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Speaker 1: And so I get to looking at the direction she's

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Speaker 1: coming and I see big old horns coming. They look

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Speaker 1: like those Texas bucks that go straight out with big

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Speaker 1: times going up. I mean, he was the biggest deer

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Speaker 1: I guess I've ever seen. On hoof half hour into

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Speaker 1: the hunt, they looked up and here's this buck standing

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Speaker 1: not that far away, coming right down the middle of

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Speaker 1: this strip of beans, and the strip of beans only

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Speaker 1: like fifty yards wide, and I thought, holy cow, that's

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Speaker 1: one of the biggest bucks I've ever seen. On this

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Speaker 1: episode of the Burglaries podcast, we're talking about white tailed deer,

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Speaker 1: but this isn't the typical tips, tactics and biology that

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Speaker 1: we're here so much. That's useful stuff and I love it,

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Speaker 1: But the foundation of why that knowledge is even desirable

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Speaker 1: is found in the onion layer deeper. We want the

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Speaker 1: knowledge because of how valuable white tails are to us.

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Speaker 1: White tailed deer hunting culture in this country is uniquely America.

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Speaker 1: There's nothing else like it in the world. The sheer

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Speaker 1: numbers of white tails, their wide geographic distribution, and the

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Speaker 1: liberal seasons, coupled with the rich and unique heritage we

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Speaker 1: have is unparalleled. When you factor in fried backstrap with

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Speaker 1: gravy and biscuits on the cool fall evening, you might

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Speaker 1: start to understand the American Revolution. It wasn't about taxation

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Speaker 1: and representation or t It was about some hillbillies not

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Speaker 1: wanting to share their backstrap with the King brothers. We

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Speaker 1: found ourselves in the ditch, and we're only on the

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Speaker 1: intro anyhow. My first love was undoubtedly white tail hunting,

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Speaker 1: with coon hunting rolling in tight on the do claws.

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Speaker 1: And we've got a compilation of storytellers on this episode,

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Speaker 1: many of which are familiar voices and the bargary stratosphere,

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Speaker 1: and a few are new. We've got big bucks, little bucks, missed,

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Speaker 1: but bucks bristling, grutting, running bucks, clicking bucks, and bucks

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Speaker 1: falling in holes. But one thing's for sure, you're not

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Speaker 1: gonna want to miss this one. And I'll accord to

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Speaker 1: my eye. I see movement again, and that's when one

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Speaker 1: of the biggest bucks that I've ever seen by hunting

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Speaker 1: walks out, just a big body, eight point buck walks out.

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Speaker 1: I walked under the deer and I'll never forget this.

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Speaker 1: I said this out loud. I said, wow, I never

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Speaker 1: killed one like that. My name is Clay Nukelem and

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Speaker 1: this is the Bear Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things

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Speaker 1: forgotten but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places, and

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Speaker 1: where we'll tell the story of Americans who lived their

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Speaker 1: lives close to the land, presented by f HF gear,

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Speaker 1: American made purpose built hunting and fishing gear that's designed

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Speaker 1: to be as rugged as the places we explore. Storytelling

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Speaker 1: is a sacred thing and foundational to human life. Our

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Speaker 1: ancestors not that far back didn't have written language, and

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Speaker 1: so oral storytelling was the medium and conduit of human

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Speaker 1: culture for way longer than it hasn't been. Clay quipped

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Speaker 1: being so dramatic. I'm not I'm being serious. The earliest

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Speaker 1: forms of writing appeared around five thousand, five hundred years

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Speaker 1: ago on planet Earth, which in the big picture of

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Speaker 1: the human story, is equivalent to a single page in

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Speaker 1: a book as thick as a car. The Falsome Man,

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Speaker 1: the Bros in New Mexico that killed the thirty two

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Speaker 1: bison with unique stone points were a live five thousand

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Speaker 1: years too early for books, So for them, storytelling was

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Speaker 1: the architecture of their world. It carried their values, their worldview,

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Speaker 1: their thoughts on divine power, their practical knowledge for how

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Speaker 1: to live, how to make a fire, how to nap stone,

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Speaker 1: where to can't want to eat, when to run, when

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Speaker 1: to fight humans physically talking to humans carried our culture

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Speaker 1: for a long time, a long time. And this culture

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Speaker 1: that I speak of is the platter on which the

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Speaker 1: very thing that makes us humans sits upon. We deeply

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Speaker 1: value the wild beasts, but our differences from them are

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Speaker 1: so steep it's clear that we're different than the beast.

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Speaker 1: We're separate from him. Deep cognition of our surroundings and

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Speaker 1: awareness of the past, a deep longing to understand the future,

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Speaker 1: making tools, recognition of beauty and art and altruism. All

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Speaker 1: these things are diagnostic of humanity. Storytelling is it just

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Speaker 1: about relaying the natural events of a moment. Though we

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Speaker 1: gain relevant information from stories, lots of it, but they

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Speaker 1: carry a sentiment load full of meaning. These stories tell

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Speaker 1: us who we are. They give us identity, They tell

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Speaker 1: us what's valuable. They highlight what's honorable and what's detestable.

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Speaker 1: They give us instruction, advice, and warning. They entertain us,

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Speaker 1: and storytelling highlights leaders inside of communities and tribes. It

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Speaker 1: was very much that way with the Native Americans, and

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Speaker 1: really is still that way today in most places in

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Speaker 1: the Earth. Part of being a chief was being able

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Speaker 1: to talk the big talk. They honored those whose stories

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Speaker 1: inspired people. Stories are everything to us, and they still

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Speaker 1: are today, even deer stories. This collection of white tailed

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Speaker 1: deer hunting stories is so ridiculously rich in value. I

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Speaker 1: struggle to find the words. Every one of these men

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Speaker 1: that tell a story admit a frequency that is part

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Speaker 1: of the sound of my life. So this stuff didn't

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Speaker 1: happen to me, but these stories are personal to me.

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Speaker 1: Some of these guys I've known my whole life, and

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Speaker 1: others are relatively new friends, but I love them all.

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Speaker 1: This first story comes from my friend from Western Arkansas,

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Speaker 1: Randy long Legged step I've known Randy Says grade school

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Speaker 1: and we were the founding members of an elite invitation

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Speaker 1: only club in our high school we called the Timber Scouts.

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Speaker 1: Basically all we did was go camping, never any alcohol,

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Speaker 1: just good claim fund. Randy's hunt took place on public

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Speaker 1: land in Arkansas, and I think you'll be surprised how

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Speaker 1: it ends. So a lot of your hunt stories are

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Speaker 1: probably gonna be about really great hunters that put a

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Speaker 1: lot of preparation into their hunt and really go after

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Speaker 1: a deer they've seen on camera seen My story is

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Speaker 1: not that at all. To put some context in my story,

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Speaker 1: it kind of starts with work. I work retail and

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Speaker 1: work a lot of hours in the fall, especially toward

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Speaker 1: holiday season. And this particular year, I think it two

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Speaker 1: thousand and fifteen, we had inventory in the middle of October,

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Speaker 1: so it really cut down my ability to go scout

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Speaker 1: for good hunting places or even really to go archery hunting.

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Speaker 1: Muzzlelodon season was right in the middle of inventory week,

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Speaker 1: and I just decided I needed I needed some relief

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Speaker 1: from work, needed to get out and just kind of

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Speaker 1: enjoy a day off after working for so many weeks

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Speaker 1: and days in a row. And I mentioned it to

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Speaker 1: Scott Brown, who I worked for at the time, who

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Speaker 1: I considered to be one of the best hunters around,

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Speaker 1: and he thought about it for a while, and I

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Speaker 1: didn't ask for a place to go, but he just suggested, Hey,

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Speaker 1: I know where you should go. There's this great place

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Speaker 1: that usually produces good bucks, and you should know how

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Speaker 1: to get there because we've gone the previou this Turkey

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Speaker 1: season and listen for turkeys up in this saddle. I said,

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Speaker 1: you know what, I ain't got a good idea. I

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Speaker 1: don't have anywhere else to go, so I'll go give

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Speaker 1: that a try. So when day was over, I got

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Speaker 1: off at like eight o'clock at night and got home

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Speaker 1: and rushed to put all my hunting gear together. And

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Speaker 1: I'm usually real meticulous about having everything planned out and ready.

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Speaker 1: I grabbed my my powder, my extra powder, and my

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Speaker 1: slugs and I keep them in those little powered pirate

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Speaker 1: Dex tubes, and I went to bed. I got up

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Speaker 1: early the next morning with what I thought was enough

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Speaker 1: time to get out there get on the top of

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Speaker 1: this saddle on the mountain. When I got out there,

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Speaker 1: I'd forgotten that there was a bunch of down pine

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Speaker 1: trees everywhere that you had to kind of snake your

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Speaker 1: way through to get to the spot where you start

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Speaker 1: to climb up the ridge. And the ridge was very,

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Speaker 1: very steep, so I kind of slowly made my way

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Speaker 1: up because it was really warm that morning too, so

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Speaker 1: I realized how out of shape that I was also

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Speaker 1: climbing up that and I started realizing that I could

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Speaker 1: start to see the first little crack of daylight coming

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Speaker 1: and I wasn't in that flow spot yet, and I

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Speaker 1: wasn't gonna make it because I didn't know exactly where

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Speaker 1: it was with a head lamp on, and I was

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Speaker 1: gonna pick a tree and do all that stuff in

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Speaker 1: the dark. And I said, you know what I need.

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Speaker 1: I need to make something happen right now. So I

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Speaker 1: kind of stopped where I was looked around and I

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Speaker 1: noticed a really defined game trail. I mean, you could

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Speaker 1: ride a mountain bike through this trail as much as

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Speaker 1: he was getting used. And I thought, okay, let me

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Speaker 1: check the wind. So I check the wind. It's like, okay, perfect,

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Speaker 1: I can get above this trail a little higher up

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Speaker 1: the hill and watch the trail, and that trail is

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Speaker 1: headed to that low gap I was gonna get to.

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Speaker 1: And this we'll just have to work, and I'll just

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Speaker 1: have to pray that I've got a good enough you

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Speaker 1: when the sun comes up that I could get a

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Speaker 1: cleaning shut off. But I know I can at least

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Speaker 1: hunt that trail. So I did all the work getting

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Speaker 1: up in the tree and getting on my stuff, and

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Speaker 1: then once I got up there, I think I was

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Speaker 1: smart enough to actually bring an extra shirt to change into.

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Speaker 1: And then I pulled the Gary nucom and sprayed myself

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Speaker 1: down with the scent cover, and then I sat there

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Speaker 1: for a few minutes. And as I sat there, the

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Speaker 1: sun start come up, and I kind of got mad

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Speaker 1: at myself. I was like, you know, I've ruined this

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Speaker 1: hunt already. I'm sweaty, I'm not where I'm supposed to be.

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Speaker 1: I don't even know if I'm might have a good shot.

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Speaker 1: This is gonna be a waste of my time. But

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Speaker 1: I'm here, so let me just I'll just enjoy being outside.

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Speaker 1: And I sat there for about two hours with nothing,

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Speaker 1: didn't hear nothing. I thought, you know, I'm gonna give

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Speaker 1: it one more hour and then it'll take me about

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Speaker 1: forty five minutes to climb out and then I'll go home.

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Speaker 1: It's like, this is this is just gonna be a bust.

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Speaker 1: I just probably would have killed one if I'd been

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Speaker 1: in the saddles, what I thought. And not more than

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Speaker 1: five minutes later, I heard the loudest what I would

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Speaker 1: call a growl, but it wasn't really a growl. It

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Speaker 1: was just a loud noise and I had no idea

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Speaker 1: what kind of animal did it. My first thought was,

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Speaker 1: all right, there's about to be a bear walked down

188
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Speaker 1: this trail. Uh, it's gonna go from a deer hunt

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Speaker 1: to a bear hunt. So I turned and my gun

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Speaker 1: started looking down the trail, and out the corner of

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Speaker 1: my eye, I start to see three does kind of

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Speaker 1: walking the top of the ridge right above me, just

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Speaker 1: grazing their way around and kind of easing through. And

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Speaker 1: I watched them until I had to swing around the

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Speaker 1: other side of the tree and watch them until they

196
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Speaker 1: went completely out of sight. And they never winded me,

197
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Speaker 1: which is they should have, but they didn't. So I thought, well,

198
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Speaker 1: that's pretty good. But I needed to focus my attension

199
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Speaker 1: back on this bear that's gonna come down the trail

200
00:11:37,720 --> 00:11:39,520
Speaker 1: because there's still something down there. I don't know what

201
00:11:39,559 --> 00:11:42,120
Speaker 1: it is. So turn my gun around and I'm watching,

202
00:11:42,559 --> 00:11:45,200
Speaker 1: and I accorded my eye I see movement again, and

203
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Speaker 1: that's when one of the biggest bucks that I've ever

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Speaker 1: seen by hunting walks out, just a big body, eight

205
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Speaker 1: point buck walks out, and I'm like, oh, this is great,

206
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Speaker 1: Like I'm on him. I already know where those dough went,

207
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Speaker 1: So I moved my gun right to where he should

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Speaker 1: have went. He walks right into it. I squeezed the

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Speaker 1: trigger and nothing happens. I forgot it was a double

210
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Speaker 1: safety gun and I hadn't undone the other safety. I

211
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Speaker 1: quickly undo the other safety. He's moved by that point,

212
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Speaker 1: so I have to swing around the other side of

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Speaker 1: the tree. I've got one more chance to shoot this buck.

