In this episode, we sit down with the skilled gunsmiths of LT Arms. From unpacking the fascinating history and customization of Fitz Special revolvers to detailed discussions on long-range shooting, our guests, including veterans from the field, share invaluable insights and personal anecdotes. Whether you’re a seasoned shooter or a curious novice, this episode promises engaging stories and practical advice to enhance your shooting experience.
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome to Sportsman of Colorado, Colorado’s premier outdoor radio show heard every Saturday afternoon on KLZ 560 with insights on hunting, fishing, archery, guns, and ammo from Colorado’s top outfitters featuring the industry’s leading experts on how to enhance your experience in the great outdoors. Now, here’s your host, Scott Watley.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome to Sportsman of Colorado. Thank you so much for joining us today. Hey, we’ve got a great show in store for you as always. And hey, I’m not saying there won’t be a time scheduling conflicts may happen, but you can plan on LT Arms being on the first Saturday of the month here with us. Their new location is awesome. 8130 Schaefer Parkway, Unit C. They are open Monday through Friday 10 to 7, Saturdays 10 to 4. And today, a little bit different cast except one guy. Brandon Anderson is with us. He’s always been with us. How are you, bud? Good. How are you doing? Good. And then we’ve got TJ with us. He’s on the gunsmithing side of things. So, TJ, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Thanks for having me on. You bet. You bet. And then we’ve got old Sam here. So, Sam, thanks for being with us. Absolutely. My pleasure. All right. Brian, let’s start with you. Man, the big move here over the last probably year, it feels like to you. But, man, I tell you what, I have never seen anything like that. I mean, you guys were across the street, had everything over there with the gunsmithing, everything. And then. It seemed like in about three days you moved a whole store over here, and, man, it is awesome. It’s beautiful.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, the main part of the move probably took us about three days. I mean, we had to – before we moved over, we replaced floors and patched walls and painted and – I mean, it was a long process. Gunsmiths got turned into tradesmen to get all the work done. But, yeah, it took us a few days, but we’re finally – it looks like we’re totally settled in. We have a bunch of the taxidermy from Keith over at Hunter T’s hung up in the shop. it’s starting to look like a store finally and everything’s kind of in its place and there isn’t random stuff laying around and stuff like that. Got a nice elk mural out on the windows.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, no, that’s cool. Yeah, that’s very cool. So kind of give our audience a little bit of a virtual tour through radio, kind of what they can expect when they walk in of how things are laid out.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, when you walk in, we have our gunsmithing service rider counter, so if you have anything you need to get worked on, you can bring it straight across to a gunsmith who will kind of diagnose your problem and give you a rough estimate on what it costs to fix. We have the library room, which we had in the other shop, but it’s a little bit more front and center. It’s just off to the left, but we have the same stuff we had in there, kind of a rundown of historical guns that the U.S. has used throughout wars, and we have our reloading room where we do our reloading classes, and our showroom where we actually have the guns has kind of grown a little bit, and we have a safe door, and it’s kind of more like a vault room. We try to do it a little bit higher end and more inviting than the other shop because a lot of people would come in the other shop and they didn’t even know that we had a showroom with guns they just thought it was a few revolvers on the front desk and you’d get five people in there that would be standing shoulder to shoulder and not have any room to move around so We’ve probably, I don’t know, tripled in size as far as the front room and the gunsmith area has gotten a lot larger. And there’s a cool place where you can look through when you’re in the showroom and see what the gunsmiths are working on. Yeah, make sure they’re not sleeping back there.
SPEAKER 04 :
I noticed that. It seems like, man, if I was back, I’d say, hey, we need some drapes back here in case we want to pass out. Oh, they would love it. Exactly. You know, that room in there, too, I’m telling you, it is wall-to-wall guns. And you’ve got some nice guns in there.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, we’ve gotten a lot more in stock. We took on some consignments through estate sales, and so we have a large collection of vintage Smith & Wesson revolvers that… We have on display some older Saco Man liquors or the finish-made ones from, like, late 70s, early 80s. And so we’ve kind of supplemented our new stock with a lot of really, really nice consignment, and we might be getting more this weekend. So if you’re looking for something vintage that, you know, you really can’t find anywhere else, we might be the place for that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Before we get into a few things with the gunsmith guys here, let’s talk about that and kind of how that program works for folks because, hey— People age out. Sometimes they just decide, I’m kind of done hunting or done shooting, and they’ve got some guns. Someone passes away. Maybe the spouse doesn’t know what to do with the guns, different things like that. So kind of explain how it works.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, with our consignment program, if it’s an estate sale or something like that and you have a large lot, you can bring it in yourself. But we also offer to where we’ll go out to your house and kind of assess the whole thing. and break everything down on a spreadsheet and we’ll give you evaluation of each piece and what we think we can sell it for and kind of give you your margins on it and stuff like that so that way if you don’t want to you know load your truck up with 30 or 40 guns and try and get them down here we can definitely come to you and just give you a basic rundown of what everything’s worth and what we like to have in the shop and make it a little bit easier for you that way and it’s easier to learn somebody older you know it’s an older lady who just lost her husband it’s
SPEAKER 04 :
kind of hard for her to load up a sure an entire safe room full of guns and bring it down here right and it can work two ways correct me if i’m wrong but it can work two ways where hey if they just want to be done with it and just get a check you know that’s that’s an option or you can do consignment right yeah we do mostly consignment um okay if it’s something that
SPEAKER 06 :
You know, it’s undeniable that we would absolutely want to buy outright. We’ll buy things outright sometimes, but usually we like to consign it just because it gives them a little bit better of a margin. The percentage is a little bit nicer where you’re not paying like a 50% margin to where you’re only getting half the value of your gun. Sure, sure. We can bring that down.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, because if you write a check, they’ve got to be fair-minded and understand you may have that gun. three hours you may have it three years i’m stretching three years it’s not gonna be that long some stuff does hang up but you don’t know you know so they gotta understand you know how you’re definitely gonna take less if you do it that way yeah so the consignment is a good way yeah it’s a little bit more in their favor because what’s your percentage 20 20 okay yeah sorry you get 80 the customer that’s a good deal yeah i don’t have to mess with people because what are you going to do have people come to your house to try to Hey, can I show you some guns I want to sell? Yeah, that’s not a good safe way.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, that’s also the nice part about it is you don’t have to have strangers coming to your house and, you know. Not all of them may be interested in buying guns. They may be casing the place. And so it’s nice to have somebody you can trust come in and do that for you.
