March 5, 2025 • 59 mins
Hunting has long been a tradition, deeply embedded in human culture and survival. In this episode, we explore the journey of John Stallone, a passionate bow hunter, whose adventures in the outdoors have not only shaped his life but also inspired many. The core theme of this episode revolves around activism and how individuals within the hunting community can come together to educate and inform others about the benefits of hunting, conservation, and wildlife management.
John's formative experiences in hunting provide a compelling backdrop to discuss deeper topics around the misconceptions of hunting in today's society. Especially in an era of increasing environmental concern, hunting often faces scrutiny and skepticism, usually driven by misconceptions. John's personal narrative reveals how engaging with nature allows for a more profound understanding of local ecosystems and conservation efforts.
As John’s journey progressed, he transitioned from just being a hunter to becoming very influential in the outdoor community. Through filming his hunting adventures and sharing knowledge across various platforms, John began to demystify the hunting process, showcasing it as a vital component of wildlife management. The highlight of this transformation was the launch of his online hunting channel, which served as an educational hub for those eager to learn more about hunting techniques, wildlife habitats, and ethics.
One of the most significant initiatives that emerged from John's journey is Howl for Wildlife, an organization that focuses on advocacy for hunting rights and protecting the interests of hunters nationwide. Understanding the urgent need for hunters to unite, John and his co-founder spearheaded campaigns that have encouraged thousands to step forward, sign petitions, and rally behind crucial policies affecting their passions. By bridging the gap between hunters, policymakers, and the general public, Howl for Wildlife aims to voice the concerns of hunters in legislative matters affecting hunting and conservation.
The goals of Howl for Wildlife extend beyond just campaigning; they encourage new generations of hunters to engage in advocacy work. Through membership options that offer educational resources and platforms for members to voice their concerns, the organization strengthens the community while continuously adapting to the challenges hunters face. This becomes particularly important as hunting continues to evolve in response to societal changes and emerging threats to wildlife management practices.
As John confronts the ever-present challenges ahead, the key message from this episode is the need to engage and educate others about the realities of hunting. By connecting with non-hunters, emphasizing the values of conservation and wildlife management, and dismantling stereotypes, the hunting community can create a network of support. The tales of camaraderie, responsibility, and success should prompt conversations that resonate far beyond the hunting grounds.
Finally, listeners are encouraged to consider their roles in promoting understanding around hunting. Whether through joining organizations like Howl for Wildlife or participating in local discussions, the responsibility of protecting the future of hunting lies within each individual. As hunters, we should be willing to plant the proverbial trees of knowledge and advocacy for future generations to enjoy.
Learn more about the host, George Blitch at:
SonofaBlitch.com
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode is brought to you by American Made
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Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hi, this is John Stallone and you're listening to
Son of a Blitch Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Hey John, how you doing today.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I'm good, can't complain.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Right on, right on, man.
I love that background.
How for wildlife?
Now we're going to chat aboutthat and so much more, all the
different things you've gottengoing.
But I'd love to just kind ofstart at the very beginning.
Man, why don't you telleveryone a little bit about
where you're born and raised andhow you got into the outdoor
lifestyle?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Okay, yeah, um, well, I was born and raised in
Brooklyn, new York.
If you haven't heard it from myaccent that I'm from New York,
um, my dad and my uncles, he, mygrandfather they all hunted.
Um, now my grandfather lives inItaly, not here, um, so I never
actually got to hunt with them.
Actually, we went hunting withthem once, cause he came to the
(01:28):
United States to go hunting, um,well, not just specifically to
go hunting, but he came here andwe went hunting.
Um, yeah, my, my firstintroduction to hunting was me
holding a rifle at five yearsold, aiming it at a deer up in,
uh, binghamton, new York, and,uh, and, and taking my first
(01:50):
deer went at 35 Marlin, with mydad's help, of course.
You know I was five, but, uh,we were leaning on a fence post
and the buck was like 80 yardsaway or something like that.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
So technically I've been hunting since some.
I mean not technically, but Ireally have been hunting since
I'm young, really young, fivemaybe, even younger than that.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
So obviously deer the first, and then you kind of it
started off a whitetail.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Um, I found bow hunting by myself because nobody
in my family did it.
Uh, I shouldn't say by myself.
My cousin fred and I kind ofpicked up compound bows and we
started messing around with thatand I did that.
Uh, that was like a third.
Well, I had a bow.
Way before that my dad boughtme a bow, one of those like, uh,
(02:40):
it wasn't plastic, it was, waslike fiberglass, long bow, 25
pound draw deal.
I started with that, real young, and then he bought me a
recurve which I could not pullback.
It was like a 40 pound bow.
I couldn't I was short strokeit, you know.
But awesome cedar shafts withthese giant Zawiki broad heads
(03:01):
on them and whatever.
It was pretty awesome, uh, butuh, I actually ended up breaking
that cause I didn't know how tostring it up, right, um, but
that was my introduction.
Then, by the time I was 13, uh,so 13, 14 and 15, my cousin Fred
and I would kind of dabbled in,uh, bow hunting on long Island
and, um, then it wasn't until,really, oh, so I moved here.
(03:28):
I moved here when I was 16,which here is arizona.
I live in arizona.
I've been living here since1991 and, um, I moved here and
you know we hunted, but itwasn't with the same, because
there was this learning process,you know, of trying to figure
out things.
And then I got really heavyback into bow hunting.
(03:50):
Um, in my early twentiesprobably is what I would say
when I got really heavy into itand I like really got crazy
about it when I was about, Iwant to say, 22, 23 years old,
so about 30, almost 30 years.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
What were you chasing at?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
that point in time.
Well, we were chasingeverything they had here, so
that was mule.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Deer goose, deer elk were the primary and at some
point in time you decided start,you know, filming your shows.
Obviously you've had, you know,quite a lot of following from
uh all those different hunts andthings on your youtube and uh,
you know I'll put some linksdown below in the show notes
because there's some reallygreat ones you guys got to check
out.
But why don't you kind of talkabout like that idea?
Was that something like youknow, filming was uh kind of
things you had been involvedwith before?
(04:42):
Did you decide what I'm doingthis?
I'm going to go ahead and tryto document it.
How did this kind of come aboutto where you know you rose to
where you are with, you know,having such a successful hunts
and getting out there, you know?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, so, basically, like in 2001, I started my first
quote, unquote professionalendeavor.
Um, I got on a, I got onMatthew's pro staff, um, and
that came about from shooting 3dtournaments and having success
(05:15):
and, I guess, taking goodquality photos and whatever they
like kind of liked what I wasdoing, and I was also writing
articles.
Um, in my infinite wisdom, Ithought I was uh already uh, a
master, since I had been huntingso long, but, um, so I started
writing articles and then, in2004, I started the hunting
(05:41):
channel online and it was thefirst of its kind was kind of
like it wasn't really beforeYouTube, cause I think YouTube
kind of had started but itwasn't popular.
Um, we, I developed thetechnology with with uh, various
partners and we had streamingonline TV, and part of my goal
(06:05):
at the time was because I washungry for knowledge and there
that knowledge wasn't there in adigestible form.
I read books.
I see, actually, some of thebooks that I read behind you
right there back on uh backcountry, bow hunting is one.
I got it sitting on my shelfback there somewhere, but you
(06:34):
know I read books, and not tocut down on any of the authors,
but it was, I felt like everybook I read was like, if you
want to find big deer, you gotto go where the big deer are
Okay, sweet, where the frick arethe big deer?
You know, but you're notteaching me anything, you're
like, and I got reallyfrustrated with that and so I
started, you know, progressing,um, my skillset, and every time
(06:57):
I figured something out, I'd putit out there.
I put it out there in videoform or an article form or
whatever.
And then the hunting channelonline.
Part of it was, yes, you couldcome here and watch TV shows and
whatever and digest that, thattype of media, but it was a hub
for information, like to planyour hunt, moon phase charts, uh
(07:22):
, you know all the tips andtactics.
And I started doing this, um,uh, the hunting channels tip of
the week.
So I would learn something, Iwould figure it out and adapt it
into my skillset.
And eventually I was like, okay, this works really well, I'm
going to share this with people.
And then I I put those out, andthen the TV show came about
(07:45):
around about 2006.
I think my I might've startedit beforehand.
To be honest with you, I don'teven remember to have to go back
and like it's all a blur now.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
It's been a while Sure, sure.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Um, so I would go and I would, I would.
I started filming my adventures, um, adventures, um, but it was
.
I did it because I was usingthat to promote the haunting
channel.
Everything was like about I wasnever promoting john stallone,
I was never like, yeah, I didn'tstart branding me as me till
(08:18):
like 2015 or something like that.
So for years it was just abouttrying to gain members and you
know, push the, uh, the honeychannel online.
Um, I stopped doing the, the TVshow Like I was actually had.
I had a stint where I was onwild TV.
Um, I had the lone star channeland I had a couple of like
(08:43):
where we I was actuallyphysically on TV, but most of it
I did it online and you know, Ikind of pioneered that there
wasn't, there wasn't anybodydoing online stuff and um, or
streaming type stuff.
And, you know, as things change, people followed.
There were some other pop-upsof happening that were like the
hunting channel online.
And then you know um whole longstory but I I ended up losing
(09:10):
the hunting channel, along likeaccess to the hunting channel
admin, because of one of mypartners.
Uh, I lost it for a while,which kind of like became the
demise of it, um, but it alsokind of happened during the time
where YouTube and Vimeo and allthese other platforms were like
really taken off and doing verywell, so, um, and then
(09:31):
everybody, like in 2015, 2016,everybody had a freaking TV show
, like everybody had a cameraand they were filming and, just
like, everybody has a podcastnow like podcast too.
So the podcast, I my, has apodcast now like podcast too.
So the podcast I my my podcast.
I started it as a product of, ifyou had a membership to the
hunting channel, you had apodcast that I just won a month
(09:55):
and my, my podcast was calledinterviews with the hunting
masters and I kept that name fora very long time.
So I did that for a while and Iwould produce one a month and I
say a while, I don't, I didn'teven remember.
I think it was like six yearsand then I stopped doing it and
then there was like a like a twoyear break and then in 2014, I
(10:15):
think, or 2015, I brought itback, but I brought it to the
masses and I did it Like youwould have a traditional podcast
.
Now, you know, you go to iPodor or excuse me Apple, or excuse
me, spotify or whatever youknow, and you could digest it on
any platform and take it withyou before you had to be a
member and used to have todownload it to an actual iPod or
(10:36):
stream it through um throughthe honey channel.
So, yeah, most of it always wasa product of wanting to to be
better, even the podcast likehey, this was an opportunity,
but opportunity for me tointerview people who knew better
than me and you know, over timethat morphed into me being the
(11:01):
guy that people wanted on theirpodcast and you know, so on and
so forth.
And I, I, I wrote a book aboutwhitetail hunting.
Uh, what I wrote a book.
It's called uh, uh, thewhitetail hunters blueprint.
It's still actually umavailable through Amazon as a
(11:21):
downloadable, like on a Kindleor something like that.
You can't get the hard copy orpaperback anymore.
And then the other book wasSecrets of Haunting, western
Game.
They were designed to how-tostyle Now that if I read them I
would probably go back and Iwould kind of want to revamp
them a lot.
(11:42):
I think I released that, Idon't know.
I want to say 2013 or 2014.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Do you have a goal to maybe do that and have another
edition or maybe an electronicform at some point.
I mean, you got nothing elsegoing on, right?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
You know two other books that I that I started
writing, that I that I haven'tcompleted, Um, uh, one of them
being um that I haven'tcompleted, um, uh, one of them
being um, diaries of a waiter,cause I was a waiter for a very
long time as a kid, uh, you know, and that's more of a, a
becoming of a man type uh, book.
