#045 - Brian Stephens

You don’t just hunt wildlife… you win with it.

In this episode of The Hunt Stealth Podcast, Ryan Uffens sits down with Brian Stephens—hardcore hunter, author of Winning with the Wild Life, and a man who's packed more wisdom into his pack than most pack in gear.

They dive into how Brian got hooked on hunting, why good mentors matter more than fancy gear, and how the bonds built in the backcountry last a lifetime. From intense hunts to hilarious hiccups, Brian shares stories that'll fire you up to hit the field.

He also drops gold on why good optics aren’t just nice—they’re necessary, and gives straight-shooting advice every new hunter needs to hear.

Whether you're fresh to the trail or a seasoned vet, this one’s packed with perspective, purpose, and a whole lot of passion for the hunt.

Follow Brian Stephens:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archerymadman

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/more2thehunt

YouTube: More 2 The Hunt

Book: Winning With The Wild Life by Brian Stephens

Follow Ryan Uffens:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanuffens

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanuffens

X: https://x.com/ryanuffens

Follow Hunt Stealth:

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Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction to Brian Stevens and His Journey
• 05:20 The Evolution of a Hunter
• 10:02 Bucket List Hunts and the Importance of Companionship
• 14:56 Life Lessons from Nature and the Purpose of Hunting
• 20:12 The Case for Hunters and Wildlife Management
• 25:09 Understanding the Reality of Nature and Hunting Ethics
• 30:05 The Importance of Community in Hunting
• 35:01 Navigating Criticism and Building a Cohesive Hunting Community
• 40:36 Navigating Constructive Criticism in the Hunting Community
• 42:59 Getting Started in Hunting: The Importance of Mentorship
• 47:35 The Role of Pro Shops in Hunting Education
• 51:33 The Focus and Calmness of Archery
• 58:30 Memorable Hunting Experiences: A Mule Deer Story
• 01:16:31 Advice for New Hunters: Embracing the Journey

Takeaways

• He emphasizes the importance of mentorship in hunting.
• Camaraderie in hunting creates lasting bonds and memories.
• Nature teaches valuable life lessons that are often overlooked.
• Hunters are often misunderstood and need to advocate for their rights.
• Understanding how animals die can change perceptions about hunting.
• The hunting community faces challenges from non-hunters and legislation.
• Good optics are essential for successful hunting.
• Archery requires focus and practice to master.
• New hunters should seek guidance and learn from experienced mentors.

Special Offers: 

Visit https://www.muleymaniacs.com and enter Promo Code: STEALTH20 for 20% off

Transcript

Ryan Uffens (00:00)
You're listening to the Hunt Stealth Podcast. I'm Ryan Uffens and this episode is brought to you by Readywise Outdoor.

Ryan Uffens (00:06)
excited today to have Brian Stephens on the podcast. Brian, thanks for joining us.

Brian Stephens (00:13)
It's pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.

Ryan Uffens (00:16)
Yeah.

So, Brian has a great book called Winning with the Wildlife, which is great for folks that are new to hunting. You'll definitely have to give him a follow if you're not already on ⁓ Instagram, it's ArcheryMadMan, and then as well as his YouTube channel, More to the Hunt. They're doing one video a month that they're releasing.

with some of their hunts and experiences that they go on. But excited to have Brian here. And Brian, I believe there's a gentleman that folks in the archery world are pretty familiar with that wrote the forward to your book. Is that correct?

Brian Stephens (00:50)
That is correct. A good friend, Kim Haynes, wrote the ⁓ forward and one of my best friends ⁓ of all time, Cody Robbins, wrote the afterward. And I think as far as archery legends go, Cody's going to be in the Hall of Fame as well because he's one of the top, he's probably got more giant mule deer with a bow than anybody, I think. ⁓

Ryan Uffens (01:17)
So you're running

in the good circles. You clearly know what you're doing and ⁓ can hang with folks. So that's exciting. I'm excited to chat with you today. Brian, tell me a little bit about how you first got started hunting, if you would. Do you remember the first time you ever went out hunting?

Brian Stephens (01:25)
Ha ha.

for sure. Yeah. So had a, you know, started really young, just shooting, just shooting guns and shooting bows with my dad. And I actually wrote about my first actual hunting experience was a good friend of mine that was a neighbor of mine when I was really young. He had a recurve bow and I had a little toy bow I'd been shooting since I was about five years old, but he had this legitimate recurve bow that

I still remember it was a 20 pound pole. So it wasn't a lot of pull, but it was a nice bow, you know? And we, of course, started shooting that a lot and got pretty darn accurate with it. And we on our own went rabbit hunting and we were 10 years old and we ended up killing a rabbit. And then we, we grilled it over a fire that we built probably in a spot we weren't supposed to. And, and, and, ⁓ we, did not probably do a very good job of cooking it, but we

We sure ate it and it was very dry and it was pretty awful because it was all charred and everything. it was one of those things where neither of us wanted to admit how poorly we had cooked it. We were just chewing it and chewing and looking at each other and just kind of nodding our head like, yeah, we've made it. We're here. And it was a great moment, actually. right around that same time, my dad was kind of a bird hunter.

And so he had taken me quail hunting. didn't get any quail on the first trip, but then we ⁓ started dove hunting and we were actually doing really good on the doves. so that quickly escalated my interest into, know, hey, what else is there to hunt? And started thinking about deer and other big game. And I was reading every outdoor life magazine they had in the library at my elementary school. And I had...

every book, every everything I could come up with that was hunting related, I was looking at. ⁓ So, you know, the early days of ⁓ small game, ⁓ that was really the start, but it was almost immediate that I was interested in bigger game. since then, ⁓ you know, I'm primarily a bow hunter. I did gun hunt more when I was young and I still occasionally do, but I'm

I'm primarily a bow hunter and I've hunted, I've been blessed to hunt all over the world. know, I've hunted ⁓ Africa pretty extensively. My passion is the West, anywhere West really and on up into Canada and Alaska. And that's where, if you really pin me down, that's kind of where I would want to spend all my time. And I would have to say elk and mule deer are probably my favorite.

love hunting black tail, love hunting moose. I've gotten three of the different sheep. Stone, doll, and desert bighorn, but haven't shot a rocky yet. Anyway, a lot of the northern and western stuff I've hunted and had quite a bit of success up there. The whole spot and stalk with a bow in big country is definitely a passion, but I did grow up, you know,

working a lot. If you read my book, I kind of tell my back story, but I worked really hard for a lot of years to get myself into a position where I'd be able to do what I'm doing now. ⁓ I, ⁓ you know, it came with a lot of sacrifice and I think a lot of people see, they just see the results now. They don't, they don't see what all went into that. And what went into it was, ⁓ you know, ⁓ my wife and I got married when we were 19 and the first

I think we were 30 or 31 before we took our first vacation and it was a pretty simple one. ⁓ through those years, we were working multiple jobs. We were going to school full time. I went to college all the way through, got my MBA until she worked to help support us and then she went to school after. And we were paying that as we went as well. So it was kind of just a grind for that first decade.

and ⁓ hunting only at places where my buddies had land or we had access somewhere, public land in Colorado, everything that we could do for free basically. And it was stuff, but we had a lot of success even in those days. ⁓ then I worked professionally for a long time as well. I worked in the healthcare industry and I worked ⁓

I worked for a health insurance company and then I worked in hospital administration and then ultimately I ended up starting my own ⁓ insurance business and we do, my forte is employee benefits. So we do employee benefits for companies that are ⁓ anywhere from two to 2,000 employees and most of them are based in Texas but they branch into other states and some even into other countries. that has also been a lot of work and as you

imagine there's times of sacrifice there where you can't leave, you can't get away. And that's part of the hard part about owning your own business. But at the same time, once you're able to build a team that supports your vision and your goals, which I have now, and just an awesome team of people, I'm able to now take the time at times to be able to go do these things.

