Adam Bronson’s 2023 Archery Mule Deer hunt was a nail biter. From spooking him twice to forgetting a knife to skin him with, it was great to sit down and hear the whole story. It was a tough hunt that required some master level hunting skills from Adam, or as Devin would call them “Ninja Hunting Skills”. We also talk about the rest of the crew’s early season tags and where everyone will be for the next few weeks. Good luck to everyone as many of you start off your season! We hope your hunts are EPIC and that get tagged in tons of monster bucks and bulls in the next few weeks!
Disclaimer: this text was produced through an automated transcription service and likely contains errors. Please listen to the original audio for exact content.
00:00:01:05 –> 00:01:24:16
Anything to do with Western Big Games. Welcome to the Epic Outdoors Podcast, powered by Under Armour. Hey everybody. Jason Carter. Adam Bronson. We got most of the Epic outdoors crew. We got some guys in the field. It’s kind of crazy. It’s a crazy time of year. But anyway, we’ve got Devin, Josh, cash. Logan, how you doing, Logan? I’m good. Not gonna talk, not gonna talk about you today. I, I think we covered my entire personal life last time. I think we have, have, has there been any major advances? Was I not here? I major backlash outta tier two. I had a missed that. What do I not know? Do? You did have some major backlash. I think he said Jason, Adam at first, but if not, I’m here. He talked about being catfished by his Oh yeah. That now, now friend roommate that they kind of joined. Yeah. You know, after that podcast they had to sleep in separate rooms. Now I the channel, I didn’t dare go to church in Minville the week after that aired. So you might not air go there for a few months. The judgment would’ve been falling. Oh my gosh. Anyway. So no major advancements or changes in your life? No. Okay, good. We’re moving along. Thank goodness. We’re still courting Josh. Ugh. All right. All right. So, okay. So yeah, there’s been a lot going on. You know, first off, I guess we wanna thank Under Armour.
00:01:24:16 –> 00:02:39:12
Appreciate their support, their support in this podcast and, and whatnot. Anyway, they support us in all we’re doing. We also have a lot of great supporters out there as well. Namely today for this pod podcast. Be Trek q, you and Red Rock. Just, just awesome companies. Great companies. And so, speaking of gear. Oh yeah. You know, we’ve been selling some, the optics are like crazy. Like, it’s like, I don’t know. It’s like everybody’s decided they gotta go hunting tomorrow. So today we need to buy optics. Everybody knew for the last six months they needed to get some and they put it off. Waited and waited. Including marriages. Including, yeah. Including somebody in this office. That’s what got, you know, new pair of peers studded today. Who was that? I like new developments. You know who got our new peers? Me? Yeah. I like it. They’re already in my vinyl harness. Yeah. Is it already done? Oh, oh yeah. Did you test them out? Like, did you look I mean, it’s been studded. The glass is cherry. Yeah. From the factory. I haven’t even looked to ’em yet. Have you even cleaned the dust off? I’ve looked the, the factory little paper dust. They’re ready to go. Let’s put it way. Oh, I, I, I got nothing like waiting until the last minute. I put some grease on the eye cups for him. Don’t worry.
00:02:39:13 –> 00:03:49:10
Did you I those little fingerprints for, I didn’t want him to be the first one. I didn’t even look through ’em. I just greased for him. You’re talking your hand human grease. Like just, oh yeah. You gotta rummies. Oh yeah. I put ’em into my eye cups and just got a little eye grease all over ’em. Like, but hey, we’ve stocked up. We still have a bunch. Well, I was gonna say it, but I don’t wanna have Logan have to retract. Yeah, just stop. Yeah, yeah. Stop. But anyway, yeah, but hey, we’ve still, we’ve replenished. We’ve been blown through a lot of optics, but we’ve, we’ve got a lot ordered in here. And so if you need something, call us. We, we made some epic orders. Unbelievable. The last week or so. So yeah. Appreciate everybody that’s thinking about us. And you know, luckily we had a good supply on hand for people that don’t know we’re, we’re the best deal out there. Just, just look around and then give us a holler and we’ll be able to get ’em to you. ASAP. It’s pretty awesome. Anything, right? Basically. Yeah. We’re talking Ros sua ze. Yeah, pulsar. Even if you need to vortex, even if you need to hide it from mama and come here like some cash, you know what I mean? We take cash here too. Okay. But hey, I read something the other day, not voting divorce side. Yeah, no, no.
00:03:49:10 –> 00:04:58:13
Just the principle of cash because in, in this society, there was something I read the other day, talked about you go out, you go out to lunch or something. Okay? You pay, let’s say take 1993. 50 50 bucks, you give ’em a $50 bill, right? You tip your people in cash and you give the people 50. Now what that cash did over five generations of spending of that same $50 bill versus the same $50 with on credit card, 3% credit card transaction over five times and what it whittles away to and it’s pretty shocking. No kidding. When you have, when you basically it’s a time value of money. Yeah. But in a kind of a reverse. Yeah. But it maintains that value. Whereas that $50 minus the 3% that goes, you got 47 minus. But you gotta think about this, that 3% went to the credit card processing companies who paid wages and those wages, those people went out and used their wages to go buy cars and vehicles and or how about this? I still believe cash is king. I’m selfish. ’cause I use my credit. I would use cash, but I use my credit card for everything ’cause I get 2% back. Yes. All the time. And then you’re spending more. So then you’re going to Cabela’s and buying a tent. Cott, you’re buying stuff just to get points. Right? It’s not a Cabela’s. Tell us about this tent co. It’s the best.
00:04:58:18 –> 00:05:58:01
I wanna talk a little bit more about it. Why you order one? I don’t know how you guys don. I’m gonna order one. Don’t understand that. Well, tent cots, I just don’t. I’ve always seen I am a true cotter. Okay. Okay. And I’m like one of those guys. I don’t, I don’t like all the knick-knacks unless they really work. Like I just want to be simplicity like Adam, sell it, roll out. This is the most simple system here. Here’s my cott, here’s my sleeping bag. I’m happy. I roll it up, I drive away. Okay. So if I have a normal cott and a tent cot, I would rather set up my tent. Cott. It’s so much easier. Easier than a cott. You put twin bars on a cott, two bars on some cot. Pull those, some cots you have to get physical with. Yes. That’s what’s bothering you. Have you thrown out your back out two buckles? Have you ever thrown out your back? Setting up? When we inch my thumb, when we were in Nevada last year, Devin had his tent caught. I had my regular cott. I’m glad. Well you probably had the teepee tent. No, no, because it was evaluation. Well, yeah. ’cause it was gonna rain, but this night it lone tree. Yes. And, and he had his tent caught and he was just like, okay, ready to go to bed. And I was over there.
00:05:58:03 –> 00:06:58:17
I’m just glad it was dark and there were no lights on. ’cause what I had to do to get that tent out. Do you have to like, so we got ho how tall are you? Six foot. We got sapos over there working over this cot. I, I had to do things that should be seen to get, we got hogs. Did you pull up your drawer? Do you have crack showing the whole time you were doing it? It was just a good thing. It was dark before the moon came out. He was fully exposed. We got the bike, we got the Viking huns reds bush over there breaking the sweat set up. It’s true. When it is, I like an easy cop. But it needs to be tight when you’re done. Yeah. And easy cots are always loose. So you need the tight, hard freaking POS copy. Yeah. Yeah. But about, oh, I don’t know. It was somewhere during the middle of the night. You get these thermals change and there’s a canyon that comes down from there that you don’t realize. And I about froze and it was September 10th, September 9th, whatever. And, and Archibald’s in there and it was supposed to be 50 something degrees. And I even had like a zero degree bag and I was getting cold. ’cause the wind coming outta that canyon was so cold.
00:06:58:18 –> 00:08:01:03
And Devin was over in his And the other thing you didn’t even think about was the al pellet risk. Exactly. The al pellets. Anyways, yeah, the 10 cuts are awesome. I love it. And if, if used one when it rains snow. So tell me, oh yeah, I’ve been in snow, rain, you name it. The same one 10 caught. Tell me what’s the most amazing tent caught? Ever, ever, ever since probably 2012 who moved? I’ve lit. And this is no, at least a couple hundred nights, maybe even a year in my life in that tent. Caught. Wow. I’m serious. Hey, here’s a question. I used to spend a whole summer in the thing. I wouldn’t bring a tent. Is it the cott and just the tent? Or does you have to put a, a separate cott pad in there for mattress? No, it has a pad too built in. Oh, I have a pad that I have a pad that I put in with it. Mattress. Just like the egg shelf that you fold up and you fold up with it. So it’s, I fold up at all times. My pillows in there. Everything’s self-contained. You’re sleeping back in there too. It’s two minute process. Well, no sleep in bad second. Yeah. Okay. So so walk us through it. What It’s essentially what brand? It’s essentially a very fancy, it’s a very comfortable coffin. Coffin.
