The first thing that you should ask yourself
whether you're hunting early season or late season
is what are my Ambient temperatures and what
can I expect in that temperature range? For
the way this meat is gonna transition from
on the Car as to table for hair.
And there's some magic numbers that we can
all remember, and I think to keep it
simple, we'll just we'll start at the lower
temperature range. If we're gonna talk about early
season hunting, an average good temperature would be
50 degrees. You hope for a 50 degree
day.
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Appreciate everyone tuning in for another episode. I'm
Sam. We were host of today's Tips, Tuesday.
A short segment covering rock slide dot com
tidbits, Honey news from across the west, which
just a sprinkling of tips and tricks to
keep you well informed for your next adventure.
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Atc spotting scope Link in the show notes.
Today's show is all about the early season.
First, we take a deep dive into the
science of Me care, then we learn about
sick, first light, fur, and sc gears, favorite
pieces to keep us comfortable when the temperatures
start to climb. So let's jump on in.
Alright. Today's guest is Larry Bartlett, longtime time
Rock slide member, but more importantly, Larry has
been involved in the outdoor industry for over
2 decades.
Larry was innovative in the development and testing
of synthetic game bags and created tag bags,
still some of the best bags you can
buy. Larry started Pristine adventures in 20 19
and helped hundreds of guys plan and execute
our Alaskan adventures. Larry personal draw to Alaska
back, country forced them to design, upgrade and
revolutionize how pac are utilized to get hunters
and their meat out of the remote wilderness.
Larry has authored multiple books on the subject
and released a ton of informative videos. Larry
has been focused on maximizing by country me
care. And frankly, Larry has most comprehensive
data collection on field conditions and meet temperatures,
so he's definitely a meat care expert, and
that's why I've asked him on today's Tips,
Tuesday, Welcome to the show, Larry. Hey. Thank
you. Appreciate that, Sam. Like we kinda talked
about, I was trying to gear up a
little bit for myself a little more of
on this subject and I just felt, like
a freshman minute at college. Man, there's so
much information that you've put out and pumped
out there so much data you collected. And
I truly appreciate and you know, just your
focus on the main aspect of hunting for
me, which is getting the groceries home.
Yeah. That's a great way to put it.
You know, To be honest, you know, even
in the army, I always assumed the shit
tasks, you know, like, I was a medic
for the first 5 years in industry. You
know, what am...
Shit jobs literally was filled sanitation, and I
had to, you know, dick trenches and do
the things that nobody else really wanted to
do. And Guess I kind of excel at
that. That appearance in the army, just let
let me know that crap jobs are really
also important. And when I got into Hunting,
Me care was kind of you know, nobody
really had a lot of resources in Alaska
about how to deal with me long term,
and all of my experience was White tail
hunting growing up, We never
spent more than 3 or 4 days with
meat, you know, in camp. We generally had
a truck or a formula wheeler or something
reasonably
available for
transportation, and we got in and got out
with our animals and me care for that
reason was never a great channel at. And
therefore, I didn't develop a lot of hands
on skill set. But when I got to
Alaska, 1 of the first things I realized
and on the very first hump that I
did, which was off of the road system.
I drove in behind a... Yeah. Allison Air
force space in the Yukon training area and
fair banks,
shot my first moves in 09:19 95. He
shouted at a mile and a half from
the road straight down in Valley, and
shot this nice little meat meatball who was
only like, 500 pounds, maybe with just the
leg bones and the rest of the meat,
but it took us 3 days to get
that animal, from that mile and a half
point down in the valley back up to
the road and all the loads.
It was a task that I never wanted
to repeat. So that winter I bought my
first inflatable boat. And I went down a
Kmart and just got the shit,
you know, rap that I could find, thinking
that that would be just fine for Alaska
rivers, and that in 19 95.
Started my transition into understanding really what is
hunting in Alaska and wilderness Me care. And
over the years, it's just been a task
that I've assumed so that I can educate
the guests that I'm responsible before coming to
Alaska to hunt. They're mirror images of myself
30 years ago, coming here with very limited,
extended me care skill sets. And so my...
You know, that crappy job extended into my
professional career, and I just kinda somehow became
1 of the meat care experts in the
state. I don't mind the task, but it
it does require a lot of
diligence
and, you know, prudent note taking and luckily,
I just... That's just part of my Mo,
so it was easy for me to collect
some of this data. The hardest part was
to have all of the data and then
reg it or break it down if you
will dumb it down to an audience that,
frankly, they're not scientist. They never will be
their hunters. And they just need some basic
skill sets on how to take care of
me for 4 to 12 days. The 1
thing I noticed right off, and I have
your books and I also watch your video
matter of fact right before we did this.
But it said, bacteria can double in numbers
every 20 minutes, and and every 10 degrees
increase in temperature. So, I mean, that was
just the difference between 75 degrees. Fahrenheit and
55 degrees. Fahrenheit is amazing. Oh my gosh.
Yeah. And if we could simplify the conversation
to just to give our audience, you know,
the the best... Of the best 20 minutes
of discussion, I would say, think of bacteria
as available, plentiful all over the environment. And
as soon as you exposed to the skin
and you you you see your your meat
cuts. That's where your concerns began, and you
have to start casting yourself. First and foremost,
what's the ambient temperature? Most don't necessarily carry
a thermometer, but we should have some means
of identifying what our storage temperature will be
for the next, say 48 hours. So with
bacteria they're interesting and really not really interesting
thing about bacteria as it does double depending
on... And we're not talking just doubling, like,
literally, 1 cell becomes 2 and under a
microscope, every 20 minutes, you've seen 3 cycles
of this happen. And you can follow the
life of a of a bacteria cell, but
that still is an answer. Why why is
bacteria important? Which ones are harmful? What's gonna
call spoil And what I can say about
that is, if you have a bacteria problem
on your me, the first way that you're
gonna identify it is by smell. And to
reach a level that humans can smell bacteria
on meat, that means that it's in the
billions of cells.
Because what you're smelling is not, the bacteria
itself, you're smelling all the off products or
the the byproducts, the waste of the bacteria
as they'd multiply and live and die. All
of those cells start to collect and sometimes
it's slime. Sometimes it's within mold and slime.
Sometimes it's just off colors, and it just
has a funky smell and you're not quite
sure. That's what you're do dealing with with
bacteria because you you don't see the actual
bacteria. You just see the the leftovers the
waste from the bacteria. The first thing that
you should ask yourself whether you're hunting early
season or late season is what are my
Ambient temperatures and what can I expect in
that temperature range? For the way this meat
is gonna transition from on the Car as
to table fare. And there's some magic numbers
that we can all remember, and I think
to keep it simple. We'll just we'll start
at the lower temperature range. If we're gonna
talk about early season hunting,
an average good temperature would be 50 degrees
you would hope for a 50 degree day.
Probably gonna be somewhere in the seventies or
eighties and in some areas. So what I
try to do is understand where I am
and in whatever environment and decide some level
of prediction, what are my... What's the next
week gonna be or more specifically, the next,
the 3 days after you shoot an animal,
what is the average daily temperature? What's the
lowest and highest
daytime and nighttime temperature so that you can
find an actual average for the day? And
50 degrees,
mosquitoes come out, at 50 degrees, blow flies
become active. So bacteria is not really a
threat at 50 degrees. Anything below 50 degrees.
