EP 299: 2023 Alaska and Canada Adventures

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Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Adam Bronson. We also got Cash, Wyatt, Josh, Logan. How y'all doing today? Good. Can't complain. Can't complain, huh? Well, Devin's absent, but he's got an excused absence. Good reason. It's his birthday. I don't think we can. You can't disclose medical records, right? Maybe we call him up. There's HIPAA. Yeah, see if he's in the chair. We should call him. How's your eyes feel? There's HIPAA laws. Oh, here we go. We're already blaring it out. All right. Well, anyway. So, what are we going to talk about on this podcast today? We promised everybody at least a weekly, sometimes bi-weekly, just to try to make up for the hunting season, which was brutal in many aspects. Of course, Wyatt talked about his brutal hunt, but I don't feel too bad at a 220-incher on a tough year. One day. One day. You can't complain about that. Bronson's had some tough hunts,

but he had some of the best hunts of anybody I know. We talked about both of those, but there was a lot in between. There was. If you want to get into that, I'm sure we could talk at length. We do want to get into parts of it. But first off, let's talk. Bronson, we always talk about the weather just a little bit because it's kind of, we've learned that it dictates our success in the next year, in large part. And I know Josh brought up this El Nino map or something we were all hovering around yesterday and the day before. Josh, explain a little bit about what it's telling us. Well, it just says it's supposed to be a switch in the pattern from what we've had, which has been an extremely mild winter so far, which I guess for deer and stuff, it's been pretty good. Up north, it's been good. We want more water.

Well, yeah, we need more, but I just mean as far as cold temps and snow and all that, geez, they've had a pretty good winter. Yeah. So the three deer that are alive up north are fat and happy. Yeah, they are. Aren't they like fat everywhere, right? And it feels like it's kind of a fat fawn year that it feels like. Yeah. That's what they were saying. I don't know. It's kind of across the board. It all depends on where the deer live and what they have. But, yeah, I know they caught some of the biggest fawns they've ever caught this year. Ever in history, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. I don't know where they were coming from, but I'd seen that. Definitely need some watershed moisture, though, for the spring and summer if we're going to talk about good body condition and antlers for 2024. But supposedly. This map had a lot of white on it. Was this like a government map? Who put that out?

U.S. drop monitor. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is that USDA NOAA one? Okay. That's what I meant. Wasn't the farm? You weren't reading in the Farmers Almanac. No. No, we probably should because they, I think last year, they were the only ones that got last year. Right. Because last year, NOAA stuff said we were supposed to be dry and not get anything. And the Farmers Almanac were dead on. And they missed every single storm. And the Farmers Almanac got it last year. So we probably got to consult that more. So what is it actually, what is NOAA predicting? Oh, we're supposed to just have to have to have NOAA above normal moisture. For the southwestern states. Yes. Through June. Southern Nevada, Arizona, southern Utah, New Mexico. Through June. And then it turns off dry like a dry fall. It kind of looks. Yeah. They can't predict that. Still was white and showed somewhat normal.

It said it could go either way. They can't predict if monsoon. I mean, come on. Yeah. Anybody that does that. That's kind of what we had this year, though, too. We had that late winter that drug on forever. Then it seemed every day in August it rained. Yeah. And then all of a sudden just turned off. Yeah. We haven't had anything. September. December. And it's dry as a bone out there. Yeah. We did get a little rain, but it's been. I mean, since the water year started October 1st, it's been dry. Yeah. Yeah. We drove up over the mountain and there's like a skiff. Yeah. That's crazy. For January. I heard some of the day they were looking at rams rutting in Colorado at 13,000 feet. There's no snow in their mouths. Wow. Crazy. Rockies. Crazy. That could be good in Colorado. You know, they go through a drought year and it's just still green, right? Yeah. Here we go through a drought year.

There's been times on real drought years. 2002 comes to mind about the time Wyatt was born. You mean cash? Cash wasn't even conceived. I'm the youngster at this table. Cash wasn't even conceived by then. I was still in the 90s. Oh. Good. All right. Logan, what year were you? Are you in the 2000s? I'm in 2000s. Does that make you a full one? 2000s, did you say? 2000s. Yeah. Whoa. That's my old. True millennial. That's my oldest right there. See, I squeaked into the 80s. Did you? 87. Yeah. No way. You're freaking. So you just don't even squeak. I was in there a ways. You're going to be older than I thought. You're going to be 40 in three years. You realize that? Yeah. Huh? I know. I have a one-year-old. I remember my dad's 40th birthday party, but my kid won't be remembering mine.

Anyway, in those really dry years, there's not like a green blade of grass. I remember out west, southwest desert, there wasn't a green blade of grass grown. It was the. It was the. Brush dying everywhere. Yeah. So anyway, that's not the case. We're hopeful. Even though it's a little dry, it's still not going to be the case. We're going to have a decent year. I think so. I hope this has got to change. No question. The good thing is, other than January, if we start getting storms February, March, that kind of stuff. That's when you want them. Yeah. They're usually pretty wet storms. Usually. And it doesn't stay on the ground. We need the timely. Yeah. We need the timely. They're wet snow that usually compacts. And somewhat, the days are getting longer come February, March, and so they melt in between. They don't pile up. That's what hammered last year.

That's why it got so bad, especially up north, was we got, like, the first of December. Yeah. It was several feet of snow, and it stays there all year. Yeah. So it doesn't go anywhere at that point. I think it's going to. I think this NOAA thing is going to happen. I'm positive thinking. It's going to happen. It's going to be a light winter from a snow load, and then get wet. And be awesome. I like it. Wet, green. I think you're right. I hope so. Yeah. Everybody predicted a break in the entire drought pattern for the next few years. And so, anyway, we're ready for that to happen. Yep. I'm kind of sick of the way it gets dark at, like, five or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I told Jana last night. Did you do some projects last night? I'm not going to hibernate. Yeah. Projects. Yeah. Bronson? I did. I did. House projects. Well, I mean, I don't have to. No.

I don't really have to talk about everything. Okay. Yeah, but I am doing stuff. Seems like you're a whole depo after dark. Organization. Buying stuff for projects. Well, you get sick. Okay, so the Christmas season's great for being Christmas and all. But don't you get tired of all the suites laying around. Your garage is a wreck. 14,000 extra things, finding places to put stuff, right? It just is. Are you all in that mode a little bit? Oh, yeah. So ready for the holidays to be over, right? What? Oh, oh, oh. So now it's just a matter of, anyway, organization and projects. So, yeah, I'm trying not to hibernate. Because at 5, when it's dark outside, you just end up laying on the couch and whatever. Things, you know, go to bed early, get up early, back to work. Well, who even knows what today? You get into this brutal routine of going to work, going to bed, going to work, going to bed.

The good thing is we're over the hump, too, though. December 21st is the shortest day. So there's a kid in the longer. There's light at the end of the tunnel. I know. I promise. I know. And I'm glad. Aren't you guys glad? Yeah. Well, it's hard. Because who even knows what today is or the date? I don't know. What date? For most days, for most time of the year, I can tell you what the day is at the time of the week. I don't even. Because there's so many days off. Everybody's days off here and there. Well, I know. And I'm thinking about golfing because it's so nice. It's a little too nice in the end of December. Yeah. I was thinking about it the other day. I about went and teed it up. Because there was other people out there. Seriously. So let's. What are we. What are we going to. What are we going to talk about on this particular podcast? I think. Have we talked about.

Point at Wyatt. Which. Well. I love to hear from Wyatt. I point at Wyatt. Because. But I was going to talk about you two. Brown bear. Yeah. That would be good. Occurred prior to our. Oh, okay. Do it in. We talk about that. But I was pointing to you two Canucks. The Canucks. Yeah. Canucks. Yeah. Did you guys not talk about that on the last podcast? No. No. We didn't want to do it without you because we know you have some experiences that only happened with you and yourself and I in a boy. And Josh's mind. Josh's mind is a wonder in and of itself. I don't remember anything about that. And the one liners that are about to come out are next level. We didn't want to gloss over anything too fast. So let's dive into it. That's fine. Wyatt, are you okay with that? We'll cover yours. Either or. I'm good with it. Let's talk about Wyatt. You want to start off with me? Yeah. Start off with yours.

Wyatt. Got to go in October. Yeah. I had a pretty cool opportunity in October there to kind of tag along with some buddies for brown bear and then if the opportunity arose, I could hunt as well. We actually hit in. We're supposed to be there October 1st, but with weather days, got pushed back and didn't actually make it into the hunting area until October 5th or 4th. Right there was like three or four days where we just had to kind of hang out in Anchorage and kill time and caught a little break, a sunny day, and actually made it into the hunting camp. Made it in there that first day. Couldn't hunt because of the flood. It seemed like your wait time there, you didn't miss anything on Instagram. Yeah. I love Instagram. Wyatt was definitely paying attention to anything to kill time. Wyatt was keeping us up, prized on stuff, and he's in the most remote place in the world.

