Episode Description
In this episode we are joined by Dallas Lewis and Jason and Trish Taylor who tell us story after story of elk hunts for giant bulls, including a few from last year that were featured in recent editions of the Epic Outdoors magazine. Over the course of this episode you will pick up essential knowledge of what it takes to harvest truly big bulls.
Episode Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated, so it may contain errors. Listen to the episode for the real thing.
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 Bronson, John Peterson, Course Logan, we got you here. How are you? I'm doing good. Good. How are you doing, John? Awesome. A little bit of a late night run. A little bit of a late night. Yeah. Yeah. To the. Got in at 3 a.m. Yeah. Well, anyway. I don't know what to say about it other than it's very dry. I was going to say something about that state. Oh. Me? Yeah. So dry. A lot, a lot. Adam? Adam doing fine. I'm doing fine. Adam knows about everything that's out there and never had to start his truck. Yeah. I didn't have to ruin a ball joint, shock. How about rebuild a rear end? None of that. I did that. The truck's not even racking up that many miles. Nah. Mine blowing right through warranties. Left and right. So, John, you all right? Yeah. All right. I mean, it's funny hunting. You know you're in the desert when, you know, you're on Saturday.
It's too muddy to get where you want to go. Really? It's flash flooding. And then you go back on Monday and things are dried up. Yeah. Springs are dry. Springs are dry. Have you looked at all your carts? Yes. Probably not yet. No, not since last night. Anything noteworthy. Rewarded to bolts. Oh, this isn't a lot of end-out cameras. There are a lot of those. I think a lot of average so far. And then some, like it's early though. The carts that I've seen is early. So, it's like maybe. Still holding out hope on some of us. Yeah. So, you hold out hope until there's no hope, I guess. The thing that is interesting to me is where there's no deer. Where I thought, oh, there's probably going to be deer here. And there's, you know, only horses and elk, you know. Or something like that. You looked at your cards where it says there's 850 files, but you're showing 253.
So, maybe somebody picked your lock and deleted. No, I haven't seen any of that. I haven't got any cards with 800 pictures. I had it happen and it was like you have, you know, X amount of files. Yeah. But then the last picture number didn't match that. Didn't match it. And so, I went through the middle and found some missing. Very interesting. Yeah, it was kind of missing. And I suspected such. Yeah. So, then it kind of clued me in. Now, double. Throw five more cameras on that water. Yeah. That's so idiot. I don't know. Just so you miss it. I do. I mean, if that happens. I'd like to throw in some anthrax in a couple of them. If that happens again, I do have software that should recover those. Yeah. Yeah. Does it? Yeah. We've heard that. We've heard that. It's good. I'm glad I know people. You know people. We know people. They've taught people. Yeah. Well, okay.
Let's moving right along, Brunson. Let's talk to something way more fun. How about the Utah DWR wants your opinion on how to bring back deer? Quality, numbers, all the things. You segued. Let's talk about something fun.
Really? Different. Something different. Yeah, you can use that word. Something we haven't talked a lot about. You need to become part of the process, Adam. Oh, God.
He's about to lose his mind. It's just interesting. We come out with a news release where we can now participate and give them ideas, help the DWR, Utah DWR this is, to come up with ways to increase deer numbers because they're an all-time low, right? Or such and such, whatever. Hey, help us out. And we just barely had excruciating meetings, brutal feedback, opinions of all varieties, almost fistfights with DWR personnel and the civilian public. You know what I mean? And then here we are. We're going to come up with... Yeah, to set a five-year plan last year. And then now, let's take your opinion. But really, we'll just have to keep it in the queue for four years. Yeah, it's odd how they come out with it right now. And maybe it's like, well, Adam, we're talking about, you know, if you want to come up with a good habitat project that makes sense, we could do that between now and then.
Or maybe predator control, Adam. Like, you know, or some wild horse, you know, come up with some ideas on how to deal with the wild horses. I don't know. Logan, keep my nut mic off.
Keep it off. I think if they were going to be honest about it, they should just, like, phrase the question a little bit different. I just think, don't ask the public. Like, you've heard more feedback. We've had more feedback. If you add up the prior 50 years of management, let's say 2010 and earlier, 2010 and earlier, we've had more feedback than all of those years combined in this last year alone. Like, just the last, it's sensitive right now because... But it feels like if they were honest, it would be, how can we improve deer herds and also increase tag numbers? Yeah. Yeah. Well, they're just going to say... Come up with ideas where you can do both. No, what we talked about before your plan is tag numbers and bucks don't eat fawns. And so... I think my idea... Even though they're just saying, like, if we kill more bucks, there's more room for fawns and more room for those.
And so, anyway, there's... Where are they?
I don't know. Go ahead, Rosa. Tell us how you really feel. What was that primitive weapon, the Adderall? Adderall? Adderall. That is my idea. That's the only one that's going to work. Don't let any of the kids have tags. General season Adderall. Don't let any of the kids... No, Adderall, they can all have it. You can have... You can have... You know, burn your points on a Henry's Adderall tag. Oh, boy.
Yeah, and then... Yeah, what? Day or two before the archery deer hunt kicks off and during the archery deer hunt for the next week, they're all around the state. Yeah, so ours starts, what, August 14th down here for the Southern meeting and the hunt starts on the 16th. Yeah. So, you know, even though it's a limited draw for the general, there's quite a few general tags, of course. Maybe more than, you know, should be, but nevertheless, you know, just the timing is interesting. Right on the heels of heavy discussions. I don't even know why they want to poke the bear. Yeah. Like, be done with it. We've gotten to this point. Yeah, you got your plan. You got it the way you want. Why? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, anyway. But just saying, if you don't go to these meetings, Bronson and Logie Bear, then you have the opportunity to become part of the process.
You had an opportunity to become part of the process. I'm going to throw up. I'm not allowed to be mad. Don't you have no reason to be mad? Nope. You were invited. All right. But like your parents told you, Jason, you get what you get, so don't throw a fit, right? I don't know if they would, they told me. Well, you've said that before. A long time ago. It was a long time ago. All right. Moving on to something else that's fun. Yeah, let's move along. That's fun. Let's talk about dead elk. I think it's just fun. We got archery hunt coming up, Bronson. We got archery hunt for all varieties. It'd be antelope. It's cranking off August 1 in Nevada, at least. Other states as well coming on the heels of that. We've got archery deer on August 10th in Nevada. It's fun. And then archery elk in Nevada, Utah, all kinds of places. Archery deer here in Utah as well in August.
So it's just that archery time frame. And we've got a good buddy, Dallas Lewis in Nevada, that's killed some great bulls. He and his wife, great people. We sure appreciate them. Just fun to have good people around. And anyway, they do it right. He just, he hunts his guts out. And it'd just be fun to kind of get their story from last year and any other stories we can get out of them. You know? What do you think? Should we dial him up?
Send it. Let's give him a holler.
Which number to call?
Hello? Hey, what are you doing? Hey, how's it going? Have I got you on the right phone number? I've got a couple of numbers for you. Yeah, you got me on the right one. Oh, nice. Right on. Well, we kind of teed it up. Dallas Lewis, Nevada, big bulls. Something that you're constantly cranking on. And I know they turn your crank. You guys are just killing them. And anyway, just wanted to kind of get your story a little bit. And what your thoughts are on management and the big bulls that have been in that Ely country for years and years and years. All decades. I mean, clear back in the day when I was young. Which is a long time ago. Yeah, it's been killer. I mean, I started chasing them around. I drew my first tag when I was 17 years old and just running all over the place. Had a bunch of big bulls found. And just too young. Didn't know what I know now, you know, obviously.
But it was one of those things that I just kind of felt passionate in when I was just a young kid. Once you get the taste of finding a couple big ones, then that's all you can think about. Yeah. True to that. Absolutely. All you can think about. So, once you've... There was a lot to learn. There's a lot to learn and a lot you guys have learned over the years about movement within units and boundaries and all the, you know, all the things. And I think you guys are finding, like, what we found for deer is some places consistently produce. And you don't necessarily know why. I mean, there's some reasons for it that you can, you know, surmise. But anyway, just that learning curve over the course of time sure seems to help, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And especially, like, the biggest part is just when you find them early and then knowing where they go to rut and everything.
Because then bulls will move 40, 50 miles I've seen as the crow flies to go rut. But, like, my wife's bull, he rutted up north and thought he was in a totally different unit. And we just happened to stumble upon him. No one really knew where he rutted. And she had a tag for a different unit. And we ended up stumbling into him. And it was just like, holy cow, he's moved 50 miles, you know. And then we knew which one he was. We'd been watching him with the gov tag, debating on shooting him. And we'd already killed with the gov tag at that time. And then we had free reign on him the last week of the hunt. It was a pretty good deal. And we ended up getting him. And he was 401 gross and, like, 390 net. Just an incredible bull. So tell us, I guess, what tag did she have as far as not unit necessarily, just the season that she had? She had an archery tag. And this was back in 2019.
That's what I think is so impressive is your wife's out getting it done with a bow and killing bulls bigger than I killed. I mean, it's giant, world-class type stuff. Yeah, I killed my big 404 bull in 2017. And we were packing it out and driving home that night. It was, like, 3 in the morning. And she told me, she's like, I want to shoot one with a bow. And I just told her, I said, well, you better start now. And so she started shooting a bow and shot for two years and finally drew the tag. And it was on. And we hunted hard for her, like, 17, 18 days. I was like, she's either going to really love me or she's going to leave me after this. Yeah, that could be an expensive hunt for a guy. Oh, yeah. If she were to leave, that would be a problem. Leave with half your assets. A little more than half your assets if you're in Utah. Yeah, she loved me more after it. I'm a firm believer.
