In this episode the crew sits down with Wyatt Bowles as he takes us through his incredible harvesting of a limited-entry Mule deer. Wyatt has been waiting for as long as he can remember to draw a tag like this and, although he felt the pressure of 20+ years of waiting, he was able to make an incredible play and notch his tag with an absolute monster 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.
00:00:01:04 –> 00:01:16:14
Anything to do with Western big Games. Welcome to the Epic Outdoors Podcast, powered by Under Armour. Hey everybody. Jason Carter, Adam Bronson and Wyatt. I’m here. We got it. And Logan, of course. But Wyatt, Wyatt is the man of the hour. The man of the month, man of the year. The man of mystery is no longer gonna be mysterious. That’s right. It seems like I’m, I’m kind of bummed the last couple podcasts I’ve had guys call me out on for being out scouting too much maybe. Yeah. People are not used to you leaving the office. What’s that whole q and a when you’ve got a, you know, a deer hunt pending and it’s an August opener. It’s like there was a lot of, you’re scouting heavy in July and Bronson, I think you called it, remember? Said, what do mean? You said who was the first in the office to smash? Huh? I think I got, I think you nailed it. Whyt frowned upon that statement though. ’cause Well, I felt, I know he doesn’t want you to Too many facts too early. He Yeah. Didn’t, he didn’t, he didn’t want people to know he was, again, hunting this year or anything, let alone what tag he had. I mean, if I don’t blame him if he was doing a moose hunt in Quebec or, or Caribou or whatever. A 200 inch plus moose is a pretty big bull. I mean, you never know.
00:01:17:08 –> 00:02:27:21
I, I don’t think it was that as much as there was a few other guys in the office that had some really good deer tags that started before me. Put the pressure, it put the, well, we don’t have confidence in ourselves by it. We’ve been, we’ve done this rodeo. Yeah, there’s going for the odds. It’s strictly an s Well, let’s see, bro. Bron, what did I win? What do you want? Did I, I don’t know. Hey, how about the, about Diamond back? 2000 more takes 2000. We just sold two weeks off paid. Paid administratively. Two weeks. I mean, I’m leaving tonight, John. We’re gonna have to vote two. It’s outta three. It’s on, it’s on the calendar. I vote no if it matters. It’s all the, I would rather do the Diamondback 2000 Rangefinder the, we just sold. Let it pick something out of the optics room. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well maybe. Well, I’ll know any, anything for that matter. I like it. I like it. All right. Let’s see. Want I want time off? Well, we’ve got some new apparel on our store. Okay. On our merch store. So, Adam, I was, I was wonder wondering, Adam, I was gonna bet you Ttt t-shirt. I was gonna bet you Adam, how long it would take John to bring that up. To bring that up. And I think I wanted, you couldn’t even mark place the back.
00:02:28:08 –> 00:03:30:28
I couldn’t even, I couldn’t even get to discussing it. Go ahead, John. John, take it away. I’m so excited about it. Go ahead. Oh, it, it’s been years since we had new merch, so we’re coming out with a whole bunch. I hate the word mech. Why? What do you wanna call it? I don’t know why. What do you wanna call it? It feels like a flatty term. Merchandise is too long. Swag. How long has it been called Merch clothing? Like 16 months, 20 years? No, I don’t know. Oh, it has merch. It’s a new term. Merch been around for a while I think. No, it’s been a long, long time. It seems like it’s a new term. It it does. It’s a new term to you. It’s a flatty term. Yeah, that’s right. New term to you. It’s a Gen Z merchandise has been out forever’s 20, 30 years old to the rest of the world. But I’ve been calling it apparel to appease Jason. I didn’t wanna make it too Gen Z. I bet if you look up merch in Wikipedia, it was, it was born in nine in 2019. There’s like a, there’s like a thing on Google that calculates when a word was first invented and its usage over time. That’s what I mean. When did it spike? You got it? No. Okay, I’ll do it. Merchandise was around in the fifties. I know that merchandise has been forever and I like it.
00:03:31:10 –> 00:04:49:04
I kind like the word, but this merch merchandise. So you can buy too lazy to say merchandise. And I’m just gonna throw Mer on our website. That’s right. Merchandise was born back when Mercantiles were around. We should Google it. How long? Me, I’m trying to Google it, but, so anyway, John, go ahead. Just I’ll, I’ll Google. Anyway, there’s you do that. The problem is you can’t see it. Just say apparel because we’ve got some other things on there. Yeah. Like some, you know goods. Some other goods. Yeah. What have we got on there? Accessories and some, when according to Merriam Webster dictionary, 1982 was the first mer Jesus who said 30 years. But listen, that’s like 50 years. That’s when the word was invented. 50. But when did it pick up mainstream? There’s a difference. Well, back in 1982, when it was, you’d have to look at the paperback Merriam Webster freaking Merriam Webster dictionary to see it. And nobody did that. Yeah. Oh. So now somebody, some Flatty guy just says, Hey Mark. And everybody says, oh, that’s a cold term. So yeah, it, it is a new word to Jason and Jason. Mary, Adam, Adam Webster dictionary. Adam Ann, Adam. It’s 2022. I’ve never said the word in my life. Maybe til today. Never said it. Now I’m afraid we’re gonna use it nonstop. Like we use the word tang and I hate the word tang. That’s a good breakfast drink. I love Tang.
