EP 258: "Freaky Week" and Mule Deer Madness!

Anything to do with Western big game.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast, powered by Under Armour.

Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, the entire Epic Outdoors crew, except for Pollock, he's in Colorado trying to make good on a tough year. It's kind of tough, huh, Devin? You could say that. And for guys like me that didn't even have a tag, it was really tough.

That's true. John? How are you doing? Doing good. It was nice to have you out there anyway. Yeah, I was out there a little bit. Helping us. It was good. Yeah, here and there. It didn't help you much. Helped Wyatt a little bit. It was moral support, you know. It goes a long way. Moral support. Wyatt made me pack more weight than my fair share. Yes, I did. We've had to pack it all the way uphill, too. Yeah, it was uphill. Did you? Yeah. Yeah. It's 123 yards. We don't want you to talk about that part.

We didn't even range it. Top pin. You could not see the truck from the dead buck. That's the truth. You could not see it. That's the truth. The roll on the hill was significant. Hey. Whatever. All right. So, before we get. Go ahead, Bronson. We kill the ram Sunday with a blind in one eye, but don't think less of us. I mean. Stand up. You don't feel bad about it? The ram or the hunter? No. I mean, you didn't even have a fair chance. The ram. Yeah, I know. That's why. I mean, you guys stalked him on the blind side? I thought he was talking about the hunter. No, he wasn't. That's next level right there. He wasn't. He stalked him on the blind side. I'll show you the kill shot. It was his good eye. He could see everything he wanted to see. Who does that? Stalks a ram on his blind side. Did you know he was blind? No. No. We didn't know until we got up to him. He was blind. But he's blind.

Cloudy. Anyway. Funny stuff. Well, I had to smash him, too. He's kind of a giant. All right. Well, before we get cranking, John, Adam, guys, we want to talk about the optics deal. And I kind of like Freaky Friday instead of Black Friday Cellar, whatever that is. We were calling it Black Friday Week because it's a full week. Let's call it a Freaky Week. How about that? So tell us what we got going, John. So we've got a spectacular deal. We got a bunch of trail cameras for this. No, we got hundreds and hundreds. Hundreds. Yeah. So every $500 you spend in our optics store, you get a free trail camera. And it's $150 trail camera, $160. $160 MSRP on that. This isn't a 35-millimeter. This isn't a John Peterson refurbished. It's Jason's used camera. No. 32 megapixel. N.I.B. HD video. It's a good one. Well, and hey, we've even got some fierce rifles.

Why don't we just say, hey, if you buy one of those, we'll give you a couple of trail cameras. No. 10? I don't know. 5? Well, one for every 500. That's right. Right? So you get six cameras. Yeah. Or seven. Six, five, four. What calibers do we have from memory? Maybe we should look. Oh, you guys are always six, five fans. You guys are always six, five fans. Hey. There's some. I think there's a seven. What is it? Seven? Four. There's a seven in memory. There's a 300 rum. 300 rum. Which I've really looked at closely. That thing's been lightly fondled by now, but it's still new. Come on. We'd look at it and put it back. Yeah. I mean, that's the extent of it. That's that one, right? That's a sweet rifle. I love it. A couple six, five PRCs. I'm about to tell you right now. Let's do this. Let's do it. See how accurate we are. We've got carbon edges. We've got twisted rivals. Twisted Rage.

28 Nosler. 28 Nosler. 300 rums coming out. Lots of different places. Twisted Rage. Twisted Rival. Carbon edge. Twisted Rival. 300 rum. 26 inch barrel. Twisted Rival. Twisted Sister. If you want a new gun, want to give a new gun, maybe holiday, Christmas coming up for somebody. Yeah. We'll extend that to that, too. Optics or Fierce Rifles in stock. I like it. While supplies last, meaning the trail camera supply. On top of that, we're also, there's some Freaky Friday, Freaky Week special deals, too, on top of that. So, anyway. If you're looking, call us from the time you hear this podcast until, what, November 30th? That's what it is, right? Yep. November 30th. I just, I mean, mentioned we do have a couple extra deals. A couple of those Leica Kalinox infrared sites or whatnot. They got spectacular deals on those on top. And a couple of other Swarovski scopes. They're pretty unbelievable.

I grabbed one. Quite frankly, like, you can hunt wolves with this kind of stuff under the proper permitting up there in Idaho. And I'm, like, all about it and never made it there. But, but. The M30. It's unbelievable. I'm ready. Yeah. Whenever I can do it. And it's, there, it's an unbelievable system. You can use the current scope you have. You can see the reticles. You can dial, use a turret. All of that. Kind of got to think about range finding, you know. Yeah. In the dark. Yeah. And there's ways. I've learned. Some guys have taught me some ways. But, anyway, there's, it's awesome. It's pretty incredible. And the guys out of Texas, we sell a few of those in Texas. Prototer. Yeah. Same thing with Nevada. And so, those Kalinux, they just go right on the end of your scope. Yeah. You get an adapter. And so, whatever scope you have, you can, a Swaro, a Zeiss, or Vortex, whatever, whatever

it is you have, they make an adapter. And, and you can take it on and off. You can hand hold it. You can put it back on your, your rifle scope or whatever. And, just unbelievable. Unbelievable technology. It's rechargeable. It's not, it's not got removable batteries or anything like that. And, anyway. Having said that, we have them in stock. There's a special, you know, Leica likes to call it the Black Friday deal. You know, freaky week, whatever. Call us up. We've got it. So, amongst all the things. Awesome, great member pricing, just, you know, plus the trail cameras for every 500. Jeez. You might want to. Yeah, you need a new spot. Logan, do you need to spend three grand to get five, six cameras? I need to start spending something. Yeah, you do. How are we going to get some of Logan's money out of his pocket?

Hey, we could even, I don't know, we could even hold some wages and put it toward. Optics. Do you have a girlfriend? Well, once I pay tuition in January, I might be spending some money here. So, keep that deal. Don't avoid the question. Do you have a girlfriend? He's free. Some by that. Does she care? That's saying. I don't know if I can talk about this on the record. He's like. Oh, he's not committal. He hasn't had to determine the relationship talk yet. That's what that means. The old DTR. The DTR, Wyatt. Maybe he wants to be committed. She doesn't. We've been through many of those in our past. That's what that answer was. We don't talk about that. Wyatt, Devin, do you guys have any suggestions or advice for Logan? If we get going on relationship talk with these guys, we would do a week-long podcast with these two. Because they're the specialists. They've had many relationships.

Is that what you're saying? They know what they're doing. Well, they did it for a long time. There's a video on these guys. Let's go back to Logan. Yeah, that's all we're saying. I'll tell you what. Once a week, you guys can come up with a piece of advice, and I'll listen to one piece of advice from you every week. Well, just a question. Have you had the DTR? No. Okay. That answers your question. What's DTR again? Find the relationship. Oh. Monumental moment. It is.

I'm just glad to be deep in marriage. And the worst thing we're talking about is my participation at the house. You know? What? Do you have to make the gravy for Thanksgiving or not? Yeah, no. That's the deepest stuff. That's not even been on the docket of discussions. No. I'm not sure. I'm sure we're going to have a discussion now because she's going to listen. Well, you're capable and able. Yeah. It's just a matter of if you're willing. I'm trying to be dad of the year and take the kids looking at deer or calling coyotes. While Jada does all of the dinner. Well, no. She's got to make candy, too. I better take care of the kids this morning. She's got to make candy, too. I better take care of the kids. They got candy making weekend. Oh, Christmas. Because it's Christmas candy, probably. They don't want me around when they're making candy. Yeah. I'm going to take care of the kids.

Well, Jason's kids are like 23, 20, and 18, and 16 or something. Like, they drive him around while he sleeps in the back seat. Okay. Okay. Bronson, you have old kids. I know. Do you ever cease being a parent? No. In fact, it probably even gets a little more aggressive before it gets easier. Oh, yeah. Because big kids means. I thought once you kick them out of the house, you kick them out of the house. No. No. Hey, you just got one married off, though. Yeah. Hey. You're thinning out the herd. Aren't you? I could tell you a story that we're going through at my house right now, but I'd probably be fired. Fired by who? Maybe by the end of the podcast. Oh, Jana. She'd have me. Okay. Well. Justin, he'd have me. All right. Let's don't go there. It is interesting, though. It doesn't have to be. He's quite an artist and made a T-shirt, and it was somewhat questionable.

And that T-shirt got found, and it's been a sore subject for both parties. In a high school graphic arts class or something? And there was copies made and distributed. And distribution. Yeah. And there's sales. Yeah. There's cash sales. Yeah. Yeah. Entrepreneur. It affected some people. You mean you got cease and desist letters? Yeah. Pretty much. It resembles too many other T-shirts. Hey. All I know is parental. The parents are heavily engaged at this point.

Wow. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. The minute you think you're free sailing, you're not. Well, let's see. We talked about the optics, and we want to sell some optics. Of course, we're smoking them out. Christmas is coming up and whatnot. Of course, Thanksgiving, it's awesome. We're actually in the office at the moment. We do have a few other little lingering things going on. Mostly, I just want to watch Bucks rut.

That's not an obligatory appointment, anyway. I don't know. I don't know. But anyway, thought we'd have that. We're here for the most part. That's what you're saying. Yeah, we're here for the most part. We're mostly back and better than ever. So, before we get cranking on some of these Colorado deer stories, some of which are great, some of which are not so great. Bronson, you did great. Wyatt, the end result was good. It was kind of fun and great experience. But I'm wondering if we should call Jeff and kind of hear about this bull he killed up in northern Nevada. He got a late season tag. And, you know, late season tags are a challenge a little bit. Of course, we all know that. You're dealing with broken bulls and non-rutting, but lots of glassy and a lot of hand warmers. Yeah. Nevada late season. It's a cold three-day mess, man. That dry air desert.

10 to positive 10, but not much above it. No. Oh. Huh? No. Devin? I have some bad memories of that. I know. Anyway. For being one of the hottest states in the nation in the summer, it's one of the coldest later in the winter. It is cold. I remember wearing a full body Carhartt insulated. Overall. Overall. That's what I wore because that's the only thing that kept me alive. Was it the same color as a blonde bull? It was tan. That's what I mean. Dark tan. You got to wear orange. You don't have to wear orange in Nevada. I had a yellow four-wheeler, though. That's all I had. More like a cow color, not really a bull color. I had a yellow four-wheeler. You don't have to wear orange over there, but if you wear that, you might want to throw some on. You're going to be looked at through a rifle scope.

So, if one of us gets a first-come, first-served tag, you guys are saying you're not going to help the other guy? Where? We're still playing that game. I don't know. Who's playing that game? Wyatt plays it. I feel like it's done for the most part. Wyatt knows when the doe tags are still available. Wyatt knows. I did point something out for Wyatt yesterday. There's a snow cock tag coming out. Wyatt knows about it. Snow cock in the winter. I heard the plumage is off the charts in January. I don't know anything about the snow cocks. If a snow cock came up, would you take it, though, on that list? I don't even know if there's permits for them. I just think you've got to go. Don't you just buy one? I think you just go do it. I don't know. I don't know if it's a special permit or what it is. The Himalayan snow cock. It has not been on the first-served list that I've seen.

