EP 375: The Pollock Family's Triple Trophy Year

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Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Josh Pollack. What the heck? Josh and I at the mic today with a little bit, a few of Josh's family. Yeah, not all of them. Not everybody. Go ahead, introduce yourselves. All right, Haley Pollack. I am Josh's wife. Okay. Are you proud to be Josh's wife? Oh, absolutely. Most days. All right, most days. You're being truthful there. Okay, and then I'm Sadie Pollack, their favorite child, obviously. Whoa, I guess if nobody else is here, we can say what we want. She's number one, I guess. What do you think? I guess maybe during the hunting season she was definitely number one for a minute, huh? Yeah, yeah. She put in the least amount of effort.

That is also true. Killed the biggest thing. The least amount of effort and killed the biggest thing. Is dad always that quick at home? Like, is he somewhat crushing just on the fly? Yeah. Good. All right. So I don't have to feel bad when he does it, when he did it here at the office? No, this is all the time. This is? Yeah. It's normal. Okay. But usually I get smacked, too, because sometimes it's inappropriate. He gets told to filter every once in a while. Yes. Just a little. I don't think it's so bad. Josh, have you ever learned how to filter? I, you know how, like, on the top of a salt shaker, how it's got three settings? I do, but it's the wide open one. So it's half. It is on a setting. Yeah. So it's 50%. Don't unscrew the top. Yeah. It's not the little one. It's not the three holes. It's the whole top. All right. So let's see. Let's set the stage, Pollock.

We got, what we've got here, we got a family of killers. And so I think what was fun about this year is you drew great tags, especially, notably, a desert sheep tag. Yep. Family draws. Elk tag, right? Painting which lake elk. Painting which lake elk. Unbelievable. Mid-season. A little bit stressful for dad, right? Yes. Because there's people, and some seasons have already come and gone. Maybe even the best seasons. But it ended up making really good on it. Killed a giant. And then you, whatever, kill some abnormal freak of nature giant mule deer in Colorado on a draw tag, right? Yes. On a unit that's really, you wouldn't know this as much as you do now, but Pollock and I know, on a unit that's just not known for it necessarily. Of course, you haven't told me the unit. You won't tell anybody.

But anyway, I just think it's awesome when we have the dust clear after, you know, we prep for during the application season, and we're just cranking on all the tags and all the points and consulting and doing all of these things. And then you have a season. And lately, it's been tough seasons. Just, I think, weather-related, things like that. Don't you agree, Pollock? Yeah. It has been. Especially for deer. Yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. Like, I mean, we hunted here for deer for a couple weeks. I mean, because we have, like, that earlier hunt and the unit that we hunt, the earlier hunt and the later hunt. Did we even see a four-point? You're talking on the Utah General. Yes, on the Utah General. Yes. Yes. How was that? How'd that treat you? It was like nothing. Nothing. All of us know you. Do you think it was because Dad needs to scout a little bit more? Probably so.

That was the worst part, though. You scout your guts out. You guys were out there because. When you get that many tags and it's kind of spread out, I don't know. You feel like, man, I wish we could have got this tag next year, you know, not in the same year because of this, that, or the other. Something sometimes has to give. And, yeah, the General Deer did not get scouted that much this year. But we tried to hit it, and we did have fun. And we did spend a lot of time cruising around. A lot of time. Definitely. And I would say you guys know it really well. But, you know, so, like, scouting is a little different than, say, coming from Iowa. If some resident from Iowa comes out here. I mean, you're hitting the ground running every day. Yeah. You know, what I did notice, and I think I talked to you a little bit about this, Josh.

I just noticed how many, like, one and a half, two and a half year old deer are on the landscape. Oh, they're everywhere. You know, yeah. And you're just praying they make it. And you know what was interesting? Maybe you guys saw this. Is the amount of people that pass those deer. Like, they kind of live. Like, normally, I think people feel bad shooting the babies right now. I don't know. Because we haven't seen babies for a while. You know what I mean? Yeah. Did you guys notice that? Yeah. You used to see two points and say, oh, you better hide. You're going to get shot. And it just wasn't the case this year. Yeah. It wasn't the case. Like, they kind of lived, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Because you'd think, oh, that one's not going to make it. And then you'd drive by him again a few days later and he was still there. Like, well, okay. If we have to feed the family, we could. But. Yeah.

Logie Bear would have smashed him every time. Every time. We don't let antlers walk in this family. No. He likes the Southwest Desert or Beaver West or some of that country. And basically, just seeing a deer is amazing. It's a unique experience. We're phones, go open does. That's good, though. Like, there was a lot of deer. Starting to see more deer. Even just more does. And when I say more deer, compared to, you know, three years ago or whatever. Yeah. So. What do you. What do you. Like, let's just talk from your. A bit of DWR background. And, of course, affiliates that we all have. Like, just what do you attribute that to? Just. We just had some better. And it's not like we've had amazing moisture years. But we've actually had just good timely moisture. Different times. Like, we've had fairly good winters. Yeah. Down here. You know, the mountain deer haven't had.

It's just like this winter. Yeah. They're nothing. They're not. They haven't even. I think, like, over in Peng, which we had one day. Today was only the second day. We've had some snow on the ground. And it was a skiff. You know, we had a six-inch storm. Like, at Thanksgiving. But it already had gone. I mean, it was. The ground's not even frozen. What I find interesting, Josh. And, I mean, we haven't talked about this extensively with you yet. Just kind of interested in your take. But for projecting what it's going to be like in the fall of 2026. The seasons fall of 2026 for, like, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. It just feels like there's ponds in Arizona that have water that haven't. Yeah. There was all this late moisture. Yeah. And you could say, well, there was late moisture in late of 2024. And there was some. But I don't know why it feels different.

It feels like there's always a mist in the air right now. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? It just feels wet and green. It's really humid. I think. I don't know if that's because the ground hasn't ever frozen. So, there's a lot of moisture in the ground. And so, it's still coming up every night. I mean, I watered trees a couple weeks ago. I've never watered trees in December, January. Janet told me we should water trees. And I'm like. And then, you know, I do the dad thing and forget. Yeah. Pretty much. So, I just. My act consists of I dump. Put the hose over there for a couple hours. Yeah. And just let it flood or whatever. But it all soaked in. Didn't freeze. Wow. Whatever. But when you're talking about that. We went down just before Christmas. My son was wrestling just before Christmas in St. George. And then, we went back the other day after that big, huge storm we had.

And that Ash Creek Reservoir was full as could be. Crazy. And it was dry just a week before. Yeah. We're talking right here at the Black Ridge. Yeah. Talking Black Ridge. And it's completely full. And it hasn't had water in it for years. Oh. There's been. Yeah. Like a two track down the middle of it. Yeah. In years. And it's full now. So, there was. And so, I guess what that would mean. I mean. We think about that we need snow for moisture. Which we do. But I don't know. In southern Utah. It's so different. Because you have the mountain. And then the desert stuff. Yeah. And the desert stuff still been getting hit pretty hard. And normally, it doesn't have snow that sits on it anyway. Yeah. So, I don't know. I think the soil moisture is really good. So, that I think this spring. It's going to green up pretty fast. And pretty quick. Yeah. Well, some of the places we're going.

Like, it's green right now. Yeah. You know. We were hiking. My son and I were hiking in Arizona a bit. And cranking out. Just cool. Some of the really cool country. This last weekend. There was like a carpet of green. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, what you're saying about the desert is, like, snowpack matters. Water tables matter. But then. But the desert doesn't get much for snowpack. And so, maybe this. I'm just trying to predict what year you have to have tags. Yeah. You know. And it feels like it could be really good. But then. You look at all the maps that you and I and everybody else looks at. And I really need you to give me a link back to the soil moisture content. But anyway. Because it just feels like it. All it is is brown and long-term drought. It's terrible. And the end of the world's here. And I don't know that that's the case.

I think it actually could be possibly a pretty decent year for antler growth. Except for we're dealing with one and a half and two and a half year old bucks. But the few older deer that are out there. It might be kind of fun. It might be a decent year. Sure. Well, and that's where you think about the timely stuff. Because deer did okay. We had those weird abnormal little storms in the end of May, first of June. Last year that completely saved our season. Last year's friar's antler growth goes. If we wouldn't have had that. It would have been pretty rough. But because of that. Slash the mild winter that we had. Like the elk this year were insane. Yeah. And so, that brings us to another point. Of course, we're going to talk about elk and get this whole kill story. Or maybe part of it. I don't know if you guys really tell the truth. But anyway.

Well, you know, part of that is when there's a wet year. So, for example. They say Nevada on drier years. Those bulls will be incredible. Whereas the deer are terrible. Yeah. What do we find here? Remember when we had that snow that lingered through June? Well, that was the bulk of the antler growing period. And it actually seemed like a little bit of an off year. And yet we had more snowpack than normal. Right? Yeah. And so, what relationship do you find, like, here on some of these elk units in Utah? Do we have to have the water? Or is a little bit less, is less better sometimes? Is less more? I think less snow is better for antler growth for elk, honestly. Absolutely. Because it all depends. Because when we're talking about southwest desert, it's all. I mean, you get any water, you're grateful. Yes, exactly. So, there are. And same like with Arizona. Arizona was off, too.

Because they didn't get the moisture that they needed down there. But you think about our units up here, where we have a mountain component that those elk live in that mountain component for a certain amount of time. I think less snow. Again, like this year, I feel like if you're going to, if you've got elk points, you probably ought to be getting ready for next year. I would really, I would think in Utah, like I said, some of our southern units that have that mountain component to them, I think they're going to do really good again. And even, you know, what's interesting is we have this late archery that everybody kind of laughed at, just said people are going to. And it is, they are tough seasons. But people are like, well, we're just going to burn through some people's points and not really hurt anything, right? But there was some good bulls taken. The guys are figuring it out.

Yeah, they're figuring it out. And that's after archery, early rifle, muzzle, mid rifle, late rifle. You know what I mean? And so, anyway, and there's still big bulls on the landscape. It's just interesting. Every year we get done and we're like, man, how many more bulls, you know, like your wife's can produce? You know, over and over. And it just kind of keeps happening. I mean, we've been pretty critical over the course of time of we don't let them take a break. You know what I mean? We had them pre-rut, rut, post-rut, over and over and over, you know. And so, anyway, but things are still good. There's a lot of good bulls. You know specifically a number of bulls that made it. Oh, yeah. You know? Yeah. And so, things look good. Yep. Anyway. So, yeah, I think it could be good. The deer is always, I think, a wild card. You won't know until what the spring brings, honestly.

I mean, the good thing about it now is they're set up that they're not going through a harsh winter. But yet the desert deer, because opposite with that, the desert deer last year, like the Pine Valley, they didn't actually do good because they didn't get any moisture at all. Yeah. You know? And so, they actually were pretty rough. But probably those late storms saved them a little bit more for what antler growth on some of the bucks that were there. So, I don't know. If we don't get snow like that, it's a good recipe for those deer. I mean, there's elk that are still, there's elk still at 10,000 feet. Are they just crazy? Yeah. Winter in the pie. The cows, they came down, got hunted a little bit, and then they moved back. We had a guy that had a cow tag that couldn't find a cow, and I sent him over there. I said, you need to go talk to, oh, Joshua Pollock. I talked to him. He called me.

How did he do? He went and gave it a day and then called me again. Yeah. Yeah. At some point, you're throwing good money after bad. Yeah. I mean, it's a cow hunt. I don't know. Yeah, it is what it is, right? We got lucky and found some cows that had moved down, and Judson killed one Thanksgiving day. Yeah, that's fun. But, yeah, I mean, I don't know. But, yeah, those cows have all moved back up into the high country at 10,000 feet because there's actually still feed up there, you know? But that's the thing with that unit. Same with, like, the beaver unit. And the penguins, they're prime right now. I mean, all the burns that have happened up there and the feed that's up there. What do you think this Monroe fire is going to do? Yeah, same thing. Monroe is going to be one you're going to see. It's going to bring that mountain back.

It's going to bring the old historic mountain of Monroe Mountain back. You know, the boulder. The boulder's kind of been a little bit stagnant. There's still big bulls there, and they're still going to be killing big bulls. Could use a burn out there. But if it did the same thing, it would be insane. It would be unbelievable. It just needs that. Kind of like mountain home of Southwest Desert. Why won't that thing burn? It should. We need it cleared up. Is there any, is it burned, is anything burned off that? I mean, it needed a burn in year 2000 when I was. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think it's burned. But. It's stupid. Yeah. And like with the Monroe, it may not be next year or two years. It was weird. Panguich actually took more years. Because it was kind of like, oh, next year's going to be the year. Next year's going to be the year. It actually took longer. I felt like.

