One Hell Of A Life Outdoor Podcast
The One Hell Of A Life Outdoor Podcast hosted by father-son duo Tony Vogel and Tristan Vogel, Owners of One Hell Of A Life Outdoors . Our passion lies in bringing every hunter the REALITY of what it REALLY takes to hunt their target animal while equipping them with the knowledge to be a successful hunter and promoting the lost "old school values" that laid the foundation for the sport we love so much today.
One Hell Of A Life Outdoor Podcast
Burn The Ships And Go Hunt | Kurt Belding's Story
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We sit down with Kurt Belding of Western Obsessions TV to talk about betting on yourself, building a life around western hunting, and what “burn the ships” looks like when the money runs out. Kurt also breaks down the mental side of backcountry hunting, the gear choices that prevent disasters, and the moments in Alaska that change how you think forever.
• walking away from comfortable work to chase hunting adventures full time
• “burn the ships” commitment and why a plan B can weaken plan A
• losing entrepreneurial identity while working as an employee
• building mental toughness through disciplined fitness and painful workouts
• practical training advice for a first Colorado elk hunt
• backcountry risk management when there is no easy way out
• grizzly bear charge story and how fear distorts time
• mountain goat hunting on cliffs and planning shots for retrieval
• boots, base layers, shelter, sleep systems, water filters, and morale items
• the “Redemption” archery elk film and upcoming Alaska moose plans
• social media expectations versus the real grind of hunting
• filming lessons, self filming struggles, and editing to learn what you missed
• booking agency model that connects hunters with vetted outfitters
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Cold Open And Welcome
SPEAKER_02I've been south down, I've been hellbound, riding on a bit. I'm straight. Going too fast now, think off slow down, standing in the pouring rain.
SPEAKER_00What's going on, guys? Tristan and Tony back with another episode of the One Hove Life Outdoor Podcast. And we got a we got a unique podcast coming tonight. Uh, some Western talk, some Western hunting that we just we really haven't had a lot of exposure with uh on our podcast. So part of us wanting to bring new stuff to you guys is um having folks like Kurt Belding on tonight, Western uh Obsessions TV. And uh we're really excited to pick his brain in. I know he's got a good story just from me and my dad talking off air on uh just some of the stuff we were researching. So we're excited to have you on, Kurt. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'm excited to uh chat with you guys for a bit. Absolutely. I like you know, my heart is instill the the white tail world, even though I'm uh a Western guy now. I grew up white tail hunting and duck gunning and doing the whole thing, man. So I am not a stranger to that.
SPEAKER_01Right on, right on. Well, well, Kurt, you know, I think that you know, if if you're followers, you know, and then people that don't know you, um, you know, um, and and and hack me if I if I don't get this exactly right, but you know, one of the things I learned about you doing my research was that you know you basically walked away from a corporate career to pursue a dream. And uh that to me is a it's a risky business, you know, and uh, and and you know, so so many of us want to do that and are afraid to pull the trigger or are not sure how, you know, that kind of thing. And and I'm excited to just dive into that, man. And will you just kind of start off with just telling our guests, you know, a little bit about yourself and and how that journey started, and we'll kind of deep dive into it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you know, uh Midwestern boy grew up in Nebraska, moved out to Colorado in my early 20s, and I was always kind of was pulled to being entrepreneurial. So um, and just to kind of set the record a little bit straight there, when you say corporate job, I never really had I never worked for anybody, always kind of did my own thing. Okay, but I was doing some things that I didn't enjoy, and I was kind of in a trap of like, okay, I uh and I've been always been entrepreneur, so I had a bunch of business in the sports, nutrition, and fitness realm of things. And I've always hunted, I enjoy hunted, but hunting, but I was in a spot where like I was doing a lot of stuff and not making any money, so that sucked. And uh uh I just didn't really enjoy what I was doing, and I didn't enjoy the industry I was in, and I hit 40 and I'm like, man, how how long do I have to actually really do what I want to do? You know, kind of like that midlife crisis, I call it a midlife adjustment, but I know we've all been there. Um so I just made a decision one day of like, God man, I you only live once, and I just want to take a chance and see if I can make a living and and just do what I wanted to do. Like all I wanted to do was go on on really cool hunting adventures. That's all I wanted to do, which I'm sure everyone out there is going to take too. But it takes a lot to make that step and just quit. Like, I literally quit everything I was doing. Every business I had, I shut down, or if I if it sold anything I could to make any money, so I made a little bit of money, which like funded like two years of hunting, and then I ran out of money because hunting is super expensive, right? So right, what yeah, so I ran out of money and then I'm trying to figure it out and figured out how to make enough money. So I started like a booking agency, so I connect hunters with uh outfitters because uh you know I'm going off on hunts and getting to know outfitters very well, and and so far I'm figuring it out.
SPEAKER_00So when you uh made that leap, I mean, had you started to build kind of a following and kind of was social media a part of that piece where you're like, hey, you know, I think I could probably generate some money just from that alone, or was that kind of thing that came afterwards?
SPEAKER_03Well, I knew the power of social media because I use social media a lot on my existing businesses uh as one of my main marketing tools. So I understood social media, but no, and I really don't make money on social media like directly anyway, even now. Like I may have I have somewhat of a following. Yeah, I think I'm around like 180,000 followers between all the platforms, so it's so it's somewhat of a following, uh, and it's nice to like have that top funnel kind of touch on people, but I don't directly make any money on social. Sorry to answer your question. Sometimes I can go off on tangents.
SPEAKER_00No, you're good. That's good. I was just curious, yeah, if you kind of could gauge like, you know, because you hear a lot of people when they make that jump, it's like they get to the point where it's like their, you know, their hobby has become where they're making enough money doing other things with the hobby where they can kind of see the where they can make that leap. But it sounds like you were kind of just like, you know what, screw it, we're gonna go for it.
SPEAKER_03Totally was, man. I'm a big fan of burn the ships mentality of like if you want to take the island, burn the ships and don't give yourself an another option. I'm a big fan.
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, they talk about like I've I've heard Joe Rogan talk about that many a times on his podcast. Like some of these like UFC fighters and stuff that are so successful are the people that literally that is plan A, A, A. There's no plan B, you know what I mean? But it's it makes sense. It's like if you don't have truly don't have a backup plan, you're going all in on something, like you really have no choice but to make it work.
SPEAKER_03That's right, man. Like if you give yourself a choice of a plan B, oh man, if this doesn't work, I always fall back on this. How much are you actually putting on plan A?
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_03Now, if it's like the death and you have no other choice, you'll you're gonna figure it out. But if you have a little bit of a fallback, you're it's pretty easy to just say this is hard, this isn't working, I'm gonna go to my fallback, right? So I mean, I say that, but I don't recommend everyone do it, especially if you have a family. Right? Like there's a lot of people at stake there. So if you if you have the luxury of burning the ships and going all in, do it because there's you'll be forced to figure it out.
SPEAKER_01Wow, wow. You know, just thinking about doing that, you know, was there a was there any challenge for you internally, like say, like obviously when you ran your businesses and did your did your thing, um, you put everything you had into that, right? And you your professionalism and everything. Was there was there any like thing that kind of scared you about losing that identity or or separating yourself from that identity because that's something that you had always done moving into this, or was it something that you just thought, you know, hey, um, I'm ready to do it and I'm ready to leave that behind, kind of thing?
