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This week’s episode of Sportsman of Colorado brings a wealth of information to avid hunters and outdoor adventurers. As the big game hunting season approaches, we delve into the timeline of the Colorado Big Game Draw with crucial dates and requirements for participants. Don’t miss our feature on Safebox, a state-of-the-art facility offering secure storage options for firearms, thanks to Eric Hackett’s foresight and dedication to meet a community need. Additionally, we revisit the excitement of the Mile High Hunting and Fish Expo, showcasing the camaraderie and passion of outdoor enthusiasts in the Denver area.
SPEAKER 01 :
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 04 :
Welcome to Sportsman of Colorado. Thank you so much for joining us today. Hey, we’ve got a great show in store for you. I got a text actually this morning, and someone was asking me about winter draw results posted. So if you’ve got the 2025 big game brochure, simply flip it over. And on the back cover has all the dates, but I thought as a courtesy, I would go ahead and talk just a minute about these dates that are important to us here or so. Needless to say, we’ve all put in for the draw. And then May 27th through the 30th, and they will have the draw results posted. And then June 2nd, that is the surrender period deadline. And what that means is if you decide you can’t go on the hunt and you want to get your points back and cancel the tag, you can do that. You have to just get it back in by June 2nd. That is the deadline for that. And then June 13th, you’ve got to have all of it paid for. So it brings up another point. Make sure the credit card that you have on file with CPW, make sure that didn’t expire. We heard some disaster stories through the years where folks drew some very coveted tags and their payment didn’t go through and they couldn’t get a hold of the client. Make sure your credit card is good. And then June 27th, hey, they’re supposed to be in the mail. So that’s the dates for you here for the Colorado Big Game Draw that you need to know as we speak. As I mentioned, we’ve got a great show for you. Later in the show, we’re going to run through another interview first here. But later in the show, we were at the Mile High Hunting and Fish Expo, of course, a couple weeks ago now. And just ran out of time. We did two live shows from there, but time constraints just couldn’t fit all the interviews in. So we’re going to play a couple of those interviews for you. But we’re going to start off with a good friend of the show and actually a KLZ 560. I heard this gentleman on John Rush’s show. And then I sat down with him a week or so ago and we had him on our Haystack show. But I wanted to get him here on Sportsman because he’s got a really unique personality. business here. Hey, for safe, a safe place to lock up whatever you want to lock up. But really for guns, I wanted to bring him on. It’s called Safebox. It’s in Englewood. And Eric Hackett had us over and got to take a tour of the facility there in the Wells Fargo building. He’s in there in Englewood and got to look through all this. So, hey, if you’re looking for a place to store some guns, ammo, whatever, this is the place. So we’re going to hit that interview now with Eric Hackett with Safebox. Welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for being with us. Well, we’ve got a new client we’re going to introduce you today. And I heard this gentleman actually on Rush to Reason. And boy, I felt like there was a great need. You know, most of you have listened to the show for a time. was Jake Jabs, Corporate Sales Manager at American Furniture. And Jake always says, find a need, fill that need, and you’ll be successful. And here’s a need that was out there, and I think this is going to be a very, very informative segment for us. So we’re going to introduce Eric Hackett. He is the owner of Safebox. It’s located at 3333 South Bannock Street in Englewood. You can check out the website, safeboxdeposits.com. Their number is 303-771-8000. And actually, we’re at Safebox doing the interview here because I wanted to come over and see what it was all about and just look at all the different safe type deposit boxes, gun safes, all the different things that are available here. under very heavy lock and key. So Eric, thanks for having us out. How are you? I’m doing well. Thanks for, thanks for having me on. You bet. So how did this concept come about? I always, when people create such an interesting business, I’m like, man, why didn’t I think of that? Cause man, this is going to be good. So, I mean, uh, how’d this come about for you?
SPEAKER 12 :
Uh, sure. It was really just, uh, friends and family in the getting wind of branches closing physical locations and downsizing locations and basically eliminating the safe deposit boxes from their business model. So after hearing that multiple times and that customers were being displaced, we thought we would, you know, fill the need and find a good solution for them. So that’s how we started.
SPEAKER 04 :
Wow. Well, most of you know, if you’re around the Englewood area especially, you’ll see a Chase Bank building. You’ll see a Wells Fargo Tower. Not sure how long this has been here, this Wells Fargo Tower, but for many years. And – Like I say, I wanted to come over and just see what it would kind of look like, see what the setup was. And secure is the word. This is very secure. So let’s kind of explain the best we can. I wish we had some TV cameras here, but let’s explain the best we can. A little bit about a virtual tour, so to speak.
SPEAKER 12 :
So tell folks how it works. Sure. So the city of Englewood just changed the parking in front of our facility. We have our own entrance on the east side of the building. Englewood has changed it to a loading zone so people can enter straight into our facility. So you’ll enter the first set of doors into the vestibule and you’ll hit a buzzer and we’ll verify your name and identity and then we’ll buzz you in and the second set of doors as we discussed is ballistic glass so there’s no getting through and you’ll also notice bollards that were installed outside of the exterior doors to prevent you know any vehicles or any sort of intrusion there And then once you come in, we’ll get you checked in, and we have a bank-grade vault. This is the old Wells Fargo vault. It’s been here since 1968. I have never felt a vault door. Son, that thing is thick. It weighs several hundred pounds. And on top of that, you know, we have state-of-the-art alarm system and 24-7 surveillance throughout the whole facility.
