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The Hunting Stories Podcast
The Hunting Stories Podcast
Ep 118 The Hunting Stories Podcast: Jeff Stringer & Todd Dalton
Have you ever wondered what it feels like to share the thrill of a successful elk hunt with three generations of your family? Join us on this heartwarming episode of the Hunting Stories Podcast as we welcome Todd Dalton and Jeff Stringer from Vantage Point Archery. Todd, a passionate pastor and family man from Marion, Indiana, recounts the touching story of a recent hunt with his daughter-in-law. Meanwhile, Jeff, originally from Utah and now based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, shares his expertise on VPA’s extensive range of fixed blade broadheads, offering insights that any archery enthusiast would treasure.
Our conversation takes a deep dive into the essence of generational hunting traditions. Imagine the tears of joy when a father's bull elk harvest becomes a family milestone, or the joy of blending families through mutual friendship and shared outdoor passions. Todd and I discuss the unique dynamics of hunting camps and the joy (and sometimes challenges) of bringing newcomers into the fold. We reminisce about the unforgettable moments that make hunting more than just a sport but a treasured family legacy.
Finally, we explore the camaraderie that binds outdoorsmen and the unique stories that keep this community tight-knit. Hear about a hunter’s hilarious yet bewildering attempt to subdue a deer with dirt and the magical experience of discovering a fossilized pterodactyl spine during a hunt. We wrap up with testimonials on the effectiveness of VPA broadheads and their unwavering commitment to quality U.S.-made products. Whether you're an experienced hunter or new to the sport, this episode promises to leave you with a deeper appreciation for the heartfelt stories and high-quality gear that enrich our hunting adventures.
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Howdy folks and welcome to the hunting stories podcast.
Speaker 1:I'm your host, michael, and we got another good one for you today today we're actually connecting with some of the gentlemen over at vantage point archery. We have Todd Dalton and Jeff Stringer. They make some amazing broadheads and have some amazing stories. So I'm excited to hear for you guys to hear their stories. So thank you again, jeff and Todd, for coming on. Really do appreciate it for you listeners. Thank you, guys to hear their stories. So thank you again, jeff and Todd, for coming on. Really do appreciate it For you listeners. Thank you guys for tuning in.
Speaker 1:You know November's coming up quick so, as usual, please make sure you find someone that doesn't typically vote and get them out there voting. Over a million hunters don't vote every year and there's some pretty important stuff on the ballots this year. So that's it, guys. Let's kick this thing off. Kick this thing off. Let's jump into the Vantage Point Archery episode. Let Jeff and Todd tell you their stories. Thank you All. Right, gentlemen, welcome to the Hunting Stories podcast. How are you both doing today? Fantastic, great, that's good to hear. It's good to hear. Well, I'm excited to connect with you guys. I don't know if I was messaging you or if you guys have something that runs on your social media account, but we've been trying to get this podcast recorded for a little while, so I'm really excited to have you guys here. But let's start this thing off how we always do, and let you, gentlemen, introduce who you are so that people know who they're hearing. Some stories from today.
Speaker 3:You start off, todd, you're the famous one.
Speaker 2:Not even to my own family, am I famous? My name I'm Todd Dalton. I'm from Marion Indiana. I'm a pastor family man. I love deer hunting.
Speaker 1:That's it, there you go Easy enough, jeff.
Speaker 3:My name is Jeff Stringer. I live in Indiana, not too far from Todd up by Fort Wayne. I'm originally from Spanish Fork, utah. I'm actually out in Monroe, utah, today, so getting ready to build a home out here, second home out here and hopefully this afternoon or tomorrow morning we're up on the Beaver Mountain chasing big bulls.
Speaker 1:Don't get a shoot, don't get a look at them. Don't get a shoot, don't get a look at it. I actually this year I didn't go. I've got a November elk tag, but I didn't draw a September archery elk tag because I drew a moose tag this year. So I actually just got back from the woods Then the elk were going crazy and I just felt so like empty, not being able to chase after them, just being able to listen.
Speaker 3:Hopefully you can handle the Go ahead. Todd and I were hoping to go this year and had some tags that we thought were lined up and then whammo, the guy I don't know tripled the price. So out of my price range for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, there's always Colorado over the counter for this year and then that goes away. But let's go real quick. Talk about VP archery just a little bit. I know you gentlemen are both with vp. Maybe you can kind of give us the the, the lowdown of it and we'll talk a little bit more at the end and then we'll dive into some stories. I don't know which one of you wants to kind of take that one, but I want to make sure you guys talk about what you're here for. So, jeff, why don't you go for it?
