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Speaker 1: I don't know where I got this. I don't know

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Speaker 1: what drives Amanda to jump out of bed and a

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Speaker 1: frosty morning and go several miles back in the mountain

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Speaker 1: to sit there in a tree all day.

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Speaker 2: This is our third and final Deer Stories episode of

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, and we are now in the core

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Speaker 2: of the best white tailed dates on the calendar, and

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Speaker 2: to stoke the fire, we're going to tell some wild stories.

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Speaker 2: One from the big Mountains of East Tennessee, couple from Kansas.

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Speaker 2: We're going to talk about some decoyed bucks, some coyotes

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Speaker 2: and bucks, some deer doged bucks, and a two hundred

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Speaker 2: inch buck, and one straight up deer hunting lie. The

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Speaker 2: connector of all these stories in all three episodes we've

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Speaker 2: heard is the passion, respect, and a true appreciation of

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Speaker 2: deer hunting translated through the voices of these hunters. What

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Speaker 2: a privilege it is to be a white tail hunter

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Speaker 2: and we're living in its heyday. After this podcast, we're

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Speaker 2: going back to our regular documentary style stories, So enjoy

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Speaker 2: this last episode before we start learning hard stuff and

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Speaker 2: digging deep again, cracking into this American hunting culture. We've

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Speaker 2: found ourselves embedded in. But that being said, our stories

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Speaker 2: carry the culture, our values, and our future. I really

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Speaker 2: doubt you're gonna want to miss this one.

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Speaker 3: It was a weird deal, just an old majestic buck

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Speaker 3: like that, you know, lived this whole life and it

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Speaker 3: was just my buck of a lifetime. We start taping

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Speaker 3: this deer well we ran out of tape.

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

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

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

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Speaker 2: story gory of Americans who lived their lives close to

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Speaker 2: the land, presented by FHF gear, American made, purpose built

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Speaker 2: hunting and fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged

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Speaker 2: as the place as we explore. Henry Sioux Song is

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Speaker 2: eighty years old and from the rough country of East Tennessee.

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Speaker 2: And if you've never been there, trust me, it is

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Speaker 2: some rough country that rivals anywhere on this continent. Mister

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Speaker 2: Henry stands among an elite class of humans healthy enough

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Speaker 2: to pursue their passions into their eighties. But perhaps even

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Speaker 2: more unique, his internal drive for his passion hasn't decreased.

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Speaker 2: His fire burns hot. The man bubbles with infectious energy.

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Speaker 2: When I went to mister Henry's home, he led me

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Speaker 2: into a large room filled wall to wall with deer heads,

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Speaker 2: and I mean big deer. He grinned like a possum

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Speaker 2: meating red ants while describing how he and his sons

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Speaker 2: had taken all these deer with archery gear. Many came

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Speaker 2: from Tennessee, others came from the Midwest. The bucks ranged

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Speaker 2: from basket racks to stacks of one fifties and one sixties,

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Speaker 2: all the way up to a two hundred and twenty

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Speaker 2: inch giant. He had one buck with a twenty seven

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Speaker 2: inch spread on the wall. I asked mister Henry to

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Speaker 2: tell me his most memorable story, which was difficult, but

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Speaker 2: this is the one that he picked. Meet mister Henry.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety one is when I first found sign

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Speaker 1: of this big buck. It was deep in a Cherokee

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Speaker 1: National Forest. It began when my son and I went

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Speaker 1: there and hunted a couple of years. He wound up

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Speaker 1: killing a one hundred and thirty four inch eight point

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Speaker 1: I think, and another big buck that they called slew

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Speaker 1: Foot because he was crippling one leg, which made I

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Speaker 1: guess that leg or the other leg. When he made

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Speaker 1: a scrape, it was a lot bigger than it should be.

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Speaker 1: So we got to going back in this area and

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Speaker 1: packing in and staying, you know, three days at a time.

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Speaker 1: We come out. First year when I found the sign

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Speaker 1: of the big buck, we didn't get him. The acorn

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Speaker 1: crop wasn't real good. Second year, same thing. I found

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Speaker 1: the sign, knew there was a big buck there, but

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Speaker 1: again the acorns weren't real good. Probably he had some

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Speaker 1: rubs the size of a ball capot six seven inches

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Speaker 1: through quite a few of Then comes the third year,

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Speaker 1: and we had been to Illinois looking for some deer

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Speaker 1: sign and my son was all enthused about going to Illinois,

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Speaker 1: and I thought, I can't go to Illinois.

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Speaker 3: Nick.

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Speaker 1: I found about forty crapes on one ridge back there,

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Speaker 1: and the mountains are pretty steep back in that end.

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Speaker 1: On the crest of the ridges, it's where the deer

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Speaker 1: makes scrapes, and I also feed on acres sometimes. The

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Speaker 1: sign that he made would be two miles long. He said,

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Speaker 1: if I go back there one more trip with you,

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Speaker 1: will you then go to Illinoise. I said, yeah, you

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Speaker 1: give me one more change. I said, let's go back

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Speaker 1: there and see if we can't get him. So we

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Speaker 1: went back and put our little pufp tin up packed

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Speaker 1: ten put her pup tin up. It was October the

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Speaker 1: twenty eighth, nineteen ninety three, went hundred trees stands, and

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Speaker 1: the next morning, just a crack of daylight, I heard

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Speaker 1: something that i'd heard before, and it was a deer

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Speaker 1: having his horns in limbs over his head. There was

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Speaker 1: a clicking sound. A lot of people heard it. Then

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Speaker 1: he came out the top of a ridge and I

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Speaker 1: could see the top of his rack. I had never

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Speaker 1: seen the deer before, but I knew he was big.

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Speaker 1: By studying the sign, you can tell a lot, but

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Speaker 1: the sign by the track and the scrapes, by the

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Speaker 1: damage he does. So he came out this ridge and

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Speaker 1: he had two scrapes underneath the tree I was in,

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Speaker 1: and I thought, well, maybe he will go straight ahead.

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Speaker 1: If he does, he's too far to shoot. But he didn't.

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Speaker 1: He turned down the ridge comes straight to the scrapes.

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Speaker 1: I shot him when he's standing right below the scrape,

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Speaker 1: within ten foot of the tree, right down through the

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Speaker 1: between the front shoulders. He ran out the ridge about

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Speaker 1: seventy five eighty yards turned down the ridge and went

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Speaker 1: out of my sight. So I sat there for a

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Speaker 1: little while, and I knew immediately it's been several years ago.

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Speaker 1: It's the biggest deer I'd ever seen, both horns and

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Speaker 1: body wise. So I got out out of the tree,

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Speaker 1: went down there, and the direction he run. I didn't

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Speaker 1: try to follow the blood trail, but I knew why

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Speaker 1: I could pick it up. But when I got down there,

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Speaker 1: I was looking up on the size of the ridge

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Speaker 1: looking for him, and looked down and he was right

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Speaker 1: under my feet dead. One thing that I thought was

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Speaker 1: really interesting. I finally found my son. He got out

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Speaker 1: out of the tree about eleven o'clock and come back

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Speaker 1: to for with camp and I told him, I said,

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Speaker 1: I got him. So we started pulling this deer at

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Speaker 1: twelve o'clock. We put him on the four wheeler at

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Speaker 1: nine o'clock at night. That's how That's how tough it

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Speaker 1: was to get out. It was just I mean, it

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Speaker 1: was just so far back, you know, in a remote area,

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Speaker 1: but we got him out. So it was just an

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Speaker 1: absolute huge deer for the high a mountain, Yeah, you know,

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Speaker 1: amazing in this part of the country. Scored one hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty five inches and it's only got five eighths

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Speaker 1: of a niche deduction on the whole rack. That's that's

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Speaker 1: kind of an amazing thing too. I've never seen one

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Speaker 1: that close. That's just that's you know, that's just one

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Speaker 1: of the stories. He's hanging right here right now. I

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Speaker 1: don't know where I got this. I don't know what

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Speaker 1: drives a man to jump out of bed and frosty

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Speaker 1: morning and go several miles back in the mountains to

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Speaker 1: sit thereunder a tree all day. Except none of my people,

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Speaker 1: as far as I can find out, fish or hunted.

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Speaker 1: An old man in North Carolina. When I was twenty

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Speaker 1: eight years old, I got acquaint which sold me a

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Speaker 1: used bow he had in three wooden iras for twenty dollars,

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Speaker 1: and that's where I started. I think maybe I shot

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Speaker 1: at a deer that year, but a friend of mine

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Speaker 1: went with men. Someone asked him, as you see a deer,

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Speaker 1: He said, yeah, Henry shot at one. He said, how

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Speaker 1: close was it? He said, well, it kissed him. I

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Speaker 1: missed him. I found an old tree stand back in

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Speaker 1: the mountains and got up in it. Said I didn't

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Speaker 1: have a tree stand, and for the first three or

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Speaker 1: four years, I didn't have a tree stand. I finally

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Speaker 1: figured out I could take an old Coca Cola case

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Speaker 1: that they used to put bottles in it up in

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Speaker 1: a tree. It made a pretty good stand. So that's

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Speaker 1: what I hunted off over too through a year. But

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Speaker 1: it's been many years ago. But it's something you get

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Speaker 1: into that you love and you just get it in

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Speaker 1: your blood. A lot of times when I go back

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Speaker 1: in the mountains, I like to go back there in

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Speaker 1: October and watch the leaves fall when they all turn.

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Speaker 1: And I've always thought there's something magic in the mountains.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's kind of magical to watch boomers. You

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Speaker 1: know what a boomer is. Okay, a boomer is a

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Speaker 1: little squirrel. They're fastest green lighting and they live about

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Speaker 1: five thousand feet elevation in the mountains, and I like

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Speaker 1: to watch those play. They're fast. I like to watch

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Speaker 1: squirrels bear all the animals. I mean, it's just magic

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Speaker 1: for me. Once you get in your blood, you can't

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Speaker 1: get it out. You've got to go every year. But

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Speaker 1: that's the story of my favorite buck from the place

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Speaker 1: in the Turkey National Forest.

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Speaker 2: Are you as passionate about bow hunting now as you

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Speaker 2: were when you were in your thirties every bit.

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Speaker 1: So probably the reason that is is I know what's

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Speaker 1: coming to an end.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 1: I've been forciate enough to hunt some some people had

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Speaker 1: a lot of respect for over the years. And one

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Speaker 1: of my one of my good friends, was ten years

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Speaker 1: and ten days older than I am, and he told

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Speaker 1: me one day, he said, there'll come a day when

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Speaker 1: you'll have to stop, and it'll be it'll be tough

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Speaker 1: on you. He said, happen to me, it'll happen to you.

