Bear Grease - Ep. 252: Deer Stories - Akerns, Bears, and Tragedy

Episode Date: September 18, 2024

In this episode of the Bear Grease podcast, we hear from storytellers Lake Pickle, Mitch Sikes, Myles Malone, and a one Mr. Clay Newcomb, as they recall some pretty unusual and unforgettable experiences in the deer woods. But, if there's one you're not going to want to miss, it's the last story by Med Palmer. You've never heard a deer story like this one. If you have comments on the show, send us a note to [e-mail] Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. First Lights fieldware collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days and real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. No shortcuts. Just gear designed for the work that earns the season.

Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new field. Worldware gear at firstlight.com. And I'm just panicking, man. I just grew two new hearts in my body and both of them are in my eardrums and they're just pounding.

I'm going cross-eyed and he's right there and he's got his head up, stretched out. I want to say he was about 14 yards from me, but I mean, I felt like I could have jumped to that deer stand on top of his back. White-tailed deer hunting is the epicenter of American hunting culture, period. And every year we take some time to celebrate our collective favorite animal that we love to hunt, eat, and tell stories about.

Seeing a big white-tail buck in October or November is hard to shake or top in terms of outdoor experiences. And a story told in person is often the only way to truly communicate the full experience. Even better than video. Oral storytelling is the original. OG of communication. It's unreplaceable and the most effective at transferring a bundle of information. Stories transfer knowledge and teach us. They carry our values. They inspire those around us and help us really to even know who we are. Some stories immortalize people that we've lost. From cold fronts to losing mules to bear charges to an oak limb full of acres fallen in front of a camera.

these stories are genuine. But there is one thing that I ask of all of you. If you only listen to one story on this episode, be sure that it's the last one from a man named Med Palmer from Mississippi. You're just going to have to trust me. You've never heard a dear story like this one. White Tail Week is coming up here at Meat Eater in a few weeks, and we're just ramping things up a bit with this episode.

and we've got six stories and I really doubt that you're going to want to miss this one. A trophy is what a trophy is to the person that killed it and by far I could kill a bone and crock it, and it would not mean as much to me as this deer, I can assure you. It's about the story anyway. It ain't about the deer. The story's everything we're hunting.

My name is Clay Newcomb and this is the Bear Grease podcast where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant. Search for insights. and unlikely places and where we'll tell the story of Americans who live their lives close to the land. Presented by FHF Gear, American-made, purpose-built, hunting and fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as the places we explore. Our first storyteller is a man whose name is so memorable, you'll likely never forget

it. It's my friend, Lake Pickle, of Rankin County Meas. Mississippi. He's really a veteran outdoorsman. I think he told me he'd filmed over 60 successful elk hunts in his life, but he himself is a turkey and deer hunting dude. This is a story about a buck that at the time was the biggest buck he'd ever killed on a piece of ground that meant the world to him. Here's late. So I was a college student at Mississippi State, which is in Starfle, Mississippi. It was middle of January, so we had a week, maybe two weeks of deer season left. And that time of years, honestly, even though it's the late part of the season, can be some of the best hunting because that's

the rut in that part of the state. And we also had this freak cold front come through. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's normally cold that time of year, but Mississippi is not known for having temps in the teens. And I think that's what we had that time. And so I'm sitting in my little duplex house, Starkville, and I'm supposed to be writing an essay on moist soil vegetation, but in reality, I had about four words typed out on that screen and I was having this internal debate on whether or not I should try to fight right in this paper or I knew if I got in my truck and stepped on it a little bit. I could drive to Cateretta, Mississippi, where we had a little piece of family land where I virtually did all my deer hunting as a kid and I could be there

in just under an hour. And that was a big deal because when I was a kid from where I lived, it took us two hours to get there. From Starfle, I could get there in under an hour. I think I timed it once from my house to the gate I could get there in 53 minutes. Finally, I decide I'm not getting anywhere with this paper. So I slam the laptop shut, I grab my stuff, I get in the truck, and I go. I get to the gate and I take out walking because I'm already running kind of late because I took so long deciding whether or not I was going to go. Originally, the spot that I was going to go to is about a 200-yard walk from the truck. And the reason I picked that spot is simply because the wind was good and it was the closest one to the truck and I was already running kind of late.

So I'm walking towards this spot and all of a sudden I get this hunch. I don't need to hunt there. I need to go and hunt this spot that we refer to as Daddy Dole's Food Plot. And I'll get to why we call it that later, but Daddy Dole's Food Plot was a little bit further walking. I just had this hunch, and so I went with it. I kept walking. Cross the creek, getting closer. I get about 100 yards away.

I can kind of start to see the food plot, and I'm worried there's going to be deer out there already because sometimes they come out early. I see that the food plot same time, I'm like, okay, that's good. And the way you get into this stand, there was a ladder stand there. So the road kind of dumps you out to the edge of the food plot, and then you basically have to cut the corner of the food plot. You have to walk about 40, 50 yards across the food plot, get to the ladder and climb up. And like I said, it was freakishly cold that day. I want to say it was like 18 or 19 degrees. So the ground was frozen. That's an important factor. Also, we've all been in the woods sometimes after a cold front has moved through and everything just

gets dead still. It's like it'll get so still in woods like that. Sometimes it feels like it makes noise when you breathe. And so it's one of those dead still days. ground is frozen. I go to cut across this food plot and the first step I take and my boot steps on that frozen winter wheat and it just just made this loud crunching noise. Man, it felt like trying to open a peppermint in church. I was just like and I froze up. And I thought to myself, you idiot, what are you going to do now? Because I was stuck. You know, I mean, that was the spot I had to go to, but I had to get that 50 yards across there and I was going to make racket the whole way. And all I could think to do was my

buddy Aaron showed me this trick one time. He said if he's hunting in the rut and he has to make some noise getting to his stand, he will take out his grunt call and he'll take a few steps, he'll blow that grunt call. And then make it sound like it's a buck walking and grunting. And I remember when he told me that, I said that will never work. But anyway, I didn't have any other options. So there I went across that food plot. Step, step, step, step, re-i-i-t.

