The Final Chapter: #Freemericanmikecampaign

Speaker 2: 0:21

Welcome back to the Grand State Outdoors in the podcast presented by Boondocks Hunting. I'm your host, mike Nitro.

Speaker 1: 0:27

I'm Peyton Smith.

Speaker 2: 0:29

Justin Devlin will be on later. He's leaving campus right now and he'll be jumping on a little late. But listen, we got a big one. So we haven't done any interviews during the year. We've been doing weekly updates and we got a special one for you guys the final chapter in the Free American Mike campaign, and we waited specifically for this moment. But a return back to the deer hunting woods. I mean, honestly, we've talked about a little bit. You know, in a few episodes we talked about it last episode that we just dropped 138.

Speaker 2: 1:09

The rut madness with Dave and Kyle, Hell of a season. You know I got to give it to you Absolutely. You know you accomplish one, a goal that you've been after for a very long time. Yeah, You've gotten a couple of does and then you got yourself a really, really nice buck I mean just shy underneath chubs, and I know he wasn't the buck that you're after, but I think the story and the fact of just how it went down made it just so memorable. And you still get to chase that buck, you know, probably during six day and winter bows. So there's still some time left. But American Mike welcome. That was our longest intro.

Speaker 3: 2:03

Well, thank you. A pleasure to be back, and this time we're back with a story to tell it. Definitely.

Speaker 2: 2:12

The smile has gotten bigger on Mike as each episode. You know when we're in the summer like it was there but we still fully weren't there. And now it seems like full hunting mode, like Mike's been grinning ear to ear excited for this one. So how's it feel?

Speaker 3: 2:29

Oh man it. There's no words that can explain how it feels to be back. Like I was telling Mike, we talk daily and just if you asked me, like a week ago, how does it feel to be back, I would be like this is fucking shit. I'm fucking frustrated, the deer aren't moving. This isn't working. You know you're putting all this time, effort and money and if you asked me a week ago I would have told you that I don't even think I like this anymore. But no, that's all bullshit. I love it, man. It was. It was definitely earned.

Speaker 3: 3:06

This year for me I feel like I busted my ass, taking days and days off from work. I'm pinching and scrunching my PTO just to make it out to beer camp in December. I'm constantly out there. I'm sleeping on friends' couches, trying to stay out there to save money on gas.

Speaker 3: 3:25

You know I took a lot, of a lot of I don't know what you'd call it cutbacks. I guess I don't know. I mean I drive a freaking Chevy Silverado. That thing drinks gas. So driving to and from my lease property to Jersey City it's it's better for me to just stay out there on somebody's couches, what I've been doing. Big shout out to James, opening his doors to me and letting me stay on his couch and shower at his house, and thank God, I got an eight foot bed pickup truck to store all the clothes and gear that I needed. But it feels really, really, really fucking good to be back, especially with a buck, some doughs and a beer under my belt. And this is only the beginning, man, like they were only halfway through the season. There's a lot more to go.

Speaker 2: 4:15

Yeah, no, definitely. So you know, with all that excitement, take us back to you know your first moment stepping out, or actually the day before opening day, like, or the week prior, like, was it starting to get to you? Or any anxiety, any jitters, like you know. Take us through the process. You know, right before you know, you got out into those woods and we're legally around, allowed to, on your opening day, which was only a week, a week or two weeks after, it was exactly 10 days, okay, so 10 days after our season officially opened. You know your opening, opening day, like, lead us up to that time.

Speaker 3: 4:55

So I went to the lodge to stay at the lodge, because we threw a big ass welcome back party up there. And midnight I kept emailing. Prior to that day I kept emailing the state like, hey, I'm supposed to get my license back on the 22nd. I want to make sure that I don't have to take a test again, I don't have to sign some papers, I don't have to be released or some shit. I want to make sure that on the 22nd itself I can get my license and go to the woods. They said everything should be loaded on the website on the 22nd. So literally I'm sitting there at midnight on the 21st refreshing the page, refreshing the page and it finally showed up all my licenses and everything was back. And to see it back in person I'm not going to lie I got a little emotional to think like, okay, I'm fucking back. Man, I could legally go out there and do what the fuck I've been wanting to do for the past two years, instead of just sitting there with a camera in my hand or trying to like tell Sam how to move. And you know, now I could do it for myself. I felt like at one point Sam was a part of me because there was for opening day for her, for her dough. I'm like telling her, I'm like you need to move, you need to adjust yourself. They're coming in from your right and she's not moving. So you know, we sit in those swivel chairs in the blind. So I'm legit moving her, propping the crossbow up for her, and I'm like they're going to walk right in front of you when they do shoot. And that's like it got exhausting after a while. At that point I'm not even enjoying it anymore because it's like I just want to shoot something.

Speaker 3: 6:33

So my first day back in the woods September 22nd itself was my dad's birthday and I dedicated that day to just hunt the whole entire day with him. So, whether dough came in, I'm giving him the first shot. I was giving him first shot from the beginning. And that morning we had two deer come in. I have this on video. We had two deer come in, two does come in and I'm telling him don't forget your safety, don't forget your safety, don't forget your safety. And the deer, like maybe 12 yards in front of us, he clicks the safety, click the deer fucking gone. They're gone, bro. They were gone. They heard that safety switch and they were gone. I'm like what the fuck? I'm like you would have shot one, the other one would have stayed right there. I would have shot, we would have doubled up. I'm like, all right, whatever. So we ended up taking the midday break. We go back in the evening and you know, you got to shoot a doe first and we get this trick and four pointer that just comes in and spends literally an hour and like 10 minutes in front of us that one of the farmers chased towards us because the farmers don't really want deer on the property and I'm guessing they don't know that we have to shoot a doe first. So they're like sitting there in their tractors watching us, waiting for us to shoot the thing, but we can't shoot it because you have to shoot a doe first. So my first day was dedicated to my dad. We ended up partying hard that night. I mean, I'm surprised.

Speaker 3: 8:03

I woke up the next morning, woke up the next morning and I was really late to the woods, but I told myself I've been waiting so long to do this. I'm going out there. I said, as hungover as I was, I went out there, I sat in the blind and I would say maybe an hour, hour and 15 went by and I had deer coming from the left, deer coming from the right, deer coming from across the park, the field. They were all just coming to me. It was to the point when I drew back on my doe I'm like which one do I shoot? They won't stay still. Which one? They're just not staying still.

Speaker 3: 8:36

I just chose one that was broadside, I let it fly and my first thing that I wanted to do was record it. So I grabbed my phone and I snapchatted it and that's what you guys saw was the deer running and she just flopped over right on video, which was pretty cool and from there I couldn't breathe, hyperventilating out the ass. Then I felt like I was talking to myself because there's no one there. I have no service. I'm like I'm like freaking the fuck out. I'm like I finally did it. I'm trying to send you guys Snapchat. It's not loading. I call my mom she doesn't answer. I call my dad he doesn't answer. I call my sister they don't answer. I'm like what the fuck is going on?

Speaker 3: 9:19

And it was a bunch of mixed emotions and I recorded majority of it just like a watch it again and like, to be honest, I was still really paranoid, because when I shot the deer, I walked up to it. I didn't even touch it. I walked up to it, I looked at it, I recorded it and I went to my truck and I started filling out paperwork right away. I didn't touch the deer. I didn't take a picture with the deer until I filled out paperwork. I was fucking paranoid as shit.

Speaker 3: 9:46

And even then I was in a zone that allows you to shoot two at a time and James is telling me like yo, sit there and shoot another one. I'm like bro, no, I just want to get this deer and go home, I just want to leave. I feel like a warden's going to fucking show up and give you a ticket for something Like I don't know. I was just fucking traumatized then. I just wanted to get out of there because I did what I went there to do and that was it. It's like okay, time to go. I'm good to go, let's, let's fucking go. And that was my first no.

