Jon Collins sits down with Matt Ferris from IRayUSA to discuss the new Nocpix Thermal Optics.
welcome to the fox Pro podcast brought to you by Fox Pro game calls hello everyone welcome back to the fox Pro podcast I'm John Collin we have another new guest joining us today we have Mr Matt Ferris of knpi we're going to be discussing thermal and looking at the knock pick line of thermal equipment how you doing Matt good John thanks for having me I'm really excited to be here today and great state of Pennsylvania here at Foxpro HQ this honored to be joining you all today yeah this is uh I hear you say ear this is the furthest East you've ever been first time on the Eastern Seaboard if you will and definitely first time in Pennsylvania so yep what about uh what you thinking about the weather change too cold what was the temperature when you left Texas I think it was about uh 58 degre nice and sultry whenever I left yesterday it's not 58 here it's like 18 here so it's pretty big temperature swing for you sir you guys probably noticed we're doing something a little bit new here for this uh this podcast or podcast has always been just Audio Only we've been on you know most of the major podcast platforms but we're actually uh recording this one video recording so we're actually going to throw this one up on uh YouTube as well we want to show you guys the new knock piix line of thermals and so we want to make sure you guys get a good up close look at them so you get a visual uh not just having to listen to us talk about them but you can actually see the product as well but before we dive right into it Matt want you to tell us a bit more about yourself and Ira USA sure so I work for Ira USA we're out of Louisville Texas and I'm the product manager there so a lot of my job is helping to bring all these new thermals to Market you know lot that goes into it is all the fill testing of course that's the fun side of things y but then we also write the manuals do reports uh FDA testing MSDS all that stuff that goes on and to bring a new product to Market all the fun stuff all the fun stuff yeah so really excited to be here talk about these I know y'all had some time to use them down the field um I've been using this knock piix lineup for a while and I I think it brings a lot to the table that the market needed it sure does talking about testing them down in uh the great state of Texas that's definitely a Target Rich environment you all definitely get to look at plenty of Critters through uh Through The knp Thermals well you telling me just earlier that back there what you say was the big bobcat contest maybe last year that you actually saw a y'all C well called out didn't actually really called it up close but called out a mountain line yeah actually saw a mountain line up in the pan handle we were hunting West Texas and and uh pulled into a new spot and at first thought it was a bobcat sitting there kind of close you know to see a cat set in the middle of a field kind of caught your attention and then we kind of get ready to you know make a move on it and then sure enough that thing stands up and you see a big old long tail sticking out and taking off and uh unfortunately he kind of got in some brush before he could take a shot but that was pretty cool experience you said it was pretty far off when you first looked at you know you thought it was a bobcat but that's just because the distance that thing had been up here about 50 or 60 yards you probably could have tell pretty quick that it luckily now we have you know all these products with built-in rangefinders and we're able to get that depth perception problem fixed you know and we'll talk about that that later like the ace there it has built-in built-in Rangefinder so that's pretty cool stuff uh speaking of of thermals and thermal technology it seems like they you know the technology has grown by Leaps and Bounds over just the last you know just a few short years I can remember a few years ago I would watch um you know thermal footage on Facebook and uh you YouTube and all this type of stuff and they'd have an animal out there at like a 100 yards and you couldn't tell the difference if it was a coyot dog fox cow deer I mean I mean it was pretty pretty you know oddl looking stuff but now good grief wa it is you know way it is now there's some of this footage I'm seeing you can count hairs on animals when they get up their clothes see they blood surching through V I mean it's pretty cool stuff sometimes you get a little too much detail out of it you know see stuff you wish you hadn't but it's all part of the fun
what what is some of the the fact what are some of the biggest advancements over the last little bit that has made the technology so much better and bring such a better picture sure so one of the things we really strive for is just performance is going to help hunters in the field and a lot of that goes into the sensitivity of the sensor itself the refresh rate the net D- rating um you know battery life is a big one we want you to be able to hunt all night long without spot batteries every couple hours uh and then just overall the resolution again that goes back to how much detail can we see out of this unit right and there there's different levels to that and it just keeps getting better and better right well speak speaking of that and you know I'm fairly ignorant when it comes to the thermal game it's very new to me um you know and I I hear those terms 384 640 and stuff like that explain to us because there's a lot of newcomers to the sport that's going to be listening watching in on this explain to us what those resolutions sure numb so the resolution is the size of the sensor and the most common ones are going to be a 384 Class A 640 uh we now have a 1024 and we've also have the 1280 and basically every time you step up that number that's increasing the resolution which means more detail that we're able to see in the screen and not all 640s are created equal not all 384 are created equal right you know it's kind of like Chevy 4 Dodge I'll make a V8 but everyone's got their opinion on which one's the best right right that that is one thing that I have noticed even like watching footage U like I said earlier on YouTube Facebook Instagram wherever it may be and you know people listen what kind of equipment they're using and you'll see this guy's using whatever 640 and this guy is using whatever 640 but there's one of them that looks a lot a lot better than the other and a lot of that too is the algorithm that we're able to use a lot of it goes into the software and the programming we're able to get more out of our sensors we're