EP 217: Making the Most of Our Tags

I was yelling out yardage, he was dialing, he was ranging, I was ranging. We got thick neck bucks pushing those. Why don't you still hear that close? I'm like, this thing looks 30 plus. Anything to do with Western big game.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast, powered by Under Armour. All right, everybody, here we are with a new Epic Outdoors podcast. It's been a while. We've been in the four corners of the earth, it feels like. But we got most of the crew here. We got Josh, Wyatt, Chris, John, this is Adam, Jason, Big Daddy Carter's gone. We're going to try to get him on the horn here in a minute and see if he's got any service wherever he is in the world right now. It's been kind of a crazy couple of, well, more than a couple of weeks. It feels like a month, but that's the season we're in. But we appreciate you hopefully being patient. We know we've been absent, but we're glad to be getting another episode out here. We want to give a shout out to Under Armour for being the title sponsor of our podcast, like always. And we're definitely in the middle of switching gear.

The Enflops is going to become a little bit more used. I was using it this past weekend. Yeah. The lightweight. I was using their lightweight new dot stuff every day for like two weeks. And that stuff, I unloaded it out of my duffel. And I'm not going to see it until next summer, pretty much. With the eight inches of snow we got, we might have to skip Enflops season and go right to Alpine. Alpine. That's right. It's just puffy season out there. That's right. Puffy jacket time. We went from golfing 70s to like eight inches of snow, Cedar City, Utah. It's crazy. We, you know, I don't know. I didn't shovel or push snow once last year. And this town feels like we're a bunch of Californians right now that have never seen snow, never driven in snow. And for some people, like the college freshmen that probably come from southern states to Cedar City, there's a lot of people.

It feels like everybody has never driven in snow. But I guess. And you have a new crop of 16-year-olds that probably have never driven in snow. It just feels like people, what is going on? People were off the road everywhere this morning. Every light in town. And I guess probably because nobody had snow plows hooked up to anything on, you know, whether it be the highway, UDOT, or CITY, or private companies. I mean, our parking lot here, for instance, is pretty rough.

We've got a lot of snow. But anyway, I guess it's early October, almost mid-October, and it's coming here. It's going to be interesting. Hopefully, if it keeps on for certain hunts that I have, I'm praying for more snow. And I know Colorado people are hopefully we get a trend going in that direction that we haven't had for a while. So anyway, should we call Jason real quick and see if we can get him on the horn? And I don't know how long he's going to be in service. We can make fun of him while he's not here to defend himself. Yeah. If he doesn't answer, we got. Hello? Oh, you answered. Crap. We thought you. If you didn't answer, we were going to be able to just talk about you behind your back. Just roast me? Yeah. Just roast me? Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much. Well, Josh would save me. Is he there? Oh, yeah. He'd dump a dog at 814 yards. How about that? That's true. I did.

I saw the most, I hate to even admit it because it was him, but the most amazing shot on a coyote in my life. Who shot it? Jason? Yes. Oh. Come on. Tell us. What do you mean? Don't act surprised? What do you mean? I red rocked. I red rocked you, man. Let's just assume he was a mom. I dropped a bomb on a mom.

Wow. Well. So you got your red rock precision. And you. And. Yeah. Oh, I sprawled out in the mud. It's freaking raining. Sprawled out in the mud. Yeah. I was yelling out yardage. He was dialing. He was ranging. I was ranging. And this coyote was running. I mean, it started. It was like 150 yards. No. No, no, no, no. When we first saw it. When we saw it. When we saw it. And it was started there. It was just standing there looking at us. He's like, there's a coyote. He's like, that's it. I'm going to shoot it. And I may have got one earlier. Well, what was the day before? A road dog. We found a dead cow. Oh, yeah. And there was one sitting there. And it was kind of weird. We had to stare down. It was, are you going to go? Or am I going to go? Are you going to go? Am I going to go? Somebody kill that. Well, that dog had 10 pounds of meat in him. And he didn't want to run.

I rolled him in a whopping 50 yards. So I was feeling pretty good about myself. But anyway, this coyote just takes off. And Jason takes the time to get his gun out. It was kind of like on that Quigley down under. He's trying to shoot those guys as they're running. He's throwing the gun out. Well, I'm just thinking, I got my red rock. And this dog can't get away. He's going to stop out here at 600 when he thinks he's safe. He's going to stop, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I'm just going to keep dialing. Whatever it takes. I don't care. He just kept going and going. And then he started up this ridge. And I'm like, I can't even see him with naked eye anymore. So we glass him back up again. And he's cruising up. And he gets back down on the gun. And I go, hey, he's going up that rock pile. And he was climbing these rocks. I said, going out of the middle.

And then all of a sudden, right as he hit the top, whop. And just pancaked him. Running? He was walking. But he was going away from us. So you got the length of him. It just freaking crushed him. He did like this. Wow. Stopped in midair. And then just rolled back down the road. Is this 180 grain? 180 grains of 300 drum? Or what was that? It's a 30 nozzle. The 178 ELDX. Oh, man. Well, I was impressed. At least you had a witness, Carter. That's pretty good. I did an antelope like that once. I do this all the time. Just nobody knows. Well, that's all I was reminded about for three days after that. 800 yards? Is that what you said? Wow. 815. Oh, my goodness. That was the last range I got. You take the hair off those things. And the target's only like 10 inches. Oh, that's what we were talking about. It's like a bag of chips. 5-inch kills.

Anybody that's ever scum out a coyote, it's like killing a rabbit. Yeah. I mean, there's nothing to them. Yeah. Well, how's it going out there today? Let's get a fresh report from wherever you are in the world. And we're ready to... Snow drifts and caffeine. Josh knows I drink a little bit of caffeine. So, anyway, I'm busting snow drifts today. Are you? It's crazy. Really? Yeah. How many miles are you at today? Because, what, we did at least 350 that week. I don't know, but I'm about two-thirds of a tank, and I started at full, and I got three fibers in the back. I'm going to try to use them all.

Jeez. Is the brush flocked white? Is it one of those days that a deer's going to stick out great? Yeah, they stick out, but, I mean, there's only three of them. You know what I mean? So, ask Josh. Josh left, and I should have left, and I'm throwing good money after bad right now. Well, I'm just glad you know what it was like for the first four days when I was there by myself. Well, and it's also, it's the season Josh grabs the leftover, and your eyes get big when you're at a keyboard, and then when rubber meets road, it's different, right? Well, the kill of getting a tag is, and you know this, we all know this, I mean, the kill of getting a tag, it doesn't even matter if it's a landowner tag or a turnback tag or a regular tag and a regular draw. I mean, that's maybe even more than half of it. I mean, that's, now you get to planning, prepping, thinking about it.

You know, when you're out here, you're like, ugh. Why did I do that? It's just like what we say, just be careful what you want. Make sure you really want it. $1,000 later in fuel, here you are. Have cut a lion track, cut a lion track today, fresh. Oh, really? Yeah. Did you, are you one of those, you can get those for, isn't it like under $100 in Nevada? I think I've got one. I've got to, I've got to go look in my suit, take, taste the tags in the back seat and make sure. Hey, just go cut the track, Carter. You've killed a coyote at 815 on a walk. Just go try to spot, walk a lion track down, jump it and kill it. If you got a tag. If you do that, your next tag is on me. How's that? If it wasn't 21 degrees and 40 mile an hour wind, I'd be out there. The track's getting blown in. I ain't leaving the truck, boss. Okay.

Well, I'm just saying, I'm trying to get you to do something that's never been done before. Like a man tracking. And I know you hounds them out there saying, oh, bull crap, you guys. I do that all the time before my dogs can stray out in the track. I'm falling and I jumped a lion and I'm whistling for dogs. But I'm just saying, you know, most people don't cut a lion track, jump it and shoot it. That'd be awesome. It would be awesome, but I'm not proving anything today. They make BTXs for a reason. Doors block the wind. All right. Pepsi tastes good.

Well, so what's the plan? Are you there until November 5th? I mean, do we need to send UPS you some food up there? No. No. Okay. I don't know. Every day is a new day and I'm just considering. You're four to six hours away from being home. That's about where we're at. No, I'm about nine hours. And it's the most brutal. Devin, are you there? No. It's the most brutal nine hours I've ever had in my life. Well, I'm going to come home at some point. I am. I just. There's good stuff here. It is impressive. The few bucks we've seen are built right. I met a guy. Have you ever, by the way, have you ever lost a cell phone on a hunt? You did that last year in Colorado. I know. I know. You did it again? And I did it again. Well, what happened? Yeah. What happened is I'm coming down. Didn't your wife not to back up, but didn't she have to use the find my phone app back in Utah

and relay it to Gary, who you were hunting with in Colorado and say, this is where it looks like. You're like, oh yeah, Gary, that's by your gut pile. That's where it's at. Well, it kind of was. It was actually on the way on the ridge. Yeah, it was on the ridge to where we shot. And it had slipped out of my pocket and slipped under a log. And we knew it was there because I find my phone app. Well, shoot, you know, find your friends or whatever, you know. And we walked right to it, dude. And it was under a log. So what'd you do in Nevada? Well, so anyway, I'm stopping to grab service, replying to an email or something. And then somebody started up their vehicle right next to me. And it kind of startled me. I'm in New Country. What do you mean? Well, like air camp there. How jumpy are you that a car starting is packing heat? I mean, I'm not coming to help you.