It's one of the secret special species in Nevada. The hidden gems of Nevada. All right. Well, let's just call Jeff and see what he has to say. I know he had a pretty good time, but he also – so Jeff's wife and my wife are sisters, and I know he wore Angie out. Just because he was being gone a lot? Well, you know, Jeff can get lost over there. You mean not check in? I don't know. I don't really want to go there. I talked to him before the hunt, and I was talking to him about it, and he's like, you know, I think I'm going to go in the morning. I'm like, well, you just told me you had a deer hunter coming in tomorrow. He's like, yeah, but I can get out there. I love his positive – Just for like two hours. He burns up the highway. Yeah. I love his positive attitude. So anyway, and bless Angie for dealing with him. All right. Here we go.

Have you decided how much a divorce is going to cost you for hunting so much? Oh, you know, I don't think the attorney quite got there. It was getting close, though. You settled? You settled? You settled out of court. Good boy, Jeff. Good boy. Oh, man. Do you still have your gun? You know, it gets stressful by the end of the season, dude. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we don't need to talk about that. I know everything you're talking about. Well, yeah. Really? Adam started on sheep hunts like in caribou hunts in August. Like, at least I made it. No archery hunts this year. I did not have anything in August. You know what I feel bad about is Jan and I's relationship is the subject of many people's marital discussions. Is it? Yeah. They're like, count your many blessings. Oh, I've got friends that wives go. Yeah, trust me. Yeah, same thing. I'm sorry. I'm not like Jana, but you need to come home.

And little do they know. It's taken years to get to this point. Well, they walk up to you in the street and you're like, how do you let him get away with being gone so much, Becky? You're like, shut up and get out of here. Why are you trying to ruin my marriage? These are real stories. Like, I've always been able to say, always, forever, I'm at least, I always tell my wife, well, at least it's not your sister's situation. I don't hunt like Jason hunts. I don't hunt like Jason hunts. See? Why me? Why do I? Because you guys think that those discussions don't happen at my house and that only amplifies things.

I have to get it back to where we can live with each other again? Oh, she's a good one. That's no question. They should be comparing themselves to Jan. Her hunt this year. You dedicated a lot to her hunt this year. 17 days. Hunting. Actual hunting. Mama with kids, chicks still in the nest. Jeez. That was brutal. Good math. Plus scouting. Huh? Yeah, it was over a month and a half, probably. All right, Jeff. Well, let's talk about you. I don't want to talk about me because I'm going to get in trouble if I keep talking. There you go. So. It is the year of the point burn, isn't it? Oh, yeah. Like, I thought about it and realistically, I think I'm at 42 points that I burned this year altogether. Wow. That's impressive. You add them up? Yeah. Like, if you add up all the points that I burned on everything this year, I think I was at 42. Jeez. And I'm like. What do you got to show for it?

I'm sick a little bit. Yeah. I got one. Why do you think of it that way?

Well. Jeez.

That's brutal. Yeah, it is. Like, Jason, how many points are you going to? I don't want to. I'm not going to. I don't. This isn't. I'm going to talk about what we burned. One tag was 24 points. Jeez. Pretty soon, you're at 42. Really fast. Really fast. Yep. Yeah, I burned Angie's 20 points. I burned my wife's 20 points this year. It was intense. Okay. And that was an elk tag. We have nothing to show for it. Well, I guess let's talk about that before your elk tag. So, she ended up basically going to kind of, I don't know, donate it to a kid. Whatever. I mean, she has to go with them, obviously. And either one of them could kill. It's kind of a unique situation here in Utah that you can do. Well, and it was kind of a, you know, you're trying not to manipulate the system too much in any kind of weird ways. But, you know, you're trying to get the most out of them. So, my boy had two points.

My wife had 20 points. I team them together. They draw together. Okay. This is my younger boy. This was planned, though, Jeff. This was planned, yes. And that's where father of the year comes in. Right there. Yeah. Well, yeah. This part of it. And so, you burn 22 points right there, right? And you get them. And then you take the wife's tag. And you mentor that tag with my 17, barely, you know, June 19th birthday, turns 18, have to hurry up and get the, I mean, we pull it off. I didn't think you were going to pull that one off. I didn't. I didn't. I was getting stressed because Utah's just lackadaisical about getting those tags printed. But you have, they actually have to just push the button, print, before the tag number is assigned. But you've got to have the tag number to mentor it to the kid, right? Okay.

So, you're just waiting on somebody somewhere at some company to push the print button. To be able to mentor in time where your kid is still of age. Still 17. And you did that and had one day to spare. Yep. One day to spare. And then the other kid, and then the other kid drew. The other kid drew. Yeah. So, he had two uptacks. So, in other words, I got both my boys. My boys had uptacks, you know? All right. But there's still a lot of complications. And, you know, I got one kid playing football and the other kid in school. How about, how about, how about, how about I need a couple of muzzleloaders? Oh, yeah. There was a couple of muzzleloaders. So, I got. And they need to be twins. Different loads for each one. Oh, and he did the same load. Pellets for one, loose powder in the other. And he called us and got the same scopes and this and that, right? Everything. Yes, yes.

I was always taught. You know, we built these muzzleloaders perfectly identical. Yeah. The only difference that you can tell between the two is the one I put a black muzzle brake on, the other one I put a matching muzzle brake on. That's the only way you can tell. And they shot good until they didn't, right? They shot good until they didn't. Well, when you're trying to put a cookie cutter load in both, just one size fits all. I've heard you can't do that with muzzleloaders. It worked for him for a big while. It works. It works good. You can hit a pie plate at 48 yards. Yes. It worked until it didn't. Go ahead, Jeff. It worked until it didn't. Yeah. So I don't know if we want to rip off all the scabs today. What do you mean? We're already there. But here I am. You know, like we're two days into the hunt. You know, we're bouncing around in the side by side.

We pull the scope out and I heard something funny. Now, I think you guys even talked about this last. Oh, yeah. I talked about a sheep hunt that we're loading in the dark, loading our backpacks to pack in. This is not like. Bronson grabs the dude's gun. I grabbed the gun. Somehow, I don't grab the scope. I grabbed it and it moved. And I'm like, did that really move? I moved again. I said, we're done. We're not taking this thing. You know, we always bring another gun on a hunt. It's in case you fall in the middle of a hunt or you fall coming off the mountain in the dark one night. You don't have time to shoot it for the next day. But, yeah. Anyway, continue your story. That's what I did. So, in other words, like I bought these guns. I mean, straight from CVA, they came. They had the scope rails mounted on them. I thought, sweet.

I've actually stripped out a barrel before, not being careful, like just over torquing. And so, I'm just like, hey, these are factory mounted. Leave them, you know. And then since I've talked to Devin, he's like, oh, no. No, you tear those things off and you do it right. And I should have. Anyway, two days in, pull out the scope and I hear a little jiggle. Like I hear. And I'm like, what was that? And my kid's like, I think my scope's loose. Sure enough, man, that sucker is loose. And I'm like, you have got to be kidding me. So, here we are in the middle of the hunt. Take the gun. Tear it all down. Like put it all back together. And then we had the matching one. And I'm like, nope. Tear it all down. Put that one back together. Like, anyway, it cost us, you know, it probably cost. Because it took me a day to, you know, get off the mountain. Go get things sorted out. You had to kick.

Had to shift one kid here and wife here and everything. And anyway, it probably cost us a bull, to be honest with you. Because, you know, we lose. You were down to one gun. We lose a kid for a day. All that. All that. Just, you know, everything that you don't want to happen in the middle of the hunt, you know, of course, is going to happen in the middle of the hunt. And so, anyway, but got both of them shooting by the end. And Angie and Jana are talking a little bit between the trips back and forth. Oh, dude. It's somewhat stressful in your relationship from what I heard. I don't know what you heard. Well, no, it was stressful. It was stressful. You know what? Here's the thing about these. I'm dragging my wife up the mountain. That's what I mean. You got to leave. These mentor hunts in Utah, they have to be there on the hunt. They have to be there, and it sounds good.

It's going to be quality family time. And really, you could have had three muzzlers. Quality family time. Really, you could have had three muzzlers. She could have been packing. Yeah, you could have three. Yeah. Well, and so it sounds really good until your wife's sitting on a mountain just with your son while you're down fixing scopes, and she's up there just hanging out with... She's trying to feel judgeable. Father-in-law. You know, whoever else. You're scared that you're going to hear a shot in that direction. Because who knows what. Oh, man. She's like... Good thing we married tough women. Cutler? Oh, yes. Shoot the bull now. We're done. We're done tonight. Shoot that bull now. There's just a lot to it. Luckily, my dad was there and was able to kind of keep things sorted out. Like, well, I'm trying to fix stuff, put stuff together, ship kids here and there, try to keep life salvaged.

And anyway... What did you stay in? How did you... What were you lodged in? Oh, dude, we were... My... My... My... That's an easy question. Jeff, it's very simple. What were you staying in? When Angie... When my wife wasn't there, we were staying... We just stayed in the camp trailer. But there's a couple issues with the camp trailer. We've had, you know... Mice? She was... You know, so... We... We... We drove... When she was there, we were driving to freaking an hour and a half to town to stay in a hotel. Oh, my... Okay, yeah. Well, we've got to take care of mama. Three hours drive time and summer hours. There's no... There's no dark. It's all light. Well, yeah. And it was just... It was a grind. Lots of early mornings. Luckily, she was a trooper. She pulled through. Like, she actually did better than I thought. I think she saved the complaints, hopefully, for her sister. And...

I didn't hear a lot of... She did good. I didn't hear a lot of that. But... It was possible that... It was possible that you might have been home and then going to be headed back down. And there was a little, you know, anxiety. Yeah, there was a lot of that. There was a lot of that. There... And she... She pulled through, like, not many complaints. And so, anyway... But, okay. So, you know, we go through and we burnt the tab. You know, we had a couple opportunities at smaller bulls. But, you know, when... When these kids see these big, like, good animals. Like, like... They're not like me when I was a kid. I was just throwing lead at stuff. Like, I just... No, these kids are looking for eye guards and brow tines and stuff. Yeah. Oh, it's got a broke G1. He's got short beams. We see this 300-inch bull and my kid's looking at it like, I ain't gonna shoot that piece of crap. And I'm like...

He looks spindly. He looks a little spindly, Dad. But I think we're gonna look around for a minute. I know. And, you know, 140 yards standing there broadside. And it's like... Like, I don't know. But, I mean, I'm fine with it. They're picky. They're proud of what they kill when they kill it. So, I guess... I guess we just roll on. But, you know... Wait for another 22 points to come around. Wait. Wait.

