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Speaker 1: That coyode actually saved me because that deer was he

2
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Speaker 1: was really close to a clearcut that's just nearly impenetrable.

3
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Speaker 1: And you know, I know that in another hour or so,

4
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Speaker 1: I would have gotten down and I would have spooked

5
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Speaker 1: that deer and hit where he was hit. Chances are

6
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Speaker 1: wouldn't have led a lot, and if he'd got in

7
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Speaker 1: that thicket, I may have never found him. But that coyode,

8
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Speaker 1: actually I say, it's kyold, it's God, just put him

9
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Speaker 1: right back there in my lap.

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Speaker 2: The time to hunt whitetail deer is officially upon us.

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Speaker 2: We all know this time as the fall. That name,

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Speaker 2: that noun, the fall, is so familiar to us, we

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Speaker 2: might have lost sight of how poetic and simple that

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Speaker 2: descriptor actually is. In scientific terms, the fall is the

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Speaker 2: season when the northern hemisphere rotates towards the north pole,

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Speaker 2: making the days shorter, the weather cooler, and the shadows longer.

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Speaker 2: At some point a human walked outside and saw a

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Speaker 2: leaf drop. They saw it fall, and they said, let's

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Speaker 2: call this the fall. But to a deer hunter, the

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Speaker 2: fall is so much more complex. This episode is a

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Speaker 2: little bit different. We've got an eclectic cast of storytellers.

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Speaker 2: Some are longer stories, some are short, but I hope

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Speaker 2: you can sit back and enjoy each one as they

24
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Speaker 2: come from guar holes to cold snaps, to scopes being

25
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Speaker 2: off to deer falling out of the.

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Speaker 3: Backs of trucks.

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Speaker 2: It's fall time, folks, and that's a good enough reason

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Speaker 2: to celebrate. I really doubt that you're gonna want to

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Speaker 2: miss this Deer Stories episode. And this is meat Eater's

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Speaker 2: Whitetail Week, where you can buy more and save more

31
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Speaker 2: at first light dot com. First Light has the best

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Speaker 2: light tail gear on the market, and this week you

33
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Speaker 2: can save on it. And don't forget about those new phelps.

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Speaker 2: Deer calls the Acorn Pro, which is an inhale exhale

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Speaker 2: grunt bleat. Let's get to our stories.

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Speaker 4: He said he'd push it down and very gently stepped

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Speaker 4: across it, just like a man. And see he just

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Speaker 4: a boy, And I thought, well, yeah, okay, but you

39
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Speaker 4: can look at the rack. You can tell the boys

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Speaker 4: tell its truth.

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Speaker 2: My name is Clay Knukelem and this is the Bear

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Speaker 2: Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search

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Speaker 2: for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the

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Speaker 2: story of Americans who live their lives close to the land,

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Speaker 2: presented by f HF Gear, American made, purpose built hunting

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Speaker 2: and fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as

47
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Speaker 2: the places we explore. Man, do I ever love these

48
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Speaker 2: dear stories episodes? But last week is gonna be hard

49
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Speaker 2: to top. Between Lake's Daddy Doyle story and Mitch's Baron

50
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Speaker 2: Buck fiasco, and then Med Palmer's story about the Mississippi

51
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Speaker 2: River and how meaningful and tragic that one was, the

52
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Speaker 2: bar just keeps getting higher. And I'll tell you one

53
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Speaker 2: thing when it comes to storytelling is that you never

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Speaker 2: want to tell your story after the best story has

55
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Speaker 2: already been told. But you also might hear a story,

56
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Speaker 2: and you can kind of show up and have the

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Speaker 2: best story after you've already heard the players in the field,

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Speaker 2: if you know what I mean. Starting us off this

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Speaker 2: week is my friend from Western Arkansas, Mitch Sykes.

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Speaker 3: He told the story on the last episode.

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Speaker 2: This is a public land hunt that I call the

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Speaker 2: Hide and Seek book.

63
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Speaker 1: This was in nine, I believe, and my favorite time

64
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Speaker 1: of year, and I have more success with quality deer

65
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Speaker 1: the first musloading season than any other time. And because

66
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Speaker 1: of work I had to leave opening day of musloading season,

67
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Speaker 1: and I was out of town. I was out of

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Speaker 1: state from nearly the whole week. And Andy Brown he

69
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Speaker 1: was texting me pictures and they were hunting at the

70
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Speaker 1: WMA and having a lot of success, and of course

71
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Speaker 1: I'm out of town, not getting the hunt, just sick,

72
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Speaker 1: and I got back to Arkansas. Season opened on a

73
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Speaker 1: Saturday and it ended on Sunday, and I got back

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Speaker 1: Thursday night. So Friday morning, I got up early and

75
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Speaker 1: I hadn't got to scout or do anything down at

76
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Speaker 1: the WMA, so I just took my climb and stand,

77
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Speaker 1: and I knew a few areas down there, and I

78
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Speaker 1: knew the deer were moving. So my goal for Saturday

79
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Speaker 1: was not to hunt. I was just going to try

80
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Speaker 1: to find a place to hunt that weekend and Clay.

81
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Speaker 1: I went to every I knew in the WMA, and

82
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Speaker 1: I don't know it very well, but I went to

83
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Speaker 1: some spots that historically I had had some success or

84
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Speaker 1: seen deer, and I just couldn't find anything that made

85
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Speaker 1: me want to hang a stand. And I never will

86
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Speaker 1: forget the last place I thought I was gonna have

87
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Speaker 1: time to go. I carried my stand in there, came

88
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Speaker 1: back to the truck nothing, and I was about to think,

89
00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:22,080
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna hunt around the house tomorrow. But when

90
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Speaker 1: I walked back into the road where my truck was parked,

91
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Speaker 1: and I threw my stand over in the truck, I

92
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Speaker 1: just looked down the road. I was kind of parked

93
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Speaker 1: in a straight stretch. Three or four deer were in

94
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Speaker 1: the road up there, and they left the road, and

95
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Speaker 1: it was right before dark, I mean like twenty minutes

96
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Speaker 1: before dark dark, and I got to think, well, maybe

97
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Speaker 1: there's some acrons up there falling. I hadn't found acrons.

98
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Speaker 1: I hadn't found any bucks signed, I hadn't found anything.

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Speaker 1: So I walked back down the road there. They were

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Speaker 1: about one hundred yards from my truck where they were at,

101
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Speaker 1: And when I got there, I could tell there was

102
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Speaker 1: white oak acorns in the road. There was deer crossing

103
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Speaker 1: the road, a lot of deer activity right there in

104
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Speaker 1: just south of the road. Right there, there was a

105
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Speaker 1: little knob that it wasn't one hundred yards to the

106
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Speaker 1: top of it, but it was just like a cow's face.

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Speaker 1: It was straight up steep. As I kind of started

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Speaker 1: walking up that noob, I kept thinking was it everyone

109
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Speaker 1: in flat no OWT, what's it going to look like

110
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Speaker 1: on top when I get up there? And I finally

111
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Speaker 1: got to the top of it, and there was an

112
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Speaker 1: old log road run right out the top of that

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Speaker 1: little ridge, and there was scrapes like you dream about,

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Speaker 1: you know, just as big as a hood of a truck,

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Speaker 1: several scrapes in that old log road, and to this day,

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Speaker 1: the biggest rub that I've ever seen. There was a

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Speaker 1: tree about as big as my leg that was rubbed

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Speaker 1: pretty good up there. And I had went ahead and

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Speaker 1: took my climber, and I said, this is where I

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Speaker 1: need to be. So I kind of backed off on

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Speaker 1: the north edge of it where I could see out

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Speaker 1: the top and back down the south side, and I

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Speaker 1: hung my stand on a white oak tree, and I

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Speaker 1: went ahead and climbed up it and limbed it out

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Speaker 1: and just left it there at the base of the tree.

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Speaker 1: And next morning I got in there to hunt. It

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Speaker 1: was probably as foggy as any morning I've ever hunted

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Speaker 1: in my life. The first time I'd ever been up

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Speaker 1: there was the night before. I didn't tack it in

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Speaker 1: I thought I can find it. I got there an

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Speaker 1: hour before daylight, wanting to be in my stand an

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Speaker 1: hour before daylight. And I got up there in the fog,

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Speaker 1: didn't get turned around, but I could not find my stand,

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Speaker 1: and of course my little headlight it would go three

135
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Speaker 1: foot in front of you and it wouldn't even reach

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Speaker 1: the ground. It was a foggy I walked around that

137
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Speaker 1: top of that ridge, by those scrapes, by that rub

138
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Speaker 1: a dozen times, and of course I'm just soaking wet, aggravated,

139
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Speaker 1: knowing that I've just messed that spot up. Finally find

140
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Speaker 1: my tree stand and get up in it, and I'm

141
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Speaker 1: just I'm just sick. I thought, I'm not going to

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Speaker 1: see anything. I mean, everything's gonna smell me. And when

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Speaker 1: I got up there, it it wasn't real pretty woods.

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Speaker 1: It was a lot of little, short, dwarfy post oaks

145
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Speaker 1: and briary and I couldn't see good. I mean, I

146
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Speaker 1: couldn't really see much past thirty yards in any direction,

147
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Speaker 1: but I knew it was in a good spot in boy.

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Speaker 1: Just shortly after daylight, I heard something coming from the west,

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Speaker 1: right out the top of the ridge. And when I

150
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Speaker 1: first seen it, I could tell it was a buck,

151
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Speaker 1: but I didn't know if it was one I wanted

152
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Speaker 1: to shoot. He had horns that just from the side.

153
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Speaker 1: He didn't look like he had any main beams. But

154
00:08:05,200 --> 00:08:06,440
Speaker 1: he kind of got right there in front of me,

155
00:08:06,440 --> 00:08:08,320
Speaker 1: and he turned and looked at me. He just his

156
00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:12,239
Speaker 1: horns come right back together. But a really nice, real tall,

157
00:08:12,280 --> 00:08:14,960
Speaker 1: tying chocolate horned just an eight point, but a good

158
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Speaker 1: deer one I'm gonna shoot. And it was just like

159
00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:18,920
Speaker 1: I say, it was just brushy, and I couldn't get

160
00:08:18,960 --> 00:08:21,360
Speaker 1: a good shot. And finally I got him stopped. And

161
00:08:21,400 --> 00:08:24,200
Speaker 1: the deer was not far thirty five forty yards through

162
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Speaker 1: a little bit of brush. I guess, maybe more than

163
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Speaker 1: I thought. And I shot, and I thought I was

164
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Speaker 1: right on him. I wasn't nervous, and when I shot,

165
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Speaker 1: of course, smoke filled the air. I never saw that

166
00:08:34,559 --> 00:08:36,760
Speaker 1: deer run off. I never heard him run off. I

167
00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:39,120
Speaker 1: thought I had killed him dead right there. So I

168
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Speaker 1: reloaded my gun. I waited about thirty minutes, probably, and

169
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Speaker 1: I got down and I went over there. I have

170
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Speaker 1: no idea what happened, just like I was shooting a blank.

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Speaker 1: There there was no blood, there was no hair. I

172
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Speaker 1: couldn't even tell where the deer had tore up the ground.

173
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Speaker 1: I don't know what happened, but I missed the deer

174
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Speaker 1: and anyways kind of scourged. So I just went back

175
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Speaker 1: and got in the tree climb back up there, and

176
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Speaker 1: I'll never forget. It was about nine pint thirty. I

177
00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:10,960
Speaker 1: hear the same thing coming from the west right out

178
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Speaker 1: the top of the ridge there, and it sounds like

179
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Speaker 1: it's just just without ceasing, just as far as I

180
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Speaker 1: could hear till it got right there, just crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch.

