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Join host Scott Watley in an engaging episode of Sportsman of Colorado as he takes you inside Bighorn Firearms. Discover the fast-paced world of firearms retail with Ryan Rex, who reveals the hustle and bustle of transfers and background checks impacting Colorado gun enthusiasts. From managing shipment influxes to handling intricate state-specific regulations, dive deep into the complexities of modern firearm transactions.
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 06 :
Welcome to Sportsman of Colorado. Thank you so much for being with us. Hey, we’re coming to you today from Bighorn Firearms. In all transparency, we were pre-recording today’s show. Holiday’s coming up and a lot of things going on. Busy times for everyone, but we want to come over and sit down with our good buddy, Ryan Rex. So, Ryan, welcome to your store.
SPEAKER 02 :
How are you? It feels good to be here. Doing good. Man, I walked in.
SPEAKER 06 :
Several folks in the store and got some traffic today.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, it’s been a pretty busy morning. We’ve had people picking up, people dropping off, people starting background checks, purchasing silencers. I mean, a little bit of everything. Lots of packages coming in through the back door. So Tuesdays is usually a pretty busy day for us. We’re closed Sunday, Monday, so things kind of stack up. Yeah. you know, over the weekend for us. And, uh, we usually come back to, uh, uh, just a big, uh, pile of work, which is good, you know, take the week off and just kind of get right into it. Um, a lot of people excited to come pick up their guns from last week, you know, through the weight and everything. It’s not, uh, you know, and then us being closed a couple of days, it makes things tricky. So if you don’t get, if you don’t get your background check submitted early week, you’re definitely waiting a week out, you know?
SPEAKER 01 :
So, uh,
SPEAKER 02 :
Um, people get pretty antsy about getting their, their new gun picked up or whatever that may be. So, um, you know, the nice thing about like the NFA stuff is the background checks complete. You’ve already waited your three days unless, uh, unless it’s like a 24 hour turnaround and then it’s a, it’s a different story, but we haven’t seen those since pre shutdown.
SPEAKER 06 :
Um, so most of just your regular backgrounds are coming back for it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, we’re, you know, same day, you know, within half hour most days. Haven’t seen the CBIQ get too… Bogged down recently. But, you know, that just does happen from time to time and there’s no real reason for it. But, you know, it’s been going pretty smoothly as far as background checks coming back same day. And then as soon as they get submitted, we did get clarification on that pretty recently at the local ATF seminar that went on. It’s probably like maybe six weeks, eight weeks back now. And CBI was out there for that seminar as well. And they did clarify and there is posted on the main page of CBI for any other gun dealers that are out there. the new requirements on when you can start counting the three-day wait, and it’s actually from the time you submit the background check, not the time it’s approved. So even if we were waiting like two days, let’s say the background checks got really backed up, and this is the local background check, the CBI background check, not an NFA background check that’s on a federal level. Now, Colorado is a point-of-contact state, so they do also – We’ve run the NICS check that’s required by ATF through the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, and they also run side-by-side a state background check. Um, so we, you know, we haven’t seen that, um, you know, getting beyond like 24 hours in a long time. Now we, we have seen some like longer wait times, you know, several hours or longer. Uh, it’s usually due to some sort of technical difficulty or something like that, but the background. Go ahead. The background check, I was like, wow, where’s that coming from? The background check wait time for the three-day wait starts when the background check is submitted, not when it’s approved. So that is definitely helpful, and it expedites things quite a bit because we were under the impression prior to that that it was from the approval. not the submissions. So, you know, and if approval was taken several hours or, you know, if it ended up going overnight, we didn’t know what time of the night he came back. So you had to start the three-day wait from that next day. Gotcha. So, That that’s been nice.
SPEAKER 06 :
So most people now understand the three day pretty good or some people that come in there are surprised.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, I’m not at the counter like full time, but it’s I’ve been spending quite a bit of time behind the counter and it’s been a while since I’ve. really worked with anybody who wasn’t aware of the three-day wait. Okay. So it seems like, I mean, what are we going on? It’s been a solid year now or two years? Yeah, pretty close. Is it two years? Man. I don’t know. It’s all been mixed together. But it’s been a good while. Yeah. So most people are for sure aware. It’s been effective for a while now. So I want to say we might have just hit the two-year mark on that. Mm-hmm. But don’t quote me on that. I’m time traveling these days.
SPEAKER 06 :
And, you know, you were mentioning packages coming in. What – Shipping firearms now, man, that’s a big process, isn’t it? I mean, there’s a lot of transfers that go on throughout the firearm industry today.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, yeah. Yeah, we do a lot of transfers. That’s actually a big topic of discussion amongst FFLs. And, you know, you may end up seeing some lawsuits here. Here pretty soon against the 6.5% excise tax and how that’s being enforced or not being enforced and how it’s causing a lot of local sales money that should be being spent here in the state. It’s forcing people to buy out of state. with dealers who are not collecting the excise tax or figuring it into the price of their guns or whatever. So, you know, there’s a lot of people upset by that. Now, you know, I think if you’re charging the appropriate amount for a transfer, you know, I think – I don’t like turning them away, but we really do appreciate when people spend their money with us. And then there’s also the case for transfers. I mean, it’s a whole other thing. If you’re buying like a unique collectible gun or something that we can possibly order for you or sell you, go and procure it through a standard channel. and sell it to you then hey you know like there’s there’s a need for transfers no matter what you know people are sending guns as gifts or handing them down um you know uh people pass away and then all of a sudden they inherit some guns and they got to get shipped in from out of state or you know there’s a lot of different reasons for transfers um but i would say the The biggest, you know, request for transfers is people buying inexpensive guns online. Yeah. You know, or buying guns online because they feel like they’re getting a better price because the online seller is not charging excise tax or not abiding by MAP policy or, you know, all these other things that… That you have to abide by. Yeah, that, you know… good quality shops that are on the up and upper are doing, you know, I think, uh, you know, the, in the online marketplace, there’s a lot more things that are maybe acceptable that, you know, um, there’s, there’s a different standard being held there than, um, in store, but I do see a lot of manufacturers now really sticking their necks out for the local gun stores because, you know, they, they know how important we are. And, uh, So they’ve adjusted their MSRPs and their map and all these other prices, and they’re doing their best to enforce it as much as they can. But there’s a lot of online sellers that aren’t getting the product direct from them. Where they’re getting it from, that’s always the topic of discussion.
