ask me in person, how
I would show you pull my handup. I'd be like, hey man,
I'm right here, right in thecenter grand Ledge population there. It's
a great question, I know,Wikipedias saying seventy seven hundred. Yeah,
(07:36):
in our we we're like right onlike the fringe of Lansing, Michigan,
which is a capital, so weget kind of a lot of over you
know, overlap there. But yeah, seventy seven hundred maybe you know,
it would have felt like seventy sevenhundred probably four or five years ago,
(07:57):
or you know, Lanting started movingout. I get that. All right,
folks, We're gonna take a quickbreak here on hunting matters KPRC.
We'll be back with our guest KyleJones from apexx Ammunition on the other side,
Dream of Growing Up. The HoustonSafari Club Foundation is a five zhe
C three nonprofit organization that supports thefuture of hunting and conservation. Wildlife and
(08:18):
habitat conservation, youth education and outdoorexperiences, scholarships, and anti poaching efforts
are just a few of the programssupported by this organization. Monthly events an
annual convention, award winning publications,networking opportunities, and valuable resources for hunting
knowledge, or just a few ofthe benefits of being a member of Houston
Sfari Club Foundation. If you're searchingfor a group of people dedicated to protecting
(08:39):
the future of hunting, look nofurther. Join Houston Safari Club Foundation today
at we Hunt, we Give dotorg or call seven one three six two
three eight eight four four. Seemslike yesterday, but it was long ago.
(09:09):
Jane, it was love that shewas a queer in my name.
Then the dogess with the radio playa little way and the seat was said,
we ship mountains that we moved,call a wildfire out of control,
(09:30):
to let us nothing left to burnand nothing left to prove. And we
are back here on Honey Matters KPRCnine fifty. This is your host,
Joe Beach. All right, I'mRamon Robeless joining us. Today's our guest
Kyle Jones, the director marketing withApex Ammunition. Kyle, once again,
thank you for joining us. Thanksfor having me guys. So, so
you're in Michigan, right, didyou grow up there in Michigan? Uh?
(09:50):
Yeah, So, Like I saidearlier, in roundabout way. I'm
kind of from here. This iswhere I went to high school. I
started college before getting into the huntingindustry. So yeah, I've been I've
been here. Uh you know,I was here ten years before I moved
away, and then I moved back, but before that, I'm actually I
(10:11):
actually tell people I'm from Washington State. So uh, well, it depends
how in depth you want to getwith that, because a lot of people
right now are kind of like,kind of shining away from people Washington A
very good reason. I got myoldest Yeah, my oldest son lives in
Oregon to trust me. I understand. I thought maybe you're right. Oh
yeah, I thought it was taxpurposes or something. You were just hiding
(10:33):
from the I he's a fugitive.Yeah yeah, yeah, no, So
we I moved to Michigan red beforehigh school, uh, from Washington State,
and then it was here until twentyseventeen, moved to Kentucky, moved
back to Washington for a few years, and then moved back to Michigan.
(10:54):
So kind of a man, it'sbeen. It's been a wild drive.
Yep. You know. Detroit's thelargest major city in America that you have
to travel south too to get toCanada. For me, Yeah, well,
I know you knew that guy.I'm sorry. I was looking at
Joe Beach. I had no clue. Yeah, you have to travel south
to get to Canada. I think, well, I'll show your meld,
so go ahead. It's also hometo like the number one walleye fishery in
(11:20):
America. So if you are abig fisherman and like catching fish to eat
them, like, that's the bestplace, one of the best places to
go. And you're like you're fishing, depending on the time of year you're
fishing on like the in the shadowsof the skyscrapers in Detroit. It's pretty
cool. It's kind of kind ofodd, but it's it's like, it's
(11:41):
pretty cool too. Had no idea, let's go to I would have never
thought, let's go fishing in Detroit. I've been I've been up there for
UFC fights, but I've never beenfishing in Detroit. Yeah, I was
the only place you could be,the only place you can bet jigging for
walleye and get brackhead at the sametime. That's a T shirt, right,
(12:01):
That's awesome. So this is aloaded question for me because I looked,
I've looked at your I've looked atyour back around your history, and
I already know what the answer thisis. But tell our audience, what
is your favorite type of hunting?Oh? Man, that's a load of
question. I would hit. Mostpeople think I'm the waterfowl guy, which
(12:24):
I mean, I love waterfowl hunting, but I'm gonna pick turkey hunting every
single time over waterfowl personally. Whyis that? Why do you have a
preference of that over man? Ijust I love, like this is gonna
sound so cliche of like a turkeyhunter, but it's like the chess game,
(12:46):
the chess match. It's playing withthat turkey the vocalization, right.
Uh. You you know, inthe moves you have to make, it
has to be very very precise,and you know you've got to you've got
to move with the purpose. You'vegot to plan your plan, your next
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move, your call. Everything it'sall just so in like, just everything
has to be done in great detail. And I think that's where it's like
you have that you know, potentialof the reward of a bird gobbling or
coming up and strutting in front ofyou. You know, there's just so
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many vocalizations that give you goose bumps, that a that a wild turkey can
make, and you know it's onlygoing to increase, you know, that
heart rate as it gets closer andcloser, because you know you're you're you're
coming closer to the objective that you'retrying to go out, which is chase
wild turkey and and and hopefully successfullyshoot one. You know, but it's
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like it's one of those deals whereyou can go through all that wall wind
of emotions and if you didn't pullthe trigger, you're still just like just
as he waited and and happy andjust like just overwhelmed with emotion that you
know, if a turkey came upbehind you five yards spitting in drum and
goblin right, and then you weren'table to move and he just sat there
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goblin, goblin, goblin. Imean I've been there many times. And
then he walked off and you weren'table to pull a trigger, your men,
I can guarantee you for that time, the amount of time that he
was goblin sitting in drumming. Youhear him, you know, wings dragon
across the the leaves, and it'sjust like, man, that your heart
rate. I can guarantee your heartrate is going to be absolutely spiked for
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that amount of time that you weresitting there not being able to move because
you're sitting there trying to come upwith that plan to make a move and
you know, turn or whichever whichway that you you know you've got that
position by by mastering your movements,mastering your calling. But then it's like,
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well you're stuck, so you're tryingto contain that right, and it's
just it can just absolutely just totallyblow your mind whenever. It's when you're
out there in the Turkey worlds,it's it's a it's an incredible, incredible
uh species. And I'm a turkeyfanatic too. And the other thing is
you do all those things perfectly andand you can go you can hunt one
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weekend and be successful and go tothe next weekend and do the exact same
things and nothing works. So it'sit's it's as much as it as you
find it to be elating, it'sjust as frustrating, which is what I
love about the whole game of turkeyhunting. There's like it's such a an
emotional roller coaster ride that it canprovide it's the highest, the highest,
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lowest of those. I mean,Josh man, uh, you know,
I've heard so many people say,you know, if you if you've never
missed a turkey, you're not aturkey hunter, right. Well, I
can tell you and promise you thatthe lower you will ever feel is if
you have a turkey walk by attwenty yards thirty yards and you miss and
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he just runs off. I mean, you go through that entire thing and
you're just like, wow, youknow, blame but yourself? Yeah,
oh yeah, there's nobody to blamebut yourself there. And most of the
time, I feel like part ofthe reward of hunting turkeys is that if
you mess something up, more thanlikely it was it was your fault.
