Cameron Hanes - Keep Hammering Collective - KHC 050 - Huntin' Stories

Episode Date: December 27, 2023

Follow along: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cameronrhanes Twitter: https://twitter.com/cameronhanes Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camhanes/ Website: https://www.cameronhanes.com Thank you to our sponsors: Montana Knife Company: https://www.montanaknifecompany.com/  MTN OPS Supplements: https://mtnops.com/ Use code KEEPHAMMERING for 20% off and Free Shipping Bass Pro/Cabelas: https://www.basspro.com Black Rifle: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/ Use code KEEPHAMMERING for 20% your first order. Leupold: https://www.leupold.com/ Hoyt: http://bit.ly/3Zdamyv  Timestamps: 0:00:00 Intro: 2023 Spring Bear Hunt 0:06:18 Idaho Public Mule Deer Hunt 0:13:50 Cam’s “Superbowl” - September Elk Hunting 0:20:25 Colorado Elk Hunt 0:30:26 Notes About the Elk Hunt  0:37:02 Colorado’s Wolves & Predators 0:35:06 Colorado Bear Hunt 0:41:46 Colorado Mule Deer Hunt 0:45:41 Utah Elk Hunt 0:50:10 Why I’m the Worst Guide 0:55:21 Why I Like Hunting Alone 0:58:21 Utah Elk Hunt Continued 1:03:46 Oregon Roosevelt Elk Hunt 1:08:45 San Carlos Arizona Elk Hunt 1:25:11 The Oregon Destiny Bull 1:36:45 Providing For My Family & Friends 1:39:29 Truett’s Blacktail Hunt 1:44:14 Cat Bradley’s Blacktail Hunt 1:45:42 Cam’s Last 2023 Hunt: Oregon Blacktail 1:56:03 Outro

Every step I take, I move my truth. Every time they tell me stop, I use. Every comment hate that makes my feel, gather up my energy and boom. I hear them talking, saying the way that I move is so reckless. That is a part of my mind I've been blessed with. Giving my blood so I am relentless. Welcome to the Keep Hammering Collective. I'm Cameron Haynes, and today's guest is none other than myself.

We're going to do a little hunt recap from the 2023 season. And it's going to be a little different. No guest, just me spitballing here and a little nervous just because normally a guest keeps me on track. Like if I have a girl here I'm interviewing, obviously I'm going to be on my best behavior. If I have a neuroscientist here, I'm going to try to be kind of like the smartest somebody like me could be. so I'm not going to be at my worst. But with me with no supervision, I guess I got Tanner here,

but basically no supervision, who knows what the hell I'm going to say. So I'm a little nervous. Tanner is going to have the kill switch on just in case I say something that probably shouldn't air to the general public. And we'll get after it right now and we'll see how it goes.

So this season started off. I love starting off my yearly hunting season with a spring bear hunt because to me it's a good, I don't want to say warm up hunt because it's kind of disrespectful to the bear that I hopefully kill. And they deserve all the respect there is. And I have that for them. But it's a good hunt. I know it's not going to be like long shooting. I know I'm going to be pretty dialed in because it's the first hunt of the season.

and I got my new bow set up generally by that time, shooting great, getting in lots of reps, and then the shots are going to be close. This is a baited bear hunt up in Alberta, Canada, where guides are required. So I go with John and Jen Rivet, and I've been hunting with him since 2013. Just had a great time, kill some big bear.

And now, you know, I like bear meat, so I want to be successful. But the focus is I need, I mean, I want a giant old bear, old boar, not just a bear, an old boar. And so that's always the target. And I saw one bear that would qualify, you know, if you listen to the podcast with John and Jen, you would have probably heard that story. But we got one to come in, got one trail can picture of them. And then just it was kind of a waiting game, just hoping that that bear gave us an opportunity. And he did eventually. But in the midst of that hunt had a lot of close encounters. I love.

the baiting process i love the work to it i love i love putting out effort for hunts and uh just going out setting up the helping to set up the blinds you know we kind of do brush blinds and get the bait barrel set up um john has you know he's done a great job a lot of work very remote areas of public land is all crown land up there which is public but it's very remote we're something like 35K back on this old dirt road that really nobody ever hunts. And so there's a lot of older bear back there. Finally got one to cooperate after a lot of close encounters with other bear. And, you know, the hardest part with that is making a good shot.

I've seen big bear, you know, take a less perfect shot and turn it into a very difficult situation. So you want to definitely get both their lungs. and I was pretty, if you watched a film Bush Dragons, you could see how painstakingly I was approaching or trying to navigate when I was going to get a good shot and then release Arrow at the right time. And I was able to do it.

Didn't get the counting coup like I wanted 100%, but just an incredible hunt, shared it with Tanner here. Great film. And it was, the thing that stands, out to me on that hunt was aside from the great company sharing the camp with Kip and, you know, everybody up there is like family to me. But I love bringing the bear meat home. So Tanner killed a great bear also. He killed a nice boar. And then I killed that giant one. And we had a lot of meat to come home. But also we brought the, well, it's called a baculum. I think that's how you say.

I don't know you can look it up, but it's B-A-C-U-L-U-M, and it's the dick bone, basically, of a bear. So they have a bone, and contrary to popular belief, humans do not have a dick bone, but bear do. So you can take that dick bone out, and I would like to have it right now in my coffee, because it's a good coffee stir, and it's like it's a bone, but we kind of say it's like ivory. so it's just kind of a cool little trinket memento from the hunt essentially but you could use it as a drinkster once you get it cleaned up for your coffee or if you're a you know a whiskey drinker maybe you could mix up a jack and coke and stir it up a little bit but anyway we came through customs and they were going to check the meat that we're bringing home and they said did you do you have any bacculums or or bear penises I think they said and I was like yeah we got you know one of

for each of our bear. Anyway, they confiscated them. So that's the thing that stands out the most is I want, I bring the hides, you know, everything back, the meat. Well, the hides are getting tan, then they'll get shit back. But I salvage everything for my kills, and I wanted that penis bone and I didn't get it. So I have a bone to pick with the customs people on the border there

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Head over to montananana knife company.compan today and use code cam for free shipping. Anyway, that was the first time of the year, successful. It was great. Had a good film and, man, lots of good memories and a lot of great meat too. So then we went, had a little bit of a break after that, and it was just kind of getting in shape for the fall season.

So I'm just training pretty hard, getting lots of miles, shooting lots of arrows, lifting lots of weights, you know the whole lift run shoot process and then we went to idaho and this was a public land mule deer hunt and uh was bin at mountain outfitters has uh i i can't remember if it's a landowner tag or what kind of outfit or tag but i've hunted there for the last two years and it's a it's a great unit very thankful for this opportunity they reached out to me and i've taken advantage of the last two years last year i killed a big buck i got up on the wall there like a i don't know a

four by four. I'm not sure if we scored him. I don't, I mean, he's over 180, I would say, but now I can't even remember, but I'm not a big score guy. I just know that he's a nice buck. And that was two years ago. Then this year I went, it was after just, you know, I don't, as I said, not a big score guy. I want an old animal. And, you know, early season, pretty hot, public land. So people who draw this tag, It's a premier tag, so they usually bring friends to help them. You know, they can kill giant 200-inch mule deer. And so if somebody gets a tag, their buddies come and they want to help, you know,

hopefully achieve a lifelong dream of arrowing a giant mule deer, and this is a country to do it in. So consequently, there's a lot of traffic around there, a lot of other hunters, a lot. You know, I would go and be looking for deer and, you know, look on. on ridges around and there's guys watching me, stock deer. It was like it turned into almost like a spectator sport. So it's, you know how it is. When you're hunting, hey, hunting is hard. I mean, I've screwed up plenty of times over the 35 years of bow hunting.

And I definitely, I'm thankful that there wasn't a crowd of people watching all my screw-ups. So this just adds another layer of pressure to something that's already difficult. As you know, people are up on these hills watching through spotting scopes and watching you, you know, whether you're successful or fail or whatever else. But it's like just something, a little extra degree of something to think about, which when you're hunting, you want to eliminate all distractions. As we know, this is bow hunting. This is as tough as it gets. This is spot and stock mule deer hunting. In this country, dry, man, the brush was so loud. is like we were calling a rattlebrush so hard.

But had, man, we had some help spotting bucks. So I got in. There was about, I think, six or seven bucks that were in between two spine ridges. I could use a wind to come around from the right, hook back to the left. And there was, I think, three shooters is what we figured. Of the seven.

So me and Tanner, went around, you know, the sun was up, you're in the sun exposed. The sun is like your enemy when you're spawnstocked mule deer especially. Mountops has been my go-to supplements for the past seven years. My exclusive Keep Hammering line of products offers a blended protein powder, BCAs, and a pre-workout that I take every day. Mountops provides quality nutrition and gear to help you conquer through your passions. Their brand is all about faith, family, and hunt. and they truly focus on improving their lives of thousands. Plus, I love that they're a brand designed by hunters for hunters.

So head over to MountainOps.com and use code cam to save on my Keep Hamry Signature series or anything else they offer to help you train inside and conquer outside. So it's really difficult to stay, there's not many shadows in that brush and you're in the direct sun. So we had our hoods up, just trying to stay as low profile as possible.

got in there and as it turned out, I believe this was the second day of the hunt is when this all happened. So I had had a few other stocks, had some opportunities that didn't come together on some nice deer opening morning. I think the wind switch or other, I think other hunters actually came in from the bottom and spooked him. That's what it was. So on this one,

got in there and came up over the ridge. I saw a little, a couple little bucks. They were up probably about 100 yards away. and then this buck from the bottom got up and he started working away from me. I arranged them. You know, I'll just say within my effective range, how about that?

I took the distance out of the video just because I don't want to deal with people saying everybody's got an opinion. You know, I mean, everybody's got opinion on what's too far to shoot with a bow. And to be honest, there's some guys who shouldn't be shooting 20 yards at the bow. So I know what my limitations should be.

I know where I feel confident. I know where I can offer the animal a merciful kill. And this buck was within that range. Probably would have been too far for other people, but I felt confident in it. Ranged it, quartering away, tanner over the shoulder, and a shot felt good, hit him cordon away.

Maybe a little bit to the right, but put them down quickly. maybe I would say maybe three inches to the right of where I wanted to hit but still quarter away went in he went about gosh maybe 50 yards piled up dead so that was it he was a he's sitting over here on the table right now a big pretty tall but old old like an eight-year-old buck big barely a three by three he's more like a three by two but an old deer which is like exactly what I want. Again, I don't care about score. I just, uh, I was thankful to be down there with good people again. Another, you know, released a good arrow, got the animal killed quickly,

and I'm very thankful for that. My equipment performed perfectly. I used on both those hunts the carnivore, uh, from Grim Reaper. And, uh, they're great. Did a good job. Put both those animals down quickly and very thankful. Got a, got a, kind of plane ride over. over there from William Heisman, I think is his last name. And he's a great guy, picked us up, and Eugene took us over there to, to, what is that? Is it Sun Valley? Yeah, Sun Valley. And then we drove to where Bennett Mountain Outfitters has their camp.

