Episode 4 - Sell the Brand, Live the Hunt: Hunting Industry Lessons from Dan Moultrie

Summary

Legends of the Wild, Episode 4: "Sell the Brand, Live the Hunt: Hunting Industry Lessons from Dan Moultrie"

Released July 30, 2025

Introduction

In the fourth installment of Legends of the Wild, host Sam Soholt engages in an insightful conversation with Dan Moultrie, a venerable figure in the hunting industry and a longtime ambassador for Moultrie since 2023. This episode delves deep into Dan's extensive experience, the evolution of hunting technologies, and the strategic philosophies that have sustained Moultrie as a leader in the field for nearly five decades.

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1. Background of Dan Moultrie and the Moultrie Company

Dan Moultrie opens the discussion by sharing his roots in Georgia, highlighting his family’s deep southern farming heritage. This background fostered his passion for hunting and wildlife management from an early age. Dan recounts his professional journey, transitioning from a role at Southern Company to co-founding Moultrie. He emphasizes the importance of aligning one's career with personal passions, stating:

“You need to find out what you love to do more than anything. Because if you look, you're not going to be successful.”
– Dan Moultrie ([08:08])

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2. Early Innovations: Affordable Feeders and the First Hunting Cameras

Dan discusses the inception of Moultrie’s feeder products, initiated with a mission to make high-quality feeders accessible to the average hunter. Starting with just ten units, these feeders quickly gained popularity through word-of-mouth within trusted hunting circles. He proudly notes:

“We've taken the lead in the feeder category and have held the number one position for almost 50 years.”
– Dan Moultrie ([13:52])

The conversation then transitions to the development of hunting cameras. Initially, Dan and his team tackled significant challenges with film-based cameras, such as weatherproofing and automating photo capture. Reflecting on these early innovations, Dan shares:

“The first time I walked on that bear bait and saw that treadle tripped, it was just as good as it gets.”
– Dan Moultrie ([25:09])

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3. Evolution of Hunting Technology

The dialogue explores the technological advancements in hunting cameras, from film to digital and now to cellular-connected devices. Dan credits Moultrie’s dedicated engineering team for pioneering these transitions:

“We introduced the first digital camera ever to the industry.”
– Dan Moultrie ([30:57])

He further elaborates on the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their cameras, enhancing features like animal identification and reducing false triggers:

“With AI, you can separate bucks from does, saving hours of manual review.”
– Dan Moultrie ([37:43])

Sam Soholt adds personal anecdotes about using these AI features to optimize hunting strategies, underscoring the practical impact of such innovations on modern hunting practices.

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4. Company Philosophy: Customer Service and Brand Building

A significant portion of the conversation centers on Moultrie’s unwavering commitment to customer service and brand integrity. Dan recounts the company’s early days when they prioritized customer satisfaction by replacing faulty products, establishing trust within the hunting community:

“If somebody was unhappy, we gave them a brand new feeder.”
– Dan Moultrie ([14:47])

He emphasizes the strategic focus on “selling the brand,” which involves maintaining high-quality standards and fostering long-term relationships with customers and retailers:

“Sell the brand, sell the brand, sell the brand. We still deeply go by that methodology.”
– Dan Moultrie ([57:10])

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5. Hunting Industry Changes Over 50 Years

Dan reflects on the monumental changes within the hunting industry over the past five decades. He highlights the shift from hunting as a casual pastime to a sophisticated lifestyle supported by cutting-edge technology and diverse participant demographics. Notably, Dan discusses the inclusion of women and younger hunters, driven by innovations that make hunting more accessible and engaging:

“If you don't keep up to date and transition, we're going to lose hunting by being antiquated.”
– Dan Moultrie ([46:42])

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6. Conservation and Sustainable Wildlife Management

Leveraging his experience as the chair of Game and Fish for Alabama, Dan underscores the critical role of sustainable practices in wildlife management. He details data-driven approaches facilitated by hunting cameras, which have informed more effective deer population controls and hunting regulations:

“We recommended lowering the deer kill limit to two bucks, ensuring sustainable population growth.”
– Dan Moultrie ([43:18])

Dan explains how technological tools like hunting cameras have enhanced understanding of deer behavior and population dynamics, contributing to more informed conservation strategies.

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7. Future of Hunting Technology and Industry Recruitment

Looking forward, Dan envisions continued advancements in hunting technology, particularly in the realms of AI and cellular connectivity. He stresses the importance of recruiting passionate individuals who can drive innovation and adapt to evolving trends:

“We want to have the right people, the best candidates that can possibly be.”
– Dan Moultrie ([55:46])

Sam Soholt echoes this sentiment, highlighting the balance between technological tools and traditional hunting skills, ensuring that the essence of the hunt remains intact while embracing modern advancements.

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8. Company Culture: Fostering Innovation and Passion

The conversation delves into Moultrie’s company culture, which prioritizes innovation as a core value. Dan attributes this to meticulous hiring practices and fostering an environment where employees are passionate about hunting and wildlife management:

“If you're going to be around in this building, you're going to find out about Moultrie’s innovations.”
– Dan Moultrie ([57:10])

He shares anecdotes about employees outside traditional hunting roles who become enthusiastic users of Moultrie products, exemplifying the company’s inclusive and passionate culture.

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9. Impact of Hunting Cameras on Conservation and Hunting Practices

Dan elaborates on how hunting cameras have revolutionized wildlife management and hunting practices. By providing real-time data and extensive visual records, these cameras have enabled more precise and ethical hunting strategies:

“Now, you can see multiple deer on your property and manage the population more effectively.”
– Dan Moultrie ([29:07])

Sam adds that these technologies have not only enhanced hunting efficiency but also fostered a deeper understanding and appreciation of wildlife among hunters.

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Conclusion

As the episode winds down, both Sam and Dan emphasize the importance of continuous innovation, ethical hunting practices, and community engagement in sustaining the hunting industry. Dan expresses his gratitude for the opportunity to share his experiences and reiterates Moultrie’s commitment to supporting hunters and conserving wildlife.

“We're going to sell you the brand we want, and we're going to take care of you if you have problems.”
– Dan Moultrie ([57:10])

Sam Soholt closes by acknowledging Dan's contributions and the enduring legacy of Moultrie in the hunting community, setting the stage for future episodes that continue to explore the heart of the outdoors.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• “You need to find out what you love to do more than anything. Because if you look, you're not going to be successful.”
  – Dan Moultrie ([08:08])

• “We've taken the lead in the feeder category and have held the number one position for almost 50 years.”
  – Dan Moultrie ([13:52])

• “We introduced the first digital camera ever to the industry.”
  – Dan Moultrie ([30:57])

• “Sell the brand, sell the brand, sell the brand. We still deeply go by that methodology.”
  – Dan Moultrie ([57:10])

• “If you don't keep up to date and transition, we're going to lose hunting by being antiquated.”
  – Dan Moultrie ([46:42])

• “If you're going to be around in this building, you're going to find out about Moultrie’s innovations.”
  – Dan Moultrie ([57:10])

• “We're going to sell you the brand we want, and we're going to take care of you if you have problems.”
  – Dan Moultrie ([57:10])

---

This comprehensive summary encapsulates the essence of Episode 4 of Legends of the Wild, providing listeners with a thorough understanding of Dan Moultrie’s insights into the hunting industry, the importance of innovation, and the enduring values that drive Moultrie’s success.

