In this episode, the Epic Crew talks about a couple of the hunts that happened earlier this year while getting an update from Jason in the field. Cache Lynn was able to go on a tough high elevation Colorado Elk hunt and get an awesome bull. Devin Archibald hunted hard on the Utah General Deer hunt and with a little bit of luck he was able to harvest an incredible buck.
Disclaimer: this text was produced through an automated transcription service and likely contains errors. Please listen to the original audio for exact content.
00:00:00:13 –> 00:01:42:01
You’re listening to the Epic Outdoors Podcast, brought to you by the Western Hunting and Conservation Expo in Utah. Life Elevated. This is an event we don’t miss. So come and see the whole Epic Outdoors crew. February 13th through 16th 2025 in Salt Lake City, Utah. For more details, go to hunt expo.com. Hello everybody. Welcome to the Epic Outdoors Podcast, and we’ve got Jason in the field, so we’re gonna hear from him a little bit later. We’ve got everybody else. We’ve got Logan, Devin, Wyatt Cash, and we’ve got a special appearance from Jana. Doesn’t happen often. We were joking that Jason’s gonna be nervous. He’d be, here’s the podcast. I think you should let me call him. We’ll do that. Probably won’t have to edit this one. No, no. Probably won’t have edit this one. I don’t know. You guys are hard to reign in. We’re probably still gonna have to edit. Jason might wanna edit if he finds out. I’m on it. So we’d like to start out by giving a shout out to the Hunt Expo and give them a big thank you for being our, our title sponsor. The dates on that February 13th through the 16th, 2025. And if you’ve never been, it’s worth traveling to. It’s worth flying into Salt Lake. Pretty easy airport to, to get to get a hotel. Spend a couple days. You we’ve got hundreds of booths of Outfitters gear. We are there.
00:01:42:01 –> 00:02:59:02
We’ve got a, a really big 20 by 50 booth. It was just a rocket. It was rocket launching. Whoa. Okay. That sounded weird. We could cut that, but that was the loudest one I’ve ever heard. I thought the aliens were coming. You know, should we go check on Wendy, make sure she’s okay. Geez, I thought of someone’s phone’s, like started. Our neighbor makes rockets, so I don’t know if you could hear that on the podcast, but Oh, I’m sure you’ll be able to hear it. Yeah, that was, that was a little bit crazy. Geez. So anyway, for the PO for the expo, we’ve got, just save the date on your calendar plan to be there. You come say hi to us. We’ve got some great deals going and, and tons and tons of boos. We’ve got auctions at night. We’ve got hunts. You can, you can bid on. There’s auctions during the days, all kinds of stuff. Probably the most appealing the 200 tags. That’s what I was just gonna say. Yeah, that’s, that’s right. You got 200 tags that you can apply for that are outside of the regular Utah draw. And those are five bucks each. Yeah, $5 drawing. And some of those tags sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars this year. Yeah, they’re cheap. Jason and I were at dinner the other night and shout out to Austin. He’s a member. He came by and was showing us picture.
00:02:59:06 –> 00:04:06:15
He killed like a mid nineties buck off a $5 tag. It was awesome. Last, last. That is awesome. It was a great buck. And in order to, to get into those drawings, you have to be there in person. So you can purchase online beforehand, but you’ve gotta validate, you know, show him your driver’s license and that, that you came. So plan to be there. Valentine’s activity. Yeah. Take your wife. She can take you for a day. That’s her gift. And you can take her out for dinner and some fancy restaurant in the evening. That’s your gift. We’ve, we’ve got approval from a spouse that this counts as valenti’s. I, it’s approval. It’s approval. All the husbands out there just got approved. I, if you’re gonna do it anyway, you better figure out how to make it enjoyable. How about Valentine’s and a birthday? Ooh. Does that count? You got both in the same, both the same day. Both the same day. We call that a twofer. You’re kind of in trouble because you can’t, she has no choice. Do one day at the show, you have to do three days at the show. Yeah, that’s true. It’s a good time though. You better celebrate her birthday the week before. It’s a week long thing. Yeah. If you weren’t required to be there, then it would be a hard decision, you know? That’s true. She could hold it against you. That’s true. That’s right. That’s great.
00:04:06:27 –> 00:05:24:25
All right. Did we say the dates? Yeah, we did February 13th through the 16th. So our whole crew will be there the whole time and good time. Awesome. Don’t plan, don’t plan on a couple hours going through it. You’re, if you only spend two hours, you’re barely gonna scratch the surface with how big it’s gotten. So yeah, well worth spending the day or more. I’d like to also talk about an email we got that kind of highlights. One of the, one of the services that we offer here. You get a membership and man, the, the magazine is only a tiny part of our membership. The being able to call in, talk to the, any of the guys here, any of the consultants. Let’s say you’re trying to decide where to apply or figure out your points or get a plan. Like that’s a huge benefit. But another thing, we got an email from Gregory Ford, right? And he says, I’m more of a DIY research guy on the hunts. But when I received an alternate late rifle tag in Nevada this year, I decided to hop on, join up with your service. I’ve always listened to your podcast and always thought that the member list for the hunts was an awesome idea. I got the list, started reaching out. I spoke to a couple of awesome guys, got some good starting points, made it down last week, and had an awesome experience.
00:05:25:04 –> 00:06:26:18
Looked over a ton of elk and killed my biggest bull to date. Just wanted to say thanks, Greg. Awesome. So, I mean, it’s a great bull too. It’s gorgeous. Killed a stud. So it’s, it’s pretty awesome. So you can do that. If you draw, then call in, tell us you drew a unit and we’ll send you a list of other members who have hunted that in exchange for that, obviously you’re gonna, you know, return the favor in the future. So it’s kind of a members helping members deal. I’m a real big fan of the members experience list. That’s what I have to think for success in Colorado too. Nice. Yeah, that’s good. And a lot of guys have told me like, well, you know, am I bothering ’em? And I say, they’ve been in your exact shoes. Yeah. So they know exactly what you’re thinking, what you’re going through. Like they’ll know exactly what you mean when you call ’em. They’ve volunteered to be on this list, so they’re happy to talk to you about whatever your hunt is if they’ve already done it. So, and a lot of times the units are hard to draw, and it’s not like these people are going back, you know, every year. And so they’ll give you information that’s, that’s very useful. I’ve done it.
00:06:26:18 –> 00:07:37:23
And they, they didn’t know that I was part of the ethics staff, you know, just called and said, Hey, I’m John, I’ve got a tag, you know, here and you have anything you can tell me. Like, starting points. And I’ve, I’ve gotten, you know, onyx pins of waters kill sites, everything. Like, it’s, it’s pretty awesome. So take advantage of it. Join our membership. Now’s a great time to join. We’ve got some deals going on, and if you join right now, we’ve just announced our winter membership drive. And so you’ll get a free ticket into the winter membership drive. And also we’ve got a Black Friday deal going on. So some of you guys might not even know about this cash. And John, I wanna tell the members how they get a free ticket. Oh, yeah, go ahead. Because we have a lot of members that are like, oh, I’m gonna rejoin, but then they don’t get their free ticket and they’re a little disappointed. But everybody gets a free ticket when they join for the first time. Yep. When you’re a new member, you get a free ticket, and then if you are an existing member or have been, and you refer a friend who joins, then your friend gets a free ticket and you get a free ticket as well for having referred them. So there’s still an opportunity for existing members to get those free tickets also. Yeah. That’s awesome. Okay.
00:07:37:24 –> 00:09:08:07
And then, so like I was saying, the, the Black Friday deal, everybody has a Black Friday deal. And so this year we decided to do something big. So if you spend over $3,000 on anything, it could be combination of memberships, gift memberships, optics, hunt, hunt, giveaway, tickets, anything you spend with us, then you get a free epic light tripod. So, and free shipping. And free shipping that comes with the head. Comes with the head too. Legs and head. Legs and head to combo. That’s a $300 value or something. Yep. Yep. Yeah. So you get that free. So, and we’ve had rave reviews on it. We worked on it like crazy on in the design and development and man, couldn’t be happier now after having used both of our tripods all fall. And it, there’s just awesome, the, the panhead is so fluid and so we’ve, we’ve just heard a lot of good comments on it. So you’d get a really awesome tripod if you spend over $3,000 and that goes from now until December 2nd. So by Cyber Monday, which is December 2nd, if, if you buy that, then you’ll get that free. Awesome. Black Friday is now like Black Friday month. Yeah. All merchandising is cashing it. Black Friday month. Yeah. First it was a race to, to announce by Friday, then Thursday and Friday, then the week, cyber Monday, cyber, all the, so we just decided to beat everybody and announce it now. So.
00:09:09:22 –> 00:10:22:09
All right, Jana, we’ve invited you in to talk about one of our, one of our PA partners here. Yeah. And so if you want to give us some ideas, well, Christmas is coming up and everybody’s looking for a good gift to, you know, smooth things over from being gone for the last three months from home. And so anyway, we work with Steadman Jewelry and he does a great job of jewelry. They’ve been in the jewelry industry for over four generations, I think since from like 1901 or something. Their family has done jewelry, so he knows what he’s doing. And they do a lot of custom work, which at this late in the game, you may not be able to get your custom work done in time for Christmas. But he also has a wide variety of other options that are available for Christmas gifts. So you can reach out to him and, and he can help you choose something nice for Christmas if you’re looking for something along those lines. Also, if you do wanna do custom work, he’s done some for us. He actually did a replica of Jason’s buck that he killed, I don’t know when he killed it. 2007. Seven seven. Okay. I was gonna say eight, but 2000 Arizona, 2007 in Arizona. And we talked about it a few years ago, and it was before they had all that technology where you could do the digital replica of things.
00:10:22:22 –> 00:11:32:00
And it was too much detail probably to get it done. But anyway, now that they do that, he got a copy of the digital stuff and he was able to create, recreate that in a jewelry form. So he’s got just, Jason now has a replica of his buck and silver, just a small one. And then Jason had him do some jewelry for me last year for Christmas, which is beautiful. It’s a big deer shed and a set of earrings to kind of go along with it. And he’s got those available that you could order just over the phone or whatever. Anyway, I’ll give you his number. His number is (801) 201-5137. And if you call that number and order, and we’ll also have an ad in our upcoming magazine with some ideas, some pictures of some of the things he has available. But he does a great job and does all the custom work you can imagine. So if there’s anything you had in mind or have in mind may not be able to get it for Christmas, but could get it for a birthday. Yeah. And the, I asked him specifically, can you give us some things that are in stock that you can get, you know, for Christmas? For Christmas? And he gave us four or five options. I put four of them in the magazine, actually five. So he, he’s got, and these are affordable.
