Ep 266: Mule Deer Stories from the February Magazine, Coyote Art and Cocaine Bear

Anything to do with Western big game.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast, powered by Under Armour. Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, Josh Pollock. Coming at you from southern Utah, snowy southern Utah. Freaking got water ripping down the streets, oozing out of the snow as it melts, Bronson. How exciting is that? Just keeps getting better, I know that. We're excited about it. We're fired up about it. Although it's kind of bummed Josh out. Josh, they've implemented a shed season today. I was just going to say, I thought in southern Utah we didn't have snow on deer winter range. But apparently we do. No way. You haven't lived long enough. Josh, you are kind of young. How old are you? I'll be 42 here in a couple. Okay, well we had snow priority when you were born. Okay.

That's the one thing we've been talking about is people, as we age and whatnot, you know, the older generation remembers what deer, elk, whatever populations were, could be whatever, mostly deer. But as the new biologists come up and through the ranks, sometimes I wonder if they're not, they don't remember that we had deer. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like real numbers of deer. Yeah. We've talked about that. I mean, we've talked about it before, but that's, I remember when I was a kid, it was like in the early 90s. And it was pretty bad. So I felt like it was pretty good a few years ago and I thought you were doing something. Yeah. Yeah. And the old timers. I mean, if you only knew, if you only knew. Yeah. Can't even get them excited about doing that right now. Even that we're excited. New year brings excitement.

But read a little bit about that for the people that maybe don't know what we're talking about. Yeah. So let's see. Everybody's kind of talking about it. It seems like, of course, it's all over social media. And if it's on social media, it's true. And it happened. So here it is. DWR implements emergency statewide restriction for shed hunting to help protect wintering game in Utah. So it's happening right now. Today. Today. Utah Division of Wildlife Resources announced statewide emergency closure shed hunting Tuesday. Today. In an effort to help wintering big game, particularly deer populations. And are gathering restrictions that are affected February 7 through April 30, 2023 across Utah. Including both private and public. How about that? It's a good thing. You picked one up. A buck crossed the road in front of me this morning. It's a good thing you didn't drop one in the road. Or.

What would you have done? We would have had the La Regra here at the door knocking. This morning you'd have been fine until you saw this. And then you would be driving home in your truck. And there's probably something along the lines of intent. Did you intend to break the law? Well, is there? I don't know. Did you intend to go 90 miles an hour or did it just happen? Sometimes it just happens. Let's face it. Nobody's going to suspect. Do you think they let you off because you said, I didn't mean to go that fast. I think they let me off because I have a concealed weapon permit and I'm one of them. Really? I would protect them. Oh, wow. Dude, I don't know why. Hey, I've been let off a lot. Double in city limits at 2 a.m. With a trailer. I was worried. So, I just took your truck and the trailer. Got it cleaned up and I took it up. What are we doing?

Are you going to announce the fact that we got a ding? No. Ding or two? No. I just borrowed your keys. I didn't tell you what it was for, but I decided to go spray the trailer off. And I actually thought of that. I was coming back, you know, right there by the hospital. There's that little speed trap. Didn't intend to get wrecked. Oh, yeah. By that skate park or whatever. And I was kind of coming a little hot just because I was trying to get back here so we could do this. Yeah, the berm. And then I was like, oh, geez, I've got to slow down right here. And there was a cop on the other end. Oh, yeah? You saw my truck? I was going like 35, but I was thinking about it. I was like, I'm done. You would not get pulled over. And I was thinking, I'm going to run a test right here. You're either going to jail or you're not even getting pulled over.

Or I've got to get out of jail free card because I'm in this power wagon.

I smiled and waved. That's all I did. Any exemptions to that, Jason? No. It says they've been monitoring the condition of the deer as well as snow depths, winter temperatures across Utah since early December. These monitoring efforts include body condition health assessments conducted, and they find that deer are going to be amazingly big this year. Sorry. I added that. Okay. During the big game captures that take place each December, biologists measure and record overall deer condition, body fat levels, and fond weights in the animals going into the winter. Biologists also place GPS collars on deer to monitor animal migrations and to find their sheds. Okay. I'm just teasing. I added that. Data from these monitoring efforts and GPS tracking show that extreme cold and increased snowpack across the state are starting to impact milder fawn survival rates

and may negatively impact the ability of the adult deer to survive the winter. I don't know. Well, I think what's, I think Northern Utah's got a problem and we don't want all the shed hunters down here. So they just did it statewide. That's what I feel like. So that's just it. I remember. They didn't say that, but that's. That's what I'm reading. The interpretation. I remember last time there was a shed closer. I may or may not have known the biologist that was covering the Ponce at the time. Okay. And I remember. I think I remember him too. And I remember driving down the road and he met and as a biologist working for the agency, I didn't even know it was going to happen. I saw it on social media and I was like, you got to be kidding me. And I'm driving to Kanab at that time. And at that time, you were going to harass some wildlife. You were headed down there to harass wildlife.

I was going to pick up a collar of a dead deer. One of these dead winter killed deer that we just read about. And, and there was, there was a lot of snow down there. There was easy a foot across the sands. And you were telling yourself, man, we got to keep people off this. The shed is about to start hitting the ground. And then you go home. Yeah. And you got to. Well, that was back when you guys. That's back when you and your cronies would drive cross country.

So I had it all to myself. So I went, I went down there and as I was going down there, I saw it was somebody called me an Instagram poll similar to just how this was. I was like, you got to be kidding me. So I made a couple of phone calls. I'm like, we're going to have everybody and their dog down here now. Yeah. And the deer aren't in that much. I mean, it's can have, it's warmer and that kind of thing. But there was a lot of snow. And so you just, it's almost like you have to do a statewide. So they made it statewide then. Yeah. So after that, it wasn't because of me by any means, but it was a collective decision. Just like it's, it's, everybody's going to go to the Pentagon and stuff like that and just hammer everything. This is going to impact local economies. I mean, you're going to buy a lot less fuel. Let's put it this way. May 1st. Snickers, Kit Kats, you know, monsters.

May 1st is going to be like an Easter egg hunt on steroids. Oh, I remember last time it was a nightmare. And those that want to just go do it are going to be by themselves. Can you imagine somebody, people that are out turkey hunting that day? I'm hunting turkeys. I'm hunting turkeys. You get crushed. Really? Down here in the sand. Yes, sir. I've seen a turkey here. What's that out of your, in your backpack? It's a stick. Rattling it in a big tom. Yeah, I'm rattling in turkeys. I brought this from home. There's going to be a lot of turkey hunters out there. They're spending a lot of extra time trying to pattern turkeys, find roosting. For their friends. They won't even have a tag, but for their friends that might have a tag. Yeah, a lot of help guiding turkey hunts and self. Oh. Whatever they can think of, it'll happen. That's right. In these type of conditions. Yeah, it goes on.

In these type of conditions, big game animals are weakened and highly vulnerable to repeated human-caused disturbances. You know what? Quite frankly, I used to not think that was a thing. But it's a thing. You know what I mean? I mean, guys just won't leave anything alone. We just got done with the Western Herning Conservation Expo this weekend. A lot of people in northern Utah and southern Wyoming talking about that. The people just won't leave them alone, whether they're just trying to get video, pictures, whatever. It's just relentless. And I don't know. It's probably needed. We've got to try to think about it from that standpoint. That big buck in Wyoming, you've got people out and about, even out of their vehicles. Trying to get the perfect mug shot. World-class, all-natural, whatever. Sun in his eyes, wind in his face. Picture. On the skyline. Running away from you.

Looking away from you if his ear's pinned back. Friends on both sides and in the front. Everybody flanking him. I mean, geez. It's unbelievable what people go to. So, there it is. Be careful in Utah. Adhere or beware. How about that? Temporary restrictions also apply to looking for horns and antlers still attached to the skull plate of deceased animal. I mean, they've got to spell it out. Because as a Utah guy, you're going to find every little nook and cranny and hole into this thing, right? If you're out hunting turkeys, you better have a tag. It's going to kind of be like hunting bears in places that you can't even be there with a dog unless you have a kill permit. Yeah.

I don't know. I wonder what the... Speaking... Let's say... I mean, I wonder what they'd do to somebody if they got caught. I wonder what they'd do. Somebody else find... Be nice. They'd take all... Oh, what are you looking for? Deer... You got a deer shed in your pack. Okay. Your deer points go to zero. Awesome. Yeah. Good. Good idea. That'd be kind of cool, huh? Never know. Hey, speaking of game and fish laws, we need to make a little traction. Oh, yes we do. No, we don't need to. We want to.

Okay. Hey, we own this thing. We don't have to do any of that. A week or two ago, I think we talked about... We jokingly talked about... You or me? New Mexico. You. You said that. It did. It did. It came out loud and fast. It said that New Mexico is kind of one step above old Mexico. Well... And a lot of things go down there. And that's... And that's... And we joked and said that that isn't always true because they took away scopes on muzzleloaders and that was... So it isn't always true. And they do... We also talked about trail camera laws. We talked about being one of the last great states and there's not a lot of regulation. Great. And everything's... Anyway, it's not true. So we said, yeah, you can run cameras, cellulars, whatever's legal, da-da-da-da. Right? No. Nope. Cellulars are not legal. So anyway... During the 90s. I was kind of shocked, but I'm...

For one, I'm grateful that I've never run a cellular camera down there. And again, maybe that's... It goes back to the intent. I did not intend to break the law. But anyway, it says here, use of any cellular, Wi-Fi, or satellite camera for the purpose of hunting or scouting remotely for any big game animal is illegal. So... Doesn't have a season either. It just says for the purpose. Purpose. Oh. Don't be running any cellulars unless you are a cattleman or something like that. Okay. So we apologize to anybody in New Mexico that we don't hunt there regularly. I've never run cameras there. So obviously we just assumed because it was one of the... And sometimes we're just talking... As Jason says, one of the last great states. Sometimes we're just talking fast. I was shocked, for one. I, for one, was shocked that there's a law about that.

