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Speaker 1: And I'm just panicking. Man, I just grew two new

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Speaker 1: hearts in my body, and both of them are in

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Speaker 1: my ear drums and they are just pounding. I'm going

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Speaker 1: cross eyed. And he's right there and he's got his

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Speaker 1: head up stretched out. I want to say he is

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Speaker 1: about fourteen yards from me, but I mean, I felt

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Speaker 1: like I could have jumped out of deer stand on

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Speaker 1: top of his back.

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Speaker 2: Whitetail deer hunting is the epicenter of American hunting culture period,

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Speaker 2: and every year we take some time to celebrate our

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Speaker 2: collective favorite animal that we love to hunt, eat, and

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Speaker 2: tell stories about. Seeing a big whitetail buck in October

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Speaker 2: or November is hard to shake or top in terms

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Speaker 2: of outdoor experiences, and a story told in person is

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Speaker 2: often the only way to truly communicate the full experience,

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Speaker 2: even better than video. Oral storytelling is the original og

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Speaker 2: of communication. It's unreplaceable and the most effective at transferring

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Speaker 2: a bundle of information. Stories transfer knowledge and teach us.

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Speaker 2: They carry our values, They inspire those around us, and

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Speaker 2: help us really to even know who we are. Some

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Speaker 2: stories immortalize people that we've lost, from cold fronts to

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Speaker 2: losing mules to bear charges to an oaklhm full of

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Speaker 2: acorns fallen in front of a camera. These stories are genuine,

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Speaker 2: But there is one thing that I ask of all

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Speaker 2: of you. If you only listen to one story on

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Speaker 2: this episode, be sure that it's the last one from

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Speaker 2: a man named Med Palmer from Mississippi. You're just gonna

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Speaker 2: have to trust me. You've never heard a dear story

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Speaker 2: like this one. Whitetail Week is coming up here at

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Speaker 2: Meat Eater in a few weeks, and we're just ramping

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Speaker 2: things up a bit with this episode. We've got six stories,

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Speaker 2: and I really doubt that you're going to want to

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Speaker 2: miss this one.

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Speaker 3: A trophy is just what a trophy is to the

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Speaker 3: person that killed it. And by far, I could kill

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Speaker 3: a bone and Crockett and it would not name as

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Speaker 3: much to me as this deer. I can assure you

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Speaker 3: it's about the story anyway. It ain't about the deer.

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Speaker 3: The stories everything were hunting.

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Speaker 2: My name is Clay Knukem, and this is the Bear

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Speaker 2: Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search

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Speaker 2: for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the

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Speaker 2: story of Americans who live their lives close to the

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Speaker 2: land presented by FHF Gear, American made purpose built hunting

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Speaker 2: and fishing gear as designed to be as rugged as

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Speaker 2: the place.

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Speaker 4: As we explore.

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Speaker 2: Our first storyteller is a man whose name is so

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Speaker 2: memorable you'll likely never forget it. It's my friend, Lake

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Speaker 2: Pickle of Rankin County, Mississippi. He's really a veteran outdoorsman.

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Speaker 2: I think he told me he'd filmed over sixty successful

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Speaker 2: elk hunts in his life, but he himself is a

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Speaker 2: turkey and deer hunting dude. This is a story about

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Speaker 2: a buck that at the time was the biggest buck

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Speaker 2: he'd ever killed, on a piece of ground that meant

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Speaker 2: the world to him. Here's late.

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Speaker 5: So I was a college student at Mississippi State, which

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Speaker 5: is in star Fore, Mississippi. It was middle of January,

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Speaker 5: so we had a week maybe two weeks of dear

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Speaker 5: season left, and that time of years, honestly, even though

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Speaker 5: it's a late part of the season, can be some

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Speaker 5: of the best hunting because that's the rut in that

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Speaker 5: part of the state. And we also had this freak

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Speaker 5: cold front come through. I mean, don't get me wrong,

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Speaker 5: it's normally cold that time of year, but Mississippi is

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Speaker 5: not known for having tempts in the teens, and.

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Speaker 6: I think that's what we had that time.

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Speaker 5: And so I'm sitting in my little duplex house, Startful

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Speaker 5: and I'm supposed to be writing an essay on moist

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Speaker 5: soil vegetation, but in reality, I had about four words

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Speaker 5: typed out on that screen, and I was having this

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Speaker 5: internal debate on whether or not I should try to

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Speaker 5: fight write in this paper or I knew if I

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Speaker 5: got in my truck and stepped on it a little bit,

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Speaker 5: I could drive to cater Reda, Mississippi, where we had

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Speaker 5: a little piece of family land where I virtually did

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Speaker 5: all my deer hunting as a kid.

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Speaker 6: And I could be there and just under an hour.

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Speaker 5: And that was a big deal because when I was

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Speaker 5: a kid, from where I lived, it took us two

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Speaker 5: hours to get there. From Startfulle, I could get there

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Speaker 5: and under an hour. I think I timed it once.

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Speaker 5: From my house to the gate, I could get there

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Speaker 5: in fifty three minutes. Finally, I decide I'm not getting

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Speaker 5: anywhere with this paper, so I slamm the laptop shut,

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Speaker 5: I grabbed my stuff, I get in the truck, and

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Speaker 5: I'd go i'd get to the gate and I take

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Speaker 5: out walking because I'm already running kind of late because

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Speaker 5: I took so long deciding whether or not I was

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Speaker 5: going to go. Originally, the spot that I was going

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Speaker 5: to go to it's about a two hundred yard walk

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Speaker 5: from the truck, and the reason I picked that spot

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Speaker 5: is simply because the wind was good and it was

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Speaker 5: the closest one to the truck, and I was already

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Speaker 5: running kind of late. So I'm walking towards this spot,

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Speaker 5: and all of a sudden, I get this hunch. I

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Speaker 5: don't need to hunt there. I need to go and

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Speaker 5: hunt this spot that we refer to as Daddy Doll's

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Speaker 5: food plot, and I'll get to why we call it

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Speaker 5: that later, But Daddy Doe's food plot was a little

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Speaker 5: bit further walk, and I just had this hunch, and

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Speaker 5: so I went with it. I kept walking across the creek,

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Speaker 5: getting closer. I get about one hundred yards away. I

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Speaker 5: can kind of start to see the food plot, and

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Speaker 5: I'm worried there's gonna be deer out there already, because

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Speaker 5: sometimes they come out early. I see that the food

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Speaker 5: plots empty. I'm like, okay, that's good. And the way

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Speaker 5: you get into this stand. There was a ladder stand there,

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Speaker 5: so the road kind of dumps you out to the

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Speaker 5: edge of the food plot and then you basically.

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Speaker 6: Have to cut the corner of the food plot.

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Speaker 5: You have to walk about forty fifty yards across the

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Speaker 5: food plot, get to the ladder and climb up. And

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Speaker 5: like I said, it was freakishly cold that day. I

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Speaker 5: want to say it was like eighteen or nineteen degrees.

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Speaker 5: So the ground was frozen. That's an important factor. Also,

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Speaker 5: we've all been in the woods sometimes after a cold

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Speaker 5: front has moved through and everything just gets dead still.

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Speaker 5: It's like it'll get so steal in woods like that.

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Speaker 5: Sometimes it feels like it makes noise when you breathe.

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Speaker 5: And so it's one of those dead still days. Ground

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Speaker 5: is frozen. I go to cut across this food plot

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Speaker 5: and the first step I take in my boot steps

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Speaker 5: on that frozen winter wheat, and it just just made

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Speaker 5: this loud, crunching noise. Man, it felt like trying to

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Speaker 5: open a peppermint in church. I was just like and

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Speaker 5: I froze up, and I thought to myself, you idiot,

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Speaker 5: what are you going to do now? Because I was stuck,

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Speaker 5: you know, I mean, that was the spot I had

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Speaker 5: to go to, but I had to get that fifty

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Speaker 5: yards across there, and I was gonna make racket the

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Speaker 5: whole way. And all I could think to do was

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Speaker 5: my buddy Erin showed me this trick one time. He said,

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Speaker 5: if he's hunting in the rut and he has to

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Speaker 5: make some noise getting to his stand, he will take

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Speaker 5: out his grunt call and he'll take a few steps,

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Speaker 5: he'll blow that grunk call and it make it sound

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Speaker 5: like it's a buck walking and grunting. And I remember

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Speaker 5: when he told me that. I said, that will never work,

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Speaker 5: But anyway, I didn't have any other options.

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Speaker 6: So there I went.

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Speaker 5: Across that food plight, step step step right, I blow

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Speaker 5: that grunk call.

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Speaker 6: Step step step right.

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Speaker 5: I blow the grunk call again the whole way, just

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Speaker 5: feeling sillier and sillier. Well, I finally get across their

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Speaker 5: get to the base of the ladder, tie my rifle

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Speaker 5: off to a rope.

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Speaker 6: Shemy up the ladder, hang my pack up. I turn around.

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Speaker 5: I start pulling to the rifle up the tree, and

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Speaker 5: I was trying to take my time so the barrel

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Speaker 5: didn't swing into the middle rung the ladder and make

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Speaker 5: even more noise. I remember, I get the rifle about

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Speaker 5: half way up, and I picked my head up and

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Speaker 5: I just looked down the food plot. The food plot's

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Speaker 5: kind of narrow, and it's not that long. I mean,

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Speaker 5: that part of Mississippi a lot of pine thickets and stuff.

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Speaker 5: It's about ninety yards long, so, you know, kind of

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Speaker 5: small plot. But I look down the food plot and

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Speaker 5: in the right hand back corner you can't see it

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Speaker 5: super clear because some of the tree limbs hanging over,

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Speaker 5: but I can tell there's a deer there. And right

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Speaker 5: when I looked, he moved. I caught a glimpse of

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Speaker 5: handler and I said, oh my goodness, it's a buck.

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Speaker 5: So I pulled the gun up the rest of the

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Speaker 5: way and it's no sooner do I get the gun up.

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Speaker 5: The buck steps out in the food plot where I

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Speaker 5: can see him, and he is bristled up looking for

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Speaker 5: that grunting that I was doing. And not only is

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Speaker 5: that happening, but he is the biggest deer that I

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Speaker 5: had ever seen or heard of coming out of that

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Speaker 5: part of the country. Now let me pause the story

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Speaker 5: real quick and say, Cateretta Mississippi is not known for

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Speaker 5: big white tails by any stretch of the imagination.

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Speaker 6: I cannot emphasize that enough. I grew up.

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Speaker 5: Deer hunting there. I killed my first deer in that area.

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Speaker 5: I had grandparents there, aunt's, uncles, cousins. And so you

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Speaker 5: go into a lot of houses, you go into a

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Speaker 5: lot of barn shops. You just see a lot of

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Speaker 5: deer antlers, deer tax near me, deer skulls. You kind

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Speaker 5: of get a general feel of what kind of deer

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Speaker 5: in the area. And I'm telling you what walked out

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Speaker 5: into that food plot, bristled up and looking around was

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Speaker 5: big for that area. And I'm going, oh, my gosh, Well,

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Speaker 5: he looks around, doesn't see a buck, and he just

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Speaker 5: starts milling around in the food plot. And I go

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Speaker 5: to rack around in the gun, the gun on him.

