Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, home of the
Speaker 1: modern whitetail hunter and now your host, Mark Kenyon. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host, Mark Kenyon,
Speaker 1: and today the show, I'm joined by Parker McDonald of
Speaker 1: the Southern Ground Hunting Podcast to discuss deer hunting in
Speaker 1: the South, accessing deer hunting spots by water, and my
Speaker 1: Alabama hunting adventure. All right, welcome to the Wired to
Speaker 1: Hunt podcast, brought to you by First Light. Today we're
Speaker 1: talking to Alabama. This is another one of my hunts
Speaker 1: that I did this past fall. Working on this new series,
Speaker 1: I've been telling you about where I am traveling to
Speaker 1: a new part of the country, meeting up with a
Speaker 1: regional expert and learning about how they do what they do,
Speaker 1: so spending a day following along with them, asking them
Speaker 1: how they hunt, how they find their spots, their different
Speaker 1: unique tactics, whatever it might be, and then going out
Speaker 1: there for three or four days myself in that area,
Speaker 1: trying to hunt on my own and get one done.
Speaker 1: So that's what I did in Alabama, went down there
Speaker 1: to visit with Parker, who is a die hard public
Speaker 1: land deer hunting nut he's having a lot of success
Speaker 1: in the state of Alabama and other southern states, and
Speaker 1: he's doing it by using the water to his advantage, kayaking, canoeing, boating,
Speaker 1: whatever it takes to get too hard to reach areas,
Speaker 1: finding these bucks where other people can't get to them.
Speaker 1: That's what I wanted to learn about. So in December,
Speaker 1: me and the crew were able to go down there
Speaker 1: and meet up with Parker and his dad, actually Randall,
Speaker 1: for their annual rut cation. The rut down this part
Speaker 1: of the country is in December, and it seemed like
Speaker 1: we're going to hit it just right. So what we're
Speaker 1: discussed today with Parker and Randall on the show, we're
Speaker 1: in discuss how that hunt went. We're discussed why Parker
Speaker 1: uses water, how he uses water, how he has discovered
Speaker 1: ways to discover and locate public land dear down in
Speaker 1: the South in places like this now Alabama. We're gonna
Speaker 1: cover all that, a lot of good how to stuff,
Speaker 1: but then we're gonna walk through, day by day how
Speaker 1: my hunt went down there, the crazy things that happened,
Speaker 1: the good times we had, the lessons I learned, and
Speaker 1: ultimately how I ended up killing a buck. So there's
Speaker 1: a little teaser for you story to come here. It's
Speaker 1: a good one. It was a lot of fun and
Speaker 1: it was it was just great to finally get to
Speaker 1: go down get a glimpse into this Southeastern deer hunting
Speaker 1: culture that I know so rich and so many of
Speaker 1: you are part of. Uh got a little look at that,
Speaker 1: a little taste of what that's all about, and uh,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure enjoyed it. So hope you guys enjoy
Speaker 1: this one. Thank you for listening. And from here, let's
Speaker 1: get to my conversation with Parker and Randall McDonald. All
Speaker 1: right with me on the show. Now we've got Parker
Speaker 1: and Reginald McDonald. Okay, not Reginald, this Randall. But our
Speaker 1: our inside joke of the trip was giving Randall many
Speaker 1: different names. So, guys, thank you for being here, Thanks
Speaker 1: for having us, And it was a great time visiting
Speaker 1: you guys down in Alabama. And uh, this is a
Speaker 1: podcast I've been looking forward to more than some just
Speaker 1: because of what a great set of stories we have
Speaker 1: and laughs we had. I mean, it was just a
Speaker 1: heck of a week. So uh, I don't know, I'm
Speaker 1: just thrilled we can do this wish that more of
Speaker 1: the guys from the crew could be on, but um,
Speaker 1: we'll have a we'll have a good bit of nostalgia
Speaker 1: as best as possible, the three of us. I figure, um,
Speaker 1: here's here's what I want to do, guys. I wanted
Speaker 1: to first get a little background, so we'll kind of
Speaker 1: lay the groundwork for who you guys are and why
Speaker 1: I was out there to visit you, and then we'll
Speaker 1: go through day by day our trip, what we did,
Speaker 1: what I learned, what you were teaching me Parker, and
Speaker 1: and all the different things that happened along the way.
Speaker 1: Um that said what I think drew me to you, Parker. Originally,
Speaker 1: you know, I was I was aware of you from AFAR,
Speaker 1: and I knew about your podcast and had seen you
Speaker 1: on you know, Dan's videos, podcasts all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: and so I knew there was this guy Parker, and
Speaker 1: I knew you were doing two things that were particularly interesting.
Speaker 1: Number one, you were consistently killing good deer on public
Speaker 1: land in the South, and number two, you were doing
Speaker 1: it by water. You were boating, kayaking, getting to these
Speaker 1: places by River Lake Reservoir, all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: And that was you know, not the most unique, but
Speaker 1: you made it like it was. It was almost all
Speaker 1: of your hunts you were doing it there and many
Speaker 1: of them were like that, and so it was really
Speaker 1: a specialty. So those two things were very intriguing to me.
Speaker 1: And uh, and that was what I was hoping for
Speaker 1: when I came to have this hunt with you. I
Speaker 1: wanted to kind of dig into how you did that,
Speaker 1: why you do that, how that all works, and then
Speaker 1: see if I could, you know, guinea pigott and and
Speaker 1: maybe make it work for myself. So that was that
Speaker 1: was what intrigued me. And I'm curious, Parker. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: let me take let me take one step back before
Speaker 1: I ask you how you came to that and how
Speaker 1: this style of hunting became your way of hunting. I wanna,
Speaker 1: I wanna get your perspective, Randall. Can you tell me
Speaker 1: the story of how you saw Parker growing too the
Speaker 1: hunter he is today and doing the things he's doing today.
Speaker 1: Let's let's get the story from Papla McDonald's perspective. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's a that's that's that's a great question. It really is.
Speaker 1: And uh, Parker Man, I'm as big as fan number
Speaker 1: one of course, Simon's dad, and uh, I love both
Speaker 1: of my kids, got a daughter as well. But Parker,
Speaker 1: there was something about him when he got into the
Speaker 1: outdoors that that just he just was attracted to it.
Speaker 1: I mean when the other kids, uh in boy Scouts
Speaker 1: or or uh similar program we're out doing kids stuff.
Speaker 1: When he was young, he would just get by the
Speaker 1: river and catch fish until he couldn't catch any more fish.
Speaker 1: I mean, he just he just had that that stick
Speaker 1: tuitiveness and uh. And then when we got into deer hunting,
Speaker 1: man um, I just remember his eyes and his excitement
Speaker 1: of just being in the stand and in deer hunting,
Speaker 1: there was he was just automatically attracted to it. We've
Speaker 1: got one of our favorite pictures in the McDonald household.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was just an amazing deal. Uh. We
Speaker 1: had went went out hunting on a guy's piece of property.
Speaker 1: Parker killed a little nine point buck that day. And
Speaker 1: when he killed that buck, he he went to sleep
Speaker 1: with that buck up to his chin. And and we
Speaker 1: have that picture in our house and it it is
Speaker 1: just one of the most incredible, incredible pictures that I've gotten.
Speaker 1: Shows his love for deer hunting. That's amazing. So it's
Speaker 1: it's not a new thing, Parker. How this thing took
Speaker 1: hold early and it's has claws ever since. Oh man,
Speaker 1: like um, Dad, Dad didn't mention this, but the first
Speaker 1: time I ever went deer hunting, uh, which which he
Speaker 1: wasn't really into it. Um. I think doing some mule
Speaker 1: deer hunts out in New Mexico when he was younger.
Speaker 1: But we were terrible at deer hunting. We were awful, man,
Speaker 1: my dad were awful at it. But I got to
Speaker 1: I got good grades on a report card, my first
Speaker 1: in first grade, so I was I guess I was
Speaker 1: about seven years old, and I remember coming home I
Speaker 1: got good grades and Dad said, all right, I'm taking
Speaker 1: you hunting. And we got invited to go with this
Speaker 1: guy and his son. And the first morning we were
Speaker 1: out there hunting and it was like hill country of Texas.
Speaker 1: So if any listeners are from Texas, you know, the
Speaker 1: hill country is like just loaded up with deer. There's
Speaker 1: so many year out there. And we were in a
Speaker 1: blind and Dad shot his first deer ever and I
Speaker 1: was there and uh, I remember curling up with a
Speaker 1: like a little felt blanket in the floor of that
Speaker 1: blind and the deer came out and he shot it.
Speaker 1: And then later that day he shot a turkey, which
Speaker 1: was you know, you can fall turkey hunt in Texas.
Speaker 1: So he shot his first turkey and I was there
Speaker 1: for that. Then he caught a big bass out of
Speaker 1: a stock pond, and then that evening he shot an
Speaker 1: eight point and it was like, this is this is amazing,
Speaker 1: Like this is my favorite, this is my new favorite
Speaker 1: thing ever. And uh, pretty much from that point on,
Speaker 1: you know, we were we were die hard. We were
Speaker 1: in it, like and from a young age, like Dad said, uh,
Speaker 1: like most kids at this is back in the day
Speaker 1: of Blockbuster. Um, most kids were getting you know, video
Speaker 1: games and you know whatever from written at Blockbuster. And
Speaker 1: I was getting Real Tree Monster Bucks, you know, and
Speaker 1: I've rent the same video over and over and over
Speaker 1: and over again. And uh or the Fitzgerald's. FitzGeralds were
Speaker 1: my favorite. Um like I just I don't know, man,
Speaker 1: it just it was always just that thing. And and
Speaker 1: so whenever the story that Dad's talking about, that was
Speaker 1: only my second dear ever and it was my first buck.
Speaker 1: And uh, I mean I literally carried that, uh that
Speaker 1: skull cap around everywhere. Um, and I fell asleep with it.
Speaker 1: And that's the that's the picture he's talking about. I
Speaker 1: was laying on the laying on the recliner with it
Speaker 1: up underneath my chin, you know, like it's a teddy bear. Um,
Speaker 1: that's just I mean, I guess some people would call
Speaker 1: him call that being the weird kid, but I just
Speaker 1: I'll just eat up with it. I get it. I
Speaker 1: get it. Man. So, so you're originally from Texas, Randall,
Speaker 1: you're still in Texas, Parker, You're in Alabama, And I
Speaker 1: guess what, I'm curious to get a little bit more
Speaker 1: from you on And this is something we talked about
Speaker 1: while I was down there, but I think it's worth
Speaker 1: exploring a little more now. Is is what makes hunting
Speaker 1: down there different than what I know up where I'm at,
Speaker 1: because I'm hunting a lot in the Midwest. I live
Speaker 1: in Michigan, of course, And when I knew that, you know,
Speaker 1: coming into this year, I wanted to experience southern deer, honey.
Speaker 1: I wanted to kind of have a window into what
Speaker 1: all these other people are experiencing and hunting for because
Speaker 1: I get the same messages and emails all the time. No, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's great, but you know, it's not like what I
Speaker 1: do down here in Georgia, or what I do it
Speaker 1: in Texas, or what I do in Alabama, or what
Speaker 1: I see in so and so forth, Mississippi, Louisiana, whatever. Um,
Speaker 1: So what do you think it is? Um? I'll start
Speaker 1: with you, Randall, how would you describe what makes you
Speaker 1: know the deer hunting and maybe public land, especially down
Speaker 1: in your neck of the woods, different or unique or
Speaker 1: or more challenging. I mean, what makes it stand apart
Speaker 1: in your mind from stuff you're seeing on TV from
Speaker 1: both places. Well, it's definitely, uh, it's definitely difficult. I
Speaker 1: think you've got to know what you're doing. I don't
Speaker 1: think you're gonna luck onto a buck. I mean there's
Speaker 1: guys that do, but I just I'm hunting in Texas
Speaker 1: and not a whole lot of public land around here. However,
Speaker 1: I have found one recently that's fairly close. And and
Speaker 1: it's uh uh, it's it's not an easy thing to
Speaker 1: do and and and to you know, to kayak into
Speaker 1: some of those places, and and Parker's just kind of
Speaker 1: challenged me to expand what I'm normally done. I've normally
Speaker 1: just hunted from blinds or you know, my own property.
Speaker 1: But but I really have enjoyed getting out and really
Speaker 1: stretching myself at fifty eight years old, stretching myself to
Speaker 1: try to become a better deer hunter. I'm just I
Speaker 1: just have enjoyed the sport. But I've never really tried
Speaker 1: to excel at it like Parker has. But I've been
Speaker 1: stretched and and Texas public land is not not very easy,
Speaker 1: nor is it easy in Alabama the public land hunt.
Speaker 1: I just it's it's difficult to get out there and
Speaker 1: do it. But when you've got a good teacher and
Speaker 1: having learned that, I know Parker will say, you know,
Speaker 1: wired to hunt meat eater and he learned, has learned
Speaker 1: so much from it. And I've started watching it and
Speaker 1: trying to do new things, and I'm I'm learning from it,
Speaker 1: and so I'm starting to learn a little bit more
Speaker 1: about it. It's not easy, but it's worth it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So what would you add, Parker, Well, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know what it is. I'm not a I'm not
Speaker 1: a biologist or or a scientist by any means. But
Speaker 1: I have hunted um up, you know, North Dakota hunting,
Speaker 1: Kentucky I've hunded a couple of states that I wouldn't
Speaker 1: necessarily consider the Southeast. And I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: just like a soil thing, but typically our deer are
Speaker 1: not gonna be as big. Uh, your bucks are not
Speaker 1: gonna be as huge, you know. I would say for
Speaker 1: most people in the Southeast, a one fifty on public
Speaker 1: land is probably gonna be like a once in a
Speaker 1: lifetime time type deer. You're not just gonna see a
Speaker 1: bunch of them. Um. Obviously, with anything, there's exceptions, there's
Speaker 1: guys who are doing it consistently, but it's just not
Speaker 1: it's not calmon um. And and I would say, up in,
Speaker 1: let's just take Kentucky for example. I've seen multiple deer
Speaker 1: that big in my limited amount of time, just hunting
Speaker 1: there for a week at a time. And uh and
Speaker 1: and in North Dakota, you know, uh, I was a
Speaker 1: long story short. I was hunting private land and then
Speaker 1: moved on to a piece of public land and in
Speaker 1: the two days that is that on that public land,
Speaker 1: I saw a deer that was bigger than any deer
Speaker 1: I've seen in Alabama all season in two days, not
Speaker 1: even knowing anything about it. So maybe it's a soil thing.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's just having you know, soybeans and crops around
Speaker 1: that make it just easier or better for growing quality deer.
Speaker 1: So I think the quality is diffinitely lower um. But
Speaker 1: when you when you start talking in terms of quantity um,
Speaker 1: I don't believe that our quantity or our density of
Speaker 1: deer is as high as a lot of those places.
Speaker 1: And so you know, I I hear people I have
Speaker 1: friends like yourself, Mark who hunt uh states like Michigan
Speaker 1: or uh Wisconsin. I know, I know Michigan the hunting
Speaker 1: pressure is pretty high. And so the thing that I
Speaker 1: consistently here about Michigan hunting is that it's easy to
Speaker 1: find dear. It's hard to find mature deer um that
Speaker 1: you're just not gonna find a lot of them. And
Speaker 1: so I would stay out here in the South. It
Speaker 1: is not easy to find mature deer. Nor is it
Speaker 1: easy to just find deer in general. You know, does
Speaker 1: you go out and you see five or six does
Speaker 1: in a sit and you've had a heck of a
Speaker 1: sit um, and so you know you add that in
Speaker 1: with uh, just the the terrain of a lot of
Speaker 1: the areas that that like where you hunted at the
Speaker 1: train can be fairly difficult. Uh. In other parts of
Speaker 1: the South, you have a ton of swamp and water
Speaker 1: that you've got to try to figure your way around it. Um.