I don't know why I didn't even know other than we don't run cameras really. We don't. I've run a few regular cameras down there, like in Unit 23 for Elk. Yeah, years and years ago. That was probably before Cedars or even a thing. Film cameras back then. Well, yeah. Remember those 35 millimeters? Anyway. 36 exposure? Yeah, 36 exposure. One hour at Walmart. And then you could go to Walmart and say, I don't think they turned out like I like it. And they don't make you pay for them. I mean, it was sedate. Dumb. Grass blowing for 36 exposures. Yeah. I don't see enough to you. Nope. These didn't work out right. Yeah, your development lab's something wrong with it. Anyway, I'm just saying, back in the day, whatever. Glad technology came a little ways. But we have never really run a retraction before, Bronson. But we also want to say out loud, we are not the rules and regulations.

Be sure you know the rules before you go. If you read our magazine, we say that very clearly on the bottom of the start of every state. Disclaimer. Do not use. We are not responsible for when you were in jail. Right? This represents the opinions of Epic Outdoors. It should not be used to construe the replacement of the regulations or anything like that. Who needs legalese when we got Bronson to spell it out for us? One more thing that we need to make a retraction for. I mean, come on. Carter. What? You had a doctor call you out on the Z-Pack and that being an antibiotic. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Well, I mean. Okay. So, I thought Z-Packs were just glorified vitamins. Supposedly, I guess it's really an antibiotic. Having said that, they make you feel good and they pump you up. So, whatever. So, you were correct at that. It was funny.

He just started laughing and he's like, I'm just, you know. I'm a doctor. They're not vitamins. And I heard you talk about Z-Packs and quite frankly, that's an antibiotic. So, you need to, you know. You need prescription and get the, you know. He's just told me to stay in my lane. That's right. He's a good guy. I was appreciative. It made me laugh for a little while. So, you threw away your prescription pad. Well, kind of, you know. You know, everybody's got a doctor on speed dial. So, anyway. Interesting. Good stuff. Been exciting. A couple weeks. I don't know when we were on here last. It has been. Before the expo. It's a great show. Expo was good. Saw a lot of people. It was amazing. It gets bigger and bigger. What I can't believe is how many people I saw that you didn't. You saw that I didn't and Wyatt saw that neither of us saw. I don't know where they go. And Josh. People.

It was crazy. When we're locked in and talking to somebody, there's a lot of else going on. And it's a lot of people. A lot of money raised for wildlife. And here in a day or two, going to be 200 happy people. Yeah. I'm excited about that. The draw results. Yeah. We'll see. For the 200 tags. I think the odds are actually pretty good. What do you think? Did you get your name in for a few of those, Logan, too? I got a name in a few of them. Good. For sure. Turkey. Antelope. Hey. I love it. Hey. Turkey conservation permits this year in Utah are probably going to be off the charts. Those might be. It gives you a legal reason to be out there in April in the field. Come on, Bronson. Why are you giving people. I'm not buying one. I'm just saying. No. A legal reason. But the intent is to shed hunt. They are in the wrong if they do that. You're right. But you're packing a gun.

You have a right to be in the field. And I think they made a lot in one of these states. I don't dare to say which ones have to do another retraction. But something about you can't shoot them out of the roost. Well, that's kind of a given. That's generally a law everywhere. But somebody had to do that recently. Well, I think a lot of it is they're shooting hours. And then you've got. If they roost and you can. It's just unethical to shoot one. Or they want to sleep. I mean. For the night. And it does like the old 20-yard fall. And bounces off the ground. I mean. There's like 30 of them. Doesn't that feel weird? There's 30 sometimes. But. I guess they had to make a lawn. I actually should Google that. Because it was actually. You've teed this next one. Well. For me, Carter. This is. Occasionally I write something down. It's one of the funniest things I heard all week.

And this is one of those things. Speaking of turkeys. Carter. This week. I wrote it down. I don't remember. It was five, six days ago. I'm going to start writing stuff down. Well. All right. He says. It was right up against the. The beloved elk deadline in Wyoming. That we're grateful is over with. By the way. But I think. Wasn't the turkey deadline the same day? Turkey deadline. The same day. Turkey deadline for Wyoming. For Wyoming. It was the same time. And Carter's quote was. I'm half thinking we should do it. No. You said. I wrote it down verbatim. I did. Because I had to apply a guy. Okay. He's like. Hey. I want to do turkeys. I'm like. Really? We don't do that. Black Hills or something like that. They're not big games. So it was the Black Hills. And Jason said. Linz over. I'm half thinking we should do it. And I did a quick search. For the Black Hills.

It was 830 miles from Cedar City. You did that search. Yeah. 830. I wrote that. And so that's how. Unit one. Unit one. There's general. I mean. There was. There was a number of options. There's unit two. Type three. You did need an oil change before you came home. Drive home. I hadn't even looked up turkey in Wyoming. Like who would do it? Who would do it? Okay. Had a guy say. You know. And they're good clients. So you're like. Okay. And he's like. Jason. You can take care of turkey in Wyoming. Well. I'll do all my other turkeys. He wasn't. Wasn't this guy wanting a turkey from every state? Yeah. And he's down to like. Five. Yeah. Down to five left. Of 48. I guess there's a couple states that don't have them. I don't know. Alaska probably. How could one live there? Maybe. I don't know. I don't know. Hawaii. I mean. Yeah. Alaska. There probably is. With a bunch of hybridization.

Hawaii's got chickens. It's a little. It's a little. It's a little. It's a little. It's a little. It's a little. It's a little. It's a little. Guaranteed there's turkeys there. There's poultry of all shapes and sizes. Do you. You. You got Safari on that phone? I do have Safari on my phone. Okay. Why don't you just Google that. Figure out where the turkeys aren't in the continental United States. Alaska's got to be one of them. It's got to be. I would think. And. Where else would not have a turkey? Just real quick. Off the top of my head. And if you say one you know you're going to have to make a retraction. If you're wrong. Exactly.

Okay boss. Here you go. We're Washington. All around. Got you a population map. Maine? The top 10 turkey hunting states. Washington, Texas, Kansas, maybe South Dakota. I don't know. You got to really know your states here because they're not labeled. Two states. What? Don't have naturally occurring populations of turkey. Who? Alaska. Hawaii. Really? No kidding. Okay. Hawaii put them there. Hawaii have to shoot a hybrid. They crossbred with a bunch of other fowls of the air. Chickens. Because there's stuff everywhere over there. Running everywhere. Roosters. So there you go. Right there. So yeah. He was after the 48 and I think he's gotten through 43 or something like that. So anyway. I applied him. North American 48. I'm an expert. And yeah. But part of that. Part of that. Thinking you should do it. Part of that is just because we're in the mode of making. Applied and applied. Yeah.

Apply, apply, apply. Getting a kill. You know. The excitement of hunting is just getting tags. 830 miles one way. You need an oil change before you can dive home. There's probably an artist listening to this. But I mean. Could you just paint up a picture of Adam and I with just tags falling out of our front pockets? Hey. That's part of the excitement. Don't tell somebody like Chris Lacey that. He'll do it. Dude. Okay. I can't believe you just brought him up. He's traveling home. Chris, this is for you, boss. He's such a good guy. And been a friend of Epic for a long time. He's traveling home from the expo. And what do you think he sees? A moose? 90 yards off the highway. Moose. What do you think he sees? No. Wolf. Nope. They had two coyotes. Huh? Coyotes. And what season? Off of I-80? Yeah. What season is it for coyotes? What season is it? Breeding season.

He has two dogs freaking stuck to each other. Off the free. Off the free. Did he get? Doing 90. And so he drew a picture of it. He drew a picture. With a mental note? No. He's such a good artist. And he's a wildlife artist. Oh, my God. And so he's like, you know. Hey. It's a long trip home. And he's like, you know. Is he driving? Oh.

Such a good guy. Hey, everybody out there. Logan, is that showing up somewhere? I'll put it on. Hey, he's good at it. But anyway. What do you say? I said, geez, that's a rare sighting. You should have smoked them both. He goes, yeah, they surely shouldn't have run away.

Anyway, it's kind of interesting. How did you bring him up? He's a good guy. Great artist. He actually does custom trophy rooms. Little shout out. Painting on big walls in trophy rooms that are absolutely amazing. They're amazing. If anybody listening to this podcast wants a custom painting in their trophy room house or whatever. Remember that one time he did a. Hit up Chris Lacey. Put freebie for us when we had John Alderson on the podcast. Oh, yeah. He did a little pencil thing in the magazine. He's unbelievable. Remember that? Oh, yeah. Totally remember that. Impromptu. But he spent a lot of time in Texas in their trophy rooms. Weeks painting him. Unbelievable. Yeah. And if you wanted something quick and fast, he'd do it like anything. He's unbelievable. So there you have it right there. I mean, he's like, dude, check this out. And I'm like, wow. Okay.

Anyway, he's awesome and good at it. But there you go. I've never seen coyotes breeding in the wild. And he did off the freeway. Okay. Where else are we at? What does that bring us to? Let's. You know what? We've had up Bronson. Josh. We've had a lot of guys tell us what their favorite parts of the podcast are. Generally has to do with hunting stories. Right. Can't get enough hunting stories. Me neither. I freaking love it. It's unbelievable. Stories are incredible. So anyway, we do want to give a call out to our cover shot. But let's tee that up for us, Bronson, while I dial him up. It's our cover buck. It's by Tyler Gilson. Killed a 230 some odd inch. I want to say nine. Giant. Seven. Whatever. Giant monster mule deer with a bow. Over here in southeast Utah in 2022 season. So pretty incredible. Awesome feet. Giant deer. It's one a few people knew about.

But he actually kind of had him to himself there right off the bat that opening weekend and made it happen. So anyway, we're so impressive. Of course, deer impressive in general. But then to kill a deer of this magnitude with a bow on a draw tag, 14 layers of awesomeness because, you know, it's all, you know, self-guided and local. And it's this home unit. A little bit of a... Pretty awesome. A little bit of an off year for some of the extreme southern Utah units, too. Ponsigant. Yeah. San Juan Henry's. They weren't incredible. Yeah. So kill it in an off year. Not an off the charts year. Just a little bit of an off year antler growth-wise. Pretty awesome. Well, let's give him a holler. Let's just maybe he's got a little bit of timing. Just tell us the quick story about it. And maybe we'll learn something from this. You learn something from everybody, you know, that kills deer especially.

