#056 - Troy Gregory | Blueprint For Raising Hunters - Four Brothers Hunt... and One Sister

In this episode of The Hunt Stealth Podcast, host Ryan Uffens sits down with Troy Gregory CEO of Hunt Electric, devoted father, and passionate outdoorsman. Troy shares his story of growing up in Utah with humble beginnings, the work ethic instilled by his grandfather, and how he built a legacy rooted in family, hunting, and grit.

Troy opens up about raising five kids four sons and a daughter, all of whom are deeply immersed in hunting, fitness, and outdoor adventure. Through personal stories like his daughter’s first deer hunt and his son’s unforgettable bighorn sheep harvest. Troy unpacks the life lessons hunting has taught him and his family: perseverance, patience, calculated risk, and the value of shared struggle.

This conversation is about more than just tags and trophies. It's about fatherhood, mentorship, and using the wilderness as a proving ground for life. Whether you're a seasoned hunter or just starting your journey, Troy’s wisdom on raising ethical hunters, creating unforgettable family traditions, and pushing your physical limits will leave you inspired.

 Key Takeaways:

1. Start Them Young, Make it Fun – Troy emphasized that the best way to build lifelong hunters is to introduce kids early and ensure the experience is fun, not grueling.
2. Create a Culture of Brotherhood – His four sons treat each other as best friends and lifelong hunting partners, a bond forged through years of shared outdoor adventures.
3. Ethics Over Ego – His kids have learned to value ethical shots and proper meat care over antler size or personal glory.
4. Patience vs. Action – Success in hunting—and in life—often comes from knowing when to wait and when to make a move. Hesitation can cost opportunity, but reckless haste does too.
5. Physical Prep = Mental Toughness – Troy’s family prioritizes fitness year-round, from daily workouts to marathon rucks, as a way to stay mountain-ready and mentally resilient.
6. Turn Every Tag into a Team Effort – Whether one family member draws or not, everyone shows up, supports, and celebrates together.
7. Opportunities Are Earned – From researching tags to grinding on extended seasons, Troy's kids don’t rely on luck—they earn every opportunity through discipline and effort.

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Transcript

Ryan Uffens (00:00)
You're listening to the Hunt Stealth Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Uffens. Enjoy the show.

Ryan Uffens (00:08)
I am here today with Troy Gregory. Troy was born and raised in the great state of Utah. He has a love for the outdoors. He's currently the CEO and president of Hunt Electric. And we're going to talk today about his upbringing, how hunting correlates with what he does in his profession, as well as his kids, and just some life lessons that he's learned along the way and what hunting has meant to him. So Troy, thanks for joining me.

Troy Gregory (00:38)
Yeah, thank you. I'm excited to have a conversation today.

Ryan Uffens (00:42)
Perfect. Well, and I appreciate you being flexible with me. The last time we were trying to record this, I got a text from my wife and she's like, grandbaby number two is on the way. I need you to come take the other one out into the hallway. So ⁓ again, I apologize, you know, for, having to reschedule, but I appreciate you making it happen. So with that being said, Troy, tell me a little bit.

Troy Gregory (01:03)
Yeah, not at all.

Ryan Uffens (01:08)
about your background for the folks that don't know you. And real quick here, I want to let everyone know and we'll put a link in the show notes. But if you want to follow Troy, it's hylenscott underscore Troy underscore Gregory on Instagram. And then his boys, you're going to definitely want to follow them as well. He's got four boys that are out there. How do you, it's four boy. It's what was it? Remind me again. What they're here. Four brothers hunt. but anyway.

Troy Gregory (01:29)
⁓ We're Brothers Hunt, so just a number of Brothers Hunt.

Ryan Uffens (01:35)
There you go. I butchered that but we'll put the link in the show notes. You guys go give both of them a follow. And yeah, so with that I'll turn it over to you Troy tell us about your your background. Let people know who you are.

Troy Gregory (01:47)
Yeah, thanks Ryan. Congrats on the grandbaby too. My wife's getting anxious for grandbaby. So our kids are kind of in that phase where just getting married and she's ready for that. So congrats.

Ryan Uffens (02:01)
Well, I'll tell you real quick. I'll just tell you this. It is the best thing in the world. Cause we've got, we've got two granddaughters and it was just funny. I was coming home from another meeting and stopped at the house for a second before I ran up to record this. And my, my two year old granddaughter was there and she just like latches onto me, just absolutely adores me. And it's like the best feeling in the world. Cause normally walk in like my dog's excited to see me. The German shepherd always is like, what's up. But everyone else in the house is like, yeah.

Troy Gregory (02:05)
Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (02:31)
It's this guy again. but anyway, yeah, you'll love it when it happens. And I know and I and I can relate to that my wife was waiting for a while so

Troy Gregory (02:40)
Yeah, we're excited for it, man. ⁓ So a little bit on my background, just born and raised here in Utah. Grew up in Utah Valley and met my wife right out of high school. We were pretty young. ⁓ So I grew up moving around a lot. We didn't have a lot of money. ⁓ so I moved around quite a bit, but met her right out of high school. Fell in love. We got married.

And we're going to celebrate 30 years this August. thanks. Yeah, pretty stoked about it. I have a few experiences on anniversaries where it conflicted with some different hunts and my wife is super patient. I've got a trip to Alaska this year for ⁓ a dull sheep. so we had to modify our 30 year anniversary a little bit. I'll have to make it up to her, but I've got some room for that.

Ryan Uffens (03:14)
Congrats, man.

You

wow.

I'm sure

she'll hold you to it.

Troy Gregory (03:39)
Yeah, she will for sure. But yeah, just born and raised around here. I, know, for work, I got started in the electrical industry right out of high school. had a friend's dad that walked in one day and we were just being bums in high school and he threw tool belts at us and said, get in the truck, you're going to work. And so when I got married, that's all I knew. I knew a little bit about electrical. And so I got into right out of the gate. had responsibility now being

being married and she was 19. was 19 when we got married, so young and just figuring it out, man, and went to work. And so we can talk a little more about career, but I'm still in the electrical industry and it's been really good for our family and it's been great for raising kids. We, we waited a couple of years to have kids. ⁓ I think when you get married young, kids just add another layer.

complexity of the whole thing. And so we were lucky that we had a little ⁓ couple of years to figure things out between her and I, but started having kids and we had four boys run out of the gate. My wife grew up with all brothers and so she was praying for a little girl and we had four boys out of the gate and that's all we wanted to have was four kids and she was dying for a girl. So we went for a fifth and we locked out man.

She's been a perfect blend to our family, ⁓ adding that dynamic in. That was a lot of fun. didn't even know. So Hunter is my oldest. He's 26. All our boys are pretty close. So you got Hunter. Chase is a little less than two years behind him. And then you got Jackson and then Briggs. And Briggs just turned 22. So they're all between 26 and 22. ⁓

Ryan Uffens (05:14)
What are your age ranges?

Troy Gregory (05:36)
pretty close together. My daughter, she's the biggest gap. We waited a couple years, we thought kind of we were done. then like I mentioned, my wife wanted to go for it. We didn't find out what she was just because she was convinced that we were still gonna have another boy. And ⁓ I remember the doctor when she was born, I saw a girl, but I still said boy. And the doctor looked at me like, hey stupid, look again.