Speaker 1: And it's just you know, if you wanna and then
Speaker 1: add the add the pressure aspect to it, um, it's
Speaker 1: pretty There's a lot of hunting pressure in just about
Speaker 1: everywhere in the South that I've ever hunted, there's tons
Speaker 1: of pressure. So you kind of have all those things
Speaker 1: working against you, which makes it makes it relatively difficult.
Speaker 1: And I'm I'm of the opinion Mark, Like I talked
Speaker 1: to a lot of people through through my podcast and
Speaker 1: just in general conversations who hunt all over the country,
Speaker 1: And I know you always hear people say, well, if
Speaker 1: you can kill a deer in Michigan, you can kill
Speaker 1: one anywhere. If you can kill a deer and or
Speaker 1: whatever Louisiana, then you can kill one anywhere. I I
Speaker 1: think anybody who everybody likes to think that the place
Speaker 1: that they hunt is the hardest place to hunt, Like,
Speaker 1: that's just kind of typically see it on Facebook all
Speaker 1: the time, people saying that kind of stuff, And I
Speaker 1: definitely don't want that to come across. You know, I
Speaker 1: think if somebody hunts in the South and they live
Speaker 1: in the South, then they have a huge advantage of
Speaker 1: being able to live there and figure it out. And
Speaker 1: so I never wanted to come across to anybody that
Speaker 1: you know, where I hunts the hardest place to hunt,
Speaker 1: because I think once you kind of figure out your system,
Speaker 1: once you figure out what works, then you stick to
Speaker 1: that and you just kind of grow based on and
Speaker 1: build based on that. But you know it, definitely there
Speaker 1: are there are some different types of challenges in the
Speaker 1: Southeast versus the other places. I'm not gonna say that
Speaker 1: they're greater challenges, but they're just different. So so why
Speaker 1: was your solution go into the water and why why
Speaker 1: was it that to tackle the specific challenges of the
Speaker 1: South that you gravitated towards h two al So, for me,
Speaker 1: it was the only thing that I was thinking about
Speaker 1: when I first started. It was getting away from people.
Speaker 1: Um I had hunted public land in Alabama a little bit,
Speaker 1: but not really effectively hunted it, and uh it long
Speaker 1: story short, I had bought this suv. I was really
Speaker 1: into kayak fishing, so I would bass bass fish for
Speaker 1: my kayak. Always had a truck to carry my carry
Speaker 1: my kayak and just loaded up in the back. But uh,
Speaker 1: I bought an SUV and so I had to figure
Speaker 1: out a trailer for it, a trailer system while I
Speaker 1: bought this big, giant like skiboat trailer from my kayak,
Speaker 1: and I started thinking of all these things that I
Speaker 1: could do with that. I could put a rack here,
Speaker 1: I could put a place to put a cooler up
Speaker 1: right here. And then for whatever reason, it just sparked
Speaker 1: this thought in me that was like I could put
Speaker 1: a rack here to put deer on. Oh heck, I
Speaker 1: wonder if there's a place where I could hunt deer
Speaker 1: with water access out here close to me. So I
Speaker 1: literally bought on X that day, uh here, and you
Speaker 1: talk about it here, and you know, just the different
Speaker 1: people that I had watched on YouTube or listen to
Speaker 1: on podcasts, I bought on X that day and started
Speaker 1: just marking all these water access places. And that's really
Speaker 1: where it started at I was. I knew I didn't
Speaker 1: really want to hunt public land just by walking in
Speaker 1: because of all the people that were out there, But
Speaker 1: going at it by water, I would I would be
Speaker 1: able to do a couple of different things. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have to pay for a lease anymore, which was great
Speaker 1: because I was about to have my first child, and uh,
Speaker 1: I didn't really had to have the money to do
Speaker 1: it at the time. And honestly, like I was finding
Speaker 1: so much pressure on these leases that I was getting
Speaker 1: on that I was just I was like, if I
Speaker 1: wanted to not see dear, I could just not see
Speaker 1: deer for free on public land. You know, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't have to pay and not see deer anymore.
Speaker 1: And and I also knew this. I knew that the
Speaker 1: quality of my hunt would be largely based on not
Speaker 1: so much like shooting the biggest deer that I had
Speaker 1: ever killed, but just in that beginning stage, it was like,
Speaker 1: if I shoot a spike and I kayak it out,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be the most like hardcore thing I've ever
Speaker 1: done in my life. And and so the quality of
Speaker 1: the hunt was based more on the experience of it
Speaker 1: and not so much the size of the size of
Speaker 1: the animal. And so um, that was really where I started.
Speaker 1: That was kind of the beginning of this. Uh. My
Speaker 1: wife would call it a monster, but I would call
Speaker 1: it a passion. Uh. And and that's that's really where
Speaker 1: it started at. I'm glad it happened. Monster or not,
Speaker 1: I'm glad it happened. It's it's ledding us some good stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: and it led to me come down to Alabama finally
Speaker 1: getting to do this. Um. So okay, So I feel
Speaker 1: like you've set it up pretty nicely for me, Parker.
Speaker 1: We kind of know why you do this in those years,
Speaker 1: since you've done it a ton. It seems like you
Speaker 1: spend every free moment, if I've judged by nothing but
Speaker 1: your YouTube videos and Instagram, seems like you're out there
Speaker 1: all the time on public land, boating around and putting
Speaker 1: a buck in your canoe or kayak every day. It
Speaker 1: seems like sometimes but you've you've got to figure it
Speaker 1: out and and that's that's why I was coming down there.
Speaker 1: So let's get into let's get into this trip. And
Speaker 1: then as we kind of go into the specifics, I'll
Speaker 1: kind of grill you on on some of the wise
Speaker 1: behind this. But Day one, well, I guess kind of
Speaker 1: Dave zero, we were arriving meeting you at this lake
Speaker 1: and we're gonna hopping boats, move to a spot where're
Speaker 1: gonna camp, set up camp kind of get settled for
Speaker 1: the night and then go out and hunt together the
Speaker 1: next morning. I gotta ask you both of you, guys,
Speaker 1: when you we're envisioning us showing up and we're gonna
Speaker 1: join you guys for your your family rutcation and we're
Speaker 1: gonna camp with you and we're gonna hunt with you,
Speaker 1: what did you think that was gonna look like? And
Speaker 1: did didn't meet your expectations as far as what the
Speaker 1: group was like, what the group dynamic was like, what
Speaker 1: the whole thing was like? Uh, Randall, what do you
Speaker 1: think about it? Before and after? I can hear Dad
Speaker 1: and laughing in the background, So I'm like, well, let's
Speaker 1: see thinking now, I got to be honest with you, man,
Speaker 1: I was expecting, well, you know, I don't I don't
Speaker 1: know how to say it. You're kind of a big
Speaker 1: deal and and most of the times when I've dealt
Speaker 1: with big deal people, you get an attitude that comes
Speaker 1: with it, and because they kind of they're sold on themselves,
Speaker 1: and and so I kind of expected Hollywood tips. I
Speaker 1: really was not expecting guys that were number one nice. Um.
Speaker 1: I've listened to your podcast, but anybody can come across
Speaker 1: on on you know on the media and sound good.
Speaker 1: But man, y'all were nice and and you were approachable,
Speaker 1: and I wasn't expecting that. I don't know about Parker,
Speaker 1: but I I just was not expecting that. And and
Speaker 1: then to see you put up your own tent and
Speaker 1: do your own stuff. I thought you'd have people to
Speaker 1: do that, and you didn't get a little expectations of me.
Speaker 1: You had such aspectations on me. I love it. It's
Speaker 1: great you're impressed that I put up my own tent.
Speaker 1: I mean, I wish my wife would be impressed in
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. But thank you for saying that, right.
Speaker 1: But also, I mean, I mean there was one point
Speaker 1: where where and I've said this before, but I hope
Speaker 1: you don't mind repeating me repeating it, but but uh,
Speaker 1: Andreas was needing some water to wash dishes, and and
Speaker 1: uh and nobody volunteered. And here comes Mark Kenyon and
Speaker 1: he jumps up and says, I'll go get the water
Speaker 1: out of the lake. And you went and did that.
Speaker 1: That was probably the I'm amazing is that your deer hunting.
Speaker 1: I'm amazed at your family. I'm amazed that, I mean,
Speaker 1: you called your your your your family every night your family. Man,
Speaker 1: those things, man, they're super impressive. But you got up
Speaker 1: and went and got water and you served the camp
Speaker 1: and I just, man, I don't know if Parker got that,
Speaker 1: but that's that was the highlight for me is just
Speaker 1: watching watching you serve. So that was cool. Well, thank
Speaker 1: you for saying that. I don't know if I can
Speaker 1: talk that. It's a pretty good answer. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: I I definitely for me, uh, Mark, I had you
Speaker 1: on the podcast before, so we had had some interaction
Speaker 1: and talked to you on the phone. So I definitely
Speaker 1: didn't have any like concern of whether or not, you know,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be a nice guy, or or your crew
Speaker 1: was gonna be great or anything. But I just I
Speaker 1: think for me, I didn't imagine that we would have
Speaker 1: as much fun as we did. Um, you know, you
Speaker 1: get that many people, and you get you know, you
Speaker 1: guys are on a pretty strict uh storyline and you know,
Speaker 1: creating the right storyline, getting all the right camera angles
Speaker 1: and and all that stuff. But it was really just
Speaker 1: so organic. It wasn't like anything was just you know,
Speaker 1: staged or anything like that. It was it was super organic.
Speaker 1: We had such a stinking good time, and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I definitely would say that My expectations were, um, we're
Speaker 1: you know, not not necessarily low, but it far exceeded him.
Speaker 1: We had. I found myself, I know, I had a
Speaker 1: good time. When after the trip is over and it's done,
Speaker 1: I'm like, and I find myself sitting at home thinking, man,
Speaker 1: I wish those guys were still here. That was such
Speaker 1: a fun time. So you know, I definitely had fun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was great. And I asked that because
Speaker 1: it's just got a it must it was a risky
Speaker 1: thing for you guys to take on. I guess that's
Speaker 1: what I'm trying to say. I and I felt bad.
Speaker 1: I felt a little ad like we're intruding on this
Speaker 1: special family event that you guys have and we're coming
Speaker 1: in with all this camera equipment and all these people
Speaker 1: and all this stuff. And I had like worries like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I hope we're not imposing too much.
Speaker 1: I hope we're not going to ruin their week. I hope,
Speaker 1: you know, I hope they have fun. I hope we
Speaker 1: have fun. Um. So I'm glad to hear it. It
Speaker 1: turned out well for everyone, and and you know, we
Speaker 1: showed up that first night set up camp, and I
Speaker 1: think pretty quickly you've got a sense of our sense
Speaker 1: of humor, and we got a sense of yours, and
Speaker 1: that we all jibed really good. Um, it was it
Speaker 1: was a lottle after on this one. But so Mark,
Speaker 1: I have a question for you, if you don't mind me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my podcast, my podcast Hostness is coming out. I love it. Um,
Speaker 1: Whenever I told you that, hey, yeah, that'd be cool.
Speaker 1: My dad's a pastor, he's gonna be here. And what
Speaker 1: were your expectations of a pastor being in a meat
Speaker 1: eater camp. Well, I did have worries a little bit,
Speaker 1: not not like significant worries, but we sometimes operate on
Speaker 1: like a PG thirteen level. I guess would say, like,
Speaker 1: we're not bad, but we're definitely PG thirteen. Um, and
Speaker 1: I just hope that must be honest at least okay,
Speaker 1: at least okay, fair enough. I just didn't want to
Speaker 1: offend I didn't want to offend you Randall or or
Speaker 1: do anything to put you in an uncomfortable situation. And
Speaker 1: so I was hoping that we'd all be on our
Speaker 1: best behavior. Um. And what ended up surprising me was
Speaker 1: you know you're you. How do I say this without
Speaker 1: you were a great sport and you had a good
Speaker 1: time with us, and you didn't seem to be, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, bothered by any of the jokes, any of
Speaker 1: the fun we're having, and you're just part of the
Speaker 1: crew of course. And uh I think I told you
Speaker 1: you're my favorite pastor and uh I stick to it. Well,
Speaker 1: if you've been in camp with Parker, what y'all did
Speaker 1: was very mild compared to what Parker. Parker is one
Speaker 1: of the most uh, lovingly sarcastic people. Your effort and
Speaker 1: uh I had a blast. Y'all were y'all were so
Speaker 1: much fun and and uh my whole deal is I
Speaker 1: didn't want anybody to say, all the pastors here, we
Speaker 1: gotta calm down now. I want you to be you.
Speaker 1: And uh I thought we had a great time. It
Speaker 1: was it was so good. The food was unbelievable. We
Speaker 1: did often come back any time to Ruta ring and
Speaker 1: dress food. Yeah. So for those who who Andreas hasn't
Speaker 1: been in the podcast yet, he probably needs to be
Speaker 1: in the podcast as he became such a part of
Speaker 1: my season. Um, but Andreas is the producer for my
Speaker 1: two shows I was hosting this year one week in November,
Speaker 1: and uh this show, and the way I would describe
Speaker 1: what Andreas does and what a producer does a mediator
Speaker 1: is you're basically an air traffic controller for everything related
Speaker 1: to these shows. So he's helping playing logistics of all
Speaker 1: sorts and types and and he comes on these hunts
Speaker 1: some most of them now, um, and he's just there
Speaker 1: at base camp making sure everything's going right with the cameraman,
Speaker 1: managing all the different footage that we're compiling, managing all
Speaker 1: the different gear issues, managing camp, managing the million different
Speaker 1: things you have going on when you've got a group
Speaker 1: of five or six people trying to build out this thing.
Speaker 1: And uh, so andre has has taken up the mantle
Speaker 1: of camp chef when we've been camping out for some
Speaker 1: of these hunts. He's at the camp all day while
Speaker 1: we're out hunting. That's been his thing to pick up
Speaker 1: and do and he's gotten very good at it. So
Speaker 1: Andrea's gets kudos from me and I think all of us,
Speaker 1: I'm doing a nice job with that. And um and yes,
Speaker 1: so I think I think that first night we ate
Speaker 1: before heading in, we we voted in set up camp
Speaker 1: and the next morning, the game plan was for me
Speaker 1: to follow you, Parker and tag along for a hunt
Speaker 1: and just see how you do everything you do and
Speaker 1: then ask you a million questions, kind of do like
Speaker 1: a podcast in person, and try to learn about your
Speaker 1: whole stick in that morning. And the first thing that
Speaker 1: stood out to me that first day was, you know,
Speaker 1: we're getting into our kayaks. It was two hours before
Speaker 1: daylight or something. We're on the edge of the water
Speaker 1: and we're getting set up and it was just it
Speaker 1: was just a cloud. We're in a cloud. There was
Speaker 1: no visibility. We could hardly see five ft in front
Speaker 1: of our face as the fog it was pitch black,
Speaker 1: and then this this soupy, thick fog that was just
Speaker 1: nearly impenetrable. And you start going out ahead of me.
Speaker 1: We're reaching kayaks. You're in the front kayak. We've got
Speaker 1: a little trolling motor on each one and then a
Speaker 1: paddle for you know, close close to shore work. But
Speaker 1: we were troll motoring across the main lake and we
Speaker 1: seemed to be going and I didn't know where we
Speaker 1: were going. I don't know how big this place was.
Speaker 1: I didn't really have a context, it just seemed like
Speaker 1: we were going forever, and it didn't look like we
Speaker 1: were going anywhere though. It kind of felt like I
Speaker 1: was just stuck in the same place us going nowhere,
Speaker 1: but doing it for a very very, very very very
Speaker 1: long time. And then I don't know how long, it
Speaker 1: felt like we've been motoring along for half an hour.
Speaker 1: It probably was ten minutes, I don't know, but I
Speaker 1: started thinking we were spinning in circles. It started feeling
Speaker 1: like I was just because I felt like I remember
Speaker 1: my trolling Maar was slightly turned but we never straightened it,
Speaker 1: so just like constantly spinning, and I'm all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I started thinking, man, we're just going in a circle.