I was in Anchorage there. And I don't want to deviate to our hunt yet, but Josh and I didn't miss anything on Instagram. Sitting in stands. So anyway, we know the feeling. Ended up getting flown into bear camp on a sunny day. On flight laws, we couldn't hunt that same day, so we ended up going salmon fishing. Oh, nice. The streams were just loaded with salmon coming up out of the ocean. I didn't even know that. I missed that part. Did you catch some fish? Oh, yeah. I caught fish. Yeah, we caught 10, 11, 12 pounders, dozens of them. I mean, it was fun. So they were just kind of running up the stream and right out of the ocean. It was pretty cool. I mean, just cast after cast after cast. You were catching these fish. That's a good way to burn an afternoon. Yeah. Almost nerve-wracking walking up and down the creek because there were just big bear tracks going up and down.

You could see where those bears had been fishing at, too. And, gosh, we just thought we were in for trouble. Yeah, an awesome week of hunting, too, with all this action. But that's what you wanted. Yeah. Were all of you carrying guns? You were two guys that had guns. Did you take a gun, or were you just going to use theirs? So I did have a gun in camp, but I didn't pack it. Did you have something with you, Wyatt? No, I did not. Only when he used the restroom, right? When you go out to use the restroom, you're taking a gun. No, didn't pack anything out there with me. You're a man. Wyatt, this is how bad stories begin. Well, I remember when we were brown bear hunting, we glassed over there at our little makeshift lodge, cabin, old cabin, and there's a bear rummaging through where we use the bathroom. And I'm just like, it reminds you probably ought to be packing here.

Yeah, somebody in the group always had a gun. You could holler. You never were off by yourself. Yeah, never really ventured off too far by ourselves. So anyways, the next day, here comes rain. And just storm pattern. I mean, we were getting, some days we're getting eight inches of rain a day. It was kind of unbelievable to see. You know, a Utah guy, we would get 13, 14 inches a year, kind of deal on a good year. But we were seeing eight inches a day up there. And it kind of pushed all those salmon back out into the ocean. Really? Yeah. Kind of crazy. Because the river's running so high right there. River's running so high. The murky water, everything like that. They just kind of work. They don't, they quit. That's interesting, spawning. I think they kind of got pushed back out. So how we ended up hunting is finding pools where the salmon necessarily couldn't get out.

They'd pushed far enough into the mountain and couldn't really get out. That's where the bears were going to be. Yeah, so that's where the bears were. And it happened to be in super thick areas. So now we're in super thick pines. The kind of pines you walk into and it's 30 minutes darker. Yeah, I mean, it's, you can definitely tell the light difference. You'd walk out of it and be like, oh shoot, do we still have daylight? But not in the trees kind of deal. So, and that ended up being, shoot, basically the hunt was just. That way. Being, being rained in and sitting there in the rain watching these pools for, for the bears to come in. And didn't have a lot of luck. I mean, it was, it was pretty slow going. They just weren't moving and everything was happening in these super, super thick trees. Day after day. Day after day. Yeah. A lot of, a lot of just sitting, waiting, being patient.

No sightings. No sightings. Yeah. We'd sit from sunup to sundown. Not even just little bears. You were seeing fresh tracks? Like you knew you were in bears? Yeah. You would, you would see bear trails. You could kind of tell they'd been working. It's really kind of hard to see the bear tracks in that kind of stuff too. Marshy. A little bit. Kind of marshy, but it's more like, almost like a tundra. It's got the, the green undergrowth in the pines. So it's matted down where they're traveling. It's a trail. Yeah. Kind of like a carpet. So you could kind of see where they'd been working. We knew we were in areas that were loaded with bears. We'd seen bear tracks. We knew they were in areas loaded with bears. We'd see moose going to and from camp. Never any legal bulls. Everything's over though, right? Moose is over. No, we could have hunted moose. Really?

We could have hunted black bear, mountain goats. We're seeing mountain goats up on the mountain every day. You could have shot a moose? Because you can shoot lessers. And a brown bear attack, I think it's the most expensive. Yeah. Brown bear is the most expensive. So you can shoot anything less. You can shoot a moose or a goat? Or a goat, yeah. So we'd see the goats every day up there in the rocks. And then we'd see moose going to and from different places all the time. Never any, like I said, legal bulls. But we'd see bulls. We're still rutting cows that time of year. And then finally, it would have been shoot day six or day seven. Getting kind of towards the tail end of the 10-day hunt at that point. And when did you start it officially? So we started on the 4th of October. Of October. Yeah. It would be the official start date. And then we'd get to it. Would it go to the 20th?

Or would it keep going after that? I don't know. Or your hunt. It kept going after that. But our hunt was a 10-day hunt. Pretty much it's what the weather will allow. Yeah, what the weather would allow us. So anyways, on day, it's day six or seven, we were sitting this little stream and watching the salmon go up and down, working. And it was kind of cool to watch the salmon, but also very kind of boring. But you hear that a lot with brown bear hunting. It was. I mean, it's just a lot of patience and sit. They say the spring's even worse just because you're sitting in one place for... And then so much daylight, too. Yeah. Yeah. And so then you feel guilty quitting or looking around or taking a nap or whatever. So you take shifts. Well, in the fall, you're kind of like... I don't know. Gaston blast comes to mind. But you're kind of jumping them and working normally.

But you wouldn't have that as much because, like you talked about, the salmon are going out to the ocean. Yes. And we're working with much shorter days, too. So we're getting a lot of time back at camp. And you're really thick. Yeah. And choked in. And so anyways, day six, seven, here actually comes in a really good boar comes in. John was up to shoot. And it kind of... How did you do that? Just in the same place? Yeah. Just kind of decided. Yeah. Same place you've been hunting. Yeah. Same place we've been sitting for a few days. So bear comes working in. And he actually wants to hunt it with a bow. And we're well within bow range for 40 yards. But it's getting dark. Kind of tougher to see the pins. And it's also working down the creek, in and out of the allers, chasing these salmon down the creek. So he opts to shoot it with a rifle. And, I mean, kills a really good bear.

Just barely short a book. So pretty cool opportunity to be... I didn't even realize it was that big. That close and see a bear of that size that close. And then, kind of that night, we get back to camp. And they kind of give us the option, like, okay, this is our weather window. You guys got to fly out tomorrow. Or you're here for the next 10 days. It looks like it's going to be at least 10 days until our next... It's that bad of weather. Yeah. Our next weather window. So we all kind of got together and decided we'd fly out and leave that day instead of chancing it on the next 10 days. So, I mean... Do you know what it actually did the next 10 days after you left? I don't. Yeah. I don't know what it actually did. But it wasn't looking good, according to radar. It looked like it was actually going to get worse for... A giant storm. A giant pattern.

That'd be another thing if you were seeing... Yeah. Get sightings on a little bit of a regular basis. But you're like, man, we got lucky to get one. Yeah, exactly. We're going to be sitting here for another 10 days doing the same, more of the same, which could be brutal. So, you know... It's hard, too, to be soaking wet. And, I mean, we weren't really soaking wet. We had great gear. But just to sit there and just get rained on all day. You're just wet. It's miserable. Yeah. Just... October is not... It's colder. Live within a five-foot little square kind of deal. I mean, stand up, stretch your legs, sit right back down. So, yeah. Tell us a little bit about that. The hunting technique. You know, you exit where you're staying. It's a little... An older cabin. Yeah. We were staying in actually a cabin they'd just built. So, it was a newer cabin.

But, I mean, it was a one-bedroom, I guess not even a one-bedroom. It was a one-room kind of cabin. So, I had a loft up above. And then I had four or five bunk beds and just kind of everywhere you could fit in a wood-burning stove. So, we'd leave from there in a side-by-side. Okay. A really nice side-by-side. Polaris North Star. There you go. Wazoo. Yeah. Doors. Windows. Yeah. Roll up. Heater. Down AC. Heat. Yeah. Yeah. Everything. And we'd roll back and forth on these old logging roads just to get to these different strings. We'd walk up and, you know, kind of check these different streams. Yeah. Looking for fish activity, basically, or bear activity. Looking for those bear trails. Looking for the feed. Kind of following things up or down. And that's kind of how we decided where to sit was just watching for those different bear trails. So, when you'd sit, you guys found little perches.

Did you guys all spread out? Yeah. Yep. So, all the different hunters kind of spread out. Josh, actually, he killed a really nice wolf. Called it in. Kind of deal. I didn't know that. That was kind of cool. So, how'd that go down? Was it a dying rabbit or what did he do? So, I wasn't really there with them, but they did kind of tell you that they saw them going to or from the area. And they kind of tucked back into the trees there. And they just started calling. And it was right before dark. I think the kid actually just did it with his mouth. They were just squeaking. I think it was a howl with kind of his mouth. And then kind of a noise. And they came right in. They came back out of the trees. Yeah. There was two or three of them. That's awesome. I didn't know that. And they killed a really cool wolf. So, black in color. And who killed it? Was that the same guy that shot the bear? No.