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Speaker 1: I point the gun where those does had gone, and

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Speaker 1: he walks right into the perfect spot, and I pulled

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Speaker 1: the trigger. When you hunt with the mozzleloader, you never

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Speaker 1: know what you're gonna get when the smoke clears. When

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Speaker 1: the smoke cleared, he was down on the ground doing

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Speaker 1: his final kicks, and I was like, I got him,

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Speaker 1: and then he quit kicking. I thought, he's down. I've

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Speaker 1: killed this big eight points the biggest one I've ever killed.

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Speaker 1: So I texted two people immediately. I texted Clay Knokelem

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Speaker 1: and Scott Brown and told him that I've killed this

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Speaker 1: big buck on this mountain. Well, while I'm texting Scott,

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Speaker 1: that deer starts to kick just a little bit, and

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Speaker 1: when he does, he's on such a steep slope he

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Speaker 1: starts sliding a little and then he would stop. And

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Speaker 1: I'm texting this to Scott and He's like, well, you

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Speaker 1: better go ahead and reload, just in case you need

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Speaker 1: to put another shot in him, just to finish him off.

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Speaker 1: That's whenever I made a a realization that I made

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Speaker 1: a huge mistake. I had grabbed two tubes of slugs

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Speaker 1: and no powder, so I had nothing that I could

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Speaker 1: finally dispatch this deer with. And then I'm starting to

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Speaker 1: panic because as he kicks a little bit, he slides

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Speaker 1: further down the mountain. At this point, he's even with

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Speaker 1: my tree stand. He's under my tree stand, and I'm

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Speaker 1: convinced that it's a it's a fatal shot. He's going

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Speaker 1: to die, but the humane thing to do is to

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Speaker 1: put him down. Why you see him? So I called

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Speaker 1: Scott and I'm like, hey, you know where I'm at.

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Speaker 1: I need some more powder. You're gonna have to bring

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Speaker 1: me some powder. And he informs me, well, let that

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Speaker 1: deer get down the hill aways from you. Climb out

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Speaker 1: of your stand, stay a good distance away from him,

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Speaker 1: but don't lose sight of him. I'll find you in

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Speaker 1: the woods and then we'll take care of it. No

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Speaker 1: sooner than I hang up the phone, he makes one

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Speaker 1: more kick and just really starts sliding off down the hill.

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Speaker 1: It's almost like he's on a sled. And then all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden, he just disappeared. And I'm dumbfounded because

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Speaker 1: I can see further down the mountain, but this deer

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden just fell off a cliff and disappeared.

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Speaker 1: And then I heard a water splash echo, like if

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Speaker 1: you dropped a rock in a well, and I thought,

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Speaker 1: what in the heck is going I'm on top of

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Speaker 1: a mountain. What There's not even any water up here.

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Speaker 1: So I climbed down and I walk over to where

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Speaker 1: I had last seen him, and I realized there's a

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Speaker 1: mine shaft right there, and he had slid off when

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Speaker 1: he gained momentum and slid down. He fell fifteen to

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Speaker 1: twenty feet down into a mine shaft hole and landed

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Speaker 1: and just a little bit of water in the bottom. Luckily,

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Speaker 1: he was expired at this time, so I called Scott

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Speaker 1: bag It's like, well, we don't need any powder at

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Speaker 1: this point, but we got us some problem because I

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Speaker 1: don't know how we're gonna get him out. About an

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Speaker 1: hour later, Scott showed up and he brought some rope

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Speaker 1: and some other stuff, and we didn't know if we're

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Speaker 1: gonna have to call more people or get a come

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Speaker 1: along or what we're gonna have to do. We had

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Speaker 1: to figure out how to get him out. So Scott

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Speaker 1: was able to last so one side of his antlers

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Speaker 1: and we both grabbed onto the rope start pulling, and

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Speaker 1: as we did it kind of cranked his head to

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Speaker 1: the side and his antlers were hitting the rock at

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Speaker 1: rock edges and we chip just a little bit of

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Speaker 1: his main beam off. We're honest, we can't do that.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna totally snap off an antler if we do that.

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Speaker 1: So we dropped him back down. Then we decided if

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Speaker 1: we last so him on both sides of the antlers,

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Speaker 1: we can pull an opposite directions and hoist him straight

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Speaker 1: out of the middle when he won't touch anything. So

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Speaker 1: we kind of wrapped the ropes around trees, we pulled

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Speaker 1: in opposite directions, took everything we had because this is

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Speaker 1: this is a big body, dear one. He got to

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Speaker 1: the edge, Uh, wrapped my rope around, tied it real quick,

288
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Speaker 1: and I ran over and grabbed his antlers and just

289
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Speaker 1: kind of anchored myself in until Scott could get over

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Speaker 1: there to grab Also, because we didn't want to fall

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Speaker 1: in the hole with him, because if we did, I

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00:16:13,840 --> 00:16:16,040
Speaker 1: don't know if anybody else besides Clay knew that we

293
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Speaker 1: were out there dealing with a deer in a in

294
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Speaker 1: a mine shaft. We heaved that thing out of there,

295
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Speaker 1: and when it did, we were just totally exhausted. It

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Speaker 1: took everything we had to get him out of that hole.

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Speaker 1: That's when the work began getting him down off that

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Speaker 1: mountain around all those trees. So later I did some

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Speaker 1: research and realized that throughout the mountains there are a

300
00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:42,360
Speaker 1: lot of mine shafts and test minds, and I believe

301
00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:44,840
Speaker 1: what they were looking for was manganese. There. There was

302
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Speaker 1: a time when they thought that there was manganese here

303
00:16:47,800 --> 00:16:49,880
Speaker 1: and that they really went after it for a short

304
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Speaker 1: period of time. So one crazy thing about that mine

305
00:16:53,280 --> 00:16:56,680
Speaker 1: shaft is I took my kids hiking up there just

306
00:16:56,720 --> 00:16:59,600
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago. The springtime in that mine

307
00:16:59,640 --> 00:17:02,480
Speaker 1: shaft was completely full of water and there was a

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00:17:02,520 --> 00:17:07,960
Speaker 1: fish swimming in it. So nature's crazy. A fish in

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Speaker 1: a mind shaft that was completely unconnected from any other

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Speaker 1: body of water. Incredible. And that's a great, dear story.

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Speaker 1: This next voice that you're gonna hear, you will for

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Speaker 1: sure recognize because it's none other than my friend Stephen Runella.

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Speaker 1: This story was told by his father to him. And

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Speaker 1: just a little background. Steve was born in Michigan, relatively

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Speaker 1: late in his dad's life. Frank Ronnella was a World

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Speaker 1: War Two vet and was often looking for lessons to

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Speaker 1: teach young Steve. This was one of them. This is

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00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:50,119
Speaker 1: a dear story that didn't happen to me, and it

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00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:53,640
Speaker 1: didn't happen to my dad. However, my dad would tell

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Speaker 1: it all the time, and it was a dear story

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Speaker 1: that he would tell and what it was meant to be.

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Speaker 1: It was meant to be a don't give up story

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Speaker 1: he had. My dad used to have a Yeah, he

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00:18:08,119 --> 00:18:09,600
Speaker 1: had a lot of stories you would tell that we're

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00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:11,640
Speaker 1: all had served a purpose, for instance, if he's trying

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00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:15,600
Speaker 1: to explain an optimist and the pessimist. Or at times

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Speaker 1: it would be the difference you a rich kid in

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Speaker 1: the poor kid. I'll tell the rich kid poor vert

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Speaker 1: kid version real quick. He would say that if you

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Speaker 1: took a rich kid and put him in a room

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Speaker 1: full of manure, he's just gonna sit there and cry.

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Speaker 1: But if you take a poor kid and put him

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Speaker 1: in a room full of manure. He's gonna start digging

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Speaker 1: because he'll be thinking, with all this manure, there's gotta

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00:18:37,320 --> 00:18:41,359
Speaker 1: be a pony in here somewhere now here is his

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00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:44,159
Speaker 1: don't give up dear story. And this happened to a

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00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:46,360
Speaker 1: buddy of his. Is the guy he's talking about all

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Speaker 1: the time. And my dad started like, bow hunting is old.

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00:18:49,960 --> 00:18:52,960
Speaker 1: I mean bow hunting. You know, on this continent people

340
00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:56,960
Speaker 1: been hunting with bows four or five thousand years. Interestingly,

341
00:18:57,680 --> 00:19:04,560
Speaker 1: bow technology spread from the north southward. The people that

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00:19:04,640 --> 00:19:07,679
Speaker 1: came over much later than you know, much later than

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Speaker 1: the Athabaskans, the hunters that came over that became Eskimo

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Speaker 1: and Intuit hunters who came over much later than other

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00:19:14,200 --> 00:19:18,480
Speaker 1: Native American Native Alaskan groups, they probably carried some kind

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00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:21,920
Speaker 1: of archery technology that eventually spread southward. So people in

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00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:23,679
Speaker 1: bow hunting a long time. But then there was like

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00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:26,840
Speaker 1: a long, long, long long time when people didn't bow hunt,

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Speaker 1: and modern day bow hunting kind of became a thing

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Speaker 1: in the forties and fifties. And my dad was very

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00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:38,960
Speaker 1: avid archer back in those days. This is when people

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00:19:38,960 --> 00:19:42,119
Speaker 1: were hunting with long bows and re curves, but it

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00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:46,800
Speaker 1: wasn't called traad. Archery is just archery. My dad's buddy

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Speaker 1: is driving home from work and he sees a deer

355
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Speaker 1: out in this field where he's been seeing deer lately,

356
00:19:56,320 --> 00:19:58,119
Speaker 1: and he decides he's gonna try to sneak up on

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Speaker 1: this deer and get a shot at his boat. So

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00:20:02,359 --> 00:20:06,480
Speaker 1: he takes his shoes off, right down to his socks.

359
00:20:07,359 --> 00:20:09,479
Speaker 1: My dad always like to point out their white socks.

360
00:20:10,920 --> 00:20:14,240
Speaker 1: And he does his stock up to the through the woods,

361
00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:18,720
Speaker 1: up to the field edge and launches an arrow out there,

362
00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:21,199
Speaker 1: and you can't tell if you got a hit or not,

363
00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:25,160
Speaker 1: and looks and looks and looks, can't find his arrow,

364
00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:28,080
Speaker 1: so he decided to start looking for blood in the

365
00:20:28,119 --> 00:20:31,960
Speaker 1: waning light. Okay, it's getting dark out, but he convinces

366
00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:34,320
Speaker 1: himself that he missed and he starts cutting little half

367
00:20:34,359 --> 00:20:36,520
Speaker 1: circles just to check for blood and doesn't find any

368
00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:41,320
Speaker 1: blood and eventually goes back to his car, put his

369
00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:45,920
Speaker 1: shoes on, drives home. What does my dad like to

370
00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:49,400
Speaker 1: tell the story? That night, the guy is getting ready

371
00:20:49,400 --> 00:20:53,280
Speaker 1: for bed, takes his shoes off, takes his sock off,

372
00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:56,600
Speaker 1: and what does he see on his sock? A couple

373
00:20:56,640 --> 00:21:00,600
Speaker 1: of little blood stains on his sock and it wasn't

374
00:21:00,600 --> 00:21:04,680
Speaker 1: from cutting his foot, and he rushes back out there

375
00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:09,960
Speaker 1: finds his dear What do you think about that? Clean Newcombe?

376
00:21:10,840 --> 00:21:15,080
Speaker 1: Never give up, Mr Ronnello, We have all taken note

377
00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:18,040
Speaker 1: of the core message of this story and we thank

378
00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:23,800
Speaker 1: you for it. Never give up. The next voice you

379
00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:28,320
Speaker 1: might also recognize if you're a Bear Grease regular. Andy

380
00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:32,200
Speaker 1: Brown was on our Turkey Story episode and our Genuine

381
00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:36,480
Speaker 1: Outlaw series about Louis Dell and Charlie Edwards. You might

382
00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:40,159
Speaker 1: remember Andy's laugh if you haven't listened to that series.

383
00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:42,320
Speaker 1: It's probably one of the best stories we've ever told.