SPEAKER 01 :
Right.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, people find their way around it, you know, and not that they’re doing anything illegal, but they’re just they’re hurting, you know, local gun stores who have agreements with directly with manufacturers or distributors and and they can’t sell a product below a certain price without, you know. You know, getting a slap on the wrist and maybe eventually getting your dealer status pulled. But I don’t know. That stuff might be a little bit kind of over some people’s heads here and maybe boring for them to hear us talking about.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, but it is. You know, too. If you’re selling a gun, man, so much better. And I mean, legally, you need to transfer it. So to come into a store like yours and do that in person, too. So it’s both the buyer and the seller required to be here at that time. Or could somebody come in with a gun and say, hey, a buddy is selling me this and here’s the gun and I need to fill out some paperwork. Right.
SPEAKER 02 :
So, you know, I think that’s really like one of those things that’s – Most stores who do provide that service want both parties there at the time of transfer so they can get the kind of visual of what’s going on and also get the verbal like, you know, it’s just very clear cut. You got both people standing in front of you. You can kind of see the relationship and understand what the transaction is. So that is preferred, and I will say that most stores who are conducting them will do it that way. Now, you know, is there some flexibility? I mean, as long as everything is really clear-cut and we know exactly what to expect, somebody maybe we’ve worked with in the past, you know, there is – it’s not even a gray area, you know. It’s just you’ve just got to understand what it is and be able to identify clearly that it is a legitimate firearms transfer. Mm-hmm. And if it checks all the boxes, then, yeah, I mean, it’s not a requirement that both parties be standing directly in front of you. It just needs to be recorded as a private party transfer. Right. As far as like from a legal regulatory standpoint.
SPEAKER 06 :
Ryan Rush is with us. Bighorn Firearms, 2175 South Jasmine Street. And, hey, good time for sales right now. Black Friday is around the corner. Tell us what you got going on.
SPEAKER 02 :
so, you know, it’s the cool thing now to like kick off your black Friday and just pretty much like do it all November, you know, which I don’t know. I’m kind of like thinking maybe next year we do it differently and then just go back to a classic black Friday, man, and make everybody kind of salivate on those. Yeah. Um, but this year we stuck to the, uh, kind of the norm here and, uh, We did release some early deals. And you’ll see some extra stuff here coming next week. So if you’re not following us on social media, Instagram or Facebook or signed up for our email newsletter, I highly recommend getting on that list so you kind of know what’s going on. And then we also do other promos throughout the year too that you’ll want to know about. We don’t really spam there. We let people know when there’s great stuff going on. Currently, we have some select AR-15 rifles, which, hey, if you’re thinking about buying one, don’t wait until 2026 when there’s a line possibly out the door here. I think now’s a great time. There’s good deals on them, good availability on product. But come August of 2026, you’re going to need a special permit to purchase these rifles. So now’s a good time to jump on it. We got 20% off select rifles and we’ve got some really big name brands, you know, that we have these deals applied to. So, you know, without… violating map and stuff, I get kind of cautious about dropping names, but we’ve got some really great premium inventory and we’re talking 20% off AR-15s, select brands, and then all other firearms. Silencers excluded from this deal, we’re doing a 6.5% discount for all firearms, serialized items, other than silencers, through the month of November. Okay. Basically, we’re eating the excise tax. Right. So we’re calling it the no excise November. So any gun in the cabinet here, if we do a special order in-store, now this is an in-store discount. Okay. You know, we do have, I believe the code is black. BLKFRI25 is 10% off online orders. Okay. And that’s active through the end of November. BLKFRI25. Okay. Type in that code at checkout, and that should get you 10% off your online order. That is good only for online checkout. All of these other deals are going to be in-store only. So pick your poison. We’re not stacking discounts, but we will always make sure that you get the best possible discount on every item that you have in your cart in-store. Also, 6.5% off of ammo all month long. We are also doing an additional 5% discount off of the bulk or case quantity ammo, which is already pretty heavily discounted. So a really good deal on that. 20% off of EOTech and then 10% off some other select products. optics uh in store only so come in and do some shopping around and we’ll work you up a good deal at checkout 20 off uh save your products those are going to be rifle cases pistol cases range bags um really great stuff one of our favorite brands to uh sell here in the store they’re good quality very good quality for the money they they’re pretty much untouchable now uh as far as like putting out like high quality cases at, at a value price. Um, and then, uh, 10% off other, uh, accessories, excluding, you know, some of the higher end gun parts and stuff like that. But like, you know, your range supplies and things like that, um, odds and ends 10% off.
