WEBVTT - Ep. 252: Deer Stories - Akerns, Bears, and Tragedy 0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:08.479 And I'm just panicking. Man, I just grew two new 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:10.280 hearts in my body, and both of them are in 0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:13.600 my ear drums and they are just pounding. I'm going 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:16.520 cross eyed. And he's right there and he's got his 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:19.360 head up stretched out. I want to say he is 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:21.919 about fourteen yards from me, but I mean, I felt 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:23.479 like I could have jumped out of deer stand on 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:24.319 top of his back. 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:30.560 Whitetail deer hunting is the epicenter of American hunting culture period, 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:33.720 and every year we take some time to celebrate our 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:37.720 collective favorite animal that we love to hunt, eat, and 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:41.559 tell stories about. Seeing a big whitetail buck in October 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:45.240 or November is hard to shake or top in terms 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:50.360 of outdoor experiences, and a story told in person is 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:54.560 often the only way to truly communicate the full experience, 0:00:55.480 --> 0:01:00.720 even better than video. Oral storytelling is the original og 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:06.120 of communication. It's unreplaceable and the most effective at transferring 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:10.480 a bundle of information. Stories transfer knowledge and teach us. 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:14.720 They carry our values, They inspire those around us, and 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:18.160 help us really to even know who we are. Some 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:23.679 stories immortalize people that we've lost, from cold fronts to 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:27.679 losing mules to bear charges to an oaklhm full of 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:32.720 acorns fallen in front of a camera. These stories are genuine, 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:35.360 But there is one thing that I ask of all 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:39.039 of you. If you only listen to one story on 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:42.480 this episode, be sure that it's the last one from 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:46.320 a man named Med Palmer from Mississippi. You're just gonna 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.480 have to trust me. You've never heard a dear story 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:53.840 like this one. Whitetail Week is coming up here at 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:57.000 Meat Eater in a few weeks, and we're just ramping 0:01:57.120 --> 0:02:01.360 things up a bit with this episode. We've got six stories, 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:03.760 and I really doubt that you're going to want to 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:04.400 miss this one. 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:07.880 A trophy is just what a trophy is to the 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:10.320 person that killed it. And by far, I could kill 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:12.720 a bone and Crockett and it would not name as 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:14.520 much to me as this deer. I can assure you 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:17.720 it's about the story anyway. It ain't about the deer. 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:20.120 The stories everything were hunting. 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:32.160 My name is Clay Knukem, and this is the Bear 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:37.160 Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.919 for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:44.680 story of Americans who live their lives close to the 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:51.320 land presented by FHF Gear, American made purpose built hunting 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:54.880 and fishing gear as designed to be as rugged as 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:55.280 the place. 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:56.240 As we explore. 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:08.080 Our first storyteller is a man whose name is so 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:13.240 memorable you'll likely never forget it. It's my friend, Lake 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:18.720 Pickle of Rankin County, Mississippi. He's really a veteran outdoorsman. 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:22.320 I think he told me he'd filmed over sixty successful 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:25.720 elk hunts in his life, but he himself is a 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:29.400 turkey and deer hunting dude. This is a story about 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:32.440 a buck that at the time was the biggest buck 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.480 he'd ever killed, on a piece of ground that meant 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:37.119 the world to him. Here's late. 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:44.480 So I was a college student at Mississippi State, which 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:47.520 is in star Fore, Mississippi. It was middle of January, 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:49.960 so we had a week maybe two weeks of dear 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.120 season left, and that time of years, honestly, even though 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:54.680 it's a late part of the season, can be some 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:56.840 of the best hunting because that's the rut in that 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:59.440 part of the state. And we also had this freak 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:01.280 cold front come through. I mean, don't get me wrong, 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:03.760 it's normally cold that time of year, but Mississippi is 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:06.040 not known for having tempts in the teens, and. 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:07.840 I think that's what we had that time. 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:11.240 And so I'm sitting in my little duplex house, Startful 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:15.000 and I'm supposed to be writing an essay on moist 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.080 soil vegetation, but in reality, I had about four words 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:19.880 typed out on that screen, and I was having this 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:22.560 internal debate on whether or not I should try to 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:24.760 fight write in this paper or I knew if I 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:26.800 got in my truck and stepped on it a little bit, 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:29.719 I could drive to cater Reda, Mississippi, where we had 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:32.000 a little piece of family land where I virtually did 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:33.480 all my deer hunting as a kid. 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:35.320 And I could be there and just under an hour. 