00:08:01:08 –> 00:09:05:21
The padding on the side of he c he when he said it’s very similar to coffin. I, I forgot. I’d never have a discussion. I, I quit. I quit talking. Well, you could open the door. You don’t have, you can just open door. We’re gonna shop for our coffin this afternoon. Adam. There you go. What, who makes it? There’s Bellas and what? It’s with a cake coffin cutter. I think they make it. We should wait. We should that. Let’s build it. Coffin cutter. We, we’ll spell it with a k. I can’t remember. I set, set it out. K-O-F-I-N. I said it out loud. So somebody already today then the hair of the podcast is gonna steal the idea coffin. Cutter. Cutter. And were, and then canvas cutter’s gonna sue you for it. ’cause you’re trying to knock off cutter. You’re using the word cutter. It’s camp, right? My wife bought one because she How about coffin would steal mine even when we were in coffin. Tamper. ’cause it’s comfortable camp, right? Can you zip at Cabelas? Can you zip two together and have like a queen for you? Doubles. And your wife. They make doubles. They make some big ones. I wouldn’t recommend it ’cause it’ll fill your truck bad. But you know, big. It’s big. So in a dusty air, you know, Nevada environment in the back of your truck rolling down dusty roads for 70, 80 mile an hour.
00:09:05:21 –> 00:10:14:01
Well the bag, you get it out. No problems. It’s not, it has a bag. It’s clean. It wasn’t the bag big enough to fit it or not. Mine went pink from the sun. But yeah, I saw it in there today. Yeah, that’s what I saw. Okay. I was wondering what that was. That’s my home. Yeah, it was pink. That’s my home. It was kind of pinkish. And I’m like, what’s he got? He went to a yard sale and snagged something important. No, I’ve had that since like, probably 2011 or 12. Wow. Out the sun. Still rolling. So that’s where you’re, you’re gonna be in that this weekend. I’ll be in it tonight. Rain and snuck as a bug. Rains snuck as a bug and a rug. We got hurricane and Hillary bearing down on us. And he’s not afraid. Not, are they calling it Hillary? Hillary Rodham? We come on. They did not. I added Rodham, but I think that’s what they intended. Hurricane Hillary. Okay. Well let me, I’m gonna look up some weather while we’re talking. Okay. It’s the proudest thing she’s ever had named after her. You never know what makes somebody proud. You never know. Alright, where are we at? Bronson? So you t tent caught. Archibald had that thinking Nevada last week. I did. Is that, is that a sec? I was sec I was making segue. Is that where you headed into the Nevada hunts? Yeah. Bronson’s hunt.
00:10:14:14 –> 00:11:16:29
So y’all went over there? I think, I think he spent two nights in it. Maybe three. What was it? Two. Okay. That second night. I, it was like, it was like five hours. Like I think we got bed about one o’clock, but Yeah. But yeah, it was, Hey, it was short. We talked about who was gonna kill the first two hundo. Yeah, we did that one. I don’t think we ever had a formal vote though. Oh, we did. It was on a podcast and everything. I think we did. And but your somebody got mad about that. Your text log said it didn’t quite make that. So it wasn’t maybe official, but it was had to be close. It’s frequently legit. Very. But I honestly, and this is a hundred percent true. I didn’t tape one thing on that. I didn’t have it. I’m not, was not a mid-season form. I didn’t even have a tape. I wasn’t, and I was, I should’ve used Archibald’s knowing that probably would’ve broke 2 0 5. It would’ve for sure. No, not because Archibald is a embellishing. No, we’ve already talked about this. It’s talked about the tape. His dad’s tape it freighted at the end. So he, he had to cut off the first inch. So it starts at one. Or it came from China that way. I don’t know. But yeah. But either way. So I didn’t have it.
00:11:17:03 –> 00:12:22:06
And with velvet bucks, you cut him in a hurry to get ’em somewhere you don’t like, you don’t just sit and fondling. It was perfect though. Like beautiful. And I, and all I could care about the next day was getting it to somebody that could inject and freeze it. That’s all. And that’s all I did. He even still had nobody even here seen it. His pump, other than Devin. I held it. Oh yeah, you did in the parking lot on the way home at a gas station. Yeah. We happened to be passing by. Adam pulled over before we hit this road and he gets out and he’s like, I’m freezing. ’cause you had the ac blasting on it. It was cranked in there. Man, keep cold. I had all four open. It was cold. I had to get stopped and warm up twice. Driving home. Somebody’s gonna get rained on heavy tomorrow and then the weekend. Well are you thinking I’m, we’re talking about the Utah torch. I think the weekend you’ll be all right, the Utah general deer and limit entry, archery deer. It’s, it’s kicking off. Nevada opened on the 10th. This fall is 19. Yeah. It’s pretty exciting. It’s exciting. It’s good sneaking. So, so Adam, August 10th comes, you’ve been scouting, you’ve been cranking. Yeah. You’ve got a tag. Had a couple bucks found, had one in particular that Yeah, the night before I glassed him up.
00:12:22:09 –> 00:13:27:12
He was, he was, the deer was always alone. Never saw this deer with another deer ever. Whether it be on camera or in ERs. I never saw him with another deer. Not even by random chance. And he was alone when you hunted him. Oh yeah. Literally never, never. Either on a camera or, or with gla glassed up. Which I, that appealed to me actually. Killer. You get even two deer together. Three a lot more eyes. Oh, they like to like this. Yeah. You’re like, it’s all was it was all teeing up for it kind of gravitated. And he was kind of in a, in an area that I thought was, was huntable too. Once I found, once I found where he was living and where a glass from, it was a little bit of a hike, you know, not, not far, but I mean, you had to, you know, kind of hike, get, get way above. But anyway, Washington the night before opening day couldn’t find him. I’m like, he’s gotta be right here. And at like eight 12, I glossed him up. Still bedded. I, I kept, I might’ve even told you, I think he’s still beded or maybe it was my brother, I don’t know. Maybe I told you. Said, I think he’s still laying here. ’cause I, I, I’ve torn this apart with the BTX and everything. Sure enough, I found him in the shade, batted down.
00:13:27:12 –> 00:14:35:00
He finally stood about eight 30, fed till like nine 30 or something like that. This is why Devin was, you know, not very far. What, three miles away, something like that. Got Devin over there, you know, this just a couple hours later. Got him in position and I betted the buck and Devin got to me and showed him, you know, through the spot and scope where he was. Once Deon had him locked in, I took off. And it was kind of one of those, the wind, it was for, for morning. Usually sometimes I wait till the middle of the day or even early afternoon. Needed a steady Eddie. Some wind. Yeah. But this morning, remember it was blowing at 9, 9 10. Well it was windy 20 miles an hour. It was day at seven 30. I looked to the south and saw, saw lightning. There was lightning and a black wall. Yeah. I saw. And I like, oh, we’re getting wet today. But we’re, yeah, it, it was, it was one of those days that it was like, okay, this is, it happened way faster because little storms to the south and it was a 20 mile stiffed, not gust. It was steady. And I’m like, this is, this is what you pray for this, this is the conditions you want. Those conditions kill here. They do. So I took off quick hike, hiked back down to my truck.
00:14:35:00 –> 00:15:32:10
I had to move and drive a little bit. So I left some stuff, left my scope and all that at my truck. So I didn’t need that in my little backpack stocking a deer extra 10 pounds or whatever. So I dropped some of that stuff and cut out in on the deer while I was doing that with Devin. And I had sat there and we talked about if this deer moves, ’cause they always move a little bit. They never stand to one tree all day. Like we’re we named a couple of clumps. And the one that we thought was probably the most likely, what’d we call it? Just whatever the tight, the tight clump. The tight clump. Just a tight clump. That was clump the one. Very good. It was like clump. Lets call this the tight clump. Alright. And so we’d already talked about it. And so he say, Hey, he, he got up and moved to 75 yards. He’s better right in the, the north end of the tight clump. And I’m like, got it. I know where he is at. In my mind, I can see I took a picture. Communication is key. Senior, well, before you leave, when you’re, this whole thing, communication is key on killing shoes before you leave, you know? And we did. So it’s just, once you on the ground and you’ve lost all your elevation, it all looks different. So you need to know what you’re at.
00:15:32:15 –> 00:16:35:05
In my mind, I already knew. I already knew where the deer was. So it was lucky. And you know, by the time I start stalking the deer, it, it’s really blowing. And I, I was going fast ’cause I’m like, I want to get close enough. I look to the south. Well, when it’s that wind storm, when it’s that windy, you can go. Oh, he was there within minutes. Yeah, he was within, he was within 150 yards within minutes. Well then you texted one, I think you texted an update and said, I’m within 50 yards or something. I’m like, oh, this deer’s dead. And doesn’t may 80 or something like that. The steering was 80. 80. That’s what I, I’m like, this deer’s dead and doesn’t even know. Well that was when, and you guys are like, what? You thought I was talking about a deer? I was dead. Yeah, you just said he’s dead because you were hunting a deer too. You’re hunting a deer somewhere else. And you’re like, how’s it going, Carter? He’s dead. I’m like, there’s probably a few words used in a text message that probably shouldn’t be used certain. Well I was like, I was like, no, I meant you are gonna kill him. Oh. And I was like, well thanks for the optimism, but I choose another word. At least you guys had service. Yeah. Don’t, what service do you use at t? Yeah. Never used that. Never.
00:16:35:11 –> 00:17:31:05
Parts of Nevada though. It shines. Apparently it does. But I think it used to shine. I wonder. I would agree with that. But anyways, anyway, keep going. So yeah, I I didn’t, so you’re within 80. Take off my shoes. I didn’t even take off my boots until I got to 80 yards. I I, and that’s when I stopped. But I was partially like, all right, I’m close enough now. I gotta take, you know, take them off, put on some socks like I can normally do. And this deer’s beded facing away from you on the north end. You’re on the south end. What are you It’s kind of kind of facing. He can see me now. I I’m on the north of him. Mean, it’s a stiff south breeze. And he’s betted, kind of looking northeast basically is where he is. But you’ve gotta be careful ’cause he’s gonna catch your movement or whatever. Yeah. He, he could turn his head enough to see him. Yeah. And I, I’m behind a juniper tree, so I’ve got really good cover. But after this tree you got I don’t, I I have four foot cover. Yeah. So I’m crawling. But then you can get hung out to dry. And there was, it looked like Hillary was coming our way. Right? A wall of water. Oh, it, it was like, this could get serious.
