EP 355: A 245" Mule Deer Story and Trail Camera Tips

You're listening to the Epic Outdoors Podcast, brought to you by Fierce Firearms. Epic Outdoors choice for custom hunting rifles.

Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Adam Broughton, John Peterson, Logan at the keyboard. It's a miniature little keyboard, Logan. It is. That's a little Logie Bear keyboard. What do we got? It works for us. There's a couple of things, Dan. Where's that Apple keyboard? Where's that big board that made it look really high tech? I can bring it back if you want. It just is nice to have a little space to write some sticky notes for when you guys say things that I need to take out. This makes it look like you're replaceable. Anybody can run that little thing. Okay, go ahead and try. No, no, no, no. Stay right there, Logan. All right. Anyway, having a good time here. It's kind of a light week. We've got Bronson. We're right in between everything. A lot of draw results. All the draw deadlines are over with.

And a lot of draw results coming out here very soon, like California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, deer and sheep, Idaho, deer, elk, antelope. Yeah. Wyoming, deer and antelope. So, anyway, we're just kind of twiddling thumbs. I don't know about twiddling thumbs. I am. Okay. I mean, it's kind of boring. We do have some search engines of various things on our computers right now. Really? Do you want to tell us? Yeah. I mean, I don't know. What are you looking for? Ammo. Four-wheeler parts. Yeah, maybe stuff. I've got a battery for my TW200. Okay, Bronson, you and I, 2022, think we're going to set the world on fire with a TW200. Okay? We go buy a pair of them. How many miles you've got? 77. Yeah, I've got 53. Okay. I mean, so, anyway, got to get a new battery. At some point, going to have to learn what oil it likes. Just because it's got a half-life. You remember what half-lives are?

Remember how things just naturally deteriorate with oxygen and being in an environment of some sort? I wonder about oil. Like, they say, oh, you know, every three months or 3,000 miles. I don't think it needs that. I think you go three or four years. I've been, case in point, mine's three or four years old. It doesn't burn a drop. If you can get it started. It hasn't even been started, so it doesn't burn a drop. Anyway, pretty funny. I mean, there's some trails out there that I always thought I was going to use and be a hero. No, not yet. So, anyway. Fun stuff. At least we can. We have the options. Right? If we want to, we can. Single track. You're in it with a single track. That's right. That's right. We're ready to go. So, we're running cameras. We're doing a lot of interesting things right now as far as getting ready to scout, getting our gear ready, prepping.

John, you're talking about cameras. You're running cameras, using Onyx a lot and whatnot. And then, of course, we've got some unique gear reviews and things. Why don't you guys take the lead for a minute and let's direct this just a little bit. Yeah, I think we've got some gear reviews off the website. So, we just want to thank our listeners who have left reviews on products they've bought. So, Logan. Flip through them really quick. Read us a couple. I don't really. Jeez. I mean, there's a lot of stuff. Do we even accept anything that's less than five stars? We do. We'll even show up. Zero all the way up to five, and we've been fortunate. Yeah. That we're not issuing a challenge. We just really like what people like us to. You know what we should do is we should give away something. We don't have a trap. That's right. We're selling Swarrow. It's legit.

But what we could do, Bronson, John, Logan. Yeah. If we wanted, at some point, anybody that leaves a five-star review, give them something. Oh, yeah. Well, we could do a... Jeez. We've got loads of stuff. Does that cross the line of non-organic feedback? Well, I mean, what company's organic besides ours? I don't know. Can't think of one. Probably some pet food company or something. Well, I mean... No. If you dissected what was in dog food, come on. They'd be out of business. You know what I mean? Come on. Organic. Come on. Doesn't mean it's edible. No. It could be rotten. Organic is rotten. Organic is any bones and marrow and everything chumped together. All right. These reviews were sent in before our giveaway, so these are still organic. Okay. Read them real quick. We had some pretty cool ones for our new releases on our tripod line, the Epic Max QR

Combo, which is our new big boy tripod. We had a five-star review come in just a few days ago. He said, it's well built and the pan is smooth. Love the return tension. Overall, I think it is what they say it is. Highly effective and will be everything you need in a tripod. Had my 95 ATX on it and it handled it easily. Guys, this passionate and their livelihood is this business. Won't put something out. If it doesn't perform at a high level, there's more to follow. Wow. That's another simple. What's more to follow mean? That's more. He must think we have stuff in the works. Well, and he's not. I mean, he doesn't know. Right. You know, he doesn't know. He doesn't know. But we do appreciate it, Chris. Thank you. Appreciate that. We use it personally. Much like what I said. We don't sell crap. That kind of said that, didn't it? Yeah. Yeah. It did.

And, like, we took a lot of time, over a year in development on that. And then this version 2.0 took, you know, another year in development. I was, for one, grateful, Bronson, that John and Josh took the lead on the R&D. And that you and I had got to say, yes, that's good, or no, it's not, and go back to work. Well, we luckily had been through the other ones for about a year, the Light and the Ultra. And that's where the bulk of our time went into. Yeah. And so then the Max was just simply a bigger, beefier set of legs to, you know, withstand wind and weight a little bit more. That's all simple as it was. I'm a fan of the beefier legs on that. I mean, it's not so big. Remember the old Zeiss tripod that we had for a pair of Highlanders? How about some of those Swaro tripods, the older ones? Oh, I mean, hey.

I mean, hey, if you're going to shoot a .50 cal standing up, not so bad to throw it in our gun vise and throw it on there. But who does that? Nobody. So, anyway. All right, you got another review or two? Yeah, we got a couple more that I wanted to read. Just a couple days ago on a pair of Swarovski EL range 12x42s said, Swarovski's in a class of their own. These are amazing. Best class I've ever looked through. If you only have one set of binos that does it all, get the 12s in the EL range. Okay, I like it. One thing we wanted to talk about, Bronson, we had a couple of calls of guys that called in when we were talking about EL ranges versus other range finders and use what you started with. Or if you swap over, fine, swap over, run it out, run your pins out. Recalibrate your stuff. Recalibrate it and make sure you use what you use. That's all.

Don't use your buddy's range finder or a whole different standalone range finder when you're using an EL range. And I guess we should go over it again just because people were thinking, oh, you're saying the EL range is not good. We just talked about all range finders of all companies have slight inconsistencies in range. Logan, you talked about you and I think your dad and brothers. Out on a point, you all have the same range finder at 50 yards. You were plus or minus. Some were minus yards. Some were plus yards. Two-yard difference at 50 yards. The same exact out-of-the-box range finders. Not even Swarovski. So just talked about that period. This got brought to light because the husband and wife each had the same set. It's a lot different when the husband's shooting a 70-pound bow and the wife's shooting a 45-pound bow. The arc and trajectory of an arrow is completely different.

And if you're three or four yards off at a little bit longer yardage or… Range finder to range finder. Yeah. If you're slightly off, it's even going to be that much more exaggerated. With a 40-pound bow. With a 40-45-pound bow. Yeah, exactly. So we're just saying… And they were using different range finders too, not the same brand. Yeah. You know, one was a pair of… So keep in mind, I know a yard is a yard is a yard is a yard. I get that. Yeah. Okay? We know what a yard is. But when you're dealing with optics, you're dealing with lasers, you're dealing with, you know, mechanics of any sort, vortex does not have to legally match Swarro. Swarro does not have to legally match vortex or Zeiss or Leica. It's all mathematics inside them. Yeah. You know, slightly different, you know… And Swarro uses a different application when it comes to calculating range.

