EP 291: Wyatt's 2023 Limited-entry Archery Mule Deer Success Story

Anything to do with Western big game. Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast powered by Under Armour. Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, and Wyatt. I'm here. We got him. And John. And Logan, of course, but Wyatt. Wyatt is the man of the hour, the man of the month, man of the year. The manner of mystery is no longer going to be mysterious. I'm kind of bummed. The last couple podcasts I've had guys call me out on for being out scouting too much, maybe. Yeah! People are not used to you leaving the office. I missed that whole Q&A. When you've got a deer hunt pending and it's an August opener, it's like you're scouting heavy in July. And Bronson, I think you called it. Remember, you said, who was the first in the office to smash?

I think I got... I think he nailed it. Wyatt frowned upon that statement, though, because... Well, he doesn't want you to unleash too many facts too early. Yeah, he didn't want people to know he was going to get a hunting this year, let alone what tag he had. I mean, if... I don't blame him. If he was doing a moose hunt in Quebec or caribou or whatever... A 200-inch plus moose is a pretty big bull. I mean, you never know. I don't think it was that as much as there was a few other guys in the office that had some really good deer tags that started.

He's put the pressure. Well, we don't have confidence in ourselves, Wyatt. We've done this rodeo. Yeah, going for the odds. Strictly at odds. Well, let's see, Bronson. What did I win? What do you want? I don't know. Hey, how about the Diamondback 2000, Vortex 2000 we just sold. Two weeks off paid, paid administratively for two weeks. I'm leaving tonight. John, we're gonna have to vote. Two out of three. It's on the calendar. I vote no. If it matters, it's on the calendar. I would rather do the Diamondback 2000 rangefinder that we just sold. Let him pick something out of the optics room. Yeah, yeah. Well, I don't know. Anything for that matter. I like it. I like it. All right. Let's see. I want time off. Well, we've got some new apparel on our store. Okay. On our merch store. So, Adam, I was going to bet you, Adam, how long it would take you.

I'm sorry, John. To bring that up? To bring that up. And I think I won. You couldn't even mark, place the bet. I couldn't even get to discussing it. Go ahead, John. Take it away. John, I'm so excited about it. Go ahead. Oh, it's been years since we had new merch, so we're coming out with a whole bunch. I hate the word merch. Why? What do you want to call it? I don't know why. What do you want to call it? It feels like a flatty term. Merchandise is too long. Swag. How long has it been called merch? Clothing? Like 16 months? 20 years? No, it hasn't. I don't know. Oh, it hasn't. Merch.

It's a new term. Merch has been around for a while, I think. No, it's been a long, long time. It seems like it's a new term. It does. It's a new term to you. It's a flatty term. Yeah, that's right. New term to you. It's a Gen Z. Merchandise has been out forever. Logan, 20, 30 years old to the rest of the world. I've been calling it apparel to appease Jason. I didn't want to make it too Gen Z. I bet if you look up merch in Wikipedia, it was born in 2019. There's like a thing on Google that calculates when a word was first invented and its usage over time. That's what I mean.

When did it spike? You got it? No. Okay, I'll do it. Merchandise was around in the 50s. I know that. Merchandise has been forever, and I like it. I like the word. But this merch is kind of like, I'm too lazy to say merchandise, and I'm just gonna throw a little merch on our website. Merchandise was born back when mercantiles were around. We should Google it. I'm trying to Google it, but anyway, John, go ahead. Anyway, there's, the problem is, you can't just say a We're in peril because we've got some other things on there. Yeah, like some, you know... Goods. Some other goods, yeah. What do we got on there? Accessories. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 1982 was the first Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Hey, who said 30 years? But listen... That's like 50 years. That's when the word was invented, but when did it pick up mainstream? There's a difference. Well, back in 1982 when it was...

You'd have to look at the paperback... Merriam-Webster. It's like the Merriam-Webster dictionary to see it, and nobody did that. Now, some flatty guy just says, hey, March, and everybody says, oh, that's a cool term. So, yeah, it is a new word to Jason, in Jason Merriam-Webster dictionary. And Adam. It's 2022. I've never said the word in my life. Maybe, until today. Never said it. Now, I'm afraid we're going to use it nonstop, like we use the word tang, and I hate the word tang. It's a good breakfast drink. I love tang. I do love tang. I miss tang. I love hot tang. So, if you go to our website, right on the top it says merch. Click that button. I think you can feed hummingbirds with tang. It's sugar water. Their beats per minute would go up by about 20%. Then you throw a little white monster in there. They might blow up mid-fly. We've got hummingbirds.

That's like wildlife abuse or something, isn't it? No! Just a drop. You're not force feeding them. They're coming with their own free will. They're gonna have vitamins they've never had. Does one of your kids have a science experiment? You know, for science? That would be incredible. Kool-Aid? Tang? White monster half-tang? What if all the birds died within five minutes? Would you quit drinking it? No, because you can't extrapolate a two-ounce organism, or three, whatever a hummingbird weighs, with a 200-pound dude. You can't. No. You'd have to extrapolate. You'd have to bring in the pigs, test them on real pigs. All right, well, okay, let's talk about our merch. So, you go to our website, right at the top in the middle, big words, it says merch. Does it? Yep. So, go click on merch before Jason makes us change it. Well...