Transcript

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[Dan Moultrie]

My name is Happy Gilmore. I haven't swung a club in years. You know what you got to do? Grip it and rip it or. Oh, now that is some Happy Gilmore. Everyone is talking about the comeback kid. Happy Gilmore.

[Sam]

Happy knee.

[Dan Moultrie]

Yeah, baby. Happy Gilmore 2.

[Happy Gilmore]

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[Sam]

For children under 13. This is Legends of the Wild presented by Field and Stream. Let's get into it. All right, Dan Moultrie. Welcome to the Legends of the Wild podcast.

[Dan Moultrie]

Sam, thank you for having us. Will you just. I'm. I. It's a joy to be doing this with you, especially in the front group. I like that. Thank you so much.

[Sam]

Yeah, no, it's. It's good that. It's good to get you in the top five episodes. You know, let's just, like, you know.

[Dan Moultrie]

Really, we appreciate that.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Sam]

Well, you know, we can't thank you enough for being part of this whole production, you know, helping make this happen. You know, Moultrie's been, you know, I'm in a unique position because I've been a moultrie ambassador since 2023. So this is year three of working with you guys and kind of getting to peek behind the curtain a little bit as you. As the cameras roll out and all the different stuff that you guys have been up to the last couple of years.

[Dan Moultrie]

Getting to peep behind the curtain is big. To see the stuff that's coming, I'm just so. Mate, we had a little in house deal yesterday and oh, my gosh, the stuff is coming. It's just. It's like you're watching James Bond.

[Sam]

Yeah, it's crazy.

[Dan Moultrie]

Stuff that's coming's off the chart.

[Sam]

Yeah, you guys are like, you know, like a community queue. You know, you're like, you're the ones coming up with all the cool toys. And then I get to. I'm not comparing myself to James Bond, but I just get to be one of the people that gills and uses the toys.

[Dan Moultrie]

Yeah, that's right.

[Sam]

For what I love to do.

[Dan Moultrie]

Yeah, that's Good.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Sam]

So I'm excited to talk to you because you were part. And we'll. We'll go. We'll bounce around or whatever. I'm a little bit of adhd, so we'll bounce around.

[Dan Moultrie]

No, that's.

[Sam]

But you were really one of like the group of people that kind of like really fueled the industry. Fueled the hunting industry. I mean it was guys like you and Will Primos and the Mossy Oak boys. I mean it was. And it was all at that same time.

[Dan Moultrie]

It was all in that same time frame. I remember. You know, we got hooked up with Toxing them really early. But they. He and Bill. When Bill was starting Realtree and talks. He was starting that. They were about six years after we had started.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yep.

[Dan Moultrie]

And we hit it off with. With the Mossy Oak group and, and just had a great. You know, it's. They've been kind of like family, you know, and, and. But I was always friends with Bill and there was never any animosity or anything, you know, with that group. But watching both those compete and now everybody has the camo. But all that was. Right. You know, we had been in for a little while, long enough to sort of get started. But they were just. Their presence in the industry was fantastic. But that early group, we were talking the other day when Phil Robinson died, a bunch of us and that whole group of us at those early shows. And I'll tell you, the only people in those early shows in the late 70s and these were mostly two step distribution shows. There wasn't any deer shows or any of that.

[Sam]

Right.

[Dan Moultrie]

Was you know, the Remtons, Brownings. And then you had Baker, you had Moultrie, you had. And the, the problem now is all those guys that we came through with, there's a bunch of them gone. I mean, it's unbelievable how many gone. I'm just happy to be here with you hanging on the. But you know, we're almost 50 years in the honey industry.

[Sam]

That's. I mean. And that stat alone is wild. Just because when you look at what we call the modern hunting industry, I mean, that's about the beginning.

[Dan Moultrie]

Yes. That was the turn. And I have said it on several shows and podcasts we've done. Hunting wasn't a lifestyle back then. That was the time that people had come back from World War II. They were in a warp mode. And hunting, if you got a chance to hunt or fish, you went and they enjoyed it. But it wasn't a lifestyle where it's six months out of the year hunting and six months out of the year fishing, you didn't do anything else. Yeah, you know, that's, that was the change. And we were right at that time when. In the late 70s when that happened that. And, and it was just, it was the. I can't tell you saying it was the coolest last 50 years. I can't imagine having ever done anything different. Have. It just. I always tell people I don't feel like I ever worked today because I would have been wanting to fool with wildlife anyway, you know.

[Sam]

Right.

[Dan Moultrie]

And, and, and manufacturing and, and bringing forth to hunting industry. Oh, it was just, it was fantastic. But yeah, you're dead on. That same group of guys, Will was instrumental, toxic, all the whole, that whole first run of guys. You know, a lot of southern guys. But the, the thing that I saw that drove that first group because all of us hunted, most of us hunted together, but we were off the chart, passionate about it.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

That's what drove that. They, they got in it because they, they were hunting way more than anybody else. And same deal we were doing. And so it made you come up with these ideas and you came up with a better looking camouflage, you came up with a feeder, you came up with a cam camera. That's what drove it. That's where the innovation came from, was the passion.

[Sam]

So where did, so where did your passion for hunting come from? Like where did you grow up? Like how, what was your upbringing like that led you to that?

[Dan Moultrie]

Both my parents were from over in Georgia and from longtime farming families, typical deep southern roots. My mom was from South Georgia down there and they my half cousins that still operate those farms down there. My dad was from. Right. Callaway Gardens. Right. Harris county, which turned out, you know, you never know. Look at the genetics in there now. You know that, that area where Foxworthy and all those guys are down there, probably the. One of the best huntings in southeastern United States. We were growing up. Lee. Oh my gosh. And so, so that, that turned out to be really cool. And, and so that's where I started. My dad came back from World War II, went through the power companies, Georgia Power Company and then was with Southern Company and you know what? I had a great opportunity with them. But I knew from before I ever got out of school I wanted to do something different and do something within our hobbies or what we were excited about.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

And these kids, when they come by now, I tell, you know, everybody, oh hey, how do we get into the business? What do we want to do? And I said look, you need to find out what you love to do more than anything. And that's what you ought to do. Because if you look, you're not going to be successful. The guys who are the most successful at stuff, they're passionate about it, they love it. They look forward to coming to work every day. Not somebody going, God, got to go to work, you know.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

And that, that's kind of our industry.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

You know, Sam, that's how it was built.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Sam]

Yeah, absolutely. No, I mean in what I've done in my career is mostly photo video stuff. But I've always been a hunter first. Like, you know, I've gotten asked a lot like what, what would you rather do? Like be, you know, the guy on the camera or the guy on the trigger? And I'm always would love to be the guy on the trigger.

[Dan Moultrie]

Yeah.

[Sam]

But, but being the guy on the camera has allowed me to do a lot more of that.

[Dan Moultrie]

You get to be there on the hunt and do the whole hunt except to pull the trigger. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's.

[Sam]

No, no. I've gotten to go on so many different experiences that never would have been able to afford, you know, like actually having to buy the tag or whatever. So I would agree with having to find something you're passionate about to be able to, you know, actually go do the things you love.