I'm going to take a bullet just starting my truck. Hey, I pack heat, boss. I know you do. You're getting me worried. You're up there alone. You're up in Claude, Dallas country up there in northern Nevada. I've seen some crazy memorials. Ask Josh. We saw a memorial from a cowboy that died in 1938. And I mean, there's some cool history up here. But anyway, a vehicle started. I'm like, what the crap? And I had set the phone down on the hood of the razor. And I'm kind of startled. I'm like, crap. And then I wanted to get out of there because I'm now in somebody's camp. And that's awkward. And then I'm like, well, there's antlers in the back. And so I did this whole S thing, you know, like driving, like, I'm going to turn around. No, I got to go look at that deer and invade their camp. And then I and all the while, I guess my phone was on my hood. I drive up to their truck.

I check out the buck. It's pretty awesome. The guy, you know, heavy sucker. Just I mean, you know, just just an awesome buck. It's a mature buck. And which is rare. Right, Josh? Oh, yeah. OK. So anyway. And so we're checking it out. And he's like, hey, you're Jason. Yeah, I listen to the podcast. I'm like, yeah, cool. Yeah, I use it to apply, which reminds me we're probably telling too much on the podcast. But anyway, we're just visiting and whatnot. And then I go to find my phone and I freaking can't find it. And he's trying to ask me what my Apple ID is so he can plug it in to find his friend, which is me. I can't I can't even remember it. So I trace my tracks all the way back up on the mountain because it's not right there. And then I come back and I'm like, oh, yeah, I did this little S thing because I was nervous and I didn't want to be in his camp.

And there's the phone laying there. So anyway, but it reminded me of the whole time. You might as well have lost your range finder. You might as well broke your gun like there's I'm thinking contemplating going home. There's too much in your phone. There's too much in there. There's too much of our life. If we used to could hunt without us totally even having one. We used to could do that. And in the in ringer blue ringers, you could do it now, too. Yeah, it's like hogs where they used to good. You used to good. I mean, and now I've got paper maps in the back seat. But I mean, we're talking about good therefore. We're talking about the last good snow like this this morning. And why it was 2004. I mean, it feels like the last good snow.

Wyatt had a buck, tried to race him off the top of Nebo to the bottom of the freeway, you know, about killed him, you know, raced him off the mountain, dragging it in snow. And there's been some good memories talking about hunting in snow and Utah. Well, the thing is, do you guys got chains and a handyman like this is Colorado up here? Like, I'm busting through drifts, going these little side hill roads that are, you know, like a member. I mean, back in the day, whoever cut in these roads is probably drinking a six carton of cigarettes. I mean, it's it's sketchy roads, you know, they're sketchy. Built built in the 40s or earlier. Drinking a 12 pack of pass brew ribbon cutting it into the side of the mountain, man. That's how these roads are made. And I'm thinking, yeah, these are icy. Like, anyway, I'm just saying you guys better get your trucks in order. You know what I mean? Yeah.

But anyway, did you guys? How are you? Okay. So, I mean, Idaho sounded, I don't know. Marginal. But I had to race home. I had another. I had some first world problems. Just leave it at that. But basically, yeah, you get a. Winterize a boat before it goes to 13 degrees. Yeah, before it goes to, yeah, 15 degrees. And you got to pay for a new engine block and everything else. John, John's done that once. Yeah. So, yeah. So, and I've got, you know, the boat. You can't just send them to your storage unit because they got to have some water to start your boat and run some stuff. And they got to have water to pump it in. So, you got to have it on your front of your street. So, they can come and do their thing. But then you got, you know, a boat that's going to get crushed with snow and getting it. Anyway. So, I had to come home and do that.

It felt like two to three hours and I'm ready to go back to Idaho. But now I'm here doing a podcast. And so, in a couple of days, I'll be heading back up. And they didn't get the brunt of this down here in all of it. But it's better than they've been having. Yeah. A lot of rain. A lot of warmer water stuff. Well, and that's what I called the biologist and he finally hit me back. And anyway, I was like, hey, you know, I'm over to such and such and it seems like low densities. And no, no, they're not low densities there. And I go, okay, okay. If this is as good as it gets, wow. Yeah. And then I've talked to a lot of locals and I'm talking, you know, I'm talking about, you know, over to such and such and they say it used to be good. Now it's not good. Surveys were incredible there. Okay.

Um, well, and I'm like, dude, I must suck. Maybe. And he's like, you know what? He says the conditions are just, the conditions are rough. And I'm thinking this stuff's wide open. I've never seen anything more wide open in a lot of this stuff. And anyway, it just, yeah, it reminds me. I think sometimes we get going back to back to back. And you know what? If we could come back and hunt this November 1st, I think it'd be next level. Hey, we got thick neck bucks pushing those. I mean, ask Josh. It's pretty, it's, it's going to be a different year. It's going to be early. 10th to 15th of October we're talking. So yeah, I, I came home, take care of a few fairs, get them in order. And yeah, they were just things that you don't usually have to do till late October, early November, but you're out of state. My wife happened to be gone at the time.

So, I mean, you're, you're FaceTime and your wife trying to get her to blow her sprinkles out. Well, there's her FaceTime. So, I mean, yeah, like you're doing it, but your wife, your wife is sitting home. Mine is not. So, well, I, well, I mean, we're FaceTime and, and you know, the key I've got, I've got a valve 10 feet down and the, and the, and the pipes kinked a little bit. She told the, yeah, the, the earth, you had earth settling and so the pipe is in an S in the mouth. I'm like, look at the top of the valve. So she looks at the top of the valve with a flashlight, which way is it headed? Okay. Now show me the key. Okay. Now stick it down in the pipe. And I mean, anyway, she told us all about it. Trust me. We know all of it. 30, 30 minutes later, she's ready to wring my neck. She's very type A, you know, you know, I get it. Two type A's trying to turn a sprinkler off.

Trying to boss each other around. 500 yards apart. What can go wrong? Oh yeah. I've been. 500 miles. She's like, Hey, yeah. I'm like, what are you doing tonight? Okay. So this is like an hour later. I'm like, what are you doing tonight? So she turned, she hits me with FaceTime and I'm like, Oh, cool. You're in my gear room. What are you doing in my gear room? And she's like, Oh, I've organized everything. I've reorganized everything. I've got all the cabinets reorganized, the whole closet. And I go, really? Show me. And dude, I'm like, And you'll be like, I'll be home in eight hours. I'm like, Josh, I'm like, I should have followed Josh. I'm not going to be able to find anything. I said, you know, there's some things I'm going to need. And she goes, well, now you can find them. They're organized.

Okay. That's the way to put it. There's another way I'd put it. And now it's like dumping stuff upside down. Oh, I'm going to be, I'm going to be better off going to the store and buying them.

Well, you're going to have to go to California on the coast. You can't find anything in the store right now. What is with the only thing I heard on, on satellite radios that we have an oil spill out there. What's going on? No, apparently. Remember these barges that can't, they don't have enough workers at the docks or whatever, supposedly, to keep them, get them in and unloaded fast enough. Am I hitting the nail on the head? This is what Archibald told me. It has the same thing with member or not. Newsom. We got a Newsom Democrat problem. Well, I don't know. Yeah, well, it's like there's, supposedly, yeah. Pretty much. Pretty much. Probably too many people got used to getting Biden buck checks and not going back to work. And I mean, I'm oversimplifying it. I know. But you got barges floating on there that can't get the stuff off them fast enough, basically.

And so they can't get on there, get on rail cars, get in the interior, which Utah's interior. So what happens? We got paranoia in Cedar City, Walmart. And so, man. Well, Janice said the shelves are getting empty again. And I'm just like, come on. So that's all I've heard. I don't know what you've heard on Fox News, but there was still. The beaches were closed for 10 days because of a boil spill. I did hear that. Fox did tell me that Brian Laundrie's still at large. I can't believe they can't find that guy. I thought Dog, a week ago, was closing in on him. Dog? I mean, is that the funniest thing in the world? I don't know. He went to work for a day, and I thought he was about to get caught. And then I went to Idaho, and I had poor service. So I assumed he was caught in jail, but no. So, no, he ain't caught. And Dog's like, Dog enters the chase.

And I'm like, you're like, you're going to beat the FBI. But then I thought, would you call the FBI or would you call Dog? I'm freaking called Dog. He's got lots of red tape. Well, I don't know, Bronson. These guys, did they go over their kills because these guys have been laying stuff down? And I haven't played anything now. We were going to do it. And if you want to stay here on the horn, because you probably haven't heard it either. But, yeah, let's start with Wyatt real quick because I don't know that we have. We kind of tried to do a little bit of this with Wyatt and the antelope when he wasn't in the room. And it didn't go well. So I don't know how much of it got used. But now that he's in the office now about his elk hunt, it went well. We're going to get a quick report there. Wyatt, you didn't hunt very long. I hunted a long time and David hunted a long time.

