EP 220: Colorado Deer Hunting. Reports and Outlook

It can happen anywhere in Colorado at any time. It really can. The next four point I see is done. The grass that's growing and the cedars just along the roads here. Anything to do with Western McGee.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors Under Armour.

Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Adam Bronson coming at you from Southern Utah. A couple days before the third starts, which we're actually leaving today. I don't even know what we're doing here in the podcast room, Bronson. We should be packing our gear. We're doing what we're asked. Oh yeah. By popular demand. And that's to give some kind of a podcast. B, what happened on the second season, which some of us have good stories to tell. Well, some of us don't. But you know, what I find interesting is when you own your own business, you think you're in charge, you're really not in charge, because here we are in the podcast room, which is where we shouldn't be. Yeah. You say to usually get two unit two or three days early to kind of get the fill things? We're not. We're not. We're here. So. Whatever. Anyway, I did. We did have calls today, Bronson. We have calls every day about Colorado.

Guys on their way deciding they need to talk about units and extract information from Chris Peterson. Guys buying optics. Had a guy drove off with his 15s on the hood or something with his truck. And, hey, how about that guy that lost his BTXs, all the optics in this one bag? Off of his hard, or his four-wheeler bag slash hard case in the back. It fell off and terrible. If you found that in Northern Nevada, call us. 435-263-0777. There's a guy that would be very happy. Yeah, but they're probably not going to call us. They're probably going to call the pawn shop. No. I'm just telling you, if there's a guy out there that's been squirming since he's found 10,000 in optics in an ATV box. I know. Only hunters would return that. Other people would pawn it. Pawn it. But anyway, we have had questions about even scouting. Here we are in the podcast room. We should be on our unit.

But, you know, it's hard to scout the rut. It's hard to scout migration. Of course, there's not a lot of migration going on in a lot of the units anyway. It's pretty mild. There's some units that require snow. Some that come by the calendar. But pretty tough. There's deer at 10,000 plus feet or just under. Oh, yeah. And it started off and we thought, oh, here we go. Remember the first couple days we had weather. Colorado seemed like it's cold of the second. Snow weather. Weather like, oh, geez, they're knocking bucks. First three days, it's like, here we go. And then about Tuesday and Wednesday. Silence. It started warming up and the deer realized, oh, we are going to be hunted this year. We've waited an extra week. There's no hunters this year. No, here they are. And now they're timbered up. A lot of long faces out there. That second was brutal.

You know, it was later and everybody's excited about it. But tell me, is this like the, not the longest, warmest stint, November stint we've ever seen in our lives? It's not going to change a whole lot. It doesn't look like for the next, at least seven, eight days for a third. So, it. There's a little snow on your little phone there. Well, very little. Very little. In Walden. Northern part of the state. You get down. Salt Lake's getting a brush through. That's going to amount to nothing. Just to, you know, some traffic on I-70 heading over and that's about it. Not going to have to get out the salt. No. So, anyway. A little bit rough. But the second, we've had a lot of people like Bronson indicated, you know, wanted to have us do a podcast and talk about how the second went. And there's always some great bucks taken just with the sheer numbers of people in the field.

And there was some nice bucks taken. You know, 44, one of the better, most popular units in the state. We know of probably a half dozen in that one-90s. Yeah. Great. Great buck. And one buck that we've heard of, you saw photos of, that's over 200. But, man. Great, nice bucks. Great bucks. But, you know, just not that next level that it is capable of and that are breathing. There's a few of them. And in that unit specifically, some people expect, not on a second season, but on the third and fourth, the risk down 23 to six points. Well, I mean, people burned 14, 15 to get that second this year. Oh, yeah. And that, a few years ago, that took a handful. Yeah. And so, anyway, with the weather pattern, who knows what's going to happen? I don't know. It's going to be interesting. The nice thing is we did have a guy call in today that had a fourth.

For all you fourth season hunters, there's going to be plenty of deer alive. You might have guessed right. Yeah. But, you know. I've consoled that a lot of people don't wait for the fourth this year. Didn't you? Yeah, they're going to be. I thought they were going to be dead. Hunt gut piles. Yeah, but no. Maybe not. No. But, you've also got to, well, and then if you're Jason Carter, you just make sure you and your family are there on every season and one of them is going to be right. That's the problem. Second, third, fourth. You know what's funny? If they had a fifth, you'd be there too. Yeah. Well, you know what's funny about all this, Bronson? We talk about it every year. Don't book ourselves too busy, too thin. Spread ourselves too thin. What'd we do? I mean, dude. We're running ragged. Oh. We're too old. I'm getting too old for what I've been cannonball running the last month.

