In this episode we finally get to hear the stories of Jason’s monster Iowa Whitetail and Adam’s New Mexico giant. Hunting doesn’t always go how you’d like and there are surprises around every turn. Stop by and see us at any of our shows this season: Dallas Safari Club January 11-24th, Sheep Show January 18-20th, Utah Hunt Expo February 15-18th.
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 –> 00:01:26:16
Anything to do with Western Big Games. Welcome to the Epic Outdoors Podcast. Hey, everybody, Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, and Logan coming at you from Southern Utah. Kind of a dry, dry Utah right now, Bronson. Okay. So, all right. Are, are you okay? Yeah. First off, because we’ll stop everything. It is dry. We are, we’re having what we call the podcast Snacks from the Backpack Logistics Box. Got some podcasts. I’ve got a Honey Stinger. I’m chewing on Bronson’s mixing a drink over there. Something that was randomly thrown in by Whit, we’re, who knows? Gonna find out later What? Be good. We’ll see if I have it twice. All right. Well, this podcast is powered by Epic Outdoors. That’s us. We have a publication, comes out once a month during the draw season, application season. It’s December through June monthly, bimonthly when we’re out in the field hunting nine issues a year, 150 bucks a year. Go to Epic outdoors.com to check it out. Also, we sell optics, and we also have a license application service where we’ll take care of all your applications for an additional fee. We also sell Hunts, sell ano tags, things like that. Anything Western big game. That’s what we do here at Epic Outdoors. Anyway, we promised you Bronson. We promised him we’d come out with more podcasts, and that’s what we’re doing. Got another one. This is the second one this week. Can you believe it?
00:01:26:16 –> 00:02:38:18
Logan, you’ve been trying to get us in here, but we’ve been kind of avoiding, we made it work. Yeah. Alright. So this particular podcast, Bronson, we wanna, we kind of got through the formalities of our, of our Mules matter initiative, movement, whatever you want call it. And we’re kind of in the throes. We’re actually consulting on a daily basis when it comes to like, especially Wyoming Elk kind like Colorado Mule deer. It’s, it’s quite a grind from now till January 31st. So we’re grinding away helping people with their application strategies, whether we apply you or not. If you’re a member, we’ll help you out. And that’s what we’re doing on the daily right now. That’s right. It’s about to kick off hard. Of course, we’re all getting ready for a Christmas holiday with the family, friends, and all that. Hope you all are too. Hopefully, you’re probably some of you listening to this over Christmas. So, but we’re back a few days after Christmas, and it’s gonna get kicking off here real quick once January 1st hits, and again, Wyoming Elk, Arizona will be opening up shortly after there for Elk and antelope. And here we go. It’s awesome. 2024. We’re excited for 2024. Now, a lot of our podcasts were kind of, you can, you can tell we’re, you know, a little bit of frustration coming off the heels of a drought, winter kill, things like that.
00:02:39:05 –> 00:03:51:23
You know, you can, you can tell at times we’re a little bit frustrated, but every single year, Bronson, we should talk about this a little bit. We had the most amazing application strategy known to man by February 1st of this year. There’s never been a better year, never been more moisture. We had plans, we had points, we had tags purchased, we had hunts booked. And now, and now it’s like, chose everything wrong and I’m ready to do everything right for 2024. Yeah. I even wrote about that in my January magazine, like soapbox that I thought every year when I get done my application plans and strategy, I think I’ve got it nailed. This is gonna be unbelievable. And, and you don’t wanna do a single one of those things. Maybe one Right. But maybe a do over two thirds of those I’d never want to do again. Yeah. Ever, ever. And, and I’ve, and I haven’t, I, I’ve stopped a couple the o TC options for this shit. You tried to get me to do Idaho and I, I was over it. In fact, even Wyatt got in the queue and says, here you go, Carter. I didn’t try. I was shocked that you didn’t, I I, I lost money betting the crew. I says, when Jason gets here, I got 20 bucks. He’s he’s on the queue. Yeah. You lost and you didn’t, I didn’t even think about it. Yeah, I actually did.
00:03:51:24 –> 00:05:01:23
I went and logged in. Wyatt says, Kay, I’m up. I went over and logged in and I looked at the three options left, and it made my decision easy. That’s kind of where it was at. You know what I mean? Yeah. I, I am a sucker of, one of ’em was the statewide white tail. Yeah. Okay. Right. That was one of your three. Well, I am a sucker when it comes to tag procurement. Yeah. You know what I mean? Well, that’s what I was talking about. Yeah. Was that you can’t resist. No, but, but you did. I did this year. I, but I am sick of funding the state of Idaho on my own. Okay. I had women and children left and right last year that I had purchased OTC tags for, and we had big plans last year and we had big plans, all of which I ate all of them, you know, and, and I didn’t do the OTC Arizona actually probably my best option for me personally, that I, well, it’s just closer and maybe you shoot one little more flexible time. Maybe, maybe you shoot one of the mini miniature white tails, you know what I mean? Or whatever. I, I don’t know. So anyway, I was just, yeah. So I did everything wrong. Everything wrong with the exception of, of whitetail. How about that? Yeah. You know. Well, we’re gonna talk about that a little bit, bit today about that.
00:05:02:07 –> 00:06:13:06
And you’ve kind of, I don’t know. So my plans, let’s, let’s talk about your plans. You wanna go first? You can talk about some of your plans for 24, you mean? Yeah. Just some of the things that you’re thinking about. I know you’ve got a, you’ve got a hunt that you won actually, yeah. Coming up. That’s, that’s my big one this year. I’m heading to Northwest Territories. End of July 1st, 10 or so, 12 days of August. Hunting doll sheep and mountain caribou. So the mountain caribou is actually an add-on, right? Yeah. Well, I won the, I won a doll sheet punt. If you guys think that there’s no winners out there. Bronson’s a winner. Chicken dinner. That’s right. Dude, you won that. You won the raffling New Mexico. You’ve won super tags up there in Idaho. Well, haven’t you won, won Super tag. Okay. Not tags. Okay. Tag guy all but no, this was a, oh, like many of y’all that live out west, you probably have a, a state chapter of sheet wall, sheet foundation type chopper, or affiliate. Ours is Utah, while Sheet Foundation. And we have a banquet every year in Utah. They give away a doll, sheep hunt away every day, every year at that event. And you have to be present. You’ve been there. I mean, I’ve been there. I watched you the last probably 20 years. I part participated. Yeah. I think, I don’t know.
00:06:13:10 –> 00:07:16:07
You were, were you there that night? I don’t even remember. I remember. Were you there? Oh, yeah, I was there. Okay. Yeah. I mean, it, you’re not, I mean, wasn’t even listening when they called my name. We’re just visiting. Well, that I think goes in part to say, you just go there to support these things. You, you support ’em and you, you apply for everything. That’s right. You’re, you’re there. You’re having a good time. Take your wife to dinner, and lo and behold your life changes. Calling it family time. Right. Calling it family time, calling it date, putting it on the calendar, putting it on the date. Took Becky out to a date, drove clear across the state. St. George, St. George, warm country in the spring, warm, warm environment where she would want to go. Anyway, so that was clear back in like 2021, I believe. But that hunt’s coming up in 2024. So I, I had the doll sheet, pun part of it. So yeah, I’m gonna, I’m gonna add five days to my hunt and make it a 15 day hunt and kill a caribou. One that maybe even take a friend. Yeah, I think so. Phone to phone a friend. That’s right. That’s pretty awesome. Explain. So with that, you, that’s a kind of an early season that takes care of the, the anxiety to get out in the field early. I normally, it’s archery deer in Nevada.
00:07:16:19 –> 00:08:26:01
It’s a, it’s a big one. It’s all it, you know. And what it is also doing is making me wanna stay in better shape all winter long. Yeah. Because July 25th is gonna be here before you know it. And we, we are cooped up in here till early June. I, you can’t start training in early June for a July 25th backpack hunt for 15 years. I remember. So the old Bronson, I wanna talk about the old Bronson. Okay. And so the, so that guy’s gone. Okay. Okay. So way back when, you know, so 15 years ago, my dad used to say, I’m gonna, I’m book this hunt and it helps me keep in shape. And we looked at him like, really? Geez. Really? Yeah. And, and I mean, kind of hashtag spoiled, you know what I mean? Here and Bronson, here we are. I do, I’m doing the same thing. There’s hunts that I’m doing. I’m like, okay, I need to get in shape for this. Like, this is no joke. Whatever you’re doing it, you’ve obviously got probably the most aggressive hunt of, of either of us for sure. Coming up. And so anyway, and you said it like an old man would. Yeah. I’m getting old now. I’m not saying you’re, you’re getting old. You just said it like an old man would is I, I’m, I booked this hunt and I’m most excited about the opportunity to stay in shape. Well, right.
00:08:26:16 –> 00:09:29:17
I, I didn’t, yeah. I mean, I’m plus or minus. It is a, it’s a motivator. And a lot of the hunts that we do throughout the year are in say, call ’em heavy late August, September, October. And you’re scouting for them. Gets you in shape. Yeah. This is not the case. No. I have to show up big shape being in, in the, in the best shape I’m gonna be in for the year. Probably the only hope you have is this would be the guide’s first time of the year. And you’re gonna crush him. Right? Well, it’s not gonna, most of those guides up there are, are younger than me now. Didn’t always used to be that way, but I mean, hey. And they live by the old Bronson rule. Can you tell me what that is? Oh, you’d do a couple hikes and get your legs hard in three days. My legs would be hard. That’s exactly what you in, in your thirties. They used to be used to just, all right. Quit drinking pop for a week and yeah, do it. Hike the mountain a couple times and your legs get hard and you’re good to go. Yeah. And eat a salad and call it a day. That’s right. It doesn’t happen like that anymore. No, it doesn’t. Kind of interesting. Anyway, here we are. So that’s some of us. That’s my big, some of us, some of us are 50, some of us aren’t.