Yeah. Yeah, that'll be your grandkid. The next mentor program. Be a grandkid. The next elk meat you taste will be from the grandkid. But, you know, like, I get it. I get it. I do it myself sometimes. And, you know, and that leads us to the next talk. Yeah, Jeff. There's been nobody... There's nobody like you that can pass stuff and wait to the very end. Your sheep here in Utah. I mean, I don't know. You've been... It's impressive how long you can go. Well, and so, you know... And that's always in the back of your mind. Because I've got some... I mean, even 2012 till now is still too fresh on some of these gabs. I swear. Those wounds are still hurting, man. From who? From Angie? Or you? No. Or you? From certain tags I drew and then in kill. Henry's? No. Yeah. Jason? I don't know. He's going to need a transfusion there pretty quick. I'm just throwing some stuff out there.

I don't know where he's going with it. Trying to be a good host. There you go. So, you know, like... So, we come to the next elk hunt, which was, you know, Nevada. And I'm telling you... I guess I've got to think about it this way. You've got a lot of people listening. Nevada sucks. Nobody wants to ever draw there. It's horrible. Don't go. It's cold. It's cold. Now that that's out of the way, that hunt... Nevada is freaking awesome. Amazing. Jeez. Jeez. Jeez. Just... There's not many people. Like, scouting, there's nobody. Like, you're driving around for a day... Oh, if you... You better have supplies in your truck. If you don't have some major plugs for the tires that Devin goes through... I mean, who's going to come get... Devin, if you're not self-sufficient... You're not in trouble, man. But I... That's part of why I like it out there, too. Yeah.

You can always rely on a rancher to grab your ramp. And if you do see somebody, they're nice to you. Right, Jeff? For the most part. Yeah. They are. You know, people weren't too bad. I liked the ranchers. Like, they were pretty good to me. There's some people, though, that are running from things that are out there. Especially... Oh, you don't go knock on the wrong door. That's for sure. I mean... Well, anyway... Like, there's plenty of people that you probably... There's a reason why they live out in the middle of nowhere by themselves with nobody around them. Like, there's probably a good reason for that. You probably don't... They probably don't want to talk to you. No. But, anyway... But, anyway... No. No. It was awesome. There's lots of critters. Like... So, you had an elk tag. Late season elk tag. Late season. Rifle elk tag. You're sending some bulls our way here and there.

Getting people's opinion. Devin's helping you with the queue areas. I mean... Anyway. Devin loaded me up. It was awesome. Like... Like, yes. I did pick on you guys a little bit. Because, you know... The problem is, is when you start to look at lots of animals and you're like... You start going blind a little bit. You know? You're like... What is this thing really like? Like, look at this with me and make sure my brain's working right. Gotta get your membership dues worth, you know? That's what we're here for. Yeah, there you go. There you go. You got $100 out of Devin right there. $150. Right there. I got plenty out of both of you. But, anyway... It was fun, man. Lots of bulls. There's a reason why you apply and build points in these states. Because, you know, sometimes you luck out. And I'll tell you... I mean, I don't know what the draw odds...

I think I had less than 5% draw odds, even with 16 points. There's just no... There's... There's a reason why you build and build and build and build and then get lucky and go. And, once again, it comes back to your guys' theory on points and states. It's nice to have a variety. It's nice, you know, where you can get lucky and all that. Because it's a fun hunt. Lots of bulls. Lots of broken bulls. I mean, I probably sent you guys a few pictures of them. You know, like bulls with busted main beams. You know, one side's going to be a 360, 365 bull. The other side is snapped off halfway up the main beam. You know what I mean? Yeah. Lots of cool stuff like that, you know. You just don't want to shoot a spike by six if you can help it. No, no. You know, so you've got to be somewhat picky. So, we ground through it and looked at a lot of... I mean, had a couple guys come help me out.

You know, looked through a lot of bulls. A lot of bulls. You know, 15 to 30 bulls a day. And, you know, a lot of new bulls every day. That's a lot of game. That's a lot of game. You just... It's hard to... It's hard to believe that you're really looking at that many new critters every day. But, it was fantastic, you know. And then I found myself truly doing what I did in 2012, where you see a lot of animals and you just haven't seen that perfect one. And I find myself just picking every animal apart. Oh, man. These all... All these bulls got weak backs. I can't find a bull with weak backs. Then you find one with good backs. And you're like, oh, that bull's got 10-inch fronts. I mean, what the heck, you know. And then you're just picking every animal apart. You know, it just gets there, where you're just kind of... Yeah. Yeah. You know.

And eventually, you've got to make a decision and pull a trigger. Because... And... Because why, Jeff? Because why? There was like... Why did the hunt have to come to an end? Because it was time for the hunt to come to an end. That's all I'm going to say.

When the retainer's been paid, you know, what's next? They're going to start making draws. On that retainer. Yes, yes. They're going to start making their money. You know? So... Some point, they spend more than the retainer. Yep. And so, it was like, hey, you know, I went home. I grabbed my kid. I had seen this bull a couple times. I grabbed my kid. And it was as good a bull, really. He was put together. He's just the bull. Yeah. Awesome bull. But you wanted to hunt a while, too. Just in case it turned up something really exceptional. Right. And we're getting down to it. I mean, there was a few days left of the hunt. And so, you know, there was still plenty of hunting I could have done. But, you know, I mean, when you got... When is the best bull you've seen? Yeah. Like, really, it's the best bull you've seen. Yeah. You probably ought to kill it. Yep. You know? That's right.

So, and it worked out. Killed him. And, you know, he was a little bit bigger once we got on the ground than I thought he was, probably. So, even better news. That's awesome. It just worked out great. Fun hunt. And Kaysen was with you? We brought it. Was it Kaysen that was with you? Yeah. Yep. I grabbed Kaysen because the guy had to have, you know... Your oldest. It's nice to have a spotter. What do you... A spotter? He was a packer. Come on, Jack. You're going to kill an elk. Similar to my job with Wyatt. There you go. You're going there to kill an elk and I don't want to be alone. We're trying not to swear on this podcast, but I was the pack... Mule. Back mule. Back mule. Back mule. There you go. It's no fun to carry out a deer by yourself. It's nice to have one other guy that's what's wrong. That's right, right, right. It's good. But no, it was super fun, man. That hunt's a good hunt.

That's awesome. I highly recommend. Well... Love it. Hard to have many bad elk hunts in Nevada. There's a couple fringe ones, but 90% plus of them are legitimate elk hunts. They're pretty conservative on elk tags overall in Nevada. That's why you get one or maybe two and a life is it. But... Like they say, they like to produce a quality product. Yeah. And I mean, they look at it as a product, you know. Yeah. Awesome. Doing a great job. So, Jeff. Jeff, what do you... How much of Thanksgiving dinner do you have to prepare this year? Is there any... Dude, really? Nobody wants to eat when I'm cooking. Like, for Thanksgiving dinner, like, I don't mind cooking out if we're camping or something like that. What do you mean? Yeah, we've had you in camp. You're freaking awesome. I mean, you could... I mean, I don't know if you have a food handler's permit, but I'd pay you to come in.

You could put on a hairnet and wash your hands anytime. Yeah. Come on. Come on now. You've never eaten a pie that I've made. I guarantee you that. And you won't be. Well... I'm not much used to the kitchen when it comes to pastries and things. Yes. Yeah. Pastries and Coke. You give me a Dutch oven and a camp chef, and we're going to eat... We're probably going to eat pretty good. So, what are your Thanksgiving obligations as a husband and father? We're just kind of wondering what people's jobs are. I'm going to talk to Wyatt about his jobs. Devin, what do you... Now, I'm going to highly suggest this. And I didn't necessarily plan this out perfectly, but it worked out perfectly. So, we got a little trip planned here in another week. We're going to Hawaii. Oh. Mama's... My anniversary was in August, and we went to Florida.

And I'm like, I get to envelope this hunting season between these two perfect vacations. Okay. I'm hoping it erases everything in between, right? I'm hoping it becomes a void between point A, point B. What you're doing right is your ending. Don't they say elephants have good memories or something like that? They have nothing on women. Yeah. But you're doing it right. The last thing of the year is not one of your hunts. It's taking her to Hawaii. Yeah. That's the right way. It doesn't hurt. That taste will linger for hopefully the rest of the winter until you want to go turkey and bear hunt next spring. Yeah. You know, and every time she brings up hunting, I'm going to bring up Hawaii. That's what I'm doing. Well, that's awesome. You know. It should be good. But, yeah. What else you got on the docket today? That's what we were wondering about your 2023 application and hunting plans.

You got anything fun you're kind of thinking about? I've already kind of hit you up about the one Utah hunt, and I'm just kind of wondering what that's going to turn into. I've bugged you a little bit. And anyway. I can't even remember. I can't even remember. No, it's kind of a weird October 1st day, like elk tag. Oh. Well. Anyway. Assuming. You mean assuming some of these new changes get passed? I don't know. I don't know. I'm not tracking what you're keeping tracking. No. Keep tracking. But, yeah. We'll see. We'll see. I might go elk hunting again. I might burn my points. Oh. All right. I don't know. We have talked. We have talked. Well. We're debating. A lot of potential changes here in Utah for next year's season structure on out. There's a lot of options. Lots of potential options. So. Yeah. I'm a little worried about it. So. Might be time to use them. Yeah. Burn them? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. What have you heard on Wyoming? Are we going to stick with our current allocations for deer, elk? Yeah. For this year at least. I imagine for this year. That's not going to end, though. That talk's going to. Talks are going to continue. It's always going to continue. I think the outfitter tags and things like that are up for major discussion. But I think we're just percentage, you know, percentage cuts. But I'd use them, especially if they're having wild winters for deer and antelope. Jeff, we don't want to talk about Wyoming elk yet. We've already kind of. We're fielding some calls. And, man, I don't know. Between Colorado deer and Wyoming elk, I'm not sure how many. I mean, very close to. Idaho general stuff going on right now, too. Yeah, Jeff. Are you going to. December 1st. Come around. Are you going to be getting your general tag?

I don't even want to think about it. I'll be. I think I'm going to be in Hawaii, maybe. I don't know. That'll be interesting. They have internet down there. I have to check the internet connection. Yeah, they have internet down there. So, Wyatt, let's talk about. So, well, anyway. I don't want to. I got to deal with Wyatt every single day. So, I don't want to say anything too much. I promise you, Wyatt will be on it. I'm just wondering if his wife is as supportive of his internet addiction to getting turn back tags as he is. You know, we should all just make a plan to blow up Wyatt's phone like at like 1159-ish and just keep ringing through, make sure he's got some distractions so he's not too quick on the draw. You can't beat Wyatt. No. He's good at what he does. I'm not going to lie. He's good at what he does. Okay. Heck yeah. All right. Well, sounds good, Jeff. Hey, guys. Okay.

Sounds good. All right. Well, good luck with that retainer. You might want to throw a few more bucks at it. There you go. All right. Sounds good. All right. Catch you later. Bye. Oh, boy. Well, I like the technique. We call it the Jeff John technique. Why? You sandwich your hunts in between two vacations for your wife. They're significant vacations. It could get expensive. They said the Florida vacation was unbelievable. Really? It was awesome. Yeah. So. Well, I sent my wife and daughter to Florida last week. Not me. That's what I do. So is that good or bad? You know, it would really be nice if dad was here and really spent the family time. They say that, but they still had a great time. But they enjoyed your credit card. Well. That's the Bronson technique. You're the going. You're the going without you. Well, yeah. It was mainly Disney World. So it was like, yeah, go tell me how that is.