able to optimize that resol solution right to the viewer well you mentioned um refresh rate earlier as well what what is that sure so basically the the faster the refresh rate is the better that image is going to be live on the screen so the slower the refresh rate usually equates to more lag so if you've ever seen an animal running in thermal say you shoot at one Pig they're all standing still refresh rate doesn't really matter that much but as soon as that group takes off or a ky's on the move if you've ever noticed a little bit of lag in the Image Screen that's because of a slower refresh rate okay whereas now with faster better refresh rate there your lead is minimized so instead of trying to put your crosshairs a foot in front of a pig now you can put it right on it as it's rning off well see I've heard I've heard I guess it's an excuse I've heard this excuse before and I've watched and I didn't really realize what was going on so it's great to you explain it to me because I've heard people say you know we called this KY in he was running real fast I something he checked up and I would go to shoot and then he said like the next frame in the in the thermal the KY running off to the side and what it was they talking about the the lag and I was like what you right you just missed it you know what you talking about yeah and a lot of our units are going to be 50 and 60 Herz rated which is really what we strive for that's kind of that sweet spot to where you do get that that live image without any lag but we even have gone so far now to offer a model um that has 90 HZ refresh rate which was an industry first okay and so it's pretty awesome just again see how fast technology is changing all the time so really it sounds like it it takes kind of a special recipe or a special formula to get to get that big high quality picture out of th correct so it takes takes what what what are all the factors it take to get that pristine image a lot of it goes down to the software you know we're able to fine-tune that software you know inhouse we can program exactly how we want in order to minimize some of those other issues you know and that's just again getting the most out of that sensor as possible right so sensor your sensor resolutions your refresh rate even the glass that's on the things I'm sure all that all quality gerum lenses as well and then the other big one is called net D it's ND sensitivity okay tell us about that cuz I don't have a clue what that means so net D is noise equivalent temperature difference okay and for those of us in the field basically what that means is that's our ability to detect different degrees of heat on the target Okay so uh really high in that D- rating means that you're going to be kind of blurry around the edges of that Target say it's a pig or coyote it's not going to be as sharp and crisp looking whereas with some of our units now we're down in the sub 15 and sub 18 Melvin net D that means that it can detect much much higher differences in temperature see and so that overall equates to a much Sharper Image well out of all these advancements over the last little bit what do you think is the most important one it's really cont contributed to to thermal image is it is it all above mix formul you know it's kind of a triangle you know you want to have a equal balance of everything to get just that best overall image possible you know we could have a way faster refresh rate but then your other sensitivity might not be as good you could have really high resolution but if you have a slow refresh rate well then what's the point it's really good image until it starts moving you know so we we strive to have that equal balance across the board okay and you have that in the knock pick line well that's good stuff there's another thing that I've always seen people talk about and I have noticed a little bit in different different factors of weather how does weather humidity and stuff like that affect your that's a good question we get asked that a lot uh humidity does play a huge role in image performance and you have to think about humidity is basically moisture in the air so if there's any of that humidity between you and your target well that's going to affect the image that we're able to see between that because we can't detect that heat as well because of that barrier between right and again the better the Technologies the better the specs are the better we can cut through that humidity right do you see any kind of effects with like with temperature differences so like in a cold temperat like say you know you came from Texas it's 58 degrees 60° and you come here and it's in a teens and single digits can that affect definitely you know we'll we'll be out picking C hun in the middle of the summer in Texas it might be 100 degrees even at midnight triple digits you know and so the ambient temperature definitely plays a part because there's not as much difference between it and in the animal we're trying to look at whereas if we walk outside right now and there's a a pig you know he's hot as he's ever going to be and it's 19° outside well that air temperature is definitely going to be a big contrast between it and the pig and so you'll you'll definitely see that in the image quality I got you I got you uh another thing you know I always see stuff talk guys talking about like full moon nights darker than Moon bright moon does that have any effect on thermal equipment at all that definitely affects more night vision and digital night vision type devices but for us thermal heat is heat you know whe whether it's it's Moon lit or not it's going to be affected more by temperature than anything CU basically you can look I mean it could be lunchtime middle of the day and you're basically getting the same picture is that correct it's going to be a little different again because it depends on the ambient temperature outside yep so I've actually seen where some people H they'll be day hunting but they'll keep a like a thermom monocular on their neck kind of scan every once while cuz you know nothing can hide from the thermal pretty much especially like in tree lines you know if kind of hunting a wooded area and maybe that coyote doesn't come all the way out into the open field you're still going to be able to see a spot that's hotter than the Trees of the ground or anything else around it right especially if it starts moving and I mean kind of kind of cheat code it is like I said ain't nothing hiding from the thermal it's pretty cool it's you know especially somebody like me who's who had very very limited experience with it and then every time I look through one I'm