384
00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:46,240
Speaker 1: Andy is from the mountains of western Arkansas and is

385
00:21:46,240 --> 00:21:50,000
Speaker 1: a heck of a deer hunter and woodsman. This is

386
00:21:50,040 --> 00:21:55,760
Speaker 1: a tour through Andy's fall of on public land and

387
00:21:55,840 --> 00:22:00,960
Speaker 1: it ends with a non typical surprise. This this is

388
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:05,240
Speaker 1: probably two thousand fifteen or sixteen. I had an area

389
00:22:05,320 --> 00:22:07,119
Speaker 1: that I really wanted to go look at. It was

390
00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:10,120
Speaker 1: right before muzzloading season and just look for deer sign

391
00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:12,399
Speaker 1: It's really see if there was any acrons And made

392
00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:14,680
Speaker 1: in on the north side of the mountain, and so

393
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:18,040
Speaker 1: I called my oldest son he was. He was working

394
00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:19,960
Speaker 1: and I said, look, when you get off work today,

395
00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:22,520
Speaker 1: I said, if you don't mind, picked me up on

396
00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:26,520
Speaker 1: the highway north and uh, he said where and I

397
00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:29,520
Speaker 1: told him he said, I'll be there anyway. So I

398
00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:31,560
Speaker 1: I drive up on the top of the mountain and

399
00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:34,480
Speaker 1: went off wrong. I wanted to go off on this

400
00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:36,560
Speaker 1: big leg that goes off the mountain, and but I

401
00:22:36,560 --> 00:22:39,440
Speaker 1: went off wrong and I got in the holler and

402
00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:42,080
Speaker 1: where I went off it was just just straight up

403
00:22:42,119 --> 00:22:44,360
Speaker 1: and down. I had to side hill it out through

404
00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:47,080
Speaker 1: the side, going west and one ft up and two

405
00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:49,800
Speaker 1: feet pack and grabbing hold of trees, try to hold

406
00:22:49,800 --> 00:22:53,359
Speaker 1: on two and finally hit the leg and started off

407
00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:58,320
Speaker 1: the mountain and uh, didn't go a hundred yards until

408
00:22:58,359 --> 00:23:00,679
Speaker 1: I jumped a really nice buck deer. Of course, at

409
00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:02,720
Speaker 1: that time when I went off, all I had was

410
00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:04,600
Speaker 1: pocket off. I didn't have a gun, didn't have a boat,

411
00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:06,720
Speaker 1: didn't even take a twenty two. Wouldn't killing squirrels with

412
00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:09,399
Speaker 1: I just I was on a mission to try to

413
00:23:09,480 --> 00:23:12,160
Speaker 1: make it out before dark where I wanted to go.

414
00:23:13,119 --> 00:23:16,040
Speaker 1: So anyway, jumped a real nice eight point buck and

415
00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:17,960
Speaker 1: one of them, and you know how they are when

416
00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:20,400
Speaker 1: you don't have a gun their team. And uh so

417
00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:23,280
Speaker 1: I fell off the leg and then there's a I

418
00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:27,040
Speaker 1: think the prettiest, prettiest saddle that there is in the world.

419
00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:30,520
Speaker 1: When I got into the saddle, there wasn't a lot

420
00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:34,000
Speaker 1: of deer sign, but the spotted oakay acrens. It was

421
00:23:34,080 --> 00:23:36,760
Speaker 1: just raining acres in there. Of course, you know what

422
00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:38,800
Speaker 1: that means. The bear there was a lot of there's

423
00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:40,679
Speaker 1: a lot of bear sign right there where I was at.

424
00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:43,680
Speaker 1: So anyway, I just kept on plugging. I fell north,

425
00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:45,480
Speaker 1: went up through some rocks and fell off on the

426
00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:49,160
Speaker 1: back side. And the white oaks that year really hadn't

427
00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:51,760
Speaker 1: made at all. But anyway, I fell off the mountain

428
00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:54,000
Speaker 1: and I just kept walking and looking and and just

429
00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:57,640
Speaker 1: wasn't finding any deer sign at all. And um, it's

430
00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:00,240
Speaker 1: a long ways and on the low end to but

431
00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:02,439
Speaker 1: there's a couple more little saddles in there that I

432
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:05,159
Speaker 1: wanted to look at. And and uh just before I

433
00:24:05,200 --> 00:24:08,520
Speaker 1: bottomed out, I did have the binoculars and I'm looking

434
00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:10,639
Speaker 1: at trees, and you know, I like to look at

435
00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:12,800
Speaker 1: see what cut acrons they got. Of course you have

436
00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:14,920
Speaker 1: to look. They were trying to knock your head going

437
00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:18,720
Speaker 1: off there. But anyway, that particular year, it was really dry,

438
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:20,800
Speaker 1: just like it's been this fall. I mean, there wasn't

439
00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:23,960
Speaker 1: no water anywhere, and there was a pond. There was

440
00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:25,879
Speaker 1: a game pond that I really wanted to get to

441
00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:30,040
Speaker 1: because I figured that everything in the world would be

442
00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:34,280
Speaker 1: water there, bear, deer, everything. And just so happened when

443
00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:36,320
Speaker 1: I fell off, I hit it just right. I just

444
00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:38,880
Speaker 1: crossed the bottom, pulled it on the top of a

445
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:40,840
Speaker 1: another little old ridge, and just walked right out to

446
00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:44,520
Speaker 1: this pond. At that time, it was real opening there,

447
00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:47,320
Speaker 1: and since then some of the old spotted oaks have

448
00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:49,479
Speaker 1: fell and it's opened up the canopy and it's just

449
00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:52,840
Speaker 1: a jungle. But anyway, I walk off down to the pond.

450
00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:55,880
Speaker 1: I could look on the kind of the northwest side

451
00:24:55,920 --> 00:24:57,520
Speaker 1: of it, and I could just see a trail coming

452
00:24:57,520 --> 00:24:59,440
Speaker 1: into it. And when I when I walked around there,

453
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:01,560
Speaker 1: I get us every deer in the country where you

454
00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:04,800
Speaker 1: was using that pond, they just had it muddy where

455
00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:07,119
Speaker 1: they were the old white mud where they were leaving

456
00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:08,960
Speaker 1: on that one side, and of course they was walking

457
00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:11,679
Speaker 1: all the way around it. And one of the biggest

458
00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:13,840
Speaker 1: cotton mouse i've ever seen. I've seen right there that day.

459
00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:16,000
Speaker 1: I mean one of them them double beggings. I mean

460
00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:18,679
Speaker 1: that you're you hate to leave and don't kill you

461
00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:21,360
Speaker 1: know what I mean. It's one of those deals. But anyway,

462
00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:24,320
Speaker 1: when I walked around the pond, there was a buck

463
00:25:24,359 --> 00:25:27,800
Speaker 1: track in the mud, and I took my pocket knife

464
00:25:27,800 --> 00:25:30,399
Speaker 1: and I laid my pocket knife down beside it and

465
00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:32,800
Speaker 1: took a picture of it so I could show Scott

466
00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:36,000
Speaker 1: how big a track this, dear head. It's one of

467
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:39,560
Speaker 1: the biggest tracks I ever saw and walked on. Now

468
00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:42,120
Speaker 1: Scott was waiting on me, and I told Scott, I said,

469
00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:43,719
Speaker 1: every day in the country is using that. We need

470
00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:46,400
Speaker 1: to hunt that. Now, this is the week before buzzlo

471
00:25:47,119 --> 00:25:49,159
Speaker 1: You know my intentions was I was gonna hunt it

472
00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:52,000
Speaker 1: one day muzzload. Well, you know how it is, You

473
00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:55,440
Speaker 1: muzzloon gets here and you've got another plans and you

474
00:25:55,480 --> 00:25:58,960
Speaker 1: go someplace else and you hunt. Well, we let muzzleloading pass.

475
00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:03,040
Speaker 1: We didn't hunt it, okay, but I did take a tree,

476
00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:05,480
Speaker 1: stand up there and hang on the tree to climber

477
00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:10,439
Speaker 1: and left it. Anyway, Muzzlodon gets there, it passes. We

478
00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:15,040
Speaker 1: didn't hunt. Gun season comes the first week. First two

479
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:18,240
Speaker 1: weeks a gun season, we didn't hunt well. He gets

480
00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:23,679
Speaker 1: Uh Thanksgiving, I decide I'm gonna walk in there weednasty

481
00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:27,600
Speaker 1: before Thanksgiving. So I walk in there and it's just raining.

482
00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:29,439
Speaker 1: Acrons are at that pond and the deer tracks are

483
00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:31,879
Speaker 1: still there, and check my stand. Of course, the bears

484
00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:33,960
Speaker 1: got my stand and toward the seat out of my stand,

485
00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:35,560
Speaker 1: you know, and I had to fix all that is

486
00:26:35,680 --> 00:26:38,520
Speaker 1: upside that, you know how they do. But anyway, so

487
00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:42,000
Speaker 1: I called Scott. He he works a lot, and I thought, well,

488
00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:45,280
Speaker 1: it's tomorrows Thanksgiving, he may be off. I called him

489
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:47,000
Speaker 1: and asked him if he wanted. I said, you need

490
00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:49,199
Speaker 1: to go hunt that stand, and he said, man, he

491
00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:51,760
Speaker 1: said I have. I've got to go in to work

492
00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:54,040
Speaker 1: in the morning. There's no way out of it. So

493
00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:58,640
Speaker 1: the next morning I get up, I walk in there.

494
00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:00,879
Speaker 1: It was cool thing. In fact, I think it was

495
00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:04,160
Speaker 1: a pretty good frost that morning. And I'm gonna say

496
00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:06,840
Speaker 1: I think we all agreed yesterday, because I went back

497
00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:11,040
Speaker 1: to that spot yesterday. Uh, we agreed. It's a big mile.

498
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:13,879
Speaker 1: But anyway, I got in there early and it was

499
00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:16,600
Speaker 1: on Thanksgiving morning. And the way it works out with

500
00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:18,760
Speaker 1: me is of course, we have we have kids and

501
00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:21,680
Speaker 1: they have families and we have we have grandkids, and

502
00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:26,200
Speaker 1: usually we have our Thanksgiving the weekend before with a family,

503
00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:29,480
Speaker 1: and so usually on Thanksgiving it's just Tina Nie. So

504
00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:32,199
Speaker 1: there's not really nothing going on. And I'm a little selfish,

505
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:33,520
Speaker 1: but I kind of like it that way, you know,

506
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:35,399
Speaker 1: because I think Thanksgiving Day as a heck of the

507
00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:38,840
Speaker 1: day to hunt. It has been for me over the years. Anyway,

508
00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:40,880
Speaker 1: I walk in there and get up and stand and

509
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:43,880
Speaker 1: it's it's a finer morning as God ever made. I mean,

510
00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:47,880
Speaker 1: it's there's just a what little bit of breeze there

511
00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:50,840
Speaker 1: is out of the northwest, and it's just enough just

512
00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:53,320
Speaker 1: to just to shake the leaves just a little bit.

513
00:27:54,359 --> 00:27:56,879
Speaker 1: I set up there, and I don't know, it's just

514
00:27:56,960 --> 00:27:59,680
Speaker 1: something about it. The leaves, you know, Thanksgiving a week

515
00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:02,720
Speaker 1: the user fall, and you know it's they're starting to

516
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:04,639
Speaker 1: fall off the tree, specially when the sun gets up.

517
00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:07,680
Speaker 1: It seems like they just fall off on frosty mornings.

518
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:11,040
Speaker 1: And everything was it was just perfect. And after a while,

519
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:15,159
Speaker 1: probably about eight thirty right in behind me on this ridge,

520
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:17,480
Speaker 1: this ridge runs north and south that goes in there

521
00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:21,480
Speaker 1: just a leg, it makes off, and I heard a

522
00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:24,119
Speaker 1: big calamity behind me, and but it sounded to me

523
00:28:24,200 --> 00:28:27,840
Speaker 1: like a buck chasing the dough. Any kind of quieting

524
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:30,800
Speaker 1: down there a little bit. And after a while, right

525
00:28:30,800 --> 00:28:33,240
Speaker 1: out from this pond there's a there's a saddle, and

526
00:28:33,359 --> 00:28:35,040
Speaker 1: I caught a little emotion. I looked, and here come

527
00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:37,280
Speaker 1: a seven point buck and he come off down there.

528
00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:39,120
Speaker 1: He's probably a two and a half year old little

529
00:28:39,120 --> 00:28:41,000
Speaker 1: deer and he come down and all the doing around

530
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:43,080
Speaker 1: and smelling, and he'd go up the ridge and off

531
00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:45,320
Speaker 1: in the holler and back up, and and uh, he

532
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:47,880
Speaker 1: messed around there for fifteen minutes, probably right there out

533
00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:49,960
Speaker 1: in front of me a little bit. He just walked off,

534
00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:53,160
Speaker 1: walked off, went west. So it kind of got quiet again,

535
00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:56,479
Speaker 1: you know. And and uh, in a minute, I just

536
00:28:56,480 --> 00:28:58,200
Speaker 1: got to hear and something I could hear it. I could.

537
00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:00,320
Speaker 1: I could hear a deer just coming right in hid me,

538
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:03,680
Speaker 1: just on a mission, snap crunch pal, you know, just

539
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:06,320
Speaker 1: coming right down the ridge. And I'm up. I like

540
00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:09,400
Speaker 1: to get pretty high. I'm probably three twenty four or

541
00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:12,160
Speaker 1: maybe twenty five ft high, and it just kept coming.

542
00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:16,000
Speaker 1: I wouldn't move, And about that time I just looked

543
00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:18,480
Speaker 1: to my left there and it was a little numbed buck.

544
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:21,920
Speaker 1: I said, uh huh, that's exactly what mom was off

545
00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:25,640
Speaker 1: cat round and you're you're out here by yourself. And anyway,

546
00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:27,200
Speaker 1: he messed around there a little bit and he turned

547
00:29:27,200 --> 00:29:28,800
Speaker 1: and went right back down the top of the ridge.

548
00:29:28,840 --> 00:29:34,080
Speaker 1: And about ten thirty probably I sat there and soaking

549
00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:36,560
Speaker 1: it all up. I mean, it's a it's a fine morning.

550
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:38,880
Speaker 1: Had a lot of confidence, you know, that makes a whole,

551
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:42,400
Speaker 1: That makes a big difference. So I think confidence is everything.