I don't know why. But it took longer for all of a sudden now. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I remember that. It was like you're thinking, oh, the next year or two. It was delayed. And I don't know if it was just because of age class of bulls. Yeah, mine did. There was something else that was there. There was a component that was there. The bulls actually weren't hitting what they were. But now I think a lot of it, too, though, is because now we're almost. We're coming up to eight years from when that big. The Brianhead fire happened. And so I think now all the bulls that are there, they're actually. They're all calves that have been burnt. They've been born. In the. In the bird feed years. In the. And so all those calves. And they've. Maybe there's a component of like that. The size of these rams are, you know, rams that are born on good years have bigger bases. Yeah.

Have bigger rams. Or bigger rams on the end. Same thing with mule deer they're finding. You know, maybe there's something to do with elk, too. It's born on good years. Yeah. And they've seen that with elk. That if they're born, they can reach their full potential at a certain age. So now a lot of those elk are. We're talking are five, six, seven, eight years old. And they were all born with good feed conditions on those years. I don't know if that's something to do. But it definitely. It took this long to get there. It wasn't a year or two. Yeah. What makes it tough now is just. Is glassing in that crap now. Yeah. You know what I mean. Or hiking one out. It's even worse. It's terrible. Once you've shot one. Yeah. All right. So let's. Let's get into the hunting season. I really want to focus on you guys. And I appreciate you all being here today. Just awesome.

You guys had just such a great year. And we're going to talk about, I guess, three different species, really. We're going to talk about sheep, elk, and deer. Yeah. I don't want to drag anything out or make it boring. But yeah. It was. I don't think any hunting stories are boring. It was. It was an unbelievable year. And like I said, enough that we drew tags that you'd think, I wish they wouldn't be there. You know. Because. Because I drew a sheep tag. And the good thing about our sheep units here in Utah, though, they start essentially mid-September, 15th September for lack of it. And go all the way till 15th of November. You know. Yeah. They're two months long. Yeah. So that was nice about that. But still, even though it's a two-month hunt, you're like a little stressed about it. Oh. Yeah. Especially in us Utahards, we like an opening day hunt.

So we've got to be there opening day, even whether it's good, bad, or ugly. And really, it's ugly. Yeah. It's hot. It's not a great time to be there. But then you feel like you're not doing the tag justice if you don't go early or scout early. And then you're watching a couple of rams die. Yeah. You know, if you don't go early. And you're like, really? You know. Yep. But Gomer Pyle shoots a big one. And here I am, not even out there. You know what I mean? Yep. And so then you're like, all right. And so anyway, you end up doing it justice. Then you end up wearing yourself out. Of course, you even had a side-by-side go out on you. I mean, there was at least a starter, right? Or whatever. Yeah. So quite the story. And I guess that kind of sets the year off, is that particular hunt with you. Yeah. Although you were doing some general deer stuff and whatnot.

But anyway, that probably said, too. Like I said, we had enough tags this year, the general tag. We kind of thought, and we were all back on our first year dedicated, too. So at the same time, it was like, ah, it's our first year. I don't know. There wasn't a lot of urgency to go hunt deer pretty hard this year. It just wasn't there. Because what scouting time and that that we did have was all put into elk primarily. So it was so close. Yeah. And then sheep being next. But the sheep hunt was the first one that was up, essentially. And I went down there first with my dad and brothers. That was an adventure all in itself. Anytime you get that involved. Anytime you're with family. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Anytime you get that involved. And then you're like, OK, this is what. And you're trying to make a plan. Are you guys all still friends? Yeah. Oh, yeah. We are. We are. But we have this plan.

And I kind of told them, I have a side-by-side. My brother has a side-by-side. So I kind of told them, hey, let's take two side-by-sides. You're going to take your own gear. And we're not coming back. When we leave the truck, we're going to camp where we're at. We're just going to keep moving on. And it wasn't like we were going to go hiking a million miles. But we were going to be just moving, moving, moving. Mobile. Yeah. Because some of that country, you're an hour and a half, two hours of drive time, dust, coal, whatever it is. You get one rainstorm that comes through and you're not getting back through. A wash could be washed out. Or the road is just impassable with mud. It's terrible. So that's why I told them, I was like, we're taking everything with us. You two and you're side-by-side. Me and my dad on my side. And we're going to take everything you need to survive for five days.

Whatever. That's awesome. You know, sleeping bag camps, everything. Yeah. So I was like, and I don't have a plan as to where we're going to be or where we're going to end up. Where we end up that day, glassing, we're just going to camp right there. And then we'll start. So we kind of did that. Did that. I went into some country that we'd heard of some sheep and went around, but it's pretty brutal country and big, big country. And so we just tried to move around as much as we can. And then, yeah, at some point we stayed up there for several days. Hadn't seen many sheep. A lot of it kind of goes back to how you're talking where sheep moved, where the feed is at. You know, some of that country, it had good spring moisture. So year to year, I guess kind of what we're talking about too a little bit is year to year. I know you know the unit well.

And where you had seen sheep prior may not be where you see them last year. Yes. Because the green up is different. Yep. It's just different. The year is different. Yep. If there was good spring moisture, and I think that there, it could move sheep up off of the river, but if there's no moisture, which there wasn't, there was basically hardly any rainstorms until the fall. And we got good rainstorms in the fall, but until then, so those sheep had to move back closer to water. Yeah. And there was actually better feed. Whereas if you had summer monsoons or whatever, you would have pots full of water. Just random pots. And there was really none of that. So, yeah, we ran into that. Saw a few sheep, nothing too big. And then, obviously, we had kind of made a plan like, all right, let's go back. Because we'd scouted some sheep too that were down closer that we knew were going to be in there.

I'm like, all right, let's, we'll pull the plug up here after tonight, and then we'll go down. Went to go start the side-by-side, and it was dead. So, was the battery, did it feel like the battery was dead, or it just isn't turning over? It just, it was just nothing. Just like a click. And so, I thought it was a battery. I'm like, okay, we must have left the battery on something. So, went over there, tried to jump it, tried everything you can. It just would do nothing. So, essentially, I'm like, well, I don't really want to just stay up here tonight. If we got a side-by-side, it's not working. We were going to go back down towards the trucks anyway for tomorrow. So, let's just get started on it. So, man, my brother, he hooked up, and we were like 40 miles on a dirt road. He had to pull me. Somebody's eating dust, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

You were within 10 feet of the bike in front of you. We ate a lot of dust. Did you come off that steep country? Oh, yeah. One behind another? Well, I told them, I was like, we're not, you're unhooking me. So, then they're like, are you kidding me? Yeah. And so, I coasted. Did you have a power brake? I did until the last little bit. I let off. It was funny. Like, the brakes were there, there, and there, and there. And then I went to let off the last time. I went to push the brakes, and they weren't there anymore. Really? Oh, yeah. Down that last steep turn ago. Did you keep the door open and no seatbelt on? Oh, yeah. We were ready. We were ready. Because, yeah, we just put it in neutral, and I'd turn it on. I didn't know how long the battery was going to last, because when I turn it on, I'd have power steering. But when I didn't, I wouldn't.

And so, I'd just kick it on every now and then to keep it so I'd have power steering to get down those big, steep, best turns. Because, yeah, it's straight off. Straight off. Yeah. For 1,000 feet. Yeah. Jeez. So, we rode that down through there and coasted, and then Pete pulled me, and then coasted and pulled me. We'd unhook the hook up, unhooking the hook. That bond's a family. Yeah. We eventually got back out. We eventually got back out, and I think they were a little bit mad at me. We did run into, like, a group. It was weird, like, 15 sheep, and there was, like, seven rams in there. What? Yeah. On the way back? Mm-hmm. Well, the next day. Oh, the next day. So, the next day, we went back, got the side-by-side back to the truck, put it on the track, and then we all just jumped in one. I was like, well, we're just going to be day hunting from here. Go back to the truck and stay in.

Because we had planned on being there for several days, and I didn't want to end and go home or whatever. So, we were just basically like, all right, we'll just hunt for the day from camp or whatever. Yeah. We were out and doing that. Ran into a group of sheep the last morning we were there, but just nothing good enough, which sucked, because I and my brothers were hoping that we'd kill a sheep while we were there. And you kind of wanted to, ideally. Yeah. It would be nice to have everybody there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But what does everybody mean? Your other side of the family's not there, necessarily. Yeah, right. So, it's like, this is balanced. Yep. Probably turned out the way it was supposed to, really. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, we ended that hunt. That was kind of the first one down. Gave it a couple more weeks. Had the muzzleloader hunt and stuff here for deer.

And then, anyway, we just had like a weird little gap where it was like, oh, we've got three days. So, that's kind of what I was going to do with that hunt. It was like, we're just going to hunt it in between gaps, because sometimes the later you go, those sheep will rut the later it gets. So, the hunting actually gets better, even though if you can scout and find one before. And the people leave. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of people. Yeah. When we were up there that first weekend, it was unbelievable the amount of tracks and stuff, the people that were up there. Yeah. Dusty powder roads. Yeah. And you're getting close to this elk hunt that you're trying to scout for a little bit. Yep. So, you're dealing with that, right? Yep. So, yeah, we were like, well, other hunts have been going on for elk. So, I don't know. We're going to give up on that for a minute.

We'll go hunt back sheep. So, we actually took the boat down and jumped on the lake this time. Haley went with me, had our two boys there with us. They wanted to go basically just to fish. Yeah. The whole time. That's what they wanted to do. So, we went down there, got on the lake, and started cruising up. And it's basically just, I don't know, we just kind of road hunted it from a boat. It's kind of weird. Because there's all these big canyons and stuff. You just go up and we just stop, pull out, get up, go hike up to the highest point we've seen. And just start glassing as far back as you can see down all these canyons and stuff. Did you use your stabilized 16s? Yeah. Well, Haley did, primarily. Loved them. What did you think? They're no joke. Absolutely loved them. They're like the best vinyl, the best optic I bought last year. It's the best.

I mean, I don't add that much gear every year to my list. No, I rarely saw you buy anything. Yeah, I didn't buy anything.

But you can ask Josh if he's got those back or if I still have possession of them. Yes. Have you gone through a set of batteries? Because I haven't yet. No. No. I replaced them before I went to Canada just in case because I knew it was going to be cold and stuff. For the white tail hunt. Yeah. So I replaced them just in case. Geez, I forgot. We might have to end on a downer and talk about that. Yeah. So we took those. Probably the best piece of gear. I mean, I've bought some good gear that's been awesome and all that stuff, but probably. The last couple years. Yeah, the last couple years, the best piece of gear that I've ever bought. Yeah. That's the way I feel. So, and I did the 16s like you did. I think that field of view. Yes. You can still glass. But dude, I'm field judging deer at like 1,500 yards. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And where I'd normally have to get on a spotter. Yeah. Is that not?

And so it's a speed thing. Yeah. And that's what we had. So my thing is I have range finding vinyls. I always carry, you know, some Swarro eel ranges with me. And so you have to have them when you're on these hunts because you need to know your MOA and all that kind of stuff. So I always had those. And so I just gave Haley the SIGs. And it was how many times did I say, here, let me see those. Let me see those. Yes. And then I promptly take them back. Yes. So, yeah. Jan and I did the same thing. We had them on a center console. Like for Colorado and all that kind of stuff. Oh, yeah. Just crazy how much you can. Even at something that's 500 yards. Like I remember the last day we were in Colorado, there was a buck we were trying to find that we had seen. And we drove up into this canyon where they were at. And more and more deer were kind of coming down every day. We got up in there.

And it was like even though those deer were at, what, 300 yards or something like that. Like I'm looking through 10 powers and you're like, it's that time where legal shooting light just happened. And you're like, you still have a hard time. But it was like I just grabbed it from her because I'm like I can tell right now with 16 power, even at 300 yards, like, okay, that's him or that's not him, whatever. Whereas with 10s, it'd be like, okay, let's move up a little or let it get a little light. It was just like, no, right away. Like, you do that and then you move on. Yeah, just a reminder, we do have the 14, 16, and 18 by 50 Zulu 6 stabilized binos in stock on our store if anybody wants them. Just thought I'd throw that out there. So, yeah, they were awesome. They were phenomenal in the boat. So, we'd just cruise along.