Identity And The Paycheck Trap
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's a great question. And yes and no. So when I decided to make the jump, a lot of my identity was still into fitness, so I kind of use that as my branding a little bit of the hunting thing where I'm a fitness hunter. I one of my big goals is to hunt until I'm 80, so fitness is a big part of that. So I kind of kept that identity, but things got pretty hard, man, when I wasn't really making much money on the hunting thing. You know, social media wasn't producing for me. And I went and worked for a company. I won't use names right now because they're they're very mad at me. Right now. So I worked for a company for about two years and did some marketing for them because I have a big background in that, running my own businesses. And that's where I really started to lose my identity because my identity was wrapped up into being an entrepreneur, doing my own thing and figuring it out. And then I became an employee, and pretty quick. I mean, I always glorified the paycheck. So I've never really had a job up to that point. I always did my own thing from early 20s. So I always created my own money. So I always glorified, man, it'd be so nice just to get a paycheck, just do my work enough not to get fired and have this check show up in my door in my bank account. Like, that must be so nice and have benefits. And because as an entrepreneur, man, it's hard, dude. It's I wouldn't wish it on anybody, be honest with you. If I wasn't just born this way, I probably wouldn't be this way. But it's like you get punched in the face every day, man. Yeah. So I'm like, man, I glorified just a paycheck. So I like at one point, I'm like, screw it. I'm just gonna go work for someone for a little bit and use my skills and see how it works. And I will never, ever do that again. That was the worst two years of my life. I lost my entrepreneurial identity. Now I had multiple bosses. Not only if I if I wanted to go on a hunting trip, I had to ask my wife, and then I had to ask my boss, and then I had to run it by the CEO of the company, like just to go take time to go hunting, right? Or do whatever. Like anyway, I can go down a big rabbit hole, but I'll never do that again, man. I I'm okay making thirty thousand dollars a year and barely scrapping by to like to to never have to ask someone else whether or not I can go hunting again, you know, besides my wife, of course.
SPEAKER_01Amen to that. Amen. You know, one of the things, and and I'm gonna bring it up just because it is a common uh I've been married I'm coming up on our anniversary 33 years, and uh um my wife and I we're we were traveling and and she said to me, she said, uh there you don't even you have no idea how many husbands would be jealous of how much I allow you to go hunting. And I said, sweetheart, I love you so much, but you don't allow me to do anything. I said, you don't allow, oh yes, I do. And I said, All right, we're gonna stop this conversation right here because we know where this goes. But but you're right about that. I mean, you um, those obstacles can come in the way. I mean, if you want to choose, like, for example, you know, the life I chose, Tristan, you know, you or when all of us, you know, we have children, guess what? That becomes a priority, and and those priorities get a setback because of a child or or whatever it might be. But but uh no, that's interesting to hear you say that because um I was curious, you know, just like with that mental transition where that comes, but you know, um with such with so much of your stuff, um, you've always been in the physical fitness and that kind of thing. One thing that I have found that is 100% true about anybody that I've ever met that's mentally tough, they're physically tough. And so many, not every time, you know, because some people have so you don't have to be able to be uh uh, you know, uh a Kurt Belding, you don't have to be uh a Cam Haynes, you know, these guys or Remy Warren or whatever to be able to go out and do this stuff to to be a smart person. I'm just saying that that you know, with with with the combination is always true that I find that the people that push themselves physically are so tough mentally. Um so much, you know. And um, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I guess I can kind of relate to that because you know, I I didn't ever work out tough until I got 40 and I made a decision, and I think I missed seven days in like six years or something like that, you know? And so I understand I got to learn a little bit about that and and and try to toughen myself, but talk a little bit about that, Kurt, and and and how the two tie together.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, they absolutely do, man. And uh being an entrepreneur and being heavy in the fitness, it's a lonely place to be. It's I don't relate with a lot of people because a lot of people don't have that type of mentality, right? So, and it's a very you have to be very mentally tough for both of them to be an entrepreneur. Like I'm saying, you're getting punched in the face.
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SPEAKER_03In order to stay physically fit, you have to be mentally disciplined and you have to be pretty tough. Like not only do I have to be disciplined to go to the gym on a regular basis consistently, but also what I eat. You know, I can't just be eating a bunch of garbage because that doesn't eat a bunch of garbage doesn't equal my goals in life. Right? So being disciplined there too. So when I see someone, and this is this will be a little controversial, but when I see someone that's almost obese, you just know like the respect for that person goes down because I know the lack of discipline that person has and the the weak-mindedness that person is. And I just don't have a lot of respect for that type of guy. I'm never or a girl, I'm never gonna be mean, like I'm never gonna be a bully, but I'll just be straight with you guys. I don't have respect for that mentality at all. I have respect for someone that's disciplined, I have respect for someone that's tough. And for you to get what you want out of life, if you set a goal, you gotta be both, man. You gotta be disciplined and you gotta be tough. And I have respect for that. Set a goal and don't stop until you reach it. So that's a little bit on like just my my thoughts, but like to could to apply this to hunting, to be a Western hunting and going on an Elk kind, archery Elcon is one of the toughest hunts you can go on physically. There's really no way to train for it. You want to stay in shape, you know, you don't want to be overweight going into it, but there's really no way to physically train for it. You have to be mentally tough. So a lot of the workouts I do, I design around being mentally tough. Is uh literally before I put the workout together, I'll say, How much pain can I put myself in today? How bad can I make this suck? And that's what I do uh every day to continue to build my mental toughness. Because if as dude, as you know, you've been you've only missed six days since you turned 40. When you miss a couple days, you feel it mentally. Yeah, mental toughness and it is dropping fast. So you've got to keep on with that mental toughness. And even in the white tail stand, right? Like you're sitting in a rut and you and you want to be sitting there all day. It's not a physically tough thing to do, it's a mentally tough thing to do. So that mental toughness comes to play in the white tail stand, too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'd I'd love to hear a little bit more about like what the training just being in shape for those elkes look look like because like one thing I've noticed is so, and I you know, this is a controversial thing, especially with guys because my wife got me into orange theory. Yeah, I know who so but I get I get my ass kicked in there, and we do a lot of incline stuff. So I'm like, you know, and Georgia's not out west, but we have some mountainous stuff, and like I'll notice sometimes, like, oh yeah, I think I'm getting in pretty good like hill climbing shape because all the incline stuff I do at the gym, like we'll run up and down, you know, incline, and um I'll go out there and walk up to the top of the hill. And by the time I get to the top of it, I'm like, God, man, like you would think this would be easier based on what I do in the gym, but like I would that's what made me think of when you were saying that must be hard. I I can't even imagine. I'm sure like you can never create that, you know, in the gym.
SPEAKER_03You really can't, man. And it's easy for a guy like me that lives in Colorado. Like, I don't really have an excuse for it. I can literally go to the mountains right now and go on a camping trip and go hiking for eight hours on the mountain. And I can train for that. For you guys, man, you don't have that, you don't have that luxury. You guys be on the eight ball a little bit on that or that like infield, you know, uh experience and training that I could go do, but I'll be honest with you, I don't. I don't go to the mountains and just go on hikes. I I really don't like hiking unless I'm chasing something with a weapon.
SPEAKER_00So that's my take on it too.