So it worked out good. Set the hook even deeper.
Well, all right. So 17, I just want to talk about her hunt a little bit more. How did you know? How many years did you know about this bull? Obviously, you said you were on it maybe with the GovTag and considering it. Anything over 400, depending on the year, of course, everybody's taking note of the bull and whatnot. And then you find him. But did people have the sheds? How many years did you know about him? Just maybe a little bit of background on that one. Yeah, I had known about him for a couple years. But we'd really only, like, got trail cam pictures and stuff of him that year. There were some guys up in the northern part of the state that had one guy had found one set of sheds off him. And he was, like, in the 390 range. And then there was a couple years of sheds that were missing.
And then actually a guy from Ely had found a set of sheds off him that was, like, yeah, he's 390-something unbroke. And so we were really, like, looking for him. And I was actually in the area looking for a different bull. That it went downhill. I ended up finding him. But he was, like, the year before, two years before sheds, he was, like, 417. And just an incredible bull. And then he kind of went downhill. And we were, like, man, scrounging, looking for a net bull or net boon and crock at bull. Like 375 net. Typical. Yeah, like, yes. And then we ended up stumbling in on him. And it was, like, holy cow, that's Bucky, you know. And we got in really close on him one night. Got him at 50 yards. And it was actually 40 yards. But he was kind of quartering to us. And I didn't want her to shoot because she was only shooting a 50-pound bow. And he kind of busted out of there.
And we didn't see him for, like, three days. And then the last day of the hunt, a guy I was hunting with, he ended up turning him up. Trevor Marks, actually. Turned him up. And I was on the other side of the road where we had last seen him. And he called and was, like, hey, they're here. And I was, like, okay. So we went over there. They had already gotten to the trees. And when they'd get into the trees, we'd kind of back out because we didn't want to spook him anymore. But it was the last day of the hunt. And it was, like, well, if we blow him out, we blow him out. It's all right, you know. We got to go in after him. And some bulls had moved. One bull had moved further north when I got up in there in the trees. A bull had moved further to the north. And we just kind of assumed it was him. And then I snuck up in there and we had a 360s type bull at about 45 yards.
And I was, like, but he was, like, had us pegged. We couldn't do anything. And I was, like, do you want that bull? The other bull was probably, like, 340. The big bull probably went to the north. And she was, like, well, I'll obviously take that one. And I was, like, okay. I was, like, we can't do anything. We got to see what he does because he's got us pegged. And he kind of turned and he circled back to the south. And I was, like, well, we got two bulls over to the south now. And so we just worked up in there just a little further. And I did some cow calling. And sure enough, a cow comes out. And we knew, like, the big bull had the cows. And I was, like, get ready. And that cow come through a clearing at 50 yards. I ranged it. I hurried up and grabbed her pin. She had an option archery sight. And I flipped it open and just put it at 50 yards.
And he comes out, comes walking through that clearing. I cow called and stopped him. And she drew back and smoked him. Jeez. Wow. Ended up hitting him kind of far back but hit the main artery and the hind end. And we give him, like, two and a half hours. And then snuck in there and ended up finding him in his bed. And she shot him a couple more times. He didn't even get out of his bed. Oh, man. That's awesome. The femoral artery. Wow. Well, that's awesome. We should have had her on the podcast, too. Tell her something. How many big bulls are we going to cover today? She'll probably be like, well, let's talk about our relationship over the 17 and 18 days. I'm going to tell you what the highlights were. Let's just focus on the end result. The big dead bull. She only cried a couple times, but you got lucky.
At the end, she ended up crying happy tears, so it worked out. So awesome. That's hunting right there. That's hunting. And then, I guess, a quick story on your 404 from 2017. Yeah. So I had actually had a landowner deer tag at the time chasing a big old buck and kind of had me not even focused on my elk hunt. But I knew where they went to rot and everything. I'd been hunting them for years. I knew where the bigger ones would end up. So I spent a lot of time scouting more or less for that deer and chasing it around. Or I didn't get to hunt it. They ended up killing it early. But I ended up, I was thinking about turning my elk tag in, decided to hunt it. Opening day comes. I'm not ready. And I was just like, I had a buddy that I'd actually met down on that deer hunt, Justin Moore. And he'd never hunted archery elk. And I told him, I said, let's come to Ely. I'll show you where to go.
And I'll go on the other side. We got talking. He's like, I've been over there before lion hunting. Yeah. He's like, so I know the roads. I was like, go up here. I'm going to go on the other side and we'll look. And he actually ended up finding one of the big bulls. We hadn't even seen him. Yeah. We hadn't even seen him since 2015. Yeah. Or 14. 14. And so he went missing all of 15 and all of 16. We never even knew. Wow. We figured he died of old age. And. It feels like these bulls never die. No. Unless hunters kill them. I get like 14. Oh. Yeah. Justin. Yeah. Justin's bull was 13 years old on the tooth age. Wow. Bless you. Healthy. You know. But anyway, keep going. Yeah. It just feels like they never die. You guys are following bulls for half a decade, if not more. And they're big for us. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like. And normally that's the ones that end up.
You end up killing that are big. You know. It's pretty rare that we find one that just out of nowhere. It's like. Like a big six year old. Yeah. Something that just bears a blossom. Yeah. Yeah. Usually it's. We watch them within three to five years. You know. Of watching them. And then seeing how they progress. And then end up finally getting our hands on them. Yeah. You know. And some other hunters get their hands on them. And. Which is all good. That's just how it works. You know. Yeah. Yeah. But. Yeah. So. I had. He had texted me on our in reach. And said. Hey. I got a big bull. Get over here. And I had actually. Drove around the mountain. Going way too fast. I actually broke both control arms on my truck. When I pulled up to him. Oh my God. And. What does that do? You have no steering. Right? No. I didn't have no steering. When I pulled up to him.
The wheels were like pointing out. Yeah. It was wild. What truck was it? A 2006 Tacoma. All right. These Tacomas suck. One of the most abused trucks in the world. Especially Nevada. History of the world. Nevada. Or Utah. I mean. You should not buy a Tacoma out of the state of Nevada. All right. I started my kid on one. Was yours like at five or six? Yeah. 1998. Oh. The Tacoma. Yeah. The older one. Yeah. You started yours on. 2004 or six. Whatever. But that got totaled about a year and a half later. Anyway. Keep going. That's another story. Keep going down. Yeah. Yeah. If I look for a Toyota. I just try not to buy one from Nevada or Utah. California. California. San Diego. Something like that. You're going to have a surfboard rack on the top. That's all. Take it off. And you're good to go. I have to do a little bit of sand in the carpet. But that's about it. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. So.
So I pulled up to him. And then sure enough. Up pulls this other truck. And I'm like looking at it. And it's got Montana plates. Oh. And I'm like. What the heck? And out jumps Dan Evans. I knew you were going to say. And I was like. No way. You know. I haven't heard. I haven't heard from Dan for a minute. Seems like he was heavy in Nevada. I don't know. Silence for a minute. Yeah. Yeah. And I like followed him for years. Yeah. Used his sights and stuff on my bows. And. He was running a jacked up Tacoma back then. It seems like. Yeah. And I'd read. Like. Listen to all his stories and stuff. And goes. Guys like that. You know. That's kind of what got me started. Into like. Man. I really need to focus in on this. And. This is what I want to. Do. The rest of my life. Like. I need to. Get better at it. Take it more serious. You know. And stuff. So. I'd read stories about him.
Killing multiple big bulls. And stuff. And I was just like. Oh wow. You know. Meet him. And so. The bull I'd actually. That Justin had found. The bigger one. He'd actually fed over the saddle. And Dan didn't see him. Dan seen this other one. That was like 370 over on the mountain. And so. We are sitting there. Just all talking. And. Watching that bull. And. The whole time. I'm thinking like. Justin called me over here. For this. 370s bull. And he's over there. With a. Grin on his face. Like. We need to make a sandwich. For Dan. And send him down the road. Yeah. Exactly. And the whole time. I'm thinking like. I can't believe. I just destroyed my pickup. To come over here. And look at a 370s bull. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so. We end up talking. And. Everything. And then Dan ends up leaving. And he. We tell him like. We got to go get parts for this truck. And.
I actually had another truck in town. That I was just going to get. And so we end up leaving. And then Justin shows me the video. Of the. Bull that he had videoed that morning. The big one. You know. And I was like. Oh my God. We ain't seen that bull in. Years. And. And. So I was like. Man. He's huge. But it was opening morning. And I wanted to kill a 400 incher. And I was just like. We need to go get a second opinion. Brought it. To. Brought. Came to town. Got the video pulled up on my TV. At my house. Called in some. Buddies. And. They all looked at it. And they're like. You're crazy. Why ain't you out there right now? You know. And so. We hurried up. And jumped in the truck. I went and shot three arrows. At the gravel pit. Heading out of town. At 80 yards. They were dead on. And. We. Go up there. Get hiking up in there. And I get right to the saddle. I hunted there.
