In today’s episode of Sportsman of Colorado, host Scott Watley talks with exclusive audiologist Dr. Melissa Fling about the critical importance of hearing protection in shooting sports. Learn about the Occupational Safety Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines on sound exposure and how some sounds can cause irreversible damage in milliseconds. From the best hearing protection options to tips on maintaining your hearing health, this episode offers valuable insights for outdoors enthusiasts. Don’t miss our discussion on the importance of getting your hearing checked regularly.
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 07 :
Welcome to Sportsman of Colorado. Thank you so much for joining us today. Hey, we’re going to kick things off with our exclusive audiologist, Dr. Melissa Fling, Custom Ear Solutions. We have a segment we do during the week on our Haystack Help Radio on Wednesdays at 1230 called Listen Up. And we’re going to bring you a version of that today here on Sportsman of Colorado with Dr. Fling. How are you?
SPEAKER 12 :
I’m doing great. Always happy to be here. Hey, it is. Have the best time with you.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I tell you, I enjoy you being in and it has been a game changer for me this year, you know, a year, year and a half or so where we’ve been doing the show together and all and getting some, my hearing protected with different things you’ve hooked me up with. And I mean, it’s been great. I use them 24 seven here in the, radio studio with the the ones you made me and then some different things for hunting and sleeping and so yeah you’re hooked up pretty picked up yeah great you know this has been kind of an enlightening world to you to the shooting thing hadn’t it oh yeah since we connected definitely yeah i’ve learned a lot more crowd yeah and i still you know still have so much more to learn i’m still a newbie in that in that world so yeah And one thing that you have stressed, you know, on both shows and whether you’re just talking about an extremely loud noise that may happen in an industrial area or a gunshot, it may not take many to do some irreparable damage, really. I’m not trying to be overdramatic, but I mean, that’s true.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, it is. Well, and you know, there’s actually, you sent me a, I meant to tell you, I watched that you sent me an Instagram video of that guy, uh, testing out the decibel levels with, you know, suppressed, unsuppressed and different, different rifles. What was it? Yeah. Um, and it was like 172 decibels on the first one. And then I think he suppressed it, went down to maybe one 30. Right. I’d have to check on that. That’s a 40 dB difference.
SPEAKER 07 :
And that’s really what I was wanting to get your opinion on from a technical term because most of us that shoot, we’re not paying attention to that. Right, right. Okay, that was quieter.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, thumbs up.
SPEAKER 13 :
That was quieter. Right, and quieter is better. Also, I’d be curious to know what kind of microphones they were using to measure that because there’s a lot of technicality that goes into the right types of microphones to measure something that loud. Sure, yeah. But yeah. So what I was going to say is we’ve talked about OSHA before, you know, the Occupational Safety Health Association, I think is what the A stands for. They’re kind of the the. governmental organization that sets standards for a lot of things but for hearing protection also and loud sound exposure they say that at about 140 db that’s where you’re at risk for instant damage because it’s so loud it can cause instant damage doesn’t matter how long it lasts it can cause damage in milliseconds which is you know how long a shot is milliseconds so Yeah, if you’re all the way up to 170, it’s pretty much guaranteed that it’s going to cause instant damage. Now, whether it’s permanent or not is harder to say because the inner ear can, it does have some metabolic processes that go on with healing itself over like a 72-hour period after a damaging exposure. But I would just say in general, the louder something is, the more likely it is to cause permanent damage versus temporary. And it might depend on the person, too, who it happens to. Genetically, they’re a little more vulnerable to damage. But 140 dB is where OSHA says, hey, if it’s this loud, it’s likely to do instant damage. So it’s wise to wear hearing protection first. If you’re getting an exposure at that level or above. Right.
