#063 - Jeremiah Plyer | Wilde Arrow Desert Sheep

In this episode of The Hunt Stealth Podcast, Ryan Uffens sits down with Jeremiah Plyer, co-owner of Wilde Arrow Archery in Centerville, Utah. The conversation ranges from the importance of location in retail success to the frustrations of local politics, rising taxes, and the lack of government transparency.

Jeremiah shares his journey into archery from struggling as a teenager with no mentor, to building a career in one of the top pro shops in the country. He emphasizes the difference between a basic archery shop and a true pro shop, and why personalized service and attention to detail keep customers coming back.

The two dive into the culture at Wilde Arrow, where customers aren’t just transactions—they’re part of a community. Jeremiah explains his philosophy of “planting seeds” with every customer interaction, knowing that good service pays off long-term.

The highlight of the episode is Jeremiah’s once-in-a-lifetime desert bighorn sheep hunt with a bow. After 13 years of building points, he drew the coveted tag, navigated the intimidating terrain of Utah’s Dirty Devil unit, and successfully harvested a ram in just five days. The hunt was captured on film by Brad Hunt and produced by Brian Call of Gritty Films, inspiring many to consider pursuing desert sheep.

Whether you’re an aspiring bowhunter, a seasoned pro, or just love a good hunting story, this episode delivers insights, laughs, and a behind-the-scenes look at the dedication it takes to succeed in both business and the field.

Watch the hunt film: Search “Wilde Arrow Desert Sheep Gritty” on YouTube.

Visit Wilde Arrow: For expert bow setup, gear, and a welcoming hunting community, stop by their Centerville location—especially in October or November for the best service and deals.

5 Takeaways from the Episode

Location Matters in Retail – Jeremiah credits Wild Arrow’s success partly to its easy freeway access, drawing customers from multiple states. Convenience often beats square footage.

Service Creates Loyalty – The shop’s “white glove” approach spending the time to answer every question turns first-time customers into lifelong bowhunters.

Community Over Transactions – Wild Arrow fosters a culture where hunters can hang out, swap stories, and blow off steam, creating a place people want to return to.

Persistence Pays in Hunting – Jeremiah drew his desert bighorn sheep tag after 13 years of applying, proving the value of strategic point building and patience.

Pro Shops Make a Difference – The expertise, mentorship, and proper setup at a pro shop can mean the difference between frustration and falling in love with archery.

Follow Jeremiah Plyer:

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

Watch Wilde Arrow Desert Sheep Hunt on YouTube

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Transcript

Ryan Uffens (00:00)
You're listening to the Hunt Stealth Podcast with Ryan Uffens, the podcast where we dive head first into the wild. Whether you're an aspiring hunter or an adventurer seeking the untamed, together we'll explore the strategies and stories that lead to success in the great outdoors.

this episode, I sit down with Jeremiah Plyer. He's one of the owners of Wild Arrow. They're an archery pro shop located in Centerville, Utah. They're the best at what they do. We talk everything from local to national politics, and we eventually get around to talk about his desert sheep hunt that he took with a bow. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this episode and have fun. I'm glad you haven't listened to mine yet.

Jeremiah Plyer (00:42)
I'm listening to a couple of yours, they were good.

Ryan Uffens (00:43)
Okay. The audio that I had when we were doing it. It's like

It's bad.

Jeremiah Plyer (00:51)
Really? The ones I've listened to seem just fine.

Ryan Uffens (00:56)
Dude,

the first, so when I interviewed Donnie Vincent, I had this mic that was a directional, like this, right? Like you like talk into it, it's good. Like not a problem. But yeah, I'm like, why does that sound like? Anyway, I recorded like three episodes in like one week and I went through and I tried like mix, do like all the audio and make it work. And dude, was, anyway,

They were not good. And I'm sitting there, I'm in the middle of a podcast and I look at the mic and it says back. And so the way that mic works is it comes up and it has like the microphones only on the front half. So I like have it away from me and it's backwards. It's just a complete freaking. Well.

Jeremiah Plyer (01:35)
haha

⁓ shit.

There's some like, like redbeard is good at this, right? Like he'll do a lot like over Skype calls and his audio is good, but Hoyt's they can't figure it out, dude. Like it's crackly and grainy and echoey. And I'm like, come on guys. Like you like if I was someone like Hoyt, this is just, I think like build a damn studio and fly a guy into Salt Lake for the day.

Ryan Uffens (02:16)
Well, dude, even these mics, like these Rode Pod mics sound way better than like the, think the, cause I'm kind of like red beard, like I very rarely do in person.

Jeremiah Plyer (02:27)
What we've talked about, because our goal is to be in a new building in three years. I don't know if that's going to happen, because we only signed a we only re up this lease for three with a possible one year extension. And so that's been nice because it's kept that part of my overhead low and I afford to pay my guys more. Our overhead goes up because we're working for the landlord. I can't afford to pay my guys what I want to pay him. Right. So anyway, the next building that I want to stay in the Centerville location for a couple of reasons.

We're right off of both Legacy and 15. And we get customers from Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado. Like we get guys from surrounding states coming here and they're fined of, you know, a four hour drive on the freeway. Not a big deal, but they're two minutes off the exit. And when I keep trying to tell my new partners, cause they have a building in North Salt Lake that they, they actually own already for the different company, but that company is moving into a bigger building. They're like, we should move there. And I go, no, I'm like,

I don't give a shit if it's 20,000 square feet. I said, if a guy has to get off the exit and fight traffic for 10, 15 minutes through road, tracks and stoplights and all that, people won't come. The convenience of our location is why I think a big part of why we're successful, especially Utah County. Guys are driving from Utah County all the time now. All that. They get off the freeway, they're here in two minutes, great parking, no traffic, right?