And you hunted a fairly short time and killed a giant. So how do we get – this feels like a month and a half ago. Maybe it was that long ago. But then we'll get into John. We've got a new intro song for this podcast. I think we're going to – We do. Well, it's going to be – remember the theme song to the intro to The Last of Mohicans, that drum solo that's like awesome? The guys running with the muzzleloader through the forest over that – Bronson, you and the music. You and the music. It's impressive. Well, it's just – tell me I'm wrong. It's like I won't bring it up if it's not dead on. And that is the theme song for John. So we'll see if that matches up when we hear the story. John, did you taste blood on this last one? I didn't taste blood. It wasn't that. It wasn't as long. I mean, that last one was – You had a little more to give, boss. You had a little more to give. But not to take –

So that's coming up for John in a minute because I haven't heard the real story. And we've been – but Wyatt, the time is now yours to do it as you see fit on your telling of your elk hunt story. Yeah, so I was able to obtain a tag out there in Nevada for a pretty good elk unit, actually a really good elk unit out there. Let's just say the best unit in Nevada. I'll let me just say that. Yeah, and on a phenomenal year, too. I mean, they've killed a handful of just big, big bulls. And when you say obtain, you didn't drop 25,000 or 30,000. We're talking the first come, first serve. Yeah. I mean, it's over. You're on a seven-year wait. You're not protecting anything anymore. And neither am I, but I don't have a dead elk. And neither is Archibald. Hey, what do you mean? There's others of us that want one of those. That's right.

We've got three of us in our office out of the way for the rest of everybody else next year, and we're waiting for seven years before we can play the game again. Anyway. By the way, Wyatt, did your wife know that you were up at four in the morning staring at the computer screen? She was my first phone call after I texted you guys. She's a night shift nurse and happened to be awake. Yeah, she didn't. And, yeah, she wasn't that impressed as you were, but you got an awesome tag within, what, a week or 10 days of the opener? I forget now it's been so long. Yeah, it was, you know, 10 days before the opener, and it was a unit I'm familiar with out there. Spent a lot of time in the past out there on that unit looking at bulls, as most of us here at the office have spent a lot of time out there. So got lucky there, and then the luck continued as it's, you know, first day I was able to go hunt.

I wasn't able to hunt the first week. I think I had prior commitments for archery deer hunters and got out there. It was probably the second week of the hunt, first week of September. But I forgot about this bull. This was a giant. You about killed a bigger bull the first day there. Yeah, so I had a phone call from a good buddy saying, hey, I just happened to be out here looking, and I turned up a great big bull today. Get here. Can you get here? And this is only like two hours from Cedar. Yeah, my stuff's packed. Like, I was ready to go out there today anyway. So, yeah, I'm on the road. I stood up, and I said, Jason, they found a big bull. Do you care if I leave? And he asked me what I was still doing here. So I waited for him to get off a phone call. Get out of here. Get out of here. Get out of here. So I jumped in the truck, and I flew out there and went up making a stock on the bull.

And some other hunters had kind of boogered it out on me. So it didn't end up working out there. So I spent that. That's painting a very rosy picture. Yeah, we'll just – Of the reality of the first story that I was told by you and others. But I think it turned out well. But we'll leave it at that. But I think it turned out well. So anyways, the next day I had to come back into town and grab a camp trailer and a few other things. So I was planning on staying the rest of the hunt. Well, you were going there to kill a bull that night, the first time. Yeah. And then it didn't happen, so you had to come home to get food and go back. Food, supplies, camper. I was there for the remainder of the hunt. It happened to be 16 days, and I was going to hunt every day. And on the drive out there, I was planning on rolling kind of solo for the first little bit

until Devin got home from Colorado and had a good buddy call me up and say, Hey, I don't really have anything going this weekend. It's a buddy I've hunted with for a long time, Preston Hannaf. I'll come over to Nevada. Yeah, I'm like, I'm out here in Nevada. He's like, I've got that deer tag. That'd be awesome. I'll run out there. So he happened to meet me out there, drove all night, and he showed up at 1 in the morning. And we woke up the next morning and just started running some country that I'm really familiar with and glassing long distance. And I ended up glassing up that bull that I ended up taking at five miles that morning. And couldn't really tell what it was. With hand-hold eights, or what'd you have? Of course he did. I had my 15s just off the window mount, of course. Well, luckily you're looking elk instead of deer. That's possible, but I don't.

You saw a herd of elk or an elk? No, I saw that he had a herd. He had about 30 cows with him and then him and got the spotting scope out and tried to pick him apart, but really couldn't tell. All I could tell is he had a cheater on the one side. And I'm like, he's probably worth a better look. I mean, you can't really tell anything from here. So we ended up closing the distance in the truck to about two miles. And then we had to do it on foot from there. So I sent Preston up the other hillside. And I went up the draw trying to get to where we last saw the elk. And as I was hiking up there, Preston had picked him up and said, hey, the bull is a lot higher with his herd than where we left him. Like, you've got to go to the top of the mountain to basically come back down on him to get your wind right, everything like that. So it ended up being kind of...

And you've seen a good enough look now? Like, oh yeah, that's a good bull I'd kill now. Yeah, Preston has him. He's texting me numbers and we're talking back and forth on the radio a little bit. And anyways, I decided, you know, I probably need to look at him. Yeah. It's kind of the point where two is I kind of need to look at him. Preston knows what he is as far as points and things like that. So I get to the top of the mountain. It takes a while. I mean, it was probably middle of the day now, noon, before I even got to the top to where I could start moving down in on the bull. Still late August, so kind of warm. Yeah, and his cows. So he's got, like I said, 30-something cows and then him. And as I start working down off the ridge to where he is, Preston, basically the last thing I get on the radio was, if you can get to those purple rocks, you're going to be right above him.

Radio goes dead. And from Preston's angle, it looked like there was one set of purple rocks that I just needed to get to. From my angle, there's everything's purple and everything's a ledge. It's like saying, get to that next green tree. Yeah. Yeah. I did that in Arizona with some guys in the saguaro cactus. They say, get to that lone saguaro. And I looked up and I could see like 80 of them. I'm like, lone saguaro cactus. What? And it's still a joke to this day, the lone saguaro. Like, okay. Anyway, so the purple rocks were your killing zone. Yeah. And now I'm being cautious because everything's a purple rock and everything I go over is a purple lead. So I'm going over rocks and picking them apart. Can't find it. Go over to the next set of rocks, pick it apart. Can't find it. And finally, probably four or five sets of rocks later, I pick up a cow bedded under a mahogany.

Just one top of a cow. And I'm like, all right, they've all got to be right here. So I set up and they're a hundred yards away. Wow. Close. So yeah, close, but not close enough. Still 31 elk, roughly. So I'm sitting there and I kind of glass and pick apart, but trying to be careful because cows are going to pick me up and kind of ruin the whole deal. So I'm sitting there and it's probably, I've probably been there for two hours. Is this afternoon now? Yeah. It's early evening. Two in the afternoon, probably. So two in the afternoon and I'm starting to pick apart. I'm finding more elk. There's three or four cows bedded there now. And then eventually more cows get off and they start walking over to these cows. And pretty soon I feel like I've seen a million cows, but still no bull. 30, but you're up to 86 cows now. Yeah, exactly.

Like it's just one cow come through and walk over there and lay under a tree. And then it was another cow walk over there and lay under a tree. I'm like, where's this bull? More cows that get over here, the less my chances are of actually killing this bull because they're going to pick me off at some point in time. Anyways, got really lucky. The cows just kept wandering through and it was hours watching these cows. And finally I hear a bugle. I'm like, all right, the bull's here somewhere. I couldn't tell exactly where. And after about, you know, felt like another two hours, I finally get a glimpse of the bull starting to get up and starting to work towards his cows. And he comes through below me at 100 yards and it's just, I drew back, but I didn't feel right. Like I'd been shooting that far all summer with my bow, but just didn't feel right.

Tried to cow call him a little bit and get him to maybe break away from his cows and come check out on me. If I could even get him 30 yards right here, it's going to be a world of difference. But he's got 30 to 80 cows, something like that. And you're one over there. Yeah, he didn't care much. So anyways, they all kind of worked off and it was kind of perfect scenario because when they worked off, it was a next set of ledges. So I basically had to move down onto the next set of ledges. I was above them again and could see them there below me. And anyways, I worked down off the next set of ledges there and I'm set up again, kind of under a mahogany. I've got all the elk there at like 60 yards, but I can't see the bull. Just don't know where he's at. Anyways, pretty soon I hear limbs just start snapping right next to me. Like you're busted out. Yeah.

On my left side and I kind of look over there and I'm looking through a mahogany. I can see the bull raking a tree on the other side of the mahogany 30 yards away. So I'm like, all right, as long as he's occupied raking, I can step around this tree and get a shot right here. So I step around the tree. As I come around the tree, the snowberry bushes are right there and the edge of the pines. They're too tall to see the bull. I can see its head. I see its horns and it's just raking and the bushes are too tall. So I'm trying to get myself a little bit taller where I can see in there and maybe get a shot into the vitals. And I think the bull actually kind of picked me up right there because he turned and walked down to the cows and he kept trying to move the cows, but the cows hadn't seen anything. So they were... He was nervous, but they were like, what are we doing? We're fine.

They were super content with just being there and the bulls trying to move them in and out of the mahogany. And I have them at 66 yards right there. And he's just keeps moving, trying to get these cows to move with him. And none of them were moving. So finally he just goes to the opposite edge of the cows and just kind of hangs out right there. Looking back at you. Yeah. Just kind of keeps looking back my way, but he's just hanging out on the other side of the cows. I'm going to drill you. Yeah. And anyway, so I just can't get anything in the mahogany's there and they eventually start working. He carves off four or five cows and starts working up the opposing hillsides. They're kind of in the bottom of a draw now. So it starts working up the opposing hillside and I needed to get 30 yards right there and I could make a shot across that draw.