SPEAKER 07 :
And just because you see something, and I’m going to make my gun guys mad at me here, but just because you see something about suppressor and say, oh, you know, you don’t need hearing protection with this suppressor, I would highly recommend. You wear hearing protection. Yes. I mean, just want to take a chance.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, and it’s not to – it’s just to kind of look at the data and say, well, actually, it’s probably not hearing safe, even if you do have a suppressor. Because let’s say it does take it – a suppressor does take it down from 170 – to one 30. Well, even at one 30 and exposure at that level can still cause damage in seconds. It might not be milliseconds, but it still can cause damage. So you’re still at risk there. I mean, you’re, you’re really at risk with anything above 85 DB, you know? So if it’s above that, it’s probably wiser to just wear hearing protection.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
Have you found in cases where with shooting, are both ears going to be damaged equally? Or are you going to find that one ear is probably going to suffer a little bit most? And it may surprise people if they’re a right-handed shooter, which ear that might be.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, that’s a fun question. Yeah, well, so it depends. I guess it depends on what kind of firearm you’re using and where and how you hold it. So with like a handgun, you might be holding it more just straight in front of you might be off to the side a little bit based on you’d have to tell me that, but it’s, it’s more likely that it’s, it’s out at a distance from your face. Um, Although some probably hold it, I’m just thinking what I’ve seen on TV, like with reality police shows.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, don’t believe anything on TV.
SPEAKER 13 :
Do they sometimes hold it close to their face, a handgun? Anyway, so okay, so let’s get to the meat of that. So like with a rifle, because you might be looking through a sight, right, or a scope, you’re going to tilt your head a little bit to look through that. And the tilting and the slight turning of your face toward that shoulder protects the ear that’s on the same side as the hand that you pull the trigger with. So if you’re right-handed, your right ear tends to be protected by what we call the head shadow effect. It’s literally your head and your face is protecting your ear a little bit. But then if you think about it, the way you’re turning your head to the right, it leaves the left ear more vulnerable, right? Um, so that’s the ear that tends to get damaged more. So right-handed shooters tend to have more damage in their left ear and vice versa with that kind of scenario, but there are other scenarios that could and in a different result, yeah. But that’s what we tend to see.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. And the big key is just to have the different moles that you might want with you at all times. That’s the best way to just be prepared, right?
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
I mean, if you’re going to the range and you don’t want to talk, and we’ll kind of walk through these here a little bit, but you’ve got some solid type protection that’s just really there to help block all sound, right?
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, yeah. And, oh, what was I going to say about that? You said something just now that triggered, but now I’ve lost it completely. That happens to me. Oh, you were talking about keeping them with you. Yeah, I was just going to reiterate that, yeah, keep a few pairs in the car. I mean, I think you’re doing that now, right? You keep them with you. And I think we got you like an extra pair of shooting ones because you didn’t have them with you at one time. So this way now you have them in two different places and you don’t have to worry about being without them.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
But, yeah, keeping them in your truck with you or your pack or your range bag, whatever the case may be, and your gun case. I mean, I’m telling you, it makes all the difference in the world. And it just makes it more comfortable. And a few weeks ago, I took Melissa to a range, and she saw pretty quickly how you never know when the next shot is going to ring from the other bay and what that person is shooting. And you think, well, I’m not going to be shooting some big caliber weapon. But you never know what’s going to be in a range especially.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, right, because you didn’t have any control over that, right? Yeah, and that was a great experience and one that I don’t want to ever have again, no.
SPEAKER 07 :
But, you know, it does mention one thing, and again, it is Custom Ear Solutions. And I told her the day we met, I love the name of the company because it’s exactly what you do. But so many people miswear the foam plugs. They have no idea how to put them in properly. And that’s what you see just about at every range. They’ll have them there for a dollar. And not that they’re not good to have something better than nothing. But if they’re not inserted properly… And it’s hard to show on radio, but, I mean, you’ve got to twist those. You’ve got to kind of pull up on the top of the ear, you know, from the opposite hand, reach around. I mean, and they can serve a good purpose, you know, if they’re inserted properly.