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Speaker 5: He's the safety off, and I kind of look at

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Speaker 5: him in the scope for a little bit and I'm like, oh,

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Speaker 5: I just couldn't believe it, you know. But I finally

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Speaker 5: decided I needed to do something here. So I put

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Speaker 5: the crosshairs on his shoulder, and I remember thinking, just

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Speaker 5: breathe and squeeze, do not mess this up, and I

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Speaker 5: kept squeezing and kept squeezing, and pow, gun goes off

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Speaker 5: and deer falls right there dead. And it all happened so fast,

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Speaker 5: And you know, I come out of the gun, I

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Speaker 5: look and he's laying there dead in the food plot.

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Speaker 5: And at that moment kind of the reality of the

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Speaker 5: situation set in on me. Now, that was by far

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Speaker 5: the biggest deer that I had ever killed in my

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Speaker 5: life at the time, and like I said, the biggest

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Speaker 5: deer I'd ever known to come out of that area.

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Speaker 6: But here's what I mean.

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Speaker 5: Like I said earlier, we referred to that food plot,

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Speaker 5: that spot as Daddy Doe's food plot. The reason we

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Speaker 5: caught it, that is, Daddy Dole was my grandfather, my

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Speaker 5: mom's dad. Him and my grandmother, who we called Mimi,

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Speaker 5: lived about a mile up the road from that little

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Speaker 5: eighty acre block where virtually all of my early deer

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Speaker 5: hunting took place. And man did they mean a lot

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Speaker 5: to us, And boy did they love their grandkids, And man,

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Speaker 5: so many memories were.

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Speaker 6: Tied to that house.

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Speaker 5: We're tied to Mimi and Daddy Dole and were tied

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Speaker 5: to that little eighty acres in cater Reda Mississippi. Not

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Speaker 5: just hunting memories, a lot of them were, but just

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Speaker 5: all kinds of good memories. Man and Daddy Dole built

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Speaker 5: that food plot, I think mainly he built it for

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Speaker 5: us and for folks to enjoy. And he had built

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Speaker 5: this gigantic wooden shoot house into this old oak tree

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Speaker 5: on that food plot. That I killed my first deer

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Speaker 5: out of that shoot house on that food plot. My

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Speaker 5: brother killed his first deer out of that shoot house

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Speaker 5: on that food plight. My cousin Clancy killed her first

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Speaker 5: deer out of that shooting house on that food plot.

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Speaker 5: And I don't know how many other deer had been

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Speaker 5: killed out of that food plot. Daddy Dole passed away

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Speaker 5: when I was a kid. We lost Mimi just a

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Speaker 5: few years prior when I was in high school. And

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Speaker 5: that old wooden shoot house had rided and fell out

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Speaker 5: of that tree a long time ago, and that's why

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Speaker 5: we had the ladders down in there now. But as

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Speaker 5: I was sitting there looking at that buck laying on

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Speaker 5: the ground after killing it in a crazy lucky way,

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Speaker 5: I could look at that buck, I could turn my

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Speaker 5: head to the left and I could look at the

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Speaker 5: remains of that old wooden shooting house on the ground,

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Speaker 5: and all I could think to myself was was, man,

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Speaker 5: what Daddy Doe and Mimi would think if they could

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Speaker 5: see this right now? And I just sat there and

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Speaker 5: took it in for a second, and I finally climbed

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Speaker 5: down the ladder walked towards that deer and it was

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Speaker 5: the first time in my life that I had walked

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Speaker 5: up to a buck and it didn't shrink as I

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Speaker 5: got up to it. And I called my dad. I

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Speaker 5: told him what was going on. Called my mom, told

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Speaker 5: her what was going on, and I told Dad. I said, man,

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Speaker 5: I really didn't come prepared to kill a deer, because

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Speaker 5: now I'm all the way here at the back and

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Speaker 5: I can't get my truck back here. I guess I'm

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Speaker 5: in for a really long drag. And he said, Man,

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Speaker 5: call Uncle Jerry. You know he'd love to come get

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Speaker 5: that deer. My uncle Jerry and Katie Sue. Katie Sue

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Speaker 5: was Daddy Doe's sister, still lived, you know, just up

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Speaker 5: the hill from where me, me and Daddy Doe used

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Speaker 5: to called him. I told her what happened. He rode

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Speaker 5: down his side by side. I'll never forget he hopped

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Speaker 5: out of his side by side looked at that deer.

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Speaker 5: He looked at me with his blank stare on his face,

260
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Speaker 5: and he said, Lake, I ain't never seen no deer

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Speaker 5: like that come out of here, And that said, I know,

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Speaker 5: Uncle Jerry, I can't believe it either. We loaded that

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Speaker 5: deer up, we drove it back to their house. Katie

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Speaker 5: Sue come out the door with the camera that had

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Speaker 5: a roll of film in it, snapped a couple pictures

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Speaker 5: of me on the tailgate with that buck.

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Speaker 6: And ended up mailing them to my mom. She still

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Speaker 6: has them to this day.

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Speaker 5: And then she invited me in for supper, and we

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Speaker 5: sat around, talked about that deer, talked about the hunt,

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Speaker 5: and just went on for I don't know how long,

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Speaker 5: about how much Daddy told and me and he would

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Speaker 5: have loved it that they'd been here to see it.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 5: Like I said, that happened when I was in college,

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Speaker 5: and I've got been fortunate enough to do a lot

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Speaker 5: of deer hunts since then. I've killed bigger deer score wise,

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Speaker 5: and seen a lot more since then. But to this day,

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Speaker 5: I've never had a deer hunt that meant more to

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Speaker 5: me than that one. Did that one was that one

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Speaker 5: was something and it happened in a crazy way too.

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Speaker 2: That was a good story.

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Speaker 4: Lake.

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Speaker 2: We learned something about calling and your connection to your

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Speaker 2: grandparents and their land. Our next storyteller is Mitch Sykes

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Speaker 2: from the mountains of western Arkansas. I've known Mitch for

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Speaker 2: most of my life and he's about as good a

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Speaker 2: big buck hunter as there is in the area that

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Speaker 2: we're from. And he's got a heck of a story

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Speaker 2: and it involves a big buck and a bear.

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Speaker 7: Oh. On this particular deer right here, I had a

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Speaker 7: spot on the west end of a mountain up here,

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Speaker 7: and it was a big leg that come off the

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Speaker 7: west end of the mountain and it was one of

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Speaker 7: those special places to where it didn't matter if the

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Speaker 7: acrons made, if they didn't make, there was a spot

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Speaker 7: there toward the month of October, it was the place

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Speaker 7: to be. And on this particular deer here, I had

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Speaker 7: went in there, and I believe it was the first

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Speaker 7: week of October. I just carried my climbing tree standing there,

301
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Speaker 7: climbed up in the tree and for hunting public land

302
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Speaker 7: in the mountains. I remember that morning pretty well. I

303
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Speaker 7: saw like seven or eight deer, and that was a

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Speaker 7: wonderful day, a bunch of does and I think a

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Speaker 7: couple of small bucks. And I believe it was on

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Speaker 7: a Saturday morning, and about eleven o'clock. I was hunting

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Speaker 7: later than I normally do. I just heard something right

308
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Speaker 7: off in front of me there and I looked, and

309
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Speaker 7: here come this buck. I had no idea, I mean,

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Speaker 7: and he looked bigger than he was, of course, walking

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Speaker 7: right to me. And I got ready and he just

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Speaker 7: come in, just feeding on acres, just coming right to me.

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Speaker 7: And when he got right in there about where I

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Speaker 7: was expecting him to hopefully turn broadside and offer me

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Speaker 7: a shot, he got in some brush, just kind of

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Speaker 7: followed his nose and got in a little more brush,

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Speaker 7: and I'm expecting to hoping he's going to come out,

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Speaker 7: and he's probably within fifteen yards of me, and the

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Speaker 7: next thing I know, I can tell he's turned. And

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Speaker 7: if there was one thing the deer could do and

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Speaker 7: get away from me, that's what he did. He just

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Speaker 7: took off, feeding away from me. And at that time

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Speaker 7: I shot one pin on my bow. I shot a

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Speaker 7: twenty yard pin and I would not shoot past thirty yards.

325
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Speaker 7: And this deer got out there what I thought was

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Speaker 7: about thirty yards and offered me a shot. And when

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Speaker 7: I shot, I thought I had heart shot him. He

328
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Speaker 7: jumped and kicked and took off and ran out there

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Speaker 7: about forty yards and he stopped, and I could tell

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Speaker 7: he stood there for a long time, and I didn't

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Speaker 7: do any I mean, I could tell that I hadn't

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Speaker 7: hit him, or hadn't hit him good, and he just

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Speaker 7: kind of finally just eased on off. And when I

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Speaker 7: got down, my air had blood on it, and there

335
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Speaker 7: was just just a few drops of blood right there

336
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Speaker 7: where I'd hit him. And I was just sick because

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Speaker 7: I didn't know if I'd hit him too far back

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Speaker 7: or how if I'd just grabbed. I didn't know what

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Speaker 7: I had done, but I knew that that was the

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Speaker 7: biggest buck that I'd ever shot at with my bow,

341
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Speaker 7: and I was just sick. So every chance I got

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Speaker 7: to hunt, that's where I was gonna hunt. And I

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Speaker 7: believe it was just maybe three or four days later,

344
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Speaker 7: and I left my climbing stand on this white oak

345
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Speaker 7: tree's It was just a permanent fixture there during deer season,

346
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Speaker 7: and I went in there one morning and I always

347
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Speaker 7: got to my stand about an hour before daylight trying

348
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Speaker 7: to And when I walked into my stand that morning,

349
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Speaker 7: when I got up to the tree, my tree stand

350
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Speaker 7: wasn't there, or I didn't think it was. And the

351
00:16:25,520 --> 00:16:29,000
Speaker 7: closer I got, I'm thinking nobody would have stole my stand,

352
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Speaker 7: you know what happened? And as I got closer, I

353
00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:33,440
Speaker 7: could tell that it was spun around on the back

354
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Speaker 7: side of the tree, and the seat was chewed off

355
00:16:36,800 --> 00:16:40,040
Speaker 7: of it, and the bungee cords. It was just demolished.

356
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Speaker 7: And I knew what had done. So I kind of

357
00:16:43,480 --> 00:16:45,920
Speaker 7: looked it all over and I thought, well, it's I

358
00:16:45,960 --> 00:16:47,640
Speaker 7: can climb in it, I can hunt out of it,

359
00:16:47,880 --> 00:16:50,760
Speaker 7: but I can't sit down. So I went ahead and

360
00:16:50,760 --> 00:16:52,840
Speaker 7: climbed up in it, you know. And I've had this

361
00:16:53,120 --> 00:16:55,040
Speaker 7: dreams of this big buck still going to come in.