00:17:31:08 –> 00:18:34:25
Like this could be like dump an inch in 20 minutes and you don’t have like a rain. I have one top, just the top. That’s all. I tear. Don’t carry. I don’t carry bottoms. Just the top. Yeah. You know, you didn’t usually the bo I shivered for a minute. I was cold. Yeah, yeah. And luckily we got the very edge of the storm. It, it just, it, it didn’t sprinkle. I mean it rained heavy drops, but we got the edge and everything went by us, luckily. But just like normal, you know, I didn’t have time to, you know, by the time it’s starting to stop, you know, I, I’m bundled up ’cause I got my raincoat over my camel. My vinyls were inside keeping ’em dry. And the deer stands up before I even can unzip. Like he, you know, before the rain it even, so, so now he’s standing and he’s kind of coming my way and I’m unzipping this ’cause I don’t, it’s just binding in that thing. Yeah. And you want it off. So I’m slipping it off this whole time. This deer’s, you know, he’s probably 75, 70 yards, but he’s buried in, in a bush. So by then I get out, you know, my, my bow’s knocked and now I’m deciding, all right, is he gonna keep coming to me or is he gonna angle? And he, he angled away.
00:18:35:10 –> 00:19:33:03
But in that moment that he angled away, I had to take, I don’t remember what took my eye off, off the deer for a minute, for like 15 seconds. Prob probably like, you know, just, I dunno, adjusting whatever I was doing, getting my rain gear put away so I can walk around this tree within a four foot area. You know, if he’s comes this way, I, I gotta be ready here. If he comes this way, I gotta be ready here. And I looked, I cannot see the deer. And I’m, I’m panicked. I don’t know, like, did he go away from me? Is he coming right at me? I can’t see him. I, and anyway, so, and you don’t dare peek her out, then you’re gonna get caught know. And, and, and, but that’s when a good wing man can help you. Yeah. Hey, this is what he’s doing. That’s right. He didn’t, he was, he just said he just buried his buried feeding. And when he said that, I said, when I said, he said, all right, I’m gonna, I I’m going to, I you didn’t say anything. Okay. I just took off. All of a sudden, there you were, I I just took off walking and it’s blowing the storm’s leaving. It’s still 2025. It’s, it’s a big wind and it, there’s branches doing this. I mean, it’s like you can get away.
00:19:33:07 –> 00:20:36:22
And I had a big, big bitter brush between me and the deer. And I just walked right to it and I picked through it. And this thing’s like 25, 30 yards buried feeding in it. And so now I’m like, which side of the bush should I gonna lean out and draw my bow? I mean, it’s so close. I’m not even gonna range. Like I know it’s top two pins of both coming. What happens when you don’t range? Okay, well it is that close. Trust me. Trust me. So you’re talking this the first time, the the first time. Yeah. First time. Yes. And, and right there. And Adam came out of nowhere like this deer covered probably I would say a hundred ish yards, 80 to a hundred yards from where he was betted to get to the tide clone. And I didn’t know what you were doing. And all of a sudden I said, yeah, he’s buried, his head’s buried in a bush. And I just, Adam just said, I got one more bush, I’m to kill him. And he was there, dude Ninja right through the bushes. Well, I had, it was awesome. I had no shoes on, good wind and meaning no shoes. I had heavy socks over my little socks. And so I’m, I mean, I’m, he’s quiet and the deer’s just been laying down for an hour and a half, two hours. He’s, he’s ready. Just rained, you know, he’s not really alert.
00:20:36:25 –> 00:21:43:12
He’s, he’s cho down there. I will say there was one time when he just, he either heard something or smelled something. And that’s when I was something. And he tensed for just a second. And every time he’d walk, he’d kind of just look back that just a, just real quick. And that was that bushes between, he burned a hole through it. And I’m just staring at him and I’m like, oh, great. Because now he’d go to feed and then he’d look back over at the bush. Like now he’s, he’s making sure. And so I couldn’t step out then. So I just decided I’m gonna let him get completely back to what he’s doing, even if he walks away from me and reeds. I, you know, and pretty soon he walked away and he’s down there like 80 yards. And then he buries in another bush. And I had to loop around and I, but I had another big, big couple of bushes between me. And these are like, you know, six, eight foot tall. Yeah. You know, big bushes, stunted trees or bushes. I forget now. And I close the distance again. And I get up there and I peek around and I don’t need a range. Fine. I mean, he’s that close. It’s 25 or 30. Yeah. It’s, you know, top pin, slightly high. I have a 20 yard pin. Yeah. You know, some people start with 30. Yeah. I, I do have a 20, 20 30.
00:21:43:20 –> 00:22:50:01
Yep. But both of those are, you know, they hit this far apart at 20, 25 yards. Your house. Yeah. You know, it’s like, doesn’t really matter. Yeah. He’s, so I lean out, I have an ephedra bush in front of me about five feet. Brigham tea, that Aphra. Okay. Like, you know, pretty good. You know, those are pretty good cover. ’cause they’re dense. Dense. And I could see this deer he’s buried in. I could see his head and neck and he’d just taken a step there. And if he takes one more step, he’s in open. But I’m like, dude, he’s buried. I’m, so I drew back. So I drew back and I’m sitting there and the deer’s chewing. He pulls his head out, chewing. And he just, just turned, turned to look that way randomly. He turns and his head just went. I just, I can see it. His eyes are, his eyes are silver doll. That’s exactly how he probably did. He, in his eyes, he probably was like, his head went literally, he saw the whites of his eyes. Literally. He went and he turned and he literally went like that. Literally. And, and then within literally a half second and it wasn’t, you’re all camo at I’m camo at full draw. Like I’m, and I kinda have a bush, but there’s a limb now a a a bow limb. And just, he’s like, that’s not what, he’s close enough.
00:22:50:11 –> 00:23:45:25
That is not what, and everything else is blowing and you’re not Yeah. And he’s like, I just walked right there. That doesn’t look what I just walked by. Like, I don’t know. I’ve got limbs blowing and this is just a solid, steady stationary object that wasn’t there before. Yeah. I had a fa face in that. I mean, and I’m telling you, I Yeah. But I think they can look at me, you in the eyes literally when you’re, when you’re 25 yards. I try not to look in their eyes. Well, I think hundred percent. A hundred percent. I believe that they, they do don’t, I like eye contact. I can see was his head and neck. I never make eye contact. So head and neck. I mean, I didn’t even have his body to shoot at. Yeah. I’m a full draw and I shot whatever. Well, he blows and runs like 10 or 20 yards and stops. So I just let my bow down and I just hunkered down. I can see the tops of that in the stomach. He doesn’t really know what he’s blowing here. And he, he didn’t go far 20 yards maybe? No. And then he ran a bit and stopped. And then he ran over the hill in Archibald City. Hit the ground. He went in. Oh yeah. He, and over end he did. I archibald for split second thought.
00:23:45:25 –> 00:24:50:28
I shot, I, I see Adam draw in my, to my view, I’m thinking, okay, that thing looks tense at worse. Torting away. Yeah. And then the deer like, does what Adam said looks like, what is that? And then jumps. And I thought, well there we go. And then he stopped. He, he hopped 3, 4, 5 times and stop. And you like, cheesy missed. And I’m like, oh, he didn’t even shoot or he missed. Yeah. And then the thing runs and does this, he took off. He was going pretty fast when he left over the hill. Yeah. He knew something was up. And I don’t know about halfway out there of his, of his big loop. He, he trips the deer tripped. Was he going downhill? Was he going downhill? See? And a little bit of dust. Was he going downhill? It was like a wash. He, he something ate it. He hit, he hit a bank and fell. I asked Dev. And then at first I literally asked Devin did break his drop die. I asked Devin did he break his dropper off. That’s what I thought. I thought, please. Because that’s kind of, that was kind of a, the selling, absolute selling point. I mean, he was kind of on the edge of big, you know, big. Pretty typical. But you need a dropper, droppers get stuff. All I can think of is he something went to go over this, I think wash.
00:24:50:28 –> 00:25:48:00
He just wasn’t paying attention because he was thinking and he just Yeah. Mistepped. Yeah. Anyways, and then he grounds giving away, going down the wash. He went out, did a big C kinda loop, came right back under a lone tree. He watched it down J Hook, he Jay hooked and looked, did a perfect J hook. Yeah. Went to the one tree. They always, Jed laid down, just watch to the nose, watch his backrow. They we’re at him. Right. Did he watch his back? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Intently dude. But I’m telling you, it’s good to see that stuff. I watched that deer the whole time and there was one moment he just, he tensed up. I don’t know what it was. Yeah. But if that wouldn’t have happened. Yeah. When did he tense? He would not have been looking back. No. When, when did he tense up? When, when he was feeding an Adam was at 25 yards. The time. The first time I, the first time I decided to hold still, but I, I couldn’t, I couldn’t see. I don’t know where he, I think he, I probably had slight movement. ’cause I’m trying to get out, you know, the first time I had him about 30 yards. I’m trying to get out either side of the bush to draw. ’cause his head head is buried and his body’s a yo.