Different guy. Oh, sweet. Yeah. One got a bear. One got a wolf. Wow. Yeah. It was a pretty cool experience, though. That was pretty sweet. Really cool. Really awesome. And so, you'd perch up where you just had a little bit of a visual and sit there for 10 hours, 12 hours, or whatever. I guess it's getting dark. It's not super long days. Yeah, not super long days. But, I mean, in those pines, it was just kind of big drainages that ran up towards the mountain. So, you'd just kind of sit on a high point where you could look down into the creek and try to see as far as you could. On straightaways or whatever. Yeah. Seeing 100 yards was like a super long, super long ways. It's not like you're watching for a... When we saw a bear, it was super close to you. Do you feel like the weather's why you didn't see more? Yeah, I do. I do feel like the weather will hold. So, you would do it again? Yeah.

It's awesome. I mean, you were seeing bear tracks. I mean, that day that was... You knew you were... Yeah, we were in the right area. Doing the right thing. Yeah, just nothing you can do to control the weather or the environment. Cold, rainy weather. Yeah. Welcome to hunting. So, but it was fun. I mean, it was overall a great experience. So, it was kind of there. I'd been to Alaska. I'd been through weather days and things like that before, but it was kind of... So, brown bear with a bow. It seems like you've been on a big bear hunt with a bow before. Yeah. A hunt that turned... A caribou hunt that turned into a... A grizzly bear hunt with a bow. For somebody. Yeah. For an Alaska resident. Do you want to give us a little bit of a... Like, that's a... Again, without a sidearm of any... A gun of any kind. Yes. So, we kind of talked on that. It was on an earlier podcast.

We kind of told the story and actually called the hunter on that, but that was a really cool experience. We were actually on a caribou hunt that had the same kind of thing. Got weathered out. Terrible weather. Ended up blowing up an airboat. Yeah. Had that hole in the engine. Had to... That's crazy. You know, kind of limp everything back. I mean, that boat with a hole in the engine made it back to the dock. Still ran. I guess not even the dock, but the boat ramp. Takeout. Yeah. Takeout, I guess is what they call them. Still ran. Still ran. Yeah. We just... And Bronson and I are complaining about dead batteries with no way to kickstart it. Yeah. Kickstart a TW. So, it made it all the way down there. We got it loaded on the truck. And I mean, that was kind of the end of our hunt because that was our mode of transportation. Yeah. It was right there. So, we were headed... Back to town. Yeah.

Headed out. Headed back all the way back to Anchorage. It was a long drive. Headed all the way back there and... There's a grizzly. There... Yeah. There's a grizzly off the side of the road. I mean, you guys got a bow. Yeah. Not necessarily off the side. I mean, it was 500 yards, 600 yards off the side of the road. It wasn't jump out of the truck kind of deal. Were you only hunting archery in the airboat too? No. So... You had a gun. I had a rifle. Okay. But within the road, you can't hunt a rifle. Yeah. You can't hunt a rifle. Like three, four, five miles or something. You can't even have one on your person to protect yourself. Well... I don't know the regulation. But I don't think about it really either because... No. I can't hunt the bear, but the resident with me can. You're running and gunning, basically. Yeah. You're just jumping out.

We jump out and kind of start the stalk on this bear. And we get down to where basically we've ran out of cover. There's nothing between us and the bear. We're at the last bunch of alders. And the bear is, I don't know, 180 yards away, probably maybe 180, 200 yards away. And it's digging up ground squirrels kind of deal. It's just ripping up the tundra, ripping up the tundra. It's kind of cool to watch because it's, you know, just kind of playing around. And all we can kind of think to do is play a predator call. I had a predator call. Similar to this wolf. Whatever. Yeah. So we pull out the predator call, put it in the mouth. You know, start, you know, just crying, dying rabbit, whatever. I don't even know what sound it could have been. It could have been a dying deer. I mean, just, it was a... Just something in distress. Something, yeah. Something in distress.

This is what I think is interesting. I love these. I'd just love to know when that deer or that bear's head goes like this. Yes. It locks onto the sound. And then comes at you hard. Then why? Yeah. So it's actually kind of windy and we don't think it can hear us because it's just not paying any attention. Yeah. And we're all but ready to give up. And all of a sudden that thing just picks up its head and just turns and looks back at us. Or not even at us, but just back to where the sound was. They can't see very good. And just decides, hey, I'm going over there. And it finally hurts you. And he makes up some ground. Yeah. I mean, it's coming 10 yards of bound kind of deal at us. Like it's... And you've got one bow. You're like, give me... That's it. Give me one arrow with the broadhead. Yeah. You need a knife or something. I have a range finding pair of binoculars is all I have.

I'm going to hit it on the end of the nose, knock it out and run back. All I have and this thing's coming at us. And I'm just... I remember clicking the button as fast as I can telling him distances. 80, 70, 80, 70, 50, 40. All the way to... Dad, why is it a good wingman? Somewhere between 40 and 30, this bear is still coming straight at us. And he's at full draw and he tells me to stop the bear. So what do you decide? I don't know how to stop a bear. Charging bear. I give it just a bleat. Meh. Like the white tail bleat. I like it. Yeah, just give it kind of a bleat. And that sounds like, oh, that's the dying thing. He kicks it in another gear. Yeah. I know exactly where he's at. No, it actually... It kind of... Why don't you do that, Wyatt? While I stand over here. Stand 10 yards to my left. I remember the last distance I gave him was 30.

And as I made that noise, the bear didn't actually... He kind of stopped and postured kind of like, what was that? Kind of deal towards us. And right at the second he stopped, the arrow was... On its way. Yeah, on its way. And the thing made it 40 yards and tipped over dead. It was... He hit it in the heart. Oh, yeah. It was perfect. It smashed. I mean, maybe 40 yards. Like it was just... Did he aim for the heart? Like when you aim for the heart? Was it for a heart? Just whatever. He's a pretty solid archer. I don't know exactly where Justin aimed on the deal. It was Justin Schaefer. I'm sure he said it settled perfect in the armpit. I mean, wherever he is, he killed the bear. I mean... In all reality, he's looking good. So, I mean... Justin... But he'd been in those intense pressure situations before. He's killed a lot with a bow. I mean... So, Justin Schaefer works with QU. Yeah.

Works for QU. Great guy. So, it was pretty awesome to just be there and just watch this bear get killed. Wyatt, do you ever feel like you were born in the wrong state? I do sometimes. I mean, that's... You love the wet, cold... I don't know that I love the wet, cold, but I love the adventure of a... I mean, just... There's no way here you can go and be away like you can. No. We don't even have mountains in Utah compared to up there. Compared. We don't. And it's just a... There's stuff up there that probably hasn't been touched in a long time. Oh, yeah. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that hasn't been touched. You can't physically get to or get something out of so you don't want it. Yeah. It's just a cool place to spend some time. I mean, I try to make a trip up there every year, whether it's going with a buddy or friends or just being up there to spend some time. Yep. Awesome.

All right, Josh. That brings us to you.

And your piss bottles.

Where do we start? Yeah.

Ten days in... Over Thanksgiving. Missed Thanksgiving for this time. Yeah, second year in a row. Second year in a row. Oh. Who was last year? I don't need to pry. Was it you or your wife? I was still in Colorado. Who's counting? Oh, you did. Me. She could care less. Because when I talked to her about this one, I was like, hey, so how do you feel about me missing Thanksgiving in this year? She was like, am I supposed to care? Like, am I supposed to be? Good one. Wow. That's when you're like, am I really needed around the house? Exactly. Am I missed? I'm really not. So, I mean, yeah. Yeah. So, she just says, it's easier without you here. It's, I only have four children instead of five. So, you might as well go. Actually, it'd be a relief. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. Jason. You're really no help when you are here. So, you might as well be gone. How did your discussion with Janica go, Jason?

Because you had to have the same talk. Well, I mean, why? Or did you just tell her that I'm going to be gone? I don't recall. Do you ask or do you tell? I don't recall.

I do know this. This outfitter came up with some tags and was going to venture into the whitetail realm of things up in Alberta. And, you know, he knows the country well. He's a good dude. Very well versed in hunting Canada. Lives there in Saskatchewan. And so, anyway, with these new tags, we're like, why wouldn't we try this? It's kind of one of those things. You want to kill a big whitetail, right? You want to have that opportunity. Those big old dark horned, I guess, cold weather. I mean, I'm not a huge fan of cold weather. Big body bucks. But giant body. Block headed. Block. Yeah. Just a block of meat. Eye guards from who knows where, you know, hopefully. Sick eye guards and stuff. Just really cool opportunity to maybe go and take that on. So, anyway, we did it, right? We jumped in and did it. Jason never likes to do anything alone. No. But I did. What was my warning?

What was my warning?