[Dan Moultrie]

Well, you know, one of my dear, dear friends of the industry probably was the very first that I know of doing that was Ronnie Strickland's cousin down in Austin. I remember Ronnie with that huge beta cam when he was Ballard Will and doing those first day stuff, you know. But we were, we were in a group talking about some of that very first stuff and they were talking about the first VCR tapes that had come out. And the one that seemed to turn the industry from, from your side of the stuff was Gene and Barry Winslow did one called Bow Hunting October Whitetails.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yep.

[Dan Moultrie]

That was the first one that really, it grabbed people. They were like, oh my gosh, so you can do this. Like this. You know, I remember that one and that, that was right at that 45 year mark ago. I, I think somewhere right in that range. I mean that's a long time ago.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Sam]

Which is, which is crazy to me because when I came up into it, everything was becoming digital at that time. So it's all, you know, SD cards and you know, I actually had my first professional video camera was still a tape. But even by the time I got to like started in the industry, that felt outdated. You Know, and my parents had the old vcr, like over the shoulder camera, all that stuff. But man, like when I look at the amount of. I mean, even for you guys, like creating marketing material for Moultrie and all that stuff, I look at the amount of time, effort and money that had to be put into that kind of stuff back when it was all, you know, tape or those gigantic beta cameras and like all that stuff. It's a different level of in, like, it's a different involvement.

[Dan Moultrie]

Yeah. Let me tell you, bringing in feeders and cameras, especially cameras, through that whole discovery development, design and then staying up with where it is now.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

Which is. It's unbelievable what that took and where that is and what they're doing now at Moultrie is just soft the chart. It's unbelievable. I mean there's hundreds of employees in here, there's engineers walking around everywhere. They. We have a special, but you gotta have that if we're gonna have the best product and be number one in the category. That's what we wanna have.

[Sam]

Right. Right. So how do you like, how did Moultrie start? Cause I've. I've listened to you on other podcasts and I've seen other interviews and stuff, but it wasn't. You didn't just like quit your job, start Moultrie?

[Dan Moultrie]

No, I was working at Southern Co. Of course, like I said. But at. From day one, even before I graduated Auburn University. Let's give Auburn a plug. And let's not talk about University of Alabama much, but we're gonna talk about Auburn and what. But when I graduated, even before that, I had been working on. I knew I was going to do something in it. So I had been working on projects and getting stuff ready. But my brother owned a company in Atlanta that did. That was the start of the computer age too. Sure, they did security that it was found that everybody was going to these, you know, the old big, huge antiquated computers. But they needed security. So they had a security company that. And he was really good. He. He was a. Had a master's degree from Georgia Tech and Double E. And he knew that side. I was kind of always mechanical and he always was electrical side. But I was on one Christmas and I said, hey. I said, nobody's really doing what we want to do with Feeding Game and try. And I said, there's one other company that we could find at that time was building feeders and they were in Texas and they were extremely high end. And he said, what you got in mind? I said, if it can't be affordable. I don't think we can reach the people we want to reach. We want to reach the average. We want to make it affordable for the average guy to have great success in this. And so he took a napkin and drew a schematic out at Christmas of a napkin. And he said, here's the material list. You, you go get this. We'll build ten of them. Sure. We ever got them built, I started telling buddies of mine I hunted with and the first guy, and he just recently passed away. I did a eulogy, his funeral a couple of months ago. He. He said, I'll take all 10 of the first. Never. Didn't he know what they were. But that was. But that deal with friends and them driving it. And so, you know, we were able to take that 10 and build 10 more. Take that 10 and build 100. Take that 100, bill 500 and start working on it and get it working like it ought to do and ever changing it and revolutionizing it to the point that, you know, we took the lead in the feeder category. And it's cool that to this day, we've never had a backwards year and we, we hold that number one position for almost 50 years in the feeder category.

[Sam]

That's unbelievable.

[Dan Moultrie]

In a couple. They're not cool.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Sam]

And I mean, I. Obviously in that feeder world, it like the name Moultrie has been synonymous with that game. I mean, you guys are the ones.

[Dan Moultrie]

So we were always fortunate. But I'm going to tell you, and I've told this story before, but it's absolutely the truth. And we still do it now, one of the deals that made us. And it doesn't matter if it's your car, if you got a car, if you got anything that operates outside, at some point you're going to have trouble with it. And you may have trouble with it when it's new, you don't know. But those feeders and trying to make it through fire ants and spider webs, breaching the circuits and causing them to malfunction and all that stuff. If somebody was unhappy. The one thing hunters will do is they'll tell their buddies about stuff and they'll recommend it, or they'll tell them about it and they'll kill it.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Oh, yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

And so we from. From almost day one, I saw that that if we didn't take care of that issue, we were going to have a problem. And if anybody had a problem, we gave them a brand new feeder. And in today's world, you'd have to be Careful with that. But that back then, you know, people seemed to be, you know, hunters are a good group. And I think still today would be. They were very honest about this. And hey, it's not working. We'd take it back, we'd remanufacture those, and then we would give them new stuff. And one of the neat deals is I had an old typical southern old business guy and he said, tell me about your plane and Moultrie. And I told him, and he said, he said, look here, you gonna go broke doing that. And I said, and I didn't want to be disrespectful, Sam, but I told him, I said, no, let me tell you, if we don't do that, we're gonna go broke for sure. I think that was one of the big deals we had as we hire people inside Moultrie here. One of them had been for the. With a competitive figure company that we hired and put him in a pretty high level here. And Ashley, my daughter that works here, told me she came home one day and she said, hey, I was in a meeting. And she goes, the guy we hired from so and so they asked him, said, how can we get on top of the other companies and stay on top, you know, and. And the guy said, look what Maltreat was doing with giving away those feeders was killing us. He said that there's no way to compete with. So that was big. That. That was a big. Because you got to look at that time, nobody knew what a feeder was. Yeah, I mean, they would in the southeast or north, in. In the heart of Texas, you might have had it, but nowhere else did it that nobody knew what they did.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Right.

[Dan Moultrie]

And so you had something people already are skeptical about. So we had to convince them, hey, this is good. Use it the right way. Work within game and fish laws, you know. And it was always important to us, and it still is. Sam. There's just as many non consumptive customers as there is consumptive customers.

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[Sam]

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[Dan Moultrie]

And there's a pile of folks that wake up down at Lake Martin down the road here and want to see their deer in the front yard that morning eating and got them all named and love them and would die if anything happened to them. That's our customer too. So we had to wear both hats. That's a big part of it.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Sam]

Well, I think it just speaks to like the customer service value that you put on the company, like right away because like you said, if you, you know, let's say you made that first hundred or first five hundred, well, you had a bad batch of metal or a bad batch of something, if that goes wrong. And then you know, that one person tells their 15 buddies, well, you know, this one, these five broke and they didn't do anything to help me. That, like you said, that's killing the company immediately.

[Dan Moultrie]

And there was always those kind of issues. All the manufacturers in that same early group, everybody went through the same. Everybody had a. Oh, but it's how you handle the. And that. And that's what the difference was. You know, somebody that said, no, I'm not giving it back or I'm not. They got hammered because it's the one thing and the hunting business still is. And I know you'll agree with this, it's almost like a little fraternity. You're either in or you're out. And if the people in want you out, you will be out.

[Sam]

Oh, yeah, it's really tight knit, especially now with how easily it is, how easy it is to share information.

[Dan Moultrie]

Yes.

