EP 380: A 200" Typical Colorado Muley Story and The Epic Winter Hunts Giveaway Breakdown

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Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, John Peterson. How you guys doing? After a week of magazine. Zombie. Yeah, zombie comes to mind. Well, a week of expo. We didn't contract anything. Carter, you got a little something. I've contracted some things, but nothing that's life-threatening. Nothing's in the deep respiratory canals. Unfortunate for deer, I'm still alive. So, whatever, whatever. Haven't heard of deer since 2019. Except for my kids, they're killing them left and right. Like it's their job, feeding the family like I should be doing. All right, so, well, good to have you guys in here. It's pretty exciting. We got a lot of snow outside. We're pretty pumped. I mean, dude, okay, now a lot of snow. Let's just say. We finally have more than Florida for the first time all year. I just want to know how long stable works in gasoline. Logan, what do you think? Logan, will you chat?

I do know it turns to water after about three years of sitting under the shed. That's Minersville gas. Dumping it in your truck. That's Minersville gas. Will you look up? Will you chat it up and figure out stable and premium? What does that look like? I'm telling you, I think mine's two to three years old in my snow plow. That four-wheeler is dedicated snow plow. And I got it started. I run mine. Mine was about empty. I put a splash of about a gallon in it the other night. Freshie. Fresh gallon the other night just because we're going to be using it and running good. No problems. 24 months? Okay. I probably need to drain mine out in the front yard. Ready to start? I'll probably need to do a drain out there. Don't trust it out in Nevada once you go. Don't take it where you're like the press on. I don't understand. Why do people frown on dumping gas out on the dirt? Whoa.

We just dumped it right back into the empty tank we had. No, I'm just wondering out loud. If I drained my four-wheeler, why would it be weird if I did that? Where it come from the dirt. We live in a desert environment. You're from the EPA, Jason. Yeah, I know. I don't know why. I mean, we pulled it from the dirt. Some people write tickets for stuff like that. We refined it and we send it back to the earth. Better than we found it. Down to the mother. Purified. If you dump too much. 91% pure. If you dump too much, pretty much the government will come knocking and open up a drilling hole. Oh, anyway. All right. So, yeah, got out the snowplow. It's kind of cool. There, I guess, Cash went snowmobiling up on top. Did he? Oh, dude, there's like six new feet. Where? Like six feet. Where? Up on Midway. Six feet. Yeah. He's got pictures of a six-foot guy and he's in the snow levels above his head.

Wow. Crazy. In five or six days. Yeah. It's been crazy. Pretty awesome, anyway. I think we're going to have a Chia Pet year, everybody. I don't know. You know, you young fellers. Like, Logan, did you have to Google what Chia Pet was back when I started that little mantra? I remember the commercials. You do? You pour water on them and it grows in there? You do in there? Just droughts. My earliest memory is they had a Barack Obama one and it would grow out his hair. Oh, come on. What? We had three of those in our house. You libs would.

All right. Well, let's see. Let's move along. John. We're pretty excited. Yeah. What have we got? You got a magazine at the printer. Well, we all did our part. And then, John, you got it to the printer overnight. Yep. And a couple hours of sleep. You know? And you're still here. Yeah. I went home at about 5.30 a.m. and it shoveled snow. Yeah. For a half hour. Well, at like 11, your wife came over and needed some fuel, so you had to take her to the gas station. I'm like, it's 11. Why aren't you in bed?

John, you're a good feller. Let's talk about this. Dude, we're going to give away a grundle of Hans. Yeah. In short order. Less than a week. So, on Wednesday is the last day you can buy tickets to get into this. 25th. Logan, this is going hot tonight. Right. Right. So, the weekend they'll have it. I'll get it turned around. I like it. Brunson, why don't you start us off? Tell us what we're giving away. Hunt number one is going to be an $80,000 Yukon stone sheep hunt. What was that? You don't have to write the check. $80,000? I think that's a lot of mule there, Hans. I guess we wrote the check. Yeah. You're not writing it personally, but this is with a longtime outfitter friend of ours, Jarrett Dooling. We've had multiple winners. We actually had them on the podcast a while back. We had A.W. Manning. Anyway, awesome hunt. This is a 2026 hunt.

Not much more to say about that. Opening week. This is not a free discounted hunt. None of these are. Cut rate. Nothing. Man, this is top notch. Great guy. Great place. Hunts we do on ourselves. Absolutely. That's hunt number one. Hunt number two. This is kind of an exciting one. It's for a pair of dudes or gals or a guy and a gal. That sounds weird. A pair of dudes. Dad and his daughter. Father, son. Whatever. Friends. I didn't say partners, Jason. I said a couple of dudes. You caught me off guard. Couple of dudes. Couple of gals. Guy and a gal. Daddy, daughter. Father, son. Like I said. The winner and his choice of companion. Caribou. Two peeps. How about that? I like it. Two peeps. So they're going on a caribou hunt this year as well with Striker Overly. And this is up late August. It'll probably be velvet right in that transition. Maybe velvet hard antler.

But either way, go try to find a great caribou hunt for two. Those are expensive. They're expensive hunts. They're not like the antelope of the north like they were 20 years ago. I never thought like when I was, let's call it year 2000. 90s, 2000. Caribou. They were the antelope of the north. Yeah, they were. Okay. The antelope of the north. You couldn't give them away. These lichen lickers would be everywhere. You remember the combo hunts? It'd be moose caribous. You know, blast and cast. And you have all these. For a couple grand shoot a caribou. Dude. I mean, they couldn't push enough species on you. And it's just not the case. Like this caribou hunt. A great caribou hunt is hard to come by. Anyway. All right. Moving right along to Utah elk. Seven day hunt with Dusty Trails outfitting. It'd be Dusty White. I've known him for 20, 30 years. 25, 30 years. And anyway.