Quite a few different times. And kind of knew. What them bulls did. Right there. And we got close to the saddle. And I. Cow called. And I heard the bull bugle. And I figured he'd bed right off that backside. And heard. Sure enough. I hear him bugle. And I'm like. Man. He's close. I dropped my pack. Grabbed my bow. And. Then I realized. I didn't have my release. I'm like. Looking down in the valley floor. And this little. Tacoma. Sitting down there. And I'm thinking. There's no way. I got time. This bull's close. You know. So I was like. I'm going to have to just use fingers.
And so. I ended up. Back in the day. Yeah. We used to try to get calloused fingers. Well. And you just shoot a lot. Gloves. Yeah. But anyway. Three finger gloves. You know. Kids nowadays. Yes. Wouldn't even understand. Right Dallas. They wouldn't even understand. Yeah. Right. And I'd done it for years. Like. Growing up. That's how I shot fingers. You know. But your bow is now not sighted in that way. And all that. You know. You got. That's going to be different. The loop versus fingers. It's not going to hit. Your anchor point is different. Everything's different. Everything's wrong. Right. And that's what I was like panicking about. And so. I like literally had a radio in my hand. And I looked at it. And I was like. That little cord on the radio. I was like. If I put that through. And then I could just slowly roll it off my finger. It'd probably kind of work as a release. You know. So.
So I hurried up and threw it over my wrist. Okay. And. I pulled my bow back with. My fingers. And then I just had. That little tiny loop. In. On one of my fingers. Yeah. And I was slowly like. Rolling it off. And he'd come walking up. He's 25 yards. And I was just like. There's no way I can miss. He had no clue I was there. But it was a really steep downhill shot. And I shoot. And it goes right underneath him. Like. Come on. Barely. Barely missed him. Goes right underneath him. And he lunges forward. But he's like looking around. And the arrow. It went so far down the canyon. Before it hit anything. He didn't even really scare him. And then I'm in a panic. I can't believe that I just missed. So I tried the same thing. And. I turned back at Justin. I'm like. Cow call. He cow calls. Bull bugle. Starts raking his horns on the ground. And so. I draw back another arrow. And I'm like. Okay.
I can't. There's no way I can mess this up twice. You know. Yeah. And so. Same thing. I shoot. And it's just right on the. Underneath him. Again. Same exact spot. Arrow goes down the canyon. And I'm like. I'm like. Holy. How did I blow this? And the bull turns. And swirls. And. Goes to like. Run off. And I turn back. Adjust. And I'm like. Cow call. Cow call. And he cow calls. And it was able. And I had enough time to grab another arrow. And he had ran down. He was kind of quartering away from me. And this time. I just. Drew back with fingers. And I was like. He's got to be like 40 yards. And let go. And like. Sure enough. Just. Perfect shot.
Broadside. Like. Just perfect. And I could see the arrow sticking out. Like. Didn't get like. Real great penetration. But like. Probably hit a rib on the way in. Or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. And I was shooting those. Tri-pan hypodermics. And so they make a big cut. And I could just see. Blood spraying out of him. And so I was just like. You know. He's definitely hit good. And so then I called everyone. Told everyone like. Yeah. He's hit. He ran down the canyon. And I'd had my wife. And my sisters. Down below. And they were like. Class in the front face. So I was making sure. He didn't come out on the front face. They're like. He still ain't came out. So we give him like. 45 minutes. I walked down there. And sure enough. He's just laying there. Like. Perfect. Still looks like he's alive. He's got his face down on the ground. Horn still up. Just laying perfect. And I'm like. Oh man.
He's still alive. So I draw back another arrow. And I'm like. 50 yards. Shoot. Miss. He doesn't move. I'm like. Okay. He's dead. Jeez. Wow. How does this happen? To me. And then I get down there. And everyone's like. Well how big is he? Like. When I had actually hit him. And we were giving him time. Everyone's calling me on the radio. Like. How big is he? How big do you think he is? And. The way them bulls over there are. You know. Big body bulls. I was like. He's either 360. Or he's 400. You know. Oh.
It's. And so I got down there. And. We didn't have a tape. Or anything. And. We're sitting there up on the mountain. And stuff. And we're just kind of guessing. But he's just so. Big. Compact. Long points. Awesome bull. And so I just grabbed my radio antenna. And I. Knew that they were 14 inches long. And I put it to one point. The. Improvis. Improvisation. And then this. I was like. Geez. Unbelievable. Yeah. I put it on the brow tine. And just seen how much more it had. Yeah. And I was just like. He's 400. He's got 20s all the way up. And 60 inch. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Pretty soon my 48 inch boot lace came off. And I started showing that. I did too then. Right. Oh. Pretty awesome. Wow. So he ended up. What. What'd you say? 417? No. 404. Okay. Four. Or 393. Net. Okay. I had written down 417. Maybe that was some other. Some other. Number you'd rattle off early. So. That was off a bull.
On my wife's hunt. That we were looking for. Okay. The guy had found the sheds off of. Okay. Yeah. Was that a six point Dallas? But my bull was 404. Straight. Six point with some little tiny crown points. Devil. And you said net what? 393. 393. And you've got him in the book? Yes. Yes. Wow. He was the number three bull killed that year in the state. Biggest draw tag bull killed in the state that year. Good for you. Yeah. That's awesome. All right. Yeah. He was actually. The bull that I was actually banking on killing. He was actually. The sheds got found off him. And he was only 396. So. Like. Totally. Lucked out that. That bull was bigger than the one I actually was like. Hoping to kill. Yeah. Yeah. Your wife drew her tag. Right? And you drew this tag. Yes. Yeah. So. And that was a draw tag too. Yeah. Yours was a draw tag. It just makes you. I don't know. There's benefits. Bronson.
To living in the driest state in the nation. Well. Having cracked fingertips year round. Yeah. Oh yeah. I'm going to try leaving my release. One. Just one night. Leave it home. This year. This year. See if something happens. It won't. Dallas. I promise. I'll do that one night. Yeah. Do it. I've had it happen twice. I actually should have killed like a buck that was. If he wasn't 200. He was 199. You know. Change. Matt. Snuck. Snuck in on him and got to 40 yards from him and realized I didn't have my release. I'm horrible with them. I don't. I carry two with me everywhere now. I don't blame you. Did you kill the buck? No. I ended up sneaking into 22 yards from him and he swirled his head. I would. I just got too close. He swirled his head and then I thought well when he gets up like maybe he'll hesitate for a minute and that thing bolted out of its bed so fast I didn't even get a shot.
Jeez. But definitely if I would have had a release I would just hung back at 40 and just waited for him to get up you know. Yeah. You were going in primitive mode getting within 20 with bare fingers. Yep. Yeah. All right. So now let's fast forward to this year. Maybe it was last year. Maybe you should shoot your bare fingers for fun sometimes just to see where you hit. It wouldn't be a bad gig. I mean especially the big boy targets we got. Big boy target 30 yards or 20 yards you know a top pin type scenario and just say all right no I hit six inches. I hit six inches different with that just so you know. Yeah. Yeah. I always think like what if you break a D loop or something you know. Yeah. Happens. It happens. Absolutely. Happened to Justin last year. Just I don't want to pull back with these bows with bare fingers. I don't want to do it.
Okay. Well. They're so powerful. They're snappy. You would do it though. You would do it. You're out there. No. You would do it then. But I mean to practice. Go practice. Go say you're going to practice it. Yeah. Because it's kind of like shooting a 300 rum with no break and no air protection. It seems like. Go do it. It seems like Devin or somebody pulled Drew back on one of the bow bare finger and rolled the string off the cam and gave dry fire. Yeah. I mean stuff happens. Yeah. Stuff happens. You tore it because it's not like our old. When we were kids we were shooting little bows. Yes. You shoot a 70, 75 pound snappy 80% bow. A man let off now. You know what. You know. Office hands. Yeah. Rip it like a gorilla. A dang gorilla Jason. A gum gorilla. All right. Let's move forward. Let's crank on this last bull. I just can't get over. Too many bulls. Yeah.
Plus the governor tags and all that. Like you've. You really. You guys have spent a lot of time and of course the people you know you're talking about have done it as well and just done very well over the years and whatnot. So just just great good stuff. I think kind of the common theme bronce you got to hunt where they're at. Well that part. Yeah. And they just have history. Yeah. Kind of like a lot of the deer maybe you've hunted Jason. You have history with some of these deer. Yeah. You know and that layers layers add you know add up when it comes to trying to put one on the ground. And the ones that get away haunt you forever. Oh yeah. Dallas have you had some of these giants get away and maybe they do die of old age or maybe a governor got away or a late rifle guy kills one and you had somebody had them close in the archery or something. Yeah.
I had like kind of something like that happened last year. I mean he ended up still living and stuff but yeah it's just super smart. Probably the smartest bull I've ever hunted. He just just where he was at and stuff like you couldn't call to him. And he was just silent and he was he just got one over on me. Yeah. One of those ones that that haunt you and that's why I'll be hunting. I'll be hunting elk this year because that one haunted me. Well it forces a guy to figure out how to get another tag. Work hard. You can't sleep. Whether it be a landowner tag or whatever at some point you're like it doesn't matter. I need redemption. Yeah. Yeah you just it's so it's such a competitive game with them big ones and stuff. You just like you know that you know it could be the last opportunity you get at one for a long time. If it's especially like a draw tag and stuff.