When I go do. I should have heeded. When I do adventure hunts, sometimes they just. Stuff happens. Whether it be weather or intangibles. These don't always go perfectly, Josh. You still want to go? Yes, I do. He said. Oh, yeah. Well, that's just the thing. I mean, let's face it. The deer we were hunting, we were giants. Yeah. That's right. You'd die to kill one of those bucks. That's right. No trail camera rules. You can. Like we have down here. Like you can run cameras during the hunt. Yeah. Yeah. So, we knew we were on bucks. Absolutely. You'd take it and go. No matter what the outcome is. And so, yeah, we did. We kind of planned it all out for quite a while. 10-day hunt? Yeah. It was a 10-day hunt. And so, yeah, we drove to Vegas, got on a plane. That was all an adventure in itself, trying to get through airports with guns. And I don't know. It was not as stressful as you'd think.

You know, but at the same time, there are a few key things and key moments where the people working at the airport make it stressful when one of them tells you one thing. And then you go over there. The other guy is telling you, I'm going to call the cops. So, yeah. So, I go over and I'm like, he's like, well, that piece of paper needs to be in your gun case or something. I'm like, okay, you know, but it's not whatever. And no, that was your particular. That was coming back, yeah. But mine was, mine was, that's not locked. That should have been locked over there. And I'm like, well, no, because it's unlocked because they said you might want to check it, you know. Yeah. And he's like, well, you should have locked it over there. And I'm like, okay. And I just go to lock it, you know. And he's like, okay, I'll turn the other cheek on this guy. Saw you coming.

Knew he had a new fresh piece of meat to work with. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know. Yeah. I mean, he read it all over your face. And you're like, you put your gun down. Like a hobo on a baloney set. Well, because the lady. Like you're going to blaze. Well, that's what I almost felt like. I'm like, I'm in an airport, like opening up a rifle case. This is the weirdest feeling in the world. Yeah. And he's like, that piece of paper is supposed to be in your gun case. And you're like, okay, I'll just put it in. Yeah. So you go to open your case in an airport. It was locked because I got there with it locked. And this was on the way home. It wasn't on the way there. Because on the way there, it was pretty straightforward, really. Well, kind of. She's like, oh, your bullets are with your gun. Okay. It needs to not be that way. Well, that's just the thing.

Like getting there was no problem in Vegas other than it took. I went through first. The exact same guy did yours. And it took him twice as long as it did for mine. And we did the exact same thing. But then when we land, we go to get there. We grab our guns. We go through like the TSA. How about the face recognition? Oh, yeah. You walk up to get on a plane. And the computer just sees you and says, yeah, you're good. You don't even have to show your boarding. They're getting good. They're getting good. Yeah. AI? The Biden administration has finally got things figured out. That's true. Chi? Bless him. Chi-Ping or whatever his name is. Yeah. That's what he's doing. So, but it was funny just because we get off and you go to go through. And Jason goes like with one lady and I go with another. We're in the same room and everything.

But he has to put all of his stuff, his bags, his gun case, everything through like a metal detector. And she just takes mine to the side. She's like, you're a lucky day. She goes, you're a lucky day. You don't have to pay the $25. Yeah. We were supposed to pay a thing. I don't know if it was because it was two in the morning or whatever when we landed. I've had that happen to me before. And I said, well, how come they don't have to do it? And they just say, we're here talking about you, not them. Yeah. I know. I know. It's awesome. And you're just like, you're both carrying guns. You're both hunting. They're walking free to get dinner right now. It's true. And I am stuck with you. God, boy. But it was funny. It was just funny because he had to do, she didn't even crack his gun open and look at his gun. But he had to put all his stuff in the scanner. Is the serial number right?

And I said, yeah, that's right. I've got a picture of it right here. But she goes, okay, just make sure. I just want to know. That's right. She didn't even look. Yeah. But then she tells him, where's your ammo? And he says, well, it's in the case. And she gives him this thing. Well, you're not supposed to have it in the case. It can't be with the gun. In case it gets stolen. And some guy can't shoot. It gets stolen. Somebody's got bullets and a rifle to work with. Yeah. But the lady I'm with, she doesn't x-ray any of my stuff, but she cracks open the rifle. And this was, I guess, a tip. A couple live rounds fall out on the ground. This is a tip, I guess. Tip and a trick. When I put my gun in the case, when I cut it and everything, I cut it backwards so that, cut it, if you go to do this, cut it so that the serial number's up. So it was kind of a pain. Yeah. I had mine down. I don't.

And it's all tucked in. So yeah. And it was all tucked in. And I don't cut mine. Mine's just in a, mine don't even get in check. Egg carton. And so, but anyway, so she pulls mine clear out and I had the bolt out of it and the mag out of it and everything. So it wasn't, there was no chance it was loaded or anything, but she still, she had to pull it all out and she was looking at it to just get the serial number. But my bullets, like my ammo's sitting there, two boxes of it in the same case as well. It doesn't even say anything to me. Just like, oh yeah, serial number matches. You're good to go. Get out of here. So, so getting there was just fine. But then getting home. Yeah. So we go to go to the checkout thing or whatever, get our boarding passes, all that stuff, tell them we have the guns. And the lady just says, okay, you need to put this, this paper in with that gun.

And my case was locked and everything. It was locked getting there to the airport. Should I do it right now? No. Yeah. And that's why I asked her, I said, do you want me to do it? She says, no, the line's big. Go over there and do it. That's where they're going to check your gun. So I'm like, oh, okay. So I roll over there. So he goes over to Barney Fife and Barney Fife's like, I'm watching you open this case in front of my house. Yeah. So luckily, luckily, supposedly, according to him, he saw me walk up with it locked, but I'm sitting there undoing my locks and. You opened it. And I open it to put the paper in and he's like, what are you doing? And I'm just like, I'm putting this paper in. And he's just like. Goes back to the fresh piece of meat. He was waiting for that. Oh, he was, he was on me like a hobo on a bologna sandwich. That's so funny. Eating my luck. So funny.

And I'm just like, I'm putting this paper in the case. And he's just like, you can't do that. If I see you open that case, I have to call the police. And I'm like, well, I don't know what I'm supposed to do because the lady over there told me to put the paper in. He's like, you're supposed to do it over there. Well, she told me I'm supposed to do it here. I don't know what I'm doing. He's just like, just close the case. And he goes, and I didn't see this. Yeah. Yeah. Like he was giving me some blessing. Thank you, sir. Thanks for letting me go home to my wife and children tonight. But anyway, so I throw the paper in the case, lock it up. We shove it in there and we go. So it's just funny. Like you read all this stuff on TSA's website, the airline's website, all this stuff. And I didn't read anything. Like you just try and plan. It's all just different. You just show up and roll with it.

All right. So there we are. So you made it to the bush. Yeah. Yeah. We got up there. Day one. Let's start from day one. There's no baiting in Alberta. Yeah. There's no baiting. So it's bush. You're bush and then there's open crops and there's some guys road hunting. Yeah. I guess you could say. Yeah. But it feels like up there, you know, going off of what they're kind of saying slash what some guys are saying. We actually had a couple other Epic members up there. The lynches were up there. And we didn't book them necessarily. I mean. It wasn't. So to speak. I mean, definitely talk to them prior and whatnot. You didn't have as cold and snowy weather as maybe you optimally would want, right? It was dry. Yeah. It was dry. Pure dry. In fact, yeah. Dusty dry. And Cam said he'd been up there for 30 something years and he'd never seen that dry and warm temperatures as it was.

And you're the 20th to 30th roughly of November. Yeah. I mean, cold. Supposed to be. You guys had all kinds of contraptions. You had apps on your phones to control different apparatus that were on your body in person to heat and cool, right? Well, yeah. So I had electric socks. Well, because of Josh. Yeah. Josh had vests. Josh. Josh. Josh hunts just to use the gear. No. I had. I was going to be prepared. Basically, I could. And you could control the heat on your ass. I know. This is. This is the 21st century. And I don't care. It was vital. And I know it was supposedly not that cold, but I swear it was cold up there. It was. When you had no heartbeat all day long, for how long would you sit? Eight or ten hours? I don't know. About ten hours. Ten hours. Yeah. Straight. Yep. You wouldn't move. I mean, you'd just sit there. Yeah, no heartbeat.

You just steadily get cold all day long because you're not moving or doing much. So, I mean, it was cold enough, I remember, at one point. Because, obviously, what do you do? That was the first question I asked Jason. Like, so, all right, what's the plan for the bathroom? You know? You pee in a bottle. And we're like, yeah, we're in the bottles, you know. You pee in a bottle. And I didn't take, like, a Gatorade bottle that has a good neck on it. I took one of the little, you know. The first day. Just the first day. And I'm like, this is a problem. You've got to be careful. I'm good. I had plenty of room. Josh had no problem. Anyway, I was just like, jeez, you know. So, yeah, the next day I got smart. I dumped out Gatorade to have Gatorade bottles. Another tip, too, is either there's two different things. Because I was taking live Gatorades and just empties.

And at some point, there's a possibility you could get. Cross-contamination. Yeah, some cross-contamination. No, you can't. No, you can't. I never cross-contamination. I didn't either. But I'm just saying, at a moment of weakness, it's possible. So, two things. Or when you're trying to not. Your eyes got to be up there so you don't miss a buck moving through. You could just. Well, we were taking vitamin C and Zycams like they were freaking. Yes. So. Food. The color spectrum of liquid. Liquid.

