Chase The Unknown Podcast
Welcome to the Chase The Unknown Podcast, brought to you by the Boondocks Hunting Podcast family! This show is all about embracing the pure joy, excitement, and rush that comes from not knowing what lies just around the bend. To us, Chase The Unknown means the thrill of stepping into the wild with no guarantees—whether it’s locking eyes with a 200-inch whitetail, crossing paths with a 500-lb black bear, hearing the thunderous gobble of a turkey, or simply witnessing the beauty and unpredictability of nature. It’s about the anticipation, the adventure, and the stories that follow.
But what does Chase The Unknown mean to you? Is it the adrenaline of the hunt, the connection to nature, or the pursuit of something greater than yourself? Join us as we explore those questions, share incredible stories, and celebrate the thrill of the hunt—where the outcome is always unknown but the journey is unforgettable.
Let’s chase it together—one adventure at a time!
Chase The Unknown Podcast
Preserving Your Trophy: The Story Behind Tagged and Bagged
Johnny Bauman never expected that a frustrating moment in the field would spark an entirely new business venture. After taking some buddies on their first duck hunt where they bagged trophy greenheads, he found himself scrambling to properly preserve their birds for mounting. What followed was an hour-long ordeal of researching techniques and gathering supplies – all while thinking, "There's got to be a better way."
That moment of necessity became the birthplace of Tagged and Bagged, a comprehensive pre-taxidermy preservation system that's rapidly becoming essential gear for serious hunters. Johnny joins us to unpack how he transformed a simple idea into a full-fledged product line that's now backed by over 350 taxidermists across the country.
What's particularly fascinating about Johnny's journey is his unwavering commitment to quality and American manufacturing. Despite the significantly higher costs and logistical challenges, every component of Tagged and Bagged kits is 100% made in America. From the waterproof outer bags to the extra-thick freezer bags, wet towelettes, gauze for blood absorption, and even migratory bird tags for legal transportation – each element has been meticulously designed based on extensive research with taxidermy professionals.
The company's explosive growth allowed Johnny to leave his full-time job last December, but his motivation extends far beyond business success. Tagged and Bagged actively supports programs taking children with cancer on dream hunting trips, reflecting Johnny's belief that the outdoor experience offers profound healing and connection. "I don't care if you never buy my product," he explains. "I just want to build relationships and hear your hunting stories."
Whether you're an experienced waterfowl hunter who's ruined trophy birds in the past, a fishing enthusiast looking to properly preserve your catch, or someone who appreciates American-made products created by passionate outdoorsmen, this conversation reveals how innovation happens when authentic problems meet determined problem-solvers. Take a listen and discover the remarkable story behind the product that's changing how hunters preserve their hard-earned success.
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Every hunter has a moment when the woods go quiet, the air shifts and time slows down, and in that stillness you realize you're not chasing the game, you're chasing something bigger. Welcome to the Chase, the Unknown podcast, where we go beyond the saddle, past the trail cameras and deep into the stories that fuel the fire. Past the trail cameras and deep into the stories that fuel the fire. This show is for the ones who lose sleep over the rut, who hike miles into the public land for just a chance and who live for that silence before the shot. From the backcountry to the backroads, we sit down with hunters and trappers, with the relentless stories, who live for the thrill, embrace the unknown and return with the stories we're telling. This is more than a podcast. This is the start of something real.
Speaker 2:Let's chase it. Welcome back everyone. And on this episode of Chase the Unknown we sit down with Johnny Bauman, hunter, innovator and the mind behind Tagged and Bagged. What started out as a solution to a common problem in the field how to properly protect and transport your trophy has now become one of the most talked about pre-taxidermy packaging systems. In the game we talk hunting, being an entrepreneur and the journey of building a brand that's changed the way outdoorsmen preserve their hard-earned success. If you ever wonder what it takes to turn a great idea into a real product for the hunting community, this one's for you. Let's dive in everybody and welcome to the show. Welcome to the Taste the Unknown.
Speaker 3:How's it going? It's going great man. Thanks for having me on, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Of course, you know, the funny thing is before we I remember so, before I met you at the Great American Outdoor Show and everything like that actually Tagged and Bagged was popping up on Instagram on like requested and everything like that, and I was like wow, like, like that's a pretty cool, like neat system, like all right, you know I can get behind this, because I have no idea. I never knew like how the hell to transport waterfowl, and now you guys got into a whole nother game and everything like that. But like for waterfowl I'm so new to waterfowl this whole I just completed my second season goose hunting and I my third third season duck hunting. Um, so I brought a duck um last year. I had no idea. He was like, oh yeah, well, you should do this, this. And then I was like, well, ain't, no one told me. I like, I, I was supposed to know. And then I killed this really big uh goose this year. And then you know, I wanted a, wanted a goose one, but same thing, like I had nothing to prepare it with, I just sat in my freezer for a little bit and obviously got freezing burnt and everything like that.
Speaker 2:Um, and then we go to the great American outdoordoors show. After seeing you guys pop up and at first I didn't know you guys were there and we're in the waterfowl section and my fiancee actually should look at it and I was like, oh my god. I was like that's so funny, because I literally just saw your guys' page. It couldn't have been more than two or three weeks before the Great American Outdoors show and everything like that. And we stopped buying everything. We grabbed a couple of packages and everything like that and you know now we got you guys on. So it's crazy how small this world can really be.
Speaker 3:Dude. That's so true, man. Yeah, it was crazy, you know, we got that so much Like oh my God, I saw your ads. I saw your ads, you know, and it's so cool to be able to meet the people that actually have seen and used our product before. Man, it's been a very, very cool thing. And, like you say, man, I had no idea how to package a bird properly until I started doing this stuff and researching. You know, like I was such an idiot, I throw them in garbage bags, walmart bags, and my taxidermist be like what are you doing, man?
Speaker 2:like you know, yeah, that I think the last one, the goose uh, yeah, he was like what the hell? He was like, yeah, I was like all right, I was like don't worry, like you know what, we'll scratch this when I go. I got it. So I was like I got a new system, so don't worry, next year the group, the big one that I shoot, or if I shoot a banded when I go, we won't have that issue because I'm already preset to uh, uh for waterfowl next year and everything like that. But, um, before we dive into, you know the brand and everything like that. You know, give everyone out there a quick, uh, quick backstory.