SPEAKER 04 :
If you’re just joining us, we are at LT Arms. We’re actually at the world headquarters here at 8130 Schaefer Parkway, Unit C. All right, Sam, tell us a little bit about you. This is the first time you’ve been on the show. So tell us a little bit about you, your background, and how you kind of got into the gunsmithing aspect.
SPEAKER 13 :
So I’ve been working with Parker and Kyle for the last… 2019? It’s been quite a while, six years. One of the lead gunsmiths had guys back there. Got into this by… I was a big gun person and hunting person as a kid. Didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, so I found this field and… It’s been a great thing to go into. I’m only focused on the smithing and fixing guns and repairing stuff, a little bit of sales, but mostly it’s just fixing and repairing guns and customizing stuff.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. What’s the strangest thing somebody’s ever brought in and you’re like, you want me to fix this, that type of deal? Yeah.
SPEAKER 13 :
I’ve had a couple of guys bring in homemade things where they’ve either built themselves or kind of cobbled together stuff and want us to fix it and it’s never fun because it never quite works the right way. God, strangest thing. Yeah. That’s right. Come back to me on that one. I’ll have to think about that for a bit. Yeah, no worries. There has been quite a few strange things. We’ve done some oddball jobs and some custom things for customers that they just had to have it that way. The kind of newest craze we’ve been doing quite a few of lately is the Fitz Special. It’s just a kind of cut-down pocket revolver. The Evan Lee, our ordering guy and reloading guy, had us build him one because it was a gun of his dreams for years. And then the last few months, we have… Is there two in the shop right now?
SPEAKER 06 :
Two we’re working on and another couple that are… Describe it.
SPEAKER 13 :
What is it actually now? So it’s a… You can do a Colt or a Smith. It’s traditionally done on a Colt, but you cut the barrel down to about two inches. You cut the front half of the trigger guard off, so there’s no… resistance on the finger on there. You bob the hammer so it removes the hammer completely and then makes it into a tiny little pocket revolver. It’s what caliber? There’s a couple of them calibers. Most of them are 38.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, the ones working around 38. And it started from John Henry Fitzgerald. He was a guy who was a competitive shooter and a designer for Colt back in like the 20s and 30s. And he was designing for the FBI as like a backup gun. And they bobbed the trigger guard so you could reach the trigger with gloves on in the cold. It was like during Prohibition era. Gotcha. It was kind of like a… Everything else fails, you still have this little snubby width that’s, you know, everything’s cut down that’s easy to get to and…
SPEAKER 13 :
We embellish ours quite a bit. High polish on the steel. The hammer and trigger we jewel. They’re very pretty looking. The ones right now, one’s getting chrome plating on the cylinder. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, that’s cool. Making them pretty. When I first met Kyle, he was telling me all that you guys had here, and he used the term full-service gunsmith. That may mean something to other stores. What does it mean here at LT Arms full service?
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s pretty much what it means here. There isn’t really much I don’t do in the back. There’s a handful of things that I can get done cheaper, places that I want to save customers money on, but it’s few and far between. I mean, we machine things, we blue things, we color case things. Repair place all that kind of stuff. Yeah, there’s really not much would do the only things we don’t do in-house We don’t do choked tube installations. We have a place that does that for a great price Don’t do porting same same reason we can get done for way cheaper than we can do it and then chroming That’s the three things we really don’t do in-house Everything else I can do back there And most of your shops, they advertise guns for things they’re going to talk about. We armors. We can put parts on a gun. We can build you an AR versus back there. We’re constantly building custom bolt rifles. We’re doing custom shotguns. We’re doing really everything. You can possibly imagine.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. Once again, if you’re just joining us, we’re at LT Arms, 8130 Schaefer Parkway, Unit C. They’re open Monday through Friday, 10 to 7. Saturdays, 10 to 4. Hey, when you come in, let them know you heard about them here on Sportsman of Colorado, and we’d appreciate that as well. All right. Now we’ve got TJ with us. TJ, tell us a little about yourself and how you ended up here.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I’m from Colorado down south from Pueblo. Kind of a typical story. After high school, went to the Army, got out. After getting out, I was just kind of confused or kind of lost what I wanted to do. And I just stumbled upon Colorado School of Trades for gunsmithing. And through there, actually, I met a couple of the old co-workers that used to be at Gunsmith at Large. And Jeff and Pat and everybody there was always talking about LT Arms and Parker and these guys down here in Littleton. And so one day I just randomly reached out after graduation. I said, hey, do you guys need anybody else? And they said, come on down. The next thing I know, here I am. I started up in the front, kind of in the reception area. Next thing I know, I’m helping Sarah coat stuff in the back. And then they provided me with a bench. And it’s just been uphill ever since. Wow. Cool. Army. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
And you signed up at what age? 18, right out of high school.
SPEAKER 1 :
18.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, sir. Talk about that experience just a second. I know this doesn’t have anything to do with LTR, but what was that like?
