WEBVTT - Ep. 158: Deer Stories - Passion and Lies (Part 3) 0:00:05.440 --> 0:00:07.200 I don't know where I got this. I don't know 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:10.840 what drives Amanda to jump out of bed and a 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:13.800 frosty morning and go several miles back in the mountain 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:15.080 to sit there in a tree all day. 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:19.000 This is our third and final Deer Stories episode of 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:22.600 twenty twenty three, and we are now in the core 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:25.759 of the best white tailed dates on the calendar, and 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:29.080 to stoke the fire, we're going to tell some wild stories. 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:33.800 One from the big Mountains of East Tennessee, couple from Kansas. 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:37.520 We're going to talk about some decoyed bucks, some coyotes 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.840 and bucks, some deer doged bucks, and a two hundred 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:46.600 inch buck, and one straight up deer hunting lie. The 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:50.440 connector of all these stories in all three episodes we've 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:54.480 heard is the passion, respect, and a true appreciation of 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:58.680 deer hunting translated through the voices of these hunters. What 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:00.960 a privilege it is to be a white tail hunter 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:05.280 and we're living in its heyday. After this podcast, we're 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:09.440 going back to our regular documentary style stories, So enjoy 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:13.240 this last episode before we start learning hard stuff and 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:17.200 digging deep again, cracking into this American hunting culture. We've 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:22.039 found ourselves embedded in. But that being said, our stories 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:26.600 carry the culture, our values, and our future. I really 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:28.559 doubt you're gonna want to miss this one. 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:32.360 It was a weird deal, just an old majestic buck 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.080 like that, you know, lived this whole life and it 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:37.759 was just my buck of a lifetime. We start taping 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:45.360 this deer well we ran out of tape. 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:50.960 My name is Clay Nukem, and this is the Bear 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:55.960 Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.600 for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:03.320 story gory of Americans who lived their lives close to 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:09.600 the land, presented by FHF gear, American made, purpose built 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:13.320 hunting and fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:25.320 as the place as we explore. Henry Sioux Song is 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:29.119 eighty years old and from the rough country of East Tennessee. 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:32.280 And if you've never been there, trust me, it is 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:37.040 some rough country that rivals anywhere on this continent. Mister 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:40.800 Henry stands among an elite class of humans healthy enough 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:45.280 to pursue their passions into their eighties. But perhaps even 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:49.360 more unique, his internal drive for his passion hasn't decreased. 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:53.639 His fire burns hot. The man bubbles with infectious energy. 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:56.480 When I went to mister Henry's home, he led me 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:00.519 into a large room filled wall to wall with deer heads, 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:03.639 and I mean big deer. He grinned like a possum 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:06.880 meating red ants while describing how he and his sons 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:10.399 had taken all these deer with archery gear. Many came 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:14.200 from Tennessee, others came from the Midwest. The bucks ranged 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:18.560 from basket racks to stacks of one fifties and one sixties, 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:20.560 all the way up to a two hundred and twenty 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:23.600 inch giant. He had one buck with a twenty seven 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.080 inch spread on the wall. I asked mister Henry to 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:31.680 tell me his most memorable story, which was difficult, but 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:35.440 this is the one that he picked. Meet mister Henry. 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:43.760 In nineteen ninety one is when I first found sign 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:47.400 of this big buck. It was deep in a Cherokee 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:52.640 National Forest. It began when my son and I went 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:56.160 there and hunted a couple of years. He wound up 0:03:56.240 --> 0:03:59.360 killing a one hundred and thirty four inch eight point 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.280 I think, and another big buck that they called slew 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:05.880 Foot because he was crippling one leg, which made I 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:08.400 guess that leg or the other leg. When he made 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:11.600 a scrape, it was a lot bigger than it should be. 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:16.000 So we got to going back in this area and 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:19.280 packing in and staying, you know, three days at a time. 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:24.239 We come out. First year when I found the sign 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:26.760 of the big buck, we didn't get him. The acorn 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:31.600 crop wasn't real good. Second year, same thing. I found 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:35.400 the sign, knew there was a big buck there, but 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:39.000 again the acorns weren't real good. Probably he had some 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:42.760 rubs the size of a ball capot six seven inches 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:46.279 through quite a few of Then comes the third year, 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:51.040 and we had been to Illinois looking for some deer 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:55.040 sign and my son was all enthused about going to Illinois, 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:57.360 and I thought, I can't go to Illinois. 0:04:57.480 --> 0:04:57.640 Nick. 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:02.000 I found about forty crapes on one ridge back there, 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:05.560 and the mountains are pretty steep back in that end. 