How about that now? You learn something from everybody. But let's just see what he has to say about it.

This is Tyler. Tyler. It's Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, Josh here. How are you? I am good. How are you, gentlemen? We're great. We're doing good. We just wanted to kind of get with you a quick second if you've got a moment.

I can't tell. Sounds like you've got a lion chase going on.

You're not chasing a lion right now, are you? I'm not. Nope. I'm not. Just kids. Just kids. Yeah. That's awesome. Hey, so you were, you know, just had the good fortune of killing a monster buck there in southern Utah. And we just wanted to kind of hear the story on it.

Awesome. Yeah. Where do you want me to start? Well, wherever. I mean, you drew the tag. It was a draw tag. Southeast Utah archery only. And I don't know. Maybe just a little bit about the scouting. When you turn the buck up. You know, we've read your story, obviously. So, but there's maybe others that haven't got the magazine yet. And, you know, maybe just tell us how you found him and then how it came together. Cool. All right. So, obviously, Utah's system, most of us are, you guys are all aware of how that works.

I did not have max points. Just a lucky random, just a lucky random draw. I think this last year, 100% was 19 points. And I had 16. So, getting close. But, man, it seemed like it just kept creeping out of my reach every year. But a few things happened this last year that I probably wouldn't even apply. I'd probably just bought points. My wife and I were looking at a business. Last minute, it kind of fell through. And we backed out and went back to my old job. And I kind of just went all in last year with applying everywhere. Because I knew I had a lot more time. So, got the tag put in. Decided, you know, archery was the one I wanted.

Man, I was pretty shocked when I drew out. But, nonetheless, man, I'm going hunting. Take care. The spring, pretty minimal moisture. We did have a pretty good storm that hit the unit right around the time that applications were due. It was pretty positive. But still, like, after finding out I had the tag, you know, it's like, all right, well, is it going to be a dry year? You can't turn it back. I got, you got lucky. You got randomly lucky. Yeah. Man, you go hunting. And so, I've watched some people turn their tags back. And then, turns out, it got harder to draw every year after that. So, never catch it. They're still waiting. So, that was a few years back. So, I put the work in. You guys probably know Adam Black. Yeah. He was super helpful. I know I used to make a living out there running that unit. And he was super helpful. Threw my back out in the middle of the summer.

And so, I was visiting him at least once or twice a week to get adjusted. And he helped me out big time, give me a few spots. And I hung cameras up and beat those dusty roads to death. That's the most amazing mountain in the world, though. It's one of our favorite places. It's endless. It's huge. And it's just beautiful, you know. There's just deer everywhere and elk everywhere. It's just bears everywhere. Saw six in one day. I'm sure you did the same at times. Just crazy. Yeah, years prior out there, I'd see more bears. This year, I really didn't see a lot of bears, at least glassing. Saw them on trail cam. Just not much for size. A lot of little kind of ugly bears. But, man, it is amazing country. Those roads were beat to death. And there was almost no moisture. We had a couple storms here and there, if I remember, on a couple cameras that hit.

And kind of the deer were showing up during those periods. And so they were pretty focused on the water almost all summer long. And about the time our monsoons hit, they just disappeared. And so you couldn't, I wasn't tracking them on camera anymore. It was just, you know, drive around, look. The few spotting places you can actually see much of the country hitting that. But really hitting those early mornings, evening times, and even middle of the day. You know, you guys know those deer will get up and move.

And you just catch them middle of the day. So I kind of had a list of bucks that I'd come up with over the summer.

Just from scouting, really hadn't looked at my cameras yet. I kind of just let them soak several of them. A few of them I'd check, but most of them I just, I kind of let them soak. Until I ended up pulling them that last weekend in July. Maybe a day before they had to be pulled.

But found a few really good bucks, a couple of which got killed this last year.

I'll be really honest, but I underestimated those guys. Yeah. Meaning size-wise, you just, like, you looked at them and you didn't give them the respect they deserved. I mean, what an absolute loss. Because they deserve a lot. Yeah, they deserve a ton of respect. Yeah. At this point, I hadn't seen the buck I killed.

And I know there were some good ones, and I know everybody, well, at least from what I heard, you know, there were a lot of people lined up to chase those bucks, one of which had been chased the year prior. And then two others that just, man, they must have packed it on at the end because I seen them late summer. But kind of after I found my other buck, I stopped looking at them and stopped chasing them. And I remember listening to your guys' podcast talking about antler growth and the timing of it all because I was kind of worried with the amount of moisture that we had. You know, it was just beat to death. You know, nothing at this point. I didn't feel like any moisture in the middle of the summer was really going to make that much of a difference by the time August rolled, mid-August rolled around to hunt. I don't know what we said on the podcast, but at times we're not right.

There are some times we are not right. We've been making retractions. Before we got on with you today, we did have a list of retractions in other states. I guess I just have some blind faith then. Anyways. We may have indicated it'd be an okay year. Well, no, and it had nothing to do with that. It was about timing kind of when those bucks finish. Yeah. And there were some bucks that were like, you know, the early growers. And I'm judging the rest of the deer off of those. And what I figured out is, and what I learned is the rest of the deer don't follow the same time frame. And so there were a couple that I was like, oh, well, well, these deer over here aren't. Aren't grown out as much. Yeah. Yeah. This one's like got front forks and back forks. And these ones are just getting to their forks. Yeah. You know, I have great mass. They got eye guards.

They just look like they could be something. But are they behind? And I listened to your guys' podcast. And you were talking about a deer you were watching that just at the end, it just blew up. Right. I remember the deer. I remember the comment. And it did happen. It was August 1st. He wasn't even on the hit list. Wow. You remember that? August 1st, he basically wasn't on the hit list. And this was back when you could run cameras after August in Nevada. Right. And then like August 10th is opening day of the archery. And we got a picture of him. And it's like he put on. I want. I mean, how do you know what he put on? But it felt like it was 40 inches in 10 days. And it was. He went from not on the hit list to number one on the hit list. And it was just crazy. And then we also killed a deer here in Utah General over here on the other side of the state. Right. And he's.

And we killed him in mid, like August 24th ish. Mid, you know, 20s. Right in there. August 24th, 25th, something like that. And he was still really soft on the end. Still growing. And so, you know, deer are different. You know what I mean? Some finish early. Some finish late. You know. Yeah. And that's, I think, what you're getting at. That is what I'm getting at. And I really didn't know that. But I gained a little bit of knowledge from your podcast. Yeah. Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch this deer grow up all summer long. And I don't know if anybody did. Yeah. I don't. There was rumor that people had seen him. Someone had a picture of him. I've never seen it. Yeah. It almost feels like the rumor, though, is he moved. Like, they were thinking he summered in a little bit different place, right? Right. Right. And then he moved. But not far from where I killed him. Right. Right.

But moved a little bit. And then you ended up having him to yourself kind of thing. Yeah.

But the rumored individual or outfit that I heard that saw him, they killed a different buck on the unit. Right. And so. They would have been out all after him if they knew where he was at, for sure. That's kind of how I feel. But anyways. Who knows? So I have this list of bucks. I pull all my cameras. I'm digging through. I'm like, all right, I'm going to be down with the masses chasing these few bucks. Because they're, all of them are barely. Visible off the roads and all that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. All of them are. And so. And they're not far from each other. No. Two of them are running together. Right. Yeah.

So. Here we go. You know, I'm running through pictures. I'm looking at some bucks. And then Adam sent me a couple pictures of these same bucks on camera. And I'm like, man, your picture of him looks a lot better than my trail cam pics of him. He looks like a great buck. But I don't know if he's going to push over that 200 inch mark. And that's kind of what I was shooting for. But I'll be honest. I'd have been happy with a great 190 inch deer. Never killed one before. I can't say I've killed. I haven't even killed a 180 inch deer. And so 200 was like, yeah, let's go. Let's go for it. But there was an awesome four point killed up there. A hundred and mid one nineties. Just a beautiful buck. And I would have been, I would have been just tickled with a buck like that.

So look at them all, start making plans. And one Sunday at church, like first or second Sunday in August at church, after I pull all my cameras, a gentleman comes and says, hey, I heard you got a deer tag out there. He's like, I've got an elk tag. He's like, do you know, do you have any pictures of this elk? I said, yes, I do. And I'm happy to share whatever you want. I have no problem sharing. Like, I'm not hunting elk. I don't have points for elk. And I may never even get a hunt elk out there just based on the points unless I get really lucky. So I was happy to share. He showed me a picture he took out of his truck window with his phone of this buck. And it had like the front end. You know, you can see the front end on that deer. Cheaters coming off the G4. Phenomenal. I couldn't really, his picture wasn't clear and I couldn't see the back end.

And he's like, yeah, I think it's like an eight by nine or something. I was like, okay. Plus or minus five. Plus or minus five on each side. He's like, I think it'll go. I think it's a 200 inch deer. I was like, sweet. I'll go check that thing out. And here's all the elk pictures I have. And I sent elk pictures from wherever. It didn't really bother me. So two days later, me and my youngest son, my two-year-old, we roll out there and go through the early afternoon. Nothing. Pretty quiet. And then right about dusk, we came back down there after looking at some other bucks. And holy crap. There's probably 15, 20 deer there. Another good four point. And this buck is just standing there. By now, you're only like a week or so maybe from opening day. How close were you? So that was the 8th of August. It was the 22nd. So about two weeks-ish. Game on. Yeah. And I sent pictures to Adam.

Which you didn't need to do. But yeah. He confirmed what you thought. And that was that this is a number one buck.

Probably going to hunt this one. Right. I just. Well.