00:04:49:29 –> 00:06:04:00
I do love tinging. I miss Ting. I love, I love hot ting. So if you go to our website, right on the top it says Merch I, you could feed hummingbirds with Ting. It’s sugar water. Oh. Their beets per minute would go up by about 20%. Then you throw a little white monster in there. Oh. Oh. They might blow up mid. Oh, that we’ve got, we’ve got a hundred birds. That’s like wildlife abuse or something. Isn’t no just a drop. You’re not force feeding them. But they’re coming with their own free will does of your, they’re gonna have vitamins they’ve never had. Does one of your kids have a science experiment? You know, for science, that would be an incredible, it would be Kool-Aid. Tang. What if, what if all the birds die? Monster half. What if all the birds died within five minutes? Would you quit drinking it? No, because you can’t extrapolate a two ounce organism or three, whatever a hummingbird weighs with a 200 pound Dude, you can’t. No, you’d have to, can’t extrapolate. You’d have to bring in the pigs. Test ’em on real pigs. That’s alright. Well, okay, let’s talk about a merch. So you go to our website right at the top, in the middle. Big words. It says merch. Does it? Yep. So go click on merch before Jason makes us change it anyway, so, but there’ll be some new stuff coming right now. There’s some awesome T-shirts.
00:06:04:29 –> 00:07:24:05
Muley Matter T-shirts are out there. Epic Outdoors. T-shirts. This idea was that. That’s kind of was kind of hats. Mugs. Blankies. Blankies mugs. Yeah, I saw the blanket on there. My wife saw that. She thought it was, she wanted one. Pretty soon we’re gonna have swimming suits on there. Kinda like Wyatt. Kinda like Wyatt. I, I’m picking out my Mother’s Day presents right now. Yeah, already for next May. What’s it gonna be? Swimming suit? No, an epic. An epic blanket. All a blanky. Oh geez. What else you got John? There’s a lot of stuff though. There a stuff. Just we stuff check it out and then we’ll be adding more too. Right there. We’ll be adding more. So follow us on social media. We’ll kind of announce when those follow come out. Follow for follow. Yep. So, all right. Kind of fun actually. So anyway, lot, lot on there. Little bit longer delivery times. Maybe just, just be patient 5, 5, 7 days. Something like that. Yep. All right. Okay, let’s move along. Bronson, should we talk about the point deadlines real quick as we run through so we don’t forget, we’re about 30 days almost out for one of them coming up, which is? Which? You’ve done ’em. I haven’t. Oh yeah, I did ’em like June or July 5th. How many of your family members did you do Montana points for? Two. I’m in that boat of trying to decide. Decide. And I only did elk.
00:07:24:07 –> 00:08:32:24
What’s important? I only did elk. I’m just the deer. What’s your thought process? In opinion? Don’t give, there’s not very many places to spread out. I mean, some years and even like unit two 70, we can draw what four or five non-resident tags up to. There’s not even non-resident drawn. I mean, and so I just elk though, within five years an archery elk tag somewhere you get, you can get it. So to me that’s, that’s why I did it. That’s where the value is. And it gives you options, right? Art t elk rifle elk is tougher. But anyway, so the bonus point, not to be confused with the general season combo. Pre preference point pre, you can do ’em both right now. But the bonus point deadline for deer, elk, antelope sheep, moose goat is September 30th. Yeah. And then that And then the preference point would be December 31st. Yeah. I don’t know why they made it six months long, but they did just, hey, probably gained them another few hundred bucks. Yeah, that’s a hundred dollars a piece. 2000. But probably just a reminder, if you read the magazine and you remember, you probably heard us say it over and over, don’t buy that a hundred dollars preference point if you don’t intend to apply for the general next, next march, April. ’cause it’s gonna be like lighting a hundred dollars bill on fire. Because you can’t do points year after year after year.
00:08:32:26 –> 00:09:34:04
You have to, you can do points the first year, then you have to apply for a license or your points go zero. Yeah. So if you buy it right now and don’t apply, it’s a hundred bucks. Hey, just send me a hundred bucks, I’ll take it. So if you wanna donate it to me’s math. Yeah. So if you wanna, if you want to go next year is the key, then you want the point this year. If you don’t wanna go next year, don’t get the point. Just do the bonus. That’s right. That’s right. So that’s Montana. What’s next far? And just do the bonus. Yeah. And then we’ve got Wyoming, we got October 31st for Wyoming points. Yeah. And even if you applied, you’ve gotta get points especially for Yeah, the deer, elk, and antelope. Yep. You do. It’s kind of a crazy thing. And I guess you apply and unsuccessful, it’s been what, the second or third year now. And so here you gotta go back and buy ’em. Here’s the question of year. When, when do you wanna do the moose and sheep or when do you wanna drop out? What’s that threshold of point level? Well we, we’ve been pretty outspoken about that in the mid teens. You’re kind of in no man’s land. Right. What you can’t predict is that they’re gonna, what they’re gonna change, if anything go to point system wise, bonus point system or something.
00:09:34:04 –> 00:10:39:24
Bonus point only or squared, bonus point. And if they do, what I still contend is with, with the non-resident quota being whittled down to 10% for moose, sheep, and goat, that’s still a very low number of tags. Even if they go to a squared point system. I mean look at Montana, look at Nevada right now for moose, sheep and goat. They’re a squared system. Is it easy to draw with a lot of points still? Nevada, moose, sheep and goat, Nevada Goat, Nevada. No, I said Montana, moose, sheep, goat and Nevada. They’re both there you go Squared systems. Yes. And they, this doesn’t matter if you’ve got 25, how many people, is it top heavy people get the points? No, it’s just random. Get the tags. Yeah. I don’t, I don’t think it’s a compelling reason. If they go to a squared system, you’re gonna wanna do ’em. Yes. You’ll be in the draw mathematically. But man, those states that already have a squared point system like Nevada and Montana for mu go, they’re, I had a guy 22 points the other day and it was those, those are tough calls. He gets to choose. And I gave him on draws in Wyoming and it was, you know, it’s tough thought moose guy, sheep. That’s a tough one. You don’t wanna, you don’t wanna give him up. But he’s really not break his heart. Yeah. He’s really not in the running, you know? Yeah. So unfortunate.