SPEAKER 04 :
Wow. So cool. Yeah. And you can really store, I mean… Multitudes of different sizes. I won’t make you run through all the sizes of all the different boxes, but in the first main safe area, there’s really just different types of boxes, mainly kind of like what you would think of a safety deposit box, right?
SPEAKER 12 :
Correct, yeah. So we took over the existing vault. There’s seven different sizes of safe deposit boxes, and then we also – As I showed you, you have full-on gun storage. So we have anything from your basic gun cabinets to fireproof, waterproof gun safes.
SPEAKER 04 :
And folks, hey, in this day and time, and you’re going to hear this segment on Sportsman of Colorado as well as our Haystack show, but I’m telling you, in the climate that we’re in now, just with crime, all the different things, I’m telling you, this is the answer. You’ve got a place right here that is the most secure thing your money can buy. I can promise you that. And it’s right here in Englewood, 3333 South Bannock Street. And, again, just a picture of the bank-type vault. That’s what… your valuables will be in. And also, as Eric walked me back to the kind of the gun storage area there, a lot of different styles for long guns. You’ve got things you can put ammo in, you can put handguns in, whatever the case you want. If you’re looking to maybe get guns out of your house, maybe you don’t feel comfortable with them being in your home. All right. This is a very, very convenient way to have them stored. And, hey, you can come over and visit them, get them anytime you want. So let’s kind of talk about that, Eric, as far as folks, when they do need something, do they need an appointment? Or how does it work to come back over if they need to grab something or look at something?
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, we do run by appointment. So they can just go to the website, request an appointment, and it’s just been more convenient that way for both customers. And so they’re not overlapped. They’re not waiting. Sure. And that was one of the biggest complaints with the banks, the customers from the banks. My mother-in-law had a safe deposit box, and the last time she went in, she waited over an hour at a Wells Fargo. Um, we’re trying to eliminate all of that running by appointment. Um, and the other thing that sets us apart from the banks, aside from the convenience is, um, we did jump through about a 220 point process, um, to become accredited with AXA financial, which is the third largest insurance company in the world. Um, And they ensure, so we ensure your safe deposit box or your gun safe for $5,000 standard with every box rental. And then if you want additional coverage on top of that, it’s extremely affordable since we did become accredited with them.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that’ll work. Yeah, for sure. If you’re just joining us, we are coming to you live from 3333 South Bannock Street in Englewood, the home of Safebox. Eric Hackett is the owner. Check out the website, safeboxdeposits.com. And once again, the number 303-771-8000 is the number. You know, when you look at and you think about just different things, people, and I told you when I first came in and just thinking about the history of this building, there’s no telling what’s been in some of these boxes here. Oh, yeah. You wish you kind of could know some of the history of it here. But, folks, seriously, I mean, I don’t know what the dimensions of the smallest type box you have, but, I mean.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, so the smallest box is going to be 3 by 5 inches by 22 deep. They’re all going to be 22 inches deep. And our smallest box starts at $15 a month. All right. Geez. No-brainer. It’s pretty affordable.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. Now, on the gun stores, let’s hit those prices just a minute. Okay. Kind of fill us in there.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yep. So our gun cabinets start at $50 a month, and those are for a 14-gun long-arm capacity. And then we have… the gun safes that are fireproof, waterproof, and they have a 24 gun capacity and those are a hundred dollars a month.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 12 :
And then we also have, as I showed you another vault that we can customize for, you know, larger items or, You know, we can customize a solution for any customer.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right, right. Well, Eric, man, this is going to be a good deal for you, bud. And I know new businesses and new ventures, you’re just like, oh, man, crossed your fingers, hoping everything’s going to work out good. But I’m telling you, man, we’re going to help you get the word out. Hey, folks, hey. Once again, hey, we’re all looking for our things to be secure and safe. And, you know, when it comes to gun, no laughing matter. So, I mean, hey, if you’ve got kids and maybe they’re getting to an age now that you’re just saying, hey, man, I want to get these locked up. I don’t want to get rid of my guns, but I do want them to be at a safe place. This is it. 3333 South Bannock Street in Englewood. Once again, safeboxdeposits.com, and the number is 303-771-8000. So, Eric, thanks for having us out, and we’ll get you on to do this again. But congrats on your business, and folks, when you come in, let them know you heard them here on KLZ, and we’d appreciate that as well. So, Eric, thanks for having us.
SPEAKER 12 :
Sounds good. Thank you, Scott.