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:08.600 On the crest of the ridges, it's where the deer 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:12.680 makes scrapes, and I also feed on acres sometimes. The 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:16.279 sign that he made would be two miles long. He said, 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:18.200 if I go back there one more trip with you, 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:20.520 will you then go to Illinoise. I said, yeah, you 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:22.520 give me one more change. I said, let's go back 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.280 there and see if we can't get him. So we 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:27.440 went back and put our little pufp tin up packed 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:31.440 ten put her pup tin up. It was October the 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:35.919 twenty eighth, nineteen ninety three, went hundred trees stands, and 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:40.160 the next morning, just a crack of daylight, I heard 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:45.040 something that i'd heard before, and it was a deer 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:48.520 having his horns in limbs over his head. There was 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.720 a clicking sound. A lot of people heard it. Then 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:54.920 he came out the top of a ridge and I 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:57.839 could see the top of his rack. I had never 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:00.320 seen the deer before, but I knew he was big. 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:03.880 By studying the sign, you can tell a lot, but 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:08.039 the sign by the track and the scrapes, by the 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.960 damage he does. So he came out this ridge and 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:15.080 he had two scrapes underneath the tree I was in, 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.600 and I thought, well, maybe he will go straight ahead. 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:21.880 If he does, he's too far to shoot. But he didn't. 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.000 He turned down the ridge comes straight to the scrapes. 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:28.719 I shot him when he's standing right below the scrape, 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:31.360 within ten foot of the tree, right down through the 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:35.600 between the front shoulders. He ran out the ridge about 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:39.200 seventy five eighty yards turned down the ridge and went 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:41.960 out of my sight. So I sat there for a 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:46.840 little while, and I knew immediately it's been several years ago. 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:50.600 It's the biggest deer I'd ever seen, both horns and 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:53.640 body wise. So I got out out of the tree, 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:57.400 went down there, and the direction he run. I didn't 0:06:57.400 --> 0:06:59.160 try to follow the blood trail, but I knew why 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:01.960 I could pick it up. But when I got down there, 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:03.559 I was looking up on the size of the ridge 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:06.560 looking for him, and looked down and he was right 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:10.960 under my feet dead. One thing that I thought was 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:13.960 really interesting. I finally found my son. He got out 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:15.920 out of the tree about eleven o'clock and come back 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:17.360 to for with camp and I told him, I said, 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:22.120 I got him. So we started pulling this deer at 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.640 twelve o'clock. We put him on the four wheeler at 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:29.000 nine o'clock at night. That's how That's how tough it 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:31.440 was to get out. It was just I mean, it 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:33.880 was just so far back, you know, in a remote area, 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:37.680 but we got him out. So it was just an 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.920 absolute huge deer for the high a mountain, Yeah, you know, 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:43.960 amazing in this part of the country. Scored one hundred 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:47.680 and fifty five inches and it's only got five eighths 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:50.120 of a niche deduction on the whole rack. That's that's 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:52.920 kind of an amazing thing too. I've never seen one 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:56.240 that close. That's just that's you know, that's just one 0:07:56.240 --> 0:08:00.680 of the stories. He's hanging right here right now. I 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:02.560 don't know where I got this. I don't know what 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:06.480 drives a man to jump out of bed and frosty 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:09.480 morning and go several miles back in the mountains to 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:13.120 sit thereunder a tree all day. Except none of my people, 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:15.680 as far as I can find out, fish or hunted. 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:20.080 An old man in North Carolina. When I was twenty 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:23.360 eight years old, I got acquaint which sold me a 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:28.400 used bow he had in three wooden iras for twenty dollars, 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:31.960 and that's where I started. I think maybe I shot 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:34.679 at a deer that year, but a friend of mine 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:37.840 went with men. Someone asked him, as you see a deer, 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:40.719 He said, yeah, Henry shot at one. He said, how 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:44.920 close was it? He said, well, it kissed him. I 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:46.920 missed him. I found an old tree stand back in 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:48.560 the mountains and got up in it. Said I didn't 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:51.199 have a tree stand, and for the first three or 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:53.200 four years, I didn't have a tree stand. I finally 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:57.280 figured out I could take an old Coca Cola case 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:00.560 that they used to put bottles in it up in 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:03.120 a tree. It made a pretty good stand. So that's 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:05.600 what I hunted off over too through a year. But 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:08.880 it's been many years ago. But it's something you get 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:11.760 into that you love and you just get it in 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.280 your blood. A lot of times when I go back 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:16.200 in the mountains, I like to go back there in 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:19.199 October and watch the leaves fall when they all turn. 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:22.600 And I've always thought there's something magic in the mountains. 