So great hunt, good people. Kurt, it runs out operation. And man, there's, there's, the camp is full of great people. And Jason brought me some Eastman's magazines from a million years ago. Jason, what's his last name? Do you remember? Quick. Jason Quick.

And then who was other? James Ellis. James Ellis. God, Tanner's great with names. I can remember like the first name, but not the last name. Anyway. Danny and Sunny. Danny, Sonny,

uh, yeah, and then of course, Kurt and his wife. And it's like, just the best of the best people is, it was amazing. But,

uh, James and Jason, they had spotted these bucks and I went in there and they gave me the lowdown on what they had seen. And so then from there, they stayed, you know, where they had spotted them and where they disappeared to.

And then I just, uh, me and Tanner went in and got the buck killed. So great, awesome hunt. So we're, you know, two hunts down.

And now, not warm-up hunts, but my Super Bowl is September. So Tom Brady wanted to make to the Super Bowl and win Super Bowls, he made it to 10, I think, and he won seven. So for me, my Super Bowl is September elk hunting. Everything else is just kind of like, I guess you could say preseason, maybe regular season, maybe starting to the playoffs. But when it gets to September, now it's game time, right? showtime this is what it's this is all i ever care about really i mean i want to be at my best on

every hunt but there's nothing like september for an archery hunter so you know first elk hunt of the year normally it's oregon and that's always my hardest hunting roosevelt's in oregon you know for people that haven't done it and probably sounds like everybody talks up their hometown hunts like they're the best or the hardest or whatever else roosevelt el in Oregon, not easy. It is not easy. So I do some great elk hunts now, and this is always the hardest one of the year. And I'll say, you know, I grew up here. I grew up, I'm used to hard hunts. I mean, Oregon isn't great hunting compared to a lot of the other states out there, a lot of the other Western states, or especially Alaska. Alaska has so many opportunities up there.

And what me and Roy always used to say is if you can kill in Oregon, you can kill anywhere. because this is, we just learned we'd have success here, but we'd go other places and it just success came easier because we were used to grinding it out here. So normally Oregon is my first hunt and it's the hardest and it kind of sets a tone because if I can get it done, which I always do, but if I can get it done here, it's like everything else to me is going to be gravy.

And I didn't have that this year. Oregon started late, started September 1st, I believe. or the second. And so I had to get to Colorado. So Colorado is actually my first hunt of the year. And in Colorado, I had an elk deer and a bear tag. And so a little bit out of order, but it's still like I feel a lot of pressure on my first elk hunts of the year or first elk hunt of the year because I haven't killed one in a year.

And every year I wonder, is this a year I'm going to get shut out? because this is hard. This is hard. I mean, people will say, well, you hunt great places, and I do.

There's no doubt about that. And it's hard in a different way. Because when I, like, if I'm looking at that bull right there that I killed in the Eagle Cap wilderness, that is hard in a unique way because for guys that know what this is like,

when you're hunting solo in the wilderness, that is a whole other set of, challenges. It's being alone at all day, all night, all the next day, all the next night, you know, honey solo is not for everybody. It's so much easier. Now I can, now I have a camera person or I had my son with me all the time. Um, so I do, I mean, I hunt blacktail by myself every year. Uh, I do hunts by myself every year, but wilderness hunting. in big mountains on your own is as hard as it gets, I think. I mean, it's all there's to it, especially in the wilderness,

where those bulls are, you know, they're dodging cats all the time. There's bears. There's, you know, there's other hunters back there. I'd try to get away from hunters, so I'd go deeper, but still, it's just like the challenge of being alone. It's really hard to describe. If you've done it, you know what I'm talking about. most guys don't ever want to do it.

They might think they want to and they get a small taste and they're like, no, this isn't for me. But so when I think of hard, I think of that. So I can't really say that my Colorado hunt is that type of hard, but it's still bow hunting. Okay. It's still, there's a lot writing on it. I have put pressure on myself on all my hunts for years, for decades where success is the only option. And I don't, there's no moral victories for me. It's that did I get what I was going after?

That's it. That's the only measure of success. So when you go on these premium hunts, it's a little different because on your own, you can screw up, right? You could, you could glass an arrow off a branch and cut an animal on his leg. Blood hits the ground. No harm, no foul. You know, the animal's not fatally wounded.

You, you know, go to hunt another day. You know, you didn't kill an animal, so you go. But a lot of these premium expensive hunts, if you draw blood, you're done. I mean, so that's, if you're paying, say, $20,000 for an elk tag or an opportunity to hunt elk on this property, that pressure is weighing on you. You got to be perfect. You can't be wounding animals. And it's so you trade the different type of pressure, one for the other.

One being by yourself, can't I get an opportunity? When I'd be in the wilderness, I was, you know, I wasn't as good as hunter back then. I wasn't as good a shot. So I would, I know by myself I would need 10 opportunities to kill one animal because I was going to screw up nine of them. I was just going to need to keep covering country, getting opportunities, screwing up, get another one, screw it up, get another one, maybe kill. Maybe not keep hunting and away we go.

So it was different because that was hard because I know I needed multiple chances. On this hunt here, it's hard because when I draw that my bow back and an arrow's on its way, it's got to be perfect. It's got to be perfect. Or, you know, I'm writing a check and I don't have an animal because I wounded a bull.

last thing I ever want to do. So I say all that just to say this, that pressure is pressure. You feel it differently. There's different reasons why you're feeling or different reasons why that pressure is manifested itself and you're feeling it. But to the hunter, it all feels the same. It's all hard. So I go there, first night of the hunt, get in, get my bow set up, everything's shooting good. And we can go out just have a look around, right?

We go look around and in this, it's always, this country, I mean, I've hunted this place is 2005. So I've killed, you know, almost 20 bulls in Colorado. And it's, it's just a beautiful draw. And it's the elk come down into the bottom and kind of feed. There's water down there. Then they go and bed up on the hills in the timber. So these, there's some elk down in the meadow.

And I was like, wow, this is, that's cool. But, you know, we call it this country is a place that I like to hunt. I like this area of this property. And it's pretty close to the New Mexico line in Colorado. But it's just great country. So look down there from this high perch we were on just to be able to glass, probably about a mile and a half away. Glass down there, there's a freaking giant bull, a bull of a lifetime. It would be the biggest bull I've ever killed since 2005 in this country.

and I've killed some decent bulls there. But this bowl was amazing. So, you know, here we go. It's game time. The wind was coming up to draw because as warm as in the evening. Normally once the sun will set, the wind will switch and start going down the draw. But we had some time. So as long as I could hustle down there, the wind would be going up.

The elk were kind of going down from my right to my left. So I was going to cheat to their right, wind pushing up, and then kind of come in on the on the backside of the herd which is hard sometimes it's not a lot of times that's not the greatest strategy because elk moves so much faster than what you think they're going to that the pace are going to be moving you think you're going to keep up and you can't they're just even though they're just feeding and milling around it just seems like they're just moving and you know when you're trying to hustle to catch up that's where mistakes happen i was trying to be very careful And then we were also in the sun at some time.

So I was, you know, very particular on as Tanner and I closed in, on staying in the shade. And it was going great. Everything was going good. Got down in there. The problem being was this bull had, there's 28 elk there. So that's a lot of eyes, a lot of ears and noses, right? So you're trying to kill the herd bull out of 28. Not easy.

he got down into a wallow and I thought here's my opportunity. I can just bomb off this hill as long as I don't blow out of these other elk and get down there and maybe shoot him as he steps out of the wallow. Well, I took my boots off, as I liked to do, killed a lot of animals this year with no boots. And took my boots off, got down in there. I told Tanner stay up on the ridge and I would just drop down. He could film right over me right to the bull. Everything was in line, but of course that didn't work.

The bull gets up as I get down. And then I'm about maybe 90 yards from him. And I think it was 90 before I dropped down. I might have been 50 or 60. By the time I got down to where he was in the wallow, he was gone. So now I'm kind of shadowing the herd, but I'm sucked in tight against the hill where I was in the shade made a big difference. They were still in the sun.

So I'm shadowing them kind of parallel. and trying to be cognizant of all the eyes because there's so many elk, but they're feeding. You know, they're not like bedded alert just looking around watching for predators sneaking up. They're kind of doing their thing, milling around themselves. He was bugling. There were some satellite bowls that were causing him to react a little bit. And he, I watched him get out of the, or he got out of the wall over to the kind of sucked in tight against the hill like I was, but in front of me about 100 yards. So I hustled up and then I could

hear him raking on a tree. And I was still like where a lot of people screw up is they hear, they see that opportunity and they're not quite there yet. But they try to get to take advantage of that opportunity too fast because it'd be nice if you had a, I don't know, God, what did what did the Star Trek used to have where they'd say, you know, beam me up, Scotty, where he could just like beam yourself forward somehow and be take advantage of that opportunity to him raking that tree but you can't do that you got to walk you got to and you got to be aware of what the other animals are seeing and be aware of the wind the wind was holding steady still so I was good there but I was hustling being aware trying to be careful getting up there and then I get up and I can see

the bull his hide through the trees and I'm like Oh my God, I am closing in tight. This is incredible first night of the hunt. And I get up there and then I start thinking, you know, you can be as confident as you want. But me, I'll be honest here. I started thinking, if I screw up this opportunity, I don't know if I'm going to be able to live with myself. I'm, you know, now I was within 20 yards of this bull, but I had no shot because he was kind of facing me and the tree was between he and I and he was raking on it.

There's no shot there. And I'm like, if I get within 20 yards at this bull and don't get him killed, I don't deserve, I don't deserve to kill a bull on this hunt. This is, I got to be able to take advantage of this hunt, but you can't just make something happen. So I'm just trying to feel, feeling the pressure of the moment, you know, I explain pressure is different, but it's still there. So pressure of the moment, make sure my site said,

which, you know, I normally have it on 20 yards. I have three pins on that single post. So I know what the other two pins are. And I was slowly taking steps to my left. Now, there's a cow that can see me straight. I mean, not a piece of grass in between us. But the cow was feeding. But I was just in the shadows.

And I was keeping my eye and her. He's raking the tree. I'm just slowly taking a step to the left. Slowly taking a step to the left. And what I try to do is I try to keep my arms in tight, my bow up, my head. down, like just like this, where my, you know, you can't see, my face is kind of shadowed from the bill. And I'm not taking big steps where it's like your legs moving this big distance.