If you're sighting in with Swarro, continue with Swarro. You're going to be fine. It's wonderful. The most amazing products ever. You pick up something new, you better just ground truth your pin. It's more prevalent with… That's what it is. We're not on a rifle. I don't know how much difference. Five yards at 700 yards means nothing. Right. So you're 501. Yeah. Or 505. Oh, okay. But archery five yards at whatever yard… That's extreme. We've had… But, I mean, that is… We've had some of the world-class archers, let's call them, you know, at 125 yards being one or two yards off slightly or having some inconsistencies. And they're just… They have their own system and they do not vary from it. And I'm not doing that. No, that's not… I mean, so what we're doing is wonderful, great. The products are great. If you're doing that, I'm sure you have your system.

And just use your range finder for your gun or your bow. Perfect. And calibrate it to it and use it. I like it. Grab someone else's. You might want to ground truth it before you rely upon that. That's all we're saying. You can get lucky in a match. You want the best range finder on planet Earth, go with the Swarro Eagle range. Okay. We'll just say it. Or say a SIG 8K.

Phenomenal. I love my SIG 8K. And the 2400. Even though the 2400, to get to Bluetooth, it feels like it's the jankiest setup ever. And the 8K works every time. Plus, you can type in what gun it is and it's a beautiful thing. I wonder what. Pro 1, 2, 3, 4. It's a beautiful bill. Anyway, it's just a beautiful thing. And we've got all those in stock. So if you want one, we'll sell you one. Great deal. All right. So we've got a lot of five-star stuff. I don't know. What else we got, Logan? Anything else? We got one more that people might be interested in. And so on our online store right now, or if you call in, if you spend more than $500, you get a free outdoor edge fixed blade knife and an epic headlamp in a bundle if you buy more than $500 in our optics store. Which I think is like a $70 value. Yeah. So, yeah. Uh-huh. So, yeah. It's a pretty sweet deal.

And we had a review for our headlamp come in just four days ago. And he said, it's much brighter than the Peaks Duo. Pretty impressive. Now we'll see how long it lasts. Carrying extra batteries won't be a deal breaker considering how much brighter it is. The initial impression is a thumbs up. Wow. Which actually was used as an emoji. Yeah. It was an emoji on there. I did translate it. So he probably loaded it with his phone. But you know what I think is interesting about reviews? Name me the last review you guys have done. I did one yesterday. Yeah. Yeah, I did. You did not. Yeah, I did. Okay. I've never done a review. I got one. And I love some of the Amazon products I've bought. Well, I'm just saying to get somebody to go do a review other than bronze. Well, I've done it before. It was reminded by a company I bought from. And it was good. And I used, it was Kinetrek Boots. Yeah. Okay.

I got an email. I bought some boots probably three years ago. But I'll bet your Amazon bill is, I'll bet your Amazon bill and purchase orders are lengthy. Okay. Okay. Because if you have a wife like mine. I have. And myself. I'm buying everything on Amazon. I don't even have an Amazon account. What? No. My wife does. That's all I need. I go in there. I say, let me see your Amazon. Let me order it. Dump. She has my car. I walk away. Wow. Because then I don't get bombarded by. You don't micromanage your own purchases.

Jason, do you? Wow. Yes. Everyone. Your own? Your own? I order everything. No. I order my own. What do you mean? Where? From her account? No. Yeah. From her account. Okay. With my car. Okay. Hand me your phone. Let me order my stuff. All right. And now you take your phone back. Take it back. Same thing with Venmo. I don't have that either. Okay. I'm proud of it. I did want to mention. He did say he's going to have to take extra batteries. It's not true. Our headlamp, the cool thing about it is it's got three brightness settings. You can put it on the lowest settings. Well, he's got it on the brightest settings. He says it's brighter. Yeah. And then he said bright again. I think part of this was he likes a bright light. He likes a bright light. And so he is going to burn through a little bit. Yeah. I love my, I have headlamps in every door panel of all trucks. Like I, and I get it.

We produced them. I get it. I know where to find more. Knives, headlamps, and Tums. We know where to find more. Yeah, Tums. Yeah, exactly. And Advil. Like, I know where to find them, okay? But I'm just saying you can't have too many. You go on there. You buy something. Great. We're mentioning it when you call in. Great. We'll throw them in the box. You buy an optic, we'll throw it in the box. $500 or more. Well, if people want to read these, they can just go online and read them. Yeah, when you're looking at products on our online store, these reviews show up right underneath it. All organic. Yep. Fully organic. I agree. If we don't even talk about this stuff or even encourage, we should. Yeah. People are, you know what Onyx has always said, rate us five stars right now? Rate us five stars. And I'm in the middle of trying to navigate somewhere.

Hey, I'm trying to make a shot in that right now. Yeah, I'm like, back off. Yeah. No, I've never rated them five because they keep asking me. You know, it drives me crazy. Maybe that's why we don't ask very often. Jeez. Anyway. All right. So, anyway. What else? We are in the middle of also our last, what, 12, two weeks of our membership drive. Yeah, the membership drive. Epic Hunt giveaway. World-class hunts that we're throwing at everybody here. When are we drawing? We're going to be, the deadline is the 23rd. Probably draw on the 25th or something like that. Yeah. You've got like a week and a half left, right? Yeah. So, anyway, get in. Get sharing. This year we decided just something different. We had some extra guns and bows and optics laying around. We're like, let's do some weekly incentive drawings. I don't know what we call them. Drawing of the week, I think is what we call them.

I don't know. For some reason, these riots caused me to want everybody to be armed. Yeah. Give them a bow. Okay? Give them a bow. Give them some broadheads. I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't be saying that, but I don't care. I feel like, don't you want to just arm the world? I don't know. I agree. When we have somebody laying around, we're like, all right, let's give an incentive. Give them the hands. It's worked. And, John, we've already drawn a couple of winners. We gave away a fierce rifle, and Justin Armathis won that one. Already shipped it out to him already. We shipped it to him, yeah. And then the EL Range binos. Are we making an announcement right here? Jason Rindlesbach won those. Say it again. Yeah. Congratulations. Congratulations. Name's Jason, for heck's sake. Yeah. Jason Rindlesbach won the EL Range binos. Yeah. Congratulations.

Then we've got another one going right now up until Friday night, the 13th, right, John? Yep. So we'll run Saturday until Friday night at midnight, and it will be over. So if we're giving away a plate RX9 and an Acura LRX this week, right? If you get ticket packages in that time frame, you'll automatically be entered to win. Muzzle or a bow. We don't need to throw them at an FFL. We can just ship them direct to your door. Yep. It's awesome. Free for the taking. Anybody that buys tickets, $125 or more, like John said, between now and what? Friday night. Friday night, midnight. Okay. Do it. So if you're going to buy tickets anyway, buy them. Buy them, and you're going to get your name in the hat for one of these. People win them each and every week.

Fun. It's fun to give just more stuff to give away. We like it. May or may not have it next week. Probably. All right. Moving on. Where are we at? Oh, do you want to talk about trail cameras for a minute, or do you want to go dive into a hunting story? What do you want to do? Let's maybe do a hunting story first. Hunting story? Yeah. All right. Why don't you set the stage? Okay. So we've got Tyler B. we're going to call. He was on our cover in the last issue and killed an absolute giant. Yeah, like 250 inches. You know, I was talking to a good friend of mine. Almost. Name. Don't exist. Besides Tyler's. Name the last 250-incher you can think of was killed. I can think of one. Which one? Talk like that. What? Like in 1953? No. 2003? 2013? 2023. 2023. New Mexico. A little gal shot a giant with a muscle order. Okay. Okay. There you go. I like it. Giant. I like it. It was giant.