SPEAKER 08 :
It was fun. It was definitely different. It definitely got me out of my comfort zone and helped me. uh, definitely get a reality check and kind of grow as both an individual and as a professional. Um, because I think even if I found CST, uh, out of high school and trying to do that, I don’t think on a maturity level I would have, um, grew as fast as I did. So I, I do thank the army for that to kind of help me kind of grow up really quick. Um, got to travel to a few places saw some cool stuff did some cool things um usual story he’s shooting shooting machine guns blowing stuff up well and you got out yeah why would you get out if you get to do that yeah i ended up unfortunately just getting hurt my last year and uh i could not make a comeback like i thought um i tried to pursue it again a little bit more uh in the national guard for a year but it just uh my health just kept going down with my back sure sure and uh But, yeah, on the flip side.
SPEAKER 04 :
We appreciate your service. And I mean that, you know. I always look back. You always look back at things you kind of wish you would have done. And I honestly wish I would have done something like that, you know. And so we thank you for your service. All right. One area you like is long-range shooting, right? Yes, sir. Fill us in a little bit about that and kind of where that’s come over these last few years.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, so actually I’d like to announce something kind of cool coming to Shikari and LT Arms. Shikari Precision. So it’s going to be long-range precision rifles built by long-range precision shooters. The backing of this is I kind of started actually in the Army too. I kind of enjoyed shooting long range and everything that came with it from calling wind to even learning how to properly mount even your equipment. And I didn’t know, being such a novice guy, that I was mounting my scope wrong. And little things like… working and just body placement too and just developing as a shooter as a whole so I’ve been kind of trying to extend that knowledge and training since leaving and being here and actually I was able to go and shoot with the cadre and the cadre was founded by Philip Vallejo and they are A really cool group of guys. So they’re actually a team of Marine Scout snipers and competitive shooters. Phil was actually one of the lead instructors at the Marine Corps Schoolhouse out in San Diego. And I shot with him and Ian Miner out in Cody at the Cody Shooting Complex. And after being there, I learned right away There is a huge need for gunsmiths, especially with turnaround times. I mean, just barrels alone, talking to everybody there, because it was a four-day course, and I talked to probably about 15 to 20 people. Their barrel lead times are six to nine months, and that’s just the barrel. Yeah. That’s not even including, you know, getting your threaded, chambered, and everything else that goes into that. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
so as you go through how does that conversation start when people come in and you know they say hey do a lot of people come in and say hey i’m into long-range shooting or they want to get into long-range shooting what’s up it’s recently it’s been kind of a mixture um i guess more so i want to get into long-range uh shooting um
SPEAKER 08 :
past three weeks for sure. I’ve definitely, definitely a lot more people coming into that. Um, and then from there I asked them, you know, what is your definition of long range shooting? Um, because for some guys, two to 300 yards is long range shooting to them, but then you get into ELR and those guys, ELR means extreme long range. Um, so those guys are shooting eight, 1800 is close to them. So they’re always past 2000, 2000 yards. Um, And for NRL and PRS, NRL is cool, especially NRL Hunter. That’s designed for hunters. And that means NRL? National Rifle League. And they give you different hunting scenarios. to where you come up to a station, and it’s always going to be an animal-shaped target. But they just changed the rules to now it’s going to be 700 yards and in. You could get lucky, depending on how you see it. They might have a target out to 1,000, but it’s to simulate actual hunting scenarios, and I guess there was something going on with guys trying to take shots out on actual animals out to 1,000 and not properly killing the animal. I kind of call it, you know, what is your effective range?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. I mean, what can you shoot is a different question than what’s your effective range, right? Your ethical range. Absolutely, yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, it’s like a question of ethics comes into play in everything. Yeah. Because, I mean, when I go hunting, I don’t consider anything past 300 or 400 yards, but then we get guys that come in here and they’re, you know, I shot this buck at 700 yards.
SPEAKER 04 :
yards i’m lucky you hit it in the right spot yeah my longest is 417 and that was in africa at a red heart of east and so that i mean it was cool but it was super flat land that yeah yeah but that’s the longest but man i see these guys on some mountain to mountain type shots and i’m like wow
SPEAKER 13 :
Doing a half so many factors, you know If you don’t hit quite right and it starts to walk you have to actually find where it was and then yeah track it down and that could be way farther than you want to be at that point in time and Just not as ethical in my opinion. No.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. Yeah, they get up a mountain quicker than you do so So well guys
SPEAKER 04 :
I guess you guys can handle both ways. They got the rifle they think is good for long range. They can bring it in here. You guys can do some tricks with it. Or you guys are actually building your own. And it’s your car? Yes, sir. Okay. And you’re building your own rifle. So folks can come in here and lay out all the… just whatever they want in that and get it done here.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes, sir. And I’m actually working on a full parts list for everybody to kind of pick and choose and see kind of what you like, especially things when it comes to like optics. The big one is like the Mark V from Leupold. But some guys prefer Trijicon. Some guys prefer Vortex. I like to just have some options laid out before actually showing anybody. So that way they really know what they want and they’re going to get what they want.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. So if somebody wants to get into it,
SPEAKER 08 :
maybe the wives aren’t listening how much should a guy plan for her and there’s probably some women in long range too so i don’t get in trouble here but i mean how much how much should you set aside if you really want to be serious about long range shooting if you’re serious i’d say 5 000 is a good starting point and it will get you into the game and that’s just for the rifle that’s not going over stuff like tripods and vinyl carriers and like stuff like kestrels and everything um And I’ve even seen after shooting with those guys up in Cody to I seen people with just their rifles alone $15,000. Yeah, and that’s with gunsmithing and parts and everything.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, so it’s not a cheap man’s game None of this stuff we like is no for sure. I Once again, we’re coming to you from LT Arms. They’re a new location. Hey, if you were at the old location, it’s just across the street. All right, so it’s not far. 8130 Schaefer Parkway, Unit C. As I mentioned earlier, they’re open Monday through Friday 10 to 7, Saturdays 10 to 4. And when you come in, let them know you heard about them here on the show, and we would appreciate that very much. And, again, maybe you’ve got some guns you’re not using anymore, whether that’s a couple or whether that’s, you know, 100. Hey, come over here. Make an appointment with them. Again, they will come to you if the need be. If you’re comfortable with bringing in some guns. If you’re going to bring in several, probably call and make an appointment would be a good thing, right, Brandon? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, to do that. But I’m telling you, this is a store you need to come see. Great staff here, knowledgeable staff, and they’ll be glad to get you fixed up with anything. So last couple of minutes here, Brandon, anything else we want to make sure we touch on?
