EP 383: Near Death and Bad Luck on a Successful Nevada Sheep Hunt

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Hey everybody, Jason Carter, Adam Bronson, John Peterson, Devin. How are you, Devin? Good. And Logan. Anyway, coming at you from southern Utah. It's a hot southern Utah. It feels like 85 freaking degrees out there. Bronson, how hot is it? Too hot for whatever, March 20th, 19th. I don't know. I feel like we went to the range, right, Devin? John? Yeah, it was hot this morning. It was hot. Yeah. Except for John, he was holding on to the barrel there the first part of the morning. He was kind of cold. It is 34 degrees. I mean, I hit the road this morning. Warm barrel on some cold hands feels good. What a good day to be out there. No wind. We did get beat by that one guy, but. Yeah, he was all right. We're after the same. Picking up brass. And he was like, shoot one round every 14 minutes to have the proper cool down. Yeah. And we were just lighting them up. You know?

But anyway, it was awesome. We put together a couple of guns, went out there and shot them. No joke. How about that one guy's gun that's, I mean, anyway. Yeah. Sent us a rifle, bought us a Swaro scope. We mounted it, shot it in. Not just any scope. And it was no joke. An amazing scope. It was. It's a Z8i. With an 8. 40 power. 40 power. Yeah. And it was fun to shoot. You've got to quantify. From zero to fully sighted in. From zero to 1,010 yards, it was like, what, six rounds or seven rounds? Six or seven. I know from 400 to 1,000, we just went bang, bang, bang. Yeah. Like four and a quarter, seven and a quarter, 110. 1,010. You'd have to be there, Adam. Six or seven. Yeah. Some rifles are hard to send away. I really. That one, yeah, and too bad. I mean, that one's his, unfortunately. Yeah. It's not Epix. If it was Epix.

When you sell a gun, you scope it up, ship it to the guy, but you go shoot it before you ship it to him. Do you still call and tell him? Do you confirm that he still wants the gun or not before it leaves the shop? No. I mean, this is one that if we didn't get paid, we wouldn't feel bad. Because we'd keep it. Then who would get it? Then we'll do a drawing. Repo. We get to the repo. Well, I saw you shoot 1,100-something. Yeah. So anyway, TS Customs, we had a gun built. Working with TS Customs, we're going to talk a lot more about it here shortly. But Travis Stevens, anyway. You guys got projects over the weekend with one of those, don't you? Yeah. So anyway, got this gun. Yeah. I mean, crazy project. Got this gun, start to finish, and nothing flat. And, of course, wanted to kill Barbary, right, Devin? That's what we're headed to do that. Here in a couple hours. That was a suck.

And so anyway, when it comes, he's like, all you have to do is load this profile. This is the kind of service he does. He's texted me my profile. I put it in my Sguaro app, and then put it in the EL ranges. And then you go shoot the gun, right? Like, that's pretty awesome. You take the link. It opens in the app and populates all the data. Yeah. That's right. And then you pair them to your EL ranges, and off you go. Do you want to save this? Yes. Done. Yes, exactly. It was awesome. And then it's like upload. Crown truth it out to 1,100 yards. The biggest problem is you just have to Bluetooth them and sync them. I mean, that's the biggest problem. What caliber did you get? 7 PRC. 7 PRC, yeah. Which we like, Bronson. We all want it. We like that. Anyway, then we shot, what, 11 something? And it was, what, a baseball type. Devin, what are you? It was impressive. Yeah.

So you're taking this new. I ruined the video because I screamed at the end. I couldn't believe it. It was pretty awesome. That's a Colis rifle scope on it. Yeah. And what are you taking? I'm sorry, what? What caliber are you taking down there? 7 PRC. That Lone Star State's about to be invaded. I can't wait. I don't know why. It's just fun. It's March and you get to kill something. I just hope we don't see any snakes. That's all I really care about. Yeah, I reminded Devin. I said, 90 degrees, that sounds like rattlesnake country. Yeah, we got this massive heat wave coming through. And you know the dens, they're all just going to come out at once. Do you have chaps? Do you got snakes? You seem like you have. I put them on my pack list. I don't have them. When I was driving. I don't have them. You're going to be jealous. Just wear normal gators. You'll be fine. Give me one of them.

I get one. You get one. You walk on the left side. I'll walk on the right. You tie your left legs together. I'll bring my walking stick so we can poke out in front of us in good ways. That's pretty funny. Let the movie Dumb and Dumber come to mind. But this little 7PRC has got like a 22-inch barrel. It's got all the fun stuff as far as incorporated within the stock. It's got the rail, the Arca Swiss. It's got a little of everything. It's got the flush cups on the side. It's pretty fun. All right. It is pretty awesome. Go draw some blood. From the first round to killing is in two days, basically, from that gun. Today was the first round through that gun. And then come Friday, Saturday. Are we even going to sleep tonight? Yes. Okay. Yes. Because if we were single, you would go tonight and feel like a normal human tomorrow night.

Instead, we're married, so, you know, you're just going to drive harder and sleep at home more. It just is what it is. All right. So moving along. Logan, were you impressed? You've never seen guns shoot like that. You've never had a gun shoot like that. I was impressed. What? When you had this little white dot on a rock 1,100 yards away that you were aiming at, I thought, no way. And then he freaking nailed it. It was fun. I teased Logan a little bit. He shoots well. I just like teasing him. He's the young guy in the group. But we were glad to have you. We had Starlink out there. We were downloading Leica apps for dudes. Somebody's got to figure out the phone. So, Devin, we're doing setups with the scope, with the range finder, everything. Send it back to the guy. And all he has to do is click the range finder and dial. Yeah. It's pretty fun. Yep. Pretty fun to do.

Although it's stressful at times. Things don't quite go right or whatever. Right? Just trying to, like a downloading of the app. Today was a good day. Today was good. It was good. Makes it seem easy. Yeah. There's other days. Hey, go try shooting a muzzleloader next time. Let's just. No. We don't do that. No, it's good. We don't do that. A muzzleloader costs $700. It's a grand to work it on. Yeah. And if you buy a 26 nozzle for some reason, we ain't doing it. No. We're not doing it. I'd like you to work up my .308. $250,000, $3,000. I've got my grandpa's wood stock. It's a little warped. But, I mean, you know, if you could work that up for me. And I only have 11 bullets. Hopefully that's all you need. These are his last reloads. I'd really like to shoot these. Shoot my next buck with these. They don't make bases for this action anymore.

But if you could figure that out for me, I'd appreciate that.