Covers a few different Gatorade colors. Yeah. Orange. Orange and yellow. Yeah. So, yeah. I mean, it was colorful. After the first day, I was like, okay, I can't take an orange. And freaking Jerry had COVID. So, we were popping these like. We were loading up like crazy. So, anyway. So, I guess my other tip would be either rip labels off so you know which Gatorade bottles are the urinals. Or make sure you get cool blue because you reach up and look and you say, okay, that's not cool blue. I'm good to drink. I'm not good to drink this or good to not drink that. So, that's another thing. So, stay away from lemon lime. Yes. Lemon lime, orange, anything like that. Don't. Yeah. Any rust. Rust colors. Rust. Rust.

Fruit punch. Cool blue. Yeah. Purple. Purple. If you're at fruit punch levels peeing in a bottle, you probably shouldn't be in the stand. You got issues. So, we got going. Little did I know. So, Josh is on a particular buck. His stands are set up for where he's at in his area, which is an hour from me or an hour and a half. But as a crow flies, not. Yeah. Anyway. And then I'm on a different deer. But I don't know. There's locals hunting too. And that's the one thing you have. You have local pressure. Yeah. Okay. And so, anyway, some of these locals are pretty diehard. Just as if we would be up there. Just like we are here. Like, very aggressive. Yeah. So, anyway, you're on a guided hunt, but you're also hunting against the locals. Same as you would hunt here or whatever. Yeah. And these guys are, I mean, they're running camels. It's their deer hunt. Oh. It's their big season for the year.

Yeah. We're hiking 15 or 20 minutes through the bush, up and over the, you know, briars and thistles and freaking, you know, whatever. I mean, it's kind of crazy. It's a combination of everything. It's super thick. And we check our camera and there's one of their cameras just on the same scrape. On scrapes. Really? Yeah. These guys are aggressive. And we have pictures and video clips of them checking their cameras and just the gear and everything that they're using. You're like, these guys are no joke. You know what I mean? They know what they're doing. And so, turns out, my guide was chilling out, whatever, checking Instagram. Who knows? Who knows? And they come by. While I'm in the stand, they come by with the deer I'm hunting in the back of their truck. And they'd smashed it. Your guide sees them. My guide sees them. Out there. Luckily. Within a mile or two of you.

These guys, we've still never seen a picture of it dead. He just sees them and he's like, dude. You know? And they're, you know, it's the big typical or whatever. Anyway, and they're like, yeah, we've been hunting this deer. Anyway, turns out they killed him a few hundred yards from my stand. They had a ground blind. And this buck was right and go. Did you ever hear a shot? Oh, yeah. You'd hear shots. You do? They're hunting moose, too. People, residents are hunting anything and everything. Grouse. I don't know. Who knows? Whatever. Stuff. Stuff. And so, there's shots going off. And there's roads. So, you don't really think about it. You're in the bush, but you're not. You're not too close to towns. You're not the bush you would think of like in the Yukon. Yeah. Like, you're in the bush, but it's, there's ag. Yeah. There's, you know what I mean?

There's people just shooting guns out to shoot guns. It's tough. Oh, yeah. You know, you don't hear a gunshot and say, immediately think one of my bucks just died. No, but it's always in the back of your mind. Is he's running. Somebody did a drive-by. Yeah. You can smash and grab. Every time you'd hear one, you're like, oh, that was close. Yeah. So, anyway, sure enough, my buck's dead. So, I'm like, okay, we're going to spend two days checking the other 150 trail cameras. You got 180 or whatever. Wow. And we went to checking cameras for two days. And there was other bucks, but, you know, there was another big deer that I liked, but, but they had just taken two big deer on prior, the prior weeks out of this same exact area. So, he's trying to practice good management and not kill every breeder buck in that geographic location.

You know, and so, some of them were just off limits, just, just due to conservation or whatever. So, anyway, I ended up fighting Josh for his buck. Yeah. We had the same buck after a while. So, pretty soon, but I let Josh choose the stand. Neighboring stands. And it wasn't my, my doing. He just said, the guy, he was awesome. He just said, sit as close to Josh as you can. Josh is sitting in this other stand. Do you want to sit in his stand? Because the standing rule is somewhat, if you give up a stand, you've given it up. You're getting impatient. Like, I got to get a seat. You move. And the minute you move, I'm going to put somebody else in it, and they're going to smash your buck. So, what do you want? It could happen. So, Josh was sick of his stand. He'd went two or three days without seeing a deer. That's true. So, I jumped in his stand. No, this is how it went down.

Jason, do you want to sit in Josh's stand? Because I got nothing for you.

That's what was said. Yeah. So, I texted Josh. And I said, is Josh close enough in a new stand that he's still hunting the same deer? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. There was two possibilities. Still hunting? Yeah. So, you're just, so you pretty, and I said, it just feels awkward. Now, I'm hunting Josh's buck against Josh. I'm using his same. And I don't want him. I'm using his same. I don't want him. I would just see Josh kill him. Using his same bottle that he left in the water. So, once I knew that, I just. So, now I'm telling Josh, leave the heater. I'm in. There's a new sheriff in town. Yeah. Little does he know, I took all my bottles and emptied them out the windows on all four sides. Exactly. Sure. Take my stand. He's like, Josh was nice of him. He goes, I left the decoy for you. You're going to need a lighter for the freaking heater. And good luck to you. Josh and I, we're having a good time.

At this point, we can kind of see the writing on the wall. Toughest conditions ever. New area. Not trying to kill every mature deer alive. It just limits your options up there. Of that 10 day hunt. I mean, it's a grind. You don't realize how mentally hard it is. You're sitting in the same spot. The farthest you can maybe see maximum is 200 yards in one direction. And you're looking 200 yards down a 15 foot wide cut. That's it. And you can't see anything. It's a wall of trees. 200 yards. Yeah. 15 foot, five yards. It's probably like 10 to 15 yards. Yeah. Wouldn't you say? Yeah. Wide. Swath. Yep. And there's some that are a little bit of mixed trees here and there. But you're. And they did a good job. The stands were good. Yeah. They were kind of a box blind made out of canvas. Yeah. They were good. You know, the clear cut. And elevated. The cuts were good. An elevated blind. Yeah.

You're hunting kind of a clear cut that they had made. And you're hunting bucks that are, you know, on scrapes and rubs and things like that. Like, but we were kind of at the end of the month. So they're not as active on that. Come to find out. Yeah. But they're in the area. Rutting. Yeah. And so you're just basically sitting there waiting for them to come by. Your buck got killed from you. What? They said. 200 yards. 200 yards. 300 yards. They had him on camera the one day. 300 yards from you. 200 yards from you. You never saw him. Yeah. And they were hunting it. And I didn't even know it. Like, because I'm the client. So, you know, you just kind of. Who's hunting it? The locals. But my guide knows. Yeah. Like, he knows. They're the locals. They know. They know what's going on and whatnot. But anyway. But it is what it is. Who gets the buck is who gets the buck.

And it was a freaking giant. It was awesome. Yeah. Yeah. It's tough. I mean, I sat there. In mine, of the nine-day hunt we had, five of those days, I didn't see a deer. Josh figured, on average, we saw one deer a day. Yeah. So I went and sat at Josh's. Dough and two fawns. He hadn't seen a deer for three days. Yeah. That's the other thing I determined. That was the other thing I determined. So Josh is like, what am I doing wrong? I'm like, it's something.

You had one mama. A mama and a pair of fawns. Okay. Then we go to. Then Josh wants to leapfrog out of the other stand to a ground blind. Yeah. I jump in the other stand. It's over. You could now see six, eight hundred yards. It was kind of like an old pond. Like, this is what we're talking about. You're dialing. Okay. Yeah. You could have dialed. This is our style. Wow. Josh didn't see a single deer, right? Oh, yeah. Didn't see a single deer. What did I see? 15 or 18. In the spot he just left. Oh, I rattled a little heavy come by. We had him on camera up at my other blind. Yes. Which is the no deer blind for you. Yes. And he comes by me. He's stupider than stupid. He goes up on the hill and I'm like, I had a rattle. Pretty soon he comes and does another stroll. Right. By, oh, ten yards from my step. I'm texting Josh. I got bucks everywhere. I got does everywhere. Action.

Were you three years. Thanks for the hot chocolate. Josh made me hot chocolate. He was still in the thermos. Were you three years deep in Instagram at this time? Or how were you not seeing deer? How was he not seeing deer? I was in 2013. He answered every text timely. Well, it was interesting. I wasn't sleeping. I mean, you guys. But the thing is. I knew I needed to get a hold of you. I knew I was going to get a hold. Here's the thing. He also, he has a 17 deer day or whatever. And so he's like, okay. That's the last day. It's the last day. I said, you go sit back in that stand. Yeah. So he's like, you go sit there. There's dores trailing. Yeah. He's like, you need to see what's the live thing. I never did number two ever out of any stand. No. Josh did once or twice. That was a difference. That. Not bad. Not bad. I did once. Once. Yeah. And then you went and found new scrapes. Exactly.