SPEAKER_01I know. That's why I've never been able to get into running, right? I mean, I did find that if I go like we've got a 900-acre park that um that's really nice over here. That's uh it's all wooded and everything. And I did find that I could I could do some running through the through the um the uh what do they call those trails they um where the horses go? The equestrian trails. I was like, now that I can do, but go on a treadmill or down a blacktop track, I you know, I feel like a gerbil and I can't do it.
SPEAKER_00What uh what would you say, Kurt, to like any Midwestern? I mean, being born in the Midwest, like what would you say to the Midwestern guy that's like wanting to come out there? You know, he pulled a Colorado elk tag for the first time or whatever. Um, I mean, what would you suggest training wise? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Some things that'll help, man, is that uh physically it's gonna help keep your body weight down the best you can, right? Because even if you're 10 pounds overweight, you're carrying 10 pounds around, and trust me, you're not gonna want to, right? So keep your body weight down the best you can. So watch beating, but start running. The running is going to build some muscles in your legs for that endurance hiking. Um, so you're not gonna get as sore when you're hiking or may not blister up at the feet. So do some running and do some rubbing, throw a pack on your back and get used to that weight for a while. That's really the physically the best thing I think you should do. But be honest with you, the number one thing besides just the physical part is doing some things that really suck, like really suck. Yeah, where you get to that mental breaking point of like, man, I really want to stop quit right now, but I'm not going to. And that moment, that's a very pivotal moment for you. Is I want to quit. I need to quit, but I'm not going to quit. That's a pivotal moment. Because when you come elk gunning, day one, man, you're all excited, right? And you may hike a little further than what you probably should have hike, and you get a couple blisters, you're sore, you're beat up. Day two comes along, it starts to rain on you. Well, this kind of sucks. Day three, you haven't seen an animal yet, and now you're beat up, you're wet, you're cold, and it sucks bad. That's when you're like, man, I don't know if one, I wasn't prepared for this. I don't know if I'm tough enough for this, and I don't and that in that moment you want to quit and go back to your truck. It's that moment that you've trained for and you're doing things that suck, right? And then you could stay in the field, stay on the mountain and figure it out. If you can't stay on the mountain, you're not going to kill anything. You're not even going to see an elk, right? It's that moment of staying on the mountain and figuring it out. So that mental toughness point is is super crucial.
When The Backcountry Gets Serious
SPEAKER_00Wow. That's so it's so interesting to hear hunting in that like perspective because just whitetail hunting, like you said, you know, yeah, uh January morning in Illinois, you know, in the teens or whatever, single digits, there is a mental toughness to that. But God, nothing like being committing to being out there, you know, like hey, we you know, and when you spend thousands of dollars to go do something like that, that's once in a lifetime for a lot of folks like out this way. Um, yeah, that's such an interesting perspective.
SPEAKER_01Well, and and here's something else I wanted, and since we're talking about it, I guess it kind of segues into that, and that is, you know, um I've never been, I guess I can't really say that I've honestly been in a place where I've gone to pursue game, you know, or big big game, let's just go there. That when the hunt starts, there are no hospitals, there is not a doctor. You literally have to be prepared to survive. You know, I mean, on your own, no excuses, broken foot, broken arm, whatever happens until your Cessna or your bush plane or whatever comes back and picks you up. And talk a little bit about that. Like I'm sure the first there has to be a time where that set in on you on a trip. Because I know you've you've gone on mountain goat, you've you've been in some remote places. Talk a little bit about that if you don't mind.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_01You know, because that's a whole nother level.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, it is a definitely another level. And I've talked about this a little bit, like hunting in Colorado over the last 20 years. There's really not a spot in Colorado that I can be, you know, granted I don't have a broken leg, that I can't hike out in a day and be back to my truck and driving somewhere. So it's it's it's rugged, it's remote, but it's not Alaska remote, man. It's a baby compared to Alaska. Like we were on a grizzly bear hunt this last spring, and we're 70 miles into the Chugotch fountain range. Beautiful place, man, on the the toe of a a glacier and just gorgeous place. But here's the here's the main variable is when you're kind of giddy because you're in a new place and it's beautiful, you can make some dumb decisions and you don't think too much of it. But when when you're 70 miles and you know there's no hiking out of here, you really think twice before you do anything. So, like, I think it was on day five, we decided to move and go into a different area, and we had to cross a little stream. And usually I'm like, whatever, let's just cross the stream and go. But now I'm thinking twice here, and the stream's not it's not small. Like it's up to our waist, and the water's rushing. It's moving, man. And I've got hip weiter, chest weighters on, and we're moving across, and I know, like, okay, if I slip right now, I may hurt myself, but I will be soaked. And it's not warm. And what's gonna happen when I'm soaked? And I've got still five days left of this, huh? Like, that's hypothermia, man. We get in some dangerous situations. Or what if I did hurt myself or cut myself or whatever it is? You just gotta those decisions, man, you gotta be on point when you're doing decision making. So it's not decision making, oh, I'm gonna be in a little bit of a tough situation. And no, it's like life and death decision making of like, no, don't be an idiot and run across the stream. Like, you better watch what you're doing, man, or like this could be your life, you know.
SPEAKER_00And I can't even imagine what some of the the cliffs and the you know mountainous kind of stuff is and the loose, loose-footed rocking situ rock situation where you could easily break it break an ankle, those kind of things, you know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah, and I mean, granted, we have an in-reach and we can get a hold of the bush plane and see if you can get out, but if there's weather moves in, you're not getting out. You know, you're it may be a couple of days before you can get out.
SPEAKER_01Wow. Wow. So like I guess while we're even talking about that in the and my brain wave links in the same direction, is like when it comes to that, what what have you found so far has been your your most challenging experience and why?
SPEAKER_03Uh challenging as in like physical or like mental, or what do you think?
SPEAKER_01I guess most just what's hit you like when you look at the when you look at some of these hunts you've been on, these remote places you went, like what one stands out to you, whether you were successful or not, which one stands out to you?
SPEAKER_03Well, I think that grizzly bear hunt stands out to me because we had two grizzly bears charge us.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_03Holy crap. And it got really hairy really fast. We could have died pretty easy there. Uh physically, I went to Adak Island and did a caribou hunt there uh with me and my uh videographer, obviously. And uh we killed two caribou about seven miles from the shoreline, and um, we didn't think too much of it. And so I'll tell the grizzly bear story after this quick little story because this is one of my harder physical stories, is you know, we we cut up the the caribou and we got ready to pack out the next day. So we we left about I don't know, 7, 8 a.m. We slept in a little bit, left, packed out. I'm like, yeah, it's only like seven miles to the shoreline, no problem. Like we we've done 20 in a day, not a big deal. Well, that was more of like as the crow flies, and we got to that shoreline, and I forgot to admark my camp on Onyx to know exactly where camp was. But on our way back, it started to snow and it got dark and we lost visibility, and we're like, and now so we left at 8 a.m. and it was midnight, and we didn't get back to camp. And we we hiked out uh both caribou. I had a caribou on my back, he had a caribou on my back. So, like physically, we were absolutely wiped, right? It was pretty tough. So on our way back, we didn't have the packs, but now we didn't we lost visibility, we didn't know where the camp was, and it started snowing, and it were it was you know, obviously super cold. So at that moment, we've been hiking for what is it, eight to eights, twelve, plus another uh four. So we've been hiking for 12 hours, no, 14, 16 hours straight, something like that. Oh and you know, get a little delirium, a little delusional, and then like, shoot, where's camp at? Um we don't know. We just went in a direction and we finally found camp, you know, super late. But that was probably one of the harder physical days that I've had. Uh, but uh you know, those two grizzly bear that that wasn't on a long scary thing, that was a 17-second scary thing where we got we got uh charged by two grizzly bears on that grizzly bear hunt.