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:25.160 You know, it's kind of magical to watch boomers. You 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:29.720 know what a boomer is. Okay, a boomer is a 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:35.360 little squirrel. They're fastest green lighting and they live about 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:38.680 five thousand feet elevation in the mountains, and I like 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:42.840 to watch those play. They're fast. I like to watch 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:46.240 squirrels bear all the animals. I mean, it's just magic 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:48.880 for me. Once you get in your blood, you can't 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:51.320 get it out. You've got to go every year. But 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.840 that's the story of my favorite buck from the place 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:56.600 in the Turkey National Forest. 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:00.319 Are you as passionate about bow hunting now as you 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:02.760 were when you were in your thirties every bit. 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:06.840 So probably the reason that is is I know what's 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:07.559 coming to an end. 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:08.880 You know. 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:11.760 I've been forciate enough to hunt some some people had 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:13.360 a lot of respect for over the years. And one 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:16.559 of my one of my good friends, was ten years 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:19.200 and ten days older than I am, and he told 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.199 me one day, he said, there'll come a day when 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:24.920 you'll have to stop, and it'll be it'll be tough 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:27.280 on you. He said, happen to me, it'll happen to you. 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:31.400 And I know that's true. Yeah, but I still love 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:34.959 to go back in the mountains and I can still 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:39.160 do it and probably will till something happens. Give you 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:41.720 an example. Last year, I was in the remote area. 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:45.880 I called and I was on top of the mountain. 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:47.679 It takes about an hour to get up there, up 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:50.439 a tree, and a fella came by and he finally 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.800 spotted me, and he stopped by and apologized for, you know, 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:56.320 affecting my dear honey. I said, man, I haven't seen anything, 0:10:57.360 --> 0:10:59.360 and he said, I believe I've seen you here before 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:01.440 and I said, yeah, I've hunted here for many years. 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:04.520 And he said how old are you? And I said 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:08.080 I'll be eighty my birthday and he said, man, I 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:10.360 can't believe it, he said. I said, you don't have 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:12.640 to say anything. I know how lucky I am, you know. 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:16.600 But when he left, he said, you know it's amazing. 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:18.680 He said, come on top of this mountain and see 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:21.240 an old man up a tree that's seventy nine years old. 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:28.760 But I've been lucky. Maybe the reason that I go 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:31.560 to the High Country's course he's taking care of me. 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:38.640 Mister Henry is a special man, full of energy, passion, 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:41.600 and a love of white tailed deer hunting that rivals 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:45.320 any I've encountered. To my knowledge, he's never been interviewed 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:48.560 about his hunting. He never cared to be, but he's 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:52.640 been extremely successful as a bow hunter in Passing. He 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:55.600 told me that once some knucklehead had spread a rumor 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.560 in the community that those Sioux song boys were killing 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:01.800 all these deer at night. He chuckled and told the 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:06.319 numbskulled naysayer, they're hard enough to kill during the daytime. 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:11.040 I can't imagine trying to kill one at night, As 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:13.439 if to say, we're not as good. 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:15.560 As you think we are. Buddy, but I appreciate it. 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:18.160 I thought that was pretty witty. 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:25.880 Mister Henry, thanks for sharing your story with us. Our 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:29.800 next story is told by my friend Aaron Stanfel. He 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.800 was on our first Deer Stories episode and told about 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:35.880 going to the bathroom and calling in those two deer. 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:40.640 Here's a short story about two wild days in Kansas 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:41.640 with his brother Andy. 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:48.000 My brother and I are in Kansas two thousand and nine, 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:51.760 on his birthday, November the tenth, we were hunting a 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:55.960 huge beanfield and we had decided that we were going 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:59.360 to try to decoy a deer in for the first time. 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:02.840 So when we uh, we bought us a primos I 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:05.360 don't remember. I think his name was Bucky Little primost 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:08.599 Bucky Dick coming to a green bag. We set it 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:10.440 up at the edge of the beanfield, and we'd watched 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:12.600 enough videos we knew to turn it kind of turning 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:15.560 towards us in the tree. You want to do that 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:18.520 because if a deer's coming in, you want the deer 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:21.400 to come around your decoy because he'll always come in 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:25.360 and face him headfirst. He won't ever approach another deer 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:27.840 from the back. So we knew if he come around 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:28.520 to the front. 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:29.199 We'd have a. 