Vortex Nation Podcast

Pete and Justin of Vortex EDGE join Jimmy and Mark following a full day of working the fundamentals of marksmanship with the fighting carbine (AR-15’s in this case). In this episode we discuss the importance of the carbine and training with it to ensure one’s ability to maximize the capability of the platform. We go over good drills anyone can do at their range to increase their skill and be much more efficient with ammo rather than simply dumping rounds down range without much purpose. Also tune in for common misconceptions around the AR-15, why shooting with a shot timer is great practice for high stress situations and why you should push beyond your comfort level to get better. If you’d like to learn more and find some great classes to better your own skills in person with professional instructors like Pete and Justin, stay tuned for more info on Vortex EDGE coming soon! Also stay tuned for the next episode from this podventure where we dive into the art of self-defense without firearms with some practical

Pete and Adrian of Vortex EDGE join Jimmy and Mark following a full day of working the fundamentals of pistol marksmanship as well as a classroom session around the physical, mental and legal sides of concealed carry and deadly force. The pistol is perhaps the most common firearm for people to gravitate towards first when considering a gun for self-defense, and for many good reasons. The Vortex EDGE crew goes into the importance of understanding not only how to handle and shoot a pistol, but also how to improve your skills and improve your mind to achieve a better state of readiness for real world encounters. If you’d like to learn more and find some great classes to better your own skills in person with professional instructors like Pete and Adrian, stay tuned for more info on Vortex EDGE coming soon! Also stay tuned for the next episode from this podventure where we dive into the fighting carbine. In the meantime, be smart, train as often as you can and stay safe, Vortex Nation!As always, we want to hear yo

One of those very important variables in shooting performance and accuracy that so many of us take for granted or never think to check – the twist rate of the barrel in our rifle. What is the twist rate, why is it so important to consider, how do different twist rates affect our projectiles and how can you figure out which twist rate is best for your application? Ryan Muckenhirn joins Jimmy and Mark to drop some knowledge on the subject!

Bang!!! Flop!....Now what??? Mark and Jimmy sit down with Ryan Lampers (Hunt Harvest Health) to chat through meat care techniques and tricks after the shot - to ensure big game you take makes it to your table as the absolute best product possible. We cover warm-weather hunts, keeping meet cool, gutting Vs. the gutless method, how to take the heart liver and rib meat if you do the gutless method, shot placement, blood-shod meat, contaminants and how to deal with them, intentional all-night pack-outs, loading your pack with meat/gear, meat shelves Vs. putting it in your pack, ageing meat, quarters Vs. boning, keeping your pack clean, kill kit items  and more. Life-long hunter, or just getting started, this is a good one to pick up some great tips on getting any four-legged critter out of the field for optimum yield!As always, we want to hear your feedback! Let us know if there are any topics you'd like covered on the Vortex Nation podcast by asking us on Instagram @vortexnationpodcast

No series of 10-ish minute talks all about cartridges is complete without one dedicated to the ol’ reliable 30-30. Ryan Muckenhirn joins Jimmy and Mark to discuss one of the most popular American cartridges of all time that’s still slaying deer to this day. The history, the performance, and the nostalga! Everyone seems to have a story about a 30-30 at some point in their lives, what’s yours? We’d love to hear about it in the comments on Instagram or YouTube!

Jimmy, Mark, and Erik sit down with Chuck Rossi, avid firearms enthusiast and former Facebook employee where he worked as an engineer behind the scenes and the “subject matter expert” on all things gun related in the company. There seems to be a million and one theories as to why social giants like this have tended to be so stringent upon the gun and hunting industry. Listening to Chuck, some of the reasons likely won’t shock you, but others may be a bit more surprising in terms of the fact that there are many misunderstandings and fundamental lack of education within organizations and groups of individuals. We learn a bit more about “safety regulated goods” on platforms like Facebook and the blocking of buy/sell/trade of firearms and related parts on their site. Certainly a sore subject for many of us in this industry, but luckily Chuck throws out some really great insight into how gun pages on these platforms can promote themselves responsibly, within the rules, and set themselves up to get the best organic

Lots of rangefinders have “Angle Compensation” built in, and if you’ve got a Vortex Rangefinder, regardless of the model, this is certainly the case. (We happen to call it “Horizontal Component Distance” or “HCD” mode) But why is angle compensation so important? When should you be concerned about the true horizontal distance between you and a target and when is it actually more beneficial to just get the straight-line distance between your rangefinder and the target you’re ranging? Believe it or not, which you decide to use can determine whether you hit or miss your target in certain situations!