Clued's a landowner attack, by the way, which we've already paid for. Choose your season. Yeah. Choose your season. So anyway. If you want to go archery, muzzleloader is a great season out there. Rifle. Early rifle. Or say a late rifle. Which is not so great. But he did see some great bulls late. So I'm just saying this is a great opportunity for an awesome, world-class elk hunt. Or if somebody wanted to do the late archery. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I'll like it. I'll like it. I dare somebody to pick that. You know what's funny is we laugh about it and then guys smash giants. Well, they have. But not on Southwest Desert. That wouldn't be the unit I would do it on. Nah, I probably wouldn't either. Don't try to be a hero. I don't know. Logie Bear, we could send you out there. Huh? Give you a gas card. You getting me land on a timer? No use taking any video equipment.

You're not going to see anything. It's not you. It's the unit. That time of year. I've been out. I've spent some time. Go down in December with a bull. You know, right? I've spent some time. It's awesome early. It's awesome middle. It's not so awesome late. It gets a little. Yeah. But anyway, late rifle did turn some good bulls. All right. Then we move right into Nevada deer hunt with a landowner tag, unit 231. Just an awesome opportunity with Greg Krogue of Muggy On Rim Outfitters. Know him well. He's one of the best to do it. He's killed a lot of big deer over the years. He's personal friends with Greg and just appreciate him. Over the years, call him a partner of Epic here. It's just awesome. And then Bronson, that brings us to Utah deer hunt. We always, you can't have enough deer hunts. So we grabbed a couple of them.

This other one is one we've done before on a ranch in northern Utah with bucks and bulls. Great, great operation. Great chance to hunt 180, 190 plus inch type deer. Hard antler hunt, end of September.

Proven ranch, proven guides, all of that. Been there, done that. Had a lot of members kill great bucks on this ranch in the past. Awesome. And then we got another hunt for two peeps. We'll just leave it two peeps. Two dudes. A pair of dudes. Two winners down in the land of enchantment. New Mexico, Jason. Yeah. Yeah. All right. It's awesome. You can tell it's a Friday. We're a little bit loose. Casual Friday. I don't think I'm going to make it until five. I don't know either. But this is an awesome hunt. Great opportunity. Food, lodging. You know, three-day hunt. TG's trophy hunts. Late August 2026. A pair of landowner tags. Guided hunt. Great chance to hunt. But, you know, 80-inch type antelope. Maybe even a little better. They've done a little better than that. Some of the past winters we've given that hunt away, too. Yeah. Awesome hunt for two. Just an awesome hunt.

Then we've got a private land Texas Barbary sheep hunt. The Barbaries are, I don't know. They're just so prolific down there. I don't quite understand it, Bronson. I always thought sheep were born looking for a place to dive. Not them. Not Barbaries. Not them. No. You could feed third-world countries on them things. Yeah. A lot of them. But these guys got big ones. Crazy. He killed a giant. Giant. 35-incher. Anyway, we're giving it away. It'll be April of 2027 is when that hunt will occur. February through April. Sometime in there. Just got personal relationship with those guys there. High West Outfitters. Excellent. Super good people. We appreciate them as well. And then, of course, we're giving an Epic Gear package. This package includes a fierce carbon range custom rifle. The Hoyt Alpha AX2.

Koa Promenar 30-799. The best spotting scope on planet Earth. It's the clearest, cleanest, most vibrant glass they make. It's unbelievable. That's what I personally have in my backpack. Right now, on the truck. Of course, we had to move that pack for you guys to get in for lunch. But anyway, that's what's in it. Saguaro NL 12s or 14s. You choose. What do you want? You want 12s? You want 14s? We could care less. Choose what you want. Make you a deal for both if you want. Yeah. We're out to making deals. We're going to talk about some more deals here in a minute. Leupold VX6 HD 3-18 rifle scope. And then a tripod, of course. We know people. We have tripods. We're giving them away. All right. And then there's a bonus package, $15,000 toward the hunt of your choice. And so anyway, just a little something, something for anybody that's purchasing the $500 ticket package.

You'll get a name in for that for each package you purchase. Appreciate everybody out there. It's pretty awesome. There's a lot of awesome prizes. We love giving them away. Deadline, what, 11-59 next Wednesday, the 25th. Right, John? Yep. 11-59. Buy them before it strikes midnight. Buy them before midnight. Yeah, we just got back from the Hunt Expo. And one of the winners came to the booth. And he was so jazzed. From last year? Yeah, from last year. Which one? What did he win? He won one of the sheep hunts. Oh. And he was just so excited over the moon. Yeah. You know, thanks a lot. Awesome. He did, actually. I visited with him, too. So cool. So hopefully try to do that drawing maybe a week from today. Tentatively. Next Friday. Or the Monday. Yeah. Something like that. I think. Yeah. Shoot for that. Yeah. Maybe it'll be Thursday. I don't know. All right. All right. Anyway, pretty awesome.

But, you know, just to start this. At some point, we've got to talk about real hunting. Yeah. There's a fine balance, right? I mean, real hunting versus fake hunting? I'm just teasing. We talked a little bit about fake hunting in our podcast or two ago. No. Just kidding. Actually, I just think we ought to start off with a story. Like, let's just kind of start off with a story and then maybe we end this podcast with some of the other cool items. A few deals. Almost. Giveaway. Almost. Yeah. Right? What do you think, Bronson? You in? Let's do it. Talking about another big buck. Well, yeah. Let's have a big buck story. So, this is a guy and his brother, just to tee it up just a little bit, went to Colorado on basically a no-namer type unit. Super easy draw. Smashed a freaking job. Okay? 200-inch typical. Well over 200-inch typical.

