Join us for an exciting episode of Sportsman of Colorado, where we bring you stories and insights from the Highlands Ranch Backcountry and beyond. This week, we’re joined by Mark and Joe, who share their passion for hunting and preserving nature. Dive deep into the details of the Spring Hunt Raffle, and learn how it supports youth hunts and community initiatives. Joe recounts his amazing 17-year journey leading to an unforgettable hunting experience and the impact of spending 17 preference points.
SPEAKER 08 :
Welcome to Sportsman of Colorado, Colorado’s premier outdoor radio show heard every Saturday afternoon on KLZ 560 with insights on hunting, fishing, archery, guns, and ammo from Colorado’s top outfitters featuring the industry’s leading experts on how to enhance your experience in the great outdoors. Now, here’s your host, Scott Watley.
SPEAKER 14 :
Welcome to Sportsman of Colorado. Thank you so much for joining us today. Hey, we’ve got a great show in store for you. Got some friends in the studio we’re going to kick off the show with. And then we’re going to be playing a few interviews for you. We were over in Salt Lake City this past weekend for the Western Hunt Expo and got to sit down with a few folks there and do some interviews. So Chad Shearer is going to join us from Shoot Straight TV and a couple of others. So, hey, stay tuned again. jam-packed show for you we’re going to kick it off with our good friends from the highlands ranch back country area over there mark is back with us good to see you bud good to be here again thank you everything going good everything is great You know, it looks, every time I drive through that area over there, and especially when it snows, I mean, snow makes everything look really beautiful, but I just think, man, what a cool, prime piece of property back there.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. That’s part of the benefit to having it in the community is you get to drive through it and you have these scenic views instead of just all development like we see in the southern suburbs.
SPEAKER 14 :
No, you’re 100% right.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 14 :
we’ve got another special guest with us joe is with us and um joe is one of the recipients of uh but being a winner uh in one of their hunts so joe good to see you thank you so much so happy to be here yeah man good to have you on and uh i’m gonna get mark to answer a couple questions then we’re gonna get to you and let you tell us about your hunt and all all right sounds great all right mark so let’s talk about um details for this spring hunt raffle we announced that a couple weeks ago and uh so fill us in
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, tickets are on sale now. Our website’s hrcaonline.org slash backcountry. And then just click on the hunting tab and that’ll take you to where you can buy raffle tickets. Raffles are open to the public. You just have to know somebody who lives in Highlands Ranch. So that’s our buddy hunt. The buddy has to be from Highlands Ranch, but anybody can buy a ticket. That way our residents still benefit and they can, you know, my father-in-law or father or brother out of state can come experience hunting in Highlands Ranch with them.
SPEAKER 14 :
Right. Now, if you’re just thinking, wow, I don’t know anyone that lives in Highlands Ranch. Yes, you do. That would be me. All right. So, hey, you need a buddy. You got one for life. You want to pair up, you let me know. Hey, shoot me a text, 720-201-8585. I don’t know if this is really fair for other people.
SPEAKER 13 :
Sure. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER 14 :
But hey, send me a text and I would love to go hunting with you. So seriously, this is a great opportunity. And I’ve had the privilege to hunt over there once before several years ago with a buddy. And I’m telling you, it is. And we’re going to hear from Joe. I won’t take any away. Here’s fire right now from that. But I’m telling you, it’s a great chance to get over there and hunt. And so let’s talk about the couple of hunts that are available and what you’re doing.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, so for the raffle, there’s a cow hunt available, buddy cow hunt, and second rifle season. In the summer, we’ll have another raffle for muzzle and fourth rifle season. And those all include a trophy bull, and the buddy is for a management bull. Right, right.
SPEAKER 14 :
And I’ll even let you have the trophy bowl. All right? Hey, whoever puts me on, I’ll let you have it. You get the trophy bowl. I’ll take the management bowl. And it’s how much a ticket?
SPEAKER 1 :
$25.
SPEAKER 14 :
$25. You can’t beat that.
SPEAKER 06 :
And it all goes to our 501c3, the Backcountry Wilderness Area Fund, which funds a lot of great initiatives in the backcountry. We get a lot of kids out, kids programs. We’re able to keep those programs either free or low cost. And this year with our raffle success last year, all of our youth hunts that are designated youth hunts in our drawings, youth hunt for free in Highlands Ranch this year because of the success of the raffle.