362
00:16:55,760 --> 00:16:58,400
Speaker 7: And about thirty minutes after daylight, I looked off up

363
00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:00,320
Speaker 7: the mountain there before I had come in up that egg,

364
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Speaker 7: and here come a bear and it was believe it

365
00:17:05,080 --> 00:17:07,160
Speaker 7: or not, I mean, it was just walking the exact

366
00:17:07,200 --> 00:17:09,520
Speaker 7: same trail I did. Kind of like it was smelling

367
00:17:09,600 --> 00:17:12,240
Speaker 7: of me, you know. And when I come down and

368
00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:14,600
Speaker 7: got in that stand, every morning. I came down that leg,

369
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Speaker 7: and right before I got to my stand, there was

370
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Speaker 7: a little old holler, the real steep holler that was

371
00:17:18,320 --> 00:17:21,920
Speaker 7: just full of trash and briars and holly trees. And

372
00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:24,840
Speaker 7: I always walked down that holler so I wouldn't put scent.

373
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Speaker 7: I thought it might have helped. So and with that

374
00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:30,000
Speaker 7: bear did that same thing. And when he come out

375
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Speaker 7: of that holler, he come right to the base of

376
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Speaker 7: my tree. Wasn't a very big bear. I have no idea,

377
00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:38,000
Speaker 7: maybe one hundred and fifty two hundred pounds. Wasn't no

378
00:17:38,040 --> 00:17:40,199
Speaker 7: great big bear come right to the base of the

379
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Speaker 7: tree there, just like I had. And I could tell

380
00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:45,639
Speaker 7: that he was kind of smelling the tree. And this

381
00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:48,320
Speaker 7: whole time, I'm thinking, I mean, it's legal to shoot

382
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Speaker 7: a bear, but I don't want to mess with him.

383
00:17:51,359 --> 00:17:54,399
Speaker 7: And he kind of started licking the tree, and all

384
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Speaker 7: of a sudden, he just kind of raised up on

385
00:17:55,960 --> 00:17:58,600
Speaker 7: his hind legs and he's smelling the tree, and he

386
00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:02,760
Speaker 7: just grabs hold the tree and just start slowly climbing

387
00:18:02,760 --> 00:18:05,520
Speaker 7: the tree. Has not looked up towards me, has not

388
00:18:05,640 --> 00:18:08,800
Speaker 7: seen me nothing, And he'd climb a little bit and

389
00:18:08,840 --> 00:18:11,800
Speaker 7: he'd lick the tree and he'd look around. Finally, he

390
00:18:11,920 --> 00:18:14,200
Speaker 7: just kept coming and kept coming, and I said, I'm

391
00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:16,280
Speaker 7: gonna have to shoot this bear because the whole time

392
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Speaker 7: I'm thinking he's gonna mess with my stand. I'm gonna

393
00:18:19,840 --> 00:18:22,600
Speaker 7: shoot this bear. And I don't know if you'll remember it,

394
00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:25,760
Speaker 7: but about twenty years ago, Muzzy came out with the

395
00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:28,600
Speaker 7: first maybe fall away rest. It was called a zero effect.

396
00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:32,000
Speaker 7: It was a big awkward apparatus that went on your

397
00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:35,480
Speaker 7: bow and anyway. I remember pulled my bow back, but

398
00:18:35,560 --> 00:18:38,159
Speaker 7: he was he was nearly back underneath me, and my

399
00:18:38,359 --> 00:18:41,679
Speaker 7: arrow would not rest on my rest. It was just

400
00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:44,520
Speaker 7: hanging free. And I said, I'm not gonna I mean,

401
00:18:44,600 --> 00:18:46,800
Speaker 7: I'm not gonna. It's not gonna go where I'm aiming.

402
00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:50,000
Speaker 7: So I let my bow down, and when I did,

403
00:18:50,080 --> 00:18:52,000
Speaker 7: he just kept coming up there. And I thought, well,

404
00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:53,720
Speaker 7: I'm gonna have to make him. I'm not gonna be

405
00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:55,080
Speaker 7: able to shoot him on this tree with me. I'm

406
00:18:55,080 --> 00:18:57,160
Speaker 7: gonna have to make him get down. So I took

407
00:18:57,160 --> 00:18:59,480
Speaker 7: my cap off and I just hit my that rail

408
00:18:59,520 --> 00:19:01,400
Speaker 7: on a summit tree stand. I just hit that rail,

409
00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:03,800
Speaker 7: popped my hat on it, and he looked up at me,

410
00:19:03,840 --> 00:19:06,080
Speaker 7: and boy, when he did, it's like it scared you.

411
00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:08,199
Speaker 7: I mean I could tell he kind of boy. He

412
00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:10,560
Speaker 7: took off real fast, climbing back down the tree, and

413
00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:12,520
Speaker 7: he'd probably up about ten foot at that time, and

414
00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:15,400
Speaker 7: I was probably twenty five foot. And as soon as

415
00:19:15,400 --> 00:19:18,040
Speaker 7: he got on the ground, he just stayed there and

416
00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:21,240
Speaker 7: I could hear popping and looking back at it, he

417
00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:24,159
Speaker 7: was popping his teeth. But I thought he was chewing

418
00:19:24,520 --> 00:19:26,760
Speaker 7: the stuff he had chewed up. I had a bungee cord,

419
00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:28,119
Speaker 7: you know, I had some stuff that he had. My

420
00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:30,280
Speaker 7: seat was still down there that he had chewed off

421
00:19:30,320 --> 00:19:34,040
Speaker 7: the stand. But he was popping his teeth, and in

422
00:19:34,320 --> 00:19:38,080
Speaker 7: just the blink of an eye, that bear just he

423
00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:39,760
Speaker 7: just jumped on that tree. And I mean he just

424
00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:42,040
Speaker 7: he just come up it, just looking right at me,

425
00:19:42,520 --> 00:19:44,520
Speaker 7: coming right up through the grid of my stand. So

426
00:19:44,600 --> 00:19:47,480
Speaker 7: I just want to head. I knew he was being aggressive,

427
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:49,640
Speaker 7: and I don't know how to say that, and because

428
00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:51,560
Speaker 7: I've never seen a bear be aggressive. I they're always

429
00:19:51,560 --> 00:19:53,480
Speaker 7: trying to run over trees to get away from you.

430
00:19:53,560 --> 00:19:56,320
Speaker 7: But he was being aggressive coming up that tree. And

431
00:19:56,400 --> 00:19:58,520
Speaker 7: about the time he got to my platform, he just

432
00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:01,679
Speaker 7: kind of peeled off on the left. He came all

433
00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:04,280
Speaker 7: the way up to my feet. I don't know if

434
00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:06,400
Speaker 7: when you scare a cat and he climbs up a tree,

435
00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:08,600
Speaker 7: and I mean he's that's the way the bear was climbing.

436
00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:11,280
Speaker 7: He wasn't slowly climbing like he was the first time.

437
00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:15,320
Speaker 7: He was climbing that tree aggressively. And when he got

438
00:20:15,359 --> 00:20:17,760
Speaker 7: right to my feet, he kind of peeled under, you know,

439
00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:20,680
Speaker 7: came to the left of my platform. And I don't

440
00:20:20,680 --> 00:20:22,720
Speaker 7: even remember if I aimed or what, but I shot

441
00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:25,439
Speaker 7: him right through them, I mean, right through the nose

442
00:20:25,520 --> 00:20:31,120
Speaker 7: and down into the chest cavity. And when I did,

443
00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:33,880
Speaker 7: he let out a squall like a coon just why,

444
00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:38,840
Speaker 7: and just fell, you know, twenty five foot whatever. And

445
00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:41,280
Speaker 7: when he hit the ground, I thought I'd killed him dead.

446
00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:43,399
Speaker 7: I mean, he sat there and kicked for just a

447
00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:45,879
Speaker 7: few minutes, and well, all of a sudden he kind

448
00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:47,320
Speaker 7: of got to his feet and he took off run,

449
00:20:47,320 --> 00:20:49,120
Speaker 7: and he ran right into a great old, big pine tree.

450
00:20:49,119 --> 00:20:51,359
Speaker 7: And when he did, he broke about twelve inches of

451
00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:54,679
Speaker 7: my arrow off and he ran off in a thicket.

452
00:20:55,840 --> 00:20:59,480
Speaker 7: I would think that that bear was probably within five

453
00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:01,520
Speaker 7: foot of me least maybe more than that. I mean,

454
00:21:02,040 --> 00:21:04,240
Speaker 7: he was probably within four foot He was right at

455
00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:07,160
Speaker 7: my platform that I was standing on. He was right

456
00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:09,840
Speaker 7: at that height. Of course, I set up there for

457
00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:12,880
Speaker 7: a little bit, you know, kind of thinking what just happened?

458
00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:15,400
Speaker 7: That was I never had anything like that happen. It's

459
00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:17,160
Speaker 7: one of those stories you nearly didn't even tell because

460
00:21:17,160 --> 00:21:18,720
Speaker 7: you said, people are not going to believe me. They're

461
00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:21,040
Speaker 7: not going to think I'm credible by telling that. But

462
00:21:21,119 --> 00:21:26,359
Speaker 7: that is exactly what happened. Anyway, That's kind of how

463
00:21:26,359 --> 00:21:30,080
Speaker 7: that all happened. And I was just sick about the

464
00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:31,720
Speaker 7: whole deal. And I didn't see the deer, and I

465
00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:34,000
Speaker 7: think I hunted that this buck that I had shot

466
00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:36,840
Speaker 7: at that I started the story with. I hunted him

467
00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:38,720
Speaker 7: all through muzzle od in season and I never saw

468
00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:41,600
Speaker 7: that deer again. So in my mind, that was before

469
00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:43,639
Speaker 7: I had trail cameras or anything like that. And in

470
00:21:43,640 --> 00:21:45,919
Speaker 7: my mind I had I had got shot him, that

471
00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:50,159
Speaker 7: I had done something and he wasn't back. And I

472
00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:53,760
Speaker 7: think it was on Halloween morning and here where I hunt.

473
00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:56,920
Speaker 7: If you can, that's something special about you know, if

474
00:21:56,920 --> 00:21:59,600
Speaker 7: a guy could hunt from the twenty fifth of October

475
00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:02,399
Speaker 7: through the if the November, those ten days, you'd have

476
00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:05,520
Speaker 7: more success and have more stories to tell than if

477
00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:06,760
Speaker 7: you hunted a month on either.

478
00:22:06,600 --> 00:22:07,080
Speaker 4: Side of it.