00:09:29:26 –> 00:10:40:10
That’s cool. Thanks for announcing that to the world. No, no, no. Well, Logan, you can cut it if you want, but no, I kind of think it adds spikes don’t matter to the podcast. All right. So anyway, we’re coming at you from a new Jason and Adam. We’re not, they’re not the old guys from way back, that we’re just young and takes time, takes preparation. But that’s a big hunt for me. It, like you alluded, it doesn’t overlap a whole lot. By the time I get back, if I’m, if I’m lucky enough to have a Nevada archery deer or Utah archery deer or something, I’ll, I’ll jump right into that. Really won’t overlap anything. But it, it’s gonna move my, my start date. Yeah. Let’s call it, oh, yeah, yeah. And, and my physical regimen and dieting and all that has to be on point from April, may, June on. And dieting just means one monster a day, not three, and maybe a couple less donuts and some basic good. We just look at protein a little different. That’s, you know what I mean? It’s not a full on diet and full on and working out. ’cause like I said, a lot of the other ones, when you have deer hunts in Utah or elk hunts and you’re scouting, all your scouting in July and August gets you ready for the hunt. It does. It does. I don’t, I can’t do that now.
00:10:40:16 –> 00:11:46:06
I don’t have that time. I have to be ready. I get on a plane and fly somewhere and I have to be a hundred percent ready. Yeah. There’s no, no. Anyway, so I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be fun. That kicks me off early. So I guess, yeah, above and beyond that, I need a couple, normally, and I know you’re like this ’cause you’re Jason. Okay. But you, we, we get our eyes get big about to, to get four or five awesome deer tags that we think we’re gonna kill five, four or awesome bucks. Four or five. Well, that’s me. You’re seven or eight. But no, I’m four or five, nine maybe. I don’t know. Okay. And I even have a victory New Mexico hunt that I’m like, I’m looking at and going, maybe I just leave the truck in the garage and call it a year. I mean, you know what I mean? It is what, how many times can you come up with zero and not just calling, calling. So my point is, is I think we, we, we’ve learned out in the west right now, mule deer for big mule deer, it’s really, really tough. Their numbers, even in the states that have them are, are depressed so much that man. Yeah. It’s really hard right now. So I’m not gonna have four or five of those. I’m gonna be a little bit more diverse this year. I’m gonna hopefully have a good arch.
00:11:46:06 –> 00:12:52:28
Okay. So we’re talking about Bronx new Rio. Good Rio Cut this year. Hold on. Oh yeah. Where? Yeah. Our Rio, maybe Montana. I’m writing it down. Montana’s probably one of the states I’m highest. We both looked at that a bit. Yeah, that’s, if you can believe it. If I can make that happen, that’s it. I should know. The good thing about that is, you know, about August, or sorry, April 15th or so, we should know application date of April 1st. Yeah. Should know shortly after that. I don’t know. Aren’t you couple deer hunts? But maybe an antelope. Maybe a whitetail. Somebody’s been having, thinking about whitetail. You’re talking about antelope. Well, nice. I like it. Where, when, when big mule deer hard to find. You hunt stuff with horns. No stacks. Sheep. Sheep and goats stacks. Sheeps and goats. No, it’s all good. Okay. All right. Yeah. How you I like it. How about you? Yeah. Plus or minus similar whatever, plus or minus. Come on. I always liked to can, I always like to do Colorado and you know, my kids, even though we went, we went to Colorado and we got our butts kicked. We actually, I mean we were on a, you know, one significant whatever, but ended, ended up like, it ended up like everybody else in college. It was tough, right? Yeah.
00:12:53:03 –> 00:14:04:03
But at the end of the day, sitting around talking about it, it was one of my kids’ highlights of the year. Well, and one of your boys smashed his first bull elk. Yeah. Oh, on an O ttc. Yeah. So I mean, Justin, there’s, it was awesome. Other benefits to when the deer hunting’s tough, you smashed a six point bull. It was awesome. Yeah. You know, and so that in and of itself just made, kind of made it, but at the same time, we’re running, we’re running trucks, they’re making decisions, we’re working together, you know, just me and them. And it was just all, all about kind of the family trip. So anyway, it was incredible experience on a tough, tougher than normal dear year. And quite frankly, Bronson, I mean we’re talking whether it be Gunnison, doesn’t matter, whether be ego, whether it be Rangely, there’s not one unit that overachieved in Colorado. Not really. Not one may have been one or two that had glimmers of hope. One, one in particular that we don’t, both, neither of us. Like that seemed to produce pretty good. And then, you know, a few others that that, that were, that were okay and showed us, showed some slight promise. But generally speaking, you know, tough. Having said that, do you know one person that doesn’t want to go back? No. I mean, we’ll, we’ll probably go back somewhere and somewhere.
00:14:04:03 –> 00:15:11:12
Most guys want to go back to the same place. They’ve been getting their butt kicked for years. Yeah. It’s the interest, most interesting thing in the world. We have guys complaining. I had a guy complain. He says, you know, I only saw this and that and the other. And we killed, killed, basically, you know, extremely marginal deer and had a marginal experience. They said, yeah, but you’re gonna keep going back. Yeah. By the way, here’s all the bucks we’ve killed over the years and there’s just too much history and they love it. And gotta carve their name on the tree with that 2002 four, exactly. 2024 on top of the 3 23 22, 21, 20 19, 18 70 and back when. And I have a really good friend that talks about hunting the ghosts of Christmas past. Yeah. You know what I mean? He’s talking about hunting the ghosts. The giant 2005. Yeah. And it is the truth. Don’t we all do that? Yeah. You know, he, he’s, you do sometimes. And he’s like, you know, I’m, I’m realizing that I’m just hunting the ghost. Like what once was is not, and how many years in a row can you go and get your butt kicked and still wanna go back? I wanna kill the new ghost butt. The the buck that that you used to see. Try to duplicate. Yeah. Or try to duplicate. Yeah. The new ghost butt. The new ghost bug, you kill him and he’s gone.
00:15:11:12 –> 00:16:14:07
But everybody tries to kill him after that. Over and over and over and over. So anyway, pr pretty interesting. We’re gonna talk about Colorado more obviously it’s gonna be the biggest, one of the biggest. Yeah. And it’s subjects we have. It’s disheartening. I’m just gonna tell you right now, it is as far as talking about where and where, I talked to a guy other day with 19 points and, and, and we’ve had guys with 20 plus points, 19, whatever, that have the same experience as a zero to one two point guy. Yeah, that’s what, that’s what I told ’em. I says I I’ll bet it was 90, 90 or 95% of the people that spent 20 plus points this year in Colorado. I’ll bet were disappointed with what they had. Yeah. Don’t you think 90% plus of them in, doesn’t matter the unit. Yeah. Every unit. Well, let’s talk, we don’t have to talk about specifics, but you hunted a significant unit this year. Yeah. Okay. Considered arguably the best in the state. One of them. Yeah. And, and, and, and Gunnison and others, he passed one solid one 90 G. But deer I would haven’t shot, would haven’t passed anywhere else. So I guess you could look at it that way, but it was still just ah, ah, four point felt like, but dang good one. Yeah.
00:16:14:15 –> 00:17:22:03
But just felt like, alright, first day, alright, this is telltale of what’s gonna happen and it just didn’t Yep. Nothing. And, and that was there and that was every other unit didn’t matter what you unit and you’re not disappointed. But the a a guy that spent, let’s say it was a 26 pointer, okay? Oh, a guy that spins, let’s say 26 and walks away and says, you know, I had, I saw one fleeting 190 or everything else was one 70. You, you know, you, your heart goes out to the 26 point guys. Yeah. That’s a guess. Half, half our life or more over half our And you hit it run, you hit the ground running also with history through friends, family, people, whatever. People this year, last year, five years ago, doesn’t matter. And not like you didn’t know the area. No. You hit the running. No. ’cause they’re five days early. Yeah. And new people that had hunted earlier seasons. Yeah. So it didn’t ma and that didn’t matter and it didn’t matter for others and other units. It was a very similar, it was a broken record throughout most of Western Colorado. In, in units like that, that was the case. But there was some nice bugs killed in like units like 53 or whatever. I mean, we know guys that killed some nice bugs there, but it was a sporadic, more of a random sporadic here and there.
00:17:22:03 –> 00:18:24:12
It wasn’t like this unit had eight or 10, like some last year. Some units did. Yeah. So that’s right. You remember how well, anyway, I mean there’s units that have had dang near a dozen in all the seasons, you know, of 200 plus inch type deer. And the next year they’re nothing. And the next year they’re nothing. And, and then all Yep. And, and that happened again this year. Right. Again, nothing. And so it’s just hard to believe when does, when I wanna hunt it, when those dozen, you’re one of the 12 dozen two hundos, you’re one of the dirty dozen. Yeah. When, when can that happen? I wanna be one of them. The dirty dozen. Yeah. So anyway, kind of kind of magnificent seven kind of fun. We’re dealing with a lot of feedback on all hunts. I’ve talked, we talked today, Bronson, we’ve talked to guys that returned. I talked to a guy that actually killed a pretty darn nice bull arch, early rifle wise up there in Idaho Bull at Crest at three 50. Anyway, but he’s, it was the best that he had heard about seeing about whatever, did a lot of scouting noses stuff. And, and so we’re learning a lot all the time.
00:18:24:16 –> 00:19:35:06
And it’s just, you’re just, what, what I think you really learn is to take the good ones and never forget ’em and cherish the moment because absolutely don’t know when it’s, it’s just not the days of yesterday year. You know what I mean? No, no, that’s right. It’s absolutely not. So anyway, good stuff. Lots of fun. Again, making lots of plans. So yeah, we wanted to do, we wanted to change things up a little bit. I wanted to kind of change things up a little bit. Been looking to jump into the white tail thing a little, but you always want to do it right. And how do you do it right? Living in Utah and making deer your livelihood or deer and elk and, and a sheep when it makes sense and, and maybe an, a animal bear in there or whatever. Right? And, and, and, and so how do you do, how do you hunt whitetails? Like we do mul deer. Generally you don’t Right? Because you, you, you either can’t because you don’t have the time or you gotta give up hunting the mul there when you normally would wanna hunt them to go hunt whitetail somewhere else. Right? Right. And, and have some kind of input then in your own hunt, which is kind of what you wanted to do. And so we all do, right?