SPEAKER 13 :
Oh, yeah. They’re excellent. I mean, they’re the gold standard. Foam earplugs are the gold standard of hearing protection. If, and it’s a big if, and it’s one that is not, like you said, most people don’t get them incorrectly. So if you get them in deep… then they can provide up to 35 dB of protection, which is substantial. But if you don’t get them in correctly, then they won’t be giving you anything close to that. And then you’d probably be better off with something that you can get in fast and easy, like a custom ear mold. Right. That’s the downside or one of the downsides to foam is that it takes a lot of time to get in, you know, and once they get waxy, you don’t really feel like touching them anymore. Cause you really got to compress them down. Like you said, once they get waxy, you don’t want to get that wax on your ears. Um, so they take longer to put in, um, than custom custom is just quick and easy. Um, it’s probably more consistent to the, the, the protection that you’ll get from custom because once you know how to put them in, it’s quick and easy. It’s the same fit every time, uh, with foam that they’ve seen in the research that the, there’s a pretty high variability in how people get foam in probably depending on how much time they have and other factors. But, um, Yeah, foam can be the best if you can get it in right, but there’s so many factors that can interfere with that.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. And one of our last points here, but there’s a difference in hearing. in hearing with clarity and hearing really clear and hearing voices. And that’s one thing I like about your hearing test. That’s part of it. It’s not just the tones that you do, but it’s actually picking out some conversation and being able to hear that too. So kind of tell us a little bit about your hearing exam like that and why that’s important.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, so the tones part of it, we’re just measuring hearing detection. What’s the softest sound that you can hear? And there are different ways to test detection. It doesn’t have to be with tones always. It can be with speech too, which we also did with you. What’s the softest volume that you can understand a word? But with the tones, the reason why we use tones at different pitches is because the inner ear hearing organ is organized by frequency. It’s called tonotopic organization. So when sound first enters the inner ear organ, That’s where really high frequency sound is interpreted. And the further you go into the hearing organ, it gets lower and lower frequency all the way down to about 20 hertz. So in order to kind of measure the sensitivity at different points within the hearing organ, we use pure tones, you know, 8,000 hertz. What’s the hearing organ doing there? versus what’s it doing down at 250 hertz. So that’s just detection. Now, then we also want to see, okay, how do you understand speech? Are you able to understand speech when we turn the volume up to a conversational level? Or is it distorted because of damage from noise exposure or whatever? So we’ll do a speech in quiet test. How do you understand speech in quiet? And then even more challenging, how do you understand speech in noise? Because that’s the most common complaint for most people with hearing loss or without. So I want to see how you do in all those different scenarios so that we can kind of put all the pieces together and give you a good picture of what your hearing condition is. Right. Yeah. And $125 is a very thorough exam.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Get in and see Dr. Melissa Fling, Custom Ear Solutions, 720-839-7705. Now, for people that are getting near the end of the year, they’ve got some health savings deals. Does that play into how folks can pay you?
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, I do take health savings accounts and flex spending accounts. Yeah, if you’ve got money in that, I can accept that.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, good deal. All right. Give her a call. Let her know you heard her here on Sportsman of Colorado, KLZ 560, and we would appreciate that as well. But, hey, protect your hearing, all right? Hey, very few things, man, can affect your sight and hearing.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER 07 :
you don’t get second chances to save, you know?
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, once you start losing it from noise exposure in particular, because to be clear, it will happen for everyone due to aging at different rates. But with noise, if you can prevent it, why not prevent it? Yeah, with hearing protection and getting your hearing checked regularly. Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
Melissa will be glad to help you.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yes, I will.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thank you so much.
SPEAKER 13 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right. It’s Custom Air Solutions, 720-839-7705. This is Sportsman of Colorado. We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 17 :
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SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome back to Sportsman of Colorado. Again, thank you so much for joining us. Just a quick reminder now, if you miss our live show here on Saturdays, 1 to 2, catch us twice on Sundays, 8 in the morning, 8 at night, then the following Thursday from 9 to 10 a.m. right here on KLZ 560. And, of course, you can get our podcast where you get yours. Our podcast is sponsored by our next guest, Davis Tent. Will Marcourt joins us in studio. What’s going on?
SPEAKER 08 :
Hey, Scott. Glad to be here. I can’t believe we’re talking about mid-December already.
SPEAKER 06 :
And this weather, dude. I mean, it is so mild.
SPEAKER 08 :
I hate global warming. No, I shouldn’t say that. Mild weather feels so good this time of year that it just, you know, you get up in the morning and it’s hard not to have a smile on your face.
SPEAKER 07 :
And I mean, we’ve had some beautiful sunrises, sunsets in the evenings. I mean, this is a pretty good place to live, bottom line.