Anyway, so, there'll be some new stuff coming. Right now, there's some awesome t-shirts. Muleys Matter t-shirts are out there. Epic Outdoors t-shirts. Whose idea was that? That's kind of... That's mugs, blankies. Blankies, mugs. Yeah. I saw the blanket on there. My wife saw that. She thought it was, she wanted one. Pretty soon we're gonna have swimming suits on. Kind of like what? Kind of like what? I'm picking out my Mother's Day presents right now. Yeah. Already. For next May. When's it gonna be? Swimming suits? No, an epic blankie. Oh, a blankie. Oh, geez. What else you got, John? Oh. There's a lot of stuff. Yeah, a lot of stuff. Just go check it out, and then we'll be adding more too, right? And we'll be adding more. So, five minutes. Follow us on social media. We'll kind of announce when those come out. Follow for follow? Yep.

All right. Kind of fun, actually. So, anyway, a lot on there. A little bit longer delivery times, maybe just be patient, five, seven days, something like that. Yep. All right. Okay, let's move along. Bronson, should we talk about the point deadlines real quick? Might as well run through them. Just so we don't forget. We're about 30 days almost out for one of them coming up. But you've done them. I haven't. Well, yeah, I did them like June or July 5th. How many of your family members did you do Montana points for? Two.

I'm in that boat of trying to decide what's important. I only did elk. I'm just, the deer, in my opinion, don't give, there's not very many places to spread out. I mean, some years, and even like Unit 270, we can draw, what, four or five non-resident tags up to? They're not even non-resident drawn. I mean, and so I just, elk though, within five years, an archery elk tag somewhere, you can get it. So, to me, that's why I did it. That's where the value is. And it gives you options, right? Archery elk. Rifle elk is tougher. But anyway, so the bonus point, not to be confused with the general season combo preference point. You can do them both right now, but the bonus point deadline for deer, elk, antelope, sheep, moose, goat is September 30th. Yeah, and then the preference point would be December 31st. Yeah, I don't know why they made it six months long, but they did.

They just probably gave them another few hundred bucks. Yeah, that's a hundred dollars a piece. A few hundred thousand, probably. Just a reminder, if you read the magazine, and you remember, you probably heard us say it over and over, don't buy that hundred dollar preference point if you don't intend to apply for the general next March, April, because it's going to be like lighting a hundred dollar bill on fire. Because you can't do points year after year after year. You can do points the first year, then you have to apply for a license or your points go to zero. So, if you buy it right now and don't apply, it's a hundred bucks. Hey, just send me a hundred bucks. I'll take it. So, if you want to donate it to Muley's Mountain. Yeah. So, if you want to go next year is the key, then you want the point this year. If you don't want to go next year, don't get the point.

Just do the bonus. That's right. That's right. So, that's Montana. What's next? Far, and just do the bonus. Yeah. And then we've got Wyoming. We got October 31st for Wyoming points. Yeah. And even if you applied, you've got to get points. Especially for the deer, elk, and antelope. Yep, you do. It's kind of a crazy thing. And I guess... You apply and you're unsuccessful. It's been, what, the second or third year now? And so, here's the question of the year. When do you want to do the moose and sheep, or when do you want to drop out? What's that threshold of point level? Well, we've been pretty outspoken about that in the mid-teens. You're kind of in no man's land. What you can't predict is what they're going to change, if anything. Go to a bonus point system or something. Bonus point only, or squared bonus point. And if they do, what I still contend

is with the non-resident quota being whittled down to 10% for moose, sheep, and goat, that's still a very low number of tags, even if they go to a squared point system. I mean, look at Montana, look at Nevada right now for moose, sheep, and goat. They're a squared system. Is it easy to draw with a lot of points still? No. Nevada, moose, sheep, and goat? No, I said Montana, Moose, Sheep, Goat, and Nevada, they're both squared systems. Yes. And it doesn't matter. If you've got 25, how many people, is it top-heavy people get the points? No, it's just random. Get the tags, yeah. I don't think it's a compelling reason if they go to a squared system, you're going to want to do them. Yes, you'll be in the draw mathematically, but man, those states that already have a squared-point system, like Nevada and Montana, Moose, Sheep, and Goat, they're going to be hard to draw.

I had a guy with 22 points the other day, and those are tough calls. He gets to choose, and I gave him all the draws in Wyoming. You know, it's a tough one. Sheep or moose guy? Sheep. That's a tough one. You don't want to give him up, but he's really not in the running, you know? Unfortunately. Anyway, Wyatt, do you have anything to add in on the reality of that? No, I think you guys pretty well covered there. I believe in getting the elk deer and antelope points in Wyoming. Yes, most definitely. I get them for my kids. Johnson, did you get them for all your kids? Women and children. $600 just worth or something. Yeah, it's tough. It's kind of hard to swallow. There's a lot of opportunity there with those general licensing and different things like that. And then, of course, if you missed Oregon and it's a must apply for state in your portfolio,

then you've got until November 30th to get points. Kind of interesting. Most people get points during the application period. Yeah, you can do that. You can't do that in the other two states. We haven't talked a lot about it. We do put it in the publication, and of course, I mean... That's for somebody that just flat out missed the deadline in Oregon, basically. That's what that reminder is about. This last magazine, we actually, you know, the August-September issue, we also have the Opportunity section. It talks about, you know, different things that guys are looking to do stuff. And of course, the turn-back tags and some of these reissue tags there in Colorado and whatnot. There's quite a bit going on, so you might check that out if you're a member here at Epic Outdoors.