181
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Speaker 1: I can't explain to you how thick the woods were

182
00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:26,640
Speaker 1: right there, but I remember I saw that horizontal movement,

183
00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:28,760
Speaker 1: you know how you can see just that movement of

184
00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:32,280
Speaker 1: something walking, and it probably stopped twenty five thirty yards

185
00:09:32,280 --> 00:09:34,760
Speaker 1: from me fixing to come out where I could had

186
00:09:34,760 --> 00:09:37,760
Speaker 1: a few places to see. It just stopped, and I

187
00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:40,320
Speaker 1: remembered that I had seen like a leg or the

188
00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:42,839
Speaker 1: body of something, and it wasn't a co old. I

189
00:09:42,880 --> 00:09:45,400
Speaker 1: knew it was a deer, and it just stopped, And

190
00:09:45,480 --> 00:09:48,079
Speaker 1: of course I got turned around there and got ready,

191
00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:49,959
Speaker 1: you know, for take a few more steps where I

192
00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:53,040
Speaker 1: could see what it was and possibly shoot. And I'm

193
00:09:53,040 --> 00:09:55,199
Speaker 1: going to try to be conservative when I tell you

194
00:09:55,240 --> 00:09:58,280
Speaker 1: that I sat there, I would say fifteen minutes, so

195
00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:01,640
Speaker 1: long that I started questioning what I had seen. I'm like,

196
00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:04,319
Speaker 1: could that had been a kita that smelled? Because I

197
00:10:04,360 --> 00:10:05,880
Speaker 1: knew I had been all over it. I mean, I

198
00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:08,320
Speaker 1: had walked all over where that deer was at before daylight,

199
00:10:08,360 --> 00:10:10,319
Speaker 1: trying to find my stand. You know, was it a hawk?

200
00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:13,040
Speaker 1: Sometimes you'll see a bird, a big hawk or something

201
00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:15,720
Speaker 1: that movement. But I'm like, no, I heard that deer

202
00:10:15,800 --> 00:10:17,719
Speaker 1: walk in there, but there's no way a deer is

203
00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:19,719
Speaker 1: still standing there at fifteen or twenty minutes and not

204
00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:23,880
Speaker 1: moved a muscle. About that time, I kind of heard

205
00:10:23,880 --> 00:10:25,959
Speaker 1: something back to my right and I looked in there

206
00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:28,560
Speaker 1: was a button buck not thirty yards from me. I mean,

207
00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:31,440
Speaker 1: I was thinking, that must be the deer that I

208
00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:33,640
Speaker 1: saw walk in here. How did he get down the

209
00:10:33,679 --> 00:10:36,240
Speaker 1: mountain thirty yards without me seeing him? And I got thinking, well,

210
00:10:36,360 --> 00:10:38,760
Speaker 1: I was so keyed on that area right there where

211
00:10:38,800 --> 00:10:40,959
Speaker 1: I saw that deer stop. He might have just made

212
00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:43,600
Speaker 1: a little circle and been quiet. I didn't know what

213
00:10:43,640 --> 00:10:46,160
Speaker 1: had happened, but I still something made me think there

214
00:10:46,200 --> 00:10:48,600
Speaker 1: was a deer there and that button buck he was

215
00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:50,480
Speaker 1: feeding on acrons and he come right in there, right

216
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Speaker 1: about the base of my tree. And when he did,

217
00:10:52,880 --> 00:10:55,600
Speaker 1: I saw him throw his head up and he was

218
00:10:55,679 --> 00:10:58,439
Speaker 1: looking right where I had been looking, and he kind

219
00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:00,640
Speaker 1: of he didn't blow, and stopping kind of stomped his

220
00:11:00,679 --> 00:11:02,760
Speaker 1: foot of time or two, but he didn't blow, and

221
00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:04,560
Speaker 1: he just went right back to feet and when he did,

222
00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:06,920
Speaker 1: I heard a twig or something snap right there, So

223
00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:10,120
Speaker 1: of course I kind of got ready again. And when

224
00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:13,080
Speaker 1: that deer stepped out, he is about twenty four inches wide.

225
00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:16,640
Speaker 1: He is a really nice buck. But that deer had

226
00:11:16,679 --> 00:11:18,600
Speaker 1: been that whole time, and I know what it was.

227
00:11:18,679 --> 00:11:21,400
Speaker 1: He smelled me, because before daylight I had been all

228
00:11:21,440 --> 00:11:23,840
Speaker 1: over that and I think he probably he smelled me.

229
00:11:23,840 --> 00:11:25,280
Speaker 1: I don't know that he knew that I was still there,

230
00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:27,920
Speaker 1: but I do believe that that deer had been there

231
00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:31,680
Speaker 1: for close to twenty minutes without moving a muscle and

232
00:11:31,800 --> 00:11:34,040
Speaker 1: ended up when that button buck was right underneath me,

233
00:11:34,080 --> 00:11:36,640
Speaker 1: I guess he felt comfortable and he just walked right

234
00:11:36,679 --> 00:11:38,960
Speaker 1: down there in my face and I shot him with

235
00:11:38,960 --> 00:11:40,600
Speaker 1: the muzzle loader. And he's one of the better deer

236
00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:43,320
Speaker 1: I've ever killed, the only deer I've ever weighed with

237
00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:45,400
Speaker 1: the guts in it. He weighed one hundred ninety four.

238
00:11:45,280 --> 00:11:54,959
Speaker 2: Pounds, witnessing the patience of that buck and then out

239
00:11:55,080 --> 00:11:59,680
Speaker 2: lasting him without getting busted with something special. I think

240
00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:03,160
Speaker 2: big do this a lot, but we usually never know

241
00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:07,120
Speaker 2: it because the deer spooks or just disappears, and maybe

242
00:12:07,120 --> 00:12:09,559
Speaker 2: we never even know it was there. They don't get

243
00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:12,840
Speaker 2: old by being dumb. They say it was a good story, Mitch,

244
00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:16,160
Speaker 2: so good we actually may come back to you at the.

245
00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:17,319
Speaker 3: End for another story.

246
00:12:18,200 --> 00:12:21,800
Speaker 2: Our next story is told by me and Lake Pickle's friend,

247
00:12:22,240 --> 00:12:26,679
Speaker 2: Keith Polk. Keith is one of Lake's turkey hunting mentors

248
00:12:26,720 --> 00:12:28,640
Speaker 2: and a long time friend of his.

249
00:12:28,880 --> 00:12:31,080
Speaker 3: I've just met Keith in the last couple of years.

250
00:12:32,160 --> 00:12:34,440
Speaker 2: Lake's Daddy Dole story is going to be hard to

251
00:12:34,440 --> 00:12:36,319
Speaker 2: top Keith, but it's worth a shot.

252
00:12:36,840 --> 00:12:37,439
Speaker 3: Here's Keith.

253
00:12:39,600 --> 00:12:42,040
Speaker 5: This story took place in the fall of ninety two

254
00:12:42,679 --> 00:12:45,199
Speaker 5: down in Prentice, Mississippi, which is about an hour south

255
00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:47,640
Speaker 5: at Jackson, down in the piney woods. That's where I

256
00:12:47,720 --> 00:12:51,440
Speaker 5: was raised and where I learned to hunt and my

257
00:12:51,480 --> 00:12:56,040
Speaker 5: appreciation for the outdoors begin. And that particular year, my

258
00:12:56,080 --> 00:12:59,120
Speaker 5: good friend Brad Shivers and I we hunted a lot together.

259
00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:04,800
Speaker 5: He had started bow hunting, and this was a two

260
00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:08,040
Speaker 5: week primitive weapon season, and in the first two weeks

261
00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:12,920
Speaker 5: of December that Mississippi has still has actually and Brad

262
00:13:12,960 --> 00:13:15,439
Speaker 5: would be bow hunting this particular evening and was looking

263
00:13:15,440 --> 00:13:17,880
Speaker 5: for a place to see some deer, and so I

264
00:13:17,960 --> 00:13:20,760
Speaker 5: sent him across the creek through some hard woods to

265
00:13:21,600 --> 00:13:24,960
Speaker 5: a food plot that we seldom hunted, but was often

266
00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:27,600
Speaker 5: frequented by, you know, a couple of three four dos.

267
00:13:28,559 --> 00:13:31,760
Speaker 5: And so the cool thing about it was the west

268
00:13:31,800 --> 00:13:33,800
Speaker 5: side of the food plot, there's this little scope of

269
00:13:33,840 --> 00:13:37,960
Speaker 5: hardwoods that protrude out into a large broom sage field,

270
00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:41,720
Speaker 5: and these hardwoods it's some huge cherry bark oak and

271
00:13:41,800 --> 00:13:45,920
Speaker 5: white oak timber. So I just I had suggested that Brad,

272
00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:48,080
Speaker 5: you know, just go getting nestled up in the roots

273
00:13:48,040 --> 00:13:49,719
Speaker 5: of one of those big trees, get where he could

274
00:13:49,800 --> 00:13:53,839
Speaker 5: draw his bow and settle in. Well, that evening I

275
00:13:53,920 --> 00:13:56,800
Speaker 5: go to pick him up, and it's obvious that he

276
00:13:56,840 --> 00:14:00,360
Speaker 5: has seen something or done something I couldn't tell. Man,

277
00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:03,560
Speaker 5: he was excited, and so he proceeds to tell me

278
00:14:03,640 --> 00:14:07,000
Speaker 5: that just before dark he hears some rustling in the

279
00:14:07,040 --> 00:14:09,400
Speaker 5: leaves and he kind of rolls off the tree and

280
00:14:09,440 --> 00:14:13,520
Speaker 5: looks behind him, and he gets to watch this big

281
00:14:13,559 --> 00:14:16,960
Speaker 5: mature rack buck, you know, make a scrape and a rub.

282
00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:20,560
Speaker 5: He's actually rubbing a sapling and pawing at the ground

283
00:14:20,600 --> 00:14:23,400
Speaker 5: and scraping right there. And this is something we hadn't

284
00:14:23,400 --> 00:14:25,560
Speaker 5: ever seen. We'd only seen it on a truth video

285
00:14:25,920 --> 00:14:30,680
Speaker 5: and we were pretty fired up, and I basically interrogated

286
00:14:30,680 --> 00:14:32,680
Speaker 5: bread where'd the deer come from? Where'd the deer go?

287
00:14:32,800 --> 00:14:35,760
Speaker 5: How long did he stay? And we figured that he

288
00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:38,720
Speaker 5: had came and went from this big broom sage field,

289
00:14:39,200 --> 00:14:43,120
Speaker 5: which I had totally overlooked. And so I felt like

290
00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:45,160
Speaker 5: I told Brian, I felt like I could I had

291
00:14:45,160 --> 00:14:48,000
Speaker 5: a really good chance to kill that deer, you know,

292
00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:49,680
Speaker 5: now that we knew where he was coming go. And

293
00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:53,600
Speaker 5: so we're right before Christmas, a week or so passed

294
00:14:53,640 --> 00:14:57,360
Speaker 5: where we're outside of the primitive weapons season. Now we're

295
00:14:57,400 --> 00:15:01,320
Speaker 5: back in the firearm season. And I had gotten an

296
00:15:01,320 --> 00:15:06,280
Speaker 5: Amiker dear Thief climbing stand, and this had been my

297
00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:08,000
Speaker 5: first hunt with it, and I'm sure I had put

298
00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:09,880
Speaker 5: it up in the yard and tested it out. But

299
00:15:10,680 --> 00:15:13,360
Speaker 5: after toting that heavy rascal all the way through those

300
00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:15,560
Speaker 5: hardwoods and getting on the edge of the broom sage

301
00:15:15,560 --> 00:15:18,600
Speaker 5: fill with it. I find me a nice little water

302
00:15:18,640 --> 00:15:22,720
Speaker 5: oak tree and get it on and proceed to climb up. Well,

303
00:15:23,320 --> 00:15:25,680
Speaker 5: I didn't take into account the taper of the tree,

304
00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:30,560
Speaker 5: and my top portion of my climber is angled down.

305
00:15:30,640 --> 00:15:34,800
Speaker 5: You know, it's sloped down pretty severe. So rather than

306
00:15:34,800 --> 00:15:37,760
Speaker 5: doing what I know I should have done and climb

307
00:15:37,880 --> 00:15:40,960
Speaker 5: back down and readjusted the tree, I decided I would

308
00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:45,440
Speaker 5: just readjust it in the tree. So I do, and

309
00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:48,520
Speaker 5: I loosen the wing nut and take it off and

310
00:15:48,960 --> 00:15:53,120
Speaker 5: pull the bolt out and slide the bar. And it's

311
00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:57,480
Speaker 5: quite a complicated process to do up in the heights

312
00:15:57,520 --> 00:16:00,240
Speaker 5: of a water oak, but I pulled it up off,

313
00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:02,280
Speaker 5: or so I thought. I get my bolt in there

314
00:16:02,320 --> 00:16:05,520
Speaker 5: and everything's readjusted, and I go to put the wing

315
00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:08,480
Speaker 5: nut on, and I thought I had started it, and

316
00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:10,720
Speaker 5: so I just took my finger and was gonna thump

317
00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:14,440
Speaker 5: that wing nut to spin it on. And when I

318
00:16:14,520 --> 00:16:19,280
Speaker 5: thumped it, I watched in horror as it plummeted to

319
00:16:19,360 --> 00:16:21,800
Speaker 5: the forest floor. And it was just like watching it

320
00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:24,520
Speaker 5: in slow motion. And I didn't take my eyes off

321
00:16:24,560 --> 00:16:26,960
Speaker 5: of it, like I knew exactly where it fell in

322
00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:30,880
Speaker 5: those leaves. I said, man, I've got to get that nut.