Speaker 3:yeah. So vantage point? Yeah. So Vantage Point Archery is a part of a larger company called Absolute Machine. We're a machine shop located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, just right by the airport 30 families. We make everything from job parts to bolts for guns, to AR-15s, AR-10s, uppers, lowers. Then we have our own line of broadheads and footers and all the accessories that go along with it, called Vantage Point Archery. It's been around since 2008. And we have the biggest selection of fixed blade broadheads on the market probably the largest selection of broadheads on the market from one company. We have 78 SKUs, soon to be 84.
Speaker 3:SKUs and growing.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, yeah, yeah, I was playing around on your website. I need to get some of those. Um, I always call them bunny busters, but the the the blunt tip ones. Yeah, I need to get some of those because when I do go on my november hunt, I'm planning on bringing my bow uh, there's a lot of snowshoe, hares and grouse and I really, really want to start blasting those guys and I never have the right field point or I guess you know blunt tip to on my arrow. So I need to get some of those from you guys. Um, cool, we'll go more into that a little bit at the end, but we're here to hear your guys favorite hunting stories, so, um, we let Jeff tell a little bit about vantage point. Todd, why don't you kick us off? Man, why don't you set the stage for your first hunting story?
Speaker 2:hey, yeah, the first hunt that uh really comes to mind honestly was this last season. Um, obviously, you know we've we've had a lot of successful hunts. But uh, again, I do everything with my uh family my dad, my brother and my two boys, so it's kind of a family operation. My daughter-in-law just got into hunting last year. She actually missed her first buck. She didn't think she was going to get emotional, but when I went to pick her up she was shaking. I'm like what's wrong, sis? She's like I just missed one. We got her getting in. She was actually seven months pregnant when she missed that buck. Now I have a grandbaby missed that buck, so now I have a grand baby.
Speaker 2:Um, but last year, um october 11th I believe, my youngest son, isaiah, was filming me. I was using the vantage point omega broadheads and we had a bachelor group of bucks come in um and I shot. I ended up shooting a um, it was a 12 point split brow times. Uh, probably we. I just you know euro mounted him. He's probably 140 um, 145 somewhere in there great, great deer. But he just kind of snuck in and um, I shot him at 47 yards with the uh, the vantage point omega. The arrow actually went through the deer, both shoulders, so fast that I thought I missed the deer. Um, really, on camera, you, you hear me, look at you hear me talking to Isaiah going. Did I miss him? And on on film? You know how you you always, you know you can't quite see there, but up in the upper left corner of the screen you watch him 40 yards. You watch him fall over.
Speaker 2:Well, the interesting piece, then, is one of the other bucks we had. He's on the wall behind me now. We called him Diablo. His brow times were higher than his G2s. His brow times are about 14 inches apiece. Wow. So that deer comes in at about 60, goes over and stands by my dead buck which I didn't know he was dead for five minutes and then just kind of walks on.
Speaker 2:So that was the second sighting that we had of this buck. First time was in 2020. This is 2023. And so we get to. You know, we see that buck and, you know, put him immediately on the hit list. We had no pictures of him prior to that, other than that one video. So we named him Diablo and we put him on the hit list. Well, like, five days later, out of that same tree stand.
Speaker 2:Isaiah, which was my youngest son, who was my cameraman, misses him at 50. We got that on video him just right in front of him and heartbroken I wasn't actually on that hunt, my my uh older son was filming they come home and it was just that whole. Uh, I could tell something happened when they walked uh into the pole barn but they didn't want to tell dad. You know, you don't want to tell dad you missed of course. Yeah, they had. We call it, we call it a poop sandwich when you do something dumb and you got to like either repent or apologize or whatever. So they had to eat a poop sandwich and he missed him, but it actually ended up being for the better. My dad is 65, 66 now, and he was hunting.
Speaker 2:I was actually in Tennessee on another deer hunt and my son texted me and he's like hey, you know, I really feel like what do you think we should do, strategy wise? And and I was like I honestly I think you should take a doe decoy. Uh, we don't do it very often uh, just because the does are so spooky around decoys I don't know y'all's experience, my experience is decoys. Sometimes they're not worth it because the does just freak out and they're just sitting there blowing the whole time. Um, I said, take, take, tabitha.
Speaker 2:We named our decoy tabitha and uh, I said, uh, you know, put, put her out front of you 15, 20 yards and just see what happens. And they had one of those magical mornings where there was like Diablo not only comes in at 20, 25 yards and my dad just smokes him, he runs away. We got it all on camera, which is awesome. He runs away and just runs into like this old, dead tree, the whole tree falls down. It was like this massive, dramatic death for Diablo. And then but, but on, but on the camera you see there are three other like really, it was just one of those mornings there were bucks, yeah, everywhere. We didn't see a doe the whole morning.