SPEAKER 08 :
It is. You know, I was just talking, I was at an event last night, a fundraiser for legion chapter in the eastern plains and uh talking to a gal that is from minnesota which is close to my background and she was talking about moving out here and just how much nicer it is from an environmental standpoint I mean, she’s not even a person that really appreciates the playing in the mountains or something, but just the, you know, to have these kind of days in December, January. Love it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yep. All right. Reflecting back a little bit. Before we know it, we’re here next month back with all the. the shows and all but looking back through your show season what are you seeing and you know you do so many of these around the country but what are you seeing as far as just the whole tent type customer are people getting away from that in some ways and going to these rvs and different things like that hey i’m done with tents i want a hotel or are you seeing a kind of a growth spurt
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, that’s super interesting. You know, I think first of all, I would say that one of the interesting things is people will walk by me occasionally at a show and look at me and say, oh, I’ve got a camper or something along those lines. And the fact of the matter is a huge part of our customer base are people that own campers. But they have tents because they might get together with three or four friends with their campers and do a trip. and they need a place to gather, or maybe they use it during hunting season, you know, because they don’t want to try to pull their camper into some place that is, you know, might be dangerous getting in of or getting out of, or they might be concerned about getting their trailer out at all at the end of the trip. So, but overall, you know, we’ve been really fortunate. I don’t exactly know the answer, maybe as you’ve asked the question. I know we are obtaining more space in the market, you know. So we’re seeing, you know, it’s been an interesting, you know, kind of vibe just since the COVID times to be a manufacturer because… In the outdoor space, that was a real peak time for U.S. manufacturers. So things have, you know, fallen off that peak a little bit. But we’re seeing like the second half of this year was super strong for us. And I think that, you know, well, I can tell you that I’m projecting growth, you know, in our business of 5 to 10 percent in 2026. Wow. Great. Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
How do people really compare a tent? You’re shopping for a tent. I think so many times people say, oh, that’s a white tent, that’s canvas, must be the same. What are four, five, six points? Walk up to a tent to just look at to the normal everyday person to go, here’s why a Davis tent is different.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, it’s a kind of an interesting question, you know, as somebody that talks to tent buyers and tent users of different, you know, some of them are coming out of the maybe they used one with an outfitter and they’re thinking, oh, hey, that’s an awesome tent. I want one. Some of them have never used one, but they’ve heard of people that use them or buddies or they’re going to start hunting out west. And there’s so many different ways. And I can tell you that generally speaking, like the customers that buy from us, buy from us for kind of they come a lot of times out of one or two pathways. Not that there’s some people that just come out of we don’t know who you are and never have experienced you and you’re on a list of people that we’re calling. That happens. But most of them… have a friend or a buddy or they went with an outfitter that had a davis tent and they’ve told them it’s a great tent or maybe they haven’t had that experience but they see their reviews for davis tent and they’re like well that gives me a lot of confidence i’m going to be spending thousands of dollars i want to go with davis tent now what kind of things are different well canvas qualities are different but the problem is you can’t necessarily walk up to a tent and see that canvas quality difference and i’m not even talking about thicknesses because there’s reasons there’s actually legitimate reasons why you might use a thinner canvas But I get asked a lot of questions about, oh, this company says that their canvas is this thickness. Well, there’s actually a lot of inappropriate use of heavier canvases that might have been appropriate 20 years ago or more because of the difference in looming technology. But today, I mean, when you’re using the top-of-the-line canvas, canvas think of it like you know they talk about with bed sheets high thread counts sure well that’s the kind of thing that we’re doing in canvas and it’s what we would call or what the industry would call a double fill long strand canvas which means that and and it’s army duck so all that together means that it’s not just a short strand wrapped around a long strand to give you extra fill and weight to make it appear bigger but it’s actually long strands wrapped around each other So you have the full strength of both of those strands. Army duck means that you have, it’s not perfect, but it’s very close to the same strength in both directions. And so I guess the bottom line here is that a lot of looking at a tent, you don’t really know. There are differences in how you roll seams or don’t roll seams, and you can see those differences in quality a lot of times when you look at a Davis tent. next to another tent. But, you know, a lot of times it’s really hard to tell. One of the things that, you know, you’ve mentioned a ton of times, you know, over the course of years, infield experience. If you’re getting a tent made overseas, pick your country, I don’t care, Southeast Asia or Asia somewhere, Look, those people don’t hunt. They don’t use the product in the field. And that’s a huge differentiator. I’m not saying you could never get a good product. What I’m saying is there’s a big difference about using that product and not using that product because you get to know the little things that matter over the course of time. And it’s how you build a tent that’s going to last for 30 or 40 years or more. You do it because you know what it takes to last, you know, in the kind of environments it’s being used in.