But anyway. Dude, it's nonstop. And years like this, it feels like not one hunt ends early. Sometimes, you know, you get a little early kill and you get to come home and frolic a little bit. No. They're all a grind and after every hunt, you need your oil change. Oil change, tires rotated, ball joint fixed, back on the road. Yeah. Anyway, kind of crazy. I don't know. But the second, there was, you know, Gunnison, you know, it was rough. 66, 67. Nothing but rough reports. There were some good bucks taking them 54, 55, but guys had to work for it. And then it shut off quick too, you know. It's like they had the element of surprise, everybody, for a few days. Whoa, Chris. Chris sounded good over there. Dude! A white one. And then... Bronson and I are splitting a purple to make ourselves feel better about not having the full 16 ounces. Taking the Devon Archibald approach.

We'll just have two... We'll have two eights. We'll have two eights, not one 16. Anyway, keep going, Bronson. Just feel like, you know, the initial opening day, element of surprise, deer hadn't been hunted since the archery hunt ended the end of September. They had a few early season elk hunters, but you know what I mean. Yeah. They were kind of laying around and a few of them ready to be killed. And then there were some for the take. And then they just, you know, started acting like deer again. Oh, yeah. And timbering up. And the weather warmed up, so... I hate it when deer act like deer. Yeah. Yeah, you wanted to act like Rocky Mountain Bighorns in the rut. Yeah, exactly. There's... You wanted to be that dumb. I got off the side of the freeway just like, hey, how do they survive? How does any lion not kill every Rocky that's rutting in a canyon?

Thankfully, they only need like one every week or every five days. And the rut ends and they wake up. So it would be one a day. I mean, geez. But... Well, we have to at least talk about some of the successes within our own ranks, don't we? Yeah. I mean, does that be apropos? I mean, we... I don't know if we start with Chris. I don't know. Or if we give Josh a cold call. Maybe. Or what do we do? Well, Josh killed first, so... Yeah, Chris wants to put off... I think Josh was almost gone coming home before I got to Colorado. Okay. Yeah, Josh did a smash and grab one hour, which my wife would die. If we could do one of those this year, that would be helpful in my marriage. Yeah. Although she's good and she's not complaining, but... Yeah, you went over there with her and you grinded seven, eight days with your wife and daughter on neighboring units. So I don't know if that was a good idea.

You can... Okay. Okay, so that's my point. We think we're so smart at the end of every application season. Your wife draws one? We have got it nailed. This is the perfect schedule I've ever had in the last 30 years. And we hate it and we change it every year. You know what I mean? So I go through, I'm like, Jenna, let's spend her 23 points or whatever. And also grab Ash a tag. Ashley will be done in the day. On a neighboring unit. No problem. I've got two out of the way of the... I've got two more. 14? No. No, we don't have 14 kids. No. Six people in the family. And then I've got, you know, a couple other kids. And so I grab four season elk tags for them, for the two that don't have deer tags on the fourth. And so anyway, it's... And then, you know, I'm hunting the third. So it is back to back to back. And I guess my point is here, we think we're so smart.

I think I'm the smartest guy in the world. You know, Ash is going to be a smash and grab. Well, all of a sudden she gets picky. She passes a couple four-pointers. Yeah. And they walk. Didn't you see one within the first 30 minutes of jumping to her unit? She's like, no, I'm not ready to be done, basically. Yeah, she's like looking at me like, I mean, she's judging Jenna's bucks and be like, Mom, I can't believe you're not shooting that. Mom, I can't believe you're not shooting that. And then it comes to her turn. She passes the same bucks. And she's like... And it's so funny because she gets this deer in the headlight look and it's like everything's stiff. Nothing works. I don't know, Dad. I don't know. And I'm thinking I'm not going to make this choice for her. It's a year long deal. She looks forward to it all year. Like she even said it, like this is my favorite hunt of the year.

So anyway, we pass it. We go up the road. We're glassing. We're glassing. Glass up another buck. Nice four point. And she's like, I don't know. And Jenna's like, you should be shooting that buck. Like you should be shooting that buck. Yeah. I don't know. And then we go the rest of the day and don't see another buck. And so that night she's sick. I mean, she's whispering to Jenna, you know, getting I'm getting out grabbing gas and stuff. And pretty soon I get in the truck. She's like, Dad, I'm just sick to my stomach. The next four point I see is dying. And I'm like, okay. And you're like, well, yeah, but you got to remember today's mom's day in her unit. I know. Exactly. And I'm like, and Jenna's like, I think we should go back and hunt Ashley's unit. And I'm like, oh, okay. Zero points versus 23. Oh, I know. I know. All bad thoughts, you know, husband, dad, whatever.

I'm we're going along. Tough to please. Dude. Right off the bat, crack of daylight is day two. There's a four point. I'm like, gosh, that's a nice four point. We start going through the stiff motions again. And I'm like, get out. We're killing this deer right now. All right. All right. All right. Was it not as big as the two from the day before? Is that with a hesitation? No, no, no, no, no, no. But just get it. It was her own rifle. We had sighted in loaded rounds, got what we call this kid scopes, Bronson, the Zeiss. It's got the four, the single Plex, the basic Plex inside. It's not complicated and you dial and it can, it's unbelievable. Anyway, got out, got set up. Everything was perfect. She just smashed him. It was awesome. It was awesome. It was cool. And then we went and ground out Janet's unit and grounding it out. It was not bad. There was a lot of bucks.