Just tell me. I'll believe you when you come on. Seems like. They'll tell you. Some foreign vacations, too, without you. Oh, yeah. There was France. I know. Sorry, John. You know. But I just. I don't have any desire either. I don't have any desire to go to Europe. I don't either. Not one. I don't want to leave the States. No. So I just. Yeah. I really don't want to leave the States. I sent my mom with my wife and daughters to that one. Such a good guy. Good memory, Jason. Such a good guy. Well, hey. They're making memories, right? But. Some of my memories people aren't so glad I remember. But. Whatever. Well, I guess. What? Should we talk about you? I just say my wife, she brings up a trip and I just convince her that'd be much better off as a girl's trip. Just like it. Oh, yeah. Wyatt. You girls, I'd head down there. That'd be fun. But Wyatt does a lot. I'd hate.

He does a lot of concerts and smiling and waving. I would hate to get in the way of your fun with the girls. Right? Exactly. Yeah. I feel like I'm a burden. Let her go do her thing. Now, you want to go, you know, on the last cruise for your birthday? I'm in. We did that. I'm going to be doing that, hopefully. But she picked that one, literally. I had no involvement. That's what her and her twin sister picked. No, and I think you were trying to sell some optics to some people looking at mountain goats. Oh, we did. Yeah. We were on the top deck freaking glassing goats. It was awesome. And help yours. Yeah. Well, and then that was another trip. Yeah. We were looking at stuff on land another time and phone scoping. Plug out to phone scope. If it didn't phone scope, it didn't happen. We were phone scoping goats and bears up there. We had tourists coming by. Just were blown away.

You know, because all they got to watch is your phone on the back. They don't even need to get down and look through your scope. Yeah. It's pretty awesome. Yeah. Could have made some sales there. Set up a kiosk. Out of the back of my U-Haul. Except for you got to talk to more people. Huh? I hate talking to people. Well, yeah, but if they want to give you money. Especially the foreigners that don't know how to speak English. They're like, oh, these are very nice, you know. Mr. Bronson would be very nice. Will they? I'm like, okay. Can I buy them? Yeah, you need $5,000 to buy this set up. And they'd be like, oh, that's all? Here. Maybe. These people make real money, Bronson. Some of them. But most people, if you don't have a Swarovski 95. Hunter Biden's kept them well. All right. Well, anyway. Go ahead. Well, we'll just finish. Plug out for phone scope. But it was awesome.

It was great, you know. And a good Christmas idea, too, coming up for somebody. If you're getting a new iPhone, somebody in your family, or a new whatever phone. I shouldn't just be. Hey, Wyatt loves the iPhone. It shouldn't just be Apple, you know, plugging. Because Apple doesn't pay any of our bills. Could be Android. Could be Android. But hey, get them a new phone scope. Check them out at phonescope.com. P-H-O-N-E-S-K-O-P-E. S-K-O-P-E.com. Phonescope.com. And they do have the iPhone 14 cases. I need a new phone. Yeah. I do, too. I'm sick of mine. Yeah. It's just time. Mine's a 10. Mine's a 10. Maybe we all go Android this time. Come on, Wyatt. Let's just start the new group message. Come on. We all go Android this time. It's not a bad idea. I'm not going to happen. You guys. I don't think the government in China can dive into Android as easy, right? Supposedly? Uh, no. It's way easier.

What of you? What deep, dark websites? Logan, tell me. It's way easier to get into an Android phone than it is an Apple phone. It is? Oh, 100%. Tell us a little bit. He knows everything. I got a new phone. Hey, Jason. What deep, dark places on the internet do you play? I need a new computer. And guess what? Guess what? Because of Logan, I got a gamer's computer, okay? I don't game. I don't game. But he's like, dude, the fan is beefy. I can understand that. I can picture the fan being beefy. It just keeps it cool and calm. What other good things about gaming computers? It's just made to be worked on. Like, the keyboards are so much more durable. And I've heard you type before, clopping away. So you need a durable keyboard. We're going to become Ed one morning. You have not heard me. He's going to be playing like Zelda or Warcraft. Come on. They got some really good games.

I think those are our age games. But there's new ones now. Something like that. They got some really cool hunting video games. Gamers would be jealous of my computer. And all I do is build a magazine off it. But anyway, when I sent the link to John, I did put two in the cart. He caught it and reduced it to one. So I didn't get a new laptop. There's no wonder these lights and remote controls. So anyway, Logan, tell us real quick about iPhone versus Android. I want to know this stuff. Real quick. How do you know it's way easier? What do you know? Apple has basically an unbreachable firewall in their system. Not even Apple people can get into your Apple phone without your password and stuff. Which is why cops and people struggle. Right. If you remember that big case a few years ago when they wanted information off of, somebody who committed a crime, their phone.

And Steve Jobs said if I gave you that information, I'd have to basically build a virus that could crack the Apple's firewall. And I'm not going to do that. Android is an open source system. So you can put whatever you want on an Android phone. Jason, I have a question for you. Where do you hang out in the dark hours at night? I hear this. Rumors of phones and tracing and hacking into phones. Where do you hang out? It happens. Well, no. You've talked about things you've heard about. Have you ever watched? I mean, have you ever looked at Newsmax on Instagram? No, I don't. Everything I see on Instagram is true. If you have an iPhone, then you get TikTok and have that. It doesn't matter anyways, right? Because you're just giving them. I know, but I'm saying if you did, it cancels it all out. You're letting everybody dance. Wyatt has TikTok. Have you seen some of his dancing videos?

I do not have a TikTok. Come on. What's your name on there? I have no TikTok and no desire to ever even look at a TikTok. I hate to break it to you. Epic Outdoors has quite the presence on TikTok, so you're all on TikTok. Thanks, Logan. You're welcome. So China can hack into Epic. Well, I don't know about that. It's on my phone, so I'm the only one that's toast. Steve Jobs saving us? Yeah. Okay. Whatever. I love it. Okay. Sounds good. Well, we got that out of the way. Okay. Let's dive into Colorado. Huh? Yeah. Everybody's over there. People were over there. People are now finishing up fourth season. Getting ready to start tomorrow. Today is Tuesday. Starts on Wednesday. Goes through Sunday. Been a cold year. Not just in cold. Man, it's been cold. We've had weather, but we've also just had cold, cold weather. And it kind of started off with a bang. It seemed like second season. Oh, yeah.

They had some good storms. Pretty decent bucks taken, considering. Not a ton. Yeah. Yeah, they did. They got off to a good start. It was the end of October, open to the general deer hunt. It was brutally cold and snowy. Remember here in Utah? Yes. Hit Colorado. And it really hasn't warmed up since. I mean, it's been cold. I'd say it was almost perfect mule deer hunting weather over there. I mean, it was just cold. Those deer were on their feet all day moving around. It was fun. Yeah, it was. I thought what was fun was we didn't have to leave the truck wide. If we didn't need to. No, we did not. John had a similar experience, too. He didn't have some rocks and said, Jason, if you could get on that rock and be my eye in the sky, it'd be great. Hey, one time I needed to go to town to buy an over-the-counter oak tag. Okay.

And I went and came back to my post, and Wyatt never knew I was gone. Really? Hey, I did spend the first day out in the cold, 90% of it, though. He did. I watched him. I glassed him. Yeah. I'll glass him. Oh, I came into town, and Wyatt told me where to go, and I glassed him out there on his perch. Yeah. Good. Jason, he texted me. He says, as soon as I put this last chair away, I'm going to start driving from the wedding reception. Oh, yeah. You married him. That happened. That's right. Yeah, my kid got married, and then I- The night before. Yeah, that's right. The night before it started, and then I took off in the morning. That's dedication right there. And I rolled into town, and Wyatt had seen a great buck. Yeah, we'd already turned up a good deer. I guess we can go into kind of the story. Go ahead. Had turned up a pretty good deer. Had some cool extras right there.

Rutting doe was pretty hard. Figured he wouldn't go anywhere. So little did we know it was going to be the biggest buck that Gunnison had ever seen. I don't know that it was that big. For the year, it felt- He was a local legend, huh? Such a tough hunt in regards to the amount of trophy bucks available. Yeah. That it turned out it was a significant deer, right? Yeah. We saw a lot of average quality type deer, probably. But that next level type stuff was pretty hard to turn up. So anyways, we- We saw a good number of 150, 160 bucks. Like, there was a couple of bucks I was like, that's a nice buck. Yeah. You know? Just not the next level. Yeah, just not that kind of next level that we kind of hoped for. So, but anyways, on that deer, we turned him up the night before the hunt. He was chasing does.

Figured, hey, he'll be right there in the morning if we want to go back and look at him or go back and kill him. So we go back the next morning and that deer is nowhere to be found. Right. I spend all morning just glassing, staring into that country, tearing it apart. Typical migration, walk and look for does. We start walking through that country, trying to figure it out, get to high points, glassing. And actually, kind of a cool story is that morning, two four points came in and kind of took over his does. So, you know- You figured he's either off with one doe or maybe he left the whole country. Yeah, maybe he's gone and these two four points move in, take over the does. And anyways, towards, you know, later in the day, I'd kind of worked my way up to a very high elevation point and was glassing down into that valley and glass up another group of hunters or two hunters,

putting a stalk on one of those four points. And I was across the way. I didn't get to see the- I didn't have them right under me like you did. Yeah. I was probably, what, two miles away? Yeah, you were a ways away looking all the way back across. Yeah. And then seeing other hunters, there were stacks of hunters, actually, layers. Yeah. There was no shortage of hunters in the area. But anyways, those two hunters got on that four point and got in there and they got it killed. And before they made the final crest of the ridge, they dropped their backpacks, a bunch of gear there. So they shoot the buck, do a little celebration, and they go back to get their backpacks. And as they're going back to get their backpacks, another buck gets up about 100 yards away. Bigger buck.

Yeah, a nicer four point gets up and walks over to the buck they had just killed and just starts beating the crap out of them. Raking him. Yeah, just going to town, just fighting him like he's alive, but he's laying there dead. And I think the buck probably thought he killed the buck. Yeah. Yeah. He's bedded and I just killed him. Yeah, he gets up. Mule deer is stupid. He just starts attacking this deer. And anyways, those guys, they come back over the top of the ridge and that deer is standing there over the top of their deer. And you're thinking they're going to pound this deer. Yeah, this could be a disaster. Like, I'm going to turn somebody in. Hopefully they realize that's a different deer. And sure enough, they did realize that's a different deer and they just keep walking down to their down deer.

And they get all the way to their down deer and they are standing 10 feet from this deer. And it is still standing over their dead deer, just postured up. I can see them at that point take their cell phones out. There's somebody out there with some pretty cool footage of this. Yeah. Because they take their cell phones out and they're filming this other deer standing over their dead deer. Jeez. And eventually, you know, probably, you know, 15 minutes of them just kind of filming the deer face off kind of deal. Throwing rocks maybe. Yeah, the deer. Probably whitetail hunters saying, see, George, I told you these mule deer are stupid. Whitetail are amazing. These mule deer are stupid. These guys that kill big deer are just, they think they really got something. Look at this. Probably exactly what went down there. But anyway, so they finally push that deer off, but he doesn't leave.