Well, it's kind of important, too, because some of those things that we mentioned in there, you need to be preparing for, like, the first of December, in the case of, say, Idaho or Arizona. Yeah. So, you know, you can't wait until January, because it's all over by then, you know. So, you've got to prepare a little bit if you want some over-the-counter. You can't really call it over-the-counter anymore, I guess, but first-come, first-served, we'll call it tags in Idaho or Arizona for deer, archery deer we're talking.

You've got to kind of plan ahead for that December time. That's right. December is kind of an important month. Of course, Wyatt, you're looking forward to December. That's when all the renewals come in. All the renewals. Yeah, license application is busy in December. It is. It is. It's busy. It's kind of a fun... So, right now, we're right in the middle of hunting season, and Wyatt smashes a freaking giant. And so, with that, Wyatt... Some of you might have... I'd like to know,

By raise of hands. Everybody, who even knew why an out attack? In the world? Yeah, yeah. The listeners of the podcast. I mean, there were people that did. We broke the news to about 10,000 or 15,000 people. There were people out there. It was stuck. But they didn't know where. Close to the chest was an understatement. Understatement. But anyway, why? And he about divorced us a couple of times. Well, like when the bet, I made the bet, and he's like, why'd you bet on me? You know, everybody's like, why are you putting me on the bet?

I'm telling everybody, I had people hitting me, you said Wyatt's going to, what tag does he have? And I'm like, dah! And that's what Wyatt's point is. Everybody's asking Wyatt. Bronson dang near beat you. He did. I mean, he come within freaking a few eights. An opening morning giant. I don't know, whatever. And so, anyway. It's only close in grenades. Wyatt blew it out of the water by 20 inches. So, Wyatt, this has been a lifetime, right?

Basically, we've got 21 points invested in Utah deer. Yeah, ever since I was old enough to apply in Utah, I've been applying for mule deer. Wow, that dates you. Yeah. And to put that into perspective, for everybody else, he hasn't hunted an antelope or an elk either, because you can only do one as a Utah resident. I had to pick a species. I'd drawn my mountain goat a few years ago, so I used those points there, and I was sitting on a pile of deer points. Finally had a wet year.

What goes into your thought process about which unit to hunt or choose or all of these things? I think it's good now we can talk about it. It's good, because we had a lot of talks now. So, kind of my thinking this year was... And every year. We go through this, we love to tease Wyatt about this, because he has these points and he could command attack. Well, in two or three years, we've been kind of jabbing him about it, but we had some extreme drought years, and so he frankly held off. Oh, he did. And rightfully so. Yes. Okay. Kind of moisture was definitely one thing that really played into it. What our moisture was like, we've definitely been in that drought for a few years. And then also, I was watching units that maybe were hot units, but maybe it trended down and just trying to catch them on a year when they were coming back up just to get the best value out of my points. Yeah.

That's what I was trying to do. Like the Dolores Triangle. Like the Dolores Triangle. That didn't cross my mind, but that was probably one of them that could. Probably could have 10 years ago, had you wanted them. Yeah, exactly. So, such as the Henry's, or something like that, that used to be the state's best, arguably the best in the state. Right. Right? Seven, eight, ten years ago. And two or three rough years, largely, you know, due to some of the drought. It's a dry range that pops out of the desert out there. And they're killable. They're very killable. You glass them and kill them. Very stockable, and so, you know... Not as much giant carryover. The hunting pressure can take care of a lot of deer on that unit.

Yeah. Right. You know, and so then, so you can affect the age class a little bit. So, you're thinking, if people forget about it, maybe the class of hunter, you know, shifts. Shift other units for a couple years, yeah. We don't have the hardcore trophy hunters applying for the Henrys. Then, all of a sudden, we get a little bit of older deer laying around, and then we add water. Right. Let me, basically, Wyatt's like, let me be the one to tell the world the Henrys are back. And Wyatt, are the Henrys back, Wyatt? I wouldn't say back. I mean, I have the Henrys a lot.

I think the 220 is back. Well, I mean, I remember back in the day, being down there with Adam, actually, way back when, 2008, 2009? Yeah, all those years, even until 2013 or 2014. What I find interesting is, Adam, when did you smash your 220? Both of you has smashed your 220. 2017, 2023, back-to-back 220s. Was that six years or seven years? I don't know what that is. I like it. But yeah, it's what I meant by back. Yeah, it's not as good as it ever was. It's been in very few places, even Poncagon or other places are not that, or many other places for that matter, and numbers are down, but just it's back to what we would maybe hold the standard of, you know, 200 to 220 bucks. What you would hope the Henrys would give. That used to be what you hunt on the Henrys. That's what you could usually hope for in a normal year. It's the most incredible one.

