Larry Mitchell Co-Founder Country Camo Outdoors

Welcome to another episode of White Tail Rendezvous. This is your host Bruce Hutcheon and we're going to head to the Mid-West today and we're going to talk to Larry Mitchell. Now Larry and his wife Jeana have Country Camo Outdoors. Larry also runs a hydrographic dipping business and Larry you're going to have to tell me about that one and Larry's been a hunter for a long time. so, Larry, welcome to the show.

Larry: Thanks for having me, Bruce.

Bruce: Well, let's talk about, let's start it right off, Country Camo Outdoors that you and Gina have, why don't you share with the listeners what it is, what you're trying to accomplish with it, and how they can get in touch with you if they have some interest in finding out more.

Larry: All right, great. Well, I guess Country Camo Outdoors was, I guess it's been a passion I've had for a long time. growing up I watched Fitzgerald, his videos and stuff and always dreamed about doing that myself. What we're about is trying to get people involved in the outdoors as far as kids, disabled kids, veterans, and just the ordinary Joe that's never been in the woods before. We mainly rely on our sponsors, donations, stuff like that and much of it comes out of our pocket as far as things that we put on. We do a kids' fishing day in the Spring, whatever. If anyone's interested in getting a hold of us we do have a website, Country Camo Outdoors where they can look as up and see our staff on there and everything else.

Bruce: Great. You mentioned youth and veterans and getting them involved more in the outdoors. What type of activities do you get them involved in?

Larry: Oh, right now we're trying to get a veteran's hunt scheduled for some lucky veteran out there. We've got a couple places, one up in Michigan that we're looking into getting the hunt sponsored with them. As far as the kids go we do a kids' day out, usually during the summer or we take them out to a lake, we'll have games, and feed them. They usually end up getting free fishing poles and free tackle. [inaudible 00:02:33] kids out there, I mean they're the future of this sport.

Bruce: Why do you think kids aren't in the out of doors so much these days?

Larry: Well, it's come down to the old video games are pretty much taking over kids' lives in my opinion of it. You've got a lot of parents that don't know anything about hunting, never been in the outdoors, I think a lot of it started with...It's kind of like a babysitter for some parents, keep your kid occupied, give them a video game. But just [inaudible 00:03:08] be my opinion.

Bruce: How about the veterans? How do veterans get in touch with you if they want to go out and do an activity with you guys?

Larry: Well, they can get a hold of us, we've got the numbers on our website or go through our website and get a hold of us, leave us a message, send us a message, email, anything like that.

Bruce: And any age restrictions?

Larry: No. No age restrictions. As long as they're...As far as kids go they've got to be able to know what they're doing, know they're going out in the woods to hunt, they've got to be able to hold a gun I guess. That would be the only restriction as far as kids go.

Bruce: Now in your state they have to have a hunter safety card, would that be correct?

Larry: For like three years you can get an apprentice license which they just have to accompany a licensed hunter who's not hunting. So they can do that for, I believe it's three years before they get their hunter's education certificate.

you told me in the warm-up that your mom taught you how to shoot a gun and enjoy the out of doors.

Bruce: All right. Now let's go back and you told me in the warm-up that your mom taught you how to shoot a gun and enjoy the out of doors. Let's talk a little bit about that and then you also said when you were in grade-school that somebody brought a deer or something to school or you saw a deer...