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Speaker 1: And I know that's true. Yeah, but I still love

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Speaker 1: to go back in the mountains and I can still

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Speaker 1: do it and probably will till something happens. Give you

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Speaker 1: an example. Last year, I was in the remote area.

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Speaker 1: I called and I was on top of the mountain.

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Speaker 1: It takes about an hour to get up there, up

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Speaker 1: a tree, and a fella came by and he finally

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Speaker 1: spotted me, and he stopped by and apologized for, you know,

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Speaker 1: affecting my dear honey. I said, man, I haven't seen anything,

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Speaker 1: and he said, I believe I've seen you here before

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Speaker 1: and I said, yeah, I've hunted here for many years.

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Speaker 1: And he said how old are you? And I said

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Speaker 1: I'll be eighty my birthday and he said, man, I

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Speaker 1: can't believe it, he said. I said, you don't have

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Speaker 1: to say anything. I know how lucky I am, you know.

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Speaker 1: But when he left, he said, you know it's amazing.

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Speaker 1: He said, come on top of this mountain and see

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Speaker 1: an old man up a tree that's seventy nine years old.

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Speaker 1: But I've been lucky. Maybe the reason that I go

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Speaker 1: to the High Country's course he's taking care of me.

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Speaker 2: Mister Henry is a special man, full of energy, passion,

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Speaker 2: and a love of white tailed deer hunting that rivals

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Speaker 2: any I've encountered. To my knowledge, he's never been interviewed

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Speaker 2: about his hunting. He never cared to be, but he's

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Speaker 2: been extremely successful as a bow hunter in Passing. He

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Speaker 2: told me that once some knucklehead had spread a rumor

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Speaker 2: in the community that those Sioux song boys were killing

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Speaker 2: all these deer at night. He chuckled and told the

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Speaker 2: numbskulled naysayer, they're hard enough to kill during the daytime.

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Speaker 2: I can't imagine trying to kill one at night, As

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Speaker 2: if to say, we're not as good.

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Speaker 4: As you think we are. Buddy, but I appreciate it.

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Speaker 4: I thought that was pretty witty.

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Speaker 2: Mister Henry, thanks for sharing your story with us. Our

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Speaker 2: next story is told by my friend Aaron Stanfel. He

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Speaker 2: was on our first Deer Stories episode and told about

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Speaker 2: going to the bathroom and calling in those two deer.

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Speaker 2: Here's a short story about two wild days in Kansas

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Speaker 2: with his brother Andy.

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Speaker 3: My brother and I are in Kansas two thousand and nine,

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Speaker 3: on his birthday, November the tenth, we were hunting a

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Speaker 3: huge beanfield and we had decided that we were going

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Speaker 3: to try to decoy a deer in for the first time.

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Speaker 3: So when we uh, we bought us a primos I

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Speaker 3: don't remember. I think his name was Bucky Little primost

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Speaker 3: Bucky Dick coming to a green bag. We set it

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Speaker 3: up at the edge of the beanfield, and we'd watched

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Speaker 3: enough videos we knew to turn it kind of turning

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Speaker 3: towards us in the tree. You want to do that

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Speaker 3: because if a deer's coming in, you want the deer

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Speaker 3: to come around your decoy because he'll always come in

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Speaker 3: and face him headfirst. He won't ever approach another deer

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Speaker 3: from the back. So we knew if he come around

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Speaker 3: to the front.

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Speaker 1: We'd have a.

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Speaker 3: Broadside shot the deer with We put this bucky dikoy

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Speaker 3: up eighteen yards in front of us. We was both

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Speaker 3: in this big cedar tree. Here steps out a beautiful,

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Speaker 3: beautiful nine pointer out of the corner of the beanfield,

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Speaker 3: probably about I don't know, one hundred yards. It was

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Speaker 3: kind of walking away, but it stopped and it saw

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Speaker 3: the decoy. And when it did, it immediately immediately through

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Speaker 3: its ears back straight backwards and just bristled up and

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Speaker 3: kind of just hunched over and just stiff legged all

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Speaker 3: the way across the field. It was the most dramatic,

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Speaker 3: the most exciting thing that I've ever witnessed. Comes all

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Speaker 3: the way into the decoy. I had to close my eyes.

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Speaker 3: I'll never forget I had my eyes closed. I was

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Speaker 3: just trying to get my thoughts together. I was like,

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Speaker 3: I have got to keep it together right here.

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Speaker 4: I was so.

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Speaker 3: Nervous, I was shaking. It comes around the head of

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Speaker 3: the decoy and it just throws its head and it

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Speaker 3: knocks the whole head off of the decoy just out

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Speaker 3: there on the ground. Well, when it did, the deer

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Speaker 3: just stood there, still run off. It just stood there like,

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Speaker 3: what in the world, you know, And my brother's like, Aaron, what.

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Speaker 4: Are you doing?

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Speaker 5: Shoot the deer? Shoot the deer, And.

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Speaker 3: I'm like, hang on, I gotta get this together. I

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Speaker 3: was like, I can't even draw my bow back. I

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Speaker 3: was shaking so much. And anyway, I finally got drew back,

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Speaker 3: made a great shot on the deer and it expired

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Speaker 3: right there in the middle of the bean field. Still

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Speaker 3: probably the most exciting hunt I've ever been and just

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Speaker 3: the way that he came in was just incredible. The

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Speaker 3: next evening, my brother said, hey, let's do that again.

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Speaker 3: Let's get in the same tree. We'll do the same thing.

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Speaker 3: There's gotta be another deer in there. So we did

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Speaker 3: another really nice deer, probably one hundred and thirty five

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Speaker 3: inch ten pointer, come out the far other end of

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Speaker 3: the beanfield, probably four hundred yards, just had his look

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Speaker 3: through the binoculars to see it. My brother said, Aaron,

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Speaker 3: there's a big buck. He's like, snort, wheeze addy, So

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Speaker 3: I just sh you know, really loud. He heard it,

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Speaker 3: and he come running all the way across the beanfield,

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Speaker 3: saw the decoy, exact same thing, come in head first

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Speaker 3: to the decoy, and he made a fantastic shot on

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Speaker 3: the deer. We filmed the whole thing. We killed bucks

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Speaker 3: back to back nights over at Decoy, and but we

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Speaker 3: snort wheezed that deer and it was it was so

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Speaker 3: such a good hunt.

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Speaker 2: That's some good hunting. I asked Aaron if he had

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Speaker 2: any more memorable stories. He hesitated for a moment and

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Speaker 2: said he'd like to tell one. It's really more of

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Speaker 2: a confession than a story. The two other guys that

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Speaker 2: he's gonna mention here are mutual friends of ours, Scott

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Speaker 2: Brown and Lucas Austin. And this story is not Bear

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Speaker 2: Grease approved, mister Aaron, but I'm pretty sure everybody's gonna

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Speaker 2: enjoy it.

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Speaker 3: I got a funny one. I don't know what year

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Speaker 3: it was, it had to have been nineteen ninety eight

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Speaker 3: or nineteen ninety nine. That's when I met all the

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Speaker 3: Meana bunch, and I'd invited them to come over and

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Speaker 3: have a deer camp with us over on some public

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Speaker 3: land here in north of Arkansas. And Lucas Awsen and

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Speaker 3: Scott Brown they had been out driving around scouting for

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Speaker 3: the deer camp, and they came back to camp and

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Speaker 3: it was a tough year. I hadn't found any sign

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Speaker 3: at all to even hunting. They came back to camp

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Speaker 3: and of course, I you know, I told him that

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Speaker 3: I knew the woods like the back of my hand.

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Speaker 3: You know, I knew every ridge over there.

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Speaker 5: I knew well.

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Speaker 3: They came back to camp and they said, man, we

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Speaker 3: have flat out found him. Said, we have found this

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Speaker 3: ridge that is just covered in deer, sun, white oak,

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Speaker 3: acorns all over the ground. I thought, man, really we're

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Speaker 3: at said, you know over there, and they described exactly

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Speaker 3: where it was at, and I said, yeah, I've got

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Speaker 3: to I've got a tree stand. I've never told this

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Speaker 3: for I've never I don't think they're even told brown.

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Speaker 6: See.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I've got a tree stand on that ridge. They said,

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Speaker 3: you've got to be kidding me. We didn't see one.

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Speaker 3: I said, yeah, I do. I said I've got one

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Speaker 3: up there the top. And I didn't have a tree

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Speaker 3: stand there. And they thought, man, that was should have known.

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Speaker 3: You know, Stanfield is gonna be have He's already figured

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Speaker 3: found out. So they went somewhere else. The next day,

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Speaker 3: I whilled in there at daylight and I hadn't been

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Speaker 3: in the tree ten minutes, and the big ol'd dough

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Speaker 3: come in there and I shot her, and I don't

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Speaker 3: think I ever told them. We've called that liar's ridge

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Speaker 3: to this day. I'm not proud of it, but that's

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Speaker 3: just how it happened.

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Speaker 2: Aaron, that was downright dirty, brother. I'm glad you finally

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Speaker 2: got that off your chest. Confession is a powerful tool,

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Speaker 2: and I think you owe Scott and Luca deer. The

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Speaker 2: way I figure it, twenty years of compound interest on

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Speaker 2: a doe deer, by my calculations, equals one hundred and

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Speaker 2: thirty five inch buck. You owe both of them both

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Speaker 2: one hundred and thirty five inch deer. Don't lie to

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Speaker 2: your hunting buddies, Okay, I'm going to tell the next story.

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Speaker 2: This was the first big buck that I ever killed.

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Speaker 2: This is one of my most memorable hunts. It was

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Speaker 2: October the twenty fifth, nineteen ninety eight. And that's an

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Speaker 2: important date because as a deer I've learned that dates

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Speaker 2: are very important, and it's something that I remember pretty well.

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Speaker 4: Of the deer that I've killed, I could tell you the.

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Speaker 2: Date of almost every one of the big bucks, and

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Speaker 2: it started with this one.

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Speaker 4: I was nineteen years old.

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Speaker 2: I was coming back to my hometown from where I

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Speaker 2: was going to college my first year of college at

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Speaker 2: Arkansas Tech University, I was going back to hunt with

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Speaker 2: Dad on some scrubby public land that we grew up hunting.

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Speaker 2: This land was primarily pine plantation. There was a lot

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Speaker 2: of forestry going on there, so there were a lot

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Speaker 2: of clear cuts, but they would leave the hardwood timber

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Speaker 2: along the riparian zones along the creeks, and in late

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Speaker 2: October when the acrons were falling, that's where you'd find

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Speaker 2: the deer wherever you found the oaks, which was along

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Speaker 2: the creeks. This was the spot that my dad and

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Speaker 2: I had hunted a lot in years previous.