In the last two, three years, those are, you could count on one hand, maybe the last couple of years they're like those type of deer. Yes. And this deer wide, I mean, you spent a crap load of time, tons. And I don't know how many. It's like, Wyatt said, any time of the day I could drive out there and look at a 180 book. Any time I want. Well, and every day you could look at 200 inches. I mean, they weren't 200 when they were growing in early July, but you knew these deer were going to be 200 plus. Definitely had potential. So, yeah, we found out what this year in May, the end of May, that I drew the tag. And I made a trip, actually, what, the first week of June was probably my first trip over there. I was excited. Got a bunch of trail cameras out. Of course, Utah made the new trail camera loss, so I had to pull them, actually, before they did me a ton of good.

I mean, the deer still had a lot of growing, but I spent a lot of days over there. I figured between 35 and 40 days of just scouting and running around that mountain. And, you know, the last, what, two weeks before the season, I had a pretty decent hit list of bucks. Yeah, really good. And then we approached the turn back time. Yep. There's 30 days. 30 days. And you were like... Bronson and I were like... Well, that's... It could go either way. It was the 20th or whatever, 18, 19, whatever, somewhere. It's like not... Yeah, 19 or 20. And this was a later... The Bucs were a little behind in a lot of places, not just the Henrys. Yeah. So, you thought it was going to be good, but still they weren't done growing yet. Yeah, I was nervous. I was super nervous. It was up to the day before the day to turn it in that you finally made the final call.

I actually stayed over there the week before that just to spend every day, and then I came home and showed you guys what I had on video. You're like, do I keep it or not? We kind of debated here at the office and decided we were going to hunt it. It was unanimous. Yeah. I don't think anybody said, you're going to be in trouble, you're going to regret that. And we all felt like you might find a buck you didn't know about still on top of the hit list. Right. Which kind of happened. Yeah, that is what happened. The hit list bucks though, all turned into great studs. Studs. I mean, 205 to 215-ish type deer. I would say every one of the ones that were really on your list, Wyatt. A couple four points that were probably like right around 200, but were just awesome. Yeah, just big, awesome, framey deer, you know, a few with extras. I mean, a lot that I was excited about coming into the hunt.

So, I guess we get to, what, the week before the hunt, I headed down there. I guess the hunt would start on a Saturday, and I left Tuesday morning to head down there and just kind of check up on the hit listers. And I'd actually kind of heard rumor of a big deer that I had not seen. So, I spent a little bit of time down on that end of the mountain. I actually spent three days there before I actually turned that buck up. Jeez. Which was like Thursday night. It was Thursday. Two days before the opener. Yeah, two days before the opener, I found this buck, and he actually caught him coming up over the skyline, like right at dark, and could just tell instantly that was a deer that needed attention and probably a deer I was going to hunt. Wow. So, he was... Yeah, in an area that he lived the year before, which of course you didn't

spend a bunch of time there last year. You'd heard from others that there was a deer and he was actually... And the year before he wasn't near as big. No, he had a broken beam and stuff. Ended up breaking his beam the year before. Nowhere near the mass. In velvet, he broke it. So, he just... Didn't have the extras. No. Yeah. I mean, just... Just a year. Still a great deer, especially for last year. I mean, last year the mountain was down quite a bit, but I think Kind of what saved him was he did break a main beam off. And I think, too, it was nice that, you know, your buddies basically said, this deer's bigger when you see him than the way he videos. Which is true. He doesn't look as good in photos. He looks great in live video, but I mean, he looks like when you walk up to him, you're like, oh, geez, didn't take me long. This is next level, but anyway.

Thursday, guys started to show up. So, me and Devin looked at him on Thursday, Friday. Let's see, Adam, did you show up Friday morning? First thing, knocked off my hit list right off the board. Yeah, I went to B.C. and D. Adam went to the sweet spot and said, oh, the text said, so Josh and I are going to come on Sunday afternoon, and I just can't figure out, like, how you killed in opening morning. Like, I'm like, oh yeah, there's no problems. I can take care of all my obligations and come in. He waited until afternoons, like 1230. Yeah, good help is what it come down to. So, anyway, and then the text was, Adam says, Wyatt saw, I should read it, Wyatt saw this big one, and I saw four shooters.

Basically, B through, what is that, D or E? Yeah. All were, where Wyatt basically had them tucked away. Yeah, that's right. Anyway, it was just like a good morning, it was always good mornings, but I had a cheat sheet. I saw four shooters, and I'm like, four shooters? Like, okay, what does that mean? What does a shooter mean? Well, 200. Because there's some guys that shoot two by threes. We'll say they're 200. We'll say they're 200. They don't matter to some people. They're all 200 to 215 deer. 200 plus deer, so big deer. That's what I'm talking about. So funny. One of them was a four point. Yeah. And he was probably about two, but the other three were non-tips, and they were... As far as you guys have heard, are they all still alive, or is one has an arrow somewhere?