I says if that guy is going to fight traffic on the freeway and then has to get off the exit and fight traffic for 10 minutes. It's so funny 10 minutes fighting traffic on the side street feels like an hour compared to being on the freeway for an hour, you know? ⁓

Ryan Uffens (04:07)
Well, it's like well like Brandon who we were talking about right like he lives up Peterson Morgan area. Yeah, so he drives down and ⁓ Anyway, it's it's interesting I Think sometimes people in read like you say people haven't done retail before don't quite understand Like the location and so I there was a meeting I can't remember there was some I think it was like Santa Claus

But the Centerville city people had like a little booth set up in the winter and they're showing like they're trying to buy out all of this like property right here and they're wanting to expand west and put like more industrial stuff like out that way. And have you heard anything on that? You should look into it really. Because like what they're wanting to do is push all the industrial stuff that way and make this like high density housing.

Jeremiah Plyer (04:53)
I haven't,

no kidding. Bye.

Ryan Uffens (05:03)
buy

all of it. I don't know where it landed. I haven't really been following it that closely, but that was something that I remember seeing. How are they going to go in and are they going to institute eminent domain? Hey, either you sell it to us or we're just going to take it.

Jeremiah Plyer (05:20)
Probably

good like my wife works for a title company and she does a lot of you dot stuff She deals with that all the time like hey, we're widening the road Like and matter of fact, there was a house up on 89 now Or they actually had to change the route of 89 because that person wouldn't sell and so yeah you don't went in and built that giant retaining wall and it's like five feet from their back door now because they would they refuse to sell to you dot anyway, I

It was interesting when we first moved here in 09. They wanted they did not want retail over here on this side of the freeway. We had to fight tooth and nail with the city and we said well, we're we're service based like yeah, we sell stuff but we service like. And but they wanted all the retail to be on that side of the freeway. They wanted all this industrial over here and so yeah, we had to fight tooth and now formed it. The only the only reason we were able to do it is because.

The guy that owns this remember guitar city back in the day. That's his parents owned it. Now he owns it. His name is Kip. And that's how we were. This building is kind of like grandfathered in on on that side of the stuff. So OK, yeah, we had a fight like our big tall 50 foot sign that's grandfathered in. No one else can have a sign on this side of the freeway. Like. But yeah, it's interesting if they want to build high density housing over here. Seems like a.

The other thing too that's interesting are the taxes ⁓ on this side went up 100 % last year. Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (06:54)
That's probably where they started. You're going to try and tax people out of here.

Jeremiah Plyer (06:57)
Exactly.

Ryan Uffens (06:59)
Anyway, local government at work for you. They're our servants.

Jeremiah Plyer (07:04)
Yeah. Yeah. Vote them in and then they get you out. Right. ⁓

Ryan Uffens (07:09)
Well, dude, that's the thing is like Mike Lee's been pretty popular here in the state until he wasn't. And I was listening to him going like Glenn Beck and all these other programs and he's like, it's just the liberals. I'm like, bro, it is not it is like it is your people. And that's the thing that pissed me off the most is you've got you've got these guys going on air and like Glenn Beck, who's not a hunter, doesn't understand it.

Jeremiah Plyer (07:16)
Yep.

Ryan Uffens (07:38)
⁓ He's going like, there's all these fake accounts on there. And I'm going, yeah, no, dude, when you have like, Cam Haynes and Joe Rogan, and, you know, Randy Newberg, these guys out, like, those guys are like, on the Trump train. But then you get people that are like, well, that's what you voted for. And it's like, bullshit. No, that's not what we voted for. Just because you vote for somebody because the majority of their policies and principles align with what you want to have happen.

Jeremiah Plyer (07:53)
Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (08:06)
It's not the same thing. It's not the same thing when they come and they're like, hell, we're just gonna take a little bit of this land. And the thing that I think that people forget about too is like we were talking taxes earlier, right? And.

This country had the Boston Tea Party over 2%. 2%. And now it's like the average American is paying like 30 % taxes. That's before they pay their gas tax. That's before they pay sales tax for buying their groceries. That's before they pay property taxes. It's like, dude, we've been taxed to oblivion. And like you said, I'm ready for a revolt.

Jeremiah Plyer (08:25)
Yeah, over what? That's something small, right?

Yeah, I'm

Ryan Uffens (08:51)
Ready

for another damn tea party.

Jeremiah Plyer (08:53)
It's so funny because people use the terminology all the time, line in the sand. And I hate that. Because I keep telling guys, the line in the sand keeps moving. Look at how far we've come as far as our taxes or anything in our world. Our forefathers that started this country would be looking at us going, what the hell has happened to you guys? This is not what we started as our republic. And look where we're at now. And so the other thing that

pisses me off with our government more than anything is the lack of transparency, right? Like they're supposed to, we elected them there to be for us and we can't get transparency on it. Then this whole thing with, you know, Trump's base now is pissed off over the whole Epstein files. I'm pissed off too. you ran on basically saying we're going to release the files. You had a son, everyone's out there, Dan Bongino, all these guys, and now they're in the position of power that we wanted and oh, it's a hoax.

Ryan Uffens (09:49)
I've got a buddy who, his name's Andrew, from New York, super liberal. He texts me and he's like, what's your take on the Epstein files? He's like, I know you're a Trump guy. And I'm like, yeah, I'm a Trump guy. And I'm like, I'm pissed. I'm pissed because everyone, Cash, Patel, everyone led us to believe that there were freaking files. And now they're like, ⁓ yep, nope, they didn't exist. It was a hoax.