[Sam]

Like if you're not, you're not treating people right or doing things the wrong way.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yep.

[Sam]

You're canceled immediately. So. Yes. Happens fast.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

But those were huge things in it from their early days.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Sam]

So the, the feeder. The feeder was obviously first.

[Dan Moultrie]

Yes.

[Sam]

Why don't you run through. How did, how did trail cameras come about?

[Dan Moultrie]

Okay.

[Sam]

Like. Because I'm honestly super curious about this.

[Dan Moultrie]

Because that's, that's a neat deal. We were from the first days. And we're kind of, I think our company's known for this. We do a lot of corporate hunting in that day. Probably carried more people from customers because there wasn't this a stigma with going with people that, you know, somebody's trying to buy the business. Any of that.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

That never was our deal. Our deal was I wanted to carry them, get them out of their offices, show them we knew more about it than anybody in our category. And if they hired us and had trust in us, we would never leave them with an empty peg in their store. They wouldn't be without inventory. They would. And the classic phrase, nobody likes surprises. They would not get a surprise out of us.

[Sam]

Right.

[Dan Moultrie]

That was the way to get that across. And it really, I mean we became best friends. Some of my best friends the last 50 years were guys that, that started through them being a buyer or EVP somewhere or president of a company. And we would carry them and build relationships. And that relationship side was just major. So that helped it all the way through. And so while we were carrying them, we were going to Canada carrying them. Bear humming sure. And we really got into the bears. You know, everybody had white tails. But it was. The bear deal was a little different.

[Sam]

And Right.

[Dan Moultrie]

People hadn't done that. So we were able to carry them on a place where they could catch some big smallmouth and have a great time and eat shore lunch and we'd kill a nice bear while we're there. Everybody who would come though we had colored faced bears and they would want to know, hey boy, I sure would like to kill a cinnamon colored bear or a red bear or one with a white chevron or some. And we tried everything to try to figure out the color phase deal of when you have bears on baits. And the early, early deal that was done, we would take hooks like tuna hooks and not leave them as sharp as they were, but dull them.

[Sam]

Sure.

[Dan Moultrie]

They'd be appointed and we'd weld them to the barrels. And so when the bear would drag his arm across it, it leaves some Colored hair.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yep.

[Dan Moultrie]

And you could see and say, oh okay, look, there's Sunland Bear here. There's. But that became an obsession with me to try to figure that out.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

And there was an old company back then called Trail Timer. I think it was. And I think. I think. I think 3M Manufacturing was making them and they used them bear hunting. And what it did, it had a string attached and it went into a clock and when you pull the string, it detached that. That broke the time. Kind of like when you buy a watch nowadays. And you pull the plastic out and it starts running opposite of that. It started running when you. It was the same deal except in reverse for getting the time. You'd come back and plug the piece of plastic in and it'd tell you the time. And so with a bear, if you had one that was at 4:30 in the afternoon, that's mine. If you. If you had one at one in the morning, that's not my. And so we were using those and I said, you know what? There's got to be a way to skin this cat. And we went and got. I found. And all this back then was cameras that were automatic punch camera. Just. Just cameras. You punch.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yep.

[Dan Moultrie]

And there wasn't any of this other. There wasn't digital there. And everything was film. One of the biggest items in the mass merchants when you check out in any store at Walmart. The buyer who bought that was a guy named Clifford Young and a dear friend Mars candy bar. And he was. Everything where you check out, he bought.

[Sam]

He was doing all the impulse buy stuff.

[Dan Moultrie]

He did all the impulse buys for Walmart at that time. Some of his number one stuff was camera film. 12, 24, 36 rolls, you know, which.

[Sam]

Is crazy to think about now.

[Dan Moultrie]

Oh you. That's why the reason I'm bringing it up. I tell some of these young folks now and they're like film.

[Sam]

Right.

[Dan Moultrie]

You have to do it that way. So I went and found a camera that had a push button and I bought. I know you've seen the victor. That makes all the mice traps.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yep.

[Dan Moultrie]

Make a rat trap that's about the size of a camera. It's about, you know, it's a lot bigger.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yep.

[Dan Moultrie]

And the springs are too strong. We broke the springs down and made it where it just about like your finger touching it and I ru. Go bird it together. Built it down here first and got it to where it would trip. Same deal. String gets pulled, trips the trigger on the mousetrap that hit the bar. You got one picture took it up to Canada. We were up there. First time I ever used it. This is in the early, early 80s, really early 80s. And we put it out and all this we do now. And you get a thousand pictures and AI can tell you what bucks you got and all that. Now the first time I walked on that bear bait and saw that treadle tripped. Oh my God, that was just good as it got.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Sam]

I mean, I can't even imagine that feeling of like, oh, this actually worked. And then. And then what was the feeling once you got that film did like we.

[Dan Moultrie]

When we carried it to the little stores up there. I'd never put them in my name because I didn't. Everybody knew we had that hunting lease up there. We knew what was going them looking at the pictures of the bears. So I'd put some name and you go to the little stores and drop it off. And you either bought one hour developing or. Or next day, no worry. You had to have the one hour you spent on that. But you would get one picture. But it was so cool to do that. Then I started making Mole and I had them and we entertained. And I never. Very few of my really close friends saw them. They knew about them. They knew. That's how we were. You know, people were like, oh my gosh, how do you kill these color phrase bears? That's the way we knew what was on the base.

[Sam]

Sure. Did you. Did you ever have any. When you were getting that film developed, did you ever have anybody behind the counter? You know, maybe most of them didn't hunt or whatever. But did you have anybody ask like, how did you get a picture of a bear?

[Dan Moultrie]

I asked, but they never. I never went into it. You know, that was kind of everybody in our industry. You know, when somebody figured out a better broadhead, when they figured out a better scent they've had. Everybody kind of kept that close. Keeping this close and so.

[Sam]

Sure.

[Dan Moultrie]

But we were so busy. I never viewed that that would be a product.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

That I built that for a usage of us. No different than building the first Peters or anything else.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Right.

[Dan Moultrie]

But fast forward. The feeder business is rolling a few years and did you know Ray Mirsky? Did you ever hear Ray Mersky's name? He was an icon of the hunting industry. He probably. He was a rep in Texas. He owned striped King lures down there too. He was one of Sam Walton's best friend. I mean, he was the man and he knew everybody in that industry. And he was repping all our stuff down there and handled our stuff. And he had seen what we were doing with that. And he said, you've got, you've got this and we don't have it to sell. And I said, I said, we just use it for the. For what we're trying to find these barriers. He said, you've got to bring this forward. He said, it's just going to be spectacular. And you know what? He and Ray was smart enough to see this. I was viewing it. I was our customers that we wanted to sell. It was doing a fantastic job for that. Ray made the point the bear market and still in this in the pie chart of hunting items. So bears a little bitty sliver. Yeah, for sure is a great big chunk out of that pot.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

Ray saw that early on and so we developed it, got the very first camera ready. Nobody had been in the retail with it period that I knew of. And we, I had tried to show it to some of the people and I remember one of the buyers at Walmart told me, he goes, dan, you think somebody's wife is going to let them spend close to $300 and put a camera in the woods? And that was a great. Nobody had thought about stuff like that.

[Sam]

Right.