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Speaker 4: It was a place we called blue Bucket.

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Speaker 2: First time Dad went in there, he saw a blue bucket,

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Speaker 2: and so from then on it was called blue Bucket. Basically,

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Speaker 2: it was a narrow strip of hardwood timber with two

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Speaker 2: clearcuts on either side, and the clearcuts met and the

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Speaker 2: timber narrowed down into a point, and right at that

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Speaker 2: point was where Dad.

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Speaker 4: Had found multiple big scrapes.

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Speaker 2: And he had been in there scouting in the middle

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Speaker 2: of the day the week before, bumbling around and actually

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Speaker 2: heard a deer coming, got real quiet and still and

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Speaker 2: watched this big buck come through the mill around in there,

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Speaker 2: which was really unusual to lay your eyes on a

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Speaker 2: big buck while you're scouting. And for whatever reason, that

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Speaker 2: next weekend, Dad didn't want to hunt in there. He

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Speaker 2: probably just wanted me to have the good spot. But

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Speaker 2: I went in there and hung a stand within twenty

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Speaker 2: yards of this scrape. I went in early on the

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Speaker 2: morning of the twenty fifth. There was a frost on

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Speaker 2: the ground. It was just the perfect morning. At this

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Speaker 2: time in my hunting career, I had killed several deer

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Speaker 2: with a bow, but I had never killed a mature buck,

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Speaker 2: And honestly, I had never seen a mature buck from stand.

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Speaker 2: And this is also a time when we didn't have

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Speaker 2: trail cameras, we didn't have cell phones, and I might

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Speaker 2: hunt a whole season to get an opportunity at one

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Speaker 2: spike buck. Well, as the morning came on about forty

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Speaker 2: five minutes after daylight, about the time you feel like

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Speaker 2: you ought to be seeing some game, I hear something

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Speaker 2: coming in behind me in the leaves.

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Speaker 4: I hear walking. I get ready.

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Speaker 2: I turn around, and here comes a coyote and he's

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Speaker 2: zigging and zagging through the trees, mousing hunting, and he

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Speaker 2: starts hunting all around these oaks that are just raining

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Speaker 2: acrens that my deer are about to be at. The

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Speaker 2: kyote gets in right close to this big scrape, and

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Speaker 2: I didn't hesitate, and I still don't hesitate to this day.

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Speaker 2: I learned with predators that if you're going to shoot

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Speaker 2: one with a bow, you can't hesitate. You just have

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Speaker 2: to make up your mind before they even get there

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Speaker 2: that you're going to shoot a coyote if it's legal,

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Speaker 2: and it was. By the time he got into the open,

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Speaker 2: he's like ten feet from this big.

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Speaker 4: Scrape and I pull back and shoot this coyote.

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Speaker 2: He drops right there, right in the heart of where

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Speaker 2: the deer activity is supposed to be. There's a dead

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Speaker 2: coyote laying there. I realize I got to do something.

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Speaker 2: I climb out of the stand. I dragged the coyote

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Speaker 2: over to the creek within sight of my stand and

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Speaker 2: throw it in the water so it's submerged in the water,

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Speaker 2: so that a deer wouldn't be smelling the kyote. But

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Speaker 2: still there's kyote blood and scent all just right around

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Speaker 2: where the deer going to be I think my morning's

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Speaker 2: probably shot. Climb back up in the tree about an

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Speaker 2: hour later, so now it's probably around eight point thirty.

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Speaker 2: I hear something coming. I hear steady walking, steady, loud walking.

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Speaker 2: It's so loud that I think it's a cow because

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Speaker 2: there were free range cattle on this public land, or

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Speaker 2: I think it's a man. Typically a deer is gonna

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Speaker 2: walk and stop, walk a little bit and stop. This

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Speaker 2: was just steady for fifty sixty seventy yards, just steady

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Speaker 2: and loud. And I get to the point where I'm

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Speaker 2: not even excited anymore. I'm just waiting for a man

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Speaker 2: to pop out or a cow. Well, my eyes are

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Speaker 2: just fixed on where I think this sound's gonna pop up.

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Speaker 2: And man, I look up and there's the biggest buck

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Speaker 2: I have seen from the stand in my whole life,

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Speaker 2: probably the biggest deer.

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Speaker 4: I've ever seen.

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Speaker 2: And he proceeds to walk right past where that coyote was,

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Speaker 2: right past the coyote blood stand in the middle of

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Speaker 2: that scrape, and go to work in that scrape. Well

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Speaker 2: about the time he gets there, I get to full

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Speaker 2: draw and I'm shooting a Matthew Zmax, which was a

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Speaker 2: brand new bow to me, and it had a very

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Speaker 2: distinct valley, which means at the pinnacle moment of the

432
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:12,320
Speaker 2: draw cycle it drops into its let off very quickly.

433
00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:15,159
Speaker 4: And so that's great.

434
00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:18,800
Speaker 2: But I was having trouble though, when I would relax

435
00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:21,199
Speaker 2: a little bit too much right before the shot and

436
00:24:21,240 --> 00:24:23,440
Speaker 2: the bow would jerk down and.

437
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:24,359
Speaker 4: I'm at full draw.

438
00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:27,240
Speaker 2: The biggest buck I've ever seen is working a scrape,

439
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:30,160
Speaker 2: which this is something I'd only seen on television, and

440
00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:33,879
Speaker 2: I'm about to shoot this deer at twenty yards and boom,

441
00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:39,000
Speaker 2: the bow jerks down and I have this fast, erratic movement.

442
00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:41,560
Speaker 4: I just know that the buck has seen me.

443
00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:45,840
Speaker 2: I close my eyes and I just barely crack him open,

444
00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:48,280
Speaker 2: expecting to see a tail running off.

445
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:49,919
Speaker 4: And the buck has not seen me.

446
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:54,280
Speaker 2: But he's now done working his scrape and he's turning

447
00:24:54,800 --> 00:24:55,960
Speaker 2: and he's leaving.

448
00:24:56,200 --> 00:24:59,119
Speaker 4: I draw the bow back. The deer is now at.

449
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:03,520
Speaker 2: Thirty three yard it's quartering away, and he stops out

450
00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:06,919
Speaker 2: there and I touch off the trigger and the arrow

451
00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:10,640
Speaker 2: just arcs into one of the most beautiful shots I've

452
00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:14,000
Speaker 2: ever made. The Arab just buried up to the fletching

453
00:25:14,119 --> 00:25:17,480
Speaker 2: behind the last rib on a steep quartering shot and

454
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:19,440
Speaker 2: the deer runs off.

455
00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:22,720
Speaker 4: So it's eight thirty in the morning.

456
00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:25,960
Speaker 2: I've now got a coyote in the creek and I've

457
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:28,879
Speaker 2: shot a big buck. And we didn't have cell phones.

458
00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:31,560
Speaker 2: I couldn't call my dad. He was gonna come back

459
00:25:31,680 --> 00:25:36,080
Speaker 2: at eleven o'clock that morning. It's a really unique feeling

460
00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:40,360
Speaker 2: that I had never fully felt before. When when you've

461
00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:42,639
Speaker 2: killed a big deer but you hadn't recovered it yet.

462
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:48,720
Speaker 2: It's a unique experience of the mind, soul, body, spirit.

463
00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:53,360
Speaker 2: There's chemicals flowing, there's emotions flowing. That's hard to describe.

464
00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:55,199
Speaker 2: I don't know that you could describe it to a

465
00:25:55,240 --> 00:25:58,720
Speaker 2: non hunter, that feeling that we get. And I just

466
00:25:58,800 --> 00:26:01,040
Speaker 2: paced up and down the road, paced up and down

467
00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:02,600
Speaker 2: the road for two and a half hours, and at

468
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:06,199
Speaker 2: about eleven ten, Dad pulls up and he said he

469
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:09,199
Speaker 2: could tell when he saw me in the road that

470
00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:11,840
Speaker 2: something special had happened. And I say, Dad, I've killed

471
00:26:11,840 --> 00:26:12,480
Speaker 2: a big buck.

472
00:26:14,119 --> 00:26:17,560
Speaker 4: We go track the deer. The deer hadn't run fifty

473
00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:21,159
Speaker 4: yards and it's the biggest deer I've ever killed. It

474
00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:22,600
Speaker 4: was a very mature buck.

475
00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:26,199
Speaker 2: It had to have weighed at the upper side of

476
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:28,920
Speaker 2: what deer in that region would weigh. I mean, it

477
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:30,879
Speaker 2: was a big four and a half five and a

478
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:33,680
Speaker 2: half year old buck. We took a bunch of pictures,

479
00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:36,080
Speaker 2: and I remember we took a picture down to the

480
00:26:36,119 --> 00:26:38,959
Speaker 2: local bow shop in my hometown and hung that picture

481
00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:41,880
Speaker 2: up on the wall. And I remember what a deep

482
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:46,000
Speaker 2: sense of accomplishment that I felt, as I was one

483
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:48,560
Speaker 2: of the people in the community that year that killed

484
00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:51,159
Speaker 2: a really nice deer with a bow, and I remember

485
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:55,120
Speaker 2: the local paper took my picture, and at the time

486
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:57,840
Speaker 2: I wouldn't have realized how meaningful that was to me

487
00:26:57,880 --> 00:26:59,840
Speaker 2: and how much that influenced me.

488
00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:02,960
Speaker 4: He had a double white throat patch.

489
00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:05,679
Speaker 2: He was a nine point that scored one hundred and

490
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:08,840
Speaker 2: twenty six inches, and that buck hangs in my office

491
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:16,439
Speaker 2: to this day. That was a memorable buck that hooked

492
00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:19,280
Speaker 2: me on those white oak acres for life and made

493
00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:23,240
Speaker 2: me love October twenty fifth. At the time, I didn't

494
00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:27,160
Speaker 2: understand the larger significance of that date, but in general,

495
00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:30,240
Speaker 2: many of the best hunters I know will say from

496
00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:34,360
Speaker 2: October twenty fifth through about November the tenth are the

497
00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:38,760
Speaker 2: best days of the classic Midwestern type rut. I'm sure

498
00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:42,120
Speaker 2: you understand that peak breeding can be slightly to largely

499
00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:46,800
Speaker 2: different regionally, but in many places white tails live. October

500
00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:50,480
Speaker 2: twenty fifth is when it starts getting good. In October

501
00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:53,960
Speaker 2: twenty fifth, nineteen ninety eight is when deer hunting started

502
00:27:53,960 --> 00:28:02,879
Speaker 2: getting good for me. Our next storyteller is my colleague

503
00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:07,560
Speaker 2: meat eater Casey Smith of East Texas, CA. C. Smith

504
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:10,760
Speaker 2: and Tyler Jones have a YouTube channel and a podcast

505
00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:14,040
Speaker 2: called The Element, and I'd say these boys are pretty

506
00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:18,199
Speaker 2: radical whitetail hunters. Case likes to run and gun, and

507
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:21,280
Speaker 2: this story is about a very unique ground hunt and

508
00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:25,800
Speaker 2: the great planes that produced Casey's biggest whitetail Meet.

