EP 212: Surviving Rattlesnake Bites in the Field.

I felt something I thought was a bad wasp, like sting me, and I look down and there's a snake. I make it to the truck and I see him walking down the mountain, carrying his bow in one hand and a rattlesnake in the other hand. Anything to do with Western big game.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast, powered by Under Armour. Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, coming at you from Southern Utah. We got Chris here as well. Chris, how you doing? Good. How's married life? Great. It couldn't be better, right? Right. That's the right answer. But, you know, time will pass. Things will change. All right. No, you guys are in a great spot. It's awesome. Well, Bronson, you know, you were... What happened while I was gone? You were... What happened to this place? Well, remember, we told the world you were in Hawaii. You did? Yeah, we did. So my house could have been robbed since everybody knew I wasn't here? It might have been. If you're missing anything, it wasn't my fault. Yeah. Chris's fault, because he added CC. Well, yeah. I appreciate you looking out for me. So how was Hawaii? It was great. It was awesome. Wonderful trip.

Oh, I did mention on the podcast that you were trying to find a place to get COVID tested. Well... And were under the gun a little bit. Yeah. That worked out okay. Part of the problem, and you don't know this until you go through it, is a lot of stuff's changed over the last six months in terms of getting to Hawaii. They've been very stringent island-to-island hopping. You go there. They used to have to quarantine you or get another negative test on the first island. If you left the airport and spent two days on one island, you've got to get tested again before you go to another one. A lot of those things have changed. But long story short, they don't take a rapid test, which is what I've done several times. Meaning accept the rapid test. Yeah. Like, you could go get a rapid test, but they don't care. They don't take that one. They want the real one.

The PCR, whatever, the big long words, the more accurate, precise, whatever you want. So when I've gone to Alaska a couple times or if I've hunted the Indian reservation that required it, I just did the rapid test, 15 minutes, 10 minutes in your truck. They come out and tell you you're negative. You got your paper. You go. You're good. No, this doesn't take that. So the PCR takes, I don't know, 24 to 36 hours to get your results back. Well, we're flying out Tuesday morning at like 9. In 22 hours. Okay. And they only accept the test from certain places. They tell you, you know, CVS, Walgreens, or a couple, you know, other places. And here in Cedar, not only does it have a backlog, but their online system's not even working. And yeah, you can't book them more than like 72 hours ahead of time or something like that. And you can only do it online.

You can't just walk into your local Walgreens and CVS and say, text me right now. Test me right now. You can't do that. Right. So here it is Monday morning or Sunday night. We start really good thinking about it and realize everywhere in Cedar and St. George's book, you can't get them tested for Monday morning. So we wake up Monday morning, a little bit of a panic. So here we are 24 hours from getting on plane, six of us, and six of us got to get tested and get our results back. So we find ourselves driving to Vegas and going to medical center hospital down there so that you're not dealing with a third party testing it, shipping it out to a hospital to get the test results. And so you're eliminating a middleman basically. Yeah. And so we get tested by 10 or 11 in the morning on Monday and they say, yeah, we should have it in 36 hours.

And I'm pulling the guy aside and I'm like, what does it take to get these? How many Benjis do you need? Yeah. What do you need? Because you're in Vegas. You can buy anything in this city with money. You can, Bronson. Supposedly. Yeah, you can. That's right, Carter. But yeah, you get a lot. You get a family, six going on a vacation. There's a lot of all your reservations. Like you all of a sudden don't get there and you're wasting a lot of money. And we'd already told everybody, all right, whoever's come back, you're getting on the plane. I remember calling you on your way down. I was. You were. You were very quiet. Kurt. I would call it Kurt. To the point. And I'm like, yeah, things aren't good. They've got some really thick air. This was not my, this was my department, but somehow I was going to work Monday. And I basically had to call you.

Of course, you were, you were stricken with the, with the virus at the time. And that's what we talked about on the last podcast. So I was quarantining from you. Yeah. Because if I got. Well, I told you, don't, don't, don't. I'm not coming in. You shouldn't come in and you should pray that you don't already have it before I found out that I had it. I didn't even tell Becky. I didn't tell you and Jenna had it. I didn't tell any of them about it until we all tested negative. It was not fun. Hey. And I admitted it. I admitted it. I've been a little light up on the podcast about it. And, and I paid for that. Yeah. So long story short at about nine night, eight or nine at night that night, our test results came back, which were like 12 hours, right? Yeah. 12 or 14 hours. How did they know? How did they? Oh, they came back on email. Emails and stuff. Yeah. Boom. So negative, negative, negative.

All of them. So, well, mine was the last one. So here's all five of them have it and not me. And I'm like, I had already told everybody as long as me or mom or negative, whoever else is negative is getting on the plane. And if somebody's positive, I'm sorry. You're just driving home. But you're not crushing the whole family. So if somebody's negative, everybody can drive. You're just driving home. Yeah, that's right. That's the way we got to do it. Sorry. Because you're not, not everybody's staying home for, for the one poor soul. They probably, Ty's probably like, dad, if I'm, if I'm positive, we're having some parties at the house while you're gone. Oh yeah. And I'm thinking of all those kinds of things. Like what, what's he going to do for eight days? That's right. Yeah. I live, I'm on the side of a golf course. You think he's going to, lots of fun could be had up here.

You think he's going to quarantine in the house? No, no. Maybe with all his buddies and a few gals. I don't know. We got there. It was great. We had a great relaxation. Went to the island of Kauai. It was awesome. Awesome. Just had a great vacation. Yep. All right. Well, we got on, so. So you got on the topic of serpents. Well, we had to do the podcast. We talked about, yeah, scouting and different things. Of course, we had our membership drive that we had to kind of go over. And it was awesome. All of that was good. But then we got to the topic of snakes. It's summertime, scouting. We're in southern Utah, Nevada, Arizona. That's kind of where we're doing a lot of our scouting. Of course, you're about to head up to north country. Well, you're in Wyoming or places in. Idaho. Whatever. There's snakes everywhere. There is. And so, and our point was that Devin and Wyatt are nervous of snakes.

I'm nervous, but I don't think, I try not to think about it because I didn't even know anybody that got bit. They're withholding 10% of every paycheck for a rainy day snake bite fund. What are they doing? Supposed to be insured. Like, either you have Obama insurance or self-insured or a regular insurance company. I don't know if you can. Can you legally not have health insurance with the government now to help breathing down our neck about it? I'm not the person to ask. Anyway, so you may have some kind of deductible. I've got a pretty high deductible. So you got on the topic and you threw it out there apparently and say, if anybody's been bit and has gone through what these two are afraid of, let us know. And there's been some crazy stories. Oh. Since I got back, I've been freaked out because I keep getting pictures that you send me and I'm like, wow. Yeah.

Now I don't even want to go scout anymore. Well. Yeah. So anyway, I don't want to ruin it. We do have some photos. We'll share those on our social media along with this podcast and announcement. And so you can go check out Epic Hunts. And Chris will have some photos loaded. If you think you're bored and don't want to listen to snake bite stuff, we are going to have a giveaway towards the end of the podcast. We're going to give away some binyls. Free. That's right. We're going to give away. Well, I don't even want to ruin that. Yeah. So anyway. We're going to announce the details of that at the end. So stay tuned. We've got a couple other things coming out here towards the end, but because of time, let's give this guy a holler. Who are we talking? Who are we calling? So we're calling a guy by the name of Levi. His dad and him were hunting. And I'll let him share the story. Is this Wyoming?

