WEBVTT - Ep. 74: Whitetail Stories - Bristlin', Gruntin', and Clickin' Bucks (Part 1) 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:07.400 And so I get to looking at the direction she's 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:09.840 coming and I see big old horns coming. They look 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:12.600 like those Texas bucks that go straight out with big 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:15.000 times going up. I mean, he was the biggest deer 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:17.759 I guess I've ever seen. On hoof half hour into 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:20.280 the hunt, they looked up and here's this buck standing 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:23.119 not that far away, coming right down the middle of 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:24.880 this strip of beans, and the strip of beans only 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:28.360 like fifty yards wide, and I thought, holy cow, that's 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:31.080 one of the biggest bucks I've ever seen. On this 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:35.600 episode of the Burglaries podcast, we're talking about white tailed deer, 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:39.360 but this isn't the typical tips, tactics and biology that 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:43.040 we're here so much. That's useful stuff and I love it, 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:46.839 But the foundation of why that knowledge is even desirable 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:51.199 is found in the onion layer deeper. We want the 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:55.400 knowledge because of how valuable white tails are to us. 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:59.840 White tailed deer hunting culture in this country is uniquely America. 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:03.680 There's nothing else like it in the world. The sheer 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:07.600 numbers of white tails, their wide geographic distribution, and the 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:11.479 liberal seasons, coupled with the rich and unique heritage we 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:16.920 have is unparalleled. When you factor in fried backstrap with 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:20.560 gravy and biscuits on the cool fall evening, you might 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:25.880 start to understand the American Revolution. It wasn't about taxation 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:29.720 and representation or t It was about some hillbillies not 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:34.920 wanting to share their backstrap with the King brothers. We 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:37.760 found ourselves in the ditch, and we're only on the 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:43.360 intro anyhow. My first love was undoubtedly white tail hunting, 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:46.800 with coon hunting rolling in tight on the do claws. 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:50.720 And we've got a compilation of storytellers on this episode, 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:54.880 many of which are familiar voices and the bargary stratosphere, 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:59.760 and a few are new. We've got big bucks, little bucks, missed, 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:04.240 but bucks bristling, grutting, running bucks, clicking bucks, and bucks 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:08.840 falling in holes. But one thing's for sure, you're not 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:11.560 gonna want to miss this one. And I'll accord to 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:14.680 my eye. I see movement again, and that's when one 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:16.680 of the biggest bucks that I've ever seen by hunting 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:21.280 walks out, just a big body, eight point buck walks out. 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:23.760 I walked under the deer and I'll never forget this. 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:27.000 I said this out loud. I said, wow, I never 0:02:27.080 --> 0:02:40.040 killed one like that. My name is Clay Nukelem and 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:43.720 this is the Bear Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:48.520 forgotten but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places, and 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:52.239 where we'll tell the story of Americans who lived their 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:57.000 lives close to the land, presented by f HF gear, 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:02.239 American made purpose built hunting and fishing gear that's designed 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:12.920 to be as rugged as the places we explore. Storytelling 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:17.160 is a sacred thing and foundational to human life. Our 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:21.280 ancestors not that far back didn't have written language, and 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:26.120 so oral storytelling was the medium and conduit of human 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:30.200 culture for way longer than it hasn't been. Clay quipped 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:35.320 being so dramatic. I'm not I'm being serious. The earliest 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:39.760 forms of writing appeared around five thousand, five hundred years 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:42.840 ago on planet Earth, which in the big picture of 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:47.040 the human story, is equivalent to a single page in 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:51.400 a book as thick as a car. The Falsome Man, 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:54.160 the Bros in New Mexico that killed the thirty two 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:58.000 bison with unique stone points were a live five thousand 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:02.920 years too early for books, So for them, storytelling was 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:08.000 the architecture of their world. It carried their values, their worldview, 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.920 their thoughts on divine power, their practical knowledge for how 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:14.480 to live, how to make a fire, how to nap stone, 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:17.040 where to can't want to eat, when to run, when 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:22.600 to fight humans physically talking to humans carried our culture 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:26.640 for a long time, a long time. And this culture 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:29.640 that I speak of is the platter on which the 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:33.880 very thing that makes us humans sits upon. We deeply 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:38.360 value the wild beasts, but our differences from them are 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:42.000 so steep it's clear that we're different than the beast. 