Yeah, we did hear that one got wounded, but have not heard any more on what happened, or who it was, I guess, or what happened, if it's still alive, or if they did recover it. So, geez. But anyway, yeah, fast forward. So yeah, Friday, Wyatt has more options than he can handle. He was nervous. Anybody would drive the direction four miles away, but drive... Wyatt gets nervous in the office 14 months before... Even deciding what to apply for. But I mean, a truck would turn at an intersection four miles from his buck, but it turned the direction, and his heart rate was going up. There's just a lot of pressure with those tags, you know? We had something special, and knew he was the one we wanted to hunt. So, let's see. Friday... What I think is amazing is that Henry's is somewhat of a...we've talked about it, very easy to glass, hunt, very stockable, and you had this deer to yourself.

Yes, yep. It's just interesting how they can live under your nose like that a little bit. Have that? Remember my deer? Yeah, nobody hunted deer. That was not a side of the mountain. That's common. I don't know if it's ever, I've never seen another big deer there myself. Yeah, it was a unique, people drive by where we killed your deer. They drove through us, but nobody was hunting the deer. Remember it was, you're nervous, we were nervous the whole time. But well, and people are driving by going, I'm missing something because there's one too many vehicles. And there were some people doing that opening day, trust me, there was people doing

They didn't know they weren't. And I think, Wyatt, you guys had what, B and C teams from other people coming and checking out what everybody else is doing. Yeah, we never saw another hunter with a bow. There was not another person. Yeah, they're... The team members. Yep, they're team members were coming through, or just checking everybody out. Just people, I don't know if they had muzzleloader tags or rifle, but people go down there to look at deer, too. We did have a game warden.

Yeah, and what was the other Ranger? BLM or State Park guy, whatever. He was checking for those new UTV permits. Was he? License plates. Come on! I'm kidding. Wow. Cash had his. I didn't take mine, but Cash, I think he had his on there. How about the guys that hunt the Henry's once in a while with a general tag? Just assuming that that's part of the general. It's within the southeastern boundary. It's happened. And smoke bucks, too. And not even really kind of just get a hand slap. They were totally ignorant. Oh, they could have lost their truck and wives and children. What were you saying, John? I was just gonna say, while you were stalking your buck, Adam, we had two or three people stop, and we were right. You guys are acting like you're eating a peanut butter sandwich on the tailgate, basically. Yeah, I wish Archibald was here, because he had a few of those incidents.

Archibald was in probably the high traffic area. I wish Archibald was here. He's hunting, and we can't tell you where, because we'll get in trouble. He's a good guy. If you're one of those people to stop, he is not that stuck up. He's a good guy, but he's so amped up. Like, he didn't even dare put the spot and scope up on the tripod. He's sitting at the truck. You could probably put the spot and scope on the tripod. I just remember looking over him in the heat of the day. The sun's coming up, glaring off his truck, and he is leaning against his truck. It had to have been ten times hotter against his truck than anywhere else. He said, I didn't dare move. That's how dedicated Devin is to anybody that he's helping. It's pretty impressive. All right, so go ahead. We're not gonna... Surprisingly, we're gonna let you talk, and we're gonna let you finish this. Friday?

As Bronson sucks down some nerds. It was the day before the hunt, I was able to... I guess I wasn't able to, but we did keep track of the deer all day Friday. So, Devin and I watched him that morning. I went and checked on some other bucks that evening, and another buddy picked him up that night and watched him until dark. So, we were able to keep track of the deer most of the day, or I guess all day Friday. But it seems like when you were on the stalk is when you really understood how big this deer was. Like, even though you've watched him, he's a big deer, you're going to shoot him, you're going to hunt him, you're past that, but then when you were right next to him. All the guys that had seen him had told me, you know, he's bigger than he looks, he's bigger than he looks, he's bigger than he looks. And anyways, I'd been looking at him from a few miles away when I was glassing in there.

So, the next morning, we all get set up, kind of get a plan, get guys out on the points, end up finding the buck. Pretty quick. I mean, it was still, maybe gray light still. 15 minutes after. Not even having to really slow roll the pines. Yeah, there was no pines. No, Wyatt and I were... Slow roll in the oak. Well, yeah. We were ready to make a move, Adam and I. Had all the glassers on point. Anyways, kind of got a weird wind that we haven't gotten in a while. Or hadn't had. You know, this storm coming through, this hurricane kind of deal kind of shifted the wind. It was going the complete opposite direction of what it normally blows down there. So, it kind of made... Coming from the east a little bit? It was kind of coming from the north. Like in the summer, which is not ever common. And like, stiff. Like, not just a, oh, there's a little thermal, you know, swirl. This is steady.

Yeah. So, I get out, I'm blowing, I'm blowing, like the cigarette lighter, it's doing it. The talc's blowing the same way, so I'm like, what? We better try this. Yeah, we probably sat there for what, 20, 30 minutes, just kind of made sure the wind was stable. Didn't really believe that. Yeah. But it stayed, so it's like, take off. Then I got out and tried my stock there. I was able to drop down into kind of the level the buck was at, just kind of hang out. I mean, I was there for within 100 yards of him for three hours or so. Then the wind changed. Then the wind changed. The wind came, and it was pretty terrible at that point. I was trying to get north of him, so now the wind would be normal. So, I was trying to get out there, away from him, I guess. So, I backed up, got over, and I finally could figure out exactly where the deer was off the description. Finally got it all figured out.