[Dan Moultrie]

You know, And I said, yeah. I said, I'm doing it and it's pretty neat, you know, of what we're doing. And Ray went before he was part of that, that I think they had. They may call it like a sporting good board or that sporting good group and race stood up for us and of course we were selling some dealers but on the big side at Walmart and told them, he said, hey. He said, and I'm forever grateful to him for this. He's passed away now also. But Ray said, look, if you'll do this, he said, you've got to carry. This will be one of the biggest items ever to be in hunting. Now, how he forecast that or foresaw that, I don't know. But you look, he hit that dead on the head.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Oh yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

And cameras, you know, I always thought the, the compound boat during my tenure of 50 years about here had been the biggest change in the hunting industry. Camera's a big deal and a lot of change. And the difference is instead of only one, like most people do, a bow or two, you got bunches of cameras, if you are. So that has changed. And it, you know, it kind of gave a guy the ability, not only through security of his property and his hunting lace and his cabin, but it allowed him to see what was out there that he wasn't knowing how to see. I can't tell you how many people those early days go, oh my Gosh, we saw 150 on the property.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

We had no idea we ever had and we'd never killed one like that. And it was kind of gave them their wish list, you know.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

And so all that came, we put them in Walmart, we put them to places, went crazy then to transition. A huge transition was going to digital cameras.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

The problem with digital cameras is back then you had to turn them on and it had a warm up and it would make noise while it's warming up. And they were battery eaters.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yep.

[Dan Moultrie]

And so we were, we were running the prototypes with car batteries and it would drain the car batteries because. Because they couldn't, you couldn't turn them off. They always had to be on. Now the digital would silent go click, click, click, click, click and get you camera pictures.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yep.

[Dan Moultrie]

But it had to be activated and on. So. So it's running and pulling power the whole time. Well, thank goodness to the good engineers here, Brad Cutler and Ebsco and we were able to get that figured out and we introduced the first, that was the first digital camera ever to the industry.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Wow.

[Dan Moultrie]

We got that done. Then it transitions into cellular. We got the cellular deal done. Same path, same deal. Predco and Moultrie introduced the first cellular camera ever. The just recently we removed the SD card so that you don't have to fool with a doggone SD card. It's going to get encrypted anyway and you don't have to buy a camera anymore that hey, I don't have anything but Verizon service. One camera does it all. We handle the logistical side and any major network anywhere will hook you up.

[Sam]

With it for sure. And that's really cool. Like I.

[Dan Moultrie]

Those are big time timelines in the camera. Those were major, major jumps in the camera industry.

[Sam]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I mean because like can you first, I want you to describe. So the first camera you guys sold into Walmart was obviously film camera.

[Dan Moultrie]

Yep.

[Sam]

How, how big was that camera? I mean can you describe that to people?

[Dan Moultrie]

It was, it was it. We. It's the only patent I ever held. Does Ashley still have had it in her office? Marcos will grab. We've got one or two in the museum here.

[Sam]

Okay.

[Dan Moultrie]

And what was neat, you know, I never held a patent in all the years of all the hundreds of different items we produced. I always thought you out market people. I wouldn't, I didn't need to be protected by patent. But when we were bringing the camera. I thought, you know what the problem was? We had to get it weatherproof, I thought because nothing was waterproof back and everything. Everything water gets on film. It's over, guys. That was it. And so we designed a ball cap design that went over the front of the camera. Oh, he's got it right here. Here's one of the very first ones right here. Can you see that?

[Sam]

Oh, yep, I can see it.

[Dan Moultrie]

And so that's how big it was. And it had this ball cap design that this snapped off. And so that we patented that ball cap design. And I thought, you know what this will. I don't know how anybody else can leave a camera in the woods without being able to protect it. Because see, there was no film, there was no plastic, anything in there. And inside there's some of those same cameras like we were using on the very first ones. Close. These were upgrades back in for upgrades. But nobody would even know what that is. But you see, we took the button out. We had to take the. That was where the push button was. And we hardwired it for an auto advance.

[Sam]

Okay. That's what I was going to ask next. I was like, that's how we got to multi shots. Yeah, I was going to say, was it still a single image?

[Dan Moultrie]

We had to pop every one of those buttons out, hardwire, put it back together. And then of course, the batteries went down below it. Then get it ready. Yep.

[Sam]

So I mean basically taking like an actual film camera.

[Dan Moultrie]

Yes.

[Sam]

And then just loading that into the shell, which for anybody is just listening to this. It kind of. It looks like a be like a dog bowl kind of thing. Like. Yep, kind of a.

[Dan Moultrie]

And that was the sensor down here. All the electronics for the sensor was down there. But that we were loading it in there. That's correct. That's the very first one that ever got produced, mass produced and sold in.

[Sam]

The US that is awesome.

[Dan Moultrie]

And all this was vacuum produced. We did all our own work in our own plant. All this we did. And it was just. It was a neat time, you know, being able to do that and get to have it. A lot of changes since then.

[Sam]

Yeah, yeah, that is. That is super cool. So, I mean, over the years, obviously you guys are committed to like innovating, changing the cameras, making these huge leaps when it, you know, from fill camera to digital to now cellular to now, like connecting to all four major networks. Like what, like how do you. Like what's. What drives that? Motivation. Like, what's the motivation behind like continually increase setting the bar and Then how do you stay ahead of like all these trends? Like I mean like that competition with other companies and like how do you, how do you, what's what motivates that and how do you stay ahead of it?

[Dan Moultrie]

Thank goodness for the resources we have here and the group, the team that we've assembled, they're driven for that. But you have to stay. We stay about three years just on the development side of stuff. You hear about there may be some ex military technology that becomes available that comes out of patent for them and that you can get and it's stuff that just is life changing for hunters. But it's all, you know they talk about. Missiles can be put through a kitchen window a thousand miles away a little bit not to that estate, but some of that stuff that's available, that's the way you find out about that. And then through use and innovation and our engineers design and stuff. And we have storm sessions where we sit around and everybody sits in the same room and you burn through ideas and come up with it. And you look now you got AI involved in the cameras and what was cool they got where you know, with cellular cameras you may get a thousand pictures a day. If you're running a farm that's very common. That sounds like a lot. That's not a lot. You got it set for every 10 seconds and you're getting a picture of every time a doe or deer moves through there or a coyote comes through or anything.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yep.

[Dan Moultrie]

But, but what the, the neat deal is you, you got AI now which is sort of new to the scene as it the last few years. You can go through. I can go through and punch it. I can separate. When we go into turkey season, hit turkeys. I know where the turkeys are coming to which green fields and you can see where the activities is. You can see the ones at 6am you know they roost near there. You know if they're there late they're going to go up to rooster. You can use the AI for the your predators. You want a predator hunt. You got cows will come to the same feeders looking for mice and rats and whatever else may be around them that they can get a free meal that you can use it in your predator hunting. So that ability to hit the air and now you can separate bucks from does where if you're getting a thousand pictures a day. People used to spend hours and hours these game biologists that did camera surveys for their customers. I knew one and he was telling me they had I don't know how many Hundred thousand pictures, and they had to go through every single picture. Not anymore. You hit one button, we do it for you.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Right? Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

And you talk about time save. Oh, my. And the information. You'll miss them doing it manually. Our system doesn't miss them.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sam]

And I've. I've used it quite a bit just to cut down on false triggers, you know, like, I. I hunt prairie stuff a lot. So it's a lot of blowing grass and whatever. And so to be able to eliminate a lot of that, like where you're getting photos of just blowing grass and between being able to cut out zones. So if anybody listened to this, you can go in. If you have the camera that has the AI tools, you can go in and, like your ring camera, you can choose which zones you want it to take photos of and which ones you can, you know, cut out. And then on top of that.

