Speaker 1: 0:00

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Speaker 3: 1:05

Pete Smith, I'm.

Speaker 1: 1:06

Frank Bersinko.

Speaker 3: 1:08

Ethan Brazuse.

Speaker 1: 1:10

Hey Pete, are you drinking a Surfside right now?

Speaker 4: 1:14

I'm drinking a Trader Joe's sparkling water.

Speaker 1: 1:17

Oh never mind, I thought it was Surfside. It looked like Surfside. I'm like oh, we're matching no, not quite.

Speaker 4: 1:24

I wish I had a couple while watching the ravens win last night, so I don't want to be a level one week big, big game last night, for sure.

Speaker 1: 1:35

Um well, field notes number six. And, holy hell, a lot has gone down. And you know, ethan is finally back from his trip and hunting also in new jersey. So before we even do anything deer hunting related, colorado ethan, give us the breakdown we we need to know the details of of everything so, first of all, happy to be here.

Speaker 3: 2:05

Uh, you want me to go all the way in depth, from soups and nuts do, do, do whatever you can, whatever you want to want to.

Speaker 1: 2:13

You want to give us and and all the listeners out there. That's why I brought my drink all right.

Speaker 3: 2:19

Well, I'll tell you right now. It's a good story, um, so I'm not going just because, especially colorado, it gets pounded so hard by non-resident hunters, um, especially nowadays. I'm gonna keep the unit a secret. Um, but we went on. Uh, it's it's dang near and over the counter unit, but you can draw one or two points, and me and my childhood friend, jason stango, we ended up drawing some limited entry muzzler tags in this unit with one point, um, once my dog comes in greets me, so we uh we drew this tag with one point, the both of us, which we were stoked about.

Speaker 3: 3:00

Looking at the overall success in the unit for the last previous couple years, it would range anywhere from 18 to 28 percent for that season in that zone. So pretty dang good odds, especially for, you know, public land, as steep as it is over there, that unit is notorious for being some of the steepest in the state over there. That unit is notorious for being some of the steepest in the state um, it's also the same unit that I went to a couple years ago when I left early on that trip. So I I knew I wanted to go back there anyway because I definitely had a bone to pick with that, uh, with those mountains out there. So we fly in, we fly in on, I believe, a thursday, thursday night, yeah, and we had a ton of driving to do because you're hunting with the muzzleloaders. We couldn't. We couldn't fly with powder, we couldn't fly with primers. So I had a buddy out there who I shipped a bunch of stuff to, had to drive three hours from the airport to go to him, pick everything up from him and then from there we drove three hours back down to where we were going to be hunting and it was picked dark, it was about 12 o'clock at night and we drove probably six miles, I'd say, down this road that I'm shocked we didn't break down. But we got down and we just pulled over on the side of the road and slept in the truck and froze our asses off, got up the next morning.

Speaker 3: 4:27

That is day one. This is friday. The day before the opener, the opener, saturday. We put in a lot of miles just in scouting, didn't find the sign we were looking for and both of us were feeling the, the altitude and the elevation bad, so we spent a lot of the day scouting. We got sick by the middle of the day so we spent the rest of the day fishing, caught a ton of nice trout, got back to camp, which was just the truck. We didn't set any of our camp stuff up, we just got back to the truck and we knew we had to make a move.

Speaker 3: 5:00

So late that night, late that night of the full first day before the opener, we drive, we get out of there Again. I don't know how we didn't break down. We drive five or six miles down the road, down this major highway, and pull off into this little side lot and we said, hey, you know what Nice campsite Looks like, we can get maybe half a mile off this trailhead, not too far in, and we can just try and get some off this trailhead not too far in, and we can just try and get some rest, get some food in us, and tomorrow is opening day. Try and get after it hard. But honestly we weren't feeling too good. They hadn't heard any bugles and even though we'd only been into one spot, really, we saw really no elk sign, a lot of deer sign, no elk sign. But regardless, get to the next spot, get our bags packed up. Both of our bags were probably knocking on 70 pounds, 80 pounds.