There was a lot of bucks. A lot of fun. Did find a big deer. One I would shoot on about any tag. Yeah. And just, just, just was happy on private, thick piece of private. Nobody knew he was there necessarily. It wasn't like he's out in the open. He's going to get bumped off at her. No. Not private that's getting hunted at all. No. So we saw one the same way. It wasn't big as the one you saw, but big deer. Yeah. First day there and it was like, and he was there every day. Content. It was a big deer. That was a big deer. Yeah. That was a big deer. That was a big deer. Where else can you go and just see mid nineties? One nineties buck. Yeah. I'm thinking this was over two, two or five gross typical. Yeah. Yeah. So where else do you see these? Right. And so that's what keeps us going back, but they're on private and they're happy and that's fine and, and whatnot. But we saw 25, 30 bucks a day.

You did too. Same. Yeah. A lot of bucks. The last had to be lower than yours, but it's a, it was an average unit. Yeah. I don't know. Four points or five, whatever. Yeah. But it just goes back to, you know, you got to go to Colorado often and don't be saving no 20 something plus points. And if you made the mistake and you have 20 something plus points burn them now. So that's kind of the gist of it. I think, uh, that's about where it's at. So anyway, speaking of that, let's, let me, let me just read this and then we're going to give, we need to give Josh a call. We need to give Devin a call. He looks like he had some tire trouble. Why? Why? Why? He ain't going to speak much. Well, he will. He doesn't know what you're calling for. Oh, that's a good point. Um, so anyway, this guy hit me on Instagram named Chad. He says, I know you liked hearing from people on units.

You remember when we kind of ground, we help people and then never hear back. Very frustrating. So I appreciated this a lot. He says, I gave unit such and such. I hate to throw it out there because it's personal, right? Yeah. I gave unit such and such a shot. Like you said, and had absolutely awesome time. Thank you for putting me in the unit. One of the best hunts I've experienced with the stunning views and amount of total deer. I saw not the big buck part, the big, now the big buck part was rough. Didn't seem any mature deer, but Hey, all right. Sometimes it's about the experience. The feed in the country looks like big buck factory, rough conditions, hot, dry, no weather, no rutting activity, made it difficult, uh, to, you know, to see deer in that 10,000, 9,000 foot type zone. Uh, I could see that unit producing some slammer bucks with the right conditions, flipped a

coin, came home with zero and, but challenged myself as a solo hunter. I just wanted to reach out and say, thank you for all the advice. I'm picking the unit. When I got back to Colorado, I learned it's all flipping a coin points. Don't matter. Weather is key to being successful. Thank you. We've said that a lot. I mean, it, it's true. Uh, two, three point unit with incredible weather can be as good as anything. 20 points. Yeah. And otherwise you're going to grind it out and hope to get a lucky break, which speaking of Josh, he got a lucky break real quick. I think Josh, he, I think he got more comments on that stash than he did the buck. Oh, I know. He's proud of it too. Oh, anyway. Well, let's give him a call. See if he's got a story for us. Hello. Smashing grab Josh. How are you, buddy? Good. How are you? Yeah. We're just talking about that stash. for kill photos with the kids or.

Oh, oh no. I can't wax it. I got to keep the wind checker out there. Oh, it says wind checker. He's got it. He's got it. That's all. That's all. That's all. That's all. That's all. That's all. That's all. That's all. That's all. That's all. That's all. That's all. That's all. That's all. That's all. Gotcha. Well, you got the wall tent ready kids and everything. Oh, yeah. All right. How many of your kids got tags? Couple of them at least, huh? Two. Yeah. Two oldest ones. Daughter and a son and heading to Colorado. Yeah. Is it one of them's first hunt? What big game? Yeah. It'd be my son's first, first hunt. So we'll see how that goes. How, how many hours did it take you to find your buck? Hour? I don't even say hours. An hour. Or minutes. I don't even say hours. An hour. It was. 15 minutes? Yeah. It was about 25 minutes from the time I started. Jeez. True smash and grab. Wow. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. So you're headed back. You're headed back with the family. What do you, what do you got going on? On the third season? Yeah, we've got four, four deer tags, obviously not me, but four deer tags, my wife, my dad, two kids, and we're debating on if we could get to Grand Junction in time, loading up with a couple more elk tags just because. Oh, they'll sell them. Kid tags are a hundred bucks for youth. They'll. I'm not getting one, but for a hundred bucks for one of them. Well, they'll, they'll sell them to you any night and day. Yeah. You're okay. You're not going to go to any sporting goods store or Walmart or. Well, I know, but I don't want to deer hunt. Wolf and joke. I don't want to have a deer hunt turn into an elk hunt, so I'm trying to tell them. Oh, you're trying to make the decision. Oh.