Yeah. The guy loves mule deer. And you guys probably already know that. Because every time I'd send him a picture of a deer, I'd be like, hey, Adam. Check this one out. He's like, oh, yeah. I knew of that one. But I wasn't going to tell you about that one. Was he over here? I watched the fawn give birth to that buck. I got his two-point sheds. He sent me a picture from it last year. He's like, oh, is it still over here? And I'm just like, is there a deer on that mountain that hasn't passed through the lens of Adam Black? Yeah. He's like, probably not. So I send him this buck. And he's just like, we've been looking for that thing. Good find. That's old Freddy Lump Lump. Yeah. I don't even know if he saw it on the hoof before I killed it. I know they tried to get pictures of it. So it's in a super visible place. It couldn't have been there all summer long. It couldn't have.

It couldn't have. Because nobody's taking pictures out their window except for this guy, right? Like, I mean, there's just, it's just, no, everybody's talking about him. He's a rumor. Nobody can really be on him. Nobody is on him. You hunt him by yourself the day you kill him. I mean, it's kind of crazy, you know? Sometimes it feels like fate. Yeah. That's what you get for going to church. That's right. That's right. There you go. I guess. I know. I... I'd call it a blessing. Let's just say it what it is. I have to say it about putting that in the article. Oh, let's just say it the way it is. Heck no. Like, I... We... So here's this buck. And I see him the 8th of August. Got rumors that Tyler had pictures of him. May have got a picture of it. A really terrible picture. But nonetheless, it was like, yeah, that's him. And he's huge. I still don't know what he is exactly.

Because I haven't bothered to even, like, mule over the pictures. I just... He's big enough. He's huge. Right? But how do you explain it? He's got, like, three or four cheaters on each. G2, G3, G4. Big in lines. Big frame. He's got eye guards. I don't know. I mean... Body's big. Hams. I think we explained him.

But you look at him, and I'm like, Adam, why does his ears look so small? Well, I figured it out. Because his horns are so big. Not because his ears are small. No. They're not small at all. Right. So... So now you've got to somehow get through the next... Next two weeks. Right. To open a day. Somehow. Keep him to yourself. You've got to kind of keep your composure. Shoot your bow like crazy. Keep my mouth shut. Keep my mouth shut. And the downside is, I mean, the locals talk. There's local legends, right? I mean... There are. I mean, that's what you were initially... Initially, that's what you're talking about is they're visible. It's a huntable unit. They're visible. Lots of roads. People know about everything, it feels like. You've got Adam and this elk hunter that now you've got...

It's a little anticlimactic because it's like, all right, I'm going to go put in the time and grind this out and stock on some deer. And it's not like that out there. Right. You can do that. But most of them are, yeah, shot close to roads. Right. The biggest thing is... Pancake butt. Makes pancakes in camp. I've heard of people shooting out of camp like that. I don't want to ruin the end, but you should shut your door next time.

For real. All right. Keep going.

All right. So, I make a couple more trips out there before opener. You know, nothing. You know, heard rumors that Kyler had pictures, got one. And I'm pulling out of town Wednesday before the Saturday opener. I'm like, I can't take this crap anymore. I worked a couple hours at work and I bounced. It was time to get on the mountain, shoot my bow. Just kind of like, I'm on edge. Just nervous. Who's going to be there? Who knows about this deer? You know, it's been a few weeks now since words got out. And we found him Wednesday, late Wednesday evening. And I was like, he's still here. And it was just... Drove by, I saw him. I was like, sweet, he's still here. And we left. Yeah. I didn't have time to pattern this deer. I didn't see him enough. I didn't know enough about him. I didn't... I knew the area, but I didn't know what deer did in that area very well.

So I didn't have much time to watch him. So Saturday morning comes... Well, Friday morning, we go down there just to look again and just make a pass through. And I run into... How much do you guys edit on these? None. Don't swear. You just got out of church. So I rolled down through there. There's the devil and I made a deal with the devil. No, keep going. Keep going. I'm sorry. Good morning. We're just... It's exciting. Keep going. And on the way out of there, I run into one of the other outfitters driving down through there. And I'm just like, oh. It's not good. You know what? Yeah. You're going to want lots of outfitter logos all over your photos. You can already see it. He rolls down there. He rolls down there and we just kind of waved. And I was like, you know, that sick feeling in your stomach. You're like, crap. But I don't know what I was expecting. To have the place to myself.

Like... Doesn't happen there. How would that ever happen? Right. So... So... I'm worried sick. So Saturday morning, we're up early. We just want to time it right just to hit there when we can shoot. Because there's really no reason to be there any earlier. Because you bump them out of there, you're done. So we're trying to time it. We get down there and there is not a soul. There's no deer. There's no cows. Moo cows. There's been some elk in there. Hadn't seen... It was just silent. There was nothing. No side-by-sides. No four-wheelers. No trucks. No side-by-sides. No camp traders. That place is loaded with all of those things. 90% of the... Well, I did forget to mention that Wednesday night, a camp rolled into the middle of that place. Okay. I knew it was possible. It's public land. That's how it is. Hoped it didn't happen. But it happened. And I was like, oh, crap.

Maybe this is going to really bugger everything up or bugger his pattern or whatever he does. I don't know what it is. But there's a camp there now. Turns out, I think they were hunting archery, the big bull. Someone had a big bull tag. But anyway, so there's a camp in there now.

What are you going to do? You just keep hunting it. So Saturday, man, I don't even know if I saw a buck. Jeez. Got a worked area, you know, glassed a little, just had nothing. And so that night, I was like, well, maybe I'll go back into church and I'll come out after church, you know, no big deal. It worked before. Last time you went to church, you learned about this buck. Qualify for your blessings and get back out. The biggest buck I've ever seen. And I'm going to walk away from him. I'm going to go to town, go to church. Yeah. I'll be back tomorrow. Yeah. Which, I'll be honest, I don't hunt much on Sunday. Yeah. But anyway, so it wasn't abnormal for me to do that. And so some people, I'm sure they think I was pretty crazy for turning my back on that beast. And nonetheless, I went to church. I got back out there Sunday afternoon and I grabbed my stuff and I headed for the

highest place I could find that I could see something and see if I could figure out what this deer was doing, where he was living, just get a glimpse of him to make a plan for Monday morning to chase him. Nothing. Saw a few deer. No bucks, really, to speak of. And so back to camp at dark and I've got my brothers there, my dad's there and brother-in-law. And so we just, we just make a plan and we split up. Brother-in-law and my dad went over on one road just to glass some country that, just to see if he'd moved over there. My brother and I jumped in my Tacoma and we went for a drive where I'd seen him every single time. So we head down in and just nothing. There were a few does down in there in the meadow and, and that's about it. So we go down to the end and turn around and we're coming back out. I mean, we're 200 yards past the camp that's in there.

And then there's another camp, probably two or 300 yards in front of us. And this buck is coming right in between them. And I looked to my right and I'm like, there he is. There's no like looking through your binoculars to, to identify him. He's, he's pretty unique. And I'm like, there he is. And my window's down and I hit him with my range finder on my Vortex Fury's. And he's 71 yards. Out the truck window. Out the truck window. Keep in mind. And this is area, I mean, if you've been there, it's like in places, thick oak, think Ponderosa is not like a lot of great glassing places. And it's like, no, that's how everybody does it. It's normal. You got to do. That's right. And if you walk around out there, usually you're going to blow everything out. So anyway, they're used to vehicles all summer long. So I range him. I go into just auto mode.

You know, I wasn't expecting to see him because we, we'd already drove down through there, but there he is. And let's, let's make something happen. And I'm someone willing to grab my stuff. And I bail out of the truck, kind of into some brush right next to the road. And then my brother drives off and there's a little buck with him or a smaller four point. He wasn't that small, but nothing I was interested in after seeing the other buck. And he's just passed that buck, maybe 30 or 40 yards. My, the big one I was looking at or wanting to kill. And that little one's just kind of got me pegged there and I'm just waiting. And I'm that the big buck starts to move where I can see him. I reach for my binos, man. I left those, I left them in the truck in my face to, to bail out and get up, make sure I had everything.

I left my bottoms in the truck and here I am like, yeah, which has my range finder. And I'm, I'm kneeling there and I'm looking and he's about to clear this Ponderosa bow that's hanging low. And I'm like, what do I do? Like he's kind of close to where he was, but he's moved enough that a bad shot could, you know, really mess things up. You know, you make a bad shot and they disappear and maybe you don't ever turn them up again. And so here I am and he never gave me the opportunity to, to make a bad decision. Cause the little buck decided he was done with me and he, he took, he bounded and, and the big buck kind of followed and they weren't super scared, but nervous, you know, and they kind of just trotted off. It wasn't bounding, but like your typical mule deer found, but they trotted off. And I was like, ah, there, there goes my buck and probably my only chance of, you know, getting

a shot at him or maybe even getting that close to him. So I'm just second guessing everything, like kind of cussing myself where we drive up the road, back up to camp. And my brother's going to go up on the hill and glass. And I was trying to decide what I should do or where I should go to kind of look, you know, a little heartbroken, but it's, it's kind of that, that mental game of, you know, just hanging in there and grinding through it. But we're only on day three and this is only day two, the morning of day two of, of hunting for me really. So we get back up there and I'm like, you know what? I'm just going to drive back down through there. I don't know why. Well, it worked. Oh, it worked. We're going to, yeah, that's how you hunt. What else am I going to do? That's right. So I, I drive past the place where I just saw him and it was probably 30 or 40 minutes

prior, kind of winding down the road and I hit the clearing and a few hundred yards ahead, there's a deer up there moving across the road, the opposite direction of where I saw the, the deer coming from kind of going. So I was like, well, who knows? Let's go take a look at this thing. I threw my binos up. I knew it was a buck. Um, so I hustled down there. I got to about where that deer crossed the road and I turned to my right and I looked and that buck, my buck is standing there looking at me and I, I could have just fallen over if you push me over with a feather. Just there he is. There is no way this buck just made this 500 yard giant circle in the last 30 or 40 minutes. And he's standing next to the road that I'm on 30 or 40 minutes later. Crazy. And all I knew was he's not going to get away again.

