Jaden Bales, owner of HuntsWest, teaches hunters how to plan DIY western hunts by helping them get licenses and build plans matched to their fitness and schedule. He positions his service between self-service platforms like Go Hunt and full-service research outfits, offering hands-on coaching instead of just telling people where to go.
Dude, what's up?
Hey, how are you doing, man?
Good, man. How are you?
I'm doing really well, thanks.
With your. I saw a post, and it's one of your programs or one of your offerings that you have. It says more teach a man to fish versus bringing a man to fish. So I kind of resonate because that's what I do for my. For my programs. I teach people how to work out how to move versus just giving them the workouts. So I wanted to have you on and tell people about what you do.
Oh, I appreciate that. Yeah. So what I do with Hunt west is I, like you said, I'm teaching people how to come hunting out west, and largely my focus is getting the tags for, like, helping folks learn how to get tags and then moving through how to create a really good hunt plan. So phase one, and this is like, this is pertinent to this time of year, is getting a license so you can go. One of the things I do is, and it's very similar to, like, you know, whether it's as physical therapy or as nutrition coaching or whatever, it's like, very much so. Like, let's sit down and see where you're at and then find out a game plan to move forward. Because if you're just throwing your applications, like, at the. At the wall and seeing what sticks is, like, not a great game plan. If they want to go to Colorado in 2024, we can talk about that. If they want to go to Arizona in 2030, we can talk about what that looks like. So I think it's just going to be geared towards whatever this person's goals are. And that's my only requirement, is that I have a little bit of baseline information before we just dive right in so I can. So I can give them the best information possible.
Sweet, man. So I'm familiar with Hunt and Fool and. And the go hunt side of things. Like, how. How close are you to the hunt and fool side of things where you pay for a membership and then you can get hunt advice and all that. Like, is that kind of what you.
Do or is that no such a good job too? And they're like, so information rich. I really. I really like all the guys over there. So you'll. You'll kind of see, like, a progression. You have, like, go hunt. That's mostly do it yourself. Like, you are doing the research yourself. And then you got step two, which is like, hunt fool does a lot of the research for you and tells you about it. And I'd like to Think I'm taking maybe step three here where I'm going to walk someone through the process and show them what I'm looking for and what makes a hunt a good hunt, what kind of information they might need to look for, and also tailor it towards the way somebody hunts. Because one of the things that's really important is that, you know, if someone is at the beginning of their physical fitness journey, there are some hunts that are, like, just not well suited. But if you're also a beast in the mountains, like, we should be leaning into that and you should probably be doing hunts that are leaning into your strengths. Right? So I think that that's maybe, like I said, just a little bit higher touch point, little bit more. A little bit more in detail and more in depth with each individual. The other thing that I really. I just sent an email out about this yesterday is like, I think the more resources, the better that someone can get because you're going to pick up little tidbits of information. So, like, I'm a Go Hunt subscriber. I'm a hunting fool subscriber. I'm an Eastman subscriber. Like, I think everyone should be kind of like gathering all that information and become a student of the game. So hopefully that's what they also learn for me is how to be a.
Student in the game. That's the biggest thing. Like, if you want to learn, you're going to get so much more out of, like, what you do if you want to learn and really dive in, versus just being told, like, where to go. Because the new concerns have noticed tendencies. Oh, okay. Like, this was a good experience. What other states or what other. Yeah, what other areas can I go to to have this similar experience? This was the tendency of that area. Let me see if I can't find these tendencies elsewhere. Is that kind of what you see?
A hundred percent man. Looking for patterns, both patterns in, like, animal data, patterns and experiences, patterns on onyx and also, like, just patterns of what you like to do, what time of year is best suited for your schedule, best suited for travel. Like, those are the things I think that are a lot of. There are a lot of factors there that are hard to take into consideration in a short amount of time.
Right on. All right. How do people get ahold of you? Instagram, email. What's the best?
Yeah, Instagram is actually my favorite place because it's a little bit like, it's a little bit less invasive than going straight to my cell phone, but I can still check it every day. So drop me a line at Hunts west on. On Instagram. Or you can just go to huntwest.net and you can check out all of the kind of services I'm doing there, as well as get ahold of me through the email. Jaydenuntwest.net those are pretty much the best places to go.
Sweet. I appreciate your time, man.
Yeah, thanks for putting these Cupid games together for everybody. I think it'll be good to get people moving through February. I know it's kind of the doldrums. It is not warm enough to go outside and do a lot, but it's still feel like, you know, here we are three months into winter, and it's. It can be rough.
Yeah. It drags on, and we'll be in touch about the rest of it.
Hey, sounds good, man. Appreciate it.
Bulls, Bears And Bows With Jaden Bales | Eastmans' Life of A Bowhunter Podcast #30