SPEAKER 06 :
So, um, and let’s see here. Um, and that’s going to be going through November 29th. Yep. Okay. Yep. All right.
SPEAKER 02 :
And then, uh, next week we’ll have a couple of, uh, New things we’ll kind of be adding on. So, again, follow us online on social media or sign up for that newsletter. And they get that by going on your website? Yep. BigHornFirearms.com. Just sign up for the newsletter there. And you’ll see those emails coming through when they roll out. And then you can always just call us and say, hey, what do you guys got going this week? We’ll be back here Tuesday ready to rock and roll with some new promos for Thanksgiving week, including Black Friday itself.
SPEAKER 06 :
Now, you were talking about a new line you just picked up.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. So we just got on with this company out of Idaho. They’ve been getting some really good – Traction and press in the, you know, the gun community. Genesis Arms, they make some really cool tactical shotguns. you know some people would notice notice they were featured in some like john wick movies and stuff like that okay um i mean movie movie stuff really drives sales on certain and interest in certain things just like video games do or um i mean i guess like really movie movies and games really influence people a lot unlike what they’re purchasing um when it comes to guns it’s I don’t want to say it’s silly. I think it’s cool, and it’s what makes it fun, right? Sure. So it’s how you build an interesting, eclectic collection of things that you can show off to your friends, and that’s just part of the culture. Yeah, absolutely. Genesis Arms, the Gen 12 shotguns. It’s a magazine-fed shotgun built on an AR-10 platform, so like a large-frame AR-15 platform. And they’ve got some really short ones. So they do offer quite a bit in the NFA category. So short-barreled shotgun, collapsing stock with a 12-gauge silencer, which is pretty wild. I don’t know what the overall length is of their PDS, but I know it’s a 7-inch PDS. With the silencer, which has got to be 8 inches. And the buttstock pretty much fully collapses into the gun. I mean, it’s essentially the size of a backpack or something. A 12-gauge shotgun with a silencer. Really cool piece. I mean, you’re talking… $5,000 worth of gear there. Um, we will have one of those in store here though, for people to come in and check it out. Yeah. Yeah. This is a, this is a kind of a cool, uh, really unique high end type of thing. They also offer a couple other, uh, models in the $2,000 price range, which is still, uh, you know, pretty spendy when it comes to a shotgun, but you know, it’s not your average shotgun. Um, it’s something unique that’ll definitely turn some heads at the range. And, uh, We all know how important that is. But they’ve got some different configurations that are basically 4473 ready. So no additional paperwork, no tax stamp required. And then, you know, down the road, if you want to convert it to an NFA item, you could, you know, do so through a Form 1 with the ATF and eventually convert it into a short-barreled shotgun. Oh, okay. But you don’t have to pay the tax stamp, which, by the way, is going to be zero bucks in January. And you can get it on a 4473, you know, same day, pick it up in three days. Okay. And those are considerably cheaper than their PDS collapsible version. And then there’s a couple other configurations, you know, full length shotgun. Again, they’re mag fed. So it’s very similar to like, you know, any other tactical mag fed gun just on a large frame. Right. And they also do offer compliant magazines for Colorado, so it’ll be real easy. You don’t have to, like, overthink it. Magazines will come compliant for Colorado State regulations, which on a MAGFED shotgun is eight rounds is the max. Okay.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right. Hey, a lot going on. And, hey, now’s the time to save and save big at Bighorn Firearms. All right. Up to 20% off on select rifles, 20% off on some optics as well.
SPEAKER 02 :
20% off EOTech. EOTech. Okay. All right. That’s Scopes, Red Dots, any EOTech products. Most people are familiar with the name EOTech. They’re one of the premium, top-of-the-line, duty-grade optics manufacturers.
SPEAKER 06 :
And then you can save the excise tax of 6.5% on some ammo and some other guns.
SPEAKER 02 :
Ammo and guns across the board, unless the guns are qualifying for a 20% discount. We have a real specific list. If you’d like that, call the shop, and we’d be happy to talk about that with you on the phone. Okay. And we do have a list here in the store, too, but it’s premium stuff, great deals. I mean, huge savings on these guns. You’re paying close to dealer costs.
SPEAKER 06 :
And that’s in-store only. We want to make that clear. But you can use the promo code online, BLKFRI, for Black Friday 25. So BLKFRI25, and that’s 10% off of online purchases.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. And if you have any issues with the code at checkout or something, call us. We will honor the code over the phone. Okay. The phone number here. 303-758-9423.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right, 303-758-9423. And, hey, when you come in, be sure and let them know you heard them here on KLC 560 in Sportsman of Colorado, and we would appreciate that as well. Anything we forgot? Oh, no, I don’t think so, man.