Your range finders on your, your binos are on your chest. My binos are in my pack on my chest. I grabbed my bow. Trucks in park. Yeah, I did. I did get it in park before I left the seat. Yup. Fox news on satellite radio. Yeah. No. Probably. Yeah. The highway. I don't. Yeah. My truck's too old to have XM in it, but I don't remember what I was listening to. Probably the local country station. Right. 7. 90 AM. Is that what it is? Yeah. It is. Yeah. 7. 90 AM. Bronson listens to the AM channels. I don't know. I just grew up over there. So I remember. All right. I don't know if it's even still on the air, but anyway, keep going.

So I'm knocking an arrow as I, I'm stepping out of my truck and I'm walking around the back end of the truck. It's, it's just running in the middle of the road, door open.

And I come around the back and I could see he's, he's far enough. Like this is too far. I got to get a little bit closer. And I, I kind of just went at him and he was feeding slow away from me. Not looking, not paying much attention. You know, those deer, they do get used to vehicles driving by. They do get used to passerbys, taking pictures of them, but I don't know how many of this one had seen, but I, I went at him. And that's usually not how I am. I'm a little more hesitant and not so forward in, in making that kind of an aggressive move. And I just went at him and I probably got into the trees 40 yards and he turned broadside and looked at me and I thought it's now, it's now or never. We're doing this. Grab my binos. They're in my pack this time. I have my bow in my left hand because I'm right-handed. Bino's in my right.

And that reticle will not stand still, will not sit still on that deer. I cannot get a range. And I put, stuck my bow underneath my binos and range that beast. He was 83 yards. Jeez. And I thought, I do, I did feel comfortable shooting that far. Much further, I don't know. But that one was one yardage that I practiced quite a bit. But I knew I could, I didn't have time to dial. This guy's got me pegged. I'd already moved. I'd ranged him. I was shooting and I, I had my 70 yard pin was my, my furthest pin with my set pins without dialing. And I just, I knew I was going to set it on, on the top of his shoulders. Wow. And that, those, like those things just, I was in automatic mode.

My arrows already knocked. I got hooked on with my release and I drew back. And I, as soon as that, as soon as the pin hit the mark, man, there was no clean release. I'm sure I punched that thing. Nobody blames you. And kind of my normal, you know, torque, I, I, I can shoot a little bit left. So he's facing to the right.

And I, anyways, I put it where I thought would be like, would just smoke him. And I hit the, hit the button on my release and it sounded great. And I didn't see a thing. I don't know. I don't know what happened there. I didn't, I didn't see it hit. All I did was hear it. And so maybe my follow through was good. Maybe he was quartering to me a little more than I, I had thought. Um, and, and I'm, I was positive. I hit him just the sound, the way he took off running, but you know, we've all missed deer and they've, they've bounded away. And so he ran over by the other deer. Um, and just, I hit, I put my binos up trying to see him. I'm like, I know I hit this guy and I can't see, I can't see anything on his off side. I'm just like, Oh crap. Like I got to get another one. I got to get an arrow in him or get another one in him. And he's a 120 yards at this point.

And I'm like, I can't shoot that far. So I'm trying to ease up there, but his buddy there, he didn't like me very much. Um, he, he just was not having it, but I'm looking at my buck and he's, he kind of humped up and he, he's not, he's looking sick to me. I'm like, maybe, maybe I did hit him. Like, but where's my arrow? And I, I can't see a hole in this thing.

And the other bucks just kind of got me pegged cause I don't want to blow them out of there. Yeah. And my, and my buck just kind of walks slowly away, um, until he kind of disappears into the brush and in the trees. And I'm just like, what happened? Did I miss? Did I hit him? I, I, I swear I hit him, but I can't, I can't see anything. So I, I couldn't be really sure. So kind of just glassing where he went. There was one point I, I kind of got a glimpse of antlers moving. And so I, I made a, a mark in the, in the terrain and the bushes or a tree up there. And, and that's kind of where I just headed for. Um, after that other little bucket kind of followed his up there in his direction. And I'm, I'm kind of just like, well, I feel like I just need to crawl up there and see if I can get another shot. Cause if I shot him back or shot him in the guts, I need to get another one in him.

But on the other hand, you blow them out of there and you may never find them again. Yeah. It's a fine balance. There's no blood. He was facing right. You torque it and you know, your tendency is to drift left. I torque left. Yep. But you're over his shoulders with the 70 at 83 and you don't see the arrow, but you, anyway, I can tell there's probably some stress. You know that feeling. Yep. Yep. So, so I'm kind of crawling up there and I hear a buck, like a deer snort, like they're, you know, they're, Hey everybody, there's a, there's danger here. Let's, let's get out of here. And I'm like, crap, here they go. But nothing ran off. And that deer snorted several more times. And I'm like, what, what on earth is half what it's going up on up there. And then the thought came that maybe, maybe I did get that deer and he's laying there not wanting to go anywhere.

And that little buck's trying to get him to go or he's watching him die or whatever. And so I just, I just keep crawling and I'm heading that direction. It's, it's at least a hundred yards, maybe more than I, I crawled. And we had gotten up enough rain that the needles and kind of the duff and everything were, it was quiet. Yeah. And I was silent, kind of crawled past where the trail that he had ran on after I shot the first time, man, I, I couldn't find a thing, but I just kept going. About the time I got to the tree, there was a tree with a bend in it that I'd made my landmark and I got there and I'm just, I'm just scanning, waiting to see this, these antlers. And these eyes staring at me wondering what on earth I'm doing there. And I'm panning to the right and I see horns on their side in the grass. Jeez, that's perfect. And I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. I did it.

There is no way. And so I'm still not so sure. Cause man, if I, cause if I'd made a, you know, a longer heart shot, I would have known right off the bat, this thing would have made kind of the death run and I would have known for sure. And so I still snuck up on him ready to shoot if, if I needed to, but I got there and he's just, he's dead and he'd been dead for a little bit. Um, kind of saw my shot, my exit wound. Cause he was laying on his right side, come right out in front of that rear hind quarter. And I'm like, how did I shoot that far back? But I, I just missed the lungs and I hit the liver. Oh, that'll kill him every time. All the blood was inside. Liver shots are hard on things. My height was perfect. I was just left. Wow. And he was quartered quite a bit. And so, and so when I went and found my arrow, man, you would have just looked and said, Oh, you've got shot at,

there wasn't much for blood on there. Just all the other nasty stuff from the paunch. Yeah. Um, and I'm, I'm just like, you've got to be kidding me. Did it. Yeah. Well, there lies the beast.

The church. Yeah. Yeah. So let's see the door in the truck was still open. The radio was going. Truck was running. The deer is dead. Good thing you had a full tank of gas. Right.

I don't, I don't remember how long I was out of the truck before I got back to it, but man, what a cool experience. What a cool feeling. And just. Wow. He's a dream buck. Like just. And just kind of try to soak it all in. Because life moves fast. Yeah. Life moves too fast. We've talked about it a lot. And you, when, you know, when something like this happens, you just take time and just, just really soak it in. And you want to, you fight your whole life to, to make that happen again, you know. And so anyway, you just cherish those moments when they're there. Pretty awesome. So, so did you strip him or is he still, you still got him in velvet? He's, the velvet's perfect. There's not even a nick in it. And I don't know if that's how, because of the way he died, if he just went over and laid down and didn't do the death run kind of thrash and fall. And it got velvet staying on.

And did you, did you have him scored or what did he end up going? I did. So, so we initially greened him high 230s. Um, had a guy score him, come back gross at 228 right on the dot. So. Is that 228 net net? Gross. Gross. That would have been gross. Okay. Okay. Um, there's obviously there's a lot of interesting horn and growth on him. Yeah. Yeah. That the palmation. And so we'll see. I haven't sent anything in, but nonetheless, he's a beast. Oh yeah. I mean, score, score is super cool. It already validates what you already know about him though. He's. It does mean something, but my goodness. I think part of it is just. The biggest bucks I've seen. Yeah. I think part of it is just so people, when you say the number people have it in their mind, like how big is this deer? Is he a hundred and you know, 80 inch gross. And so he's got lots of little points in a small frame.

When you say two 28 and we're talking, we're kind of explaining him out of an IRTs in a little bit and explaining him from the photos, you get a real feel, even though you haven't seen him. Maybe you're just listening to the podcast about him. You have a feel of how big this thing is, you know? So not necessarily the book, just, it's nice to be able to reference that in talking, you know? Right. And he's not super wide outside. And some of those pics make him look like phenomenal. Like he's under 29 outside. Josh takes a lot of those kind of photos.

Huh, Josh? Fish high Friday?

Yeah. Well, he photographs well, whatever he is for wit. He photographs it fairly well. He looked phenomenal. Boxy. And it was, Adam came out and took pictures for me and just, he did a phenomenal job. He was. Yeah. But you see the, like the live pictures, you can tell how big he is. I mean. He's big. Yeah. Yeah. Live pictures. For sure. I mean, you look at his ears and his face and those things just, those horns just kind of drown his head. Yeah, they do. Yeah. You find one like that. You push your chips to the middle of the table, go to church, and go to work. And that's the one you're after. That's right. It's all in. Yep. And sometimes it really works out. And usually the more effort you put in and time, like luck plays a big role in it, but you can make, luck can play a really big role in it. You know, you've got the time and the effort.

Well, we appreciate you sharing not only the story with us today on the podcast, but the story with us in our magazine, the February 2023 issue of the magazine. We appreciate you taking the time to put that together, you know, showcase a little bit about the buck and your success and can tell how much it meant to you. It's obvious. It should mean something to you. It's a, it's a heck of a deer. And like we talked about a little bit earlier, it wasn't a phenomenal antler growth year in the extreme southern end of the state. It wasn't. It wasn't. So, you know, but even if it had been, it's a phenomenal deer in a, in a off the charts antler growth year too. So congratulations and thanks for spending the time. And his sheds were found, I think. And basically he did, it does appear that he grew a little bit. Put on growth. Yeah. He didn't regress necessarily.