And we weren't usually like we're sitting there as you're driving using them. But you just stop and cruise. But long story, so we went throughout the day, got towards the end of the day, crawled up on this little knob and then got the BTX out because some of that country you're glassing. Long ways. It's 10 miles if you want. Yeah, you are. But anyway, we were up on this little knob and about three, four miles out, glassed up that ram. And he was just out on this little finger. And I could tell he was a big ram. He had a lot of, you know, big curl and looked good. So, I was just like, oh, that's a ram we got to get closer to. So, we had to scurry back down the rocks, get in the boat. The boat had actually started to float away a little bit while all that was going on. So, I had wet boots and changed my pants from trying to rescue it. Yeah. It was fun. Yeah. Because the boys were fishing.

Instead of what we told them, watch the boat. Well, the fishing was good back in this little cove. No problem. No problem. If we hear a gunshot, we'll be ready. Yeah. We had like three of those giant, I don't know what they are, those like 60-foot-long race boats or whatever. Oh, yeah. With like six engines on the back. Well, they had a race down there at that point in time. Yeah. Remember, there was loads of those kind of boats. Yeah. And it could have been something like that. I mean, they came flying by, three of them going 60 miles an hour. And like the wake started hitting. So, it moved the boat out. And so, yeah, Haley, I was kind of like, I got to check this sheep. Go save the boat. But I was up on the knob too and ran down. Yeah, so she was running down. To the water. Saved the boat and get it back up on the beach for a minute.

And then we just got in the boat and drove up there to where he was at. But then we got up there, and this is where those binos came in handy because we got up in there. Well, he walked behind this little ledge and then bedded. But we couldn't, we didn't know that. By the time we got up there, we were just glassing, glassing, glassing. And you're sitting there, and you can't, where he was at, you couldn't glass him from shore anywhere. Or you could, but then I didn't want to risk spooking him because you're going to go in that same cove he is. So, we're just out. And there's probably, he probably could have been glassed, depending on where he was at. I don't really know. But, I mean, he could have been glassed from somebody up on top too. Oh, easily. Or whatever. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, and so there's that dynamic of, there's hunters out and about. Oh, yeah.

They give a lot of tags on this unit. Yeah. You know, I mean a lot, considering it's once in a lifetime. Yeah. Because if you were already working that ledge, you could glass it. Yes. Just from our direction, you couldn't. So, we were out there just like floating in the water, boats coming by, and you're sitting there. And we were trying to glass with our others and just naked, all four of us were sitting there doing it. And finally, I grabbed those, and I picked him up, and he was bedded. You could just see the top of his head. He was bedded right there. So, I had Judson, my 16-year-old son. So, we had Haley, we went kind of behind this cove. He was out on this peninsula. So, she went and drove around the backside, dropped us off, and then we started hiking up. And she went back around with our youngest son, Hendricks.

And they were just out on the water, just kind of glassing, floating out there, keeping us, keeping us, you know, and what's going on. And so, we snuck up there, snuck up there, snuck up there. And then there might have been a little bit of some miscommunication and stuff. More family bonding. Yeah. Yeah. These are experiences that bring families together. Yeah. So, it looks a little bit different from the water. Yes. I couldn't tell depth perception. Yes. I thought he should have seen him 40 yards in front of him. It wasn't like that. What's the problem, Josh? Yeah. You've got sheep in front of you. He's right in front of you. Look to your right. What are you doing? 40 yards to your right. Josh, pull your head out. And so, we're like sneaking, and I don't have my earpiece. So, I just have like the radio. And so, I'm sitting there trying to hold it next to my ear.

And then I hear say something about running. I'm like, running? Is he running? No, no. If he did run, he would run. I'm like, well, what's he doing? I don't care what he's going to do. I thought you were listening to everything I was telling you. Yeah. Exactly. From your perspective, it's very clear what you were trying to pass along. You're going to spook him 40 yards in front of you. He's going to run this direction. He's going to run this direction. Be ready. Yeah. But there's certain keywords you don't want to hear in the radio. Running or run is one of them. Running amok. Yeah. Is he running? Is it what? And then she's like, no, he's just sitting there feeding. I'm like, well, okay. Yeah. And so, we finally sometimes. Yeah. We just kept sneaking up. Yeah. It's just guys have to learn it, too. We just learned. And there was like a rolling.

It was kind of one of those rolling knobs and then a ledge. And he was right below that ledge. And it was that roll that kind of made it look like we were right on top of him. But we couldn't see him yet. So, anyway, we snuck right out on top of him. I kind of wish I would have taken my bow. I mean, I could have hammered him. You really? Oh, yeah. He was 42 yards or something. Come on. Right below us feeding. Oh, my gosh. And then he just. I don't know. I don't think he smelled us or saw us or anything at that point. It was weird. He just kind of turned and went back the other direction and kind of worked away from us and got to about 75 yards or something. Wanted to make it a sporting thing. Yeah. And I don't know. It was kind of hard. It was one of those. I'm like, I haven't looked at him very long. And I'm going to end my once in a lifetime. Yeah. You know, you don't know.

But I love the shape of him and his curl and stuff. He's gorgeous. He's right here. There's things you're like, oh, it could be heavier, whatever. But I like that look. You know, there's a lot of Utah sheep that just kind of come down and stop. Yes. And I like that one. I think he's probably got a little Nevada genetic in him. Yeah. So, he kind of comes around and curls. I like that. And I was just like, shoot, these guys are all here. So, anyway, I just offhanded him. Did you? Yeah. Just offhanded. Which gun did you use? I had that Mountain Reaper 6.5 PRC. Oh, yeah. Really? Yep. You didn't want to take the .300 Rome? Well, I thought about it. I thought that's, we call that Haley's favorite gun. She can talk about that later. That is your favorite gun? Oh, no. I will never touch that thing again. Really? Really? Yes. .300 Rome is no joke, huh, Paul? No, it's awesome.

It can hit him in the toe and break its back. Yes, exactly. And I don't know, I kind of got that Mountain Reaper. I can't remember where I got it. I think I was borrowing it for somebody. I love it. I don't think I bought it. I shot my white toe with it. Yeah. But I just like it. Yeah, I don't know how you acquired that. I've had that for 10 years, probably. Yeah, exactly. Of course, they've only made them for five. Yeah. I just liked it because I kind of got it for that hunt because of the folding stock and the lightweight and all that stuff. Anyway, so he got up and he stopped. And I think at that point when I stood up and I mean, I was standing there, he looked up and turned and whirled and stuff. So I hit him first shot. Are you using the Bond Strikes or the LDX? Do you remember? The Bond Strikes. Are you? The Norma Bond Strikes. Yeah.

So it hit him and he turned and he was a little more quartered than I thought he was. He turned just a little farther even as, because he like eyed us down pretty hard. And so he turned his back even farther right before I shot. So it hit him kind of three quarters, quartered away and he ran up on the rock. But then he like laid down and it was hard because I, there was a ledge and stuff right there. And so I'm like, okay, just lay down and die. Just lay right there and die. Now they want to have to shoot him again or anything like that. And all of a sudden, like his tail's flipping, he's sitting there, blood's coming out and his legs are all of a sudden he stands up like it was nothing. I'm like, what in the heck? And then he turned away from us and I was just like, I wasn't sure where I'd hit him or something or how good.

I couldn't quite tell, but I was just like, man, I have to shoot him again, but I didn't want to because I was worried he was going to take off. Cause I was like, if I hit him again, he's going to do a death run and just take off and just go off something. But it hit him again. It hit him hard enough. He just humped up and that was the same kind of thing. He was quartered away. Anyway, walked up to him. That's pretty awesome. So yeah. So, all right. So you're back watching the whole thing. How far are you guys from? Uh, I don't know how far we were. Thousand yards maybe. Okay. Yeah. A little ways. Just out floating in the lake. Yeah. Yeah. Chilling out. Yeah. My 11 year old making sure we're not hitting the walls while I'm just loving those stabilizing binos watching the whole thing. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Good. So then I tell her, this is where the story. So then I tell her.

Are we going there? We're not going there. We're going there. Let's do it, Pollock. So then I tell her, all right. The one thing you know about Pollock is when you say don't, he is going. He's going to do it anyway. So then, so I tell her just find. You guys have all weekend to make up. Yeah. True. So I tell her, just park the boat, find a sandy spot, park the boat and come up to us. But the only. Which is easy, right? Yeah. Unless there's rocks. Yeah. And everything else. Yeah. With my 11 year old helping me. She's good with boats. She drives a boat, drives a truck, pulls a trailer, all that kind of stuff. Yeah. So I fully trusted her. The part. Which is a mistake. Yeah. The part. No, that part wasn't the mistake. So then she parks the boat, but it's clear across the cove. We can see it. It looks like it's only a thousand yards from us, whatever. Same kind of thing.

But we had to kind of go clear up around. Yeah. To get there. Anyway, so we parked. It got up there. She came up. We took pictures. Just kind of enjoyed it. You know, it was pretty amazing. Like the sun was setting. There was kind of a storm going through. So it was like the pictures were unbelievable, you know. Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty cool. So it was fun. All of us there. We got all packed up and started to walk out. And that's where. Oh. Lake Pal. I love the look on your face. Oh, this is hilarious. Like you just told Josh with the look on your face, you were done. And now I'm going to tell you my version. So let me just say this. Lake Pal in the dark. Terrible. All right. Yes. You don't know what. You don't know. And the new water levels. You have no idea. Yeah. You have no idea. Yeah. What's lake? What's brush? And of course. Sun setting. Yeah. Yeah. It's dark.

And Josh decided it would be easier to stay high and drop down on the boat rather than come the way Hendrix and I had come. Okay. So no, none of it looks familiar because I did not hike up this way. Oh, I see where this is headed. Right? So you misjudged. This is. And nobody's using. You're not using on X. Do you use on X? Okay. So that is exactly lesson learned. I know better. Yeah. She has it. I know I should have. Marked the boat. Marked the boat. And I should have tracked. Yes. I know how to do that. Yeah. Yeah. I have my own on X. That's awesome. That's the way Jana is. Jana is. Yes. Yes. Lesson learned. I was too excited. Okay. Making sure my. Enjoying the moment with your husband. My boys coming with me. That's right. How quick can we get up there? Yes. Sun setting. We need good photos. All of the things that are going through your mind.

Needless to say, we should have been back at the boat setting up for the night because obviously we're camping there. Right? It's dark. Did you have camp gear? We did. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Because we were the same kind of thing. We were just in the boat. We were just going to stay wherever we ended up. Okay. Yeah. So needless to say, we should have been back eating our backpacking meals by what? 730? Enjoying it. Enjoying it. Beautiful weather. Yeah. Instead, we ended up, I don't know how many extra miles and we finally found the boat about midnight. What? I love this story. We left the sheep. Because I did not recognize those rocks and we did not come over or we did not cross that because that's water. No. It was dirt. Yeah. And then it's 10 p.m. 11 p.m. He is trying to reasonably show me what the map looks like and where his perception of where the boat is. I love this.

No, he really was. He was very good about it. He was, but you're ticked too. But the rocks didn't look familiar. Everybody's ticked. Yeah. And they're hungry. We didn't go this way. Yeah. Yeah. Are you loaded with sheep at this point? Oh, my goodness. You took your photos. You're loaded. We have everything. Everybody had stuff. And then, so I'm showing her, we're literally using like kill photos. Well, your point is this is 1,000 yards. Yes. Okay. Not a mile. No. And we could see it before. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. How hard can this be? So we did look at pictures. We were like comparing pictures and I was showing her on pictures. I'm like, we've got, we kept. To the horizon. To the starlight. We would get to this canyon and she'd say, we didn't come this way. I was like, we have to cross this thing. Because it looked like water. I did not cross water. It was not water. Oh.

So there's a miscommunication of, well, I thought that was water. And Josh is like, why wouldn't you ask me? I knew it wasn't water. He should have had a brighter light so I could tell it was water and not dark. Good point, Josh. Where was the bright light, Josh? Well, after copious amount of hours, lights start to dim. And so we had cell phones dying. We had headlamps dying. Oh, you're ticked. We're about to die. You're all a frustrated family at this moment. Yeah. I love this story, though. It's going to live for us. The boys literally thought we were dying. There may have been some tears from the younger one. Wow. At one point, me and Judson just sat down because we knew what we needed to do. She felt like she did. And so at one point, me and Judson just sat on the rocks. Said a prayer. No. No, that was the 11-year-old. That was the 11-year-old.