Speaker 2:They didn't film a doe, it was nothing but bucks uh, that's the first, that's crazy, that's probably the the one that's the most um come to my mind quickest just because it was last season, um, and it was great, so, just to you know, for me to be able to see that buck, my son be able to miss that buck, and then my dad harvest them. It was just a really fun chain of events, and then to capture it all on camera was even was even more fun.
Speaker 1:So that's a whole challenge to it. So, yeah, nevermind, I mean you guys, you guys named it, so maybe it's not as cool, but like the fact that the I don't know, maybe your dad's a pastor as well, but the father of a pastor.
Speaker 2:Okay, so then another pastor shooting the devil is like yeah, I was like that's fitting, that's real fitting, so that's that's a great story.
Speaker 1:I have a, so I've never really used decoys for anything, um but, but I don't know if you I think it's called Ultimate Predator they like go on the front of your bow, right? Have you seen those guys? Yes, I have. So I've been antelope hunting. I actually knocked one last week. I haven't told that story on this podcast yet, but I'll tell.
Speaker 1:One of the stocks where I was using this decoy, right, so I put it on my bow. I hunted for like four days and had no luck. Nothing really happened, didn't even I launched one arrow missed. But I go back after I shoot my moose because I I still have the tag on, let me, let me give it another go. And my very first day I go out and I see a bedded buck and I'm like sweet, I can get up and above him.
Speaker 1:And I get up and above and I range him at like 75 yards, but in general it's, you know, flat plains mostly. But I am just right above this like berm and I'm looking down with him with that decoy on me, thinking, okay, that's, I'm comfortable with that shot. All I needed to do is stand up. Next thing, I know a gust of wind comes and there goes my decoy and so does the antelope, because he just heard that velcro you know it sticks on there with velcro. So he just hears from 70 yards behind him as I'm stalking in and he didn't even look back. He just ran, ran, ran, ran, ran and I ran a little bit because I had to catch up with my decoy. But yeah, so that's about my experience with any decoys and yeah, they didn't work well for me this particular hunt, but that's all right, I'm glad it worked for you and your story story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, tabitha must be prettier than your decoy, she's, she's a beauty. She drew him right on in so yeah, it must.
Speaker 1:I think it has more to do with I'm. I'm about six four 240 pounds hard I don't hide behind that decoy all that well so I think, that's probably more the issue than the decoy itself, because it's a beautiful decoy. Um, also, they're, they're ruts a month later, so not just maybe not ready enough to worry about it. So well, that's a great story, todd. I love that. Uh, jeff, what you got for us, man I feel like jeff, you're a little quiet. Can you hear him, todd?
Speaker 3:can you hear me now? Can you hear me?
Speaker 1:yes, a little bit better all right.
Speaker 3:So mine's last year also. My dad's almost 80, lived in Utah his whole life. We hunted a lot when I was a kid but he never was around during elk season. He did refineries and power plants and that's usually when they were shut down. So I got him a tag on this place that me and Todd were supposed to hunt this year and we went out there, me and my son, my buddy Steve, my father and we were on it hard. The elk were bugling just a great year, and we got on the bulls a few times, Never really found the one we liked. Two days before the last day we were on a nice bull and my dad just wasn't ready. We'd walked him across this big flat and then up a hill and he still goes. It goes all day long, but he was winded by the time we got there, the bowl comes out.
Speaker 3:We just weren't ready, missed it. Um, my buddy was helping this guy and he was using some words we'd rather not use, but he was upset with us and it was just horrible.
Speaker 3:So yeah we get through to the very last day. We we'd been on a few bowlss that day and we'd kind of given up and started to get down to where we knew the end was coming. My dad had to leave and I think the Lord was watching out for us because all of a sudden, out of nowhere, we hear all this bugling and we got on the cow calls and here comes this bull walking right. The bull that we had missed earlier the day before Comes walking down this trail. I got the shoot sticks up, hand the gun to dad he's over there and the guide said something and my dad, he had just had it and he just drills this bull right in the heart and it turns and takes off and goes about I don't know 30 steps and then just eats him out full of dirt. I turn around and give my dad a high five and here he is hugging my 20-year-old son, their bulk ball and their eyes out.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, that's beautiful, I've got so many photos.
Speaker 3:I've got a big photo on my wall. I've got one on my phone. My son has some, and it's not so much the bowl, it's just spending five days with your dad. We live Spending five days with your dad. You know we live in Indiana, he lives in Utah, so you don't get that much time with him anyway, having your son there, and that's why I like the hunting industry. It's not there's so many crazy things that go on, but it's that family piece, like Todd talking about his dad and his boys. That's what you see. You go to TAC or you go to any of these events and it's that family piece.
Speaker 3:And for me the trophy will always be there to remind me of the time, which is really the trophy, the head on the wall is just the cue of oh yeah, diablo or whatever, and reminiscing about that story, and it'll be me telling that story and then my son will be telling that story to his kids. So yeah, the other one, I would say you did it jeff, a neat story that got me and todd together is we have a mutual friend, dan, which I don't think dan really hunts.
