In this episode we continue with success stories from the crew! Cache Lynn and Logan Marshall had an incredible time during the Colorado 2nd season rifle hunt. Cache and two of his friends were all able to harvest great bucks during their hunt. Logan also went to Colorado and hunted a target buck. He was able to make it happen after a tough hunt. Adam Bronson also hit the field earlier this year and was able to get an awesome Wyoming Antelope for himself and a Wyoming Elk for his daughter.
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 –> 00:01:25:08
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. Hey everybody, it’s the Epic Outdoors Podcast. We got a kind of a skeleton crew to hear here today. I’m not sure what we call us. If it’s the B team, they what? But I’m not in, not in mid-season form when it comes to podcasts. I’m gonna be the first to admit that. But we got me, John Wyatt Cash and Logan Logan’s here for ’em all. So never miss one, but, but I’m not, so things are a little rusty around here, but you guys all been doing all right. I’m back and Yeah, you’ve been doing, I had to introduce myself to a few of the people here around the office. You, you’ve had some days in the field, I’ll tell you that. Yeah, it’s good nights for a guy. Well, good’s. Good’s good if you bring something home, but good to just miss your bed and family and everything else sometimes isn’t so good. But we’re hunting. I can’t be, I can’t make light of it because I’m not picked on when you’re, when you’re out hunting, you can’t feel like you’re too picked on.
00:01:25:08 –> 00:02:38:07
But it’s been been a bit of a grind, not gonna lie this year. We do have a couple bright spots we can talk about today. A little bit later. Yeah, a couple, well, one state was good to me this year and my family, but other than that, yeah. Just want to give a quick shout out to our title sponsor, which is the Western Hunting Conservation Expo. We’ll be there as always at our, our natural booth location. And that’s gonna be February 13th to the 16th, 2025. So if you haven’t jumped online, get your tickets and whatnot for especially the evening, evening banquets, they do sell out on those. So if you’re interested in attending those, make sure you get those in ahead of time. I did notice, Wyatt, we were talking that we’re, we’re already wanting to flip the calendar to 2025 ’cause we mostly wanna forget about 2024 in, in several regards. So we’re looking forward to draw tags for 2025. Wyatt and I have been trying to apply every day for the expo tags, just for, just for some optimism. It’s not up yet. They’re not, they’re not up. So that should happen probably any day. But what else about the expo? We’re gonna, we’re always doing something weird there. Logan, what do you got in mind this year? Yeah, we’re gonna continue a tradition that we started last year.
00:02:38:09 –> 00:03:49:04
I guess it’s not really a tradition yet, but last year, kinda like the masters, A tradition like none other. Yeah, A one year long tradition. We, last year we partnered up with Monster and did a little giveaway, posted some hints on our Instagram story and had people come find us and they got a little goodie bag with some stuff, some monster merchandise, backpacks, shirts. And then every once in a while we gave away a tripod and then one time we gave away a little spotter. So this year we’re gonna try and do something similar, get put together some goodie bags and post on our Instagram story a little bit about where we’re at. And the first person to come find us is gonna win whatever’s in the goodie bag. Is this aimed at helping people with their off season hunting tactics during the expo? Yeah, it’s, is that kinda what we’re trying to do for guys? It’s a, yeah, it’s really good. Seek slash hunt find. You gotta be, you gotta be observant. You gotta be on the ball with your Instagram. Do people need to bring their, their binoculars there? Do they need that in the expo hall? Some thermals would probably help you Thermal. Okay. Geez. It’s kind of like, you know, the Instagram side of, it’s kinda like ESC scouting, you know, a little bit. Yeah, you kind of get the whole process if you really do it right, right.
00:03:49:10 –> 00:05:05:05
I don’t, last year I didn’t make it that hard. I pretty much just told them where I was at, but this year we’ll amp it up a little. Let’s amp it up. Yeah, they gotta truly hunt you down. I’ll come up with some little riddles that they can solve and there you go. Now you’re thinking. So keep an eye on that when you head down to the hunting expo and it’s really fun for your kids or you if you want to get some free stuff. Yeah. Kept a lot of kids up on your midwinter hunting skills. Yep. Yep. Well that sounds fun. Well, it’s coming up here. That’s, that’s less than three months away. I can’t believe we’re, we’re closing in on Thanksgiving by the time many of you listen to this. You’ll be, you’ll probably be Trytophan ODing on your lazy boy. Maybe you’ll just listen to it during as you’re eating. Maybe it’ll be before that, that, but anyway. Did we already announce our, we did last time. I wasn’t here, but you guys did announce the Black Friday slash through Cyber Monday special of Yes. That what we’re doing here at Epic Outdoors. This just maybe mention that real quick again, John. Yeah, we briefly announced it, but basically if you buy $3,000 of anything in our store, combination of optics, hunt tickets or memberships, memberships, whatever it is, if you get 3000, we’ll give you a free epic light tripod.
00:05:05:28 –> 00:06:19:01
So great deal on that. And so yeah, just call in. If you want to combine, let’s say like hunt giveaway tickets and optics, anything, the best thing is to call, to call us on that decals. If you’re doing like just optics only, you can do that all on the website. And you still, if you’re a member and you log in, you’ll get member pricing. So that’s already a big discount if you wanna, but if your optics purchase didn’t quite hit three grand and you wanna add some tickets for membership, call the call the ladies and can just call the ladies. Yeah, they, they can combine those. And I did have a, a dad yesterday and that’s all I’m gonna say, that he loved this idea. He called and bought Christmas presents. I don’t know who, but I think his kids, his kids probably, yeah. Three sets of binos to trigger the 3000 plus. Oh boy, that’s awesome. It was an awesome purchase so that he could get the free epic light tripod kit with head and everything. So yeah. Heck yeah. He took advantage of that. He’s, you know, if you’re thinking of upgrading binos or if you’re buying Binos for or spot and scope for Christmas presents or anything, like that’s that time of year we’re just throwing a, what was that, 300 bucks plus or? Yeah, a little bit mine. A little bit under 300. Yeah, it’s like 3 94 or something. Yeah. Or 2 94.
00:06:19:03 –> 00:07:36:00
Yeah. So, so that’s a, that’s a 300 bucks. That’s a good free after taxes. Yeah, you’d beat 300 bucks. Exactly. Yeah. So anyway, keep that in mind. That runs through, is that December 2nd? Cyber Monday through Cyber Monday, December 2nd. Okay, so it’s running now. It’s on our website too. But again, if you wanted to combine, combine stuff or buy a gift membership for a buddy or two, you know, you can, you can do that. But anyway, what are we gonna talk about today? What I don’t have a lot to contribute And the death, the death and, and destruction part of the podcast. I do, but, but Cash. I know. Logan, you two, you brought a lot of venison back from Colorado, you guys Yeah, we did. Okay. Lo we were hunting the same time, but completely different, different units, but same, same season, least cash. Season Cash was intimately involved in my hunt. He was really, yeah. He might as well have been there even though he was like an hour and a half away. Lo I mean, what was, was he fish even you I need a lot of therapy when I hunt. I’m, I’m a nervous hunter. I I would, yeah. I would say, yeah, no, it was like the first day or something and Logan’s like, I just found a giant and so I’m obviously, I’m invested at that point. I’m like, what is this thing? What, how’s it, what did you find?
00:07:36:08 –> 00:08:38:22
And and I I, I’d have to go back and read the text, but it was something along the lines of I missed, you had already missed it. You found him and missed him. And so he we’re on Cass’s story. I thought, Hey, they’re, they’re blending together. They intertwined. Yeah, you said that true. And so I’m like, already like, oh boy. So I call him and he’s like, this is what happened. This is kind of where he is like, send me a point of where he is at. Let’s look at it. And so we did that. So we did that a few times and I mean, he ended up killing the deer that he was after, which was awesome. But I feel I, I knew exactly what was going on every day. Sounds like there’s, sounds like there’s a lot of details in there. We don’t know that you, that was a 14 second Abridgement. You crossed mine off the list. It’s over. No, no, no, no. We want to hear about from from I found slash Mr. Giant to, it’s in the bat of my truck. Yeah, we, we need to hear about Logan. It’s a good story. I think it’s a good story and I think a lot of people, especially Logan learn, can learn from it. That’s, let’s hear it Logan. Yeah. Alright, well I guess I’ll go first this time. Yeah.
