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Speaker 1: He's fix to come out, and he did. He just

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Speaker 1: come right on around that tree right there, and Clay,

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Speaker 1: he just walked out there. It is like shooting down

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Speaker 1: that floor right there. There ain't even a huckleberry bush

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Speaker 1: between me and him.

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Speaker 2: We've found ourselves in the heartwood dates of mid October.

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Speaker 2: With every sunset, the earth is tilting north, making the

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Speaker 2: days shorter, the shadows longer, and the whitetail bucks are

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Speaker 2: on their feet more. For deer hunters, this is the

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Speaker 2: absolute best time of year, and if you're not one,

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Speaker 2: it might be hard to understand this deep, almost DNA

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Speaker 2: level desire to be in the woods during this ephemeral

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Speaker 2: window of opportunity. This is the second episode in our

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty three Deer Story series. We've got some voices

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Speaker 2: you'll recognize and some new ones that you won't. These

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Speaker 2: seven storytellers represent a vast swath of these ways in

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Speaker 2: which people love to hunt whitetail deer. We've got bow hunts,

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Speaker 2: musloader hunts, running deer with dog hunts, hunts with bucking horses,

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Speaker 2: and a traditional archery. Giant on public land, actually a

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Speaker 2: couple of giants on public land. As a matter of fact,

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Speaker 2: every story on this podcast is from public Land. This,

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Speaker 2: My Brothers and Sisters, is the celebration of North America's

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Speaker 2: greatest pageant, the White Tailed Deer Season. I really doubt

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Speaker 2: that you're gonna want to miss this one. And hey,

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Speaker 2: meet Eater. Season twelve is up on meat Eater's YouTube channel.

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Speaker 2: That's right. You can watch Stephen Ranella's Meat Eater the

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Speaker 2: original episodes on meat Eater's YouTube channel. And right now

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Speaker 2: you can watch my Alaskan black bear hunt where I

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Speaker 2: killed a bear by swimming up on it in a wetsuit.

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Speaker 2: And it's not too late to get stocked up on

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Speaker 2: the best whitetail gear in the industry at First Light.

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Speaker 2: A percentage of all sales of our specter Camo, that's

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Speaker 2: First Light's tree stand whitetail camo, which I believe is

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Speaker 2: the best tree stand camo made goes to the National

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Speaker 2: Deer Association.

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Speaker 3: We got it that old deer, and when we got

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Speaker 3: we got the horses.

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Speaker 4: That's probably the first time we ever put a deer

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Speaker 4: behind the I.

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Speaker 3: Don't know why we've done that, but we put it

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Speaker 3: behind the cantle.

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Speaker 4: That was the first and the last time because where

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Speaker 4: we got the camp that's where everything south on us.

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Speaker 2: My name is Klay Nukem, 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 lived their lives close to the land.

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Speaker 2: Presented by f HF gear, American made purpose built hunt

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Speaker 2: and fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged.

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Speaker 5: As the places we explore.

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Speaker 2: Our first storyteller is my dad, Gary Believer nucom. There

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Speaker 2: are no black panthers in this one, but a year

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Speaker 2: hasn't gone by since nineteen ninety seven that I haven't

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Speaker 2: thought about this hunt or heard Dad tell it. Some

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Speaker 2: stories are just iconic. They seem to brand the hunter

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Speaker 2: and his sphere of influence for life. The brand can

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Speaker 2: be a celebration of success. Other times it's a reminder

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Speaker 2: of failure and what not to do. But sometimes a

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Speaker 2: story becomes almost mythical, like a supernatural encounter. This one

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Speaker 2: is like that, And you can't fake one of these

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Speaker 2: or try to make one happen. They happen on their own.

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Speaker 6: Here's the Believer, one of my favorite deer stories. I

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Speaker 6: guess because it took so much effort to get to

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Speaker 6: this deer or these deer. I didn't know this particular

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Speaker 6: deer was there. I just knew there was big deer there.

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Speaker 6: There's I found only one real big rub a lot

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Speaker 6: of deer signing, just one little compact area.

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Speaker 5: And this place is hard to get to.

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Speaker 6: And I was so serious about this area that I

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Speaker 6: bought two decoys. I bought a big buck and I

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Speaker 6: bought a bedded dough. My theory was to call the

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Speaker 6: deer in and have it come to that decoy, and

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Speaker 6: then I'd be taking it home with me. I'd been

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Speaker 6: up there a lot, or I've been in that area

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Speaker 6: a whole lot, and I knew a lot about it,

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Speaker 6: but I wasn't sure how long it would take to

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Speaker 6: get back in there. So I left one morning at

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Speaker 6: about eleven o'clock. My objective was to time it and go, okay,

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Speaker 6: I'm gonna have to leave even my pickup two hours,

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Speaker 6: early hour and a half, early three hours.

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Speaker 1: Whatever it took.

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Speaker 6: And so I treated it exactly like a hunt, except

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Speaker 6: I didn't take a decaway with me, which was a mistake.

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Speaker 6: But I had clean clothes. If you know some of

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Speaker 6: my other hunts, I'm not like Clay. I felt like

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Speaker 6: I put so much energy into it. I didn't want

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Speaker 6: any of my you know, I didn't want something that

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Speaker 6: I had a little control of to give me up.

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Speaker 6: So I had my scent locked stuff in a bag,

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Speaker 6: but I had it clean clothes in a trash bag

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Speaker 6: that had been aired out. I went into the area. Yeah,

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Speaker 6: it was two and a half hour trip for me

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Speaker 6: to go in there. I got within a distance where

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Speaker 6: I knew it wouldn't affect the stand, and I took

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Speaker 6: all my clothes off, sprayed down, even put clean boots on.

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Speaker 5: I mean I did everything.

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Speaker 6: I did just about everything you could do to be

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Speaker 6: as sent free as possible. Then I slowly moved into

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Speaker 6: my stand and already had my stand up. And it

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Speaker 6: was an old ambusher, which is fourteen feet high, and

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Speaker 6: all you know, there just wasn't a good place to

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Speaker 6: put it. It was real hard to find a tree

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Speaker 6: in the right spot. In the tree I found had

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Speaker 6: a V in it, so my back, instead of leaning

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Speaker 6: up against a tree, had a V to my back opening.

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Speaker 6: The reason I was there there was isolated sign in

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Speaker 6: this one little spot.

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Speaker 5: You could walk a.

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Speaker 6: Mile to the left, a mile to the right, a

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Speaker 6: half a mile just you know, any direction, and this

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Speaker 6: spot had tremendous sign. So anyway, I was timing all

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Speaker 6: this stuff and I got up in my stand. And

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Speaker 6: when I got up in my stand, it was three o'clock.

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Speaker 6: So if I left the house at eleven, I'm in

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Speaker 6: my stand at three. I mean that's a four hour trip.

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Speaker 6: So I mean, I'm figuring I'm what to get up

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Speaker 6: at one or two o'clock in the morning to go

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Speaker 6: hunt this deer. So I get up in the stand

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Speaker 6: and I had my rattling horns and I had my

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Speaker 6: grunk call. And I've never been able to duplicate this.

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Speaker 6: I tried over and over and over again. Never could.

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Speaker 6: But I started calling, and I started rattling, and the

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Speaker 6: hair on the back of my neck stood up. I mean,

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Speaker 6: I was so into it that I never could replicate it.

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Speaker 6: It was just something about the environment, knowing where I was,

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Speaker 6: all this hot sign and there was probably a deer

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Speaker 6: within here and distance, and so I was just banging

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Speaker 6: my horns just as hard as I could. And I

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Speaker 6: had a call that I've never heard anybody except one

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Speaker 6: guy ever mentioned it. The call has been good to me,

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Speaker 6: and the call is well I didn't stand me, and

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Speaker 6: I mean, I'm pump man. I mean I am, I

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Speaker 6: am read alert in the zone, but I gotta have

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Speaker 6: a deer in front of me or beside me. I

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Speaker 6: can't stand up and turn. You know, I'm gonna tell you.

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Speaker 6: I had something happen to me when I was young,

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Speaker 6: and it just heights, just scared me to death. So

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Speaker 6: I knew I wouldn't be able to stand up and

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Speaker 6: turn and shoot through that v And so all of

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Speaker 6: a sudden, I hear a deer coming and I'm thinking,

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Speaker 6: I thought, specifically, that is a six point buck, and

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Speaker 6: I am not gonna shoot it.

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Speaker 7: And he was.

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Speaker 6: Making guess what the exact call I was making, except

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Speaker 6: he was just a little shorter. He was going, and

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Speaker 6: I was going, you know, I mean, it's just a

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Speaker 6: note or two off. So finally he'd come from a

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Speaker 6: long ways, I mean, he started grunting way off. And

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Speaker 6: when he finally came in to my backside, I could tell,

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Speaker 6: when it was already too late to try to get

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Speaker 6: myself situated to shoot, that it was gonna be a

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Speaker 6: big one. And when he stepped in at about thirty

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Speaker 6: five or forty yards, his ears were laying straight back,

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Speaker 6: his hair was standing straight out, and he was ready

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Speaker 6: to kill something. And if I'd had a decoy out there,

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Speaker 6: I feel sure be one like you see on YouTube

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Speaker 6: where they just take that sucker down. And so when

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Speaker 6: he pulls up and he doesn't see anything, he pulls

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Speaker 6: in right behind me instead of coming around. He's like

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Speaker 6: he stops, kind of cools off a little bit, thinking

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Speaker 6: what and he comes exactly behind me. I could see

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Speaker 6: as his antlers were up in the short trees, you know,

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Speaker 6: you could see his body, but you couldn't see his horns,

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Speaker 6: even though I'd seen his horns.

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Speaker 7: His horns were.

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Speaker 6: Real tall and narrow, you know, maybe sixteen seventeen and

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Speaker 6: it spread maybe fifteen, but they were tall with a

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Speaker 6: lot of points. And all of a sudden, he was

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Speaker 6: just gone, you know, he slipped out there.

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Speaker 7: I didn't hear him leave, didn't see him leave.

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Speaker 6: The unique thing about the hunt to me was that

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Speaker 6: call and the fact that I was in such a

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Speaker 6: frenzy myself. I mean I started to get down and

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Speaker 6: charge you. So it was just to me, it was

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Speaker 6: just the environment I was in, I think had a

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Speaker 6: lot to do with my emotions, because when you looked around.

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Speaker 6: You just don't see stuff like I was seeing. I mean,

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Speaker 6: the woods were different, the woods were different, and you

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Speaker 6: just knew you were in a special place and at

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Speaker 6: a special time, and that there was a chance a

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Speaker 6: really big buck was going to come in.

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Speaker 2: As my dad has told this story through the years,

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Speaker 2: it was clear his encounter with this giant buck while

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Speaker 2: bow hunting on public land marked him, and honestly it

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Speaker 2: marked me too. I've been chasing this exact hunt, trying

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Speaker 2: to have one just like it in the same spot

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Speaker 2: for over a decade, and it hasn't happened yet. Dad

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Speaker 2: and I talk about this buck all the time. You

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Speaker 2: got to remember that in nineteen ninety seven, outdoor TV

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Speaker 2: had really just started, and people just didn't rattle in

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Speaker 2: that many bucks outside the Midwest. And that story plays

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Speaker 2: in my mind like a real memory, almost like it

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Speaker 2: happened to me. It's pretty great to have your own

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Speaker 2: podcast so you can cherry pick the stories you want

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Speaker 2: to tell. But I'm sure you've got stories like this

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Speaker 2: in your family from the people that have influenced you.