So I kind of sneak down and the cows are still all right there in the bottom and he's got his four or five cows just pushing them up the other side. And as I get to where I feel confident, I range find him. I got him, a cow called him, got him to stop right there, dialed my sight. I had all the time in the world. He was just stopped just looking back at his cows and at me that was making the noise anyways and just content quartering away really hard. And I drew back, felt good, shot. And the arrow, I mean, it sunk in right behind his shoulder, came out his offside shoulder, then kind of dumped back into him and he ran. And I watched him run, I don't know, 50 yards up the hill and then the cows got nervous and they came out of the bottom and up to where he was actually at when I last, where I shot. And he saw the cows coming up out. So he turned and came right back to his cows.

He died about five feet from where I shot him. Tipped over right in the middle of him. Tending cows. Yeah. Got to watch the whole thing. Got to watch him dead right there. What are you shooting? This is a new bow you got set up this summer. Yeah, this was a bow we all kind of got set up here with those new Hoyts. So Jason Adam, RX5. RX5 Ultra. So they're legit. I've never shot a bow so good in my life. I've never felt that good with a bow. Yeah. Pat Loescher ended up with one and he said the same thing. He says, I don't know if I've ever shot this good. It's unbelievable. They're forgiving and they are set up and they've got, you know, obviously they got new, a lot of bows now, but these specifically got, you know, you get a side stabilizer. If that helps you hold steady. Really holding steady is the biggest thing with your quiver, your front stabilizer, rear

facing stabilizer, all those types of setup and play with it. But anyway, tell us about your freaking bull. So he's a stud. Tip him over, get up there, look at him. And I mean, he's just, just awesome. He's got a broken pedicle on the one side. So his one horn actually comes up out of the middle of his head. And then his other side comes up, has that big extra right there behind the Royal. His big side's 170, 175 by itself. And altogether he's just over 375. Yeah. And that's basically missing an eye guard on the left side because the pedicle broke and has a little four or five inch. A little short time there. But even with the odd pedicle, he still looks. And a narrow inside spread because of that broken pedicle too, right? So, I mean, he's, he looks bigger than that because he is really, he's, anyways, awesome. Well, and he looks dang normal for being an odd pedicle bull.

He just looks like, you know, he grew fairly normal except for like we're talking about there. The very base. Yep. Yeah. It's kind of crazy. His horns, I thought his beams were going to be short because his horns kind of come right up out of the middle of his head and they kind of go straight in the air. It was kind of a different look to him, but he ended up having 53 inch beams, which are great Nevada beams. I mean, phenomenal Nevada beams. I couldn't have been happier. And the hunt I planted on spending, you know, 16 days on, I was a day into now and two stocks. Yeah. You're putting meat in the freezer. You don't have to go to Walmart and stand in line. So. Worked out pretty well. Providing for Carly. Yeah. That's right. There's nothing ladies like, you know, that men can put meat in their freezer like that. That's the number one thing. Right? That's right. They've heard.

$1,200 tag and cut it out. $1,400 in gas. Cheap of meat on earth. Yeah. Yeah. And that's if you kill it the first or second day. Like what? Yeah. That's right. That's right. That kind of pencils a little bit that way. But that's awesome. And you got to go, you know, hunt with Archibald quite a bit towards the end of his hunt too, after killing an awesome bull in Colorado. But yeah, it's a stud bull for something that came together, you know, out of nowhere, literally out of nowhere, a click of a mouse. And it started the ball rolling. And within a week or eight days later, you had, you know, you didn't hunt all yet. Like I said, you had to guide five or so days of the archery deer hunt in Utah and the ponce got and then go over. But it happened fast. I mean, you were over and done before I even started getting going. Yeah. It was crazy. Yeah.

It's one of the very few hunts I've had that have went that way. And I'm glad it did. You take them. Yeah. Take every one you can get. Great bull. That's right. So where does that leave us? Where did we go from there? Let's see. We had Bronson. You smashed a muzzleloader buck. Oh, yeah. And John smashed a freaking muzzleloader bull. Yeah. There's a lot. I call that the dare buck. Remember the dare buck? That's what I call that buck. It's the dare buck. Carter dared me that I would not go to Colorado on the latest days in history. And he's not going to do that. You won't go in archery and muzzle. Yeah. You take a late rifle for a muzzle. I'll take the dare. I'll do it. And I did it. And it was hot. It was a hot September right then. And I killed a nice deer. He's not a giant deer. He's a cool deer. He's boxy. Boxy tall, you know, 28-inch plus old mature deer, which is great.

I was alone and, you know, just having to still hunt thick quakies because it was, you know, just that kind of weather. It was that kind of unit. Not those open high country Alpine Basin, Colorado that you're normally used to. But it was a good time. Had a great time. Killed them at like 41 yards and sneaking around in the Quaker patches. Didn't you have Quakers? Didn't you have, what, five minutes or ten minutes to decide? Yeah, and so, you know, 12 power NL Pures at 35 to 41 yards. You need eights, boss. You need eights. I mean, and I knew what the deer was. I'd seen him go in there a day or so prior. But, I mean, you know, still you're that close. I'm like, this thing looks 30 plus. But, you know, when he's raking, that's what I caught. You're looking at every bloodline. Yeah. I'm looking at basal points that look scoreable. They don't think of that. And they're bumps.

And then I get up there and they're like an eighth inch. You know? So, you know. I mean, that's what 12 power Binos at 35 yards. You can make basal, you know, just anything. Some of them was hanging velvet and that looked like a thick point. But it was just velvet dangling off. You know, it was like, you know, 35 yards through 12 powers. 35 yards on eight by eight turned out to be a four by four with velvet. Yeah.

I didn't know what I was walking up on until I walked up on it. And I'm joking a little bit. I'm following you. But luckily, I did know kind of what the deer was before. I knew he was an upper 20s, you know, really solid deer. But I knew he wasn't a giant. But, you know, it was time. I literally debated for about five to ten minutes. Should I shoot him? And it was the last day. And I'm like, he's old. He's mature. He is what he is. And, hey, I'm here with an open site muzzleloader. Quacka. And I took care of him. Quacka. And made it home. And then. Smash and grab. Yeah. How about that rainstorm? Yeah. Had a crazy rainstorm. You know, had no rain gear. Hadn't packed rain gear for a month. And I'd been hunting hard for a month. And it decided that day, you know, it's the first time you've seen rain in a month. You know, when you didn't have it with you. But, hey, that's a memory now.

Oh, it's awesome. But, anyway, it was raining so hard that I literally. Because, you know, you shoot a deer with a muzzleloader. The first thing you're doing is you're going to reload. Because muzzleloaders, they don't kill stuff, right? They just. Well. I'm going down. Shove a rock through. Yeah. You're just shoving a. There's no shock. There's no. It's just. They're just. And I know. I know there's people that tell me you don't have the right. But they just aren't. I'd rather. I wish I had a bow at that range. I would have felt better about smoking them. Oh, yeah. I mean. It was 40 yards. But, I mean. A muzzleloader. I mean. That thing. You know. Yeah. He's close enough that you might. You know. It might kill him. But. So, you reload. Literally. Hiking out. The first load. It's raining. And I got. You know. It's only a mile to my truck. Whatever. And I got halfway there.

And I'm so drenched. Because I have no rain gear. And I'm like. I can't get wetter. And I realize. I got to. Charge in this gun. I got to. I better shoot this thing. Or it's going to be. In there for. I'm going to have a problem. You know. Pulling bullets. And doing all that. So, yeah. I just threw a cap on. And just freaking. Smoked a quakey right there. And it went off. Yeah. I just like. All right. That's clean. I'm done. Because it was raining so hard into that. And I have. You know. No prediction. No. You know. Not in the scabbard. Didn't have rain gear for the gun or me. But anyway. It was good. It was fun. And now we're back on. You got five extra bones in your hunting budget. For heck's sakes. That's awesome. Yeah. Thank you.

So. It did. So. Then we moved to John. What the heck. This is now where the intro music. Point of the podcast. Needs to start.

John. I don't know why. We can laugh about it. Because. The last. I wasn't on either one of them. Yeah. But the first one. I think. I don't. I think I was in Nevada. Trying to kill it. I don't know. Maybe guiding a sheep hunter. But you had a. A cedar. Incident. You hit a bull. You got in the cedars. And it's running. You know. You're running after the bull. And. And in this case. Now you're back hunting with a muzzleloader. Like we just got talking. John. We need. We need to put that on the YouTube episode. Chris. That. That first one. Just. Just. Just a. Just a. One minute clip. Yeah. A review of. From the first. Yes. What was the blood. Did you cough up blood. Yeah. So. This was pre-COVID. By about. Yeah. 10, 15 years. So. It had been nine years. Nine years since that hunt. And.

Chris. This guy.