It's just slowly a few inches to the left with the left foot, a few inches to the left at the right foot, a few inches to the left at the left foot, just like that. And you're just slowly, like if you looked at it, you might think, man, is that, what is it? Is that something moving or no, it's not moving. But you're moving so slow. You're not, you know, these animals pick up movement. That's what they see, the movement. So as long as you really mitigate that movement, you can get away with, you know, changing your position. So I get out there. And now I'm 15 yards from this bull and he's still raking. And he turns and looks back to his, let's see, he's kind of facing me, looks to his left. And he kind of turns and walks away from me. So I come to full

draw. He's standing there. And I have no shot. He's facing straight away. And then as I said, that cow was to my left. He kind of turns and quarters hard away to look at that cow right there. And now I think he's about 25 yards. So I held my 20 just up a little bit high on the last rib. And I was like, this is it. I can't screw this up. I got to make it happen.

And longtime bow hunters know you can screw this up, right? but I didn't arrow hit good courting away went all the way up kind of poked out his far side shoulder and he ran up that the whole rest of hurt had no idea they just saw him run they had no idea and he went up straight away probably about maybe a little over 100 yards and kind of stopped he started to feel sick because that arrow went through his gut sliver lung one lung I think because of the angle of it And, but it got, I mean, that's a devastating shot with a big, you know, expandable broadhead, 2.75 inches of cut. And he went up there about 100 yards and he wasn't going to go.

You could tell you wasn't going to go much further. So we got him going down on film and just an incredible animal. I, you know, I didn't score myself, but I'm pretty sure Robbie Parker there scored him at 2, or 379, which is a giant bull he's uh i mean i don't think i have him here yet but he was like a six six by seven with devil's points on both sides i'm pretty sure just a giant beautiful heavy bull old bull lots of great meat and uh i mean incredible animal the biggest bull i've ever killed there and it's just unreal how it happened um did i deserve to kill a bull like that on the first day of elk hunting hard to say there's a lot of people who deserve might deserve something and

it doesn't work out so sometimes you take it when you can get him i mean i i don't know if i deserved it but i got it and uh i'm very thankful uh it's incredible hunt the the the film wasn't the greatest because i had tanner stay up on that ridge and he did the best he can shadowing me he got the bull going down and he got the he got the shot i mean you can hear the shot but he could didn't see me when the bull was raking. So we got the bull go down there and pile up and just got incredible photos in the sunset of Colorado. It's just, you know, Colorado's my favorite state.

All right, well, it's Christmas Day. And I was a little nervous about doing this solo podcast that we're in the middle of here, just because I got no checks and balance, as I explained. But upon reflection, I did want to add context to a couple different parts, one namely, this part that I just described about my first day hunting in Colorado this year. And from the outside looking in, it might seem like, whoa, you show up on the first day and you kill a 379 bowl.

That's not like any hunting I've ever done. And you'd be right. I mean, it's not any hunting I've ever done either, to be honest. I've never killed a bull this big in Colorado. The 370, or maybe, I don't know if I just said 279, but I meant 379. and that's the biggest bull I've killed there. I've been hunting Colorado since 2005. So I guess killed about, I guess that'd be about 18 bowls

because I've killed one every year. And it's not without challenge, definitely. I mean, I can just, last year, I was supposed to be there five days and I had to extend because I still hadn't killed. And I finally killed just, I mean, I was ecstatic, but no record-breaking animal, but a nice six-by-six bowl on the seventh day. Last evening, I could absolutely stay, and that was adding extra days.

So over the course of those 18 years in some incredible country, I mean, I'm not going to, I can't dispute that. I'm very lucky to hunt there, and I, you know, I feel, man, I'm just blessed. to be able to get that opportunity. But I've had a lot of ups and downs just like any bowhunter will. You know, there's times when I felt like it's never going to happen. I'm never going to get a kill or I screw up or I make mistakes or I, you know, big rookie errors that you'd think I'd be better than after all these years, but I'm not. But in the end, I've killed every year.

So Colorado has been great to me. This year was, I didn't deserve it. I told Tanner, I said, you know, I got three tags, but the elk is a tough one. I'll probably kill a buck. I feel good about the bucks. If the acorns are on, I'll probably kill a bear, but the elk, it's a toss-up. I don't know. It's going to be the tough one.

And then turns out it was just couldn't have went any better, and it's the biggest bull I've ever killed in Colorado. But I just want to add that context to it. This is bow hunting, wild elk. It's not high fence or anything like that. These are free-range animals. They can go anywhere. And I get the opportunity to hunt and I'm blessed. Made a lot of sacrifices to be there.

But I just wanted to add that before we get it too far down the road on that. I felt like that was missing. There's a key part missing to that story. So we're going to add this into the podcast. Bass Pro Shops and Cabellas know that everyone has their season. Deer season, turkey season, duck season, every animal is a unique challenge, every hunt, a different experience. And I count on my local Cabela store here in Springfield, Oregon to gear me up with all my hunting necessities. And you know, I like to support companies that give back to conservation.

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It's veteran owned and operated. They support hunting and conservation and give back immensely to the veteran community. They're offering followers of the podcast 20% off on your first purchase to the coffee club or orders on their site using code. Keep hammering to get America's coffee today. So here's nothing. Colorado, there's so many predators. We saw tons of bear, as I said, I had a bear tag.

We saw four lions during the hunt. Lions killed a shit out of deer and elk. And now they have wolves. So what is going to happen in Colorado? Who the hell knows? It's so ridiculous. You know, they voted to reintroduce wolves in the ballot box, which is not the way you manage wildlife.

That's managing wildlife. that's that's that's managing wildlife through emotion and people who have no idea what they're voting on they're like oh wolves are cool yeah let's have them back no idea what the repercussions that's going to be so it's just a travesty really on the north american wildlife model and it's you know it's it's it's not like you can't just say well there used to be wolves here let's have them back yeah i mean everything's changed since there used to be wolves there i mean there's huge cities now, right? There's not as much habitat. And yeah, so you wonder, it's like, do they want to eliminate hunters by having predators kill the prey animals? So then there's no need for hunters

because there are no animals to hunt. So what is the goal? Is it the goal to do away with hunting as we know it? And this is by proxy, this is a way to do it by having the predator number skyrocket, whether it's by a natural means or reintroduction like with the wolves, hard to say, but all I know is it sucks. So my part that I do is when I go to Colorado, yes, I'm going to kill a prey animal because I want to kill a deer. I have an elk tag also. I killed that bull, but I have a deer tag. But I also get a bear tag because I want to take, I want to help. I want to help this predator prey relationship. I'm going to kill a bear if I can. So, you know, as this hunt went on, the bear were in this, this draw that was just jam-packed with acorns.

I mean, so many acorns. So it, like, was a huge attractant to the bear. I knew we'd kill a bear in there. We made a plan. Robby's going to drop us off. I just had to figure out which way the wind was going to go. If you saw the film, you saw how perfect it worked, but he's going to drop us off at the bottom of the canyon because the wind was coming down. And Tanner and I were going to take our boots off to sneak in socks up. It's like there's a, this is natural gas country, right? So there's wells there and there's roads to get to the well.

So it's just an old dirt road. And if we sneak up this old dirt road in our socks, both sides is lined with acorns and oak brush. Those bear are in there and it's so thick, you can hear them crunching on the acorns, and it's a good opportunity to get in there and get one killed. That's exactly what we did. We couldn't have worked out more perfect. I think we saw about four bear and just it's hard in that thick country or the thick brush country,

that oak brush to get a clear shot. And then sometimes the wind swirls a little bit. One smelled us right out of the gate. One I couldn't get a shot at. Another one I couldn't get a shot at. And then we got up a little bit further. Now we'd been into the hunt, that morning's hunt for probably, an hour and a half going very slow, just painstakingly slow,

because you don't know where a bear pop out of the oak brush all the time. And as you know, or as hunters might know, bear don't make any noise unless they're crunching on acorns. Their feet, their pads are soft. They're not hooved animals like a deer or elk, which will break sticks and things like that. Their pads are very soft, just like a lion. And they can just walk, they could walk a foot from you

if you weren't paying attention, you wouldn't even hear them. So we have to go very slow. Keep the wind, ride, do everything right. We get up there and I hate being in the sun, but there's this one draw that I had to be in the sun for a little stretch. And I just wanted to get up pat out of the bottom as fast as I could to get more onto the shady side where I was not so exposed with that sunlight reflecting off of us. And as we're rounding this brush to get into the shade back on the sunny side of it, I think Tanner, I think, Tanner might have heard something. I'm pretty sure. So, I saw it. Oh, you saw something. Okay. So he saw

something and I went back around to the sunny side and I was looking there and I, then I was staring up there and about 27 yards away I could see, I threw the oak brush this outline of this bear. And then I put my glasses up and I could see its paths standing there and bear staring right at us. Because I could only see the paths that are facing forward. So I'm like this. Range it, 27. dial my site to 27 and I'm here and I can see that bear just with a silhouette was facing us so it probably either saw sun reflecting off something on you know my bow or the camera or something like that but I was ready because I had my site dialed in so the bear kind of I don't know if it spooked but it kind of moved up the hill and it came into this little

opening right when it came to the opening I came to full draw as just as before it came up there I came to full draw, stepped in the opening. I was like, MAM, stopped it and shot. And went right, barely skinned over the oak brush and hit perfect right through the heart of that bear. And the bear went four yards. I mean, it went up the hill, rolled down. And I mean, the arrow was laying here after the pass through. And the bear was like from here to the cameras, four yards away, dead in seconds.

So if you saw that film, you noticed that. But beautiful bear, beautiful hide. just pristine meat. I love black bear meat. I mean, it's all there's too. It's so good. So very thankful, second bear of the year. Also helping that predator prey relationship there in Colorado.

Another perfect shot. I was, you know, I should be able to make a perfect shot at 30 yards. I mean, by the time, I ranged at 27, but he went up and it was probably three yards further. So about 30 yards. Maybe that's why I hit, I mean, I didn't aim for its heart. that's a little bit low. You aim for its lungs. And I think maybe because my site was on 27 and bear was about 30 when I shot.

So that would cause to hit a few inches low. And I still caught the heart. Bear didn't go anywhere. Packed it down, down the hill and just a great hunt. Filled two of the tags. And then it was kind of like a, then it was looking for like an old buck or a good buck. We had one spotted. And I did a stock on this like a, like a,

a 190 4 by 4 that I would really love to kill. It was a beautiful deer and just couldn't try it a couple times. Just could not, you know, it's bow hunting. It just could not make it happen. And stumbled across this old buck, four by three or four by four? Do you remember? I don't remember.

I think it's a four by four. God, now I can't even remember. I haven't got those animals back yet. But anyway, the point is, it was a heavy old buck and made a good shot on that. Everything good. Got into 44 yards and Arrow blew clear through. And if you saw the video, it stuck into a tree about, man, I don't know, maybe 10 yards beyond it. So now we got some venison hanging.