SPEAKER 06 :
um yeah we’re gonna be out at the uh clays for kids event it’s before uh it’s a fundraiser for the denver children’s advocacy center and that will be october 3rd at the uh colorado clays shooting center and we’re gonna have a couple raffle guns out there that we’re bringing so yeah it’s for a good cause no those are great people yeah and uh What’s he saying? Tell him what you have.
SPEAKER 08 :
So, actually, we went ahead and started two new Instagrams. That’s going to be Shikari Precision and Shikari Outdoors. And those are going to focus on both our precision rankings. How do you spell Shikari? S-H-I-K-A-R-I and underscore Shikari.
SPEAKER 04 :
precision okay and and same thing for shikari outdoors it’s going to be shikari underscore and then outdoors okay so s-h-i-k-a-r-i underscore precision and then underscore outdoors yes sir okay cool sam any closing word for you
SPEAKER 13 :
Not really, no. Come on down. If you have any broken guns, anything you need fixed, anything you want customized, whether it’s Cerakote or bluing or color case or every old gun just not working the way it should. Yeah, cool. We’ll make it run like new.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. Well, good deal, man. Well, good to see you guys. Yeah, thank you. And enjoy doing this stuff with you. Come on out and see them, 8130 Schaefer Parkway.
SPEAKER 14 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
If you’re in the market for a new rifle for the big game season or a new shotgun for some doves or upland game birds, head on over to The Gun Room. Kevin Flesch here from Sportsman of Colorado, inviting you to visit Denver’s oldest gun dealer. And that’s The Gun Room at 1595 Carr Street in Lakewood. They offer buy, trade, consignment, transfers, and appraisals. And if you purchase a gun, we’ll cover your background check fee. It’s The Gun Room, 1595 Carr Street. Tell them Sportsman of Colorado sent you.
SPEAKER 04 :
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SPEAKER 03 :
KLZ 560, your home station.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome back to Sportsman of Colorado. Thank you so much for being with us. Just a quick reminder now, you miss our show on Saturdays 1 to 2. You can catch us twice on Sundays. That’s from 8 to 9 a.m., 8 to 9 p.m. Then the following Thursday is 9 to 10 a.m. So hopefully one of those four times will work out for you. And of course, you can catch our podcast where you get yours, as well as our website, sportsmanofcolorado.com. Well, great to have a couple of Good friends in studio, Dan Gates, Colorado’s responsible for wildlife management. Great friend of the show for a number of years now, actually. So, Dan, good to see you.
SPEAKER 11 :
Thank you very much, Scott. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Man, how long we been doing it? You brought Bob Brosh out in, I think, the first time we’ve sent. So how long is that?
SPEAKER 11 :
Bob left in 2017, 2018, so it’s seven or eight years for sure.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, seven or eight years, yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER 11 :
Feels longer than that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. No offense, but it feels longer than that. You walked in the first time, I was like, oh, my God, this guy. I better be nice to him. He might just kill me right here.
SPEAKER 11 :
I get tired of listening to that guy over and over and over.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, no, man. And Cody Loster is with us, United Houndsman of Colorado. Cody, good to see you, sir. Good to see you. Thanks for having me on. Great to have you in, man. Man, we’re going to get into some stuff next week as well. They’ve got a banquet coming up, too, August 2nd. So we’re going to get into a lot of that here over these next couple of shows. Um, with Dan and Cody. So Cody, we’ll start with you. Um, man, I’d love to get people this first time you’ve been on with us, uh, kind of give us a little bit of your background and, um, how the whole United housing thing started and what got you involved in that? Well,
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, how much time you got here? Hey, we have plenty. I’ll tell you when we’re close. Yeah, so, you know, I’m born and raised Colorado native. Born in Longmont, grew up there, ended up going to college in Laramie, Wyoming for a little while. Didn’t finish, but moved back down to Colorado. And, you know, this has always been my home. And I don’t know, as long as people don’t run me out, I don’t plan on leaving. Yeah, no doubt. It’s pretty nice. But, yeah, you know, as I was a young boy, grew up hunting, fishing, ranching, farming, all those things, and got into riding bulls, actually. And that’s typically from Colorado. That’s how most people know me is, hey, are you that bull rider? You know, I’m not anymore. I’m retired. But fortunately was able to do something I really love to do for a living for most of my adult life. and you know I’m not one to ever toot my own horn but had quite a bit of success and ended up you know accomplishing a lot of goals becoming a world champion and um throughout all that obviously hunting was still a big part of my life even though it had taken a back seat a little bit to the to the bull riding career but um how I got into the the whole United Houndsmen of Colorado and being a houndsman and stuff like that um I’d started hunting well we when we back up a little bit we’d uh My family had always raised bird dogs, right? We raised Chesapeakes for waterfowl. And so that was something I always loved. And then when I got into riding bulls and raising bulls, raised my own cattle dogs, right? And then got into the hounds and started hunting with guys that had hounds and learning what I liked, what I didn’t. Really, that kind of took off. As far as the dog part of things, I’ve always been a huge fan of working dogs. I think they’re the coolest critters around. No matter what their job is, they’re just awesome. If I fast forward a little bit to when my career ended, riding bulls, I didn’t get to pick when that time came. It was kind of chosen for me. Mentally, I needed a new challenge. I needed something to pursue and really put my heart into it. something that was similar to bull riding and you wouldn’t think running dogs or training dogs is very similar to bull riding but for me it was because bull riding was always an individual thing right like it my success and failure came down to how much work I put in and and whether I Whether I won or not, it was all on my back. And I really enjoyed that. Just something that’s very hard, very individual. And believe it or not, running and training dogs is the same exact way. What you get out of it is what you put into it. And being able to do something that’s very difficult, that you’ll never perfect, but you can get better every day at. Oh, gosh. Just something, that fire lit back up inside me that was something that Once bull riding was taken away, I was kind of lost. And so fast forward on now, happened to just fall into the position, I guess, as vice president of UHC. And partly because of necessity, right, with what we faced last year with the potential loss of being able to hunt mountain lions and bobcats. and do what we love, which is, um, you know, with, with the dog work. And so, uh, kind of fell into that position just because they needed, um, the organization was already established, but we needed some different leadership with a little different connections and able to pursue things the way they needed to be done. And not that we’re anywhere near where we want to be, but we’re able to have some growth and, and move, you know, move closer to the goal of becoming what we wanted, what we want as far as representation of, of houndsmen in this state. And it’s something that I think a lot of the public doesn’t understand, right? We’re a pretty small segment of the population. Heck, a lot of hunters even don’t understand.