But the other one is, uh,something has to die for in
(12:17):
order for you to live, and it'skind of tackles a lot of the
stuff that I deal with and how,uh, with anti-hunting and uh,
and educating the non-huntingpublic and having them, you know
, bridging that gap so theyunderstand the difference
between what is portrayed of us,you know, by anti-hunting the
(12:39):
elmer, fudd, toothless hillbillyredneck drinking beer, that
whole, um, you know, caricature,caricature.
Why can't I say that word?
That that whole identity, um,or that whole persona, um, and
how, that you know that's,that's a false, like a false way
(13:03):
to look at it.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
So, but Well, you know, jumping into that is as
far as like how for wildlife.
I'd love for you to kind oftalk about the genesis of this.
How did this begin?
Uh, when did this first form?
And you know, we'll kind of gointo some more specifics about
it.
I'd love to hear about themembership and how people get
involved and how we can kind ofget listeners, uh, you know, on
board.
But yeah, why don't you justkind of talk about how did this
uh come about?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
it really just came about out of necessity.
Really, um, charles and Icharles is the, uh is the
president and um founder,co-founder I'm with myself on it
and uh, he's what he's really,the one that kind of like turned
it into what it is.
It originally started off as asum well, he had.
(13:46):
He had come to me, like I said,told the whole story, if
anybody hasn't heard it by now.
Uh, but he came to me.
He's like hey, they're tryingto get rid of bear hunting in
California.
You know, what can we do?
I'm like let's start achangeorg.
And he wrote this awesome, likechangeorg piece which um
(14:07):
sparked a lot of what we dotoday.
Um, but he, he wrote this outand we had like 20 000 people
get involved on it, sign anddonate money, which the donation
doesn't go to us goes tochangeorg.
Changeorg is a for-profitcompany, not, yep, not a
non-profit, by the way, um, andbecause of that it was like,
(14:29):
okay, we need to.
We need to start changeorg forhunters specifically.
And you know this, eighteenthousand dollars that was
donated for this deal.
This could have went to anissue directed to exactly
towards hunting and fishing.
That part hasn't really workedout.
Um, you know, the funding part'salways a problem, um, but the
(14:54):
engagement and involvement andbeing able to move the needle
we've we've been able to movemountains with thousands of
people and it's makes me very,it makes us all very optimistic
in how because there's, you know, many anywhere from 14 to 16
million hunters in the UnitedStates and if we're able to
(15:17):
affect the change that we arewith 30, 40,000 people.
Could you imagine if we had,you know, four or 5 million
people doing this, or 14, 15million people doing this?
So, yeah, there's um amazingpotential to to um not only save
hunting and protect huntinginsulated from from the
(15:40):
anti-haunting movement, but alsothe ability to get stuff back
that we've lost and to changethe, the overall optics on what
hunting and fishing and andoutdoorsmanship is really.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
When you got, like your hunters and anglers that
are kind of working in tandemwith some of the decision makers
that are actually working onthese policies, right, why don't
you give me a couple examplesof some things that were, maybe
you know, very successfulcampaigns through, how that you
can kind of talk about, you know, maybe a little feather in the
cap of some of the things thatyou're like, man, this is
something that shows that we canmake a difference when we're
all collectively on board andjust kind of give some folks you
(16:19):
know an idea of maybe, some ofthose things that you're doing
kind of on a week to week, monthto month basis.
Sure.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Well, I think.
I mean I don't know the exactnumbers but to date, every
policy or every issue that we'vegotten involved on, we've
either with exception of likemaybe four, four or five we've
(16:46):
been able either able toprogress forward or have one.
So that in itself says a lot.
Um, you know, if I, you know800 pound gorilla in the room,
one of the one of the one of themost obvious things that we've
done in recent past is themountain lion issue in Colorado.
(17:10):
So that's one of the otherthings we do.
We take state-level issues andwe bring national attention to
it.
So that could have been astate-level issue and could have
stayed there.
May may not have passed.
That could have been astate-level issue and could have
stayed there.
May may not have passed.
You know the guys working on it, the guys that we partnered
(17:37):
with.
You know CRWM was spearheadingthat.
They may have been able to.
I don't know.
You know it's hard to say, butI do know that we had our hand
on everything and we had, we hadthe ability to take that and
make it like everybody knewabout.
It didn't matter if you were inflorida or if you were in here
texas, yeah, california,whatever texas everybody ended
up hearing about it and we hadan huge, huge uh rally that even
(18:04):
the anti-hunter said this issomething they had never seen
before.
So, to me, if the the otherside's bitchin, you know, you
know you're doing somethingright, right, so they woke up
the sleeping giant.
You know they poked the beartoo many times and now it's now,
it's time for us to getinvolved on and on every single
(18:25):
thing.
So we're hunters for hunters.
Anglers for ever have neverbeen, uh, very involved there.
They've been very to themselves.
That's it's that.
It's that mentality you do you,I do me.
It's a good way to live in a lotof ways, but unfortunately,
(18:46):
like in this particular instance, in this time, you know, in
this time frame, we need to beactivists, and activists.
Activism has always been adirty word.
It's always been a in inpolitical sense, has been a left
side thing.
You know, like um, and peopledon't necessarily um, want to
(19:12):
want to be involved.
They're very apathetic to stuffthat doesn't physically or
seemingly affect them, right?
So we're trying to change thatmindset.
That's the biggest thing rightnow is really, you know, you're
not a deer hunter in Washingtonor whatever.
You hunt coyotes in, I don'tknow Texas, whatever.
(19:36):
And why does it affect you?
Like, why does it meansomething to you that this guy
might be losing his ability tohunt what he loves?
If I don't hunt there and Idon't hunt that species, like,
why does it affect me?
And there's, you know we can sithere and draw the excuse me,
(19:57):
connect the dots or draw thelines or whatever.
But just hear me when I'msaying we're all interconnected.
Um, but just hear me when I'msaying we're all.
We're all interconnected theway that the system in the
United States works.
We're all interconnectedfinancially somehow.
Um, we all occupy a place atwhat we call the conservation
(20:19):
table and there's variousstakeholders at the conservation
table and because hunting is auser pay system, a pay to play,
so to speak, we typically haveone of the largest voices at the
(20:39):
conservation table, even thoughwe're not necessarily the
largest population.
You know we only occupy 5% ofthe population.
5% is anti-hunting and then therest is in between.
You know that's oversimplifyingit.
There's other, there's otherpie pieces of the pie there, but
(21:00):
, um, you know, in the grandscheme of things, five percent's
not a whole lot.
So we rely on messaging goodscience and and sharing the
truths about hunting and fishingwith those other people, with
that strong 90 in the middle, sothat they don't make rash
(21:22):
decisions and get inside withanti-hunting ridiculousness.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
So no, it's super important.
I mean, you know, I rememberthe Outdoor Stewards
Conservation Foundation did astudy and I was talking I think
it was like around the 85%number of people who support the
idea of hunting across ourcountry.
And you know, as you kind oflay down that five, five, 90
number there too, like you thinkabout it, there's a lot of
folks who do that.
Now there's people who like,don't like the idea of, like,
(21:52):
trophy hunting, and that may bea different thing, cause but
that's also a lot ofmisinformation and we're seeing
this along the lines.
I mean, there's a lot of bigmedia that you know, especially
in the podcast world too, andorganizations such as your own
that are really kind of layingdown a lot of educational things
, especially for those nonhunters and people who have been
anti hunting for a long time,and I think we're seeing a
little bit of a, an eclipse ofchange, hopefully, um, with with
groups like yours that aregetting out there and making
(22:15):
sure that the real truth is laidout and that we're not losing
these things, cause what happensin Washington does affect the
other things that are happeningin Florida, whatever policy
nationwide, and I think it'sgreat when we have things like
the collective efforts that camearound to speak up for those
folks in Colorado.
I mean it was a big win for alot of people.
You know, and just kind of inties with that, you know, being
(22:36):
that that was one of the groupsyou worked with there in
Colorado, why don't you tell mea little bit about some of the
partnerships and some of thedifferent you know kind of
affiliations of some othercompanies and you know
policymakers that you're workingwith?
Um, you know again, maybe aweek to week, month to month
basis, whatever may come up, andI'm sure you know big red flag
things that come up.
You're like we're going to putour voice out here, but you know
, just as far as an organization, who all are you kind of
(22:57):
teaming up with and working within that realm.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
So I mean, how's really we're?
We're willing to work withanybody who sees the big picture
, you know, anybody who'swilling to roll up their sleeves
and get involved, and you knowwe'll use Colorado as an example
.
You know we are.
Well, I think we wereinstrumental, in my opinion, in
(23:25):
rallying the troops, so to speak, and talking to some of the
legacy orgs you know RMEFs andMule Deer Foundations and so on
and so forth and getting them tounderstand why it was important
that we needed theirinvolvement.
You know that's always been abig problem for, for hunting is
that we all have our own littleniches and we all hunt.
(23:47):
There's a lot, a lot of moneyand effort that goes into
hunting.
Lots, right, but why are wealways behind when it comes to
um?
Um, like any issue that'sinvolving anti-hunting?
It's because we don't lock armsand do things in unison, right,
(24:08):
where the anti-hunting groupsdo the exact opposite.
They are very good aboutgetting on each other's things.
We go to a game and fishmeeting.
You see the same bad actorsthere all the time Got the
representative from Houston, gotthe one from Coyote Project, he
(24:30):
got the one from WildlifeForever, and this and that and
so on and so forth, and they'rethere and they all have the same
messaging and they all so Ihave on good authority, but I've
never personally, you know,been involved in like or jumped
(24:51):
in on one of their meetings.
But I can guarantee you there'sa lot more collaboration going
on on their side than there ison ours.
So when you say who, you know,who, do we get involved?
We, you know, I, I don't wantto, I don't want to start
throwing names around and here'sI'm going to tell you right off
the bat too, that is not what Ipersonally handle.
(25:12):
In alpha wildlife, um, that ismostly ran.
That stuff is ran throughcharles and through mike
costello, um, where they're moreon the uh, the, they, they get
involved in meetings most of thetime with other uh interest
groups and so on and so forth,to come up with plans and so on.
(25:34):
So I'm, I'm apparently I'm I'mtoo stupid to do that stuff.
So, um, I'm best suited uh,talking, talking to hunters and
uh, and and hunters and movingthat needle.
But anyways, you brought upFlorida.
That was another big nationalthing.
(25:58):
That was a positive thing.
We just got the right to huntand fish.
And I say we, we were part ofthing we got.
We just got the right to huntand fish, and I say we, we were
part of it.
Travis Thompson was the mainspearhead there, the guy Um, but
we were.
We brought that to a, you knowa national level where people
were getting involved, so likewhen there was, you know,
(26:26):
fundraising and and when theopen comment period was right,
you know, to get it on the billthat we were a part of that.
That was, that was us Um.
So you know, there, that'sthat's what we do and that's
that's the goal for for thefuture really is to keep
creating this unity amongst allthe groups and doing an
(26:47):
outpacing, outpacing the, theanti-hunting groups and what
they're doing.
You know, we were, I think, ashow, as a group, is very good at
recognizing what our enemy doesreally well and taking that and
using it against them.
So if, if, if, if there'sanything, that's the underlying
(27:12):
thing.
What we're doing is and andalso looking at things like more
holistically, not just throughthe eyes of our wants and
desires.
There's stuff that we don't getinvolved in because we know it's
going to, you know it's goingto cause backfire, or it's going
to backfire, it's going tocause conflict or whatever, and
(27:34):
we've, unfortunately, um, we gotinvolved in something here in
Arizona that we were kind of onthe fence, that we didn't want
to Um, and it kind of blew up ona frasel a little bit.
Um, it's one of the things thatwe lost actually, and it was.
It was a hunter problem.
It was hunters and hunters,hunters against hunters.
So, uh, we typically try toavoid stuff like that because,
(27:58):
uh, it never bodes well.
You know, I'm going to throw alittle statistic out there, like
I don't know the exact numbers,but whenever there's an issue
like I'll give you anotherexample here in Arizona we
Banned trail cameras severalyears ago there was hunters on
both sides of that.