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:46.680 We're separate from him. Deep cognition of our surroundings and 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:50.279 awareness of the past, a deep longing to understand the future, 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:55.200 making tools, recognition of beauty and art and altruism. All 0:04:55.279 --> 0:05:00.400 these things are diagnostic of humanity. Storytelling is it just 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:04.000 about relaying the natural events of a moment. Though we 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:08.440 gain relevant information from stories, lots of it, but they 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:13.440 carry a sentiment load full of meaning. These stories tell 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:16.680 us who we are. They give us identity, They tell 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:20.440 us what's valuable. They highlight what's honorable and what's detestable. 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:25.240 They give us instruction, advice, and warning. They entertain us, 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:30.960 and storytelling highlights leaders inside of communities and tribes. It 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:33.320 was very much that way with the Native Americans, and 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.200 really is still that way today in most places in 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:39.000 the Earth. Part of being a chief was being able 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:43.280 to talk the big talk. They honored those whose stories 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:48.080 inspired people. Stories are everything to us, and they still 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:54.040 are today, even deer stories. This collection of white tailed 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:57.919 deer hunting stories is so ridiculously rich in value. I 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:01.120 struggle to find the words. Every one of these men 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:04.719 that tell a story admit a frequency that is part 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:08.599 of the sound of my life. So this stuff didn't 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.960 happen to me, but these stories are personal to me. 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.080 Some of these guys I've known my whole life, and 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:19.240 others are relatively new friends, but I love them all. 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:24.080 This first story comes from my friend from Western Arkansas, 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:28.440 Randy long Legged step I've known Randy Says grade school 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:32.080 and we were the founding members of an elite invitation 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.040 only club in our high school we called the Timber Scouts. 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:38.560 Basically all we did was go camping, never any alcohol, 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:42.640 just good claim fund. Randy's hunt took place on public 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:46.719 land in Arkansas, and I think you'll be surprised how 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:50.000 it ends. So a lot of your hunt stories are 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:52.800 probably gonna be about really great hunters that put a 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:56.679 lot of preparation into their hunt and really go after 0:06:56.720 --> 0:07:00.240 a deer they've seen on camera seen My story is 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:03.599 not that at all. To put some context in my story, 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:07.560 it kind of starts with work. I work retail and 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:10.360 work a lot of hours in the fall, especially toward 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:13.320 holiday season. And this particular year, I think it two 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:17.920 thousand and fifteen, we had inventory in the middle of October, 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:21.080 so it really cut down my ability to go scout 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:25.320 for good hunting places or even really to go archery hunting. 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:28.720 Muzzlelodon season was right in the middle of inventory week, 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:31.720 and I just decided I needed I needed some relief 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:35.600 from work, needed to get out and just kind of 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:38.720 enjoy a day off after working for so many weeks 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:41.240 and days in a row. And I mentioned it to 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:43.640 Scott Brown, who I worked for at the time, who 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:46.600 I considered to be one of the best hunters around, 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:49.000 and he thought about it for a while, and I 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:52.480 didn't ask for a place to go, but he just suggested, Hey, 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.000 I know where you should go. There's this great place 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:58.440 that usually produces good bucks, and you should know how 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:00.679 to get there because we've gone the previou this Turkey 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:03.760 season and listen for turkeys up in this saddle. I said, 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:06.320 you know what, I ain't got a good idea. I 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:08.600 don't have anywhere else to go, so I'll go give 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.920 that a try. So when day was over, I got 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:15.080 off at like eight o'clock at night and got home 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:18.680 and rushed to put all my hunting gear together. And 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:22.320 I'm usually real meticulous about having everything planned out and ready. 