Wyoming. Tee it up. Okay. Here we go. Levi, yawn. Hey. Yeah. What's going on? Sorry. I'm in Tempe, Arizona. Oh, okay. You're in snake country. You had the 307 number. You were, I think, in Wyoming when this happened. So anyway. So give us the lowdown. Oh, man. We grew up in Southeast Wyoming, so I usually go back. I've been in Arizona the past 16 years. Okay. So I usually go back to Wyoming to hunt with my dad every September or so. Man, we don't have a tag here in Arizona. So we were hunting in Southeast Wyoming. The mountain range is the Laramie Mountains. Okay. It's about 7,000 foot, 7,200 foot elevation where we were hunting at. Okay. And we've hunted this area. Oh, gosh. We've hunted this area. We've hunted this area. And we've never seen rattlesnakes at all in that area. So. Fairly high elevation. Think you might be safe. Yeah. Yeah.

In Wyoming, we only have two different kinds of rattlesnakes. We have the prairie rattler and one other one that's only in one certain region of Wyoming. So. Like a timber rattler or something like that? It's a weird rattlesnake. It's the first time I've ever heard of it. You Google like Wyoming rattlesnakes. Oh. It shows up on there and I think it's over by Green River, Wyoming. Okay. But anyways, I got about four bucks a bet of and I'm planning on to go make a stock on these bucks. This is early season, like time of year, early September? Yeah, it's in September. Yeah. Yeah, September time. So. We got these bucks. My dad's going to sit there and sit behind the glass and watch me and be on the radio while I'm making the stock. So. He's trying to make his way to this vantage point while I'm making my way around over towards the deer. So I'm on my stock.

I got my little sneak text on there, my pack and everything. And all of a sudden he comes up on the radio in a pretty panicked voice saying my name. And I thought, oh man, I just blew all the deer out. And then he's like, I just got bit by a rattlesnake. Jeez. So I tell him, I said, all right, just stay calm. I said, just meet me down at the truck. I'll make my way over there. So I'm trying to stay calm. So I hurry up and I'm sprinting my bow, my pack. I got my sneak techs on and I'm just sprinting as hard as I can to get back to the truck. So I make it to the truck and I see him walking down the mountain carrying his bow in one hand and the rattlesnake in the other hand. And you're like, I assume it's dead. That's difficult. Or has he got a pinch? That's expected of him. Yeah. So I asked him what happened, you know, and he's like, well, I sat down behind the tripod.

As soon as I sat down, I felt a whack on my right elbow. He said, I turned around and there's a rattlesnake pulled up right there. It didn't rattle anything at all. So that's what I hate about rattlesnakes more than anything. I don't like surprises. That's an eerily familiar story to me. I had done the exact same thing with a sheep client one year. It was under the ledge. And we had sat down in the morning, getting light, sat down for an hour, glassing. You know, you stand up over an hour, stretch, and I looked up and there's a coiled up rattler about three feet behind us that had been there the whole morning. Just sleeping and sunning. Freaked us out. But anyway, go back to your story. So he didn't even hear it. Didn't rattle it. Just hit him. Yeah. Didn't rattle nothing. So he wasn't sure if he's wearing a long-sleeved camo shirt, lightweight. He's like, I'm not sure if I got bit.

Initially, he felt the whack, you know. But he said within five minutes, he could feel tingling all the way from the top of his head down to his feet. So he's like, all right, yeah, I know I got bit. So then he grabbed some rocks and ended up killing it. Carrying it down there. We don't have cell phone service where we're at. So I tell him, you know, just, all right, let's stay calm. I'll try to get some cell phone service. Call 911. Let him know, hey, you got bit. And I'm taking the emergency room. And we're about an hour, hour, 15 minutes from town. Wow. Small little town. I think 3,000 people. So I get cell phone service at the top of the hill. Call him and say, hey, my dad just got bit. I'm on my way to the emergency room. And I said, all right, we'll be waiting for you. So I made it back to town in 32 minutes. So I was cooking pretty good. Yeah. Time frame. Sell that truck.

Is your dad? Yeah. What's he experiencing during the ride? Is he doing okay? Yeah. I give him a brand new bottle of water. He takes a big swig of it. Just spits it right out the window. And he's like, it tastes like copper metal. Wow. And didn't think anything of it. Didn't drink any more water. So as we're driving down the road, I can kind of see him resting his head up against the windshield. I can tell he's kind of getting nauseous or not really there. Sometimes I talk to him. Just keep him awake and ask him how he's doing. We pull up to the doors of the emergency room. And he can hardly walk at this point. So I have to go around to his door, open his door, kind of throw his arm around my shoulder and kind of walk him into the emergency room there. So we get there.

They give him, I'm not sure exactly what they did in the first 15 minutes. It was kind of a hectic situation. But they ended up giving him some antivenom. And the antivenom that they gave him was, I guess there's two different kinds. There's one that's derived from the antibodies of the horse where they basically are giving horsey venom. And it creates like an antibody. And then they extract it. Yep. So he ended up getting that antivenom injection. But they only had one. And he needed another one. The next hospital is about an hour away. They don't have any room in the beds. So he has to end up going to Greeley, Colorado to some intensive burn care unit. So he goes from southeast Wyoming to Greeley, Colorado. And he ends up getting another dose of antivenom there. And he spends, I think, the next two days in the ICU. Jeez. So I was there initially with him in the hospital in Wyoming.

I had to go back up and resituate deer camp, walk up the camper, get all that situated. And then I went back down there, stayed the night with him in Greeley. And then I came back up deer hunting for a couple days because he said he was fine. He's like, there's no reason for you to be sitting here in the hospital with me and go hunt some deer. And then he was back in deer camp on, I think, day four after getting bit. Really? He wasn't hunting, but he was just hanging out at camp. He's a pretty gritty guy. It hit him right above the elbow on the back of the arm and the tricep. Is that where it hit him? No, exactly right on the elbow itself. Right on the base we were doing. Yeah. So I sent Jason a couple pictures. Yeah, I see it. I just pulled them off. How much did it, down his arm and up his arm, did it swell? I mean, I can kind of see it out of the picture.

Yeah, there's some pictures on there. It swelled up pretty good. They gave him some morphine for the pain, and then he had a super bad reaction to the morphine. Jeez. So he was in a world of hurt there. But, yeah, poor guy's been through a lot. A couple back surgeries, and I thought he was going to bow hunt again. And he's just out slamming it with some nice open young elk. And then this happens. Oh, wow. And then this year he had a heart attack, quadruple bypass heart surgery in April. And then he drew another sweet elk tag in Wyoming. And so with the heart stuff, is he squared away? Is he going to be able to? Yeah. You know, he's good to go now. His muscle from – they ended up cutting apart his sternum there and wired that together. So he's just trying to regain his strength for the – be able to pose bull. Pretty good.

