EP 268: 2022 Hunt Winner Mule Deer Stories, Human Trail Cameras, First Deer and Buck Fever!

Anything to do with Western big game.

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

Big Mac, Big Mac. Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, John Peterson coming at you from southern Utah. It's snowing and sunny. Where does it do that? It's blowing in from sideways. I don't know what it's doing. It's so crazy. It's too much sun, but I haven't looked out yet. Bronson, it's sunny on our way walking over to this little room right here. Was it? Yeah. What a difference three minutes makes. I beat you by three minutes. That's what we're dealing with. I don't know. Logan, kind of a nice office you got here. Hashtag spoiled. I know. Probably the nicest office. The Gen Z gets the freaking good office. Right. Exactly. As it should be. Dark and quiet where you get work done. Except for we do get forgotten about when there's birthday parties. Oh, you know what you do? Yeah. Well, Pollock has a birthday. Everybody out there, wish Pollock a happy birthday.

Josh at EpicOutdoors.com. Wish him happy birthday. Load his inbox. But you know what? We didn't mean to forget you guys. Jana's like, oh, dang it. You heard singing? We heard singing. And I was like, well, I guess we weren't invited, Logan. But Bronson, I contend. When we hang up the phone, they probably say, Adam and Jason off the phone, hurry, run in there and start singing right now. That's how it worked. Yeah, there was people that were still on the phone over there. Like, it's just so hard. We don't just shut the phone lines off. The ladies get impatient with us. We're like, quit sending me a call. Yes. Pretty easy. But I contend y'all have had meetings and things that you've done without Adam and I. All the time. It's fair. Frolicking. Last night. Pie, cake, and cookies. You guys haven't slept. We're planning all kinds of stuff.

The good thing is there's plenty of pie and ice cream over there left for today. If you missed it, well, part of it. Oh, no. We came over and we partook. We wanted you to sing happy birthday. So, trust me, you were not left out on purpose. It was nothing private over there. Of course, you could hear it from 14 blocks away. But, hey. Anyway, Josh, happy birthday, buddy. Glad you're with us. Yep. All right. Well, Bronson, as we get started here, I don't know. There's a lot of snow out there. We've been talking about, like, there wasn't a lot of death. Now I can kind of smell it. Northern Utah. Yeah. Yeah. It's getting dicey, I think, in the northern Utah, southern Idaho, southern Wyoming, southwest Wyoming. It's going to be interesting. Utah, I think, this last storm crushed northern Utah dead center. And they were already feeding deer. Yeah.

So, anyway, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. You know, and that's kind of where we're at. It can be a bad thing in three hours northwest. Yeah. That's all it is. Down south, we just don't run the same issues. We have a little bit more melting in between our storms. Yeah. So, we don't pile up all winter long like they do up there. They get inversions. They get other stuff that trap it and just generally cold in. Yeah. And so, southern Nevada, southern Utah, northern Arizona, and Mexico, we keep talking about. We just keep getting it. And it's like, keep selling it. But please track south. Let's just say they have a. Please track south from now on the rest of the year. Yes. Please track everything to the south. I was watching Arizona. They're getting pounded some more. So, but Bronson, let's just say, let's just say that they have a massive die-off and they need transplants.

For northern. For deer. Right? Let's just say. I know. I know. Just for funsies. Right? They need transplants. Where are you pulling from? You're pulling from Oregon and Montana? Because I hear those in the top five states of trophy producing bucks. So I'm just wondering if you would pull bucks from Oregon and Montana, or where would you pull bucks from? Bucks and does and genetics. Huh? A lot of hybridization going on in Oregon. I don't think. I don't think. Okay. So you don't want Oregon? No. Okay. How about Montana? Well, never seen what their genetics can produce in most places because they're dead before they get four years old. Okay. Well. I mean. So. So you're not holding anything against them. You might take up a. I think they are hardy critters in Montana. They're hardy. I will say they're hardy. They're hardy. I think you put them in.

But if I'm pulling to northern Utah, I'm taking some of those eagle, but like some of those burly freaking 300 pounders. I don't know how old they are, but they're a block of meat. They are. They can handle some weather. Huh? Yeah. Yeah. Eagle, Colorado. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. But I don't know. I've got you in a stupor here. Yeah. I threw that out there. I'm sorry. Diswondering. By the way, that was out there on social media. It's not that we're saying Montana and Oregon's great. Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. Well. Okay. That was a dead subject. Okay. We'll keep going. What else we got, Bronson? Well, I guess before we get into the rest of the podcast, why don't we talk about, since this might be the last podcast we do before our next Epic Hunt giveaway that we're doing. Let's talk about those real quick. Okay. Maybe we'll call a winner here or something. All right.

Later on. But let's talk about that. Let's do it. The deadline to enter. We do two of these a year. This is the first one that's coming to an end within the next week. It's coming to an end on February 28th. That's a Tuesday at, what, 1159, John? Technically. Yep. We're not here to answer the phone at 1159. No, but John comes here. I do. He shuts it off. Shut off the... Yeah, you have to do that. But if it's after, say, five or six that night, it's going to be online only, which, frankly, we encourage a lot online. You can call us during the day. You probably received a ticket mailer in the mail. You can mail back. You better get it quick. But if you're in jeopardy of that, just wait. Just jump online or give us a call during business hours, 435-263-0777. But let's go through the lineup. Let's do that. It is an incredible lineup.

And not only that, Bronson, you know, and Peterson, I guess. John, what are we going to call you? I need something quick to roll off my tongue. John, that's one syllable. I'm a Carter. Bronson, what do you got? You know what's funny? John. I go around in town or whatever, and people are saying, hey, how's Bronson or whatever? And I'm like, Bronson. The only time that I call you that or anybody calls you that is on the podcast. Well. And so it's funny because I call him Adam. We do over the office side a little bit here and there. But kind of funny. John is a one-syllable name. I know, but I always want to add John. JP. From JP. From Jen's accent. You can do JP if you want. John. Whatever you want to be called, John will call you. What do you want? JP. If you say it's like Devin, we know a few names for Devin. I don't care. He tells us to stop. There's some things Devin won't allow.

He won't allow. So we honor those. We honor those. And Wyatt, too. Wyatt, too. We've tried to give him nicknames and he's completely shut us down. That's right. So we want. You could call me Star. What? You want to be called Sprinkles? Or whatever. John. The ones that didn't stick with Wyatt. I worry about anybody. Just kidding. That asks for the name. Star. It's a joke. It's a joke. Everybody hit John at epicoutdoors.com. Give him your favorite name. Should we put it in Spanish? Estrella. Estrella. I don't know. I mean, it was funny at the expo. I heard from a ton of people that brought up old stuff from the podcast. Like, weren't you the one that crashed in Mexico on your four-wheeler? You know. I don't do. Get your wife back. You're the one that got the black water all over you. And I'm like, holy cow, you guys are going back way back. So, yeah.

Thankfully, you've had many showers since then, John. Since having the old black water splash. Well, let's talk about these a little bit. JP, Jace, Carter, whatever.

All right, bro. Let's start with the stone sheep.

There's nothing that has been accelerated faster in the world of hunting prices than doll and stone sheep pricing in the last two, three years. It's unbelievable. Nothing. Nothing. Here's a hunt that we actually. It's kind of like buying a diesel truck. It's like they're worth way more. Or even a Toyota. They're worth way more after you abuse it. Huh? To some extent, yes. They grow. It's gaining value over the course of inflation. COVID times. Whatever. Well, and it's slightly unfortunate. You know, the sheep world to kill all four North American rams. It was a stretch for a blue-collar working guy before. Now, it's becoming maybe out of reach. Let's say possible, maybe? Yeah. Possibly. Doll sheep hunts are $30,000 to $40,000. I know. And stones are double that. Yeah. Or two and a half times. More. Yeah. And it's unfortunate for the dream. But, hey, I guess.

That's why we're giving it away. What I'm trying to say, we've got one to give away. Yeah. We bought this hunt two years ago. We paid $60,000 for it. The same exact time. This is for Jared doing. And now, some giveaways may not pay full price. Oh, yeah. We paid full price. We paid what you would pay. That's right. What anybody would pay. We just always want to treat our outfitters like, hey, we want to buy your hunt. We don't want a discount. We want the dates we want. We want to book it just as if a stranger called you and booked a hunt. So, we booked this two years ago at $60,000 with Jared Dooling, Dooling Stone Outfitters in the Yukon. It's August 12th to 24th. Next year, 2024. So, you have another year to still prepare for it. Get your butt in shape or whatever. But this same hunt now is $80,000. The exact hunt. With that outfitter. With this outfitter. Same thing.

And there's others that are 90. That's right. Or to 100, 105. 120. It's unbelievable. So, anyway. It's a chance to hunt stone sheep. With a reputable outfitter, Jason and I have been with Jared. He's a great friend of ours. He lives down in the States. He came and played hockey professionally. He's awesome. Met his wife in the States and said, hey, I'll spend the winters here versus Whitehorse. Yeah. That's a good plan. Oh, yeah. It's a good plan. What happens in Whitehorse? Whitehorse. It's kind of like what happens in Mexico stays in Mexico or Vegas or whatever. What happens in Whitehorse stays in Whitehorse. Well, in the winter, man. It's a long winter. It's two or three hours a day. It's done. I felt like Whitehorse here. Negatives? Yeah. I mean, you get up. You go to bed. They're laughing at us. This is spring for Whitehorse. That's right. So, anyway, an awesome opportunity there.

Just goes to show, it's, I mean, and we didn't buy this speculatively thinking, hey, this, but, you know, we give a stone sheep hunt away every year, every other year, and, man, it's just crazy what's happened. So, great outfitter, great opportunity. August of 2024, that's the first hunt. Yeah, we both killed sheep with him. He's awesome. And we've killed moose, both of us. So, anyway, good outfitter, somebody. I mean, we're actually, you know, good friends with Jared. So, anyway, great guy. Here's your chance to get a thin horn ram, a sheep, you know, stone sheep. So, pretty awesome, like Adam's talking about. You just can't get them anymore. And, you know, they've had some tough winters up there in Alaska for Dahl, and we're not necessarily talking about Dahl, but thin horns in general. And it's just the resource, the more finite a resource becomes, it's like everybody's jumping

on board to kill the last one. Well, and you had a two-year shutdown, essentially, in Canada for Dahl and Stone, because you couldn't get in because of COVID travel restrictions. So, then, when that opened up, the floodgates of bookings just hit, just because people were cooped up. And so, outfitters, you know, when they're booked out two or three years, all right, I'm going to raise my price. I mean, that's just... Supply and demand. Yeah. And costs go up. But it's just, it is supply and demand. And in the stone sheep world, especially when you factor BC hunts in, they're on an actual quota from the government. Right. On an annual, on a five-year basis. So, they can only kill so many. Yeah. It's not like they can kill all they want. And you have eight-year-old and full curl restrictions as well. So, you know, anything eight plus is also a ticking, you know, got a ticking clock for

a ram to survive a winter when they get that old anyway. So, you're already dealing with... A ram's got to be eight years old or full curl to be legal. And then you got winter superimposed on them. You want to utilize the resources. You want to utilize your tags. It's a finite resource. And they get to charge what the market will bear. And people are paying it. So, all right. Next up. So, we've got this 2023 Alaska Mountain Goat Hunt. That's with Dillinger River Outfitters. Super good dude. You know, Aaron DeRose runs that and owns that place. And just a good friend of ours. This is kind of a very unique opportunity. Just an awesome opportunity for a guy to go up there and potentially kill just an incredible mountain goat. You know, generally going to be 100% opportunity. It's just one of those rare hunts that a guy is going to be able to kill one and have 100% opportunity.