I'd blow that grunt call. Step, step, rap, rat. I'd blow the grunt call again the whole way, just feeling sillier and sillier. Well, I finally get across there, get to the base of the ladder, tie my rifle off to a rope, shimmy up the ladder, hang my pack up. I turn around, I start pulling the rifle up the tree. And I was trying to take my time so the barrel doesn't swing into the middle rung, the ladder, and make even more noise.

I remember I get the rifle about halfway up, and I pick my head up and I just look down the food plot. The food plot's kind of narrow, and it's not that long. I mean, that part of Mississippi, a lot of pine thickets and stuff, it's about 90 yards long, so, you know, kind of small plot, but I look down the food plot, and in the right hand back corner you can't see it super clear because some of the tree limbs hanging over but i can tell there's deer there and right when i looked he moved i caught a glimpse of antler and i said oh my goodness it's a buck so i pulled the gun up the rest of the way and it's no sooner

do i get the gun up the buck steps out into the food plot where i can see him and he is bristled up looking for that grunting that i was doing and not only is that happening but he is the biggest deer or heard of coming out of that part of the country. Now let me pause the story real quick and say, Catereta, Mississippi is not known for big white tails by any stretch of the imagination. I cannot emphasize that enough. I grew up deer hunting there. I killed my first deer in that area.

I had grandparents there, aunts, uncles, cousins. And so you go into a lot of houses, you go into a lot of barn shops. You just see a lot of deer antlers, deer taxonomy, deer skulls. You kind of get a general feel of. what kind of deer in the area and I'm telling you what walked out into that food plot bristled up and looking around was big for that area and I'm going oh my gosh well he looks around doesn't see a buck and he just starts milling around in the food plot and I go to rack around in the gun I get the gun on him I ease the safety off

and I kind of look at him in the scope for a little bit and I'm like oh I just couldn't believe it you know but I finally decided I needed to do something here so I I put the crosshairs on his shoulder. And I remember thinking just breathe and squeeze. Do not mess this up. And I kept squeezing and kept squeezing and pow, gun goes off and deer falls right there. Dead.

It all happened so fast. And, you know, I come out of the gun. I look and he's laying there dead in the food plot. And at that moment, kind of the reality of the situation set in on me. Now, that was by far the biggest deer that I'd ever killed in my life at the time. and like I said, the biggest deer I'd ever known to come out of that area. But here's what I mean. Like I said earlier, we referred to that food plot, that spot, as Daddy Dole's food plot.

The reason we called it that is Daddy Dole was my grandfather, my mom's dad. Him and my grandmother, who we called Mimi, lived about a mile up the road from that little 80-acre block where virtually all of my early deer hunting took place. And man, did they mean a lot to us? And boy, did they love their grandkids. and man so many memories were tied to that house were tied to me and daddy doll and were tied to that little 80 acres in cateredita mississippi not just hunting memories a lot of them were but just all kinds of good memories man and daddy doll built that food plot i think mainly he built it for us and for folks to enjoy and he had built

this gigantic wooden shoot house into this old oak tree on that food plot that i can't killed my first deer out of that shoot house on that food plot. My brother killed his first deer out of that shoot house on that food plot. My cousin Clancy killed her first deer out of that shooting house on that food plot. And I don't know how many other deer had been killed out of that food plot. Daddy Dole passed away when I was a kid. We lost Mimi just a few years prior when I was in high school. And that old wooden shoot house that rotted and fell out of that tree a long time ago.

And that's why we had the ladder stand in there now. But as I was sitting there, looking at that buck laying on the ground after killing it in a crazy, lucky way. I could look at that buck, I could turn my head to the left, and I could look at the remains of that old wooden shoot house on the ground. And all I could think to myself was, man, what Daddy Doe and Mimi would think if they could see this right now? And I just sat there and took it in for a second, and I finally climbed down the ladder, walked towards that deer. It was the first time in my life that I'd walked up to a buck and it didn't shrink as I got up to it. And I called my dad, I told him what was going on, called my mom, told her what was going on.

And I told dad, I said, man, I really didn't come prepared to kill a deer because now I'm all the way here at the back, and I can't get my truck back here. I guess I'm in for a really long drag. And he said, man, call Uncle Jerry. You know, he'd love to come get that deer. My uncle Jerry and Katie Sue, Katie Sue was Daddy Dole's sister, still lived, you know, just up the hill from where Mimi and Daddy Dole used to. I called him.

I told him what happened. He rode down his side by side. I'll never forget. He hopped out of his side by side. looked at that deer, he looked at me with this blank stare on his face, and he said, Lake, I ain't never seen no deer like that come out of here. And I said, I know Uncle Jerry, I can't believe it either. We loaded that deer up.