509
00:28:25,880 --> 00:28:26,600
Speaker 4: Casey Smith.

510
00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:30,600
Speaker 5: Now, I have a habit of being confident, or what

511
00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:34,720
Speaker 5: some might call reckless when chasing deer round on the ground,

512
00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:38,640
Speaker 5: and that comes from a good place, I feel like.

513
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:41,160
Speaker 6: I mean, I always try to be a real optimistic guy,

514
00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:44,240
Speaker 6: and I always like to think that I have what

515
00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:47,600
Speaker 6: it takes to go out there and shoot a big buck.

516
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,000
Speaker 5: Not always the case, but I feel.

517
00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:54,920
Speaker 6: Like you just can't approach it from a position of doubt, right,

518
00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:57,240
Speaker 6: it just doesn't work out, And in fact, A lot

519
00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:00,400
Speaker 6: of this comes from the fact that we us up

520
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:00,800
Speaker 6: so much.

521
00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:02,760
Speaker 5: Tyler and I have been trying to.

522
00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:04,560
Speaker 6: Shoot big deer on the ground for quite a few

523
00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:07,360
Speaker 6: years now, and at the beginning, we used to get

524
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:11,120
Speaker 6: so hot broken because we would just fail all the time.

525
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:13,040
Speaker 6: And it got to the point where it was like, well,

526
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:14,800
Speaker 6: we might as well go out there and chase him,

527
00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:17,200
Speaker 6: because we're gonna mess it up anyways, Let's not put

528
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:19,600
Speaker 6: too much into it, don't overthink it, just go after him.

529
00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:23,520
Speaker 6: And somehow, some way that actually produced like a level

530
00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 6: of confidence and we started.

531
00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:28,160
Speaker 5: To get a little bit better at this.

532
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:31,880
Speaker 6: Well, we are up in a plain state, and I

533
00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:34,280
Speaker 6: am just having a dog of a time.

534
00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:37,840
Speaker 5: I mean I didn't have any place to hunt, and

535
00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:39,360
Speaker 5: the wind direction changed on me.

536
00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:42,480
Speaker 6: I couldn't hunt that property and didn't know if I

537
00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:43,760
Speaker 6: even wanted to anyways.

538
00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:45,240
Speaker 5: Because I already bumped all the deer off of.

539
00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:47,160
Speaker 6: It, and that was about the only piece of public

540
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:50,120
Speaker 6: ground that I had access to in the area.

541
00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:52,400
Speaker 5: So I was just kind of in a tight spot.

542
00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:55,520
Speaker 6: Well, we did the thing that we always say we're

543
00:29:55,520 --> 00:29:58,600
Speaker 6: not gonna do, and we hit the phones and started

544
00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 6: calling landowners, and sure enough, Tyler pulled one out man,

545
00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:05,040
Speaker 6: just like one of the.

546
00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:08,280
Speaker 5: Best bro moves you can imagine. He called up this

547
00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:09,120
Speaker 5: guy who he'd.

548
00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:12,240
Speaker 6: Had a contact with a few years back and somehow

549
00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:16,680
Speaker 6: got us some permission on an awesome piece of ground.

550
00:30:17,520 --> 00:30:21,320
Speaker 6: I end up staying up practically all night long, sick,

551
00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:25,960
Speaker 6: going to the bathroom multiple times, just as bad as

552
00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:28,880
Speaker 6: you can imagine, for about.

553
00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:33,440
Speaker 5: Eight hours being sick. That's what I was. Well.

554
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:38,800
Speaker 6: Round about two thirty in the morning, I finally think

555
00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:44,200
Speaker 6: I had my last episode and I get to lay

556
00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:47,600
Speaker 6: down for about two hours get some rest. But I

557
00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:50,959
Speaker 6: set my alarm for four forty five or whatever it was,

558
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:54,520
Speaker 6: because I mean, it's November seventh. I cannot miss this day.

559
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:58,240
Speaker 6: It is one of the best deer hunting days on

560
00:30:58,280 --> 00:31:02,440
Speaker 6: the calendar. Alarm goes on off, roll over, get out

561
00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:06,240
Speaker 6: of bed. Me and my buddy Greg head out that morning.

562
00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:09,600
Speaker 6: We're running late, but it's better late than ever whenever

563
00:31:10,480 --> 00:31:12,600
Speaker 6: you've been sick, and it's an awesome day of hunting,

564
00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:18,040
Speaker 6: and sure enough, beautiful morning, frost everywhere, super steell, just

565
00:31:18,200 --> 00:31:21,840
Speaker 6: that great crisp feeling that we all love as deer hunters.

566
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:24,760
Speaker 6: We decided to park the truck and just kind of

567
00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:28,120
Speaker 6: hike down the hill and do something I don't really

568
00:31:28,200 --> 00:31:29,360
Speaker 6: like to do very much, but I'd call it an

569
00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:30,200
Speaker 6: observation sit.

570
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:32,720
Speaker 5: I have my bow with me, but I'm not gonna

571
00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:34,440
Speaker 5: do too much.

572
00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:36,320
Speaker 6: I don't think I'm just gonna try to be out there,

573
00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:38,280
Speaker 6: maybe try to kill something that night off of what

574
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:42,320
Speaker 6: I'd learned that day, and we hike down, go to

575
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:44,760
Speaker 6: glassing and looking around. I do have my rattling andlers

576
00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:48,600
Speaker 6: with me just in case. Sure enough, I can see

577
00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:52,360
Speaker 6: a deer about eight hundred yards away, maybe a little closer,

578
00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:54,600
Speaker 6: I don't know, and I watch him. I'm a by nose.

579
00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:57,920
Speaker 6: I can tell it's a buck. And then he's following

580
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:01,080
Speaker 6: this fence line and he's starts to get about as

581
00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:03,120
Speaker 6: close as he's ever going to get to us. And

582
00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:05,360
Speaker 6: if he continues on, he's going to start to get

583
00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:08,000
Speaker 6: further away, about five hundred yards out.

584
00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:10,040
Speaker 5: I said, why not.

585
00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:14,520
Speaker 6: I get my rattling antlers, start hitting them together as

586
00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:17,840
Speaker 6: hard as you can, and the sound carries. I see

587
00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:20,520
Speaker 6: that deer whip his head around, and at that point

588
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:23,240
Speaker 6: in time, it's like, oh my goodness, this just went

589
00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:27,120
Speaker 6: from who knows what to like this could happen, and

590
00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:30,440
Speaker 6: sure enough that deer does a oneint eighty jumps the fence,

591
00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:32,640
Speaker 6: and at that point in time, it's full fledged hunt mode.

592
00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:37,080
Speaker 6: We're en rolling terrain and this buck is coming up

593
00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:39,080
Speaker 6: trying to get the winds. That's what they do when

594
00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:41,160
Speaker 6: you rattle at him. They try to go smell and

595
00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:43,000
Speaker 6: see what's going on. See if they know those deer

596
00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:47,560
Speaker 6: just have a safe approach to the situation. So I

597
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:50,560
Speaker 6: run down the hill about eighty ninety yards and get

598
00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:52,360
Speaker 6: set up right on the back side of this rise

599
00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:55,640
Speaker 6: so that this deer will come up and be looking

600
00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:59,320
Speaker 6: where I was, not where I am, And sure enough

601
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:02,280
Speaker 6: I kind of can see the top of his back

602
00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:04,239
Speaker 6: over the hill. He drops down where I can't see him,

603
00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:06,320
Speaker 6: and we just get ready to get hunkered down. I

604
00:33:06,360 --> 00:33:08,600
Speaker 6: get up on one knee, get my bow in my hand,

605
00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:11,800
Speaker 6: ready to go, and all I see is brow times

606
00:33:11,960 --> 00:33:16,520
Speaker 6: pop up over the sage. Somehow, some way, probably my

607
00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:19,480
Speaker 6: sickness helped me hold it together, because I didn't have

608
00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:23,640
Speaker 6: enough energy to be overly excited. And this deer's looking

609
00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:25,960
Speaker 6: and he's got the sun in his eyes. He can't

610
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:29,240
Speaker 6: see us just standing there on the ball open prairie right.

611
00:33:29,960 --> 00:33:32,240
Speaker 6: He takes a couple more steps forward and then kind

612
00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:35,280
Speaker 6: of locks it up and looks at us. And somehow,

613
00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:39,480
Speaker 6: some way I had the boldness as that deer's looking

614
00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:43,760
Speaker 6: at me at like thirty yards at full draw, I

615
00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:49,240
Speaker 6: give him a light snort wheeze, and that's enough to

616
00:33:49,320 --> 00:33:51,280
Speaker 6: make that deer say, you know what. I don't know

617
00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:53,160
Speaker 6: what that is, but I don't like what he said

618
00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:56,480
Speaker 6: to me. He takes two steps forward. I grunt stop.

619
00:33:56,280 --> 00:34:00,680
Speaker 5: Him, squeeze my release, and Pap just ham this thing.

620
00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:04,960
Speaker 6: And I knew right away it wasn't my greatest shot,

621
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:08,640
Speaker 6: but it was very lethal in the vitals. And we

622
00:34:08,719 --> 00:34:11,279
Speaker 6: watched that deer run out about one hundred yards, do

623
00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:13,200
Speaker 6: a semicircle.

624
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:15,640
Speaker 5: And then lie down. And I watched him until his.

625
00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:18,520
Speaker 6: Antler's laid down on the ground, and from there it

626
00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:22,479
Speaker 6: was just pure elation. I just could not believe I'd

627
00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:25,360
Speaker 6: had the night I had, and it turned into the

628
00:34:25,480 --> 00:34:27,920
Speaker 6: day that it did. This buck is awesome. He's a

629
00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:31,640
Speaker 6: mainframe ten twenty one inches wide. I haven't measured him

630
00:34:31,640 --> 00:34:33,480
Speaker 6: out all the way though, so I don't know exactly

631
00:34:33,480 --> 00:34:36,440
Speaker 6: what he'd score, but I'd say he pushes right at

632
00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:39,120
Speaker 6: that one hundred and sixty mark and he's got split

633
00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:42,759
Speaker 6: brow time. It's just a beautiful, beautiful deer, excellent representation

634
00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:44,959
Speaker 6: of what a mature buck looks like on a plain state.