If we don't make it to Grand Junction in time, then we won't be able to get them, I guess. Oh. That's how you keep them at bay. That's all what the kids don't know. Ben tried to help get us out of the house faster because it took like seven days just to get all of us and our stuff packed. It's way too much. Well, this third season is only seven days long, so hopefully you'll make it back before the fourth starts. Yeah. We'll have to see. Well, what are your standards for your kids? Your son, first buck. I mean, is it, it's pretty fun. I remember my first time. I remember my sons. I mean, it's, they may start lofty, but by a Saturday morning at daylight, what, what kind of buck is in trouble with him? He, I, he says he's thinking four point. He's thinking four point. Uh huh. But the problem, the problem is him and his sister are so competitive.

She thinks she, she killed a really great buck last year with her muzzleloader and she thinks she needs a bigger one, which is going to have to be like one 90 plus. Jeez. So that's not going to happen. And then, uh, but that's going to be the biggest problem is as long as she can coax him into killing one first, then she's off the hook and she knows what she needs to kill. Cause that's the, that's the competition. So I guess we'll have to see. That's awesome. No, no, we'll, we'll see. I would imagine as every day goes by, probably it loses a time and a little bit of length and width. And by the time three days into it, we'll be looking for two points. You'll be, you'll be buck hunting. First, first one by two to walk in front of you. It's getting a double bullet. So yeah, it's good. Actually, you know what? I, it's not, I'm not stressed really as far as that goes.

I have no expectations or no, I guess all on them, you know, they want to pull the trigger on whatever they want to do. It's just, well, it's family fun hunt and it's all on them. Well, we were talking about that and Ashley, that's the way it was going down. And then Ashley couldn't make a decision. And then she was mad that she passed four points and then another four point walked in front of her and I pretty well had to make sure that it went down. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't going to happen. You were sad last night and I don't want to see your puppy dog eyes again. I don't. It got really stale in the cab of this truck. I mean, geez, she was so disgusted with herself for passing. So anyway, but you know, all right, guy, well, travel safe and send us report. You got four bucks to kill and I don't know, maybe two or three elk before you can. Yeah. Yeah.

We'll see how my back's doing. Those two elk are going to be first that are not. So how do you know when you're going to shoot a buck the first 15 minutes of the hunt or you're going to pass him and wait for next level giant? Like what, what goes through your mind? Cause you had that happen. Oh, you know. He warned us. Mm-hmm. Well, we got good enough. I like visiting like what goes through your mind? Like I know he was just, I mean, he's a great, but you, and you know, there's probably a 80, 90% chance. You're not going to see one better. Probably. Wouldn't you think that? Yeah. Like 80 to 90% shirt chance his buck. You're not going to see one bigger, but it's the first, you heard it 25 minutes on a glassing knob, not even like some secret spot. Just got there and burned some. Yeah. I'm going to go glass before dark. Well, it's like a mid to high eighties buck. Like you can't pass.

How does a guy, we've passed a few and then you, but then you run the risk and, and we do it all year. Yeah. I mean, in Colorado tags left and right. Colorado second season. If you see that and pass it, you're probably going to be okay with not shooting. Yeah. And you got to be okay with not shooting. Yeah. I did it once. Yeah. You passed it on the first day and, and I tried the rest of the hunt to kill the same deer. Never was able to. How about Devin? The buck that he killed in Nevada. Oh, 10 days. 10 days later. I thought they were 10 days apart, but yeah, he passed a buck five days later shoots awesome buck with a 10 inch drop time. And then five more days after that shoots the original buck. He passed 10 days ago in the same area basically. So just, just crazy. So, but he did get to grind it out. Well, whether that's a good or bad thing, you can debate that.

He learned more about the unit, grinded it out, felt, I mean, I guarantee that deer wasn't going to live the next time he saw it 10 days later. But you got to be okay with eating tags and, and I'm living proof that you can, you can exist on paper, eating paper. Yeah. Should we see how Devin's doing with his tire? Might as well.

Hello. Hey, did you get that? What's up? Did you get that tire fixed? Oh yeah. It was a lot easier for the first time. No. When you know where to find, you know, pieces and parts from the changing it once a week, it gets easier. You guys, you guys in Chris's office. Hey, we're just, we're just wondering if you feel guilty after smashing two bucks in Nevada, if you feel guilty going and smashing a Colorado buck. Not one bit.