(16:30):
You know, there's nobody else toblame but you. Yeah, you might,
you know, you might get akyout or a bobcat that might come
through. But most most times it'sif a turkey is spooked runs off see
something, it's probably you, youknow, And and I think that's what
makes it. I think that's whatis. It's so much more fun and
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like just down to like your rootsas like a like your human being nature,
like down in nature it's like thatit's you in that bird right versus
you know, you get a blindfull of waterfowl hunters in which you're ended.
Waterfowl hunting is fun, but youget you know, there's so many
other variables that are there that thatcan, you know, prevent you from
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successfully shooting ducks and geese during theday. It's it's just like, man,
you get you get down to whatwho you are as a human being
and how you are as a hunterwhen your turkey running, it's pretty awesome.
Yeah, yeah, And you know, I actually I was going to
say, we've got a couple ofminutes here left in our segment, but
I was actually gonna jumped to theconclusion you were going to say waterfowl hunting
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because I know that you're the twothousand and eight Junior World goose Calling champion
and a World goose calling champion ineighteen, twenty eighteen, and twenty nineteen.
That's pretty impressive. How did youget into game calling? And let
me ask you another call, putyou on the spot. How did you
get into game calling? Are youand are you as a good a turkey
caller as you are a waterfowl collar? Well? So, to answer the
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last question, my goal is tobe you know, with with waterfowl becoming
more fluent on a call. It'sjust like if you were to go to
another country and we're able to speakfluently, your your experience is gonna just
increase, right Like if you wentto you know, pulland or wherever in
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Europe, Germany and you were ableto stay please, thank you and yes
or no. But if that that'sgonna provide you a great experience. That's
what most people do. But ifyou go there and you know the ins
and out, how to read theemotions of the people, how to stay
thing with emotions, you know,it's gonna enhance that experience when it comes
(18:47):
to uh, your your vacation.Now. It's the same thing with dust
and geese, you know, andthen it's the same with turkeys. So
the better you did, the betteryou know, the better time you're gonna
have. All. The goal forturkeys, for sure, is to be
the best I can possibly league gothold that thought, ye, Kyle,
If you'll hold that thought there forjust a second, we'll pick it up
on the side. We're gonna haveto take a quick break here on honey
(19:10):
matters. KPRC nine fifty Baby mWell, come back to Hontymatters on KPRC
(19:56):
nine fifties. This is your host, Joe Batar. I am Ramone rub
Us and we were with Kyle Jonesfrom Apex Ammunition the director Mark and Kyle.
Thanks once again for joining us.Yeah absolutely, so grab me again,
you batman. So before we wentin the break, you were you
were talking about your your turkey callingprowess. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
(20:17):
I was just trying to trying toexplain how you know, we are.
You know, I'm I'm trying tobe as proficient with water flower, with
turkey hunting that I am, youknow, duck and douce hunting, so
our duck and deuce calling per se. So it's a it's a work in
(20:37):
progress, but it's it's a lotof fun. It's a lot of fun
to learn. How old I'm justcurious how old were you when you were
you know, considered adequate or youknow, fairly proficient with a duck call
that you could call call birds inon your own. Did this start a
young age? Uh? Yeah,So so I started I started ducking duce
hunting when I was like almost fourteen. It was like November December ish,
(21:02):
when I was thirteen, fourteen yearsold. So you know, part of
duck and duce hunting is you gottabe you gotta learn how to duck and
dusee call. And that's probably likethe coolest part as a young hunter.
You know, you get you getyour own little duck call and you get
to learn how to quack and allthat stuff. And I was by the
time I went into like my firstactual season, so the following fall,
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I was pretty proficient with a duckcall with a duck call, mainly just
because I grew up in Washington andthere's a lot there's better duck hunting there
than there is douce hunting, soI you know, I prioritized duck calling
first, and then I moved toMichigan and that's where I learned how to
usee call. When I was prettyproficient on duck and use by the time
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I was fifteen, And that's kindof when I started competing, you know,
basically year round for duck and ducecalling contest. Like I quit baseball
all and everything because I was like, oh, this is fun and I
don't get yelled at. So that'sthat's very cool. I'm gonna give your
website out to our listeners before Iforget here. Apex Munition. Ape x
(22:11):
munition dot Com is the website.So Kyle, tell us little bit about
your journey. How did you Howdid you end up at Apex Ammunition as
the director marketing. Tell us alittle bit about what you do day to
day. Yeah, So, youknow, I was actually I was working
for a waterfowl decoy company back beforeI started at Apex, and I was
(22:36):
shooting it for the first year theycame out with waterfowl loads. I was
you know, I was handed abox and really really enjoyed shooting it.
And then it was like, well, I get in contact with the company
and you know, came became oneof their you know, quote unquote ambassador
influence whatever you want to call uspromotional staff guys. Right, I started
(23:00):
at that role and you know,for two years up and tell her and
I was just promoting the products andand shooting it and just spreading word on
on Apex communition. I like theresults from it and it's just absolutely just
crushes ducks and geese and then withturkeys. I know, you guys have
(23:21):
seen what it does with turkeys.Too. So it's just one of those
like it's so easy to promote andevery cause you just believe in it so
much more. You know. It'sit's just you start shooting it, you
start believing in it, you startpromoting it, and then you actually get
an opportunity to work with the company. And that actually came in twenty twenty
(23:41):
two. I was actually headed.I was in Tennessee turkey hunting, and
I message to Jared Lewis, theCEOO, and I was like, hey,
man, like, I'm gonna comedown to Mississippi and turkey hunt and
I'd like to stop by the shopone day and just you know, just
because I know that I've been promotingyour brand for a couple of years now,
(24:03):
I just want you to put aname to a face and see who
who who you have representing your products? Uh in your brain. So he's
like, all right, well,you know where are you going to hunt?
I was planning on going on somestake grounds and he's like, naw,
nah, screw you up. We'regonna go hunt. We're gonna go
hunt on one of my buddies places. And you know, we got on
(24:23):
a couple of birds. Never werewe never were able to pull a trigger.
But you know, we rode aroundhunting for the entire day and had
great conversations. And then the nextday he was like, he puts me
in in with the sales the salesdirector at the time. He's like,
hey, man, you're gonna takeKyle out hunting. So I actually ended
(24:45):
up staying down there. Instead ofone day, I didn't stay down there
three days. And then you know, a week later they called and we
were like, hey, we reallyenjoyed having you down hunting with us.
Is there you know, are youfamiliar with you marketing and and all that
stuff? And I was like,yeah, that's you know what I've kind
of been doing for since I wasultimately, you know, fifteen, sixteen
(25:07):
years old. I've been involved inthe hunting industry and you know, if
there's an opportunity, I'd love toAnd they're like, oh, yeah,
there's an opportunity. Would you wantto be able to drive the marketing?
And I was like, well absolutely. So it was a pretty cool,
you know, our hunt turned intoa job interview and I had no idea
and Jared, you know, Jaredlike to tell that story quite often because
it was just he thought. Youknow, it was pretty cool at the
(25:29):
time, and I'm very, verythankful for it, but it was just
kind of a roundabout way of youknow, they weren't really they weren't really
actively searching for somebody, and thenI wasn't actually you know, I wasn't
asking for a job or anything likethat. It just fit and we've meshed
extremely well and the past year anda couple of months has been absolutely you
(25:52):
know, fantastic time. That's crazy. That's crazy to how those things work
out like that. You know,neither party's looking and you guys just kind
of ended up beating in each other'slaugh. That's a very cool story.