635
00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:47,360
Speaker 5: And I just could not be more thankful.

636
00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:50,680
Speaker 4: That was a good story.

637
00:34:50,719 --> 00:34:53,719
Speaker 2: Casey way to tough it out, take a chance with

638
00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:57,279
Speaker 2: the rattling, and make the absolute most of an opportunity.

639
00:34:57,800 --> 00:34:58,800
Speaker 4: That was some good hunting.

640
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:02,800
Speaker 2: And I'd say out of a hundred whitetail hunters wouldn't

641
00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:05,480
Speaker 2: have killed that buck. The only other one that would

642
00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:08,520
Speaker 2: have probably would have been your buddy Tyler Jones. These

643
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:11,200
Speaker 2: element guys have a way of doing this kind of

644
00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:15,600
Speaker 2: stuff a lot. Our next story is told by a

645
00:35:15,719 --> 00:35:18,759
Speaker 2: man that I have known since nineteen ninety eight and

646
00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:20,440
Speaker 2: I consider him the real deal.

647
00:35:21,040 --> 00:35:21,560
Speaker 4: His name is.

648
00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:25,600
Speaker 2: Hooch McDonald, and he's what i'd call a bonafide dog man.

649
00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:29,400
Speaker 2: As you've heard, I love to celebrate the diversity of

650
00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:31,920
Speaker 2: ways in which we hunt deer in America. Hooch is

651
00:35:31,920 --> 00:35:34,800
Speaker 2: from a region of Arkansas where dog hunting is alive

652
00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:37,560
Speaker 2: and well, he's going to spend some time telling the

653
00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:40,600
Speaker 2: inns and outs of running deer with dogs. Some of

654
00:35:40,640 --> 00:35:43,520
Speaker 2: it might surprise you. Here's old Hooch.

655
00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:49,400
Speaker 7: My name is James McDonald, but most folks call me hooch.

656
00:35:49,600 --> 00:35:52,680
Speaker 7: I've been hooch since before I was born. They call

657
00:35:52,760 --> 00:35:56,840
Speaker 7: me hoos because of my grandpa. He passed about a

658
00:35:56,880 --> 00:36:01,319
Speaker 7: month before I was born. It's not real shit. Which

659
00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:05,239
Speaker 7: of these were the cause of me being hooch. But

660
00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:08,920
Speaker 7: he was a moonshiner for one, and hooch is a

661
00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:13,560
Speaker 7: slang for moonshine, so that's one one thought. And then

662
00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:16,680
Speaker 7: my dad wanted to call me hoot after one of

663
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:20,440
Speaker 7: his uncles. And then they think that my grandpa just

664
00:36:20,560 --> 00:36:23,120
Speaker 7: couldn't really get hoot out and he kept saying hooch,

665
00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:26,919
Speaker 7: so when they lost him, and then I came along

666
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:31,240
Speaker 7: right after, the name stuck. Deer hunt in the South

667
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:37,160
Speaker 7: with dogs is a complete social event. There is no

668
00:36:37,320 --> 00:36:42,120
Speaker 7: sitting in a tree by yourself watching sign feed Paul whatever.

669
00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:49,799
Speaker 7: It's buddies and lots of camaraderie, storytelling, bull crap, you know,

670
00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:52,439
Speaker 7: messing with each other. I mean, that's that's what makes

671
00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:56,720
Speaker 7: it fun. And a typical day for us we start

672
00:36:56,800 --> 00:36:59,839
Speaker 7: off a little bit before daylight. Either somebody will pick

673
00:36:59,880 --> 00:37:02,560
Speaker 7: up breakfast and bring up there, or we'll get together

674
00:37:02,560 --> 00:37:05,840
Speaker 7: early enough and we'll cook breakfast, and then about daylight

675
00:37:06,160 --> 00:37:10,480
Speaker 7: we load dogs and then we all gather around and

676
00:37:10,600 --> 00:37:13,600
Speaker 7: we decide who's turning and loose for one and where

677
00:37:13,680 --> 00:37:14,680
Speaker 7: we're going to turn loose.

678
00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:15,759
Speaker 1: And then the.

679
00:37:15,760 --> 00:37:19,959
Speaker 7: Way we do it is we have crossings that we've

680
00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:23,839
Speaker 7: known for years. Deer tendy use the same crossings. Like

681
00:37:24,160 --> 00:37:27,080
Speaker 7: if we go into this block of woods, there's top

682
00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:30,680
Speaker 7: three escape routes, but then there's others that you know.

683
00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:34,760
Speaker 7: Sometimes they run up to that escape route and smell somebody,

684
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:37,160
Speaker 7: hear something, and they turn and go the other way

685
00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:40,080
Speaker 7: and shoot out one of the other side routes. So

686
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:44,879
Speaker 7: we try to cover everything. Rarely do we cover everything well.

687
00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:48,080
Speaker 7: The dog man, whoever's turning and loose, decides where he

688
00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:51,920
Speaker 7: wants to go, and he usually ram rods the whole drive.

689
00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:54,160
Speaker 7: People will speak up and say, you know, I want

690
00:37:54,160 --> 00:37:57,920
Speaker 7: this stand if nobody else does, and then once everybody

691
00:37:57,920 --> 00:38:02,680
Speaker 7: decides where they're going, he turns loose just cast the dogs.

692
00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:05,160
Speaker 7: That's the way we hunt Some people down in the

693
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:07,400
Speaker 7: sandy country, they'll put them on a track, but we

694
00:38:07,560 --> 00:38:10,600
Speaker 7: just kind of cast into the bedding areas acorn flats,

695
00:38:11,040 --> 00:38:13,439
Speaker 7: lots of buck sign in places, you know, that's where

696
00:38:13,440 --> 00:38:17,120
Speaker 7: with hot scrapes, and then the dogs are turned loose.

697
00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:21,520
Speaker 7: Our style of dogs, for the most part, will coal trail.

698
00:38:21,960 --> 00:38:25,600
Speaker 7: You know, they'll start barking some when they smell something.

699
00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:29,319
Speaker 7: Once they get that deer up and running, they really

700
00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:31,839
Speaker 7: get fired up, make lots of noise, and that's when

701
00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:37,399
Speaker 7: it gets exciting. I have always had dogs with tree

702
00:38:37,400 --> 00:38:40,520
Speaker 7: blood in them, whether it be trem walker's, red bones,

703
00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:44,360
Speaker 7: blue ticks, even some English here and there. And the

704
00:38:44,440 --> 00:38:48,320
Speaker 7: reason I like that is the tree dog always runs

705
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:50,880
Speaker 7: the track. He doesn't run the wind like some of

706
00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:53,879
Speaker 7: these running dogs will. Some of these running dogs when

707
00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:56,840
Speaker 7: they cross the road, they may be fifteen to twenty

708
00:38:56,920 --> 00:38:59,799
Speaker 7: yards down the road, down wind from where the deer.

709
00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:03,640
Speaker 7: The tree dog is almost always within a few feet

710
00:39:03,719 --> 00:39:04,960
Speaker 7: of where the deer crossed.

711
00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:07,440
Speaker 4: And tree dogs are always trashy.

712
00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:11,400
Speaker 7: Anyway, right, And there's something about a tree dog that

713
00:39:11,840 --> 00:39:16,080
Speaker 7: they just they just sound different. You have a oh no,

714
00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:20,560
Speaker 7: I don't have yeah, just gray dogs. We don't care

715
00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:24,279
Speaker 7: about papers. When people bring registered dogs sometimes and they

716
00:39:24,280 --> 00:39:27,439
Speaker 7: don't pan out like they're supposed to. The running joke

717
00:39:27,640 --> 00:39:30,400
Speaker 7: is he didn't want to cross because he's afraid to

718
00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:33,359
Speaker 7: get his papers whip. Once the dogs get the deer

719
00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:37,080
Speaker 7: up and they're running, they're making lots of noise. You

720
00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:39,480
Speaker 7: know they're gonna eventually I may circle some, but they're

721
00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:42,280
Speaker 7: gonna eventually kind of line out and head hopefully towards

722
00:39:42,360 --> 00:39:46,200
Speaker 7: one of our standards. So that's when that standard's life

723
00:39:46,239 --> 00:39:50,280
Speaker 7: gets exciting. You can hear the dogs getting closer and closer,

724
00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:54,000
Speaker 7: and then brush starts breaking, your heart starts pounding, Your

725
00:39:54,040 --> 00:39:56,600
Speaker 7: adrenaline is going through the roof because you don't know

726
00:39:57,080 --> 00:40:00,000
Speaker 7: if it's gonna be a yearling, a dough or a twelve.

727
00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:04,200
Speaker 7: The only thing that I have experienced that compares to

728
00:40:04,280 --> 00:40:06,640
Speaker 7: running dogs is working a turkey in the spring.

729
00:40:08,280 --> 00:40:11,839
Speaker 2: It's interesting that Stony Edwards used the exact same analogy

730
00:40:11,880 --> 00:40:15,520
Speaker 2: of spring turkey hunting. I wanted to ask Cooch about

731
00:40:15,520 --> 00:40:19,200
Speaker 2: a potential stereotype about running deer with dogs.

732
00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:20,239
Speaker 4: Here's what he said.

733
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:25,799
Speaker 7: Okay, So to address the statement from a lot of

734
00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:29,279
Speaker 7: the world about dog hunters are lazy, that couldn't be

735
00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:33,680
Speaker 7: any further from the truth. Dog hunting is three hundred

736
00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:36,600
Speaker 7: and sixty five days a year, twenty four hours a day. Really,

737
00:40:37,120 --> 00:40:41,360
Speaker 7: you've always got dogs to tend to. You've got a feed, water, vaccinate,

738
00:40:41,760 --> 00:40:46,000
Speaker 7: vet bills. It's definitely not just for those six weeks

739
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:51,160
Speaker 7: a year. There's training raising puppies because everybody, everybody in

740
00:40:51,200 --> 00:40:55,200
Speaker 7: the business, they want to raise their own dogs. Okay,

741
00:40:55,239 --> 00:40:59,400
Speaker 7: so there's so much involved in running deer with dogs,

742
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:02,120
Speaker 7: and it's not just you go out there and turn

743
00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:04,480
Speaker 7: some dogs loose and deer run everywhere and you go

744
00:41:04,480 --> 00:41:09,640
Speaker 7: to shooting. It's not the best way to then the herd.

745
00:41:10,239 --> 00:41:13,920
Speaker 7: You will kill far more deer send in a tree.

746
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:18,840
Speaker 7: It is more about the time with your buddies.