SPEAKER 14 :
And when you look at just what you’ve been able to do, you just took the last 10 years, what you’ve been able to do over that property, it’s a lot.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, it’s been fun to see and see the progress. Just this weekend, I counted 300 cow elk on the property. I’ve never counted more than 250 in a group. So that was something to see. And when we started this, you know, 15 years ago is when we got the property. That herd was about 150. So that herd’s doubled. There’s another herd on the eastern side of the property that’s more than doubled. So it’s pretty fun to see, and we just keep on putting money into the habitat and making sure the habitat is in prime condition so that the carrying capacity can handle this many elk.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, right. Now, again, let’s touch on the youth hunt again. So all your youth hunts now.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 14 :
Because of the money that comes in for this. Yeah. Man, well, that’s a cool deal.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. We have eight total youth hunts, a bull hunt, management bull, a buck hunt, four turkey hunts, and two cow hunts. And those used to have fees associated with them, up to $500 for the bull hunt. Those are all waived. So there’s no barrier, no economic barrier for kids to hunt in Highlands Ranch. Wow.
SPEAKER 14 :
you need an old guy hunt right that way i can get my fees that’d be all right joe right yeah man i’m telling you well hey hrcaonline.org all right hey you can get your tickets and i’m a thousand percent serious hey if you don’t live in islands ranch you can’t play the game all right and get a chance to hunt so hey now you can i’ll be happy to be your buddy and uh So seriously, get my information. You can send me a text at 720-201-8585 or get in touch with me here at the station. We will have a great hunt if we are fortunate enough to win. And as I mentioned, Joe, good to have you in, as I said.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you. So happy to be here.
SPEAKER 14 :
All right. So tell us a little bit about yourself and, I mean, your hunting. I mean, you’ve been hunting all your life. You just get into it. Tell us about you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, so I’ve been hunting pretty much my whole life, I would say. My first successful, really good hunt in Colorado, I was able to complete what they call the Colorado combo when I was in college. So harvested a deer and an elk in the same hunt. That was a long time ago. um every year i apply every year i go hunting um i was actually building up 17 preference points for bull wow that i was going to use my plan was to to build up those points and use them up in unit 201 or unit two for a trophy bull um and there are some there’s some there’s some big bulls there for sure um But as you kind of look at the at the CPW stats, you kind of really get into it. You can see that people are having to draw with about 32 to 34 preference points. It’s a pretty tough draw and it just takes a long time. So by the time I get to the point where I could successfully apply there, I would be well into my 60s. You know, that’s just a long time. So every year I applied for the Highlands Ranch backcountry hunt. My son was fortunate enough to draw a cow license there in 2013. And he harvested. It was great. We were hunting with Mark. Just an incredible experience. Incredible experience. My dad was… Just had a, had a, had a heart attack and he was, he came out of that and he was able to go and, and Mark set up a tripod for him so he could be kind of on this little bluff and he could just watch my son and I and Mark hunt. And it was just an incredible experience and he harvested a cow, you know, and that was his first harvest ever. So yeah. um, that’s kind of where things for us started in the back country. Um, then later my, uh, I was fortunate to my, my son drew a buck tag and we went for buck, my other son. So I’ve had a lot of experience with the back country and, and, and in particular, getting to know Mark and really appreciating what’s there, you know, when you’re in Highlands Ranch and, and, um, it’s just the craziest experience because you go into the back country and you’re by three very exclusive golf courses, right? And then you, you’re, you’re, you’re hiking around and you can see downtown Denver and it’s just such an amazing thing. And so, um, it just, we just feel so fortunate to be part of the community and really get to to see it year after year. And then my, my youngest son was fortunate enough to start working in the back country for a summer job. He’s in college, but started working there. And so anyway, so I had been applying for 13 years for a, for a license for a, for a bull license. And, um, I, last year I drew, I drew a muzzleloader license and, and it was, it was a really interesting scenario for me because I had 17 preference points and, And I came down, you know, thought about it. Mark and I talked a lot about it. And I decided, you know what, I’m going to use those 17 preference points for my muzzleloader hunt in the backcountry.
SPEAKER 14 :
Very few people can burn 17 points for where they live. Right.
SPEAKER 05 :
It was a tough decision.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, I mean, it had to be.
SPEAKER 05 :
There was a lot that went into that decision, actually. There was a lot. Because we’re talking 17 years of applying. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. And, you know, I was still able to hunt because for my second choice, I was putting in for cow and other stuff.
SPEAKER 14 :
Sure, sure, sure.
SPEAKER 05 :
But, yeah, so 17 years and 13 years applying in the backcountry, and it all came together last year.
SPEAKER 14 :
Wow. So if I ask you, was it worth it, the one-word answer would be?