SPEAKER 10 :
We’ve got to take a quick break, and we’ll be back with more right after this. Here’s why you need personal injury attorney Kevin Flesch on your side. He understands the way the jury thinks. In the context of a personal injury case, you’ve been hurt by someone else’s negligence. The idea is that you’re going to try to recover so that you can get back to where you were just prior to that incident occurring. What that really means from a jurist’s perspective is that you’re going to be asking them to award you money. So when we talk about fairness, we’re talking about six people that you don’t know. Those six people view the evidence and make a unanimous decision that will decide what the fair value is. When you’re the one who’s hurt, you have a good idea of what you think it’s worth. The question is, can you persuade those other individuals whom you don’t know and were witnesses to believe that’s what the case is worth? Kevin Flesch understands the way the jury thinks. Call now for a free consultation. 303-806-8886
SPEAKER 04 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
If you’re in the market for a new rifle for the big game season or a new shotgun for some doves or upland game birds, head on over to The Gun Room. Kevin Flesch here from Sportsman of Colorado inviting you to visit Denver’s oldest gun dealer. And that’s The Gun Room at 1595 Carr Street in Lakewood. They offer buy, trade, consignment, transfers, and appraisals. And if you purchase a gun, we’ll cover your background check fee. It’s The Gun Room, 1595 Carr Street. Tell them Sportsman of Colorado sent you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Attention hunters and anglers looking for top-notch hunting, fishing, and camping gear without breaking the bank? The Outdoorsman’s Attic in Sheridan has you covered. They’re a family-owned consignment store packed with quality new and used outdoor gear at unbeatable prices. From clothing to cots, live bait to lanterns, and that hard-to-find ammo, find it all at 2650 West Hampton in Sheridan. Got gear to sell? Turn it into cash with their hassle-free consignment. Gear up, save big, and adventure more at the Outdoorsman’s Attic, where the great outdoors meets great deals. Visit them today at 2650 West Hampton. KLZ 560, your home station. Welcome back to Sportsman of Colorado. Again, thank you so much for being with us. Just a quick reminder now, you miss our live show on Saturdays 1 to 2. Catch us twice on Sundays, 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. And then also on the following Thursday at 9 a.m. So hopefully one of those four times will work out for you. Well, as I mentioned at the beginning of the show a couple weeks ago, we finished up another great Mile High Hunting Fish Expo out at the Gaylord Rockies Resort. And we did a live show Friday and Saturday, only an hour, though, each day. So ran a few interviews short that I wanted to get on. So I sat down in some spare time there and recorded a couple of great interviews. And we’re going to go to those interviews now from the Mile High Hunting Fish Expo that just wrapped up a couple of weeks ago. Welcome back to Sportsman of Colorado. Again, thank you so much for being with us. Well, we’ve mentioned this several times. We finally have time to play a few more recordings from the recent Mile High Hunt and Fish Expo that was held out at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center. Terrific, terrific three-day event. Make your plans next year. It’s going to be the end of March next year, and we’ll get you those dates here pretty quickly. One of our dear, dear friends and a great supporter of our show. And Stefan is no stranger to our airwaves. He’s been on with us a number of times through the years. We made our first trip over to South Africa in 2013. Wow, the years have passed. But Stefan van der Merwe joins us, Bushman’s Quiver. How are you, my friend?
SPEAKER 06 :
It’s just going fantastic. And so blessed, you know, Scott. And like you said, the show is amazing. is a true hunting and fishing and outdoor expo in every sense of the way we love it we we’ve seen so many people here the quality is just fantastic and it’s good to be back in denver we were here for a whole month in january and and then we went back to south africa for for four weeks so our hunting season is in full swing now it started a couple of weeks ago Just got some pictures of a beautiful kudu and waterbuck that the clients harvested over there. So looking forward to getting some more pictures from them. And now we’re back here for another month. Well, we’ve been here for another three weeks already. And we’re heading out back to South Africa on Thursday, getting back. to George, which is our hometown, on Friday, and I hit the road on Saturday for my first hunt. Busy time, but busy in a good way.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right, right. I tell you, ever since we’ve known each other, man, Denver… Shows are a huge hub for Bushman’s Quiver. What is it about Denver, you think, that makes it, I mean, you know, and I’ll be honest, when I very first, you know, are you doing the lucky draw this year? Yeah, absolutely. We’ll explain that in a minute. He does a lucky draw. We get a couple of annals, a five-day.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, there’s three different options. So the first option is we pay for your round-trip airfare for one person. And then we also include a spring buck. So then you are responsible to pay your own daily rates and the trophy fees. Then the second option is a seven-day hunt for one hunter. That includes all his daily rates. It includes his daily laundry services, all his meals, his professional hunter, trackers, skinners. So everything is included there. And then you also include a spring buck in that deal. That’s worth about four grand. And then the third option, which is an option that a lot of people like to take these days, is seven days under Africa’s skies, seven full days of hunting for two hunters. That’s valued at about $4,800. And that includes, again, all the lodging and the meals, the beverages, your ground transportation. your professional guide, your trackers and skinners, your field preparation of your trophies, the transport of your trophies to the taxidermy that we work with. So that’s all included. So like I said, about $4,800 in that deal. And that just helps it for couples or for buddies to come and hunt together. So that’s one that people like to go for. And yeah, if you happen to be one of the lucky draw winners, please get in contact with us as soon as you can. Let’s get your peace of mind. And just coming back to the Denver area, I mean, we’ve been coming to Denver since 2008, 2009. And we started doing the ISE in 2010. And we’ve just got so many beautiful friends. It’s actually not friends even anymore. It’s like you. It’s family. And that’s what this whole Denver area makes so special is we have so many people here that’s been with us. just a great repeat percentage as well you know we have about a 70 repeat here which makes it beautiful for us and again this year as well probably i would say at least 20 to 30 clients coming from the Denver area. And looking forward to seeing them all in the African skies. Just beautiful people in a beautiful area. It’s nice to be here when it’s a little bit warmer as well. Sure, yeah. I mean, we’ve been… We never know what we’re going to get in January, man. No, so most of the snow is gone, so that’s good. And walking around in shorts, going fly fishing on Wednesday before we hit the road on Thursday. So looking forward to a good time.