Could have been a canker sore. I don't know. Funny thing is this. This theme song is called. Elk Hunt. It is. It is. Tell me I'm wrong. You said I. Where do I pull this from? This is vivid man. If you watch last one. The intro credits. He's running like a. With like a flintlock thing. After this. Yeah. Yeah. Stag ish looking. Fallow deer ish looking. Elk. Creature. Who remembers all this stuff? I mean. Bronson. It's unbelievable where you come up and sing songs. So. Anyway. You could direct. You could direct. Movies. With all the music. You gotta be a Democrat living in California to do that. Okay. No. Boring them out. So yeah. On that hunt. Nine years ago. Oh. We filmed it. It was on. it was on Under Armour's television show and so if any of you have seen that it was awesome but yeah we found a bull I shot it and I've never like watched it through the scope hit the ground so hard just

collapsed it and we thought that bull is done you still there Carter? alright just making sure didn't know if someone started their truck and you ran for a gun just keep going well it's just this story is the craziest thing because he made a picture perfect shot we have it on film it was unbelievable and it didn't die it was unbelievable folded it in half yeah and it wasn't a muzzleloader we're talking shotgun all rifle 300 rum yeah we're high fiving and Jason's hugging me the bro hugs are going you're the greatest brother-in-law in the world we were excited anyway well I am or was keep going so now you're just a friend no I still claim being brother-in-law I don't know how yeah I don't know either yeah I'm still like yeah they're still my nephews alright keep going anyway so your kids are still cousins yeah kids are still cousins right still my nephews so yeah then so then

the sucker gets up cedar running yeah then then we came back the next day because we we had a pretty good blood trail and we were finding it but anyway we're like oh let's just then he got in a myriad of tracks and it was it kind of sucked yeah kind of sucked after a while Jason tracked him and we were running and running and running I don't know well we did once we well once we jumped him we jumped him the first time and then it was like we kind of don't have a choice you know because it's so thick and there's so many tracks and he slowed the bleeding a lot and it was just kind of didn't have a choice yeah so I mean and I was I was dying well so I'm coughing as I'm running and tasting blood and finally Jason's like he's right there he grabs me in the video talk I remember this kill shot well the bull barks at us remember the bull barks at us he's foaming in my mouth grinding his teeth

he's gonna he's grinding his teeth I'm like this is sad it's sad but it was an ethical shot that's what's crazy yeah you know anyway I dumped him right there and yeah then I just collapsed and anyway so yeah that was tears of joy run run run yeah so fast forward nine years so nine years later muzzleloader John cashed in high teens 18, 20 I don't know a bunch 18 points and drew muzzleloader tag awesome yeah it was a peer pressure peer application peer pressure what do you mean you couldn't drop any rifles that you wanted so we brought the muzzleloader as an option anytime John asks for opinions you and I have a few well not only do we have a few you guys love you guys love spending other people oh yeah do that yeah go do that all the while I go get I'm hunting my butt off and running back from Nevada to Colorado and I can't go out a half a second with anybody because I feel like

I'm just spinning my wheels well it's like I've waited so long I'm like I'm not going to do anything but rifle you know I know and so but anyway the writing's on the wall that's probably not going to happen so we can finish the hunt with a less effective less killing weapon so I did I applied for muzzleloader I thought I was going to draw it last year and the point it jumped like four points so for the next year and so I didn't draw so this year I drew the tag and you know it's a lot less stressful when you're hunting on one or two point tag than you are an 18 year tag so I was like okay I got to put everything into this luckily it was within an hour about an hour to get there from the house and so yeah I looked afterwards and on the Apple Watch it tracks you know when you're hiking and what not and I looked up every day that I'd gone and I count half days but it was 50 days of hiking

running cameras getting to know because you knew the unit I think a hundred years ago once before but I mean it's still tag there so yeah and you've had a new burn you want to learn it you want to do the most you can and you did the right thing but with the rut anything everything changes starts over again who knows yeah bulls are dead bulls get killed on the rifle some of the bulls you'd found earlier got killed on the rifle archery archery rifle so bulls are breaking you got a lot of breakage after that when I counted it up it was 312.2 miles don't forget the point two not the point two it's important yeah anyway but like the least I'd hike does that include razor miles no it doesn't include that's your leg is bouncing in the razor it counts as a step it does you could I've done it before where I've been in my side by side all morning and I look at that thing and it says 4.2 miles

so I don't yeah it can yeah I would start an outdoor walk every time anyway I never do that so you're doing the outdoor walk I don't even have an Apple watch well no it's just in your iPhone it has that whatever the heart yeah button you hit on there and it shows you how many steps you walk yeah mine on the watch it comes up every time I start walking in it says hey do you want to record a walk nowadays with technology Biden knows how many flights of stairs you've had you know you never know so so so anyway enough of that but yeah scouted Josh had been out scouting for me Josh used to be the biologist yeah used to be the biologist over there so anyway and had some cameras up and I had trail cameras all over the place and anyway but then I went out I think five days before it opened and just you know stayed and so this bull that I that I shot I actually filmed I think day or two before you

yeah three days before is this the boomerang video boomerang video yeah John throws all these effects on because he's the arts him and Chris the arts guys right and he probably did it from his Apple watch bronzes well yeah I mean it was this weird turn and turn back it's the boomerang like on Instagram you can do those that I never do but I know it's a feature I recorded a video I unfortunately didn't have enough time to get the phone scope out and all set up and I just held the camera up to my binos so the video quality wasn't spectacular it looked good but it's nothing like what your bull really is in that video it was a weird angle though it was like you were down I was above it and that doesn't look as good and so I did a screen record and fast forward and backed up the video so that's why it had the boomerang and then I sent you the screen record of it yeah it was like wow these are

only thing missing is little music on that little video that I figured John would have a little Marty Stauffer music or something but I'm back from Bronson will think about it he'll come up with the perfect song no we've already done that for this episode but anyway that was the bull I was there two before the hunt yeah I think it was three three or four days before and then I found a bunch of great bulls but most of them were broken up they're breaking before your eyes just like crazy but the rut was just insane yeah insane and I found a canyon that they were just in all the time and it was like two and a half miles back into it but it was spectacular and they were screaming all day all night it was just insane you had to hike out you didn't even think about bivouac camping in there because you couldn't get any sleep you hiked out to sleep in your camp trailer because you're

worried about not getting a restful sleep there's so many elk bugle in there it was insane like I'd go to see okay you know at night to listen for bugles to see okay you know are they in this canyon or whatever yeah other parts of the unit and just they were insane in that area well and I had gone the first three mornings just in other areas just to check and I I mean you leave there and I may have heard like two other bugles I mean it's nuts right there it's good anyway it was crazy that's where the activity was yeah but anyway yeah so get up and I mean after morning after morning it was like groundhog's day you know walking past the same tree remind me oh okay yeah just like and so yeah I had started five days before and it was every day every day and then and then Chris came out for opening and then we were three days in so I'd been you know I was like eight days the same trail

you were you were wallered even though he had a 12 day hunt yeah I think it's 12 days yeah by three days I think I'm like I'm so tired you know this is when the weakness starts to creep into a lot of people on he's got good fronts boom you know but he's got four of his six times yeah I think we can put somebody can put him back together pretty sure and so I was just hoping to find yeah one that was still intact 350 plus bull yeah 350 plus yep and Chris had a hunt coming up and so it was on his third day and he had to leave the next day and so I was like oh it's got to happen today and every day we would see a shooter or you know with the muzzleloader not really get an opportunity but we'd see one so it was enough to keep going back and and whatnot so it was it was just awesome but then so that morning I was like it's got to happen today but it started raining and it downpoured and it

downpoured like crazy overnight or in the morning in the morning it had rained a little bit during the night but what'd you do with your gun do you have something to put on it because muzzleloaders I'm a little freaked out about them in the rain because you don't want them wet in there and you've got a problem I had a roll of painter's tape so I put that on there I put one over the top or tape over your barrel anything on the barrel I just I put it over the top of the barrel and it has a muzzle brake too so I had wrapped all the ports and wrapped it up good what about like action usually black electricians where it's getting shoot through it the good thing about we're talking now Utah Utah you can use scoped muzzleloaders magnified scopes so a lot of the ultimates or things like that the bolt action I have a bolt action it's not like the open exposed stuff like Idaho or you know

no it's modern all modern so it's a little less you don't feel like I've got a flintlock here got to do something with in the rain yeah so anyway so you got that's built in a little bit I still worry about it every time I'm hunting the rain with a muzzleloader but anyway we were worried but taped it up and then it's got a bolt action and so it was it was great but like if you look at the pictures it's in the burn and so which is how big Josh 100,000 acres 80,000 yeah it's big it's big so not really narrowing it down you can't just say so you hunted the burn but but the quakies anywhere it's burned quakies they've come up like weeds yeah and so getting there you're you're busting through quakies and it was like you had wet brushes just pounding you the whole way yeah yeah and so we were so wet when we got there and to you mean when you say where to the so up into the canyon okay

when you even got to where you were running to the spot where we usually start glassy gotcha yeah you're drenched and you're so wet like all the way through and it didn't matter like rain gear yeah you know it didn't matter because you're sweating from the inside because you gotta wear rain gear now you're sweating from the inside yeah it's just one of those days and now you're like I gotta keep moving because I'm gonna freeze if I stop now so we stop at this tree where we usually start glassing and we just take everything off the groundhog tree yeah so like I had one puffy jacket that was in my pack that was dry and so I took everything off put that puffy jacket on that's all I had and Chris had one jacket that's what I was like I always do it though as soon as I get to the top if I'm wet and it's cold outside I take it off and I put something dry on immediately put your puffy on

and so we did that so I'm down to bare skin and one puffy jacket it's a good thing those are long yeah those puppies that might have been weird while you were trying to run on video it may have been weird it's just saying it's a good thing there's a good thing there was certain people there that would be like let's have it let's have it yeah yeah it's not quite you got one beanie let's have it almost reenacted the loincloth sprint from last year pants were not included in the take off okay pants were left on okay but everything else yeah and I was still taking clothes off and hanging them in a tree to dry out it stopped raining by this point just barely and maybe drizzling a little bit is it still dark no it was it was just getting light bulls going nuts and you're just trying to sort out alright what's here what's moving overnight and they were bugling like crazy and Chris