He goes like 20 yards and just starts trashing bushes. So these guys are taking kill photos of their deer. And we got some phone scope footage of this. They're taking kill photos of their deer. And this other deer is just standing there, just trashing. Raking brush. Photobombing. Yeah. Photobombing. It's crazy. Trashing bushes all the way around. It's a pretty awesome video. Yeah, it was a pretty wild deal. And then. It finished. They finished the whole butcher process and he still hung around right there. Yeah. So I had to actually go back by him to get out of there. So I'd walked off the high point, got back in the truck, went back by him. And if you look at our two different videos, it's like two and a half hour difference. They're still quartering up that buck. And then the live deer still just standing there walking around them. He's probably like, come at me.

I wonder if after they left, they went up to the pile of carcass and still started goering that thing. It made you wonder. Yeah. I wonder what went down there. I mean, I went. I did look there the next day and there was no. No carcass. No buck. He was no there. No longer there. Yeah. He wasn't standing over there. Similar to the non-typical. He moved on. The next day. Yeah. That non-typical, he ended up getting killed, we figured, seven miles away by the crow fries. You know how we tease Wyatt about knowing everything? How does Wyatt end up with the kill photo of the buck we watched in a place we've never really been? Knew somebody over there in Gunnison and they ended up firing me a photo. How did that happen? Wyatt hears that. I just got sent the photo. Of the buck you were looking for. It just somehow happened. Some kid holding it? Not to me, man. Yeah, sure.

So you found out that deer was dead and then had to move on? Yeah, then moved on. And as luck would have it, we were actually driving up to try another area and a buck basically walked across the road in front of us just in an area we could not hunt. That was you and Sperry. Yeah, me and Sperry. I'm off looking at over-the-counter bulls. Yeah, scrolled across the road in front of us in an area we couldn't hunt. Actually walked by us at like seven yards, wasn't it? Geez. Well, the picture I got, I could tell, was not phone scope. Yeah, that was straight out. Straight camera. Straight iPhone, Wyatt. Not a bad picture. Yeah, straight out the truck window. There was some heat waves from the heater inside the truck. And the heater didn't get turned off. I mean, the heater was on the whole entire hunt. So, I mean, it was cranked.

But, yeah, we decided if we got a chance at that buck, we would hunt him. And with the migration and everything headed kind of south, we figured he might work that way. He just looks at you. That sucker just looks at you, you know. Yeah, he had a really, really impressive head on. Big old long G2. Tall, boxy. Tall, boxy buck. And like I said, we figured with the migration, he'd work his way through eventually. So, we sat up on top of the ridge all that day and had another buck, another nice four-point come out. But never had him come out. I was running. Wyatt's sitting up on post. And I'm running around the base in case he did move. Yeah, there was only one other way. I figured he could have got bias. And Jason kind of had that covered. So, we just kept working it and working it. And then it got dark. So, the next morning, we decided to give it one more shot.

Just kind of a real quick morning look and see what was going to take place. And rolled out on the point and started glassing. And then Jason rolled out on another point kind of a little bit to the south of us there and started glassing into a different canyon. There was nothing. Really. I mean, there was some does without a buck like it appeared anyway. Pretty slow morning. But I'd been sitting there about 45 minutes, maybe an hour. And I glassed up a buck bringing some does up over the top of the ridge. Smaller buck. The same four-point from the day before. Brought them up over the ridge. And as he brought the does up over the ridge, he just locked up the brakes. The does continued on and he just locked up the brakes. I'm like, oh, that's kind of weird. He's not going to follow his does down into this draw. Does come down into the draw and they're just feeding around working.

And I've got to the point to where I'm glassing everything else. I'm glassing the neighboring unit. I'm glassing the quakeys behind me. I'm about done with it for the morning. Just ready to about move on. And just look back at the does. And here comes the buck from yesterday just bringing the does up the ridge to me. I was able to slip down a couple, I don't know, 50, 60 yards down off the edge and get a good rest and kill him. In front of some other hunters. Yeah. In front of some other hunters. Meaning in front of them. If they looked over, they'd have seen you prone, laid out. But they didn't even know the deer was there. Yeah. They'd worked out on another knob there. But they ended up, if luck would have it, they were glassing the other direction. They probably would have saw the buck before me. That's just Colorado. You're on top of each other. Better angle.

And how, I mean, so many deer. It's just crazy. So, ended up taking a 270 yard shot and killing the buck right there. So, Jason kind of moved on and went and looked at some other bucks and had to call him to come back over there. Wyatt called me and goes, I killed him. I smoked him. I smoked him. I'm like, what? Nice. What? I loved those calls. It was. It was still in the heat of the moment. I had to run back to the truck. I'd left my cell phone in the truck. So, I had to. So, I've never seen Wyatt without a four. 50 yards uphill. Yeah. I had to run 50 yards uphill. I saw a nice buck. I was actually, what was I? Probably, let's call it three quarters of a mile aerial from you. By this point, I'm like, hey, you stay here. I'm going to go look for deer. I mean, somebody's got to go look for deer because who knows where this buck is. And seen a couple of nice bucks.

Anyway, and then Wyatt calls and I'm like, no kidding. He's like, yeah. Get up there. That was your new rifle too, right? Yeah, new rifle. We'd actually, we took an office vacation or field trip, I guess. Well, it was off, right? Yeah, and I was shooting high just before. So, I was going to take my other rifle. And he's like, I'm going to take my other rifle. I said, Wyatt, get in the truck. Like, let's go truth this thing. Those were freshly painted targets as well. Because I painted them that morning. Yeah, but you didn't paint them after you got done. So, we painted them when we got there. Only shot like five times. So, we made a quick trip out there to paint the targets and shot. And it actually shot really well. So, we adjusted it and took it out there. Changed the zero. And it was sick. Yeah. I mean, it went low. He shot 840. It was sick. When you get that.

Man, it's fun to go take the gun field. It's like, bring it on. Yeah. That's exactly it. And then I had to dial all of .75 MOA to kill that buck. Yeah, so, like, that's one thing about the new age hunting. He's 270 yards. Kill it. Yeah. Just kill it. But we don't think that. We're like, oh, it's 223 yards. I better dial. Two clicks. I got a click here. I'm going to give it a quarter MOA of windage. I guarantee you people have lost animals trying to figure out what to dial at 223 yards. When it's sighted in zeroed out at 200. It's kind of like when you're bow hunting and a deer feeds out at 22 yards. It's in your mind. I can arrange find that. It's in your mind. I think it's good. It's intuitive. But it's just, it costs you time. Just kill it. It's 223 yards. 270 yards. Kill it. I mean, but anyway, good stuff. That's awesome, Matt. Tough year overall in other neighboring units.

I spent money on an over-the-counter elk tag. Well, why? Well, I saw. I mean, decent bull. Good enough bull to go buy a tag. I don't know what that means. I saw a giant, Bronson. Whoa. The G word got dropped. I did see a giant. I told you. I know. I just didn't know you were going to tell the whole world right now. Well, I don't care. I don't care. It's over-the-counter. You're going to go beat 100 and 200 people on the same hillside. What do you mean? That's conservative. That's probably 400 or 500. So I go to Walmart. I go to Walmart.

Don't ever go to Walmart to get your tag. But I go to Walmart, and I'm like, hey, I'm going to get a tag because I could have killed this bull. So, and they don't, their printer doesn't work. This guy doesn't know how to check me out. 14 layers, you know, he's not even a hunter, which is fine. But the system, I'm like, this system, I'm like, anyways, you've got a tag in your account, but we can't print it, so you've got to wait for tomorrow. This was. Evening? Yeah, this was when the game and fish wasn't even open. Yeah, I was going to say, it's either Friday or Saturday. It'd have to be. Sunday. Saturday or Sunday, one of them. And they're not even open. Like, everything's locked down, and he's like, you're going to have to wait until tomorrow. I'm like, the bull's walking right now. What do you mean? You know, I'm going to. Anyway, and it was the most frustrating situation ever.

Didn't even buy it, right? He says, it's in your account, but I can't do anything with it. You've got to see Game and Fish. I'm like, you put up. You were going to ring me up a quantity of one, you know, like ring me up. Did you think to go to another agent in town? Oh, I did. Oh, okay. He says, go down to these other people. They know what they're doing. I'm like, okay. She goes, can't even see it. Like, I can't even see. Okay, start over and just tell me. No, can't do that because you have one. What do you mean? It said you had one in your cart? You've got one. You've got one. She goes, you've already hunted oak. I'm like, no, I haven't. She's like, I said, he says it's in there. He just couldn't print it and couldn't charge me for it and couldn't. Consummate the deal. And he said, you could fix it. And she's like, I can't fix it. She's like, I've heard this story before.

Which, luckily, we smashed your buck, right? I think it was that next morning, which is great. It's a plan anyway. But then you ran down. But I'm like, yeah. So then I go into Game and Fish. And she goes, yeah. Oh, yeah. It just says here. Didn't print. I'll just print it out for you. No problem. She hands you the tag. She would have. Well, she basically did. I said, does it say that I paid for it? She goes, well, yeah. I'm like, yeah, I didn't. So she was going to hand you the tag. You could have walked out. But of course, you didn't do that because it's wrong. Because I'm a good guy. It's wrong. And it's not going to be good karma. But having said that, that was a mistake. I shouldn't even have printed. I should have just drove home or helped John. Because have you ever went back and tried to find an over-the-counter bull that was on the run from somebody else chasing it?

Somebody else or a lot of somebody else's. You've got to try. I don't think they ever saw him. I don't think anybody ever saw him. But it was long-distance glassing. And most people are just kind of posted up, you know. Which we, sometimes you post up. Like, Wyatt posted up. His buck never left this grove of trees. Like, sometimes you do that. But anyway, you're one of the few guys glassing. And anyway, this bull is a giant freaking whale tail. Giant whale tail. Shoot him anywhere. Huge fours. Bill, not broken. Like, shoot him anywhere. Any tag. I was just, I was shocked. And then I've seen some over-the-counter bulls. Somewhat impressive, really. But I know. What are you saying? Are you saying something about what you're going to do next year in Colorado? No. I almost thought you were going down that road. It's always an option. But I want to see that. Just get a five-one in August.

Hey, somebody paid $700. And I'm just saying it was a waste. I just, I learned another lesson. It's one of those knee-jerk things. If you have a tag, kill it. If you don't have a tag, don't go get a tag. Thinking you're going to go back and kill it. Because it's not going to happen. It's like, what did you do? I donated to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Probably Parks is where the money went. Yeah. You're probably, that $700. Probably went to the parks. That $700. Probably went to wolf. Went to buy radio color for wolves. For the wolves. We went to the wolf for the introduction. And it's just frustrating to me. So, anyway. Oh, it just is what it is. It was fun. And I think, yeah. I think if you're deer hunting in Colorado and you're in an over-the-counter hunt. You better have it to begin with. You should. And it was. And I know it was just an unusual year. There was the snow.