479
00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:11,040
Speaker 7: Where I hunt, that's just a magical time. And that morning,

480
00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:12,760
Speaker 7: I remember I got up in that stand and I

481
00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:14,880
Speaker 7: think I had gotten me a replacement set or something

482
00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:16,160
Speaker 7: like that. But I was sut in the same stand,

483
00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:18,919
Speaker 7: the same place, and right before daylight I heard a

484
00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:22,600
Speaker 7: deer coming from the south going north and it come

485
00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:25,400
Speaker 7: right in, right in underneath me, and I never will

486
00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:27,680
Speaker 7: forget the whole time. It looked like a big deer,

487
00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:29,960
Speaker 7: but it was just a blob. And I'm thinking, that's

488
00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:32,320
Speaker 7: a buck. That's a buck this time of year, that's

489
00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:36,639
Speaker 7: above But I was wrong. It kind of went on west,

490
00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:38,639
Speaker 7: come up in the underneath me, and went on west.

491
00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:41,520
Speaker 7: And about a minute later I could hear a deer

492
00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:46,000
Speaker 7: grunting every breath coming from the south right the same track.

493
00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:48,040
Speaker 7: I didn't know it at the time. I just knew

494
00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:50,760
Speaker 7: that it had big chocolate set of horns, and it

495
00:22:50,840 --> 00:22:53,080
Speaker 7: came in there and it was just about as dark

496
00:22:53,119 --> 00:22:56,040
Speaker 7: as you could see your pens. I could tell it

497
00:22:56,080 --> 00:22:58,520
Speaker 7: was a really good deer. Anyway, I shot it, and

498
00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:01,480
Speaker 7: it ended p whenever I got to it. It was

499
00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:04,679
Speaker 7: the buck that I had seen three weeks before that

500
00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:07,560
Speaker 7: I had shot at, and I had actually grazed him

501
00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:09,840
Speaker 7: from if I'd have been three inches higher out of

502
00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:12,280
Speaker 7: heart shot him, but I just grazed his brisket in

503
00:23:12,359 --> 00:23:16,080
Speaker 7: his front leg with my broad head. But he's the

504
00:23:16,119 --> 00:23:19,080
Speaker 7: best buck I've ever killed with a bow, just to

505
00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:21,639
Speaker 7: He's real narrow, but he's a really good deer. He

506
00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:22,680
Speaker 7: was a good eight point buck.

507
00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:32,119
Speaker 2: Mitch, that was an incredible story. I'm impressed that you

508
00:23:32,160 --> 00:23:34,720
Speaker 2: were able to hold it all together on the buck

509
00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:39,639
Speaker 2: and then shooting straight down at that bear. Deer stories

510
00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:44,440
Speaker 2: aren't always about deer. We're moving right along and going

511
00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:47,200
Speaker 2: back to Mississippi to meet up with a guy named

512
00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:51,680
Speaker 2: Miles Malone. He's a professional nuisance hog and beaver trapper

513
00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:55,159
Speaker 2: and a good white tail hunter. This is a story

514
00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:58,840
Speaker 2: about a very unique buck with a third antler growing

515
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:02,320
Speaker 2: out of the middle of its forehead. It's a unicorn buck.

516
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:05,440
Speaker 2: But what's most unique about the hunt is what happens

517
00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:08,879
Speaker 2: when a storm blew a limb full of acorns in

518
00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:09,760
Speaker 2: front of his camera.

519
00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:15,360
Speaker 1: My name is Miles malom I'm from Rudy in Mississippi.

520
00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:19,159
Speaker 4: I at middle of May. It was a pretty day.

521
00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:21,840
Speaker 1: I got off work early when and put out some cameras.

522
00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:24,120
Speaker 1: My plans were not to go back and go check

523
00:24:24,240 --> 00:24:26,960
Speaker 1: my cameras or anything. I just wanted to wait until

524
00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:30,360
Speaker 1: he got, you know, closer season, just see what was around.

525
00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:33,119
Speaker 1: Had a buddy come into town that hunt with and

526
00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:36,800
Speaker 1: he wanted to go scout about right there into June,

527
00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:39,320
Speaker 1: probably June twenty seventh, June twenty eighth.

528
00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:40,520
Speaker 4: And we went.

529
00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:42,639
Speaker 1: I decided to pull my camera cards and I waited

530
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:43,520
Speaker 1: a couple of days.

531
00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:46,520
Speaker 4: I wo wasn't really just eager to look at them, and.

532
00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:49,600
Speaker 1: Finally when I got home, relaxed, looked at my camera.

533
00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:52,960
Speaker 1: It wasn't like two days. I ended up getting this

534
00:24:53,119 --> 00:24:57,840
Speaker 1: unique buck on camera. He had like a Jsha unicorn

535
00:24:57,880 --> 00:24:59,000
Speaker 1: horn coming out of his head, but.

536
00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:00,480
Speaker 4: You couldn't tell much else about him.

537
00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:02,639
Speaker 1: But I knew that was the one I wanted to

538
00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 1: chase without a doubt, no matter what he turned out being.

539
00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:09,320
Speaker 1: I kept getting him at two cameras, but I couldn't

540
00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:12,159
Speaker 1: get him north south and couldn't figure him out. So

541
00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:14,960
Speaker 1: I started trying to go middle of the day when

542
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:18,960
Speaker 1: I got time, and I would go and try to

543
00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:21,560
Speaker 1: see where he's crossing this BYU because I'm getting him

544
00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:22,879
Speaker 1: on the other side, I would buy you next to

545
00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:26,280
Speaker 1: a field, and no matter what I did, where I

546
00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:29,760
Speaker 1: thought I had him, couldn't find it. Kept getting pictures

547
00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:32,400
Speaker 1: of him at the other two spots, and it wasn't

548
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:36,280
Speaker 1: like every day, but was consistent a weekly basis. I

549
00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:38,439
Speaker 1: was getting him, and normally it was like eight thirty

550
00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:41,000
Speaker 1: nine o'clock at night, you know, obviously late at night,

551
00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:43,640
Speaker 1: and the latest on in the morning i'd get him

552
00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:44,520
Speaker 1: on camera would.

553
00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:46,560
Speaker 4: Be like four am, four thirty.

554
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:48,399
Speaker 1: And I just felt like he was one of them,

555
00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:50,960
Speaker 1: dear that I was gonna have to hunt really hard

556
00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:55,399
Speaker 1: and chase all season long and maybe get lucky.

557
00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:56,440
Speaker 4: And get him. In the rut.

558
00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:02,440
Speaker 1: Time went on and it got time for a velvet season,

559
00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:04,080
Speaker 1: I just said, I'm gonna stick with what I know,

560
00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:06,920
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna go hunt the area and.

561
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:09,240
Speaker 4: Hopefully I'll be able to see the deer and.

562
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:11,680
Speaker 1: If I'm in the woods and I spend the time

563
00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:15,639
Speaker 1: in the woods and if he's moving through, I'll eventually

564
00:26:15,720 --> 00:26:17,680
Speaker 1: catch him and might not be able to get a

565
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:19,120
Speaker 1: shot on him. But I'll be able to see where

566
00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:22,000
Speaker 1: he's going, where he's coming from, and help me dial

567
00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:24,560
Speaker 1: in on him. So I went to my old faithful

568
00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:27,560
Speaker 1: spot and the first hunt was really great.

569
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:30,440
Speaker 4: I saw a lot of deer. I saw a couple

570
00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:30,879
Speaker 4: of bucks.

571
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:34,320
Speaker 1: Have me excited, you know, every crunch of a leaf,

572
00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:37,159
Speaker 1: I was like, here he is and it, you know,

573
00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:40,480
Speaker 1: be a possum come marching through the wood that old loud,

574
00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:43,160
Speaker 1: walk through them leaves and just have your heart rattling.

575
00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:48,639
Speaker 1: But the first hunt Velvet season was great, didn't seem

576
00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:51,080
Speaker 1: next day's off you deer a couple of young bucks.

577
00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:54,720
Speaker 1: And the last day of elf season didn't see a deer.

578
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:58,280
Speaker 1: So I'm spiraling to have a run him out of here.

579
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:00,280
Speaker 1: You know, I don't want to go check on my

580
00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:03,840
Speaker 1: cameras and boogrihm or bust him up or anything like

581
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:05,760
Speaker 1: that and leave a bunch of scent in the woods.

582
00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:09,000
Speaker 1: Maybe one two days four season, I decided to go

583
00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:12,240
Speaker 1: out there and go check my cams. Well, when I

584
00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:14,520
Speaker 1: got to the camera, there was a limb in front

585
00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:17,320
Speaker 1: of it, and I was mad, it's just been wasted

586
00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:19,399
Speaker 1: time sitting here, And I moved the oak limb and

587
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:23,640
Speaker 1: drug it like twenty yards off, and when I got

588
00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:26,320
Speaker 1: home and checked the card, you know, had it sept

589
00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:28,320
Speaker 1: for one second hold my finger down.

590
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:30,159
Speaker 4: Just it's like a time lapse.

591
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:33,760
Speaker 1: And I'd been constantly getting you know, doze and yurelings

592
00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:37,280
Speaker 1: in there, and a couple of young bucks and nothing great,

593
00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:40,280
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, I get to it

594
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:43,360
Speaker 1: was about five days before opening season when his oak

595
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:48,000
Speaker 1: limb fell and lo and behold in the background in

596
00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:50,120
Speaker 1: the night picture. I can see it in his rack,

597
00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:54,000
Speaker 1: and he slowly made his way to the oak limb

598
00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:57,320
Speaker 1: and he got on top of it, and he sat

599
00:27:57,359 --> 00:28:00,159
Speaker 1: there and he ate acrens from the limb, and he

600
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:03,400
Speaker 1: held it down, and he would sit there for two hours,

601
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:05,520
Speaker 1: eating at it, and he'd leave. Three four hours, he'd

602
00:28:05,560 --> 00:28:07,720
Speaker 1: be right back on it. And it was the first

603
00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:11,040
Speaker 1: time I'd ever seen him come out in daylight. Like

604
00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:13,119
Speaker 1: he came back at like six thirty in the morning

605
00:28:13,359 --> 00:28:15,159
Speaker 1: and was just eating from that oak limb to like

606
00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:17,439
Speaker 1: eight thirty, nine thirty, and then he left, and then

607
00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:20,720
Speaker 1: he was back at like eleven or lunch, and then

608
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:22,479
Speaker 1: he left. Then he was back four o'clock, and then

609
00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:23,680
Speaker 1: my heart got to beat and I was like.

610
00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:24,320
Speaker 4: What have I done.

611
00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:29,280
Speaker 1: Like he's right there and he's eating from this limb

612
00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:31,480
Speaker 1: and I drug it twenty yards away.

613
00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:32,480
Speaker 4: He got my sin on it.

614
00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:34,080
Speaker 7: I should have flipped it upside down.

615
00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:35,760
Speaker 4: Let him get to the acrons. He couldn't get to.