Bacteria take a long time to develop, and
you can do a lot of hands on
tactics, to reduce the amount of bacteria that
even stays on your meat regardless of where
what an environment you're in. But at 50
degrees, the first
threat becomes the blow fly. And without proper
precautions or mitigation, those blow flies are gonna
just land on your meat and
blow little maggots that you don't see for
8 or 10 hours. And then depending on
the temperature within 12 hours, you're gonna see
these
eggs develop wherever those blow flies were crawling
around in the folds of your meat and
places where you're not actually observing because you're
taking meat off the car. Right? So 1
of the first things that I would suggest
in especially early season or above 50 degrees
is have a... So soluble solution around of
citric acid, and hut who are backpack savvy,
know that you can buy powdered form citric
acid online and just mix you know, an
ounce of citric acid powder to a whole
court of drinking water, shake that eyebrow well
as long as that as acidity kind remind
you of a really tart lemon lemonade or
lemon juice, urine in and acidic
solution discussion. And that's the part that is
gonna prevent those blow flies from deciding your
meat surface is a comfortable place to blow
its eggs. The trickery is what, you know,
I call it is what we're trying to
do is we're trying to delay and trick.
You know, we're we're tricking the blow flies
and into thinking that this meat is not
worthy of them to blow eggs onto and
the first way to do that is to
coat it with a light spray or, you
know, just a a really light spray or
a mist all over your meat, and that...
Gives you an acidic surface that the blow
flies don't trust. So they're gonna go somewhere
else and do their magic. Bacteria
we're not putting the citric acid and on
an early season above 50 degrees for bacteria
necessarily. Primarily, we're using that to re return
blow fly activity. Now,
between 50 and 60 degrees fahrenheit,
something else starts to occur. Between 50 and
60 is a storage temperature that you can
work with for
extended periods say 3 or 4, maybe even
5 days in the field. But as your
meat temperatures need resting meat temperature and we'll
come back to temperature
of the meat itself in just a few
minutes, but the storage temperature right now is
what we're talking about. At 50 and 60
degrees, your meat is gonna find a balance
somewhere close to that 58 to 60 degree
temperature threshold, and what happens at 60 degrees
is fat,
oxidation, and enzyme auto isis, and that's too
fancy words to say your fats gonna start
spoiling, and that becomes source bacteria that's gonna
waste the rest of your hi corner or
your front shoulder, wherever that fat is and
if it goes ran, everything around, it's also
gonna have a dead zoned, you're gonna have
to trim, that fat becomes a concern and
you need to remove it in early season
hunts, even if you're used to keeping it
in and that say in a September an
October hunt environment, that fat will be a
problem if it reach reaches 60 degrees and
stays there for any, any length of times,
say, 12 to 18 hours in warm temperatures,
you're gonna start smelling the difference between edible
fad and and that which she wouldn't wanna
eat. And by the time you smell it
like that, remembering the bacteria in those temperature
zones can double if not triple in in
an hour in its colony size, the faster
you can remove all of that fat the
better, and I'll come back to that as
well. But... Yeah. So go ahead. Oh, I
was just gonna say an an ounce of
prevention is worth a pound of cure there.
So simply just cut it off. Cut it
off immediately, you know...
I remove all of the facing meat. Everything
that's observable and place it on a tarp,
and that's from from the kill shot to
when I'm dis memory an animal hopefully is
within the hour. And it's not critical to
remove the fat immediately because basically, what you
have is a... You have a window of
about 24 hours. That bacteria. Even if you
had pissed on a leg or you open
a bladder and it poured urine all over
a high quarter or even you laid it
down in a area that it had poop
in and it contaminated your meat. Even if
he did nothing to that meat cut and
laid it there, backed bacteria won't start to
develop in those areas for about 24 hours,
and that's because bacteria have to go through
a lag time when they hit a new
environment, It's, like, a it's a threshold of
time where they're not active, but there's trying
to establish credibility in their environment. That means
the temperature has to be perfect. The nutrients
have to be available, water and moisture have
to be available and the acidity has to
be just right, and they won't know that
for about 24 hours. So the most critical
time that you have to for lack of
a better word, mess around with your gain,
you got that 24 hour period where you
can make a lot of mistakes and get
it really messy if you had to, if
the environment was shitty, but after that 24
hours, you really have to be diligent on
your hands on application. And that means removing
all the fat, if it's above 60 degrees
outside. And take it off immediately, all all
of the good stuff that you would off
of behind quarter. Typically, we would leave and
maybe even grind up on some animals, but
it's it's not worth the... The wrist in
terms of fat.
But above 60 degrees, we... You've got concerns.
So keep in mind, let's back up to
your temperatures for a sec second. I know
we can kind of
flesh out the rest of that conversation. But
when your animal dies and it's laying on
the ground. If you took a core temperature,
it's gonna be about a hundred and 1
degrees, So right there, you have,
a meat cut, say, a whole high quarter
on a moose that's hundred and 50 pounds
of, hundred and 1 degree temperature meat. And
your priority is to get that meat core
temperature, the the temperature of the meat is
as low as you can above freezing. And
ideally, in early season hunts, you know, that
might mean 45
to 56
degrees core temperature in 36 hours. For... But
the first 24 hours, if you had a
a meat thermometer, you would you would notice
what dam. That meat still 80 degrees. It's
only... It's... 4 hours ago and it's still
80, you know, I'm in trouble. I gotta
do something else. You really don't. You need
to realize that first 24 hours is also
a period where your temperature 4 your what's
called the thermal regulation will decrease and find
a homeostasis and that balance between the the
daily temperature average, and the me corps will
balance out at about 48 to 72 hours.
But generally, about 2 days into your meat
care, your meat temperature will be
very close within 1 to 2 degrees of
your average daily temperature. And that's an interesting
little side tip that, can give you a
peace of mind for that critical first 24
hour period we're... You're not too worried about
that meat as long as you put it
in a an environment where it's gonna foster
wind and shade and dripping ability, you know,
plenty of, surface area exposed to your gain
bags so that your meat can drain and
sweat properly, and that's also reducing moisture and
temperature along that way. But at 24 hours,
you should notice that the meat is down
close to 50 degrees. You know, if the
ambient temperatures allow. K it'll probably be somewhere
between 50 and 60 degrees at 24 hours,
early season hunts, even if the daytime temperatures
are, you know, climbing into the seventies. At
nighttime, you could usually with wind and shade
and time, you can get that core temperature
down pretty well. Just with your ambient environment,
without a cooler necessary or ice. Yeah. And
I think 1 of the key things that
you always bring up to is storing it
in a proper area, You know, if you
can get somewhere with shade with the good
breeze, you really do yourself a favor even
when the temperatures rise up. Yeah. And you
do and 1 of the mistakes that we...
Sheep hunters have to make sometimes, for example,
I'm using sheep on it because we're typically
backpack packing in, Elk Connor do the same
thing, but what I've noticed is you get
an animal down in the mountains, your urge
just to just get off the mountain. That
may take the rest of the day, 8
hours, 10 hours to get back into a
flat.
Rap river habitat, and, we have a tendency
to kill the animal, dis member it, get
into our backpacks and then rock off the
mountain, you know, or out of the bush
to get closer to our vehicle or closer
to our takeout or transportation. And if the
temperatures are warm, say in the seventies
75,
80 during in the day, and you're still
getting, you know, 50 degree nights, the best
tactic might be to
instead of using that first 24 hours to
blaze out of the mountains, give yourself a
full day to let that meet rest and
drain and sweat and cool in its temperatures,
so that you're not putting a hundred degree
temperature meat into a plastic line backpack and
closing it up with no wind circulation, and
it's just gathering heat all day while you're
hiking, you could do more damaging that scenario
then giving yourself 12 to 24 hours setting
at or near the kill side, letting me
grass,
to prepare yourself for a a physical local
transport or that meat out of the field.