kind of in awe I guess to say it's like really this is you know it's pretty neat especially like when the first time time I ever did do any night hunting and I think probably this is the case for most people especially somebody that's been in a sport for a long time probably your first experience night hunting was with lights yep you know either white light red light or green light and you know you're at here like I can't see nothing what are we what are we do hoping to see a set of eyes pop out right exactly exactly you know cuz there could be something out there uh just right there on that threshold actually being up and only thing you do see is a glowing glowing eye you don't actually see the animal but if you're looking through thermal you're you're seeing them you know that's what helped it out a lot too you know how many times you pulled into a field you may have bumped an animal out that you didn't know was there but now luckily we can kind of scan you know before we make a move and make sure that nothing's already in the field before we go set up to make a stand or look for pigs so you know we were talking about Chris Robinson earlier Chris Robinson's a great friend of ours known Chris for quite a while now great friends with with Matt and the guys at Ira USA and we were discussing his his light set up and you know he uses I mean he just lights the world up when he's when he's hunting but one interesting fact with Chris is a lot of times if not all the times they're still actually shooting with thermal even though they might be filming with the white lights they've always got thermal monoculars and thermal scopes that they're actually hunting with it's it's it's pretty neat it it tells you something you know there's stuff that he's missing with the lights and he needs that thermal there to make sure he's picking it up whether he admit it or not whether he he's all about that white light he a going to talk to you about no red light green light and heaven forbid you say anything besides a 243 that's right as for you Chris God's caliber yeah he he gets on me all the time about 22 250 he wants me to bring a real gun when we come back down there and hunt I'll be with him here the next couple weeks so guess what I'm bringing Chris I'm bringing 22 250 I ain't bring 243 what what caliber you shoot anyway so primarily I'm a big sixth Creed guy got builds in six Creed um you know again down there in Texas Target Rich environment you know one day we're shooting pigs one day it's coyotes and then few months out of the year you know do a little deer hunting and so I can kind of go up or down and bullet weight there and Y kill just about anything it's just kind of like that situation you got into there last year you know you guys were targeting it was a big bobcat contest so you have to what you have to check five fox or five cow try to be able to weigh a cat just to qualify your Bob sir so after you get those animals killed you need to be trying to focus in on the cats but I guarantee you even though you all were after a bobcat if you all would have called that mount line all in you won't put a bullet in it was exactly yeah so you might as well be shooting enough gun or you can know you're knocking down Bobcat but you get that chance at a mountain line uh there was an outdoor Rider one time that said an animal can't be too dead there's no such thing as Overkill there's no such thing as Overkill now I I think six Creed's a you know and I wasn't bad mou the 243 I love the 243 U people's heard me beat this dead horse before about calibers but and I've always said you know the 243 and 22 250 you know they're they're older calibers they've been around forever they're just proven they're proven calibers and uh I've always said no matter what has been out in the past what no matter what's out now what's going to come in the future the 22 250 and 243 will always be relevant I always think they'll be on that Mount Rushmore of K hunting calibers and really the sixth Creed is right there with it cuz they're so with the 243 I really am a big fan of the sixth Creed so it's it's a it's definitely a fun round just minimal recoil you know ammo available is great you know pretty much walking anywhere and pick it up now over the last couple years it's really got a lot more popular and I just like to be a little different you know it sounds cool no it it's it's a it's a great round I've shot 22 Creed quite a bit I've own a six Creed actually the furthest my furthest shot on a coyote was made with a sixth Creed got to snipe that one out from underneath almore he was trying to shoot you a little two 23 and was falling short and I went out there nice well let's get talking about the knock piii stuff that's uh uh big news uh this past this past fall from Ira USA uh bringing this to all the coy Hunters uh tell us a little bit about the knock pick line just in general how it came to be and all that type of stuff and we'll kind of break down these models for everybody to check out sure so with the knps lineup we had an idea to bring some new features and Technologies to the market uh you know we already had had infray outdoor pretty well established you know we think we've been made a name for ourselves in this industry and the Honey community and so we wanted to kind of leave that alone and just keep you know on with our success there and then offer a whole new line of products to our customers so along with that we've got some unique models here and the first being our Flagship model is the Ace h5r rifle scope you can see right here and the coolest thing about it is it's all new lens integrated laser rang Finder right so it's a very Sleek design you can't see a rangefinder hanging off the scope anywhere it's actually built into the lens which was a first for us right right and so along with that I mean there's lots of manufacturing testing sampling that goes into making a new product like that that was a first of its kind right and the idea just being we wanted something very Sleek you wanted a traditional form factor you know a lot of people who are in the hunting industry they've used a bolt gun and a regular day optic all their life well why not offer them a thermal that kind of fits that same role right and so it's easy to use with the turret controls there's just a really simple button layout on top including the rangefinder button so instead of trying to go through a menu setting and turn on a rangefinder or do some other you know weird stuff here and there you could just tap that button one time and now you can instantly range your target out to 12200 yards right right so that's cool that's