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PXP Podcast
Welcome to the PXP Podcast. Here at PXP, we’re passionate about long range precision shooting. Our podcast was launched to give shooting enthusiasts another way to learn the art of precision shooting. We are committed to providing our listeners with high quality information, lessons learned from expert marksman, and much much more. No matter your skill level, if your listening to this podcast or attending our courses, we’re confident that we can teach you the skills you need to be successful in this exciting and challenging sport.
PXP Podcast
Discovering a New Life Beyond the Police Force
What does it take to step away from a lifelong dream and embrace a completely new path? Join me, Zach from PXP, as I share my journey of leaving the police force where I served as a SWAT sniper team leader to start anew as a private investigator in the serene landscapes of Montana. It's been an eye-opening few months, filled with soul-searching and tough decisions. I discuss the emotional challenges of leaving a close-knit team that felt like family and the newfound balance that comes with pursuing my passions—precision rifle shooting, podcasting, and cherishing time with my loved ones.
I'm also excited to introduce my neighbor and good friend Carl, who will soon join the podcast. Together, we ventured on a life-changing 21-day self-guided exploration of the Alaskan wilderness. It was a transformative experience that reshaped my perspective on life. Tune in as we unpack the adventures, logistics, and invaluable lessons from our journey. Get ready for an episode packed with insights, updates, and stories that signal a fresh chapter filled with promise and enthusiasm.
Hey guys, it's Zach here with PXP. It's been a minute. It's definitely been a minute for sure. I had a lot of things going on from April of 2024 until about now. It's been a real journey. So I want to do a quick podcast kind of fill you guys in my apologies for disappearing for the past several months, fill you guys in my apologies for disappearing for the past several months. I had to get a lot of things squared away on my end of my own personal life, so a lot of things went on the wayside there for a while. I'll fill you guys in on what's going on and, yeah, I hope you guys enjoy the show. Let's do it. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Appreciate you guys listening. Um, yeah, like I said, uh, it's, it's been a real, real journey.
Speaker 1:Um, since April of last year, guys, I had a career change. I pretty much dropped on the wayside as far as competitive shooting. I needed to get my own mental health and my personal life squared away. Long story short, I left the police department here in the city that I live in and, man, it was very, very hard, very difficult to do. I saw myself doing that job until I don't know, for 25 years or more. When I first got on the police department I was so enthusiastic and and everything and uh, it was great, I absolutely loved it. And you know, the longer, the longer you, um, you work in a career, the more changes that you see, and sometimes you just grow out of it, um, you change as a person and, um, yeah, I just uh, you know, the longer I was there, the more I just wanted peace in my life, the more I just wanted to do the things that I was striving to do. You know, I've always wanted a good, successful podcast. I've, you know, was diving into this precision rifle world and you know, I wanted more time with with that and, more importantly, I wanted more time with my family. And I was on the SWAT team for uh, for seven years there and was the sniper team leader and you know, the hardest thing about leaving the police department was leaving those guys and you know they were, uh, they were like family to me. They still are like family to me.
Speaker 1:I love each and every one of them and, um, you know, to me, I love each and every one of them and, um, you know, um, a lot of me misses it, but a lot of me doesn't at the same time. So, um, it was a huge decision uh to make and, uh, you know, I, uh, um, had a bunch of other things going on at work as well that I'm not going to say on the podcast until, uh, until everything's uh buttoned up and finished, but yeah, so other than that, you know, I very much wish the police department, you know, a happy future, a good future. Hope everybody stays safe there. I love each and every one of you guys and I'm on to a new journey. You know, I'm actually a private investigator here in the state of Montana now and Montana now, and, um, it's, the job is great, it's like zero stress and, um, I get to work with great people. It's just a, it's a whole new aspect of investigations that, uh, I never dove into. Uh, on the police department, as far as being a detective, you know, I figured myself as a good police officer, you know, investigating crimes and everything. But when you're investigating, when you're doing detective work, it's just a lot more deep dive down, uh, uh, doing the hobbies and the passions that I love and, uh, I am super pumped to bring you guys more content. I am, I'm just, yeah, I'm over the moon about it. So, yeah, lots of future things coming up here. I have a really good friend of mine he's actually my neighbor, his name is Carl and we're going to be getting on the podcast here shortly.