It pisses me off. And he's like, well, what about like, what about other like Trump supporters? What about the other like MAGA people? And I'm like, I don't know of anyone that's given Trump a pass on this. Because it's that was a big deal. And now it looks like

he was probably involved. Yeah, my hell dude back in like the 80s and 90s. The dude was it like Miss America, not Miss America, but Miss Universe owned that. You know, I mean, and then and then one of my wife's best friends like she she was Miss Utah in that pageant and there was incident shoes in the news back and whatever. And I gave him a pass on it. Because it's like you know, Playboy billionaire, right? You own like a pageant, you kind of take some liberties and

And not to mention like you're in New York, like the dude, mean.

Jeremiah Plyer (11:12)
you

Ryan Uffens (11:14)
You're a womanizer. Yeah. I mean, there's a reason he's on so many different wives. He's been married multiple times, but it's just, I don't know. It's crazy to.

Jeremiah Plyer (11:24)
What I learned from that though is I go, I don't trust anybody in government now. I don't care who it is. I don't care if you're left-wing or right-wing. I look at it and I go, this system is so corrupt. It doesn't matter who you vote for, you're getting the same damn outcome,

Ryan Uffens (11:39)
Well, they get in there and here's the thing that I think happens is they get the power and that power, it gets tough to freaking like let like it gets tough to let go of that power. I mean, they get in there, they get corrupted. It's like, do you remember that kid? He was in the wheelchair. I want to it was like North Carolina or America. It was some like remote place, but he ran back like I think it was like

shortly after Trump was elected and he'd gotten in a car accident, people were drinking and you know, paraplegic. He got in and like freaking went off his rocker. Oh, started doing like drugs like these like, I don't even know all I mean, it got it got bad. He ended up like I think he ended up resigning even. And he was like, I'm gonna fight this corruption. It's like you get in there, dude. And that's the thing is it's like, everyone

Jeremiah Plyer (12:20)
Really.

Ryan Uffens (12:37)
Everyone jokes about the advice from Peter Parker's grandpa. With great power comes great responsibility. And you look back, like even like George Washington, the fact that he gave it up, dude, we could have been a monarchy here. For sure. He was like, dude, I just want to farm. I just want to farm. Like I've been through some shit. Like I've seen some things. Like we're headed the right direction. Let me go back to work. But all these guys, mean, it's like Biden, 46,

Jeremiah Plyer (12:53)
Yeah.

See you.

Ryan Uffens (13:07)
Pelosi.

I mean, they can't let it go, dude. It's a drug. It's a drug to them.

Jeremiah Plyer (13:14)
I I think it's just human weakness, man. That's what it boils down to. You know, it's like you could go in there with the best intentions and get, know, leading up to it. You're talking all this and everyone's on and then you get into power and you know, I'll never forget this too. Cause you know, I'm kind of a conspiracy guy. Nine 11, right? Like I'm convinced that there's so much corruption, but like building seven that collapsed all this stuff.

Trump said this before he ran, when he was running in 16, he goes, if I get elected, I'm going to tell you the truth behind 9-11. He said that in debate. Guess what? Crickets after that. And then you look back at everything that they've hid from us in this country as far as the JFK files, MLK files, all this stuff, and you're going, you're waiting 50, 60 years for it come out and tell the public? I want transparency more than anything.

Give me the hard facts of really what happened and they just won't do it.

Ryan Uffens (14:13)
We're pretty resilient people, they think like they can't handle it. can't. mean, so do OK, conspiracy theories, right? So even even more so than that, like you go, you go that he was going to release the JFK files. He's he sat on him. I mean, he ended up eventually. Releasing some of them, yeah. But it's like, OK, like we don't really know that much more now than we than we have known over the past 20 years. Yeah. ⁓

But then it's like, yep, there's UFOs. Like the people hardly, like, yeah, there's these like weird things, weird phenomenas and stuff that we have going on. It's bonkers to think that the government honestly has like our best interest at heart.

Jeremiah Plyer (15:01)
Not even close.

Ryan Uffens (15:03)
Not even the local government. I mean, we I went and sat in up in ⁓ one of my wife's friends. She does like fine line tattooing. Centerville City will not approve her to go. There's a salon that she's trying to get a permit to be able to do the tattooing out just off Main Street. We're talking Main Street and Centerville. This isn't like, I mean, it's not high traffic area. Main Street and Centerville is pretty, I mean, you've got

the city building, you've got Maverick and you've got some dentist's office and like, and what's, what's the other place? The food, the cutlery. Yeah. anyway, the city is going like, well, we don't want it to be where kids are walking by because we don't want them to, you know, potentially.

Jeremiah Plyer (15:41)
Taco time.

Ryan Uffens (15:53)
think the kids give a frickin shit about like a salon and going like, I wonder if someone's going in there to get a tattoo. But we went in and sat, dude, they've been drawing it out, drawing it out, drawing it out. And I normally am not a fan of the what's like the one AA CP, whatever, I don't know. Whatever is civil rights division, like they're sitting there like help you like making the case. And I'm going like, damn, like, I agree with these guys. And the girls in there, who's the attorney, she's like,

I don't get tattoos. I don't have a dog in the fight, but it's a violation of the First Amendment right because you're not allowing people to be able to go in and get tattoos that want them. But they're like, I know that this it's just because the city's not allowing it because they are holier than now. And they think that they don't want to let little kids walking by from school potentially. I don't even like I can't even understand the rationale behind that. It's like, dude, have you looked at what Walmart brings in? Brings in a shit ton of money.

A lot of money it brings in, but it brings in some like questionable people. mean, dude, I park out in the far part because I don't want to get door dings and things like that. And I'm walking in and I've seen syringes on the ground in Centerville at the Walmart. I've seen condoms on the ground in the Centerville at Walmart. You don't think kids leave school and go to Walmart to get a drink or some food or some snacks. It's like, come on, man. Like quit, just like stop with it. You're just...