00:25:48:00 –> 00:26:48:17
So when that, when that happened, he sought out, it was peripheral something through the bush. And like, ah, just wasn’t always quite, he was dumb to the world. Yeah. Keep in mind, this is the difference. It’s been left to himself all summer long. No pressure living alone. Yeah. And now you get a little movement, like the first time he’s ever been on it. It’s enough when it’s really windy, keep, I find these deer are skittish. They, because they’re nervous. They know they’re vulnerable. Yeah. They know stuff blowing. They don’t have, don’t their eyes are out or a lion or they don’t, they’re not as Yeah. It can go both ways into the details. Yeah, exactly. Get you close from a sound standpoint. But they sometimes do get heightened. They, he that they do. They’re just nervous. Everything’s moving around me. You know? Yeah. I mean, I can’t, can’t hear can’t. Yeah. Yeah. Everything’s moving. You’re vulnerable. They feel that. I’m sure. So he betted under that tree. Devin, Devon said, and then, you know, I gathered my stuff up and I got, I got, I knew, I knew where, where he was. ’cause he ran towards my truck. I mean, my truck’s parked, you know, half mile out there, maybe three quarters, whatever. Devin’s like, he’s, he ran right over by your truck.
00:26:48:18 –> 00:27:46:00
And you, you know, there’s a few scattered trees and he’s betted under the northern north one that you’re gonna see it, you’re gonna see the tree first when you crest the ridge. He probably likes that real bright orange. He’s probably gravitated that way. Yeah. You couldn’t see the truck. But it just was again, a perfect landmark. I knew right where, where to go. There’s pumpkin over there. Deer like pumpkins. Yeah. All right. Keep going. Anyway. Well that one I thought I had. The problem is he was, he was a different deer at that point. And I now when you blow like that, now he’s, and it’s windy now. He’s very sensitive. Yep. And I thought I had all the cover I needed and I had 80 yards. And, and now I wanted to get to the next little brush layer, which was my last one. Which was probably put me about 60 from it. You made a big loop and came around. Yeah. And you had the wind in your face again. Perfect. And, and you’re coming. He’s looking away from you. You’re behind him now. No, no, no. He’s, you never got between your truck and him. You can’t, no. Okay. So what he’s beded looking straight north and the wind is blowing hard from the south. He could see, he’s looking straight where I gotta come from.
00:27:46:02 –> 00:28:41:19
And the wind is at his back and he’s, I have to come, he’s going to see you. And he was out far enough from the tree. He could see straight west and straight east. He’s not in a good stock. He’s not in a good, but I still tried. You gotta, but he’s gonna go back home. We know he is gonna go back home where he likes to be. Which is down to the water source. Well, possibly. I mean, or just into this big, you know, big vast old burn slash live trees slash you know, all that. The food is. Yeah. The food. Food and water, you know. But anyway, so I maybe was slightly overconfident you all or did you just go? Well, it was, I had to gather. I put boots on and stuff. So I mean, it took me a minute to gather ’em. I left my pack and boots and so it took me, you’re throwing your scope together. It was 30, 45 minutes before I’m over there on him again. It’s, but, but it, he’d caught his breath, let’s say. So what do you, what do you think? So he’s got the wind coming at his back. So if you come from behind him, he can smell you. No, you’re done. If you come in front of him, he can see you. That, that’s the only option I had to do is, was come from in front of him.
00:28:42:04 –> 00:29:47:24
But the, the mistake I made is, I should have probably looking back, stopped at the 80 and just said, this is good. I just thought I had 20 more yards of cover. But from, he was down more in a little bit of a draw. And I think from his angle, looking back, that last hill I was coming over behind really big, thick bushes. I think those things were skyline. So looking picture a bush on the skyline, he, you can see blue sky and he can see dark coming through sky. Yeah. I think that’s what, ’cause I had, they were just as thick as everything I’d been coming through. But if there’s a difference between a bush at eye level with a lot of brush behind it and a bush. Now on, when I say skyline, we’re talking about a 10 foot wash. You know, skyline, we’re, I’m not trusting a ridge. They’re just little undulations out in a hill. Yeah. And the deer’s down here and he’s looking up there. I, that’s all I can think. But Mohe did not mess around that time. No. He was gone. And I thought for intense purposes, I’m done hunting the deer for the day. He was, he he, he never breath. P this is where the, this is where the story gets really fun. I what, what fun about it? It’s heaven scent, dude. Oh yeah.
00:29:47:29 –> 00:30:52:04
Well if you bump a deer a cup a couple times are the one are the thing about this deer, the one thing about this deer you, you found through scouting was that he liked to water in the day. Yeah. So rare in Nevada. It’s rare. Sometimes he would, yeah. So give you hope. If a deer’s always at night, it kind of felt like, well, what’s the use? Yeah. Why would you ever sit of water? Why’d you ever sit? And the pressure, the worse the pressure gets, the more nocturnal they get in. Nevada is so notorious for a, the heat, whatever it is, heat pressure, whatever, predation. I don’t know what it is, but man, they’re skittish. So particular deer doesn’t have the, doesn’t have the pressure. And just is in a spot where he feels like he can water in the day. And he does sometimes. Yeah, he does. So, so now here we are, we actually decide it was probably two in the afternoon, 2 33. It’s kinda like, you know, I’m gonna eat a real, what else you, I’m gonna eat a real piece of food. ’cause you’ve been eating this bird food outta your pal. You like Yeah. You’re eating like a bird for the last six hours, you know? Yeah. And so you’re like, all right, I’m gonna have a sandwich and chill for a sec. Yeah. So we ran, we ran back to camp for a minute.
00:30:52:14 –> 00:31:51:21
No one, you know, my brother Aaron, he was getting there too. And so just kind of regrouped for the night and did that. But I didn’t wait long. I mean, I, it was, I mean, well, and we also knew that where the deer went was to thick, thick cover. There’s nowhere you’re gonna go hunt the deer on the ground. No, no way. You’re done. You’re either waiting for the next day to climb trees or you, or you go pick a or you go pick a water source that he’s, you know, might come to. And it’s like, I’m just gonna invest on this. And you’re like, well, I’m gonna go sit water. Yeah. It’s all because it was on his way. It’s on his way back to where he was in a way. But you’re still thinking like, okay, you just blew a deer really hard. Really hard. You’re done twice. Yeah. But, but you’re also like, well, what else am I gonna do? I got a couple other spotters down here and your brother and Devin. And rest is kind of history because yeah, it seems simple after this, but a lot has to go right for you to be, to pick a water to sit at. And then that deer come in there. Okay. Really? So, go ahead. How did it, I mean, how’d this go down? Like really you go get in a blind? That has to happen. Yeah.
00:31:51:24 –> 00:32:45:16
I mean, but, and you’re sitting there. Yeah. Yeah. And you’re sitting there two and a half. Yeah. I don’t know. Two and half hour. Do you do by you playing parts or something on your phone? Don’t, what do you do? How you can pass? I don’t even know how to play solitaire or anything. I don’t even know how to play. How are you passing the time? Mindless. What do you mean? You’re there tweaking your bow a little bit. You tweaking there. What are you doing? Contrary to popular belief, I hadn’t had a monster all week either. So, so what do you, so normally in a blind, it’s blacked out, you know, in there. Do you wear, do you put on black like your No. A lot of guys will put on like a black shirt and a black face mask. And what do you do? I know they do. I don’t, but I have me, I leave my mesh up on my blinds. So like, when it’s like that, oh, it’s, it’s a little bit different. It’s hard, hard to see in there if those are down. And you’ll shoot through the mesh. Yeah. Yeah. I do. If if it’s tight. If you got the right blind and you can make it tight mesh. Yeah. Like if it’s loose and floppy, I don’t know. But, but I’ve tested, I think it still shoot through it, but I don’t, I’ve shot my block.
00:32:45:20 –> 00:33:35:11
Like it don’t mentally like it. Yeah. Until you do it. Yeah. You gotta know, okay, that doesn’t affect my arrow. This, and you’re also, and it doesn’t, it’s weird. And you’re also talking about, you know, your shoot, your shots are gonna be 25 to 50 yards. You know what I would say? Fairly, fairly good wheelhouse. You’re not shooting 60, 80 yards, but really it’s 20 to 30. Yeah. You know, you know. But if a deer held up out there, you know, you maybe at 40, 50, but so you go get in this blank. Generally you’re sweating your guts out. Oh, I was sweating my guts out. Even though this wall, because the wall of water left. Right. Like it’s kind this Yeah. And, and it’s not hot, but you’re just, you’re just, I chose to sit in a blind. I set, I set one up at one of these because for scent, a hundred percent because of scent. I think it contains your cent better in him. One of his, one of his waters. One of the waters. Yeah. Because it contains your scent better than just making a brush. Well, and what I like too is it totally consumes your movement too. Movement and brush plane.