So you're not allowed to just say a prayer. Yeah. He's like, should we just say a prayer? And I said, buddy, it's Sunday. We've already broke the Sabbath. Jesus isn't helping us. We're on our own. You said that? Yes. Oh, my God. You know, Josh, he loves you even if you sit. I know. But I said, we've already, that ship sailed. So we're on our own here. No pun intended. That pun sailed. Yeah. So he sat down with Judson and proceeded to let Hendricks and I walk our several miles to prove to myself. Oh, my God. I said, oh. This is the worst story I've ever. I said, Judson, they'll be back. So we sat there and drank some water. We came back. Go ahead and walk. Yeah. Because she said, it had to be this way. And I said, I am not walking back there for this third time at this point. Oh. So he taught you a lesson. I followed the water all the way back and back.

You are so mad at this point. Because I said, we just need to call. Because A, you're just mad at the whole situation. And frustrated. Not even mad. Frustrated. But then also, Josh was right. Yeah. But we should have just gone the way that I had gone up. I had never walked it before and I was right. Oh, you had to. And so I took over. At that point, I took over and walked us right to the boat. You did? Yeah. Found their tracks. Followed the tracks. I showed her. Because she's like, this is not the way. I said, this is a size six boot right here. Do you see this? Put your phone in there. And the size three, yeah. Matches your boot print. Once I realized it wasn't water and we walked down there, I knew you were right. Yes. I admitted it. And that just makes it even worse. Yeah. I admitted it. I will admit it. Oh, it's good stuff. So yeah, we got back to the boat.

We had to set up tent, set up everything. I'm so glad. You could write this in a story and it's not portrayed like on a podcast. No. I love that we got to air this out. So yeah, it was like. Is there any other details? Me too. Thank you.

Josh, the one that went there. Is there any other details you would like? As she's telling the story, her lips get really thin.

It's so funny.

It's true though. Wow. I love it. Loki Bear. You guys are a way stronger and more patient family than we are because we would not have killed each other. We would not have survived that. We all would have been going different directions. Yeah. Somebody would have flagged down a different boat to take him home. It would have been. Call it a day. Yeah. You guys stuck together. I'm impressed. We would have survived. That is one thing with Josh though. He is very patient. Yeah. If you've ever hunted with him, if you've ever, he will take the time to make sure we're all good. We're good. We're good. Did you eat some sheep meat that night? No. No. We were all so freaking tired. Because like I said, all these miles, we had that stupid sheep on our back. Was there multiple miles? Literally. Multiple miles. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I still had wet boots, so it was great. Oh, yeah.

We did several miles. The boat never looked so good though. Really. True. In a thousand yards, we did several miles. That's awesome. Hours. Up and down. Up and down. There was no sheep there for the rest of the year. Yeah, exactly. Awesome. Oh, yeah. Okay. Anyway. All right. So then, that sealed that story up. That was basically the first big hunt of the year. Yep. Yep. Right? All the while, you'd been scouting for elk. Colorado, we just do on the fly. Yeah. Right? Least amount of effort, biggest buck. Yes. Right? Yep. True. So then we move into elk. Are we ready to go there? Yeah. Yeah. All right. I think so. Lead out. One of you. It's her story. Oh, you get to paint it however you want. Oh, I don't know.

I guess I'll start. We did. We went and hiked a lot in the summer, set up trail cameras, found a lot of bulls. That's always fun. I think you're trying to more or less, Josh, just explain this a little bit. It's not like in Nevada or some of these other places, desert of Utah. We're going to hunt the deer week camera, right? Yeah. You're setting up cameras to be like, what kind of year have I got? Yeah. Like, it would be nice if you find a specific bull, but what's the chance he lives to the mid rifle? Yeah. Right? Yeah. And who knows where he's going to be from where he got it. And you just love it anyway. Even if you didn't have the tag, you'd be doing it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because you love it. We just did it a little bit harder, you know, put out a few more. Because I like to just track them and see what they do year to year, whatever.

I'll always have a few cameras out for elk just because. But, yeah, so we did that a bunch, and that was always fun. Had a bunch of bulls we knew about and stuff. But then it's kind of like once the – I mean, we had a whole month of archery hunters, rifle hunters, muzzleloader hunters before us. So it was like we just got to wait around and see what happens. You're watching this bull topple, you know, the big seven topple, cheesecake topple, you know, or whatever, right? You're watching some of these bulls get killed. Yep. So we're just kind of waiting around to see what's still left there with us. And then at the same time, too, we also wanted to go try and scout hard. But at the same – that hunt occurs during our general season spike hunt. So you can go scout all you want and find a bull. But then you have spike hunters really doing their due diligence messing with you. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Right. And they're going to be right there on the same elk as you are opening morning. And their tag's just as important as yours. Yeah. So it's hard. It's more or less we were kind of scouting and slash hunted areas that we've known in the past that knowing what elk would do more so when they start getting shot at or any of that kind of stuff. Where have I seen them before? Their behaviors. You're racking your brain. Where have I seen them in October before? Yeah. So we didn't have a particular bull found that morning. So anyway. No, we didn't. The morning it opened. Is that what you're talking about? Yep. For opening morning. The morning morning. Yeah. And so were you nervous? Like, obviously. So I know the way Jana feels. It's just like you want. You don't want to be holding up the crew. You don't. You want to be able to shoot straight. You don't want to get buck fever.

Oh, absolutely. All of these things are going through your mind. That's always my worry is I want to get into something. I want to get excited. I want to have a chance, right? Yeah. To shoot. Shoot at a bull. But my biggest fear is what if all that lines up? Just like we've always imagined, you know, hunting some of these places. What if the elk really do this? It's going to put us in the perfect situation. You don't want to have an energy spent to get to this moment. Yes, exactly. What if it really does all play out and I don't make the shot? Yes. You know, so it is a lot of pressure. And we had done, you know, a lot of scouting and a lot of cameras and a lot of time just looking at pictures so Josh knew kind of what I wanted, what I was okay with. And so that I knew too what my expectation was. Expectation. Managing expectations. Right. Right.

So I think with this hunt, that first week I went through every emotion from excitement to just. Give this tag back. Yeah. I'm done hunting. Yeah. That did go through my mind. We're going to call it a day for a minute. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I need a couple of days because I don't know if I can continue to do this. It's just too much emotion, too stressful. Yeah. Yeah. These, these special tags can do that. Yeah. This is the Utah elk tag. This is your one shot for the next 20 years. Right. Kind of a thing. So what's this look like? Oh wow. It kind of sucks for a minute. Yeah. You know what I mean? It should, should have taken 20 something years to draw that tag and she drew it in seven. Lucked out. Yeah. Totally lucked out. So, so, all right. So you're right in the middle of the hunt. Have you seen big bulls? Have you come across any big bulls?

What was the temperature of the, of each day that's going by? Well, we did run across like that one situation. The one big bull that we had, we had seen. We knew he was there in that area. And there again, you know, put in all that effort. We know the behavior of the elk. When they get spooked, they're going to go this direction. And so we had made a. This is a giant. Let's just call it what it is. Yeah. It is. It is. It's the giant that everyone wanted. Wanted. Yep. It is the perfect six point. Giant bull. The perfect six point. And so Josh and my brother was with us and we had made a perfect plan for the evening. And it was one of those that if the elk really do what we think they're going to do, it's going to put us in a perfect situation. Yeah. And so when I saw that bull coming into range where there was a possibility. Yeah. And not seeing anyone else, no other spike hunters.

It's like this is going to play out. Yes. And then I get more and more nervous. Right. But luckily we had some time to calm down and everything and had kind of made a plan to go get a little closer to where we could could see and and make a good shot. And we kind of had some things come up that kind of ended up having a dude come out of the woodwork running, running off the hill. Running off the hill. Yes. Running at you. Right. Yeah. And so Josh, your emotions are you're you're you're you're ready to just shoot somebody. Of course, you would never. I'm just saying you're mad. Like you're like, really, this was my shot. Right. Yeah. I was supposed to be calming down. We're supposed to be just walking over the edge and make a temperature. Right. Right. We had kind of talked through everything, how far he is away. Just and it was not going to go that way. Yeah.

And Josh, what's going through your mind is here. I've got my wife. I'm trying to make this this most amazing experience. And it all is is all but there. Oh, yeah. All but there. Seconds away from killing. And it's like we're here in five minutes. We're going to be sitting behind what guys have said. One of the biggest six points in the state. 400 inches to six point. Yeah. Potentially. That's like the dream six point. Yeah, exactly. OK. And so we thought that's what's going to happen. So it was just like this can't be happening. But I was just trying to stay calm. Like, this is going to happen. You know, and I was trying to stay calm for her. I don't I never did tell her that that bowl was that big. I just was like, he's he's a really nice. Yes. He kept saying, do you want to look some more? And I said, no, I've looked like I know myself. Yeah. Do not let me look again. Yeah.

I've got ice in my veins right now. Let's just get this. I just need to calm. Yeah. So, yeah. And I don't know how much of the story we can say or not or whatever. But essentially, this dude comes running off the hill and he's like making. He thinks you're a spy hunter. Yeah. Yes. He thinks we're spy hunters. And he's like motioning kind of to where the elk is at. And I'm like, yeah, thumbs up. I don't know. I don't know what to tell you. And I was just like, this can't be happening. I don't know what to do. And then he kept coming closer and closer and closer. Got to about 75 yards. And he he like made a motion. He hit himself on the chest and then like gives the big bull, big buck, universal. Put your arms in the air kind of sign. And I'm like. And so I finally just said, what? Yes. We're going to kill him and give you the liver. Yeah. I'm like, what? What do you want from us?

And he says, he says, I have a big bull tag. And immediately I was like, you gotta be kidding me. I said, I do too. I do. So Haley says, well, I do too. And I said the same thing. I said, so does she. And he's like, you kidding me? I've been sitting here for three days waiting for this bull to come off. And it's like this whispered yell kind of thing. To just get into a position where he can kill him. You guys are doing the same thing. And at that point. I didn't know he was there. My first thought was, let's just go. Like, I don't even want to deal with this. You know? But then you're like, I don't know. It's public land. Like, we did all this. Whatever. Like, who knows how this is going to play out. Whatever. So I told Haley and her brother. I said, get down there and find the bull. And I knew where he was at. Because he just, like, stopped and sat down. And I just reached up to him.

And I just said, I don't know, man. Good luck. I don't know. What do we say? Like, I don't know what to do. It's a tough situation. Yeah. And so we've been sitting there forever. And anyway. So yeah, I just sent them. I was messing with this guy. So they were going down and getting ready. Because I knew where he sat down, he wouldn't be able to see the elk. So I knew we needed to get lower to be able to see the bull. But I'll mind you. It took me a minute to find him. Because the one time I looked at him, I didn't want the binos back. I didn't want to look at him again and get myself all sied up. You're giving away your six right now. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Because I know what's going to happen. And so it took us some time. It wasn't until Josh finished his interaction with this guy. And came down. And we found the bull. Cool.

So then where are we at?

Cool. Hey, Logan, do you got some popcorn? I'll throw some in. He's in the bottom at like 200 yards at the bottom of this little canyon where there's some wallows and like a little stream and stuff. And he's just kind of pushing some cows around. But it's like the only, like about the worst spot he could have been. It's like one of the, there's like two green patches of trees. For you and him. Or just in general. For us to get him killed. He's in perfect for him. Because everywhere he's surrounded by completely burnt everything except there was like four green trees where he was at. So I had a line of sight and I knew he was behind this tree. And Josh kept saying he's going to come out on the left. And once I get, you know, have a second, I sit down, get my gun up. And I'm like, okay, waiting for him to come out the left. Well, he'd come out the bottom.

And I quickly adjusted and took a quick shot. Okay. And no, I shot over him. Shot over him. Shot over him. But also you rattled. I am so rattled. It was terrible. It was the worst thing. Because at any split second, you're just, I'm waiting for that dude's rifle to go off any second. Absolutely. So we're trying to race him. And that whole interaction of him running off the hill and just. So even then, where that bull was doing what he was doing, had that guy not been there, like we would have got a shot. Because we would have just waited. There was like four cows. And you'd had an ice in your veins again. I would have waited him for. Yep. Yeah. So. So you got a quick shot then. Kind of. Yeah. All heck breaks loose first. So we were hunting really close to some private. Yeah. A few hundred yards off. And when he, so the bull got behind these trees. And I, I was like, oh, that's it.