So it's been really awesome. She's been my close. She's been ⁓ a perfect blend to our family with all the testosterone running around ⁓ to have little girls. So she just turned 19 a week ago. So she's our caboose. But yeah, just born and raised here in Utah. And a little on my background, ⁓ I grew up with a dad that didn't really hunt much.

Ryan Uffens (06:17)
And how old is she?

Okay.

Okay.

Troy Gregory (06:35)
⁓ I always loved the outdoors. I had a grandpa on my mom's and he passed away right before I got married, ⁓ about a year. And he probably had the biggest influence on my life. ⁓ He taught me in that short period of time a little about hunting and a little bit about fishing and a lot about hard work. And I look back and I ⁓ think...

One thing that drove a lot of my success was just that work ethic that he kind of embedded in me as at a young age. And then I think the other thing is just motivation. When you start having kids and stuff, you're pretty motivated to work hard and provide for them. And so been super blessed, was an electrician and like I mentioned, and just went from there. But I knew where I didn't have a dad, I always wanted to hunt and fish when I was little. I think a lot of us

Growing up here in the Rocky Mountain area you you have so much access to the mountains and different things I had a lot of friends that hunted and fished and so I had decided that for sure. I wanted to raise my kids in the outdoors and So right out of the gate I started them young my wife still kind of jokes about I bought them all a BB gun when they turned one They couldn't even hold it ⁓

But you know, I've had conversations with my boys, it's some of those things that I think kind of embedded it in them when they were super young. but yeah, raised them hunting and fishing and it's been great for our family. So.

Ryan Uffens (08:09)
Yeah.

Yeah, it's interesting how, like you kind of do have certain things that you do as like a family. It's like, like, for example, my my dad wasn't a hunter. Like we didn't hunt. He didn't like fishing. I mean, we'd fish a little bit, but we spent a lot of time in the outdoors skiing, you know, certain, you know, wakeboarding. I was gonna say surfing, but that didn't start until like I had kids really. But it's like, like I was born. And I had

a baseball glove and a bat in the crib with me like when I was born and so it's like here I am you know I'm doing this hunting and I was telling you like hey we got we just have to we only have three hours to record because I got I softball games that I get to go to but but like it's it's fun because you do build those bonds like for us still I mean I coached my I've got one son coached him in baseball

Troy Gregory (09:00)
Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (09:11)
I'm playing against a team. One of the, we got double headers tonight, but one of the teams I'm playing, like half the kids on that other team I've, I've coached. So it's like, I mean, they're all adults now they're 24, 25 years old, but I'm still out there grinding, having fun, playing softball. And, ⁓ it's, it's those types of things, but you know, the opposite, my boy was the one that got me into hunting and, ⁓ he kinda

He kind of did what you did. Like he wanted to hunt and I'm like, ah, we're not going to buy the stuff, not going to buy the stuff. And then he got into roofing. He was out of high school. He was running his own crew and making good money. And so he could go down and buy whatever he wanted. And, uh, anyway, and then he finally convinced me to go get a bow. And I went out and shot the first bow. I had my first encounter with the elk and I was like, why have we not done this our entire lives? So

Troy Gregory (09:53)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (10:05)
But that's cool

that your kids have been raised in it. And like, I know my boy, like he loves it. But there's different traditions that families have. And I think they're great and not, I mean, there's some traditions that families want to break, but there's some traditions that just, wasn't what they did. ⁓ But now it can become part of who they are moving forward.

Troy Gregory (10:22)
Yeah.

Yeah, I, you know, it's funny. Last night we went to a nephew's baseball game. It was his last one of the year. And when we showed up, we had some friends there that coached some of some of my boys. And ⁓ I was like, man, I miss this. I miss the ballpark. So enjoy it because it does go by and it passes with kids. And I'm looking forward to that with grandkids. But all four of our really all five of our kids got heavily into sports.

And like you said, there's so many great things that come from sports and just teaching them to play in ⁓ that hard work and in a team ⁓ environment and things like that. But that really was a big part of raising our kids. You can imagine four of them playing baseball and football and them all being that. And they're all super close together. So we lived at the ballparks. And looking back, I

Ryan Uffens (11:17)
That's a full schedule,

Did

any of your boys, were they close enough that they could play on the same team together or like?

Troy Gregory (11:28)
⁓ Occasionally

they did like in baseball and stuff, but football, they, yeah. But I remember Fridays and Saturdays, know, my wife, Kelly, she'd be tackling two games and I'd go see two games and then we'd swap at halftime if we could. And it was great stuff, man. It was a lot of fun. But yeah, I, you know, getting into hunting with them young, ⁓ I look back and, you know, I, a lot of

Ryan Uffens (11:32)
One would play up, right? I'm assuming. Yep. Okay.

Troy Gregory (11:58)
A lot of people reach out to me, they've kind of through social media and stuff, they just see we have a really close family bond. And whether it's hunting or fishing or other outdoor activities and stuff, ⁓ a lot of people are like, man, how do you, how do you, how have you gotten your boys to be that close together? Cause I think as people kind of follow them along, they, they recognize that's kind of a unique thing that they're that close. ⁓ They're best friends and they'll tell you they're very best friends or they're brothers. And a lot of it comes.

comes from that, the early times of hunting. And I have a lot of friends and people that have reached out too. And there are different parts with their kids and they're trying to figure out like, do I get my kids started in hunting or how do I get them to like it? And none of this I had figured out. It's ⁓ one of those things you go through and I've reflected back. I think some of the key things when they were young.

is just really creating an environment for them that they had fun. As parents, especially if you're into it, you get a little focused on hunting and wanting to have success for yourself as a parent. And it's hard to do with a bunch of kids around. But if you have the mindset that you're there for them and creating a good experience for them, and it's little things when they're young. I've listened to people talk about how they take their kid out and

take them on a death march and just run them into the ground. And I think that's one thing that pushes a lot of kids away when they're young. If you do that too early, that kind of turns them away from it and really building that love for it. So I...

Ryan Uffens (13:36)
Yeah.

Well, and

it's it's kind like what you said, just like your kids, right? They just grew up spending time together and whether it's playing sports, whether it's hunting. mean, you as the parent can do that as well. And it's like, like I was telling you with the softball, you know, that this game that I've got tonight, like I've got me, my son, my son in law. I've got two brothers that all play on the team and we've just kind of all done it like we grew up. Our dads would play against each other in softball.

I mean, they played baseball. I tore my rotator cuff in high school and whatever potential career I could have had was like shot by the way. I've torn this rotator cuff three times and I'm like softball. I pitch, I can throw it underhand. I got good reflexes so I'm at an age I can still get out of the way when the balls fired back at me. But it's just doing it. Conversely, our family, we grew up at the lake. So like on the weekends,

when we weren't doing baseball or soccer or you know, whatever my daughters were playing tennis, we would go to the lake and I think if you want to get your kids in this, think what you're alluding to is just make it fun for them. Don't take them out and be like, hey, first time we're going out, like I'm going to show you what it's like and we're going to do a 12 mile hike up this canyon and we're going to see if you can keep up. It's like ease them into it.