00:19:35:06 –> 00:20:34:27
Well, you want to, even though you wouldn’t consider yourself a white till expert, that’s part of the, you know, we see it all from whole experience. It’s part of the whole white tail experience is getting to, you know, getting to get out there, read, sign, hang your own stands, even, you know, work your cameras Yeah. Whatever. Stuff like that. And I’m, and I’m green at that. Like, I, I sat in stands, kay, back in the day, I sat in stands, Bron said, do you remember what we used to use as a safety harness? Nothing. It could have been a white little rope. I had nothing that would choke you off. You know, I mean, or nothing. I, i in an aspen tree, I remember falling asleep sometimes and, and catching yourself right there. Yeah. And then, and then I was so freaking scared. There’s no way I could even come close to falling asleep the rest of the day. So I, so I wanna know. I literally, I had nothing around me. I have some questions. A I don’t know anybody that died in that timeframe. Oh, from a, from a tree stand fall necessarily. Okay. I, I don’t know how. Okay. How about lead paint? Do you know anybody that died from lead paint? Well, if you died from something they didn’t know what killed you.
00:20:34:27 –> 00:21:50:10
It could’ve been lead that I guess could have been, but, but, but, but not likely the way I, how about traveling in camper shells? How about not having shoulder belt? No seat belt, belt, shoulder seat belt’s. Only the lap belt. Like we’ve, I mean, it’s a miracle. It’s a miracle right now. There’s harnesses major wazoo harnesses. Why? And you no knots and a few things, you know, to be a hundred percent safe. That’s why. Yeah. And so that, so when you fall, you don’t land upside down or whatever. So you stay bobbing up there with your head up. I, I don’t know, bouncing in the air. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Maybe. Anyway, there’s processes now that are, that are, that are acceptable by the, by the OSHA tree stand industry OSHA approved. Yeah. Whatever. Right. Probably probably get sued by National Tree National, get sued by the BBL M for training and a tree stand right now. National Tree Stand Association approved. Exactly right. So anyway, learned a lot. Good friend of mine, Roger Smithson really knows what he’s doing when it comes to whitetail and, and safety overall and whatnot. And so anyway, with the whitetails, he’s hunt them for years and years and been super successful. And this particular trip, I’ve, I’ve helped him out here. He smashed a really good buck out here in Nevada. And a few things, been on a mountain goat hunt in Colorado and and whatnot.
00:21:50:10 –> 00:23:03:01
And then we’ve also hunted together and, you know, hunted Unit 40 in Colorado for, for muzzle or elk when it was 93 degree, 93 and a half degrees on a cool day. So anyway, we’ve had some fun experiences together. But anyway, he’s like, Hey, you know, let’s go, let’s go hunt Iowa. And I’ve been building points, more points than I need seven, by the way. And just in case to make sure I could force the draw in the event I wanted to go. And the right opportunity came along, right out, opportunity came along. He’s got great contacts and really good friends. And there was a spot for a couple of us. And he was in the zone next to, to me on his, you know, old faithful lease and whatnot. And with his relationships. And so anyway, it was awesome. And I just learned a lot from him and from the guys we went out, we hung stands, ran some cameras and, and whatnot. And we’re waiting for that initial cold snap that happens closest to Halloween. And you know, from what I understand, who knows, right? But that’s what, that’s the, the experts say that’s go time, that’s go time. You got a lot of movement. And you learn that too. You have friends and great clients that live in Iowa or around Iowa that make that same white tails aggressively. And they, they like the last five days of October Yeah.
00:23:03:01 –> 00:24:11:22
They start, they like ’em when the bucks are not really paired up and on a dough yet, but they’re active, they’re working trails. The bucks they just fill are out there figuring, finding out what who’s out there. Yeah. And and what do inventory of the ladies Yeah. That and inventory of the bucks. Yeah. Like they’re marking, marking their territory. Find out who else is around. They’re just active and you’re reading scrapes and rubs and all these things. And so I’m walking up and I, and, and I’m blowing by an amazing scrape, right? I’m just walking, I’m like, thought we we’re walking a tree line. I don’t know why you thought some turkeys have been looking acorns or so who knows Right. Scratching. Exactly. Turkey scratch. And I’m like, whoa, that means something right there. And so you start to not miss those and, and looking for rubs and rubs. I’m big trees, I’m big rubs and this and that. And, and you just start reading sign like we would out here, but it’s totally different, you know? And so you get kind of a crash course on this because you’re hunt a a you wanna succeed and you wanna learn and you’re just a sponge. Well, yeah. The next week of your life, you’re gonna be, you’re gonna be hanging a tree stand based on whatever sign you’re interpreting and reading when you get there. Yeah. That kind of thing.
00:24:11:27 –> 00:25:15:07
And you’re either wasting your week or you’re, you’re gonna guess Right. Getting a couple keys places. Right. And there’s not, there’s a lot hinging your whole hunt’s hinging upon on a, on a reading pinch point, reading that or sign or whatever on a trail and a pinch point. And when you, and you think it’s just like, I used to think like in wilderness areas, like who needs a trail? Like who cares? Like we’re all, you know, we kind of grow up just going cross country. You want to get from point A to point B, whatever. Well go go up there in Wyoming or or Idaho or whatever in a wilderness area and go through a bunch of downfall. And then you realize how grateful you are for a trail. There are certain things, same thing, you know how thick and noxious weeds briars, this is thorns. It’s it’s crazy out there in Iowa. And so you start, when you start looking around, you’re running the edge of a, of a, of a tree line or whatever. You en enter into the trees and you’re going through it and you’re getting, I mean you’re yeah. Your, your skin’s dripping blood from various places and you start to realize how important those trails are and what deer think of ’em and whatnot. You’re looking at ’em too. It’s, it’s, you know what I mean? Yeah.
00:25:15:07 –> 00:26:33:28
So you don’t bypass a good trail and a pinch point and a narrow Yeah. Section of trees, you know, that the deer traveling from point A to point B undercover with ease on, on the only great trail there. And so that, anyway, there was just a lot and it was pretty awesome. So Roger had done a lot of scout pre what’s called prec scouting general. I’m gonna throw it in there, dude. Don’t you delete it either. Logan, we’ve done a lot of, he did a lot of pres scouting and, and, and ran cameras early in these types of areas and ended up getting a basic inventory of some significant bucks. The significant bucks on this farm as well as farms, B, C, D and E, all of which are under the relatives, same relatives. And, and then the more you learn too, is what your neighbors do affect, affect you. Big time Bronson, you went to Iowa, you killed a great buck as well. And you realize that the neighbors Oh yeah. Impact your hunting too. If they, if they have every generation of a family member for the last four generations, come back to hunt the place every year, shotgun, they’re gonna wipe it out. They’re gonna wipe out some of your bucks. Because during the rutt and during movement and food crop rotation stuff jumps, fences and all that.
00:26:33:29 –> 00:27:45:03
Like, but somebody that either doesn’t hunt or hunts much like the farm, you’re hunting very selectively, very cautiously. And all that extracting specific gain, you, you’ve got, you’ve got a better chance to, you know, just have a management program, you know, deer that you pass, grow another year older next year and the year older and things like that versus scorched earth and everything gets shot around you and you’re just like, you’re, you’re trying to kill a needle in a haystack. Exactly. And so there’s some of this country that you learn that some of the relatives don’t allow any hunting whatsoever, even if it’s blood relatives, no hunting. And that does nothing but help you. Right. Just a refuge. Yeah. Yeah. Or non hunted areas, not areas that aren’t, don’t allow hunting, whether it be county property Yeah. Or whatever, who knows Right there or city ground or whatever. Something. Who knows. Who knows. And so anyway, you just learn that just by being out there more so than here. Yeah. Here in Utah, there there is no, unless it’s Zion National Park or up the limit books and stuff or city limit. Yeah. There is no such thing. So there’s things like that. You just kind of, you, you just kinda learn that, well this is important. Maybe we ought think about this a little bit more. Very little public land out there.
00:27:45:19 –> 00:28:41:07
Although there is some and there’s guys doing well and you to do well on public land in Iowa, you gotta be pretty darn good hunter. And we, we know some of those guys and I, and, and live close enough to maybe really scout, get to know it. You can’t drive from Utah, show up to a piece of public land and base your whole week on it, you know, when you get there. Yeah. That’s very hard to do. So Roger and I were out there and we were starting to put up all the stands. He had put up a couple and then I think a lightning storm came in. This was earlier. So let’s call it a month and a half earlier and, and just call it a day. It was a flat, you know, and putting up these stands, it’s not like, like you and I used to use not a five minute job. Yeah, no. You and I used to just screw the steps in a couple of ’em, you know, and you got Aspen, you can throw a hundred in and you don’t get tired. And then just this little old chinsy, ratty, cheapest tree stand fells itself, you know, or whatever. Sportsman died. Yeah. I, I don’t know. Yeah. And so anyway. No, when you’re using a ladder stand or whatever, you’re, I mean, you takes a minute. Oh it does. Yeah. And the right tree. Yeah.
00:28:41:09 –> 00:29:44:04
You can’t just lean them up on anything. The right gear. It’s a process and a plan. And then, and then, you know, how’s it facing? And then the wind, if the wind’s bad, you’re gonna have stand B option or stand a option if the wind’s preferable. And what’s the forecast looking in the next five days. And so there’s just a lot goes into it. Anyway, we, we ended up putting up a bunch of stands season’s on, it’s a long season. It’s not like, I mean the season’s on and generally if you got something patterned on a food plot or whatever, maybe you would hunt early and there were some big deer getting smashed early and, you know, and, and we could have done that hindsight, maybe, maybe on some of these bucks that you feel like you got a little bit of a pattern. Maybe you do hunt ’em early before they start to walk around. But generally you want ’em to be walking around. You want ’em active, you know. So we set up this particular stand that I sat in the first day and, and of course Roger’s not even up around. He’s, he’s gonna be sitting in a stand in a different zone and he’s like, which stand you gonna sit in? I’m the stand a, let’s just call it. I’m like, I think stand a, but there is no, there are, there’s hardly any game at the moment.