And as we published right now at the printer, it's Colorado's at the printer. It's kind of exciting. We get to look through all the different odds and options and we've constantly got people that are asking and we're consulting on what they can do with points and their future plans and all those things. And so, anyway, it's top of mind and something that we're doing each and every year. But let's give Trayton Tebs a call. Kill it. Smash an absolute giant buck. Let's hear it from his own mouth.

Hey, what's up? Hey, how are you? Hey, doing pretty good. How are you doing? Good, good. You're on the Epic Outdoors podcast. All right. Are you, do you need, did you want to tie in your brother? I don't know how it'll sound, but you sure can. Yeah. Yeah. So I, so I can share the whole first part of the story, but when I get to the part where we first glassed up the buck and killed the deer, I'd like to just call him in. Yeah. I'm not sure how you guys want to do that. If you want. You can just add a call. Yeah. You just add him on your end. Just add a call on your end if you're on your cell phone. Okay. I can do that as soon as I get to that point. So. Perfect. Or, or if you want, if you give me his number, I can add him in either way. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, let's see. Let's, let's hear about this, this giant deer.

And of course you've got, you saw a bunch of other deer and whatnot, but just love to hear this story from your perspective. And then, and then I'll call your brother when you, when you tell me to. Okay. So yeah. Um, yeah, it all started back in 2024. I, I remember before the hunt started, I was talking with my brother Chandler of where we wanted to go. And, um, I just decided to just put, uh, try and put in for a random unit. Didn't draw the tag. Um, and I ended up snagging a turn back tag. Um, and my brother, he got attacked somewhere else, so he wasn't able to join me. So I just made a game plan. I got a couple of my buddies to come out with me and we hunted hard. This unit just, we were basically just exploring. And, and on the third day, um, we hadn't really seen much, but I, on the third day we were out there, I glassed up this buck.

Um, I, I got a 20 second video of it and that a lot of people that I show, they told me that their guess on that deer was probably one 90 plus. Um, so I, we glassed up this buck and hurried and made a move. And I got a couple of shots off at this deer and I don't think I hit it. I, we were pretty sure I missed all my shots. Um, but that, and it was right before dark. And by the time we would have gotten over to that deer to check if we got it or anything, it, it would have been dark. So we just decided to hold off to the next morning. And we went back the next morning and never found anything and never seen any deer or anything. So we just kind of gave up and I was sick to my stomach and I, I call it quits right there and packed up and headed home. Um, but everything over the next year, it, it haunted me.

And that was literally all I could think about was trying to get that same tag and go back to that same area. Um, so yeah. And I, I decided I had a few points. Um, I cashed in my points. I drew the tag again and my brother Chandler, I wanted him to come with me and he ended up getting a turn back tag. Um, so as soon as we had both tags, we were making plans to go back to Colorado and hopefully kill a big buck and kind of redeem myself. And so yeah. Um, and we did some e-scouting before and just made some points of where we wanted to go and kind of hit some areas. And, um, so yeah, as soon as that hunt hit, we weren't able to get out opening morning. Um, but we left Sunday morning and got out there Sunday afternoon and we set up our camp. We were camping in a wall tent. So as soon as we got that all set up, we just decided to just go make a quick drive and hike

to a point and start glassing. And that night we glassed up probably within 15 minutes of glass. And my brother glassed up a, a really good four point. It was probably, I don't know, a thousand yards away. It was long ways away. We looked at that buck and then he also glassed up a pretty big buck. We could, we couldn't really tell what it was from how far it was, but we could just see it had a giant frame. Um, it's too far to be able to make a move to get a shot off at it that night. And so my brother, he was glassing off this, we're on this peak. He was glassing off one side and I was glassing off the other side. And right before dark, um, I glassed up this, these groups of bucks that are probably like four or five that we could see. It was too dark with my sparring scope, looking through the glass. It was too dark to tell what they were, but they just had big bodies.

And we just, we knew a couple of them were bucks. And so later that night, we just got back to the wall tank, got some dinner and it's kind of making a game plan of what we wanted to do. And we decided to go after these, the groups like four or five bucks that we saw. Um, and that morning there, there were a couple of three points that were decent, nothing that kind of got, got me excited, got the blood pumping. Um, but my brother glassed up this buck in this thick timber that he saw for like five seconds and it disappeared and it never stepped out again. But my brother thought it was a really good buck. Um, so yeah, those, those groups of bucks, um, went into the timber, couldn't see him. So we just decided to pack up, go back to camp, kind of get a snack, get some lunch. And we decided to go where we saw this buck that had a big frame and go see where we see if we could glass him up.

And so we hiked into this Canyon about a mile or so mile and a half. And as soon as we topped over this Ridge, my brother glassed that buck up right where he was the night before. And it was a giant three point. It was biggest three point either, uh, either of us had seen. And I, as soon as I looked through my spot and scope and saw, I was like, I'm shooting that deer. Like no question about it. And how do you, just a question. How do you call deer when you're hunting with your brother? Meaning like he spots a deer, you, who gets to shoot the deer. Sounds like you're going to shoot the deer. Do you just, you and your bro, is he like, I'm not shooting that. This is giant John. Or how do you and your brother, cause I've hunted with my brother and I know who spots the deer usually gets to decide if they shoot the deer. Yeah.