Yeah. I really never even thought about that.
You know, you're basically just baking it on
your back while carrying it out. Yeah. And
and it it won't matter if your objective
is 2 to 3 days from the time
that you kill the animal. It almost won't
matter what temperatures you're hunting in because... The
meat probably not going to spoil if you
use that first 24 hours tactically, meaning, your
goal is to let that meat sweat and
drain and cool as much as it possibly
can so that it stabilizes,
nothing's gonna happen in that first 24 hours
in terms of bacterial growth, but the difference
between post harvest 24 hours and 72 hours
is really critical for me because it's it's
trying to find a a balance with the
with the temperatures
around itself. And, you know, the... If you
if you wait 3 days and then pack
it out, the meat gonna be down to
basically at a little over the average nighttime
temperatures if you kept in the shade and
in the wind during the day, you can
manage it quite well. So we hunters have
this conundrum, and we either have to get
in on our backs and with hot as
me and just get off the mountain. If
your truck is 2 days away, maybe that's
the best scenario. But if you're 3 or
4 or 5 days away from your transportation,
you know,
it preclude us to think more tactically with
how we transport the game and and what
hour we start that transport even developing a,
like, a safe protocol for moving off the
mountains, sometimes resting in place for 12 to
24 hours is is best for your physical
body and and your care strategy.
I'm glad you brought that up because that's
something that we don't normally think about. Like,
I don't know if I've ever really thought
about that. Cooling it down enough so that
I'm not putting it directly in my backpack
and base just heat it up on my
way down? Yeah. Because you're re you're re
restarting the the heat. You're you're basically fostering
heat retention in the meat by closing it
up, put it in plastic. And then your
son, the sun, weather gonna just be concentrated
on that that exposed backpack pack. It's just
gonna or it's gonna prolong the time it
put takes for that meat to come down
to a safe resting temperature. But again, it's
it's 1 of those things where you have
to decide well, Might... If I'm only 2
days away from the truck, takes maybe that's
my best option is to just do it
while the meats hot and just get it
over with the first day or get as
close as you can to the vehicle and
then rest for a day and just let
that drain and and sweat and airflow work
its magic on reducing the core temperature of
your me. Because the faster you can get
it down, the better a commercial meat industry
when they kill a cow, their objective after
they wash that car is to rapidly cool
it to 33 degrees. And they keep it
between 33 and 42 degrees for 12 days,
minimum, and that's kind of the the standard
for a beef and poor. So the faster
we can get that temperature down below 50
degrees or close to that 50 degree threshold,
the better or preventing bacteria open. Growth and
the longevity or your me. So we talked
about citric acid on, warmer than 60 degree
fahrenheit high temperature zones.
Again, you would wanna use that just 1
spray over all the services and let that
dry preferably for a few minutes before you
slip it the game bags for, you know,
your best
blow fly and and bacterial
prevention strategies.
And with citric acid, if you do choose
to use that, you basically do it every
other day and you stop on day 4.
There's no need to do more than 2,
maybe 3
applications over the... The field life of that
meat. So the more citric acid you use,
you're basically the if you are diligent or
over diligent and used it every day for
4 or 5 days, you might see your
surface of your meat, turn gray or brown,
kind of a just an una appealing, you
know, texture, and that's because of the acid
burn. But all my studies, you know, albeit,
they are my own studies. So if someone
had other studies to contradict what I'm... Saying,
I, I'm not aware of them. But I
can only tell you that the bacterial test
that I've done, it's negligible to use citric
acid after day 4 because
bacteria that where there already dining. And unless
there's new exposed services with bacteria, that citric
acid is done, everything it's gonna do with
basically, 2 applications. Once on day 1, once
on day 3, and then I discontinue it
on day 4 regardless of how many times
I've used it.
And, of course, you know, your game bags
just make sure that you pull your draw
strings and keep the ability of those flies
from entering those bags because they can go
in tiniest of holes if your draws strings
aren't pulled up and those clips aren't tight,
a lot of meat can be wasted at
early season when those blow flies are super
active. That starts at 50 degrees and they
really become aggressive at 60 degrees and beyond.
Yeah. For sure. I like to wrap my
string around after I pull it tight, wrap
the string around it and then pull it
once, and that gives me that little bit
extra. Yeah. Exactly.
To follow up on everything that we discussed,
there was a video on my Youtube channel,
you could just Google you Larry Bartlett, Youtube
or Larry Bartlett last. Guy, I think my
sign is, like, willingness
adventure 09:07,
and there's about 70 videos on there and
more than half of them. Have extensive me
care
demonstration, but 1 in particular that'll give you
an idea of temperature related times how to
predict how fast your meat is cooling and
what to do on
day 1 through 9, look for mitigating
spoil in the back country, final
Ua
version. It'll talk about everything from keeping your
meat from freezing the first 3 days to
prevent cold shortening to dealing with blow flies
and, you know, trajectory wounds, you know,
basically flushing out and those bad shots on
a high quarter, or ribs, and know, they'll
show you there's some hands on techniques for
basically all temperatures. You did make a note
that most of our alaska videos are fall
centric and therefore,
cooler temperatures on average, but there are a
couple of videos, at caribou specific that we
had 80 degree days and the me care
on those is also shared in that mitigating
foliage in the back video. So you'll see
some me air hands on from 80 degrees
down to freezing temperatures.
I'll link that up and it's that's the
video I was watching today, and I'll tell
you this people really wanna geek out on
meat care, and I hope they do. I
mean, this video is over an hour long
of just me care. Yeah. Yeah. Some good
stuff. If you like that sort of thing.
It'll at least get you prepared. And also,
I got your float dragging in Alaska, and
a, you got a whole chapter in that
book chapter 8. Yep. And I don't know.
That's, like, 70 or 80 pages of just
meet care too. Absolutely. And that's... If it's
not covered in p dragon in Alaska. It's
covered in that video and or all the
rest that support those videos. There's no stone
left uncovered with me care, in our profession.
Well, Larry, you sure opened my eyes, and
man, that's so much information to take on,
and I appreciate you converting it to the
early season for. And just providing all these
resources for to check out if anybody has
any questions for you where can they find
you at? Oh, you can check out pristine
ventures dot com. And you'll probably find me
on rock slide more often than on my
own website. So look for me there. For
sure. Alright, Laura. I appreciate it, And we'll
catch up with you soon. Alright, Sam. Take
care, brother. It's time to stop dredging application
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Alright. Moving on to a company that is
continually pushing the design boundaries We're lucky enough
to have John Barlow senior product manager for
Sick gear. I'm excited to hear what's new
in the warm weather gear department. So welcome
to the S. Yeah. Thanks, Sam. Thanks for
having me. Like, we are talking. I mean,
the timing is perfect. Right? A lot of
the country right now is under a a
heat wave. Not here in Montana. I don't
know about where you're living. We just had
snow last night,
the middle of june. So... Yeah. Pretty crazy.
We had super cold weather here too. I'm
super enjoying it. Yeah. No. I'm not I'm
not complaining that it's not 95 degrees outside.