00:08:39:24 –> 00:09:38:28
Starting from the beginning, I, I got this tag and I, this was my first out of state hunt. I’d never held a mul deer tag outta state before I realized. Really? Yeah. Okay. All right. I didn’t know that, but it’s true. Okay. And then to make matters worse, I’d never gone hunting on my own before planned my own trip, been my own guide and usually I always have my dad with me or family or whatever and he couldn’t go. So I was all on my own. I was pretty nervous leading up to this hunt as cash. And others can attest that I was asking for a lot of advice. And you didn’t even have anyone to go with you period. Yeah, for like a long time up until the day before I left I was gonna do all, all 10 days alone. Sold all straight up. Yeah. Which I was even more nervous about. But one of my buddies ended up going with me, McCoy and he stuck with me the whole time and it was really nice to have him there. We, anyway, so we go down there and I just, I didn’t really know where the deer would be. It got hit with snow earlier, a couple days before my hunt. So I thought maybe that they’d be moving lower but wasn’t really sure.
00:09:39:03 –> 00:10:39:29
Had quite a bit of low and high ground in my unit and so just went down there and I decided I was just gonna start low and work my way up and figure out what elevation the deer were kicking at and where I should be hunting. And I put about, I think I put 350 miles on my side by side in four days while I was there. So I was, we were driving like crazy. That’s like 90 miles a day. Yeah, we, we burned through the first day I burned through a tank and a quarter and then every day after that I burned through a tank except for the last day. And so quite, quite a bit of miles on the side by side. I was covering country because I wanted to know where the deer were at and I couldn’t quite find them. Does the tires on that side by still side still have the flat edges of side last after a few years it kind of, it kind of evens out. Okay. I just driving down the highway, just making sure that’s worn itself out my now, but alright. It’s starting to get out. That’s a different story. About a hundred podcasts that go refer to episode 2 36. I don’t know what episode to do. But the other, the other part too is like obviously you weren’t, you weren’t going in blind. Like you had some pretty decent intel to go off.
00:10:40:07 –> 00:11:45:06
There’s some, yeah. What does mean very people, I mentioned that I mentioned this last episode and yeah. Yeah. I had some people, some people that I knew had hunted it before and then I actually used our member experience list to get, I pulled a couple of years back and got some really good info from some guys that were excited to help me. That’s, it was awesome. Good. It’s the first time ever using the member experience list. And I know we talked about last time people are nervous to text people ’cause they feel like they’re gonna intrude or whatever. And everybody I texted was just more than excited to help me out. So it’s definitely a good resource. Awesome. But anyway, first day comes and goes and I saw we counted like 80 something do and no bucks. One or two, four good horns. Geez. Just that sounds like Utah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It wasn’t, it wasn’t the most encouraging first day out there, I was a little worried that I wasn’t gonna see any bucks. And so me and my buddy were just talking and I might’ve even talked to cash about this, I can’t remember, but just decided that the bucks were just not at that elevation. So I need to start working higher. First day of the hunt, I went up pretty high and saw a couple of bucks and not really what I was looking for.
00:11:45:10 –> 00:12:47:15
And the first day was kind of boring. And second day we went kind of to a more middle elevation and we, we drove around all morning and didn’t see anything. And about, I don’t know, one o’clock in the afternoon I just decided that I’m gonna go to a completely different area. One of the guys off the member experience listed sent me this point and he said that it was a really good trail to hike. He saw a lot of deer there but wasn’t sure that they’d be there if it was snowing. And so I just, I pulled up to this trail head and there’s a whole bunch of dudes sitting there and we start talking to ’em and they’re from California and they’re, they’re a couple of really good guys. So we talked to them for a little while, just glassing at this trail head. And I told them I was planning on walking this trail and they said, well we just got back from walking it and we didn’t see, not only they were hunting elk, they said not only did we not see any elk, but we didn’t see any deer either. So I said, oh, okay. I guess we’re not gonna walk that. Maybe we will later. But yeah, that could also be a smoke screen. You have no idea. Oh yeah, yeah. For sure. Never not. You gotta take it with a grain of salt. Yep. Yeah.
00:12:47:18 –> 00:13:54:03
And I, our plan was still to walk that just later in the evening. We were just gonna keep g glassing where we were. And so they said that they were gonna get going and so they take off down the trail, we glass for about 10 more minutes and we’re packing up our stuff and we were gonna drive down and glass back onto this trail and then come back and walk it and then come back before dark was kind of our plan. So just cover as much as we could and as we’re packing up our stuff to head over to the other side of the canyon, that side by side that those guys were in just comes tearing. They’d been gone about 15, 10 minutes tearing back up the trail like fast and clinking all over. And Did they know your name or they Yeah, Loki bear. Loki bear Loki bear. No, they weren’t yelling that, but he pulls up, he pulls up and skids the tires and he’s like, dude, there’s this buck down there and you gotta come see it. You’re probably gonna wanna shoot it. And so he’s all excited, he’s sweating. There was four guys, the one guy had come back up and left the other three down there to keep ’em on glass. And so I’m like, they were, anyway, they were really excited. Yeah.
00:13:54:14 –> 00:14:58:17
And so I follow ’em down there and those three guys have all got their scopes out and they’re all come look, come look. And so I go over there and I look and it’s, it’s a pretty good three point, probably like a 24 inch. He’s a three point and I just kinda look at him for a minute, get a good gauge of what he is and I was like, I appreciate it guys. I don’t think I’m gonna shoot this one today, but that’s a good buck. I really appreciate you guys coming to get me. And anyway, they were like, yeah, they’re like, we’d have shot that if we’d have had this tag, but you must be holding out for something or whatever. And as we’re talking and I’m kind of passing this buck, my buddy is set up and he’s spot, he’s spotting a little bit, a little ways off, up in two different draw. Like how like he’s probably in the same herd of deer or totally different. They were pro, I mean come to find out after we spent a little bit of time looking up these draws, there was, you know, probably 40 deer just spread out across the top of this ridge. And so they were probably all part of the same herd but probably 500 yards off. Okay. So not the buck. They they didn’t get ’em Yeah. Mixed up or anything. Yep. No. All right. Nope.
00:14:59:14 –> 00:16:00:09
And he’s like, all of a sudden my buddy’s like, holy cow, Logan, come here. And I look through the spotter and I see, I see his left side and I just see this big old tripod and like a pretty decent frame buck. And so I, I pull my eye out ’cause I knew immediately Are these guys still staring at you? Yeah, well these guys are still looking at the three point. Okay. And I pulled my eye away ’cause I knew that I wanted to shoot him, but I didn’t, you don’t wanna be excited in front of these dudes. I get, I get pretty bad horn fever in the scope, so I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t looking at him too long and I knew he was a shooter and so I just started asking my buddy questions about what he was and what he looked like. And finally after like five minutes of watching him, my, my buddy was like, you’re just gonna wanna shoot this buck. And he was a long way off. And so I set up and I’m shooting straight uphill and I set up on this shot and wait until he kind of feeds out into the open and gives me a really good shot and I shoot and I hit just below him and to the right.
00:16:00:19 –> 00:17:02:10
So I missed him pretty clean and then shot two more times as he was just kinda walking up the draw to get over the top and missed two more times. So didn’t make anything happen that night. And I was pretty sick. This is where, this is where cash comes in. Is this from cash? Got elevation. Sickness. Gotcha too. The phone. The phone. I had oxygen at this point, so I was fine. You used your phone, you used your phone a friend this night? Yeah, I did. Yeah. I think I phoned 10 friends. We, we didn’t have great surfing. We, we just got into a little bit of services. We were driving back to camp that night and I get this text from Logan, he’s like, I missed a giant. And I’m like, what? What’s going on? So I call I, I like tell these guys, I’m like, we gotta take 20 minutes and call him. And it would be funny if I could tell you that he was like crying and everybody wasn’t, but you could tell, you could just tell that he was just really bummed. And so the therapist came out in me and was like, Logan, it’s okay. Like you’re gonna get another chance. How did he act? And he tells me like he didn’t even spook really. Like he just walked away. I was like, he’s gonna be right there.