We drove it back to their house. Katie Sue come out the door with the camera that had a roll of film in it. She snapped a couple pictures of me on the tailgate with that buck and ended up mailing them to my mom. She still has them to this day. And then she invited me in for supper, and we sat around, talked about that deer, talked about the hunt. and just went on for, I don't know how long, about how much Daddy Dole and Mimi would have loved it if they'd been here to see it. You know, like I said, that happened when I was in college, and I've been fortunate enough to do a lot of deer hunting since then. I've killed bigger deer score-wise and seen a lot more since then, but to this day, I've never had a deer hunt that meant more to me than that one did.

That one was something, and it happened in a crazy way, too. That was a good story Lake. We learned something about calling and your connection to your grandparents and their land. Our next storyteller is Mitch Sykes from the mountains of western Arkansas. I've known Mitch for most of my life, and he's about as good a big buck hunter as there is in the area that we're from. And he's got a heck of a story, and it involves a big buck and a bear. On this particular deer right here, I had a spot on the west end of a mountain up here. And it was a big leg that come off the west end of the mountain.

And it was one of those special places to where it didn't matter if the acorns made. If they didn't make, there was a spot there toward the month of October it was the place to be. And on this particular deer here, I had went in there blind, and I believe it was the first week of October. I just carried my climbing tree stand in there. Climmed up in the tree. And for hunting public land in the mountains, I remember that morning pretty well. I saw like seven or eight deer. And that was a wonderful day.

A bunch of doves and I think a couple small bucks. And I believe it was on a Saturday morning. And about 11 o'clock I was hunting later than I normally do. I just heard something right off in front of me there. And I looked and here come this buck. I had no idea. I mean, and he looked bigger than he was, of course, walking right to me. And I got ready.

And he just come in, just feeding on acres, just coming right to me. And when he got right in there about where I was expecting him to hopefully turn, broadside and offered me a shot, he got in some brush. Just kind of followed his nose and got in a little more brush. And I'm expecting hoping he's going to come out, and he's probably within 15 yards of me. And the next thing I know, I can tell he's turned. And if there was one thing that, you know, deer could do and get away from me. That's what he did. He just took off feeding away from me.

And at that time, I shot one pin on my bow. I shot a 20-yard pin, and I would not shoot past 30 yards. And this deer got out there what I thought was about 30 yards and offered me a shot. And when I shot, I thought I had heart shot him. He jumped and kicked and took off and ran out there about 40 yards, and he stopped, and I could tell he stood there for a long time, and I didn't do any. I mean, I could tell that I hadn't hit him or hadn't hit him good. He just kind of finally just eased on off. And when I got down, my area had blood on it. And there was just a few drops of blood right there where I'd hit him.

And I was just sick because I didn't know if I'd hit him too far back or if I'd just grab. I didn't know what I had done. But I knew that that was the biggest buck that I'd ever shot at with my bow and I was just sick. So every chance I got to hunt, that's where I was going to hunt. And I believe it was just maybe three or four days later. And I left my climbing stand on this white oak tree. It was just a permanent fixture there during deer season.

And I went in there one morning and I always got to my stand about an hour before daylight, tried to. And when I walked into my stand that morning, when I got up to the tree, my tree stand wasn't there. I didn't think it was. And the closer I got, I'm thinking nobody would have stole my stand. You know, what happened? And as I got closer, I could tell that it was spun around on the back side of the tree. And the seat was chewed off of it and the bungee cords. It was just demolished.

And I knew what had done it. So I kind of looked it all over and I thought, well, I can climb in it. I can hunt out of it, but I can't sit down. So I went ahead and climbed up in it. You know, and I've had just dreams of this big buck still going to come in. And about 30 minutes after daylight, I looked off up the mountain there where I'd come in, up that leg. And here come a bear. It was, believe it or not, I mean, it was just walking the exact same trail I did,

kind of like it was smelling of me, you know. When I come down and got in that stand every morning, I came down that leg, and right before I got to my stand, there was a little old holler, the real steep holler that was just full of trash and briars and holly trees. And I always walked down that holler so I wouldn't put scent. I thought it might have helped. And with that bear did that same thing.

And when he come out of that holler, he'd come right. to the base of my tree. Wasn't a very big bear. I have no idea. Maybe 150, 200 pounds. Wasn't a great big bear. Come right to the base of the tree there, just like I had.

And I could tell that he was kind of smelling the tree. And this whole time I'm thinking, I mean, it's legal to shoot a bear, but I don't want to mess with him. And he kind of started licking the tree, and all of a sudden he just kind of raised up on his hind legs, and he's smelling the tree. And he just grabs hold of the tree

and just start slowly climbing the tree. Has not looked up towards me, has not seen me, nothing. And he'd climb a little bit and he'd lick the tree and he'd look around. Finally, he just kept coming and kept coming. And I said, I'm going to have to shoot this bear. Because the whole time I'm thinking, he's going to mess with my stand. I'm going to shoot this bear. And I don't know if you'll remember it, but about 20 years ago,

Muzzy came out with the first maybe fallaway rest. It was called a zero effect. It was a big awkward apparatus that went on your bow. And anyway, I remember I pulled my bow back, but he was nearly back underneath me, and my arrow would not rest on my rest. It was just hanging free. And I said, I'm not going to, it's not going to go where I'm aiming. So I let my bow down.