Speaker 3:Well, the whole backstory behind tagged and bagged is that I took some buddies out hunting and, um, they're brand new duck hunters. It was late in the season and we shot some stud green heads and they are like, dude, we want to mount them. It's our first birds. I'm like I don't really know how to package them. Like I know there's a right way, and then I thought I knew the right way and I didn't know the right way.
Speaker 3:Then I started doing some research, digging around, and I'm like, man, well, I watched these videos and they had like all these certain different things like wet towel, lats and all this different stuff. And I'm like, dude, I don't have a freezer bag the right size. I'm like, oh my God. So I had to run 15 minutes into town to go get the freezer bags and I like, by the time I dicked around to be like an hour before I even got these birds in the freezer. So I'm like, come on, there's got to be a kid out there. And come on, there's got to be a kid out there. And there wasn't. So I'm like, all right, I got to make a solution for this. So I started making them for me and my buddies, and then my buddies are like dude, you got to sell these man Like people could really really use this product. So then I just kind of researched harder and harder, tried to figure out how to make it in America. And, yeah, we just hammered away, brother.
Speaker 2:I think you know, one of the greatest things like I always hear every time we have somebody on who you know is creating something. They always start out as I just made it for me and my friends and then like, all right, it hit the spot. And then people are like, oh, like either you should sell this or like, oh, where can I get this at? You know what I mean. Like either you should sell this or like, oh, where can I get this at? You know what I mean, and I think that's always like.
Speaker 2:It's always great when you know, especially like somebody like you, you know, or the little companies. Like when the big companies do this, like when they have all this money and everything like that to do it, it's like, all right, like cool, they came out with another product. Right, like cool, they came out with another product. But it's so important to you know somebody small business owners and everything like that who you know. Like you, you you created something out of just trying to for you and your friends. Or, thank God, you, you know, your buddies wanted to get out there and waterfowl hunt and um created this, this awesome new product. So um really excited to talk about that, uh here. So you know why don't you, you know, go in to kind of talk about what the product exactly is?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so our first original product was our duck kit and the goose kit, which was just a larger size of it. So basically it's just an outer bag. It's waterproof, sealed up, ready to go. You can leave it in your blind bag back of the the whole season. It's going to be safe. Um, and then everything from the outside to the inside is 100 made in america and we researched it and it's backed by over 350 taxidermists right now. Um, so that was a big thing, you know, just getting all their ideas to generally get it. But on the inside, when you open it up, you're going to find a really nice handy dandy direction sheet Super simple Front sides, all like explanations, simple steps Backside. You can flip it over, scan it, watch our video on how to do it. And then you're going to get a freezer bag. Freezer bag is three times thicker than a regular freezer bag, so it's really durable. It's actually custom size so, like our goose kit, will actually fit up to a Turkey and up to a Swan. So they're, they're really big. Yeah, they're huge.
Speaker 3:And then you got your towelettes. On the inside, you wet those, wrap the head and the feet, uh, the gauze ball for the mouth to soak up any blood when you're kind of flailing around, it helps stop the blood from going back on the feathers and stuff like that. And then straps to strap on the towelettes and stuff like that. And then your migratory bird tag. That's a huge part that we added this last year. When you're traveling across state lines, or let's say you got a pile of birds in the back of your truck, they got to be labeled and listed whose birds are whose and that way you are legal to travel with it. Otherwise you can get fined for it. So that was another thing we worked out with a good buddy of ours who owns the migratory bird tags company and uh, yeah, man, no, it's been an awesome journey.
Speaker 2:It's been so cool to do all this for sure yeah, I mean it, first of all because you know I'm creating this. Like, the good thing about showboating is you get to go out and do what you do. You know you get to go out and hunt and everything like that and show people this brand new product and everything like that. And, like you know, like I've said and you know what I probably imagine so many people have said to you like, oh, this is like, this is great and unique, because I've never known how to do this. And you know, I've asked taxidermists and they kind of like said the same thing.
Speaker 2:Like, oh, like, yeah, you do this and do this, but like, at the end of the day, like for those everyday hunters or somebody who's new, like like your buddies or somebody who doesn't really have the money always to to get taxidermy or work done, when you want to get it done and you kill a bird, that's like, oh, I need to preserve this, you want the correct tools to make sure you're preserving it so it gets to the taxidermist, okay, no problems, everything like that, because the last thing you want to do is show up, freeze, freeze or burn and everything like that, or it all destroyed and not being one either be too damaged to work on or, you know, it's just not going to turn out the way that you would originally want it to yeah, amen to that man.
Speaker 3:And like it's been really cool the testing, because, like you know, I I wasn't like full-on believer at first, but then, the more and more we talked to taxidermists, we just took all their minds, mushed them into one, but then when we actually tested it and put birds in the freezer, just in a regular freezer bag alone and then just no freezer bag at all, and then our kits like the craziness of the difference man over, like even just a year, it is just nuts. But our kits will actually work for ducks, ducks and geese for three plus years, which is really cool.
Speaker 3:So if a guy you know, I was a younger kid man. I was trying to think it, think it through, you know, because I could never afford them out right away.
Speaker 2:I had to wait yeah, I mean so like you got to make it able to last a long time yeah, and you know, also not only younger, but when you get older too, like everyday life comes up. You know you're like, oh, like I'm gonna go drop this, this bird, off at the taxidermist tomorrow, you know. And then something happens. You know you got to go to work, or you know you got to take care of the kids or or whatever the occasion is like, all right now this bird's got to sit in in the freezer for whoever knows how long. You, you know what I mean, so it's another great thing. So you know, when you first came up with the idea, you know, when you started reaching out to taxidermists, what was kind of the original feedback? Was everyone like really, you know, excited and on board right away, or was there a little bit of that like some people didn't answer and things like that?
Speaker 3:You know there is. Everybody has their own opinion because there's never been a product like this. So it was. It was very, it was very like difficult in a certain sense, to get everybody like okaying the exact product we had, but the idea behind it, everybody it taxidermist, I mean, they're like dude, the less work they gotta do, like trying to make the bird look better and like trying to fix all the problems. Like all the busted up feathers, the feet that are freezer, burnt down to like beef jerky strips. You know so the idea behind it. They love it and they promote it in their own sense. We have a ton of taxidermists that keep it on their own shelves at the shop too, which is really cool.