747
00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:23,919
Speaker 2: Who's has done a good job of explaining the context

748
00:41:24,040 --> 00:41:26,880
Speaker 2: and how to of hound hunting, and to reiterate his

749
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:29,400
Speaker 2: point about it being a difficult way to hunt, not

750
00:41:29,560 --> 00:41:32,080
Speaker 2: an easy way to hunt. Let me say this, if

751
00:41:32,120 --> 00:41:34,600
Speaker 2: I killed a big buck in front of dogs, it

752
00:41:34,640 --> 00:41:37,279
Speaker 2: would be equivalent to me as if I had killed

753
00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:41,040
Speaker 2: it with traditional archery equipment or some other self limiting

754
00:41:41,080 --> 00:41:45,759
Speaker 2: method of hunting. To many people, the only sporting way

755
00:41:45,800 --> 00:41:48,960
Speaker 2: to kill a deer is when it's being pursued by dogs.

756
00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:50,400
Speaker 4: Think about that for a minute.

757
00:41:50,480 --> 00:41:54,319
Speaker 2: It's an interesting perspective, and I say that only to

758
00:41:54,560 --> 00:41:58,960
Speaker 2: help us all, including myself, enlarge the way that we

759
00:41:59,080 --> 00:42:01,800
Speaker 2: view the world and take a little walk in another

760
00:42:01,840 --> 00:42:04,920
Speaker 2: man's shoes. I'm going to turn it back over to

761
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:08,480
Speaker 2: Hooch for him to tell one of his most memorable hunts.

762
00:42:08,719 --> 00:42:11,759
Speaker 2: And you're gonna hear him talk about road crossings, but

763
00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:16,560
Speaker 2: it's essential to know that they're running on gated private land.

764
00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:18,720
Speaker 4: Okay.

765
00:42:18,800 --> 00:42:23,200
Speaker 7: So one of my most memorable stories with dogs. It

766
00:42:23,239 --> 00:42:28,880
Speaker 7: takes place December third, nineteen ninety nine. It was actually

767
00:42:29,280 --> 00:42:32,840
Speaker 7: reading day when I was enrolled in Arkansas Tech. So

768
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:37,520
Speaker 7: the friday before our final exams, well, I chose to

769
00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:40,720
Speaker 7: go deer hunting. It was a little bit stormy that morning,

770
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:43,360
Speaker 7: so we didn't get to We didn't get to hunt

771
00:42:43,480 --> 00:42:47,439
Speaker 7: right at daylight. Let me back up just a little bit,

772
00:42:47,480 --> 00:42:50,920
Speaker 7: because I had hunted the weekend before, and we had

773
00:42:50,960 --> 00:42:54,480
Speaker 7: made this same drive and I was standing up on

774
00:42:54,520 --> 00:42:56,960
Speaker 7: the crossing and you could see off in the draw

775
00:42:56,960 --> 00:42:59,560
Speaker 7: a little bit, and I was standing up on a

776
00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:02,800
Speaker 7: saddle on the end of the mountain and the dogs

777
00:43:02,800 --> 00:43:04,719
Speaker 7: were coming, and boy, I thought they were coming out

778
00:43:04,760 --> 00:43:05,000
Speaker 7: to me.

779
00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:06,360
Speaker 5: My heart was pounding.

780
00:43:06,600 --> 00:43:09,600
Speaker 7: I could hear the brush breaking and then the brush

781
00:43:09,640 --> 00:43:12,040
Speaker 7: breaking got really loud, and then all of a sudden

782
00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:14,680
Speaker 7: it started going away. So I run over to the

783
00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:17,200
Speaker 7: edge and stand up on a stump where I could see,

784
00:43:17,800 --> 00:43:20,480
Speaker 7: and I got two or three glimpses, and all I

785
00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:21,080
Speaker 7: could see was.

786
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:23,560
Speaker 5: Antlers, Like, oh my goodness.

787
00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:27,759
Speaker 7: So now back to that Friday morning, we'd decided we

788
00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:31,320
Speaker 7: were going to make the same drive, and me, I'm

789
00:43:31,600 --> 00:43:34,960
Speaker 7: always thinking, so I watched, I had watched what he

790
00:43:35,080 --> 00:43:38,799
Speaker 7: done the weekend before. I thought, you know, I'm not

791
00:43:38,880 --> 00:43:40,600
Speaker 7: gonna stand on the road. I'm gonna get off the

792
00:43:40,680 --> 00:43:43,719
Speaker 7: road down there in the draw. So even if he

793
00:43:43,800 --> 00:43:46,239
Speaker 7: does come up and cross the road, I'll still have

794
00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:49,400
Speaker 7: a shot adding But if he doesn't, then you know

795
00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:52,200
Speaker 7: I'll get a shot at him down there. Well, I

796
00:43:52,200 --> 00:43:53,880
Speaker 7: got off down there and found me a good stump

797
00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:57,200
Speaker 7: where I could sit and see seventy five eighty yards

798
00:43:57,239 --> 00:44:01,480
Speaker 7: in any direction. And I heard him when they started

799
00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:03,759
Speaker 7: hooping and turned the dogs out. When just a little

800
00:44:03,800 --> 00:44:07,480
Speaker 7: bit the dog started trailing, and just a little bit

801
00:44:07,520 --> 00:44:10,040
Speaker 7: longer they jumped, and I could tell, you know, they

802
00:44:10,040 --> 00:44:10,879
Speaker 7: were coming my way.

803
00:44:11,719 --> 00:44:13,080
Speaker 5: Well, they they.

804
00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:14,919
Speaker 7: Come up there and started up the draw I was in,

805
00:44:15,360 --> 00:44:18,400
Speaker 7: and they got almost to me. And then kind of

806
00:44:18,400 --> 00:44:20,719
Speaker 7: turn and started going away, and I thought, well, this

807
00:44:20,800 --> 00:44:23,959
Speaker 7: is over. And then I looked down, looked down the draw,

808
00:44:24,440 --> 00:44:27,719
Speaker 7: and here come a book. Okay, so I guess. I

809
00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:30,080
Speaker 7: guess he had turned a circle quite aways in front

810
00:44:30,080 --> 00:44:32,920
Speaker 7: of the dogs and then come back to me. So

811
00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:35,480
Speaker 7: I'm watching. I'm just catching glimpses, and I can tell

812
00:44:35,520 --> 00:44:38,600
Speaker 7: it's it's a really good book. Well, he gets on

813
00:44:38,719 --> 00:44:43,120
Speaker 7: up there about sixty yards and I started following him

814
00:44:43,200 --> 00:44:45,680
Speaker 7: with my rifle and watched him through the scope and

815
00:44:46,040 --> 00:44:49,560
Speaker 7: he hits an opening and I squeezed the trigger and

816
00:44:50,640 --> 00:44:54,320
Speaker 7: nothing happened. I mean, he kept coming, so I squeezed

817
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:58,320
Speaker 7: the trigger again, and then I thought he went down,

818
00:44:58,640 --> 00:45:00,960
Speaker 7: but I wasn't sure. And then all of a sudden,

819
00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:05,400
Speaker 7: here comes another buck. That's a really nice book. He turns.

820
00:45:05,920 --> 00:45:08,240
Speaker 7: I didn't know it at the time, but he watched

821
00:45:08,560 --> 00:45:11,040
Speaker 7: the buck in front of him fall, and so he

822
00:45:11,160 --> 00:45:13,759
Speaker 7: turned and started going the other way, and then there

823
00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:16,880
Speaker 7: was another buck behind him. Well, they went out the

824
00:45:16,920 --> 00:45:19,160
Speaker 7: other draw, and when they hit the other cross and

825
00:45:19,200 --> 00:45:22,880
Speaker 7: I heard my dad shoot, there was another guy standing

826
00:45:22,920 --> 00:45:26,120
Speaker 7: there with him, and I guess the third buck had

827
00:45:26,280 --> 00:45:30,320
Speaker 7: ran to him and heard him shoot. After all that happened,

828
00:45:30,360 --> 00:45:32,279
Speaker 7: I went back up. I didn't I didn't even go look.

829
00:45:32,320 --> 00:45:34,680
Speaker 7: Right then I went back up the hill, got on

830
00:45:34,719 --> 00:45:36,920
Speaker 7: the radio and found out that they had killed the

831
00:45:36,960 --> 00:45:39,840
Speaker 7: two bucks over there, and I went down there.

832
00:45:40,280 --> 00:45:40,600
Speaker 5: Shoot.

833
00:45:40,600 --> 00:45:42,359
Speaker 7: I got fifteen twenty yards from it, and I could

834
00:45:42,360 --> 00:45:45,640
Speaker 7: see antlet's sticking up over the grass, like, oh my goodness.

835
00:45:46,040 --> 00:45:48,720
Speaker 7: He ended up being a nine point. That gross scored

836
00:45:48,840 --> 00:45:51,480
Speaker 7: one point thirty two, which at the time was a

837
00:45:51,600 --> 00:45:55,920
Speaker 7: giant to me. And the buck my dad killed he

838
00:45:56,040 --> 00:45:58,440
Speaker 7: was low one twenties, and then the other one was

839
00:45:58,480 --> 00:45:59,160
Speaker 7: just a five point.

840
00:45:59,239 --> 00:46:01,600
Speaker 5: But you know, backstraps or backstraps.

841
00:46:02,160 --> 00:46:04,880
Speaker 7: We all got together, put them all up on the

842
00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:08,440
Speaker 7: dog box, took a picture, and even the guys that

843
00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:11,840
Speaker 7: didn't pull the trigger, they've got the biggest grin because

844
00:46:11,920 --> 00:46:14,440
Speaker 7: it's not it's not I killed a deer. When it

845
00:46:14,480 --> 00:46:16,719
Speaker 7: comes round the dogs, it's we killed the deer.

846
00:46:20,719 --> 00:46:24,279
Speaker 2: That feeling of it's not I that killed the deer,

847
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:27,960
Speaker 2: but we killed the deer. That stuff is pretty unique

848
00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:31,839
Speaker 2: to dog hunting. I love the solo aspects of tree

849
00:46:31,840 --> 00:46:36,360
Speaker 2: stand bow hunting, but a group experience with like minded people,

850
00:46:36,680 --> 00:46:37,640
Speaker 2: it's hard to top.

851
00:46:38,480 --> 00:46:40,000
Speaker 4: That was a great story Hooch.

852
00:46:41,760 --> 00:46:47,000
Speaker 2: Our final storyteller is Aaron Stanfil's little brother Andy, And

853
00:46:47,200 --> 00:46:49,560
Speaker 2: just because he's little doesn't mean that he doesn't kill

854
00:46:49,560 --> 00:46:51,399
Speaker 2: a lot of big bucks. And I mean, and he's

855
00:46:51,440 --> 00:46:54,120
Speaker 2: just like a normal sized guy, so you know, he's

856
00:46:54,160 --> 00:46:58,000
Speaker 2: not little. And it turns out he's actually killed bigger

857
00:46:58,000 --> 00:47:01,560
Speaker 2: deer than Aaron. These guys are deer hunters. I'm telling you.

