[Crystal] Woah.
[Crystal] Yeah, watch your chair.
[Jason] Wow.
[Crystal] The camera... [Jason] Steady... steady...
[Crystal] Okay, let me shake your hand again.
[beep]
[upbeat music]
I'm a pretty outdoorsy person so I kind of just thought figuring out how to
hunt wouldn't be that hard to do on my own. You just like get a gun and go
hiking and then shoot something, right? But after taking hunter education I
realized just how much thought and planning goes into each and every hunt.
How do I know it license to get? Where do I get a firearm? Who's gonna make sure
I'm field dressing the legal way? How big of a cooler do I need for the meat? How
do I get a giant animal home in my tiny car? One of the reasons I wanted to make
this series was because most how-to-hunt videos assume that you already have a
certain level of knowledge about hunting. If you don't have any knowledge about
hunting and you don't have any friends or family to help, it turns out that
people like you and me need what's called 'a hunting mentor', and I know just
the person to ask about getting one.
[knocking]
[Crystal] Hi Jason! [Jason] Hey Crystal, come on in! [Crystal] How's it going?
[Jason] Fantastic, have a seat. [Crystal sighs heavily]
[Crystal] So, I've decided to take up big game hunting. [Jason] Excellent...
[Crystal] And I went to hunter education and I don't actually think I can do this by myself.
There's so many things that you have to do. I thought I could just like, take my
outdoorsiness, add a gun and then a hunting license and go hunting.
Stop! Why are you laughing? Okay, I've realized this too!
I'm wondering if you know anybody who might be able to mentor me, be my hunting mentor.
[Jason] Let me call up my buddy Matt... [Crystal] Okay.
[Jason] ...and I think that he might be able to help you out.
[Crystal] Cool. [Jason] Let's give him a call.
[phone ringing]
[sounds of phone being picked up]
[Matt's voice on speaker phone] This is Matt.
[Jason] Matt! It's Duetsch. How are ya? [Matt] How are ya brother? I'm doing pretty good.
[Jason] Excellent.
Hey, remember a couple weeks ago we met up,
you were telling me about how the last few years you've been taking on a lot of
newbie adults and how much fun that's been?
[Matt] Yeah, totally!
[Jason] I just so happen to have someone
in my office today, her name's Crystal, who could really use a mentor for this fall.
[Matt] Oh and you think I'm the guy for the job? [Jason] I do, I think it would be a good fit.
[Matt] And yous say Crystal's there with you?
[Jason] Yeah. [Crystal] Hi!
[Matt] Hi Crystal, I'm Matt, how are you?
[Crystal] I'm good, nice to meet you.
[Matt] You as well. And you're interested in going hunting, huh?
[Crystal] Yep! I guess so.
[Everyone laughing]
[Matt] That's what they tell ya, huh? [Crystal] Yep!
[Matt] So tell me... why do you want to go hunting and what is it you'd like to hunt?
I have no idea what I want a hunt right now, I just know I want to hunt big game and I have been
turkey hunting before... [Crystal's on camera voice fades out.]
[Crystal Voice Over] This is about to get really boring. I go on and on about how important game meat is
to my family, and organic protein... so while I'm doing that, let me tell you about something else.
It was easy for me to find someone to introduce me to a hunting mentor because almost everyone I
work with hunts. If you don't have daily access to the hunting community like I do,
there are websites, Facebook groups and even apps that will help pair you
with a hunting mentor. Colorado Parks and Wildlife also offers novice hunter programs,
which provide guidance and equipment for your first hunt that's
That's actually what Jason's job is as a statewide hunter outreach coordinator
Pretty cool, huh?
[Voice over ends, on screen voice fades up]
[Crystal] ...bigger... [Matt] ...yeah... [Crystal] ....amount of meat. So, yeah.
[Matt] Well those all sound like really good reasons,
and I think those mirror some of my own as well.
[Crystal] Oh! [Matt] Myself and my family, my wife and kids all hunt
and we take a lot of pride in only consuming the protein that we harvest as well,
that's one of our goals that we've had for several years now.
So we also do our own butchering, so if that's something if you're interested in
I'd be happy to show you down the road if you choose to continue on this path.
And so what I would be glad to do is just tell you what I know, tell you some of my
experiences, help you understand some things that might be difficult to
figure out with hunting, use some resources so that we can try to
find some access and figure out just the type of hunt that works for you and what
you want that this. [Crystal] Yeah, I was kind of hoping for a mountain hunt because I
really like going to the mountains so... [Matt] So does everybody else. Welcome to Colorado.
[Crystal] So the draw has already passed right? [Matt] Correct.
[Crystal] And I don't know how to get a license for like one of those so like will--
is that something you can help me figure out, how to--
like I don't even know where to start. But is that something like you know about?
[Jason] Yeah, I think we-- [Matt] That's going to be like one of a dozen things that we talk about.
[Crystal] Okay, good. [Matt] And yeah, there are some options that...
...Jason, go ahead, what were you going to say?
No, I think you covered it and I think what I can do is, unless Crystal has any more
questions I will... I'll get Crystal your contact information and then you guys
can be in touch and start ironing out those details. [Crystal] Cool!
[Matt] Perfect. Well then Crystal, we'll set up some time together to go over all this stuff.
[Crystal] All right, well thank you so much Matt.
It's Matt, right? [Matt] Great to meet you-- it was, it's Matt, and it's great to meet you.
And Jason, thanks for giving us the opportunity!
[Jason] You bet! Talk to you later. [Matt] Talk to you later. [Crystal] Bye . [Jason] Bye.
[Crystal] Oh my gosh! That sounds like he's really great.
That was... fast. [Jason] Absolutely.
[Crystal] Yeah. Cool. I'll let you know how it goes.
[Jason] Good luck! [Crystal] All right, have a good one. [Jason] You too. See ya.
It seems like this Matt guy could be
pretty useful. In the next episode he's going to teach me how to read the big
game brochure, and if he can help me figure out how to read that incredibly
intimidating document I think we're gonna have a good partnership.
See if you can find someone to take you under their wing, or sign up for a novice hunter
program. Talk to somebody about hunting today. This could be a friend or a
relative, a co-worker or someone at Colorado Parks and Wildlife. You can even
talk to your own kids. Let me know you talk to by leaving a comment below.
I want to hear about it.
Hey everyone, thanks for following along on my big game hunting journey.
Hunting license dollars are a super important source of funding for the wildlife conservation work
that Colorado Parks and Wildlife does for all species in Colorado, not just the game
species you can hunt. So we want to make it as easy as possible for you to buy a
hunting license. If you've ever thought about going hunting or just considered the
possibility, be sure to hit up our website or give us a call for more
information. We'll link all the information in the
YouTube description. If you like this video series and you want to see more
videos that we make at Colorado Parks and Wildlife, be sure to subscribe on
the YouTube link below.
Thanks for watching!