00:29:44:08 –> 00:30:51:22
We just doesn’t feel great. But it’s where the best buck is. And I’m just like, you know, I don’t know. I’m probably sit there, you and I can go days we’re trained, right? We can go days without seeing an animal and we whatever, watch a little big old red squirrel or whatever. I mean, they got some crazy big stuff out there. Kinda interesting past the time. So anyway, go climb up in this town. I don’t see nothing. Roger, I should read you the text. You remember I showed you the text? Yeah, you did. And Roger’s like, ah, I seen 10 bucks and this and that. And I mean it’s activities on how it’s going over there. Jason. Yeah. How’s it going? I said, nothing got squirrel. I’m gonna, I’m gonna look it up. ’cause it is pretty interesting. It’s pretty funny. And Roger’s just a great sport and he, he, he’s like, I don’t know if I’d sit that stand. He’s wanting me to have activity. Like he, he wants the best for me. He realized, he just told you he’s got deer everywhere. Yeah. I don’t know. Bucks. Passing bucks. And you’re looking for your first dough. Yeah. Right. I am actually. And and we saw setting up stands, you see stuff, you bump a few and, and whatnot. And so it’s, it’s really fun.
00:30:54:06 –> 00:31:58:29
But anyway, kind of, kind of fun when we’re doing that and we’re comparing notes and, and you’re also being able to text from the stands. That’s nice. You can, you can keep each other going. You know what I mean? Well I I I, I don’t remember why I was home, but I was home in Utah right about then. I can’t remember when this was now, if it was late October or early November, but I was in between probably sheep hunt or something. And I remember waking up and I remember texting you this morning, I texted, Hey, you in the stand. You’re like, yep, I’m there. I remember it was just a rat. We haven’t texted for a week maybe. ’cause wherever I had been anyway. And you’re, you’re hunting. ’cause I was home and I was thinking about hunting still. And you were, you’re hunting somewhere new. Yeah. So anyway, and, and it is. I, so I drove out there. That’s another thing. People just shake their heads. You and I are just used to driving. Right. And when you have your truck, you have your gear. I mean, all your gear, well you guys a decoy. I had to stop and get a decoy. I mean, rattling antlers, whatever, you know, what are you gonna take on a plane? And you feel like you just feel handicapped even though you don’t need a four wheel drive truck to be out there.
00:31:59:07 –> 00:33:14:17
You know, you could rent anything from the airport and, and you’re good. And so anyway, let me, I’m getting to this right here. All right. Here it goes right here. Okay. And, and it’s, it’s kind of fun. What you got going over there, boss? Yeah. Anyway, he says seeing much, I saw a lot of deer early. Okay. He’s right off the bat. He’s just, but he doesn’t tell you exactly how many. No, he doesn’t want any, he’s trying to not meet me. Feel bad ’cause I suck so bad. Who knows? And I’m thinking, how can you suck that bad? The wind’s perfect. Okay. I’m on the edge of this thicket, is that what you call ’em? Back east, south thicket. So anyway, I’m on the edge of this thicket, the wind’s in my face. So it’s blowing out over this open field. And so this, let’s call it a pinch point or whatever and travel corridor. This of a, of a good trail through the browers and thistles. Is it, I mean, it’s perfect. Any deer that’s coming through this, I cannot see me or I I’m not screwed. Yeah. I’m not screwing it up. Yeah. You know, but anyway, I said none seeing much. I saw a lot of deer early, none kind of figured this stand might take a bit. I’m and know, you know me. I’m just like, ugh. Now you’re telling me I don’t know what to see. He says, I agree.
00:33:15:19 –> 00:34:28:07
I think they need to be roaming for it to be good. I’ve seen several bucks just calmly feeding. I think you should hunt in a different location. He says, you know, and I think it’s best beside, you know, the cut corn, they’re we’re talking about, you know, they do here in this area, there’s a lot of people back there that do food plots and they do it for the deer. And this is incidental to deer hunting is incidental to, you know, the main stay there is farming. Is farming. Yeah. You know, and, and so anyway, and then he says, I just had two, two decent bucks walk by. I’m thinking, okay, another, he’s pour it. Oh, he’s pour it on. Huge body, mature buck chasing a dough hard under me now. Okay. That was another, another buck that it went from 8 49 was I had two decent bucks to 9 0 9. I had a huge mature buck with a chasing adule hard under me. Okay. And, and earlier when he is talking about earlier just calmly feeding, that was 8 45. And then seeing much, I saw a lot deer early. That was 8 24. You know what I mean? And so within the 30 minute period, yeah, he’s covered. And, and I don’t even reply. The only thing that happens there, he says, I saw a huge mature buck chasing gado hard under me. And I said, I kill him. That’s it. Yeah.
00:34:28:16 –> 00:35:36:28
So, and he goes three brow, I’m not sure. Okay. So let me just tell you how this went down. I’m looking and I’m and and you can’t see. So what time you’re, you’re in there how early before daylight? An hour. Oh yeah. So I mean I’ve been sitting sitting and how long have you been sitting there? Well, this is like 10 0 9. Okay. So you sat there is, I don’t light at, let’s call it 6:00 AM I don’t dunno. Six 30. Six 30, whatever. 6 37, whatever, something like that. I don’t, I don’t know, whatever. Okay. You’ve been sitting there three and a half, four hours, bro. Okay. Yeah. And what? Nothing, nothing, nothing. Nothing. No. The big red squirrel. Okay. You know, that I’m, look, I want to freaking glue crush this thing because I don’t know why they have to alert the entire forest that something is awry that, you know what I mean? Oh my gosh. Anyway, I’m like, I killed him and I’m shaking like a dog, chisem. You know what? And he’s like, three brown. I’m like, I’m not sure. Is he down? Probably. You just shot question mark. Yes. Did you see him fall stumble? You mean? No, no. Well, I’m shaking no per no perfect answers. Like you can’t see him. I don’t know what it was that I killed. I I shot him. It looked good. I saw blood everywhere. He hit a tree blowing out.
00:35:37:06 –> 00:36:44:15
But, and I’m sitting there in this tree. Thankfully I’ve got a harness on. ’cause that’d have probably fallen out. Yeah. Yeah. So this deer, so I look up. So yeah, let’s go back to the, okay. So I, you’ve been there. I haven’t seen nothing. Three, three and a half hours then movement. And I’m just, and you need to, it’s just like anything you need to be consciously aware. You can’t let these things surprise you. So it’s a thicket. I can see 80 or 90 or let’s call it a hundred yards. And then it’s thicker than garbage. And then the next time I would see ’em would be at 40 or 35. And you wouldn’t have time to really have your wherewithal grab your bow off the bow hanger. You know, there’s already one knock, but you gotta grab it off. Yeah. And then have the wherewithal to get ready. Right. And then you also need to be ranging and have the basic ranges in front of you so you’re not screwing around with the rangefinder in the heat of battle. I look down there at a hundred and something, I see a deer coming my way like crazy. Like, and I’m like, like fast trotting, fast. Just, just boom. I just see him and I’m like, huh. This is like, okay, I wanna open the textbook and say deer move aggressively the last week of October. This is textbook. Okay.
00:36:44:17 –> 00:37:51:04
This deer’s crushing the place is and he’s Oh yeah. And he’s gonna come right up to do he’s I what he’s doing. He’s just, and he’s gonna come up through me and my gen General Bronson, do you know how to judge a white tail? No, exactly. No, I don’t. No. And you don’t wanna be embarrassed. And I can’t believe Carter shot 143 inch or you know, or whatever, you know? I don’t know. Yeah. You know, they all look small. Buck 180. I could pass. I mean, ’cause you know, they’re built different. My deer is built different than a milder at the same score. They’re, it’s got 27 inch beams. They, I would guess 22, 21 and three eights. I don’t know. Okay. So anyway, this thing, and he disappears and I’m like, you’re crapping me. This is, I don’t know what that was, but he was a significant frame. He’s coming. And the only deer I have in mind is three barrel, grab my bow. And I’m like, okay, here we are. I don’t know what I’m gonna do with this, but we’re gonna find out. And then it’s like three real minutes or something. Three minutes, yeah. From 80 to 90 yards. And so I’m, I’m assuming he just got hung up. Maybe he a dough. He’s, he’s tracking out a, a dough right there. I don’t know what it is. Maybe he’s on me too thick. Too thick. You can’t see anything. Who knows. Right.
00:37:51:04 –> 00:39:04:22
And so then all of a sudden he’s charging hard. He’s at 35 or 40, and he’s coming up through and I can see the one split brow, the great big old split on it. And I’m like, that’s, that’s a split brow. But you know, white tail, there’s kind of a lot of butt with a split brow. Lot of Yeah. And big brows. Right. You don’t know. Right. And then when he comes, so I’m like, okay. And then he comes behind a tree. I draw how far at 30 roughly or whatever. He’s in range, which is Yeah. But it’s kind of a, a longer shot for what would be normal in this country. But anyway, he’s not where I think he would’ve been. He’s a So this has my stand a level, and then it goes down a level and then down another level. So it’s downhill. Yeah. So it’s down, but it’s also down because I’m in the tree. But then the ground gives way the further you get from my tree. So you’re down into this ravine. And so anyway, I, so I’m facing him. He comes out right in front of me and he comes behind a tree. I pull, I draw and my knees are facing him. I’m drawn facing him. And so just picture yourself. Yeah. Like this, you know, and I don’t know. Seemed all right. You know, everything’s fine Anyway. And he’s crushing.
00:39:04:27 –> 00:40:19:17
And I see his beams are past, way past the end of his nose. You’re looking side profile at this point. And I’m looking down side profile. And I’m like, and I know he’s more than an a point. He’s, he’s got tangs everywhere. Yeah. And I’m, and we say, tangs and j people don’t crush me for it. And I’m like, that’s a significant deer. I’m freaking pounding him. So he co he comes out to the side, I’m like, that’s it. That, that’s it. He stops textbook. I’m thinking go to the textbook. If you make it, you grunt deer stops. You, you squeeze sugar. Punch the release. Yeah. Punch the release. Smoked right through him. Like butter. Perfect. I wouldn’t have changed the You watched it. I watched and I, and there was leaves. Okay. So another thing leaves everywhere. Vegetation green. Not It’s dead. Not dead leaves. No. Usually you have leaves are falling. Yeah. It’s brown. There’s snow, hopefully. Whatever. Or, or it’s colder than crap or whatever. The colder the better. Right. I’m like, anyway, I I kind of fishtail it through the leaves. Call it, I don’t know. It gets it punches through the leaves and finds its mark. Perfect. Like wouldn’t change to half inch. Yeah. And I’m like, holy crap. And he takes off like a, went through him like butter. He takes off freaking slams into another tree. Could you see blood? Yeah. I could see blood on him.