323
00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:34,200
Speaker 5: So I hold the bolt in my left hand and

324
00:16:34,240 --> 00:16:36,160
Speaker 5: start down the tree and I'm trying to be as

325
00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:39,920
Speaker 5: quiet as possible because I've just got super super high

326
00:16:39,960 --> 00:16:43,640
Speaker 5: expectations for this hunt. I just felt really confident. So

327
00:16:43,720 --> 00:16:46,760
Speaker 5: I get down, readjust the tree. I did find the

328
00:16:46,800 --> 00:16:50,080
Speaker 5: wing nut, get it back on, climb back up, get

329
00:16:50,120 --> 00:16:52,840
Speaker 5: in the tree, grab my pullup rope, start to pull

330
00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:56,680
Speaker 5: my rifle up and it's not coming up, and I'm like,

331
00:16:56,720 --> 00:16:57,320
Speaker 5: what's going on.

332
00:16:57,440 --> 00:16:58,560
Speaker 6: I look down and there is.

333
00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:04,720
Speaker 5: This tiny young holly, like a yo pine holly bush

334
00:17:04,800 --> 00:17:06,439
Speaker 5: at the base of my tree, and my pull up

335
00:17:06,520 --> 00:17:10,120
Speaker 5: rope had looped around that tree. And I tugged and

336
00:17:10,160 --> 00:17:13,240
Speaker 5: pulled and I just there. Nothing in me wanted to

337
00:17:13,280 --> 00:17:15,680
Speaker 5: go back down the tree a second time, but that's

338
00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:18,320
Speaker 5: exactly what I had to do. So I go down

339
00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:23,560
Speaker 5: the tree, untangle my pull up rope, get that situated,

340
00:17:23,640 --> 00:17:27,160
Speaker 5: climb back up the tree for the second time, and

341
00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:30,679
Speaker 5: finally get my gun in my hands. And I almost

342
00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:35,000
Speaker 5: left before I climbed back up the second time. I

343
00:17:35,040 --> 00:17:38,399
Speaker 5: really had to have a hard conversation with myself to

344
00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:42,159
Speaker 5: make myself stay but I did, and I just figured

345
00:17:42,160 --> 00:17:44,480
Speaker 5: if nothing else, I'd get a little recont on the

346
00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:48,080
Speaker 5: spot and may have to refine you know where I'm

347
00:17:48,119 --> 00:17:51,280
Speaker 5: sitting for the next hunt, because I surely didn't think

348
00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:55,119
Speaker 5: I would have any success that evening. Well, time clicked on,

349
00:17:55,320 --> 00:18:00,880
Speaker 5: and right before dark something catches my eye and I look,

350
00:18:01,040 --> 00:18:04,400
Speaker 5: and instantly I see a deer. I see a rack.

351
00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:08,199
Speaker 5: I shoulder my rifle, wait for a clear shot, and

352
00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:11,600
Speaker 5: then squeeze a trigger, and it all happened, and under well,

353
00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:16,360
Speaker 5: under a minute, I mean it happened fast. The deer turns,

354
00:18:16,480 --> 00:18:18,840
Speaker 5: runs and he runs out back in the sage field,

355
00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:22,560
Speaker 5: and I see him crash, and I can't believe what

356
00:18:22,760 --> 00:18:23,320
Speaker 5: just happened.

357
00:18:23,960 --> 00:18:24,640
Speaker 3: I'm stoked.

358
00:18:25,359 --> 00:18:28,040
Speaker 5: My first big buck and he's on the ground, and

359
00:18:28,119 --> 00:18:30,480
Speaker 5: I really don't know how big he is. No trail

360
00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:33,600
Speaker 5: cameras back then or anything like that. Never previously seen

361
00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:35,520
Speaker 5: him in the bread had, but I had not. We

362
00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:38,800
Speaker 5: believe it to be the same deer. But I climb down,

363
00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:42,800
Speaker 5: slip out there in the broomsage, and man, there he is,

364
00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:46,600
Speaker 5: and I have killed a giant. And this is giant

365
00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:50,800
Speaker 5: is a relative description, because this deer is all of

366
00:18:50,840 --> 00:18:53,440
Speaker 5: probably one hundred and fifteen hundred and twenty inches a

367
00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:56,800
Speaker 5: typical ten point deer. And man, I am stoked, just

368
00:18:57,440 --> 00:18:59,320
Speaker 5: beyond my mind.

369
00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:00,840
Speaker 6: I'm fired up, so I'd run.

370
00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:03,800
Speaker 5: I'd run back out of the woods, get on my

371
00:19:03,840 --> 00:19:06,399
Speaker 5: three wheeler, head back to the house. I get to

372
00:19:06,440 --> 00:19:08,480
Speaker 5: the house and my brother is in the yard and

373
00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:10,760
Speaker 5: it's not quite dark yet. My brother's in the yard

374
00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:14,199
Speaker 5: talking to family friends named Robbie. Robbie had come to

375
00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:17,480
Speaker 5: see my parents. And Robbie was not a hunter and

376
00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:20,560
Speaker 5: h but Robbie was, you know, he knew my brother

377
00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:23,360
Speaker 5: and I. When I get out of the truck, I've

378
00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:25,320
Speaker 5: not said a word to my brother. We just lock

379
00:19:25,440 --> 00:19:27,680
Speaker 5: eyes and he said you did it didn't And I

380
00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:30,800
Speaker 5: said I did. He said how big is he? I said,

381
00:19:30,840 --> 00:19:34,159
Speaker 5: he's a monster, And may we start? We just get giddy,

382
00:19:34,440 --> 00:19:37,439
Speaker 5: you know, and fired up, And so we end up

383
00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:40,440
Speaker 5: heading back down the creek and Robbie's in between us.

384
00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:43,760
Speaker 5: I guess if liking to a kidnapping, because I don't

385
00:19:43,760 --> 00:19:45,600
Speaker 5: think he went at his own wheel. We just pushed

386
00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:46,359
Speaker 5: him in the truck.

387
00:19:47,160 --> 00:19:48,119
Speaker 6: We were so fired up.

388
00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:51,320
Speaker 5: But we head to the creek and my little Ford Ranger,

389
00:19:51,440 --> 00:19:55,119
Speaker 5: my brother's driving cross the creek bridge, run through the

390
00:19:55,119 --> 00:19:58,399
Speaker 5: logging roads, just flying through the logging roads, and we

391
00:19:58,520 --> 00:20:00,760
Speaker 5: get to the field edge and and go out there,

392
00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:04,000
Speaker 5: and man, I just remember how proud my brother was.

393
00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:07,040
Speaker 5: I just I can remember it like it was yesterday.

394
00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:10,280
Speaker 5: Just we even got Robbie in on dragging the deer

395
00:20:10,280 --> 00:20:12,840
Speaker 5: back into the truck and we loaded the deer up.

396
00:20:12,920 --> 00:20:17,000
Speaker 5: And so there's no social media obviously in ninety two.

397
00:20:17,080 --> 00:20:19,719
Speaker 5: But there was a Shell station and that was our

398
00:20:19,760 --> 00:20:23,600
Speaker 5: gas station and Prentice and that was our social media. Man.

399
00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:28,240
Speaker 5: Everybody typically, especially on a Friday and Saturday night, everybody

400
00:20:28,359 --> 00:20:30,639
Speaker 5: ended up at the Shell station around six thirty or

401
00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:34,840
Speaker 5: seven o'clock, and especially if you'd killed something. Man, that

402
00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:39,520
Speaker 5: was just a gathering place. And so tailgates down the

403
00:20:39,600 --> 00:20:41,800
Speaker 5: bucks on laying there in the bike and here we

404
00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:46,040
Speaker 5: go back through the woods, flying back out to the house. Well,

405
00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:48,639
Speaker 5: on the way out, there's this big I call them

406
00:20:48,720 --> 00:20:52,600
Speaker 5: possum grapevines, but it's just a vine, probably not quite

407
00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:55,040
Speaker 5: an inch in diameter, but it stretches from the right

408
00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:57,800
Speaker 5: side of the road from up high, it comes down,

409
00:20:57,920 --> 00:20:59,840
Speaker 5: makes a loop and it stretches to the left side

410
00:20:59,880 --> 00:21:03,080
Speaker 5: the road. It's just just awed how it grew that way.

411
00:21:03,080 --> 00:21:06,280
Speaker 5: But it makes this loop and you have to slow down.

412
00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:07,840
Speaker 5: We had to slow down in the truck because you

413
00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:10,480
Speaker 5: could bust the window out. It just hangs right there.

414
00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:14,000
Speaker 5: So I remember my brother driving and he drove right

415
00:21:14,040 --> 00:21:15,960
Speaker 5: up there, and he slowed down real fast, and he

416
00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:19,400
Speaker 5: touched it, and it scraped over the hood, over the windshield,

417
00:21:19,520 --> 00:21:21,439
Speaker 5: over the cow, and then bloom, it fell in the

418
00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:23,760
Speaker 5: bed of the truck. As soon as it went over

419
00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:25,159
Speaker 5: the cab and then the bed of the truck. My

420
00:21:25,160 --> 00:21:26,240
Speaker 5: brother just castes it.

421
00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:26,560
Speaker 7: Man.

422
00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:29,560
Speaker 5: We're flying back out of the woods well before we

423
00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:33,960
Speaker 5: get to the creek bridge. We're just reminiscing and I

424
00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:35,680
Speaker 5: look back. I just want to look at my big

425
00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:39,119
Speaker 5: buck one more time, and he's not there, and I

426
00:21:39,280 --> 00:21:42,760
Speaker 5: freak out. I'm like, the buck's gone. My brother locks

427
00:21:42,800 --> 00:21:45,440
Speaker 5: the truck up and literally just bales out and takes

428
00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:48,600
Speaker 5: off running down the road. I jump in the driver's seat,

429
00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:50,800
Speaker 5: throw it in reverse, and here I go, driving and

430
00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:55,080
Speaker 5: reverse down this woods road all the way back, you know,

431
00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:57,760
Speaker 5: trying to catch up with my brother. And I get

432
00:21:57,800 --> 00:22:00,800
Speaker 5: to him and my brother is standing than over that buck.

433
00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:03,479
Speaker 5: That fine had went right over the hood of the truck,

434
00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:08,080
Speaker 5: dropped down into the bed, and that loop just hooked

435
00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:10,160
Speaker 5: right at the base of his antlers and slid him

436
00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:12,080
Speaker 5: ever so gently out in the back of the truck.

437
00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:15,399
Speaker 5: I mean, you couldn't have made it up. But my brother,

438
00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:17,400
Speaker 5: being the big brother that he is, when I get

439
00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:19,880
Speaker 5: out of the truck, he's shaking his head and he says, man,

440
00:22:19,920 --> 00:22:22,720
Speaker 5: he's all busted up, And he wasn't. He was just

441
00:22:22,800 --> 00:22:26,080
Speaker 5: having fun with me. But we load him up and

442
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:30,359
Speaker 5: we get him to town, and man, I just it

443
00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:34,200
Speaker 5: was just a moment I'll never forget and can remember

444
00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:36,720
Speaker 5: going back in that store probably for the better part

445
00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:40,639
Speaker 5: of the year. They kept a big cork bulletin board there,

446
00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:44,560
Speaker 5: and there on that bulletin board thirty five milimeter picture

447
00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:48,320
Speaker 5: you know, of me in that ten point book, and

448
00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:50,600
Speaker 5: it's just that's a memory, and that's a hunt that

449
00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:55,200
Speaker 5: I'll never forget. I mean, it just it's always right there,

450
00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:56,080
Speaker 5: fresh on my mind.

451
00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:23,240
Speaker 2: You may want to shut that tailgate next time, Keith.

452
00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:27,000
Speaker 2: That story just kind of oozed with the passion and

453
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:30,560
Speaker 2: zeal of the early years of a hunter's life. And

454
00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:33,760
Speaker 2: I don't think Keith has lost that fire at all.

455
00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:37,320
Speaker 2: But I do think it morphs into a more mature

456
00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:41,560
Speaker 2: state of enjoying the hunt. That's perhaps even better than

457
00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:45,320
Speaker 2: that youthful zeal. That was a great story.