SPEAKER_00Oh my god. Was I mean what was the situation that kind of like did you guys just like get spook them and it was like a mom with cubs, or like what was the situation?
SPEAKER_03Well, I was hunting grizzly bear. I was hunting grizzly bear with a bow and uh there was four of us, me and Chase. He's my videographer and partner on the TV side. Uh, my guide Ray and a packer. Ray and a packer had a gun. We saw two grizzly bears, made a move on them. We got into a and man, I tell you what, like it's a different feeling when you're hunting something that could kill you, right? So I'm I'm carrying my bow and we're 300 yards from like the last spot we saw these grizzly bears, and we're going through all these really thick alders that are way above our head. I could barely see 10 feet in front of me. And I'm thinking in my mind, like, this is really dangerous. Like, things could go sideways really quick. And that was the first time in my in my hunting career that I felt that fear of like, wait, I've never felt this before. This could be real dangerous. So we see these, we f we get up and we spot these the bear, the two bears are napping. It was a sow and a boar napping in this little bottom. We're only about 120 yards away. We decide not to shoot it with a bow because it's too dangerous. Because even if I stick a boar perfectly, we have that sow to contend with. And I got four guys, we got holders around. It just it was a bad situation. So I actually grabbed my guide's gun and set up about 120 yards off, and I shot and I missed. And I told Eric, I don't know how I missed. I don't know. Whatever. I don't know. It's like somehow gosh. Yeah, yeah. Holy cow. And my packers, I told my packer to shoot as soon as I shoot to get as much lead in them as possible to try to drop him right there. Well, he shot and missed. And it kicked up some dirt behind the bear, and they took off running to get away from whatever's like after him, right? And their escape route was right through us. But they had to go through a bunch of alders to get through us. So by the time they broke out of alders, they're about 30 yards from us running full speed in our direction. Oh my god. And I put a in the boar, dropped him, but the Sal kept coming, re-racked, only had one bullet left. Eric had one bullet left, and that sow's charging us at 15 yards, and we had to make a decision right there. Like, okay, do we shoot or do we see if she passes? And she ends up like I l I swear to God, I've made eye contact with her, and like you could see her making a decision of whether or not to kill us or not, and decide to move on.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, dude. So not only so you look this thing in the eye. Oh my god. And like it's one thing to get that close to a large animal at a zoo, right? And look them in the eye. Yeah, you're like, ha ha, you know what? Holy shit. I mean, I can't even that just kind of made the hair on my neck stand up a little bit, you know. Holy cow. So what explain that? I mean, did you? I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud here, but if I went through an experience like that, and then once it's all over, I'm laying in campus and I'm just like something probably hit you like a ton of bricks and just went, holy shit, I almost lost my life today. You know, I mean, or did that not hit you and you just said, let's just keep going?
SPEAKER_03Well, I don't know if you ever guys ever been in a situation like things get hairy or like you're in a traumatic situation. Everything just slows way down, right? So for me, in that moment, I could see them running at us, but everything was in slow mo. Like the the stride was in slow mo, the ripple of the fur was in slow mo. So everything seemed like it was lasting a long time, and everything was in slow motion. So it didn't seem like that big of a deal in the moment. Boom, drop the board, the south keeps coming. I'm making a decision. Do I shoot? Do I not shoot? Okay. Last second I see her make a decision and run off to our right, you know, 15 yards away. And it didn't seem like that huge of a deal, but looking back afterwards, I'm like, holy cow! Because if she would have made a decision to attack at 15 yards, I don't know what am I gonna do, man? Like, I may have put a slug in there, and hopefully I got a perfect shot in the brain. If I didn't, we're getting mauled. Like, yeah, it's getting hairy really bad, right? So we know it's also crazy about that. We cut up this boar, we hiked him back to camp about two miles, and the next day we had grizzly bear tracks 30 yards from our tent. She had followed his scent all the way back to our tent.
SPEAKER_01That makes sense though, but wow, yeah. That is wild. Golly, and you're just sitting there sleeping. Yeah. And she's she's she's just like, Well, uh, I guess since I can't find him and I smell these other people, I shouldn't mess with them.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's I I mean, it's honestly kind of from what I've heard of like those encounters, like impressive that you guys dropped one of them because I mean, I feel like you hear a lot of times people in those situations say, like you said, like you don't have time to react, and then the bear's on you, you know. So I mean, to have the poise to even do that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I recognize that the front one was the boar, thank God. Because if we would have shot the Sal, then it'd have been uh, you know, if we shot both of them, there's a big investigation, and you know, Game Fish would have been involved, and which, you know, even if we would have shot her while she's charging us, we would have been in the right and have been fine.
SPEAKER_00But all right, guys, if you've been listening to us for a while, you know we love Frog Tog's waterfowl gear. But did you know they don't just make waterfowl gear, they make some incredible fishing organization like the Frog Togs Tackle Vault 3600. That's one of our personal favorites. Also, the FTX Elite series is great if you fish hard and need something to hold up to the elements. And what about footwear? Yeah, guys, Frog Togs has you covered there, everything from hunting boots to deck boots to fishing shoes to casual stuff like the Java 2.0 and flip-flops. I can go on and on, but honestly, you just need to head over to FrogTogs.com and use code 100 situations. Yeah, it's just muddy to have to explain, and I'm sure it's not fun being investigated with all that crap, too, even being in the right, you know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, for sure. You just don't want to be in that situation. So it worked out really, man, it worked out the best I could ever have dreamed of, right? I mean, I would love to just hit him in the first shot. Right.
SPEAKER_00So have you ate grizzly? Like, is it decent eaten meat or what? I mean, what's the review there?
SPEAKER_03Well, most people don't eat grizzly, so even Alaska law says that you don't have to take the grizzly meat out of the field, which I mean Alaska they want you to take every speck of meat off of like ungulant, right? It's you know, if they say you don't have to take it out, I don't know if you'd want to eat any of it.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, I gotcha. Yeah, that makes sense. I gotcha.
SPEAKER_01I gotcha. Well, yeah, you know, they do they do in Alaska, they figured out how to use utilize every resource. I was watching somebody the other day that was, I think it was on Renella, and uh it was a lady, and she was taking uh seal intestines and cleaning them and using them to cook up later. And I was just like, my brain just doesn't relate to that. It's probably good, you know, when and they made it and all that stuff, and but it's just one of those things where it's just like I don't even relate to that, you know, and and hey, I mean, people still do eat a lot of strange things, you know. I mean, if you start going around the the culture world, you know, I know whenever I was in the military and I was going all over the world, really, I'd go to different cities and stuff like that. And like I won't forget first time I went to Italy, I was like, I want a real Italian pizza, right? You know, and went to this little hole in the wall, brick oven, all that stuff. And I said, give me like your most authentic Italian pizza. And they bring it out and it had a raw egg on it. And I was like, I'm eating it. You know what I mean? I mean, I want to explore that culture of it and that side of it. But you know, I guess um, I guess uh if you're hungry enough, anything tastes good, but but there's just certain animals they that that are tough to to to eat, you know, and and I that was a good question, Tristan, because I was curious. Like I know a lot of people say that black bear can be good depending on their diet. Um if they have more of a vegetarian type of diet, um I know that that they they I've heard is really good, but then I've heard flip side there where it's not so good.