I'm curious. You know you've shotyou've shot APIs ammunition. Now you work
for the company, can you kindof tell us which you think makes it
stand apart in the industry as faras as ammunition and the Turkey and the
waterfowl line on the Turkey side ofThayings, I mean, man, it
(26:15):
is you know, you get handloaded quality and excellence right there, the
quality control with the Turkey loads whenit when I mean it is next and
the I mean it's it's just amazingstuff that the the the kinetic energy that
a hitting targets with, you know, the effectiveness and the lethality of it.
(26:37):
You know, it's like I explainedthat guys all the time that are
like, hey, you know,why should guys shoot that versus LAD number
five? That turkeys? And I'mlike, wow, man, Honestly,
it's like going to elk hunt andshooting. Would you rather shoot an elk
with a three hundred grain arrow?Would you rather shoot an elk with a
five hundred or six hundred grain arrow? You know, it's there's a there's
(27:00):
just a there's so much more lethalitythere, especially because I mean, you
know lead is lad like eleven ishgrams percc right now, Uh, TFS
to qualify for TFS, to advertise, TFS has to be eighteen quint one
grams percc And that is what wetake a lot of pride in and we
(27:23):
are offering that in each individual show. So I think like when it comes
to the turkey load, just thethe the lethality of it, the pattern
retention that you're getting, uh,and just the quality control or everything.
Now, when it comes to waterfowl, you know, not a lot of
people are familiar with shooting waterfowl atTSS. And I've not met a single
(27:48):
person that has shot our waterfowl TSSloads or blends that have been like,
oh, Ye'a'll go back to shootingregular steel or business because it's just you're
getting a large amount of TSS pelletsin our blends, you're getting steel,
and you're getting TFS in one shotshow right, So you're getting that eighteen
(28:10):
point one grams per cc in theTSS lood, but you're also getting steel
there as well. So you're justgetting this overall, you know, phenomenal
pattern, uh coming right out ofyour most of the time to modified joke,
you know. And so uh,it's just the again the lethality of
our blends and our waterfowl TSS.It's it's been hard to find somebody that's
(28:33):
like, yeah, I'll go backto shooting what I was before. And
then you know with our steel,our steel is is it economically driven product
line? You know? Uh,to introduce people to APEX, it's a
it's a steal, which you knowsteal is between seven point eight to eight
point four eight point three grams percc. But you know there's a we
(28:56):
take a lot of pride and wherewe have our specific wads that help and
help with the pattern retention on shotsout to forty yards. But then you
also get being plated feel, whichis, you know, perfectly round pellets
to provide you that excellent pattern retentionshot after shot. Yeah, so it's
(29:18):
just yeah, it's one of theseI was just going to ask you,
because some of our listeners may notknow, we assume they know what t
SS is. Can you give usa quick thing, like under a minute.
We're about a minute before we gointo the break here. What is
TSS? So tut TSS is uhshort for Tungston super Shot. So what
we've you know, what we've broughtto the market. We're the first to
(29:40):
bring out Tungsten super Shot and presentit to the public. And it is
a eighteen point one grants per CC. But it's it's allowing you to shoot
a number seven and a half,eight, eight, a half, nine,
nine and a half ten shot atducks, geese, turkeys because it's
so heavy, but you're it's soheavy, but you're getting smaller pellets.
(30:04):
That weight density in the ratio itallows you to shoot more pellets. You're
out of your shell, so it'syou know, it's pretty pretty unbelievable.
Hey, I'm an I'm a convert. I started using a few years ago
and I love it. It's gonnatake a break here on Hunting Matters KPRC
nine fifty. We'll be back withour guest, Kyle Jones of Apex Ammunition.
(30:52):
All Right, you don't realize this, Doctor b Tar Stevie Wonder,
Glenn Fry, Iggy Pop, JackWhite, Alice Cooper, Jackie Wilson,
Al Green, Ted Nugent, KidRock, Ray Parker, Junior, Sonny
Bono, Anthony Keatis, Diana RossMadonna. I'll shoot tsst Apex ammunition.
Yep. They came out and supportedno Apex ammunition. Pro stapfers their next
(31:15):
in line to be influencers Raypex.They all are either born in Detroit or
claim Michigan as their home. Icould pick out a few of those.
I didn't know some of them.Wait, Jack White the White of course
he still owns at Advantage Record storethere, Denny at Detroit, Ray Parker
Junior, Ye, Ted Nugent,Ye, Glenn Fry, Yep, you
know all of the Anthony keatas leadsinger. Yeah, but I didn't know
(31:37):
that they were some of them werefrom Detroit. No, I know everybody
here talking about Yeah there was it, and I hear a share in there.
No no Madonna Madonna closing. Yeah, they both believe in love.
Yeah, that's fascinating. I thought, let me pull up a couple of
singers from Detroit and play some oftheir music. Overwhelmed, might do another
(31:59):
show? Might tell you is nowcomplete? Ye I can. I can
go on my weekend and have agood time. Now you know in that
that piece of amoration. Welcome backto Honey Matters KPRC nine fifty this year
host Joe Btar and we are finishingup the shore with our guest today,
Kyle Jones of Apex Ammunition. Kyle'sa director marketing. Check out their website
at apex Munition. That's ape xMunition m U N I T I O
(32:22):
N dot com apex munition dot com. Kyle, thanks once again for joining
us. Yeah, thanks for havingme. Guys. So I'm curious you
shoot all these turkeys and all theseducks, which one do you prefer to
eat and how do you like toeat them in a family setting? Wald
turkey, because everybody in our inour family loves the Pride Wall Turkey,
(32:45):
and for some reason, anytime duringTurkey season we have family over, like
every Friday. I think there's adirect correlation there with you know, turkey
fries and Turkey season. So it'suh, we got a lot of family
that comes into town. So butas like my for myself, i'd like
(33:07):
to I really enjoy skin on mallardor even like sandhill crane or skin on
speckle belly. Use it's phenomenal.So it's a lot of a lot of
waterfowl gets some pretty bad raps.Sometimes it's just because a lot of guys
just tend to either overcook it orjust not cook it the right way.
(33:30):
So that's that's my personal favorite.You give me a mallard that I shot
in January, uh, and it'sgonna have a good thick amount of fat
on it. I'm cutting that babyup that day and eating it that night.
Yeah, you know that that bringsback some farm memories I was when
I was a kid, I grewup Louis North Louisiana, which at the
time was a mecca duck hunting.We had a lot of mallards there and
(33:51):
I shoot some birds and take themto my aunt. She would make a
big pan of Southern corn bread dressingand put those whole ducks on top of
them, just throw them in theoven. Jeez was good, so good
man. That that's one thing Iwould give a ton of props to.
Honestly, out of everybody, han'tmet anybody from Louisiana is damn good kick.
(34:13):
So they you know, they dolike you know, teal and gravy,
specs and gravy. You know.When I was living in Kentucky,
I worked with a guy from Lafia, Louisiana, and he uh, he
made spec and gravy teal all thetime. Man and duck gumbo and dude
to just throw down. Yeah,dug gumbo kitchen. Yeah, dug gumbo
(34:35):
is one of my favorites. Thatand there's another thing my my. I
had a buddy I used to playfootball with in high school, and his
dad would make a sauceby call,which is like a kind of a spicy
gravy with he'd make it with ducks, but he's also make it we catch
turtles and bring him in. Hewould clean turtles and make a turtle saucepeak
call with the sauceshell turtles. Man, that got could cook. That's good
making me hungry just thinking about it. I'll happily set. But you can't
(35:00):
ask me to pronounce that. That'sthat's that's the u thing you have added
good? Yeah, yeah, yeah, So I was curious. Uh,
you know, you've done a lotof hunting obviously in your life. You're
you're a fairly young man. I'dlike Ramona, but I'm curious to know.