Guys of pretty much any physical abilities are able to do this one. So, this is an October hunt. A later season hunt. Yep. You know, Aaron and his crew, they work the Alaska Range Heavy for their doll sheep and their moose. When that's over with, they shift down to, I guess we'll call it southeast Alaska generally. For the most. It's a different area. Yeah. So, yeah. You can use some UTVs and things like that. You know, lower, glass the goats. Generally shorter hikes. This isn't a multi-day backpack goat hunt is what Jason was trying to say. You can come back to a base camp every night. You know, have usually a fire tent. You can hunt something like that. You know, things like that if you have to. But it's not a bivouac out, you know, in October in Alaska. So, a broad appeal from people of all, you know, limitations if you want to call age, whether it be your physical.

But it's also the time when you want to kill a goat. You want to kill a mountain goat. You want to kill a good billy and hair him up. October is the time. So, yep. What I like about the hunts we choose, Adam and I and John, you know, and the guys in the office, we're always constantly contemplating what hunts to acquire for our giveaways. We want to be proud of these hunts that we're giving away. And hunts that we would go on ourselves. And that's exactly what we've got going on here. So, next up we've got Nevada Elk Hunt. Nevada Elk Hunt. This is six-day Nevada Elk Hunt with Deadline Outfitters. And this outfitter, I think when I get stories or talk to clients that have been with him, the one thing in common is it's like they love the guy. And they build relationships and friendships that go on forever.

We had, you know, the super tag hunter from last year that said, I spent most of the season with Hobie. So, you know. Well, he did. That was in Idaho. And he guides on both sides. He guides Idaho and Nevada. And Nevada. And he does. He has a lot of repeat clients. I actually had another guy call in, you know. And he's, at times, this time of year, he's hard to get a hold of. They don't have great cell reception up there. And he's hunting lions a bit. And he's out in the field. And this winter's drug on for everybody. It's been great in some areas for lion hunters. In some areas it seems like it's too much snow. But anyway, you know, he's been out and about. And so there's guys wanting to book with the landowner tag. This includes a landowner tag. So, it's a guaranteed tag. With the landowner tag in Nevada on elk, you get to choose your season. So, you can choose your season.

It's a six-day hunt. You can choose archery, muzzle, or rifle for this year. And then it includes your guide fee as well. So, awesome bulls up there. And the 076 to 081, it's got a great reputation, good quantities. Produced great last year, too. We know archers that chase giant bulls then. We had guys that killed big bulls later on their rifle. So, it doesn't matter what weapon you hunt with. That's a hunt that you can pick something to have a stellar hunt. And that is for this fall. And it seems, Bronson, you can, I mean, it feels as though 076 to 081 has been doing better and better. Like, we know of a 400-inch. We've got the photos for it and the story. We've got multiple other 380s that were hunted. And live videos being sent. Like, it's been awesome. And if you go online and you look at the pictures, the picture for that hunt is a hunt winner from us. Right there.

And you might even say it's undervalued compared to the Ely hunts that are double that in cost of landowner tag. Tag alone in Ely is, you know, half again that. So, anyway, let alone guide fee. Pretty awesome. Great opportunity up there with Deadline Outfitters. We're proud to be giving that one away as well. So, all right. We're up here with 2023 Nevada Hunt 231. That is with Muggy on Rim Outfitters, Greg Krog. He's got a super reputation for being one of the best in the industry. Seven days guided with a 231 landowner deer tag. You know, we're touting this as a $21,000 hunt, Bronson. I think it's quite undervalued, similar to what we're talking about with thinhorns. Well, we saw one of those. I think it was the sheep show, a landowner tag only, sold for like $28,000. Tag only. Tag only. Not guide fee. Can't even find one. They're just very scarce this year.

Landowner tags in general is overall deer numbers are slightly down. And these counts are based off of deer numbers in agricultural type situations. And not talking about mature bucks. It has nothing to do with that on tag allocation. So, you know, yeah. You have poor fawn crops for two, three years. Your overall base is a little bit lower. And they get fewer counts. And there's fewer tags. And then sometimes it's just weather conditions and the deer aren't frequenting the fields late season in November when they have their counts. So, you just never know. This year, in general, besides talking about our giveaway, in general, landowner tags were cut by roughly a third across the board. So, there's a lot fewer of them. And, again, when there's so few of them. And you get the moisture building in Nevada like we've had in winter.

And everybody now wants to be there knowing what's probably about to happen. You just, you can't, nobody's giving up a landowner tag. We're hearing from guys that are wanting landowner tags, guys we haven't heard from, you know. The list is. As far as the Nevada side of things for multiple years because of the drought. That's right. And now they're calling and there's just nothing out there to buy. They're already sold. So, yeah. Well, anyway, awesome opportunity. Landowner tag, choose your season again. You can hunt, legally you can hunt all the seasons in Nevada with deer tags, landowner deer tags. But, obviously, with an outfitter, you've got to, you're going to have to choose one. Just part of the game. He's got a schedule to keep. If you wanted to keep hunting, well, you can stay and keep hunting. Choose archery or muzzle. Stay through the rifle hunts. Do whatever you want that way.

The tag is yours. So, we bought the tag and coupled it with Greg. And so, we've actually got the tag in house. Pretty awesome. All right. The next hunt is another September elk hunt for this fall. How do these dates sound? September 25th to 29th. Wow. Sounds awesome. I think it could be a little more prime if it was the 24th to the day. But, I mean, that's as good as you can get. And the unique thing about this hunt on the Acame Reservation, it's within Unit 13 of New Mexico. Of course, the reservation, you have to hunt on the reservation, but it's giant. But, Unit 13 is very well known for booze and great bulls, as is the Acoma. The unique thing about this, September 25th to 29th, if you hunt in New Mexico, you know that there's no dates that allow you to hunt those dates. You're being able to do this because it's on a reservation, and you get to choose any weapon you want.

If you want to take a bow and a rifle and go with the bow for a couple days and pick up a gun, it doesn't matter. It's any legal weapon. You choose your hunt. That's right. You get all the accommodations and a guide and all that. This is also a year I feel, we feel New Mexico is just priming for one of the years that we all really think about New Mexico as being one of the top three or four elk states. We're feeling that. It's going to showcase itself this year. There's no question about it. The nice thing, when we talk about the Acoma, similar to everything else, there's a finite amount of hunts and tags to issue. They've got a waiting list of 180 people right now. They're contemplating changing up the way they divvied those tags out at some point. They're looking at all kinds of options. You just don't want to have this list that is a useless list because you have repeat customers.

Anyway, they're dealing with that. This year, it's just going to solidify that because they're going to kill some incredible bulls. I actually had a guy call in wanting to book a hunt with him and said his buddies killed four incredible bulls with him last year. There you have it. I know there's a lot of demand there. I'm just getting one of these tags like Bronson's talking about, September rifle hunt. If you were to go do that. You could do muzzle or archery. It's like Utah is one of the, I can't even, I mean, late September draw hunt in Arizona, but you can't buy your wind in Arizona. Utah, CWMU, Colorado ranching for wildlife. It's such a unique opportunity to hunt with a rifle those dates, anywhere in the west. There's just a very few limited draw tags in Nevada that aren't, you know, not even realistic opportunities. We don't even talk about it as far as rifle rut hunting.

So, you're right. That's the way it goes. So, anyway, pretty awesome opportunity. We're proud to be giving that away again. You know, Epic's got a spot reserved with the Akamal. We've got a great working relationship with them. We've got a reserved spot for life, hopefully. But, anyway, giving it away to our membership. Okay. All right. Next up, we've got the 2023 Utah Mule Deer Hunt. This is a five-day Mule Deer Hunt with Bucks and Bulls Outfitters, September 1st through the 5th. And that is 2023, like I said. And we had one of the pictures on there is from a member that won this hunt. So, they've been killing great bucks. Yeah. Well, and it's unique, you know, we just mentioned Utah CWMU program for elk that you can hunt them in the middle of the rut late September.

Same program allows you to start as early as September 1st with any weapon on these private ranch hunts that are contiguous, you know, units, basically. CWMUs are contiguous acreage of 5, 10, 50, you know, 100,000 acres. Kind of an island of property. Yeah. It's own set-aside unit. And you get a 60-day window to work your clientele in there. And they, in turn, have to have some public draw hunters available. Those are only available to residents of Utah. This is opening day is what we're trying to say. You can archery hunt a little bit for, what, 10, 12 days before that. But this is opening day with a rifle. All the pre-scouted bucks that September 1st. I love that word, pre-scouted. I do, too. Janet hates it. But anyway, keep going. She wins. She wins some. She won some this last season. I caved. You caved and didn't put pre-scout in there. And I like it. I know exactly what it means.

We've used it. And a lot of people might say scouting and pre-scouting is the same thing. It just feels different. Pre-scouting is like, what does pre-scouting mean to you? Like, scouting could mean anything. The word scouting means to go before it. Maybe I scouted last night. Maybe I did some scouting. Pre-scout means to scout before you scout. Before you scout. Before you actually hunt. Now, just scouting could be a three-year, 14-year process, you know. But pre-scouting is like, I've got a tag and I hit it right before the hunt. Can we go to the printer and change those back to pre-scouting now, John? Only for the March magazine. It's too late. It's too late. Only if you want to put your foot down and not be run over. Well, I think it's important. You have to live with her. I know. I choose to. I think she's amazing. No, I'm just saying. If I ruffle feathers, no big deal.