great but we took it a step further and includeed a ballistic calculator into the software very nice very nice so what you can do with that is you can plug in your bullet speed your BC day so dope chart say you're shooting a 243 you put that in there you put what speed your bullets doing then as you range a Target it'll actually give you a custom hold over reticle where you need to aim that's pretty slck so I I was able to shoot a ky a few weeks ago at 458 yards poke with that six Creed using the ballistic software and I mean we don't always want to shoot them that far you know we'd much rather get them up close it look so much better for Content want call them close but no you're exactly right you know if you're consider yourself a Coy killer and you're out there to do the job of killing every Coy that you get into your thermal or whatever you need to be able to make that shot and for a lot of people you know what' you say 458 yards yes sir that's a that's a poke I know there's some people probably watching or listening they're like that ain't nothing that's a Chip Shot let me tell you when you get talking about over 350 yards you're making a pretty good shot because when you're talking about that distance you've got to take elevation into uh into account no matter what you shoot that's in the dark standing off a tripod exact I'm sure there are lots of guys who make farther shots we've seen the vide know but it's it's far between yeah it kill them at a thousand but that that's that's huge I mean anytime you start talking about that type of dis since you have to start considering wind and stuff like that and especially a little bit of hold over especially 458 having a device that helps take a lot of that guess work out awesome sure makes it EAS cool I know uh guys here to office Mike Dylan has been using the knock pick stuff for since October November time frame Z has zackass hinger that you see on Fox pro hunting TV some I know they they really appreciate the rang fighter I know they use y see it a lot of time I you know watch the footage you can see that Rangefinder clicking off showing the distance pretty cool feature and so along with the ace our very first offering was the h5r and what that was was a 640 sensor model so it kind of goes back to we talked about the different levels of ensors um we're very excited to announce that now we'll be offering it in a 1280 sensor version so you're talking over double the resolution of what was already a very good image so when will that be dropping that is coming out here at Shot Show and then availability will be late February early March so soon so soon we are we are getting ready to start packing them up and send them out to dealers that's exciting I'm sure you've got to test one a little bit already oh yeah it's uh it's going to be a hit that's that's about all I can say I guarantee it another cool feature about this Ace line you know it's it's like your traditional rifle scope looking deal and it's also got a ocular Zoom right that's right so what that means is you know previously since it is all a digital image you take that resolution say it is a 640 sensor and on something like a three power base mag scope well as soon as you zoom in one time we're cropping that image to bring the IM to bring the closer to you so you do lose a little bit of resolution every time you zoom in so that's why you've probably seen videos and footage where someone starts zooming in getting a little grainier a little grainier but with the ocular Zoom it's actually little lever right there as you turn that it's bringing the screen physically closer to you so there's actually a lens inside that housing so as you turn it you're not losing any resolution it's but it's bringing the screen closer to you so it's like zooming in but you get that full resolution that's pretty that's pretty cool that's pretty cool and then we do have the digital zoom on top of that via the turrets so even if the ocular is not enough you can still dial it in a little bit more I got you I got you what um what is the battery like what's the battery style that that's used in these in in the Ace True so on the ace it has an internal rechargeable battery inside the unit itself okay you're going to get about four to 5 hours out of but then it also has a replaceable 18650 just the standard offthe shelf nothing proprietary there uh very easy to get and again you're going get probably three and a half 4 hours out of that battery okay which is nice that we have internal as well because you can be in the field and you can see that your external battery is dying or dead you can hot swap it put a new battery in keep on Hunting without having to power it off turn it back on do anything like that so just keep the hunt going keep keep you calling or shooting pigs or whatever you're doing all night long that's pretty cool what's uh what's the warranty look like on that so with all of our not piix products we have a 5day fiveyear warranty and what that means is you're covered for 5 Years From the date of purchase but then we have 5 days to repair or replace it so say you're out in the field this weekend something happen say you know they are electronic devices things do happen you know weather environmental whatever so if something happens to it contact our customer service they'll send you a return label once we receive it at our office there in Dallas we have five days to either repair or replace that unit and get it back to you that's pretty awesome we're the only ones in the industry to do that I mean we're Hunters ourselves very helpful we realize that you know you spend a lot of money on these it's a big investment a lot of guys you know we're using these in the field all the time we don't want you to be waiting months to get a unit back you know we want you to get back out to hunting so when five day start when y'all received the unit or yes sir from the time we received at our office okay so it's pretty good what about the mounting options for that Ace what what like what size the tube and so it's going to be a 30 mm body so it actually comes with a pretty nice QD Mount right out of the box that you can mount on either bolt gun or you know AR type platform but then you know everyone has their favorite set of rings and QD Mount so any 30 mm Mount that you would have already been using anyways Bol right in there okay so yeah perfect perfect so like I've got a set of 30 mm rings on my day gun I could jerk my lot off there and throw that Ace right on there and go to run long as I got the enough height for clearance yeah oh cool yeah that's good is there anything else about the