had glassed up cows I was still hanging up clothes and Chris was like they're there they're there they're down in the bottom and from three days of the same thing the bigger bulls were with the cows and if there were cows in the bottom there was a bigger bull down there and so anyway it was kind of open in the bottom a little bit and he said there's cows there's gotta be a bull so you know I immediately started to get set up you mean to shoot yeah you're that close 300 yards or something yeah or 300 yards which is again you're shooting a modern muzzleloader scope Utah something like that and he was like he's there he's gotta be there something's there something's bugling and he's with cows so he's good and I don't know Chris you want to add anything else no we just kept looking we knew there was well cause we'd seen the bull in previous days we just couldn't shoot yeah we've seen shooters

with the cows and so now the cows are there and they're going crazy something's there something's there one of the shooters is gonna be there in that area so I just started picking it apart trying to find and both of us started looking down there trying to find okay where is the bull and we passed on really good bulls really wide long you know just passed on them a couple that were that were broken that we passed on but yeah but by the third day I was ready oh wow and anyway but anyway so yeah we knew there's gotta be a good bull Carter do you got birds in your truck no things are good here sounds like you're in an aviary I mean are you in a pet store are you in the Elko pet store what are you doing no I'm at like 40 mile an hour winds and I'm deciding if I need to get out and get an Uncrustable I don't know how long this is is it lunch time it's about lunch time anyway

I just kept hearing weird noises didn't I don't know why I'm silent he's got me riveted okay keep showing up well anyway so now it was awesome who finally boom he steps out Chris had the video rolling got the first shot but it was awesome because so nice to have somebody there let's slow down just a little bit I kind of want to add like it was a little bit nerve wracking because you've got this bull and I'm sure it's the same with Wyatt you've got this bull that's pushing cows around and so he's not standing in the same place for very long so we had him once and he's good and John's getting set up there's probably a handful of others though right bulls there's probably a bunch of bulls or who knows you don't want them switching and a bull just to step out the other factor was it's so thick I'm shooting through a gap that looks like it's two inches wide yeah it's a foot or two wide

here and there and then the different bulls coming in and out yeah you can't see them like I said I mean we can see cows we can't necessarily see the bull for very long or very often yeah and Chris had seen this bull two days before maybe and so we knew like there's a there's a you know I think it's just it's just black and just you know blacking the first time I saw him he ran through the canyon somebody spooked him out and they all ran across 30 cows we got a look at them but not a good enough look but enough to say that is a shooter yeah I saw big old thirds and just mass yeah and so I knew there was a big bull in there and that was him yeah so he's moving kind of he would come into view and John's getting set up to shoot and then of course he moves out of view again we can't see him at all yeah but the cows are still there and so basically it was just I said John he's gonna come back

to that spot those cows are not moving just wait just so so I just said get set up on those cows and he'll be back and so I think that's yeah but just super nice Chris Chris took the range finder and then you know was telling me so you stayed on the gun I stayed on the gun and then perfect so anyway got a shot Adam hit him and then but he didn't go down and he just went up up just a little bit and so we ran down the hill did you hit him good did you hit him good I don't know I think so I think it was a little bit low maybe but in the chest a little bit low but it was it was a lethal shot but it was gonna take a minute yeah are you dialing John just for guys that are listening to the podcast I mean are you dialing like you would on the rifle yeah I've got a turret on the rifle and so Chris would you know call it the ranges and then I would dial yeah and so then we went down

it was like 220 maybe yeah what was the second shot 220 like 223 or 225 did he stay with the cows or is he now alone he ran probably 40 yards off yeah and he ran down to the bottom of the draw and we could see him a piece of him there yeah but we just decided let's run down there cut some distance so we ran cut the distance and get a good shot got 100 yards off basically cut 100 yards and got another one in him yep and then shot him again and then we could see he was like having a hard time like he's hit good but he's moving like crazy it's like a tank he's an elk and it's a muzzler his body's gigantic though yeah went into the trees and we just followed him and then Chris is like he's gotta be here what bullets are you using what bullets are you using oh I'd have to parkers use the parkers or no I think they were the parkers they've got the little black tip yeah it had a silver tip on it

well they have silver and black well parkers are good bullets yeah they shoot well sometimes I wonder I wonder about any muzzleloader killing something just a little soured on that right now my Southwest Desert Bull took five or four or five and right and great great right killing shots I mean they just soak up the lead and it feels like some of the better performing muzzleloader bullets that I hear about don't aren't the best shooting you know what I mean as far as two three that's my that's the trade-off you have it's kind of like a little bit like maybe the rifle world and you know burgers like it or not they shoot well high BC long stable bullet but they're not maybe as well on a big boned animal as some other bullets do so kind of you know you're running that thing with the muzzleloader hey you want to you want to hit it and on a deer I feel a little bit less sensitive the elk

elk like you're dealing with elk are hard to kill they're big they're big boned they're thick and they just soak it up man melded lead tire weights are about like the best bullet out there yeah that's what I use alright keep going sorry to stop you we knew he was hurt but he was going anyway and so we crossed the canyon and got on him didn't know exactly where he was it's just super thick trees luckily he popped out above the trees kind of in the burn and you can see in the kill pictures it's a little bit thinner and then Chris is like we gotta run him down because he was moving this is when it starts he was moving pretty fast and it's one of those things if you don't if you don't get on it and kill it he now knows you're chasing him so his adrenaline starts to kick in and they don't can just pick up yeah once that initial shock wears off of them being shot when that wears off yeah

they're survival they can go a long ways yeah so this is this is where the music would be playing because we were running and running anyway he finally he got tired or whatever and laid down and all I could see was his neck and head and so I just I put one right yeah we were 100 yards probably at that point but he's better yeah you caught him better so I started I started running and I'm like John we gotta run because he's moving pretty fast but it's one of those things if you run you can catch him or outrun him he's hurt enough so that's like kind of like your other ball your other ball here like stay on him and finish him or he gets a mile ahead of you and now you can't track him you're done he's gone and with all the rain and stuff it's just so hard to track so we got to where basically we were parallel with him and I was trying to get ahead of him so he would stop basically

so he would he would he would just stop instead of oh I'm not going that way I'm gonna just watch this dude running on a ridge for some reason yeah and it was pretty clear uphill if we got him to go uphill he was slower too yeah he was slower so basically right when I got to where I was ahead of him to where he would have turned back or stopped or gone a different direction he just laid down yeah I've done that with animals or clients before certain instances and they yeah just security they're like alright just plop down and then you got in finished yeah so then yeah so you see in the kill picture you got a little blood on his neck that was the next shot right at the end it don't matter where the blood's at yeah he's dead at that point that's awesome we walked up and we're just dying elation just yeah I mean it was worth every bit of the 18 years just the heaviest heaviest bull fronts !

the whole fronts I've ever held in my life he's awesome they're world class yeah he put a lot of bone in those first three tines they're long all three of them are long but they're I think they're heavy 18 like prop cans plus all yeah he took a little you know if he wouldn't have had that mass it would put it more into the length you know it just has a lot of bone on those circumference you know around them front end it's really awesome it's one of those animals that you walk up to and it's way bigger walking up to it than you ever thought it was on the hoof well and he was like the pictures I wasn't there breaking him down but he looked big bodied out the neck I just remember that neck area he was a big elk big bodied elk giant they can vary a couple hundred pounds big bull elk and he was on the upper end of that spectrum so yeah pretty awesome pretty you know early in the day so yeah

he was like luck shopping peace and whittle and get him out piece by piece Chris you had some you know horses I don't know coming or we packed up or did you have them I actually brought them up with me that morning in anticipation yeah he's just feeling lucky you were smelling John's weakness he said it was day three I actually I actually had them both I had them the day before too I brought them up and it's good for him to come up and just be there well that they're not home I don't know if Mackenzie was up or she came up that day but she was with you guys I know he's packing out on the back out then they're not just home I guess someone else feeding them you got them up there with you they gotta bring a load or two out I was so thankful for the horses I mean the first load out about killed me and I took just the cape oh well it's a drowned rat cape it was wet full of mud yeah

it was like carrying a sponge I bet it was 70 pounds it was so heavy anyway I thought you were picking up your pack I was like this is an 80-90 pound pack yeah well this is his straight six just a freaking stud bull not broke literally at all maybe I mean nothing nothing pretty convinced he was the one breaking everything yeah yeah John's John's in reach said mass mass mass and he's all put together he's too heavy to break yeah that sounded good to us yeah and he unbelievable yeah so for me bull of a lifetime just I mean but it's it getting those elk out too when they're back in there it's we started we killed the bull at like 830 or 9 in the morning and we got out what when was it it was dark yeah 930 at night because you didn't have you're not hunting with horses no then we had to go back out and get them so your first load is just getting your crap and camera gear and your gun

and all that scope anything that you're not taking back in you got a load of just good footage good footage John yeah yeah we got good footage and I don't know there's noises no it wasn't sounded I don't know if you're in a black hole or if you're just let us know you're there every once in a while I think I'm just rubbing dude I got a beard going on I've been gone a while okay and they itch they itch okay just making sure but anyway so we brought him back to the office Wyatt scored him and he went 366 and just I couldn't be happier amazing that's awesome good for you good for you so I mean the mass on the fronts are so big I can't halfway out I can't touch my fingers together like if I wrap my hand around it yeah they're pretty awesome that 366 almost means nothing on that thing yeah it's just so much a score doesn't take in all that good yeah it doesn't but well so and then Chris