I go home to a wife that doesn't know that I've, you know, changed. Does your wife ever say, hey, what goes on down there? What do you guys know? Well, what do you mean? Of course. I don't know. Yeah. What do you tell her? Luckily, she's busy and worn out when I get home at night. And so we don't talk about work a lot. What do you tell her? We went and spent time in the Gen Z's office? No. She does ask about podcasts now and then, what we talk about, which most of the time it's nothing. Truly like your wives. Not as interesting to them unless we start talking about them. Yeah. And then they're hyper-focused. We've had people say, we want your wives back on. Yeah. And Jason and I have been reluctant. I've got one. Let's add Jen to the mix. Oh. You have to be honest. Let's do that. Let's do that. Like crazy. Let's do that.

Yeah. She could swear in French. Nobody would even know. Yes. She may. It wouldn't even be the 18-plus-year-olds that could have to listen or whatever. No sense. Jen would be like, edit, edit.

Well, let's do that. Let's plan for that. All right. All that topic got talking about pre-scouting. Yes. Pre-scouting. It's awesome. You're going to smash a great buck. Back to the Utah deer hunting. They will pre-scout your buck. And they will find you one before September. First. This is literally a 190 to 200-inch type deer hunt. It is. A lot of people can say that. That's what it is designed for. But it's that style of hunt. The property is capable. Yep. And the dates are right. That's right. Pretty awesome. Pretty awesome opportunity there. The last one? One of those rare. Rare. It is rare. It is rare. It's just, I guess, mule deer. I mean, I want to sit here and talk about mule deer for about 30 minutes. Are we good to do that? Well, I want to hunt them September 1 to 5 in places just like that. Then I want to hunt them in November in other places. And I want to hunt them.

You know what I mean? This is one of those that it's a rare opportunity. What other places are you talking about? Should we dive into that? What's your schedule look like? Well, maybe we'll get to that after. All right. Keep going. After this. I'm glad we talked about some things. No kidding. Not all. Before we move on, I think just to round out what makes us different and this giveaway different is every hunt is. I want it. Yeah. Adam, Jason, any of the guys here want this hunt. I remember, Bronson, it's been several years ago they hit us up and they had this unique hunt. And we were like, we want to give that away. And we want to buy a hunt a year for sure. At least one a year. First year, I think we bought a couple because they had them and we booked one with a client and gave one away. But we've kept that spot just like the Akima because we know these are rare and they're top end.

And these are 20. Just to tease it up, maybe should we tease up the next drive? We got that Utah slash yada yada elk hunt with a rifle, yada yada yada. We're going to have one. There you tease it. We're going to have a rifle and rut hunt in Utah in the rut. These are hunts we want. I personally tried to get that tag. Well, I didn't know if you wanted to talk about it yet because at some point you were talking about using it. Well, we're giving away. It may or may not end up. Okay, he's good as a member. With a hot mic, he says that. So Jana knows definitively he's not contemplating spending that kind of money. She knows what kind of money we're talking about. She knows everything. I keep nothing from her. How about you guys? How about you guys? Have we talked about recent purchases of guns or fierce rifles that have come and left? Does she know you're going to Canada in November?

She does. Okay. I don't know. She knows all the details. But she will before. I'm just waiting until I do good husband things and then we'll talk about some of those things. Then you'll talk about it. All right. The one other thing I wanted to bring up is it's a big deal and we mentioned it, but we pay full price for these hunts. Oh, yeah. Because we don't want you to have a discounted experience. It's not the last hard to find. And that is common. We'll trade this hunt. And then it's like, well, let's put them with my cousin. You'll still be responsible for the tip. But, Bronson, some people don't pay tips.

That's a sore subject.

Yeah. Hey. It's only happened once in my life. Once. Really? We're still talking about it, apparently. Maybe. Well, we don't have to. It has left an impression. Over, I don't know, 150, 200 clients. So it doesn't happen often. Yeah. And it was well-deserved, actually. I mean, being tipped would have been well-deserved. Phenomenal. Yeah. So anyway, all right. Keep going. You are responsible for that. The last hunt or giveaway is a package. We just thought we've given a lot of optics away before as maybe a bonus item or things like that. We thought, let's just do a package this time that's just awesome gear. And this one is awesome. Awesome. That's right. We're giving away a bunch of stuff, gun, bow, and optics. The optics include a Swarovski 95 spotting scope. You can pick angled or straight on the ATX or STX eyepiece. Vortex Fury 5000 range-finding bino. Leica 3500.com rangefinder.

A Zeiss Conquest V4 6-24x50 rifle scope. A Hoyt RX-7 bow. And a Fierce Twisted Rival in your choice of caliber. So that's a $13,000 package. Gun, bow, binos, rangefinder. I just don't think this package is getting the love. I just don't feel like it's getting the love that it deserves or that we thought it would get. But we're talking a rifle, basically a custom rifle. Rifle and a scope. And a scope to go with it. And a bow. You know what bows cost nowadays? We throw the rings in. Gen Z, what do bows cost nowadays? Like, what, $1,800? Yeah, there you go. For a good one. And you picked up a good bow the other day? Oh, yeah. I got so lucky. Okay, to compare, when you started bow hunting, Jason, how much did you pay for your first bow? Mine was a recurve. I strung it by putting it between my legs and flexing some weird stuff. Mine did not. Mine was not. Mine was a carol bow.

Carol out of Moab. I had one of those. That was my first compound was the carol from Moab. And retail price on that? You know what, the paint job, picture this. You know the aspen leaf? And not the dark one, the light, right? Aspen leaves? Yeah. Mine was aspen leaves and bright, bright green. Like, I'm like, what was this? It glows in the dark. Green and gold. I remember, I shot, I shouldn't even talk about this stuff. Yeah, I had a big old corkscrew dropper. So, I remember I was, it's a human trail camera. We're going to come back to that. A human trail camera is a good story. This is a good story. Let's keep going. So, anyway, this optics and weapons package, come on. I mean, you know, bows legitimately, I mean, and guys upgrade like yearly. I've never seen anything like it. But, anyway, bow, rifle, and a stack of optics. Like, Bronson, you read them off. But, anyway. It's awesome.

I don't know what to say. And it's real. It's hair. It's in-house. It's not getting the love it deserves. I know that. That's right. It isn't. And we do, usually do one hunt every time. It's a little bit of a different rotating. This is a package that we've not done before like this. So, anyway. All right. And then we're doing one bonus. The bonus this time is if you spend, if you buy the $500 package. The only way to get a ticket in for the bonus entry is to buy the $500 package. We've given away a bunch of optics. We've given away a 231 tag in the past under that. But we decided to do it different. Let's just give away a credit for 10K to any hunt that you want through one of the outfitters that we help you find your hunt for. If you have a dream hunt, whether it's, if it's $30,000, you know, moose hunt or something like that. We'll write 10K to the outfitter. 10K to the outfitter.

We'll pay your deposit. If it's a $10,000 mule deer or elk hunt, we'll write the check to the outfitter and you go do the hunt. Whatever that is, that's what it is for the bonus hunt. If you spend $500 and you get your 30 entries to splatter over the other stuff we've already talked about and one into the bonus. Even if you book a big ticket item, you know, through Epic Outdoors here and the hunt's to occur two or three or four years down the road, we'll write the check and get your initial deposit on file. So anyway. Awesome. And I don't, we haven't talked about how to get tickets. tickets. So this is a membership drive. So if you, you can, you can purchase tickets, but also if you join our service, then you get a free entry. And if you refer somebody that joins our service, you get a free entry. So there's a way to kind of work it.

If you have a buddy, you both join and you both refer each other. You could both get tickets. Or if you've got your buddy that borrows your magazine every freaking month and you're like, don't want him to come to your house anymore every month at the deadline night. And he needs to borrow your Mac. That probably happens a lot in Utah. Yeah. So, you know, get him to join, get a name in the hat for it, and maybe get a chance. Maybe just buy him a membership. Yeah. Buy him a membership and stay home.

We're joking. Leave me alone. Quit stealing my magazine. Anyway, or you can purchase tickets. One ticket's $25, $5 for $100, $10 for $200, or $30 for $500. And with the $200 package, you can get either a knife or a lighter personalized Epic Outdoors on it, and then a $500, you obviously get the bonus. Ticket for the hunt credit. All right, Bronson, where does that bring us? I don't know. Do you think we've done this before? Is there, let's call somebody that's won one of these hunts, I think, last year, year before. Okay. Let's do that. Let's call this Michael Melling. He won the Colorado Milder Hunt with Garvey Brothers. And just see what he has to say. I don't know. About his experience. I think he had a great experience. I mean, he mentioned he did. Super appreciative and whatnot. Those are the kind of reports we like to get back.

I don't know anybody that's gone that's had a bad experience. That's for dang sure. Well, part of it is because of the type of quality hunts we buy and the outfitters we buy from, too. Right. Not you're setting it. We want it to be set up for success. Right. 100%. Here we go.

Is it windy out there? You can hear that.

Hey, Mike. How are you? Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, John Peterson. How are you? Hey, guys. How you doing? We're just done talking a little bit about membership drive. The deadline being next week on the 28th of February. And I thought it would be a good idea to give you a call. You were a past winner. And tell us, I guess, about your spirit. You won a Colorado mule deer hunt. I think it was just last year when you actually went on the hunt with Garvey Brothers in Unit 61. And take us through from, I guess, the time you got the call and how the hunt went and all that. Well, yeah, it's pretty exciting getting that call saying that you're a winner. I never expected that. In fact, I almost didn't apply in that drawing. It wasn't until the night before that I applied, I think. So, just made the deadline there. Wyatt likes to be on top of the pile.

Wyatt thinks you're on top of the pile if you apply last. He thinks that. So, you just reinforced his strategy. But what is Wyatt really drawing?

That's right. Good point. He thinks it and he always does it. But he hasn't. Whatever you do, I'm following you. You've drawn some stuff. Well, we both have. But I don't tell you about everything I don't draw. You just find out when I do draw something. Right. But anyway, last night you got him in and then, of course, it probably then was only a matter of three or four days by the time we did the draw and called you, right?

Right, right. So, got the call and then I had already drawn a Colorado mule deer tag that year. So, I had to figure out how to turn that back in and restore my points and everything like that. You guys helped me through that process. And, you know, I touched base with Dustin a couple times up until the hunt in November. Really, really good guy and wasn't really sure what to expect, though, not ever being on a guided hunt. So, that was kind of the cool part. First time guided hunt. So, that was a really cool experience. But we get to town there and meet up with all the guys at his house. And, you know, it's kind of almost intimidating a little bit, me being, I was the youngest guy in camp, I think. There's a lot of, you know, guys in their late 50s, 60s, even 70s there. Well, the hunt takes, you know, 15 plus years to draw if you dry the tags. Those guys were applying in their 20s.