There was hunters that were forit, hunters that were against it
(28:20):
.
When, when that happens, ifit's an issue that there's
anti-hunters don't want us touse, most anti-hunters don't
want us to use trail cameras.
So they saw that they jump onthat opportunity, they jump on
the bandwagon automatically.
You lose.
So, you know, you always got tokind of keep in mind what are
(28:43):
you giving up?
Are you cutting off your noseto spite your face Like, oh, you
want to stop these guys fromusing trail cameras Cause you
don't have.
You don't have the success thatthey have and you don't have
the time or the money to go buythem or whatever the whatever
the reasoning is.
I'm just throwing out arbitraryreasons, but what you're really
(29:06):
doing is helping out theanti-hunters.
You know you're not, you're nothurting.
I mean, you're not reallyhurting that guy.
You just you're trying to levelthe playing field for yourself.
But what, what?
Where's?
You know?
Where are you?
Where is that driving from?
Where's that deriving from?
You know, like, where, where'sthat coming from?
Is it coming from becausejealousy of what this person,
(29:29):
other person's been able to do,or is it coming from you really
want to help the deer herd?
You know you got to kind oflook at that and figure out, hey
, what am I really doing here?
Hey, what am I really doinghere?
And when you figure that outnine times out of 10, and you're
honest with yourself, you startfiguring out you're like, okay,
I'm doing this for my ownselfish reasons, whatever they
(29:52):
are, and I'm just arbitrarilythrowing stuff out there.
I'm not calling everybody whodoesn't want trail cameras
jealous of the guys who use them, but you know you got to look
at stuff like that and it's.
It's been hard for me.
I mean, um, I'm no freakingsaint, I'm no, you know, I'm not
up on my soapbox talking,talking to people, talking down
(30:15):
to people.
Um, a lot of what I'm saying isbecause I've had realizations
of my own life, you know, and,um, so it's always about trying
to be better, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Sure, sure.
Well, you know, as far as folkswho want to get involved with
Hal um and become a member, whydon't you walk through some of
the you know membership options,some of those benefits and kind
of where they can go?
And again, I'll have all theshow notes below.
So if anybody uh, you're notwriting fast, you're driving you
want to go ahead and find thisout, just make sure you come
back to the show notes.
(30:46):
But why don't you go ahead andlay that out for everyone, if
you wouldn't mind?
Yeah, sure.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
So you know, lowest level, the lowest lift right
there there's no shirt off yourback is we have a free
membership and that you just goin there and you sign up.
And basically that you just goin there and you sign up, um,
and basically what that means isyou're going to get all the
notifications, um, so we didthat because we wanted people to
be involved.
(31:12):
We didn't want to say, oh, youcan't get involved because you
don't want to give me $30 a year.
You know, we want you to beinvolved.
So if you're going to do that,get involved.
When stuff comes up, go putyour name in the hat, whether
it's something you do or not.
That's the very lowest lift.
It literally will take you 10minutes the whole year.
(31:32):
We're not talking about a lotof time here, but that 10
minutes will go a very long way.
Then there's our Howl annualmembership, which is $30.
Then there's our Howl annualmembership, which is $30.
And that comes with somefeatures and benefits and
(31:54):
certain giveaways and mostlylike discount codes and stuff
like that that other partnersthat we have have awarded people
who you know, put their moneywhere their mouth is, and then
you start going into ourpartnership memberships.
Now we have a partnership withPope and Young, we have one with
American Bear Foundation and wehad hoped to do this with other
(32:15):
organizations and it mightstill happen, but right now it's
these two.
So you want to be a member ofPope and Young?
You want to be a member of Howl?
You don't really have, youcan't spend the money to be on
both.
Right, you can't spend $30 withus and $45 with them, but you
(32:35):
want both.
You come to Howl for Wildlife.
You purchase that membershipfor $45.
What would?
It would have been at Pope andYoung and we split that.
Okay, half goes to Pope andYoung, half goes to Howlful
Wildlife.
You got dual membership, kindof a no brainer, yeah.
Then we start going up to um,gohunt is one of our premier
(32:58):
partners and, uh, by the way,they've been awesome.
If you don't have a GoHuntmembership, and even if you do
have a GoHunt membership, youcome to Howlful Wildlife and you
purchase their membershipthrough our website.
It costs the same as if youwould have went to their website
(33:18):
and bought it, but now GoHuntdonates 50% of that to Howlful
Wildlife.
Now GoHunt donates 50% of thatto Half of Wildlife.
As a result, you can claim 50%of that on your taxes as a 501c3
.
You can claim that to get a taxdeduction.
But we have special discountcodes.
(33:42):
You have the ability to buystuff on GoHunts website for 15%
less, so you can essentiallybuy gear through them and pay
for your membership.
Uh, through the discount code.
Um, there's special giveawaysand so on and so forth.
Plus, you get to feel goodabout it Like, hey, I just did
(34:05):
something more for wildlife thatI didn't do beforehand and it's
an excellent tool.
I use it all the time.
Matter of fact, I'm doing mytag research right now.
So, um, um, I'm kind of goingthrough that.
But, um, and now this is likecreme de la creme.
We partnered with the guys overat Elk Bros or Blue Collar Elk
(34:28):
Hunting, and we have puttogether a program called the
Adventure Club and basically,you get the Elk Bros online
course.
You get the elk bros onlinecourse, so it teaches you how to
(34:50):
become a better elk hunterthrough their online course, and
I've gone through it.
I've, I've actually gonethrough most of them, most of
the big name ones.
I'm not going to mention thembecause I don't want to throw
these guys underneath the bus,but I looked at their curriculum
versus what I've seen at theother ones.
And the curriculum on this ison point, and I've been a
(35:10):
student of elk my whole life.
I've been guiding for elk for15 years and I think it's
excellent.
Just the value of that.
So if you went to elk brothersto buy that coursework, it's
$350 a year.
Through us it's $300 a year.
(35:32):
Okay, you get that coursework,you get this adventure club and
the adventure club is a wholeslew of discounts, like some of
them were like 40% off, likecamouflage and stuff like that.
So if you go there and you, youcan basically again you could
recoup that $300 through thesedifferential, different programs
(35:54):
.
But the huge thing about thiswhole deal is every 100 people,
every 100 members, we draw oneperson to win a coached I say
it's, we call it coached elkhunt in New Mexico.
It's basically a guided hunt ona private ranch where you're
(36:18):
getting taught how to be abetter elk hunter and you're
hunting awesome bulls.
You know we're talking to NewMexico, right?
You know Washington over tocounter tag, this is a New
Mexico bull.
So one out of one every hundred, and it's not the first hundred
(36:40):
.
And then, uh, you know yourodds keep getting worse.
It's every time you're in ablock of a hundred.
It doesn't matter where youpurchased, you're in a block of
a hundred and every year itrolls.
So like if somebody drops out,you roll into that hundred.
So it's, it's really.
You basically have a, you know,one in 100 chance of winning a
(37:02):
giveaway hunt and, um, we cutthat off at 3000, 3000 people.
Um, now there's other giveawayswithin that too.
So like if you didn't win theelk hunt and you're one in 100,
we have one in however,000people, let's say, let's say
(37:24):
it's uh, it's filled up, one in3,000 chance of winning or of
winning something rifle, bow,vortex, optics, stuff like that.
So there's other giveaway.
In my opinion, I'm like man, Ijust went to Wyoming, like I
just did my Wyoming tag stuff, Ijust spent $2,500 for a chance
(37:45):
to go hunting and it's going tobe on my own.
You know, like this is a guidedhunt on a private place.
I'm just, I was trying to get.
You know, I spent quite a bitmore money to get an opportunity
to go hunt on a public land.
Whatever, you know, you get,you get done.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
So that is, that is an excellent um matter of fact,
like I signed up right away,like I, of course, I have how
memberships already, you know.
But I put my $300 in because Iwanted to get that opportunity.
Like, hey, win this.
I know it'd be probably prettypoopoo if I wanted it, but, uh,
(38:24):
you know, if I win this.
I know it'd be probably prettypoo-poo if I won it, but you
know, if I win this I would beawesome.
It's just to me.
I throw out like $30,000 a yearin tag you know acquisition
stuff and you know I get a lotof it back.
But it's like I can see thevalue in just winning the hunt.
(38:46):
But even if you didn't win thehunt, there's so much value
there it's totally worth 300bucks.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Well, that's awesome.
Well, again, I'll have thenotes down below for everyone to
go check that out.
You know you mentioned theguide service and you know
there's been so many placesyou've hunted around, there's so
many places you've guided.
Why don't you talk a little bitabout that and kind of you know
some of the trips that youoffer and you know I know
obviously right now kind of intothe season for most people and
we kind of you know, got someother things coming up here.
(39:13):
Turkey I know we're going totalk bow fishing here in a
second.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
But yeah, why don't you kind of just lay that out
and you know, and, uh, where allyou go, what all you're hunting
for?
Sure, um, I would say I'm kindof like a boutique outfitter and
that, and I don't do a wholebunch of hunts, um, we offer a
couple, a couple of hunts herein Arizona, uh, for for deer and
for elk, um, and for sheep Ihave, although I haven't had a
sheep hunter probably four yearsnow, because this whole damn
(39:47):
drama but the, you know, that'sthe mainstay.
But I I'm very selective in myprocess.
So when people call me up for ahunt, I don't tell them what
they want to hear.
I tell them what they need toknow and it helps me kind of
weed out people that I don'ttell them what they want to hear
.
I tell them what they need toknow and it helps me kind of
weed out people that I don'twant to take Um, and then I, we,
(40:12):
we take a couple people everyyear, up to four people in South
Dakota every year for mule,deer and whitetail Um, and uh,
you know.
So, like our main bigger huntsthat are a little bit more what
your, your commercialized huntwould be, um, and I don't even
want to say that cause it'sstill very personable, uh, but
(40:32):
we could take larger groups iswhen I do, uh, javelina hunting
and that's probably like mybiggest um endeavor every year
is, you know, we'll takeanywhere from a little.
This year, I think we we haveeight, but we'll take eight to
like even 20, 20 differenthunters on throughout the the
(40:54):
three seasons and, uh, you know,we'll have bigger camps with.
We stay in a nice house andeverybody's got an own route,
their own room, we have a campchef and it's kind of a nice and
neat thing and we have a veryhigh success rate on it.
I think in 10 years I thinkit's been about 10 years that
(41:16):
we've been doing it I thinkwe've only had two guys go home
empty-handed and both of themquit early and they both had
shots they missed.
Unfortunately, they got theopportunity.
That's the, yeah, had theopportunity.
So 100% opportunity and nearlynearly 100% on the success rate.
Although we have.
(41:37):
We have some people coming inwith some young, young
youngsters coming in this yearfor and they want to do it with
the bow, so they're reallyadding some extra hurdles, so
we'll see how that goes.
But, yeah, and then, like youmentioned bow fishing.
(42:11):
We do the bow fishing year round, but I would say the busiest
times for us are from rightabout now all the way through
May.
It gets really busy, march andApril being the two best months,
only because the spawn happensthat time.
So you see quite a bit morefish, uh, up top.
Uh, but the boat's awesome,it's one of a kind in in the
United States and, um, it'sprobably, it's probably the best
(42:35):
boat in Southwest.
I'm going to reach back and patmy own back on designing it and
help them build it.
But, um, yeah, yeah, guys overat tiny boat nation, um, check
out their youtube channel.
They, uh, they helped us, theyhelped us, they built the boat.
I shouldn't say helped us, they, we helped them.
I helped them build the boat.
(42:56):
Um, so it's, it's, it's reallyneat.
And then we do quite a bit ofpredator hunting.
Um, you know, guys will comeout for a day or whatever, two
days, and we'll take them outpredator hunting.
So I I specialize in bowhunting for predators, you know.