SPEAKER 02 :
I think we covered a lot here, and we’ll get together here in a couple weeks, I think, and do another one so we can kind of talk about what 2026 is going to look like in the industry and in the gun community. Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
And if you haven’t made it over here, I’m telling you, beautiful store, great staff, great selection, and they cover everything, okay? They’ve got some cowboy-looking things with the Winchesters and lever action. They’ve got your black guns. They’ve got shotguns. Hey, waterfowls are going on or upland bird hunting. Got some great shotgun selection as well.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, we did pick up a couple of really nice collections recently. And you’re going to see all that stuff kind of circulating in and out of the showroom. You’ll see new items weekly as we kind of just like pick and choose new things to put on the floor. You’ll also, as we do that, we’ll be uploading all these guns to gunbroker.com. So you can go to bighornfirearms.com, click on the Gun Broker link, and you can look at this catalog of new guns that we picked up. A lot of really cool classic Ruger guns. Single-action revolvers, Blackhawks, and things of the like. A lot of bolt-action hunting rifles. Some really nice stuff, nice scopes on them. Everything’s complete and, like, already purpose-built. Wow. The guy had a really good taste in the guns that he purchased, so… You know, that would be a good place right now too. And you can always come in and request to see those guns in the store. So if you see something on Gun Broker and you want to get it in front of you in the store, just come on in. Let us know you saw this particular gun on Gun Broker. We’ll get you with one of the Gun Broker team members and they’ll come out, bring the gun out. look at it with you, answer any questions you may have about it, and then discuss whether or not it’s something you want to bid on or make an offer or something of the like. So definitely keep an eye out there if you’re into cool old guns.
SPEAKER 06 :
Cool. Ryan, appreciate you having us out. Yeah, thanks, Scott. All right, man. Good to see you, man. This is Sports from Colorado. We’ll take a quick break, and we’ll be back with more right after this.
SPEAKER 08 :
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 06 :
Most of us know that our pets age much faster than we do, but we often don’t think about what faster aging means for their health. While a seven-year-old child is just starting out in life, a seven-year-old pet is already a senior with needs that have begun to change. Hey, this is Scott Whatley for my friends at Lone Tree Veterinary Medical Center. Their staff understands how the changing needs of our aging pets can often go unnoticed and that’s why they recommend wellness exams every six months. Catching problems early on before they become chronic or difficult to treat is just good medicine. Every November senior pets are celebrated at Lone Tree Veterinary Medical Center and this year they’re doing Senior Wednesdays. All pets seven years and older will receive ten dollars off their wellness exam every Wednesday during November. So if your senior is due for a wellness checkup, there’s no need to wait. You can beat the rush by scheduling your senior’s November checkup today. Call 303-708-8050. That’s 303-708-8050. Lone Tree Veterinary Medical Center. It’s the place where my pets go. Save now at the Outdoorsman’s Attic. It’s your go-to consignment store for outdoor gear. Hunting, fishing, camping, they’ve got it all at unbelievable prices. Right now, save up to 30% on sleeping bags and tents, up to 40% off on footwear, and up to 50% off on clothing. Located at 2650 West Hampton in Sheridan, they’ll even turn your old gear into cash. And don’t forget, for expert firearm cleaning and repair, see Scott the Gunsmith and mention Sportsman of Colorado. It’s the Outdoorsman’s Attic. Gear up and save.
SPEAKER 05 :
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. Really? What’s that?
SPEAKER 04 :
Our favorite car dealer, Len Lyle Chevrolet.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, definitely not your typical dealership. That’s so true, Jack. No high-pressure sales tactics. They respect your time. And when you have two jobs, that’s important. You know, I’d recommend Len Lyle Chevrolet to anyone. And with their low overhead, that means… Lower prices.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, we really do have something in common.
SPEAKER 05 :
Len Lyle Chevrolet, go east and pay the least. Chevy, find new roads. You’re listening to KLZ 560 AM, your home station.
SPEAKER 06 :
Welcome back to Sportsman of Colorado. If you’re just joining us, we are glad you are with us. Kevin Flesch in studio with us. Our co-host when his schedule and time allows. In studio. In studio. What’s happening?
SPEAKER 08 :
Just having a wonderful fall. So many things to do this time of year. There he is. We went out a little this morning.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, yeah. I had a little pheasant hunt with our friends at Rocky Mountain Roosters. Exactly. It was a beautiful morning. Oh, my gosh.
SPEAKER 08 :
It was almost too quiet. Yeah. Not enough wind. I mean, it was okay. It was crazy. Yeah. Sadie did a nice job. She’s in her mid-season form, so that’s good.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
Eight-year-old dog, though, you know, as all of you out there that have young dogs, someday you’ll have an eight-year-old dog and you’ll say, I need to start thinking about succession planning and getting to my dog situation.
SPEAKER 06 :
You know, it goes so quick. Oh, my gosh. Time goes quick. But, I mean, when you’ve got a dog like that. It’s crazy. And then, you know, that brings up a good point. We’ve never really talked about this, the training that goes into a dog when you’re going to get a dog.
SPEAKER 08 :
a good hunting dog yeah really your responsibility to hunt that dog that’s it that dog’s bred to do that it really is and you know so the story with my dog is that we used to hunt at a place in town that the guide there had a really good english setter and i always said to him well when she has puppies i want one of her puppies and that happened eight years ago yeah 2017. So Sadie’s been in my life ever since then. And I had not had a dog like Sadie. English Setter is a pointing dog. And at least early on in their lives, all you’re trying to do is just harness all of that horsepower that they have and their energy and try to harness all of the things that they have in their DNA and just control them a little bit. Um, and then as they get you, yeah, you just got to get them on birds and then they have all of these interactions with birds and then they get, if they have the right DNA and she does and her mother did, that’s why we enjoyed hunting with John and sugar and, and, uh, and then you get to start see them progress. And that’s, what’s incredible. And I know everybody out there that has hunting dogs and hunts behind them knows what I’m talking about. And you have to enjoy every one of them because you don’t know. I’ve got a friend of mine that had two dogs that died within the last year. They were sort of four years apart in age, but they had issues and now he’s without a dog. And that’s, once you have a good one, it’s hard to think about this time of year and being able to hunt with them and not have one. And so it’s definitely one of those things that you don’t take for granted because just like this morning, she did great. I mean, she was awesome and We put out a bunch of birds, and we found a bunch of birds, and we shot a bunch of birds. And so it’s so much easier.