00:11:32:03 –> 00:13:13:26
So earrings, 45 bucks, solid sterling silver, he’s got mule sheds or elk shed earrings. And those are ready to go. You call, you can get ’em before Christmas and ram horn pendants too. And then Ram horn pendants for 80 bucks. They’re really cool. And then we’ve got two other pendants, elk and deer shed pendants. So you put ’em on a necklace, 75 bucks each. So yeah. Anyway, that’s really unique. Something you’re not gonna see, you know, everywhere. Be really good to wear to the expo with your, you know, your wife sporting some jewelry. And he can really do anything. He can do anything from, you know, elk ivory to diamond engagement rings. Really? Yeah. I think the elk ivory’s really awesome. Is really a staple. Like they do a ton of custom, they do a lot of custom work. They give Elk Ivory. So anyway, we’ve had a lot of experience with him. He’s, he’s a true artist on that stuff. It’s awesome stuff. So give him a call. Let’s see, and this is his personal cell phone. So you get one of the owner’s personal cell phones and call him anytime. (801) 201-5137. His name’s Cassidy. And he’s ready to go. Ready to work with you. All right. All right, Logan, should we try to call Jason? Yeah, let’s have, let’s have Jana. Let’s see if we can get him. Let’s do it. And Adam’s hunting actively right now, right? Getting ready. Adam and Jason. Jason.
00:13:14:00 –> 00:14:37:05
I meant not Adam. Sorry. Jason’s hunting with Justin right now. There you go. Colorado Mule Deer. Good. Hey. Hey, how are you? Good, how are you? Good. This is Janet, I’ve got you on the Epic Pick Outdoors podcast. Hey boss for crap sakes. Oh geez. We were betting on how much she’d sweat to know what’s Jenna said before this. We’re already at like two hours and 45 minutes. She’s not allowed on the podcast. I told him you might wanna edit it, but then I thought, oh, he’s gonna be in the field for a week when we really need to get it out. So I think we’re okay. There’s nothing in here that he needs to hear. Probably ought to run it by me. Guys are gonna get me fired. We’re just Logan worried for his job. We, we were just gonna check in with you and see how things are going. Good. Yeah, we’re just, we actually are just looking at rutting bucks right now. It’s pretty legit. Look, big ones. I, I would say we’ve seen double what you saw for a week, John. Oh, that’s awesome. You know what’s interesting about that? That it’s awesome, but it’s better. It is better. You know what’s interesting about that is that I’ve, it doesn’t matter how many times you hear things like that, the hunt always lasts till the last day. I don’t get it. It always goes to the very end.
00:14:38:00 –> 00:16:03:27
We are gonna edit this. No, it’s good. We’re just, we’re crushing it. It’s good, you know, you dunno, that’s a, a little uptick in in a quality experience. It’s not, everything’s been so great, you know? Yep, yep. Well, sometimes we just get on and we talk about the successes and we don’t ever talk about the bad stuff. And I’m telling you, there’s a lot of really crappy hunts that we go on and Oh no, don’t kill anything. And Oh yeah, there’s a lot of them. I, I think you do. And Justin’s due and, well, I don’t know if Justin’s due, but Justin, he has a pretty great Justin year. Justin Justin’s spoiled. He’s had a great year already. Yeah, he has. But yeah, he has. But anyway, what’d you guys talk about? Is Devvin on? Is Devon in there? I’m sitting here. Oh, there you are. So we actually just started, so, oh, did you? Yeah. I didn’t know what hunt you guys were gonna go, go over. Yeah, we’re gonna go over Devon’s and Cashs and bunch of other stuff, so. Yep. Nice. Well, yeah, no, everything’s good here in Colorado. You know, just trying to figure out where the deer are. Four season, you know, it’s one thing to, to see their migration routes, but then where they ended up and year to year could vary a bit. And so we’ve put on some major miles today and now we’re in ’em.
00:16:05:10 –> 00:17:24:15
So anyway, I thought this was an emergency. I would’ve screamed this call, but things are looking good here. It’s all, it’s all good. You know, that’s the thing about Colorado, you just don’t know if it’s second, third, or fourth, it’s gonna be your best hunt. And a lot of, a lot of guys, you know, think that second’s the best. ’cause it’s really the first time that, you know, in many units that the deer see rifle hunters. And so anyway, but I don’t know, I’m, this is no joke. This is pretty good. It’s, I mean, I’m just saying for, for, for being three hours into it, you know, so on a unit I’ve never been to before. So anyway, how are you guys? We’re good. I see you put out, I got my, a little text that says Epic’s doing some kind of promotional. Yeah. You know, when the count’s away the Misel play. I’m just wondering, I’m just wondering if you can, there’s proof that I went to work today. If we can cash the checks you’re writing. What do you got going, John? Yeah, we’re gonna, we’re gonna give away free tripods, man. So, all right, so we got an epic light tripod, it looked like with $3,000 purchase or something. That’s a just, so if you’re looking to buy optics, I guess now’s the time. Now’s the time, baby.
00:17:24:19 –> 00:18:47:19
And we, and we’ve got some deals too, like still Swarovski’s got some sales going, they extended till the end of the year. And so like, if you’re in the market and we’ve, we’ve got ’em in stock and we can have ’em to you, you know? Yeah. Immediately. So, well, I came, Devin and I came in off of Hunt and we had to kind of forge our way around all the boxes. I don’t know, we’ve definitely got some inventory, that’s for sure. Yep. So anyway. Right on. What else? Anything else going on? Nothing else, man. We’re just doing making, just tell us about these bucks you’re seeing. Let’s get a little bit more why it’s over here, like detail here. Come on, we talking like forearm mass, like we were talking yesterday. Yeah, I, for some reason I didn’t even think I, for some reason I was wondering if why it was even, I didn’t know. Anyway. I’ve just forgotten about Wyatt. Geez. I should have, I should have addressed you earlier. In fact, who’s in the room? Who’s in the room? Oh, we got cash. Wyatt, Devin, Logan, Jenna and John. Geez. Dang. All right, well, yeah, I don’t know what, what, what, what do you need to know? Well, like Devon said, forearm mass. I mean, come on. Did you see any base points? Cheaters. Droppers. Okay, so the forearm mask came from yesterday at lunch.
00:18:48:29 –> 00:19:59:09
There’s a white gel that’s got masks like, like your forearm and, but not mine. Just Wyatt’s forearm. You said? Wyatt’s forearm. Your forearm. If you’ve ever seen my arms. They’re not that big. So what about 2015? Remember that? Yeah. You should seen that was big. Wyatt, you guys keep changing the subject. We’re trying to dive, oh, sorry, that’s, that was, that was bodybuilder. Wyatt, important, important theier stuff. Well, I just got one question. Were you juicing back then? Yeah, I was just gonna say straight up hitting the Ros, I wanna know the juicing. Wyatt, what’d that guy look like? Roy rage, man, I had to live with him. You imagine. I’m just kidding. Wt, could you imagine on a cantankerous day. So anyways, watch out. So anyway, anything with cheaters? No, it looked, we did have, we did see a heavy buck. Heavy buck. They’re straight lining, like, so we’re seeing a lot of like single tracks. It was just a dusting of snow last night. Just a dusting. And then like, we’ll come across one single track, like we’ve done that four or five times and I’m like, geez. You know? And it’s been so long since we’ve had a real rut hunt. I don’t know what I’m, I don’t know what to expect hardly.
00:19:59:13 –> 00:21:23:04
But anyway, yeah, we we’re watching bucks, just straight line without do, and then now we just, just as I’m answered this phone call we’re seeing, we’ve got a dozen dos below us and a buck running another buck. And I don’t know, it’s kind of fun, you know? So fun. You know how we were talking about Devin, like how long’s it been since we’ve just really enjoyed like a true lip curl and freaking rut hunt, you know? Yeah, yeah. And anyway, I’m seeing it. I’m seeing what we what, what you go to third for. So it feels like, like maybe the last day of third season you might get that anymore. Yeah, kinda dumber. The pressure kind of settles elk hunters go home. Yeah. Deer hunters go home. And it’s like, you get that one day. It felt like that anyways, kind of. Yeah. I think when you, I think when you, yeah, I think when you hunt ’em, you, you change things a little bit. The intensity of the rut, maybe the timing slightly. Like we just alter that as hunters with pressure, you know? And anyway, o over the course of a decade, two decades, whatever it is, you know? So, so anyway, that’s definitely happened. But, and then you got lo location too within the states. So Northern Colorado tends what I’ve seen they wrote earlier than say swatch. Right. And so anyway, down in all that 68 type stuff. But anyway.
00:21:23:09 –> 00:22:32:00
Yeah, no, it’s good. I mean, geez guys, I’m, I’m in at three hours. Give me another couple hours, gimme call her back. Okay. You’ve got till three o’clock. I’ll have four masks waiting for you. I hope so, man. Laying on the ground. Those single fuck tracks. They drive me nuts. Yeah, they drive me crazy. They crazy me nuts. We saw a few when we were hunting and just like, I don’t know, just, I don’t know what it is. Well, and we started high, like, like you kind of hunt habitat and whatnot, but then you, and you start high and it wasn’t even that high. It was just awesome looking stuff. And there is, it is void of wildlife. And then we’re, we’re down in the desert driving up through and see a couple of deer off the road. Good bucks. We saw four bucks before we’ve seen a dough. And so, wow. Anyway, anyway, then just you see a couple of single bucks down in the desert and you’re like, man, you just hit the gas. You can’t wait to get to the good stuff, you know? And you’re driving by all the good stuff. Really, probably. And so part of that’s just a little bit of a learning curve. Each, each, each unit has it. But are we gonna talk about why it’s hunt? Are we gonna talk about Devon’s hunt? Yeah. Yeah. You guys are gonna cover everything. We’re gonna cover everything, man.
00:22:32:07 –> 00:23:42:07
You’ll have to listen when it’s published. Yeah. So be surprised. Just don’t believe everything Devon tells you. Maybe we should keep Jason on the phone and tell that story right now. Jason can participate. Yeah, we, I mean, we got, yeah, well we got I’ll, I’ll watch these Rutten bucks here for a minute. Devin, what do you got for us? I was just waiting for Wyatt to tell us about his stories. Well, I was doing, oh, we might as well start off with yours. We’ve got a good intro there, so let’s, let’s go with it. That’s a good segue. Why? It’s just hope and time runs out. Hey, I don’t have a lot to say. I could sum up my, I Idaho hunt in Oh, a matter of minutes. It was fun. I mean, I saw a lot of bucks. I saw a running activity. Just never could find that next level type deer that I really kind of hoped for and wanted, wanted to take with that tag. So I came home empty. Yeah, lot of, lot of cool experience. Spent a lot of time up there. Just, just me kinda dealing. You got it. When you say a lot of time you’re talking sleep in the back of your truck. How many days? I slept in the back of my truck on that second run, it was 12 days. So 10 nights. That’s no joke. Yeah, that’s no joke. It got no, it’s no joke.
00:23:42:08 –> 00:24:48:13
And why it hits it hard. Like that’s the one thing if, I mean, when he says he, he hit it hard, he hit it hard. And I, I just, I think, you know, part of that is just you’re, you were, you were in an area that, you know, you’re hunting basically general deer. They’re migrating down into a limited draw unit. But that’s just part of, of general deer management. They’re, they’re hammering some of these, these older bucks. Why, how many, how many? Four and a half, five and a half year old bucks did you see? Oh, I saw a handful. I mean, I, I can’t really tell. I didn’t ever count numbers kind of deal, but I, I bet I saw well over a hundred bucks in the time I was there. Like, wow. It was pretty, pretty wild. It seems like you were higher, it felt like you were like at 200 over the course of 12. It easily could have been. I know this, I know right there towards the tail end, I was easily seeing 20, 20 bucks a day kind of deal. So I mean, yeah, you probably, like, you were having ride fun, you’re seeing enough bucks, you’re like, it could happen at any moment. Oh, it was nonstop action. I was out all day glassing. I mean, I was turning up deer either bedded or, or still up moving, migrating, moving through all day long.