So you just feel like I got to work as hard as I can. So I can have that other or that opportunity. Another opportunity. Yeah. Right. And things do go away at least on the mule deer side. We've sure seen a lot of it. You have to. It does feel like these bulls. I don't know. They just. Nevada's got a number of them. You know and it's just awesome. Nothing like it. Actually it feels like there's nothing like it out there. Yeah. As far as like. Western U.S. Public land. West wide. Yeah. It's pretty special. Yeah. It is a special place. It's so amazing how. I mean I've said it for years like this has got to come to an end. And then every. Every year it's just more big ones and more big ones. And you're just like. You know three. Three to five. Four hundred inchers a year. Getting killed in these units. And I'm just like. Man it's going to come to an end.
But it just keeps getting just as good as it was. Ten years ago. You know what I mean. Yeah. But don't. Don't let everybody think that. Or your wife. Or like. This is the last good year. I've got to have another day. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I. I tell her. Like. Eventually I ain't going to be able to do this anymore. This is not going to last. Dallas you're lucky. As we are. You've got a good one there. Yeah. So. Oh yeah. After a while they see through all your isms. That you say. Yeah. After a while you've got to quit lying to them. Yeah. Right. But. She told me one thing. I don't remember when I really knew she was the one. I. I asked her. Because we just. Always on my days off. And stuff. Looking for elk. And looking for deer. And taking her. Everywhere. And I finally looked at her one day. And I said. What do you want to do? You know. And she was like. What do you mean? And I was like.
Like. I feel like everything we do is what I want to do. And she said. As long as you're smiling. That's what I want to do. Wow. And I said. Well that's good. Wow. That's what you knew. Right there. You put a ring on it pretty quick. I knew from that day forward. We were going to be together forever.
Yeah. You don't let that one go. No. So what about this last one? Well. The one we. Probably originally called him about. The one we published this year. We called him about. Yeah. Yeah. The one where. The bullet question. Yeah. So. So I had known about a couple. Big bulls that we. We figured we're going to be. You know. That 410 ish. You know. Big. And. I finally. Got. Enough money put aside. I said. I'm doing it this year. Talk. To my wife and everything. She's like. Yes. Whatever you want to do. You know. You've saved long enough. If. You want to go get a tag. Then you can. So I ended up. Talking to a landowner. Got a tag. And. Was after. One bull. Her. There's about three bulls. In particular. That I was looking for. And. One of them ended up dying. Man. And. One didn't show up. Till way late. And. Some guys. Got lucky. And. They drove up this road.
And he was standing right off the road. And they got to. Hunt him. And they hit him. Late in the hunt. And so. I was. Kind of just like. Man. I'm just had. Horrible luck. You know. Just. I was in there. The day before. And he wasn't there. And then. He shows up the next day. When they're in there. Type deal. You know. How it goes. In the archery hunt. And stuff. When they're moving around. And. I. I ended up having a bull. That we had watched. For like three years. And. I'd passed him up. Three different times. During the hunt. Just. Kept going in there. Hoping that a different one. Showed up. You know. And. Ended up. Seeing him. I had two days. Left of the hunt. And he walked right below me. At like 200 yards. With. About 20 cows. And. I watched him. And I'm just like. Man. Like. Am I crazy? You know. I knew he was big. I knew he was. Right around 390. And. So I ended up. Texting.
An outfitter. From Ely. Thomas Brunson. I text him. A picture of the bull. And said. How big do you think he is? And. He. He texted me back. And says. Oh. He's. Probably 389. And he. Had actually sent me. A picture of him too. He's like. I think he's 389. I was like. Yeah. That's the bull. And he's like. I'm 500 yards below him. And he kind of fed. With him cows. Kind of down around. And I was like. Well. I'm 500 yards above him. And I was like. So did you text him. Just to start conversation. Knowing he was probably in the area. Like. Just to open up conversation. Between you two. Or did you truly want to know. What he thought. The size. I just. I just truly wanted to know. What he thought. I had no idea. That he was even in there. You're good friends with him. And all of that. He had a hunter. Yeah. Yeah. I'd known him for years. And stuff. And. He's a good guy. Yeah. Great dude.
One of the best. People. In the. In the game. For sure. And. Just getting his opinion. I actually ended up. Buying a different landowner tag. And then I traded it. With him. And so. Like. He kind of knew. What I had on. The line. And everything. So I just wanted. His opinion. And. So he. When he said that. I was like. I was kind of looking. More off the other. Side of the canyon. And the way it is up there. It's so windy. Like the one side. You don't even. You can't even really glass off of. When you're up on top. Just because it's so windy up there. So. You go just on the other side of the ridge. And you can see the backside good. And it's. You're out of the wind. And so. When he come through that saddle. 200 yards below me. I had seen him. But he went on that really windy side. And so. I wasn't glassing over on that windy side. But Thomas and them. They were across the canyon. I guess.
Him and his guys. They were across the canyon. Well. I was. I didn't even look off that side. Because it's so windy. You can't really even see anything. You know. So at that time. I didn't even know. That they were in there. Until he had told me that. And. He's like. I got this guy. With a special. With a special tag. That can hunt. You know. A long time. He's like. You're crazy. You need to get in. After that thing. And so. I was like. Okay. So I dropped my pack. And everything. Grabbed my bow. And I started sneaking down in there. And. I. I knew he was with like. 15. 20 cows. And. Coming off this thing. It's just. Gnarly. Steep. Loose. Rock. You know. And I. Had to take my time. Getting into there. And they got down in this. Mahogany patch. And so. I knew I was close. I could hear the bull. And I could hear the cows. But like. Not real good. Because it was windy. And so I told him.
I was like. I text him on my phone. And said. Hey. Will you cow call. Or bugle. Just to get these. Elk really going. So I know if the cows. Are in between me. And the bull. Yeah. And so he did. And like. Right away. I knew the cows. Were right there. You know. Within. 40 yards of me. And so. I just kind of. Hung. Hung back. And. Waited. And pretty soon. A couple cows. Fed out. To the south. And. The bull. Kept bugling. And so I was like. Okay. Well he's still laying down. Obviously. And. About five cows. Fed out. And. Then I heard him. Get up. And I was like. Well he got up. And he was bugling. And I could. Hear him moving around. In the mahogany. But he's like. Down below me. So I cow called. A couple times. To see if he would skirt around. And like. Gather me up. With his cows. You know. And he. And he didn't. He just kind of. Hung out in the mahogany. And I knew he was like.
Really close. And so. After about. Ten cows. Had fed out. I was like. I need to get in. Closer. You know. Because I'm like. He's going to get with them. Cows. And I need to get in. Closer. So I took my quiver. Off my bow. And just grabbed one arrow. And I snuck down.
Plethora of mistakes.
Well. I don't like. No release. One arrow. I don't like. I don't like shooting my bow. With. With the quiver on. I know. Because it makes so much noise. So. I didn't realize. I was going to have to. Sneak down that far. Yeah. I just thought. You thought you could run back. And grab. You know. The quiver. Yeah. Or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Type deal. Well. Actually ended up. Having to sneak down. Another like. 60 yards. And I snuck down. And I had cows. Right there. At like. 22 yards from me. And he finally feeds out. And he's. 60 yards. And I got him broadside. He's feeding out. And I was just like. Oh. This is perfect. So I range him. 60 yards. I'm like. Getting ready to draw back. And a cow steps in between me and him. So. I wait. And he feeds out. Like another couple steps. And I range him again. And he's at 70. So I just threw back really fast. And. I was like. Well.
I just aimed for like. 65. And put it on his back rib. Because he was quartering away from me. Shot. And. Bam. Smoked him. Like. Back rib. And he launches up in the air. And then takes off like a bullet. And. All the cows run off. And I. Text Thomas. And I was like. I hit him. And. He was like. Are you sure you hit him? He took out of there. Off. Like. Crazy. You know. And I was like. Yeah. He's definitely hit. I said. I think it was a good shot. But I couldn't see. When he turned. And went. Down the ridge. I could see the opposite side. And I didn't see the arrow. Sticking out of his opposite side. And I didn't see the arrow. On the side that I had shot. And I had a liminox. So. I knew I'd be able to see it. So. I was like. Man. I. Everything felt good. And he was like. Well. Did he know you were there? And I was like. No. He had no clue. And he's like. Well.
Then he's got to be hit hard. And so. He had kind of directed me. To the last place. That he had seen him. And so. I snuck down there. And it was. I'd probably give him like. 45 minutes. And. I snuck down in there. And I got in the big pines. And I seen another bull. With the cows. And so. I thought it was him. And so. I hurried up. And like. Just sat down. And I looked. And there was a. There was an elk bed right there. And there was blood in it. And I was thinking like. Man. That bull is still up. And got with the cows. You know. And there's. Like a pretty good puddle there. And so. I was like. Well. I'll just give him more time. To bleed out. You know. I'm like. The cows probably got him up. And. He's walking with them cows. And. So. I give him like. Another 30 minutes. And I stood up. And when I stood up. Directly below me. I could see antler tips. And I'm like. What the heck.