Sometimes maybe overanalyzed the, the water and whatnot at times, you know. I did see some pictures of him on the hoof from the year prior. Yeah. In the velvet. And yeah, man, he, he stacked it on. Yeah. It was, it was his year. Yeah. It was his year. There you go. Well. Well, as being on the cover of Epic Outdoors, we sure appreciate you sharing that with us and all of our subscribers at Epic and just want to wonder, I was kind of wondering, have you've already decided what you're going to do with the $1,500 in credit toward the optics. I haven't. I've been thinking a little bit, but. Well, good. Well, when you're ready. We'll think it over a little more. We could. Think it over. We could send out a bunch of trail cameras. Or. You used them, obviously. Or another pair of, pair of, uh, Fury. So you leave one in the truck and one on your chest. There you go. One at every turn.

One on your belt. We could even do a regular range finding one for your belt loop. Who knows? So anyway, you get to choose and it could be trail cameras too. I'm being serious about that. So. I know. I appreciate it. Big country down there. All right. It is. Well, we'll let you go. Thanks for taking a few minutes. Okay. Thanks, Tyler. Appreciate it. Congratulations again. Good luck this year in the draws. Drawing an elk tag with zero points. Good luck.

Thank you guys. All right. Keep going to church. All right. Will do. Will do. You betcha. All right. Bye. That's awesome. I'm going to go to church. That's the second. That's the second buck in our magazine that talks about a guy that goes to church. Really? Yeah. Yeah. There's that Nevada or the other Utah buck. That Chandler Whipple. Oh, I want to call him, but I want to save him for another podcast. He's a. I do, though. I know. Well, I actually got him lined up. Let's let's call him real quick. Let's get his story, too. I'm freaking liking this. People want stories. We're good. And I agree. Let's just do one more. One more. Are you guys up for it? Oh, yeah. I mean, I've been. Oh, this one? All right. Well, whatever. Let's do him, too. Well. So, anyway. Let's do this one. And then. We've got two hours. Are we having dinner here tonight or what? No. Okay. No. No.

I'll be in trouble if we do that. You guys signed my paycheck. I'm just here. Josh.

The one thing. All right. Just a real quick interjection. So, a guy comes up at the. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, I down this thing. And so, a guy comes up at the expo. And I think it's Mike Spritzer. But anyway. Which is funny. You're talking about a drink and his last name's Spritzer. I know. Well, I just. Anyway. He was in the booth. Maybe it was Mike with the Spritzer. I don't know. I wrote it down real quick. But anyway. This is like a little true lime packet. You know. And as a kid, you're always told not to take candy from strangers. So, I didn't know how I felt about it. But he says, add this to your white monster. And it's crystallized lime. One packet equals taste of one wedge. Okay. So, I'm assuming a wedge of lime or whatever. Ingredients. Crystallized lime. Citric acid. Lime oil. Lime juice. And non-GMO. No artificial. Preserved. Gluten free. I mean, you know.

Can't hive out or anything.

What more gluten does to people. Gluten's a thing nowadays. No caffeine. What did people do that had an aversion to gluten back when we were young? Just used lots of wet wipes. Did they just die? Anyway.

You put that in. I don't know if you can see this, whoever. But anyway. Yeah. Dude. I put it in. I can't get enough of it. It's mainly flavor, right? There's no like. It's not like a Goody's headache powder. It feels like a salty lime flavor. It's amazing. But Josh did it. Okay. Not like what a margarita is supposed to be. And Josh went and tossed the whole monster. Sorry. Yeah. But I was told this is like putting a salad in your white monster. And it made me feel a little bit better about drinking it. That's why I sometimes supplement with the. What? The V8? The Zip Fizz? The Zip Fizz? Yeah, that too.

Plant-based energy. I'm pretty happy with this stuff. I want to know where to get more. I'm going to Google it and get some Amazon boxes coming. Match the flats that come from Amazon with the white monster as well. Have them on the same delivery schedule. If you came to the Epic Outdoors booth at the Expo, we hopefully you were able to partake on maybe multiple locations. Monsters. Of monsters. Left and right. Free. Stacks of them. There were so many of them at one point they were even all over the floor. But what was funny is I'd go talk to somebody and they'd be like, where's your monster? Nice to visit, but where's your monster? And they were late. A couple of days they were a little bit late. And we're talking. Four o'clock in the afternoon. They were sometimes gone by four o'clock. Yeah. That was frustrating to a lot of people. Sorry. So the next day we brought twice as many. Yeah.

Many of you couldn't go back to the ice. Pretty awesome. But anyway. Pretty fun. Anyway. Do you want to add anything, Josh? Did it do anything bad to you? No. No. Just didn't. You just didn't like it? It didn't do it for you? It didn't taste like a white monster anymore. That's why I drink it. All right. It tastes like a white monster. That's a good point. That's a good point. Let's talk to Dusty. Here's another Utah deer, hard horn, freaking giant with an archery right toward the end of our archery. They'll strip the velvet right toward the end of our archery. Kind of one of them old, giant body, giant headed, sick pigs. Anyway. Pretty awesome story. I don't want to take too much time. And Dusty's, you know, he'll make it short. He's not a man of too many words. I'm going to probably have to pull it out of him a little bit. He's very humble and quiet. But let's give him a holler.

Hello. What are you doing? I don't know. Just got home from work. I'm trying to fix up a truck that's broke down. Oh. Oh, yeah. I forgot. Tell us about them. Come on. Hey. Tell us about them awesome Toyotas. Yeah. I don't know about them, really. Ball joints. No. You've had ball joint problems. But you fix them usually before they break off, right? Well, I try to. But, man, it seems like this one I can't keep on four wheels. Well, Dusty, that sounds like when you were in high school and we were running together way back. Yeah. I remember a Toyota that I used to have, a Toyota Tacoma. It was green. And I ran it. Yeah. A little green one. I ran a rag and I went to trade it in. And the dealer's like, man, I think this truck has more air time on it than it does dirt time. And he was right. Dusty was hard on stuff. I've never. Dusty was hard. You guys think I'm hard on stuff? Nothing.

I don't know. I don't know about that.

Dusty jumped trucks on purpose. Dusty, tell me. You jumped trucks on purpose. We all done dumb things when I was young, didn't we? If you can't tell, you're on the Epic Outburst podcast, by the way. Oh, wow. I guess the value of this truck just went down. Were you going to sell it, Dusty? Dude, I'm getting rid of it. I can't keep it going. Yeah, fix that thing on Tuesday or Monday. It's for sale. But I thought it was. Leave the state to sell it. I thought this was a clean one owner forerunner, wasn't it? Yeah, it was a clean one owner. But, dude, I was broke down so much this year. I mean, I had the right front wheel fell off of it. The ball joint went out. That's normal. I had a client coming in like that night. So I had to go get my other truck. And, anyways, got it replaced like a week later. And it wasn't another week. It happened again. And threw another ball joint. It's normal.

I see more photos. Have you ever seen a Ford Dodge or any other Chevy with the tire flat? The truck sitting there. Seriously, the tire just tilted over on its side from ball joint issues. Probably haven't seen a lot of Dodgers or anything like that on dirt roads either. Oh. Oh. Good comeback, Dusty. Good comeback. Shots fired. Shots fired. Hey, you've been in mine. It's been run hard. All right. Yep, for sure. So how did you blow the engine? I went out. Yeah. Out bucking snow here a couple weeks ago. Well, it's either that or walk 25 miles home, right? Exactly. You're going to keep it hammered down. Give it all it got. That was it. I mean, there was no phone service or anything. And I was out of antifree. So I was stuffing snow down in the radiator to get enough water to get back to the road. And I ran it a little too hot, I think. Okay. So there you go. Now I'm fine. So, okay.

That explains a lot. I thought you just, I thought the engine gave out through a rod and it had nothing to do with you other than horsing it. But really, you ran it out of water. You ran it out of antifreeze. Yeah. I ran it out of antifreeze. And then. Did it have a hole in the antifreeze? No. Or in the, excuse me, in the radiator? No. I dumped a bunch of bottled water in there and got back to the way of the road. And it started puttering out on me. And I had to call the old man to come and hook a chain on me and pull me home. And now I'm just trying to pressure attach the radiator and stuff. I think I've got like a blown cylinder head or something like that. Jeez. Okay. Well, well, you were asking, let's see. Well, are you just going to jump into a ZR2 or what are you going to do? That's a little above my pay grade. Oh, come on. All I've heard is how these Toyotas have high resale value.

They do. It's the one vehicle I've never lost money on is any Toyota you ever buy. Dusty will make money on this truck. You wait. Yeah. Yeah. I'll probably make money and I won't even run.

Oh. All right. Well, let's see. You've killed a number of big deer in your life. Nevada, Utah, namely. I mean, you know, a few other places. Of course, you've hunted them really hard. Killed this old, archaic, freaking, you know, donkey-headed giant and just kind of wanted to get the story on him. Right. Yeah. I know we, as you guys all know, we had a lot of rain and moisture this early spring and in the summer and stuff. Just had some hunts planned. So I didn't think I was going to have much time to hunt, but we could run trail cameras until that July 31st or whatever. And I got some pictures of the buck and never had him before. I've had cameras on these springs before and never had the buck. So he kind of just moved in there. And I thought, man, he's probably just passing through or something. I won't see him again.

Obviously pulled down the trail cameras and just kind of started hunting elk with clients and had a break in between hunts and went back to the water holes where it was kind of not a natural water hole, but like a rain filled, just kind of a little mud puddle pretty much, a big mud puddle. Jeez. And seeing the deer tracks coming in there and I'd brush them out and come back and check them a little later. And sure enough, the tracks were there and it was consistent. It's interesting that you did that knowing we can't run cameras anymore, but you were brushing tracks out daily to get a feel for when he was and even a couple times in the day to make sure he was coming in on the daylight hours. I thought that was interesting. There was a couple times like I would go up in the glass in an area about 10 or 11 o'clock in the morning. I thought, you know what, I'm just going to brush them out.

Then I'll stall back by on the way back out of here about dark and see what's up. And sure enough, there'd be tracks there. And I'm like, dude, he had to hit like during the daytime or right before dark. Cause I was only 15 minutes after dark. And so I'd done that for like two, two days and it was consistent coming in there every day. And I'm like, man, it's gotta be him. It's a big track. So I just thought I'm gonna throw a blind up here. Usually most guys will throw a blind up in advance and have them get used to it and all this crap. Threw a blind up and yeah. And like this scene in the, in the story set in there the first night, not expecting him to come in and pretty, pretty hot and drowsy. And he come in, I wasn't ready. And he, uh, surprised. Yeah. He just, uh, heard me or seen me or got a glimpse of me and got out of there.

