The 200 Inch Mule Deer Episode. In this special 200th episode of The Epic Outdoors Podcast we call some of our friends who have taken some incredible bucks over 200″ in hopes of learning something from each of them. These type of bucks are incredibly rare. Making it happen takes a lot of dedication, hard work, and usually plenty of luck. We learned that usually luck is something we have to earn. We hear about missed opportunities, blown stalks, and that moment when it finally comes together. Sit back and enjoy nearly 3 hours of giant Mule deer.
Disclaimer: this text was produced through an automated transcription service and likely contains errors. Please listen to the original audio for exact content.
00:00:00:13 –> 00:01:19:17
Magnum and I laid ice on each other for the first time. He saw me make my move and I saw him and some of the most incredible mass of any deer harvested in our lifetime. Never thought I’d see a deer like that in my life. Anything to do with Western Big Games. Welcome to the Epic Outdoors Podcast, powered by Under Armour. Hey everybody. Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, and the entire freaking crew. How y’all doing? The world? Yeah. Good, good, good. Epic outdoors world here in the, in the room. Yeah. Wyatt, Devon, Josh, Chris, and John, Adam, myself. Here we are. Why we, why we all here today? I don’t know. You told us we’re doing a podcast. This is a big one though, right? It’s a round number. Round number. Round 200. Round two oh oh. Chris. Two hundo. Two hundo. We’re gonna have a little bit of fun today. We’re gonna talk about some fun things, but two hundred’s in mine. 200 inch bucks, huh? Why not? Can’t talk about 200 inch antelope. No. And who wants to talk about antelope? 200 inch elk. What does that look like? Four point. I don’t know what they look like. Somebody asked me, we met the two 80 bullet. Remember we had to start one. It was, you guys were asking sixteens, maybe a 15 or two. Well, you may had me score it off a pitcher and then they scored. I’m like, holy crap, you’re closeup.
00:01:19:17 –> 00:02:29:09
Well, bro, one Jeff, John’s boy killed a bull. And we’re like, what is that? And it was like two 70 or 80. I don’t 60. It’s like, what is this? I don’t know. It was good. But a 200 inch, 2 8, 200 inch ram, that would be impressive. I don’t know. We’re gonna be able to talk about too many of those stories amongst ourselves. No, none but, but 200 inch deer. Y’all killed one. I wanna know a little bit about it, but, we’ll, we’ll go around the horn here in a bit in that. But I guess first off, Chris, John, do you wanna tee up a little bit of fun that we’re gonna have regarding this podcast maybe being It’s a 200. Yeah, we’re gonna 200 giant giveaway. Big prize, big dollar value. Chris is gonna take over. Okay. The prize that we’re giving away for the 200th podcast is a pack wheel. And I don’t know if any of you have ever used one, but they’re pretty awesome. I took, I, I took this one out. The one we have, I took it out. And you were packing John around the parking lot. I watched you. That was when we were testing it out. I could have, but Yeah, but I, I went, I put it up again. I had it all loaded down and I put it up against a ditch bank that was taller than my head, like a big old washout.
00:02:29:21 –> 00:03:42:13
And I just hit the throttle and that thing went right up. It all loaded down pretty awesome. And then coming downhill, you got brake. It’s, it’s impressive. You can pretty much go anywhere. So did you ever wear out the battery? I heard the battery. Unbelievable. I did not. I just, I I used it a ton. And did you ever wear it out? No. Guy took it in G took an extra battery. Didn’t even use the extra battery. Yeah. Fricking used it in g on all those trails. Crazy. Yeah. It’s just, it’s an impressive machine. You could go in hunting somewhere by yourself and literally pack out in one trip by yourself with, with a deer. Pretty cool. Anyway. Don’t need a llama. Yeah. Is that what I’m hearing? Don’t aama. You do not need to be spit on. Dude, I didn’t even know spitting was a real thing. Like I’ve never been around llamas. I had to tell Carter to Google it, dude. I did. And I hit, I hit videos, right? You hit Google. Spitting llamas hit video clips. They’re all over. I mean, there’s thousands. It’s funny, funny stuff. Oh, it’s Bronson and I wasted 15 minutes. Sorry John. But we did, we wasted 15 minutes and it was spit after spin after spin. I was like, that’s the legit some compilations. No, it was, there was no, no another reason never to use a llama. Why? Why?
00:03:42:19 –> 00:04:46:29
Llamas are in zoos where kids can pet them. I’ll never know why people feed ’em. Why do you even have ’em? And they, if you scare ’em real bad, they just tip over. They pass out. Do they? I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that either. You’ll have to google that one. I’ve not heard that. I thought that was just the goats. Yeah. Really? Those are goats ohs goats. I’ve heard of goats. Yeah, you have goat goats if you like scare ’em. Whoa. You scare ’em. They tip over. Well, you can’t do that with APAC wheel. So that’s why we’re back there in region G. And you’ve come across some goats. You can ruin a guy’s hump by spooking his goats. They’re a few hundred pounds lighter than a llama. Alright. At least now we know what goes on at lunch. Why? While we’re at lunch, these two are doing, working over the goats, researching some goats. Not gonna be doing that. All right. This is a tangent, but speaking of llama, I’ve had a llama steak and it’s pretty good. What? You ate a llama? Yeah. That’s like eating a dog or a cat. Is that in Bolivia? Yeah. Bolivia. I was gonna say in the us that probably breaks. Did you have cat human and a cruel tree loss? I don’t believe I had cat. But there was something you don’t ate that you didn’t know.
00:04:47:09 –> 00:05:56:09
I had Guinea pigs and Oh yeah, it was Guinea pig. The first time I had Guinea pig, they told me it was rabbit. And I’m like, no, it’s not. I’ve had rabbit. That’s not rabbit. They had a little paw on the end of the, on the end of the drumstick, there’s a drumstick with a a paw. And I’m like, this is a rabbit that is little claw. They’re like, no, it’s a rabbit. I promise. I’m like, I’ve seen a rabbit foot that’s not a rabbit foot. They’re like, yeah, it’s rabbit. It’s rabbit. Oh my God. And then, then after I ate it, and I’m like, that was not rabbit. No. After I ate it, they’re like, well, it was fake rabbit in, in, in Spanish terms or whatever. Fake. Yeah. Well they just call it fake rabbit. And then, well, and it’s the poor man’s rabbit, I guess. And so after I found out it’s Guinea pig, and it was disgusting that, that’s like somebody feeding you a barbary sheep and telling you that’s a poor man’s sheep. She pretty, pretty much, pretty much. Anyway, how did they taste, bro? I, I filled out a nice donation slate for me in New Mexico. ’cause I was told that was good. Good. A good way to, yeah. Yeah. They’re probably right. Quiet. Or did you do the same thing? Texas. Texas. Exotic animals. Okay, so what does that mean? What does that mean?
00:05:56:12 –> 00:07:15:19
Bro, you don’t have to take any of the meat. Oh, alright. So did you No. No. Okay. All right. So back to Pac Wheel. All right. If you way better than a spitter. If you’ve listened through all of that, all that, you’re not giving way live out. Yeah. You’re giving way. Chris, you deserve to hear how to enter to win the Pac wheel. So you’re gonna go directly to our Instagram page at epic hunts. And the post from Friday, March 26th is going to be a reel. So it’ll be a video on our page. Go check that video out. And in the comment section of that video, you’re gonna tag two friends and just make sure you’re following Pac Wheel. So at Pac Wheel and then at Epic Hunts. And you don’t wanna follow you personally or me personally, or my wife and kids? No, no Adam’s wife and kids. No. Three simple steps. So follow Pac Wheel, follow epic Hunts. Tag two friends in the comments. This will not, the, the instructions will not be listed on Instagram, only on the podcast. That’s to, that’s to incentivize listeners and our loyal faithful vet amount. Listen list. Able to know how it’s working, whoever listen and how long are we gonna, how long they got to What you gonna give it away next? So that’s gonna be next week. We’re gonna give five days From Friday. From Friday? Yes. Okay. So deadline on that. Hard cut off.
00:07:15:27 –> 00:08:27:12
March 31st at midnight, actually. March 31st, 1150 9:00 PM Yeah. Gotcha. And how are we gonna announce the winner podcast? And we’re gonna announce the winner on, we’ll do it on Instagram, the next podcast, maybe podcast. And we’ll also do it on the next podcast. Yeah. Podcast. Just on the podcast. How 2 0 1? Yeah, let’s do it on the, let’s let’s draw it on the podcast. Live. Well, we will draw the next winner on podcast. The podcast. Podcast on podcast 2 0 1. Okay. We’ll also let you know who won on. Oh geez. On Instagram. After, after. Sweet. All right, there you go. Let’s this worst listening for then you gonna stay up. Cut it off. I usually am up around then. Yeah. Oh, not married. Not me. He must not be an old married guy like us Bronson. Yeah. He’s still a bachelor for a couple months. I think it’s funny watching these guys get older though. Why? When did you go to bed last night? I was, I was in bed by nine o’clock. Wow. Aren’t you? Aren’t you? When when you in bed? 9 0 5 Paul. He just doesn’t wanna be, or before Wyatt, he had Mc beat. I guess I was a bachelor last night. So that’s one thing I was looking forward to was what an early bedtime. Most people, when they’re gonna a nine alone, they’re like gonna go do something. Shoot coyotes in Nevada, do something.
00:08:27:19 –> 00:09:42:29
I’ve got a wife that works nights, so when she comes back, she wants to stay up. And that’s hard on your relationship is the biggest problem. You guys, you’ve got, you’ve gotta, that’s probably the biggest, you’ve gotta save up your sleep. Well, she’s gone. Exactly. Yes. Because you’re gonna show her and you’re gonna stay up till 10. Yeah. Play card, watch that. Exactly it. And have some meaningful discussions. Alright, so Chris, if they want to go see what the pack wheel’s about and see what they’re putting into win, where do they go to do that? So you can just go to pac wheel.com and the one that we’re are giving away is the motorized epac wheel. So it’s the, the biggest, most expensive one they’ve got. And it will come with the saddle bags, the meat bags. And that unit is $1,895. Without the bags. The bags are another 120. So, so we’re giving Ram roughly 2K ish. Yeah. So this is a 2000 giveaway. Two 200 with 2K prizes. How’s that? Don’t ask for the cash. Yeah, right. Don’t ask for the cash. All you could don donate it back. Right. Don’t get cash. Got a 10 99 cash. I wonder if anybody’s perfected the ability to ride those like a unicycle. I mean, I’m just saying. Well, watching Chris and John, they got pretty good right here. They were going up and over these little curves.
00:09:43:13 –> 00:10:48:16
I did see a post on their page where somebody was doing it. My kid was riding it. Yeah, he’s sitting on the Oh, he’d have to be a kid. Yeah, man. You’d have to, you’d have to be talented to know. He wasn’t like super young. He’s probably 21, 22 Maybe. That’s, that’s a kid. That’s a young kid. He just got his driver’s license probably nowadays. Hey, these kids don’t even get driver’s license at 16. A lot of ’em. My kids did. Your kids did. Good morning of or Christmas Eve. Yeah, but a lot of kids, it’s like, why? Why? I don’t know. My parents take me everywhere. Don’t need a driver’s license for video games. All right, where are we at? All right, just so everybody knows, watch out. There are fake accounts. When we do giveaways, fake accounts get created in our name and they say this is a, this is a giveaway account that is not us. Anyway. So if you see Epic dot hunts, epic Hunts, epic whatever, that’s not epic hunts. And they claim to have a giveaway page that will, that is not us. We will never ask you for any personal information. We won’t ask you for your credit card to win shipping charges. Look for a page with more than 30,000 followers. Exactly right? Yeah. I mean, if they got three followers, probably a fake.
00:10:48:19 –> 00:12:01:28
So what they’ve been doing is they’ll copy all of our most recent posts along with our page. So it looks just, or tell us you won something. Yeah. So it looks like send them $5. Yeah. You won something. 10 shipping. Don’t fall for that. That’s not us. If you win, we’re gonna call you or message you directly from our Instagram account. Let, well, let’s talk about, well now we’re, we’re talking about 200 inch deer. Let yeah, just start talking around the horn. So let’s, let’s call our friends real quick. Let’s just follow our glo. Let’s, let’s call, just call the Gilby for just a sec. Where we going? Let start to see, see if the answer, this is gonna be a rapid fire 200 buck smash and grab talk around the campfire session. Is that kind of where we’re gonna go today? And we’ve kind of listed out, you know, and we, you know, guys we know that have killed some 200 inches, most of which don’t know we’re gonna give a holler today. We’ll see what they have to say. You know what I mean? Yep. Okay. Just kind of celebrate the 200. Yeah. It’s something to celebrate. So it feels like it’s a unicorn. You know, like you were talking about nowadays a 200 or nowadays is like, it was like even from 10 years ago. It’s crazy, isn’t it? Like 10 times harder just feels that way. What do you guys think?
00:12:02:02 –> 00:13:08:23
Definitely, I don’t know. Not easy. 200 inches. Something to celebrate for sure. Well, even, even like on, I dunno, some of the Henry’s tags and stuff anymore, why? You’ve spent a lot of time down there. It’s, it’s different than even 10 years ago on places like that. Colorado’s not producing ’em like it used to. No, Utah and just there’s more. Everybody wants to squeeze as much as they can out of every great tag. So a little bit more competition or just, you know, aggressive hunters out there, mule deer. Bring out the hard hunting in everybody ’cause they’re so hard to, hard to kill. So partly that, but partly just, yeah, getting a good tag or making the most of even an average tag. It’s hard to put one on the ground and guys are waiting 20 something years putting in for a place like the Ponsa, Gotha Henry, something like that. Yeah. You know, thinking that that’s what they’re gonna kill. And they don’t, man. And guys buying $40,000 tags and they don’t kill one. So the majority of them, yeah, let’s be honest. All right, well let’s just give these guys a call. They’re good there. These guys, before we talk all these, some of these Drew tags, some of ’em Drew State raffle tags, some of ’em one tags and we’re missing a lot of guys.
00:13:08:23 –> 00:14:39:24
We’re just, there’s a lot of guys that have done well out there and we’re just, these are just a few of ’em. We’d be here for five hours, Bronson, you know what I mean? Covering it all. So anyway, let’s call the Gillespie there in Colorado. See what they have to say. Pretty good dudes. A lot of fun to talk, talk with over there. They got a lot of experience and it’s about time to apply in Colorado for everybody that’s out there. What’s going on? Whatcha doing? Oh, just juggling business and being ready to answer. You guys’ call, you guys don’t work. You don’t work. What’s up Carter? What’s going on? Hey, we we’re having record setting days over here in the gun industry. Oh, I bet. Yeah. No kidding. Ah, got any ammo on the shelf? No. Alright. Well, hey, so we got the entire epic outdoors crew here and we’re just all looking for what we’re gonna do there in Colorado. And we just want you guys to just tell us where we’re gonna find a two hon. Pretty easy, you know what I mean? Smash and grab. I don’t think that exists really. You guys have made it look easy. You’re constantly hunting big stuff. What’s the secret? We, well, for one, I can assure you the secret is don’t do what we did last year. That’s the first secret to kill a big stuff. We both, we both got a little trigger happy.
00:14:43:03 –> 00:16:17:13
And then other than that, you know, I think, I don’t think there’s a method to the madness here in Colorado. Like, you know, I listened to you guys’ Colorado breakdown episode a little while ago and you guys hit the nail on the head. I guarantee you any unit in the state can produce a big one and the best units in the state might let you down. Yeah, for sure. And that is, that is pretty much I think the, the future of Colorado. Crazy. So tell us a little bit about last year. What’d you do? Did you, you know, I’ve made the mistake of putting fifteens on a bucket a hundred yards, and he looked pretty big. What’d you guys do? The philosophy last year was killing tomorrow’s trophies today? No, not, not really. I got a little trigger happy on a 31 inch wide deer. And his wit got him killed. And Garrett’s situation was, we had known and heard of a big deer in this spot. We had spent the majority of our time hunting elk with our cousin. And so we hadn’t really had much time to lock down any good deer. And second season we were hunting elk with our cousin. And then third season we rolled into to the deer hunting. My, my brother on the second or third day killed that 31 inch wide buck. And then freaking last day of the season, I’m, I’m, I’m pretty good at eating tags.
00:16:17:13 –> 00:17:32:18
It doesn’t bother me one bit. And so we had been hunting this, this, he was a mid one nineties type typical. And last day of the season, we just happened to see a deer out in the middle of the flat. Like I’m talking when you could barely see through your binos that morning. And we just decided it was him. And I got on the gun and I legitimately was on my gun for five minutes. This was no bull, my brother. But Grant was counting down for me and shooting light was at 6 23. And I’m not kidding you, his phone clicked six twenty three and I freaking dumped that beer. And we walked up, we walked up and he was not the 195 inch tip, even even at 50 or 60 yards walking up on him. He looked giant. And I looked at Garrett and I was like, dude, you just killed a fricking giant. And then we got up there and he just, Garrett just started laughing at the deer. I was like, oh my. So he, he didn’t get angry though. How, how Garrett, how big is, how big was he? He’s like, he’ll, he would be lucky if he was 170 inches. Yeah, yeah, that’s happened. Hey, he typically gets really angry though. Just laughed like that. Yeah.