Speaker 3: 5:54

So we were, we were loaded up, hike into that first real campsite. Get in, we set up camp and, uh, get a fire going, get our tent set up. And I was feeling sick, my buddy was feeling all right, I was feeling really sick. And as I'm sitting there barely awake, my buddy just starts screaming dude, dude, dude, there's a bull up there. I look and, like I said, we're only like half a mile off the road, across the highway, because we had a clear line of sight to the highway from where we were across the highway. There was a straight cliff here on that road. You couldn't see the top of it. It was about probably 1,200 feet straight up.

Speaker 3: 6:38

But straight up there we saw a big bull, which I'm pretty sure was the same bull that we got on a couple days later, which I'll get to as the story continues on. I would say he's 6'6" or 7'6", couldn't really tell. Definitely. In my opinion he broke 300 inches with a herd of about 30 cows, totally silent. But he's herding up these cows all night and we're freaking out Like all right, naila, since you know like we got to get up there tomorrow. That's the plan. We both are feeling pretty sick. We said we're going to bypass hunting opening morning. We're going to wake up and get glass from camp. We're going to see what we can pick up, see if we can pick up that same bull or any other bulls. We're gonna go from there. So that's first full day down. Second day comes in saturday. Wake up early, get on the glass. We're both feeling sick. We don't pick up any bulls in that same spot that we saw the previous night, but we pick up a herd of at least 50.

Speaker 4: 7:45

Are you sick from sorry? Are you sick from altitude? What are you sick from? Oh yeah, Altitude.

Speaker 3: 7:50

Okay, what is that? Like Everyone, experiences a different for me it's just a terrible headache.

Speaker 3: 8:01

Yeah, it's like a migraine, debilitating headache and, like I'm like the number one guy to never take Advil, never use any medication was popping it left and right on this trip because if I didn't it was like I could barely walk. But that's pretty par for the course for me. Every time I go out out west it's usually two days of just terrible headaches and then, and then I get over it. So I wasn't surprised by this. But so, yeah, that's what I mean. I mean when I say I was feeling sick, just like really not wanting to get up, not wanting to move, but so that next morning if you can kind of imagine it camped here I can't really show you like this, but we're camped here and then right across the road is where we picked up that bull and cows the other night, and then behind that mountain, like another thousand feet up, and this is this is where we ended up getting on a few days later, um, you're knocking on the door of like 12 000 feet, 12, 2, 12, 3 um we glass up a herd of about 50, um you can tell there's multiple bulls and they're all you can. You can see the main herd bull and then there's multiple bulls and they're all you can see the main herd bull. And then there's multiple satellites just right on the edge of this herd and that bull is just fighting them off. I mean they're miles away. All we have is our binos so all we see is dots, but you can tell they're elk. So we completely write that spot off. We're looking at it on the map and like it's too steep, we can't get up in there. Like we that spot off. We were looking at it on the map and like it's too steep, we can't get up in there, like we're gonna hurt ourselves getting in there. We totally write it off.

Speaker 3: 9:33

We say let's move camp again, get to where we saw the bulls right across the road for that night. So around nine o'clock we pack up, we move camp across the road and we hunt that meadow that we saw the bull right over the road the previous night. We we're covered up in deer. We have an elk come in behind us, a cow that blew out. No bulls. Okay, we get back to camp. We decide we're going to take another day.

Speaker 3: 9:55

So now going into Sunday, the second day of season, third full day that we're out there. We know that the next couple days after after sunday, like monday, tuesday, into wednesday, we're gonna get completely rained out. So we're like let's just get information and we're gonna get to the highest point we can. We're gonna glass all day. So we get up just above where we saw the that one bull across the road, uh, the previous night, and we sit and we glass um. From this vantage we have a clear line of sight to where we saw that massive herd and we kept writing it off. So we sit all day. We sat for about 12, 13 hours. We picked up a couple elk, a lot of deer, handful of hunters, but we were hearing bugles. I mean we must have heard 50 bugles and it really picked up in the evening. But again, all of it was off these cliffs that were like we can't get up there. We can't get up there. Lo and behold, we get out of there.