552
00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:45,160
Speaker 1: And you know, I had a I had an uncle

553
00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:47,400
Speaker 1: back when I was in my twenties and thirties that

554
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:49,640
Speaker 1: when he when he would take you hunting, you packed

555
00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:52,560
Speaker 1: you a lunch because it wasn't one of those where

556
00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:54,240
Speaker 1: you go hunt at eight o'clock and then coming and

557
00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:56,840
Speaker 1: drank coffee and eat breakfast. And you know, he'd always

558
00:29:56,880 --> 00:30:00,480
Speaker 1: say pack your sandwich. And anything he taught me was patience.

559
00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:02,640
Speaker 1: So I'm a type of guy that I can go

560
00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:05,200
Speaker 1: set a half a day as good as anybody. I mean,

561
00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:07,880
Speaker 1: I can get there double early and and I've killed

562
00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:10,680
Speaker 1: a lot of deer between ten and noon. Just because

563
00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:14,400
Speaker 1: of that. Everything kind of calamity. Everything quietens down. But anyway,

564
00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:17,000
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there, and so I get out my grunt

565
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:18,760
Speaker 1: call and I grown a time or two and and

566
00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:21,280
Speaker 1: it's still quiet, but the wind has shifted and it

567
00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:23,560
Speaker 1: had switched over to the northeast. It was hitting me

568
00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:25,880
Speaker 1: right in the right cheek. And problem. You know how

569
00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:27,840
Speaker 1: it is ten thirty eleven o'clock, the wind, it picks

570
00:30:27,920 --> 00:30:31,000
Speaker 1: up a little bit. But the leaves were crackling, you know,

571
00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:35,440
Speaker 1: when they were drying then uh over the leaves. I

572
00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:37,520
Speaker 1: was sitting there and I just got to hearing something,

573
00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:41,120
Speaker 1: but I couldn't tell where it was at. And then

574
00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:43,240
Speaker 1: I could tell it was a deer. I could tell

575
00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:45,840
Speaker 1: there was a deer coming. I got to look in

576
00:30:46,080 --> 00:30:48,200
Speaker 1: and about that time I just looked over my left

577
00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:51,440
Speaker 1: shoulder and I see him come off the mountain to

578
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,120
Speaker 1: my left. You know how it is with a big buck.

579
00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:55,840
Speaker 1: When you see a big buck, you don't have to

580
00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:58,360
Speaker 1: guess if he's legal. You don't have to guess anything

581
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:01,760
Speaker 1: with him. I said, look here, you know. And when

582
00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:03,760
Speaker 1: he come off Clay, he was just he was on

583
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:06,040
Speaker 1: a mission. I mean he was just here he comes

584
00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:09,760
Speaker 1: and he had to drop off the mountain and come

585
00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:12,920
Speaker 1: up to me. And when he dropped off the wind,

586
00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:15,080
Speaker 1: I'm scared to death. He's gonna win me, because what

587
00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:18,600
Speaker 1: little o there was now then was going right to him.

588
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:20,840
Speaker 1: But there was two or three of them big old

589
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:23,000
Speaker 1: bullpines there on the side of the ridge. I'm owned,

590
00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:25,720
Speaker 1: and he got them dudes between me and him, and

591
00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:28,280
Speaker 1: I couldn't. I could just see glimpses of him coming

592
00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:31,160
Speaker 1: up there, and I'm thinking, this guy is gonna get

593
00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:32,400
Speaker 1: in my lap and he's gonna win me, and I'm

594
00:31:32,400 --> 00:31:35,080
Speaker 1: gonna let this deer get away from me. In about

595
00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:37,760
Speaker 1: that time, he just walked out from behind the tree.

596
00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:40,360
Speaker 1: And uh, you know a lot of people don't like

597
00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:43,120
Speaker 1: to take a frontal shot. I've never had any issue

598
00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:46,520
Speaker 1: with it, especially one shooting between the front shoulder, in

599
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:49,920
Speaker 1: the in the chest. I killed him dead in these tracks.

600
00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:53,480
Speaker 1: I mean he never wiggled, but he was only about

601
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:58,280
Speaker 1: fifteen steps, you know. I mean, he's way too close.

602
00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:01,720
Speaker 1: I made. I just smoked him. I said, wow, And

603
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:03,880
Speaker 1: I can see the big I could see the big

604
00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:06,160
Speaker 1: G two on the left sticking up there, and I said, man,

605
00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:08,440
Speaker 1: that's a that's a good buck there, you know. And

606
00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:11,000
Speaker 1: by this time, it's you know, it's ten forty five

607
00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:13,720
Speaker 1: something like that. And I'm in there by myself a

608
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:17,520
Speaker 1: ball and every boy myself, and so I shinny down

609
00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:19,920
Speaker 1: and I walked under the deer. And I never forget this.

610
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:23,000
Speaker 1: I said this out loud, I said, I said, wow,

611
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:26,959
Speaker 1: I never killed one like that. I don't really know

612
00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:29,840
Speaker 1: how many points he is. That's he's got all kinds

613
00:32:29,840 --> 00:32:31,320
Speaker 1: of junk on the end. I think he's about a

614
00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:33,880
Speaker 1: nineteen or twenty one. However you want to count those,

615
00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:36,040
Speaker 1: and you know how his archies are. If you hang

616
00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:37,600
Speaker 1: a ring on him, you can count him as a poet,

617
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:41,200
Speaker 1: you know. But he's a main frame teen. Uh. We

618
00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:44,440
Speaker 1: weighed him. We were able to wane with a gut

619
00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:46,520
Speaker 1: seat him. He weigh a hundred eighty nine pounds. And

620
00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:48,840
Speaker 1: that's that's. That's a big buck for down here. I mean,

621
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:50,800
Speaker 1: I know they get bigger than that, but I don't

622
00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:53,360
Speaker 1: see a lot of them over two hundred pounds. I

623
00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:55,360
Speaker 1: said all that to say this, And what's kind of

624
00:32:55,360 --> 00:32:57,480
Speaker 1: funny about this is I went in there hunting the

625
00:32:57,560 --> 00:33:00,200
Speaker 1: deer with a foot big as a pocket mine, and

626
00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:03,280
Speaker 1: I killed a deer that that wouldn't the same deer

627
00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:05,440
Speaker 1: because his foot wasn't near as big as the war

628
00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:11,720
Speaker 1: was bout taking the picture of the pocket eye. I

629
00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:15,400
Speaker 1: love the comprehensive way Andy tells the story and what

630
00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:18,680
Speaker 1: an incredible deer. Killing a buck in these mountains is

631
00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:21,880
Speaker 1: an accomplishment, and I tip my hat to anyone who

632
00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:26,880
Speaker 1: can do it consistently. This next story comes from a

633
00:33:26,920 --> 00:33:31,160
Speaker 1: guy who lives in Minnesota, approximately eight hundred and ten

634
00:33:31,240 --> 00:33:35,480
Speaker 1: miles due north of Andy Brown. Tony Peterson works for

635
00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:38,680
Speaker 1: met Eater's Wired to Hunt Whitetail brand and is a

636
00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:43,480
Speaker 1: veteran whitetail bow hunting Yankee. And I love this guy.

637
00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:46,480
Speaker 1: This is the story of his first big buck in

638
00:33:46,560 --> 00:33:54,760
Speaker 1: his home state of Minnesota, the fourteen point in the Beans. Man,

639
00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:57,360
Speaker 1: I gotta set the stage for this because up until

640
00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:00,200
Speaker 1: two thousand and six in my bow hunting here. So

641
00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:02,040
Speaker 1: I started when I was I was twelve years old.

642
00:34:02,080 --> 00:34:06,600
Speaker 1: So I started bow hunting deer in and I had

643
00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:09,120
Speaker 1: you know, I went through the typical progression, you know, killing,

644
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:12,360
Speaker 1: killing young ones, killing does finally killing a few bucks,

645
00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:13,919
Speaker 1: moving up to the two and a half year old.

646
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:16,600
Speaker 1: But I got just plateaued on the two and a

647
00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:19,200
Speaker 1: half year olds like I couldn't I could not kill

648
00:34:19,320 --> 00:34:21,640
Speaker 1: a bigger buck. And what it did to me is

649
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:24,640
Speaker 1: I started to get buck fever insanely bad. I mean,

650
00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:26,720
Speaker 1: I always had it. I still have it to this day,

651
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:29,040
Speaker 1: but I always had it. But when it came to

652
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:33,800
Speaker 1: you know, even a deer that was like five inches,

653
00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:36,200
Speaker 1: it was like, I was never going to make that

654
00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:39,080
Speaker 1: shot correctly. And in two thousand and five, I had

655
00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:41,080
Speaker 1: already gotten a few shots at big ones and and

656
00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:42,879
Speaker 1: blown it. And I had a I had a hunt

657
00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:45,360
Speaker 1: in two thousand and five where I had two really

658
00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:47,440
Speaker 1: big bucks come in within ten minutes each other, and

659
00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:49,919
Speaker 1: I missed them both, and I just in my head,

660
00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:51,879
Speaker 1: I was like, this is never gonna happen. You're never

661
00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:54,799
Speaker 1: gonna be able to do this. So fast forward to

662
00:34:54,840 --> 00:34:57,840
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, and this is the first year

663
00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:01,480
Speaker 1: of my life that I couldn't hunt the opening weekend

664
00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:03,640
Speaker 1: in Minnesota. And it's always kind of a tradition with

665
00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:06,120
Speaker 1: my dad and I, and you know, something that meant

666
00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:08,560
Speaker 1: a lot to me. But I just got married. I

667
00:35:08,600 --> 00:35:10,719
Speaker 1: had moved to the suburbs of the Twin Cities, so

668
00:35:10,760 --> 00:35:13,520
Speaker 1: I was miserable there, especially coming from a little dairy

669
00:35:13,560 --> 00:35:16,040
Speaker 1: farming community in southern Minnesota. It was a it was

670
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:17,839
Speaker 1: a culture shock for me to have a million people

671
00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:19,959
Speaker 1: in my backyard and not have the places to hunt

672
00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:23,040
Speaker 1: that I was used to from growing up. And then

673
00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:25,040
Speaker 1: on top of that, one of my wife's friends, who

674
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:28,080
Speaker 1: I don't even really know that well, got married on

675
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:31,239
Speaker 1: bow opener and I had to go, and so the

676
00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:34,080
Speaker 1: whole opening weekend I was kind of ticked off. But

677
00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:36,480
Speaker 1: whatever I had, I had a bad attitude at that

678
00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:38,600
Speaker 1: time because I knew my season was going to be rough.

679
00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:40,640
Speaker 1: I wasn gonna get that much time. I had a job.

680
00:35:40,719 --> 00:35:43,879
Speaker 1: I hated that I would only get one day off

681
00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:46,680
Speaker 1: a week typically, and so you know, to make the

682
00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:48,480
Speaker 1: two hour drive down to hunt was just not that

683
00:35:48,560 --> 00:35:52,719
Speaker 1: feasible most of the time. So anyway, bad attitude, bad job,

684
00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:55,319
Speaker 1: every everything, My world was kind of turned upside down.

685
00:35:55,320 --> 00:35:57,840
Speaker 1: And I was I was just setting this mindset that

686
00:35:57,880 --> 00:35:59,839
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm not going to kill a big

687
00:35:59,880 --> 00:36:01,920
Speaker 1: one ever, Like it's just never gonna happen for you.

688
00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:04,880
Speaker 1: You're gonna be a scrapper shooter your entire life. But

689
00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:07,560
Speaker 1: on the second weekend of the season, I ended up

690
00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:11,200
Speaker 1: working Saturday morning and having a chance. I figured if

691
00:36:11,239 --> 00:36:13,080
Speaker 1: I if I finished work, I could hop right in

692
00:36:13,160 --> 00:36:16,680
Speaker 1: my truck, grabbed my brand new golden Retriever puppy, drive

693
00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:18,840
Speaker 1: down to southern Minnesota, hand the puppy off to my

694
00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:22,120
Speaker 1: buddy's girlfriend, scramble out to the woods, and I could

695
00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:24,720
Speaker 1: get an evening hunt Saturday night, and then hunt Sunday

696
00:36:24,719 --> 00:36:27,839
Speaker 1: and then go home. So I I flew out of there,

697
00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:31,160
Speaker 1: grabbed that puppy, drove way too fast down there, just

698
00:36:31,239 --> 00:36:34,759
Speaker 1: knocked on the door, handed Amy my my little retriever pup,

699
00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:37,840
Speaker 1: and drove right out to the woods. And it happened

700
00:36:37,840 --> 00:36:39,239
Speaker 1: to be one of those nights where it's kind of

701
00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:42,520
Speaker 1: like drizzly and you know, not not really raining hard,

702
00:36:42,520 --> 00:36:45,279
Speaker 1: but kind of wet, just a little bit fallen here

703
00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:47,680
Speaker 1: and there, grace guys, like a perfect day to sit

704
00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:50,000
Speaker 1: on the beans. And you know, it was September. So

705
00:36:50,040 --> 00:36:51,760
Speaker 1: I figured, this is this is kind of a no brainer,

706
00:36:51,840 --> 00:36:54,399
Speaker 1: is what I'm gonna do. But I was almost out

707
00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:57,239
Speaker 1: of time, and so I ran from my truck all

708
00:36:57,280 --> 00:36:58,880
Speaker 1: the way back to the stand, which is maybe I

709
00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:01,000
Speaker 1: don't know half of my three quarters of a mile

710
00:37:01,560 --> 00:37:04,080
Speaker 1: climbed up in there, and I remember, just like setting

711
00:37:04,160 --> 00:37:08,120
Speaker 1: up and get my release on, and thinking there's no way, like,

712
00:37:08,200 --> 00:37:10,400
Speaker 1: there's no way you're going to get a deer tonight.