616
00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:43,280
Speaker 1: Opening day came night before and everybody kept asking me,

617
00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:45,760
Speaker 1: what time are you going hunting in the morning. I said,

618
00:28:45,760 --> 00:28:47,840
Speaker 1: I won't be going hunting till three, and they're like,

619
00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:50,160
Speaker 1: you're going hunt at three in the morning. I said no,

620
00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:52,760
Speaker 1: I said, all the pictures I get of him and

621
00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:55,640
Speaker 1: he leaves and vanishes probably about thirty minutes an hour

622
00:28:55,760 --> 00:28:58,120
Speaker 1: before light breaks, and I don't want to risk going

623
00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:00,760
Speaker 1: in the woods, me trying to get to a stand

624
00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:02,800
Speaker 1: and busting him up. And I was like, I feel

625
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 1: like my best opportunity of getting him is going in

626
00:29:06,200 --> 00:29:09,560
Speaker 1: way early, getting in my stand, and hopefully catching him

627
00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:14,520
Speaker 1: in the evening. And I did. On Opening day. I

628
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:16,960
Speaker 1: was sitting in my stand at three o'clock. It was

629
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:19,720
Speaker 1: like one hundred and eight degrees outside, and I'm sitting

630
00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:22,320
Speaker 1: there thinking what am I doing out here? A lot

631
00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:24,560
Speaker 1: of other people and other camps come hang out at

632
00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:27,560
Speaker 1: watch football and cook, and there are a lot of

633
00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:30,720
Speaker 1: people in town. I'm sitting there hunting and I haven't

634
00:29:30,840 --> 00:29:33,880
Speaker 1: seen it deer. I ain't seeing a squirrel. It started

635
00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:38,480
Speaker 1: getting later and later and nothing, nothing at all. And

636
00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:40,080
Speaker 1: I got to the point where I was just ready

637
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:42,720
Speaker 1: to go. I just, you know, I wish time would

638
00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:44,840
Speaker 1: hurry up and speed up and it get dark.

639
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:46,000
Speaker 4: Now I can calm down.

640
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:53,400
Speaker 1: Usually once it starts getting to that last thirty forty

641
00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:58,000
Speaker 1: five minutes, that magic hour, you know, I normally fired

642
00:29:58,080 --> 00:29:59,800
Speaker 1: up and I gotta have buddy take me to the

643
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:01,600
Speaker 1: wors goar hole on the face of the earth. And

644
00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:04,920
Speaker 1: I still got hopeing at last thirty forty five minutes

645
00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:08,680
Speaker 1: something could at you know, and I didn't this day.

646
00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:10,320
Speaker 4: I did not have no faith.

647
00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:13,560
Speaker 1: I want to say, probably by you know, that last

648
00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:18,400
Speaker 1: thirty minutes. I did hear deer eating acrons. And this

649
00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:21,600
Speaker 1: deer kind of hung out under the mid store and

650
00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:25,360
Speaker 1: just fed for like fifteen twenty minutes. I never could

651
00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:27,520
Speaker 1: see the deer, but I could see pieces of it

652
00:30:27,920 --> 00:30:31,160
Speaker 1: and I could hear it eating acrens. I've had success

653
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:33,280
Speaker 1: with Bucks in this area, and I mean they normally

654
00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:35,880
Speaker 1: dude come on out, and this deer wasn't doing it.

655
00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:37,920
Speaker 1: I didn't want to pick up my binoculars or anything

656
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:41,680
Speaker 1: because I didn't know what it could see. And about

657
00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:44,240
Speaker 1: that time, I look and all I can see is

658
00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:46,480
Speaker 1: that head up and that rack through the leaves.

659
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:47,600
Speaker 4: I went from.

660
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:51,400
Speaker 1: Literally ready to go get my truck and get gone

661
00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:54,560
Speaker 1: at the camp till I couldn't breathe and a blink

662
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:56,960
Speaker 1: of an eye. And I always try to put my

663
00:30:57,120 --> 00:31:00,000
Speaker 1: mind in the situation and practice how I handle it,

664
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:03,600
Speaker 1: and it never works out, but I still practice it.

665
00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:07,680
Speaker 1: And I practiced this for about two months, and you know,

666
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:10,520
Speaker 1: I kind of always visualized. I could seem eighty nine

667
00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:13,680
Speaker 1: yards away and slowly prepared, but I wasn't prepared for.

668
00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:15,600
Speaker 4: The ten minutes of shooting.

669
00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:18,360
Speaker 1: Light left when he took another step or two, and

670
00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:19,840
Speaker 1: I had my bow in my hand, all right, ad

671
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:23,560
Speaker 1: An Aaronnock. When he came out, he started walking my way.

672
00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:28,360
Speaker 1: You know, he's probably only twenty yards from me, and

673
00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:29,480
Speaker 1: I'm just panicking.

674
00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:29,760
Speaker 5: Man.

675
00:31:29,960 --> 00:31:31,840
Speaker 4: I just grew two new hearts in my.

676
00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:33,800
Speaker 1: Body and both of them are in my ear drums

677
00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:37,000
Speaker 1: and they had just pounding. I'm going cross side and

678
00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:40,720
Speaker 1: he's right there and he's got his head up stretched out.

679
00:31:41,360 --> 00:31:43,600
Speaker 1: I want to say, he was about fourteen yards from me,

680
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:45,440
Speaker 1: but I mean I felt like I could jump out

681
00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:48,000
Speaker 1: of deer stand on top of his back. And as

682
00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:51,360
Speaker 1: I was starting to draw my bow back, it just

683
00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:53,680
Speaker 1: collapsed on me and went down. And I said, what

684
00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:56,520
Speaker 1: just happened? And I'm scared of dead that one. Even

685
00:31:56,520 --> 00:31:58,600
Speaker 1: when I draw this thing back, he's gonna run off.

686
00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:02,160
Speaker 1: And I go draw it back again and it just collapses.

687
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:05,400
Speaker 1: And I'm sitting there just shaking so bad. And I

688
00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:07,719
Speaker 1: sit there and I think to myself, there is no

689
00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:10,280
Speaker 1: way I can go back to this deer camp to

690
00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:13,200
Speaker 1: all my buddies and tell him that I had him

691
00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:15,520
Speaker 1: at fourteen yards in front of him, and I couldn't

692
00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:18,520
Speaker 1: find a way to draw my boat back. And I said,

693
00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:20,240
Speaker 1: I don't care if I scare him off or not.

694
00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:23,080
Speaker 1: I'm fixed to give this bow everything I got. And

695
00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:26,280
Speaker 1: I pulled back and it came back, and I got

696
00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:29,280
Speaker 1: the pen right there on him, and I let it

697
00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:31,600
Speaker 1: go and it hit him and he took off, and

698
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:34,760
Speaker 1: you know, I was feeling real good about it. And

699
00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:37,280
Speaker 1: I could see him run. I could see the knot

700
00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:39,320
Speaker 1: kind of going through the mid story. It was like

701
00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:41,760
Speaker 1: Christmas tree light blinking out there. I'd see it, then

702
00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:44,000
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. Then I'd see it, and I wouldn't. But

703
00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:46,800
Speaker 1: I called my buddy and I told him. I said, man,

704
00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:47,480
Speaker 1: I just got him.

705
00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:48,400
Speaker 4: He's at the camp.

706
00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:51,720
Speaker 1: He's like, look, just sitting the stand forty five minutes

707
00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:53,640
Speaker 1: to an hour, do not get down and.

708
00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:55,960
Speaker 4: Go look at your era, just in case he's closed.

709
00:32:56,320 --> 00:32:57,520
Speaker 4: He's like, look, I'm on my way.

710
00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:02,200
Speaker 1: I'm coorblind, so I can't see blood unless it's just

711
00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:05,479
Speaker 1: big old pools of blood. I ain't gonna see it

712
00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:08,720
Speaker 1: in that forty five minutes to an hour I waited

713
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:12,880
Speaker 1: in that stand. I done convinced myself that I pulled

714
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:16,040
Speaker 1: or something and hit him in the hind quarter and

715
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:18,680
Speaker 1: just missed it. All up, I went from feeling great

716
00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:21,280
Speaker 1: on top of the world to just doom and gloom.

717
00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:23,760
Speaker 1: And they finally got there and we got down. I

718
00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:25,760
Speaker 1: was so eager to get down and look, and we

719
00:33:25,840 --> 00:33:29,120
Speaker 1: started finding good blood, and I mean, it wasn't long

720
00:33:29,600 --> 00:33:32,320
Speaker 1: since he was down, and then I just I couldn't

721
00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:38,000
Speaker 1: believe it. He's a mainframe eight point but he has

722
00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:42,600
Speaker 1: a six and a half inch J shape unicorn coming

723
00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:45,200
Speaker 1: out right over about the dead center of his head

724
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:50,520
Speaker 1: and it's about six and a half inches long. I

725
00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:55,440
Speaker 1: panic freaked out, overthought everything, and I kept telling my fiance,

726
00:33:55,520 --> 00:33:56,960
Speaker 1: I mean, it's gonna take all season.

727
00:33:57,200 --> 00:33:59,240
Speaker 4: You know, I'm probably gonna have to miss events. I'm

728
00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:02,240
Speaker 4: probably gonna have to miss this holidays.

729
00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:03,360
Speaker 1: Like I'm gonna have to spend every second I got

730
00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:05,600
Speaker 1: in the woods just to get a chance. And then man,

731
00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:09,560
Speaker 1: just for opening afternoon, just to have it done. Man,

732
00:34:09,600 --> 00:34:14,160
Speaker 1: what a relief as a memory. I'll never forget, that

733
00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:14,719
Speaker 1: is for sure.

734
00:34:16,600 --> 00:34:19,719
Speaker 2: That's wild that that buck keyed in on those acrons

735
00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:23,360
Speaker 2: like that. And as you heard, Miles knows how to

736
00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:40,359
Speaker 2: correctly pronounce the words spelled aco r n. This next

737
00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:43,120
Speaker 2: story is one of my favorites. It's a deer hunting

738
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:46,560
Speaker 2: story but really doesn't have much to do with deer.

739
00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:50,640
Speaker 2: It involves a lost mule during a deer hunt and

740
00:34:50,719 --> 00:34:53,560
Speaker 2: my mother's name coming up in a bar. You're just

741
00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:55,840
Speaker 2: gonna have to listen. I told this one once on

742
00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:58,759
Speaker 2: the Bear Grease Render, but I decided that I'm gonna

743
00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:04,040
Speaker 2: tell it again. When bar Nukan was about nine years old,

744
00:35:04,160 --> 00:35:07,120
Speaker 2: I was wanting to take him on his first big

745
00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:11,560
Speaker 2: overnight deer hunting trip back into the mountains. We had

746
00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:16,120
Speaker 2: a young green broke mule named Ellie May, and we

747
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:20,719
Speaker 2: packed up Ellie May with saddle paniers and carried a

748
00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:24,000
Speaker 2: big camp and went back into the mountains and set

749
00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:27,680
Speaker 2: up our camp. The next day, me and Bear rode

750
00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:31,520
Speaker 2: double Bear's just a little kid back further into the mountains,

751
00:35:31,719 --> 00:35:34,479
Speaker 2: and I tied her up to a tree, and Bear

752
00:35:34,480 --> 00:35:37,120
Speaker 2: and I were gonna go hunting, and we'll tie up

753
00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:39,680
Speaker 2: our mules and leave them all day. I remember we

754
00:35:39,719 --> 00:35:42,959
Speaker 2: sat in a saddle most of the day and all

755
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:46,000
Speaker 2: we saw was a group of gobbler turkeys that came

756
00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:48,719
Speaker 2: through that saddle. Didn't see a single deer. As it

757
00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:52,359
Speaker 2: started to get dark, we head back to find Elie

758
00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:54,400
Speaker 2: May and then ride back down to our camp. I

759
00:35:54,480 --> 00:35:57,480
Speaker 2: get to the tree, and what do I see but

760
00:35:57,760 --> 00:36:01,680
Speaker 2: a lead rope hanging there with no mule, and the

761
00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:04,799
Speaker 2: lead rope had been chewed. At that time, I had

762
00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:07,560
Speaker 2: never known a mule to chew a lead rope, but

763
00:36:07,680 --> 00:36:10,480
Speaker 2: it was wet, and she had chewed it and broke

764
00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:14,440
Speaker 2: it and was gone. Well here it is black dark bears,

765
00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:17,279
Speaker 2: nine years old, and our mules lost way back in

766
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:19,600
Speaker 2: the mountains. Well, I pick up the saddle, and we

767
00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:22,160
Speaker 2: go back to camp. The mule is not at camp.