But none of that started until, as far as the bigger traveling taipans, really didn't start until I was in my mid to late 30s. And I'm 53 now, but it was a lot of work getting to that point. And so I don't ever take it for granted though. Every single time I have people ask me, and if you watch my videos,

Ryan Uffens (07:40)
Yeah.

Brian Stephens (07:51)
And I spent 10 years with, you know, Cody Robbins with his show, Live to Hunt, you know, helping him with content. And so I've been on his show a lot as well. And if you watch me in the moment of truth, a lot of times you'll see some horrendous buck fever. I get buck fever as bad as anybody you know, ⁓ but through a lot of experience, I've been able to, you know, work through it.

And it's really just repetition and shooting and practicing so much that it becomes, you know, second nature. the people ask me all the time with all the hunting I've done is it, you know, do you ever get tired of it or do you get excited by it anymore? And all I can say is just watch my videos and you be the judge of how it impacts me these days.

Ryan Uffens (08:40)
Yeah, I think that sometimes people that don't hunt don't understand that. But like even to your point, like what you were talking about, you know, people see what you get to do now and where your involvement level is in the hunting and that. And it reminds me of like the flag I remember you see in Cam's garage, right? And his gym is like, it must be nice. Like people forget the sacrifice that others put into it. I mean, yeah. And it's the same with any, you know, industry or career.

Brian Stephens (09:01)
Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (09:10)
People put in a lot of work to be able to take a little bit of time off later in life to be able to enjoy the things that they've built and be able to do that. So I think it's an amazing thing that you've been able to do and accomplish. And I'm excited to start following along a lot closer. One of the things, thoughts that I had is you'd kind of gone through all these different places and you said kind of like Alaska,

you know, Western big game is kind of where you'd probably like, is there an animal though that you have not hunted yet that you're, that you would still have like on that bucket list for you? I you mentioned the sheep.

Brian Stephens (09:52)
I have hunted, ⁓ obviously a Rocky Mountain bighorn would be a big one, but that's difficult to, obviously the tag situation and everything. ⁓ I've hunted brown bear and grizzly bear ⁓ with rifle and I've been successful on that, but I really want to hunt a coastal bear, a big coastal bear with my bow. That is definitely probably the top of my list.

I badly want to go moose hunting again. Right now I'm getting a real itch for that. I love moose meat. I love the country and I love that. I love to hunt. ⁓ I want to hunt a bison with my bow. I think a lot of people don't even really think about them but it's such an iconic animal. Just for the experience and if you want to, it's kind of a nostalgic thing guess.

our history and our country and know bison being one of the originals it just would be I would really like to do that as well so ⁓ everything that I enjoy every experience and you know and I find that ⁓ a big part of that is the people that you end up spending time with and learning from and all those different situations or just

Being able to share those experiences together. I know some guys that like to do a lot of stuff on their own and that's great. But ⁓ I deer hunt on my own quite a bit. there's something about sharing camp with people and occasionally a new person that ends up being, I always say the outdoors forges friends from strangers like nothing else. And it's awesome to meet new people and get new perspectives.

Yeah, it's, I don't know, it's just something where you can travel around and you meet people that, there's just a lot of good people that do what we do.

Ryan Uffens (11:58)
Yeah. And there's something we said about suffering with others, I think. mean, and even we talk about hunting and this thing that we do that we love so much. And there is a little bit, there's some suffering involved. I mean, whether it's like, like me, like I started and I'm, I'm only doing archery and I'm chasing elk and I've yet to fill a tag. I've gotten close, but I haven't let an arrow fly.

Brian Stephens (12:02)
Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (12:24)
But the time that I've been able to spend with my son, who's one that got me into hunting in the first place, and just other people, it builds like a camaraderie and you get to look back on memories and things that happened and you definitely form a bond.

Brian Stephens (12:40)
For sure, yeah. it's, in a way to me, one of the reasons that I love hunting with people so much, and it's one of the reasons I like documenting my hunts as well, is because then you get to share the experience with other people and it's not just some small video in your own brain. It's actually something that you can share. And I find that over filming,

hunts over the last 15 years or so you actually as vivid as some of those memories seem you do forget some of the finer details at time if you don't review that video footage for a while and sometimes just watching that back it's amazing some of the things that you just all of a sudden you're right back there and you recall things with better clarity and honestly that was one of the things that helped me in writing my book because there are stories in there but

You know, there's some fine details in there that I went back and reviewed through video and it kind of helped me, you know, have clarity. And really the whole, the purpose in writing the book to begin with was I wanted, number one, hunting has been such a good thing for me, ⁓ an important part of my life. And I feel like there's a lot of things that you learn in nature that, you know, that we were supposed to learn because we were traditionally.

Ryan Uffens (13:45)
Yeah.

Brian Stephens (14:05)
way more connected to nature than we are in modern society. And I think those lessons are there for us as humans just to see how life works and how things work and, you know, ⁓ effort and consequence and success and failure and all these different things that nature provides examples for us. A lot of us are missing out on those things and I think it's important that we, to the extent possible, are reconnecting ourselves.

to those lessons and to those examples that are there for us, but also to get other people involved, young people especially, but it might not be young people, it might be older people that just have never been exposed to it. And let them see and learn those examples for themselves because in my opinion, there's just tremendous value. So a big part of the book is to help explain that, the life lessons of nature, not so much just hunting. I do tell hunting stories, but...

I want people to understand how much I've learned and specific. give, you know, my stories are told with a purpose to give examples of these life lessons that I've learned. then I, you know, I go through and talk about ⁓ kind of making a case for hunters. If I was going to explain to a non-hunter, for example, why it is that we hunt the first couple of chapters of the book are designed to kind of humanize hunters to, you know, from a non-hunting perspective to show them that we're not.

We're not monsters, we're not murderers. We care more about the land and the wildlife than the vast majority of people on the planet. And then to also demonstrate that since the beginning of time, this is what's been going on and how people have survived. So there's a kind of an origin story and there's just a little bit of my backstory just to kind of fill people in and then on to the life lessons that all revolve around, you know, goal setting, kind of mind, body and spirit.

⁓ examples and how nature ⁓ teaches us all these different lessons and then it just summarizes it in the end. And I've had some non-hunters. ⁓ My goal, one of my goals was that a non-hunter could read this book and only not find it offensive but maybe forge a better opinion of hunting in general because, and this is yet another goal in writing the book is that

Right now we're facing, as you know, some challenges to the right to hunt that we have. The stats that I've read is that 5 % of people are hunters, roughly 25 % have a negative opinion of hunting, and then the rest of the 75 % are kind of agnostic to hunting.

when we're facing these ballot box biology issues and some of these issues that are coming up now that are a threat to our ability to do what humans have always done, we had better find a way to educate that 75 % non-hunter that's agnostic because we need them at that ballot box. If we're gonna fight that battle, we need their vote. so one of my goals in writing this book is to tell the stories in a way that would be respectful.

And this is also on our More to the Hunt ⁓ videos. In fact, if you watch my introductory video on our More to the Hunt page, you'll see what I want our series to be like and to be about. it's just a four minute film. It's introductory. And I think anybody that watches it would already form an interest in what it is that we're trying to do. So.