Combining solo hunting with solo filming takes a high level of talent, persistence, patience, creativity, and straight-up grit – Tim Burnett, Producer and Host of SOLO HNTR TV has these qualities in spades. He won’t tell you that about himself though, so we will. Jim and Mark sit down with Tim to chat solo hunting, solo filming, the Vortex Selects series he put together for the Vortex YouTube page, letting our kids figure out things on their own, getting over being alone on a multi-day hunt, paying attention to your surroundings, using all your senses, being ok with screwing up, and more. Listen in for a cool, real conversation with one of our favorite dudes! As always, we want to hear your feedback! Let us know if there are any topics you'd like covered on the Vortex Nation podcast by asking us on Instagram @vortexnationpodcast

From large tracts, to tiny parcels with unique and difficult access, public land open to all of us dots our landscape like a Jackson Pollock painting, but it’s not always obvious where the different boundaries lye – or that they even exist. Jimmy, Mark and Erik sit down with Dylan Dowson and Jared Larsen from OnX Maps to chat modern mapping and land navigation. Scouting public and private land, using private landowner information for access and always having a GPS on you has never been easier or more effective. We cover couch-scouting, remote hunt planning, dropping icon-specific pins, pin organization, tracking your route in an out of an area, estimating distance, historical burn layers, historical timber harvest layers, landowner information, and even get a sneak-peek into some new game-changing features that make this a must-listen for anyone looking to elevate their outdoor game.As always, we want to hear your feedback! Let us know if there are any topics you'd like covered on the Vortex Nation podcast by

You asked and we listened! Ryan Muckenhirn joins Jimmy and Mark to discuss the almighty .338 Lapua. What is it, where did it come from, what makes it so special, and how has it developed a nearly made-of-unicorn-dust status in shooter’s eyes? On top of that, we touch briefly on the .338 Norma Mag and how the 6.5 creed has very likely been the reason we see fewer commercial .338 Lapua offerings on the market today?!   

In this installment of the Vortex Nation Podcast, we cup up and set down with the fellas from Midwest Flyways, diving into navigating waterfowl hunting on public land – with a few sweet private-land tips thrown in. Pretty sure we limited on puns in our first sentence – oh, that’s another one. We cover finding places to hunt, scouting waterfowl, and some solid techniques to get these flat-billed birds to land in your lap. Waterfowl behavior, puddle ducks, diver ducks, geese, field hunting, water hunting, food sources, traffic hunting and more. Listen in to give yourself the upper hand and bring some of these addictingly fun to hunt and super delicious birds to bag.As always, we want to hear your feedback! Let us know if there are any topics you'd like covered on the Vortex Nation podcast by asking us on Instagram @vortexnationpodcast

Jimmy and Mark are at the range following a number of PRS-style stages put together by Nick Laufenberg to challenge them and their fancy new custom rifles. We take the time afterwards to review our rifles, their components, their accuracy and all the many things we learned as shooters behind the firearms now that we’ve really had the chance to try it all out in a fairly real-world, practical-use scenario. From shooting off barricades to learning how to diagnose wind corrections while racing between targets and shooting on the clock, these are shooting skills that we feel can help create better shooters across a wide variety of shooting situations and applications. And of course, you’re all probably wondering who won, too, and we will get into that as well!As always, we want to hear your feedback! Let us know if there are any topics you'd like covered on the Vortex Nation podcast by asking us on Instagram @vortexnationpodcast

Mark, Jimmy and Nick Laufenberg sit down to discuss Jimmy’s “Entry-level-ish” rifle that he and nick put together here at the shop with a few simple tools, a vise and some trial and error. And no - no engineers were used in the making of this rifle, so you, too, should be able to do it! We go further in-depth on trigger selection and adjustment, lessons learned after our first build, whether or not this actually is the cheapest route in the long run, and the better perceived multi-use factor of this rifle over Mark’s (Yes, of course we get on the subject of “Just hunting”). Following this episode, Mark and Jimmy prepare to take their guns out to the range to shoot through their first “PRS-type” stages both as shooters and for their firearms. Stay tuned to see how they shot! As always, we want to hear your feedback! Let us know if there are any topics you'd like covered on the Vortex Nation podcast by asking us on Instagram @vortexnationpodcast