You know, obviously, everybody's gottheir own favorite breed of hunting companion
(35:22):
hunting dog. Do you do youhave a particular breed that you prefer to
hunt with. Man, I've I'vegot two laboratory retrievers, and I've hunted
over a lot of really really gooddogs. But I'm just with waterfowl.
I'm just the lab guy. Idon't upland hunt enough to justify getting a
(35:43):
you know, a pointer or anythinglike that that can do both. You
know, one is that's really popularnow is the grafrons and and the wire
heard pointers because the guys in likethe upper Midwest, North Dakota, Minnesota,
like they've got a ton of uplandgame that they can chase as well.
They want that dual sport athlete anda dog, and I just I
(36:05):
don't do enough of that. SoI'm just I'm just a lab guy.
Man like your temperament. You know, they're they're great family pets and and
they are you know, they loveto they love to fetch, love to
play. And my wife is probablyyou know, if we got another type
of dog, my wife would belike, what do we doing wired She's
(36:27):
the lab yal So when it comesto you know, you've got you.
When we're looking for dogs, whenwe go to look for a puppy,
we do our due diligence of makingsure we're getting something that fits what we
want because you know, a lotof the a lot of the things that
are genetically passed down are you know, drive temperament, and from from a
(36:51):
from my standpoint, I want somethingthat whenever I'm out, you know,
duck and goose hunting as serious asI can be, you know, something
that's got a ton of drive.But as soon as I go in the
house, you know, I wantedto be able to curl up next to
my daughter and and be able tobe pet and and just chill out and
hang out. So we we lookedspecifically for that, you know, So
(37:15):
it's I've definitely backed off the pastyear. Like last year, I think
my my yellow lab King, he'snine, he retrieved I think seven geese
for me last year. And mymy younger dog, Oakley, she actually
didn't even hunt last year, justbecause we were in a new transition of
moving to Michigan, new job.Maybe a year before that. Oakley was
(37:38):
a fricking machine. She had,you know, eight hundred retrieves on you
know, a multitude of states andprovinces. It was a pretty unique time
to hunt over a dog that hasmade or drop off. But long,
long story, short laboratory retriever.Do you yeah, do you do you
hunt? I mean do you duringyour waterfowl hanging seas? And do you
(38:00):
purpose? Do you plan out ofstate to state or multi state season or
do you stay closer to home?What's your typical waterfowl season look like?
So right now, before when Iwas working for a decoy company, like
I was gone one hundred and seventyfive days in August and Papril. So
like, I mean that's a atthe in and out type you know,
(38:22):
uh schedule. But now I'm I'mkind of at the liberty where I can
plan out who is going to particularhunts now. At the same time,
Yeah, I'm the director of marketing, but I'm also you know, I
gotta be the guy that's calling andstuff like that too from in some aspects,
(38:44):
right, So I'll try to planyou know, four to six unique
trips where we can film, takephotos and gather you know, a lot
of the content that we need formedia ads or you know videos. You
know, if you look at oursocial media it's pretty pretty you know,
(39:07):
it's pretty top notch when it comesto a content perspective as far as you
know what Jared puts out. SoJared, Jared's the owner of Apex,
you know, and he's he's aCEO, but he's also the guy that's
doing our video, right, Soit's a it's a pretty unique it's pretty
unique look and everything like that.So it's, uh, it's awesome to
(39:30):
get him on the on those tripsso we can get the video that we
need. That's cool man. Well, Kyle, but we can't tell you
how much we appreciate you joining usjoining us again today again, folks.
Kyle Jones, the director marketing withApex Ammunition go check out their website at
apex munition dot com. That's ape X m U n I t i
o n dot com. And wewill see you folks here next week on
(39:52):
Hunting Matters KPRC nine fifty
Tradition, conservation, family, theindoors. It matters to you, it
matters to us. This is HuntingMatters presented by Houston Safari Club Foundation.
Here's Joe Batar. Good morning andwelcome back to Hunting Matters on KPRC nine
(00:23):
fifties. This is your host,Joe Batar. I am Ramon Rublists.
We were back in the same cityagain. Yeah, how about that.
That's why the Earth moved off itsaccess a little bit because you were on
vacation up up in the Great Well, not Northwest, but Yellowstone area.
And then I went up to Montanafor work, some of us at for
work. Yeah, did you findthe note I left you? I did
(00:45):
the nut or the note? Thenote it was underman Pillow. It was
weird that we're staying in the samehotel two weeks apart. That's funny.
You enjoy yourself. I did.We did. We got a lot of
work done. We we have atwice twice twice a yearly meeting with all
the major non government organizations things likeyou know, while Turkey while Sheep NRA
(01:10):
and we get together and we talkedabout policy and legislation that's currently in progress
and things that we want to kindof pitch and move forward on and conservation
initiatives, wilife initiatives at home andabroad, and we were fortunate we had
the director of US Fish and Widlife, Martha Williams, come and join us
on the second day, and wetalked about quite a few things. The
thing that I really impressed me abouther is that they're trying to organize that
(01:34):
department. It's a you know,it's a federal agency. Yeah, it's
it appears that they're understaffed. Mostof them are still having to work from
home. There's some issues with continuity. They're trying to get their online permitting
system, so if you ship ananimal back into this country from a foreign
country, it has to have animport permit with it. There's a backlog
on several types of animals, andthey automated that system I think about four
(01:56):
or five years ago, believe itor not, only four or five years
ago, so to get some someglitches out of the way. But the
one thing that impressed me is,you know the topic of hunting another countries,
specifically African African nations and things likethat came up and she said,
look, she told the group shesaid, it is not our goal as
a department to legislate or to enforceour rules on hunting practices another country,
(02:22):
other countries. And that came upbecause of the fact that you know,
the UK is looking at banning allimports and trophy animals really close. I
mean, it's going to go it'sin the House of Lords right now and
going to committee. And so hergeneral statement that you know, we're not
trying to legislate other countries how theydo things, because you know, you
see these things from anti hunting folksand they don't understand that they're saying all
(02:43):
hunting is bad. You shouldn't huntin Africa, you shouldn't hut here,
you shouldn't o it there. Butthey're not living on the ground trying to
raise cattle and farms and dealing withanimal conflict, human animal conflicts where there's
interactions these things are stampeding their gardensand their farms, or where there's poaching
issues, or where there's an animalattack issues. You know, animal animal
human conflict is a huge, hugeproblem in those countries. So it made
(03:06):
me feel a little bit better thatsaid, you know, we're trying to
be fair and equitable and not tryingto manage their practice in other countries from
a different planet, basically. So, I've always felt it's our responsibility as
the United States to go back toGreat Britain and just take it over.
Really, I feel that it's ourcivic patriotic duty to just fix that country,
(03:29):
give them the Second Amendment and justall right, guys, we're out.
Have you formed a militia that I'mkind of sleepy. It's theoretical hard.
It's hard these days to formula.Nobody wants to show who's going to
bring the covered dishes too high?Maybe in the fall, Yeah, you
know what, We'll start try toassemble, assemble the troops in the fall.