Anyway, pretty fun. Whatever. That's what we did. What else did we shoot out there, John? Oh. So, Devin got a new toy. Oh. And it's pretty awesome. I was wondering why Devin was leading. I mean, he was smiling ear to ear. Devin can run that thing like a man. Yeah. I mean, it was like. I watched a lot of YouTube videos. You owned that thing. It was. It was awesome. So, it's from IWI. And it is. I don't know. Oh, the Tavorik TS-12. I had to look it up. Right there. It's a bullpup shotgun 12 gaze. We've talked about it before. Yeah. But having shot it now, you can't overhype this gun. It's so cool. So, tell us about it, Devin. What's there to say? It kills things. What is there to say? So, it's a. I mean, dude. He ran through. You can't run the barrels. You can't spin them fast enough to go through 20 rounds. What I. No.

On the shotgun that I have, you have a box of shells on the gun and in the gun plus one. 26 rounds. That's how much will be on the gun. It's pretty. It's pretty fun. Devin. Not only. So, it's one thing to buy the shotgun. But then now we have an electric side on there, right? Just the. What is it? Basically, it's a red dot. Right? You could call it that. Yeah. And then what? You got a light that goes on the side, right? It strobes and blasts the crap out of people. So, this is truly home defense. Oh, yeah. I mean, it is home defense. What else is on there? I got a muzzle brake coming. I got an extra bigger neural knob for the charging handle. I mean, you don't want to be grabbing a little charging handle that's that big. Bronson, I didn't know you could buy a gun and then have all these add-ons. I thought. Just like an AR. You can buy pistol grip. You can buy all the extra.

Those extra shell holders on the side. You can buy. Did you see those? Those are AR. How cool is that? You see the AR with that, you know, the rail that's like got two down the side and down the top on the bottom. You can put flashlights under here, red dots on the, and paraphernalia on the sides. It's anything you can do around the outside. I was up late last night. Same thing. I know how to strip that thing down with zero tools now. I was putting Amlock pick rails on the sides. Okay, Devin, at some point it's 26 pounds. I don't care. It absorbs the recoil better. I'm not walking up hills. Maybe some stairs. I only got 14 of them to be exact. I mean, don't leave the house. What are you saying? Do not come. Do not come. Do not break into Devin's house. Do not go to Devin's house. Don't be a surprise visit.

Every time I go to the range, I guarantee you I'm bringing that just to blow off a little steam. Well, the guys roll up. There's some buddy. Can we not post a video? I will post it myself. Yeah, I'll post it too. Okay, because if we can't post guns. I'll post them on ours. We'll share it to the story. Yeah, the problem that we have is on Instagram, if a company posts rifles or guns and things like that, you just get throttled and no views and takes a long time to recover. But personally, we can. Tag me on it. So, yeah. It's pretty awesome. We can reshare stuff. I shot it, but I wasn't, I don't know, it was less than that. Your pattern opened up quite a while ago. The gun had already been owned by Devin. I was like, how fast can I get through them? I mean, it was no joke. John's over there, ca-cah, ca-cah. And then Devin's like, ca-cah. It's true. It's true.

I was like, I want to hit what I'm aiming at. When I tell you guys, when I kill stuff and I belt feed, I am not lying. You don't aim. You don't aim. You just let lead fly. You don't let lead fly. All right. Well, and so. I think that red dot was wasted money, personally. Spray and pray. It is a little low. I could hit. It does need a spacer. Switched the choke out and I'm going to use slugs. You're going to shoot it 100 yards. Oh, dude. So, the one barrel is going to be slugs. The other barrel is going to be four buck. Yeah. You know. Or a mixture. Anyway, John, what were you saying? Well, to honor Devin getting the shotgun, we are going to give one away. So, we've got for a week. We're going to have a week window through our hunt giveaway for the March Madness. And it's only going to be March 17th through the 25th.

Anybody who purchases ticket packages during that period will be automatically entered to win one shotgun exactly like that. And is California legal? Is California legal? Yeah. Didn't we know that for sure? Yeah. Had to research that. This has to do with our March Madness hunt giveaway. I don't know that I would want an officer checking it out in California. Like, I just feel like. Well, I think that. It feels like you're not even supposed to have a single shot in California. Yeah. This is not a single shot. But this one's specifically designed, so it's okay. It has a five-round magazine. Times three. Times three. Plus all the paraphernalia we talked about on the sides. Anyways. All right. Moving along. So, here you go. We're giving away three hunts, Bonson. Lasko Moose, Colorado Mule Deer, Nevada. Yep. The deadline to apply for those this March Madness Hunt giveaway is the 31st.

So, don't confuse that with the deadline John just read, the 17 to 25. Yeah. I think that's what he said. Yep. The 17 to 25, just a little weekly fun prize you buy during, well, from the time you hear this podcast until the 25th. You'll be entered to win based on how many entries you buy for the shotgun as well. But, yeah. The overall March Madness Hunt giveaway. Lasko Moose Hunt for 2026. You're going to hunt 65, 70-inch bulls, Devin. We know that. The guys last year both killed 70-plus. September 10 to 20. Colorado Mule Deer, December 1 on the plains. What's wrong with that? Nothing's wrong with that. That's what I thought. Rifle. And then Nevada. Rut. Devon. One of your fond spots in Nevada. 076 to 081. Elk. Pick your season. Pick your weapon. Landowner tag. Outfitted. All three of these are this year, 2026. So, deadline to enter for those is the 31st of March. Yeah. Yeah.

Actually, I guess it doesn't pay to mention our real March Madness bracket and all that. Because by the time I hear this, it'll already be 10 o'clock on Thursday probably and you're too late to be entered. You might underestimate how fast I am. I want them to know about it. Okay. Well, if you listen to this tonight or tomorrow morning before 10 a.m., before March Madness tip-off, you can jump online, check our Instagram, get a bracket in to win a what?

Like a rangefinder. Like a rangefinder. The exact rangefinder that we shot with. Dang. Good. So, yeah. I need chicken feed. I don't care. I'm in. Yeah. Hey, how do people sign up on it? Isn't there a password? If you use the link in our Instagram bio, you don't have to use the password. It goes right to it. If you search Epic Outdoors, the password is Epic2026, no caps, no spaces. And since this is a feat of skill, the bracket, then, you know, employees can win. I already asked. So, if you beat everybody, if you beat them all, then you beat them all. I got to go take Michigan State off of my championship. He's donating it back. If they win, they win.

Jason has no comment. I feel like you're not making a bracket. I'm not. I'm all over it. You want to know where he's going to be tomorrow? You know what? Tomorrow, I'll build one for you. How about that? Do it. Utah State, final four. Yeah. Utah versus BYU. I did pick Utah State and BYU. Let's talk about honey. What are we going to talk about? I don't know. What's the next deadline? New Mexico is done in 23 minutes. How about John pulling us into his office to go over stories already for the next magazine? And we just barely came out with one yesterday. John. Slave driver. Speak for yourself. That's what I'm a slave driver. Is that appropriate verbiage?