00:24:48:16 –> 00:25:56:28
I mean, it was just nonstop. And every buck I saw was one closer to a big one. I kept hoping, and I mean, it was just, just a riot. I, I called wt, I called Wyatt one day and he found a buck. Tell us that story, what that buck was doing. Oh, that was super cool. Yeah, that was kind Well, this, this is the one where Yeah, the, yeah, well just to kind of finish that little thought process and then I wanna hear the story again was, I think it, let’s just say you saw 150 bucks, let’s just kind of cut it in the middle. 150 bucks to 175 bucks and a handful of four and a half year olds that weren’t built quite right. And, and you obviously, we don’t know perfect age, but, but you, you know, you’ve seen enough bucks. What, what have you seen 10,000 bucks in your life or whatever? Yeah. Put your hands on a lot of ’em. Like Yeah, not, not even sure. Yeah. You’re kind of, you know, I mean it’s, you’re well versed in the milder world. So anyway, and so I think part of it, you know, you think it’s a numbers game, we gotta cover the numbers and if you see a hundred deer, you ought to be able to see a good one. Doesn’t, didn’t work out this particular time. But I think part of that is just, is the management.
00:25:57:01 –> 00:27:07:06
I I’m in a huge part of it, right? Yeah. What we’re dealing with this day and age is a lot of opportunity hunts out there and yeah, you had great dates and a little bit of migration and, and so you had a, a lot better hunt than a, than say a regular October general season deer hunter would have. But, but at the same time it’s, it’s part of it and just didn’t, just didn’t get lucky. But man, there’s no question when you say you hit it hard, I believe you. So, yeah, no, like, like I said, it was, it was fun. I mean that hunt, I mean any second could’ve been a, been a giant. And I just had fun looking over deer and just being up there kind of deal, just way cool country and learning the area and everything. Part of drawing that’s part of the fruits of draw of applying and drawing a tag. You drew that tag and you know, there was obviously not no points in Idaho, so it was kind of somewhat of, of a gift and, and a stroke of luck to get it and then somewhat of a gift and then to go up there and just have a world class experience, even though you didn’t find the buck you were looking for. It’s pretty awesome to see deer, you know, I mean there’s a lot of these hunts, John, right?
00:27:07:24 –> 00:28:04:12
And we just don’t see a lot of deer and we’re, and, and so it’s kind of nice to see deer. But anyway, tell us about this buck and oh, what you learned from that freaking deer. Oh, I just, it is kind of a cool story. One of the last days I was up there, well, one of the last, well, two or three days I was up there, I would say I had glassed up this buck and it was a gray light. Couldn’t, couldn’t really tell what it was. And I was actually glassing back across like a main main road. So it was a, a road that actually goes over to other cities and it must go to cabin lots, I imagine because there’s a lot of construction vehicles. It just sees quite a bit of traffic. So still at gray light looking at this deer can’t really tell what he is, he won’t really pick up his head. So I’m, you know, still glassing around a little bit. All of a sudden I, I hear a vehicle start coming up the road and I just turned to look back thinking that deer would pick up his head and that deer’s completely gone. I have no idea. Just in a matter he was just standing there feet with his head down. Yeah, with his head down. Never picked up his head.
00:28:04:13 –> 00:29:03:17
So hear that vehicle thinking, you know, he’s gonna pick up his head and look at it. ’cause he’s only a hundred, 150, 200 yards off the road, figured to pick up his head and look at it and that’d be my chance to see what he is. So I turned my oculars back and I cannot find that deer anywhere. I have no idea what he’s done. Anyways, that truck goes by, I continue glass and glass back over there 20 minutes later or so. Now the sun’s starting to come up and that deer’s standing there again with his head down, won’t really pick it up. And here comes another vehicle up the road. And as this vehicle is coming up the road, this deer tips over like a fainting goat. Like not even a, like a, a casual lay down type deal. It wasn’t like be laid down like a fainting. What? Goat, like a fainting goat. You ever seen that when they scare those goats and they just, their side don’t even bend their knees. Okay. I, I have, but I get it. Yeah. This thing just, just tips over flat on its side, lays its head flat on the ground. Wow. Geez. And lets this truck go by and then stands right back up. Wow. I mean, he had his head right on the ground.
00:29:04:02 –> 00:29:54:09
So then I start thinking that he’s injured or you know, you know, got a broken leg or something and I start watching him and, and he moves around just fine. He’s not even an old deer. I mean not even a no deer, I probably should have watched for this long, but he’s a, you know, just a little three by four type deal. But it was just cool to see him Smart react to yeah. To vehicles. And it wasn’t, you know, bed down, head up looking around kinda deal. It was head flat, flat on the ground. It was flat as you could lay. It’s nuts. So it was pretty, pretty, pretty wild to watch that. And I actually drove down the road as I was leaving that afternoon and glassed up there just to see what he’d do. And he was still laying there flat on his side with his, you could just see his one horn coming up outta the brush. Was the sun hitting him? The sun? It was kind of a cloudy day over. They lay on their side and they looked like they’re dead. I’ve seen him do that when the sun hits him. I think it just feels good. But like, yeah, he looked like a horse laying out in the pasture or son himself crazy.
00:29:54:09 –> 00:30:54:16
Well then, wasn’t it like he was up and standing and then you, and you glance him, you’re like, you kind of tested him, you’re like, I’m gonna drive by him and I’m gonna stop and look up there and you did it. And sure enough he was doing it to you too. Yep. As I drove down. That’s what I was saying. As I drove down to leave that a, you know, later in the morning or whatever, I looked back up there and he was laying there flat on his side too. So That’s crazy. I, I watched him do it one time entirely. And the second time I drove down there and he was laying on his side as I, I went down there. You just, you know, those like big deer? Yeah. Yeah. Those deer are special. I mean those, those deer are special. Those little quirks and habits and, and how that deer learned that he, you said that deer wasn’t even that old, so you’re like, how did this deer learn this? Yeah, exactly. I mean he’s two, 2-year-old. Four point, probably three by four. He just two, 2-year-old deer kind of deal was crazy. I mean, somebody definitely taught him that. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That’s crazy. Anything else you learned up there? You saw a ton of elk. Yeah, I saw a ton of bulls. That was fun. I saw the antelope in the high country.
00:30:54:19 –> 00:32:11:21
I mean it was, it was a game rich environment kind of deal. Well, this, this, so this, this is kind of funny. You guys tease the heck outta me for antelope, but then what? We get a call from Wyatt Wyatt’s like, dude, we’re freaking gonna archery hunt antelope up there in the high country. I’m thinking we’re gonna archery hunt. What, how far of a drive is that Wyatt? It, well, probably seven or seven or eight hours from Cedar. Probably. That’s probably six or seven further than we should drive for archery antelope. But what else can you hunt antelope on an unlimited tag like that? Like just give me tag every year when Wyatt called me, he said, stop what you’re doing and write this down. That’s exactly what he said. Well, Archibald has an addiction to antelope meat too. So he’s with antelope meat. Yes. He’s willing to take any animals we kill. I could kill three of those. I don’t get the antelope, I don’t get the antelope meat thing. Jana what? Jana what do you think about antelope meat? Yeah, I don’t, I like to give it away. Well, I’m right here. Yeah, you guys can hunt, arch, donate to Devin. My wife’s got that, that down and it, it, we have ans good antelope meat. John, your wife begs for your wife begs for ducks and is true horse meat and who knows what. Yeah, yeah.
00:32:11:28 –> 00:33:20:11
She can, yeah, she can make anything taste good. I think so. Oh. So yeah. Kind of kind of funny. I don’t know. Devin, Devin says he had an antelope steak like what, two or three days ago, Devin? Yeah. Last week or something. It was in, I found it in my freezer. I was, I organize him some stuff and I told my wife Miranda, I’m like, good luck. What I found it was a two pack and maybe we need to have, we, we cooked it like, not even on a smoker. Just on a, like a skillet. Yeah. It’s freaking amazing. Maybe we need to have Devin cook for the office and prove, I don’t think it’s, I just don’t believe it. Here’s my theory. It’s not about the cook that has nothing to do with it. They gotta die really fast and to get him on ice with an half I believe, I believe that too. But what about, what about the sage brush versus grass? You know where I killed that one in Nevada where he lived? Oh, it was disgusting. Delicious. And he was eating like dirt, you know, like there was, there was peak drought. Yeah. Like what was he eating? But he tasted great. Yeah. You know I’ve found an antelope tag last night and I hit Devin about it ’cause Devin deals with that kind of stuff or a stare at epic.
00:33:20:13 –> 00:34:40:24
But anyway, and, and I half, I half expect, he asked me how much and I half expected him to say I’ll take it gross little tour to make those decisions. I like they’re fun to eat. Well we definitely don’t buy antelope meat or deer or elk or any of that because it’s cheap. ’cause it’s not cheap. That’s true. You got you guys. Why do we invite her on these podcasts again? We’re supposed to encourage people to go hunting. Yes. Remember, make make memories. You guys are really good at it. I know y’all tell your wives, Hey this, this general tag is really cheap. It’s gonna fill the freezer and it usually takes three general tags to get anything in the freezer. And nobody talks about the gas bill or the $200 jacket. We’re not even, you had to buy. We’re not even, these are hot stories. We’re not talking about eight pair of gloves. ’cause you left last year’s gloves on the mountain. Nobody talks about that stuff. We’re not, we’re not, this is not a podcast about the challenges of marriage. I’m not talking about marriage. I’m talking about, I’m talking about, I’m talking about the value of the meat you guys feed your family. It is unsurpassed. The the quality is unsurpassed too. You know only the past. Yes, I know, know grass. I pure corn. The protein on planet or something.
00:34:40:24 –> 00:35:57:21
Yes, it has, it has extra benefits by the time you have chewed it enough that you can swallow it, you’ve burn up any calories that came in it. So it’s like diet here and you forgot it’s organic. I mean there’s a hundred good things. I know there’s a hundred good things. I know, I know all of them. So moving right, moving right along you guys. Logan, mute her mic for bit. Let’s see. John, I guess you know you weren’t successful. I guess she’s kind of talking to you John. How, how many tags did you have this year, babe? I don’t know. It was not enough because I’ve, I’m not doing too well. I need a, I need a few more to finish up the year. I’m just Justin. Justin there. Will you thank him for putting Justin putting me in the freezer? Justin. He is, he is. He’s gonna put some meat in the freezer. Tell him thanks for bringing me an elephant. I’m watching, I’m watching, I’m watching a forearm buck right now. Is that forearm buck gonna die? No, he was watching a forearm buck. He’d be off the podcast. He would not be talking to still. Well I think the, the service is getting a little scratchy. So let’s see. Cash. Cash. You who, who all went, who all went to Colorado? Just raise your hand in there. Who was it? Nobody can see us raising our hand.