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.760 I grabbed my my powder, my extra powder, and my 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:27.880 slugs and I keep them in those little powered pirate 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:31.640 Dex tubes, and I went to bed. I got up 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.520 early the next morning with what I thought was enough 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:36.720 time to get out there get on the top of 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.840 this saddle on the mountain. When I got out there, 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:42.600 I'd forgotten that there was a bunch of down pine 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:44.840 trees everywhere that you had to kind of snake your 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:47.600 way through to get to the spot where you start 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:51.040 to climb up the ridge. And the ridge was very, 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:53.959 very steep, so I kind of slowly made my way 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:56.360 up because it was really warm that morning too, so 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:59.360 I realized how out of shape that I was also 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:03.560 climbing up that and I started realizing that I could 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.000 start to see the first little crack of daylight coming 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:09.320 and I wasn't in that flow spot yet, and I 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:11.240 wasn't gonna make it because I didn't know exactly where 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:13.719 it was with a head lamp on, and I was 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:15.560 gonna pick a tree and do all that stuff in 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:17.040 the dark. And I said, you know what I need. 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:19.319 I need to make something happen right now. So I 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:22.520 kind of stopped where I was looked around and I 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:26.199 noticed a really defined game trail. I mean, you could 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:28.720 ride a mountain bike through this trail as much as 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:30.440 he was getting used. And I thought, okay, let me 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:32.960 check the wind. So I check the wind. It's like, okay, perfect, 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:36.200 I can get above this trail a little higher up 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:39.160 the hill and watch the trail, and that trail is 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:41.000 headed to that low gap I was gonna get to. 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:44.000 And this we'll just have to work, and I'll just 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:46.120 have to pray that I've got a good enough you 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:47.960 when the sun comes up that I could get a 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:50.360 cleaning shut off. But I know I can at least 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:53.760 hunt that trail. So I did all the work getting 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:55.880 up in the tree and getting on my stuff, and 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:57.839 then once I got up there, I think I was 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:01.119 smart enough to actually bring an extra shirt to change into. 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.600 And then I pulled the Gary nucom and sprayed myself 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:07.240 down with the scent cover, and then I sat there 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:08.800 for a few minutes. And as I sat there, the 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:11.040 sun start come up, and I kind of got mad 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.439 at myself. I was like, you know, I've ruined this 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:16.959 hunt already. I'm sweaty, I'm not where I'm supposed to be. 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:19.079 I don't even know if I'm might have a good shot. 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:21.640 This is gonna be a waste of my time. But 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:25.079 I'm here, so let me just I'll just enjoy being outside. 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:29.200 And I sat there for about two hours with nothing, 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:32.199 didn't hear nothing. I thought, you know, I'm gonna give 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:34.120 it one more hour and then it'll take me about 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:36.800 forty five minutes to climb out and then I'll go home. 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:38.760 It's like, this is this is just gonna be a bust. 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:41.200 I just probably would have killed one if I'd been 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:44.120 in the saddles, what I thought. And not more than 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:48.600 five minutes later, I heard the loudest what I would 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:50.920 call a growl, but it wasn't really a growl. It 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:54.040 was just a loud noise and I had no idea 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.600 what kind of animal did it. My first thought was, 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:00.000 all right, there's about to be a bear walked down 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.600 this trail. Uh, it's gonna go from a deer hunt 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:06.440 to a bear hunt. So I turned and my gun 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:09.960 started looking down the trail, and out the corner of 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:13.720 my eye, I start to see three does kind of 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:17.120 walking the top of the ridge right above me, just 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:21.160 grazing their way around and kind of easing through. And 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:23.640 I watched them until I had to swing around the 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:26.360 other side of the tree and watch them until they 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.640 went completely out of sight. And they never winded me, 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:33.200 which is they should have, but they didn't. So I thought, well, 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:35.760 that's pretty