You can't say master bedroom anymore, so I'm a prime driver. I don't know. You can't say what? You can't say master bedroom. You have to say prime bedroom. Because it's master. Yeah. That's a slave. That's a term that. So real estate agents don't say that anymore. That's a triggering term. It's a triggering term. What's it called? Prime bedroom. Prime? Yeah. Like Optimus Prime bedroom? Yeah. So anyway. Wow. That rolls off the tongue. So we just came out with our EMAC covering Nevada and other states, Bronson. Yeah. It's live. Cover Kansas. Probably get your magazine in another 10 days. But hey, if you're anxious looking over, like I said, Kansas, Montana, Moose Sheep, Goat, Bison, Antelope, and everything in Nevada except for Himalayan snowcock. Get all that permission. And we had a guy try to trip us up about that. Like we don't know about them. We know the insides and outs.

We'd just grok it and figure it out. Himalayan snowcock. Look it up. They're amazing. Anyway, pretty awesome. Tastes like chicken. Tastes a little bit like spotted owl and bald eagle. All right. So anyway. Onward. So in lieu of that, I think it's awesome. We can't believe it's already that time of year. Okay? It's hot. We're ready to be out shed hunting and doing things. Of course, we're stuck here in the office. Love it. Except for this morning. Smell like powder, sweat, and dust. But anyway, moving along. Let's talk. Let's call Nick Albonico. Okay. So he's a good friend from way back, Bronson. You and I have known him for I don't know how many years. A couple decades.

Anyway, he came by the booth at the Hunt Expo, and he has this story, and it is no joke. Okay. They had a California bighorn sheep tag, and it was one of those that took him through the ringer. So let's give him a holler. It's just fun. I love stories. I think we've had a lot of feedback. People like the stories. It does teach you something. It makes you think a little bit. And I don't know, just raw from the hunter himself. So it's kind of fun to do. But anyway, let's give Nick a call. See what he's got to say.

Hello. Hey, Nick. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Good. How's it going? Got Bronson here. Got Devin. Logan. John, we're just wanting to hear a big old Nevada, California bighorn sheep story. Well, I got a California bighorn sheep story. That's for sure, man. You guys know spending time in the desert, there's danger around about every corner. And if it can go wrong, it pretty much did on this hunter. Really? We kind of referred this one as the cursed ram. If Gomer Pyle walks up to the show and tells me this story, I'm like, I don't know. It's kind of, some of it's earned and some of it, I don't know. When you came up and relayed parts of this story, I know you're pretty serious and you have good equipment. It was mind-blowing. The bad luck. Yeah. And that's the thing, you know. Just the sheer amount of money that was spent on this hunt was astronomical. You should have hired a guide.

Use his truck. The story was I should have hired a guide. It's funny, you know, when I was at the Western Hunt Expo, I actually spoke to the guide that I probably would have used if I was going to hire it. And I told him a little fragment of this story and said, man, I wish I had hired you. And he goes, why didn't you? Why didn't you? And I said, well, you know, I kind of figured I'd spend more time up there looking for a sheep than you'd be able to send to anybody up there for. He's like, man, he goes, I had a good one up there. I said, well, you know, we worked. We ended up getting it done, but it was tough. So dad ended up drawing this tag. And keep in mind, you know, this is the fifth sheep tag between dad and I in five years. And so, you know, we've been. Replay those real fast. Wow. Yeah. Tell us about the other four real quick. Just fast. What?

Like most people would say that's not fair. Yeah. Wow. What? Well, you know, the one was a doll sheep tag that I drew. It was the only tag in Eagle River. And I went with Lance Kronberger and I shot a 41 inch doll. Yeah. Can't beat that. No. No. It was an amazing hunt. I ended up with a California desert sheep tag down out of Barstow. And I filled that tag. Dad had a stone sheep tag in British Columbia with Gun to Who. And he filled that tag. And he went down to Mexico and got a desert with Leo Goss. Oh, wow. Small world. And then, yeah. And then this year, this last year, he drew a California bighorn tag, a 032 pine force tag. Like the worst odds probably in the West. Because there's four of those in Nevada. And everybody puts them. There's like, well, I wanted 6,000 or 8,000 odds. Right, Carter? Isn't it so tough? For most of those. So tough. Crazy. But anyway. It's crazy bad odds.

I agree with you. You know, when you think about people with 30 points down to people with no points and the sheer amount of people and average it out, I kind of nerded out a little bit on the math because my son picked up a real coveted archery tag with two points the year before in Nevada for elk. And, you know, the odds of that tag or the tag for the California bighorn sheep, it's so astronomically bad. I want to think my son's tag, I figured his odds with his two points was like 1 in 25,000 was kind of like the number I came up with. Wow. But yeah, so this is a tag, you know, even I think he had 26 points. The odds of drawing it are just so poor. It's ridiculous. And he draws this tag. And he's blessed to have this tag. But at this point, my dad is 75 years old. And I've seen him over the years. He's really having a hard time with stability. He's got some vertigo.

He's had two full knee replacements. He's had two failed shoulder replacements. He's had a brand new hip replacement. He's had his eyes, lenses replaced or whatever they do to that. I mean, he's had it all. He's just a tough old rancher. But, you know, his mobility and getting around and ability to get on an animal quick with a scope has really slowed down. And I've really seen it over the last year. And so, you know, it's a tough person for anybody to actually guide at this point in time. And I figured, well, you know, you've got this amazing tag. It's only 125 miles from my house. He lives on the coast. You know, I live here in Susanville. And it's about 80 miles north of Reno. We're on the California side. But to get to this unit, it's you got to go five hours around up to Lakeview and over to Denio or over to Winnemucca and up to Denio.

It's, you know, it's in a really rough spot to really get to it without going through the Black Rock. We've been to Denio, huh, Jason? Yeah, we have. I drew the Oregon side of that right there. That Denio Junction is what they call a blip on the map. That's about all. Yeah, I like those places. Well, it's literally like one of the darkest places in the continental United States to view stars from. There's no city lights out there. I don't think about those things. I just think about their fuel going bad. That's right. They don't rotate through it enough. I saw Starlink there for the first time. I was filling out more cans than you can shake a stick out in Lakeview, let me tell you. I was in Arizona hunting deer when I saw Starlink for the first time. All right, keep going.