Speaker 1: 10:13

You're hunting on your lease right.

Speaker 3: 10:15

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:16

And that's something that I've always been told growing up was just like get in and get out and don't spend a lot of time hanging out anyway. So you know it's good move to begin with. You just spend as less. Especially when you get your own like land to manage, I think it's important to spend as little time in there as possible.

Speaker 3: 10:30

So yeah, and as soon as I did leave as soon as I did leave to here. We're back there like, like nothing even happened.

Speaker 2: 10:40

That's. That's. That's funny, dude. This excitement, this energy that's pumping Like Mike's ready to run through a brick wall right now.

Speaker 3: 10:49

I can feel the pain at the side of my head.

Speaker 2: 10:53

Right, did you throw up on this one?

Speaker 3: 10:58

I gagged a little bit, I gagged Okay.

Speaker 3: 11:02

I think I remember you told me that so much adrenaline, it was a mixture of can't breathing and then, like I started to cry and like your stomach started to feel a little mixed up. That's like I told you guys the day I took my dad out. I don't know if I was nervous, I don't know if it was something I ate, I have no idea. First time I've ever shit in the woods, I I left him there and I'm telling him I'm going to the truck, I'll be right back. I go to the truck. I did what I had to do. I'm like let me go back into blind. I go back into, I'm walking to back and forth, back and forth, bro, back and forth and I'm sitting in the blind. I'm like, damn dad, I'm sorry, but I need to go again. So I run back across the field back to the truck and, oh man, my stomach was a knots that day. I don't know. I don't know what it was. I don't know if it was excitement or I have no idea.

Speaker 2: 11:58

You're going to say that, load out.

Speaker 1: 11:59

We talked about. I was going to say it's not my first time, but yeah, is that? Yeah, listen, the pack load out video. You got to put the, the Charmin or the dude wipes in your, in your pack.

Speaker 2: 12:11

They need to be no, we literally just talked about this.

Speaker 3: 12:16

Thank God, I keep. I keep wipes in my bag for Sam.

Speaker 2: 12:22

So, so another first. I'm going to give it to Mike. Another first, finally, because this has been a joke that we've been talking about probably for last how long has Frieza Filler's been been up and running? 2019, 2020. All right, so that this, this whole pooping in the wood thing, has been like this joke that we have, because Mike has and he always goes. I don't know how you do it. I just like I just like you just like just go, and I'm like, yeah, like when I got to go, like I just got to go, and like I've never understood, I don't know how you think the harder question would be yet avoiding, avoiding it entirely.

Speaker 2: 12:58

And I think the more challenging part and it's like but you know I don't have any problem with that it was the funny thing is, you know, and Mike can definitely tell you, every time he gets to PA, like the fresh air changes his bowel movements, like it does still, and like I, just like I, still, like I'm going over in my head, especially when you have like an all day sit, I'm just like there. There's like how, how does one not go to the bathroom? Like no, I could hold it, I.

Speaker 3: 13:29

I could hold it, but that morning, nah, I was not holding it there. There was something wrong with me that day.

Speaker 2: 13:37

Oh, our listeners are probably like what the hell is going on. They're talking about pooping. Yeah, all right. So we go from. You know, starting out, you started a little late, so you didn't have that much time. From your first dough to Black Bear, right. And I know your main focus and we talked about this on the last episode that we did together 100 percent. Your focus was on bear. Now we're, we're, we're at time. You know you put in your work. We all know what what you've done. If you don't know, listen, you just go to check out American Mike's Instagram, his YouTube, prior podcast episodes and Mike, from the very beginning, has talked, has talked about his love for Black Bear hunting, and not just Black Bear hunting, his love for the meat too. All right, your bear season Incredible. Let's go over that hunt right now. I mean a hell of a hunt, and I believe we did a bear episode where you did talk about it. For those who did not listen to that episode, let's, let's go over again. Your first Black Bear ever. Let's get it going.

Speaker 3: 15:02

That first Black Bear was One thing I didn't mention on. The other episode which I'll mention in this one was, I feel like that, that Black Bear was sent by my grandmother who I recently lost, last year, and the reason why I say that is because my parents went to go visit her graveyard that same day on Columbus Day, because she passed away October 5th. We were all busy, so they went to go visit her on that day, on Columbus Day, and my mom says she's standing there at the graveyard and she's talking to her mom like well, send your grandson a bear, he's out there for a bear, send him a bear. And by the time my parents got back home they got the call that I dropped the bear. And it's the cool thing is each year Jersey's bear tags that they put in the air is a different color, and my grandmother knows I love the color blue. My grandmother calls me boy blue, Hence that's my license plate. It says boy blue. My Jeep is blue. You get what I'm saying. So everything's blue. And what kind of pulled on the heartstrings a little bit was when I went to the check-in station and the tags that they put in the bear's air was blue. It was like holy shit, this was fucking meant to be. Yeah, so I give my bear hunt, screw all the work I put into it.

Speaker 3: 16:28

I feel like my grandmother sent me that bear because, like I said, we were sitting on the floor and I just told Sam I was like you know what? Let's stand up. Right now, it's about three o'clock, let's stand up. These bears are about to start moving. Let's get all of our stretching out now. So let's just stand up. And I feel like if I didn't stand up, I probably would have messed up that hunt, because when I stood up, I'm standing up backing a tree, I'm stretching, I'm stretching, I look over my shoulder and there's this big ass bear, just like scratching its back on a tree, about maybe 80, 90 yards away from me, and I'm like Sam, big bear, big bear, big bear. And I'm like you need to sit. You're in my way. You need to sit. I'm like I'm shooting this, you need to sit. And she's she's like slowly sitting down. I'm like sit faster, you need to sit now, sit now. So she sits down and everything's on the GoPro footage. You I literally turn on the GoPro and you could see the whole camera frame is just turning around because this bear is coming in from directly behind me.

Speaker 3: 17:31

The bear comes walking in and we sprayed ourselves down with glaze donuts, so I'm pretty sure he's coming into the glaze donut spray and I'm using the tree as a barricade. I'm peeking out to see how far he is. I'm moving back, I'm peeking out to see how far he is and comes in. Maybe about at 50 yards is when I was like okay, let me poke out a little bit more. And it just starts walking directly towards me, head on, walking towards me, nose down, just coming our way. I'm like, oh shit, let me draw back. I draw back. It's still walking. It's still walking. I'm saying to myself I think I shot it at like a solid 26 yards, like right under that 30 yard mark. And what was funny was like I'm like for dear you go man. I'm like how the fuck do you stop a bear? So I just, I was just like hey, and it stopped and I just let it fucking fly and watched it run and just died. It was.

Speaker 1: 18:29

I did find that that man will also stop a bear too. I'd stop. That's how I stopped my bear. But the video that you have and I was watching the video that Mike put on Instagram of him shooting the bear I'm like, oh sweetie, this is how he got his bear. And then just the him just going, hey, just like totally took me high and it's, it's a great harvest, is a great shot. But I just like couldn't stop talking about it, the, the, how you stopped it man.

Speaker 2: 18:57

just an absolute, perfect, just perfection. There isn't much to say. You know we did a full episode on it and everything like that about the bear hunt, but you know you get that done. So now you're on a roll. You're on a high right now. You know bear season finishes up. You know we're in that close to that mid October, so we're getting to go time. Bucks are going to start moving, firing up. When did he appear on your camera?