00:33:35:12 –> 00:34:38:04
And let’s face it, sometimes you’re sitting there this, not sort this deer, but sometimes you’re somewhere and you got doze or fss or you got elk or something coming in and you, you don’t want stuff elk cow running off and barking and do you ruining your whole night. So there’s other stuff, non-target stuff. Did you spray any scent remover on or just straight up where you did? Yeah. What did you use? Like do you remember whatever. Just some kind of scent killer. Yeah, yeah. Whitetail stuff you’d use on a whitetail. Yeah. That stuff, same stuff I took when I hunted whitetail silver and Iowa, that stuff. And then, you know, your deodorants, you know, whatever that no scent stuff. It’s like, okay, that stuff. But, so maybe it tries to help, but, but fortunately, I mean, the direction the deer usually came from was gonna be directly downwind. But fortunately today, you know, we watched him go into an area that if he came straight back from there, he was gonna be, he was gonna be upwind. He wouldn’t smell me, but you never know, they could come into water and do a hole of 180. They would, especially, he’s kind on edge to smell it and to smell. Yeah. So luckily, you know, it’s probably, you know, I don’t know how most of you guys are. I’m getting older.
00:34:38:08 –> 00:35:49:07
So when you sit that long, you get stove up, your butt loses blood supply, you know, you’re sitting on a stool. Like, it’s just like, it’s true. About every 45 minutes I have to do a slight little standup and just let you know, let some rub your legs rub. Just let some blood flow normally for a minute. I did one of those at about eight 15 or 20. And as I’m doing that, I look out the mesh and I can see ’em standing about 50, 60 yards over there. You know. So I got, I I, there’s no anticipation. There’s like, he’s, he’s, he’s here. It’s go time. He, he’s ratcheting. I can see the dropper of my naked eye and I’m like, I don’t even need bins. So now I get back the bow’s always laying in my lap with an arrow knot. Some once in a while, but now it’s now, now it’s up and in my hand and I’m, I I’m looped up. I mean, it’s like, there’s no movement I have to do other than draw my bone out. You’re done tweaking in your loop. That doesn’t sound, none of that sounds good. But, but yeah. So anyway, the rest seems, I mean, there’s, there’s, you know, very Norm comes into water. Comes into water close to drinking. Yep. Draw my bow and he’d never even lift you. True. Did you even think about when to draw?
00:35:49:07 –> 00:36:50:13
Or was his wanted him to commit now? Yeah, now that I thought he’s here. I’m not fighting daylight. There’s no, you know, get him comfortable drinking, get him com, get him, forget about anything. Is it windy enough? Like when you draw your point, you’re not gonna hear anything. He never even lifted his head. Wow. I don’t know if it was as windy enough, but it’s just, I think some of that also keeps a little, your sound in there. Yeah. I tend it does. You got mesh and just sound ways gotta get out. Yeah. I, they just, I feel better in it and sound is bouncing off the material a little bit and it’s dampening it. Yeah. So, and I don’t know. And I do it more for my scent. I know that they, I’ve gotten away a lot more, I’ve gotten a lot away, a lot more of deer downwind from me sitting in one of those than I’m in a brush blind. When in your brush blind, your scents just going, did you kick like, dirt up around the base and like hundred percent outside? Inside? It was a very well placed blind. Yeah. One of the best I’ve seen. Yeah. Well thank you Devin. It was, it was, you put some time, man, I’m telling you. Well, I don’t know the n it was legit. Did the ninja stock. You were impressed with that. I was very impressed. The Brian impressed.
00:36:50:27 –> 00:37:48:21
You were very impressed. I wish I’d killed it that day ’cause it felt like it was meant to be. And I was pretty Well it’s spot stopped. I was pretty pretty, it’s pretty awesome. It’s the way you wanna do it. And IFI felt like I kind of let one get away from me a little bit that morning. I, I felt like I should have killed him or midday whenever it was. But it didn’t. But anyway, so anyway, so somewhat, I don’t wanna say Anticlima, he’s over there drinking. It’s, it’s still awesome. I mean, you still can’t believe what’s happening because the whole story’s amazing. I’ve, I’ve never, I’ve never killed a deer water in my life. Dave one’s the third chance he got. I I don’t think I, I know I have it with a bow or anything. Yeah, yeah. So shoot him. He jumps like crazy. So he let it rip. Yeah, you let it rip. Oh, let it rip. How far was he? How far was the shot? No, I don’t know. Just 23 and a half years. Top pin, something like that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean just, I didn’t, don’t need angled it. It was a little bit angled. Hit him right in the middle of ribs. Came out right in his arm, but it just blew through him. And he took off he blood everywhere. Oh yeah. I could see naked eye blood going. He jumps geez.
00:37:48:21 –> 00:38:47:14
And runs out there and he runs out, runs out bout, goes down, does a little loop and rises, goes over the hill. It looked like everything was given out. He does on his legs and then all of a sudden quiet. And I’m like, I know he is dead right there. So. Wow. Couldn’t call Devin. He didn’t, he has at and t so I knew I I’m wasting my time. So I call later. No radios or anything? Well, yeah, but like, I don’t know yours off. Well the problem is defend myself first. The problem is, is like there’s no reason to have even a radio that ’cause like nobody’s gonna get to anybody in time to do anything tonight. Anything tonight that happens is gonna be for the next morning. So anyway. Do you need it to yourself? I did what I was told. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I was gonna go up to this area and, and like Adam said, he is like, you really don’t need your radio on. We’ll save the batteries. And I’m like, yeah, yeah, but Aaron will have his on if you need him. So I, I get going up the road and I’m, I see something shining at the, where I was gonna park. Yeah. And I mean, we’re way up here. Oh yeah. On this road. And you’re like, I was way up there. Who’s in my spot? Yeah. I’m like, oh, somebody’s here.
00:38:47:15 –> 00:39:55:27
And it was a little car Subaru with, and first I thought, no, should not be there first. I thought like, you’re, you’re, what are the odds? There’s gonna be a body or something up here, you know, scared me. Of course Dev mine goes to that. Mine wouldn’t have thought, oh, there should be a dead body. There’s a Subaru always. What are these people doing? And I’m thinking it probably a parent from one of the people, the kidnapped kid or something. Lost boys that are out and about doing the drug camps, stuff like that, that, that went through my mind. And there was one little Walmart tent and two brand new lawn chairs. That’s all that was there. The people weren’t there. And then I could hear, oh, every once in a while you’re out blasting tank. So I I No, not in the tent, no. Just up on the hill. And so I radio, I tried to radio Aaron, but it didn’t work. It didn’t work. And then I saw the folks and Yeah, he looked like a nice old prospector and his wife June. Oh, nice. Yeah. Were they nice? But anyways, yeah, I didn’t have, yeah, he didn’t have a good night because yeah, he, he mentions the word June ’cause he knows her name and he never met them. Yeah. How did you know that He was yelling? June. June. So like, he was, and I’m like, what am I doing here?
00:39:55:27 –> 00:40:59:17
This, so I packed my stuff, hike back to my bike. What were they, what were they doing? Getting an argument out there looking for, I think she was a little lost. He knew with the way, oh man. I would dare say you were be out there looking for June. I would say June and whoever the other guy was. July. Let’s just say Johnny and June. Yes. Johnny and June. Yeah. We’re closer to 80 than 70. Okay. Alright. But anyways, so I’m, I, I bail and I go to leave to go to another spot and there’s air and parked in of the road. Prime time. Like, what are you doing? It’s like, dude, do you not have a radio? I’m like, yeah, I do. He said, let’s go. He killed the buck. It was, it was awesome. It was a worr. It was a whirlwind. It was. And then I kind of want to hear maybe, you know, what was brought to the KHL side? Maybe who, who had this, who didn’t have, let’s hear. That happened. Kind of. I had everything. It’s pre-season. No, not a lot of mid shape, mid-season form going on. I, I had everything that was needed. I had game bags, I had knives, I had everything. What was missing? What I didn’t have is a, somebody with a second knife or anything, or a second knife or a headlamp.
00:40:59:18 –> 00:42:09:01
There’s one knife that you guys are going, you’re, I said I got a stick of gum in my pocket outta me. Pretty much. I had a lot of guys ready to go. I got a phone, my, my cell phone battery or my light. I had two head lamps, lots of leg holders. So these guys go back, meet, meet up, drop a camp, get in one vehicle, drive to me halfway to me. They realize they have no packs. No what? No knives? No. I don’t know. Nothing. Nothing. We had water and a towel to their defense. That was Sarah’s like, let’s go. And he took, he takes off. And I’m on my 2004 four wheeler. So I’m not going as fast as him. 2004. I’m a uni. Uni shock. Yes. Uni shock. Is it a mono? Those are mono. I don’t know. I have two. There’s two. But it’s not independent. They’re, well, there’s at least two. So anyways, I’m, there’s not, I’m trying to get as fast as I can. I’m like okay, let my two miles an hour getting beat up. Oh yeah, yeah. Which is fast for me. And Aaron’s like, let’s go, let’s go. You know? And I was like, all alright. He said, he said he needs water. It’s a bloody mess. And he has water. I grab a five gallon jug of water. He had a towel. And I was like, that’s all he need.