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s just special people in a special place. Right. And the reason why I said about the lucky draw, that’s how I came the first time. Man, back then, you guys were doing some things at Tanner Gun Show. And I didn’t have my radio show then or anything. So this wasn’t a fixed deal. Oh, he’s got a radio show. Let’s make him the winner. It wasn’t anything like that because I wasn’t even doing this show yet. When I came to one of the get-togethers, that kind of open house that you do, and got to meet so many people. I mean, I’ll be honest. I was skeptical a little bit because I’m like, how could that many people be so happy about a place to hunt? I mean… everything from little comments like it was my birthday and they gave me a birthday cake. And so when I ask you the question, what makes Denver such a hub, man, it is the people. Because, dude, I mean, you could give away 100 tickets here to come to an expo like we’re recording this at today because there’s so many people that just want to come and hang out and talk with you guys.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, it’s a challenge sometimes because you’ve got so many people in the booth at the same time wanting to spend time with you and just discuss their next safari and that. But then you also have new people that come in that you want to spend time with. So to get that balance, it makes you tired, but it makes you tired in a good way. Yeah, absolutely. So that’s fantastic. So, yeah, again, Denver and the people of Colorado, it’s just been great. And we love all of you guys so much. And the thing is with Bushman Squiver, We don’t hunt. We don’t chase quantity. We chase quality. So that’s what it’s all about. You know, you get some of these guys that will, and there’s a lot of good people out there, really good friends in the outfitting business. People that I would send my clients to any day if I know I cannot help them. But there’s a bunch of people that will just see how many people they can get through their camp. And with that, the quality goes down the drain. Sorry to say it that way, but that’s just the way it is. And for us, I’m not going to jeopardize my future with my family by not being honest. I want to be able to sit here again next year and do the same thing. So for me to chase quality and for my family to be here with me and to experience this whole thing with me, that just makes so much more sense. And you cannot expect God to bless you if you… You know, if you cannot trust you in the little things. So it’s all about being honest and integrity. That’s what it’s all about.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. We were talking with Stefan Vandermeer. He is the owner of Bushman’s Quiver. Bushman’s Quiver. What’s the web? I’m sorry, you’re saying Bushman’s Quiver Quality African Safari. Bushmansquiversafaris.com?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, even just Bushmansquiver.com. Okay, Bushmansquiver.com. Yeah, that’ll take you straight to our website, and we also have a lot of videos on YouTube as well. So if you just go to Bushmansquiver and you put in videos, it’ll take you to all the YouTube stuff.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, let’s talk about some of the places you hunt and things you’ve got available there. Now, your home base now is down at the Cape.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, we are the most southern tip of Africa. So we are about, I would say, 100 miles east from where the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean meets. So almost the most southern tip of Africa. It’s in the Western Cape. We stay in a beautiful garden root. It’s lush and green. It’s evergreen area. So people love to spend three or four days with us there at the guest house as well, either after the safari, the hunt or before the hunt. just to do some of the non-hunting activities, you know, dive for the great whites in the Indian Ocean and do some ziplines or some adrenaline-driven activities, do the interaction with the elephants, see the kangaroo caves, do the wine route. There’s just so many things to do for them. So we love that area. And then most of our concessions, our concessions, for those of you who don’t know what a concession is, that’s just the areas where we are leasing land. We’ve got agreements with the landowners to hunt on their properties. So we have concessions in the Eastern Cape, in the Western Cape, in the Northern Cape. in the free state in the northwest which is the Kalahari that almost borders the Botswana the country of Botswana and then also we still hunt in Limpopo as well and if people want to go out and experience some other hunting in some of the northern countries like Zimbabwe Mozambique Zambia And Namibia, we’ve got some great concessions there as well. So if that’s something that you want to do, then, yeah, we can take you there. So the most important thing for us and always our clients is that we need to understand what your expectations are. If we know what your expectations are, we can tell you, yes, we can make it happen, or no, we cannot make it happen. The main thing is for you to get peace of mind, for us to understand what you want to do and what you want out of this experience. And then also, that’s why it’s so important for us, for you as a new hunter in Africa, or if you’re a first-comer to Bushman Squiver, to talk to some of the people that’s been with us before, like yourself and like hundreds of other clients in the Denver area. And then just, I mean, speak to the hunters and the non-hunters and find out from them how they found it, how they experienced it. They would love to meet with you. They’d love to show you their trophy rooms and discuss with you the questions that they had when they came out the first time. And that all just helps you to get peace of mind.
SPEAKER 04 :
Sure. And, I mean, hey, it’s your safari. So communication is the key. And, you know, if you want to hunt a couple of days, go do a few of these other activities. Go back to hunt. Hunt a few days. Then do all the other activities. They’ll do it all for you. Kevin Flesch, our co-host a few years back, brought his wife and three daughters over there. So this isn’t just a guy thing. This is a family thing. thing and you know they Stefan his beautiful family wonderful family I’m telling you it will not take long to just fall in love with them Africa in itself and just to see and I tell people all the time Africa Africa, to me, is the best value in hunting in the world. You’ve been around these shows. You look at some of these deals, man. $12,000 for a five-day guided elk hunt that you may see or may not see. You may get a shot. You may not get a shot. Dude, over there you’ll see more animals. I’ve told every guy, I don’t care who you are or where you’ve been, you’ll see more animals in your time period there than you’ve ever seen in your life.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, that’s a fact, you know. That’s why, I mean, people ask us about our pricing and they go to some other hospitals and they get some of their pricing. And there are some cheaper guys and there are some more expensive guys. So we’re right there in the middle, but I mean… I believe in the saying, you play with peanuts, you get monkeys. I’ll have to remember that. So that’s just the way we do it. And the quality of the safari, the quality of our staff, the vehicles that we use, the quality of the trophies, the lodging, the meals, everything about it. It’s not easy to keep those guys, you know, and we want to keep them. And the people that’s been with us, our staff has been with us for so many years. And the only way to do that is to pay them what they are worth. So, I mean, you’ll go out there and you’ll see something and if you think that it just seems too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true. There’s some deals out there where people will promise you the moon and the skies, and you might even still have a great time, but maybe you’ll never see your trophies, or maybe they won’t pay the landowners, or they won’t pay the PHs. There’s just a lot of dishonest people out there, but there’s also a lot of good guys out there. I mean, if people come to me and they say they’ve hunted with this guy or that guy, or they’re going to go with this guy or that guy, and I know them, I will tell them, you are going to have the time of your life.
SPEAKER 05 :
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 06 :
So it’s all about helping each other in the industry. Competition is healthy. But for me to be with my family and the type of crowd that we get in our camp, the type of clients that we get to our camp, just honest, beautiful people. And for me, it’s stunning to have my family here with me. You know, our area where we hunt, it’s family friendly. I really call it a gentleman’s safari. I mean, if you want it to be rough and tough, if you want to sleep under a tree, We can do that. We can take you wherever you want to go. But I mean, a comfortable bed, ensuite bathroom, a fireplace in your room, beautiful views, hot clean water, you know, fine dining, that’s just all part of it. So if that’s not something that you want to do and you, like I said, if you want to sleep under the stars and just eat some frogs and mupani worms, then we can make that happen. But I will probably go back to my room and have a decent piece of steak.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, absolutely. Well, again, I wish we had an hour here just to tell you all the things we know. But look, if you’re interested in South Africa, get in touch with me, all right? I’ll personally get you in touch with Stephon. We will figure out, hey, what you want to do, when you want to do it. I’ll meet with you, show you all the things that we’ve learned from being over there four times with them. And I’m telling you, it will be an experience of a lifetime. with people that you will love being with. And that’s Bushman Squiver Safaris. And, Stefan, man, so glad you guys are here. I wish we could do this like every other month, man, you know, with you being here or me being there. But, man, it’s great to have you over here, bud. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 06 :
We appreciate you guys so much and what you’ve done for us and for our family. You’ve got a beautiful family as well, and what you are doing for the hunting industry and for the outdoor industry, thanks for that, and thanks for your loyal support. We love you guys, and we cannot wait to get back here.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, man, we love you guys, too. And once again, if you’re wondering all the background, again, we’ve announced at the beginning of this segment, we are recording this at the 2025 Mile High Hunt and Fish Expo, and just the busyness of the show and the hours, it’s just hard to get everybody on during our allotted show time, so we wanted to play some of these interviews for you. You’re listening to Sportsman of Colorado. We’ve got to take a quick break, and we’ll be back with more right after this.
SPEAKER 02 :
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Hey, Dan. You know, our jobs are pretty different. I’m a baseball announcer. You’re an attorney and a talk show host. Yeah, but we do have something in common.
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SPEAKER 07 :
This is KLZ 560, your home station.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome back to Sportsman of Colorado. Again, thank you so much for being with us today. If you’re just joining us and if you’ve been listening the whole time, sorry to repeat this, but we recently… did the 2025 mile high hunt and fish expo and it’s just impossible to get everybody on during our allotted hours we we took our friday haystack show turned it into a special edition of sportsman of colorado we did our live show saturday of the expo but uh hey we had a lot of folks we wanted to sit down and talk with and let you know about their products and uh This gentleman I met actually a couple years ago and wanted to get him on, looked at his tripods, and boy, they’re awesome. They’re called Top Hand Tripods, and this is a mountain multi-tool and eight uses in one dynamic piece. So this is everything you need. And here to explain it all for us is the owner of it, Jamin Floral. All right, Jamin, how are you?