00:40:19:27 –> 00:41:30:24
And I’m like, I just kill the buck. And, and I hope it’s not 132. I mean, I don’t know what I got. I got a split brow. I’m not sure. It’s tree brow, not tree brow. But he’s split. I got a split brow. Could be dose. And so anyway. And so he says, so did you see him fall stumble? He said, give him an hour, unless you’re really sure he is down. What are you doing now? Shaking. Okay. I, I’m, I used to get buck fever back. Mm. And I just decided, I told myself, you, you’re trying to kill world class bucks. It was back in the Brutus days, pretty boys. Some of these bucks, you’re trying to kill world class bucks. You’re working your guts out all summer into the hunt. You have one opportunity and you can’t hold it together. Gotta hold it to get the job done. Gotta you gotta hold it together. So I chastised myself so much that it was more like, I can hold it together, but when it’s over I ding your puke. You know? Do you do the same? Yeah. Shake. And it’s part of why we, I have a Why you hunt? Why you hunt? Oh, I have a dry cough. I can’t quit. And I’m like, I mean, how’s this happen? Every time my kids will kill and I’ll have a dry coffee. I’m just, geez. So anyway, he goes, me too.
00:41:31:07 –> 00:42:43:21
So I said, what are you, what are you doing now? Shaking me too. I said, I can’t judge Roger. And it was fast. He says, I’ll get down now and head your way. I said, just wait. He says, I’ll do what you tell me to do. I said, is there any other split brow? Take it out in this, you know, in this area. And he goes, no. And I go, good. I’m like, now you’re scared. And then he’s like, he, he seem very wide. How do I know? Ha ha ha. I can’t judge them. And he goes, if you’re rattled, it’s a giant. Where did he run? And I said, and then I just, we went from there. I said, up anyway. Did you hear him fall? No. But it’s windy blood, blood out his side. It’s like, I’m shorthanding this thing. And he goes, and then I said, I shot straight out in front of me facing uphill toward where I parked the truck. He took off in that same direction. He goes, good. That’s perfect. I said, yeah, I’m shing. I pray it’s him. I think it is. Possibly. I hope so. Anyway, long story short, we walked up an hour and a half later or whatever. He Yeah, I do what Roger says. He says, wait an hour. I’ll wait too. Were you in the tree when he got walked up to you? No. Still. No. You got out.
00:42:43:24 –> 00:43:53:09
Oh, I went back to town. Got a hot C chocolate. You did? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I gotta warm up. It was a cool, it was a cool 43 degrees. So anyway, I So then you walked back in together. All right. Yeah. So I wait for Roger ’cause that’s what you do. We walked in together and it was him. It was just awesome. I videoed it all, all of us walking in on him and it was a lot of fun. So, so first stand, so how far did you go first sit? Oh, I don’t know. Like 63 yards or 80 yards. I don’t know. Whatever. First, first stand. First buck, first deer. I’d seen outta stand first morning that I tried. You know what I mean? But, but we were there for two days hanging stands and just, it was hot dude. It was 70 degrees in the hot in the day. Yeah. So, you know, it was low activity and things like that. So anyway, it was a lot of fun. Just an incredible experience. Ended up being an absolute stud and, and all was well. And then I’ve also got a, a hunt booked in Canada, up in Alberta for the cold weather bucks. And you know, those dark horn cold weather bucks? You just, there’s something about it. There’s a block of meat. Yeah. That, you know what I mean? You hope you have enough gun. Yeah. On the couple of ’em. Yeah.
00:43:53:11 –> 00:45:12:10
Yeah. Tanks. And they say bring, bring a 30 cow. Like do, you know, bring something aggressive. Yeah. ’cause they’re just, they’re a big animal. So anyway, got lucky. Killed a, you know, world class buck in, in Iowa. And it has nothing to do with me. It’s everything to do with, you know, the relationships and then the properties and, and not necessarily even the zone. I think there’s obviously zones that have more deer in Boone Crockett listed, but I’m learning a lot of, some of these zones are not good habitat. You know what I mean? Yeah. And then some of these zones are a hundred percent habitat. Yeah. And so you start to realize, well, it’s not necessarily that one zone has better genetics or another, or whatever it might be. The farms that are, that are, that are managed good, good chance of that compile or in, in conjunction with, you know, endless good habitat versus, versus spotty good habitat. And so anyway, but there was high animal, what we would call a high animal activity index, whatever, how full man, whatever it was. I mean, we would be driving down highways at dark Roger and I’d go eat together, whatever. And that you could see the activity cra like crazy running off all box, crossing the roads and things like that. And there’s just, it becomes so addicting. These animals are are impressive. Yeah. They, they, they’re patterns.
00:45:13:00 –> 00:46:27:00
Well, and they’re new and you tasted it firsthand. It all Yes. Unfolded right in front of your eyes. Yeah. And you were part of it. Like, by far, I am a student. It is not, you know, I mean I learned a ton, but then, but I held the ladder while Roger was making sure the stand was safe, whatever. Right. But you were part of it. Yeah. You were part of it. Hiking out all the, all the, you know, the different farms having, you know, listening to, to Roger, you know, talk about why this would be good versus that be good and things like that. So anyway, we’re learning and, and yeah. So that’s the scoop. Anybody, anybody interested should be gaining points in Iowa. You never know when your chance comes. Your chance might be fr a friend your chance might be outfitters that we work with or, or whatever. But I would highly suggest anybody that’s interested do that. We’re also, you and I, I mean, who knows, we’ve got Hunts in Illinois available. We’ve, you and I have considered that, or for sure Kansas. Kansas produces an incredible amount of big bucks. Yeah. And it doesn’t take as many points to go there as it does Iowa. So at least for archery, you know. So I want to talk about your hunt and then we’ll go back to Canada. So I want to talk about, let’s interject with New Mexico, you mean? Oh yeah.
00:46:27:03 –> 00:47:31:13
Well your hunt and then we’ll go back to Canada. Al you know, the Alberta hunt to New Mexico Hunt, you mean? Yeah. But now I wanna go to New Mexico. Oh, okay. Well, unless you wanna talk about any other No, yeah. I didn’t know what hunting you were talking about. Yeah. But that, that’s when I thought you were talking about. Yeah. So I think we’ve teed this up well five times, you know. Yeah. Everybody knows I’ve got a, i, I won a special tag in New Mexico. The raffle tag that happened back in late June when we was out. I was out scout Nevada and got a voicemail and kind of changed my year. But the year was set right by end of June, 1st of July. My personal schedule is set by then the draws are all over. I mean, Arizona’s probably even out by then. You know, it’s like there’s nothing else that can happen. Really? Yeah. In addition to any hunters that I’m gonna guide sheep, hunters and stuff like that. So I had a very full year. And so it’s really not practical to get that tag at that time of the year and think, all right, I’m gonna start scouting Yeah. August or whatever in New Mexico and make like we do can’t make it happen. Most hunts that, that on your own would do on my own. Like a on your own in two or three states away. Yeah.
00:47:31:13 –> 00:48:36:17
You draw the best Nevada deer tag or the Best Utah and you go scout it and be a participant. So obviously I immediately reached out to a bunch of different people and told ’em I had the tag just so, Hey, something you guys are out hunting elk this year and come across stuff, you know, make Hey, don’t just tune it out. You know, somebody’s a tag Yeah. Type thing. A bunch of friends outfitters we work with here at Epic Outdoors, things like that. You know, down in August I had a couple, couple bucks that, you know, were sent to me across the state that, you know, call ’em almost untouchable ghost, ghost bucks. We’ll call ’em, you know, they’re, whether where they were living or you know, in the circumstances what they’re living under the jurisdiction. Land ownership sounds super thick trees or land ownership or just, you know, you can’t hunt ’em where they’re at. But hey, I went down there a couple times just to, just to see for my own eyes. And sometimes the bucks are too big to keep you home. Yeah. Even though they’re not huntable. That’s right. But, but I, you went down there just, you gotta kinda just see the inner workings of when and where this might happen or how would it have to happen Yeah. If it’s gonna happen Yeah. For yourself.
00:48:37:03 –> 00:49:42:29
And so I did that, but then, you know, once September hits, it’s, which is when I could hunt September through January. Like my September is, is mapped out. I mean I’ve got, you know, sheet punters and personal hunts. I’ve got elk hunts and, you know, I had a archery deer hunt in Nevada, obviously that went fast in August. So that was over with luckily. But Fab Bucks already mounted. Yeah. I gotta go get it. Yeah. Jeff Baird. You’re awesome. Yeah. Appreciate it. Strip taxidermy. Jeez. Yep. I gotta go pick that up. And he looks good too. Yeah. So, so, but anyway, so yeah, I had, you know, it, it was gonna come down to maybe getting a call at some point. At any point. And there’s a, a, a big deer, some deer, but in the back of our minds, we all kind of knew. Alright. When we’re all done hunting this year, end of November, we’re gonna have some time from Thanksgiving on to early December and throughout December, like now, frankly, after the magazines are out, we’re gonna go down there and hunt four to five days at a time. Yeah. And crush the winter in, in the Yeah. Magazine it maybe come back around Christmas. Yeah, exactly. And that, and you try to do that type of attack prior to January one. January one. Yeah. The state has a lot of archery. Yes. January one to 15 archery hunts in the best units.