00:42:09:01 –> 00:43:10:28
Do you think we need to pack? Like, did it die in front of him? He’s like, no. Yeah, it’s right there. And I think we’re good. So we took off, we show up to the buck. I have a headlamp. I borrowed one to Aaron and the water and two bottles of water. Luckily Adam looks at you. What does Jason teach us? All the epic knives. Every truck there should be door. So I said every door panel of every truck, I said walk back to my truck and get by a dive by that one. So I at least had some help. They didn’t just watch me the whole time. Take care of a deer. It was funny. But we had a good, this is not preseason form moment. Yeah. I think we were just excited. It’s the time of the You’re missing. Oh, you’re missing you. Well hey, you got gear in every well and the excitement. That’s probably about the last thing you guys were thinking was gonna happen. Yeah. We were almost there. And Aaron’s like, dude, we don’t even have a pack. I’m like, I don’t, I said, my knife’s in my pack. And he’s like, he’s like, I don’t even have a headlamp. And we’re gonna drive up to Adam. We are gonna have a Bronson knife. I felt good. Yeah, it was fun out over there and looking at each other going. Really? Yeah. It was good.
00:43:10:28 –> 00:44:23:18
We didn’t really need a pack though. I we, you didn’t. We didn’t. But a hundred yards of the truck. We were outta there anyway, overall it was, you know, he died near a two truck and it was, it was nice. So anyway, long story short, very special night, everything goes right and you look like you’re smarter than a fifth grader. But it’s pretty awesome. It was a good, good way to start the year. And fun, fun time. So yeah, next morning we broke camping. That’s when I seen you in town. Think the next day we saw you back towards the Utah border and getting a guest station. Station. Well, when I called you, well, I lost service. I called you at the kill site and you had some other guys show up or whatever. Scotty Spotty service though. Yeah. And you’re like, dude, you won’t believe it. I’m like, what? Anyway, he’s dosed. Yeah. I couldn’t believe it. Well, it was pretty special. Pretty fun. But anyway, great. Start to the year. Pretty awesome. Ready to go round two this week. Here we go. Yep. Tar archery hunter, tar archery, season starting. Just want a little, throw a little shout out to q you q.com. Make incredible gear. They’re great sponsor, good friends of ours. Go to q.com if you’re looking for any base layers or insulation, outerwear packs, sleep systems, footwear accessories. I love their vinyl harnesses. They’re incredible.
00:44:24:03 –> 00:45:36:25
Anyway, go to q you.com and support ’em. They’re awesome dudes. And make incredible gear. Another shout I want to give is to Ken Trek. Made awesome, awesome boots for a lot of years. You know, their, they’re hunters. I think that’s important, actually. You know, Jim and his crew, Jim Win and his crew there, they’re hunters. I mean, he’s, he’s hunted everywhere. He’s hunted all over the place in all kind of extremes. And they’ve got a boot for everything. I’ve got a couple key ones that I like. I like the desert guides, which is non insulated. No Windex waterproof, nothing in it. Just a great, well boot leather boot. Well-built leather boot that stands up to stuff you can throw out it. I use that on, well, I use it summon about it. And I use it on a lot of my desert sheet hunts where water, rain, a lot of that is not important. And they’re actually, I, I want ’em to hopefully breathe a little better than something with any kind of insulation or waterproof membrane. But they also make one very similar to that, the hard scrabble hiker. You know, I also use the Mountain Guide, which is kind of a souped up version of the Old Mountain Extreme. I like that one too. For a high top insulate boot. But anyway, something for something for all uses. They’ve got low top boots, kind of crosstrainer type. They’ve got everything. But check ’em [email protected].
00:45:37:04 –> 00:46:43:06
K-E-N-E-T-R-E k.com, and you can order online. They also have, you know, free shipping on everything. Over a hundred bucks, which is any boot’s gonna be over that. But they got other accessories too. Great guys. Great company. Pretty awesome. Yeah. Another shout out to, to Red Rock Precision. Make incredible rifles. And I’ve killed a lot of stuff with Red Rock rifles. I’m, they’re actually you getting another one on order? Yeah, maybe. So they’ve that. Well, just, Jan listening. None of this moment. Adam, thank you. This could be, is there a podcast she doesn’t have? Maybe she should not listen. This could, maybe we should edit before Might be her. She edits. Might could be for you. Don’t I didn’t say you. Yeah. I said you had, it could be her again for Christmas. Possibly a birthday gift for Jana. That’s right. In a seven PRC. She’s gonna be ecstatic. So anyway, red Rock’s actually coming out with some, with a, with a new model. Anybody that’s interested should be giving, giving ’em a holler and getting on the list. I’m, I’m, I think getting one of the first out. So anyway, pretty awesome. New serial number. Yeah, I don’t know. Yeah. Kind of got some ideas there. Double up double oh seven. Hey, one was about that one was the date we got married, so, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll have to do something else.
00:46:43:10 –> 00:48:00:10
You did a, you did a gun with a serial number on your anniversary. Wow. Yeah. That’s pretty, it was pretty awesome. Is it your gun or Jen’s? No, it says, it says J and j something or other. Really? Yeah. Oh yeah. It’s pretty. Hey, yeah. I’m, I’m like that. No, my wife don’t, you don’t be surprised. I am that guy. I, I’m the first I’ve heard it and I’ve known you for, I’ve known you for 25 years. I’m the first I’ve heard of something like that. I’m that guy. I am that guy. I look forward to Valentine’s Day. So anyway, red Rock precision.com. Red Rock precision.com. Incredible. Rifles can’t be beat. And yeah, they got some really exciting stuff coming up. In fact, we’re probably, we got some exciting announcements too. And a, and a partnership potentially with them as well. So, all right. Anyway, red Rock precision.com. Pretty awesome. Want to get a incredible rifle. Now’s the time. Same with optics. Back to our optics, epic optics, man, we’ve got a lot in stock and it’s time. And we take pride and be able to get guys quality gear within just a few days. So if you’re looking for something for, you know, great pricing, the best pricing out there, quite frankly, and something that’s timely, give us a holler and we’ll get you hooked up. I can’t think of anything else. Cash. Why are you so quiet?
00:48:00:23 –> 00:49:01:21
It’s, I don’t whatcha you gonna start hunting out next week? Yeah, next week. You got a general elk tag? I’ve got a general elk tag. I’m gonna help on a, help on a limited entry hunt. And that’s, and you’ve been scouted for limited entry. Yep. In, what’s your opinion? We’ve been scout. It’s, it was a slow growing process, but they’re finishing out nicely. Good. Very nice. We’re talking out. Very nice talking. Limited entry. We’re talking legit. So in Utah, good. Yeah, we’ve, we, we found a giant that we’re gonna, we’re gonna try to, how about try to put one in, but archery tag. Archery. Yep. So we’ll get first scratch. Yeah. You’ve got dodge between some, some gen, some deer and some your own general elk on top of a limited entry elk. And so you’re, you’re gonna hunt in between basically whatever’s left over. Yeah. Just in any spare. You get a multi season or did you get archery only? No, they didn’t, they didn’t hook me as bad as they hooked Josh. I spent 50 bucks and just did an archery. And I’ll go whenever. I’ll go when I can, Josh. See what happens. Josh, you get hooked 200 though, isn’t it? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. 200 bucks. Yeah, he’s all up for the multi season. And then you tried to go up the chain and throw your weight around. What do you mean? Seemed like you complained to Lou.
00:49:02:07 –> 00:50:07:01
No, no, that was, that was somebody I knew. No, I didn’t complain a bit. It was just a surprise when, ’cause you didn’t see it at all until you went to check out. Well, and then all of a sudden it was there and I was already too far into it. It was a significant, well on the timer. But also it’s, I think it’s mental It it’s mental. You wanted it, you got it. It one 50 ish. It’s two. No, what was it? One 50. One 50. They gave you a deal. If you bought one bike tag, it was 50 bucks. If you bought for all three, it was 150 bucks. Then you ended up, so you’re 50 bucks. You’re 50 bucks a season. You just said 200. I know. That’s what it used to be. Its 200 now there, now it’s 200. It went up July 1st for the multi-season tax for the multi-season. General Utah tax. So anyway. And so then Josh was like, what? And he about lost his mind. Pulled the trigger anyway though. Yeah, I was getting, I was too far into it. Couldn’t stop there. Nobody, mama didn’t raise a quitter. And this is coming from Josh who puts his car in neutral coming all the way down to see. But didn’t you save gas money? Maybe even kicks it on and off once while, didn’t you log out, log on into your, was it your wife?
00:50:07:01 –> 00:51:05:00
Careful and then have, do it again. Oh this was a, this is a backdoor method that basically, yeah, he was still logged in. Gotta buy two, right? Didn’t you? No. You have to sign into whoever’s account. Yeah. Yeah. But since you were, but you’re already in your line and queue. Well, since you’re already in line, you have to wait. Well, does Walmart make you start over? ’cause you’re buying a drink for somebody else when you check out and then you gotta go back to the shelf to get some, you usually go, you know what I mean? This didn’t make you go back to the shelf. This just said you want anything else? Yes. Well, while you’re here Yeah. Do yeah. While you’re here. Check. You can add ’em at that time too. If you want to. If you want you could add another sports person, five kids or something you’re buying spike it. What it allows you is group hunting to occur better. You know, you, you don’t just buy one and find out they sell out in hour. I’ll sell you and all your friends before you can get one. Yep, yep. Yeah. So anyway, fun stuff doesn’t, okay, isn’t that a back door? Isn’t that a backdoor secret on Idaho too? Yeah. It’s guys that were doing. I guess we can talk about it. We just Yeah. Guys that go in and you wait and you wait in December. Yeah.