00:10:40:14 –> 00:11:42:16
Anyway, reality. Wyatt, do you have anything to add in on? No, I think he reality of that, pretty, pretty well covered it there. I, I believe in getting the, the elk, deer antelope points. Yes. Most in Wyoming. Most definitely. I get ’em. I get ’em for my kids. Bronson, did you get ’em for all your kids? Oh yeah. Women and children. 600 bucks worth or something. Yeah. It’s tough. It’s kind of hard to swallow. There’s a lot of opportunity there with those general licensing and, and different things like that. So, and then of course if you missed Oregon and it’s a must apply for state in your portfolio, then you’ve got until November 30th to get points. Kind of interesting. Most people get points during the application period. Yeah. Can And so we don’t talk Yeah, you can do that. Yeah. You can’t do that in the other two states. So we haven’t talked a lot about it. We do put it in the publication and, and of course, I mean that’s for somebody just flat out missed the deadline in Oregon, basically. That’s what that reminder’s about. This last magazine, we actually, you know, the August september issue, we also have the opportunity section talks about, you know, different things that guys are looking to do stuff. And of course the turnback tags and some of these reissue tags there in Colorado and whatnot. There’s, there’s quite a bit going on.
00:11:42:16 –> 00:12:56:10
So you might check that out if you’re a member here at Epic Outdoors. No, it’s kind of important too because some of those things that we mentioned in there, they, you need to be preparing for like the 1st of December in the case of say Idaho or Arizona, you know, so it’s, you know, you can’t wait until January ’cause it’s all over by then, you know. So gotta prepare a little bit. If you want some over the counter. Can’t really call it over the counter anymore I guess. But first come, first serve, we’ll call it tags in Idaho or Arizona for deer, archery deer. We’re talking, you gotta kind of plan ahead for that December timeframe. That’s right. December is kind of an important month. Of course. Wyatt, you’re looking forward to December. That’s when all the renewals come in. All the renewals. Yeah. License application is busy in December. It is. It is. It’s busy. It’s kind of a fun, it’s so right now we’re right in the middle of hunting season and Wyatt smashes a freaking giant. And so with that, Wyatt, some of you might have, I’d like to know by raise of hands, everybody who even knew Wyatt that attack in the world. Yeah, yeah. The listeners of the podcast. I mean, I mean there was people that did, we broke the news to about 10 or 15,000 people. There were people out there.
00:12:57:12 –> 00:14:06:28
It was, it was stuff, but they didn’t know where close to the chest was. Was an understatement. Understatement. But anyway, and he about divorced us a couple of times. Well, like when the bet, I made the bet and he’s like, why’d you bet on me? You know, everybody’s like, why you put the what, why I’m, you’re telling everybody, I, I had people hitting me. Who, why You said Wyatt’s gonna, what tag does he have? And I’m like, da. And that’s what Wyatt’s point is. Everybody. Everybody’s too. Everybody’s asking Wyatt, Bronson dang near beat you. He did, he did. I mean, he come within freaking an opening morning giants too. I don’t know, whatever. So, so just, anyway, it’s only close in grenades. Wyatt blew, blew it outta the water by 20 inches. So. So Wyatt, this has been a lifetime right? Right. Basically got 21 points invested in Utah deer. Yeah. Ever since I was old enough to apply in Utah. Really? I’ve been applying from mul deer. Yep. Wow. That dates you. Yeah. So you, and to put that into perspective for everybody else, he hasn’t hunt an antelope or an elk either. Right. Because you can only do one. As a Utah resident, I had to pick a species and I’d, I’d drawn my mountain goat a few years ago. So Yeah. Use, use those points there. And now we’re sitting on a pile of deer points and finally had a wet year.
00:14:07:05 –> 00:15:04:12
What do you, what goes into your thought process about which unit to hunt or choose or these I think it things good now we can talk about it. It’s good. ’cause we had a lot of talks now. So kind of, kind of my thinking this year was, and every year yeah, we go through this and every year we love to tease Wyatt about this. ’cause he has these points and he could command attack. Well in two or three years we’ve been kind of jabbing him about it. Yeah. But we had some extreme drought years and so he held, he frankly held off. Oh he did? Yeah. And rightfully so. Yes. Okay. You know, kind, kind of moisture was definitely one thing that really played into it. You know, what, what our moisture was like. We’ve definitely been in that drought for a few years. And then also I, I was watching units that maybe, you know, were hot units but maybe had trended down and just trying to catch ’em on a year when they were coming back up just to get the best value outta my points. Yeah. Is what I was trying to do. You like the Dolores triangle? Like the Dolores Triangle? That’s didn’t cross my mind, but that was probably one of them that could probably could have 10 years ago I wanted it. Yeah. So Yeah, exactly.
00:15:04:20 –> 00:16:18:06
So there, so, such as the Henry’s or something like that, that used to be the state’s best, arguably the best in the state. Right. Right. To 7, 8, 10 years ago. Two or three rough years. Largely, you know, due to some of the drought. It’s a dry, it is range that pops out of the desert out there and they’re killable, they’re very killable. You glass ’em and kill ’em. Very stackable. And so, you know, not as much giant carryover. The hunting pressure can, can take care of a lot of deer on that unit. Yeah, right. You know? And so then, so you, you can affect the age class a little bit. So you’re thinking if people forget about it, maybe the class of hunter, you know, shift, shift other units for a couple years. Yeah. We don’t have the hard court trophy hunters applying for the injuries. Then all of a sudden we get a little bit of older deer laying around and then we what year add water? Right. Let, let me basically why it’s like, let me be the one to tell the world the Henry’s are back and Wyatt are thes back. Wyatt, I I wouldn’t say back. Henry’s two 20 is back. Well, I mean, okay. I remember back in the day being down there with Adam actually way back when 2000, what? Eight, nine. Yeah. All those years. Even thousand 13, 14 I find is Adams, when did you smash your two 20?