Because I knew the next opening that he comes out of is the property boundary. Yeah. Which I was ready and saw him. And you're respectful of. And knew the landmark. Yeah. And you're respectful of it. It's like, these just, that's a no-go zone. Yeah. So he comes walking out, stops, broadside, 200 yards, bugling. So I just watch him in my scope for a bit. You're just watching him. Put my gun up. Take care of it. I'm not going to shoot. Yeah. You're over. At this point, you do have ice in your veins. You're calm. Yeah. She put her gun to the side. And we were just like, well, I guess we'll just see what happens for a minute. We'll watch him up. We've got an hour until dark or whatever. We just kind of, maybe hoping he'd come back out. But he crossed and kept going and went a distance onto the private property. And waka!

Usually you like that sound. Yeah. Finally, what we've been waiting for for the past, you know, 30 minutes, whatever, happened. And that dude hammered him. He hammered him. Yeah. He bow ran like 20 yards and tipped over. I don't know. All right. Anyway. So now we've got to, you guys, we're going back home and you're going to regroup. Yep. No, I've decided I'm done hunting. What? At this point, you're done. Oh, I was heaving, hiking out. I was going to throw up. You're over it. I was sick. Sick about it. So. Yeah, I was back. Josh is calm. This is the low of the lows. Okay. And which happens to everybody. Absolutely. Okay. It was a rough few days. Yeah. Was it? Yeah. It took a few days off? Yeah. Just, yeah. Well, we went out. We didn't. We were still hunting, but we were going out. You're just burning gas. We were out looking around. In the side by side that's fixed now. Yes. Yeah.

What was it, by the way? It was the starter went out. Okay. Like a starter solenoid. Do you think if you'd have whacked it with a hammer? Oh, we tried. I mean, we tried everything. You did everything. Yeah. Sometimes you wish they had pull starts. Oh, and that's just it. And I mean, we even tried to. There's not a clutch on it, but we tried to have my brother pull it. I mean, I'm like, we may break a belt transmission. What do we do? Try and pop it into gear, you know, kind of thing. All right. So anyway. Yeah. Low of the lows. Regrouping. Okay. So then. Yep. Haven't seen a good bull since, right? No. No. You went a few days, but didn't see a good bull. No. No, we didn't. We did some crazy hikes, some crazy weather, wind. I mean, we, we were trying to, it wasn't like we were just rolling around. We went. Oh yeah. We did quite a bit of hiking.

And then we kind of started doing some weird stuff because that's the thing. Well, after a couple of days, they'll, they'll get into some weird spots. Yeah. They'll get into some weird spots. We were just trying to hike into some weird spots and just not run into much. And then the good thing about that hunt is you actually have friends. Yeah. And buddies that are out and stuff. We were wanting to go hike into them because we'd seen some bulls and heard, well, heard some bulls more or less than seen them. Cause like you said, sometimes that burnt timber now, it's so hard to glass into. We could hear these bulls in this bottom, but we didn't know where they were. So we, we thought we were going to hike down there. It was this trail. Like we got to hike into that country and look, I told her, I said, I don't think anybody else is going to be in there.

We got to go in there, but I have a buddy that hunts over in that stuff for deer. So now you've got big bull hunters, general elk hunters, and then the deer hunt started. It's time to phone a friend. Yeah. So the deer hunt also started. So you got general deer hunters, general spike hunters and big bull hunters. So there's lots of guys out. So I called up one of my buddies like, Hey, are you guys going to be hunting in here? Kind of a little bit. I respect you. Cause I didn't want to go mess them up if they had a big deer found or something too. But he's like, Oh no, don't. Cause I said, we're going to go hike in there. He's like, no, don't come in here. He's like, we're in here. Like I'll call you. His points. Don't waste your time. Yeah. I'll tell you what's in there. Yeah. So he, so go work some other country.

That's what we were going to do is we were going to stay up high and work the higher stuff. And he was like, Oh, I'll call you if something's in there. And so we got up that morning, it was raining. So we just got in that we were going to go hike up the trail, but we don't want to go hike in the morning in the rain as hard as it was. So we, we actually just got in. We're starting to go cover some country to check on some other stuff. And then he sent us a video. Phil sent us a video. Phil's an awesome guy. Oh, he's a really good human. You know what I mean? Definitely. Yeah. So he sent us a video and he's like, and it's like anything else. I don't know if you're interested, but he's kind of a big bull. Yeah. Well, that's what it was like. He was, he was really playing it down and he's, cause he texted me at first and he's like, Hey, I got a good bull.

I don't know how big he is, but I think you guys might be interested in my video picture or something. And I got a video and I looked at the video and showed Haley. I was quite excited. Yeah. I saw that left side and just the sheer mass and like, well, how far away is he? Can we get there? Yeah. Which we could, we made a good, it was still a pretty aggressive. Oh yeah. We had to drive 15 miles. I mean, I drove that thing as hard as I could. It smelled like when we got out. No, we were in, we got like this, a vehicle. Not the Bronco. No. Oh no, no, no. This is the cabin vehicle. The cabin truck. The one that stays there you around. It just stays over there. I love it. We were in that. And so we, I drove that thing. When we stopped, cause we had to go clear around to the bottom of the mountain, drive up and then park the trailhead and hike. So. Is this beating, beating dark?

You're trying to beat dark? No, this was the morning. Morning. So we had all day. Okay. But, but he, he's like, Hey, he's just here with some gals, whatever. But you know how that is. He's not just going to. Well, you don't want to hear another gunshot from somebody else. Yes. Right? And so there's this little time is of the essence. We need to get there as fast as we can. Yeah. So we drove as fast as we can. And then we started hiking and I didn't realize we hiked as far as we did. It was steep. It was far. It was far. But we did it. And we were hiking fast. We did it pretty fast. Got up there and got up this ridge and met with, with Phil and Denton, his brother-in-law. They were up there watching him and it was funny because the whole time they're just like, just stay calm. He's just bedded. You know? Yeah. We're chilling. We were good. You guys need to chill. Quit breathing, Sadeem.

Yeah. Until we get up on him and then it's, oh, well, his cows have all moved off and he's just getting up. I'm like, well, of course. Yeah. Yeah. Here we go. Yeah. And the cows move. Again, the cows were up and moving. We need you to be ice, but no. The cows were moving into the green trees for the day. The sun had finally, because it had rained that morning for a little bit and then the sun came out and he was just laying in the grass. In the wide open. Yeah. And so it's getting warm. They're going to need to go. At some point he's like, all right, and I'm going to go with them. Yeah. And you know, you can see you have five minutes. It's happening. Seven minutes. Yeah. So we were like. How soon between when you rolled in, hiked in. Yeah. Breathing hard, meet up. How soon is it that, no, we're making this happen right now? Like right away? Minutes. Yeah.

So it was good you worked that truck. It was a few minutes to hike off a little closer. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think we were there longer than five minutes. So literally it was good you worked. Yes. If we didn't go as fast as we did. And then he makes it in the trees and then you're waiting for him to come out or you're hunting him the next morning or whatever. Yes. And we didn't have rain gear to stay all day. Yeah. And it was like that hurricane we were supposed to be having was supposed to be coming in. So we knew that was supposed to be coming that afternoon. So it was like, we got to make it happen this morning. We hurried and got up in there and, uh, and then we were at like five 50 and if we could move down the ridge that we could actually get closer to him as move down the ridge. So he's like, well, let's just move down the ridge as far as we could.

And we moved maybe 50 yards and I heard him bugle. I was like, oh, that's not good. And I looked down. He's up. I looked down and he's standing. Anyway. Okay. And so he's like, hurry up and make a great shot. Pretty much. He, he said, do you want to try a shot from here? He's 500 yards. Yeah. And I'm looking or I sit down and I'm looking down. I'm like, okay. Yeah. I, I can see him, but I cannot do a dead rest on this really steep hill. Yeah. It was steep. Really, really steep. He was cleared out. It's really difficult. Yeah. So I put my, my elbow up and my tripod out as far as it'll go. The bipod. Bipod. Um, out as far as it'll go. And the only thing I can find to rest, rest it on is my foot. Oh my God. A good stall. A good solid. So this is a great dead rest, right? Yeah. Yeah. So you took a shot? I did. Okay. How'd that go? Um, the second shot was better.

The first shot, we had like MOA dialed. So she, I don't know. She, she bought her new rifle. She, this year she said, I drew this elk tag. I need a new rifle and demand. Wow. And if she buys gear, you can buy gear. Yeah. So she demanded pretty heavily that she needed a fair 7 PRC mountain reaper. Wow. Which I absolutely love, by the way. Yeah. Absolutely love. And actually, I think you got it to where it was fit for you, right? It's a little bit shorter on the stock. Yep. She has a short make. Apparently I need a, a youth stock or even. How tall are you? Less than that. 5'2". Yeah. Exactly. So they, they cut it down. It's awesome. Like, and it's an amazing ride. It is so customized for me. It's awesome. You have a suppressor on it. And I love it. Okay. Yeah. So the, but the first shot, it was pretty windy down in that can. It was weird.

Up where we were at, there was nothing, but the trees in that bottom. You can see. Whipping. And so I gave her the MOA and stuff and kind of got ready off the bat. But then I, we didn't, we didn't have time or we didn't communicate wind hold. Oh. I did not account for that. Yeah. So the first shot she took pretty quick and we had her dialed. But you also don't know where to hold it. You know. 500 yards complete downhill. Yeah. Yeah. And it's calm where you are and it's howling down there. So we didn't, we didn't have her hold for that. And she shot and sailed it just, I think over the top of him, maybe just over the top and to the left. Cause he was stopped looking back. I see. And that held him for a minute and I was like, oh crap, we got to hold for wind. So then I told her to hold for. Front of his front shoulder, whatever it is. Yep. Yep.

And then, and you were a little bit, were you more of a dead rest? Oh no. Nope. Stayed right where I was at. And I didn't know anything. I was like in binos. I had no idea what she was doing. I just. I didn't know how to make the situation better. So I'm, I'm doing it. Such a difficult situation. Dad wants to make it happen. Mom is frustrated. I mean, it's just a, it's a tense. We're just here. It's happening. Yeah. Yeah. And she's got a guy, Phil's buddy's like a rifle builder too. Shoots long range all the time. Like, so she had told me that was a pressure. Yeah. Yeah. Your buddies are watching. They're filming it. No pressure. 500 yard shot. It's great. Yeah. That one didn't work. Try it again. Let's try it again. Well, I did. Second shot was, was better. Yep. Hit him. Yep. Smacked him. Walked him in there a little bit. But just got him to where he's packing his leg.

He was still moving. Yeah. So. Yeah. It hit him, it hit him low. Like it hit him low enough that it went through his front leg and into his chest cavity. Yeah. But. Thankfully you're using bond strikes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's holding together like an acupunct. Yes. Yep. So he was like packing it, walked up a little farther anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Walked up, had to take a third shot and he was quartered away at that point. Made a shot, but he was still moving. Elk or tough. At that point I realized. We weren't sure that one had hit or not. Yeah. Yeah. We weren't sure until after and watching the video. But. So I'm trying to get ready to take another shot, of course. Right. And then of course I realize I'm out of bullets. Oh. We didn't. Because we didn't. Usually we'll put like one in the chamber and then three in the Mac. Yes. So we had three in the Mac.

I just had the three in the Mac. And we just had three in the Mac. Well, that's the problem. My pack's a little higher up the hill, right? Wow. He has no idea where they're at. Oh. They're in the side pocket of my pack. What? Another Pollock moment. I love these. And so like, you're like, where are they? You're like, they're at my pack. They're at my pack. Not a big deal though. Because. No. Because I have a deer tag. I have a spike elk tag. I was able to have a gun. So what does he hand me? The 300 rum. I was wondering. I was wondering when this came in. I've got four bullets with me. It's not a big deal. Which is your favorite gun of all time. Yes. I don't need to. Yes. That elk's not doesn't. Well, she's going to hit the dirt and it's going to drop. I mean, this is the gun you used on your bull. Yeah. Right. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's a no joke gun. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And.