I just seen that bull. To the left of me. And so. I looked down some more. And that bull. It actually must have jumped. That bull out of his bed. And that bull ran. In. With the cows. And he had just like. Took a death run. Straight down. And died right there. In the big pints. Wow. So I walked down there. And. He was there. Dead. I mean. It was just. Awesome deal. And I'd watched him for. Knew about him for three years. Watched him. And. Like he never really got. Excessively bigger. Like I felt like he's 385. 390. Probably 390. You know. Yeah. What did he end up going this year? He was. Right at 390. And an 8. Yeah. Unbelievable. And so. Do people. He scored 379. Yeah. 379. And 7. 8. Ned. Or something. Wow. So you've got two in the book? Yes. Yeah. That's impressive. Hard to do. Hard to do. And your wife's got. Hers. Yeah. And my wife's got hers. And. Then I got a tag this year again.
So. Yeah. It should be. Pretty good. You should just go back to guiding. You know. These guys need your help. And. Yeah. You've killed more than your fair share. No. I can't get enough of it. Oh. Every time it gets to be. Close to. My. My mom actually. Every year when draw results come out. She. She always asks if I got a tag. And I just tell her. I just tell her I always got a tag. Mom. I always have a tag. Yeah. Man. How awesome is that? So. Do people. Have his sheds? Is there any way to. Obtain the sheds. His sheds. Or. There's. I. I know some guys in town that find a lot of those sheds. They're super secretive though. Super secretive about it. Yeah. Like. Literally this year. Or it was last year. Was the first time I seen. Two sets of sheds off. My 404 bull. Wow. And. Yeah. I offered to buy them from them or whatever. And. They wouldn't sell them. Yeah. But. It's kind of tough.
Because you're like. Man. You don't. You don't have anything. Left with the bull. You know. Like. I have the bull in my house. Like. You should at least sell them. But. I understand their part too. You know. Oh yeah. It's hard to find a set like that. And so when you do. And then. Also. They know the history too. So it's cool. It's like. Well. I got Dallas's sheds. You know. I mean. It's. Yeah. It's good. They're not trying to stick it to you. It's just. It's just part of history of Ely. Yeah. Well. You know. Maybe in this day and age. But maybe they're that. They don't even want to let you make a repo of it either. They want the only. Thing. That's. The only thing you don't have. I don't want anybody having a replicate. You have one. They want. But I don't want. The world having one. Right. It's good to know. Right. I've had people ask me. Oh. Come on.
Just. Yeah. They're special. Right. So. Yeah. You don't. You want what you can't have. And that's. That goes for us. Hunting. A big deer. I'd want his spike shit. Yeah. I mean. Any DNA off that boat. I'd want to see what his mom. His cow looked like. Okay. Well. What'd she look like? Nobody cares. Was she big? Big head. I want to know what his dad looked like. Yeah. But I mean. Just. You want everything. Right. Pretty cool stuff. You always feel like you want more. Yeah. What do you. Maybe just as. As we finish up. With you here. Just. Maybe. Just a couple of things. That you feel like. Have helped you with the success. Or. Like. Maybe a little bit of. Yeah. Knowledge. Target hunting. Yeah. Specific bulls. Yeah. You're not. You're not elk hunting when you go elk hunting. You're hunting. No. Very specific elk. That's what I like. Try to like. Tell people like. Like. To like. Everyone.
Talks about the hunt. And like. Oh. It was so fun. Like. Like these elk that I'm hunting. The hunt isn't fun. Yeah. It's so competitive on public land. And like. The hunt isn't fun. Guys and clients. And a lot of. Other. Yeah. Yeah. Tag guys. Which is a once in a lifetime tag. For all intents and purposes for them. So. There's a lot. A lot of people are amped up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's. Like. Like the hunt part. I guess it's. The. The more. I do it. It's the more scouting. And that stuff. And following them around. And. And like. When you do finally get your hands on them. Then that's like. The happy part of them. But the hunting. And the competitiveness of it. Like. That's not fun. You know. It's tough. You know. You. You lose friendships. And everything over it. And it's. It's. That part isn't fun. But. The success. When you. When you finally do watch one for years.
And get it on the ground. And. You know. That's the fun part. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty awesome. Well. Congratulations. I'm excited for you. We just. We appreciate you. Letting us showcase them. In Epic Outdoors Magazine. Yeah. Our friendship over the years. I mean. Man. Yeah. And you guys are. Have literally been nothing but. Great to me over the years. And great to everyone. Yeah. You're. What you guys do is incredible. So. Yeah. We appreciate it. You guys. We love Nevada. A lot of aggressive hunters over there. And. Maybe too many. Yeah. It's competitive. But. But. But it's fun. It's good. So. Yeah. It is. Yeah. And that's. That is. So. Well. Maybe we'll have you on again next winter. With another story. Wish you luck. Yeah. No. For sure. We'll definitely. We'll definitely. I'm pretty sure we'll definitely get another one on the ground. This year. I like it. Hey. Don't forget your release.
No. Heck no. I carry one of those with me everywhere. One on each side door pocket of the truck. Yeah. And two in the pack. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. All right. If I grab a pack. It's got a release in it. And then. Try and always keep one on my hand. All right. Sounds good. Well. Looking forward to this season. I'm awesome. I know there's big bulls out there this year. Not so much for deer. Darn it. So. No. The deer definitely have taken a hit this year. I mean there's still good bulls. But I'm not seeing next level crazy. But. Yeah. There's definitely enough big ones to go around. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Well. You'll figure it out. You'll be on the next level crazy. So. Yeah. All right. All right. Okay. All right. We sure appreciate you. Thanks for being on. We appreciate. I appreciate you guys. And thanks for everything you guys do. Give our best to your wife. As well. Man.
We should have had her on. It'd be fun to get her take on it. So. Anyway. See if she really said what she said. As long as you're smiling. I'm happy. I mean. Is that a fairy tale? Is that real? It could have happened back in the day. What's it like now? Yeah. All right. All right. All right. She's awesome. We know her. And she's awesome. So. All right. Thanks. Yeah. Well. I appreciate it. Okay. Yep. Good luck to you. You guys have a good day. You too. Yep. You too. Good luck. Bye. I'm sure our wife has said that about us. Oh yeah. Whether to our face or behind our back. No question. They've said that. Both. Guaranteed. To all their friends. We actually have good ones too. So we don't want to act like we've never heard good compliments. Logan. You'd be lucky to find one like we got.
Even my boys are like. There ain't no mom around anymore. These young girls are not mom. Yeah. At least they're looking to her for the standard. Yeah. That's what you want. I'm pretty impressed. I was impressed. Just say hey. Keep hunting. Keep looking. I mean. I didn't know they were mature enough to think that way. It's just more like somebody bugging them to clean the room or whatever. Right. So. Anyway. Pretty fun. Moving right along. Before we get in trouble. Somehow. Let's talk to Jason and Trish Taylor. Another awesome couple that we know that are just good people. Anyway. They had a great year last year. So we showcased a couple of their stories. Jason hunted Utah on a random. The one random non-resident tag that was issued for Pengwich. Muzz loader. And then his wife ends up with a turn back tag on elk. If I remember right. And so. Anyway.
We'll get him on the phone and razz him a little bit. Talk bulls. Yeah. Talk some more big bulls. Hello. Hey. What are you doing? Not much. What are you doing? Oh. Just calling you guys. Trying to learn something about hunting elk. Oh. I don't know what we know. But. We had a little fun anyway. Yeah. You did. You got Trish there. Did she bow out? Where are we at? Oh. She tried. But I got her. She's tied to me right now. That's good. I literally had to rope. Literally. Yeah. That's good. Say hi, Trish. I'm here. Oh, good. Now we know we're going to keep Jason straight. No fibbing. No lies. He's not going to get away with any lies. No lies. He's going to have the straight truth. That's all I do. Believe me. She'll tell more than the truth. Well, we can edit whatever we want. Make you look like a king that you are, Jason. The king that you are.
You're going to have to do that because she can rip me up, I'm sure.
You know, this is supposed to be for family fun and friendly. It is. We've got to keep it G-rated. This has a G-rated by the Better Business Bureau. All right.
Oh, good times. Well. Where do you want to start? Yeah. Who went first? Jason, was your tag first last year? Yeah. So, I should start by saying, you know, about five months before that I got that tag, I ate my second Nevada tag. Second elk tag. My second Nevada bull tag. Yeah. And I was just devastated. I had a 405 bull that I had almost killed. I got greedy. I could have killed a couple others. Anyway, long story short, that didn't happen. So, when that hunt ended, I just, I was destroyed because I know now I'm not going to draw. I got to wait my period. I got, you know, I'm 15 years out. All the other states, I'm nowhere near drawn. Yeah. And Tricia had zero points. So, I'm just like, yeah, we got for Nevada. And I just knew we wouldn't be hunting elk. And anyway, five months later, the results came out for Utah. And you're the one who looked up the odds. I had like a 1.08% chance.
Drew, the only tag. You're the only muzzleloader. Muzzleloader, non-resident. They get one non-resident. That's right. And he gets it. I'm like, what do you mean you get it? It's when the results just come out. And I think you called me with a credit card charge. No. You. What was it? Did I call you? Did I look up your results? You need to edit this. But you called me and said there was a back door. Oh. Like a way to look it up. That's right. That's common knowledge. For Utah, I don't even, because general deer, I don't even care. And I usually just buy a point. But the limited entry, I just wait for my email saying you're a loser and you didn't draw anything. I don't even look. Well, keep in mind, and maybe, Trish, you can attest to this, but like Jason and computers or anything technology. And so when he tells me, no, it's saying this.