Well, yeah. Thanks to the law and the turn back principles in Nevada, you were able to smash a couple great bucks 10 days apart, right? Yeah, about five days apart. Well, yeah. I guess 10 days from when you saw one of them before you decided to kill him. Big old dropper buck, another airy buck. Well, you, you left before we could do a podcast, but we're just wondering, A, if you need somebody to come get you and help you with the tire problems. Oh no. The lugs are nice. It was a lot easier this time. No cheater bar needed. But the first go around the other day was, it was everything I had. Penetrating oil and everything he had on there. Yeah. Really? Oh yeah. Didn't bust a stud off? Nope. Close, I'll bet. What? Lifted the trailer off the ground. You did? Pretty much. Devin, by yourself, you lifted the trailer off the ground. No, it felt that way though. Oh. Well, are you excited?

You're in headway now though? Yeah. I need to probably get another tire and some groceries here in Grand Junction. Oh yeah. Oh, there you go. You're in the, what is it? What's Colorado? I'm in Colorado. That's good. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. It's probably going to change it to the pot state. Yeah. Some kind of different green. Yeah. Well, anyway. You guys, none of you answered. I'll tell you what, man. I think the deer, I was just thinking this, is they're not going to be hit. They're not, they'll still hit ag fields, but like the grass that's growing and the cedars just along the roads here I'm looking at, like there's feed. There is fresh feed everywhere. We want, during the second, Jen and I watched it grow every day. Yeah. It had a little bit of rain and snow, a little bit, and then sunshine. Yeah. Yeah. It might spread stuff out a little bit, huh? I think so.

Well, there's definitely a lot of bucks for you guys to smash over there. The second one was a little bit tough, but we're just wondering if you're getting excited, what you're going to do with all this venison. Oh, yeah. We eat all in the freezer. My wife bought a new freezer while I was gone, actually. I said, we better get another one. There you go. Because the one we have is not big. Somebody's having a good year. Yeah. Elk, three deer. How much does a family of two need? Adelope. Adelope. Adelope. Those YouTuber comments we've been getting, we looked at yesterday. Oh, no kidding. Why would you kill a wolf if you can't eat a wolf? We're in danger. Oh, yeah. They got mad at Wyatt and Devin because there's two dudes and they shoot two 1,400 pound bull moose. And they're like, why do you need two of those? Yeah. Like we're going to remain there through the winter in our tent.

Because Wyatt won't share meat with me and I won't share with him. There's nothing like eating something that you've personally killed yourself. Oh. Yeah. Well, for their information, my moose is about gone. What? Really? I'm about out of moose meat. Come on. I donated a lot of it, but all the stuff I shipped back, which was quite a bit, it's about gone. Wow. It's amazing. It's amazing, mate. Good thing you're going to have three bucks and a bull in the freezer. And an antelope. Don't forget that. Oh, yeah. 47 pounds. An antelope. That's right. Cut and wrap. With the wrapper. Yeah. I bought eight pounds of beef fat to mix with some of the grind and I was about seven and a half pounds too much. Wow. Yeah. That's the way it goes. Wow. That's the way it goes. Well, you and Wyatt are heading together. I guess maybe we'll spare Wyatt since we got you, but you guys have fun over there.

Be safe and we'll look for a report in about a week. We'll have another one of these to see how the third season fared for everybody over there. There you go. Okay. Talk to you later. Bye. Good stuff. Oh, Chris. Well, Chris, we're going to talk to you. All right. You killed a heck of a buck in Colorado. And if you've seen our Instagram, social media, it's out there. It's not like it's... It's like Bronson said. It's out there for the world. Chris reminded us why we go to Colorado. Yeah. When I saw it, it was probably... I did a quick trip with my son and one of his buddies and his dad to Colorado. It's tough with kids, especially you got sports coming up. They're, you know, limited on time. You know, they've already missed some days of school with earlier hunts, blah, blah, blah. So went over there, went one for two, had an awesome time and we're coming home that morning

and all of a sudden I get a picture and it reminds you why you're there grinding it out. Because sometimes you need to be reminded. Sometimes you need to be reminded. Sometimes you need to be reminded. Yeah. That can happen. You're like, that can happen. I could use a reminder. Yeah. So what happened? So that can happen. When I said that can happen, what am I talking about, Chris? What can happen? Well, I ended up killing a nice buck. Wow. The funny thing is after the week... I thought that's what we'd get. After the week, I was needing a reminder too. Yeah. Like... Because I killed my buck fairly early on in the week. And like you guys were saying, it got super hard. And I had a buddy there and we were trying to kill another buck. And we worked our guts out and could not scound up. You mean just any buck you're trying to kill? Any buck or a specific buck you had seen? Any buck.

Just find another nice mature buck. Good four point. It just wasn't happening. So yeah, and it's a combination of the warming weather, the deer realizing there's a bunch of people out here now, again, you know, running out on roads and side by sides and whatever else. Pressure's there. Yeah. And not a real reason to stick their nose out of the trees if they don't want to. Yeah. I killed on day three and it seems like the first two days in there, like I was seeing some bucks. I probably saw a 160 buck and a three by four. And here and there you'd see smaller bucks. And then I killed mine and then the day after that, nothing. For like... For the rest of the hunt. He didn't kill the deer. Didn't kill the deer. He just couldn't see another. Went home with that one. Wow. And that's the second I remember. Yeah. Well, I hunted that country's second season. Oh, the second season you mean. Yeah.