Does he tell me what to prepare for? No, he doesn't. Because right now it's like. Just pull the trigger. And end that. In this saga. Which is fine. Usually you have enough adrenaline in that moment. Yeah. That you don't really. But when you're five foot two. You don't. When you're five foot two. That gun's going to rock you. Yeah. Yeah. So. So. The elk isn't down. So he hands me the gun. Whatever. I get back on him. And. And he's kind of up. I get ready. I take the shot. At that moment. He falls back. Right. Falls down. So. He was dying. We just didn't realize he was dying. Yes. You know. He didn't make good shots. Yes. She had smacked him twice. He was dying. We didn't realize that. Exactly. But he was still on his feet. And. We weren't going to leave him on his feet. Yes. Exactly. That's what you do. So. So I take a shot. With the 300 rum. As the. The dust goes all over all of us. And.

I'm like. You can have this back. So you went from a suppressed. You went from a suppressed. 7 PRC. Mountain Reaper. Yeah. 7 PRC. To a 300 rum not suppressed. I don't ever want to see that thing again.

So I hand the gun back. Yeah. And. And at that point. It's. Okay. He's. He's done. We've done this. Ears are ringing. But we're going to hug. Yeah. Phil was above us. And he's like. Whoa. He's like. You should have seen the smoke cloud. You guys were in. Like. They weren't. They weren't ready for it either. Because it was kind of. Well. Well. They were looking at us. Because. They're like. Shoot him again. Shoot him again. You can hear that in the video. Later on. And. And so they were looking at us. And so they saw the dust cloud. Going everywhere. Yeah. It's pretty awesome. There's the photos. Logan. Yep. Threw them up on the screen. Just awesome. Yep. Wow. And heavy. Big in line. Just awesome bull. Yep. Awesome bull. So. An awesome ending. Right. Like. So there's a huge relief. Right. I can see. Oh yeah. The Pollock relief. Oh yeah. We dealt with. Gomer Pyle. Now we're. Now here we go.

We've got it. We've got an amazing bull. Walking up on him was. Was amazing. And then you look at. Where he's at. And you realize. I shot him in. The absolute worst hole. In the world. Timber. On the ground. Yes. Can I even get my leg over that? You can't even get horses in there. I don't even know if I can pack him out. No. You couldn't. Oh. So there you are. There we were. Doing the. Doing the. Doing the pack out. Yep. The worst pack out. Was it? Of even his life. Yeah. Was it? The worst pack out I've ever had. Was it? For sure. Yep. Worse than the Vias Caldera? Yeah. Oh yeah. Yes. Oh yeah. Not. Not distance wise. Because that had down timber too. I think. Yeah. But. Not. Not like this. Not like this. Yeah. Not like. Because this was like in the bottom of this canyon. Where it's just like these high winds. So all the trees. Even from the side of the mountain. Like everything.

Was in that bottom. It was just unbelievable. Wow. Trying to get out of that bottom. So yeah. Distance wise it wasn't bad. But then we. Long story short. We got up to this top. Where there was this saddle. And I was like. If we can get the saddle. We can leave some meat there. That kind of thing. When we hit the saddle. That hurricane had moved in. It's nice and sunny. Again. Yeah. No ringer. No ringer. And it started coming in hard. And I don't know. We were just trying to push to get to there. And then we got there. And then lightning started just. I was like. We can't sit here either. It's not safe to stop. We've got to keep going. We've got to go. So we started going downhill. And I told her. It's going to be great. It's all downhill. And it was just. It was too steep. And muddy. And too much weight on our backs. It was brutal. So then what? We just kept going. I mean.

One foot at a time. Ruined your feet. It was. It was encouraging to hear. You know. Us have to encourage each other. One more step. We can do this. A little bit further. Really. We had to just keep talking to each other. All right. We got it. We got it. Yep. And we eventually got all the way out. So then. You got all the way out. But then. Did you have to go back and get more loads? No. So that was the thing we were going to try and do. So Phil and his buddy. That was the best thing. They helped you. We boned everything right there. We didn't even quarter it. Like we boned everything. Thank goodness they were there. So they took a bunch. You owe them your first born. Oh yeah. You ready, Said? Yeah. That's what they meant. So we. Yeah. We. We. We got out of there with their help and that. And they took off early and went out. And then we were the last two kind of coming out. Yeah.

They're going to go hunting. And do their thing. So yeah. They were pretty amazing. I mean. Because they didn't have to do that. I even felt bad that they had done at that point. That they even had to hike down in there. They had done much more than I ever. That's just awesome though. Those are memories you just never forget. You know. Yeah. That's special. That's pretty awesome. Makes you do things like with family. Even all of the sheep story and all that makes you do things that. That's what I like about hunting is you wouldn't do those things. Yes. You can go out on the lake. Or yes. You can go for a hike. Or you can go watch the sunrise somewhere as a family. But hunting and special tags make you do cool things. Yeah. You know what I mean? Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean. Pretty unforgettable. Yeah. All right. So then we. Let's blow through the general deer. We're good with that. Right.

Nothing to talk about. Nothing. Nothing to talk about. No. One and a half to two and a half. Yeah. And then we move into Colorado. So this is. Yes. Yeah. Sorry. This is where my heart's at. This is lengthy. I apologize. This is a lengthy podcast. It's good. I like. We're actually doing just fine. Oh. Okay. We're doing just fine. We're sitting at just over. Just over an hour. An hour and six. Okay. Yeah. We're good. So we're looking at a freaking giant. I don't know how big that thing is. 2. 2. 2.

Let's be in the middle of 2. 24 and some change. I guarantee people will call a lot bigger. A hundred percent. Anyway. Just awesome. Big old flyers. Pretty cool deer. This is kind of why you go to Colorado. You just don't know. It does. It's just one of those things. You got to be there. And you. And you get to hunt the rut. And the rifle. Or somewhat in the rut. Somewhat. That country. I guess they're rutting a little bit. But usually they run a little bit later. Yeah. Yeah. Down south. And that stuff I've found. Being down there before. They run a little later. Later. Yeah. Yeah. But anyway. So set that up for us. What was that? It's a whole family event. Yeah. Sadie's my. And that's what. You know. That was kind of cool about this. This year. About all these hunts. Is there's been like a family dynamic to all of it. So. We all got to share. And. Yeah. Parts of these hunts.

Or all together. Whatever. Makes it just that much more cooler. So. But. Sadie turns 18. Or turned 18. She's going to turn 18. Right. During this hunt. And so. I wanted to. You know. Kids in Colorado. If you're not applying. Your kids in Colorado. Just start doing it. Yes. And. And take them at least once. Before they turn 18. Because. They can. They can draw a tag. You can go over there. Have a great experience. And just hunt. And it's cheap. Yeah. It's cheap. And great for kids. Doesn't. Isn't usually 218. Just. No. Being out there. And having a chance at bucks. At mature bucks. Yes. At a four point buck. Now this is. Now this was amazing. Yes. Yes. But. But to go over there. I feel like most places over there. We could go over and find a four point buck for these guys. Yeah. And. Other than the first time. Can't do that here. The first year we went over there. I mean. But. But we.

Yeah. The first. Okay. So. Well you know me and the meat wagon story. Oh yeah. You know. It happens to us. We had the pre-meat wagon. Dad. Dad. Don't we have. We have the best interest of our family at heart. And then we go over there. And yeah. We come back with the empty meat wagon. Oh yeah. Yeah. It was bad. Things happen. But those are memories too. Yeah. Oh yeah. These guys remember that hunt. Yes. Like that. I mean. Nine days in a wall tent. A white tail. Yeah. A white tail that we could have killed. Because dad's a moron. We didn't know. We could. We had a white tail in the middle of Colorado. We asked but our guy didn't know. Yeah. Our guy didn't know. Jeez. She's running to them. Yeah. We might have. We might have pricked a little something from the early part of this podcast. We're good. All right. But yeah.

So I just really focused and tried to get her a tag before she turned 18. Because now I'm thinking. Okay. Now we're going from 100 bucks. So we're going to be pushing 500 bucks. Yeah. And do this again or whatever. So I really wanted her to draw a tag before she turned 18. Cheap points.

I mean it's no kidding like 12 bucks to apply and get them a license. Yeah. It's insane. Even if you're just getting a point. Like you can't do it for any cheaper. That's right. So that was awesome. So that was kind of the goal. And I just kind of picked a unit down there. We hunted near it before. Looked at it before. Whatever. I was like oh that looks like it's probably a good opportunity to go down there. I mean we're talking she had three points. Easy draw. She could have. It was like 50% with two for second season. So this is second season we were down there. This is the second. That's another thing that blows my mind. It just so happens you guys did that on a year that second actually produced pretty well. Yeah. Across the state. In other places too. Yeah. You know what I mean. And that only happens like once every 10 years. You know what I mean. Boom.

You're the lucky charm of the ship. Yeah. You know. So and I've. You know second's getting earlier. It kind of sucks a little bit. It's getting earlier and earlier. It cut into the second weekend of our general here. So we had to give up some deer hunting here to go do it. And but I do feel like we've gone down there second season for a lot of years. And we've always had better second seasons. See you have. Yes. I have. And I don't think. Kind of the first rifle on the unit. And I think that's what some of it is. You're kind of the first guy in there. Everybody wants to be waiting for the rut and kind of the last thing. But I've had good luck being the first guy in there with a rifle. So it's probably all just luck. But that's how it's been. So anyway we went down there. Did that part. But she drew the tag. And then because of because of the turn back system and stuff.

I was actually able to get my son Judson. Yeah. Weren't you in on this? Like you were the mom at home on the computer at times. Like right. Well all of you guys. It was a family. My first turn back tag. I did it myself. First time logging in. Like holy crap. He had told me what to do. And I'm like oh this screen looks different. I'm supposed to watch for the screen to change. Wow. It's pretty cool. So yeah. It's Wednesdays. It's sometimes a family affair. Yes it is. We were able to get Judson a tag and Haley a tag. Both. Same unit. Second season off turn back stuff. And so yeah. We had several tags. Went down there. Sadie had to go to state volleyball to cheer. So Haley and I were like. Well Judson's more like we're not waiting for her. We're going down. We're going down early. Because then it becomes his hunt. Not her birthday. Of course.

So we missed her 18th birthday to take Judson hunting in Colorado. Jeez. How does it make you feel? It's all right. I killed the bigger buck anyway. Oh.

Yes you did. Yes you did. He's going to go a long time to beat that one. Yep. Maybe never. I don't know. That's a big deer. Yeah. We went down there. Hunted for a couple days. Kind of just needed to get around. Looking around for some things. He killed a great buck. A young buck. He had a couple little cheaters. And he told us on the way down. We stopped at Cabell's to get him an elk tag. And he was looking. They have like in the Grand Junction. They've got like the world record typical and non-typical mounted. Like in the background of the customer service desk. And he's just like. I'm going to kill one with cheaters like that. You know. And anyway. This buck came out the one night we were there. And he came out. And I was like. He's going to. Because he was trying to decide whether to shoot him. And I was like. Buddy's the biggest buck that you've ever had a chance to shoot.

Probably ought to consider that. But and I says. And he's got some extras. And he does. And he looked in. I mean. They're little tiny. Little numbers. But he's like. He's like. Oh. He's got a cheaters. I'm shooting him. You know. So he shot him. That was pretty awesome. That was a good night. And then. So we got back to the truck that night. Sadie was still at State Cheer. They were actually up there. So he got to call. And rub into her. Oh my. He did rub this in. Yes. He did. He called me right after. And was like. Guess what? I just killed this buck. And I was like. Well. How big is it? And he told me. He was like. Yeah. It's like 205. And I was like. You've got to be kidding me. I was like. There's no way I missed that. I was like. Oh. So it was fun. But. Yeah. Did he tell you. It's not 205. Right? No. No. No. It's definitely not. And so did he tell you. No. I'm just kidding you.

I'm just kidding you. Yeah. After. And then he sent me some pictures. I was like. Okay. It's okay. It's not. It's okay. Yeah. I'm going to blow that dink out of the water.

Here's a cheater. Yeah. Yeah. They like never sent me the full picture. Oh my gosh. For like half an hour. So I'm just like waiting. Like he called me. And then they're like sending. Not a full picture. Yeah. So I'm just like. Pretty soon. You're leaving them unread. I'm all read. I'm all read. Just send me. I'll look at it when you send me the actual picture. That's right. And then. But I guess during our hunt here and all this stuff. Those two are pretty competitive. So I'm going to kill a bigger dude than you. I'm going to kill a bigger dude than you. Oh that's whatever. They're just. They're arguing the whole time. I kept getting sick of hearing about it. But the whole time Sadie kept saying. Well I'm going to shoot a 210 buck. I'm going to shoot a 210 buck. I got started at home while we were in. Wow. You know here on our own. You're manifesting it. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Definitely.