You get in there and.

Jeremiah Plyer (17:24)
You know, it's interesting too, because you you look at us like, yeah, we're a small business, but we generate a decent amount of tax revenue for the city and all that stuff. Right. But I look at someone like Cabela's when Cabela's went into Farmington, they signed a lease. Not only did they get the ground for free, but Farmington City will say something like, hey, you guys don't have to pay taxes to Farmington City for like 10 years or like some ridiculous thing. And I'm you know.

Hello. Here's what's so funny to me is all these politicians run on like we are about small business in America. Bullshit. Like I get taxed to no end. I don't get any of these benefits. And I'll tell you this too. Like I was more profitable 10 years ago and I had less, less overhead, less and all this stuff. And I paid less in taxes. So as I've grown my business, I paid more in taxes every year. I had to have more employees to service that and

I look at it now I'm like, I was more, it was more profitable as a smaller business trying to scale and grow. Actually, I felt like I went backwards, not forward.

Ryan Uffens (18:30)
I've had a conversation. remember my father in a lot telling me because he had started Interform. Yeah, he had started that. I don't know. What was that Jack's like 86 forever ago. And we started out it was originally Intermountain Business Forms and he was doing like the carbon copy like the sheets that you guys write up for like he was doing that business cards printing and then he started getting into more like the corporate apparel. But he's like when I tried to he goes I made more money.

Jeremiah Plyer (18:37)
really?

Ryan Uffens (19:00)
when it was just me. I think he had maybe one or two employees, they were doing like a little bit of printing on their own, but he was outsourcing the majority of the work which they still do. But you know, mean, that's what Jackson's working with my brother-in-law Jason, who, know, when my father-in-law passed away, he left, Jerry eventually had brought on like a business partner, but ⁓ Jason left and started Verlux, which is the

company that Jackson works for and they do corporate branding, basically the same thing. I mean, he works with some of the biggest, you know, businesses like in the state. But Jerry was just like, I made more when it was me. And he's like, it's not always. I mean, yeah, you want you want to scale. But do you want? Do you want to build a business that you can remove yourself from? Because there's a ton of sacrifice and there's a lot that goes into it.

Or if it's like, hey, I'm willing to work, like you build a business that you work at and ⁓ you can eventually, you know.

Jeremiah Plyer (20:08)
I yeah, being an owner being an owner operator is two different things, right? And I've said this for years, if I was going to redo, like another bow shop, dude, I would be a one man band. And I would just charge a premium price for me to work on a bow. It's like, yeah, you can take it somewhere else. But you want me to work on your bow? It's premium price. Like what I got a basic package for 200. I got a full service package for 400. And I would do less work and

just work on the high end clientele only. And that's one thing that's been benefit me for doing this for 20 years. I've kind of built that clientele and that reputation, you know? But yeah, I would just do, I could probably, I could work out of a shed. I could turn a boat, I could grab a nice shed, turn it into a bow shop and probably make as much money as I'm making now and pay way less in taxes and all the other headaches that come with trying to grow a business, you know? So yeah.

Ryan Uffens (21:03)
Yeah,

a shed would give you maybe a little bit more space than what you're cramped in back there trying to get it all done. Man, you guys are on top of each other back there. You guys are really, really good. Like that's the one thing that I've always told everybody like on the podcast. Like I would put you guys up against any bow shop in the country. Like you guys are very good at what you do. ⁓ You get busy. And I know like I was down here the other day and the guys were getting me, you know, set up after we'd gone and shot. We were making some tweaks to my bow.

Jeremiah Plyer (21:06)
Yes.

Yeah, it,

Ryan Uffens (21:33)
and you come back and you're like, I text you. We just had a guy walk out and I appreciate that you care about everybody. That's the thing is you try and service everyone, take care of everybody. That's one of the things that I've loved about you guys and as I've gotten to know you guys here, I know I was just like some random dude came in five years ago. Actually, he came in and bought his bow and then...

Jeremiah Plyer (21:36)
Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (22:02)
I ended up getting mine and just like I fell in love with it. But you guys are you guys are really good at what you do. And you do kind of have like a white glove service. Because you might wait a while to get help. But when you get somebody like you're with them until you have every single thing that they need answer every single possible question. And and it's that attention to detail. think that people like, okay, well, it's worth the wait. And then you get guys that come in here that just like

start walking around like they're employees here. Like going back, shooting the breeze, getting stuff. I know I probably drive you guys nuts when I come in. I try and bring treats every now and again so that I'm not always.

Jeremiah Plyer (22:41)
Now we love you know what I love more anything about shops the culture we've created here. Yeah, like that that to me is really really important is the culture and you know, I tell guys all the time like when when customers come in, we want to talk archery bow hunting, whatever like that. That's what the vibe and the environment that I want here. Because once a guy walks out that door, reality in your life is set back in right like you got to go home and take care of the kids or do this for the whatever it may be. Yeah. So I want when guys need to come blow off steam here like

you know how many guys I'll turn on the YouTube video and they're like, I got to go home and I look out here 30 minutes later and they're sitting here watching a show. Right. Yeah. And I'm like, that guy just needed that break from, and I want that to be the environment. But I will say like, you know, we do get a little bit of negativity, like feet, like comments or online or whatever of like, they were just in there helping their buddies. And I'm like, to your point, like, yeah, they're, we have to separate that. And it's a fine line of like, we want to

engage and talk to everybody. But if there is a customer waiting, like we got to get to that guy.