00:17:32:18 –> 00:18:49:13
Another animal that we killed that had some serious ground shrink at you got like really mad to the point we almost got in a fist fight over it, but hey, it’s not out of being a trophy stop. That’s what I try to tell everybody. I’m not like one of those guys who caress about itches. I just, it sincerely hurts me killing young deer. Like it hurts me. Yeah, yeah. Tell us about that giant, what is it, three or four years ago, grant, you won a statewide Colorado raffle tag. Tell us about that. That was not a, that was not a ground shrinkage incident. So on, on that same year, I lucked into a Colorado, Rocky Mountain tag, 21 years old, had a rocky tag. Wow. She, so, geez, we were ear early on, we knew, we obviously had, you know, three plus months to hunt deer. So early on we were spending a lot of our time looking for sheep. The sheep hunt started four days after the deer hunt started, I believe, or yeah, four or five days after the deer hunt started. But luckily we’ve got some really close buddies in the game and it’s, it’s hilarious to see, like when you draw a tag like that, how many guys call you and they’re like, oh, we’re gonna look for you and we’re gonna do this and that. But you find out who your friends are, you know, with one of those tags.
00:18:49:13 –> 00:20:00:03
And Garrett and I both, well, we kinda obviously already knew, so Garrett Yeah, Garrett and I both, I mean, you already had a feeling of who your friends were, but now we’re gonna prove it. I’m not, I’m not quite as bad as Garrett, but I don’t think there’s, there’s one, there’s one person that could show Garrett either a big deer or a big bull that he would actually go kill. And that’s me. He would never just, just, just to not have somebody else’s name on it. He wouldn’t let somebody else tell him where an animal was. But yeah, we, one of our, one of our best, best friends and a dude that is, has killed a lot of big, big deer, Justin Hill. He, he literally was turning down big money guys to look for deer for us. Geez. And he, he was always one of our, one of our best friends and knew big deer and we were just, how he was and how he, how he talked with us. My brother and I were in, in my sheep unit looking for sheep. And the, the unit I hunted sheep, there was some big deer too. So we were looking over deer and he had called me and he says, bill, he’s, can you hear me? And I said, yep. And he says, I I just found your buck. And I said, okay. And he hangs up the phone. That’s all he said.
00:20:00:22 –> 00:21:13:06
And then, you know, Garrett and I were at 12,000 feet, so we had plenty of service and he, he sent us a picture of the deer and immediately, I mean, it was a giant deer. And, and we called him back and he was stressed out more than you could believe. And on the way out of there, I ended up, I actually got pneumonia really bad. Garrett damn near had to carry me back to the truck. Geez. And we were, we were seven or eight miles in there. And I finally hobbled my way back out and my brother dropped me off in town and I was in no way, shape or form to go look for deer. And so he dropped me off at the house. I went to the doctor’s and he grabbed some new gear and turned and burned and went up to where Justin was at. And then we, we pretty much traded off about three weeks of trying to keep eyes on the deer. But he was just in a position where you really could not have a good vantage to glass him. And there were some other guys that knew he was in there and I mean, so we just did everything we could to keep eyes on the deer and went in there opening morning and we all split up and my brother found him and ended up killing him. That was it. Wow. So tell us, give us the details.
00:21:13:15 –> 00:22:21:04
How big a deer was? He, so he, he, right when, when he shrank a little bit, you know, after he dried, but he’s, he’s pretty conservatively two 30. And when we first put the tape on him, he was 2 33. Geez. And, and he’s 34 inches wide. His main frame’s about 2 0 9, his main typical frame. And then he is got two big inlines on the right and one big inline on the left. And we knew, I mean, we knew right away and it was just cool that, you know, we kind of stuck with our, stuck with our group. And there was, there was some other people telling us about, about deer. Mike Brownley had done some, done some work with Justin and he had a big deer located and he liked my brother and I, and he called and he’s like, Hey, come kill this deer. And I told him, I said, well, you know, we’re gonna spend a lot of time trying to hunt the deer that we had found and, and watched. And it just ended up working out really well. It’s awesome. So that’s how it happens. Pretty good, man. It feels like things have changed. We talked a little bit about it.
00:22:21:04 –> 00:23:21:01
It just, even since you guys killed that deer, it just feels tougher and tougher, you know, to come up with significant giants and just kind of wondered your, get your take on what you guys have been seeing out there even, even that year. I mean, even that year between us and I mean a lot of our, a lot of our good good friends here in town and around here and a lot of guys that have killed a lot of big deer. I mean, they were spending some time looking for us and, and we spent, that was our last year that my brother and I were both in college and you know, our boss Aaron Rose, when we got both of those tags, he pretty much told us, you know, don’t worry about work, you can work if you have time, but just go find a big deer. Find a big sheep and we need a boss like that. Bronson. Yeah. Will you be my boss that way and I’ll be here. How about we’ll just do that John. We got John somebody, somebody give me that leash. And he, you know, he was one of the guys too, spending time looking for us in other places.
00:23:21:05 –> 00:24:33:18
But between all of us and everybody, I mean, we didn’t find, we found one other deer that my dad and I walked up on and we went over a ridge going to a vantage point and walked up on the deer. And he was no doubt the two 10 plus typical, geez. And we, I mean by far the biggest typical I’ve ever seen. And then we went back in, I mean, I set 10 trail cams in the area all around Justin and I, my brother and dad and a couple other people had spent a bunch of time looking for him again and just could never, could never lock him down. And then that’s when we kind of ended up fanning out and splitting up and going into new spots. And I mean, Justin wasn’t gonna sleep until he found a big deer that I wanted to kill. That’s just how he was. And it was super cool. ’cause he, he passed away in July of 2018. So, so that was kind of, you know, it was, it was super, super cool. That was one of the last, you know, true giant deer that, that he was a part of. So obviously. And he was, he’s, he was one of our best friends anyway. I mean, you guys know how passionate I am about the hound hunting. And Justin was the one who got me into Hound, you know, 10 years ago.
00:24:33:21 –> 00:25:48:10
So, I mean, he was one of our best friends. And for that hunt to just go down the way it did was perfect. Pretty special, man. You guys have something forever. Memory’s forever with him. That’s pretty awesome. And he did, he was, he was a hardcore hunter and was known from finding many giants. When you guys mentioned trail cameras, I mean, here in the desert we’re running cameras on water and things. Yep. You know, how are you guys running cameras in Colorado? You guys have a lot of water? How are you doing? Okay, let me, let me tell you about my camera game Carter. So, so I have freaking, I have $5,000 worth of those things sitting at the house in college. I used to be very, very into the trail cam game. But since then, we really haven’t, haven’t consistently ran cameras. I I carry cameras with me all the time. And I’m not kidding yet. I have a dozen cameras out. I I have a couple cameras out. In fact, this that reminds me, I, I have a couple cameras out that no bss I haven’t checked in four years ’cause they’re pretty deep. They’re way too deep. I mean, I don’t know why they probably don’t even make that model anymore. They probably don’t even make ’em, there’s no bs I don’t even know why they make that or why I ever thought it was a good idea to, to hang trail cameras.
00:25:48:18 –> 00:27:04:11
That’s that much effort to get back into. But, but they’re there. And actually I almost guarantee you that that big bull that I killed in 2018, I almost guarantee I got pictures of him on those, on one of those four cameras. I almost, I would put my, I would put a kidney on him. You, but I still have a way back into get ’em crazy. So at the end of the day, you’re not gonna give us any camera tricks. We, we don’t have any camera tricks. Climb the, climb the nearest tree to where you think there’s gonna be a critter and put it there. Most people are just running them on trails for the most part, like you’re saying coming to and from Meadows or whatever, feeding areas and stuff. So, yeah. Yeah. Well guys, it’s fun to chat. We gotta make the rounds of some other guys too. But we wanted to kick it off. I know you guys got some obligations, but we want to kick it off with a giant from Colorado. It’s on everybody’s brain right now. So you already told us that you don’t think there’s any secret sauce to do with Colorado deer right now. Just apply and be over there and be hunting somewhere. I guess. Either spend, spend a time and effort or get completely lucky. I like the lucky side. I like the lucky part. Yeah. You guys have done well too. Just on draw tags.
00:27:04:14 –> 00:28:20:18
So anyway. Yep. Congratulations. You guys have done awesome. All species. So, hey, thank you guys. Alright fellas, take it easy. Go sell some guns. Good. Hear from you. You bet. How ya Hey, don’t, don’t, don’t kill too many giants. All right. Doing what you did last year is all right by me. Tomorrow’s trophies today. I like them. Alright guys. Be a little more of that. Have a good one. Alright. If there’s any more of them, they would get the nickname like your in-Laws of the Hyenas. ’cause they kind of are like hyenas. Oh, they’re awesome. They’re, they are, they’re two, two twins. For the listeners that don’t know, didn’t you have a new name for the hyenas more? You came back with a The jackals. The Jackals, yeah. Like, ’cause they’re just hyenas are pretty big and burly. Oh yeah. And, and some, I’m not, I’m not calling ’em wimpy. I’m not, I’m not, I’m not calling out my wife. No. They’re fit lightweights. They’re, what do they weigh? Five pounds what? 20 something weight. So Jackal’s fit and they have big, they have big families. They’re, and they’re older guys. They’re running in there. They’re stealing in Aton of meat. They’re out. They’re, you know, I mean, that’s it. I mean they’re just, they’re awesome guys out there. The best, best in-laws I’ve ever had. Anyway.
00:28:20:21 –> 00:29:24:10
Well, we gotta make, well let’s continue with Colorado for just a minute, Archie, I want to talk about your 200 inches from last year. Everybody’s gonna get the hook mic, my illegitimate 200 inches. Well the 200 that you were, you know, texting us all about laughter year. Well I killed this buck and just slick shank, just slick shank buck as Adam would say. And you know, we get over to it and I was with my dad and my dad, he wouldn’t even know how to score. Yeah. A deer, elk, nothing. And I’m like, I wonder how wide he is, you know? And he’s like, well I got a tape in my truck. And I’m like, like a cloth tape. He’s like, well yeah. Oh, okay. And I’m like, wow, why would my dad have a cloth tape? So anyways, we get it and he’s 29 wide, you know, 29 and a half, almost 30. And just what I thought. Yeah. Awesome. So we get back to town and my friend starts pulling measurements and he’s like, well prior to this you had sent us a picture. Oh, he, and it’s, he looks, it’s a freaking, legit freaking 200, 2 10. I mean, if you told me any of that, I’d believe, yeah, I would. It’s a pretty buck. He’s a big buck. Oh point mass. Just eye guards. Guards definitely help when you’re looking for a score though. Okay. Anyway, so they start pulling numbers.
00:29:24:13 –> 00:30:30:21
I’m like, no way. You know, and they write it on a torn up Pepsi box and comes out at like 2 0 5 or something. I’m like, no way. You know, Jason had texted me 27 times, he told me to pull over on the highway, score it. Well, I mean, I’m beside myself and you gotta get to a mandatory, this was going south until you kill, I mean Well that was, you were like, I’m disappointed. I mean, yeah, I had to work pretty hard to find, find deer and yeah, just kind of boom. One up, one of happened, just boom. Just like that. And what, so what, what was the, what’d you find out? So anyways, my, my, the same kid who scored the buck, he’s, he gets his tape and he starts pulling. He’s like, dude, this isn’t adding up. I’m like, what are you talking about? And he’s like, there’s something with your tape, it’s like shriveled or, I’m like, well it’s my dad’s tape. And we get looking at it, it started at one, not at zero, it’s starting shredded or something. And I bought it on sale somewhere or something. You know, a little kid clipped the in was at the yard size. He was like, what’s heck good tape. It was funny. So yeah, there for a couple hours or two, you know, we went and ate and I was thinking that deer’s like had a two Hyundai. Yeah.
00:30:31:04 –> 00:31:38:06
And well, and he looked it in the pictures. I still would believe it. Dude. It’s the biggest upper eighties buck I’ve ever held. It’s big, like in your hands, pretty, I don’t know what that thing weighs, but it’s like heavy sucker. Oh yeah. He’s got big deep back forks and just, just a cool buck. Shoot it every time you go to call I’d shoot again. Yeah. Twice on an opening day. So yeah, it was kind of funny, the tape. W do you have a Colorado story for us? Maybe at 11 to 11? Yeah. No, saw nothing like that. We grounded out for a few days though. Yeah. Yes, we did. Saw what? 200 dos and fawns and two points. Yeah. Basically just to, we gotta have the theme of 200 kinda the quick Yeah. Sum it up. But I I, I didn’t mean to end on a bad note. Why? Sorry. It was a little bit tough. Yeah. Not every hunt goes as planned. Right. He we’re, we’re talking celebrating 200 inch deer right Now. That’s, that’s not, let’s celebrate, we didn’t buy the 200 inch deer on. Yeah. But, but what happened to your 230 some odd in your office? Net Booker? You took it home. Why? Yeah, it had to hold down a place at the house. Oh, that’s right. Don’t reserve a spot there. That’s right. Because there was a spot and she hadn’t gotten to it yet. Exactly.
00:31:38:16 –> 00:32:39:22
She was, she was in her, she’s a nurse and she worked nights six on or something like that, right? Yes. She worked. So she was at the, she was gone for that six day, kinda like the firefighter schedule when you’re on, you’re on or Wyatt stick. He, he was putting mining claims around the house and that went in a corner, strategically placed corner. Yeah. Holding down the spot for, for something else. Maybe in the future or maybe it’s gonna stay there forever. I, I’ve seen it. It’s in a good spot. It, either way you’ve got options. I know, but I love putting anything here. Claiming the wall. Yeah, exactly. But I love seeing it in there. Like, I just miss ha not having it through our window to look through into your office every day. I, I drool at stuff like that. Yeah. I get to look at it every night when I go home though. So Yeah. I I I guess one of like the three minutes before you go to bed. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So that’s a nice book. Who else we gonna call? We might have to put a time limit on call call. Well let’s, should we call it three or five minutes? Good. Kinda like at rack meeting. Okay. Okay. We could do time’s up. Let’s, the, the gillespe are fun. They got so many stories. In fact, if we, we could do an entire podcast of those guys.
00:32:39:22 –> 00:33:49:28
There’s two, there’s two of them though. So their time was doubled. So we’ll give ’em that. Oh, okay. Alright. So let’s call our good buddy Bronson. You known you’ve known him from way back. Josh, you have two. Gary Cy. We’ll see if he answers. We’ll see if he answers A. And, and then B, talk about it. Ask him about a 200. Just see if he tries to sell us another ar. You never know. I don’t know. See what he says. Hello. Hey, what are you doing today? What’s up man? Oh, just trying to get taxes paid, man. Whoa. You got a really good radio voice. Good deal. We got you on a hot mic. How’s today, Gary? Good, how are you? Good. Well, you didn’t divulge your, we stopped you before you told us your social security number and your adjusted gross income right there. So, but what’s, what’s your date of birth? But we are on a hot mic today and it’s our 200th podcast and we’re talking 200 inch deer. So we’re calling friends and foes maybe, I don’t know, we might call a fo later on. We haven’t called any fool. People have smashed a few. Gary. And that’d be you boss. So tell us a story. I don’t know, you got, you’ve got some in your collection, but tell us one, I don’t know if it’s your pont’s archery book or something else.
00:33:50:00 –> 00:35:00:28
Tell us, give, give some tips and tricks on how to kill a big one. Yeah, that I don’t, I don’t have any tricks you guys know, don’t know already. So well tell us a story about how to put, how you put one on the wall then. Boy, you guys know how to catch somebody off guard. What do you do? What gonna do a taxes? How important can that put it to the side? It’s, it’s not even close to April 15th. Yeah. And even after that they let you extend till September. October. October. It depends. I don’t know. Sometime in there. Well this was, this was, this was for my job. Corporate taxes. So anyway. Enough and hate those. Anyway, back to work. Doing well. Won’t only take three to five. Won’t only take three to five minutes of your day. You’re fine, you’re fine. So what, anyway, what was the question again? Tell us a story about how you smashed a 200 inch or hundred something there stuff we text about almost every day. You know, that circuit stuff. All right. You know what, Hey, I’ll, I, I’ll tell you about my archery buck because it was kinda interesting ’cause both of you guys were involved even way back then. I think that was what, 10 years ago? Yeah, that’s, wow. I think maybe eight years ago I drew that archery tag and I remember I’d scattered all summer looking for a buck.
00:35:00:28 –> 00:36:14:13
We’d found a couple, but I didn’t know and I didn’t wanna, this, the buck’s a little bit narrow, but I thought he’d break 200. But I remember texting Jason the night before the hunt pitchers of the buck saying, Hey, you guarantee me this thing’s over 200. I don’t remember that. Do you? I don’t remember that. No, I don’t. But I’m sorry. But I’ll bet you I could probably look through our text log, but I’m sorry, but keep going. You fi you finally said Yeah. Yeah, I think he’ll do it. But we actually had another buck that was a little bit bigger the, the first and second day. And then the third day we got down and caught, caught him coming into back before the days of baiting, he wasn’t even on an apple pile. It got him coming into where he was feeding and got between him and stuck him at about 65 yards. And anyway, went back the next day, but it was, he ended up being two 16. So you were right when you said he was over 200. Geez. A true, a true range rangeland buck. It can happen. And it wasn’t the inside spread that made him either. That’s what’s cool. He’s straight bone. Yeah, yeah. No, he’s, he’s, I think his inside spread’s like 20 inches. Geez. With 22 inches. Just like ponag buck built narrow, but boxy and inlines and heavy. And he’s a, he’s an awesome buck.
00:36:14:20 –> 00:37:26:24
So you didn’t really use any llamas or goats or anything on that hunt? I didn’t. It was a truck hunt. No, no. Anything else? I like truck hunts. I like it. Have you got any, you, you’ve been successful at finding big deer. You know, you have just, you got anything out there for anybody that’s listening that’s helped you guys be successful? Just a, you know, a lot of time, you know, you, I I listen to all your podcasts and you guys tell everybody how to do it and I, I, I know both of you guys spend just every chance to get your out there spring and winter, summer and fall. And that’s what, you know, we do our best to, we’re always looking for tracks or, you know, water holes that, that might pan out or sheds or, it seems like a lot of the areas that we’ve been lucky enough to kill some big deer, especially on the general units we’ve actually found shed hunting or, or just backpacking doing other things and, you know, come across areas where we found a track and went back later and found them. And luckily a few of ’em ended up being pretty big. But that’s, I think just spending a lot of time. I don’t think there’s any secrets other than just time and Yeah. Been in the right spots. Right on. Well we appreciate it.