SPEAKER 04 :
And that’s why I’m thrilled you’re here because, as I said before we came on air, this is an education part for everybody, you know, because I think they may see of you or know of you but don’t know, what does that mean, you know? Are they like a dog kennel club? I mean, what are they doing? What’s your mission, so to speak?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. Yeah. And so along those lines, you know, to spread the awareness and the knowledge of what hunting with hounds is and to promote it’s not the sport, it’s the heritage. Right. This this goes back thousands and thousands of years of men, humanity, hunting with hounds, hunting with dogs. And so to really to bring that out, educate people on why we do this, how we do this, the efficacy of this. And also when you get into the wildlife management side of things, you know, it’s all it’s all part of the big picture on how this all works together and game management. you know, animals are different and they’re hunted different ways in different spots of the country. And, um, the reason we use hounds obviously on particular species is because that is the most, uh, efficient and ethical way to hunt those particular species. And so, um, Yeah, it’s really been fun throughout the past year to be part of all this and be able to educate and help. We’re all looking for the same thing, and that’s to strengthen the North American model of wildlife conservation through outreach, knowledge, and just getting the public involved in something that should matter to them. A lot of people it doesn’t because it’s not part of their day-to-day lives. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
And, Dan, this, you know, last year, as Hughes mentioned, the Prop 127, I mean, it’s groups like this that really helped us be successful there, didn’t it?
SPEAKER 11 :
Oh, tremendously. I mean, just what these guys were able to bring to the table through the entire process. the houndsman Cody correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am, but the houndsman didn’t historically get involved in the legislative side of the parks and wildlife commission side or the management side. They might’ve been participatory on studies and things along with Colorado parks and wildlife, or maybe wildlife services or whatever, but you hadn’t really gotten engaged because you hadn’t been really attacked or assaulted, even though you might’ve been on the periphery of things. And when, when we started the campaign in, in September of 2023, which was Initiative 91, which eventually became Proposition 127. I reached out to these guys and vice versa. And we, we laid a groundwork out and an establishment, a strategic plan on how we could accent each other and then how we could turn around and fight locked arms for the sportsman community, not against within the sportsman community. And, you know, there’s not a houndsman that I, that I know that doesn’t fish or that doesn’t elk hunt or that doesn’t bird hunt. And there’s, and there’s, But there’s very few elk hunters and bird hunters and fishermen that actually do houndsman stuff. And same on the trapping of the predator hunting side, like with the Colorado trappers and predator hunters. Every single one of them pursues every other type of game species. But they are a small segment of the population. The thing that we tried to make sure that we were at least lockstep in our messaging was… while we might become the low-hanging fruit, the houndsmen and the trappers or the predator hunters, it was the catalyst on what could be representative of what the overall intention, the agenda was, is to knock us out and then go to the next level. And if you look at everything in the playbook from the animal rights extremists to the opposition, yeah, they want the low-hanging fruit first, but then they’re not going to stop with that. And we were the catalyst to be able to turn around and explain that because we With hound hunting, it’s no different than using bird dogs to turn around and go out and hunt pheasants and chukar. It’s no different than waterfowl dogs, except for they’re not jumping up in the air and trying to catch a duck. They’re going out to retrieve the duck or the goose. Cody mentioned the use of dogs is an age-old tradition in humanity. And since the beginning of domestication, man was trying to utilize dogs as a tool. We just so happened that we could cross paths in our messaging to say, it’s not about me and it’s not about him and it’s not about this or that, it’s about all of us in some capacity. And that message resonated well enough to unite the sportsman community to turn around and say, I’m a sportsman and I hound hunt, or I’m a sportsman and I trap, or I’m a sportsman and I elk hunt. And I think that that was great because you guys hadn’t been on the landscape prior to that in any significant numbers. And what we were able to pull together just showed exactly what we were trying to accomplish, and that was unification of a tradition and a heritage through science-based wildlife management.