Ryan Uffens (17:49)
for sure. You had mentioned there's like the 25 % that are against hunting. I don't know that you're going to change their mind because they're they're like the extremists. But the people like you said that are agnostic or don't understand it, like I didn't grow up hunting. I wasn't against it. It just wasn't no one in my family did it. I didn't have anybody to go to. And then it was, you know, my like I said, my son started talking to me and he's like, let's go buy bows and

Brian Stephens (17:57)
No.

Ryan Uffens (18:18)
So I started researching and stumbled across like Cam Haines. I mean, I've even got my, it's not here, but I've got my Cam Haines Hoyt Ventum, you know, like I was like, this guy's a stud. But yeah, like I got pulled into it and was never against it. But I was talking with Trevor Thompson, who he's a guide here in Utah. And I think part of the problem is that you have people that are making the legislation that don't hunt.

Brian Stephens (18:29)
Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (18:49)
and they don't understand. And that's one of the things I know like the Utah ⁓ DWR, I think they put out something that they're looking for hunters to like sit on this board to try and like advise like the legislators on hunting so that we can try and keep some of these rights. And Utah's not bad, but it's not great either. But when you have people that are making laws that are either 100 % against it or don't understand hunting,

Brian Stephens (18:49)
for sure.

Ryan Uffens (19:17)
It's how do you expect them to make an informed decision?

Brian Stephens (19:20)
Well, and I feel like every state has a state wildlife department that's funded in large part by hunters dollars, which a lot of people don't realize. There's on the federal level, there's excise taxes and things that are all tied to hunting goods. And a lot of those dollars are what make the management of the wildlife by actual trained, educated biologists that that is what they do. That is their life and that's what they know. That's what they've studied. And that's the

their work experience in which our tax dollars are funding these wildlife departments specifically for the purpose of trying to help preserve this renewable resources that we have and do it in a way that's biologically sound, not only for today, but for the future. So why in the world would we even allow a ballot box biology kind of measure to kind of... ⁓

let a relatively uneducated public make biological decisions about wildlife that they don't have any background in understanding when we already have tax dollars allocated to actually doing that scientifically. The mechanism, which is the state wildlife departments, is their boots on the ground understanding and seeing what's going on on a local level. And they should be

in charge of managing those resources and if they're not doing a good job then the public is going to should be able to get feedback about that and you know but in most cases if you look at the North American hunting model that was founded by Teddy Roosevelt you look at what an incredible success story it has been in fact it's the most successful model on the planet ⁓

and that is supported by the populations of all the various wildlife that are being managed by these wildlife departments. It's kind of hard to argue with the efficacy of the model and what's been put in place and the fact that Hunter's Dollars are largely what is supporting that. So it's really about as close to perfect as you're going to get and I think we need to play a part

And we need to be proactive about educating the non-hunting public of that. And again, it's not ⁓ at all ⁓ telling people they should be hunters too. That's people's personal choice. I don't have any... If somebody doesn't want to hunt, that's fine. I'm not going to try to talk somebody into doing something they don't want to do. I just don't want people to ⁓ infringe on my right to do it.

something that we've done since the beginning of time and something that is being managed in a way that's extremely thoughtful and successful. ⁓

Ryan Uffens (22:22)
Yeah, yeah, no, I agree. it's

I think it's unfortunate that there are groups out there that are so against it and actively trying to shut it down. And I think sometimes the hunting community doesn't want to speak up. mean, because for the longest time, people, you just kind of kept to yourself. mean, social media has changed a lot of that, and you've got some pretty

⁓ people with powerful platforms that have gotten into hunting and I think they're helping spread the word and at least making the case for people to be open to it. I'd rather not anybody else start hunting. There's like here in Utah, like there's so much pressure, but yeah, just don't be against it. ⁓ cause it's that, that is a, that's a, that's a tough road to hoe like trying to get the word out. Cause like, like I said, when I said I want to start doing it.

Brian Stephens (23:10)
Thank

Right.

Ryan Uffens (23:26)
My wife was like, she sat down and watched some videos. Like I put some films on and she was watching and she's like, well, that's sad. And I'm like, she's like, that animals out there just, you know, living its life. I'm, I remind her, I'm like the way most animals die is not nice. It's not like they go lay down and all the other animals come surround and say a nice thing about them. They either starved to death, they freeze to death.

Brian Stephens (23:34)
Ha ha ha.

Ryan Uffens (23:55)
or they're eaten alive. I mean...

Brian Stephens (23:58)
And the eating the live part is horrific, know, and especially with wolves, they are usually eviscerated or hamstrung and then eviscerated while they're still alive. it's, ⁓ yeah, I think that's a huge.

disconnect for a lot of non-hunters is they they really I think you're right I think a lot of them do think that it's a it's this animal lays down when it gets ancient old and it just slowly passes away and it's sleep and that is I think that is literally a point zero zero zero to the nth degree

Ryan Uffens (24:27)
Yeah, like a Disney movie, like all the other animals come circle around.

Brian Stephens (24:37)
chance of that happening. bet that maybe there was one animal one time where that died peacefully, you know, but nature is brutal. know, nature, it's nature has no morality when it comes to death. So the, the idea that in reality, a hunters, you know, an error, a well-placed arrow or well-placed bullet is, is about the least brutal, you know, the least bad way an animal can die naturally. And

Ryan Uffens (24:46)
Yeah.

Brian Stephens (25:07)
and definitely the quickest. ⁓ furthermore, for people that do eat meat, and this is no judgment, but for people that do eat meat, the animals that they are eating also were kind of minding their own business, doing their thing on a ranch somewhere, and they got loaded into a trailer and then pushed through a cattle shoot and basically hit them.

Ryan Uffens (25:35)
Shut.

Brian Stephens (25:36)
hit with a ⁓ pneumatic dart in the top of their brain, you know, and so that is a very stressful situation to an animal potentially, you know, and whereas in hunting it's a, there is no stress for the animal in almost every case with a hunter and especially in archery, a lot of times they don't even know what happened. You know, that animal lived its whole life free to do what it wanted to do. And really other than predators, it didn't really have, you know,

concerned, it had the ability to run away from humans or any other predator that it was afraid of its whole life and until you you successfully put a good arrow or a bullet and then it's it's over quickly and I would argue with with an arrow a lot of times especially with like a double long shot where the arrow zips through really quickly I've literally seen animals start to go back to feeding and then fall over you know it's a

I'm not saying that's common, but I have seen that happen. And it's, it tells me that it's a, you know, it doesn't register to them the same way it would do it. Humans understand consequence. We understand what death is. We understand what, you know, what kind of an injury can lead to death. And so our brain makes that a scary situation. I don't think an animal process, you know, animals are, if you think about their programming, they, if they get hurt,

in any way, whatever way they get hurt, their nature is to pretend not to be hurt. They need to look normal or else. Yeah, because then there's a predator watching all the time is the way animals are programmed. And if a predator senses any kind of weakness in them, you know, they know they're vulnerable. So it's a totally different programming than a human. So I, ⁓

Ryan Uffens (27:12)
strong.

Yeah, yeah,

no, I agree. was just, you know, that one of the episodes I just dropped today actually with Daniel Bishop, he was out hunting mule deer and he had put a shot on and ⁓ he was with his dad and I think it was about 200 yards and he didn't think he hit it because the animal was feeding just like your exact point, like kind of like stops, looks up and goes back to eating and he thought he had missed and

Anyway, so his dad's like, hey, know, get locked in, put another shot. So shot again, thought he missed again and looked up. And then all of sudden he just kind of saw him start like, you know, wobbling and went up and went over and they went over there. And sure enough, like two shots placed, you know, and the animal didn't even know, didn't even know what had hit him. It was just eaten, doing its thing. And then, you know, it was gone, it expired.