SPEAKER 05 :
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 14 :
Now, just to give people an idea, and I hope this is an all right question to ask, how many tickets do you buy? For the raffle? Yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, this wasn’t a raffle draw. This was a regular draw.
SPEAKER 10 :
Oh, wow.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. And what I mean by I had been applying for Highlands Ranch Backcountry for 13 years. All right. Mark has a preference point system set up for that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Gotcha.
SPEAKER 05 :
So this was not a raffle. I wasn’t fortunate enough to draw it from the raffle. I was fortunate enough to draw it from the regular draw.
SPEAKER 14 :
The reason why I ask, I think it was last time Mark said, God bought one ticket. Sometimes I think, I’ve got to buy 20 tickets.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’ve got to buy 30 tickets.
SPEAKER 14 :
It only takes one to win. Right, Mark? Right. One to win.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I also buy raffle tickets for sure.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, absolutely. That’s cool. Now, hunting with your kids. Let’s talk about that a minute because I’m telling you, you know, I see all these people and they go to the Disney World. They do all these different things and there’s nothing wrong with that. But I always tell people there’s nothing like spending time with your kids and the kids getting to spend time with their dad or mom, you know, in the outdoors, is there?
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s just incredible.
SPEAKER 05 :
And, you know, there’s a lot of talk about when you harvest how special that is, and that’s very special. But hunting with my sons, we’re doing a bunch of amazing things. One time we were hunting in the backcountry. We found petrified wood. Oh, wow. And we saw that and, you know, got to look at that and talk through that. Um, just the experience of just being together with your boys, walking through the mountains and just, just how peaceful that is. No cell phones.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
No distractions. And you’re just together with your kids. So it’s, it’s very, very special, at least for me and my family. It is.
SPEAKER 14 :
Right. Yeah. And you know what? When they get to see you in that environment and then get to be there and then experience you doing something, you get to see them taking an animal. I mean, it’s a lifetime memory right there.
SPEAKER 05 :
It really is. And you talk about, you know, people talk about farm to table, you know, with food sources. And for them to be able to have that experience to get truly organic meat and see the whole process, you know, ultimately take it over to the wild game processor and it comes back in packages and see the whole thing. It just teaches them so much and such valuable life experiences that, yeah, it’s, it’s incredible.
SPEAKER 14 :
Right. Once again, if you’re just joining us, we were talking with our friends from the, back country wilderness area or highlands ranch back country you’ll hear it referred to that as well hrcaonline.org is where you can get your raffle tickets hey they’re 25 each and um great buddy hunts um mark hit those two hunts for me again
SPEAKER 06 :
It’s going to be a second season rifle and cow hunts this time around. And then in the summer, muzzle and fourth season rifle.
SPEAKER 14 :
All right. And $25 a ticket. And if you’re not a resident of Highlands Ranch, you do need a buddy in Highlands Ranch. And I’m happy to be your buddy. I’m going to get a t-shirt with that. I’m happy to be your buddy in the backcountry wilderness area. All right, may get a new truck wrap for that here. But happy to do that, seriously. And I’m 1,000% serious on that. Shoot me a text, 720-201-8585, and we’ll get you in and get you some tickets. And, hey, maybe we can do a hunt together. When you look at what all I think it’s so cool. Like I say, we get to live in Highlands Ranch and I think blessed to be there and all. But when you look at a community association that is doing so much for the community, that’s kind of a cool thing for me living there. And I’m sure it is for you, too.
SPEAKER 05 :
It really is. And just being able to drive around. I like to mountain bike. So mountain bike through the trails of Highlands Ranch, getting towards the backcountry a little bit and just seeing elk. It’s incredible. And seeing deer and foxes and coyotes and golden eagles. Just yesterday I went for a ride and I see some hawks or golden eagles flying around, right, around the backcountry. It’s incredible. And, you know, going back to the 17 preference points, What went a lot into that decision with Mark was where else, where else can I sleep in my own bed and drive two miles and be hunting an incredible habitat for elk? And big elk and big bulls. Yeah. Big, big bulls. You know, to me, it’s just so well managed. It’s just such an incredible thing to have in Highlands Ranch. And I know there’s other places, Centennial Cone and some other places around the Denver Metro. But the habitat, the bulls, the cows, like Mark has already pointed out, It came down to be an easy decision to burn those 17 preference points because I had a chance at really, really big bulls.