00:16:18:12 –> 00:17:17:28
Both of you have smashed 17, 20 17, 20 23 back to back two twenties. Was that six years or seven years? I dunno what if that is. I like it. But yeah, it’s what I meant by back. Yeah. It’s not as good as it ever has been. Very, very few places even gon or other places are not that or many other places for that matter. And numbers are down, but, but just it’s back to what we would maybe hold the standard of, you know, 200 to two 20 bucks. What you would hope that Henry’s would get. That used to be what you hunt on the Henry’s, that’s what you could usually hope for that hunt in a normal year. It’s the most incredible in the last two, three years. Those are, you could count on one hand maybe the last couple years that are like those type of deer. Yes. That’s let’s year wide. I mean, you spent a crap load of time. Tons. And I don’t know how many, that’s like why I said anytime of the day I could drive out there and look at a 180 book anytime I want. Yeah. Well, and, and every day you could look at 200 acres. I mean, they weren’t 200 when they were going in early July, but you knew that these deer are gonna be gonna end up, they’re gonna be 200 plus. Definitely had potential.
00:17:17:28 –> 00:18:20:27
So yeah, we found out what this year in May, the end of May that I drew the tag and I made a trip, actually, what, the first week of June was probably my first trip over there. I I was excited. Got a bunch of trail cameras out. Of course Utah made the new trail camera lost. So I had to pull ’em actually before they did me a ton of good, I mean the deer still had a had a lot of growing. But I, I spent a lot of days over there. I I figured between 35 and 40 days of just, just scouting, running around that mountain. And you know, the last, what, two weeks before the season? I, I had a pretty decent hit list of bucks. Yeah. Really good. So, and then we get, we approach the turnback time. Yep. There’s 30 days. 30 days. And you were like, and we, Bronson and I were like, well that’s, it could go either way. July 20th or whatever, 18, 19, whatever. Somewhere it’s like not 19. And this was a later, the bucks were a little behind in a lot of places, not just the Henry’s. So, so why you thought it was gonna be good, but you still they weren’t done growing yet. Yeah, I, I was nervous. I was super nervous. It was up to the day before the day to turn it in that you were, that you finally made the phone call.
00:18:20:29 –> 00:19:21:03
I actually stayed over there the week before that just to, to spend every day. And then I, I came home and showed you guys what I had on video and Yeah. You’re like, do I keep it or not? We kind of debated here at the office and decided we were gonna hunt it so it was unanimous. Yeah. I don’t think anybody said you’re gonna be in trouble, you’re gonna regret that. No, it was And we all felt like you might find a, a buck you didn’t know about still Yeah. On top of the hit list. Right. Which kind of happened. Yeah. That is what happened. So, but the hit, the hit list bucks though all, I mean some all turned into, you know, great bucks too. Studs. Yeah. Studs. I mean 2 0 5 to two 15 ish type deer. All I would say every one of the ones that were really on your list, why a couple four points that were probably like right around 200, but we’re just awesome. Yeah. Just big awesome framing deer, you know, few with extras. I mean lot, lot that I was excited about coming into the hunt. So I guess we get to what, the week before the hunt I headed down there. I guess the hunt would start on a Saturday and I, I left Tuesday morning to head down there and just kind of check up on the, on the hit listers.
00:19:21:26 –> 00:20:16:09
And I’d actually kind of, kind of heard rumor of a big deer that I had not seen. So I spent a little bit of time down on that end of the mountain. I actually spent three days there before I actually turned that buck up. Geez. And which was like Thursday night. It was Thursday. Two days before this opening. Yeah. Two days before the opener. I found this buck and he was actually caught him coming up over the skyline like right at dark and could just tell instantly that was a, that was a deer that that was a big deer. Needed attention and, and probably a deer I was going to hunt. Wow. Yeah. So he was yeah. In an area that, that he lived the year before, which of course you didn’t spend a bunch of time there last year. You’d heard from others that there was a deer and he was actually, and the year before he wasn’t no near as big. No. And he had a broken beam and stuff. Ended up breaking his beam the year before and that, and nowhere near the mass in velvet, but he broke it. So he just didn’t have the extras. Just no. Yeah. I mean just, just still still a great deer. Especially for last year. I mean last year the mountain was down. Yeah. Quite a bit.
00:20:16:11 –> 00:21:28:23
But I think kind of what saved him was he did break a break a be main beam off. And I think too, it was nice that, you know, your buddies basically said this deer’s bigger when you see him when you see him. Yeah. Than the way he videos. Which is true. He doesn’t look as good in photos. And I mean he looks great in live video, but I mean he looks like when you walk up to him it’s like, you’re like, holy crap. Geez. Didn’t take me long. Yeah. So this is next level. But anyway, Thursday guys started to show up so I, you know, me and Devin looked at him on Thursday, Friday. Let’s see, Adam, did you show up Friday morning? First thing, knocked off my hit list right off the bat and found every box. Yeah. I went to Adam, went to the sweet spot and said all the tech said, so Josh and I are gonna come on Sunday afternoon and I just can’t figure out like how you killed an opening morning. Like, I’m like, oh yeah, there’s no problems. I can take care of all my obligations and come in. He waited till afternoon, it was like 1230. Yeah. Good help is what it come down to. So anyway, and then the text was, Adam says, Wyatt saw, I should read it. Why? Why it saw this big one and I saw four shooters, basically BB through, what is that?