And when I did, he just kept coming up there. And I thought, well, I'm going to have to make him, I'm not going to be able to shoot him on this tree with me. I'm going to have to make him get down. So I took my cap off, and I just hit my. that rail on a summit tree stand, I just hit that rail, popped my hat on it, and he looked up at me, and boy, when he did, it's like it scared him.

I mean, I could tell he kind of, boy, took off real fast, climbing back down the tree, and he'd probably up about 10 foot at that time, and I was probably 25 foot. And as soon as he got on the ground, he just stayed there, and I could hear popping. And looking back at it, he was popping his teeth,

but I thought he was chewing the stuff he had chewed up. I had a bungee cord, you know, I had some stuff that he had my seat, was still down there that he had chewed off the stand, but he was popping his teeth. And in just the blink of an eye, that bear just, he just jumped on that tree. And I mean, he just, he just come up it, just looking right at me, coming right up through the grid of my stand.

So I just went ahead. I knew he was being aggressive, and I don't know how to say that. Because I've never seen a bear be aggressive. They're always trying to run over trees to get away from you. But he was being aggressive coming up that tree. And about the time he got to my platform, he just, kind of peeled off on the left. He came all the way up to my feet.

I don't know if you, when you scare a cat and he climbs up a tree and I mean, he's, that's the way the bear was climbing. He wasn't slowly climbing like he would the first time. He was climbing that tree aggressively. And when he got right to my feet, he kind of peeled under, you know, came to the left of my platform. And I don't even remember if I aimed or what, but I shot him right through the, I mean, right through the nose and down into the chest cavity.

and when I did he let out a squall like a coon just and just fell you know 25 foot whatever and when he hit the ground I thought it killed him dead I mean he he sat there and kicked for just a few minutes and all of a sudden he kind of got to his feet and he took off running he ran right into a great old big pine tree and when he did

he broke about 12 inches of my arrow off and he ran off in a thicket I would think that bear was probably within five foot of me at least. Maybe more than that. I mean, he was probably within four foot. He was right at my platform that I was standing on. He was right at that height.

Of course, I sat up there for a little bit, you know, kind of thinking, what just happened? That was, I never had anything like that happened. One of those stories you nearly didn't even tell because you said, people are not going to believe me. They're not going to think I'm credible by telling that, but that is exactly what happened. Anyway, that's kind of how that all happened.

and I was just sick about the whole deal and I didn't see the deer and I think I hunted this buck that I had shot at that I started the story with I hunted him all through muzzleloading the season and I never saw that deer again. So in my mind, that was before I had trail cameras or anything like that.

And in my mind, I had gut shot him that I had done something and he wasn't back. And I think it was on Halloween morning. And here where I hunt, if you can, that's something special about, You know, if a guy could hunt from the 25th of October through the 5th of November, those 10 days, you'd have more success and have more stories to tell than if you hunted a month on either side of it where I hunt. That's just a magical time.

And that morning, I remember I got up in that stand and I think I had gotten me a replacement seat or something like. But I was hunting the same stand, the same place. And right before daylight, I heard a deer coming from the south going north. And it come right in underneath me. And I never will forget the whole time. It looked like a big deer, but it was just a blob. And I'm thinking, that's a buck. That's a bug this time of year.

That's a bug. But I was wrong. It kind of went on west, come up underneath me, and went on west. And about a minute later, I could hear a deer grunting. Every breath coming from the south, right the same track. I didn't know it at the time. I just knew that it had big chocolate set of horns. And it came in there.

And it was just about as dark as you could see your pen. I could tell it was a really good deer anyway. I shot it and it ended up whenever I got to it. It was the buck that I had seen three weeks before that I had shot at. And I had actually grazed him from, if I'd have been three inches higher, I'd a heart shot him. But I just grazed his brisket and his front leg with my broadhead. But he's the best buck I've ever killed with a bow. He's real narrow, but he's a really good deer.

He was a good eight-point buck. Mitch, that was an incredible story. I'm impressed that you were able to hold it all together on the buck and then shooting straight down at that bear. Deer stories aren't always about deer. On blood trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker. I've seen something in the road.

I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag. And there was a full of blood. Oh my God, he doesn't have a hit. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. Indications were he should be right there, but he wasn't. This season, we're going deeper.

From cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwoods. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses. No cameras. Just fragments and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th.

Follow now on Apple, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're moving right along and going back to Mississippi to meet up with a guy named Miles Malone. He's a professional nuisance hog and beast. fever trapper and a good white tail hunter. This is a story about a very unique buck with a third antler growing out of the middle of its forehead. It's a unicorn buck. But what's most unique about the hunt is what happens when a storm blew a limb full

of acorns in front of his camera. My name's Miles Malam. I'm from Meridian, Mississippi. I had middle of May, it was a pretty day, got off work early, and put out some cameras. my plans were not to go back and go check my cameras or anything I just wanted to wait until he got you know closer season just see what was around had a buddy come into town that I hunt with and he wanted to go scout about right the end of June probably June 27th June 28th and we went I decided to pull my camera cards and I waited a couple days I wasn't real

just eager to look at him and finally when I got home relaxed looked at my camera it wasn't like two days I ended up getting this unique buck on camera. He had like a j-shaped unicorn horn coming out of his head, but you couldn't tell much else about him. I knew that was the one I wanted to chase without a doubt, no matter what he turned out being. I kept getting him at two cameras, but I couldn't get him north, south, and couldn't figure him out. So I started trying to go middle of the day when I got time, and I would go and try to see where he's crossing this bayou, because I'm getting him on the other side of a bayou next to a field. And no matter what I did, where I thought I had him, couldn't find it,