SPEAKER 04 :
Now, you guys have a membership basis, right? We do, yeah. I think it’s like 50 bucks for the year? Yeah.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, they’re very affordable. And it’s grown every year. So that’s good to see. And, you know, the nice thing, obviously, about memberships and all these various groups is you can support a group without doing that activity, right? We’re all working towards the same goal. And so, you know, I’d encourage everybody, even if you’re not a houndsman, join up. And we do the same, you know, with RMEF and Wild Turkey Federation, all these other organizations, because we want to support each other to fight the big fight.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. You know, I mean, I started Sportsman of Colorado in 2013. So, I mean, I hadn’t been doing this a long time. Of course, I’ve done it all my life. But, I mean, once I started hearing about all these different groups and meeting people at different groups and just being honest, it seemed like every group almost – They were in their box and didn’t want to look out over the corners at anybody else and helping anything, you know. And so I was like, man, why aren’t people a little bit more engaged with each other and helping different deals? And we did see that this last time, I think, you know, quite a bit more. I was emceeing a few banquets, and there was one Pheasant Forever banquet we did. And, man, a young lady at the end said, hey, we’ve done our fundraising here for Pheasants Forever, and now we need to help, you know, Dan Gates, Colorado Pheasants Forever. And man, that was so cool. So I thought then a couple other banquets I was emceeing, I’d go to the people that were running it, and I’d go, hey, look, what do you think about doing this? No, we don’t want to do that. We don’t want to do that. And I was just like… I mean, it really ticked me off, to be quite honest with you.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, on the flip side, too, I want to give credit to where credit’s due because a tremendous amount of those organizations and chapters came out to support the cause. They weren’t supporting Dan Gates. Screw Dan Gates. They weren’t supporting CRWM. They were supporting the fight, and we just happened to be the idiots at the front of the line. And once we got that through some people’s thick heads, other ones, it wasn’t near as difficult, but they were willing to turn around and do that stuff. And so whether it’s the Wild Sheep Foundation, Rocky Mountain Bighorn, Rocky Mountain Elk, you name it, we got a hell of a lot of support from a hell of a lot of entities. Some of it was reluctant because they didn’t think that they were in that fight. But later in the campaign last year, when the proponents of 127 came out with an email to their team, to all their followers, and said, this is our chance. Once we get rid of the mountain lion trophy hunters and the bobcat trophy hunters, then we go after the big horn sheep trophy hunters, and then we go after the elk trophy hunters. And then everybody started going, holy crap, these guys were truthful when they were saying it’s not just them. They’re the low-hanging fruit, but we’re next on the list. They put that in their own words, in their own email. And that catapulted us to a level to where the last month of the campaign last year, a lot of the fence-sitters started coming in monetarily. Better late than never, but it would have been a lot nicer to have that funding mechanism earlier. But that showed the continuity and that showed the realization of what our community as a whole can do when we’re pushed up against the wall, when there’s a sense of urgency, and to show how fragile and volatile our landscape is. But at the same time, show how unified we can be if we really want to be and we don’t want to turn around and silo ourselves. Sure, sure.
SPEAKER 04 :
Dan Gates is with us, Colorado’s responsible for wildlife management. Catch Dan’s podcast as well, Through the Gates, and I’ll let him talk about that here in just a minute. And then, like I say, if you’re just joining us, Cody Loster is with us, United Houndsmen of Colorado. And check out their website, unitedhoundsmanofcolorado.com. Again, $50, man, annual membership. $1,000 for a life member. And, hey, good thing to throw some money at here to help these guys. Now, do you guys have… You do a lot on social media and things like that, but do you guys ever have meetings for people to come to and different things like that? Because, again, I think that’s where we’ve been missing a piece to the puzzle. CPW, they have these meetings and stuff. Well, a lot of them are Thursdays at noon. Well, I do a noon-to-one show. I’m never able to get involved in that. So how can people get involved with you?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, UHC has got lots of options. Obviously, there’s the membership option. We just recently had our houndsman days, which is like field trials for hounds. And it’s not just for people with dogs, right? Like there’s we got lots of good food, good company, and you get to kind of get a taste of that, of that world, right? And this year was great. We had we had several people come out that didn’t have dogs, they just wanted to come experience it. And so That was really, really good to see again just on that outreach aspect of it. We do have our banquet coming up. We moved that around a little bit. Last year we had it in Gunnison. This year it’ll be at the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, that’ll be cool.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, yeah, that’ll be really nice. It’s a great facility. Really cool, even if you’re not into dogs and hunting, you can come up for that and potentially win some really cool prizes, raffles, auctions. And not only that, but just if you’re into rodeo, there’s a lot of history there. Maybe I’m partial to that.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, no, it’s cool, man. That is August 2nd. It’ll start at 5 p.m., as you mentioned, Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame. Hey, here’s another thing I like about everything that, you know, The outdoorsman days we’re going to talk about. Family friendly. Yes. Hey, and it’s cool to see kids. We could do a whole show on that. But, I mean, it’s cool to see kids out there doing this stuff too. So how do they get tickets? Go to your website?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. Yeah, you can get tickets on the website. You can also get them at the door. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
You can get them at the door as well. Yep.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right. But, yeah, we always encourage everybody to come out. We’re reaching out actually to the ag community as well, cattle producers and stuff as well because – They’re part of this fight in us with everything. And as Dan was talking about what we can do when we all come together, I think last year what we saw was inspiring because it made – sometimes the challenge of something seems so daunting that people don’t try. And that did seem daunting. It was a real thing. We were told we’d lose like for 14 months. Yeah. And that’s a real thing, right? People feel daunted by the task and so they don’t attempt it. And I guess the bull rider in me despises that with every bit of my soul. Like, I don’t care if you’re going to beat me, but I’m going to make it as hard as possible for you to beat me. And most of the time I’m going to win.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 10 :
And that’s the attitude I think we can all take on this stuff. It doesn’t matter how big the task is. We can get it done if we get together. So not only in the sportsman’s community, but in the ag producers as well. We can really, really do some good. Sure.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s why Cody and I get along so much because he’s a winner and I’m not a loser. And somewhere that meets in the middle, right?