00:37:26:24 –> 00:38:25:09
We know we cut you off guard, but that was the point. We didn’t want you to prepare a speech. We didn’t want you to, you know, have bullet points and all that. Just give you your thoughts and tell us a quick story. And that’s what we’re doing today. So we know you’ve got women and children that have killed giants too, so we could go on forever. Yeah, it’s, it’s, we’ve been lucky. We’ve been lucky. Hey, I’ve, I’ve got good people that put me in good areas as well when I’m talking to ’em, so. Well, you live in a good part of the world too, so it’s, it helps to live in good places and have good stuff out your back door. So yeah, I appreciate you taking our call today. Don’t screen us next time and let us know where you’re applying in Colorado. That’s what we’re looking forward to, you know what I mean? We wanna know all. Alright, alright. Alright guys. Thanks Gary. Thanks guys. We’ll see You’ll alright. Ah, pretty good dude right there. Oh yeah. He brought up, you know, how much time it takes to find those kind of animals back when I was guiding full time and it seemed like I’d get asked that question all the time. Like, how do you find all this? That’s all it is.
00:38:25:13 –> 00:39:35:16
All these animals, how, you know, all these 200 inch deer, I mean, if you added up the na days spent to the 200 inch deer I’ve seen in my life, it, it would make no sense. Yeah, yeah. Like yep, that’s right. When you see the end result and it minimizes everything else. Usually, especially on a, on a general tag or something else, it’s not a, I mean, even on the Henry’s to really kill the elite deer there or PAs it just, it’s time and gleaning through a lot of nice deer to find the one or two percenters, you know, even if he got a great tag. So I agree with all that. Should we, how do we want to interject any more of our stuff in here? Oh yeah, call him. Should we call old Landon Floyd? He probably could get the strings and a tin cannon run across the parking lot here. We’re pretty close. That old fashioned Boy Scout phone call stuff. Those guys have done well. His dad killed a giant in Arizona. He killed a giant in Colorado. I don’t know, I the good guys think maybe we ought to just call him. I don’t know if he’ll answer. He for sure won’t think he’s on a podcast. No he won’t. Okay, here we go. Hello. Hey, we got our truck stuck in a great big old mud hole.
00:39:36:07 –> 00:40:57:12
You got your equipment outta your mud hole so you can come get our truck out. Yeah. Do you see that? Unbelievable. Oh, it took, yeah, it took a good five hours. Hey, well we got you on the Epic Outdoors podcast buddy Live and we’re not talking equipment and diesels and anything like that. You gotta Yeah, I hope, I hope you’re kidding me. No, no, we’re we’re talking big deer though, so that ought to change. Seems like somebody we know killed a 240 inch over there in Colorado, so Yeah. Yeah. That, that’s been a few years ago. Well, we’re doing our 200th podcast today and we’re talking 200 inch mul there, so we’re just randomly thinking of people been there, done that and cool stories and, and yeah, you’re a neighbor here of us, literally business wise across the parking lot. I could, I could throw a rock and hit you. So we just thought, hey, let’s give you a call and tell us a brief story about that buck. He’s a, a giant, you know, he’s like a legit monster. Yeah. You know, everybody gets lucky once in a while. Huh? How long’s that been? Actually you remember what year that been a little while. That was two, 2013. We scouted around, we went three days before and seen quite a few deer and we were more in the, in the high country. They, they haven’t quite rutted yet.
00:40:58:06 –> 00:42:16:13
And so anyway, I think it was the second day of the hunt, we kind of went out towards the, the high desert type country and we went to see an a hundred deer to probably 10 deer. Geez. And the rutt was kicking on and we, we found some doughs and we decided to just kind of camp on these do. And so anyway, we seen him, I think the second day I seen him, he had seven dolls with him and he was behind a tree. And I says, oh, he is got a, he’s got a weak G two on him. This buck’s weak. Yeah. And I, and I and I, I, I got him dead to rights and his head’s in a tree and he stands there for 30 seconds and yeah, I says he’s got a weak G two. Well, I didn’t know it was a, it was a cheater off or something. Yeah, off his whatever, 14 cheaters going off of an inline, you know it. Yeah. He turned and he turned and walked over the hill. I just about fell over. So, and we had, short story short, we, we turned him up three days later. Is that the last day maybe? Or is it pretty? I think it was the second to the last day. Yeah. If, if my memory is correct, but, well, let me backtrack.
00:42:16:16 –> 00:43:35:09
The next day I spotted seven doughs and there was a buck and I, I couldn’t really make him out. So I, I literally sat on a rock from morning to night and every do got up to feed and, and I knew it was this deer. I had to be this deer. Yeah. Well, right at daylight this deer stood up and it was like a 1 74 point geez. And I says, man, you know, kind of burned that whole day. And so anyway, fast forward I seen him, we turned him up the third day. It was just about, just about dark. I spotted him, I swear, a quarter mile away. And it was literally running Geez. To try to get enough time and he was moving, pushing his nose and, and got up on a hill. It just happened quick. I think he was 350 yards and, and shot him. And I still didn’t know what I had. I, we thought he was probably 2, 2 10, 2 15 from, from the look, we got significant deer. You knew significant deer. Yeah. And yeah, it was me and my buddy Heath and we went up there and, and when I pulled him his head out the stage brush, I just about fell over. Geez. And I, I got back to camp and I’m taping him out and I’m so excited. This frame was 2 20, 24. It was a four point frame, just his four point frame. And I says I’m doing something wrong.
00:43:35:15 –> 00:44:47:29
I knew it was big and I I I just figured I was screwing up inside, spread twice, whatever. Yeah. Just going over it three or four times. And I think I got him official at two. Was it 2 48? Hmm. 2 48 and some change. So, geez, that’s, did you put him in the book? Like you netted him and he’s in the book? I didn’t put him in the book. Nope. Why? I need to, but I just, yeah, you’ve walked a lot of deer tracks in the sand and lots of other places in your life looking for Oh yes. One of those. But they sometimes just happen when they happen. You never know when they’re gonna happen. It’s just, it just, you know, I I’m always chest chasing ghost deer in the desert and sands and it just happened to work out for me. Geez. Crazy. Yeah. Well, you guys have been good, good and lucky. Your, your dad smashed a giant two recently there in Arizona. Just an unbelievable giant killed it. Was it 2, 2 36 last year. Yeah. So, so, well we appreciate you taking time and interrupting your schedule. We’re just making the rounds and talking 200 inch deer of random people and we know you and figured we’d give you a call can never Well, no, I never forget guys. Never forget your buck over there. Yeah.
00:44:48:05 –> 00:45:45:22
Like I said, I, I wish I was a little, I I kind of got caught off guard a little bit. I knows. That’s perfect. That’s the short chopped up version of that, so that’s perfect. Do you have any, any advice for guys that are listening? How to kill Big Deer? You’ve been on a few of them. You know, just, just stay with it. I, I had a wise man told me once he says hunt, hunt big deer where they are not what you think they are. That that always stuck with me. If you, if you’re in the biggest darkest hole in the world, it doesn’t mean there’s a big deer there. That’s right. Yep. You know, hunt, hunt deer where they are, not where you think they are. That’s always stuck with me. I like it. I like it. All right, Landon. Alright guys. Hey man. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thanks man. Talk to you a later bit. Bye. I’ve hunted a lot where I thought deer, big deer where? And I still hunt where I think they’re Yeah. Lot of deep poles. Huh? A lot of de poles. I’ve actually, I measured that buck. One of the most impressive deer. You did measure it. Yeah. It is a big deer. Oh, it’s just big.
00:45:45:22 –> 00:46:57:29
Like, well, and I think what he justy just classic big deer and I don’t know, I don’t know how many times he’d hunt to Colorado prior to that, but, but when you hit kill a Colorado mountain deer and factor in, like you’re talking to Wyatts, Utah, deer, the body and all that, and you see that in proportion, it’ll throw you off from, from a guy that’s used to hunting desert deer. I agree with that. This guy’s hunting desert deer leaned out. You feel like the bodies are twice what they are and their neck and the fourth season, their neck is that big, you know, giant basketball size. You know, I think it just sometimes absorbs that there’s a little bit into that whole proportion, but it’s a freaking monster. Yeah. You know, I wanna interject some words of wisdom. Well, no, no, I don’t have any. I’m learning. I want, I want to call a guy that Brian Ingram that smashed that magnum buck up there in Wyoming. Oh yeah. Brian would be awesome. He’s a client of ours. He’s been in California friends forever from California. He, he lives for Big Deer. I mean, that’s all he lives for. I mean really. I mean, he lives for Big Deer. He, he’s drawn some elk tags, but he doesn’t get excited about elk tags like he does big bucks. No. Hello. What are you doing today? Oh, not a lot.
00:47:00:09 –> 00:48:22:20
Hey, Jason Carter here with the Epic Outdoors podcast. I got the whole crew here. We just wanted to talk about Big Deer for about five minutes. Have you got five minutes? Sure, you bet. How’s it going Brian? It’s Adam Good, Adam. Good. How are you buddy? Doing well. We’re just, we’re doing our 200th podcast and of course 200 is a nice round number that I guess mule deer hunters like love and mean something to. And we thought as part of that, we’d call people that we know that love big mule deer and have killed some big mule deer. And you’re, you’ve killed many of them, but one of them is your magnum deer. And we thought maybe that’d be a good one to call and let you give us a, a bridge version of that story of that just impressive Wyoming deer and, you know. Yeah, that’s a legend. It’s a legend. Legendary. So, yeah. Well, I’ll tell you what, it’s a, it’s a deer that gets appreciated. I, I never let one day go by that I don’t look at it or coming and going upstairs and downstairs. Yeah. Yeah. It’s, I don’t hardly know what to say guys. It’s, I, I still can’t believe that it really happened. And you know, from the time that Rob and I spotted it till the time we went and killed it, I, I think was close to three hours. Wow.
00:48:22:21 –> 00:49:37:15
And, and for that deer to be clear across the other hillside and for us to luck out and close in on it, I’ve always thought that was just pretty supreme luck. Yeah. And this is a deer he had, had, he had prec scouted it, right? He had seen it early. Yes. Yep. He’d seen it earlier. And he called me one day, I was working out in the yard and I hadn’t run any tags or anything and he called me and offered me the hunt, said that he and told me it’s a deer that we might never lay eyes on again since such bad, bad place. And, but you know, it’s the deer that I’ve been after my whole life was just exactly what he was explaining to me. So, so I told him, I said, just, yes, absolutely, I’ll, I’ll take it. He says, I, I have to in honor of one other guy, I have to call him first. I said, okay, I’ll be waiting. And so the phone rang back up, the other guy couldn’t take the hunt and the hunt was on and when he said, you may never see the deer again. We may never see the deer one time, or was sure enough the truth because it was in a bad, bad place way in the back country. Wow.
00:49:38:19 –> 00:51:10:04
And after, oh my gosh, how many days did I went on the archery hunt and we didn’t see him, and I went on the rifle hunt, and between all them days, I think it was like, oh, I’ll just say nine or nine or 10 days. We sat from daylight till dark glasson where we thought he might be living and saw one little forked horn and a dough. And all of those days, that’s hard to keep going. It, it was, it was it. I mean, it was, there was not even any other, other animals. So one elk and one moose, and it makes a day, a long day. We drink a lot of coffee. Well, and so then what finally stepped out, or how did the weather change a little bit on you there? Or what, what break did you get? Yeah, yeah. What happened was is I had had a horse wreck and my, my hip was all jacked up. And so this one morning Rob says, you know, Brian, he says, you might wanna just think about just holding up, just maybe cutting some firewood. We got snow coming in, and I’ll just go back up on the glass and point, well, he went up and sure enough, it had rained that night. We heard rain on the tent. And, and we was both thinking, do you know how rain is that just makes that hunting better?
00:51:11:04 –> 00:52:38:24
And so he told me, he says, if I happen to call you on the radio, and I say, sure. Picked a find day to quit drinking. That’s just a password saying that I had found Magnum code words. I like it. Yeah. And so I was, I was cutting salt, I was saw firewood and, and heard the radio beep. And I went and picked it up and he goes, sure. Picked a find aid to quit drinking. And I’m telling you, from that point on, it was a whirlwind. I had all, I had our packs undo, and I pretty much knew that we was gonna hike it on foot. And well, I mean, if we, you know, he got there and we got the packs ready and, and he’s the funniest guy. He is a rough looking cat. Anyway, but he, he looked me right in the eye and he says, are you, gosh, duh able to say, expletive ready for this? Yeah. And I said, I had to laugh because I mean, he had such a look on his face. It was like, I never, I never seen nothing. Nobody said any more serious. And, and so I said, yeah. I said, are you? I said, now let’s quit jacking around. Let’s go. And so we, we started hiking up the canyon, and I just tried my dar to keep up with him.
00:52:38:27 –> 00:53:59:21
And, and we got to where we had to turn and go straight up the face of this rocky shoot. And it was a, it was the strangest thing, guys. I, I, I can’t explain it to this day because I had a broken hip at the time. All of this was taking place. The top of my hip bone was broke off. And I somehow got into the hunt and had forgotten about the pain. The, I forgot about everything other, I was so excited about that we were actually finally gonna make the stock after all them days. And we hiked up the hill and Rob was stopping when he thought he had to, and, and to gimme a breather. And, and we got up to the top and broke out of the trees into the rocks. And it was just solid rock at that point. And we was trying to, we was kind of trying to make, make a plan how he was gonna get across that rocky chute without being noticed. And he looked at me and he got a grin on his face. And he goes, have you been screwing me all this time? And I, I laughed and I said, I said, no. And then I got serious. And I said, Hey, let’s, let’s talk about all that later, you know, and let’s kill a deer. Yeah. Yeah. And so we started to cross that chute.
00:54:00:19 –> 00:55:30:13
And I, I had my hand on his shoulder and every rock that he would press down, I’d put my foot on it so that it was already compressed. And finally, we, the wind started turning on us, and we had to turn and come clear back across all those rocks that we had snuck across and drop down the hill. Oh, about, I think it was about a hundred feet. And we had a, another game trail. Then we went across it again. And when we got across that one, and, and he turned around and he mouthed to me two, like 200 yards because he, he remembered a snag that he had seen from the other side. And we were at the, we could see that snag. And so as we came in, we dropped our packs. And he asked me, he says, do you think he says, what do you think? Should we go in all after him or, or just try to wait him out? I, I don’t quite understand that. ’cause there wasn’t much weight out, but I said, let’s, let’s go get him. Let’s go kill him. And so as we started getting closer and closer and closer, Rob started picking up his speed, which surprised me because it was hard to be quiet. But what he had done is he saw Magnum whipping his horns in the willows, and he knew that he, he was breaking stuff and preoccupied. Oh yeah.
00:55:30:23 –> 00:56:49:01
And make a little more noise. Mo gained some ground on him. Yeah. We gained ground on him. And that’s just what it took. And we stopped behind this one spruce tree, and Rob peeked out around it, and his eyeballs got his biggest dinner plates. And he just pointed just like right there. And so I had to have him. I told him he had to step forward for me to get out to where I could see. And me being left-handed worked well because I was able to reach out around that tree. And Megan and I laid eyes on each other for the first time. He saw me make my move. And I saw him, and he just whipped his head up and he jumped for the timber. And I lucked out. It was only like, I think, 50 or 60 feet. And I didn’t think that I hit him. ’cause when I shot, he, but turned down the hill and then across the below us to the left through the belows, and I shot again. And I, it was just boom, boom. And then just sickening silence, because he showed no sign of being hit. He had, he, it didn’t sound like he’d been hit or anything. And as it turned out, I took him through the lungs on that first shot, just perfect. And then broke his back on the second shot. Geez.
00:56:50:01 –> 00:58:01:25
But I was standing up there knowing that I had missed him with my gun hanging at my side. And I just went, I blew it after all of this. I went, I blew it. I mean, I was so sick that Iwo, I swear to God, guys, if there would’ve been a cliff there, I would’ve jumped off of it. I did not. I did not wanna even live. And about that time, Rob, I saw him, he kinda got irritated with me. And he goes, come on, come on down here. Let, let’s look for blood. And so as I was on my way down to rub, he happened to already look down the hill about, oh, 50 feet and saw one of Magnums antlers hanging up on a brush on the brush. Wow. I went, then the party started. Oh. I went screaming down there. I dropped my 300 weather bee that I just loved that gun. And I just dropped it in the rocks and just let it go. Clang, clang, clang. I just dropped it for some reason. And I went running down to that deer and got on him, and I said, Rob, I’m touching this. I’m touching him. I’m actually touching him. And, and then I, then I remembered da gun up at the rocks. The guy got got kind of excited, you know? Yeah. Big buck does that to a guy. Yeah.