Speaker 3: 19:29

So the the buck that I'm after till this day. He appeared on camera October, like 29th, right before Halloween, kind of. He showed up on camera at nighttime and I'm telling myself, eh, it's nighttime, what? What picture? A nighttime picture means nothing to me, until a day a buck daylights, that that buck is basically irrelevant to me. When a buck shows up during daylight I'm like, okay, now I can go and chase him. So it was the night that was. It was a full moon night. This is how I can remember. It was a full moon night. I don't know if it was Saturday or what, but it was extremely hot that day. It was like 80 something degrees and I'm sitting in my hammock in the backyard swinging and I'm fucking like ah, this is nice to be home. You know it's, it's a beautiful day. Ain't no deer going to be moving.

Speaker 3: 20:21

James. James is out hunting with I think he was with his, his wife that day, or if he was hunting by himself, I'm not sure. But he's like why are you home? You need to be in the woods. I'm like, bro, enjoy bird watching, because that's all you're doing. You're not going to see anything out there. Dude, I get tacked cam notification. I look at it and it's the freaking monster that I'm after, bro. He's standing right in front of the camera with like about nine does around him and I'm like you got to be kidding me. I sent it to James. I'm like, yeah, you were right. You were right, my bad bro. And once, once he daylighted.

Speaker 3: 20:57

From that day I want to say I hunted like five days a week. After this guy I would legit take off like Monday, tuesday, come to work Wednesday, just to avoid that ride up, because if you, if you call out three days in a row, you get written up. So I'll come into work, leave the Thursday, friday, hunt the weekend, come back. I was working like one day a week, constantly, constantly. I wrote it down in my notes the amount of hours that I put into this deer and what days he showed up and where I saw him, what he was doing, whether he came in for food, whether he came in for does. I was writing it all down in the notes and, legit, the day before I shot my buck, I think I took a picture of like all the stats that I put into this deer, whether it's the money that was spent on bait or the apples and gas and toll and everything. I just had everything listed and I'm like you could see it in my face.

Speaker 3: 21:55

Everyone's like, damn, you know, it looks like you need a nap. I said I need more than a nap, I need a vacation from this, because at this point it's like mentally straining, because you're after this one fricking deer and he's just not giving you what you want him to give you, which is a perfect shot. The one day I saw him was the one day I expected not to see him. Every day you go into the woods you're like confident, like this is the day I'm going to shoot something. This is the day and the one day I go in there and I'm like, eh, I'm not going to see nothing, let me just sit anyway, because I had my cousin with me. He wanted to come out for the experience first time. You know, he just wanted to come out for the experience. So I'm like, okay, we're just going to sit, bro, if we see something, we see something. But I'm pretty sure we're not going to see something.

Speaker 3: 22:39

So my cousin goes dude, there's deer in the upper field. I'm like, really, I look. I'm like, all right, I pay it no mind. There's always deer in the upper field. They're just never in my field.

Speaker 3: 22:48

So I'm sitting back down. He's sitting where he could see straight out the window and I'm sitting where I could see, like I always send you guys a snapchat of the trailer. There's a trailer exactly 157 yards for me. So I'm sitting watching the trailer. Then he goes dude, I think this deer has antlers. I'm like, no, no way, let me see. So I'm looking, I left my binos in the truck, right. I'm looking. I'm like, give me the crossbow, I take the crossbow and I'm looking through the window. I'm like I'm looking through the scope as a, as a magnifier. I'm like, holy shit, dude, that's him, that is the buck that I'm after.

Speaker 3: 23:26

So now, at that point, I'm like let me rattle at him. I rattle, he looked over. But he's just like, with these two does just slowly fricking, cruising through the field. He's not trotting after them, he's just cruising through the field. And I got this on video also and I probably saw him for a solid 20 minutes. He walked all the way to that trailer. I got a good video of him hitting a scrape and he just followed those does right down the driveway and left the property and I'm like God damn it. And after that, after seeing him in person, I haven't seen him for a while and even the morning when I went out there to go and kill a buck, the only confidence that I had going out there in that morning was the guy that I met at the lodge that kept telling me that I need to go and hunt mornings.

Speaker 2: 24:21

This time of the year, mornings are crucial, crucial, those cold, frosty mornings. As much as it. Listen, I, I love hunting the morning. It's a love hate relationship, you know we're talking about. The other day, Mike, Mike literally texted in Texas. He goes is there something wrong with us? And I go, yes, I go. The fact that we're, we go out in cold weather, rainy weather, snow, whatever, to chase animals all day, there is something just wrong with us. Right, I could easily you know I'm not going to say what else I said but I could easily be in a warm bed right now, like relax and sleeping, you know, saving tons of money, everything like that. But no, like we love what we do, we're obsessed with it. And getting out in the morning, I love it. I love watching the sunrise. I just there's, there's nothing else about it. Like, I just love it. Dear moving, especially this time of the year. Like they are moving a lot in the morning, especially if you have a warm afternoon. Like I think it's even more crucial to be out in the morning if the afternoon is going to be, you know, a little little toasty and everything like that. So, um, your morning. I will never forget you.

Speaker 2: 25:45

I, I hunted the day before and it was my weekend to work and I switched my days to psych and I was like, all right, like I need to get out there Saturday. Like Saturday, I'm going to get out there, hunt all day Saturday, hunt all day Saturday, wake up for work on Sunday. And the minute I step out I'm like, damn, this would be a good day to be in the woods. And I'm telling you, maybe, like, maybe five minutes and I think five minutes might be pushing it I got a Snapchat from Mike with the bloody air or no big buck down BBD and it was the the you know, and I think it was either picture or video and I think it was shaking a little bit. But like the minute he sent, I'm like, oh, I'm like, I knew it, I knew it.

Speaker 2: 26:31

I was like, but damn it, I was literally saying the night before in the trade go, I hope someone kills, I hope Mike kills the day before so I can actually go out there and see this goddamn deer. Like I wanted to go track a deer, you know, up where Mike was hunting. I haven't been up there and since the fishing season in that area I love being up there, but like I was, like I want to be up there, I want to finally, you know I was there for chubs. I got to go see chubs, but I didn't get to see this one, unfortunately.

Speaker 3: 27:03

You got to see both. You got to see both of these actually, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I've seen.

Speaker 2: 27:07

I've seen both of both of those deer. I didn't have it. I didn't get to see this one, unfortunately. Of course he kills it while I'm freaking, working, but you know. So Go over that story with us. You know, the guy tells you you need to be out in the woods in the morning. You know, and he doubted you. He said you weren't going to do it and you did.

Speaker 3: 27:30

So so I was at the lodge from, I think, Thursday night, Friday nights out of a, and then I killed him on Sunday morning. Yeah, so Thursday night when I got there, he that guy, his name is Steve, shout out to Steve. He wasn't there Thursday night but he showed up Friday night. So Friday night James came over with his family and you know we're having dinner and Steve sitting there and Steve is the one guy Mike, you've been up to the lodge. There's pictures on the table of Steve.

Speaker 3: 27:59

Every single year on opening day he's killed a buck for the past eight years. Opening day, our tree in PA, he kills a buck. So Steve is like the club leader, if you would say. And so James goes. So what's the secret to like killing some big bucks up here? And he basically says you know, it's persistence, you got to know your right location, you got to know where you're going. You know, you got to know the land. He's like he spends all year round scouting the land. Even though the season's only open for a couple months, he still spends as much time as he can into the woods. So the guy, so the guy goes, you guys hunting tomorrow morning and I'm like morning now, but tomorrow, yeah, I'll be out there, for sure. I don't know about morning and he goes. You know, when you guys asked me what's the secret you know morning hunts are part of it and I said yeah, like that was a Friday night. So Saturday morning I did not hunt Saturday morning, I went out there Saturday evening and I actually had a really good sit for Saturday evening sit and saw a buck Like this was my first real like rut activity that I witnessed, which was pretty good, which was pretty sick. I mean, this buck was on this doze tail nonstop running, running, running. Then she's running in a circle and he's running in a circle and I'm like, oh man, maybe that might run into my field. Nope, they didn't run into my and he's just chasing or chasing and a little buck is looking at him like what the fuck is going on. But that was pretty cool to see the rut activity. And Saturday evening we go back to the lodge again.

