Throughout the journey of starting Cutter Stabilizers, a few events have stood out, our first sale, our first podcast mention, our first video feature. One event jumps to the forefront, partially because it just occurred this past weekend, but predominantly because of the sheer weight this particular event carries. Hunting, the wild places, and adventure of being immersed in the solitude of the outdoors yields so many benefits, most of which are clearly visible, others, more profound, more amazing than you could ever imagine. The event in which I am speaking on is from Mountain Archery Fest in Beaver Utah.
The morning of day two dawned, my business partner and I walked into the vendor village to sit at our booth. I saw a gentleman walking through, we had met very briefly in passing, so I knew he was the founder of a charity called Second Chance Outdoors. I wanted to help in some way, so I decided to donate a stabilizer to a raffle, all proceeds would go to his charity. We spoke, coordinated, and put the word out on social media. By 6:30pm, we had raised all of $16. Pretty disappointing, but that evening was a pint night and dinner event with all of the event attendees. We spoke about the raffle, and in about 30 minutes, we were up to $128, not bad. My business partner and I talked, decided we would match the donations. We made the announcement, and 15 minutes later we were $14 short of $500. All said and done, we provided $1000 to SCO and Logan, the founder was on the edge of tears, man it felt good. Below is a story Logan wrote, about how he came to start this charity. Enjoy.
“April 2018, Spring time in Northern New mexico. I had just got back from a contract gig in Kabul Afghanistan, where I worked for the Department of Defense out of a small special operations FOB. At this point I had been away from home for close to a year and the adjustment was happening, but slower than I had hoped.
I was thumbing through Facebook one afternoon, while I was home alone since the wife had to work and the kids were off doing their thing. I came across a buddy of mine 's post, which he had shared and it was about a Turkey hunt in Colorado. It was a guided, private property turkey hunt for the spring Over the Counter Season.
I thought, what the heck lets explore this. So I made a couple of phone calls/texts to my buddy and eventually got into contact with the guide. We spoke for a little while, and I thought oh what the heck lets go for it. I've got nothing else going on.
My wife got home from work later that evening, and I told her I had booked a guided turkey hunt up in Colorado. She looked at me, and all she said was "good." She got it. She could tell I needed to get into the mountains, into camp and do what I love. Hunt.
Fast forward a few weeks later, I drive up to Mancos Colorado and meet with the guide before heading into camp. Immediately there was a connection. He wore a specific camo patterned hat with a patch on the front. I asked him where he served and he got a sideways grin and asked if I was a Veteran. "yeah man, in fact just got back from a contract gig in Kabul." Instant buddies.
We got into camp with enough light left to head out and see if we could put some birds to roost. Nothing much that first evening in the field. We head back to camp which was a wall tent, with an awesome camp kitchen, cots and just an all around awesome environment.
My guide for this trip, AJ cooked dinner. Classic camp dinner and end up just hanging out and talking. Of course we talk about where he served, where i've been and all that fun stuff. Turns out we were in the same area during a deployment in 2009. So we shared some very common stories on that place, some events surrounding it, and some of the dumb rules leadership and others came up while we were there.
Roll out of bed the next morning, coffee is on, breakfast is cooking and man am I stoked. Slept really well ( I always sleep better in the mountains) and woke up refreshed which hadn't happened in a long time. I was stoked and ready to get on some birds.
We head out to the blind and wait for first light. Day breaks, and the mountains come to life. Every ridge there is a gobbler. We have our decoys set, we have a great setup and AJ is working his call. Because I suck at Turkey calling. No dice.
We decide it's time to make a move, and work a road that will take us way deep into the canyon. The air is still crisp in the early morning, even in the spring. It's Colorado. We work a road, back to the east and come to a horseshoe shaped bend. On the left side of the road it leads up to a mesa on the right, open field. Bingo, we are on the birds. After carefully looking over the hens and young jakes, no shooters and we hang out and watch them do the turkey thing.
At this point, I haven't thought once about Afghanistan, the conflict, the sites the smells or any of that crap. Just in awe of the mountains, the wildlife, the sights and smells.
The decision was made to head back to our first spot, it has to be midmorning at this point. Couldn't really tell you as I didn't really care about the time. Get back into the blind and like clockwork, gobbles. Aj responds and starts talking with the elk bird.
And I'll tell you what this Tom was into it. He was responding back and sure enough I looked off to my right and here he comes. He is fanned out and strutting into the decoys. He fights with the Jake for a little bit and fans back out. He has his eyes set on the prize, the hen.
I had other plans. I had seen enough. This was a good bird, a good sized Tom. I was going to take him. 30 yards. Safety off, exhale and press. Shot breaks and we have a bird down!
And I know its just a turkey, but I was stoked! My first Colorado bird! We do the whole picture thing and get the bird back into the camp and cleaned up.
Steaks for dinner tonight! Aj and I stayed up way to late just talking about what post deployment life is like and the struggles that some face and how some just couldn't shake the demons of deployment or post deployment life.
I remember very vividly both of us sitting back in our seats and taking a deep breath in and out. No idea what his thought was at the time, but I would later learn it was very similar to mine. "how do I get more guys outdoors?" More guys need to experience this, and not just the harvest. But the whole thing. Get into camp with like minded folks and be able to relax and enjoy the moment and not be so "switched on."
I got home and began to un-pack and felt the tension in the shoulders gone, the fatigue in my back gone, the tiredness in my mind gone. I felt like me. I felt human again. I let this go for a few days and it really didn't go away. I felt satisfied, like I had accomplished something again and that I wasn't wandering around without a mission.
Later that week I applied for a position with a local Police Department and got it. That leads to a whole bunch of other stories, but I digress.
I talked to my wife about how I was feeling after that hunt, and she was beyond supportive of it. She was so happy to have me back as she put it. She was happy to see me laugh and smile and relax. Sometime later I pitched her the idea of Second Chance Outdoors. It didn't have a name at the time, but the concept. She loved it. Months went by and that's all it was, an idea.
Fast forward through a lifetime of experiences and stories and I had never lost sight of that concept. I pitched it to her again, and this time she wasn't as cordial about it. "Sh** or get off the pot man." She said. She wasn't wrong, it was time to start being about it instead of just talking about it. Thus, Second Chance Outdoors was born.
Our mission is to get Veterans and First Responders outdoors to help combat the staggering numbers of suicides within these professions. I could go into detail about how many of our nation's heroes have lost the battle at home due to excuse my french piss poor mental health care in this country, or I could try to do something about it, and here we are.
This year alone we are providing 4 hunts for Veterans/First Responders and we haven't even been in business for a full year. We are making it happen, and while it is hard work. To me, it is worth it to sacrifice sleep, money and free time to help those who are willing to give us their life.
Stay safe, hunt hard, and always remember, You're never out of the fight.
Logan”
To learn more or to donate to Second Chance Outdoors, visit their website by clicking the button below.