About Herd 360
Our Story
Herd 360 and how it all began. Times change today at such a fast pace. If businesses don’t change with them, they will struggle to stay relevant or even exist. My love for hunting and being outdoors always draws me in, but also my tech geek inside and strong entrepreneurial ambition share a part of my soul. I’ve always had an interest in electronics and went to tech school for industrial electronics in the late 80’s. Still life opportunities and exposure to the Golf Course Maintenance industry placed me in the turf-grass industry for 13 years. Following that career, I moved to South Carolina in 1995. Around 97, I bought a game camera from Mark Cuddeback and the obsession started. By 2007 I had owned many brands and types of trail cameras, and one those was made by a company called HCO. The model was the Scoutguard SG550. I immediately fell in love with this tiny camera. It was so compact and used 8 AA batteries allowing it to have unparalleled battery life, as well as having a faster trigger speed than other cameras on the market. I started a business selling HCO Game Cameras and later Covert and Bushnell under the business name of “Atomic Firearms and Ammo.” I decided to let my FFL expire and dissolve the company around 2012. I maintained my relationship with HCO simply because I loved their cameras and the fact that they had been great to my customers and me all those years. In 2015 I started the brand Herd 360 with a desire to encourage year round focus on your deer herd. Deer nutrition was my main focus and product line, followed by attractants and deer lures. I realized quickly that the Whitetail nutritional supplement and Deer Lure industry is a tough business filled with low margins and lots of smoke and mirrors, along with the need for high volume. Game cameras also play a role in keeping up with your herd. So naturally, I kept selling and pushing HCO cameras. In 2014 they had the Spartan GoCam which was so much better in every way than their previous cellular cameras. It was such a great camera that it became my main game camera product and recommendation.
After using the Spartan GoCam for some time I realized two things. One, I needed to increase my battery life to completely take advantage of the awesome benefits of a cellular trail camera and two, these things were going to take off and my love for electronics kept gravitating towards that industry. That’s when my tech geek brain and love to design and build things went to work. I built some battery boxes which worked great but my “always can be better” mind wasn’t satisfied and I built my first solar battery box. It was a 12v system that had a 10w solar panel, charge controller and a voltage regulator to power the 6v GoCam. I shared the build on Facebook and the interest for me to build customers setups was so great, I began working on a more customer user design.
I still have my deer mineral, but no longer sell protein, attractants, or lures. The focus of my brand and business has evolved and I pray I will continue to grow and evolve. Never becoming complacent or satisfied with the status quo but continually being relevant to products that are truly effective. Customer service is very important to me and has probably been the main reason for where Herd 360 is today. Sure, I offer some of the best prices you can find, but the service after the sale to me is imperative. I’m a small business. Being and owner and operator means that during the busiest times I may not be able to ship same or next day. My success starts with your success with the products you purchase from me. That is why I carry limited brands and models. There are a lot of products on the market that don't offer a high percentage of reliability. There are also very reliable products that I sell but their reliability is specific to their application and situation they are used. For this reason I often recommend against a product that a customer is interested in simply because I want them to be happy with the performance and their intended application isn't ideal for the product, solar in shade for example. I have an amazing customer base who and I thank you for standing by me. I’m excited about Herd 360’s future.
One important detail I would like to add and in all truth this really should be first. I could not do any of this without the love and support of my beautiful and amazing wife. You allow me to chase my passion and encourage me support me along the way. I love you and am deeply grateful for all you do.
Thank you for reading, Mike