SPEAKER 13 :
I’m doing good. Thank you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 13 :
Now, where do you live? I live in Sterling right now. We kind of migrated from the Fort Collins area about five years ago and just kind of breaking out to get a little bit more space to be able to continue manufacturing in my little garage.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, it’s something, and, you know, you and I, I mean, there’s a lot of big companies here, but I’ll tell you what’s near and dear to my heart, so to speak, is people like you. Yeah. Think of something in your garage, doing it, and then be able to come to an expo like this and kind of mingle with all the higher-end type deal. When I say higher-end, I just mean companies that have been doing it for years. They’ve got the, you know, ginormous displays. But you know what, man? If you’ve got a good product…
SPEAKER 13 :
dude you believe in it you can have a 10 by 10 booth and do very well yeah you know all the industry leaders that you you know most of them are here and that’s what kind of draw me in you you met me in cheyenne actually three years ago and and then uh you know i wasn’t quite ready to get that the manufacturing wasn’t quite there last year and they filled up quick and And old AP pulled it out for me today or this year to be able to get me in. And I was appreciative of that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you’re more than welcome.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, so it worked pretty good. And we’re here. And, you know, it’s been a good show for us and a lot of positive interest in it, a lot of good feedback, you know, initial feedback. interest in it and i think we’re going to get a lot of residual uh you know more uh sales later on too so yeah it’s gonna be good now a lot of you know bipods tripods whatever mostly tripods i mean they are what they are yeah put something on top of them right yeah you know it’s it’s it’s like well are you reinventing the wheel here or not so i’ve guided elk hunts with my brother jared uh in met he’s with medicine bow outfitters in north park okay so he’s been there for 30 years with the colorado state forest state park And so he and I have been working together for about 20 years together on the mountain there. And this thing really stemmed from that. There’s got to be a better way to handle the meat. And I know if you’ve got two of you there, you can kind of do that. But when you’re by yourself, it’s really tough to do a full-body elk when you’ve got an 800-pound animal on a 30-degree slope. And just having something there to hold your leg up and to get it up high enough to get scone around. It’s not over your shoulder. It’s not across your hip. You’re not cutting or splitting that hide next to your femoral artery. Sure, yeah. My other brother, he actually stabbed himself through his calf.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, my gosh.
SPEAKER 13 :
trying to get scun out to the end of the leg there, you know, and just in a hurry. And this thing really kind of makes you slow down a little bit. It’s a helping piece for that. Of course, you use it for all the things that you use a tripod for. You can glass from it. You can shoot from it. I have some tent designs coming up that’ll actually support a tent for you. And trying to get that off the ground too at the same time. There’s just so many uses for it. And I got a few other accessories like a shooting bag and tack table and And, you know, guys, if they’re interested in it, go to the website, tophandtripods.com, and look us up, and send me an email on their contact page, and we can kind of start the dialogue that way, too.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, let’s break down, and once again, if you’re just joining us, we are recording this at the 2025 Mile High Hunting Fish Expo, and as I mentioned earlier, just not enough time to get everybody on, so you’re going to hear a lot of different sounds you normally don’t hear on our Saturday show. We’re in the studio. But it is a great place to do these interviews for sure. All right. I’m going to break down each one of these. We’re going to spend a couple minutes on each one. But field processing. How does top hand tripods help you out there?
SPEAKER 13 :
So when you get your animal down and you’re by yourself and allows your buddies to keep hunting, right? Sure. So, you know, this thing has a rope lock mechanism in the head. So the rope… just stays with the tripod, and you deploy the rope. It wraps up onto the head, onto the side of the head, and you deploy that rope down, and it’s got a little hook on it, and then you wrap that around the leg, and you pull the tail up, and it holds that leg up underneath the head of the tripod, and it locks for you. and the legs are kind of free floating. They don’t have locking positions, so you’re able to maneuver them freely around on the ground. There’s a lot of different dynamics I could discuss about it, but it just basically, the core concept is to hold that leg up while you part it out.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and a more comfortable position and clean, right?
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, it’s the cleanliness, you know, and it doesn’t, that quarter won’t even touch the ground if you do it right, okay? A lot of guys bring tarps and whatnot. I fold the hide out over the backbone, you know, and lay it out to kind of, we used to lay the quarter right out onto the back. and then pick it up and put it in a game bag. Well, this thing, you can fillet that off of the bone, front or rear, whatever, however much you want to take off, and you actually literally will hoist that quarter up and hang it from the tripod and then put your game bag on it. and or whatever you use i i use a glad wrap is what i’ve been using for about 20 years and it works really well but game bags are really simple and easy and they do the job very very well too and it just makes it simple process out of that whole end of result you know getting that quarter into a bag it’s tough to do sometimes on a hillside and then you’re rolling around on the dirt That quarter will be hanging there about a foot above the carcass. And you can pick the hair off of it. You can cut bloodshot meat off of it. You can debone it like that, too. You know, sit down and take your time and just hang in there. And, you know, that dynamic right there, just that side of it is what the patent is on it. So I was granted the patent for it about four years ago. for attaching a rope to a tripod and using it to quarter an elk whip or whatever big game. I drew a moose tag, Colorado moose tag, two years ago and got my moose first day with my longbow right at dark and I was by myself and I knew help was coming but I was also in sand and there was nothing but sand around him and I went ahead and started on him and started lifting that up a little bit at a time. And by the time I got that whole front, I took the whole front shoulder and the neck meat and the rib meat with it all in one chunk and got it high enough to get my wrap on there or slide it in a game bag. And that’s what I did with that moose quarter on a Shire’s Moose. And it held a lot of weight. I’ve tested it to 300 pounds. And I wouldn’t recommend that. It’s not designed to hold a whole carcass up. In fact, I can’t. I can’t even say that, that it can hold a whole carcass up. But it’s not designed for that. It’s the multi-tool that you’d use for all that hunt dynamic leading up to the harvest.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right.