Troy Gregory (14:59)
Yeah, yeah, I've, you know, I've asked them this question, like, what do you guys remember? And what are some of the things that stand out? ⁓ Like I mentioned, you know, I bought them BB guns when they were one year old. ⁓ And I remember taking them out rabbit hunting and they had no BBs in their gun. They were empty, but they thought they were hunting. I was packing a gun. We'd see rabbits and I'd shoot at them and I made it.

made it feel like to them that they were in the hunt, they were a part of it and stuff. But that was a good opportunity to teach them gun safety and muscle control and things like that. from an early age, no risk. Yeah, very little. There's always risk, but yeah. So ⁓ I agree. And then another dynamic too is I have an amazing wife. She has always created opportunities. ⁓

Ryan Uffens (15:39)
with very little risk.

Troy Gregory (15:56)
for our family. Our kids, they still want to hang out with us every day. Not every day, but we do a lot of cool stuff. And when you're young and you're raising a family or starting a career, we didn't have a lot of money. But it doesn't take a lot of money to come up with creative things you can do to get your kids in the outdoors and do different things. So that was a big part of the bond, I think, that they have together.

know, over time, we started, I actually had a friend, I used to rifle hunt and muzzleloader hunt, that's kind of how I started. And I had him, he was shooting in a league, one of my close friends, Mike Eager, and he said, look, I'm thinking I'm gonna win this thing and I'm gonna win a bow. And they were all doing archery hunting. And he said, if I win this bow, I'm gonna give it to you and then you gotta start bow hunting. And so he showed up on my door one day, he's like, hey.

He's like, here you go, man. And Brian Cook owns Humphrey's Archery. He's one of my neighbors. And so he helped me set it all up. And then it was off to the races. I started shooting a bow and getting into bow hunting and then started all my kids. And it was funny. We were watching some family videos. ⁓ My daughter pulled them out and we came across two family videos of Jackson and Briggs getting their first bow.

and just watching how excited they were. I think Jackson was nine and Braves might have been eight. But we got them shooting bows and those kids, mean, my boys, I remember one season Chase and Jackson shot their strings. We had to replace their strings. They shot their bows so much in one year, just target practicing. yeah, so we...

Ryan Uffens (17:28)
Huh.

That's awesome.

Troy Gregory (17:48)
I think that's what kind of created that bond with them. But then, yeah, we just started hunting super young and getting them out there. And some of the other experiences that they reflect back on, there's just some of those early days of, for kids, as an adult, I'm out there, I'm shooting for a bigger animal and stuff. And I remember this one time, they were like, I kept passing on these spikes and two points and they're like, dad, they're like.

Why don't you shoot that one? I'm like, oh, it's too small. It's this, that, and the other. Kind of dawned on me that they didn't care. They didn't care. For them, they wanted to see the experience of getting an animal and doing it. So finally, you know, it was getting towards the end of our hunt. And I was like, you know what? I'm just going to chew one of these smaller bucks. I don't even remember if it was a spike or a two point. But they all remember that day still. They thought that was the coolest thing in the world.

When we got it, we took it back to camp and hung it up and skinned it. And for them, it was like this majestic animal that, you know, and they all remember that day. And just kind of went from there. I mean, every opportunity we had, we were getting them out fishing or getting them hunting. ⁓ you know, a lot of my boys, they shot their first deer when they were 12 or 13 with a bow. Two of my boys drew their first bear tags.

It's kind of funny, we're all in Disneyland. Me and my older son Hunter, we had bear points and I saw it hit my card. I saw it hit them, we got two bear tags and I thought for sure it was me and him because we had points. So him and I are high five and we're all excited. Later on, know, a few days later I get the emails and it was Jackson and Chase. The two of are, Jackson had zero points and I Chase had one point.

We can believe that they drew it. So Jackson shot his first bear with a bow when he was 12 and Chase was 14. another thing I reflect back on is just, you know, and I don't know if everybody's gonna have this opportunity, but I think a lot of people, they separate their friends and hunting with their friends. And then they look at opportunities of hunting with their kids separately. And I was super fortunate to have a-

Ryan Uffens (19:38)
Hmm

Troy Gregory (20:07)
really good group of friends. Two of them in particular is Jared Bagley and Mike Eager. And those guys, they let me hunt with my kids and helped and embraced that idea of letting them hunt. So I saw those guys time and time again, put my boys in front of them to have opportunity and stuff. But I look back like that bow hunt, I wasn't even with Jackson when he harvested because I was hunting with Chase and I was swapping back and forth. ⁓

Jackson got his bear with a friend Adam and then Mike and Jared, they were all there. And then I got the one with Chase and it was just off to the races, man. They all started, you know, got their first deer. Hunter actually shot his first one with a rifle. And I kind of set like a thing for him. I just said, look, you know, one of the great things about hunting is just how hard it is.

and just learning techniques. And so I said, you know, whatever you guys decide to shoot, you should always strive the next one to be a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger. And just kind of embedded that in them as they should set that as kind of like a benchmark and then always try to try to outdo that.

Ryan Uffens (21:20)
Yeah,

I'm still on the is it legal?

Troy Gregory (21:23)
It's illegal. Can I shoot that? Yeah. So yeah, man, I have so many fun experiences and just raising them and they kind of took on that mindset that if one of us draws a tag, we all draw a tag ⁓ because it creates all those opportunities for them to go out and hunt. So yeah, it's been quite a ride.

Ryan Uffens (21:26)
Can I shoot that?

Yeah.

Yeah, when I started hunting, I mean, it was just me, my son and one of his buddies and none of us had ever hunted before. So we're just out there like willy nilly trying to figure it out, trying to remember what we saw on YouTube or listen to on a podcast. And we've had, I mean, we've had no idea, we had no idea what we were doing. But now like Dustin, who you've been talking with, who's a guy who's like grown up hunting and that, like we went out with him in the fall.

You know, he was, he had his extended trying to get a mule deer and we had a couple opportunities, but he was like you, we had this forky that pulled up, ranged him 37 yards broadside and he's just like, I don't want to shoot him. And I didn't have a tag and I was like, well, just go. I'm like, you do whatever you want to do. And, ⁓ and, but it was fun. Like that, that was a cool experience for me being like, it is possible to get on a mule deer. It is possible. Like I said, my first time ever out.

I had a big old bowl elk at 30 yards, but I didn't have a shot at any vitals and I got winded and blew out, but it was like, was hooked. I was just like, I have to do this for the rest of my life. But the cool thing is like with Dustin and Quinn and then, and then my son Jackson is we like, we kind of put in this year, like Quinn thought to your point of like, Hey, if like one person gets a tag, we all get a tag.

Quinn was like, hey, go hunt on X. Everything was like 100 % odds you're going to get a bull elk in this unit. So he puts in and all of us were like, we're just going to add points this year. And then I got, I'm like, I'll put in for a mule deer tag in that unit. So in the event we stumble across something, I can try and harvest it. Well, he went from a hundred percent to zero percent. And then, and I've got the mule deer tag for down there. And so we're like, well,

Let's go down there. Let's learn the terrain. Let's figure out what it is. I'll see if I can harvest a mule during, let's figure out where the elk are. So next year you guys can put in for it again. So it's, I think that's a good mindset and a super cool thing to be able to do. If you can get in with somebody that's like a group of guys that are cool to let like, you know, if one person gets it, like we, our mindset was we're going to go help Quinn harvest a bowl and

Troy Gregory (24:15)
Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (24:16)
And whether it's you or your kids, I mean, like I said, my son, he's an adult. mean, he turns 25 this year, so it's not like I'm dragging a little baby around. But Quinn and Dustin both have younger kids, and I would be perfectly fine letting them bring their kids. It's just a fun experience being outdoors and sharing those experiences that help people grow. And you just get around such good people. It makes it not a big deal.