kept getting pictures of him at the other two spots. And it wasn't like every day, but it was consistent, a weekly basis I was getting him. But normally it was like 8, 30, 9 o'clock at night, you know, obviously late at night. And the latest in the morning I'd get him on camera would be like 4 a.m. 4.30. And I just felt like he was one of them deer that I was going to have to hunt really hard. and chase all season long and maybe get lucky and catch him in the rut. The time went on and it got time for velvet season. I just said I'm going to stick with what I know and I'm going to go hunt the area

and hopefully I'll be able to see the deer. And if I'm in the woods and I spend the time in the woods and if he's moving through, I'll eventually catch him. It might not be able to get a shot on him, but I'll be able to see where he's going, where he's coming from, and helped me dial in on him. So I went to my old faithful spot, and the first hunt was really great.

I saw a lot of deer, saw a couple bucks, had me excited. You know, every crunch of a leaf, I was like, here he is. And it would be a possum come marching through the wood, that old loud walk through them leaves and just have your heart rattling. But the first hunt velvet season was great.

Didn't seem. Next day saw few deer, a couple of young bucks. and the last day of Elf season didn't see a deer. So I'm spiraling. Have I run him out of here? You know, I don't want to go check none of my cameras and bugger him or bust him up or anything like that

and leave a bunch of scent in the woods. Maybe one, two days, four-season. I decided to go out there and go check my cams. Well, when I got to the camera, there was a limb in front of it, and I was mad. It's just been wasted time sitting here, and I moved the oak limb

and drug it like 20s. 20 yards off and when I got home and checked the card, you know, had it set for one second, hold my finger down just, it's like a time lapse. And I'd been constantly getting, you know, doze and yearlings in there and a couple of young bucks, nothing great. And then all of a sudden, it was about five days before opening season when his oak limb fell. And lo and behold, in the background, in the night picture, I can see it in his rack. And he slowly made his way to the oak limb, and he got on top of it, and he sat there and he ate the acorns from the limb.

And he held it down, and he would sit there for two hours eating at it, and he'd leave three, four hours. He'd be right back on it. And it was the first time I'd ever seen him come out in daylight. Like, he came back at like 6.30 in the morning, and was just eating from that oak limb to like 8, 3, 9.30. And then he left. And then he was back at, like, 11 or lunch. And then he left, and he was back 4 o'clock. And then my heart got the beating.

I was like, what have I done? Like, he's right there. And he's eating from his limb. And I drug it 20 yards way. He got my sin on it. I should have flipped it upside down. Let him get to the acres he couldn't get to. Opening day came night before,

and everybody kept asking me, what time you're going hunting in the morning? I said, I won't be going hunting until three. And they're like, you're going hunting at three in the morning? I said, no, no, no. I said all the pictures I get of him, he leaves and vanishes probably about 30 minutes to an hour before light breaks. And I don't want to risk going in the woods, me trying to get to a stand and busting him up. And I was like, I feel like my best opportunity of getting him is going in way early, getting in my stand, and hopefully catching him in the evening.

And I did on opening day. I was sitting in my stand at 3 o'clock. It was like 108 degrees outside. and I'm sitting there thinking, what am I doing out here? A lot of other people and other camps come hang out at and watch football and cook, and there's a lot of people in town. I'm sitting there hunting, and I haven't seen a deer. I ain't seen a squirrel.

It started getting later and later and nothing, nothing at all. And I got to the point where I was just ready to go. I just, you know, I wish time would hurry up and speed up, and it get dark. Now I can calm down. Usually, once it starts getting to the, that last 30, 45 minutes, that magic hour, you know. I normally fired up. I got to have a buddy taking me the worst garhole on the face of the earth,

and I still got hoping that last 30, 45 minutes. Something could happen, you know. And I did in this day. I did not have no faith. I want to say probably about, you know, that last 30 minutes, I did hear a deer eating acorns. And this deer kind of hung out under the mid-story. just fed for like 15, 20 minutes.

I never could see the deer, but I could see pieces of it, and I could hear it eating acres. I've had success with bucks in this area, and I mean, they normally do come on out, and this deer wasn't doing it. I didn't want to pick up my binoculars or anything, because I didn't know what it could see. And about that time, I looked,

and all I can see is that head up and that rack through the leaves. I went from literally ready to go, get in my truck, get gone at the camp, till I couldn't breathe in a blink of a night. I always try to put my mind in the situation and practice how I handle it. And it never works out, but I still practice it. And I had to practice this for about two months. And, you know, I kind of always visualize. I could seem 80, 90 yards away and slowly prepare.

But I wouldn't prepare for the 10 minutes of shooting light left. When he took another step or two, I had my bow of my hand. right out of an air and knocked. When he came out, he started walking my way. You know, he's probably only 20 yards from me. And I'm just panicking, man. I just grew two new hearts in my body and both of them are in my eardrums and they just pounding. I'm going cross-side and he's right there and he's got his head up, stretched out. I want to say he was about 14 yards from me, but I mean, I felt like I could have jumped out of that deer stand on top of his back. And as I was starting to draw my bow back, it just collapsed on me and went down.