00:21:28:28 –> 00:22:39:03
D or D? Yeah, yeah. All were where Wyatt basically had ’em tucked away. Yeah. It’s, and anyway, it was just like good morning. It was one’s good mornings, but I had a, I had a cheat sheet. I saw four shooters and I’m like four shooters. Like, okay, are we talking like, what does that mean? What does a shooter mean? Well, hundred. Because there’s some guys that shoot two by threes say they’re two wheelies don’t matter to some, they’re all 200 to two 15 deer, 200 plus deer. So, so big deer. That’s what I’m talking So funny. One of ’em was a four point. Yeah. And he was probably about two, but the other three were non tips and they were, as far as you guys have heard, are they all still alive or is one’s one? One has an arrow somewhere. Yeah, we, we, we did hear that one got wounded. One poor little feller. So, but have not heard anymore on what happened or who it was, I guess, or, or what happened if it’s still alive or if they did recover it, so geez. But anyway, yeah, fast forward. So yeah, at Friday Wyatt has more options than he can handle. He was nervous. Yeah. Anybody would drive in the direction four miles away. But drive, make it nervous, turn in the office 14 months before just a lot even deciding what to apply for.
00:22:39:09 –> 00:23:44:22
But I mean, its, a truck would turn at an intersection four miles from his buck, but it turned the direction and his heart rate was going up. There’s just, just a lot of pressure with those tags. You know, we, we had something special and knew he was the one we wanted to hunt. So let’s see, Friday, what I think’s amazing is that Henry’s is somewhat of a, we’ve talked about it, very easy to glass hunt, very stackable. And you had this deer to yourself. Yes. Yep. It’s just interesting how they can live under your nose like that a little bit. How’d that remember my deer? Yeah. Nobody, nobody hunted. That was a not a side of the mountain. That’s, it’s calm. I don’t know if it’s ever, I’ve never seen ever another big deer there myself. Yeah. It was a unique people drive by where we killed your deer. They drove through us, but nobody was hunting the deer. Remember? It was Yeah. You’re you’re nervous. We were nervous the whole time, but Well, and people were driving by going, I’m missing something. ’cause there’s one too many vehicles and there were some people doing that opening day. Trust me, there was people doing that, but they didn’t know they weren’t. And I think Wyatt, you guys had what, B and c teams from other people coming and checking out what everybody else is doing. Just making sure.
00:23:44:22 –> 00:24:48:11
Yeah, we, we never saw another hundred with a bow. There was not another person. No, but just the just, but yeah, their, the team members. Yep. Their team members were, were coming through or, or just, just checking everybody out. Just people. I don’t know if they had muzzle loader tags or rifle, but game people go down there to look at deer too. We did have a game warden. Yeah. And what was the other ranger? I know we got some, another ranger Neil State Park guy or whatever. So he, he was checking for those new UTV permits. Was he? Yeah. License plates. Come on. No kidding. Wow. Wow. I don’t cash had his, I didn’t take mine, but cash, I think cat his on them. Huh. How about the guys that hunt the Henry’s once in a while with a general tag? Just assuming that that’s part of the general, it’s within the southeastern bound. It, it’s happened. We know and smoke bucks too, and not even really kind of just get a hand slap. They were totally ignorant. Oh, they, they could have lost their truck and went and wives and children. What were you saying John? I was just gonna say why you were stalking your buck at him. We had two or three people stop. Oh yeah. And, and we were right, you guys are acting like you’re eating a peanut butter sandwich on the tailgate, basically. Yeah.
00:24:48:17 –> 00:25:47:01
I wish Archibald was here because that’s honey. He had a few of those incident Archibald was in, it was in probably the, he was in the high traffic area. I wish Archibald was here. He’s, he’s hunting. Okay. And we can’t tell you where, ’cause we’ll get in trouble, but he’s a good guy. But if you’re one of those people that’s a guy. He, he is not that stuck up. He’s he’s a good guy. But what I, what I, he’s so amped up like, like he didn’t even dare put the spot in scope up on the, up on the tripod. He’s sitting at the truck. You could probably put the spot in scope on the tripod. I just remember looking over him in the heat of the day. The sun’s coming up, glaring off, off his truck and he is leaning against his truck. It had to have been 10 times hotter against his truck than anywhere else. But he said, he said, I didn’t dare, I didn’t dare move. That’s how dedicated Devin is to anybody that he’s helping. It’s pretty, it’s pretty impressive. Alright, so go ahead. We’re not gonna, so surprisingly we’re gonna let you talk and we’re gonna let you, so we’re gonna let you finish this Friday. As, as, as Bronson sucks down some nerds.
00:25:47:10 –> 00:26:45:23
It was the day before the hunt, I was able to, I guess I wasn’t able to, but we did keep track of the deer all day Friday. So Devin and I watched him that morning. I went and checked on some other bucks that evening and, and another buddy, you know, picked him up that night and, and watched him until dark. So we were able to, to keep track of, of the deer most of the day, or, or I guess all day Friday. But it seems like when you were, when you were on the stalk is when you really understood how big this deer was. Yeah. Like even though, even though you’ve watched him, he’s a big deer, right? You’re gonna shoot him, you’re gonna hunt him. You’re past that. But then when you were right next to him. Yeah, all, all the guys that had seen him had had told me, you know, he, he’s bigger than he looks. He’s bigger than he looks. He’s bigger than he looks. And anyways, I I, I’d been looking at him from a few miles away when I was, when I was glassing in there. So the next morning we all get set up, kind of get a plan, get guys out on the points, end up finding the buck pretty quick. I mean, it was still, you know, yeah, maybe gray light still 15 minutes after not even having to really slow roll the pines. Yeah.