And I just kept telling him like Sadie. You don't even know what that means. Like you don't. 2. 210. You don't even know what that means. You know. So anyway. But that's all Sean. Josh always. He always has to bring a little reality to it. Yeah. It's no fun. You know. So I'm like you don't even know what that means. Anyway. So then she gets down there. They. My dad. Actually brought her down. And our youngest son down. They got up really early. It's like a nine hour drive to get down there. So they got up really early. Started driving. You guys got there. At what? Three probably. Three o'clock. Three o'clock in the afternoon. Oh. In the afternoon. Yep. And they were pretty tired and stuff from the drive. Whatever. And I'm like well we should. We got three hours before dark. We should at least go out and try. And look at some country.

We were just trying to learn to figure out where the deer were at. And I'd gone on Onyx. And I was sitting there moaning over. Looking down. And trying to figure out where the highest elevation we could get. But was still visible. And where we could glass from. And see. Is kind of what I'd been doing. So I just. Because you get too high. It's just too thick. Yes. And we had experienced that earlier. Like we tried to go higher. And it's like you have to hike then to 12,000 feet. To get above that band. There's like that band at 9,000 to 10,000 feet. Where sometimes it's super thick. So we just. I was like we need to try and get as close to 10,000 feet. Literally. You're just randomly. So we just picked a spot on a map. Wow. And I'm like this looks like it's open enough that we can get up there in glass. Maybe hunt for a couple days. And so we. All of us jumped in the side by side.

The same old side by side. Oh yeah. The new starter. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's fixed. All six of us. So there's six of us. This thing's an amazing bike. Yeah. You've been in it. I have. I had problems with the seatbelt. Remember it would like. Yeah. It would go over now. Yeah. Because it didn't recognize that the seatbelt was the reset. We need to sell that bike. No idea. But anyway. Yeah. So we all jumped in there and started going. Yeah. Okay. There we go. Okay. Yeah. So. Well Hendrix was like. I want to find a shed. So he's like. Yeah. I'm going to look for sheds too. I like. While we're driving. So. He's our 11 year old. Yeah. He's the 11 year old. Yes. Come on. Just help me out. Like look for deer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we saw like some does and my dad like was glassing and stuff. And then he actually did find a shed. He did? Yes. Yes. So. Yes.

He did while we were like driving down the road. So then Hendrix was so excited. Went out like running up to get it and stuff. And. We were just trying to get to like a glassing knob. And we just passed some does on this corner. We got up and I. And I looked out of the corner. I could see an elk shed. Like. It's coming out of this bush. A rag. Yeah. A little teeny four point thing. Oh man. And I was like. Well buddy. Go pick that up. So. We took. I don't know how long it took him to run over there. Yeah. Probably like five minutes. Probably. Whatever. Yeah. So we like keep driving up the road. And then there was like a camp. So then we like turned around and come back. And then all of a sudden. But I slams on the brake. Like. Slams on the brake. Hendrix like lands in my mom's lap. And like. Really. Slammed on the brake as hard as he could. Yeah. And then he starts screaming. He's like.

Shoot the deer. Shoot the deer. And I'm like. What. Like what deer. So I'm like. Okay. Like. I didn't even look up. Really helpful. Right. When they scream at you. Yeah. It's just. It's really helpful. He's just screaming to shoot the deer. Calmed you down. Yeah. Calmed you down. Haley. What did you hear? Was I screaming? I heard someone shoot that deer. Someone shoot that deer. Yeah. That's what I heard. Yeah. As I'm trying to get my 11 year old out of my lap. In a dad voice. In a dad voice. Yeah. Yeah. And so he's like screaming. So I didn't even look up at the deer. I'm like. Oh. Like. This is serious. So I just like. Start getting my gun. I never saw the deer. So we'll just set the stage. You're straight up business. I'm driving. Sadie's directly behind me. Yeah. Yeah. And then Haley's on that side. And the deer is on Haley's side. So it's on the passenger side.

It's natural for Haley to. 150 yards. 150 yards. Right. I was just like. No. I looked up at the deer. Once I got my son out of my lap. And it was natural for Josh to think that you're shooting it. It's on your side. Oh yeah. I thought she's. All she has to do is get out and walk 50 feet and shoot. Just get the gun. That's the problem. Yeah. Yeah. So I was like. Haley's going to shoot this deer. So I didn't even. All the while. She's got her cigs up. Just chilling. No. No. I am. These are so nice. Do you guys want to look through these? He's a beautiful buck. No. We're going to call him Jim Cabela from the Cabela's buck. No. He's going to be big hanging cheaters. And then I hear someone. Him say. Someone shoot that. That deer. And. In those kind of words. Probably. Yeah. I didn't swear. I didn't swear. He did not swear. What he did say was. Someone shoot that SOB. But he said. But like.

He actually said SOB. Like. Right. He actually like. Just like. He was not swearing at us. He said the letters SOB. He said the letters. Yes. He said the letters SOB. Because no one was. When I just simply said. Someone shoot that deer. Kind of calmly. Nobody listens. No one was shooting the deer. And he was standing there. 150 yards on the hillside. He was looking at the doe. So that group of does. I don't know whether he was with them. He wasn't rutting them by any means. But. I don't know if he was just coming down. Checking them. I don't know if he just happened to be. Whatever he was doing. He was there. But he was above them on the ridge. Yeah. And he was looking at the does. Looking at us. Then he was looking up the ridge. It's something ahead of him. Yeah. So we just kept doing this. And I'm just like. Somebody. So I had to say it again. With a little more urgency. Yeah.

But still. Now we got the memo. Still G read it. Yes. Yes. And I'm like. Okay. Okay. You're fine. You're unzipping the thing. So I'm like getting. Like. I'm unzipping like the case. And I'm like getting. I've never touched this gun in my life. I know. I was like. Oh. I like the. I like this transparency that's going on. Yeah. I was like. I was like. I don't even know. So I'm like. Have the magazine in my hand. I'm like. I don't know. He rips the gun out of my hand. Yes. Rips the magazine. When I said that. That no one was still shooting the deer. So I was actually out of the side by side at this point. Oh yeah. Standing in the row. Oh yeah. Like. You're looking for a rock. Yeah. I was just like. What is going on? So I. And I don't know why Haley's not shooting this deer. Because. Like. I look over and she's getting her gun kind of out. But. In Colorado. You basically.

If you're in a side by side. Or need to be. You have to build a gun. You do. In order to shoot. Shoot it. Yeah. And I'm not just going to jump out until I have my gun in my hand. Because I'm going to spook him. Right. So you've got this whole process going on in your mind. I don't want to spook him. Josh is saying. You better shoot him before he spooks. But he's not helping me get my 11 year old out of my lap. Right. And off my gun. And everything out of the case. He just loaded you up. He just loaded you up with a brake check. Well I'm standing there staring at a. What it looks like a. 200 inch. 200 inch. 35 inch. It does. Standing on the hill. You know. With your naked eye. You're like. You can see what that is. So I happened. As I'm standing out there. Luckily Judson was actually in Nexus 80. He told her to get out. Because she was trying to unzip and stuff without getting out.

He was like get out. And he was kind of assisting her. And I look back. And I kind of like come out of this trance. Because I was blacking out. Like I was. I was blacking out. And I look back. And I'm like. Oh. Same thing. She's never even touched that gun in her life. Like. Oh. I got to help her. This is going to make Jana feel better. Yeah. So. Jana. You got to shoot one. That was the other story. Like with Haley and her gun. With her elk. She. Shot. Had you shot your gun? Uh-uh. Okay. You had to shot the Reaper gun? Uh-uh. Or. It was bad. The 300 drum. No. Jana really feels better. And I look like a hero. It was pretty bad. Jana. Jana. Jana. You were prepared. I set the guns up. And I tell them what they need to do. Like. I don't know. That's what a dad does. I don't know. You cannot go to the range. This is my. In my mind.

You cannot go to the range enough to make up for what we did when we were kids shooting rabbits. Yes. Yes. Yes. So you're going to go. And it's still going to be unfamiliar. Because you can't shoot a hundred times. Yes. A big caliber. And some of it. So it's going to be a little bit of a cluster. Which is going through your mind. It's going through your mind. As dad's saying. With more urgency. Get this deer killed. And you're like. I wish you'd have taken me to the range more. So I like. Don't black out. And help me with the gun. Yeah. Don't black out. Get up. I woke up. I woke up. And I look back. And I just ran back. And I grabbed the gun. And I grabbed the magazine. And I slapped the mag in. Because it's a little. Sometimes a little hard. It's a little polymer mag. It's a little sticky. You grab her by the coat. Yes. I grabbed the gun. I grabbed the gun. I rack around in it.

And I did really well. I handed her the gun back. I was proud of myself for that. So I handed her the gun. So basically I have her by the neck. And I go dragging her up there. And set her on the ground. And said. Shoot that freaking deer. This is the third time. I've had to tell someone. What is it? 200 yards? 150 maybe. I don't know. And he's watching. I didn't read. Yes. And he's ready to go. And you've got a camp. That you just turned around at. Like you've got people. Yes. All of these things are going through. Oh they're side by sides. Driving around. Yes. And you're thinking. Do I need to check Onyx. To make sure I'm not on private. Like there's a hundred Colorado things. That actually didn't. Yes. And I always look pretty hard. But after. When we were walking up to the deer. I was like. Oh jeez. Why is this deer here? I was going to ask you. I was actually going to ask you.

It goes through my mind. I hate Colorado for that reason. Because it's like. Man. There has to be something wrong. For me to be seeing this caliber of deer race. Yes. You know. I thought that. And I pulled it up. Am I shooting over a road I don't see? I don't know. What am I doing? Like there's a hundred little things. That go through your mind. Because the last thing you want. Is for. Yeah. Issues. And that's why I like down there. Because there's not a lot of that. But we did. We did have to get stopped. There was a road. We just stopped out. Not too far up. Maybe a mile away. Where there was a road that said. You can't drive anywhere. It's private property. It actually said. It was pretty cool. It actually had a sign on it. That said. Hunters are welcome to walk through my property. And hunt it all you want. But you just can't drive through it. I was just like. That's kind of kind.

Yeah. I was like. That's cool.

Anyway. So yeah. I just grabbed her. And take her down. And sat down. And so then. I sat her down. And then that was the first time. I put binos on the deer. Just to put up to watch the shot. So. And so then there you are. Yeah. With this gun. Yeah. So I was like. I was like. I didn't even like. Really even know where the deer was. Because I like. I never looked at it. Let alone find him in the scope. Yeah. So I just like. Pulled up the scope. I just. Was lucky enough. To just be able to just. You put it on him. Yeah. Squeeze the trigger. Yeah. Pull the trigger.

That's awesome. Ice in the veins. Yes. Did he just fall over? We did like. Basically. He did a big jump. Like he did. Just like. Heart shot jump. You know. Was it a heart shot? She hammered him. Yeah. I was like. Oh. She hammered him. He did that jump kick. But he kind of come. Went to run down the ridge. And I thought he was going to come out lower. So I kind of. Got her up off the ground. So we could run down farther. But he actually just took two jumps. And then two jumps back up the ridge. And then. Tipped over. By that time I was ready to. Help her out. Did you put a fire around? Did she put a final round in it? Oh yeah. Did you? Oh I was ready. Yeah. No she didn't. No I did not. Because last shot gets to claim. No. For all I knew. She was asleep. Utah law. Right. Utah law. Last. Last round in the animal. Clank. I was ready to help her if needed. But she is a really good shot.

This is awesome. I didn't doubt it. Did you realize what you had? Like. You didn't. Because you were just looking at body. No. But I. By his reaction. I knew it was something big. Because like. After I shot it. He was freaking out. Like. He even like sat down on the ground by the side of his head. Just like leaning against the side by side. With his hands on his head. Like. Oh my gosh. And I was like. It did. So there was. I saw a little video clip. Maybe you had posted it actually. Paula. Yeah. Looked a little theatrical. Oh. Well. Because. The amount of stress. Like I said. I was blacking out. Is the amount of stress I was going through for a moment. And all of a sudden. That just all. Was gone. And I didn't realize the deer was that big. Like. I figured. He's a 30 plus inch or 200 inch deer. And I told her that. What did I say after. Yeah. After. I was like. I was like. I was like.