So I going into the hunt, I thought like, like who's going to get the first shot. Like how do we decide that? But my older brother, he just told me, he's like, Hey, like you have first shot at no matter what we see. That's a good brother. So I keep hunting with him. Keep hunting with him. I know. Yeah. It's usually like Adam says, you see it, you kill it. You know, kind of thing. That's awesome. My brother loved, he went through a phase years ago. Like he'd love to be right there with me when I decided I was going to shoot a deer. He had his gun on the sticks and if the deer didn't drop, you know, he'd like to get some free shooting in. Oh, if I hit one, it hit one, it hit him. I think I've heard some stories. Yeah. He knew my tag was wrapped. As soon as I had a bullet in it, my tag was going on it. So I was like, yeah, just see if this gun's on.

I was like, ah, do we need to be calling him right now? Not yet. Okay. Okay. So, yeah, we saw the three point. I was, I got the gun all set up. My brother arranged it. But as we were doing all that, getting set up, those bucks, like they all bedded down. And so we knew we had all the time in the world. And I just got thinking about it. Like it's our first official day. Like we've seen a good amount of bucks. Like do I shoot it or do I just, I hold off and we hunt another day or two. And just depending on how the hunt goes, maybe I can come back and smack this three point. So we just decided to hold off like and just keep that buck in our back pocket.

So we watched them for a minute, got some good video of the deer. And we ended up just packing out of that can. And we glassed the rest of that area. And so we didn't really see anything. So we headed out. And the rest of the day, we're like, let's just kind of go explore some new country to see what some other areas look like. And we pull up on this canyon. We're like, geez, this canyon looks really good. And I actually had an onyx point to kind of get to this point in the glasses canyon. And we knew that there was a storm rolling in. And we could kind of see it in the distance that there was a storm coming. And we're like, well, let's just kind of hike down as far as we can and just see what happens. And about five, ten minutes into that hike, it was a full-on blizzard. And we couldn't see anything. And so we just decided like, and the wind was blowing like 20 miles an hour.

I thought some of these trees were going to fall over on us. So we decided to just head back to the ranger and go back and see if we can glass up this four point where we saw earlier that morning that looked like a pretty good buck.

So we got on this knob and we were able to get eyes on that four point. They stepped out that night. And it was still kind of a blizzard. Like we'd be able to see for 15, 20 minutes. And then kind of the snow would keep pouring down and clear up for a second. But, yeah, we saw that buck. And in my mind, I'm like, okay, I got this three point. I got this four point. And we were guessing 160, 170. That was my goal going into this hunt was to shoot a buck, that 160, 170 range. And my brother, he was shocked. Like I didn't lay down and shoot that buck. It was probably 600 yards or so. But I just, I don't know, I told myself that that deer is probably not going anywhere. It's going to survive the night. And so that night I just kind of weighed my options of what we wanted to do. And we hadn't gone into that canyon that I wanted to explore. So I was like, let's go back in there in the morning.

And if we don't see anything, then I'll come back and I'll shoot that three point. And so, yeah, we hiked. So the next morning we hiked into this canyon, probably two, two and a half miles to where we were at. And we didn't really see anything that morning, just a couple of two points and some does. But my brother, he glassed up a small buck and he told me to get my BTX. And so we got that set up and he kind of looked at the deer for a few minutes and couldn't really see anything worth going after. And he told me, he's like, you can take a look. He got a good look at the one that was a small buck, but he couldn't really tell what this other one was. So I just decided to just throw my, I looked at it for a minute and couldn't really see anything. All I could see was its face. I couldn't see any horns and the wind was blowing and my spot scope was kind of shaky.

So I just decided to just put my phone on it and record it. And I took a five minute video of trying to get a good look at what this deer is. And it just wasn't working out. Like I was trying to get my jacket and like block the spotting scope, like try and get it to not shake, to get a good video. And it just didn't work out. So I just gave up. I was like, well, if I can't see anything, then it's obviously not big enough. And so we glassed the rest of that morning and didn't really see anything. So we packed up, hiked out of that canyon and we got into town to just go get some supplies, get some groceries. And I'm sitting there eating the burger. And I just had the thought that rolled through my mind. Like I better just go watch that video just to see what I can see. And so I like zoom in on that deer's head all the way. And I'm watching this video.

And it's like a split second where that deer turns its head. You can see. Yeah, you can see the antlers move. And I just probably watched it 15, 20 times. And just sitting there eating lunch. And I tell my brother, I'm like, dude, this might be a big buck. I don't know. Like, what do you think? And we watched that video 100 times and called one of my cousins, called my uncle. And I'm like, well, don't waste. Like, don't go back in the next morning. Like, don't waste another morning. Just go back in there tonight and get a closer look and just see what it is. You only have so many prime times, you know. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's what we did. We just decided to pack up and let's just hike back into that canyon. And so, yeah, that's what we did. And I brought my – I thought I brought my phone charger and also an adapter to put on my spot scope to glass.

And as we're hiking in, we're probably about a quarter mile in, half mile in. And I realized that I forgot my adapter to put up on my tripod and also a charger to charge my phone in case it died. And so I'm just like, oh, crap. Like, what else is going to go wrong tonight? So we got into this canyon and I made an onyx point where I thought this buck was, where he was bedded that morning. And so we hiked up on this knob. And we were about 500 yards above where we thought that deer was. And we just went to glass in and I tried using my vinyls the best I could. I just didn't have anything to get that stability. So I just threw my BTX on and just started glassing, like, as far as I could. And out of nowhere – this was probably an hour in the glassing. And my brother, he had spotted some does kind of down in the bottom earlier when we first got there. But he didn't glass up any deer or a buck.

And we watched these two smaller bucks kind of feed into this canyon. And all of a sudden, my brother just started screaming at me. I think it was something like, holy crap, like, get the gun and shoot this deer. And it just went from zero to 100, like, just like that. And I didn't get eyes on the buck. Is it okay if I call my brother in right now? Yeah, sure. We'll see if his story matches, see if the language you used is the same ones he used when he saw the buck. We're going to have some quiz questions. Yeah. Let me add him in here real quick.

Hello. Hey, is this Chandler? Yeah. Hey, I've got you and Trayton both on here. Awesome. He's wanting to make sure that he doesn't, he has an accurate depiction of the story, I think. And we want to make sure he's accurate, too. He's teed it up pretty good right at the moment where you guys both saw the buck. And things got a little excited there. You had a burger, decided you needed to go after this deer. Now you're in on him. Yeah. Yeah. The whole time leading up to it, I don't know if he talked about when we had spotted him from a couple of miles away, but he, we just couldn't tell. Yeah. Which goes to show how far, how far he was. And the importance of video. Like how video changed. Being able to phone scope out. How that changed that. Stretch it. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm glad Tray, yeah, I'm glad Tray did it because when we first found him, I just assumed he wasn't, you know, if you can't see antlers. It's not worth going after. Yeah. Yep. Tray, you on? Yeah. Yep. All right. I'm listening. All right. All right. Take us to the home stretch here. Now the, now the. Let's smash this thing. And then bring him up to the office. You've confirmed that he's, he's, somebody's going to shoot this thing. We already talked about, Trayton said that, older brother conceded to him. I asked him, I've had a, I'm the older brother of two and I've, it's always been like whoever spots the deer. But he said you conceded to him on this hunt. Right from the start. Yeah. I'd be hunting with you every time too, if you did that. Yeah. You got, you got, you got somewhere you want to go.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we, you know, just sitting there on the ridge, we didn't know. And in my mind, I'm like, man, we're, we're a long ways in here. And is this, is this deer going to be 160, 170? Like we don't even know what he is. And, and yeah, we were, we were sitting there. We'd probably been sitting there for about an hour and a half. And it was, it was one of those first days in, in, towards the end of October where there was a cold snap. Yeah. And it was that, that, that, that whole day and that night, it was cold. And so sometimes when you're out there in Colorado and you're doing some of these things, you just sometimes wonder what you're doing. And all those, all those thoughts are going through, through our head. And, uh, we, we just been sitting there and I look with my naked eye down below us and I can, I can see some movement.

And I just throw up my binos and immediately all of the, all the concerns of, uh, big he was or if he's worth, yeah. He's worth packing out and all that is over. Grab the gun is the next word. Out the window. And, uh, I just, I just remember he didn't look, he didn't look real. Uh, he, he, he looked fake. How big. I just remember seeing his back tines and how they just curled in and super tall and massive. The panic. Massive. The point mass. It just comes out in the photos, which by the way, be coming out here shortly in our magazine. It's just awesome.

Yeah. So it was an immediate panic set in. I was yelling at Trey to shoot that deer. I mean, it was, it was panic mode from there. And, uh, Trey, you never, you never got a glimpse of him at first, right? No. Yeah. So yeah, my brother Chandler, he was yelling at me to get down and shoot the deer. But as I was kind of getting everything set up, that deer that fed into some timber to where Chandler told me, he's like, yeah, you can't see the deer. He's like, just get set up. He's going to feed back up. Um, but if he fed the other way, it would have been out into a clearing. So we're like, okay, we're, we're killing this deer. Um, but I never got a look at it, um, until it walked out. But as I was, we were just waiting for the deer to walk out, I started to get a little cold. Um, so I like started shivering and shaking and from the adrenaline too.

I hadn't seen the buck yet, but just from my brother's reaction, I'm like, okay, it's a giant. It's big. Yeah. Um, and I was taking some deep breaths and finally I, I felt like I got warm and kind of got my breathing under control. And I, I just remember I told Chandler, I'm like, okay, we're this deer's dead. And as all this was going on, Chandler was like freaking out and he's telling me, he's like, do not. It's like, when that deer steps out, he's like, do not look at the horns. He's like, I promise he's big enough. Just put it on him and, and shoot. And yeah, that, and the doe, it ended up feeding right into the clearing where my brother had glassed him up and Chandler just immediately starts telling me, he's like, shoot him. He's right there. Shoot him. And I can't find the deer in the scope. And I'm like, where is he? Where is he? And I forget the whole time.

I haven't taken my eyes off of him and not really given clear description of where it's at. So in the moment, you don't realize you're just not, you're not being the best spotter really. You're locked in. You know, when people need to be calm and collected and just relax, get a dead rest, walk them through the shot. You're just like, Kelly, what's wrong? Why can't you see him? Right, Brody?

Yeah. Just, oh, we've been there. We've all been there. It's awesome. Yeah. I forgot, forgot to mention when we saw him running, he had his, he had his nose down on the ground and tilted up full. I mean, just everything you dream of scenario, rutting his brains out. And he was hot on that doe's trail. And yeah, he chased her into a patch of timber where there were clearings on both sides. So it was just a matter of which side he's going to come out and we'll, we'll pound him. And he, the doe came back from where they had ran and he was, he followed her and stepped out on that ridge. And it was, it was pretty unbelievable sight. Pretty unbelievable. Wow.

All right. Yeah. And then Trey, Trey finally finds him. We, we dial it and. How far? Go ahead, Trey. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I felt so confident in that first shot. I, I shot and I got missed. Yeah. I'm a little. Yeah. He said it. He watched my bull, like hit a branch or something. So. Yeah. So I was, I was watching the deer and then the corner of my. And, and, and, and my, uh, you know, the top of my binos, I saw this limb come crashing down off the tree and right as he shot. And so. Jeez. I knew he hit that limb and I mean, it went way over the buck. Jeez. And so he, uh, he was, he was preoccupied with the doe, but he kind of knew something was up. So this was third. Was this third season? Second. Second. So still, he's starting to run like. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so, but he wasn't fully, you could tell he was kind of aware, but not. Yeah. So he, he started, he kind of picked up his pace.

Um, and then, and then Trey shot again. And was a little far back, but I, I, I wish I would have got footage of it. Uh, we're shooting the seven PRC. And he hit, he hit, he hit a little far back, but watching that bullet hit that deer and the, uh, it shot, like you could see the steam come out. I mean, it was, it was pretty cool. And he was hit, he was hit good, but definitely needed a follow-up shot. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So I, yeah, I shot that second shot and Chalmers telling me like he's hit really good. Like he's hurting. And he ran about 25 to 50 yards and he got into the timber a little bit. And I kind of watched the deer move through my scope. Um, and I watched him stop. And Chalmers just told me, he's like, okay, like you can see the deer. Like if he takes a step forward, um, just shoot, like you got to put another one in the deer. And he took another step forward.

And all I really remember seeing in the scope is like this, just like a little window to shoot through the trees where I could just see a little bit of his gray body. And I just put it right on him and slowly squeezed. And I hit him perfect. And I don't know what Chandler's point of view with the deer, he just said it dropped. And I think Chandler kind of watched his head just kind of move back and forth. And, um, cause all that was going on. I was just like, like, is he dead? Like, I just wanted to know, like, is he down? And did I kill him? And yeah, like, I don't know. It seemed like it was 10 minutes, but it's probably 30 seconds. So, yeah. So I, I saw the bullet hit and it was right in the front shoulder. And he didn't, he didn't drop immediately. He took two steps forward and laid down, uh, kind of watching his back trail and he laid down.

And so I couldn't, I couldn't really see him. I could just see the tips of his antlers and they started kind of swaying back and forth and hopefully doing, you know, expiring. Yeah. But we didn't know for sure. I couldn't see. And then his, you know, the antlers disappeared. And so we were, I was pretty confident, but you guys know what it's like sometimes you just never know. Yeah. And so, yeah, we, we, we gave it, we gave it some time and we didn't have radios. Our phones were, batteries were dying and we didn't have good service anyways. And so a lot of times when you drop into those canyons to try and find them, it looks completely different than what it looks like from up on top. Yeah. So I was, I was a little bit worried about it. So I, I told Trey, you, you drop in, I'll, I'll keep an eye on the deer or where he was

at least laying and just to make sure he doesn't jump up or anything like that. And so we unloaded all of our gear besides, you know, knives going in, hopefully prepared to make a horrible pack out. Oh. And then Trey, Trey took off while I kept eyes on where he was at. Okay.

Yeah. How far was it? How far was it again from where you are? About like 500, 525. Across the canyon? Yeah, it was around 500. So are you going down and then back up? Like it wasn't across the canyon or? Just straight down. Straight down. Straight down. Okay. Yeah. You know? Okay. Yeah. I take off. I'm hiking up to this deer and as I'm, I'm probably standing in the clearing where I took my first shot where that, where the deer was standing. And so I know I'm getting close kind of where, to where I last saw him and I just keep walking and keep walking. And all of a sudden I just hear like this loud sud and I just watched this buck take off. And as that deer takes off, all of a sudden I just see the horns just laying there. So I'm like, holy crap. Like that smaller buck was standing right over that, right over the deer. Yeah. I do that sometimes.

It's like, man, I got to make sure Freddie Lump Lump's dead and then I can take his doe.

He's dead. He doesn't have to give me no more grief. So Trey, Trey had a, Trey had a quick moment of relief from my point of view. I, uh, I was watching where this deer was, keeping my eye on it. And I had taken my eyes off to see if I could see where my, where Trey was. And I looked back in and there's this butt, this deer butt standing right where I had last seen the buck. And that was one of the worst feelings I've ever felt. Yeah, I can imagine. Cause I, I didn't know, I didn't know if it was, I didn't know what it was. I just assumed Trey's deer stood up. Wow. And, uh, and then after about, I mean, it felt like 10 minutes, it might've only been 30 seconds. Cause I, I didn't have any way to communicate with Trey. I just had to sit there and let it, let it play out. And then finally he ran off and I could, I could see it was, and it was actually, it was

a small buck that we saw that morning with him. And he had just been standing over Trey's buck. Wow. And shortly after Trey yelled up at me and that's when the relief washed over me and the, uh, celebrating began. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Chandler right after that, he hiked down to me. I waited to walk up the deer, walk up to see the deer until he got up there with me. Oh, um, but I just see the back force and I, I just knew it was a big buck. I'm like, Holy cow. It looks like a giant. And now they got closer and closer. That thing, it just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Yeah. Boxing sucker. It was like, Holy crap. Like we just killed, we just killed a freaking giant. And, and Chandler told me at first, like there was probably 180. And as he walked up to, he's like, I think 190 is like maybe 195. Maybe 200, maybe 205, maybe 210. I don't know. Yeah.

It was, it started at 180 and then 190, 195. And right at the last one, we about put a tape on and we both were just like, man, this thing might be. Yeah. We just. 200 inch typical. Yeah. So what did he, what did he end up going? We think officially 204.

Excuse me. Uh, gross 204.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Big enough right there. Yeah. They don't make them like that every day. No. Yeah. This is straight. Straight typical. It was shocking because he's, yeah, he's just a, just a four point. And so it's, it kind of felt weird to maybe even think that he was 200, but at the same time, I mean, just the frame on him was just unbelievable. His main, his main beam on the one side is 29 and a half.

Uh, I mean, just, I mean, it just wraps around and it's kind of hard to tell in some of the photos, but yeah, those, the main beams on him were. I mean, it was, it's, it's awesome. He's, he's a giant. Oh, he is. Yeah. I thought you guys were going to bring him up to the office. What happened?

We're going to try and, yeah, I'll try and swing by. I'm going to be down there this weekend, Thursday, if that works for you guys. Yeah. We'll be here. We want to see him. Yeah. Yeah. We'll swing him by and we'll let you guys check him out. Just awesome. So what do you, I mean, you going to hunt this unit for the rest of your lives or sometimes when guys make memories like that, it's hard to veer away from what you know, you know? I know. Yeah. If I can get a tag every year. Yeah. I'll try and hunt that for forever. Yeah. As long as it keeps producing giants. Yeah, for sure. Well, they've upped the tags in a lot of country there in Colorado, you know, and so you guys might have caught it on that right year where they were reducing the tags and then you get a few of these deer that get some age on them, you know? Yep. Yeah.

Well, that's the other crazy thing is I wish we would have kept the tooth, but his teeth were in perfect condition. And he's cherry young, like four and a half, five and a half? Yep. We think he was four to five years old. Well, you don't have them. I wish they were built that way. No. When they're that big at that age, they're built different. Yeah, they're built different, bro. He is built different. Jeez. Those Colorado deer are awesome. They are. Everything's big about them. Antler, freaking big bodied, big headed things. They're that big. They're usually big young and yeah. It's just awesome. Well, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'd probably keep going back too until you get, you know, sick of it for a year or two in a row and then, you know, do what we all do and look for something greener on the other side of the fence. But until then, keep after it.

You guys saw some other decent bucks. Maybe one of them grows up.

Yeah. Yep. Pretty awesome. Well, congratulations. We appreciate you guys coming on and sharing your story. And I mean, you're reliving the moment, right? You're not wanting to miss a single detail. And obviously, you guys have a respect for each other's brothers. And it's just awesome. Trayton wasn't going to do this without having you on, Chandler. So it just, I think it's great. That's what hunting's all about. It's just awesome. And you killed an absolute monster. Buck of a lifetime. And let me be clear. I, you know, I took the backseat on this one. I'm pumped for this. Upcoming season's yours. I get to be the one being guided now. You are very clear. Make sure he, there's no way he gets out of coming along as a spotter. No way. Yeah. Not whoever spots it first. Well, I don't have a tag. I can't get off work and go over there. No, it's your coming.

Us and 15,000 other people have heard it. Us. Trayton, your turn. Yep. It's your turn. Yep. Well, that's awesome. Chandler's turn. So. Well, Trayton's turn to spots. Trayton, your turn to spot. Yeah. Find spot, pack, whatever. So we have, we, I have three brothers, Trey, Quaid, and Dax. Okay. Dax then was lucky and got a Ponce tag and killed a 207 buck over here on the Ponce gun. Jeez. And our other brother, Quaid, and killed a buck pushing 180 over there in Colorado too. So. Wow. All of my brothers, it's my turn. All right. I love it. Yeah. They've all killed bigger deer than me. Definitely. Use that firstborn, you know, right on them. There's a right of passage. That's right. Do it. So. All right. Okay. Well, have a great day. Great weekend. It was fun. Did you guys get some weather down there? Get some snow over there the last couple days?

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm out in Bryce and, yeah, there's. Foot. I mean, there are two, three foot drifts out on my parents back. Good. Out on the lawn. Yeah. It's. Finally. It got dumped. Jeez. Finally got a little something. Yeah. Hopefully we keep up this spring. Well, that's good. We got a little over here in Cedar. It's good too. Finally have more snow than Florida. Once we've been joking about this winter. Florida got one inch about three weeks ago and they still had us beat. Yeah. So, anyway. Not anymore. That's right. All right. Okay. Well, have a great weekend. Yeah. Thank you guys. Thanks, guys. We appreciate it. You appreciate it. Talk to you later. See ya. We'll see ya. Bye. Yeah. If we had iguanas, we'd be falling out of the trees everywhere right now.

Stacking them like cordwood. Stacking them up like cordwood, stiff and bored, and one heartbeat per minute. Oh. Pretty awesome. That was fun. That was fun. I mean, you know. Yeah. It just goes to show you you've got to be in Colorado no matter what. Oh, yeah. It's like Pollock's family and just bucks happen. They just happen. Bucks, bucks, bucks. Well, and yeah, four or five year old deer. You don't need the seven, eight year old deer to be that way all the time. Some deer don't get that way until they're that old. I had a guy come up to the booth and he was talking about like muzzle litter hunting. And he was seeing bucks everywhere. And some of the bucks he's hunting are no joke unbelievable. And he's like, I just remember your podcast when you guys were like bucks, bucks, bucks. And one day, I hate to say how many he saw, it was unbelievable. Really? Like, yeah. Blew my mind.

I haven't seen it. I haven't had a day like his. What state was this, Jason? Colorado. Okay. I'm just saying, we all need to be in Colorado. Of course we know that and we say that and we talk about it and whatnot. But any season. Still tough, though. Tougher than, way tougher than it used to be. So, I mean. It is. But the rifle hunts are built for getting lucky. A lot of times we're scouting our backyards and doing all that all summer long or other things. And maybe archery elk and things like that in September. And so, those second, third seasons are kind of where we. Show up and just hunt the. Show up and do the best you can. Pre-rod or whatever. Take what the mountain gives you. I hate that saying.