00:26:45:23 –> 00:27:42:05
There was no pines. No, no. W and I were, but we were slow rolling the oak. Well, yeah, that’s on the Henry. We were ready to make a move. Adam and I Yeah. Had all the glasses on point and anyways, kind of got a, a weird wind that we haven’t got in a while or hadn’t had, you know, this storm coming through this hurricane kind of deal, kind of get shifted to wind. It was going the complete opposite direction, what it normally blows down there. So it kind of made, coming from the east a little bit, it was kind of coming from the north north like in the summer, which is not ever common and, and like stiff, like not just a, oh there’s a little thermal, you know, swirl. Yeah. This is steady. Yeah. Geez. So I, and you got a lot of fault. I, I’m blowing, I’m blowing light. The cigarette lighter. It’s doing it. The talcs blowing the same way. So I’m like, what? We better try this. Yeah, we probably sat there for what, 20, 30 minutes, just kind of made sure the wind was stable. Didn’t really believe that. Yeah. But it stayed so it was like take off. Yeah.
00:27:42:05 –> 00:28:44:01
Then I, I got out and tried my, tried my stalk there, was able to, you know, drop down into kind of the level the buck was at and just kind of hang out and I mean, I was there for within a hundred yard of him for what, three hours or so, two, three hours a long time. Three hours or so long time before I, and then the wind changed then, then the wind changed, the wind came and it was, it was pretty terrible at that point. I was trying to get, get north of him. So now the wind would be normal. So I was, I was trying to get, get out there away from him I guess, or so I backed up, got over, I finally could figure out exactly where the deer was off, off the description. Finally got it all figured out and started, started to work my way in there to where they thought I could see the deer from, had a little bit better wind. Wasn’t ideal, but had a little bit better wind. But I figured it was kind of, kind of now or never. You was already inti too. Yeah, tight. I, I was too tight. I I’ve been within a hundred for too long. Committed. Yeah. I’m just like, God, gotta try it. I’m here. So I kind of worked down. Devin walked me into a boulder.
00:28:44:22 –> 00:29:52:18
I popped up on that boulder as I came up over the top of it, all I could see was horns and top of a head above the oak on his eyes beating. Yeah. This is at like feeding 1215 in the afternoon. In the afternoon. He’s just picking off oak breaks. Broad daylight son there he is. Big as life at 40 yards. And he did look absolutely giant. He was, that’s just funny. I think the words were, he was big as sh Yeah, he was big as Shamu. Yeah, he was, he is got a just a big hat on going away. Just big looks to it. Big. Yeah. So he’s sitting there just picking, picking oak leaves and I’m trying to, I’m, I’m in some tall oak too. And I mean, he’s in tall oak and we’re just trying to find, I’m just trying to find an angle. I have him at 40 yards and it feels like he was there for 10 minutes. But I mean, this was really what probably a couple minutes that, that I actually had that had the deer found. So he starts kind of, kind of feeding his way back towards where he was beded earlier. And there’s two lanes. I think I’m gonna get a shot right there at 40. And he just goes through those lanes too quick. I mean, just as I’m trying, trying to draw, he just doesn’t even hesitate in those lanes.
00:29:52:24 –> 00:30:52:27
So other than that, I mean, his body’s covered up and I just have head and horns. So finally he starts working towards a lane that I think is gonna be a, a really good lane. I’m high. I’m pretty, pretty high strung. I’m pretty excited at this point. You know, first, if I remember right, I couldn’t even lift my bin. Nows at 40 yards. I had a hard time lifting my bin. I got ’em up, but then they were shaking so bad. I was getting ranges from 80 to 20 yards. I I didn’t know that I could make it happen at that point. I love that. That’s why you bow hunt right there. I love it. Love it. But the more time I spent with a deer, of course, the more I kind of got up in the zone and calmed down and yeah, kind of, you know, you have time. Worked my nerves over a little bit. So I got him in a, I, I knew Elany was headed for, or Elaine, it looked like he was gonna make, and that would be my last lane before it dropped off the next shelf. If he would’ve dropped off that next shelf, it would’ve been just time to back out and Yeah. Yeah. And start again. But I was able to kind of work my way up around this last little patch of oak and I mean, it was a straight shot in there.
00:30:52:27 –> 00:31:57:15
The buck was in there feeding at 60 yards. Had his head in the bush just quartered away from me. Super, super hard. But it’s actually a really good angle when you’re trying to put an arrow in something. So I was able to just get him right behind the last rib and I mean, it come out and stuck. Perfect. I mean, it’s somewhere in his collar bone or I mean, it stuck just within an inch or two of being just perfect. Yeah. I mean it was just perfect. Couldn’t ask for any better. And Wyatt’s like a pretty good archer. You realize he’s heart shot an elk at 90. Yeah. And like the last I guess is three years, two years. Really? He doesn’t wanna talk about it, but he’s freaking two years apart. Freaking He’s good. Yeah, he’s let two arrows fly. It, it’s kind of locked. I mean it’s until the 3 75 bull, that’s not two 20. But Wyatt Hayes comes to mind. But anyway, so he, he, I, I could see the arrow hit him and I knew it was, you know, it was in something good. I, I knew it was going to gonna be a fatal shot, so I let the guys know, hey, he’s hit. And before I could end the end, the traffic there on the radio, they’d already hit me that they’d watched him die. So, geez. He just did a hundred yards sprint, basically. Sprint, yeah.
00:31:57:26 –> 00:33:01:13
Did the death run? Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t actually see it. I was, I the other buck he was with, I picked up that movement, followed him and by the time I realized it wasn’t him, the other one was down and the brush. But anyway, did not, I dunno, four or five seconds. What? Something like that. Maybe six. But you know what I mean? Yeah. He was dead fast. He, he died pretty, pretty quick and I was able to, you know, a lot of good friends there. Waited for them to come family. Okay. Blood tr Yeah. Family. And waited for him to blood trail with me and made it down there to him. And gosh, he’s just awesome. He grew on the ground. Most definitely. Absolutely. 34 inches. Yeah, he’s 34 inches outside. So 209 inch frame, 11 inches of trash. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, come on. What other, what other dimensions do we got? Bronson? I don’t know, 29 inch beam on one side. Yeah. He’s just impressive. I mean, he, he grew on the ground. The closer we got to him and just actually put my hands on him. It was just, just awesome. Faces are something else worth the 21 year weight. Geez. Yeah. You got every, you got everything out of that. Yeah. That’s, you maximize the tag. We kept saying this is a Henry Mountains buck.