Right. You bypass the system with the landowner tags. Yeah. So, that was kind of a cool experience. I wasn't sure how they'd take the young kid in camp, but kind of made friends with them and told great stories in camp and that sort of thing. So, we all got along just fine.

And, but Dustin, so from Dustin's house, we head up to the mountain. He's got another, like, deer camp up there.

I don't know, half hour, 45 minutes from his house there. And that's where all the guys stay and hunt out of. But, really nice place to stay. They had food, really great food there. Veggie, three meals a day, snacks, whatever you wanted. So, that was a cool experience. All the, all the guides were really cool. So, they had a bunch of guides. And every day you would switch off a different guide. So, you might go somewhere one day with one guide. The next day get teamed up with another guy and go to a different place. So, that was kind of a cool deal as well. Huh. Yeah. But, just a number of bucks and bigger bucks than I'm used to seeing in Washington. It just blows your mind, you know. You see bucks all over the place. So, it's a really cool place to hunt. You're not a, you're not a, you don't have, you're not known as a top five mule deer state up there in Washington?

No. I didn't know. There's some, there's been a few big ones in a couple areas. But, anyway, I'm with you. We're following. Exactly. So, you know, so a couple guys shot deer the first day. And I think I was the third guy to tag out on the second day. And probably, probably my biggest buck. Not a, not a super record buck or anything like that. But I was super happy with them. Awesome. Come up hiking around the corner with one of the guides. And kind of see this buck. And all you see is antlers past the ears. And I'm, I'm happy. The deer's dying. Right now.

Oh, that's awesome. But it was kind of a, one of those quick decisions you had to make. Because he was about to get out of the country. Yeah. So, had him at 150 yards or so and made the shot there. Awesome. Yeah, you've got to make a split second decision on those. Once you, if you were to pass a deer, you may not see him again. And that's kind of that late season Colorado. You just, you know, they're moving around. Pretty rudder rut. And it's like not, they're not just living and eating in the same spot every day. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Part of me wishes I would have waited. But, you know, I, I can't second guess myself. And I'm, I'm super happy with the buck. Well, Adam and his brother in that same area, or unit. Adam, Adam, remember years ago you guys were hunting and you guys were on to like a 210 buck and you saw him? Yeah. My brother had a tag that year, third season.

This is 10 plus years ago. And of course, when you're there, it'd be like, it'd be like one of you guys, one of your guides still going to look for deer and he sees it. But in this case, I found the deer, I was five, eight miles away from my brother, whatever I was. And it was in the evening. I, you know, last 30 minutes, I had no chance. He couldn't get there in time. And we hunted there for like three straight days. Gone. Never could see the, found the deer. You know, we had me, my dad, brother, just tearing that place apart for three days after and never saw it. He, he was alone, raking brush, you know, acting kind of pre-ready, probably just roaming through there. He had walked on. So you had to kill him that night and, or you maybe didn't kill him, obviously. So you got to be Johnny on it, you know, a lot of times, sometimes you can go back and find him again, but yeah. Yeah.

Totally understand what you're going through when you're, you know, trying, you see an antler through the trees and trying to make it, you know, five second call. But, and like you said, you, you said, Michael, it was your best mule deer to this, to date. Yes, it is. Awesome. Well, that's, that's hard to pass a deer. That's your best mule deer. You know, it just is. I mean, if it's your best deer, it's, it's hard to do that. Well, you know, Mike, I just want to let you know of a couple other mule deer hunting opportunities in our membership drive. We've got a Nevada 231, includes the landowner tag, and Utah, two different states right there. Incredible opportunities. We can even best that one if you want.

I love that, but I put all my eggs in one basket this year and I'm putting for your elk. Oh, did you? Oh, which one? The Nevada one? The Nevada or the Acoma? Yeah, the Nevada one. That's a great one too. It is. And maybe, I don't know what you've killed for elk, but maybe that'll be, if you won that one, a personal. No. Well, okay. It would be your personal best elk. Yeah. No matter what you kill, a cow would be your first.

Yeah, hopefully lightning strikes twice. Oh, people will be mad. I've got you loaded. I dialed your number and it's still loaded from when we called you when you were, you know, when you drew this particular hunt that we're talking about in Colorado. So maybe, maybe I won't even have to load a new number. Maybe we'll just call you again. That's right. I don't know. Crazier things have happened. Anyway. All right. Well, we just wanted to say thanks, kind of reach out to you, know you had a great experience from what you mentioned and sent in a photo and a little write-up on it. We just appreciate that. So anyway, glad you had a hunt of a lifetime. Okay. Well, good luck in all the draws and everything this year and never know, might get lucky twice. Might be calling you toward the end of next week. All right. All right. Thanks a lot. Have a good day. All right. Take care. All right.

You too. Bye-bye. Good times. Oh, yeah. It's awesome, guy. You know? Yeah. You love that. Let's talk about the human trail cam era. It's the best. The corkscrew dropper. I remember the story. I'm sure it came out on a podcast, probably number one, and we're at podcast 280. What are we at? This glowing. We are dang near 270 right now. This glowing green bow that you had in your hands. A glowing green. Glowing green bow. Okay. So the trail camera. And you're in an aspect. The human trail cam, which we need to go back to that, especially the guys in Arizona. They have to go back to being the human trail cam. Yeah. They need to have more kids. You know what cells should be going through the roof? Tree stands. Put all your kids in the trees. Hey. With a video camera. Hey. There you go. Tree stands. There's a positive to living in Utah and have a ton of kids. That's true.

The human trail camera. Yeah. So tree stands. You've got to explain it for people who haven't heard it before. Tree is now, and they just go pick your kids up at night and say, what did you see? Show me your camera. Yeah. At least they have phones now. They have phones. They can take a picture. Back then, what did you do? Back then, you had to develop. You had to film. You had a notebook. You had a notebook. You had a notebook. No, it was a notebook. It was. It was a little like, you know, you take notes. But now all you'd have to do is like this. Yeah. Take pictures. You don't need to take a note. I know. It'd be awesome. Then it was like 10, 15. But the problem is, my kids are too old. They'll say, heck no, I'm not doing that. Well, what are you going to do? You're going to be turned in for child endangerment. There's a swaying in the top of an aspen tree.

I sat in, I don't know how many aspen trees. You know how many I watched fall over while I'm up there? You know what I mean? I mean, dude, multiples. You're just a wide-eyed, what, eight-year-old? How old are you? You're watching a little dirt pit where salt used to be, and you're like, tell me what comes in here. I want to know. Every buck, doe, the time they can. Wow, this salt's getting hit. You know what? I'll be back after dark. You're getting up in that tree. Get in the tree. Tell me every deer that came in and what time, how long they spent there, and if the does were dominant or the bucks kicked the does off. All those types. I had a great childhood. That was one you'd like to forget. Well, that's true. Having said that, he was teaching me, what are the three Ps? Persistence, patience, and perseverance, or something like that. I don't know.

Anyway, persistence, patience, and perseverance, something like that. Anyway, and you know, he did. I can sit in a tree with the best of them. I haven't in a long time. Yeah. But you can't. There's tree stands that are embedded in trees in Southwest Desert. I'm like, I'm in a little cedar tree or whatever. But anyway, so here you are one night, or morning, whatever it was. You're in the tree, and in walks. Corky. Corky. Yeah. Oh, Corky. Yeah. So anyway, we're on the South Mountains, and I mean, just, anyway, I'm up there swaying in an aspen. You're actually hunting, though, now. You're legally hunting, not just a human trail camera. I'm legally hunting. Not. Okay. I'm legally hunting. Don't have any idea what's coming in, because if we did, Garth would have been there. Which is fine. I don't. It is what it is. And this buck comes in with like a 14. I can see it. I can see it right now.

There's some images you have your whole life. Well, and you're close. You don't need mine. Oh, it was on his left side. Comes corkscrewing. It was like a big old corkscrew, and it came down alongside of his face, and I'm like, I am shizzy. I mean, I. What are you, 14 or 15? Oh, whatever. At least 12. At the legal age. I know I was legal. 13, 14. I know I was legal. Whatever that was. And I couldn't get that bow drawn. What do you think? What, 43 pounds? I mean, I could not draw it. Shake and shit. And I mean, I'm like, yeah, I'm going to have to tell Dan. I'm going to tell him I'm an idiot. And a giant came in, and I couldn't pull my bow back. I'm embarrassed. And then he's going to ask you what the deer was, and he's going to say, all right, I'm sitting there tonight. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So that was your one chance. Nothing came in. Nothing came in, Dan.

This bow is getting drawn back come heck or high water. I finally get it back. I mean, I'm just. And it's the deer. Shooting fingers. Shooting fingers. I had calloused fingers. You know how the old men were. You're shooting fingers, kid. You know, you're learning. And it's true. And I had calloused fingers. So anyway, yeah. Yeah. I pulled back. And I'm just. I'm all over that deer. I'm all over him. But I'm like, I kind of. You kind of pick the path. You pick the path. And when the path came roughly around the kill zone, I let her rip. And it bounced. It bounced out off of his hip. It bounced out. Off he went. Did it? I'm all. Dude. No problem. It shot that arrow again. In your mind now, knowing what you know about. Game getter arrows. It was aluminum. Whatever. Yeah. Anyway. Knowing what you know now. How big do you think that deer was? I don't know. If you had to guess.

Like with what your knowledge is now. Three and a half inch. Was he a four by four? Oh. With a corkscrew? Four by four with a corkscrew. Okay. Wow. With three and a half inch eye guards. Probably 19 and a half inches of mass. I'm just looking at him right now. You don't have one of those deer right now. No. You need them all. No, I don't. This would be a very unique collection. It would be. Even Jason Carter. Do you think it was 190 plus? If you had to guess. I mean. Yeah, probably. How could he not be? Well, that's a 176 inch frame with a 14 inch draw there. Yeah. They go backs and. I don't know what to say. It's a massive story. I was shizzing down both legs. I know that. And I still am embarrassed. I was embarrassed. Like. And you know, to kick buck fever took me till I was in my mid to upper 20s maybe. And I finally got so mad at myself. I was like. You know, we put.