SPEAKER 06 :
What was it like when John trained her at first, John Osteen?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, so John didn’t actually. Oh, okay. So I got Sadie when she was 8 or 10 weeks old. and promptly drove her 1,000 miles to a lake house in Wisconsin for a week because we didn’t have anybody to take care of her as a puppy. So that was super interesting. Had no trouble driving that far. And she’s done that trip now in her lifetime. I bet she’s done it 30 times. Oh, my God. You know, when you think about it back and forth, probably more than that, probably about that. But at any rate, so I then had her until she was about four months old. And then there was a guide at Rocky Mount Roosters that would train pointing dogs. And he took her for, I think, about three months, two and a half, three months. And he got her trained on the collar and got all of the other training sort of to get her ready for, to hunt and then and then gave her back to me so during that three months he’s the only one that has interaction with her in training for the most part i went down and saw her every couple of weeks but she was training he was training with with him and um learning the things that she needed to learn and what are some tips you would give knowing what you know now to someone after they get them training i mean what’s a few things you gotta be patient with them You do. And that’s one of the biggest things, is you have to let that dog make mistakes. And you don’t want to shoot birds that they haven’t properly pointed for you. You want to get them in shape so that they understand that they need to… They can’t bump birds. If they bump birds, you can’t shoot that bird that they bump. And, you know, that bird flushes. And… But you need to get them on enough birds and have them make, they make so many mistakes when they’re young, especially if they have a real prey drive. So if a bird is running away from them, and Sadie had a little bit of this, if a bird would take off and run from her, she would take off after it and then flush it. And then I would have to tone her, get her back, have her think about it. And these dogs really do think about what took place and they learn from all of those things. And I still think the preserved birds are a good way to get them started, get them learning how these birds react. Because then when they start on wild birds, in particular pheasants, and then, you know, we’ve done a lot. She’s done a number of weeks of grouse hunts now, and that’s a completely different bird. They run a lot. They will move, and the dog has to figure out how much they can push that bird and how close they can get. And rough grouse in particular, if they’ve been pressured, you know, you can’t get within 20, 30 yards of them before they’re going to flush. And so a dog figures that out and kind of figures out how to deal with that and scenting their nose. Their nose will get longer, and it’s really amazing. I mean, we saw it this morning, you know, complete DNA, not anything that you teach a dog, but she will now, when she has a bird that she’s initially pointed and that bird moves away from her, she will slink away completely the opposite direction of where that bird is and then do a full circle to try to pin that bird herself so that she stops that bird so that you can come up and try to. try to flush that bird with her. And I’ve seen in the grouse woods with her, we’ll trail a bird, and you’ve got to be paying attention to the dog as to how and sort of what they’re doing and watching their eyes, because she’ll point with her nose where she thinks that bird is. And then you’ve got to figure out how do I help this dog so that we can pin this bird to a point where the bird will flush. And we did a little bit of that this morning. And we also had one bird that we let her – figured out because she did it that bird had moved and she thought it had moved sort of one way and then she had to come back and kind of figure it out and and it’s so cool to watch a dog oh my gosh it’s just unbelievable it’s a it’s a whole nother and it’s got to be something when it’s your dog yeah yeah it’s even better personal but even for me i mean it’s just so cool there it’s amazing It’s amazing how they figure that stuff out. And that’s just the dog being on birds. It’s just them having enough contacts, you know, and we would go out to Kansas, for example, and different birds I think are good for the dogs too, because they learn how does a chucker react? How does a quail react? How does a Woodcock react to me being involved with them in the sense of the bird being on, on their scent and, and, and what their scent cone is like and how far that dog can smell. That’s the other thing that these dogs can smell birds from so far away, especially like this morning, we didn’t have much wind, but there were times where she was winding a bird, I think at 20 or 30 yards with no wind and very little moisture. Um, so to answer your question directly, I think for, for a person who’s new at it, Maybe they haven’t had a dog before. I think the biggest thing is with the collar is not over using the collar. Let that dog kind of figure things out. And then I think early on, I often thought that if I hit her with a little electricity, she would immediately come back to me. What I found is she got so sort of put off by the shock that she would just sit and she wouldn’t move at that point. Cause she didn’t know if she moved, if she’d get shocked again. And I had a hunt with the hunting divas early on when Sadie was young and we were in a big group. There were probably 12 of us with four or five other dogs in this cornfield. And I didn’t know exactly where she was. I saw her on my GPS and I saw, I thought where she was and so I would tone her and she wouldn’t come back because I think she was, she just lost me. I don’t think she knew where I was. And so then she ended up, basically just sitting in the cornfield and we walked through the whole cornfield. And then I was like, where did she go? And I had to, I actually had literally had to go back about a quarter of a mile to where she was just sitting there because I had hit her with the electricity once. And she was like, okay, I’m not moving. And so I had to go back and get her. And, and that had happened. That had happened another time up in the mountains when we were blue grouse hunting once, same sort of thing. So you have to really figure out the temperament