(03:52):
Well, I'm glad you're back.I'm glad it was a very fruitful
meeting. I'm envious that you gotto go to Montana. I found a
YouTube page. I forget the guy'sname, but he does a lot of
exploring in Alaska, does a lotof hunting, And of course I immediately
thought about you and thought, JoeBeautar doesn't stand a chance. Fifteen days
away? Is that true? Today? Fifteenth Today is the seventeenth n Yeah,
(04:14):
no, like the nineteen nineteen.I'm not even looking at the calendar
anyway. On the night of thethirtieth, which is my birthday, so
you'll be giving me a ride tothe airport and providing me with a cupcake
because I get on the airplane.I'll be leaving for Alaska on the night
on my birthday on August thirtieth.So your birthday is August thirtieth, all
right, I gotta remember that.So does that mean next Sunday or Saturday
I gotta bring in prison yep?Right, thirty beatar okay, yep,
(04:38):
how are you gonna be? AndI wear an extra large Okay, I'll
be fifty nine years old. No, I can't believe it, you know
what. I'm looking at the Apexwebsite. Yeah, and there's some apparel
I think I might buy you.There's some turkey turkey ammunition there too,
okay, that I need for nextspring. There's a lot of questions.
(04:58):
I have to talk to our guestabout it. But I know you got
some things you're gonna know. No, no, no, just to let
me give you you guys. TheHouston spart Club Foundation website. Go to
we hunt we give dot org.There's a lot of cool events coming up.
We're having one of our longtime lifemembers, Byron Sadler, talking about
his trip to Mount kill Him Jara. By the way, he was eighty
when he did that, just recentlyClimb to Kill Him Jara. And then
(05:18):
our big annual sporting Clay's tournaments comingup on October fifth at Greater Houston Sports
Club. And these events are alwaysopen to the general public, so you
can go to the website we huntwe give dot org sign up to come,
you know, learn about our organizationand meet some of the members.
Hopefully you'll sign up to become amember because you get discounts to come to
the events. You get discount ofprices to come to all the events,
and we do a big annual convention, which our annual convention next year is
(05:42):
going to be back in January onthe nineteenth or the twenty first, and
we are moving back to the Woodlandsout to the out of the Marriott Conference
Center. So go to the website, check out all the information there and
let's get on get onto our guest. Our guest today is Kyle Jones.
Kyle is with Apex. I meanhe's the director of Marketing and h I
(06:02):
know you've got a lot of questionsfor him and got a lot of money
to spend. It's more like aplead. I'm gonna plead with him about
it. I can I have someof that? You know, it's gonna
be embarrassing. Just be where,Kyle, you're ready for some heavy begging.
Absolutely absolutely. Thanks for having meon. Yeah, man, thank
you for joining us today. So, uh, where are you calling us
(06:24):
from today? Kyle? So Iam in a roundabout way, I'm I'm
I'm from and living in grand Ledge, Michigan right now. So but most
of you know all my buddies andif I've traveled, I've lived in like
four different states in the past threeyears, so they're like, where's he
gonna move to next? So asof right now, I have a home
(06:46):
in Grand Ledge, Michigan. Soif you were, if you were triangulating,
where are you from? Sheboygan orAtlanta, Michigan. So if you
laid your left hand flat on thetable and you looked at the back of
your hand, right in the middleof your palm is essentially like the backside
(07:11):
of your palm is where I'm at. I'm just west of Lansing, Michigan.
That is exactly how if you wereto ask me in person, how
I would show you pull my handup. I'd be like, hey man,
I'm right here, right in thecenter grand Ledge population there. It's
a great question, I know,Wikipedias saying seventy seven hundred. Yeah,
(07:36):
in our we we're like right onlike the fringe of Lansing, Michigan,
which is a capital, so weget kind of a lot of over you
know, overlap there. But yeah, seventy seven hundred maybe you know,
it would have felt like seventy sevenhundred probably four or five years ago,
(07:57):
or you know, Lanting started movingout. I get that. All right,
folks, We're gonna take a quickbreak here on hunting matters KPRC.
We'll be back with our guest KyleJones from apexx Ammunition on the other side,
Dream of Growing Up. The HoustonSafari Club Foundation is a five zhe
C three nonprofit organization that supports thefuture of hunting and conservation. Wildlife and
(08:18):
habitat conservation, youth education and outdoorexperiences, scholarships, and anti poaching efforts
are just a few of the programssupported by this organization. Monthly events an
annual convention, award winning publications,networking opportunities, and valuable resources for hunting
knowledge, or just a few ofthe benefits of being a member of Houston
Sfari Club Foundation. If you're searchingfor a group of people dedicated to protecting
(08:39):
the future of hunting, look nofurther. Join Houston Safari Club Foundation today
at we Hunt, we Give dotorg or call seven one three six two
three eight eight four four. Seemslike yesterday, but it was long ago.
(09:09):
Jane, it was love that shewas a queer in my name.
Then the dogess with the radio playa little way and the seat was said,
we ship mountains that we moved,call a wildfire out of control,
(09:30):
to let us nothing left to burnand nothing left to prove. And we
are back here on Honey Matters KPRCnine fifty. This is your host,
Joe Beach. All right, I'mRamon Robeless joining us. Today's our guest
Kyle Jones, the director marketing withApex Ammunition. Kyle, once again,
thank you for joining us. Thanksfor having me guys. So, so
you're in Michigan, right, didyou grow up there in Michigan? Uh?
(09:50):
Yeah, So, Like I saidearlier, in roundabout way. I'm
kind of from here. This iswhere I went to high school. I
started college before getting into the huntingindustry. So yeah, I've been I've
been here. Uh you know,I was here ten years before I moved
away, and then I moved back, but before that, I'm actually I
(10:11):
actually tell people I'm from Washington State. So uh, well, it depends
how in depth you want to getwith that, because a lot of people
right now are kind of like,kind of shining away from people Washington A
very good reason. I got myoldest Yeah, my oldest son lives in
Oregon to trust me. I understand. I thought maybe you're right. Oh
yeah, I thought it was taxpurposes or something. You were just hiding
(10:33):
from the I he's a fugitive.Yeah yeah, yeah, no, So
we I moved to Michigan red beforehigh school, uh, from Washington State,
and then it was here until twentyseventeen, moved to Kentucky, moved
back to Washington for a few years, and then moved back to Michigan.
(10:54):
So kind of a man, it'sbeen. It's been a wild drive.
Yep. You know. Detroit's thelargest major city in America that you have
to travel south too to get toCanada. For me, Yeah, well,
I know you knew that guy.I'm sorry. I was looking at
Joe Beach. I had no clue. Yeah, you have to travel south
to get to Canada. I think, well, I'll show your meld,
so go ahead. It's also hometo like the number one walleye fishery in
(11:20):
America. So if you are abig fisherman and like catching fish to eat
them, like, that's the bestplace, one of the best places to
go. And you're like you're fishing, depending on the time of year you're
fishing on like the in the shadowsof the skyscrapers in Detroit. It's pretty
cool. It's kind of kind ofodd, but it's it's like, it's
(11:41):
pretty cool too. Had no idea, let's go to I would have never
thought, let's go fishing in Detroit. I've been I've been up there for
UFC fights, but I've never beenfishing in Detroit. Yeah, I was
the only place you could be,the only place you can bet jigging for
walleye and get brackhead at the sametime. That's a T shirt, right,
(12:01):
That's awesome. So this is aloaded question for me because I looked,
I've looked at your I've looked atyour back around your history, and
I already know what the answer thisis. But tell our audience, what
is your favorite type of hunting?Oh? Man, that's a load of
question. I would hit. Mostpeople think I'm the waterfowl guy, which
(12:24):
I mean, I love waterfowl hunting, but I'm gonna pick turkey hunting every
single time over waterfowl personally. Whyis that? Why do you have a
preference of that over man? Ijust I love, like this is gonna
sound so cliche of like a turkeyhunter, but it's like the chess game,
(12:46):
the chess match. It's playing withthat turkey the vocalization, right.