858
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:04,760
Speaker 2: This is the story of the hunt for a giant

859
00:47:04,880 --> 00:47:06,080
Speaker 2: Kansas buck they.

860
00:47:05,960 --> 00:47:07,080
Speaker 4: Called Daddy Rabbit.

861
00:47:07,800 --> 00:47:10,839
Speaker 2: I've forgiven Aaron for lying to Scott and Luke, and

862
00:47:10,920 --> 00:47:13,799
Speaker 2: so he and Andy are going to tag team on

863
00:47:13,840 --> 00:47:15,160
Speaker 2: this one.

864
00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:18,480
Speaker 3: So I'm Andy Stanphil and I'm here with my brother

865
00:47:18,800 --> 00:47:23,880
Speaker 3: Aaron Stanfhil and our cousin has family in Kansas. So

866
00:47:23,920 --> 00:47:26,399
Speaker 3: we've been going up there bow hunting for This would

867
00:47:26,400 --> 00:47:29,520
Speaker 3: have been our twenty third consecutive year. So it all

868
00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:33,759
Speaker 3: starts back in around two thousand. We slowly, you know,

869
00:47:33,800 --> 00:47:37,200
Speaker 3: started getting permissions from farmers here and there, and in

870
00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:39,240
Speaker 3: the early two thousands we had a lot of land

871
00:47:39,480 --> 00:47:42,640
Speaker 3: that we could hunt. Well, what happened was our cousin, Jared,

872
00:47:43,360 --> 00:47:46,759
Speaker 3: his grandpa bought a farm in the fifties. It's an

873
00:47:46,760 --> 00:47:50,680
Speaker 3: old homestead place, and since then his son was living

874
00:47:50,719 --> 00:47:53,920
Speaker 3: there on the place. And I remember one day they

875
00:47:53,920 --> 00:47:56,080
Speaker 3: told us, said, hey, boys, if you guys will come up,

876
00:47:56,160 --> 00:47:58,600
Speaker 3: put a big spread out in the yard some spring,

877
00:47:59,040 --> 00:48:02,239
Speaker 3: we'll have the whole commune, the whole church crowd, congregation

878
00:48:02,400 --> 00:48:06,000
Speaker 3: come over there after church. So me and Adians, our

879
00:48:06,040 --> 00:48:09,760
Speaker 3: buddies gotten jered. We had much fried crappie, whild turkey,

880
00:48:09,960 --> 00:48:12,440
Speaker 3: all the desserts. I mean, we laid out a spread

881
00:48:12,520 --> 00:48:17,280
Speaker 3: now and the whole congregation showed up after church. And

882
00:48:17,480 --> 00:48:20,000
Speaker 3: next thing, you know, that next year we had a

883
00:48:20,000 --> 00:48:23,359
Speaker 3: lot of land to hunt. So it's been been good built.

884
00:48:23,520 --> 00:48:26,520
Speaker 3: It's just it's a second home to us. This particular farm,

885
00:48:26,800 --> 00:48:29,200
Speaker 3: like I said, didn't have very many trees on it really,

886
00:48:29,840 --> 00:48:33,440
Speaker 3: so Aaron hung his stand on the north end of it.

887
00:48:33,520 --> 00:48:36,480
Speaker 3: And everything that we have we share, you know. We

888
00:48:36,480 --> 00:48:39,160
Speaker 3: we put the tree stand in together, we trim and

889
00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:42,239
Speaker 3: everything out. You know, we anticipate every every stand that

890
00:48:42,239 --> 00:48:44,239
Speaker 3: we put in, we anticipate you on a big deer there.

891
00:48:44,719 --> 00:48:46,839
Speaker 3: So we go to the north side and we put

892
00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:49,600
Speaker 3: that stand in. I go to the south end and

893
00:48:49,640 --> 00:48:51,719
Speaker 3: we hang another set over there, both of them in

894
00:48:51,760 --> 00:48:54,680
Speaker 3: big cedar trees, big bushy cedar trees. We try to

895
00:48:54,719 --> 00:48:57,040
Speaker 3: always hunt out of a cedar tree, try to always

896
00:48:57,040 --> 00:48:58,399
Speaker 3: have a hole on our left side so we ain't

897
00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:02,360
Speaker 3: got to get up. Both of them were fantastic sets.

898
00:49:02,719 --> 00:49:06,600
Speaker 3: So in twenty eighteen, right off the bat, I mean,

899
00:49:06,640 --> 00:49:10,239
Speaker 3: we had numerous shooters on that north end and one

900
00:49:10,320 --> 00:49:13,760
Speaker 3: of those was a just a giant, non typical deer.

901
00:49:14,320 --> 00:49:16,879
Speaker 3: It's hard to say, one of the biggest body deer

902
00:49:16,880 --> 00:49:18,799
Speaker 3: that we had hunting Kansas in twenty three years. So

903
00:49:19,000 --> 00:49:20,960
Speaker 3: just a giant of a deer. He was so big

904
00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:23,600
Speaker 3: that his rack, you know, it was just about thirteen

905
00:49:23,640 --> 00:49:26,399
Speaker 3: inches wide. That he was so massive, but his rack

906
00:49:26,520 --> 00:49:28,919
Speaker 3: just didn't look that big because he was such a

907
00:49:28,960 --> 00:49:32,600
Speaker 3: big buck. But lots of trash on his bases, lots

908
00:49:32,640 --> 00:49:36,560
Speaker 3: of horns everywhere. I mean, over the two years timeframe,

909
00:49:37,280 --> 00:49:39,680
Speaker 3: we you know, had hundreds of pictures of this deer

910
00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:43,120
Speaker 3: and we estimated him, you know, one seventies one eighties

911
00:49:43,120 --> 00:49:47,280
Speaker 3: Somewhere in that ballpark November the second of twenty and eighteen,

912
00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:49,719
Speaker 3: I had the deer at thirty five steps with a

913
00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:52,640
Speaker 3: dough got behind two big hedge apple trees on me

914
00:49:52,680 --> 00:49:54,520
Speaker 3: and I couldn't get a shot at him. I tried

915
00:49:54,520 --> 00:49:55,920
Speaker 3: everything I could do to get him in there, and

916
00:49:56,000 --> 00:49:58,560
Speaker 3: he just wouldn't leave her. And he was he was

917
00:49:58,640 --> 00:50:02,200
Speaker 3: one special animal. We didn't get him killed in twenty eighteen,

918
00:50:02,239 --> 00:50:05,279
Speaker 3: and then fast forward to twenty and nineteen and you

919
00:50:05,280 --> 00:50:08,799
Speaker 3: didn't draw a tag days, which was heartbreaking. I'm sure

920
00:50:08,880 --> 00:50:14,120
Speaker 3: God had a plan for that. So in October the eighteenth, nineteenth,

921
00:50:14,160 --> 00:50:16,640
Speaker 3: when we first went up yep, so he was all

922
00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:19,560
Speaker 3: over our camera, you know, he basically beds in there.

923
00:50:19,640 --> 00:50:22,160
Speaker 3: That was his betting. So the last part of the

924
00:50:22,239 --> 00:50:24,919
Speaker 3: week we finally got our north wind and it got

925
00:50:24,960 --> 00:50:28,640
Speaker 3: really really cold. So on the morning of October the

926
00:50:28,680 --> 00:50:31,600
Speaker 3: twenty fourth, I'm laying there in bed and we're both

927
00:50:31,640 --> 00:50:34,920
Speaker 3: wide awake, and we both know that this is the

928
00:50:34,960 --> 00:50:37,040
Speaker 3: morning we've been waiting on. It's high pressure, he was

929
00:50:37,080 --> 00:50:38,960
Speaker 3: there the night before, he was there the night before,

930
00:50:39,080 --> 00:50:41,440
Speaker 3: and it's cold and we've got a north wind. And

931
00:50:41,520 --> 00:50:43,800
Speaker 3: even though I didn't draw a tag, I wasn't gonna

932
00:50:43,800 --> 00:50:46,319
Speaker 3: miss that week. We're always up there together, there's four

933
00:50:46,320 --> 00:50:48,120
Speaker 3: of us, and we camp all week. And I was

934
00:50:48,200 --> 00:50:51,479
Speaker 3: up there all week just itching, you know, but just

935
00:50:51,560 --> 00:50:55,000
Speaker 3: helping everybody else and camping and so my alarm goes

936
00:50:55,000 --> 00:50:58,360
Speaker 3: off and Aaron's already awake. I was like, Aaron, you

937
00:50:58,400 --> 00:50:59,880
Speaker 3: think there's any way you can get up there with

938
00:51:00,120 --> 00:51:02,200
Speaker 3: me in that tree? Because we had a camera and

939
00:51:02,200 --> 00:51:04,200
Speaker 3: we used to film with one of our hunts, and

940
00:51:04,280 --> 00:51:06,120
Speaker 3: because we thought it was going to go down, we

941
00:51:06,160 --> 00:51:08,960
Speaker 3: talked about that for a little bit. Looking back on it,

942
00:51:09,000 --> 00:51:12,120
Speaker 3: but we probably made the right decision because we'd probably

943
00:51:12,160 --> 00:51:14,080
Speaker 3: made a lot of racket that, you know, early morning.