Found a set of sheds while they were hunting or killing or packing out or something. Seems like you had a raffle tag that year. And it seems like you may or may not have known of the deer and had access to some live trip or photos of the deer. Who's they were? I don't know. But I was showing them. People went quiet. It was dead. And I said, all right. I'm ready to come down. And they're like, ah. We want to pick a shed. Three months. He's in a little gal. Whips a gun out. On a freaking. Smokes a giant. Muzzled or no less. Muzzled or open. That was an open sight year. First year, I believe. First year of open sight. But anyway. Hats off to her. The thought. It's a no joke. The point is, though, we had to think about it. We had to think about another 250. Well, I mean. Just name it. They don't exist. They're just. Harding. Yeah. Why it was like.

He was looking through, you know, my Instagram. Was he? And it hasn't been updated recently. Why? Because there's no big deer. And anyway. He was judging you? He said. Yeah. He said. Did he say you need a post? No. He didn't. He just said. Don't go look at your Instagram. I go. Why? And he goes. Because they don't exist anymore. Anyway. That's what it feels like. It's. It's hard. Right? Oh. It feels like. But hey. Yeah. Tyler found one. You won the lottery here. With Idaho genetics. Which are no joke. Yeah. Let's. Let's jump over. That is story page. Page number 10. Of the June July magazine. We covered Idaho excessively. Extensively. In depth. In that particular publication. I think. Let's just. See what we can get out of him. Talk about. Yeah. What he's done. He's killed. Multiple giants. Okay. So. Your kids doing something. Let's get any and all. Let's get any and all those.

Stories out of him today. Let's get him on the line. Milk him. Milk the two hundo. Stories dry. Every time we talk about milk. I can just picture. A friend of ours. Talking about milking the clock. I can just picture. Yeah. Milking the clock. Going through some safety briefings. All right. Here we go. Moving right along.

Hello. Tyler. Tyler. Jason Carter. Adam Bronson. John Peterson. Epic Outdoors podcast. How are you? Hey. Doing good. How are you guys? Good. We get you in all right time? Yeah. Yeah. I'm good. Awesome. Awesome.

First off. Let's see. Have you got another buck found? That's like the buck you just smashed. Like are we going to have to be a regular occurrence? Because I think you've smashed a couple like this. Well, nothing quite like that one. And how do you get National Geographic type photographs of a wild deer out in the wild with a regular draw tag in your hand? How does this happen? Geez. I think I might spend too much time in the mountains. Yeah. Bound to happen. Are you married? I am. Okay. Yeah. You do spend too much time in the hills.

Wow. He's a special deer. We teed it up a little bit before we called you about, you know, 250 bucks. One's the last one. And we thought of one in New Mexico in 2023. But, I mean, then it went kind of dark and quiet. Just can't think of bucks like this caliber. In recent times, they just seem to be almost non-existent. So, he's an eye-catcher giant. They are truly non-existent. I mean, the amount of time I spend in the mountains and in units that I think have potential to grow a deer that size. I mean, you just, for whatever reason, age class is one of them, but genetically, I just don't think they can get there very often. Yeah.

And what's weird about it is, like, some of these units that I've spent a lot of time in, you, like, you get a freak anomaly like that deer where you're like, when I first saw that deer, I was like, had this weird feeling is, is this like a high-fence deer that somebody released out here? I'm like, what is going on? Because, like, I've, you know, you see a deer with some cheaters here and there, or maybe an inline or two or whatever. But I'm, like, looking at this deer, I'm like, okay, yes, six-and-a-half-inch eye guards, stuff all over. And on top of it, he's… The four-point frame is legit. The cheaters are legit. The inlines are legit. The mass is great. The eye guards are phenomenal. The blading. Like, where's the weakness, right? Like, where is the weakness? One of those bucks that… I think the weakness is his age. He's the four-and-a-half-year-old deer. Did you have him aged?

I've had two people look at it. I haven't had official results come back, but I've had two people that are kind of really good in that field of studying teeth and bone and school and… We even commented that in-house. I mean, just look at his face and neck. It's not an ancient deer. I mean, we, you know… I don't want to call him a pencil neck, but he does… Who knows what he… Of course, he's summertime-type high-dare. Short-haired. That makes him look that way. Yeah. He is, but, like, when… So, one day I was… After a rainstorm, I was looking for his tracks, and… And I actually saw him and then found his tracks, and… And even his hoof was… If you saw his hoof, you would think it was a, you know, a two- or three-year-old deer at best. Wouldn't have started tracking him down with urgency. Oh, no. No. It's… Wow. It's pretty wild. So, how early in the year did you see him for the first time?

Like, how well-built was he the first time? And do you recognize him? Or was it a multiple year? Yeah. Did you recognize him the year before, although he probably just blew up? No. I… Well, I heard of a good buck in the area, and I have no idea if it was him or not, because it was a little ways away, maybe five miles. And so, it could have been him that I heard about, but… Yeah, I think the first time I saw him was… It was probably end of June, 1st of July, somewhere right there. So, he had enough going on by then, you knew. Oh, yeah. He was over… Yeah. Yeah, he was over 200 by the end of June, 1st of July. I mean, we're coming up on the end of June right now. Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, plus or minus, a couple months. Yeah. Yeah. The growth isn't that great yet down here, but it's… I mean, it's good. They're growing fast. Also, don't have the 250 buck we're watching. I know.

You don't have to tell the public that. Maybe we do. Maybe we do. Jason, don't press me. I'm just trying to keep people from following me this year, because I have nothing. I have nothing. So, did you… Do you remember anything like it last year? What do you mean by that? Meaning the year prior, I should say. No. No. I mean, there were some good bucks around that I was keeping tabs on, but none of them had the potential to get… Extras or something. I think they had the age class. I think they were older deer, but I just don't think they were ever going to get over that 200 to 210 mark. I just think they were maxed out. That's still a giant deer, but, you know, just kind of a freak of nature, really, I think. So, when you first saw him, it was at the end of June, and you just were like, duh, this thing's incredible. Who's missing a deer? Looking for an ear tag in him? Stuff like that. Yeah.

Who's missing a buck out of their pen? That's what you thought. Honestly, I had this weird… I was just studying that deer, and I was like, I've never seen anything in this area that has that genetic. And so, I'm like, what is going on? I'm like, you know, I'm like, is this deer moving back to his summer range that is far away from here that I caught him in transition to going to another unit? But, like, is he traveling 50, 60 miles to another unit that… Because I'm like, this unit typically doesn't have anything even remotely like that. So, I was like… But then he just stuck around. I mean, he was a weird deer. I mean, he literally moved around that whole mountain, which usually if you turn a deer up and you keep tabs, I mean, he'll be within a mile. So, but this thing would disappear and I'd pick him up five miles downrange, uprange, lowland, top of the mountain.