SPEAKER 04 :
You’re listening to Sportsman Colorado. We’ve got to hit a quick break, and we’ll be back with more right after this.
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SPEAKER 03 :
This is KLZ 560, your home station.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome back to Sports from Colorado. If you’re just joining us, Dan Gates is with us. Colorado is responsible for wildlife management. Cody Lohstra is with us, United Houndsmen of Colorado. Cody just got to tell us about his banquet, August 2nd. Once again, that’s at the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame. And, hey, great dinner, raffle, live auction. Robbie’s going to be there, right?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yep, Robbie Kroger with Blood Origins. Starts at 5 p.m., too. 5 p.m., all right, yep.
SPEAKER 04 :
And then Pat Dorsey, I think?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yep, Pat will be there, and we’re working on a couple more speakers as well. So it should be a pretty fun lineup.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, that’ll be great. And once again, you can get tickets at the door, or you can get them online at unitedhoundsmanofcolorado.com. Outdoorsman days. Man, great time last year, and previous years have been great as well. But, man, Dan, looking at your lineup, got a pretty good lineup this couple of days here in August, the 8th and 9th.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, we got a good lineup this year. Last year, it seemed like it was a sense of urgency that everybody wanted to get a chance to be part of the fight. And now everybody realizes the fight isn’t just one time. It’s not one time a year. It’s all the time. And people are willing to turn around and come in and support and help out however is needed. You know, you got to have people that are willing to donate their time and their effort. and their finances to be able to help pull this stuff off. But, no, we’ve got two great days coming up, August 8th and 9th, in Pathfinder Regional Park in Florence, just south of Colorado Springs.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right. Let’s see here. We’re going to have a barbecue dinner. Tickets are $70 each. They’ve got some corporate tables available. And that says with perks.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, there’s a bunch of perks on that Saturday night, August 9th. That’s our fundraiser dinner. Right. That’ll culminate the two-day activity that’ll happen on Friday and Saturday. But the banquet is $70 a ticket. The corporate tables are $1,500. Last year, we sold out almost two weeks in advance, about 425 people. Had 4,600 people that were actually at the event over the two days. And while we won’t be able to turn around and name every single thing, and maybe we’ll get on later in the season here, there’s a tremendous amount of activities over the two days. And we encourage everybody to look into it, come down, spend some time. There’s camping on site. There’s hotels real close. There’s a wildlife calling contest for elk and waterfowl and turkey and predator calling. cash prizes. There’s an archery shoot that Sam Westfall is helping to run with Valor Archery Challenge. He’s with Archery in Motion. And we’ve got gold panning and chuck wagon dinners on Friday night. Last year we had seven chuck wagons there. I think you were there Friday night.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it was really cool. Those chuck wagons were cool to see how they just did all that from scratch, man.
SPEAKER 11 :
They feed a pretty good deal. And then we kind of had some weather issues last Friday. But this time, same setup, same type of goals. There will be skinning and game processing seminars.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’ll tell you, that was cool. Last year, a guy was over and did a bear. Yep. And that was really cool.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yep. And did the processing, too, to show the people how to actually cut and process their own meat off of – well it was a domestic goat right uh but they get to see it hands-on and that that hunter education class that colorado parks and wildlife does that was the largest one in the state of colorado last year they put uh almost 100 people not just kids but people through that class in two days and like i say vendors seminars demonstration mountain man encampment um you know kids fishing derby on saturday uh gold panning from the pikes peak prospectors It’s an all-day event for two days, and we’ve got some really cool stuff. We have a couple of bush planes that are going to come in and land on grounds and set up a booth over there about backcountry access in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, Canada. And they’re going to set up right there on the grounds. And so we got permission from the county commission and the Pathfinder Regional Park to set them down right there. So just a ton of different things going on. But the culmination is on Saturday night with the banquet that starts 430. And tickets can be bought either through the QR code online. You’ll start to see some social media advertisements and television advertisements. But you can go to ColoradoOutdoorsmansDays.com. Or if you can’t remember that, you can go to SaveTheHuntColorado.com, which everybody kind of remembers from last year, and it’ll lead you right to the same website.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, cool. Hey, and one of my favorite things, the Ugly Hunting Dog Contest. Well, there’s plenty of dogs down there at that time.
SPEAKER 11 :
United Houndsmen will be there, and I think the Rocky Mountain Big Game Recovery guys will be there again. But, you know, we have a ton of people, you know, Ralph and Vicki Cianciarillo, Fred Eichler, we’ve got Sam Westfalls, Zach Hansen, Laramie Sasquatch-Miller, Ray Livingston, Jermaine Hodge, you name it. We’ve got a little bit for everybody. And if you’ve never shot a bow, come and shoot a bow. If you think you’re really good at shooting a bow, there will be some competition stuff that Sam’s running. And just come and spend some time on site because the facility is great. It’s right on the Arkansas River between Canyon and Florence. And $5 a carload to get in. So you put 15 people in the car, we’ll turn around and take you in.
SPEAKER 05 :
Whatever you can get in there.
SPEAKER 11 :
So we’re looking forward to seeing everybody. And it’s going to be something to where I think you’ll see it continue to grow. Last year, 4,600 people. We expect 5,000 to 6,000 people this year. And no reservations are needed. Just show up and have fun and come engage and learn about the outdoors and learn about all the other organizations that are doing what we do to help save the hunt.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I think I remember seeing some RVs camp.