Well, and, you know, as it kind of worked out, we ended up with a pile of tags between my dad and my son and myself last year. And I was like, man, I'm done. And so I gave work three weeks notice and I quit. I retired. I said, I'm done. Really? Yeah. I actually just pulled the plug and said, you know what? I'm going to scout and do some hunting and enjoy life. You look like you're 35 years old. How old are you? Come on. I mean, you're making me feel bad. Jason makes me come to work here every day still. Well, you know, I was ready to go. I'd been with the California Department of Corrections for 29 years. So it was time to get out. That's long enough in prison. All right. Hey, good. That's a great answer. So anyway. So, yeah, you gave me your notice and you're going to hunt. Yeah. And so it's on and I decided, okay, so I need to get up and I need to scout this place.

And, of course, it's blistering hot out in Black Rock. And the first trip up there, you know, I take my good friend Mike Chappay up there with me scouting. And it's so dang hot that I end up overheating my side-by-side while we're up in there. And it goes into limp mode. I'm 18 miles out from where I'm camped, way up in these mountains, in the middle of nowhere. And it goes into limp mode. And I'm like, man, this is all bad. So, you know, three hours later, I finally limp it back down to the camp and load everything up. We decide, man, we better cut this trip short and take it back and get everything fixed to make sure the side-by-side is not going to break down on us. This is not a place we want to be. So, you know, I'm driving a Ford half-ton truck. And as I'm coming out of there, I can kind of feel, well, I'm telling this big old box trailer with a heavy side-by-side in it.

I can feel the tranny a little bit slipping. So now I'm like, oh, my gosh, man.

These aren't old or old vehicles either. You know what I mean? Oh, my gosh. And I was just like, you know, what's the chances? This is, you know, it's got some miles on it from all the years. But it's been a good vehicle. And I'm like, man, you know, I didn't retire to buy a brand-new rig. That wasn't in the game. I was going to say, is it too late to go and ask for your job back? Right? At this point, Nick's doing fine.

Well, Sadie's still working. We're good. I like it.

So did you make it home with the slip and tranny? Yeah, everything got home and traded the truck in. Let somebody else deal with it. Okay. So now I cleaned out the air filter and flushed out the system on the side-by-side, replaced the belt, and it ran like a top. Good to go, ready for the next trip out. Okay. So next trip out, Mike and I head back up there, and we're just eager. We're going to find all these sheep. And we hadn't seen some sheep on that first trip, you know, but we hadn't seen any shooter rams. And so we go back out, and we kind of hit some different areas. And, you know, I'm fortunate. I know enough people in this area that have either chuck or hunted it or been in that area. I had a little bit of information on some places to check and some good places to start. And so we hit a lot of those kind of hot spotting,

and I really wanted to expand and kind of hit some of the areas more towards the wilderness and stuff that are not really considered as good of sheep country and see if I could find an older ram. And I had these grand plans for the whole summer of scouting, but keep in mind I have some other tags I needed to do some scouting for as well, but trying to balance it all. I'm in my brand-new truck. We're cruising along a dirt road. Poof. Tire blows out. So, you know, I thought I'd beat it. I had this factory truck. It was a brand-new Ford Raptor. It comes with 37-inch BF Goodrich tires. There's beat locks probably on them. I mean, geez. But can you imagine that BF Goodrich makes a six-ply tire for a Raptor? In 37 inches. Yeah. I couldn't believe it. Mine are 12-ply. Not from the factory. They don't sell them from factory. That's cost prohibitive from the factory.

Not only that, is they want the smooth ride. They want you to say, this is the smoothest truck ever. And on six-plys? Six-plys? It is. Yeah. I couldn't believe they sold that rig to me with six-plys. I mean, you can't even tow a trailer. I mean, you don't go into the desert without ten-plys. We bought ten-plys for a trailer, Jason. Remember? Well, they're G. They're G-rated, actually. Whatever. What's that? 14? Oh, they're solid. They're solid, almost. Solid rubber. Anyway, we're sick of changing trailer tires. But anyway, Nick. So, yeah, you blew one, and now you're... Now you're in a Ford Raptor that's on the side of the road. Right. Well, and I'm in the middle of nowhere with no service, keep in mind. You know, I'm clear down in the heart of the unit where I'm at. And so I start plugging it up, and, you know, it's just... I got seven plugs in it. It's still leaking.

I mean, I had full intentions of putting a spare on it, but I'm thinking, man, I'm out of tires. I hate putting spares on. I hate it. Well, yeah, and then you're like... You know you're going to the belly of the beast, and you're probably going to need another tire. You want to get the one fixed so you still have the spare. Yeah. Yeah. So we cut the stunt. We're not even a fourth of the way through, so let's keep going. This story, it's unbelievable. I got tired of standing up. I almost had to sit down before you finished your story. Oh. It's just... We're not even close. We're not even to July 1st yet. Keep going, Nick. Keep going. So it's time to cut this trip short. We head back home again. Still haven't found a shooter red. So the next trip out, I say forget it. I don't bring the side-by-side. I'm not bringing the trailer. I'm not bringing my brand-new Raptor.

I stole my wife's Bronco Raptor. We're going through the Black Rock. I'm sick of driving five hours to go through Winnemucca or to go through Lakeview. We're going to go across the desert. We're hitting Gerlach. We're rolling through the Black Rock, and we're going straight in. I'm beating system. Straight through the Burning Man. I have a bad feeling. His wife ended up with a new vehicle. I have a bad feeling. Keep going, Nick. Oh, my gosh. So my son and I get in there three and a half hours later, and I swear I'll never do that again. I will never drive that road ever again. You know, I couldn't even imagine trying to get a trailer through on it. Yeah. Through the reservation and everything. It was terrible. But we get up in there, and my son's wanting to catch a tiger trout. I'm not a big fisherman. I hunt. I'm just fishing. It's just not my thing.

But you're trying to get dad of the year, father of the year. Yep. I'm working on it. So we decide we work all the way into this Blue Lake trailhead, and he hikes back into Blue Lake, and I follow him back up in there. And we'd spent the night and camped, and we've got all the gear on our back to go in from Blue Lake, and we're going to hike the wilderness and check out and see if we could find some sheep back in there from that angle. He's in there, and he catches himself some tiger trout, and he's super excited, takes a picture, and it's time to get rolling. I said, let's go find some sheep for Grandpa. Let's go. All right. So we're heading out, and it's just cliffing out real thick, and it's just terrible access to where I'm wanting to go. You know, Onyx, I should have spent a little more time and detail on it. It was a bad angle. So I said, let's head back.

And so we were off trail at this point, and we worked back towards the parking lot where it's kind of the trailhead, and there's like a picnic table there next to the rig where you can park. And we're almost back, and he's leading the way. He's 16, by the way. Just turned 16 when this had happened. And he's leading the way through, and I hear him kind of scream. I'm like, what the heck? And, you know, he's a pretty tough kid. The kid just doesn't cry out for no reason. I'm like, that was odd. Did he stick a, because we're going through a thick patch of like alders, and I wonder if he poked his eye or something. And then he screams again, and I could tell by his body movement he was getting hit by bees or hornets or something. Oh. And I'm like, oh my gosh. I yell at him to run. So he takes off, and I'm running right behind him.

