re: Honey Brake Opportunity

Drew was a part of it. Jared was just as much a part of it and does much more of the day to day work and the work during hunting season so one could argue he’s had more to do with it.
The man that has had by far the most to do with it and it wouldn’t have been possible without is Mr Michael Johnson.
The issue people have with Drew is that he likes to lead people to believe that he was an owner as well as his arrogance
He does the same thing now. He wants people to believe he’s an equal partner. But the worst thing is his attitude of arrogance and the way he treats people that he perceives to be under him.
He’s an employee as well and to be honest wouldn’t be missed much if he was gone completely. He’d much rather run to the camera than the work.
The man they don’t want to lose is Jared.

It’s nothing to do with feeling good about what you’ve helped build but how you treat others around you especially when you’ve had some success you should be working to lift those around you up.
He loves to be play big man and has a hard time helping those that make it possible grow too. He definitely doesn’t want you sitting at the same table with him.
It’s sad because he could easily be a good dude. Good people help people especially those less fortunate. They should never look down on or try to dull another’s shine. He just loves personal attention more than anything else to the detriment of the morale of the men around him

I know Drew from the early 2000's when he lived in a little apartment close to me. He's always been nice, but some people have ego issues when a little success is had. I haven't been around him much since he's been at HB, as I can't run with that crowd.

It's a shame that people think that way about him but it sounds like it's his own doing.

Met Jared at Black River Lake when we rented a camp from his grandmother many years ago. He's a good dude imo.

Quote- "Love to have a uk or Spanish side by side but can’t imagine putting one through a typical Louisiana duck hunt, guided or not. Also seems like the honey brake folks would discourage guests looking down on Bennellis given that is one of their sponsors. Takes all kinds I suppose."

This thread led me to check out their website for the first time. On the shooting sports page about the gun club, there is a quote that says "At Honey Brake Gun Club, we shoot the best. That’s why we shoot Benelli Firearms." With an accompanying picture of a Krieghoff K-80.

Looks like we may get some rain this weekend so that’s a good thing

Times sure have changed. I think the biggest thing responsible for it is the changing Ag practices as for an anything manmade.
They’ve had about 6 years of drought in Alberta and Saskatchewan that hasn’t been kind to us but from the reports I’m getting this year is different so maybe they can catch up on some of the habitat that was lost over the last few years.

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The issue people have with Drew is that he likes to lead people to believe that he was an owner as well as his arrogance

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Drew used HB to secure backstage passes and VIP tickets to concerts and ballgames. He refused to put a dollar value on the deer and gave them away to celebratties.

TR got into a pissing contest with him about it and lost his job, which is a shame based on the fact that Drew convinced TR to leave his job at Mossy Oak.

HB became dysfunctional in regard to the bottom line.

For example, I know what Realtree was paying in order to have first choice of the deer, and it in no way shape or form came close to what those bucks were worth.


Drew got caught up in the celebrity of it all, which is extremely easy to do.

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So you’re saying the exposure of Jordan killing the state record typical was undervalued given

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Based on the number of deer that were killed over an almost decade span waiting to grow that deer….yes.

You have to also factor in lodging, food, guide fees.

In addition, anyone with the money to pay that type of membership didn’t need to see Tyler kill that deer. Hell that deer was the worst kept secret in Louisiana.

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IIRC total acreage os around 36k?

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Not sure. It’s been several years since I was last on the payroll.

Total acres of the “farm” is around 20,000 acres. They flood around 7,500 acres for duck season

I know exactly what Realtree paid for the HB Experience. It amounted to a trade off that involved merchandise sold, the use of a free truck and other items that barely effected the bottom line.

After the show went to streaming, the only production costs were paying for Chip and Tyler Breen with the possibility of an additional camera hand. Alll total it didn’t amount to more than $100,000 a year….and I can promise you, Realtree wasn’t paying HB anywhere near that as the title sponsor.

The Confludence model actually wasn’t bad.

Companies jumped at the opportunity to bring in their top buyers for several days of hunting that included Buzz and Klatt taking 5,000 high res photos of their products in the field.

As Tack always said, HB was a ready made outdoor studio that included everything from the actual hunting to lodging, meals, guides and social media, photography and video in one stop shopping.

The issues came about over the lack of communication between Drew and Tack and Drew’s unwillingness to include deer hunts for select sponsors who wanted to purchase them. Those deer would have added quite a bit to the bottom line financially speaking.

Tack eventually had enough and went to West Point and cut the deal with Jimmy Bryan. It was a good money deal for Confluence, but it took Buzz, Klatt,, David and other Confluence support staff away from HB, suddenly leaving those HB Experience sponsors without support.

Again, the model was successful. So much so that at one point I was given 25 accounts to maintain social media campaigns. To put that into perspective, I had zero experience in social media management. There were literally hundreds of thousands of still photos and miles of video that was never properly cataloged or kept up with.

I’ll maintain the idea was solid. The management of the idea was the downfall.

I appreciate your comment though. You obviously were very close to the scene.