Brian Stephens (28:26)
Right.

Ryan Uffens (28:26)
And I mean, that beats starving to death. Like I said, the eating alive thing, some of the videos that you see where these animals are, mean, literally being eaten alive. And like you had mentioned, you know, they're incapacitated to the point where they can't move, they can't walk, they can't get up. It's just like, they're just waiting for deaths to come.

Brian Stephens (28:48)
And honestly, that's what almost always happens. That's the normal way that they die. Because if you're a white-tailed deer, for example, in the state of Texas, and you live long enough, you're eventually going to get weaker, or you're going to less healthy, and you're going to move slower, or they're going to get where their joints are stiff, just like a human. They can't move as well. And a predator sees that, and that is...

that animal is going to be targeted immediately. As soon as they see any form of weakness in an animal, the way it walks, the way it acts, anything, ⁓ coyotes, they work in packs and they will take it down. That's the way most animals die outside.

Ryan Uffens (29:35)
Well, and

then that's just the old ones. then you see videos where you've got these calves being dropped, and it's like the bears and wolves are just following, and these babies, before they even have a chance to stand up, they're being eaten.

Brian Stephens (29:43)
Yeah.

Well, it's that, yeah, it's the babies, but any age animal, any, as you can imagine, when you live in the wild, there's all kinds of things they can do to injure themselves. If they run into something, if they trip on something, if their leg gets stuck in a hole and breaks, they can get hung in a fence. All these different things can happen to them. They fight, you the bucks fight all the time and they get injured. So all of these things that can injure them are almost always gonna result in a predatory death that follows.

You know, so it's, you know, I think that's probably one of the least understood things by non-hunters and you brought up that good point and that is that, you know, that it's not a gentle, kind death in nature. No matter, there's almost doesn't happen that way, ever.

Ryan Uffens (30:42)
Yeah, yeah. Well, and I think too, even when you had mentioned, you know, thinking of like where we get our beef from, like that's like a best case scenario that they're loaded up into a trailer and taken and put into a shoot. mean, some of the places, I mean, that's why I try so hard not to buy any beef or anything that's from out of the country. I mean, because in China, China has no regulations. And I know that like they, get so much of our beef from China. It's ridiculous, but

Brian Stephens (31:10)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan Uffens (31:12)
a lot of the chickens, like all that. It's just, yeah. Anyway, we could go on forever about this, but the one thing for me that I had told, when I decided I was going to hunt, because I do love animals, and that's the other thing, think people are like, well, how can a hunter love animals? And I'm like, it blows my mind. But when I decided I was going to hunt, I said, either I have a clean shot on vitals or I'm not gonna take it.

Brian Stephens (31:41)
Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (31:42)
I've heard some horror stories and some guys out there that quite honestly are the ones that have given hunters like the bad name and you see some of the things these guys do and it is, it's horrendous what they will do. Like they don't care. They get out there, they start pounding the alcohol and they just act like buffoons. But for me, and I know that you are the same sentiment, it's like you want to respect the animal and if you train properly, you put yourself in a position that you can give that animal a quick death.

Brian Stephens (32:11)
100 % and and in fact, I would further say that you know the If you do what I do filming hunts and putting them out there You do tend to get people that make negative comments Of course about a lot of different things even when it's not shouldn't be a negative situation, but one being

like shot angle or shot placement, for example. And if you love it like I do and you love the animals like I do, you practice and practice and practice. And it's not a, I'm gonna start practicing, season starts next month. I'm year round. And I want my shot shooting to be second nature. And then further.

I want to understand the anatomy of the animal at every different angle. And I've got enough experience to know how animals react to different situations, different distances, what's their demeanor at the time that you're shooting, all the different things like that that come with experience. you're right on you. Every time that you are going to take a shot, you should feel 100 % in your mind that you're going to efficiently and effectively take that animal or you shouldn't shoot it. And

that's out of respect for the animal and what they have to, know, they're the ones that ultimately suffer the consequence of a bad decision. So ⁓ we believe in making a good, the very best decision every single time. And I think that requires us to be sharp physically, mentally, and it requires us to be sharp from a...

you know, how we practice and how we shoot and how we study the anatomy and all the different things that make it where no matter what the shot angle or what it is that you, the shot you take, that you feel 100 % confident that it's going to be quickly lethal. And I'll give you one example of what I'm talking about. ⁓ You see, for example, on TV sometimes on a hunting show where, you know, inevitably people are going to make that shot. The best...

the best shooters in the world are going to make bad shots at times. That is the maybe.

Ryan Uffens (34:21)
Sure. I'm

not naive thinking that every single arrow I ever let go is going to be perfect. You're shooting against an animal that can hear it. It will move. But yeah, anyway, to your point, give yourself the best opportunity. But anyway, I'll let you go on.

Brian Stephens (34:27)
for sure.

Yeah, eliminate the variables that you're in control of. And so ⁓ we have a certain number of variables that we can control. We need to eliminate all the ones that we can, ⁓ any obstacles. But ⁓ the example that I was going to give is, ⁓ so you see ⁓ TV shows sometimes, hunting shows where you have this broadside animal, somebody pulls a shot and they...

you know, make a bad shot, maybe it got shot or something like that. And the description is usually something along the lines of, ⁓ you know, it does happen in bow hunting. We left it overnight. We went back the next morning and we recovered it or something along those lines. Maybe they didn't recover it, whatever. But there's, there, the other scenario is Cody Robbins when he shot his work, the what was at the time, the world record non-typical mule deer. ⁓

and he had hunted this animal for years and he had picked up all of its sheds and he had spent 70 days scouting it in the summer leading up to season to try to be, you know, literally filming it and following it every day from a distance to make sure that he was going to have the best chance. He put a tremendous amount of effort into it like he does all of his hunts and the opportunity that he finally got was a straight away shot, which

I don't advise most people to take unless you're very comfortable, number one, with your shooting and number two, you understand the anatomy and number three, that the animal is close enough to do that. And further, that you have the right broadhead arrow combination because that's obviously key to penetration from that angle. So ⁓ bottom line though is a 20 yard shot straight away. Some people call it a Texas heart shot. And the reality is if you put the arrow in the right spot, there's no...

bone to impede the penetration and it's going to go all the way up into its chest and ultimately if it's at the right level it's going to hit him in the heart. This buck was only about 15 yards away so ⁓ face down relaxed Cody was able to draw he held for a minute kind of hoping the buck would turn one way or the other and give him a quartering shot but he didn't and and Cody just you know he said I was dead still with my pen and I could tell that

I would be able to get that arrow to his heart. And so he did. And the buck was down in 60, he went 65 yards and he was down in a few seconds and it was done. It was perfect. And actually the arrow literally went into his heart. So he took a lot of flack for that shot because obviously he had on video and showed the video and it's a great story. And he took a lot of flack for that shot angle though. People...

were critical and I'm thinking to myself, you know, there's a lot of those people that are critical that probably don't practice year round that probably don't put in the level of effort. And then if they make a poor shot, they kind of, that was broadside animal. They just write it off as, well that that's kind of something that happens when you bow hunt. But my position on that is, is Cody did understand the anatomy. He did have the year round practice. He did have the right arrow that he knew had the right broadhead on it to make that.

shot the penetration effective and he was steady enough and present enough in the moment that he felt 100 % confident of where his arrow would go when he let go. And all of it came to be that way. He was right because he was so prepared for that moment. And I just think that as hunters, we need to stop with the social media negativity when it comes to people that...

either criticize people's where they hunt, what they hunt, private land, public land, know, do it yourself or guided. All the, all of the things that people get bent out of shape about for some crazy reason I'll never understand. But we have back to my opening comments about the hunters are 5%, the anti-hunters are 20 % and we got 75 % that are agnostic.

we need to stop arguing amongst ourselves or criticizing each other and really band together when it comes to, we need to be cohesive in going forward because we have a tall order in front of us to help preserve our right to hunt for our future generations. And I just think that we've got to get past all these negative comments that pop up.