458
00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:48,320
Speaker 3: Keith, way better than Lake's story.

459
00:23:50,920 --> 00:23:53,879
Speaker 2: But now we're going to jump into a medley of

460
00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:58,800
Speaker 2: three short stories. Sometimes the short ones are the best.

461
00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:01,040
Speaker 2: They're the stories that a guy just kind of tells

462
00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:03,600
Speaker 2: off the cuff, you know, doesn't have to have some

463
00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:07,679
Speaker 2: big backstory. And to start us off on the short stories,

464
00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:12,000
Speaker 2: you may remember Henry sou Song from last year. Henry's

465
00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:15,119
Speaker 2: eighty two years old in a veteran mountain bowhunter in

466
00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:19,240
Speaker 2: East Tennessee. He and his son's whitetail room would rival

467
00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:24,720
Speaker 2: any in America period. These boys kill some big deer

468
00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:27,280
Speaker 2: and they do it all with bows. And I have

469
00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:31,520
Speaker 2: never met a man that has more passion about whitetail

470
00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:35,639
Speaker 2: bow hunting than Henry Siouxsong. So after he told his

471
00:24:35,720 --> 00:24:38,160
Speaker 2: story from last year about killing this big mountain buck,

472
00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:39,880
Speaker 2: I asked him, I said, hey, do you have any

473
00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:40,560
Speaker 2: more stories?

474
00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:42,280
Speaker 3: And this is the one he told me.

475
00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:48,080
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I guess I do. I was going to

476
00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:51,040
Speaker 4: tell you about my son when he was young, he

477
00:24:51,400 --> 00:24:55,200
Speaker 4: was hunting Hurry near here, and he said, Dad, I've

478
00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:57,200
Speaker 4: been trying to kill a ten point with a bow.

479
00:24:57,240 --> 00:24:59,199
Speaker 4: He's not a big one. He's just maybe two year

480
00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:02,560
Speaker 4: old ten point, he said, but he's almost human like.

481
00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:07,200
Speaker 4: He said, he's coming to a rye field that somebody's

482
00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:09,760
Speaker 4: got sowed down along the river here, and he said,

483
00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:12,320
Speaker 4: he said, it's amazing. He said, you're going to laugh.

484
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:15,200
Speaker 4: He walks up to that three he's got a three

485
00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:19,680
Speaker 4: wire barb war fence around his little rye patch. He said,

486
00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:21,200
Speaker 4: I may think you had the back in there and

487
00:25:21,280 --> 00:25:22,879
Speaker 4: they just sew a crave across. But he said, this

488
00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:25,480
Speaker 4: little ten point will come up there. He don't try

489
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:28,240
Speaker 4: to jump the fence. He puts his horns in the

490
00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:32,119
Speaker 4: fence and pushes it down with his horns and steps

491
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:35,320
Speaker 4: through it like a man. You know how kids are.

492
00:25:35,359 --> 00:25:39,119
Speaker 4: I thought, okay, I didn't say anything. So he hunted

493
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:41,640
Speaker 4: down there for I don't know, two or three weeks,

494
00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:44,040
Speaker 4: and he could never get a shot at it. He said,

495
00:25:44,040 --> 00:25:47,359
Speaker 4: to ten point across the roads come a different direction.

496
00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:49,320
Speaker 4: You couldn't You couldn't pin him down, you know, get

497
00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:51,360
Speaker 4: a shot out of the boat. So he goes down

498
00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:54,920
Speaker 4: there and killed it with a rifle and comes back,

499
00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:56,280
Speaker 4: and I'll show it to you a minute.

500
00:25:56,280 --> 00:25:57,080
Speaker 7: I got hang out here.

501
00:25:57,280 --> 00:26:01,520
Speaker 4: You wouldn't believe. I was skeptically start with, but you

502
00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:05,080
Speaker 4: wouldn't believe the war on the bottom of that deer's

503
00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:09,000
Speaker 4: rack where he'd crossed that fence. I believe he'd done it.

504
00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:13,359
Speaker 4: I don't know what reason. Maybe he couldn't jump. I

505
00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:16,520
Speaker 4: don't know, but the rack is almost war half in

506
00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:19,840
Speaker 4: too from where he put his hands or put his

507
00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:22,600
Speaker 4: horns on that fence and pushed it down. He said

508
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:25,600
Speaker 4: he'd push it down, and very gently stepped across it,

509
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:28,440
Speaker 4: just like a man. You see. He just a boy.

510
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:32,800
Speaker 4: And I thought, well, yeah, okay, but it's you can

511
00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:34,400
Speaker 4: look at the rack. You can tell the boys tell

512
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:40,439
Speaker 4: it's true. That's absolute truth.

513
00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:47,639
Speaker 2: He crossed the fence like a man. I like the

514
00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:51,080
Speaker 2: way he said that, And I saw the rack myself.

515
00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:53,359
Speaker 2: It looked like the buck had been hung in a

516
00:26:53,359 --> 00:26:56,720
Speaker 2: barber wire fence and wore the main beams down. In

517
00:26:56,960 --> 00:27:00,840
Speaker 2: one particular spot where the G three's touched the rack,

518
00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:06,040
Speaker 2: it was wild. Our next story is from another old

519
00:27:06,119 --> 00:27:09,200
Speaker 2: timer by the name of Gerald Brewer, a good friend

520
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:13,000
Speaker 2: of mine from western Arkansas. This is just a solid

521
00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:17,000
Speaker 2: kind of funny story about when Gerald mentored a kid

522
00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:20,240
Speaker 2: in hunting. I wish Jerald would have cackled in laughter

523
00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:22,359
Speaker 2: like he did the first time he told me this

524
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:25,240
Speaker 2: when the recorder wasn't going, so just you can kind

525
00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:28,640
Speaker 2: of imagine it. Here is a very special man by

526
00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:29,800
Speaker 2: the name of Jerald.

527
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:36,080
Speaker 7: Brewer two years ago when I was much youngering. This

528
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:40,040
Speaker 7: young man I'm speaking of was he probably twelve. His

529
00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:43,080
Speaker 7: dad did not hunt. So he asked me one time

530
00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:45,680
Speaker 7: if i'd take him out and teach him how to hunt,

531
00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:47,639
Speaker 7: because that's what he wanted to do, you know, And

532
00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:51,280
Speaker 7: I'm sure I'll do that, and we go turk hunting.

533
00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:55,280
Speaker 7: And anyway, this one time it was during the black

534
00:27:55,320 --> 00:27:58,560
Speaker 7: powder and mosel Otin season. Well, so I went hunting

535
00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:02,800
Speaker 7: all day, hadn't seen anything to shoot, and so we'd

536
00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:08,280
Speaker 7: started back home is late afternoon and teaching him, being

537
00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:12,160
Speaker 7: a mentor to him. Where we had taken the caps

538
00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:15,240
Speaker 7: offer most of the loaders as the law said, and

539
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:18,119
Speaker 7: unloaded it and we had laid them in the back

540
00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:22,800
Speaker 7: a much eat in a safe area. About the time

541
00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:26,760
Speaker 7: we'd getting out of the National Forest area where we've

542
00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:31,639
Speaker 7: come to a field or a pasture in about fifty

543
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:35,680
Speaker 7: sixty yards from the road, there stood the biggest book

544
00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:38,960
Speaker 7: I had ever seen. He's right on the fence line,

545
00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:43,800
Speaker 7: on the inside in the pasture, and we looked at

546
00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:46,000
Speaker 7: him and looked at him, and he was sort of

547
00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:49,560
Speaker 7: looking in the brush across the fence when we sat

548
00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:52,600
Speaker 7: there for quite a while watching it, and it would

549
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,160
Speaker 7: move its head and everything. You know. I had heard

550
00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:58,560
Speaker 7: rumors in the area that the game fish had been

551
00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:03,760
Speaker 7: putting out decoys trying to catch people from violating the law.

552
00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:06,960
Speaker 7: More I looked at it and I said that I've

553
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:08,800
Speaker 7: never seen a dear that big in this part of

554
00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:10,680
Speaker 7: the world, so that has to be a decoy. And

555
00:29:10,800 --> 00:29:12,720
Speaker 7: I told him, I said, let's go. I said, that's

556
00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:17,120
Speaker 7: a decoy. So we drove on. So it was days later,

557
00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:22,280
Speaker 7: maybe in two weeks or so, we heard the rumors

558
00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 7: that this young man had killed a big buck not

559
00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:30,960
Speaker 7: too far from from that, probably within three or four

560
00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:33,479
Speaker 7: hundred ards of this area on the National Forest. They

561
00:29:33,520 --> 00:29:36,680
Speaker 7: had a food plot and he had killed this big,

562
00:29:36,800 --> 00:29:39,320
Speaker 7: big buck in that food plot, and in fact he

563
00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:41,680
Speaker 7: had brought it to town showing around. He didn't even

564
00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:46,640
Speaker 7: realize that it was a big how big it was.

565
00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:48,640
Speaker 7: You know, he just knew he didn't kill the buck.

566
00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:54,040
Speaker 7: And so anyway, I thought about that that thing was real,

567
00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:57,160
Speaker 7: you know that. So this young man the same way,

568
00:29:57,200 --> 00:29:59,360
Speaker 7: you know, he said, you hear about you know, because

569
00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:01,720
Speaker 7: I would let him shoot. I didn't want to teach

570
00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:03,760
Speaker 7: him wrong, you know of because I wouldn't look too

571
00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:06,960
Speaker 7: good on my part, you know. So anyway, that's my

572
00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:10,280
Speaker 7: dear story.

573
00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:16,960
Speaker 2: It's a good thing y'all didn't shoot that buck, Gerald.

574
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:20,600
Speaker 2: That was funny again. The first time Jerald told me,

575
00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:24,280
Speaker 2: he cackled like a schoolgirl. And the thing that's really

576
00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:26,720
Speaker 2: funny about it, if you know Gerald, is that he's

577
00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:28,880
Speaker 2: a law abiden man and wouldn't have shot that buck

578
00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:31,880
Speaker 2: if he didn't think it was a decoy. And I

579
00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:35,040
Speaker 2: saw the buck that they're talking about at the taxi

580
00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:37,720
Speaker 2: deermy shop that was killed in that food plot, and

581
00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:41,200
Speaker 2: it was every inch of one hundred and sixty inches.

582
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:45,840
Speaker 3: A true monster. The next story is a short.

583
00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:48,719
Speaker 2: One, again by a new friend of ours named Bob

584
00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:51,440
Speaker 2: Wilson out of Dixon, Missouri.

585
00:30:51,920 --> 00:30:52,520
Speaker 3: Here's Bob.

586
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:57,840
Speaker 8: Yes, I'm Bob Wilson, and I live in Mary's County

587
00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:00,680
Speaker 8: in Dixon, Missouri, and I'm going to tell you a

588
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:04,080
Speaker 8: story about one of my old friends, Vic. He's quite

589
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:08,120
Speaker 8: an archer. He'd won several state championships. But you'd have

590
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:12,120
Speaker 8: to know Vic. If you've ever watched Andy Griffith Show

591
00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:15,400
Speaker 8: and Barney Fife, that was Vic. I mean they were

592
00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:19,480
Speaker 8: like identical. But my brother and I were going up

593
00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:21,680
Speaker 8: to hunt and Vic said, hey, can I go with you?

594
00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:24,280
Speaker 8: I said, yeah, you're welcome to go. So we went

595
00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:27,960
Speaker 8: over to one of those food plots and started down

596
00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:29,760
Speaker 8: through there. Well, I didn't know where to put VIC.

597
00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:31,120
Speaker 6: And it was.

598
00:31:31,120 --> 00:31:33,840
Speaker 8: About a half a mile down that food plot, close

599
00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:35,960
Speaker 8: to a half a mile, and it made a ninety

600
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 8: degree and we stopped there in Vick's where do you

601
00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:40,360
Speaker 8: think I should go? I said, I think there's a

602
00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:42,760
Speaker 8: really good spot right down there, Vic, which I'd never

603
00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:46,520
Speaker 8: seen it before, never been there, And so he said, okay,

604
00:31:46,680 --> 00:31:50,240
Speaker 8: I'll see you guys later. He goes down and my

605
00:31:50,320 --> 00:31:52,400
Speaker 8: brother and I turned the right. We went down and

606
00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:54,920
Speaker 8: got in a couple stands that we thought deer would

607
00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:57,080
Speaker 8: be through set there all morning, never saw a thing.