With my... With your boys. Yeah. The last time you were there. And we got one and it was, you know, the other kid came home without one and it was a grind. That's the second I remember, you know. But this year wasn't supposed to be that way, these late dates. You know what I mean? It's supposed to be third season and fill it. And so now the dust has cleared. Chris, you smashed a 200-inch. Are you going back second next year? A, are you going to Colorado? B, are you going second or third? Well... And C, what unit are you going to? Well, it just reminds you like it can happen. It can happen anywhere in Colorado at any time. It really can. You come around the right corner at the right time and there's the right buck and you're going to go home a happy hunter. Yeah. Their genetics. They're generally their numbers, even though they're down from historic.

They're still, when you compare them to other places, you see deer in Colorado. You still see deer. Yeah. I'd like to see some deer. Yeah. And we like to complain about it that, oh, it's not what it used to be and it's not. But at the same time, am I still going to go back next year? Absolutely. We're going somewhere. On a year like this when Bronson and Chris, we've been scouring Utah. Nevada. Nevada. Idaho. Wyoming. Colorado. My, where am I? We all saw good bucks in Colorado at least. Now some of them might be on some private. Some of them got killed. But Chris is 200 incher is one of the top two or three we've seen. Yeah. Killed. Yeah. Thousands of hunters in Colorado. And it might as well be a 250 buck on a year like this. Yeah. That's what's crazy. It feels so hard. It does. I feel pretty fortunate. And it's, that deer definitely grew as I walked up to it.

I looked at it in the scope for two seconds and thought it's good enough. Spotting scope. Yeah. Yeah. So, I'll farm a shot. Went in and it was a perfect setup because I, when I spotted it, it was probably only, you know, 800 to a thousand away. But there was a ravine right in front of me that ran almost all the way to the deer. Wow. I dropped down in the ravine and there was a tree on top of right where I wanted to shoot from. You knew where he had to pop out. Yeah. There was a tree. Walked to the crest, set up and shoot. Was he still out when you got there? Yeah. So, he was exactly the same spot and he was, I originally thought he was with a doe and I was getting real excited thinking the route was starting. But as I watched the video, it's this tiny, it's the smallest three point you've ever seen. I could barely tell it was a buck in the video.

But, so I had my friend there with me and so we both went down into the ravine and went down to the tree, hiked up to the top and buck was still there. So, I just set up my bipod, put a jacket under the back, ranged at 460 and. All on video, man. All on video, yeah. You've center punched him. Pulled the trigger. The only thing I regret is he was looking down the ridge at something and he would never, he never turned to look at me, but I wasn't going to not shoot. Oh, you didn't know like, is he really good? He's looking away. Yeah. He might have been looking at a 230 buck. I knew, I knew from the first time I looked at him in the scope, he was looking right at me and I knew he was. That was burned in your head at least. Yeah. This deer is worth shooting. Kind of opens up a little bit like that. No question.

And I've made mistakes in the past where I tried on my own hunts where I tried to video too much and I lost a buck. And so this time it's put up the scope, put the video on, pull the trigger. So I can't remember. You did better night. I can't remember the last self video hunt I've tried. It's not. I'm not letting something get away. It's not easy. Ever. When about you, Jason? When's the last one? I don't know. Hey, oh, you did your Colorado buck like three or four years ago. That was a while. And then. No, with you. Yeah, but I was on the verge of not shooting it. He was there for three hours. He walked out of the screen, I think, when he shot. Yeah, he did. He walked out of the screen after 19 minutes. But he was also dumber in a fence post with the doe. You're like, he can't get away. I might as well video this one. And now I look back at that and I'm like, you are so dumb.

Yeah, you just crushed him. Why? Well, I was with you. I was like, you're an idiot. Why are you videoing? Why did you video for 14 minutes? There was like 15 minutes of video. Crazy. You know, I had a solid three minutes of video setting up and everything. Because I set the scope up, hit record, and then set up my bipod, set up my gun. Chris, you're from Utah. I arranged. You're from Utah. Sometimes seconds means the other guy shoots. That's true. You video his kill. What if that thing went down in your scope and somebody shot him? Somebody shot him. And that's what happened to me in Colorado. I was like, I could hear razors or something. I'm like, if somebody else were to shoot this deer right now, I'd be sick to my stomach. Yeah. I'm going to smash it. Well, I mean, really, every second counts. Like I've, like I said, I've lost bucks that I waited just that much too long because

I was trying to video and. But it's an epic kill shot and we appreciate it. Yeah. One is a white tail. I'll regret the rest of my life. In Kansas. Yeah. I had double cheaters out. My buddy killed it. Well, congrats, Chris. He's a stud. He's like a five by five. He also has an extra eye guard, but big, like three and a half, four inch eye guards, just open airy frame, open kind of beams in the front. Just stares at you. Awesome. He's what he's Colorado built. That's what you've, that's what you think when you see that deer. Yeah. He's like probably the, well, he's, he's, I'd say he's the prettiest frame buck that I've ever killed. Yeah. Big, big frame. His, I mean, his tall G2s and yeah. Yep. Boxy and tall. Anyway, awesome buck and dark antlered sucker. Yeah. That's there's, that's something about them chocolate antler. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know why color came from the pine. It's a pie.