SPEAKER 14 :
So walk us through that day that it happened. Walk us through your hunt. How did it go down?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, well, it was a really interesting hunt because I ended up harvesting the last day or the second to the last day. I can’t remember which one it was. But the first day, we called in a really nice 6×6. Public land hunt, I would have taken that 6×6 for sure. For sure, without a doubt. Passed it up. Well, that week it was really hot. It was really, really hot. And… And we just, we were seeing, we were seeing good bulls, but we couldn’t get close to them. There was a lot of movement. It was the peak of the rut. So a lot of them already had their cows. So, you know, we, we, we hiked a lot. Mark and I hiked a lot that hunt. And we were, we were getting close, but there was just a lot of movement. You know, the bulls were moving and it was, it was a, it turned out to be a pretty challenging hunt because of the heat and In one scenario, we had a microburst that came down right upon us, so it just started dumping rain. The wind was swirling all over. At that same time, some bulls came in and just started running through a pond that was right in front of us, and we were hidden, and it was amazing to see that happen too. So after that first day and passing up that 6×6, Um, we started going through and, and the days were hot and it was kind of becoming more and more challenging to, to, to see if I could harvest, got to the second last day. And I told Mark, whatever I see, I’m going to go for it. You know, it’s, I’m kind of running out of time here. So whatever I see, I’m going to go for. And so we, we, we were hunting that day and it started getting into the late afternoon and, and Mark just said, you know, what, what do you feel like? And I said, well, let’s go back to this water. It’s a hot day. Let’s go back to the watering hole where we saw that six by six. And so we were there, we were, we were kind of set up in a blind and, and we were just, just, you know, kind of, kind of waiting for, for things to cool down. And sure enough, saw a really nice bull, a big shooter that just started kind of walking by a ridge that was kind of to the east of us. And, and he had his cows and, And then we saw a cow come up to the watering hole and she drank and we were just watching her drink. And then she took off and then a satellite bull kind of came in and he was kind of looking around. And just over the ridge, three cows just walked over and all I saw was this big rack behind them. Just big rack, just coming up right behind them. And And, you know, Mark and I kind of looked at each other and said, well, you know, let’s see where he goes. You know, let’s see where he goes. And he was taking his time. He was just kind of eating in these open meadows. And he just started, the cows were coming over to drink in this watering hole. And the satellite bull came over and had interest in those cows. Well, that upset the big bull. And so he came trotting in, and he was not happy with that satellite bull being there. But he was a big bull. He’s the biggest bull that I’ve ever harvested in my lifetime. And at that point, when I was fortunate enough to harvest, everything just came together just perfectly well. And it made those 17 preference points well, well worth it. Just absolutely well worth it. And I’ll never forget, you know, Mark and I were there and he went down and, you know, that was early September and there was a full moon that was just rising right above us. I think Cherokee Ranch Castle. There’s a Cherokee Ranch Castle up there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, you just see this big full moon rising. And just the whole thing was almost like surreal. It was incredible.
SPEAKER 14 :
That is so cool. Well, congratulations. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hey, you can come on and tell a story like that, too, all right? But, hey, you’ve got to go to hrcaonline.org, all right? And, hey, get yourself a ticket there. And, once again, if you’re just joining us, we’re talking about the Highlands Ranch backcountry area. But you do have to be a resident of Highlands Ranch to play. But if you have a buddy, you can put that buddy down. or if you want to put your real good buddy me down you can do that too all right because i live in highlands ranch so happy to hunt with you and um hey these folks doing a great job and um if you’re in highlands ranch and you don’t know really much what we’re talking about of this area you know get in touch with them over there and um And, Mark, are people able to come by the office over there and talk to you guys?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER 14 :
Learn more about the backcountry.
SPEAKER 06 :
My office is at Southridge Rec Center. My email is mark.giebel, G-I-E-B-E-L, at hrcaonline.org. We also have an event, a hunter gathering event is what we call it, at Live in the Dream on March 4th at 6 p.m. We’ll be there doing a few raffles there and giveaways and things like that. But it’s just a fun chance to hang out with hunters and talk hunting. And that’s the night where we’ll actually draw the raffle tags.
SPEAKER 14 :
Okay, sure. Good deal. Anything we forgot?
SPEAKER 06 :
No. Thanks for having us. All right.
SPEAKER 14 :
No, man. Great to have you guys. And, man, Joe, great to meet you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Great to meet you, and thank you for having me as well.
SPEAKER 14 :
You bet. All right. Before our break here, we went over to Salt Lake City for the Western Hunt Expo last week. And we were able to sit down and do a few interviews with some folks. One of those was Chad Shearer with Shoot Straight TV. And we’re going to be playing that interview when we come back from this break. But as I mentioned that expo, let me just take a second here and mention our expo. It’s the Mile High Hunt and Fish Expo. It’s April 11th through the 13th at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center. For tickets and information, you’ll hear some ads on this and more upcoming shows. But just for tickets and event details, go to milehighhuntexpo.com. And there you’ll find and get your tickets. And there are some evening events or separate ticket events that you’ll need to get a ticket for that as well. But coming back from the break, we’re going to visit an interview with Chad Shearer from Shoot Straight TV right after this.