I'm like, man, this thing is… Moving a lot. Do you think it was… Yeah, abnormal. …frenation or something like that or just moving a lot? He was just moving a lot. Yeah. Yeah, I… He ran solo a bunch and then he'd hook up with another deer and then he'd go back to solo and then I would find him five miles away and then I'd camp out there for three, four days and he'd disappear and I'd go back to where I originally found him and there he'd be. And I'm like, what is this deer doing? Yeah. Maybe, yeah. I think maybe that's how a deer escapes general season units of intense hunting pressures of…

Because the pattern him was almost impossible and so like if someone did see it, well, good luck finding it again. Might also be partly due to the fact he was just… You can start to say fours when they're just starting to mature from an age standpoint. Like, you know, he wasn't a seven to nine-year-old buck that had done the same thing for the last five years and had really had it down and had looted it for that many years. You know, maybe still figuring out what he wants to be. Not in his old man phase. Yeah. Correct. Not in a routine or any kind. But remember, we had a buck here in Nevada in 2011, 2012. But anyway, we called him Jake the Snake. He's full of rattlesnakes wherever he watered. But anyway, then… But he would move. The rest of the deer we could glass up. We could never glass him up. Trust me. I hunted him. Yes, he did. Yeah. And it was terrible. He was MIA most.

Well, and then come to find out, he was actually going, like you're doing, five to seven miles. This deer was doing the same thing in the velvet, which is counterintuitive. Normally, they don't do that. We could find every other buck, but this buck ends up getting killed on a small year. Rifle. A rifle. With a rifle hunter. Guided by Mark Lane, anyway. Clear back in the day. But interesting that your deer was doing the same thing. And I think those, let's call them weird patterns, awkward, you know, just their personalities or whatever lend them to good age. Maybe they're like people. I mean, think about people. Some people are gregarious, like to hang out in groups, friends, all that, and others are more loners. Let me long. Let me. Yeah. And don't do the same thing twice. Let me go live in. Except for maybe go to work once in a while.

Yeah, let me go live in the panhandle of Idaho and never find me. No offense to people in Idaho. I'm just picking that rent. I'm just saying, you know, there's places like that. Live in a rainforest and not be seen. Yeah, yeah. You know? So, maybe deer have that kind of temper. So, your deer's doing that, obviously, moving a lot. So, how do you hunt a deer that doesn't have a pattern like that? What was your game plan? Well, it was spending a lot of money on fuel. A lot of trips. You know, I would class an area until my eyes hurt, and then I would pack up, move a mile downrange, uprange, wherever, and just kind of just expanding that zone out farther and farther until you locate it. And honestly, I think it was really lucky it all came together because I was like, if this deer, if I can't get it done on the bow hunt, he's going to get real smart real quick when he rubs his velvet.

And a lot of those deer go nocturnal. And he was just starting to get to that phase. And actually, opening day, he rubbed. I watched him rub his velvet off completely. He was full velvet in the morning at daylight. And by evening, he was completely stripped. And I just did not feel good on the shot. He just kept that quarter just a little tight away from me at 80 yards. And trust me, I thought about it many times. I'm like, oh, I know I can hit that shot. But I was like, I am not going to take a chance on wounding a deer this caliber. You know? And I thought I didn't because it all worked out. Did you think he was 250? Or is he? Hey, did he end up drying out at like 250? And did you feel like that's the kind of buck you were hunting? Yeah, he ended up going 245 and change.

Did he net book? Like, did you net him, put him in the book? I haven't yet. I got a guy doing it here not too long that's going to come and do the official stuff. He looks like he nets well. So his main frame was about 206 on his typical frame. Yeah.

Which, and that was dried out and everything. So, yes.

All right. Well, let's go back to the story. So, yeah. How did you, I mean, opening day, you were on him, obviously, somehow. And was it the weeks leading up, the days leading up, you kept track of him? He kind of, did he get a tighter roaming range? Just got lucky the right timing and kept track of him that last several days? And obviously, it sounded like opening day, you were on him. Yeah, well, I hadn't seen him for about a week prior to opener, which was kind of concerning. But at the same time, I was like, this deer is weird enough that I know he's in the area. And opening morning, I glassed a deer quite a ways out. And once I got enough light out that I was like, oh, that's him. And he bedded down. And actually, he was already bedded at daylight, which was another thing that I was like, maybe that's why he's so hard to find.

If he's even bedded in the velvet before daylight, you know, and just seeing the tops of his horns. And that's how I picked him up. And he got up and when the sun hit him, which was another thing is usually rotate beds. You know, they might move 20 yards, 100 yards, whatever. This thing got up at 8, 9 o'clock. And he walked probably three quarters of a mile uphill up a mountain range going up open ridges and went all the way. Out in the sunlight. In the sunlight. Walked all the way to the top of the mountain and bedded down. And I was like, what is this deer doing? And that's when I went and sat on him for all day and was hoping to just come back down the same trail. But you had other plans. So he got up and stirred a little bit like your previous story. You talked about 80 yards. Did he get up and switch into bed but stayed in that bed all day and just didn't feel good about the shot?

And then fast forward to I don't know what time in the afternoon. What happened then when he finally started to move for good, I guess? Well, he sat in the same bed. Once he bedded that hard bed at like 10 o'clock, he stayed in that bed and didn't move until dark. Didn't get up, even stand? Didn't even stretch. Didn't even – I mean, my eyes were glued to that. You know. Yeah. And I was like, well, he might get up and feed. He might go up, you know, go to the bathroom, whatever. He might just get up and give me that window for a shot. But he literally sat just perfectly still and actually in a little patch of trees. And then at dark, I was like, well, I'm running out of daylight. You know, I either got to push my luck, make a play and get a little closer and see what's going on. And you were under 100 yards this whole time? 150. Yeah. Yeah, I think I was about 150.

And so I closed the gap to 80 yards and then I looked and he was just on the other side of these trees and he was just raking his velvet off going crazy. And every time he would rake, I would take three, four fast steps and then he would whip his head around and look. Because I think – I don't know if he would hear me or just sense something up. The wind was in my favor. And we did this for quite a while and he just kind of kept that 80-yard mark out in front of me and he went up and over the ridge. And I was like, oh, like I don't want to go up over the ridge and bust him. But I was like, man, I might not see this deer again. And so I kind of pushed it again and walked up to the ridge. And I was about ready just to turn around. I actually had my bow put away. And I looked and he just walked out from behind a cedar and was at 20 yards with his head down feeding.

And you had put the bow away – how did you – On your pack? On my pack. So you put the arrow back in the quiver and – Yeah, I was done. It's getting close to getting dark. Oh, my gosh. Yep. I'm not going to. Yep, I was done. Bow was on the pack getting ready to get my headlamp out ready to – you know, ready for a hike out. And then all of a sudden he shows up and I range it. I said 20 yards. I was like in disbelief. I was like, there's no way that this is happening. Because his head was down. He didn't even know I was there. And so I dropped my pack, got my bow, range it again because it seemed a little farther than that. But, you know, when you're losing light and your perception of yardage is kind of starting to get a little funny. I was like, man. So I range it and it said 20 again. I drew back and let it fly. And I just hear really nothing but brush. And he bolted up over the ridge.

And I was like, what the heck just happened? I'm like staring at my bow, staring at my rest, my sight. I'm like – I'm just like honestly just in shock. Like, you know, I spent like every day shooting on the range. And then I started like – I'm like, well, obviously something's wrong with my bow. But I dropped my pack, walked up to where he was standing, got on his track. The arrow was right where I thought it would be, clean, nothing on it. But I looked back at my pack and I ranged back to my pack and it said 38 yards. And I was like, what the heck? And then I could see the tops of the blades of some sagebrush that I couldn't really see in the moment that the rangefinder was picking up on. And I was just devastated. I was like, oh, my gosh. I'm like, I should have caught that or seen it or whatever. But I went back to my tent. I sat my target up at 38 yards and dialed my 20 pin.