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Speaker 2: Hopefully this will remind you to keep them alive.

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Speaker 6: One of the.

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Speaker 2: Best parts of the last several falls for me has

200
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Speaker 2: been going to Andy Brown's.

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Speaker 5: House to hear deer stories.

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Speaker 2: Last episode, he told the legendary story about his father

203
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Speaker 2: in that nineteen fifty six Chevy with the gray door.

204
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Speaker 2: After that, I asked him if he had any good

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Speaker 2: dear calling stories. Here's two that he rattled off in

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Speaker 2: short order.

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Speaker 1: One great story with that was me and Steve Phillips

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Speaker 1: and Wayne Pate. We went in on top of it

209
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Speaker 1: was opening day of Muzsload and we got in there.

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Speaker 1: Of course, it's a long ways in there where you

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Speaker 1: got to go. We go all the way top of

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Speaker 1: the mountain and then we'd split up and I'd go

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Speaker 1: east and them boys go west. Anyway, we pulled up

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Speaker 1: there and we got out and they went to a

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Speaker 1: peddled around getting their stuff good, and I said, boys,

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Speaker 1: I'm out of here. And so I just took off

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Speaker 1: out of game trail, going kind of over on the

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Speaker 1: south side of them, and I got maybe fifty yards

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Speaker 1: from camp, and I went in to my sneak mode

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Speaker 1: and I just take two or three steps and it

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Speaker 1: was still I just take two or three steps and

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Speaker 1: I'd grunt and i'd listen, I'd stand, I might stand

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Speaker 1: three or four minutes, and I just two or three

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Speaker 1: deliberate steps sat through there. Anyway, I had probably made

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Speaker 1: it one hundred yards. And I pulled up there and

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Speaker 1: there's some kind of a flat holler really, it runs

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Speaker 1: off the south side of the mountain there, and I

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Speaker 1: pulled up there and I grunted, and when I did,

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Speaker 1: I heard that deer get up and I just stood

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Speaker 1: there and I grunted again, and all of a sudden

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Speaker 1: just snapped pop, and I looked and here he come,

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Speaker 1: and it was a really good eight point. He had

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Speaker 1: those ears laid back and he was just stiff laking

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Speaker 1: it and just walked right up there. And and when

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Speaker 1: I shot Stephen, Wayne went, oh, they're still at the drug.

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Speaker 1: They had even left the drug, you know. Anyway, But

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Speaker 1: I had to be a deer killed there within fifteen

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Speaker 1: minutes right there, you know. But I did the same

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Speaker 1: thing one time.

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Speaker 5: I was over on.

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Speaker 1: And Steve was with me that morning. We went in

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Speaker 1: there at the food pot at the divide up there

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Speaker 1: and kind of went back west. And I don't know

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00:14:15,520 --> 00:14:18,000
Speaker 1: if you've ever been in there, but there's four or

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00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:20,240
Speaker 1: five virgin pines right there on the side of the mountain.

246
00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:22,119
Speaker 1: Everybody ought to go to look at them, because they're

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Speaker 1: them big. I mean them that they left, you know.

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Speaker 1: But anyway, I pulled right in on top of the mountain,

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Speaker 1: and when you get in there kind of back west,

250
00:14:31,240 --> 00:14:33,760
Speaker 1: it gets leggy. There's a lot of rocks there on top.

251
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Speaker 1: At that time, I had an old Hawker's buzzloader that

252
00:14:37,800 --> 00:14:40,200
Speaker 1: my brother in law had put together. That thing shot

253
00:14:40,280 --> 00:14:42,160
Speaker 1: round balls. I mean you could shoot squirrels with the

254
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Speaker 1: round balls. But no, no, that wasn't good enough for Andy.

255
00:14:44,480 --> 00:14:46,480
Speaker 1: I had to give me some buffalo balls, that dude,

256
00:14:46,480 --> 00:14:50,440
Speaker 1: you know. And so I bought this that's a new

257
00:14:50,480 --> 00:14:52,720
Speaker 1: thing out then, four hundred greand buffalo balls, you know.

258
00:14:52,800 --> 00:14:54,840
Speaker 1: So I get them. I take them up around was

259
00:14:54,880 --> 00:14:56,920
Speaker 1: living on a racetrack road. This is back in the eighties,

260
00:14:56,960 --> 00:14:59,800
Speaker 1: mid eighties, and so didn't even get to shoot it.

261
00:14:59,800 --> 00:15:01,680
Speaker 1: So I took it out up there afo the house

262
00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:03,960
Speaker 1: threw out a I think it was a milk jug

263
00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:06,200
Speaker 1: out in the in the shale pit up there after

264
00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:08,440
Speaker 1: dark in the headlights, and shot at it with a

265
00:15:09,880 --> 00:15:12,960
Speaker 1: to see if it would hit, you know. But anyway, anyway,

266
00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:15,040
Speaker 1: I get up there and I did the same thing

267
00:15:15,200 --> 00:15:17,040
Speaker 1: wind was right in the face, coming out of the west,

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Speaker 1: and I just started easing out the side of the

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Speaker 1: mountain there, just grunting, and you could see it's pretty

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Speaker 1: you know, it's legy, and you can see good. I

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Speaker 1: got out there, probably one hundred yards out the top there,

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Speaker 1: and a deer went to blowing at me back west,

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Speaker 1: and I thought, of that, dear, and it's not blowing

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Speaker 1: at me. Can't smell me. The wind's right in my face,

275
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Speaker 1: you know. And so I just kind of sat down there.

276
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Speaker 1: It wasn't real comfortable. It's pretty steep, and I just

277
00:15:43,680 --> 00:15:45,800
Speaker 1: sat down and kind of back up against the rock there.

278
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Speaker 1: I grunnder time too, and that wood wise and I

279
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Speaker 1: was sitting there and I thought, I'm gonna ease just

280
00:15:51,760 --> 00:15:55,240
Speaker 1: a little feather right there, a little better spot, little flatter.

281
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Speaker 1: I just got up and just walked out there, not

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Speaker 1: much further than where you're sitting there, and I runned

283
00:16:01,160 --> 00:16:03,840
Speaker 1: it again. And when I did, right on top of

284
00:16:03,840 --> 00:16:05,960
Speaker 1: the mountain, right there, just right above me, right through

285
00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:10,200
Speaker 1: the rocks, that buck deer was standing where I was sitting.

286
00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:15,240
Speaker 1: Of course there I am gun this way. The deer's not.

287
00:16:15,800 --> 00:16:17,640
Speaker 1: He come right out through the rocks right down. I

288
00:16:17,640 --> 00:16:21,360
Speaker 1: mean he was standing where I had just left.

289
00:16:22,320 --> 00:16:23,440
Speaker 5: And I thought, oh crap.

290
00:16:24,400 --> 00:16:26,360
Speaker 1: So he just standing there and he was looking for me.

291
00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:30,200
Speaker 1: And about that time he just started off and there

292
00:16:30,280 --> 00:16:32,720
Speaker 1: was a I'd say it was a spotted oak blowed

293
00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:34,560
Speaker 1: down on the side of the mountain there. He just

294
00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:37,200
Speaker 1: went right in around that thing and just went to

295
00:16:37,680 --> 00:16:40,680
Speaker 1: walking in front of me. And of course he's fixing

296
00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:44,760
Speaker 1: to come out, and he did that. Dude, he just

297
00:16:44,800 --> 00:16:47,880
Speaker 1: come right on around that tree right there, and Clay,

298
00:16:47,960 --> 00:16:50,760
Speaker 1: he just walked out there. It is like shooting down

299
00:16:50,760 --> 00:16:52,800
Speaker 1: that floor right there. They ain't they ain't even a

300
00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:57,760
Speaker 1: huckleberry bush between me and him. I mean, just right there,

301
00:16:57,960 --> 00:17:01,160
Speaker 1: you know. And I just raise up and I said,

302
00:17:01,160 --> 00:17:03,840
Speaker 1: oh boy, you have had it this time, you know.

303
00:17:03,880 --> 00:17:05,800
Speaker 1: And I just pulled it there and when I touched

304
00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:08,840
Speaker 1: the trigger, when the smoke cleared, that old deer is still

305
00:17:08,840 --> 00:17:09,960
Speaker 1: standing there looking just like that.

306
00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:13,800
Speaker 5: Dude.

307
00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:17,200
Speaker 1: He ain't even budge, you know, he just standing there

308
00:17:17,760 --> 00:17:20,000
Speaker 1: looking it. I'm going a whole crap, So I get

309
00:17:20,040 --> 00:17:23,520
Speaker 1: my stuff. You know, you're shaking like a leave and

310
00:17:23,600 --> 00:17:25,480
Speaker 1: you're trying to you know, mu's had powder, you know

311
00:17:25,480 --> 00:17:26,920
Speaker 1: what I'm trying to get the powder, and that dude

312
00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:30,879
Speaker 1: stood there till I got my ram rod on my ball,

313
00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:36,119
Speaker 1: and then he just wheeled and right off the mountain

314
00:17:36,160 --> 00:17:38,680
Speaker 1: he went. And in the rest is history, he's still

315
00:17:38,720 --> 00:17:41,639
Speaker 1: going north. But I mean a big buck deer, I

316
00:17:41,680 --> 00:17:46,199
Speaker 1: mean a bigot. So I get back down to the

317
00:17:46,200 --> 00:17:48,040
Speaker 1: truck and Steve said, was that you shot? And I

318
00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:49,240
Speaker 1: said yeah, He said what was she? And it?

319
00:17:49,359 --> 00:17:50,399
Speaker 5: I said, Man, I shut it.

320
00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:53,359
Speaker 1: A big buck deer up there, And I said, I mean,

321
00:17:53,480 --> 00:17:55,040
Speaker 1: I don't know how I missed that dude. I mean

322
00:17:55,080 --> 00:17:57,720
Speaker 1: he's a little downhill, you know. So I had a

323
00:17:57,760 --> 00:18:01,280
Speaker 1: piece of this paper in the in the truck. I

324
00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:03,679
Speaker 1: went out there and I stuck it on a bush

325
00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:06,040
Speaker 1: and I backed up what I thought was about right

326
00:18:06,119 --> 00:18:09,359
Speaker 1: about thirty yards, And when I touched the trigger, about

327
00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:11,760
Speaker 1: a foot high and about sixteen inches to the ride,

328
00:18:11,800 --> 00:18:15,000
Speaker 1: I blow a limb off that bush. I shot over

329
00:18:15,040 --> 00:18:16,760
Speaker 1: the course, I do. I shot over him because you

330
00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:19,280
Speaker 1: utter they're gonna leave, you know. But that's the way

331
00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:20,040
Speaker 1: hunting goes.