But... Yeah. When it comes to hot weather,
you know, I think that we've got... Some
great stuff and over the years, I've I've
helped develop with the team, some things for
hot weather hunting. And it's really just not
hot weather honey. I mean right now, people
are probably finishing their shit hunting. Right? And
everybody's starting the scout. And if not, that,
then you're out training,
and that eventually leads into the fall season.
So what we're trying to solve for when
we go outside right now and it's hot
and it's sunny, and all these things. At
least most of the time is, you know,
we're trying to protect ourselves
from that heat. So there's a couple ways
to do that. And then we're trying to
protect ourselves from the sun, and there's a
couple ways to do that as well. So
the first thing when it comes to clothing
is you wanna make sure that, you know,
the clothing you put it on is light
weight and oftentimes when it comes to lightweight
clothing, you lack durability. So trying to find
that balance of lightweight and durable can be
difficult cult, and I'll speak to the exact
product here in a minute. So trying to
figure that out, and then also something that
manages moisture. So probably when you and I
were were younger, maybe even kids. Right? We'd
run around and cotton t shirts, and we'd
sweat that cotton t shirt out. That cotton
would absorb that moisture. And then that would
allow us to cool down either with a
light breeze or through what is called the
vapor of cooling, which is basically just your
body given off heat, the moisture evaporates,
with that and takes the heat with it.
But when you're trying to spend a night
out or multiple nights out or a week
or 2 in the back country, if you
have something like caught that's gonna absorb that
moisture and is gonna help keep you cool.
During the heat of the day, that's not
gonna work when the when the sun goes
down. So we we need something that's going
to help manage and this is where modern
materials and all that comes in, polyester, and
nylon, etcetera. So trying to find something that's
gonna manage more, which is going to absorb
it, keep that moisture on your skin a
little bit or in that material. And then
as you push that heat away and the
moisture takes a heat away through a vapor
cooling, you're able to cool down and then
that process continues to cycle. And then in
the evening or the mornings maybe when you're
out glass, and at not so hot that
that base layer still able to manage moisture.
So those are kinda of the problems we're
trying to solve. And then I think when
it comes to hot weather what people tend
to overlook is, you know, some times, the
coldest I've ever been is actually in the
desert. And that sounds weird coming from a
person who's kinda specialized in cold weather survival
and mountain warfare in the military, but there's
such a huge temperature
differentiation between mornings and evenings, cold that if
you're not careful and maybe overlooked bringing in
a puffy jacket and or something to block
the win that you can really find yourself,
even though it's super hot during the day,
maybe let's just call it 90. If it
drops into the mid fifties, you're gonna be
pretty chilled at night. And so really, I
go back to what I call the 8
piece clothing system, which is a base layer
is critically important. And I think when you're
talking base layer, that could be something that
for this specifically hot weather, something that's super
lightweight, maybe in a hundred 20 gram ish
merino, maybe 01:20 to 1, you know, 50
60 70 somewhere in there, and then something
lightweight synthetic wise. But that's gonna help pull
the moisture off your skin. And then as
your body naturally puts off the heat, it's
gonna take the heat away through evaporation cooling.
So that's kinda critical what I call the
foundation of a clothing system. And then it's
really important this time of year to have
a pair of pants that's durable enough that
you can crawl sit, cooling slides stock in,
all those things. So, you know, for Ci,
I always default to this time of year
the ascent pan. I think the ascent pant
is 1 of the best, not only lightweight,
but durable hunting pants. We've make it out
of a cord nylon. I've had it on
Kate Buffalo hunt. I'm gonna go on Kate
Buffalo hunt, August. I'm gonna take these pair
pants. The They're almost ind,
especially for as light as they are. So
I'm gonna put that pair of ascent pants
maybe over top of merino, cor merino marino
01:20 bak sir or lightweight boxer out of
synthetic. And then I'm gonna have a base
layer top and because we're trying to protect
ourselves, from the sun. I always tend to
default this time of year to a base
layer top, be it a 1 core merino
marino 01:20 or a core lightweight hoodie that
has launched sleeves and has a hood. So
what that allows me to do is if
I want to roll up sleeves, I can
just simply pull the sleeves up, I can
dump pee. But if I need to protect
myself from the sun, I can pull those
sleeves down. If I wanna put the hood
up for conceal or just to get out
of the sun at a glass knob, I
could do that if I wanna pull that
hood off. I can do that as well.
So I think trying to find versatile clothing
this time year that's lightweight manage moisture, but
it also allows you to get out of
the sun, Now another hoodie that I think
is exceptional for this time of year is
what we call the E ox guard hoodie.
So originally that E guard hoodie was positioned
as something that has... What's called insects shield,
so it protects you from ticks and mosquitoes
and things like that. But it's... Say so
lightweight, it manages moisture so well that people
have decided that that's also a great hot
weather piece, not just for spring Turkey or
bear, but also for this time of year,
and then even in the early part of
fall. So, again, it does all those things
I talked about Up ups so that the
ultraviolet protection factor I think is what it
stands for. But basically, the ability of the
clothing to protect you from the sun, You'll
see different Up ups ratings on different clothing,
so that's something you wanna look at. I
think something is low is a 30, so
say, like, the core lightweight hoodie depending on
the color that it is. That's kinda like
a 30 P all the way up to
something like that E guard hoodie, which is
maybe pushing something along a 50 P, That
range changes is what I'm looking forward to
product. So I don't wanna get sunburn burned
through my clothing. Right? That's the worst thing
to do because, ultimately, when you're out there,
you you don't wanna kick your own butt.
Right? You don't wanna make self statistic. And
so if you go out there and get
dehydrated, get sunburn, get suns stroke, all those
things, like, that's an forced error from you,
not mother nature. You know what it's gonna
be like. And so it's up to you
to kinda counter that. And clothing is really
that first line of defense against the elements.
And so when it's hot out, you need
to make sure that you can manage your
heat that you can manage your moisture and
that you could protect yourself from the sun.
Now when the sun does go down, that's
when I think the puffy jacket really comes
in and there's, you know, several insulated puffy
jackets that you can choose from, something like
a Kelvin aero jacket it would be a
great all around piece if you've either never
own a puffy jacket before or you're looking
something to kinda do it all or you're
maybe going from the lower 48, and you're
gonna head to say coastal Alaska or Canada
where it's damp got a great insulation that
can manage moisture. So anyways, that puffy jacket
those gonna be critical for when you stop
to put on to capture your body heat,
especially, it's sun goes down so those early
mornings, late at night, I even sleep in
that puffy jacket to supplement my clothing system.
And then to go with that, puffy jacket
is some type of beanie. Like b 03:30
beanie or traverse beanie. And I think when
you start putting that together, the last 2
pieces would be rain gear or maybe a
wins stop her top. But, you know, depending
on where you're hunting, maybe you don't need
that in Arizona, but Rain gear, of course,
you know, you definitely want where where you
and I live or if you had north,
but, you know, specifically the early season, I
think that we need to protect ourselves from
the sun and then being able to dump
that body heat to manage our body temperature.
You brought up so many great points, and
I drew a early season in Nevada Deer
tag last year, and I was surprised all
the Deer high, Europe high 2. But just
a different of getting that elevation and how
much more sun you're exposed to even in
the shade up there. So I I do
think that a hood, as... I don't know.
When you first think about it, you know,
you think of a hood, maybe retaining more
heat, but getting out of the sun there.