Ryan Uffens (39:15)
It is wild how we kind of eat our own. mean, like, I don't consider myself like a hunting influencer, like, at all. Like I said, I don't pretend like I've gone out and like taken down these massive games. I'm going to, and I'm going to keep doing it until I do. But that's one of the things that I've had some conversations with folks. It's kind of wild how hunters are so critical of one another. And we have had comments.

Brian Stephens (39:41)
Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (39:44)
And yeah, I have thick skin and I can either reply professionally or just say what's really on my mind. But I'm not used to as a Trump supporter, I've learned how to deal with criticism. But I think it's wild, too. And so here's the thing. There was a comment like, do you like to slap your trigger? It was like, that's not how you're supposed to shot like any five-year-old, blah, blah, blah.

Brian Stephens (39:54)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (40:14)
And I was like, like, I didn't know I was slapping my trigger. I didn't think, but I was like, Hey, you know, thanks for the advice. It's really encouraging and helping me learn how to improve. And then like off the comment, he ends up DMing me and he's like, well, here's why I was making that comment. I'm like, why didn't you just start with that? Because if you have a suggestion, make a suggestion. People are open to constructive criticism. Don't just be a. Yeah.

Brian Stephens (40:38)
Right.

Yeah, yeah, there's there's always ⁓ more than one approach to every issue, but it is funny to me that everybody's an expert on social media and everybody has a has a criticism and has, you know, I don't know, it's really funny ⁓ that people feel so compelled to to kind of.

either share their opinion or impose their opinion on other people that are just out there trying to, hey, we're a community, right? And we're trying to share a passion about our community. Let's just enjoy it together. And I always tell people when I listened to a preacher one time and he said, just remember that when you point your finger, you got three of them pointing back at yourself. So I like that. man, I think that's a, nothing could be more true.

Ryan Uffens (41:29)
I like that.

Yeah, it's, I think it's, I think for the most part that I don't want to say all of the hunting community because there's a lot of people that are really good and really encouraging and really supporting and people that I've met through doing this podcast, like that I'm able to connect with and they're like, you got to keep me posted. What's going on? Like, where are you going? Like, what are you doing? And people that I've been able to, you know, create relationships with, it's fun to do that.

But it's for whatever reason, it's I call it the keyboard warrior generation. People get behind a screen and they say things that they normally wouldn't say to somebody's ⁓ anyway, so it is what it is. hey, ⁓ shifting gears. ⁓ I do want to ask a little bit more about your book. And you've touched on some really important things that are in there.

Brian Stephens (42:18)
100%. 100%. Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (42:36)
But like where, for somebody who wants to get into hunting, like where do you suggest they kind of get started? And like things that they should know.

Brian Stephens (42:48)
So actually I do kind of cover a lot of that in my book, but ⁓ I think that the way somebody that's interested in it should get started is to connect with somebody who does know what they're doing and who's open to it. And I think that should always be step one because if you've got sort of a tour guide into how things work, it just shortcuts the process, the learning process. And really, ⁓

helps prevent people from making a lot of pretty catastrophic, potentially catastrophic mistakes, know, like potentially breaking laws they didn't understand or potentially wounding something that they, because they didn't know enough about shot placement or about, know, whatever. I think finding somebody that you trust or that you look up to that is knowledgeable about it is...

absolutely step number one. And there's so many good people in our industry ⁓ that are willing to share advice. somebody that really jumps out of my mind, that's just like to me, one of the ultimate mentors, if you know him as a human being, he's just an awesome, godly man that has a long history in hunting and is very successful in his own right. He's got his family hunts with him.

And that's Wayne Indicott at the Bo rack. If you were to meet that guy and go talk to him in person, he's good for, I love his family. All of them. And they, they get it. And they're A to Z on knowledge when it comes to obviously all the prep and practice, but then, you know, they process all their own meat all the way down to even canning the scraps, you know, all the, all the pressure cooking and everything to make that stuff really edible. ⁓

They are such good stewards in that regard. ⁓ But they've done it all and they've done it all the hard way. ⁓ And they've raised their family to do the same and appreciate the same. Nathan, Wayne's son comes down and hunts with me every year here in Texas. I go up there and hunt. ⁓ I love people like Wayne, back to Wayne. Wayne obviously,

running an archery shop the way he does. A lot of people want to talk to him and they want to absorb what he has to say about different things because number one, he's very forthcoming with it. Number two, he's a gentleman and he's very passionate about hunting and about the industry and everything. And he, I think, sees it as a way to mentor people and ⁓ knowing him the way I do.

I think also he sees it as a way to witness to people. he's just a great, great human being that I have a lot of respect for. But I know there's a lot of other people like Wayne. There's a lot of other people that maybe they're not like Wayne necessarily, ⁓ his personality and all that, but they have other character attributes that are wonderful that would work well for being a mentor for somebody. And I think...

Mentorship is the answer to your question. I think you need to seek a good mentor.

Ryan Uffens (46:18)
Yeah, I agree. Just don't ask them for their pins right off the get-go or it'll get shut down real quick.

Brian Stephens (46:22)
That's right. Yeah, don't save

that for the like the 18th date, right?

Ryan Uffens (46:28)
Yeah. Well, what you do is you just tell them like, Hey, I'm thinking about getting on X or go hunt. Can you just, can I log into yours just to poke around and see what it looks like? Uh, no, but yeah, what, one of the things that I tell people, cause there there's a lot of folks since I've gotten into it, um, that say, you know, they come up to me and they're like, Hey, where do I get started? I'm like, if they're close to me, I'm like, go down to wild arrow, like our bow shop here. Like if you, if you want to do archery hunting.

find a Pro Shop and get into there because the amount of knowledge, it's just like Wayne Endicott like you had mentioned and they're willing to share, you know, and they want to set you up to be successful so that you keep coming back, right?

Brian Stephens (47:06)
for sure.

I think

that's awesome advice. And in fact, I talk about that very thing in my book because when I was young, I ⁓ spent a lot of time in a certain bow shop where I lived that I've just found and it was called Aero Action Archery. It's long since ⁓ gone. They sold a long time ago and moved, but ⁓ that shop was pivotal for me. was, was a, that environment was,

I love the environment there. You go there and you just around other people that love what you love and they love talking about it. you can, it's just a positive, good thing to do. And I would encourage, especially anybody that's thinking about getting into it, go to a bow shop, go to an archery shop where they have lanes and spend time around people that know how to shoot, how to hunt and just absorb.

information if you spend time there you're to learn you're going learn more than you could you know you'll learn more in a shorter time than you could in a lot of years trying to figure your way yourself and or getting advice from the wrong person so ⁓ you're going to be getting a big variety of advice in that type of environment and it kind of reminds me of the old show Cheers you know where everybody knows your name when you if you go to a bow shop and you're

become a regular there. It's a family, you and you get to be part of a family of people that, ⁓ that's their release place. That's the place they go to unwind a lot of times and I think it's a great, it's a great.

Ryan Uffens (48:56)
Yeah, I remember one time I was coming home from work and the pro shop that Wild Arrow, they're just right off the freeway from my exit. And I said, yeah, I told my wife, just getting off the exit. And for whatever reason, think I had my bow restrung or something. And I'm like, I'm going to go by and pick it up. And she was like, OK. It was probably like 530 or something like that.