Speaker 1: And then my head started spinning like literally, and I
Speaker 1: know I told you this that day or the next
Speaker 1: day or something, but I started getting nauseous, like it
Speaker 1: started really thinking I was spinning around in circles, and
Speaker 1: I was getting sick, and I thought, if we keep
Speaker 1: going like this very much longer, I'm gonna puke, like
Speaker 1: I was right there about too. And then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, like just as I was started and had
Speaker 1: that feeling, all of a sudden, shore came into view
Speaker 1: in the head lamps and we were right there. Um,
Speaker 1: but it was bizarre. And you told me that's not
Speaker 1: that's not an uncommon thing around there. Huh. That kind
Speaker 1: of disorientation, this horrible fog, I mean, that's that's a
Speaker 1: real factor. Yeah, And I don't know if that has
Speaker 1: something to do with and I'm sure it does has
Speaker 1: something to do with the just the weather in the South.
Speaker 1: So like, for example, yesterday morning, I woke up and
Speaker 1: it was seventy five degrees and by midnight yesterday it
Speaker 1: was snowing. So it's just kind of dumb. But water temperatures,
Speaker 1: when the water is warmer than it is outside or whatever,
Speaker 1: I mean, you get fog on on water like that,
Speaker 1: and you don't ever get like a consistent cold. I
Speaker 1: think whenever I think that first day we were there,
Speaker 1: it was like what like seventy degrees something like that.
Speaker 1: I mean we were all in like early season, like September,
Speaker 1: clothing and sweating like it was just whatever. So so
Speaker 1: you get that, and so when you add water to
Speaker 1: it to it, you get this, just like you said, Dick, Dick,
Speaker 1: fog on the water. And I remember the first time
Speaker 1: that I did it, that way. I mean you eventually,
Speaker 1: you eventually get used to it and you just kind
Speaker 1: of learned to navigate it and it nothing freaky out
Speaker 1: too much, and you know whatever. But I remember the
Speaker 1: first time I did it, and I was like, it's
Speaker 1: one of those It's one of those times when every
Speaker 1: scary movie you've ever watched you start remembering it. You
Speaker 1: haven't thought about I hadn't thought about Poltergeist, and you know,
Speaker 1: ten years and all of a sudden, hey remember that
Speaker 1: scary movie you watched. It's like and so so you
Speaker 1: get that kind of stuff and then like every once
Speaker 1: in a while, you'll hell hear beavers slap the water.
Speaker 1: You're like, freaking crap, this sucks so bad. And and
Speaker 1: like you said, you just you're like I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm just spinning around in circles and uh. And like
Speaker 1: I said, you get used to it. You start using
Speaker 1: you know, whatever map mapping system you're using, whether it's
Speaker 1: you know, on ex Spartan, Forge Hunt Stand stuff like that, uh,
Speaker 1: and learning to navigate those those type of situations. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't I don't think I knew how
Speaker 1: serious it was for you until I listened to a
Speaker 1: podcast that you did with Dan on nine Finger Chronicles
Speaker 1: and you were talking about like I almost threw up.
Speaker 1: I was like, huh, and I have a bad habit
Speaker 1: of like it really is a bad habit. I tried
Speaker 1: not to to be that way, um of like just
Speaker 1: going and I remember looking back at one point I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, crap, I've left I've left them behind
Speaker 1: stopped and uh. It's it's hard to do when you're
Speaker 1: in the front and you don't you know, just kind
Speaker 1: of expect everybody to be falling you and you look
Speaker 1: back and it's like, oh crap, there yards behind me.
Speaker 1: I better slow down. Yeah, because because not only did
Speaker 1: I get all kind of woozy, but then also still
Speaker 1: just getting the feel of steering with the trolling motor
Speaker 1: and the extension on it. You know, everything's like backwards
Speaker 1: and I kept my head just was like not there
Speaker 1: were just so many things going on. It couldn't get
Speaker 1: it straight in my head. And so it just took
Speaker 1: me longer to get the hang of everything that night
Speaker 1: or that morning. But but I figured it out. We
Speaker 1: survived it. It was all good, um. And that was
Speaker 1: the worst of the fog for the trip. Really, there
Speaker 1: was one an other day was pretty bad but not horrible. Um.
Speaker 1: But that brings to point to or brings to mind
Speaker 1: from me two things. One, you know, this was an
Speaker 1: inherent challenge of using water like we experienced that morning.
Speaker 1: One of the big challenges of depending on water to
Speaker 1: get to your spots, because you know, if you didn't
Speaker 1: have on X or an app of some kind, you know,
Speaker 1: it would be essentially impossible unless you just used a
Speaker 1: compass and then follow the shoreline to get to different places.
Speaker 1: But I mean it definitely throws a big kink in
Speaker 1: or big challenge into getting into your hunting spots when
Speaker 1: you've got to deal with fog or you know, serious wind.
Speaker 1: Like one day we had some serious wind and I
Speaker 1: started thinking, Man, I don't know if this kayak is
Speaker 1: gonna make much ground at all going against those gales
Speaker 1: of wind coming down. I mean, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: challenges to it. Um, So why is it worth those challenges?
Speaker 1: I know, you know we kind of touched on and
Speaker 1: briefly like get away from people, But sell me on
Speaker 1: why and how water access is so important and war
Speaker 1: the challenges that that that comes along with, because there
Speaker 1: are I mean, there's there's safety issues to them. And
Speaker 1: there's a bunch that comes around along with it. Why
Speaker 1: is it worth it? What makes it so so important?
Speaker 1: And what you do? Well, there's a there's a couple
Speaker 1: of different things for me, Um, like I said before,
Speaker 1: Like I I really like the adventure and the story
Speaker 1: and the you know, being able to tell somebody, you know,
Speaker 1: I went, you know, in the wind and rain in
Speaker 1: a kayak and killed this buck. You know, that's a
Speaker 1: it's a cool story and a cool experience. Stuff that
Speaker 1: like what you've called type too fun is definitely it's
Speaker 1: a definitely thing in it, and it type too fun
Speaker 1: is almost more fun in the long run than your
Speaker 1: type one fun. Right Like so, so there's that aspect
Speaker 1: that has almost nothing to do with the strategy or anything.
Speaker 1: It's just a feeling. Um. The second thing obviously is
Speaker 1: getting away from people, and it makes it definitely worth
Speaker 1: it what I would rather do. I like it. There
Speaker 1: are not a lot of things to me that are
Speaker 1: worse than somebody like a human ruining a hunt. Right,
Speaker 1: so somebody walking underneath you or whatever, like nothing just
Speaker 1: completely destroys my confidence like that does. And uh, and
Speaker 1: so that it makes it worth it and worth it
Speaker 1: in that regard. Um. But there are so many advantages
Speaker 1: to coming at a piece of property from water. Um.
Speaker 1: Number one, let's just let's just talk about getting busted
Speaker 1: on your on your access so early in the morning.
Speaker 1: You if anybody knows anything about thermals, you know that
Speaker 1: your thermals are pulling down usually if it's dark outside.
Speaker 1: So when you're coming from water, your thermals are absolutely
Speaker 1: drawn to that water. And so any deer that is
Speaker 1: on land as long as you as long as they
Speaker 1: don't like if they don't see you or hear you
Speaker 1: or whatever, if you're not like super close to them,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna spook them, um, because they're not gonna
Speaker 1: catch your wind because your your thermals are just pulling
Speaker 1: down into the water. The second thing is is most
Speaker 1: of the time the deer don't associate that water with danger.
Speaker 1: There's people fishing, like I said, there's beavers making all
Speaker 1: kinds of racket, there's ducks making noise, I mean, fish jumping,
Speaker 1: any type of splashing or anything like that. It's just
Speaker 1: not a it's not a spook to them, like you know,
Speaker 1: like a brier catching onto a to your hoodie and
Speaker 1: making a wild racket that spooks them because they associate
Speaker 1: that with danger. But when you're coming at them from water,
Speaker 1: I mean, they're used to noise in those type of
Speaker 1: areas like that, and so they don't associate it with danger.
Speaker 1: And I think for me that has turned out to
Speaker 1: be one of the biggest advantages that I wasn't even
Speaker 1: thinking about earlier on um. And it like I can
Speaker 1: access a piece of a piece of land. And just
Speaker 1: for example, I had a hunt it's uh, probably in October.
Speaker 1: It was in October, and I drugged my kayak to
Speaker 1: a like across a piece of property apart, drug it across,
Speaker 1: making all kinds of noise and literally just kayak right
Speaker 1: across a slough to another piece of property that was
Speaker 1: only accessible by water, like you would I would have
Speaker 1: had to do do it that way. And I shot
Speaker 1: a deer at daylight. I mean I made all kinds
Speaker 1: of noise getting that kayak drug across the land that
Speaker 1: was only maybe a hundred yards away. And literally when
Speaker 1: I stepped my step foot on the land and walked
Speaker 1: like I think I walked like ten yards, there was
Speaker 1: a deer standing there and I shined his eyes and
Speaker 1: it was it had been standing there the whole time
Speaker 1: I was making all that racket, And to me, that
Speaker 1: just proves, like you know, the deer aren't expecting any
Speaker 1: type of danger coming from the water. Now they will
Speaker 1: get condition and to expect it in certain spots if
Speaker 1: you're you know, over hunting a spot or whatever. But
Speaker 1: by and large, I find all over the country that
Speaker 1: coming coming at any animal from water, turkeys are the
Speaker 1: same way. I mean, uh, I've literally paddled right underneath
Speaker 1: a turkey on the river that was roosted and got
Speaker 1: set up on him, you know, later that morning before
Speaker 1: he flew down. So I mean it's I just think
Speaker 1: for a lot of wildlife, and then you have you
Speaker 1: have just the idea that, uh, wildlife is drawn to
Speaker 1: water because they needed to survive. So your your densities
Speaker 1: are going to be a lot better close to water
Speaker 1: because they're just they're just drawn to it. So then
Speaker 1: what about how you're getting across that water. I know
Speaker 1: you've you've used a number of different types of vessels
Speaker 1: to use, you know, to get water access to spots.
Speaker 1: We use kayaks for some of the time, you had
Speaker 1: a boat for some of it. Can you walk me
Speaker 1: through like how you make your choices, what's the ideal
Speaker 1: set up, what are the different types of boats or
Speaker 1: vessels you'd like to use. Kind of give me the
Speaker 1: scoop on all that. Well, it's like anything, man, it's
Speaker 1: it's uh, you kind of want to have every tool
Speaker 1: for every job. And I recently just bought a new
Speaker 1: boat last week. I bought a boat because the kayak
Speaker 1: is so sexy, man. I mean, like, there's there's not
Speaker 1: a lot of cooler pictures to me than a buck
Speaker 1: laid on in front of a kayak. But there's also
Speaker 1: some efficiency issues with a kayak when you're talking about
Speaker 1: some spots that might be five miles away from the
Speaker 1: nearest spot you could put in. And so like I
Speaker 1: was finding that my effectiveness while while I am try
Speaker 1: to grind as hard as I possibly can, Like I
Speaker 1: would be getting up at one one o'clock in the
Speaker 1: morning to get out there and be on the water
Speaker 1: by three so that I could get to a spot
Speaker 1: before daylight. And I mean that wears on you. Whereas
Speaker 1: with a boat, you really I mean, when you got
Speaker 1: a you know, a decent sized boat, you can get
Speaker 1: into a spot and in just a matter of minutes
Speaker 1: compared to ours with a kayak. But I have many spots.
Speaker 1: I mean a spot that I killed, um two of
Speaker 1: my Alabama bucks that this year where I couldn't use
Speaker 1: a boat, that I wouldn't be able to get a
Speaker 1: boat back in there. Um, it's just too big and
Speaker 1: and it's not It's also not a far trip in
Speaker 1: a kayak, so I can get from where I put
Speaker 1: in at from the launch to the spot. I can
Speaker 1: be there within a few minutes in a kayak just paddling.
Speaker 1: So uh, it's better for that. And I've I've hunted
Speaker 1: places in in Kentucky where you really, I mean, it
Speaker 1: wouldn't be worth the trouble of hauling a boat because
Speaker 1: it's the waters, it's skinny water. And so I think
Speaker 1: there's I think there's different reasons. Uh. One of the
Speaker 1: eye opening things to me this year, I was hunting
Speaker 1: in Kentucky and I was using my kayak to acts
Speaker 1: as a place. I shot a big buck um at
Speaker 1: like eleven o'clock that morning, and the deer just didn't bleed.
Speaker 1: It was a great shot. Deer just didn't bleed. And
Speaker 1: I was calling dogs. I searched for a little bit
Speaker 1: myself and decided a dog would be the best option.
Speaker 1: I was calling dogs, and nobody wanted to come and
Speaker 1: try to figure out a way to get their dog
Speaker 1: on a kayak and all that crap. And so if
Speaker 1: I would have had a boat, there's not a doubt
Speaker 1: in my mind I would recover that deer. But I
Speaker 1: never found it because I was I was limited to
Speaker 1: just me being there by myself. And uh, if I
Speaker 1: would have had a have had a bigger vessel, I
Speaker 1: could have you know, I got a dog in there
Speaker 1: and recover the deer and so and and it was
Speaker 1: also completely accessible by boat. I didn't need a kayak.
Speaker 1: That was just the only craft that I had at
Speaker 1: the time. So I think, Uh, I think, like I
Speaker 1: said before, there's there's different Uh. You want to have
Speaker 1: a tool for every job, and so I have both now,
Speaker 1: which is gonna be great. I can't wait to get
Speaker 1: that boat out there and use that more. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: given your experience with boats and kayaks, is there any
Speaker 1: advice you'd give people if they're trying to get into
Speaker 1: this as far as style of boat or kayak or
Speaker 1: accessories or you know, any of the customizations or things
Speaker 1: you've kind of tweaked over the years. Anything on that
Speaker 1: front worth noting. I would definitely say to to anybody
Speaker 1: wanting to get into it, Um, kayak is gonna be
Speaker 1: kayak or canoe whatever. I chose the best of both
Speaker 1: worlds and got a new canoe kayak which is basically
Speaker 1: a hybrid and it's got like an over six pound
Speaker 1: weight capacity on the the unlimited and the Frontier twelve version,
Speaker 1: so you have plenty of weight capacity, got lots of space.
Speaker 1: It's a really really good boat. You can put a
Speaker 1: troll and motor on it. You can put a small
Speaker 1: outboard motor on it. When you're talking about versatility, that
Speaker 1: is like the most versatile thing. So I would buy
Speaker 1: that first before I bought a boat, because with a boat,
Speaker 1: you're still gonna be limited to a launch. You know,
Speaker 1: having an actual boat ramp that you can put it
Speaker 1: in at the kayak you can just drag it and
Speaker 1: go and uh, it may be more work in some places,
Speaker 1: you know. Like I said, for five years now, I've
Speaker 1: been waking up at one thirty and go and doing
Speaker 1: it that way. But it's still worked. It was still effective.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to be a little bit more effective
Speaker 1: by having both of those. So I would highly recommend
Speaker 1: a new canoe Frontier twelve or unlimited um as far
Speaker 1: as versatility goes, and then you just kind of grow
Speaker 1: from there. Like uh, like I said, the kayak is
Speaker 1: super sexy, but like I'm tired of waking up at
Speaker 1: one thirty every time I want to go five miles
Speaker 1: away from the from the ramp. So so yeah, I would.
Speaker 1: I would definitely said that that's a a great tool
Speaker 1: to have, is and and if you can't afford a
Speaker 1: new canoe, a kayak is still gonna be a kayak
Speaker 1: or a canoe is still going to be about the
Speaker 1: most versatile one, because I mean, it is still going
Speaker 1: to be possible for you if you want to kayak
Speaker 1: fifteen miles, it's possible, right. It might not be fun
Speaker 1: and it might be hard work, but it's still possible.
Speaker 1: So I would I would get something like that that
Speaker 1: you can put anywhere you want. Yeah, Randal, you've you've
Speaker 1: used some of these access tools now as well, since
Speaker 1: Parker has been getting into it from up. I mean, Parker,
Speaker 1: you're you're young guy who's kind of crazy, but from
Speaker 1: a dad perspective, Randall, would you would you add anything else?