While I was out. Because I went to the neighbors when I went number two. I didn't go. That's so far enough. So anyway. I can't get that into a Gatorade bottle. So I told him. I said, dude. I said, dude. I didn't scare you. You tried to squat over a water bottle or a Gatorade bottle. You can't fit it in there. I didn't do. I didn't mess one thing up. Like I said, dude, that stand for all intents and purposes is very untouched. Untouched. I freaking slanked out of there. I mean, there was nothing. They did not hear me, see me, nothing. And so I'm like, you go sit back and that's the next day. Zero deer. Zero.

You didn't see a deer, right? Yes. Zero. Zero. Zero. And I saw more deer up at the old stand. Yes. I saw more deer at the old stand. Yeah. And I'm like, but more deer is two or three. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, at the one time, I mean, geez, I just, it's for, I have terrible luck. That's for sure. But at the one point I saw more guys than I did deer. Mike had some guy come cruise up because one of the stands was on a, there's just like these little four-wheeler trails. But no deer stand. Yeah. Yeah. Four-wheeler trails and stuff. And this blind set up right up the line. You were in exchange between father and son, didn't you? Yeah. I'm sitting in there. Well, I'm just sitting in there and this guy comes rolling up with the side, a four-wheeler right underneath me. And you'd think, I don't know why you'd stop. There's some etiquette, right? I'd be like, oh, crap. There's a stand there.

I'm just going to keep pushing through. And I hope I don't get shot in the back of the head. Yes. Yes, exactly. It's like you're trying to get out of there. And so I'm sitting in there and this guy kind of like pulls up and stops. And I'm like, oh, is he coming up here? What's he doing? And so I like unzipped the window just a little in the corner because I kind of zipped it up because I knew he was coming that way. And I didn't want to just be sitting there staring at him. So I zipped up. The four-wheeler stops. And so I just like stick my head out and look down at him. And he's just looking around. And he must have got something. But he looked right up. And we make eye contact from 10 feet. He's just like, good luck. And off he goes. Just drove. So the next day. Then the next day, he came through with two of his buddies and his kid. So Josh is more prepared. Zipped everything up. Yes.

Because at this point, I was hoping they wouldn't think I was in there. And I was going to scare the hell out of him one day. Because I was hoping they were going to crawl up in there. Oh, wow. Because you don't know. They might steal the heater. Yeah. So anyway, they stop again. And they're like, yeah, this is where that guy was sitting yesterday. He was right here. That dumb sucker. He didn't know that we've shot seven bucks out of this place already. He just looked like a U-Tard. Yeah, exactly. Anyway. Jeez. It was one of those things. That's my luck when it comes to most situations. So even though it was dry and dusty dry, Josh had a pee bottle freeze solid. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying, how cold it was. You know what I mean? It wasn't what you would expect to have to go through up there. It wasn't as cold as you expect and snowy. But it was still cold.

It doesn't matter how warm it is when you're sitting stationary. 20s degrees. In Iowa, up there, whatever. You just get cold, man. No heartbeat. You just get cold. But that was within two hours. I mean, we're talking 98.6 degrees urine. And in two hours, it's solid. That's how cold it was. But it was like a humid cold, too. You know, it was just that. It wasn't like, yeah, on the truck, it was whatever. Whatever it was. 25. 18, 25. Depends on the day. It was just, but it was a humid cold. Damn cold, yeah. You know, just a damp, yeah. Anyway, so how about, so we met some really good dudes. Yeah. There was a, they do a mule deer, white tail combo.

Man, they were, you know, just awesome guys from Washington. Yeah. Kind of made friends with us. And that's what we kind of found. The lynchers. Yep. We found they, so they were kind of hunting this mule deer, white tail combo. So they were actually cruising a lot of the ag stuff. They didn't really sit the blinds. And that's what we were finding. They were actually seeing a lot of deer. They would see a lot of deer, a lot of activity. They were kind of us, but not a lot compared to what they should normally be seeing because the deer numbers are down in general. Yeah. Yeah. They had a bad winter up there and they've got some CWD stuff. And so they were, they definitely were struggling, but you know, they saw a lot of deer, but in general, you, in order, if you're going to want to kill one of these giant bucks, you have to be doing what we were doing back in the bush in a blind.

Rarely are you going to see them cruising a field or anything like that. Cause they did see a lot of deer and stuff. Just nothing, nothing even remotely close as big as what we were hunting. I like teasing my guide. He wanted me to shoot everything. Like this one by four. There was a one by four. I think he wanted you out of his truck. What? Yeah. There was a one by four and he's like, Jason, these are so awesome. What? I'm like, I am not shooting a one by four, you know? Anyway. Cause they knew it was a cold buck. The clean the jeans movement hadn't started yet and we're just not going to do it. Anyway, it was nonstop. He's like, dude, you want to shoot a little heavy? No. No, I don't. I mean, we teased pretty hard. Yeah, it was good. But anyway, how about the last day? So we had this older gentleman. He's 81. Yeah. Jerry. And he's hunted up there in Canada for 40.

Longer than I've been alive. Three or four years. 45. 45 years. Hadn't missed a year. Hunted a lot of the Indian reservations, all kinds of experiences. He said some things you probably can't repeat, but, but just way, way fun. But anyway, how about the last day? We're, we're waiting to get everybody in the truck and go back to the airport. Yeah. Well, we ended up smashing. We actually glossed over this. There was a guy there that did kill a buck that intact would be 174 inches. Broken was 166. We had him on a trail camera too. His eye guards were 11 inches. 11 inches. Sick eye guards. Like you'd shoot this buck just for the eye guards. If you were to shoot a one by one, you'd shoot him for the eye guards. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? It was like they were four inch diameter, 11 inch long. And old deer. Like teeth. I mean, just old. So anyway, just the perfect buck for him to take.

Dan killed a cool four point mule deer. He killed a good buck. He did. And the mule deer, they, the kind of the general consensus too, among other issues was just high tag numbers. And we talked a lot about that at nights when there's nothing else to talk about. Just deer management and stuff. And, you know, anyway, so that was awesome. But so we did kill that buck and that guy was on another buck. That was awesome. Anyway. Shot the tail. Shot the tail off of a buck. Okay. So I mean, literally. So he shot a buck and it was in a fleeting moment. You have 15 yards to decide, right? He looks up. The deer staring at him. This guy's a good dude. He's hunted aggressively. Knows what he's doing. Looks at the deer. I'm going to kill the deer. You got to make these one second calls and shoots. And the deer takes off and we go over there and there's blood and we're tracking.

So anyway, round us all together. I was checking trail cameras at the moment with the, with my guide. We get everybody together. We're tracking this deer. Blood runs out at, you know, 65, 80 yards, whatever. Kind of no blood. Go back to where the hair was. And by the way, there's rubs everywhere. Scrapes. Scrapes. Everywhere. We go back to where he had hit him and there was really long white hair. Really long. Like tail. Only comes from one place. Only comes from one place. The back end. And then we're walking back down and there is the tail. And it's skinned out like you would have Kyle. Like you, you run the knife right up the freaking tailbone and it's laying there. How does a bullet do that? I don't know. I mean, we took it back to Kyle. This is a trail is wonder. Putting a Ziploc. I mean, and there was, and I actually found a piece of bone and it's like the tailbone.

It was, it was, I don't know what it was. It actually, it was like part of a, a leg bone curved and with the bone marrow. You could see where the bone marrow was and, but it was a little piece like that. Yeah. And I don't know. Anyway, it got lucky to find out. So, you know, it kind of went through the back end, blew the tail off and maybe did a little bit more damage. There was a little chunk of meat probably going to live though. You don't know with a bone chunk like that. You just don't know. It depends on where it came from. Anyway, um, he was hunting a big deer, probably the biggest deer. And, uh, and then ended up killing the eye guard buck. Lucky guy, but did use those onics that we learned a lot about some of the different things, tactics, tricks, and chips. Uh, but anyway, how about Jerry at the last day? Jerry, the older gentleman, just an awesome guy.

We're teasing him about not buying green bananas and stuff like that. Just teasing him, having a good time. And I'm like, Jerry. So we were, I'm teasing because we would stop and get a monster at the, at the gas station. Right. We would stop and get a monster and be like, just whatever. You want a little treat or something? You're going to be in the stand for 10 hours. What makes you happy? You probably ought to buy it. And so we're like, Jerry, we're going to get out. We're going to grab a monster. There's three of us on the one guy. It's dropping all three of us off. Poor guy. Super good kid. And I'm like, you want to get a monster? You know, and I don't know how to do that. Anyway, the last day we're sitting around, laying around on the couch. It's just kind of burning time. And I said, Jerry, do you want to drive down the road and we'll go get a monster?