It's critical. I think there was 1 tree
on my glass point And so as the
sun moved around, you know, I just kinda
had to move around too with it, but
it was rough kind of... Yeah. It becomes
a lesser 2 evils Right? And it's like,
I'd rather have that lightweight hood to get
out of the sun. Think gets sunburn on
the back of my neck and then be
miserable for the for the rest of the
hunt. Right? And so outside of clothing, that's
where, like, a lightweight tarp is potentially crucial,
like, be able to pitch over your tripod.
Right? So you can sit there and just
keep moving that tarp around to kinda get
out of the sun. But, you know, this
time of year, that's what I'm looking to
do. I like, what is the problem I'm
trying to solve. And then what is the
gear and clothing that I need to kinda
help solve that problem? Yeah. I really appreciate
you walking us through the entire process there.
It makes a lot of sense and of
the things I always like about sickest is
they always have that piece of gear that
can fill not only the niche you're trying
to, but be able to to fill in
somewhere else 2. So it's a multipurpose purpose.
You can use it in the early season,
but you can also use it in September.
You can use it in those later seasons.
You can fill in your gear gaps that
way. Yeah. Versatility is a great thing. Right?
We wanna buy pieces that we can continue
to maybe start our season with, and then
wear those pieces. Most of them anyways, all
the way through to the end, and then
just have to supplement on top with some
additional items that, know, are gonna keep us
warm as a temperature starts plummet. Alright. Well,
I appreciate you chi in. Giving us a
lot of good info here on the sick
of pieces and give us a great starting
point there. I look forward to trying out
some more pieces and catching up with you
maybe in the later season, see what else
you guys are kicking out. We got some
great stuff coming out. So thanks Sam. I
appreciate it. Alright. Thanks, John.
Alright. We finally caught up with Bailey Flores,
product development manager from For. So Bailey is
gonna tell us a bit about For, then
jump into 1 of their favorite warm weather
pieces, the Sole technical hoodie. So welcome to
Show Bailey. Thank you, Sam. Thanks for having
me. Yeah. So 4 started in 20 20.
So we are still fairly new about 4
years now it's crazy. It's already 20 24.
But we're a hundred percent made source in
the Us and that we're considered technical gear.
So we don't just want to be known
for being made in sourced in the Us.
Well we are very proud of it. We
love what we do. And we love that
we do it here in the states. We
wanted to make something that's fully functional that
people can actually be proud to wear something
that people can... Actually use. And this whether
they're they're hunting, I can hiking, fishing anything
outdoors or anything like that. It's just all
around here for for all outdoor use. So,
you know, we don't just wanna put that
that made an America stamp out there, but
it's actually gonna be, you're gonna get high
quality, you know, technical gear from your top
tier your bottoms, your mid layers. And then
the piece we're talking about today is the
the technical hoodie. So I love our whole
solar lines. So that's gonna be our your
sun shirts, your sun pants, your super lightweight
moisture wick. 1 of my favorite thing about
these pieces, which includes the technical hoodie is
the the poly and the burp.
So that poly
actually basically wicks away any kind of scent
from you. So it uses silica, and it's
95 percent scent wine rain water and a
mixture of kind of a sand material that
basically which just wicks away all the... Any
kind of sense from you so you can
get around 6 to 8 use is without
kind of smelling any sweat. You know, you're
constantly in the field. You're out there running
around is something you can keep, you know,
3 or 4 lightweight pieces on you. And
the technical hoodie in general is it's just
something that anyone can use. You don't even
have to be a hunter. It's a really
good travel piece. You know, I've used it
a lot. So says I join the product
team. We we fly around. We go to
our warehouse. We go to our different facilities.
I'm down here in in Texas where it's
98 now, but, you know, we've gone places
like in Montana where it drops like, 50,
and, you know, I can rock the technical
hoodie here and then, you know, continue to
wear it over there just because the the
cooling minerals And it's just a stall around
comfortable piece. And it's 90 percent polyester with
10 percent span x. I wanna say that
1 as 88 percent, polyester or 12 percent
span x. And then what's the Up p
rating on it? Do you know off offhand?
So it's gonna be 50 plus. Yeah. So
that's pretty high for being out in the
song for sure. Oh.
You know, I have a buddy... This mom
had gotten diagnosed with stage 4 skin cancer,
And you know, she grew up always in
the sun. You know, it kind of the
thing where she was always tan,
never wore sunscreen, and, you know, I grew
up with that family. So that that was
pretty rough hearing, but I You know, she
actually... She beats stage 4 recently. So that
was that was awesome. But now, like, when
they go out. Yeah. That is. Yeah. They
they spent all their time on the water.
So I actually gifted him because now he
wears, like Sun everywhere goes, and, you know,
we're we're fishing. We're on the boat. I
gifted him a couple of the 4 low
ones. It's it's really cool seeing him I'm
out there over. Of his other brands that
he has. But 1 thing about these these
solar shirts is there here in Texas, I've
I've worn them all and, you know, I
love the brands that I grew up weren't
wearing. I don't... I can't describe how wide
it is. I mean, they're there's just... They're
so comfortable. I I could literally wear it
to weren't to sleep, then I can go
wear it on a run or go where
it working out, and then I'll go through
on a pair of pants and then, go
where it fishing. Just a bad ass bad
ass piece. Yeah. So you can wear it
next to skin as a next to skin
layer or you can wear it as, like,
a light over jacket. Absolutely. Yeah. So you
can wear it as a mix. Skin with
the the technical hoodie. I've had people wear
Next skin award just wear it as a
Layering piece, you know, here in Texas with,
you know, early season when they're they're hunting
white tail. It's still kind of, you know,
you start little cold in the morning and
then it heats up towards noon so that's
kinda of been a staple piece for for
early season hunting here in in Texas. But,
yeah, No. You can wear it layering. I
I run pretty hot. So I'll actually wear
the the sole
long sleeve as almost like a base layer
and then throw natural base layer over it
so that that burp product it keeps my
skin a little cooler, but I still have
those layers on top of me to kinda
knock up the wind or anything like that.
For me, it's always just keeping the outside
elements. Out, just staying kind of temperature regulated.
And these pieces do a great job of
that. Yeah. It sounds like it. And this
is a full zip hoodie? Yes, sir. A
fool zip buddy. Sounds like an amazing piece.
I wanna try it out. I think we
got a few more minutes. You wanna talk
about any of your other warm season offerings.
So I know that's a piece, the the
pants. So I think I touched on them
just a bit, But man, those pants are.
Those are awesome. So I I do a
lot of fast fishing here in Central Texas
so I'll throw on the solar pants. And
as thin as those things are, you know,
we had a lot of people that would
would come in the shop and they would
worry about them Brie and ripping up, but
with that rips stop, man, Those those things
hold they hold up well. And then on
top of that, I mean, I've tried through
Creek and rivers and streams through them and
when it's 98 to to 01:05 Granted it
it could be pretty miserable.
Especially, you're you're walking through Standing rock and
there's no day, that's something being non you.
But when you're walking through, you know, water
with those pants, they they don't feel uncomfortable.
I mean, they they keep you cool, normally,
when you're treasure do water and day kind
of a pant for me. Just feels it
feels uncomfortable, and then they just... They they
weigh you down. The way they were designed.
It's just... It's killer, man. Couldn't like them
enough. Couldn't talk about them enough. The pants
is definitely,
1 of my favorites that we have. And
I I feel like I say that about
a repeats, But, man, I I wear those
pants a ton here here in Texas. Yeah.
The 1 thing I noticed, you guys have
a lot of color in offerings. I think
6 maybe 7 different color options. Yeah. Absolutely.
And we're still kind of working on more.