And with my setup, it was about 8 to 10 inches difference, which I didn't think it would be that much anyway. But it was just enough just to – I bet I missed him by an inch under his brisket.

I was pretty bummed. And then he disappeared for a week. I never – I just kept pounding it. And I was like, man, I wonder if he moved. And I started wondering, well, maybe I nicked it somewhere and just maybe scared him bad enough that he's completely out of the area or nocturnal now. But I ended up finding him again. How long ago? A week, you said? About a week, yeah. About a week later. Same basic area or? No. He'd moved probably about a mile. And I knew when I saw him and the direction he was going, I had a pretty good idea of where he was going to a water source. It was really hot.

That time of year when it's that hot in that type of country, these deer are watering almost every day. And I was like, well, if I run, I had to run about a mile, just nothing but my bow, and just took off to cut him off and got set up. And he popped over literally 30 seconds after I got to where I wanted to get set up. And he just popped up over this ridge. I think he was about 58 yards when I arranged him. And that time I made it count. Wow. Drilled him, huh? Yeah. How far did he go? Did he watch him go down? No. So it was almost dark again. And the shot, I mean, I felt, it just felt so steady and calm. I was just so dialed in on the pin. And it sounded good. But at the same time, everything was chaos. He bolted up over this little ridge. And then I started second guessing myself. But I was like, man, it felt good. But I was like, I've done this long enough.

The safest thing to do is just to give that deer some time and see what happens in the morning. So I backed out. I didn't even go up to where he was standing. Because I didn't know if he just barely went up over the ridge. And I didn't want to bump him. So I just backed out. Went back the next morning. Hiked in to where he was standing. And the arrow was right where I thought it would be. And just looked like a clean pass through on the arrow. And walked up over the ridge. And he was within 50 yards of where he was hit. He was just laying there piled up. Wow. What was your initial impression? I mean, when you walk up, is it just, I mean, obviously, those are moments you never forget. But, I mean, was it just, I mean, are you the type to celebrate loud? Or are you just shocking on, motionless? It was pretty shocking. My dad actually videoed me on the walk up.

And I couldn't even talk for a minute. I was just, I think my mouth was just hanging open. Like a, yeah, I was just kind of in disbelief. I was like, man, finally, finally kind of felt like a relief that I got it done. And just a lot of emotions of, like, trying to chase a deer of that caliber. And everything it took to get it done was, it was a lot of time invested, a lot of work and energy.

But definitely worth it, you know. Somehow you didn't have to deal with the general public, really.

Well, yes and no. The area gets hunted pretty hard. And during scouting season, there wasn't much pressure because a lot of people glass from the road. A lot of people just drive to little knobs and glass from there, which I'm guilty of doing that too. But opening weekend, they were just, hunters were just piling in all these canyons and setting up trailers at camps. And I was like, this is not good. And as far as I know, there was only one other kid that had ever seen this deer alive on the hoof. And that may be his part, just because he moved so much. Did he, did this kid have a tag? He did. He was hunting it. He almost, he almost got it done one day. And it was a day that, that, it was kind of a funny story. He, he knew, he knew the buck was there. I knew the buck was there. Neither one of us were going to tell each other about the buck. Sure, get it.

And so we're like, hey, you seen much? No, I haven't seen a whole lot, you know. But, but we both knew the buck was there. And we both knew that we both knew the buck was there, you know. But, yeah, I think he was the only kid that, that knew it was on the hoof. Supposedly somebody picked his sheds up the year prior, which I've yet to see in person. I've seen pictures of him.

If I remember right, he went 195 the year prior, which. That's a huge jump. At four and a half, they do it though. That's crazy. Yeah, yeah. And, and it took me a while to like believe that it was the same deer. But after studying it, I've seen multiple photos of it. And I was like, yeah, that's, that's the same buck. Yeah, that's, he went from 195 as a three-year-old to 245 as a four-year-old. And, and who knows what he would have been at five, you know. Did he, did you say, did you send a tooth in to get cut? You just haven't got the results back? Yeah. Yeah, I haven't got the results back. I want you to reach out. Yeah, let us know. I'd be interested. I, I tend to agree about with probably just visually looking at, at the deer's face and body. I mean, that's not, not everything from a picture. It's just nice to know. It is. Yeah. That's a 300-incher in the making.

On the right here with seven, seven, eight years old or something. It just, who knows, like you said. Yeah. I mean, to tell you how small he was, body, body size is, I was like, you know what? I'm probably going to, there's a good chance I'm going to full body mount this thing, which I ended up doing.

And I was like, I can pack this thing out over my shoulders. Oh, man. Small deer. That's crazy. And so my dad helped me. I sat down. We got it adjusted and threw the whole thing up over me. And I packed that thing out. Cameron Haynes style. Cameron Haynes style. Not quite as tough as that guy. But I was like, I'm not going to drag his hide. And it was so hot that I was like, I don't know if I have enough time to do the whole skin job on the mountain with no shade in the sun. And I was like, let's just get this deer off the hill and get in the shade.

Yeah. That's how small of a body deer it was. I don't think Cameron's packed a 250 buck on his back. But black bears, yes.

You got one on him. Hey, the horns were heavy. There's not a lot of people in that club.

Oh, man. So let's see. So many questions. Let's see here. Tell us about, you've killed other big deer. Just give us a brief glimpse into that, into the prior history. You know, I've bow hunted for probably the last 10 years, probably. I've had more success bow hunting than anything. I mean, I've killed a couple nice rifle bucks. But it kind of feels like any more. Getting a rifle tag is one thing. It's getting harder and harder in multiple states. And a lot of states kind of cater to bow hunters.

And on top of that, for me, I've realized it's way easier to locate deer in June, July. And keep tabs on them. They're vulnerable. Yeah. Yeah, versus trying to locate a deer in late September and hoping he's there October and not nocturnal and not starting to move to winter ranges or not starting to pre-rut and move out of the area. And so, just as far, if you have the time and the dedication, I think the way to kill giant deer is with a bow. Especially on general season units, just because there's not very many of them anyway. Get to go first. We say it all the time. Scout first. Get to hunt them first. Pattern them. And when you're hunting general type areas, it just feels like you don't have that trophy hunting pressure. And so, some of these deer, I get when they're general in status, you'd usually have a lot of tags and it doesn't allow for age.

But at the same time, there's the class of hunter and the dedication they're putting forward. If this was a, you know, 45 deer or something like that, you know, there's just a lot. The whole world would have known. Yeah. There's so much more professional pressure teams. Things like that. Get on a general. Nobody's 90, whatever. They're glassing from the rush. 8%. They're having a good time. People are not expecting to even see a deer, hunt a deer. They're looking for bucks. They're just looking for bucks to shoot. That's right. Yeah. And that's what I've noticed is a lot of these LE tags and premium units. If you have a 230 buck, you got three, four guides watching it with three, four clients. And, but if you can go to, and not every state and not every unit, general unit is going to produce big deer, but there are some in every state that can produce big deer.