Speaker 3: 29:34

James comes over for dinner. We were sitting there and James the topic of what you eat when hunting came up and I showed him some pictures. Like you know, I fucking eat like a full course meal out there. I had a picture of me sitting with a bowl of venison steaks and beans and rice in my blind and I'm like you ever had one of these in the blind? And he's like you remember when you asked me what's the secret to hunting big bucks? Yeah, I don't think venison steaks are going to make that happen. So we go to talk. We go to talk about if we're hunting tomorrow, if we're going out in the morning, and I'm like, yeah, I'll go out tomorrow morning. And he's like no, you're not, you're not going out in the morning. I was like, all right, watch, watch. So I even ended up telling James I was a guy, bro, I'm going to bed early. You know, I'm going to go out in the morning.

Speaker 3: 30:22

Now, when I woke up that morning, I get up, I'm trying to put my socks on and I catch the only is fucking cramp in my leg and my concern is like damn, I'm already kind of late. I need to get this cramp gone so I can get the fuck out the door. I'm trying to put my sock on. It was the point that I was like, fuck it, I'll just go outside like this and I, once it, once the cramp goes away, I'll get my sock on. I'm packing my bag with a cramp in my leg and do that. Those Charlie horses that you're catching in sleep are terrible. So I get my bags packed. I walk outside, I felt the chill in the air, the frost is on the on the truck. You're walking into grass and it's just going and just grass. You know it's fucking cold.

Speaker 3: 31:13

And I get to the lease and the sun is already peak, like it's probably like 10 minutes into shooting like, and there's a dough in front of my blind. So I tried creeping up. She already fucking ran away. She ran away and I sit in the blind and I'm sitting there and I'm debating whether to turn on the heater or not because it was still a little gray light. I didn't want that. The light from the heater shines into the blind and there could possibly see me. So I'm sitting there in the cold. I said I'm going to give it half an hour and then I'm going to turn the heat on.

Speaker 3: 31:47

If you look at my story, whoever was following me, the first snap was like here dear, dear, dear, I swear to God, I hit send, I hit send and this fear that I wasn't sure what it was at first because, like I said, it's still a little grayish out there. You know the when the sun starts heating up and the fog is lifting, I just see a deer down by that trailer again and just heads up and I'm saying to myself I don't think it's going to come this way. I don't know if it's going to come this way. Anywho, I look back down at my phone to see if the snap loaded the here, dear, dear, dear video, because out there I don't have good service, so I'm refreshing it. And then I look back up and this thing's just like be lining it straight, straight into the field. I'm like, holy shit, it's coming this way.

Speaker 3: 32:34

I grabbed the bow and like, as it's getting closer, I'm looking at, I'm like, oh shit, it's a buck, it's a buck, it's a buck and it's not giving me a chance to think like, is it the buck that I'm after? I'm like, nah, the buck I'm after is a little wider. But I'm like, oh, he's got some tall fucking times, Dude. I draw back and I'm like man, man, man. Like like I had to yell that last man to stop it. It stops and it's like quartering towards me because it's looking at my, in my direction.

Speaker 3: 33:01

I said, man, I haven't missed with these arrows. Yet I'm thinking he's at 30, but maybe he was a little bit closer, because I feel like I hit him a little high when I looked at the shop Placement. I don't really like to shoot that high, I like to shoot a little lower. Especially hunting from the ground, you don't want the blood to fill the cavity and then you can't find the fucking animal. So I walked them and from there I did like a rookie mistake of just like holy shit, I'm freaking the fuck out, I'm grabbing the phone, I'm snapchat. Instead, I should have like listened, sat there, possibly peeked my head out the window to see where he went. I don't know nothing.

Speaker 3: 33:38

And at this point like a brick just formed in my stomach because I'm saying to myself I don't know if it's a good hit, If it's a bad hit. I was just freaking out, I'm snapchatting you guys. Like holy shit, I shot a book. And from there it's like, okay, go. I look at the arrow and took a snapchat of the arrow. I said I'm leaving, I'm just leaving the woods, I'm leaving completely, I left.

Speaker 3: 34:01

I'm waiting for Rupa at the doghouse. At the doghouse, getting food, Rupa shows up. I'm like, okay, cool, Now I'm feeling a little bit more confident because someone's with me. I don't like to track deer by myself because me for one, I cannot find a speck of blood for nothing. Rupa goes there. I'm like Rupa, here's the arrow. There was like no blood at all where the arrow was and it did not bleed a lot Like you. There was very little small specks of blood and Rupa was able to freaking like, move those grass blades to the side like blood, blood, blood. And he just went into the thicket, maybe about 20 yards into the thicket, and just died behind us.

Speaker 3: 34:42

Tall bush that if I was to look, I wouldn't see it from the opening. I would have to walk around the dried bush to go and see the buff. And Rupa's like yo, he's right here. I'm like huh, no, he's not. I'm taking Rupa's fucking with me. I'm like no, he's not. I wouldn't think that he would have died that close. He did not run that far. I think he honestly ran like a solid 90 yards, maybe under 100. I don't feel like he passed 100 yards, but I double lunged him so he did not go that far at all. It's just the fact that that high shot I feel like that that high shot, I didn't get really good blood out of him, because when I was.

Speaker 3: 35:23

I did get a clean pastor, yeah, when, when I was gutting him, we had let that deer. I had let that deer sit for probably like a solid three hours waiting on Rupa and eating breakfast. So when I was gutting the deer, I mean like chunks of blood clot was from inside of his cavity, was just already solid inside of there and I'm like, dude Rupa, look at this. I'm like pulling out handfuls of just clunks and yeah, that was not it.

Speaker 2: 35:54

Yeah, but when he turned.

Speaker 3: 35:56

When he turned and looked at me because he's coming in and his, his kicker is on the right side. So from the left side, you're just seeing a fucking four pointer. So from the right side, as soon as he turned and I saw that kicker, I started to freak the fuck out. The kicker is what got me. I was like holy shit and I have to give a big shout out to Shaq for building me those arrows, because this is my third deer with the same arrow to clean pass through. One of them was a spine shot and yeah, shaq, shaq knows his shit when it comes to building an arrow, because if it wasn't for the confidence of that arrow, I probably would have been like waiting for him to turn, but I didn't wait at all. I was like you know what I got this real quick.

Speaker 2: 36:43

What? What's the difference? What so? What did he do with these arrows? Compared to the last, are they heavier? What are they? Everything's the same, it's just like. So what is it?

Speaker 3: 36:55

I personally can't explain what he did. He was like what are you looking to get done with them? I said well, honestly, man, before I've been, I've still shoot those two inch severs from Severs, yeah, those two inch mechanical severs. And I told him I was like bro, every day I shoot, yeah, the arrow goes in it, but I'm not getting that clear pass through. It'll get jammed up on the other side. I want a clear pass through. And he's like all right, say no more, I got you. So I know he put an insert weight, probably.

Speaker 1: 37:27

I don't know what the fuck you did. You have a collar on probably. Yeah, a little bit.

Speaker 2: 37:31

No, he doesn't. He doesn't have a collar, but he probably probably put a heavier insert and probably would be my guess.