At in my opinion.

Troy Gregory (24:47)
Yeah,

I totally agree. It's such an awesome community. ⁓ We've ran into so many great people and made so many awesome friends that we've met through hunting and fishing and just sharing that same passion. ⁓ It's been awesome. ⁓ you know, as my boys started to get older, and I can say today they're all four way better hunters than I am. ⁓

I don't even hold a candle to them. They're pretty legit. get after it. But yeah, it's been a lot of fun to kind of just go through those experiences. And it changes over time. They're all adults now. And so as they've grown up, it went through a phase where

All the focus was on them, but then as we kind of expand out, they started getting old enough that they could go on their own and do different things. And ⁓ I think that's another thing that they're pretty fortunate is to have four of them that are that close and they all have that mindset that they're pretty selfless. They recognize at a young age, they recognize that if they put the effort in and really tried to help each other, that that would come full circle. ⁓

because their brothers would be there to help them when it was their turn and That's kind of they've kind of lived that throughout their life of just chasing stuff ⁓

Ryan Uffens (26:19)
Yeah,

for the people that are watching, well, if you're listening, you should go over watch it on YouTube. But ⁓ I just pulled up the account and we've got this like video highlight reel. They've got like mule deer, mountain lion, elk. mean, there's just, it looks just like they're having a riot out there together.

Troy Gregory (26:33)
Yeah.

Oh man, we have so many great experiences. I could talk about each one of these hunts and you know, I've been on as many as I can, but obviously I can't make them on all of them, but I try to get to everyone I can. So they're showing some mountain lions. You know, they just got into spot and stock. So every one of those mountain lions were killed just spot and stock them going out in glass. No dogs, all spot.

Ryan Uffens (27:02)
No dogs.

That's like

that's that's my son's dream is to be able to go do a spot and stock on a mountain lion.

Troy Gregory (27:10)
Yeah, it's been pretty killer. And being here in Utah, the mountains are right there. I can't tell you how many evenings they finish work and they're like, hey, we're going to go glass for lions. And they've had a lot of success with that. ⁓ That first buck, Jackson killed a 200-inch deer in Idaho last year. ⁓ But so many great experiences. Briggs, the one there on the right.

Ryan Uffens (27:25)
That's awesome.

Troy Gregory (27:40)
typical. He shot that this last year. That's kind of that was a fun experience. you know, being the younger brother, all his older brothers have killed really nice bucks and ⁓

We kind of have a, him and I were doing a hunt together and I kind of blew the whole range thing for him. It was right before he served the mission and it was one of those things where it was the last day and we saw this buck and I was like, dude, he's not going to come to where we were at. We were in a ground blind.

I was like, we've got to go after this thing. And I'll talk about that. It's like a big life. I think a lesson that I've learned is the difference between patience and the action and just that balance. But we went after the buck. We put a stock on it. we had a few seconds. It kind of winded us. And we had a few seconds. And I gave him a range. And the buck was still moving. And then when it stopped, I went to give him a new range.

He had shot at the first range, so 100 % that was my fault. He shot over the buck and missed the opportunity. He was pretty bummed,

Ryan Uffens (28:50)
So is that archery or is that rifle?

Troy Gregory (28:53)
So that was on an archery hunt. This buck was a muzzleloader last year and so he went out.

Ryan Uffens (28:59)
Okay. Well, but the

one you were talking about where he had ranged it though, so that was archery hunt. Okay, got it.

Troy Gregory (29:05)
That was hard to

So he had shot in bucks, but ⁓ he was feeling some pressure like, I got to kill something that's worthy of what my brothers have been knocking down. So we went out to Colorado, all of us, and he killed a really nice four by three in Colorado. And Chase also harvested a really cool buck in Colorado. And then a week later, he drew that tag down in New Mexico.

⁓ I couldn't make it on that hunt, once again, him and his brothers went after it and then he killed that awesome typical and was super stoked. I was way excited for him. So yeah, but a lot of fun stories behind pretty much everything there. Yeah, Jackson, that's a bull. That kid had some luck, man. ⁓ When he was 14,

Ryan Uffens (29:46)
That's.

That's awesome.

Troy Gregory (30:02)
He drew the $5 lottery Desert Bighorn sheep tag. And we didn't know anything about Desert Bighorn sheep hunting. We have a good friend of ours, Jeremy Harness. He gave us a lot of advice and I got a lot of advice from some different people. But I remember a couple of guides reached out to me and they're like, hey man, this is a big opportunity for your son. Don't screw it up. You need to hire a guide and this, that, and the other.

In hindsight it worked out, but I was kind of like, oh, I've got a pool of friends. We've got this. We'll figure it out. Luckily we did. So he actually was 13, turned 14, which is the legal age, two weeks before the hunt, and then harvested a ram. And we have an awesome experience on that too. We hunted so hard and anybody that's hunted sheep in the desert, I have a whole new passion for sheep.

Just spending time in the desert. We spent a lot of hours like I said with some friends and You know the the experience of shooting that sheep ⁓ That's a good example what I'm talking about the you know the kind of taking action and putting in effort is You know we we we understood that all the the Rams were still bachelor herded up and that eventually that in November there they were gonna start

gravitating to where they were going to start breaking up and going up meeting with the ewes. So we had spent time really figuring out where the ewes were, but then we had found tracks from a group of rams, but we actually never saw the rams. And so ⁓ this is a pretty cool story. We literally were trying to locate these rams and all we ever saw was their footprints in the sand. And you can tell from that big ram that the

the front hoods will spread out from the weight and the rear are pretty close together. And we found one set of tracks that headed off on its own and we tracked it for about two miles and we're like, he's broken away from all these other rams. And so we kind of drew a line about 20 miles away where we had seen the closest groups of ewe's. And then we just said just

Ryan Uffens (31:56)
Yeah.

Troy Gregory (32:22)
Just off of that one thing, were like, look. And I mean, there's so many people would be like, I'm not going to go clear around there. We glassed in that area. But all based off of that, we were like, you know what? We're going to relocate, clear down to where we've seen the closest group of youth. And so we went and we circled around. We got in that location. spent probably about five hours. We located them. And sure enough,

This ram shows up. The whole thing unfolded really quickly. I glassed it up about a little over a thousand yards away and it was headed right at us. A good buddy of mine. And once again, that's the effort piece is he was glassing the desert from one angle and he could see all this area. Me and Jackson, we were down checking in these canyons and he said, hey Troy, there's only one spot I can't see. There was a butte coming up and he's like, I can't see behind that butte.