00:35:59:26 –> 00:37:21:29
That doesn’t help you in any Stay away. Should straight up my hand in a square. State your name. I think everybody in the room. Everybody in the room went. Everybody but me and Wyatt. Did you go away? I did not. I didn’t go. Well he tried. We all, we all tried. He, he wasn’t for a lack of effort. He hit the, he hit the reissue process pretty hard. And, and, and the other side of that is he was in Idaho. He had a great tag and sunk all his eggs up there. So. Alright, so let’s see. I’m gonna let you guys go from here. Well you and Devon have Colorado to talk about a little bit. Yeah, that’s what we were trying to segue into and well we were, we were in, we were in Yuppieville, well the whole state yuppieville. So I, but we had, we had a good time. Devin, go ahead. I don’t know what to say. It was fun. Yeah. Some more dear than, you know, it felt like, I mean, same thing being out all day, seeing deer, like kind of anywhere you went in a way at some point or just a loan buck track just kept you going. It just gave you, it is just the same thing as why it said like it really could have happened at any time. Yeah. We saw some nice bucks. Just nothing we’d wanna shoot, you know. Yeah.
00:37:22:27 –> 00:38:54:13
Age class is definitely an issue and I think we’re finding that it doesn’t matter. I was, cash was asking me, you know, how it went. Obviously we never even saw a shooter, so, you know, but but having said that it doesn’t, that you could sum that experience up with every one of us. It doesn’t matter if, well, I mean we’ve hunted from, you know, swatch to Eagle to Rangely to wherever John goes over to, you know, over to Narita, to wherever. Right. We’ve hunt, Gunnison, all of these places and it just feels like it’s kind of the same thing. It’s just, but you, but it’s nice to have a tag. It’s nice to hit. We’re always everybody. We’re like everybody else. We’re trying to find new units. Where’s the next greatest place? You know, I’m relying on Wyatt next year for my plans. We’ve got a few good ones in the works. Yep. Yeah. I led him to 11 2 11 And you never let it down. I don’t know why he doesn’t take a little bit of the blame himself. He’s a man. He gets to choose. I did, I chose to follow your advice. Grandpa Jason, grandpa Jason was sit feeling sick that day and it wasn’t good advice. You were right there with me. So I was, that’s the one thing I will, I was, I will take my own advice and here we are with marital problems. I don’t think we have marital problems.
00:38:54:21 –> 00:40:07:22
We don’t, we don’t. It’s good that you take Justin hunting and he brings home meat we can eat. Yeah, I think it’s really great. Alright Devin, let’s move this thing. So sum it up. We saw a lot of deer on private and then and learn new country, right? Yeah. It was fun. Yeah, it was fun. And it was a new unit to both of you, right? Yes. Yep. Neither of you had been there. No, no, no. Well it’s the one thing about a unit you just don’t know, you know, learning stuff you like, like where I’m at right now, like, we’ve never been here either. So you think, do I need a four wheeler? Do I need a side by side? People call us up all the time. Do you know what, what do I need for a vehicle? Those are all challenges. You just take a vehicle, you can r run hard and then, you know, a side by side or four wheeler. So sometimes you drop yourself off and walk to a bike that you dropped off or something like that. You know, make a huge hike or whatever. So anyway, you just never know what kind of equipment you’re gonna need, but, or what kind of weather it’s gonna be. Devin, you got any pointers? If you had, if you were gonna go back, if, what would you do? Different things like that.
00:40:08:05 –> 00:41:21:01
Well, it’s just always, I love the, I love the aspects of hunting a new place. ’cause it’s all, I love that like, you just don’t know, like, ooh, look at that nub, you know, when you, and it’s all fresh. I love that part of it. But going, if I was to go back, I mean, yeah, you would do things different. You, you could always say that. And I don’t, some guys they hunt the same unit every time. They can draw as often as they can and sometimes that makes sense, you know? But I think a lot of guys will hunt the same place within the same unit. For sure. And I, that’s the one thing I think both you and I are similar in the fact that we’ll hunt the entire unit. We, I, I have a problem. I could spend a little more time in each area, but where it was new for us, we were hitting it hard. We just hit the whole thing, you know. But anyway, I’m excited I for one and I’m gonna let you guys go here shortly and I’m for it, a clean slate. I’m excited to make plans for next year. I’m super stoked. It’s always fun to think about each and every year and help other guys make plans and go over a license application projects and planning for guys and, and whatnot. And so anyway, I’m excited for a new plan.
00:41:21:13 –> 00:42:50:07
I don’t know, I don’t know. Everything’s, what do they call that? Off the table or on the table or what do they call that on the table? Everything. Everything’s on. Is that what they call it on the table? Yep. Everything’s on the table. Other than our tree antelope in Idaho kicking that one off pretty quick, huh? Well, I am expecting Wyatt to go do that. He’s not excited anymore. We just yanked your invite. So, geez. You know what it’s like to, to feel like everybody wants to be invited. We just wanna be able to say no, but we wanna have that opportunity. Yeah. Invite’s no longer extended, revoked. That is off the table. I don’t know, Jason. I think if we hype even antelope archery, antelope hunting for a couple months and everybody’s going, I think we could get you excited about it. So I’d put money on it. Oh man. It does, it does not take much. Hey Jason, how about the day we’re cruising along. We just seen some cow elk, hunters and Jason, we, we go down the corner and there’s four cows. Jason’s like, how far are they? You know, we don’t have a tag. He’s like, kind of wish I had a tag right now. What? Kevin? Kevin? Really? Really? Not just a cow, but a, an elk tag. Like just to pull the trigger man, right? Really? We’re gonna talk about this stuff. Well, so what? Yeah.
00:42:50:14 –> 00:43:59:03
One you’re just imagining like if I had had a cow elk tag, man, that thing would be toast. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure or something. So I’m just like, what? What? But what happens is, is everybody’s looking for a cow. Nobody can find him. And that’s all we’re seeing is crazy. But there’s cows everywhere. So we come around, they’re like, man, we’ve literally been working this, we’ve been hiking in knee deep snow. We’re we’re sitting there in knee deep snow. We turned it with the talon. And anyway, we’re sitting there talking to this guy and we’re like, he said, man, we’ve been really working it for Cal. And we’re like, man, geez, okay, yeah, well, you know, we’ll, okay, good luck and hey, we’re out of here. You know, it wasn’t what, 25, 23 minutes if, and Deb and I are staring at two cows and two calves and I’m like, I want to take out the whole herd, you know? And, and they stared at us, John, it was like 403 yards or 3 97 yards or something dumb. And I was like, usually call don’t do that. Like, they hadn’t been shot at it or So something They just stood there. Yeah. And then we go down, we’re going down and, and they, they were trying a new, new country, which you have to go down and out.
00:43:59:15 –> 00:45:06:17
They go down and out we see walking up this other trail and right above us, right above us is a whole freaking hurt. How many Devin? A dozen or more. Oh yeah. And we’re like, geez, you know, and then I’m like, but they’re like 657 yards from us. And I’m like, Devon, we should go get those guys. Then I’m like, no, no we shouldn’t. ’cause if we do, they’re gonna have to use our, you know, they probably can’t shoot that far. Well, if I have to use our gun then pretty soon, here we are gutting cow elk. There we are. And we’ve got, and we’ve got 2.3 days left. You know, we tried to, we even put a mark like in the snow in case we did talk to ’em, like tried to wave at ’em and they were just had their heads down hiking, man. They’d already covered like a mile. I don’t even know where they were going. And, and then how about they were like, we’re like, Devon’s like, Hey, have you seen any bucks? He’s like, oh, you should see this buck. Yes. Have we seen bucks? And we’re like, and he grabs his phone and I look at Jason, like, this guy, this cow elk hunter has found a giant in here. Yeah. Yeah. Devon’s like, what are we gonna look at?
00:45:06:28 –> 00:46:24:07
I give, I give Devon the quick elbow, you know, like that guy’s searching through his phone, you’re getting excited. Oh, I was like, he was like, oh, I’ve seen bucks. And he’s reaching through his phone and dude, he flips his phone around and it’s a 13 and a half inch, two by two without eye guards, a SL shank for, and, and I’m like, that is a really nice one, you know? Yeah. The nicest, the nicest people ever. Yeah. So we wanted to help him catch, you know, he was so excited to show us a buck. I’m like, we’re gonna see a cow for this guy. And we did. We just, you know, I can’t run that far in the snow. Catch him. We couldn’t catch ’em. They’re in a truck with chains. There’s no way they’re going back to where those other cows were. There’s no way they’re shooting One of the other ones we had hikers with whatever, the local hometown hiker gals that walked their dogs coming up the trail, which could have been a, they could witness a little bloodbath. It just wasn’t set up for, you know what I mean? Yeah. It just wasn’t set quite right. Funny. Devin, are you gonna tell me, tell any other stories? Or can I go, I tell the Utah buck. No, I stay on. That’s, are you gonna, are you gonna embarrass me or about our Colorado? No. Okay. That’s about it.
00:46:24:07 –> 00:47:48:16
No, that was funny though. That guy, I thought for sure he was gonna, I mean, I, there was no doubt in my mind it was gonna be a big deer as excited as he was, you know? Yeah. It was funny. It was fun. Yep. It was a good time. I would do, I mean, I would do it again if Janet let me, so Oh, when have I ever told you? No, we should talk about that. That’s why I still got, can you remember a time? I mean, you know, heavily browbeat. I’ve been heavily browbeat here and there. I think everybody in the office believes you. I just can’t believe they got you. Did they even, did they let you sit in my chair too? Geez. I’m pretty sure I’m in your chair. Yeah. All right. Well I think it’s kind of a fun time of year. Everything’s closing out. Everybody’s excited for the new year and sounds like we got Black Friday, or what do they call it, John? Yeah. Cyber Monday. Black Black Friday month. Month, yeah. Month. Alright. If you want anything, of course this is on top of having the best deals out there. There’s nobody cheaper than us. So if you, if you’re looking for something, give us a holler. Are you guys good if I go, I wanna look at this forearm buck. I think we’ve got something. Yep, yep. We’re good. Good luck. Good luck. We’re good. Wyatt?
00:47:48:16 –> 00:49:08:16
The forearm buck. Wyatt didn’t, Wyatt was like going. I, I thought you were going. Yeah. So when you hit that little red button. Well, I thought about it all night and I’m like, man, Wyatt, he hurt me. I mean, it was, it cut, it cut a little bit, not lie. I was hard on one of his white tails yesterday. It was pretty funny. It was kinda like that guy that showed us the picture. But we weren’t, Wyatt was excited. Look at this mass. Forearm mass. Why? It’s like it didn’t look that heavy or something. Yeah. Wyatt just turned to me and he goes, really? You showed me 10 bucks bigger than that. And I’m like, geez, guy. I mean, this is, this is a significant deer. I was thinking maybe B and c score wise. Maybe it was what my head was on yesterday. Why it’s hard, why it’s hard on us. No question about it. And just hard to please too. He takes a lot. So when he gets excited about our tri antelope pun, I think he saw something up there and I’m, I’m considering it for sure. Well you already, you already your invite got revoked, so you might be up the river without a paddle. Me, me and Jan are gonna go on our own. Antelope, archery antelope. No, let’s go buy with unlimited tag Bison tastes really good. Let’s do bison. All right. There you go. All right guys.