Speaker 3:Um, but man, it's it. It honestly really blew up for us last year in december it was. It just went wild and, like you know, I've been super blessed. I've been blessed enough to quit my job, my full-time job, and uh, yeah, man, it's just, it's been a blessing through and through brother yeah, I mean uh, and I could see why I mean at first.
Speaker 2:Obviously, you know, with any type of product business there is that period when it does take, but once it catches, you know, and something like this where, like you said, nothing like this has ever been created before.
Speaker 2:So, you know you, you created something there that was in a real big need and I think you know waterfowl is just growing as a sport. More and more people are are getting into it. I think, um, like I said, I I got into it like uh, one of my buddies, justin, he does a really good job of getting people into waterfowl and this man can call like no other. He knows he like, he's like a guru when it comes to this, you know. So he's done a really good job at getting like multiple people into. I think last year I think he took probably at least seven or eight new hunters that were in the blind with us at all different times. I've become absolutely, extremely obsessed with waterfowl because of him um showing me, uh, when we went on our first uh duck hunt, it wasn't the best hunt, it was pouring rain and everything like that and, of course, the one time the birds weren't really flying well. One time we're like all right, we put the guns down real quick and go grab like a drink of our coffees and everything, and then, of course, I think two or three black ducks flew right into our decoys and like I was like oh yeah, you know yeah, yeah so you
Speaker 2:know, but it was absolutely addicting of a time and I think a big part of why people are growing more to it, because, unlike deer hunting and we all love deer hunting and everything like that, and deer hunting has its time but then after you're stressing and you're just grinding the whole entire time, not communicating really with anyone, you have to play the wind, you're set, everything like that you go into the waterfowl mode. You can get a bunch of your buddies and everything you get to talk, laugh, we cook food and everything. You're having a grand time and you know, if you do miss one, cool, there's gonna be thousands more. Especially with geese, there's gonna be thousands more, yeah, coming in. So I think it's a lot easier to get a new hunter into waterfowl than it is like any other thing amen to that.
Speaker 3:Man, that's really cool that your buddy's done that too. Like there's nothing better than like you get the new guys out there and they're shooting their first birds, man, seeing them all excited. Or missing their first birds, seeing them all excited, you know, jazzed up. And man, there's nothing like that's so cool to hear that you guys do that with them.
Speaker 2:Boys yeah, yeah it's. It's become a thing. We try to do that with everybody, like we try to get as many people. We're trying really hard to grow the outdoors. We host events and everything like that game dinners, stuff like that. We really like growing the outdoors because this is what we have. It's always going to be threatened, but this is just, like I said, a product that is absolutely incredible. So more on the beginning and everything like that, you know when you're getting the feed, like what did the trial and error kind of like, obviously without giving out too much information, like look like for you, how was it? Was it frustrating at times? You know what was that kind of like? Yeah, man.
Speaker 3:No, anytime you start a business, you have to accept that at some point something is not going to go right. It's just natural and I wouldn't call it a failure. It's a learning point. That's the biggest thing. And we had learning points like even our outer bags.
Speaker 3:It was literally at the beginning. It was a black bag with a white sticker on the front. It was completely trash. It was absolutely horrible. Like I don't even know how we sold even one of those kids like it looked just garbage, like the new ones look amazing.
Speaker 3:But it was that learning curve. Like even at the beginning we were using nylon stockings on the inside because about 20 of the tax service we talked to they liked it. Well, we realized, the more and more we talked to some of these bigger names and some of these newer or these guys getting newer into the industry, they're saying no, it's not as good. You know there's a lot, of, a lot of failure that could happen when an actual person uses the kit, like if it's not done by a tax service, they could get jacked up, you could have the feathers the wrong way, all sorts of stuff. So we had to take that out. So, yeah, we lost a lot of money at the beginning, but you know what it was, it was investing into it, you know you got to learn from it and uh, man it's. It's been a cool, cool learning learning curve, that's for sure listen.
Speaker 2:I would like to see a picture of your OG original bags. If you got one, or if you got, I would definitely like to see it um you know, I think I got yeah all right
Speaker 3:here's the OG right here. That was. I love it, and then I got a goose bag right here, but that that's it. I think these are new ones, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like these are big, big difference. Yeah, big difference. This was just a black bag, bro, just garbage. But you know what that's? What it's like starting a brand new, you know. But you got to start somewhere. You got to start small and you're just going to build yourself up, but you are going to lose a lot of money, probably in the beginning, until you start seeing that gain.
Speaker 3:But hey, look at you now. Yeah, man, I about dumped every penny of my life savings into this company. So you know, I was willing to risk it all because I believed in it. You know, I believe through and through that this is a beneficial product for everybody, whether you're new hunter or you've been doing it for 40 years. You know, and that's that's, that's the cool thing about it, man. I've never been so passionate about anything in my life and uh, yeah, it's. It's been a blessing so far, definitely.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it Um, you know. So how did you guys get um? How'd you guys get to the great American outdoors, when?
Speaker 3:where'd the idea come from? Like like all. Right now we need to be at the Great American Outdoors show man I.
Speaker 2:I had a couple of buddies of mine, so, dave, I don't know if you know the owner of the finisher, um, but isn't it yeah? Yeah, I don't know him, but I've heard, yeah, I've heard of him yeah.
Speaker 3:So I, I talked to Dave and actually he's the reason we switched our packaging. I I give Dave a lot of credit. He's been with us since day one. He's an awesome, phenomenal dude and he's like, okay, you guys have to get down to that show, like that's the show you have to be at, and we're like, all right, all right, we're gonna do it. You know. So we just full sent it, loaded up the 21 foot trailer and hauled on down there. You know. So how far was the drive for you guys? I think it was.
Speaker 2:I think it was 13 hours all right, not bad, not bad at all yeah, not, not too bad what was your experience?