And if you spend enough time in country that can do it, your odds are going to go up of not having the guys that have the big glass and the guides that spend every day in the mountain to kind of have a deer to yourself. And I've watched deer over the years go from 180 to 190 to 200 to 210. They never get killed. And, you know, they just, they don't get that pressure in areas that you have to hike to. So, uh, the general units, most, most people hunt from the roads and that's, that's fine. And that works for most people. But if you can see it from a road, so can everybody else. Yeah. What's your, what's your, uh, just like you're out of curiosity after the winter we had and after the spring you're having up there and just with, with the last handful plus years in Idaho, what's your gut feel on what Idaho,

what things are going to look like this year up there, you know, in a general sense, not asking your hit list bucks per se. But if you want, you can talk about those too, but just in general, let's talk about your hit list. You know, general text works just fine. It feels like we're generally moving far enough past some of the bigger winter kill, not talking about extreme Southeast part of the state. We'll just talk about Southern Idaho is in general moving far enough past that. And some of those really dry years of like 2020 and 21. It feels like we're due for a good year. It feels like it should be ripening in a lot of places of Idaho. It feels like it should be. What's your thoughts? I think it will be. So we did have those dry years that, that corn grill suffered. Deer actually went backwards in those years.

Iowa seen deer that were, you know, at the 200 mark that would drop all the way down to the mid 180 range. And just because of lack of feed and a dry year. And then they did get hit harder than most people think on that winter. I think it was the winter of 22. 22, 23. Yeah, that winter really affected, well, affected a lot of states. Utah, Idaho, Wyoming got hit hard. I spent a lot of time in Wyoming.

I think they got hit a lot harder than people think. And even the deer in Idaho, the old age class suffered and so did the fawn class. And so you have a lot of those deer from that year of 22, 23 that were the survive, that were probably the three-year-old deer that were healthy. And now they're, you know, the six-year-old deer. And so I think if we can get, I think this is going to be a good year.

I've seen quite a few bucks already that, I mean, they're not in the class of that, but they're, you know, they're definitely deer that you got to keep tabs on. Nice. That's awesome. Well. Wyoming's kind of making a slow comeback as well. I mean, I, that year after that harsh winter, I spent 24 days in Wyoming.

That was like the saddest 24 days I've ever spent glassing. Yeah. I think in 24 days I turned up one deer that was in the 195 range. And that was just, that was sad, you know. Yeah. Yeah. But I do, numbers are way down, but I do feel the same thing. The number of older age bucks called five or six-year-old bucks is way down, but they're, that's, that's what's coming in Idaho or Wyoming. We're still not gotten huge numbers of two and three-year-old bucks because that's what didn't survive. Of deer in general, but yeah. That's what didn't survive, the fawn crop. Feels like the quality's pretty, pretty darn good. Just lower number. Yeah. Yeah. But what's on the winter range was pretty impressive considering where we came from the last couple years. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Not as many, you know, not as many. And that's a big range, but there's still definitely some deer to chase. Nice.

All right. You're, I'm sure you applied for Wyoming. Oh, yeah. Probably anxiously waiting for the results unless you, you're guaranteed a tag. Yeah. I'm, I think at my odds were around 80%, I believe, on Wyoming. So we'll, we'll see what happens. Okay. All right. Well, anything else you want to, you want to talk about? Well, I'll send you some GPS locations. Yeah.

Don't send them out the middle of the cheatgrass. I'll give you my Venmo.

Most snake infested lava field you can find. Adam, Adam uses Venmo. He'll be all over that. Send them all over.

Find me, I dare you. That's fine. All right. Okay. Thanks for taking time today. Appreciate it, guys. Oh, yeah. It's awesome. Congratulations. What a world, world class, amazing deer. Yeah. So, yeah. All right. Thanks again for taking time with us today. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah. Appreciate it, you guys. Thank you. Bye. Bye. There's a little bit of hope. Yeah. It's awesome. It's fun to talk to guys like that. Yeah, they do exist. His photography is amazing. Some of those live pics do look like they were, you know. Oh, yeah. Stunning. They are. Anyway, I don't know what to say, I guess. I was going to throw a little shout out to. Disgusting. That's what I say it is. Is it? Yeah. He's disgusting. Are you kidding? Well, you don't think he deserves it, John? No, no, no, no, no. Not that. He's not like. I'm just being a 14-year-old kid, John. It's not like Kate.

No, he totally deserves it. It's just, you know, disgusting. It wasn't me. Oh, okay. Go check out his photography, Tyler B underscore photography. John, you got a couple, two or three, I don't know how many deer tags this year. Already. Yeah, a couple. Working on. Working on. Trifecta. Yeah, John. Truck problems. Putting in some time, that's for sure. Trail cam problems. All right. Let's do we want to. Let's wrap this up. We were talking about trail cams a little bit in scouting. Do you want to leave that discussion real quick, John? We can talk about that next week, too, if you want. Yeah. Well, let's might as well do it now. People are busy doing it. All right. Just a brief, what? Breaking out trail cams. So, yeah, I've been putting them out. I mean, this is earlier than I've ever put them out before, I would say, because, I mean,

they're barely balling up on, you know, the ends of their ears right now. But it just, you know, I have got some questions on you guys that have ran them earlier. You know, what have you seen? What do you look for? The best spot on the tree. Best spot on the tree. So, when you're early, you're the only camera there. Yes, and I got that. So, that was great. Put it in your same black bolt holes from the year before. Yeah. Yeah. That's nice. Or use the other, somebody else's that was there before you last year. Had a little bit better angle than you did. Now you got it. Now you got it. That's cool. Face them north to south so you don't have the sunrise and sunset. Yeah. Because that'll set them off. So, that would be ideal, although it never works quite like that. Yeah, I've got one or two that get some sun once in a while. There's just no other options.

Can't face them north all the time, which is where you want them. And then, I like scheduled. Like, if I'm on a pond with a lot of cattle or whatever, or a corral with cattle or whatever, I'm scheduling it. So, you know, but you will miss a big deer coming in at 11. It happens once in a while. Usually, he'll hit again another time. Usually, he'll hit at night. But you're also going to save yourself 1,000 to 2,000 cow pitchers every day. Every day. Yeah. And so, yeah. So, anyway, there you go. Scheduled. If you got a sheriff, it's a guzzler or something that's protected or no cattle or no horses or whatever, then obviously you can run a little. Let her ride. All day long. That's right. Yeah. So, I actually went back out. That's why I went back out. I changed, you know, some of them that were scheduled to not scheduled. Yeah. And just adjusted. Yeah.

There's a few that, you know, they're a little low. They'll come in uninhibited in broad daylight if they don't have a lot of other use on that water. Yeah. You know. And what else? I don't know. I like to quicken mine up. Like, I like, I don't like my camera falling asleep. Well, you know, so I like to quicken it up. Like, personally, I mean, you probably don't need much quicker than 15 seconds. I think cameras have brains. But I need 10 seconds. They just act like they do. They can get lazy, you mean? I'm stubborn, lazy, the whole thing. You got brains. Okay. I've got my work in code out there. I haven't thought about it. Well, I mean, the guy needs to. Well, you do wake them out of air hibernation every spring. And somehow they turn on. I don't know how. They do. So, I do 10 seconds or 9 seconds. You know, 3 shot bursts, 1 second delay between the bursts. You know what I mean? Yeah.

And a 9 or 10 second delay total. Lots of photos. You're getting lots of photos. Yeah. But you're also going to have every angle. Sometimes you'll get a deer. You only get him once or twice. He's using another water. He's going in on the other side. Your camera doesn't quite get him. Your camera gets his high leg. Or you get him a couple times at the end of June. Then it rains like crazy. Doesn't show back up. And it doesn't come up for three weeks. You've got to pull cameras down. Yes. The other reason I like to run early, and I know Adam does too, just like when you go and you put out your cameras, sometimes you get turned on. If you only had one check, you're done. Right? Yeah. Or you didn't stay there long enough and maybe do a test pick or something like that. And your angle is a little off. You get in a hurry. Sometimes you do them in the dark. Yeah.