And I was there, walked in, think I was going to go and grab it. You just get involved in conversation. And next thing you know, she's like, she texts me, she's like, I just, you know, grab the kids and we went and did this. She's like, dinner's at home on the table. We went to go do this. She's like, I know sometimes when you go in there, you can just disappear. But the benefit is, is I'm not going in there drinking any alcohol.

Brian Stephens (49:43)
Bye.

Exactly. No, it's

a great environment and it's a constructive environment and you know on top of it archery is just it's got a lot of good you know as a young person if you're if you're kind of if you got a you got a teenager and you take him into a bow shop and he might be a spastic kind of you know high energy dude

and you take them in a bow shop and you start teaching them how to shoot a bow which requires focus and concentration and settling and being you know present and calm and all those things like what's what could be better you know you're you're doing something that is actually they might love and and you're getting the benefit of it teaching them to focus you know and I think it's there's just so many positives that can come from it.

Ryan Uffens (50:42)
It sounds like you're describing me minus like the teenager part, because like I have ADHD and I'm kind of high strung and kind of always bouncing over the place. you know, my wife always, you know, I'm just barely getting back to shooting again. I had grade two shoulder separation, stupid flow rider, fell surfing and it banged up pretty good. So I haven't been able to shoot for two months, but not yesterday.

Saturday I went out and drew it back for the first time and I was like, okay, I can draw. I can draw again now. But it's crazy how it does help you be able to just kind of focus in and I've been able to take that and apply it to other aspects of my life. So when I'm working on something, I can kind of block all the other noise out. I always say it reminds me of the Kevin Costner movie, like For Love of the Game, right? Where he's like clear the mechanism and it just like.

Brian Stephens (51:15)
Nice. Nice.

Yeah, yeah. ⁓

Ryan Uffens (51:38)
everything else kind of just like goes quiet and you're able to focus and it might be 10, 30 seconds that you've drawn back on your bow and you're just getting locked in and making sure you've got, you know, your technique just right. And then when you put that arrow and it goes exactly where you want it to go, man, there's not a better feeling. And then when you get to start putting some distance on it, like right now, I say,

And people probably think I'm nuts, but if I had like a bowl at 80 yards, I'd let it fly and I wouldn't, it wouldn't even concern me. I mean, I've taken so many shots. mean, I'm dropping, I'm, you know, my grouping at a hundred yards is about like that. So, I mean, it's, it's not, it's not bad. And I've even shot out to 120 yards and people are like, well, why are you doing that?

Brian Stephens (52:14)
Right.

Ryan Uffens (52:35)
Well, because if I get something, if I get an opportunity, I know what my range is. I know where I'm comfortable. I'd feel more, I'd be more hesitant to shoot something at 20 yards. My groupings are like all over the place at 20 yards, but you put me like 50, 60, 70 and like, I got a nice tight grouping and I feel confident with it. But anyway.

Brian Stephens (52:50)
Hahaha

know for

a long distance makes me focus more. And I do think like I've noticed I can shoot a lot of times I can shoot just as well at 50 as I do at 20. If not better sometimes because I feel like it really forces you to be present. And I don't know if you've experienced this, I bet you have, but kind of back to your prior comment about it forcing you to be focused and settling is I love those days when you are so

focused on the spot that you want to hit in your practice, especially distance shooting. And later in the day, and the sun might be setting and it kind of lights your arrow up, you know, from the side maybe. And you get that feeling immediately when your shot breaks, immediately you know it's going to be a good shot. And then, and you're still staring at your target the whole time. And as that arrow is going, it almost looks slow motion and you see the rotation.

because of that lighting and I love that about archery. I love those days because your brain can, here's this projectile, it's going 260 to 300 feet a second and it looks like it's in slow motion on those days where your focus is so intense on that spot you want to hit that you just see it happening as if you're willing that arrow to that spot and I...

Ryan Uffens (54:22)
Hmm.

Brian Stephens (54:23)
I love

that about archery. that doesn't mesmerize somebody, then I think there's wrong with your brain.

Ryan Uffens (54:29)
Yeah,

yeah, no, like hearing you describe that, it makes me think of ⁓ Moneyball, right? Where it's like that end scene, it's like, how can you not be romantic about baseball? And it's like, I feel like how can you not be romantic about archery? Because there is it, like time almost slows down and there's with everything that we have going on in our lives now, there's not a whole lot of things that you get that. And it's not every time. Like you said, every once in a while, things just slow down and it's just.

Brian Stephens (54:36)
Yeah.

Hahaha

Ryan Uffens (54:59)
It's fun and you're putting it exactly where you want it. And yeah, it's, it's a good thing. And to be clear, when I say like, I'm, I, I'm not, sometimes I feel like I get overconfident in my distance that I can shoot. am tall. I'm six, three. I've got like a long draw length. And so like my settle point.

Brian Stephens (55:00)
Gloria.

Ryan Uffens (55:20)
at the higher distances is a lot easier. I can get settled in where other people, you know, that 40, 50, 60 yard range, they're much better. So I understand why, because I've had, that's to your point, like I've had comments, so you shouldn't be taking a shot at 80 yards. I'm like, okay, well, I haven't on a live animal, but you know, if stuff ever hit the fan and I had an 80 yard shot to be able to feed my family something,

because we're Homestead style. You know, the zombie apocalypse starts. Like, I'm gonna shoot it. And I wanna know that I can, you know, at least give myself a chance to get some.

Brian Stephens (56:03)
Well, I

would say two other things to that. Number one is there are times and especially out West where you need to take a follow up shot. And if you have the capability of shooting at 120 yards and that follow up shot is available that you it's it's fantastic that you have the ability to do that and and in you know, in the situation quicker and more humanely. So that that is one observation. But the second one is if you

If you can become accurate at 120 yards or 100 yards or 80 yards, 40 to 60 yards is going to be a slam dunk. Those shot distances that are so common in Western hunting, that 40 to 60 yard range, it feels close. It feels like you're really close to the target and it feels like you almost can't miss. So to me, that's the reason for practicing extra long distances.

forces you to hone your skills and your form and your technique because bad forms or pulls or you know going too hard on the trigger whatever mistakes you make are magnified at that distance so it makes you more aware of them right away ⁓ and I think that's how you hone and get better it's not just by if you anticipate that hey my effective range is 40 yards and that's what I'm gonna stick with

That's fine, but practice out there to 80 or 100 and your 40 yard shooting will get better than it was before.

Ryan Uffens (57:39)
Yeah, I hadn't even thought about the follow up shot. Like that when you said that I'm like, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Because like I said, I don't pretend to have done something that I haven't. So that's a good thing to be able to have in your repertoire to try and you know.

Brian Stephens (57:55)
Sure, yeah, you have to always, like any effective plan, you need to kind of have prepared for contingencies and in hunting there will be contingencies.

Ryan Uffens (58:07)
⁓ Brian, ⁓ I want to ask you one thing. We haven't really talked a whole bunch about any hunting stories, but ⁓ if you have the time, I would love to hear kind of, you know, maybe one of your favorite hunting experiences has been, if you could give us little detail on that.

Brian Stephens (58:27)
Yeah, well there's so many ⁓ for different reasons. There's a lot of them, but ⁓ I guess I always find myself wanting to tell Mule Deer or elk stories and I have one Mule Deer story in particular that was kind of one of those super long odd situations that ended up working out. know Murphy's Law, if anything can go wrong it will. This was kind of the other way around. Everything that could have gone right did.