608
00:31:58,440 --> 00:32:01,360
Speaker 8: So we came back and when we got to that

609
00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:05,360
Speaker 8: ninety where Vic had went, my brother. Dennis said, well,

610
00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:07,960
Speaker 8: it looks like somebody's drug something up through here, and

611
00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:10,080
Speaker 8: I said, well it does.

612
00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:11,400
Speaker 6: So anyway, we.

613
00:32:11,760 --> 00:32:14,400
Speaker 8: Followed the trail back to the truck, got up there

614
00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:16,720
Speaker 8: and there set Vic and he had an eight point

615
00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:19,160
Speaker 8: buck and he said, boy, you really put me in

616
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:20,640
Speaker 8: a good spot. And I said, I told you that

617
00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:25,680
Speaker 8: was a good place to go. So he was pretty

618
00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:27,880
Speaker 8: proud of me for futting him in that spot.

619
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:34,400
Speaker 3: The guarhold and plain and simple.

620
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:37,400
Speaker 2: Has that ever happened to you where you sent somebody

621
00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:38,840
Speaker 2: to a spot that you really didn't think it was

622
00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:40,080
Speaker 2: going to turn out but it did?

623
00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:43,240
Speaker 3: Or have you been garhold? That was a good one.

624
00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:47,040
Speaker 2: Bob our next story is a good one and it's

625
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:52,840
Speaker 2: told by none other than the Mississippi biologist Med Palmer. Yep,

626
00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:57,240
Speaker 2: the same Med from the last episode. And what I've

627
00:32:57,280 --> 00:32:59,680
Speaker 2: heard over and over since he came on the podcast

628
00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:03,640
Speaker 2: is that Med is a legendary with a capital L,

629
00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:09,920
Speaker 2: Mississippi turkey hunter and woodsman. So when Med talks a feller.

630
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:10,440
Speaker 3: Better listen.

631
00:33:10,920 --> 00:33:19,240
Speaker 2: Here's Med and this story revolves around a gun.

632
00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:22,719
Speaker 9: My name is Med Palmer from Kapya County, Mississippi. I

633
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:26,080
Speaker 9: worked for Mississippi Point wife. It's in Parks the year

634
00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:29,680
Speaker 9: of twenty twenty two, which i'd been real busy during

635
00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:32,600
Speaker 9: deer season for work, and I generally start doing most

636
00:33:32,600 --> 00:33:35,600
Speaker 9: of my deer hunting around Christmas. That's when the rut's

637
00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:39,200
Speaker 9: going on on into January, and this particular year, I

638
00:33:39,240 --> 00:33:42,240
Speaker 9: hadn't got to hunt much at all. And it's around

639
00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:46,080
Speaker 9: January the eleventh. I decided I was gonna go hunting

640
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:49,480
Speaker 9: that morning, and I knew the deer was rutting pretty good,

641
00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:52,520
Speaker 9: and we had a buck on our plate that my

642
00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:55,880
Speaker 9: nephew had pictures of that was an older buck. Holmes

643
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:59,280
Speaker 9: was messed up pretty bad. And I told all the kids,

644
00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:01,480
Speaker 9: I said, y'all see this buck, showed him all the picture.

645
00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:04,680
Speaker 9: I said, y'all shoot him because he needs to go.

646
00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:06,920
Speaker 9: He's five and a half years old, and I said,

647
00:34:06,960 --> 00:34:09,480
Speaker 9: he's never gonna be anything else, you know. And they

648
00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:11,040
Speaker 9: had killed a lot of deer, so they took him

649
00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:14,799
Speaker 9: to day to shoot him, you know, naturally, and well

650
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:19,040
Speaker 9: rocked on and nobody had seen him. And that particular morning,

651
00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:21,239
Speaker 9: I was sitting in the stand and I don't know, it's

652
00:34:21,239 --> 00:34:24,640
Speaker 9: probably about nine o'clock bout one hundred yards. This deer

653
00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:27,520
Speaker 9: comes out and I said, you know, one hundred yards

654
00:34:27,600 --> 00:34:30,080
Speaker 9: chip shot and I said, I'll shoot him. Go get

655
00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:32,439
Speaker 9: the truck and you know, be done with it. Well,

656
00:34:32,520 --> 00:34:36,560
Speaker 9: he walks out, laying broadside. I propped up on the

657
00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:39,480
Speaker 9: sandbag and I put the crosshairs on him.

658
00:34:39,520 --> 00:34:40,440
Speaker 6: I pulled the trigger.

659
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:43,720
Speaker 9: He hits the graunt. So I start getting my stuff.

660
00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:45,319
Speaker 9: You are to get out, and I looked and he

661
00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:48,080
Speaker 9: had disappeared. I'm shooting a three hundred weather ben. I'm

662
00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:51,920
Speaker 9: thinking he shouldn't be disappearing. I said, I don't know,

663
00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:54,319
Speaker 9: what's nothing to happen. So again I out laid my

664
00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:57,160
Speaker 9: stuff in the stand and get down there. And down

665
00:34:57,200 --> 00:35:01,120
Speaker 9: at the end of the lane, I see comes across,

666
00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:04,440
Speaker 9: going back about two hundred yards from me then and

667
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:06,160
Speaker 9: I was standing where the deer had failed.

668
00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:07,839
Speaker 6: So he runs ended up.

669
00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:10,360
Speaker 9: I found blood going out and the other way the

670
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:12,880
Speaker 9: deer had went and trailed it back around, and that

671
00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:14,200
Speaker 9: was the deer that come across.

672
00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:15,680
Speaker 6: I said, well, that deer and't even hurt.

673
00:35:16,239 --> 00:35:19,200
Speaker 9: But my son had a blood dog, so calming if

674
00:35:19,239 --> 00:35:21,160
Speaker 9: you he brings him down there, we put the blood

675
00:35:21,200 --> 00:35:23,400
Speaker 9: dog on it. We tracked it deer, probably my own

676
00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:25,759
Speaker 9: a half. He never even laid up. And a couple

677
00:35:25,800 --> 00:35:27,839
Speaker 9: of days later we actually got a picture of the deer.

678
00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:31,320
Speaker 9: I had grazed that deer high right above the shoulder,

679
00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:33,680
Speaker 9: just enough to paralyze them for a minute.

680
00:35:33,719 --> 00:35:35,800
Speaker 6: I reckon. I mean, he was fine.

681
00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:39,160
Speaker 9: I had bought this gun and scot probably twenty seven

682
00:35:39,239 --> 00:35:42,520
Speaker 9: years ago, and that's a Sivorski's cooat and I sighted

683
00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:44,960
Speaker 9: that gun and twenty seven years ago and I have

684
00:35:45,360 --> 00:35:48,560
Speaker 9: never had to move it ever. And I check it

685
00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:52,080
Speaker 9: before the season like everybody does, and about twice through

686
00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:55,359
Speaker 9: the middle of the season, just to make sure. And

687
00:35:55,440 --> 00:35:57,759
Speaker 9: I thought that day that deer got away. I went

688
00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:00,600
Speaker 9: when I was on him, my gun must be. So

689
00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:02,839
Speaker 9: I go to the house when I get home that day,

690
00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:05,719
Speaker 9: I shoot it and it was all had never been

691
00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:08,200
Speaker 9: off in twenty seven years, and I hadn't bumped it,

692
00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:11,360
Speaker 9: hadn't done anything. So I sided it back in or

693
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:13,239
Speaker 9: the next morning I had the opportunity to go, and

694
00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:16,840
Speaker 9: the weather condition was perfect. It was grizzly rain, and

695
00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:18,920
Speaker 9: you know how bucks loved to move on grizzley rain.

696
00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:22,480
Speaker 9: I go the same stand and I'm sitting there that

697
00:36:22,600 --> 00:36:25,480
Speaker 9: morning and see a couple of doughs that morning, and

698
00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:27,960
Speaker 9: one of them had that way about her. But it

699
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:30,000
Speaker 9: wasn't any other bucks, was it. And I thought she

700
00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:33,600
Speaker 9: acted like she's starting to come in. Well, she come

701
00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:36,200
Speaker 9: across the lane in a little while later. I'm sure

702
00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:38,280
Speaker 9: it's the same dough come back to the same place.

703
00:36:38,360 --> 00:36:40,200
Speaker 9: And there was a stretch of boat woods and I

704
00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:42,600
Speaker 9: could see her and she just stood there, and I thought,

705
00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:45,439
Speaker 9: that dough is standing there. I believe that the buck

706
00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:47,120
Speaker 9: wanted to come out, but he don't want to come

707
00:36:47,120 --> 00:36:50,800
Speaker 9: across this lane and to go back. When I realized

708
00:36:50,840 --> 00:36:54,040
Speaker 9: my gun was off, I know this is gonna sound crazy.

709
00:36:54,200 --> 00:36:57,400
Speaker 9: But that night when I after I siwed that gun

710
00:36:57,480 --> 00:36:59,359
Speaker 9: and I was thinking, I said my gun was off

711
00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:01,080
Speaker 9: of some kind of I said that I hadn't been

712
00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:03,840
Speaker 9: off and I had bumped or anything. I said, I

713
00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:05,560
Speaker 9: go in the morning, I'm gonna kill a good book.

714
00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:08,200
Speaker 9: My mind was just telling me. I know it sounds crazy,

715
00:37:08,239 --> 00:37:11,480
Speaker 9: and walking in that morning, I thought, I'm going to

716
00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:13,440
Speaker 9: kill the best book I ever killed in my life.

717
00:37:13,560 --> 00:37:16,719
Speaker 9: Because my gun was off and the good Lord letting

718
00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:19,280
Speaker 9: me miss that deer to let me know my gun

719
00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:20,920
Speaker 9: was off, I just knew.

720
00:37:21,120 --> 00:37:22,280
Speaker 6: I just had that feeling.

721
00:37:22,400 --> 00:37:24,560
Speaker 9: I said, it happened for a reason because I'm up

722
00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:26,879
Speaker 9: fanatic with my gun about bumping the scope and making

723
00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:30,120
Speaker 9: sure it's sighted in. And I kept watching that door

724
00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:33,239
Speaker 9: and I said, he's here. I said, he's right here

725
00:37:33,320 --> 00:37:36,239
Speaker 9: somewhere because them old bucks, they just do not like

726
00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:38,719
Speaker 9: to come out and open it. I mean, everybody deer

727
00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:42,000
Speaker 9: hunt knows it. And that dough wanted him to come,

728
00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:43,799
Speaker 9: and I knew, so I just wanted to move the

729
00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:46,799
Speaker 9: sand bag to that side, and I got ready, and

730
00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:49,239
Speaker 9: she started going through those woods rown there about four

731
00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:51,879
Speaker 9: hundred yards and I said, he comes out, I'm about

732
00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:54,000
Speaker 9: to be on my game. And that went on for

733
00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:56,919
Speaker 9: about twenty minutes. You know, my mind was telling me, well,

734
00:37:56,960 --> 00:38:00,480
Speaker 9: you may be wrong, and I about that time he

735
00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:03,520
Speaker 9: steps out, and I'm on my gun. I already got safety, y'all.

736
00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:06,520
Speaker 9: So by now he's halfway crossing, I can see homes

737
00:38:06,520 --> 00:38:08,799
Speaker 9: want my naked out. He was four hundred pitty, y'all.

738
00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:11,160
Speaker 9: And he stopped for this second, and I get on

739
00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:14,760
Speaker 9: him and I pulled the trigger and he falls right there,

740
00:38:14,840 --> 00:38:17,759
Speaker 9: and the doe just stands there. She comes up to

741
00:38:17,840 --> 00:38:21,360
Speaker 9: the buck and starts walking around him until I started

742
00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:23,720
Speaker 9: going to him, and then she's seen me and blue

743
00:38:23,760 --> 00:38:24,280
Speaker 9: and running.

744
00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:26,560
Speaker 6: But he was a He was a really good deer.

745
00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:28,240
Speaker 6: He was typical.

746
00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:30,160
Speaker 9: He wasn't about eighteen and a half, but he had

747
00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:34,360
Speaker 9: real long points. I'm guessing probably one pity, you know,

748
00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:35,959
Speaker 9: for around here, that's a really good deer.

749
00:38:38,680 --> 00:38:41,840
Speaker 2: That was a good story, Mad and I appreciate you

750
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:47,160
Speaker 2: seeing God's hand involved in your life. Those interactions are

751
00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:50,680
Speaker 2: as real as a man's faith allows for him to

752
00:38:50,800 --> 00:39:23,000
Speaker 2: perceive them. Now, what we're gonna do is go back

753
00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:27,280
Speaker 2: to Mitch Sykes from Arkansas. Mitch is an incredible hunter

754
00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:31,360
Speaker 2: and he's got a short story here involving a kyote.