Speaker 2:He says he does, but yeah, well, that's a whole other story, but I know that's what I say about. He's going to this year. He bought some land so he's hunting this year that's all.
Speaker 1:That's what I say about my hunting buddy. My hunting buddy tries, but he doesn't. He just, he's just hiking with his bow.
Speaker 3:So dan's a pretty boy, it's. He'll have to have matching clothes and everything on, so but, anyway, dan calls me and he said, uh, hey, you guys got any hunts coming up? We said, yeah, we've got a hunt down in kentucky. He says I got a buddy that uh would like to go. As it are, if he goes, and usually he goes and usually I tell people no, if I don't already know who you are I'm like, yeah, no, hunting is not where I want to meet new people, but I seriously.
Speaker 3:I just had this feeling that yep, he can go. Who is he? And he said you met him. He's actually Todd. You met him at my grand opening and I'd met Todd. For what? Five minutes? Maybe Todd Shook your hand, or something like that. So we get down there and Todd shows up and they're all bunking in the same house. I show up a day later and it's like it's meant to be.
Speaker 3:We met Todd and he's that little brother I never had or never wanted I'm not sure which one, but fits right in the group and brings the kids in and we get to meet the boys, and then we're, we go up to uh, where were we at michigan, somewhere like that, yeah. And his daughter goes up, maddie shows up and she's sitting there staring at me. I'm thinking, well, I'm older than her, but I am attractive. I understand why she's staring at me. And then she says I know your daughter. I'm like, oh, and we, we played the softball with her for probably four or five years and I just they all grew up. I hadn't recognized them, so we just grew up.
Speaker 3:That's crazy just through hunting, so we appreciate that yeah, that's a cool story and you're very right.
Speaker 1:It is a hard place to meet somebody at hunting camp. I've I've actually because I'm a new hunter, right, I haven't done it my entire life. I've actually had to meet a fair amount of people and go out on a limb to meet people. But I go go out of my way to make sure I do not subtract from their hunt at all and don't change anything I possibly can. But I've been on hunts where you know gentlemen have showed up and when they left it was good riddance. So it's a delicate place, despite you know a bunch of you know big, strong, burly men usually being the people that are there. It's a delicate place and it can go sour pretty quick if you bring the wrong attitude or the wrong person.
Speaker 2:So I understand what you're saying there, jeff, and I could see Todd going either way, showing up to camp. Yeah, I'm not much of a drama queen. Just put me in a tree, I'm happy there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great Well that's a cool story about how you guys met. What other hunted stories do you guys have? Um, I don't know if anything stands out uh, anything that you want to, any stories that you guys uh particularly love, or I can.
Speaker 2:Uh, since we're on the, the generational thing, uh, maybe we'll just, you know, spend time my, you know, my dad, uh, not this past year, the year before he uh, we pretty much guide my dad. He's got the. He put his time in. You know, he wasn't. I grew up not being a deer hunter. We grew up it was squirrels, rabbits, and I had a guy at church from my probably senior year of high school that introduced me to deer hunting. He, he since has gone on to be with the Lord, but I have fell in love with deer hunting, just the process that I mean anybody. You know I always say 80% of bucks are killed by skill and then you got 20 that are killed by by luck, but to be able to figure that deer out and just the pattern and all that. So I really we kind of guide my dad, which is a lot of fun. It's my boys, my brother we're all very mindful of. You know Papo is going to sit in the best spot. You know I'm always, I'm always the backdoor guy. Typically I will get everybody in their spot and I'll be like, hey, I'm going to go, I'm going to go sit over here, try a new spot, try a new set. And, but not last season, the twenty twenty two season I had shot a really wide buck out of a, out of a VPA stand, a prototype that Jeff and them were working on. That weighs four million pounds, and we got it's a, it's a ladder, so it's a really cool stand. But they are, they are heavy, and we get it up. So I shoot a nice wide, really wide, probably my widest deer um, a nine point out of there.
Speaker 2:Well, that was in the morning. Well, later that evening, my dad shoots a. What is his today, his biggest buck. And so my youngest son and Isaiah were stoked. We drive the Gator over there to get him and he is just sweating bullets and we're like did you try to drag it? Like, dad, you're 64. He's like no, he dropped right there where he's at. And we're like why are you sweating? And he didn't. My dad gets this look when he doesn't want to tell you something. We know something was up, but he was like I'm not, you know, he's not a good liar, he would never be able to lie. And finally, finally, it came out that he, he dropped that buck. He didn't quite hit him perfectly, and so, instead of walking over because we were still hunting, and putting another bullet in it. He thought it would be a good idea to just try to suffocate the deer in the dirt, like, just shove his face down in the dirt. And so he begins to describe.