713
00:37:10,440 --> 00:37:12,680
Speaker 1: You're in here way too late. You probably blew the

714
00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:15,160
Speaker 1: field out. It's like I kind of was just sitting

715
00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:18,560
Speaker 1: there wallowing in myself pity. And you know, half hour

716
00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:20,800
Speaker 1: into the hunt, I looked up and here's this buck

717
00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:24,080
Speaker 1: standing not that far away, coming right down the middle

718
00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:25,680
Speaker 1: of the strip of beans, and the strip of beans

719
00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:29,200
Speaker 1: only like fifty yards wide, and I thought, holy cow,

720
00:37:29,280 --> 00:37:31,960
Speaker 1: that's one of the biggest bucks I've ever seen. And

721
00:37:32,040 --> 00:37:33,799
Speaker 1: he's on his way towards me, and I just could

722
00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:36,400
Speaker 1: not believe he was not only there, but he was

723
00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:38,759
Speaker 1: the only deer in that field, first one to come out.

724
00:37:39,280 --> 00:37:41,160
Speaker 1: And as I'm watching this here, I'm thinking, Okay, he's

725
00:37:41,160 --> 00:37:43,840
Speaker 1: gonna he's gonna keep following that row and you know,

726
00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:47,520
Speaker 1: maybe passed by like twenty five yards. Well, this deer

727
00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:50,359
Speaker 1: never looks up at me and ends up just for

728
00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:53,000
Speaker 1: some reason, crossing a bunch of the rows and browsing

729
00:37:53,080 --> 00:37:56,080
Speaker 1: right at me. And so he gets to like ten

730
00:37:56,160 --> 00:37:59,400
Speaker 1: yards broadside. And I mean, up to this point, every

731
00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:02,040
Speaker 1: big buck in my orbit had got away, Like I

732
00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:04,839
Speaker 1: had I had buck fever so bad, i'd shoot over him.

733
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:08,080
Speaker 1: I'd rush it, and this deer standing there a gift

734
00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:12,480
Speaker 1: and I draw back and shoot and it's all a blur,

735
00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:14,239
Speaker 1: you know, like it's one of those things where you're

736
00:38:14,239 --> 00:38:16,920
Speaker 1: like filling into the details afterwards. But he runs and

737
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:19,960
Speaker 1: stops in the field and he takes off, and I

738
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:22,359
Speaker 1: remember thinking, gosh, I think I saw blood coming out

739
00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:25,360
Speaker 1: of his side, and I thought I saw my fletchings

740
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:28,640
Speaker 1: disappear right behind his shoulder. And at that point I'm

741
00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:30,360
Speaker 1: not very patient now, but at that point I was

742
00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:32,960
Speaker 1: really not that patient, and I couldn't take it. So

743
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:34,799
Speaker 1: I got down and went over to where I thought

744
00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:38,000
Speaker 1: I hit him, and there's just blood all over the beans,

745
00:38:38,120 --> 00:38:41,040
Speaker 1: and it's like this surreal moment where you're like, I

746
00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:44,239
Speaker 1: think I might have finally killed a big one. And

747
00:38:44,239 --> 00:38:47,520
Speaker 1: I thought he was just like a pointer. I didn't

748
00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:51,120
Speaker 1: really know what he was other than big mature. So

749
00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:53,959
Speaker 1: I started following the blood trail, and a hundred yards away,

750
00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:56,000
Speaker 1: at the edge of the woods, he's piled up, and

751
00:38:56,040 --> 00:38:58,160
Speaker 1: I just remember walking up to him and not only

752
00:38:58,239 --> 00:39:00,440
Speaker 1: was he's a mainframe eight pointer, but he had six

753
00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:02,719
Speaker 1: stickers and you know, ended up scoring I think a

754
00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:08,160
Speaker 1: d inches or something. Just this like otherworldly dear to me.

755
00:39:08,640 --> 00:39:11,680
Speaker 1: And it was such a lesson because I had I

756
00:39:11,719 --> 00:39:14,360
Speaker 1: had such a bad attitude going into that hunt. You know,

757
00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:16,120
Speaker 1: I was throwing that little pity party for not being

758
00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:18,359
Speaker 1: able to hunt the opening weekend and getting down there

759
00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:21,239
Speaker 1: late and being so limited. I was just in my head,

760
00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:23,239
Speaker 1: I'm like you just you just you don't have a chance, dude.

761
00:39:23,360 --> 00:39:25,960
Speaker 1: And it was like such an easy way to feel

762
00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:28,640
Speaker 1: bad for myself. Plus I just never thought I was

763
00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:31,360
Speaker 1: going to kill a big one, and that dear land

764
00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:34,920
Speaker 1: there was like it was like another world opened up

765
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:36,879
Speaker 1: for me as a deer hunter. It was like you

766
00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:39,719
Speaker 1: can kill these deer, like they will make mistakes, big

767
00:39:39,760 --> 00:39:42,640
Speaker 1: bucks will screw up if you keep going out there

768
00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:44,960
Speaker 1: and keep doing your thing. And it just I think

769
00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:48,319
Speaker 1: about that dear all the time when I'm hunting now,

770
00:39:48,360 --> 00:39:50,640
Speaker 1: because if I get a bad attitude, or I screw up,

771
00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:53,520
Speaker 1: or I bump one or miss one, it's so easy

772
00:39:53,560 --> 00:39:56,160
Speaker 1: to slide into that negative mindset. I always think about

773
00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:59,319
Speaker 1: that fourteen pointer in the beans just making every bad

774
00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:02,600
Speaker 1: decision possible and just offering himself up to me. And

775
00:40:02,640 --> 00:40:04,440
Speaker 1: it always keeps me going. It always makes me feel

776
00:40:04,440 --> 00:40:09,080
Speaker 1: good because that dear just showed me what was possible

777
00:40:09,080 --> 00:40:11,160
Speaker 1: with this stuff. And I just I love I love

778
00:40:11,239 --> 00:40:14,160
Speaker 1: that hunt and that experience for it because it it

779
00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:17,600
Speaker 1: literally changed the arc of my my hunting career, but

780
00:40:17,640 --> 00:40:20,400
Speaker 1: also my work career. Is just it was something so

781
00:40:20,480 --> 00:40:26,840
Speaker 1: special to me. I love it, Tony, great hunt brother.

782
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:33,279
Speaker 1: This next voice you'll recognize for sure. James Lawrence is

783
00:40:33,320 --> 00:40:38,480
Speaker 1: my Arkansas Backwoods Mansaul Milling rock Land horse riding, big Woods,

784
00:40:38,520 --> 00:40:41,480
Speaker 1: white tail hunting mentor. He's a member of the Bear

785
00:40:41,560 --> 00:40:44,880
Speaker 1: Grease Hall of Fame. And if you remember, the third

786
00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:47,919
Speaker 1: episode of bear Grease was called The shed Horn Buck

787
00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:52,560
Speaker 1: of nineteen sixty two, which was all about James. This

788
00:40:52,640 --> 00:40:55,400
Speaker 1: is a short story, but it's one of his favorites.

789
00:40:58,719 --> 00:41:01,640
Speaker 1: It's probably me at eighties and most of those most

790
00:41:01,640 --> 00:41:05,480
Speaker 1: of those years I hunted by myself ninety percent of time.

791
00:41:05,520 --> 00:41:07,440
Speaker 1: I don't do a whole lot of setting. I'd usually

792
00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:11,520
Speaker 1: distill hunt slipping through the woods and I like the

793
00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:13,600
Speaker 1: the wind has to be right to under certain area.

794
00:41:13,920 --> 00:41:17,200
Speaker 1: Wind was good that morning. I left my truck across

795
00:41:17,280 --> 00:41:21,399
Speaker 1: the river and started in and the direction I was going.

796
00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:24,840
Speaker 1: The wind was perfect for me. I started up the hollow.

797
00:41:25,160 --> 00:41:27,279
Speaker 1: There's a big mountain on my left, and there was

798
00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:30,760
Speaker 1: a ridge on my right heads and turns into the mountains,

799
00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:34,280
Speaker 1: so this is the easiest access the way. The wind blowing,

800
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:38,640
Speaker 1: I eased up this hollow and UH to go back

801
00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:40,600
Speaker 1: a little bit. In the past, when I would kill

802
00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:43,399
Speaker 1: a deer, I would always skin the hawks off, put

803
00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:45,279
Speaker 1: him in a baggy, take them home and freeze them

804
00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:48,239
Speaker 1: for cent. If I kill a doe with archery a

805
00:41:48,239 --> 00:41:50,200
Speaker 1: lot of times, if I could, I'd say the bladder

806
00:41:50,480 --> 00:41:53,520
Speaker 1: and use the natural scent. And that's what I've done

807
00:41:53,560 --> 00:41:55,960
Speaker 1: this day. I get in the area where I was hunting,

808
00:41:55,960 --> 00:41:58,960
Speaker 1: I stopped, sit down, I tied those buck hawks, went

809
00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:02,600
Speaker 1: on each foot on my heels. My boat started up.

810
00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:05,280
Speaker 1: Come around a big holly tree just a few yards

811
00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:06,920
Speaker 1: from where I put the hawks on in there with

812
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:10,840
Speaker 1: the fresh the fresh scrape and what I mean fresh, fresh, fresh,

813
00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:14,560
Speaker 1: till I mean he dug it out. He's down around

814
00:42:14,600 --> 00:42:18,399
Speaker 1: that dragging those buck hawks. I get up the little

815
00:42:18,440 --> 00:42:21,040
Speaker 1: ways and I was going up this hollow to my right,

816
00:42:22,080 --> 00:42:25,399
Speaker 1: and I was walking in the hollow, just stepping on rocks,

817
00:42:25,520 --> 00:42:27,640
Speaker 1: trying not to make any noise. When I could see

818
00:42:27,640 --> 00:42:30,160
Speaker 1: the top of the ridge, I decided to get up

819
00:42:30,200 --> 00:42:31,560
Speaker 1: on top of the ridge, get out of the holler,

820
00:42:31,640 --> 00:42:36,000
Speaker 1: and get up on the ridge, easing along, stopping, leaning

821
00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:38,640
Speaker 1: up against the tree, watching up ahead of me. Wind

822
00:42:38,719 --> 00:42:41,360
Speaker 1: was still good in my favor. I hear something behind me,

823
00:42:42,480 --> 00:42:44,960
Speaker 1: and like I said, I just left the hollow. I probably,

824
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:48,160
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't fit two yards up it.

825
00:42:48,880 --> 00:42:51,080
Speaker 1: And I heard something coming off the mountain behind me.

826
00:42:51,160 --> 00:42:54,279
Speaker 1: For I come down in all and by this time

827
00:42:54,480 --> 00:42:56,320
Speaker 1: I didn't know what it was. And then I turned

828
00:42:56,480 --> 00:42:59,719
Speaker 1: and here this nice bucks coming up the mountain. His

829
00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:02,520
Speaker 1: mouth was open. He was making every time his feet

830
00:43:02,600 --> 00:43:05,759
Speaker 1: hit the ground. It aren't aren't aren't never heard that.

831
00:43:05,840 --> 00:43:08,799
Speaker 1: It wasn't a grunt, wasn't growl, wasn't a snort. His

832
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:11,759
Speaker 1: mouth was open. The hair on his neck was standing out,

833
00:43:12,239 --> 00:43:14,920
Speaker 1: which made him look a lot bigger. Hair running down

834
00:43:15,040 --> 00:43:18,319
Speaker 1: his back was standing up. And before I could get

835
00:43:18,360 --> 00:43:20,600
Speaker 1: on him, got my rifle up and this was a

836
00:43:20,680 --> 00:43:22,400
Speaker 1: nice buck, and I couldn't get on him, and he

837
00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:25,120
Speaker 1: went out of sight. Well, when he went out of sight,

838
00:43:25,239 --> 00:43:27,160
Speaker 1: I knew that I could see the end of the

839
00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:30,040
Speaker 1: holler where it tied onto the ridge. He didn't come out.