good. But I needed to focus my attension 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:37.680 back on this bear that's gonna come down the trail 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:39.520 because there's still something down there. I don't know what 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:42.120 it is. So turn my gun around and I'm watching, 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:45.200 and I accorded my eye I see movement again, and 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:47.559 that's when one of the biggest bucks that I've ever 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:51.560 seen by hunting walks out, just a big body, eight 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:54.559 point buck walks out, and I'm like, oh, this is great, 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:56.959 Like I'm on him. I already know where those dough went, 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:59.640 So I moved my gun right to where he should 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.719 have went. He walks right into it. I squeezed the 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:07.000 trigger and nothing happens. I forgot it was a double 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:10.480 safety gun and I hadn't undone the other safety. I 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:14.200 quickly undo the other safety. He's moved by that point, 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:15.760 so I have to swing around the other side of 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.839 the tree. I've got one more chance to shoot this buck. 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:22.040 I point the gun where those does had gone, and 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:24.720 he walks right into the perfect spot, and I pulled 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:29.120 the trigger. When you hunt with the mozzleloader, you never 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:31.760 know what you're gonna get when the smoke clears. When 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:34.840 the smoke cleared, he was down on the ground doing 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.839 his final kicks, and I was like, I got him, 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:40.360 and then he quit kicking. I thought, he's down. I've 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:43.040 killed this big eight points the biggest one I've ever killed. 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:48.079 So I texted two people immediately. I texted Clay Knokelem 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:50.840 and Scott Brown and told him that I've killed this 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:54.880 big buck on this mountain. Well, while I'm texting Scott, 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:57.560 that deer starts to kick just a little bit, and 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:00.400 when he does, he's on such a steep slope he 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:03.200 starts sliding a little and then he would stop. And 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:05.280 I'm texting this to Scott and He's like, well, you 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:07.720 better go ahead and reload, just in case you need 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:10.480 to put another shot in him, just to finish him off. 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:14.880 That's whenever I made a a realization that I made 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:18.680 a huge mistake. I had grabbed two tubes of slugs 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:21.520 and no powder, so I had nothing that I could 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:24.360 finally dispatch this deer with. And then I'm starting to 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:27.480 panic because as he kicks a little bit, he slides 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:30.480 further down the mountain. At this point, he's even with 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:33.080 my tree stand. He's under my tree stand, and I'm 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:35.960 convinced that it's a it's a fatal shot. He's going 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:39.120 to die, but the humane thing to do is to 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:41.880 put him down. Why you see him? So I called 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:44.120 Scott and I'm like, hey, you know where I'm at. 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:45.959 I need some more powder. You're gonna have to bring 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.160 me some powder. And he informs me, well, let that 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:52.120 deer get down the hill aways from you. Climb out 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:54.840 of your stand, stay a good distance away from him, 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:57.280 but don't lose sight of him. I'll find you in 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:00.880 the woods and then we'll take care of it. No 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:03.559 sooner than I hang up the phone, he makes one 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.920 more kick and just really starts sliding off down the hill. 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.080 It's almost like he's on a sled. And then all 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:15.520 of a sudden, he just disappeared. And I'm dumbfounded because 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:18.319 I can see further down the mountain, but this deer 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:20.840 all of a sudden just fell off a cliff and disappeared. 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:25.440 And then I heard a water splash echo, like if 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:29.800 you dropped a rock in a well, and I thought, 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:32.040 what in the heck is going I'm on top of 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:34.720 a mountain. What There's not even any water up here. 