Speaker 2:like, uh, this, I mean we, we go every year like we we're and when I say we're fiends, like I'm talking about my fiance. She is the one that's always saying, oh, we need to stay extra day. So now we're up to like five or five or six days hopefully eventually we'll get a booth there and everything like that so we can just stay the whole 10 days so she can be happy, um, you know what I mean. Um, but it's, it's such a fun time. I mean I we love going, we love seeing the new products and everything like that. Again, love, love, meeting you guys there and everything like that. Again, love meeting you guys there and everything like that. I thought the booth was great. It was in a great section. What was your experience? Was that your first time there?
Speaker 3:So it was my first time there. I own another company that sells merchandise and stuff, so I've done expos, but that was definitely the biggest expo I've ever done. It was very, very awesome. I mean, I got to meet so many amazing people there. You know, you get to putz around with the vendors, joke around and you know, man, I honestly it was just great being there. But, man, it's a long show, it is a grinder and I actually ended up getting pneumonia, like the last day there, bro, so I was dying oh man, that's absolutely brutal.
Speaker 2:I I've taught you know. I've I've talked to a bunch of guys there. You know, yet again, same. You know, when you start doing this stuff and everything like that and you grow, you start meeting so many people. So not like I remember the first time going I knew nobody. Like nobody at the booth knew you know what I mean and we would go and like I didn't know too many people who were visiting. And now it's like I'm at the booth talking to the people at the booth because now I know them and everything like that. You know you're walking around, you're now friends and everything like that, who you're, you're now friends and everything like that, who your buddies with, and everything like that. Like I, you know you're. It is such a great thing.
Speaker 2:And it's like I do tell people like if you want to get the show and obviously everyone thought you know there's shot show and there's there's tacking it. Listen, this is the show I think to go to I I want like some more bigger companies also start getting there. Like there's still a few that just don. Obviously there are still a lot of big companies that are there. You know I'm a big broadhead guy and bow hunter. So, like you know, I'm a sever guy so, like several, was there the first year. Um, I went and then they haven't been back since. Um, you know, annihilator is always there, like, there's always like there, uh, people there and everything like that.
Speaker 2:But it's just funny, like you know, talking to the guys and they're like I'm like dude, how do you do it? And they're like, listen, it's the same damn conversation over and over and over. He goes. My one buddy was like dude, they're. So you know he went on like one of the busiest days and goes dude, like I don't know, is it just me that they're like so snippy and short I go? I imagine they've had the same conversation at least minimum 5,000 times a day. You know the bigger of the booths you are, you're going to sell 10,000, 50,. You know how many people go in a day. Oh my God, dude, it's nuts. Imagine having that conversation. And you know we went to a show. We started doing our shows and everything this year and it's, it was a two-day show, three-day show and I was like, oh my god, like I'm burnt out after three days and nowhere near the capacity of what it is at the great american outdoor show. So like I can only, and then you get sick, oh my god, yeah, it was brutal.
Speaker 3:I was better at it and I couldn't even. I didn't even go back to the show after the last two days, like my buddy. My buddy and his sister ended up running it the rest of the time. But, man, like you said, like the biggest thing about our company and our product, it needs to be. There's a lot of education that needs to happen before people, like, actually want to buy it. So we front the education and then when they buy the product, they have to kind of read the, read it and then see it and then use it to educate themselves. So you know, there's a lot of that. So there's a lot of conversations about what it is, why it helps and like the reason why it's essential for people to use. So I mean, dude, it's, it was great for us, it was, it was awesome so yeah, I, I can imagine.
Speaker 2:I can imagine like that's a show and you know the way that you guys also pulled people in. You know, I love how you guys did the um, you know the percentage off with the uh nurse gun and everything like that like I thought that was an absolute.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, I thought that was an absolute. Yeah, I thought that was an absolute excellent idea. You know, obviously I saw like that's a boot. Once I saw it like I wanted to go, but like say I didn't that boom, right there catches like my attention, like okay, like let's just go do this, like let's give it a shot, and then you just get pulled into, like all right, like all right, this is a pretty cool product, like so I didn't is a pretty cool product, so I can see how that worked and everything like that. While you guys were there, when did you start working on the new product? Has that been on your mind for a while At the show? Was it already in the works? I imagine it had to already be in the works and everything like that while you were at the show.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we've been in the works since last year on this, so we did a lot of research and studying and then also a lot of testing already. So, with the new, with the fish kits man, they're pretty sweet and I've loved them, but now we're just in that same cycle as we were at the very beginning with the duck and the goose kits. You know just the the learning process. You know getting people to understand it and then also people seeing it being used. So, um, it's been really good, though so far we're already without uh, we're about I think we got about 63 guide services running our kits right now for just for the fish and then for the waterfall.
Speaker 3:We're over 400 uh 400 outfitters that we work with wow, I love that.
Speaker 2:That's, that's absolutely great. Um, what were some of the the challenges? I mean, I know obviously still you're, you guys are going through through stuff and learning everything, like that. But like when you first got the idea, or like what were some of the challenges? Because fishing is just a completely different, uh, different animal when it comes to uh for taxidermy and I never know, and that's always been my biggest question is like if I ever get a trophy fish, which you know, of course, the the breeder trout that I caught, that was my biggest trout ever. It was during catch and release, so I had to give it back. But even if I wanted to keep it like, I was like what the hell do I even do? How do I even do this?
Speaker 3:yeah, man. No, probably the hardest part is, um, a lot of people do use those replica mounts which are, which is really cool. You know a lot of guys do that. But when we talked to taxidermists it was still about 70 of people do skin mounts and 30% do replicas.
Speaker 3:But the biggest problem was trying to figure out the right size. So, like, we have anything up to a 36-inch fish will fit in our kit. So there's still guys that want bigger sizes and there's extra bag, you know, for smaller fish. Like, let's say, you catch a 12-inch bluegill, well, you got a lot of excess bag. But there's extra bag, you know, for smaller fish. Like, let's say, you catch a 12 inch bluegill, well, you got a lot of excess bag, but there's ways to work around it and it still will work for it.
Speaker 3:But, uh, we kind of went based off of a walleye. Um, so a big thing up here is our walleye fishing. So I knew those were my home roots and a lot of the guys I know that go out would use it, you know. So that's kind of where we stuck. But, man, it was pretty neat trying to figure it all out and the hardest part of it all, all the time is making it a hundred percent made in America. It is very difficult and thank God we did it, with all those tariffs going on and stuff like and everything else I mean.