SPEAKER 11 :
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SPEAKER 14 :
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SPEAKER 07 :
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SPEAKER 14 :
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SPEAKER 14 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 12 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 14 :
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SPEAKER 14 :
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SPEAKER 12 :
560-KLZ, your home station.
SPEAKER 14 :
Welcome to Sportsman of Colorado. Thank you so much for joining us today. Now, as we have already previously mentioned, we went over to Salt Lake City for the Western Hunt Expo, and I’ve been going over it about the last two or three years, and I’ll tell you, it is a great expo, and… In Texas, we would say it is ginormous. It is huge. And we’ll come over and see a lot of our friends that are here. Of course, our sponsor’s already with us, but then we always get to hopefully make some new contacts as well. But one of those categories of friends is Chad Shearer. Chad is here with Begara and several other deals we’ll talk about. But, Chad, thanks for taking a few minutes with us. How are you?
SPEAKER 09 :
Hey, Scott, it is always good to visit with you.
SPEAKER 14 :
You too, sir. All right. So, man, let’s start out with just a TV show. Shoot Straight TV. How long have you been doing that?
SPEAKER 09 :
You know, we are going on 20 years now, and it’s just been amazing. We started out all about hunting with the family. Our boys were four and five, and now Walker’s going to be 24. That’s crazy, isn’t it? It just blows me away. It went from just being young on the show to now they run camera and Walker produces. Now they’re carrying the elk out, right? That’s exactly right. Walker produces the show. It’s been a fun ride.
SPEAKER 14 :
Wow. What’s changed? I mean, so much has changed in media through the years. What’s changed in TV that first few years to where you are today with TV?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah. Well, I like to tell people it was harder, but it was easier. So now, back then, there was just a handful of networks. And if you were on one of the… Outdoor-type networks, everybody watched it. Today, you have to be a little more nimble, a little more flexible. And so where it used to be, it just went on TV, now you have it on social, you have it on all the digital networks. I mean, we’re on Pursuit Channel as our main network, but then we’re on Pursuit Up TV, which is a streaming app, which is fantastic. And then from there you go to Zulu, Roku, Pluto, all the different options. And on top of that, then you’ve got YouTube and everything else. So you still have great numbers of people watching you. They just consume it differently. And so there’s more of a buffet of outdoor TVs or outdoor opportunities for people to watch it.
SPEAKER 14 :
Right. You know, when people watch the production of it and when we’re watching it, it seems like everything is so smooth. But how many hours of film will you take on a hunt and then the editing part to get it to fit your time format?
SPEAKER 09 :
Right. And so we have 22 minutes that we’re allowed for a 30-minute show of content. And we’ll do different things like Marcia does her recipes from the field on that. We do a straight talk tip of the week. We have our other content. And so to answer your question, it depends on the hunt. Like some hunts, we may be out there for… six to ten days to get those 22 minutes and there’s other times where it might be a day or two so it just depends on how the animals cooperate what the weather’s doing and uh some are easier than others i mean take take an elk cut versus going out and and doing a fishing trip or going out and doing this it just it depends on on how everything plays out
SPEAKER 14 :
All right, right. Again, Chad Shearer is our guest, and we are recording some interviews here at the Western Hunt Expo, and we’ll be playing a lot of those here over the next few weeks here on the show. You mentioned last night we were talking before we came on air that you guys honored a guy in Colorado that helped with Prop 127. I wasn’t sure if that was a half of Wildlife Guys or Dan Gates.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, it was Dan. Dan Gates.
SPEAKER 14 :
Okay, all right. When you look at all the battles going on in different states, and you’re in tune with a lot of those too, how would you – describe kind of the hunting industry right now and the wildlife and what all these government entities are trying to do. I mean, it’s a mess, man.