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:37.520 And that was a big deal because when I was 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:39.240 a kid, from where I lived, it took us two 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:41.320 hours to get there. From Startfulle, I could get there 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:43.080 and under an hour. I think I timed it once. 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:45.120 From my house to the gate, I could get there 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:48.000 in fifty three minutes. Finally, I decide I'm not getting 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:50.839 anywhere with this paper, so I slamm the laptop shut, 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:52.440 I grabbed my stuff, I get in the truck, and 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:54.000 I'd go i'd get to the gate and I take 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:55.920 out walking because I'm already running kind of late because 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:57.440 I took so long deciding whether or not I was 0:04:57.440 --> 0:04:59.480 going to go. Originally, the spot that I was going 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:01.600 to go to it's about a two hundred yard walk 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:03.560 from the truck, and the reason I picked that spot 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:05.920 is simply because the wind was good and it was 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:07.440 the closest one to the truck, and I was already 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:10.000 running kind of late. So I'm walking towards this spot, 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:11.640 and all of a sudden, I get this hunch. I 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:13.359 don't need to hunt there. I need to go and 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:16.239 hunt this spot that we refer to as Daddy Doll's 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:18.400 food plot, and I'll get to why we call it 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:21.600 that later, But Daddy Doe's food plot was a little 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:23.320 bit further walk, and I just had this hunch, and 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:25.960 so I went with it. I kept walking across the creek, 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:28.279 getting closer. I get about one hundred yards away. I 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:29.919 can kind of start to see the food plot, and 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:31.840 I'm worried there's gonna be deer out there already, because 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:34.000 sometimes they come out early. I see that the food 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:36.159 plots empty. I'm like, okay, that's good. And the way 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:38.479 you get into this stand. There was a ladder stand there, 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:40.520 so the road kind of dumps you out to the 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:42.600 edge of the food plot and then you basically. 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:43.800 Have to cut the corner of the food plot. 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:47.320 You have to walk about forty fifty yards across the 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:50.120 food plot, get to the ladder and climb up. And 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:53.080 like I said, it was freakishly cold that day. I 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:54.880 want to say it was like eighteen or nineteen degrees. 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:58.520 So the ground was frozen. That's an important factor. Also, 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:01.839 we've all been in the woods sometimes after a cold 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.520 front has moved through and everything just gets dead still. 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:07.359 It's like it'll get so steal in woods like that. 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:09.800 Sometimes it feels like it makes noise when you breathe. 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:12.719 And so it's one of those dead still days. Ground 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:15.800 is frozen. I go to cut across this food plot 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.000 and the first step I take in my boot steps 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:22.560 on that frozen winter wheat, and it just just made 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:26.159 this loud, crunching noise. Man, it felt like trying to 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:28.680 open a peppermint in church. I was just like and 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:31.920 I froze up, and I thought to myself, you idiot, 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.360 what are you going to do now? Because I was stuck, 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:35.920 you know, I mean, that was the spot I had 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:37.560 to go to, but I had to get that fifty 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:39.720 yards across there, and I was gonna make racket the 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:42.120 whole way. And all I could think to do was 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:45.120 my buddy Erin showed me this trick one time. He said, 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:47.279 if he's hunting in the rut and he has to 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:50.040 make some noise getting to his stand, he will take 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:53.039 out his grunt call and he'll take a few steps, 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:54.880 he'll blow that grunk call and it make it sound 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:57.240 like it's a buck walking and grunting. And I remember 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:59.320 when he told me that. I said, that will never work, 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.240 But anyway, I didn't have any other options. 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:03.120 So there I went. 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:06.000 Across that food plight, step step step right, I blow 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:06.600 that grunk call. 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:08.440 Step step step right. 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:10.360 I blow the grunk call again the whole way, just 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:13.760 feeling sillier and sillier. Well, I finally get across their 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:16.680 get to the base of the ladder, tie my rifle 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:17.360 off to a rope. 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:19.840 Shemy up the ladder, hang my pack up. I turn around. 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:22.200 I start pulling to the rifle up the tree, and 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:23.920 I was trying to take my time so the barrel 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:25.920 didn't swing into the middle rung the ladder and make 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:28.920 even more noise. I remember, I get the rifle about 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:31.160 half way up, and I picked my head up and 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:33.119 I just looked down the food plot. The food plot's 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:35.480 kind of narrow, and it's not that long. I mean, 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:37.520 that part of Mississippi a lot of pine thickets and stuff. 