00:49:43:09 –> 00:50:49:25
So, and, and they do run a little later in New Mexico than say most of Colorado or Utah. So, you know, from Thanksgiving, on Thanksgiving till the end of December is honestly like, that’s when we kind of had planned, but went about all our year and you know, had a few other, you know, rumor bucks here and that pop up a few other deer get shot around the state and so just kind of randomly he got killed. Well, long story short, I guess we will fast forward to, I guess when it starts to happen. I’m starting to, you know, touch base with a few guys. The, the, the regular rifle hunts are ending in mid-November on some of these key units and unit two and four and five and the units that you might say are the highest seven highest probability units that, that something is probably probably gonna happen or where we would go hunt on our own. If we just said we’re going down to hunt, we’re gonna go hunt in Northern New Mexico, Rio Reba County, unit two, two, the twos or sevens or fives or whatever. That’s where we’re gonna go look. And anyway, starting to get some pitchers of deer and I’d elected not to hunt a couple of deer, you know, 200 inch deer, maybe 2 0 5 or 10 type type inch deer just ’cause it’s just right.
00:50:50:04 –> 00:51:52:27
Starting right, right around Thanksgiving and, you know, just kind of thought, all right, I don’t think we’re, you know, some years though we know that 200 inch deer hard to turn up for an auction hunter. This particular year there was a ton of water and we’re just like, how can this not be a bad deer? This is like a year, you wait for it, you from New Mexico feel, you feel like. Yeah. But even in New Mexico when you had a few rumored bucks. But even in New Mexico still to this day, it’s amazing how tough it is to find a big deer. Like even, even the regular hunts, they just didn’t do it. Oh. Even in the, even statewide in the best units. Unlimited, yeah. Unlimited season dates or whatever. It’s just amazing what didn’t show up like it. We all know you killed a great buck, but I’m just saying I would’ve, I would thought there would be more show up. Yeah. And we’d hear even I, I was always in the back of my mind. I don’t wanna shoot a buck, a really good buck too early. Oh yeah. And then have a freaking giant show show up. You were like, do I, do I pass a two 20 in hopes of a I wanted you to kill Anette Booker. Yeah. A net two 30. Well, well of course we always want that.
00:51:52:28 –> 00:53:06:10
But, but you know, there and some of those other deer were felt like Yeah, I I’m, they might I it, if I kill those, I, I’m probably gonna, I can’t say regret it, but I’ll bet something bigger shows up. Yep. I want to, I want to shoot a deer like we always would. I wanna see a deer and shoot a deer. Like there’s just no question I’m killing that deer. Whatever it is, I’m killing him. You’re killing money each. Yep. Yep. That’s right. And so, you know, fortunately a deer like that finally showed up and got a good call, a good call from a good friend of ours, an outfitter, Dave Montoya, who had history, him and his crew of guys of this year, the last, last, well, I guess the third year at least. Yes. He was recognizable. Yes. You know, maybe seen him prior to that, but showed up to Rutt, you know, and, and rutt and ruts within the same 500 yards year after year. And we’re not talking Bronson, we’re not talking a big steep, deep canyon that this is where he comes and he kind of, he’s, he really in this location. What keeps him there versus a mile away is nothing. No. Who knows. There’s dos and boast places. Well there’s, how does he go right here? And there’s doze, you know, they suspected he probably moved in from, you know, which we’ll talk about that in a little bit.
00:53:06:10 –> 00:54:09:07
Yeah. Maybe suspected he moved in, maybe even from Colorado. You’d never know. But he wasn’t a resident deer. They did not think, because they didn’t show up until December. Ever in this particular area. You get influx from Colorado, you also get it off the aria or, or surrounding areas. Yeah. And, and then you have resident deer too. Yeah. So, you know, you don’t really know what and where he, he is coming from. But long story short, yeah. It was a, it was, I got a, a message from Dave and obviously followed by some video and some pictures and all that. And I just said, just get all you can, I’m making, I’m making arrangements. The phone got hot for a minute. Like, I’m, I’m, I, it’s Sunday and I’m, I was on my way to church. I’m not supposed to be texting and I’m texting like crazy. I was on my way to church literally. And, and I, luckily I have nine o’clock church ’cause I got to go to church still. And, and basically my bags were 95% packed as they had been for two weeks. ’cause I knew it was getting to the time of year that I’m gonna Yeah. You know, I was actually the end of this same week that I got a call, I was actually gonna, we were gonna go down there maybe Thursday through through the weekend. But anyway, so saw pictures of the deer.
00:54:09:13 –> 00:55:12:04
He kind of had, he had kind of everything. He had a, you know, good frame, inlines, cheaters, trash, just a great look. And just how did he, how did he not let a deer? How did he let a deer like that go? So I basically, you know, and this is the time of the year, we’re now finally back in the office. Right. And we’ve got a Christmas party planned for like two days later. And I just basically sent, texted everybody and say, Hey, well you said, like you said, I did not, I’ve got the text log here. I do not know what everybody’s doing. You know, we talking about score, you’d sent it over, you talked about score and you said, what are you doing tomorrow? And I said, killing a deer with you. Anyway, it, it keep going. It was just, ah. And so I knew that I had to get home. I need to get my stuff and start heading down there. I knew nothing’s, you know, I just knew, all right, this is what I’ve been waiting for. I gotta get down there. A deer showed up, you know, during the rutt, a deer could be short-lived in a certain place, who knows time to get down there. But fortunately most of the guys in the office were able to get down there. I grabbed Josh over the mountain, we went down there together.
00:55:12:04 –> 00:56:18:07
And then later that day, you know, you guys, I mean Devon’s at that time is clear up in north northeastern Nevada. Yeah. And he was on his way home. But that’s not a quick task. No, not, and especially some I have in my mind that Devin drives really slow, but I don’t, I dunno, I don’t know that that’s always the case. And I think he hammered down, but he did have a headwind and a trailer. The trailer was wearing, wearing out the tires. But anyway, but he made it. We waited. We waited and then threw truck. Truck got him through and you guys drove down there that night and we, we crashed that night and went out the next day and thought it was just gonna be a typical smash and grab No. And it wasn’t no. Went right to where, you know, the deer had been found a living and watched by, you know, Dave and Matt and, and he was, he was gone. This is Dave Montoya. Drop time guides. Yeah, that’s right. It was, it was nowhere to be found, you know, that, that literally the deer there were deer exactly where he was and he was no longer there. So we just, we covered as much country. It’s not something you’re gonna get cute and get out hiking and pushing, you know, you’re just gonna kind of casually hunt. You know, he’s probably with a dough, one dough that he wants.
00:56:18:07 –> 00:57:22:03
You’re not wanting to, you’re not wanting to blow all the doughs up. No. Like you’re just kinda like we just we’re calling here lightly touch it. Yeah, yeah. Lightly touch it. But we hunted all that morning. We had to have a lot of patience. Yeah. It took us 10 hours longer than we wanted it to. That’s right. Alright, keep going. That’s right. So, you know, it gets midday, the deer and the, you know, pin juniper trees and we’re like, all right, we’ll take a break. Go grab some lunch. And we did. And maybe a couple guys took a nap that drove, got in way late and then we headed back out that evening. And just kinda interesting, we’d each driven down a two track, you know, each, each different truck. And one truck had come out and driven by, and then, you know, we happened to be the last truck outta this little draw and it’s getting what, late last 30 minutes or so of daylight, maybe 45. And we stopped and was looking up this other draw and look over and what’s that? And boom, there he is like with 1D, just like we thought. Yeah. Had a little two point there kind of trailing him, but, and obviously it was pretty fun. Got got Jason out and Josh and they little video, the whole thing. So we probably video able to put that on a YouTube episode at some point. It was neat.
00:57:22:03 –> 00:58:24:15
And they got everybody there walking up. The other guys were, you know, probably seven, 800 yards up up a ridge and were able to, you know, look back and watch the deer and watch us and tell he was starting to get nervous and it’s not. Yeah. Okay, let me just be clear. The deer’s not gonna get away. Right. Yeah. Like you, we’ve got him. But he was starting to get nervous and it was a more, it wasn’t a trot, but it was like a fast walk. And I mean, you just pounded him. It was perfect. It was just, it just didn’t want to get dark again. I mean, you’re there. Everybody’s there. Yes. Tomorrow it’s gonna turn into, some people gonna have to go home Christmas party. And my wife Okay. She, she’s already wound up. She’s already wound up. She’s like, she’s done all the planning and prep. Oh yeah. And if all only the wives show up and the, and the ladies and license that to our party, let’s just face it. It would be very boring. Well, no, I, I was gonna say we would be dead men. Logan, Logan would’ve been here. I would’ve been there because you still had, I had school. School. You, you had school. Logan didn’t even have a date. Well, it doesn’t matter. We were probably supposed to be bring significant others and he ends up taking a picture with Jen’s dog. Yeah.
00:58:25:02 –> 00:59:29:11
So we, we encouraged him to bring a plus one, but he didn’t do it. Yeah. So it’s too risky. But yeah, it is risky. But it was, especially around these other guys, it’s pretty special. It’s pretty fun. I mean obviously that I’m not accustomed to having anything that allows me to do what we were able to do. No. And kill this deer. A tag like that. Never of any kind. And that just, that just goes to show you, you need to play that draws raffles to the extent possible. Even our hunt giveaway, whatever, have your name in the hat, every hat that you’re throughout your life interested in. I mean, this will be one of those bucks of of my life that, that that will be, I’m sure call it a top, top handful that I ever kill. I’m sure of it. I mean, no matter how many others I kill, he will be probably your top two or three. Now what, so basically some dimensions. Yeah. Run, run over the di dimension. He’s like almost 32 inches wide, 32 inches, you know, he is got like 37 inches of trash and you know, whatever, whatever. That was a mid one eighties frame I think is what it was. And you know, just an awesome buck. He’s got a great look. Bunch of big three flyers out one side and he’s awesome. A couple out the other.