And I'm like, no, you're, no, have Trish look at it. Like this is. No. I took a screenshot of what it's intended to you. You still wanted my information and looked it up. He's just trying to get your social and date of birth. Well, who draws the one tag and it happens to be your buddy. You know what I mean? That does not have enough points to really command much of anything. Yeah. Yes. Yep. He did unequivocal proof. Yeah. And Jason, knowing, so I want to just say it from a third party, from what I've known of you, and Trish, you can say it as well. But like he's so focused on the one animal. You know what I mean? Like whether it be the desert sheep, whether it be, and that one probably opened up a whole new scab or whatever. But I mean just, and the elk, and nothing will do but the one, I'm like, man, he signed up for a grind up here. This penguin, which is no joke. Yeah.
Like it's just thick and different, and it's also not your home state. Yeah.
Yeah. And, but it also went the other way for me because for some reason I was so sick about my Nevada. I mean, that's where I should have killed. And that was, again, my second one that I ate by being greedy and just didn't happen. And so when I drew this tag, I actually kind of flipped it and like, I shouldn't have drawn this tag. I don't know the unit. I don't know what to expect. And so I had no expectations. I knew I wanted big, but I didn't even know what big meant. So that way, if I do see a 370 bull, I can't snub my nose because I know I've got a bigger one, you know? So, and I didn't expect much because I didn't know the country. So it actually kind of went the other way. And I just wanted to make it fun and try not to, you know, kill myself over it. He's so focused. I'm just going to say he's so focused. And you'll hunt the entire time, Jason.
I'm just, I just, you're so hardcore. It's just impressive how you can keep that energy going throughout an entire season. And that's how you kill the big buck on a, on a terrible year, you know? Yeah. And just kind of make it happen. And so, of course, you know, once we get into Tricia's story, it's same kind of thing as you have that same focus, no matter whose tag it is. If you're helping them, you're in at 110 plus percent, you know? Yeah. And I wish I wasn't. I mean, I love going with the youths or, you know, somebody who doesn't care. I mean, even though I want to go big or go home, but it is fun to just go on those hunts and just have fun and just enjoy it. That's why I like antelope hunt. Like, as much as I own a trophy, I will kill the first thing that's legal when it comes to an antelope. I do not care. You and Jason need to get together.
Hey, whatever we got to do to feed the family. Exactly. Exactly. They're pretty animals no matter what. I don't even see horn. All right. So here you are. You're dealing with this hunt. This is a September hunt. So this is a September hunt. Yeah. I've never hunted in the rut before, you know, for myself. And so the country was gorgeous. Like, everything about it was just literally magical. The weather was perfect. And bulls just screaming the entire time. And it was the most fun hunt probably that I've ever been on. And it'd be hard to top it because it was just, it was actually enjoyable. And I really didn't quite feel the pressure. And then, and again, I didn't have a bull that I wanted to hunt. I didn't know. And so we hunted hard for, I think, the first five days. And on, I think, day five is when I found my bull. And that's when immediately the anguish started settling in.
The tunnel vision. The tunnel vision. It's what happens to it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Now, now I've got something that I will not heal unless I find him or something bigger. There you go. Yeah. Thus, Trish and I and anybody else that's involved has got misery till this hunt ends. Right? It is. Exactly. I was praying for it to be over. Yeah. Exactly. I remember one of my brothers, when I was guiding years ago, one of my brothers told me, he said, I feel bad for your clients because I don't think you could have fun unless you're, you know, killing big. But anyway, it was fun. And so, yeah, so I found this bull and couldn't, couldn't get it done for a couple days. And then I think it was on like day seven, I got a glimpse of a bull from probably three miles away. And I just knew he was big, but I mean, I saw him for maybe a second and I kind of, my
gut was telling me that was the bull, but I didn't know if it was him or at least a big one or at least big enough to go after. So, um, Trisha and my brother stayed on the road. My boys were on a knob and then I had my cousin about halfway between me and the bull. So I just picked him up on my way on the stock. And, uh, anyway, we got up and, uh, I couldn't get any closer from where this bull, he was bedded down and I was exactly, this is, you know, a muzzleloader at 300 yards and he was bedded down. And, but so we couldn't see his horns. He would move a little bit. And so then I was looking at my video and I'm looking at his horns. I'm trying to figure out if this is the bull. And it took me over an hour to finally decide that it was him. Like every little turn gave me just enough to see a little thing that I needed to, to see if it was him.
And, uh, anyway, so at 300 yards, I knew when he stood up, if he went to the right two feet or to the left two feet, I would not have a shot. Like the only place where he was bedded was about a three foot gap in between these trees that I would have. And when he stood up, I hurried and looked on my binoculars and I looked at the one tree, the white quakey with this big black circle. And it was perfectly even with his vitals. And then the one to the right, the tree to the right was perfect circle of a black bark or whatever. And so I literally aimed in between those two barks is how I even knew for sure that, that it was hitting him. Um, and anyway, one shot and, and dropped them with a muzzleloader. Yeah. And, and it took me because we were on this cliff ledge, it took me over an hour to get to him. And the whole time I wasn't even excited. I was so scared.
Did I screw like, cause I never got a good look at him other than the, Now you're second, Justin. Oh, did I just make myself think it was him and him walking up on a 320 bull? Yes. And I've never, I've never been in that situation. I've never pulled the trigger unless I knew for sure, but I felt good enough, but I still had that doubt. Like, man, did I, I could have really screwed up here. Oh, and if it had been 320, like Trish, we'd have Trish and I, and whoever else is associated with him would, would have to hear therapy would still be going. He would still be, he'd be paying 14 therapists and still need. Yeah. It was, it's so focused. That's what I've learned with hunting with you a bit. It's just the focus is, I mean, it's, it's contagious and it's, and it's what's needed if you're going to hunt big stuff and get big stuff killed.
But it's, it's exhausting to you and everybody around you. Yes. It is. Very. I can't wait till she can just get the mic here in a minute and just start talking. It's the truth though. Nothing else matters. Nothing else matters. He could be something on fire at work. I mean, anything. Yeah. Yeah. When I ate that tag again, I couldn't, I couldn't even function for five months. I'm like, you've got, I mean, I'm trying to, I'm ready to break the bank open to buy a guv tag. I'm not even a real elk. I like deer, you know, but I'm ready to buy anything. Got personal. Yeah. And so it was just so crazy to draw it. And then I just killed a big bull and he was my number one. I mean, it just, it was, it was so much fun. Like just literally a perfect hunt. Yeah. It's pretty awesome. Yeah. Unbelievable. Well, and, and your family was there for the most part, like you were in and out and
it just ended up awesome. And so here we are leaving Utah and you guys don't really, at this point, didn't have any other tags, right? No, nothing. We had nothing. Yeah. And yeah. So that tag ends and. And he ends up big. Like he's in the, what'd you say he scored? 370s or something. The 380s. He's right at 370 broken. Yeah. But I, I, I washed his horns off so that I could, you know, replicate them. And I'm not kidding. I think I wiped about 10 inches of mass on. He had so much mud. So are you saying you scored him with the mud on? I did score him with the mud on it. I'm scared to score him now, but I swear he lost a lot. That's a new trick I've never heard of. Yeah. I love it. He had so much mud on him. BNC should take a wire brush to every mass measurement and just get it down to the bone. BNC should realize this is happening out there. Get it down to the bone. Oh, good stuff.
Well, it's a giant. You didn't wash that much off. I mean, it's a giant. No, but it's still fun. But I definitely took some off. Yeah. All right. Okay. Guide us into the next hunt. How did we end up with the tag and all the things? Okay. So, yeah. So, so that happens. And then, well, I'll let, I'll let Trish tell you how I got, how we ended up getting this next one. All right. Trish, you on? Oh, I get to tell this story. Moments we've all been waiting for. I don't believe anything. I don't believe anything Trish says. I'm just going to say that right off the bat. That's what, go with that. There's a lot of give and take in our relationship. I'll tell you that. Oh, yeah? Who's taken?
Who's taken?
Trish, Trish is given. Anyway. The king's taken. Yep. She's the giver. Oh, she's awesome. So, he kind of conned me into, well, what do you think about getting a turnback tag? An elk tag. Yeah. Because to go into not so much detail, my first elk hunt was, let's say it was not very fun. No, go ahead. Why was it not so fun, Trish? That's for a marriage counselor, not a country podcast. So, Jason. Jason just talked about his two. This is now Trish's story. This is now Trish's story. He talked about his two unsuccessful ones. Now his wife gets to chat. He won't let her talk. He won't let her shoot anything. He won't let her shoot anything. Oh, I know. 100% that's what happens. There's a reason we're on one phone together.
All right, Trish. Tell us all. Yeah, just a brief synopsis of the first experience. Don't say it all. Okay, yeah, hold some things back. I was going to say, it was a really, really, really, really bad hunt. It was. Wasn't it when you were, well, anyway, keep going. Yeah, it was years ago, and she had an elk tag, and yeah, we were going through a rough patch, but, you know. Like, you guys, about this tag, like, hunting about, usually brings families together, but not so much on that one. Yeah, not so much. We were not so much together at that point, so we'll say it was not a great hunt. Okay. Okay. All right. So, fast forward. I think he was wanting to redeem himself. Yeah. Like, let's have a do-over. Let's try it again. Let's have fun. Let's try it again. Let's be ready. The turn back process is going to be starting here.