Speaker 1: Is there anything for people you know a little older
Speaker 1: than Parker and me if they're thinking, Man, I don't
Speaker 1: know if this is just a young man's game or not.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've done it successfully too, right right. I
Speaker 1: really have enjoyed the the kayak ability. I I mean, yes,
Speaker 1: I love having the buddy heater in my in my
Speaker 1: tall blind and be able to crawl up there and
Speaker 1: just enjoy the hunt. That's great, it's fun. I do
Speaker 1: that on my land. But but man, I tell you,
Speaker 1: one of the funnest times I had was last year
Speaker 1: at rut cation. Uh, and I think I think it's
Speaker 1: on Parker's YouTube channel, but man, I had a spike
Speaker 1: come in and and I got to first of all
Speaker 1: shoot the spike out of my tree saddle, so that
Speaker 1: was kind of cool. I've never done that. And then
Speaker 1: uh got to kayak it out with my my nucas.
Speaker 1: And I'm a big guy, okay, I mean I'm wide.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a wide fella. And um that that kayak
Speaker 1: and that deer or out of that place was just
Speaker 1: it's a memory I will always have. I didn't I mean,
Speaker 1: I loved paddling out it didn't really matter how far
Speaker 1: back in we were. I had my my little trolling motor,
Speaker 1: but I really enjoyed just paddling it out of there.
Speaker 1: So I don't think that really matters how old you
Speaker 1: are that that was such a high in my life
Speaker 1: and it was a spot, but you would have thought
Speaker 1: it was a hundred and fifty class buck. I mean,
Speaker 1: I I really enjoyed that, and so yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: great in a boat. I'm I'm taking my boat out
Speaker 1: Palabam and we've done that, but there was just something
Speaker 1: a little more special about the kayak. It just it
Speaker 1: just is a great experience. Yeah, well I can test
Speaker 1: from from my time out there, there's definitely something special
Speaker 1: about that. I could I could see it too, So
Speaker 1: that brings that brings me then to the next piece
Speaker 1: of this though, which is, Okay, we know we got
Speaker 1: to use wall water. That's gonna get us away from people,
Speaker 1: that's gonna give us better access. But the next thing
Speaker 1: that I think a lot of people struggle with, and
Speaker 1: that I certainly was curious about when I was looking
Speaker 1: at maps of this area, was how the heck do
Speaker 1: you find a deer? How do you find deer in
Speaker 1: these big, vast, big woods tracts of public land where
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, without knowing anything else, you could say, well,
Speaker 1: it could be anywhere out here. Um, that first morning, Parker,
Speaker 1: we headed straight across the lake, went up a ridge,
Speaker 1: got up top in a spot where you said, there
Speaker 1: a few things all coming together that you liked, and
Speaker 1: we we hunted there. Could you talk to me about
Speaker 1: a why was that spot good? But then in general,
Speaker 1: you know, what are the things you look for in
Speaker 1: this kind of terrain in Alabama to find deer on
Speaker 1: public land? Well, that spot is such a good example.
Speaker 1: And that's why I think it it worked out perfectly
Speaker 1: for that first day is because that spot is where
Speaker 1: I killed probably the biggest deer I've killed in Alabama,
Speaker 1: not probably definitely the biggest deer I've ever killed in Alabama.
Speaker 1: And it really kind of opened my eyes to a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of different factors. And and it
Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily that I hunted that spot for that reason,
Speaker 1: but it was really like maybe the first time where
Speaker 1: it came together for a big, mature deer, and um,
Speaker 1: just just a breakdown of that area. So, uh, where
Speaker 1: we're hunting is big woods. You know ridges fairly steep,
Speaker 1: not too terribly tall, but pretty steep stuff. Um mostly
Speaker 1: big woods though, And I I think it's easy for
Speaker 1: people to get intimidated when they look at a map
Speaker 1: of big woods type areas because there's not like, there's
Speaker 1: not soybean fields and the agg that you can really pinpoint.
Speaker 1: There's not corners like that that you can pinpoint, or
Speaker 1: funnels or anything like that. So um, the thing that
Speaker 1: I've kind of developed for myself is this uh um
Speaker 1: common denominator type mentality of if everything. If if I
Speaker 1: find a spot on a map that shares all the
Speaker 1: different things that I'm looking for, then I'm not even
Speaker 1: scared to go in there blind on a morning hunt.
Speaker 1: Because what I found is if if an area offers
Speaker 1: all these different things, more than likely it's gonna have deer.
Speaker 1: I've been a very few of these places that I
Speaker 1: just found nothing, and so that's kind of up my
Speaker 1: odds a little bit. And those and I didn't coin
Speaker 1: this phrase. Another guy that I had in my podcast
Speaker 1: named Matt pale Um brought this up whenever I was
Speaker 1: asking him how is he getting all these big bucks
Speaker 1: in the boat range? He said, well, X marks the spot.
Speaker 1: And so when you think of uh, when you think
Speaker 1: of an X, right like everybody can make an X
Speaker 1: with their with their fingers, if you can imagine a
Speaker 1: different habitat type in each one of those negative spaces
Speaker 1: and each one of those points of the X, so
Speaker 1: as many different habitat types as you can find coming together,
Speaker 1: if you can get right in the middle of that,
Speaker 1: that's a lot of times gonna be where where the
Speaker 1: deer are gonna end up at. So that by itself
Speaker 1: is great, But then you add some type of terrain
Speaker 1: feature like a ditch or a saddle or a bench
Speaker 1: or something, some type of terrain feature that we know
Speaker 1: that deer use. If you can put that to where
Speaker 1: it's either in close proximity or right on where all
Speaker 1: those habitat types meet, then you've just up your odds
Speaker 1: even more because we know that deer like to use
Speaker 1: those type of terrain features by themselves. And so that's
Speaker 1: been able to help me just really eliminate entire chunks
Speaker 1: of big woods public land um because if it doesn't
Speaker 1: have that, then there's a good chance I'm probably not
Speaker 1: ever even gonna go in there unless it has that
Speaker 1: those things, those common denominators and it ups your odds significantly.
Speaker 1: I think you know you you found that out. And um,
Speaker 1: you know when you when you're talking about Alabama and
Speaker 1: and maybe lower deer densities, or maybe it's not lower
Speaker 1: deer densities, but just a lot of monotonous type habitat
Speaker 1: and you're trying to key in on, you know, a
Speaker 1: pocket of deer. Then that's been the greatest thing. And
Speaker 1: so all of the uh, once I once I started
Speaker 1: kind of figuring that out, this specific spot, um where
Speaker 1: me and me and you went where I thought I
Speaker 1: could explain it the best there was uh uh. Put
Speaker 1: the on the public land side there was just hardwoods,
Speaker 1: but then the property line, on the property line there
Speaker 1: was a clear cut and then there was a bunch
Speaker 1: of pines. And so you have a three way transition
Speaker 1: right there that you can watch. And then going right
Speaker 1: up into where all those habitat types come together, there's
Speaker 1: a very subtle like when I say subtle, I mean
Speaker 1: very subtle. Um uh did that goes right up into
Speaker 1: those pines. And man, I the deer that the buck
Speaker 1: that I shot in there a couple of years back,
Speaker 1: he was just he walked right out of that three
Speaker 1: way transition walking that ditch, go into his bedding overlooking
Speaker 1: the water, and um, I find with water access, you
Speaker 1: you you typically are gonna be deer light to bed
Speaker 1: close to water because it offers a lot of thermal
Speaker 1: advantage to him in the day where those thermals are
Speaker 1: rising up and the winds going up over them. Also,
Speaker 1: like I mentioned before, the water doesn't really pose a
Speaker 1: threat to them, and so they'll bed close by it
Speaker 1: because it's just a less chance of being in any
Speaker 1: type of danger, uh coming from the water. So um, yeah,
Speaker 1: all those factors start to add together, and you've come
Speaker 1: up with you know, you may not have just you
Speaker 1: may be looking at a thousand acres and there's only
Speaker 1: three spots that you could potentially hunt on those on
Speaker 1: that thousand acres. But I mean it really starts narrowing
Speaker 1: down places to where it's not nearly as intimidating. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I found that to be the case too. It was
Speaker 1: it was easy for me to narrow things down when
Speaker 1: you you kind of broke down the two or three
Speaker 1: most important things. I remember after that first day, we
Speaker 1: we sat in that spot you described, We both got
Speaker 1: up there in the tree. We sat up there for
Speaker 1: the morning. Didn't end up seeing any deer, but you know,
Speaker 1: I had a good amount of time there just to
Speaker 1: talk through all your different ideas and what you do
Speaker 1: and how these deer in the south act and behave
Speaker 1: and how they handle hunting pressure and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: And when we got done with that, I kind of
Speaker 1: got a thing like, what are the biggest takeaways here?
Speaker 1: Is like number one, you know, find that convergence of
Speaker 1: habitat type seek you described the X marks of spot
Speaker 1: thing that was key. And then number two, use the
Speaker 1: water to get to places like that that nobody else
Speaker 1: can get to. And as you describe, there's not that
Speaker 1: many spots that check those two boxes. So I remember
Speaker 1: telling you, all right, Parker, so I just gotta find
Speaker 1: where the marks the spot, got to make sure I
Speaker 1: use the water to get away from where other people
Speaker 1: can get to. And then that's it, right, And then
Speaker 1: you said, well, there's one more thing. Then there's time
Speaker 1: you gotta go. You gotta find these places. You gotta
Speaker 1: get to those hard to find places, and then you
Speaker 1: gotta give a time and if you do that, it'll,
Speaker 1: you know, opportunities will rise. Um. Was there anything else
Speaker 1: like when we when I parted ways with you after
Speaker 1: that morning hunt and I started go off on hunt
Speaker 1: on my own. Was there anything else that you thought
Speaker 1: in your mind, like, man, I wish I'd told him this,
Speaker 1: or I forgot to talk about this, or there's something
Speaker 1: else that's important that we cover, you know, anything else
Speaker 1: people need to know to get the basics of finding
Speaker 1: and hunting deer in this country. I think you hit
Speaker 1: on probably the last thing that I didn't feel like
Speaker 1: I spent much time talking about. But that was the
Speaker 1: time and and the conditions right, So anybody can go
Speaker 1: into these spots with a wind crappy wind and not
Speaker 1: see anything. You know, I've dealt with that this year
Speaker 1: of people who have watched some of my videos and
Speaker 1: figured out the spots that I hunt and they're going
Speaker 1: in there and yeah, I mean, just as an example,
Speaker 1: I went out there one day and there was a
Speaker 1: guy hunting a spot that was on one of my videos.
Speaker 1: But the wind couldn't have been worse for that specific area,
Speaker 1: and so automatically I'm like, well, he's not gonna kill
Speaker 1: a deer there. Uh So I don't really don't have
Speaker 1: much to worry about. He's not gonna he's not gonna
Speaker 1: do much other than educate the deer you know that
Speaker 1: are in some of those betting areas. But um, you
Speaker 1: have to go in. And I don't think I'm saying
Speaker 1: anything that most hardcore deer hunters don't already know. But
Speaker 1: if the wind's not right, then this it can be
Speaker 1: the best spot in the world. You're not gonna see anything.
Speaker 1: You're gonna just all you're gonna do is educate and
Speaker 1: so making sure you put in the right amount of
Speaker 1: time and making sure that you're in there when the
Speaker 1: conditions are right, that is, uh, that's perhaps the greatest
Speaker 1: thing that anybody can do. You can go into a
Speaker 1: a spot, um uh, you know, a hundred yards off
Speaker 1: the road on public land that may be getting pounded,
Speaker 1: and if you sit there every single day of the season,
Speaker 1: you might kill a right like you might there's a
Speaker 1: there's a decent chance that you're going to just because
Speaker 1: you put in the amount of time. I find that
Speaker 1: the most the people who kill the best deer and
Speaker 1: are the most consistent are the ones who are out
Speaker 1: there the most. So I mean think that for what
Speaker 1: it's worth, you know, I think that might be the
Speaker 1: most important tactic that anybody can can put into practices.
Speaker 1: Just go as much as you can, but in the
Speaker 1: right places and in the right places at the right
Speaker 1: times for those places, right sure, And I yes that
Speaker 1: will I think that will increase your odds for sure.
Speaker 1: Like I want to be I want to be effective
Speaker 1: and efficient, and so I'm gonna go into the right
Speaker 1: places for the you know it's gonna take. I think
Speaker 1: if you're in the right places, it's gonna take significantly
Speaker 1: less time. Um. I think what I'm saying is is
Speaker 1: like so out here, nobody, nobody really hunts the green
Speaker 1: fields on the wm as because everybody hunts the green fields. Um.
Speaker 1: But I know a guy out here that the biggest
Speaker 1: buck he ever killed was on one of those green fields.
Speaker 1: Um on on one of the w m a's He
Speaker 1: killed a hundred and sixty inch deer on public land
Speaker 1: in Alabama, off one of the green fields because he
Speaker 1: was just kind of there at the right time. So
Speaker 1: I think all these spots everywhere can produce if you
Speaker 1: sit there enough, But your your efficiency is gonna go up.
Speaker 1: Like for me and you, Mark, you had four days
Speaker 1: to go out there and and make something happen. We're
Speaker 1: gonna do the thing that I feel like is the
Speaker 1: most efficient, not just something that eventually it'll maybe produce something.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do the thing that's gonna that that I
Speaker 1: feel like is going to produce the quickest speak kind
Speaker 1: of being on you know, short time frame to four days,
Speaker 1: brand new place, hunting, a new area, new style of hunting.
Speaker 1: You and me. You're sitting in that tree still that
Speaker 1: first morning. I remember asking you, Parker, like, what's a
Speaker 1: realistic what what is realistic for me to get a
Speaker 1: stab at out here? You know, I kind of wanted
Speaker 1: your perspective on how I might be thinking about my
Speaker 1: goals or standards for this trip. You want to kind
Speaker 1: of recap for me what you were thinking when it
Speaker 1: came to, you know, how I should be thinking about
Speaker 1: my decisions to target. Dear, And I remember, you know,
Speaker 1: when we first started talking, I was like, man, well,
Speaker 1: I see a two year old buck, a three year
Speaker 1: old buck? Should I shoot? The first year? I see?
Speaker 1: I really had no idea what was out there? Um,
Speaker 1: what was Give me a load down again of what
Speaker 1: your thoughts are on that. So we were I think
Speaker 1: we were talking on the phone and we were either
Speaker 1: texting or talking on the phone, I can't remember, but
Speaker 1: you had said, uh, hey, man, listen, this this whole
Speaker 1: dear culture thing is turn it out to be a
Speaker 1: lot harder than I anticipate it, going into new places
Speaker 1: and trying to kill a deer. And so you know,
Speaker 1: maybe what do you think, what do you think I
Speaker 1: should shoot? And I said, well, here's an example. I
Speaker 1: would be pissed if my dad didn't shoot the first
Speaker 1: buck that he saw when he comes down. Like, to me,
Speaker 1: that's if you can come as a nonresident to the South,
Speaker 1: especially in in some of the places that I hunt,
Speaker 1: if you can come out there and you can shoot
Speaker 1: a buck like that's a big accomplishment. When when you're
Speaker 1: not from here, you don't have the time invested and
Speaker 1: you're just trying to trying to shoot a deer like
Speaker 1: that's to me, that's a huge accomplishment. Um. I think
Speaker 1: I mentioned it before and when I was in Nebraska
Speaker 1: or not Nebraska and North Dakota earlier this season, I
Speaker 1: went out in like the second day on that public
Speaker 1: land area that I was hunting, I saw a giant buck.
Speaker 1: That's just not realistic out here. Um. And so I
Speaker 1: think whenever you when you when you said originally like
Speaker 1: you know, a three and a three year old or
Speaker 1: a two year old would be like you're cut off.