SPEAKER 13 :
and then once you’ve got your harvest you just use it to do the skinning process and the quartering process specifically the no gut quartering process you know we we’ve all kind of gravitated to the no gut method where you don’t even open it up and you know my website has a link to my um youtube channel and you can watch how i do it okay Okay. And gain a lot of perspective there. I know there’s more than one way to skin a cat, right? Sure. There’s all kinds of different ways that the guys do things, and this thing will help you in any one of those ways.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Jamin Floral is with us. He is the owner of Top Hand Tripods. These are really cool. Tophandtripods.com. And again, this is a multi-use mountain tool right here. And he’s just kind of going through and explaining some of the things. Now for glassing, of course.
SPEAKER 13 :
so many different binos and spotting strokes and different things so what type of attack would you need like 30 different attachments to put on top of you know the common the the the hunting industry has adopted the arca swiss plate mount that’s the dovetail plate okay that that is a photography it stems from every everything stems from photography on the tripod market right And we’ve adopted a lot of different dynamics into the tripod industry here for hunting. And what you do, if you have any type of head that unbolts off of any tripod using a standard quarter-twenty or three-eighths bolt face interface there, will bolt onto what I call a rally clip that we have that actually… It lives on that component. So if you have any head that you have already to glass with, whether it’s a pan tilt hill or a ball head, you can actually use that head still and then be able to attach it to the top of my tripod and still use that component. I don’t make any pan tilt glassing heads or anything. I just make the clips. There’s two different types of clips. There’s a standard clip that has little… It’s actually kind of a… silicone rubber interface on the bottom of it it’s a pla everything’s really plastic i i machine plastics okay and and the like the head’s made of high density polyethylene and there’s some acetyl acetyl in there too and uh a little bit of carbon fiber components in that that whole thing the whole thing weighs two and a half pounds by the way yeah so it’s the lightest and tallest tripod you can buy that has a full convergence head on it. What I say with full convergence head is all the legs come together at the head. There’s no center column that you have to extend up. So you see a lot of tripods that do this, but then you see shorter tripods that you need taller to be able to glass from. You have to extend the center column up to mount up that standing height. And then inherently, then you end up with a little bit more leverage against those legs and there’s a little bit more wobble and everything. So it’s a pretty stable setup. Right now we have the tubing for the tripod is actually made by Richardson Metals in Colorado Springs. It’s an extrusion of 6061 T6 aluminum. So it’s a pretty stable platform to glass from. Of course, I’ve guided for 20 years. I do a lot of glassing in the area because we’re up in North Park there. So tons of glassing and being able to see. And glassing is very important. It’s not a perfect setup for that. no tripod really is it’s so subjective to how you glass yeah you know and there’s a lot of dynamics there we’re working on another uh clip mount that’s it’s actually a metal interface so it uses a spring steel plate that that actually kind of flexes down and creates a compression mount for like a heavier spotter or even gun setups where you directly mount a gun into it to shoot from where it gives it a little bit of spring tension very high resistant spring what I call on-target resistance pressure. So when you’re shooting from a tripod standing position, you’re automatically limited to distance. I mean, nobody really will, in my opinion, nobody’s gonna shoot an animal at 400 yards standing from the tripod. You’re going to go lower. You’re going to try to, inherently. Or try to get some kind of support under the back of the gun as well. So anything like that. But it basically kind of gets your effective range into a smaller circle. Helps in that regard. Helps with target panic a little bit too, where you just can’t slow down. you need to have a little bit more resistance pressure. That’s why a lot of guys use a bag. The shooting guys, the industry’s kind of moved to shooting off of a bag. I also sell what we call the top plate tack table. It’s a plastic tack table, machined plastic tack table, high-density polyethylene. It’s about six by six, and it has a little side mount on it for an accessory like a cell phone or a range finder or whatever. And then that’s just basically a quarter-twenty thread in the side of the… tack plate, and then I use about a 6×6, about 5-inch bag that gets stuffed with the plastic shavings that I get from machining all the parts. Wow. Very unique setup there. It only weighs about a pound, so you can take it with you into the field. Hunting scenario, kind of basic hunting scenario stuff there to be able to get you to have a more confident shot in the field is the other goal that we’re looking for on that, right?