944
00:51:14,120 --> 00:51:17,600
Speaker 3: But so I got up super early and walked out

945
00:51:17,600 --> 00:51:20,640
Speaker 3: through this cedar thicket and as in eaters eat all

946
00:51:20,760 --> 00:51:23,520
Speaker 3: cedar thickets, it's easy to get lost. And I didn't

947
00:51:23,520 --> 00:51:25,040
Speaker 3: want to shine a flashlight. I was trying to go,

948
00:51:25,120 --> 00:51:27,759
Speaker 3: you know, super quiet in there. Sure as the world

949
00:51:27,760 --> 00:51:30,200
Speaker 3: I got turned around a little bit. I actually made

950
00:51:30,239 --> 00:51:33,080
Speaker 3: a small circle on the north side of my tree,

951
00:51:33,080 --> 00:51:34,440
Speaker 3: and I just I could not. I mean, all the

952
00:51:34,480 --> 00:51:37,240
Speaker 3: trees looked the same. I was like, this is not happening,

953
00:51:37,440 --> 00:51:42,080
Speaker 3: you know. And I finally got my bearings, found my tree,

954
00:51:42,200 --> 00:51:44,799
Speaker 3: and just so it started breaking daylight, I hear some

955
00:51:44,880 --> 00:51:48,080
Speaker 3: deer get up. So this dough comes in. She's a

956
00:51:48,280 --> 00:51:50,920
Speaker 3: very mature dough. I mean she was, and it's the

957
00:51:51,040 --> 00:51:53,480
Speaker 3: very same dough that all of our game camera pictures

958
00:51:53,520 --> 00:51:56,840
Speaker 3: have shown. He's always been with this dough that's you know,

959
00:51:57,360 --> 00:51:59,799
Speaker 3: four or five, I mean, the power dough. Super rare

960
00:51:59,840 --> 00:52:02,640
Speaker 3: to see a giant white tail get with a dough

961
00:52:02,719 --> 00:52:04,719
Speaker 3: that early in the year. But he was with her

962
00:52:04,800 --> 00:52:07,960
Speaker 3: when we pulled cards. He was with her. So I

963
00:52:08,040 --> 00:52:10,359
Speaker 3: recognize her, you know, right off the bat as she's

964
00:52:10,400 --> 00:52:13,400
Speaker 3: coming in. So she walks in there, you know, twenty

965
00:52:13,480 --> 00:52:16,680
Speaker 3: yards away from me, and I don't see him, and

966
00:52:16,760 --> 00:52:19,160
Speaker 3: she keeps on walking out and she gets you know,

967
00:52:19,239 --> 00:52:21,600
Speaker 3: thirty or forty yards away from me, and I look

968
00:52:21,719 --> 00:52:24,280
Speaker 3: back and all I can see is this cedar limb

969
00:52:24,800 --> 00:52:29,040
Speaker 3: just thrashing in the woods back there, and so I

970
00:52:29,080 --> 00:52:31,319
Speaker 3: got pretty worked up, and I knew it was him,

971
00:52:32,080 --> 00:52:34,360
Speaker 3: and he's just taking his sweet time, and he's falling

972
00:52:34,360 --> 00:52:37,800
Speaker 3: that dough about sixty seventy yards away, and he finally

973
00:52:37,800 --> 00:52:39,759
Speaker 3: gets in there and takes the very same travel path

974
00:52:39,800 --> 00:52:42,839
Speaker 3: as what she did and gets in their broadside. You know,

975
00:52:43,440 --> 00:52:45,799
Speaker 3: I always try to compose myself, and I had plenty

976
00:52:45,880 --> 00:52:48,799
Speaker 3: of time to think about it. Dad had always told me,

977
00:52:49,160 --> 00:52:53,000
Speaker 3: you hunt hard, and when the opportunity arises, you know,

978
00:52:53,120 --> 00:52:55,680
Speaker 3: you do your part. So I pulled my bow back

979
00:52:55,880 --> 00:52:59,120
Speaker 3: and he was there broadside, and I made a really

980
00:52:59,160 --> 00:53:02,360
Speaker 3: good shot on him, and he ran and take. He

981
00:53:02,400 --> 00:53:04,640
Speaker 3: took a little circle and it came right back underneath

982
00:53:04,680 --> 00:53:07,759
Speaker 3: my tree. Right I'm standing, and uh, he slows down

983
00:53:07,840 --> 00:53:10,560
Speaker 3: right there underneath me, and I'm just looking straight down

984
00:53:10,560 --> 00:53:14,040
Speaker 3: on him, and he's walking very very slow. He walks

985
00:53:14,080 --> 00:53:16,240
Speaker 3: over there and it takes a little circle about fifteen

986
00:53:16,320 --> 00:53:18,640
Speaker 3: or twenty yards away from me to my left. I've

987
00:53:18,680 --> 00:53:20,000
Speaker 3: killed a lot of deer and I've never seen a

988
00:53:20,000 --> 00:53:22,879
Speaker 3: deer do this, but he just like an old cow,

989
00:53:22,920 --> 00:53:25,799
Speaker 3: would you know. He puts his hind legs down, puts

990
00:53:25,840 --> 00:53:29,160
Speaker 3: his front elbows down just and he lays down perfect.

991
00:53:29,200 --> 00:53:32,320
Speaker 3: He doesn't fall over. His front two hoofs are straight

992
00:53:32,360 --> 00:53:34,920
Speaker 3: on the ground when he laid down, and he just

993
00:53:35,000 --> 00:53:37,320
Speaker 3: kind of leaned his head over on a cedar tree.

994
00:53:37,640 --> 00:53:39,960
Speaker 3: And I've got pictures of that. It was just like,

995
00:53:40,320 --> 00:53:43,960
Speaker 3: you know, it's just his time, and he just it

996
00:53:44,040 --> 00:53:47,080
Speaker 3: was a weird deal. Just an old majestic buck like that,

997
00:53:47,719 --> 00:53:49,719
Speaker 3: you know, lived his whole life and it was just

998
00:53:49,760 --> 00:53:52,480
Speaker 3: my buck of a lifetime. And uh, I got over

999
00:53:52,520 --> 00:53:56,840
Speaker 3: there and usually I text and call and and I didn't.

1000
00:53:56,960 --> 00:53:59,719
Speaker 3: I climbed down and I went over there, and man,

1001
00:53:59,760 --> 00:54:02,720
Speaker 3: it was emotional for me. And uh we nicknamed him Rabbit,

1002
00:54:03,360 --> 00:54:06,839
Speaker 3: uh after Daddy Rabbit, after our cousin, Jared's grandpa that's

1003
00:54:07,000 --> 00:54:09,120
Speaker 3: had such a big part in our lives up there.

1004
00:54:09,280 --> 00:54:12,080
Speaker 3: You know, it's his farm and he had just passed away,

1005
00:54:12,440 --> 00:54:15,480
Speaker 3: and uh see, yeah, it was an emotional deal. I

1006
00:54:15,560 --> 00:54:18,520
Speaker 3: just cried, cried around a little bit and called Aaron,

1007
00:54:18,600 --> 00:54:21,680
Speaker 3: called Dad and they came over and we all dragged it,

1008
00:54:21,880 --> 00:54:24,880
Speaker 3: dragged it out together. And it's just a special moment

1009
00:54:24,960 --> 00:54:26,799
Speaker 3: for all of us, you know, And that's just what

1010
00:54:26,840 --> 00:54:29,840
Speaker 3: it's all about. I mean, and we've done that numerous times,

1011
00:54:29,840 --> 00:54:31,600
Speaker 3: you know, on smaller deer, you know, if you're all

1012
00:54:31,640 --> 00:54:35,880
Speaker 3: there together, and that's what's all about. And man, I couldn't.

1013
00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:38,960
Speaker 3: I couldn't drew it up any better. So we got

1014
00:54:38,960 --> 00:54:41,400
Speaker 3: back to the cabin. He's like, man, what's this thing score?

1015
00:54:41,600 --> 00:54:43,560
Speaker 3: And we started putting the tape together. And we'd bought

1016
00:54:43,600 --> 00:54:45,920
Speaker 3: one of those new at Walmart. They saw those little

1017
00:54:45,920 --> 00:54:48,839
Speaker 3: orange tapes. Trophy take, trophy take. You kind of rip

1018
00:54:48,840 --> 00:54:50,360
Speaker 3: it there and you rip it off. What's all we

1019
00:54:50,400 --> 00:54:53,120
Speaker 3: had and we'd never used it before. So we start.

1020
00:54:53,440 --> 00:54:56,719
Speaker 3: We started taping this deer. I did I'm going to

1021
00:54:56,760 --> 00:54:59,080
Speaker 3: did it. I tape you know here and there. When

1022
00:54:59,080 --> 00:55:01,120
Speaker 3: we ran out of tape, tape just went to two

1023
00:55:01,200 --> 00:55:04,560
Speaker 3: hundred inches, we ran out, it ran out getting the spread,

1024
00:55:04,960 --> 00:55:06,960
Speaker 3: so ended up being of course, I had to officially

1025
00:55:07,000 --> 00:55:09,000
Speaker 3: score and ended up being two of three and six eighths.

1026
00:55:12,120 --> 00:55:14,920
Speaker 2: Killing a two hundred inch dear is an experience. The

1027
00:55:15,080 --> 00:55:19,440
Speaker 2: vast majority of whitetail hunters will never experience the history

1028
00:55:19,480 --> 00:55:21,480
Speaker 2: that they had with this buck, and the fact that

1029
00:55:21,560 --> 00:55:24,960
Speaker 2: Andy's brother and father were able to be there was

1030
00:55:25,080 --> 00:55:26,239
Speaker 2: unique and unforgettable.

1031
00:55:26,719 --> 00:55:39,960
Speaker 4: That was a good story.

1032
00:55:42,040 --> 00:55:46,760
Speaker 2: This brings to conclusion our Dear Stories episodes this fall,

1033
00:55:47,360 --> 00:55:50,360
Speaker 2: and I already miss them. I'm gonna miss talking to

1034
00:55:50,400 --> 00:55:53,960
Speaker 2: all these folks until next year. I really hope that

1035
00:55:54,000 --> 00:55:57,160
Speaker 2: you have a great fall and make some great memories

1036
00:55:57,280 --> 00:56:01,960
Speaker 2: in this ephemeral window of time when we chase whitetail bucks.

1037
00:56:02,480 --> 00:56:03,600
Speaker 4: Really, I wish you the.

1038
00:56:03,560 --> 00:56:06,279
Speaker 2: Best of luck this fall, and I can't thank you

1039
00:56:06,400 --> 00:56:09,799
Speaker 2: enough for listening to Bear Grease. Please leave us a

1040
00:56:09,840 --> 00:56:14,600
Speaker 2: review on iTunes and share our podcast with the worst

1041
00:56:14,719 --> 00:56:18,440
Speaker 2: whitetail Hunter you know and tell them that, tell them play.

1042
00:56:18,239 --> 00:56:20,200
Speaker 4: Said, share it with the worst. So here it is.

1043
00:56:21,200 --> 00:56:24,400
Speaker 2: I'm just kidding, but be sure to check out First

1044
00:56:24,480 --> 00:56:28,239
Speaker 2: Light's white tail hunting gear. They make the best whitetail

1045
00:56:28,400 --> 00:56:31,080
Speaker 2: gear in the industry, and if you want to actually

1046
00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:34,520
Speaker 2: try some on, you can go to any Shields store

1047
00:56:34,600 --> 00:56:37,200
Speaker 2: in America and you'll find a First Light section.

1048
00:56:37,440 --> 00:56:39,680
Speaker 4: This is new. I look forward to

1049
00:56:39,719 --> 00:56:42,640
Speaker 2: Talking with everyone on the Render next week, and now

1050
00:56:42,640 --> 00:56:44,000
Speaker 2: it's time to go kill a big buck.