[Dan Moultrie]

Hey, Sam, I'm so proud of you knowing about zone management. Okay. You're one of the few out there. That's fantastic.

[Sam]

That's one of. That's one of the best things, because then it's like, I've had times where, like, I'll leave it, you know, I'll have a camera out for. Call it six, eight months or whatever. Well, I'm going through seasons where, like, okay, I put it out in the spring for turkeys. Well, now the grass is four feet tall. Well, I can go in on those zones and I can, like, kind of around the edges, I can get rid of those zones that are going to trigger the grass. And I'm still getting the animals that come through the middle.

[Dan Moultrie]

Right?

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Sam]

So that's a. That's a. That's been a big one for me. And then obviously the AI where you can target, you know, pick different. Like, okay, I want it to send videos of if it. If it sees a buck. And then I just want a photo, like a single trigger if it thinks it's a doe. And that has been nice, too, because then I'm getting, you know, 10 photos a day instead of, you know, 100 or 200 or whatever we would like to be.

[Dan Moultrie]

And our kind of philosophy is if a guy buys a farm, we want to have the stuff that he needs. Now, we're not into bullets and broadheads and all that. That's not our gig. But if it's wildlife management and being able to increase your knowledge of it or make it easier to handle. Now, you look, you go to the camera. You got maps.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yep.

[Dan Moultrie]

Come and it's going to locate it's going to. You're going to automatically be able to see where everything is, period. Even without loading it. And I mean it's as good as it gets and. But now you got your weather on your camera, all the stuff that you may be paying extra for. Yep, we'll be giving it to you.

[Sam]

Yeah, yeah, it's pretty amazing. I mean, and I'm assuming that you guys do a lot of like because it's a technology company, right? At this point.

[Dan Moultrie]

Yes.

[Sam]

I would imagine that you guys do a lot of like, you're striking a balance between making sure people still have woodsmanship, you know, because cameras are a tool and I talk about this a lot and there's, you know, there's debate between cell cams, you know, big debates for me, like, this is my personal opinion. I love them for a couple reasons. One, it's another tool that allows me to take one piece of the puzzle and then still use all of the things I've learned since I was a little kid growing up and reading sign and finding bedding and doing all these things. And it's just one more piece of the puzzle to maybe get a little bit inventory and figure out like, okay, there is a deer in this area that I would like to hunt. You know that for me, that's it. Like, and a lot of times I'm hanging cameras for so I can get my dad or my uncle or my brother or my brother in law in positions where I know there's going to be deer and then I'm hunting stuff where I don't even have a camera. So like what do we do? Deer camping.

[Dan Moultrie]

Oh, that's right. And that's a great point you bring up. And I draw on. I spent 12 years as chairing game and fish for the state of Alabama. I don't know if you knew that or not.

[Sam]

No, I didn't know that.

[Dan Moultrie]

You know, we wanted to give back.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yep.

[Dan Moultrie]

To the industry. So under the Riley administration here we. I chaired game and fish and then went into half of the next governor's term and they were six years terms. But in doing that when we would approve stuff and you got to look, we went at that time and all this is kind of related to what you just brought up. I don't know if you remember, the limit on bucks in Alabama was 117. Each individual could kill 117 a day.

[Sam]

Okay.

[Dan Moultrie]

Our research before we came forward with our recommendations. Yeah, 85% of the bucks killed in the state of Alabama back then were a year and a half Old.

[Sam]

Wow.

[Dan Moultrie]

There wasn't a chance for them to get big.

[Sam]

Right.

[Dan Moultrie]

And people would come. There was big limits. But a guy would go, today. Well, there's a spike. I'll kill him because I may not see him tomorrow. Boom. Affect what I do the next day. They didn't. People didn't understand age, class management back then and that they had nothing new about the bell curve of when the best horns were optional. All that was forthcoming. But we knew enough about it. We knew we didn't want to be in that Right. And we had lost in the state being a destination state for somebody coming for a great hunt. You know, look at what Kentucky had done at that time. They. They dropped their limit to one. And look what they did. Look at what all that. Look what Kansas had done. But look at the. The Iowa. Look at the premier states. So we had to take that. And we. Our original recommendation. I would love to had one, but was two. And this is a great hook we story. The governor called the commissioner and I over to the state House and he said, come to my office. And he said, hey. And he was always great. Governor Raleigh was the best governor we've ever had. And he always said, hey, just do what's right. I got your back.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yep.

[Dan Moultrie]

And he said, I understand y' all are changing the deer leverage. I said, yes, sir.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yes.

[Dan Moultrie]

He said, what is it now? I said, 117 bucks. He said, what are we going to. I said, two. He sat there. He goes and he looked. The commissioner was Barnett Law. And he loaded. Barnett died. He go, do you realize what you do to me politically in Alabama going from 117 deer to 2? I said, that's the data. This is what the data show. You know, we've done our homework. He goes, I need three. And I tried to hold my ground and fought for two. But in Alabama now, you. You can kill two of choice, but one of them has to have four points on one side.

[Sam]

Sure.

[Dan Moultrie]

Most people don't know that was where we negotiated back in office that day.

[Sam]

Gotcha.

[Dan Moultrie]

That's why that. Yeah. I mean, and that.

[Sam]

That obviously stems from using the North American Wildlife model of conservation.

[Dan Moultrie]

Oh, yeah. Yes. Yeah. And so all that. But. But. So the camera issues came up. Oh, that's unfair. They load them up on a waterhole. There's 50 cameras on a waterhole. Yeah, I totally agree with that. And let me tell you, I've been on the Game of Fish site. I get that. I totally agree with that. But just like we did when we approved turkey decoys in states. We approved muzzleloaders, we approved inline guns, we approved compound bows with various degrees of let off. We approved thermal to be used for hog hunting at night. In that. All the same stuff in that. Tools in the toolbox. You got tools in the toolbox. Just because you got the ability of something telling you information, that doesn't mean you have to take it to a point where it's unethical for the hunt. Let's keep it where it's hunting, where it's fair chase hunting, all about that. But there's nothing wrong with tools in the toolbox in our opinion. Because if you did, we'd all have to go back to flintlock and sitting on the ground. And no waterproof clothing. No recurves, longbows, no thermocell to keep the mosquitoes off. I don't care what product it is, it always gone through transitions. But one of the points we made in game and fish, Sam and this was really huge if, if that was the time when we started, the average number of hunters in the US was 7%.

[Sam]

Okay.

[Dan Moultrie]

That had dropped to about 3 and a half percent. And the reason that it dropped that was that same time that you had a lot of single moms raising kids. Yeah, they could, they didn't have access to the outdoors. There was no ability to get there. That's when we all created the, the women coming into the outdoors, you know. But it was totally a male driven sport back in. That was one of the biggest segments getting those women back in. We were going to lose hunting if we didn't stay current and keep people interested and new. How are you going to get kids now that love to have a Game Boy in their hand if they can't operate something like that? Look at what they. You think they don't like doing the camera? You think they don't like using technology and what they can do with that?