755
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:32,399
Speaker 3: Here's Mitch.

756
00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:37,319
Speaker 1: I want to say it was probably an four. I

757
00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:39,799
Speaker 1: never will forget that morning. I think it was Halloween day,

758
00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:42,239
Speaker 1: but the leaves had changed and it was one of

759
00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:45,760
Speaker 1: those cloudy mornings to where the woods were just orange.

760
00:39:45,880 --> 00:39:49,320
Speaker 1: I mean, it was just beautiful and I had gotten

761
00:39:49,320 --> 00:39:52,240
Speaker 1: in there early and right at daylight from the south,

762
00:39:52,280 --> 00:39:54,520
Speaker 1: I just heard a deer coming. And you know how

763
00:39:54,560 --> 00:39:57,480
Speaker 1: it is when you hear a buck walking during the rut,

764
00:39:57,719 --> 00:40:00,279
Speaker 1: it's like a teenage boy dragging his feet, and it

765
00:40:00,360 --> 00:40:03,160
Speaker 1: just was he never stopped. It was just it seemed

766
00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:06,359
Speaker 1: like I hear him coming for one hundred yards and

767
00:40:06,600 --> 00:40:09,000
Speaker 1: I got ready and he was about thirty yards from me,

768
00:40:09,480 --> 00:40:12,279
Speaker 1: going north, and when he went through my openings, of course,

769
00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:13,680
Speaker 1: I was trying to get him to stop, you know,

770
00:40:13,719 --> 00:40:18,160
Speaker 1: with my mouth I could not. I mean just just

771
00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:21,680
Speaker 1: too loud, and he would not stop. And I don't

772
00:40:21,680 --> 00:40:24,760
Speaker 1: condone it, but I ended up shooting that deer walking

773
00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:28,759
Speaker 1: at thirty something yards, and you know, I tried to

774
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:31,200
Speaker 1: lead him, you know, I tried to hold the way

775
00:40:31,239 --> 00:40:34,640
Speaker 1: he was walking to compensate for that. And I thought

776
00:40:34,640 --> 00:40:36,040
Speaker 1: I hit him pretty good. Knew I hit him a

777
00:40:36,080 --> 00:40:37,680
Speaker 1: little bit back, but I thought I had hit him

778
00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:41,000
Speaker 1: real good. It was right at daylight. He broke and

779
00:40:41,080 --> 00:40:43,360
Speaker 1: ran and went down a little steep drawing up on

780
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:46,480
Speaker 1: the ridge and kind of stopped and everything kind of

781
00:40:46,520 --> 00:40:48,799
Speaker 1: got quiet, but I didn't hear him crash, and I

782
00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:52,760
Speaker 1: was kind of concerned, and I thought, well, it's early,

783
00:40:53,239 --> 00:40:54,560
Speaker 1: it's a good time of here. I'm just going to

784
00:40:54,600 --> 00:41:00,319
Speaker 1: sit here. I sat there and I thought, think it

785
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:02,800
Speaker 1: was about the best I can recall. Probably two hours

786
00:41:02,840 --> 00:41:05,879
Speaker 1: went by quite a while, maybe two and a half hours.

787
00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:09,000
Speaker 1: It might have been up around nine thirty and I

788
00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:10,800
Speaker 1: heard something coming from the north and I looked in

789
00:41:10,840 --> 00:41:14,600
Speaker 1: here come a kyt and it came. It didn't get

790
00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:16,600
Speaker 1: real close to me, but it probably got forty yards

791
00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:19,200
Speaker 1: from me, and it crossed that ravine and went over

792
00:41:19,239 --> 00:41:21,719
Speaker 1: east up me, up on that hardwood ridge, kind of

793
00:41:21,719 --> 00:41:24,800
Speaker 1: where my deer had went. And I remember thinking, if

794
00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:28,319
Speaker 1: he didn't find that deer or spook that deer, I

795
00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:30,680
Speaker 1: was thinking the deer was dead. And he kind of

796
00:41:30,680 --> 00:41:32,160
Speaker 1: got out of sight, but I could still hear.

797
00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:33,000
Speaker 6: Him over there on the woods.

798
00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:34,880
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden I heard the brush busting,

799
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:37,960
Speaker 1: and off come a deer. And here come a really

800
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:40,960
Speaker 1: good buck from the same direction the buck that I

801
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:43,400
Speaker 1: had shot had went. Here come a really good buck

802
00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:46,680
Speaker 1: coming right to me. He crossed that ravine and come

803
00:41:46,719 --> 00:41:48,560
Speaker 1: right up there on the ridge with me, and I

804
00:41:48,680 --> 00:41:51,920
Speaker 1: just pulled back and when I shot him, and he's

805
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:54,200
Speaker 1: the only deer I've ever shot with my bow, and

806
00:41:54,239 --> 00:41:56,759
Speaker 1: I shot him right in the shoulder, and he fell

807
00:41:56,880 --> 00:41:57,920
Speaker 1: just like he had shot him with.

808
00:41:57,840 --> 00:41:58,640
Speaker 6: A thirty oh six.

809
00:41:58,680 --> 00:42:00,520
Speaker 1: I mean, he just he didn't run, He just fell

810
00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:02,840
Speaker 1: over dead. He's kicking of course, but I mean he

811
00:42:02,880 --> 00:42:07,080
Speaker 1: fell right there, and when he did back about the

812
00:42:07,200 --> 00:42:10,320
Speaker 1: last rib, maybe behind the last rib in the flank,

813
00:42:10,920 --> 00:42:15,160
Speaker 1: I saw a hole and it all came together right then.

814
00:42:15,239 --> 00:42:17,880
Speaker 1: That was the buck that I had shot two and

815
00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:20,680
Speaker 1: a half hours earlier. And you know how normally a

816
00:42:20,719 --> 00:42:24,360
Speaker 1: cold screws your hunt up, for that code actually saved

817
00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:26,840
Speaker 1: me because that deer was he was really close to

818
00:42:27,320 --> 00:42:31,239
Speaker 1: a clear cut that's just nearly impenetrable. And you know,

819
00:42:31,320 --> 00:42:34,080
Speaker 1: I know that in another hour or so, I would

820
00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:35,959
Speaker 1: have gotten down and I would have spooked that deer

821
00:42:36,719 --> 00:42:39,040
Speaker 1: and hit where he was hit. Chances are wouldn't have

822
00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:40,880
Speaker 1: led a lot, and if he'd got in that thicket,

823
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:44,560
Speaker 1: I may have never found him. But that code, actually.

824
00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:45,440
Speaker 6: I say, it's a coyold.

825
00:42:45,480 --> 00:42:48,360
Speaker 1: It's God just put him right back there in my lap.

826
00:42:53,239 --> 00:42:55,120
Speaker 1: I was excited, and I was glad the way it

827
00:42:55,120 --> 00:42:57,680
Speaker 1: all played out. And I just kept on sitting there

828
00:42:58,160 --> 00:43:00,239
Speaker 1: and about I don't really know if it was an

829
00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:03,480
Speaker 1: hour or something like that. Later I heard some deer

830
00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:06,359
Speaker 1: back south of me, and I was looking down there

831
00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:07,719
Speaker 1: and I could see it looked like three or four

832
00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:11,480
Speaker 1: dos milling around, kind of working their way towards me,

833
00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:13,759
Speaker 1: and I just kind of turned on that side of

834
00:43:13,800 --> 00:43:15,600
Speaker 1: the tree, and I was looking back to the south,

835
00:43:15,880 --> 00:43:18,200
Speaker 1: and I heard something coming from the north again, not

836
00:43:18,280 --> 00:43:20,080
Speaker 1: making a lot of noise, but I heard something up there,

837
00:43:20,080 --> 00:43:23,000
Speaker 1: and I remember my initial thought was, I bet that's

838
00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:25,960
Speaker 1: at Kyoke coming back here. And when I turned and

839
00:43:25,960 --> 00:43:28,680
Speaker 1: looked over my shoulder, probably one of the biggest bucks

840
00:43:28,719 --> 00:43:32,000
Speaker 1: I've ever seen in my life was coming right to me.

841
00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:38,440
Speaker 1: The way that country was, that was a leg on

842
00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:40,440
Speaker 1: the west end of a mountain, and it didn't matter

843
00:43:41,440 --> 00:43:43,840
Speaker 1: if you were turkey hunting, if you were squirrel hunting,

844
00:43:44,480 --> 00:43:46,680
Speaker 1: if you were ever in that area and you went

845
00:43:46,680 --> 00:43:50,120
Speaker 1: to walk off, it fled. The terrain just funneled.

846
00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:50,239
Speaker 6: You right there.

847
00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:51,399
Speaker 10: That's why I hunted there.

848
00:43:52,239 --> 00:43:55,280
Speaker 1: And that buck was coming right down that leg right

849
00:43:55,440 --> 00:43:58,239
Speaker 1: to me, I mean gonna come right to me. And

850
00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:00,360
Speaker 1: I figured he was going to see the deer that

851
00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:02,240
Speaker 1: I had shot, and I thought he's going to stop

852
00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:04,520
Speaker 1: and I'm going to get an easy shot at him.

853
00:44:05,560 --> 00:44:08,080
Speaker 1: And he got probably within about twenty yards of me,

854
00:44:08,160 --> 00:44:11,319
Speaker 1: coming head on, and he just stopped. And I was

855
00:44:11,520 --> 00:44:13,799
Speaker 1: hoping he would see the deer laying right there in

856
00:44:13,800 --> 00:44:15,600
Speaker 1: front of him. But he I guess he caught a

857
00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:18,960
Speaker 1: glimpse of the doze back behind me because they were

858
00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:21,080
Speaker 1: kind of milling around. But all of a sudden, and

859
00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:23,000
Speaker 1: I know you've seen him do it when a buck

860
00:44:23,040 --> 00:44:25,600
Speaker 1: will put his head on the ground and start that

861
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:29,880
Speaker 1: trotting like Pranson. He just pretty fast, you know, and

862
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:33,319
Speaker 1: grunting every breath. But if he had met another two

863
00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:37,640
Speaker 1: or three seconds, he was a really big club. He

864
00:44:37,719 --> 00:44:39,960
Speaker 1: was one hundred and forty hundred and fifty inch deer.

865
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:43,160
Speaker 1: He was a really good deer. Out of my life

866
00:44:43,160 --> 00:44:44,960
Speaker 1: forevery But he went down there and I listened to

867
00:44:45,080 --> 00:44:47,359
Speaker 1: him and watched him chase those dos for another five

868
00:44:47,480 --> 00:44:49,960
Speaker 1: or ten minutes. You could hear him grunting, and this

869
00:44:50,160 --> 00:44:51,160
Speaker 1: never did come back through.

870
00:44:55,360 --> 00:44:58,200
Speaker 2: That's an anomaly when a kyote helps you rather than

871
00:44:58,280 --> 00:44:58,640
Speaker 2: hurts you.

872
00:44:59,239 --> 00:44:59,680
Speaker 3: I like it.

873
00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:04,319
Speaker 2: And I'm seeing a theme of predators interrupting your deer

874
00:45:04,400 --> 00:45:09,000
Speaker 2: hunts between that coyote and that bear. Our final storyteller

875
00:45:09,400 --> 00:45:13,200
Speaker 2: for the whole year of our Deer Stories episodes is

876
00:45:13,200 --> 00:45:16,360
Speaker 2: none other than Moe Shepherd from the Ozarks of Arkansas.

877
00:45:16,920 --> 00:45:20,680
Speaker 2: Moe is a diehard public land hunter who's hunted about

878
00:45:20,680 --> 00:45:23,279
Speaker 2: as tough a white tail ground as there is his

879
00:45:23,520 --> 00:45:27,480
Speaker 2: entire life, low deer numbers, lots of hunters with rugged,

880
00:45:27,640 --> 00:45:31,600
Speaker 2: vast wooded terrain. Every time Moe tells the story, I

881
00:45:31,680 --> 00:45:36,440
Speaker 2: learned something. Here's him talking about two separate hunts that

882
00:45:36,680 --> 00:45:37,880
Speaker 2: have a similar theme.

883
00:45:38,239 --> 00:45:39,960
Speaker 3: I want to see if you can pick it out.