ace that we need to talk about they said the ballistics function is really nice and then one other feature that was a first for us is the instant playback so you can actually go into the screen if you've recorded your shot cuz all these units have onboard audio and video recording as well as streaming to the app you know Bluetooth Wii say you record a shot calling a coyote you shoot it you might miss stuff happens right or you might be hunting with the buddy and you both shot at the same time right lots of arguing ensues so now you can you can go right into the unit s while you're standing there in the field and watch that video back instantly on the device in the screen itself pry cool and so that that's a pretty neat feature and you know say you shot something that didn't die right away you can kind of go back and track where it may have ran off to so that that instant replay is a really nice feature to have and the video recording uh the audio recording has been pretty impressive we've been using it plenty here as of late here at Fox Pro uh if you guys watched any of the video clips on Instagram and Facebook we put a few uh YouTube videos out as well it's doing an excellent job we're really impressed with thank you pretty happy with it and then the other rifle scope that we're offering with not picks actually don't have one here today but it's going to be our slim series mhm and it's a offered in either a 384 or a 640 version yep and it's a twoin one scope and handeld SC yes so it has a has a pretty neat QD mounting system on it and basically you can pop it off scan with it and then throw it back on the gun just in a matter of seconds and it's going to Return To Zero you go right back to hunting so you know there's a lot of guys who need a scanner and a scope this gives them an option to have both in one and um the slim audio and video recording on it as well yep and also an 18650 battery nice nice same warranty yes warranty is like that acoss five day five years whether it's one of our handheld monoculars or scope nice nice um with it with a QD Mount and this is just something I'm wondering about just popped to my head so you quick detach off of it you're using it as a scanner you can put it right back on your firearm as long as you put it in the same slot it's supposed to be in you should keep zero so that's what's unique about this system is the QD base actually stays on the gun so it doesn't come off with the scope itself the scope just becomes a handheld the base stays on your gun I see so you know back I see long time ago there's lots of guys who would pop the entire scope off their gun and then it's in the dark you're trying to find that perfect slot you're trying to get it back on there well now this base stays on the gun so it's just a matter of clicking right back in place awesome awesome I have not yet yet has seen the slam and parse sounds like a pretty pretty neat opy good value yes sir yeah yeah what about our what about your monocular you got two models out currently right U Got the Lumi and got the Vista right Vista yep y so with the Lumi it's just a simple handheld monocular and the main idea behind it was being compact you know it's about the size of a regular daytime Rangefinder you can see there very small fits into a little Molly pouch you know throw in your pocket we offer it either a 384 sensor the four power base Mac or a 640 sensor with the the two power base mag nice and so that's just really handy you're out there scanning you're able to you know throw it back in your pocket go to shooting um runs off a single 18650 battery audio video recording all the same features there it all those it all and then the big brother to those is going to be the Vista model and again what's really cool about the Vista is the lens integrated laser range finder so this is going to share the same type lens as our a series with that 1200 yard Rangefinder capability So currently we have it in a 640 version with a 50mm lens that's a four power base mag and now we'll also be offering the VH 35r which is a 640 3 power base mag okay so say you're not needing something that's uh quite as long range capable this is more for the average guy who's hunting you know maybe two or 3 hundred yards and your farthest shot um it's going to be a little more suitable for that right it uh I haven't got to look through that yet it looks impressive setting there we'll have to take it out tonight so I can see what I can see with it and then what's neat about the Vista and the ace is the full circular display which I forgot to mention earlier but basically if you've seen a lot of the old thermals you're looking at a square rectangle type display in the screen this fills the entire display as you're looking through it so it's it's kind of like a daytime scope you know you're the whole thing is circular well now we applied that same concept to these that made me think of something talking about to ask you about menu and controls and all these models that's one thing Mike uh Mike Dylan has said it he really loves about the knock picks line he say it's very user friendly very user friendly with all the controls and the menu settings and all that there's a lot of thought that goes into that you know we we use these every week you know we're out here in the field trying to you know there's nothing worse than having to go through 30 pages of a menu to change one setting right so we put a lot of thought and emphasis on how to make these as simple and intuitive to use in the field in the dark that's a thing you have to consider is most time it's pitch black outside last thing we be doing is trying to find one certain button you know press on there so you need to do stuff on the Fly making everything as ergonomic as possible uh you know is one of our big goals well that that should tell you guys something um you know the guys Ira USA knock piix USA they're they're not just people that sitting behind a desk and bring in you a product these guys are Hunters they're fellow Coy Hunters fellow Predator Hunters they deer hunt hog hunt everything you just just heard talking about hunting a big bobcat contest these guys are Hunters they're not somebody just trying to throw something at start to sell it to you this is the stuff they use in the field and I think it means a lot it's just like us at Fox Pro we're all Hunters we're every it don't matter what department you come to here at Foxpro whether it's in manufacturing shipping all the way up to Sales Management we're we're we're Hunters we want to bring you a great product and I think that's one of the things that sets this stuff apart is you guys are