I was like. Like. How big is he? Like. Because I didn't know. Yeah. And I said. You just killed a 210 inch deer. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Manifested it. Yeah. A Jim Cabela buck. Yeah. So. I mean. I was like. Throwing gloves. And I was like. Telling these guys. Because I didn't know. I'm like. Everybody just seemed so calm. And like. And I'm like. Did you guys see that freaking deer? Like. Stand up. Celebrate. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Put that thing on safety. Let's hug for a minute. Yeah. Oh. That's pretty awesome. So yeah. So you walk up to the deer. Yeah. This occurs. I mean. We posted this. Oh. Here we go. Got this video clip. There's Pollock. Still got his hands on his head.

Everybody. Don't worry. There's no optics in there. That are pricey. As he throws his pack. It's Sadie's moment. But I think. It looks like it's Josh's moment. Really. I was dying. Because when I walked up. And I was just like. All the stress relief. Yes. It happened. Yeah. It didn't get away finally. Yes. Yes. I was just like. Oh my gosh. These always. These things always get away. It feels like. Oh yeah. It feels like they get away. You know. It never. Never happens. You know. Look at that. Wow. How awesome is that. So did you. You've been around enough. Your dad. And family. And whatnot. Like you. You know what you're holding. Yeah. You know it's special. Yeah. You know it's special. Yeah. I did. I mean it's bigger than anything you've killed. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yes. Yeah. She reminded me. How old are you? She got her wisdom teeth out the other day. And she's just like. I love you guys.

But I kill bigger deer than you. You did. When you were under. Yeah. Like right after. Like right after I came out. I apparently. I apparently said this. You realize when you're under anesthesia. That's the stuff you're really thinking comes out. Oh yeah. Yeah. And she was smashing you guys. Oh yeah. She was. After she told us we were great parents. And she loves that dad takes her hunting. But had to make sure everyone knew that. I did kill a bigger deer. Oh yeah. She kills bigger deer. And mom you got a nice elk. Congrats. Dad. Sheep are cool. No that didn't come out. She kills bigger deer. That's awesome. I could say. I don't know. It's something about big deer though. Like I was. Everybody's a deer hunter. Most excited about like I. I don't know. We've walked. We've had the chance to walk up on some. The others are amazing experiences. Like with the family you had and whatnot.

But then to have this reverence for the size of deer. Because you just never see them anymore. Yeah. Yep. You know. You don't even see them on the winter range. No. No. Meaning. There's no hunting going on. We get to see everything that comes out of the forest. And he's like man you can never see one like that. Let alone during a season. Second season no less. Yeah. People around you count. Yeah. All the things. As we were over there. There was like it started getting dark. And I told those guys. I'm like okay sit down. Like side by sides were coming by. And I'm like just sit down. I don't want people seeing us over here. And it got dark. And we're like okay. Let's turn our headlights off. You know. Just because you just don't want a bunch of people coming up and ruining that. Yeah. And you're on a two acre piece of private.

Stuff like that crosses your mind. Oh yeah. But some guy. There was actually some dude. We saw a headlamp. And that's the crazy part too. I don't know what. There was a headlamp from a dude probably 500 yards away. Come on. Say from us. Up on the hill. Probably elk hunting. Yeah. He 100% could have killed this buck. I don't know if he had a deer tag or not. Probably did. A headlight comes on at the top of the ridge. And starts walking down like towards us. He didn't. I think he was at that camp that was up the road. He came clear off the ridge. Probably took a map. But he obviously watched us. Yeah. Oh man. He might have been using the bathroom. Yeah. Possibly. Wow. And I don't know where that buck came from. Because we had just been there. And I know it's a complete luck story. But I mean it's just one of those things like. That's what I like about it though. Yeah.

Sometimes it's okay to earn them. Like that's wonderful. And to name them. And to follow them. Yeah. All of the things. But then to have the confidence that it does happen once in a while. Yeah. In Colorado when it's not your home state that you get to go over. There's a reason to spend time besides family time. Yes. It might happen. Yeah. It might happen. So yeah it was cool. I remember we FaceTimed. I FaceTimed you. Well you FaceTimed everybody. I thought I was special. And then I found out Logie Bear probably got called before me. You were referring to. No. No. Oh so I didn't get called?

I don't remember. Why don't you just rank us right here on the hotline. Well actually Josh tried to call me. And I was like. And I was like. He's butt dialing me. Like he's FaceTiming me. You know. You know. That's the only thing I'm going to tell you. Dude do Sunday evening. Yeah. Like you don't do that. The funny thing was like nobody. Nobody answer. If someone. Nobody answer. If it's hunting season and someone FaceTimes your buddy FaceTimed you. Answer it. Answer it. It's either I guess they're stuck. I think it was. I think there was something going on on Sunday evening. Yes. You had stuff going on. But I was. But still. I was like. Either. This is very serious. Yeah. You know. Everybody. And then you texted me and said. I should read it. I keep talking. I'll find you. But it took like two times. Because we did FaceTime a few people. Because it was. It was that special. You're like.

You want to share it with everyone. You're like. You won't believe this. Yeah. So there was a few people that we wanted to know. And everybody. Nobody picked up on the first FaceTime. Isn't that funny? It was always the second. And everybody went and said. Oh. I thought you were just. But not. Like. Well. Nobody ever FaceTimes. And I'm like. During hunting season. If someone's FaceTiming you. I would recommend you answer it. Because. Well. There's probably something cool happening on the other end of that FaceTime. Something really cool. Yeah. You know. So. It was pretty fun. So we basically. You had more tags. Right? Didn't you? We had Haley's tag. Yeah. But it was fun like that. And I. These guys got pretty mad at me. I think. I mean. We sat there. And tried to take as many pictures as we could. We. I told them. I don't know. I can't. Well. You sit down. Like. Like. Remember that.

On my big deer. In Arizona. It was like. Time stands still for a minute. And it's just okay. To not have anywhere to go. For a few hours. Yeah. You know what I mean? Just to really enjoy that.

Fire. And we just took our time. Yeah. Was because of that comment. It's like. We want to enjoy this. Yes. Just talk for a minute. Yeah. Like. I mean. When. Just. It's one of those. It's a family heirloom type buck. Remember I said that. Yeah. Or. It's just one of those. You pass down. Like. That's one of those. You'll pass to your kids. Or whatever. You know. And. I mean. Just. Quite. Quite a. Quite an amazing feat. Yeah. Honestly. In this day and age that we live in. Oh yeah. You. It was. I mean. I don't know. I don't know what it feels like to win a Super Bowl. But this was much better. Whatever it is. So. We just. Yeah. We started a fire. We. You know. Usually. Because that's the whole thing. You're like. Okay. We got it down. We got it. Let's get it out. You're like. In this big rush. To get it cut up. And hauled out. And whatever. Yeah. We just took our time. And.

All of us took turns. Cutting. This. That. And the other. And talking. And laughing. And. I mean. I don't. We were there. It was another midnighter. You know. Yeah. Pretty awesome. It was another midnight. Midnight trip. I can't read what you told me.

Sorry. I guess. Yes. Let's see. I just said. I said something like.

Yeah. Sorry. I don't even remember what I told you. Did you try calling me? I was in a meeting. Try me back. I figured you might be trying to show me a giant deer you guys killed. Which I'm just like. You know. It rarely happens at you. Anyway. And you don't know the unit necessarily. So it's not really on my mind. Like it's. I mean. You're in a no-name or so. Yeah. So to speak. I mean. You know. It wasn't an expectation. That's for sure. Yes. You can. You. If you need to step out. You should step out. You need to see this. Sadie just killed an absolute. Yeah. Giant. Something giant. No. Not a swear word. Yeah. But. But. You know. Just one of the. Anyway. And I'm like. Oh. Geez. Here we go. Yeah. So. Yeah. It was fun. And it was actually fun. Like FaceTiming a few folks. And then like. I was talking to them. I'm like. Are you ready to see this? And they're like. Yeah. Go ahead.

And I'm like. No. You're not. And then flip the camera around. Like. Oh my gosh. You know. It's true. It's pretty fun. Awesome. All right. Well. I'm about tired of these awesome Pollock stories. Really. It's starting to make me mad. Logan. You're just not as good a hunter. I'm not as lucky as the Pollock family. Well. You weren't born to the right dad. No. Apparently. I did not. I'm not taking anything against Pollock. I love the guy. So. Just fun. Fun and games. Yep. Yeah. You guys have had some amazing hunts too. We all have. That's what I think is fun. It's fun to have you guys on. And to be able to hear all this stuff. I love the raw. Real stories.

Yeah. I love that stuff. It's cool. It's great. We're going to keep it all right. Logan. You're not letting them edit anything. I. No. We're not cutting anything. Okay. Works for me. Perfect. Anyway. Well thanks again. Sure. Sure. Appreciate it. What's up? Like what do you want to do next Sadie? Haley. What do you got. What's. What's on the docket? I don't know. Anything. Move on to elk. Really? You want a giant bull? Yeah. Sure. It's easy right? Yeah. Yeah. Pass my. I got to be my mom now. Yeah. For sure. It won't be hard right. It's just an absolute giant. Yeah. Seven. Yeah. I'm sure she will. She'll put in the effort. Pretty. I'm sure it'll come together. Yeah. Pretty lucky. She'll show up for three hours. She loves putting in the effort.

Pretty awesome. All right. What do you. Josh. Are you out. Out and about. Checking the winter range. Seeing anything good. You did send me a live buck pick. Yeah. Yeah. There was one. One big deer that showed up for a minute. It was pretty cool to see. But then it turns out he didn't have anything to do. Probably not even be able to hunt him. Right. Not even on the unit. Yeah. And only came for a minute looking for a doe. Yeah. I was there for like a week and a half. But that was pretty cool. But no. Like I said. There's a lot of deer. It's good. The deer. They should be good this year. I mean. They're not trudging through snow every day. Yeah. They're doing fine. Yeah. I mean. It's been over in Pengwich. I mean. It's been getting in the 50s degrees. And it's January. That's. Usually highs are 20s and 30s. When you guys decide what unit you're going to hone in on for Colorado.

I'd like to be in on that.

It'll be my turn. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to see a little Honda Talon running in front of you. And behind you. Well. And that was. This was kind of like a scouting mission. For potential third season tags next year. For Haley and Johnson and my dad. But. But knowing what you know now. Would you do third or second. You know. Kind of thing. Yeah. I mean. Third's the one that's traditionally. What everybody waits for. And it is traditionally. Seems to be the better one. Yeah. Because you have weather. Right. You didn't have any weather on that hunt. No. No. It was hot. It was warm. In fact. And that's the thing too. Like we went down there and she killed that giant deer. But how many deer we'd seen before that deer. I went home without anything. Because I didn't have an opportunity. Oh really. Yeah. Yeah. And we'd only seen six does. Well we saw those three does like right off the bat.

And then we saw like those six or seven that were there where he was at. But I mean we'd hunted all day and only seen. I guess the day we left we saw more than we had seen the entire time. But we were out of time. Yeah. You were done. Yeah. So they were kind of moving. Starting to move down a little bit and stuff. But yeah. So that was the thing. Like it wasn't like it was this amazing deer everywhere. Passing up bucks. Yeah. You just have to be in the right spot right there. Pretty awesome. Well Logan when we load this up we're going to throw it out here right away. But then also on social we should throw that video clip on there. I think we will. The theatrics are amazing. Well there was like the two. Because Haley started videoing like immediately after she shot the thing. And I was kind of. Do we have that one? Do we have that Logan? I don't have it. But I think we should. Airdrop it.

We should airdrop it. I will. That's great. I think it's fitting. Don't you? I do. Yeah. It's part of it. It's part of it. It's pretty awesome. And I call it theatrics. It's just for fun. I can only imagine. I know what I've been like. Yelling like a little school girl. When you kill something big. Oh yeah. It just is what it is. So anyway. Well. All right. Can't wait to see what the Pollock family has in store. And by the way it's Friday. I'm kind of wasted. I don't even know if I'll be able to work through it. That's the day after all. Sorry. I like cunning stories. I love it. But what about you Logan? I'm going to have to work the rest of the day. Because. It's three o'clock. And we got to get a podcast out for the week. That's right. It's three o'clock somewhere. All right. I'll have a great weekend. Let's face it. If your goal is to kill big stuff. You need to draw quality tags.

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