Is he going to be able to do that, or is he going to have to – in Wyoming, you can use a crossbow. So is he going to do that, or is he going to use a regular bull? He wants to use his Matthews. Yeah. But he said if it comes down to it, he's like he'll use a crossbow. But he's got a doctor appointment coming up here at the end of July. And he's hoping the doctor will give him a go-ahead for the compound. Pretty tough dude. I mean, you get bit. The snake's longer than the bow. I mean, you've got a picture of it. I mean, it exceeds the length of the bow. Yeah. I mean, he turns around, kills the snake. You want to bite me? I'll kill you. Kills the snake, walks out with it, and then is hunting – or back in – let's call it deer camp in four days. Spends a couple of days in the hospital. You know, he's been through it and pretty tough, pretty tough dude. Oh, yeah.

It was just strange because we never see rattlesnakes up there. So he ended up going back out there deer hunting. After I left, I came back to Arizona. And he ended up going back out there. He ended up shooting a deer that year, that September. But he ended up going back out there just curious. I don't know why. If it was just something psychologically that he had to do. But he went back up there and was kind of looking to see if there was a den or something. So – but he's ever – he's been cautious the last few years whenever we go to that glassing point. He's just kind of in the back of his head. I'd pick a new unit altogether. Let alone a glassing point. Well, it's tradition. You guys have been – that's family tradition. I don't know. I looked it up. And it looks like there's also a midget faded – let's see. Midget faded rattlesnake. Yeah, that's the one. That's some weird name. Yeah.

They say they're generally in Wyoming. A big one's, you know, usually less than 25 inches. This one he killed is bigger and longer than that. Yeah. Yeah. The absolute worst area I've ever experienced hunting for snakes was in the Florida Mountains in New Mexico on an Ibex hunt. Oh, I've heard that. That was October. Oh, yeah. I've heard that's the whole deterrent for me to never apply for that October hunt. I mean, they're next level. Like, you could feed a family for a couple of days on one of those. Oh, yeah. It was bad. My buddy from Panhellen, Nebraska, ended up drawing the tag down there in the Florida's. And he's like, I heard the snakes are bad. I was like, it can't be anywhere near as bad as Arizona. Boy, was I wrong. He ended up buying snake chaps for the hunt, and I didn't bring any because I was like, it can't be worse than Arizona. Oh, it was way worse.

I was saying our first day, we came across five rattlers in our first morning. Holy cow. Yeah, I was definitely go back because it was one of the funnest hunts I've ever done in my life. You definitely. Are they big? Are they big snakes? Yeah, yeah. They're a good size. They're just like our Arizona rattlers. I'm pretty sure they have diamondbacks over there. I'm not for certain, but I don't know. Any rattlesnake to me, I'm kind of standoffish now. When I was in my early 20s, young and dumb, when I first moved to Arizona, I lived in a small town that had nothing to do, so we'd go out and catch them for fun. But don't let it know now and after this experience with a snake bite never again. Yeah, no. Kind of pass on doing that. Did the doctors or staff tell you guys you did anything right or wrong that you could pass on to other listeners

what you shouldn't do or should have done or should do next time? Well, I asked my dad. I asked him, I said, well, why don't you bring that snake? He's like, well, I heard you're supposed to bring the snake in so they can identify it to make sure it's a rattlesnake or whatever. So the doctor actually asked, do you guys have the snake with you? I'm like, yeah, it's in the back of the truck. So he went out there and looked at it and went back in. Of course, all the small town, all the nurses and everybody else came out there admiring the rattlesnake. But I believe he told my dad, because now my dad carries it everywhere he goes. The children's Advil, I believe is what it was. Or Tylenol. Or Tylenol. Or aspirin, maybe? Or aspirin? Yeah, that's it. The 82, 80 like milligram, a little chewable, put it under your tongue and just chew it. But I don't know if that's just, I don't know.

I've heard that that doesn't work, but that doctor told him that. Well, I know for a fact that stuff's good for like even heart problems. Yeah. It's a quick, the fastest acting aspirin and blood thinner. It is like an 82. I put one in each truck. But man, you would think that would increase the flow. The way that it gets throughout your whole body. Yeah. But maybe that's also dilutes. I don't know. Maybe it spreads it out. We're going to have to Google that. Don't anybody do that until we Google it. Google's right on everything. Well, as far as, you know, keeping it low. I mean, this was on his arm. It's kind of weird. He's got to walk back. It's the same elevation as your heart and everything. I guess kind of a heart. You're going to have an increased heart rate getting back to the truck. They said just the best thing is to get to a hospital as fast as you can, obviously.

Everybody's going to do that. Wow. I ended up running into one of the ranchers when I was up there. When I went back up deer hunting, I said, yeah, dad ended up getting bit by a rattlesnake. She said that her son ended up getting bit one year loading hay bales. But luckily, those guys have a plane on the ranch, so they just flew right into town. Oh, wow. So that saved them some time. Are there any big bucks up there? It's all right. Maybe it's a general. It's a pretty easy tag to draw. Yeah. It's a general region J, I think, is where we're hunting. Okay. But it's usually about mid-160s. Every now and then, a decent buck pops up out of there. Yeah. Yeah. It's fun, nonetheless, because it's all Boulder country. Easy to draw, too. Like you said, you can go as often as you want to go. Probably draw that and go with your dad. Yeah. Yeah. It's got everything. It's got big horn sheep, elk, bear.

So it's a fun, good all-around unit and a little bump there. It does say, I Googled this, like I mentioned, the midget-faded rattlesnake. It does say it's one of the most toxic. This particular rattlesnake in Wyoming is one of the most toxic in North America, containing primarily neurotoxins that act upon the nervous system. Is that the one that your dad got? Is that one or the other prairie one? He ended up getting bit by a prairie rattlesnake. Okay. Okay. Yeah, because I believe those other ones are only in a certain region of Wyoming. Yeah. It mentions the LD50 of this venom suggests it's more toxic than some of the old world cobras. Wow. So wherever that is, I don't know. I want to know. We're going to find out and not ever apply there. That's right. Yeah, because here in Arizona, if you look up Arizona rattlesnakes, if you Google that,

there's just a mess of different kinds of rattlesnakes that we have. And the Mojave green down there in southern Arizona, that's a pretty legit snake from what I've seen. You know? Yeah. It attacks the nervous system. They're here in Nevada, too, and they're aggressive, too. They'll chase you. I've had them chase you. They're on the ground, meaning coiled up, like knee high. I mean, it's weird what they can do to posture themselves. My buddy and I were out running cameras, and we had one on the road, and I mean, it chased him down the road. It was crazy. It was nuts. They're arrogant. Anyway. Luckily, I haven't came across any this past year. I was fortunate last year. The only one I saw was when I was out bear hunting, so I'm on a good streak without seeing rattlesnakes. Yeah. All right, man. Well, we appreciate you spending some time with us.

Tell the world the story, because, you know, everybody's nervous, but you don't ever hear about a lot of snake bites out there. Yeah, especially while out hunting, yeah. But it's always in the vacuum. I know when I'm out here in Arizona constantly, I'm always eyes on the ground. John of High Point, he always makes fun of me, because my eyes are always on the ground. Yeah. He's looking for sheds or snakes or whatever else. He's like, that's why you never see anything. Shut up, John. Yeah, shut up. We tease him pretty hard, so he's a good dude. Yeah, he's a good guy. Well, make sure you tease him. I think yesterday, yesterday was his birthday, so you've got to get on. Was it? We might call him at some point, and maybe I shouldn't tease him, but is he in his house yet? If we've been teasing him about him. Man, he's been building that mansion. Did he get the windows in right?