332
00:18:20,119 --> 00:18:20,480
Speaker 5: It's like.

333
00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:27,360
Speaker 2: Those are good stories. Andy. There are few things as

334
00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:31,119
Speaker 2: exciting as grunting and having a big buck respond, and

335
00:18:31,280 --> 00:18:34,560
Speaker 2: few things as crushing as missing a buck you know

336
00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:37,280
Speaker 2: that you should have hit. I'm not sure how someone

337
00:18:37,320 --> 00:18:39,960
Speaker 2: can claim to have lived a full human life unless

338
00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:43,800
Speaker 2: they've missed a big white tail they should have killed. Now,

339
00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:47,800
Speaker 2: that's not true. That's a blanket hyperbolic and inaccurate statement.

340
00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:52,640
Speaker 2: But you get the point. It's irrationally crushing.

341
00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:53,840
Speaker 5: To miss a big deer.

342
00:18:54,359 --> 00:18:57,520
Speaker 2: And Andy told me that the feeling doesn't get any

343
00:18:57,520 --> 00:19:01,119
Speaker 2: better over the years. Most things here with time, but

344
00:19:01,280 --> 00:19:09,440
Speaker 2: miss bucks just don't. Our next story is told by

345
00:19:09,480 --> 00:19:13,199
Speaker 2: my new friend John Harrison. He's eighty years old and

346
00:19:13,240 --> 00:19:16,159
Speaker 2: he lives in northwest Arkansas. When I was getting my

347
00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:19,760
Speaker 2: truck worked on the other day, he told me this story,

348
00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:22,320
Speaker 2: and then he took me into his house and showed

349
00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:26,120
Speaker 2: me the sunfaded mount of a handsome eight point buck

350
00:19:26,200 --> 00:19:29,240
Speaker 2: on the wall. It's sure wasn't his biggest buck, but

351
00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:32,520
Speaker 2: it's the one he wanted to talk about. He's kept

352
00:19:32,520 --> 00:19:35,399
Speaker 2: a written record of every hunt he's been on since

353
00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:40,320
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty. He showed me the three ring binder. I

354
00:19:40,359 --> 00:19:42,879
Speaker 2: told him that his story about that eight point was

355
00:19:42,880 --> 00:19:45,960
Speaker 2: a bear Grease style story, and though he'd never heard

356
00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:48,439
Speaker 2: of a podcast, I told him I wanted to record it,

357
00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:51,879
Speaker 2: and so we did. Here's a short one, but a

358
00:19:51,920 --> 00:19:54,120
Speaker 2: good one for mister John Harrison.

359
00:19:56,119 --> 00:20:00,119
Speaker 6: Okay, my name is John Harrison. I was born and

360
00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:05,480
Speaker 6: raised in the Boston Mountains. I have a deer story.

361
00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:09,440
Speaker 6: It's not a huge deer, but it was happening.

362
00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:10,080
Speaker 5: Men.

363
00:20:10,280 --> 00:20:14,359
Speaker 6: My brother in law had got up one morning and

364
00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:17,560
Speaker 6: went hunting. I was down on one bench. He was

365
00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:20,879
Speaker 6: up on the next bench, and we jumped this deer

366
00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:23,960
Speaker 6: off of the bench he was on and it come

367
00:20:24,040 --> 00:20:26,679
Speaker 6: down with me. But he was shooting at it, and

368
00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:29,200
Speaker 6: he knew where I was, so he wasn't shooting toward

369
00:20:29,320 --> 00:20:33,560
Speaker 6: me because I knew where he was. And this deer

370
00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:36,840
Speaker 6: came down and when it saw me, it turned and

371
00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:40,919
Speaker 6: went back toward him, and I began shooting, and the

372
00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:45,800
Speaker 6: deer was running little ways and dropped. So we both

373
00:20:46,359 --> 00:20:47,960
Speaker 6: congregated around the deer.

374
00:20:48,080 --> 00:20:48,800
Speaker 5: Looked it over.

375
00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:52,119
Speaker 6: Well, it looked like I had shot it because it

376
00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:55,600
Speaker 6: was shot in the left side instead of the right side.

377
00:20:56,600 --> 00:20:59,440
Speaker 6: But he thought he killed it, and I said, okay,

378
00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:03,960
Speaker 6: fine with me. I didn't really care who killed the deer.

379
00:21:04,520 --> 00:21:09,040
Speaker 6: And so we got the deer out and he took

380
00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:13,359
Speaker 6: it and had it processed, he had the horns mounted.

381
00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:16,560
Speaker 6: It was the first deer we'd ever killed at our cabin,

382
00:21:17,840 --> 00:21:25,320
Speaker 6: and about long that same not that winter, but the

383
00:21:25,359 --> 00:21:29,280
Speaker 6: next following year winter. He called me one night and

384
00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:33,320
Speaker 6: he said, John, come and get you deer. I said,

385
00:21:33,320 --> 00:21:36,480
Speaker 6: what do you mean, come and get my deer? He says,

386
00:21:36,560 --> 00:21:39,199
Speaker 6: my wife sole a steak in the skillet, and the

387
00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:42,840
Speaker 6: bullet fell out in the skill it and I looked

388
00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:46,680
Speaker 6: at it and it was your bullet. So it's your deer.

389
00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:51,400
Speaker 6: You can come and get it. And so I said okay,

390
00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:54,800
Speaker 6: And he had it completely already mounted there everything. So

391
00:21:55,040 --> 00:21:57,240
Speaker 6: I went and got it and brought it home, hung

392
00:21:57,280 --> 00:21:59,200
Speaker 6: it on the wall, and that's where it's been ever

393
00:21:59,280 --> 00:22:04,080
Speaker 6: since nineteen seventy two. I believe got a free maun

394
00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:06,640
Speaker 6: al of the deal. I let him keep the meat

395
00:22:06,680 --> 00:22:08,359
Speaker 6: and I took the mounted head.

396
00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:18,520
Speaker 2: That was a good story, mister John. I appreciate how

397
00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:21,399
Speaker 2: easily you were able to let go of a buck

398
00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:24,800
Speaker 2: you honestly thought was yours, but how quickly you took

399
00:22:24,840 --> 00:22:27,160
Speaker 2: it back when the truth came out in the skillet.

400
00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:31,520
Speaker 2: That's the way things work in the backwoods.

401
00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:33,040
Speaker 1: That's good one.

402
00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:38,080
Speaker 2: Our next story is meat Eater's own Tony Peterson with

403
00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:41,320
Speaker 2: the Wired to Hunt podcast. There are a few people

404
00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:44,800
Speaker 2: in the country as well traveled or more successful on

405
00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:48,000
Speaker 2: public land for whitetails than Tony. I have a lot

406
00:22:48,040 --> 00:22:51,520
Speaker 2: of respect for him as a whitetail hunter. Tony's from Wisconsin,

407
00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:54,919
Speaker 2: which is a serious deer hunting state, and this wild

408
00:22:55,000 --> 00:23:00,200
Speaker 2: hunt takes place on some crowded public land in Nebraska.

409
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:02,520
Speaker 5: Here's Tony, Man.

410
00:23:02,600 --> 00:23:04,639
Speaker 8: It was kind of like a scene out of a movie.

411
00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:08,240
Speaker 8: My hunting partner and I were standing there in our

412
00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:11,760
Speaker 8: cameo beside our tents, drinking some instant coffee eating a

413
00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:16,359
Speaker 8: donut when the cavalry arrived, I mean truck after trucks

414
00:23:16,359 --> 00:23:19,400
Speaker 8: started to pull into the campground, and we were pretty surprised,

415
00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:21,000
Speaker 8: even though we probably shouldn't have been because it was

416
00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:25,160
Speaker 8: November seventh, but seeing all those hunters driving in made

417
00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:27,640
Speaker 8: us just scramble to load up our packs and start

418
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:29,359
Speaker 8: hiking up a bluff toward a ridge top.

419
00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:32,639
Speaker 5: It's just covered in you seerpa grass and kind.

420
00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:35,159
Speaker 8: Of dotted with islands of cedars, and we knew that

421
00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:37,320
Speaker 8: the pressure in the creek bottom from all the new

422
00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:40,479
Speaker 8: arrivals would be intense, so we figured we'd outwork our

423
00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:42,160
Speaker 8: competition and go hunt above them.

424
00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:44,000
Speaker 5: And when we got to the top.

425
00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:46,760
Speaker 8: We were sweaty and winded, but we could also see

426
00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:49,720
Speaker 8: headlamps kind of just bobbing their way through the bottom

427
00:23:49,840 --> 00:23:53,480
Speaker 8: way below us, and we also saw one headlamp following us,

428
00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:56,000
Speaker 8: so we decided to wait and chat with him. And

429
00:23:56,040 --> 00:23:58,920
Speaker 8: we never caught this dude's name, but he was from Michigan,

430
00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:02,240
Speaker 8: super nice and happened to be hunting a spot right

431
00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:04,280
Speaker 8: between where my hunting partner was going to set up

432
00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:06,119
Speaker 8: and where I was going to set up, you know,

433
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:08,760
Speaker 8: so essentially any buck running the ridge was going to

434
00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:11,679
Speaker 8: have to dodge some arrows. It was an ideal, but

435
00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:14,199
Speaker 8: it was public land hunting during the rut, and I

436
00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:16,320
Speaker 8: hung my stand in the dark, you know, in a

437
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:20,359
Speaker 8: barely big enough cedar, and I settled in way before

438
00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:23,080
Speaker 8: first light, and when it finally got light enough to

439
00:24:23,119 --> 00:24:26,880
Speaker 8: look around, the view was incredible, except for the fact

440
00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:28,960
Speaker 8: that I couldn't see any deer, and I could see

441
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:32,439
Speaker 8: a of a lot of the Nebraska countryside. I figured

442
00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:34,560
Speaker 8: it was just due to the influx of hunters, you know,

443
00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:37,960
Speaker 8: the presence of so many people that had pushed the

444
00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:38,720
Speaker 8: deer out.

445
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:40,280
Speaker 5: Still, it was prime time.

446
00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:44,160
Speaker 8: The weather was cold, it was overcast, it was relatively still,

447
00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:47,239
Speaker 8: and I kept thinking, you know, something's going to work

448
00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:49,840
Speaker 8: its way through from the neighboring private fields to go

449
00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:50,679
Speaker 8: bed on public.

450
00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:52,399
Speaker 5: What I didn't.

451
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:55,480
Speaker 8: Expect was to go from daydreaming about deer activity to

452
00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:59,240
Speaker 8: hearing an extremely loud and awful close grunt. It caught

453
00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:02,119
Speaker 8: me totally off guard, like so much so that I

454
00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:03,920
Speaker 8: stood straight up and I looked to my left.

455
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:05,640
Speaker 5: We're standing I don't know, like.