884
00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:48,319
Speaker 11: This was approximate eight or nine years ago, right out

885
00:45:48,360 --> 00:45:52,040
Speaker 11: on public land and those ark mountains and the deer

886
00:45:52,440 --> 00:45:54,840
Speaker 11: I was after I found he signed late in the

887
00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:58,440
Speaker 11: year prior to when I harvested the deer, and I

888
00:45:58,440 --> 00:45:59,680
Speaker 11: don't think I ever really hunted.

889
00:46:00,160 --> 00:46:02,320
Speaker 10: I was doing some scouting late in the year, so when.

890
00:46:02,160 --> 00:46:04,360
Speaker 11: It rolled around the next fall, I knew it was

891
00:46:04,360 --> 00:46:06,399
Speaker 11: a really good matureier because there was some really huge

892
00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:08,520
Speaker 11: rubs in there and stuff that I found.

893
00:46:08,640 --> 00:46:11,319
Speaker 10: So I started bowl hunting a little bit for him.

894
00:46:11,239 --> 00:46:13,160
Speaker 11: When the weather was right when I thought I might

895
00:46:13,200 --> 00:46:15,920
Speaker 11: find him there, and I sat in the stand two

896
00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:18,240
Speaker 11: or three different days on and off when the conditions

897
00:46:18,239 --> 00:46:21,040
Speaker 11: were right. Saw a couple of smaller bucks, but I

898
00:46:21,080 --> 00:46:24,719
Speaker 11: didn't see any large bucks. And then the mussli or

899
00:46:24,800 --> 00:46:26,960
Speaker 11: season came about, same scenario.

900
00:46:27,239 --> 00:46:29,200
Speaker 10: I went in there and stand hunted a little bit.

901
00:46:29,400 --> 00:46:31,239
Speaker 10: I didn't even see any bucks, but I saw some

902
00:46:31,360 --> 00:46:34,759
Speaker 10: dose and it rolls around the end of November. Deer

903
00:46:34,760 --> 00:46:36,799
Speaker 10: season opened that year, and it was pretty warm.

904
00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:39,359
Speaker 11: I do remember that I didn't even hunt in there

905
00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:41,360
Speaker 11: with my rifle for the first couple.

906
00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:41,880
Speaker 10: Of days of season.

907
00:46:42,360 --> 00:46:44,640
Speaker 11: It was about after a week they predicted a coal

908
00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:46,719
Speaker 11: front to be moving in. Like I said, it had

909
00:46:46,719 --> 00:46:51,440
Speaker 11: been pretty warm. Well, it really dropped overnight. It dropped

910
00:46:51,440 --> 00:46:54,280
Speaker 11: probably forty degrees or so from the day before.

911
00:46:54,680 --> 00:46:57,040
Speaker 10: It was in the upper twenties. Anyway, that morning, when

912
00:46:57,080 --> 00:46:57,839
Speaker 10: I got up and.

913
00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:00,640
Speaker 11: I told my wife, I said, I'm gonna go after

914
00:47:00,719 --> 00:47:02,760
Speaker 11: that big deer that I hunted early in the season.

915
00:47:02,960 --> 00:47:04,839
Speaker 11: But I'm not gonna go where I've been hunting. I said,

916
00:47:05,040 --> 00:47:06,680
Speaker 11: up in the head of that canyon. I said, there's

917
00:47:06,680 --> 00:47:10,440
Speaker 11: some steep trains, some bluffy trains, some little narrow shelf benches.

918
00:47:10,480 --> 00:47:12,160
Speaker 11: I said, I'm gonna the wind's blown right out of

919
00:47:12,200 --> 00:47:14,600
Speaker 11: the northwest and I can go and drop off in

920
00:47:14,640 --> 00:47:17,040
Speaker 11: there and make my way from the bedding area back

921
00:47:17,080 --> 00:47:19,759
Speaker 11: towards where that sign is. And I said, he'll either

922
00:47:19,800 --> 00:47:22,719
Speaker 11: be looking for doze or he'll be bedded up in there,

923
00:47:22,760 --> 00:47:24,640
Speaker 11: and either way I might get a chance at him.

924
00:47:24,680 --> 00:47:27,279
Speaker 11: So I started off that away and didn't see a deer.

925
00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:27,920
Speaker 10: I hunted for.

926
00:47:27,880 --> 00:47:29,919
Speaker 11: About an hour and a half, the slow slipping along.

927
00:47:29,960 --> 00:47:32,040
Speaker 11: I was on one little shelf and watching the shelf

928
00:47:32,080 --> 00:47:34,560
Speaker 11: blow me on this really steep inclined drain. Like I said,

929
00:47:34,640 --> 00:47:36,959
Speaker 11: there was some bloves in there. I got the spot

930
00:47:36,960 --> 00:47:38,600
Speaker 11: and I thought, boy, this looks good. I think I'll

931
00:47:38,640 --> 00:47:40,000
Speaker 11: just stand here for a while. And I leaned up

932
00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:42,400
Speaker 11: against a tree because that wind was born. It was cold,

933
00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:45,479
Speaker 11: so I didn't want to set much. And I seen

934
00:47:45,560 --> 00:47:48,120
Speaker 11: movement on the bench below me. I think he was

935
00:47:48,160 --> 00:47:50,040
Speaker 11: heading back to bed up. I think he'd been out

936
00:47:50,080 --> 00:47:52,560
Speaker 11: looking for doze on around that mountain side in there,

937
00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:54,640
Speaker 11: and I didn't think I was gonna get a shot

938
00:47:54,640 --> 00:47:57,480
Speaker 11: at because he was moving along pretty good. I grunted

939
00:47:57,480 --> 00:47:59,840
Speaker 11: at him with my voice. He was probably maybe hundred

940
00:48:00,160 --> 00:48:02,759
Speaker 11: down to that next little shelf down there, and it

941
00:48:02,760 --> 00:48:05,680
Speaker 11: didn't even fade. It was loud, so I grunted pretty

942
00:48:05,719 --> 00:48:07,680
Speaker 11: loud with my voice, and I don't know if he

943
00:48:07,680 --> 00:48:09,520
Speaker 11: heard or what, but he slowed down. He was just

944
00:48:09,640 --> 00:48:12,480
Speaker 11: real fast, stiff legged walk and he slowed down and

945
00:48:12,560 --> 00:48:15,200
Speaker 11: when he finally stopped, he's behind some stuff you know,

946
00:48:15,280 --> 00:48:17,520
Speaker 11: all I could see was just bits and pieces of him.

947
00:48:17,800 --> 00:48:19,200
Speaker 10: But I got all ready. I thought, well, if he

948
00:48:19,239 --> 00:48:21,080
Speaker 10: takes off again, maybe I can get him.

949
00:48:21,080 --> 00:48:21,279
Speaker 8: Well.

950
00:48:21,320 --> 00:48:22,440
Speaker 10: When he took off again, he.

951
00:48:22,520 --> 00:48:26,080
Speaker 11: Made four or five fast steps, and then he just

952
00:48:26,120 --> 00:48:29,480
Speaker 11: stopped and I could see his pretty much all his shoulder,

953
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:31,200
Speaker 11: but I couldn't see much of his neck or the

954
00:48:31,200 --> 00:48:31,920
Speaker 11: rest of his body.

955
00:48:31,960 --> 00:48:33,239
Speaker 10: But I thought I've got an opening there. And I

956
00:48:33,280 --> 00:48:34,399
Speaker 10: was leaned up against that tree.

957
00:48:34,440 --> 00:48:36,160
Speaker 11: I had a pretty good rest, and I put my

958
00:48:36,160 --> 00:48:38,560
Speaker 11: crosshairs on him of my rifle. I was something with

959
00:48:38,600 --> 00:48:41,400
Speaker 11: that day, and squeezed the trigger off, and when the

960
00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:43,399
Speaker 11: recoil finished, I looked down there. I dropped the gun

961
00:48:43,440 --> 00:48:45,080
Speaker 11: down and looked that way. He was laying on the ground.

962
00:48:45,120 --> 00:48:46,800
Speaker 11: I dropped him right in his tracks.

963
00:48:46,800 --> 00:48:47,040
Speaker 10: There.

964
00:48:47,320 --> 00:48:48,359
Speaker 6: He was a big, mature deer.

965
00:48:48,440 --> 00:48:51,120
Speaker 11: He was just under twenty inches wide, the big, main framed,

966
00:48:51,120 --> 00:48:52,680
Speaker 11: eight point, big body deer.

967
00:48:53,200 --> 00:48:55,440
Speaker 10: And I just looked up the sky the hawk, Thank you,

968
00:48:55,480 --> 00:48:57,279
Speaker 10: good Lord. I said that this was a fun hunt.

969
00:48:57,320 --> 00:48:59,920
Speaker 11: I said, been after this deer all year, and I

970
00:49:00,120 --> 00:49:02,359
Speaker 11: think he spent most of his time proud of a night,

971
00:49:02,360 --> 00:49:03,840
Speaker 11: and he'd probably been out all night. And then it

972
00:49:03,920 --> 00:49:05,920
Speaker 11: was cold, and he was on his feet and probably

973
00:49:05,920 --> 00:49:08,600
Speaker 11: looking for doze, but I really think he was heading

974
00:49:08,640 --> 00:49:10,440
Speaker 11: back to that ground where I thought he betted up

975
00:49:10,480 --> 00:49:13,400
Speaker 11: in that head of that canyon in there, And anyway,

976
00:49:13,440 --> 00:49:20,600
Speaker 11: I was really proud of that deer. So the second

977
00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:22,759
Speaker 11: story is from the next year, but it's kind of

978
00:49:22,800 --> 00:49:25,719
Speaker 11: different scenario. I'd hunted this deer a little bit that

979
00:49:25,840 --> 00:49:28,080
Speaker 11: year and even the year before a little bit, but

980
00:49:28,080 --> 00:49:30,759
Speaker 11: I'd never seen him this by sign and stuff. This

981
00:49:31,000 --> 00:49:32,719
Speaker 11: was down lower down in the mountain and there was

982
00:49:32,719 --> 00:49:34,640
Speaker 11: a lot of big flat benches in there where I

983
00:49:34,680 --> 00:49:37,840
Speaker 11: was hunting in and I hunted with my bowl maybe

984
00:49:37,840 --> 00:49:40,680
Speaker 11: three days in there and saw some bucks, but not

985
00:49:40,719 --> 00:49:42,600
Speaker 11: the one I thought was making the big sign.

986
00:49:42,719 --> 00:49:44,520
Speaker 10: Anyway, it came muzzle.

987
00:49:44,239 --> 00:49:46,600
Speaker 11: Outer season, and all I could hunt was the first

988
00:49:46,640 --> 00:49:48,920
Speaker 11: two days, which was a Saturday and Sunday, and then

989
00:49:48,920 --> 00:49:50,439
Speaker 11: I was gonna try to hunt the last two days.

990
00:49:50,440 --> 00:49:52,880
Speaker 11: I couldn't take off work. Usually I take off one

991
00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:53,480
Speaker 11: i want to, but.

992
00:49:54,400 --> 00:49:55,000
Speaker 10: I didn't then.

993
00:49:55,160 --> 00:49:58,680
Speaker 11: But anyway, on Thursday night, I was watching the news

994
00:49:58,719 --> 00:50:01,000
Speaker 11: and stuff on the TV and they were talking about

995
00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:03,439
Speaker 11: I said, sometime Friday during the day, there's a big

996
00:50:03,480 --> 00:50:05,600
Speaker 11: coal front moving in same way had been pretty warm.

997
00:50:05,640 --> 00:50:08,400
Speaker 11: That was in you know, twenty something of October. I

998
00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:10,320
Speaker 11: told my wife again, I said, I'm gonna go to

999
00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:12,319
Speaker 11: work this morning. If that coal front hits, I'm taking

1000
00:50:12,320 --> 00:50:13,960
Speaker 11: all my stuff with me. I'm going to go in

1001
00:50:13,960 --> 00:50:16,080
Speaker 11: there and getting my stand I've got in there where

1002
00:50:16,120 --> 00:50:18,359
Speaker 11: I've been hunting that buck and see if he might

1003
00:50:18,480 --> 00:50:21,160
Speaker 11: come out this afternoon. We sure enough, that coal front

1004
00:50:21,200 --> 00:50:23,239
Speaker 11: hit during the day and the temperature fell from in

1005
00:50:23,280 --> 00:50:27,320
Speaker 11: the sixtiest in the twenties and cold north wind blowing,

1006
00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:31,279
Speaker 11: and I actually left work a little bit early, and

1007
00:50:31,640 --> 00:50:33,359
Speaker 11: I made my way in there and got up into

1008
00:50:33,400 --> 00:50:35,359
Speaker 11: my stand, took cloud's clothes because I was gonna need

1009
00:50:35,400 --> 00:50:37,040
Speaker 11: if I was gonna set. It seemed like I got

1010
00:50:37,120 --> 00:50:38,839
Speaker 11: up in my stand about three and a half, four

1011
00:50:38,880 --> 00:50:41,719
Speaker 11: hours before dark. And I got in my stand and

1012
00:50:41,760 --> 00:50:43,920
Speaker 11: I sat and I sat, and I got cold because that.