And about that point, I get hit in the back, get hit in the neck, get hit in the wrist. We get out of there, and we've both been hit three times. And, you know, I'm a little concerned, because he's never been stung by a bee to my nose. You always get worried about that. And my mom is deathly allergic. So, and I'm kind of worried. And I've been stung by honeybeads in the last decade. But the last time I've been hit by a yellow jacket had been, I don't know, 15, 18 years ago, and my lips went a little numb. And so, you know, I had a little thought process in the back of my mind, but I wasn't overly concerned. I just, you know, we're in the middle of nowhere. I've got my in-reach, but it's, you know, I mean, it's a long ways from anything where we're at. And we get back down to the Bronco there at the trailhead. And it took us, I think we got stung.

We were probably only 300 yards from the rig when we got stung. And we got down there, and I was getting super, super sick. I was getting clammy and had goosebumps. And it was really crazy. Like, my palms itched in the top of my head, and I just couldn't get the itch out. I had this knot in my stomach. And I'm explaining to my son, I said, hey, man, I think I'm going into anaphylactic shock. And I said, this is all bad. And I had my in-reach, and I said, but I said, whatever's going on with me, I said, we're too far out. I said, if they send a helicopter, it's coming from Reno, or it's going to be coming from Boise. I said, this is over and done one way or the other before they can get there to us. And he says, okay. And I kind of stripped down. I was sweating profusely, even though I just felt terrible. I was super sick. And I started puking. And he never told me until later.

He said, you know, your face looks like the elephant, man. I'll swole up. I'm just, I'm not so sure I'm going to make it at this point. And so I told him, I said, hey, I said, I need you to get an ink pen. And I got my Havalon out of my pack. And I basically told him, I said, hey, if I stop breathing, if my tongue swells up anymore and I can't breathe, I said, I'm done. I said, all you can do is help me if it works out. If it doesn't, it wasn't your fault. And he's looking at me as wide-eyed as you could ever imagine. I said, this is what you got to do. And I showed him where to cut me to do an emergency trach on me. And he's just looking at me. And my son's extremely religious. And he's praying for me. And I inreached my wife in between throwing up and said, hey, I love you. And she shot back to me. Love you more. And, you know, I threw my inreach off to the side.

I had taken a couple of alivert allergy medicines and a Benadryl. And I puked them up. And I took a couple more and another Benadryl. And I had held that down for the previous five minutes at that point in time. But I just, I was laying there just suffering. And it was almost lights out. And I just started kind of coming back around. I just gradually started pulling out of it. And about 20 minutes later, I looked at him. I said, hey, I think I'm going to make it. And I crawled into the Bronco. And he drove us out of there. And I was kind of a mess, you know. And it was real emotional for him. And I was so messed up, I gave him wrong directions on how to get back out of there. It actually took us seven hours to get out back to the house from there. And he was, you know, just the worst situation I think a dad could put his son into, you know. But it all worked out.

I got on the phone with the doctor the next day. And I got some EpiPens. I've got a few of them. I've got a new thing called Daffy. Yeah. But they're probably inspired by five or ten years to have a minor glove compartments and stuff. Makes me want to have a bunch of them. I don't even think about that stuff. Well, if you guide hunters, you might have to have them. Yeah. I guess you should. Until you know. But anyway. Wow. Yeah. We ended up cutting another scouting trip short. And at this point, we still haven't found a shooter ram. And, you know, I've got hunting season starting. And so it's kind of all falled apart at this point. And, you know, there's something in the back of my mind saying, man, I don't know if this was such a good idea, you know. But at that point, we were pretty much committed. And I said, well, we'll just kind of work it out. And I talked to Dad.

And he said, okay, well, I'll be over before season. And his wife had had some medical issues. And he didn't make it until a few days before the season started. So we didn't get much in the way of scouting done in advance. I mean, we'd found sheep. Just nothing really that we were wanting to shoot. And so the day before we got there, it had rained. There was like five inches of rain hit some of that country this last fall. I think it was, I don't know. It must have been somewhere around the first of, I think, September 1st it opened. So it had to have been about August 25th or 6th. There were some really heavy thunderstorms that came through that country and dropped some massive rain. And we're in the side-by-side. And we're heading up towards this reservoir called Knot Creek Reservoir to just kind of drive around and get up high and do some glassing in this country and look.

And I cleared the reservoir. And there was a bunch of people fishing. And there were some camps there. And we went around. And we were about a mile and a half past that heading up a mountain. And the road gets really bad up there. I had driven through there earlier in the year. And it's just not a great road. But as I came around and I'm heading up this, there was a little bit of a wash in the road. And it started as nothing. And my side-by-side's got a really wide stance. And I'm spraddling this. And I'm going up the hill and around the corner. And this wash is getting a little deeper and a little wider. And I go around the next corner. It's a little deeper and a little wider. And pretty soon, I'm several hundred yards up this wash. And it's real deep. And it's starting to get as wide as my wheel tracks. And, man, I'm looking up the hill. And I can see where the head of it starts.

And I'm getting close to getting out. And, you know, I went with my old mantra. When in doubt, throttle out.

Well, about then it caved in on me and dropped the whole side-by-side into this ditch. And it was so darn deep that we had to crawl out the window on the high side. And when you walked into the ditch. So the whole rig, there was only one tire that was actually. I think the front passenger tire was the only tire that was actually making contact with the dirt. But when you crawled back down underneath in that ditch, you could walk underneath the entire side-by-side and reach up. And the side-by-side was above you through the whole ditch. That's how deep it was. Wow. It was terribly deep. I mean, you should see the pictures. You got to send me the pictures. We'll post them with the podcast. I will. I'll shoot them to you. It was unbelievable deep how bad that washout was. So we dug for a couple of hours. And I just told Dad, I said, hey, this ain't happening.

I'm going to run back down to the lake and talk to some guys. I seen a guy with a really nice Jeep down there and see if he'll come and pull us out. I said, hopefully he's got a kinetic rope, a bubber rope. And so I did that. I ran back down and I talked to the guy. And he was super nice. He's like, yeah, I'll come up and I'll take a look at it. And he drove up to where we were at. And, you know, there was one spot where he needed to drive around the ditch. And he wasn't willing to drive his rig around that ditch. And, you know, man, I've been stuck a bunch through the years. And I didn't see much of a concern. But he wasn't willing to drive his Pavement Prince's Jeep around that side-by-side to pull me out. And I'm just, you know, here it is. We're two days from the opener. And I'm buried up here. And he was nice enough. He said, hey, I'll give you a ride back down to your camp.