I always ask him, I was like, we need to get out and scout some elk here soon. He's like, I will. As soon as I get down at this house, I need to be out looking for antelope. But hopefully. The last time I talked to him, it sounded like he was on the in-stretch. He was up on the rafters or on some beam one time when we called, and he answered. He answered. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I ended up getting a Unit 10 early Archie Bull Tags list. Did you? Good for you. Yeah. I got lucky. I was tag number 99 out of 100. Oh, wow. That's pretty good. Yeah. Snuck in. I lucked out on that. That's great. Well, all right, man. Good luck with that. Yeah, good luck. Thank you, guys. How you do, Levi? I appreciate you taking some time with us, and everybody learned something. All right. Sounds good, buddy. All right. Talk to you guys later. You bet. Bye. Bye.

All right. That's pretty legit. Like, if you're burning, you need to call somebody or get somewhere now. Huh? Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, I don't know. We can talk about this. It says you may pass out. I know. I've heard that. I've heard that. Rapid swelling, severe pain. Don't cut yourself. Don't suck it out. Don't apply a tourniquet. Don't need to buy those little yellow suction things that we used to have when we were kids. How many did they sell? Somebody made a million dollars off that. Five million. 20 million. That was somebody's George Foreman grill long before George Foreman. And it never did a thing for anybody. No. Don't give the person alcohol or caffeinated drinks or other medications. That's what it says. I don't know if Google's always right, but that's what it says. We've got a package in the mail. What else happened on the podcast? So this came to an FFL dealer.

And this was since you were gone. And anyway, good buddy of ours, Adam Garglietti. Do you remember him? Oh, yeah. From back in the day from our prior work environment. Okay? Yeah. So anyway, he deals in a lot of guns and whatnot. So it's johnsportscenter.com. He hits me up and he's like, Carter, I want you to look at this. Check it out. And you can't look at it until you record the reaction on the podcast. But anyway, Bronson, let's open this package. It's maximdefense.com package. So pretty cool. It says these are John Sports Center exclusive. Every gun is numbered. There were only 100 made. They're chambered in the 7.62 by 39. Isn't that an AK-47? I'm not a Russian, so I don't know. I don't know. Anyway, they have been featured in magazines, Recoil Magazine, Guns and Ammo, and many others. Contact us. So johnsportscenter.com. Looks like a 22nd century gun. So they're supposed to.

Okay, read this. So, Jason, inside you should find your gun, mask, gloves, TP, and everything you need for the pandemic. Isn't the pandemic on the way out? Well, I guess not. You just had it. No, dude. It's very real. The pandemic is still very real. Okay. Anyway. So, here's some interesting stuff. The Small Arms Defense Journal, Maxim Defense Mini Catalog, whatnot. So, here we go. Let's see what's in this thing. John Sports Center. There's your gloves and a mask. Get grief. My mask. Official mask. Some gloves. Some TP. Dude, this is worth something. Oh, my gosh, Chris. Wow.

Dude, this is a dense. This thing's 10 pounds. I don't know. No, it's probably five. It's legit. How big a clip? 20 rounder. Holy.

Dude. I like the color scheme. You know I'm an orange and black guy. I like that. Wow. Look at this little thing. Holy crap. The pandemic. Firearm. Dude, you could get after it. Pretty awesome. Interesting. Wow. Well, thanks for thinking of us, Adam. We might give it a few rounds through the pipe. 100% we're going to let some things rip, huh? Well, I appreciate people thinking about us. It's johnsportscenter.com. You can email them. Guns at johnsportscenter.com. And check it out. Let me look at the numbering real quick. What do you mean? Oh, the cereal? Yeah. I think they're all custom numbered. And he's like, what's your favorite number? I'm like, I don't know. Stamped it with a punch. 75. 75. This is 075. Is it? Of 100. So you told them. Oh. Yeah. I know what you're giving from me. Yeah. I don't want to announce it on the podcast. I get it. I may or may not have been born in 75.

All right. Well, cool. There we go. All right. That's a nice. That's a good. I feel better being in the office now. Knowing that that's behind me in your office. Anyway. It's a pretty legit guy. Feels good. We may leave it in the office. Just have it hanging around. Huh? Along with that. Saw it off. Never know crazy people that come in here. Okay. Well, let's get back to the snakes. Get some first-hand stuff. Where's he from? Where's JB from?

We'll find out. This is JB. JB, Jason Carter, and Adam Bronson on the Epic Outdoors podcast. How are you? Good. How are you guys? Good. Good. We're doing good here. Of course, we're not snakebit. At least. Yeah. Sometimes we think we're snakebit. But anyway. So, we were talking on the podcast about being bit by a snake and didn't really know anybody personally that has been bit. You reached out. And I don't want to totally ruin it, but what a crazy set of photos and story. Yeah. It was no fun. Tee it up for us, I guess. And tell us where you're from and what state, I guess, this happened in. Yeah. Walk us through it. So, we live in central Arkansas, and we've got a bunch of tailwater trout fishers in the state and been trout fishing for probably 30 years now and seen like two snakes my entire life. Wow. Trout fishing. And me and some buddies were up.

It was Friday the 13th of 2012 in July, if you're superstitious or anything. But we've been fishing that afternoon and just got out on the gravel board and just enjoying the last hours of the day and hanging out. And I had a pair of flip-flops on and just walking around. And I felt something. I thought it was a bad wasp, like, sting me. So, I grabbed my hat and tried to swat it. And I looked down and there's a snake. Wow. Is this thick country or is it just like gravel bar open and you just messed it up? No, it's so, like, this is tailwater fisheries and they've got generators and the water levels will vary. And so, like, this was a little bitty just gravel bar, probably like 10 by 30 feet that we were pulled up on. It was just out on this gravel bar, I guess. But if y'all remember 2012, we had a really bad drought.

Like, the Midwest was having all the issues with the EHD and so forth from it. And I guess that had something to do with the snakes being there is what, you know, everybody said. But, anyway, we're sitting there and my buddies are like, well, you know, does it hurt? You know, if you're going to make it, we're going to keep fishing or what do we do? Keep fishing? Well, geez. These aren't. Again, we don't know anybody that's had major issues or dying, so you just don't know how serious it is, you know? Yeah. So, you know, they're like, well, does it hurt? I'm like, it's burning pretty good. You know, the longer it went on, the more it burned. Where did it actually hit you? Where did it bite you? So, on my foot, and I had flip-flops on. And so, and this was a pygmy rattlesnake, which I didn't even know that existed.

You know, it's probably 15 inches long, which I think that's a full-grown one. A little feller. But, yeah. Well, they say that the babies strike and give it all to you. Yeah, that's, but like, I don't, this wasn't a baby. It's just the type of snake. You know, they don't grow very big. But one of the fangs hit my flip-flop strap, and then one hit my foot. So, I only got one fang. Luckily, I guess it could have been worse. But, anyways.