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.240 Broadside shot the deer with We put this bucky dikoy 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:34.480 up eighteen yards in front of us. We was both 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.280 in this big cedar tree. Here steps out a beautiful, 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:39.959 beautiful nine pointer out of the corner of the beanfield, 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:44.520 probably about I don't know, one hundred yards. It was 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:47.280 kind of walking away, but it stopped and it saw 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:53.160 the decoy. And when it did, it immediately immediately through 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:58.120 its ears back straight backwards and just bristled up and 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:01.200 kind of just hunched over and just stiff legged all 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:04.760 the way across the field. It was the most dramatic, 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:09.319 the most exciting thing that I've ever witnessed. Comes all 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:12.520 the way into the decoy. I had to close my eyes. 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:14.480 I'll never forget I had my eyes closed. I was 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:16.440 just trying to get my thoughts together. I was like, 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:18.800 I have got to keep it together right here. 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:19.200 I was so. 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:22.200 Nervous, I was shaking. It comes around the head of 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:26.240 the decoy and it just throws its head and it 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:30.080 knocks the whole head off of the decoy just out 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:32.000 there on the ground. Well, when it did, the deer 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:34.120 just stood there, still run off. It just stood there like, 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:37.840 what in the world, you know, And my brother's like, Aaron, what. 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:38.240 Are you doing? 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:40.760 Shoot the deer? Shoot the deer, And. 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:43.200 I'm like, hang on, I gotta get this together. I 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:44.800 was like, I can't even draw my bow back. I 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:48.720 was shaking so much. And anyway, I finally got drew back, 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:51.240 made a great shot on the deer and it expired 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:53.960 right there in the middle of the bean field. Still 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:56.200 probably the most exciting hunt I've ever been and just 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:59.440 the way that he came in was just incredible. The 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:02.640 next evening, my brother said, hey, let's do that again. 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:06.000 Let's get in the same tree. We'll do the same thing. 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:08.880 There's gotta be another deer in there. So we did 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:12.760 another really nice deer, probably one hundred and thirty five 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:15.240 inch ten pointer, come out the far other end of 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:19.280 the beanfield, probably four hundred yards, just had his look 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:22.040 through the binoculars to see it. My brother said, Aaron, 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:25.320 there's a big buck. He's like, snort, wheeze addy, So 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:29.680 I just sh you know, really loud. He heard it, 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:34.040 and he come running all the way across the beanfield, 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:38.880 saw the decoy, exact same thing, come in head first 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:41.720 to the decoy, and he made a fantastic shot on 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:44.480 the deer. We filmed the whole thing. We killed bucks 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.160 back to back nights over at Decoy, and but we 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:49.440 snort wheezed that deer and it was it was so 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:50.920 such a good hunt. 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:58.080 That's some good hunting. I asked Aaron if he had 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:02.440 any more memorable stories. He hesitated for a moment and 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:05.560 said he'd like to tell one. It's really more of 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:08.960 a confession than a story. The two other guys that 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:12.000 he's gonna mention here are mutual friends of ours, Scott 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:15.320 Brown and Lucas Austin. And this story is not Bear 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:20.320 Grease approved, mister Aaron, but I'm pretty sure everybody's gonna 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:20.800 enjoy it. 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:24.760 I got a funny one. I don't know what year 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:28.080 it was, it had to have been nineteen ninety eight 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:30.560 or nineteen ninety nine. That's when I met all the 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:34.480 Meana bunch, and I'd invited them to come over and 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.120 have a deer camp with us over on some public 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:39.680 land here in north of Arkansas. And Lucas Awsen and 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:43.320 Scott Brown they had been out driving around scouting for 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:45.720 the deer camp, and they came back to camp and 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:47.640 it was a tough year. I hadn't found any sign 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:50.080 at all to even hunting. They came back to camp 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:53.200 and of course, I you know, I told him that 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:55.720 I knew the woods like the back of my hand. 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:57.320 You know, I knew every ridge over there. 0:16:57.360 --> 0:16:58.720 I knew well. 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:01.480 They came back to camp and they said, man, we 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:04.439 have flat out found him. Said, we have found this 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:09.520 ridge that is just covered in deer, sun, white oak, 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.920 acorns all over the ground. I thought, man, really we're 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:16.960 at said, you know over there, and they described exactly 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:18.840 where it was at, and I said, yeah, I've got 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:21.240 to I've got a tree stand. I've never told this 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:22.920 for I've never I don't think they're even told brown. 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:23.280 See. 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:25.840 Yeah, I've got a tree stand on that ridge. They said, 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:27.720 you've got to be kidding me. We didn't see one. 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:30.520 I said, yeah, I do. I said I've got one 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:35.560 up there the top. And I didn't have a tree 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:39.800 stand there. And they thought, man, that was should have known. 