And started to work my way in there to where they thought I could see the deer from. Had a little bit better wind. It wasn't ideal, but had a little bit better wind. But I figured it was kind of now or never. You was already in tight. Yeah, I was too tight. I'd been within a hundred for too long. Yeah, I'm just like, got to try it, I'm here. So, I kind of worked down. Devin walked me into a boulder. I popped up on that boulder, and as I came up over the top of it, all I could see was horns and top of a head above the oak. Not his eyes. Feeding. Yeah. This is at like 12, 15 in the afternoon. In the afternoon. He's just picking off oak trees. Broad daylight sun. There he is, big as life at 40 yards, and he did look absolutely giant. He was, that's just funny. I think the words were, he was big as shit.

Yeah, he was. Big as Shamu. Yeah, he was. He's got a, just a big head on going away, just big looks to him. Yeah, so he's sitting there just picking, picking oak leaves, and I'm trying to, I'm in some tall oak too, and he's in tall oak, and we're just trying to find, I'm just trying to find an angle. I have him at 40 yards, and it feels like he was there for 10 minutes, but I mean, this was really what, probably a couple minutes that I actually had the deer found. So, he starts kind of feeding his way back towards where he was bedded earlier. There's two lanes. I think I'm going to get a shot right there at 40, and he just goes through those lanes too quick. I mean, just as I'm trying to draw, he just doesn't even hesitate in those lanes. So, other than that, I mean, his body's covered up, and I just have

head and horns. So, finally, he starts working towards a lane that I think is going to be a really good lane. I'm pretty high-strong. I'm pretty excited at this point. If I remember right, I couldn't even lift my binals. At 40 yards, I had a hard time lifting my binals. I got them up, but then they were shaking so bad, I was getting ranges from 80 to 20 yards. I didn't know that I could make it happen at that point. I love it. That's why you bowhunt right there. I love it. The more time I spent with the deer, of course, the more I kind of got in the zone and calmed down. You have time. Worked my nerves over a little bit. So, I got him in a... I knew a lane he was headed for, or a lane it looked like he was going to make, and that would be my last lane before it dropped off the next shelf.

If he would have dropped off that next shelf, it would have been just time to back out and start again. But I was able to kind of work my way up around this last little patch of oak, and I mean, it was a straight shot in there. The buck was in there feeding at 60 yards, had his head in the bush, just quartered away from me super, super hard. But it's actually a really good angle when you're trying to put an arrow in something. So, I was able to just get him right behind the last rib, and it came out and stuck somewhere in his collarbone. I mean, it stuck. Like within an inch or two of being just perfect. Yeah, I mean, he couldn't ask for any better. Wyatt's like a pretty good archer. You realize he's hard shot an elk at 90. Yeah, in like the last, I guess, three years. Two years, really. He doesn't want to talk about it, but he's freaking, he's good. Yeah. He's let two arrows fly.

It's kind of luck. I mean, it's... He killed the 375 bull and a 220 buck. Wyatt Haynes comes to mind. But, anyway, so he, I could see the arrow hitting him, and I knew it was, you know, it was in something good. I knew it was gonna be a fatal shot, so I let the guys know, hey, he's hit, and before I could end the traffic there on the radio, they'd already hit me, but they'd watched him die, so. Wow. He just did a hundred yards sprint. Sprint. Sprint. Yeah. Did the death run, pretty much. Yeah. I didn't actually see it. I was like, the other buck he was with, I picked up that movement, followed him, and by the time I realized it wasn't him, the other one was down in the brush. But anyway, did not, I don't know, four or five seconds, something like that, maybe six, but you know what I mean. He was dead fast.

He died pretty quick, and I was able to, you know, a lot of good friends there, waited for them to come. Family. Blood trail, yeah, family, and waited for him to blood trail it with me and made it down there to him. And gosh, he's just awesome. He grew on the ground, most definitely. Absolutely. 34 inches. Yeah, he's 34 inches outside. So, 209 inch frame, 11 inches of trash. Yeah, yeah. I mean, come on. What other dimensions do we got, Bronson? I don't know. 29 inch beam on one side. Yeah, he's just impressive. He grew on the ground the closer we got to him, and just actually put my hands on him. It was just awesome. Faces or something else. Worth the 21-year wait. Yeah, you got everything out of that. Yeah, you maximize the tag. We kept saying, this is a Henry Mountains buck, and what that means is those big deer, they're giant bodied, and he was that.

He was big bodied, but heavy, just the next level. They do not cheat their way. When they get big there, they don't cheat their way to 200. Their frames get really big, their bodies are big, their heads are blocked. Anyway, he was just the prototypical Henry Mountains giant, so the Henry's are back. Well, there's going to be a number of big deer taking on the Henry's, but every unit's going to have a number of big deer. Yeah, I mean, it's just been awesome so far. I mean, we've seen big deer out of Nevada, we've seen big deer out of Utah. Yeah, big deer out of Utah, big deer showing up in New Mexico. I mean, nothing out of Idaho. Crickets out of Idaho and Wyoming. Crickets. But Montana. They're just about to kick off up there. Montana's gonna be a good year up there. You know you're offending somebody, they're gonna call you out. Oh, I know. They're gonna send me a picture of a two-hundo.