Anyway, we drive. It's my boat, and we go back to the ramp and load up. And we're like, we probably need to go to the emergency room. And so, we didn't have any cell service the whole time. And we're driving up the hill. Buddy's driving me, and we're in my truck. And, you know, it's burning and starting to swell and stuff like that. And so, we're driving, and, you know, my buddies are like, well, put your foot up on the dash so it won't swell. So, I'm kicked back in the seat, got my foot up on the dash. And, you know, it's starting to hurt pretty good. And, you know, my buddies are like, well, can you breathe? Is your heart racing? Are you doing all right? Okay. They're not leaving. And I'm like, thanks. They're asking some good questions. All right. Yeah. And I'm like, man, I don't know. Just, you know, quit asking that stuff. Just drive faster. Just leave me alone.

In fact, let's stop and unhook this boat. Let's go. Exactly. But, anyway, we call 911. And the lady we talk to, you know, we tell her what's going on. And she sends an ambulance to meet us, like, partway to the hospital. You know, we're like, what do you need to do? And, you know, they said, well, really nothing. Just make sure you keep it below your heart. You know, and here I'm in the seat. I've got my foot over my head. Below your heart? Yeah, so it's harder to pump up. Yeah, they're supposed to keep it below your heart. Oh, gosh. Okay. But, anyway, so. The opposite of what you. . . Yeah, you threw it up on the dash, right? Yeah, no. And so, like, my buddies, you know, claim to save my life and all this. And I'm like, well, actually, I'll probably come closer to killing me. So, he won't. . . . It's just his way to weasel his way into your will, you know, at some point. Yeah.

I figured something else was going on there. Yeah. So, anyway, we get to the hospital and they get me started on some IV stuff. I don't even know, just fluids or whatever. But they watch it. You know, they draw circles on your foot to watch the swelling and all that. But they pretty much started a round of antivenom right then. We figured out what it was. We didn't even know what kind of snake it was. We killed it, took it with us. We did. Okay. They said it doesn't matter. The antivenom is broad enough. Yeah. Yeah. Like, apparently, there's only one kind of antivenom that's out there. It's crow fab that's, like, grown in goats. I'm not sure how it's made. Wow. I didn't know that. Because I was like you. I thought you're supposed to kill it and take it with you so they knew what they were dealing with. Not really. Like a Mojave green or something. That's what they told me.

But, you know, who knows? Maybe it's different for different parts of the country, too. Maybe where you're in Arkansas when this happens. So, maybe where you're at. Yeah. That's one size fits all. But they ended up, you know, the swelling was pretty good. And so, they do the antivenom. But I think, like, for cottonmouth, copperheads, they don't normally do it unless they have to on adults. I think it's, you know, what they do. It's usually children or something for those types of snakes. But, anyway, they gave me a round that night. That was a Friday night. And my wife's at my parents' house with our kids. And so, I call her and tell her what's coming or going on. And she's like, well, I need to come up there. And I told her. I was like, I don't know. Well, she's, you know, she's really good about letting me hunt and fish and spend a lot of time in the outdoors.

But she didn't want, she wasn't going to come. She's like, you know, I'm not coming if you're going to be back fishing Saturday morning. And so, anyway, she ended up coming. But the ER doctor said, you know, you'll probably be back at camp, you know, the next day or whatever. Really? I ended up spending two nights in the hospital, though, and got two different rounds of the antivenom.

I had no idea what it cost, what was involved. You know, I was pretty much just knocked out. Like, they had me on morphine and stuff like that for the pain. And so. It's that painful. Like, it was that painful. It stunk. Yeah. It wasn't any fun, you know, the sensation then. But the last day I got a new nurse and she came in and she's like, well, you know what this costs, don't you? The antivenom? I have no idea. As far as the antivenom? Yeah, the antivenom. She's like, it's $30,000 a dose. That's a shot. And she's like, you got two of them. Oh, okay. And I thought she was kidding. Well, sure enough, I got a $65,000 hospital bill out of the deal.

Were you insured? I mean, doesn't health insurance cover that? Yeah. No, I had insurance. And it took, like, for them to settle it with the insurance company, it took months. Oh, I'll bet. Because they were squabbling on. Did he really need the second dose? Come on. Or, you know, whatever. No, absolutely. That was it. Yeah. Really? And my dad had sent me an article in the meantime messing with me, like, where somebody's insurance didn't pay and stuff like that. So I was kind of sweating. So how high up your leg? I mean, I've seen the picture. And I guess with your breath, maybe it's blown up. Picture of your foot or something. How far up your leg did that swelling and redness go from your foot? Well, pretty much to my knee. It was just my knee down. Wow. That was ugly. And how long, I mean, after the two days in the hospital, was it just like, go home and

it's going to just take a long, like, it's not, and now it's going to take a long, gradual three, four week recovery to not be looking like it is? Or what did they tell you? Yeah. It took, I went home, like, on that Sunday evening, and I was on crutches for a while. I mean, it hurt to put any pressure on it. And then, like, for weeks, probably two or three weeks after, you know, you'd get up in the morning, and when you'd stand up, all that blood flow to your leg, I guess, it would throb like somebody was smashing your leg with a bowling ball. It was awful. A little pig and snake. So every morning. Yeah. Geez. So that was the biggest deal. So maybe over a three to four week, almost a month before, when do you think you were, like, fully, like, I got, I don't feel that in the morning anymore when I get up, or was it a month? Yeah, probably something like that. Three or four weeks, maybe.

I was wearing shoes again, and I ditched the crutches probably, I don't know, a week into it, something like that. But you know it had a definite limp, and it was swollen. I mean, that type of swelling doesn't just go down fast, I imagine. Yeah. And it hurt. I mean, you could, like, touch it and feel it for, you know, a few weeks after. You could tell it wasn't right. Wow. So. Crazy. Well, that is. That's not fun on something, a 15-inch little pigmy. I mean, maybe they're worse than normal. I don't know. I'm not a snake guy. Yeah. Me either. Well, I guess a newfound respect, or, you know, your buddies, everybody joked, like, yeah, we weren't fishing the next morning, or you weren't, at least. Maybe they were. Mm-hmm. Staying in the boat. They fished and used my boat the rest of the weekend. Those are good buddies right there. Hopefully they cleaned it.

Of course, you owed it to them because, you know, they had you prop your leg up on the back. Yeah, like saved my life. It was the least I could do. That's right. The least I could do. That's right. It's the least you could do. Yeah. Well, good stuff. Well, I appreciate you reaching out. What a crazy story. So, did they give you, you know, what to do if you're by yourself, or what, I mean, obviously keep it below the heart. But, I mean, what, is there any, what do you do? Yeah. Did they tell you they did anything right or wrong for if it happened again? No. It, no. I think the big deal, you know, is just get somewhere and get it taken care of. But, you know, the don't do anything to increase your heart rate, supposedly, is what they say. But, like, the, you know, suction and all that kind of stuff or tourniquets, none of that, you know, they sit down with any of that. Yeah.