Speaker 3: 37:37

He told me he tuned my arrow to my bow because he asked me how much poundage am I shooting and whatever not. He asked me for the broadhead specs and he said he tuned the arrow. And then he he's like, all right, let's, let's just go for it, fucking go for it. After I shot the first dough with it I was like, holy shit, this guy knows his shit, because I've never had a clean pass through with the two inch, the two inch fucking mechanicals, even on a dough. Never, never. I've never had a clean pass through up until Shaq did whatever the hell he did to the arrow.

Speaker 1: 38:15

And you know a lot of momentum with those mechanicals, you know just from the opening force. But you know, my guess would be putting a little weight in the front Definitely, definitely would help and something that I looked into a little bit this year but didn't get chance to see that. Yeah, playing that FOC game and getting yourself a little bit more weight in the front. I think did you change spine arrow, spine.

Speaker 3: 38:37

No same spine. The only thing he did different is he put like a three degree curve on the Fletchings, and that's the only thing I could physically see that he did differently.

Speaker 1: 38:50

Did you? Uh, what GPI do you shoot? Do you know?

Speaker 3: 38:55

I personally don't know, this is what we're going to do. This is what we're going to do after the season.

Speaker 2: 39:00

Mike is going to get Ashak. If he wants to come on to the podcast, ok, get him on and we'll do a whole complete, like I wrote down on on Mike's arrow and then just like building and going to these questions, because I've talked to him before and I talked to him about getting some stuff done and then to get potentially getting an arrow bill done and I just ran out of time and I have so many arrows already, I want to go heavier arrows for next year. I already decided that.

Speaker 4: 39:32

So I guess Mike kind of thought that earlier.

Speaker 2: 39:34

Yeah, yeah, mike just sold me on on on Shaq. So I think it's his slogans, like what should have? Should have gone to Shaq, did have went to Shaq, should have went to Shaq. So yeah, well, mike said, because he's a part of back damn productions, correct? Yeah, all right, so put in the word, tell him to come on and we'll get an episode with him on Mike, me, you, mike, peyton, justin, justin's not a big arrow to in guy like, I don't just say you, I feel like you're not, like I love that big, into like and it could change because this year you've definitely dove way deeper into archery hunting than probably years in the past.

Speaker 2: 40:16

But you know, so you haven't gotten that like I call it nerdiness because I'm set to like. I love like the specs, I like broadheads, like broadhead and flight of arrow and building custom arrows and everything like that. Like I'm kind of obsessed with it. And even, like you know Pete and I, pete and I talk a lot and I know Justin knows his stuff too about like terrain and you know wind and that's what I was just going to say Thermals and like everything like that. Like that's another nerdy, nerdy part, that, like, I've started to dive deep in Peyton started to dive deep in knowing our acorns, like I actually got right here from one of from one of the oak tree. So it's not a white, no, no, it's not a white Let me tell you now.

Speaker 2: 40:58

So it's what I found today on the scout. So I use this app. It's called picture this, so it tells me every type of vegetation, like I take a picture of anything.

Speaker 3: 41:09

And it will tell me, it'll tell me what?

Speaker 2: 41:12

Well, yeah, now it's going to bring it up, but I completely forgot. So I think, work all the time, do you? Well, yeah, you need to. You did a terrible job because you just be getting poison agulate, for you can crazy.

Speaker 4: 41:23

Also true.

Speaker 2: 41:24

OK so, this is a chestnut oak. Ok so, but I use that all the time and you can use it on trees and everything like that. But that's how much we've gotten into like the nerdy nest, and we can go over that on another episode and that's like that.

Speaker 4: 41:39

That's the nerdiness that I like is stuff like that when it comes to gear, like that's not even just an archery thing, that's an anything thing. The only thing that I would say that I get nerdy about is ammo when it comes to duck and goose hunting and maybe turkey hunting, but not even nerdy to the fact of or to the amount of how people are nerdy about arrows and stuff like that. I just I'm more nerdy in this about the strategy of everything else than the actual product. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 42:03

Yeah, I mean, I love the strategy and the e-scouting, but when it comes to that, that's the nerd engineer in me. So that's the, that's the day job, oh which, which.

Speaker 2: 42:12

So we're going to definitely fully because you know what? So you guys all have, you guys have the same platform. Tell them what you told me about, about this platform Payton, yeah.

Speaker 1: 42:25

So the engineer in me came out should have came out earlier and you know, recognized that I'm not a fan of the I've decided this year of the Hall Keelium platform. No, and it took a hard, hard lesson learned to realize that it's just, it's not a good design, it's I and I recognize kind of what it's doing. It's like trying to be the tethered, the predator platform, but where it kind of really fails. And it's the only platform I've seen on the market that does this and it has like a cammed out where you have to tow it in and it has like six teeth. But you'd be lucky.

Speaker 1: 43:04

I mean I don't know if it's made for like putting in the fork of a tree, that'd be the only situation where it worked. But you only get in the front two teeth in when you tow that platform and otherwise it's just a rounded edge and you, those last four teeth aren't ever going to bite in. So I don't know what they're not doing anything there. But the problem is is if you put any side force while towing in the platform, like say, you step off the stick a little too far, you can roll it and because it's just, it just makes it really easy for it to roll along that curved edge away from knowing you're.

Speaker 4: 43:40

You're a hundred percent right, because I've experienced that several times.

Speaker 1: 43:44

So I experienced it too. Oh damn, and.

Speaker 2: 43:48

I almost fell out.

Speaker 1: 43:50

I went down.

Speaker 1: 43:53

And I had my linements belt on, and I've changed up the order of operations after this to where now I I put my tether rope on before I tow in the platform. So I'll be at that top stick, I'll throw my my tether rope around, I'll clip it into my bridge and then I still leave my linements belt on. But I'm because I use it's. I just leave the tether rope real loose, right, and then I use my linements belt to kind of get the leverage to tow in that platform. But I slipped, didn't have the tether rope on linements belt caught on the top stick and so I basically fell from foot to the chest.

Speaker 1: 44:31

But you slipped off of the platform or you slipped off of the, so I was towing in the platform, but I wasn't like straight over top because I was stepping over from the stick and it just was like a slight angle and it kicked out away from the tree and so I just kicked out and my foot caught on, you know, my knuckles, sliding down the tree. I didn't go down fast because the linements belt does slow you down a good bit, but I still caught my arm, the linements belt, and my arm caught on the top stick and now it's just kind of dangling there until I get his heart must have been gummed and going a million miles per hour.

Speaker 2: 45:08

It's like really didn't.

Speaker 1: 45:10

I was like, oh shit. Once I got on, it was more mad. I was like that was a ton of noise I just made.

Speaker 2: 45:15

So that was broke before we get back to you know, mike and everything. That was the hunt. You had the morning hunt. I was out at another spot and that's when you said I should have, I should have just hunted from the ground instead of getting up, was it? Was that that same day?

Speaker 4: 45:34

Well, yeah cause he's always on the ground. He never has those, those problems.

Speaker 1: 45:39

I should have haunted him. No, that was a different day and I did have some trouble finding the right tree to get up and set the sticks.

Speaker 2: 45:47

Well, mike, justin, I was talking about myself. I don't know why I said Mike. Why did I do that? I just realized that I said Mike and I'm talking about myself. My bad, but yeah, no, I mean, that was a different time.

Speaker 1: 46:00

I had. This last weekend was a weekend of bad, bad, bad luck get up in the tree. But that instance I had been carrying it and I was just insistent. I was like I need to find a tree and I went from tree to tree to tree and made all this noise where I got into this spot, so quiet, trying to find a tree, you know, dragging my stuff down, you know, from tree to tree where I should have. Just I had already found a great ground set up where, in reality, I was.