went on his elk hunt and wasn't so good you're gonna skip that you went to New Mexico the next day well you guys are driving Josh and I out on our terrible hunts let's have it that's true let's have it so yeah my hunt started the next day so in Mexico I would think I was headed up the same time I was headed up here the same time you were headed into Mexico yeah so you went to Wyoming we missed another butt kicking you had Carter well I always thought we were gonna skip that no I mean if we're going in chronological order to get the viewer or listenership caught up we gotta talk about all the butt kickings we've all had so Chris goes to New Mexico you go to Wyoming five days both of us not so great right Chris call it a day so yeah we left so we had to spend the day getting everything ready and because we'd been on John's hunt so the next day we just getting everything ready

we didn't end up leaving town until like 8.30 or 9 at night I saw you here in the morning getting a monster to hit the road I know at 10 in the morning we had to we had to get everything ready I had nothing I had nothing he's nearly wed and he took McKenzie and so 14 hours later they're on the road I had nothing prepared so after we finally got everything packed and we're on the road and now you wonder if you can be there by daylight on opening day one of the problems was I had left my phone scope attachment in my pack and it had got left somewhere when we were on John's hunt and I couldn't find it so I spent half the day trying to round up you maybe need to drive to Beaver and get one with Cheston and the boys at phone scope or who knows like I ended up buying one at Sportsman's Warehouse at like 7.30 anyway I finally found one and then we decided to get food before we hit the road

so we could just keep driving and anyway so yeah it's 8.30 9 o'clock it's nice to shop for food in your hometown too so we basically by the time we rolled into town I'm calling I'm calling Davey and I'm like hey we're not going to be there until like 6.30 so you're going to meet us opening morning so you're going to meet us on the road like where we're just going to start glassing so I told him where we'd meet because we've been there before and he knows where we're going and so we met at the glassing spot opening morning and it was raining Davey texted me and said it's going to be raining in the morning you know and I'm like oh jeez and those are five days those New Mexico aunts are five days I mean there's not a lot of room for air or for bad weather or for whatever yeah so that first morning it was just slow and it just continued like it was just and I'm coming from Utah

where we're listening to all these bugles and it's going crazy so I'm all amped up and I get there and it's just silent that morning we cut one track of a bull and cows we went and glassed and glassed and glassed and could never pick them up we did glass like a 310 bull that morning up on the opposite hill with some cows and then it was just kind of that way the rest of the week it was we'd see bulls every day but they were you know a couple raghorns and a small broken 5x6 and 340 bull that was maybe it would have been 340 had it not had half the beam missing and then the entire beam yeah no it was it was basically broken off both beams were missing it might have been 340 yeah no this one was I think it was broken off about at the 5th so you had the 5th and the beam missing but I was like man he would have been a good bull but he came out right at dark the first evening and I was just

Carter yeah you guys this is about 10 minutes you got howlur monkeys in your back seat take a nap those are monkey sounds I don't know what I'm doing I'm just chilling I don't Jenna might need to use find my phone app you're in a zoo in Reno right now I don't know where you're at no I'm on the top I'm on the top of this POS this place sucks I've seen 3 bucks this morning and that's 3 more than I saw yesterday how about that well Chris this is like what's crazy about Chris's story is these are early rifle October 1 it should be you've been there before in the middle 10 days later and I've killed a 380 bull there like or a couple of them this is significant I mean it's a good tag good tag I've hunted there I mean multiple times Chris has killed good bulls there yeah I killed a good bull there a couple years ago but it was just it felt like a different place and this is there was no elk

anywhere we glassed and glassed and glassed and it's like yeah you're picking up a bull a broken 5x6 with 2 cows every once in a while but it just wasn't the same hunt yeah yeah well and and I guess you had that's a classic case where the landowner decided to institute a feeding program and it drew a lot of the elk onto his place so we we run into a bunch of the ranchers and one in particular that actually had a tag and they just said you know we don't have elk anymore that the elk have moved for some reason I don't know if it was early drought but also he says this landowner comes in and buys up three big ranches and they start feeding heavy he said there were semi truck loads of feed coming in here and they say they're feeding 200 head elk which is probably two thirds of what's there yeah this is a low density unit to begin with so that's 90 80 percent so yeah it was just

it's night and day different from years past that I've hunted it I mean the first year I went with my own tag I went and the first day of scouting I found two bulls that I would have shot yeah and this time it's like there's no elk but yeah I mean we we did see some elk but they were all so you did you spend the full five days I mean it's a short hunt but like you banged your head against the wall for five days yeah yeah and that's it's a grind but it but it's luckily over in five days in New Mexico when it's a grind you only have to endure it for five days unlike a 30 day deer hunt in Nevada right Carter Josh well yeah and optimal conditions I'm sitting here in snow right now it's 23 degrees you know with Biologist telling you that counts you're right at the you're at the sweet spot that he doesn't tell very many people about I'm in the sweet spot that followed a lion track I don't know

it's terrible I don't know what to say I don't know what to say I've learned too so I learned new country in Wyoming I've learned new country in Nevada I'm learning a lot of stuff but you know it's hard to get that local knowledge and local knowledge comes like Chris hunting that New Mexico unit multiple times or anytime you hunt something a couple of times I feel like Josh Josh probably you know agrees with this is coming back coming back to this we'd do some damage but it just takes it takes a minute you know and we're all in that boat everybody that's out there applying is in that boat and sometimes hiring somebody in an outfitter or whatever can you know shorten up that learning curve quite a bit but anyway anything else well we skipped over Wyatt's antelope but he killed he killed a big one two months ago we didn't skip we already talked about that though yeah we did a little bit

a little bit a little bit well I don't know where we're all gonna be well we got a fist full of tags we got so many tags I got a I got a zipper bag full of tags you guys are loaded there's a lot coming down the pipe here in the next month we've been busy but a lot of it other than John's tag Chris's tag I mean a lot of it came they were tough tags well and they came out of nowhere like some of my tags Wyatt's tags Josh tags your tags I mean geez it's like some first come first serve stuff you know whatever so it's like you don't have time to plan you go you make you're grinding it and then you're on to now it feels like the meat of what most of us most of us other than John maybe is still ahead of us now we got Colorado other than me I get to take kids to Colorado that's right good second and third season I'll be over there everybody else has I think seconds and fourths for my family yeah

fourths good grief Carter wow yeah you're gonna have another you're gonna you're gonna forward your mail to Colorado there for about a month sounds like Thanksgiving anyway how about that well I just think that too I think it's been tough like deer antler growth and finding big deer this year has been tough Wyoming's I feel like I don't know how you guys feel I haven't even talked but it feels slow yeah they killed some big deer but from what what was on the winter range this last year they definitely led a lot of a lot of big deer lived I think it was just tougher weather conditions it didn't have a lot of deer it was 70 degrees yeah high country 70 degrees crazy and a lot of thick timber I mean it's I mean years and if they have another milder winter or normal winter they're gonna carry a lot of bucks over again and you gotta be where they are and they're there they just don't show

themselves sometimes and make it very very tough well I was there and the first week of October it was 70 degrees a lot of times you have snow then and it'll push them a little bit and that's when those big deer get killed but it just anyway now I'm sitting in snow and it's you know it's mid-October when the deer are smart as they get all year round you know so anyway maybe an early rut I don't know guys I mean it feels feels like if it can keep up if those northern Nevada southern Idaho where I'm gonna be and some of those if it if we can stack some storms weekly throughout the next month it feels like it could or should well and I think why didn't you say one of our units in Utah they started migrating early yeah I'd heard that they really started pushing down off and grouping up where they spent last winter Zion and Ponce have gotten deer too which is another unit I'll bet you they are

I think that could be indicative of early rut and weather and I don't know I'm kind of excited for what's ahead so of course I mean I'm glad there's certain hunts that are behind us too well we had to talk about the ups and the downs because you know we have Wyatt and John and killed a couple giant bulls in the midst of us all and Wyatt killed a giant antelope too but there's others that yeet and it's not all Instagram I had somebody from Texas call me today here at the office and like man it's just me the deer out west seem to be off the charts I'm just seeing big buck after big buck and I'm like what are you watching because that's not reality out here this is a rough year for deer in Utah Nevada Arizona which you know has had you know not a lot of the rifle hunts kicking off yet but it's not epic and Wyoming was not on Colorado early seasons don't seem to be like they were

off the charts great it was warm there too same time frame so don't don't get caught up on the highlights of Instagram yeah you get a couple of nice nice bucks smashed with fish eye lenses and 14 angles and repose 14 different repose I think it's the same buck different angles and it's you gotta look it's the same deer and so realize that too but it's it's a tougher year now elk on the other hand has been phenomenal Nevada Utah elk here was like it's nice even Arizona I've seen a couple of big bulls out of the drought unit 23 I mean there's it was alright I mean it wasn't next level but it was it produced a little bit so it was good so anyway hopefully we talked about the northern states maybe doing better this year we'll have to see with what you know the latter part of the Nevada hunts and Idaho and any later Wyoming hunts you know produce and obviously Colorado just doesn't ever get