Uh. You you know, inthe moves you have to make, it
has to be very very precise,and you know you've got to you've got
to move with the purpose. You'vegot to plan your plan, your next
(13:07):
move, your call. Everything it'sall just so in like, just everything
has to be done in great detail. And I think that's where it's like
you have that you know, potentialof the reward of a bird gobbling or
coming up and strutting in front ofyou. You know, there's just so
(13:30):
many vocalizations that give you goose bumps, that a that a wild turkey can
make, and you know it's onlygoing to increase, you know, that
heart rate as it gets closer andcloser, because you know you're you're you're
coming closer to the objective that you'retrying to go out, which is chase
wild turkey and and and hopefully successfullyshoot one. You know, but it's
(13:52):
like it's one of those deals whereyou can go through all that wall wind
of emotions and if you didn't pullthe trigger, you're still just like just
as he waited and and happy andjust like just overwhelmed with emotion that you
know, if a turkey came upbehind you five yards spitting in drum and
goblin right, and then you weren'table to move and he just sat there
(14:18):
goblin, goblin, goblin. Imean I've been there many times. And
then he walked off and you weren'table to pull a trigger, your men,
I can guarantee you for that time, the amount of time that he
was goblin sitting in drumming. Youhear him, you know, wings dragon
across the the leaves, and it'sjust like, man, that your heart
rate. I can guarantee your heartrate is going to be absolutely spiked for
(14:41):
that amount of time that you weresitting there not being able to move because
you're sitting there trying to come upwith that plan to make a move and
you know, turn or whichever whichway that you you know you've got that
position by by mastering your movements,mastering your calling. But then it's like,
(15:03):
well you're stuck, so you're tryingto contain that right, and it's
just it can just absolutely just totallyblow your mind whenever. It's when you're
out there in the Turkey worlds,it's it's a it's an incredible, incredible
uh species. And I'm a turkeyfanatic too. And the other thing is
you do all those things perfectly andand you can go you can hunt one
(15:24):
weekend and be successful and go tothe next weekend and do the exact same
things and nothing works. So it'sit's it's as much as it as you
find it to be elating, it'sjust as frustrating, which is what I
love about the whole game of turkeyhunting. There's like it's such a an
emotional roller coaster ride that it canprovide it's the highest, the highest,
(15:46):
lowest of those. I mean,Josh man, uh, you know,
I've heard so many people say,you know, if you if you've never
missed a turkey, you're not aturkey hunter, right. Well, I
can tell you and promise you thatthe lower you will ever feel is if
you have a turkey walk by attwenty yards thirty yards and you miss and
(16:07):
he just runs off. I mean, you go through that entire thing and
you're just like, wow, youknow, blame but yourself? Yeah,
oh yeah, there's nobody to blamebut yourself there. And most of the
time, I feel like part ofthe reward of hunting turkeys is that if
you mess something up, more thanlikely it was it was your fault.
(16:30):
You know, there's nobody else toblame but you. Yeah, you might,
you know, you might get akyout or a bobcat that might come
through. But most most times it'sif a turkey is spooked runs off see
something, it's probably you, youknow, And and I think that's what
makes it. I think that's whatis. It's so much more fun and
(16:55):
like just down to like your rootsas like a like your human being nature,
like down in nature it's like thatit's you in that bird right versus
you know, you get a blindfull of waterfowl hunters in which you're ended.
Waterfowl hunting is fun, but youget you know, there's so many
other variables that are there that thatcan, you know, prevent you from
(17:18):
successfully shooting ducks and geese during theday. It's it's just like, man,
you get you get down to whatwho you are as a human being
and how you are as a hunterwhen your turkey running, it's pretty awesome.
Yeah, yeah, And you know, I actually I was going to
say, we've got a couple ofminutes here left in our segment, but
I was actually gonna jumped to theconclusion you were going to say waterfowl hunting
(17:40):
because I know that you're the twothousand and eight Junior World goose Calling champion
and a World goose calling champion ineighteen, twenty eighteen, and twenty nineteen.
That's pretty impressive. How did youget into game calling? And let
me ask you another call, putyou on the spot. How did you
get into game calling? Are youand are you as a good a turkey
caller as you are a waterfowl collar? Well? So, to answer the
(18:00):
last question, my goal is tobe you know, with with waterfowl becoming
more fluent on a call. It'sjust like if you were to go to
another country and we're able to speakfluently, your your experience is gonna just
increase, right Like if you wentto you know, pulland or wherever in
(18:22):
Europe, Germany and you were ableto stay please, thank you and yes
or no. But if that that'sgonna provide you a great experience. That's
what most people do. But ifyou go there and you know the ins
and out, how to read theemotions of the people, how to stay
thing with emotions, you know,it's gonna enhance that experience when it comes
(18:47):
to uh, your your vacation.Now. It's the same thing with dust
and geese, you know, andthen it's the same with turkeys. So
the better you did, the betteryou know, the better time you're gonna
have. All. The goal forturkeys, for sure, is to be
the best I can possibly league gothold that thought, ye, Kyle,
If you'll hold that thought there forjust a second, we'll pick it up
on the side. We're gonna haveto take a quick break here on honey
(19:10):
matters. KPRC nine fifty Baby mWell, come back to Hontymatters on KPRC
(19:56):
nine fifties. This is your host, Joe Batar. I am Ramone rub
Us and we were with Kyle Jonesfrom Apex Ammunition the director Mark and Kyle.
Thanks once again for joining us.Yeah absolutely, so grab me again,
you batman. So before we wentin the break, you were you
were talking about your your turkey callingprowess. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
(20:17):
I was just trying to trying toexplain how you know, we are.
You know, I'm I'm trying tobe as proficient with water flower, with
turkey hunting that I am, youknow, duck and douce hunting, so
our duck and deuce calling per se. So it's a it's a work in
(20:37):
progress, but it's it's a lotof fun. It's a lot of fun
to learn. How old I'm justcurious how old were you when you were
you know, considered adequate or youknow, fairly proficient with a duck call
that you could call call birds inon your own. Did this start a
young age? Uh? Yeah,So so I started I started ducking duce
hunting when I was like almost fourteen. It was like November December ish,
(21:02):
when I was thirteen, fourteen yearsold. So you know, part of
duck and duce hunting is you gottabe you gotta learn how to duck and
dusee call. And that's probably likethe coolest part as a young hunter.
You know, you get you getyour own little duck call and you get
to learn how to quack and allthat stuff. And I was by the
time I went into like my firstactual season, so the following fall,
(21:26):
I was pretty proficient with a duckcall with a duck call, mainly just
because I grew up in Washington andthere's a lot there's better duck hunting there
than there is douce hunting, soI you know, I prioritized duck calling
first, and then I moved toMichigan and that's where I learned how to
usee call. When I was prettyproficient on duck and use by the time
(21:48):
I was fifteen, And that's kindof when I started competing, you know,
basically year round for duck and ducecalling contest. Like I quit baseball
all and everything because I was like, oh, this is fun and I
don't get yelled at. So that'sthat's very cool. I'm gonna give your
website out to our listeners before Iforget here. Apex Munition. Ape x
(22:11):
munition dot Com is the website.So Kyle, tell us little bit about
your journey. How did you Howdid you end up at Apex Ammunition as
the director marketing. Tell us alittle bit about what you do day to
day. Yeah, So, youknow, I was actually I was working
for a waterfowl decoy company back beforeI started at Apex, and I was
(22:36):
shooting it for the first year theycame out with waterfowl loads. I was
you know, I was handed abox and really really enjoyed shooting it.