Speaker 2:He was like and my dad he used to be a professional bodybuilder.
Speaker 2:I mean he would bench press big guy, for I mean, this guy's a, he's a, he's, you know, five, five, ten, five, eleven, but he was a monster back in the day.
Speaker 2:I grew up watching them in the weight room and so he's not, he's not the weakest guy in the gym and and we're like, he's like, dude, that deer was tossing me around, he's like it was lifting me up off the ground and he said it was so he, he, I don't know that that peter would like this, but he freaking suffocated this buck in like the ground. So when we got up there, he was pouring sweat. It's because he just spent 20 minutes trying to get this deer to die. I'm like dad, just shoot it again. The poor thing, uh. And so when he told us that of course we're on the floor, you know it's, it's deer camp, you know we're up and we, we. This is the room that we change in and get ready, so we all meet here before we go hunting. We were just just just dying, laughing like dad don't, don't, ever do that again. You know this. He's got 10 knives on his head. You know that was not the smartest thing.
Speaker 1:Did your dad have a knife? Did he think about maybe stabbing it or something?
Speaker 2:like that. Yeah, I don't. I don't know what he was thinking. I think he just walked up and it it cause it couldn't run. I mean he completely demobilized the deer. It was just what. Because it couldn't run. I mean he completely demobilized the deer, it was just what's the quickest way to get this guy out of his misery.
Speaker 1:And I don't know, I don't think he made the right decision A sleeper hold.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, ufc, you know, rear naked, choke on a buck, oh man, but it was. I mean, it's a great deer, an awesome deer, but yeah, so not the best decision-making skills in the moment, right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you name your deers? Did that deer have a name before it was shot? And if not, did you then name it like Hulk Hogan afterwards?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, we should have. We've actually only killed what's really rare for us, like two of the deer behind me. We've had previous pictures of Most of the deer that we kill. We don't have uh, pictures of beforehand now, I mean, but we always go into a season with a buck or two on the hit list that we know survived, like we have mr crabs this year and we have wide boy, you know, and and we'll see uh, but we always end up shooting something that we're like we have no idea where this deer came from, but it's cool that he did, you know.
Speaker 1:Right, oh man, that's a great story. I can't believe he just tried to smother it out.
Speaker 2:Like I don't know if I'd ever do that. Again for a guy to go. You know what? I'm strong enough to just walk up here and manhandle this deer. I mean, they're, they're incredible animals.
Speaker 1:They're, they're strong so I believe it. I believe it. I was actually just talking with my friend. He's from well, he's from california, originally from the uk, lives in california and hunts almost exclusively in uh, south africa, and they go and stab them. He's got a big, like almost a bowie knife that he straps to his chest because in Africa ammo is so expensive he's like you can't afford to send another round, and he also does archery, so if he loses an arrow out there he can't get any more. So he just goes and grabs a hold of the spring box or whatever it is, with a knife, maybe slightly more effective than the full wrestling technique, but whatever works for your dad. Did you ever ask him if that was the first time he ever did that, or was that one time only?
Speaker 2:No, he's one and done on the headlocks.
Speaker 1:I believe it. I believe it. Oh man, Jeff, you got any more for us?
Speaker 3:I'm not sure there's a bunch but not really coming to mind. I think the funniest ones are when you don't actually kill anything, just those type of memories.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:Traveling all over and maybe not bringing anything back. I've hunted my whole life, so ones with kids. I took my daughter out at 12 to Saskatchewan bear hunting and my dad was with us. So there's another one with family and yeah, they're all. I don't think that I think they're all memorable in a way, right, I could probably tell you stories all day long, but they're more memorable for me than for you yeah, I believe that it's.
Speaker 1:Uh, it's a really good point. I've got a bunch of stories about hunting with my uh my father-in-law, he got me me hunting, uh started me hunting and uh he's passed since and like I've got all sorts of stories about him. In fact, I did one episode of just like his greatest hits. But uh, I've told other stories that are like just mean a lot to me and other people. They may or may not get it, but it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3:I love. You know, whatever the reason was, they felt obligated to paint that on that cave wall. It's always been important to us. So it's cool that you have all these stories that are special to you. You know you don't have to, they don't have to involve someone smothering out a deer to be a good story. Actually, last year we were hunting with this steve huggins. We had hunted in october, september with my father. Then we're hunting in november with steve and there's a place out here I'm not going to tell everybody where it's at because some moron will go get them but there's some petroglyphs or the pictures, and we're walking along this trail looking at them and the guy says, hey, look down and there's the backbone of a bird, a pterodactyl or something with the wingspan. That's like on one side it's probably six and a half feet and you can't really see the other.