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yep.

[Dan Moultrie]

If you don't keep up to date and transition. We were fixing to lose hunting by being antiquated.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

The hunting industry made a great turnaround sound.

[Sam]

Yeah, absolutely. The camera thing for me, it has extended my season like, like and I just did a whole series of stuff, you know, for field and Stream and moultrie about this. But the like we always do a family deer camp and cameras have extended our deer camp to like, you know, almost all year round. So that way, you know, our group text. It's like when a deer shows up or whatever, it's like a new one shows up or you know, one we saw Last year. What. However it works out, like, you know, the text thread like fires up. It's like, oh, did you see that one today? Like, you know, so instead of just like five, seven days in camp, all hunting together, which we still do, we get to kind of have that like banter back and forth with the family group, you know, the whole year instead. So that's.

[Dan Moultrie]

How many. How many times do you all ask each other how old a certain deer is?

[Ronnie Strickland]

Oh, yeah, lots. Y. Yeah.

[Sam]

So yeah, one question I wanted to ask is like, so within Moultrie, would you say that. I mean, obviously, you know, don't want to make this all about the business, but like, would you say that, you know, innovation within in the company is simply a strategic priority or is it like one of your core values? Has it from the beginning, has it been something that you've been like.

[Dan Moultrie]

It's absolutely a core value. And what was neat, we had a function up here yesterday I was telling you about, and one of the new ladies in HR came up. She goes, let me show you what I got on my cameras. And she was showing me she had a bachelor group of bugs. And I was like, this is so good. I. I mean, you show me another company where some of the ladies in HR have multi cameras out that Right. He was so proud to show that. And she goes, we love looking at them. And she goes, I. We don't have anybody hunting up there and we don't like, you know, we want to really protect them, which is great. But that's again, you got to have both sides to that. But oh my gosh, it made her day. How would you have got her into that without having that ability to do that?

[Sam]

Yeah, my. My dad, when we first started running cell cams, I, you know, whatever. A couple of years ago, three years ago, and started working with Moultrie. So I had a few more cameras in the woods.

[Dan Moultrie]

He.

[Sam]

He goes, this is. He's like. He gets all fired up and he's like, this is better than Netflix. This is better than Netflix. And I think it drives my mom absolutely crazy. You know, he's always like, hey honey, look at. Look what just showed up on this camera.

[Dan Moultrie]

You know, it's Sam. I joke. You can go in an office and if you sit in a meeting, like if we came out to Yalls office and you're going to be 10 guys in a conference room or wherever, I don't care what business is. And you look over and there's a guy down and he's looking at his Phone, you know, only look at messages right quick. If he's tuned in on that phone, there's a good chance he's looking at his camera to see what.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Oh, yeah, he's got.

[Dan Moultrie]

I mean, that's high probability.

[Sam]

Yeah, I know for sure. It drives my wife nuts because, you know, especially during, when. When season starts coming around, she's like, what? It's like, you know, one in the morning, she's like, what are you doing? I was like, wow, I just had one hit the camera.

[Dan Moultrie]

It's just. That has really taken a cool turn. I'm glad you brought that up because the people love to share pictures. You know, part used to be nobody would make pictures as much as they did. They take an animal and they're skinning it out and take it to taxidermist, and when they finally got it, they'd show people. I remember people riding by mounted head. Hey, check this deer from last year.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

The second you get a picture on the game count, now that it's. It's. It's on the. The world wide web, right. And people are checking it out immediately and they're proud because look, look what we grew. And then you go to those questions, you think, I'll let it go one more year. How old are you?

[Sam]

Right.

[Dan Moultrie]

And. But look at what every bit of that did. Nobody knew about age structure. Age structure was something just a very few folks knew and knew that, you know, and through the universities doing studies with whitetail of when they. They bloom and what optimum age to get that deer to, that's what caused that they could see multiple deer. You get a camera picture with a two and a half or three and a half or five and a half and one older, you can definitely. And then they could see before they never had that ability to see that.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yep.

[Dan Moultrie]

That was. That helped train everybody to having better deer and better deer management.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Sam]

And I'm a firm believer that, like, if it makes you excited, you know, shoot whatever you want. I'm. I'm never going to talk down on somebody who shot something that got them fired up, that got their heart going and hands shaking. But like, as a. As a byproduct of like being able to watch a lot more deer, like you said, you. You start to understand the difference between a 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 and. And you just, you can see that. And so then when you're, when you're in the stand or in a blind or whatever, you start to be able to judge deer on the hoof a whole lot better and be like, like, oh, that, you know, like the way that one's belly sags way down. Like, you know, he's. That's an older deer swayback or, you know, all the different things that go into that. So that's. It's been a very, you know, probably an unintended byproduct, but a very cool byproduct of that. It's like educating a lot more people about deer.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

And I think it was A and M Kingsville or Caesar Clayburg out in Texas. There was a study about deer that they had that had at four and a half. And this is a neat figure that you say to people because there's guys and what's great, just like our state, you can kill anything you wrong. And if you got or somebody wants to shoot that little buck, great. They're got. That's a great deal for that. You kill him for whatever reason. That's your optimum deal. But a lot of people love to kill big deer too. Who doesn't like to see a big deer and kill.

[Sam]

Right.

[Dan Moultrie]

People didn't understand what it took to get there. And that study showed that at four and a half, generally a deer is only 65% of the antler growth. He'll be at six and a half.

[Sam]

Sure.

[Dan Moultrie]

Then, hey, how do we get them to six and a half? And then the controversy came through. This is years ago. Well, some of them are going to die. And if I can't get here, why not harvest them? And that stuff you have to wade through. But for the segment that love to kill big, big, big deer and trophy hunt, they understand, you know, you lose a few. But when you get them to that six and a half, you got some magic going on. Six and a half. Seven and a half even, you know.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

And that now, where nobody used to know about that was so many people knowing about that. Now all segments can be catered to.

[Sam]

Right, Right.

[Dan Moultrie]

And that's a huge. There's just a lot of benefits that came from having those tools in the toolbox.

[Sam]

Yeah, for sure. For sure. And, you know, again, reminding people that, like, the cameras only point one direction. And I have. I've had a lot of times where I'll have a camera on a tree or whatever and I'll get one image or one video of a buck that walks through that area.

[Dan Moultrie]

Yes.

[Sam]

And then they. I've deer figured them out, I think a little bit. You know, like I've had. I've had deer like see him once and then Avoid them again. And I was like, well, maybe that one just moved out of there. And then I might see him, you know, two months later during the rut or whatever, you know.

[Dan Moultrie]

You know, a lot of people, Sam, have learned about the rut through it because they'll see the same group of bachelor bucks if you got a piece of profit.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

You're not going to see different deer to the rut count once they start cruising and start walking. As we say, you. You see what somebody has eight miles down the road from you. And. And it levels the playing field of what may cruise through as that deer is looking for does. And. And it just has really shown people. It has shown when the rut is, you start seeing those new bucks show up and they're all mature and better deer on the camera that you pretty well, that's your rut going on, right?

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Sam]

And that's my favorite time of the year, obviously. I mean, obviously the cameras blow up a lot more and you get more photos and whatever. But that like 20 to 30 days leading up to the rut as deer start to do more deer things.

[Dan Moultrie]

Yeah.