456
00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:08,680
Speaker 8: Maybe sixty yards away was a dough and that old

457
00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:11,960
Speaker 8: girl had me pegged. I mean, she was just on me,

458
00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:15,760
Speaker 8: which isn't so bad in and of itself, but I

459
00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:19,000
Speaker 8: could also see three stark white racks in the brush

460
00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:21,679
Speaker 8: around her, so it wasn't a great feeling. And they

461
00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:24,920
Speaker 8: weren't little racks either. So when I say, you know,

462
00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:28,600
Speaker 8: in that moment, I felt dumb, imagine any time in

463
00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:30,520
Speaker 8: your life where you felt dumb, and then multiply that

464
00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:33,439
Speaker 8: by like a million. To have a hot dough that

465
00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:36,200
Speaker 8: close with three bucks on her tail, and to get

466
00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:39,320
Speaker 8: busted by such a rookie move, it was so frustrating,

467
00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:43,440
Speaker 8: and the dough and I we had a staring contest

468
00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:45,879
Speaker 8: for what let I don't know, felt like forever, but

469
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:48,320
Speaker 8: it was probably only half of a minute or so.

470
00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:52,080
Speaker 8: And what broke the spell and was absolute music to

471
00:25:52,119 --> 00:25:54,919
Speaker 8: my ears was a grunt. And as soon as that

472
00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:57,160
Speaker 8: first buck grunt it because it couldn't take it anymore,

473
00:25:57,760 --> 00:25:59,800
Speaker 8: the second one grunted, and then it was like a

474
00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:03,919
Speaker 8: harrissela white antlers going around that dough, and she shook

475
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:05,840
Speaker 8: her ears, looked toward the edge of the bluff and

476
00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:09,520
Speaker 8: took off, and as soon as she did, it was

477
00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:14,080
Speaker 8: pure chaos. The first buck to follow her was all

478
00:26:14,119 --> 00:26:16,399
Speaker 8: of one hundred and forty inches, and while I got

479
00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:18,679
Speaker 8: him to stop long enough for me to shoot, I

480
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:20,000
Speaker 8: didn't name at all.

481
00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:21,600
Speaker 5: I mean, I just lost it.

482
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:24,199
Speaker 8: I was so keyed up with buck fever that I

483
00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:26,840
Speaker 8: stopped that buck and I just drew and shot, and

484
00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:29,960
Speaker 8: that arrow went way over his back and she dropped

485
00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:33,840
Speaker 8: below the ridge. He followed and I reloaded. The second

486
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:36,760
Speaker 8: buck was I don't know, probably one hundred and twenty inches,

487
00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:39,160
Speaker 8: so not as big as the first one, but definitely

488
00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:42,880
Speaker 8: no slouch on public land. I drew on that deer

489
00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:46,080
Speaker 8: and I gave him my most desperate murp and just

490
00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:48,600
Speaker 8: watched as he trotted right through and dropped out of

491
00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:48,960
Speaker 8: my life.

492
00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:50,960
Speaker 5: He never stopped, and.

493
00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:53,280
Speaker 8: That meant two thirds of the bucks around me were

494
00:26:53,359 --> 00:26:55,960
Speaker 8: well out of range and not likely to return anytime soon.

495
00:26:56,560 --> 00:26:58,920
Speaker 8: But that's also when I heard a rustling in the grass,

496
00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:01,880
Speaker 8: and so the last buck making a potentially fatal mistake.

497
00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:04,719
Speaker 8: Instead of following the rest of the year down the trail,

498
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:08,680
Speaker 8: he cut out and around, which brought him right past

499
00:27:08,720 --> 00:27:13,600
Speaker 8: my stand. When I say things happen fast, I mean it.

500
00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:16,080
Speaker 8: The whole thing was a blur of activity that was

501
00:27:16,119 --> 00:27:19,080
Speaker 8: about to culminate in a close shot on a really,

502
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:21,640
Speaker 8: really good dear if I could get.

503
00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:22,159
Speaker 5: Him to stop.

504
00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:25,320
Speaker 8: So when that ten pointer trotted past the base of

505
00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:29,080
Speaker 8: my tree, I murped him too, and he did stop

506
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:33,120
Speaker 8: at like seven yards while standing quartering away. And I'd

507
00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:34,520
Speaker 8: like to say that I took my time and I

508
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:37,359
Speaker 8: settled my pin and executed a perfect shot, But the

509
00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:40,719
Speaker 8: truth is I have no idea what I did. I

510
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:42,320
Speaker 8: was on the edge of even being in the same

511
00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:44,520
Speaker 8: world as that buck by that point, and all I

512
00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:47,000
Speaker 8: know is that everything felt really good, even though it

513
00:27:47,119 --> 00:27:51,520
Speaker 8: unfolded so fast. So when he took off after that shot,

514
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:54,199
Speaker 8: I thought I saw him going over apple cart on

515
00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:57,359
Speaker 8: the edge of the bluff, but almost immediately the second

516
00:27:57,440 --> 00:28:00,880
Speaker 8: guessing settled in. I tried to sit down. I tried

517
00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:03,080
Speaker 8: to settle down, but I was shaken so bad I

518
00:28:03,080 --> 00:28:06,160
Speaker 8: couldn't I couldn't do anything but hold onto my bow

519
00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:08,960
Speaker 8: and the tree, just try to remember how it had

520
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:11,960
Speaker 8: gone down, try to fill in the blanks, and after

521
00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:13,639
Speaker 8: a while I finally got to the point where I

522
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:17,119
Speaker 8: could glass my arrow in the grass, and the magnified.

523
00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:18,320
Speaker 5: View made me feel so much better.

524
00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:22,080
Speaker 8: I could see red swaths of blood covering the yellow grass,

525
00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:24,240
Speaker 8: and it looked like the shot was as good as

526
00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:27,240
Speaker 8: I hoped. So I texted my hunting partner that I

527
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:29,720
Speaker 8: thought we were in for a drag, and he responded

528
00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:31,600
Speaker 8: that I could just make that a double since he

529
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:33,480
Speaker 8: had arrowed an eight pointer about the same time I

530
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:36,760
Speaker 8: had shot my buck, and while recovering my dear a

531
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:40,640
Speaker 8: buckets scored just under one sixty. It has just cool

532
00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:44,520
Speaker 8: palmation through his main beams took about thirty seconds. My

533
00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:48,000
Speaker 8: hunting partner shot was less than ideal, but we managed

534
00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:49,880
Speaker 8: to get my buck back to camp and then sort

535
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:51,960
Speaker 8: out his blood trail to get his deer as well,

536
00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:54,920
Speaker 8: and then later as we were butchering both of them

537
00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:58,160
Speaker 8: in camp, that Michigan hunter from the morning came trudging

538
00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:00,280
Speaker 8: down the hill with a great eight point on a

539
00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:04,680
Speaker 8: deer cart. So we went three for three on one

540
00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:08,840
Speaker 8: ridge in one morning on public land. It was honestly

541
00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:11,360
Speaker 8: one of the wildest and most memorable hunts of my life,

542
00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:14,440
Speaker 8: and not just because I killed the biggest dear in

543
00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:14,960
Speaker 8: my career.

544
00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:19,480
Speaker 2: Those are the kind of mornings you never forget, and

545
00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:23,040
Speaker 2: we chase those kinds of moments every year, but they're

546
00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:29,240
Speaker 2: extremely rare. That was a good story, Tony. Our next storytellers.

547
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:32,920
Speaker 2: You'll recognize their voices if you listen to the last episode.

548
00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:37,360
Speaker 2: It's Dale Craig and Travis Ross. You may remember Dale

549
00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:41,840
Speaker 2: Craig's apple rolling story and then Travis killing a buck

550
00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:46,360
Speaker 2: in front of Louisdale and Charlie Edwards dogs. These guys

551
00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:49,040
Speaker 2: are from western Arkansas and they're about as good a

552
00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:52,600
Speaker 2: hunters as there are. They're going to tag team this

553
00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:56,959
Speaker 2: story about a horseback deer hunt that went really well

554
00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:00,240
Speaker 2: until right at the end.

555
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:03,840
Speaker 4: We left out that morning wait before daylight. It was

556
00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:08,280
Speaker 4: the first morning a gun season. First morning frosty, one

557
00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:12,320
Speaker 4: of them good mornings. We ride in there, about four miles,

558
00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:15,800
Speaker 4: tie the horses up. I headed up there to what

559
00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:18,800
Speaker 4: we call the double gaps. I climbed the mountain. I

560
00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:21,520
Speaker 4: get up there and I propped up against the tree.

561
00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:26,440
Speaker 4: I mean, I had just got there and I heard this,

562
00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:28,920
Speaker 4: the deer coming from down. And it is a deep,

563
00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:32,800
Speaker 4: deep canyon, and it was something you wouldn't You wouldn't

564
00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:36,200
Speaker 4: believe a deer would even go go off and come up.

565
00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:40,840
Speaker 4: It was so steep and rough, and uh, there's not

566
00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:43,560
Speaker 4: even many big trees growing in there. They're just it's

567
00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:47,560
Speaker 4: just black jack and rocks, and the little black jacks,

568
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:49,440
Speaker 4: you know, they don't get six eight inches thick, you know.

569
00:30:49,600 --> 00:30:51,600
Speaker 4: But then and one of them deer running through that

570
00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:55,000
Speaker 4: junk like that, they make ten times more noise. It

571
00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:58,000
Speaker 4: sounded like a whole heard a deer coming up, and

572
00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:00,120
Speaker 4: they run and it was a big old dough come

573
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:03,040
Speaker 4: out first. She run right up thirty feet from me

574
00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:06,040
Speaker 4: and just I mean saw me and just locked up

575
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:08,960
Speaker 4: and was looking at me and I The buck was

576
00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:12,720
Speaker 4: probably fifty yards behind her. And then about that time

577
00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:16,040
Speaker 4: he shows up he just he didn't know anything was

578
00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:19,000
Speaker 4: going on. He was zeroed in on that old dough.

579
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:23,240
Speaker 4: He ran up right up to that dough. And you

580
00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:27,160
Speaker 4: know when then win an old buck nose, there's something

581
00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:30,480
Speaker 4: going on. If you've ever watched them there, they just

582
00:31:30,520 --> 00:31:32,600
Speaker 4: all of a sudden, they'll just kind of hump up

583
00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:36,360
Speaker 4: a little bit, their little tails starts fuzzing out, and

584
00:31:36,440 --> 00:31:38,440
Speaker 4: he started doing that. I already had my gun up,

585
00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:42,040
Speaker 4: but I just I put the crosshairs right behind his shoulder,

586
00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:44,840
Speaker 4: just a few inches behind, and I squeezed that gun.

587
00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:48,520
Speaker 4: And when I did, I mean that both of us.

588
00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:50,880
Speaker 4: Deer took off the side of the mountain, and I

589
00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:54,160
Speaker 4: thought I missed that deer, and I both at another

590
00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:57,800
Speaker 4: shell in there right quick and shot. And that time

591
00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:02,920
Speaker 4: he didn't go three steps. He went down and a

592
00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:05,880
Speaker 4: little bit Travis, he shows up over there. You didn't

593
00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:08,160
Speaker 4: even think it was me shooting. But I usually don't

594
00:32:08,200 --> 00:32:09,320
Speaker 4: shoot twice, because you.