And my first hunt of September really couldn't. went any better um yeah there's there's ups and downs i screwed up plenty of times uh those are just kind of the highlights you know i mean trying to go through these hunts quickly so it's uh tanner gave me an hour 10 to hour and 15 minutes and probably like an hour into it already probably but uh everything went great on this hunt uh three arrows three kills uh let's see 25 yards 30 yards and 44 yards, I think is what it was. So that's, you know, as a bow hunter, that's a distance I want to be at. I like those close shots.

You know, of course, I practice it long, long distance. And my philosophy is any, if I can hit consistently at, say, 100 yards, then I, in the hunting woods, I feel comfortable to 50. So I try to practice a double what I'd ever shoot hunting. So if I can hit, if I work hard and I can hit good at 120, then hunting with a broadhead, I'm going to shoot out to 60. So that's, my goal is as close as possible. But I practice long distance just to make me, I'm not, I'm not going to say I'm flawless because I can't be flawless.

I'm a bow hunter. I screw up all the time. This isn't target archery where guys can shoot, you know, these 300 scores with all these X's and all that. This is bow hunting and killing an animal. and there's emotions involved. The animals are moving, unlike target archery, where the targets are moving,

you have all the time in the world. This is a different scenario. This is not something I don't think anyone can master, but I know for a fact I can't master it. So I'm very, I want to get close. I want to get close, have relaxed shots. I want to offer these animals of merciful death, as I've said before.

And to do that, I feel like I need to be close and that those shot distances are within the range where I feel very confident. So we got the triple play in Colorado done, took out a bear like I wanted to to help those deer now, because I said. And it sucks that there's wolves there now, but it's the way it goes. I mean, it's a liberal state nowadays, which sucks. Because you know who has to deal with the wolves?

The people who live rule, who live out of the city. So the cities decide that there's going to be wolves back. They don't have to deal with, there's no wolves in Denver. There's not going to be any wolves in, you know, any of these metropolitan areas, it's all going to be the rural people who have to deal with the voters that made this happen in the city. And so that's who you feel bad for the livestock of these ranchers. The, uh, yeah, it's just, it's a disaster, really. So from Colorado, I went to Utah, another great elk hunt. Uh, you know, I've been, shoot, I've been going to Utah now for,

I used to go to this other place, uh, I think it was called Red Creek. And it was good. Great. I killed bucks and bulls there before. And then I started going with wild country outfitters. You know, I get a, I can get a landowner tag there. I mean, I put in for draws all the time. I mean, I can't draw a premium tag. So if I can get a landowner tag, yeah, it's expensive. I'm just going to have to work my ass off to earn more opportunity to earn more money to earn these opportunities. And anybody could do it. I mean, You know, hey, I've had to make a lot of sacrifices and I still, I don't have the money for the type of hunts I do. I just got to work my ass off to make it happen.

It's because it's all I care about. I mean, I wear the same shit every day. I wear the same hoodies, shorts and shoes every day. I don't spend money on anything but hunting. So yes, landowner tags can be expensive, but. This is all I care about. This is my life. This is what I've designed my life to do is elk hunt.

And so, yeah, I've hunted Utah for, I would say, probably since, I don't know, I say 14 years. So I've, you know, killed 14 bulls there in Utah now. But this year was a little different. Tanner, he stayed back home. He's going to do some blacktail hunting. So he's been filming all my hunts this year. On this one, I had True, it was going to go, which True, it's more like, that's kind of, I think he's went with me the last four years.

There's just kind of a chance to hang out. He's, you know, for those that don't know, Tanner's my oldest son. Truitt's my second oldest child, but my youngest son and then my daughter's younger than him. And so he lives there in Utah. We don't get a chance to hang out too often. So this was a good excuse to, or there's always a good excuse each September to spend some time together. So he was there and that was great. And then I had Rihanna Stark now there filming and she's no Tanner for sure, but she got the job done.

She does really good, but like, man, she just loves to hunt herself. So she's like trying to call and trying to watch and trying to do all this other stuff. And, you know, for for what it was, man, I feel very lucky she was there, very fortunate that she was there. She's so, she's fun to hunt with. She hunts hard. She's freaking tough. She's tougher than a lot of guys that I've come across out there these days. But so, yeah, she did a great job.

This hunt, oh, man. Lots of hike. I mean, for sure, 10 miles a day. Up and down, up and down, up and down, looking for the right bowl, looking for the right opportunity, had some good encounters, just loved it, didn't want it to be over too soon, wanted to enjoy the hunt. We were getting back because we were hunting, you know, I think this property is 256,000 acres. Premier Country, Wild Country Outfitters is the best people, Tom Land and his. son's run it, just the best, the best people you'll ever know. And, uh, but I always joke around. They stick me out in the gar hole, which is fine, but they don't, but I like to joke around. Then I was, uh, with Ed Kinsey too. He's me, he and I have killed, I think about seven bowls together. And he, he's a, you know, I just want to be able to hunt. I want people who will just let me hunt. Let me go. And he, you know, so you have to have somebody who can go. You know, you know, you have to somebody who can go with you and ed can and uh he'll cut he's tough uh military guy great great man been there 20 some

years awesome person love it we but we cover some miles and it's perfect because it's what i love um but we had some very late late nights getting back to camp and then very early mornings getting up to get out to where we're hunting it took a while each each day at the end of the end of the of each day and at the beginning of each day to get to hunting country so not much sleep you know it's uh this time of year you're getting up we were getting back like maybe 10 30 or 11 um getting up at four oh you know by time you get to bed getting four hours of sleep i think and i can't really sleep on hans anyway because i'm so excited thinking about every opportunity and when when is the next one going to come and you know there's as I said there's pressure to all these to to to perform and

produce and to uh you know it's no pressure on any you know I pay for all my hunts people might say oh your sponsors pay the sponsors don't pay for shit I mean I'll they'll pay for the show or whatever but I write the checks for all my hunts so I'm not and I don't want free hunts because I could probably get free hunts at some of these places. Maybe not some of these places, but a lot of other places. I don't want free hunts. I want to pay. These guys work their asses off and I want to pay.

I want to leave good tips when they do a good job. I want to keep the money at these towns that I hunt in. So I have the meat process there. I'm like, I love every part of the hunt. I love every part of the of supporting the hunt. And the people that worked their asses off, the guides, the outfitters, the cooks, the, the processors, all of it. It's, I pay for it all. And I love it.

I want to. I don't want anything free. So it's, it's, it's just a special, special hunt. You never know how it's going to turn out. As I said, it's, it's bow hunting. And this opportunity that came on the bull that I killed, there. It was, we bombed down off the hill. It seemed like we were a little late getting out. The sun was up higher than I wanted it to be by the time we got there. So I'm like, we got to get to the

bottom. And I just took off running for over a mile for sure, straight down the hill. And Truitt, Rihanna, and Ed were all behind me. And I'm just bombing off this hill. I was like, I don't know how many times everybody fell down. But it was steep. but got down there and I was like there's nobody's gonna be dead nobody I have to wait nobody's gonna be there everybody was like right be pretty much right behind me and I was like god this is I love these people this is so good because I can't even tell you how many huts I've been on where that's been the biggest crux of the hunt is either they're mad I'm leaving them or I'm mad they can't keep up and it's like I am the worst person to guide I guarantee it

the worst I mean I grew up public land do it yourself I don't want to hunt with anybody I don't want to see anybody I want anybody telling me what to do if I screw up I want to screw up on my own if I succeed I want it to be on my own I don't want anybody around and I still you know I do love these people I do love all the relationships but if I had my druthers I don't want to be around anybody. I hate everybody when I'm hunting. So I'm like the worst person to guide, guaranteed 100%. In fact, Eastman's fired me one time. Mike Eastman fired me one time on a hunt because I said I didn't want to go. No, he wasn't there for this. But I just was like the biggest pain in the ass on this hunt because I said, I don't want to go back during lunch. I want to stay out and just glass. And they said,

no, we're not going to leave you out here just a glass. Just come back. I'll go out. I said, no, I don't want to. The only reason why I ever kill is because I'll outwork everybody. And if you're taking my advantage away from me, then I'm probably not going to kill. So I need to stay out here because I need more opportunities. And it turned into this big shit show. He said, I don't think it's going to work out. I think we need to go a separate ways. Then I kind of threw a fit.

Then he didn't fire me. I killed a buck. He filled me, kill a buck. I was like the one on an old Eastman's video, I shot straight down 21 yards and Mike was filming me. So I felt a lot of pressure because Mike is like, freaking Mike Eastman's a legend. Plus, I think he hated me most of time because of situations like this.

But so thankful to Mike for believing in me and the Eastman's family. Yes, it's like I was there for 10 years and, you know, of course I caused so much freaking drama. but if they don't know it, I hope they know how much I respect them and I'm appreciative of every opportunity they gave me and I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm the way I am. Let me just say that.

Loopold optics has been providing my binoculars and eyewear for the last few years. I like that it's an Oregon company and they make such high quality glasses, all I've really used. And if you can't find what you're hunting, it's going to be tough to kill. So loophole optics has really,

played an integral part in my success these last few years. Thank you, Lou Pold, for supporting the podcast. I just had some, a thought I wanted to share on that. It's like I'm used to hunting by myself. I grew up hunting by myself, making all the mistakes on my own success and failures, all hinged on my decisions. So that's been a hard transition when I've been into these, you know, I've hunted all over, public land, private land, different countries, different states. I've killed everywhere, but the hardest part is I just like to hunt on my own. However, I do know that some of the guides I meet are great hunters themselves. And I'm not above, you know, like when I think about the mule deer here this year in Idaho, you know, I had a good idea what I wanted to do. I knew

where the bucks were. But, and I had my plan, but I'm like, hey, I'm not above. James and Jason were there and they had the spotting scopes on some of those bucks there and where they went and so I just said hey I said here guys given the wind given the how the lay of the land is here here's my plan but what would you guys do

and I asked them what would they do in this situation because hey not everybody knows at all I love to to hear guys who are really dialed into the country that I'm hunting I want to know what they think, whether it's going to impact what I do, who knows. But I'm always learning.

I have a great amount of respect for people who are out there pretty much day in and day out and know the country and the animals that I'm hunting. And so I want to hear what they think. And I'm not above ever learning from anyone. I mean, there's people who don't have the experience that I have that maybe see things differently. they have a fresh perspective and it's like man i i could learn from them so yeah i'm i'm i love solo i love being by myself i love calling all the shots but you know on on some of these these opportunities that i've earned and and sacrificed for um you know we're a team and as part of a team i'm going to give my best i want them to give their best and i want to hear what they think and

And then I'll decide what I want to do. On that one, they said, yeah, what your plan? That's what we would do. Sounds great. And so me and Tanner went around, played the wind right, stayed out of the direct sun as much as possible, and got that buck killed. But, yeah, I just wanted to throw out there that some of these, there's a lot of great Western hunters out there, guys' outfitters, a lot of people that I have a lot of respect for. And man, I learn every day. And, you know, you got to have an open mind.