And it was kind of ridiculous that it actually came together. And it also happened to be the biggest mule deer in my life, which was a 211 inch deer. So ⁓ I hunted this particular hunt for eight days. And we were grinding. It was a lot of moving around different vantage points, spotting scope all day, every day, trying to find a buck that we wanted.

hunt and we passed up some deer but we were after a big mature buck and that area has some good bucks so we ended up on that last, that eighth day ⁓ finding a buck, the weather changed, the snowstorm started coming in and it was right on the edge of the rut and it just kind of ignited the rut and I mean in a matter of a couple of hours the deer were coming out of the woodwork.

covered a lot of country and all of sudden we were seeing a lot of deer and we saw this buck that we hadn't seen that was an awesome buck. Really tall, not super wide, but just this really big, tall, heavy buck and it was at last light. And the hunt was supposed to be over, but we supposed to be headed home, but I just decided we were definitely going into extra innings here, you know, we're gonna stay. so that next morning we're out trying to find that buck.

we are burning up the glass ⁓ and we can't find it. We saw a lot of other deer that we hadn't seen, ⁓ but we could not find him. ⁓ And then we got a call from ⁓ a friend of ours, another friend of ours who knew we were spending that extra day and we were really short on time. So he's like, I'll go out and see if I can turn something up too and help you all out. So he called us and he had turned up a buck that he had.

bedded with some does and told us where it was. we went over there and we found that deer in the glass. He was in a pretty terrible spot. It was a really, really wide open area. Kind of just tall grass, not even tall grass. It was actually matted down from the snow, but it probably would have been, you know, two and a half feet tall. But now the snow's got it kind of pushed down. And then there was a few like dead sunflower weeds patches, you know, that were still up. So we were trying to

piece together a course that we could get to that deer and we really couldn't. we decided to, you know, it's kind of last day. So we decided we're going to go get the one right first and we're going to crawl through all those sunflower patches we can to get as close as we can. So we do that and we get to 186 yards. We range the deer and right about the time we get, and we're out of cover now. And so we're, we're about to start trying to figure out what we might be able to do to close that distance. And all of a sudden those deer all get up.

and they feed away from us and they go bed on this fence line that's actually like on a berm. So it's a little higher than this flat field we're in. And so now they've got like a vantage on us where now we're even more exposed, you know, so it's that crap. And now they're 310 yards away. So they, all the does bed down, this buck is like, he's raking yuccas and just tearing up brush and giving us really good footage, you know, and, and, and

But at the same time, we're just about starting to cry because we're like, there's just no way. On the other side of this fence that he was on, we didn't have permission to hunt over there. So if they jump that fence, it's over. And then the other direction that they could go was wheat stubble. So literally green, two-inch wheat, flat as a board. And that's probably the way they're going to go as it gets closer in the evening, right? Because that's the food.

Ryan Uffens (1:02:48)
Yeah.

Brian Stephens (1:02:48)
And ⁓ so we're just kind of talking between us trying to figure out what to do and there's no play. ⁓ So we decide that what we're going to do is ⁓ we're going to try to fondly and see if we can call those does in. And I've had that work before. But about as often as it works, it blows the deer out, know. So if not more.

⁓ But we also had heads up decoy and I don't know if you've ever used one of those but during the rut they can be absolutely deadly and I it's I love it's short window and the the attitude of the deer you have to really You need to understand the body language of a buck To understand if it's or to know if it's gonna work or not and sometimes it still doesn't but sometimes it works like a champ so

The plan was we're going to fawn bleed. Hopefully those does come over to check us out and the buck will have no choice but to follow him over there. And when he gets close, we'll show him this, this decoy and just see how he reacts. And so we call those does explode out of their bed and they are where they're within 40 yards of us in about three seconds. And, they get right down one of us, which is what they're naturally naturally that's what they're going to do. So they're smelling us.

Ryan Uffens (1:04:07)
Wow.

Brian Stephens (1:04:14)
And they're kind of bouncing around panicking because they can smell us, but they also think there's this fond distress going on. So, ⁓ so they're kind of hopping around chaotically, right? They're just mixing all around and the buck is wondering what the heck they're stirred up about. So he's, he's just trotting along behind them, trying to bring up the rear, you know? And as he gets to 65 yards, my buddy,

pops that decoy up in front of me so I have a shield to draw behind, know. He gets to 65, he picks up the decoy, that buck immediately turns and looks at that decoy and his body language was exactly what you're hoping for. His ears drop down, which means he's mad. He immediately, his eyeballs get real big, he starts licking his nose. All three of those together, you know he's coming. And so he starts stomping his way over to it.

He's just like, you can literally hear his hooves beating the ground when he does it. He's just pounding and as he gets closer, a lot of times they'll turn their, they're bristling their hair up and they'll turn their body a little bit sideways to you because they're trying to make themselves look bigger. So it kind of, instead of having to shoot at him straight on, now I've got him quartering too, which I've done this enough with mule deer that I'm comfortable shooting when they're close enough. I'm comfortable shooting inside of the shoulder blade and you put it right through their heart. ⁓

super deadly shot. A lot of people are afraid of it because they think they're going to hit the shoulder but if you know where to aim you can put it right in their heart. So this buck is stomping up. He started out at like 310 yards or whatever. I shot him at 22 yards and he and it went right through his heart and he fell over. He went 50 yards and fell over on camera and it was the most ridiculous long shot that went

exactly the plan like you couldn't have you couldn't have made it go any better and that buck is he's one of those bucks that does not he the film doesn't do him justice he looks so much bigger in person and which i don't care what you know i'm not a score guy and all that i i like the experience and i like the ⁓ i like hunting old age-class animals i want to get a big one as much as the next guy but it fits up

If it's an old mature animal, that's really what fires me up. So this buck had everything. He was just, he was all of that. And plus he was a boss, you know, just super cool. And a giant super heavy, like I said, he's the mule deer of my lifetime. And I, I, I'm a mule deer fanatic. I, I, he's extra special to me and the way that it went down just couldn't have been any more unique.

So it was in every way that will always be one of my very top most memorable hunts.

Ryan Uffens (1:07:15)
Well, you think about that, like you said, you stay an extra day, you finally get on them, they've got private property behind them, a field that if they go into it, you're never going to get close to them. It just reminds me of the quote, like the harder I work, the luckier I get. You guys put in the extra effort and we're able to, you have to gamble sometimes, like you said, do a phone call, get the doughs all riled up, they come in and then.

Brian Stephens (1:07:33)
Yes.

Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (1:07:44)
He starts moving over. I haven't experienced that. I've watched it. I've watched a lot of videos, but it's, I'm looking forward to having more and more of those experiences and where you get to look back and, and, ⁓ yeah, that's.

Brian Stephens (1:07:58)
You can see that

hunt on the More to the Hunt YouTube channel. fact, we have already released that one. ⁓ And we don't make super long videos. want to kind of, you know, I think a lot of videos are way too long, but ⁓ we try to tell our story and keep it moving and make it where people that, you know, don't have tons of extra time can still watch something and enjoy it and get a good story. And so that is up on our page.

Ryan Uffens (1:08:23)
Yeah.

Brian Stephens (1:08:28)
If you want to see that hunt and see that buck, it's up there.

Ryan Uffens (1:08:32)
Yeah, well, I'll make sure to put a link to that video in the podcast show notes. So if anybody's wanting to go check that out and experience that, just go check out the show notes and we'll have that available there. Well, Brian, hey, I appreciate your time. As we wrap up here, I have just a couple of questions left for you. One, first one is this, what's the most overrated piece of hunting equipment in your opinion?