So he gave us a ride back down to the camp and got on the Starlink. And I called up my buddy Vince Bloom was coming up. And I said, hey, can you stop in Reno at Summit Racing and pick up a bubber rope? He owns a Dodge dealership down in Folsom. And he was driving a big jacked up nice Dodge Ram. So he came up. And I drove his rig around my side-by-side. And we hooked up that kinetic rope to that bubber rope. And I tell you what, I was a little petrified coming up out of that ditch when I yelled, hit it. And that thing unleashed all of its fury. It pulled me out of the ditch like a cannonball coming out of a catapult. I need one of these ropes. Oh, they're amazing. I've used them through the years. They're amazing. But I could not believe how deep I was in there, the pressure. I wasn't sure it wasn't going to break it. But it tossed me out there so hard.

I'm fortunate I landed on the wheels. And it unleashed fury jerking me out of that ditch. I wish we would have had it on video. It was something.

So, you know, we're back up and running at this point in time. And another buddy, Mike, showed up in camp. And we started spreading out looking for sheep and going all different directions. And we were all seeing sheep and had seen some rams, just nothing big. And so we decided on opening day, I kind of went back up to where I knew there was a real big one from a guy that I'd spent some time chatting with and just hadn't been able to locate it. And that was where I'd spent a lot of the time looking. And so I headed up and no avail. Nothing's happening. And get back down. And we're looking at different spots. And we end up finding some sheep with some rams I want to get a better look at. And so we get Dad in there on them. I don't know. I think it's about the third or fourth morning of the season. And I pop up over this ridge. And bang, there they are. They're about 500 yards below us.

And they've already got us pegged. I'm like, son of a gun. And so I got Dad to get him set up. And keep in mind with his hip and his knees, for some reason, I would lay over. And a lot of people in these situations, sheep hunting, would lay over a backpack with their feet above them shooting downhill, use the pack as a rest. But his body won't do that. He can't lay in a prone position at this point with his feet up the mountain while he's shooting downhill. He can't arch his back and get on the scope and do it. He just can't do it at this point. So getting him to a sitting position that's comfortable to make a 500-yard shot is not real easy. And trying to get him squared away, I set up my scope and had everything dialed in while I was trying to get him comfortable and get him set up. He moved three times. And the sheep lasted over 10 minutes before they actually blew out.

But he never was able to get stable enough where he felt he could make a confident shot. And during this time, I got a chance to field judge him. And I think the best was like 145-inch ram. And I wasn't worried about that. There may have been a better one that I thought may have came up out of the canyon. But nothing had came up behind him. And so there was no shoot or sheep there. But at this point, I'm extremely concerned. I'm just like, man, I mean, over 10 minutes. And he just wasn't capable of getting set up and stable. And I'm just, you know, everything's moving in the scope with him. And so I'm pretty discouraged. And we had another hunter. You know, there's only five total tags, four resident and one non-resident in that unit. One of the other tags seen all those sheep move and was up in there right on top of us after that. And I kind of got a little discouraged.

And I said, hey, you know, let's kind of regroup. And let's head back. And we'll come back here in a couple of days. And we'll get it squared away. And so we headed back to the house. And he said, hey, I'm going to head back. And his wife ended up having some medical issues. And I ended up having a tag. And he had a tag. And I took him out to New Mexico. And he ended up shooting an Oryx on the mobility tag. And we came back. And, you know, lo and behold, before he could get everything back together and be back out there, this is a 61-day hunt. There's, we're down to a week of season left, you know. And I'm still yet to locate a shooter ram.

We head back in there. And we start looking. And, you know, it had been tough. But we were seeing sheep. They were starting to move a little more in that late October. And I ended up sneaking in on a ridge that we thought that big ram was off of. And, you know, I looked behind me. I'd left it dark, the side-by-side. Dad had snuck a backpack on the trip. I'd been carrying everything for him. And he snuck a backpack on the trip. And he followed me up in the dark. I'd seen him after daylight. He went halfway up the mountain behind me, you know, dogging me. And I'm just like, man, he doesn't need to be up in these cliffs. Everybody's telling me you're going to kill him, you know. And I'm just, I'm shaking my head as I'm looking at him climbing this ridge to get to the top of the mountain where I'm at because he's convinced that we're going to find this sheep up there.

So I worked my way around. And I don't pick him up. And I told Dad, I said, hey, I didn't find him up here. I said he could be off the other side or over here. But I said, you know, who knows? And Dad says, well, I'm going out this other ridge. And this other ridge, I'll give him credit. He'd been trying to get Mike and I both to walk this ridge multiple times. And he heads out that ridge. And I go back down to the side-by-side and drive down the mountain and drive for an hour all the way around to pick him up at the bottom. And he gets down to the bottom. And sure enough, he goes, man, I jumped a giant ram. He goes, I just couldn't get on him. Yeah. And so I'm like, son of a gun. And of course, he was right. It was up on that ridge he'd been wanting to go on. I told you. Yeah. So we spent the next day and a half looking for that big ram again.

It's probably the same one that I've been looking for since July. And this time of year, the sheep start moving south. And they're heading down to rut. And I'm like, man, Dad, he may have moved down on us. I said, let's go further south from here. And so we dropped down further south. And we ended up finding a bunch of sheep. I got Dad up on a pretty good ram. I said, hey, Dad, I think this one's about 160-inch ram. He was 850 yards out. And I just, you know, I was like, man, I don't know that he can make this shot. But I'm glassing him up. And this sheep's looking at us. It's got us pegged as well. I just, every time we've gotten near him, they were on us before, you know, sheep and their vision. And Dad's just not as sneaky as he used to be with his trekking poles. But I told Dad, I said, well, you know, I said, if you can get comfortable. I said, I'm not opposed to it.

I mean, you've made this kind of shot before. You just, you've got to get comfortable. And he's telling me, he goes, you know, I feel really stable. He goes, I think I can do this. I said, well, let her fly. And so he lets it go. And it sails right over the top of the sheep's shoulder, just 18, 20 inches high, perfect left to right. And I said, Dad, you're high. And the sheep takes off running. And it's kind of going through a canyon parallel on us, but it's getting closer. And so I'm giving him updated ranges as it goes. And he ended up shooting five times at it. And every one of them was just right over the top of it. And they were good left to right, just right over the top. And so we talked a little bit. And I said, you know, Dad, I said, you know, you told me you sighted this gun. And I said, was it dead on? He goes, yeah, it was dead on left to right. He goes, I was 100 yards.