Step into the mind of a professional gunsmith who builds precision long range rifles for a living. Isaiah Curtis of Curtis Custom Weapons joins Jimmy, Mark and Nick Laufenberg at his shop in North-central Missouri immediately after building and testing Mark’s ultra-high-end rifle. We get the chance to pick his brain about everything that actually goes into building the gun itself and how to make it as inherently accurate as possible. Cutting the barrel, head spacing, tolerances, and the balance struck between perfect ammo and a perfect rifle. Since we’re comparing Mark’s ultimate gunsmith-built custom rifle to Jimmy’s DIY-assembled Remage rifle (More on that later), we also discuss whether or not the “Entry level” option is actually the best for a brand-new shooter. In our next episode of this podventure, we go even more in-depth on Jimmy’s “Entry-level” custom precision rifle. Stay tuned! As always, we want to hear your feedback! Let us know if there are any topics you'd like covered on the Vortex Nation pod

Jimmy and Mark settle in for 10-ish minutes to discuss their top recommendations for optics in the Vortex lineup for the typical midwestern whitetail hunter. Everything from the riflescope choice to binos, rangefinder and… a spotting scope? Who’da thunk! If you’re busy trying to throw together your whitetail gear before fall really hits this year, give this one a listen for starters.

Like hunting itself, producing a hunting television show is full of excitement, passion, ups, downs, the unexpected and everything between. Jim and Mark sit down with Willi Schmidt -  host of Pure Hunting TV -  to chat about how he got into outdoor TV, what he loves about it, challenges and more. Willi’s show takes viewers on adventures from birds to bucks with family and friends. Check it out on the Sportsman’s Channel – but get the inside scoop right here on the Vortex Nation Podcast.As always, we want to hear your feedback! Let us know if there are any topics you'd like covered on the Vortex Nation podcast by asking us on Instagram @vortexnationpodcast

When it comes to catfish, Mike Valley of Valley Fish and Cheese in Prairie Du Chen, WI. is your guy. Mike has caught millions of pounds of catfish, and still adds to his total commercially for his business, as well as for sport in his spare time (Spare time we still don’t understand how he finds…) Mike schools Jimmy and Mark in the types of catfish, how to catch them, where to catch them, how to process them for a perfectly tasty bite every single time, and how to cook them to perfection. The part we love about Mike is that he genuinely wants to share his love of catfish with everyone he can, so no detail is left unsaid!As always, we want to hear your feedback! Let us know if there are any topics you'd like covered on the Vortex Nation podcast by asking us on Instagram @vortexnationpodcast

Mike Valley, owner and operator of Valley Fish and Cheese in Prairie Du Chen, WI, took Mark and Jimmy under his wing for a peek into the life and history of a commercial fisherman on the Mississippi River. Our initial plan was to discuss mostly just fishing for catfish with Mike, as that seems to be his true passion and specialty, but through time spent on the river and hours processing fish by hand, we heard enough stories about growing up on the river in a commercial fishing family we knew it had to be its own episode.  Mike discusses the rise and fall of commercial fishing on the river, clamming for the button and imitation pearl industry, and why fish like sheep head and red horse sucker which most people see as “Trash fish” can be some of the most delicious treats you’ve ever tried. He even goes into a near-death experience he once had 40 feet under the water’s surface that will surely make any claustrophobic listeners out there cringe!As always, we want to hear your feedback! Let us know if there are an

Jimmy, Mark and Nick Laufenberg discuss their theories and experiences between all the many different grip angles/styles on various bolt action rifles. From lightweight and handy hunting rifles with elegant swept-back grip profiles to heavier profile competition long range guns with completely vertical grip angles. Which one is right for which application and why? As usual, we’d love to hear your input on this matter! What’s your favorite stock and grip profile and why?

It’s every hunter’s nightmare – a shot that results in a mortally wounded animal that leaves minimal evidence for recovery. You’ll need a little help to remedy this unfortunate reality that you’ll inevitably encounter at some point, and that’s when you need to call in the dogs. To be more specific, game recovery dogs that specialize in tracking and finding wounded game, even when the trail goes dry. Listen up and make sure you add a dog handler and his four-legged friend to your contact list before opening day.As always, we want to hear your feedback! Let us know if there are any topics you'd like covered on the Vortex Nation podcast by asking us on Instagram @vortexnationpodcast