So we have the we have a full...
The men's and the women's, I don't think
a touched on that part, But the, that's
for the tech hoodie. And that's for an
abundance of our pieces Act. And we just
launched a green, our 4 0 grain in
the women's because it was highly requested. And,
you know, we're still still work on more
because if it's 1 of our most popular
products that we have, Actually, you know, right
there alongside with the the solar long sleeve.
And the the pants. I say when I
do, like, our road show working in the
store. It's 1 that catch people's eye and
they love how how light it is, but
it's also a a decent entry level piece,
You know, not everyone can drop a dime
and, you know, spin 500 on a jacket.
But, you know, they try that that solar
hood, you know, the technical sip, then it's
01:49,
good entry level piece and some that, you
know, introduce you to the brand and try
it out and you fall with it, then,
you know, eventually, you're gonna you're gonna check
something else out that we have and to
kinda see the the quality it's all built
with. Yeah. It sounds like a awesome warm
weather piece white tell us just a little
bit about how the process works. I know
you guys got a a few storefront fronts,
why don't you tell us where those are.
And then if people order online kinda how
the back and forth if they get the
fit they need or or how all that
plays out. Yeah. So we have... Right now,
we do have just the the 1 store
in white fish Montana. So that's where we're
based out of. But they can order online.
They... We they can catch us up road
shows. So, we have Taylor. She actually all
store roadshow shows. So a lot of toll
archer tree challenges to the Nra events, anything
like that, you know, keep an eye on
those outdoor shows that are in your area,
definitely worth going to, not just because of
us, but because of all the brands that
are there, They they showcase things really well.
That way you can come see it, put
your hands on it and kinda see what
you're getting into, but, you know, you can
check us out at 4 low dot. Com.
You know, we go through every piece there,
every technical property of it, You know, what
makes it different than what you're gonna find
out there. And then for, you know, if
you you order something that's a a wrong
size, we do returns and exchanges. Everything's pretty
seamless. As a as a consumer, it's it's
a pretty seamless and nice process,
especially for not having too many stores over
the Us. That's kind of that's 1 thing
that that does kinda suck about being a
smaller in a newer company is, you know,
not everyone does wanna give it a chance
because they can't see it in person, they
can't feel it. 1 of those things where
or if you see a a product on
site that you don't, you know, in you
order, it doesn't fit right or you don't
like it at all, we'll take care. Alright.
If people wanna check out your whole lineup
up, where can they go to find it?
Cor dot com. Do you and that's F0RL0H
dot com. For low. Yes, sir. Yeah. F0RL0H
dot com. Stands for for the love of
hunting.
I appreciate you making some time, bailey, telling
us about this tech hoodie, especially these pants,
and we look forward to seeing what you
guys are gonna roll out next. Absolutely. No.
Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.
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And keeping with the theme of today's early
season show, we have Michael Re.
From first light to take us through their
warm weather options to help us decide what
pieces to consider on our next early season
trip. So welcome to the Show, Michael. Sam.
Thanks for having me. Super excited to be
a part of it. Yeah. I'm pretty excited.
I haven't used a lot of first light
gear. I know there's a lot of staff
members. That do. So, you know, it's gonna
be kind of a learning experience for me
too, so I'm ready to jump on into
it. Yeah. Definitely. So... A big thing with
First slide is we really made our name
in the industry with merino wool base layers.
Right? So we have the best... Merino wool
base layer that you can get. And now
we're coming in with a synthetic base layer,
which is a launch of a new line
called the Yum, and this is specifically designed
for the early season. And you know, there's
a lot of, like, oh, synthetic versus natural.
Right? Yeah, so the why... What's the use
case form. Right? So I'm trying go over
for a quick overview of the Yum. So
the Yum offers what we call triple threat?
So it's gonna be high q treated. So
what that means is we've treated the synthetic
fabric. The hi cue is...
Antimicrobial, which cuts down on odor. You know,
a lot of times synthetic can can smell
funky. Well, that's what the high queue is
gonna counteract. It's a antimicrobial which is not
gonna allow that bacteria to grow in the
synthetic environment. Another piece of this is the
dot matrix fabric. Which includes our 37.5
active particle fiber for moisture management and allows
for quicker drying time, And then the third
key piece to it all is gonna be
the no fly zone, which is Prom based
to cut down on on bugs and insect
repel that is... Right into the fabric itself.
For instance, the Wick, which is our arrow
wall, which is a merino wool blend. That
1 also has a 37 5 in it.
It's gonna have natural anti microbial properties in
the marina wool itself. However, this synthetic versus
the
natural fibers the Wick is gonna have a
little bit longer dry time whereas is the
whereas the Yum is gonna dry out a
lot quicker. The Yum in the and the
synthetic, base layer is purpose built for hot
climates, which offers maximum moisture wick through the
in since synthetic fibers.
In contrast where the Wick merino wool provides
versatility with thermal regulation across more temperatures with
the merino... Wool fiber infused with 37 5
technology for wick performance and then also the
natural anti stink in there. Yeah. And the
1 thing I I saw about the no
fly zone that really kind of appealed to
me is that it repel ticks to, which
is super important like, if you're going on
a early season bear hunt or something like
that. Yeah. Exactly. That was you know, a
lot of the customer base has been calling
for that for quite some time. So we've
listened to what the customer is asked for.
Think it lasts up to down 50 washes.
Is that No fly zone ticks. It's a
huge part whether you're a back east or
out west, you know, ticks are a big
main concern early season hunts. I'm spring bear
to early season white tails, you know, it's
just the hunter enemy. What pieces do you
get coming out in the human line? So
the human line, we're gonna have it in
a hoodie that's gonna come in a long
sleeve crew neck, as well as a short
sleeve crew neck, and then an underwear, long
cut boxer brief. I'm a big fan synthetic
especially during the early season. I mean, you
know, those longer trips where you stink it
up. Our consideration, but, man, they sure do
breathe a lot better than than we'll... Yeah
Yeah. Absolutely. I've been running this Yum
doing a lot of up in the early
season as well as Archer Elk. And then,
in the Midwest for White Toe hunting as
well. So it's just super versatile. It has
a... Because it's not knit. It does hold
up a little bit more to operation as
well. Yeah. And that dot matrix fabric just
really lets it breathe, but it's also super
comfortable to wear against the skin. Yeah. Exactly.
So it's it's gonna be great for a
base layer next... To skin and then pull,
you know, like, a thicker merino top over
it or you can wear it just as
is in early hot weather as well. Do
you wanna skip onto your... Other hot weather
pieces you've had, I guess, for a little
while, the trace series? Yep. So the trace...
So I believe that 1 came out last
year, and that 1 came out
specifically for the warm weather climates. But it's
just a little bit different use case.
So that 1 comes in, the quarter zip
as well as a hand. And so it's
got... What we call, kinetic grid. So when
you actually hold that trace up to the
light, you can see the little dots throughout
there. So we've actually developed that fabric to
just be ultimate breathable. It's like, looking through
a win screen Almost. So you can feel
the win coming through cool you off on
those hot humid mug days,
or up in the mountains, you know, when
you're... Trying to get your sweat on training,
things like that. And that comes in the
trace quarter zip as well as pants for
that piece. So would you say that the
main difference between the yum and the trace
is... The traces is more of a altered
layer where the yum would be more next
to skin layer? Yes. That's exactly correct. Oh,
alright. Any other pieces we wanna mention for
the early season?
In the next couple weeks, we're coming out
with our new line of the 03:08 pant.