00:33:01:13 –> 00:34:13:23
And and what that means is they’re those big deer, they’re giant bodied and he was that he was big bodied, but heavy. Just the next level. They do not cheat their way when they get big there. They don’t cheat their way to 200. No. Their frames get really big. Their bodies are big, their heads are blocked anyway. He was just the prototypical Henry Mountains giant. So the Henry’s are back. Well, there’s gonna be a number of big deer taken on the Henry’s, but every unit’s gonna have a number of big deer. Yeah. I mean it’s just been awesome so far. I mean, we’ve seen Big deer out in Nevada, seen big deer outta Utah, so, and they’re Yeah. Big deer outta Utah. Big deer showing up in New Mexico. I mean, nothing out of Idaho. Crickets out of Idaho and Wyoming. Crickets. But Montana, they’re just about to kick off. Montana. Montana. Montana’s gonna be a, it’s gonna be a good year up there. You know, you’re offending somebody, they’re gonna call you out. Oh, I know. They’re gonna send me a picture of a two. A two Hyundai. Yeah. If you kill a, if you know about a buck, that’s two hundo. Email me, Jason and ever got, send me the photo. I wanna see it. I love big deer anyway. ’cause Muley matter. All right. Why congratulations. Hey, thank you guys. Doesn’t get better than that. Yeah, it was, it was awesome.
00:34:13:29 –> 00:35:23:21
That’ll be actually a YouTube episode coming up. Well, yeah. And you’re gonna see a ton of Wyatt scouting footage to the summer. You’re gonna see a lot of awesome bucks. It’ll be really a lot of live footage of deer. I’m sure it’s gonna add to point creep a little bit on the Henry’s archery hunt for 2024. But Wyatt doesn’t care about that. Went from 20 points or whatever to 23, 21. I’m out of the pool. 21 to 23, let’s crush it. But Wyatt’s in for elk. We’re already trying to talk him into applying one of the December. I know archery elk hunts next year with zero points. Yeah. I don’t know that I’m mad enough for December elk hunt. What do you mean? Come on, you, you gotta be Elker meant to be hunted in September. That’s right. That’s, that’s what they’re waiting for. You might have to wait 21 years to do that, Wyatt. You might draw the first year on that December one. Dear dear. In August Elk in September, dear in October, dear in November, dear in December, how about that? Yep. Perfect. What do we got here? So the new hunt episode, we did have a new hunt episode. Come out on, on the [email protected]. Which episode is it? That’s YouTube channel. Yeah, YouTube channel at Epic Outdoors. It’s, Devin had a mule deer hunt that he filmed. Droppers Get You Dropped is what we called it. I know you called it Droppers.
00:35:23:21 –> 00:36:23:17
Get you Dropped. Is that because you don’t offend all the yuppies? Well, you can’t say, because you wanna say droppers get you killed. Right. And you can’t say killed. You can’t say that. See, flag, all kinds of flags. Smoke. You can’t, you can’t advertise or flags. I like droppers, get you dropped. I thought it sounded punchy. Yeah, it’s fine. It’s kind of, I I mean it’s fine. I would just, I figured you’ve, you eliminated, I tweaked that. Yeah. It makes you less searchable. But it’s a, it’s a good episode. Devon did a great job filming it. Julie fun. He, he ended up with a sweet buck. So do you need to give a shout out to his wife who filmed part of it? She’s hilarious. It’s so funny. So it was kind of watching those clips. His wife was cracking us up. For sure. Yeah. All right. That’s the downside is you gotta give all your raw footage to these guys and they get to laugh their guts out while you’re at home. Don’t even know that. Don’t even know. Laughing at you. You’re the butt of a joke. You know? Exactly. You can just assume that I am laughing at you. You’ll be safe. Chris laughed at us nonstop. All right. So anyway, epic YouTube’s up and cranking again.
00:36:23:18 –> 00:37:40:10
We kind of took a little bit of a break on that, but we’ve got a lot of episodes coming out and, you know, we’ll get cranking on that break is just sometimes you can only do so much. So anyway, we’re gonna make that a priority and get that cranking. Anything else? We got a, we want to shout out, let’s throw a shout out to Triple S Polaris specializing in custom builds for hunters. We’ve got a custom razor, just an incredible machine. It just eats up the hills and does 70 while doing it. How about that? It’s incredible. So anyway, if you’re looking at a, getting a new machine, whether it be a four-wheeler side-by-side, whatever, generators, i e-bikes. It seems like he sells anything. 4 3, 5, 8 6 5 0 104 3 5. It’s 5 0 100 Triple S Polaris Triple S sounds for, you know, kind of stands for a couple of things, but anyway, this one a little different. Something in the wolf. Yeah. So like the shoe wolf. Shovel. Shovel and shut up, shut your mouth there. You know, this next one, Wyatt might be the best candidate to talk about the Hoyt bows, right? Oh yeah. After this episode. Shout out to the, yeah, you guys talked about those shots I’ve made the last couple years on my archery hunt. It’s, it’s definitely credited to a lot of the bow I shoot. I mean I, I’ve never shot this wheel in my life since I picked up the new Hoit bow.