And then it was like, well, I get in contact with the company
and you know, came became oneof their you know, quote unquote ambassador
influence whatever you want to call uspromotional staff guys. Right, I started
(23:00):
at that role and you know,for two years up and tell her and
I was just promoting the products andand shooting it and just spreading word on
on Apex communition. I like theresults from it and it's just absolutely just
crushes ducks and geese and then withturkeys. I know, you guys have
(23:21):
seen what it does with turkeys.Too. So it's just one of those
like it's so easy to promote andevery cause you just believe in it so
much more. You know. It'sit's just you start shooting it, you
start believing in it, you startpromoting it, and then you actually get
an opportunity to work with the company. And that actually came in twenty twenty
(23:41):
two. I was actually headed.I was in Tennessee turkey hunting, and
I message to Jared Lewis, theCEOO, and I was like, hey,
man, like, I'm gonna comedown to Mississippi and turkey hunt and
I'd like to stop by the shopone day and just you know, just
because I know that I've been promotingyour brand for a couple of years now,
(24:03):
I just want you to put aname to a face and see who
who who you have representing your products? Uh in your brain. So he's
like, all right, well,you know where are you going to hunt?
I was planning on going on somestake grounds and he's like, naw,
nah, screw you up. We'regonna go hunt. We're gonna go
hunt on one of my buddies places. And you know, we got on
(24:23):
a couple of birds. Never werewe never were able to pull a trigger.
But you know, we rode aroundhunting for the entire day and had
great conversations. And then the nextday he was like, he puts me
in in with the sales the salesdirector at the time. He's like,
hey, man, you're gonna takeKyle out hunting. So I actually ended
(24:45):
up staying down there. Instead ofone day, I didn't stay down there
three days. And then you know, a week later they called and we
were like, hey, we reallyenjoyed having you down hunting with us.
Is there you know, are youfamiliar with you marketing and and all that
stuff? And I was like,yeah, that's you know what I've kind
of been doing for since I wasultimately, you know, fifteen, sixteen
(25:07):
years old. I've been involved inthe hunting industry and you know, if
there's an opportunity, I'd love toAnd they're like, oh, yeah,
there's an opportunity. Would you wantto be able to drive the marketing?
And I was like, well absolutely. So it was a pretty cool,
you know, our hunt turned intoa job interview and I had no idea
and Jared, you know, Jaredlike to tell that story quite often because
it was just he thought. Youknow, it was pretty cool at the
(25:29):
time, and I'm very, verythankful for it, but it was just
kind of a roundabout way of youknow, they weren't really they weren't really
actively searching for somebody, and thenI wasn't actually you know, I wasn't
asking for a job or anything likethat. It just fit and we've meshed
extremely well and the past year anda couple of months has been absolutely you
(25:52):
know, fantastic time. That's crazy. That's crazy to how those things work
out like that. You know,neither party's looking and you guys just kind
of ended up beating in each other'slaugh. That's a very cool story.
I'm curious. You know you've shotyou've shot APIs ammunition. Now you work
for the company, can you kindof tell us which you think makes it
stand apart in the industry as faras as ammunition and the Turkey and the
waterfowl line on the Turkey side ofThayings, I mean, man, it
(26:15):
is you know, you get handloaded quality and excellence right there, the
quality control with the Turkey loads whenit when I mean it is next and
the I mean it's it's just amazingstuff that the the the kinetic energy that
a hitting targets with, you know, the effectiveness and the lethality of it.
(26:37):
You know, it's like I explainedthat guys all the time that are
like, hey, you know,why should guys shoot that versus LAD number
five? That turkeys? And I'mlike, wow, man, Honestly,
it's like going to elk hunt andshooting. Would you rather shoot an elk
with a three hundred grain arrow?Would you rather shoot an elk with a
five hundred or six hundred grain arrow? You know, it's there's a there's
(27:00):
just a there's so much more lethalitythere, especially because I mean, you
know lead is lad like eleven ishgrams percc right now, Uh, TFS
to qualify for TFS, to advertise, TFS has to be eighteen quint one
grams percc And that is what wetake a lot of pride in and we
(27:23):
are offering that in each individual show. So I think like when it comes
to the turkey load, just thethe the lethality of it, the pattern
retention that you're getting, uh,and just the quality control or everything.
Now, when it comes to waterfowl, you know, not a lot of
people are familiar with shooting waterfowl atTSS. And I've not met a single
(27:48):
person that has shot our waterfowl TSSloads or blends that have been like,
oh, Ye'a'll go back to shootingregular steel or business because it's just you're
getting a large amount of TSS pelletsin our blends, you're getting steel,
and you're getting TFS in one shotshow right, So you're getting that eighteen
(28:10):
point one grams per cc in theTSS lood, but you're also getting steel
there as well. So you're justgetting this overall, you know, phenomenal
pattern, uh coming right out ofyour most of the time to modified joke,
you know. And so uh,it's just the again the lethality of
our blends and our waterfowl TSS.It's it's been hard to find somebody that's
(28:33):
like, yeah, I'll go backto shooting what I was before. And
then you know with our steel,our steel is is it economically driven product
line? You know? Uh,to introduce people to APEX, it's a
it's a steal, which you knowsteal is between seven point eight to eight
point four eight point three grams percc. But you know there's a we
(28:56):
take a lot of pride and wherewe have our specific wads that help and
help with the pattern retention on shotsout to forty yards. But then you
also get being plated feel, whichis, you know, perfectly round pellets
to provide you that excellent pattern retentionshot after shot. Yeah, so it's
(29:18):
just yeah, it's one of theseI was just going to ask you,
because some of our listeners may notknow, we assume they know what t
SS is. Can you give usa quick thing, like under a minute.
We're about a minute before we gointo the break here. What is
TSS? So tut TSS is uhshort for Tungston super Shot. So what
we've you know, what we've broughtto the market. We're the first to
(29:40):
bring out Tungsten super Shot and presentit to the public. And it is
a eighteen point one grants per CC. But it's it's allowing you to shoot
a number seven and a half,eight, eight, a half, nine,
nine and a half ten shot atducks, geese, turkeys because it's
so heavy, but you're it's soheavy, but you're getting smaller pellets.
(30:04):
That weight density in the ratio itallows you to shoot more pellets. You're
out of your shell, so it'syou know, it's pretty pretty unbelievable.
Hey, I'm an I'm a convert. I started using a few years ago
and I love it. It's gonnatake a break here on Hunting Matters KPRC
nine fifty. We'll be back withour guest, Kyle Jones of Apex Ammunition.
(30:52):
All Right, you don't realize this, Doctor b Tar Stevie Wonder,
Glenn Fry, Iggy Pop, JackWhite, Alice Cooper, Jackie Wilson,
Al Green, Ted Nugent, KidRock, Ray Parker, Junior, Sonny
Bono, Anthony Keatis, Diana RossMadonna. I'll shoot tsst Apex ammunition.