And my other friend, Jared, was out tracking, following the tracks to see if he could find something. And he's like, why don't you hike? It was like a half mile hike, and we'd been hiking all day. And man, it was hot. We were worn out. And he's like, hike over there, get behind there, and just class behind it, because that's the only spot I can't see. We're like, OK. So we got up there. We got Jackson set down. And sure enough,

right behind there about a thousand yards away. I clasped up, he was right on the bed of these cliffs and he was heading our way. And the whole thing unfolded really quick. I radioed my buddies and told them what was going on. They came running over and by the time they had gotten to me, I had Jackson down on my pack, ready to go. And this ram just walked up 200 yards from us and he shot a really awesome ram. So.

It was such a cool experience. My boys were so upset. had football and school and they'd been hunting. So that was like, I think if I remember, I was like on a Thursday or something like that. They're like, we're going to be so mad if you shoot something and you ended up shooting it without them there. But that was a cool experience. But I look back at that and just like making those decisions off of like, you know, sometimes they're a pie sky, but.

just making a decision that, we're gonna go after that. And I think, I look back, I think that's something that's driven a lot of success ⁓ for my boys is understanding the balance between patience and action. So what I mean by the patience piece is you can really blow a lot of opportunities if you just go. And when I was young, that's how I hunted, right? I felt like if I was just hunting hard and going hard.

I would kill more things. So was always hiking into something that I didn't necessarily see where things were at. ⁓ But just given it time to really come up with a game plan, understand what's happening. But then the other side to that, taking action, I've seen a lot of people, I think, miss a lot of opportunities because they think they talk themselves out of it.

They're like, we're running out of daylight, or there's no way I'm going to make it up there in time or get in that position, or all these other excuses. And I think understanding that if you don't make that effort, if you don't put that effort in at the right time and go, you're not going to capitalize on it and make it happen. So I think that's been a really valuable lesson that's helped them over time, helped all of us.

Ryan Uffens (36:02)
Well,

and that and and you know, the truth is, is that applies to all aspects of life. I think in in modern society, guys like me that didn't grow up hunting like I'm kind of go out there like I'm just going to go, go, go, go, go. Right. Like I'm just going to go out there and find the opportunities. And when I think there's times that because I didn't slow down, I didn't realize the opportunities that were in front of me. And and like you say,

guys can talk themselves out of it. mean, again, you don't know what you don't know, but I think sometimes.

It's like, okay, there's a bowl over there. There's a buck over there or there's a bore over there that I want to go get. And what's that risk? I'm going to be tired if I get up there and he blows out or I misread something or they win me like whatever it is. It's if the risk is you're tired. You should probably take it, you know.

As long as it's not like, you know, I'm going to get up there and there's a storm coming, but I don't care. That's different in my opinion. mean, like you said, I think you need to take calculated risks. And if it's just, I'm going to be tired. Well, suck it up, man. Like that's like you have a tag. If you've got a tag in your pocket, put in the work. And, and like I said, that translates over to all aspects of life. If you're willing to work hard, you will create opportunities.

But again, taking it back around just like in the hunting aspect, I think a lot of people that are new, and I'm speaking for myself, just my own personal experiences, is I get out there and I'm like, when I go home, I'm gonna be tired. And every time I went home, I was tired. But if you can learn patience and you know what you're looking for, there's opportunities that could be there, but you're going too fast, you don't even see them.

Troy Gregory (38:03)
Man, my mind's swirling with a couple things. ⁓ I think a time to be patient is when it comes down to shot, like making sure you have a real ethical good shot. That's one of those times where you've got to slow down, be patient, but putting in the effort and just, you know.

It'll increase your, the more times that you put that effort and go for it and you actually get close enough that you're putting yourself at that opportunity to do something or have something happen, the more, it's a calculated thing, obviously, the more times you put yourself in that situation, the more times you're really gonna be able to capitalize on it. And as you were saying that Ryan and how it translates to a, ⁓ you know, into life in general.

Ryan Uffens (38:46)
Yeah. ⁓

Troy Gregory (38:52)
My daughter came to work with me and she's like, know, dad, what are some of things you've learned? ⁓ And I shared a message with her and I actually just shared it with some of our.

All of our new hire, I try to sit in every new hire orientation and talk about our company and some of the things that are really important to us on the culture side and some of our strategy. And so they understand when we talk about growth, the importance of growth and how that translates into opportunity for them. And that's why we're doing it. And that young group, I kind of shared the same message as I did with my daughter. I look back at my career and where I'm at today. And I think

a lot of opportunities ⁓ open up and how I explained it to her is you're have all these doors that open up and create opportunity for you and a lot of people don't go through those doors. you know they whether they're

intimidated or nervous or worried about taking on more responsibility or all those different things and it's you know I said look the the more ⁓ risk that you take by taking on new opportunities it's a multiplier ⁓ you're going to continue to have more and more opportunities open up for you in life so go through that door go go after it and

Um, you know the You know, I I think that's uh, like you said it translates both ways and when you go back to hunting, um, know, whether you're going to be tired or uh, the effort piece or I can't tell you how many times we were running

daylight and it was like look if we if we drop our packs we go all in like we could get there but it's only going to be 10-15 minutes that we're going to have a daylight that we can make something happen but there's been so many times that those have translated into success and you know that's it that's the other thing about that I love about

hunting and being in the outdoors is the physical side to it too. Fitness is a really big thing to like our family and I think it's similar to hunting too you know it's a all of our family works out pretty steadily we I set up a little corner in our garage to work out we've had a home gym for years and

at different times that, you when they were younger, some of them were totally into working out and fitness and some of them weren't. And it just took time and you got to be patient. But, ⁓ you know, they've all built parallel to hunting this passion for taking care of themselves and just that fitness piece. And they really do tie together in the sport of hunting.

is having the ability to be mentally sharp and have the physical side that you're going to be able to push yourself. And so that's something that still translates. They all work out on a regular thing. I came home the other night and Jackson and his wife were at our house and working out. And ⁓ you know, they go pretty hard. Hunter, my oldest, just did his first ultra marathon. He did one of those backyards.

His goal was 50 miles, so he hit 54 miles. ⁓ But I'm super proud of him for signing up. In hindsight, he trained, but not probably at the level he should have. But that's where their head is. Their head is always with just like, how can I be more fit and ready to go? And they run parallel.

Ryan Uffens (42:13)
Jeez.

Hmm

Troy Gregory (42:30)
I'm excited for Father's Day coming up. They started something last year where we do a marathon ruck. So 35 pound pack for a marathon. And they had some of their friends, Trevin and Jens and a few others join us. And this year, I think that they've got probably 20, 25 people that are going to come do it with us. But work on Friday. We're starting at midnight. If anybody wants to join us, hit us up on Instagram and we'd love to have you.

But you start at midnight, and ⁓ we do it. on the Provo Trail, so you start down by Utah Lake. And you go, the halfway mark is up Provo Canyon, and then turn around and march back out. And it wears on you putting that heavy pack on and stuff.

That's something that kind of just keeps you, you know, if you can put those challenges in front of you and some different things like that, it just keeps that preparation throughout the year. And I think that's a really key part of hunting is just making sure that once again, when that opportunity presents itself, you're going to go all in.