SPEAKER 09 :
You know, it is. And I’ll just tell you, I’ve been on the board of directors for the Mule Deer Foundation for the last nine years because I have a passion for wildlife. I will tell you, I’m very happy about our new administration coming in. I know there’s a lot… anytime you have a new administration, there’s a lot of what ifs and questions and so forth. So time will tell how everything plays out. The Mule Deer Foundation does a lot to try and help with conservation, with habitat. They also work with several of the government entities like force us forest service blm and working on projects to to better the land and also a big thing right now is with all the fires we’ve had yeah in the west is wildland management and uh sitting some of the timber out and they’re people are realizing okay not only is it important for us as human beings but that’s also great for wildlife so um I see a lot of great things happening. I see some challenges happening. And the other thing is our Second Amendment. We have to be very aware of that. With the NRA, I was just in Harrisburg for Great American Outdoor Show, and that’s hosted by the NRA. Hearing a lot of good things there. I got to visit with their CEO, their new CEO, Doug Hamlin, and was very, very encouraged by what’s going on at the NRA. It really, it’s exciting to see that because even when we have the administration we have in right now, it’s important that we stay strong. We have to have our voices. Just like we saw with 127 in Colorado, that was a huge win.
SPEAKER 14 :
Huge win.
SPEAKER 09 :
But it just didn’t happen. Sportsmen saw the need. They rallied. And I spent quite a bit of time talking to folks in Colorado and doing everything I could to help. And there were some real heroes down there. And it’s just not for us. I mean, this is for our kids’ kids.
SPEAKER 14 :
And that’s what we were trying to get everybody to understand. While, yeah, we were fighting that in Colorado, I guarantee you it would have flooded other states in a heartbeat if they would have won. And one thing that Dan Gates did really well, he organized kind of a ground game. I mean, man, we put out yard signs. I got my tailgate wrapped. I mean, we did all kinds of stuff. Man, it was a great—and we were never behind it. Once the polls started going, I was shocked, to be honest. Not that we won a little bit, but then by the margin, it was crazy.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, it was, but it just goes to show you how if we could unite. That’s the biggest thing we have to do as sportsmen and conservation is unite because there’s battles, there’s challenges, there’s predator control, and there are people that— I live on a ranch in Montana, and you go visit some of these cities, people that are voting don’t have a clue past their city limits.
SPEAKER 14 :
Right.
SPEAKER 09 :
And what the harshness of weather and if those elk and deer, if they don’t have food to eat, where they’re going in the migration corridors. Right. I mean, even down here in Utah, the subdivisions that the deer are just, they move into because that happens. And so conservation is such an important role. And one of the things that’s cool that the Mule Deer Foundation just launched is also the Black-Tailed Deer Foundation. Blacktail deer have always been a part of the Mule Deer Foundation and what it’s tried to accomplish, but now we have a separate entity that’s just focusing on blacktail deer, and that’s a huge thing in the West right now, especially up in Alaska.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, that’s so cool. Do you think we’re going about it in a better way now because of this 127 and seeing a lot of organizations coming together and different conservation groups coming together? Are we going about it the right way to see some more wins in this?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, I think we are, and I think we have to come to the realization. Like I said, I’ve been on the board of directors for Mule Deer Foundation, but… other great organizations, Rocky Mountain Elm Foundation, Boone and Crockett Club, and the list goes on and on. And even NRA, what they do in their lobbying power is we have to join together as sportsmen. And this is one thing I’ve said for years, whether you’re a bow hunter, A muzzleloader hunter, a rifle hunter, a traditional bow hunter, a traditional muzzleloader hunter. Your last name is Hunter. And we do not need to be divided. So often we get divided. Oh, this one type of hunting, they get five extra days of the season. Or this one gets here. And they start. fighting amongst themselves or you get, you can see this sometimes in with hound hunters versus people that don’t want hounds out there. Instead of going, hey, we have to stay strong because when you look at the overall numbers of hunters out there, which we’re the ones that are splitting the bill, picking up it. No doubt. to support wildlife conservation, when you look at those overall numbers, we’re small as a whole with the whole population in the United States. So we need to be as strong as we can be and to join our efforts together. That’s the thing that I applaud the Colorado voters and the Colorado sportsmen for 127. I was speaking down there last year when all this stuff was just starting to happen. Yeah. And I was encouraging folks, get out there, vote, and you’re going to have to rally together. And kudos to you sportsmen in Colorado.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, no, man, it worked out. And, you know, your influence certainly helped. I mean, you know, when you get names, you know, that are out there, it really showed everybody, well, man, we need to get after this. If we would have showed up for this for the wolf issue, we probably wouldn’t have wolves in Colorado. You know, if like 30% of the hunters would have voted against that, we would have probably won that.
SPEAKER 09 :
And I tell you, there are challenges when you do that. And I can give you historical stuff from when I was a lot younger when the wolves were introduced in Montana and what they’ve done to elk populations. And there’s some challenges there.