Speaker 3: 10:53

That night we get rained out. We go into a little town nearby. I end up doing some fishing. I'm going to skip this part just because it's not the main purpose, but we ended up picking it over, picking up an over-the-counter deer tag and I got a mule deer doe at the muzzleloader, which was awesome, got some meat, hell yeah, but um, we really. I mean that whole hunt was about an hour.

Speaker 3: 11:18

We spent the majority of those two days just fishing in the rain and, um, enjoying a nice bed just fishing in the rain and enjoying a nice bed. So Monday passes, tuesday passes, tuesday night, and we're sitting in this motel room and we know we only have a couple more days, like it goes by so fast, and we say, and this is where it gets good, everything that I said already leads up to this. We said, dude, why don't we come back out here? Probably not for a couple years. Screw it, let's get up that mountain. We saw that herd of 50, let's do it.

Speaker 3: 11:53

We saw that big herd up there and then we we glassed some elk up there with another bull. That night, the day that we glassed, all day we heard all those bugles. Screw it. We're looking on the map. It's hard to put it into perspective for East Coast guys that haven't been out there because you don't have anything to compare it to. But as the crow flies, there's only about a mile and a half to two miles off the road, but it was over, either just over or right, at 2 000 foot of elevation gain, um, so you're talking straight up. And of that 2 000 foot, the first quarter mile was 600 feet. So I mean, it was literally like you're this close to, like hands and knees, um.

Speaker 3: 12:47

But we said, listen, like we're here to kill a bull, we think this is our best shot. We saw other hunters that were taking that same trail head up, but they weren't going to where we were going. We thought that we'd have a good chance of being up there solo, um, and having this whole herd to ourselves and we said, screw it. You know, if it takes us all day to get up there, let's do it. You know it takes us 10 hours and we can hunt that last hour of daylight. It's worth it. Let's, we'll say that we did it.

Speaker 3: 13:13

So we get up there. Um, we had to. We got cliffed out so many times we had to keep doubling back on ourselves, um, even though, as the crow flies, it was just whatever, whatever I said before like two miles, like a mile and a half, whatever it was, took us four and a half miles to get to where we wanted to go, just because of how often we had to keep doubling back on ourselves because we were getting clipped out. We had to keep finding new ways to go up, but we get there. We get there early around one o'clock.

Speaker 3: 13:40

We get to this big meadow that we had seen, that heard a 50 a couple days prior, um, and it connects to this really crazy steep, dark timber, um that we were hearing all these bugles come out of. And I know you guys, you guys have all hunted for a while. You guys have been out in the woods in november, like november is a special time for a whitetail, right, but you have those one or two days every year that it happens and it's magical. We were lucky enough that this was one of those days, but we didn't realize that at first we thought that there were two hunters down below us, because it sounded like it was right off this trailhead, bugling back and forth all day. Uh, we probably heard 250 bugles before we realized they were elk. It was this one bugle that sounded like like a world championship caller, like as good as it could get, and this other dude that sounded like he was yelling through like a soda can that he cut the bottom out of as a bugle tube like. It sounded as fake and as bad as you could possibly imagine it. But they're bugling from the same spot back and forth, they're battling each other. We're like, yeah, these two hunters down there, how many times are they going to bugle? They can't think this is going to work. Every 45 seconds they're ripping off bugles.