00:17:02:15 –> 00:18:05:05
And you’d already talked to Jason I think too and Jason already told you the whole thing, which Yeah. I couldn’t tell you anything better than what he’s gonna tell you. Yeah. He’s heck of a lot more knowledgeable than me. So yeah, I was like, yeah, totally. He is gonna be there. Like you’re gonna, you’re gonna have another crack at him. And sure enough things, things played out later on. Yep. He was, he was acting ruddy. He wasn’t super ruddy or pushing those or anything, but he was there, his neck was swollen and when I shot, I was far enough away that I knew that it wasn’t one of those things that make him jump and run and he just kind of meandered up over the top and didn’t really pay no mind. So I was just heartsick because you never know in situations like that if they’re in their migration period when you’re gonna get another shot. And this was far and away the best buck we’ve seen. So next day you’re obviously, you’re right there. Yeah. And so I committed right then and there I, I knew that I was gonna hunt this buck hard. So the next morning we get up and we just sit on this draw where I shot and a nice buck feeds out. We thought it was him for a minute, but it wasn’t him and sit on it all day, all day, all day.
00:18:05:19 –> 00:19:14:16
And finally like at four or five o’clock in the afternoon we’d sat on this draw all day just glassing. And he finally feeds out of some thicker oak brush and gives us another shot. And then once again it was too close to dark to make another move on him and try to cut distance and I don’t know, I don’t, I knew I shouldn’t have tried this again ’cause it was a really tough place to make a shot, but I just couldn’t let him walk out without trying something. So I, I walked up a little ways and tried to cut as much distance as I could and made another shot and it was just, it was just too far shooting too straight up. So I couldn’t make anything happen. I missed him again that night. And then did cash get a call? Yeah, cash got a call again. I got a call again. He was a little bit more frustrated with me this time. Like Logan, you were even closer that time. Yeah. How are you missing? Yep. Like your gun, like you’re shooting water stuff, you’ve been dialed all summer. What? Yeah, you’re shooting dial fierce. Very doable. Yeah. It’s not the gun’s fault but I will, I have to say I was shooting literally straight up, you can see Yeah, we videoed my first shot and the tripod like the butt of the gun is almost in the ground I’m shooting. Yeah.
00:19:14:21 –> 00:20:19:01
So it’s just a tough angle. But the country no excuses the country’s into isn’t like a lot of big cuts too. It’s just big country and it’s hard to get close. Yeah. Like to get close to him, you’d have to get either 50 yards. Yeah. Like you’re inside of 150 yards, otherwise you’re clear out. And so you gotta kind do what you can with, with a little bit more time to pattern this deer. I definitely could have made it happen ’cause there was ways to cut distance coming from behind him, hike way around and come in. But I just didn’t know those things and so I wasn’t sure how to do it. Okay. Anyway, next day, same exact thing. Next day sit, sit on him all day. And then we’d been looking at the map and we’re like, ah, we think around this ridge he could feed off into there in the night and then just come straight back. We think we had a little bit of his loot pattern. So about two o’clock in the afternoon we go over and look at this other side of the face and sure enough there he was standing right in the middle No way of some quakes. Yeah. With all of his do, just, just hanging out. But he was way at the top. Okay. And so I knew this time I, I don’t know why, but I just felt it.
00:20:19:03 –> 00:21:16:10
I was like this, if I shoot at him again, this will be the last time we see him. ’cause he’s given us too many opportunities. And so it was early enough in the day that I knew that I could make a move on him. So I just back on the other side where he had been coming out in the evenings. Is that where you’re gonna set up? No, because that side is is pretty tight and pretty thick. So I didn’t think that I could get in a good spot to make a play on him on that side. So I just said, I’m just gonna try and hike up on the other side of him and take a shot at him when he feeds across this bench out of the quakes and on his way to the next face. So I just start hoofing it straight up. It takes me about an hour to get up to the top of this thing. It was, it was pretty far up there and I just get into this spot and I prone out and I’m waiting for him. And my buddy says he’s doing exactly what we thought. He’s just, he moved out of my, my buddy stayed at the bottom. Yeah. He said he’s moving outta my visibility but he’s heading straight towards to where you want him. And so I sat down him for about an hour, it’s probably like four or five o’clock at this point.
00:21:16:21 –> 00:22:29:22
And he feeds out to about 350 yards. And I get a range on him, I get proned out, I get a shot lined up and this is when stuff gets good. Yeah. The wheelhouse we call it. Yep. Three 50, the wheelhouse. Oh it was beautiful. I mean he was broadside feeding, just not a care in the world. No idea. I was there. The perfect scenario. He finally outsmarted him. Yeah. Finally. And so I I, my gun and I prone out and get set up and take the shot and he books it like takes off running. And by this point I’d saw I’d shot six shots and had no ear protection on. So I was pretty deaf. Oh, okay. Over the last three days. I don’t recommend that, but I forgot my earplugs and couldn’t do anything about it. So by this point I was deaf. So when I shot I knew that. I didn’t hear that hit a whack. I didn’t hear any contact. My buddy couldn’t see him, he didn’t hear any contact and I’m like, you’ve gotta be kidding me. I just flat out missed at three 50. And so I’m sitting there kind of ticked off at myself and he comes outta some oak brush on a dead sprint and wraps and he’s still about 3 50, 400 yards. And I, I tried to get another shot on him and just couldn’t get it set up in time to get another shot on him.
00:22:29:22 –> 00:23:28:12
And so he runs into this other patch of quake, he’s on a saddle and disappears. I assumed he went up over the top and I’d never seen him again. ’cause he booked it outta there and all of his dos did the same. And so by this point it’s, it’s starting to get, I waited on him a little while to see if he’d, ’cause sometimes they’ll wrap around or whatever. I waited on him a little while to see if he’d come back out. And I was pretty frustrated and mad and just like, how do I miss a 350 yard shot? What kind of person, what kind of hunter am I? And so anyway, I told my buddy, I said it was close enough that I could have hit him and just not known. So I said like cash, I gotta go do my due diligence and look where I shot him, kinda look at his track and see if there’s any blood or any sign that I, I hit him and just didn’t know. And so I, I get walking and I knew it was gonna be dark by the time I got over there. And I go to where I shot him and couldn’t really see any blood, couldn’t see any sign that I hit him. And so I just kind of follow his track into this thick patch quake. He’s about 200 yards away where I last saw him.
00:23:29:12 –> 00:24:31:04
And my buddy had wrapped around the other side to look and see if he could see him running off the other side of the ridge. And I’m kind of looking around in this thick patch of quakes and I’m just ticked off and I’m like, yeah, if I don’t find him tonight, I’m just gonna go home because I obviously can’t see any, I obviously can’t shoot anything. And so I, I couldn’t find him. And so I go and walk up on this ridge that he, I thought he ran over and I looked down, I couldn’t see any deer. And I turn around to start heading back towards the side by side and I, and as I turn around like a hundred yards away from me, I just see an antler sticking up outta the snow. And I’m like, what in the world? ’cause I, at this point I was convinced I didn’t hit him. It’s been an hour since I shot. Oh no. Blood on his track. Been an hour since I shot. No blood, no nothing. Hadn’t seen hide her hair of anything. And so I turned around and I’m like, what in the world? And so I kind of start, I took off running towards this antler ’cause I’m like, what is going on? I get about 50 yards away and I just glass to make sure that he’s dead and that so I’m not going to, you know, jump him up or anything.
00:24:31:25 –> 00:25:34:05
And I glass him up and he’s laying there dead and I’m like, what in the world? And so I get, yeah, I get up to him and he had, he had ran about a hundred yards outta my visibility and then I, I double lunged him so his lungs just filled up and that’s when he started bleeding about 25 yards before he, before he hit the ground and slid. And so when he went outta my view, he actually hit the ground and slid, slid down and I just couldn’t see him. And so yeah, I walked up on him. What did you say then? What did you say at that moment? Well I radioed my buddy and I, I said, I said Dude, there’s a, he sounds way calmer than probably my reality. I was shaking can tell you dude, I can tell you the I’d like you to get up here and help me. There might be something here you’d like to help me out with. I said, I said, dude, there’s a dead deer up here and I don’t know who it is. There’s dead deer. Because I was so convinced that I missed that. I thought that it was somebody else’s deer over mine. And my mind is just going a million miles an hour. And I, I walk and I’m like, and I’m just holding, I’m just talking to my buddy this whole time and I’m like, holy cow, that’s his tripod. Holy cow.