SPEAKER_03So the ones I've eaten are fantastic. They're amazing. It's a little bit different than like a deer or elk, or it's a fattier meat, but man, it's it was really good, so I'd recommend Black Burgers for.
Mountain Goat Cliffs And Retrieval
SPEAKER_01Um this is just more personal for me. Uh, and you know, I was going through YouTube videos and everything, and I and honestly, I have not watched it yet, but I'm going to. I've always been amazed by a mountain goat. And the reason is, is when I was 12 years old, my stepdad and my mom said, we're gonna go on a trip out west, and we're just gonna jump in a van and go, right? I mean, like I was telling somebody, maybe it was you, Tristan, or you know, if you didn't have a Bucky's, you know, when you stopped, you stopped at a rest area and ate a sandwich on a picnic table, you know, and and and that's where you use the bathroom. If you found a gas station, you could use that. But it was the the whole outdoor experience, you know, going on vacations was totally different. But we go, long story short, we went out and we went to Mount Rushmore on the way back. We went out and saw White River National Park, Yellowstone, drove the sun uh the road to the sun, did all these things, came back to Mount Rushmore, and I'll never forget as a kid looking up and seeing this mountain goat up there. And I was just like, I felt so small and so like detached from nature when I saw that. And I just I was amazed by it as a kid. And so I'm just curious, like what walk us through a mountain goat hunt and what that like. I mean, from preparation to to to harvest, you know. I I'm really curious to hear about that.
SPEAKER_03Well, the mountain goats obviously live in places that we do not, right? Yeah, they're up there in the rocks, man, and uh they're one of the harder physically hunts that you can go on next to like a bighorn or a dull sheep, but you know, they're up there. Um honestly, I didn't think it was as physical as what I've done things were way harder than that. Um so it wasn't I was fine physically in that hunt, but it it could be pretty hairy of a hunt when you're up in the cliffs and the rocks. Like there's moments that I'm staring over a rock cliff of like well over probably 200 feet drop, right? I'm like, man, if something goes sideways right now, this is I'm dead. And and it it snowed, snowed pretty hard and then melted for a few days and then iced over. So I did not have any cramp-ons on that hunt, and and so like every step, man, was on ice up on these cliffs and these rocky stuff, and you had to like every step you had to break through the ice to get a foot. Oh it was just long going. And there was a moment where I thought I would be cute and take a little shortcut, which was going over up over this little pass, and I got to a place that it was super icy and it was pretty steep. And if I would have slipped, there was no stopping, I would have just just gone. And I'm like, whoa, this was a bad move right here. This is not smart. So I tried to figure out how to like work my way back out of that bad situation. But um, but no, man, it's you know, it's up in the cliffs, up in the rocks, but they're amazing animals, and there's a lot of them in Alaska, and we would be hunted in Kodak, Kodiak Island, Alaska, which is a beautiful place. Really the hardest part about it was just getting up to them. So on this hunt, a boat dropped us off in a little cove, and we from the ocean climbed up into them. So it was going through all that underbrush, scrub oak, just nasty salmon grass, just climbing up through all that crap was probably the hardest part of the hunt. Once you're up there, it's not hard, but it can't be dangerous. But just a beautiful animal, man, for sure. I actually got his just got the height back over here. I can pull that up and show you guys, but I got to send that off to the yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's cool. So so leading up to the moment of the shot. I mean, obviously, you know, there's a lot of glassing that goes into a hunt like that and and spot and stalk and and all that stuff, but leading up to that moment shot, I mean, I guess you you guess you almost have to probably take into consideration, I guess, if you care, like what's gonna happen when I release the arrow and hit this thing? Like, is it gonna fall off a thousand-foot cliff, you know? And you know, and then just my I mean, I see it all the time when I've seen these, these, these mountainous hunts where, you know, at least with a rifle, I see people concerned about that, you know. Not as much, I haven't seen enough bow hunts to really gauge that, I guess. But I'm sure you gotta think about stuff like that. So just talk about like leading up to that moment. Um, you know, how how did the how did you accomplish the shot?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I had a rifle, I didn't have a bow. Um it is. You have to understand you have to and I'm an opportunity hunter. I love hunting with a bow, but I'm not one of those guys like, oh, I have to kill everything with a bow. Like, give me a gun. I don't, whatever. I'm just out here having fun, man. Yeah. So, but yeah, you do have to be very cautious on where you kill that animal for the retrieval. Like, you well, you don't want to kill something if you can't retrieve it, right? Yeah, so where you kill that animal is super, super important. That's really where you get hung up a lot. You may find them, but they're in a bad spot where you're not gonna be able to retrieve them. So just you have to wait days until they move to a different spot where you can retrieve them.
SPEAKER_00Oh my gosh. Yeah, I'd be sitting there like I'd be a crybaby dude. But like, you know, that that's how I'd be feeling. Like, oh my god, like you don't want to let this opportunity slip away. But well, you gotta be smart.
SPEAKER_01And let me get this right. I mean, you might have walked three, six, ten, fifteen miles or whatever, all straight uphill, both ways, to get to to this goat, just for that to be the spoiler, right? And just go, okay, well, um, we'll go back tomorrow. We go back tomorrow, and they're not there, and you're like, I'll be a son of a bitch. And so you have to replan and do all those things. So, I mean, it's just so many things have to be right. For sure.
SPEAKER_03And for me, it's the adventure. Like, if I kill an animal, that's icing on the cake. So, like, the adventure for me is being in Alaska, being on Kodiak Island, which is a you know, very famous island that so many badass hunters have hunted on. So, I'm like, you know, just giddy that I'm there. And even all the mental and and the physical, hard, tough stuff, I love, I love it, right? I'd rather kill an animal 20 miles up on a mountain than 500 yards from the shoreline, right? If it's the exact same animal, I'd rather go that go after the one because it's harder and it's fit more physical, more mental. It's just more challenging and it's just more rich for me. So this hunt, you know, I loved it, man. It was through some hard stuff. I'm up in God's country. It was beautiful. The weather was a little bit tough and cold and windy, which made it even better for me. So if I wanted to kill the goat, who cares, man? I had a blast. You know, I got the seat goats. If I wanted to be able to take a shot, I don't care.