How much effort and energy do we put in each of our hunts? Oh. Let alone the dollar figure. We're talking time, energy. We think about it all year round. And then the moment of truth comes. You've. You've prepared for this test. You've prepared for a year. Sometimes five years. Three years. Following a buck or whatever. And you finally get on him. And I just thought, you know. Like I have to pull it together. And it was just. I think it was a lot of it was just getting mad at myself in the field. In the heat of battle. And just be like. You pull it together. You kill him. And now every time I'll start hacking. And I mean. Right after the kill. I'm a mess. I'm hacking. I'm an absolute wreck. With buck fever. After the kill. This reminds me of my first hunt. It really does. It's very similar. I was. We had. We had. You know. It's more common. Our dads. I guess both salted. Back in the day.

Back when you could do that in Utah. And hunt over it. And. You know. For bow hunting. Back then. I think you could hunt. You could hunt. It was like dedicated. You could hunt archery. And if you didn't kill. You could hunt the rifle and muzzle of the laders. Like. You didn't. You didn't have to choose. You wiped your rear end with tags back then. Yeah. Like they were. Tags were for whoever wanted to buy one. And I was 14. And. And I remember. There was this spot. And it was not even a salted. It was just a livestock salt. But we were packed in a couple miles. And there was this livestock salt there. That we always knew. You would always. A trail went by. You'd always be kicking bucks off it. All the time. And we'd checked it a couple times. And you're busting bucks. And we busted nice bucks off it. You know. I'm probably thinking. I think they're probably 160 to 80 bucks. Which.

To a 14 year old kid. Might as well be a 220. Oh. I mean. A 160 buck. When you're 14. Oh yeah. But. But that was where I was going to go. My dad and his buddy were going to go up to high country. And spot and stalk. But. I had a tag. And Aaron was there. I was 14. He's 11. And I remember making a brush blind. It was in Oaks. So you had. What do you do in Oaks? You've got to make a brush blind. And we all had a little. I mean. We all had a little. Yeah. And we made a brush blind. It was part of your backpack. An opening day. I'm crouched. I had no stool. Nothing. You're just kneeling down. And I look over. And here they all. Here they're coming. On the ground. And I lost my crap. Because. Like. You're just losing it. And I'm on the ground. They snort and take off. And I mean. Like. That really about happened. And so I was walking back to the cabin. On a trail. And I'm walking.

And Aaron stayed there. All by himself. 11 years old. You know. Dad's gone. I'm gone. I'm thinking now. And we're back in the back country. Yeah. And I was so mad. And I'm walking back. And I jumped this forky. On the trail. Walking back. He. Yeah. He jumped. Walks up. Drills. And stops. And I'm like. I'm killing that. Because I was just so mad. Just like you. After that. I was so mad. I pulled an arrow. 44 yards. I remember. Wow. And I hit him right. Right. Right. Right. I thought I drilled him. But I hit him in the guts. You know. You probably hit him in the liver. Oh. No. No. But. I hit him right. Right there. And he took off. And I'm like.

A 15 minute hike. Back up there. Got him. Come back. We start tracking this deer. It had been probably an hour. But we track it down. We get down. We find the deer. He's bedded down. And he's alive. So we back out. We go back to the cabin. You know. We're like 14 and 11 years old. We're just like. Kids. Yeah. You know. And so we go back. And the deer's dead. Right in the bed. I mean. A big buck would have blown out. You'd have never got him. But a little two point. He's there. You know. And I wasn't either confident enough. Or to get in. Try to shoot him again. But I just knew. If he's not dead. It's good you didn't. You actually let him. You actually backed out. Yep. And nowadays we're teaching that. Oh yeah. So there's this. Before we go back. And he's like. He's the smallest. He's. Yeah. Little. Who cares. But I was wound up. And so then. Then Aaron and I literally.

I may have told this on a podcast. I don't remember. Go ahead. We had. Because this scenario played out. Dad's like. Well. I probably watched him a couple times. Got something. But. When you're 12 or 14. You're not. Now what do you do here. And you may not make it. No. You're just like. Hold this leg. And you do it. And you're like. This is kind of wow. You know. And so now. I got. I remember dad reamed a butthole on this. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. So literally. That was back in the day. That's what we did. Oh. Gen Z. Have you ever gutted an animal? No. No. You don't do that anymore. My kids don't either. You do the gutless method. Me neither. But they don't need to know Adam. So in. Remember the Outdoor Life. We have pee everywhere. In Outdoor Life magazine. They had those pages of how to fill dresser animal. I had those folded up in my fanny pack. I'm 14. And Aaron's 11.

And we lay them out in the brush. We're like. First. Read the book. Okay.

It's true. Because you have to read for like. Really? Why? And you got to read. Way for it to the very end. Oh yeah. That's a valid step. Okay. I can't skip that. Because I see that's going to come in handy later. The blood's going to come. I'm like. That's the first thing you do? No. Come on. Come on. And that's what you do. Keep evidence of sex. Which would always get the testicles. And they always fall off. But somehow. After probably two hours. We gutted it. And we drug that thing. Probably. It's at least a half a mile. Back to the cattle. And my dad. And he shot it in the guts too. Oh yeah. It was gut shot. It was festered everywhere. We drag it back. It's August. And we had it. We grabbed some rope. We're trying to hang it. And I remember midday. This is midday. My dad's back from the morning hunt. And there's Aaron and I. We got this forky at the front porch of the cabin.

And we're trying to. We started skinning it. And he's like. Whoa. And I'm like. And I just like. Yeah. Because my standards were. It's a four point. It's a four point only. But I remember the night before. It was either sex. And I said. Dad. I might shoot any buck. I'm so wound up. You know. I said. I will not shoot a doe. But a doe is legal. But when I blew it on those bucks like you. I was so mad. I was like. Frank. I'm so mad. And that. It didn't. It didn't matter. That buck. And I let one. Yeah. So. Those. The buck. The buck fever stuff. I totally get it. And the mad at yourself. I totally get it. That two point. Met his demise. Because. I couldn't hold it together. The first time. I. Opening day of archery deer season. 14 years old. That's all it took. But man. I'll never forget it. They're good stories though. Never forget it. And that's probably about the time.

The butt out tool was made. Oh yeah. They didn't have that. They invented that. We laugh about it. But I mean. Hey. Probably many people using that. That's right. But I mean. I. And I probably for the first. At least all through high school. We gutted all of our animals back. Yeah. All of them. We got them. All of them. I remember my dad's. Probably the first. It was late. Maybe late high school. Or. I don't know. College or something. It was just not what you did. You gutted your deer. And you drug it. Wherever. To wherever your truck was. That's what you did. That's what you did. And hair was missing off of sides of deer. Because sometimes it was a mile. And if you wanted to mount it. You're like trying to keep the chest up off. Yeah. It was a mess. Hurry up kid. Yeah. You know. I don't have old man strength. It's downhill. It's like come on. It's downhill. You're like. Doesn't matter.

Some hair on your chest. Drag that thing. You know. I mean. But anyway. Good times. No. The human trail cam thing. I mean. It's legit. It was just. You know. I wish I'd have been the human trail camera on a unit with good genetics. Like. And we talk about the corkscrew. Yeah. But there's that buck. And one other buck. That was a non-typical cheaters everywhere. Running like crazy. At long distance. Yeah. And. They're vivid. I remember it like it was yesterday. Other than that. Those are the only two animals I ever saw. In all your years of human trail camera. All the years. All the years. I mean. I had a lion laying under me. I'm shizzing down both legs. No pistol. My dad. Like pistols. Lions and bears aren't going to hurt you. Come on. Just get in the tree. Yeah. He just told me. Hey. Have you ever heard of somebody having issues? Well. No. We also didn't have social media.

And we don't even buy a magazine. So. I only talked to like four people. Yeah. Of course they haven't had an issue. You know. Social media. I mean. I've got. I've got friends and family that are absolutely. Scared of lions and bears. You know what I mean. Yeah. Because. It does happen. People have had. Yeah. If you hear it now. It's on every news media. If a bear or a lion mauls somebody in western United States. It's on the news every night. You know. Logan. I want to call you Gen Z. But I haven't gotten the okay to call you Gen Z. Hey. That's okay. I'm Gen Z. I'm Juice Box. And I'm Logan. Juice Box. Juicy. So. I mean. Are you nervous about bears and lions? Like. What do you. Or do you pack when you're in the hills and you're out shit hunting? I would say. I usually pack. So I'm not that nervous. But. See. You know. I grew up with my dad. He. He just taught me never to care about.

Not to care. That's right. Don't care. He always said they're way more scared of you than you are then. That's right. That's what my dad said. Okay. We had a different childhood. My dad was scared. Was he? My dad was scared of the dark. Yeah. And. He's 6'4". Yeah. He's a big dude. Oh yeah. And he would carry a .44 Magnum. Like the big long hunting. You're not. You're not playing a joke on him at midnight at camp. No. One time we're sleeping on the. We're sleeping on the trampoline. He comes out with. In his underwear. With his .44 strapped to his. Oh. Your house? And he's like. The horses are going crazy. At your house? Yeah. At our house. In town. Well. We kind of lived in the country. Yeah. Okay. And. Anyway. He's like. So funny. Get in the house. I'm going to take care of business. Yeah. Bigfoot. He's a firm believer. What? Sasquatch and Bigfoot? Oh my gosh. John. Dude.

Maybe we need him on a podcast. He has Bigfoot stories like crazy. What? Like they found. He was bear hunting in Montana. And he swears. They found Bigfoot tracks. And. Like they. Anyway. They measured. I'm going to take. Let's divert this podcast. Go right back into the trail cams and stuff. Crazy. Anyway. I had a different childhood. You know. So yeah. It was. Well. If it made a noise in the night. It was the worst. The worst case scenario. That's what it was. That's what it was. So John. Are you packing when you go to the hills? Yes. And. And. And mostly for those sheepdogs. They give me nightmares. Oh they are. Hey. Yeah. They're no joke. They're no joke. I don't. I've been in the middle of those. I just don't hunt around sheepdogs. That's how I solve that. Usually the game are gone when the sheep are around. I know. I know. I know. I know. I'm thrilled. I'll run one. I know that.

And I'll pull a hammy. And then what do they do? If you're your friends. It's just like. You know. A lion or another bear. What are they keying on? The lame. The sick. If I'm running with my kids or something. And I pull a hammy. Which is likely. You're keying in on you. It's going to happen. It will happen. So we're talking about. I guess we're talking about getting old. Bronson. You're. I mean. You've done those kind of things. Stubbed a toe. Whatever. You're out. You can break a toe. You and Ty. We've all talked about that on the podcast. But remember the other day when we were down at the Mexican restaurant. And we were having food. We were grabbing our lunch. And we were talking about getting old or something. And that lady just started laughing. There was a gal in there laughing. We're talking amongst ourselves. And she's getting. And I'm like. Geez. Garnishes.