00:25:34:05 –> 00:26:41:03
He’s dead. I hit him and I’m just freaking out. And then, but you, but you also admit that you’d lost your hearing and you could have missed somebody else’s gunshot in proximity. I’m gonna plead the fifth on that one. I’m just making sure. Alright. No. And so what I figure is I just couldn’t hear the connection. Yeah. That bullet hit. Sometimes they don’t. I’ve, I’ve sometimes you stuff like that before and you know the telltale swap doesn’t come. Yeah. And I was, I was by myself shooting a bigger, bigger gun. So it’s hard to, it’s hard to watch what you shoot. Oh when you shoot it. So anyway, as cash says you just gotta do your due diligence. But I did make the phone calls and I did admit to some exuberance. Yeah, we’ll leave it at that some is an understatement with the phone call I got. Hey, did you, is there a way to like audio record a call like that John, instead of like screen record that I know there is, there’s a new iPhone up there. If you saying that it’s got a little, you can record call up there on the top. You just hit it. Thank goodness we need to get that from when Logan calls us. Yep. I do get pretty excited. But that deer, it was good. Like you’re rightfully excited.
00:26:41:04 –> 00:27:38:27
That’s, yeah, that was a tough, I mean I know that some people will hunt deer for months on end and then when it, you know, all the excitement and the tears come when you make it happen. But, well three years or three days in a row and a couple days of near misses, it’s like geez. Yeah. I mean just feeling everything come together on that was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had. It was a cool buck. What was he like a six by five? I’m trying to remember something like that. Five by five? Yeah. Five by five. I thought he had two extras on the one side. Nope. No, just a straight, he’s got an inline on the one side and then a tripod on the other. Okay. But yeah, he’s, I was really happy with him. I shoot that buck any day. He’s a good buck. Awesome. You know, I think one of the questions we get a lot is what do I do if I’m hunting a new unit? And I think like some of the things that you did are very good illustrations of that. I think one, you tried to get some information before you go from the member draw list. And so that’s any anything, you know, anybody can do that they join our service. That’s a huge benefit. If you’ve never been anywhere, try to get some info.
00:27:39:08 –> 00:28:46:18
And then I like how you put on the miles and tried to learn the country on the ground. It’s totally different than in e scouting or, or any of that. Yeah. You put on the miles. Yeah. I mean, anyway. Yeah that’s, and I wanted to, that was kind of one of my goals when I went down there is just to practice what we preach and you know, cover the, like do all the things that you’re supposed to do when you hunt a new unit for the first time. And technically my e scouting plans all fell through because yeah, I thought the weather was gonna be way different than it was. And so I had to rely on that member experience list from people who’d hunted it in similar situations to mind. Which had a lot of weather in second season this year in Colorado. Yeah. Most variance for the most part was as good or better than the third season. Third season just kinda stalled out in most of western Colorado. And other parts of Colorado were like Antarctica. Yeah. Yeah. And amen. We had that monster storm that came up from Texas and Oklahoma. Why? Just like, you know. Yeah. Pretty wild storm. Yeah. Yeah. What were you saying yesterday? You watched it and it like came through then made a big loop, came back again. Yeah. Came, came across, came across Colorado, then turned and went back across Colorado. Okay.
00:28:46:21 –> 00:29:55:23
It was a weird, crazy back reverse east to west Turner. It was something else. Some places got front range of Colorado, got three or four feet and yeah it was nuts. It sat right there. You got held up against that front range and just pounded. Yeah. One thing I was gonna say about like the e scouting you were talking about John, I’ve, I don’t know whether I’m just not a good e scouter or it’s common, but I think back to like animals I’ve killed, which I haven’t killed a big number. And I look at like where I esc scouted and whatnot, usually where I’m esc scouting and I’m like, this looks really good. It’s usually like just off from that is where I’ve, I’ve killed and like Wyatt, all your years of guiding and things like that, I’m sure you did plenty of e scouting. Like we like am just a bad scouter back days though. Yeah. Yeah. But like think about like he, the hood of, hood of the truck with a pen and a and a paper on there, a paper mat. But like think about, think back to like buck you guys have killed or whatever, like did you ever kill, like how many, what percentage would you say you’ve killed? Like in where you’re like that’s where, that’s where big buck’s gonna be that you e scouted without boots on the ground.
00:29:55:23 –> 00:31:03:04
When I look at e scouting, I look at glassing areas, glassing points is what I’m looking for. Identify your elevation. Yeah. Yeah. Where where you’ve got can see the most country in country that looks like where you’re getting glass of deer, that that helps a lot. Yeah. Paper maps you can kind of see but, but this day and age you can do coverages of burns. Yeah. And vegetation overlay and see okay, that’s a, that’s a, that’s a knob but it’s a sea of pinion juniper and you’re not still gonna have a lot of visibility in it. And so, you know, the old paper map days, you’d hike some of those. You’re like this, this is terrible, I’m outta here. And now you can throw a layer, whether it be a burn or just just vegetation slope aspect, vegetation do 3D and as if you’re sitting on the knob pan around like yeah I can, I can see here I, I need to, I need a morning or night. Okay, where’s the sun gonna be at my back? Or if you want to let glass into the sun sometimes. ’cause we all kind of know sometimes you glass into the sun, it’s hard to see but everything you’re looking into is on the shaded side, you know, and sometimes that’s better than having the sun at your back and having hope, hoping to have anything pop at you. So. Yep.
00:31:03:07 –> 00:32:05:24
I guess my big point there was boots on the ground. Oh yeah. And I like there’s nothing, no question. No, no professional e scout or whatever. No beats, boots on the ground. Yep. No. And Wyatt and I were talking about this today about some other hunters around the west and and even ourselves and like hunting there is something to be said with hunting repeatedly. Hunting the same general area. Right. And learning every year. I’ve done that a few times in Colorado I bounced around 10 or 15, 12, I dunno 15 units in Colorado. So I haven’t hunted the same unit a lot, but some of the ones that I have, every time I do it, I add a few more layers of things and I kinda, all right. Wish I’d have known that last time or just like Logan this case, I mean, you know, get another tag there. You’re gonna hit the ground, run a little bit more, gonna know where you know where you can go to your plan B look and things like that instead of trial and error. Yeah. During the hunt and yep. Correct me if I’m wrong, but like one of the things that I thought of a lot while I was in Colorado was everybody told me that the deer would be at this elevation, this low, this area.
00:32:06:13 –> 00:33:10:06
And it was just kind of in my head I just kept thinking like I’m just, I can’t get too caught up in the theory of it or what’s happened in the past. Like sometimes you just got to get out and do your own thing and you know, see what works for the specific hunt you’re on. Well Colorado dates, you know, we’re talking second and third season, they’ll shift between Yeah. Five and six days over the course of Yeah. Five or six years in terms of early and late and then you super a big difference at that time of year. Yeah. Then you superimpose weather like like second season, got this year on top of it or lack thereof some years and it can be dramatically different year to year. You could be five or six days earlier one year and have a hotter dry year and it’s like, this is nothing like I was told it was gonna be. So you do have to ground truth it, like you said you do, it’s on the ground, a lot of ground truthing but nothing beats it anyway. Absolutely cash. How are you guys doing at the same time you guys had, unlike Logan, you had three tags to fill. I think we had, we had three tags to fill and at first it felt like, like a lot of work our way. It was on a unit and I had never been on. Yeah.
00:33:10:08 –> 00:34:23:16
My two buddies had never been on my one buddy who I think we should actually call, he hadn’t hunted deer with a rifle for 13 years. Me and him have hunted archery and muzz loader a lot together the last handful of years. And he ended up getting the tag on a turn back. Like his wife actually got it for him. No way. Which was pretty awesome. And so he was able to come with us and he’s a keeper and yeah, she, she was, she was kind to him and so, well he came out with kind of the expectation of, you know, if you, we we drew the tag, me and my other buddy Troy and he, he kind of was like, I’m just gonna play kind of backup, you know, if you guys pass a buck and you both pass it, then I’ll, I’ll kill it. It’s like, I just wanna kill something. And so he must be living right or something doing, doing things right in life. ’cause he killed the biggest buck of the trip. Yeah. And I, I made a mistake and I shouldn’t have passed him and I passed him and then those two flipped a bottle cap over it and he won the bottle cap toss and so bottle cap, what kind of bottle? Just a regular bottle cap. What’s regular bottle cap? Just like a, like a Walmart great value water bottle. Oh. Just a cap. You know.