If you're going to keep them proven, you've got to have an open mind and acknowledge that, you know, maybe you don't know everything. That's what I tried to do. On this Utah hunt, I look back after we run down two miles, or I mean a mile down the hill. Everybody's there. I start going up this bulls bugling. And hadn't seen him, but they're going up the hill. So, again, it's hard to catch up with these dang.

going up the hill right and uh it's i don't know it's it's steep um riano was trying to stay with me she had like three coats on i think so she was getting hot wanted to take coats off but trying to keep up at the same time because she had the camera and uh she of course like i said she kicks ass she's tough and uh we get up there and i get set up in this trail and if If you saw the film, you know all this. So I'm not, I'm not going to, I don't know, no surprises really. The film is called two yard elk kill, I believe. So this bull starts coming down the hill.

And I kind of made a mistake in where I set up because the bowl was coming down straight down the hill. I was set up and he kind of busted into the scene very quickly. So I didn't really have a lot of time to pick where I was going to get in position to shoot. I thought he was going to go straight down the ridge the way he was. going is going to be about, I don't know, 10 yards away going broadside. So I sit down or I get down on my knees because for those who don't know, animals, they'll pick up a human profile standing in a second, especially that close. If you're on your knees, you've got so much room for error. Because you're low and they're like, I think it's like a body language saying, you know how these elk

they're so, that's how they communicate with through body language, sometimes sound, yes, but a lot of times are posturing. So they're big on body language. If they're up high and they're looking down on you because like I'm on my knees, that's not really a threat. They're bigger, right? So if you're looking eye to eye with them, okay, they don't like that. But I was down on my knees. This bull comes down the hill, turns and I'm sitting, I'm kneeling right in a trail. It comes right down the trail right to me. And now I'm like, I don't know what the hell to do. I draw early all the time. And when this bull was going to come by at 10 yards, I was out of your full draw. But then he turns and it comes to me.

And I'm just like, holy shit. And he's like, I was right here. He's looking over the top of me. And I'm like trying to figure out, okay, he's going to run my ass over. So I better figure out where to shoot this thing frontal, which I don't, you know, people, whatever. People criticize and say stupid shit about everything that I might say or do or whatever. I'll say I'm a hypocrite. I don't take frontal shots, even though I'm going to take one right here.

And, but I don't do it. I don't like it. On this situation, I actually didn't know what to do. So I don't know if I panicked and panicked in the right way or got lucky. But anyway, we're shooting a bull at two yards. Your arrow is below your line of sight. Your eyes right here. Your arrow's sitting down here.

So you can't use your 20 yard pin. So I had to use put my 20 yard pin up on its neck right here to hit right here. So he's like this. I want to hit in between the sternum and the shoulder blade. and you can go right here. If you do that right and you don't screw it up, you can kill a bull. I don't like that's a small little window.

It's not a high percentage shot for me, especially at distance. So I, you know, I've killed bulls frontal, but I haven't taken a frontal in probably 20 years. You killed three bulls with frontal shots. I don't do it. I only take quartering away or broadside ever except for this time. So hypocrite, whatever.

talking on my ass probably. Anyway, I hold that 20-yard pin up. He was looking over me. Right when he looks down, I release. You see on the video, he looks right down at me. The arrow goes full penetration all the way up to the fledge. And he ended up going 38 yards and dies in about 10 seconds. The most devastating shot, or one of them you can have.

I mean, we're right through his heart. So I was very thankful for that. Rihanna, you know, did a great job. She was mostly fired up that that she said she called in the bull. She's cow calling. So, and I will say she was cow calling. And I'll agree, you called it in. And, but she was more excited about, I caught you in a bull.

I just called you in a fucking bowl. So that was pretty cool because I like when she's happy. It's fun to, she's a fun person to share her home with. She's always in a good mood. and that's that's good type of person to have around so thank you riana good job uh good job on the film thank you to everybody at wild country and thank you to utah and and truitt sharing that home with him was was really good we had a heck of a time we packed out that bull and it was pouring down rain and it was just an amazing day i love i love when it's hard like that it's uh

I love the challenges. I love getting tired, beat down, wet, succeeding. I love it all struggling and then somehow finding a chance of success and having a payoff like it did. So very thankful for that. The next hunt after that. So, man, this, you got kind of messy here at the end. I had some time in between Utah and Arizona. So we came back here, Tanner and I came back here to Oregon,

or he was already here. So he was deer hunting. I got home. We decided to load up and we headed down to, I hunt over on the coast out of, kind of out of Coos Bay for Roosevelt Bulls. And as I said, I normally hunt these animals first here in Oregon, but this one, I couldn't.

I was, you know, I had these other. hunts I had to do or had scheduled. So he went down there. It didn't happen. It's, I can make, I don't really want to make excuses, but I'll just tell you what happened. So second day, Tanner, Kevin, Kevin Acres, K.A. to his friends, Acres to some other friends. Anyway, we're all together. Sneaking up, this bull was bugling. I'll just cut to the chase. Got in there 68 yards.

It's like shot I should make every single time. The bull was alerted. It was a quiet, quiet morning. And three people, no matter how quiet you're trying to be, are going to make a little popping and things. So this bull was by himself, quiet morning. He could hear. And he looked one time, we had to stop.

You know, of course, I'm always, I think everybody else is making all the noise and doing, screwing up all the time. It's probably me, but I'm mad at them. And tell him to stop. He kind of settles down again a little bit. And then I continue on a little bit. And then he's like looking again, kind of alert. So finally, I have an opportunity.

His head is blocked by this tree was right in between. he and I. So his eyes were blocked. So I'm like, okay, I got a little room for error here. So I can draw back, step out. And then I had a wide open shot. And at 68 yards, I ranged it. I feel really good at 68.

And I shot. And, you know, now I would say that just, and I even know, Tanner couldn't see the bull. So he's filming me. On the shot, everything looked perfect. I was watching if I did something wrong. shot looked pretty textbooked on on film but the arrow did not hit textbook hit like high and a little kind of a little back so we're thinking god did the bull drop anyway spent you know a couple days

this the only blood that i found was about 300 yards straight up the hill and one drop there's a little bit of blood right after I hit him for about 50 yards maybe, but not even very much. And then it, then it was just nothing. So straight up the hill, I found a drop of blood. Then I found his tracks way up at the top of the ridge, walk in the road. So I'm like, God, this, you know, chances are, you know, a bull is not going to go straight up the hill if it's mortally wounded. So, but I didn't know for sure. So we spent a lot of, you know, next, I think all the way, let's see, that day, the next,

at least two and a half days looking for that bull. And all that I could show for it was going up to one time and you saw on the film that there was a lion up there screaming. And so I don't really know what was going on. This is dark timber. But it was a lion screaming. and then I get up there and I have a lion tag

so I'm like I told the guys I said that's a lion and so Kevin was cowcalling a little bit lion was making noise I get up there and I see this flash coming from the left

and I'm like oh my God that's a lion so I stop it like that stop whack wasn't the lion it was a coyote so I don't know why there's coyotes

and lions in the same area but killed a coyote and again I want to kill predators you know coyotes kill 60% of fons, deer fons. So if we can take out a coyote, we will. So I killed that coyote. Didn't kill a lion, unfortunately, even though I wanted to on the ground. But it didn't happen. So the point is, that bull could not, you know, I didn't believe it was mortally wounded. And that's what the blood trail showed. That's what the arrow showed. That's what, you know, got the back end of my arrow.

Didn't get the broadhead. So unsettling feeling. But the way that bull reacted, it was all consensus that bull's not dead. So I took off to Arizona, got down to Arizona, and now, you know, it was a bittersweet pulling out of Oregon after, you know, kind of shit in the bed on that hunt. But I got to shake it off. You know, it's just like Tom Brady throws an interception. You can't be dwelling on that interception. You got to come back. And like, we saw him in the Super Bowl against the Falcons.

I think he threw a pick six or something. I remember him being on his hands and knees looking pathetic. And going down 283, you can't dwell on that, right? So you got to forget that, come back, and you got to make play. So I'm like, I got to put this out of my head, Oregon. I suck in Oregon. I blew it, you know, had an opportunity and just couldn't get it done. But, you know, we're on to basically the hunt that I never in a million years,

dreamed I'd ever do. This is the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona. This is the first time that I did it. I said, this is, you know, I told my wife, this is once in a lifetime. I'll never be able to do this again. This is like I, you know, I've never even made this much money in a year for most of my life. And I can't, I just can't do this. But this is all I think about every day is elk hunting. And then I'm like, have so much pride and, or not pride, but admiration for the Native American traditions and the Apache tribe down there and the people and so much respect. And it's just me, this hunt, I can't tell you how much this hunt means to me. But first time I thought there was going to be once in a lifetime, right?

So now I've said to work harder. As I said, I've got to pay for all this shit. So this is a six year I've done this hunt. And I go down there again. again, so much reverence for this land. This is sacred elk hunting land. I mean, I watched these hunts. I watched this, this old VHS tape from 20 years ago from the San Carlos,

Fish a Game put it out. And it was with the Stevens brothers were highlighted on it. But Tim, Homer and Mark. And these guys were like living legends to me. And the reason why I was able to hunt this is my buddy Kip Fulks, one of my best friends. He got me on that. first year good opportunity in uh through um he had met somebody a gentleman named steve johnson so between that somehow there was a tag that became available so kip asked he says i think i can

get you this you know get you this opportunity of this tag if you want it and i was like heck yeah so i killed the tight bowl over here back in 2018 maybe it was let's see 18 19 19 21 22 20 20 Yeah, in 2018. And so that was, he got me on there the first year. Then I've just kind of like somehow hung around, somehow haven't screwed up. You know, my, my true self hasn't exposed itself. So I've like tricked people into thinking that, hey, this is a good guy. Should let him come back here.

So I'm just like, I'm on borrowed time. It's just a matter of time before people figure out I'm a real dumb fuck. But anyway, This is my sixth year there and another great year with Kip. I love spending time with Kip. He's like one of a kind, one of my best of friends, just East Coast guy. I don't want to say loud, but outspoken and confident and cocky and then also self-depreciating somehow. Just like the best mix of guy you could ever want to be around.

And he would do anything. He would do anything for me. And I know that. And I would do anything for him. I love him like a brother. So this hunt means a lot. And then the fact that I could bring my son Tanner to film, which this is a very, as I said, it's a sacred hunt.