And he's like, yeah, yeah, I'll do that. And he's like, I've done that before. And I'm thinking, you've got a monster and drink it. I'm about to say, what color do you like? I mean, cause it better be white. And I'm like, well, you know, and he goes, I've done that before. And I'm like, well, what? What have you done? What are you talking about? And he's like, a smash and grab. Okay. And we had teased about smash and grab all week. And I'm like, there's an 81 year old guy talking about smash and grab. And I'm like, a smash and grab. And he goes, I'm like, you've, you've done a smash and grab. And he goes, I'm like, yeah. And I'm like, well, tell me about it. And he goes, well, you drive up and you shoot them and throw them in the trunk and drive away. And I'm like, he's like, I've done that three or four times. And I'm like, you have? And he goes, oh, yeah. You're driving down the road.

So you get out, smash it, throw it in the back and drive away. And I'm like, okay. Well, I was thinking about a white monster. I was thinking we were just going to drive down the road and do a smash and grab. So when he grabbed his gun, when you're going to the convenience store, you're like, what's going on here? What do you think we're doing? So we're heading to the airport. We left our guns out. Jerry was awesome. Anyway, he'll be back. So what other, anything else, Pollock? No, I think that was about it. Yeah. I don't know. It was a great opportunity. One kill, one white tail for six. Yeah, learned a lot. Learned a lot. It's not what you see on TV. I also now realize why white tail hunters get so weird when they kill a deer and start crying and make all kinds of weird noises. Kind of like why we make weird noises when we kill a big milder. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, it's just like there's some serious time. Those guys. And a lot of those guys. Time and luck, too. Oh, yeah. They've definitely, you talk to guys like Jerry and those guys that have been up there. They've definitely 100% been up there more years and not kill the deer than they did. Than kill the deer, for sure. Which is not. Especially the guys that are selective. Yeah. Which isn't good for somebody like me or maybe an MS when we think we're just going to go show up and smash one. Yeah. Because we all want a big white tail. Who doesn't? Well, we all get our butts kicked down here and then you're like, okay, I'm going to book a hunt up there and this is going to be the fun. Out of your control. This is going to be the fun hunt that we just end the year on smash one. We're going to take the meat wagon. We're trying to decide, do we drive up there and take the meat wagon? Yeah.

Because we're just going to go watch frolicking deer all day long. Running, rattling, all kinds of wild kingdom. Yeah. Yeah. No. The highlight of our day was making, was preparations. The hot chocolate, making hot chocolate. You know, what are we going to do? When do you open your sandwich and eat it? Yes. Yes. Yes. Rationing your food. Jerry likes to put all the chocolates up on the rails. He takes them out and you take a little miniature snickers. So he counts them? Miniature snickers for every hour of the day. Yeah, every hour and he rewards himself for staying one more hour. I mean, we're talking to Jerry. Those are mental games you've got to play. Yeah. Jerry, we're like, Jerry, do you pee in a bar? He goes, I don't pee in a bottle. I'm like, okay, well, Jerry does it and he's all knowing. He's got the most experience. Of anybody there. Yeah.

He's like, I get out of the stand and pee like a man. You know? Other than he said, he thought about trying to do it out the window. He did. And they're like, please don't. I don't need streaks down my canvas. Yeah. Exactly. But anyway, he's like, yeah, I went for a stroll today. And I'm thinking, that's a no-no. You sit in the stand. You don't let your scent out. Don't breathe. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And he's like, yeah, I went out and took a walk. Went back. Got the stand. Jumped a few. Rough grass. And then you start realizing, and the guides are saying it too, is like, not a lot of guys can sit there the entire day. They're getting out but not telling you. You know what I mean? Yeah. We were the, I mean, it was 10 hours a day. Well, we didn't get out. I mean, once I did trail cameras for a day and a half, tracked a deer for the evening portion there for a minute,

and then right back in the stand, one of Josh's, whatever Josh didn't choose. We had a good time. It was kind of one of those things here, you know, over the years. Just working with, like, lions and bears and stuff, I've kind of gotten over my fear of the dark, the darkness and stuff, so I'm going to want to eat me. So I was like, one of the days, I was like, I'm going to try and hike to the, because the moon was full too, so that was another thing. Those deer were pretty active at night. So it was bright enough. I was like, ah, without my light, I'm going to walk to the stand this morning. In the morning? Yeah. So I'm going to see if I could do it. And I got about 10 yards after Josh had dropped me off in the four-wheeler. I got about 10 yards, and I'm like, oh, no. Tripping on bros. I was like, well, yeah, that. And then I was like, we saw a cow moose here yesterday.

Like, whole new fear. With a calf. Yeah, because I'm like, now I'm going to just be stumbling up onto her dark black ball. Yeah, bedded in the trail. I learned a lot about ball. Knock her over. I'm thinking, what a little. What's the chances? I'm a chances guy. I'm a chances guy. I'm going to go on. There's wolves up there. Yeah. Well, wolves. And then I was talking to a gal on the airplane, and she says, oh, yeah, you're around, you know, grizzlies all the time. They don't go to bed? I didn't know that. Well, no, but it's early. November. And I didn't necessarily. I didn't even think about that. I was just, well, whatever. I mean, anyway, ignorance is sometimes. Yeah, exactly. That's about it.

Yeah. Well. Yeah, I think. So you've left us. We all have more questions now that you're home than we have answers as far as we all thought we'd be clamoring. To go back. To beat you back. To book the spot. It's not. It's just like what Wyatt said. Nothing good or bad. You just got to be there. It's like a big mule deer. I used to hate the fact when people say, well, that's the weather. Or, you know, that's hunting. That's why they call it hunting and not killing. I hate that. Yeah, me too. I hate that. But it's true. It really is. And sometimes you just can't do anything. You can't make it happen. And it felt like it happened. That's why I'm so glad for 2024 to be in. Like, I'm so glad to see this year freaking close up. What do we got? Four days? Yeah, I don't know. Josh says he doesn't know what day it is. My phone says it's 28. Is it? Your iWatch. What does it say? Yes, 28.

But, no, that is it. That's a good point. Like, you can really, even on a hunt, if you book a hunt, go with an outfitter, go with whatever. I mean, you can have, you can spend 25 points. You can, you know, spend 80 grand on a hunt. I don't know. You know, there's, it's always hunting. And there's still things that have to align, things that have to happen in order for you to be successful. And, obviously, that oftentimes increases your chances of being successful. But you still, it's just still hunting. And I guess that was the thing that kept me, you know, from getting angry or mad or upset at the time. And you just kind of have to keep telling yourself. Everybody was in the same boat. Yeah, because just like when Bill shot that buck, you know, it was kind of like the longest day, hadn't seen a thing. You know, it's been eight days, haven't seen a deer.

All of a sudden, all you need is 10 seconds. And it's the best hunt of your life. Yeah. And I think it goes back to, like, outfitter reports from clients. You know, you've got to take them a little bit with a grain of salt. I could write up a report. You know what I mean? No, yeah. Because I didn't kill a buck. Right. Didn't even pass. I know nothing about whitetail hunting up there. Right? But I could say, well, you know, we could have done this better, this better, this better. It just is what it is. Wyatt could go through his report and say, well, you know, this, could have done this. The success isn't the end all be all, though. That's all. We want it. We're going on the hunt to harvest something. Well, and certain species, too, lend themselves more to, it's a very fine line with success and failure of a big brown bear, for instance. Right. That would be such a fine line. Yeah.

I mean, there's not a lot of them. You don't see, you don't pass dozens of bears. You don't see 17 bears a day in most places like you did deer. You know, big whitetail deer in a hardwood mixed conifer forest, like, that's a needle in a haystack. And they have to come by you. You can't just throw your gun on your shoulder and start walking and go out hunt the deer. Well, and we know you can't. You can't. And that's kind of what the outfitter, he's a good, good dude, knows what he's doing, didn't do anything wrong necessarily. That's what he indicated. He said, man, it must be hard being a mule deer hunter. You want to go out him because he's a mule deer hunter himself. You're used to doing a little bit more. I was prepped mentally. I was prepped mentally to sit. It just, you know, like Josh said, maybe thought we would see more game as well.

But you realize after doing it, there's nothing, there's really nothing more you can do. You had buffs on cameras in the places you're sitting at. We knew we were hunting big deer. Like, we were all on big deer. Jerry was on big deer. Jim was on big deer. We were on big deer. The lynches were on. The lynches had a little bit different situation because they had the combo. They had the mule deer. They had the combo and they were, dude, they were putting on 500 miles a day. Squeeze me. 500 miles a day. On a truck. Do you stay in the same province? Did they go to Northwest Territories? I mean, where are they at by now? 500 miles a day? No, 500 miles of roads, not straight line. Like 500 miles of driving. So you drive an hour and a half, two hours to where you start hunting. And then you've got to do that back after dark. But then you've got all the driving in the middle of the day.