00:58:01:26 –> 00:59:25:21
Well, and that deer’s got some of the most incredible mass of any deer harvested in our lifetime. Yeah. I’ve never seen anything like it. The point mass is beyond description. Yeah. Isn’t it, isn’t it funny, you know, it’s always something that’s always been odd to me was he’s so always just being medium horned, coming out of his head, and then he blows, and then he just blows, blows up a mess. It’s unbelievable. But boy, a deer never got appreciated. Bore. I mean, I, Robin and I was there, and then we hollered for, oh, James, he was across the way we hollered for him. He had just reapplied us. And we all sat on that hillside. And then pretty soon it started raining on us, and we still sat on the hillside and a storm pass, and it was, looked like it was gonna be getting close to dark. So we decided finally we had to get the deer off, you know? Yeah. Just wanna, we laid. Hmm. Just wanna soak it in, you know, don’t you know, that’s a deer that, you know, it’s not, not a nice deer. It’s a, it’s a magnum. It’s a magnum, it’s a deer. That just doesn’t happen, you know, to you let alone hundreds of hunters very often, you know? Yeah. Kinda like the, the hunter I’m talking to was in his office once, if you call Yeah. You’re here last summer. Yeah.
00:59:26:02 –> 01:00:39:12
You, you gotta pause when one of those moments happens and wondering when it’s gonna happen again like that. Well, that was a, that’s an amazing dear and I, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you tell me that full story like that. I appreciate you doing that for us today. It’s awesome just because it debt takes you to the mountain for sure. Oh, yeah. You know, the, I, I wanted to, I didn’t want the want to end. I didn’t want to get back to the camp. I didn’t want to get off of the mountain. And so I, I told Rob, I says, I’m only, I’m gonna pack him. We had the horses, so we put the meat in the horses, and Rob said, okay. And we decided to walk the entire way back to camp, and the horses and everything was at camp, put away and everything before we showed up. But we just walked in the rain and talked, and I headed on the back of Rob’s pack so I could stare at it the whole way. And we got in just, just before dark. And I remember that I wanted to build a big fire, and I loved spending the evenings around them fires and, and robbing them, was getting dried out and getting in the tents. So I built a big fire and they stayed in the tent because it was raining so hard.
01:00:39:12 –> 01:01:55:12
And I just sat out there with bank a in chair across from the fire from me, had to pour ’em down, rain and just stayed, took it until I couldn’t take it anymore. And then I took it and took it inside and set it right in the middle of a bunch of sleepy hunters. And everybody turned their nightlights on their headlights and just sat there and looked at him. Yeah. Things don’t let happen like that very often. Maybe once in your life, if you’re lucky. Lucky. Yeah. Yeah. We, we enjoyed him as a team, that’s for sure. Well, we want to give a little shout out to Rob Wiley, non-Typical outfitters is the rob you’re talking about. Yeah. And he’s killed many big deer up there, so, yeah. What, you know, Brian, you’ve hunted deer your entire life. Is there anything like a big old mul deer in your book and by book, there’s nothing No, don’t, not one animal owner or fits the caliber of a mature mul deer. That’s always been my favorite and always will be. Yeah. Well, pretty awesome. Hard to argue with that. We appreciate you spending some time with us here today, telling us that story. It’s, yeah, well, it’s a legendary buck, so I have you got the right guy if you wanna sit down and listen for a while, because I, I, I, I’ll tell that story to anybody that wants to hear it.
01:01:57:07 –> 01:03:03:24
All right, well, we’ll let you go. We just wanted to talk about one of, talk to a legend, the battle, a legend and Oh, now, pretty special. Pretty special. Dear. I appreciate you guys a lot. I thank you very much and this, you made my day here because I’m kind of a, in one of those bored days, but I, I, I really appreciate you guys. I, I appreciated my visit out there with you and I appreciate just what you’ve done for my family. You bet. Well, you’re Ron, you’re welcome out here anytime. Right on. Yep. I, I found out the other day I didn’t draw Nevada. Oh, the guy draw. Yeah, I’m the outfitter draw. So that one’s up, down. Yep. Well, there’s a few more draws yet to come, so hopefully Yes, sir. Hopefully you’re gonna get lucky. Let us know if it, if it happens. And yeah, thanks again, Brian. We’ll be in touch and holler if you need anything. Hey, thanks guys. Great talking with you. You bet. Talk to you later. Take care. Alright, bye man. That’s a good dude. Come down to time.
01:03:04:03 –> 01:04:02:13
I mean, keep, I mean, that’s a common denominator so far is, I mean, we’ve, you can say time and Oh yeah, of course it takes time, but man, it’s, when you see a donut two point in 10 days, that takes some discipline and stay sitting there for, for the one deer that you don’t, you think he’s there and you just gotta trust that he is. I’ve had a few deer like that, that you just gotta trust that they are. And when they step out, you’re like, where the freak have you been? You’re right where we’ve been looking, and I don’t know if you’ve been here and I’ve been missing you, or you got blown out by a lion for a week and finally came back. I don’t know what it is. But anyway, you never know. And sometimes they just disappear. You never know what happens to ’em. I’ve got a couple of bucks that, you know, you hunt and hunt and hunt and you lose them, don’t see ’em again. And they, they don’t come back the next year, the next year. You just don’t know. What were you gonna say? Why? So I was just gonna say, so both of you guys have brought up, you got a couple of these bucks, so let’s, let’s hear one of your stories. Carter. No, we don’t have time for all Carter’s, but that’s a, that’s a, come on. That’s a 400 podcast.
01:04:03:12 –> 01:05:06:00
No, tell, tell us something. Carter, tell us something we don’t know. No, I don’t wanna talk about these. Let’s talk about, have we talked about your first, my first 200 church? Yeah, it’s out there on the podcast somewhere. Okay. What about this episode 52 or something? It just made its way to the office. Yeah, it’s in, the reason I brought it up is, yeah, it’s in the office again. I haven’t seen it for years. Well, it’s got an eye on Wyatt. It’s got, it’s, I mean, I positioned it so I can see it, but it’s watching Wyatt make it for, for your listeners out there. We, we don’t move offices around here a lot, but part of it when we brought Josh on board is we’re like, well, maybe you know, Devin, if you wanna move, or Jason, I guess someone wants to move, you know, probably maybe put Josh kind of in the center of all activities. So, you know, by osmosis, like we like to say he learns a little bit from everybody hearing stuff. Well, Jason ended up going in the back corner. Nobody else took that. Well, he’s, I like about, he’s surrounded himself with deer in every direction so much that he’s got one out in the hallway looking at him and, and he’s got deer in Wyatt’s office looking through Wyatt’s window at him. Like he’s, well, why had some blank wallet because he took his deer home.
01:05:06:06 –> 01:06:02:27
But you don’t, he’s in an argument with his wife. He won’t tell us about, not an argument. So he takes home, he stakes his claim out there. It’s just funny. So I feel the void Carter’s got just wherever he looks. He’s got a deer staring at him, man. It’s one from Wyatt’s office. It is. So you walk into Wyatt’s office, you’re like, what? Nice buck Wyatt. What? What’s that? Oh, that’s one of Carter’s used to staring at him into his window and then he’s got one in the hall looking so well, it was a buck in Colton’s room and he doesn’t spend much time in there. And so I took it off the wall. That’s right. Ashley’s is next. Yeah. Jana’s got the buck. She won’t let go. I guess the moral of the story is when you have as many as Carter does come, you gotta rotate ’em around and give him love in different settings. I I do like seeing a, a little difference of view here and there, but no, I’m not No, totally in the back corner. Bronson, you and I are like, I mean, we’re six inches apart. I know, but I’m just saying you’re different. You got one six inch wall between us for, for, for something that’s been this way for three, four years. It’s a, it’s a big monumental change in 10 years prior to that. That’s right. I mean, back in the day. That’s right.
01:06:03:07 –> 01:07:06:12
Well, it’s a big change we have, but I don’t, I don’t, we’ve talked about some of our deer over the years. I want keep talking to other people about their deer. Talk about Paul Pollock had a encounter for a few years with a big deer. He finally put on the wall. Let’s talk about that deer one that stares. And that was a freaking, freaking monster kind of stares at, you know, me or Devon a little bit. Yeah. Through your, it’s a cool bladed old, old sucker. It’s some machete. It’s got a GG two. Looks like a machete. A big old heavy thing. I don’t know that deer, that was one of the things, I don’t know. I guess I’m, I’m excited to listen to this and hear all these stories because I’ve been able to take something in and I think if anybody listening to this, if you listen and take one thing from each of these stories you’ve heard. Yep. I think it can happen. And, and that’s something that I feel like with me, you know, this deer, I hunted this deer for three years and we’re talking, it’s a general season unit. This thing lived 500 yards from a main road, half mile from town. I mean, no llamas or goats being Yeah, I mean it was, it was, I hated where this deer lived and I hated this deer and I hated about it because cedar trees, are you an elk?
01:07:07:10 –> 01:08:09:17
I mean, where for three years? For three years he kicked my butt. The only time I’d ever see him, I’d see him in the summer, I’d see him rutting and I’d see him on trail camera and I never see him during the hunt. And I literally spent, I was a dedicated hunter, so I’d spend all three of my hunts out there. You had the dedicated hunter tag and you were a dedicated hunter. Yeah, exactly. And the closest I’d ever gotten to him was one night I missed him. By 17 minutes I’d finally found this little saddle that he was going through. I put a camera in it and he would come by literally every four to seven days. And so I was like, I’m gonna go sit there for the next seven days. And anyway, we had a little moisture and he got up early and I mean he was coming by to the minute and I got in there thinking I had like an hour spare and I hurried and pulled the card, ran up to the little spot where I was sitting on and he’d already came by 17 minutes. So that was the closest I ever got to him. And he was a big giant 200 inch typical. And he kind of had a cheater he’d throw from one side to the other from year to year. And anyway, finally 2018, it was kind of on that drought year.
01:08:10:03 –> 01:08:59:19
He kind of went downhill quite a bit. I mean, he’s still one nineties, but he has a big bladed two on one side that’s kind of got some little points coming off of it. And I just knew I didn’t care. I still needed to kill that deer. I, he, he beat me enough and I went in, in fact, I went in the day, the day before I hunted him or the archery hunt. Never even had a chance. Didn’t even know where he was at. But the thing that was hard about it too was he would live, you’d see him in the summer and Rutten all winter long. He’d be on the same hillside. So he didn’t go anywhere. He didn’t migrate, he didn’t leave just the cedars. You couldn’t bump him outta there. Yeah, just pinon juniper where he lived. Anyway, so yeah, I finally went in there the day before the muzzle loader Honda. I’d been seeing him enough and I’d intentionally, I’d go in there, kind of scout him all morning long and then I’d intentionally walk over the ridge and bump him just to see what he would do and where he would go. I’m like, okay, he’s either gonna go this way or he’s gonna go this way or come this way.
01:08:59:20 –> 01:09:50:24
And so I went in the day before and sat down on this hill and stomped in a big place for me to sit in the dirt and got there that morning. And some guy was already there like, because this was an hour before light. I’m like, you gotta be kidding me. So then I was mad again. I’m like, you’ve gotta, because that was one of the things hard about this spot is other hunters. So anyway, I was so mad and I just went and stomped down a hill. I’m like, well I know, like I said, from what I learned from him scouting, he goes this way or this way. I can still see him from right here. And oh, it wasn’t, I don’t know, just before it was just getting light enough to see and all of a sudden heard a deer down in the bottom, just bounded. And, and I’d seen some other hunters. They were all walking around. I’d seen him all over and getting mad again ’cause they were screwing up my hunt. But I just thought, I’m just gonna sit here and wait it out. ’cause he is where I’ve, where I’ve seen him the most. And sure enough, it was him and he came right up and out up to you. Right? Well he was out on the ridge or something. No, he was out in front of me. There was kind of a, a treatment area that they’d done.
01:09:50:24 –> 01:10:43:23
And he was right on that tree line running and, and he stopped long enough that I got up on him. He was like 175 yards. And right as he went to turn to take off running again, I just got one shot on him and m luckily hit him. Smashed, yeah. Muzzle. So that was the only time I ever saw that deer. Three years during the hunt in three years. Come on. When I had a tag and a gun in my hand and you had like, whatever that is, 40 to 50 days of se potential season as a dedicat hit dedicated hunter and let you hunt all seasons. Yeah. So that’s why I thought, that’s why that deer, I, I don’t know, he didn’t score 200 when I killed him, but it just meant a lot to me. ’cause I put so much time into trying to kill that stupid thing. And finally it happened. And so, oh dear. You said too, yeah, he was eight years old. Somebody have his sheds. Yeah, yeah. Darn it. Well I’ve got one side of, well I’ve got two, I’ve got two years of him the same side and well, guy’s got the set to it. The, the tough part was the, the third year, the second year we were hunting that buck. He was actually, we didn’t even hunt him in a way.
01:10:43:25 –> 01:11:46:19
I mean we hunted the area and we thought we’d kill him, but there was actually a two 30 buck that was in there that we tried to hunt. And that was pretty cool. That was one night I’ll, I’ll never forget was I went in there, it was the night before the muzzle loader hunt in 2016. And him and that 2 36 buck or feeding on the center, I mean feet apart on this hill side going on typically. Yeah. It was pretty awesome. That was a site you never see, especially like I said, on a general season unit. And anyway, so that’s all I can say is it does, it takes time and persistence. You, it’s more of a mental thing than anything. And I don’t know, I don’t have it. A lot of times it takes patience and brutal. You just have to sit it out and not see anything. Well, I don’t know how long we wanna make this, but I’ve got a few other guys. No, people don’t. No, we’re not, I love these stories. I can’t get enough. No, huh. Well that one. But Brian was awesome. I mean he’s, he legend a deer. He’s alleged, he’s hunted big deer, his parents whole life. We’ve talked to him about 2161 in Colorado back and he’s got a lot. He’s been anywhere. He’s sniffed a place to hunt a big deer. He is probably tried to do it in the west. He lives in California.
01:11:46:21 –> 01:12:46:21
But that story’s recorded. Now I, you know, that’s one thing like my grandpa and stuff, some of those you wish you had some of those stories back. So that’s awesome to hear those guys tell those kind of stories. He’s been a client for a long time. He is one of those kind of guys that you can’t get enough of. You can’t learn enough from this guy. And we have all the respect in the world for him. Well, and his appreciate you can tell how Oh yeah. Appreciates that. I mean, he knows, he knows what he has. And I mean it’s a, we’ll, we’ll show pictures, I’m sure on Chris when he posts the, the pictures of this on our Instagram, that ought to be a deer that leads or, or is a part of the Yeah. Collage. Oh yeah. Well let’s give a a a holler to this Ben Hepworth out there in Idaho. He’s scored the gem state. Is that what it is? I don’t know. Is it? I think it’s, I don’t know. What is it? I always thought it was the potato state, let’s call it. I mean, I been driving, I’ve been driving down the road and had onions coming out of freaking these, the SPU state. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s gonna, it hurt somebody up there. I dunno. Let’s, we haven’t gone there though. Whatever. He’s, he’s killed some giants. Been in on some giants.
01:12:46:21 –> 01:14:16:07
In fact, he was in, on a 270 inch killed by a client of ours last year. He actually guided them. And he’s killed giants on his own himself. Himself. Generals and himself. Yeah. Younger guy. Younger than us, but older than who? Chris maybe. Oh no, not the same age. And Chris, we got a story we need outta YouTube. Yeah. So anyway, hold on. Let’s give Ben a call and see what he has to say. I don’t even know if he’ll answer. Hello? I just wanna know how to kill big buck. Hell, I don’t know. I I, if I was gonna say call anybody, I’d say call you. Hey, do you have a hotline for that? No. No. Not a hotline. No, no. Hey, so we’ve got you on a podcast. I got the crew in here, Bronson and the guys, and we just, we just wanna hear a big buck story. Oh man. This is our, this is our 200th podcast. And we’re talking to guys that smashed 200 inches and your name comes to mind. Everybody here in the office knows who you are. We just wanted to, we needed rep just chat at you. We needed representation from the potato state. Are you guys the Jim State, the potato state or the onion state? I don’t know up there with all of those. I think the dairy’s right in there too. Dairy, the milk state. Well you’ve, you’ve guided some giants.
01:14:16:07 –> 01:15:44:23
You’ve killed some giant spin. I don’t know you got any words of wisdom or maybe a quick story, maybe that 220 inch giant you smashed or anything good? You know, I don’t, I don’t really know. I always just chalk it up to luck and luck’s just as much time as you’re out there, I guess you earn a little bit of it because, you know, it’s, I don’t know, just something you love to do. So you spend some time at it and, and sometimes it just smiles at you. Well, alright. There’s more to it than that. I don’t know if you can put words to it. I dobel I do believe luck plays a part in it. But you, you guys, you know, you and old Bill smashed an absolute giant last year, you know, broken two fifties was two 70 intact. Two mid, maybe mid two seventies. It was, and it was, it was something special to watch. And you know, you just, I probably won’t ever get to see another deer like that on the hoof of my life. And you just, you watch ’em and, and cherish ’em for that moment and just hope that, you know, in a, in a huge way, if you love the animal, you hate to see it go away. Yeah, for sure. And you know, it’s, it’s, we’ve, you know, you, every once in a while we get to see something special.
01:15:44:26 –> 01:17:09:12
And I always just think that 200 to two 20 is something really special around here. And that’s, that’s in another class of its own. And this day and age with all the, all the wolf pack hunters. And you know, I’m not, I’m not down in any way that anybody does it. But, you know, everybody has a, a ton of friends that want to join them on these hard to draw hunts and, and buddies that wanna see their friends get, get a lifetime dream. And I mean, it’s really hard to get to watch something like that and, and be able to get a chance at it. And so you always just wonder where that, like you say that luck comes in at somewhere, you know, and as far as our general hunts here, you know, you can get lucky in them too. Like, I shot a big buck up there and, you know, I never hunted the high country that much. And until then, and as he’s glassing some big basins for bulls and, you know, caught him up underneath the rock cliff. And, and now I go up there every year and I look in the exact same spot hoping that someday I’ll have the exact same luck and, and haven’t found a rhyme to reason or that, but you know, I’m, I don’t have as good eyes as a lot of some of the guys I guide with and, and stuff like that.