Frankly, you're trying to get home, throwing them up in the dark, I did one at midnight the other night. Yeah. Screwing it at night. And then you go back to the daylight, and you realize it's 20 degrees off pointing to the water. I'm like, it's not really how I wanted it. You redo it. So doing it early allows you to catch some of that. Or a setting that was slightly off. Yeah. Sometimes you change the batteries. They wipe out completely, Jason. And then stuff like that. Zeroes out, and it hits some other programming. Changes your time. Some default setting. Your date and times are all gone. It goes back to zero. I realized one of my cameras had 2019 on. Well, because that's when that camera was built. Mine were in 2022 this year, because some of mine were back in 2022. But I don't want to change, because they fit this perfect little box back in. Hey, you and Mike, I don't know.

I'll buy yours from you. I'll buy yours. I know yours. Oh, you will? Because they're wore out. Yours aren't. I'll buy yours right now. Trust me. They're sunfaded. They're sunfaded. Some of them are rough. I don't know. So anyway, I quicken them up and go through the photos. Or Ashley. I love coming home and just like, here you go, Ash. I mean, it's like Christmas for her. And she doesn't miss anything. Yeah, that's pretty nice. And I'm like, I'll roll through it. I'm lazy. I'll just roll through it. Start rolling that mouse. And pretty soon, I just know I'm missing them. So I stand up and give her the computer. There you go. Take over. Take silver. So anyway, John, you've already done a check. Sounds like I have a need to. And then what else? I take a test pick. So I'm pretty good with this particular model. I don't usually, if it's daylight, I don't take it.

I don't look at the test pick. I just cover the lens with my thumb. I force it to take pictures. And I watch the number ratchet. If the number doesn't ratchet, and it's pretty regular, it won't. Because when you're using old cameras or old cards. So then I throw a new card in. I lick the card. Whatever. So make sure the terminals touch and there's not dirt in the terminals. Stuff like that. Lick the card. Throw it back in. See if it ratchets. If it's not ratcheting, try another day. It might ratchet. Just the way it works. Grab another one. Throw some new batteries in. Something. Sometimes they'll throw 100% on your battery indicator. Yeah. And they're not. Especially a white Energizer. They think they're 100 for five years. You know. So white Energizer does something. And it fools you sometimes. It usually fools you on the first of the year when you think, okay, that's good.

I must already put batteries in it. No. That's a false rating. And me being a cheapskate, I've got a lot that had batteries already in them from last year and there. What's your percentage? So my drop dead needs about 70. 75 to 80. 75. I'll run it. That's right. But it'll probably be dead when I get there. But then I got a fresh set for the remainder of the month. That's right. Which is the most important part of the month. I don't know why, but if they're 78 to 80. If they're in the 80s and up, they're good. Yeah. But if they're below that. At 50? No. Heck no. No. And you're probably going to lose night picks at 30. Who knows? So anyway, just. Do you run DVR mode or not? No. DVR? Yeah. So what happens is. No. Where it fills the garden. It'll start. It'll save over top of your old pictures. I don't know. I should. Would you rather lose the recent pictures or the older ones?

It's because of the rain like Adam talked about. You might have a buck on there at the first of your hearts. Your buck might only be once. Yeah. You're guessing. Or he come in multiple times, but you got his hind in. You got his nose right up against your camera. All the other bucks triggered it. Well, then he got his head in there in the 10 seconds to drink. They triggered it again. Then he turned to left in the 9 or 10, 15 seconds. It happens. You think it won't. It does. It does. You'll get it. It just does. Your best bet is he comes back routinely every two to four nights and you got him. But it doesn't happen then until it gets super bacon hot either. Kind of fun. Anyway, so that's kind of just part of it. There's a – did you guys try those self-tappers I gave you for the – Not yet. This weekend. So there's some self-tappers you cannot drill through a T-post.

The T-post metal is like the hardest metal on planet Earth. Yeah. You know what I mean? I think they're meant just to not bend easy with those big pounders. They just make them out of frames from vehicles that are in the crusher. I mean, they're the hardest metal on planet Earth. But anyway. Maybe like Devin says, they're made out of tritium and radioactive ice. Yeah. He doesn't know what that means. It's probably from some metal in your train. Exactly. You know? It's going to get rarer and rarer, sounds like. So anyway. Best in T-posts. We ended up – there are self-tappers that work better than others. So I found the one type that did. Good luck finding where I got them. Guy gave me a sample. I'm going to – their diamond tip, they cost $296 for 10 screws.

Hashtag worth it. Anyway. All right. So that's it. I did have one kind of interesting thing. I had a camera hidden to just take photos of the other camera and if someone messed with it. Yeah. Any interesting info? Yeah. So I got a buck on the hidden camera. That you didn't get on the right here. That I didn't get on the one that was right on the water. Yeah. You lose faith in cameras. Kind of crazy. That's where the DS, like we talked about, the 4Ks, they never miss. Yeah. But they're expensive. It's hard to run a whole bunch of them. Yeah. So there's cameras. Like there is a value in really making good investment and spending good money. Yeah. But I like that medium range, like the 32 Max that we're running. And then you can go to the cheaper ones that are up close and personal on a guzzler. Those are – they're great.

But I find, I'm telling you, besides the quality of picture, is they don't miss. The 4K doesn't miss. No. Yeah. You'll miss and you just think, what else am I missing? And there was one year I was like, what am I missing? Yeah. This costed me a deer. I just put – add up all the fuel, like what Tyler was talking about. Yeah. Add everything you got into a hunt. And then you realize you're missing bucks. Mm-hmm. You're a ticked off unit. Yeah. I'm just telling you. Yeah. All right. Moving right along. Anything else? Logie Bear, are you running cameras? Running like crazy cameras. Yeah. Yeah, you are. Keep sending those photos. All right. You got it. Yeah. Is there anything that surprised you over the years of, you know, a buck that grew different or, you know, had a spurt you weren't expecting or is it all pretty calculated? You know. I think we're pretty good anymore.

Not just us, hunters in general. Yeah. Yeah. We never used to look at rain. Like I look back in year 2000, 1996 to 2005. I would be like, whoa, 2005 was actually a pretty good year. And then when you go match up what happened there water-wise on history, on the weather history. Yeah. It was a good water year. A good water year. For Nevada. You know what I mean? But then I'm like, oh, that year was exceptionally tough. And you look back at it. We never knew that. Now I think people are pretty good at it. It's almost like you talk to Clay Bunney and those guys on this trip. Yeah. They got it down to a science. They know what's common or not common. They do. Within a pretty tight, reasonable expectation. And I know like Greg Krogan, those guys, I mean, he always had theories on heavy rain and timely rain may be more important than overall. And I probably put words in his mouth.

But generally speaking, April and May is important. And it is important. And I think we're just better as hunters at understanding what those dynamics are. Colorado, who knows? I can't tell you when Colorado is going to produce big deer or not. Like, dry years are not that dry compared to what we're dealing with. Most of the state's covered in mountains and really good upper elevation summer range that, just like some places in Utah, like some of our elk in Utah, don't have the wide, you know, wide sweeps up and down. Like, say, northern Arizona can have. Has a huge sweep. Yeah. Those, you know, up and down. You can kind of peg those now that we know more, now that we're better. And you know how we know more? We have them on camera. Like, before it was just, what are you seeing arbitrarily out in the hills when it's go time? Whereas now with cameras, wow, things are off.