Speaker 3:But the whole spine is running down this trail and that's the first time we'd ever seen it. We've been over there and looked at those things on the walls probably a hundred times and that's the first time we'd ever seen it. We'd been over there and looked at those things on the walls probably a hundred times and that was the first time we'd ever noticed that the spine of that animal, the fossil, in the ground. So again, one of those things that you're out hunting and you come across something you never think you'd come across. Sure.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. So you felt like a little pterodactyl. He's not little, he's not little Like a little pterodactyl.
Speaker 3:He's not little, he's not little. I bet his spine's eight feet, a literal pterodactyl, but that's crazy. Yeah, he's like eight feet, or we could see his spine's about eight feet. The one wing so it'd probably be his left wing was about six that you could see, and then part of the other wing kind of went off a hill or a cliff.
Speaker 1:So one of these days when I have you out here, todd I'll show you one of these days. We'll get you here one of these days I'm gonna hold my breath.
Speaker 2:Hey, all right. Well, you hunt more than you've taken me hunting. So I think I'm ahead here, buddy that is true.
Speaker 1:That is true. That's funny. Um, you guys got any other. Any other stories you want to share?
Speaker 2:well tell us how you got this. I'm Tell us how you got this podcast going.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry, tell us how you got this podcast going. I want to hear that story. How did you get a hunting story podcast?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know so. So it's an interesting story. You know who Dan Staten is. He runs Elk Shape.
Speaker 1:I went to one of his camps that he has down in Texas and so I was going through this whole thing and all this elk knowledge and then they had this part about side hustles, just to make it so you have more opportunity to hunt, whatever that means to you. And I was a newer hunter so I'd hunt a little bit here or there. I'd never really seen any success, but I was like I need to hunt more. And so I'd hunt a little bit here or there. I'd never really seen any success, but I was like I need to hunt more. And the way that I need to hunt more is I need to know more hunters so I can kind of pick knowledge from these guys. So I was at this event in Texas and I'm driving back to Colorado because I drove down. My family was actually near where the my family-in-law was down where this event was. So I was driving back and I'm listening to Chris Rose like nine part one and a half hour each turkey calling like podcast, and I was just like, oh my goodness, I cannot handle any more turkey talk. I don't care why they roost, I don't care why they gobble, I just want to hear some stories. I was just completely over just getting blasted with information and I started looking for other podcasts and they're mostly just people you know blasting with information, talking about whatever. You know why elk do this, why deer do that, why you know you should use this broadhead, why you should use that caliber rifle, whatever it might be. And I started looking for hunting stories and I didn't. I didn't really see anyone that was just doing that. And then, like a day later, somebody asked me you know, you got any ideas for a business? And I was like not a business, but I thought about maybe starting a podcast. And he's like, well, what about? Told him what my idea was. And he's like, yeah, man, you should try it.
Speaker 1:And so I started reaching out to hunters you know all over the place on Instagram and just people that I know, and I knew I had something, when literally not one person told me no, every person I asked if they wanted to come on and tell some hunting stories was like absolutely, when do you want to jump on? And I was like, oh, I don't know, I don't even have any equipment. Hold on, Let me start buying stuff. So I got myself a mic. I just started putting it together and winging it, so I had no experience with any of this.
Speaker 1:But it's been a lot of fun and I've met a lot of people and, like I said, I started for opportunity. I wanted to have more opportunity to go out, more people to go with. I've gotten to go elk hunting last year with two world champion elk callers and I killed my first elk, a 313-inch bull, like monster bull, super proud of it, and had the time of my life Went moose hunting this year and antelope hunting and I've been invited to a caribou hunt next year and black bear hunts, and so it's accomplished everything I've ever wanted. And I get to meet wonderful gentlemen like yourselves and I've put together a lot of great relationships. So it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:And I'll tell you what. I've heard some crazy stories. I'll tell you that right now. And, todd, here's something crazy. That's actually the second story I've heard of someone trying to snuff out a deer with dirt. Yeah, if you would believe that, it was, uh, bert Soren of Soren X workout equipment, he was talking about his mentor. His mentor shot a deer, thinking it was dead, left everything back at his uh, his tree stand. Walked out there and realized that he had left everything.
Speaker 2:So he just starts wrestling it.
Speaker 1:And rather than smothering it into the ground and headlock, he started packing its mouth with dirt, so taking fistfuls of dirt.
Speaker 2:So slightly different technique.
Speaker 1:But yeah, that's that Go ahead.