Didn't draw earlier on, so you said, you relented and said, yeah, get me one if you can get me a tag, basically. Right. Yes. So, I basically had to figure out how to get on the computer and get this turn back tag, because, like Jason said, my Jason has no idea how to run a computer to save his life. Like, no idea. I don't know if anybody knows that or not, but. Like, to trust him to run cameras, it's hard on me.
He's like, hey, I'm on such and such spring, and I'm like, so am I. I'm not, I'm just teasing. He, like, he knows what he's doing, but still. Yeah. The technology is a challenge. I know just enough what I need to do. Turn the camera on and walk away. Yes. Let's just say he'd still have a flip phone if it wasn't for me. I know. It's true. We developed him an Instagram account one night. It was hilarious. All right. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was. Oh, didn't. He wouldn't even play into it. He didn't even want to see it or nothing to do with it. So then at some point it became kind of weird. Zero points, zero friends, zero. No, he had friends he didn't even know about. And people are thinking he's posting. And then it's Trish or whoever else chimes in. And pretty soon it was just weird. Oh, I had several people text me like, is this real? I think somebody hacked into an account.
Is this you? It was a good time during a sheep hunt. It was just a good time. One of those fun evenings anyway. And off we went. All right. All right, Trish. The floor is yours. Okay. So maybe a little background on my side. I grew up hunting with my family. But my family, they're not big game hunters. We go out and we camp. Like we kill what we see. We don't go looking. We just kill what we find. Yeah. Go out on the weekends or whatever. Yeah. We basically, I basically grew up camping, not really hunting. So his version of hunting and my version of hunting were complete opposite when we got married. So I remember her saying a long time ago, like, does it really even matter to scout? Like, can you really find the same animal that you would during the hunt? Like, she didn't even know that was really pot. Like, how would you even know it's the same animal? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
You just look in their eye and you know. Yeah. You just know when you know. Yeah. And we get up before daylight, which is hard. It's hard. You know? I mean, when it's a fun weekend, you know, daylight comes and goes and you go out when you go out. But it gets serious when you're dealing with hunts with Jason. That's rare. It's kind of rare to get a turnback tag. Like, for you guys to say, hey, maybe we should go ahead and get a turnback elk tag and then do it. I mean, that's a pretty big hurdle in and of itself. Well, not only did we get the tag. We got the only tag I wanted. Yeah. Or we got the only tag she wanted, let's say. Yeah. Is that true? Is that true, Trish? Is that true? Did you want a tag, Trish? I knew exactly what unit it was. I knew where we were going. I knew what we were doing. I knew all of it. Wow. Was this exactly what I wanted? Okay. Did you even want the tag?
Oh, are we being honest here? Yeah, we are. We don't lie on this podcast. No, I really did. I did. I did. I wanted to redeem our last elk hunt. Yeah. Did you have the first or the second rifle on the November? Second. Second one? Yeah. Okay. So late. It's a late hunt. Cold weather hunt. Snow. All the things. Right? Yes. Okay. Freezing cold. Yeah. Exactly. In Nevada. Okay. Dive in. How did this go down?
Well, let's see. The first few days, it was so cold. It was just me and Jason the first couple of days, and it was so windy. I just remember sitting in the truck while he was outside freezing, glassing. I was just sitting there, and I was just praying. I'm like, oh my gosh, please do not find something. Don't find something. It's so true. I knew. He was going to find something, and it was going to be on the very top of that mountain that he was looking at. And I was just praying that I did not have to hike up there. So, those few days passed. We didn't really see anything. Anything that we did see, it wasn't big. In full disclosure, I did find a couple 400s, but I didn't even make her go do it. Really? Really? No. Wow. I'm just trying to look good for a second. Okay. Okay. Okay. I was like, wait, what? Yeah, that did not happen. Oh.
So, then our son Logan and Jason's brother Travis came up. Am I right? Yeah. They came up next, right? Yep. And we went out. We decided we were going to go try somewhere different. I mean, I don't even think I'd ever even been in this area, so I didn't know where we were going or what we were doing, but they obviously did. So, they wanted to go somewhere different, and on the way back, we decided to stop and look at this mountain range. I don't know. Yeah. Jason found a bull. It was probably like three miles away. I couldn't even tell that it was a bull. I had no idea he even had horns. Yeah. But if anybody knows Jason, they know that he can spot anything, and he knows what he's looking at. So patient. And BTX is like his favorite glass, and I don't know anybody else that think that's their favorite glass. Like, he'll live behind the BTX and look miles and miles. It's just crazy.
He's a great glass. It's insane. I don't know how he does it. So he found something. It was getting dark, so we had to go back to camp. They were all talking about it. Should we go back? I don't know. What do we do? So I just said, I'm here to just get a bull. I don't care. You know, I mean, obviously, I want a big one, but I don't care. Let's at least go back in the morning and give it a shot. Let's just look. So we went back the next morning. By then, his cousin had showed up, Jake. And we went and looked. And Jason found him first thing. So we decided to hike up on him, which that's another story. Oh, it's just right over this hill, honey. I love it. You need snow boots. You need waders. Snow boot waders. Oh, my gosh. Like three miles later, we're still a mile away. I'm like, oh, my gosh. So we get up on him. We got as close as we could get. But about 758 yards or something.
I don't know. Across the canyon, the wind was blowing like crazy. It was so freezing cold. My hands were literally frozen. I was shivering. He finally, the bull was bedded down. So we were just watching for probably a good couple of hours. Just watching and waiting for him to stand up. Finally, Jason gets up and builds his fire. And I'm like, yes, I can finally, like, maybe get warm, like, to where I can actually shoot. And she was shivering, freezing. And I didn't tell her. But when we got there, when we were practicing, you know, aiming and getting comfortable, when she didn't know, I was telling my cousin. I'm like, he's bigger than my bull. Like, that's when I realized how big he was. Wow. But you don't want to tell her. Then you amp everything up. Yes. It's tough. Yeah. There's your bull. Yeah. Yeah. That's a nice bull, honey. If you miss it, we'll go find another one.
For where we are in the season, he ain't back.
All right. So now you build a... This time he was allowed to talk to me. Our last elk hunt, I had my Beats headphones on. And I was just listening to music. I didn't want to hear anything he said to me. I didn't want to talk to him. I didn't want to look at him. It's true. So Jason told me this story when we were in the cyber side, like, what, four or five days ago, Jason. Yeah. Yeah. And I've heard it before, but I love hearing it every time. Oh. Literally. That's a true story. She literally packed... You would normally walk your wife or Hunter or whatever. Yes. Adam, you guiding. You would walk them through the shot. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, just relax. Make sure they're super comfortable. Yeah. Slowly pull the trigger. Make the rest better. Squeeze the trigger. Let it surprise you. All the things.
He's got two hours to make it right if it's not right, because when he stands up, it's not the time to find out it's not right. Yeah. Versus having somebody in your ear just screaming, shoot! He's getting away! Well, Trish, I don't know how, what went on to cause her to put beats in, but she was over No, no. She was over it. No, but before, we'd been on a few other hunts. She could, I would just tell her, the normal, you know, just, all right, squeeze the trigger, take it. It's not like I was yelling, but she just, she gets so anxious, but this time, yeah, she wanted, nope. She literally packed beats around, and as soon as she was ready to shoot, that's when she put the beats on. But even whispering, Jason's voice is penetrating. And so she's probably over it. That's her, basically her shooting protection.
He's trying to make it sound like he's all calm when he's trying to tell me to shoot. He is not calm right now. Squeeze the trigger, exhale, slow. Don't worry, this is a once in a lifetime bull. You got this, honey. It's not the matter. Squeeze and he's dead. If you miss him. If anybody's making anybody nervous, he's making me nervous. That's why I had the beats on. A lot of bulls out there. If you miss him, we'll find another one. So when you had the beats on, you smashed, did you smash it? I don't even remember what hunt it was on. Yeah. On the first hunt, I did. Yeah, I had the beats on and I did kill that first one. But this hunt, I did not have the beats on. Do you remember what you were listening to?
I do, but I can't remember the song. It was a... It might come to me. It might come to me. All right. All right. It was a very depressing song. I know that song is very depressing. Okay. And it was a 355 bull. Like, it wasn't... Yeah. It was a good bull. And I'm just like, all right, whatever. I don't... If you miss or high or low, whatever. I'm not... Yeah, whatever. I'm not saying anything. Our marriage will stay intact no matter what. Yep.
Exactly. Or not. Or not. Yeah. So, anyways, I was... He was... He told me where to shoot this time. I listened. I was excited. I had never killed anything big. Like, really big before. So, I was excited. I was, you know... I was ready to go get him and get him off the mountain. But I also was not looking forward to packing him out. Yeah. Yeah. There was that side. But I was excited. Yeah, it was fun. It's pretty awesome. So, did you end up... Jason and Trish, like, the next day go get him or...
Yes, it was. It was the next day we went and got him. Yeah, it was bright before dark. And we knew we'd never get over there before it got dark. So, yeah, we went back the next morning. And so... And all I heard all night is, this is going to be the easiest pack out. It's going to be so easy, honey. Don't worry. It's going to be so easy. You guys lie. It was not. Yeah. Just where you're... That's why there's two sides of the story. Because it was the easiest elk pack out I've ever been on. But it wasn't easy. But it was the easiest one. Just bring your house slippers. Semantics. Yeah, exactly. Wear your tennis shoes. It's going to be nothing. You know? Wow. That's awesome. So, you get up to the bull. How did that all go down?