Speaker 2:I could only imagine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's great to be American made too, man, I'd rather. I'd rather pay extra to support a company that's in America than pay overseas. You know, I want to keep it that way for the rest of the time.
Speaker 2:I, I, I, a hundred percent agree. You know, whenever I can, I, I buy American made. Yeah, it's going to cost me a little bit extra, but you know it's, it's the better, the better. And especially like, yet again, we go back to small businesses. Big businesses, a lot of big businesses, they put their money over overseas and everything like, because then they, they don't, they don't really care how, you know, not to get political, hopefully, you know, the whole terrorist thing starts to change some stuff and everything like that. But, um, um, obviously, small business, you know, especially the ones that get American, like those are the ones I got Cool, like I'm just going to go with this just just because it's American made, and like I want to show them some support and everything like that. But American made, you're, a lot of people are just going to choose products because of American made. And you know, I, I it's another thing that that's absolutely great because of American made. And you know, I, I to noticing that that's absolutely great.
Speaker 3:That's going to get the people to be like, all right, let's let's go buy this and support this. Yeah, man, exactly, and that's the biggest thing, it was like we had to figure out a right price point too. So, like, like, when we go and buy, like let's say, the bags, okay, being American made, we can't buy 500 bags. You have to buy thousands and thousands of bags. There's a lot of risk up front. But you know what, man, I'd take quality products for a reasonable price over shit products at a reasonable price. You know, I mean, like I'm gonna make sure it's the best of the best and that's what I love, man, it's.
Speaker 2:I'm so happy we did it this way and, honestly, the pricings are still pretty damn good for for what you guys got. Um, you know, online and everything like that, those are still pretty good prices. Um, especially, yet again, this is all preservation, so like it could end up costing you more if your your waterfowl is ruined, if your fish is ruined, you know, it could honestly also take away a memory if your your animal is so ruined so badly that you don't get to. You may not even get to.
Speaker 2:You know, I've heard taxidermists like, yeah, some stuff is just so beyond repair and everything like that and that sucks, because it's like, ah, like I couldn't imagine you know somebody calling me, like, hey, listen, you know that, um, that greenhead that you shot your first one. Like you know, we, we can't get it done for you, you know. Or you know your banded, your banded bird that you want know mounted, and everything like that, like, ah, it's, it's beyond, you know, repair like that. I think that's a more way more heartbreaking than just paying just a little bit of money. Like I said, obviously, I don't, I don't think that's. Uh, those are, those are bad prices at all compared to what the taxidermist is gonna, is gonna, charge anyway yeah, man, exactly, we've been actually working with a couple taxidermists and uh, so what?
Speaker 3:what we do with them is we give them the kits. They buy them, you know, at a retail price or whatever, but they'll give them out to their clients and the whole rule is, you know, they pay 25 bucks for the kit or whatever. Then, when they bring it back, they get $25 off their mount because it's going to be worth it to the taxidermist. You know what I mean to basically give it away for free because they're getting back a bird that's going to be way easier to work on for them and they get to spend more time on the details than, uh, you know, just trying to fix all the jacked up parts of the bird that's, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:That's, that's a great idea for sure. Yeah, man. Um, so you know, for for you now, like you know, I just want to kind of get a little into to you personally, hunting and everything like that. Before you know, we get back to everything like that. But you know, when did uh, when did uh, you start hunting?
Speaker 3:dude, I started. I started going out with my dad when I was just a little kid. My dad, actually, we used to field hunt and he used to take me in a wheelbarrow and push me out there. Dead serious man, I got a picture of it. It's still funny. But, um, man, I started kind of more like actually hunting when I was 12.
Speaker 3:Um, I grew up my dad never really was like a super avid duck hunter or deer hunter, but we went out and like our kind of duck hunting was like we go out in the morning, shoot all the dumb birds early in the morning, then we wait for everybody to leave the lake and we go jump shooting. So, dude, my dad was a mastermind at jump shooting. Like dude would be crawling through the reeds and then popping up just boom, boom, boom, shoot like three birds and one, string up birds and I'm like dang dude. So that's kind of how I started off. And then when I turned like probably 16, 17, when I got my license, man, I just started cruising around finding ducks and you know, then I started traveling, going out to North Dakota and you know, then it just started burning like a wildfire. Man, now I'm obsessed, like I wish hunting season was year-round Like it's bad.
Speaker 2:How was North Dakota when you went?
Speaker 3:Oh, dude, it is just tornadoes of birds. Man, and I really love scouting, so I'm the type of guy we get back from a hunt, clean the birds and I'll hop back in the truck and just start driving. Because finding those tornadoes, man, it is like, oh my God.
Speaker 2:That's insane. That is insane. We, we had, um, we not with ducks, but with with geese, I mean this year, just the amount of geese, like we were in a fly, like we're in a flyway, yeah, and it was like you're. You're kind of like deaf, like there's just so many and they're just circling and circling and they're landing and said like thousands on thousands. I mean, I think I easily got to say like one hunt, maybe over exact, but at least probably like 10,000 birds.
Speaker 3:I believe you, man, that's nuts.
Speaker 2:Just like, and you know, I think almost every hunt we either limited out or we got to the point. Obviously we're band checking and everything like that and you, you know you start to get picky and then you lose count of how many birds are like all right, like just in case, let's hold out here, we don't want to shoot over her limit. So like, yeah, like, oh like, yeah, cool like, and then we'd be like one short, but it's because we literally just like stop shooting birds and we're only picking out, like certain birds and everything like that. You know where it was just like absolutely insane. But, yeah, water, I mean I can only imagine, like I keep hearing like north dakota and like these places, just like I would be in heaven and you know one of my buddy, they would be just absolutely through the moon to go over and see that with ducks and everything like that yeah, man, exactly.
Speaker 3:And like I went out there and when I started, you know you start off not having any land, but the guys I went out with had some land. But then over these, like past four years, I've gathered about 20 000 acres of permission, just from driving around talking to farmers. Big thing here in wisconsin cheese. We have tons of cheese, tons of beer.
Speaker 3:So I just I make my rounds every year dropping off my cheese sticks and all that kind of stuff and you know, and it's super cool you know we respect their land, we clean up after ourselves, and I think that's the biggest thing when you go out there.
Speaker 2:What ducks haven't you shot yet?