Speaker 1:We just recently, this September, had a 21-day adventure in the Alaskan wilderness all self-guided. It literally changed my life, it 100% changed my life, and we're going to dive deep down into the logistics that it took and everything like that. And we got something cool for you guys too. We have what's called a guild, it's called the Wild Adventure Group, and each one of us throws money in a pot every year, which pays for a lot of the logistical requirements to go do those things. So, um, we were able to go up and hunt in Alaska for a literal fraction of the price, and I mean we, we got it down to the numbers where you could literally, like the average individual, can more than likely go to Alaska and hunt every year, if, uh, if, you wanted to. That's the sort of setup that we got and that's what I'm excited to tell you guys about, because going up to Alaska and hunting should be available, uh, to all of us.
Speaker 1:I mean it was, it was just so phenomenal we want to share with you guys how we did it, what we did, what we brought, what we learned, um, in everything, cause there was a lot of roadblocks. There was a shit ton of roadblocks and that just made the adventure so much more fun. It was like that type type two fun. You got that type one fun where, um, you know, going out and drinking with your buddies and having a good time is like you'll never really remember it, but it's really fun at the time. And you have that type two fun where the type two fun is like, you know, I guess I'll compare it to being on the SWAT team and going through some really shitty things with your buddies and suffering together, suffering together. It's. It's fun that you'll never forget because it's just the quality of it is there. Or doing a uh, you know, being in the military and doing deployments with your buddies and stuff, and, um, those great times that you had together, those bad times that you had together. You guys all suffer through it and it's great. It's the, it's type two quality fun. I think that's how the saying goes. I'm not sure. If I'm wrong, someone please correct me. Anyways, that's how it was. We were at each other's throats a couple times. We had bears come into camp. We got the boat stuck. Oh man, it was like we couldn't get certain guns through Canada. It was just one thing after another. It was so goddamn fun, absolutely loved it. Can't wait to tell you guys about it.
Speaker 1:And, uh, what else? Um, yeah, I got some more stuff uh, coming down the pipe here. Um, uh, I have an interview set up with the um pro series, which is precision rimfire outlaws. Um, basically, the guy that started it, shane Scott. He's going to be coming onto the show here this Friday. I probably won't air until next month, uh, but I'm trying to get a podcast out to you guys once every two weeks. I only got like two and a half hours uh worth of minutes per month that I can use right now. Hopefully in the future we could bump that up a little bit. Would very much appreciate you guys liking, subscribing to the channel and, uh, and, of course, sharing it with others. So, yeah, other than that, it's been great, um, uh, quick little caveat Um, I'm starting to pick up a new, a new uh sort of uh, it's not really a new discipline, but I'm starting to dive down into this discipline a lot farther than I have in the past.
Speaker 1:It's, uh, ar 15 shooting with, uh, some competition stuff, more of like a run and gun type of competition. Um, I'm just I'm kind of dabbling in it a little bit. You know, I always did it for work and we had a new series come out, um, here in the state and, um, I didn't really dive into it because I did, I did a lot of that for work and it just wasn't, it wasn't really fun to me. Um, you know, uh, working with ARs and pistols and high speed running a gun and stuff, it just uh, kind of reminded me of work and I just didn't, uh, I don't know, there's just something about it where I didn't, it didn't spark my interest. But now that I haven't been doing it for a few months and, uh, you know, um, I I'm getting a little bit more of a niche for it. I think. I think it's something else to practice on. That's good, that every uh, everybody should get into. It's super fun. It could be useful in the event of a catastrophic, uh, who knows what, the world's ending scenario, um, but uh, yeah, and it's just, it's just fun. You know who doesn't love going on the range and running and gunning and shooting and stuff like that, and I mean I can't say much. I guess I didn't for the longest time, but I did it, uh, I did it as work, um, and uh, yeah, so I'm super excited about that.