00:49:08:17 –> 00:50:30:06
Well, thanks for calling, but we’re gonna, we’re gonna keep the motor going. Okay. Good luck. Hey, good luck. Good luck. Be safe. All right. You all right? He didn’t have to push the button. I just pushed it for him. Did it for him? Yep. I’m gonna go, Wyatt, you think? Well, I think cash. Hi, you next let’s, let’s talk about your Colorado hunt. I want to interject before cash tells this call. Logan just wants to save himself quickly before I throw him in the fire. I just wanna interject that I’m a tough guy most of the time. Well, I happen to hit the window. That wasn’t part of the world. You happen. I guess so. I just wanted to interject that before the story gets told. And I inevitably lose all respect in the world. But anyway, proceed. Please. No, I’ll just start with elevation. Sickness is real. And I learned that secondhand. I did not experience it, but Logan got it in the fullest effect. It was bad. Were you cute? It was pretty bad. I thought he, yeah, I, I, I haven’t, I haven’t thrown up since I was in like middle school or elementary school. Yeah. So, but there was a couple of times where I was booking it off the trail to, so it was ’cause you’re walking, not getting an affair or just just the elevation. Well, just elevation. Yeah. Just got too high. Just high.
00:50:30:10 –> 00:51:32:25
We got high and then we started walking and you got high in elevation. We started walking. That’s not good. We got high and we, we were in Colorado. You gotta stop by the shop. You wanna rephrase that? We got up there in elevation. There you go. Okay. High in elevation. All right. And we started walking and this was the second day. So opening day, the hunt. And I get walking and I’m like, holy cow, I can’t breathe. And then I assumed that that was the elevation. And so I was just plugging along, you know, getting a little bit behind cash, trying to catch my breath. And then all of a sudden we start going up this steep part and I’m trying to breathe and I am nauseous and lightheaded and like can’t see straight. And finally I get to the top and cash is waiting for me in the saddle. And I’m like, dude, something’s wrong. We gotta stop. And he’s like, I, I look at him and he like, he visibly was not well, I felt, I felt green. He was behind me like a couple hundred yards. I was, in my head, I was like, dude, he is struggling. I was like, why is he so slow? And, and he gets up there and I’m like, geez, that’s why. And we, he’s like, pale cash. And I have hunted together before and he knows I’m not an outta shape guy.
00:51:32:25 –> 00:52:25:12
Like I could keep up, keeps up fun. I can’t run a mile with him, but I could keep up hiking. And so, and so I’m, so I’m sitting there, I’m like, dude, like you need to sit down. I’m sitting on a rock, like just hanging out, like waiting for him. He gets up there and like, does not look well. So I’m like, dude, you need to sit down or something. He’s like, I might throw up. He’s like, takes a drink water. I’m like, you’re gonna throw up, throw up. Like it’ll probably help you feel better thinking he just got like stomach bug or something. Yeah. And then I get thinking, I’m like, he’s got freaking elevation sickness. Sure enough, he’d dry heaps a couple times and I’m like, dude, stay here. Like, dude, don’t kill yourself. Not even hunting yet. After that I was shaking and I couldn’t stand. I tried to stand up and I couldn’t. So I had to sit down and it was bad. So he takes off the trail and gets a little ways ahead of me. And I, I hiked about a hundred yards and stopped. Hiked about a hundred yards and stopped. And finally after two hours, I’d made a half a mile. Yeah. And got up there and then that kind of set the tone for the trip for me. Yeah.
00:52:25:24 –> 00:53:34:01
I was afraid, I was honestly When you like started to throw up, I was like, I’m gonna have to pack him off the mountain. Yeah. Like, we’re back here. We were like a mile and a half or whatever. I was like, I don’t want to pack you that far. Like how would you do that? Would you like bungee him to a pack for I wouldn’t do it. I’d come the next day. I’m not a deer. You can leave overnight. Just trying to, like when you say pack someone off the mountain, like drag or like No, no. I don’t know. It was funny. But we figured out like his elevation band, like it was seriously to the number under that. He was perfectly fine if you got over that and you hiked more than half a mile, like of decently steep stuff, he was getting sick. How many days tell did you ever start feeling better? He wasn’t telling about the last day when in packing Morgan. Yeah. The last day I like was sick in the morning because we went the night before, we went down and then back up and then that was where camp was. And then to camp, we went immediately down and then way back up to where the elk was. And that did a number on me. And so the last morning I actually sat in the side by side for a good hour and let my nauseousness settle down.
00:53:34:16 –> 00:54:33:10
And then I hiked up to where the elk was. And then at that point I was pretty good after that. Yeah. Coming off after that you, you seemed fine. Yeah. But until then it was a little touch and go for a minute. Yeah. But like, I don’t know, going to like the first, the story, I guess we’ll get to like where the elk was and whatever. And, but anyway, we went out there the day before, had a full day to scout. I ended up pulling that tag off the reissue list, which was, I’m now like one for 30 attempts. So I, I mean got that one. I, I played it a little different strategy wise. I already had a deer tag and so I was like, well, I was like, I might as well get an elk tag if I can. And so the very first, the very first list came out and I was like, you know what? I think everyone’s gonna be going for deer tags. I’m gonna go for an elk tag that I’ve been on that I would take. And I got it and I was like, oh, that’s pretty sweet. So that’s a strategy people can use. Stay away from the deer tags and go for elk first and let me go for a deer tag next time. You know? And so we’ll take turns. Yeah, we’ll take turns. Yeah. No.
00:54:33:10 –> 00:55:36:17
And so we, I got it off that went out there, had a data scout. It kind of took us a minute to figure out where the elk were and where they weren’t. We figured out a lot of places they weren’t. And we figured out that there is a whole county that does not show the private land boundaries. Ooh. On OnX. Yeah. So that, like, that struggle. That county was like half the unit. Yeah. It was like the meat of the unit. Yeah. And we can’t see these private land boundaries, so we’re like hitting these ends of these roads. Like no trust guys gotta use maps. Yeah. And so we, we spent easily, we just went like for a concept. We just day went wheels on the ground and just hit sign after sign was like, well we can’t get in there. Can’t get in there. Gotta hit this trail. That trail take you clear up, then you have to hit the wilderness boundary and go over. And so just a lot of that was kind of the first scouting day. And we actually found like a dozen elk that we ended up line distancing. It was like 10 miles and they were just in the sun. We could just see color. Wow. And so we were trying to get to them ’cause it looked like, you know, right color. It was the best, you know, best we’d seen.
00:55:37:12 –> 00:56:47:22
And so we get down there and that’s when we started playing the private land boundary, just trying to figure it out and couldn’t get to ’em really. Unless we went and climbed like it’s like 2,500 vertical feet and like a half a mile and then was like clear back in here. We’re like, yeah, we’re not packing a bull out of that. Even if we got to ’em, like that would not be fun. We’ll go you you lost me at 10 miles. Yeah. We glassed them from 10 miles away. Then we went over there to see, we probably got within five. We probably, yeah. I mean it was, it was rough. 3000 elevation foot game. We drove over to where we could potentially get to them and it was, it wasn’t worth packing a ball out of there. And so anyway, we, we toured around the unit, figured out kind of where some pockets were, where they were hanging. And again, kind of going back to the member experience list, I called a guy that had hunted it previously and he kind of said, you know, these few drainages we were in, we killed some bulls here and there. And so that kind of gave us an idea. And that’s when we started going high. And I almost killed Logan. We were actually going up into a basin and I think, what were we, 11 five and we were climbing to 12 five. Yeah.
00:56:48:00 –> 00:57:56:18
So it was like 12,000 feet and Logan was feeling it. I was like his boundary. Yeah. It was like 11 five to 12 five. That’s way up there. Yeah. High. Well what I’m thinking, I grew up in Beaver. I hunted the Beaver Mountains. Yeah, I should be fine. Cash is like, the Beaver Mountains are like 9,000 feet. I was like, well where you were, where you’ve hunted, like the tops that you said you hadn’t spent like a ton of time in were like 13. Yeah. The peaks. And so anyway, we figured out Logan’s little boundary and I, I eventually like, we’re like, that’s just where the a well where the elk are solved. You’re just gonna have to deal with it. So anyway, a few days go by, we see a handful of bulls, things like that. Nothing we were gonna shoot and the day we killed, I can’t even remember what we did that morning. But anyway, it was an evening. Almost fell off a cliff that morning. Oh yeah, that’s true. You did almost, you almost died there too. Yeah, we, we found a, we found a moose and Lo Logan went to go around this cliff and the cliff gave, and he was all but off of a 50 foot cliff. I was holding on to a boulder. I went over there and was like, dude, what are you doing stepping this close to this for one? He’s like, well it sloughed off.
00:57:56:19 –> 00:58:59:06
And I’m like, there couldn’t have been a lot that sloughed off like legit, it could have been bad. Scared me a little bit. I was like, geez, okay, I’m never gonna get invited on another hunt again. I’m with liability at this point. At that point I was like, man, he’s gonna break something. Whatever. You’re gonna be pecking him out one way or another. Yeah, that’s what I was starting to think. And so anyway, that evening we went and, and I had a basin in mind that we wanted to get to, but then there was a ridge in between that we could look back across this other canyon and then hunt this basin. And so we get going up the trail and the main trail goes the opposite way of where I wanted to go. So that was a plus. And so we get off this other trail that’s not, not well beaten at all. It’s timbered in pretty good. And we get up there and it goes around through a drainage and we run into two guys that are packing meat and it’s kind of like a storm’s kind of rolling in and like all the wind out of my sail was gone. It was like, well these two just came like there’s nowhere else they, they’re packing meat out of other than that little basin. It’s not a very big basin. And they said that they killed a bull. Right, a good, yeah.
00:58:59:06 –> 00:59:58:10
And I asked them, I was like, oh, are you hunting cows or bulls? And like 90% of the people talk to are hunting cows. So I was like, oh, I just hope it’s a cow. And they’re like, no, yeah, it’s a bull. I was like, oh good bull. Like yeah, pretty good bull we killed. I was like, oh great. This is awesome. And so I was like, well I have no other plan like that we can get to in time for the evening’s. Like, well we’re gonna go up here anyway. We’ll get to that ridge and we’ll look back at this face. And so we get going across the, across the face to wrap around and I start storming a little bit. And so we kind of get under a tree for five minutes and it goes by and I don’t know, another a hundred yards down the trail we’re only like 300 yards from where we saw those two guys packing meat. And Logan looks over across Canyon, he’s like, is that elk right over there on those in those chutes? I was like, ah, yeah it is. So we glass and there’s a bull. Like I was like, I’m gonna kill that bull, like nice little six point bull. It was the best bull we’d seen. And so I was like, you know what, we’re gonna kill that bull and it’s across this canyon like 700 yards.
00:59:58:27 –> 01:01:11:22
And so lay down, Logan sets up the camera, everything. And I shoot drops him, he slides down and he legitimately slid on his side, slid down the mountain and then kind of tumbled whatever. And I, I hit high and maybe a touchback in, in full disclosure, it hit him in the spine and he kind of tumbles down and there’s one little patch of like four pines that are there and he never comes out of it. And so we’re like, okay, yeah, he’s probably die dead there or dying. So we watch that for like a half hour and we determined, okay, yeah, we’re gonna go over there. But on the way over I was like, we’re just gonna go as prepared as we can. Like we’re gonna hope for the best. And like we couldn’t really review the shot very good on like the little tiny screen. And so I was like, I’m pretty sure it’s, you know, he’s hitting the spine like he might still be alive so we gotta go over, we can’t let him lay overnight. And so we get over there, get close and through the pine bows, after we’d made the climb through the pine bows, I can see him start to move and so like crap, he’s still alive and we’re ready to go. And so I, there’s no way I can get up around fast enough.