Who got there first? Logan and Jake. Logan and Jake got there first. And so, they scored him out. Yeah. They were hooting and hollering. I was still trying to make it up the mountain without dying. Yeah. And I was just excited to see him. Just to get my hands on him and just see how big he actually was. Yeah.
Awesome. And so, what did he end up going? So, he ended up going 373 as a 5x6. Yeah. And he's not got a very big 5th point on the one side. It's not like he's a big. He's just basically a 5 point. Exactly. And just, I mean, he's got 59 inch, 59 and 59 and a half inch beams. He's got, you know, 24 inch swords, 22 inch thirds, like 20 inch fronts, 21 inch fronts. Like, just a giant all the way around other than his 5ths. Just, I mean, just a giant. A giant. Freaking bull. So awesome. So awesome. Yeah. He literally dwarfs my bull. Jeez. Dwarfs him. So now you can see how hunting brings marriages closer together. Closer families, building bonds that last forever. Exactly.
She finally believes it now. It's awesome. Looking forward to the next one, I'm sure. This is so great. So what's next for the Taylor family?
She's going to try and get a turn back tag for a sheep. That's what she really wants. Oh, wow. Calling her shot. You're not. Wow. Wow. I thought it's the antelope or something, but no. Yeah. I'm just going straight for a sheep. Well, just like the title of your story in April magazine, it says, have a little faith. So I guess you better have that. Well, these guys, when they call it like this, they'll probably end up with a turn back tag. I don't know. I don't know. I highly doubt it. That's our, she, she, she drew her sheep tag years ago. So she's in the same boat, like one or two points. So she'll never draw it, but we'll, we'll try, but I'm sure it won't happen. But. All right. Well, Trish, do you have any words of wisdom for the ladies that are listening? We actually have quite a few gals that listen to the podcast, but any hunting words of wisdom out there? I don't know.
Good, bad, or indifferent? I don't know. I think sometimes it's worth it just to let them go out. Ladies, just let them go. That is excellent advice. That is excellent advice. Isn't there like a frozen song called let it go? Just play that right now. One of those, Josh, you got little girls. As they play that around the house, that'd be a good theme song right now.
Yeah. Well, just let them, let them get what, do what they want. I got what's. Exactly. Keeps them happy. Keeps you happy. We're good. Win-win. We're good. Everybody's happy. Yeah. Awesome stuff. Well, anything else, Jason? I mean, I'm, I know there's probably a few details, but anything else that you want to add to it all? It's just a, what a great year for you guys. Good redemption year after the one last year before that, it sounds like. Yeah. So that, that's, it just sealed. I mean, it was just crazy because literally at the very end of 2023, I was just, again, I ate my tag. And then within one year, exactly one year later, we ended up with two elk tags and killed giants both times. So it just, I mean, what a difference it made. So. Yeah. It's ought to be in the game. Got to get it. Get a tag. We're going to eat tags over the years. We just try not to let it ruin us. Or our wives.
It's hard. It's hard. Exactly. Exactly. But. Good stuff. It's fun though. Well, we sure appreciate you. We appreciate you both. You guys are awesome. And just great hunters, hardcore. And, and just awesome to hear your story here on Epic Outdoors podcast. So thanks a lot. It's a lot of fun. I know Trish was super excited to be on the podcast. Oh yeah. Yeah.
She tried every which way to get out of it. I know. Jason's like, don't worry. We're on. We're doing this. Yeah. Did great. We appreciate it. Just. Yeah. Great perspective. So. All right. Awesome. All right. You both have a great day. All right. Thanks guys. You too. Thanks again. See ya. Bye. Bye. Bye.
All right, Bronson. Where'd Logan run off? It's a long podcast. Josh, do you know how to hit end on this? Yeah. I can do it. Do you just pull the plug out of the wall? Is that what we did? I think so. I don't know. I'm used to saving. I'm used to saving Logan. Because one time Chris did something and that podcast could never be found. Yeah. But we also talked about things on that podcast that had a lot to do with Chris. Delt with Chris. He's like, I don't know what happened with that podcast. It's gone. It's a glitch. It's a glitch. It's a glitch. Never have had a glitch since. Never had one prior. As he passed me in the hall, Logan said he was going to get his mustache dyed or something. Really? Just got to make it look a little thicker. So. Oh, Shane. Yeah. I noticed he had a patch off his legs where he shaved it off. He was getting a transplant. Making it go a little longer.
Hey, if he's not on the podcast, we get to talk about it. His Shane Gillis look. He's riding it hard. Let's put it that way. All right. I'm good. If you guys are good. It was kind of fun dealing with this. Anyway, if you're anybody out there looking for a new rifle, consider Fierce Firearms. Make excellent rifles. www.fiercearms.com. If you're looking to order one, you can order direct, but you can also order through us. I think it's a bit cheaper. A member discount here with us here at Epic Outdoors. If you buy a rifle scope, too. And you want us to mount it, we'll mount it up for you. And it'll be the best shooting rifle you've ever owned. Now, if you shoot it the best, I don't know, but the rifle itself will be perfect. That's right. Also wanted to give a shout out to Outdoor Edge. They've been longtime sponsors and supporters of us here at Epic Outdoors.
All kinds of knives, whether they be fixed blade, replaceable blade, probably most known for their replaceable blade knives. Awesome. We had them on the podcast a while back. You can look that up. A lot of their new, I think, talked about the Razer APX 3.0, if I'm not mistaken. It's a knife we kind of broke down. Got a project in the works, maybe, with them for knives of ours. Yeah, and I've been using that 3.0, that APX, the new one, putting up trail cameras, and the saw is legit. Oh, that little blade? Yeah. Just once in a while, you need a limb out of the way. Just thinking, John's putting up trail cameras with a knife. I could use it. No, but the saw blade. I'm thinking, I pack a sawzall. I don't know. I need to grab what you're doing. He's just checking trail cameras in the dark with it out. Hey.
I'm just saying, I went to check cameras at like 2 in the morning on it where Big Tom was hitting every day. It's a little eerie. Yeah. All right. Anyway, shout out to them, OutdoorEdge.com. Check out all their products. They're also on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, a lot of stuff on there. But anyway, I got the Razor APX 2.5 and 3.0. We highlighted those in the June-July magazine. Got a little bit of breakdown on them. So new advancements in their replaceable blade knives. So awesome knives. Throw them in your pack. It's time to load stuff like that in your pack. You're looking for a new tripod? We have them here at Epic Outdoors. The best of the best and the most affordable price for the very upper echelon type of tripod. Extremely fluid. Like I say, we don't have to use them, right? I'm going to use what's absolute best, but this is the best we've ever found.
Had a guy, actually I was talking to today, was calling to buy another one, wanting to decide which size he wanted. Says he's, I won't mention what tripods he's had in the past, but some that cost more than double ours. And he said ours is significantly better. Yeah, they're over a grand. Some of them. Not ours. Yeah. That's pretty awesome. We're proud of them. And we have them here in stock. Who knows? At some point we won't. But anyway, if you're looking for a tripod, four to five hundred bucks, why not try it? I guess we'd be at six with the max, right? Remember pricing? Yeah. Which would be the absolute big tripod. Yeah. It's the best of the best. Same head as far as the fluid to the ultra and with also the quick detach. So you're not tightening them with a set screw, so to speak, with your thumb. It's a quick detach and just an awesome setup. It's killing it.
You know, and it is nice to be able to design something and you think this is everything I want in a tripod and you get to do it. And then you do get feedback that, you know, it's everything everyone else wants, too. So that's been kind of rewarding. You know, not just it's not just us that loves it. It's we're here. I don't know. I just feel like if we like it, everybody's going to like it. But I know that doesn't really make sense, but I feel like if we like it and it's working and we're using it and abusing it, it's going to fit the bill for most people. Well, kind of like you and oysters. Just because you like them doesn't mean everybody else does, Carter. Oh, jeez. John's going to delete this. Do we have to talk about that? No, I just don't. I mean, we might as well throw a little personal oyster story in. I mean, we're first married and I love raw oysters. I do, too.
And she's disgusted by them. And so you might as well smoke and have that on your breath versus an oyster. I might as well. The worst cigar in the world or a pipe or whatever. Anyway, and she's like. And so anyway, I think I'm funny. You know, little do I know I'm going to change my life forever and I can never eat them again. And I take the raw ones that you would get like in a jar, let's say, but it would just be out of the ocean like brand new. Yeah, on the half show. And I take them and I hold it up by two fingers. And I tilt my head back and slurp it in. The extra loud slurp. And I mean. She goes to dry even. Oh. Oh. Maybe not even dry even. Maybe a little moisture in there. And it ruined our relationship for a short while. Like, I mean. You've been married weeks probably. I don't know how long. Months. But I cannot eat one in front of her ever again. Anyway. And then her.
Even when we go out to lunch and just have them like here in Utah, you know you're going to get sick, right? Because, I mean, you're so far from the ocean. You should not be eating a oyster in southern Utah. No. But anyway, we do once in a while without her there. But her just hearing about it. I mean. It just does her in. Trauma. That's called trauma. It's trauma. It is. It's drama. Trauma. All right. So. Whatever. A little oyster story for you. Have them on the half shell. Just don't make everybody enjoy the same experience you like. All right, everybody. Have a good weekend. Yeah. Go out there. Have a good weekend. Scout. Kill. Report. Send photos. 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.
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