840
00:43:30,680 --> 00:43:32,680
Speaker 1: Everything got quiet, and a little bit I heard him

841
00:43:32,719 --> 00:43:37,400
Speaker 1: again coming down the bridge, got on my trail and

842
00:43:37,480 --> 00:43:41,399
Speaker 1: here he come same way, mouth open hair on his neck,

843
00:43:41,800 --> 00:43:44,600
Speaker 1: which I've never seen before, and I mean, he was

844
00:43:44,680 --> 00:43:49,720
Speaker 1: seriously mad. And I got my rifle up him running,

845
00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:53,319
Speaker 1: I got on him and I squeezed off around none

846
00:43:53,320 --> 00:43:56,440
Speaker 1: of them in. He come on around, and that shot

847
00:43:56,719 --> 00:44:01,120
Speaker 1: put him down, and then everything come m and I

848
00:44:01,200 --> 00:44:03,160
Speaker 1: never get scared in the wood, never get bothered in

849
00:44:03,200 --> 00:44:07,800
Speaker 1: the woods. I always I'd never ever ever experienced anything

850
00:44:08,160 --> 00:44:11,759
Speaker 1: like that. And he went down. Then I realized, and

851
00:44:11,840 --> 00:44:15,279
Speaker 1: it was following the scent that I'd put on. And

852
00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:17,960
Speaker 1: I used the sin after that, but I didn't. I

853
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:20,920
Speaker 1: don't use it like I did that time. A person

854
00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:24,400
Speaker 1: could get uh in a bad position with a buck,

855
00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:28,080
Speaker 1: with fresh deerhawks tied on and going through the woods

856
00:44:28,120 --> 00:44:31,440
Speaker 1: and having a buck you get in his area. It's

857
00:44:31,440 --> 00:44:35,239
Speaker 1: scary bother me kill a lot of deer. And I've

858
00:44:35,239 --> 00:44:37,799
Speaker 1: never been bothered like that. How did you get that

859
00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:39,720
Speaker 1: deer out of the woods? I don't like, I always

860
00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:42,200
Speaker 1: do feel dressed in and then I've done the shock

861
00:44:42,280 --> 00:44:45,240
Speaker 1: pouched feet together, and he was. It was all downhill,

862
00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:47,279
Speaker 1: so I didn't have a problem getting them out. I

863
00:44:47,320 --> 00:44:49,880
Speaker 1: was back in a pretty good, pretty good ways from

864
00:44:49,880 --> 00:44:52,560
Speaker 1: the truck. He was telling me how you sho pouch one?

865
00:44:52,719 --> 00:44:54,759
Speaker 1: You get it like you always do. Feel dress it.

866
00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:57,759
Speaker 1: I peeled a go around the dew claws on the

867
00:44:57,840 --> 00:45:00,040
Speaker 1: deer and skin it down to the first joint and

868
00:45:00,120 --> 00:45:03,120
Speaker 1: need joint, and I popped that joint off through all

869
00:45:03,160 --> 00:45:07,319
Speaker 1: four legs that way and leave the duke clothes on.

870
00:45:07,760 --> 00:45:09,759
Speaker 1: That makes the deizer. And then you just take the

871
00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:13,160
Speaker 1: right front foot to the left pine foot down together,

872
00:45:13,280 --> 00:45:15,400
Speaker 1: just as tight as again, and do the same to

873
00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:17,719
Speaker 1: the other so down and run your arms through them

874
00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:20,839
Speaker 1: and then lean forward and get up and get your

875
00:45:20,880 --> 00:45:23,239
Speaker 1: rifle in one hand, got horn to the other. Carry

876
00:45:23,280 --> 00:45:25,840
Speaker 1: him out on your back, Carolina back pat. Yeah, I

877
00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:27,960
Speaker 1: carry that one up. It's a whole lot easier than

878
00:45:28,080 --> 00:45:30,200
Speaker 1: dragging one. How long will it take you to shock

879
00:45:30,239 --> 00:45:34,560
Speaker 1: pouch one? The time to go? Just just a few minutes.

880
00:45:35,080 --> 00:45:37,840
Speaker 1: Who taught you how to do that? Basically? My grandmother

881
00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:45,759
Speaker 1: and my grandmother's brother love it. James. If you want

882
00:45:45,760 --> 00:45:47,920
Speaker 1: to see a video of how James taught me to

883
00:45:48,040 --> 00:45:51,520
Speaker 1: shock pouch you deer. Go to the meat eater dot

884
00:45:51,560 --> 00:45:54,879
Speaker 1: com and search for shock pouch, you deer, and you'll

885
00:45:54,880 --> 00:46:01,799
Speaker 1: find it. My, my boy, you're in for a treat now.

886
00:46:02,560 --> 00:46:07,919
Speaker 1: The voice, cadence, worldview and frequency of this next storyteller

887
00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:12,000
Speaker 1: is core to the energy of Bear Greece because it's

888
00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:16,080
Speaker 1: none other than my own sweet dad, Gary Believer Newcomb.

889
00:46:16,719 --> 00:46:19,200
Speaker 1: Dad showed me how to be passionate, to live by

890
00:46:19,200 --> 00:46:22,360
Speaker 1: a value system, to have confidence in my identity, and

891
00:46:22,440 --> 00:46:26,040
Speaker 1: to work hard. But maybe most relevant to this story,

892
00:46:26,520 --> 00:46:29,480
Speaker 1: you taught me how to look for them akers. I

893
00:46:29,560 --> 00:46:32,480
Speaker 1: can't tell you how many times I've heard this Arkansas

894
00:46:32,520 --> 00:46:36,279
Speaker 1: public Land story, but every time I'm on the edge

895
00:46:36,280 --> 00:46:40,640
Speaker 1: of my seat. This is the story of the clicking buck.

896
00:46:41,920 --> 00:46:45,320
Speaker 1: You know, I've hunted since seventy six, and you know

897
00:46:45,360 --> 00:46:47,080
Speaker 1: I really didn't know how to deer hunt. I kind

898
00:46:47,080 --> 00:46:49,640
Speaker 1: of taught myself. I don't have a lot of patients,

899
00:46:49,680 --> 00:46:52,480
Speaker 1: so I don't kill a lot of big bucks. I

900
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:54,759
Speaker 1: kill a lot of little deer. But every now and

901
00:46:54,920 --> 00:46:58,480
Speaker 1: I run into a big buck. And uh. I found

902
00:46:58,480 --> 00:47:03,440
Speaker 1: this big buck because there was a huge area in

903
00:47:03,560 --> 00:47:07,320
Speaker 1: a sawdust pile where they had logged and there was

904
00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:10,800
Speaker 1: a huge it looked like a fifteen or twenty ft scrape,

905
00:47:10,800 --> 00:47:14,120
Speaker 1: ten ft scrape. And so I got the scouting and

906
00:47:14,200 --> 00:47:18,720
Speaker 1: I started seeing uh, four inch rubs and started seeing

907
00:47:19,200 --> 00:47:22,839
Speaker 1: normal scrapes, big ones. And then you know, I went

908
00:47:22,880 --> 00:47:25,680
Speaker 1: to my m O like I always did, and found

909
00:47:25,680 --> 00:47:30,120
Speaker 1: a place with her acrons, and I put my best

910
00:47:30,160 --> 00:47:33,200
Speaker 1: set up. You know, I put a lock on stand.

911
00:47:35,200 --> 00:47:38,600
Speaker 1: Next day, I can't hunt very long, only a couple

912
00:47:38,600 --> 00:47:42,080
Speaker 1: of hours, and I climb up in that stand. A

913
00:47:42,239 --> 00:47:45,880
Speaker 1: dog comes in, and typically I would have shot that

914
00:47:45,880 --> 00:47:48,200
Speaker 1: dough in a New York second, but I thought, I

915
00:47:48,200 --> 00:47:50,520
Speaker 1: ain't gonna do it this time. I know the bucks

916
00:47:50,520 --> 00:47:53,319
Speaker 1: in here. And so I got to watching her and

917
00:47:53,400 --> 00:47:56,279
Speaker 1: she kind of acted like she was in heat. And

918
00:47:56,320 --> 00:47:59,040
Speaker 1: I don't remember what I twitching her tail, doing things

919
00:47:59,080 --> 00:48:02,759
Speaker 1: that was a little different than other dose. It's twenty three,

920
00:48:02,800 --> 00:48:06,359
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say twenty three October, and uh ends up

921
00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:09,799
Speaker 1: she was in heat, probably the only dear coming in.

922
00:48:10,040 --> 00:48:13,400
Speaker 1: She wasn't in. And so I'm sitting there looking around

923
00:48:14,520 --> 00:48:16,759
Speaker 1: watching her feed, and all of a sudden I hear

924
00:48:16,880 --> 00:48:19,640
Speaker 1: big steps coming. I mean, they're this sucker sounding like

925
00:48:20,080 --> 00:48:24,440
Speaker 1: a gorilla. Coming in. You know, I get my bow already,

926
00:48:24,840 --> 00:48:29,239
Speaker 1: and this buck all of a sudden starts going. I

927
00:48:29,320 --> 00:48:31,959
Speaker 1: call it the clicking buck. I would not have even

928
00:48:32,040 --> 00:48:34,960
Speaker 1: known what that was, but a friend of mine had

929
00:48:35,000 --> 00:48:37,520
Speaker 1: just bought a clicking call. It was kind of silly.

930
00:48:37,520 --> 00:48:40,200
Speaker 1: It was a wheel that had little notches in it,

931
00:48:40,239 --> 00:48:42,640
Speaker 1: and you'd spend it did go click click click. So

932
00:48:42,680 --> 00:48:45,200
Speaker 1: I knew what it was, and I go, that's thinking

933
00:48:45,239 --> 00:48:49,799
Speaker 1: clicking buck. So I sit there and I had a

934
00:48:49,840 --> 00:48:52,680
Speaker 1: real thick pine thicket behind me that deer could move

935
00:48:52,760 --> 00:48:54,839
Speaker 1: through but you couldn't see. And then I had this

936
00:48:55,120 --> 00:48:58,160
Speaker 1: big white oak out here, and then just normal woods

937
00:48:58,200 --> 00:49:01,640
Speaker 1: around with a few thickets. And so I'm sitting there

938
00:49:02,360 --> 00:49:04,480
Speaker 1: and I'm turning the best I could to get see

939
00:49:04,520 --> 00:49:08,759
Speaker 1: if at deer's there, it never shows itself, and then

940
00:49:08,800 --> 00:49:12,959
Speaker 1: I hear it turned walk off. Well about ten minutes later,

941
00:49:13,440 --> 00:49:16,320
Speaker 1: a real nice ten point, you know, one twenty class

942
00:49:16,400 --> 00:49:20,280
Speaker 1: probably maybe better, maybe not, but a good ten point

943
00:49:20,400 --> 00:49:24,000
Speaker 1: came up. And he came up almost under my stand.

944
00:49:24,040 --> 00:49:26,400
Speaker 1: I mean, he's he's five yards if you were to

945
00:49:26,400 --> 00:49:28,880
Speaker 1: step it. It It had been five or six yards to

946
00:49:29,080 --> 00:49:33,800
Speaker 1: my shooting side and back then and for thirty years.

947
00:49:33,840 --> 00:49:35,680
Speaker 1: I mean, if it came on on my left side,

948
00:49:35,680 --> 00:49:39,480
Speaker 1: I wouldn't even shoot at him. I sit down Freda Heights,

949
00:49:40,200 --> 00:49:45,120
Speaker 1: and uh so he's right there, man. And about that time,

950
00:49:45,960 --> 00:49:49,200
Speaker 1: loops got real popular to put on your strings, and

951
00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:52,520
Speaker 1: I had a loop on mine, and and something happened

952
00:49:52,520 --> 00:49:54,680
Speaker 1: had changed string, and I just thought, I don't need

953
00:49:54,760 --> 00:49:57,239
Speaker 1: that sissy stuff, so I didn't put a loop on

954
00:49:57,280 --> 00:50:00,560
Speaker 1: my bowl. And so finally I sit there watch him

955
00:50:00,560 --> 00:50:03,360
Speaker 1: for it seemed like an hour, but it's probably five minutes.

956
00:50:03,760 --> 00:50:06,000
Speaker 1: And he never moved, and he had a big tree

957
00:50:06,040 --> 00:50:08,840
Speaker 1: in front of him, not real big, ten inches eight inches,

958
00:50:09,280 --> 00:50:11,200
Speaker 1: and so I kept watching him, and he kept staring

959
00:50:11,200 --> 00:50:14,320
Speaker 1: at that dough, and so finally moved just a little

960
00:50:14,320 --> 00:50:16,640
Speaker 1: bit and I pulled my bow back and I was

961
00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:18,920
Speaker 1: just getting ready to shoot him in my air fell out,

962
00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:23,440
Speaker 1: So he takes off in the dough take off. Well,

963
00:50:23,560 --> 00:50:25,960
Speaker 1: so I think, well, that's all the action we're gonna

964
00:50:25,960 --> 00:50:28,480
Speaker 1: have today. And I needed to get back to town.

965
00:50:28,760 --> 00:50:31,800
Speaker 1: I guess i'd better get down, and uh I was

966
00:50:31,800 --> 00:50:34,480
Speaker 1: about halfway down my ladder and eight point good eight

967
00:50:34,520 --> 00:50:37,640
Speaker 1: point came in. Of course, that spooked him, so I

968
00:50:37,680 --> 00:50:42,319
Speaker 1: went back The next Saturday only hunting on Saturdays basically well,

969
00:50:42,320 --> 00:50:45,279
Speaker 1: on the way home, instead of coming by Blacktop, I

970
00:50:45,360 --> 00:50:48,319
Speaker 1: went through the mountains. I knew a camp there where

971
00:50:48,320 --> 00:50:51,680
Speaker 1: these guys were like trophy hunter type guys. I pulled

972
00:50:51,680 --> 00:50:55,640
Speaker 1: into their camp late that night and I said, told

973
00:50:55,680 --> 00:50:59,000
Speaker 1: him what happened with that clicking bug? And I said,

974
00:50:59,040 --> 00:51:01,800
Speaker 1: what the heck was that? And this guy said, I

975
00:51:01,800 --> 00:51:04,040
Speaker 1: can't tell you exactly. And I've told a lot of people,

976
00:51:04,080 --> 00:51:06,080
Speaker 1: and I'm telling you, I don't know of anybody that

977
00:51:06,160 --> 00:51:09,279
Speaker 1: knew what this clicking buck was all about. But these

978
00:51:09,320 --> 00:51:13,560
Speaker 1: guys acted like they knew, and what they told me

979
00:51:14,560 --> 00:51:19,040
Speaker 1: ended up, I think, being exactly right. They said, I

980
00:51:19,080 --> 00:51:22,200
Speaker 1: can tell you exactly what it is. That is the

981
00:51:22,280 --> 00:51:27,239
Speaker 1: absolute dominant buck in the area. And he's not gonna

982
00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:30,839
Speaker 1: waste his time chasing the dough that's not completely in heat.