And usually big deer like that don't give you a much of a second, second chance again. But I, uh, got back in there. What was it? Two days later, the next, next night. And like within like three minutes of when he come in the day before, he come right up over there and come over top of a little, little berm into the water hole. And he was there and I was ready for him. So. So awesome. While you were, while you were not sitting in the blind, Josh is wondering if you had a blind buddy in there. Did you, did you, maybe that helped him get used to the presence of a being in the blind. And therefore, when you got back in, it was like, nah, that thing doesn't hurt me. Yeah. I look like Dusty's blind buddy. Or did you ever have the urge to urinate and couldn't and need some help there? That's kind of what we've moved on to. Jeez. Good grief. So anyway, no blind buddy, I guess.

That's what you call an impromptu hunting tactic, Dusty. I mean, find some tracks during a hunt. Yeah. No, no choke camera. No proof positive of what is making them. Just a big donkey track. A mature blocky track. And obviously, I knew a buck was in the area from a month prior or whatever. Yeah. Right. Pretty cool. I mean, it can happen. So he comes in, take us through the shot, and then how he died and where he died. I mean, he was, I was pretty much ready as soon as he come over top of that bank. And I could see his horns before he even come over top of the bank. So I was kind of in position, ready to draw back. And I could come over top of the bank and walk down to this puddle. But I mean, it was probably like 30 yards across this. It's like a dry pond that was filled with water. And so he comes down, and he's facing me like head on.

And I'm like, okay, when he puts his head down, I'm going to draw back. And then he's got to turn broadside to get out of here. And drew back. And I mean, as quick as I drew back, he threw his head up, and his ears were perked up. And I mean, it was 30 yards. I'm like, I'm going to aim right in the middle of his chest and just freaking thump him. So yeah, he raised his head, and I was already drawn back and thumped him right in the chest. And I mean, right then, he come running like right towards me across the pond. I'm like, dude, he's going to come right in here with me. And I had like seconds. So anyways, he comes, and there's some tall sage and stuff around there. And he comes like literally probably, I don't know, 15 yards outside my blind. And I can hear him like gargling. And I could see blood shooting out of his chest when he come across the pond at me.

And yeah, I mean, it wasn't less than five minutes. He was, I could hear him outside kicking. I mean, I could almost hear the dirt like hitting my blind. I mean, he was right there. Jeez. Crazy. Didn't have to track him. No. Didn't have to track him. Walked out of the blind and backed the truck up to the pond and was gone. Wow. So. Wow. Pretty awesome. Usually don't happen that easy. No. But this is toward the end of the season. He'd already stripped the velvet. And that's the one thing is, you know, Utah archery season's good. 28 days. Yeah. It's a long old season. Yeah. And so, you know, as the season goes along, was it toward the end? I can't remember exactly when it was. Yeah. It was like September 8th or something like that. So. Yeah. So then towards the end of the season, there's just not a lot of people out there either. People are wore out and spent a lot of time.

And they're at home fixing ball joints and stuff like that. Right. Anyway. Right. Exactly.

All right. Pretty awesome. Utah general. That's the thing. I mean, you can get points, you know, for the general as well as a limited entry hunt, as well as dedicated hunter. So you could get, you know, three different points and different categories of tags. And this was just the regular old general. Yeah. Yep. For sure. So. So it's pretty awesome. Never know. It's awesome, Dusty. Congrats, as always. Be at the right place at the right time, I guess. Spend a lot of time out there. So. And you got to sometimes take a weird, not even a gamble. Just try a weird tactic every once in a while. And it pays off. We've all done them and they haven't paid off. But this one did. Right. It seems like after you spend so many days out there, you're bound to be the right place at the right time. One day out of the 150. So. Don't say 150. Does your wife listen to this podcast? No.

I had to walk outside and wait for her for a minute to go. Because your math came up to about 60 and her math said 140. And now you said 150.

Right. Your wife and my wife all talk. And that's not good either. All she knows. That's not good. She's closer to her math than your math. That's all. That's all I know now. I don't know. Right. Appreciate your time. And we're all licking our chops for better moisture this year even. So hopefully we can get good tags. Anyway. Sounds good, guys. Thanks a lot. Thanks, Dusty. Okay. We'll see you. All right. Bye.

Good stuff. Jeez. I think that's part of hunting is just being able to adapt. And a lot of guys just don't. I mean, it takes a little bit of everything. You never know. He's used to looking at tracks. He's used to glassing. He's got eyes like I've never seen. I mean, the one thing I've learned about Dusty when we hunt together, it's like he'll get up on a knob or whatever, and he looks with his bare eyes. So he'll look around with his bare eyes. I never was in the habit of just looking. I was always like, well, if you don't glass it up in binos, you're not going to see it. You know what I mean? So he'll take some time and just look, and he's just got great eyes. Anyway, he's a hard hunter, so it's pretty awesome. Pretty great story. So, all right, Bronson, what else we got? Not much. I just did want to give a little shout-out to the folks of San Juan County, though,

that KUTA 790 has been off the air for 20 years, but I do remember that. Did you Google that? Well, no, I just making sure it wasn't 710. My mind was a little bit losing its sharpness as I approached the big – Is that what you used to listen to in the Jeep? Well, Rush Limbaugh was on 790. You know what I mean? That was KUTA. The open-air Jeep with 790 on. You probably couldn't hear it rolling down the highway with the open-air Jeep because those radios were sucked in those Jeeps. I know. So you had to have the windows up and tight air and going about 30 or less before you could really hear it. But, yeah, voice of the canyon. That what – oh, I mean, that San Juan deer story. So he talked about bears, lots of small, ugly bears. I was on there this year, and the funniest thing, I'm driving down the road, and this bear squirts out of the brush, and, I mean, he's hauling.

He hauls across the road, and there's this, like, four-strand barbed wire fence.

He's going full bore. And I'm like, okay, you know, this will be interesting. He hits that bottom strand and piles up. It stops him cold. He doesn't even get through it or nothing. It stops him cold, and then pretty soon he embers and gets underneath of it, and off he goes. But I'm like, holy cow. He left some DNA on there. You stop and belly laugh. You stop and belly laugh. I mean, I felt back, so you know he's feeling it. But it wasn't – I mean, bears don't have good eyesight anyway. But I'm thinking, you know that fence is there, Boz. You live here. I wonder if it's because he was under the influence of theobromine. What's that? Which is actually toxic to bears. Oh. Is this the chocolate? Is this the chocolate? Let's talk about that for a minute. Is that now illegal? You can't bait bears with chocolate? Can't have any cocoa. Can't he have any cocoa powder, any chocolate derivatives,

or what is the chemical compound called, Josh? Well, it's theobromine. Whoa. That sounds like you don't want to eat that. But if it's chocolate, it's – Only trace levels can be toxic to bears. Really? Wow. That's what it says. Wow. Huh. Well, I know dogs aren't supposed to eat it, but I know it happens when dogs eat chocolate. It doesn't even kill them, but you have a lot to clean up around your house. But – I just don't know. I mean, how many bears – How many pounds of chocolate have bears eaten over the years? No, I'll see. I don't know. And they've been just fine. But if a bear can eat a duffel bag of cocaine and live to tell them, I mean, what can chocolate – Have you not seen the advertisement of this movie? Cocaine bear. Come on. I haven't seen it. It's a TV – it's a movie. It's in theaters. There is a movie. I guess I need to go. Called Cocaine Bear.

Me and Devin were talking about it this morning. We're like, could you see this? It's legit. I watched the trailer on TV and I told my kids who the freak would come up with a TV or a movie about a bear that eats cocaine. And it's a true story. It is? Yeah. Google it. And did he live? Oh, he killed – I think he killed some people. Well, probably – Huh? Tell him. He killed people? Well, it was a – I think a drug. He snorted it. Probably just breathed it. He ate it. He ate it. I know, but while you're eating it, he's breathing. Well, it doesn't matter if you – You know he's just ingesting that. And he turned into a raging – He did. He was fired. Like some drug runners or something. Yeah. We're dumping them. We're throwing duffel bags out. This is the south. I want to say – hey. Black bear. I'm not going to make a retraction. I'm just telling you, I'm not making a retraction.

This is a true story. I want to say Georgia, but if it didn't happen in Georgia and it was South Carolina, Mississippi, I don't know. It was in the deep south. Tennessee. Okay. Say it. Okay. Thank you. So it's a big black bear. Yeah. They have big bears. Okay. Keep going. Just let him read it. Smoke some people. Read it. The cocaine bear, also known as Pablo Escobar. Pablo. Pablo. I mean, this is already going to get pulled from the air. No, it's not. It's in theaters right now. It was a 175-pound American black bear that overdosed on cocaine in 1985. The cocaine had been dropped by drug smugglers in the wilderness in Tennessee. The bear was found dead in northern Georgia and was stuffed and displayed in Kentucky. 2023 film Cocaine Bear. I knew Georgia was in there. He hurt people or no?

Not so sure. It looks like he kills people. Yes. Of course. He comes after hikers and stuff in the movie. It's in the theaters. Okay. Go watch it. I'll bet it's up for an Oscar. I might, actually. We'll see. Anyway, so. It'll be out free on VHS tape. Yeah. So, I mean, here we are protecting them from a little cocoa powder spread over popcorn at a bear bait. And they can eat a duffel about a cocaine. A trace portion can hurt them bad, kill them, whatever. We can find out, Logan. It's not true. In real life, the cocaine bear didn't kill any people. It just was going crazy and died in Georgia. You cannot hurt. He OD'd? It's significantly different. He did OD. Yeah. It said he had three to four grams of cocaine in his bloodstream at the time of his death. I wonder if that's a lot. That's a lot. Would you know? Is that a lot? That's a lot. I don't know. It is. Isn't like 450 grams a pound?