We talked about earlier, Bronson. And, Wyatt, you saw it. And how the weather conditions were perfect. And it did. I talked to elk hunters. They're like, oh, normally we're up in the thick trees. You know, everybody's making elk drives. You know what I mean? Way high. And they were down low. A lot of them were down low. And people were seeing good elk numbers. And, you know, there was some years that are just really tough elk years. And people are whining. And then there's some years it's stars aligning. Things are good. Let's talk to John about his. Yeah. John. I had probably a similar experience as far as deer numbers. I've never seen so many deer. Just every draw you think, oh, maybe there's one group of does and there's three. You know, just tons and tons. But lots of average bucks. And, you know, just nothing on that next level. I did end up shooting a deer that was a good deer.

Had a three and a half inch kicker on one side. Cheaters get you killed. Yeah. I thought. Was he looking away when you first saw him? Well, I had to maneuver around some private and stuff. And the closest I could get was 600 yards. And then I'm like, I'll just look at him in my scope. John. Okay. That is awesome. He says, I'm just going to look at him in my scope. And I'm like, that's the big. That's the kiss of death. Cardinal sand. I mean, I was down on. Had him range. John. Looked at him in scope. Was the wind 25 or 27 miles an hour? One of those two. It was. Yeah. The wind was going like mad. Crosswind. Crosswind too. Yeah. And colder than cold. So, anyway. Well, once you did that, if he did any kind of a lip curl action or nose, in the air, I can tell you, the powder was about to burn right there. It warmed the barrel in negative 10 degree. It did. And so, yeah. Anyway.

So, I killed him. But it was a good buck. And I stayed another. Are you really going to blow by the kill? I was going to say, I don't know the story. Yeah. I've never heard the kill story. There was a pile of warm brass that found dirt through a foot of snow. Did it melt? It melted a mile. That should have happened before. It's true. The wind was going like crazy. And I actually, I missed the first shot. And then I'm like, okay, I got to adjust. I aimed off the deer, you know, sideways. In front of his neck or his butt, whichever way. Yeah, to compensate for the wind. And I hit him on the second shot. And then it was just, he was not going anywhere. I would give money for the video. I would give money for this. Is there video? There's no video. Oh, there is. That was it. John will take it to his brain. Shut the cameras off. John will take it to his brain. But no, then, yeah. Yeah.

So, anyway. At the end of the day. At the end of the day. There were multiple holes in them. Oh, well. So, anyway. But it ended up being good. Yeah. So, some guys came up. And the first thing they said is, did you get him? They came over to you? No. I had to drive way around the, kind of the ravine to get closer to him to go get him. And, anyway. I parked next to another truck. And, anyway. After. They were looking for that buck. Yeah. Yeah. They were looking. They were like, oh, it's the one with the kicker on it. And I was like, yeah, that was it. Stickers is dead. Stickers is dead. So, anyway. You know, John. Did you at least give him a tenderloin? No, I didn't give him a tenderloin. I had to give him a front shoulder. Give him some front. I did. They asked if they could see the buck. And I let him see it. So, I thought that was pretty good. Good.

Where did the rounds end up hitting the deer? Five by four? Yeah. We're not going to talk. I mean, he was dead, right? Yeah. He was dead. So, I hit him in the spine. The first shot. The first shot. And he wasn't going anywhere. But he was half up. Yeah. So, then I just let it fly. The last time you hit a deer in the spine in Colorado, he walked away. Yeah. He walked away. So, I just, like, keep shooting until I can see him laying there. Crease the spine. It did. It did not hurt. Versus rupture. It didn't hurt him, but it kind of knocked him down. And we're like, oh, good shot. Oh, he's dead. You killed him. Done. Yeah. We went over there, and there was just little drops of blood. Yeah. He may or may not have had a hole or two in his head. So, yeah. Who? Which one? This last one. Oh, I was talking about the buck over an 18. Yeah. I just kept shooting until it was just. Jeez, John.

I wasn't even making you go down that road. I was talking about another buck. Yeah. I hit him four times. What number are we at? Kind of like those state farm commercials when they reveal too much information. He blew his brains out? That is deadly. Yeah. That's a clean kill. Anyway. Yeah, he didn't move. He was done. It is a kill shot. Robinson? Cool buck. Awesome. Three-inch cheater? Yeah. Three and a half. It was good. It was good. Three and a half. Yeah. Cool buck. Five before with eye guards. Yeah, with eye guards. Good eye guards. But, yeah. And then, same thing. I scouted for the next two days. For fun. He was about the best buck. You know, there's maybe one or two that were in the same kind of ballpark. All I know is there's so many bucks and there's so many deer for how many tags they give. Yeah.

Like, how, if they have good warm weather conditions throughout the winter, how could it not get better? Yeah. And, Bronson, that's what you saw in the same unit John was in when you were there. Yeah. But, it feels like it hasn't. It hasn't got better. I know, but how? Like, a lot of these units, Phil's like, oh, next two years is going to be good if we just have mild winters. Feels like we've been saying that for four or five years. And, the winters have been nothing but mild. That last morning, I think I counted like 43 bucks. Not counting, like, the spikes and the little two points. And, that's until noon. We said morning. Yeah, until noon. Yeah. That didn't happen to me on a second season. Or, you know, when I went over with my son. It was tougher. Yeah. It was tough. We'd say 10 to 14, maybe. Yeah.

But, I think, you know, if you're burning, let's say you have to burn 12 or 13 points and you go to this unit that's supposed to be Shangri-La. It's still, it's not like there's a big buck around. You're expecting 180 bucks out of a truck. Yeah. Because, unfortunately, a lot of people expect. And, whether it be out of a truck or multiple bucks to pass and finally you shoot and 180 buck on the last one because the last day, that doesn't happen. But, John, I don't know if you saw 180, did you? No. And, I think that's the point of all of this. Devin, I mean, did you see a 180? No. And, I think, and when I was there, it was just like, man, this is a really tough year. The end results, in some cases, were good. But, it's just, even Wyatt and I, like, it was a tough year where we were at. And, a lot of good hunters, people, know what they're doing. And, I think that's another problem.

You've got guys that are not killing early. They are waiting to the end. They are knowing what they're looking for. You know what I mean? Yeah, well, a pile of points, especially in third seasons, most units take a lot more than seconds. So, they want to hunt to the bitter end, try to get what they feel is worth out of what they spent in points. Yeah. You know, that's how most people do it. Johnson, or Devin, which one of you guys is next? Devin kind of just went. Yeah. I told my story. He just said no. A minute ago. Well, okay. Now, that's why. Keep going down the list, and I'll keep answering. Hold on. To be a good host, we've got to bring out the truth. But, I did talk. Yeah, you had a. There was some new tires bought. Well, that was. And then a tire got. And then you went through a tire, right? Oh, yeah. I bought two new tires. They maybe had 50 miles on them.

Oh, for the pump pioneer. Yeah, it's dead in my backyard again. Did you run over a stick? I didn't hear how. I have no idea. It had to bend a rock. And I didn't run. I don't run a lot of air in them. You don't want to. Right. So, I'm just like, how does this. Got the sidewalls. They probably. Cold. Spongy sidewalls hanging out. This was right in the center. Oh, it was. Right between the tread. Brand new tread that deep. I have no idea. I'm going up this hill. It's a perfect morning. And I'm like, my steering wheel's going this way. And it was weird. I'm like, something ain't right. I jump out and it's just. Oh. Put air in it. And I could hear it just. Can't even air it up. You're in one of my favorite units. And just. It just. And it wasn't a big buck killed in the unit that we know of. Like, it was just a tough year. Right? Saw plenty of bucks. You guys talk about nice bucks.

Like, when I saw a nice buck, it had a three on one side. I mean, I don't know, Devin. Why are you so picky? No, I'm not. I'm just telling you what happened. Bronson. One day, didn't you tell me one morning that I called you when I came home. Or you called me. I called you. Oh, yeah. That was an afternoon. I think it was just a. I don't know why. That was a nice three-pointer. I got from these guys and I said, hey, Devin just needed a friend. I just needed someone. I've been alone for four days. Devin got a pep talk from Josh. He got a pep talk from me. He got a pep talk from you. Did he? Oh. Oh, okay. All right. Oh, it was my turn. You guys kept me going, man. That's what friends do. Well, I mean, I would see like. He's watching cops. I'm giving him a pep talk. But that day, didn't you tell me you saw like 300 deer? It was a lot. Yeah.

That day, and that was considering, you know, I was on BLM, a lot of does, and then I went by some private, and I counted those. That's how many. I mean, the best buck I saw was a three-by-four. 21 inches. 20-incher. He was like three years old. He was one of the older deer I'd seen, maybe. Yeah. Deer that you wouldn't even think about. You didn't go to Colorado for that. No. Yeah. And if you told me, you know, and Bronson and Ty were there earlier, you're on second, and they didn't see a big shooter buck. And normally, if you would tell me, you know, hey, we didn't even see a respectable deer, I'd be like, what were you doing? You know. I mean, it's just those kind of years. Some years you can't make it happen. And there was some areas, and we're hunting hard, and I had my dad and brothers. My brothers were looking for the first couple days, and same thing.

They're just like, oh, we just saw bucks. We wouldn't even. I was just going to film them. They're like, you're not going to want to see it. You know. But I'm talking hiking, mile or two into somewhere. There's no roads. Getting into does, getting picked up, and just two-point rutting like crazy. Wow. Yeah. You even felt like two points were breeding, right? I saw a fawn. A what? I saw a button buck. He had one button that was actually like antler. The other one was fur. There was no antler. But he was puffered up. He was. I swear, I've never seen anything like it. He was stalking his mouth. Do you think it was a yearling or a fawn? 100% a fawn. Like, well, he had a horn. He had a little piece of antler like that. Like a button buck? I think he was a year and a half. You think he was a six-month-old? He was an early-born buck. If Dad's not here to do it, I'm going to man up.

I should have filmed it. I don't think that's possible. Oh, I don't know. I'm telling you, dude. He was big, like for a fawn. Well, he's probably just, you know how they puff up their eyes. He was. He was just. I mean, I don't know. He's going to take care of business. I should have filmed it. It was rough. And hunts like that, like I kind of had two in a row. But one time, one day, I found a big one. And that's all it takes. So you just keep going. But it hurts your confidence, man. I mean, you're out there. And I'm happy for all you guys. But I'm talking to you. And you're like, yeah, we saw this buck and this buck. And I'm like, I saw a three-point, you know? David, think about my confidence. If you want to make yourself feel better, it's been a long old go. All right. Bronson. Well, I knew. I knew. Because I had a couple real quick, hard-hitting, good days.

And, of course, we have a text log and we shared some pictures. I knew they were going to be received mixed. I mean. What do you mean? Like salt in the wound? Kind of. I mean, what are you going to do? Hey, guys. I'm having a good hunt. I'm not going to hold out on you for three days. I wish this one had a little longer. We're a G1. But, anyway. It was my turn today, I guess. This year. It was good. So, yeah. Well, yeah. I'm hunting for one day and Adam, you know, shows us two giant bucks dead. And then Wyatt sends a big buck. And then I'm driving home. And I stayed for three days after that because Aaron decided, well, I'll come down there if it's going to be that good. And I said, well, you better get here. We don't have anything to do. Because. Yes. But three days later, he's like, all right. I'm going home. So, we came home. And I'm just jealous you all got tags. Yeah. Man.