01:17:09:17 –> 01:18:32:28
And, and so for me it’s just something that I, I just go sit on the same spot and check it a few times and, and I have to be a lot more persistent and, and stuff. ’cause it, I don’t know, it just seems like I always miss something. And like I say, they, either that or they hide good. Well they do that for damn sure. Well, it’s hard to miss a two 70 buck though when he does stand up out of the sagebrush. So, and there’s not a tree between you. No. You, you don’t believe it for three or four times, even though you’ve seen him, you don’t, you don’t ever believe that at all. Yeah. And it takes, it takes a few times for that to ha come true. I think you told me when you found him, you said Jason, I saw Buck. I’ve seen him bigger. Never seen a big a deer like this in my whole life. I think I saw a lifetime buck. And then you went silent for like two months. Why was that? Well, I may have found him again and thought, what in the hell was I thinking running my mouth? I guess. I don’t blame you. I don’t blame you. I I, you know, I came off the hill that night and I, I told my wife, I says, I think I’ve seen the biggest buck I’ve ever seen in my life.
01:18:32:28 –> 01:19:45:14
And it was a gray light and I, I didn’t know what I had seen and, and, but I knew what I had seen kind of, I knew the structure was just abnormal. And, and so, I mean, and then after, you know, about eight to 10 days of not finding him again, I, I went out there and, you know, same thing, same scenario, right at Gray Light. I spotted him again and, and I just thought, what, you know, you know, and then I get back, you can’t get any video in those situations or anything like that to go back. You’re just going off of memory and, and I don’t have any of that. I’m second guessing yourself a little bit. Yeah. What did I really see was that a tree was that shadows what? And then all of a sudden you finally find him again. You’re like, okay, no, that’s, yeah. And you know, I, I didn’t see him for another like seven days after that. And a, a really good buddy of mine that I guide with and we’re just good friends. He went out with me one day and he spotted him in his bed about, oh, 10 o’clock in the morning. And we were able to get a really good look at him that day and sneak into him and, and take some video of him and stuff like that.
01:19:45:17 –> 01:20:48:11
And it was, you know, it was something that now it was un now it was undisputable now. Yeah, no, it was undisputable. You know, it didn’t even matter. All the other was just leading up to it, I guess. And, and, and I don’t know, I, I just never thought I’d see a deer like that in my life. And that was, that was pretty crazy. That makes you feel very fortunate, or at least me. It did so good. I ssn, I snuck one of our archery hunters into that deer and sat on him for a couple, two or three hours and, and he, he, you know, the deer made the best move of his life that day. He stood up at, you know, I think it was like 30, right around 30 yards. He stood up and just came on a march and marched straight at us through some thick cover and vetted down at right at 10 or 11 yards away. I mean, he didn’t give one opportunity or anything. My hunter was able to get drawn back without him catching us or anything.
01:20:48:12 –> 01:22:11:07
And you know, that deer just laid down right there and you know, obviously staring away from himself or staring away from the wind and, and looking and I mean, the only thing I can think, I don’t think him nor I moved a mussel and that deer, all I can think that day is that deer team seeing two little round faces in the, in the bushes. And that was one day I wish I had face masks on. Yeah. And you know, he blew out without a shot. And you just wonder, you know, most days I’m, I’m pretty competitive person. Most days I would’ve been pretty, pretty upset, pretty pretty ready to go get him again. And I just thought, wow, snuck in on a true giant. Well I think that guy that drew wasn’t the, you know, that drew back that you were talking about wasn’t the actual guy that killed it, but they’re good friends. And I talked to that guy and I, and, and he kind of relayed that same story, just an unbelievable story. He’s within, what’d you say? 11 yards. Yeah. And I mean he, that deer literally had to take one step, you know, feed, feed on that bush. I mean that deer had to do, he had to do just one small thing and he was clear of some brush and he just stopped right there and, and dropped to his bed.
01:22:11:07 –> 01:23:34:21
He didn’t circle, he didn’t paw, he didn’t, he didn’t do anything. And you know, like I said, we probably sat there for, felt like an eternity, but it was probably, you know, one, one to, you know, two to four minutes. One to four minutes, something like that. It couldn’t tell really. But you know, with that deer just staring directly in our direction, you know, and, and all I, all I say, all I ask myself every day was like, why wouldn’t that deer step around there and pause his bed out? Or why wouldn’t that deer, you know, check to make sure that was a shady side of his bed or whatever. I don’t know. I just thought, you know, that was pretty abnormal that he just dropped in in his tracks. You know, he just, and you know, but I, in a weird way, I just felt super successful that day. I was just like, well, it wasn’t meant to be and, and I gotta watch a true giant walk in front of me. Yeah. Snuck in his bedroom at 30 yards and 10 and all that and it just as easy could have happened. Yeah. And that’s the, that’s the thing with bow. I mean, it’s not over until, until that arrow flies. Yeah. And like I say, you know, he, he, you know, watched him a little bit here and there until the rifle season.
01:23:34:24 –> 01:24:54:29
And our unit, our unit here in 45 is generally not somewhere where you wanna prec scout a rifle buck. ’cause they generally migrate or moved by then. And he, he went and, you know, he just stayed in that same area and, and was able to watch him till October 15th. Bill came and I was guiding an elk hunt and you know, bill spotted him that day. And I, I ended up getting my elk killed that, that very same day with that client. And I came back and, you know, bill and I had been good friends and I’ve guided him for a long time and you know, bill had no idea that I was coming back off the mountain that night. And, and I went up, bill was on a spot that was a lot closer to that deer and I was on a, I went and got on a really high job a long ways away and started glassing and, and Bill didn’t know I was there. So that was pretty exciting for him. And we both spotted the deer and we let him bed down and, and went in and, you know, he was able to sneak over there and we snuck out and he was in some flat stuff. You couldn’t get no height above him in shooting range. So, I mean, in a lot of honesty, he was almost just as easy to kill with a bow as a rifle to a point.
01:24:55:13 –> 01:26:12:04
And it just happened that there was one spot in that desert that you could see his time from. And we was able to sit there until he got out of his bed. And, and like I say, when that deer stood and he was broadside to Bill, I, I had a, a spot in my mind go through that I I’m not gonna get to watch this deer again in my life. And that, that was, that was a little rough. Yeah. Yeah. You know, there was, there was some of that and never had never had that go through, you know, he kill some really good bucks and you’re really excited. Not that we wasn’t excited on that one, but he was just, I don’t know, it was just something cool to watch and and every time you gotta see him was pretty, pretty special. Yeah. And, and so, you know, it would’ve been real special with the bow too. ’cause you know, it probably would’ve been right up there with the state record and, you know, but it, it all turned out I guess, how it’s supposed to turn out in that regard. Yeah. If, if that’s one thing that I, if any advice that I can give someone is just that I, you know, you just have to stay persistent, you know? Yeah.
01:26:12:09 –> 01:27:28:24
And, and that’s the only thing that, ’cause I’ve had my butt kicked, I’ve been out there and I’ve been the guy watching everybody shoot monsters around me and got my butt kicked. And, and you know, it’s one, it’s one thing that doesn’t always, you don’t always win. There’s not always a trophy at the end of it, you know, unless you look at the whole picture, being able to be out there and do it. Well, it’s pretty awesome. I think you’re a super humble guy. You’ve been in on, I I, I mean, I, I don’t wanna embarrass you, but a grundle, a big 200 inch plus deer, you’ve killed a few yourself. This, you know, one comes to mind that two 20 wide sucker out of a general unit, and I think that’s what you, you kind of breezed over it. But some of these general units up there are good, you know, at times and, and at least have great potential even if, you know, you get your butt kicked most of the time. Yeah. You know, those are, I mean, it’s, it’s somewhere sometimes that, you know, you do overlook and you don’t, you don’t think about it. But you know, if you just get a chance to get up there and, and enjoy it, you know, it little, you gotta have a lot of luck in those situations For sure.
01:27:28:27 –> 01:28:47:18
And it’s something that you, I don’t know, you, you just gotta go do it every day and or as much as you can. And, and then maybe something will happen good outta that situation finally has has can’t happen if you’re not there. Trying. That’s, that’s bottom on. That’s exactly right. So, you know, I, I don’t know, you know, I may never shoot another 200 inch deer in my life. Come on. Come on. I’m gonna give it, I’m gonna give it a lot to try. How old are you, bill? How old are you? 34. Okay. All right. My money’s on. It’ll happen again. Yeah. So well hopefully this year and then we’ll call you again next winter and talk about a new buck. So, alright. A new buck. Yeah. New buck that you put on the ground. I hope so too, but I don’t wanna be greedy. Yeah. Does the forecast look okay for Idaho up there? You know, it is. We had a really, really mild winter and it seems like the deer were really spread out and had their own place to roam. And the grass is really green. We’ve had some, some late small snowstorms mixed with some rainstorms and I mean, the, it looks really good as far as the mountains they’re bearing off and, and good. The deer, the deer should be good. I’ve seen some nice bucks on the winter range.
01:28:47:22 –> 01:30:12:00
I think it’ll be a pretty good year to have a 45 tag next year. And, and you know, it’s, I, I seen some bucks on the winter range that were, that were really nice bucks that had a lot of potential. I don’t, you know, hopefully they come, they make it all, all the way back rather there from I have a feeling you’re not talking one 70. Nice. No, no. All right. But no, but no two hundreds. All right. All right. Well I appreciate your time. We’ll let you run. We just, thanks for taking my call. I know I didn’t prep you. So anyway, I’m glad you spent a few minutes with us words there. I appreciate it. So now I’m gonna catch check for my buddy for one of these podcasts. Yeah, you’ve been on one. Yeah. There you go. Thanks man. Alright, you guys have a great day. Talk to later. Bye. Okay, let’s have a Chris story. Chris. Yeah. Colorado seems like you kill a floating bean buck or something like that over there. Yeah, so the story on that, that one, I, we knew nothing about the unit. We’d heard that it could be good, maybe ripe and maybe, yeah. And so we were all sitting there one morning and you know, you get to that point where you feel like everything’s played out and you’re about ready to head back to camp.
01:30:12:02 –> 01:31:22:25
And so I just decided, you know what, one more, I’m gonna give it one more look over. And my buddies were looking off in this direction and I decided to hike over another ridge and look at a different area. So I, I started just picking apart the pins juniper and picked it apart with my bins. Didn’t see anything. I’m thinking, well, I don’t know why, but I was just like, I’m gonna, I’m gonna look this over with my scope. So I put my spotting scope up and I just started looking at all the little trees and prior to the BTX being invented prior to the BTX being invented. But, but I started just picking apart around the trees and just looking at detail, detail stuff. And I move my scope and all of a sudden there’s this deer standing in my scope and I was like, it looks like a good deer. But I couldn’t tell exactly how good. So I’m like, I, I, I think it’s a good deer. But anyway, so I keep watching and it moves around this tree and comes out and I looked at it and I’m like, that’s the giant, that’s a good deer. So I ran up and I don’t know why I ran you by yourself or are these guys right with you? No, they’re, they’re up the hill and Okay. I ran up to them and I’m like, I got a shooter. I got a shooter.
01:31:23:00 –> 01:32:37:25
We ran up to try to get, to get in within shooting range and we see the deer cresting the top of the hill and it’s a long ways away. Spooked or just on its own? Spooked. Yeah. Okay. They, they’d seen us, there was a big group of deer and I didn’t know that there was like 12, 12 bucks. There was like 12 bucks and I didn’t know that. Anyway, got there just in time and set up my scope just in time to see this crest the hill. And it’s the first time in my life I ever looked at a buck and with a tag in my hand and said that buck is way over 30 inches. And so the only thing left to do was follow it. Right? It went over the hill. And I’m like, well, let’s get around there and see if we can find it. So we hike up and got up to where we’d last seen it. Just started hiking around, slowly looking down into the canyon below me, nothing, nothing. And just kept moving, kept moving. And pretty soon I looked down and they were like 200 yards below me, right below me, a bunch of the bucks, the buck. And I saw that buck staring right at me. And so I dropped down and shot, hit him, he spun, turned I shot again, and then he just went another 10, 15 yards and toppled over.
01:32:38:01 –> 01:33:51:04
And could you, you saw him go down? Yeah. Yep. And I knew he was a good deer because I’d seen him at the top of the hill. I knew he was wide, just super wide cheaters floating beam wide. Yeah. I mean, what is, what do you, what do you lack? Yeah. And then I, we walk up to him and as we start getting close, like I realized this is a significant bug. He is a fuck. Yeah. Yeah. And he had a big old kicker off the one side big floating beam. He was like, like a broomstick, like br like rounded off from feeding? Yeah, from feeding. It just rubbed flat. Anyway, he was like seven by nine, low two hundreds and mid two. Yeah, low, low two hundreds. But he had a big drop tie that was busted off and probably from feeding. So we’d heard stories. This is funny. We were talking to some guy in town and he was talking about this buck and he’s like, which he should never do. Yeah. Don’t ever talk to people. He, he, he told us that he had seen a 36 inch buck. And after talking to him, I’m like, it’s probably the buck I killed. ’cause he was broken. But, but anyway, after I measured him out, he was 33 and a half and just, just an awesome buck. Oh yeah. Speaking Chris, Chris loves to talk to people in the field. What is that really?
01:33:51:20 –> 01:35:01:10
Well, or the complete opposite? I mean, we’ve been sitting there and Chris is, Chris has been on my hunts and we, we sit there and like awkwardly a guy will come up and sit, sit next to Chris and start talking. Chris will not leave the glass, doesn’t talk to him, doesn’t acknowledge he’s there. Oh. I mean, you’ve got, you’ve got a knack for that. And the whole time I’m like, I feel bad for this guy. He’s talking to Griz Crystal. It’s not, not totally true. I don’t you can’t just say on the mountain, I don’t talk to people anywhere. So. That’s right. It’s not outta charact, it’s, yeah. Let me qualify that. I don’t talk to anybody pretty much ever. So, but maybe I love the story. Maybe that runs in the family. ’cause do you talk to people John? John gave not if they come up in glass next to me. John, you yell at ’em. You had a mother like that. Hey. Oh that’s good. That’s gonna shoot over your head. Didn’t you say that to a guy? Yeah, Jack wa came, saw us and set up spotting like 30 feet in front of us. I’m like, if, if I’m my gun’s pointed in your direction at me and I’m, I’m gonna shoot over your head. Haven’t you found out since who these guys are? No. Well that was a different, not that one different situation. I mean, that’s a different guy.
01:35:01:15 –> 01:36:11:06
Come up and set up and glass next to me, go to the other side of the ridge or something. I love them. I love these stories. Well I’m gonna need another monster. Or we gotta quit or call two more people. Three. What do you think? Well, let’s just, if we got any more stories, let’s get to ’em John. I don’t know. I’ll go replenish the, the monster supply. Yeah, this is, this is 200 episodes. Bring me, I don’t care for me a purple. Anybody else wants something? You know what? Nestle Pure. Oh well, whoa. It’s three. No, did you say Nestle? It’s three o’clock bro. It’s three o’clock. What does that mean in this guy’s life? Well, a, he’s probably at three hours and 50 minutes. He needs more. What are you, what are you taking? What are you taking Sed from? Behind the counter. Sudafed behind the counter. That’s the good stuff. Yeah. He’s not getting in bed night. Don’t they make, they make meth with Sudafed? Well they take your driver license. That’s why they put it behind the counter. Your driver’s license. Sudafed masks. I’m serious. I need some of that too. Whatever we’ve had going around in the office, it’s been serious. Speaking of driver’s licenses, Devon’s got a story about when he was 16 and when I was 16, shot a buck. He comes running out straight across from me. Poof. Just hunches up turns, goes into the trees.
01:36:11:26 –> 01:37:09:06
And this guy, he was kind of, he was with us really. He was kind of a distant friend, cousin. He ran, he went up and over before you could get in and I had a junior mentor tag and an elk came out. So I mean, I’m just belt feeding, you know? Yeah. Brown, it’s down. Yeah. Elk, deer. So antelope. Yeah. I go out, I heard a shot and I go over there and the guy’s, he’s like, he’s dead, you know? And I was like, yeah, I, I hit him. He, you know, we followed the blood. He shot him when he was laying there with his head up in the chest, the deer was dying, you know? Yeah. And I mean, last bullet, how old was he? I was 16 and this deer was, he was like one 90 as a three by sword four. What tub be sucker. Yeah. Was that with the tape that had the zero? No, this is the one. It’s a big deer, I’m telling you. Okay. Okay. It’s legit. And so it was, I was freaking out like one of the biggest deer, like at that point in my life I’d walk up and I’m like, I just shot this thing, you know, I gutted it. I have pictures behind it. So I went to look for blood for that bull came back and the guy’s tag was on it. Come on. Yeah. In your hunting party. Yeah.
01:37:09:19 –> 01:38:22:17
In your hunting party. Do you ever talk to him? Maybe that’s what, have you ever talked to him since? Never talked to him again. No, I left. I couldn’t believe that about you. I was so sick. I left. Was your dad there? I couldn’t believe that. Not that day he was gone. But it happens man. Big deer. That’s probably why I become a lone wolf after that. Lone wolf McQuaid. Remember that show? No. No. Was that in the seventies or sixties, Chuck? No, come on. Nor us, wasn’t it? You’re born, you’re born. Yeah. You’re born in the seventies with me. Hey, you act like I’m older than you’re like my dad worked for Game and Fish. We didn’t have to, you’re like, you’re like 16 or 18 months younger than me. You act like I’m a whole generation ahead. I dunno. I mean freak. I guess if you put it that way. I thought we were years, but if it’s only months, I do feel bad. Yeah. Months. Sorry we had that on VCR tape. Yeah, we watched that thing Chuck probably 70 times. Oh yeah. Is that where they bury him in? Like Yeah, he buries him in his Dutch, I mean, and drives outta the ground. Classic. It’s as much of a classic as Red Dawn. As Archibald. Yeah. And we’re not talking the new version. We’re talking 1980s. 1984. Yeah. Right. Alright, well anyway, let’s get this party started. What?