Ryan Uffens (43:36)
Well, and the physical aspect is so crucial, I think, because like when I got started, I mean, I was putting miles, not running, like I, I hate running. I mean, when I first got started, I was running, but I'm like my knees, like I'm, I'm older, like everything just hurts. But I mean, I'll make sure my wife, my wife's in incredible shape and she, she always drags me around the neighborhood. Like we'll get out, do, you know,

get up early in the morning, I go to the gym, come home, and then we'll go do like two, three miles. I mean, she does probably like 10 miles a day, just walking, but not running. But ⁓ from a physical standpoint, I mean, I look back where I started. I was looking at some pictures of me five years ago when I first started hunting, and I'm like, who is this guy? I mean, yeah, I've grown a beard.

But ⁓ I mean, I had a beard back then, but I don't know what it is. But I feel like you start doing these type of things. Like you go through a transformation and I don't, I'm in entirely different shape now than what I was five years ago. And I remember getting up there on the mountain and like I could go, but I would get gassed. And now it's like, I don't go fast, but I can keep pushing. Like if I see something, I mean, I know that I'm doing good because my boy who's in really good shape, like,

I'm like, wait, I'm like, you good? You good? Like, I'll start pushing and I'll wait, like, let's go. And that's a good feeling for a guy in his mid forties. But, but to your other point, like the mental aspect, if you're not physically conditioned to be on the mountain and chasing bucks or balls around, you're not going to give you, you'll mentally check yourself out from, like you said, those opportunities. It's like, Hey,

If we dump our packs and we get after it, like we might be able to get there with 10 or 15 minutes of light left. Well, if you're not in shape, it's not even a possibility. And you could potentially miss out on, you know, harvesting your ticket, the animal that you want to go after.

Troy Gregory (45:43)
Yeah.

Right. And when you talk about the mental toughness, two experiences with once again, with my boys that I watched them go through that's just that mental toughness and just grind. So one of them, a few years ago, my boys have killed a lot of bucks on the extended archery. That's honestly probably one of their favorite things to do.

You can get those tags fairly easy and you know anymore you're hunting with a lot of people so it's a it's a it's a grind but they ⁓ so my son chase ⁓ one of these that come to mind he actually there was a an article i think it was eastman's ⁓ archery that he was in and it's just that mental toughness they there's a lot of lessons too that they learned in this whole thing about high country hunting ⁓

Ryan Uffens (46:16)
Yeah.

Troy Gregory (46:40)
you know, as you get up high, you don't have a lot of water. And so water becomes a crucial thing. You know, if you're packing, trying to pack a lot of water, that's difficult. So just really understanding where water and doing the research to find where there are springs or different things where you can go get. And this situation, they, very high country. I mean, I'm talking at the very top and they had glassed up these bucks.

They chase actually was chasing this bigger buck and it disappeared from one year. He didn't get either. And then the next year he went back up and he found the smaller one which was still a monster typical. They called him junior. And he haunted after that thing just time, just ground man. Every time they told me they were going up I went up with them a few times. I was like, my gosh, that's such a.

a grind of a hike just to get to where their camp is, let alone hunt. Well, it had gotten down to the last day. So once again, they have her piece. They had one day left and Chase is like, I'm going to go try one more time. And Hunter's like, I'll go with you. So they packed up stuff and they were working. So it was a super late start and they headed up the mountain. They were hiking in the dark to get to their base camp.

Well, where their base camp is and where the water spring is, had to summit, summit, and they were on top of one summit or one mountain. And then they'd have to hike down the backside about a half mile to a spring to get water and then come back up to camp. Well, they had gotten up there so late that they only had the water that they had packed with them. And, you know, this is one of those lessons learned for a lot of people that

They made the decision, they're like, look, it's so late, we're not gonna hike down there tonight and fill up our water and bring it back to camp. We'll be okay in the morning. And they, you know, it's one of those things where you go and you glass or you're chasing something so many times and you haven't had success. You know, in their mind, we're like, we don't even know if we're gonna see this thing. We haven't seen it the last two times we've been up here. So, they get up there ⁓ to get from their base camp up to this,

bowl where this they had seen this buck was like another three miles and another grind of a hunt so our height so Chase had woke up like at three in the morning only had a few hours of sleep only had the water that he had and he he hiked up to get in that position so they could be there before first light because where they had patterned them that you know they'd feed out and then they would come back and he wanted to be in their bed spot where he thought they would come back across so he had headed up there

We got in position and then Hunter had a couple hours to sleep and then woke up because he was glassing for him and he could glass from not too far from where their base camp was. So he's glassing for him in the morning and sure enough, they turn up this buck. so they're talking through the radios and ⁓ they were able to get him. They couldn't figure out exactly what elevation, so they kind of had to gamble. And Hunter's like, look, if you can get it.

to this strip of pine trees, you'll have coverage. And Chase knew right where it was, because he'd been up in there so far, or so many times. And he said, you know, start high, because your wind's good. And then if they come, I'm going to try to communicate what level they're coming so that you can drop down through the pines and kind of level up with them. And sure enough, he was able to do it. Lined up, had a smaller buck in front of the big buck. So was one of those scenes where

Chase got there and drew his bow and had to hold it forever because the small buck came out first and pinned him and he just sat and held it and held it and held it and then sure enough it moved and then Junior this buck came in and he just he smoked the thing. It was like 50 yards and ran back out in his bowl and it was down and they have some of it on video. It was so much fun. I was so excited for him and I was actually hunting with Briggs. He had an elk tag so I was off hunting with Briggs and another location and

I'll never forget, they only had phone coverage in one area and they'd gotten back to their camp. Well, by the time Chase had hiked in the morning, he had drank the last of his water. And so I should back up. It was the last day of the regular archery season. So was still really warm. And so they kind of made a decision. The hunter's like, well, you know, I've got 32 ounces. I'll hike up to you. We'll take care of the deer and stuff.

They weren't really thinking the whole thing through that to skin out an entire deer, put the entire thing on two packs, how heavy that was going to be and how long that was going to take them to get back to base camp. So I get this call from them and they're at base camp and they're like, dad, I got junior. They were super excited. They're like, we're still thirsty. And I remember telling them like, hey, drop it in the shade, go get water. Like go take the time and go down and get water and.

It's that balance between the ethical piece, right? But then pushing the limits too, because Chase in his mind, he's like, dad, it's so hot. It's like 90 degrees. And it took us like all this time. It took us like three hours plus to get the thing all put in our packs. And then it took us all this time to get back. And he's like, we're just going to head down the trail. He's like, I think the meat will spoil. It's been in the heat a long time. He's like, I.

worried the meat's gonna spoil. So I said, look, me and Briggs will load up as much, you know, as many drinks as we can, as much water and Gatorade and electrolytes and we'll head up the trail and we'll get as far as we can to try to catch you, not to get your water. So they headed down the trail and by the time we caught them, we caught them about one mile. They had about a mile left is where we got to them. And I've never seen anybody push themselves to that limit.

They both went down, their legs were cramping so bad they couldn't stand. ⁓ They just sat and pounded drink after drink after drink. One of them made a mistake. I'm trying to remember if it was Chase or Hunter. They didn't have water, but they had those ⁓ electrolyte packets. One of them put that in their mouth thinking somehow that would help and it just made it worse on them. They had no saliva, no anything. So we got to them, got hydrated, and I think Briggs.

ended up packing chases, packed the rest of the way out and Hunter finished it out and we went that last mile or maybe it was reversed. But I remember we got them back and nursed them back together. But there were so many lessons there of high country and just understanding the water, you know, trying to, you know, that effort piece I was talking about, it's the last day and they still went for it and it panned out. So there was a success that came from it. But then they also pushed that limit of

Like you could get into a pretty bad situation there. And, you know, in hindsight, they both agree that probably the decision was to dump that meat in some shade and spread it out and go get water and take the time to get water. But those are the good memories, man. They'll stick with those guys forever.