SPEAKER 07 :
And, you know, you mentioned reviews. Good night. I’ve honestly never seen any other product since I’ve been doing Sportsman of Colorado that gets more reviews and unsolicited, really. People just like, here’s my Davis tent from 25 years. I mean, it’s still in great shape and, you know, it’s still serving their purpose and they love it.
SPEAKER 08 :
It blows my mind, to be honest. I mean, clearly we take a lot of care to make the best product possible. And so I’m just… you know, acknowledge that we do, but it blows my mind. I mean, it’s so gratifying, you know, you just kind of want to pinch yourself and just count your blessings that people will talk about you in that manner, you know, really elevate you a position that any company would be, would be proud to be in. So yeah, it’s a, it’s a huge blessing and yeah, very cool.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, Wilmore Quarters with us. Once again, it’s davistent.com. And, hey, now is the time to take advantage of some good deals. So let’s tell them a few secrets here of what’s happening.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, we got our Christmas sale going on. So that’s kind of fun. Great stocking stuffers, you know, just things around the tree for any hunter. A lot of different things. I mean, a lot of them are oriented toward our organizers. So everybody probably knows or may have heard of, you know, We make a small organizer, a large organizer, something we call a two-row organizer, a rifle organizer. We make a storage loft. It’s kind of neat. And we just have last year rolled out a spice rack. So this would go over your table. And a neat little product just to go with a prep table. And it’s 35% off. So, you know, we really want to get that into people’s hands. And, you know, that’s our biggest challenge sometimes is getting things in people’s hands in the first place so other people see them and can talk about them. And that’s why we’re running that kind of a special. Also, if you have a tent on your mind, right now we don’t have a tent sale going on with the Christmas special. But just a little thought process here is our gift certificates are 10% off. So obviously there’s your opportunity to save 10% on a tent. just buy gift certificates and cash them in for a tent. Those gift certificates are good forever, so you don’t have to use them right now. Let’s say you’re planning on buying a tent later this year. You’re not ready to do it right now, but you would have a few hundred bucks. You could start with a gift certificate that when you’re ready later this year, that’s going to be saving you 10% on whatever you buy. Wow, that’s cool.
SPEAKER 07 :
Super cool. And all the things you just mentioned right there, these accessories, I’m going to flip that back to the infield experience because I guarantee you, one of you guys, Taylor, whoever, y’all have been out hunting. You’re like, man, it would sure be nice if this, this, this. And then you build it, and you’ve solved the problem.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, and a great example of that, and this is just a real low-dollar product, is our patch kits. We make three different patch kits. One has a replacement zipper slider in it, which wears out over time. and that one comes with a little bit of canvas and some uh special tape that sticks to canvas and will last for years our other two patch kits come with a larger piece of canvas and a glue that’s as good as a patch that we would sew on i mean there’s if you glue a good patch on as long as it’s not over a seam or something there’s no reason to send it to us to fix it because that’s just going to last you for years so patch kits are a really great stocking stuffer they’re small they fit in a stocking and uh everybody needs them in their kind of their toolbox for their tent right yeah so help us make a successful tent hunt first time um
SPEAKER 07 :
Do you plan when you’re going to arrive, time of day, am I going to have daylight left to set this up? Or is that something that should go in our planning, especially the first time we’re going to go somewhere and set up a tent?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I mean, that’s a toughie, right, because we all make these great plans and then we screw them up or life happens and it doesn’t happen that way. But when you put it in the context of like a first-time tent user, because that could happen to them too, the main thing that I would want to impart on people is when we make a tent for you, we’re going to give you all your guidelines that are all cut to size and which is unusual actually in the industry so they’re all done and ready to go they already have tensioners installed on them but what we don’t do is tie them on the tent so this is going to take like 20 minutes or something like that the first time you do it you don’t want to be doing that in the field in the dark in a snowstorm in a rainstorm whatever that would suck so pull your tent out worst case tie your ropes on i mean that’s super important So get that out of the way. And yeah, I would really, really, really, if you’re a first-time user, obviously I would suggest that either you set it up in your backyard. If you don’t have one, you find a friend that you can set it up in their backyard or just take it out somewhere to a green space and set it up. Uh, because, you know, it’s like anything else. It’s just the general knowledge of doing something the first time, you know, maybe as simple as something like how you pound a spike in, you know, you want a little tiny bit of an angle, but not too much of an angle, you know, and things like that. I mean, why not take care of some of those really low hanging fruit or, or just the general thing of putting a frame together. Yeah. I mean, once you’ve done it once or twice, you’re going to see that is the easiest thing to do in the world. But when you do it the first time, you’re going to be looking at those angle connectors going, does this go this way or that way?