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:39.760 It's about ninety yards long, so, you know, kind of 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:42.480 small plot. But I look down the food plot and 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:45.640 in the right hand back corner you can't see it 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:47.840 super clear because some of the tree limbs hanging over, 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:50.320 but I can tell there's a deer there. And right 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:52.160 when I looked, he moved. I caught a glimpse of 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:54.080 handler and I said, oh my goodness, it's a buck. 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:56.120 So I pulled the gun up the rest of the 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:58.440 way and it's no sooner do I get the gun up. 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:00.840 The buck steps out in the food plot where I 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:04.280 can see him, and he is bristled up looking for 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:07.800 that grunting that I was doing. And not only is 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:11.400 that happening, but he is the biggest deer that I 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:14.120 had ever seen or heard of coming out of that 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:16.160 part of the country. Now let me pause the story 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:19.960 real quick and say, Cateretta Mississippi is not known for 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:23.120 big white tails by any stretch of the imagination. 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:26.800 I cannot emphasize that enough. I grew up. 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:29.560 Deer hunting there. I killed my first deer in that area. 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:34.080 I had grandparents there, aunt's, uncles, cousins. And so you 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:35.880 go into a lot of houses, you go into a 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:38.040 lot of barn shops. You just see a lot of 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:40.920 deer antlers, deer tax near me, deer skulls. You kind 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:43.640 of get a general feel of what kind of deer 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:46.000 in the area. And I'm telling you what walked out 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.200 into that food plot, bristled up and looking around was 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:53.079 big for that area. And I'm going, oh, my gosh, Well, 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:55.240 he looks around, doesn't see a buck, and he just 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:57.280 starts milling around in the food plot. And I go 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:00.920 to rack around in the gun, the gun on him. 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:03.480 He's the safety off, and I kind of look at 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:05.559 him in the scope for a little bit and I'm like, oh, 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:08.319 I just couldn't believe it, you know. But I finally 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.400 decided I needed to do something here. So I put 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:14.280 the crosshairs on his shoulder, and I remember thinking, just 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:17.440 breathe and squeeze, do not mess this up, and I 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:20.800 kept squeezing and kept squeezing, and pow, gun goes off 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:24.760 and deer falls right there dead. And it all happened so fast, 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:26.800 And you know, I come out of the gun, I 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:28.600 look and he's laying there dead in the food plot. 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:32.760 And at that moment kind of the reality of the 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:36.199 situation set in on me. Now, that was by far 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:38.120 the biggest deer that I had ever killed in my 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:40.720 life at the time, and like I said, the biggest 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:42.520 deer I'd ever known to come out of that area. 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:43.880 But here's what I mean. 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:47.920 Like I said earlier, we referred to that food plot, 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:51.320 that spot as Daddy Doe's food plot. The reason we 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.520 caught it, that is, Daddy Dole was my grandfather, my 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.720 mom's dad. Him and my grandmother, who we called Mimi, 0:09:57.840 --> 0:09:59.520 lived about a mile up the road from that little 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:02.079 eighty acre block where virtually all of my early deer 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:04.839 hunting took place. And man did they mean a lot 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:09.360 to us, And boy did they love their grandkids, And man, 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:13.040 so many memories were. 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:14.080 Tied to that house. 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:16.480 We're tied to Mimi and Daddy Dole and were tied 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:20.120 to that little eighty acres in cater Reda Mississippi. Not 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:22.520 just hunting memories, a lot of them were, but just 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:25.560 all kinds of good memories. Man and Daddy Dole built 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:27.920 that food plot, I think mainly he built it for 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:31.200 us and for folks to enjoy. And he had built 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:35.240 this gigantic wooden shoot house into this old oak tree 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:38.440 on that food plot. That I killed my first deer 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:40.360 out of that shoot house on that food plot. My 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:42.400 brother killed his first deer out of that shoot house 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:44.920 on that food plight. My cousin Clancy killed her first 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:46.839 deer out of that shooting house on that food plot. 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:48.240 And I don't know how many other deer had been 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:50.760 killed out of that food plot. Daddy Dole passed away 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:52.560 when I was a kid. We lost Mimi just a 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:54.280 few years prior when I was in high school. And 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:57.400 that old wooden shoot house had rided and fell out 0:10:57.400 --> 0:10:59.120 of that tree a long time ago, and that's why 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:01.560 we had the ladders down in there now. But as 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:04.640 I was sitting there looking at that buck laying on 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:07.439 the ground after killing it in a crazy lucky way, 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:10.400 I could look at that buck, I could turn my 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:12.040 head to the left and I could look at the 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:14.240 remains of that old wooden shooting house on the ground, 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:17.480 and all I could think to myself was was, man, 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:20.439 what Daddy Doe and Mimi would think if they could 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.000 see this right now? And I just sat there and 