768
00:36:22,640 --> 00:36:26,480
Speaker 2: I get to thinking the mule is probably back at

769
00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:30,400
Speaker 2: the truck, and I just envisioned this mule running around

770
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:32,840
Speaker 2: on the road out there by my truck with a

771
00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:36,520
Speaker 2: broken lead rope, and somebody calling the sheriff, and the

772
00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:39,760
Speaker 2: sheriff run of my tags, and then calling my wife

773
00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:44,000
Speaker 2: and saying, hey, we found your husband's mule. We think

774
00:36:44,080 --> 00:36:48,040
Speaker 2: something's wrong. I just envisioned like pandemonium spreading from this.

775
00:36:48,719 --> 00:36:51,600
Speaker 2: So we head off in the dark and walk all

776
00:36:51,640 --> 00:37:04,160
Speaker 2: the way back to the truck where we were just

777
00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:08,600
Speaker 2: as it was. One of the closest places of human

778
00:37:08,719 --> 00:37:13,560
Speaker 2: occupation was a bar. Well, it was a Saturday night,

779
00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:16,279
Speaker 2: me and Bear getting the truck. Well, first of all,

780
00:37:16,280 --> 00:37:18,640
Speaker 2: we get there and the mule is not there. The

781
00:37:18,719 --> 00:37:21,439
Speaker 2: mule's not at the truck. So we pull up into

782
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:23,800
Speaker 2: the parking lot of this bar and there's old trucks

783
00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:27,640
Speaker 2: and cars and people there. And my son's nine years old,

784
00:37:27,719 --> 00:37:31,120
Speaker 2: and so he can't go inside. I tell him, I say, son,

785
00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:33,399
Speaker 2: I'm gonna leave you in this truck, and I want

786
00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:36,440
Speaker 2: you to duck down and hide and just lock the

787
00:37:36,520 --> 00:37:39,480
Speaker 2: doors and I should be back in about ten minutes.

788
00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:42,240
Speaker 2: I leave Bear in the truck in the parking lot

789
00:37:42,320 --> 00:37:47,400
Speaker 2: of this bar. I'm wearing all camo, and I'm telling you,

790
00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:51,760
Speaker 2: it was just like a Western I walk in. Music's loud,

791
00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:55,600
Speaker 2: and every single person that bar looks over at me,

792
00:37:56,320 --> 00:37:59,239
Speaker 2: and clearly I'm kind of out of place. Well, I

793
00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:02,279
Speaker 2: walk up to the bar and find a place and

794
00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:04,920
Speaker 2: kind of lean up against the bar and try to

795
00:38:04,920 --> 00:38:08,640
Speaker 2: get the attention of the bartender. Well, finally I do.

796
00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:12,160
Speaker 2: The music is so loud. She's like, what can I

797
00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:13,600
Speaker 2: get you? And I go, oh, I don't. I don't

798
00:38:13,600 --> 00:38:16,400
Speaker 2: need anything to drink. I came by and I'm yelling

799
00:38:16,800 --> 00:38:19,520
Speaker 2: this because it's so loud. She's leaned into me and

800
00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:23,920
Speaker 2: I'm leaned into her, and everybody in that bar is

801
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:26,640
Speaker 2: looking at me. I mean, I'm not kidding. And I go,

802
00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:30,560
Speaker 2: my name is Klay Nukem, and I lost my mule,

803
00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:33,960
Speaker 2: and I just wanted to leave my phone number just

804
00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:38,000
Speaker 2: in case, you know, somebody sees it. And she goes,

805
00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:41,760
Speaker 2: what And I yelled even louder. I say, my name

806
00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:45,239
Speaker 2: is Clay Nukem, and I lost my mule, And I

807
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:48,360
Speaker 2: mean everybody in the bar is listening, And as I'm talking,

808
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:51,560
Speaker 2: there's five or six people there to my left. And

809
00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:53,879
Speaker 2: at the end of the bar, I see a guy

810
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:57,279
Speaker 2: stand up and I can tell he's had quite a

811
00:38:57,280 --> 00:39:01,520
Speaker 2: bit to drink, and he yelled across all these people

812
00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:04,279
Speaker 2: to me. He goes, and this was the last thing

813
00:39:04,360 --> 00:39:07,840
Speaker 2: I was expecting to hear come from his mouth. He said,

814
00:39:08,560 --> 00:39:15,680
Speaker 2: is your mom, Judy Nukem. When the words Judy Nukem

815
00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:20,399
Speaker 2: came out of his mouth, I could not believe it.

816
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:23,360
Speaker 2: I was just like what, And he says it again,

817
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:28,800
Speaker 2: is your mom, Judy Nukem. That was the last woman

818
00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:31,920
Speaker 2: that I expected to come up in this bar. Just

819
00:39:31,960 --> 00:39:35,160
Speaker 2: for a little context, my mother. We call her Juju,

820
00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:39,200
Speaker 2: and she is a legend in her community for being

821
00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:45,960
Speaker 2: a wonderful, kind, godly, amazing woman whose name should not

822
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:47,359
Speaker 2: be brought up in a bar.

823
00:39:48,320 --> 00:39:48,640
Speaker 4: Well.

824
00:39:49,600 --> 00:39:52,640
Speaker 2: A lot of scenarios were running through my mind about

825
00:39:52,680 --> 00:39:55,560
Speaker 2: what was about to transpire. I didn't know if I

826
00:39:55,560 --> 00:39:57,960
Speaker 2: was gonna have to fight this guy. I didn't know

827
00:39:58,640 --> 00:40:01,800
Speaker 2: what he was about to say revealed to me about

828
00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:05,239
Speaker 2: my mother that maybe I didn't know. Finally, I go,

829
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:10,799
Speaker 2: that is my mother and his face just changes countenance

830
00:40:11,239 --> 00:40:15,160
Speaker 2: and A big smile comes on his face and he says,

831
00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:20,200
Speaker 2: I quote she's my teacher, but literally what he said,

832
00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:24,120
Speaker 2: she's my teacher. This is a grown man older than me,

833
00:40:24,680 --> 00:40:29,200
Speaker 2: and he says, she's my teacher. And he goes, she

834
00:40:29,440 --> 00:40:32,000
Speaker 2: used to teach me in elementary school. She was my

835
00:40:32,160 --> 00:40:36,160
Speaker 2: favorite teacher of all time. And I just big smile

836
00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:42,040
Speaker 2: comes on my face. Oh what a relief, and I go, excellent, man, cool,

837
00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:44,879
Speaker 2: I'll tell her you said hi. Got the guy's name,

838
00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:48,000
Speaker 2: wrote down my phone number on a little sticky pad,

839
00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:52,320
Speaker 2: headed out of there. Luckily Bear was okay. Nothing happened

840
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:54,200
Speaker 2: to him, and it was too late to go back

841
00:40:54,280 --> 00:40:56,319
Speaker 2: up to our camp. We still lost our meals. So

842
00:40:56,360 --> 00:40:59,080
Speaker 2: I head to Juju's house, to my mom and dad's

843
00:40:59,120 --> 00:41:01,239
Speaker 2: house to spend the night, and as soon as I

844
00:41:01,280 --> 00:41:03,719
Speaker 2: walk in the door, I say, me and Barr are

845
00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:07,920
Speaker 2: just at the bar. Guess whose name came up? Anyway,

846
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:10,000
Speaker 2: long story short. We spent the night and the next

847
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:12,000
Speaker 2: morning we went back up there and the mule was

848
00:41:12,040 --> 00:41:17,560
Speaker 2: at our camp. No deer were harmed during the proceedings

849
00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:21,400
Speaker 2: of that last story, and I was very relieved to

850
00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:24,759
Speaker 2: hear that my mother was that man's teacher, and for

851
00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:41,600
Speaker 2: the record, I no longer own la may.

852
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:41,320
Speaker 1: Now.

853
00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:44,200
Speaker 2: I said at the beginning, if you only listen to

854
00:41:44,320 --> 00:41:48,440
Speaker 2: one story, it should be the one by Med Palmer.

855
00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:52,719
Speaker 2: He's a biologist for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, a

856
00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:56,440
Speaker 2: veteran deer and turkey hunter, and a general all around woodsman.

857
00:41:57,160 --> 00:42:00,200
Speaker 2: I just want to warn you this one may surprise you.

858
00:42:00,719 --> 00:42:03,240
Speaker 2: I want you to meet Med Palmer.

859
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:08,200
Speaker 3: My name is Med Palmer from Kapya County, Mississippi. I

860
00:42:08,239 --> 00:42:10,440
Speaker 3: worked for the Mississippi Point Wife It's in park.

861
00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:12,960
Speaker 4: The fall of.

862
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:17,320
Speaker 3: Twenty and twenty, there was a particular deer on our property.

863
00:42:17,640 --> 00:42:20,440
Speaker 3: My son Gunner, which he's a younger generation, he was

864
00:42:20,520 --> 00:42:23,839
Speaker 3: running cameras and you know, getting ready for both seasons.

865
00:42:23,880 --> 00:42:26,040
Speaker 3: And about two years prior, we started getting a picture

866
00:42:26,080 --> 00:42:27,880
Speaker 3: of the Pacific Book that he was really wanting to

867
00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:30,439
Speaker 3: kill with his bow. But he just couldn't evernarrow him down,

868
00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:34,160
Speaker 3: couldn't find his bed in there, and he was pretty sporadic.

869
00:42:34,200 --> 00:42:37,640
Speaker 3: We just could couldn't pin him down. And then the

870
00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:42,080
Speaker 3: fall of twenty twenty, that end of that summer, around August,

871
00:42:42,360 --> 00:42:45,960
Speaker 3: he'd started putting his cameras out and all of a sudden,

872
00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:47,640
Speaker 3: he started to get pictured of his book, and his

873
00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:51,320
Speaker 3: book was pretty centralized in one location on our property,

874
00:42:51,400 --> 00:42:53,160
Speaker 3: which worked out really good because it was in the

875
00:42:53,160 --> 00:42:55,719
Speaker 3: center of our property and he was really fired up.