SPEAKER 09 :
Right.
SPEAKER 08 :
Wait a minute. I can’t have one with a bolt in the corner. That has to go at the peak. So, yeah, just those, you know, like if you didn’t have, let’s say you didn’t have a chance to set your tent up because you only had 15 minutes. You didn’t have 45 minutes or something like that. Well, set your frame up then. So that’s two things you could do that’s low-hanging fruit. You could tie your ropes on your tent in your living room if you wanted to, and you could, no matter what the size of your living room is, and then you could set up the frame somewhere outside. You live in a condo, just set it up in a common space. And just having that frame and those ropes on and having some experience with the frame connector angles and things, that would go a whole long ways, a whole long ways.
SPEAKER 07 :
And so along with the tent, and you guys do a great job of, I just kind of call it interviewing a customer. We’ve got to know what you’re going to do, so we’re going to ask you a bunch of questions here.
SPEAKER 1 :
100%.
SPEAKER 07 :
And I don’t think anybody’s ever regretted buying a tent. that maybe at the time they thought, well, I probably don’t need this much room, but I think I’m going to go ahead and get the bigger tent. I don’t think you’ve ever heard many people complain about that.
SPEAKER 08 :
It’s pretty unusual. You know, we try to make, we do make things modular. So, you know, let’s say you bought a 14 by 15 and it wasn’t quite enough space. Well, you buy a 14 by 10 from us, it’s going to come with two doors. You hook it onto the front, and now you’ve got a 14 by 25. So even if you got too small, we’d have ways to go about that. And so I wouldn’t – as long as you’ve got enough basic room, and if you talk to us, we’re going to help you do that and help you – You know, and the other thing that’s kind of funny is people have different expectations in the way they use tents. Like, I’m kind of a minimalist, and so me hunting even with two guys in a little 10×10 tent makes me happy, and it’s no problem. Other guys, if they didn’t have a 14×15 tent with two guys, would not be happy. I promise you. So you really have to kind of understand how people, you know, view that experience that they want. Mm-hmm. And, you know, I always say that hunters were the original glampers, you know. These are, you know, a lot of times hunters are kind of pimping out their setup, you know, and they have a really way they want it to be. And so, yeah, we want to understand what your kind of expectation is of that experience so we can help make the best possible recommendation to you because it’s different for different people. Yeah, right. Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, keys for when you plan on doing some cooking in the tent. Do you like a separate type cook shack? What do you like?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, it comes down, again, to that same kind of thing I’m talking about. But I can tell you that personally, no, I’m just going to cook in my tent. If I need more space, I’d have that extra space, and I may be cooking in that space. You know, I think people get concerned about things, you know, like bearers and things like that. that’s a really legitimate concern if you’re going to have an unattended tent so let’s say that you’re going to set up your tent and you’re going to hunt for a week let’s say it’s bow season or something and then you’re going to not be there for a week and the tent’s going to stay up and you’re going to be gone and then there’s going to be a week that you hunt well bears are a problem with unattended tents because there’s nobody scaring them away they’re very very rarely are going to give you even be in your area you know with people actually in that tent and coming in and out So, yeah, I mean, I usually cook in my tent, but, you know, I’m kind of a guy that loves to solo hunt and hunt with one other person. And so it’s kind of, it’s more of a minimalist setup. But I would say that it’s, I’m probably less of the common person. you know average on that more guys like to have a separate cook tent and then the question is do they want to attach that tent directly to the tent they’re sleeping in or maybe they’re going to run an awning it’s really common to run an awning off of their main tent and then have a cook tent that’s just separated by that awning sometimes they’ll put sidewalls on that awning so you know they’re building kind of a little compound there right with a little space between the two But either way, the cool thing about having that modular setup is that if you decide to separate them, that’s fine. But if you put them right together, you can also at night let the door down and just heat the space you’re sleeping in. And so it doesn’t require you to heat that whole 14 by 25 space, which becomes a challenge because it’s way beyond the radiant heat of the stove. And so you’re going to want stove fans and things like that to move some heat around. Better yet, if you can just use a back area, you know, to sleep in with a stove and then, you know, shut that zipper door at night, open it back up in the morning.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. Once again, if you’re just joining us, Wilmar Court is with us. It is Davis Tent. And, hey, not Colorado’s best. In my opinion, it’s the best tent you can buy in the country. And they’ve got their Christmas sale going on now. Go to davistent.com. Follow them on social media as well. And you’ll see why when we’re talking about reviews. So many people post things on there. They’ve got a few groups for Davis Tent that you can join up to and learn more about them. But if you’re in the market, now’s the time to go check them out. And it’s a good time of year. They’ve got some time to spend with you a little bit here at the shop. And that address on Broadway is?