So guys want to try out that.
We'll take you, you know, anduh, hopefully put a coyote or
(43:19):
fox or bobcat in front of youknow, in bow distance.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
That's exciting stuff .
There's some great videos thatare on your YouTube page.
Definitely we'll have the linkson those for some of the great
predator hunts as well.
And I was kind of curious, youknow, obviously you know these
are things that keep you realsharp up for that, you know,
kind of fall winter time and Iwas curious what your hunts
looked like for your personalhunts.
You know what do you got in thefreezer that from all the
(43:44):
bounties from this hunt thislast year.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
This year was probably my worst year ever.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
You're like ice cubes , that's it.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Yeah, I have, I have some.
I have some bear meat left.
I have a.
I have a mule deer from uh fromSouth Dakota.
Uh, have my son's black buckthat we came to Texas for.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
And, uh, I think that's all that's in there right
now.
Yeah, I mean busy man, so it'shard to kind of get all these
things going on.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
I typically spend 90 days a year a field and I think
maybe I did 35 this year.
It was furry, so yeah, and 10of those were in South Dakota,
you know.
So I didn't, I didn't spend, Ididn't spend any time like so.
(44:40):
We just got done with ourover-the-counter archery deer
here in Arizona and I got outfor half a morning or half a day
one morning for deer and onemorning for javelina and I had
an opportunity and I whiffed it.
I actually hit a branch, Justyou know.
(45:01):
I was like, oh cool, I'm goingto get it done First day, first
try.
And then I didn't.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
These things happen, man, it's hunting right, it's
not just shooting every time.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Yeah, yeah, I know, it still hurts, though.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Oh, I know it.
I know it.
There are so many moments Iwish I had back, but you know,
you just live and learn, right?
Yeah, 100%.
So what else you know you gotcoming up at this year is, as
far as me, with how or with youknow, maybe some personal hunts
or some of the things that yougot going that you're really
excited about.
Is there anything else that'skind of coming down the pike
with any of those that you'dlike to go ahead and share with
(45:37):
some of the listeners?
Speaker 2 (45:38):
yeah, we have some stuff that I'm kind of we're
still kind of keeping close tothe cuff, close to the chest, um
with how, because there's beenstuff that was popping up that
we were able to squash before itbecame a public thing.
And there's still a few morethings out there that might be
(45:59):
that way.
Um, there, I will tell you,there is one more huge molt I
think it's going to be anational thing um popping up.
So keep your eyes peeled forthat.
I I don't want to talk too muchabout it because, one, I don't
know all the details of it yetUm, and two, I'm not 100% sure
(46:22):
it's going to come to fruition,but I think it will.
Um, so just keep your eyes openbecause it's going to be.
It's going to be bigger thanthe line thing, Colorado.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
Well, that's something I again encourage
everyone to go over there, signup for Howley.
Even if it's a free membership,obviously, $30 goes a long way
and isn't really a big drop inthe bucket.
Obviously, with Elk Bros,there's a lot of opportunities
for you guys out there.
That's something that I knowyou'll be keeping everyone
abreast of.
As far as sending that out andthose updates and how you get
involved, signing things,getting your voice out there,
(46:55):
because it's an important thingfor all of us these days to let
our voices be heard so we cankind of collectively like you
said too, man and our hunters,they are collectively getting
things together and being strongas one voice, one fist.
We've got to kind of do the samething and that's not an
advocacy for any violence,people, that's just as, yeah,
(47:18):
standing strong here is what I'mtalking about.
You have to clarify that.
I know, right, you know what hemeans.
Yeah, no, goodness gracious, no, but I mean you know our a lot
of our way of life, uh, you know, and all these the ancestral
wise, you know theseanti-hunters wouldn't be here
unless there were hunters andgatherers that were so
successful in their past lineagetoo.
Right, this is uh kind of a newthing for us to be anti against
this way of life, because it'swhat sustains us to get here
(47:39):
anyway right, we're talking thelast you know 50 years of
millennia, right?
Speaker 2 (47:44):
yeah?
Yeah, this is a brand new thing.
Yep, the idea that humans arenot or shouldn't be hunting is
crazy.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
Yeah, it's in our blood, man, it really is.
It's interesting to see all thedifferent reactions and I think
that's important too, you know,for any listeners too, you know
, to be able to whether you'reinviting someone out into that
lifestyle, sharing some of yourmeat, talking to those folks,
your neighbors, about our way oflife, and you know, it doesn't
have to be something forcefuldown their throat there.
But as far as, like, I thinkit's important to educate folks
(48:16):
who don't know.
If you don't know, you don'tknow what you don't know, right,
but it's important for us toget out there and, uh, you know,
maybe folks share a link, uh,to how, for wildlife, let you
know your neighbors get involved, you know, and it's for them
just to free sign up and kind ofget that educational.
Uh, you know Rolodex spinning,you know, for them.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
So I think that's 100%, and I I think, um, well,
that's what you just said reallyis is what I've been preaching,
cause I think it is the key to,especially at a grassroots
level, the key to saving hunting, um, is having those, you know,
(48:55):
those conversations, being ableto put into words what your why
, why you hunt, why you fish,why you love the outdoors, um,
and humanize it.
You know, sure, there's, I'msure there's people out there
that just want to do it becausethey like a big rack, or they,
they do it because of the youknow, they're an adrenaline
(49:16):
junkie or whatever the case maybe, but there's probably a bunch
of ancillary things that theyalso enjoy about it, um, and it,
even though that might not betheir primary goal, the goal, um
, but for the most part, themajority of us, those things
that are probably viewed byancillary stuff by those guys
(49:37):
are, are the main drivingfactors.
We want the meat and we wantthe camaraderie, we want the
connection with the earth, wewant the you know, uh, to feel,
feel one with what we're doing,um, you know all these, all
these human intrinsic valuesthat nobody discusses.
You know it's always abloodlust, it's never you know
(50:00):
about, you know what, what?
What it means to us.
It's always about what theycould portray.
So, um, I think if you go outthere and you have conversations
, think about it.
There's, I said earlier, there's14 million hunters in the
United States.
14 million, I mean, I'm not,and 14 million people were
(50:26):
talking to one, one person andchanging one mind a year.
One person can change in onemind a year.
Like what, 20 years Am I doingmy math right?
20 years you'd be, you'deducate the whole population in
the United States and they'dhave a different view, and that
seems a little crazy, but it'sthe reality of it.
(50:50):
Like, we can effectively savehunting by keeping that, that
middle class or that middleclass than I'm the middle class,
but the middle, the middleground, the people in the middle
of hunting and anti-hunting,the non hunters, and if we can
give them a reason to stay withus and to to be a uh sympathetic
(51:17):
to what we want and and thatway of life, then that's all we
need to do.
Like you know, you mentionedthat um study that uh, outdoor
stewards did and usually that'sdone, I think, every four years,
and it was done after two yearsand it showed a decline.
(51:38):
It showed a huge decline.
Um, it went from like well,it's been declining.
It went from like 85%, when youand I were kids probably, to
now it's 70, something whichtells me, you know, if you look
at the, if you look at thenumbers, right, if there's 5%
(52:03):
hunters and 4% anti-hunting,right, excuse me, 5%
anti-hunting, if you look at thenumbers, there's only 4% that
identify in the world.
I think that identify asvegetarian, 1% identify as vegan
(52:27):
, and I'm not saying that allvegetarians and all vegans are
against hunting, because they'renot.
I've met plenty.
They just, you know it might bea health thing or they view it
as a better way of life for them.
It's not, they're not againsthunting.
Actually, a lot of themactually commend hunters because
they're not getting foodcommercially as much or whatever
(52:49):
so, getting food commerciallyas much or whatever so.
But if you look at it, thoseare the only that 4%, and then
that 1%, that 5%, right, thereis the only people that should
have a moral soapbox to stand onto be opposed to you getting
your own meat and so what?
(53:10):
That tells me that there's 20,20% of hypocrites in the united
states 21, I think, that can goto a store or go to a restaurant
, take a selfie with theirhamburger and still poo-poo the
fact that you're going out inthe field to kill a deer to
bring home to feed your family.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
So yeah it yeah it's, and even, like you're
vegetarian, you're vegan thedifferent things that actually
happen in the fields, too,whenever people go through and
they clear, cut those, andthey're I mean the, the field
mice, right, I mean just any ofthe different things that are on
ground, habitating animals, oreven just the runoff that that
can cause from whatever it is,or even things when are sprayed,
(53:53):
as far as the development andyou know, all these different
types of, maybe pesticides orwhatever it is that's going on
to treat those or keep animalsfrom eating those plants.
There's so many differentthings that come into play that
I don't know if everyone hasthat 360 view.
I look at it and I'm like thereis, like you said, too right.
Uh, at the very kind ofbeginning, it's like something
had to die in order for you tolive, like, no matter what it is
(54:15):
that you eat, it doesn't matterVegan, vegetarian there's
something that has happened.
There is some causality of youractions, of of eating and just
existing where it's going tohurt another species.
So is this species, uh, moreimportant than the other?
And then you kind of get intothis dividing area, which is a
really weird gray area, and theidea of someone wanting to be
able to know where their foodcame from, whether that's your,
(54:38):
you know local farmer's marketand you know someone who grew it
there and you know you havesome connectivity in your local
uh, you know farmers in thatsense or whether it's going out
there and hunting and knowingexactly that you know this was a
wild animal that lived in awild atmosphere of wild foods
and you become a part of thattoo, and so I think it's
important for us to make surethat you know that.
(54:59):
You know people don't get toohigh on their soap boxes as far
as those kinds of things,because it's everything.
There is an action, a reactionto every action, right, so it's
all around.
But, um, no, those are some goodpoints that we brought up today
.
I think, uh, you know, maybewe'll have to have you back
another time to talk about someother updates, anything that may
be coming up, that, uh, we wantto chat about some hot button,
uh, but, uh, you know, as far asfor that, if anyone wants to go
(55:22):
and check out your website, youknow for how.
Why don't you go ahead and getthe socials real quick?
Speaker 2 (55:34):
how sure?
Uh, well, for me personally,it's pretty much anything john
stallone, um, facebook orinstagram, and uh, even youtube,
whatever, if you just searchjohn stallone.
But for how?
For wildlife?
Uh, on instagram is where we doour most, most of our
communications and stuff um, weconnect with, with a community
the most through there, and thatis uh, uh, how underscore org.
Um and uh, the website is howhelpful wildlifeorg.
Speaker 1 (55:59):
Right on, man.
Um, I will definitely have allthe show notes again and you
know, just kind of, uh, I wantedto ask you ask a lot of the
questions, a lot of my guests.
The same question is one aboutlegacy and it's, you know, with
all the work that you're doing,all the things that you've put
out there, all the educationalplatforms that you've kind of
helped to develop there, I waskind of curious as far as how
you view your legacy, how youhope that this is left behind.
(56:22):
What are some of the goals whenyou're doing this on a
day-to-day, and is thatsomething you kind of think
about?
Speaker 2 (56:36):
Oh yeah, I think about it all the time.
Actually, you know, the older Iget, the more I think about
what I'm leaving behind.
You know, of course, first andforemost, I'm trying to leave
something behind for my children, right and financially, and you
know other other stuff likethat.
But the grand scheme of things,one of the things that drives
(56:56):
me the most with how, you know,yes, selfishly in my, in my
hunting, in my, in my timeline,I want to do things to help
protect hunting so that I cancontinue to hunt and I can
continue to do what I'm doing.
But the reality of it ishunting is probably not going to
(57:17):
go away in my lifetime.
I'm going to be 50 years old,you know, and really it's like
you know what?
Am I saving it for me?
No, so I take great pleasureand I'm actually driven by the
idea that this is something thatI can help protect and preserve
(57:43):
for the future generations, forseveral generations, and I've
said this a hundred times now.