SPEAKER 11 :
Oh, yeah, there was camping there.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, people can camp out there if they want. Yeah, Will goes, I’m going to bring a tent. Do you want to? Do that. And I go, no, I don’t want to do a tent, dude. I’ll do a tent when I’m a hot dog. I ain’t doing a tent.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, it’s a good thing because a Friday night you might have gotten wet as much rain as we got.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s for sure. Once again, it’s coloradaoutdoorsmansdays.com is the website, August 8th and 9th. And I’m telling you, it’s worth it to go both days. All right. There’s just so much going on and a lot of great people. And, you know, and that’s the thing that I like too, Dan, is just getting around people and meeting new people that – You know, maybe we didn’t even know before, you know, and understand where they’re coming from with their group and how we can help them, too. So, I mean, I have never seen, man, and I know you’ll agree with this, the attack, you know, from all of our gun legislation that’s happened over the last couple of years to the hunting side. I mean, man, it’s just unbelievable.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, Scott, you’re going to be down at this event.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 11 :
You might be in a track chair or whatever you’re hobbling around after your surgery.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I’ve got to get my knee redone here. I had a replacement five years ago, and it’s doing some cracking. We’ll push you around in a wheelbarrow. So I’ll be there. Yeah, but I’ll be there both days. But, yeah, it’s going to be good.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, I think so. I appreciate the opportunity. I look forward to talking to you more about that and other things as well.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, absolutely, yeah. So we’ve got about five minutes here. Then I’m going to get you guys to come back next week because I want to get into this a little bit more. So, hey, if you’re listening to the show now, be sure you catch next week as well. Then we’ll give you a couple minutes and Cody a couple minutes on the biggest challenges facing us. And then when we do our show next week, we’ll get into some of the things that, you know, what we need to do and how to get more people engaged. Because that’s got to have been disappointing to you over the couple years. When you talk to people and you look at the wolf thing, and I think you said this, so correct me if I’m wrong, if like 30% of the licensed hunters would have voted in Colorado against the wolf thing, we would have won that, you know. And I mean… good night what do we have to do to get people engaged and I was hey if I got to be on not a huge political guy you know what I mean and I mean but after a while you got to figure out hey during my show Greg Lopez you know I bought Greg on my haystack show because I’m like hey that’s about businesses but you know what we’re gonna have any businesses if we ain’t got a good place to so man I started doing more stuff myself but but what do we do
SPEAKER 11 :
I think the biggest thing, Scott, and I appreciate the question, is people have to decide what value they have to be able to participate. We ran into so many people during the campaign that, for one, they didn’t know what, when, where, how. They didn’t know who their elected officials were. They didn’t know when elections were. They didn’t know things were on the ballot. And I’m not saying everybody needs to be a political road scholar like what Cody and I have become. Not that we’re the smartest apples in the basket, but we’re not infested with worms yet. we have to be able to turn around and get people to understand if it’s an attack on me and we buy a license in this state to perpetuate Colorado’s science-based wildlife management program through Colorado Parks and Wildlife, if it’s an attack on me, it’s an attack on you. And these people that are trying to stop all of this don’t have a particular interest about one thing or another. It’s about all of it. Their answer is zero, none, nada. You don’t do it for any way, shape, or form. Now, they might just talk about a little bit of it over here, but their ultimate goal – and if you look at their background, look at their fundraising, look at their message that they’ve created over the last 20 or 30 years – They want it all gone. And if you listen to the leaders of those organizations, they have said this stuff on the hot mic for the last 20 or 30 years. It’s not about getting rid of trapping. It’s not about getting rid of dogs. It’s not getting rid of shooting our state animal, the bighorn sheep. It’s about all of it. And we have to be able to turn around and ignite our side to get them to understand that all of us are up against the wall. All of us are under assault. And all of us are in the target zone. of the enemy right through the gates uh your podcast yeah that wasn’t plans but yeah through the gates is we started that january 1st i think we’re going into our 44th or 45th episode so far and it was an attempt based upon all the podcasts we were on last year and taking the advice from those individuals the big influencers the ranellas and the cameron hayneses and everybody You need to do this to keep the message out and to keep people updated. And that’s just what it’s done. It’s been able to keep people reinvigorated and enthused and somewhat optimistic and informed about some of the happenings, not just in Colorado, but a lot of different other places about species of take. And just try to keep people informed. We’re not trying to be the next meat eater. We’re not trying to be the next Scott Watley and turn around and run some sort of a big radio show. We don’t have the bandwidth or the financial fortitude to be able to turn around and keep building up an army every two years to try to fight something like what we fought last year. That was a $3.3 million campaign. I don’t know about you, but we can’t keep doing it like that. We have to change our playbook and our roadmap of how we’re going to stay on the landscape and how we’re going to be at the front of the line. Right, right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Cody, I’ve got about 60 seconds, but we’re going to bring you back next week, man. Biggest challenges kind of facing you guys.
SPEAKER 10 :
If I had to sum it up in one word, engagement. It’s got to be the engagement. Dan famously said, if you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re going to end up on the menu. That’s something that needs to be taken seriously.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. And, you know, I think education’s got to come, you know, where we get the truth out because there’s so much garbage on social media that’s not even true, you know, and then get that engagement. I think we’ll get that engagement if we do the education side, right? Absolutely. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Hey, don’t forget the dates, August 8th and 9th, Outdoorsman Days. Go to ColoradoOutdoorsmanDays.com, and also the banquet for United Houndsmen of Colorado is August 2nd, and it’ll be at the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, and you can get tickets at the door there or on UnitedHoundsmenOfColorado.com. Once again, don’t go anywhere next week. Listen next week. We’re going to get more with these guys. So thanks for being with us. Hope you have a great rest of your weekend. Remember, Sundays 8 and 8 a.m. and p.m. You can catch the replay and then the following Thursday from 9 to 10. So for Dan Gates, Cody Lohstrom, thanks for being with us. Hope you have a great rest of your weekend.
SPEAKER 12 :
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.