SPEAKER 14 :
Now, most people listening to this show, if not all, understand that. What would you say to people that don’t know about wolves? What’s going to happen in Colorado, you see, with this wolf issue?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, this is a touchy situation, I’ll just tell you. I know, it is. And I was 21 years old, and I stood up. against wolves coming into Montana and it. They still came. They still gotta been here, but I will tell you there were there were things around Yellowstone Park where they always had the late season hunts and back in the day and and don’t send letters if I’m off by numbers, but it was like 2500 to 3000 cow permits that they had for elk migrating out of the park. And that was back in the late 80s when I was still in high school. And we would go down there and hunt. And it was great if you didn’t get your elk, they had late season migrations that needed to be managed. After the wolves were down there a few years, that season went away. And we’re talking 25-plus years later, it’s never came back like it has. So they’re killers. I mean, wolves are killers, and they will affect the populations. And that’s one thing you have to do is… You have to manage the large predators. Yeah. Whether it’s grizzly bears, wolves. I mean, we have grizzly attacks in Montana every year, every hunting season. And self-defense stuff happens where these guys get chewed on or killed. And there has to be a balance with it. I’m not saying get rid of them all. I’m just saying you have to be able to manage them. And… My biggest fear is when things go into the management process by voting and not by biology. When you start managing wildlife by emotion instead of by biology, then you really start having issues. And that’s what was happening with 127. Absolutely. It was all about, I mean, there are a lot of people that love dogs. I mean, I love dogs. Of course. My son trains dogs. Wolves are not dogs. Yeah. They’re not. They’re not pets. Yes, they’re magnificent, but you really have to look at it on the balance of everything. And there are preferences. I mean, it’s the same thing with mountain lions. I mean, mountain lions kill a lot of deer every year. And they’re not something you just go out and see. I mean, I spend hundreds of days a year out in the wild And I can count on two hands how many mount lines I’ve came across.
SPEAKER 14 :
And most of us that just do the normal type seasons and hunt, we’ve never seen one. Right. Okay? Right. I mean, I’ve killed one in my life.
SPEAKER 09 :
But they’re there. Yeah. They’re seeing you, aren’t they? They are there. And you pick them up on trail cams. And I will tell you, it’s all about balance, and it’s about conservation. And it’s important. It’s not preservation. It’s conservation and having the balance. And that’s what I love about sportsmen. The money from the Pittman-Roberts Act and the money that comes in from ammo sales and gun sales and stuff in this industry, license sales that support it, it’s huge compared to… what some of the extreme activist groups do.
SPEAKER 14 :
Sure. If you’re just joining us, Chad Shearer is our guest. Hey, catch him on the Pursuit Channel, Shoot Straight TV. And as he’s already mentioned, there’s a lot of other avenues there to catch it, but it’s Shoot Straight TV and a great show. You’ll pick up some good recipes as well. Man, your wife looks like she can cook.
SPEAKER 09 :
She is a great cook, and it’s exciting. We’re getting ready. We’ll be filming our new cooking segments coming up shortly for the 2025 season, and it’s all exciting to see what she does. There’s some great things. If you go to our website, shootstraighttv.com, we have over 200 recipes on that with Wild Game, and some of our favorite ones are the backstrap, uh recipes where should show you how to stuff those uh with all kinds of things from cream cheese to chives and chopped up mushrooms wrap them in bacon put them on on your grill and that’s just it’s it’s so incredible yeah absolutely um let’s let’s
SPEAKER 14 :
Couple areas that you’re in as well. You do a lot of these church wild game dinners. And now by the time we’re airing this, we’re recording this before, by the time we’re airing this, a couple have already happened. They’re local, which we wish we could have got this on a little sooner. But one’s in Fort Collins, which will be at a Front Range Baptist Church. And, man, I tell you, that’s 500-plus people that come to that every year.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right. We’re a week away, or this just happened by the time this airs. And they told me this morning they only have 50 tickets left. So it’s going to be a good one. We’re doing one down in Colorado Springs. And so it’s exciting. I love to go to Colorado. Love to do that. And what we do is we… Talk about tips and techniques to make you a better hunter, a better fisherman. We’ll show you footage that is brand new for the year, a sneak peek at the shoot straight TV season. But then most importantly, we tell people you plan and prepare for hunting season. You plan and prepare for fishing season. You get already a few bow hunters. It’s right now, it’s February coming into March. You’re already shooting your bows. You’re thinking about it, that September rut. And you’re preparing for something that may last for a week, two weeks. But are you prepared for eternity? And we tell people how they can know for sure they’re going to heaven. We share that with them. I share stories of things that have happened in my life. And we’ve been through a lot this year. We had a lot of challenges. And we share that. How when your loved one passes or you pass, tell them see you later, not goodbye. And it’s just amazing the number of sportsmen we’ve been able to reach. And that’s what it’s about. If you’re not 100% sure you’re going to heaven, accept it. Jesus, into your heart so that you can know for sure. Because I’ll just tell you, in our life, we’ve had some rough things this year. We lost our daughter-in-law at 23 years old to cancer. And when you go through that, I know a lot of people listening today have went through things in their life. It’s a challenge. But we have that comfort in knowing it’s here again someday. And that’s what it’s all about.