And, you know, they don't let just anybody film there. So the fact that they said, yeah, Tanner could film and accompany me on the hunt meant so much. Because I've always wanted to share how special this country was with people who, who like me when I was young, I never thought I'd be there. but I watched these films and I dreamed and I dreamed every day and for years I dreamed about it and I would just envision like what it might be like to hunt the best out country in the world. What would that be like? How could somebody like me could never hunt that.

That's for like this whole upper tier, just different type of person than some small town dumb fuck who can't stay sober most of time, most of his life and has a better job than he's ever deserved you know, and has just kind of been, I just didn't feel like I was worthy. So if that was me and I could maybe share a film and somebody like me who thought, who might think that this is not possible for somebody like me, can watch that film and dream like I did. And then maybe somehow the stars align and they work their ass off and they get this opportunity, maybe that could happen. and maybe I could be part of that special journey for somebody else.

So I've really wanted to share a film from hunting this, this incredible country with these amazing people. And Tanner was able to come and we were able to get the opportunity to do that. So, Cowboy, I've hunted with Cowboy two years down there. And then Randy was his Kipp's guide down there. Randy Hopkins, I love him. Cowboy, Irwin is his real name, but we call him,

cowboy just great guys great you know they're a part of the patchy tribe there and just you can't get you can't find better people so uh there's a place i like going it's very remote for that country that the reservation is 1.8 million acres a very rugged country limited amount of elk tags there even for the for the tribal members and then non tribal members get the same amount of tags I believe as the tribal members do. But still, it's not a ton of tags. You know, they have cow hunts, have deer hunts, they have bear hunts,

have different hunts, but sheep hunts even. And the elk hunt are pretty tightly regulated because it's trophies. You know, they're trying to get old bulls. They want to kill old giant bulls, and that's what I love to hunt. So it was perfect.

But there's this place that I call the glory hole, and it's just deep canyon. And every time I've, I've went there, I've just been like, you know, it's a walk to get down in there. But it's, it just feels magical. I mean, it's just the word I want to use. It feels magical. And it's just, I think about that place or a place like that.

You know how you always have, you know, I wonder what's over that ridge. Is it the promised land? Is it, are, would there be bowls down there that nobody's ever seen? And normally to do that, I'd have to go, you know, further back in the Eagle Cap wilderness or in these, or Roy and I would hunt. And in Alaska it was like, where could we get as far away from people where we could hunt animals

that have never seen another man? And maybe we could, you know, just experience these incredible experiences and see these animals that maybe nobody's ever seen. So that's always the goal, right? No matter what the situation is or where the country is

or where I'm hunting, Africa was the same way, Australia was the same way. It's like, how do we get remote? how do we get to where nobody else wants to go? That's always the goal, no matter where I'm hunting. So here, I always thought the glory hole was that place. And I've just been drawn to that hole and just getting down in there.

And we got to the top of the ridge there one afternoon. I don't know, a few days into the hunt, had some close encounters, but the wind was kind of screwed up. You know, it's just bow hunting. but late one afternoon we got to the edge there and we're looking down over the glory hole here this big giant bull rip off down down the draw this other one from over the spine ridge they both sounded like big mature bulls right you can't see them but you can hear and you know I mean if you if you heard a big bull bugle um you know what that sounds like and you know what a

small bowl sounds like sometimes they could trick you but these sounded like Definitely shooter bowls. So I said, I asked everyone, I said, hey, can we drop down in this thing? I mean, are we good to do this? We can dive off. I said, I think we got time to get in on this bowl. You know, it's, we had a little,

we had like an hour and maybe 15 minutes. So if we bombed down off the top and everything worked out good, you could kill a bull in that that amount of time. So we bombed down off there and unbelievably, it probably took like, God, I don't know, it didn't take super long to get down there. If you're focused on just diving off the edge,

maybe 20 minutes to get down, got down to the bottom and still is up the drop from where the Bulls be going, but got down the bottom and I started, there's a trail along the, the creek is dried up during September, but there's a trail along the creek because I've been down in there before. So I wanted to get over to that trail. Well, I start to walk over to that trail.

I look up and I just stop. And it's like here, there's a bull walking up the creek, the dried creek. And he's on that trail I wanted to get over to. So I, it's like, I mean, he, I look, he looks like a freaking giant bull. I look back at Irwin because there, you know, I'm not, you know, I haven't, I've killed one 400-inch bowl, but, you know, this is a guy. I would kill, I'd go in the eagle calf. And if it was like a five-point bull, I'm going to kill that thing, right? So I'm not this big trophy hunter.

When I go to these different places, I have to readjust what I think is a trophy. And like now it's like now I know what an old bull is, but I'm still not like a 400-inch bull. Shit, I don't know. I mean, I got a pretty good idea, but I'm not the best at these giant bulls. So I look back at Irwin and I was just like, I thought it was a shooter because it looked giant. I'm looking at it right here and it still looks freaking giant. But I just want to make sure I don't want to be the last thing you want to do is be shooting the wrong bulls at these premium or these incredible places. So I looked back and I was like,

you know, he was back behind me, but I was like, shooter. And he's just like kind of said up to you. I'm like, okay, if it's up to me, he's freaking shooter. So this bull comes out and I stop him at 37 yards. And I hit, you know, if you saw the film, I hit a little bit to the right, I think upon reflection. I thought I smoked him right then. I mean, when he ran. off the blood looked perfect where it was but full penetration arrow blew through and i expected the bowl to run up and just pile up 50 yards but he went up and he just he stopped then he kept going up the hill like what the heck he got up there about a hundred yards away i'm glassing he's standing standing standing i'm like what so i think if you look at the shot on film it looks like the there's brush

on the left and i think i subconsciously cheated to the right of the brush from where I stopped him with that I made another like that and I think I just hit slightly to the right and maybe he was cordering a little bit to me. I don't know. But it went in perfect and I think it came out, it came out a little back. So I got this near side lung and his liver and it came out. And consequently you get one lung and liver. It's going to take a little bit. So he went up, bedded down. I hated seeing him up there suffer. Nothing makes me, I mean, nothing makes me feel, it just kills me.

I just, whatever. I might be getting soft back when I was a kid. I didn't give a shit about anything. I didn't think about anything. I just thought, yeah, we kill him. That's what we do. But now I just don't like to see him suffer. So I'm watching this bull and he's laid down and this bear comes over the hill.

This bear goes right below him and gets him up. And I'm like, oh my God. Now, now when an animal gets adrenaline, even though they're this close to death, when they get adrenaline, freaking everything changes. So he got a shot of adrenaline, got up, only made it about 30 yards and laid back down. So I told Tanner, I'm like, I got to get this mess cleaned up. I'm going to take my boots off right here. I'm going to sneak up here.

I got to get another aerolinum. And I sneak up, take the boots off, sneak up. And as I'm getting out there, another bull, that other bull, I think this beautiful. and came over the ridge and he was like he had some extras and he was a nice bull he wasn't as big as the bull I killed but he came right down to me bugling and this bull was within 70 yards of me and him and bugling I'm like god this is just going to be all fucked up he ended up seeing me and spooking and when he spooked my bull still didn't move I'm like okay well that's a good sign that he's weakening or he's pretty weak if he's not going to react even that so I get up range him

72 yards. He's bedded. I have a wide open shot. And it's just like I felt so much pressure to make a good shot because again, once that adrenaline surges, you might think they're this close to death. That shot of adrenaline, they can go. Right. So I'm like, if I rattle one off the brush or fuck up this shot and it's getting dark right now, who knows? Who knows what the hell's going to happen? So I was like, felt so I felt more pressure on that shot than the first shot. So I'm like, I can't screw this up. 72 yards it's not a chip shot i could definitely screw this up a 72 year shot so i'm like focus focus just breathe please relax focus focus pick a spot and just freaking smoked him smoked him right here he he bombed over the little ridge there and then died right down the creek he went about still went

about 100 yards i think so he had some fight left in him but he died quickly there and then the best best part of that hunt was we me and tanner got to work on them uh break him down there moon was coming up it's just a beautiful night just a such a powerful experience and just to be able to share that with with tanner was very special um and then we took out we got a we took out meet that night and then i had the i hung the quarters up down that creek bottom in the wind that the there and it was dark. So I left my coat there and I think a shirt just for scent so that hopefully that bear wouldn't come back. And then we went back in there at first light the next morning and got the head and the rest of the meat.

So everything was fine. Nothing got on it. And it's just the best meat of any of the bulls I kill is the best meat is that San Carlos bowl. It's always the best. I don't know what it is. But just an incredible hunt. incredible memories so thankful so to the people of san carlos apatri reservation thank you nothing but love and respect um thank you for the opportunity to hunt that i know that incredible magical elk country

and i know how much it means to the tribe and i try to honor that with everything i share and every word i speak and every memory i have so thank you i appreciate you guys Um, so pulled out of there, everything was going good, uh, felt, you know, wasn't a perfect shot. Had to two arrow kill, but, you know, that's about hunting sometimes. So back to Oregon, back to Oregon to try to clean up the mess that I left there. You know, with that, I made a poor shot on that bowl. And what I'll say about this one is, let's just call this the destiny, destiny bowl. I was, I mean, so this was, it's been a long season.

I'm not going to complain. Because if I complain, people would be like, shut the fuck up. You got to do all these huts. What do you? You're tired? Come on. But I was, it's a lot. I'll just say, it's a lot to travel and to, as I said, I put pressure on myself.

There's pressure on every moment to try to overcome. and not make mistakes. And I was, I was worn down and filming is a whole other challenge. So I know Tanner, Tanner, he would never say he's tired, but maybe he was too. And it's all good though, because I'm back to Oregon. This is the last Elkhine of the year. And I had like, I think three, or maybe four days. I think four days to finish it off. And the dream team down there for me is I spent a lot of time between this elk hunt and then other deer hunts down there. We had Ron Hofsus, which is, you know, Ron is the reason why I'm able to hunt there. He's an old logger from down there.

Don't not old per se, Ron, but like a long time longer. How about that? I love Ron. I love his wife, Kaleen and son Ryan and daughter, everybody. This is the best family. Bubba, Shorb, also is always. down there he's also down to glass or try to help find bowls or whatever we need down there drive rigs uh baba love him k a of course is always down to go to powers oregon and hunt

uh kevin acres again one of my can always count on him love him like a brother he's so fun to have around and then tanner so that's the dream team oh you know tanner had wrote notes for me here so the honorable mentions are dave also helped but uh Then I also mentioned Kaleen and Ryan. So Dave, he likes to go glass to hang out with Ron. And he's, I think he grew up there in Powers also. But a great guy. So I was, I had been after a big bull down there.

So once we figured out that my bull, you know, wasn't a fatal wound, the arrow didn't penetrate the chest cavity and didn't get any vital organs. It was like superficial. Then I was focused on, you know, this big bull, right? and just wasn't meant to be whatever just tried could not could not get this bull to cooperate so while we were working on this bull Kevin spotted some elk way up on the hill just upper unit like shoot I would say a mile and a half two miles away and we couldn't tell what they were but one big light body elk was on the left side of the herd up there and there's about maybe eight total so seven cows and calves and then a light colored body on the left.