It's a new line of synthetic pants. So
we're gonna have... The, lined version for the
later season, But the early season coming out
with the synthetic pant in that lineup, and
it's gonna have, you know, hip zips with
vents, and things like that to really keep
you nice and comfortable in the early season
as well. And the 03:08 just... That's the
designated of the cut, the straight cut. Yeah.
Exactly. So 03:08 is gonna be a more
of a fit than it is. So, basically,
if you're... Let's call it a 34 by
32.
In the line version, you're always gonna be
a 34 32 in the online version and
so on in this series. So you'll always
know where you stand and it's gonna be
exactly the same. Well, you take all the
guess work out of it Nice. We're trying
to. Why don't you go ahead and tell
us kind of about if you get this
and you need to exchange it, some of
your customer service base. Things you guys do
over there first line? Yeah. Exactly. So first
slide, you know, customer service has always been
a number 1 priority of ours, you know,
phone calls,
chats,
emails. There's all sorts of ways to get
a hold of our customer service team. The
best way is to go to first site
dot com. Scroll all way to the bottom.
You'll see a returns exchange button in orange.
Click that, you'll be able to punch in
your order number, as well as your email
address,
to do free exchanges
to make sure that we're getting you in
the right fit and the right pieces. You
you cannot exchange across product lines, but you
can
exchange, you know, for different sizes, size up
size down to making sure we're getting you
on the right fit all the time. Alright,
Michael. I appreciate you, coming on. Churn us
with these new items. I know the couple
staff members. No doubt will be wearing them.
I'll be looking forward to hearing and how
they like. Awesome, Sam. Thanks for having me.
I'm happy to have the guys from Sc
gear back on the show. Today we have
Josh Jensen to run us through screens, warm
season offerings. So welcome back, Josh? Hey Thanks,
sam for having me. Alright. I'm pretty excited.
Why don't you go ahead and just start
laying out your your favorite warm season pieces,
I guess. Yeah. It's crazy to think we're
already up that time a year where the
hunting season starting. And so we we do.
We have some really nice this early season
type of gear where it's
70 mid... In know, mid seventies
to even up to a hundred degrees where
we're sometimes that's where the temperatures hit. And
so Having the right gear. It's super important.
We always
love merino wool. We we run a couple
different variations of merino merino wool a lightweight
01:50
Gsm merino wool top, and and we have
that in a crew neck and quarter zip,
and a short sleeve top as well. So
I'm always wearing a merino wool top. When
I go out. We also have a couple
pant options for this upcoming year. We have
was felt the Ui, pant, super lightweight, thin,
very breathable material. Has a side vents.
We also
launched a new pant last year called Venture
flex pants We ran a kind of a
first version this whole year. Got some really
good feedback from our from our hunters, and
we've made some changes to those. We've tapered
legs a little bit, and we also extended
the hips just to give a more of
a comfort fit for those pants. And so
we're excited to have those and they'll... Those
will be hitting actually this month just right
before season. So we'll stay tuned for that.
We also... Like... I mean, I love the
grid light jacket. It's just a super thin
jacket for those cool mornings before it gets
too hot. And it's just... It's super comfortable.
That comes in not only solids but camel
as long with all our other gear. We're
we're reaching out and trying to get some
work solid as well, a lot of hunters
like that. But Say those are my favorite
pieces for early season.
If you're a vest guy, we have a
hard troubled vest, which is always been a
a great seller for those cool mornings and
throw in your pack for when it warms
up, It just keeps your core warm, but
lot of flexibility in your arms and and
shoulders for Bow hunters, which is we're at
for this season. So if I say anything
those would be my top picks for those
4 or 5 items for early season hunting?
Yeah. I've been using sc for, I don't
know, 5 or 6 years now, probably since
the beginning. I really love the you un
a pant in the early season. It's like
a rips stop Polyester
that's breathable. What do you call that fabric
that it's made out of Josh do you
remember? Yeah. It's it's just it's a super
thin polyester that breeze really easy, and it
is. It's very durable and can go through
anything. You know, that is 1 thing
that we feel like, we have probably the
best warranty out there. Well, we tell our
customers is if something were to happen out
in the field where it wasn't your fault.
We're gonna warranty that that gear. So you're
running through breath trees, something snacks that it
tariffs at a same income and then, We're
going to take care of all that stuff.
You know, unless you take a knife to
it or or you cause your, you know,
any type of accent to the gear. We
feel like it's our responsibility to make the
best gear out there. So we're gonna take
care of you if something does happen to.
I know you're direct to consumer. So how
does how does that work out? So super
easy process. If something does happen to it.
They're a portal on our website. I just
go to a and you might have to
take a little picture of what happened to
it. We just approve it. You'll get, sent
a return label, put in the mail, and
we'll either fix it or replace it So
super easy on your part. No. I was
talking more about just ordering so they go
a website order how to... Since it's direct
to consumer. What's the best way to get
the best fit I guess is what I'm
asking you? Gotcha. Yeah. Just website... We have
a, sizing guide on there. Look up your
sizes. We we've made a lot of changes,
so it's more of a true fit now.
So if you're 34
pant order a 34. If you're halfway between
that, order up to, you know, the next
sides, if you're a 35, we recommend or
order in 36 pant,
but super easy. It's an easy return policy
too if if you need to return it,
that doesn't fit, then profit if you go
to the portal, you just
submit that information. You'll get a return label,
return it, We'll replace it For free. We
we take care of all the shipping on
that end and until you get the right
sign.
Alright. Sounds pretty easy. Yeah. I've used all
of these pieces. Your merino wool is a
spun bland. They're, super durable. I really haven't
had any rips or runs and any of
the merino pieces that I had, other than
a chip monk eating a hole in a
couple of them.
I I haven't had any problems there. So
I still have... Well, in we... I'll go
ahead. I was just gonna say we love
it we love... I I mean, I personally
love merino wool outside of the chip months
eating, eating it, but never had that happen.
But Bree so nice it it absorbs the
sweat. And moisture from your body. And so
it keeps you dry, and... But it also
like off dot comfort. And it's it just
regulates
temperatures, you know, if it's too hot, it
keeps you cool if it's cold, it it
keeps your warm as well. And so it
it really is a an awesome fabric to
have Yeah. I drew a Nevada early season
dear archer tag last year. In 1 of
the days I found myself wearing the original
you and a pants that I've had. I
don't know. They're probably 5 years sold. They
probably have 50 field days, maybe even more
with scouting and shed hunting on there, and
they're still just as durable. I haven't had
any of the super blow out So, yeah.
I'm super impressed with that. I just wanna
swing back the the venture pants that you
brought out last year. Now that doesn't come
in any of your... So camel patterns. That's
just a, like, a everyday pant wear that
you can wear scouting, or I guess you
could wear a solid color hunting too in
the early season. What color Is that offered
in? Yeah. So the original
test that we we launched flash for last
year was in the olive green and asked
brown. And we actually have such great
feedback on that pant. We are doing it
in the some and solace pattern, and those
will be available
as we speak within the next week or
2? 0, yeah. That's awesome.