983
00:51:31,080 --> 00:51:33,400
Speaker 1: He's said, in two or three days, he'll be with

984
00:51:33,440 --> 00:51:36,839
Speaker 1: that dough like glue. So he came in, he sent

985
00:51:36,960 --> 00:51:40,520
Speaker 1: checked her, he left ten point came in. He's gonna

986
00:51:40,520 --> 00:51:43,840
Speaker 1: follow her. You know you're gonna stay with her. Clicking

987
00:51:43,920 --> 00:51:49,320
Speaker 1: buck leaves. So I come back the next Saturday, climb

988
00:51:49,440 --> 00:51:54,720
Speaker 1: up in the same stand, and she came in straight

989
00:51:54,760 --> 00:51:58,200
Speaker 1: to my shooting lane to the left, and I could

990
00:51:58,200 --> 00:52:00,840
Speaker 1: see her coming from you know, four yards. So she

991
00:52:00,960 --> 00:52:05,160
Speaker 1: comes in same thing, acting kind of crazy, eating acrons,

992
00:52:05,640 --> 00:52:07,840
Speaker 1: and so I get the looking at the direction she's

993
00:52:07,880 --> 00:52:10,319
Speaker 1: coming and I see big old horns coming. They look

994
00:52:10,400 --> 00:52:13,080
Speaker 1: like those Texas bucks that go straight out with big

995
00:52:13,080 --> 00:52:15,439
Speaker 1: times going up. I mean, he was the biggest deer

996
00:52:15,480 --> 00:52:18,560
Speaker 1: I guess I've ever seen on hoof. At the time,

997
00:52:18,600 --> 00:52:20,839
Speaker 1: I said he was one forty. But as I get

998
00:52:20,880 --> 00:52:23,399
Speaker 1: older and think back and learn more about dead, I'm

999
00:52:23,400 --> 00:52:26,120
Speaker 1: telling he was one fifty plus maybe one sixty. I

1000
00:52:26,160 --> 00:52:31,480
Speaker 1: mean he was big. And so he pulls up broadside,

1001
00:52:31,640 --> 00:52:36,080
Speaker 1: big huge animal, easy shock, thirty two steps. But I

1002
00:52:36,120 --> 00:52:39,440
Speaker 1: didn't I didn't know it. I mean I figured he

1003
00:52:39,520 --> 00:52:41,759
Speaker 1: was thirty, but I didn't, you know, I stepped it

1004
00:52:41,760 --> 00:52:44,200
Speaker 1: off and he was thirty two steps. And so he's

1005
00:52:44,239 --> 00:52:48,040
Speaker 1: watching this dough feed. Well I'm twenty five ft up

1006
00:52:48,080 --> 00:52:50,080
Speaker 1: and I'm getting away with everything. I mean, I I

1007
00:52:50,120 --> 00:52:53,080
Speaker 1: could move, I could do whatever I want head no idea.

1008
00:52:53,120 --> 00:52:55,160
Speaker 1: I was there. Of course I did my sense stuff,

1009
00:52:55,200 --> 00:52:57,600
Speaker 1: not like I told Bear, but I mean I just

1010
00:52:57,760 --> 00:53:00,440
Speaker 1: was clean. And so I get to do and this

1011
00:53:00,760 --> 00:53:04,960
Speaker 1: bending over down to my knees and and I wouldn't

1012
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:07,560
Speaker 1: stand up, and I kept looking. I couldn't find a

1013
00:53:07,560 --> 00:53:11,879
Speaker 1: hole to shoot him. There was a hickory tree with

1014
00:53:11,960 --> 00:53:14,279
Speaker 1: yellow leaves that tells you the time of the year.

1015
00:53:14,280 --> 00:53:18,520
Speaker 1: It was had yellow leafs, and and the limbs coming

1016
00:53:18,560 --> 00:53:21,280
Speaker 1: off of it low We're only about ten inches long,

1017
00:53:21,400 --> 00:53:23,880
Speaker 1: but they all had leaves on them. And so I'd

1018
00:53:23,880 --> 00:53:25,680
Speaker 1: move up on the edge of my seat and I've

1019
00:53:25,719 --> 00:53:29,279
Speaker 1: been way over and finally I saw a hole. But

1020
00:53:29,360 --> 00:53:32,920
Speaker 1: it took me so long to find that hole that

1021
00:53:33,080 --> 00:53:36,640
Speaker 1: by that time distance wasn't an issue. I mean, I

1022
00:53:36,640 --> 00:53:39,719
Speaker 1: didn't even think about distance. I just pulled down, put

1023
00:53:39,760 --> 00:53:42,200
Speaker 1: my twenty pin on him, and shot right on the rea.

1024
00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:45,600
Speaker 1: And you know, now, the bows I shoot now, I

1025
00:53:45,600 --> 00:53:47,880
Speaker 1: wouldn't have made any difference, I would, you know. I mean,

1026
00:53:47,960 --> 00:53:51,200
Speaker 1: they shoot flat, pretty pretty flat. But back then you

1027
00:53:51,280 --> 00:53:55,759
Speaker 1: had to know thirty. I mean, I just shot under

1028
00:53:55,800 --> 00:54:01,120
Speaker 1: that buck. But uh, it was a thrill lean morning.

1029
00:54:01,239 --> 00:54:03,880
Speaker 1: And you know, I had a couple other mornings that

1030
00:54:03,920 --> 00:54:07,800
Speaker 1: were just about his thrilling, but that would probably probably

1031
00:54:07,800 --> 00:54:10,600
Speaker 1: be the second most exciting hunt I was. Ever. Only

1032
00:54:10,680 --> 00:54:12,640
Speaker 1: other one was when I was really a rookie, and

1033
00:54:12,640 --> 00:54:17,320
Speaker 1: I had eleven those come in at different times, and um,

1034
00:54:17,360 --> 00:54:21,279
Speaker 1: it was pretty thrilling. And and what's kind of interesting

1035
00:54:21,320 --> 00:54:26,640
Speaker 1: to me our own inner makings and hidden mechanisms, is

1036
00:54:26,719 --> 00:54:31,279
Speaker 1: that the longer I get away from that date, the

1037
00:54:31,400 --> 00:54:36,240
Speaker 1: more I regret not clicking my brain in and shooting

1038
00:54:36,239 --> 00:54:38,920
Speaker 1: that dear a thirty yards. I mean it, really, I

1039
00:54:38,960 --> 00:54:42,480
Speaker 1: mean he would. He would be a wall hanger deluxe.

1040
00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:48,399
Speaker 1: I think these stories of failures stand out in our

1041
00:54:48,440 --> 00:54:52,520
Speaker 1: minds for a very specific reason. A father's story of

1042
00:54:52,560 --> 00:54:56,560
Speaker 1: missed opportunity is supposed to equip the sun not to miss.

1043
00:54:57,160 --> 00:55:00,960
Speaker 1: The story still stings me twenty five year later, but

1044
00:55:01,040 --> 00:55:05,200
Speaker 1: the clicking buck won't be lost in newcom lore for generations.

1045
00:55:07,239 --> 00:55:11,280
Speaker 1: This last white tail hunter needs no introduction. Mark Kenyon

1046
00:55:11,400 --> 00:55:14,400
Speaker 1: is my friend and colleague at Meat Eater, and he

1047
00:55:14,400 --> 00:55:16,840
Speaker 1: heads up the Wired to Hunt podcast, which is a

1048
00:55:16,960 --> 00:55:20,800
Speaker 1: die hard nuts and bolts podcast about white tail deer hunting,

1049
00:55:21,080 --> 00:55:23,279
Speaker 1: and you ought to be listening to it if you're

1050
00:55:23,280 --> 00:55:27,360
Speaker 1: a white tail man. Mark is a meticulous, hard hunting dude,

1051
00:55:27,680 --> 00:55:30,120
Speaker 1: and he came to Arkansas last year with me and

1052
00:55:30,239 --> 00:55:33,040
Speaker 1: James Lawrence and killed the buck on public land and

1053
00:55:33,080 --> 00:55:35,120
Speaker 1: You can watch that hunt on the meter to YouTube

1054
00:55:35,200 --> 00:55:39,720
Speaker 1: channel on Mark's new series Dear Country, which is very cool.

1055
00:55:40,640 --> 00:55:44,440
Speaker 1: This is the story of Mark's first buck on his

1056
00:55:44,600 --> 00:55:51,560
Speaker 1: family's land in Michigan. It was mid November and we

1057
00:55:51,560 --> 00:55:54,759
Speaker 1: were in northern Michigan and my family deer camp, my

1058
00:55:54,880 --> 00:55:58,480
Speaker 1: favorite place in the world. And it was one of

1059
00:55:58,520 --> 00:56:03,239
Speaker 1: those days where the air was crisp, the leaves crackled,

1060
00:56:04,200 --> 00:56:09,160
Speaker 1: snow was just starting to fall. It's one of those

1061
00:56:09,239 --> 00:56:12,799
Speaker 1: perfect days that you dream of as a deer hunter.

1062
00:56:13,200 --> 00:56:15,960
Speaker 1: When I was a young man, still a teenager, heading

1063
00:56:15,960 --> 00:56:20,239
Speaker 1: out for the first evening hunt of guns season, and

1064
00:56:20,320 --> 00:56:23,239
Speaker 1: I was walking out to my tree stand with my

1065
00:56:23,320 --> 00:56:27,520
Speaker 1: grandpa g P, as I called him, set off from

1066
00:56:27,520 --> 00:56:30,280
Speaker 1: the cabin and we walked across the first little field

1067
00:56:30,640 --> 00:56:33,160
Speaker 1: we had across the bridge. We get to the second

1068
00:56:33,200 --> 00:56:36,560
Speaker 1: little field, and this is where GPS blind was the

1069
00:56:36,600 --> 00:56:40,799
Speaker 1: place where, seemingly, in my mind, legends were made. All

1070
00:56:40,840 --> 00:56:43,400
Speaker 1: of these stories he told me took place in the

1071
00:56:43,480 --> 00:56:46,680
Speaker 1: second field. He walked to the edge of it, and

1072
00:56:46,680 --> 00:56:48,880
Speaker 1: this is where we were going to part ways. And

1073
00:56:48,920 --> 00:56:51,719
Speaker 1: as we set off, Grandpa looked at me and GP said,

1074
00:56:51,719 --> 00:56:55,840
Speaker 1: all right, Mark, good luck. You can do it, and

1075
00:56:55,880 --> 00:56:59,040
Speaker 1: he went off his way, and I went off my way,

1076
00:56:59,360 --> 00:57:02,200
Speaker 1: and I said, along the creek, heading back along what

1077
00:57:02,239 --> 00:57:04,200
Speaker 1: we would call the peninsula. At the end of a

1078
00:57:04,280 --> 00:57:07,800
Speaker 1: point was an old ladder stand. And I suppose before

1079
00:57:07,800 --> 00:57:09,600
Speaker 1: we go any further, I should tell you a little

1080
00:57:09,600 --> 00:57:13,680
Speaker 1: bit about g P and about why he factors into

1081
00:57:13,719 --> 00:57:16,720
Speaker 1: this story so much, because Grandpa he was like another

1082
00:57:17,080 --> 00:57:20,960
Speaker 1: father to me. He was this legendary figure in my

1083
00:57:21,040 --> 00:57:24,440
Speaker 1: life who was always the hero of these stories that

1084
00:57:24,560 --> 00:57:27,200
Speaker 1: her growing up. And he was the one who took

1085
00:57:27,240 --> 00:57:29,360
Speaker 1: me up to go fishing, and took me up to

1086
00:57:29,360 --> 00:57:31,960
Speaker 1: go hunting, and took me out into the woods and

1087
00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:34,640
Speaker 1: taught me how to move through the swamp, and taught

1088
00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:37,040
Speaker 1: me how to hold still. He was there when I

1089
00:57:37,080 --> 00:57:40,040
Speaker 1: first had my first close encounter with the deer, he

1090
00:57:40,080 --> 00:57:42,520
Speaker 1: was there when I caught my first big fish. And

1091
00:57:42,560 --> 00:57:45,880
Speaker 1: he was always there with these these lessons and these

1092
00:57:46,000 --> 00:57:50,200
Speaker 1: rules and these reminders of the right way to do things,

1093
00:57:50,800 --> 00:57:52,720
Speaker 1: and and this was true with my dad as well,

1094
00:57:52,760 --> 00:57:56,480
Speaker 1: But really Grandpa was the one who who set these

1095
00:57:57,160 --> 00:58:03,240
Speaker 1: rules and stones commandments. And I remember the line was

1096
00:58:03,240 --> 00:58:05,600
Speaker 1: was drawn in the sand, and you didn't cross. It

1097
00:58:05,640 --> 00:58:09,600
Speaker 1: was more important how you did something than what you did.