Speaker 1: I was like, you know that that might not be
Speaker 1: a super realistic expectation. Uh, it's definitely possible, but may
Speaker 1: not be realistic for what you might see. And I
Speaker 1: gave you the example mark that I had hunted probably
Speaker 1: close to five days a week from October one through
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving and saw two bucks in that entire time period.
Speaker 1: And I I consider myself to be somebody who knows
Speaker 1: the area as well that i'm hunting, and I'm fairly
Speaker 1: effective in these areas that I'm hunting. But I saw
Speaker 1: a spike, and I saw a six point like a
Speaker 1: basketback tiny six point um And and that was from
Speaker 1: October through November through through I mean almost two months
Speaker 1: of hunting a lot. And so obviously you were there
Speaker 1: during the rut, so things would I felt like you
Speaker 1: had a good chance of being able to see a buck,
Speaker 1: but being able to see a big buck that's just
Speaker 1: a hard that's just a it's just it's just hard.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think hunting matured deer anything over three
Speaker 1: and a half three and a half and older. Is
Speaker 1: is uh, very very difficult thing to do even in
Speaker 1: the place that you live, let alone it be in
Speaker 1: a place that you've never been to before. Um so yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of where my When you said like, hey,
Speaker 1: I might be willing to shoot something a little bit younger,
Speaker 1: I know, I lit up because I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna make this happen. Now it don't work out,
Speaker 1: you basically said, man, you better let it fly. And
Speaker 1: when you when you told me that you've seen only
Speaker 1: two bucks since October, that's when I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I got a better idea of what we're dealing with here.
Speaker 1: And and I also was thinking about you talked about
Speaker 1: one thing that stuck with me. You had said after
Speaker 1: we got done that morning hunt and we're about to
Speaker 1: go boat away from the shore line, and you said,
Speaker 1: you know a lot of guys have that moment, like
Speaker 1: that really special moment for them is when they walk
Speaker 1: up to a buck they just killed and they finally
Speaker 1: get to see it and put their hands on and said, well,
Speaker 1: that's not the moment on this kind of hunt. The
Speaker 1: moment on this kind of hunt is when you get
Speaker 1: that deer in the kayak and you're floating across the
Speaker 1: lake or the river or whatever, and you're just paddling
Speaker 1: along and you get to kick back and look up
Speaker 1: at the sky and look at the water and the
Speaker 1: waves lapping up against your boat and the buck out
Speaker 1: there in front of you, and you just soak that
Speaker 1: all in. That's the moment. I remember thinking, I want
Speaker 1: that moment. I don't care if it's a four year
Speaker 1: old or a one year old or a buck. I
Speaker 1: want that moment to kind of get the whole experience.
Speaker 1: And that's when I decided, you know what, Yeah, if
Speaker 1: I can get a buck, I'm gonna be pretty darn tickled.
Speaker 1: And so that ended up being the goal was just
Speaker 1: you see, if you see handlers, you're you're letting a rip,
Speaker 1: and uh, that was the game plan. That moment is
Speaker 1: is unbeatable to me. And um, you know it. I
Speaker 1: have found, like like what my dad said earlier, even
Speaker 1: if I have a motor hooked up, if I shoot
Speaker 1: a deer, I'll just float out and I'll take my time.
Speaker 1: I'll take pictures. You know, call people, call my friends,
Speaker 1: you know, my hunting buddies, called dad. You know, I
Speaker 1: just that's the time for me. That's like, that's that's it.
Speaker 1: Like I just I soak it up, man, And it
Speaker 1: really ticks me off when I have somewhere that I
Speaker 1: have to be and I just like I just decided,
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna get a quick hunt in right here.
Speaker 1: And it really ticks me off when I'm successful on
Speaker 1: those quick hunts like that, because you don't get to
Speaker 1: really soak in that moment uh nearly as much, and
Speaker 1: so that kind of sucks whenever you're successful on those
Speaker 1: type of hunts. But when you don't have anywhere to
Speaker 1: be and you just you know, wife's not expecting you
Speaker 1: home until dark and you can just really just take
Speaker 1: your time, it's just man, there's there's not much like it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that that seems hard to beat. And uh man, that's
Speaker 1: what I was shooting for. That's what I was hoping.
Speaker 1: That was gooding to experience. And uh, I guess for
Speaker 1: the stake of speeding things up, I'll start moving us
Speaker 1: a little bit more through what happened from there, because
Speaker 1: we hunted that morning, I went back to camp, made
Speaker 1: a game plan for what I was gonna do after that,
Speaker 1: and then we we separated and you were gonna go hunt,
Speaker 1: and your dad was gonna go hunt, and I was
Speaker 1: gonna go hunt, and we're all gonna go different directions.
Speaker 1: And that first evening I decided to go in the
Speaker 1: same general direction as where we hunted the first day,
Speaker 1: um or the first morning, but kind of the other
Speaker 1: side of it, and uh explore some different train that
Speaker 1: looked like there was one of these convergences of a
Speaker 1: kind of a cutting and some pine plantation stuff and
Speaker 1: then maybe some kind of field or old food plot
Speaker 1: on a neighboring private peace. I thought maybe that looked
Speaker 1: good with some ridges pinching into it. UM. Long story
Speaker 1: short on that one. As I walked up in there,
Speaker 1: boat across walked up in there, kind of scouted my
Speaker 1: way up to that area, and I didn't find much.
Speaker 1: Found a couple of little rubs and sat for the
Speaker 1: last part of the night, didn't see any deer. UM
Speaker 1: wasn't blown away with anything. The next morning, I was
Speaker 1: going to go back to the same general area, UM,
Speaker 1: because I did find a little zone that I thought, Man,
Speaker 1: it might be worth giving it one good morning hunt.
Speaker 1: And you told me that, for whatever reason, mornings are
Speaker 1: a lot better out there and there was some weather
Speaker 1: pushing through, so I thought it could be decent. So
Speaker 1: I thought, I'll go back to that spot in the
Speaker 1: morning and then scout and find my way to something
Speaker 1: new for the afternoon. But we woke up that morning
Speaker 1: and the same as what the forecast had been, there
Speaker 1: was a big storm blowing through in the chop. I mean,
Speaker 1: the wind pushing down the lake was more than I
Speaker 1: was expecting, and I remember thinking, man, is this kayak
Speaker 1: even gonna be able to make it up here? Because
Speaker 1: I was gonna have to go right into the wind
Speaker 1: across the main body of water, and it just seemed
Speaker 1: like that was gonna be quite an endeavor. And I
Speaker 1: can't remember if it was you, Parker or random one
Speaker 1: or the two of you, was like, Man, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you want to try to do that in
Speaker 1: that in that kayaking might be easier. Just go with
Speaker 1: the wind. Go this other general area looks pretty good.
Speaker 1: Try that. Um. I don't know who told me that,
Speaker 1: but whoever it was, that was enough to kind of
Speaker 1: push me in that direction, and um, that's what I did.
Speaker 1: We ended up going to a totally different area. Basically,
Speaker 1: this was a spot you we kind of looked at
Speaker 1: the maps together. Parkers you probably remember, and you said, hey,
Speaker 1: this is a decent general area. You know, there's a
Speaker 1: couple of good train features that you might like, and
Speaker 1: you know this is where you would want to take
Speaker 1: your boat into, and then from there you can figure
Speaker 1: it out. And so I took my boat up this
Speaker 1: little slew parts of the bottomless little Finger, and then
Speaker 1: worked my way up a point before daylight, and I
Speaker 1: got up on top of this point, and on the
Speaker 1: map you kind of see that this looked like, um,
Speaker 1: like a big half circle with a bunch of points
Speaker 1: coming off of this. I almost think of like a horseshoe,
Speaker 1: like an upside down horseshoe ridge, with little spur points
Speaker 1: dropping off into the bowl. So it's a little bit
Speaker 1: an amphitheater. And I was on a point that was
Speaker 1: right in the middle of this bowl looking down it,
Speaker 1: and then there were several other points that all converged
Speaker 1: right down beneath me, like uh, like a reverse turkey
Speaker 1: foot almost, And I thought, all right, well, if bucks
Speaker 1: are cruising right, this is the rut out there in
Speaker 1: southern or wherever nail Band we were. It was a
Speaker 1: late rut December ruts, So these bucks should be cruising
Speaker 1: if they're trying to get from point A to point B.
Speaker 1: A lot of different point as and b's that many
Speaker 1: of them might funnel down through this little convergence of
Speaker 1: these different points coming down. So I thought, hey, this
Speaker 1: has got potential. So I decided to sit there and
Speaker 1: see what happened. Big old storm came pushing through. I
Speaker 1: forgot to bring any kind of I brought my rain gear,
Speaker 1: but the camera guys that brought little tree umbrellas that
Speaker 1: they set up above their trees. So we're all sitting
Speaker 1: on the ground. There's me and two cameraman. They all
Speaker 1: had these little umbrellas over them. I had nothing, so
Speaker 1: I just kind of curled up in a ball and
Speaker 1: tightened down all my rain gear and just got pummeled
Speaker 1: for I don't know how many hours, several two or
Speaker 1: three hours or something like that, of just I mean
Speaker 1: a pretty darn serious storm. I mean that sucker came
Speaker 1: through hard and heavy and just dumped on us thunder
Speaker 1: and lightning, and and I was just sitting there trying
Speaker 1: to survive it. Um. I don't remember where you guys
Speaker 1: were at that point. I I don't know what I
Speaker 1: don't know what your hunting experience was, but we were.
Speaker 1: I believe we were in town eating. We were there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we did not go hunt that morning, you weren't. I
Speaker 1: think I woke up to alloud crack of thunder that
Speaker 1: was literally like it lit up the sky right like
Speaker 1: lit up our whole tent, and I look over at
Speaker 1: Dad and he kind of gave me that look like
Speaker 1: I'm not scared, but that was kind of scary, and
Speaker 1: uh and uh. I texted you, I said, hey, you
Speaker 1: guys alive, and then I didn't get anything back for
Speaker 1: like two hours. So y'all, ye could have been dead
Speaker 1: and we just never would have known. But um, yeah
Speaker 1: we did. We definitely didn't hunt that day. We props
Speaker 1: to you guys for going out that morning because we
Speaker 1: were kind of like, I don't really want to do that.
Speaker 1: It wasn't the most one I've ever had, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't the worst. I guess. We we we sat out
Speaker 1: to the storm, and it actually almost worked out for
Speaker 1: me because I don't know, a couple hours into the storm,
Speaker 1: the rain was still coming down pretty good, but the
Speaker 1: thunder and lightning had passed, and I was just like
Speaker 1: rain and wind, and I remember looking down the point
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden seeing a deer running down
Speaker 1: one of these one of these kind of spur ridges
Speaker 1: dropping down to the bottom some you know, dal and
Speaker 1: deal and buck coming down, Buck coming down. One of
Speaker 1: the camera was actually off going to the bathroom somewhere,
Speaker 1: so it's just me and Dalon and this deer comes
Speaker 1: tearing down to the bottom. I pulled my binoes looked
Speaker 1: down on the bottom and it's you know, pouring rain
Speaker 1: and windy, so it's hard to see, but I could see, like,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that's a buck. And so that buck
Speaker 1: gets down to the bottom, he's probably two yards away
Speaker 1: something like that, and he's now running up the opposite side,
Speaker 1: and he's he's really moving. It's not he's he wasn't
Speaker 1: like spooked running, but he was like trotting along. And
Speaker 1: so I remember grabbing my gun, pulling off the scope covers,
Speaker 1: and then thinking to myself, Man, if he comes up
Speaker 1: this point on the left side of me, I'll be
Speaker 1: able to see him, but I gotta move, I gotta move.
Speaker 1: So I kind of crab walked like four or five
Speaker 1: yards to the left so i'd have a better view,
Speaker 1: and now I'm thinking, Okay, if he comes up this
Speaker 1: this ridge, it will be you know, within view, and
Speaker 1: I think i'd ranged in the past the far the
Speaker 1: second see was about a hundred and fifty five yards,
Speaker 1: and this is a this is a gun hunt, so
Speaker 1: I could shoot you know, off that far. And I
Speaker 1: remember thinking, if he comes anywhere along the front side
Speaker 1: of this ridge, I've got a shot. Well, he didn't
Speaker 1: come on the front. He came right on the top
Speaker 1: and kind of just over the other side. So there
Speaker 1: was moments where I'm trying to pick him out in
Speaker 1: between his thick woods, I'm trying to pick him out.
Speaker 1: I'd see him for a moment and then he'd be gone.
Speaker 1: And then I'd see him for a moment in my scope,
Speaker 1: but he'd be too far on the other side of
Speaker 1: the ridge side just see his head on the top
Speaker 1: of his back, and then he'd be on my set
Speaker 1: for half a second. And there just was never a
Speaker 1: moment when I could clearly see him in my scope
Speaker 1: and his vitals at the same time as he's just
Speaker 1: like cruising fast in this rain and wind. My scopes
Speaker 1: you know, wet and foggy and all that stuff, and
Speaker 1: it was just like all that stuff made for a
Speaker 1: chaotic I don't know how long it was, thirty seconds
Speaker 1: or something, as this buck was running through there. Um,
Speaker 1: but it was enough to at least get my blood pumping.
Speaker 1: I saw my first buck of the trip, first deer
Speaker 1: of the trip, I guess, and you know, made that stormy,
Speaker 1: nasty sit a lot more palatable. Um, we're all excited
Speaker 1: and um. The rain eventually let up after that, and
Speaker 1: I don't know, I think we sat there to like
Speaker 1: one o'clock, and then at one I got to thinking, Man,
Speaker 1: we've seen that one deer. We've been here for I
Speaker 1: don't know, seven hours or something. Um, I've yet to
Speaker 1: see anything else around here. I hate to put too
Speaker 1: much time in a spot like this without, you know,
Speaker 1: having gotten a sense of what's around me. And so
Speaker 1: I decided, you know, I'm gonna take advantage of this
Speaker 1: wet leaf cover we have now in the wind and
Speaker 1: do a quick scout. I thought, all right, I'll do
Speaker 1: a midday scouting session. I'll make a loop, look at
Speaker 1: some stuff that I'm interested in on the map, and
Speaker 1: either confirmed that yes, I'm in the best out and
Speaker 1: come back here, or if I find something new along
Speaker 1: the way, you know, and then I can hunt that.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to learn. I didn't want to be
Speaker 1: hunting blind. So I looked at my map and found
Speaker 1: a couple of different spots where it looked like there
Speaker 1: were these edges that we talked about coming together. I
Speaker 1: remember seeing there was a spot where there was a
Speaker 1: horrid line of pines you could see, like planted pines.
Speaker 1: I didn't know how old or young. I didn't know
Speaker 1: if it was thick or mature, but I knew like
Speaker 1: there was pines meeting mixed hardwoods, so that was an
Speaker 1: edge of interest. I saw another spot where that looked
Speaker 1: like thick brush, like maybe there's been some past clear
Speaker 1: cuts or something there. This is like thicker, nasty stuff
Speaker 1: that butted up against the hardwoods. And then I found
Speaker 1: two other spots like that, So I thought, all right,
Speaker 1: I'll circle up to the pine edge. From there, I'll
Speaker 1: take that edge to where it connects with this brushy
Speaker 1: looking stuff, and then from there I'll circle south to
Speaker 1: what looks like something else kind of along those lines.
Speaker 1: I just didn't know if this is like shrubby stuff
Speaker 1: or if this was trees. I don't know how old
Speaker 1: these cuts where I didn't know how old the arrow
Speaker 1: imagery was. Um, so that's my kind of game plan
Speaker 1: for that loop. So we worked our way up, got
Speaker 1: to the mature pine edge, and I saw that it
Speaker 1: was not too mature, like it wasn't big hard it
Speaker 1: wasn't like big old pines. These were I don't know
Speaker 1: what the h B fifteen years old maybe something like that,
Speaker 1: enough that you couldn't walk through them easily. You couldn't
Speaker 1: see through them easy. It was. They were tight, it
Speaker 1: was thick, it was low like good betting. And I'm thinking, man, okay,
Speaker 1: this is this is a good thing. Found a couple
Speaker 1: of rubs are on that edge. Kept working that edge
Speaker 1: another quarter mile or something like that, and then I
Speaker 1: got to something that didn't show up on the map.