01:01:11:22 –> 01:02:22:06
So I kinda have to shoot through the pine bows and I can see his hair and I shoot and I just see what I thought was a rock just explode. And I was like, crap, I just hit a rock. And he kind of gets up and drags himself off a little bit. His back, his one back leg wasn’t working very good. And he gets over and around the corner and I don’t get another shot. And so we start kind of tracking him and get over there and there’s not much blood in the bed. And that’s when Logan had seen him go around the corner. But it’s also the same way all of his cows went. When we originally shot, there’s nine cows and they all went the same way. And so we decide, you know, he’s not gonna leave, most likely not gonna leave this big thick patch of pines. And so we decided to back out, we’re not gonna push him any further. And what I found out was I hit, I like grazed him and there was just hair that blew everywhere. So there was like hair blown everywhere, but I just grazed him. And so I was like down in the dumps all night, didn’t sleep next morning we get in there and Logan, I mean we get back to camp that night actually and Logan’s like, I can’t even even eat like I’m so sick. I can’t even eat like elevation sickness.
01:02:22:08 –> 01:03:36:06
And so he doesn’t eat, I don’t eat much. I’m just sick about it. And so we go in the next morning, we get to the trail head, Logan stays there, which actually ended up being actually really beneficial that Logan happened to be sick and stayed at the trail head that that day because had, because had we done like what we would’ve done if he was there, it probably wouldn’t have worked out the way it did that morning. And so I walk up the trail and get up to the patch of pines and I was just gonna zigzag tight until I got up to where we saw like his last tracks. And so I zigzagged through really quiet slow that takes me probably an hour and a half to cover half of it. And I get up to where we see his tracks and I backtrack him a little bit just trying to find a single speck of blood to make sure that that’s his track and not a cow’s track. And so I kind of get into where they all mix and I find the biggest track, which I’m assuming is a bull track and start following up for about 50, 60 yards and look over to my left. And there he is like still alive and like just beded. And so I’m like, crap, like he’s still alive, this sucks. And so I’m like, well one, it’s good.
01:03:36:06 –> 01:04:39:16
We found him and two, like I can kill him right here and see he kind of gets up on his front knees and I hit him right behind the shoulder and he’s, he’s done after that. But that morning I did, I took a clip that’ll be in the video, but I took a clip that I feel like a lot of people can relate to when you have to leave something overnight. I was not optimistic at all. Like after we reviewed the video after I was like, that’s like just his back strap. Like I don’t, I, it didn’t break his spine. Like there’s not a ton of damage there. And so I went in like very, very low expectations of finding him dead. But I was like, if we can find him alive, it’s thick. We might not get a shot. And if he takes off it’s over. And so, but that to me that was just like a lesson to me of like, no matter how bleak it looks like, always do your due diligence and do what you know, you can like follow a track as far as you can and when you get another shot, don’t screw it up the second time kind of deal.
01:04:40:07 –> 01:05:46:12
But that, that kind of wrapped up that hunt and packed it out and it was all a good and dandy and saw some other guys packing out a cow elk from way further than we were off an entirely different unit. Those Texas guys, those Texas guys go hard on Colorado elk. It was crazy. Yeah. They were what several but did they say they were like eight miles? Yeah. From just camp then they killed it like two or three miles from where they camped. Yeah. So they, they killed it. It was weird. It was crazy the day they killed it, they brought everything three or four miles to their camp. Yeah. And then they were making one trip a day from camp to the truck to get everything back just hardcore. It was crazy. Wow. But they were like, they were stoked on a cow that far. I was like, man, I would never kill a cow and have to pack it that far. That’s tough. But that is my Colorado hunt. So even though you busted on Logan, he did spot the elk I was worth, I was worth it in end. He did spot the elk that at that instance he spotted duck. However, however, this is where I’ll take a little more of credit. He spotted the set the six cows that were like 50 yards off of from the bull. Oh okay. The bull was way above the cows.
01:05:47:01 –> 01:06:44:24
So Logan spotted the group but you spotted the bull. Yes. So i’s the only one I saw first I saw the bull and two cows. I was like yeah, that’s a bull bull. Anytime you have a camera man that finds out before you, you better keep that camera guy. I know. Thanks Devin. Yeah, thanks Devin. But to be fair, he probably doesn’t even have a scope. No I did. Oh, okay. Yeah, he did. My scope was the only one we used because that’s the little mini, that’s the only one with the mini scope and cash got sick of packing his whatever A TX. Yeah. I didn’t need the big sculpt was pack and everything. Just kidding. But yeah, the video’s gonna be interesting because cash says there’s a bull and all I saw was cows. He’s like, there’s cash. And so I immediately just start ripping gear apart to set up a camera, get a kill shot going. ’cause he said I’m gonna kill. And I get the camera put on the elk and I’m like, and cash is proned out to my left. And I’m like, you can hear it on the video. I go, dude, there’s not a bull there. And I’m like, what are you shooting at? And he’s like, no, the bull’s broadside. I can see him right here. Like he’s the middle elk. And I only thought there was the two cows in the bull.
01:06:44:28 –> 01:07:57:01
I didn’t even know there was six and I only thought there was six cows. And so anyway, after a few minutes we got it all sorted out. So yeah, to cash his credit, he is the reason that we saw a bull there. But I mean we, I think all in all we would’ve gotta to the top of the ridge and eventually glossed him up. ’cause that was literally right where we were watching. They were to the open anyway. And so either way we would’ve found him. But it was handy that we found him right there. And it was right after the storm broke. Like they’d walked out. Awesome. It was pretty good. It was fun. And may maybe we get a doctor comment on the, the elevation sickness. But I, I have had experience with it and it’s, it’s legit. I had it’s no joke a a youth group that we, we were taking, you know, on, on a camp out and we just decided to go hike this peak and we, we drove like a significant way up the like to 12,000 feet or something and we started hiking and it was like, holy crap. Half of us just got intense headaches and like wanted to vomit and, and whatnot. And as soon as like so half, you know, continued to the peak and half of us turned around and went down as soon as we got below, you know, a certain elevation.
01:07:57:01 –> 01:09:00:07
Everybody was fine. Yeah. But it was, it was intense in my, first of all, I wanted to say that cash is Colorado elk hunt is probably the hunt I’ve learned the most on just about hunting. We learned a ton on that hunt I feel like. And I’d never hunted the high elevation before. So it was definitely a learning experience for me. But as far as elevation sickness goes on my Colorado hunt for deer like a week later I knew I was gonna be about the same elevation. So I bought boost oxygen. It’s just pressurized oxygen in the can and you just take a hit of it and it solves most like the headache and the dizziness and the disorientation. It solves that part of elevation sickness. Nothing really gets rid of the nausea. But that boost oxygen worked really well for me in Colorado the next week. Hmm. What I, what I learned after I talked to, I have some family that’s doctors and stuff and I learned after like you don’t even have to physically exert yourself to get elevation sickness. No. Like you can just go stand there and breathe it and you can get up. Yeah. Right. I had it happen last year. Yeah. That’s like, it’s crazy. We, me and my brother set up camp and we were at like 11 eight or 11 seven. Yeah.
01:09:00:14 –> 01:10:02:18
We’re kind of just setting up camp and sitting there and I was like, I kind of feel like I’m in a dream. Like I felt like lightheaded, just lightheaded. I didn’t get sick or nothing. And then I slept and we hunted the next day and I kind of was over it, but there for a couple hours I felt. Yeah. Weird. So like had like at that time had you physically exerted yourself? I sure if, if we’ve drove right up the mountain after driving all day through Colorado, you drive to 12,000 feet and get out and start walking, you probably, probably a rough go. Yeah. You would’ve, we live it almost 6,000 feet. Like if you live, if you live in the south or you know, under 2000, well if you live any low elevation, a lot of guys will show up a couple days early, slowly acclimate. Yeah. I’ve had hunters do that that know they are sensitive to that. Yeah. And I mean there’s nothing worse than waiting 20 years or paying a lot of money for a hunt. You show up and you’re sick the whole time. Yep. Like that’s awful. Yeah. Can ruin a hunt pretty quick. Yeah. But it’s, I think it was good for you to know too though. Yeah. Especially since you had that Colorado hunt the next week. I would Yeah. Like I would’ve been toast to not knowing what was going on. Yeah. How’d you got over there?
01:10:02:18 –> 01:11:15:01
Like you never know what could have happened. Yeah. You know? Yep. So it’s something I think like Devin was saying, if you live in a low elevation, go to the highest elevation you can and figure out like what you need to do for yourself. Camp there for a day or two camp. Yeah. You know, show up early, get there too early, whatever. But yeah, it’s definitely a different animal when you get above 11,000. I used to even 10,000, there was two or three summers I’d spend all summer working in Louisiana. And I remember my GPS would say negative like two feet. Wow. Geez. And then it never felt bad after that. You know, we would finish our, our summer job or whatever and we, I would come back and within two days I’d be archery deer hunting it like 9,000 feet. And there was a couple times I’d get headaches. But it is a real thing. Like you’re not used to that air. I grew up in the mountains, but even then, like three months in the swamp. Yeah. And all of a sudden you’re at 9,000 feet used. You’re just like, you, you can’t get enough air. Crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. I think another one that, that I can tell about is I had, my youngest son got his first deer tag and I, I think just over the years, as you know, recently, general tags even have been a lot harder to draw.
01:11:15:01 –> 01:12:43:11
And anyway, he ended up with his first deer tag and just, man, I I think maybe it’s a sign of you getting old when, you know, that’s what gets you more excited than, than your own stuff is, you know, being with a kid on his first hunt. And I, I’m telling you, it’s a religious experience for me. ’cause I pray about twice as much as I regularly do this is just general Utah deer. Right. Yeah. And, you know, just that I want, just want him to have such a good, you know, a good time, good experience his first time, you know, so much and ended up being a tough hunt as far as like I scouted and prec scouted and everything that we scaled a lot and there were a lot less deer that I, that I was finding, but it was extremely hot, you know, leading up to that, that hunt in the eighties, you know, right before, and then we just got dumped on, you know, snow wise and I thought, oh, it’s gonna be awesome because we got snow and ended up just typically where we have deer that time of year we didn’t have any deer and it was kind of rough, but he ended up spotting deer 2000 yards straight up, like really high. And so it was, they were 2000 yards above us and it was just getting dark.
01:12:43:28 –> 01:13:59:29
And so we decided to come back the next morning and, and he spotted him again. And so we kind of made a plan and there were two options. He could take a 600 yard shot at the edge of the trees straight up or we could kind of circle around and, and work up a ridge and, you know, get to get to like 300 yards. And so we decided to, to go the long way around, ended up being four miles, a four mile hike up to him. And, but it, I think it was worth it, you know, just to have a short, a shorter shot for, for his first time. And man, he, I, I had him shoot that fierce carbon carbon rage and it was awesome. He just one shot and they were in, in brush that the most tricky part of it. It was like that scrub oak. And so most of the time you could only see like top of their heads in antlers and, and so I was like, I don’t even know if we’re gonna get a shot. You know, you’re waiting for ’em to stand up, waiting for ’em? No, they were standing up. Oh. The brush was just high. Gotcha. You know, and so we were just waiting for ’em to come kind of into, you know, a gap or something like that.