Speaker 3:Oh God, man. So a lot on the diver side of things. But I just took a trip out to vancouver island. I don't know if you know where that is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, just north of washington there it was a 36 hour drive this last year. I took no, I went all the way out, that's insane. Was that? That's insane. Yeah, dude. So 36 hours, but I would do it too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's sick, though like that is so worth it yeah, then we got our harley quinn, our barrels golden eyes, and then a bunch of red breasted mcganser um, our surf scooters, our common scooters, um, but I got. I think I forget. I gotta look at my list again, but I think I'm at 32 out of the 41, um, so I'm getting up there, impressive.
Speaker 2:But but impressive that's.
Speaker 3:That's pretty cool yeah, I mean, but it's been a grind, bro. It's like I said, I travel all over, so so I was just down in Texas last year too. So Texas was nuts man, I'm not kidding. We shot, what was it? We shot like 54 birds in I don't know like three hours. It was just stupid. It was a bigger group of guys, but all we did was line up on this little mill pond and we just slaughtered. That was uh, was the gatlin guides down in central texas. They're phenomenal guys that's pretty wicked.
Speaker 2:My buddy lives in texas and he, he uh with du and everything like that, so he's always waterfowl hunting. He's I mean, he hunts everything down there, but he just slays, just waterfowl. He went from living in my town to Vermont to now he's in Texas and just absolutely loving Texas.
Speaker 3:Dude, that's so sick. I hear everybody loves Texas.
Speaker 2:I love Texas too, but I can't, like I'm a winter person, like I need to, I need to have my seasons, and when it comes to like deer hunting, I don't know, I just I just couldn't, couldn't love it there to deer hunt like yeah, their deer are a lot smaller too yeah, you know, it's just completely different.
Speaker 2:Would I? Would I get a vacation home there? Yeah, would I go down there to hunt every year for a couple weeks if I have the opportunity? Like yeah, like he's fluent, he's flown in um, we did a podcast with them, uh, and he was talking about the time they went on a hog hunt in a helicopter and they were soaring like 10 feet off the ground and just absolutely just slaughtering hogs and I'm like that. That's a like. One of my my dream is obviously a moose hunt. Everyone knows that. Who listens to our shows and everything like that, but in alaska. But man doing a hog hunt out of the helicopter with the ar and just like an unlimited amount of rounds, like that is definitely up there as one of the coolest like hunts like you could possibly go on yeah, sign me up I'll sign that dotted line right and like I would.
Speaker 2:I would do that in a, in an absolute heartbeat, but, um, yeah, so how uh have you, uh have you targeted any snows yet?
Speaker 3:dude, that is one thing. I have not messed around with targeting wise like I. I have. I've gotten invites to go. I had about four or five invites to go out this year, it just didn't work out. Um, I was just so busy, you know, with life and then these new kits and everything else. But I have. I have been lucky enough to get on some feeds out there when, uh, the migration's headed south and doing them, them birds like I and like my buddies tell me more when they set up actually for them, but those birds coast forever and they circle forever and they take forever to come down, man. So, like you, really got to be patient. So, to be honest, for the most part I've only really shot at them at higher distances. I've never really got them yeah, and in.
Speaker 3:I get them at 50, 60 yards. You know I'll poke at one and if it smacks them in the head and knocks them down I'm good. But you know kind of that situation yeah, my, my buddy, he killed.
Speaker 2:He killed one this year and we were. So where we're hunting, there would be one always flying in and like a flock and everything like that. So, like when we would see it, we're like, all right, hold up, we ain't killing any other bird, but that bird, like, if you see it, this is all we're aiming for. Like let's knock this one down. You end up killing one and then, like we were gonna go for a hunt to do them and then we're gonna get, but it's just just too much work, too much. Like I'll eventually probably want to go do a guided hunt one day, just because the amount of decoys you need and everything like that.
Speaker 2:Um, I'd much rather pay somebody to to do all that work and everything like that. I just show up to hunt, I will definitely pay for that work and everything like that, and I just show up to hunt, I will definitely pay for that. Um, but to like actually like target them, yeah, I don't. I don't, we may one day, but like it's not on the in the bucket list, but I do want to shoot, I do want to get one shoot, one at least.
Speaker 3:Like I want to be able to shoot, like everything, yeah, I know, and the dream for me, like my absolute dream, is to do the 41 in a year. I think a lot of people are trying to do that too. Like you know, try and get their 41 done. But man, I got some big dreams, big goals, even with big game. Like I want to shoot every big game North American mammal you can hunt Like that's my dream. Oh yeah, I want to kill every single mammal that is huntable and that's that's my biggest dream, I think. But it's going to take a lot of time, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yep, hey. If the company keeps going the way it is, though, you'll have that time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right.
Speaker 2:Then I'm going to have to make moose bags. You know what I mean? That'd be great, um, you know I, I know I don't want. I know one person, uh, you know I, I know I don't want. I know one person, uh, you know, he's a buddy of ours, lives in jersey. Um, he's been on the show, I think he's one away from his grand slam. Oh wow, and I think it's I don't correct. You know, somebody can correct me out there if I'm wrong. If somebody knows one of the guys who knows, I think it's a mountain lion, oh, wow, I want, I want to say mountain lion.
Speaker 2:I think he's missing, um, but I'm not 100 sure. Like he's, he has a giant, I think he like, I think he killed almost like a record moose. I was thinking I think 72 inches like across, like absolutely just insane, and I was just like that's my dream, like I will pay a lot of money for that, with a bow like yep, sign me up. Where's the credit card? Swipe, you know, right, listen, my fiance, she may divorce me once. You know, I go do that hunt. And you know, not only, not only do you have to go do that hunt, but if you kill something, the taxidermy bill. We complain for deer, bear and waterfowl. I can only imagine what that taxidermy bill is going to be like, oh man yeah, that's going to be a rough one, for sure, for you yeah.
Speaker 2:So you know you big game too. So, like you know you're deer hunting and everything like that out there. Um, I've talked to a bunch of guys wisconsin. So how do you break up your time also with now know you're deer hunting and everything like that out there? I've talked to a bunch of guys Wisconsin. So how do you break up your time also with now one when you're creating the company, everything like that to now? You know you have to do it. You still have to do a lot of work for the advertising and you know making sure everything's good to go but also having time to get out in the woods, not only to waterfowl hunt but to also chase other animals.