So, I do think we could talk about, like, when we're there, we're just hearing a lot of feedback from people. Well, John, I got a guy emailing me. And then he meets me. We go to the motel. And he comes out and meets me. Notes under the windshield. We got a note for Wyatt. He wanted to talk to Wyatt. Me and you. You know, just. And guys are. I mean, the guys that are struggling, whatever. You know, not finding the kind of bucks they're wanting to find in other units, neighboring units to us. They expect you to have the answer. Well, I mean, they don't expect it. They just want to hear something positive. Like, if you've got a place I could check or whatever. Pep talk. Pep talk. Yeah. And it's hard to pep talk. Guys, they're going to the exact places I would go to. Like, I don't know what else to say. It was just a really hard year.

Last year, the same unit, you know, there was a dozen that were 195 to two, whatever, taken in all the seasons combined. Not just one season. But, I mean, all the seasons combined in one particular unit, and this year I can't think of one. And it was just that kind of year, it seemed like, in a lot of places. So, Bronson, keep on going. Well, yeah. So, this year, you know, find a landowner tag. I burned my points a couple years ago, so, I mean, I had to get a landowner tag. But it's hard to find multiples in one unit so you can hunt together. It's very hard in most units in Colorado. So, I found one and then, you know, decided, well, if we can find something either in that unit or a neighboring unit, at least me, Dad, my brother can hunt together. So, that was kind of our plan, and that's how it worked out. So, I had two tags in their unit and one where I had mine.

And Aaron wasn't going to come down for a couple of days. Just, you know, let the rep build. And one of the units is, you know, more lightly hunted, and the other one is crushed, you know, with a lot of tags. So, the one with a lot of tags, generally, Aaron hunted it last year and just hunted, like, the last four or five days because that's the deeper into the rep. Let something stupid happen, maybe, as a rep build. Well, so, we lined out my dad with points and all that, and this is where to go to sit. And he got down there. I got down a couple days early to start looking over my unit. And I actually threw, you know, some cameras around and, you know, didn't really bear anything out because it was, you know, water was not an issue this year. And that's really the only thing you might do.

But in prior years, you can hit some of that lower wind range country and some transition country, and they're hitting water. But anyway, long story short, dad didn't see any deer that day before, and I'd seen a couple of really nice deer, but nothing I was going to shoot. And so, here comes opening day. He's going to go back to the area, and, you know, he's pretty patient. He can sit, you know, he can sit a long time. I mean, literally all day. Well, I get a text about 4.30 that afternoon on opening day. Hey, I got one. I need some help. And, you know, 4.30 is prime time because it's dark in about 45 minutes or an hour with the daylight savings. And, you know, we're in reach. I barely have cell service. We're not coming back. So I'm getting some in reach and some texts and trying to, you know, well, is he dead? Well, and he said what you did. He went right down. He spined.

I can't see him right now, but I know he's not getting away. And I said, okay, you know, I'm going to stick it out here then. You know, it's not like, you know, he had to drive around to get off some country to get down and get a truck closer to the deer. So I said, well, I'll just meet you down there. So anyway, in that back and forth time, I glassed up a really, really good deer. And so if I would have just taken off right then, in less than 45 minutes, I wouldn't have glassed the deer that I ended up killing the next day. That was kind of interesting. You're saying it was heaven sent? No, I'm just saying. Or good luck. Milk the last 45 minutes of life. I mean, it's prime time. I mean, I'd been there for two hours. It was awesome. And I'd seen. It turned out perfect because he ends up. Yeah. And you end up both being successful. Yeah. So go ahead.

He ended up, you know, once I knew that he really didn't need help, he just needed help when going to get the deer. You know, it's not like he's trying to track one before dark. I couldn't have got there before dark anyway. But it's hard with the delay on in reach. It's just hard. I couldn't have got there before dark. It was an hour drive or more for me to get to where he was. So once I understood all that, I just said, hey, just wait. I'll meet you at this point after dark. I'd seen three or four doors coming out of some trees and looked over there. There's this big framey long time deer just rutting it. And I'm like. That's what I've come to Colorado for. Yeah. And I'm, you know, I'm 1,500 plus yards. There's nothing I can do that night other than I'm watching him till dark. And he feeds up an over ridge into kind of some live trees.

And I'm like, all right, well, at least I have a deer to hunt. That's all. I have a deer to hunt. I got six more days. So we get off the mountain. And, you know, my dad, he's not hunted Colorado for quite a while. And, you know, he's used to hunt with a bow more than anything. Yeah. He had some shoulder problems and all that. So he's kind of reverting to the gun more. And I didn't even know what he'd shot. So I get down to him. We meet him. So we're driving up into this road up to where his buck's at. He's not even been to it yet because he had to drive off the backside to meet me. And then we're going to drive up to him. And I'm like, well, that's a good buck for me. You know, it's not nothing you guys would be that excited about. It's a good buck for me. We pull up there and get out. And I'm like, what? I says, what do you mean? I'd shoot. I'd have shot this thing anywhere.

This morning at freaking five minutes after daylight. It's a 30 and a quarter inch, six by five. Well, Adam, back when I was a kid, we had these kind of bucks everywhere. Partially that. I mean, good grief. Partially that. But I mean, he hasn't shot one of those for a long time. But in his defense, he saw it and he's really excited. Because it's a big, heavy buck. It broke an eye guard off. But it's a great buck. Heavy and old. And anyway, we take care of it all. Take some pictures and get it off the mountain. As we're doing that, I said, well, I found a really good deer right after I got your text within 15, 20 minutes. So, yeah. I need you in the morning. But I want you to talk about his shooting system. Well, so it turns out. Hey, that's what a good host does. He brings out all the good details. Well, part of it turns out he knows I'm doing my thing and he's on another unit.

And he's, I guess, just thinking respectable. He saw that deer at like 11, 10, 30, 11 in the morning. And never even in-reached me to text me. I would have been over there that night to make sure we killed it. He videoed it all. The buck. Just frolicking with those. 600, 500. 500 or 600. Too far for him to shoot. But a real angle. Too far for him to shoot. Dude, he's got a reticle system. He's not got a dial to it. So he's got. And he's ground true to it. But he's ground true. Like, you know how we're using the electronics? And it works. He's taking it out. You know, it comes with a pre, you know, a pre, you know, tick marks down there. It's a Vortex scope. Kind of like a. 300, 400, 500, 600. But every gun doesn't match that. Like the, like some of those scopes come with, like, if you put this on a .223 or whatever, this is where they come in at roughly. Yeah. Depending on the ammo.

But it's a big game rifle. So you've got a ground treat your gun. Because this crosshair that says roughly 400 might be 425, might be 450, might be 375, depending on caliber and all that. But he's done all that. And a cheat sheet. So he knew. And he has it taped to his tight and it's good. But a non-angle range finding, right? Non-angle range finder. Just a straight up range finder. So just awesome because he's old school, but he knows what he's got. Like, you're not changing that system. And he crushed it twice, right? Right in the spine. Right. Hit it high both times. Just hammered it. Oh, both. Just, I mean, dropped like a ton of crap and then hit it again. And then it just thrashed out of sight. And he says, I can see parts of it. But I think it's dead there, you know. But it's not getting up. I'm telling you. I know where I hit it. But yeah, it didn't tell me all day long.

And I guess very well, if he would have, I would have been over there that night to either help him get set up or maybe even use my gun or something like that. Because if I knew that deer was there, I would have been over there that night to make sure he killed that deer. But hey, didn't need it. So that evening it feeds out at about 3.30 and just gets closer and closer and closer and closer. It's like 460 yards and he smokes it. That's awesome. Anyway, it was pretty fun. But that's patience, you know. Oh, yeah. The rest of us are thinking this deer is going to move on. I only have right now to kill it. He had a few does. But anyway, and he'd been there the whole day before and not seen that group of does or buck or anything in the same exact spot. So it was a really fun night. Get him back kind of on the board, so to speak. So, yeah, fast forward to the next morning.

We get up there and drive into my unit. And it's getting light. And I can see does exactly where I left that buck. And I'm like, okay, there's three or four does. And I can see as it's getting light. You know what's 1,500 yards? I can see straight neck bucks pushing them. But I can't. I'm not even going to put my spotting scope on. There's rutting happening. Yeah. With my 12s, I can see that. But I know I'm going to see less light with my scope. So I'm just letting it get light. But I'm like, he's right there. It's like, oh, my God. And then it gets light. And he's not there. It's like three or four does. And a couple dink fours. And, you know, 20, 22-inch fours. And a couple dink bucks. And they're just ringing around the rosies. And they're all doing their thing. Rake and brush. Like, you know, Wyatt's talking about. And I'm like, where is this thing out?

And pretty soon, I'm realizing, like you said, why is the other? But this deer, he either has one doe somewhere. Or he's left this group. And moved on. And moved to something else. And what direction is that? You know, so. But I'm going to sit there all day long. Because it's the last place I saw him. You know, 12 or whatever hours ago. 15, whatever it's been. So. But, you know, now we got two of us there. And, like, you can stare at that area. And you're not going to miss it. You know. So we're looking everywhere else. And I'd seen some other deer in the area. I'd been there. Well, the night before, of course, I'd seen some other deer. And there's a mature buck with another group of six or eight and seven does, whatever. And probably an hour, hour and a half after light. You know, I looked over there for probably a third or fourth time. I finally saw some deer over there.

Oh, that's them. I wonder. I wonder if that's them. And when I glassed out, I see a buck from the side working through this burn. And I'm like, that looks like a big buck. Pretty big tangs over there. But, you know, you guys have all done this. When you're looking for a buck, you're wanting it to be something different than the buck was there the night for. But when you put your scope on, you're like, yeah, that's the buck from last night. And you just got excited. How many times? Yeah. But I put my scope on and about crap. Because this is about 1,500 yards away. And not only is it the buck I'm looking for, but it's as big as I thought it was. Now the sun's on it. You know, it's not getting dark. He's big. He's rutting. And I get my dad on. I said, you're going to want to get this in your scope fast.

Because I says he's way more killable in the location where he's at today than where he was last night. And he's got eight or nine does that are new to him. Because he was up here last night. So sometime in the night. So, you know, usually if they do that, they hang around for a better part of half a day or a day or two. Who knows? Sometime before they just keep bouncing around. Well, anyway. Watched him and go out of sight and do a back draw. And we can't see him. But luckily I have my dad, you know, to stay there and watch. So I gathered my stuff. Went down. Had to go past my truck. So I got rid of. I left my spot in scope. I left some stuff like that. Then I'm like, well, I don't need this. You know, where I'm going, I'm going to be within a thousand yards. And I can, you know, all I need is my twelves. I'm going in to kill. I left some little bit of other stuff.