It's probably getting old, but Iuh, some years ago I heard a um
, I was introduced to a Greekproverb that says society
becomes great when old men planttrees of which they know
(58:08):
they'll never enjoy the shade of, or sleep underneath the shade
of, or wrestling the shade of,something, something along those
lines.
It's translated Um, and thatstuck with me and I'm like you
know that's.
I feel like that's something weshould all strive to do, you
know, in our, in our lives, notjust in hunting.
But for me, I feel like that'ssomething I can do in hunting.
(58:29):
I can, I can plant those treesright now, and that's that's a
lot of why I'm, that's why I putmy, that's why I have the
sleepless nights, that's why Icut back, you know, going
hunting for myself this year, um, because I feel like you know
I'm, I'm in a unique position toplant those trees, basically.
Speaker 1 (58:52):
So well, I, I'm glad that you're doing that, man.
I, you know I I applaud allyour hard work and efforts.
Um and you know we all need tostep up and do things together,
and how, for wildlife is a greatorganization that I suggest
everyone go and become a part of.
Um and following all your youknow socials there, make sure
you go over to YouTube.
(59:12):
Check out some of those huntsYou've been filming for so many
years.
Some great ones there.
A lot of educational stuff, alot of entertainment and uh,
yeah, thanks again for joiningme, john.
Looking forward to chattingwith you again down the line.
Speaker 2 (59:22):
Thank you, thanks for having me.
I'll see you next time.
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Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hi, this is John Stallone and you're listening to
Son of a Blitch Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Hey John, how you doing today.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I'm good, can't complain.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Right on, right on, man.
I love that background.
How for wildlife?
Now we're going to chat aboutthat and so much more, all the
different things you've gottengoing.
But I'd love to just kind ofstart at the very beginning.
Man, why don't you telleveryone a little bit about
where you're born and raised andhow you got into the outdoor
lifestyle?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Okay, yeah, um, well, I was born and raised in
Brooklyn, new York.
If you haven't heard it from myaccent that I'm from New York,
um, my dad and my uncles, he, mygrandfather they all hunted.
Um, now my grandfather lives inItaly, not here, um, so I never
actually got to hunt with them.
Actually, we went hunting withthem once, cause he came to the
(01:28):
United States to go hunting, um,well, not just specifically to
go hunting, but he came here andwe went hunting.
Um, yeah, my, my firstintroduction to hunting was me
holding a rifle at five yearsold, aiming it at a deer up in,
uh, binghamton, new York, and,uh, and, and taking my first
(01:50):
deer went at 35 Marlin, with mydad's help, of course.
You know I was five, but, uh,we were leaning on a fence post
and the buck was like 80 yardsaway or something like that.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
So technically I've been hunting since some.
I mean not technically, but Ireally have been hunting since
I'm young, really young, fivemaybe, even younger than that.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
So obviously deer the first, and then you kind of it
started off a whitetail.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Um, I found bow hunting by myself because nobody
in my family did it.
Uh, I shouldn't say by myself.
My cousin fred and I kind ofpicked up compound bows and we
started messing around with thatand I did that.
Uh, that was like a third.
Well, I had a bow.
Way before that my dad boughtme a bow, one of those like, uh,
(02:40):
it wasn't plastic, it was, waslike fiberglass, long bow, 25
pound draw deal.
I started with that, real young, and then he bought me a
recurve which I could not pullback.
It was like a 40 pound bow.
I couldn't I was short strokeit, you know.
But awesome cedar shafts withthese giant Zawiki broad heads
(03:01):
on them and whatever.
It was pretty awesome, uh, butuh, I actually ended up breaking
that cause I didn't know how tostring it up, right, um, but
that was my introduction.
Then, by the time I was 13, uh,so 13, 14 and 15, my cousin Fred
and I would kind of dabbled in,uh, bow hunting on long Island
and, um, then it wasn't until,really, oh, so I moved here.
(03:28):
I moved here when I was 16,which here is arizona.
I live in arizona.
I've been living here since1991 and, um, I moved here and
you know we hunted, but itwasn't with the same, because
there was this learning process,you know, of trying to figure
out things.
And then I got really heavyback into bow hunting.
(03:50):
Um, in my early twentiesprobably is what I would say
when I got really heavy into itand I like really got crazy
about it when I was about, Iwant to say, 22, 23 years old,
so about 30, almost 30 years.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
What were you chasing at?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
that point in time.
Well, we were chasingeverything they had here, so
that was mule.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Deer goose, deer elk were the primary and at some
point in time you decided start,you know, filming your shows.
Obviously you've had, you know,quite a lot of following from
uh all those different hunts andthings on your youtube and uh,
you know I'll put some linksdown below in the show notes
because there's some reallygreat ones you guys got to check
out.
But why don't you kind of talkabout like that idea?
Was that something like youknow, filming was uh kind of
things you had been involvedwith before?
(04:42):
Did you decide what I'm doingthis?
I'm going to go ahead and tryto document it.
How did this kind of come aboutto where you know you rose to
where you are with, you know,having such a successful hunts
and getting out there, you know?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, so, basically, like in 2001, I started my first
quote, unquote professionalendeavor.
Um, I got on a, I got onMatthew's pro staff, um, and
that came about from shooting 3dtournaments and having success
(05:15):
and, I guess, taking goodquality photos and whatever they
like kind of liked what I wasdoing, and I was also writing
articles.
Um, in my infinite wisdom, Ithought I was uh already uh, a
master, since I had been huntingso long, but, um, so I started
writing articles and then, in2004, I started the hunting
(05:41):
channel online and it was thefirst of its kind was kind of
like it wasn't really beforeYouTube, cause I think YouTube
kind of had started but itwasn't popular.
Um, we, I developed thetechnology with with uh, various
partners and we had streamingonline TV, and part of my goal
(06:05):
at the time was because I washungry for knowledge and there
that knowledge wasn't there in adigestible form.
I read books.
I see, actually, some of thebooks that I read behind you
right there back on uh backcountry, bow hunting is one.
I got it sitting on my shelfback there somewhere, but you
(06:34):
know I read books, and not tocut down on any of the authors,
but it was, I felt like everybook I read was like, if you
want to find big deer, you gotto go where the big deer are
Okay, sweet, where the frick arethe big deer?
You know, but you're notteaching me anything, you're
like, and I got reallyfrustrated with that and so I
started, you know, progressing,um, my skillset, and every time
(06:57):
I figured something out, I'd putit out there.
I put it out there in videoform or an article form or
whatever.
And then the hunting channelonline.
Part of it was, yes, you couldcome here and watch TV shows and
whatever and digest that, thattype of media, but it was a hub
for information, like to planyour hunt, moon phase charts, uh
(07:22):
, you know all the tips andtactics.
And I started doing this, um,uh, the hunting channels tip of
the week.
So I would learn something, Iwould figure it out and adapt it
into my skillset.
And eventually I was like, okay, this works really well, I'm
going to share this with people.
And then I I put those out, andthen the TV show came about
(07:45):
around about 2006.
I think my I might've startedit beforehand.
To be honest with you, I don'teven remember to have to go back
and like it's all a blur now.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
It's been a while Sure, sure.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Um, so I would go and I would, I would.
I started filming my adventures, um, adventures, um, but it was
.
I did it because I was usingthat to promote the haunting
channel.
Everything was like about I wasnever promoting john stallone,
I was never like, yeah, I didn'tstart branding me as me till
(08:18):
like 2015 or something like that.
So for years it was just abouttrying to gain members and you
know, push the, uh, the honeychannel online.
Um, I stopped doing the, the TVshow Like I was actually had.
I had a stint where I was onwild TV.
Um, I had the lone star channeland I had a couple of like
(08:43):
where we I was actuallyphysically on TV, but most of it
I did it online and you know, Ikind of pioneered that there
wasn't, there wasn't anybodydoing online stuff and um, or
streaming type stuff.
And, you know, as things change, people followed.
There were some other pop-upsof happening that were like the
hunting channel online.
And then you know um whole longstory but I I ended up losing
(09:10):
the hunting channel, along likeaccess to the hunting channel
admin, because of one of mypartners.
Uh, I lost it for a while,which kind of like became the
demise of it, um, but it alsokind of happened during the time
where YouTube and Vimeo and allthese other platforms were like
really taken off and doing verywell, so, um, and then
(09:31):
everybody, like in 2015, 2016,everybody had a freaking TV show
, like everybody had a cameraand they were filming and, just
like, everybody has a podcastnow like podcast too.
So the podcast, I my, has apodcast now like podcast too.
So the podcast I my my podcast.
I started it as a product of, ifyou had a membership to the
hunting channel, you had apodcast that I just won a month
(09:55):
and my, my podcast was calledinterviews with the hunting
masters and I kept that name fora very long time.
So I did that for a while and Iwould produce one a month and I
say a while, I don't, I didn'teven remember.
I think it was like six yearsand then I stopped doing it and
then there was like a like a twoyear break and then in 2014, I
(10:15):
think, or 2015, I brought itback, but I brought it to the
masses and I did it Like youwould have a traditional podcast
.
Now, you know, you go to iPodor or excuse me Apple, or excuse
me, spotify or whatever youknow, and you could digest it on
any platform and take it withyou before you had to be a
member and used to have todownload it to an actual iPod or
(10:36):
stream it through um throughthe honey channel.
So, yeah, most of it always wasa product of wanting to to be
better, even the podcast likehey, this was an opportunity,
but opportunity for me tointerview people who knew better
than me and you know, over timethat morphed into me being the
(11:01):
guy that people wanted on theirpodcast and you know, so on and
so forth.
And I, I, I wrote a book aboutwhitetail hunting.
Uh, what I wrote a book.
It's called uh, uh, thewhitetail hunters blueprint.
It's still actually umavailable through Amazon as a
(11:21):
downloadable, like on a Kindleor something like that.
You can't get the hard copy orpaperback anymore.
And then the other book wasSecrets of Haunting, western
Game.
They were designed to how-tostyle Now that if I read them I
would probably go back and Iwould kind of want to revamp
them a lot.
(11:42):
I think I released that, Idon't know.
I want to say 2013 or 2014.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Do you have a goal to maybe do that and have another
edition or maybe an electronicform at some point.
I mean, you got nothing elsegoing on, right?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
You know two other books that I that I started
writing, that I that I haven'tcompleted, Um, uh, one of them
being um that I haven'tcompleted, um, uh, one of them
being um, diaries of a waiter,cause I was a waiter for a very
long time as a kid, uh, you know, and that's more of a, a
becoming of a man type uh, book.
But the other one is, uh,something has to die for in
(12:17):
order for you to live, and it'skind of tackles a lot of the
stuff that I deal with and how,uh, with anti-hunting and uh,
and educating the non-huntingpublic and having them, you know
, bridging that gap so theyunderstand the difference
between what is portrayed of us,you know, by anti-hunting the
(12:39):
elmer, fudd, toothless hillbillyredneck drinking beer, that
whole, um, you know, caricature,caricature.
Why can't I say that word?
That that whole identity, um,or that whole persona, um, and
how, that you know that's,that's a false, like a false way
(13:03):
to look at it.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
So, but Well, you know, jumping into that is as
far as like how for wildlife.
I'd love for you to kind oftalk about the genesis of this.
How did this begin?
Uh, when did this first form?
And you know, we'll kind of gointo some more specifics about
it.
I'd love to hear about themembership and how people get
involved and how we can kind ofget listeners, uh, you know, on
board.
But yeah, why don't you justkind of talk about how did this
uh come about?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
it really just came about out of necessity.
Really, um, charles and Icharles is the, uh is the
president and um founder,co-founder I'm with myself on it
and uh, he's what he's really,the one that kind of like turned
it into what it is.
It originally started off as asum well, he had.
(13:46):
He had come to me, like I said,told the whole story, if
anybody hasn't heard it by now.
Uh, but he came to me.
He's like hey, they're tryingto get rid of bear hunting in
California.
You know, what can we do?
I'm like let's start achangeorg.