00:34:24:06 –> 00:35:24:16
And so they were, I thought we were talking about like a, a root bear, like a glass? No. Okay. No. So I, we found this buck and I was, I was looking at some other gear just early on for this morning this or second opening morning, second day, no, let’s see, no second day the hunt. ’cause he got there opening day. So second day the hunt, we get to a spot and I’m looking at a few bucks up this one canyon and there’s another canyon door left and nothing was up there. So we’re looking at these bucks kind of past them and I look over to my left and all of a sudden this buck’s going up, this ridge came outta the bottom that we couldn’t see. And walking up the ridge, I’m like, holy crap, there’s a good buck. So we get a spotter on him and his body’s just giant, like giant body deer. And he’s walking up the ridge and I tell these guys, I’m like, man, he’s just kinda got smaller fronts so I’m gonna pass him for now ’cause it’s the second day the hunt. And I’m like, I, I want to kill a good buck, you know, I was like, I was too picky in hindsight.
00:35:24:28 –> 00:36:49:15
But I pass him and he kind of gets up over the ridge as we’re getting Dylan set up and gets over the ridge gets away from us, but we’re looking at our maps and it’s like he’s not leaving like it’s one face north face. The next closest is like 800 yards away. Like he’s just gonna go right there and he’s gonna be beded. So we go and glass the rest of the morning and just kind of thinking that this buck’s like a, like a one 60 buck, you know, and not like a buck that you’re gonna cry over. And we go glass of the morning, we come back and find him and we kill him. And I’ll kind of let di let’s call Dylan and see if he answers and we’ll let him kind of tell his side of the story. Is that all right? Oh absolutely. Okay. We’ll see if he answers. He’s not a real, if I put him on the hot seat he might get scared and ping up on us. Well Paul, see what he says. You can, he might just screen us. Hello. Hey, what are you doing? Oh, not much. Not much. Are you working? No, I just got home actually, so. Oh good. So it’s a good, so really I’m not doing much. No, you’re good. So it’s okay time to have you on the Epic Outdoors podcast. Right.
00:36:50:07 –> 00:38:04:25
I guess you knew this was common, but he still answered the phone so that’s answer you. He didn’t screen us. No. Yeah. We wanted to ask you about this 13 year long quest to kill a buck with your rifle and how that went. I don’t know if it was much of a quest ’cause I didn’t have a tag until now. But yeah, I spent all my time, you know, focusing on archery and I had a few muzz loader tags and yeah, I figured this year was a good year to break the ice again. Yeah. Who got you that tag? That was my wife. Ah, she did, she did pretty good, huh? Yeah, and right after, right after she got it, she’s like, crap honey, I don’t know that I wanna get you another one. She didn’t want me gone. But no, I just was super great. I just briefly told the first part of the story up to spotting this buck and him getting over the ridge, but Okay. What kind of unraveled after that from, from your perspective, what kind of went on? What did we do? So did you tell when you passed on him? Yeah, I kind of told him I passed. We thought he was like a one 60 buck at the front’s. A little weak. It was first or second day, so cash is, he’s like, oh, that we’re seeing bucks like that. This is gonna be awesome all week.
00:38:04:25 –> 00:39:16:24
Yeah it’s gonna be great. And then we flip a bottle cap into your favor, right? Yeah. Like the initial view of him was like, oh he is decent. Like those small forks in the front. But we could see he had good backs and I actually saw that he had that inline, I don’t think you or Troy saw that. No, not Dylan kept that tidbit to himself. Well he did say it. He’s got, he’s like, he’s got a little crotch point like, and we were all like, yeah, maybe like an inch long. Not sure if it’s score or not, but it’s there, you know. Yeah. It’s like a five, I think I said sticker, not an inline that probably, yeah. Something was a little bit deceiving, but so I knew, I was like, oh well, you know, cash and Troy’s tags, they’re, they’re more priority ’cause they burn points on ’em. So I was like, if you guys don’t want ’em, heck I’ll shoot him. Heck yeah. Anyways. Yeah, I’m sure cash told you by the point where we got to the flipping the bottle cap. Yep. Because I turned to Troy and I was like, do you want him? Like if you don’t, I want him. And he was like, ah, I don’t know. So then cash was like, geez, all right, let’s just, why did you even need to flip a bottle cash? No. And he said, I don’t know.
00:39:16:27 –> 00:40:19:19
I mean, right there you, it’s your deer. They were, I mean they were like, they were both being kind to each other like, maybe you should shoot it, maybe you should shoot it. And so eventually I was like, I put my foot down on the side by side, I was like, listen, if we get over here and this sucker stand on the other side of the ridge where we can see him, we gotta know who’s shooting. Yeah. And so I was like, flip a coin or something. Someone picked, get this figured out. And so they eventually got it worked out and yeah. And we get over the other other side of the ridge. I wanted, I wanted to shoot ’em, but I was just trying to be nice and in the back of my head I’m like, please just say no. Yeah. But tails never fails. That’s with that cap. And which Bess the question on a, on a plastic lid cap, what is tails? The inside of the bottle? The threads. Yeah. Hey, I gotta know this stuff. Just gotta know. Yeah. Because I, I like to call heads and I need to know what that looks like on a plastic pump. Yeah. I don’t know. Now I don’t. Okay. Yep. Hopefully you just don’t even have to flip a bottle cap and you make the decision before It’s true. The bike goes over the hill. Yep.
00:40:19:26 –> 00:41:39:21
Anyways, we got back in the side by side and kind of covered smore country. We didn’t immediately go back Right. Cash? Am I remembering that? Yeah. Yep. Probably an hour around and a half. Yeah. And then we, we came back to that canyon he went into and super thick timber and I think we were all like, yeah, we gotta, we gotta try and see if we can locate the steer. Yeah. We hiked up the other side of the canyon has a big flat top like no trees or bushes on it. There’s a few cactuses that were, you know, oh yeah. Six inches tall. Yeah. That’s about all the cover we had. So, so we snuck across the top and got to the edge of the cliff where we were about 300 yards from the other side and just got the spotting scopes out and picked it apart. And I actually spotted his leg. Like I could see right above this log, this eight by eight gap. I could see a leg and like a hoof. And what I thought was his butt turned out to be his shoulder, but we knew it had to have been him ’cause we didn’t see any other deer in that canyon. So we waited for a while just to verify, make sure it was him. And eventually the sun kind of hit his antlers and cash was like, yeah, I think that’s him. Like I could see his left antler.
00:41:39:21 –> 00:43:02:09
And, and so the, you we’re looking, we’ve got your Instagram post pulled up on the TV here and in the, in the post it’s like, man, you can tell there’s deer there. But when we first spot it and he was completely shaded and all we could tell, like we couldn’t even hardly tell where he was faced, like which direction until I saw his hooves oriented a certain way. I was like, his head’s on the left, that’s his shoulder and we’ve got an eight by eight inch gap Right. To his vitals. Perfect. So yeah, so my gun, my scope, what is it? Only to a 14 power? Yeah. It’s like four 14. Anyway, with my, with my setup, I knew, I was like, ah, that’s, that’s a bit too tight. So luckily cash, he has that suite setup and he let me get that set up ready to go. And we dialed it for three 20 and Yep. Kind of sat there for a while. The wheelhouse. The wheelhouse wheelhouse again. We just talked about it. Yep, yep. And luckily in that eight by eight gap, it was perfect vital shot. And I just took my time and closed it off. And about as soon as I like looked back through the scope CI was like, oh, he is dead. Like he’s down. So smoked him. He was a Yeah. Quick, quick clean kill. So nice.
00:43:02:17 –> 00:44:03:16
Well to me that looks like that extra inline is definitely scoreable. Yeah. The pitch. Yeah. It’s scorer. So what happened when you walked up cash sticker guys, you guys, everybody’s happy when we walked up. I mean I was, we were all like, holy crap, that just happened. Like that never happens. You go and spot a buck in thick timber and you kill him. Come to find out like we get over there to where he was beded and we, by the time we initially spotted him to when we shot him was probably like an hour and like too long. Really. And we get over there to where he is bed and he watched us that entire time. He knew you were there. He was staring at us the whole time. He just thought, I’m, I’m hitting enough. He was, I’m safe. He was comfortable hidden enough and he didn’t move at all. Like didn’t move a leg, didn’t move an ear, nothing. We’re just trying to pick something up. And when the sun hit him, like right before Dylan shot the sun, hit his antler, I was like, a hundred percent that’s him. Like kill him right there. And he was set up ready to go and we get over there, look at it. He was staring at us the whole time. Yeah.