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:42.760 You know, Stanfield is gonna be have He's already figured 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:46.680 found out. So they went somewhere else. The next day, 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:50.720 I whilled in there at daylight and I hadn't been 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:53.760 in the tree ten minutes, and the big ol'd dough 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:56.400 come in there and I shot her, and I don't 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:59.840 think I ever told them. We've called that liar's ridge 0:17:59.880 --> 0:18:05.880 to this day. I'm not proud of it, but that's 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:06.560 just how it happened. 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:14.119 Aaron, that was downright dirty, brother. I'm glad you finally 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:18.280 got that off your chest. Confession is a powerful tool, 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:21.080 and I think you owe Scott and Luca deer. The 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:24.959 way I figure it, twenty years of compound interest on 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:29.119 a doe deer, by my calculations, equals one hundred and 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:32.600 thirty five inch buck. You owe both of them both 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:38.359 one hundred and thirty five inch deer. Don't lie to 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:43.600 your hunting buddies, Okay, I'm going to tell the next story. 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:46.960 This was the first big buck that I ever killed. 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:52.879 This is one of my most memorable hunts. It was 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:57.159 October the twenty fifth, nineteen ninety eight. And that's an 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:02.240 important date because as a deer I've learned that dates 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:06.439 are very important, and it's something that I remember pretty well. 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:09.080 Of the deer that I've killed, I could tell you the. 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.480 Date of almost every one of the big bucks, and 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:16.280 it started with this one. 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:17.639 I was nineteen years old. 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:22.280 I was coming back to my hometown from where I 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:24.639 was going to college my first year of college at 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:27.919 Arkansas Tech University, I was going back to hunt with 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:33.040 Dad on some scrubby public land that we grew up hunting. 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:38.480 This land was primarily pine plantation. There was a lot 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:40.760 of forestry going on there, so there were a lot 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.159 of clear cuts, but they would leave the hardwood timber 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:48.200 along the riparian zones along the creeks, and in late 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:51.080 October when the acrons were falling, that's where you'd find 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:53.200 the deer wherever you found the oaks, which was along 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.159 the creeks. This was the spot that my dad and 0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:58.600 I had hunted a lot in years previous. 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:00.800 It was a place we called blue Bucket. 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:03.680 First time Dad went in there, he saw a blue bucket, 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:07.920 and so from then on it was called blue Bucket. Basically, 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:10.880 it was a narrow strip of hardwood timber with two 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:15.720 clearcuts on either side, and the clearcuts met and the 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:19.199 timber narrowed down into a point, and right at that 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:21.560 point was where Dad. 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:23.879 Had found multiple big scrapes. 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:26.240 And he had been in there scouting in the middle 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:30.320 of the day the week before, bumbling around and actually 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:34.159 heard a deer coming, got real quiet and still and 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:39.480 watched this big buck come through the mill around in there, 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:42.240 which was really unusual to lay your eyes on a 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:45.560 big buck while you're scouting. And for whatever reason, that 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:47.399 next weekend, Dad didn't want to hunt in there. He 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:50.199 probably just wanted me to have the good spot. But 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:52.719 I went in there and hung a stand within twenty 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:56.760 yards of this scrape. I went in early on the 0:20:56.800 --> 0:20:59.320 morning of the twenty fifth. There was a frost on 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:03.159 the ground. It was just the perfect morning. At this 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:06.400 time in my hunting career, I had killed several deer 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:08.720 with a bow, but I had never killed a mature buck, 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:11.919 And honestly, I had never seen a mature buck from stand. 0:21:12.240 --> 0:21:14.840 And this is also a time when we didn't have 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:17.960 trail cameras, we didn't have cell phones, and I might 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:21.720 hunt a whole season to get an opportunity at one 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:26.639 spike buck. Well, as the morning came on about forty 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:29.159 five minutes after daylight, about the time you feel like 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:32.440 you ought to be seeing some game, I hear something 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:34.919 coming in behind me in the leaves. 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:37.080 I hear walking. I get ready. 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:39.880 I turn around, and here comes a coyote and he's 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:44.240 zigging and zagging through the trees, mousing hunting, and he 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:48.240 starts hunting all around these oaks that are just raining 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:51.679 acrens that my deer are about to be at. The 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:56.040 kyote gets in right close to this big scrape, and 0:21:57.080 --> 0:21:59.880 I didn't hesitate, and I still don't hesitate to this day. 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:02.560 I learned with predators that if you're going to shoot 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:05.360 one with a bow, you can't hesitate. You just have 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:07.600 to make up your mind before they even get there 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:09.639 that you're going to shoot a coyote if it's legal, 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:12.320 and it was. By the time he got into the open, 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:14.640 he's like ten feet from this big. 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:17.720 Scrape and I pull back and shoot this coyote. 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:23.840 He drops right there, right in the heart of where 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:26.480