Speaker 3: 15:01

All of a sudden, that good bugle starts moving east to west down below us along this ridge. We're sitting there thinking there's no way that a human can move that fast. That has to be a bull, like a human couldn't cover this terrain with as steep as it is, with the downfall, with the elevation, gain and loss. Human couldn't do it. It has to be, it has to be a bull. So now we're sitting there, we're shaking, we're like dude, that bullet we saw the other day, like this has to be him, this has to be him. And uh, the shitty sounding bull. He gets out of the picture for a little. We don't hear him for a we don't hear him for a while. We don't hear him for maybe 45 minutes. All you hear is this pristine Jurassic Park sounding bull, just as loud and as deep and as sharp as you can possibly imagine it. And next thing, you know, 195 yards out, a cow pops out, another cow, five more cows, seven more cow, five more cows, seven more cows, four more cows, and you have 25 to 35 head of these cows and you know you have a few baby calves in there and then you have some that are probably 600, 700 pounds, just massive animals. And now, obviously, now we know like this is a bull that's coming, like there's no ifs, ands or buts about it, you have some that are probably six, seven hundred pounds, just massive animals. And now, obviously, now we know like this is a bull that's coming, like there's no ifs, ands about it, this bull is coming, it's a real bull, it's not a hunter I'm wearing for a freaking treat. So these cows are sitting out in this meadow by themselves.

Speaker 3: 16:37

For a couple minutes, me and my buddy were looking through our binos we have we're in a little hideout like along this cliff face. We kind of tucked ourselves into some rocks behind some thorn bushes, so all you could really see was the top of our heads and our guns and, uh, me and him at the same time. We see this dark neck from like down in the timber and it's it's kind of swaying back and forth through the trees and it's not coming all the way up and we're like, I think that's the Like. I think I caught a tip of a tine. I think I heard something. I think that's the bull. I think that's the bull and it was like a scene out of a movie. It's like he busts through this aspen patch or not like a spruce patch that's why it was so hard to see. It was a lot of pines and he just busts through and his rack is so big. I think he was a 6'7 with kickers that's what I think he was. If I had to put money on it, he looked like a mainframe 6'6. And he had like one big kicker up the top on his right side and then he had some junk on the top. He was just an absolute monster and it was so much like a movie. He breaks through this like clump of trees, just screaming, and his head is pointed right at us. So you hear it like he's right on top of you screaming. This bull comes out, he's at 190 yards and he puts on the greatest show that I've ever seen, ever. I mean this bull. He must have bugled 60 times right in front of us at 200 yards, Just losing his mind, rutting full swing. I'm talking. At one point he bedded down and then he got pissed at himself for bedding down. He beds down for a minute, jumps up, takes his rack and he starts destroying the ground. Giant, like 30-pound chunks of dirt just flying in the air, comes up, bugle in this way, bugle in that way. A group of cows goes off one way. He runs at him just like, hitting him with his antlers, pushing him back, keeping them all in this little basin at about 190, 200 yards. And he sat broadside for me at 100 and at one point he was at 184, that's, the closest he got to him was 184 yards. This giant, 300 plus inch bull. And I was so tempted to make that shot and I'm glad my buddy was there because my bad judgment might have gotten to me but he said don't do it. We agreed, 150 yards is our max, don't do it, don't do it. So I still think I would have made that shot. But, um, regardless, I didn't take that shot. And uh, now all of a sudden it starts getting good. He's so perplexed. And so in the zone with this group of cows that was going away from us, had a group of about 10 cows loop around the top, start walking towards us. So they're about maybe 60 yards uphill of us but coming our way. So we're thinking, jesus, dude, those cows got to 130 yards. I'll take that shot all day. This bull is going to look over, see his cows are missing. He's going to come shooting over. He's going to be inside of a buck 20. We're going to get a shot on him. So we start positioning ourselves, kind of getting ready, like making sure our wind is looking good, everything's looking good, thinking this bull's going to come out. And that shitty bull sounds off again Right below us where that herd came out, and we're like, oh my God, you've got to be kidding me. That hunter is chasing this herd and this herd bull up here and just making the worst sounding bugles you can imagine, thinking that he's just going to get a rise out of this bull. He's going to come in and fight him. So I'm sure you've all seen videos how cow elk will make like a bark when they're scared. Have you heard that? So the bull made a sound. It was like a mixture between a bark and a bugle it was. I can't even begin to replicate. I've never heard it before, but it was wild. He made this quick sound and all the cows they were feeding totally relaxed once he he heard what I thought was a hunter coming up the hill, makes that sound. All the cows jump up and they run to him. Now you have this whole herd 25, 35 cows standing right behind this bull. And the number one thing I'll never forget this bull he has to be 900 pounds. I mean he is as big as they get for this section of Colorado. He is massive Public land bull a couple miles off the road it was amazing. And he goes right to the edge of this cliff where this other hunter or bull or whatever had sounded off from below. And it's so steep that he's standing on the edge of it. You can picture like he's like a giant bulldog standing at the top of it. You can picture like he's like he's like like a giant bulldog standing at the top of the steps. He stands there and he's looking straight down and you see him take this deep breath and he lets off the meanest, deepest just deepest angriest bugle you could imagine straight down this cliff. He sits there, he paws at the ground a little bit and he just sits there and watches. He's looking into this timber and all the cows are behind him. They're all in full alert, like thinking what's gonna happen? What's going on? About 30 seconds later, that shitty bugle whatever hunter or whatever we thought it was sounds back off. That herd bull picks his head up, makes that same sound again. Mixture between a bark and a bugle rounds up, all the cows takes off over the ridge. So now me and my buddy were like dude, you've got to be kidding me. This hunter down there ruined the whole thing for us, like what the hell? And next thing I know, and next thing I know, herd's gone. Herd bull comes back now. He's at about, I would say, like 800 yards and he's standing there and he's looking at where he was hearing that bugle come from and his head's down, he's pawing at the ground and another bull comes up. It was never a hunter, it was just a bull with the worst sounding bugle I've ever heard. I didn't know that.