If you know about a buck that's two-hundo, email me, jason.epicotdoors.com. Send me the photo. I wanna see it. I love big deer anyway, because muleys matter. Alright. Wyatt, congratulations. Hey, thank you guys. Doesn't get better than that. Yeah, it was awesome. That'll be actually a YouTube episode coming up. Well, yeah, and you're gonna see a ton of Wyatt's scouting footage to the summer. You're gonna see a lot of awesome bucks. It'll be really a lot of live footage of deer. I'm sure it's gonna add to point creep a little bit on the Henry's Archery Hunt for 2024, but Wyatt doesn't care about that. Went from 20 points or whatever to 23. I'm out of the pool. 21 to 23. Let's crush it. But Wyatt's in for elk. We're already trying to talk him into applying one of the December archery elk hunts next year. Yeah, I don't know that I'm man enough for a December elk hunt. What do you mean?

Come on. Elk are meant to be hunted in September. That's right. That's what they're made for. You might have to wait 21 years to do that, Wyatt. You might draw the first year on that December one. Deer in August, elk in September, deer in October, deer in November, deer in December. How about that? Yep, perfect. What do we got here? So, the new hunt episode, we did have a new hunt episode come out on the YouTube at EpicOutdoors.com. Which episode is it? That's the YouTube channel. Yeah, YouTube channel at Epic Outdoors. Devin had a mule deer hunt that he filmed. Droppers Get You Dropped is what we called it. I know, you called it Droppers Get You Dropped. Is that because you don't offend all the yuppies? Well, you can't say... Because you want to say Droppers Get You Killed, but you can't say killed. You can't say that. You can't flag all kinds of flags. You can't advertise or search.

The Biden flags. I like Droppers Get You Dropped. I thought it sounded punchy. It's fine. It's kind of... I mean, it's fine. I would just... I figured you eliminated the kill. You tweaked that one. Uh-huh. It makes you less searchable. But it's a good episode. Devin did a great job filming it. It's really fun. He ended up with a sweet buck. Do you need to give a shout out to his wife who filmed part of it? She's hilarious. It's so funny. Watching those clips, his wife was cracking us up for sure. Yeah. All right, that's the downside is you got to give all your raw footage to these guys, and they get to laugh their guts out while you're at home. Don't even know that Logan's laughing at you. You're the butt of a joke. Exactly. You can just assume that I am laughing at you. You'll be safe. Chris laughed at us non-stop.

All right, so anyway, Epic YouTube's up and cranking again. We kind of took a little bit of a break on that, but we've got a lot of episodes coming out, and we'll get cranking on that. And that break is just, sometimes you can only do so much. So, anyway, we're gonna make that a priority and get that cranking. Anything else we wanna shout out? Let's throw a shout out to Triple S Polaris, specializing in custom builds for hunters. We've got a custom razor, just an incredible machine. It just eats up the hills and does 70 while doing it. How about that? It's incredible. Anyway, if you're looking at getting a new machine, whether it be a four-wheeler, side-by-side, whatever, the generators, e-bikes, it seems like he sells, anything, 435-865-0100, 435-865-0100, triple S, Polaris. Triple S kind of stands for a couple of things, but anyway, this one's a little different. Something in the wolf.

Yeah, something like the shoe, shovel, and shut your mouth. You know, this next one, Wyatt might be the best candidate to talk about the Hoyt bows. Oh, yeah. Shout out to Hoyt, Wyatt. Yeah, you guys talked about those shots I've made the last couple of years on my archery hunt. It's definitely credited to a lot of the bow I shoot. I mean, I've never shot this well in my life since I picked up the new Hoyt bow, and I would say that's probably what's made these hunts happen. You shoot a carbon, right? Yep. The five or seven, I don't know. The five, yep. RX5. But, it's smooth. You might be giving them a little too much credit. Well, you have skills. I've shot bows quite a bit, but I've never shot a bow that shoots as good as this. One stock while the deer's buddy's taken off on a full sprint. Yeah. And you throw at the needle.

It was just kind of high pressure, but no, I say the same thing. I mean, they shoot better than I can shoot. That's exactly what they do. They shoot better than I can, and that's all I need. And I can get better. Yes, I know. Got my faults. But if the bow's better than me... That's what you want. Yeah. That's what you want. Rifle, muzzleloader, archery. Everything. Yes. I'd recommend that bow to anybody. So, anyway, go online and get your... get a Hoyt bow coming. Hoyt archery. You need one. Yeah, I guess by next year. Or, if you've got a late season December archery elk hunt this year in Utah summer, it's probably not too late to get you in a boy and get a set up. Buy two. I had ice... my limbs iced up and that... I mean that... Oh yeah, you were hunting mountain lions and your wheel had ice and when you You drew it back, it just came off. Yeah, nothing, no fault.

