hey everybody Michael Batease from the elk calling Academy hanging out here at
the Western hunting and conservation Expo we've made our way over to the
rugged map and this is kind of interesting if you guys aren't familiar
with this products tell us a little bit about rugged Maps history behind the
company and how this all came about well it started about 15 years ago and the
biggest issue I had as a hunters we will constantly buying maps and laminating
and marking them up and it wouldn't last a season and to get all the information
that we wanted on one map it would take three so we buy the Forest Service BLM
and we did the fire districts for the fire roads it a lot of times
your Barb's government didn't pass right so that was kind of where we started and
then we printed it on fabric and every year they've almost said they've got a
friend of a friend of a friend and before you know it
Mickey Maps for all these different people and I thought there's got to be a
better way to I don't want to laminate it got expensive laminating something
that big right and so we spent about about 2007 I knew there was technology
and printers and I thought we'd be able to print it on fabric and so that idea
actually came World War two the Arabs 82nd airborne they had wholesome apple
cider jackets that was he kind of the closet that originally started okay so
but you couldn't really get the details and so it took us about a year to find
the whole fine-tune the material there's literally only one distributor in the
United States that carries this and I got lucky enough to get it and keep them
buying it so that was a general purpose of going okay so now you you kind of
mentioned it a couple of times the the fabric so your maps aren't the
traditional you know so advantages of your fabric versus a paper map
probably the ability to do this so longevity strength longevity strength
now I know on paper maps I love writing and marking things that I found still
have that ability with your Maps yeah well you didn't the nice thing about
this is sometimes you can even some guys will use a dry erase okay
so you can use a dry erase on this if you use black exponent and that's for
the golden ones we say use some others damages but you can use a permanent mark
that you want to run so it will absorb in the fabric so yeah you can do pretty
much anything you want now we're tied a little bit yesterday and you kind of
kind of said there's alternative uses other maps than just a map kind of kind
of touch on those aluminum well the first part the first part I like to tell
people when they purchase a map is that you you literally take that map out put
it in front of your computer right and you look up Google Earth and you start
cross-referencing the information that we're giving you right
and the advantages of you have with a rugged map is that we archived our road
systems ten years ago like an entertainer if they're to be used to
make maps for the Forest Service sure and they told us that he would be
actively decommissioning roads so as a hunter you want to have all the roads
and so what we did is we we archive that information so you're just gonna get
more in location on these and then you better look at your work to see where
we're about to go you know the thing I noticed in today's age its technology
technology technology well-kept technologies run on batteries
got lower they have two nice thing about your Maps it's never gonna run out of
batteries no you don't have to have satellite connection else so you always
have that but the other thing that I found interesting is you know then when
you get out there your animals down yeah so yeah so from our the point of
purchase you can wrapped around your steering wheel navigate your way to hear
your units once I get in the field I put my map my back and I'll take out my GPS
you know I how many GPS just like anybody else sure
but then I at the point where it's raining or I'm sitting on a place and
I'm just a glassy something I put it down its water group so I won't get wet
if I do harvest animal and I'm boning it out I get put the minute right on the
map so it gives you a place to sit down and
you're not sitting on the cold wet ground or in the snow but then when
you're breaking down and it gives you a place to put the meat keep it clean and
ready to probably back out so so I know people have options out there they can
go into Cabela's or this or that to a map station why should they come to
rugged apps and one of yours versus going in there well because you'd have
to go to three places to get it so basically what your Maps the information
that your maps contain versus what they're getting at that kiosk is more
bang for the buck here with all the information entailed and plus how long
that map is going to last correct and they don't have like we have fires and
we outline the fires and they hear the fires at burn and I am a or they don't
like those companies don't have that information so now what if what if I
want to custom map what if what if I call up and say hey if I give you a
peak point or some GPS can you do me a custom map people if they stop that yep
so so you guys are really absolutely oh yeah generally we just say email us the
point at the center of the map and how many miles you want around it and we can
do that with their standards you know just a standard map that we make sure
you can do it with a USGS map sometimes even in the USGS people they they need
to take score maps to get their area so weak they can customize it with us and
we could just Center it however they want before we got a lot of landowners
and branches that want to satellite it and so we'll print a satellite image
with pods your lives because they want so now I noticed too on your Maps too
you have the different color coding so your Maps do represent Forest Service
state BLM private so they really can look at the map and know where they're
really so great so alright guys there you have a brief little look into rugged
maps if you haven't been over to their website I strongly encourage you to go
over there click around play around if you have any questions reach out you
know give a shout set up an email down below this video I will put links to
their website and their social media pages so check them out guys as always
we appreciate you guys tuning in and following us stay tuned we
have a lot more coming from Western hunting conservation Expo