01:14:00:25 –> 01:15:21:06
And so he was, he was down prone dead rest, you know, bipods, we had, you know, a bag under the, under the rear of the gun. So he was, he was on it. And so it just barely came. And we’d gone over and went, when you’re with a first time hunter, sometimes you forget like all the easy stuff like, you know, zooming the scope in and out and finding ’em. And so I’ve had three other kids we’ve gone through this with. So we practiced and practiced and practiced, you know, zooming in, zooming out. And so we’d go over when we’d see other deer earlier in the hunt, you know, even if they were too small, I’d have him like practice that, get into position and zoom out, find the deer, then zoom in. And by the time we got on this deer, he, he had it down and I think just ’cause he was older, like a lot of the other kids, it’s a little bit different when they’re 12 than when they’re 18. And he was on it. And then we joke, he’s like, it’s all the Fortnite practice dad. He intense situations when everything’s on the line. Fortnite, black ops, like you said, it was a waste. It wasn’t a waste dad, you know, he saw an opportunity to sell you on it right there. He did, he did. So, but, but it was, it was awesome.
01:15:21:09 –> 01:16:36:27
And he, it was funny because the brush was so tall he shot and the deer disappeared and I’m like, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t know for sure if he hit it or not. And he’s like, I’m pretty sure I hit it. But there were three other bucks with him and so there were four bucks total in the group and three we watched leave and I’m like, I you probably hit it, but thought he was pulling the old fainting goat trick. Yeah. It was the exact same though. Like just bad. We got over there and he just tipped over like boom, fell right over, didn’t move. Is that with a seven MPRC? Yeah. Seven MPRC that Devin sold me. So pretty fantastic gun. And yeah, he pun punched it, you know? Right. I mean, we’d had the anatomy talk, we’d had everything and, and he punched it just right in the shoulder. So it, it was pretty awesome. So yeah. And, and nothing like that first time, you know, they, they kill and they’re excited about it. So anyway. Good, good experience. W do you remember your first deer? I do. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about that. I’ve never heard anything about that. I just, you know, we, we probably ought to finish some present hunt stories before we go to past hunt stories maybe. Is there something I don’t know about? No, I just never heard.
01:16:36:27 –> 01:17:46:06
I’m like, I’ve never heard, I never even heard anything about why it’s First Deer. I haven’t heard anything about anybody’s first deer. So I mean, you’re kind of, there’s another podcast for another day. Yeah. Yep, yep. First Deer stories. So good experience. All right. Who’s next? I think it’s Devon Arch Ball Talk just like yours. Just a general tag. And I mean, I’ll just be as honest as possible. I did not have very high hopes. I mean, we always scout hard and it’s kinda like, it’s the closest to home so you can still, you know, have a life work and do all that and still hit, hit the hills. And I think through all my cameras scouting glassing, I had maybe one deer I might shoot and you know what I mean? That one target buck. And so archery hunt with my brother muzzle, we were in Alaska. Mean what? And Josh, so that was out and then all of a sudden it’s the early hunt. And I was with my dad, the early rifle hunt, he had a tag. And I gotta tell this part of it, it’s kind of funny. It’s ’cause your dad like you’ve hunted with your dad and like he’s the man, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And this day it’s opening day and he was already kinda like, do you think there’s deer down here? You know what I mean?
01:17:46:06 –> 01:18:53:18
Like I could tell he he had not high hopes and he, he made a couple comments and we start cruising. We’re in my side by side going along and all of a sudden we start seeing deer, like quite a bit of deer. One little four point, another little four point. And I’m like, gee, this is pretty awesome. You know? And so he’s like hyped up high alert and he’s got his rifle case. He’s in the front seat with me and he’s turned to the side of the window and his hands are on his lap. Okay. And I’m not thinking anything. Right. We’re, we’re flying along. Maybe I don’t drive too fast. 13 miles an hour maybe, but it’s sandy and like when you hit the brakes, you stop. Yeah. And I look over and there’s about nine 10 dos and I just see antlers in the middle of them and the sun’s hitting the antlers and I just, I assume he sees ’em, they’re like right there, you know, and I hit the brakes like here we go. And he was totally oblivious, probably just kinda like, you know how you’re in a daze looking out a window and I hit the brakes and he goes, flying my windshield is up forward like that. Yeah. And I remember seeing out of my eye, his body, like over the hood, Jesus.
01:18:53:19 –> 01:19:56:05
And then he comes back down inside of the cab and he just looks at me and his eyes are like this big round, like I’m hurt bat basically. He’s like, oh geez, my neck, I’m hurt. Like, he was just in shock, you know? Yeah. And so now I’m like, well how bad is it or are we gonna kill this deer? Like, I don’t know what to say. It was just funny. We laugh about it. He gets out and he is like, I, you know, he’s looking at the buck and he, he decides to pass the deer, which was a total mistake ’cause it was the best deer we saw in like, quite a while. Yeah. The whole rest of the hunt. But poor guy, he saw his legs flash before his eyes. Oh. It was fun though. It was fun hunting with my dad. So then we were hunting, I, you know, it was the, the later the normal deer hunt and me and him were together and I was hunting. It’s, it’s just fun. ’cause it’s all my brothers, my brother-in-Law, my brother’s friend. Yeah. Like we have a pretty big camp and it’s just, I don’t think any of us, like after three or four days of seeing doze and two points, it’s just like, man, this is gonna be tough. Like Yeah. And all my brothers have killed some great buck. So where it’s just like, it’s more of a family thing.
01:19:56:05 –> 01:20:55:02
You don’t have high hopes. And, and I certainly didn’t, but me and my brother Brandon were hunting and I got a call from a buddy who said, Hey, my friend just called me and they saw a big deer, like, you have this tag, right? And I’m like, yeah. And he says, well, you should call him. And I’m like, dude, this never works out. You know, I was like, why wouldn’t they kill it then? Yeah. And he said, well, their, their, their sister-in-Law or whatever, had to go back to work and this is like opening day. Yeah. She killed a little four point and left. So the, the like they wanna see if they can find this deer. Yeah. And I was like, okay, I’ll call him the next day. I, I kinda let it go the next day I call him and my dad’s like, let’s go. You know, like, I don’t really know these guys very well, but we met up with Kay and his dad and they’re like, yeah, we saw him over here. And I’m thinking, I feel like I’m wasting my time a little bit. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, I hope, I hope this, these kind of things never work. So we hunted there, looking around, didn’t, didn’t see much. Did they get like a video of it? Did you know what it looked like going into it? No, of course I asked the question like, okay.
01:20:55:04 –> 01:21:54:01
They, they said it had one cheater. They thought it was heavy, you know, but like, not a lot of detail. Yeah. Yeah. And, but you know, whatever we, it’s the best option at that point. Like it was not looking good. There was not, it was hard to find mature deer. Yeah. And whatever. Me and my dad are just hunting. And so the, the second day we were looking in that area, Katie, we were with like, let’s go up on this point. And like, it’s like 10 30, almost 11 in the morning. He’s like, you never know. You know, we go up there and it’s kinda like, you know, that late morning where you’re just kinda, you’re not, you know how you are at first light compared to like 11 in the morning. Yeah. Yeah. You’re kinda like, there might be something. And we’re kind of standing there and my dad’s like, Hey, I forgot my phone at camp. Like, take a picture of this, you know, over here and looks cool. And so I was like, well just stand there and I’ll take your picture in it. And he is like, I don’t need to be, I’m like, stand there, let’s take your picture. You know? So we’re taking photos just, I mean talking kind of like, not really loud, but just not in a deer hunting mode.
01:21:54:08 –> 01:23:03:09
And we do that and I’m kind of standing there and I’m looking and I glass up just, I could tell it was a buck and turns his head. And it’s a two point of course like the rest of the deer we had seen. And I’m just still kind of scanning, scanning and kind of talking to my dad and I’m scanning, scanning and there’s like this dark hole in this thick face and I see this deer’s butt and you know, like, yeah, it’s not a two point. And I got my tens and he like lifts his head and it was just that movement and I just put my vinyls away and I took off running to the, the side by side to grab my rifle and my scope should always have your rifle on you. Right? That’s what they did. Yeah. I ran fast and when I came back, I set it up and I looked in that scope for probably 1.2 seconds max. Like no question. I’m killing the steer. And then I just went into kill mode. Yeah. And I’ve told myself so many times, like the next deer I kill, I wanna like watch him like stadium take my time on the shot, you know? But I know if this deer goes any direction, 360 2 steps, he’s gone. Yeah. You know, and then, I mean at least I know there’s a, there’s a shooter right there.
01:23:03:11 –> 01:24:10:05
But like you kill him when you see him. And so I was just kill mowed. So is, I mean, is he, is he beded or standing? Standing feeding. Feeding. Like has no idea we’re there, but any direction, literally two steps. He’s gone. And when you say he is in a black hole, you just, it’s just thick, thick, thick brush. It’s so thick. Yeah, it’s thick trees. And like he’s just in a hole that I opening I could see in below me. Yeah. And I laid down and my legs were above my head and I did like, I’m like, this isn’t gonna work. But I’m like, not like I was calm, but I’m just panicked. ’cause I’m like, he is gonna take two steps, gotta hurry and be gone. And I just started, I killed him. That’s about it. And me and my dad just looked at each other like, this freaking worked. It happened. You know, it was so cool. Walked down there and he was an awesome deer. Yeah. He, he is awesome. Like, I remember when I got, when when I saw the text come in when Devon like tells you he killed something. Like it’s something like, it’s not like just a buck. Like it’s gonna be something. And so I’m like, oh, Dylan killed a deer, or Devin killed a deer. So I’m expecting like this like nice pretty 180 inch deer, like on a general tag, like something he’s gonna kill.
01:24:11:00 –> 01:25:18:18
I open it up, I’m like, holy crap. He killed a frigging deer. And I just, the side profile is like, dang, dang. I know man. Dang. When I walked up to him and like saw his side profile, it’s like, it’s just awesome. Yeah. It’s like what you dream about. He’s, I was just like in shock like that literally I saw one other deer and I hunted the rest of the, with my brothers. I saw one other deer that was maybe three years old. Wow. Geez. It’s the one and only 3-year-old plus deer. I saw that we, you know, would even make you unzip your rifle case or whatever, get your scope out. It was just so explain how he’s built, he’s 23 and a half wide, I think just under 24. So he’s really narrow. I knew he was narrow. Yeah. And I could have swore I saw some pretty decent eye guards, but when I pulled his head out of the bush and they’re almost fivers. Yeah. They’re, they’re to die for and base on, like, you grab the bases and it hurts your heads. It’s pretty awesome. Buck. Yeah. Baal points. He’s got two kickers on the left, one on the right, two basal points, and then five or almost five inch high guards. Yeah. He’s deep. None of of, none of his times are less than nine. Right? No, they were all, they were all like nine plus three.