Ryan Uffens (54:05)
Well, and I love that you've instilled in your boys like the ethical side of hunting because I think I think sometimes I've come most people are really good about it, but I've come across some individuals and having conversations and I'm like. Like they don't care. They don't care about the animal like it's just it's all about them and like when I decided I was going to start hunting that was my thing. Like I was telling you about that bowl that I had like it for a first bowl.

it would have been like almost like I'm retiring. It's like I'm gonna I'm gonna shoot this thing and be done. But he was in the scrub oak. I didn't have a clear shot on vitals. It was up to his shoulder. I could have shot him and hit him shoulder wounded him something. But I had just decided like when I started like I'm not going to do that if I don't have a shot on vitals. I'm not going to take it. And ⁓

Troy Gregory (54:40)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (55:02)
And I just think there's something to be said of what you've instilled that your kids, I mean, they're putting now again, they're putting their own health at risk by not wanting to waste the animal that they've harvested. So I think that says a lot about you and your boys just in general.

Troy Gregory (55:25)
I think on the ethical side, just understanding what you're capable of doing. They're a much better shot, but they put the reps in. I mean, they shoot their bows nonstop all the time. It's not one of those, I always was like, oh, it's about bow season, so I'm going to start shooting before they shoot year round and hone that skill. for them, that's something I think they've done a really good job of just knowing.

Ryan Uffens (55:52)
the

shot part they're super comfortable with.

Troy Gregory (55:54)
shot

they can make, they'll go for it. But if they're not comfortable with that shot, they won't do it. And the other side is just the meat, those guys. I have a wife that is an amazing cook. ⁓ She is an awesome cook. But ⁓ my boys learned to cook when they were young. And they, to this day, they eat all of our wild game. They eat a ton of it. I think that's why they're jacked is they eat a lot of healthy.

really healthy meat but ⁓

Ryan Uffens (56:25)
They've been eating organic since organic was cool. Since before organic was cool.

Troy Gregory (56:27)
Yeah, yeah, it's a,

you know, and they started processing their own meat too. We had a place that did it for a long time when they were younger.

they started processing it just because they really understood to remove all the fat and the silver and really get it to the lean meat. So they like to take their time and make sure it's processed right. so yeah, that's another thing my wife gives me crap about is we've got tables set up in the garage nonstop and butchering is happening all year. They harvest between myself and them. think we killed seven bucks last year.

Ryan Uffens (56:51)
Yeah.

Hmm

Troy Gregory (57:06)
So

seven bucks and Jackson killed a really nice bowl last year too. so yeah, we share with some people and stuff, but they put it down, man. They eat it every single day. That's their breakfast and lunch and they pre-dinner. We joke about they'll eat a bunch even before dinner. They're grown man, they eat like crazy. So.

Ryan Uffens (57:12)
Yeah, you guys are eating well.

That's great.

That's awesome. That's great. Sounds like you've got like a great family and a great, you know, a great setup for going out and harvest animals, hunting, spending time with the family and just having a good time. So.

Troy Gregory (57:44)
Yeah, yeah,

it's been pretty awesome. It's helped my wife, like I said, she grew up around brothers, but she's been a big part. I think that's a challenge for some people is ⁓ having a supportive life that's willing to put up with it and put all the time and effort, but she has been their biggest cheerleader and she's always helping meal prep and get things ready for them when they're going and.

Ryan Uffens (58:07)
Hmm

Troy Gregory (58:11)
They're a little spoiled that way. ⁓ think their mom helps them kind of prep for their meals and different stuff like that. But I think that's been a big part of it is just having that support system.

Ryan Uffens (58:23)
That's great. Yeah, dude, tell me about it. I've been married 26 years and when I started hunting, my wife was like, you're going to be gone for how long? You're going, you're going where? What am I supposed to do? And I'm like, grab the girls, go take a little trip. But but her trips become way more expensive than the trips that that we go on. But it's ⁓ it's a lot of fun. And, know, I I joke.

Troy Gregory (58:30)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (58:49)
about that, but she's also been super supportive and she's seen how it's grown. I coached my son in baseball. We've always had a great relationship. We've got a couple of businesses that we're building together, he and I. But that's kind of where we get to go out and just be like father and son out on the side of the mountain. And she sees that and I keep telling her, I'm like, I want to get.

Tallulah, our little granddaughter. I'm like, I'm gonna get her a bow, get her out. And she's like, she's gonna be a girly girl. I'm like, there are girly girls that hunt still. And she's like, just, you've got your son right now. She's like, just stick with him. But I think it's awesome that you guys are so close and that it's such like a tight-knit group. I think it says a lot about you and your wife and the job that you guys have done and raising your family as a whole, that you guys are all so close.

I think it's something that a lot of people can aspire to for sure.

Troy Gregory (59:51)
We feel pretty fortunate for sure. Like I said with Michael, she's been such a great blend because luckily Kelly's not always left behind. Michael has, she harvests a deer. ⁓

Ryan Uffens (1:00:00)
you

Troy Gregory (1:00:04)
And she likes it. gets out. actually just bought her a bow for her birthday. And so we're going to try to get her shooting and stuff. But she's definitely a good blend of stay home with mom and the girly girl side. ⁓ But she still likes it. She's always joking. Can't we change it to a four brothers hunt and a girl, one girl? She feels like sometimes left out of that piece. ⁓

Ryan Uffens (1:00:19)
Yeah.

Troy Gregory (1:00:33)
She's amazing. She's been really awesome and I think we'll get her into it a little more. We did some fishing this last weekend down on Lake Powell and she was catching bass and having a great time. So she's a good mix on it.

Ryan Uffens (1:00:46)
Yeah, she's gotta get him changed to four brothers and sis hunt.

Troy Gregory (1:00:49)
Yeah,

yeah. She's always harassing him a little bit. She's like, hey, there's five of us. Come on, what's the deal? So her deer story was a lot of fun for me too. And it's kind of that example, I was saying, of just the experience and getting out there. So how I convinced her to do it is I was like, hey, look, I just want to have this experience with you, Micah.

Ryan Uffens (1:00:57)
Yeah.

Troy Gregory (1:01:14)
I've done this with the boys and it's been so much fun for me. ⁓ I understand you may not want to kill something and you don't have to. I was like at the end of the day, just come out with me, let's do it. And if you get in front of something and you don't want to kill it, I'm not going to push you to kill it. That's the deal. And so we had gone out and I got around a couple of two points and she couldn't do it. She's like, dad, I don't want to shoot it. I was like, that's fine. That's what we talked about.