SPEAKER 08 :
42-30 Broadway. The only thing I’ll mention to Colorado people in particular is that our part of Broadway isn’t the part of Broadway that comes right out of downtown. It comes off of Park Avenue and 38th, I think maybe it is there. It’s right after it makes that turn. So it’s sometimes also known as Globeville Road. It runs between 38th and 45th, right next to I-25. Right, right.
SPEAKER 07 :
Now, you’ve created a lot of winners through your career here at Davis Tent, but the Go Tent is the one we wanted to talk about.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, sure is. I mean, man, it just like hits so many different marks, right? I mean, if you’re talking about younger people, you know, maybe getting out on shorter hunts, it hits that mark because it’s so easy and quick to set up, you know, just one or two guys. I envision them doing a… turkey hunt or uh antelope hunt or something along those lines they’ve only got or it could be any hunt but the point is they’ve got a limited amount of time if you’re talking about from a budget standpoint you get the same you know everything the same so world-class sewers putting it together the same materials uh just smaller spaces in the go tent but the you get everything the same at a real budget friendly kind of place and then lastly i mean it’s it’s specifically used a lot for spike camps whether that’s individuals or outfitters where they’re putting a camp a couple three four miles away from their base camp and they just need a place you know because when they run into animals there it’s not going to be practical to get back or they need to get in in the morning you know before they could so a lot of that kind of thing i use it just as a general camp because again i hunt solo or with one other guy But, you know, we’re talking about tents here that you can get into for $600 and $800. I mean, full-on, top-quality canvas. What we’re literally talking about is tents here that you can buy made in the USA less than you’ll buy an import for of a lesser quality. That’s a pretty cool position.
SPEAKER 07 :
And have the great customer service from Davis Tent. that too but that’s a pretty it’s it’s an awesome product so yeah i’d encourage everybody to take a look at it just to see if it might make sense for them right you know as maybe a second tent sure let’s touch on a couple of safety things as far as heating a tent that you know they’re beautiful to be in and man when they’re all warm and toasty but sometimes some things can go wrong if you don’t know what you’re doing or yeah you know so walk us through a few tips there
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing that I hear about is, you know, people might be talking about how they’re going to heat their tent and some people want to use propane. And I actually specifically know that I have two different coroners that are customers. I would just like everyone to know that those coroners would say not to do that because they have to deal with people in trailers that have propane issues, you know, and those aren’t happy, happy events. There are some much safer propane products now on the market, like the Big Buddy heaters or Little Buddy heaters that have low-oxygen shutoffs on them. But I always say that, look, if you’re going to get involved in propane in any way inside of an enclosed structure, do yourself a favor and buy yourself a $60 propane. You know, Kitty, I think, is one brand, K-I-D-D-E, detector, you know, because we want everybody to go home to their family. And we’ve been fortunate as a company to never have some kind of a tragedy like that. Sure. There’s probably some reasons that that hasn’t happened in our tent. I’m not going to talk about them because I don’t want to encourage anybody to heat their tents like that. But yeah, get yourself a CO2 detector because that would be the number one safety issue that we’d want to talk about. Most guys are going to burn wood. I think it’s the best option. I’d like there to be a better pellet stove option. There is not. Some guys can do it successfully, but there hasn’t been really a broad product that allows for that to be a good, safe option for people in the outdoor industry. I know pellet stoves work in your house. I’d be happy to have the conversation with you anytime you wanted to call me. I won’t go into it right now, but there’s some specific reasons why outdoor pellet-type stoves just aren’t very consistent in how they operate at elevation changes and whatnot. But, you know, probably the most core thing, knowing that people are going to use wood stoves for the most part.