Speaker 2:No, I was going to give you, you know, kudos for starting this podcast, because one of my I think one of my favorite things about just the outdoors and what we do as outdoorsmen is it's I can go anywhere in the world and I tell people this all the time, and there are a lot of things that I will not have in common with people, you know, whether it be they from, whatever place in the world they're at. But you get two outdoorsmen together and the first thing that we're going to do is start sharing stories and our experiences. And it's just to me, it's such a unifying thing in the world that we live in now to be able to just, you know, I don't need to know all the details of your life, but if you're an outdoorsman, we immediately have a place where we, you know, we can connect and communicate. And I've literally been sitting, literally off spring break, when you're sitting in a hot tub just chilling with my wife and this guy you know jumps in. I could tell he was from the Midwest because he had hey dudes on and the tattoo he had, you know, and I'm like you know where are you from, and he ends up. He ends up being from a city about an hour away and we still message on Facebook and stuff to this day because he was a deer hunter and we just sat in that hot tub and just told story after story and just laughed and so kudos to you on you know, coming up with this idea and I think it's.
Speaker 2:It's brilliant because you know you want to keep this stuff alive and I know you know, at some point in time you know my dad's going to go to be with the Lord and and we're still going to tell all the stories of what my dad has done, you know, in his times hunting, the time that he's tripped and he's fallen, the time that he gets lost, you know the time that you know all of those moments are just, you know, another opportunity for you know, the great grandkids and the great great grandkids that might not get to meet him, to just have a thing to put with them.
Speaker 2:So, you know, kudos to you on this podcast, because all of us outdoorsmen I actually was talking to a guy the other day who was a deer hunter. I think something we've got to get better at in these hunting stories is being better listeners, because this dude talked to me for 47 minutes straight about how awesome of a hunter he was, which I'm cool like I don't need to tell. You know, I'm secure in myself. I don't need to tell my side of the story. I walked away from that and I was like I don't know that I can talk about myself for 45 solid minutes, but there are some of the dudes out there, I guess.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, that's too funny.
Speaker 1:Two things that you reminded me. One is like I did start this podcast, being like how can I start a podcast where I don't talk? And to your point, I was like if I ask a hunter, tell me your stories, half of them won't shut up, which is exactly what I want and it's perfect. But the other thing is I was moose hunting, I shot my moose and we're back at camp like after the packout, just, you know, having a beer, just enjoying the beautiful 70 degree day, the meats hanging up in some shade. And this gentleman walked by and I had spoken to him earlier and he said there's moose, you know kind of this way. And I shot my moose not far from there. So I ran by his camp and told his buddy, hey, your buddy, your buddy had a pretty good tip, thank you, buddy. Hey, your buddy, your buddy had a pretty good tip, thank you.
Speaker 1:He found our camp, came and then was telling us stories and telling us stories and they were like three sentence long stories and he wouldn't stop it, to the point that like I was like, all right, well, I gotta go to the bathroom and I left. And then I came back and I was like, oh, and then my other buddy's like I'm gonna go nap, and I was like, all right, man, well, hey, good luck, you know, with your elk hunt, wishing you the best. And he probably left about 35 minutes after I said good luck, after I was, like you know, gently telling him to get out the door. And as soon as he finally did leave, I was like what are the odds that me, the guy that loves hearing hunting stories, finally found the guy that I had heard enough hunting stories from, like it was? So there are definitely those guys out there that can talk a lot about how they're the best hunters in the world and I don't know.
Speaker 1:It was a fun conversation and it made its own story that now I get to tell. But cool, well, guys, do you have any more? We can wrap this up now. If you want, we can talk a little bit more about Vantage Point or if you've got any other stories that jumped into your mind, it's up to you guys.
Speaker 2:I mean, if you want me to, to give a testimony of the VPAs, um, I just started shooting them, probably two years ago, two seasons ago. Um, and I was, I'll be a hundred percent honest with you I was a swacker guy for the last uh, 15 years. Um, uh, shoot swacker. I've lost, uh, probably two bucks, um, hitting them in the shoulder. Uh, I know it's not a popular way, but I'm a shoulder guy. They can't run real far without their legs and it's hard to find a broadhead that will just blow through that like it's nothing and true story. I mean, I've watched now three bucks, because my whole family were the same way. We all were shoulder shooters. My whole family were the same way. They, we all were shoulder shooters.
Speaker 2:Uh, and man, I have, I'm yet to see a VPA not go through a shoulder bone Like it's nothing.
Speaker 2:Uh, whether it be the three blade that my son Clay loves, or the the two blade Omegas, um, so just you know, for Jeff, the engineers, the guys that have designed these broadheads, they, they're, they're razor sharp, um, they're not hard to tune your bow to. As far as flight, um, you know, I tried muzzy one time when I was younger and I was just like what the frick dude my, you know, my tails kick in. I couldn't figure it out, but, um, you know, the vpas was micro adjustments and man, they, they really do blow through uh bone, uh, uh, just incredibly, um, so I want to give you know I'll give VPA shout out there. Um, I'm probably I might be the newest uh field staff member. Uh, they have, but uh, so I'm, I'm pretty, I'm pretty rolled to their product, but it's been, um, I've been impressed, uh, truly, um, and you know, having used other broadheads for the last 15 years, it's not and they don't, and I don't get paid.