00:59:29:13 –> 01:00:29:11
So he’s got inlines flyers and just a great cool look. He does. I mean he’s, he’s, he’s a cool look. Oh, he’s a good looking. The video video he really shows well and pitchers shows well on the video. It’s just one of those I, I’m grateful I’ve had some people say, well how did you know how to put, how did you know to put in for that to draw? I says, I, I didn’t know to put in for that, to draw the tag. It’s just something you do. Yeah. You don’t put into that. We about the raffles, we talk about the raffles at times. We even publish information on ’em in the state sections and Yeah. As well as in our governor commissioner tag raffle program. And we don’t play ’em all. Jason or I or any of the guys here. There’s some, you do some you feel like, like a Montana mul. They’re not, I don’t play it. No. What are you gonna do? Who are you gonna call? I mean, you know, you to phone a friend in Montana to think you’re gonna come up with even a two Hyundai you might go hunt two 70 or something like that. Yeah. And you would probably, well, but I’m just saying there’s a few of these southwestern states when they’re wetter, call it, you know, Nevada, Utah made Colorado made sense in world. That one’s one. I’ll throw some in, but you forget about it.
01:00:29:13 –> 01:01:28:04
Yeah. And what I’m saying, you forget about stuff like that. Just like the sheep hunts I put in for in raffles or things like that. You just put in forget, and then all of a sudden there’s always a name at the end of one of those. And this time it happened to be me and I’m grateful I had a name in the hat because, but you’ve earned it. You’ve, you’ve actually played this raffle for, for multiple years when it’s good time, you know, and so it’s not, not like your, your first time you’ve ever played the raffle. No. But I mean, you know, playing it and you know Yeah. Expecting to win it or two different things. That’s right. You know what I mean? That’s right. And and same thing. I’ve gotten lucky up in Idaho and done some of their super tags over the years and killed a dang near, you know, we’re talking, he looks two 20 inches. He looks very similar actually two raffles. Yeah. That buck kind of looks like giant mine. He giant Frank got, but then he has lots cheaters out there, lots of stacked cheaters and so Yeah. And that was a a, a raffle raffle tank. So I guess yeah, my last, last two 200 inches have been that now have been raffle tanks. Yeah. Like one in Idaho, I had in Idaho one super three or four years ago. So yeah, it’s a little bit different there.
01:01:28:04 –> 01:02:34:00
They dropped 10 of those in Idaho in the year that had, that’s the, the Baal three by four frame, but the basal points. Yes. Right. Yeah. I mean, pretty cool point basal points. Like you can’t even hold on to him. I love that freak. But anyway, pretty, pretty awesome experience. And it was just a, it was awesome that we all got to come home that next day and be at the Christmas party. Yeah. We made the Christmas party, we were heroes all the way around. Ride it on the calendar. Yep. We didn’t miss it. No. So and so anyway, just, it turned out awesome. It was great. And but again, shoot him every day of the week. You do feel, you feel like you shot the breeder bucket. It felt like did the impossible even with the, even with the tag that allowed you to do what I did. And then you learn later not to, you know, won’t go too many details, but learn later that some, some people from Colorado reached out, sent a picture to Dave, had the buck on trail cra like November 6th clear up in southern Colorado. Yes. And he came through and a hundred percent like not even, he just walked through the area. Yeah. What probably wasn’t even living there. Who knows how much further north he came from. He wasn’t a resident deer because they hunted there. Oh yeah.
01:02:34:00 –> 01:03:40:01
And the season had just ended when he walked through after the season ended. Yeah. They, Colorado hunters it hunted it and then they got this puck on their place in, in that night. November 6th or something like that. Yeah. I mean, not even a, I mean a the day after the second. Yeah. Got a picture of him walking through, who knows how long he lived there, but, which makes sense. ’cause this deer, he was, he had no fat on him. Not an ounce, remember how leaned out and flabby his body was. Yeah. And he had rutted and walked from this has that he can ru early up north and he could follow the rutt all the south. Yeah. And he, you never know. He might’ve been down on the Mexico board at the time. It was over by January. He’s Yeah. He is old Mexico, but, and he’s ruing the entire, but you never know. No. I mean we ain’t doing that but, but it’s just kind of interesting. But it was mid, it was mid rut when you shot him and, and but Colorado over in Colorado. Yeah. Oh yeah. So he had rutted there. Come on down. Yeah. Spread his gene all the way down to us. It was crazy. And, and we knew that they migrate, but what’s really cool is when you know what a deer did, I just wish we knew exactly where he summered. Yeah. I wish we knew more. Yeah.
01:03:40:02 –> 01:04:44:01
How far? We just know where he was November 6th of this year, which was about four weeks before I killed him. Yeah, I know where he was. And he was by the crow flies like 25 or 30 miles into north of there. Yes. Into Colorado. Yes. So he could’ve came from, who knows that much further north and that picture, his mouth open, who knows why. Oh, was he thirsty? Was he, was he probably chasing a door around a freaking drinker? I, I don’t know what he was doing in that photo. It’s kind kind of interesting and it explains why he has not one, one ounce of fat for a deer that just kind of New Mexico. They’re just starting to rutt hard. They shouldn’t have burned it all off yet. A mond deer. No, no. Mond deer. He was leaned out. Leaned out. He wasn’t a big rollie ply round fat blob of butter. No he wasn’t, but pretty awesome. But not a chip on him either. So it’s wherever he came from. He was King Kong and he was King Kong where he ended up. And we even had the locals reach out and go, wow. And literally their words, you found a diamond. Well, I mean they’re just the locals in New Mexico that love the units right there. They they know ’em. They love ’em. They, they arguably are some of the best hunters down there know how hard it is right now.
01:04:44:12 –> 01:05:53:01
Well, and it’s just like the northern Arizona, I mean, you, you could say that the strip or some of these units under, can’t call ’em under achie, but under wealth, how many big deer that would kill a little bit Nevada. Yeah. Similarly southern Utah. So Nevada killed a few in one or two units, like, and a good stack of ’em in units, but then kind of underwhelmed in on all of them. Yeah. Just the numbers of big deer and old big deer are very low in all these Southwest. Yeah. You got overall populations are down, but then the populations of significant aged rock are down. Yeah. Six to 8-year-old plus bucks. And, and on top of that they si I believe they just cycle. And there’s, there’s intangible variables that you just don’t, we don’t know all the variables. Water generally equals big deer. But there’s other things too. I, I don’t know what they all are, so That’s right. Timing temperatures, bro. And we’ve talked about that. Even some guys are thinking on the strip, maybe the temperatures were too cold too long. Yeah. Or certain places. Yeah. You know, we, we, we really saw that, I think in Utah for elk, how even in the southern part of the state, you know, elk shed their antlers a little bit later than mule deer, but they get growing so much faster.
01:05:53:09 –> 01:07:04:27
You know, they shed ’em in March and by April sometimes they’re, the first week in March is when the biggest bulls I used to watch just drop. Yeah. And the first week in April they got, you know, two foot of growth with three points on its side normally. Yeah. Well this year it didn’t even warm up till the end of May, 1st of June. Like it was an ice box and snow and we were all giddy. Like there’s water and snow everywhere, but at some point it’s too much. There’re in mahogany and, and yellow grass. Yeah. There’s no green. You know, I think it got ’em off to a little slower start in certain places. And I think to some extent, certain places we’re talking, you know, we’re not talking Wyoming, Colorado, Northern Utah where there’s just excessive snow in survival was the biggest thing. We’re just talking deer that were wintering. Well just didn’t have incredibly good greenup and early spring stuff. It it was, it was summer before it even dreamed up some of the guys. It reminds me of Antelope a little bit. Like some of the guys say these dry years, especially like Arizona and New Mexico, that really dry years are better for horn growth on antelope because they, it totally changes what they feed on their feed pattern. Yeah. And, and so they’re not just eating grasses or whatever. They’re more, you know, almost a browser. And it’s, that’s all interesting to me.
01:07:04:27 –> 01:08:20:06
You know, Arizona had, even though overall populations are way down, you know, and, and some of it, you know, the game and fish would attribute it to drought and whatnot. And then there’s some outfitters that just say flat, flat out, you know, we’ve had human encroachment like crazy on the antelope. Yeah. On the antelope. On the antelope. Only antelope. And, but this year was an incredible year for what they, what was produced for the limited numbers of what you’d call antelope tags. Dude. Yeah. Yeah. Killed some big bucks. Yeah. Unit three killed a great unit seven killed two slammers, you know, one over 90, I mean just random, random. 19 A was incredible, you know, 17 B, 19 B, all that stuff. So it’s interesting, they, it does come and go a bit and, and even though overall populations are down, tags are down and, and whatnot, there’s still some, some bright sides out there in, in all the different species. I actually was, and you know, we talked about, this was the Arizona elk and so I guess probably just beating a dead horse on it, but there was some units that produced some incredible bulls and then other units that just saw no ru activity at all. Hardly visible ru activity. All the cows got bred, but just saying, you know, tougher hunting, hunting conditions for arch rail hunters. And so anyway, it just, you just kind of, you just never know.
01:08:20:06 –> 01:09:19:04
And you, and you, you wanna burn your points at the perfect time in the perfect year. The perfect, you know, unit choice, unit phase, you know, temperature gradient, you know? Yeah. The perfect camp camping spot the last two weeks of September. The archery season day’s never been later. Da da da. Yeah. The ice that never melts in your cooler. I mean, it’s just, and here I’m and there’s no bugling or there’s no whatever. Yeah. And you’re just, how many tags? Hard Have hard, hard. And and I want to blame somebody. Yeah. I, I want somebody’s head, you know. Well, and what I burn, thir thir 20 points or 25 points on stuff and I’ve eaten tags left and right. You ate a significant tag or two or three or four this year. And even though you had some great successes, you just think, oh yeah, just had average hunter would be calling and saying, y’all told me to do this. And quite frankly, it was a different experience. And I, I used to laugh at when people said the weather caused me not to have a good hunt. It’s a pretty significant factor. Yeah. It, it definitely can be. Can can a guy say he eats his words once in a while? Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah.