Yep. They came out and supportedno Apex ammunition. Pro stapfers their next
(31:15):
in line to be influencers Raypex.They all are either born in Detroit or
claim Michigan as their home. Icould pick out a few of those.
I didn't know some of them.Wait, Jack White the White of course
he still owns at Advantage Record storethere, Denny at Detroit, Ray Parker
Junior, Ye, Ted Nugent,Ye, Glenn Fry, Yep, you
know all of the Anthony keatas leadsinger. Yeah, but I didn't know
(31:37):
that they were some of them werefrom Detroit. No, I know everybody
here talking about Yeah there was it, and I hear a share in there.
No no Madonna Madonna closing. Yeah, they both believe in love.
Yeah, that's fascinating. I thought, let me pull up a couple of
singers from Detroit and play some oftheir music. Overwhelmed, might do another
(31:59):
show? Might tell you is nowcomplete? Ye I can. I can
go on my weekend and have agood time. Now you know in that
that piece of amoration. Welcome backto Honey Matters KPRC nine fifty this year
host Joe Btar and we are finishingup the shore with our guest today,
Kyle Jones of Apex Ammunition. Kyle'sa director marketing. Check out their website
at apex Munition. That's ape xMunition m U N I T I O
(32:22):
N dot com apex munition dot com. Kyle, thanks once again for joining
us. Yeah, thanks for havingme. Guys. So I'm curious you
shoot all these turkeys and all theseducks, which one do you prefer to
eat and how do you like toeat them in a family setting? Wald
turkey, because everybody in our inour family loves the Pride Wall Turkey,
(32:45):
and for some reason, anytime duringTurkey season we have family over, like
every Friday. I think there's adirect correlation there with you know, turkey
fries and Turkey season. So it'suh, we got a lot of family
that comes into town. So butas like my for myself, i'd like
(33:07):
to I really enjoy skin on mallardor even like sandhill crane or skin on
speckle belly. Use it's phenomenal.So it's a lot of a lot of
waterfowl gets some pretty bad raps.Sometimes it's just because a lot of guys
just tend to either overcook it orjust not cook it the right way.
(33:30):
So that's that's my personal favorite.You give me a mallard that I shot
in January, uh, and it'sgonna have a good thick amount of fat
on it. I'm cutting that babyup that day and eating it that night.
Yeah, you know that that bringsback some farm memories I was when
I was a kid, I grewup Louis North Louisiana, which at the
time was a mecca duck hunting.We had a lot of mallards there and
(33:51):
I shoot some birds and take themto my aunt. She would make a
big pan of Southern corn bread dressingand put those whole ducks on top of
them, just throw them in theoven. Jeez was good, so good
man. That that's one thing Iwould give a ton of props to.
Honestly, out of everybody, han'tmet anybody from Louisiana is damn good kick.
(34:13):
So they you know, they dolike you know, teal and gravy,
specs and gravy. You know.When I was living in Kentucky,
I worked with a guy from Lafia, Louisiana, and he uh, he
made spec and gravy teal all thetime. Man and duck gumbo and dude
to just throw down. Yeah,dug gumbo kitchen. Yeah, dug gumbo
(34:35):
is one of my favorites. Thatand there's another thing my my. I
had a buddy I used to playfootball with in high school, and his
dad would make a sauceby call,which is like a kind of a spicy
gravy with he'd make it with ducks, but he's also make it we catch
turtles and bring him in. Hewould clean turtles and make a turtle saucepeak
call with the sauceshell turtles. Man, that got could cook. That's good
making me hungry just thinking about it. I'll happily set. But you can't
(35:00):
ask me to pronounce that. That'sthat's that's the u thing you have added
good? Yeah, yeah, yeah, So I was curious. Uh,
you know, you've done a lotof hunting obviously in your life. You're
you're a fairly young man. I'dlike Ramona, but I'm curious to know.
You know, obviously, everybody's gottheir own favorite breed of hunting companion
(35:22):
hunting dog. Do you do youhave a particular breed that you prefer to
hunt with. Man, I've I'vegot two laboratory retrievers, and I've hunted
over a lot of really really gooddogs. But I'm just with waterfowl.
I'm just the lab guy. Idon't upland hunt enough to justify getting a
(35:43):
you know, a pointer or anythinglike that that can do both. You
know, one is that's really popularnow is the grafrons and and the wire
heard pointers because the guys in likethe upper Midwest, North Dakota, Minnesota,
like they've got a ton of uplandgame that they can chase as well.
They want that dual sport athlete anda dog, and I just I
(36:05):
don't do enough of that. SoI'm just I'm just a lab guy.
Man like your temperament. You know, they're they're great family pets and and
they are you know, they loveto they love to fetch, love to
play. And my wife is probablyyou know, if we got another type
of dog, my wife would belike, what do we doing wired She's
(36:27):
the lab yal So when it comesto you know, you've got you.
When we're looking for dogs, whenwe go to look for a puppy,
we do our due diligence of makingsure we're getting something that fits what we
want because you know, a lotof the a lot of the things that
are genetically passed down are you know, drive temperament, and from from a
(36:51):
from my standpoint, I want somethingthat whenever I'm out, you know,
duck and goose hunting as serious asI can be, you know, something
that's got a ton of drive.But as soon as I go in the
house, you know, I wantedto be able to curl up next to
my daughter and and be able tobe pet and and just chill out and
hang out. So we we lookedspecifically for that, you know, So
(37:15):
it's I've definitely backed off the pastyear. Like last year, I think
my my yellow lab King, he'snine, he retrieved I think seven geese
for me last year. And mymy younger dog, Oakley, she actually
didn't even hunt last year, justbecause we were in a new transition of
moving to Michigan, new job.Maybe a year before that. Oakley was
(37:38):
a fricking machine. She had,you know, eight hundred retrieves on you
know, a multitude of states andprovinces. It was a pretty unique time
to hunt over a dog that hasmade or drop off. But long,
long story, short laboratory retriever.Do you yeah, do you do you
hunt? I mean do you duringyour waterfowl hanging seas? And do you
(38:00):
purpose? Do you plan out ofstate to state or multi state season or
do you stay closer to home?What's your typical waterfowl season look like?
So right now, before when Iwas working for a decoy company, like
I was gone one hundred and seventyfive days in August and Papril. So
like, I mean that's a atthe in and out type you know,
(38:22):
uh schedule. But now I'm I'mkind of at the liberty where I can
plan out who is going to particularhunts now. At the same time,
Yeah, I'm the director of marketing, but I'm also you know, I
gotta be the guy that's calling andstuff like that too from in some aspects,
(38:44):
right, So I'll try to planyou know, four to six unique
trips where we can film, takephotos and gather you know, a lot
of the content that we need formedia ads or you know videos. You
know, if you look at oursocial media it's pretty pretty you know,
(39:07):
it's pretty top notch when it comesto a content perspective as far as you
know what Jared puts out. SoJared, Jared's the owner of Apex,
you know, and he's he's aCEO, but he's also the guy that's
doing our video, right, Soit's a it's a pretty unique it's pretty
unique look and everything like that.So it's, uh, it's awesome to
(39:30):
get him on the on those tripsso we can get the video that we
need. That's cool man. Well, Kyle, but we can't tell you
how much we appreciate you joining usjoining us again today again, folks.
Kyle Jones, the director marketing withApex Ammunition go check out their website at
apex munition dot com. That's ape X m U n I t i
o n dot com. And wewill see you folks here next week on
(39:52):
Hunting Matters KPRC nine fifty
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