00:37:40:12 –> 00:38:40:01
And I, I would say that’s probably what’s made these hunts happen. Well you gotta, you shoot a carbon, right? Yep. Five or seven, I think the five. Yep. Yeah, RX five. But you might be giving ’em a little too much credit. Why you have skills. I know I, I’ve shot bows quite a bit, but I’ve never shot a bow that shoots as good as this. So one stock while the deer’s buddies taking off on a full sprint. Yeah. And you threw the needle. It was just kinda high pressure. But no, I say the same thing. I mean, they shoot better than I can shoot’s what I always, that’s exactly, they do, they shoot better than I can and that’s all I need. And I, and I can get better. Yes, I know I’ve got my faults, but with the bows better than me. That’s what you want. Yeah, that’s what you want. Rifle muzz, everything. Archery. Yes. I’d recommend that bow to, to anybody. So anyway, go on, go online, get your, get a Hoyt bow coming ho archery. You need onery. Yeah. Yep. I guess by next year or if you’ve got a late season. December. December, archery elk hunt this year in Utah Summer. It’s probably not too late to get you enough boy. Get it set up by two by two.
00:38:40:12 –> 00:39:50:27
I had ice, my, my limbs iced up and that, I mean that string came off freaking wheel and your wheel had ice and when you drew it back it just dis came off. Yeah. Nothing. No, just every bow would’ve done that. Every bow would’ve done it. So yeah, it was, it got a little western that was in the UN basin. Get the lion on the ground, got a little western. It was in the UN basin where it’s like negative. Always negative in the winter. It was a very cold experience. It was legal but it was western. Alright, so now we’re, now we’re here at Fierce, fierce Firearms. Just incredible lineup of rifles. These guys have got going the kind of the new one that’s super exciting. Kurt that works with us here, has done for years and years and years. Anyway, he ended up with the Mountain Reaper and I, I swear Bronson, I’m freaking buying one. But anyway, just an incredible lineup. These guys know what they’re doing and it’s, it’s very, feels like a customer rifle, a very affordable price. You’re not much more than out like a box type rifle. So anyway, you can go online, check, check ’em out at Fierce Firearms. If you find something you like, don’t forget to order, throw us. We deal in them and there’s nobody gonna beat us in price.
00:39:51:09 –> 00:40:59:23
So anyway, go check out something that you might want there that, what I do like about Fierce two is you get ’em in a timely fashion. This isn’t like three and four years down the road, even a year and a half, not none of that. You’re gonna be able to have a firearm in fairly short order. All right, we got anything else boys? No, nothing. Not a lot else. Nothing. We do have nothing. 40% off coupons on our website. Epic outdoors.com for UA gear. Any, if you’re needing some gear, 40% off of anything they sell on ua.com Also, you can go to our website to get to the Mule’s Matter page. Of course. We’re kind of excited about the matter. And if you don’t punch a deer tag and you have one, then you know, consider turning it in to us here at Epic Outdoors and we’ll throw your tag in the bin and have a manual drawing of tags. That’s gonna be a bunch of colors of tags that we’re gonna draw Green for Colorado splattering. Yeah. White for Utah. What else? We got gray in Nevada, right? Some states do some yellows now and then, but I don’t know. You got, I dunno, blues and places it seems like. Yeah, I don’t know. It’s gotta be, anyway, it’ll be interesting when we spin that thing. It is gonna be a rainbow when we spin that bin.
00:40:59:27 –> 00:42:03:29
And then we’ve also got a guy that called in just barely and said something asked about the dough tags. Says, will you have drawings for dough dropping bombs on moms? Yes. We are going to have details on the website. Website too. Unused D tags. There are some parameters on there, I think Statewise and stuff like that. You can read about it on the meales matter.com website. Yeah. Yep, yep, yep. All that. So anyway, Wyatt, anything else kind of worn you out of your story? No, I think, I wish Devin, I wish Devin would was here. He’s he was instrumental. Oh he was there and, and he’s very passionate. I just, he’s a, a great, great storyteller and anyway, he could’ve told us how he was a thousand degrees and had to roll his dehydrated. Oh yeah. I looked over there. He was dehydrated. I I looked over there at one time how could be dehydrated at a truck because he didn’t get up. Did dare move. He didn’t move. And I, I looked over at once and I, I mean I, I wasn’t peeping or anything, but I mean I’m, I’m a mile Yeah. And the, the deer’s between me and Devin. Yeah. So literally I kind have to look up and I Sure he’s at the top of my Yeah. NP twelves and I asked him if he had his pants off at one time. Yeah. I could see his bare leg.
00:42:04:00 –> 00:43:11:24
And I’m like, what do you nobody wears shorts hunting. Yeah, he hiked them up. Yeah, he hiked them all the way he was so he had em rolled up. So anyway, it was just kind of small talk when we were during that three hour period, Wyatt was talking about when it’s like, you know, the deer’s all bed and you know, what has everybody got in their pack to eat and you’re just, you know. Yeah. There’s nothing to talk about. No, but I, anyway, it’ll be fun. He won’t listen to this podcast. So if you guys out there listening to this, if we, if you can kind of tell that we’re gonna jab him a little bit about this. Well we’ll just bring it up at a weird time and just say you has anybody glass with their pants off? Just see what he has to say. He won’t even be prepped ’cause he won’t listen to this. Yeah. It was pretty awesome. Well now Wyatt’s hanging around in the office here. Yeah. Rightfully so. Yeah. Planning on taking a little little bit more time for that hunt. But I won’t complain about it being done. Opening morning. That’s sure. No, neither will your wives. Yep. Yeah. And future family. All right. Okay everybody, thats it. We gotta head out. It’s Thursday we go hunting. I’m is Friday around here? Alright. We’d like to thank all of our sponsors here at Epic Outdoors.
00:43:12:02 –> 00:44:25:15
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. Red Rock Precision is one of our sponsors and many of our staff uses 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 mere 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 sheep hunters in the high rocky altitudes use these boots to keep their ankles in. Check on the rough terrain. Visit ken and 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 byside.
00:44:25:15 –> 00:45:47:21
They deliver right to your door nationwide. Visit ss polaris.com to learn more For affordable long-range rifles and shooting schools, visit thompson long-range dot 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. 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 camm 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