terribly affected by drought too much it doesn't feel like most of the state certain parts can so a lot of that's pending and coming up we don't know when we'll be back I guess next as a crew we're doing what we can I've had you on the phone Carter for a minute an hour and 24 minutes so I don't know dude I mean I'm going to need two Uncrustables in an hour and a half so you guys wallowed me out well it is yeah and it's past our lunch time here and we're on Utah time and you're in Nevada time so you're I didn't get good sleep last night because Jana rearranged my gear room and you had a slight domestic quarrel over the pipe key down in a bent PVC trying to get the key yeah ten foot under yeah and then I got to tell her thanks you know what I think you need to do this is what make good kids next summer you need to give them two shovels and dig that key out and put a new straight pipe down

a good kid project for about a week in your backyard hey I'd be turned in for child abuse this day and age in this woke environment I'd go to prison for that she's telling us this and I'm like wow that the sloughing or settling you've got an S or whatever or an angle in your PVC it's a slight band hey be careful be careful she listens to these to just I think oh I know I'm sure if you sent me there I would struggle the same way I'm just gonna save your marriage I'm just gonna save your marriage right now I'm gonna have some damage control so anyway alright well good luck to you guys you too I'll be home soon Josh and I may have to figure out how to come back here I'm liking it it's just it's been a butt kicker but I'm liking it well I know he's got a little bit of time well you you both got Hunt's second and third season Colorado so I don't know when you do well Janice got a second

season deer tag I mean but if we did a smash and grab hey you know I'd come dump another coyote if I had to dump a one-hander and throw some meat in the freezer yeah most expensive meat on planet earth that's right well alright we'll let you go boss and then we'll wrap up here but good luck up there yeah you guys can wrap up I appreciate you holding the fort down and I don't know we'll talk see you when we see you congrats y'all on all the success alright talk to you later well that was a lot of catching up yeah it's been probably a two-hour podcast but I don't know what we need to say other than that we rambled a lot I've been getting emails hey where's the podcast you know and we do it every year and we're sorry it's just the continuity is not there and it's not there it's easier not to do one of these and we can do more from the field and I think in the next 30s we're going to have

to do something even if we do a 30 minute I don't know what we do the problem is someone's got to be here at the computer to actually record it and that's been a problem at times too just because John you and Chris were heavy in your truth rolls that was a two to three week period and we're not going to do that we're not going to record it in our voice memo on our iPhone and let you guys try to redo something with it so someone's got to be here but Josh you're on the way to New Mexico this week I think to hunt elk Wyatt what do you got coming up here you got some clients on the rifle poncegon

there and then Colorado will be my next big third season Colorado Chris you got a second season Colorado next anything in Utah deer technically dedicated I'm going to call this my off year most likely I don't think I'll even go out got too much going on here you and your wife both got tags I think there second John third next you got any kid are you Utah tags no shockingly I've got so many kids that usually someone will dry out in Utah but this is the first year nobody not one person drew out I've still got one this snow I have to see what we got tomorrow but I got opening opening day of an early rifle hunt but that's kind of a weird opener on a Wednesday Wednesday Thursday Friday some school stuff which you know my son's got a tag steer so we'll see we might get out a couple of days otherwise I'm back to Idaho next week and get serious there for the last 10 days 2 weeks of the good deer

season there so anyway we'll be coming and going everywhere but maybe give a couple shout outs to some of our sponsors before we wrap it up John let's I'd just like to say thanks to the companies who support us and sponsor us you know it's thanks to them that we're able to put these podcasts together we need you to really support these companies we've talked about Hoyt a new sponsor and yeah we've all got Hoyt bows and the new ones this year I think a lot of us upgraded and just so impressive why it talked about killing his I mean a couple years ago I couldn't have fathomed you know killing an elk at 90 yards just well it just takes a lot of practice and the right equipment but yeah with the right equipment and the right bow at least it's possible with the right amount of practice and the perfect conditions if you have to shoot a bigger animal like an elk right that I mean I'm sure

some people say what are you doing but I mean everything situationally and yeah anyway well that's that's just like in control perfect no win situation and dead dead on and you shot your bow all summer long and it's it's dead on anyway it's just money so yeah check them out we've also talked about red rock Jason dumping a coyote at 800 yards but I think that's the thing you know you've got a gun that'll shoot 1200 yards and it makes 800 yards it's not a big deal so if you shoot your deer and elk at 400 to 600 yeah but you you reach legend status shooting a walking coyote at 815 yeah I mean right that's what a red rock position can do for you so so we like to thank them as well how about pack wheel did you use them at all or did you just have horses I did use them a little bit but then we had horses so I didn't use them to pack out or anything I think Josh is going to pack up and use

it this week maybe yeah there'll just be a couple of us going so I'm going to need some extra help so yeah packwheel.com check those out I mean I was giving Josh the tutorial today and I'm like it goes fast the thing better be in shape I just about ran Sydney over yeah is the parking lot were you in the snow or is that before the store just up the hallway he was dragging me you can pack so much in those I bet you could get 200 pounds in it I'm gonna see if I can't figure out how to ride it backwards or something unicycle like a Harley but yeah I mean it'll go over logs in the trail you just hit the front tire on it give it a little juice and the thing will hop up over top I mean it's just amazing so allow you to get your camp or pack out into places that are you know you typically would be in a couple trips anyway and then Rugged Ridge products I use their bipod on this elk hunt and I

freaking love it they're not heavy so you don't yeah some of the older school ones that are heavy you're like man this makes my is it worth packing for the chance I might need it because some situations you got you can't sit down on a little bipod you got brush or whatever yeah but man when you got them they are so money when you when you can use them yeah and this one I ordered the extensions it's like a foot and a half taller just because sometimes like you said you got brush or whatnot and I was always on an extreme downhill you know I was on top of this canyon that's a good setup then I put that on and it was awesome yeah shooting downhill prone is tough yeah if you have those extensions you can sit down and shoot and it's awesome so I took that I took John's extensions on my hunt I also have the Rugged Ridge bipod but I took John's extensions and they work great so that's

RuggedRidgeOutdoorGear.com go check it out they've got a bunch of great stuff but as far as a bipod I haven't found one that's even close it's awesome you got a little trigger by your thumb and when you're setting up you just loosen it a little bit get into position and then lock it in and you can level you can level your gun you loosen that trigger can't your gun and then tighten it back up and it'll lock into place just phenomenal so and then yeah triple S I put the miles two freaking use didn't you yeah it was so nice just kick butt they know how to set them up you know for hunters the guy over there Colton know what they're doing yeah they're hunters and so they know what they're doing they'll get you set up one thing he did I talked to him and he said if you want a new machine at least right now yeah you gotta pre-order it because they're sold before they get there you can walk

into the showroom with a bunch of cash burning hole in your pocket and take you and walk out with your dream bike so yeah give him a call I mean if you're even close it's worth it's worth driving and I think they do deliver to quite a quite a ways away they do a lot of orders out of like Vegas and other states even so yeah you can call them and order so and his phone number 435-865-0100 on that or I think it's triple S Polaris dot com ssspolaris ssspolaris all right Chris thanks for saving me on that well I mean it is triple S Polaris yeah but not T-R-I-P-L-E yeah yeah sss yeah and then yeah vortex optics you know we can obviously this has been a busy time of year and a lot of people it surprises us we would think we sell all of our optics from about May to August and you need your optics but a lot of people for whatever reason middle of the hunt something breaks something gets lost

whether this be a range finder whether it's whatever scope combo is not working out for you on your rifle give us in mind keep us in mind you know Swarovski Leica Zeiss Vortex Sig some of those have definitely had some supply chain issues that are maintaining inventory in stock but we'll do everything we can we we tried to order as big of quantities as we can you know within reason to be able to you keep it in stock we do have a pair of Vortex Fury 5000 range finder binos and those have been hard to get got a few of those in finally got the guys waiting for them on back order but anyway Vortex and their optics will be rifle scopes binos spotting scopes keeps in mind on that you can check out the line of their products at vortex optics.com give us a call on on them if you're looking for something last minute or if you're looking to set something up for the for for next year I guess

better get something on order kind of if you know you're going to be building a rifle or something like that get get scopes on order I can't rifle scopes are probably the number one backorder thing with all optics companies because it takes more time more meticulous setup radicals components I don't know I'm guessing but like there's a lot there's a lot more of them as you say yeah they have you know one model but there's 10 different reticles that's what I mean so within all those you have a lot of a lot of variability and things like that so we do have some of those in stock so if you're looking make sure you give us a call pricing is phenomenal if you're not a member our pricing is phenomenal if you're a member it's a little better so you get a little bit of discount yep our number four three five two six three zero seven seven seven otherwise we know you're on the middle of your hunts

take great photos take more great photos take more great photos spend a little bit of time at your your kill at your or within your unit before you kill taking your supplementary photos and all that John and Chris and those guys can have a lot more to work with putting your story together keep us in mind send us your photos if you want to send us a quick photo when you get back say hey I want to do a story photo for you get it to us so we can kind of hold it but it's that time of year and we're looking forward to seeing a lot of the stuff start rolling in yeah if you if you're successful send your photos to photos at epic outdoors dot com and with the last couple years the new phones are great they're taking good enough pictures for us so if you got you know the iPhones 11 or 12 they've been great the newest Samsungs have been good too so just just take it take a ton of photos and

and we love to see them okay all right good luck be safe we'll give you another two hours in another month sorry we won't wait that long so you