He goes, I was just a little high. I said, just a little high at 100. It's a lot high later on. I said, Dad, that turd is set at 100. Anyhow, I checked it. It was four clicks off at 500. And so I zeroed in. And we went back at it. And I went into where I thought this sheep was at. I think it was the next day. And I ended up locating some rams and some sheep way up high. And I said, OK, the next morning, and it was just blowing that night. I'd left him down at the side-by-side to glass the bottom by some springs. I said, hey, the next morning, we need to be up top. And we'll be right above all these sheep. He says, OK. Well, when I got back down to the rig, it's dark. And the side-by-side had been moved like 20 feet. It was just facing a different angle. He decided he wanted to glass from the side-by-side on a different angle, I guess.

Well, he had broken the shifting cables off that connect. It's shifting. How many days before the end of the hunt? Two or three now? Yeah, I think we're, at this point, I want to say we're four days from the end of the hunt. I mean, we're out of time. I've never heard of more mechanical failures on the hunt. I mean, it's hard not to laugh. We're laughing with you.

I'm just blown away at this point in time. I'm like, oh, my gosh. And I kind of had a little come apart at this point. You know? What does that look like? And I'm just like, I've been hiking all day in these mountains with a pack on with all of his gear and my gear. And, you know, here it is, dark and it's windy. It's storm's blowing in. It's cold. And we're 13 miles out. And I'm trying to decide, is it quicker to go over the mountain to camp or is it quicker to follow the road? You know, I mean, I've got the inReach, but, you know, there's nobody back around in that area. And it's just the two of us at this point in time. You're going to phone a friend? And so, I mean. Oh, my gosh. I tear the rig apart. And I ended up getting the cable. I kind of, like, jimmied it back into a slot and got it to connect enough where I could get it into park and get it started.

And there's another shifting cable that pulled it into gear. And I got it to go. And so, at this point, I pull it straight in and I'm thinking, holy crud, I can't believe this. And I drive it straight into the box trailer when I get back. And I look at the box trailer and I've got broken springs. Oh, no. Jeez, no. I've got an axle hanging. Yeah. That happened to me last year. Remember I called you, Jason? Oh, I remember. I was like, what am I? I just drove home and paranoid. I had a two. Any cattle guard or anything you're going to hit is going to finish it. I have two. We had to put a flatbed trailer on another flatbed trailer, you know? Yeah. Yeah. It happens in the desert. But talk about the worst times. So, out goes the side-by-side. And I decide, well, I'm going to ratchet strap this axle. I mean, straight hillbillied it.

I took a bunch of ratchet straps and just ratchet tight as I could and angled it where I thought it was lined up the best I could. And it's a tandem axle trailer. So, I had one good axle at that point. Oh, you're lucky. It happened to me on the saddle. Yep. Yeah. And so, the next morning, I drove it from Denio all the way down to Winnemucca and all the way to Reno. And John Springs in Reno hooked me up. I mean, they put me straight in and put a new springs on it on the spot. And I drove back to camp. And I kind of smashed a bullet over the top of the cable on the shifting the lead to where it was kind of snagging and it would hold in there. So, we kind of had the side-by-side partly working at this point in time. And we went back at it. And we headed out that next morning. And it had snowed. I want to say there were six, seven inches up top. And all those sheep were gone. Just gone.

And I'm like, oh, my gosh. I said, well, Dad, they had to drop down the mountain. They're not up here at this point. At least I don't think they are. So, we pack up. And we move camp down. And we start hunting further south from there. And we're driving the side-by-side around the next day and all over the place. And I drive around a corner. And I glass a bunch of sheep on a face down there. And I said, oh, my gosh. Look at that. Look at that. Look at that. And just, you know, one after another started popping up. They were really pocketed. And no shooter rams. There were some smaller rams. But no shooter rams. And so, I hiked where I could kind of look around the corner from there. And Dad was right there with me. And I found five sheep 250 yards away. And one of them was bedded. They're all bedded. But one of them that was bedded was a shooter ram. I said, Dad, that's a good ram.

I said, you need to take him. So, Dad got all squared away. And he's laying over a rock shooting uphill. He's a lot more stable than shooting downhill. And he says, I'm good to go. I said, well, don't shoot him bedded. I said, let me keep an eye out. And he's looking at this sheep through the scope. And he says, you sure you want to shoot this one? We might be able to find a bigger one. Oh, you have one or two days for the end of the hunt now. I go, Dad, if you don't shoot this ram, we're going home. Dad, shoot this ram. He goes, well, look around. Maybe there's another one on the hill. I'm looking, Dad. Just be ready. And, you know, through this conversation, the sheep, you know, it's just right there looking at us. He finally stood up. And Dad dropped him in his tracks right there. And we went up and grabbed a hold of him as we got there.

Dad goes, oh, he's a little better than I thought. And it ended up being 156 and 6 8ths is what fishing game green scored him out at. Yeah. Awesome. I was teared up. I gave him a hug. And I said, Dad, this is the last mountain hunting with it. I said, Dad, this is your last mountain. He goes, what do you mean? I said, Dad, I said, your mountain hunting days are done. I said, you need to look at CRP fields. You might be a whitetail hunter at this point. Man, come on. Crushing him. Oh.

Well, a lot of hell. You got off the mountain. I mean, there's no more to the story. I mean, all is well that ended right there. Well, I mean, new side-by-side, new trainer, new truck. I don't know. Did you get a new side-by-side? Didn't shove a knife through your femur taking care of the sheep or anything, right? Yeah. No, no. We got the sheep out nice and smooth, and everything went good there. The side-by-side, it probably needs traded in, too, at this point.

Beware. All right. Well, and so they do show pretty high kill rates, but there's a little more to the stories. You know what I mean? Yeah. I'm sure you're not the only ones that had tough hunt up there. That's big, rough country. You know, it's just so remote, and, you know, the fact that it's only 125 miles from my house, but I've never been there, it just, it kind of gives you an idea of the amount of terrain to get through to get there. It's just rough country. I had a guy, I was talking to him about Antelope in 012 to 014, and he says, I just wasn't prepared for the amount of plugs and tires that I needed. You know what I mean? And he's like, this isn't a go rent the vehicle and have an enjoyable animal hunt. Fly in, rent, go hunt. Those have four and six. Rentals have four and six plants. Exactly. So it's gnarly country and some of that stuff up there. Yeah.

And I'm out there all the time. I mean, I turned back my 014 archery tag this last year just because I didn't have time to scout it. And I'm out there chucker hunting in the desert all the time. And, you know, you're aware and I've had to walk out of places before, but I just, the sheer amount of drama with this hunt, I just couldn't believe it. I was like, I was just waiting. What else could happen? And it kept coming. How about that Bronco Raptor? What do you think? Oh, it's a pretty nice rig. I really like that short wheelbase. It's good. It's nice. It is. It is. You know, and I'm, I'm used to driving the truck or a side by side, but as far as a vehicle, man, if it ain't, if it's not going to Nevada, a pinstripe that I'd drive that thing anywhere through the rocks. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Okay. Pretty awesome. Pretty. Yeah. Way to stick with it.