Ryan Uffens (23:40)
at the message when you came back there you weren't talking to me but you were talking to me. Yeah. I was being a little bit of a distraction back there. Dallin was taking care of me. But yeah there was back there running the mouth. But yeah it's I mean I wished I knew more. I would just come hang out and just like help help you guys sell stuff. But I'm still I'm still do I don't like I said when we went up shooting like the adjustments that you made like I it's bad. I got but I don't pretend to be like this expert like

tech guy. I like to go shoot my bow. I like to hunt. And it was fun getting up there with you and like, making these little tweaks and adjustments. And then it's like, okay, come back down to the shop. And I feel like you guys, you guys do that with everybody, like whether it's back here at the

Jeremiah Plyer (24:28)
See you guys. See you,

Ryan Uffens (24:29)
whether it's back here at, you know, in your range back here or whatever it is, it's just a ton of that attention to detail, but ⁓ it's a lot of fun, man. But yeah, people go online. mean, everyone's negative. Like, have you heard of Joey Swole? So he's this influencer, he 5.4 million followers. what he, like, he...

he roasts people that are roasting other people at the gym that are making fun of people working out. He's like, come on, like, do better. But he got roasted, I guess, over the weekend. He posted a video of him dressed up as Hulk Hogan. And I guess people had come unhinged. He, like, took it down, made an apology. Like I saw he posted a story saying that, people have just been, like, so negative and he's leaving social media. And ⁓ I'm like, you have to get like

Jeremiah Plyer (25:00)
Right.

Ryan Uffens (25:24)
a little bit thicker skin. And like I said, I mean, I haven't seen anybody. I know that I had my, you know, like I've come in and I've had to like wait, but, once, once you guys are helping someone, it's like, till you're completely happy and every single like question is answered. So you're not going like, ⁓ I wished I had asked that or thought of, you know, thought about this. Like you do give your undivided attention to people like once you get with them.

Jeremiah Plyer (25:54)
Yeah, you're 100 % correct on that. you know, for me, what and I tell guys, that's the reason that I'm so adamant about that. When I first got into the sport, I almost quit because I went to a bow shop, bought a bow and it was like, here's your bow. And I'm like, what do I do with it? Like, we'll go shoot it. like, oh yeah, that sounds easy enough. Dude, that first summer, I almost quit archery. My arm was black and blue. I couldn't stop from hitting my damn arm. My groups at 40 were the size of it. If I could hit a pipe light at 40, I was like, hell yeah, I'm doing good today.

And what I see that I've done this for so long, there's so many guys that get into the sport that don't get set up the right way the first time and all those little things get explained. And then the sport can become very frustrating. Like matter of fact, I had a guy in here yesterday, he's from New York. His wife is out here doing some tests, like a bar test. He's like, dude, I got all day to kill, I'm bored as hell. And he's like, I just got into archery like three months ago. So I set up one of my bows and I'm gonna go shoot it in the range just to.

try it out. he wasn't gonna buy anything from me. And I was back there with him for 10 minutes, like just showing him the little basics and stuff, you know, and to me, what I like about that is how many guys that I've like, I felt like I've helped through the last 20 years of doing this that are now like lifelong dedicate, that's all they want to do is shoot Archie because they had a good first experience. And so I've tried to, I tried to like get all my guys on board with that to go, hey, like Blake's a good example. It's like I love Blake, but

guy will come in here with like an older bum and like, why is he shooting this? He needs upgrading and go to like, this is where he's starting, like, give him a good service. Because eventually that guy is probably going to come back and buy it might not be this year or next year. But you give him good service. Now, he's going to remember that and come back in the next couple of years when he's ready to upgrade, you know, so we call it I call it planting seeds down the road. But yeah, the problem for us that I fight all the time is like this time of year, I wish I had 10 guys on staff, right?

Like we could do like yesterday I could have used 10 guys working. But come October I want to fire everybody because there is literally I've had days in October where I'll open that door and not a single customer come through the door all day long. It's that dead and so. For me, trying to get my guys trained to the level of expertise and service that I want them provide takes a lot of time and there are certain times a year where we're servicing this much customer base and then come October it's like.

Ryan Uffens (28:18)
Mr. Famine.

Jeremiah Plyer (28:19)
Yeah, and I get guys all the time that are like, hey, want you to, you know, you should open up a shop here, open up shop here, because guys are driving to us, which is awesome, but they want me to move a location closer to them and I go, I'll never do it. And because I could open up 100 shops like this. But having the guy, the right guys behind the counter is what makes all the difference in the world.

Ryan Uffens (28:40)
Well, shifting gears. What I want to talk to you about is your

desert sheep with a bow. and I don't know, maybe we need to do another podcast where you can dig into that, because I know that you've got to get the shop opened up. You tell me. Like we were talking about, you know, just like the service and that, I think that's where we had kind of like finished off before somebody started banging on the door. Come in here. But

Jeremiah Plyer (29:03)
That's up to you, ⁓

Ryan Uffens (29:17)
But as far as the shop goes, I mean, I think you guys do a really good job. you know, we're, I'll go back and do a little introduction. But again, I'm here with Jay Jeremiah Plyer, who's the shop owner down here at Wild Arrow. And we you've been, you've gotten a little bit of everything from politics to taxes to to all that other stuff. It's

I'll just go back. Let me just share my experience that I've had with you. So five years ago is when I started and I got my first bow. It's down there. ⁓ And still shooting the same bow. I'm sure Blake's probably going crazy right now. You guys tease me that I fanboy because I think I got the it was the Ventum 33. It was the keep hammering edition. You guys bust my balls on that.

Jeremiah Plyer (30:07)
Yeah, Cameron Haynes won. ⁓

Ryan Uffens (30:11)
that attention to detail. Like I came in and you were the one that helped me. You went through, helped me, you know, figure out my draw length. I think that was probably the only thing you guys had in stock at the time. Cause it was like right around, I think it was just before COVID. We have five years ago. So yeah, think it was, I think it was the summer of COVID. was just things that just started opening back up. But anyway, got the bow, got into it, just like falling in love. Come down here, gotten to know the guys and

Jeremiah Plyer (30:25)
really?