of the dog and how, because some dogs will just run through anything, you know, especially if they have a really big prey drive and they don’t really care about the electricity. They, especially male dogs, it seems like that are just, they don’t care. But she’s really a pretty delicate flower. And so I think that’s one of the things, if I look back on it, I think I would have liked to have been a little bit more judicious in the way that I handled the collar. But at the same time, you know, as a person that hasn’t really owned a dog like that before, like, She was a big running dog and always has been. And out west, when we have open spaces, it’s good. But when you get in a deep woods like we have in Wisconsin, if you have a dog that’s a couple hundred yards from you that’s a big deal I mean you you can lose a dog pretty easily and early on we had a couple of times where she I just I could see her I knew where she was in the sense of she’s 400 yards out that way you know left or right but you don’t know how she’s going to come back to you and so that’s that’s where you think tone or some other things that you’re using the the the collar for but you have to remember what they’re thinking when they get that reaction And over time, she’s gotten better. Okay, tone, I got to look for… And she’s gotten better about, especially when we get deeper cover, she’ll shorten up now. And she’s always looking for me because she doesn’t like being lost either. And that’s been super interesting is that she has had other times where she’s…
SPEAKER 06 :
had situations where she was literally she didn’t know where i was and so when she gets back you can tell okay i’m glad i found you she’s a little bit more careful about that now yeah great dog for sure all right hey a few things coming up we’ve got the mile high hunting fish expo and uh we’ve been mentioning this now for probably a month and a half but if it’s your first time to hear about it this is a new expo we started a couple years ago uh phil mendoza avarian friends of ours And we’ve been working with them very closely on this. We had this out at the Gaylord the first two years. And we had to have that in April just with the way scheduling worked when we could get the room. But now the new event center at the National Western, they have built a new convention center type building there that’s brand new. And it’s going to be there. And it will be March 20th through the 22nd. And as we get closer, we’re going to be talking a lot about this. Getting into that time frame, Kevin, I think is going to help getting out of April. Absolutely. Getting rid of – nobody’s worried about turkey season. All the different things. So, man, super excited about it. We were scheduled, and I put this on Facebook, Melanie Merlin with the Wild Alaskan Lodge was scheduled to be with us. She was actually traveling out of the country but thought she’d be able to call in. So we’re still waiting to see if she can do that. But we do want to revisit this. She’s going to be here for the Wild Alaskan Lodge at our expo.
SPEAKER 08 :
and this was a very different deal um most of the deals you know yeah you’ve been on through your life oh yeah i’ve been guided things we’ve done together all this i did all the stuff in alaska that we’ve done previously was self-guided yes so yes you make your own mistakes yeah yeah no it’s a it’s a really so for the person that um you have uh A fair bit of experience driving a boat, a fair bit of experience using the electronics. You know, they have Garmin units on their boat. You understand sort of how those things work and how to read them. And you’re comfortable in maybe, you know, pushing your limits a little bit because you’re out in the open ocean for part of this. They’re in this arm, a 10-mile arm, which is… it’s enclosed to some degree, but it’s still a big body of water. Um, super nice boats, super comfortable, super safe. Um, but you know, it’s what, 45 degree water, 48 degree water. It’s, and it’s, it’s, uh, there’s, there are obviously things that can go wrong, but there’s also a lot of things that can go right. And the things that can go right is, um, getting some help from, from folks that are there and the, and the people that run, the lodge of giving you some ideas of where to go and what to look for and how to fish the waters, and then going out and figuring it out yourself. So if you’re into that sort of thing and want to set your own schedule, you want to go where you want to go, and you want to do the sort of fishing that you want to do, this is the place to go.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s what I tell people. It’s… It’s the only way really to see Alaska your way and fish the way you want to fish. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we’ve all been deals where, hey, we’re going halibut fishing. If you’ve got four or five people on a boat. Right. You know, you catch yours, I catch mine. Then we’re waiting on three other people to catch fish. Whatever. And it’s two hours maybe or whatever. Right. Yes. You are completely free to fish as much. And we chose to fish from open to close. Right, right. I mean, the hours they allowed us to fish. When we had to be back at the lodge. Exactly.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, and it was great. I mean, they give you good lunches to take out, and you have plenty of food, plenty of drinks. Meals at night are good. So that’s not an issue. So your basic comforts are taken care of. The boats are great in the sense of they’re covered, and they have all of the things they need. They provide you all the equipment. You can break some of the equipment, as we found out. Or I found out doing stupid stuff. Yeah. I mean, a good example of what you’re talking about relating to the fishing is we decided early on that, you know, most folks were trolling for salmon and that just wasn’t, we were having some trouble with the down riggers and we were just, it wasn’t very fun. So then we tried something different in the sense of going out and using our electronics and almost like what people are doing now with forward facing sonar, we would go out and you’d start. kind of moving around at maybe five, six miles an hour until you saw a big glob of fish underneath you stop, back up a little bit, and then drop down with some basically lead jigs. And we would say how far the ball of fish were and We were catching fish every drop when we would do that.