Wow, it's amazing. The year is unbelievable. You know what I mean? No, anyway. It's kind of fun. Yeah, I would just say I've never ran them more than probably a month, you know. And now I'm going to have two solid months. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? In northern states, you've got to, you know, Nevada and Utah. You've got to take them down. You've got to pull them down by July of 31. So there's no possibility to run them for three, four months, you know, for the people that don't really get. Why wouldn't you run them longer? We can't. We can't. Yeah.

So buy your Swarrow range finders. Buy your cameras. Get after it. Yeah. Get after it. It's time. Shoot Sunday afternoons with your bow, with your family or whatever. Get ready. You know. A lot's going on. Days are long. A lot of time to do stuff after work now. But we're jammed every night. Like there's. It's just when you're. Yeah. You don't have too much time. When you're in dad life. Oh, yeah. I mean. It's not like you ever have nothing to do. Give me the days back when I was. I mean, I just answered to me and Jana. I was the end of it. Yeah. We had time coming out of our ears. Nothing else. We had nothing else. No other assets. Nothing but time. Yeah. But now it's. Don't have any time. And I would mention Father's Day is coming up. So if you're a father and you. You know, want to get your something. Get yourself something. Like now's a good time.

Or you want to buy something for your dad. For your dad. Yeah. But I think we have noticed. Things are not getting cheaper. And so sometimes you're thinking. Oh, I'm going to wait until. You know, right before the hunt. I'm going to wait until August to buy something. And companies are coming out with. Well. They're calling it tariff increases. Well, or we actually saw a production stop or halt in some instances because of the excessive tariff. Or the shipping. Mostly in Southeast Asia. Yeah. China and other places. So now there's a, you know, backlog, if you will. We saw it last year on muzzleloader scopes because states like Utah and Washington both changed their muzzleloader requirements. And yeah, it was a nightmare. So don't wait until right when you're thinking about shooting your muzzleloader two weeks before

the hunt and start looking for one of those or anything else that you need. Get it now. Get it now. You know, just while it's here, it's easy. You know, you'll be grateful you did. I like it. Are we good? We're good. We're good. Everybody go get your tickets in the membership drive and get your name in for the primitive package. The muzzleloader, which muzzleloader and bows. Are they that primitive, Bronson? Are they that primitive? Made out of carbon fiber. The RX9. I like it. That RX9 is awesome. That's my kind of primitive. It's awesome. All right. Okay. Have a good week. Let's face it. If your goal is to kill big stuff, you need to draw quality tags. Quality tags are typically hard to draw. To increase your odds of drawing good tags, you need to apply in multiple states. That's where an Epic Outdoors membership can help.

For only $150 a year, you get access to our consultants, our online tools, and to Epic approved outfitters and members only optics discounts. With unlimited access to our team of consultants and access to the Epic Outdoors magazines, applying in multiple states is easy. No more worrying if you're applying for the best areas. No more applying for a unit where there has been a die off. And no more missing opportunities where you could be in the field and not sitting at home. Go online at epicoutdoors.com or call us today at 435-263-0777 to find out how you can become a member today. Kuyu is the most uncompromising camo on the market. Their new Guide Pro Series is the toughest, most comfortable camo you will ever own. Check out their new additions and shop men and women's camo now at kuyu.com. That's K-U-I-U dot com. Applying for tags in multiple western states can be time consuming.

At Epic Outdoors, we have you covered. Whether you want to expand your hunting portfolio or simply ensure that you never miss a deadline again, the Epic Outdoors licensed application service is exactly what you need. It's like having the best CPAs in the finance world do your taxes. Let the best hunting application gurus in the world do your tag applications. You'll never miss a deadline. You'll never apply for the wrong unit. And you'll never apply for a unit that's having a die off. Your time is valuable. We do the work. You draw the tags. Epic Outdoors licensed app. 435-263-0777. If you want a bow from the best manufacturer there is, look at Hoyt Archery. With the addition of the new Carbon RX-8 and the Aluminum Alpha X, Hoyt has reimagined what a bow can do. Hoyt bows. Where 70 pounds feels like 60. Call us to order yours today. 435-263-0777. With fierce rifles, every detail matters.

They are hands down one of the best rifle manufacturers in the industry and they never seem to stop making new innovations. If you want to get serious about your long range shooting, call us to talk over your options for your next fierce rifle. Epic Outdoors is an official fierce rifle dealer. Our consultants know their whole line of rifles inside and out. 435-263-0777. Epic Optics is an authorized dealer for Swarovski, Leica, Zeiss, Vortex, Leopold, Kawa, Sig Sauer, and more. Here at Epic Optics, we are committed to getting you the best deal for the glass that fits your needs. Go to EpicOptics.com or call in to speak with our consultants who will fit you with the perfect optics for your next hunt. 435-263-0777. If you're looking for your next hunting property, look no further than St. James. St. James are the experts at all sporting properties across the West.

Their team of agents will spend the time getting to know you personally and find out which property out of the hundreds they have listed is perfect for you. If you've always wanted a property where you could hunt and fish, go online to St. James Sporting Properties.com or give them a call at 855-711-7577 to learn more. Vortex makes optics for every occasion. Whether you're a long range shooter dialing in that perfect shot or an archery hunter in need of an easy to carry optic without sacrificing quality, Vortex has you covered. Head over to EpicOptics.com or call us to learn more about your Vortex options today at 435-263-0777. From top of the line hunting blinds to game calls that can't be beat, GSM Outdoors has you covered for whatever outdoor equipment you need. For all of their products, head over to GSMOutdoors.com to learn more.

Thompson Long Range has perfected the art of simple, affordable long range shooting. If you don't want to calculate ballistics or adjust your turrets before making a shot, a Thompson Long Range system is for you. Simply range, place the hash mark for that distance on the animal, and pull the trigger. They make top quality rifles and host a shooting school that will leave you confident in making shots out to 1,000 yards. Visit ThompsonLongRange.com to learn more about purchasing your next rifle or booking your next shooting school experience. The crew at Epic Outdoors trust Stealth Cam trail cameras to get us through the scouting season. Stealth Cam is the leading trail camera brand because they never stop innovating. Check out their brand new line of trail cameras, including the Revolver 360-degree camera, at StealthCam.com. Epic Outdoors is an official Stealth Cam dealer.

Call us to order yours today at 435-263-0777. Phone Scope changed the game with their digiscoping innovations and have remained the top phone to optic adapter on the market. Check out the incredible new Carbon Pro Phone Scope now at PhoneScope.com. P-H-O-N-E-S-K-O-P-E.com. Outdoor Edge is the knife that we all use here at Epic Outdoors. Whether it's a replaceable blade or fixed blade, you will not be disappointed with your Outdoor Edge knife. Head over to OutdoorEdge.com and check out their brand new Razer VX knife today. Epic Outdoors is proud to be an official Zeiss dealer and optics partner. When it comes to top-tier quality, Zeiss has been a leader in the industry for generations. If you're in the market for new optics, give us a call for unbelievable deals on Zeiss products, giving you the highest quality and durability out there without breaking the bank is what makes Zeiss so good.

Check out our website, EpicOptics.com or call us at 435-263-0777 to find out which Zeiss optic is perfect for you. Epic Outdoors is now an official CVA muzzleloader dealer. If you're in the market for a new muzzleloader, our staff can go over the different options that you should consider. CVA muzzleloaders are the go-to muzzleloader for Epic Outdoors and crew. We've definitely got our favorite setups for Western big game hunting in stock. Call us today at 435-263-0777 to find out which CVA is perfect for your next hunt.