you're you're out in the field doing it you're doing your own testing it it's pretty cool pretty cool yeah it's a it's a tough job that somebody's got to do that's right that's right but hey that's you know that's what it takes to bring a great product you know I I'm going to take a fellow Hunter's word on a product but I'm going to take anybody else I mean it's just the way it is well it sounds pretty pretty good Matt is there any any other new changes or new products coming to to the KN pick line here in the future near future yep so what I forget to mention earlier is along with the ace s60r which is going to be our 1280 version you we're very excited about and does have the built-in Rangefinder just like the H50 y we also be offering non- range finder models okay so we'll have another 640 version of the ace which would be the H50 non- range finder and then we'll have an l35 which would be a 384 sensor okay so it's going to you know appeal to different price points there like little more budget FR so speak still very capable a lot of the same featur it's still going to have the ocular Zoom still going to have the playback all those different color petts Bluetooth onboard recording all that it just won't have the rangefinder function you all have already had some nice options here with the slam and the you know the ace h5r and the Lumi and Vista but sounds like you're all expanding it pretty quick here so a lot of options for give something for everybody yeah a lot of options for a night hunter or day Hunter if you want to use during the day that's for sure I'm going to ask I'm going to ask you some Coy hunting specific stuff um won't you tell me about uh what kind of electronic call you're running well funny you should mention that I'm actually running the fox Pro x24 nice nice uh this is my my third Fox Pro I'm on now a couple years ago start out with The Inferno okay killed a few CS with it and then I got the Hellcat Pro yes uh had some pretty good success with it ran that one for about a year units Y and now just recently got the x24 and that's been a game changer maybe I'm just thinking it is but you know it it seems to difference more volume you went from a 16bit unit to a 24-bit unit um the other models didn't have a tweeter the x24 does so you just have wider range of yeah it's those are nice units plenty of loud plenty of loud I'm glad you enjoying it yeah that's a good little unit for sure so are you going to be hunting any of the uh we was talking about the big bobcat contest earli we be hunting any of those this year yeah that that's the plan so you know we've got shot show this week I actually fly home on Friday from Vegas and then turn around start hunting the big cat on Saturday morning okay and so you know we'll have 24 hours of that you know grinding it out and trying trying to get on the board out there St Angelo uh so we'll do that Fe January February and March okay and then we'll we'll hunt quite a few local contests as well okay which uh which knock pick model you going to be packing on you on your be using that ACS 6r that big 1280 yeah yeah I guarantee it what about for your monocular uh I really like the Lumi h35 you like the Lumi it's a two power so I get a really wide field to view and that 640 sensor it's really easy to identify animals even at a little bit farther distance right right so it's just easy to throw in a jacket pocket you I've got a rangefinder pouch I'm buy a harness um just pretty much goes everywhere with me so when you get started on this big bobcat contest what's the first thing you target you try to knock out your five animals you need um do you target Fox you target coyes what are you doing so with the big cat contest um I'm kind of just a passenger on that I'm not the team captain you're not the strategy you're the you're the trigger you're trigger man so I provide you know help provide some of the equipment and gear and my good buddy Seth he's the one got me into all this in the first place so we kind of let him take the charge there and he's got access to a lot of the properties we hunt on so we'll set up and he runs the call on that and I just kind of sit back and just let him do his thing and hope something shows up that I can shoot at I see I see but you know as far as targeting goes you know Bobcat's usually a priority earlier in the day you because if we don't shoot a bobcat you know but you know if a ky or Fox shows up we're sure not going to give him a pass either well I never i' I never had you know I I followed his contest for years and I I said you know there's got to be some kind of strategy to goes this these guys that are consistently you know placing somewhere uh you've got to check either five Fox right sir be five gray fox you have Reds down there very very rare can you check can I can you have four GR in a okay so five fox or five Coy in addition to what you hope is a big cat and then you that you have to kill either five k five coyotes or five Fox to just be able to check in your to weigh your cat right just to qualify so then you just kill all the cats you can hopeing you get a a big you know over 30 lbs which is you know few and far between but it's a big money contest it's huge you know payout brings in a lot of people I think there were average of 600 teams per contest last year my goodness 600 teams you said was it last year yall placed pretty good I think we came in somewhere around the 20th Place out of 600 out of 6 y' did pretty good what y did y'all check what wasend having uh I think it was a low 20 lb female which we were tied for tied for biggest female there for a little bit and then shortly after someone brought in one just a little bit bigger but what's nice about that contest too is just all the side pots and door priz and everything else so un least qualified it's definitely worth right driving out there checking it out so what uh what animals did y all have to qualify did y all have you five fox or you do coyotes or we had uh five coyotes and a couple Fox on that one back in J contest yep it was it was funny every month we we hunted it we did the first two last year January and February we didn't qualify M we either had all of our cats and no fox or coyotes we had too many fox and coyotes and no cats so finally finally in March it all came together right right it's just it's just one night contest y so it's it's 24 hours so usually start I think it's noon noon Saturday and then weigh-ins you know 11: 10:30 on Sunday so once it once that once it hits you're that's it you're going You're you know most places the weigh-in insane Angelo Texas and that's two or three hours from where