I guess closing out real quick. Why don't
you tell about squeeze Hunt club there? You
bet Yeah. Yeah. So we we launched a,
a subscription platform. Alright. It's a member's hunt
club, what we call it? You do it
monthly or annually. You pay your 10 dollars,
or if you wanna do an annual subscription,
It's a hundred bucks. And it's like a
health savings account. But we take that 10
dollars. We put it into a store credit
and that you can use anytime so you
can save up for a year or 2,
then you have all that money back. And
you can you can use it right checkout
anytime. And then you also get a member's
only discount the entire year throughout that if
you're a hunt club member. So really, if
you look at it, it's not costing you
anything, you get it all back in the
store credit, You get discount, We do monthly
prizes and giveaways for hunt club members, we'll
run special promotions, like, if we do a
a site wide sale, which we usually do
in August. You'll get a discount, put plus,
Get your 10 percent or your home club
price on top of that as well. And
so really cool program to use. Yeah. And
it also has a discounted shipping benefit to
to be part of the club. I'm part
of the club. Mh. You know, I just
know that I'm gonna need a piece at
least once a year. I do the annual
subscription. I always know. I'm gonna spend at
least a hundred bucks a free. So it
may... It just makes good sense for me.
Yeah. And and in the long run, it
costs you nothing gives you a lot of
discount, and it's just an opportunity to win
some cool stuff. Thing, like you said, free
shipping. If you spend over 50 bucks and
so, a lot of different perks to it.
Alright, Josh. Anything else you wanna add before
we close this out No. I appreciate you
having up. We we're big fans of rock
slide, and then everything you guys are doing.
Alright. We'll catch up with you later. No
doubt. I appreciate you guys coming on and
sharing your warm season clothing with us? Thanks,
Sam. Moving on as such a natural fit
and any talk about the early season is
hydration. I ask long time rock light sponsors,
hard side hydration to come on and tell
a bit about themselves. So we have Dane
Williams and Dustin Gosh show, the founding partners
joining us on the show. I gotta try
these guys out a couple years ago. I
saw him at the Expo. I think it
was like their first year, and I was
super intrigued to try it out, but about
we'll just have them give us a little
introduction, and we'll go from there. So welcome
to the show, guys. Thanks. Thanks for having
us. Yep. Thanks. So, basically,
we were a hunting and broke some water
bags and bladder, and so, you know, we
created parts side hydration, which is
our solution. It's kinda it's a cap and
host system that'll go on any wide mouth
na jean or yeti yan type bottle and
a lot of other wide mouth bottles. That
was, like, our first product. We call it
the sw rig, wide mouth. So it's just
like a lot more durable than a bladder,
easier to plate, did a bladder easier to
use. And then, last year at Hon Expo,
we brought out the new ultra light, which
fits smart water bottles, fiji water bottles, you
know, regular convenience store type bottles So kinda
of 2 options ultra light in a white
when you get those caps, they come with
the longest holes for those type of bottles.
So when you get our cap, it's gonna
have Straw that fits, like, say, the yeti
yan or 50 ounce bottle, but it's really
neat because you can just trim it to
whatever bottle. You're looking to use it you
know, so the tallest is the analogy 48
ounce silo triton type bottle. You run it
on any setup. So, like, Dustin said, it's
a it's a durable option, something that allows
you to stay hydrated and, you know, if
you're kind of annoyed with bladder, like, we
were... Gives you that option to have that
convenience of a hydration kit except for running
it to something durable. That's not gonna fail
on in the back country. So... Yeah. That's
when I first saw. I was pretty excited
I like the na, but I like the
convenience of a bladder, just a hose, instant
water. And I think that this was a
perfect marriage there and the drinking hose to
the na, you get the durability. And the
ease of clean and that's the 1 thing
I didn't like my... About a bladder, either.
You know, when it's super hot out, I
like to run flavors in my water a
lot. Yeah. And just being able to clean
that bottle out when you're done, super convenient.
Yeah. Told me to go electrolytes lights and
things you can add in and kinda makes
that hike a little easier or something. Some
little taste in different water and not running
it through the hoses is nice. So when
we were prototyping the ultra light in the
side pouch of my pack, I would have
an a jean, a 48 ounce algae gene
and then a 33 ounce smart water bottle,
and I would mix all my drinks in
that smart water bottle, and then I would
just switch the hose between the 2 bottles
depending on if I wanna, you know, electrolytes
or or water from the na. So that
was when we were testing it, and that...
That's kinda how I still run everything, just
kinda 1 of each there and then I...
After hunt, I can just throw out my
smart water bottle, and I don't have to
worry about clean anything out. So we're right
in the middle of total luxury challenges and
lots of events and things like that in
the summer here. So... But it's neat to
see everybody's kind of their first impression when
they see it like, wait a minute. You
know, they'll walk by and kinda get that.
Like, some people know right away and some
people are, is it a filter? And, yeah.
It's a it's neat to to see. So
Yeah. I moved on to the ultra light
too. I ran that last year. I like
the convenience set. You do save quite a
bit of weight over in a with a
smart water bottle. I haven't had any leaks
But I use that in the early season
and then when it gets into the colder
season, I go back to the regular na
jean. Yeah. Just because that doesn't freeze up
as much, I don't think. Right. And what's
nice you can find those smart water bottles
in a 50 ounce. Yeah. Which is nice
because then you're carrying a lot of water
and you... You the bottle weights, how much
fraction of an ounce, I think. So... Yeah.
On the website, we have a few... They're
reversible sleeves or, like, a cozy type thing,
You can run over those smart water bottles
too to give them some insulation kinda get
the
insulation value up and kinda not have the
weight of an insulated bottle. Oh, man. I
might have to check that out. Yeah. I've
I like that on my analogy. And like
I said, mostly to keep it from freezing
when it gets cold and that's the 1
thing that really intrigued me that I had
problems with in the late season my bladder,
the hose would free shut and you can
get the water out now. I just reached
down if it froze, just string straight from
the the Na top, so it's super convenient
if I run into that promo. Cold weather
is 1 thing that we've heard a lot.
From our customers that they want, you know,
better performance and real freezing cold weather. So...
And it's something we've been working on since
that first year because we heard a lot
of complaints about that. And so we've been
working towards better solutions for that. It's just
it's a hard thing to do to make
everything work, you know, water wants to freeze
when it's at cold. So try different options,
different solutions till we find something that we
hit on that we really think is worth
bringing to market
Just as a recap, you can go with
the ultra light, which is the cap, and
it basically fits 28 millimeter cap, which is,
like, regular soda cap, smart water cap, that
thing, so be a regular bottle. Then they
have big rig wide, which fits the... Any
na bottle, so you can use a smaller
bottle or a bigger bottle And like Dustin
was talking about. If you use a bigger
bottle. No problem. If you use a smaller
bottle, you just trim the hose off, and
you can run the smaller bottle will problem
either. So. And then they have a full
set up. That'll give you the Na jean,
the whole setup ready to go. Create from
them there, and they got a bunch of
other cool accessories there. So people wanna check
out more about what you guys do or
they find you at? Our website is WWW
dot hard side hydration dot com, and we
also have
Instagram Hard side hydration, and you'll see kind
of what we're doing here and there going
to tax some some different things. So... Yeah.
For sure. So if you guys get over
that way, be sure to check them out
tac or hit them up there on the
web and and check out heart side. I'm
sure they'll have something that you maybe haven't
seen before. So. Thanks, guys. Thanks you. Speaking
of the show, if you have a topic
you wanna hear more about, or if you
yourself would like to be a guest on
Tips, Tuesday, please reach out to me at
sam at rocks dot com.
Until next time, this has ben
Sam Weaver.
With the help of sports men and women
and concerned citizens we can defeat the hunting
bands here in Colorado. Go to say the
hunt Colorado dot com. Thanks for listening.