SPEAKER_01Um, one thing that, you know, I don't think we've really talked a lot about Tristan, because I mean the uniqueness of Kurt kind of draws me to this question, and that is, you know, and and and if you want to give some plugs to the people that support you, please do it. You know, we're not saying you can't talk about this brand or whatever on our podcast, but I think one of the most important pieces when I listen to somebody accomplish these things and these goals and things like that, you there you go through a process of learning like this is the most dependable thing. It's like, you know, your gun, your scope, your rifle, your uh your bow, the arrow you use, the broadhead you use, the shoes you wear, the socks you wear, all these things make a big difference in the success of how you accomplish your goals. And I'd just like you to talk a little bit about some of the things that stand out to you that you've found through your hunting success that, you know, hey, you know, I I guess the easiest one to be always take care of your feet, right? I mean, that's that's a big one, you know. But but Kurt, I'm just curious to hear like what have been some of the lessons learned, you know, for you when it comes to gear.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, that's a great that's a great question. I think it's valuable. And and sometimes gear is overplayed, but it's underlooked, like what you just said, like a a piece of gear can make or break your hunt, uh especially when it comes to being. wet or your feet or a tent or having shelter like that will make or break a hunt. Like I've gone a couple days without eating eating and I'm okay with that. I've gone a long time without water and I I I can figure that out. Uh but man if you're if you have hyperthermia you're done man. Or if if your feet are breaking down you can't take another step that'll ruin a hunt real quick. So you know those are some lessons learned is okay when I'm when I'm putting on a boot that boot has to be comfortable. It it can't be too big too small not even by a half a size. It's got to fit perfectly for me. My base layers need to be some kind of marina wool or wool of some sort. No synthetics you know no cottons for sure. Synthetics are okay a base layer but no cottons 100% for sure. Because that's going to stay wet and if it stays wet you're going to get cold and you're going to get hyperthermia. You know and then the rest of the stuff is comfortability right like you need if you're backpacking you want to have a little good shelter you need a certain tent that's not going to blow away on top of a mountain. So you want some dome-shaped stuff that are tough and rugged that will stay your sleeping bag you know that's your lifeline at night so you want to make sure it's warm enough but it can't be some big heavy thing that you're carrying around right so like those synthetic wool or synthetic sleeping bags work really well. You know zero degrees like I want to be bringing a 35 degree sleeping bag up on a mountain go hunt right like that would be a big no no water filters are really big because some of the places you hunt you don't want to get giardia and start shitting your pants or customer.
SPEAKER_00No you're good no you're good.
SPEAKER_03You don't want to get the scoots you know that'll that'll ruin a hunt real fast. And even still now man I see I feel like I'm pretty versed with like the backcountry backpacking living off your back type of thing. And there's still little things that I tweak almost every trip you know like little things I keep in my pack like Tylenol something for pain headaches especially when you're up there 12,000 13000 feet you can get a little bit of altitude sickness you get headaches up there. Chapstick is really big for me. You dry out your chaps your lips get chapped your that's not going to be comfortable so I always make sure I have chapstick with me. Whatever some other stuff oh chapstick's also a good fire starter. There you go. Firestart stuff man emergency situations that's huge. But what I really like man is just bringing little things to keep your morality up because you could be rained on in and in a tent or a cold and miserable blistered feet and something to keep the morality up like little gummy bears or I like drinking bringing little flavoring sticks that I can flavor my water with electrolytes are really big man. When you're beat up and you're dehydrated electrolytes are really big but I'll even bring like a little root beer flavoring stick to have a little root beer when I'm up there. Bacon I'll think bacon because my body's craving fat you know that bacon's huge so man I just listed off a whole bunch of stuff but it's it's a big deal man. What you bring on the mountain could be life and death for you.
SPEAKER_00I've seen on some of like to some of the hunts and stuff you see videos like and you'll see them making a c a pot of coffee right there on the fire or whatever. And I always think like God that's got to be the best pot of coffee ever.
SPEAKER_03Yeah when you're just cold and beat up and you don't understand how much you enjoy those little things of like having a cup of coffee on the mountain after eight days of just brutalness and then you can just sip on a cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_00That's like heaven man I bet, man.
SPEAKER_01Yeah I watch um um I don't know if you've ever seen him but uh I follow this guy uh his name's Xander Budnik and uh he's a young guy uh recovered addict and he got into the outdoors and just uh he does he makes the most of it but one of the cool things he always does he brings the insta coffee and he talks about that he's like I am gonna have like that coffee thing like when he's getting his ass kicked and he's out and like he'll go to he'll he'll go to um uh what is the uh the big um the big uh mountain um that there bay Mount Everest he did like a 10-day thing in Mount Everest you know I mean and and he's gonna have that coffee you know I mean and I'm just like I can respect that because sometimes like when just when you're out there grinding, you know, man if you could just get in a creek and wash your body off you know you're just like yes even though that cold water sucked you know but there's a little a bit of life when you light a fire you know and you look into that fire and go God I had no idea how moral supportive a fire is outside of the warmth you know uh that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00All I know is this podcast what I've gathered so far is like next time we're on like a week white tail hunt in Illinois and like I mean it's like don't get me wrong like that's that can be hard after you know all day sits like four or five days in a row and no success. But I'm like I'm I can't even think about feeling sorry for myself anymore hearing this. I'm like because there's been some times I'm like man I don't want to go in the morning I'm tired but I got to meanwhile I'm sleeping at a night in a nice like you know a heated heated room and bed you get to go back and have home cooked meal in a bed.
SPEAKER_03Man most of the time I don't even bring a tent I just bivvy out my sleeping bag and sleep wherever I'm at. Yeah underneath the tree or something yeah I just pick a nice comfy little spot on the ground underneath a tree somewhere and just sleep.
SPEAKER_00What uh do you got anything I'm sure you do but what exciting stuff do you got coming up here in the next you know for foreseeable future well I'm really excited about the the episode or film I just launched on my YouTube called Redemption.
SPEAKER_03So Archery Elk Hunt which is like my favorite hunt of all time I've been to a lot of places but I love archery elk hunting I two years ago I was in this place and I killed not killed well he probably died I shot a big bull one of the biggest bulls I've ever seen on the hoof in real life and I wounded him with a with a bow and I almost gave up bow hunting because of it. Like I literally was calling my buddies saying buy my stuff man I'm done because if I would add a muzzle load or a rifle it'd be dead and he wouldn't be wounded right because it's man it's it really messes with you when you wound an animal and you can't recover him but then you wound something so magnificent like that it really hit hard and then so this film was me this last season going in the exact same area with the exact same tag, exact same pot. And that's why it's called redemption and uh I end up killing a pretty good bull on this one. So I'm very excited about that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yep that just launched nice what's up now I was just I I want to hear the yeah other exciting stuff you got going on too but man that's the truth about and I couldn't even imagine with the elk not that one life's greater than another but you just this majestic you know screaming elk you know like you know it's just I can't even imagine yeah yeah.
SPEAKER_03Uh so yeah some things I got coming up here is I drew a moose tag for Alaska. Had a three percent chance of drawing that so I'm doing that in September. Uh oh I forgot here in April here in about 30 days I'm gonna go to New Zealand on a hunt so that's gonna be exciting. And then I've got some stuff here in Colorado and and some whitetail which I'm sure you guys enjoy in in Kansas in November I'm most looking forward to that moose hunt though that's gonna be an archery moose hunt in Alaska. So is that just no preference point just completely random or is there any sort of rhyme or reason to it no it's all lottery systems so Alaska doesn't do any preference point systems it's it's everyone has an equal shot at it you just put in and and this one I I looked up as like three and a half percent chance of drawing and man I'm I'm one of the luckiest guys in the world dude I drew the mountain goat tag I drew the Alaska tag my daughter drew a really cool elk tag last year like I'm just super lucky when it comes to that stuff.
SPEAKER_00Yeah that's crazy because I mean yeah that's pretty much a once in a lifetime right there.