The job of self-mutilation. Yeah. Right. Exactly. I think there's, like, infection risk and all that kind of stuff or whatever. Yeah. All right. Well, crazy. Well, and you're all good. And that was nine years ago, you said, 2012. Yeah. It was. Well. Yeah. Hate snakes, needless to say. Yeah, exactly. That's, you know, they always say a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work. That's not always true. And so I've always laughed about that. Like, it's maybe not true. No. Nope. That's not true. All right. Well, we appreciate your support here at Epic. Yeah, you bet. Appreciate you guys. Anything we can do for you, let us know, okay? Thanks, JB. Appreciate it. All right. All right. Yep, yep. Y'all take care. Have a good day. Bye. The pictures are, he kind of made it seem like it wasn't, the pictures look terrible. Well, that's terrible. I mean, it's not a...

I need to forward this to Chris. It's nuts. But, Bronson, I keep thinking about, like, we've been out hunting and seeing a lot of snakes. I deal with them. You deal with them. I deal with them. But remember when we were in the Escalant? Oh, yeah. And we're single file. Oh, yeah. And we're hiking out on that mesa. Okay, how far? Are we 25 miles? Oh, at least 20. And three or four of us had already walked by the bush and the snake. And your wife, I think... Jana. ...heard it or saw it. I don't know. She walked and her foot was like, what, 12 inches from her? We had already walked past it, right? Yeah. Me, I had. I don't remember if you... Well, we all had. She was towards the end. I think she was toward the end. And I think those are the guys that get bit. Because it kind of wakes up. It's already coiled, coiled, coiled. Bugged, bugged, bugged. I'm really going to do something about that.

So what would we do? What should we... You're getting an air... I think you're getting airlifted. And there's another 25 grand. Yeah. Because you can't walk. I know. By the time you tried to hike out, you're... You couldn't use your leg. And so you're... I think about that. You're going to get airlifted. I think about that a lot. Like, I don't know. Like, we're out in the middle of nowhere. 20 miles from any road or your truck. Don't raise your heart rate. I'm 20 miles of the backpack. I'm a day and a half, two days to get back. Yeah. You know? There's no choice but to in reach for help. Anyway, so what to do if you're bitten? You are to walk as far away from the snake as possible. Grab your phone and photograph it. Photograph the area of your body where you were bitten. And because I guess it time stamps your photo. So they know how long it's been. The swelling and the...

Okay, that was taking this. Now the swelling's here. It's two and a half hours later. Whatever. Call for help. And if you have a pin or a marking device, circle the bite area and then take another photo. Well, I appreciate JB and Levi taking some time. But hey, let's talk about something else. What are those... Snakes. Let's move on from snakes. We can do sharks. Chris, shark bite. Let me check. So we did have a guy reach out. Go ahead. Go ahead. Well, Chris has a guy reach out and says, I don't know about snake bite, but I got bit by a shark. Sent a picture of his knee. Freaking chomped. Looks like it had a tendon or ligament flailing out the side. It was not pretty, but... Kind of crazy. We thought of that a little bit in Hawaii. There's pretty rare, but I mean, we were on the coast where they had a... Her name's Bethany Hamilton. They made a movie about her. Soul surfer.

That's where she got bit. It's on the North Shore of Kauai. But anyway, still super rare. But I mean, it's... She lost her arm, bit her arm off. She's a pro surfer and went back. Well, you got to think though, again, am I going to enjoy life? How many people get bit versus how many people swim? Tell my family. It's a statistic. If you're at the wrong end of a statistic, that's... If it's your time to go, it's your time to go. That's what's going to happen, unfortunately. But got to live your life. You're exactly right. But it's also nice to... These things are going to happen at some point. It's nice to... Be aware of your surroundings. Don't pull out your John Wayne knife and cut a big X and start bleed to death instead of... Because about 10 years ago, it just felt like nobody knew what the right answer was. Nobody knew anything. So now we know. Keep it below the heart.

Don't raise your heart. And get to the hospital fast. That's about all you can do, Bronson. That's about it. It's going to run its course. You're at its mercy, basically. It says it's almost never too late to give antivenom. It's been shown to be effective up to two days after. Wow. So, I don't know. Kind of cool. Well... Anyway, so we got the snake bite out of the way. That's... Just go. Go and do. Scout your guts out. You know, don't be worried about these things. But if something bad happens, get to a hospital fast. All right. Well, Bronson, I think... Levi's from Arizona, and I guess that's probably one topic we can talk about. There are Arizona's hit credit cards for... Deer and sheep. ...lucky applicants. I guess some bison, Ted, if you did a... I don't know, whatever bison was available. Designated. Designated cows and a couple of... Yeah, it was mostly a point.

We used that application period for bison mostly. ...is a point, but... But if you see a charge... Yeah. ...on your card, it's good. It should be a matter of hopefully days that the portals and that are loaded, but... Had quite a few guys call us and let us know if they've got some hits, and so we're just trying to decide how soon these actual results will be out, so we know what unit they got. Yeah. The problem with Arizona is they do allow you to do two choices that are both valid, so if you got a charge and you did more than one choice, there's no way yet to know what it is, but that'll be coming any day. Hopefully, maybe by tomorrow, by the weekend, we'll know. So, otherwise, early next week. Congrats. Let us know if you got it. Other than that, we're kind of... That's it. Unless you got some... No, the only... ...points only. Point only.

We got some point only stuff coming up, Bronson, where we're going to be covering that in this next publication. In fact, you and I got to go back to writing. I did all mine yesterday for me and the family just to get it off. Did my Montana and Wyoming. It's like an hour to do your family. Yeah. Do you want to know how much Wyoming cost me to do for the family? Well, you got 50, 40, and 30. $453 for points. This is not a casual game anymore. No, it's not. And what makes me upset, it's kind of bothersome, and I know it's a moneymaker, but all of us but one of us, I have five of us we apply, and only one of them's a youth anymore, so that's $10 for him. That bums me out. The rest of them was $123 or something, $4 a piece to do deer, elk, and antelope. The bummer is I applied everybody in the regular draw. We applied for deer, elk, and antelope, all four of us.

And they do not give you a point. And you pay a $14 or whatever. Application fee. $15 application fee plus 2.5%, and no, you didn't draw. You're not done. And now I've got to go buy the points. And you don't have to. Their point is, is Bronson, we have a random draw. You can participate in the rest of your life. Yeah, you can. At the same time, they're talking and having a task force out there right now in Wyoming talking about going to a 90-10 resident, non-resident split on stuff. So if they do that, the wait's going to even go longer. Your points are even going to be more maybe either worthless or gold. I don't know. And if you've got kids that are not as committed, and you might want to put them in your group application to help you draw. I mean, at some point, these things go through your mind of, at least you've got options. It makes it real easy to play your kids until they're 18.

It's $10 a species. And then after that, boom. After that. It's just like Arizona, they're buying an adult license. Adult license. Nevada licenses. It sounds good from 10 to 18. Everything's peachy. It is. Everything is great from 10 to 17. Once they turn 18, you've got to have some real meetings of how serious are you? Do you like hunting? You know? I mean, let's face it. Some do, some don't. In my family, they were all raised. Yeah. Under the same roof and ate the same meal. Some are more into it than others. I mean, they're all into it. They're all into it, but some are more into it than others. You've seen the same thing. It's natural. Well, should we call John Adams and sing him? Oh, yeah. Let's just sing him happy birthday from you and I. Let's just start it. Huh?