It's a dark chocolate. Jeez. Anyway, so it can happen. And so if we're talking about weather, talking about sunshine, talking about lack of snow, don't lose hope. You're still in Colorado. We're still doing what we like and just keep grinding it out. I mean, there's nothing you can do. You got it. Your points are gone. Just hunt it out. And man, stuff happens. Their genetics are too good in Colorado. So, um, that's a little age. You got a good chance. That's it. Let me give a quick shout out to a couple of our sponsors here, midstream here. Chris, you mentioned video on your, uh, buck. I'm sure you did it through a phone scope. Yes. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Kill shot there. It allows you to be able to attach your phone to be able to attach it to your spotting scope, your 15s, 12s, whatever you got. Visit phonescope.com. P H O N E S K O P E.com.

They've got something for every phone and spotting scope there. Um, it, it's just an awesome way to document what you see, what you, what you shoot and all that. Another, uh, one of our sponsors is a Blaine St. James, a St. James sporting properties based in Colorado, but licensed not only in Colorado, but Idaho, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. Blaine and his crew at St. James sporting properties. Uh, some, the best people you need to call about the Western hunting, fishing, recreation properties, whether you're buying, whether you're selling, whatever you're looking for, give them a call. 877-354-7247 or, um, SJ sporting properties.com. So pretty good guys right there. He knows what he's doing. So I'm hunter. So big time hunter. All right, well let's give, uh, let's give my buddy Roger Smith. And I think he's standing over a dead buck in Colorado, but I haven't.

Haven't heard a lot from him. Dude. Hey man. And? Got him. You did? Yep. Just what you thought? Double lump. Yeah, he did. Yeah, he, he fell right. In the last place I saw him, it was just brushing. I couldn't see him go down, but he went down right there. Okay. So you're on the Epic Outdoors podcast. Anything you can. And so anything you do or say can be held against you. Against you in the field hunting. Next year when some do. So. So. This is where all the mule deer are on the call to give me a hard time. Well, no, we're just excited, Jason. We're in the, we, it's the only day this week we're together and he happens to hit me. He says, Roger just said he crushed buck one of his better white tells of his life with a bow. We're wanting details and we were fearful that you didn't like, you know, have a.

I even tried FaceTiming you, but you wouldn't answer and I'm like, okay, this isn't good. Yeah. You know. Yeah. So. No covers there before I got him, but he's just, he's got about everything. He's long been, he's wide, he's tall, he's got good mass and just a blocky mature white tail. Wow. How many points a side does he got? Five. As clean as can be, probably not, maybe not one inch to both sides. A clean tail. Wow. Absolutely perfect. Would you shoot him again? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Even, even with the mule deer that I was seeing. I just can't see. That's why it goes. I mean, you're seeing great mule deer. I think in, I'm killing one of those mule deer. That's what I'd be doing if I was in your shoes. Those are some nice mule deer that I was seeing, but I'm just, like I said, I'm not to the point of letting this type of white tail go, but maybe next year.

Did you, what did you, you rattled him in? Yeah. Two came in and they were of equal size, but one was a little more broken up and one came in behind me and one came in front and it's hard to pass a hundred and seventy inch white tail 10 yards broadside. 10 yards. Oh. Oh. That's awesome, man. Good for you. I look forward to seeing a pic later on. We, we're, we're doing a Colorado podcast with everybody getting ready to go third season. Of course the Eastern Plains, they've been hunting forever and there's archery season at least goes on and on and on. But this is, I would imagine strong white tail rut going on out there right now and mule deer, but that's awesome. Yeah. I wanted to talk to somebody fresh that's just had a phenomenal experience. Well, it's kind of right in the middle of it right now. Cause, but it just opened yesterday. The ruts go in full tilt.

I would usually be here earlier than now, but it did, it opened late this year, which was really not my choice. But, uh, I'd rather hunt a little earlier for the pre rut. Yeah. Um, they were going pretty good. They responded to the horns. Wow. That's awesome. All right. Well, we'll let you get him, whatever taken care of and headed back to Arkansas. Yeah. Uh, headed to South Dakota now. So tech's good for a white tail or muley there. Oh, well maybe, I don't know what it's going to take to flip the switch for a muley, but I guess we'll see what, what wins there. White tail, the white tail one in Colorado. Yeah. He didn't win or he lost. Well, he lost. He got the, he got the shaft literally. Yeah. All right. All right. See you guys. All right. Talk to you later. Okay. 200 inch mule deer, 170 white tail. We're not talking, I don't know, legit big deer. Like the mule deer.