Speaker 1: I got to hear and there was a bridge coming
Speaker 1: up to that hard pine edge. But then where that
Speaker 1: ridge connected with the hard pine ridge or sorry hard
Speaker 1: pine edge, was a clear cut on the neighboring private land,
Speaker 1: like a big old open clear cut where they cut
Speaker 1: it probably the year prior. I'd say, this is like
Speaker 1: a one year old clear cut, so you could see
Speaker 1: across it. There was a lot of like low brushy
Speaker 1: cover um, but you know, nothing over waist high probably,
Speaker 1: so there's this big open brushy I assume there'd be
Speaker 1: you know, some good food out there. Now you've got
Speaker 1: this very distinct edge between the pines and that there's
Speaker 1: a distinct edge between that in the hardwoods. And I
Speaker 1: was walking along in the line of then there's the
Speaker 1: spur ridge that's coming into that, so you've got that
Speaker 1: terrain feature. And then I got to the top of
Speaker 1: that ridge and on the other side of it was
Speaker 1: one of those older cuts that I've seen on the map,
Speaker 1: and that was like a I don't know, five year old,
Speaker 1: ten year old cut of some kind where really shrubby, brushy,
Speaker 1: nasty stuff, and some like young pines that were you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, a little overhead high that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: like really thick nasty. So you've got four one, two, yeah,
Speaker 1: basically four different terrain or have kind of cover types,
Speaker 1: all converging right where these two ridges came together too.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, man, this is like bing bang boom.
Speaker 1: This is an absolute perfect example that X marks the
Speaker 1: spot type situation you were describing Parker. And then as
Speaker 1: I'm seeing these things and identifying these things, and I'm
Speaker 1: walking along, I'm saying, look, there's a rub, there's a rub,
Speaker 1: there's a scrape. And I hadn't seen any sign almost
Speaker 1: anywhere else the whole, the whole, the rest of the
Speaker 1: time I've been out there, right, and now all of
Speaker 1: a sudden were these edges. I'll come together, here's all
Speaker 1: this sign popping up. And I did a little circle
Speaker 1: around there a little bit more, just to check things out.
Speaker 1: I found ended up finally fifteen scrapes in this general zone,
Speaker 1: six or seven rubs and all right. Then I said, okay,
Speaker 1: this is by far the best thing I've seen as
Speaker 1: I've walked all around here. Um, this has everything that
Speaker 1: I think should pull deer in here. And I'm not
Speaker 1: at this point. I you know, as I subscribed, wasn't
Speaker 1: trying to kill a big, giant buck. So it wasn't
Speaker 1: like I was looking for a huge track or monster
Speaker 1: rub or something like that. This is simply like, is
Speaker 1: this kind of place that deer would likely be moving through.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of different edges coming together. It's the rut.
Speaker 1: Would a buck be passing through here? I sure as
Speaker 1: heck would think. So you've got a couple of spots
Speaker 1: that probably could be deal betting. There's a couple of
Speaker 1: spots where there might be deer feeding. There's all these
Speaker 1: edges that are probably travel corridors, possible pinch points of
Speaker 1: those terrain features. I was sold. So sat there that afternoon.
Speaker 1: I didn't see a deer, but that was okay. I figured, um,
Speaker 1: I figured it was worth coming back to the next morning.
Speaker 1: So that was day two. The next day, the next
Speaker 1: day was a third day of our trip, not counting
Speaker 1: our first night. Voted back there, me and my two Cameron,
Speaker 1: Dylan and Bob. We slipped up this initial ridge. We
Speaker 1: we accessed by the same route we did the first day.
Speaker 1: So we voted down that slough, came up this ridge,
Speaker 1: circled around up this little draw to get to the
Speaker 1: ridge where I was sitting the first night. I'm sorry
Speaker 1: that that second night get set up again. We're just
Speaker 1: sitting on the ground. And this is probably worth noting.
Speaker 1: This is something that you know, you had talked Parker
Speaker 1: about how you often like to hunting the saddle, like
Speaker 1: to get up high, and so I brought my saddle,
Speaker 1: I brought my climbing sticks, and I thought, yeah, very well,
Speaker 1: might do that. But as I started like seeing the
Speaker 1: area and getting a sense of it and knowing that
Speaker 1: I had a gun, I ended up making the decision
Speaker 1: that I would prefer to hunt from the ground because
Speaker 1: what it did for me, at least in this early
Speaker 1: exploratory phase, was it gave me the ability to quickly adjust, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, in a moment's time, I could adjust. Because
Speaker 1: when you're going up in with sticks in the saddle,
Speaker 1: even though that's more mobile than any other tree, you know,
Speaker 1: tree stand type hunt, that's as mobile as you can get,
Speaker 1: it's still quite an investment of time energy, not to
Speaker 1: mention when you've got two other guys that need to
Speaker 1: get up in a tree with camera gear too. And
Speaker 1: I knew that if we made the investment in time
Speaker 1: to get up in a tree like that, we're kind
Speaker 1: of stuck there. You know. It's hard to get out
Speaker 1: of that situation and make a bunch of moves. Um.
Speaker 1: I imagine if we had done that that first day,
Speaker 1: it would have been a lot harder decision to pull
Speaker 1: everything down and go scout midday. You know. So with
Speaker 1: a gun, I knew, like I've got more range, I'm
Speaker 1: not so worried about a deer seeing me beforehand, because
Speaker 1: I'm not setting myself up right on top of where
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna travel. I wasn't setting up twenty
Speaker 1: yards from those edges. I was setting up a hundred
Speaker 1: yards from those edges. So I would see any deer
Speaker 1: well before it would see me. Hopefully I have the
Speaker 1: range to get a shot at it, and I preserve
Speaker 1: the ability to make any little adjustment I needed. I
Speaker 1: could stand up and shoot. I could stand up and
Speaker 1: walk ten yards and get in the better shot. You know,
Speaker 1: I could do anything like that, and that ended up
Speaker 1: being super helpful. I mean I had to do that
Speaker 1: during the storm buck encounter. I had to make a
Speaker 1: five yard move to get you know, even to be
Speaker 1: able to see this deer. Now that midday, I got
Speaker 1: up scouted found new area that first morning. Now, in
Speaker 1: this location I'm describing, we all sat down against trees
Speaker 1: up on this ridge. We can see down to will
Speaker 1: where all these edges come together. And about forty five
Speaker 1: minutes an hour after daylight, here comes a buck working
Speaker 1: right along that hard pine edge, that thick, nasty pine edge.
Speaker 1: Remember seeing the buck, I stood up, I tried to
Speaker 1: get my gun rested against the side of the tree.
Speaker 1: It was first buck was like a little forky I think,
Speaker 1: but then like right behind it there was a bigger buck,
Speaker 1: a six pointer. If it had brown, I could never
Speaker 1: see if it at broad times, so it might have
Speaker 1: been an eight. Uh, it might have been a two
Speaker 1: year old possibly, But I remember thinking, all right, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take a crack at this buck, the first one
Speaker 1: I would have, And then when I saw a second one,
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, I'm gonna try to get a
Speaker 1: shot this second buck. But from where I was sitting
Speaker 1: and at this point standing, they were visible for just
Speaker 1: like a couple of seconds dropping down into this bottom,
Speaker 1: and then they disappeared the hill, disappeared behind the hill
Speaker 1: as they were coming up my ridge. And the problem
Speaker 1: that I didn't realize at the time was as soon
Speaker 1: as they would get to the top of the ridge
Speaker 1: where I'd be able to shoot at them, they were
Speaker 1: buying these thick, nasty pines and only popped out for
Speaker 1: like a split second before going further into the cover.
Speaker 1: They didn't walk on the outside of this. This is
Speaker 1: gonna be hard to describe, but as I as I mentioned,
Speaker 1: there was like the the first pine edge, and then
Speaker 1: there's the clear cut, and then there's like the newer um,
Speaker 1: the newer pines. They were traversing the edge of the
Speaker 1: old pines and then coming across to the new pines,
Speaker 1: but instead of going on the outside edge of the
Speaker 1: new pines, they went right into them. And we're like
Speaker 1: five yards into him, and I couldn't shoot through that.
Speaker 1: There's just so much junk. So that first buck popped through,
Speaker 1: and you know, it was out of my view before
Speaker 1: even really having a chance to range him or get
Speaker 1: any idea if i'd get a shot. But I knew, like, okay,
Speaker 1: that's where the next buck is probably gonna pop up.
Speaker 1: So I just put my scope there and was waiting,
Speaker 1: and sure enough he popped out. But I mean he
Speaker 1: was in and out of my opening in a moment
Speaker 1: before i'd even have a chance to get the scope
Speaker 1: on him, clearly get a good idea if it was
Speaker 1: a good shot, anything like that. So he was in
Speaker 1: and out of my life very quickly, and was in
Speaker 1: that brush and you could still see his antlers moving around.
Speaker 1: You could see him, but not any kind of clear
Speaker 1: shot opportunity. And then they disappeared. So that was that
Speaker 1: it was great that I saw these two bucks. I
Speaker 1: was excited, but disappointed that I couldn't get a crack
Speaker 1: at him. Now, I've seen three different bucks on public
Speaker 1: land that I potentially could have shot at, but not
Speaker 1: any one of them was able to actually get a clear,
Speaker 1: good you know, a good shot opportunity. So in my mind,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, man, like, I gotta I gotta take advantage
Speaker 1: of one of these encounters. I've had these opportunities, like
Speaker 1: I take advantage. And now on a half hour later,
Speaker 1: here comes four doors. They did the exact same thing
Speaker 1: that those two bucks did, come down that hard edge,
Speaker 1: work their way down to the bottom, up the ridge
Speaker 1: into the pines. So I'm feeling good about this setup
Speaker 1: I'm in, but now I know, okay, this is a
Speaker 1: second group of deer that followed that same edge, and
Speaker 1: I just don't have many good shot opportunities. It was
Speaker 1: like so brief, these little tiny windows. So this is
Speaker 1: where sitting on the ground really ppped out. I just said,
Speaker 1: all right, we're gonna move. We're just gonna bump up.
Speaker 1: As I told the guys, all ight, I'm gonna shift
Speaker 1: like thirty forty yards down the ridge to get a
Speaker 1: little bit closer to this, and to have a little
Speaker 1: bit better vantage point to see down to this bottom,
Speaker 1: so that I could see them not only when they're
Speaker 1: in the edge, but also when they dropped down, and
Speaker 1: then also see them for a longer period of time
Speaker 1: if they came up the opposite ridge by the new pines.
Speaker 1: So I'm still watching my three points all coming together,
Speaker 1: just from a slightly different elevation and a slightly different angle.
Speaker 1: And we were able to stand up, walk thirty forty
Speaker 1: yards down, sit down again, and be in this new
Speaker 1: spot with a new vantage point in one minute versus
Speaker 1: the who knows half hour forty five minutes it would
Speaker 1: have taken to tear everything down, walk over there, set
Speaker 1: everything back up, Especially when you've got all those cameras
Speaker 1: and stuff they bring, it's a nightmare. So this, uh,
Speaker 1: this worked out well. Well, you know, I guess at
Speaker 1: that point there was one other thing interesting that happened.
Speaker 1: I had made my move, I'd shifted down there. It's
Speaker 1: now later in the morning, and I remember looking at
Speaker 1: my phone and getting a text from you, Parker. You
Speaker 1: had some news for me. Do you want to describe
Speaker 1: what happened to you at that point. Yeah, I had
Speaker 1: a great morning that morning. Um it was really uh
Speaker 1: like I don't know that you mentioned it before, but
Speaker 1: we had had hot weather the two days. The first
Speaker 1: two days it was like seven degrees really warm, and
Speaker 1: we finally got a cold front that pushed through that
Speaker 1: day and so I really felt like dear after that
Speaker 1: storm system blew through, the cold front started coming in. Um,
Speaker 1: I really felt like we had a good chance that morning,
Speaker 1: so I kind of went into a high odds type area.
Speaker 1: The wind was gonna be perfect for it, and uh,
Speaker 1: I was able to shoot probably the biggest buck I've
Speaker 1: killed the season. Uh, that's that same morning that you
Speaker 1: where you had all the encounters. It was really nice, heavy,
Speaker 1: heavy mass eight point and I saw I guess he
Speaker 1: was the tenth deer that I saw that morning. It's
Speaker 1: just really good rud activity Bucks small Bucks chasing. Does
Speaker 1: I think it was about nine nine or nine thirty
Speaker 1: that I killed him, And uh, it was it was cool. Ben.
Speaker 1: I mean so you uh you you kind of mentioned
Speaker 1: you know where we've we've really kind of talked about
Speaker 1: uh subtle terrain features going into these uh convergence of
Speaker 1: habitat types and it was it was really almost an
Speaker 1: identical setup to that first morning. The spot that we
Speaker 1: went into that first morning, there's a a clear cut
Speaker 1: um that meets some pines on private and then hardwoods
Speaker 1: on the public side, with a with a very subtle
Speaker 1: draw that goes right up into that into that convergence
Speaker 1: habitat types. And so all the deer were either coming
Speaker 1: out of that or going up into that. And uh,
Speaker 1: obviously that time of year, some of the doughs were hot,
Speaker 1: and so there was I had a spike come through
Speaker 1: just grunting and you know, carried along and then right
Speaker 1: at nine I can't remember that one was at nine
Speaker 1: or nine thirty. It was fairly late in the morning, though. Uh.
Speaker 1: He came down, came out of it, came out of
Speaker 1: the the convergence, and was going downhill in that that
Speaker 1: little subtle draw chasing or uh sent nose to the
Speaker 1: ground on one of those hot dough trails, and uh,
Speaker 1: I was able to shoot him right there. I mean
Speaker 1: it was I could have shot him with the bow
Speaker 1: probably it was like thirty yards away man, as it
Speaker 1: was a nice buck and you and no, I can't
Speaker 1: remember because I was busy with all my drama that day.
Speaker 1: Did you meet up with your dad and recover him together?
Speaker 1: Did you bring him back to camp? Like? How did
Speaker 1: that all go down? So Dad actually, uh brought his
Speaker 1: his bass tracker with a fifty horsepower mercury on it. So, um,
Speaker 1: while y'all were there, I decided to retire the kayak
Speaker 1: for that week and hunt with Dad using the boat
Speaker 1: because it was just a little bit easier and I
Speaker 1: was able to get back into some of these spots
Speaker 1: that I don't get to hunt just a ton with
Speaker 1: my kayak, and that was one of those spots. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so Dad came and dropped me off that morning.
Speaker 1: He you know, it took me up, dropped me off,
Speaker 1: and he went back and hunted man, not as the
Speaker 1: crow file is not very far away from where you
Speaker 1: were at, but kind of in that same general area, uh,
Speaker 1: spot that we call kill Hill where we've killed a
Speaker 1: lot of killed a lot of bucks at. So Dad
Speaker 1: came back and hunted that area. And then when I shot,
Speaker 1: I believe he had. Dad, you had some deer around you, right,
Speaker 1: so you you weren't able to come right there? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had. I had some deer that were just my
Speaker 1: fifteen yards from me. But there was a couple of doughs,
Speaker 1: but and I was hoping a buck would come out
Speaker 1: on him, but he didn't. But but yeah, I was.
Speaker 1: I guess I was probably a mile and a half
Speaker 1: from where you were at. Yeah. For a matter fact,
Speaker 1: when you shot, I thought it was marked. I texted
Speaker 1: you and said, I think Mark just just just took
Speaker 1: some shots. I don't know why. I guess the wind
Speaker 1: direction that day was just bringing in that that sound.