So I looped way over and got up on top. And as I'm climbing up, you know, it probably took me an hour to get over on this ridge and look down. Now they're trotting out into this burn. You know, I just thought I'd have to spend all day there. They're, you know, looking needle in a haystack trying to find him. And, no, he got him up rutting again. And Erdo was leading him out into this big burn. And the burn's giant. It's not like it's some postage stamp. It's like giant gargantuan, you know. So, but anyway, I got out there and kept getting further and further away. And it was like you, but I had a headwind. I had a headwind right into my face. It's not going to affect your bullet. I didn't think, I don't think so. I'm sure somebody can tell me the exact what you do for that. But anyway. But he's getting further and further and further away. And so he's actually getting closer to my dad.

Or equal distance. And so I'm starting to think, geez, do I climb off of here and get clear back over there where he's at? Is that what's going to happen here? But by then, then they all ended up bedding down. And when they stood up, they actually started. This is just cold like we've all been talking. It's a nice thing about being cold. When it's warm, those deer are laying down for four to five hours. When it's warm, I mean. When it's cold, man, they're on their feet. They're, you know, they're just restless a little bit. I don't body temperature or want to get it going or fill the sun or just the rut. Or there's green sheet grass. You know, there's just, it's, you know, a lot going on. Anyway, long story short, they closed the distance back to under 600, 550 yards. Laid down again. And I'm like, all right, I'm in a position now. When they did that, it's just thicker.

I could not get a shot. And the buck went down quick. We bedded quick. So anyway, I only stayed to sit there for another probably 45 minutes or an hour. He had them up again or up and again and arranged this opening. It was dead on 600, like 599, 601, 600. I mean, I was confident because I was hitting the ground and not limbs of trees. And that's hard glass and they're ranging into a burn. And he got into that thing and just stopped right outside and just hammered him one shot. It was awesome. And then, I don't know, it was kind of surreal because, yeah, from whatever, 430 that night, I think that was 10, 30, 11. The next day, we had two big deer down. It felt like, holy cow. Well, that's a classic example. Pretty awesome. It wasn't like you saw tons of big bucks. It was just one buck made the whole hunt.

Just kind of like what Devin had in Nevada, you know, had high anticipation going to Colorado because the weather and all that. And you always do when you're hunting the rut. But I've hunted so many times in Colorado and ate my tag and hunted until the end of the hunt. And I was fully prepared to do that. And this time, it all went well. It was just, you know, luck plays into it. You get out there, you hunt hard, you glass hard, have good equipment, all that. But to have two deer like that happen in whatever, 16 hours, just good fortune. You get lucky sometimes. And, hey, that's why we like to go to Colorado. Like an apple that way. Well, and that's the one thing that keeps resonating is you guys are hunting bucks, and I'm hunting bucks generally, that you scout all summer for here around your house. Like, you know, like you killed a buck that you would scout all summer for.

And then when you finally kill it a month later, you know, it's awesome. Yeah. Or you can go do it in a couple of days. Well, it's like the poncegon buck that my son shot. I mean, those are deer that we spend all summer trying to keep track of and all that. But we can't do that. Maybe Utah and Nevada, because we live real close to Nevada and this part of Nevada down here. But you're not going to go scout the rut. But you can't hunt. You can't scout. And these deer are going to move. And so we talk about it often. I did hunt muzzleloader last year. But we mostly show up and hunt rifle hunts in Colorado. And that's what can happen if you just go show up and hunt. Pretty awesome. So anyway. All this talk of cold weather reminds me of Kinetrek. They've got some pack boots.

They sell grizzly pack boots up there and have a lot of different boots from hot weather type boots all the way through the winter. They're awesome. Great products. Check them out. www.kinetrek.com. K-E-N-E-T-R-E-K.com. Or call 1-800-232-6064. Jim Wengem. Good dude. Great hunter. You know. Owns that company. Headed it up. Makes great products. Good friend of ours. And anyway. Just does a great job up there with his business. So anyway. Show them a little love. If you're looking for any boots. Kinetrek. One thing I might mention about them is they've got a great selection of women's boots too. So we've talked about taking our wives or our kids into the field. Daughters. Check them out for good boots. Nothing worse than having bad boots on your wife. Might suggest that to Jeff. Jeff. For Christmas. Jeff. Wonderful. She had hand-me-downs and he threw three pairs of his wool socks on.

Usually women get tired of dish towels and stuff. So I think a pair of boots would be awesome. Yeah. Yep. And they've got really good ones. My mom bought a pair from him. Did she? Yeah. Awesome. Off of the show. Yeah. Really, really awesome. Okay. Let's give a shout out to Triple S Polaris. It's located here in Cedar City. But they do ship nationwide. And they'll deliver. They specialize in setting up hunting rigs and performance machines. So, you know, you're not just buying bone stock. He knows what to do to it for what you want for hunting purposes. Colton over there is a hunter himself. So give them a call. They're big into track machines too for the winter. And we were just talking about that. Like if you're looking for, you know, doing some winter wolf, coyote, or late season elk or deer or whatever, I mean, they promote that. They know what they're doing with track machines.

Whether it's track four-wheelers, track cybersides, whatever. Yeah. Give them a call. 435-865-0100. I also want to give one more shout out. I got an email over sometime in the last two weeks as I get. It looks like registration and all that's open for the Wessner Hunting Conservation Expo. You guys might have all seen that. And it never fails. Some of the better, closer hotels fill up a lot quicker than you'd anticipate. You can't wait until the last minute. So if you're wanting to go February 2nd to the 5th. Huh? I heard a lot of the motels are full. Already? Yeah. It's going to be a big show. Well, they've expanded it. I don't remember how many booths, but a bunch. And it has been happening that pretty much every year. But this year it's going to be a little bit earlier. We've joked and said you're going to have to take your wife on a real Valentine's date this year.

Because this year at the Expo, it's February 2nd to the 5th. And then you're going to be home. And you're going to have to really take care of her in a real proper way. Instead of just, hey, come to the hunt show with me this year. Huh? It's a concert. It's a concert. Yeah. It's a dinner. But anyway, we'll be there. As always, we'll talk about that a little bit more as we get closer about maybe some deals. And obviously, we've got optics there now. But go to huntexpo.com if you want to get registered, buy your tickets. I'm not sure if the $5 hunt thing's open yet, Wyatt, if you've looked there. I don't believe so. But usually it's like towards the end of the year, December. But anyway, you can have a bunch of hunts at huntexpo.com. Those $5 raffle tags or whatever you want to call them. You mentioned Wyatt. Huh? Well, just because Wyatt usually knows. He's the tag junkie. I'm a dude.

I mean, he's my source of all knowledge. It's his job to know. Yeah. So anyway, I looked to him because he might have just given me a nod. But I don't think it's open yet. But anyway, you do have to be present to validate that. So you can buy your entries online to save that. But you do have to validate those in person when you go there. But hey, my brother did one of those last year. We know people that win them every year. So kind of an extra tag you can get before the Utah draw even kicks off this year. My son grabbed an antelope tag one year. Yeah. It just is what it is. Exactly. It's another opportunity. So go to huntexpo.com. Get your registration, your tickets bought to the venues. Because those nights fill up, too. Especially Friday, Saturday night. Those tickets, they fill up, too. Be a great event. Always is. February 2nd to the 5th, 2023. Right on.

Well, let's talk about ourselves. Haven't we done that for about an hour now? I mean, what are you talking about? Nausea. I don't know. I just think it's time to start thinking about license application. Wyatt, we can talk about that a little bit. I think we've got a lot of people that are looking to have us file their applications for them. Of course, they're in charge of as much as they want to be or they want us just to do it. Kind of give us their credentials and what it is that they want and some of their goals. Short-term, mid-term, long-term goals. And we're very aggressive in that. Of course, we also have the regular publication and membership you can be a part of that basically just talks about all the draws in different states and whatnot, big game species. And they can apply themselves. And so, anyway, that's what we do here at Epic Outdoors.

I mean, that's why we do these podcasts is because this is what we do for a living. Talk about hunting. Deal with hunters. Help hunters. Have a membership-based service that we help guys all the time. And, Wyatt, maybe you want to talk just a little bit more about license apps. So our license application, we like to keep it more personable. We like to be one-on-one with the clients, actually go through and create a hunting goal, hunting strategy. So we're going to look at your applications in, like Jason said, the short, mid, and long-term goals. The short-terms might be a few of these states that we can keep you hunting in. And while we're waiting for a few of these longer-term goals, your true trophy states, your Arizonas, Utahas, Nevadas, to hit maybe a tag of a lifetime, but we're going to keep you hunting.

We like to evaluate these goals with you every year, be as personal, or multiple times a year. You can call in as much as you want and go through the strategy, and we can kind of explain what we're doing or why we've went this route in those states with your applications. I'm all over the place with it. It's awesome. So we're $50 a state. That's for one species. If it's two or more, it's $100 with a $750 cap. And so you can do all the western states and all species. And the most you can spend with us on regular state applications is $750 a year. And then, of course, you're responsible for your own tags, and you'll get your own refunds and whatnot. And if you wanted to hire an outfitter, why, you sure can. You can find your own. We can help you with that. We work with the best outfitters here in the West.

We've been doing this for decades, and so I definitely want you to call us and visit with us about it if you're looking to choose an outfitter, but you're by no means forced to go with somebody that we work with. Or you don't even have to go guide it at all. The tag's yours. You get to choose how to make the most of it. So we're here to help guys with that, and that's what we do. Anything else? Yeah, and just wanted to reiterate that if you're one of those guys that's got plenty of time and likes to be involved and do your own applications, but you've listened to the podcast and have never joined, I encourage you to maybe do that. I can pretty much promise you there'll be something that we cover because we don't write the magazine ahead of time and just rubber stamp it from year to year to year.

There's tight deadlines that we've got to go to print literally within days of after these regs being released. And so you'll learn something or you'll hear something or read something in the magazine in our take on the states that makes you probably think about something different. Maybe it just simply saves you money from applying aimlessly or maybe a little bit, you know, for a state that maybe there's no hope in or something like that. You'll learn something. You get your money's worth. I can guarantee that. There's always the ability, you get the magazine, you get the information in it, the statistics, the in-depth research, and then the ability to call in and talk with us throughout your own application here. You know, hey, I've got 10 points in Colorado Deer. How do you guys talk about that? What should I burn? Sounds like it's, you know, nothing's a slam dunk.

I'm ready to use them. Or the next state, or the next state. So we're here to do that. That's involved in the membership. We encourage you to use it and encourage you to become a member. And we've got a membership drive going right now. Get entries in for that. If you join right now, if you haven't done that in the past, or if you want to buy a gift membership for somebody going into the holidays or things like that, keep that in mind. Sounds good. For more information, go to epicoutdoors.com. Of course, there are some 40% off coupons. So you can go right on their front homepage. There's 40% off on anything on UA.com. So, again, for the holidays, another way you can kind of save some money. Epicoutdoors.com. Of course, we explain our business and everything we've got going on there. Appreciate you all. Hope everybody had a great season. Send in your photos. Photos at epicoutdoors.com.

Photos and stories. We want to see them. We want to showcase them in the publication. We appreciate you again. Happy Thanksgiving. Happy holidays, everybody. Happy holidays.