And I was like, what just happened? And I'm scared of death that even when I draw this thing back, he's going to run off. And I go draw it back again, and it just collapses. And I'm sitting there just shaking so bad. And I sit there and I think to myself, there is no way I can go back to this deer camp to all my buddies and tell him that I had him at 14 yards in front of me. And I couldn't find a way to draw my bow back. I said, I don't care if I scare him off or not.

I'm fixing to give this bow everything I got. And I pulled back and it came back. And I got the pen right there on him and I let it go and it hit him and he took off. And, you know, I was feeling real good about it. And I could see him run. I could see the knot kind of going through the midstory. It was like a Christmas tree light blinking out there. I'd see it and then I'd see it and I wouldn't.

But I called my buddy and I told him, I said, man, I just got him. He's at the camp. He's like, look, just sitting at stand 45 minutes to an hour, do not get down and go look at your era just in case he's close. He's like, look, I'm on my way. I'm colorblind. So I can't see blood. Unless it's just big old pools of blood, I ain't going to see it.

In that 45 minutes to an hour, I waited in that stand. I'd done convinced myself that I pooled or something and hit him in the hind quarter and just messed it all up. went from feeling great on top of the world to just doom and gloom. And they finally got there and we got down. I was so eager to get down and look. And we started finding good blood. I mean, it wasn't long.

And he was down. And then I just, I couldn't believe it. He's a mainframe eight point, but he has a six and a half inch J-shaped unicorn coming out right over about the dead center of his head. It's about six and a half inches long. I panicked, freaked out. overthought everything, and I kept telling my fiance, I was like, man, it's going to take all season. You know, I'm probably going to have to miss events. I'm probably going to have to miss

holidays. Like, I'm going to have to spend every second I got in the woods just to get a chance. And then, man, just for an opening afternoon, just to have it done. Man, what a relief. It's a memory I'll never forget, that is for sure. That's wild that that buck keyed in on those acorns like that. And as you heard, Miles knows how to correctly pronounce the word spelled A-C-O-R-N. This next story is one of my favorites. It's a deer hunting story but really doesn't have much to do with deer. It involves a lost mule during a deer hunt and my mother's name coming up in a bar.

You're just going to have to listen. I told this one once on the Bear Grease Render, but I decided that I'm going to tell it again. When Bear Newcomb was about nine years old, I was wanting to take him on his first big overnight deer hunting trip back into the mountains. We had a young green brook mule named Ellie Mae, and we packed up Ellie May with saddle panniers and carried a big camp and went back into the mountains and set up our camp. The next day, me and Bear rode double. Bear's just a little kid back further into the mountains, and I tied her up to a tree, and Bear and I were going to go hunting,

and we'll tie up our mules and leave them all day. I remember we sat in a saddle most of the day, and all we saw was a group of gobbler turkeys that came through that saddle. Didn't see a single deer. As it started to get dark, we head back to find Elimee and then ride back down to our camp. I get to the tree, and what do I see,

but a lead rope hanging there with no mule. And the lead rope had been chewed. At that time, I'd never known a mule to chew a lead rope, but it was wet and she had chewed it and broke it and was gone. Well, here it is, Black Dark, Bears nine years old, and our mules lost way back in the mountains. Well, I pick up the saddle and we go back to camp. The mule is not at camp.

I get to thinking the mule is probably back at the truels. truck. And I just envisioned this mule running around on the road out there by my truck with a broken lead rope and somebody calling the sheriff and the sheriff running my tags and then calling my wife and saying, hey, we found your husband's mule. We think something's wrong. I just envisioned like pandemonium spreading from this. So we head off in the dark and walk all the way back to the truck. Where we were, just as it was, one of the closest places of human occupation was a bar. Well, it was a Saturday night. Me and Bear get in the truck. Well, first of all, we get there and the mule is not there. The mule's not at the truck. So we pull up into the parking lot of this bar, and there's old trucks and cars and people there.

And my son's nine years old, and so he can't go inside. I tell him, I say, son. I'm going to leave you in this truck, and I want you to duck down and hide and just lock the doors, and I should be back in about 10 minutes. I'll leave bearing the truck in the parking lot of this bar. I'm wearing all camo, and I'm telling you it was just like a Western. I walk in, music's loud, and every single person that bar looks over at me, and clearly I'm kind of out of place. well, I walk up to the bar and find a place and kind of lean up against the bar and try to get the attention of the bartender.

Well, finally I do. The music is so loud. She's like, what can I get you? And I go like, oh, I don't need anything to drink. I came by and I'm yelling this because it's so loud. She's leaned into me and I'm leaned into her. And everybody in that bar is looking at me. I mean, I'm not kidding.

And I go, my name is. Clay Newcomb and I lost my mule and I just wanted to leave my phone number just in case, you know, somebody sees it. And she goes, what? And I yelled even louder. I say, my name is Clay Newcomb and I lost my mule. And I mean, everybody in the bar is listening. And as I'm talking, there's five or six people there to my left.

And at the end of the bar, I see a guy stand up. And I can tell he's had quite a bit to drink. and he yells across all these people to me, he goes, and this was the last thing I was expecting to hear come from his mouth. He said, is your mom Judy Newcomb? When the words Judy Newcomb came out of his mouth, I could not believe it. I was just like, what?

And he says it again. Is your mom Judy Newcomb? that was the last woman that I expected to come up in this bar. Just for a little context, my mother, we call her Juju, and she is a legend in her community for being a wonderful, kind, godly, amazing woman whose name should not be brought up in a bar. Well, a lot of scenarios were running through my mind about what was about to transpire. I didn't know if I was going to have to fight this guy.