00:51:05:02 –> 00:52:01:00
You can, you know, you log out, you log back into somebody else’s account, grab them and tag two, you log out, grab somebody else’s. And so that’s how you know why you’ve got other guys that are waiting. Yeah. And so it was really frustrating. ’cause it feels like cheating, but it’s their system. They know what’s happening. They’re very smart people. They also need to fix that system, you know? I don’t know. Yeah. I don’t know if it draws the answer, but it’s like, that was a cluster last December. Geez. Yeah. We also have mule’s matter. I guess we can get a little plug. Was just, lemme jump in there, Josh. Oh, I was just gonna say, don’t, don’t forget, you know, now’s probably the best time we got all of deer hunts just kicking off. So if you haven’t heard by now, we’re doing a, a big giveaway in December. Essentially we want you guys all to go out and hunt as hard as you can kill a giant deer. We, we want you to do that. But if you don’t and, and you don’t happen to find a giant deer, you know, we’re saying if, if you don’t need to kill a deer just to kill a deer, we got another option for you. Yeah. Before December 1st, we’re have a guys send in their, their tags to us.
00:52:01:12 –> 00:53:08:16
And essentially we’ve got some awesome prizes that instead of just going home with nothing or feeling like you wasted some money on a tag, you could take home a pretty significant prize. It’s pretty legit. It’s pretty legit. Oh, it’s a huge list of stuff. Yeah. Your odds are gonna be pretty good. Hard time choosing. Oh yeah, you would. Oh yeah. Yeah, you would. It’s not like you could take some Bronson cash or you could take some, you know, Carter Cash or you could have a prepaid gift card from Carter for, for 500 basic card, whatever. I’ll do that. I’ll do cash. I don’t care. We’re gonna test the, the check. I just want somen cash. You’re talking. Well, I mean, we’re talking lion hunts rifles. I know. Pictures, paintings, pedestal mounts. The support we’ve had is awesome. All kind of shoulder mounts now. Hard balls. And I’m just saying now that it’s starting, don’t just smash a buck just to smash it. If you want to kill it, kill it, eat it, enjoy it. Whatever we’re saying, go hunt. Just don’t just smash one to be able to say, say you got one. Yeah. Two by three. If it does a thing, do it. If it doesn’t mean anything to you. Yeah. If you let the two by three go. If you’re, if you’re okay with that, there’s some, if you want kill or kill it, there’s some big two by threes out there though.
00:53:08:19 –> 00:54:17:10
Oh, there’s some management bucks that are significant. There’s no question about it. Some of ’em even I saw them anyway. So there are this meales matter thing that’s the basis for this was we’ve had extended droughts and then this year it was just too much. We, we had a, an incredible winter and it was hard on northern Utah lot. You know, a lot of Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado type country, even Nevada, you know, and parts. And so it was just like, you know, if we’re, some of these states can’t just limit tags, you got over the counter tags in Wyoming or something. So all it was was just saying, hey, just to raise an awareness, give you some pause, a reason to pause Yeah. Before just crushing a Yeah. A buck that you’ve shot five or 10 of ’em that look just like it, you know? Yeah. And it, and it coming off tough years. Yeah. Drought or winter. Yeah. Yeah. And so then it just started this whole conversation, you know, about, and, and of course this comes on the heels of everybody’s so frustrated in these drought times and whatnot with game and fish being somewhat lethargic in changing tag numbers or whatever it is. Reacting. Yeah, yeah. The re the slow to react. And so we’re like, well what can we do as hunters? I mean, you can’t change what game and fish does you, we’ve, we’ve tried. Right.
00:54:18:02 –> 00:55:23:17
But there is, there is quite a few people out there, there are quite a few people out there that, that think that you should be able to have just over the counter tags period. And it’s not gonna affect anything. Technology won’t affect anything. I was having a conversation with a guy even down in parts of New Mexico, and I mean, and, and, and he, and he, and he says it, he says, most of the big deer I know about are gonna die old age. It doesn’t matter about technology, it doesn’t matter if you literally said if you issue more tags than there are deer, none of that matters. So in, you know, in a lot of this country, deer are gonna die. These big deer that he knows about 180 plus are gonna die old age. And so restrictions don’t matter anything. And there is, there are people that believe that. And I think in places of, you know, extreme desert or let’s say the Frank Church wilderness or thick, nasty back country or even just thick pin juniper stuff. It’s the nature of the, of the train, whatever it is, doesn’t, you know, if it’s up in the rubies or, or or whatever, maybe, you know, there’s some of that. But just imagine if you had over the counter tags on the sunk, what would it look like? Yeah, well there’s a, it used to be that way.
00:55:23:17 –> 00:56:21:25
That’s the reason the sunk was closed is it was a general unit. Right. And it couldn’t sustain it. There’s fairly, fairly well roaded, it’s not a real remote unit. Right. I mean, the deer migrate early. So if they do that the end of October and you got a thousand people cruising all the roads down south, you crush bucks. Yeah. You crush ’em. The only chance they get is to get to Arizona before. And if they, and then they’re, what if they, what if they gave over the counter tags in Arizona on this strip? They used to, they used to do that. Kai did. I mean, back in the day when there wasn’t technology, that’s the reason they stopped it for six, seven years and then it’s never been gone back. Yeah. It’s been limited entry and we think it’s great and awesome. But that’s the same thing with the Henry’s. But their point is a lot of these guys are like, yeah, but I’m never gonna be able to hunt there now. So what’s the use? Well, well my, yeah, you got 1500 limited entry unit tags in Utah and you got 75,000 generals. So there’s a little give and take. We like that. Yeah. We like that. There are still over the counter archery in Arizona and a lot of, a lot of it with harvest limits. Right? Yeah. And so I like that.
00:56:21:29 –> 00:57:35:16
I like that the, all these systems are different, but I guess what I’m getting at part of this is some people might think that we’re a little extreme on saving all the deer and that really’s not gonna matter. But I think depending on the state and area you’re at, everything’s different. And that’s why management is different depending on the state. You can’t, Colorado’s not gonna be managed the same as New Mexico and Nevada. Yeah. And Nevada’s managed ’em for 30 bucks, per hundred dose or whatever and hardly given any tax. And then when these wet years do come, they have an incredible number of big deer, you know, you know, dozens of 200 plus inch deer running around on a year like this. And so anyway, there’s not a one size fits all. I don’t think you can go over the counter in every single state gon what would, what would all these places look like? Right. But then maybe there’s places, and it’s kind of opened my eyes a little bit, maybe there are places that could withstand over the counter pressure, unlimited over the counter pressure, no limits on technology. Maybe, maybe because of the nature of the train, you’re out in the sandhills of, of new Nebraska, New Mexico or, or you’re up in some crazy wilderness stuff. I, I don’t know. But meal’s matters here because we were seeing ex extensive, you know, decline. So yeah.
00:57:35:16 –> 00:58:33:06
Overall populations in quality have in the back of your mind as you go out. Huh. And that’s all it’s supposed to do. Maybe give you a reason not to pull the trigger or punch a release just just to do it. But, but go have fun and shoot what you want. We wanna be clear about that. And we do need your actual tag. It will go in an actual bin. It needs to be the paper tag. If you want to punch out an e your CID numbers, you people do an e tag, but it’s not eligible for this. Yeah. If you want cut out your anything that’s super identifying, you can like your tag number, your CIDs that or block it out. Understandable. But we need a paper tag. We’re gonna draw a literal paper tag. It’s not gonna be, yeah. It’s the only way to do it. I’m not even sure whether the c the information that’s on a printed tag, most of it’s not enough to break most states. You have username and passwords anymore. Yeah. But I mean, but anyway, so All right, well good luck. Do they need to write their phone number on there or what should Well, we need to be able to contact you. Of course. Yeah. So I mean, what maybe with that we’ll have a spreadsheet that we put down. If you were picked for something, we need to be able to get ahold of you.
00:58:33:06 –> 00:59:30:06
So if it’s not on your tag, which most states it’s not some, it’s, it is do need to get ahold of you email and phone number, it’d be great. But all the details, all the details, the details are on the web website.com. Josh, your, your wheels were spinning. I could tell your yours were turning, but jump into it real quick. Just your thoughts on the MUEs matter and what we’ve been talking about with conservation and things like that. No, it’s good. I, I think it’s, it’s good. And, and it’s just our way of trying to help out, you know, everybody tries to do something and it’s just our way of doing it because Yeah, it’s like you were saying, not everywhere can be hunted over the counter. The reason why some of these deer live in places like that is because the average hunter isn’t gonna go down there because you can’t just go and it’s no fun down there and ride the road. It’s not, it is not fun. Right. And, and so guys want to go out and have a good time where there are places up on the mountain where you could go drive around and, and hunt. And if you did over the counter like that on some of these units, they would annihilate every single deer off of there because people are naturally gonna gravitate to the areas that are the easiest to hunt. Yeah.
00:59:30:19 –> 01:00:33:19
And there’s guys that just want to kill a deer. There’s nothing wrong with it. I don’t, I don’t care. But there’s guys that wanna go kill a deer and they would go there and they would know those areas and they would completely annihilate it. Which why you see even there’s units in Utah, I don’t know name the last time a giant buck came outta some of these units. There there’s not, there’s some, there’s, there’s some units that, similar to when Robbie asked me, Robbie asked me, he’s like, do you think there’s no trophy deer in some of these units? You really think that? Yes. I mean, there, there could be something somewhere. You don’t see every single deer, but you don’t see some units, especially units that are around highly populated areas and stuff around big, big populations of people that they manage for 15 to 17 bucks per a hundred dose. You, you don’t see big deer come out of ’em and you’re talking big units. Yeah. Oh yeah. They’re not small little postages, lot of country. Even if there’s one big deer that say, come outta Monroe or Fillmore. Right? Yeah. Monroe is one of those that I was talking about. It’s a huge unit, but I’m thinking about in, in part and with social media, if there was one killed, you’d heard about it. Oh yeah. Mean or local. Yeah, whatever. You don’t, you don’t. Just pictures and people. So yeah.