SPEAKER 17 :
Right.
SPEAKER 08 :
Wood stoves are for wood. They’re not for garbage. Those kind of things could partially burn out and come out your smokestack and get out the spark arrestor and cause a problem in the forest or burn a hole in your tent. They’re not for pine cones. Pine cones do that same kind of thing. Pine needles can be problematic. So, you know, basic precautions. I always just take a garbage bag and tie it to the corner of my tent so everybody can see that that’s where garbage goes. It doesn’t go inside the stove. So, I mean, it’s pretty basic precautions. I mean, you know, you use a spark arrestor. Use our Sleep More Max and Sleep More Mini. That’ll almost solve the problem by itself because it causes a reburn in the stove. So that’s the safest thing to do. I mean, they’re not approved spark arrestors, but they do the same thing. You’ll hardly ever see a spark come out of the top of your tent. So it’s pretty amazing. Wow. Great.
SPEAKER 07 :
Run through those specials one more time.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, organizers. I’m going to list them here. Why not? Storage lofts, 20% off, and so are the following products. A top pack, so if you’re a horse packer. Standard or deluxe tent bags. The standard and the large duffel. Large and rifle organizers. Two row organizers. The spice rack specifically is 35% off. Stove bags are 20% off. Sleeping bag covers. Awesome product. Really high, hot seller. People love that product. Good little Christmas present there. Only $111 with the sale going on now. 10-ounce bedrolls, 20% off. Hold tight straps, another awesome product. Check it out on our website. A lot of people don’t know about it. 20% off. Patch kits. And then last but certainly not least, the gift certificate’s 10% off, which means that, yeah, you can get 10% off a tent or you can get 10% off the money you spend now on a tent later on.
SPEAKER 07 :
Got about a minute here, but a lot in the news lately from our friends at CPW. A lot has transpired over the last month. We’ve had Director Davis resign or be transferred over to a different area for a while. A good guy, Murphy Robinson, resigned and stuff. That’s a big one. Any…
SPEAKER 08 :
60 second thoughts about what’s going on and we’ll catch it on our next show i don’t know how anybody could have 60 second thoughts about what’s going on but let me just say this uh we have a lot of challenges they’re not gonna go away we also as hunters have a lot of agency in other words what we say matters if we do it in a group and we say it and we use people like CRWM, Coloradans for Responsible Wildlife Management, we support them. They’ve got a very cool calendar out now. I think they’re calling the women of CRWM a super nice calendar. $25 and all that goes to support CRWM. Howell does a great job, Howell for Wildlife. You can find either one of these guys on any platform that you’re on. So, look, make your voice heard. You matter, and we need you. And so let’s all do this together. We’ve had some awesome victories, you know, and we can win. We will win if we band together.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, for sure. Well, Merry Christmas to you and your family, sir. Merry Christmas. And Davis Tent, man, you’ve done a great job. And hopefully 2026 will be a wonderful year for us all.
SPEAKER 08 :
It will be. We’re so lucky to be doing what we’re doing. And so any way we can help anybody out, we’re here to do that.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, bud. That’s Wilmar Court, Davis Tent. Go check them out, davistent.com. Thanks for being with us today for Sportsman of Colorado. Hope you have a great rest of your day. Leave it right here on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 16 :
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.
