As always, we will have the deer tour with us at the show. This year’s lineup is probably one of my favorites that I can remember. You’ve got huge non-typicals, general season giants, a buck with over 300 inches of antler and many more. The deer tour is always a great topic of conversation at the shows and you wouldn’t believe how many trophy bucks we round up because of it. Seems like every show I go to, someone walks up to me with a cell phone photo of an old photo, Polaroid or printed off computer photo of a giant buck. They always ask something to the affect of, “Would this buck make it on the Deer Tour?” Grinning from ear to ear, I walk the photo over to Roger, the Deer Tour manager, and show it to him. He then asks whose photo it is and the rest is history…that’s often the most rewarding part about the Deer Tour. It brings some of these giant bucks out of the woodwork. Bucks that have never been seen before or have drifted into obscurity, resurface for the entire public to see.

Salt Lake City should be a good time, so if you’re in the area and can swing by, it would be great to see ya. We will be there every day, open to close, and Guy will be lecturing on Friday and Saturday. Look forward to seeing you there.

Also, Guy will be lecturing at 6:30pm on both Thursday and Friday.

Check out this short video on the Deer tour here…

-Ike

Here's a photo from Mossy Oak's booth at SHOT Show.

Now, as I sit here and wait for my last load of laundry to dry before I repack my suitcase, I think about what next week is going to bring. We are off to Las Vegas for the SCI show as well as the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s Elk Camp, which ISE has now become a part of. It should be a good time, and hopefully more good meetings and feedback come our way as we hit the road again. So if you’re in the Las Vegas area next week and will be attending either show, feel free to stop by the booth and talk some hunting. Until next time my friends. ~Ike

Just a few weeks ago, we had Jeff Wayne, from the Outdoor Channel, come out and visit us for a fly-fishing tip down in the Wind River area. The fishing wasn’t as hot as planned due to the constant flow changes, but needless to say, we caught some fish, had heavy laughter, and strengthened an already great working relationship. Jeff is a great guy and I’m continually amazed at the wealth of knowledge he has when it comes to TV.

So here we are, just a few days away from a caribou hunt in Quebec and it almost seems surreal. Here I was in the last blog talking about shows where we talk about hunting, and now I’m blogging talking about actually going hunting. I know that I should be more excited than I am, but I have about 100 fires to put out before I can even start to think about this hunt. I started to arrange my gear last night, but my phone rang, worked called and that was about as far as my hunt planning has gotten. Once I lose cell service and have nothing but Tundra on my feet, I’m positive I’ll switch into “huntin’ mode.”

Well, that about does it for now. I’ll try and get back on here when we get back from Canada…hopefully with a few racks in tow. Until then, take care and good luck this fall.

Ike

Technology is a great thing; it allows us to do more things at the same time, get updated information at light speed and communicate with people all over the world at the same speed. There is a hitch in technology, though, when companies, people or agencies don’t keep up with the changes.

I was talking to my sister the other day, who works for our local school district. She mentioned that she has been busy inputting a stack of reports at least 24 inches tall from teachers. Being the entrepreneur that I am and the admiral for efficiencies, I asked, “What program do the teachers give it to you in and why can’t they just input it once and it uploads to the other required places?” Her non-verbal response was a deep sigh and a roll of the eyes. Her verbally response was, “A different program.” Then she went on to complain how inefficient the district is, because they have to do so many reports in so many systems, and all of it is for track-ability to the State and Federal government, but it’s the same information over and over again in each database. The entire time I was thinking that with all of this technology, why can’t they make this more efficient? It seems like in these times you either move with technology or you get left behind.

Later that day, I got on the Wyoming Game & Fish website to try and apply for my resident antelope, elk, and deer tags. I kept getting a message – “ERROR – Browser not supported (Requires Internet Explorer 6.x or Netscape 7.x)”.

The Wyoming Game and Fish website needs a little more than an overhaul.

So I asked the guys in my office who would know what this means and they get this blank look on their faces and say, “I’m not sure we have a computer in the office that old!) OLD, what does that mean? Apparently Netscape is not even supported any longer (for those tech-deficient people like me) that means it isn’t really in use anymore. They have changed it to something else. Microsoft Explorer is upgrading all of their customers to Explorer 10.x. So I ask them, “You are telling me that I have to go down in the basement and get a computer that has not been in service for two years, hook it up and then apply for my licenses on it?”