SPEAKER 04 :
Cool. Check out the website once again. It is tophandtripods.com. Again, if you’re just joining us, Jamin Floral is with us. He is the owner of the company here. And once again, if you’re listening in the background and wondering, man, it doesn’t sound like this normally on this show, you’re right. We’re at the 2025 Mile High Hunting Fish Expo. At the time, we were being able to record this. And, hey, a few other things here we don’t have time to go into, but field processing, glassing, shooting, trekking, ground blind, tent frame, all of this. Top hand tripods can help you out with, again, it is a mountain multi-tool. And coming soon, it says, a field chair and backwoods tote. So, man, you’re staying on the drawing board here.
SPEAKER 13 :
Lots of tripods. concepts on the up my sleeve a little bit and uh just really kind of searching out to see if there’s any other help out there be willing to pitch in a little bit as far as uh engineering on some of this you know the temp manufacturing it’s kind of a big deal uh that i can’t really get set up i can but it you know you’re so limited when you get to to rolling on this stuff so yeah all right let’s talk cost okay so base price of the of the cost of the base tripod is 325 dollars And you can go on up with some accessories like grips. Oh, that’s the other thing. The legs come off for grip, for trekking poles. Okay. So that’s one thing that I always try to, I forget about. I always try to throw in there. But all three legs will come off and you can use them as trekking poles. So we sell them with grips and a little lanyard that can clip onto the top for your wrist. And then they also have a carbide-tipped rubber foot, so you can buy a carbide-tipped foot for it that you’d apply onto there or buy it with it, and that’s another accessory. And then I sell it with a Dyneema rope option, the little cut-resistant rope. Otherwise, the base has the standard paracord, 550 paracord is what they use in the head. And so all those options add up to about $365. Okay. Total price on that, and it comes with a rally clip, the standard rally clip. The 2.0 rally clip, which is what I call it, which is the metal interface one, is $55 for that one. And that’s the piece that would go on to whatever glassing accessory you have or shooting accessory you have. And so I also can rebuild this tripod. So if anything happens, the warranty issue is just like, just let me know and we’ll figure it out. And whether it’s a manufacturing defect or whether you tripped and fell and bent the tube and now you just need to buy a new leg. I sell legs individually, of course, because they can come off. So $55 for a leg. 45 for a head if something happens on the head. That’s not manufacturing. If it’s manufacturing, I’ll cover it. If you make a mistake even, like right away, I know there’s a little learning curve to learn how to use it and detach things and get things put back together and whatnot. If you snap a head off or something, just let me know. I’ll take care of you. But any of those components, I can get back for you. I can reuse the tubing on it. put new components into it, then basically the tubing is the most expensive part of it. And then I can rebuild that into what I call a recon unit, and I lower the price point down to $225 on that to start on price. So it basically knocks $100 off. On top of that, if you own a top-hand tripod, no matter how you’ve gotten it, if you want to trade it in for a newer model… Or something, say you like, I’m coming out with a camo version in a couple of years or whatever. Okay. Or if something changes in the design a little bit where you like that dynamic. Or maybe it just wore out. You know, they will wear out. They’re not designed to fail, but they’re designed to keep it from wearing out. So, you know, you get to a point where I’ve used this thing for five years and I’ve gotten ten seasons out of it. You know, elk seasons out of it, shooting, whatever. Yeah. I want a new one. You can trade it in for $100. Okay, cool. And I can then rebuild that one into a recon unit and sell it at a lower price point. Wow, man. Trying to cover that market. The hunters are a broad base of people, and we’re all great people. We’re all one cloth. I like to kind of shove competition to the side in the field as well. And I like to kind of throw that out there too. You see another orange dot out there, you just go shake his hand.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, man. Well, again, at the time we’re recording this, the show actually just opened here on the Sunday. We’re recording this here on the 13th of April, so I’ll let you get back to your booth, man, but we appreciate it. Glad it worked out. Glad we met three years ago, and now you’re back here, so it’s awesome.
SPEAKER 13 :
Thanks for doing what you did up there, a little legwork for the show here, and we’ll move forward and onward and upward, and Lord willing, we’ll see each other again next year.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely, bud. That’s Jim and Floral. Once again, Top Hand Tripods, folks. Hey. Hey, these are popular items now, all right? Get one that does a lot. This is the Mountain Multi-Tool Top Hand Tripods.com. You’re listening to Sports from Colorado. We’ve got to hit a quick break. We’ll be back with more right after this. Once again, those were interviews. Don’t run out to the Gaylord. Hey, the expo is over. We wrapped that up here a couple weeks ago. But just great to be out there again. Hey, we are getting a date at the end of March next year, so circle those dates just toward the end of March. We’ll get you those specific dates here pretty quick, and that’ll get us out of turkey season and a few other things starting. So appreciate all those that came out, but I hope you enjoyed those interviews from the Mile High Hunt and Fish Expo. Hey, if you’ve got something you want to hear on this show, you’ve got a topic you’d like for us to cover, we’ve got our Flesh Law text line that our co-host Kevin Flesh with his law firm sponsors for us. That text line is 720-201-8585. Again, 720-201-8585, and we’ll try to cover your topic for you. So once again, thanks for being with us today for Sportsman of Colorado. Hope you have a great rest of your weekend, and we’ll talk to you next week.
SPEAKER 11 :
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.