595
00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:12,280
Speaker 3: Shot twice, you never shoot twice. And we got it

596
00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:12,840
Speaker 3: that old deer.

597
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:15,360
Speaker 4: And when got the ass and got the horses, rode

598
00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:17,280
Speaker 4: back up, rode back to the top of the mountain,

599
00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:20,320
Speaker 4: and that's probably the first time we ever put it

600
00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:21,760
Speaker 4: deer behind the camp.

601
00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:23,720
Speaker 3: I don't know why we've done that, but we put

602
00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:26,440
Speaker 3: it behind the cantle instead of in the front.

603
00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:29,400
Speaker 4: It worked real good until we got the camp. Well,

604
00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:31,280
Speaker 4: I think one reason we did that because it was

605
00:32:31,360 --> 00:32:34,360
Speaker 4: up on top of that mountain. It's a sleep over there.

606
00:32:34,560 --> 00:32:36,400
Speaker 4: You got them deer, if you got them in front

607
00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:38,120
Speaker 4: of the sadle, you got to hold on to them,

608
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:40,320
Speaker 4: even if they're tired, you got to kind of hold them,

609
00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:43,720
Speaker 4: and you know you're going off and you know it's

610
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:46,640
Speaker 4: it's it's pretty tough sometimes getting off the side of

611
00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:48,280
Speaker 4: a big old mountain like that. So we put that

612
00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:51,600
Speaker 4: one behind us behind Yep, that was the first and

613
00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:55,680
Speaker 4: the last time because when we got to camp, that's

614
00:32:55,680 --> 00:32:58,080
Speaker 4: whe of everything went south on us.

615
00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:00,479
Speaker 3: Yeah, we got back there and we saw putting her

616
00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:03,479
Speaker 3: horses away as me and my brother was with us.

617
00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:05,880
Speaker 3: I know my boy was there. He's played riding with

618
00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:08,840
Speaker 3: one of us. Anyway, Dale stepped off little big Cody

619
00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:12,760
Speaker 3: and we had horses tied around there and they snap unsaddling.

620
00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:16,560
Speaker 3: He took his knife cut one side of them strings

621
00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:18,680
Speaker 3: holding that deer on. Well, he just that deer just

622
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:20,560
Speaker 3: went wopping, just hit on the ground.

623
00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:22,280
Speaker 4: Yeah, I cut it. I cut him loose on that

624
00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:24,840
Speaker 4: one side, and I wouldn't expected him. He just fell off,

625
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:28,640
Speaker 4: just flopped over. So Cody, he's got a deer hit

626
00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:31,600
Speaker 4: the ground beside him, tied to him by a back

627
00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:34,880
Speaker 4: leg or both back legs, and the way he goes. Well,

628
00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:37,760
Speaker 4: he stepped over to see what was going on. And

629
00:33:38,360 --> 00:33:40,360
Speaker 4: he wasn't a bronchy horse now. He just stepped over

630
00:33:40,360 --> 00:33:42,360
Speaker 4: to see what was going on, and it started pulling,

631
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:44,840
Speaker 4: and it was following me, and then he thought.

632
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:48,520
Speaker 3: Further he went the more that old buck was chasing him,

633
00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:51,840
Speaker 3: and it just round and around, and we had horses

634
00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:55,680
Speaker 3: upside down, in backwards and underneath, horse traded goose necks

635
00:33:55,760 --> 00:33:59,239
Speaker 3: and everywhich way was just throwing throwing a fit. And

636
00:33:59,360 --> 00:34:02,360
Speaker 3: I told my boy, I said run, I said, get

637
00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:03,760
Speaker 3: out of here. And all of a sudden he just

638
00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:06,280
Speaker 3: took off like this little cotton top, running off the hill.

639
00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:09,760
Speaker 3: He's about five years old. He was cutting for tisa,

640
00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:11,080
Speaker 3: getting away from all that list.

641
00:34:11,160 --> 00:34:13,920
Speaker 4: I finally I just jumped on that deer and I

642
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:16,160
Speaker 4: cut it loose. So we got the deer cut loose.

643
00:34:16,200 --> 00:34:16,359
Speaker 3: Run.

644
00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:18,600
Speaker 4: Everything was all right, it's a wonder somebody here and

645
00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:28,320
Speaker 4: it got run over and stomped and oh yeah.

646
00:34:25,200 --> 00:34:28,239
Speaker 2: That sounds like a rodeo. And if you've never been

647
00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:31,840
Speaker 2: in the midst of a horse fit, as Travis described it,

648
00:34:31,880 --> 00:34:36,840
Speaker 2: the power, energy and the flight response felt by most

649
00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:40,640
Speaker 2: is a wild sensation. It's kind of a sense of helplessness.

650
00:34:41,320 --> 00:34:44,200
Speaker 2: But a good hand keeps a level head and knows

651
00:34:44,239 --> 00:34:47,239
Speaker 2: what to do to calm the situation down. But I

652
00:34:47,239 --> 00:34:49,239
Speaker 2: don't think these guys cared much because they killed a

653
00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:54,120
Speaker 2: big buck that morning. Our next story is told by

654
00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:58,319
Speaker 2: Stony Edwards. Does that name ring a bell? Stony is

655
00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:01,719
Speaker 2: the son of Charlie Edwards and the nephew of Louis

656
00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:05,479
Speaker 2: Dale Edwards. Stony was on the Genuine Outlaws series talking

657
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:08,760
Speaker 2: about his dad and uncle. This story would mean more

658
00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:11,359
Speaker 2: to you if you listen to those episodes starting at

659
00:35:11,480 --> 00:35:15,960
Speaker 2: episode fifty one. This is a little more history about

660
00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:22,279
Speaker 2: their deer camp and Louis Dale Edwards last buck. Here's

661
00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:23,400
Speaker 2: Stony Edwards.

662
00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:28,920
Speaker 7: Well, I'm Stony Edwards. Charlie Edwards was my dad, Louis

663
00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:33,160
Speaker 7: was my uncle. We've been running dogs in the same

664
00:35:33,239 --> 00:35:39,759
Speaker 7: exact woods my family has for one hundred years. A

665
00:35:39,800 --> 00:35:44,000
Speaker 7: lot of people probably don't understand running dogs, and we

666
00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:47,520
Speaker 7: do it different than others do. We all meet up

667
00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:50,719
Speaker 7: at camp or we're at camp, everybody spreads out and

668
00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:52,520
Speaker 7: they go get in the gaps in the mountains, and

669
00:35:52,600 --> 00:35:55,160
Speaker 7: I mean, we walk wherever we've got to to get

670
00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:57,040
Speaker 7: to a gap we think the dogs are going to

671
00:35:57,120 --> 00:35:59,959
Speaker 7: run through. One of my favorite things in the world

672
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:03,480
Speaker 7: I make the deer drives. I go with the dogs sometimes.

673
00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:06,960
Speaker 7: I all average three or four miles every morning just

674
00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:10,240
Speaker 7: on foot in the mountains. I know where the stands are.

675
00:36:10,880 --> 00:36:13,160
Speaker 7: I can turn loose just about anywhere, and I walked

676
00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:15,360
Speaker 7: straight to wherever you said you was going that morning.

677
00:36:15,640 --> 00:36:18,640
Speaker 7: But I've been doing this since I was six years old.

678
00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:22,160
Speaker 7: Some of those stands are for our older members or

679
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:25,200
Speaker 7: not too far off the road. For the young ones.

680
00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:27,040
Speaker 7: They get to go that two miles to get in

681
00:36:27,080 --> 00:36:29,719
Speaker 7: there to a gap. That's usually where you kill the

682
00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 7: best deers. In there two miles. Nobody wants them stands.

683
00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:37,120
Speaker 7: It's a long ways to drag one out. But we'll

684
00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:40,239
Speaker 7: go in there and we'll sit till eleven thirty twelve

685
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:43,759
Speaker 7: o'clock and everybody will come out and we'll move our

686
00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:47,960
Speaker 7: operation to another spot the road. Hunting thing for years

687
00:36:47,960 --> 00:36:51,200
Speaker 7: at our camp was I mean, it was taboo. You bull,

688
00:36:51,280 --> 00:36:55,040
Speaker 7: you shoot one off road, you're in trouble. And I

689
00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:58,080
Speaker 7: say this, with all the lawless things that I know

690
00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:01,080
Speaker 7: have been done over the years, that one seemed like

691
00:37:01,239 --> 00:37:04,200
Speaker 7: one of the most minor ones. But that will sure

692
00:37:04,280 --> 00:37:06,360
Speaker 7: get you a buttcheering from Dad or Uncle Wood up

693
00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:11,520
Speaker 7: here camp. I mean, between Uncle Ludell and Dad and me,

694
00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:15,480
Speaker 7: when we get to camp, we probably averaged about forty

695
00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:18,680
Speaker 7: to fifty dogs. We could keep them fresh that way.

696
00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:23,000
Speaker 7: Dad almost always had some MutS. These dogs could be

697
00:37:23,040 --> 00:37:29,040
Speaker 7: anything from catahou occurs to part Australian shepherd walker beagle mix.

698
00:37:29,280 --> 00:37:32,080
Speaker 7: I mean, and somehow or another, one of them dogs

699
00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:36,279
Speaker 7: would always outrun the good ones. And I usually turn

700
00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:39,440
Speaker 7: four to five dogs loose at a time. Makes the

701
00:37:39,520 --> 00:37:43,279
Speaker 7: sound pretty ear when they're running. I mean, I can

702
00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:45,560
Speaker 7: get a race with two dogs some of them. I

703
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:48,359
Speaker 7: can get a race with one dog. But a lot

704
00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:51,160
Speaker 7: of times if you've got four or five dogs, you'll

705
00:37:51,160 --> 00:37:54,320
Speaker 7: hear them split. They've jumped a couple of deer, or

706
00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:57,480
Speaker 7: they've jumped a whole herd that's running and a buckle

707
00:37:57,520 --> 00:38:01,000
Speaker 7: split off. A lot of times them dogs if you

708
00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:04,319
Speaker 7: hear them split If you'll remember I talked about my

709
00:38:04,320 --> 00:38:07,200
Speaker 7: little lemon drop dog. A lot of people talk about

710
00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:10,040
Speaker 7: a dog that'll only run a buck. Now, I ain't

711
00:38:10,040 --> 00:38:12,719
Speaker 7: gonna say she'll only run a buck, but if he

712
00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:16,520
Speaker 7: splits off, she's gonna be on it. And of course

713
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:19,360
Speaker 7: the smell is different. She did it. I know she

714
00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:23,080
Speaker 7: did it three times last year. I don't know if

715
00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:26,520
Speaker 7: a person that's never hunted with dogs, it's hard to describe.

716
00:38:27,239 --> 00:38:29,040
Speaker 7: I know a lot of them have turkey hunted, and

717
00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:32,319
Speaker 7: the adrenaline rush you get when you're turkey hunting, it's

718
00:38:32,400 --> 00:38:37,080
Speaker 7: a lot of the same rush. You hear them dogs coming.

719
00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:39,600
Speaker 7: You don't know where the deer is gonna come from.