01:00:33:19 –> 01:01:39:02
It’s, it’s, so I think there’s a, there people are passionate about what they know too is, you know, sometimes people are talking about winter kill and we, we just don’t see it here, but we do see drought and so we’re all dealing with challenges. Yep. And we’re trying to address all those challenges, those particular two drought, winter kill in the, in the muley matter movement, whatever. And the thing I’ve, I’ve noticed that, I mean a hundred percent our deer coming back, I’ve noticed it, I’ve seen it on some of these units and, and it is a good thing. It’s not a bad thing and, but we don’t necessarily have to kill ’em while they’re in the process of coming back. Either they’re, they’re coming back in their infancy, you wanna, and they’re like, let’s get ’em mature herd back. Right? Yeah. Get a good age structure built up, you know, and so it’s, and they’re coming back and it’s gonna be awesome. Which, which means tags can increase, which is that’s what we all want. We all want a deer tag. You know, we just want to have some deer there when we do it. So it’s good. I want to address one other subject. I I’ll be interested to see what you guys think is, there’s people, there’s people out there that say, dear, it’s never been better.
01:01:39:18 –> 01:02:38:28
That even they know old timers that, that even their dad or grandpa say, you know, that it’s never been better than it is now. What do, do you guys think? Where do you think they’re from? I don’t know. Do you know where they’re, I’d like to know where. Yeah. ’cause I’d like, I’d like to go there. I’d like to go to that place. I, I said that and was guilty of saying that, but do you feel like people do feel that way? People feel like it’s as good as it’s ever been. It’s good. No, no. Not right now. Not not in where we live in here. Whether it be even Utah, we live near Nevada. I mean, we know what the drought’s done. A lot of it’s, but, but Southern Utah and Nevada, absolutely not. Not even, I I, I don’t, I couldn’t find one person in 2017. 2019, some of 2016. Some of these good years. The best I’ve ever seen in my 40 years of life. You know, it’s short 40 years. But that was the best I had ever seen it and contended that it was probably the best it’s ever been. But it’s not now moment we’ve, we’ve lost several hundred thousands of deer in this state. And so it’s not, yeah, it’s not.
01:02:39:00 –> 01:03:41:21
And it, and it was also enough time had gone since we’ve gone to unit by unit and tag numbers and, but, but on general season scenarios, three to 500 tags onto unit Yeah. Can really start negating that, that benefit that you’re seeing pretty fast. And when I say I’m negating again, I’m being maybe hypercritical of seeing a few older deer on these units. I understand their general season unit, but, but no, I’d like to know, find those people. Carter, I’d like to go home where they’re hunting. I’d like, I’d like to look ’em, in fact, I’ll go with you. So I’ll I’ll be your wingman. I’m gonna be your wing man. Well, well rack you and I hunt was starting at the same day or I’d have been your, one of your wing wings. I know, but but find out where those are. Maybe it’s in Nebraska. I don’t know. Like, I don’t know where they’re talking. Anyway, just good conversations out there. But you know what, what they say about opinions and so, and I get it, this Meal’s matter movement isn’t necessarily a one size fits all. Yeah. Perfect for everything. Not gonna fix, it’s not gonna fix west, it’s not gonna fix drought, it’s not gonna fix winter kill.
01:03:42:03 –> 01:04:45:25
It’s just doing the little bit we can do to help and maybe even for the next 10 years, you think about do I really need that two by three or two by two or do I really need, do I really need to harvest that or am I cool to let that deer walk and maybe gain a little age and I, I, I don’t know, just maybe change the thought process. You can, you can post on Instagram a picture with your brand new rifle you want instead of your two by three. How about that? Yeah, you could still look cool in front of your front that that rifle’s probably worth more than the tag. Here’s here’s the Bronson box. Yeah, you can. Oh 500 benies in your hand. Ax Carter. I’ll initial ’em if you want. Actually all five. Send ’em right to your door. I like it. All right. Well anyway, yeah, so you can, you can, Logan, you talked about this really quick as far as actually when you send your tag in before you send the tag in, they fill out a registration on Mon on ly? Yeah, on Monster mully mully matter.com. Right. Adam just mentioned we needed a way to get a hold of you well before you send in your tag go on lys matter.com. It’s not up yet. Not is that newly matter.com? No, it’s epic outdoors.com. Both of ’em will take you there. Oh, okay. Right on.
01:04:46:00 –> 01:05:51:06
I’ll like it. So either go to Epic outdoors and click the link or go to mules matter.com. The registration form isn’t up yet ’cause we’re not quite accepting tags yet. But when you do get ready to send in your tag, you’ll go and fill out a form before you send in your tag and it’ll put in email phone number, you’ll pick the prizes you want and the order you want so we can just get it right to you as quick as possible. Okay? Yep. All right. Okay. Sounds good. Well, we appreciate you everybody. Cash. You got anything else? No. Do you wanna tell us where this big bull is? No. How’s he built? He’s built very nice, long and heavy, long lagging. Devin, how about you? What about me? You got anything? As we close this thing down, I’m, I’m gonna go. You’re hitting the road right now. He’s gonna you a climb in a cop. I’m gonna walk down this door and go try to find what, see what white’s doing. Oh. Since we haven’t talked to him for There you go. Yeah, we need not see what he’s doing. Go try to find him. Josh, you got anything else? There you go. Nope. You’re steaming over there. No, I’m good. You’re now it’s, we brought up the tag fee increase. You just lost it. He’s left it. I’m trying to think where I’m gonna go do good on that. $200 on that spike. Spike.
01:05:51:08 –> 01:07:03:06
What do you think that spike cost the state to raise? I mean, when you add in aerial flights, 13 cents, you’re, Hey, all their wages that you’re saying they got the, all these wages and the health benefits. What do you think a deer elk costs? I don’t even care. It’s just funny. Hey, we’ve all been there. When you’re like, am I really gonna click this confirm button on this price? That’s true. That’s true. We have recently when it all doesn’t matter, just a little bit more neutral time and you’ll be just fine. When the fletches are buried deep into its ribs, you don’t even care at that point. It’s just, it’s worth it and worth a bar of gold time with family. Yeah. What’s it worth to you? Pollock when you got a muscle chunk? Just big smoking in the smoker. It’s true. It’s the best 200 bucks you’ve ever spent. True. The $1,400 Trager. It’s a beef. It’s a beef chalk. It’s the best 200 you’ve ever spent. Alright, everybody have a good weekend. We’d like to thank all of our sponsors here at Epic Outdoors. For top of the line hunting, clothing, and apparel in every environment, visit under armour.com. We’d like to thank Under Armour for being our title sponsor and making this podcast happen. Visit our website epic outdoors.com for discount codes to Under Armour Hunting apparel, handcrafted quality precision rifles from start to finish.
01:07:03:14 –> 01:08:16:23
Red Rock Precision is one of our sponsors and many of our staff users Red Rock rifles. Visit red Rock precision.com to find out more. If you’re in the market for a hunting property, our sponsor at St. James Sporting Properties specialize in premier hunting properties throughout the west. Check out available hunting properties at st. James sporting properties.com. Good looking comfortable. Camo describes KU U, the new bush pants from KU U. Keep your legs comfortable while walking through the thorns and bristles. Visit ku u.com for sizing and prices. Kenna Trek makes great boots for any situation. Most sheet punters in the high rocky altitudes. Use these boots to keep their ankles in. Check on the rough terrain. Visit kenna trek.com to learn more. We at Epic Outdoors are a fierce firearms dealer and have many popular models in stock and ready to ship. Call us if you would like help deciding which options are right for you. Fierce long-range Rifles are a great rifle and many of our employees here. Use them. Visit fierce arms.com to learn more. Triple S Polaris specializes in custom setup hunting side-by-sides. They deliver right to your door nationwide. Visit SSS polaris.com to learn more For affordable long-range rifles and shooting schools, visit thompson long range.com. Hoyt is top of the line archery equipment. Hoyt is the official bow manufacturer of Epic Outdoors. Everyone on our staff shoots a Hoyt bow call.
01:08:16:23 –> 01:09:22:03
If you’d like to visit about their different models or visit hoyt.com. Thank you to Phone Scope, the best camera optic adapter out there. Phone scope makes high quality phone cases and optics adapters. Visit phone scope.com to learn more. Stealth Cam has high quality durable trail cameras that we all love to use. Check them [email protected] or call us to order today here at Epic Optics. We are a verified dealer for Swarovski Zeiss, Leica Vortex, stealth cam and more. Call us today to visit about the available optics we have and what would be right for you. Or visit epic optics.com for only 150 bucks a year. You get nine issues of the Epic Outdoors Magazine and unlimited access to our Hunt consultant, as well as access to our verified research website. To see all the other member benefits, visit epic outdoors.com. If you hunt multiple states, our services are essential. The Epic Outdoors license application service is for you. If you ever miss deadlines or would like help developing your long, medium, and short term license application goals, give us a call today at (435) 263-0777 to learn more.
Recent Comments