01:38:22:17 –> 01:39:27:11
Where else we going? Let’s else is on our list. Let’s call our good friend Dusty. He doesn’t know he is being called. He’s killed multiple two hundreds. He’s constantly in the office working us over for info. He is a good friend of ours. And man, he’s just got a neck. He’s not gonna talk too much. He won’t, he won’t. But anything you get out of him iss a bonus. But slip him squirm is great. Maybe he’ll slip will teach, teach 10,000 people something. Making him Squirms worth it. Just like siren. He’s texted me three times. That’s we called. Oh, I, I don’t even reply to these guys. I’ve got a lot of texts here. I’m not even replying. Yeah. But Dusty’s one of those guys, he’s got eyes like I’ve never seen. So you know, normally when I drive I go from point A to point B, I don’t look outside my windows. This guy’s always looking and he’s always seeing, that’s the one thing I takeaway. I’ve learned from Dusty. You look like you look around and I don’t, I’m going 60, 70 miles an hour faster than I should be point A to point B. And I get up and I glass and I glass and I glass. And I don’t think in my mind between A and B, there’s no deer between A and B. There is no deer. We’re shooting and you don’t see ’em unless you’re glassing.
01:39:28:07 –> 01:40:34:12
And he, he’ll, he’ll get up on a rock and he’ll look around. First he looks around with his naked eye and I mean, all the time there’s one, there’s one, there’s one. He’s got incredible eyesight, but he’s also thinking all the time, whether you’re driving glassing, whatever he’s thinking. And then, like, he will be hunting a specific deer in the past and he’ll be like, you know, I got on Google Earth last night and I was, I’m thinking we should be on this knob right here, or this knob right there. Like, he never quits thinking about it. And I’ve learned that from him. Like, I’m telling you this guy’s, he’s, he’s smart and he’s always thinking, and he’s, and he’s got a little bit of an edge from doing that. Was it Dusty that got hit by Lightning on my Utah Elcott? Yeah. You wanna bring that up? That’s right. He, he has hip, I like to that story. So hit his four-wheeler rack and he was putting the, you know, load ramps Yeah. Up on the rack or something. Anyway, and it came out of his foot. Remember his foot was on fire and he was in the cabin and called it a date. Like, well, he called it a week. I mean, he was done. You’re tapped out. Oh. And that happens. You go home. I can’t believe you remembered that. You wanna go, I, I forgot.
01:40:34:24 –> 01:41:48:17
Just when you said it, I was like, I think it was dusty. That guy hit. Let’s, alright, let’s see if he’ll answer. Who knows? Hell. You ever been hit by Lightning? Yeah. I, I’ve been hit by lightning. Well, we got you on the podcast and we just wanted a good lightning story. Nice. Nice. Yeah, you’re better just to stay home. Well, we’re actually calling, we’re having a 200th podcast today. And so 200 and 200 inch bucks are on our mind. That’s really why we called you. But while we’re dialing your number. Yeah. John brought up the fact, I think it was on his elk hunt that you got lit up a little bit and tell Yeah, yeah. It was, it was a little un uncomfortable a little bit. Yeah. We was out there having a good time and we all split up and went our different ways. And storm, storm rolled in and I was actually out on, on the A TV trying to get in a good location to do some spotting and storm set in, and it started to rain real hard. So I jumped back on the A TV and I headed back towards the truck and got back towards the truck and got the ramps out.
01:41:48:20 –> 01:42:58:12
And I was driving a little Toyota Tacoma at the time, and I had them, them ramps at the front wheels actually pull up on so that they’ll fit in the back of, of these shore bed trucks. So I, I loaded it, got it up on, on front wheels, up on the ramps, and got out and was standing on the side of the truck and was getting the tie-downs. And the tie-down was kind of down in the bed. So I had to reach down in the bed. My arm was underneath the, the front tires of the four wheeler, the ramp of the, the wheels was sitting on. And about that time, some lightning struck, I would say, I don’t know, a hundred yards away from me. And I seen a, a spark go from the ramp down to my, my bicep on my left, left arm there. And all at once my, my feet started burning. I looked down at my feet and they felt like I was on fire, but there wasn’t no smoke coming off of ’em. So finished, finished loading up, and I got the heck outta there, headed back to camps. And I thought, these guys are gonna think I’m full of crap. But yeah, I got back and it, it was three or four days before I felt normal again. Just feet felt like I was on fire. And I told these guys, that’s the day I learned you were a quitter.
01:43:00:25 –> 01:44:09:03
That’s right. That is right. So for sure. Yep. That that done me in, I figured I’d just stay home then. Well, I’d be right. We’re with you, dusty. I don’t like that stuff when it’s right. No, no. That’s scary. I, it reminds, reminds me of a story. I was, my dad’s a surveyor and you know, growing up in the summers when he had summer jobs, he’d do private jobs and out there holding the survey rod. I remember holding that up once in a thunderstorm. It was coming around and it started sparking, you know, he’s out there a hundred yards with his transit pointed. And I let it go and I’m like, I’m done. He’s like, wait, hold it up. I’m like, no, it’s sparking. He like bull crap. He walked all the way over to me. I stuck the rod up. It’s the old wooden ones that have a little metal on top. Yeah. Sparking in the air. And he’s like, we’re done today. We’re done. It’s been a good day. We put in a good hard day. Yeah, we’re done. We’re done. I’m outta here. Yeah. It’s like, yeah, I’ve never seen, and it was a blue spark bouncing like an inch or two off the top of the rod just in the air. And you know, it, that’s, that’s like you’re begging for problems. So yeah. Dusty, I’m right there with you. I hear you.
01:44:09:04 –> 01:45:20:22
But transitioning from that to not quitting and killing big mule deer where you really can’t quit or you’re never gonna kill one. Where’s your, what’s your thoughts? You’re calling people today that have had some 200 inches under the belt in memory of podcast number 200 and maybe tell us a story about one of your personal favorite bucks or, or whether it’s a favorite or just a cool story about one you either hunted or didn’t kill, or did kill. Yeah, there was your first 200. Was that Muzzled or Buck? Yeah, that was, wasn’t it your first one? Yeah, that was the first 200 several people name is stickers, the famous stickers out there. Stickers is dead. Stick stickers is damn. Was hunting him. Come up. Stickers is dead. We didn’t know his name, remember? We didn’t, well, I think we had a name for him. I don’t remember what Yeah, yeah. No, it’s still no big deal. But yeah, we, I had a Nevada tag out there and hunted the deer for several days and there’s other, other hunters in the area hunting him. And I actually think one of the, one of the archery hunters hit him high during bow season and un wounded him. And he had a couple other nice deer running with him and hunting him for a few days.
01:45:20:22 –> 01:46:27:05
And it was just me and my dad at the time and, and could never seem to catch up with him or in the right spot. There was, the day before I actually killed him, I had him and there was a four by five with him that was, I don’t know, he was probably 32, 33 wide, a big deer. I was laying down in this, in this reseed type thing, and my dad was spot and I had the wide buck within 30 yards of me, but the buck I wanted was on the opposite side of him. So just holding him out, holding out, waiting for the right opportunity. And they winded me and took off running down through the, through the wide open area. And yeah, that night I actually come home and, and called Jason and asked him, I says, Hey, you got time to go out with me in the morning. I could use some help. I got pretty good tabs on this buck. I kinda know what he’s doing. Been watching him a little while if he can come out and spot. And we got out there early in the morning and, and Jason got up on, on the vantage point and right at Daylight Man, we, we had him found and got within, I don’t know, 30, 40 yards of him and couldn’t see him for a minute. So yeah, I couldn’t see him for a minute.
01:46:27:05 –> 01:47:39:16
And finally he come out in the open and got, I don’t know, 40, 50 yards shot at him right in the chest and got him. So that was it. No, you, it was a great job, man. And it was an awesome deer. It was just awesome. Right, right. Yeah. So I didn’t know somebody had hit him. I forgot that part of it. And but he wasn’t, you mentioned wounded. He wasn’t wounded. I mean, they may have put one through, you know, the very top of his back or something, but Yes. I mean, that’s what I mean by Yeah, he was living and threaded by or yeah, whatever. Right. Yeah. I mean he, you could see like a black dot on him or a little bit of dried blood, but I mean, you would’ve never have guessed he was wounded or anything. I, I would’ve never known if, if the guy hadn’t told me. So. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Man, that was a good day. There’s nothing, it was good. Nothing like putting your hands on deer like that. Right. Your dad was there and everything. Yeah, it’s just a good day. Good memories for sure. So, but then you’ve killed a number of other bucks since then that have been giants. I mean, what what any, any words of wisdom for guys that are listening out there? Watch what Jason Corner does and where he goes and you’ll be good. Okay. Chris, cut that Dusty try again.
01:47:43:12 –> 01:48:52:07
So, no, I mean, it’s, it’s always good to have help. I mean, have spotters and to help and have a, have a good group of guys to go and hunt with and just have fun and, and once in a while it works out for you and it makes it all worth it. So, but learning from Jason, a lot of it’s patience and stay with them. I mean, you, you get burned out after you stay with a deer for 10, 15 days, but things can change in a, in a matter of seconds. So just stay persistent and stay with it. We hunted Buster for like 30 days. Yeah, yeah. That, that sucked. How’d that end? He’s that. It was terrible. That sucked. Never seen him again. That was what’s hunting 200 inches is all about. Yeah, yeah. I, I think about that almost on a daily basis. Like that’s the one that got away that really, really sticks with me. So never not or heard from him again. Well, and I think that dear I was tell I was talking about you a little bit before we got you on the podcast, sorry. Yeah. And how you’re constantly thinking about places to go. And on Buster specifically, we would go back to camp and you’re just constantly on Google Earth or whatever, you know, looking at the whole situation and you were like, I think we should hit this other knob.
01:48:52:08 –> 01:49:59:09
And we went up on that other knob and sure enough, Buster feeds out. And I think that’s just, and that was, you know, ’cause you’re out there, you’re constantly never quit thinking. That’s what I, the one takeaway I think, you know, I’ve learned from you is just you’re constantly thinking about that deer and looking on Google Earth and trying to figure him out. And that there’s a little, there’s one more piece of the story. Like Paul here was talking about his deer and he learned about a saddle and you just, you’re constantly looking for something you don’t know about that deer that might make him vulnerable. Yeah. Yeah. It seems, seems like just when you feel like you got ’em figured out, they throw a inch in it and you start over from scratch. So. Yeah. All right. Anything else you wanna add? No, I’m, I think I’m good now. So you still, what do you do when it starts raining? You got any, you don’t go hunting. You stay, stay camp, get rubber underneath. You get in, get in the, I I used to love to go hunting. Right, right after the fresh rain or something like that. I mean, being on the mountains, that’s, that’s what it was all about. Right. After fresh rain, the animals are out feeding stuff, but now I’m, I’m back eating a bowl of chili or something. So give it 10 minutes.
01:49:59:24 –> 01:51:08:29
Every time it rains, you come home and see Amber. Right, exactly. She loves the rain. Yes. Yep. For sure. All right, well we appreciate you guys. Thanks Dusty. Appreciate it. You bet. Alright, later. Thank you guys. You, you bet. Bye. See you. Bye. That’s kind of a classic. Stickers is dead. Stickers is dead. Well, and it’s not your, your heart goes out. ’cause a lot of these guys are hunting these deer with landowner tags multiple years and, and they do. Or just draw hunters there. I don’t know. Draw hunters what they had. Yeah. They were there and, but the guides are watching deer and they know ’em and, and whatnot. And then you, you get lucky like that. And I mean, people just came outta the woodwork. I mean, we’re sitting there over the deer and, you know, here comes guys outta the woodwork. We’ve been trying to kill that deer. You guys did it, you know, congratulations. I mean, it was all good. It just, of course they, they want to kill ’em just like when somebody kills y buck, you know what I mean? Love hate deal. Yeah. So, well, speaking of things like that, that brings up two stories of two of my 200 inches. One of ’em in Colorado. There’s a couple funny things about that one, but one of them bringing up close encounters with other hunters is, I was with Gary, who we talked to earlier on the podcast.
01:51:09:06 –> 01:52:16:10
We were in Colorado, I think it was 2004. I’ve told this story many times, or at least of the buck. But as far as the stories, we’d actually just picked, packed Gary’s buck off the mountain. He spotted a buck. It was, you know, really nice. Four point mid, one eighties probably. But it was one of those years that crushed it with snow. And the deer were every there. But we just got there and started hunting. And the first night there, boom, Gary crushes a really nice buck. So he’s with me and we’re, I’m thinking I’m driving or he, anyway, we’re in the truck together and we’re driving out and we glass up the buck this big buck. And we’re on a public road looking probably a quarter mile through private land onto the mountain behind it. And it’s over there rutting doors. And we’re, I’m crapping, but this is getting dark. And it’s obviously you have, we have no idea how to get to where that is right now, but we’re gonna wash this deer. And this is a 33 inch, 200 plus deer rotten doze. November 1st or second, third season. And Gary’s like, he’s done his tags punch. And I’m like, give on. I, I, that’s Gary. We’re gonna kill big one. Gary. Gary, you’re gonna thank you Gary. Meaning I’m gonna kill a big one. You’re gonna help me. Thank you Gary. Yeah. You’re my best friend.
01:52:17:15 –> 01:53:19:21
So the next day we did have a couple of other guys that, that were there hunting with us in there. We made a big elaborate plan back there back at night. And the next day, you know, well before daylight hike, you know, drove a four-wheeler on the backside of the ridge, hiked down the ridge and you’re just going to where the deer was the night before. ’cause you know, it’s, they’re kind of starting to run. You don’t know how far they’re gonna move. Well, I inch down inch and down, inch and down and you know, thick oak brush, anybody that’s not in Colorado and oak brush, you can’t just see everything that’s in the oak brush. And so even somebody spotting from a distance is not gonna just, Hey, hold up. You know, there’s a big buck right below you. Well, I came eye to eye to this thing at like 150 yards in the oak brush. And he’s staring at me. And you can’t sit down in oak brush. ’cause why You can’t see, so you, first thing you do, you, it’s b you can’t see. Well, a you want to get a rest. I mean, there’s a deer you need to kill. I’m standing. And you’ve always been taught to have shooting sticks or whatever. Yes. Points of connection. Right, right. You know, elbows, stability, whatever. And you’re offhand it. Yeah, I did. Yeah. So what, that’s all I could do.
01:53:19:21 –> 01:54:21:18
So I put bear, he doesn’t even flinch. Come on again. Boom. Doesn’t even flinch and just takes off running. But I heard something and I’m like, maybe I hit him. I don’t know. So I, and I’m mad ’cause now he’s taking off. He runs over the ridge and as I’m running down to check foot. Well, you can’t run through oak brush. No. And so I’m working my down there. You’re agging snagging. I’m down there and I’m hearing gunshots over the ridge. Oh. And I’m, and I’m losing it now. I’m in, I’m in maybe an Archibald situation, but I’m not with friends. Yeah. They’re not friends. So these are, these are people, man, I don’t know as far as you’re concerned. They’re enemies. Yeah. There are people, I don’t know, literally. And I’m get down to where I get down pumpkin. I get down to where it is and I’m not seeing, pretty soon I look up and it’s like a 200 yards. This buck’s running straight back at me. Straight towards me. And I get on the gun and watch him, watch him run towards me. And I drill him at like 75 yards. Come on, calling right back towards me mud. And now I’m like, but I’m excited. I watched it happen. He’s dead. But I’m like, now you’re expecting you’re gonna be the bad guy that somebody else has a at him.
01:54:21:18 –> 01:55:25:16
I’m waiting, I’m waiting the whole time for this trailers, for a trailer, for a, I’m on the blood trail and let’s sort this stuff out. Oh, you tagged my buck. They, but that didn’t happen. They never showed up. They never showed up. No, they never showed up. I get down to the butt, might’ve been shooting at elk, I don’t know. But no, they, they had to be the deer. The deer was over the real hitch for a minute. And he came back over and he did not want to go that way anymore. That’s called a deer drive organized hole in it. One hole center punched in him, except one in the, through the antler. Remember that? I remember that book. I remember. So either, either when he was staring at me, which I think when he was looking at me, that antler would’ve been right above his shoulder or a 30 30 or someone over there. It’s fresh. The hip. It’s not a 30 30. They did, they did a all from the hip. But I mean, clever action. Let me, this is how stuff happens. This is, it’s not all clean and easy. And I scouted my buck an opening day and there he was. And I moved in. I got in position and dialed my scope and it was me. And I spooked him. They spooked him. I smashed him. This is, this is public. This is Oh, second choice.
01:55:25:20 –> 01:56:36:27
This is a August leftover tag in Colorado with elk and deer hunters by the hundreds everywhere. Oh. And sometimes stuff happens that way. And that deer got him back. It wasn’t until he got back. And Russell Buckley, who, you know, he caped him out for me to, and there was a, there was a 22 slug right behind his ear right there. I remember that. And it was a, it was one of those flat longer, I don’t know if they’re like suppressed 22, but they’re longer longer than a normal 22 flat and Right. They’re not even deformed. Somebody had obviously in the past tried to take him out with, with the 22. Wow. That fuck had the bad luck, huh? Right there. But I’ll, I’ll take a picture of him for Chris. I’ll take a picture of him on my wall and show that you see that right through. I didn’t, I’m not gonna fix that. It was, I, I think it was probably me. But Bronson missed a bucket. 150 yards. Yep. That’s, that happened. Okay. Yeah. I love it. Another weird story and where we’re on weird stories of other hunters is remember my Henry’s buck? Yeah. It wasn’t until three months after, or two months after, whatever. I don’t know, maybe not that long, but we’re busy hunting. I just remember I got it processed. ’cause we’re in the middle of August. You can’t, this is your two 20 buck. You killed the bow. Yeah.