Speaker 1: But you worked long ways away from Yeah. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was kind of weird, um because you, I texted, said
Speaker 1: big buck down or something like that, and you said,
Speaker 1: I think Mark just shot one two. He shot three times,
Speaker 1: and I was like, well I just shot three times.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, but he uh So Dad ended up coming
Speaker 1: around eleven o'clock and we drug it off, jug it
Speaker 1: off the mountain. So funny, it was a funny thing
Speaker 1: that happened right then because uh there was another guy
Speaker 1: apparently that had also been dropped off on the same
Speaker 1: mountain by another guy in the boat. So there was
Speaker 1: zero boats parked in the spot and two guys hunting
Speaker 1: it um and neither one of us knew that the
Speaker 1: other was there. And so when we come dragging that
Speaker 1: deer down off the mountain. We ended up walking dragging
Speaker 1: that deer, I mean, right underneath this dude. Uh, and
Speaker 1: with really no way of knowing that anybody else was
Speaker 1: up there, um, which I mean I had been up
Speaker 1: there talking to my camera and me and Dad had
Speaker 1: been talking the whole time. So it wasn't like, I mean,
Speaker 1: that guy's hunt was ruined probably a long time before
Speaker 1: we walked underneath there, but it was. That was a
Speaker 1: kind of funny thing, and it was really one of
Speaker 1: the first times that that's ever happened to me out there,
Speaker 1: of running into anybody the else hunting. So um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it was cool. So we went back to camp, had
Speaker 1: our celebratory ball of fruity pebbles and pebbles. Yeah, you guys,
Speaker 1: you guys are enjoying yourselves. They're celebrating. I was celebrating
Speaker 1: with you virtually. I was excited, but I had a
Speaker 1: long day head. I remember hearing about that, and then
Speaker 1: that was very soon after, like mid day, when I said, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's kind of breaking some snacks and me the guys,
Speaker 1: so we're eating our lunches, eating I don't know, chips,
Speaker 1: and hostess treats and all that kind of stuff. And
Speaker 1: I remember we got into like the mid day crazies
Speaker 1: where it must have been like one something one, and
Speaker 1: we've been there a long time and it just kinda
Speaker 1: worn on us. So I think at this point, I
Speaker 1: was eating an apple and thinking to myself, Man, these
Speaker 1: poor camera guys. They've got to wear headphones to monitor
Speaker 1: my audio. And I just thought to myself, man, these
Speaker 1: poor guys are sitting here listening to be chomp on
Speaker 1: an apple in their in their heads, like every time
Speaker 1: I eat anything, it's just crunching in their minds, like
Speaker 1: they must just hate me so much. And I remember
Speaker 1: looking at them and like saying like, I'm sorry, guys.
Speaker 1: It s must be really annoying, isn't it. And then
Speaker 1: I'm like we should have some fun with this, and
Speaker 1: so I was like, all right, let's play a game.
Speaker 1: So you know, you gotta you gotta do a little
Speaker 1: something to spice things up out there sometimes with the
Speaker 1: with the crew, So I start humming songs quietly, but
Speaker 1: in their headphones they can hear it very well. And
Speaker 1: so for like ten minutes, I'm humming different songs and
Speaker 1: they're trying to guess what song it is. And then
Speaker 1: we're like we're cracking up now, sitting there like a
Speaker 1: couple of schoolgirls underneath trees, humming to each other, trying
Speaker 1: to guess the songs. And then all of a sudden, like, oh,
Speaker 1: there's a deer, and coming down the ridge behind me,
Speaker 1: coming down into that bottom towards the pine edge is
Speaker 1: a buck. Pulp my bino. See it's a buck. See
Speaker 1: it's a shooter. This is like a tighter and taller
Speaker 1: buck than the other ones. We saw what I thought
Speaker 1: was like maybe a two year old, and and you know,
Speaker 1: so right away I'm getting into position. I remember grabbing
Speaker 1: my gun. They're getting into position. I kneel and lean
Speaker 1: my gun against this tree for stability. I think I
Speaker 1: was kneeling. Did I stand for this one? I can't remember. Um,
Speaker 1: but this buck comes is coming down a hill and
Speaker 1: he stopped, and he stopped right between two trees, and
Speaker 1: I can just see between these two trees, like I
Speaker 1: can see like a four inch window maybe I don't know,
Speaker 1: very very very small window between these two trees. And
Speaker 1: I remember that's when I was able to get my
Speaker 1: binoculars and see what he was. And remember at this moment,
Speaker 1: thinking to myself, this bo is not getting away, Like
Speaker 1: I've had three different bucks come through haven't been don
Speaker 1: get a good clear shot through the trees and all
Speaker 1: the movement and stuff, and this time like, there's no
Speaker 1: way I'm not going to shoot this buck. So I
Speaker 1: remember thinking, like, you're gonna make this work. So that
Speaker 1: buck stood there for a while. I watched him. Everyone's
Speaker 1: in position, He's I don't know, a hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: yards something like that away, but kind of angling towards me,
Speaker 1: maybe last maybe a hundred yards something like that. And
Speaker 1: sure enough, he eventually started moving again. After he stood
Speaker 1: there for a long time. I don't know if he
Speaker 1: heard us or just was doing that kind of thing
Speaker 1: the bucks do where they stopped and just taking their surroundings.
Speaker 1: But eventually started moving again. And he's dropping down this
Speaker 1: hill and he moves down almost to the very bottom.
Speaker 1: And there was a couple of times where I I'm
Speaker 1: trying to remember what specifically I was using my rifle,
Speaker 1: and this was a rife, so I had my rifle,
Speaker 1: so I must have like clicked off my safety. I
Speaker 1: feel like I have this memory of clicking off my
Speaker 1: safety and telling the guys are gonna take a shot.
Speaker 1: And then he started moving again, and now he stopped
Speaker 1: a second time, and this time he stopped and again
Speaker 1: he's behind trees. But I remember seeing him and seeing
Speaker 1: him stop behind the trees and then thinking to myself, well,
Speaker 1: that's the back of his front leg right there. So
Speaker 1: what i'm seeing this opening, I'm seeing that's the vitals.
Speaker 1: So if I put it right there, even though I
Speaker 1: couldn't see his front part and I couldn't see his
Speaker 1: back part, like I'm looking at his vitals because I
Speaker 1: could just catch the edge of his legs, I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, that's it. I can take this shot through
Speaker 1: this gap. And again, I'm not not going to get
Speaker 1: a shot of this deer, is what I've been telling myself.
Speaker 1: So I lined up and took the shot, and he
Speaker 1: blasts out there, running, racking another shell. And he's not
Speaker 1: you know, he's not looking hit. He's running off at
Speaker 1: the same time. You know, sometimes you just don't know
Speaker 1: in the heat of the moment. But I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: he's still going pretty good. Why is he going? So
Speaker 1: I just kept waiting for him to show a sign
Speaker 1: of being hit, and he didn't, so he got up
Speaker 1: the other side of this ridge, and I had been
Speaker 1: trying to get back on him, and I would get
Speaker 1: back on him and I squeeze off another round, but
Speaker 1: nothing happens. There's just like no shot, nothing, and then
Speaker 1: he runs off and I then look on I try
Speaker 1: to rack that shell out and for whatever reason, I
Speaker 1: still don't know what caused it, but it never racked
Speaker 1: a shell. And when I when I tried to UM
Speaker 1: put another one in there for that second shot. So
Speaker 1: something happened got jammed up in some kind of way.
Speaker 1: So I took a shot and had no round in there,
Speaker 1: no round to be able to actually take advantage of
Speaker 1: that second round. And so there's there's all that, and
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened. I don't know did I
Speaker 1: miss it? Did I get a bad hit on it?
Speaker 1: Why did he run off the way he ran off?
Speaker 1: I asked the caraman, like, man, let's look and see
Speaker 1: what happened here. UM, just a lot of uncertainty, as
Speaker 1: oftentimes it can be when those things happened fast and
Speaker 1: crazy like that. To make a long story short, we
Speaker 1: look at the footage, it doesn't look like there's an impact. UM,
Speaker 1: But at the same time he jumped. You never know,
Speaker 1: So we're gonna go down there and look. We go
Speaker 1: down there to the shot of the site, and within
Speaker 1: moments of getting to where I thought that buck was,
Speaker 1: I said, oh, I know what happened. And right there
Speaker 1: on that tree that he was standing behind, on the
Speaker 1: last inch on the outside, there's the hole in the tree,
Speaker 1: and my bullet lodged into the tree. If I had
Speaker 1: been an inch and a half to the right, it
Speaker 1: would have been perfect dead deer. But instead my bullet
Speaker 1: found an Alabama oak tree. And uh that shot. Lots
Speaker 1: of those shot mini Alabama oaks and they don't taste good,
Speaker 1: but know this one didn't. So I was pretty bummed out,
Speaker 1: super bummed out. Um, you know, just just was very disheartening.
Speaker 1: But we walked in the can I jump in here
Speaker 1: just for please, I'm sorry to jump in, but you
Speaker 1: say you shot one of those Alabama oak trees. I
Speaker 1: have happened to shoot the same oak tree twice, so uh,
Speaker 1: I that's video footage of that that Parker has, uh
Speaker 1: did the same tree twice, So I'm sorry. I just
Speaker 1: didn't sill that in. I do feel better, thank you.
Speaker 1: That makes me feel a little better for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a bunch of them out there, and uh,
Speaker 1: I have not. I didn't have one suck on this,
Speaker 1: not one deer that was taking its time. That was
Speaker 1: the rut, So I mean that's not too terribly uncommon.
Speaker 1: But all the deer I saw on this trip were
Speaker 1: cruising fast, even the doughs, like there was nothing lollygagging around,
Speaker 1: there was nothing enabling its way along, there was nothing
Speaker 1: taking its time sniffing like. Everything was on the move. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's unique or if that's how
Speaker 1: they always are out here, or if it was just
Speaker 1: because of the rut, but I mean there was no
Speaker 1: slow shot opportunities. Everything was progressing very quickly and um,
Speaker 1: and I just had to try to take advantage when
Speaker 1: I could and didn't work out. But that one, that
Speaker 1: one stung. We went up back to the top of
Speaker 1: the ridge and I remember telling guy as well, you know,
Speaker 1: that wasn't what any of us wanted. Sorry guys. But
Speaker 1: on the bright side, we did just see another buck.
Speaker 1: We've seen three bucks come through cruising there here, so
Speaker 1: at least the spot's good. Uh, let's see if anything
Speaker 1: else would do it. And uh, we got set back
Speaker 1: in the same spots. Uh. I just remember sitting there,
Speaker 1: just kind of kind of in my own head, knocking
Speaker 1: myself up the head and thinking like, what could have
Speaker 1: done differently? Should he wait until he cleared those trees,
Speaker 1: or just you know, should you have aimed a little
Speaker 1: bit further back knowing that you had more you know,
Speaker 1: more give or more more forgiveness. If I would have
Speaker 1: aimed a little bit further back on the lungs instead
Speaker 1: of rapped towards the heart, like you should have done that?
Speaker 1: Why did you aim close to there? And did you
Speaker 1: pull the shot? You know, all that kind of stuff
Speaker 1: you do after a bad shot. Um. But as I'm
Speaker 1: doing all that, I remember sitting there and I just
Speaker 1: remember hearing this from across the way, and instantly it
Speaker 1: was like that was leaves, like scraping leaves. And I
Speaker 1: looked across the way. And then and as I hear
Speaker 1: that noise out this time, I see a leg like
Speaker 1: a big black thing moving sure enough across that ridge,
Speaker 1: the same ridge that buck had ran across and up
Speaker 1: out of he'd and you know the one I hit
Speaker 1: the tree on, he ran up this other ridge and
Speaker 1: went into those that hard mature pine edge. Well, now
Speaker 1: coming off of that same ridge, here's a buck again
Speaker 1: across the way and he's making a scrape. So this
Speaker 1: is at three something o'clock, somewhere in that three o'clock hour,
Speaker 1: if I remember right. So, holy crap, this is buck
Speaker 1: number four coming through here. Tell the guys we get
Speaker 1: a buck over the let's getting position. I remember grabbing
Speaker 1: my backpack, moving to the other side of the tree
Speaker 1: and putting my backpack on the ground in front of me.
Speaker 1: This time, I'm sitting on my butt, my knees up,
Speaker 1: and I put the backpack in between my two knees.
Speaker 1: And my backpack that I was using was like a
Speaker 1: bigger framed backpack, so I had like a hard top.
Speaker 1: So I remember thinking, this is going to give me
Speaker 1: a better steady aiming position. I popped my gun up
Speaker 1: on that look at this little buck and it was
Speaker 1: a seven pointer, nothing big, but a seven pointer and
Speaker 1: a buck I was gonna shoot. So I remember seeing
Speaker 1: the uck, knowing he was probably generally arranged, but he
Speaker 1: was moving again. He made that scrape, but not before
Speaker 1: I was able to get in position. Now he's working
Speaker 1: down his way towards me and to make a long
Speaker 1: story short. He works his way down almost to the
Speaker 1: bottom until he finally stops and turns. He turns broadside.
Speaker 1: I tell the guys, all right, here we go. I
Speaker 1: pop it off safety and then he spins and starts
Speaker 1: going the other way again. And I remember thinking, okay,
Speaker 1: do I do? I wait? He'd spun almost a d
Speaker 1: eighty degrees around, starts going the other way. No, I
Speaker 1: was going away from me. And then he turned and
Speaker 1: kind of opened up. He was quartering away and opened
Speaker 1: it up enough, and I thought, okay, and there's all
Speaker 1: these trees down there. It's just like he's in and
Speaker 1: out and in and out of available shooting lanes. Just
Speaker 1: when he turned quartering away, I said, all right, that's it.
Speaker 1: Took the shot this time. You can see instantly he
Speaker 1: had been hit. But it wasn't like the pile driving
Speaker 1: hit where he where's like front legs drop and he's
Speaker 1: like a snow plow. Uh. This was like hit and
Speaker 1: jumped straight up, spun backwards, and then went running off
Speaker 1: the direction that the first buck had come from, off
Speaker 1: to our right up and over this hill, just tearing
Speaker 1: out of there. Definitely hit, definitely hit hard, but didn't
Speaker 1: see him drop within sight. Uh again, not sure of
Speaker 1: you know exactly where the shot was. Look at the footage.
Speaker 1: The footage shows that the hit was further back and
Speaker 1: then where I wanted, And I thought I'd be a
Speaker 1: little bit. I wanted to be a little bit back.
Speaker 1: Is that quartering away angle? But this is further back
Speaker 1: than that. So we wait, I don't know, not as
Speaker 1: long as we should have. But an hour something after that,
Speaker 1: we're like, well, let's just go look for blood and
Speaker 1: see what the situation is. And it it did look
Speaker 1: like when he ran off, he got over this little
Speaker 1: rise and it just looked like he was about to
Speaker 1: topple over. He was definitely hurting. So we go over there,
Speaker 1: don't find a lot of blood, but you can see
Speaker 1: pretty somewhat clearly where it looks like he kicked up
Speaker 1: the leaves and was running. So I felt ray to
Speaker 1: this thing that all of us are tempting to do sometimes,
Speaker 1: I think, which is you just want to see that
Speaker 1: dead deer, like you just want it to be done.
Speaker 1: You want to know that you got him. And I
Speaker 1: missed that deer earlier in the day. So I was
Speaker 1: had this like overwhelming like, oh, no, not like another thing,
Speaker 1: not go right. I just gotta find him. I want
Speaker 1: that feel good. I need to feel good. What I
Speaker 1: should have done is I should have said, all right,
Speaker 1: the shot wasn't perfect, um, but he's gonna die. Let's
Speaker 1: just get out of here and wait longer. But instead
Speaker 1: I was like, let's just let's just look over this
Speaker 1: next hill, and sure enough, we go over that next
Speaker 1: hill and bump the buck. He had not gone down yet,
Speaker 1: goes kind of running shuffling off. This is now at
Speaker 1: right at dark, so I can't go any further. Um.
Speaker 1: I was able to see that it was the buck
Speaker 1: going off, but couldn't get another shot at that point.