720
00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:43,759
Speaker 7: Somewhere the direction of dogs are. But if you're in

721
00:38:43,800 --> 00:38:47,319
Speaker 7: these mountains, everything echoes so to bad. You can't tell

722
00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:49,359
Speaker 7: if they're coming up out of this holler, or they're

723
00:38:49,400 --> 00:38:51,960
Speaker 7: coming up out of this holler, or what they're gonna

724
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:54,840
Speaker 7: do next. And you don't never know how far ahead

725
00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:55,960
Speaker 7: of the dogs the deer is.

726
00:38:57,239 --> 00:39:01,040
Speaker 2: If here's Stony's story of Louis Delle's last buck. We're

727
00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:05,040
Speaker 2: sitting at the family's cafe in Big Fork, Arkansas. There's

728
00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:09,359
Speaker 2: bucks all over the walls, but there's one big main

729
00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:14,160
Speaker 2: frame eight point it's hanging directly across from me, and

730
00:39:14,200 --> 00:39:16,720
Speaker 2: it's the buck that we're about to talk about.

731
00:39:17,480 --> 00:39:19,640
Speaker 7: You know, me and Uncle Udell. We're standing there today.

732
00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:23,920
Speaker 7: He killed this buck and we'd heard them dogs. Well,

733
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:27,480
Speaker 7: we're standing looking at man. From where we're standing, you

734
00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:31,120
Speaker 7: can see nearly the whole length of it. We're listening

735
00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:34,000
Speaker 7: to the dogs way back into the east of us.

736
00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:37,040
Speaker 7: And he told me right then, he said that dear'll

737
00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:39,840
Speaker 7: come out at the coral down there. Well, that coral

738
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:43,439
Speaker 7: is four hundred yards west of us down there. Neither

739
00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:46,400
Speaker 7: one of us have gun, they'll shoot that far. And

740
00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:49,400
Speaker 7: we stood there for a long time, watching listening to

741
00:39:49,480 --> 00:39:52,720
Speaker 7: the dogs running, and we were pretty much done. Today

742
00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:57,000
Speaker 7: it's eleven o'clock in the morning. Everybody's coming off their stands,

743
00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:00,640
Speaker 7: and we kept listening to them. And directly we've seen

744
00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:03,160
Speaker 7: that buck pop out down there trail, right where he

745
00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:05,719
Speaker 7: said it would. And he had told me that a

746
00:40:05,719 --> 00:40:08,120
Speaker 7: million times as the first deer I ever seen come

747
00:40:08,120 --> 00:40:12,800
Speaker 7: out of there. But that deer come out and it

748
00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:17,120
Speaker 7: turned and run right straight at us. Well, I'm not

749
00:40:17,239 --> 00:40:19,759
Speaker 7: exaggerating on the four hundred yards, and I know that

750
00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:22,359
Speaker 7: deer run over two hundred yards of it back to

751
00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:25,640
Speaker 7: us and us standing there, well, we had grabbed guns

752
00:40:25,680 --> 00:40:28,600
Speaker 7: and I had a thirty thirty. That deer wasn't gonna

753
00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:31,919
Speaker 7: get close enough for me to even aim at it good.

754
00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:36,200
Speaker 7: And he had a little six milimeter. He had started shooting.

755
00:40:37,200 --> 00:40:39,680
Speaker 7: But we're listening to them dogs and they were still

756
00:40:39,719 --> 00:40:43,399
Speaker 7: only about halfway out of the mountain, and he'd laid

757
00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:46,360
Speaker 7: down and took rest. And that deer running there and

758
00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:50,520
Speaker 7: turned broadside and he shot and it didn't kick, it

759
00:40:50,600 --> 00:40:55,400
Speaker 7: didn't flinch. I thought he missed it, you know. And

760
00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:58,400
Speaker 7: he's hollering at me, shoot that thing. I said, I

761
00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:03,520
Speaker 7: got a thirty thirty, will shoot it anyway. And I

762
00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:06,640
Speaker 7: raised up there and I shot. I seen where my

763
00:41:06,680 --> 00:41:08,759
Speaker 7: bullet hit and it didn't even make it to the deer.

764
00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:13,600
Speaker 7: And he wouldn't shoot again. I kept telling him shoot

765
00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:16,400
Speaker 7: again directly. That deer just started going weak in the

766
00:41:16,480 --> 00:41:19,640
Speaker 7: knees and dropped right there. I don't know if it

767
00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:23,080
Speaker 7: was that little bitty bullet didn't affect him that much,

768
00:41:23,160 --> 00:41:25,239
Speaker 7: you know, I'm used to when I hit them, they

769
00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:30,160
Speaker 7: they're gonna go down a little bit. Anyway, he said, well,

770
00:41:30,200 --> 00:41:32,480
Speaker 7: let's go get it, and I said, oh, wait a minute. Well,

771
00:41:32,520 --> 00:41:36,080
Speaker 7: them dogs, three of them's pups. They're July and Walker

772
00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:39,520
Speaker 7: mixed dogs, and their mama was with them. I had

773
00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:42,560
Speaker 7: four dogs coming out and we sat there and listened

774
00:41:42,600 --> 00:41:45,120
Speaker 7: to them. In twenty minutes after we shot that deer,

775
00:41:45,960 --> 00:41:48,080
Speaker 7: I see the dogs pop out down there at the crall.

776
00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:52,960
Speaker 7: I mean, they're that far behind that deer. And they

777
00:41:53,040 --> 00:41:55,279
Speaker 7: turned and the boy, they come right straight to him,

778
00:41:55,320 --> 00:41:58,080
Speaker 7: and I said, okay, let's go get him. Were by

779
00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:00,239
Speaker 7: the time we got over there, they had eat had

780
00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:02,440
Speaker 7: a corner of him, and I got him leashed up,

781
00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:05,680
Speaker 7: and Uncleude I said that that was one of the

782
00:42:05,719 --> 00:42:08,000
Speaker 7: prettiest races I ever heard. And I said, oh, that's

783
00:42:08,080 --> 00:42:12,359
Speaker 7: just because you killed the deer, you know. And he's like, oh,

784
00:42:12,440 --> 00:42:14,960
Speaker 7: I think you hit that deer. And I know I

785
00:42:14,960 --> 00:42:17,160
Speaker 7: didn't hit the deer. I said, you hit him that

786
00:42:17,280 --> 00:42:21,080
Speaker 7: first shot. Anyway, I got the dogs leashed up and

787
00:42:21,120 --> 00:42:23,719
Speaker 7: he was holding them and I gutted it, fed them

788
00:42:23,800 --> 00:42:26,960
Speaker 7: some liver, and we got it loaded, and he was

789
00:42:26,960 --> 00:42:30,560
Speaker 7: so proud of it. And by this time he already

790
00:42:30,600 --> 00:42:34,359
Speaker 7: had to mention. So I was worried more about how

791
00:42:34,360 --> 00:42:37,520
Speaker 7: many more years this if we got before you know,

792
00:42:37,600 --> 00:42:40,600
Speaker 7: he can't do it anymore. I told him, I said,

793
00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:42,760
Speaker 7: you need to get that one mounted though, I said

794
00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:45,200
Speaker 7: it might be the last good and you kill and

795
00:42:45,239 --> 00:42:47,879
Speaker 7: I'd like to have it. And we sent it off

796
00:42:47,920 --> 00:42:50,800
Speaker 7: and got it mounted. But turns out it was the

797
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:51,759
Speaker 7: last one and killed.

798
00:42:55,880 --> 00:42:58,879
Speaker 2: That was a good story. Stony and continues to put

799
00:42:58,920 --> 00:43:02,880
Speaker 2: some perspective around running deer with dogs. If you're in

800
00:43:02,920 --> 00:43:06,480
Speaker 2: western Arkansas, go eat at Stoney's Cafe. It's called the

801
00:43:06,520 --> 00:43:08,799
Speaker 2: Big Fork Mall. You won't be able to miss it,

802
00:43:08,880 --> 00:43:11,759
Speaker 2: trust me, and the food is top notch, no joke.

803
00:43:12,600 --> 00:43:15,759
Speaker 2: There's a Louis Delle and Charlie wall with a bear

804
00:43:15,920 --> 00:43:19,960
Speaker 2: Grease podcast plaque on it hanging in the restaurant. Let

805
00:43:19,960 --> 00:43:25,480
Speaker 2: me know if you swing by over there. Like I

806
00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:28,520
Speaker 2: said before, there aren't that many places left in the

807
00:43:28,560 --> 00:43:31,759
Speaker 2: country where you can still run deer with hounds, And

808
00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:35,040
Speaker 2: as long as I'm still breathing, I'll be standing for

809
00:43:35,080 --> 00:43:38,439
Speaker 2: those areas to remain open to it. Some of y'all

810
00:43:38,440 --> 00:43:41,080
Speaker 2: may remember that on the ceiling of my office, the

811
00:43:41,160 --> 00:43:46,560
Speaker 2: ceiling hangs a painting of an eighteen hundred's English fox hunt.

812
00:43:46,840 --> 00:43:47,600
Speaker 5: There are men.

813
00:43:47,520 --> 00:43:51,520
Speaker 2: Wearing fancy red jackets riding white horses, and the ground

814
00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:55,319
Speaker 2: is crawling with walker fox hounds. Women and children are

815
00:43:55,360 --> 00:43:59,480
Speaker 2: picnicking in the background. It's a beautiful scene. The reason

816
00:43:59,520 --> 00:44:03,560
Speaker 2: the painting hangs on the ceiling is because for all

817
00:44:03,600 --> 00:44:08,920
Speaker 2: practical purposes, real English fox hunts are pretty much gone

818
00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:13,960
Speaker 2: or at least extremely rare. That thing no longer exists

819
00:44:14,040 --> 00:44:16,680
Speaker 2: on the earth. That's why it's on the ceiling. That

820
00:44:16,840 --> 00:44:20,480
Speaker 2: society let the prevailing trends of culture and power take

821
00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:23,640
Speaker 2: it away. It just went out of style. And again,

822
00:44:24,239 --> 00:44:27,120
Speaker 2: this isn't about if you like using dogs or not.

823
00:44:27,800 --> 00:44:31,600
Speaker 2: It's about traditional use practices and not letting the shifting

824
00:44:31,719 --> 00:44:35,560
Speaker 2: baseline of societal norms affect something as primitive as humans

825
00:44:35,640 --> 00:44:40,680
Speaker 2: hunting with hounds in a very regulated, highly managed system.