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:24.840 took it in for a second, and I finally climbed 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:28.240 down the ladder walked towards that deer and it was 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:30.080 the first time in my life that I had walked 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:31.880 up to a buck and it didn't shrink as I 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:34.240 got up to it. And I called my dad. I 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:36.400 told him what was going on. Called my mom, told 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:39.400 her what was going on, and I told Dad. I said, man, 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:42.120 I really didn't come prepared to kill a deer, because 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:43.800 now I'm all the way here at the back and 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:45.920 I can't get my truck back here. I guess I'm 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:47.959 in for a really long drag. And he said, Man, 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:50.240 call Uncle Jerry. You know he'd love to come get 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.400 that deer. My uncle Jerry and Katie Sue. Katie Sue 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:55.960 was Daddy Doe's sister, still lived, you know, just up 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:57.640 the hill from where me, me and Daddy Doe used 0:11:57.679 --> 0:11:59.920 to called him. I told her what happened. He rode 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:02.400 down his side by side. I'll never forget he hopped 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:04.640 out of his side by side looked at that deer. 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:06.640 He looked at me with his blank stare on his face, 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:08.400 and he said, Lake, I ain't never seen no deer 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:10.560 like that come out of here, And that said, I know, 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:13.520 Uncle Jerry, I can't believe it either. We loaded that 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:16.680 deer up, we drove it back to their house. Katie 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:18.520 Sue come out the door with the camera that had 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:20.959 a roll of film in it, snapped a couple pictures 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:23.599 of me on the tailgate with that buck. 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:25.520 And ended up mailing them to my mom. She still 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:26.400 has them to this day. 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:29.800 And then she invited me in for supper, and we 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:33.520 sat around, talked about that deer, talked about the hunt, 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.160 and just went on for I don't know how long, 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:38.080 about how much Daddy told and me and he would 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:39.720 have loved it that they'd been here to see it. 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:40.480 You know. 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:42.920 Like I said, that happened when I was in college, 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:44.719 and I've got been fortunate enough to do a lot 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:48.600 of deer hunts since then. I've killed bigger deer score wise, 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:52.000 and seen a lot more since then. But to this day, 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:54.280 I've never had a deer hunt that meant more to 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:56.560 me than that one. Did that one was that one 0:12:56.600 --> 0:12:59.600 was something and it happened in a crazy way too. 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:07.800 That was a good story. 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:08.079 Lake. 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:11.959 We learned something about calling and your connection to your 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:17.319 grandparents and their land. Our next storyteller is Mitch Sykes 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:21.320 from the mountains of western Arkansas. I've known Mitch for 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:24.200 most of my life and he's about as good a 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:27.520 big buck hunter as there is in the area that 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:30.079 we're from. And he's got a heck of a story 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:34.360 and it involves a big buck and a bear. 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.400 Oh. On this particular deer right here, I had a 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:41.120 spot on the west end of a mountain up here, 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:43.240 and it was a big leg that come off the 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:45.760 west end of the mountain and it was one of 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:49.520 those special places to where it didn't matter if the 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:52.400 acrons made, if they didn't make, there was a spot 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:55.360 there toward the month of October, it was the place 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:59.400 to be. And on this particular deer here, I had 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:02.600 went in there, and I believe it was the first 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:05.880 week of October. I just carried my climbing tree standing there, 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:10.680 climbed up in the tree and for hunting public land 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:14.240 in the mountains. I remember that morning pretty well. I 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:17.080 saw like seven or eight deer, and that was a 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:19.560 wonderful day, a bunch of does and I think a 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.280 couple of small bucks. And I believe it was on 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.360 a Saturday morning, and about eleven o'clock. I was hunting 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:28.800 later than I normally do. I just heard something right 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:30.800 off in front of me there and I looked, and 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:33.800 here come this buck. I had no idea, I mean, 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:36.920 and he looked bigger than he was, of course, walking 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:40.360 right to me. And I got ready and he just 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:42.960 come in, just feeding on acres, just coming right to me. 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:44.600 And when he got right in there about where I 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:47.600 was expecting him to hopefully turn broadside and offer me 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:50.480 a shot, he got in some brush, just kind of 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:53.000 followed his nose and got in a little more brush, 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:55.000 and I'm expecting to hoping he's going to come out, 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.200 and he's probably within fifteen yards of me, and the 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.080 next thing I know, I can tell he's turned. And 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:03.560 if there was one thing the deer could do and 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:05.800 get away from me, that's what he did. He just 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:08.960 took off, feeding away from me. And at that time 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:10.880 I shot one pin on my bow. I shot a 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:13.720 twenty yard pin and I would not shoot past thirty yards. 