00:44:03:19 –> 00:45:06:23
Like his smart buck does, you know, they tuck in and they’re smart and it was actually a cool spot ’cause we were, we got working on him and Dylan looks over like we’re like halfway done with him. Looks over, he’s like, is that a horn over there? Like 50 yards away from us? There was a big old elk shed sitting there. Oh. Like old as dirt probably was shed when I was born. Really? You know, it was like rotted in half. Wow. All the algae crap growing on it. But yeah, when we walked up to him, I think Dylan was in front of me or something. No, you were, you were in front. I was last You were the first one to see. Yeah, that’s right. Cash was a video. Video and hoping he was windmill that he had the last bullet in. And so I, I get up and his, he’s tucked kind of backed downhill into a, into a little tiny pine tree. And I get up there and I, and we grab his horn out of there and I was like, oh shiz, I should have shot that deer immediate was like, bad call, bad call. But yeah, like I didn’t even get there yet. And you’re like, oh crap, I should have shot that deer. I was like uhoh.
00:45:07:07 –> 00:46:20:15
But personally I have never, there’s only been one deer ever in my life that had as big a body as that deer in person. It was my father-in-law’s buck in Colorado a handful of years ago. That Buck’s body was just giant, like pulled him out. He was fat as a tick. And we looked at the video and we’re like, that’s like crazy how much his, the video dwarfs his antlers to what he actually is there. And yeah, I live with regret every day. I think. I think we, when we initially thought him, we were like, ah, he’s 24, maybe 25. We ended 27. So. Nice. Well that’s 27. That’s the direction you wanted to move after walk. Yeah. After you walk up and pick him up. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It was good. It was awesome. I was stoked for Dylan like 13 years without killing a buck with a rifle. Dylan’s killed some great bucks in the meantime. He’s a great archery hunter and man we hunt a lot together. It fun to see some at three 20 though. Hunt Dylan and smoke it. Yeah. Yeah. That’s all right too. I know. I’m like this whole, this whole rival hunting thing, it’s too easy. Good. Yeah, the bow hunt starts at about a hundred yards. That’s it. Really Start so Well that’s awesome. I’m used to watching big bucks, but when you can literally just see ’em from across the canyon and kill ’em.
00:46:20:15 –> 00:47:24:22
That’s kind of fun. That’s pretty fun. It’s, yeah. That’s awesome. I like, I could get used to it. Yeah. Which might turn into rifle hunter yet anyway, so Yeah, no, awesome. No, glad you, glad you came out and told the story. I’m gonna, we’re gonna finish telling the rest of the story ’cause right there shortly after you kind of got sick and had to, had to head for home, so were, it was a few days, but yeah, a few days. Yeah. Not as long as I want it to be. Yeah. Yeah. I guess I, I feel like it was a short time ’cause not much happened in between times, so. Yeah. But that’s true. Anyway, okay, we’ll let you go. You got, appreciate it Dylan. Thanks for coming on. Okay. Yep. Thanks. See you. Bye. See ya. You, you must go hard on your hunting partners. Gee. What you mean? You have a lot of hunting buddies get sick. Well, his was like, I don’t know how, I don’t know what it was like. He got a stomach bug and was like nauseous, wasn’t elevation sickness or nothing. But he was like nauseous for like three days and then it was finally like, I gotta go home. Like it’s bad. And so, and when Dylan’s sick, like he’s sick, you know? And so, well it’s a sweet buck. Yeah. So now you and Troy. Yeah. So grinded away. It’s a nine day hunt so you’re, yeah.
00:47:24:28 –> 00:48:37:04
Yep. It was, it was actually the next day after Dylan killed that buck that we found a buck for Troy and Troy killed. It was actually really windy that day. And he was, I think he was like 400 yards, like just shy of 400 yards and really windy, held a bunch, held a good amount of wind. And he, what did he do? He hit him in the neck, like grazed his neck and the buck didn’t even act hit. And then he pummeled him a couple times and he was dead. But he made pretty quick work of that. There wasn’t like a lot that led up to that. We were just kind of driving to an area we were gonna hunt on the side by side and there was a group of bucks out there, 400 yards and there was a good buck in it and had kind of a kind of a crotch point kind of out the, the first split. And, and it was cool enough, had some character and Troy liked him so we smashed him and that was that night we, we didn’t even get to where we wanted to get to. And so we did that the next day. That’s the sec. That’s like third day and you got like five or six days for you. You’re thinking, here we go. I’m like, this is great. You know, I got time now there’s no pressure. Two spotters here with me. Yeah. Yeah.
00:48:37:04 –> 00:49:50:29
And so then Dylan gets sick, had to go home and it was actually the day he went home, he left that morning and me and Troy went to just a completely different area, just trying something different. And we started seeing a few bucks, like small bucks and good country. We got up into some Aspen stuff and just got really thick for a while and there was a bunch of dough down in this sage brush. And so we were coming back out, you know, right there 30 minutes before dark to hit that again to see what came outta the thick pines into this sage. And we’re going along and there was like three groups of those that were all split up like three, 400 yards. And so we just start picking, picking apart those dough and nothing’s with them. And so I start looking up into the pockets of the pines and right there in a little pocket I can just see a buck body and could see his body in there. Could see his face. But I couldn’t see his an or his eyes and up. But I could tell it his big body, big mature body and could see a white face. And then I started like zooming in double white throat patch. No, I don’t think so. No, I, no, nothing like cool like that. Well just things that are talking into shooting it before you even see the atler. That’s what I’m thinking.
00:49:51:00 –> 00:50:58:12
Yeah. And so I get looking through the pine bows and I can see one time, so I start to kind of build a frame and he walks a little and I see a side profile of him and I’m like, Hey, he’s pretty tall. Yeah. And then I can see a time I’m like, hey. He’s like, I know he is tall. I can see this. And I don’t know like how if he’s got big fronts. I saw his backs, they were decent. Good enough. Yeah. And I was like, could see a time poking through and was like, ah, she’s gotta be like this wide. Like he’s the best buck. We’ve seen other like Dylan’s like second best buck we’ve seen in the trip per probably. And so I was like, you know what, we’re gonna try him. And so he’s standing there like perfect. And I set up and let him have it and walk up there and he was, he was in my mind I was like, he’s at least this and this is exactly what he was, it was exactly what like how I all, all you saw is what he was. Yeah. You saw good backs but you didn’t see his front. Didn’t see front, which they were nonexistent. Which is why. And so that’s when I could just see one time right there and was like, he only is at least this wide.
00:50:59:04 –> 00:51:53:19
And was like, so he’s gotta have this frame awesome kill shot. Oh yeah. It was fun. And so I was like, he’s at least this. I was like, he, he could have a big old kicker and I wouldn’t even know it. Yeah. And so I took a little bit of a chance on him. I was like, well I know he is at least this and I’m, he could be bigger. Yeah. And so I kind of took a chance on him and he is what he is. He’s just, just kind of a butt, kind of a taller three point, nothing special really about him but learn a new, a new unit and and things like that. It was really fun. Yeah. But three for three. Yeah. It was good to go in a week time, kill some bucks and I, I will be going back. Awesome. So it was a fun unit. That’s great. It was super fun unit to learn and hunt. Good to hunt with buddies. Yeah. Good to have some buddies out there. And glad they came with, I’m glad they got a tag. So it’s always funer when you have buddies with tags ’cause they’re actually willing to go instead of just help you. Exactly. So. Yep. Yeah. Yep. Super fun trip though. Yeah.
00:51:53:24 –> 00:53:11:09
Speaking of hunting with buddies, I’m all for that because I had a hunt this year that I, it was sandwiched in the middle of giant stretch of hunting and a little gap in the middle and I had to get right back after it. And this was an antelope in Wyoming and you know, antelope tags for me. Probably like a lot of you guys, there’s kinda like, yeah. Just something to add to the schedule. I have had an Arizona tag, which became kind of an elevated, prominent big, big part of my hunting schedule ’cause of the trophy potential. But most Wyoming antelope for the most part. Yeah. Just go, go have a fun time. But yeah, it’s not, not as fun when you’re all by yourself looking over an antelope after antelope after an and just trying to get excited about shooting one. Yeah. Because, you know, unless you see a, just a slob, like they just are all bit a little bit different and you wish this buck had that buck’s cutters and the one with big cutters, you wish it had the height of that buck you, you know, and yeah, you wish you could put ’em all together to make your dream buck. But anyway, I ended up smashing a buck the second, second evening and ’cause I’m like, well I’m done looking at antelope basically. And, and pointed the pointed the Colorado back towards Utah. But it was, it was fun.