826
00:44:41,480 --> 00:44:44,319
Speaker 2: I do not run deer with dogs, and I'll never

827
00:44:44,440 --> 00:44:46,399
Speaker 2: own a deer dog. I just feel like we need

828
00:44:46,440 --> 00:44:48,759
Speaker 2: to stand up for our fellow hunters, even if they

829
00:44:48,840 --> 00:44:52,840
Speaker 2: hunt differently than us. I just really love the diverse

830
00:44:52,880 --> 00:44:55,920
Speaker 2: ways that we can hunt deer. And speaking of diversity,

831
00:44:56,520 --> 00:44:58,680
Speaker 2: this next story is on the opposite end of the

832
00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:02,640
Speaker 2: spectrum from running deer with dogs. I've been influenced by

833
00:45:02,680 --> 00:45:06,640
Speaker 2: a wide variety of deer hunters. The Old Believer was

834
00:45:06,680 --> 00:45:10,359
Speaker 2: a public land compound bow hunter fixated on finding white

835
00:45:10,360 --> 00:45:13,799
Speaker 2: oak acorns with deer droppings underneath the canopy. That was

836
00:45:13,840 --> 00:45:16,480
Speaker 2: his specialty. I was close friends with a family of

837
00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:18,960
Speaker 2: dog hunters and killed some deer in front of dogs

838
00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:21,720
Speaker 2: with guns. But when I was in my early twenties,

839
00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:25,040
Speaker 2: I was introduced to a man named David Albright. I'd

840
00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:28,719
Speaker 2: never met anybody quite like David. He was a traditional

841
00:45:28,840 --> 00:45:31,360
Speaker 2: archer and a bow yer. He made his own bows,

842
00:45:32,040 --> 00:45:36,120
Speaker 2: and he was driven by a pace, frequency, and dedication

843
00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:40,600
Speaker 2: to process that was foreign to me. I was compelled

844
00:45:40,680 --> 00:45:44,520
Speaker 2: and challenged by his descriptions of shooting a bow instinctively.

845
00:45:45,440 --> 00:45:49,240
Speaker 2: David killed his limit of deer each year on some rough, tough,

846
00:45:49,719 --> 00:45:54,560
Speaker 2: mountainous public land with long bows. He made himself. Not

847
00:45:54,600 --> 00:45:57,400
Speaker 2: only was he an excellent hunter, he was a craftsman.

848
00:45:57,960 --> 00:46:00,960
Speaker 2: As a young man, I remember thinking, now, that's the

849
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:04,320
Speaker 2: way to kill a white tail deer. David was inspirational

850
00:46:04,320 --> 00:46:07,480
Speaker 2: to me, and the self imposed limitations that he placed

851
00:46:07,520 --> 00:46:11,160
Speaker 2: on himself seemed so high. It was almost like an

852
00:46:11,320 --> 00:46:14,759
Speaker 2: unachievable feat. He gave me my first long bow and

853
00:46:14,920 --> 00:46:19,080
Speaker 2: lessons on instinctive shooting. I was never as dedicated or

854
00:46:19,080 --> 00:46:22,560
Speaker 2: as successful as David, but his influence set me on

855
00:46:22,600 --> 00:46:25,600
Speaker 2: a journey with traditional archery that I'm still on to

856
00:46:25,719 --> 00:46:29,760
Speaker 2: this day. David's now seventy two years old, and honestly,

857
00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:32,919
Speaker 2: he's hunting about as hard as he ever did. I'm

858
00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:36,240
Speaker 2: very proud to introduce you to David Albright.

859
00:46:39,440 --> 00:46:43,960
Speaker 9: Okay, my name is David Albright. I came to Arkansas

860
00:46:44,320 --> 00:46:48,960
Speaker 9: forty two years ago from Chicago, which is not where

861
00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:51,880
Speaker 9: I grew up. I grew up in Indiana, went to

862
00:46:52,040 --> 00:46:57,359
Speaker 9: Chicago when the economy got poored work construction hung in

863
00:46:57,520 --> 00:47:02,360
Speaker 9: for six years, couldn't take it any longer, and moved

864
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:08,360
Speaker 9: to Arkansas and from there life was life. I started

865
00:47:08,400 --> 00:47:12,040
Speaker 9: deer hunting here in Arkansas. I never hunted deer in

866
00:47:12,040 --> 00:47:16,600
Speaker 9: Indiana or Illinois. I really really got to like it.

867
00:47:16,680 --> 00:47:21,120
Speaker 9: Started out gun hunting, started muzzle load hunting that was

868
00:47:21,360 --> 00:47:25,560
Speaker 9: a lot better, and then started bow hunting, and that's

869
00:47:25,600 --> 00:47:29,000
Speaker 9: when I really started learning about deer. You got to

870
00:47:29,160 --> 00:47:32,719
Speaker 9: watch him. You had to watch him gun hunting. You'd

871
00:47:32,800 --> 00:47:35,799
Speaker 9: see you deer for a minute or two and shoot it.

872
00:47:36,560 --> 00:47:39,560
Speaker 9: Bow hunting, you may watch it for an hour and

873
00:47:39,640 --> 00:47:43,840
Speaker 9: it walks away. So that was a good deal getting

874
00:47:43,840 --> 00:47:48,200
Speaker 9: into bow hunting. And I had one compound bow and

875
00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:51,399
Speaker 9: hated it. I killed my first deer with the bow

876
00:47:51,480 --> 00:47:54,600
Speaker 9: with it. So I dug out an old ree curve

877
00:47:54,680 --> 00:47:57,480
Speaker 9: I had bought when I was eighteen, started shooting it

878
00:47:58,200 --> 00:48:01,880
Speaker 9: and had a buddy that had a long bow, so

879
00:48:01,920 --> 00:48:04,960
Speaker 9: I played with it a little bit and bought one

880
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:08,359
Speaker 9: for myself. Shot it for a couple of years and

881
00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:13,400
Speaker 9: wanted something else and started reading about building on bows.

882
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:17,960
Speaker 2: David started building his own long bows in nineteen ninety one.

883
00:48:18,680 --> 00:48:21,959
Speaker 2: I asked him why he loved traditional archery so much.

884
00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:25,960
Speaker 9: I guess gun hunting it was a great way to

885
00:48:26,080 --> 00:48:30,560
Speaker 9: start hunting and learn the basics. But it was just

886
00:48:30,840 --> 00:48:36,200
Speaker 9: over so fast that when I started bow hunting, everything

887
00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:40,239
Speaker 9: slowed down. You know. I would see deer that if

888
00:48:40,280 --> 00:48:44,000
Speaker 9: I had been rifle hunting, would be dead. I'd have

889
00:48:44,120 --> 00:48:47,440
Speaker 9: it gutted back at the house, butchering it, but instead

890
00:48:47,880 --> 00:48:51,160
Speaker 9: bow hunting, I'm still sitting in the tree watching that deer,

891
00:48:51,760 --> 00:48:55,960
Speaker 9: learning what it's doing. And that's basically it. I mean

892
00:48:56,160 --> 00:49:01,920
Speaker 9: it was just more fulfilling for me to be forced

893
00:49:02,000 --> 00:49:06,400
Speaker 9: to learn to hunt so close to the animal that

894
00:49:06,480 --> 00:49:10,719
Speaker 9: I could kill it with a primitive weapon. The average

895
00:49:10,880 --> 00:49:15,400
Speaker 9: deer that I've killed over the years, my average distance

896
00:49:15,480 --> 00:49:19,960
Speaker 9: is probably fifteen yards. Twenty eight yards was the longest,

897
00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:24,320
Speaker 9: and eight yards was the closest. And that's real exciting

898
00:49:24,400 --> 00:49:28,840
Speaker 9: to me to try and be quiet enough and not

899
00:49:29,239 --> 00:49:32,760
Speaker 9: screw up anything you're doing. And when they're that close,

900
00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:36,680
Speaker 9: you can't do anything wrong. I mean, if you turn

901
00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:39,960
Speaker 9: your shoe and it squeaks, they look up at you

902
00:49:40,040 --> 00:49:45,000
Speaker 9: immediately they pinpoint you. So I've made all those mistakes

903
00:49:45,400 --> 00:49:49,279
Speaker 9: and learn from them, but it's just really fulfilling to

904
00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:52,680
Speaker 9: get that close and to pull off the shot and

905
00:49:52,800 --> 00:49:55,040
Speaker 9: make the shot without screwing up.

906
00:49:57,640 --> 00:50:00,319
Speaker 2: I came to David's shop with one store you on

907
00:50:00,360 --> 00:50:04,600
Speaker 2: my mind. There's a rack euro mounted land on the

908
00:50:04,640 --> 00:50:09,040
Speaker 2: stone fireplace mantel. It's got G two's over thirteen inches

909
00:50:09,120 --> 00:50:13,160
Speaker 2: long and G three's over ten. It would be an

910
00:50:13,200 --> 00:50:17,080
Speaker 2: incredible deer anywhere in the country, but for mountainous public

911
00:50:17,160 --> 00:50:20,759
Speaker 2: land in the South. Killed with a bow he made himself.

912
00:50:21,120 --> 00:50:24,320
Speaker 2: It's a lifetime achievement. I wanted to hear that story.

913
00:50:25,360 --> 00:50:27,920
Speaker 9: This was on the river, and the reason I was

914
00:50:28,000 --> 00:50:30,279
Speaker 9: hunting there that year is kind of like this year.

915
00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:33,560
Speaker 9: There weren't a lot of acorns anywhere else, and along

916
00:50:33,600 --> 00:50:37,480
Speaker 9: the river, you know, it's more moist and trees do better,

917
00:50:37,680 --> 00:50:41,600
Speaker 9: and there were acrens there. And I went to a

918
00:50:41,640 --> 00:50:46,840
Speaker 9: spot I've walked within seventy five yards of one hundred

919
00:50:46,920 --> 00:50:50,560
Speaker 9: times and never walked into that little strip of woods.

920
00:50:50,920 --> 00:50:54,520
Speaker 9: It's real thick, and it just never crossed my mind

921
00:50:54,560 --> 00:50:57,160
Speaker 9: that that would be a place to hunt. But I

922
00:50:57,239 --> 00:51:00,640
Speaker 9: decided to walk it out anyway, and I found a

923
00:51:00,840 --> 00:51:04,720
Speaker 9: real distinct deer trail. Going through it, I found some

924
00:51:04,800 --> 00:51:08,919
Speaker 9: big tracks and some big buck droppings, had a lot

925
00:51:08,960 --> 00:51:14,760
Speaker 9: of dough track dough droppings, and I I started looking around.

926
00:51:14,960 --> 00:51:18,600
Speaker 9: All the trees were small, and I had just about

927
00:51:18,719 --> 00:51:21,680
Speaker 9: give it up, and I saw this one tree that

928
00:51:21,880 --> 00:51:26,480
Speaker 9: was probably not quite twelve inches in diameter, not a

929
00:51:26,560 --> 00:51:31,160
Speaker 9: very big tree. So anyway, I set up on this tree,

930
00:51:31,560 --> 00:51:34,640
Speaker 9: got up in it and looked around, and it's so

931
00:51:34,880 --> 00:51:38,319
Speaker 9: thick there I just had a three foot diameter hole

932
00:51:38,400 --> 00:51:41,840
Speaker 9: to shoot to the trail here, maybe a two foot

933
00:51:41,920 --> 00:51:45,920
Speaker 9: hole here, and then over here there was about a

934
00:51:46,160 --> 00:51:49,840
Speaker 9: maybe a six or seven foot long strip of the

935
00:51:49,920 --> 00:51:50,880
Speaker 9: trail open.