Speaker 3: 22:48

A real life elk could make such an atrocious sound. It was wild. I mean it literally sounded like if you just took like a like a paper towel tube and just yelled through it like that's what this bull sounded like. But it was a bull. He bugled right in front of me 10 times. Now all of a sudden, this next bull he was a bull. He bugled right in front of me 10 times.

Speaker 3: 23:05

Now all of a sudden, this next bull, he was a satellite bull and he was pretty big for a satellite bull. He's at about 450 yards and the herd bull is at about whatever he was at 700, 600, 800, whatever it was and they start pawing at the ground, bugling back and forth to each other. Now all of a sudden my mind goes to. Those bulls are completely preoccupied with each other. All that satellite bull cares about is finding one cow. All that herd bull cares about is protecting his herd. That's all they care about. And if I sneak down and get to a better position I can make a cow call and I bet this satellite bull will come right to me thinking that this herd bull left the cow back that he forgot about. So me and my buddy shoot down. We close the gap, maybe 60 yards, to a better spot. We get tucked underneath a couple of small spruce trees and I take out the call and I get started To this bull and that bull goes from head down, pawn at the ground, bugle into this herd bull, snaps his head up, turns it right to me, let his tongue starts flicking in the air, trying to, I guess, get some type of a smell like wet in his tongue, and he starts running, goes full sprint right to me, closes the gap from however far he was to 130 yards and he's facing me head on.

Speaker 3: 24:29

Now I have my buddy to my right with the range finder. He's you know. He's telling me 130. He's at 130, 130 but it's a full frontal. Even though I have a muzzleloader, I'm not taking a frontal shot at 130. I didn't in colorado. You need to have open sights. You can't have any optics. So definitely wasn't comfortable with that.

Speaker 3: 24:47

Bull stops on a dime at 130. Our wind shifted. The reason those elk were going into that bull the way that they were is because that wind would always come from high up and it would swirl back up. And they're smart, they know that. They know how predators will come and try and ambush them and they use that terrain to their advantage. So, and it's still early, still bright, bright and sunny, uh, it's probably like an hour and 30 minutes, hour and 45 minutes until dark.