Speaker 3:Um, I dude, there is no such thing as balance in my life. I will say that like I don't. It's like you put out a fire when it shows up, so I I just kind of chase fires, man, and like the biggest thing is, I know what I love to do and I have to make time for that. But I also have to make time to grow a business properly. Like we message just about every single one of our followers at least once a month. Try and keep up with them, see how they're doing.
Speaker 3:You know we try and be different. You know what I mean. We want to. We want to build relationships with people. I don't care if you never even buy my product ever in your life, but hey, man, I just want to build that relationship here about your hunting stories, that kind of thing. So that's my favorite thing about it. But, man, I think I think there is a sense of some balance, of just trying to organize your time and be efficient. Efficiency, I've learned, is everything you know. You're like trying to do something and also like tick, tock, pops're like. All of a sudden you just swipe for an hour and you're like, bro, what was I doing yep, that's why I don't.
Speaker 2:That's why I don't go on tiktok at all. My fiance gets mad. She's like dude, you have like a hundred messages on tiktok for me. You haven't I go, because if I open up one, I'm going to be on tiktok forever. And I have. Not only do I have to work, but then I'm running a brand, like I run a company, like there's things that we need to do. I need to edit these videos, I need to do this. I need to do that.
Speaker 2:Like you're gonna send me down a damn rabbit hole on TikTok and I hate it and I love it and I hate it at the same time. But I refuse. Like, at least I could justify. Like, if I'm on Instagram, on the company Instagram, and looking at hunting stuff, you know going through stuff like that, like you know, I could justify that at least. Like I'm doing something somewhat. It may not be the most productive. You're getting ideas in your head, you're. You know you're, you're doing all these different things. I go on TikTok Ain't none of that. Most of it's not about hunting. She don't send me really anything about hunting. So you know, it's just all funny stuff where I'm just gonna sit there, laugh my ass off for an hour or two and then you know, just be like shit. I just wasted my time oh yeah, and it's hard.
Speaker 3:I'm not saying I don't ever do that, because I definitely do, but it's, it's just trying to be, uh, you know, determined and determined and just disciplined enough. And I think that's the biggest thing about owning a company is like it's not as easy as what it seems Like some people do make it easy, like they're driving around in their big trucks and their nice boats and all this stuff and, like you know, they just got it Like, oh, it just happened. I just started a brand and that's how it happened. Nah, dude, it sucks, like sometimes it sucks so much You're like why am I doing this?
Speaker 3:But then you look back at your reasoning of why you're doing this. I'm doing this to help people. You know I don't give a shit about the money. To be honest, to me it's about the experiences and the stories I get to hear and the benefit people are going to reap from it. So that's the only reason I'm in this man. I don't have any other really urges other than helping people and, you know, just being a part of what I love, and that's the hunting community.
Speaker 2:I agree. I mean, you know, I think a lot of people, especially like younger people and everything like that, are people who are getting into creating, you know, creating content or and all these things, are jumping on doing podcasts. And creating podcasts like now I always tell people they're like oh well, look how many, how many, uh, downloads is this show gonna? You know, does your show get? And I go, listen, I I really don't care. Um, I know kind of like what our download is, but it also just depends, like you know, I share our stuff. So like everything I create is content for for everyone else who's coming on. So, like I give people the option to collab. So like I'm like, all right here, boom, you get the when the post is done, and then you get videos and stuff like I'll collab on that on instagram. So, but I go, but if you don't, if you don't accept it or something like that, is it gonna hinder the the amount of downloads? Of course I go, but honestly, I love talking about hunting. I love, um, you know, showing people out there that there's so many different ways of doing stuff and you know there's companies like like you, but there's also people who aren't always. I don't always get the biggest names, because you know what sometimes you got to hear from the person with 50 followers because, honestly, there are some killers, dude, and they know they know how to kill it.
Speaker 2:I, you know, I'd like to get people who don't have Instagram. You know that's that's like always. My goal is, like, there's people out there that don't have instagram and I would like to get those guys because you know, those are the guys I guarantee you that probably know more than a lot of the people that are big name people on on instagram and everything like that and all these stuff like that. You know, it's just obviously harder to contact them. But, like, I tell people straight up, this show could get three, three views, I wouldn't care and I and I would still do it. You know, we we do get a lot and I'm very grateful for everyone who listens and everything like that and and downloads the, the episodes. But I'm not doing it for the views, I'm doing it for the. You know it could be that one person who who listens, and if they find something useful, then you know what my job is. My job's done here and I think I achieved what I was looking for.
Speaker 3:Nah, man, you do a phenomenal job with this and you know, and you have the all the right attitude and all the right perspective on things and I think, I think that's why things go so good for you. And you know, you just got to keep that hustle going and that grind. And, nah, man, I love it and I enjoy it being, I appreciate man yeah, no, I'm, I'm loving having you.
Speaker 2:You're definitely gonna, you know, always tell people they once they come on, you guys, people get open invites after that. So, like you know, once people come on once, and you know, especially when the episodes flow and everything like that, I'm like listen, you need to whenever you want. Well, you come on. You can just like, hey, listen, I got a product, drop it, you know, let me jump on. Like all right, cool, like that happens all the time. Like people like, hey, I want to jump on, I want to talk a certain thing, like all right, cool, come on, no problem, just we'll schedule it and that's about it. Um, but for you know, for you what? What do you guys see next and hope to accomplish in the next five years?
Speaker 3:The next five years, man, I want to accomplish so we just came out with. So we got duck goose fish and I want to get into some upland game. So we'll maybe work into that. And then, you know, I, to be honest man, I want my products that we make. We spend a lot of time creating them, so I don't just push a product out and throw it out there and, I don't know, maybe it'll work. You know, like I, I spend a lot of time in research.