I didn't know what he was about to say to reveal to me about my mother that maybe I didn't know. Finally, I go, that is my mother. And his face just changes countenance. And a big smile comes on his face. And he says, I quote, she's my teacher. That literally what he said. She's my teacher. This is a grown man, older than me.

And he says, she's my teacher. And he goes, she used to teach me in elementary school. She was my favorite teacher of all time. And I just, big smile comes on my face. Woo, what a relief. And I go, excellent, man, cool. I'll tell her you said hi. Got the guy's name.

Wrote down my phone number on a little sticky pad. Headed out of there. Luckily, Bear was okay. Nothing happened to him. And it was too late to go back. to our camp, we still lost our mules, so I had to Juju's house, to my mom and dad's house to spend the night. And as soon as I walk in the door, I say, me and Bear were just at the bar. Guess whose name came up? Anyway, long and story short, we spent the night, and the next morning we went back

up there and the mule was at our camp. No deer were harmed during the proceedings of that last story. And I was very relieved to hear that my mother was that man's teacher. And for the record, I no longer own L.A. On Blood Trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker. I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping day. And there was a full of blood.

Oh, my God, he doesn't have a hit. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. Indications were he should be right there, but he wasn't. This season, we're going deeper. From cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwards.

Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest. Somebody somewhere know something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th.

Follow now on Apple, I Heart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Now, I said at the beginning, if you only listen to one story, it should be the one by Med Palmer. He's a biologist for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, a veteran deer and turkey hunter, and a general all-around woodsman. I just want to warn you, this one may surprise you. I want you to meet Med Palmer. My name is Med Palmer, on Capaya County, Mississippi. I work for the Mississippi Department wildlife fishing in part. The ball of 2020, there was a particular deer on our property.

My son, Gunner, which he's a younger generation, he was running cameras and, you know, getting ready for both seasons. And about two years prior, we started getting a picture of the Pacific. that he was really wanting to kill with his bow, but he just couldn't ever near him down, couldn't find his bed in there. And he was pretty sporadic. We just couldn't pin him down. And then the fall of 2020, that end of that summer around August, he'd started putting his cameras out. And all of a sudden he started getting pictures of this buck.

His buck was pretty centralized in one location on our property, which worked out really good because it was in the center of our property. And he was really fired up. up, he would just infatuated with bow hunting. He loved it because he started out real young, shooting deer with rifle. So when he got on up to bow hunting, it's just a lot more drowning in the rush and a lot harder to do. But this particular buck, he started getting multiple pictures of him. And so we started planning on putting stands up in that particular location. It worked out. He put a camera on a specific oak tree, and that oak tree is just one of those oak trees. it starts dropping early and drops on end to probably about mid-December.

It's a big water oak, and that tree started dropping early that year, so he put his camera on it, and that buck with two other bucks, which was nice bucks. The buck he wanted to kill was at least a six-and-a-half-year-old buck, and the other two was probably four-and-a-half-year-old bucks. They was shooter bucks for anybody, but the one he wanted was the one we'd had two years prior. Horn-wise, he was decent. He was probably about 17-18-inch, 8.

point. You know, he was going to be eight point. That's all he's ever been. But he kept watching the weather and everything and the wind direction and he put his lock on up. And he ended up putting another lock on beside it at a different angle. Got on about a week before Bow season. And I asked him, I said, the boat's still coming. He said, yeah, he said, they're still coming. So opening weekend of Bow season, I mean, naturally that's where he was going to be. The wind was perfect that day. And he took his girlfriend with him that day. She wanted to go. Had now ever hunted in her life. So he puts her an extra lock on right beside he is,

and he gets up in there. Everything was good. And that evening I kept waiting for a text. Well, started getting later and later, and I hadn't got that text yet. And finally got dark. Well, when he made it home, I said, he didn't show. He said, yeah, he showed.

He said, but the two younger bugs, he said, they come right to the tree and was feeding like they did every evening. He said he was bringing up the rear like he does every day. But he skirted the tree. and he said I had a shot at 30 yards broadside, but there was one limb that was blocking it. He said, I was scared.

It was going to deflect it in crippling. He said, I just didn't want to do that. And I said, well, you did the right thing because that surely what would have happened, bo-hunt, you know, at one stick, and that's all it takes. And his girlfriend got to see the two bucks right under, so she was all fired up and fell in love with hunting. But anyway, he was having to hunt it with the wind.

And, of course, on end of bow season, the pattern with bucks change. Bucks will be buddies all through the summer, and then for the rut, they start getting aggravated one another, end up fighting, and they bust up. And that apparently is what happened in this situation. About two weeks into the bow season, he started not getting pictures of him.

So he had decided this buck was getting old enough. He said, if I see him or rifle, I'm going to kill him. I said, yeah, he needs to go and kill him. Because a lot of deer died from head trauma from fighting every year that people don't realize. That's like 25%. And he said, are you going to shoot him if you see him? I said, no.