00:53:11:22 –> 00:54:11:04
I looked over, I don’t know, 60, 80 bucks. I don’t know. But you miss like being on an antelope punt and being able to judge it together with somebody else. Not as much judges used. And then you got something to talk about. And there was a buck that I think w was, you know, when you’re by yourself hunting an antelope and they’re in the rut or you, or they’re bumped from you and you’re trying to arrange, they’re stopped for a minute. You’re trying to arrange, you get back on your gun and to buy a pod, they start moving now you gotta get back, you gotta rearrange. I mean, it’s really tough when you’re by yourself and it’s, it’s very tough when you’re by yourself just on flat ground to know whether you’re hitting the antelope or if you’re hitting 50 yards in front of or 150 yards behind them. Yeah, that’s true. I mean it’s, it’s a hard thing. I’ve missed antelope before, all by myself shooting straight over ’em up, like air mail ’em and I’m, and I’m real, and then I realize I’m hitting the, I’m hitting the slight rise 150 yards behind the thing. Yeah. It, it’s tough. But just the camaraderie, antelope permit to have, have fun, you know, especially in most other states like, like Arizona, you’re not drawn dual Nevada.
00:54:11:04 –> 00:55:14:23
You’re not, you know, but Wyoming, I, I wish I would’ve drawn with one of you guys or waited to do it with one of my kids or something like that. And just had more time and had had fun with it. I had a, I had a fine time, but I mean, it was just kind of like, I’m gonna go, I had a mission and I went up there and I, I, I accomplished the mission, but, but I, I could have had fun or doing it. Yeah. That, that’s all I’m saying. So speaking of you hunting with your friends, remind me that cash, because it’s fun. Next time I hunt antelope, it’s either gonna be, I’m gonna have a giant that I’m hunting and I’m fine to do that by myself or I’m better be hunting with my kids or, or y’all, you know, fun. Yeah. Talking somebody into shoot something. Gee, you can’t hit that buck. How bet you, how bet you 50 bucks. You can’t hit that buck putting wagers on goats until, until you finally, until somebody finally probably yeah. Prones out and sends it. I mean, that’s the fun part. That is the fun part. You know, it, it’d be fun. So I haven’t, every antelope tag I have, which I think that’s like the fourth I’ve ever shot two in Wyoming. I shot a Utah in Arizona. Arizona don’t shoot lot, but they were all, all by myself.
00:55:14:26 –> 00:56:22:07
But I did end up having a follow up trip speaking of Wyoming with my daughter. That was a really, that was a really fun trip. This was my oldest daughter. She had, I think it was 14 points. And so it’s been a planner since she was 12. And so that, that’s quite a, quite a few. Didn’t quite have, you know, the max point to be able to draw some of the, some of the units, you know, that I, you know, that you’d maybe really want, you know, looking at 16 or 100 or some of those, you know, she was just a little bit too young to get in on the ground floor of the points. So it was what it was. We selected a different unit, kind of that high. I, I didn’t want to go, we’re not horse people. I, I’m not, and if I’m not, they’re not, because I would’ve had to taken ’em on a horse ride. And, and I, I’m not doing that. So we kind of wanted those high prairie, moderate easy, no grizzlies. I’m not gonna take my girls. I I just, I’m not gonna go up in the mountains, you know, in the back country and or fringe back countrys grizzlies. Just, I’m not that interested to do it and I’m definitely not gonna take them. You know, they’re, they like to go hunting as much just to go hang with dad as the thrill of hunting and killing.
00:56:22:09 –> 00:57:33:10
But, but they love spending time with me and I’m grateful for that. So burner points got got some friends to help us out there. It was an October 1st opener. It was super hot. I mean like Utah and everywhere around there it was, it was hot, miserably hot. The antelope pot hunt was a week or two prior to that. Hot, hot, hot. And a lot of the elk hunts I think we heard from Wyatt, especially as early October hunts. I mean it was miserable. I had people that came from Wyoming to hunt with me for sheep later in October. And it was a, it was a terrible early October in Wyoming as far as like heat and elk hunting elk and whatnot. Whether it be low, high prairie country or seems like that across the west even. Yeah. It was not just Wyoming, but it was, it was Utah. I mean, it, it was brutal. Like the mus loader hunt for deer in Utah. Mus you know, was brutal tough. End of September, the October just deer were just dug in. It was as hot as it felt like it, as hot as it was in end of July. It was bad. Anyway, so it was that. And you know, we weren’t gonna be incredibly picky. My daughter never killed the bull elk. So, you know, we were just hunting nice six point bulls and having a good time doing it.
00:57:33:10 –> 00:58:32:00
And we se seen a couple bulls and cows that morning and they worked into a draw and it was just dead calm. I, I, in fact, I made the comment to her and, and Jim and the guys that we were with, I said, Hey, remember this moment because when somebody tells you the wind always blows in Wyoming. It’s not true ’cause it’s the only time in my life I’ve ever felt it dead calm for hours. Like it was so calm you couldn’t stalk these elk. It was like dead calm and it was, you know, cru crunchy everywhere walking. So we basically said we’re gonna let the wind’s gotta pick up before we, you know, go s stock that herd elk. There’s 20 something elk and a couple of bulls went into this draw and this thick stuff. But we needed the wind to solidify and get in the right direction. But in the meantime, Jim had seen a bull going down to this draw and said it looked like a pretty dang good bull. And it was all by itself and it was a thick bottom. And so we said, well let’s, let’s get the wind kind of right and get down there and set up. Maybe we’ll just calco and see what happens. And never had this happen before.
00:58:32:03 –> 00:59:42:27
But we got down there, I got her set up on the stick, got one in the pipe ’cause it was thick enough that like you could see about a hundred, 125 yards max and it was just, you know, clear for a bit but then patchy around that and if they stepped out, you gotta kill ’em right then. It’s not this, oh that’s good. Let’s put one in. You know, put one in the pipe and Cal called for probably 60 seconds or something, you know, just off, off and on. Not, not consistently, but Cal called a few different times over a course a minute. Officer lookup, he steps out of this bottom walking right toward us at like 115 yards. Right, exactly. Like we said was, but he never made a peep. I figured with Cal call a couple times, this is October 1st, I figured hit bugle, you know, ’cause if he’s all alone, he’s a decent six point. He figured Cal call hit bugle and get up and come in. But no came in quiet and she, anyway, luckily she was on him. He stopped, she shot hammered him, he went right down, stood back up. This is, this is the first gun I’ve ever had a suppressor on hunting. And I did it mainly for, I set this gun up for my daughters for, for this hunt specifically. And then for the orx hunt later on with my other daughter in January.
00:59:43:03 –> 01:00:51:18
Just, just, just to soften the noise and recoil and everything. Which, you know, I had her shoot it and I picked this daughter up in Salt Lake Airport and we crossed the Wyoming Prairie. We stopped and shot it. She’s blown away and just like, that’s awesome. You know, they’re just p you know, shooting a seven PRC and feels like a 22. Yeah. But, but that bull dropped. It got up and she hit him a little bit high. Shocked, shocked him, but didn’t, didn’t paralyze him, stood back up, turned broadside. She shot and dropped him again. But I, it was, you know, I didn’t really think about all, all I was really using as a suppressor was to help, you know, help help my daughters. Most, most women a little bit more sensitive to recoil as well as just the, the percussion when the gun goes off. Yeah. If you’ve got a buzzle break and the recoils not back then they’re loud. And so they’re, both of those are somewhat, you know, I don’t like him as much and, and it seems like girls that are a little bit more smaller framed and all that, those things affect them. You don’t want ’em thinking about that before they pull the trigger. Yeah. So that’s why I wanna do that for him. But the, the other consequence was that elk had no idea. I think after the first shot, he had no idea we were there.
01:00:51:22 –> 01:01:52:28
He, he, you know, a lot of times you pound an elk with a 300 rum or something at a hundred yards and it’s loud. They know exactly what’s going on and they’re getting out of this bull. Had no idea. Just, you know, and he, he was struggling to get up but he didn’t know what, what was going on. So I think that helped a follow up shot. Yeah. Really. That was unintended. I didn’t know. But anyway, that was a great time opening day deal. She was really, really excited. That was, that was fun. That was a good, good, good memory, good trip, great use of points. Just kill a nice six point bull. And I dunno, those are, those are fun. ’cause I go from a lot of my hunts where I’m trying to squeeze all the, everything’s about, you know, all the, the best quality I can find or I’m not gonna shoot one. And then you go and hunt like that and it’s all about just, just, you know, killing a good, good animal. If it’s big, it’s great. If it’s a, if it’s nice, it’s great and excited through there. I was hunting with kids. There’s a blast. It’s fun. I call her a kid. She’s 26, but she’s still my kid. She’s still your But it, it was awesome. It was a good time. Good use of points. And you know, we’ve talked a lot about that.