01:25:18:18 –> 01:26:24:13
He’s like two and a half shy, 200. So she added up. Who posted that on Instagram yet? He hasn’t he hasn’t gotten his own post on Instagram yet. We’re still working through all of our, if you don’t follow us on Instagram, you wanna see this deer and I’m, I’m telling you wanna see this deer then give us a follow. It was cool with my dad, you know, just, yeah, it was awesome. It’s always special when you’re with family or your dad and like, just I’ve, you know what’s funny, I told my dad the day before, I was like, man, we’ve, we go hard. Like we’ve been, we’d hunted for the whole early hunt. All the archery, like all the scouting. I was like, maybe the mule deer gods will just watch us and feel so bad for us. They’ll just like give us one. I said that the day before, like maybe we’ll just get lucky, you know? Yeah. And it literally was like, like here you go. Oh there he is. It was just crazy how that happened. And for killing like a top end buck on a general unit that happened really fast. Like how you killed it, you know, finding out about Yeah. So like, and, and it’s, I like, I call him ghost bucks, like some of the bucks in Nevada. Like there’s no trail camera pictures. Yeah. There’s no video people that name ’em.
01:26:24:13 –> 01:27:32:17
Those are like, they’re so rare nowadays and it’s just, it’s just awesome. I love that kind of stuff, you know. But so as a perspective from the min from the second you very first saw him to when he was dead, how long, how much time do you think it lost? Well, I ran 50 yards of the truck, grabbed the scope rifle. The rifle was unzipped un I already knew. Yeah. I already knew. I could tell. And then you minutes, you always wanna check minutes, make sure Okay. He, he is alone. That’s the buck before you shoot. Yeah. Minute and a half. Minute and a half. So I mean you take, it would’ve been quicker if I didn’t have to move. Yeah. Once I laid down, prone to shoot. So I mean that’s, and he was 500, 500 yards. Yeah. So, but he had no idea. He had no idea what was there. That just speaks to like how fast things can change when hunting. Like you hunt all the archery, all the early, all the late and the least expected literally a minute and a half. That is what your whole hunt is made for and situations like that is what, it’s crazy. Yeah. When it gets tough situations like that is what keeps you going during like the tough slow times where you’re like, Devin had nothing going on and then he killed a 200 inch deer. Like, just like that. It can turn around.
01:27:32:18 –> 01:28:41:23
So literally makes crazy. That’s the kind of stuff that keeps you going. Yep. Yeah. That’s pretty awesome. Pretty, pretty fun. I think that he was probably bed at early at first light or something. It was thick and they hear traffic and you know, it’s just like Wyatt’s buck, like they just remain calm. They don’t do anything crazy. And I know I glass down there before my dad said, take the pictures and I didn’t see anything. You know, it’s like he, I don’t know. He, he was probably there, but yeah, he was up feeding at 11 in the morning. Him and another buck. They were about 50 yards apart, but like things calmed down and he was just, yeah, it was just awesome. I think buck’s kinda learned too, like early morning, like they’re hearing all that traffic and stuff like first light, I think some bucks learn like I’m better off to feed at noon than I am seven 30 in the morning. Especially deep in the second rifle hunt. Yeah. And that’s what’s hard about generals is like you’re hunting there and man like, you know, there’s, you know, there’s probably a buck in this area or whatever and then just headlights and noise and trailer slamming, doors slamming, whatever it may be. It’s just like every day it felt like something like that was happening. And it’s just hard. Those general hunts are tough, but that was probably the luckiest one.
01:28:41:23 –> 01:29:58:05
I’ve been dang lucky in life and very blessed. But that, that but was, that’s your top lucky. That’s pretty hard. Lucky yeah, it was so Well that’s awesome. I think, we’ll we will probably wrap it up. Anybody else got any stories for this episode? I think we’re done, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean we got, we got a ton more stories to tell in the office, but yeah, we got a ton more stories coming soon and I think Adam’s got the lion’s share of stories, but he’s not here so we’ll catch him when he comes in. But we wanted to bring you a podcast even though it’s a rough time of year force. We’re, we’re in the field a lot, so we pretty much, you know, work nine or 10 months really hard to, to be in the field. So thought we’d bring you on here and like to give a shout out to Fierce Arms. That’s a rifle that, that I’m using right now, that seven M-M-P-R-C and man, I can’t, I couldn’t be happier with it. And we’ve got, we’ve got some in stock. If you, you’re looking for a new rifle, then you don’t have to wait, you know, 10 months to get it. They’re, they’re shooting lights out and we’ve got, we’ve got some suggestions on the setup and the scopes really, really get ’em, have ’em dialed in.
01:29:58:07 –> 01:31:16:13
So give us a call here at (435) 263-0777 if you’re in the market for a new rifle. And if you, if you’re in the market for some optics or get a free tripod while you’re at it, get a free tripod on that black ride. You get a rifle scope, you’ll be in there eligible for that for sure. And, and our philosophy kind of is to give, give discounts kind of all year long. So especially, you know, if you’re a member you get a discount all the time. And so it’s, it’s kind of extraordinary that we do something else. That’s, that’s pretty awesome deal on top of things. So now’s a great time to, to call and, and pick up a rifle, pick up, you know, optics or, or you know, if, if you’re under the 3000 mark and you want to add some hunt giveaway tickets, now’s a great time to do it. We just open that. So give us a call and we got anything else, Logan to shout out? We’re all good? Yep. I think follow us on social media. Go to the website right now if you wanna see the, the hunts that we’ve, we’ve announced, we’ll have a little more info on that, but great time get, you know, kind of pumped up for, for next year, get your, your application strategy set in.
01:31:17:03 –> 01:32:45:10
Now’s a great time to join our, our membership and really get, get your next year’s applications kind of dialed in and we can help you decide, you know, where you’re gonna draw, where you’re not gonna draw, where you need to build points and, and get you set up. But until next time, let’s face it, if your goal is to kill big stuff, you need to draw quality tags. Quality tags are typically hard to draw. To increase your odds of drawing good tags you need to apply in multiple states. That’s where an Epic Outdoors membership can help. For only 150 bucks a year, you get access to our consultants, our online tools, and to epic approved outfitters and members only optics discounts with unlimited access to our team of consultants and access to the Epic Outdoors magazines. Applying in multiple states is easy. No more worrying if you’re applying for the best areas. No more applying for a unit where there has been a die-off and no more missing opportunities where you could be in the field and not sitting at home. Go [email protected] or call us today at (435) 263-0777 to find out how you can become a member today. KU U is the most uncompromising camo on the market. Their new guide Pro series is the toughest, most comfortable camo you will ever own. Check out their new additions and shop men and women’s camo [email protected]. That’s ku iu.com. Kenna Trek makes boots for every hunt.
01:32:45:10 –> 01:34:07:15
Whether you’re hunting sheep in the high rocky altitudes or low crawling sage brush for those desert mules, Kenna Trek has you covered, check out their world class Mountain Extreme Streamline and their brand new Bridger High [email protected]. K-E-N-E-T-R-E k.com. Applying for tags in multiple Western states can be time consuming. At Epic Outdoors, we have you covered whether you want to expand your hunting portfolio or simply ensure that you never miss a deadline again. The Epic Outdoors license application service is exactly what you need. It’s like having the best CPAs in the finance world do your taxes. Let the best hunting application gurus in the world do your tag applications. You’ll never miss a deadline. You’ll never apply for the wrong unit and you’ll never apply for a unit that’s having a die off. Your time is valuable. We do the work. You draw the tags. Epic Outdoors license app 4 3 5 2 6 3 0 7 7 7. If you want a bow from the best manufacturer there is. Look at Hoy Archery. With the addition of the new carbon RX eight and the aluminum Alpha x Hoyt has reimagined what a bow can do. Hoyt bows where 70 pounds feels like 60. Call us to order yours today. 4 3 5 2 6 3 0 7 7 7 With fierce rifles. Every detail matters. They are hands down one of the best rifle manufacturers in the industry and they never seem to stop making new innovations.
01:34:07:24 –> 01:35:38:24
If you want to get serious about your long range shooting, call us to talk over your options for your next fierce rifle. Epic Outdoors is an official fierce Rifle dealer. Our consultants know their whole line of rifles inside and out. 4 3 5 2 6 3 0 7 7 7. Epic Optics is an authorized dealer for Swarovski, Leica, Zeiss Vortex, Leopold Kawa, SIG Sour and More. Here at Epic Optics, we are committed to getting you the best deal for the glass that fits your needs. Go to epic optics.com or call in to speak with our consultants who will fit you with the perfect optics for your next hunt. 4 3 5 2 6 3 0 7 7 7. If you are looking for your next hunting property, look no further than St. James. St. James are the experts in all sporting properties across the west. Their team of agents will spend the time getting to know you personally and find out which property out of the hundreds they have listed is perfect for you. If you’ve always wanted a property where you could hunt and fish, go online to st james sporting properties.com or give them a call at (855) 711-7577 to learn more. Vortex makes optics for every occasion. Whether you’re a long range shooter, dialing in that perfect shot, or an archery hunter in need of an easy to carry optic without sacrificing quality. Vortex has you covered. Head over to epic optics.com or call us to learn more about your vortex options today at 4 3 5 2 6 3 0 7 7 7.
01:35:38:29 –> 01:37:05:18
From top of the line hunting blinds to game calls that can’t be beat. GSM Outdoors has you covered for whatever outdoor equipment you need for all of their products. Head over to gsm outdoors.com to learn more. Thompson Long Range has perfected the art of simple, affordable, long range shooting. If you don’t want to calculate ballistics or adjust your turrets before making a shot, a Thompson Long Range System is for you. Simply range. Place the hash mark for that distance on the animal and pull the trigger. They make top quality rifles and host a shooting school that will leave you confident in making shots out to a thousand yards. Visit Thompson long range.com to learn more about purchasing your next rifle or booking your next shooting school experience the crew at Epic Outdoors Trust stealth Cam Trail cameras to get us through the scouting season. Stealth cam is the leading trail camera brand because they never stop innovating. Check out their brand new line of trail cameras, including the Revolver 360 degree [email protected]. Epic Outdoors is an official stealth cam dealer. Call us to order yours today at (435) 263-0777. Phone scope. Change the game with their Digi scoping Innovations and have remained the top phone to optic adapter on the market. Check out the incredible new Carbon Pro phone scope [email protected]. P-H-O-N-E-S-K-O-P e.com. Outdoor Edge is the knife that we all use here at Epic Outdoors.
01:37:05:18 –> 01:38:13:03
Whether it’s a replaceable blade or fixed blade, you will not be disappointed with your outdoor edge knife. Head over to outdoor edge.com and check out their brand new razor VX knife today. Epic Outdoors is proud to be an official Zeiss dealer and optics partner. When it comes to top tier quality. Zeiss has been a leader in the industry for generations. If you are in the market for new optics, give us a call for unbelievable deals on Zeiss products. Giving you the highest quality and durability out there without breaking the bank is what makes Zeiss so good. Check out our website, epic optics.com or call us at (435) 263-0777 to find out which Zes Optic is perfect for you. Epic Outdoors is now an official CVA muzzle loader dealer. If you are in the market for a new muzzle loader, our staff can go over the different options that you should consider. CVA muzzle loaders are the go-to muzzle loader. For Epic Outdoors and Crew, we’ve definitely got our favorite setups for Western big game hunting in stock. Call us today at (435) 263-0777 to find out which CVA is perfect for your next hunt.
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