Let's just see if he answers.

Let's go. How old are you now? Happy birthday, boss. Yesterday or a couple days ago. You got. Cheers. I hear old. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Johnny. Happy birthday to you. There you go, boss. Never happened before on a podcast. Don't say we ever forgot your birthday. Even though we're a day late. You guys are awesome, man. Even though we're a day late and a dollar short, boss. That is awesome. Speaking of a dollar short, you got that house done? You know, we're doing electrical now. Come on. It's been 10 months. I'm just teasing. No, it's so bad. Well, okay. So, electrical. Like, I'm just putting, like, wall plates on. Oh, okay. Finish. You're finished electrical. It's like, yeah. It's like drywall painted. I'm putting cabinets up. Dude. Legit. And we might be rolling in. Before hunting season. Christmas. Christmas, maybe. Or before hunting season.

Yeah. It's been a grind, to say the least. The good thing is, is you got all your lumber before the prices were jacked, huh? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I'm still married. You know, after all. Well, that's a bonus. So, that's a huge bonus. But there's got to be. A lot of people say you can't do it. There's got to be. I don't know how long it's been. Carter said 10 months. Maybe it's a year and 10 months. I don't know. When did you start? Okay. So, we dug footers in August. Whoa. And then I took off. That's 11. Hold up. I took off September to December. Oh, he wants to deduct the hunting while he's feeding his family working. The hunting was gone. Yeah. Okay. Makes sense. Okay. And then I've been grinding ever since. And we might have to move in not completely finished. Yeah. Who knows? Well, in Arizona, you've got a lot of squatters out there.

I don't even think you guys need building permits, do you?

Oh, man. It's bad. It's bad. Yeah. They closed the forest. They closed the forest down. And you should see the Home Depots and Walmarts. Really? They are jam-packed. Why? Just because people can't camp, so they're doing odd- Renovations? Doing yard work and stuff, or what? No. They moved their whole entire camps in the parking lots. What? Oh, so people are living- They're camping in the parking lots? Living. The squatters. The squatters that normally are living out on the landscape. Yes. There's a lot of that in Arizona where you have a- Well, Quartzite and all the places down south of people. Warm weather. And now they moved to Flag or the Coconino Forest to summer, and now they can't do that. So they're living at Home Depot. Wow. It was unbelievable. Unbelievable. Well, and I think there's a lot of people that live their whole life just on the- In the camp trailer.

Yeah, just out and about. Because it's the weather. You don't have, like, the freezing weather pushes people away. Yeah, they- And you guys don't have that. They migrate. Whenever the snow falls here, they migrate down to Phoenix. And then whenever Phoenix gets 120, they migrate right back up. To the forest. Flagstaff, whatever. And, yeah, and it's- Like, I feel bad. Like, I love helping people out. But, you know, there is literally 30 help wanted signs on my drive home every day. And it's just, you know, there is so much work out there right now. And then you go through the forest, and I took the back roads this morning, and where they had to move out, there is just trash everywhere. And, you know, it kind of bummed me out a little bit this morning, but- Well, we got fast food. That's my two cents on my shaking right now.

Yeah, we got fast food offering kids, you know, and adults 12 to 14 bucks now. Just an hour to start. Just to try to get people working. Well, we just wanted to wish you a happy birthday. Yeah. We're a little late, but we didn't do a podcast yesterday, so we thought we'd do it today. Yeah, and your buddy Levi wanted to make sure to get that house done, too, so you could scout elk for him. That's- Unit 10. We talked snake bites today on the podcast, and we ended up calling him about his dad, and he dropped- He gave us a hint. You might have had a- And then I saw it on Instagram, but, well, we just wanted to make it your special day. And the topic of the house came up, and we knew you had to be getting close, so- Yeah, he's pounding me to get my house done, but, yeah, we have to kill an antelope before August 14th, statewide antelope. How's the horn growth for antelope?

Looks good, doesn't it? It's not looking great. No? It's not looking great. No. I thought dry years were supposed to be good for that. You never can predict those, can you? Yeah. I mean, antelope, you just can't predict when it's great. Like, when I had my tag- Yeah, the best buck we found is maybe 80, 85, maybe? Maybe? 86, maybe? Mm-hmm. Talking, yeah, it's not- Which is a great buck, but you're looking statewide. Next level. And that's the number one. In the U.S. Slightly, maybe slightly disappointing for you. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, super disappointing. So, we have a month left. I've heard elk are looking a little bit tough, antler-wise. Yeah, there's- the fronts are looking phenomenal on some bulls, and then, you know, obviously they're not finished out, and then others are looking like complete garbage. Really? So, I don't know. Gonna be a- That's a toss-up. Yeah.

Anybody you know got a deer tag or sheep tag that just came out, a little hit on their card? Quite a few buddies and, you know, clients have Kaibab tags. They've all let me know that they all have Kaibab tags, which is good. The Kaibab is looking green.

But, yeah, I don't know. So, that's what I was wondering is how the Kaibab's gonna fare compared to the strip. Obviously, the strip's super drought sensitive. Kaibab is, too, but it gets more storms, so it'll be interesting to see. Maybe you guys have the biggest bucks up there. Yeah, they've been getting hit. Like, I think that even that storm that just went through Zion, you know, touched over Kaibab a little bit, and then a couple days after that storm, you know, the Kaibab got hit again. All right. So- All right. Well, buddy, sounds good. Get the house done. Let's go hunting, all right? Yeah, let's do this. All right. See you guys. Have a good day. Good luck, boss. You too, buddy. All right, bye. Don't shock yourself. Hook off your electrical outlets.

Well, Bronson, should we end this on- That was a hodgepodge. That was a mixed match, but it's some good info. It's- Summers are like that. It's like, we'll cover it again, but like we talked about, like we talked about, there's points-only periods open up right now for Oregon. Oregon's not as exciting because you could do points-only. What do you mean? There's people in Oregon that live for Oregon. Well, what I mean is they let you do points-only back when you could apply for the hunts. I know. And then they also let you in the summer. And anybody that applies in Oregon does it before May 15th and has done for the last 45 years. We say it because they let you do it if you forgot, but Montana and Wyoming, you have to go. And remember, in Wyoming, even if you applied for deer, elk, and antelope, you've got to go buy your points now.

The sheep and the moose, they had that box that you had to pay or not pay for the point fee. And if you don't have a lot of sheep and moose points, don't buy them. It's not worth the money. But on the deer, elk, and antelope, but even if you applied and didn't draw, you've got to go buy them now. Don't forget that. They're open now through the end of October. First of- Yep. First of November. So anyway, yep. Do the Wyoming. And then the Montana, of course, you could have gotten your points when you applied for the species earlier, but now you go in to do the points only. That's right. So you want to go in- Either one or the other. One per year. July 1 to September 30, one application per year per species. If you applied for them, you got your point. If you didn't apply for them- Or you didn't participate in the system, but you can't go in and get a point now. No, you can't.