Speaker 1: 46:21

Just because I had the saddle, I just decided I had to get in the tree, even though I had shot the deer that's on my wall at home, you know, from the ground, in this same spot. So it's just just because you have this add on, you have the mobile hunting platform, doesn't mean you have to use it, you know, and that's the, that's the pro of the mobility of it, I think no, it's not a, it's not a bear to bring just to the ground. No, is it. It's not a, it's not a bear to bring, just bring wherever you go with you Definitely definitely agree.

Speaker 2: 46:51

So, mike, back to back to you.

Speaker 3: 46:56

So I did the math on all the hours that I put into that book that I'm after and this is going to be a little sneak peek but when you post this on Instagram you got to blur it, but it could stay on YouTube so people have to go and watch your video on YouTube to see it. This is the buck that I've been after and I calculated it. I put 39 hours into this guy sitting there waiting for him.

Speaker 2: 47:22

I said he is wide, but look at his time. That is, is it like?

Speaker 1: 47:27

very twisted up.

Speaker 2: 47:28

Does it Right?

Speaker 3: 47:29

Yeah it looks really like. So now let me give you a side preview of what he looks like.

Speaker 1: 47:34

My dad's got a deer in the garage. That's like that he's extremely wide. But if you look at, him.

Speaker 3: 47:40

if you look at him from the side, you're like what the fuck? That is not the same deer. You're right, you see that he's like, he's really interesting.

Speaker 2: 47:52

How he's got really interesting. Let me see that one more time. He's got really interesting. Antlers so lower. So did he bust? Looks like he busted something.

Speaker 3: 48:07

I don't know what he did, but I am pretty sure he will be bigger than jumps, body wise and antler wise, really. Yeah, I saw him in Dude when I saw him in person, bro, holy shit he's. He's way bigger than the buck I shot.

Speaker 1: 48:25

What did you shot? You said you had a little competition going on Instagram on who could get the closest. What was the what? What did he measure out to be?

Speaker 3: 48:33

Roughly scored at one twenty two and a half.

Speaker 2: 48:37

So that was two. Two less than Chubb's is one twenty four, right yeah, what did you do? What was his weight? Chubbs?

Speaker 3: 48:47

No, this, this buck, um when I went there the butcher was having problems with the scale. I'm going to say he was more than this, but the butcher scale said one fifty five.

Speaker 2: 48:58

No way yeah.

Speaker 3: 49:00

I think he was way more than I think yeah, no, no.

Speaker 4: 49:03

Was he field dressed?

Speaker 2: 49:04

He was field dressed. Yeah, one fifty five dollars, mm, that's still probably.

Speaker 1: 49:11

I'd still probably think he's at least twenty pounds heavier than that.

Speaker 2: 49:14

I'm not like the only way he could be one. Fifty five after the rut. You know what I mean.

Speaker 4: 49:19

I believe in after then, when you know I believe in all right.

Speaker 2: 49:23

It out and everything like that, and he's just worn out and hasn't really been eating much. I believe that.

Speaker 1: 49:28

But put him at like one, ninety, you know, before you got it, in one eighty, five or so before you got it, and yeah, which seems about right.

Speaker 3: 49:38

He was. He was big, but but the one, this one, after seeing him in person, broke. Oh my God.

Speaker 1: 49:46

Yeah, I often feel like no camera pictures for whatever reason, they just really don't, they don't do it justice.

Speaker 2: 49:53

I think it's all it did.

Speaker 1: 49:56

I think that looks like a great deer, but I just always feel like they don't look as big in the trail Cameraman.

Speaker 2: 50:01

I'm going to say it depends, because we yeah, he looked so there he looks better at the much better angle, yeah, and I think it. Angles play a huge part and you know just it can tell you Justin's buck a hundred percent looked a lot bigger on camera.

Speaker 4: 50:18

On camera it was. It could have been argued for, yeah, like a one forty five to one fifty inch deer and.

Speaker 2: 50:24

I you know, just like when we're taking angles with the pictures after with the deer. You know, there is an angle where Justin had the deer and it was like, ok, now this looks like the deer that was taken in the trail cam picture, but when he added in a different angle they look like they look like.

Speaker 4: 50:41

They look like two different deer.

Speaker 2: 50:43

And that that back and I do like that backside of it because I think that is probably the best picture that you can get of a deer Is there back. You're like, ok, now you could see his everything in his full. He looks a lot bigger right there. He is, bro he is I don't know.

Speaker 3: 51:02

I don't know if he's injured or if he's got a blue balls from not busting a nut or something, but he walks with a limp.

Speaker 2: 51:10

Mm hmm, the ball, oh man. And to listen, I saw Chubbs in person. So if he's bigger than Chubbs, chubbs was a really big deer.

Speaker 3: 51:23

Yeah, I put him way over Chubbs, he's definitely.

Speaker 2: 51:26

Chubbs was a really big body, deer, and he's thick, mass too. Yeah, oh, oh dear. Yeah, that was a, that was a hell of a deer, but you know so. So now you're, you've, you've gotten this success, you've. Is it everything now?

Speaker 2: 51:42

And we kind of talk about everything you dreamt of, you know, these past two years, like all the feelings, even from the frustration, from the frustration to the anxiety to you know, just spending all the time in the woods, is it everything like you remembered it was going to be and kind of what you hope for?

Speaker 3: 52:02

Yeah, it's exactly how it is, because it's like you know, I get. I get a little frustrated, I get a little emotional and then I'm like you know what this is what I'm used to Like this isn't the first time. I just it's been a break. And even when I say it's been a break, it physically and mentally, because before I remember sitting out there in a fricking hoodie and I'm good Right Now. I went and bought all this winter gear. I have a fricking buddy heater with me and I still feel cold. I don't know if it's because I got soft within the past two years.

Speaker 2: 52:37

So you're getting older, you're getting older.

Speaker 3: 52:41

I don't know what they're older, but now you're cold out there.

Speaker 3: 52:46

I'm like what the fuck? This is not it, this ain't it. But I'm Just, it's a. It was definitely mental, like really fucking mental. I was listening to your podcast when you had Kyle on and Kyle said how he drove back home for like the first three hours in the dead silence. And that's me leaving the woods. Sometimes I mean like no radio station, no nothing. I'm just listening to the silence and just like I'm in my own mind and it's bad because you, why is it that? It's something that we love to do Having this effect on us.

Speaker 1: 53:21

Yeah, I run into that too. You know, it's like I'll go in the morning and I'll be listening to a big podcast. Got to listen to the hunting public. It's like I got to do my homework. I get tuned up going in. Then by the end of it it's like I need a break. You know, yeah, and Shane Gillis, you know, throw the Shane Gillis on. You know whatever. Like yeah, it's like I. It's just I need to think about it.

Speaker 2: 53:42

There I wish with with my mindset I don't going into a hunt. I either have to listen to music or I listen to hockey podcast. Right when I'm in the tree, that's where I'm listening to the podcast, or I'm watching the hunting public. Like I'm a huge, like I love watching that, I love hunting. While watching hunting it is like I don't know, like it just gets me Listen to a podcast in the tree.

Speaker 2: 54:06

I listened. I like I do don't like if I'm there for a long time, like I catch up on podcast episodes, but I learned so much watching, like the hunting public and just watching. I'm a big fan of, like, growing gear TV or a bow hunter die or somebody like that. So like. Or looking up, you know, you know thermals and wind and you know looking up so I can just better understand. Because I'm still learning about thermals and everything like that, so I can better understand some.