Brian Stephens (1:08:37)
Yeah.

For sure.

⁓ that's Because there's been so many things over the years that are just as gimmicky as they can be, but overrated. That's a tough question.

Ryan Uffens (1:09:13)
Sorry,

I should have prepped you for this one, I apologize.

Brian Stephens (1:09:16)
Yeah, ⁓ man, that is, that is a really tough question because I think I'm kind of a, have everything I need, but I'm kind of a, I don't have stuff I don't need. So I probably like the worst person to ask that question to, but, ⁓

Ryan Uffens (1:09:39)
Okay, well let's move on. You can think about that for a minute and if you think of something, we'll come back to it. So my follow up to that one is what's the one piece of hunting equipment you don't go out hunting without?

Brian Stephens (1:09:41)
That's a tough one.

good optics. think good optics are, and especially if you're, it doesn't matter what you're hunting, because I'm a die-hard light tail hunter too, but ⁓ good optics can be a real game changer. ⁓ And your rangefinder, if it's incorporated into that or not, good optics in your rangefinder as well, because sometimes in low light situations, a lot of rangefinders aren't really, it can be difficult to see

you can have good enough shooting light that's perfectly legal but some of the optics on some of the range finders isn't as good as your binoculars so that's where range finding binoculars in my opinion are better because you have the glorious optics of your binoculars but then the range finder too and it needs to have that angle compensation in there but good optics are such a they're a game changer they're a time saver and they

because in especially out west you know if you're they keep you from going and wasting time in unproductive areas and they also the better the optics the better you're to be able to pick out a better buck if it's just maybe a tiner here something the better the more clear it is the better the chances you're going to pick it up and ⁓ I would say optics and spending lots of time in your optics that's without a doubt in my mind

most important.

Ryan Uffens (1:11:23)
Okay. Is there a specific set of binos or scopes, something that you prefer or that you're happy with?

Brian Stephens (1:11:29)
You know,

I think for people that can't afford Swarovski, because I think Swarovski is the gold standard, but I think there's people that that's not even possible for them. in my opinion, think Leopold in the last few years, especially, is making optics that are

incredibly good at a really good price point and I That's just my opinion and I know there's other good ones, too I have a really good friend that guides a lot that has a me opta Spotting scope a lot of people don't even know me opta and his scope is Amazing like it's really good I'm none of these brands. I'm not except you know, I don't take money from any of them. So I'm not there's no partiality whatsoever but I

Ryan Uffens (1:12:24)
Sure.

Brian Stephens (1:12:29)
One thing I like about Leopold is when I was younger, I have found that they always really stand by their product from a warranty perspective. It's an American company. just, there's a, I see Leopold in a really, or Leopold, you some people say, I just see them in a really positive light from a, you know, American company that stands by their product. And I feel like, especially in the last few years, like their guide series of.

of their pro series of scopes and binoculars. I've got them and they are, I'm not going to say they're Swarovski but they're so close that to me it's almost impossible to justify the cost difference.

Ryan Uffens (1:13:12)
Yeah, I'm not, am by no means a gear junkie. My son is the gear junkie. And so I always would default to him on most of those things. But, and I'm the same way, like, I don't know, like, is it Leopold? Is it Leopold? But that's what I run on my binos. And I went in and looked at that, you know, I, you know, I was in Cabela, I think I was in Cabela's and I was, put them up, like, looked through the Swarovskis that they had in there and looked at everything. And I was like, man, for the money.

This is pretty darn close, at least for me. mean, I don't have the money to spend on the Swarovski Binos or Spotting Scope, stuff like that. But yeah, I think they do make a really good product. And I'm like you, like no one's paying me to say anything about them. I've been, that was the first pair that I got when I started and they're, I mean, they're phenomenal. I mean, well built. I've kind of put them through the wringer. So yeah, I agree.

Brian Stephens (1:14:08)
A

really good friend of mine, had his childhood rifle he had not taken out of the safe in decades and what he did not too long ago, he took it out and it had an old four-power Leopold on it and that rifle his dad gave him in 1960s ⁓ as a kid and he ⁓ looked through the scope and it had fogged, you couldn't see through it. So he took it off

mailed it into Leopold and he asked them if they could repair it because it was nostalgic to him. wanted to have, know, it's not like super important thing for his hunting and all that, but he just wanted it to be functional again. And so he was fully, he wrote a letter and he said, you know, I'll pay whatever if you can just fix this. he didn't hear from them for a few weeks and then his package showed up and it was his scope. They explained to him what had happened. was.

a seal that had just dry rotted over a lot of years and the nitrogen, I don't understand the physics of it exactly, they replaced all the seals in it, recharged that, I think it's nitrogen inside for clarity, ⁓ and sent him basically, they didn't charge him anything, they just thanked him for being a lifelong customer at Leopold and he had this perfectly like new scope again on his childhood rifle and I was like, man.

It's hard not to support a company that's going to stand behind their product line.

Ryan Uffens (1:15:39)
Yeah, yeah, I know. think that's great. That's, it's nice that there's businesses that are out there that are like that for sure. And you come across quite a few of those in this industry too. They, they built by hunters for hunters and, and they, they get you. want you to be a lifetime customer and they do their best to make sure they take care of you. Well, Brian, last question that I have is just for folks that are new to hunting.

Brian Stephens (1:15:46)
could not agree more.

Yeah.

For sure.

Ryan Uffens (1:16:08)
getting into hunting like me, like an adult onset hunter, any advice you'd want to leave with them?

Brian Stephens (1:16:16)
Yeah, I would say ⁓ Welcome number one and I think I'm like I'm happy. It makes me happy that people are getting into it and experiencing think something that's Really a critical part of my life and I'm I'm a person I take good care of myself physically and I I love game meat That's almost all we eat here at my house. My daughter's name. We all love it

And you're so if you're going to, you know, if people talk about organic diets and all that, there's nothing more organic than wild game meat. And when you eat it, you feel a difference. So I'm excited for you in that regard. And I highly encourage everybody to be good stewards of everything that you do take. Utilize every scrap of it. If you can't utilize all of it, give it to, you know, either your neighbors or friends or to a food bank. I donate hundreds of pounds of clean processed meat to our local food bank each year.

to try to help the less fortunate in my community. again, I say welcome and I also say ⁓ go to the pro shops, go find mentors, read books. And I hope you'll read ⁓ this book. You can find it on Amazon, by the way. ⁓ Read books that are written by people who truly love what we do. They don't see it as a conquest. They see it as a way of life and they see it as something that's core to.

what and who we are as humans. try to learn from people that do have a take on it all that you agree with. I think good stewardship, responsibility, some of the other things we've talked about like practicing and just being the best you can be to eliminate as many variables as you can, as you can control in a hunting situation so that your hunts are successful, your harvests are

and that you also know how to take care of any animal that you harvest in the field so that that meat is the best it can be when it gets to your table.

Ryan Uffens (1:18:26)
Perfect. I think that's great advice. Brian, thank you so much for your time. You guys, if you are not following him, go give him a follow. It's Archery Madman and More to the Hunt. We'll make sure and put the links in the bio. Also, his book is Winning with the Wildlife by Brian Stephens. Go pick it up, give it a read, and let us know what you think. If you guys have learned anything, if you've enjoyed this podcast,

Please share it with a friend, share it on your stories, Instagram, whatever, text it to somebody. The more you share this and the more that we can get the word out, the stronger the hunting community is going to be and the more time everyone's gonna be able to spend in the wildlife and just have a great experience. So I hope you've enjoyed this and everyone stay safe and God bless.