And you said something about getting old. And she started laughing. And I go. And I didn't think she could hear me. And I'm like. This gal's laughing at us. You know. And she turned to me. And she goes. We call it getting mature. And I like that lady. I liked it too. I like it. I like it. It kind of did something. I wanted to buy her lunch. But she had already paid. Well. It kind of did something for me. I was like. But I'm not sure. She changed it from getting old to. I think that's attractive. Yeah. That you're getting old. Right. Whether she meant it that way or not. The word mature versus old. I will always choose the word mature. Gen Z. What do you have to say about that? I would think that you guys are getting old. We're getting mature, boss. I'm still maturing every day. Oh, man. Anyway. I like it. One other. You know what? I want to clear. Sometimes.

I guess we've got to do these retractions here and there. We're not doing a retraction today. No more. We only did two in our whole podcast career. They did. Never doing another. Legal hunting methods. So we did have to do that. Yeah. I don't want somebody going to jail. But you know, you don't even go to jail for hard stuff anymore. So whatever. I don't think there'll be a problem. But. What are we talking about? Well, remember when we've heard through the grapevine when we were talking about San Juan versus San Juan Abajo. And at times people misconstrue. We say we do a lot of consulting, Bronson. We're talking to 50 people a day. Maybe more. Fillmore. Fillmore Oak Creek. That's right. We've had people draw the Fillmore unit and go ecstatic with us on the phone. Yeah. And they were like, you don't have an Oak Creek style. You got a general season muzzle or deer tag is what you got.

And it's kind of not a great area right now. Not the best. Not the Oak Creek. Across the Highway is a different story. Right. To your point. That kind of thing. Sometimes we talk about things and somebody. Well, I had a guy call one of the guys and say, Jason's just an absolute liar. He's sandbagging on something. Yeah. He said. I said. He told me there's no 200 inchers. You do not expect a 200 incher in the San Juan Abajo. And that's just not the case. Look. They were talking about it on the podcast. How many other big bucks there were. Look at the cover buck. You know, this and that. Yeah. The cover buck was on San Juan Elk Ridge. Yeah. You know what I mean? Just like a Fillmore Oak Creek buck was on Oak Creek. Not Fillmore Pavan. Right. It's a Fillmore. Right. It's only Fillmore. Right. Or it's Fillmore Oak Creek. So I just want to say. And this is a tip for people.

Don't apply for the Fillmore late muzzle. And think that that's going to be an awesome rut hunt on the Fillmore Oak Creek. And the San Juan Abajo is fine for general. Yeah. It is. It's fine for general. But know what you're applying for. It's a different category. But I'm not going to ever tell somebody to go there for a 200 incher. Even though there has been one kill. Oh, yeah. Maybe 20. There's a couple every year probably on thousands of hunters. Right. But yeah. So as we're consoling, just give us the benefit of the doubt. We're not out and outliers. Hunters, though, I think they're programmed to think, well, why would these guys tell me the truth? Right. But we're not competing with you. We're talking to non-residents. We've got our own plans. We like to hunt near our places, houses, whatever. So anyway. Where there's no sheep dogs. That's the right one.

Don't like hunting sheep dogs. Sasquatch or whatever. Bigfoot. Bigfoot. Don't like him. Yeah. Whatever. So anyway. Kind of interesting. Well, I'm just wondering. Oh. I always get nervous. I like these stories. I get nervous. It's been a fun podcast. Yeah. It's been a fun podcast. I'm just wondering if we shouldn't call another couple guys out of the February magazine. We're talking about Utah, Oregon, New Mexico. I've got a buddy that killed a big old deer in New Mexico. We. We deal with them. Both of us. Do it. Yeah. Should we call him? What if he answers weird? I get. Hey. He is professional. We can edit. No. He's professional. He's a good guy. He might be thinking. We also. Hey. This is a disclaimer right now. We are not going to be calling anybody in the next. Tell him we do our membership drive. Because member people. He might start losing his crap on you right now. Oh, good point.

We did that. We will start. We will call him just from consulting or from license application. What? Did I win? Oh, sorry. Your credit card's invalid. We need a new card. We're trying to buy you. We're trying to buy you for Oregon. Whatever. You know. All right. Well, hold on. So. He might be a little excited. Let's call Jared Tindall. It's in our publications in the February magazine. Page 124. Smashed a freaking 220. Giant. Giant. Mostly frame. Yeah. Sick. Freaky. Basically five by five is all he is. Yeah. And he won the raffle. Didn't hardly put any tickets in. I just think. Why does that not happen to me? And it always happens to him. It always happens to him. All right. I'm going to call him. We have the right. He sent me some information on what he's got point wise and wants me to consult. He might be thinking, I'm just, hey, I'm ready to sit down and really grind out your schedule.

But let's just see what he says. And maybe he'll give us a few tips and tricks. He's been really successful. Dude. He hunts all over the West. He's aggressive. Goal in Wyoming. I mean. Lives from Texas and flies all over the West. He's a good example of trying to make something happen. Have your name in. We kind of hunted against each other a little bit in Colorado. Not bad. Yeah. Not bad. No. He ended up finding out you're in the same unit, but not until you got there. Yeah. Yeah. He was in a good area. And I was in a good area, too. There we go. Let's see what he has to say.

What are you doing? What are you doing? Oh, I'm just trying to make a dollar. Hey. I got Bronson and John here. We got you on the podcast. Awesome. How are you guys doing today? Good. That was a subtle hint to keep her clean. No. Carter, we don't have to worry about you. Well, we never know. When you call somebody totally out of the blue, you never know when they see Carter's name pop up. They're going to just go with a string of adjectives that you may not be able to repeat. Mention my real nickname. Who knows? You know?

No. We're just talking about. What are you guys talking about today? Well, we've been talking about, well, Hunt Giveaway stuff. And then we got talking about stuff in our February magazine. And we got your buck. We highlighted that page 124 in February and thought, well, maybe we'll give them a quick call and have you tell us about that awesome experience that you had. Winning a raffle tag and just all the emotions that went through that. And then, you know, something that you'd never plan on drawing, right? But we teed you up as well that you apply heavily around the West. And you have your name in a lot of places. And consequently, you've drawn some packs. And you do really good. You've killed a lot of game. And even you and I ended up on the same. I think my luck's got to be running out. Even you and I ended up on the same knob once or twice. Yeah. Yes, sir.

But anyway, this specific time is a tag. It's a raffle tag. You know, something kind of like our membership drive hunts or state raffles. You don't plan on getting a call from anybody. But you got one. All right. When Jared and I ended up on the same knob, I mean, he remembers that podcast when we told people you beat people to the knob. You beat them. Right? It's a mental thing, right? If you're there first and Jared drives up on me. You kind of keep driving. Or you just. Or you just feel weird.

So I beat Jared every morning. I had to sit there for what? Two hours before daylight? You had dinner and breakfast on the same knob. I may have.

Anyway, Jared would tease me about that in the field. I mean, anyway. Right? I'm telling the story right, am I? Yeah. I think I beat you the last day, though. I think you did, but you were actually helping me the last day. He had already killed the deer. So you could sleep in. He killed one. He killed one. And he came and helped. And that was a rough old road. And you had this Ford diesel three-quarter ton beat you to death to get in there. I know all the roads, yeah. But Jared drove it like he stole it. I mean, I was. Not many guys can out drive me, but he might have. He might have. Give him a half ton and he would have. All right. All right. Well, I don't know where you want to start. You've got a lot of adventures. You've hunted goats in multiple places. Deer, elk, all kinds of stuff. You've got a lot of plans and whatnot.

But anyway, maybe start in with this New Mexico deer just because it's deer and that's special. And then it's giant. Well, I mean, it's been a lifelong dream of mine to have a gov tag or a statewide tag of that sort. So, you know, always play the raffles because I can't afford to buy one. And you never really think you're going to win. But sure enough, that day I got the call and just couldn't believe it. And I had quite a few hunts planned for the fall, but obviously, you know, this had to take priority. So I rearranged my schedule to where I could spend as much time as I could myself up there because I really, you know, luckily it's adjoining to my home state. So it's not terribly far for me. So I wanted to commit as much time as I possibly could to it. And just a dream come true, really, you know. And I was a little worried about the year.

It's been tough in New Mexico the last few years. And just started, you know, grinding country and learning roads and learning units. And, you know, as fall started coming and more and more deer started showing up from Colorado and, you know, just changing terrain. And I was kind of starting to get nervous, honestly. I wasn't seeing the caliber of deer that I was expecting to see, being able to bounce from unit to unit. And, you know, just keep going is all you can do. You know, I had planned to be off the entire month of December if needed. And so I loaded up the family. And we went up, you know, as the story shows in a magazine that people can read. But I loaded my family up and was going to make them go with me for a few days before Thanksgiving there since the kids were out of school. So it was an enjoyable time, obviously. They wanted to be – the kids wanted to be a part of it.

So it was fun to have them tag along. And we decided to leave for Thanksgiving and been talking to Anthony Hampton there, Hampton Trophy Outfitters. And he'd come across a buck that I thought might be the one. So I dropped the family in East Texas and headed back. And, you know, I talked to Carter about this deer on the way. And it's one of those deer that, you know, pictures just really didn't do it justice. When I arrived there and I saw the deer in person, it was just kind of a no-brainer, you know, just from what everybody had seen and the way the year was looking like. You never know what might turn up, but, man, it's a special deer when you see him in person. And so it was a several-day grind there trying to get him killed. He was living on private, and he was vulnerable on private.

You know, you could see him every day, but he just never would make a mistake and slip off for us for several days. So that was kind of starting to take a toll on us. But eventually he slipped up, and we were able to get him killed. And just, man, it's just such an honor to have a tag like that and then also to find a buck of that caliber and get him killed. It's just an indescribable experience, really. It's just hard to believe that it actually did come together for me, but something I'll remember forever. And definitely will be spending more money on raffle tickets in the future. We've got a couple of deer hunts in our membership drive.

If you'll check the bucket, you'll see my name on it. Okay. Which ones did you apply for? We haven't gone through that yet.

Oh, man. Yeah, what an incredible opportunity. Just you drawing the tag, you spend $100. At least that's what you said. I don't know. Best $100 ever spent. So I think I need to send my credit card statement to you. I told him. I told him. I told him. He's a liar. Jared's a little bit of a gambler. And he wins. So I will disclose something on this. I'll tell you this. You were on top of the pile.