SPEAKER 06 :
And you might say, hey, drop down on the right side at 40 feet, 120 feet on the left side. I mean, it could be whatever. And, man, it was two seconds. Every time. Sometimes just dropping it, they were hitting it. Right. And it was extremely fun.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right. And, you know, so when we caught a ton of lingcod, which weren’t in season, still super fun to catch. So then you try to figure out, right, where the lingcod aren’t and what, you know, these other, we were looking for salmon a couple of days and trying to figure out where those salmon were sitting in the water column because you figured out, we figured out pretty early on, like the bottom fish were most likely lingcod and, You move up in the middle of the water column. Those were probably salmon. And, you know, you get a king salmon on one of those light rods, and that’s… That was a hoot. Yeah. And that was super fun. And any of the other salmon as well. Um, and so if you’re into that, you can do that all day long. If you don’t want to catch halibut, if you don’t want to, you know, bang the bottom and, and figure out, you know, in the sand and, and all of the anchoring and everything else, if you just want to wander around, um, there’s always things to see. I mean, how many whales did we see? And, and, you know, the otters and, and eagles. And we saw some bears cause we went to look for bears and, um, So many things to do. And so that’s… It’s one of those experiences that if you’ve been to Alaska and you’re like, oh, I don’t know if I want to go back to this place or that place and you want to try something different, you still want to bring back a bunch of fish and you want to do it your own way. It’s one of the few games in town. I mean, there just aren’t that many. And there aren’t a lot of people out there fishing with you. I mean, there’s some other folks that are. guide boats that you’ll see from time to time and then we saw a bunch of commercial fishermen because they were fishing for salmon and you if they’re there you know the salmon are there because they don’t do that for fun they’re trying to make a living and uh And I just think the fact that we were there for a week, now I’ve sort of got it figured out how I would do it the next time so that we can be even more efficient. And we haven’t even talked about the rockfish. I mean, we could have spent… Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
And the one day we got into halibut so strong. I know.
SPEAKER 08 :
We just kept… That was the other thing. Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
So another… And limits, let me mention this for a second. Yeah. Limits change. When you’re self-guided, you can catch two halibut a day instead of one that has to fit in a certain size slot.
SPEAKER 08 :
Exactly. And that’s a big deal. If you’re after, like my wife loves the halibut. Actually, she’s liked the rockfish too. She’s not much into the salmon. Um, but if you can get two halibut versus one, you’ve just doubled up in your, in the amount that you’re taking home, which is huge. Especially when you consider the week that we were there, one guy caught what? 140 pounder or something like that. Most of them are smaller and they actually eat better. This is what they say. Um, But yeah, the one day when we finally really got it figured out, I mean, we’ve, we caught enough halibut that we were all sore enough that we’re like, okay, we had, we had limited, we had one less than our limit. Right. That’s what, and then we just kept, kept catching them until we were all like tired of catching halibut. And for those of you that don’t have never done the halibut fishing in this particular spot. When we were there, we were catching them in basically 220 to 260 feet of water, I think. And we were looking for sand flats. We had caught more yellow eyes where it was rockier, but if you can find a sand flat at that sort of depth when we were there, the halibut seemed to be in those areas. And then you would just, you’d have a chum bag that you would send down with the anchor, and then you’d have to sit there a while, and then the fish would eventually show up. And yeah, one day, we went back to the same spot two days in a row because we kept catching fish there. Sure. And once you figure that out, then it can be fast and furious for a while until you’re just tired.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yep. It’s the wildalaskanlodge.com, so check it out. And again, Melanie will be here for our Mile High Hunt and Fish Expo, March 20th through the 22nd. We’ll be giving you a promo code for tickets in the coming weeks as we get closer, save you a few bucks on the ticket, but it’s going to be an awesome, it’s going to be fantastic.
SPEAKER 08 :
bigger and better so uh it will be cool now let me mention lodging is a little different yeah from most places yeah so i i think you know it depends on who you’re with right so in our case we had three guys and my wife which um she was quite the trooper and so the rooms are they the rooms can hold four people in the room i think yeah four or more even though four Three, if you’re not sleeping with your partner, right? Because there was a queen bed and two twins. So in most instances, you know, you put a couple of guys or gals in the same room together and it’s good. This, it worked out for us. And so we not only got to spend all of our time in the boat together during the week, during the day, but we also got to sleep together at night. and um she was very good about it and uh she was and um and she had a great time um but you know there are things to consider when uh when you go so in the event that you have maybe someone who doesn’t necessarily want to stay with the opposite sex for the whole week um then you’ll have to talk with melanie and her husband i’m sure they can figure something out and i’m sure there’ll be a
SPEAKER 06 :
an accommodation there but for us it worked out and the accommodations are very nice oh yeah and it’s great you know and dude you’re a dead dog tired right i mean that’s exactly right you’re exhausted yeah at the end of the day you’re just july 4th right and they were going to be doing fireworks at like midnight yeah right and i was like dude i’ve seen fireworks my whole life i’m going to bed exactly yeah we did not make it to we didn’t make it past nine o’clock most nights so basically the way it works the group that you go with so if you’ve got four in your group you’re going to be together
SPEAKER 08 :
And one of the things I would say is I think it works best for four in a boat. Exactly. Four is probably the optimal number. Three, because David left midweek. We had three of us in the boat. That’s fine, too. But I wouldn’t go more than four because then the size of the boat and the way that most of the time you’re fishing, more than four would be hard in the back. You’d have to put somebody up front probably to fish off the front if you had more than four.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
And that’s why I’m sure they’ve set it up the way they have because it just works that you’re all together then. But I would say it is key that someone is experienced. You’ve got to have somebody that’s comfortable with driving the boat. Yeah. We had one day where it was super bumpy. I mean, there were three-foot swells, I would say, when we came out of the— out of the main Bay. And we, we had a discussion about, do we want to fish in this all day? Yeah. And we decided that we didn’t want to. So we went back in and we found fish inside. Um, we didn’t, we didn’t find halibut, but I think if we had a little bit more knowledge, um, it was early on in our trip. I think we could have found some halibut inside probably, but we found a ton of rockfish.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right.