1098
00:58:10,160 --> 00:58:12,920
Speaker 1: And I remember one example of this very well. I

1099
00:58:12,920 --> 00:58:14,880
Speaker 1: remember being up a deer camp as a young child,

1100
00:58:14,920 --> 00:58:17,400
Speaker 1: and there were some other folks, some friends of my

1101
00:58:17,920 --> 00:58:21,400
Speaker 1: uh other relatives, who were up at deer camp for

1102
00:58:21,400 --> 00:58:25,040
Speaker 1: the first time, and they did not necessarily do things

1103
00:58:25,080 --> 00:58:27,040
Speaker 1: the way that we did things. We would come to

1104
00:58:27,080 --> 00:58:29,440
Speaker 1: find out. And there was a buck that went running

1105
00:58:29,440 --> 00:58:31,960
Speaker 1: across the field in front of the cabin, and one

1106
00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:34,240
Speaker 1: of these friends ran out and grabbed his gun and

1107
00:58:34,280 --> 00:58:36,840
Speaker 1: started taking shots at this deer as it ran across

1108
00:58:36,880 --> 00:58:42,080
Speaker 1: in front. I remember my grandpa was furious, absolutely furious,

1109
00:58:42,120 --> 00:58:43,680
Speaker 1: told him he was gonna have to leave if he

1110
00:58:43,680 --> 00:58:46,760
Speaker 1: would ever do something like that again, because we didn't

1111
00:58:47,280 --> 00:58:49,560
Speaker 1: ever risk wounding an animal like that. You would never

1112
00:58:49,640 --> 00:58:52,200
Speaker 1: take a shot at a moving animal. You would never

1113
00:58:52,280 --> 00:58:55,160
Speaker 1: take a shot unless it was just right, to make

1114
00:58:55,200 --> 00:58:59,320
Speaker 1: sure it's as quick and ethical as possible. You had

1115
00:58:59,360 --> 00:59:02,760
Speaker 1: to do things the right way. And that stuck with

1116
00:59:02,800 --> 00:59:06,040
Speaker 1: me throughout all of my years living up as a hunter.

1117
00:59:06,520 --> 00:59:09,000
Speaker 1: And as I'm heading out in this night, I'm eighteen

1118
00:59:09,080 --> 00:59:11,440
Speaker 1: or nineteen years old, whatever it was, and I'm slipping

1119
00:59:11,480 --> 00:59:13,400
Speaker 1: into that tree stand I get there, I'm i gotta

1120
00:59:13,440 --> 00:59:15,440
Speaker 1: do it. I gotta get it right. This year, I

1121
00:59:15,480 --> 00:59:18,439
Speaker 1: had not gotten a buck at our cabin yet. There's

1122
00:59:18,480 --> 00:59:20,640
Speaker 1: not a lot of deer up there, but a really

1123
00:59:20,680 --> 00:59:23,680
Speaker 1: special place. And remember getting to that ladder stand and

1124
00:59:23,760 --> 00:59:28,000
Speaker 1: slowly going up, up, up, trying not to make a creek.

1125
00:59:28,440 --> 00:59:31,120
Speaker 1: Got to the top of the stand, and remember thinking,

1126
00:59:31,520 --> 00:59:34,360
Speaker 1: we're all the different places a buck might come through here,

1127
00:59:34,360 --> 00:59:36,600
Speaker 1: they come from my left, to come from my right,

1128
00:59:37,400 --> 00:59:39,720
Speaker 1: Remember knowing that there was a trail that paralleled that

1129
00:59:39,800 --> 00:59:42,200
Speaker 1: creek off to my right side, And so I tried

1130
00:59:42,200 --> 00:59:44,520
Speaker 1: to move and get a good shot. You know, see

1131
00:59:44,560 --> 00:59:46,320
Speaker 1: if I could get a good shot from that direction.

1132
00:59:46,360 --> 00:59:48,960
Speaker 1: And I couldn't really turn very well in the stands.

1133
00:59:49,000 --> 00:59:52,320
Speaker 1: So I remember standing up and thinking, they're okay, if

1134
00:59:52,320 --> 00:59:54,680
Speaker 1: a buck were to come from that direction, what would

1135
00:59:54,680 --> 00:59:57,680
Speaker 1: I do? And so I practiced slowly standing up in

1136
00:59:57,720 --> 01:00:01,560
Speaker 1: the ladder stand, slowly spin and having to get down

1137
01:00:01,600 --> 01:00:04,960
Speaker 1: on one knee and rest my gun on the armrest

1138
01:00:05,120 --> 01:00:07,600
Speaker 1: of this stand, and thinking through, all right, if a

1139
01:00:07,640 --> 01:00:10,720
Speaker 1: buck came through there, I'll make this move ever so

1140
01:00:10,840 --> 01:00:13,920
Speaker 1: slowly and quietly, and then I could get it. So

1141
01:00:13,960 --> 01:00:17,600
Speaker 1: I practiced that in all different directions. Finally I settled in,

1142
01:00:17,800 --> 01:00:20,040
Speaker 1: sat down, and waited to see what the night would

1143
01:00:20,040 --> 01:00:23,200
Speaker 1: bring along. I remember it was a slow night, and

1144
01:00:23,240 --> 01:00:25,600
Speaker 1: I remember my mind thinking, well, this is just gonna

1145
01:00:25,640 --> 01:00:27,720
Speaker 1: be like every other hunt. This is just gonna be

1146
01:00:27,760 --> 01:00:31,040
Speaker 1: another hunt out here where we see nothing. Maybe I'll

1147
01:00:31,040 --> 01:00:34,080
Speaker 1: have some birds come through. Maybe I'll see a partridge. Now,

1148
01:00:34,120 --> 01:00:37,520
Speaker 1: maybe you'll hear coyote off from the distance, but not

1149
01:00:37,640 --> 01:00:41,400
Speaker 1: too likely we're gonna see anything. I'd seen. Jeez, fewer

1150
01:00:41,440 --> 01:00:44,440
Speaker 1: bucks and you can count on one or two hands,

1151
01:00:44,960 --> 01:00:47,320
Speaker 1: and all of my years up there, tonight was gonna

1152
01:00:47,320 --> 01:00:50,080
Speaker 1: be different. And as lights started to fade, it's down

1153
01:00:50,120 --> 01:00:52,160
Speaker 1: to the last half hour of daylight probably, and I

1154
01:00:52,200 --> 01:00:54,640
Speaker 1: see something off in the cattails, and I pulled my

1155
01:00:54,680 --> 01:00:58,520
Speaker 1: binoculars and I see antlers, and I knew at this

1156
01:00:58,560 --> 01:01:00,720
Speaker 1: point any buck was a I want to take a

1157
01:01:00,760 --> 01:01:02,920
Speaker 1: crack ass. So I want to get this buck back

1158
01:01:02,960 --> 01:01:05,800
Speaker 1: into view. He was straight away into the cattails. I

1159
01:01:05,880 --> 01:01:08,400
Speaker 1: lost him, but I had one of those little can calls,

1160
01:01:08,760 --> 01:01:11,520
Speaker 1: that little dough bleak candid if you tip over it

1161
01:01:11,600 --> 01:01:14,280
Speaker 1: makes that sounded. Reached for that in my backpack and

1162
01:01:14,320 --> 01:01:16,200
Speaker 1: the first thing I went to turn it over and

1163
01:01:18,360 --> 01:01:23,200
Speaker 1: did one more time, and then I waited. I don't

1164
01:01:23,200 --> 01:01:26,680
Speaker 1: know if I breathed. I was hoping so so badly

1165
01:01:26,720 --> 01:01:28,960
Speaker 1: for this deer turn around. And then there he was,

1166
01:01:30,000 --> 01:01:33,560
Speaker 1: that buckets spawned a d eighty degrees and was walking

1167
01:01:33,640 --> 01:01:37,240
Speaker 1: right back towards me. I could just see his head,

1168
01:01:37,280 --> 01:01:39,360
Speaker 1: you couldn't see his vitals. He had him holding my gun.

1169
01:01:39,480 --> 01:01:42,240
Speaker 1: My heart's beating a million miles a minute. I had

1170
01:01:42,240 --> 01:01:45,040
Speaker 1: not shot a buck up here at our cabin before.

1171
01:01:45,120 --> 01:01:47,960
Speaker 1: This was something that I never experienced here. But now

1172
01:01:48,000 --> 01:01:50,120
Speaker 1: he turns, and he turns back into the cattails, and

1173
01:01:50,120 --> 01:01:52,520
Speaker 1: he starts paralleling me. And now I realized he's going

1174
01:01:52,600 --> 01:01:54,840
Speaker 1: to move off to my right side, to that side

1175
01:01:54,880 --> 01:01:57,040
Speaker 1: that I would have a hard time shooting if I

1176
01:01:57,080 --> 01:02:01,360
Speaker 1: didn't do this kind of complicated maneuver I practiced earlier,

1177
01:02:01,520 --> 01:02:04,080
Speaker 1: but now I had to do it. And I could

1178
01:02:04,080 --> 01:02:05,840
Speaker 1: see him moving through the cat tails, and I thought

1179
01:02:05,840 --> 01:02:08,240
Speaker 1: to myself, I could probably shoot him through there, but no,

1180
01:02:09,200 --> 01:02:12,040
Speaker 1: I gotta wait. And I don't know how long it took.

1181
01:02:12,080 --> 01:02:15,080
Speaker 1: It felt like a year, but finally I saw him

1182
01:02:15,120 --> 01:02:18,360
Speaker 1: approaching the one clear land I had, and as he

1183
01:02:18,400 --> 01:02:24,280
Speaker 1: stepped into that, I squeezed the truth and he dropped

1184
01:02:25,000 --> 01:02:30,720
Speaker 1: right there perfect, And I don't even know how to

1185
01:02:30,800 --> 01:02:35,760
Speaker 1: describe my reaction. It was just disbelief. I had actually

1186
01:02:35,800 --> 01:02:40,600
Speaker 1: done it. I had actually joined the legends of my

1187
01:02:40,680 --> 01:02:44,480
Speaker 1: family here. I had entered my story into the record

1188
01:02:44,480 --> 01:02:47,040
Speaker 1: books here in our family cabin, at this place that

1189
01:02:47,400 --> 01:02:50,240
Speaker 1: I had grown up, where I had been taught so much,

1190
01:02:50,360 --> 01:02:53,480
Speaker 1: where I had kind of marveled under these adults who

1191
01:02:53,480 --> 01:02:55,560
Speaker 1: had come before me and taught me how to hunt

1192
01:02:55,600 --> 01:02:59,280
Speaker 1: and fish and be an outdoorsman. And finally I had

1193
01:02:59,440 --> 01:03:02,240
Speaker 1: secure my place at that table. I would finally have

1194
01:03:02,400 --> 01:03:11,520
Speaker 1: a buck on the buck form? Man, Do I love

1195
01:03:11,640 --> 01:03:15,720
Speaker 1: some white tell stories? Were truly fortunate in this country

1196
01:03:15,800 --> 01:03:18,400
Speaker 1: to live in the heyday of white tail. Honey. We've

1197
01:03:18,440 --> 01:03:22,520
Speaker 1: got some challenges with c w D land access, some overcrowding,

1198
01:03:22,920 --> 01:03:26,480
Speaker 1: but goodness, it's hard to complain with a little work.

1199
01:03:26,600 --> 01:03:29,640
Speaker 1: Anybody in this country can do the stuff that you've

1200
01:03:29,680 --> 01:03:33,000
Speaker 1: heard all these guys talk about. These deer live in

1201
01:03:33,000 --> 01:03:37,760
Speaker 1: our backyards, and adventure awaits those willing to grind and go.

1202
01:03:38,840 --> 01:03:41,880
Speaker 1: We haven't heard about any two inches, and we haven't

1203
01:03:41,920 --> 01:03:45,560
Speaker 1: heard from any chest banging killers. But we've heard from

1204
01:03:45,640 --> 01:03:49,800
Speaker 1: men of common means that I believe are all extraordinary

1205
01:03:49,880 --> 01:03:54,200
Speaker 1: hunters in their own sphere. And they're extraordinary not because

1206
01:03:54,240 --> 01:03:57,440
Speaker 1: of the bucks on the wall, though they've got them,

1207
01:03:57,440 --> 01:04:00,400
Speaker 1: but because of how much they love white tails and

1208
01:04:00,520 --> 01:04:04,960
Speaker 1: hunting them. They just love being in white tail country.

1209
01:04:06,720 --> 01:04:09,200
Speaker 1: I can't thank you enough for listening to the Fair

1210
01:04:09,240 --> 01:04:13,080
Speaker 1: Grease podcast. We put our heart and soul into this thing,

1211
01:04:13,320 --> 01:04:16,920
Speaker 1: and its energy is bird from a love of wild places,

1212
01:04:17,280 --> 01:04:21,600
Speaker 1: wild beasts, and wildhearted people. Do me a favor this

1213
01:04:21,640 --> 01:04:25,360
Speaker 1: week and share our podcast with your brows and foes

1214
01:04:25,800 --> 01:04:28,320
Speaker 1: and have a great week, and I look forward to

1215
01:04:28,360 --> 01:04:31,560
Speaker 1: talking to everyone on the Render next week.