Every bow would have done that. Every bow would have done it. So, yeah, it got a little western. That was in the U.N. Basin. Get the lion on the ground, got a little western. It was in the U.N. Basin where it's like negative, always negative in the winter. It was a very cold experience. It was legal, but it was western. All right. So, now we're here at Fierce. Fierce Firearms, just incredible lineup of rifles. These guys have got going, kind of the new one that's super exciting, Kurt, that works with us here, has done for years and years and years. Anyway, he ended up with the Mountain Reaper, and I swear, Bronson, I'm freaking buying one. But anyway, just an incredible lineup. These guys know what they're doing, and it's very, feels like a custom rifle, a very affordable price. You're not much more than like a box type rifle. So, anyway, you

can go online, check them out at Fierce Firearms. If you find something you like, don't forget We have to order through us. We deal in them, and there's nobody going to beat us in price. So, anyway, go check out something that you might want there. What I do like about Fierce, too, is you get them in a timely fashion. This isn't like three and four years down the road, even a year and a half, none of that. You're going to be able to have a firearm in fairly short order. All right. Do we got anything else, boys? No, not a lot else. We have 40% off coupons on our website, epicoutdoors.com, for UA gear. If you're needing some gear, 40% off of anything they sell on UA.com. Also, you can go to our website to get to the Muleys Matter page. Of course, we're kind of excited about the Muleys Matter.

And if you don't punch a deer tag, and you have one, then, you know, consider turning it in to us here at Epic Outdoors, and we'll throw your tag in the bin and have a manual drawing of tags. That's going to be a bunch of colors of tags that we're going to draw. Green for Colorado. Splattering. White for Utah. What else? We got gray in Nevada, right? Some states do some yellows now and then, but I don't know. You got blues in places, it seems like. Yeah. I don't know. It's going to be... Anyway, it'll be interesting. When we spin that thing, it is going to be a rainbow when we spin that bin. And then we've also got a guy that called in just barely and said something, asked about the doe tags. He says, will you have drawings for doe tags? Dropping bombs on moms? Yes, we are going to have... Details on the website, too. Unused O-Tags. There are some parameters on there, I think,

statewide and stuff like that. You can read about it on the mealysmatter.com website. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. All that. So, anyway, Wyatt, anything else? Kind of worn you out of your story? No, I think it's good. I wish Devin was here. He was instrumental. He was there. Yes. And he's very passionate. He's a great storyteller. And anyway, he could have told us how he was a thousand degrees and had to roll.

He was dehydrated. I looked over there. He was dehydrated. I looked over there at one time. How could he be dehydrated at a truck? Because he didn't get up. He didn't dare move. He didn't move. I looked over it once, and I mean, I wasn't beeping or anything, but I mean, I'm a mile. Yeah. And the deer's between me and Devin. Yeah. So, literally, I kind of have to look up, and he's at the top of my, you know, Pier 12s. I asked him if he had his pants off one time. Yeah. I could see his bare leg, and I'm like, what are you doing? Nobody wears shorts hunting.

Yeah, he hiked them up. Yeah, he hiked them all the way. He had them rolled up. So, anyway, it was just kind of small talk when we were, during that three-hour period, Wyatt was talking about when it's like, you know, the deer are all bedded, and, you know, what has everybody got in their pack to eat? And you're just, you know, there's nothing to talk about. No. Anyway, it'll be fun. He won't listen to this podcast, so if you guys out there listening to this, if you can kind of tell that we're going to jab him a little bit about this, we'll just bring it up at a weird time and just say, you know, I don't know, has anybody glassed with their pants off? Just see what he has to say. He won't even be prepped, because he won't listen to this. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. Well, now Wyatt's hanging around the office here. Rightfully so.

Yeah, I plan on taking a little bit more time for that hunt, but I won't complain about it being done opening morning, that's for sure. No, neither will your wife. Yeah. And future family. All right, K everybody. That's it. We gotta head out. It's Thursday. I'm going to go hunt. I'm going to go hunt. I'm going to go hunt. Friday around here. Alright. We'd like to thank all of our sponsors here at Epic Outdoors. For top of the line hunting, clothing, and apparel in every environment, visit UnderArmor.com. We'd like to thank UnderArmor for being our title sponsor and making this podcast happen. Visit our website, EpicOutdoors.com, for discount codes to UnderArmor hunting apparel. Handcrafted, quality, precision rifles from start to finish. Red Rock Precision is one of our sponsors, and many of our staff uses Red Rock rifles. Visit RedRockPrecision.com to find out more.

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Visit Kennetrek.com to learn more. We at Epic Outdoors are a Fierce firearms dealer and have many popular models in stock and ready to ship. Call us if you would like help deciding which options are right for you. Fierce long-range rifles are a great rifle and many of our employees here use them. Visit FierceArms.com to learn more. Triple S Polaris specializes in custom setup hunting side-by-sides. They deliver right to your door nationwide. Visit SSSPolaris.com to learn more. For affordable, long-range rifles and shooting schools, visit ThompsonLongRange.com.

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