So we're thinking, that's got to be a bull. Let's get up there. So we get all the way up there. I didn't take my pack because I said, I'm going to go light and fast because it's getting late morning, right? And those, I didn't think those elk were going to be out very long. So I wanted to try to, it took a while to get up there. So I wanted to take advantage of that opportunity.

So we hustle. Hustle up there, get out there, spot. And then there's cows bedded and the bull. saw the bull at that time the light colored and it was a nice bull and he was up so he's still on the left side so then i have to the road it's a logging road and it goes around it dead ends out there on a landing but it goes around right below him but i'm like if i go that way i'm exposed that whole way coming down the hill so i decided to need to fall off the back of the landing we were on glassing from circle around below stay in the the bottom of this long

logging unit with all these, you know, all the slash stuff that they left, all the stuff from limit out the, the trees they took out of there, just a big mess down there. But I figured we'd be out of sight at that time and the wind would be in our favor. So we'd stay low, the pop up on that road instead of staying on the road all the way to the right, but pop up on it. Then I had a landmark that picked this big black stump. And I was, I, you know, never explained to Tanner, but that was my goal. if I could get to that black stump and he could be behind me, then I could sneak down the road, then hopefully kill that bull.

So we did that. It took like, I would say, maybe half hour to do all that. So then I get over there and then the road is kind of high. So we got to really lay down because we're in the eyesight of those bulls or the cows that were bedded. The bull couldn't see us. But had to lay down and just kind of,

inch across right where the right side of the road, the near side of the road kind of went high. So that was a high point. When we came up out of that unit, we had to get right over that high point. Then once we dropped down, we're kind of in the ditch on the other side. Then we could stay behind the cut bank.

But that was a bad spot right there. So we get over that undetected, everything perfect. So then I'm sneaking, easing down the road, arrow knocked. And I get around and I see, okay, there's a bull. Glass of, yeah, he's pretty nice. He's a nice bull, nice Roosevelt. So I arranged him. I'm like, God, that's too far. So sneak down the road, down the road, I'm using this cut bank. On the film, it looks like him in the wide open, but from his view, I'm not in the white open. And again, if you're not moving, you can get away with a lot, full camo. So I'm sneaking around,

looks wide open, not wide open. I got the, there's like kind of the, not the cup bag itself, but where the bank is cut out of that little rise right there is blocking me a little bit. Finally, I get to where, okay, this is crunch time. Now I can step out and I am exposed, but I haven't moved. I range them. Still long shot, but within my effective range. So I feel good about it. But it's a shot I got to really focus on.

So I come back. He sees something there, but he didn't. know what because then I wasn't moving and Tanner was still he wasn't exposed at all he's still filming and he could still film me in the bull but while still kind of blocking most his body and uh but I was just standing still he's standing there he had a I remember a piece of brush he's eating some I don't know what he's eating there but uh he had something he was eating and uh I just picked a spot shot hit him perfect absolutely pinwheeled him. I went to down this old fire trail along the timber and then went over the edge and I'm like I'm sure he's he

went down right there that had that was like a picture perfect shot um so we go find find the bull he's down quickly and the crazy part of this is is uh I went down to him and I noticed this there's a mark on him like right here and it looked like an old it didn't even look like a a real wound it looked like maybe a stick and jabbed him. And, you know, I was like, that's kind of weird. So we were, as I said, it's a long season. We're done.

We filmed the recovery. We filmed kind of starting to break him down. Cameras are put away. It's been a grind, right? And we were done telling the stories. Like, that's a wrap. Let's just get this bull broke down. I'm happy, you know, whatever, we got him killed.

And I'm cutting this bull and there's a piece of carbon, like up, kind of by his backstrap. And I was like, where is a, why is a shard of cart? How does this get here? I hit him perfect down, or on this side. This carbon is on this side. And I'm like, what is going? How is this here?

So then I start digging around, cutting around, and I start hitting something. And it's my freaking broadhead from two and a half weeks earlier. It's the same bowl that I had hit that went up the hill, one drop of blood. same bowl had my broadhead that big carnivore stuck right up here like right at the right where his rib hits the um kind of where the backstrap is that thick part right there so i had hit high just like i thought i don't know i think he might have dropped when i shot but it was the arrow had broke because i got the rest of the arrow on that the first time when i hit him and that broadhead was just buried in there you couldn't even it wasn't no infection no it looked like nothing.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's a big broadhead. And it had didn't, of course, didn't penetrate his cavity, just like I figured. That's what the blood trail told us. So I wasn't a surprise there. But I was surprised that there was not even a barely a mark on his hide. And this bull was, you know, had a whole herd two and a half weeks later. None of the worst for where. So freaking tough. But so that's what we call this the destiny bull. That was the bull I was meant to kill. I hit him. And two and a half weeks later, I killed him. And he was. 100% healthy, everything fine, made a perfect shot, that second opportunity I got at him. And then the best part of this hunt, the very best part, of course, sharing it with people I care about. But the next morning, eating those tenderloins for breakfast is just, you know, I stay in this cabin down there and Tanner and Kevin were there. We're cooking up tenderloins. And it's truly, you know, Tanner's notes here put it perfectly. He says the simple life of elk hunting. No service on the phones. The phones don't work. We're listening to college football on the radio and we're eating elk tenderoings from a bull I just killed. And it's like if I don't know

how life can get any better than that. To me, that's just a beautiful existence. You could take all the shit away right here, everything away. You could take whatever I don't even care. I would have a Toyota two-wheel drive truck, but maybe a four-wheel drive, and live in a cabin and do that and just be as happy as a pig and shit. I'll tell you what, I don't need much. I'm simple. Like anything extra I have, I spend on hunting and just going on better, on cooler, better hunt. So that simple life of elk hunting, God, there's nothing I'd rather do. So for the most part, as I said, that's a Super Bowl for me. That's

September. It just, yeah, ups and downs. The life of a bow hunter is less it's tough to be perfect. I'm not perfect. So I'm very thankful I was able to get the four bulls killed. You know,

a couple bucks. A couple bears. Coyote, all that. You know, it's and people will say whatever they want about hey, do you need to kill that much? Yeah. I mean, I provide we eat meat. I eat wild game meat three times a day. My whole family does.

I love sharing wild game. A lot of people I know don't hunt. Like my old coworkers where I took meat today, they don't hunt. They love to taste wild game meat. They love, you know, as a hunter, I'm a provider. Hunters have always been providers for their communities. Not everybody in the community hunted. Hunters would go out, get food and kills for the rest of them to sustain them.

So that's what I still do. And people will say, well, do you need that many or do you whatever? I hunt. It's like saying, it's like saying, you know, does an insurance salesman need to sell more insurance or does a builder need to build more houses? That's what they do. Well, Bowen is what I do. So, yeah, there is no too much for me.

It's like, this is what I do. This is what I'm going to do. None of that, not an ounce of this meat is going to go to waste. It's going to be valued. It's going to be shared. It's going to be cherished. And it's, that's either through. with my own family, my extended family, my friends,

Eugene Mission here, people in need who need meat, I provide. That's what I do. So you can put whatever you limit, whatever limits you want on whoever you want, those limits don't apply to me. Okay? That's what I'm going to do. And just, just know, none of it's going to be wasted. And I understand there's people who might have something to say about that.

And it's like, yeah. And it's probably because, I don't know, maybe you don't kill shit. Maybe you're jealous. Maybe you don't have to have the luxury of being able to provide and share your kills with somebody else because you're not getting it done. So I guess maybe you should focus on yourself. Maybe you should have more success and you wouldn't worry about my success, right? Or maybe if you are successful and you just have a different mindset, that's okay too. I can respect that.

I'm not telling you what to do. I'm not, if you're happy with not succeeding, great. I'm happy for you. If you're happy with succeeding and not sharing any and keeping it in all yourself and you only need, you know, like a deer or two deer and an elk and that's all you need for your family, great. I respect that. Congratulations. I'm glad you're happy. I want everybody to be happy.

This is a free country. We are, we, you know, operate our own free will. I pay for my hunts. I pay for these opportunities. This is my whole life. This is what I do. None of the kills go to waste. This is how it's going to be.

So love it or hate it. I'm not judging you. You can judge me. I love it. Appreciate it. But I just want you to know where I stand on that. So we're just going to go through this real quick. We're about, as I said, September's the name of the game for me.

But I was able to, I love, you know, I don't rifle hunt myself. To me, I go on a lot of hunts where it's any weapon. It's just I'm only a bow hunter. And I'm not judging anybody. You want to use a rifle? Great. I love going in rifle. It's not, not for me. I love accompanying people. Because I like people achieving their, seeing people achieve their goals. And I love, you know, when people succeed at a hard-earned goal, it's like to share in that is so valuable. And it's like so meaningful to me. So I take people on rifle and it's just because I love hunting. I just love to be out. You know, I don't necessarily have to kill. I'm not, I'm not, you know, I'm not bloodthirsty, but I like to, I like to hunt. I like being in the woods.

So I took Truitt. He came, flew over here from Utah after he set the world record in pull-ups, 8,100 pull-ups. It has since been broken, but we, whatever, he had it for a period of time. He got the official Guinness Book World's Record Certificate, so very proud of him for that. That was a great accomplishment, something he's been working towards. So as a celebration, he came out here and we're going to do a little deer hunt. And he came out. It was a first morning hunt with a rifle.

He used K.A.'s rifle. Was it K.E.'s rifle? Yeah. He used Kevin's rifle and made a great shot at about 200 yards, I think, kind of quartering two. We got that one on film. We released that. It was just a good, just a good time. He was able to put that buck on his shoulders and pack it out,

which is, you know, that's like, what would that be? Kind of a right of passage, I think. When you can get an animal killed, throw it over your shoulders in the mountains and pack it out. For a man, that means something. And so I think we need to do stuff like that. And I think he needs to do stuff like that. He hasn't hunted maybe as much as we have. He's been focused on, you know, school and then work and then, you know, world records and all that.

So it's he needs to get out there, get bloody, get some kills on the ground. And that's part of, you know, developing as a man. It's like I'm, I love sharing. I shared that elk hunt with him. Then I shared this deer hunt with him. And of course, he's my son. So I love him. And I love seeing him succeed. And I love seeing him get out of his comfort zone. And he was packing that buck out of that hole that he killed in. And that gave me great pride. Because as I told him, It gets tough. It's packing an animal over your shoulders is not easy, especially super steep country. I think he's wearing vans or some fucking stupid shoes like that. And so it's frustrating at times, but I just had to remind him how lucky we are, how lucky we are that we know what the hunting lifestyle is because there's a lot of people who watch maybe your Instagram or your social media and they know nothing about hunting. They haven't been exposed to the hunting lifestyle at all.