Speaker 2: 54:37

Or like if I got a question yeah, you know, whatever pops into my head that I will pick. Ok, like, let me look this up on YouTube, let me try to read up, or I'll read something and like, try to read an article or something like that, and then like notes. I take a lot of notes while I'm in the woods. I'm going to eventually release that like my full like list. I mean, I'll show you guys a little bit here, but like, and I have a like a post recap which I didn't do the last hunt, but that's because there's nothing, is it? And that's like Hunt 30. So it goes all the way. This is every single hunt this whole entire year and it goes from the date, the time I get like set up, like where I'm fully, completely set up with the camera and everything like that.

Speaker 2: 55:27

I'll say the first hunt, my method of hunting. So if I'm in tree, stand, saddle on the ground, whatever, and then I go humidity, you know, like the, if it's foggy, if it's raining, slight drizzle, the wind, the mile proud, the moon, pressure, do like everything. Everything I go into, like everything, and then it goes to OK, what happened? What did I see when, like, and if I don't look at my, my watch when a deer pops out, because sometimes I just forget I get like, ok, like where do you cut? Like you know I'll, that's why nothing, I will review the film, like OK, there's the timestamp, so this deer came from here and then I'll check.

Speaker 2: 56:09

Did he come from the north, southeast? Ok, what's over there? So like everything is written down and I review this and like I literally, and I'll read this, like I go through it, I'm like, ok, and that's how I understand, like each hunting place I hunt and that's how I learn the area, and then I like, ok, like I can't need to go here, you know, and I'll put a camera there, and then shit, it's not working. Like I'm not getting any pictures. Do I need to?

Speaker 1: 56:34

do a record notes in on X, Like when I drop an on X pin. Sometimes I go in the notes there and I'll leave like a kind of a lengthier descriptor.

Speaker 2: 56:43

Sometimes, yes, but the problem I have with that because I'm usually, when I'm finding stuff, like I'm either scouting or I'm doing something where it's like, all right, let me put this pin, because sometimes I'll put a pin and then I'll go back and I'll edit it there Like if it was a rubber scraper or something like that. I that is something I should start doing more is using on X notes.

Speaker 2: 57:03

I just get sometimes so like wrapped up on what I'm doing, because I'm doing multiple things, so I'm not only scouting, but you know, everyone knows now we got you know Instagram and YouTube and everything like that, and same thing with Mike and same thing with everyone here. There's a lot of filming and you know Pete and Justin and Mike they've seen me film. Like Pete and I know this is your first year really watching me like everything is kind of filmed and it's a big film guy. Yeah, I'm a huge film guy. I love editing, but it's it's research to go back and look at and like, ok, like I listen, I still have all flashier stuff on my laptop. I thought I still have to put it on the hard drive, which I should probably do, and I'll put it on the hard drive.

Speaker 3: 57:42

How many pictures of poop do you have in your phone?

Speaker 2: 57:44

All right, yeah, yeah, it's not a lot Like what normal fucking human being has shit in their phone Like what the fuck A? Lot of a lot of poop, a lot of poop, a lot of like.

Speaker 4: 58:00

What do you think? Before, though, I don't think I have any pictures in my phone of dear shit Like I have dear shit, beershit.

Speaker 1: 58:06

Well, a long deal of shit does on Instagram.

Speaker 2: 58:10

Dude, I don't like I take so much because, like everything, everything to me is Intel. And then like and I know Mike Ask a lot of questions too so, like I know, like if same thing. Like if I go to take a picture to send, like Justin, I have stuff from turkey season, from like two years ago, that like when I go through my stuff I'm like damn, like Like hey, justin, what's this? Is this the turkey feather? Is this? Like? Why the fuck do I have this still on my phone two years later? So I'll go back and delete it. But like same thing.

Speaker 2: 58:37

Like I just you know it, just it helps me sometimes have sometimes you're going through stuff and you're scouting and you take pictures. I'm somebody who goes back later when I get home or if I'm in the stand, and I'll like I just review stuff, I'm like okay, like where was this and and everything like that, and you can match it up onto on X, where you can actually put it into on X and everything like that. So Pretty, pretty useful. We that that was a rabbit hole that we just got down onto right there and hey, those like the second time. You miss it, justin. We were talking about pooping in the woods earlier. That's the second time.

Speaker 1: 59:23

So keeping good notes is important. It's something I gotta do better. I have an article that I wrote on my website, like earlier that I talked about this you know when I and I think it is important and I do like what Mike said.

Speaker 2: 59:36

That and that's something I want to start doing, is with the bucks, and Especially target buck is okay. When do you came? When he came in, you gotta get a log of the trail cameras.

Speaker 1: 59:48

You calendar of them? Yeah, yeah, and you know, get on its schedule.

Speaker 2: 59:52

Yeah, you know what was the win that day and I do now love that tactic cam and I and the Maltry both cameras that I love using huge Maltry fan. Now they actually, once you put the, the zip code or the area code in it, gives you all the intel on, like, exactly what the win was, the pressure that day, like everything like that. So that actually makes it a lot easier to take in notes now and to put it on one system and then you will. You will eventually see a pattern like 100%. If you go through that notes You'll see a pattern. Yeah, I think you'll. You'll be able to kill that deer a lot easier.

Speaker 2: 1:00:27

So, mike, we know you're gonna kill that one soon. You know, as long as you still around and and alive, are any plans now with? So you got another bear, you're gonna get another bear tag this year they're doing two, which I was very surprised about. So you can, if you killed one in the fall, you still can kill one in December during six day, if I'm Remember correctly right. So you are you tar? Are you you targeting a specific size or Anything that walks by In a reason?

Speaker 3: 1:01:00

I'm not really even Like chasing bear. If I see one or have the opportunity to shoot one, then I'll do it. But a bear with the gun just doesn't really tickle my fancy that much. I'd rather bear with a bow like comes bow season next year for bear again, I'll be all gung-ho, yeah, at midnight fucking digging through the garbage again. So Until then I'm not really. You know, I got a bear this year. I'm happy about it. What a what. The next thing on my hit list is a turkey with Justin. That is on my head.

Speaker 2: 1:01:33

I've never, ever killed a turkey.

Speaker 3: 1:01:36

I've never killed a turkey. I need to kill a turkey.

Speaker 2: 1:01:39

And you're not a big bird hunter.

Speaker 3: 1:01:43

I'm not a big bird hunter. No, no, I don't really care for.

Speaker 1: 1:01:47

Different style of a bird hunting entirely I want to be able to say that I did it.

Speaker 3: 1:01:53

I just want one and done, that's it. I don't care what it looks like, I just want to kill a damn turkey. You better call it a day. I don't know if, maybe if I, after I kill the first one, I'll be like, oh, this is cool, I'm gonna do it again, but I just want to be able to say that I've done it.

Speaker 2: 1:02:07

Are you gonna do it bow or on the roof?

Speaker 3: 1:02:09

gun yeah, are you saying.

Speaker 1: 1:02:14

So you hear that first gobble on the roost, you might might change your mind on.

Speaker 3: 1:02:21

And that's what makes me want to do it even more. But I just feel like I don't think it'll be an annual thing to be like yeah, I'm going up, that Justin's really fucking dedicated and knows a lot like he. He amazed me with the shit that I Witnessed that day.

Speaker 4: 1:02:35

Yeah, it was a good day that you guys had. It's a shame that we never pulled the trigger on that day, but I've never been so close so many times and I pulled the trigger one day three three close calls, three real close calls. Yeah the two were like couldn't get any closer, but yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:02:52

And I think we have an episode on that during turkey to our turkey talk segment.

Speaker 4: 1:02:56

Yeah, yeah, that's we gay, we hunted on that Friday. Yeah, that would have been like April, like 29th or something like that.