we're hunting for the most part so we us put a little bit earlier and high tail it out there just to even make way in got to take that in consideration so well I was going to ask you well say if you uh you decided to hunt it by yourself or you was going to take me and our little buddy Jay over there is it two man teams or three you can have up to four I believe four so let's say it's going to be us three Y and Matt you're running a you're running a call you need a call and some cats I want big cats only that's it huh yeah I mean I'm looking for a low 30s pound low 30s C what tell us about you colins why are you going to ually be calling in these cats what what's a good what's a good cat sequence for Texas so it's funny you mention that because normally we would say some kind of bird distress maybe nutty nut hatch or little Cottontail distress y uh we had a 25lb female com in a couple weeks ago to coyot pup fight really so it's kind of like what are we doing here you know uh did you play did you play a prey to sound before pre sound before so we had seen a few guyss kind of working their way in switched over sounds and then they they kind of skirted it off they didn't come in and look over about 30 yards from us there's this cat sitting there probably been watching us the whole time in the tree line you know right um you know I'm not an expert by any means I just kind of see what works um but I like a lot of the kg Cottontail it's probably the first one I always go to my favorite sounds and here lately I've been using a lot of the cocktail sauce also from mfk and that's a great sound quite a few guyss with it so yeah we were we were actually talking about that last night you you brought up cocktail sauce and uh a couple years ago and myself and Tory cook was hunting with Chris Robinson that's where that sound actually came from we were walking was Last Stand of the day we were day hunting walking back to the truck and all a sudden I just out a corner of my eye I see Tory hook just drop to the ground I don't know if he had a heart attack trip fail kind of you know startled me and he comes back up he's got a rabbit and he hand just he just saw it and just dropped and grabbed it that's pretty quick thinking yes and of course he just kind of just tickled it side a little bit well it starts singing a song it starts singing a song so we get recording equipment out hang the mic right over top of that grabit he goes kind of patting on its side tickling a little bit and now it sung the song of cocktail sauce just doesn't get any than that you know it's as R it's going to get especially for you guys down are in Texas Cottontail you know for all we know so it's been a great sound I've used ever since then and man it's a it's a top producer I Ain took over my kg Cottontail yet kg I probably called him more bobcast with kg Cottontail than I have any other sounds so good and just works all over the place you know we're fortunate enough to hunt all over Texas and parts of Oklahoma as well it seems like it's just got a pretty proven track record you were talking about uh you know that cat coming into that pup fight I've had that happen a handful of times and I've always want wondered every time it's always happened uh I have played some form of prey distress either some birds some rabbits or whatever and then like H nothing's going to come to the prey distress I'm going to start howling and playing fights and P distresses and all that type of stuff and I've had cats come in that same type of situation and I've always wondered what their thought process was you know I don't know if they were already coming to the pre distress and just decided and that's just when they showed up when the fight some type of fight was going on or or if they hear the prey distress and they're kind of coming to it and then they hear say a pup fight like two coyotes fighting I don't know if they're thinking like man they went over and theyve killed a rabbit and now they're fighting over it it's like they're so they're such an arrogant right they're kind of an arrogant animal and that's how I describe Bobcats kind of a arrogant slash sort of dumb stupid an cuz they're not all that it's always wild just sitting there watching one just just sit and watch you know not caring the world just doing their own thing it's just crazy it's kind of that little bit of Eric but you know I'm always thinking when they show up to a fight like in that situation like they're almost thinking like there's two coyotes over there just killed a rabbit you know what I'm going to go over and I'm going to whoop those two coyotes and I'm going to take a rabbit and eat it could be yeah I mean that makes sense you know we called we called a bob big old Tom bob cat up in in Kansas not too long ago and it's same type of thing we' we'd actually started off howling okay you know like let out um I think it was bougie home sick house from mfk followed up with young coyote house from Fox Pro then we let out a group house or a Parow just trying to get stuff talking waking stuff up so to speak went right into I think it was Mrs MC Cotton Tail there comes a big old Tom Bobcat strolling up through the Prairie right out in a wide open after we let out to three different house and then went into R he didn't care a bit that there was there he going to come whoop them M and take the rabbit mention the B been liking bougie lonely H here lately too recently downloaded it and it's been pretty successful y but yep top producer for me for sure yep so do you you was talking I was asking you about the sounds you'd play so you you feel like down in your area Texas do you call more cow or bobcats in with bird type distresses or more rabbit probably more rabbit just because that's gener what I'm playing more of anyway you know most most time if it's if it's not contest season I'm just going to Cheo Coy just for practice you know for content and everything else and testing um and so not really targeting cats rest of the year but it's usually if one happens to come out it's going to be to a Prett stress like that get asked at a lot too you know they say well do you not do you do you call more bobcats in or coyes or anything with with rabbit versus bird and that's my yes but I play a lot more rabbit sounds I do bird distresses it's kind of bird distresses are extremely effective so I there's times I'll even tell myself you know like today this weekend or this week whenever cross I need focusing on bird stuff I haven't played bird and it I I always had I don't know what it is you know I'll still it'll produce the birds will produce and I'll go back out the next time first