SPEAKER 08 :
And lingcod and still had a really good day. I mean, it was beautiful just to hang out in the Bay. I mean, these arms are incredible. Yeah. I mean, it’s, If anybody’s been, um, you know, they’re like fjords basically is where we were at. I mean, that’s crazy. Then the depths that we’re talking about in these, in these arms is, you know, three, four, 500 feet in the middle of the, of these arms and they’re. You know, what, maybe a half a mile wide at points?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
Maybe about that. Just beautiful. And you never know what you’re going to see that will be by the water. Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER 06 :
A couple of cool things coming up. We’re going to be doing our first helicopter hog hunt.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right. We had this at the Mile High Hunting Fish Expo. Yeah. As my wife would say, I won it. Yeah, you won it. Kevin won it. Yes, yes, I won it. Unbelievable. Live auction. Yes. Kevin decided to get that, so we’re going to be doing that. And then we’re going to be hunting over the next couple. It was for a good cause. It was a good cause. Yeah, I’m a giver. Yes, you are. And our good buddy, Quentin Smith. You’ve heard Quentin on the show for years. And Quentin has his hog place down there called Dos Plumas out of Trent, Texas, near Abilene. And we already kind of planned that. And then this other deal came up as a surprise when Kevin got it. So we’re going to do a two-day hog hunt with Quentin and looking forward to that. And if you’ve never done hog hunting, again, we’ve got a couple of good places. We’ve got Quentin here. We’ve got Lone Star Hunts out of Wichita Falls, Texas. But if you’ve ever really wanted to have some fun, I’m telling you, a hog hunt is this. And you did your first one.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, last year. I mean, we’ve had them, Alan, we’ve had as a sponsor forever. And I’ve just never been able to get it in my schedule and went last year. You were nice enough to drive to his place. I flew into Oklahoma City, which was a very nice airport to fly into. And then was it a couple days? Couple-day hunt that we had?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I think it was. Yeah, two-day.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. Super fun. Yeah. I mean, really. You know, I think we talked about this. I did a moose hunt last year, and then I did this hog hunt, and I hadn’t really big a game hunt for decades. And that AR that you have, that was a fun little gun to hunt.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. Well, and I tell you, it normally takes people a few times to get used to hogs. They are in finding things in a scope because they’re, they’re fast and you did. Super fun. I’m not going to lie.
SPEAKER 08 :
That was, that was, yeah, that, uh, lots of targets available. That’s it’s a lot. It was fun. It was, it was very cool. And, and, uh, the way that they do it there and you know, you and I got out and walked around some, which was, I think a little bit unusual. I know that they would normally drive around with Red. When we were with Red, we had to drive around.
SPEAKER 06 :
Our buddy doesn’t like to walk.
SPEAKER 08 :
He shot several really close to the side-by-side.
SPEAKER 06 :
He did for sure. Well, remember, it’s the Mile High Hunting Fish Expo, March 20th through the 22nd. And again, this is a first class expo. So many great, you know, just great reviews from it from the last couple of years. And it was a. A big bite to take off for Phil and Abe, but they just said, hey, Colorado needs something just a little bit different, and they brought it. And it is going to be very good again in 2026, March 20th through the 22nd. Now, for you, maybe this is the first time you’ve even heard the show. Maybe you just found us. I’ll start to say on the dial. That’s kind of old school. But you know what? Kevin is an attorney here in town. Kevin does a show with us called Legal Talk on Thursdays from noon to 1230. Kevin, besides being in the outdoors, he also helps people that might make mistakes in the outdoors. So, hey, if you get into some kind of issue with CPW, Kevin is who you want to call. 303-806-8886 is the number. Again, 303-806-8886. And I always say on our show, Legal Talk, put that number in your phone. You never know when you’re going to need it. We hope you don’t, but if you do, it’ll be right there at your fingertips. But a lot to know. Hey, if you get into trouble, you know, you shoot the wrong species, you get the wrong limit of ducks or something, whatever.
SPEAKER 08 :
You shoot an animal in an area where you thought you were legal and you’re not. I mean, there’s… Lots of things that can happen. And if you have questions, before talking to CPW about it, give me a call for sure. Because, I mean, you know, most CPW officers are decent human beings, but they’ve got a job to do too if they think that there’s been a violation of the law somehow. So just make sure you know what your rights are before talking with them. Give me a call. We can certainly talk about it. Same thing in the field. I mean, if you want to make sure in the field, if you get into a situation with one of those officers, there’s still law enforcement, so you’ve got to consider your constitutional rights. So say as little as possible, and we can figure it out later.
SPEAKER 06 :
For sure. Kevin, good to see you. Good to see you. Thanks for a fun morning. I know. It was a very good time. Hey, thanks for being with us today. By the way, happy Thanksgiving from Sportsman of Colorado Radio, from Kevin and I, and we are very grateful for many, many things and grateful for our show, grateful for our listeners, and we cannot wait to get back next Saturday right here for more of Sportsman of Colorado. Once again, it is Flesh Law, 303-806-8886.
SPEAKER 03 :
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.
