On the hunt with Lucas Spencer

Lucas Spencer has been hunting for about as long as he can remember. It started as time spent outdoors with his dad and sparked a lifelong passion for archery, exploration and eventually a career built around his passions.

His background also includes five years in the Marine Corps, time working behind the gun counter at Bass Pro Shops and years of experience evaluating gear in the field.

A longtime ExpertVoice member and now an official ExpertVoice Ambassador, Lucas has experience from several areas of the outdoor industry. We caught up with him to talk about bowhunting, building a career in the outdoors and the role firsthand experience plays when choosing and recommending gear.

Hunting has been part of Lucas’s life since childhood. His dad hunted, and Lucas and his brother grew up joining him outdoors and eventually getting involved in competitive archery.

“I’ve always kind of done the same stuff that my dad has done,” Lucas says. “Getting us into competitive archery when we were young was huge. I still do that a lot now.”

Archery eventually became Lucas’s preferred way to hunt as well.

Much of that time is spent pursuing Western big game. Lucas regularly hunts mule deer and elk around Nevada and travels when the opportunity comes up.

Before moving into the outdoor industry full time, Lucas served in the Marine Corps as a dog handler and combat marksmanship instructor.

That's when creative work began to pique his interest. Lucas started working on graphic design projects while still in the service. After moving to Colorado he studied graphic design and discovered a passion for photography.

“I started taking a couple photography classes,” he says. “I’m like, you know what, I kind of like cameras more than design. I think I can do this.”

Lucas began looking for a way to combine his creative skill set with hunting, scouting and the other activities he was already spending his time doing. His older brother had experience freelancing in digital media, and the two eventually teamed up to start a company working primarily with outdoor brands.

That company is now their full-time job, and has been for several years — producing content for brands in many of the same categories Lucas uses while hunting and shooting.

Working around outdoor equipment has given Lucas plenty of opportunities to try new gear, but he prefers to spend time with something before making up his mind.

Clothing usually gets a quick first impression based on fit and comfort. Packs, optics and other equipment often require more time outside.

That can mean pushing through thick brush, carrying a pack for miles or simply using equipment hard enough to find out how it holds up. Comfort is also critical, particularly when the gear will be used in the backcountry.

Lucas has talked about the same approach when building a hunting setup. Weight is always a consideration when he is covering miles, but he still wants equipment that can handle the demands of the hunt.

Archery rewards a dialed-in setup, which means Lucas is always testing what works. He spends time researching bows, arrows, broadheads and accessories, but years of shooting have also taught him how personal those choices can be. A bow or broadhead that feels good to one shooter may feel completely different to another.

“You can ask a million different people about a broadhead, and half of them will say, ‘This thing is the best broadhead I’ve ever used,’” Lucas says. “Whereas the other half is like, ‘It’s a complete piece of crap.’”

His advice is to listen, research and then spend time with the equipment yourself.

Lucas gives similar advice to people learning to hunt. A mentor can help point someone in the right direction, and there is more information available online than ever before. But experience in the field is still where many of the most meaningful lessons are learned.

“It’s definitely a lot of trial and error,” he says. “Ultimately, it’s always going to come down to your own experiences, your own failures and successes.”

One lesson Lucas picked up early in his western hunting experience was the importance of glassing. When he began spending more time hunting mule deer in Nevada, he says he would have benefited from buying a quality set of binoculars and a tripod much sooner.

Lucas discovered ExpertVoice while working behind the gun counter at Bass Pro Shops in Colorado. The job meant keeping up with a huge selection of firearms, optics and ammunition while helping customers sort through the options. Coworkers pointed him toward ExpertVoice as a place to learn more about the products he was recommending.

“I’d find myself on there always looking at different optics, ammunition and firearms to learn more about them, so that I could give better recommendations to the customers.”

Today, Lucas brings his own mix of experience to the ExpertVoice community. Asked why he continues to return to hunting each season, Lucas had a simple answer: