EP 382: A 200" Colorado Muley, Colorado Seasons Breakdown and a New Mexico Overview

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Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, John Peterson, Logan. How's everybody doing? Doing amazing. Awesome. All right, well, as we get started on this podcast, I don't know what number it is. Let's call it 500. 382. What? 382? Yeah, that's it. Remember the 400? What kind of line weight operation is this? I don't know. Let's catch up. Let's do two or three a week until we catch up. Okay, this is that different time of year right now, Logan. I don't know what it is I was telling Adam. So you guys come in, you and John, right? Logan and John come into Adam and I's office, it feels like every day, and ask about a podcast. And I get to resent you guys, but really it's the podcast we've designed, right? This is for our business, right? All of our business. In moments of clarity, you're always like, yeah, we really need to be consistent, you know. We do. Every week.

Once in a while, in moments of clarity. But it's also the day after John told us the next magazine print deadline. I feel like this, Adam. And how much work we have to do. Yes. I feel like they choose the perfect times when we're the absolute most stressedest ever. And then there's Logan.

Just save it. I already know what you're asking. Logan.

Am I wrong? Not today. Not today, Logan. Not today. And you know what? Five days out of the week, I feel like saying not today. So here we are. Thanks for reminding us. You're welcome. We're happy to be here, right, Bronson? Yeah. Actually, we do like him, but, man. It's a busy time of year. Lots of coming and going. Lots of office work. Magazines at the printer. New on the docket. Let's talk about it. Which magazine? The March. Well, that one's sitting mailboxes, but that one's already in the rearview mirror as far as our workloads combined. We haven't started consulting heavily on Colorado yet, but it's coming. Oh, it's coming. But now we're working on the April mag right now. We're working on the April mag. We're going to get done by next week. The one that's coming to the mailbox includes Colorado Idaho sheep, goat, moose, Montana deer, and elk.

Got a giant Idaho moose from Mickey Van Healy. Appreciate them. Her and Justin. We've dealt with Justin a long time over the years. Anyway, great guy. Great people. Great family up there in Idaho. They kill a lot of big stuff. They come and hunt Nevada a lot, too, which is great. And I've got to know them well over the years. Appreciate them and their support. And congratulations on a freaking giant. It's awesome. So, anyway, as we crank forward, we got that one coming out, which is we're excited about it. But in that publication that is going to hit your mailbox any day. In fact, we texted them, right? See what the heck. We have March Madness. Bronson, tell us about March Madness. Well, every year the national basketball, you know. Speed it up. We're going that far back. Are you talking about that? Because I'm the champion from last year. Is that where you were going? Okay.

That kind of March Madness? I do not recall. Not that kind of March Madness. I do not recall. Everybody's doing something. Seems like that's a common little term. It's kind of like Black Friday. Everybody has to do something there. Now everybody's doing something on March Madness. Why not us? Why not us? Exactly. So, last podcast you guys heard from these guys, I was gone. But I trust they did a good job. Called everybody. Everybody was happy, happy, happy from what I was told. On the winter membership drive, lots of exclamations. Thanks for having me. We're going to be on that podcast. People are excited. We decided to give three hunts away just in the month of March. So, that's why we call it March Madness. That's a 31-day giveaway. One month. And we're talking, we're approaching 90K of hunts that we're going to give away. Alaska moose, Colorado mule deer on the plains.

Late season rifle. Bronson, you hardly ever hear about people talking about Colorado and having this late plains hunt. Remember the December 1st of the 14th. The tags are so rare to come across. You just never plan on hunting the plains that time frame. Generally, it's an October time frame that people are going. With December, you've got kind of that end of the rut. And they're walking around and they're looking to clean up the last few does or whatever. And there's, I've seen absolute giants on the plains that time frame. That's the only hunt we used to do years ago. Or the one we wanted. You look at the last year or two where Colorado's produced the best, it's no question eastern Colorado. Western Slope's kind of been taking a hit. We've kind of been a broken record talking about the moderation.

A lot of the units, you know, we target and hunt and burn our points on or land our tags or turn back tags or whatever. This is a place to go hunt. Private land with an outfitter that's proven it and done it. So, that's one of the hunts. It's December 1 to 14 with ECO Outfitters. And the winter's going to have an awesome hunt there. Yeah, just looking through the photos that they sent in the last couple years, man. Well, he's, no joke. Yeah, no joke. Alex Nestor's produced incredible bucks over the years. Over the recent five to ten years, just crazy great bucks. And like what Adam was saying, this last year, it was unbelievable in the eastern plains. Yeah. We've got the moisture at the right time frame. Of course, you have the eastern plains, also morphs into Kansas. Crops and some of that. And Oklahoma and all that country did well. Giant mule deer. Then Nevada elk.

We also have Nevada elk with Hobie Gartner of Deadline Outfitters. Hobie and Tasha, just great people. Run a great operation. This includes a landowner tag. Like, landowner tags are no joke. Like, when we say these include landowner tags, we're talking a tag that's worth 20K. You know? Just the tag itself. And so... And besides that, even if you can find it at 20K, they're hard to find. Yeah, you can't just go write a check for one. I want to write a check for a Nevada elk tag right now. Go try to find one. But so it's... We pride ourselves in having some of the best hunts with tags that are just hard to find and hard to get. Yeah. Hard to book. Choose your season on that one. You go to archery, muzzleloader, and rifle season, whatever you want there. 076, 081 up in the northeast corner there. Then we also have a 2026 Alaska moose hunt.

And part of the reason we wanted to give these hunts away in March is they're all for 2026. Yeah. Right now. So if we waited for this lineup to give them away in the summer drive when we usually do a summer drive, it doesn't give you as much time to plan and prepare and know where you're going. Here we're going to do this drawing the first couple of days in April, probably just as soon as we get this buttoned up. But this Alaska moose hunt is down on the peninsula. $40,000 hunt. Hidden Alaska guides and outfitters. Last year, both the hunters on this hunt killed 70-inch plus bulls. I know. That's not a typo. A 72 and 73-incher. Those aren't typos. These are giant bulls. Going to be an awesome, awesome time. This is September 10 to 20 in the rut. No joke. Again, 31-day entry period. Deadline, 11-59, March 31st. Kicking that off. Everything's on our website.

It's going to be a little blowing on this mag that you're going to be getting. But anyway, short turnaround. Sometimes we buy these hunts a year or two in advance, some of these. And then by the time sometimes they come around, you realize, all right, we have two moose hunts going the same year. So you can't give two moose hunts on the same summer drive. So you've got to do it monthly or you've got to spread stuff out. Anyway, we love doing them and fun making those calls. This is just something fun to be a part of the March Madness in addition to picking your bracket. Yeah. Okay. One month. Here we go. It's going to be until March 31st. End of story. You'll find that in this latest publication. And only one, the March publication. All right. So as we get cranking, we like to start it off with a story. We need to start this off. I think we should call our good friend Brock Syrett.

Killed a 200 and some odd inch incredible deer out of Colorado because everybody's excited about Colorado and we've got an application period coming up. It would be April 7th would be the deadline. We cover it in this March publication as well. Why not? Why not? Just call him, get a story. And it just kind of gets everybody excited about Colorado in general. It's a great story. I don't know. Let's hear it from him.

Hey, Jason. How's it going? Hey, good. You're on the Epic Outdoors podcast. I've got Bronson here, John, Logan. How's things? What's going on, Brock? Everything's going pretty good. How are you guys? We're doing good. Good. You getting snowed on somewhere today? No, not today. I'm up north. I'm in Lehigh. Okay. Well, it's our turn in southern Utah to get crushed with, what, 1.75 inches. Yeah. Looking at the radar, five miles outside of city limits was dry. Yeah. So, I mean, we're hanging on to every flake that falls this time of the year. But anyway. We need it. We want to hear a big old deer story. That's good. That's good. Yeah, I'm going to tee this up a little bit because this kind of, Brock, along with, you know, several other guys, we were down in Hanksville. Well, I was there for about three weeks.

But during that period of time, Brock was down helping, looking for sheep, my boy, and Lakin, and several other guys. We had guys going on three different units at once. So, there's Brock down there. We're looking for sheep. And he had to leave because he had this deer tag. And it wasn't like, it felt like you were gone 45 minutes and had a 200-incher killed. And I know it was more than 45 minutes. But it was a couple of hours, a few days. But, I mean, literally, I was like, I just saw this guy. And then I got a picture of him with this freaking deer. And we're all down there like, what? Anyway. So, tee that up a little bit. It definitely couldn't have worked out any better. Utah boys killing Colorado bucks and bringing them back home. Where they belong. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, talk about it. I knew you. We knew you, you know, drew the tag. Use your points.

And just take it over a little bit about, you know, who went with you and how it happened. Well, that's, I was just looking kind of back over everything that I sent to Jason. And I didn't even realize when I sent him the story, that's what Saturday, the opener, I was down in Hanksville still. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a nine-day. I didn't make it out there until Sunday night. Yeah. It was a nine-day hunt. And so, and sometimes with some, towards the end of a second or a third is, is we generally feel the better time. If you can't hunt all nine days, hunt the last six or seven. Yeah. The field clears out. People go home. They get tired. Yeah. Or they kill or whatever. And, and time, it gets better, you know, with a little bit of time. And even if it's just maybe some elk, general elk hunters that go home, you know, after the weekend. That, that can lighten up pressure. But, but anyway, yeah.

Yeah. You didn't even, weren't even their opening day. No, yeah. I wasn't there Saturday or Sunday. I went, I drove home Saturday night from Hanksville. Got home at like 11 o'clock at night and grabbed my brother, Brace, and drove to Colorado after church Sunday morning. And we got to Colorado at like after dark Sunday. So our first morning, me and him were scouting Onyx with, Jason had gave us a few points to go, to go to Monday morning. My best points. My best points. Yeah. He drew us some good scores. Those are Onyx points that only the entire company of Onyx have. Absolutely.

All right. But, oh, and that first morning was just absolute chaos. We took some random road and it was washed out and went around the other way. It took us an hour to get into where we wanted to glass. So it was already nine in the morning. And first deer, first buck we saw, we glassed up dead. Some girl was on her way down to go pick it up. Like it was, we were just looking at each other. You glassed up a dead buck and then found the hunters approaching the buck? They were like 50 yards away from it, like walking down to it. Wow. We were like, what in the heck is going on? Was it a good buck or tell us about that buck? It was a really solid 26-inch four-point. Yeah. Really nice buck. Wow. Nice. Sometimes it's hard to find 24, 26-inch four-point. Yeah.

Sure can be. But, yeah, like the first morning, the whole first day and a half was just chaos. That night we went and set up in glass somewhere and found a group of deer, but nothing really, like just a couple nice bucks and nothing really that we were hoping for. And my cousin showed up that night. It's like Monday night. And we were going over some of the points and stuff. And this is a little Onyx thing. I didn't know you could turn on where burns were on Onyx, like where you could glass burns. Jeez, yeah, you can. Don't tell everybody. Oh, sorry. Sorry. But my cousin Hayes was like, dude, let's go check out this burn after the morning on Tuesday. Because Tuesday morning we got stuck in the mud and about totaled my dad's four-runner and scratched it up. Don't say too much. We don't want to have to edit too much out for old Gary. We'll keep it quiet. Is this the four-runner?

He saw the scratches on it. Is this the four-runner that was wrecked or the one after? I can't even remember. It's the one after. Oh. Yeah. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring that one up. No, he's okay. He reminds me of that Tacoma pretty often.

Was that you? Was that you? I don't even remember. Well, that was a different one. Yeah, that was me. I told him that. But it wasn't your fault. It wasn't your fault, right? No, this was a different name. The other one was Gary. Gary was with a friend and a friend was driving. That's it. And they got hit. Yeah, that's a different one. That's a different one. Brock and Rafe were just, yeah, let's just say they're having fun on a snowy morning. Okay. Been a couple of wrecks later. Now we're dealing with this Tacoma in Colorado. Or a four-runner in Colorado. All right. Yeah. I'm following you. Yeah. So Tuesday morning was a lot like Monday morning, taking the wrong road. Like 5.30 in the morning, we hit a gate that was locked on public land. Then we went to a different road, got stuck in a puddle of mud and had to dig ourselves out. Jeez.

And then we went up the road and like literally scratched my dad's four-runner to pieces. Jeez. And had to turn around that road because it just got super mean. And we kind of just went and like, we really were just trying to like explore and find the elevation of the deer. Like we were still learning the unit. Brand new. Never been there. Yeah. Like we all experienced. Yeah. Yeah. We had no idea like really where we were at, what we were doing.

And so we kind of went up in a different place and my cousin found this burn that he's like, well, let's just go over here and eat lunch and glass while we eat lunch and just see what happens. And so we drove a couple hours to that side of the unit and set up for lunch. And like we were literally eating a cup of noodles and I glassed up a couple of does. Like in the furthest, highest point you could get away from everything. I got up and walked around the truck where I had cell phone service and sent my dad a text because he was actually driving out to Colorado to come meet us. He wasn't out there yet.

Walked around the hill to talk to my cousin, tell him I had some deer. And when I came back and sat down, there was a third deer with his nose down running the dirt. And so you knew it was a buck. Like we'd seen a couple ruddy deer and he turned his head in the yellow grass and we were like, oh my gosh, what is that?

And it was probably like where we were glassing from. He was like three-ish miles away. And so I sent my cousin or my brother to go get my cousin on the other side of the hill so we could look at it. And I could hear my cousin coming over the top of the hill like, I swear if you're screwing with me, like think you have a big deer found or whatever, like getting all mad that he had to walk over to us. Yeah. But it was one of those deer that the second like you laid eyes on it, you were like, oh my gosh, like what is that? Well, he's wide. So, I mean, whatever he is, you maybe can't make out forks and all that, but you know his frame is big and wide. This is a frame deer. Just going with the odds. If he's got a frame like that, he's probably something we're going to get real serious about. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

So, we just hurry and packed everything up and called my dad and told him we were going to go in and get closer to him. What'd he do? Pull off an exit and twiddle his thumbs in case it was going to get – He kept driving. Getting closer usually means going to smash him. Yeah, that's what I mean. I would pull over and get an Arby's Roe of Beast sandwich and wait for another report. Yeah. No, he actually kept driving. He actually met us as we packed the buck out. The last load. Met us like there. Hold on a tease. Yeah. All right. Well, so, yeah, you got to cut the distance. So, yeah, we'll let you keep talking. Yeah. So, we drove. We had to drive like around the head of the canyon. And then he was kind of on the backside of a ridge, so we had to hike up the other side. And it was just like a couple thousand feet vertical.

It wasn't very far, like only like a quarter mile, but it was literally like straight up. And so, we – it took us like an hour to get up to the top of it. By now, it's probably like still like four o'clock. Like it's still tons of light left. And we came up over the hill and they were gone. We were like, what the heck? Like we could not find them anywhere until finally the does fed back out. And that's really the only reason we killed him was because he wasn't like full-blown rut. But he was just enough that he stayed like within 50 to 100 yards of him. Yeah. Just kind of following behind him slow. Yeah. And so, we found them in the thick and eventually got him. And then over the course of the next hour and a half, they kind of weaved in and out of the bottom of this canyon and stuff until finally at like six – what time dark would be then?

It was probably like 530-ish that the does finally fed up on the hillside and he followed right behind him. And I never even – I looked at him through the spotting scope for like a half a second. He had enough. And then he kind of disappeared again and I never really looked at him again. And when he came back out right then, my cousin Hayes was just like, get on the gun and kill him. Like he didn't even let me look. He was just like, kill that deer. That's awesome. Jeez. So, you were – how far were you at that point? You're ready to kill. There's no more moving. When I shot him, he was like 315 yards. Oh, jeez. Like we were right in his wheelhouse. Awesome. It's just crazy. So, is that it? Like it was one shot? I mean, how'd this go? Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Jason, one shot. One shot and he was done. Tell us the real story. I'm just teasing. I'm just teasing.

It was like six total hours of actually hunting with all the chaos and everything. Oh, my gosh. The first mature buck we laid eyes on. And I think it was within the – I think I drew you some boxes like hunt this area. Yeah. Right? Yep. It was within one of those, right? Yeah, it was. It was in one of those boxes. I like it. I like it. Yeah. He also gave me some of those same polygons. I know. I gave Adam some. How'd that work out? Sounds like it was a very different hunt. I deleted all the files that you sent me. I don't need them cluttering up my arms. They didn't work for Adam, but I was like, yeah. I don't need them cluttering. I felt bad. I'll start fresh. I'm glad it worked for you, Brock. Yeah. No, I was glad too. So then you walked up to him and then what? So, yeah. Tell us about – yeah, you really – you knew he's good and big. Did you know?

I mean, sometimes when you know, you know. But, I mean, was he – he's obviously like a 30-something inch. How wide was he? He's 30, like one and a half. Yeah. Jeez. And just a big box. A very box. Yeah. Eye guards, mass. It just feels like he has everything. Just the perfect box. Did you know it? Yeah, it is. Did you know it when you were looking at him through your rifle scope? When we had, like, looked at him from a distance and then just a little bit up close, like, honestly, in my head, I really thought he would be just over that 190s mark. Yeah. Which, for me, again, is like a no-brainer. Like, I was like, absolutely, I'm going to kill that deer. Yeah. Yeah. But when we walked up on him in person, we were all kind of like, what the heck did we just kill? Like, it was definitely a moment of shock of, like, well, this is bigger than any of us realized it was. Yeah.

This was on the second rifle, too, right? Yeah. Yeah. It reminded me a little bit about, because Logan talked about, oh, may I call it 10 podcasts ago. I don't know. We talked about Logan's hunt and how you saw the same behavior with bucks, that you can sometimes get them starting to move in with the does the first time and puppy dog them a little bit. They're not running. They're not crazy, but, like, they're with them. They're hanging around. They're still with them after, I mean, you guys hiked for an hour and a half or whatever. It's not like he left. No. Like, he was with them. He's hanging around. And like you said, probably that's a lone deer. You're not seeing him. You're not glassing him up. But the fact that he had a couple of does, just puppy dog and nose and go bet over here. And it's just, that's what can happen in Colorado, even on the second season. Even the second, yeah.

And even, we only, we probably saw five or six bucks over the couple days. And four of the six were rutting does. Were, like, chasing does. Wow. Yeah. And there are other units that that never happens, maybe even on the third. I know. I know. Yeah. It feels like there's certain pockets in Colorado. They do tend to rut a little early. And that happens. We see it in Utah. Some of our generally. Like, you throw like a Book Cliffs and Oak Creek. They rut early, you know, compared to some other units. This general vicinity does seem to rut a little bit early, too. Yeah. Just different areas in Colorado rut different time frames. And then there's some, like you're saying, Adam. On the third. I don't even know when they rut. Like, you feel like you never witness a rut. You go on the third and you never see rutting activity on some third season. Yeah. So, like a 6-68.

South central part of the state. Yeah. Just don't rut as early. All right. All right. You pull him out of the brush and he's awesome. And he's 200 and watt. I mean. He's 204. Yeah. Mostly frame. He looks. He's got a couple little cheesers, but they're like an inch, inch and a half. They're not. They don't get. Give him much. But mainly all frame. That's an awesome buck. Yeah. It was awesome. It was a good hunt. It was a good hunt. Your dad got there to shut the tailgate right as you put the last load of meat on it. That's what dads do best. They shut the tailgate. We walked off the hill to his truck and put it in the back and followed him out. He said good job. Yeah. Did he ever. Yeah. Has he ever noticed the scratches or is he going to listen to this podcast? Oh, yeah. He noticed them. I like it. Just remind him if he gives you a hard time.

I had a brand new truck and he'll remember this. Brand new truck. And I was hunting with him. I've seen the picture of that. Yeah. And I had him that day. I've only used the winch twice in my life on that truck. And they were both that day that I was. Gary was driving me around on a hunt. He was driving. And got me stuck. Pinstriped and stuck. Stuck once with a winch. Got another winch twice in a day. And I've not used it since. So just remind him. Just know it all comes around. That's right.

Good people. Pretty fun. That's awesome, Brock. Got any big plans? You feeling any mojo this year in any other states? You got any other weird plans you're going to do? I know you're taking classes. You're working. You got a lot going on. But what's your general vibe this year? What direction are you going? I hope to draw or pick up a Colorado tag somehow. My little brother will burn his points. It'll be his senior year. Oh, okay. And so whatever I do will be the opposite of him so that I can be with him hunting. Go on a hunt. Whatever he can draw. And you'll look at a different, whether it be a turn back or land on. Or since you burned your points, you have to do something like that. Yep, exactly. So we'll kind of just see how it plays out. Well, I got a couple ideas for you. Do you? Yeah, send him to some of these units. Oh, a couple more polygons? No. A couple more polygons, squares.

Maybe. Make a couple. But I'm just thinking. As long as you're kids. We want somebody to pioneer. As long as those little GPS boxes come right now. Some of these places we want people to pioneer.

Yeah. And then we show up and the polygons come our way. Oh, that's fair. I owe you back for him. I owe you back. But he's also given other people those that are different hunts. And they've never been back to the same unit. So it worked out good for you. We'll talk about this as soon as you're off, Brock. We want to vet out Bronson's experience. No. No, I'm talking about you and Wyatt's experience. Oh. You guys guinea pig. You guys were your own pioneers. Yeah, it's never worked out very well for us. That's right. Oh, anyway. All right. Well, we appreciate you. Thanks, Brock. Hope you're doing good. Absolutely. Thank you, guys. Pretty awesome. Pretty fun to hear stories like that. Where you can just go on a unit for the first time and then have this kind of an experience. Feels a little bit better than Utah's general. Gives me hope. Maybe one day. Yeah. You always go to Colorado, right?

That's kind of the rule. You try to be. That is the rule right there. You just got to be there. Yep. All right. Appreciate your time. Thanks a lot. Absolutely. Thank you, guys. You bet. Talk to you later. Bye. All right. Bye. It is true. I mean, as much as we can downplay that it ain't the same, nowhere is, but Colorado is a place. Stuff just happens. It does, man. It's why we go. It's why we try to be there. Just let something happen. Something good happen. It is. So, I guess, Bronson, you hunted the fourth season. My wife. Your wife, yeah. Yeah. And so, anyway. Sounds like they were rutted out. Yeah, but you had how many bucks on one doe? Oh, one day. Yeah, it was crazy rut. But just. Well, like, let's call it six bucks on one doe. Yeah. Seven bucks on one doe, you were telling me, and not a 24-incher in the bunch. And they were breeding her. Oh, yeah.

And so, then you feel like Adam's like. The youngest buck, because the old ones, when I say older, they were just. They'd been trying to keep everything at bay. And then a three-year-old, you know, was just, ah, I'm new to the party. He just crushed and got 200 yards ahead of him running the doe off. And the others were already tired. I'm like, I've seen it with sheep. When that happens, you feel like if there was a giant in the area, he would be there. Oh, he'd be there. That's when I said, all right, this is fun to watch. We're going somewhere else. We're done. Yeah. Yeah. And then after three or four days of that, it was like. There's like eight or ten does there, too. So, it's like. Yes. Like, if there's that many does, and there's like, call it ten bucks, but about seven or eight of them on her. The other two or three, two points is my, like, what's going on?

You know, they don't even know what's going on. But anything that's two years old and older, you know, knows what smells good, you know, or whatever. That's right. They're running around like crazy. But, yeah, it's time to go out of that little pocket. There would be a big deer there. And then pretty soon, I get the text of, we're headed home. Well, that was four days later. That was four days later. What do you mean? There was a 205, 31 and a half, 31 and three quarters. But it just happens. That's my point. Yeah. That's right. You just don't know. That's right. You know. We had a good time. It was fun. Yeah. But it doesn't always just happen. And even on a fourth season that's supposed to be better than the second, sometimes it just happens that way. Well, sometimes, honestly, I think it goes back to a couple things on fourth season. Everybody looks at the dates and they're awesome.

But a couple things about the fourth season. We all saw collectively the second season was the best season in Colorado last year. I don't think you could debate that, Jason. Anyway, the second season got going and, man, we're like, oh, my gosh, Colorado is going to be amazing. Third wasn't close. Fourth wasn't close. None of these western slope units are packing enough big, big deer to carry them over on all three hunts. Well, I was just like, and there was some predictions. People had predicted this to be an amazing year in Colorado and it was on the plains. And it kind of started out, like you're saying. Second. It started out on second. And I'm like, this is going to be stupid. And then there was guys calling in. They were like, can we figure out a third season landowner attack? We know it's going to be crazy. Third, it was like nothing. It was like a little pop. Fourth, same thing.

There was nothing. Same thing. Not a lot of new weather, but I just think they're just not the number of old bucks on most units now. If you got a couple, you could make the argument. Last year was the case in point. You could make the argument. Might as well go first. Might as well go first and be there because there's not enough to go around for, to have any big deer show up on the fourth. Another thing that happened on the fourth, last year, the third season and the new five year season structure, third season went back to nine days. It had been seven the previous five years. When it's seven days, now you have a four or five day break. It ends on a Friday night. You go clear till the next Wednesday before the four starts. But not last year. Last year, the third is now nine days. It goes till Sunday night. So all you have is Monday and Tuesday off.

The deer don't really even know in two days that they're still not being hunted. I mean, they're just not a, not a let up. Yeah. People get there early too. Not a relief. Not a relief. You got elk hunters crushing the place till that second weekend now. Well, before the elk hunters weren't there Friday, Saturday, Sunday, OTC elk hunters, which happens in, let's call it 80% of the units we hunt deer in is OTC elk. So now you have no, you have all that pressure. You get four or five days off. And that's, I think, a different, different feel for a fourth. I don't think the fourth is appealing. The dates are appealing. But I just don't think with a nine day third right before it, the points warranted to draw those versus maybe a third of, you know, somewhere else. When it was initially designed, it was, this is going to be everything slammed on the winter range. Back when we had winters.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Every, you, you hunted fourth in 25, 26, you were at 10,000 feet. Oh yeah. Some years you don't get it. Some years you don't get it. Well, the last, it feels like five years. I don't know how many years. Yeah. Look at Gunnison or other units where you have a ton of high country. Yeah. That you want stuff to get slammed down low by a third, hopefully, and fourth, definitely. They even haven't had that. So it's just, when you don't get weather, and we come back to weather a lot, but when you don't get weather in Colorado, in units with high country, it can be, you might as well just go first and get the first crack. They haven't been hunted for a month, deer-wise, since the archery hunt got over. You know those sayings that I hate? What? Go ahead, Logan. We got another one. What's the saying that I hate? No, the one that you got.

That's why it's called hunting. Not killing. Okay. And you get what the mountain gives you. Yeah, you get what the mountain gives you. Bronson brought that home from Canada. And it's just an excuse for the Canadians not to scout. Drives me crazy. Okay. We got another one we're adding? What are you adding? Well, you can't predict the weather. You know, I used to hate that. Like, oh, well, we just didn't have the weather. And I'm like, oh, I hated it. You know what? It's actually valid. I've decided it's valid. Both for growing big deer and fawns and deer populations and having a good home. Weather is huge. There was a game manager here in southern Utah back in the day. And he'd always say, what can we do to help deer? Pray for rain. Pray for rain. And everybody'd be like, that's a sad excuse for game management. For not doing your job. We have to rely on praying for rain. Like, come on.

You can, you know what? You probably ought to pray for rain. Probably ought to pray for rain. And this guy was an atheist. Okay. Was he? Actually, I think he was. Okay. You're right. I mean, it's kind of. So, you know, he was laughing all the way to the bank. I'm telling these guys to pray for rain. Let's see how righteous they are. I don't know. But I'm just saying, those are the kind of things that just bug me, but it's true. Yeah. You need, in Colorado, when you get that weather, whenever that big first snowstorm is, and Brock didn't have it. I'm not saying he had amazing weather. I'm just saying in general. Yeah. When you get that first big snowstorm, like, everybody just salivates. Oh, yeah. Bucks are staging. You get in the early to mid part of October, it is a really hard. Bucks are not doing much. They're not moving much, all that. You get towards the end of October.

Then they start to get the first cup of real crisp, you know, mornings and a little bit of snow. And they start rubbing their hawks and doing that. Their behavior starts to change the first time it changes. My favorite Colorado deer story. I don't know. Where's this going? Well, I mean, it was the crisp morning in Unit 61 with Gary. Sire it. Brock's dad. Was it Gary? Was it? When you locked the keys in the vehicle. No, that wasn't 61. That wasn't 61. Oh, it was 43. I know. It wasn't there either. Just say it. It was 20 years ago. It's a unit I haven't been back to since. Let's just put it that way. But it was biting cold and a foot of snow. The most amazing morning ever. A flocked white of a foot or 18 inches of snow. Flocked white. Christmas. A Christmas day. My truck. My gun's locked in the backseat of the truck. Adam gets his deer and I look like, what?

But Gary's like, well, I got a gun. I said, let's go hunt the morning. You've got a gun and your gun's out of the truck and the truck's locked. Because this opening day. He had locked the keys in, right? I mean, my favorite story ever. And it's the most cherriest. We were pushing. The snow we don't get anymore. We were pushing. We maxed out the four-wheeler. You could not drive. You could not drive a four-wheeler. It was that deep. I mean, we haven't had a single storm like that the entire year here. You know what I mean? You wait your whole life for a morning like today. Let alone opening day of a fourth. You've got five days to make good on it. And it's the cherriest of the cherries.

I love these stories. I love them. Yeah, you're going to have those. Luckily now you got. What's fun is to hear Gary's side of it. I mean, scared crab legs. I am not an upset. I was. I love it. It was a natural. You're upset. Your gun's in the trouble. Everybody's going to be upset. And I knew we were going to see five 200-inches off the four-wheeler that morning. And Gary was going to shoot one. It was back when they made them, too. They made numerous 200-inches back then. Yeah. And I could have grabbed his gun and shot one of them. But we couldn't split up because I didn't have a gun. It's so fun. I love the history like that. We have some history. We've been thinking about that, actually. Just a lot of, I don't know, I guess call it we're old. But there's a lot of stories and a lot of history. Kind of fun.

But anyway, here we are talking about Colorado and all kinds of things that people are able to apply for. You'll find in this publication we did change things up, Bronson and John and everybody here, where we grouped. We did unit groupings. So, when you look at, say, like Colorado deer, you're going to see archery. All the archery are together because, generally, if you're going to archery hunt Colorado, the archers are diehard. I want to see the top 10 archery options and that's it. Oh, in my point level, even. Just I want to do a quick glance at all the archery options, a quick glance at the muzzleloader options, which, by the way, Bronson, are some of the most undervalued, underappreciated seasons in Colorado because we're always used to hunting elk. Well, we're used to hunting elk. And September's a busy month. It's super busy. Yeah.

I mean, lots going on in September, so it's hard to make time and go do that. And it goes back, if it's not your home state, we're trained to, you know, usually early, whether it be Wyoming high country or Nevada or Utah archery, muzzleloader, scout your buck, hunt your buck. And that means you probably got to do that in Colorado, too. And that's an overlooked hunt when you have one, two, or three rifle hunts later on in October, November. Yeah. Yeah. And every time we think about rut hunting, we always think about the old days when we muzzle or hunted Utah back. General muzzle Utah was our best hunt ever. So we're trained that you hunt the rut with firearms. Like, if you can hunt the rut with firearms, you do that and that trumps everything else. Yeah. You do that no matter what. Well, these early hunts in Colorado, they are so undervalued, underappreciated. And you don't have to scout.

I always look at it like, if you can't scout 30 days, you might as well not do it. This is not true. You can go there, probably scout four or five days, and you're good. And just go have a great hunt. Yeah. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Undervalued. Yeah. You've got bow hunters out there, but you've got your nine-day window within the archery hunt. But, hey, you've got a muzzleloader. As far as muzzleloader. Yeah. The 12th to the 20th. You've got to wear some orange. So what? You've got a 150-yard gun. And the archers are September 2nd to the 30th. And you're going to hunt good bucks. Whereas, a lot of times on these runs, Bronson, kind of hard to find a quality deer on some of these, right? Oh, yeah. Even just mature at times. Well, and there's usually lighter hunting pressure then from deer hunters.

There's still a lot of, I still call them over-the-counter elk hunters, even though archery elk went to a draw for non-residents last year. The quotas were so high. A lot of places, they were still somewhat like over-the-counter. And residents are over-the-counter. But there's a lot of people in the field, but not a lot of archery and muzzleloader deer tags during those seasons compared to the rifle hunts. Rifle hunts where they give all the opportunity. You get other states, they crush the opportunity for archers in that earlier, even with bows, because they're less effective or whatever. Not the case in Colorado. Archery and muzzleloader hunters, muzzleloader especially, you've got like 20 and 30 tags for muzzleloader deer in some units. Like, that will have hundreds on a second and a third. You do.

That doesn't really, it's just a token, here's a hunt for muzzleloaders, but like it's a good opportunity. Of the units, of the units we list for muzzleloader, we don't even have one that crests 100 tags total. And some of those same ones will have 2, 3, 500 rifles, seconds and thirds, right? That's right. Like, it's just, it's a good opportunity. It's because the season structure and the mentality was built for rifle elk hunting. Yeah. And then they just incorporated it with the deer. And the deer was an afterthought, which is why they, it's not proper game management to hunt them in the rut with a rifle. No. It's not. No. Which is what we're whining about. That's why we see quality, you know, moderating consistently all through Colorado, as we've talked about in other states. You know, Montana and other places are saying, hey, what's happening to our mule deer?

It's blaming on the non-residents, blah, blah, blah. Montana, speaking of which, Montana's talking, they would like to see better quality. The residents would like to see better quality. Oh, yeah. So they want to limit us a bit, but they really, we know that they have a need to continue to look at season structure. Yeah. I mean, I don't know that the non-resident deer quota has changed much in 15 or 20 years. We looked it up, Jason. It was 20 years plus. And it's always been the same exact number. But somehow we're getting the blame, non-residents, for increasing hunting pressure. Yeah. I don't know how that can happen when our quota, that your drawn tags hasn't increased. Now, they do have other things, like if you've been in Montana resident, born there, and leave, there's ways you can get tags after you come back. And I know that's all additive on top of the true non-resident quota.

But I'm just saying, we've talked about it. Yeah. We're blue in the face. You hunt five weeks during the rut. They're just bowing to social pressure. Yeah. The local residents. Landowners and residents. We just see other license plates. And we think we could curtail this a bit. Yeah. You know. So they're going to trim 2,500-ish or so deer tags off this year. Yeah. For Montana. So it'll be interesting on some of that. But then they're going to continue. They need to continue to look at if they really want to see quality. And they're talking about that. Then, I mean, obviously, the season structure needs to be altered. It's rifle rut hunting. Yeah. Last Saturday in October. General. Usually until the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Five weeks. OTC for residents. Five weeks. With the gun. With the exception of very limited few units. And you can see those. I mean, it's limited. Yeah.

I call it 10 or 15 in the whole state. Maybe. Rounding high. Maybe I'm rounding up. But anyway. Kind of interesting. Pretty. But that's in there, too. Obviously, it's a very, very different story when it comes to elk. Especially archery elk hunting in Montana is phenomenal. Especially if you're willing to hunt areas that have a little bit of public and private mix. Work hard at it. And or pay an outfitter and hunt private land. Archery elk. It's some of the best. It's some of the best archery elk hunting in the West. It's not clean and easy. Giant big tracks of public land hunting like we're used to in, say, New Mexico and Arizona and Utah and Nevada. But giant bulls. You know, archery elk in Montana is its – that's the bright spot. No question of anything would be archery elk tags in that state. Just hard for me to – I don't know.

Maybe it's that trip we took at two and a half miles to the gallon with a Chevy 6.0 gasser. That was 20 – How many years ago was that, John? So long, but it was scarring. Probably 20. It was scarring. We had a north wind headwind. And we were pulling a trailer and we about didn't even make it between gas stations through the middle of the valley. And they were only 100 miles apart. I don't know. It was sucking hard. We didn't have cool electronics that we have now, so we were looking at paper maps to get there. It was just dumb stuff. It was scarring, you know? It's a long drive. Let's just put it that way. We're in a truck we can't afford. I don't know. I'm just – anyway, but moving on. Let's talk about New Mexico really quick. That's the front burner. We're excited about New Mexico. It's due March 18th. We always are. You do have to front the fees.

But there's been some adjustments, Bronson. Even most noteworthy, I would say, IBEX. People – even though there's not a ton of tags, people are interested in some of these odd species, once-in-lifetime type opportunities, right? Yeah. So they took IBEX, and basically the population's garbage. They've overhunted it. Yeah. Deliberately. Deliberately. Overhunted it. But then didn't realize how far they really took it. Then they go do surveys, you know, very accurate surveys, thermal imaging and things. And they know that they don't have – it pales in comparison on what it's managed for. So then they end up with five total once-in-a-lifetime rifle tags, which does not leave a non-resident tag. So this came in after the regulations were published. Yeah. That usually hits, what, end of December. Those get finalized. And so between then and now, either then or early January, those are final.

We see them. So it went from 15 to now five. And then they eliminated the muzzleloader season altogether. And we're doing 20 on each archery. And why do 20? Because there's 0% kill. Like, who cares? Let's sell those tags. When they were selling 100, they'd kill five or less on 100 tags. There was 0% harvest on the October 1st hunt. There was 0% harvest in 23 and 24. You know what I mean? So do you feel guilty as a state? No, it's the state. Hey, they want an opportunity? We gave it to them. 1,600 bones. No, I'm a resident. Thank you. You know? And so anyway. And how many applicants? Plus, we get to hold their money for a minute. It's just all of those things. In the January, in 2024, it was 0% harvest in the January 15th hunt. So anyway, they're going to give 20 tags on each of those. At the end of the day, there's no rifle. Once in a lifetime type hunt? No. Once in a lifetime.

Just coin once in a lifetime. Skip it. Skip it unless you want to do it. Put it in for an archery hunt. So pretty cool. The Barbary, great. Great opportunities there. Absolutely be implying. Of course, Bronson, we've hunted a lot of elk over the years in New Mexico. And it feels like quality comes and goes with weather. It does. It definitely does. Again, can't control the weather. Pray for rain. It is a dry state. And last year was a decent year. It wasn't phenomenal. It was tough in some places. Really tough. But I don't know. You can't say that it's off the charts moisture-wise. And obviously, lots to come between right now and, say, May, June when really things dry up. It has to be better than last year, though. I hope. Yeah. But the biggest thing we always go back to is there's no points. You're never preserving 10, 20 points in New Mexico.

So if you've got time in your schedule, which most people do because it's one of the first states do for the year, go ahead and put in. You find out by the end of, what, 20-something, 25th of April or something. Yeah, that's roughly. One credit card cycle. You know, so, you know, then you can maybe alter it around some other stuff. You know, not everything, but no points. If you draw something and something closes in around you, all right, just go have a good time. Hunt for five days. The rifle hunts. Devin got lucky and drew last year. Yeah. You know. The rifle deer and elk are usually five-day hunts. Archeries are either 1st to the 14th of September or the 15th to 24th. Then you've got muzzleloader hunts, the 10th to the 14th. Another goes back into the five-day hunts with firearms. So, and it's open sight, which they're actually saying we're hearing a lot from people that know.

Some of the quality have been proven a little bit. Yeah. Well, mostly, how do they know? It's the age class, too. You know what I mean? And so, when we do have one of these good, wet years, you're going to see old bulls that are just archaic awesome. Yeah. You know, background. Old school bulls. Just awesome stuff. So, plenty of opportunity. We list out so many different options. There are hundreds and hundreds of combinations. You've got three choices. And they're all valid. You've got coos deer and mule deer to mix and match in between all those. You've got archery, muzzle, and rifle. And then you've got, of course, your same with elk. Archery, muzzle, and rifle. And all around the state, you know, the sheep are really, really good. They're obviously extremely hard to draw. And if you can afford the $3,500 on your card, you know, hard not to.

They've got the biggest Rockies in the world the last several years. It's just no comparison right now. Deserts are still solid. They're talking about opening a couple of different sheep options that will come out for the next year. 27. So, this new kind of a four-year cycle. And so, it'll be interesting. It's always fun when things like that open up. There's a lot of states, New Mexico being one of them, you know, that have obscure herds that nobody knows about. Because we're not able to apply for them. Right. And then all of a sudden, they're like, man, yeah, we're going to open up this. And by the way, we transplanted 15 years ago. And there's some old big rams in some of these places. Yep. A lot of that. You know, oryx, we didn't mention that. But, of course, I've been down there and done that. Devin, we've talked to him a couple months ago. He drew a tag for an off-range there.

Just another unique species there in addition to the barbree and, of course, the ibex that we talked about. But some odd stuff there. Big antelope. Tough odds for antelope. But some big antelope. Tough, tough odds. But, you know, because I like to think about mule deer once in a while, I think about New Mexico mule deer. And that is one of the states that hide a few big deer because there's a few big deer sprinkled throughout the state. The whole state. Yep, there is. But we lose members to suggesting people to think outside the box for deer hunts in New Mexico. What you were telling Brock about, hey, we need a few pioneers. We do. And send you some places. That happens in New Mexico and people don't want to talk to me. We pioneered some stuff ourself. Yeah. And we would never go back. You just, you just, it goes back to New Mexico, though, that you're never giving up points.

Yes, you're paying a tag fee. You got gas. You got time away from work and all that. But sometimes they work out and guys steal something really good. Most of the time they don't. But it can happen. And that's the way you got to just view New Mexico. If you're going to deviate from, I guess, the normal, consistent producers for both deer and elk. Some units produce. Some years, though. That's cool. No, it is. It's a tough situation down there. The archery hunts in January generally are pretty awesome hunts. And so I'm not saying look outside the box there necessarily. If you have to have a giant deer, apply for 2C. You know, but we've, you know, at times, depending on the weather, there's big deer in multiple units. And so happy to help you look outside the box there if you want to go ahead and call us. But just word to the wise, just beware. Those are tough hunts.

The coos deer, underappreciated, I would say. There's a lot of opportunity down there. More than what we list in the publication. And big coos deer are kind of where you find them. It's not like, I mean, there are units that are known for producing better numbers, I would say. But generally speaking, there's big coos deer in probably every single unit. All right. We got anything else, Bronson, as we wrap this thing up? Any other words of wisdom? No. What have we been talking about in the office? A lot of times we'll take here and there just a half hour, an hour, and spew golden nuggets. I don't know. The only thing I guess really, I guess we didn't talk about Mexico. I was down there last week. That was fun for me. Did talk to you guys a little bit about that. While you guys were drawing the winners for this winter membership drive, I was down there.

I had with Jeff Knapp and his son, Colton. It was awesome. He won our Desert Sheep Hunt membership drive last June, I think it would have been. And we had an awesome time down there. Weather was crazy hot. Here we go. I mean, holy cow. Pray for rain. Go ahead. Tell us how long they had been without rain. Well, the two years prior, he talked about not having one drop of rain. We're talking two full years. Two full years. And then starting in August, last August, which, you know, from a deer, mule deer standpoint and all that, that's really too late to do a lot of good. It's, you know, when you start rain in August, it's like when we start getting rains in here in June and July, Jason. It's going to make the range in good condition, but it's not going to turn antler growth around body condition and time to grow antlers. We should, we should, we shouldn't be so selfish.

We should be glad that their body condition is improving. No, it is. Right. That's true. It is. Yeah. For the following year, for the, whatever, just for the health of deer in general. But you and I look at it from antler perspective is, well, and I do. Is this going to help us? No, thanks. But no, thank you. Well, that's what I do. Really. It's actually good. We talked about it a few podcasts ago, though, for, for where we are in Southern Utah, Northern Arizona, Nevada, the amount of rain that we got in October, November, December, which doesn't do a lot to fill your reservoirs and show up on snowpack and all that. But what it did do is. Oh, there's gun locks over. Yeah. Yes. It healed up. Range is really good. It greened them up and everything went in in great condition and had a super light winter. I like the healed up. I like that. Well, it did. I like that verbiage right there.

I mean, the winter before went in dry and stayed dry. That didn't happen this year. So if there's a silver lining that might, might result in better antler growth this year, body condition had to be in better condition because we had green up all over the winter ranges and other light winter. So anyway, but back to Mexico. Yeah. They, you know, a lot of their deer the last couple of years have really been down. It's hurt their sheep. You know, they've, they've lost sheep in places throughout the state, just like Nevada. We've talked about Nevada. Yeah. You know, older sheep have died. Land production has been down. And we, yeah, I woke up that morning. It was like six degrees in Cedar City and I landed down there. It was 95. I mean, and it was there to stay. And it was only getting hotter for the next five days.

And so the apex that I packed down there, I could use that as currency down there if I wanted. I was impressed. I took about 40 packets. I was impressed you took it. Well, I saw the weather. I was scared, frankly. I mean, not that I haven't dealt with that kind of heat, but when you go midwinter and we just got a snow storm. You went down there when Puerto Vallarta was going crazy. Well, I mean, it wasn't even near there. But, of course, everybody that had to hear from everybody, mom, wife. Are you okay? No, I'm not. Send money.

Venmo. Venmo me. Venmo me. Venmo me. I'll figure out how to get it. I'll figure out how to get home later. Jeez, Becky, my Venmo account's sitting at 15K, right? What are we going to do? What are we going to do? I guess so. I've got to make good on this, but I made her home. I mean, it was no issue, right? No. No issue. Not at all. I mean, you weren't even nervous. Northern Sonora is not. This was going on on your trip when you were still in the States headed down. Oh, yeah. I was in the airport in Phoenix, and everybody's blowing up my phone. Even a couple of your buddies hit me, and I'm like, trust me, he ain't coming back. It's fine. He's not just turning around. Nah, not where we're going. We're going to be just fine. But, anyway, we had a great time. Went out there. Found a ram the first night. Not good enough. Next day, we found the ram we ended up killing. But it was too far away.

My son went down with me, Ty. And him and Martin went out and got close enough to find this ram, get a good look at him that night. Too far to get us all in over there. But they confirmed. And so the next day, we were in on him at daylight.

Anyway, Jeff made a great shot and killed it down there. Killed the great desert. His second ram towards his grand slam. He killed a doll, and that was the desert. And it was awesome. Took his 13-year-old son down there. It was an awesome time. You know, we all had a good time. Great food. Great outfitter. Great place to be. It was a little too hot for February. Record-breaking heat like it was in Texas and Arizona and parts of California, too. But, anyway, all is well that ends well. Got home in five days, and it was an awesome trip. Remind the people. Are you scared of Mexico? Would you go hunt in Mexico tomorrow? Oh, yeah. No problem. Now, we all know there's parts of northern Sonora that do have their time, or Chihuahua. There's times that flare up there that definitely, from a hunter, coos deer, mule deer standpoint, do definitely make you pump the brakes a little bit. A little bit.

But what was going on in this situation was— We're not working with outfitters that have had issues. Yeah. You know, and so, you know, that's gone on. I know, John, I think you were down there one time. I can't remember if it was Sonora or Chihuahua. Chihuahua, yeah. With the four-wheeler incident and the lack of a cattle guard? Well, not that specifically. I love these stories. But just a time when things were tense in that region where you were at. And there's those times, you know, northern Sonora where there's a lot—you know, you've got different dynamics going there that you've got deeper down where all the other stuff happened. I went there for years and no issues. I think you want a landowner or an outfitter who, like, you can trust. You know, that's where I felt totally safe because we had, you know, they were with us the whole time, crossing the border, everything.

You could be more nervous in New Mexico than Mexico. Well, it's just like when something happens in the United States, you've got something crazy going on on the East Coast and you're out in the West and you don't even know. It's not even—might as well not even be in, you know. In the news. Yeah. It doesn't affect us. We never feel it. You know, it's the same thing. So, great time. And obviously, you know, generally when you're hunting mule deer or sheep or something down there, you're out in the middle of nowhere. You know what I mean? You really, really were. And it was a great time. It's like hearing about 20 murders in Chicago. Well, don't go to Chicago. Yeah. I mean, just— It doesn't bother me. I have no problems here in Utah. That's right. So, but had a great trip. Great time. Happy to spend that time with Jeff and his son and make it home great. Had a great time. And, yeah.

Good stuff. Back to work here. Love it. John, did you—was your jaw just dislocated on that four-wheeler little escapade you had? What was it? Oh, I had two black eyes. Yeah. So, for those who— Don't go through the whole story. Who haven't, but— I want to go to lunch, but it is a funny story. They'd cut out the—you got cattle guards, you know, between the fences, and you go through, and the Mexicans had cut out the middle. And so, you've got to drive enough— Of course they use the red cones, right? They always do that. You had enough metal to get over the cattle guard left for just, you know, the tire tracks. No, for two tires. Vehicle, not four-wheeler. But you better hit those. But it's not the width of a four-wheeler. You cut out the middle of a cattle guard. It's no longer effective for a four-wheeler. Well, no. I mean, the cows can just walk through the middle. Yeah.

Like, it's not effective anymore. I saw one down there last weekend, and you actually came into my mind, so I'm like, why do they design these down here? I saw it. Yeah. I know they're saving metal and not have to go the full 14 feet or whatever across, but, like, how much are you saving? Hey, I can use this metal. Let's cut it out. I can make it. Chicken's head. Somebody needed it. Yeah. No. So, one of my tires was on the cattle guard, and one of them was off. It was— Fell in. And you're going how fast? And it was getting dark, and I was going probably 45 or something. Oh, my gosh. I can't imagine the yard sale. Stopped immediately, and I went over. I had a rifle case. I would be like the Agusit because— Oh, my God. It hit me. I didn't even know. I couldn't see it. There was no goosing it. No, yeah. There was no break. It was dark, and I couldn't see the cattle guard.

It was, you know, below the lights. The lights were shining over top, like, going past it. Have any—either of you guys ever gone through—you know how, like, these fences that come up to you on surprise, and they're not—they don't have, like, flagging on them? So, like, a gate? Have you ever gone through, like, a barbed wire gate? Like, I've always been able to get it stopped right at the gate. I've been afraid and had some close calls, but no, I've never gone through it. Oh, Logan? Logan? Your dad has probably gone through it. I don't know, Paul, let me tell this story. What? Did he blow through it? What? That red tundra you sold him? Yes. He's got to get a new door for it. What? Oh, you're kidding. He's going to kill me. Yeah, he— He blew through a gate. Well, luckily— I've always—so you've gone up through these gates. You're doing 40, and then all of a sudden you're like—

It's one of those stringy, janky barbed wire that you don't see. No wooden stays, they're the metal stays, so they just blend in. Yeah, and it's just got the one wooden post on the side, and you wrap a little layer of barbed wire around it to secure it. Well, he's like, that freaking thing, that wooden post that you connect it to the rest of the fence with, he's like, that came ripping off there and just, boom, right around the corner of his bumper. So he went through—did he go through? Oh, yeah. Like, the gate was up. Yeah, gate was up. And he went through it? Yeah, and he went up, and that thing just whipped around the corner of his bumper. Hit his door. And hit his door with that post, and it's like the door is caved. So I want to know, did he fix it? Did he fix the fence? Yeah, he's like, the fence was fine. What? He's like, it ripped. He's like, it ripped. It's not fine.

I'd like to see before and after. It seems just fine. It functions fine. I've been there since. It'll turn a cow. I've been there since. And he put it back up? It ripped the barbed wire thing off that you wrap around the post. Yeah. And so— Tied that back on. Tied that back on and put the thing back up. I'm looking for a tundra if you find one with low miles. Not that one. You want a back? No. We'll put a new door on it. Maybe. Low miles. That truck has one good spare. That's all I can say about it. It does. Well, it's probably going to come to the jack. Is that the one with the clean gas tank now? Crystal clean gas tank. Several bottles of heat have gone through that gas tank last year. Yes, stable. Jets have been cleaned. Yes. Whatever. Injectors. Everything's happening. Water cleaned inside and out and then ran clean gas through it. Is it straight piped? I mean—

We're out of the Obama era. You're not going to go to jail. I don't know how long my dad's going to last before he rips the muffler off that thing, but so far he has not. It's been the best truck you've ever owned? It has. It's a hunting machine. All right. Let's move along. I think we're good. Bronson, I think we're good. We're super excited about the draw. We're all full of optimism. There's only been Arizona so far that's shut the door on us. There's people that say that the draw isn't worth—it's not worth applying in the draw. It's just so far from the truth. Well, yeah. You just look to look. Hey, how about Wyatt and I? We're going to hunt muskox. I'm going to freeze. I'm going to start cold plunging next January 1st. Bronson comes in and starts talking to Wyatt about cold plunging, and the rest of us are like, geez, it sounds miserable.

We got a muskox hunt next February and March in Alaska. So, yeah, but hey, there's one right there. You should never draw that. Odds-wise, one in hundreds, you're never going to draw. You're going to find out things about Wyatt you never knew. These trips are fun because it causes long visits, conversations. Yeah. Just like, yeah, exactly. We might. Hopefully, we don't have too many weird stories. Oh, it'll be awesome. But also think about, like, last year, I drew a Nevada 231 deer tag, and my draw odds were like .01. But it doesn't matter. You drew. But I drew. Yeah. There's a statistic at the end of that. Somebody's going to be a real breathing person. Yes. One in 158, and if you're not. They're still the one. If you're not in it, you're never going to be that person. It's a $15,000 to $20,000 tag. Yeah. You know what I mean?

And if you have your name in lots of those, you're going to gather a few here and there. And so, yeah, you're not going to draw Nevada for a while, but you are applying in all these other states. How many times have you drawn Colorado? You've drawn a couple of New Mexico tags that are calling $12,000 to $15,000 archery tags. Yep. General deers. We hunted antelope in Wyoming. Dude, I'm kind of heavy. Got him back from the beetles. It was pretty awesome. I'm just, hey, hey. I'm a fan. I'm going to do better. You like to poo-poo the antelope. I love them. They were put here for the use of man, and I'm going to keep using them. All right. Moving on. Let's go to lunch. Everybody, hope you have a great weekend. Good luck in the draw. Hopefully you come up with this March magazine. It should be at your doorstep. Maybe today. Maybe by Monday. I don't know. Anyway, have a good weekend.

Hasta la vista. Let's face it. If your goal is to kill big stuff, you need to draw quality tags. Quality tags are typically hard to draw. To increase your odds of drawing good tags, you need to apply in multiple states. That's where an Epic Outdoors membership can help. For only $150 a year, you get access to our consultants, our online tools, and to Epic-approved outfitters and members-only optics discounts. With unlimited access to our team of consultants and access to the Epic Outdoors magazines, applying in multiple states is easy. No more worrying if you're applying for the best areas. No more applying for a unit where there has been a die-off. And no more missing opportunities where you could be in the field and not sitting at home. Go online at epicoutdoors.com or call us today at 435-263-0777 to find out how you can become a member today.

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Go to EpicOptics.com or call in to speak with our consultants who will fit you with the perfect optics for your next hunt. 435-263-0777. If you're looking for your next hunting property, look no further than St. James. St. James are the experts at all sporting properties across the West. Their team of agents will spend the time getting to know you personally and find out which property out of the hundreds they have listed is perfect for you. If you've always wanted a property where you could hunt and fish, go online to StJamesSportingProperties.com or give them a call at 855-711-7577 to learn more. You're listening to the Epic Outdoors podcast. Check us out at EpicOutdoors.com.