Speaker 2: 1:03:03

Yeah so if anyone wants to go check that episode out I can't remember the exact episode, but it's in the turkey talk segment, so just scroll down to you see.

Speaker 4: 1:03:13

Yeah week week a turkey recap or something like that. What's a?

Speaker 2: 1:03:16

yeah, I think so because your boy shot that turkey as well, and then any I know you wanted to tag out, so you can go for PA rifle.

Speaker 3: 1:03:25

Is that still an option, or I've I feel like no, because PA rifle legit opens next next right Friday, like that's Saturday after Thanksgiving, and a week to me is not enough time to go out there and, like you know, scout the land. We have over 900 acres of private property up in PA that we could hunt, but it's also shared with other hunters and majority of the club all hunt PA rifle, so I feel like I don't have enough time to get that done. My, my next goal is to just kill a deer, buck or doe with a muzzle odor. Muzzle odor does open up right after Thanksgiving, so that that's about it. Other than that, I'm looking forward to beer camp and that's gonna be the wrap of my season, because I feel like it's gonna be a cold winter. We're gonna have lots of snow and once snow comes I'm on lockdown at work. There's no more taking time off. There's none of that. I'll be stuck at work. So I'm looking at six day basically being the end of my season.

Speaker 2: 1:04:27

Yeah, yeah, which we do need a cold, wet winter and snowy winter, which we talked about also last episode. We would like to see that come along this year. But, um, boys and anything, anything else, I mean what a what an episode. Mike brought the energy. Justin, you missed it.

Speaker 4: 1:04:43

Yeah, I came in and started he started this episode.

Speaker 2: 1:04:46

Like I said earlier, this man was ready to jump through a freakin brick wall.

Speaker 2: 1:04:52

He should be. I, I mean it was. It was absolutely incredible. This. This was a fun one. So we are gonna release this one next, not this Saturday, but the next Saturday. So we have who is dropping this Saturday. It is Team Wacken, wacken stack, I believe it is With Levi. Great one, mike, you're gonna be interested in that one.

Speaker 2: 1:05:18

We talk a lot about Africa and then, like this one's it like a, he hunts deer and everything like that, but a big part of it was talking about South Africa and his hunts in South Africa and the different animals. It was really cool, a different, different type of style. Then we went into some alligator hunting and some different, different types of hunting like that. We did talk about white tails, if I remember correctly, as well. And then we're gonna have our next rut madness part three, thanksgiving episode, which we got to come out with a theme for Thanksgiving. Justin, you're gonna make it Monday. Yeah, yeah, I'll be around. All right, we got to come up with the theme for For Thanksgiving and everything like that. Mike, if you got any suggestions, let us know, because every like holiday, because we're doing this for the rest of the season, so every holiday is gonna we'll do a theme where Christmas is easy Christmas, see, you know that that's the easy one to get done. We could do ugly sweaters, we could do like just so many different things, so and then. So yours will be Saturday, after Thanksgiving, this, this episode is going to be dropping. We hope you guys enjoyed this episode.

Speaker 2: 1:06:28

Mike brought it. Mike is back, free. American Mike campaign is officially over. Done with he's back, he's free, you know. He's back to doing what he does what two, two does down, three does down, two does down Um, but there Um, you know, hopefully he'll have a turkey later. Another deer, um, whatever. A deer buck, whatever the I'm at, I'm listen, I still think Mike will get two more. I think Mike will have at least two more deer before the season ends, um come on first.

Speaker 4: 1:07:00

You're back in November. You're telling me that you're done. We will know that that's not true.

Speaker 3: 1:07:05

No, and honestly this is for for my first year back. I watched a lot of deer. I will fucking passed on a lot of deer.

Speaker 2: 1:07:14

Yeah, I was kind of surprised the same thing.

Speaker 3: 1:07:17

The same thing that happened to you happened to me. On the property that we hunt. It's like uh, 11 other guys, I think, and um, I know someone hunts On the mountain behind me and this little fork. He comes in and I'm recording him. He's on my instagram, he's the one that was eating an apple or something. And he comes in and I'm like I'm not shooting this thing. He walks off and I swear to god, I just heard whack.

Speaker 3: 1:07:41

Like about 20 minutes later I said there's no fucking way. There's no way that the guys that I'm hunting with would shoot something like this. I'm like there's no way. I'm like maybe a tree branch fell, maybe they shot something else, I don't know man. So where I hunt, I could legit see any car entering the property or leaving the property and this white pick of truck is driving away with the fucking same deer on the little Deer rack in the back of the truck and I'm like you gotta be kidding me. I say I mean I, it's me and their freezer, sure, but I'm like what the fuck? We're on private property, what I would understand if you're on state land. You know those Bucks are gonna die anyway come six day on state land, but you're on private property. You could have what the fuck.

Speaker 2: 1:08:29

Yeah, those deer are gonna listen six days a whole different type of Six day. Anything is game. It could be a little button bucket, it's. It's freaking game on on six day. Um, but man, mike, thank you, I mean any last words Um.

Speaker 3: 1:08:47

For you one thing, one thing I wanted to say was, um, I felt the love all all around and I got family that listened to your podcast and this is to them All. My friends and family like being out there. I don't know if it's the fact of me being out there for so long, constantly at different times, that they missed me, or what, but the support that I got from friends and family this year was, like you. I felt the love. I really felt the love from everybody, from friends, family, constantly checking in like, hey, you're good, did you shoot anything? How'd your sit go? Best of luck, you know, sending you positive vibes and that all came together and, uh, it helped.

Speaker 3: 1:09:25

It helped with this harvest of this big buck and uh, like, like you saw Mike last night, we, we killed a few bottles. He's celebrating this buck. Uh, I actually killed the buck on a religious holiday, so I wasn't able to even eat part of it, because you can't eat meat or drink alcohol on that religious holiday. So I have to basically pretend like it didn't happen that day and then wait the next day and then, okay, let's celebrate and that's what we did. That's great.

Speaker 2: 1:09:54

Yeah, listen they're drinking white Henny guys. They were drinking that white Henny and eating, uh, some venison. You had the venison taco heart, which looked Amazing, I legit buy that shit.

Speaker 3: 1:10:09

By the case, bro, I love heart.

Speaker 1: 1:10:13

I love heart.

Speaker 2: 1:10:14

I uh, I hate to say it's a fair heart.

Speaker 1: 1:10:16

I should yeah, and it came out really good. I think, uh, I learned this trick. I think I accommodated was just like soak the heart salt water and it really just kind of changes the flavor. A good, same thing with the with the liver soak in some salt water and you get all that water runs clear, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:10:33

Mm. Good, good, good factor out there for for anyone who needs to try that I mean I love heart, I can eat heart. I've had duck heart before. When, when, justin, I was just gonna say I'm gonna eat some duck heart after this.

Speaker 4: 1:10:46

Tom is gonna make us the duck, so we shot yesterday and the duck heart is possibly the best part of it all. Like it's a great. It's about a bite and you know yeah.

Speaker 4: 1:10:58

Nice. I mean it all depends like these were pretty fresh, like they seem like they just showed up good plumes, good, everything, so like when they're fresh, like that, if they don't live in the salt water down there for too long, then they're not that bad. But uh it all. It all depends on how long been down there, it seems sometimes you get them and they taste better than a mallard.

Speaker 4: 1:11:17

And sometimes you get them and they taste like a McGan's, or so it's like let's uh, let's, let's finish this episode and then we'll we'll talk about the ducks.

Speaker 2: 1:11:23

I don't want to run run this too long, so you know we'll see you guys. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and we'll see you guys next time.