Ryan Uffens (30:41)
I know you, I think you guys are just doing like a great job. But you had talked about when you first started bow hunting, going out, you know, hitting that massive plate. Now at 50 yards, you hit like this three inch pin. I'm watching you guys like see him like, he's pretty good at what he does. He's a good shot. But when did you fall in love with bow hunting?

Jeremiah Plyer (31:03)
Yeah, there was something always intriguing to me when I was younger. Like I grew up rifle hunting, but there was something about archery that I was like, I just, have to try that. And I remember my grandmother back in the day was shooting archery and you know, she had the old PSC with the overdrawn. I was just a little guy and I remember watching her in her backyard practice and she loved to hunt elk. That was her favorite. And yeah, there was just something always intriguing to me. So, you know, when I, think I was in 10th grade and I had a, I got a summer job that year and I

was working hard, I saved up as much money as I could. And, you know, back then, I think I saved like six, $700, which, you know, for some for a young kid getting in the sport, it was a lot of money to me. And yeah, I'm like, I just want to try this and went and bought a bow. And, man, I was I was on the struggle bus for a couple years, man, like, you know, and I've told guys this for years, one thing that I've realized with doing this, there's a big difference from an archery shop to an archery pro shop. And when you're new customer, like for someone like you, it's hard to know the difference, right?

And so, but yeah, just. So, But yeah, I just got into it. You know, but when bought an oak tag, because here in Utah, you can buy this north counter archery oak tag and yeah. And, you know, I couldn't, I really wasn't a good shot back then. One, I didn't have the best piece of equipment, but two, no one, I had no mentor. No one showed me. was kind of learning on my own for the longest time and

Ryan Uffens (32:04)
I still don't know the difference. Personally.

Jeremiah Plyer (32:31)
But I'll never forget the first big game animal I ever shot at. Didn't even hit it, but it was a cow elk. And I'm going down this ridge and trying to learn how to be a bow hunter. It's a different skill set than rifle hunting. It's just different. And this cow steps out at probably 30 yards. And back then, I had this old metal two-prong rest that your arrow had to sit on. It spring loaded. And I tried drawing back on this cow probably four or five times. The arrow kept falling off. So I finally get to full draw. And I was so

I was so amped up. had so much adrenaline. I didn't even look through my peep. I remember just pointing my bow and pulling the trigger and I watched that arrow go three feet over this cow's back. Not even close. It was switching arrows. And I knew I'd missed by a mile and I had, I literally had to sit on the ground because I was shaking so bad. just the whole pine. I knew right then and there I'm like, this is all I want to do. Like this was the cool. I know I didn't get the elk and it was one of the funnest experiences I ever had in my life.

Ryan Uffens (33:08)
It's like my first shot when we went up there.

Jeremiah Plyer (33:29)
And ⁓ after that, you know, I started to kind of do more research on my own, kind of learn some stuff. Luckily, I tell the story all the time in the shop, but there's an outdoor range up in Manoway ⁓ and Brigham Bowman run it. And I was up there shooting one day and this old timer is watching me shoot. And he literally turns me goes, come here, dummy, let me show you what you're doing wrong. And so that guy literally spent like 15 minutes with me ⁓ just

like show me how to hold the bow better, just like some basics, right? And I give a lot of credit to that guy of helping me to keep me in the sport. Because I was getting so frustrated with, you know, I was wearing out arm guards, my arm was black and blue, and it was just, you know, and I was out missing animals, that was even more frustrating. And so ever since that experience with him, I'm like, man, like, that's what I want to do. Like I want to help guys and

And I kind of just fell into being in the pro shop, to be honest with you. So right out of high school, I moved down to Orem. And back then there was a shop named Jake's Archery. back then, Jake's was like a really big shop. They were one of the only distributors for Easton Arrows to Europe. they big shop distributor, everything. And I learned a lot from those guys like Justin Bliss, Drew Hortman, those guys that work there. I learned a lot because their whole family had been in archery their whole lives, basically.

And so I worked there for probably about a year and then kind of a long story how I ended up at Wild Arrow. But yeah, it's just one of those things where just one opportunity led to the next. And I always joke around and you tell everybody, you I ended up working in a bow shop because a lot of poor life decisions, but it worked out pretty dang good. So but yeah, that's kind of my little back story on archery and just been, you know, doing it for I think I came to Wild Arrow the fall of 06. So it's almost been 20 years at Wild Arrow. I've been doing this.

But it's been a good job. We talked a little bit earlier that ⁓ I think a lot of guys from the outside looking in go, man, that looks like so much fun. get to work with. And it is a fun job. And I tell guys all the time, it's not hard work, but we work really hard. There's a big difference there. ⁓ But when you start taking care of this many customers and trying to run a shop, you drop the ball on one customer, boy, they let you know it pretty quick. And so it's still a job, but it is something that we get to

come in and talk bow hunting and whatever all day long, which doesn't suck. ⁓

Ryan Uffens (35:58)
Well, it's a ton of fun. I think I told you my first experience is when I was up, you know, bought the elk tag five years ago, went up and I've, this is like my only hunting story. So like, I'll keep it short here, but I, I this big bull 30 yards. Here I'm just like stomping, coming through and ⁓

I see him draw back. He's in the scrub oak, right? ⁓ I draw back and I'm following him and I'm going like, my gosh, there's this like opening and he's like coming up on it. He gets within three yards and I feel the wind hit the back of my neck. He stops, turns his big old rack, because I'm going like, there's no way this is going to be my first bowl. And God was like, you're right. This is not going to be your first bowl. ⁓ But yes, like I'm drawn back.