SPEAKER 14 :
Amen. And you know, it’s great, too, because… there are guys that we can, and gals, and some of them that are open to the families and things, like the one at Front Range, but that’ll come to something like that, that maybe have gotten, you know, a bad taste in their mouth, so to speak, about church or whatever, and man, it’d be a great way to reach people.
SPEAKER 09 :
You know, it really is, and it’s neat. We’ll see people that’ll come to visit these events where they typically wouldn’t come to church for anything else, and that’s been an avenue of our TV show that, People go, hey, we recognize these folks and we want to hear about it. I’m a former world champion elk caller, so I’m going to give them just the best elk calling we can do and really focus in on what’s important. Because there might be somebody out there listening today that say, man, I’ve got some young people in my house. I’ve got some kids now. There’s nothing better to get them in a good church and get them plugged in because you’re going to have trials in your life. I don’t care who you are. I think of my other son this last year. They had a baby, and little Bennett, our first grandson, he was born five weeks early. He’s been at NICU. He was born with Down syndrome, and he’s just the best. Well, he had six holes in his heart, and he actually went down to Colorado to the children’s hospital. And at just a few months old, they had to do open-heart surgery. And I’ll tell you, the people down there in Colorado, if any of you are listening, thank you. Because our son and his wife were down there, Walker and Bree, and our little grandson. I mean, when a doctor is repairing that little heart, and now he’s going to be a year in March. You’re going to go through struggles. You’re going to go through different things. So it’s just important to have that relationship with God and be able to do that. We talked about elk calling a little bit. We are hosting the Hunt Expo elk calling championships today, and that’s going to be a fun time for people. Typically, we’ll have… 60 to 80 people competing, and it’ll be a big event. It’ll take all afternoon. And you’ve been in that for a long, long time. I’ve been hosting them all the way back to the ISE days when I started them back there.
SPEAKER 14 :
Exactly. Man, and you would talk about an industry that’s exploded. Yeah. The calling world. And we just lost Wayne Carlton. We did. Yeah, a couple of days ago. And we’re actually replaying a show on Sportsman Colorado today as you and I are recording this, an interview I did with him. But he was a great guy.
SPEAKER 09 :
Mark is a good friend of mine. Wayne, I called on his team years and years ago, and may he rest in peace. Absolutely. He did a lot for this industry.
SPEAKER 14 :
He sure did. All right, hey, we can’t get out without talking about Bergara and CVC a little bit. So tell us about your relationship with these companies.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, I’m director of advertising and media relations. We’re down here at this show. We have a Bergara booth, and we’ll also have a booth at the Mile High show this year.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yep, April 11th through the 13th.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yep. And I got to verify if it’s a CVA or Bergara booth. I’m not sure. I got to look at the list on, on that one. Um, but, um, just some great, great guns. Uh, we’ve got the, the new, uh, BMR X that we’re highlighting here, which is a rimfire gun. We’ll be doing some mid-year launches that are going to be exciting. And, uh, on the CVA side, uh, New Cascade, we came out with that in left-handed. So a lot of people are excited about seeing that in left-handed this year. And so a lot of exciting things will be coming up this upcoming year. Wow.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, Chad, man, I could sit here and talk with you all day, but I know you’ve got things to do, too. But, man, we appreciate you doing this. Look forward to our banquet. And, again, once we’re recording this, we’ll be next week. But, hey, catch Shoot Straight TV and follow them on social media as well. And if you’re not familiar with Begara, you’re not familiar with CVC, hey, go check them out. I’m telling you, they’ve made some huge strides over these last few years, haven’t they, both of those companies?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, McGar and CBA have just been amazing and lots of great new products out there, and just you can’t beat them. Because muzzle loading, if you had to pick one. I love it. I love it. And I love coming down to Colorado. You’ve got to use open sites. There’s some challenges down there. I hunted antelope there this last year, but I tell you, there’s nothing better.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, absolutely. Well, Chad, we appreciate it, bud. All right.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thanks so much. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER 14 :
You’re listening to Sportsman of Colorado. We’ve got a quick break. We’ll be back with more right after this.
SPEAKER 10 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