876
00:42:55,840 --> 00:42:58,400
Speaker 3: He would just infatuate with both one and he loved

877
00:42:58,400 --> 00:43:00,840
Speaker 3: it because he started out real young shooting deer with

878
00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:03,719
Speaker 3: a rifle. So when he got on up the bowl hunting,

879
00:43:03,800 --> 00:43:05,680
Speaker 3: it's just a lot more ADRIWND than the rush, a

880
00:43:05,719 --> 00:43:09,120
Speaker 3: lot harder to do. But this particular buck, he started

881
00:43:09,320 --> 00:43:12,560
Speaker 3: getting multiple pictures of him, and so we started planning

882
00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:14,760
Speaker 3: on putting stands up in that particular location.

883
00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:15,600
Speaker 4: It worked out.

884
00:43:15,800 --> 00:43:18,600
Speaker 3: He put a camera on a s Pacific oak tree,

885
00:43:18,640 --> 00:43:21,600
Speaker 3: and that oak tree is just one of those oak

886
00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:25,000
Speaker 3: trees that it starts dropping early and drops on end

887
00:43:25,080 --> 00:43:28,560
Speaker 3: to probably about mid December. It's a big water oak

888
00:43:28,760 --> 00:43:30,880
Speaker 3: and that tree started dropping early that year, so he

889
00:43:30,960 --> 00:43:33,759
Speaker 3: put his camera on it and that buck with two

890
00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:36,720
Speaker 3: other bucks, which was nice bucks. The buck he wanted

891
00:43:36,760 --> 00:43:39,239
Speaker 3: to kill was at least the six and a half

892
00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:42,160
Speaker 3: year old buck, and the other two was probably bourn

893
00:43:42,160 --> 00:43:44,320
Speaker 3: and a half year old bucks. They was shooter bucks

894
00:43:44,320 --> 00:43:46,759
Speaker 3: for anybody, but the one he wanted was the one

895
00:43:46,760 --> 00:43:50,040
Speaker 3: we'd had two years prior. Hornwise, he was decent. He

896
00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:52,680
Speaker 3: was probably about seventeen eighteen inch eight point. You know

897
00:43:52,719 --> 00:43:54,640
Speaker 3: its gonna be eight point. It's all he's ever been.

898
00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:57,839
Speaker 3: But he kept watching the weather and everything and the

899
00:43:57,880 --> 00:44:01,680
Speaker 3: wind direction, and he put his block on and he

900
00:44:01,760 --> 00:44:04,640
Speaker 3: ended up putting another lock on beside it at a

901
00:44:04,680 --> 00:44:07,840
Speaker 3: different angle. Got on by the week for bow season,

902
00:44:08,040 --> 00:44:09,759
Speaker 3: and I asked him, I says the buck still coming.

903
00:44:09,840 --> 00:44:13,080
Speaker 3: He said yeah, he said they're still coming. So opening

904
00:44:13,160 --> 00:44:16,120
Speaker 3: weekend of bow season, I mean naturally, that's where he

905
00:44:16,239 --> 00:44:18,160
Speaker 3: was going to be. The wind was perfect that day,

906
00:44:18,640 --> 00:44:21,120
Speaker 3: and he took his girlfriend with him that day. She

907
00:44:21,200 --> 00:44:23,839
Speaker 3: wanted to go, had never hunted in her life, so

908
00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:26,280
Speaker 3: he puts her in the extra lock on right beside

909
00:44:26,320 --> 00:44:28,879
Speaker 3: he is, and he gets up in there. Everything was good,

910
00:44:29,360 --> 00:44:32,440
Speaker 3: and that evening I kept waiting for a text. Well,

911
00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:34,359
Speaker 3: he started getting later and later, and I hadn't got

912
00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:37,440
Speaker 3: that text yet and finally got dark. Well, when he

913
00:44:37,480 --> 00:44:40,120
Speaker 3: made it home, I said he didn't show. He said, yeah,

914
00:44:40,160 --> 00:44:43,560
Speaker 3: he showed, he said, but the two younger bucks, he said,

915
00:44:43,600 --> 00:44:45,840
Speaker 3: they come right to the tree and was feeding like

916
00:44:45,880 --> 00:44:48,200
Speaker 3: they did every eating. He said he was bringing up

917
00:44:48,200 --> 00:44:51,280
Speaker 3: the rear like he does every day, but he skirted

918
00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:54,560
Speaker 3: the tree and he said, I had a shot at

919
00:44:54,600 --> 00:44:57,920
Speaker 3: thirty yards broadside, but there was one limb that was

920
00:44:57,960 --> 00:45:00,719
Speaker 3: blocking it. He said, I was scared it was deflected

921
00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:02,719
Speaker 3: in crippling. He said, I just didn't want to do that.

922
00:45:03,080 --> 00:45:05,359
Speaker 3: And uh, I said, well you did the right thing,

923
00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:07,560
Speaker 3: because that's surely what would have happened. Bow hunt, you know,

924
00:45:07,640 --> 00:45:10,520
Speaker 3: with one stick and that's all it takes. And his

925
00:45:10,600 --> 00:45:13,560
Speaker 3: girlfriend got to see the two bucks right under, so

926
00:45:13,600 --> 00:45:16,279
Speaker 3: she was all fired up and fell in love with Hunt.

927
00:45:16,719 --> 00:45:19,040
Speaker 3: But anyway, he was having the hunted with the wind.

928
00:45:19,120 --> 00:45:22,960
Speaker 3: Of course, on into bow season, the pattern will bucks change,

929
00:45:23,120 --> 00:45:26,520
Speaker 3: bucks will be buddies all through the summer, and then

930
00:45:26,840 --> 00:45:29,560
Speaker 3: for the rut they start getting aggravated one another end

931
00:45:29,640 --> 00:45:31,560
Speaker 3: up fighting and they and they bust up, and that

932
00:45:31,880 --> 00:45:36,479
Speaker 3: apparently is what happened in this situation. In about two

933
00:45:36,600 --> 00:45:39,800
Speaker 3: weeks into the boat season, he started not getting pictures

934
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:42,879
Speaker 3: of it. So he had decided this boat was getting

935
00:45:42,920 --> 00:45:44,839
Speaker 3: old enough. He said, if I see him my rifle,

936
00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:46,239
Speaker 3: I'm gonna kill him. I said, yeah, need to go

937
00:45:46,320 --> 00:45:48,319
Speaker 3: and kill him because a lot of deer die from

938
00:45:48,360 --> 00:45:50,359
Speaker 3: head trauma. From fight and every year that people don't

939
00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:53,759
Speaker 3: realize that's like twenty five percent. And he said, he said,

940
00:45:53,760 --> 00:45:55,600
Speaker 3: are you gonna shoot him if you see him? I

941
00:45:55,600 --> 00:45:57,879
Speaker 3: said no, I said you want him. I said, you've

942
00:45:57,880 --> 00:45:59,839
Speaker 3: always want him. I said, I promise you won't want

943
00:45:59,840 --> 00:46:04,120
Speaker 3: you that deer. And what I didn't know what that

944
00:46:04,239 --> 00:46:08,600
Speaker 3: time was. On December third of twenty twenty. That same year,

945
00:46:08,760 --> 00:46:11,440
Speaker 3: we had a wounded Veterans deer hunt going on here

946
00:46:11,440 --> 00:46:14,920
Speaker 3: in Capaya County. Baptist Association does it every year. Well,

947
00:46:14,960 --> 00:46:16,719
Speaker 3: I have to speak at it every year with my

948
00:46:16,840 --> 00:46:20,080
Speaker 3: job and kind of help them, you know, lying stuff out.

949
00:46:20,400 --> 00:46:22,960
Speaker 3: And one of the veterans liked to duck hunt, and

950
00:46:23,160 --> 00:46:25,600
Speaker 3: Gonner had heard that some ducks was coming in on

951
00:46:25,640 --> 00:46:28,800
Speaker 3: the Mississippi River, so him and his buddy duck season

952
00:46:28,840 --> 00:46:30,839
Speaker 3: wasn't opening, but it opened the next day. He said,

953
00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:32,719
Speaker 3: if we find ducks, can I take that bedroom. I

954
00:46:32,760 --> 00:46:34,719
Speaker 3: said yes, I said, I said, I'd be fine. We'll

955
00:46:34,719 --> 00:46:36,839
Speaker 3: have to get his duck stamp and everything. I said yeah.

956
00:46:36,960 --> 00:46:38,520
Speaker 3: I said, if he wants to go duck hunt, I

957
00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:41,160
Speaker 3: mean it's his hunt. Whatever he wants to do. So

958
00:46:41,880 --> 00:46:43,759
Speaker 3: they lay up him and his buddy went over there

959
00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:46,080
Speaker 3: that evening to the Missisippi River and put in at

960
00:46:46,080 --> 00:46:49,239
Speaker 3: the Eternal Boat Ramp and apparently right after they put

961
00:46:49,280 --> 00:46:58,800
Speaker 3: in a board hit the boat. We searched were probably

962
00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:02,200
Speaker 3: the largest search effort on the Missichippi River that's ever

963
00:47:02,239 --> 00:47:05,080
Speaker 3: been conducted. I mean it was over a thousand people

964
00:47:05,080 --> 00:47:07,680
Speaker 3: looking at and like a hundred bigy boats the first

965
00:47:07,680 --> 00:47:11,560
Speaker 3: three days, airplanes, helicopters, National Guard. I mean, it was

966
00:47:11,600 --> 00:47:18,560
Speaker 3: a big deal. We never found them, so started and

967
00:47:18,680 --> 00:47:22,799
Speaker 3: you know, December the third. Every day I was on

968
00:47:22,800 --> 00:47:27,000
Speaker 3: the Missisippi River in my boat every day, no matter

969
00:47:27,000 --> 00:47:29,960
Speaker 3: how cold, no matter how windy, rained, whatever. And there

970
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:32,719
Speaker 3: was a group of gunners' buddies that had boats the

971
00:47:32,719 --> 00:47:35,000
Speaker 3: missip Is the Point Wilife Bushit in Parks. They was

972
00:47:35,080 --> 00:47:37,480
Speaker 3: every day the Warree County Sheriff's office. So we was

973
00:47:37,560 --> 00:47:40,840
Speaker 3: running multiple boats just hoping to find what we could find.

974
00:47:40,920 --> 00:47:44,200
Speaker 3: And we had gone every day. It had got up

975
00:47:44,239 --> 00:47:48,759
Speaker 3: into January and that particular day, chance of ice, the

976
00:47:48,760 --> 00:47:52,640
Speaker 3: windshields down, real cold, the weather conditions and fog on

977
00:47:52,680 --> 00:47:55,880
Speaker 3: that river you just can't see. And I told everybody,

978
00:47:55,920 --> 00:47:59,399
Speaker 3: I said, we can't go tomorrow. You know, we'd unlost two,

979
00:47:59,600 --> 00:48:01,680
Speaker 3: and I don't need to try to lose somebody here.