That's not very much. I snort a teeny little line of it. Get you there. Logan, Google how many grams are in a pound. 454. In the meantime, Bronson, let's give away. Let's do a Bronson bundle. Oh, yeah. Let's do a Devin deal. He's not here. All right. Let's do a Devin deal. We'll write the check and he's got to cash it. Well, everybody that wants it needs to call Devin. 453. Oh. 453. I was one off. Jeez. So what have we got a fair amount of maybe after the expo that we could make a good deal of somebody on, Josh? I mean, we sold a lot of optics. Oh, we did. But what have we got? It was pretty sick. I know loading the trailer and unloading the trailer was two significant things. There was a lot that went in and not as much came out. Yeah. That's right. Well, so what are we going to do? Let's do something with Vortex. Yeah. We've got a lot of everything. You know what?

Since how you're going to be stuck to roads and glassing knobs, you're not going to be able to go do any walking. Oh, as far as during the shed season. Maybe you're going to need a new spotting scope, don't you? Because you've got to be able to, I guess it's probably illegal to spot them. No. Dude, you're encouraging people to go out and glass. I think during the shed closure. What did you read about glassing animals from the road? Was there anything in that news release that said that that was wrong? Jesus says you're not supposed to be doing bad things. Okay. Well. We need to get the fuzz in here. Okay. Let's throw the 18 by, let's do the 18 by 56. These temporary restrictions also apply to looking for horns or antlers still attached to the skull. Play of a deceased animal, you know. I mean, it's not saying yet, you know, 53 feet of walking on your health monitor on the

phone constitutes a, you know, problem. You know, whatever. Want destruction charge. Right. Right. So anyway, having said that, let's do a Devin deal. Yes. Devin deal. We're going to give away a tripod. Devin really likes those Vortex tripods. Okay. Those are kind of one of his favorites. All right. He also likes, what, the 18? We've got the small one, which is what? Yeah, the Summit Carbon 2. Yep. Summit Carbon 2. Small Vortex tripod. We've got, I think we've got a couple of the Ridge View, which is the taller one. The bigger size. Let's do a G18 camera. And what else? Well, we can do. Let's do a. We've got some. We've got two. Razor HD. Yeah. 85 millimeter spotting scope. Angled or straight. We've got some of both of those as well as 18 by 56. 18 by 56 binoculars. Razor UHD binos. Either one of those. You buy one of those. You buy the spotting scope or the binos.

Get the tripod and two cameras for free. I don't know. How many cameras do you want to get, brother? Jeez, dude. Well, I mean, hey, let's make this a deal. We're writing the check. Devin just has to cash it later. Trail camera season's back in. So maybe, I don't know if it's lawful to use trail cameras for shut hours either. No, in Utah it is. But, yeah, better be careful. Not spook something coming going from checking your cameras. A lot of people don't even shut hunt anyway. So who cares? Anybody can do the Devin deal. Let's do this 18 by 56 or the Razor HD 85. Straighter angle. You buy that from us. You buy that. We'll get thrown in the tripod. And how many cameras, Carter? You get the final say on the cameras. Two cameras while supplies last. Okay. Let's do two G18s or whatever, right? Yes. QS18. QS. Why do I call it G32? Yeah. Yeah, let's do the QS18. This is literally why supplies.

We're not talking dozens of these people. Well, and then when we run out of those, if, I mean, hey, why not throw in a 20? 120. We know where Logan works. We can get back in here and talk about it on another podcast about a new Devin deal. Okay. All right. Do it up. Let's finalize it. We'll have a small shipping charge, you know, obviously, but let's do it. You could have two or three different boxes there. But, hey, we just got cameras left over. You get free tripod and two free cameras. Come on. Yeah. Do it. All right. Good grief. We're talking those are like $400, $300, $400 tripods. Dude. I don't know what cameras are. Cameras are bonuses. I mean. Anyway. What you guys are doing. Hey, let's do it. You don't want to call. Over $500 free easily. Our number is 435-263-0777. Ask for Devin. Ask for Devin. All right. Not really. If he's on the line.

QS-18s, the QS-18s, and then once we're out of those, we'd give one, you know, QS-20s. Those come with batteries and a 16-gig card and the tripods and wild supplies. Sound good? We good? Yeah. I think it sounds good. Okay. All right. Done deal. Ask for Devin. Devin will have it. And we'll do it. Wild supplies last. First come, first serve. Logan, when's this going to go live? This podcast? Yeah. This podcast will go live tonight. Will it? February 8th. We're going to need Janet to listen to this one maybe. Really? Talked about the coyotes at the front.

This podcast will go live in two days. Tomorrow, probably. Anyway. All right. Whenever it goes live, it's fine. Devin will be ready. Smoke a pair a day. I'm still disgusted. You didn't kill them both. But anyway, let's see. We'll have Janet go over it. We'll get it out there. And then Devin will have Devin's deal on his desk. Give us a holler. 435-263-0777. Of course, we're cranking out publications like it's our job. February issue came out. It covers New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah, as well as Nevada Guide Draw. If you need help, let us know. We're here to help you. Of course, you need to join. You can visit with us all you'd like. We can help you square up for the year, figure out your plans, short-term, mid-term, long-term goals, and get things going. If you need outfitters of any sort with guaranteed tags, of course, we do that, too. We apply guys. Apply guys left and right.

Guys that are not wanting to do it themselves. Of course, we have that service as well. So, anything Western big game, that's what we do here at Epic Outdoors. We're giving away optics deals like it's our job. Go ahead, Josh. Oh, I guess while we're there, we did give away that little ATC spotting scope up at the Expo. Oh, we said we were going to do that on the last podcast. The first one that comes in buys one, and then we get it. Gage from Ogden was the lucky man to get that. We were giving that away if you bought some optics as well as signing for our membership. Probably the hardest individual optics piece to get right now. Yeah, he lucked out on that one. ATC or STC. Yeah. It's extremely hard. Yeah, he lucked out there. But now's a good time. I guess you've got until the end of the month to sign up for our entry deadline for Epic Hunt and Gear Giveaway. Get signed up today.

You can buy some extra tickets or sign up for a new membership. You'll get a free ticket. If you're smart, you'll refer a friend and get another one in for every friend. I like it. We're giving away dang near $200,000 in hunts and gear. We've got our optics and gear package is a rifle and a bow as well as a stack of optics. It's unbelievable. I haven't seen anything like it. I had a guy assume that it was a bow or a gun. No, it's both. Pretty impressive. Anyway, we've got stone sheep, goat. Mountain goat, elk, mule deer, more elk. More mule deer. More mule deer. And so pretty awesome. Some of this stuff, we don't get excited unless it's stuff we do ourselves. And so we're not talking about just guys calling up and giving us a free hunt to advertise their hunts or something. We paid cash for these. And anyway, it's pretty impressive. No coyote hunts in the rut in here, that's for sure.

No Chris Lacy hunts. Although we should give away a hunt with Chris Lacy. Maybe include an art drawing of yourself. Artist rendition. Whatever you want. One of your trophies in the field. He's pretty impressive. Chris Lacy. Google him. Of course, you can always hit me up and I can give you his contact info. Anybody out there that's wanting custom artwork, we appreciate him letting me. I haven't even asked him. I didn't even know we were going to talk about him. Bronson, you brought him up. Well, you said we should find an artist or somebody that has pictures of us with tags flowing out of our pockets. We have so many tags. But I mean, we know a lot of ours. Ransom on, Brent Todd. I mean, who? Good. Grieve. Lacy can do that in four minutes on a napkin. He can. On the back of an Applebee napkin. And he's a good friend of ours. And so I'm glad we did. It just didn't even know.

Sometimes you just don't know where these podcasts are going. We apologize for that. But we also maybe hopefully you realize we're just dudes sitting around a campfire. We're just dudes. We don't have a campfire, but it's kind of what it's like. I like the ambiance in here, though. Yeah. It feels like we come in here. Logan's got it all set up. The lighting's. Anyway, it looks like somebody cares about this office. I don't always like it until after the fact we find out that we were videoed the whole time. Well, Bronson's over here making noises and gestures. Good grief. Remember, you're on video now.

Well, I just, you know, if I want to rest my hand somewhere, I don't know. Probably ought to be careful. I don't want to look up and, you know, wave hi, Mom over there. You know, I just like to. It used to be we have faces for radio, and I thought that's how we operate, but it's not the case anymore. No, I know. Now we've. Kind of disgusted. I've got to comb my hair before I come in here. You do all right. I think you're all right.

Whack your bald head there. I don't know. I don't know. I've never been bald. I guess I was. We did shave our heads when we were in high school. Swimmer. All right, guys. That's about it. Let's call it a day. We're going to try to do stories more often. I like it. I like it. Passes the time in the winter, too. It does. There's not as much to talk. No scouting going on. No hunting going on. No shed hunting going on. There's just a lot of applying. A lot of talking about applying. A lot of planning. We'll talk about what happened in the last year, too. You know what I like about the shed season? Arizona guys just love it. Why? Because we all go there. Whoa. Good point. We all go to Arizona. We only live 40, 50 miles from it. Hey. I'm seeing videos and photos of nice, beautiful weather down there, especially in southern half of the state. Maybe it's time we go there. I don't know.

All right, everybody. Call up. Talk to Devin. He's got him. He's got the Devin's deal ready for you. Here we come, Arizona. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of the Epic Outdoors podcast. We just wanted to stop in and give one more shout out and thank you to Dusty White and Tyler Gilson, who showcased their last year's Utah mule deer in the February edition of the Epic Outdoors magazine. Dusty showcased his 206-inch monster of a mule deer, and Tyler had a 228-inch velvet monster that he took with a bow. Once again, we just wanted to say thank you to those two guys and everybody who submits stories and submissions to our magazine. If you want your story or your photo showcased in our magazine, feel free to look us up on the EpicOutdoors.com website, hit us up on Instagram, or email us at photos at EpicOutdoors.com.

You're always more than welcome to call us here at our office in Cedar City at 435-263-0777. Thanks for listening to our podcast. We'll catch you next week.