So it's one application per year. All right, boss. Well, we got that covered. Everybody's happy with that. Let's give something away. Hey, I just got a notification. We might need to have the boys walk in in here. I just got a text from Devin that said, Wyatt just drank a Mountain Dew. Here, let's call. Let's call. For all you guys that don't know- Let's hold on. Let's call Wyatt. Yeah. Let's just call him. I want- He won't- He won't believe- He won't even- He's going to be bouncing off the ball. He's going to be like, how did you guys know I just drank a Mountain Dew? Okay, just keep in mind- Just say- He's been off it for what, five years? I don't know. Yeah, a long time. Can you see if he's on the landline? Can you see if- Hey. How does it taste? Hey, how was it? How do you guys already know? Don't ask us how we know. It's our job to know. We just want to know what made you break.

Was it worth it? What made you fall off the wagon? How long has it been since you've had one, and how did it taste? It's been about three years, and it just didn't taste that great, honestly. Really? I thought it would be like it used to be. Well, it's because you have your COVID taste buds. You have your COVID taste buds right now. They're not fully back. That's a good point. Yeah, that could be it, though, too. So, drink another one and see how it treats you. Yeah, that's probably it. It's got to be more of an acquired taste where you've got to build it back up. I used to drink one about every day, and I quit. And now, when I drink one, it just tastes like syrup, like straight sugar. That's what it tastes like to me. It was just kind of like, yeah, it didn't. I can't do it anymore. I want to go back to my original question. What made you fall off the wagon? It's a Thursday.

It shouldn't be any. It's early in the morning. Is it that slow where your mind was just bored, and you walked over to the fridge and grabbed one? I was just over there with Devin. Devin's like, I want to split a Mountain Dew, and drank one in forever. Maybe I've been thinking about trying. So you split one? You split one? Six ounces? Devin, he dumped his out in the cup and then handed me the can, and I took a swig. Six ounces of Mountain Dew. That's not even enough to know what you drank, almost. No, it was enough to know what I drank. Did you tell Carly? Do we need to tell Carly? Yeah, is everything all right at home? Do we need to talk about it? Everything's great at home. Everything's great at home. Do you feel guilty? Do you need to repent? No, no. I'm just okay. I just... Wow, I thought we would all be there. Well, it's a deal. Well, it is.

It's three years, and there's no provoked... It's not like you were on a highway at night, and you needed a pound of 44-ouncer to stay awake. All winter long, we try to get you to break. Break, and you don't. And then the minute we leave, it's like you think you can sneak one and let's not know about it. Yeah, and... You guys didn't leave. You're here still. I know, but it's a random July day, and it's not a stressful time of year. I just... I wanted... How did it... How did you break? Chris, when you tried Mountain Dew again, Chris, was it a special occasion, or were you just like, huh? Just wonder what it tastes like still? No, it wasn't a special occasion, but I also wasn't like three years solid off. Yeah, it's like... That's it. You're drinking another one. We're going to drink with you. Well, we're going to have to go to the store, because we're out now. So, geez. Wow.

Well, we'll take you to lunch and get a 32-ouncer. Yeah. You might need to take a little fountain drink. The ice dilutes a little bit. It might not taste quite as syrupy, and you might be back in the flow. Mountain Dew in a can was always my thing, though. It was never the fountain drink. It was the Mountain Dew in the can. I like those Tallboy ones from Maverick. 16-ouncers, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Those extra tall ones. People back east don't have Mavericks. Well... So, don't they have the come and go, or what else do they have back east? There's some popular... There's some popular little... I don't live back east. Well... Those are in Colorado. I used to. Yeah, the come and goes are in Colorado. All right. All right, well... All right, boss. We'll just have somebody keep an eye on you in case your heart rate starts to lower.

Tell Jana to grab, you know, Amazon a couple cases here, like we do the Monsters. Yeah, we're not going to fall off the wagon that much. All right. Talk to you later. Okay. So... This is the most random... I don't know. ...around podcast. We're just having a good time. But... But... In honor of snake... Rattlesnakes and snake bites... Ooh, let's give away a Diamondback pair of binos. Ooh, nice. I'm like, where are you going with this? I like it. Yeah. Great, Chris. I like it. Hit us with the details. A pair of Diamondback 10x42 binos from Vortex. We appreciate Vortex, Paul Kendall, Rep, and them for providing these for us. How are we going to give them away, Chris? If he dropped by and just wanted to show support, we appreciate him. So, anyway, this is from Vortex Drive. All right. If you want to win, go to Instagram, and you need to follow our epic underscore hunts and

our epic underscore optics page. Okay. Follow both of them. Follow both of them. Follow for follow? Then go into the post about this podcast, the Rattlesnake post, on... Let's do it on the epic optics page. That's where we're going to post it. That's where we'll post it. Go in there and comment Diamondback. Diamondback. All right. Perfect. There you go. I like it. On a snake bite podcast. We're going to put a deadline. You got to do this by a certain day or... Is this going live tonight or tomorrow? Maybe in the post. Let's do one week from today. Okay. So, we're going to have from Friday to Friday. Yeah. Friday to Thursday. Something like that. Okay. It'll be in the post. The deadline will be in the post when you post it, right? Yes. When you do it. And you just comment Diamondback. Hey. I like it. I like it. That's what a 36-year-old brain comes up with. Well, they think about things.

We're tired. He's like, in the honor of snake bites, let's give away some binoculars. And I'm thinking, what's the connection there, Chris? But, oh. He's just one or two steps ahead of us old boys. Just one of the species available in Utah and Arizona. All right. Well, let's leave on that note, Bronson. Hey, they also have vipers. How about that? Oh, we could give away one of those. Well, maybe that's another time. What else do they have? Razors. Don't cut your snake bite with a razor. There you go. All right. All right. Well, everybody, in this drought year, Bronson, we said we were going to let everybody know what we think, that you shouldn't pass on the first day what you would shoot on the last. And that's fitting for a drought year, boss. Yeah, that's true. It is. It's going to be interesting. There's a lot of places.

We heard a little bit about of it from John in Arizona and the elk world. It's definitely going to come with playing some of the more premier areas in Arizona on the strip and others from the deer world, southern Nevada, southern Utah. Even Idaho, they tell me, my buddy up there is telling me, it's pretty dry. But it just doesn't feel, it's like Colorado. Wyoming says the same thing. Yeah, and it just feels different. They do have mountains there. They do have certain areas that are just high prairie and high desert. They still have running water. How about that? Some places down here, we don't have any running water anymore. I don't know. They got fish quotas being dropped everywhere on these reservoirs. They're saying Minersville, I heard the idea, slaying them right there. 20 to 24 inchers, keep them. And it's going to be, in a few weeks, it's done.

Going to be a creek, which is what all those farmers. You should take your family there. All those farmers. A lot of my extended family runs pivots down there, and they rely on that water from the reservoir. When I heard these other ones, these other reservoirs, Otter Creek and all of them are following, because they have legal obligations to let flows out, because you can't dry up the creek. Like, leaving, or the river, leaving a reservoir, because what about that waterway, and what about all the water rights leaving it? You have to leave so many CFS leaving all the time. It doesn't matter if it's sucking it low. It doesn't matter. Reservoirs were made for storing. It's like food storage. Yeah, storing. And then the byproduct is fishing. All right, well, anyway, don't pass on the first day what you shoot on the last, everybody.