Speaker 1:I uh, just currently, uh, uh, went down to the local store, did a bunch of research and, um, I I found a. It's a uh, seekins Precision uh, nx 15 in the 16 inch. Uh, I'm kind of a uh, I'm kind of a um, I don't like to wait. I wanted to get the 12.5 or a 14.5 or something like that. Um, you know, throw a suppressor on there and everything. I have a couple of suppressors around here that would work just fine for it. But at the same time, I really didn't care. I'm probably just going to throw a muzzle brake on it. It's not like I'd have to, you know, I'd have to wear ear pro anyways when other people are shooting around me, so it doesn't really matter. I'm totally fine with around a 16.
Speaker 1:Uh, when I was on the team, I ran a uh, I think it was a 12 inch, 11 or a 12 inch, with a suppressor on there. Um, uh, yeah, so it was a piston driven upper and a Colt, uh Colt M4 lower. Of course, uh, I can't uh take that weapon, um, as a civilian, so I had to uh leave it on the team. It was an issued rifle, um, so, yeah, I'm kind of diving down into that sort of stuff and very, very excited about that.
Speaker 1:Um, life is a lot better not being stressed out constantly for work, um, you know, I think the other thing is is I just was taken too much on my plate. You know, I was, uh, um, just a part of too many things in the police department. I was an FTO, I was a selective traffic enforcement officer, I was SWAT. I was, uh, um, the SWAT sniper team leader, which consisted of um other monthly trainings besides the, uh the two that uh, our SWAT team did. We were a part-time SWAT team, um, and yeah, so, just keeping up with with all the logistics as far as that and then, um, you know, getting guys issued new guns and it's just, you know, I think I just my time was up and, uh, my head wasn't in anymore and I, uh, I, I just wanted to be a normal Joe Blow citizen and just be around peace. I didn't want to deal with the crap anymore and the media and all the political climate and all that sort of stuff. I just kind of wanted to disappear and have more time with my family, my friends and my hobbies. So excited about that, yeah, let's touch on hunting again. So my buddy so excited about that. Um, yeah, let's touch uh, touch on hunting again.
Speaker 1:So my buddy Carl killed it this year. He shot a? Uh in Alaska. He shot a giant uh, I think we estimated a seven foot black bear, absolute freaking hog. He had like, uh, I think it was like at least six inches of fat on his back in freaking sane Uh, just to, he was just a fricking toad. Um, yeah, we caped him out. It was a absolute shit show scraping the fat and the grease off that Cape on the side of uh, on the side of a river, on river rock. It took three days. A total of it had to have been at least 10 hours um, to do that with three of us doing it. So, um, that was another roadblock there. It kind of sucked. It took away a lot of hunting time and everything, um, but uh, yeah, we went, uh went with a very good buddy, uh, randy Bell.
Speaker 1:Um, can't thank Randy Bell enough for everything that he did for me. I just planned on buying a, uh, a moose tag is all that I could have uh, afforded. When I went up, um, I was pretty, uh, pretty tight on money going up there and everything, and uh, randy forked out the money for uh, for me to get a, uh, a black bear tag is, or no, caribou tag, uh, so I bought a moose tag, he bought me a caribou tag and, um, what else? He paid for a lot of things up front.
Speaker 1:Um, literally, this, the wild adventure group, would not be a thing without Randy Bell. Um, god damn it, I love that man. So, um, yeah, and everything, uh, you know, and the individual is kind of keeping the wig together is, uh, carl man. That guy is motivated beyond belief. Both those two guys, uh, um, you know I'm in debt to you both, uh, for you know, showing me how good hunters need to be for the past three years, good individuals and just uh, good people.
Speaker 1:So, um, yeah, uh, what else is going on here? Um, I think that's really it, guys. Um, sorry about the short podcast. I just wanted to kind of uh, uh, update you guys and let you know we are going to be here. I'm pumped, I'm excited. Stay tuned, please. And uh, yeah, drive safe out there, at least. Here in Montana it's snowing right now and it's absolutely shitty as hell out. I'm not sure why they're not plowing the roads in front of our houses, but it's starting to irritate me. But, yeah, stay tuned. Please like and subscribe and we'll see you guys on the next one. Stay tuned Later. We'll see you next time.