Jeremiah Plyer (36:41)
Yeah.

give you all a teaser.

Ryan Uffens (36:50)
three feet from this opening, he was going to come into a broadside. anyway, never even let the arrow fly like he bolted. was the last day of the archery hunt. And I'm pretty sure some ended up going to a concert like later that night. We chased him all day long. We went to a concert later that night and saw a buddy and he's like, dude, check out this bolt that my niece just shot. And I'm like, where was that? And they're like, just up here in Bountiful. And I'm like.

pretty sure that was.

Jeremiah Plyer (37:20)
Like that's the bowl. Really? Dang.

Ryan Uffens (37:22)
Yeah,

because it was like it was like the the youth like rifle was like, I think it's like the same day as the last day of the archery hunt or least at the time.

Jeremiah Plyer (37:26)
⁓ yeah.

Yeah, there's some overlap there for sure.

Ryan Uffens (37:32)
But anyway, yeah, it wasn't my bowl, but I've been hooked. I've yet to find another one since because it's tough, but you got to get out there and put in the work. ⁓ So you talked about being at the shop here for almost 20 years. You had been putting in for the Desert Bighorn Sheep for 15 years, 13?

Jeremiah Plyer (37:51)
13.

So yeah, it's kind interesting how the point system works here in Utah is you get it by one point a year, right? But with with once in a lifetime species, you have to pick one of them. So, you know, you have bison, mountain goat, desert sheep, Rocky Mountain. ⁓ What's that moose? So there's five once in a lifetime species in Utah. But as a resident, you can only put in for one every year. And so when I was younger, my dad was put me in and

I've learned he's not very good at that. I actually do it for my dad now. But ⁓ I had, I was building moose points back then because moose was the cool thing to go hunt, know, knowing we never in our family, we never talked about sheep or goats or any of that was moose. And so when I got old enough, I started looking at the draw odds and I'm like, there's over 30,000 people here that put in for moose tags and there's not a lot of moose tags. So I sat down on the computer one day and I started doing some math and I looked at it and I go,

For me to draw a moose tag in my lifetime mathematically, I'll probably be about 150 years old. Like that's just with point creep and all that mess. So I switched to desert sheep years ago. And the main reason was, is there was the least amount of guys actually putting in for sheep back then. Like I think back then when I looked, if I can remember, it was like 9,000 people putting in for desert sheep compared to over 30,000 for moose. So I just, I kind of looked at it man, that's probably the best odds in my lifetime to really draw a once in a lifetime tag. And, um,

So, know, I've been for years, I was literally just buying points because I didn't, I didn't know anything about sheep. Never been on sheep hunt, like talked to some guys here and there. And so two years ago, this was the spring of 23. I'm at the back computer putting in and Mark walks by and he had like perfect timing. He's seen that I'd selected to buy a point for sheep. He's like, what are you doing? said, well, I'm just buying a point. He's like, put in. I didn't know what I.

I'm like, don't know units, nothing. I hadn't done research because you know, even with sheet tags like most guys to draw sheet tag or 20 plus years for most guys. And so I was looking at my points going down there's I mean, yeah, you can get lucky every now and then, but I wasn't even planning on.

Ryan Uffens (40:00)
You get your random guy that has like three points.

Jeremiah Plyer (40:02)
And it happens every year. I'll talk to customers every year that draw some of the best tags in the state with one, two, three points. It happens every year. So when I put in for that tag, went to, you know, I selected Desert Sheep and it had archery. I just seen archery. So I seen, you know, it said dirty devil and selected put in. I mean, I did not even think about it until I got my email result. And I was back in the office and I opened that email.

and I jumped up and I was hollering. I was excited. Well, all the boys, didn't know what was going on. So they all come rushing in the door, like thinking what's going on. And I think I gave Mark a hug. I think I shook him like a baby. I was pretty stoked on it. No, I didn't cry, I was, dude, I was excited. so, and then after I realized I had drawn the tag, I'm like, where the hell's the dirty devil? Like I didn't even know where the unit was. so luckily with

Ryan Uffens (40:43)
tier.

Jeremiah Plyer (40:57)
being in the industry for so long. Mark ⁓ that works here, Mark McHugh, he, man, that kid was a stud. He did. We started making the right phone calls to the right people. And man, it, you want to just talk about a snowball effect as far as like big time. And there were so many guys that were willing to help out. You know, that's one cool thing I will say with like the hunting community, especially like tags like this. People know it's a once in a lifetime, like

Ryan Uffens (41:12)
things coming together.

Jeremiah Plyer (41:24)
So many guys were willing to give me spots or pins or areas to go glass. then process started, dude. You know, we did some scouting trips, which the first couple ones were rough. We didn't see a sheep. the country was in.

Ryan Uffens (41:39)
Were

you thinking like, what am I doing?

Jeremiah Plyer (41:41)
Hunter especially that type of terrain I tell guys like it it is the first time that me and mark drove out You know, we're driving across, you know seems like sand flat mesa and then you get to these cliffs that are 1500 feet to the bottom and then I'm like I'm supposed to bow hunt this like it it was the most intimidating thing I no cover cliffs I mean just giant canyons. It's hard to describe until a guy goes into the unit and sees it But I told guys like if you've been to Lake

Ryan Uffens (42:00)
cover.