And they feel like as a man, they feel like they're missing out. So I had to remind him that, hey, do you know how fortunate we are that this is what we do? This is our life. We're able to go into the mounds. We're able to kill an animal. We're able to throw it over our back and pack it out, process this animal, and we're going to eat it. That is, that means something. That's not, you know, fuck.

Yeah, go get a college degree. That's awesome. That's a great accomplishment. This, to me, this means just as much, maybe more. because hunters and hunting are why we're all here. You know, none of us who, nowadays you don't need to hunt to exist, but this has only been very recent.

In the not too distant past, if you couldn't hunt or you didn't know somebody who would hunt and give you meat to provide for you, you weren't going to survive. So it's an important skill set, and it's one that we need to honor and cherish and pass on. So it feels good for me as a dad to pass this lifestyle onto my sons and explain why it's important and explain just just why we need to have so much reverence for the experience.

And so it was a good opportunity to talk to him about that. And of course, he understands that. He's not a dumb kid. He gets it. It's just it can be frustrating trying to get a buck out of a hole and uh that's good because we need that we need we need challenges in our life um also after that i took cat bradley and you probably listen to we had a podcast i haven't done a film on that one yet but cat bradley is an elite ultra runner this is her first oregon buck and uh first buck actually and she i i love these ultra running girls i love that they're so freaking tough but it's like this weird dichotomy. They're so tough, but also so like free-spirited and nice. I mean, like I talk about Sally and Courtney and Kat. And it's weird. It's weird that you look at them

and you think that, oh, my God, look at these, you know, these incredible women. They're so, you know, I don't know, just like happy, easygoing, but then also just ruthless competitors in the mountains when they're running. So cats, you know, Just like the other two girls, just like she's one of my favorites. And she just totally was immersed in the experience. And it was so special to share that with her. And I've talked to her recently. And she said she's been eating that deer every day since she got home.

So I sent it to her. She lives in Hawaii. I sent it back there to her. And so now I think that was like at least a week after she got the meat. She'd been eating her buck meat every day. So how special is that? Yeah. And so to wrap up my season as far is just Oregon late season Blacktail.

And, you know, it's what I grew up doing. I love Western Oregon. That's why I love sharing it with people like Kat, Truitt, whoever else. Tanner, I love sharing what I grew up doing. And I love people to see why it means so much to me hunting this logging country. for these big black tail bucks. And again, if you grew up in the Pacific Northwest, Oregon, you know what a special animal, a blacktail deer is.

And so if you don't, if you didn't grow up here, you probably don't care about them because they're probably are small. They're probably whatever. They're not that appealing. But for us here in western Oregon, man, a big black tail means a lot. So I've always had a job, right? So I've always been stretched on time.

I don't really, this is my job, if you can believe it now, which is weird. But normally I would have a few decent bucks. And the first of my decent box that would come in, you know, this is a new stand site we set up. Me and my buddy, Chad, and Tanner went and set this up. And I was really confident with this setup. It's so perfect. There's something so fun about setting up this tree stand. and or set up a new stand site because you're just imagining what might happen, what trails would work, where these bucks might come from.

So I set up this new stand. And I had like a couple good bucks on there. Chad and I have, it's called SpyPoint Camera. So they come in, sell. We're always getting pictures and it's so fun. It's like addicted to getting these buck pictures. But there was just like this big, I think he was a three by two. And he was old, beautiful buck, beautiful throat patch, everything.

Normally, when that buck came in on a normal year, when I had to get back to work because they don't give a shit about my hunting dreams, they just wanted me at work. I would have probably shot that buck. And he was in there the first day I think, or maybe the second day I sat, maybe not the first day. First day was terrible, windy. Bucks don't like being in the wind. But the second day he came in.

And I was like, God, that's a nice deer. But there was a definite shooter coming in, a big four point. And that's, that was really the number one buck. He hasn't been in very often, though. He only in, I think, two times. And so that buck, I let him go. And then I think the next day or the day after, and I was sitting every day, windy, they don't like the wind and the rain blowing around.

It's like too much shit moving around. They can't smell. Everything's moving. Their eyes don't work that well because there's movement everywhere. So they feel pretty nervous. So it wasn't getting a lot of activity. But finally, the weather laid down or the wind laid down. And then I had like this big wide three point come through.

And he was this close to being shot. I mean, it was even when he walked by, I was just like, holy shit, how, why did I pass up that buck? That was a big frame three by three heavy, old. buck and i didn't i took got a quick little video of him he would just look and branched and i was kind of seeing where these bucks were coming by licking on there and uh or rubbing their faces on it and uh i didn't know if i made a mistake but i'm like well i know he wasn't the number one buck and i you know kind of had my heart set on the number one buck you sent me the video what you sent me that

video and i was like did you shoot that oh i know yeah i said to hand or the video of the three point yeah and And he thought there's no way I would have passed that buck up. And because I said it to him from the stand. And it looked big walking away. I mean, didn't he look white as shit walking away? And so I was, that was a hard one because he was like a dream black tail.

And didn't kill anything that day. Next day, uh, we think. Yeah, next day I get in the stand. And, You just never know.

This year, the season was started so late. So now we're like missed the peak of the rut. Bo hunt, archery hunters did. Rifle hunters got the peak of the rut. So all these giant bucks got killed, which sucks. But they pushed our season back a week. So we were way late on this hunt. And I was like, God, is this rut going to end up screwing me?

And I'm not going to get a chance at this giant buck. And he hadn't been in. He hadn't been in. And shit, I think probably close to a week. And so I was, you know, whatever. It's like that's the name of the game. You pass up bucks is a chance that you're not going to kill, you know, if you're being too picky. But sure as anything, I look over, got in the stand.

I think it was probably about 8.30, maybe 9 o'clock. Maybe it was 9 o'clock. Yeah. And I look over. So I get in, I usually get in like 14. 45 minutes before light. And so I'd been in probably for three hours at this time. And I look over and here comes this buck.

And I was like, oh, my God, that's my number one buck. And he comes down. And the funny part is, is he stops quartering away is like 15 yards. And I had just switched to these old blitz broadheads the night before. Because I'm like, I've just been overthinking all this stuff. I got this new bow set up. I'm like, God, do I want to use it expandable? I don't know.

Maybe I don't. So then I had an iron wheel on there, which are good heads. But I like a, you know, an iron will penetrate really good. They, it's more of a slit as opposed to a hole from what I've seen. I've killed a few animals with them. They're great broadheads. I'm not taking anything away. But in my overanalyzation of being a psycho bow hunter, I was like, I want to be, I remember

these bliss. I bought these. They quit making these probably 15 years ago. But this is all I used to shoot Blitz. And then I shot Muzzy Trocar. Or no, then I shot G5 Montec. And then I shot Muzzy Trocar for years. But it started with the Blitz.

And I loved how these, I don't know if you can see, but they like, this shows that they spin because these blades are offset. The Muzzy Troll cars were kind of designed just like this. But it's like they went like this. They opened a huge wound channel. That's what I remember. So I'm like, I'm going to break out the old blitz from 15 years ago.

Because, you know, I don't, again, I have some sponsors. I don't give a shit about being sponsored by, uh, I just want stuff that's going to help me kill, right? And so, yeah, I could get a broadhead sponsor and probably make some decent money. I don't care. I don't care. Because when I want to switch, I mean, my bow, I definitely believe in my holy bow. and that's whatever. That's just because I shoot it all the time.

You could probably believe in another bow just as much. But I'm not going to switch bows like this because I just shoot that bow right there. Like every day and I got so much confident in this brand new thing right here. So yeah, I'm not going to switch this out like the night before a hunt for sure.

But I put this blitz broadhead on and that buck came by, stopped at like 15 yards. ever I stopped him with a little grunt full draw whack and uh you know happened quick and I was like god I think that one I think that hit good

so I'm glassing I'm trying to look at my is my arrow down there couldn't see my arrow and he took off down this old skid road and he took off like a bat out of hell which is a good sign but usually they do when you hit him with an arrow um I could hear for a little bit but it's a little pretty wet from being rainy and windy. And so super muddy and wet, so you can't really, it's not like you can hear brush breaking.

So I give it some time. Then I'm, you know, maybe 15 minutes. And then I get down and I go over. My arrow is just buried. Yeah, it's this arrow right here. This arrow is buried in the dirt. It goes up to, looks like about right there. And then, of course, full blood.

all the way through. So full penetration, the blitz, just hammered. This is on the Eastern Pro Comp. Great arrow, obviously. You want an arrow that flies, hits hard, flies true. This does, but that bow's tuned perfectly. And then, of course, you got to have, have it led by a good broadhead. And they don't make these anymore. I wish they did. I have like three more packages of them. But yeah, this buck, he went down the road. went down probably made it 40 yards piled up dead he's a big uh big four point so this is a buck uh Cameron saxon who did this European amount for me he boiled this out but he scored him at 124 which is a pretty nice blacktail you know uh I think the awards book and boon and crock it's

He's 1.25. So he's just under that. I mean, if this side, if this side match this side, yeah, he'd be like over 130. But he's just a good old, just a perfect Valley buck. You know, I mean, those high country bucks get a little bigger. But for the Valley, this is a really good buck. I just love his character. I love his dark horns, his big eye guards, big kind of, kind of white eye guards. And then just a big, you know, nice four point. So. That was the number one buck I had coming in. That's the buck I wanted to kill and I got him killed. And he just got a lot of character and I couldn't be happier.

So that's my season thus far. And I think unless I go kill a lion in Colorado, which I want to because they're probably going to outlaw it because they're making about every bad decision they can between wolves, lions and trying to control the election, presidential election too. So I need to go over there and kill a lion. I've never killed one.

Need to do that because this might be the last year for Colorado lion. But other than that, I think I'm done. So then it's just a matter of see what next year, you know, Lord willing, I'll be out chasing elk again next September. But life's not guaranteed. So we gave it all we had this season. And that's a result. Those are the stories.

Those are the lessons learned. That's my perspective. Tanner never shut me down, so hopefully this doesn't have to be edited. Maybe this could just go just like I said it. And even without a babysitter cutting me off, I didn't say anything too stupid. So thanks for listening in. This is the first solo podcast on the Keep Hammering Collective. And I just want to walk through my hunts with everybody and share what I learned.

And appreciate you listening. Keep hammering. Hoyt Archery has been my bow hunting sponsor since 2005. And personally, I really don't care what bow you shoot, what brand it is. I just hope that you have the same level of confidence in your equipment as I have in mine. Because I know if I get one opportunity with my Hoyt, it's going to pay off. One of my favorite packages that I get on a monthly basis is the Black Rifle Coffee Club exclusive coffee roast. The only way you can get it is if you subscribe to the coffee club.

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