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:16.520 And this deer got out there what I thought was 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:21.440 about thirty yards and offered me a shot. And when 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:23.600 I shot, I thought I had heart shot him. He 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:26.520 jumped and kicked and took off and ran out there 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:29.320 about forty yards and he stopped, and I could tell 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:32.080 he stood there for a long time, and I didn't 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:33.560 do any I mean, I could tell that I hadn't 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:36.920 hit him, or hadn't hit him good, and he just 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:39.160 kind of finally just eased on off. And when I 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:42.240 got down, my air had blood on it, and there 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:44.800 was just just a few drops of blood right there 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:47.240 where I'd hit him. And I was just sick because 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:49.520 I didn't know if I'd hit him too far back 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:51.440 or how if I'd just grabbed. I didn't know what 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:54.200 I had done, but I knew that that was the 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:56.120 biggest buck that I'd ever shot at with my bow, 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:58.920 and I was just sick. So every chance I got 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:02.000 to hunt, that's where I was gonna hunt. And I 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:04.640 believe it was just maybe three or four days later, 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:07.680 and I left my climbing stand on this white oak 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:10.680 tree's It was just a permanent fixture there during deer season, 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:13.760 and I went in there one morning and I always 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:16.280 got to my stand about an hour before daylight trying 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:19.200 to And when I walked into my stand that morning, 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:22.240 when I got up to the tree, my tree stand 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:25.440 wasn't there, or I didn't think it was. And the 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:29.000 closer I got, I'm thinking nobody would have stole my stand, 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:31.920 you know what happened? And as I got closer, I 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:33.440 could tell that it was spun around on the back 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.760 side of the tree, and the seat was chewed off 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:40.040 of it, and the bungee cords. It was just demolished. 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:43.440 And I knew what had done. So I kind of 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:45.920 looked it all over and I thought, well, it's I 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:47.640 can climb in it, I can hunt out of it, 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:50.760 but I can't sit down. So I went ahead and 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:52.840 climbed up in it, you know. And I've had this 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:55.040 dreams of this big buck still going to come in. 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:58.400 And about thirty minutes after daylight, I looked off up 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:00.320 the mountain there before I had come in up that egg, 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:05.000 and here come a bear and it was believe it 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:07.160 or not, I mean, it was just walking the exact 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:09.520 same trail I did. Kind of like it was smelling 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:12.240 of me, you know. And when I come down and 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:14.600 got in that stand, every morning. I came down that leg, 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:16.119 and right before I got to my stand, there was 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:18.280 a little old holler, the real steep holler that was 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:21.920 just full of trash and briars and holly trees. And 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:24.840 I always walked down that holler so I wouldn't put scent. 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:27.879 I thought it might have helped. So and with that 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:30.000 bear did that same thing. And when he come out 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:31.600 of that holler, he come right to the base of 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:35.440 my tree. Wasn't a very big bear. I have no idea, 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:38.000 maybe one hundred and fifty two hundred pounds. Wasn't no 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:40.199 great big bear come right to the base of the 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:43.560 tree there, just like I had. And I could tell 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:45.639 that he was kind of smelling the tree. And this 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:48.320 whole time, I'm thinking, I mean, it's legal to shoot 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:50.640 a bear, but I don't want to mess with him. 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:54.399 And he kind of started licking the tree, and all 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:55.920 of a sudden, he just kind of raised up on 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:58.600 his hind legs and he's smelling the tree, and he 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:02.760 just grabs hold the tree and just start slowly climbing 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:05.520 the tree. Has not looked up towards me, has not 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:08.800 seen me nothing, And he'd climb a little bit and 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:11.800 he'd lick the tree and he'd look around. Finally, he 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:14.200 just kept coming and kept coming, and I said, I'm 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:16.280 gonna have to shoot this bear because the whole time 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:19.840 I'm thinking he's gonna mess with my stand. I'm gonna 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:22.600 shoot this bear. And I don't know if you'll remember it, 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:25.760 but about twenty years ago, Muzzy came out with the 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:28.600 first maybe fall away rest. It was called a zero effect. 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:32.000 It was a big awkward apparatus that went on your 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:35.480 bow and anyway. I remember pulled my bow back, but 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:38.159 he was he was nearly back underneath me, and my 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:41.679 arrow would not rest on my rest. It was just 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:44.520 hanging free. And I said, I'm not gonna I mean, 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:46.800