Speaker 1: All right, let's back out, give this deer a little
Speaker 1: more time and to to take you know, seven hours,
Speaker 1: and compressed it into thirty seconds. We went back to camp,
Speaker 1: met up with you guys, had dinner, hung out. Parker.
Speaker 1: You had a buddy who has a tracking dog, and
Speaker 1: he was excited about going out and doing this. So
Speaker 1: I thought, well, why not bring him out here just
Speaker 1: to be in the safe side. It hasn't been a
Speaker 1: good blood trail. Let's get him out here and just
Speaker 1: be sure that we find this deer. And so late
Speaker 1: that night, your buddy came out, hopped in the boat,
Speaker 1: drove over this place, hiked up to the top of
Speaker 1: this hill, went to where the shot site was. He
Speaker 1: brings his two dogs. They go tearing down the trail
Speaker 1: and easy is pie, I mean so easy. Those dogs
Speaker 1: walked right up on that buck, not I don't know,
Speaker 1: eighty yards from where I last saw him, and uh,
Speaker 1: I found me my Alabama public land buck dead as
Speaker 1: a door knob. It was. That was cool, man, that
Speaker 1: was such a cool moment. And uh, I remember I
Speaker 1: remember at first when those dogs got on the trail,
Speaker 1: on the track, we got up there and dogs tore
Speaker 1: off into one direction and you said, uh, that's not
Speaker 1: the direction at all that the deer went. And I
Speaker 1: could sense the like, oh man, we're not finding this deer.
Speaker 1: That was kind of in your face, um, because the
Speaker 1: dogs went just completely different. But what Justin said, Uh,
Speaker 1: he was just as a tracker. Justin Moser, super good,
Speaker 1: good guy, and he's got great dogs. He's like, Hey,
Speaker 1: it's okay. They're just working it out. They're they're just
Speaker 1: getting their bearings. They're just these the they're not going
Speaker 1: necessarily on blood they're going on scent. He's got one
Speaker 1: dog that's more of a ground scent dog and another
Speaker 1: dog that's more of a wind scent dog, and they
Speaker 1: just work out. They work it out together. And but
Speaker 1: I could definitely tell, like there was a moment of oh, man,
Speaker 1: they're not even going the right direction. And then and
Speaker 1: then on that GPS he said, well, they're really hanging
Speaker 1: out in this one area. They usually won't do that
Speaker 1: unless unless they found something. And I remember you, Mark,
Speaker 1: you looked over and you kind of said, well, fingers
Speaker 1: crossed it. And sure enough, man, I mean, I mean,
Speaker 1: what did it take like five minutes for them dogs
Speaker 1: to find that deer? So fast? So quick? Yeah, it's quick.
Speaker 1: They're amazing. I've got a buddy in Michigan who has one,
Speaker 1: and so often times, you know, any time I shoot
Speaker 1: a deer and we're not in a rush, I'll call
Speaker 1: him over just to give the dog practice and just
Speaker 1: to see it go. And it's so cool to see
Speaker 1: how they work and that they are really incredible animals
Speaker 1: what they can do, and a great tool to have
Speaker 1: as a deer run it, that's for sure. In this case,
Speaker 1: I mean, it wasn't a good blood trail. Um. So
Speaker 1: they definitely shortened our night. You know, we would have
Speaker 1: been probably walking circles trying to find that deer um,
Speaker 1: but they went right to it. So it was great.
Speaker 1: And I think I think a lot of people get
Speaker 1: really that that's something that I thought was a really
Speaker 1: cool thing for you in the South because like tracking
Speaker 1: dogs down here, most of the time, they don't cost anything, Like,
Speaker 1: they don't ask for any money. The guys just like
Speaker 1: doing it, but you give them tips and stuff, and
Speaker 1: so it's pretty good. But um, it's a really it's
Speaker 1: pretty popular done here for guys to have tracking dogs,
Speaker 1: and so it made the whole experience. You know, you
Speaker 1: got your nice Southern experience. Nobody wants to call a
Speaker 1: tracking dog. But you think of it this way, like,
Speaker 1: you know that shot was far back right, um, and
Speaker 1: we probably could have found that deer the next morning. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you get five guys on that. I mean,
Speaker 1: it wasn't that far from where you were at. We
Speaker 1: probably could have found it. But that's five six, seven
Speaker 1: hours longer that that deer is just basically sitting there
Speaker 1: and the meats just running with every hour. Um, the
Speaker 1: dogs made it quick. We were able to get it
Speaker 1: out there, get it gutted, get it cleaned up, and
Speaker 1: we were able to eat backstraft that next night. And
Speaker 1: so you know, I think I think people have this
Speaker 1: really wacky perspective on tracking dogs. I saw a post
Speaker 1: about it yesterday where a guy was like, people have
Speaker 1: lost the art of tracking because are so dependent on
Speaker 1: tracking dog. It's like, like I've said fifteen times in
Speaker 1: this podcast, I want to be efficient, and those dogs, knows,
Speaker 1: are a whole lot more efficient than I am at
Speaker 1: tracking a deer. And so I thought it was cool. Man.
Speaker 1: I love watching them work. Oh yeah, it was. It
Speaker 1: was terrific and very very thankful we had him there,
Speaker 1: like you said, made it how much speedier recover? And
Speaker 1: uh we were eating him the next day, which was
Speaker 1: a darn good meal their fireside and tell you what. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And and like I told you guys, that was Um
Speaker 1: that was the first year and a half old buck
Speaker 1: I had shot in thirteen years, and I had had
Speaker 1: like a lot of apprehension around that this season. Um,
Speaker 1: this had been a year where I was doing all
Speaker 1: these different things, going to all these different places. And
Speaker 1: I remember that first hunt. I was in Washington, d
Speaker 1: c I'm like, ma'am holding out for three year old
Speaker 1: still like I usually hold out for four year olds.
Speaker 1: But I thought, Okay, this year, I'll do a three
Speaker 1: year old. And then after that first hunt, I started thinking, man, hey,
Speaker 1: that's not terribly realistic and be you're not really going
Speaker 1: to get a whole lot of the experience if you're
Speaker 1: just sitting around waiting for a buck that really doesn't
Speaker 1: exist in a lot of these places, or if he
Speaker 1: does exist, you know, it's very very very hard to
Speaker 1: get your eyes on him in three days or four days.
Speaker 1: And at the most, um, you're gonna miss out on
Speaker 1: so much. Uh. You know, going to Nebraska, if I
Speaker 1: was waiting for a four year old buck, I might
Speaker 1: never get the chance to go chase after one of
Speaker 1: the decoys, see one up close. If I was in
Speaker 1: Arkansas waiting for a four year old buck, you know,
Speaker 1: I might never actually get to see if I could
Speaker 1: kill one on the ground in a saddle over oaks. Uh.
Speaker 1: If I was in Alabama waiting for a four year old,
Speaker 1: I never get to kayak one out and see what
Speaker 1: that moment felt like. All that stuff. Um, and I realized,
Speaker 1: I mean, I was working my tail off. And my
Speaker 1: my thing why I had chosen personally to try to
Speaker 1: target older bucks was that I was trying to find
Speaker 1: a new way to challenge myself in a way to
Speaker 1: you know, encourage growth as a hunter. I wanted this
Speaker 1: new challenge of force be into learning new things and
Speaker 1: trying new things. And that's why had originally taken up
Speaker 1: that goal. Um. But now I was challenging myself and
Speaker 1: growing as a new hunter in this new way that
Speaker 1: didn't require holding out for a big buck. It just
Speaker 1: required me go to some crazy off the wall place
Speaker 1: and hunting a crazy off the wall way and trying
Speaker 1: to do it in a short amount of time. And
Speaker 1: I was getting just as much of a challenge and
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of new enjoyment and doing it trying
Speaker 1: to kill any buck. Um. So I gotten to this
Speaker 1: place where I did not. I wouldn't have thought I
Speaker 1: would get to that point at the beginning of the
Speaker 1: year where I was just as excited putt my hands
Speaker 1: on that year and a half old seven pointer in
Speaker 1: Alabama as I was getting my hands on any three
Speaker 1: or four or five year old buck that I've killed
Speaker 1: over the years and other places. Um and and it
Speaker 1: was just this year in general has been just a
Speaker 1: really good reminder to me about what hunting is all about,
Speaker 1: and how it is different for everybody, and how everyone's
Speaker 1: got their own hill to climb, everyone's got their own challenges,
Speaker 1: everyone's got their own adventures, everyone's out their own things
Speaker 1: that are going to get them fired up. And who
Speaker 1: am I to say that my way is better than
Speaker 1: anybody else's or that anyone else is better than mine? Um,
Speaker 1: And this, this whole thing was just such a great,
Speaker 1: a great illustration of that come to life and getting
Speaker 1: to spend some time in your neck of the woods
Speaker 1: and see how you guys do it and see the
Speaker 1: habitat and the deer and the culture and and everything.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was. It was so cool. And to
Speaker 1: have that cherry on top of of actually getting a
Speaker 1: shot at the buck and putting them on a kayak
Speaker 1: and floating on the lake with you the next day, Parker,
Speaker 1: and eating that backstrap that night, I mean, that stuff
Speaker 1: that uh, that stuff will just stick with you for
Speaker 1: a long long time. And getting to eat the fruity
Speaker 1: pebbles at the McDonald tradition of a bowl of fruity
Speaker 1: pebbles after a successful kill. I mean, that's that's just
Speaker 1: too cool. I'd be I would have been a poorer
Speaker 1: man if I hadn't had a shot at that buck
Speaker 1: and got to experience those things. So I'm just I'm
Speaker 1: glad that you guys have me down. I'm glad you
Speaker 1: encouraged me to, um, you know, think about any any
Speaker 1: buck being a buck row shooting. I'm glad I did it.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm just a happy camper here sitting at home
Speaker 1: remembering that Alabama experience. It was. It was truly terrific.
Speaker 1: We we had a great time, Mark and uh kind
Speaker 1: of kind of what Dad said before, you know at
Speaker 1: the beginning of podcast. We were just so impressed by
Speaker 1: by you and the crew, meet eater guys, the conversations
Speaker 1: that we had, just the camaraderie, the whole thing. Man.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I was, I was bummed out when
Speaker 1: it was over because I had such a good time.
Speaker 1: So any time you want to come back and shoot
Speaker 1: another year and a half old buck, or if you
Speaker 1: want to up your standards next time you come down,
Speaker 1: well that's fine too. And uh, our camp is always
Speaker 1: gonna be open to you guys. Well I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I do appreciate it. Uh, Randall, I gotta give you
Speaker 1: a moment to shine here. You filled the tent. You
Speaker 1: fill the tag a little a little after I left
Speaker 1: in't it? You want to show that story real quick? Well,
Speaker 1: I had taken the shot there uh at at during
Speaker 1: ruttcation and had five bucks chasing the dough and and
Speaker 1: I thought I hit the deer. I still think I
Speaker 1: nicked it, but I never did recover that deer. Um.
Speaker 1: But we got home, Parker came out and uh Parker
Speaker 1: came out to Texas and we did a deer hunt
Speaker 1: on my property. I usually on my property, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna shoot spikes necessarily, but I've had a number of
Speaker 1: chances to shoot some deer on my property. This year,
Speaker 1: just just hat and pulled the trigger and out there
Speaker 1: by myself or whatever. And Parker was here, so I
Speaker 1: had a spike come in. We got to celebrate a
Speaker 1: great spike and uh just a great hunt, had a
Speaker 1: great time and and uh h Parker even shot a
Speaker 1: super deer out here. So we've we've had a good
Speaker 1: good year. Sounds like it. Yeah, I couldn't believe it, Parker,
Speaker 1: your head on tear. It's been a pretty pebbles that
Speaker 1: that time too. We also went and had some pretty
Speaker 1: pebbles after that, so that was a that was a
Speaker 1: great deal. That's awesome. That's awesome. So is there anything?
Speaker 1: Is there anything that we haven't touched on that needs
Speaker 1: to be said for someone? If if in some kind
Speaker 1: of way, we're trying to encapsulate a little like a
Speaker 1: time capsule of what it's like to hunt down this
Speaker 1: part of Alabama, this time of year, this kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Um My, my hope was to get a really nice
Speaker 1: snapshot of that kind of experience, and and and now
Speaker 1: with this podcast, trying to translate that experience into a
Speaker 1: little to our nugget of it. Is there anything we
Speaker 1: left out, Parker, that needs to be said, that needs
Speaker 1: to be touched on, that needs to be mentioned, anything else?
Speaker 1: I think we would be failing in this podcast if
Speaker 1: we didn't mention that we wrapped up the whole trip
Speaker 1: with a meal at waffle House, the waffle House experience.
Speaker 1: That's a good point. We did get waffle House. It
Speaker 1: was just what it was, just what we needed after
Speaker 1: a long day out there. Like I gotta, I gotta
Speaker 1: admit to you one thing, Parker, we ate that waffle
Speaker 1: House with you guys, and then we went to our
Speaker 1: hotel and then we went to the hotel restaurant. We
Speaker 1: got more food that night at the hotel to we
Speaker 1: were really I was disappointed, Mark because you went to
Speaker 1: waffle House and you got a burger and I was like,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's still a waffle House burger. It's still
Speaker 1: grilled on the same you know grill that all that
Speaker 1: greasy stuff is. I mean, so you still got the
Speaker 1: taste of waffle House, I guess, but you didn't get
Speaker 1: a waffle. It would have been a mistake. That isn't
Speaker 1: There's not really a mite about it, like you got.
Speaker 1: If you don't get waffle House on a regular basis,
Speaker 1: you gotta get waffle waffle as a rookie move as
Speaker 1: a rookie. You know, I hadn't been to a waffle
Speaker 1: house since spring break of college in Florida, like sixteen
Speaker 1: years ago or something. So I just was not up
Speaker 1: on my waffle house ordering guidelines and just really really
Speaker 1: screwed the pooch on this one. But you need to
Speaker 1: do so what we should have done is set up
Speaker 1: the waffle House experience the same way as we set
Speaker 1: up the deer hunt experience. So you should have just
Speaker 1: interviewed me like, Okay, what do I do? What about
Speaker 1: order house? What am I looking for? Just set it
Speaker 1: up the same way and I think you would have
Speaker 1: been less disappointed. Yeah. Man, that's season two of the
Speaker 1: show next year. That's what we're gonna do. Food culture.
Speaker 1: Thank you Randall, Thank you Parker. H. Parker. Can you
Speaker 1: give folks a rundown of where they can see the
Speaker 1: things you're doing. You've got a lot of cool content
Speaker 1: out there for Southern deer hunters. What can they find
Speaker 1: and where can they find it? Yeah? Um, I do
Speaker 1: the Southern Ground Hunting podcast and YouTube channel, so you
Speaker 1: can pretty much just search Southern ground Hunting and it'll
Speaker 1: pull up on YouTube and uh anywhere podcasts or listen to.
Speaker 1: The podcast is through the Sports from His Nation, So
Speaker 1: a lot of your listeners probably familiar with that. Uh Old.
Speaker 1: Dan Johnson started that and uh so I'm on there
Speaker 1: on Instagram and Facebook it's at Southern ground Hunting, um,
Speaker 1: and then on go Wild. I have a gear page
Speaker 1: on go Wild, so you can check that out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's pretty much it. Awesome man, Well, it's great stuff.
Speaker 1: I've enjoyed listening to the podcast and senior videos on YouTube.
Speaker 1: You're you're doing a good job and obviously the proofs
Speaker 1: of the pudding. You know what you're doing out there
Speaker 1: in the woods. There's been a lot of deer who, yeah,
Speaker 1: seeing their tombs. Don't call on the ground because you've
Speaker 1: been up in a tree nearby. Soup. Good work man,
Speaker 1: and thank you again to both you and Reginald. Thanks
Speaker 1: Mark for having me and that's gonna do it. Thank
Speaker 1: you for tuning in. Appreciate you spend some time here.
Speaker 1: I hope this is inspired. Until next time, Thank you
Speaker 1: and stay wired. Hi.