And he wrote this awesome, likechangeorg piece which um
(14:07):
sparked a lot of what we dotoday.
Um, but he, he wrote this outand we had like 20 000 people
get involved on it, sign anddonate money, which the donation
doesn't go to us goes tochangeorg.
Changeorg is a for-profitcompany, not, yep, not a
non-profit, by the way, um, andbecause of that it was like,
(14:29):
okay, we need to.
We need to start changeorg forhunters specifically.
And you know this, eighteenthousand dollars that was
donated for this deal.
This could have went to anissue directed to exactly
towards hunting and fishing.
That part hasn't really workedout.
Um, you know, the funding part'salways a problem, um, but the
(14:54):
engagement and involvement andbeing able to move the needle
we've we've been able to movemountains with thousands of
people and it's makes me very,it makes us all very optimistic
in how because there's, you know, many anywhere from 14 to 16
million hunters in the UnitedStates and if we're able to
(15:17):
affect the change that we arewith 30, 40,000 people.
Could you imagine if we had,you know, four or 5 million
people doing this, or 14, 15million people doing this?
So, yeah, there's um amazingpotential to to um not only save
hunting and protect huntinginsulated from from the
(15:40):
anti-haunting movement, but alsothe ability to get stuff back
that we've lost and to changethe, the overall optics on what
hunting and fishing and andoutdoorsmanship is really.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
When you got, like your hunters and anglers that
are kind of working in tandemwith some of the decision makers
that are actually working onthese policies, right, why don't
you give me a couple examplesof some things that were, maybe
you know, very successfulcampaigns through, how that you
can kind of talk about, you know, maybe a little feather in the
cap of some of the things thatyou're like, man, this is
something that shows that we canmake a difference when we're
all collectively on board andjust kind of give some folks you
(16:19):
know an idea of maybe, some ofthose things that you're doing
kind of on a week to week, monthto month basis.
Sure.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Well, I think.
I mean I don't know the exactnumbers but to date, every
policy or every issue that we'vegotten involved on, we've
either with exception of likemaybe four, four or five we've
(16:46):
been able either able toprogress forward or have one.
So that in itself says a lot.
Um, you know, if I, you know800 pound gorilla in the room,
one of the one of the one of themost obvious things that we've
done in recent past is themountain lion issue in Colorado.
(17:10):
So that's one of the otherthings we do.
We take state-level issues andwe bring national attention to
it.
So that could have been astate-level issue and could have
stayed there.
May may not have passed.
That could have been astate-level issue and could have
stayed there.
May may not have passed.
You know the guys working on it, the guys that we partnered
(17:37):
with.
You know CRWM was spearheadingthat.
They may have been able to.
I don't know.
You know it's hard to say, butI do know that we had our hand
on everything and we had, we hadthe ability to take that and
make it like everybody knewabout.
It didn't matter if you were inflorida or if you were in here
texas, yeah, california,whatever texas everybody ended
up hearing about it and we hadan huge, huge uh rally that even
(18:04):
the anti-hunter said this issomething they had never seen
before.
So, to me, if the the otherside's bitchin, you know, you
know you're doing somethingright, right, so they woke up
the sleeping giant.
You know they poked the beartoo many times and now it's now,
it's time for us to getinvolved on and on every single
(18:25):
thing.
So we're hunters for hunters.
Anglers for ever have neverbeen, uh, very involved there.
They've been very to themselves.
That's it's that.
It's that mentality you do you,I do me.
It's a good way to live in a lotof ways, but unfortunately,
(18:46):
like in this particular instance, in this time, you know, in
this time frame, we need to beactivists, and activists.
Activism has always been adirty word.
It's always been a in inpolitical sense, has been a left
side thing.
You know, like um, and peopledon't necessarily um, want to
(19:12):
want to be involved.
They're very apathetic to stuffthat doesn't physically or
seemingly affect them, right?
So we're trying to change thatmindset.
That's the biggest thing rightnow is really, you know, you're
not a deer hunter in Washingtonor whatever.
You hunt coyotes in, I don'tknow Texas, whatever.
(19:36):
And why does it affect you?
Like, why does it meansomething to you that this guy
might be losing his ability tohunt what he loves?
If I don't hunt there and Idon't hunt that species, like,
why does it affect me?
And there's, you know we can sithere and draw the excuse me,
(19:57):
connect the dots or draw thelines or whatever.
But just hear me when I'msaying we're all interconnected.
Um, but just hear me when I'msaying we're all.
We're all interconnected theway that the system in the
United States works.
We're all interconnectedfinancially somehow.
Um, we all occupy a place atwhat we call the conservation
(20:19):
table and there's variousstakeholders at the conservation
table and because hunting is auser pay system, a pay to play,
so to speak, we typically haveone of the largest voices at the
(20:39):
conservation table, even thoughwe're not necessarily the
largest population.
You know we only occupy 5% ofthe population.
5% is anti-hunting and then therest is in between.
You know that's oversimplifyingit.
There's other, there's otherpie pieces of the pie there, but
(21:00):
, um, you know, in the grandscheme of things, five percent's
not a whole lot.
So we rely on messaging goodscience and and sharing the
truths about hunting and fishingwith those other people, with
that strong 90 in the middle, sothat they don't make rash
(21:22):
decisions and get inside withanti-hunting ridiculousness.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
So no, it's super important.
I mean, you know, I rememberthe Outdoor Stewards
Conservation Foundation did astudy and I was talking I think
it was like around the 85%number of people who support the
idea of hunting across ourcountry.
And you know, as you kind oflay down that five, five, 90
number there too, like you thinkabout it, there's a lot of
folks who do that.
Now there's people who like,don't like the idea of, like,
(21:52):
trophy hunting, and that may bea different thing, cause but
that's also a lot ofmisinformation and we're seeing
this along the lines.
I mean, there's a lot of bigmedia that you know, especially
in the podcast world too, andorganizations such as your own
that are really kind of layingdown a lot of educational things
, especially for those nonhunters and people who have been
anti hunting for a long time,and I think we're seeing a
little bit of a, an eclipse ofchange, hopefully, um, with with
groups like yours that aregetting out there and making
(22:15):
sure that the real truth is laidout and that we're not losing
these things, cause what happensin Washington does affect the
other things that are happeningin Florida, whatever policy
nationwide, and I think it'sgreat when we have things like
the collective efforts that camearound to speak up for those
folks in Colorado.
I mean it was a big win for alot of people.
You know, and just kind of inties with that, you know, being
(22:36):
that that was one of the groupsyou worked with there in
Colorado, why don't you tell mea little bit about some of the
partnerships and some of thedifferent you know kind of
affiliations of some othercompanies and you know
policymakers that you're workingwith?
Um, you know again, maybe aweek to week, month to month
basis, whatever may come up, andI'm sure you know big red flag
things that come up.
You're like we're going to putour voice out here, but you know
, just as far as an organization, who all are you kind of
(22:57):
teaming up with and working within that realm.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
So I mean, how's really we're?
We're willing to work withanybody who sees the big picture
, you know, anybody who'swilling to roll up their sleeves
and get involved, and you knowwe'll use Colorado as an example
.
You know we are.
Well, I think we wereinstrumental, in my opinion, in
(23:25):
rallying the troops, so to speak, and talking to some of the
legacy orgs you know RMEFs andMule Deer Foundations and so on
and so forth and getting them tounderstand why it was important
that we needed theirinvolvement.
You know that's always been abig problem for, for hunting is
that we all have our own littleniches and we all hunt.
(23:47):
There's a lot, a lot of moneyand effort that goes into
hunting.
Lots, right, but why are wealways behind when it comes to
um?
Um, like any issue that'sinvolving anti-hunting?
It's because we don't lock armsand do things in unison, right,
(24:08):
where the anti-hunting groupsdo the exact opposite.
They are very good aboutgetting on each other's things.
We go to a game and fishmeeting.
You see the same bad actorsthere all the time Got the
representative from Houston, gotthe one from Coyote Project, he
(24:30):
got the one from WildlifeForever, and this and that and
so on and so forth, and they'rethere and they all have the same
messaging and they all so Ihave on good authority, but I've
never personally, you know,been involved in like or jumped
(24:51):
in on one of their meetings.
But I can guarantee you there'sa lot more collaboration going
on on their side than there ison ours.
So when you say who, you know,who, do we get involved?
We, you know, I, I don't wantto, I don't want to start
throwing names around and here'sI'm going to tell you right off
the bat too, that is not what Ipersonally handle.
(25:12):
In alpha wildlife, um, that ismostly ran.
That stuff is ran throughcharles and through mike
costello, um, where they're moreon the uh, the, they, they get
involved in meetings most of thetime with other uh interest
groups and so on and so forth,to come up with plans and so on.
(25:34):
So I'm, I'm apparently I'm I'mtoo stupid to do that stuff.
So, um, I'm best suited uh,talking, talking to hunters and
uh, and and hunters and movingthat needle.
But anyways, you brought upFlorida.
That was another big nationalthing.
(25:58):
That was a positive thing.
We just got the right to huntand fish.
And I say we, we were part ofthing we got.
We just got the right to huntand fish, and I say we, we were
part of it.
Travis Thompson was the mainspearhead there, the guy Um, but
we were.
We brought that to a, you knowa national level where people
were getting involved, so likewhen there was, you know,
(26:26):
fundraising and and when theopen comment period was right,
you know, to get it on the billthat we were a part of that.
That was, that was us Um.
So you know, there, that'sthat's what we do and that's
that's the goal for for thefuture really is to keep
creating this unity amongst allthe groups and doing an
(26:47):
outpacing, outpacing the, theanti-hunting groups and what
they're doing.
You know, we were, I think, ashow, as a group, is very good at
recognizing what our enemy doesreally well and taking that and
using it against them.
So if, if, if, if there'sanything, that's the underlying
(27:12):
thing.
What we're doing is and andalso looking at things like more
holistically, not just throughthe eyes of our wants and
desires.
There's stuff that we don't getinvolved in because we know it's
going to, you know it's goingto cause backfire, or it's going
to backfire, it's going tocause conflict or whatever, and
(27:34):
we've, unfortunately, um, we gotinvolved in something here in
Arizona that we were kind of onthe fence, that we didn't want
to Um, and it kind of blew up ona frasel a little bit.
Um, it's one of the things thatwe lost actually, and it was.
It was a hunter problem.
It was hunters and hunters,hunters against hunters.
So, uh, we typically try toavoid stuff like that because,
(27:58):
uh, it never bodes well.
You know, I'm going to throw alittle statistic out there, like
I don't know the exact numbers,but whenever there's an issue
like I'll give you anotherexample here in Arizona we
Banned trail cameras severalyears ago there was hunters on
both sides of that.
There was hunters that were forit, hunters that were against it
(28:20):
.
When, when that happens, ifit's an issue that there's
anti-hunters don't want us touse, most anti-hunters don't
want us to use trail cameras.
So they saw that they jump onthat opportunity, they jump on
the bandwagon automatically.
You lose.
So, you know, you always got tokind of keep in mind what are
(28:43):
you giving up?
Are you cutting off your noseto spite your face Like, oh, you
want to stop these guys fromusing trail cameras Cause you
don't have.
You don't have the success thatthey have and you don't have
the time or the money to go buythem or whatever the whatever
the reasoning is.
I'm just throwing out arbitraryreasons, but what you're really
(29:06):
doing is helping out theanti-hunters.
You know you're not, you're nothurting.
I mean, you're not reallyhurting that guy.
You just you're trying to levelthe playing field for yourself.
But what, what?
Where's?
You know?
Where are you?
Where is that driving from?
Where's that deriving from?
You know, like, where, where'sthat coming from?
Is it coming from becausejealousy of what this person,
(29:29):
other person's been able to do,or is it coming from you really
want to help the deer herd?
You know you got to kind oflook at that and figure out, hey
, what am I really doing here?
Hey, what am I really doinghere?