Jeremiah Plyer (42:10)
you know, Lake Powell, that's basically the type of terrain that you're hunting. so, but, ⁓ you know, just some scouting trips, a lot of luck working with the right guys. And, and yeah, we get down there on the hunt. First, first thing, first morning, I spot a bound of sheep. I'm like, my, I was really thinking going down there, I told myself, a goal for me, honestly, was to be able to do four stocks that entire hunt. ⁓

If I can get four stocks in, I think we're winning. Just that alone, I think, is an accomplishment. so, yeah, we just found a band of sheep that moved into the right location. One thing that I kind of learned now that I've done that hunt and kind of put it all together is in the summertime, those sheep, man, they're tucked down in these nasty canyons. They want to sit in the shade all day long. So you can go glass all day long. And you might get kind of like hunting deer elk in the summertime. You get maybe an hour in the morning and 45 minutes a night.

The rest of the day, good luck. You're just not going to see them. know, and so but during my hunt, because it was late November, my hunt started November 30th and ran clear into December. So it was cold. was a little bit harder to shoot a bow with, you know, the cold temps and stuff. But those sheep at that time of year, they come up out of the canyons more. They want to be up and feed. And so they're they're moving into terrain that's way more conducive for bow hunting.

little topography where you could use some cut draws and some stuff to kind of sneak up on them. So they ended up working out pretty dang good.

Ryan Uffens (43:42)
Yeah, that's awesome. You know, we could go into a ton of detail on this, but ⁓ there's a pretty good film that covers it. Yeah. Gritty, Brian Call did the film. Brad Hunt did the shooting for you guys, correct?

Jeremiah Plyer (43:57)
Brad

was on the hunt with me and filmed everything. So, oh yeah, those dude, I'll tell you, like there's levels to hunting and Brian and Brad are at the top for sure. Like, you know, I felt like I got in pretty decent shape to go on that hunt and Brad's running around the mountain with 80 pounds of camera gear. Like he's on another level dude, like so, but yeah, having someone like Brad that's so good at running the camera. And it was so interesting.

Ryan Uffens (44:01)
Two studs.

blowing your stock either. That's one thing when I talked with him that he's like, I pride myself on not blowing people's stock.

Jeremiah Plyer (44:31)
Yeah, no, and he's he's such a good bow hunter like he he gets a situation, you know, and I've said this for years There's a lot of guys that can be friends with but there's very few people I can hunt with because everyone hunts a little different, right? But me and Brad on that hunts like we've hunted together our whole lives like we were almost the same page every time like when we're going on stocks like Using the right terrain the wind like it was really fun to hunt with him But you know, it was interesting to watch him work the camera. I don't think

When you go watch someone like Brian Call especially, like the quality of films he puts out, now realizing what goes on behind the scenes that you're not seeing of, know, Brad's constantly changing the camera to this lens and this setting. Like it was a lot of work. Then he's running the gimbal. He's running up and down sandstone running this, you know. And so for them to get and capture all that quality content, but then really Brian's creative mind to be able to tie it all together and tell such an epic story, you know, it's a.

It was pretty neat to kind of see what those guys go through to film a hunt and put it all together. just, you don't see the behind the scenes stuff. You see the final product, which is really cool. man, it was pretty fun. But Brian, Brian call was supposed to come down and film my hunt, but I ended up killing in day five, which no one thought. I didn't even think we were going to kill a sheep that early. You know, I thought I was going to hunt till the end and maybe get a shot off at one, but.

So yeah, Brad came and filmed it, Brian edited it, but that film's been pretty cool. think, you know, a lot of positive comments on there. A lot of guys on there too are like, man, I never thought about hunting desert sheep until this film, which was cool to kind of inspire some people to go kind of look at that as a different hunt. But sheep, there's a disconnect for guys, know? Sheep tags aren't easy to come by for one and two. If you want to go buy one, you better have a lot of money.

Ryan Uffens (46:20)
I know after Jackson watched that film, my boy who was here earlier, like he started putting in now. He's like, I want to get a desert sheep. Yeah. But it's a ton of fun. So if folks want to go check it out, just go search on YouTube, Gritty Gritty Films. And it's ⁓ if you go in and just search wild wild arrow desert sheep, like it'll pop up. But they've done a great job of capturing that story and and ⁓ sharing it through through your eyes and.

Jeremiah Plyer (46:25)
Really? Yeah.

Ryan Uffens (46:49)
and through theirs as well. But man, I appreciate your time.

Jeremiah Plyer (46:54)
That's been fun. do this again when we have more time.

Ryan Uffens (46:57)
We do this, I know hunting season's upon us. We got like two weeks left before everybody's out. So you got to get back to it. folks, I've said this like a million times, like come on down to Wild Arrow, talk to Jay and the crew. They will get you set up. If you wanted to get started in bow hunting, start at Archery Pro Shop. Correct. Yeah. And you may have to wait a little bit. Wednesdays are a little bit better day, a little bit less busy.

Jeremiah Plyer (47:25)
Well,

it's how everybody Wednesdays, but then that turns out to be the busiest day, you know.

Ryan Uffens (47:29)
Or as we said, if you want to get started, you've missed your tags at this point. Come in October.

Jeremiah Plyer (47:35)
October is the best time. Yep, I actually tell guys on say October November is really the best time to come buy a boat. We're really slow at the shop and that time not only do we have some last year's models that usually go on sale, you can save a little bit of money, but a lot of the new 2026 stuff will be out. So yeah, if guys are thinking about getting into the sport, they haven't done it this year. October November best time because come in we have plenty of time to spend with guys. They can look and compare last years to the new models and then.

That gives you a full year of getting prepared and ready to go for next season. So that's a great time of year to do it.

Ryan Uffens (48:09)
Jay, appreciate it brother. Bye guys. So I hope you guys enjoyed the podcast. As always, please make sure and hit subscribe. Whether you're watching on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcast, hit that subscribe or follow button. We appreciate your support. And again, you're listening to the Hunt Stealth Podcast, the fastest growing hunting podcast in the nation.

Jeremiah Plyer (48:11)
Thanks.