01:01:53:03 –> 01:02:54:07
You know, in fact the January or December magazine, I, you know, I talked about kinda my application strategy around the west and for a lot of people that apply your kids around the west, a lot of these states from the time that they’re 10 in Arizona or 12 and all the interstate and get, you, get you, you know, get you to play your kids for cheap, you know, $5 license and minimal application fees or $10 points in Wyoming. Then they turn 18 and then you’re like, okay, they got six or eight points everywhere. But now this is, this is real money. This is real money. Yeah. You got Arizona and five of you buying a hunting license and all that every year. And so it’s, I’m in that mode now. I gotta use some of these points. ’cause I mean the goal isn’t just to build points for everybody forever. It’s to, to use them. And I’m in that with some of my, they’ve got some options. That was good. She forced the draw and had a great time doing it. So I’ve gotta, I gotta keep picking and choosing, you know, states to burn them off on and, and you know, that was Wyoming this year for her, so it was a great time. So that’s awesome. And I don’t know, John and I, you and I went to Colorado.
01:02:54:10 –> 01:04:09:04
I don’t know if we’re gonna talk about that today if we put that another time. Yeah, we’ll put that for another podcast. But I’ll say that John and I do not have as much to talk about. Yeah, it’s a little, so definitely no death to talk about, but had a great time. Learned some stuff and use some gear, huh John? Yeah. You some. And you saw some gear in action that you didn’t know it was used since the Bo of War two. It’s true. Right. We’ll talk about that meeting. Yeah, we’ll talk about that later. But podcast, but wanted to give a quick shout out to Kenna Trek. I, I’ve used Kenna Trek boots for 15 or 20 years. I used to use the hired Scrabble hikers and the mountain extremes. I personally have used for probably the last six, eight years. The desert guides. On my earlier season hunts mainly like for sheep. And when it’s hot weather, when I don’t need, I don’t need a waterproof membrane, I don’t need any insulation. And then I use the mountain guide for my, my mountain or later season boot. I, I use the 400 grams and right [email protected]. K-E-N-E-T-R-E k.com. They’ve got a Black Friday special boots and stuff in there. I got this Christmas collection, but the Black Friday sale, it goes on till November 30th.
01:04:09:12 –> 01:05:19:25
So if you’re looking for maybe just Christmas gifts or something like that for people or your own family or yourself, jump online to kenreck.com. They got the Black Friday special until November 30th and yeah, 20 to 50% off depending on the model on there. So yeah, we’re looking at some of these, I mean you’re talking a hundred bucks off. Yeah. And, and these aren’t, it’s not like they’re discontinued models, they’re just, they’re, they’re just the regular boots. So you may have got one of these catalogs in the mail yourself, but check that out. They’ve been great supporters of ours here at Epic Outdoors. A lot of us use their boots and anyway, go to kenreck.com. K-E-N-E-T-R-E k.com. So anyway. That’s good. Let’s do one more shout out to Vortex Logan, you’ve had a recent vortex. I wanna give a huge shout out to Vortex really. And they’re awesome. Lifetime no questions asked, warranty. Because when you let your, when you let your family members borrow your scope that you’ve had since high school, sometimes that scope gets dropped on cement floors and then it falls apart. Is this a little brother? Who was it? Ouch. My, my oldest brother had a late season tag and I let him borrow my scope. Oh, gotcha.
01:05:20:00 –> 01:06:26:23
And my dad was, got it from him and was putting it back in our storage unit or in our storage room and put it on a shelf until I could come get it and it dropped off the shelf and hit our cement floor and it, it broke a little bit, but Okay. I sent that in and I’m expecting things broke a little bit. It sounded like it broke in half it. It did. Wow. Logan has a delicate way of just kind of glossing over the finer details, I think. Got a little banged up. No, it broke in half. Well I haven’t, I I we got that scope when I was in high school and I’ve never had to send it in. It’s, it’s been through some stuff so something finally had to take it out. Oh, that’s great. They’re definitely known for their warranty. Yep. I’ve definitely had some of my kid by knows that, that I’ve sent in before and I mean, if, if they can’t fix it, they’ll send you a new ones. So that’s a, it’s a great thing on that, that warranty. Yep. Well and we carry all the, their models of whether it be scopes, vinyls, whatever, vortex. So anyway, keep this in mind if you’re looking for something like that as well. So, and I, I did use a pair of the, the new razor UHD eight by 30 twos on my archery elk hunt and Oh really?
01:06:26:23 –> 01:07:43:21
They were awesome for, ’cause all my other min are more like 12 power, 10 power and, and when you’re, you know, under a hundred yards with archery hunting and timber Yeah, with archery hunting, they’re awesome because, you know, handheld, they’re totally stable and bigger field of view and all Yeah. Bigger field of view. So they, they were awesome. Sweet. Well what else? Is there anything else we need to talk about or is this gonna wrap us up into the weekend? We got, we got some, something more to talk about next weekend I guess. I think that wraps us up. Yeah. More to come as always. More to come. We got other people Devon’s out hunting. Jason’s out hunting. Josh is out. Sight sin. Yep. Yep. I’d probably just give a shout out on our hunt giveaway. We’ve announced that we haven’t really gone over the specific hunts yet. We’ll probably do that later on. But we’ve got our huge winner giveaway. You join our, our service and you get a free entry. So that, that’s pretty awesome. We’ve got seven hunts to choose from and a gear package. So anyway, jump on our website, epic outdoors.com. Look at those hunts. I think it’s on the main banner, so yeah, we’ll go over ’em. Maybe next podcast or something like that and little bit greater detail, but it’s all online and live. There’s some great hunts, great lineup on there. Yep.
01:07:43:27 –> 01:08:52:17
If you want to combo that with the, with the, you know, black Friday give or a Black Friday sale for us. That’s, it’s a great time to do it then too. If you’re already a member. If you refer a friend, right? Yeah. Refer a friend. You both get one, you both get a free entry. Yeah. So that’s pretty, I it makes me wish that I could enter. Yeah. With the hunts we give away, I’m like, man, you are not eligible. I know. It kind of sucks. Yeah. Maybe we’ll do one next podcast next week and we’ll talk about Yeah, just the hunt. We woo each month. Oh geez. We might, we might talk about you have to sit and you can only pick one. Yeah, we’ll talk about a little bit more in detail. But we had, you know, a member who won a hunt last time just killed a giant white Joe last week. Geez. So I mean a crank. Yeah. These are one why would shoot. Yeah, these are legit. Why a slam for sure hunt better. Better than the forearm buck. The what? Adam? Oh, inside joke. Adam, Adam, Adam. This Adam had to be there. Okay. I’ll tell you quick, big as around is your forearm. Yeah. Jason was talking about, you know, his, his white tail hunt and showing some pictures and stuff and, and he’s like, look at this one. It’s just crazy heavy, massive.
01:08:52:24 –> 01:09:56:18
As big as your forearm and why it’s like, it’s not that impressive compared to the other bucks you showed us. She showed us like five other bucks and why? It’s like I shot, how did shoot, I just shot those other bucks over that one. I mean your, for his forearms probably that big around, what is that mass measurement? Why 12? I mean, I don’t know. It wasn’t his forearm, that’s for sure. It was. It was a heavy white tail. It was. It was heavy. Yeah. Tight mass. Okay, well you’re gonna hear as big as your forearm. That’s from now on. Yeah. Yeah, that’s true. I need to go back and listen to what you guys talked about without me. ’cause I have learned in the past when I haven’t here you talk about me without me knowing. Yes. And I need to go catch up on that too, in case I was thrown under the bus Anyway. But anyway, appreciate everybody listening. Have a good week. If we don’t talk, don’t hear till the next podcast. Have a great Thanksgiving, but everybody have a good weekend. 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.
01:09:56:20 –> 01:11:24:24
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. Whether you’re hunting sheep in the high rocky altitudes or low crawling sagebrush for those desert mules Trek has you covered, check out their world class Mountain Extreme line 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.
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