So then the next weekend came and actually it was one of those days Briggs came up with this and we had hiked her all the way into this bottom, put this stock on, we were crawling and just the whole experience, right? It was a small buck, but her and Briggs was all in it to help her. And so we were crawling and we got her in this position and he's got her in the scope and like trying to figure out and she's trying to have having a hard time kind of finding the deer. ⁓

She finally finds it and it's one of those situations. You see the animals moving and it's like, hey, we gotta kind of hurry. And I'm like, Michael, look, you don't have to do this ⁓ unless you want to. And she's like, no, I think I do. think I want to. So we get her all set up and she's like, okay. He's like, are you on it? And she's like, yeah. And he's like, for sure. It's the one with the antlers. Yeah, I can see it. Okay, now.

Remember about the Golden Triangle and where we taught you like to aim and everything. She's like, yeah, I've got it and whatnot. And then he's like, okay, just squeeze the tape. He's coaching her on. She's like, I can't do it. I can't shoot. He, he was so frustrated. Just stood up, scared the deer off. And he's like, I'm out of here. He's like this crap, like kind of harassing her and stuff. ⁓ then the next weekend, Jackson, I think at the time he was playing football. And so on Saturday,

after you get his football meeting in the morning. ⁓ He's like, hey, can we run up? And I was like, yeah, let's go up one more time. And I was like, Michael, he's like, and Jackson was in her ear like, hey, if I get you on something, like you think you can do it? And she's like, I think I will. But once again, I thought it was gonna be the same thing. we go up to this area where it's kind of where I started hunting with my boys. It was kind of one of their first experiences in this area.

And we're driving along in the truck and all of a I see this buck coming up from the bottom. And I was like, hey, there's a three point Michael. And she was kind of, you know, him on around whether she wanted to go after or not. And what flipped her switch is I said, Hey, that's a bigger buck than any of your brothers killed as their first year. And that flipped the switch for her, man. was like game on. yeah. Her Jackson took off.

Ryan Uffens (1:04:01)
All in. ⁓

Troy Gregory (1:04:05)
Cause I was driving, he bailed out of the truck and took her and they took off about a hundred, 150 yards and kind of worked down on it and they headed off and he got her on it and she pulled the trigger, man, knocked it down and it was so awesome. yeah, so we, get down there to skin this deer out and take care of it and cut it all up. And she, the whole time's on her phone, like turned away from it. She didn't want to watch it. And I was like, look, Michael, I was like, this is just kind of part of the deal.

Ryan Uffens (1:04:18)
Bragging rights.

Troy Gregory (1:04:34)
If you harvest an animal, you've got to pack the head back to the truck. That's part of the deal. So she's like, really dad? And I'm like, you got to do it. That's part of the deal. So she did it and I got back to the truck. So she has that one thing she can hold over her brother's head that she killed a bigger buck than any of them on her first deer.

Ryan Uffens (1:04:55)
That's awesome. ⁓

It's it's fun like our family like we can't even play board games together really like our family's like also competitive So like I think it's it's funny to hear that your daughter It's like that was like the thing that pushed her over the edge It's like that's a bigger buck than all your brothers killed on their first one. She's like I'm in all in

Troy Gregory (1:05:20)
Yeah,

that competitiveness, ⁓ I think that's another big driving factor for sure. Yeah, super competitive family.

Ryan Uffens (1:05:28)
Yeah.

That's awesome. Troy, ⁓ hey man, I really appreciate your time. As we wrap up, is there any last little bits of wisdom you may want to leave with the audience before we sign off here?

Troy Gregory (1:05:45)
Um, you know, I, I don't know, uh, not a lot outside of what we talked about. I just, I think whether it's hunting or anything else, think raising kids, you know, it's one of those things you can look back and hide and say, and say, okay, here's what we got right. And here's what we maybe screwed up on as parents and, uh, would do differently. Um, I don't, you know, I don't think there's a book or a map on how to do it and stuff, but.

I think the thing I reflect back on is just really kind of just driving that and instilling in them to do hard things and whether it's a sport or something else and just getting them involved and really spending time with kids. think, you know, like I mentioned, I think a lot of adults, they try to separate time with their kids versus with their friends and different stuff. And I think we were able to blend that and it's had a really good outcome.

Just super grateful that we were able to be in this great state of Utah and raise our kids here. It's a great place ⁓ to live and just have really good access to the outdoors and different activities like that. It's been awesome for our family. ⁓ Now I'm just trying to keep up with them, man, as they continue to go. It's been a lot of fun to watch their success and what they do. I get more excited about what they do.

and the success that they have as a parent watching them. ⁓ you know, I've turned a lot of my attention. I love people that didn't have the opportunity to hunt, to spend time with getting other people into the hunting industry. I think ⁓ the industry alone, there's people that have different points of view, like, we need less hunters. But I think carrying on the tradition is really important.

and trying to get our kids, because I think it actually is what will protect our right to hunt and stuff is having enough hunters and people involved in it and managing the wild herds and doing those things. I think it's important to get people of all ages and getting them involved and introducing them to it. There's so many great life lessons that come from it. I look at their drive and their work ethic, ⁓ and a lot of it has come from their opportunities to hunt.

And it's done the same thing for me. You know, I think my success in business and different things like that has come from that same thing. I think the other thing too is just surround yourself with like-minded people. I think that's a critical part of it is just making sure that people that you're spending time and, you know, life is short and your time is precious and spend it with people that are like-minded and gonna help.

you elevate your game and it's gonna help them. And like I mentioned with my friends, they all have girls and a lot of their girls are straight up killers, man. They are hunters and it's been fun raising their daughters with my sons and hunting together. And we have a lot of cool experiences that way too. So I think that's it. Just ⁓ I appreciate your time, Ryan. It's been a lot of fun chatting and.

Check out my boys on the ground. I'd love to interact with anybody. And if there's people listening that are just trying to figure out the whole thing, I love helping people and giving them some guidance. think a lot of people look back and they're like, how the heck do your boys draw all these tags and have all these tags? these are public tags. And if you'll do the work, Jackson's a little over the top. That's all that kid does is research.

But there are some great avenues out there that you can research and there's a lot of good opportunity in surrounding states and here. If you're willing to do the research to pull a lot of good tags and they just put in for so many opportunities that every year they're pulling in a couple and ⁓ it's kind of created that. But I would love that, you know, if there's anybody that has any questions or wants to know where to start, I'd love to try to help give some guidance there for people to get started.

Ryan Uffens (1:09:52)
Well, I may be getting in touch with you myself, Troy. All right, brother. OK, guys. Hey, well, Troy, think you drop a lot of great bits of wisdom with folks. I think you practice what you preach. I mean, just hearing you talk about your boys doing the research and being able to create opportunities like the patience and then be ready to persevere when the time presents, I mean, with looking for opportunities outside of the state.

Troy Gregory (1:09:55)
Give me up, man. Let's go hunt. I'd love to see some arrows.

Ryan Uffens (1:10:20)
Really appreciate all that you've shared guys for sure go give ⁓ Troy a follow Highland Scott Troy Gregory on Instagram for Brothers hunt on Instagram give us boys a follow and reach out to him if you guys have Taken anything from this podcast that you feel is valuable or that could help somebody else who's maybe trying to get into hunting get their kids in the hunting Please share this podcast whether it's on YouTube Apple

Spotify, we are the fastest growing hunting podcast in the industry. I don't know if that's true or not, but I say it anyway. yeah, share this podcast, give these guys a follow, look for the links in the show notes and stay safe and God bless.