And when you figure that outnine times out of 10, and you're
honest with yourself, you startfiguring out you're like, okay,
I'm doing this for my ownselfish reasons, whatever they
(29:52):
are, and I'm just arbitrarilythrowing stuff out there.
I'm not calling everybody whodoesn't want trail cameras
jealous of the guys who use them, but you know you got to look
at stuff like that and it's.
It's been hard for me.
I mean, um, I'm no freakingsaint, I'm no, you know, I'm not
up on my soapbox talking,talking to people, talking down
(30:15):
to people.
Um, a lot of what I'm saying isbecause I've had realizations
of my own life, you know, and,um, so it's always about trying
to be better, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Sure, sure.
Well, you know, as far as folkswho want to get involved with
Hal um and become a member, whydon't you walk through some of
the you know membership options,some of those benefits and kind
of where they can go?
And again, I'll have all theshow notes below.
So if anybody uh, you're notwriting fast, you're driving you
want to go ahead and find thisout, just make sure you come
back to the show notes.
(30:46):
But why don't you go ahead andlay that out for everyone, if
you wouldn't mind?
Yeah, sure.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
So you know, lowest level, the lowest lift right
there there's no shirt off yourback is we have a free
membership and that you just goin there and you sign up.
And basically that you just goin there and you sign up, um,
and basically what that means isyou're going to get all the
notifications, um, so we didthat because we wanted people to
be involved.
(31:12):
We didn't want to say, oh, youcan't get involved because you
don't want to give me $30 a year.
You know, we want you to beinvolved.
So if you're going to do that,get involved.
When stuff comes up, go putyour name in the hat, whether
it's something you do or not.
That's the very lowest lift.
It literally will take you 10minutes the whole year.
(31:32):
We're not talking about a lotof time here, but that 10
minutes will go a very long way.
Then there's our Howl annualmembership, which is $30.
Then there's our Howl annualmembership, which is $30.
And that comes with somefeatures and benefits and
(31:54):
certain giveaways and mostlylike discount codes and stuff
like that that other partnersthat we have have awarded people
who you know, put their moneywhere their mouth is, and then
you start going into ourpartnership memberships.
Now we have a partnership withPope and Young, we have one with
American Bear Foundation and wehad hoped to do this with other
(32:15):
organizations and it mightstill happen, but right now it's
these two.
So you want to be a member ofPope and Young?
You want to be a member of Howl?
You don't really have, youcan't spend the money to be on
both.
Right, you can't spend $30 withus and $45 with them, but you
(32:35):
want both.
You come to Howl for Wildlife.
You purchase that membershipfor $45.
What would?
It would have been at Pope andYoung and we split that.
Okay, half goes to Pope andYoung, half goes to Howlful
Wildlife.
You got dual membership, kindof a no brainer, yeah.
Then we start going up to um,gohunt is one of our premier
(32:58):
partners and, uh, by the way,they've been awesome.
If you don't have a GoHuntmembership, and even if you do
have a GoHunt membership, youcome to Howlful Wildlife and you
purchase their membershipthrough our website.
It costs the same as if youwould have went to their website
(33:18):
and bought it, but now GoHuntdonates 50% of that to Howlful
Wildlife.
Now GoHunt donates 50% of thatto Half of Wildlife.
As a result, you can claim 50%of that on your taxes as a 501c3
.
You can claim that to get a taxdeduction.
But we have special discountcodes.
(33:42):
You have the ability to buystuff on GoHunts website for 15%
less, so you can essentiallybuy gear through them and pay
for your membership.
Uh, through the discount code.
Um, there's special giveawaysand so on and so forth.
Plus, you get to feel goodabout it Like, hey, I just did
(34:05):
something more for wildlife thatI didn't do beforehand and it's
an excellent tool.
I use it all the time.
Matter of fact, I'm doing mytag research right now.
So, um, um, I'm kind of goingthrough that.
But, um, and now this is likecreme de la creme.
We partnered with the guys overat Elk Bros or Blue Collar Elk
(34:28):
Hunting, and we have puttogether a program called the
Adventure Club and basically,you get the Elk Bros online
course.
You get the elk bros onlinecourse, so it teaches you how to
(34:50):
become a better elk hunterthrough their online course, and
I've gone through it.
I've, I've actually gonethrough most of them, most of
the big name ones.
I'm not going to mention thembecause I don't want to throw
these guys underneath the bus,but I looked at their curriculum
versus what I've seen at theother ones.
And the curriculum on this ison point, and I've been a
(35:10):
student of elk my whole life.
I've been guiding for elk for15 years and I think it's
excellent.
Just the value of that.
So if you went to elk brothersto buy that coursework, it's
$350 a year.
Through us it's $300 a year.
(35:32):
Okay, you get that coursework,you get this adventure club and
the adventure club is a wholeslew of discounts, like some of
them were like 40% off, likecamouflage and stuff like that.
So if you go there and you, youcan basically again you could
recoup that $300 through thesedifferential, different programs
(35:54):
.
But the huge thing about thiswhole deal is every 100 people,
every 100 members, we draw oneperson to win a coached I say
it's, we call it coached elkhunt in New Mexico.
It's basically a guided hunt ona private ranch where you're
(36:18):
getting taught how to be abetter elk hunter and you're
hunting awesome bulls.
You know we're talking to NewMexico, right?
You know Washington over tocounter tag, this is a New
Mexico bull.
So one out of one every hundred, and it's not the first hundred
(36:40):
.
And then, uh, you know yourodds keep getting worse.
It's every time you're in ablock of a hundred.
It doesn't matter where youpurchased, you're in a block of
a hundred and every year itrolls.
So like if somebody drops out,you roll into that hundred.
So it's, it's really.
You basically have a, you know,one in 100 chance of winning a
(37:02):
giveaway hunt and, um, we cutthat off at 3000, 3000 people.
Um, now there's other giveawayswithin that too.
So like if you didn't win theelk hunt and you're one in 100,
we have one in however,000people, let's say, let's say
(37:24):
it's uh, it's filled up, one in3,000 chance of winning or of
winning something rifle, bow,vortex, optics, stuff like that.
So there's other giveaway.
In my opinion, I'm like man, Ijust went to Wyoming, like I
just did my Wyoming tag stuff, Ijust spent $2,500 for a chance
(37:45):
to go hunting and it's going tobe on my own.
You know, like this is a guidedhunt on a private place.
I'm just, I was trying to get.
You know, I spent quite a bitmore money to get an opportunity
to go hunt on a public land.
Whatever, you know, you get,you get done.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
So that is, that is an excellent um matter of fact,
like I signed up right away,like I, of course, I have how
memberships already, you know.
But I put my $300 in because Iwanted to get that opportunity.
Like, hey, win this.
I know it'd be probably prettypoopoo if I wanted it, but, uh,
(38:24):
you know, if I win this.
I know it'd be probably prettypoo-poo if I won it, but you
know, if I win this I would beawesome.
It's just to me.
I throw out like $30,000 a yearin tag you know acquisition
stuff and you know I get a lotof it back.
But it's like I can see thevalue in just winning the hunt.
(38:46):
But even if you didn't win thehunt, there's so much value
there it's totally worth 300bucks.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Well, that's awesome.
Well, again, I'll have thenotes down below for everyone to
go check that out.
You know you mentioned theguide service and you know
there's been so many placesyou've hunted around, there's so
many places you've guided.
Why don't you talk a little bitabout that and kind of you know
some of the trips that youoffer and you know I know
obviously right now kind of intothe season for most people and
we kind of you know, got someother things coming up here.
(39:13):
Turkey I know we're going totalk bow fishing here in a
second.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
But yeah, why don't you kind of just lay that out
and you know, and, uh, where allyou go, what all you're hunting
for?
Sure, um, I would say I'm kindof like a boutique outfitter and
that, and I don't do a wholebunch of hunts, um, we offer a
couple, a couple of hunts herein Arizona, uh, for for deer and
for elk, um, and for sheep Ihave, although I haven't had a
sheep hunter probably four yearsnow, because this whole damn
(39:47):
drama but the, you know, that'sthe mainstay.
But I I'm very selective in myprocess.
So when people call me up for ahunt, I don't tell them what
they want to hear.
I tell them what they need toknow and it helps me kind of
weed out people that I don'ttell them what they want to hear
.
I tell them what they need toknow and it helps me kind of
weed out people that I don'twant to take Um, and then I, we,
(40:12):
we take a couple people everyyear, up to four people in South
Dakota every year for mule,deer and whitetail Um, and uh,
you know.
So, like our main bigger huntsthat are a little bit more what
your, your commercialized huntwould be, um, and I don't even
want to say that cause it'sstill very personable, uh, but
(40:32):
we could take larger groups iswhen I do, uh, javelina hunting
and that's probably like mybiggest um endeavor every year
is, you know, we'll takeanywhere from a little.
This year, I think we we haveeight, but we'll take eight to
like even 20, 20 differenthunters on throughout the the
(40:54):
three seasons and, uh, you know,we'll have bigger camps with.
We stay in a nice house andeverybody's got an own route,
their own room, we have a campchef and it's kind of a nice and
neat thing and we have a veryhigh success rate on it.
I think in 10 years I thinkit's been about 10 years that
(41:16):
we've been doing it I thinkwe've only had two guys go home
empty-handed and both of themquit early and they both had
shots they missed.
Unfortunately, they got theopportunity.
That's the, yeah, had theopportunity.
So 100% opportunity and nearlynearly 100% on the success rate.
Although we have.
(41:37):
We have some people coming inwith some young, young
youngsters coming in this yearfor and they want to do it with
the bow, so they're reallyadding some extra hurdles, so
we'll see how that goes.
But, yeah, and then, like youmentioned bow fishing.
(42:11):
We do the bow fishing year round, but I would say the busiest
times for us are from rightabout now all the way through
May.
It gets really busy, march andApril being the two best months,
only because the spawn happensthat time.
So you see quite a bit morefish, uh, up top.
Uh, but the boat's awesome,it's one of a kind in in the
United States and, um, it'sprobably, it's probably the best
(42:35):
boat in Southwest.
I'm going to reach back and patmy own back on designing it and
help them build it.
But, um, yeah, yeah, guys overat tiny boat nation, um, check
out their youtube channel.
They, uh, they helped us, theyhelped us, they built the boat.
I shouldn't say helped us, they, we helped them.
I helped them build the boat.
(42:56):
Um, so it's, it's, it's reallyneat.
And then we do quite a bit ofpredator hunting.
Um, you know, guys will comeout for a day or whatever, two
days, and we'll take them outpredator hunting.
So I I specialize in bowhunting for predators, you know.
So guys want to try out that.
We'll take you, you know, anduh, hopefully put a coyote or
(43:19):
fox or bobcat in front of youknow, in bow distance.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
That's exciting stuff .
There's some great videos thatare on your YouTube page.
Definitely we'll have the linkson those for some of the great
predator hunts as well.
And I was kind of curious, youknow, obviously you know these
are things that keep you realsharp up for that, you know,
kind of fall winter time and Iwas curious what your hunts
looked like for your personalhunts.
You know what do you got in thefreezer that from all the
(43:44):
bounties from this hunt thislast year.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
This year was probably my worst year ever.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
You're like ice cubes , that's it.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Yeah, I have, I have some.
I have some bear meat left.
I have a.
I have a mule deer from uh fromSouth Dakota.
Uh, have my son's black buckthat we came to Texas for.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
And, uh, I think that's all that's in there right
now.
Yeah, I mean busy man, so it'shard to kind of get all these
things going on.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
I typically spend 90 days a year a field and I think
maybe I did 35 this year.
It was furry, so yeah, and 10of those were in South Dakota,
you know.
So I didn't, I didn't spend, Ididn't spend any time like so.
(44:40):
We just got done with ourover-the-counter archery deer
here in Arizona and I got outfor half a morning or half a day
one morning for deer and onemorning for javelina and I had
an opportunity and I whiffed it.