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:39.240 So I climbed down and I walk over to where 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.200 I had last seen him, and I realized there's a 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:45.960 mine shaft right there, and he had slid off when 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:48.960 he gained momentum and slid down. He fell fifteen to 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:52.400 twenty feet down into a mine shaft hole and landed 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:55.680 and just a little bit of water in the bottom. Luckily, 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:58.360 he was expired at this time, so I called Scott 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:00.600 bag It's like, well, we don't need any powder at 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:02.680 this point, but we got us some problem because I 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:04.800 don't know how we're gonna get him out. About an 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:07.600 hour later, Scott showed up and he brought some rope 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:09.080 and some other stuff, and we didn't know if we're 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:10.960 gonna have to call more people or get a come 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:12.560 along or what we're gonna have to do. We had 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:14.840 to figure out how to get him out. So Scott 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.920 was able to last so one side of his antlers 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:22.840 and we both grabbed onto the rope start pulling, and 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:25.160 as we did it kind of cranked his head to 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:29.000 the side and his antlers were hitting the rock at 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:31.960 rock edges and we chip just a little bit of 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:34.600 his main beam off. We're honest, we can't do that. 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:36.720 We're gonna totally snap off an antler if we do that. 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.720 So we dropped him back down. Then we decided if 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:44.800 we last so him on both sides of the antlers, 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:48.160 we can pull an opposite directions and hoist him straight 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:51.000 out of the middle when he won't touch anything. So 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:54.120 we kind of wrapped the ropes around trees, we pulled 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:57.640 in opposite directions, took everything we had because this is 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:00.720 this is a big body, dear one. He got to 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:04.080 the edge, Uh, wrapped my rope around, tied it real quick, 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:05.920 and I ran over and grabbed his antlers and just 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:10.040 kind of anchored myself in until Scott could get over 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:11.800 there to grab Also, because we didn't want to fall 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:13.840 in the hole with him, because if we did, I 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:16.040 don't know if anybody else besides Clay knew that we 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:18.480 were out there dealing with a deer in a in 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:22.160 a mine shaft. We heaved that thing out of there, 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.400 and when it did, we were just totally exhausted. It 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:27.640 took everything we had to get him out of that hole. 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:30.320 That's when the work began getting him down off that 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:34.200 mountain around all those trees. So later I did some 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:37.640 research and realized that throughout the mountains there are a 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:42.360 lot of mine shafts and test minds, and I believe 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:44.840 what they were looking for was manganese. There. There was 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:47.800 a time when they thought that there was manganese here 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:49.880 and that they really went after it for a short 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:53.240 period of time. So one crazy thing about that mine 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:56.680 shaft is I took my kids hiking up there just 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.600 a couple of years ago. The springtime in that mine 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:02.480 shaft was completely full of water and there was a 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:07.960 fish swimming in it. So nature's crazy. A fish in 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:11.560 a mind shaft that was completely unconnected from any other 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:16.560 body of water. Incredible. And that's a great, dear story. 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:21.040 This next voice that you're gonna hear, you will for 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:25.320 sure recognize because it's none other than my friend Stephen Runella. 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:28.960 This story was told by his father to him. And 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:32.760 just a little background. Steve was born in Michigan, relatively 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:36.399 late in his dad's life. Frank Ronnella was a World 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:40.199 War Two vet and was often looking for lessons to 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:46.560 teach young Steve. This was one of them. This is 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:50.119 a dear story that didn't happen to me, and it 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:53.640 didn't happen to my dad. However, my dad would tell 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:58.040 it all the time, and it was a dear story 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:00.560 that he would tell and what it was meant to be. 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:03.480 It was meant to be a don't give up story 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:08.080 he had. My dad used to have a Yeah, he 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:09.600 had a lot of stories you would tell that we're 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:11.640 all had served a purpose, for instance, if he's trying 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:15.600 to explain an optimist and the pessimist. Or at times 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:17.080 it would be the difference you a rich kid in 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:19.000 the poor kid. I'll tell the rich kid poor vert 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:22.080 kid version real quick. He would say that if you 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:24.680 took a rich kid and put him in a room 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:28.520 full of manure, he's just gonna sit there and cry. 