01:56:36:27 –> 01:57:33:22
You can’t, you can’t hang a deer that time of year. So I took it the cooler. But remember a month or so later he says, Hey, your, your sausage, whatever’s ready. But he says, did you know there’s a broad head in his shoulder? And I says, well, I I shot him once and I finished him again. I, I, it might be mine. He goes, no, this is, you gotta see this. I I carved the whole shoulder blade away and put it in with the meat. You’re gonna see it. And remember there’s a broad head in his shoulder that had remember, you know, that big ridge on the front shoulder? It had cut through that and, and buried it and, and is buried now all by bone. And it’s been cased in bone. Yeah. And it, and so we threw it in the Beatles. And it’s on my desk. It’s pretty what some of, some of these stories that I’m, I mean I wouldn’t happen have happened is if somebody wouldn’t have poached the first buck or killed that buck the year before. ’cause remember I went to the expo that year and everybody’s like, awesome Buck. Did he have a scar anywhere on his shoulder? And I’m like, a little more than that. I had a broadhead in his shoulder. And the guys, they talked to me at the expo. Well, was that a hundred grand trocar? That’s mine.
01:57:33:29 –> 01:58:41:23
Well, anyway, so it just sometimes, man, funny how that works. The buck in my office, my one and only 200, insure he’s, he’d been hit twice. He, he had metal like a year, two years in a row. Or that year, the year I shot him in the year before with a bow. You could see in the back straps sitting you, when I was doing that, you could see the, the blade marks come on. One was a three blade. You heard you, you learned this way after you killed your deer, right? Yeah. I had no idea it was a deer down on the, you know, wind range, you know, supposedly, you know, wind range, general season hunt. A bunch of guys. Yeah. 30 miles away or whatever it killed it or shot it in the bow. What, I guess what this just we’re talking about, how hard is to kill it and by a razor’s edge, all three of those deer almost weren’t even a possibility for us. Just because they’re pretty hardy. Just something else could’ve taken a poacher other hunter. Well, whatever. Anyway, I have a story like that. Okay. Keep it. Let’s go. Well, but I was the guy that put the broadhead in the buck but didn’t get the buck. Yeah, that happens too. But maybe I’ll get the broadhead back someday. I don’t know. I dunno. All right, well I don’t wanna talk about that story. That’s for another podcast.
01:58:41:29 –> 01:59:45:10
That was a wonderful, amazing giant that I didn’t get. All right. So should we call somebody else? Broon? I don’t know. I’m on a monster now. I, as far as I’m concerned, we’re starting a minute. Number one, you were talking about shooting 30, 30 a minute ago. Lever, actually. Whoa. I remember watching 200 inch deer die with a 30 30. Oh no. What? Yeah. What score is this? Nevada have KIPP Kip killed a 1 95 net official net. Oh, that’s right. A lever action. Like two 70 times one of something. Wasn’t it? We 3, 3 0 8. Was he, shoot, I don’t know what lever action come in. It was like a browning lever action. 30 30. No, it wasn’t, it was like new a lever action. It was a new age, but it was a lever action. Well, he called it his John Wayne gun. Yeah, he did. But it wasn’t a 30. And he, he’s a good guy. But if you ever feel like you’re taking a knife to a gunfight, I mean, you know what I mean? Like, it’s like we’re used to these long range custom lawsuit walled out. Great. Well, well, he’s an easterner. And so he came out west and, and a open site lever, or not open, but was open site, but it felt like it, it felt like a lever action.
01:59:45:12 –> 02:00:54:10
I looked, I looked at it, I looked at the gun and I was, and I offered him some other gun options. But it was also one of those years rare years that, that Nevada goes till about November 5th on, on some of the late rifles. That one was like crush it crushed. And the snow, like the two or three days before that down in the desert, it got snow. And I, and it only happens like once a decade. Yeah. And it happened. And it happened. But we had actually prec scouted, and Jenna loves that word. Prec. Scouted isn’t a word. Scouting is prec scouting. So why use prec scouting? But ’cause we like, I’m gonna say it because I like it. Sounds good. We had pres scouted that buck and videoed him. And it was one of those, those, it was a migration area and those deer move into there. He had mo moved into there prior to the snowstorm. And we videoed him, thought he was a big typical, but didn’t really, typicals are the hardest things to judge in the world. Well, especially depending on where you’re hunting these, some of, we talked about some of these mountain deer that sometimes their bodies just absorb, absorb their, you know, their head’s big, their body’s big. Their neck gets big and swollen. Their ears are 25 or six inches, you know. Crazy. Yeah. So anyway, we had scouted him and then the snow hit.
02:00:54:10 –> 02:01:52:25
And then we had all Chris, you were there. I mean, who else was there? Bronson, were you there? I can’t remember. I don’t think on that one. No. Wasn’t, I wasn’t there that, so it was the, the morning with the snow. Well, before we had, we, I filmed him with the handheld camera and before it had snowed, but we didn’t realize how big the deer was. Yeah. And then we went back to the same area. It had just snowed. I was up on the ridge and I picked up this buck and I glass down there and I’m like, and we were down there. It’s a pretty significant buck. If you guys want to go look at it, it’s probably worth it. And you guys came up with the bottom. Yeah. And I was watching him through my scope. And I remember I looked away and I looked back and he was gone, gone. And I’m like, and you’re the spotter. Everybody’s relying on you right now. I’m like, guys, that’s a bad, I hate those. I don’t know where this deer is. Remember that? Well, you’ve been, you’ve al you’re on the, oh yeah, you’re on the spotter and you had to get a sandwich or a little hour later outta your pack or something. You’re sitting on an ampt pile and you can’t handle it anymore. And you flicking an away and look back and it’s poof. Yeah.
02:01:52:25 –> 02:03:03:09
I actually think I, I, I thought they were on the other side. They were kind of going down into the next valley and then I brought him back to hunt this deer. And now it’s gone. I’ve lost it. And I’m like, like, ugh. And I’m thinking if we got snow, like we’ll track this thing down. Yeah. It ain’t getting away. Ain’t getting away. So, and what had happened, I, I started looking around. The dough was still right there. And I’m, and he was with one do. So he just, and I thought he’s probably right there. I think he probably betted. So I had no eyes on the buck, but I could see the dough. And so these guys went up the draw looking for tracks and whatnot of where I had just seen him and did a smash and grab with the lever action. Jumped him. Yeah. Could keep going. I mean, I, I don’t, details are fuzzy. So they got close looking for tracks. ’cause they’re walking right to where the last place was. I’d seen him and as they started getting close, he jumps up outta the brush and starts running up the draw. That’s right. Perfect. With that lever, with that lever action. He’d ba pile it worked, pile him up. The lever action killed him. Well, I mean, and they achilles hill of mule deer, which is the road. It was 195 net, which is old book, you know what I mean?
02:03:03:09 –> 02:04:16:04
Yeah. It was net 1 95. Kip, i, we had him official scored everything ready And he’s like, I don’t care about the book. He has a, he killed two mule deer. One was net non-typical book. Which Okay. I had broad head in that one too. There’s another, yeah, there’s another CreER. And that was a 250 in the velvet. Two 40 in the hard horn. I mean, I’m gonna throw up in my mouth right now. I think it didn’t end up going 2 47. You’re making it worse. Chris hard horn. And then Kip smashed. I was there wide, a book two, two milder that we know Chris Video. Typical. And a book non-Typical 20, 30, 40 yards. He ducked my arrow. I mean, I made some mistakes. The buck did some smart things. Kip smashed it with a rifle. Okay. Book non-Typical dies. And he kills a book typical to his first two miler. Who does that? I don’t know anybody else that’s done No. Without Governor Tax or something like that. No, I don’t want to. Why don’t we, these are bad stories. They’re good. But let’s call somebody, I don’t know, let’s call somebody Hunter Guides here in Utah. He’s, he’s a killer. And he’s got been on on some big animals. Multiple species. Hound hunter as well, man. Younger guy that’s been there, done that. Yeah. Feels like killed it. He was with me when we fell.
02:04:16:04 –> 02:05:32:01
That giant bull I was telling you about the other day on the Pongo. That was, he was really, yeah, he was with me then. A three nineties bull. Yeah. Yeah. Geez. Well he killed that. He had a buck on the cover. Was it last October? We had a buck that him and his dad guided. Yeah. I think it was 240 inches. Giant pawn spotting Piger na Booker. Well, anyway, let’s see if he answers. I don’t know. I don’t know how he’s do on, on a podcast. He’s, he’s probably in a saddle right now. In a mule somewhere you think? Yeah. He’s not, well it’s gonna go straight. Even cowboys are, have new age electronics. Right. Chris, I thought you were gonna say even cowboys, like a little bit of rock and roll. Let’s give him all, hello. Are you in the saddle somewhere? Oh, no, no. Just got home. Well this is Jason, Adam and Wyatt and Devin and the whole crew on the podcast. How are you today? Good, how are you? You got, he Now you got a little somber there. We’re not talking about anything serious. We’re just talking big meal there and, and wondered. It’s our 200 episode of our Epic Outdoors podcast. So we’re talking big meal there and calling people here and there and getting a few stories. And you’ve obviously laid your hands on some, and we talked about your Henry’s archery buck and Oh yeah.
02:05:32:04 –> 02:06:42:03
Wonder if you wanted to give us a few of your thoughts about that. What year was that again? You pulled a random tag right? Just kind of outta nowhere. Yeah. Fif 15. I, I was applying thinking, you know, actually I was just gonna apply for point ’cause I was guy up in Idaho at the time, but I thought, what the heck? I’ve never even been on the Henry’s. So I just threw it in. I I didn’t even check the job results until two weeks after and really found out I drew it. Yeah, geez. But you carved time out from a elk hunt in Idaho to hunt Henry’s butt. Yeah, I called him and said, Hey man, I said, I’m taking the first 15 days. I ain’t gonna make it. So to carry, I remember Wyatt, Wyatt and Josh. Josh Pollock helped me a lot. Josh is here with us today and the mic. Yeah. So yeah, I remember, I remember when you, Josh helped me a lot. I remember when you drew that we were talking and you said, oh, I think I got a Dutton tag or something. And then two weeks later you called me. I drew the freaking Henrys. Yeah. Yeah. Josh is actually one of the first people I called. I know he’d spent a little time down there. So I, I started going over in the summer, just on the weekend scouting and trying to learn it a little.
02:06:42:26 –> 02:07:58:16
It was it, that was fun, man. Trying to remember 15. I don’t, I mean they blend together all the summer’s out there. Was that a great year? A good year? I can’t remember why it was, was it at half truck? It was good. In fact, good year. I, I remember actually the Buckeye I hunted originally. I seen you had some trail camera pictures of the buckles with him. So I, I know you probably remember, but it, okay. See that’s, that’s what a 47-year-old brain does. I don’t know. You don’t remember? You don’t remember. Was I, I think it’s kind of when it started going the other way, you know, kind of just past the peak. Yeah. I think it was just past the peak. I don’t know. I didn’t have any experience but just talking to other people that spent time down there. But we had like four bucks, over 200 that, that we were, you know, chasing after or kind of on a list for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We spent the one, the buck that was with the buck that you had on trail camera. He, we hunted him for the first five days and I actually, I hit him, but he, he ducked my string and I just back rapped him. But he was like, I I, we figured he was like 2 0 5. He had like five inch kicker. Typical. Oh yeah. Geez.
02:07:59:27 –> 02:09:19:04
And I actually two, let’s see, two days after that, after I hit him, we found him again and he was totally fine. And I blew him out again and we, we decided to take a break and try somewhere else and end up finding the Buckeye keel and glassed him up. And my cousin stayed there and spotted for me. And I walked around kind of coming down a backbone. I actually bumped him and I could just see him kind of working around a kind of the face of the hill. So I ran over to there and he come like 20 yards from me. I shot him, but I, I actually didn’t even know that Buck was there. Really? The one you killed, you mean? Wow. The one I killed. Yeah. What did he end up going? He was just two Two. Just a little under 2 0 8 gross. And he netted 2 0 3, typical four pointer. Typical wow. Stud, geez, 50 inches of mass. Yeah. Baseball come on. Baseball bat at the end. Yeah, it was, he was, it looked like he wasn’t done growing yet. It was crazy. No. Yeah. And that’s what me and Josh talked about. I think he had, ’cause that was, that year was an early, early opener year. It was 15th, it started on the 15th and just not done.
02:09:19:06 –> 02:10:40:19
He had, I think he had an inch and at least an inch on both, both of his twos, you know, maybe even a breeze. I killed a deer like that. Even August 20 something like 24th or fifth. And I mean, he wasn’t done growing. You just never know. Some of these bucks don’t finish for, you know, till late first part of September. Yeah. It’s crazy. Wow. Well you got any, you know, you guys have been super successful killing all kinds of big animals. Elk and lions and bears and deer. And you got any tactics that have worked well for you over the years or anything that, you know, the listeners could take away something that had helped them be successful? Our biggest thing is, is, I mean, just time behind the glasses seemed to be what’s most successful. You know? I mean, I’ve seen my dad and it used to drive me crazy when I was a kid, but I mean, my dad would sit on a knob all day, you know, and it’d drive me crazy. Let’s go look somewhere else. Look somewhere else. But he seems like just being patient worked the best for us, you know? Yeah. Don’t get in a hurry. You know, A big deer’s there especially. Yeah. Yep. Yep. You guys smashed a giant off the gon you want to tell us, just a quick rundown of that dairy, he went like two forties. Net book. Yeah. Non-Typical.
02:10:40:24 –> 02:12:02:28
Just a monster. Yeah. So we had a guy he had was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, so he got the 10 day extension. My dad had some general hunters in at the time, and I was still in Colorado, so my dad told him, he said, let’s just do your own thing for a while and let’s punt that last 10 days of the, that extension. And we were supposed to have a lion hunter coming in right after that. And I got home one night and I was gonna go cut for line tracks, look for deer, do a little bit of the both, and just got luckier in hell to find him. Sat down on a rim, glassed him up. He was, he was, I think it was, what was it, right at the 1st of November. And he was already, I mean, he was rutting pretty hard. So I called my dad, said, Hey, get this guy in. So he calls him, guy drives all night. We spent all day, well the next morning we didn’t turn him up. We seen the two dos that he was with that night. My dad picked him up right at dark and I was able to get him in there and he missed him five times. Luckily he come closer every shot. He didn’t know where we were. But double love those. You love those. Unreal. Yeah.
02:12:03:02 –> 02:13:20:03
I mean I, I’d never seen a deer like that on, on the hoof in my life. So I, it was pretty cool. Geez. Me and me and Wyatt actually watched the buck the year before. We watched him one night and he just, he was like 190 inch six by four. I had a couple little small extras then he just blew up. Threw him 50 inches. Yeah. At least 50. Geez. Just the right, right time lined up right time. Yep. You hit the right age and the right moisture and everything stars aligned and they just blow up like that. 2019 just kind of an amazing year for Utah. It was good year. Yeah. It was clear across the state. That’s after everybody got done too, with that extension. I mean the archery, muzzle and regular rifle had all those hunts were finished. Yep. And that’s what’s crazy is nobody had a, I don’t know of a trail camera picture or anything. I mean, I, me and my dad both, we have some property out there and we spend a lot of time out there and never seen him. No. And we run cameras out there. So I don’t know. He just got in a pocket. Nobody checked a guess. Wow. Wow. Crazy. Yeah. That’s a good story. Well sometimes they happen that way. You take ’em every time they do. Yeah, that’s right.
02:13:20:25 –> 02:14:47:29
Just keep hunting those lions and bears and put a little less emphasis on these deer. Okay. Yeah. That’s the plan. All right, well, all right, well appreciate you taking the call and yeah, appreciate getting call. We’ll probably do it again and heck yeah, we’ll maybe see you in a few weeks. Yeah, we’ll go try to round a bear up or something. That’s right. That’s right. Sounds good. All right guy. Okay, see ya. Okay. Have a good one. Bye. Yeah, that’s awesome. Big animals wondering if we should call that Corey Hayes. You guys want to give him a ring? Yeah, he’s here is another one. Super sim. Hey, what are you doing? What are you doing? Oh, I’m just here on the pod on the podcast. Got the whole epic outdoors team here. Very nice. So we’re just calling to check in on you. What’s going on Cory? Just working, waving away. Well we just wanna know where we can find a big deer. I heard there’s big ones in Arizona. So this is our, is that true? Our 200 200th episode of the podcast, which we’re getting guys to tell stories about 200 inches. And we know you’ve killed one or two. We were wondering if you got some tips and tricks and maybe just a quick story. Tips and tricks. Huh? You asking me for tips and tricks? Well, hey though, hey, you always learn something.
02:14:48:02 –> 02:16:06:14
You might have drank something different than that day than Carter’s ever drank before. I don’t know, maybe we’ll get you to slip up and tell us the secret. Come on. Just hard work bud. You know what that’s about. Just hard work. Tell us about the Oak Creeks buck. The oak creeks seem to be producing some giants and yeah, it’s been good. It’s, that deer was, that was kind of a different deal for me. Just found him the first year and could not get ’em figured out. Couldn’t get him patterned and had to turn my tag back. Do you think you was that first year go back 35 plus inch deer with split kickers on each side? Like Yeah, he was, I actually think he was a little bit wider the year before I killed him, but geez, he definitely put on some inches of bone mill the second year, added some points and just got a little older. Wow. But we got him figured out the second year and got it done really fast opening day, A lot of fun scouting him, a little competition leading up to the hunt that kinda made me lose some sleep a few nights. Oh yeah, I can imagine. Yeah. But yeah, that was, that was kind of bittersweet. It took a lot of stress off. I know Wyatt’s kind of in the same shoes, but I don’t like having that many points. I’m not gonna lie.