I actually hit a branch, Justyou know.
(45:01):
I was like, oh cool, I'm goingto get it done First day, first
try.
And then I didn't.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
These things happen, man, it's hunting right, it's
not just shooting every time.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Yeah, yeah, I know, it still hurts, though.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Oh, I know it.
I know it.
There are so many moments Iwish I had back, but you know,
you just live and learn, right?
Yeah, 100%.
So what else you know you gotcoming up at this year is, as
far as me, with how or with youknow, maybe some personal hunts
or some of the things that yougot going that you're really
excited about.
Is there anything else that'skind of coming down the pike
with any of those that you'dlike to go ahead and share with
(45:37):
some of the listeners?
Speaker 2 (45:38):
yeah, we have some stuff that I'm kind of we're
still kind of keeping close tothe cuff, close to the chest, um
with how, because there's beenstuff that was popping up that
we were able to squash before itbecame a public thing.
And there's still a few morethings out there that might be
(45:59):
that way.
Um, there, I will tell you,there is one more huge molt I
think it's going to be anational thing um popping up.
So keep your eyes peeled forthat.
I I don't want to talk too muchabout it because, one, I don't
know all the details of it yetUm, and two, I'm not 100% sure
(46:22):
it's going to come to fruition,but I think it will.
Um, so just keep your eyes openbecause it's going to be.
It's going to be bigger thanthe line thing, Colorado.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
Well, that's something I again encourage
everyone to go over there, signup for Howley.
Even if it's a free membership,obviously, $30 goes a long way
and isn't really a big drop inthe bucket.
Obviously, with Elk Bros,there's a lot of opportunities
for you guys out there.
That's something that I knowyou'll be keeping everyone
abreast of.
As far as sending that out andthose updates and how you get
involved, signing things,getting your voice out there,
(46:55):
because it's an important thingfor all of us these days to let
our voices be heard so we cankind of collectively like you
said too, man and our hunters,they are collectively getting
things together and being strongas one voice, one fist.
We've got to kind of do the samething and that's not an
advocacy for any violence,people, that's just as, yeah,
(47:18):
standing strong here is what I'mtalking about.
You have to clarify that.
I know, right, you know what hemeans.
Yeah, no, goodness gracious, no, but I mean you know our a lot
of our way of life, uh, you know, and all these the ancestral
wise, you know theseanti-hunters wouldn't be here
unless there were hunters andgatherers that were so
successful in their past lineagetoo.
Right, this is uh kind of a newthing for us to be anti against
this way of life, because it'swhat sustains us to get here
(47:39):
anyway right, we're talking thelast you know 50 years of
millennia, right?
Speaker 2 (47:44):
yeah?
Yeah, this is a brand new thing.
Yep, the idea that humans arenot or shouldn't be hunting is
crazy.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
Yeah, it's in our blood, man, it really is.
It's interesting to see all thedifferent reactions and I think
that's important too, you know,for any listeners too, you know
, to be able to whether you'reinviting someone out into that
lifestyle, sharing some of yourmeat, talking to those folks,
your neighbors, about our way oflife, and you know, it doesn't
have to be something forcefuldown their throat there.
But as far as, like, I thinkit's important to educate folks
(48:16):
who don't know.
If you don't know, you don'tknow what you don't know, right,
but it's important for us toget out there and, uh, you know,
maybe folks share a link, uh,to how, for wildlife, let you
know your neighbors get involved, you know, and it's for them
just to free sign up and kind ofget that educational.
Uh, you know Rolodex spinning,you know, for them.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
So I think that's 100%, and I I think, um, well,
that's what you just said reallyis is what I've been preaching,
cause I think it is the key to,especially at a grassroots
level, the key to saving hunting, um, is having those, you know,
(48:55):
those conversations, being ableto put into words what your why
, why you hunt, why you fish,why you love the outdoors, um,
and humanize it.
You know, sure, there's, I'msure there's people out there
that just want to do it becausethey like a big rack, or they,
they do it because of the youknow, they're an adrenaline
(49:16):
junkie or whatever the case maybe, but there's probably a bunch
of ancillary things that theyalso enjoy about it, um, and it,
even though that might not betheir primary goal, the goal, um
, but for the most part, themajority of us, those things
that are probably viewed byancillary stuff by those guys
(49:37):
are, are the main drivingfactors.
We want the meat and we wantthe camaraderie, we want the
connection with the earth, wewant the you know, uh, to feel,
feel one with what we're doing,um, you know all these, all
these human intrinsic valuesthat nobody discusses.
You know it's always abloodlust, it's never you know
(50:00):
about, you know what, what?
What it means to us.
It's always about what theycould portray.
So, um, I think if you go outthere and you have conversations
, think about it.
There's, I said earlier, there's14 million hunters in the
United States.
14 million, I mean, I'm not,and 14 million people were
(50:26):
talking to one, one person andchanging one mind a year.
One person can change in onemind a year.
Like what, 20 years Am I doingmy math right?
20 years you'd be, you'deducate the whole population in
the United States and they'dhave a different view, and that
seems a little crazy, but it'sthe reality of it.
(50:50):
Like, we can effectively savehunting by keeping that, that
middle class or that middleclass than I'm the middle class,
but the middle, the middleground, the people in the middle
of hunting and anti-hunting,the non hunters, and if we can
give them a reason to stay withus and to to be a uh sympathetic
(51:17):
to what we want and and thatway of life, then that's all we
need to do.
Like you know, you mentionedthat um study that uh, outdoor
stewards did and usually that'sdone, I think, every four years,
and it was done after two yearsand it showed a decline.
(51:38):
It showed a huge decline.
Um, it went from like well,it's been declining.
It went from like 85%, when youand I were kids probably, to
now it's 70, something whichtells me, you know, if you look
at the, if you look at thenumbers, right, if there's 5%
(52:03):
hunters and 4% anti-hunting,right, excuse me, 5%
anti-hunting, if you look at thenumbers, there's only 4% that
identify in the world.
I think that identify asvegetarian, 1% identify as vegan
(52:27):
, and I'm not saying that allvegetarians and all vegans are
against hunting, because they'renot.
I've met plenty.
They just, you know it might bea health thing or they view it
as a better way of life for them.
It's not, they're not againsthunting.
Actually, a lot of themactually commend hunters because
they're not getting foodcommercially as much or whatever
(52:49):
so, getting food commerciallyas much or whatever so.
But if you look at it, thoseare the only that 4%, and then
that 1%, that 5%, right, thereis the only people that should
have a moral soapbox to stand onto be opposed to you getting
your own meat and so what?
(53:10):
That tells me that there's 20,20% of hypocrites in the united
states 21, I think, that can goto a store or go to a restaurant
, take a selfie with theirhamburger and still poo-poo the
fact that you're going out inthe field to kill a deer to
bring home to feed your family.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
So yeah it yeah it's, and even, like you're
vegetarian, you're vegan thedifferent things that actually
happen in the fields, too,whenever people go through and
they clear, cut those, andthey're I mean the, the field
mice, right, I mean just any ofthe different things that are on
ground, habitating animals, oreven just the runoff that that
can cause from whatever it is,or even things when are sprayed,
(53:53):
as far as the development andyou know, all these different
types of, maybe pesticides orwhatever it is that's going on
to treat those or keep animalsfrom eating those plants.
There's so many differentthings that come into play that
I don't know if everyone hasthat 360 view.
I look at it and I'm like thereis, like you said, too right.
Uh, at the very kind ofbeginning, it's like something
had to die in order for you tolive, like, no matter what it is
(54:15):
that you eat, it doesn't matterVegan, vegetarian there's
something that has happened.
There is some causality of youractions, of of eating and just
existing where it's going tohurt another species.
So is this species, uh, moreimportant than the other?
And then you kind of get intothis dividing area, which is a
really weird gray area, and theidea of someone wanting to be
able to know where their foodcame from, whether that's your,
(54:38):
you know local farmer's marketand you know someone who grew it
there and you know you havesome connectivity in your local
uh, you know farmers in thatsense or whether it's going out
there and hunting and knowingexactly that you know this was a
wild animal that lived in awild atmosphere of wild foods
and you become a part of thattoo, and so I think it's
important for us to make surethat you know that.
(54:59):
You know people don't get toohigh on their soap boxes as far
as those kinds of things,because it's everything.
There is an action, a reactionto every action, right, so it's
all around.
But, um, no, those are some goodpoints that we brought up today
.
I think, uh, you know, maybewe'll have to have you back
another time to talk about someother updates, anything that may
be coming up, that, uh, we wantto chat about some hot button,
uh, but, uh, you know, as far asfor that, if anyone wants to go
(55:22):
and check out your website, youknow for how.
Why don't you go ahead and getthe socials real quick?
Speaker 2 (55:34):
how sure?
Uh, well, for me personally,it's pretty much anything john
stallone, um, facebook orinstagram, and uh, even youtube,
whatever, if you just searchjohn stallone.
But for how?
For wildlife?
Uh, on instagram is where we doour most, most of our
communications and stuff um, weconnect with, with a community
the most through there, and thatis uh, uh, how underscore org.
Um and uh, the website is howhelpful wildlifeorg.
Speaker 1 (55:59):
Right on, man.
Um, I will definitely have allthe show notes again and you
know, just kind of, uh, I wantedto ask you ask a lot of the
questions, a lot of my guests.
The same question is one aboutlegacy and it's, you know, with
all the work that you're doing,all the things that you've put
out there, all the educationalplatforms that you've kind of
helped to develop there, I waskind of curious as far as how
you view your legacy, how youhope that this is left behind.
(56:22):
What are some of the goals whenyou're doing this on a
day-to-day, and is thatsomething you kind of think
about?
Speaker 2 (56:36):
Oh yeah, I think about it all the time.
Actually, you know, the older Iget, the more I think about
what I'm leaving behind.
You know, of course, first andforemost, I'm trying to leave
something behind for my children, right and financially, and you
know other other stuff likethat.
But the grand scheme of things,one of the things that drives
(56:56):
me the most with how, you know,yes, selfishly in my, in my
hunting, in my, in my timeline,I want to do things to help
protect hunting so that I cancontinue to hunt and I can
continue to do what I'm doing.
But the reality of it ishunting is probably not going to
(57:17):
go away in my lifetime.
I'm going to be 50 years old,you know, and really it's like
you know what?
Am I saving it for me?
No, so I take great pleasureand I'm actually driven by the
idea that this is something thatI can help protect and preserve
(57:43):
for the future generations, forseveral generations, and I've
said this a hundred times now.
It's probably getting old, but Iuh, some years ago I heard a um
, I was introduced to a Greekproverb that says society
becomes great when old men planttrees of which they know
(58:08):
they'll never enjoy the shade of, or sleep underneath the shade
of, or wrestling the shade of,something, something along those
lines.
It's translated Um, and thatstuck with me and I'm like you
know that's.
I feel like that's something weshould all strive to do, you
know, in our, in our lives, notjust in hunting.
But for me, I feel like that'ssomething I can do in hunting.
(58:29):
I can, I can plant those treesright now, and that's that's a
lot of why I'm, that's why I putmy, that's why I have the
sleepless nights, that's why Icut back, you know, going
hunting for myself this year, um, because I feel like you know
I'm, I'm in a unique position toplant those trees, basically.
Speaker 1 (58:52):
So well, I, I'm glad that you're doing that, man.
I, you know I I applaud allyour hard work and efforts.
Um and you know we all need tostep up and do things together,
and how, for wildlife is a greatorganization that I suggest
everyone go and become a part of.
Um and following all your youknow socials there, make sure
you go over to YouTube.
(59:12):
Check out some of those huntsYou've been filming for so many
years.
Some great ones there.
A lot of educational stuff, alot of entertainment and uh,
yeah, thanks again for joiningme, john.
Looking forward to chattingwith you again down the line.
Speaker 2 (59:22):
Thank you, thanks for having me.
I'll see you next time.
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