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:30.960 But if you take a poor kid and put him 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:33.919 in a room full of manure. He's gonna start digging 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:37.320 because he'll be thinking, with all this manure, there's gotta 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:41.359 be a pony in here somewhere now here is his 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:44.159 don't give up dear story. And this happened to a 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:46.360 buddy of his. Is the guy he's talking about all 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:49.760 the time. And my dad started like, bow hunting is old. 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:52.960 I mean bow hunting. You know, on this continent people 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:56.960 been hunting with bows four or five thousand years. Interestingly, 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:04.560 bow technology spread from the north southward. The people that 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:07.679 came over much later than you know, much later than 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:11.240 the Athabaskans, the hunters that came over that became Eskimo 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:14.120 and Intuit hunters who came over much later than other 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:18.480 Native American Native Alaskan groups, they probably carried some kind 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.920 of archery technology that eventually spread southward. So people in 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:23.679 bow hunting a long time. But then there was like 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:26.840 a long, long, long long time when people didn't bow hunt, 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:33.320 and modern day bow hunting kind of became a thing 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:35.880 in the forties and fifties. And my dad was very 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:38.960 avid archer back in those days. This is when people 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:42.119 were hunting with long bows and re curves, but it 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:46.800 wasn't called traad. Archery is just archery. My dad's buddy 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:52.159 is driving home from work and he sees a deer 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:54.920 out in this field where he's been seeing deer lately, 0:19:56.320 --> 0:19:58.119 and he decides he's gonna try to sneak up on 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:02.000 this deer and get a shot at his boat. So 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:06.480 he takes his shoes off, right down to his socks. 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:09.479 My dad always like to point out their white socks. 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:14.240 And he does his stock up to the through the woods, 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:18.720 up to the field edge and launches an arrow out there, 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:21.199 and you can't tell if you got a hit or not, 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:25.160 and looks and looks and looks, can't find his arrow, 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:28.080 so he decided to start looking for blood in the 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:31.960 waning light. Okay, it's getting dark out, but he convinces 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:34.320 himself that he missed and he starts cutting little half 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:36.520 circles just to check for blood and doesn't find any 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:41.320 blood and eventually goes back to his car, put his 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:45.920 shoes on, drives home. What does my dad like to 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:49.400 tell the story? That night, the guy is getting ready 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:53.280 for bed, takes his shoes off, takes his sock off, 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:56.600 and what does he see on his sock? A couple 0:20:56.640 --> 0:21:00.600 of little blood stains on his sock and it wasn't 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:04.680 from cutting his foot, and he rushes back out there 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:09.960 finds his dear What do you think about that? Clean Newcombe? 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:15.080 Never give up, Mr Ronnello, We have all taken note 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:18.040 of the core message of this story and we thank 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:23.800 you for it. Never give up. The next voice you 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:28.320 might also recognize if you're a Bear Grease regular. Andy 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:32.200 Brown was on our Turkey Story episode and our Genuine 0:21:32.240 --> 0:21:36.480 Outlaw series about Louis Dell and Charlie Edwards. You might 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:40.159 remember Andy's laugh if you haven't listened to that series. 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:42.320 It's probably one of the best stories we've ever told. 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:46.240 Andy is from the mountains of western Arkansas and is 0:21:46.240 --> 0:21:50.000 a heck of a deer hunter and woodsman. This is 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:55.760 a tour through Andy's fall of on public land and 0:21:55.840 --> 0:22:00.960 it ends with a non typical surprise. This this is 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:05.240 probably two thousand fifteen or sixteen. I had an area 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:07.119 that I really wanted to go look at. It was 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:10.120 right before muzzloading season and just look for deer sign 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:12.399 It's really see if there was any acrons And made 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:14.680 in on the north side of the mountain, and so 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:18.040 I called my oldest son he was. He was working 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:19.960 and I said, look, when you get off work today, 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:22.520 I said, if you don't mind, picked me up on 0:22:22.560 --> 0:22:26.520 the highway north and uh, he said where and I 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:29.520 told him he said, I'll be there anyway. So I 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:31.560 I drive up on the top of the mountain and 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:34.480 went off wrong. I wanted to go off on this 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:36.560 big leg that goes off the mountain, and but I 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:39.440