EP 535: Western Bear Hunting with Joe Kondelis

Right after we recorded this I thought to myself; “We don’t do enough bear podcasts”. Bear hunting has been such a huge piece of hunting journey and honestly in retrospect I have more hunting memories with by buddies from hunting bears than probably any other hunts. It’s just fun! This week I am joined by Joe Kondelis who would rather hunt bears than even elk and deer. A montana native that resides in Wyoming, Joe has hunted mountain black bears since before it was cool. Joe happens to also be the head of the Western Bear Foundation, a 501c3 for bears. We chat about bears and some of the many struggles that face the species across the west. We also talk about bear hunting and how most hunters think of bears as an after thought or a way to spend a little extra time in the spring. We talk about different hunting methods across the country and even just across the west. We cover the impact of grizzly bears and how that is changing the black bear distribution. Western Bear Foundation is doing some great work and I love to see projects like this. I will be attending the upcoming Western Bear/ Wyoming Wildlife dinner this coming 29th of January in Cody Wyoming and I highly encourage anyone who wants to make the trip to join me. You can buy tickets here. Show Notes: About Joe – 01:39 Intro to Bear Hunting Conservation – 08:29 Social, Environmental, & Conservation Issues – 17:46 Western Bear Foundation Goals & Age Class Management – 31:54 Color Phases – 45:18 Joe’s Top Bear States – 58:04 How Your Can Help the Western Bear Foundation – 1:02:02 Todays podcast Brought to you by On X maps It is e-scouting season if you are a serious hunter now is the time to start scheming and planning for 2022. Getting a tag is the name of the game and before you ever apply you should be looking over that unit in onX to see what it looks like. If you can see any pockets where you might find that future wall hanger. On X is my go-to map for e-scouting and now with your elite membership you get access to not only all 50 states but you also get access to Top-rut draw odds and Huntin Fools e-mag to help you find that tag that other people aren’t seeing. Upgrade your on X membership to Elite and get the whole e-scouting package Back in December we ran a pilot course with 25 students and it was awesome. We launched multiple businesses and the feedback was outstanding. I think people were blown away. When I first had the idea to launch the course I didn’t know whether to make it about starting a side hustle or just about entrepreneurship. Through teach those first 25 students I have realized that this is a course about how to make time and money. So so many would be entrepreneurs start a project only to realize they only started a job and freedom to hunt as much as they want is nowhere to be seen. This course is about choosing the right ideas and or pivoting from the wrong ones. My entire life has been build around how do I create an income that allows me to go do the things I love. I have made a pile mistakes along the way and I want to teach people like me how to avoid those potholes. If you are a interested in changing your life sign up at therichoutdoors.net/course if you use code TRO it’ll save you $50 bucks and for the first 50 people to sign up I will give you access to our Slack channel that we are calling the Rich Ideas Lab where you will get access to tons of ideas and a community of entrepreneurs.