980
00:48:02,120 --> 00:48:05,319
Speaker 3: So on January the tenth, we wasn't gonna go when

981
00:48:05,320 --> 00:48:07,839
Speaker 3: I'd made that decison. On January the ninth, we wasn't

982
00:48:07,840 --> 00:48:09,880
Speaker 3: gonna go when that gime and give everybody a break.

983
00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:12,759
Speaker 3: And I was home that evening and my buddy call me.

984
00:48:13,120 --> 00:48:14,759
Speaker 3: He said, y'all gonna run the river morrow and I

985
00:48:14,800 --> 00:48:18,080
Speaker 3: said no. I said, the condition is way too dangerous.

986
00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:20,040
Speaker 3: I said, somebody's gonna get killed. I said, we just

987
00:48:20,080 --> 00:48:22,040
Speaker 3: can't do it. And he said, you need to go hunt,

988
00:48:22,040 --> 00:48:23,919
Speaker 3: and I said, yeah, I'm sitting there thinking about it.

989
00:48:23,960 --> 00:48:26,520
Speaker 3: Because I hadn't been to our place since Gunner's accent.

990
00:48:26,560 --> 00:48:30,239
Speaker 3: I knew it was gonna be very, very emotional, you know,

991
00:48:30,360 --> 00:48:32,600
Speaker 3: because that was his domain. That's where he hunted, he

992
00:48:32,640 --> 00:48:35,120
Speaker 3: grew up. He killed his first deer there, first turkey.

993
00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:36,920
Speaker 3: And my buddy asked me, he said, I know you

994
00:48:36,960 --> 00:48:39,440
Speaker 3: said you weren't gonna kill that book. He said, what

995
00:48:39,600 --> 00:48:41,960
Speaker 3: happens if he comes out? And I said he comes out,

996
00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:44,880
Speaker 3: I'm gonna kill him. Went on oor Gunner, you know,

997
00:48:44,920 --> 00:48:46,719
Speaker 3: and I said, there's no way he's gonna come out.

998
00:48:46,800 --> 00:48:48,400
Speaker 3: I mean, there was no, may. We hadn't had a

999
00:48:48,400 --> 00:48:50,440
Speaker 3: picture of this deer. Of course, we hadn't hunted after

1000
00:48:50,480 --> 00:48:53,120
Speaker 3: Gunn's accident. But it's just like big bucks do. He

1001
00:48:53,160 --> 00:48:56,560
Speaker 3: had vanished, and I told him he's the only deer

1002
00:48:56,760 --> 00:48:58,759
Speaker 3: that I'll shoot tomorrow if I see. And I said,

1003
00:48:58,800 --> 00:49:01,080
Speaker 3: I'm sure I won't see. I said, but I need

1004
00:49:01,080 --> 00:49:03,280
Speaker 3: to go and I need to be there by myself

1005
00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:05,279
Speaker 3: and get it over with. So the next morning, I

1006
00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:08,319
Speaker 3: get up poor daylight, like you do, and I head

1007
00:49:08,360 --> 00:49:11,440
Speaker 3: to our place start walking in. And it was emotional

1008
00:49:11,520 --> 00:49:13,760
Speaker 3: walking in, naturally, because I was going by deer stand

1009
00:49:13,800 --> 00:49:15,239
Speaker 3: that me and him had put up, or he had

1010
00:49:15,239 --> 00:49:18,839
Speaker 3: put up, and I'm thanking of multiple hunts, you know. Well,

1011
00:49:18,880 --> 00:49:21,360
Speaker 3: I get in. My stand was the house standing on

1012
00:49:21,400 --> 00:49:23,880
Speaker 3: the ground, and it's set up on a pipeline. Then

1013
00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:26,879
Speaker 3: I got two long lanes that run different directions off

1014
00:49:26,920 --> 00:49:30,080
Speaker 3: of it. Naturally, all I was thinking about was the

1015
00:49:30,120 --> 00:49:32,319
Speaker 3: time we'd spent there, you know, and it was it

1016
00:49:32,400 --> 00:49:36,120
Speaker 3: was really emotional, and I literally had seen a deer

1017
00:49:36,440 --> 00:49:38,759
Speaker 3: at all, and it had gone on up about nine thirty,

1018
00:49:38,800 --> 00:49:41,280
Speaker 3: which is pretty unusual, and that kind of weather, especially

1019
00:49:41,640 --> 00:49:43,760
Speaker 3: that stands just one of those stands you see deer,

1020
00:49:44,239 --> 00:49:45,680
Speaker 3: and I thought, I said, you know, I hadn't even

1021
00:49:45,680 --> 00:49:47,439
Speaker 3: seen her deer, I said, but I saw it. I said,

1022
00:49:47,520 --> 00:49:49,279
Speaker 3: you know, I'm not here to.

1023
00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:49,879
Speaker 4: Kill a deer.

1024
00:49:50,560 --> 00:49:52,879
Speaker 3: And at nine forty five, had just looked at my phone.

1025
00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:55,600
Speaker 3: I said, at ten o'clock, I'm on leave, and I

1026
00:49:55,760 --> 00:49:58,439
Speaker 3: wanted to walk to the stand where Gunner had seen

1027
00:49:58,520 --> 00:50:00,600
Speaker 3: the buck and gone get that old whil I was

1028
00:50:01,080 --> 00:50:04,000
Speaker 3: trying to get everything over with, you know e mostly

1029
00:50:04,560 --> 00:50:07,520
Speaker 3: because I got grandkids, I got other kids. You know,

1030
00:50:07,600 --> 00:50:09,839
Speaker 3: we're gonna be going there hunting. I needed to get

1031
00:50:09,920 --> 00:50:12,920
Speaker 3: that over with and about I just looked at my

1032
00:50:12,960 --> 00:50:14,879
Speaker 3: phone at nine forty five and I laid it down

1033
00:50:14,920 --> 00:50:17,000
Speaker 3: a chair beside me and I looked up and guess

1034
00:50:17,040 --> 00:50:26,480
Speaker 3: who walks out. It's pretty tough. And when he stepped out,

1035
00:50:26,640 --> 00:50:30,840
Speaker 3: my heart stopped. I mean, it's just like this can't be.

1036
00:50:32,440 --> 00:50:34,359
Speaker 3: And he just stood there and he looked right as

1037
00:50:34,400 --> 00:50:38,000
Speaker 3: to stand at me, just like here I am shooting.

1038
00:50:39,360 --> 00:50:42,359
Speaker 3: And I got the gun up and got on him,

1039
00:50:43,320 --> 00:50:46,360
Speaker 3: and he just kept standing there and I pulled the

1040
00:50:46,440 --> 00:50:49,480
Speaker 3: trigger and he run. He run right to the edge

1041
00:50:49,520 --> 00:50:52,480
Speaker 3: of the pipeline and I seen him pol and then

1042
00:50:52,719 --> 00:50:55,239
Speaker 3: I sat there and stand for several minutes, you know,

1043
00:50:55,320 --> 00:50:58,400
Speaker 3: get myself together. I said, the only day I've ever

1044
00:50:58,520 --> 00:51:01,040
Speaker 3: shot in my life that I read it. Walking up

1045
00:51:01,120 --> 00:51:04,279
Speaker 3: to that, I knew was letting her dead. And I

1046
00:51:04,360 --> 00:51:07,440
Speaker 3: got out of the stand and I started walking to him.

1047
00:51:07,480 --> 00:51:10,360
Speaker 3: I said, you know, only God alone could make that happen.

1048
00:51:10,960 --> 00:51:13,120
Speaker 3: I think it was God's way let me know that

1049
00:51:13,680 --> 00:51:20,400
Speaker 3: the Gunner's okay, you know. So I went to the

1050
00:51:20,480 --> 00:51:22,520
Speaker 3: deer and I had my moment with him, you know,

1051
00:51:23,120 --> 00:51:26,160
Speaker 3: but it by part of the most emotional deer hunt

1052
00:51:26,160 --> 00:51:29,000
Speaker 3: I've ever had in my life. It was something special

1053
00:51:33,400 --> 00:51:35,839
Speaker 3: and I ended up having a buddy and he told me, said,

1054
00:51:35,840 --> 00:51:37,799
Speaker 3: I'm mounting that deer by I said no, I said,

1055
00:51:37,800 --> 00:51:38,560
Speaker 3: I'm gonna mount him.

1056
00:51:38,960 --> 00:51:39,080
Speaker 7: Well.

1057
00:51:39,120 --> 00:51:40,879
Speaker 3: I took it to the taxi Darmis. When he called

1058
00:51:40,920 --> 00:51:42,880
Speaker 3: me and told me it was ready. I went to

1059
00:51:42,920 --> 00:51:44,880
Speaker 3: pay him. He said, this deer's would have been paid for.

1060
00:51:48,239 --> 00:51:51,919
Speaker 3: Gunner always wanted to camp at our place, and after

1061
00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:54,919
Speaker 3: Gunner's accident, I just went on and got a camp

1062
00:51:55,040 --> 00:51:57,359
Speaker 3: for my grandkids and my kids and we love him

1063
00:51:57,719 --> 00:52:02,120
Speaker 3: and it's actually hanging in the camp. A trophy is

1064
00:52:02,239 --> 00:52:04,360
Speaker 3: just what a trophy is to the person that killed it,

1065
00:52:04,560 --> 00:52:06,840
Speaker 3: and by bar. I could kill a bone and Crockett

1066
00:52:06,960 --> 00:52:08,920
Speaker 3: and it would not mean as much to me as

1067
00:52:08,920 --> 00:52:12,200
Speaker 3: this deer. I can assure you it's about the story anyway.

1068
00:52:12,320 --> 00:52:15,320
Speaker 3: It ain't about the deer, the stores, everything what.

1069
00:52:39,239 --> 00:52:41,880
Speaker 2: There aren't many words that can be said after a

1070
00:52:42,000 --> 00:52:45,400
Speaker 2: story like that, other than I want to offer a

1071
00:52:45,560 --> 00:52:49,440
Speaker 2: genuine thanks to Med for sharing this story with us.

1072
00:52:50,160 --> 00:52:52,920
Speaker 2: I think that in some way, when stuff like this

1073
00:52:53,239 --> 00:52:57,399
Speaker 2: is shared, it helps spread the grief out amongst us all,

1074
00:52:58,040 --> 00:53:02,080
Speaker 2: so it's not all bunched up in one's bought. Gunner

1075
00:53:02,160 --> 00:53:07,600
Speaker 2: Palmer was just sixteen years old. I'd like to dedicate

1076
00:53:07,760 --> 00:53:12,480
Speaker 2: this episode of Bear Grease to Gunner Palmer and zeb Hughes.

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Speaker 2: I can't thank you enough for listening to Bear Grease

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Speaker 2: and Brent's This Country Life podcast. Please share this with

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Speaker 2: a friend this week and keep the wild places wild.