What did I do last year? Apparently we had one computer in our shipping and receiving that still had the old Explorer on it. It has since been upgraded for security reasons -which, by the way, according to what I am hearing, there are some serous security issues with Explorer 6 – 8.

So as I am using this old system, which is like going back to blue-screen technology, it dawns on me that I have to put my personal information, credit card number and mailing address into this archaic system. So I ask the question, “What would it take for some smart hacker, somewhere, to break into this system and steal the personal identity of hundreds of thousands of hunters?” I also asked the question, “Why would a department that is 100% self-funded by the sale of hunting tags and fishing licenses make applying and purchasing those licenses so hard to complete? Does this scare or make sense to anyone else?

I wonder what is going to happen to my identity? Well at least they are making it harder to apply, which could mean my draw odds will be better, because not everyone has a computer in their basement that OLD.

As always, thanks for your support and I hope you find yourself with a great tag in hand this summer and a true trophy this fall.

Spring is finally reaching Powell. For a while there, I didn’t think it was ever going to warm up and I wondered if we would ever see the sun again. However, I can’t say it was all that bad because it did give me plenty of opportunities to take the sled out for some backcountry riding. I even managed to take a couple day trip over to West Yellowstone to meet up with some buddies for a long weekend. Man, the snow they’ve got in West makes what we have seem like nothing.

The booth at Salt Lake ISE

As far as business goes, things are busy as usual. Now that show season is over, the meetings, conference calls, faxes, emails and phone calls will once again become apart of my everyday life. I will say that this show season was one of the best in the last few years. We ended the 2011 show season at the Salt Lake ISE and what a show it was! We couldn’t believe the turnout on Friday and Saturday and it was great to catch up with so many members, as well as talk to new subscribers as well. Shows are always a great time to get out there and talk with everyone, and of course, the Deer Tour is always a great talking point.

Thanks to all of you who came out to the shows this year. I hope to see you all on the trail this fall.

I’ll do my best to get back on here more regularly and keep you all in the loop.

Good luck in the draws,
Ike

Today, we’re off to the SHOT Show in Las Vegas – enough said. I’m sure the world’s largest outdoor industry trade show will hold up to it’s reputation again this year. From there, Guy and I are off to Sacramento, CA to join the guys at the Eastmans’ booth at the ISE show. Guy will giving his lecture again, so make sure if you can, stop by and check it out.

Until next time my friends…

Ike

With that, we just wanted to let everyone know that the good folks over at SW have tapped into the online market – the new www.sportsmanswarehouse.com is now up and running! Now you can shop from the convenience of your home or anywhere you have access to the internet. You can get all the great deals you normally found at the store, but cut out the travel and have them shipped right to your home.

The web shift is taking over the way business is done and we here at Eastmans’, as well as Sportsman’s Warehouse, have already put ourselves on the leading edge. For months now, we’ve been chipping away at dropping a new eastmans.com and are excited to say that go time is almost here. We will be working hard over the next two weeks to ensure that the new eastmans.com will be the top Western hunting website in the world. So make sure you check out the new site and all it has to offer in early January…I promise, you won’t be disappointed.

This was a great challenge but I think Nate and Tyler did a great job. Let me know what you think.

We here at Eastmans’ have some of the best western highway drivers. We have, knock on wood, traveled almost 40,000 miles so far this year and almost two million miles in the past ten years during the winter and have yet to total anything. I hope I didn’t just jinx our season!

Roger and Aaron (Mills) traveled to Sacramento, California on some of the worst roads we have ever seen. They had to chain the trailer and truck up three times to get over Donner Pass between Sacramento and Reno.

I personally returned to the airport in Billings, Montana to find my truck practically snowed in. Billings is where we fly in and out; it is a mere 95-mile drive for us on those roads.

Mike, Nate and I returned to the Billings airport late one night to find my truck like this.

The season so far has been a good one. It is always great to get out and talk with everyone at the shows. I love hearing how your hunting adventures turned out this past fall. I have heard some real crazy stories and had the chance to see and hear some stories and photos of great trophies being taken. Thanks to all of you who have stopped by the booth and renewed, subscribed and/or picked up one of our books or DVDs.

We still have about 15 more stops to attend this season, so I hope to see you at one. Check out our schedule on the Live Events page and maybe we will be coming to an area near you.

Please drive safe!

Ike Eastman

“Behind the Scenes”