SPEAKER_03Wow yeah yeah for sure no I'm super excited about it and I'll be using a bow which I I I love and I guarantee you I'm gonna be like while I'm hunting that moose I'm gonna wish I had a gun I guarantee you no kidding man um you know I was I was wanting to ask and I hate to circle back to like the transition that you went through because I feel like it was such a significant thing.
SPEAKER_01And there's definitely a lot of people you know I mean all my life if I have to be honest I've been dreaming of you know I wish that I could do something that that the outdoor industry supported my life you know I mean because it's truly where my passion is you know obviously I talked to you a little bit about that's my mother you know so I had that staple um uh of somebody that has done that you know and and that kind of thing but let me ask you this um if you could go back to what you did before knowing everything you know now would you do it?
SPEAKER_03100% absolutely I probably would have done I should have done it earlier. Yeah there's absolutely no doubt in my mind absolutely I should I would because if if here's what I think Ben let's just say there's$10 million in your bank account okay however you got whatever what would you be doing? Tell me exactly what you would be doing if you had$10 million in your bank account. When I answer that question I'm doing exactly what I would be doing with$10 million in my bank account. I'm doing exactly that right I I talk to hunters every day and I get to help them go on their dream hunts. I go on these badass hunts and have really cool adventures and I get to film them and try to entertain other people with them and man I'm doing exactly what I want to do if I was the richest man on the planet.
Filming Tips And Social Media Reality
SPEAKER_01So absolutely I I I've do it time and time again that's awesome that's awesome um you know with that saying from a videography standpoint I understand you you know you you've got a cameraman that's there which is incredible. I mean I've seen some of you guys' stuff and kudos to him. I mean it's sick stuff. And uh but what would you recommend to you know because social media has become such a big thing like everybody's posting what they do right you know and posting their successes and and and trying to get unique with shots and and video the filmography or the videography piece of that what are some of the things that you guys have learned along the way as far as like from the videoing piece that would be some good tips to people out there that are looking to do kind of whether it's it's as extreme as you are or if they're just going out and filming you know trying to professionally film a whitetail hunt or something like that. Like what are some uh some I guess I hate to use the term again lessons learned I guess um things that are kind of staples of what you guys do without giving away of course um what makes you guys uh so unique with what you do.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well let me before I dive into it I mean you said something um that triggered me when you say social media like there's one thing I I definitely want to say there is don't let social media media ruin your passion. And what I mean by that is like all we see is the greatest moments of all these hunters, right? And that's that's posted all over social media. We don't see the the grind and the hard days and like and for someone that's just getting into hunting all they see is everyone killing everything. Like how come I'm not successful? How I'm not how come I'm not killing 180 inch whitetails when everyone else is and am I a terrible hunter am I you know maybe this isn't for me like it's pretty easy for them to just to give up because the way it looks like a social media everyone kills all the time that is not the truth man that's far from the truth. I would say I'm I'm probably in that higher percentage of killing more often than not and it's still really really hard man and I don't kill all the time right so like if you guys are listening to this man don't pay attention to social media like use it to have fun but like don't go down that rabbit hole of like everyone else is a better hunter because I see everything getting killed all the all the time. Don't don't pay attention to that wise words yeah good stuff but no kind of into like some tactics of like how to film a hunt I man it was a huge learning curve for me and I and I still self-film some stuff so like I have a the last like truly self-filmed video I have up there is a wolf hunt that I filmed out of a wolf box and it self-filming is really hard there's a huge learning curve like I remember the first hunt I tried to film I had a GoPro and I couldn't even figure out how to like get it to record right like I was on speed ramps and slow modes and I had no idea what was going on and it it was terrible. So you got to learn the equipment and how to use the equipment and then edit your own stuff for sure because you will learn what you're missing and what you screwed up in the field of filming by doing your own edits. You realize oh dang I don't have this shot it would really be nice to have you know some B roll of some grass moving or it would be really nice if I had this second angle when I took a shot. Like you'll learn the most when you edit your own film but you don't have to be fancy you don't need to have uh the best gear in the world you don't need you don't need any of that stuff and by no means do you feel don't think you have to film it in any specific way like just do what's fun for you. Just have fun doing it and let your created creativity go. Just because Kurt Belding films an episode in a specific way doesn't mean that you have to like do whatever you want like start backwards. Like that grizzly bear film we did something completely different. We started the film in the stock and then cut back to moments that were important to know for the stock and so we did it completely we didn't do the day one day three day five whatever stuff like just have fun with it man and that's number one just have fun.
SPEAKER_01And then that's so cool to have some footage that you can look back on your hunt and just watch again you know right so just that's the one thing I talk about a lot you know that I tell these younger guys especially Tristan he knows it's a part a passion part of mine it's just that you know I I have all these great memories you know of of things you know the all the whitetails I've shot you know all from from anything you know and that honestly like it was part of the passion of uh a dual passion for me to get this started for us was I was just like man these young folks not just you guys you know I'm talking about anybody out there what a great thing to be able to have man I mean once you once it's there it's always gonna be there you know and you can be 70 years old and looking back at that hopefully and uh and and have that memory you know where today if I don't find the Polaroid I don't I might not even remember which sounds terrible you know I'd love to be able to remember every deer I shot but I can't but I'm sure there were some great stories associated with those you know and that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00So yep. No that that's a great tip I think to Kurt is one one of the things that I have fun with it.
SPEAKER_03Don't get don't get locked into like oh man everyone else does it like this that's the one reason why you shouldn't do it like that right because everyone else does it but one thing that I I always pull off as one of my whys why am I doing this is you know I'll ask you guys a question do you do you have a picture of your grandpa's grandpa your great grandpa yeah you do right there right there you you do I I do I I've got a picture of your grandpa's grandpa I don't have one of my grandma I don't have I don't personally know I don't have one of my grandpa's grandpa yeah so my grand grandkids grandkids grandkids could go back and watch what their dumbass Kurt great great great grandpa Kurt was like a little bit of legacy you know like my great great great great grandkids can see what Kurt was all about right so I think that's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00That that actually is a really cool way to look at it especially like you know I think everybody like who's been fortunate enough to have a grandpa grow old he hear their stories or whatever and try to put yourself in their shoes of what life was like back then or whatever. But being able to be like I'm just envisioning myself like pulling up like a duck hunt or something me and him did when I'm like 70 just showing my grandkids like yeah here you go.
SPEAKER_01Right there's a crazy dad doing a snow angel during a duck hunt in the snow.
SPEAKER_03Yeah man I would I'd love to see whatever my great great grandpa was doing and what he was you know I would love to do that.
Shows Family Balance And New Baby
SPEAKER_00Yeah it's it's interesting too because like I feel like just the more I've like known my grandparents as I've got older and kind of figured out who I am as as an adult. I'm 29 and like you know as I get older I just like recognize these little patterns about myself like I just like things a certain way and then it's like oh okay well he also like things a certain way or my dad likes things a certain way or whatever and you're like oh okay so that's the old saying about not falling Apple doesn't fall too far from the fruit tree you know that's that's true that's true.
SPEAKER_01Um so Kurt do you get out and like um like outside of of what you do on YouTube and everything like that is there anywhere that do you ever show up to any shows or do that kind of thing like outside of of that where people can get out and shake your hand and and get you because you know as well as I do dude some of these shows that you go to it's amazing how you can meet somebody at a show and they're a friend for life immediately. I mean it's just some we talk about so much time on this podcast that you just we're cut from the same cloth that kind of thing you find common interests.