Speaker 3:So in five years, man, my dream is to make sure that every single hunter or fisherman has the essentials that they need to preserve their trophies. Man, like you said, you know, if it's your first bird, you don't want to ruin that first bird. If it's your dog's last retrieve, you don't want to ruin that bird. There's so many ways you can ruin your bird, but essentially, buying our kit will save you all the hassle and that stuff. So, no, man, I, my dream is to be able to just change lives too. Man, like I, uh, I run my own little thing too, and, uh, we take kids with cancer out on their dream hunting and fishing trips. So, uh, tagged and bagged. Uh, tagged and bagged is a part of that too, and uh, we donate money to, to my association and you know we kind of work. I love that and being able to use our products and yeah. So I'm super excited, man, I'm excited to touch people's lives and, man, I'm really hoping things work out.
Speaker 2:So I'm excited. First of all, I love to hear that and that's such an amazing thing, you know, and it's crazy because you know I'm in the same realm. So I work. My background in work is I work in the mental health and like, yeah, obviously, psychiatric and behavior with children, and that's actually the next step of what we're going to be trying to do here is to create a program where we can get kids out in the outdoors more. It's going to be harder with hunting, especially with what's like and everything like that, but at least like fishing or just just hiking and and teaching them all these things because, like my, like my patients alone, like they're obsessed about hearing my stories because they don't get to experience it, they don't, they know nothing about hunting, like there's times they're like, hey, can we, can we put on meat eater, or you know I know amazon prime now has, um, has the has a hunting public.
Speaker 2:You, and that's a little more hardcore Like that's stuff that I watch, but like they'll, they'll watch it and everything. And they're always like, oh, like they knew I'm going hunting on Monday. They're like, oh, my God, like we can't wait to. You know, you come back and we hear the stories and everything like that. You know, know, they're obsessed with the fact that I'm so obsessed with bear hunting too. Um, and the kids are always asking like, oh, like, you know, let, I want to, I want to start hunting. Like, I want to start hunting, I want to come hunting with you and I'm like, you know, this is something that we could definitely definitely work on. Um, you know, obviously there's a, there's a lot of you know, whatever, but you know that's something that we're going to be figuring out, but it that's such a great thing that that's what you guys do too. And you know, uh, when we get off, let me know your, I would like to make a donation for sure oh, man, you're the best.
Speaker 3:I appreciate it, man, and no, I think it's. You know what? Uh, there's, there's something to getting out in the woods and being out in god's nature. I'm a I'm nature, I'm a believer. I'm a believer in God through and through, and I've talked to God more in my tree, standing out in the duck blind, than I've ever talked to him in church, and I have gone through a lot of stress, anxiety, and you know everybody what everybody feels, man, and when I get out there, my mind's just clear and I just I don't know, man, it's, it's the most stress relieving thing you could ever put yourself through.
Speaker 2:It is until you're chasing a big buck. That's just giving you the fuck. That is so true. That's a different type of anxiety, though.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well at least you start forgetting about all the other bullcrap back at home and you're just only thinking about that buck. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Well, and here's the thing I think anyone can agree, they will take a stress over a deer, a bear, a waterfowl, a turkey, like that's the stress that we want, versus the other stress of you know paying bills, maybe child, you know work, whatever, like that, like. And they like I always tell people that's a good stress, like hunting is a good stress, everything else is a bad stress. We don't want that stress, we just want, want the. We want the good stress.
Speaker 3:Amen to that brother.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean, guys, you, you guys really do kill it. You know I can't wait. Of course, unfortunately, you know, when I did, you know, bump into you guys and got your product, the season had just closed for us. But I am super excited to to use this next year. Um, it's going to be once waterfowl starts for us. You know heavy. Um, I'll be throwing this in the pit, that, and the goal for next year is to shoot either another mallard that I want to mount with a band. I still need to get a black duck I would love to to mount a black down there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there there are. There are a lot. Um, I don't know how we didn't get um. So we're hunting a lot of fields we were by a river and everything like that so we need to get spinners. Um, so we're all like our group, we're all getting, we're all getting spinners. I think, um, that's the one thing that we didn't have this year. Uh, that would have definitely helped in our, in our goose decoys and everything like that, because they were the ducks were flying all around and everything like that. Uh, but my buddy's uh spinner that he had, he actually broke it right before the season started, so we did not get a chance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so next year we all decided, like, the one thing we really need is is spinners, and then also just scouting a few more places. We got a lot of wood ducks and everything like that too. Yeah, so, like that's another, I've shot a wood duck, so I don't. I haven't shot a black duck yet. So, black duck, if I shoot a black duck, that is a guaranteed to us Now. And then we have these. My buddy shot a beautiful hybrid this year and it was absolutely gorgeous and I would love to shoot a hybrid Dude. That'd be so sick? Yeah, I know you might have. You guys might have to take the trip to new jersey next year. I'm telling you sign me up.
Speaker 3:I'll come down there, man, that'd be kick-ass, maybe a week before the show hell yeah, listen, yeah, people, yeah, yeah, we, we, we smacked especially geese.
Speaker 2:We smacked the geese up until like even the last day, like it was a bit. Definitely last day was was definitely harder. They were a little resistant to the decoy spread, um, but we still landed them and we still, we still got them and everything like that. Did you hear the last part.
Speaker 3:I think I lost you there for a second.
Speaker 2:No, no way. I was just saying, well, we'll get them done, um, things like that. But um, man, we're, we're coming close to to an hour. Um, you know, I absolutely enjoyed this episode so much. Any any last words that you want to say?
Speaker 3:Hey man, I just want to say I appreciate you for having me on. It was awesome talking to you and I'm sure we're going to talk a lot more in the future coming up for next season?
Speaker 2:Oh, definitely.
Speaker 3:Definitely. Yeah, man, I'm excited and you know you guys watch it. If you guys need a kit this season, you can go check us out at taggedandbaggedcom. And yeah, other than that, hope you guys have a good spring turkey season and enjoy the summer before the hunting season.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, listen to everyone who's listening. Their instagram, their um website is all going to be down in the links below. Make sure you go check them out. Listen, everyone who is a waterfowl hunter or even a fisherman now that they they got the fishing stuff done, make sure you guys go grab this. It is a must need. And then everybody else who is in a water spot hunting I've been preaching this for the last two years now make sure you guys get it to your asses out into the woods if you're close enough to jersey or want to travel to jersey and hunt with us. Listen, we're always looking to get new people into the woods and and out and see outdoors and waterfowl hunting and everything like that. So make make sure you guys check that. Check that out and hit us up. Um, everyone. No-transcript.