Some of my buddies I've told, but I looked at my credit card statement, and I think they accidentally double charged me. Oh, $200. I have two $100 charges. I knew it. I knew you didn't only spend $100. I knew it. But in his defense. So technically, I spent $200. But you might have only had five entries, though, instead of the double. So they might have charged you, double charged you. Maybe you'll see if you'll give it five more entries than this next year. I wouldn't ruffle any feathers. I wouldn't say a word. Just do the same thing. You stole it. You stole it. Whatever you did. I stole it. Even at $5,000, you stole it. Yeah. I knew he spent more, though. You can just come clean, Jared. It's not a big deal. I'll send you the credit card statement. Living a lie is hard. It's hard.

Hey, it gives everybody hope. Because $100 at some point is hopefully somebody, you know, at some point in their life can, you know, throw $50, $100 in some of these elite statewide tags. And just forget about it. But then all of a sudden you get a call in June or July, whenever it was, that like, holy cow, you know, your season or your fall is pretty much set by then for the most part with stuff you knew you were going to draw or knew you were going to book or whatever. And now you've got to superimpose that on. And, of course, you've got long liberal seasons, which, like you said, you may hunt other states and then, you know, hunt the rut, as you alluded. Some of those deer come out of the woodwork out of weird places or maybe even migrate in from other states in New Mexico like Colorado. So, you know, that's where your focus was. And it obviously paid off.

So got a buck that trailed the doe a little too far off of some private. Well, and it's in a traditionally good unit. And just, you know, I think, too, just, I mean, to explain, it was a, this was the auction tag. It gave you very liberal season dates. And you could, like when you said skipping unit to unit, it's just, it allowed you to do that. But just having your name in the hat. You've got to have your name and all the hats you ever want to tag in that you can afford to be in. So, and you're good at that. Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, just really quick, off the top of your head, just list some of the tags you've had and drawn. You've had the good fortune of drawing. I mean, it's disgusting.

Well, I have drawn, I've drawn two goat tags in the lower 48. I drew Colorado in, I believe, 19. And then I drew Wyoming last year, you know, the last year before the rule changed. So, both of those were, you know, just horrible odds. But, but I pulled it off. I've drawn a random archery tag in Arizona that I didn't have max points for. They're in unit one back in 18 or 19. And I'm trying to think of some of the others. But, yeah, I've been very fortunate. Just, but, I mean, like you say, you put your name in all the hats you can. Yep. And then you're supplementing. Those percentages add up. Yeah, you're supplementing with the landowner tag here and there, whatever. Like, you're playing the game just like we're all doing. And you're doing a good job at it. So, anyway. I appreciate that. Anyway. Hunted some of our favorite units. Even, oh, even unit 22 in Colorado. Some of that stuff.

You've spent a lot of time in a lot of different units. So. Yes, sir. Yeah, that's what it takes. Just learning a new country and just being somewhere. Yep. You can't kill anything if you're at the house. So, you've got to just spend as much time as you can out there. Yep. All right. Well, you got anything else for him? What other info can we suck out of, Jared? Because, I mean, whatever you get isn't as much as he's going to get out of you.

You're good at that, Jared. I give him a hard time. We're really good friends. You probably got a list of questions on your desk from me now that I'll be beating you up on. Yeah, there is. It seems like there is an Excel spreadsheet that we need to go over. I've come to think of it. Why haven't I got enough? I'm not getting back to you in a timely manner? Is that what you're going to tell me? No, no. No, no.

Oh, good times. Just giving you a hard time. Oh, I love it. And this deer, just for reference sake, give us a few specs on him. Just, you know, when you're talking on a podcast, it's one thing, but, like, give some people something to visualize. It's a giant four-point frame. Give us a few specs. Yeah, so I actually had him scored last night, and it's unofficial results, but he ended up grossing 221 and an eighth.

Looks like his net typical frame is going to be, I believe it was 191 and seven eighths because of the extras. But, yeah. So he still nets book with 20 inches of traction. Yeah, he still nets book. Right. And he's got a huge end line. Yeah, two and five. He's basically a five-by-five. You can officially put him in the book at 191? Yes, sir. 191 and seven eighths, I believe it was. Yeah, and he's a five-by-five. I mean, he's got a, I don't know, looks like a ten-incher and a six or eight-incher. Yeah, whatever. Five, eight-incher, whatever it is. Yeah, what did his frame gross?

I didn't see the entire sheet. We had it in the field at 211, but I want to say he said it was 208 and five-eighths on the frame. Trash. 14 inches. Yeah, fine. Trash or something. It's pretty impressive. Pretty awesome. It's unbelievable, actually. Unbelievable. How wide was he? 33 outside. Inside of the beams was right around 26. Yeah, geez. Awesome book, man. I mean, you all want one like that, and then you want his brother that looks just a little different, too. I want one. I want his dad. I don't want Jared's. I want to beat Jared. Well, that's true. You know, the first thing Carter said about the deer, he said, oh, you know, I wish he had matching in lines. I don't even remember that. Did I say that? Hey, Jared. You didn't say that. I was a jerk. Wow. Basically, you said, I wouldn't shoot that. I did not say that. Mismatch. I did not.

I've got the text log, and I said, dude, that thing could be bigger than you think, whatever it is. Right. You did. But he's mismatched. I did say. I wish he had matching in lines. Don't you? Don't you? Okay.

Jared, if it makes you feel a little bit better, we just got done talking about some of our very first archery deer hunts in Jason Island. I'm when you're like 13 or 14 or 15 years old, whatever we were. And he still vividly remembers a straight four point. Why are you telling my stories? Listen. With a corkscrew dropper on one side, it wasn't even matching corkscrew dropper. It wasn't. But he's still talking about that buck, and it wasn't mismatched. It wasn't matched. I'm talking about it because it was my first special encounter. Okay. Well, so sometimes a single of something is all right. Hey, I'd shoot his deer on any freaking tag. Any freaking tag. It's an amazing deer. Yeah. Jared's just one guy we can be really frank with each other. I mean, dude, we've spent some time classing against each other here and there. So it's pretty awesome. Good stuff. Good stuff. Appreciate the time.

The only sad part. Go ahead, guys. No, go ahead. Sad part. I was just going to say the only sad part about the whole deal was I had the whole month of December off, and I blew it and killed too early. Well, you know, in a less than stellar year, it was better last year than the prior two years, you know, in most of these southern states. Right. But it wasn't off the charts incredible. You don't pass 220 bucks in New Mexico. You don't. But the governor tag statewide in Arizona. You don't. Exactly. So you did the absolutely right thing. You probably, odds are you probably want to kill the bigger buck. I mean, I'll just say. Probably not, but it always makes you wonder. Yeah. Well, like you said, the best times coming up down there, it's pretty incredible what shows up. And then, you know, you just never know. And it's fun being out there. And I don't know.

I still don't know exactly what you do for a living because you have a lot of time. You have a ton of time.

Well, my wife might think I'm working more than I am. Wives don't need to know everything.

Good thing she doesn't listen to the podcast. Never let her listen to the podcast. Oh. All right, buddy. Well, congrats. Deer of a lifetime. It's not going to be your only deer of a lifetime. You know, you've killed some great animals and more to come. So, it's pretty awesome. Appreciate everything you guys do. You bet. I really do. Good luck in the draws. Thanks, man. Thanks, guys. Y'all have a good one. You bet. See ya. Bye. Bye. It's fun to give him a hard time. He's just one of those guys you got to give him a hard time because he's going to give you a hard time. Let's call. One more story. I'm loving these stories. One more? One more? We're an hour and a half in.

It's lunchtime. Let's just. Dude, there was a 220-inch killed in Utah. Huh? Huh? He may not answer. Yeah. He may not. Let's go for it. Let's try it. Get another one. All right. 220. 220's. Hi, you have reached down there with. We'll save that for the next one. Hold on. One more time.

You know, now it's green. Hello? Hey, what are you doing? Oh, just getting out of a meeting. You? We're doing a podcast. I got you on with Bronson and John Peterson and Gen Z. How are you?

Fabulous. I want to. We just. We're kind of doing a few stories and you killed an absolute monster here in Utah. General season. So general season deer. And just kind of want to get the quick story. I know it happened quick and whatnot, but just kind of wanted to hear it from you. It's just such a stud. You rarely find a deer of this caliber on a general season. Yes, sir. Sure. So, yeah. I'd been working with Trevor a little bit, trying to get things organized. And we decided we would start opening day. That hunt is short. It's like seven or eight days long. This is Trevor Hunt, right? Trevor Hunt of Pine Creek? Yes. Okay. Yes, sir. Sorry. Yep. And we decided we'd hunt the whole hunt and see what we could come up with. So I got up there the day before and we went and looked at a few spots and we had been hearing

from everybody that it was just a terrible year and that there was nothing to be had. And you know how it is. Everybody's, it's not what it used to be. All the stuff. It's true. All of those things are true. Yes. And I'm kind of of the opinion that I don't, I just don't buy it. You know what I mean? Like it's. Somewhere there's a big deer. There's big deer around, whether they're in cover or whether they're just nocturnal or whatever. They're around. It's not that they're not here. You just got to spend enough time doing it that at some point you're going to catch the odds, you know? Yeah. And so we went out the night before and we didn't even see a single deer. And he, I was with Trevor's sub guide, Taryn, and he was like, oh man, he was kind of bummed that we weren't seeing anything. And I was just, I was like, it's all right. It's whatever. It's windy.

Nothing really going on, you know? Mm-hmm. So the next day we went out and we didn't see a single deer the whole day. Two days in a row. Yes. Two days in a row. So the second day is opening day. Sounds like general season Utah. Yeah. So, yeah. So that was Saturday, opening day. And my kids had the primary program on Sunday. So I told Taryn, I'm going to go to the primary program. He wanted to go home. He had something to do as well. And we'd meet up Sunday night back at camp. Monday. Yeah. So, yeah. We did that. I got back up there and it snowed like crazy while we were both gone. Which is rare. Oh, I remember that. We were all out opening week of deer last year. Jason, it was brutal. Yeah. Windy. Yep. Storm. It was so cold. But those are the conditions. Not the windy, but the snow is what you'd dream for. Well, and it turned bitter. It turned really windy and then really cold.

Like it went from balmy to like it. And it never warmed up all from that point on last fall. Anyway. Yeah. I remember that storm. Right. And it was just miserable. And so we, that night, the Sunday night, I'm sleeping in the camp trailer. I got the heater going, the generator going, you know. The freaking carbon monoxide thing was going off like every 15 minutes. And I was like. I hate that. But you unplug it. You don't know if it's true or not. I always unplug mine. Finally, I unplug it. And then there's another one. There's two in this trailer. And I was like, oh my gosh. I might actually be going to die. I really do need to crack the window. So I turned the generator off and just froze the rest of the night. Because I was like, well, it didn't do me any good if I'm dead. So we did that. We got up in the morning. And Taron came in the trailer. And he's like, it is freezing.