936
00:51:52,840 --> 00:51:54,960
Speaker 2: David had hunted in there a few days before and

937
00:51:55,040 --> 00:51:58,200
Speaker 2: saw some does feeding on acorns, which he would have

938
00:51:58,239 --> 00:52:01,560
Speaker 2: shot if they'd have been closer. He was encouraged and

939
00:52:01,640 --> 00:52:05,760
Speaker 2: decided to go back and sit again on this rainy morning.

940
00:52:06,800 --> 00:52:10,400
Speaker 9: That hunt almost didn't happen. I got up that morning

941
00:52:11,160 --> 00:52:14,920
Speaker 9: and it was raining, so I turned away a chinnel

942
00:52:15,000 --> 00:52:18,759
Speaker 9: and watched, and you could see that it was just

943
00:52:18,840 --> 00:52:22,120
Speaker 9: about past us. I mean, we were on the right,

944
00:52:22,160 --> 00:52:24,600
Speaker 9: on the verge. So I went ahead and got all

945
00:52:24,640 --> 00:52:28,920
Speaker 9: my stuff together, took my time. I got to stand

946
00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:33,840
Speaker 9: probably an hour and minutes later than I would have

947
00:52:34,320 --> 00:52:38,440
Speaker 9: had it not rained. And when I got to stand still,

948
00:52:38,520 --> 00:52:41,080
Speaker 9: water dripping out of the trees. I mean, the kind

949
00:52:41,120 --> 00:52:43,120
Speaker 9: of day you really wonder if you should be bow

950
00:52:43,200 --> 00:52:48,120
Speaker 9: hunting or not. Probably hadn't been on stand thirty minutes

951
00:52:48,840 --> 00:52:52,520
Speaker 9: and two doughs came in. They weren't on the trail,

952
00:52:52,600 --> 00:52:56,399
Speaker 9: they were beyond it, probably thirty yards from me. They

953
00:52:56,400 --> 00:53:00,000
Speaker 9: were feeding on the opposite side of this big oak tree.

954
00:53:00,320 --> 00:53:04,440
Speaker 9: And I kept watching them, and I stood up and

955
00:53:04,520 --> 00:53:08,839
Speaker 9: got situated and ready to make a shot. But they

956
00:53:08,840 --> 00:53:12,400
Speaker 9: were just too far, but they were feeding my way,

957
00:53:12,440 --> 00:53:17,120
Speaker 9: and they got maybe two about twenty twenty two yards,

958
00:53:17,560 --> 00:53:20,880
Speaker 9: and both of them at the same times heads bobbed

959
00:53:20,960 --> 00:53:23,960
Speaker 9: up and turned to my right. I didn't know what

960
00:53:24,120 --> 00:53:26,799
Speaker 9: was going on. I turned my head and looked, and

961
00:53:27,200 --> 00:53:32,719
Speaker 9: here came this huge buck, just slowly meandering on the

962
00:53:32,840 --> 00:53:38,320
Speaker 9: trail right towards me, and I just I nearly passed out.

963
00:53:38,400 --> 00:53:42,520
Speaker 9: I just I couldn't believe it, and I had no time.

964
00:53:42,640 --> 00:53:46,920
Speaker 9: I mean, he was twenty yards from me and just

965
00:53:47,000 --> 00:53:50,840
Speaker 9: a steady slow walk, and he was looking at the dos.

966
00:53:51,400 --> 00:53:56,520
Speaker 9: And when he got to about oh ten yards, he

967
00:53:56,680 --> 00:54:00,440
Speaker 9: was behind cover. You know, I kind of cup and

968
00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:04,479
Speaker 9: realized I needed to turn, and I did, and as

969
00:54:04,520 --> 00:54:07,440
Speaker 9: he was behind that cover, I got the bow up

970
00:54:07,480 --> 00:54:10,279
Speaker 9: and ready. When his nose come out, I drew the

971
00:54:10,320 --> 00:54:15,080
Speaker 9: bow and as he cleared the cover, I looked at

972
00:54:15,120 --> 00:54:17,880
Speaker 9: the spot behind his shoulder and let it go and

973
00:54:17,960 --> 00:54:21,480
Speaker 9: it drilled him perfect. There was a little bit of

974
00:54:21,520 --> 00:54:26,600
Speaker 9: the fletching sticking out the entry side, and he bolted

975
00:54:26,719 --> 00:54:31,200
Speaker 9: right away. I heard the arrow snap. Another ten yards,

976
00:54:31,239 --> 00:54:36,120
Speaker 9: I heard another snap. But anyway, he runs, makes a

977
00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:39,640
Speaker 9: curve and goes out of sight. I thought I could

978
00:54:39,719 --> 00:54:42,960
Speaker 9: hear a crash, but I wasn't certain. The woods was

979
00:54:43,040 --> 00:54:46,480
Speaker 9: pretty quiet because it was so wet, and a squirrel

980
00:54:46,640 --> 00:54:50,759
Speaker 9: started raising cane in the same spot and just went

981
00:54:50,920 --> 00:54:53,800
Speaker 9: on and on for about five minutes. He never stopped,

982
00:54:53,840 --> 00:54:57,760
Speaker 9: just chatter, chatter, chatter. So I thought, man, I hope,

983
00:54:58,160 --> 00:55:00,759
Speaker 9: I hope that means that that deer's down over there.

984
00:55:02,080 --> 00:55:04,520
Speaker 9: After I got control of myself where I thought I

985
00:55:04,560 --> 00:55:08,240
Speaker 9: could climb down without falling, I eased down the ladder.

986
00:55:08,760 --> 00:55:11,360
Speaker 9: I mean, it was a great hit on my side

987
00:55:11,840 --> 00:55:16,920
Speaker 9: and at eight yards and I was fourteen feet to

988
00:55:17,040 --> 00:55:20,480
Speaker 9: my foot platform. Pretty good I angle, I figured it.

989
00:55:20,840 --> 00:55:23,560
Speaker 9: You know, it came out low on the opposite side,

990
00:55:24,120 --> 00:55:27,520
Speaker 9: so I expected a really really good hit and a

991
00:55:27,560 --> 00:55:32,520
Speaker 9: lot of blood. So I continued around following his tracks

992
00:55:32,600 --> 00:55:35,359
Speaker 9: and a little bit of blood. But like I say,

993
00:55:35,520 --> 00:55:38,800
Speaker 9: nothing like I expected. I expected a lot of blood.

994
00:55:39,360 --> 00:55:43,680
Speaker 9: And I got around pretty close to where I had

995
00:55:43,800 --> 00:55:47,759
Speaker 9: heard the squirrel and I could see one ant or

996
00:55:48,080 --> 00:55:51,759
Speaker 9: sticking up and I was just like, oh my gosh.

997
00:55:52,560 --> 00:55:55,200
Speaker 9: I mean, it seemed like it was a knee high,

998
00:55:55,520 --> 00:55:59,360
Speaker 9: you know, sticking up the out of the scrub. So

999
00:55:59,400 --> 00:56:01,960
Speaker 9: I walked up to it and looked at it and

1000
00:56:02,120 --> 00:56:07,880
Speaker 9: knelt down, gave thanks for it, and I just I

1001
00:56:07,960 --> 00:56:12,040
Speaker 9: was dumbfounded. I mean, I never expected to kill that

1002
00:56:12,120 --> 00:56:16,200
Speaker 9: big a deer. I mean from stand I have never

1003
00:56:16,320 --> 00:56:25,320
Speaker 9: seen that big a deer until that day.

1004
00:56:27,200 --> 00:56:29,960
Speaker 2: The deer was a mainframe nine point that I scored

1005
00:56:30,000 --> 00:56:34,200
Speaker 2: myself at one fifty five and five eighths. It's just

1006
00:56:34,280 --> 00:56:37,960
Speaker 2: a magnificent buck. It's got an eighteen inch spread, twenty

1007
00:56:37,960 --> 00:56:41,480
Speaker 2: four inch plus main beams and thirteen inch g two's.

1008
00:56:42,200 --> 00:56:44,480
Speaker 2: The best part of the story is that it couldn't

1009
00:56:44,480 --> 00:56:48,480
Speaker 2: have gone to a more deserving and appreciative hunter. I

1010
00:56:48,520 --> 00:56:51,520
Speaker 2: hope you're taking note of the diversity of stories on

1011
00:56:51,560 --> 00:56:55,640
Speaker 2: this series inside the spectrum of hunting. Dog hunter who

1012
00:56:55,760 --> 00:56:58,000
Speaker 2: runs deer with dogs and shoot him with a rifle

1013
00:56:58,480 --> 00:57:02,080
Speaker 2: couldn't be much further in terms of strategy from a

1014
00:57:02,080 --> 00:57:05,040
Speaker 2: traditional archer making his own bows and hunting out of

1015
00:57:05,040 --> 00:57:08,239
Speaker 2: a tree stand. However, I believe that they're a lot

1016
00:57:08,400 --> 00:57:13,279
Speaker 2: more alike than they are different. They're both dedicated live, eat,

1017
00:57:13,440 --> 00:57:17,480
Speaker 2: and breathe white tailed deer, but their biggest similarity is

1018
00:57:17,520 --> 00:57:20,880
Speaker 2: their passion for a specific way of doing it in

1019
00:57:20,920 --> 00:57:26,240
Speaker 2: the grand scheme of mankind and the incredible diverse possibilities

1020
00:57:26,280 --> 00:57:29,640
Speaker 2: of interests that a person might have on planet Earth.

1021
00:57:30,480 --> 00:57:34,360
Speaker 2: These guys, a dog hunter and a traditional archer, are

1022
00:57:34,440 --> 00:57:39,400
Speaker 2: basically fraternal twins. In today's world, it's so powerful for

1023
00:57:39,520 --> 00:57:42,800
Speaker 2: us to put aside our differences and cling to what

1024
00:57:43,400 --> 00:57:47,400
Speaker 2: unites us. In this case, it's the love of the

1025
00:57:47,440 --> 00:57:54,080
Speaker 2: white tail deer. I can't thank you enough for listening

1026
00:57:54,120 --> 00:57:57,600
Speaker 2: to Bear Grease. These stories series are some of my

1027
00:57:58,000 --> 00:58:02,120
Speaker 2: favorite I really enjoy going out and sitting with these

1028
00:58:02,160 --> 00:58:04,760
Speaker 2: people face to face and hearing their stories.

1029
00:58:05,560 --> 00:58:06,040
Speaker 5: I love it.

1030
00:58:07,280 --> 00:58:09,000
Speaker 2: If you're looking for the best white tailed gear in

1031
00:58:09,040 --> 00:58:12,000
Speaker 2: the industry, check out First Life, and if you're near

1032
00:58:12,120 --> 00:58:16,120
Speaker 2: a shield store, you can go and try on all

1033
00:58:16,280 --> 00:58:19,400
Speaker 2: our gear at their stores. I hope you get out

1034
00:58:19,440 --> 00:58:22,760
Speaker 2: into the wild this week and chase the deer. Remember

1035
00:58:23,280 --> 00:58:25,880
Speaker 2: we're living in the heyday the white tailed deer.

1036
00:58:25,880 --> 00:58:27,680
Speaker 6: Honey, have a great work.