I'm just like, he sent a picture of the lesser and I mean, I'd smash it anywhere. I mean, anyway. All right. How many states can you hunt? Let's just quickly. Can hunt mule deer. Can hunt mule deer. I'm going to say about 10 or 15 states, maybe 20. I don't know. White tail feels like they're in 47. Well, pretty much. Right. You do one in Idaho, Montana, Colorado, but, but Washington, Oregon, and every, and every Eastern state. Yeah. What, where can't you, Utah even kills a couple randomly. Exactly. So anyway, Hey, he, those white tail hunters though, when they, they're born and bred white tail hunters, that's hard to get them off them. And 170 with a bow, 10 yards broadside. That's. Yeah. I need one. Yeah. I need one. No, I need. Yeah. Anyway, we'll throw a little shout out to triple S Polaris. Um, here in Cedar city, Utah, triple S Polaris selling everything Polaris and doing a great

job at it. Good friends of ours. Um, built the Epic outdoors model, uh, razor, just incredible. Super good guys. They're four, three, five, eight, six, five, zero, 100 triple S Polaris. They'll deliver anywhere. Uh, you don't, doesn't matter. You don't have to live here in Utah. Uh, uh, big dealership gotten a lot of, let's call it acreage up there and a lot of machines. They've got a huge inventory, especially in COVID the COVID environment. So anyway, check out S S S Polaris.com. Don't think you could go wrong. Also red rock precision, excellent rifles. I love my red rock rifle. Um, man, I've killed a lot of stuff with it. And, uh, anyway, we took it out there on the second and. And you know, we're shooting a rock at 600 and some odd yards and you're two inches off or something. It's unbelievable. Uh, red rock precision, credible rifles, uh, red rock precision.com. Check them out.

They'll do a variety of calibers, variety of scopes, whatever, very custom to what you're looking to do. So anyway, proud to be associated with them as well. I shot my buck with a gun that they set up for me. What caliber? Uh, 300 rum. And they, last year they put on a new, they modified and put on a new muzzle brake. And it's awesome now. Like it. Did you not have a brake on it before? I had an old brake, an old model, an old design. And when we went out and shot with them last year, they were looking at it and they, they just said, you need a new brake. We had them put on a new brake and it just, it was a game changer for it. Tighten stuff up. Well that, that, that gun just kicked and it would twist a little bit when I shot it. Whatever. And so that, that new brake has taken that away. And so it's way easier to shoot. Um, yeah, that shot I, on my buck, 460 yards, one shot.

And funny thing is I, I, I got so rushed. I forgot to zoom in my scope. No, shot him on four power, five power. Come on. 460 yards. And I'm, I'm thinking, man, it looks like a field balance. Looks like a long ways away, but, but I have the shot felt great though. And it drilled him exactly where my crosshair was. Yeah, it didn't, I mean, it's not like you're using the reticles, you know what I mean? You're dialing. Yeah. Yeah. Oh geez. That's funny. That is. Well, Hey, all's well that ends well. Uh, one more shout out. Um, keep in mind, we are in the middle of the hunts, but we've had a lot of emergency sales in the last couple of weeks as people have dropped scopes, backed over stuff. From the field. Whatever. And, uh, if you need something, whether it be binoculars, spotting scope, whatever, rifle scope, give us a call.

There'll be somebody here or can relay messages to us in the field, but there'll be somebody here to be able to see what we got right there on the shelf. We've got a lot of stuff, including vortex, whether it be binoculars, spotting scopes, rifle scopes. Um, vortex makes great products on unlimited unconditional lifetime warranty and all their stuff. Um, and check their, uh, whole line of products out on their website at vortex optics.com. Great partner of ours. And, uh, we're also a dealer of them. So anyway, keep it in mind, but wish you had a good day. But wish everybody luck. If you're going to Colorado on third season, fourth season, may not talk to you until it's all over. We got a lot of us going to be gone for the next week or 10 days. And we all wish everybody luck. Be safe. Take great pictures. Take a little extra time. What else Chris in that regard? You know? Yeah.

We're there once. So take, take a lot of pictures. Um, a lot of times we rushed through that. We just want to get off the mountain and you can never have that moment back. So take a lot of pictures, take your time, enjoy the moment. Anything else, Chris, we wrap this up. Call it a day. Call it a week. Yep. All right. Good luck. All everybody that's headed to Colorado for family and friends or whatever yourself. Good luck. We want to know how you do. Like Adam said, hit us photos at epic outdoors.com. Jason epic outdoors.com automatic doors.com. We want to hear from you. We wish you the best. Kill big. Will you hear from you to hear from you to you to hear from you to you to hear from