01:09:19:24 –> 01:10:22:09
You know, the older you get, I used to think you can see that, you know, people would say pray for rain, you know, that’s not a good management strategy, but quite frankly in the desert software, it’s not a bad option. You probably should pray for rain. Yeah, that’s right. You know. Well, and, and just like a couple of these stories we’ve said years with a white tail mine with this tag tag in New Mexico, A getting the tag and then b, just having a deer show up that, that obviously is kind of a no-brainer. Sometimes stuff just happens because you’re out there trying to give a heck. And not that I’m saying, hey, if you’re out on a raffle tag, you still need to get lucky. But you still kind of do sometimes just like you on a, on your, on your white toe, you’re not from Iowa. You’ve got some pictures in the summer. You go out there two or three days early hang stands and, and I text you that morning saying you send Yep, I’m in the stand. And two hours later you say, I killed my buck, you sent me a picture, here’s a dead buck. And I’m like, what? Two hours ago he said, he’s just sitting in the stand now he’s killed and watching a red squirrel, a big red one. Yeah. And I’m like, and so sometimes stuff literally just happens. Yeah. I call it falling in your lap.
01:10:22:14 –> 01:11:32:21
Fell in my lap lap with good planning and good intentions and all that. And then there’s other hunts. Well, and come to find out that for 40 days and you do everything, you can hunt harder than you’ve ever had. How about 60 days? And you can’t make one something go right. How about 60 plus days? You can’t make it go right. Sometimes you have to, you have to accept both sides of it. You’d be grateful when that happens your way and when it doesn’t. So there’s a little more, you can’t blame something. I wanna talk, just going back to that Iowa one little bit. Turns out there’s another guy that was hunting the deer. Oh. He had prop, he had permission on the property next to me. And it turns out at 10 o’clock he decided to get out to, to readjust the stand location that he was in. Okay. And at 10 0 9, this deer comes by me. He blew the deer. He, he got too close to his bedding and we know he knows it. He has since reached out. He found us somehow on the web, the big wide web. He, he’s an Iowan. You haven’t even posted the deer. No. And he, he heard, heard about us a little bit, showed a picture and said, some guy from Arkansas killed my buck. You know, here’s his picture. ’cause the landowners talk and stuff.
01:11:33:00 –> 01:12:41:10
And they go and the guy, he showed his buddy and buddy goes, that’s Jason Carter from Epic. That’s not, he doesn’t live in Arkansas. What? How do I talk to him? Pretty, pretty soon. I’ve got an email in my inbox and it’s this guy. Oh, what’s he saying? And he, I didn’t know this. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So then we compare notes 14, he gets out at what, 10 o’clock. Oh no. So he says, dude what day did tell him? Yeah. Basically. Oh yeah. And times, we have 14,000 texts right here. Shows me all the pictures of the bucks he’s hunted over the years history, this 1400 different things just really into it. A local that is just really into it. He’s taught me a lot too. Just, you just learn a lot. Like as, as addicted as we are to mule deer. Some of these guys are as are as sick as we are, if you can believe it over whitetail. Oh yeah. For sure. And so anyway, it’s awesome. We have a great relationship. Everything’s fine. He’s ended up sending me a SSD card of all the photos he has of him, yada yada yada. And, and he was very complimentary, but just knows, he says, dude, I have bad luck. I, and, and he, but he’s killed a 201 inch. Yeah. I mean that one, that 2 0 1 went, something went right that year. Yes. Something went right. And and he smashed it.
01:12:41:10 –> 01:13:46:21
And he did. And he did a great job. And he’s, he, but he says, arguably I’ve only been hunting these things really hard for a certain amount of years, have to go back through the text log. But he’s, he’s get, he’s on it. And anyway, just so happened he bumps the buck. I think the buck’s going for a stroll like he’s supposed to in the textbook and no, he got bumped And because I just sat there and I’m, I’m figuring I’m gonna sit there all day, all day. And, and so I’m just sitting there and here comes this buck. And no wonder he was crushing the place. Like he, he got bumped and was Dec decided he was out of there. And who knows, who knows when, when it’s your turn your turn. That’s all. Usually that’s me. Yeah. I would’ve been him. That’s, that’s my luck. That’s right. You know, more and more, more than more that we hunt. I mean, you’ve heard about a couple of success stories we talked about today. We don’t have time to talk about the failures. Well I don’t even like it this lecture, it makes me feel bad. Just the, just same year we’re talking about 2023. And you have to be willing to accept both sides of it and just, just keep after it. A great tag, a great, a high number of points. The perfect season dates. All that doesn’t entitle you to anything.
01:13:46:26 –> 01:14:54:00
It’s unfortunate and it feels like it’s getting harder and harder and harder. We alluded to it in Colorado earlier, how high numbers of points. It’s almost a curse because your expectations are so far outta whack with what probably is gonna happen. Yeah. That, that you’re setting yourself up probably to be disappointed before we even go to Colorado. Yeah. And, and anymore we, you and I were looking at just boxy beautiful four points. And I remember on your hunt we talked about this, oh, we saw a buck in the afternoon that was a beautiful, I dunno call it a 180, I don’t know what he was, but 1 76 and three quarters, whatever. But just a beautiful buck. Just, I stopped and turned around. Okay. When was the last time I turned around for 176 inches and willowy. But good looking, but I’m just saying that’s where we’re at on things a little bit. So, but even, even at that, you should absolutely be out there. I’m so excited for this upcoming year. I can’t stand it. It’s the same as it always is. New plans, my old plans were terrible. Made all the wrong decisions. Same as I have for 20 years prior to now. And this upcoming year I’m gonna have all the perfect plans. You know what I mean? Okay. So we were gonna talk about Canada White tail and Alberta. I don’t want to, I wanna wait until Josh is here. Yeah.
01:14:54:00 –> 01:15:58:28
Because you guys have some stories. Some one-liners. You have some stories. It’s so funny. We’ll do that maybe next week. Yeah, we, we, we, well anyway, I don’t even wanna talk about it, I guess. Yeah. I to have Josh here, you know how Josh, Josh is? Josh is a card. He’s a storyteller. Yeah. So, and there’s some funny stories, but yeah, it’s new. Oh yeah. Next level stuff. Sitting all day. Guys think they can do it pretty soon. Your mind just needs to go numb. Yeah. If you’re gonna do it for 10 days in a row. Yeah. And that’s kind of what, what hap what happened. All right Bronson, it is all but Christmas time everybody, we wish you a Merry Christmas. We hope your families are awesome. We hope you have a great Christmas day, Christmas Eve, Christmas day with your families and you know, how blessed are we to be able to do this kind of stuff? How blessed all of us are. Everybody listening to the podcast, you’re listening ’cause you get to hunt and, and how fortunate we are and to be able to play the system and live in America, quite frankly, have the freedoms we have just incredible. Of course we all get frustrated with politics and things like that. Things don’t go our way and or we feel like things are going to heck in a hand basket.
01:15:59:06 –> 01:17:07:19
But, but we are very fortunate to be able to do what we do. Be able to bear arms and, and to be out in the field. Bronson, you and I ordered a pistol today. How about that? That’s right. You don’t got a old 10 milk coming in case we need to smash something big up in Alaska. You never know. So kind of fun. Kind of fun, right? And so anyway, also, Bronson maybe talk about, just a little bit about our optics. We’ve got, we’ve we’re just loaded to the gills and guys are chilling out at Christmas. I know you’ve spent a little bit money on, on some Christmas gifts and things, but if you’re looking at optics, there’s no better time. Well, and the reason for that is a lot of optics companies have a traditional price increase about the first of the year calendar year. Yeah. January 1st. And that is coming for some of them, you know, it’s, you know, doesn’t happen on some, it’s announced basically the week it happens. But we’ve heard it’s gonna be happening. So if there’s something you’ve been putting off that you want, you might, you might give us a call before the end of the year because after the first of the year, it’s not that we’re raising our prices, it’s just our cost of buying those same things is going up. That has to get passed on to whoever’s buying ’em from us.
01:17:07:24 –> 01:18:27:11
So it’s a great time. We’ve stocked up heavily on inventory. We’ve also, as you’ve noticed and probably got e emails of or seen it in the EAG version of our dis January magazine, I come up for our new tripod line. We have both the backpacker light version as well as an all around ultra as we call it. So those are two additions we’ve made to the epic optics, I guess side of things and business here. And we’re obviously now starting to get to, once the calendar flips show season will be kicking off, we will have a crew of us going down to Dallas Safari Club as well as the Sheep show as well as always, we’re gonna have the whole crew up at the Western Hunting Conservation Expo in mid-February in Salt Lake City. So we’ll also be walking shot. Yeah. Walk and shot show in between working with some new advertisers, new, new new options and products, products and things like that that we will maybe be showcasing shortly thereafter. So yeah, we’ve, we’ve done this now for, what, three or four years and we kind of know what our, our members really like as, as selling optics, selling optics and building inventory and keeping good inventory. We’ve lived and learned through, you know, the Covid era. That’s for fortunately way behind us in the rearview mirror. Although I think you had Covid the other day, boss. I do too.
01:18:28:12 –> 01:19:40:10
Monsters still don’t taste good today and that’s a problem. Yeah, because they’re, they’re amazing. Oh yeah. So, but anyway, we’re looking forward to seeing you some, some of those shows. If there’s a particular piece of glass or something you’ve been interested in looking at, looking through, holding police plan on stopping by at one of our booths at those three shows that I just mentioned, and we will go through the ins and outs of it. I guarantee we’re gonna have very aggressive pricing, especially at those venues. We have ’em every day here at Epic Outdoors. But we’re gonna be maybe a little bit more aggressive at some of those. We’re, we’re given some latitude to do that by, by our reps. So we, we are, but then also right now, between now and January 1st, we have 2023 pricing and, and member member pricing on that. So give us a holler if you’re looking, if you’re looking now’s the time and we’d be happy to help you. But anyway, that’s what we’re supposed to do because this podcast is powered by Epic Outdoors. How about, ah, and anyway, everybody, we sincerely, b Broon and I and the crew, wish you a very merry Christmas and happy New Year. Happy New Year and yeah, be safe out there. Get ready for 2024. It’s coming quick, but enjoy your time here this next week.
01:19:40:11 –> 01:20:55:23
Like Jason said, be thankful for what we have a great time of year to be with family, friends, things like that. Be safe. And here’s to look into 2024. We’d like to thank all of our sponsors here at Epic Outdoors, 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 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 kuku.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-side. They deliver right to your door nationwide.
01:20:55:23 –> 01:22:15:25
Visit ss 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. 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.
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