02:16:07:12 –> 02:17:18:13
Well, trust me, we know Wyatt. How do you even describe his infatuation with his points versus burning the points? How do we even go over there? How do we even, I think Wyatt will die with a lot of points. Maybe it might, it might happen. You guys may or may not know this, but he’s been pretty stressed about this for a few years. Well, let’s put it this way. Ever since we’ve, he’s worked here and we’ve gotten to know him, we’ve known very clearly how, how much of a, a big deal that he makes us every year. So I always seem to be just one or two points behind what I want to draw is the draw. And if you had enough points to draw it, you still wouldn’t apply still. I could be to you still. I’d probably look at something else. Probably do the multi, it’d still do the multi-season. Adam, Adam, you and Adam and I have come up with 14 great options every year and every time. I mean, it’s hours before the deadline. And he can tell us that if it would’ve had one more rainstorm for 33 minutes, he would be all in. Oh, he’s worried about the over the counter general elk hunt. I mean, what other excuses brought. So we hear you Corey. We know how much he worries about it.
02:17:18:13 –> 02:18:28:22
But so how did you finally, how did you finally move your chips to the table, middle of the table and say this, I’m gonna make this happen this year. I’m going all in. You know, I’d heard bits and pieces about the unit. I’d heard about it from Wyatt for years. But you know, after guiding on the Henry’s for so long and kind of chasing, you know, a big deer down there, hoping to someday I could see that the point creep was getting too far outta hand and I could see the quality of the deer. The top end was getting knocked off pretty much by the end of the archery hunt. Now the last, I don’t know, six, seven years, you could really see it happening. You know, there wasn’t a lot left to hunt by the time the, the rifle hunt rolled around. And I just thought, what the heck I’m gonna put in for the oak creeks. And I had never even set foot on the unit until I drew it, didn’t know anything about it. And just went and started pounding. Just kinda gritted the whole unit off and started picking places to look. And it worked out in the end. It was a little stressful, but it, it worked out first year you probably had what, 30, 40 days scouting and, and ended up turning the tag back, right?
02:18:28:29 –> 02:19:38:10
Yeah, I, I had seen some really big deer, but I kind of had my heart set on that one and you know, when as it led up to the hunt, I could see I wasn’t gaining ground on him. You know, it just, I don’t know what the deal was. He was running a big circle and I could never get ’em figured out, wasn’t hitting cameras. It was pretty crazy. And it was a, that was a rough day man. When I sat at the fishing game parking lot with that permit, walking it back in the door. Did you have muzzle loaders? Is that what you drew the first time and then second time again? Yep. Yeah. Yep. Muzzle loader. So was it the next year or two year, how many years later? Yep, it was one year later. It was in 18 when I drew it the second time and went back and found him. And I kept knowing that I had the competition I did with the local that had the premium tag. I kept kind of looking for other bucks but just keeping tabs on him. And I never did find another deer that, you know, I liked as well. Still saw some big deer again, but just stuck with that one and worked out pretty good. Dang, you’d found him fairly early in the, the velvet and kind of stuck with him for a long time. Yeah, it did.
02:19:38:12 –> 02:20:45:08
He, he was, it seemed odd to me that he was moving as much as he was like in kind of a circle around one of the ridges peaks, you know, and the way that unit’s set up. You can’t just crawl up to a spot and see everything, you know, it’s a pretty labor intensive unit, so it was a lot of work, but you know, it paid off and super happy with the deer. It was fun. Was it the first day of the muzzle loader hunt the first evening? Yep. We, yep. We didn’t see him all morning and about two o’clock is when we picked him up. I think it was a little after two and I didn’t get him killed until right at, right before dark, maybe half an hour. He just, you could see him moving around in the trees and he just would poke his head out. There was a couple different times I almost shot but didn’t dare and then he finally just stepped out in the clearing between two trees and right when I was getting ready to pull the trigger, he started walking. I still made a good shot. But man, I don’t think I’ve ever covered that much country that fast in my life. I’m surprised I didn’t break one of my legs or something trying to get over there to, and that’s a steep, rugged sucker that mountain.
02:20:45:25 –> 02:22:00:12
Well muzzle loaders, you’re always, always wondering how many more times you gotta shoot ’em before they’re actually dead. It seems like, I hate muzzle loader. Right. But I love the season. They go down hard initially, but you never know if they’re down for the count. It’s like a slow rock going through ’em. There’s no shock and awe, it just, nothing. Anyway, see anybody’s guess on how they’re gonna react with a muzz or hit Ended up what, 38 inches wide? 39 inches wide and two twenties. 39 and a half. Yep. 39 and a half and 2 22. Oh my, couldn’t get 40. Couldn’t get 40 out of him. Huh? I couldn’t get 40 out. Well you know, I have a tape you can borrow. Devon’s got a tape that starts at one and he, he measures all his big stuff with it. Yeah, I’ll mail it to you, but you gotta return it. That’s awesome. It’ll be about 40 and a half on putting money on it. You gotta return it. Oh that’s awesome. Well, pretty good. We know we interrupted your day. We’re just having fun today. We’re living in the 200 inch mule deer dream basically in March. That’s what we do. The bucks have shed. We’re thinking of this next year and wishing we were out of the office. You guys are. Yeah, you guys are no different than I am. We’re always thinking about those 200 inch deer every day day.
02:22:00:12 –> 02:23:31:28
It doesn’t matter which month. That’s that one. Where and, and you know why and everything else. Yep. But yeah, appreciate it Corey. Thanks a lot. We may get a picture from Wyatt. We’re gonna do a little Instagram post it when the podcast goes live. Maybe we’ll throw a teaser your buck on there too, so it’s, I’m sure it’s out available. You bet. Yep, yep. So. Okay. Okay. Thanks Cory. Thanks buddy. We, we appreciate you. Have a good day. Good luck this year. Yep, thank you. Yep. We’re setting all kinds of records. Longest. Longest. I’m gonna need a third monster. No dude, I’ve got, I’ve got white and I forgot. Purple in me and I need a green Benji. I was thinking about calling Benji. Who knows what he’s gonna say? Huh? Hey buddy. What are you doing today? Oh, just fixing some power lines. Oh nice. Well, hey, what’s up? So l it’s our 200th podcast and we’re talking to guys that killed 200 inches and you came to mind. How’s it going? Well my, my wife has killed 200 inches. Yeah, we can tell. And that’s why don’t you talk about 400 inch bulls and not 200 inch bucks. Well you kill, you kill everything big. Give us about two years and we’ll call you back when we’re at 400. What’s up? Nothing, just, just wondering how you’re doing and maybe throw a big buck story our way.
02:23:32:08 –> 02:24:37:13
Seems like you guys have done well over the years Colorado and different things and you know, just 30 seconds of goodness. Colorado Colorado’s our state if we’re trying to find bucks or it used to be our state, you know, I, I spent a lot of time in researching it and both units that we have killed good deer in have been kind of off the radar at the time and just got lucky. I mean, my wife’s 2014 buck was a two 18 deer. Geez. Just a, just a giant deer. We seen him and last, it was the second to last day to hunt and I seen him in the spot and scope and he was going up through the cedars and I told her to hurry and lay down and shoot that deer. And she’s, she wanted to look at him through the spot and scope ’cause she had passed up a couple, 180 beer through the week and I, I kind of had about strangler to get her to lay down and shoot beer. But that’s, that’s, that would be a good reason to do it. That’s a domestic disturbance right there. I mean I Yep. Nobody would cite you for that. Yeah. Yep. And then her last one, you know, it was just a real tough unit.
02:24:37:19 –> 02:25:52:22
I think she ran into you, Jason there and she killed a, you know, he is not 200, just over 180 deer but in a real, real hard unit. That was a tough, that’s a tough unit. That’s a tough unit. Yeah. Yeah. No, impressive. Impressive. So, and you’ve killed, you know, giant bulls and just seems like everything you do turns to gold. Just wondering if you had any, any, any tips for the guys out there listening that you feel like have made you guys successful? I, my biggest tip for Deere is I just cover the ground and find the doughs that time of year. Yeah. And and that’s what, what’s how we’ve got lucky. And then on the elk, I just do a lot of scouting on the elk and it’s worked out good. Yeah. So, well you guys are good hunters. We’re about ready to apply for Colorado. I just wondering where you’re applying and how that affects my application. You got any, got any, got any ideas? I don’t have any points and probably take my mules down in there and write into some of that high country if there’s not much snow and, and try that is what my goal is. But if we get snow I’ll be down, down lower and driving my Toyota around so I’ll look for you.
02:25:53:06 –> 02:26:57:09
Okay, well I, that’s Hey, bring an extra mule just about, I was gonna say you’re assuming Carter’s not gonna foot soldier it up to where you’re hunting mule with mules. You’re assuming he’s not gonna do That’s big assumption. Big assumption. I might bring a m or or a goat or something. I, I got a new ranked mule I’ll put him on. Oh yeah. One of them proud cat suckers. Oh, you don’t have to do that to mules. Nevermind all. Yep. Alright. Okay boys, well we appreciate you answering the phone. I know you’re doing, you’re, you’re hunting state to state. We’ve talked about New Mexico and everything. So anyway, I wish you the best of luck out there and Okay, I’ll be in touch with you guys. Thanks for calling. Okay. You bet. We’ll talk. You see you boys. You bet. Good guy. And they, they hunt hard and they kill. I’m not gonna say lucky, they make their luck ’cause they work, they work dang hard and hunt hard. But man, they’ve killed some big animals. Well they said that’s something about his wife passing up a one seven or 80 buck. And if you’re doing that, like that’s how you might kill a big deer still if you’re in a good zip code with big deer. Yeah. That’s something to be learned from.
02:26:57:12 –> 02:27:53:04
I, I mean I, I could see that discussion over the gun pretty, you know, I’ve had one of those with my wife discussions. Yeah, we call it a discussion. We, when we were in Colorado this year, yeah. My wife was actually with me and we’d hiked up this hill and that buck that I shot, we’d seen him, it was the day before he was over there 600 yards from us and we were sitting there glassing him and he was beded down and I was trying to decide whether to shoot him or not. And we decided we’ll just, we were the only ones back in there anyway. We looked down, we could see some orange coming way down below us. I was like, well I guess we’ll see if these guys kill him or not. And it was this guy and his wife. You could tell they come up there and they were probably easy a thousand yards, 1200. I mean they were. And I was like, no, there’s no way they’re gonna get down. They get down and he gets the gun out. She must have had the tag. But we actually turned from watching the deer. I like put the spotting scope on them ’cause it was hilarious. He like had her down on the ground, shoving her head around, trying to get her, moving the barrel of the gun around. I need to and finally. Finally, they just gave up.
02:27:53:07 –> 02:28:52:28
He was just, they, he finally, he just put her, put it down. She sat down and he just sat there and watched the deer. I need to go on record. I’ve never forcibly moved my wife’s head or other body parts in the act of killing an animal. Forcibly. Anyway, no, not forcibly. Maybe audibly, maybe. I said something this, this had to do with her buffalo hunt and it was, she drew a cow tag on the, on the Henry’s, and we had seen lots of bulls. We’d stalked groups, you know, that were a mile away and got in and nine bulls together. I mean, literally we’re like 150 yards. And she’s like, that one’s a, that one’s a cow. I’m like, what? What are you even, what are you even, what are you even judging? They’re betted. What are you even, you can’t see boy parts. They’re horns are that big around coming outta their head. I’m like, they’re all bulls. We’re done here. And she’s mad. So anyway, we finally get on a mixed herd, right? Mixed. And what’s your biggest fear then? It’s like shooting a cow elk in the middle of a bunch of rag horn bulls or a spike elk, right? And a bunch of something. Yeah, you gotta, you gotta pick the one.
02:28:53:00 –> 02:30:10:17
A couple of ’em had collar and I’m like, I don’t wanna be that guy just left the division of wildlife and here my wife’s smoking A GPS collared cow. And that they’re gonna get a lot of data from Yeah, yeah. And I don’t wanna beat, so I’m trying to line up with one that looks dry anyway and all of that discussion as they’re feeding and mingling. My dad, I’ll get my dad on a podcast one time he was there, he just backed off. He’s like, I’m watching the divorce happen. Right? Well I love watching you and Erin talk, or you and your wife and I mean, you just, you step, you step back and you would just watch anyway. No. So it was good. So once again, I guess, what do we, what do we talk about that one more time, Chris? And if you missed it the first, or if you turn the volume down at the first, we’re gonna be giving away a pack wheel free of charge with saddlebags, you know, roughly retail value. Roughly $2,000. Chris, you wanna lay it out again about how people enter they’ve, you know it’s gonna go on or Instagram, but the details are gonna be right here, live in the podcast. I’m going, okay. There will be an Instagram post posted Friday, March 26th to our Epic Hunts Instagram account. And that’s going to be a video. So go to that video and tag two friends.
02:30:11:03 –> 02:31:35:03
And you also need to be following at Epic Hunts and at PAC Wheel. And that is how you enter. And once again, beware of fake accounts. If someone tries to follow you, that claims to be us. Unless it is epic hunts, it is not us. If it’s got 30,000 plus followers, you’ve got the right account, right? That’s right. What are we at? Almost 40,000. Yep. We appreciate all you guys out there following we got. Of course Chris, you’re the one that heads that up and keeps everybody posted, so to speak, on what’s going on here at Epic Outdoors. We appreciate you for that. Go on there and do what Chris is saying and if, and you’ll be entered to win. If you win, we’ll direct message you, since we don’t have everyone’s phone number, we’ll direct message you from our account. Epic Hunts. Yep. And you don’t have to submit $5. That’d probably be a fake account telling you to give ’em money. So anyway, you wanna learn more about Pac Wheel? Go to pac wheel.com, give ’em a holler at 8 0 1 9 3 5 4 7 6 4. Super good guys. Incredible equipment. Taking people in the back country hauling stuff out easy. So pretty incredible. Great product. Super good guys. We appreciate their partnership here at Epic Outdoors, everybody, we hope you enjoyed this episode. It was super long. The longest podcast we’ve ever been a part of. I’m freaking tired after two monsters, fellas. Bronson, how many monsters you had?
02:31:35:07 –> 02:32:44:00
Just one? Yep. Okay, just one. All right, you you’re gonna need another one. No, no. Nope. Huh? I’m good. It’s all good. It makes me want to go hunt deer. No, it did talking today. It was awesome. I like, you know, some of these stories I knew and maybe it wasn’t part of was there, but I loved hearing some of these. Just, I don’t know, it’s the time of year in March. No deer have antlers that we’re really worried about right now. So maybe a couple, two buys hanging on to some stings, but what ’em, stags. Stags. Yeah. Stags. Holding on to 2021. Antlers still, but stags have the best meat by the way. That is far, far. If you mix it with beef, pork, and cheese, I don’t know. I don’t know about that. I’ve only had experience eating one of those, but that one, that one was probably what it was pretty old. 10. Well, I dunno. Well, Baird thought he was 13 oldest deer he had ever taken in, ever. Didn’t he say that? Yeah, he did. I know we had, we’re talking about the Nevada hunt winter last year, that a hundred with us, that was an old freaking deer bag of bones. Weighed it and didn’t get sick. What’d you say, Archibald? Nothing. It was disgusting. It was disgusting. Just, it was an old man, you know, but, but it was probably better.
02:32:44:10 –> 02:33:48:15
It was probably better than the fake rabbit Chris had. I was just thinking, I, I had some of that jerky and I didn’t think anything of it. I, well, you put enough pepper on it, salt. There were different batches of that. I don’t know if it was from hind quarter, front quarter or backstrap. I, but it wasn’t all the same. But it was, we, we haven’t caught anything that we know about yet, at least. So, but anyway, that it’s a good time to be talking about 200 inches because more of the story, it’s the time we’re not seeing any, you can’t go find one right now unless you’re looking for sheds. And we’re tied to the office. I hope everybody’s making big plans for 2021 to either get a tag or make the bo most outta just whatever tag you can get, whether it’s general or easy to draw tags. Colorado, you know, Wyoming, whatever. Something, make something happen. Be in the right place at the right time. We’ve heard a lot about it today. Be lucky sometimes. That’s what matters. Anybody out there looking to for information on how to apply, give us a holler. That’s what we do here at Epic Outdoors. We have a good time on the podcast. We like to talk about big deer, elk, rams and anything else out there.
02:33:49:00 –> 02:34:46:16
But having said that, we, you know, for a living, we crunch the data, we apply guys and we’re constantly strategizing, helping our members obtain great tags, which equals big bucks and big bulls. So anyway, if you need some help, give us a holler. 4 3 5 2 6 3 0 7 7 7. Go to epic outdoors.com. Learn how to join. It’s a hundred dollars a year. You get a monthly publication December through June, bimonthly when we’re out hunting in the field and, and we help you apply across the west as well as booking hunts. Devin, you’re constantly working with outfitters that have guaranteed tags as well as working on the draw. Yep. And we can help guys find hunts. Yep. There’s always something out there. All right fellas. I was just gonna say along with your thing about there, about applications, the deadline for Colorado is April 6th. So this podcast got you. Think about Big Mule there. That’s a state you definitely wanna be looking at. Yeah. Apply, apply, apply everybody. If you need help, give us a holler.
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