1013
00:50:43,880 --> 00:50:44,600
Speaker 10: Wind blowing on me.

1014
00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:47,000
Speaker 11: And I'd stand up a few times and shuffle around

1015
00:50:47,000 --> 00:50:48,680
Speaker 11: when I was looking make sure I didn't see anything

1016
00:50:48,719 --> 00:50:51,319
Speaker 11: inside of me into this town of warm up. I

1017
00:50:51,320 --> 00:50:53,680
Speaker 11: remember it was getting late and the sun had already

1018
00:50:53,680 --> 00:50:55,440
Speaker 11: went down because they had cleared off the clouds had

1019
00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:57,600
Speaker 11: moved out. When that front moved in, and I thought, man,

1020
00:50:57,640 --> 00:50:59,439
Speaker 11: I don't know if I can sit here this much longer,

1021
00:50:59,560 --> 00:51:01,920
Speaker 11: not because I'm pretty cold. And about that time, I

1022
00:51:01,960 --> 00:51:03,440
Speaker 11: heard a stick or something that was breaking. I looked

1023
00:51:03,440 --> 00:51:05,320
Speaker 11: and I seen the dough coming around those little benches

1024
00:51:05,360 --> 00:51:07,439
Speaker 11: and there there's a lot of thick brush and there

1025
00:51:07,520 --> 00:51:09,759
Speaker 11: was some white oak trees in there, and that's I

1026
00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:11,160
Speaker 11: guess the reason a lot of sign was there.

1027
00:51:11,239 --> 00:51:13,160
Speaker 10: The deer had been feeding on those white oaks too.

1028
00:51:13,800 --> 00:51:16,439
Speaker 11: Anyway, in a matter of fifteen or twenty minutes after

1029
00:51:16,520 --> 00:51:18,440
Speaker 11: sun went down, there was like seven or eight different

1030
00:51:18,480 --> 00:51:20,520
Speaker 11: deer coming there, and every one of them doats like

1031
00:51:20,680 --> 00:51:23,040
Speaker 11: where's the buck at? You know, And most of them

1032
00:51:23,080 --> 00:51:24,960
Speaker 11: got on by me, just working their way through those

1033
00:51:24,960 --> 00:51:28,040
Speaker 11: white oaks, and I was kind of watching them, and

1034
00:51:28,080 --> 00:51:29,879
Speaker 11: i'd look back the way they'd come from a time

1035
00:51:29,960 --> 00:51:31,960
Speaker 11: or two, and I thought something might come up the

1036
00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:33,200
Speaker 11: hill or something o they're in there.

1037
00:51:33,719 --> 00:51:35,360
Speaker 10: And then I heard the lees really rustling.

1038
00:51:35,400 --> 00:51:37,880
Speaker 11: It was getting pretty late then pretty dark, but it

1039
00:51:37,960 --> 00:51:41,200
Speaker 11: was still shooting light, and I remember thinking, where's that.

1040
00:51:41,160 --> 00:51:41,799
Speaker 10: Noise coming from?

1041
00:51:41,880 --> 00:51:43,200
Speaker 11: And I thought it was behind me, so I kind

1042
00:51:43,200 --> 00:51:44,719
Speaker 11: of turned in my stand and looked up behind me

1043
00:51:45,239 --> 00:51:48,000
Speaker 11: and couldn't see anything. So I looked back my left

1044
00:51:48,040 --> 00:51:50,120
Speaker 11: where the dose that only two or three them was still

1045
00:51:50,160 --> 00:51:52,520
Speaker 11: inside of me, and I looked hard at my right,

1046
00:51:52,560 --> 00:51:54,080
Speaker 11: and right on the break of the bench there I

1047
00:51:54,160 --> 00:51:56,960
Speaker 11: seen the dough coming pretty fast. She was fast legging it,

1048
00:51:57,040 --> 00:51:59,000
Speaker 11: I call it, and she had her tail stuck straight out.

1049
00:51:59,040 --> 00:52:00,879
Speaker 10: I thought they suck and chasing.

1050
00:52:00,560 --> 00:52:03,400
Speaker 11: Her, and so I got turned in my stand that

1051
00:52:03,480 --> 00:52:06,000
Speaker 11: a way, and sure enough she come right blowing me

1052
00:52:06,040 --> 00:52:07,759
Speaker 11: down through there, and right behind her was this big

1053
00:52:07,760 --> 00:52:10,319
Speaker 11: old buck, and he had his nose down on the

1054
00:52:10,320 --> 00:52:13,040
Speaker 11: ground and he wasn't doing nothing, just following her. She

1055
00:52:13,200 --> 00:52:15,319
Speaker 11: come out through there in front of me. Probably wasn't

1056
00:52:15,800 --> 00:52:18,840
Speaker 11: forty yards, but it's real thick in there. She stopped

1057
00:52:18,880 --> 00:52:21,279
Speaker 11: and he stopped, and I couldn't see either one of them.

1058
00:52:21,360 --> 00:52:23,400
Speaker 11: It was getting late enough I couldn't make him out,

1059
00:52:23,719 --> 00:52:25,880
Speaker 11: And about that time she took off again, and he

1060
00:52:25,920 --> 00:52:27,759
Speaker 11: took off, and then they stopped again.

1061
00:52:27,800 --> 00:52:29,600
Speaker 10: When they stopped that time, she was in open but

1062
00:52:29,600 --> 00:52:31,319
Speaker 10: he was behind a tree. But I see his.

1063
00:52:31,320 --> 00:52:33,719
Speaker 11: Head and horns and neck was sticking out, and I

1064
00:52:33,840 --> 00:52:35,279
Speaker 11: once started to try to shoot him in the neck,

1065
00:52:35,320 --> 00:52:38,000
Speaker 11: and I thought, no, he's this open side muzzler. I

1066
00:52:38,040 --> 00:52:40,560
Speaker 11: better not try it, and this luck would have it.

1067
00:52:40,960 --> 00:52:42,520
Speaker 11: For all of a sudden, made about two steps and

1068
00:52:42,520 --> 00:52:44,360
Speaker 11: stopped right there in the wide open I put the

1069
00:52:44,440 --> 00:52:46,600
Speaker 11: bead right against the crease of his shoulder and pulled

1070
00:52:46,600 --> 00:52:47,399
Speaker 11: the trigger.

1071
00:52:47,040 --> 00:52:48,720
Speaker 10: And little muslor to bowl smoke.

1072
00:52:48,840 --> 00:52:50,960
Speaker 11: And when the smoke here, he was laying right there

1073
00:52:50,960 --> 00:52:52,600
Speaker 11: on the ground. I could still see him, but it

1074
00:52:52,600 --> 00:52:55,160
Speaker 11: was pretty dark, and I was just tickled to death.

1075
00:52:56,000 --> 00:52:57,319
Speaker 10: I didn't notice how big he was.

1076
00:52:57,520 --> 00:52:59,279
Speaker 11: I just knew he was a good mature deer. I

1077
00:52:59,320 --> 00:53:01,200
Speaker 11: got down, climbed down down my tree after washing him

1078
00:53:01,239 --> 00:53:02,799
Speaker 11: a bit, and he didn't move or anything other than

1079
00:53:02,880 --> 00:53:06,319
Speaker 11: just finishing their life. And I got down and walked

1080
00:53:06,360 --> 00:53:08,600
Speaker 11: up to him, and he wasn't as wide as the

1081
00:53:08,640 --> 00:53:11,759
Speaker 11: deer I'd killed the year before with my rifle, but

1082
00:53:12,040 --> 00:53:14,720
Speaker 11: he was about seventeen inches wide. But he was real heavy,

1083
00:53:14,760 --> 00:53:17,160
Speaker 11: and his horn sweeped out and around and curled back

1084
00:53:17,160 --> 00:53:19,080
Speaker 11: in towards each other in the front. And he was

1085
00:53:19,160 --> 00:53:22,000
Speaker 11: just a big eight point but he was a big

1086
00:53:22,080 --> 00:53:24,879
Speaker 11: mature deer. And I think the only reason I got

1087
00:53:24,920 --> 00:53:27,759
Speaker 11: that deer was that cold front changing from warm weather

1088
00:53:27,920 --> 00:53:30,560
Speaker 11: to cold weather, and they just stay on their feet longer.

1089
00:53:30,600 --> 00:53:32,120
Speaker 11: I think he got up before dark and went to

1090
00:53:32,120 --> 00:53:34,520
Speaker 11: looking for doze and got on that one and followed

1091
00:53:34,520 --> 00:53:36,160
Speaker 11: her right around to where I was sating there waiting

1092
00:53:36,200 --> 00:53:36,520
Speaker 11: on him.

1093
00:53:36,520 --> 00:53:38,840
Speaker 10: So I slip honey, as I call it, on the

1094
00:53:38,840 --> 00:53:39,359
Speaker 10: first deer.

1095
00:53:39,440 --> 00:53:41,440
Speaker 11: The second dear I sat in stands pretty much every

1096
00:53:41,480 --> 00:53:42,279
Speaker 11: day hunting for him.

1097
00:53:42,640 --> 00:53:43,960
Speaker 10: But you just got to stay after it.

1098
00:53:44,040 --> 00:53:45,839
Speaker 11: Blat of times kill a little big deer, especially out

1099
00:53:45,840 --> 00:54:00,560
Speaker 11: on public land.

1100
00:54:02,560 --> 00:54:05,720
Speaker 2: That's some good hunting, Moe. Did you know that Moe's

1101
00:54:05,719 --> 00:54:08,840
Speaker 2: family homesteaded in the Ozarks in the mid eighteen hundreds,

1102
00:54:09,040 --> 00:54:12,320
Speaker 2: and Moe was raised on what's officially known as Shepherd Mountain,

1103
00:54:12,480 --> 00:54:17,200
Speaker 2: named after his ken. I think that's special. And the

1104
00:54:17,200 --> 00:54:21,239
Speaker 2: theme of those two deer hunts was hunting on an

1105
00:54:21,280 --> 00:54:25,360
Speaker 2: extreme cold front, the front end of an extreme cold front.

1106
00:54:25,800 --> 00:54:29,000
Speaker 2: If you could hunt anytime, I think that's what you'd.

1107
00:54:28,880 --> 00:54:31,880
Speaker 3: Want to hunt. I tell you, this has been a fun.

1108
00:54:31,719 --> 00:54:34,520
Speaker 2: Episode for me, and I hope you've enjoyed it as

1109
00:54:34,600 --> 00:54:38,839
Speaker 2: much as I have. These real stories are the lifeblood

1110
00:54:38,960 --> 00:54:42,600
Speaker 2: of our American hunting culture, and we all know that

1111
00:54:42,680 --> 00:54:48,200
Speaker 2: the whitetail is king of American hunting period it's true.

1112
00:54:49,080 --> 00:54:51,560
Speaker 2: I can't thank you enough for listening to Bear Grease

1113
00:54:51,760 --> 00:54:56,160
Speaker 2: and Brent's This Country Life podcast. Remember it's whitetail weeket

1114
00:54:56,200 --> 00:54:59,120
Speaker 2: meat Eater in first Light, where when you buy more,

1115
00:54:59,280 --> 00:55:02,000
Speaker 2: you save more, with discounts up to two hundred dollars

1116
00:55:02,040 --> 00:55:05,239
Speaker 2: on some purchases, the free shipping on orders over one

1117
00:55:05,280 --> 00:55:09,200
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty dollars. First Light has the best lineup

1118
00:55:09,239 --> 00:55:12,040
Speaker 2: of white tail gear on the market. Check it out

1119
00:55:12,120 --> 00:55:15,760
Speaker 2: at FirstLight dot com. I look forward to talking about

1120
00:55:15,800 --> 00:55:20,160
Speaker 2: these dear stories with the folks on the Render next week.

1121
00:55:21,040 --> 00:55:22,520
Speaker 3: Keep the wild Places Wild