Speaker 1:Obviously, jeff hasn't taken me hunting, so they're not paying me. You're not getting anything out of this relationship. I'm not getting anything out of this.
Speaker 2:Maybe I can get Ryan to send me another pack of omegas, but other than that it's just been really cool. But I appreciate your invite to be on the podcast.
Speaker 1:Of course, of course, jeff. Let me ask you this Obviously on the podcast, of course, of course. Um, jeff, let me ask you this Obviously Todd's used them a fair amount on on whitetail. Have you had a? Have you used them much on much Western game? I think I probably about 50, 50, as far as my listeners, east and West, but I was curious how they fare.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we've. They've taken musk ox, a ton of elk. Oh wow, buffalo water buffalo. I mean we use them all over the world, not just on whitetail. Everybody says, well, how does it pass through whitetail? That's probably the lowest bar that's out. There is a whitetail shoulder.
Speaker 3:You start shooting through some of these others. I'm like Todd, we're going to come out. We've got a trademark slogan that you'll see out on some shirts, but it's about don't shoot the soft spot because it only gives you a third. If you're shooting the V, that's a third of the vital. You shoot behind the shoulder. You got a basketball you can hit now. Still, aim small, shoot small. But I'm with Todd, I'm going where I hit the heart and both the lungs and that's usually behind the shoulder or behind the humerus or somewhere right in there. But our testimony for the broadheads is from our customers, not from us. We put the engineering and the design and we test the snot out of them and we design them to go through the shoulder. But it's the kills out in the field where it was quartering to you or quartering away or it was a frontal or something. But you have that confidence to take that shot and you take that animal. You know, with some some sadness a little bit, you know, because you're taking their life.
Speaker 3:So you got to do, you got to do it ethically and make it quick for them, and that's what we're trying to do absolutely very cool.
Speaker 1:Well, um, I don't know either who wants to answer this question, but where can the people find you guys? Uh, like instagram social media stuff website where? Where would you guide people to take a look?
Speaker 3:yeah, we're on facebook, instagram, all the other social medias that I know nothing about. I was on the other day and told them we were on facebook and insta book and alex called you look like a tToker, jeff.
Speaker 1:I could see you doing some of those dances, maybe, yeah, maybe. There you go, todd.
Speaker 3:But then you can check us out on our website at vprtreecom With us. We want you to remember that we're a US-made company. We source everything from the States. We employ 30 families. You know, we've been blessed in our lives. God's given us much and we're trying to get back. We're trying to make sure that these families have good careers. We're bringing kids in that you know. We don't want to send them to get a basket weaving or transgender affirming knowledge or whatever that is they teach me in college.
Speaker 3:Now, no greek mythology yeah over and be a tradesman, what made this country great. That's what we're trying to do and make a good product that I can look you in the eye and say it is worth selling it to you and Todd, just by the way, I think you got two super nice patio stands from me. Yeah, they weigh 4,000 pounds, but you can get the whole family up there and hunt off one of those, hey, they're beautiful.
Speaker 2:I'll give them that.
Speaker 1:I'll give them the reason they're called patio stands is because they weigh so much you can't take them off his patio.
Speaker 2:I think, right, that's it I had to throw a rope over the tree, hook it to my quad, lift it up. I mean, they look, I'm not the weakest dude in the gym. Them bad boys are heavy yeah he comes from a long line of deer wrestlers, so I believe it. That's it. The tree can die in the sand, that's right.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Well, guys, thank you so much. I really do appreciate you taking the time today to jump on and tell some of your stories. I will put links to everything Vantage Point, Archery in the show notes, so for the listeners, if you guys want to check them out, please check them out there. You guys want to check them out? Please check them out there. You guys want to leave with any other passing information? Otherwise we'll walk off into the sunset and set this one off.
Speaker 3:Be blessed. Stay safe guys.
Speaker 1:All right, thank you, todd. Thank you, jeff. Have a wonderful day. All right, guys, that's it. Another couple stories in the books. Sorry for my voice, I have a little bit of a cold here. But yeah, Todd, jeff, thank you very much for your stories. I really do appreciate them. And to listeners, thank you guys for tuning in. Please check out VPA Archery. All the things you need to click on are in the show notes. Please check them out. Beyond that, guys, do please get out there in November and vote November and vote and take someone who doesn't typically go with you. Then go and, whatever you're listening to right now, give us a rating. The more people that rate this, the more people hear it. The more people that hear it, the more crazy stories people reach out to me with their crazy stories. So thank you, guys very much. I hope you have a wonderful day Now get out there and make some stories of your own. Thank you.