All right. Where does that leave us? Where does that leave us? Which one do you hate worse? That or? I just came up with the new sign for your office. What's the sign? What? That's why they call it hunting and not killing. Yeah. So, Logan. Logan. Find something on Etsy and buys it for Jason. Oh, yeah. I made it custom. You did? I designed that. Yeah. And I took it out. I took it down. It hurt my feelings. I know. It's jammed in a coat closet. That's why they call it hunting and not killing. And so, I'm like, I hate it. So, he made it for me. Who does that? Yeah. And hung it on your wall. Then I hung it. Yeah. I hung it in my office because. Now you put it over in front of him. And then I was just over it. I was like, this is my office. I don't have to look at this stupid thing. It's getting personal. Let's not kill when things get personal. Yeah. Yeah. It is. It is.

It's time to kill some muleys. So, anyway. I'm just like, whatever. So, now a new saying. Here we go. Take what the mountain gives you.

Freak. I can already see. Yeah. Delivered Monday. I got a graphic design cranking in my head right now. I'll consult John the Master. Nice little scroll for your wall. I'm going to take what I want to take from the mountain. I'm going to take what the mountain owes me. The mountain owes me. All right. Take it away, Bronson. Well, I don't know. We're going to talk about. We just got done with the Expo. Got a couple of items that are either like an older model or new models. Are going to be coming out. I don't know if some of these are demos. There's a variety of reasons. Not really. These are new products here. But a couple new stuff we want to point out. Jump online. Logan, you want to tell them how to get there. Just go to store.epicoutdoors.com. And click on what? Bargain bin, right? Bargain bin is what they're looking for. Yeah. Scroll down to bargain bin.

And there's some items on there. What is there? Some SFL 10x30s for smoke and deal. The Gen 1 6-hour kilo 8K ABS rangefinder. Those are literal smoking deals. They are smoking deals. Some of that's under cost. I'm just saying. Definitely should get on there and look. Like you were saying, Adam, the 8K. No joke, SIG rangefinders. You want something special? We all got them. Yeah, we all got them. A Leica Rangemaster, CRF3500.com. Another Leica item or two on there. Maybe a couple rifle scopes. You know, some of the thermal scopes that seems like they get. They don't get outdated, but they get replaced by a new model sooner than regular glass, it seems like. Just as technology changes. But another CRF Pro. So anyway, everything on there I believe we have in stock. We'll double check that. Well, that'll be verified before this goes live.

So everything you see on the bargain bin is going to be in stock. First come, first serve. Just buy them online over the weekend. We'll be here Monday morning fulfilling orders and getting in the mail. And when they're out, it won't let you buy anymore. It'll say call to order. It just automatically does that. And so we'll update that so everything that's on there is actually in stock on this bargain bin. And we're just talking about the bargain bin. We actually have member pricing throughout the store. Just roll up a little bit there, Logan. Let's just make sure we're not missing anything really cool. Yeah, there's some rifle scopes and other things. Just awesome. What about that show special we had on the Harpia? Is that one available? That Harpia is not on there. Will you add it to there? So anyway, we do have a... That one's worth... I mean, that was a show special we got.

And it's a screaming deal. It's an absolute... One of the best spotters. I think it's 1,500 off is what we calculated. Yeah. That Harpia scope next to a cola is like... I mean, they're hand in hand. Hard to tell the difference. Those two are the best, clearest glass there is. 37.50, and that includes a sock, and that'd be out the door. First come, first serve. Angled all of them are, but... Yeah. Yeah. Most people like the angled. Yeah, I don't know. I'm out. Some peeps. For me? I'm out. All right. So are we good, boys? I just wanted to also mention, like, at the expo, we had so many people that listened to the podcast who came out and came up and said really nice stuff. It was good. Yeah. It was really good. And I appreciate it. You know, sometimes it's hard to hit, you know, a podcast a week and to do it. But, man, such nice comments, and it was good to meet a lot of guys. Yep.

It was good. It was awesome, actually. The expo was awesome. Made me think we should do more shows, but here we are trying... We're putting out magazines and... Yeah. ...fine out on the phones. Four days after getting home, wondering how it happened. Yeah. That's been a blur. Yeah. Yeah. The sleep has been deprived, right, John? Yeah. The sleep has been deprived. I think I've got two hours in. Anyway. But it's done. I've had four days a week. So, I don't know. Maybe early next week we'll get the EMAG live. I don't know. Maybe when John feels like doing that, it'll just get put online. Right, John? It'll be a minute. Really? Let's get this drive done with. Let's get this... Yeah. That's just... There's nothing to interrupt our daily life, Jason. Let's talk about... I just want to have a nice life for a minute. Well, it doesn't mean you need to start the April one quite yet. But anyway.

That's it. Everybody have a good weekend. That's all I have. Yep. All right. Yep. Happy day, everyone. Friday. It's five. It's five o'clock so far. Let's face it. If your goal is to kill big stuff, you need to draw quality tags. Quality tags are typically hard to draw. To increase your odds of drawing good tags, you need to apply in multiple states. That's where an Epic Outdoors membership can help. For only $150 a year, you get access to our consultants, our online tools, and to Epic approved outfitters and members-only optics discounts. With unlimited access to our team of consultants and access to the Epic Outdoors magazines, applying in multiple states is easy. No more worrying if you're applying for the best areas. No more applying for a unit where there has been a die-off. And no more missing opportunities where you could be in the field and not sitting at home.

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