thing I'm hitting is some type of rabbit I did like hearing rabbit better is let me ask you this say you're going uh not contest it's not the big bobcat contest you're just going out to pleasure hunt tell me what your top three favorite sounds are for calling Couts Fox Bobcats you're just going out there casting a broad net just trying to call animal what you three favorite sounds number one is got to be kg Cottontail yeah I'm sure I overplay it I'm sure all the coyotes and bobcats and irth County are sick of hearing of it but uh I definitely like K Cottontail a lot um I said that Bouie lonely H how has been a new one I've started using it's been pretty good and then I like nutty nut hatch just to kind of mix it up a little bit different you know it kind of feels a different um sound there I guess you know me I've had pretty good luck with it so so what if did you bring your Fox Pro with you I did not left it back okay well lucky you're lucky cuz I was going to say what if I took your x24 from you and I deleted all your sounds off of it man okay and I told you I said I'll put one sound back on and you got to use it for the rest of 2025 and you you know you got to be calling hey you got to you got to be recording stuff this knock pick stuff what sound would you want me to put back on there what's your what Your must have cannot live without it sound I think it's got to be K cottonil I know that's boring but it it is what it is you know so that confidence thing I've always said you give me one good rabbit distress and it'd be a toss up between KY Cottontail Mrs motton tail that Miss motonil sounds really good too started using a little bit more here lately yep yep hey that sound was recorded right here in Pennsylvania that's pretty cool yeah I don't know about K you we a check on that I don't know for sure where that one came from uh let's get back to you caliber Choice have you always shot what did you shoot before you shot sixth Creed sixth Creed still kind of Fairly true been around for a while uh before that was a lot of 223 I primarily you know got into the whole industry doing a lot of stuff with ARs it was kind of my bread and butter built a bunch of ARS so you're kind of limited 220 I've tried everything else all the other six R 65 grindle all that but uh 223 and a 55 Vmax just pretty much smokes them you know nine times out of 10 uh so I still pick it up pretty often because a lot of times if we're out hunting there's a good chance we'll come across a big group of pigs right it's nice to have the AR handy just to be able to have you know more shot capacity there um and then that kind of goes in you know start getting more the bolt gun stuff of course start off 65 Creed more had a couple 308s uh but the 65 with the 95 Vmax does a heck of a job too on KS and pigs yep I think thums him pretty good but um yeah I've been running the sixth gred for a couple years now um last year I was shooting a heavier bullet the 108 Elm but then here recently I've switched to the new 80 grain lvt I'm getting about 3,000 feet per second out of a 16-inch barrel I've got a couple real short bolt guns you know just because we're in and out of trucks and Buggies all the time it's just handy to have something real short and compact like that been getting good performance out that bullet for pigs and everything y yeah so you're boat gun guy Bool gun now I knew I like it's uh I mean it kind of goes back to the contest stuff you can't afford to have jams or hangups or you know it gets cold it gets dirty out there there's been too many times I mean I love ARS got a bunch of them I've always had them um but just for a different role you know it's where they you know Bol gun is just a lot better more reliable well let me ask you this have you ever heard the uh if your life depended on it question I was waiting for this so if your life depended on it fly you out somewhere on a helicopter I mean I'm talking about like this is no civil civiliz you cannot walk to civilization you're so far off if you try to walk to civilization you're going to starve death and die you ain't going to make it man okay but I going to hand you an x24 okay not with just one town you can have our full Library the full mfk Library you're set you're going to be able to call animals I'm going to hand you a firearm okay and you going to get one bullet one shell you got one chance to call up a coyote kill it and if you make that happen I'll fly back in there and pick you up save your life what C caliber what is your caliber Choice what's your cartridge Choice what are you taking in there to make sure I can come back I mean because if it if you come up there come in there and call a Coy up because I know you will I know you'll call a coye up he comes up there to 60 yards and you shoot him in the chest and he packs it off somewhere and you can't find it you going have to try to eat slugs and snails and earthworms and tree bark and you don't want that to happen you want to kill that KY so I come back and get you while you shooting it's got to be that sixth gred cuz wary comes out at 400 instead of 60 right right that's definitely where you get a little more horsepower you know to keep going with it so y hey will you take that 400 yard shot are you going to I got that ASI will perfect perfect is there anything else on these uh on this KN picks line you want to talk about no I think that pretty much sums it up we're really excited about these I know the the lineup's just going to keep on growing throughout the year um just check us out KNIX usa.com and then KNIX USA and _ USA on Instagram yes sir so you can see all the latest launches and product videos we've got a lot of content there so people can see some actual footage all about see what they're all about yeah we've got we've got content up on all the fox Pro channels on the Instagram Facebook um YouTube this stuff in action you go check it out you can see what it's all about how easy is this stuff to find to purchase Matt I mean plenty of Distributors out there and yes sir so we're we have a large network of dealers Distributors we sell through all the regular channels y so your local gun store should have these on the Shelf if not ask them for one they tell tell them to get them right that's right well is there anything else you'd like to leave us with I think that about sums it up John just really appreciate youall having me up here um glad to be part of all this awesome and glad you came up glad you come over to the office we have to give you a tour here in a little bit but we appreciate everybody tuning in to the fox Pro podcast make sure you join us again thanks Sean