SPEAKER_03Is there anything that you do like that where people could get out and say man I'm gonna go out and shake Kurt's hand yeah I'm at some of the shows uh this year I didn't do very many of them because I wanted to stay with the family a little bit. I did a lot of traveling last year so uh you know for me it's a trade-off like if if I'm gonna spend time away from my family where how do I want to spend that typically it's on the mountain right so I do do that. I was at uh Utah last year um at that show Colorado I'm typically going to that one we'll probably do some more here this next year with my company and maybe have a big booth there and and uh show off the brand a little bit too so yeah I'd love to see what shows do you guys go to just the so far just kind of the duck hunting ones but him growing up used to go to like the Deer and Turkey classics and all that.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah Deer and Turkey Classic in Illinois and the Golden Triangle was the thing to go to back when I was younger, you know I mean and it still is a great show today but I think one of the things like we want to start getting into more the duck shows and like the bigger shows like the ducks in Memphis and stuff like that, those are great but like there's all these regional shows like you know the Georgia Outdoor Expo or whatever it might be that I feel like from growing our podcast standpoint is kind of a goal here in the next two years is to kind of maybe get a booth or whatever like you said and just meet people in our own backyard you know you guys should do a like a a podcast at your booth or something. That's what I'm saying, you know, and then have people come by that'd be the way to do it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah well we um yeah I was gonna say we actually we actually did that at the Ducks convention that was the first year they came um Ducks Unlimited brought it back to Memphis last year and um they pushed they pushed tens of thousands of people through that thing but Frog Togs is one of our big partners and um Donnie was nice enough to ask us to come in there and we actually run live ran live podcasts the whole weekend from the Frog Togs. It was pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00Very cool yeah that's great yeah well but no I heard I should do more of it should be involved a little more but I I'm really balancing trying to balance family life with how much I'm going on so I'm gonna I'm gonna have to learn that balance very uh very soon because we had a baby on the way in July and I'm like I'm still gonna hunt so like it's funny like you know I'm negotiating and uh there's we have we're also in the phase of life where like everybody and their brother's getting married and there's two weddings in December and I'm like okay like great during duck season um but I've I've negotiated a a deer trip in November and then January to duck hunt if I if I'm you know there for the weddings in December with you know and help out so it's just trying to trying to juggle.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's tough, man. It's uh it's it's tough, especially with a newborn man, because that's that puts a lot of strain on life and you don't get us a lot of sleep, and you know, and you being gone that puts it all on the wife, but just load that front end, man. Just try to do as much stuff you can for her, and then when you get back, you just go to work, man, and do as much as you can for her when you get back, right? So yeah, well, good for you for having a kid in July. I got I was an idiot and got married in September.
Booking Hunts And How To Reach Kurt
SPEAKER_00Well, well, I will say I did get married in November, hand up on that, but it was like November 4th. So my thought was like, okay, it's before the rut, it's before duck season. Like that was kind of my thought, but still a lot of people that uh and my hunting friends that came, they were still like, dude, what are you thinking? But I wasn't gonna make the mistake if I could control it with the kid. Right, that's right. Um, Kurt, you know, I you mentioned a couple times like your booking agency. Do you so is that still something you you currently run as part of your business?
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, man. That's actually, you know, I don't make much money on the filming, if any at all. Like it as a passion project, and actually it's a good marketing tool for the brand also. But where the revenue of the company comes from is the booking side of it. So, you know, we'll it fits perfectly, right? I go on these cool adventures, or my team does, and we go vet these outfitters and make sure that they're good outfits to recommend for people, and then we talk to hunters and say, Yeah, we've got all these outfitters that we'd recommend you go on because we've been there ourselves. And uh, and for us, we don't make money on the the hunter, we make money on the outfitter, right? The the outfitter basically hires us to talk to clients for them and book for them. So we get a commission from the outfitter. So as an hunter, we you know it's like a win-win. You just get to talk to all these guys and pull from their experiences and they recommend where to go and cuts down all that labor that you would have to research and the fear of like choosing the wrong guy that was gonna rip you off, you know. So it's a good game.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's nice. Yeah, yeah. No, I'd imagine that'd be super valuable because I mean, like I was saying earlier, like so many of these adventures, especially for us over here on the East Coast, is like uh it's could be once in a lifetime for an elk hunt, you know. So I mean, when you do it, you want to make sure you do it right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're spending thousands of dollars and you want to make sure that you're at least maximizing your your opportunities, right? I mean, and what better than to go with somebody that's already done and can recommend places, you know, and uh the right guy, you know, the right guides and and have all that experience because I mean we've done blind stuff where we've gone to another state and just said, all right, we're doing it, you know, and guess what? That costs you a lot of time and money, as you know, you know, so anyway, but but uh you cannot replace a good outfitter and especially a good guide. No doubt about that. Oh, for sure.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and then we get a lot of East Coast guys like, hey, I've never been elk hunting, I've never done this. What do you recommend? And you know, we shoot them straight, like for what you want to do, here's what we recommend. And uh, you know, and there's a lot of guys like, I want to come do a do-it-yourself elk hunt in Colorado. I'm like, for sure, man. I did my first three years, you know, doing myself in Colorado, and I stumbled around the mountain for three years until I hired a guide. That was that like my learning curve, right? So um but no, for sure, man. We're just here to help guys and you know give them the experiences that we got, right?
SPEAKER_01So And what's what's the best way for them to get in contact with you? Uh they listen to this and they're like, hey man, I want to I want to do the shit that Kurt's doing. Like, how do they get hold of you?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, the best way is our website, Western Obsessions TV.com, which will have a lot of our episodes and all our hunts and uh guided hunts on there so they can see all that. But you know, most of my content goes on YouTube. If you want to kind of see what I do day to day, you know, some of that grind that suck workouts, I'll put it on Instagram on my story so you can kind of see what I do day to day there.
SPEAKER_01So that's cool.
SPEAKER_03Awesome, man.
SPEAKER_00Well well, Kurt, well, tell everybody where they can um, not obviously the business, but where they can follow you personally um and all that good stuff.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Uh you know, I'm on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. Um, that's where they can kind of see me day to day of what I do on a regular basis. I try to be as active as I can on there. Sometimes I slip, but that'd be the best place. And if they want to go see any of the hunts that we have gone on and that we've edited that'd be our website, westernobsessionstv.com.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. And the same thing with your socials, all at Western Obsessions.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's all Western Obsessions. Yeah. If you just Google that or my name or search Western Obsessions TV or my name, Kurt Belding, it'll all come up.
Final Thanks And Sign Off
SPEAKER_01That's awesome stuff, man. Well, Kurt, man, thank you so much, dude. It's humbling. Yeah, thank you. Um to to to I mean, honest to God, like we want to be respectful of your time, but we could sit here with you for hours and especially uh uh, you know, like we tell everybody, man, hope to hope to grab a campfire and hunt with you at some point. And and um, man, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to to spend time with us.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely, guys. I'd hunt with you guys anytime.
SPEAKER_01All right, brother.
SPEAKER_02I've been stout bound, I've been hellbound, riding on a bit i'm strength. Going too fast now, think off slow down, standing in the foreign rain.