[Sam]

It's just they're hitting, you know, mock hitting scrapes and doing all sorts of stuff.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Or the.

[Dan Moultrie]

I like. I bet we.

[Sam]

Auto timer.

[Dan Moultrie]

Yeah. Oh, it can go and go with this. Is that good? We'll go by this light. That's.

[Sam]

Yeah, we'll get that.

[Dan Moultrie]

That might be better. Ye. Hey, I have to cancel on you because of a storm that came through earlier this week. Now the power.

[Sam]

Now the power's going out at the office.

[Dan Moultrie]

We're going to push through, brother.

[Sam]

You had talked about how you just had a bunch of people in the office and even the person from HR was all fired up about using the products. So over the years to continue that innovation, to continually kind of like make those big leaps as trends change. Like, it takes a company culture. So would you say, like, you have tried to bake that in, like, as hiring goes and like bringing people on or like, where does. Where does that stem from?

[Dan Moultrie]

No, that's. It's. And we talk that that's core values that we have, and we want to have the right people. We want to have our quarterback playing quarterback and we want to have our center playing center. And we are very meticulous at interviewing lots of folks and getting the very best candidate that can possibly be. In the last 10 years, the team that's been assembled here has trumped anything I've ever seen. It's phenomenal. The team we've got and sure, not all of them like to pull a trigger and hunt, but they all have interest in the items. There's no naysayers to what we do, and they do a great job with it, but we got an awful lot of folks that hunt. The. The lady in HR suggested. She said, I hadn't been able to take a deer yet. And one of the new secretaries. We hadn't been able to take a deer. I said, look, y' all call me if y' all hadn't done it. We're going to get you a deer so you can do. But they're fired up about it. And that I. I truly believe that helps. You know, in the old, old days, this is 30 years ago, Cabela's was hiring. That was one of their strategies. They hired people that hunted and, and where a lot of the companies didn't. And I thought. I felt that made a difference. And not that we wouldn't hire somebody that wouldn't, but it's good to have them knowing about it. But, hey, if you're going to be around in this building, you're going to find out about Honey.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Sam]

I just think having that mentality when it comes to business where you, like, you're obviously. I think it's good to have a mix because you have people who are coming at the business from an angle where like, they. They see the numbers and the trends and how to make business run more smoothly or create products that, you know, do things that somebody that hunts might not even think of. But like having that balance and, and having people that spend a lot of time in the woods go. No, as. As some, you know, like the culture of the people who are spending time in the woods wouldn't do that or wouldn't, you know, don't need that or like, you know, whatever, whatever the back and forth might be like. It's cool that you guys have kept that culture going where it's like kind of this collective brain, like continually moving it forward.

[Dan Moultrie]

You know, one of the deals we stretched early on, and we still say it, we said it yesterday, we were in the meetings and is from the very first, our methodology was sell the brand. Sell the brand, sell the brand. There's a lot to selling the brand. You have to have a quite quality. You have to have the right people. It takes a lot to sell the brand. But that strategy of driving. Sell the brand, sell a brand, sell a brand. We still deeply, deeply go by that, that, that methodology. We're going to sell you the brand we want, you know, and I Think that's come across. I think people in any store when they go buy a multi product, we're not going anywhere. We're going to be here and we're going to take care of you if you have problems.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sam]

So another thing I want to talk about is you've been in the industry for 50 years now. Or almost sneaking up on 50.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Sam]

What. What would you say? I mean obviously there's been massive changes around it. Like completely like you know, from from when you first started until now. Like just like the very big changes. But what's. What are some of the biggest things that you've seen? Differences like whether that be in the business or in the culture of hunting. Like what's the biggest change you've seen?

[Dan Moultrie]

I always thought the biggest product change was the compound boat.

[Sam]

Sure.

[Dan Moultrie]

You look at what that went from. That was right at Fred Bear's time and people were intrigued with what Fred Bear did with his longbow and recurve bow. And I mean that was a. He was king of king in that. But as soon as Bear came out with that first little compound bow and Jennings had those first bows, I mean I remember having an old Jennings split T2. It was slow as Christmas. I mean you could see that. But look at how that has changed. And now it. Because hunting is a lifestyle. Everybody's like, oh, I gotta have a bow. And so that bow has come along for everybody to be able to shoot one where before it took a lot of time to be very, very proficient. Yeah, that bottleneck is closed down. So. But the compound bow has changed a ton for sure. The information highway, the, you know, the little products that made it better. You look what Gore Tex did. And this is just sort of buzzing through the products that had their quip. When people found out that they could stay dry and be out hunting instead of the old, you know, up to then everybody. Oh, you hunted in wool, right?

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yep.

[Dan Moultrie]

The only problem is, well, when it got wet, you lost some of the heat value.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yep.

[Dan Moultrie]

Couple that were Gore Tex and look what you had.

[Sam]

Right.

[Dan Moultrie]

Gore Tex was a big one and one small one that is big. But thermal cells. Look at what the thermal cells. You go hunt and you go in Canada and the black flies are running you out. Or in Alaska, the mosquitoes. When you're up there on hunts and you flip on a thermocell and immediately it. There's no effect to the game, but it removes the pest that helps a bunch of money. Little stuff like that has evolved. But all that came from what we talked about earlier, guys were doing it, they said, there's got to be a way to do this.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yeah.

[Dan Moultrie]

And figure this out.

[Ronnie Strickland]

Yep.

[Sam]

And it seems like that's kind of just what continues to happen, you know, into this Internet age and like, all the technology and, you know, I think. I think a lot of it, like you said, it's tools in your toolbox. It doesn't necessarily make you a better hunter yourself, but it is. It can be one thing that you can add in and just change the game a little bit.

[Dan Moultrie]

It makes. If we want to recruit, if we. And to. Whether it's a business or whether it's game and fish or whether it's hunting, we have to have recruitment of people for this sport. If not, there's a lot of people trying to get our sport. So we want to have recruitment. If we don't make it fun, if we don't make it enjoyable, you're going to lose recruitment. There's nothing wrong with making it enjoyable. That protects our industries.

[Sam]

Absolutely. Well, I think that's a perfect spot to end it, just with getting people involved because the more people we have in, you know, that are in the fold, we can speak on behalf of a bigger voice when we need to speak up about hunting and fishing and protect it. So, Dan, can't thank you enough for hopping on the Legends of the Wild podcast and for everything you do and have done in the industry. So thanks again for joining us.

[Dan Moultrie]

We appreciate that. I appreciate you, you calling on us. And please call on us at any time for anything, any way we can help you, we're available. And if you ever have a spare spot out there, you call me. I'm gonna come visit when I get one down here. I'm gonna have you down here. We'll do it. We'll do another one at the lodge down here. How about that?

[Sam]

Deal? Yeah. I was trying to lure you up to North Dakota, go chase some walleyes, but schedules, the summer schedule, that's rough. Just getting ready for hunting season.

[Dan Moultrie]

Hey, and y' all knew that it was just like you were lining up to figure out a big whitetail. You said let's. Let's invite multitude to catfall. No, when I read that part, I was like, oh, my gosh, I gotta be on the go, so. So let's do that, please. Let's trade out. You come down and enjoy it with us when we'll come up there.

[Sam]

Absolutely. Well, thanks again and we'll. We'll catch up with you soon.

[Dan Moultrie]

Thanks, Sam. Have a great day.