Cover ground. And you're, and it's not that, you know, sometimes that is the most effective way. And with the tags they had, that was the most effective way. And you'll find a big deer and then you've got to figure out how to get permission if it's on a piece of property. Place you can, huh? If it's in non-bush private. Crown land or whatever. And they're using an Onyx version. It's a different app. But anyway, we downloaded it and it was good. To learn all that kind of stuff was really cool. So they also do whitetail hunts in Saskatchewan. You can bait Saskatchewan. And, but generally speaking, the mentality is, is those deer get killed on a somewhat of a regular basis because of the bait. And so your bush deer in Alberta would be bigger. Bigger. Very top end, discriminating trophy hunters are concentrating on Alberta, although maybe both.

Maybe you never give up your spot in Saskatchewan. And you go to Alberta for an absolute giant. Back to back, a lot of these diehard guys go hunt them both, huh? Every year? Yeah. Some, yeah. Wow. You guys thinking about that? Well, I mean, maybe. Okay. I want to go back and do it, but. You got, we have unfinished business. But I'm afraid it would take five years to make it right. Well, that's just, that's just. You realize that. You got to be in for the long haul. You could go back there and be the first guy, smash and grab, kill a buck in three hours in a tree stand. Like other people we've talked about this year. Yeah. Or. Ten days of nothing. It's, it's. And do it for four or five times. That's right. Especially if you're discriminating trophy hunters. That's how it's going to go. And it's easy to say you are, but go ahead and go without killing for five times.

Well, that's, that's what it's going to take if you're going to hunt a one, say 75 or 80 plus buck, a real big deer. Yeah. One of us probably ought to try and get up there every year, you know, at least. And, and one of, and it'll happen. I'm intrigued. I'm going to put that. But I realized my eyes are fully open as to what that's going to entail. If I'm going to actually make it happen. Well, likely I'm going to have to get lucky. Oh yeah. We all are. Then do it. Well, should we do a little shout out to triple S players? Well, why you were in a players? Yes. Players North star. How about that? How about that? We know guys that sell them on a daily basis. Yeah. Very comfortable ride. Had the windows to keep the rain out. Heater. I mean, it made the Alaska experience that much better. I could cup holder for a warm beverage. Wyatt, did you ever think that that'd make a good stand?

I never thought it would. I guess the second I got in it, but I never thought about that because I'm used to the tundra, you know? I hope they're all. I'd park it just right. Open up the front windshield. Where's my window mount? No, just electric windows too. I mean, you were just hitting the button and they would go down. I mean, it was, it was pretty nice. We're bear hunting in style there, but you're right. We do have a buddy here that sells them and hooks us up with our Polarises, Triple S Polaris here in Cedar City. He will deliver anywhere in the lower 48 as well. So if you're looking for a Polaris side-by-side, give him a call at 435-865-0100. That's Triple S Polaris. I like it. It's awesome. We'll support them if you can. They're hunters themselves. We know the owner. He's an epic member and a diehard trophy hunter. Just an awesome kid.

Colton Francis and doing great work and specializing in customer service is what I would say about them. Yeah. We also want to thank Fierce, Fierce Firearms. They make some pretty awesome rifles. That's the gun that I took up there. I have that .300 drum. I was hoping that was going to be big enough to shoot some of those deer, which is pretty, I tell you, that was one thing we did. Those deer are big. I remember the first two does I saw in the headlights and like they're giant. Just the does. Like they, the does, I swear were bigger than our mature bucks here. It was, it was pretty surprising. So you need, you need a little bit of lead to take one of those suckers down unless you're going to shoot the tail off. Keep going. Anyway, I had my Fierce Rifle, took it up there. They're awesome rifles. I mean, I don't know. Killed deer in Colorado with it this year. Just no sweat.

Knocked him right down. Smash and grab. Quick. Smash and grabbed him. Went up and grabbed it. Well, kind of grabbed him. You're like, ooh.

What's that? He shrunk 120 inches. Yeah. Just teasing, Josh. But yeah, make sure, make sure and give, give us a call if you're looking for a new rifle. They're awesome rifles. For what they are, they're, I mean, they're lights out. We all have, have them shooting them. They're pretty amazing. So. Kurt's even got this new mountain reaper. Yeah. He apparently wanted a gamer gun. So. Gamer gun. Yeah. Said he has that. Yeah. What game does he play? Which one of them? Oh, that might call it duty or something. I forgot about that. So they, they even. That's what he patterned it after. Did he? Yes. Exactly. I didn't even know the history on that. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's what he wanted. He wanted one that felt like. That's what he uses in his game. And so he wanted one that matches it. They've actually been super popular. Those rail guns lately.

You see those more and more with the folding stock and. That's this one. Especially, yeah. If you're hiking around and stuff, you can fold the stock on them. They got, they've got a lot of different options. Anything you'd want, give us a call. We can help you out and get you one ordered up. You won't regret it. That's for sure. They're awesome rifles. Fierce rifles. Also want to give a shout out to KU. Ultra high, ultra light hunting. Whether it's gear, whether it's, you know, clothing from head to toe, they've got it, everything. That's, that's one of the things that we feel KU's superior to a lot of other clothing companies with is their, their versatility of their clothing. They're layering, layering systems. Whether it be hot weather, whether it be, you know, active wear that you got to layer up and take stuff off, put it back on throughout the day or obviously colder later on.

They've got it. They've got it as well as, you know, packs and a whole bunch of other accessories. Great guys. They're going to be a lot of the shows. So if you're, you know, going to all the shows coming up and want to look at some of their gear, try some of the pieces that you haven't used or haven't seen. Stop by their booths at the cheap show, Western hunting. I'm sure they're going to be at Dallas SCI. They usually do all of them. So, uh, QU.com, KUIU.com. Check it out. So great company, great supporter of ours here at Epic Outdoors. Yeah. I like it. Wyatt's really good friend. We're good friends with Justin Schaefer, Brandon Burns, and the guys are just serious, hardcore dudes. So anyway, happy to support them and we appreciate their support of Epic. All right. Well, it's going to be the New Year's weekend. Wyatt, you got any good plans? No, I don't have much. What about Case?

What's he doing? Hopefully bed. Still in the newborn. It's amazing how much Wyatt talks about bed and sleeping. Still in the newborn phase here. We've got to get some sleep. I saw him yawning over there a little bit. So when Jason's over here talking about getting dark at 530 and he's bored and needs projects to do from then until 9, 930, you don't relate to him right now. You go home and you're thinking, all right, if there's quietness, I might go to bed at 630 and get what I can. I haven't ever made it that early. I'm probably 9 o'clock a couple times. But you're definitely not looking for projects to do. Yeah. Wyatt was going downtown after work last night and I had to follow him. I pulled in to do some of my projects at Napa and I just figured Wyatt was going and getting disposable diapers. I didn't know what you were doing for sure. I was going to Lynn's.

I got me a nice ribeye to grill up last night. Oh, there you go. Did you? I like it. Yeah. Was it a bachelor night? It was a bachelor night last night. Hashtag dad time. Yeah, exactly. Hashtag. Good for you. You deserve it. You deserve it, Wyatt. Oh, good. Put in some major time. Well, all right. Don't want to minimize Carly's involvement if you're listening to this, Carly. You do put in plenty of time. Yeah, Carly definitely does the bulk of it. That's for sure. All right. I know that. I'm just playing the picked on card. All right, everybody. Well, have a happy New Year's. Hopefully lots of good things happen for 2024. We've got a lot going on here at Epic Outdoors. We're cranking through the publications. You're going to see more and more states and draws and things like that come out. We're helping guys make plans on a daily basis. If you need help, feel free to join Epic Outdoors.

It's $150 a year. And, of course, you're going to get a research publication. It's 150 pages deep nine times a year. And then you can call in and we have online odds and things like that can help you as you're scrolling the web at home when it's getting dark early. So, anyway, EpicOutdoors.com. Go check us out. Current members, we sure appreciate you and your support. Happy to help you. Call in anytime. Let's make plans for 2024. And, everybody, have a happy and safe New Year. If you hunt in multiple states or want to expand your hunting portfolio, the Epic Outdoor License and Application Service is for you. We have dedicated hunt consultants and a team of application specialists to help you develop and achieve your short, medium, and long-term hunting goals. We do the work. You draw the tags. Epic Outdoors License App. 435-263-0777. The Utah Hunt Expo is right around the corner.

Head over to the Epic Outdoors booth, chat with us, and get access to exclusive optics deals. Don't miss out on the 2024 Utah Hunt Expo at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City. From February 15th to the 18th. Handcrafted, quality precision rifles from start to finish is Red Rock Precision Rifles. Many of our staff use Red Rock rifles, and we are excited to announce the new Red Rock Epic Mountain Rifle 2.0. Visit RedRockPrecision.com to learn more. If you're in the market for a hunting property, look no further than St. James. St. James Sporting Properties specialize in premier hunting properties throughout the West. Check out available hunting properties at StJamesSportingProperties.com. Here at Epic Optics, we are a verified dealer for Swarovski, Zeiss, Leica, Vortex, Pulsar, Stealth Cam, and more.

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