We should just go right around the truck. And I was like, nah. We went up this canyon the other night. And it is good country. And it just snowed. If we're ever going to have an opportunity, it's this morning. And I know from in the past, my dad getting me out of bed when I don't want to go. He trained you. He trained you for this. You could hear his voice in the back of your head, right? Yes. Get your butt out of bed. My dad would never let me live it down if I told him that I rode around in the truck because it was cold or because I didn't want to go or whatever. So whether it's out of obligation or getting harassed or whatever, we went up the canyon. Which canyon are we talking about? I'm just teasing. I'm just teasing.

The canyon. The canyon. The canyon. No tell I'm canyon. Yes. All right. Keep going. Keep going. All right. So we get cruising up this canyon. And we stop in glass right as the sun's coming up. Nothing. And we keep pedaling a little bit further. And soon enough, these two guys on four wheelers are like right behind us. And we're like, well, well, this keep carrying on. Right. And hopefully they go down a different road. There's only one road up this canyon. So like and then it just dead ends. You have to drive back out the same road. Yeah. So we get cruising up that road and these guys just aren't going away. Like they're just they're 50 yards behind us. And so we're we go through like four groups of does. And we've seen like 40 does at this point. And these guys behind us, they never even stopped the glass. I don't know. They even seen single one of them. Maybe they're hunting cow elk.

Who knows? Yeah, you don't know. Anyway. Yeah. Well, we found out later they were hunting deer. Okay. And so need to do a break. A little bit further. There's a water at the bottom of this wash that we're in. And there's a camp right on it. Cars all around it. They're sleeping. And I don't know what they're up to. Hopefully the carbon monoxide didn't fail. Their dad had kicked them out of bed when they were young. Yeah. Yeah. So then we're 100 yards up the road, maybe 200 yards. And I was getting pretty late in the morning. It's like 8 o'clock by now or so. Wow. And I've kind of submitted myself to like, we're just going to suffer the rest of the way up this road. Like it's later than anything's going to be out. Bad idea. And I'm looking at birds, you know. Yeah. And I felt there's this huge eagle. I was watching it. I was pretty enchanted with this frigging eagle.

And Taren's like, there's a deer on this hill. And I'm like, yeah, whatever. This eagle's sweet. And he's like, no, you need to look. And so I turn around and look. And he's like, we can tell it's a big deer. But we can't tell what it is. Because the hill is so steep. And it's got like a little crown on it. You could only see parts of the antlers. And Taren was like, you need to shoot him. And I said, are you sure? He looks crabby on the one side. And he's like, yep, shoot him. And I was like, okay, I'm shooting him. And so we dumped him right there. Jeez. He dropped. And then we couldn't see him after that until we got all the way up there. So we're.

Just being out there. Just being out there. You got to be out there. You just got to be there. So you walked up and saw. And then what? Then I, we couldn't. Like the hill was bigger than we thought, I guess. So we were having a little trouble finding him. And it just snowed. Like it was like, where the heck is he? And then. So I was kind of going around the hill one way. And Taren went the other way. And Taren happened upon him. And I just heard him just like, oh my gosh. What did you do? And I'm like, oh man. You're thinking small. You're thinking a dink. You're thinking smaller. And he's, he's reacting because it's bigger. But you don't know. You think you dumped a fork and horn. Right. I'm like, oh my gosh. I dumped a fork and horn. And then I get up there and I'm like, oh buddy. You know? Like. This is a deer. Like I've only ever seen one other 200 inch deer on the ground.

And this was significantly bigger than that. And I was like, oh my gosh. Like the biggest deer I've ever seen on the hoof. That I never even saw him on the hoof. Yeah. You know what I mean? Well, you did for about two seconds. Right? In your scope. Right. And then boom. And then he was gone. Right. But I never even looked at the antlers. Nothing. I just dumped him. Because he just, I just followed orders. Were the guys 50 yards behind you? Or did they peel off by then? Yeah. But they had stopped. And I shot. And they pulled up as we were going to walk up the hill. And they're like, did you shoot one of them big four points that's in here? No. They're like, they're still alive. Mine's nine by nine. Yeah. I was like, nah, we just shot a deer. We're hunting for meat. Whatever. Yeah. Going up the road. Because honestly, we had no idea. You're not bothering us going up the road.

There's a really cool eagle just up there. Yeah.

Yep. So. Wow. Yeah. So they carried on. And I don't even know where they ended up. But we went up there. And yeah. Wow. That's awesome. Did they come back and get to, I mean. Never saw them again, huh? Never saw them again. Never. Never. We just headed out. And we got back to camp. And then we decided that camp wasn't the place to take care of him. So we took him back to Trevor's. Yeah. And got him all taken care of there at Trevor's. And we were good. Yeah. He's an awesome boy. Kind of a big deal. You probably just, you know, sticker shock for a minute. And might as well take him to town. So. So. It's freezing on the mountain. Get back to at least have some. Garage. Right. And your hunt's over. You're done. So it's not like. Right. And you're not going to camp in there with a couple carbon monoxide detectors going off at night. And then the bad. You're done.

Let's go back somewhere in a real house. We can dedicate this deer to all those mean dads that make people get out of bed. That's right. Hey. It's okay to be a mean dad. And the other thing I'm here, you know, I'm picking up from this podcast. This is the second guy we've called in like two, three weeks that stopped, went to church, came back and killed a giant buck. That's a good point. Right. I mean, the second one out of like three. And I didn't ask Tindall that just a minute ago on his New Mexico buck. Who knows? Maybe he went to church. He might have. Met home, dropped his kids, went to church. But I mean, I'm picking up a serious theme here. Right. I wish church was three or three times a week. Yeah.

Yeah. Pretty awesome. That's not where my head was, but yeah.

Sure. Yep. I'm a firm believer that the Lord will take care of you. If you just take care of your obligations, you do what you're supposed to do, the Lord's going to bless you. And it might not be right now. It might not be for five years. But at some point, you're going to, he's going to take care of you. That's an awesome story. Cool. Good stuff, Chandler. And yeah. Yeah. Nice to have a dad's promptings in your head. Hey, made a difference that day. Yes, sir. It's awesome. Glad you didn't die or get asphyxiated or whatever. Carbon monoxide. Jeez. I hate those. Yes, sir. I do. I never know if you can trust them or not. It's just, I don't. Right. I don't fall asleep the rest of the night. No. That's what happens. Right. You're scared. Right. Scared to fall asleep. All right. Well, thanks for taking a minute out of your day. You know, you're busy. Hopefully, the meeting's over.

And now, you don't have to go back to whatever you stepped out of, the meeting-wise. No, and I have to go back out in the wind. Okay. Well. Well, good luck with that. We appreciate you answering the phone. First, went to voicemail. So, I figured you were probably talking to your dad. So, I hit you again. Yeah. No, I had like five calls right in a row. So, it worked out. All right. Perfect. All right. Thanks, Chandler. Thanks, buddy. Thank you. Congratulations. Yeah. General season Utah giant. Geez. All right. Just got to be out there. Just got to be out there. This thing goes 224 inches. I don't know. How many points does he have? It's like a 7x6 frame. He's got some extra eye guards I can see him. But 7x6 on the frame. It's an awesome buck. I mean, another buck you'd shoot pretty much everywhere. Geez. I've got a stack of people I want to call. I like these stories. But I know.

We're done. I'm done. I'm done. We'll do another one of these. But we're not going to do it until after. Probably our next podcast will be the winners, right? Yeah. Yeah. Think so? Winners. Well, I think so. Today's, what, Thursday today? Yeah, I think so. I mean, we're doing this Tuesday. We're not going to want to cold call people until that drive's over. We've already promised that we wouldn't do that. It'd be kind of fun. Well, we wouldn't do that to guys. Hey, how you doing today? Hey, let's prank. Why are you calling me? Hey, we could prank a couple. Our friends. You could do it. I don't want those friends. They know where I live, and they'll, you know. Oh, I'm just teasing. Because the deadline's Tuesday, right? Tuesday. The last day to get your name in the hat is Tuesday. Tuesday. So I don't want to call anybody for any reason. No. No. Don't call me. I won't call you.

How about that? Go to my desk with no sticky notes, right? All right. Well, we appreciate you all out there. Pretty awesome. It's a good time of year. We're excited about everything. Of course, you guys can tell that. And it's just awesome to hear some stories. We've had some requests for more stories. Probably the biggest request we get, just more stories. So I'm learning a ton. It's kind of fun. Yep. Throw it out there. All right, Bronson. What do you think? Got any words of wisdom as we leave? Remember, we were going to give some warm, fuzzy feelings there. A long time ago. We got podcast 173 or something. What? Remember, we were going to be like, eh. I don't remember. A little something about parenting or kids or family or being. Oh, yeah. We were going to give it. And we did. We said, you know, go to church. That was our good warm, fuzzy for the day. Kind of went away from that.

I like it.

I do, too. I don't know about three or four days a week, Carter, but I like it. Oh, church-wise? Oh, yeah. The Lord set one day. That's what it is. Don't try. Don't beg for more. Well, sometimes it turns into three or four. You never know. It does. Meetings and all that. But as far as. Man. We just want to say thanks to everybody that's helping us here at Epic Outdoors. There's a lot of stories. Without the submissions, what would it be? It's pretty awesome. We appreciate you sending your stories in. If you have photos and stories, send them in to photos at epicoutdoors.com. If you want to join, there's a lot of people listening to the podcast. A lot of people. And if you may not be a member of Epic Outdoors, you want to join us, we'd love to have you on board. Go to epicoutdoors.com. You can join online. It's $150 a year. And, of course, you get a heavy research publication.

And call anytime you want. We can help you with your plans. We'd love to do that and like to be part of the success of the members here at Epic Outdoors. Yeah, and I think one of the themes about all of these guys who are killing big deer are not just hunting one state. And you think, what can a membership at Epic Outdoors give me? And that's it. We're going to guide you through hunting more than one state. Right. So, you've got to be in the hills and you've got to do it. You know, this is not, when we talk to one of these guys, it's not. That's the only hunt they have and that's the only thing they do every year. It's they're hunting multiple states. They're getting in the field as much as possible. I like it. Chandler's from Nevada. I want to move to Nevada. I love Nevada. But, hey, you know, he wants to be here. So, there you have it. Maybe we can do a swap. I don't know.

All right, everybody. It's time for lunch, Bronson. Where are we going? Amen. Where are we going? Do you know? No. Well, let's go. All right. Let's go.