I said, you want him? I said, you've always want him. I said, I promise you, I won't shoot that deer. And what I didn't know at that time was on December 3rd of 2020 that same year, we had a wounded veterans deer hunt going on here in Capaya County. Baptist Association does it every year. Well, I have to speak at it every year with my job and kind of help them, you know, line stuff out.

and one of the veterans liked to duck hunt, and Gunner had heard that some ducks was coming in on the Mississippi River. So him and his buddy, duck season wasn't open, but it opened the next day. He said, if we find ducks, can I take that veteran? I said, yes. I said, that'd be fine. We'll have to get his duck stamp and everything. I said, yeah, I said, if he wants to go duck hunt, I mean, it's his hunt,

whatever he wants to do. So they left him and his buddy, went over there that evening to the Mississippi River and put in a Laternal Boat Ramp. And apparently, right after they put in a boat, We searched, probably the largest search effort on the Mississippi River that's ever been conducted. I mean, it was over a thousand people looking at. Like a hundred picky boats, the first three days, airplanes, helicopters, National Guard. I mean, it was a big deal.

We never found them. So started, you know, December the 3rd, every day, I was on the Mississippi River in my boat. every day. No matter how cold, no matter how windy, rain, whatever, and there was a group of gunners buddies that had boats, the Mississippi Department wildlife fishing and parks, they was there every day, the Warren County Sheriff's Office, so we was running multiple boats, just hoping to find what we could find. We had gone every day, it had got up into January, and that particular day, chance of ice, the wind chills down real cold, the weather conditions, and fog on that river you just can't see. And, and the weather, and fog on that river, you just can't see. And I told everybody, I said, we can't go tomorrow.

You know, we're un-losted two, and we don't need to try to lose somebody else. So on January the 10th, we wasn't going to go. And I'd made that decision on January of the 9th, we wasn't going to go. And I didn't give everybody a break. And I was home that evening, and my buddy called me. He said, are y'all going to run the river tomorrow? And I said, no. I said, the condition is way too dangerous.

I said, somebody's going to get killed. I said, we just can't do it. And he said, you need to go hunting. I said, yeah, I was sitting here thinking about it. Because I hadn't been to our place since Gunner's accident. I knew it was going to be very, very emotional, you know, because that was his domain. That's where he hunted. He grew up.

He killed his first deer there, first turkey. And my buddy asked me, he said, I know you said you weren't going to kill that buck. He said, what happens if he comes out? And I said, if he comes out, I'm going to kill him. Went on a Gunner. You know, and I said, there's no way he's going to come out. I mean, there was no, we hadn't had a picture of this deer. Of course, we hadn't hunted after Gunner's accident.

But it's just like Big Bucks do, he had vanished. And I told him, he's the only deer that I'll shoot tomorrow if I see. And I said, I'm sure I won't see. I said, but I need to go. I need to be there by myself and get it over with. So the next morning I get up, poor daylight like you do. And I head to our place and start walking in. It was emotional walking in natural because I was going by deer stand

that me and him had put up or he had put up. And I'm thinking of multiple hunts, you know. Well, I get in my stand, which the house stand on the ground, and it's set up on the pipeline. I got two long lanes that run different directions off of it. Actually, all I was thinking about was the time we had spent there, you know, and it was really emotional. And I literally hadn't seen a deer at all,

and it got on up about 9.30, which is pretty unusual. And that kind of weather especially, that stand is just one of those stands you see deer. And I thought, I said, you know, I hadn't even seen a deer. I said, but I saw it. I said, you know, I'm not here to kill a deer. And at 9.45, I had just looked at my phone, I said at 10 o'clock, on leave. And I wanted to walk to the stand where Gunner had seen the buck and go on and get that over with. I was trying to get everything over with, you know, emotionally. Because I got grandkids,

I got other kids, you know, we're going to be going there hunting. I needed to get that over with. And about, I just looked at my phone at 9.45 and I laid it down the chair beside me, and I looked up and guess who walks out? It's pretty tough. And when he stepped out, my heart stops. I mean, it's just like this can't be. And he just stood there and he looked right at the stand at me. Just like, here I am, shooting. And I got the gun up and got on him. And he just kept standing there.

And I pulled the trigger. And he run, he run right to the edge of the pipeline. And I seen him pull. And then I sat there and stand for several minutes, you know, get myself together. I said, the only deer I've ever shot in my life that I dreaded walking up to, that I knew was laying there dead. And I got out of the stand, and I started walking to him. I said, you know, only God alone could make that happen.

I think it was God's way to let me know that the gunner's okay, you know. So I went to the deer, and I had my moment with him, you know. But it by far of the most emotional deer hunt I've ever had in my life. It was something special. I ended up having a buddy and he had called me He said, I'm mounting that deer for you. I said, no, I said, I'm going to mount him.

Well, I took it to the taxidermist when he called me and told me it was ready. I went to pay him. He said, this deer's always been paid for. Gunner always wanted a camp at our place. And after Gunner's accident, I just went on and got a camp

for my grandkids and my kids and we love him. And it's actually hanging in the camp. A trophy is what a trophy is to the person that killed it. And by far, I could kill a bone in crockett, and it would not mean as much to me as this deer, I can assure you.

It's about the story anyway. It ain't about the deer. The story is everything we're hunting. There aren't many words that can be said after a story like that. Other than, I want to offer a genuine thanks to Med for sharing this story with us. I think that in some way when stuff like this is shared, it helps spread the grief out amongst us all. so it's not all bunched up in one spot. Gunner Palmer was just 16 years old. I'd like to dedicate this episode of Bear Grease to Gunner Palmer and Zeb Hughes.

I can't thank you enough for listening to Bear Grease and Brent's This Country Life podcast. Please share this with a friend this week and keep the wild places wild. First Lights Fieldwear collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days in real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters.

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