I mean, a lot, I mean, a lot of people would have called her a day earlier on that, huh? But you had, you had something to prove. You had to finish it with something, but that's awesome. Did your dad, has your dad, did he kill a doll early in his life? Did that finish his slam or does he still? No, that's the only one he's missing. And, and Leo keeps telling him, he goes, you're coming with me, Gary, we're going to go do it. And I keep telling Leo, no, Leo, he can't, he's done.

Well, let him try. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe there was, there's a will, there's a way somehow. I mean, miracles are on every day. Yeah. But anyway, awesome story. All right. Thanks for taking time with us, Nick. And good luck in the draws. You got anything? I mean, we haven't heard of much yet this year, but anything start the year off with the tag yet or not yet? Yeah. I've, I've got some pretty good, you know, some free time on my hands. I'm planning on hitting some pretty serious hunts. You know, I was fortunate. I actually, I think the first magazine had Jason's shiny mug on it with a big old Nevada buck he killed. It had to have been, I don't know, 2002-ish or something. Three. 2003. I've been building points in every state since that magazine. Let me tell you. That actually got me, that was the magazine that got me rolling there.

It was, but I've got, I think I'm going to head into the Alaskan range and kill a caribou. You know, I've killed some brown bear and some moose, but I've never killed a caribou. So I'm going to do that about mid-August. I'm going to come back and I think I'll probably be chasing trophy mule deer in New Mexico this year. I've got, I got me kind of a game plan figured out, I think. I need to talk to you about that. That's interesting. The deadline was 19 minutes ago. Yep. Probably not one you're playing for. Oh, maybe not. Yeah. There's, there's alternative ways to get that.

Yeah. We'll do a family trip to Colorado for elk and deer late September with our bows. And then I'm, I think mid-October, I think I'm going to draw him right on the cusp. Point Creek could get me, but I think I'm going to go with John Porter and see if I can chase around some giant elk on a traditional horseback hunt in the wilderness there just outside of Yellowstone. I've, since I was a kid, I've always wanted to do kind of what I call a pure traditional type elk hunt. I've never done a pure horseback style elk hunt. And so I think Vince and I are going to go up there and see if we can kill some big bulls. I have a feeling John's going to provide you with that experience. Yeah.

Horses involved. You had horsepower involved and you had a lot of problems. Right there you got horses. He invented the saddle. He's been up there a long time. Yeah. You'll have a great experience. All right. But swinging for the fences beyond that and the draws. Okay. Well, holler when you get something good. It'll probably happen. Done it long enough. I hope so. Yeah. Well. Good luck to you guys as well. Thank you. All right. Thanks again, Nick. Appreciate it. You bet. Talk to you later. Take care, guys. All right. You too. Send me some of those photos. All right. All right. Bye. Makes you guys scared to even leave the pavement. Doesn't it? I don't even want to drive home without an EpiPen. Aren't you guys? How many miles do you guys got to drive? The only thing I can think about is one of them bungee straps. He's got a slingshot. How many miles do you guys got to drive tomorrow?

And what could go wrong, possibly? 1,009. 15 hours, 33 minutes. Good luck. Let's get started. I'm thinking snakes and bees. They've already ordered me a set of leaf springs. Leaf springs gone bad. They're under warranty. Which one? In the half done. You know that noise? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I knew that. Yeah. Turns out, well, he's replaced the other stuff. The pucks or whatever you call them. It's the actual leaf springs. Is it done? No. But we're taking it. Whoa. What could go wrong, Devin? He said it'll be fine. It'll be fine. Jason has like two or three very viable running trucks. But he wants to take that one. We have Starlink, Devin. We're going to be fine. We'll be fine. There's a same. Hey, Jason, did you activate it? Yes. I activated it in the middle of the night last night. Okay, good. So last night, I went to activate it, and it said like my anniversary date was like April

7th or 2nd. Do you want to go ahead and do it? And I'm like, oh, yeah. I just did it in a haste. And I'm like, no. I need it started now. Well, you go back and try to do it. It won't start now. You have to go on the website, cancel that order, and then go ahead and start it now. So in the middle of the night, I'm like, I'm waking up thinking about all these things. I'm like, I need to get that figured out. Anyway, I asked Grok, because Grok's related to Starlink, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's all Musk stuff. Yeah. Anyway, and Grok told me how to do it. I went on there. Boom. Starlink's working this morning, right? Out of the range. We tested it. They've got a saying, drive it till the wheels fall off, and you guys might do that. It'll be fine. I've never heard of leaf springs being under warranty. I didn't know. I didn't know. Jason. I didn't know you could break them.

Like they're not broken, and they're replacing them. I heard you use the word loose. When it's three years and 36,000, then they are. That's probably what it is. I know. No, but I mean, have you ever heard of somebody needing a new set? No. No. Not within three and 36. I've treated this thing. This thing has not left the pavement. It has. Loose. Did you say loose U-bolts? And the pucks. The pucks. And then now we're at the springs trying to get that noise to go away. It'll be fine. All right. Well, anyway. Everybody. I guess New Mexico's over with. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. On to the Colorado calls, which I've never. I haven't had a day with more Colorado calls than today. Yeah. Yeah. Deadlines bring out everybody. Yeah. So, anyway. Kind of fun to talk about it. Good luck, everybody. Enjoy March Madness. Enjoy the rest of the week. Enjoy. Just enjoy.

Be great for you not broke down somewhere like Nick. I mean, that gets me scared to leave paper. I'm serious. And when he told the story, well, he was emotional telling the story. Well, the B one is no joke. That's terrifying. We all know. We've heard people. I mean, people in Cedar. I'll bet you just a little bit of Benadryl, his body was able to absorb, may have pulled it out of. But I don't even take that. I'm one of those guys just, ah, you know. Now I'm going to like stuff. Well, I can cranny with Benadryl. I take Benadryl for sleeping pills. But that doubles for that. I take it for that reason. Not the Unisom, but take the Benadryl. Yeah, when I was violently attacked in my yard, I took a bit of drugs. Because you never know. Yeah. I was fine, though. But. Yeah. Well. All right. Go home and catch your watch. Guy needs to fill his truck with drugs. So.

If that's the only light of this podcast that AI picks up. Drugs. We're going to get rated tomorrow. Drugs and bungee ropes. I'm telling you. Just be prepared. Winches. Winches. Flugs. E-rated. G-rated. Whatever you can do. All right. 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

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