Speaker 3: 25:16

This bull catches my wind and he turns and he runs, send off two more cow calls to him. He stops on a dime, then he turns, so he's facing, he turns his head to face me, but his I still see, like his ass, that he's corded away real hard and I'm thinking to myself I'm not going to get another opportunity. He's corded away harder than I would like at this angle. But I'm comfortable with the distance and if he able, if I can get him to just stand there and let me make as good a shot as I can. I'll admit that was the most extreme level of a shot that I'd be willing to take. But I sat there, I analyzed it and I was like you know what? I'll take it, this distance, with this angle. I wish he was a little bit more broadside, but I'll take it. So he gives me all the time in the world and I just sit there and I go through a perfect shot, gun goes off, I hit him.

Speaker 3: 26:17

I hit him right where I wanted. I hit him far back in that back ham and I was hoping that that bullet was just going to shoot all the way up and get up into those vitals, which I now know that it did. But it needed to be left about three more inches. So I hit this bull. Blood starts pouring out. I start freaking out. Bull takes off Me and my buddy make a bunch of phone calls. Mike, I know you were one of the calls I made. Tell him get the troops out, start praying. And those prayers were answered yesterday.

Speaker 3: 26:58

But we give it about an hour and a half we start tracking. We find good blood, find really good blood. Actually I was very, very happy with the blood that we found had some bubbles in it, so I knew I at the very least had gotten up there and hit one lung.

Speaker 2: 27:11

And with that angle, if I hit one lung, I knew I hit liver.

Speaker 3: 27:14

I knew I definitely hit gut. So I'm thinking I got three different major areas of the body that bullet took out. That bullet should be dead. And for a little bit of context, I loaded my muzzleloader about as hot as it would go. I was shooting a 270-degree bullet, like 2,000 feet per second. So I'm rivaling some like 45, 70 loads to that thing. It kicks like a mule. So I really knew I had the penetration. I knew I had the power to get up in there and for that bullet to do what I needed it to do. We find the blood go 160 yards. Blood completely stops. At this point it's pitch dark out. We go listen, let's get out of here.

Speaker 3: 27:56

It's going to take us three and a half four hours to get out of here. Anyway, let's get a couple hours sleep. Come back in the morning, so that's what we do. Come back in the morning, we get back up in there and we put in a combined over 11 miles looking for that bull. We never found another drop of blood, just grid searching that entire mountain and we never found him. And we got to the bottom and we uh, because we just kept grid searching down entire mountain and we never found him. And we got to the bottom and we uh, cause we just kept grid searching down, cause he's doing like half mile, three quarter mile, one way, go go down about 50 yards, same thing back, and just kept going back and forth, back and forth. Um, and when we hit the like the 11 mile mark, like we knew that that bull was probably dead but we just weren't going to find him, and that was a terribly hard pill to swallow, I'm not afraid to admit it. I called my wife and I'm crying like a baby because you know that's brutal, it's absolutely brutal. But I made peace with it. I made peace with it because of how amazing the trip was and all of the above. So that was Thursday. Now we spent the entire day Thursday tracking that bull, dark to dark tracking that bull, and never found him Back out of there, and that was pretty much the end of the trip. We had another day out there which we spent fishing, caught a few fish and got a good shower and then we flew home. End of the trip. We had another day out there which we spent fishing, caught a few fish and, uh, got a good shower and then we flew home. So almost 50 pounds of mule deer meat and, uh, I was happy, I was content.

Speaker 3: 29:34

First weekend back home, have to spend time with the family, you know, build those brownie points back up. Second weekend, which was this past, this past weekend, um, I go out saturday morning I smoked two does right off the rip great start to the season. And uh, the next night I'm sitting on my couch, I'm sitting right there and I'm looking, scrolling through facebook, and I'm on a generic facebook group called Archery Elk Hunters Not state-specific, nothing, just Archery Elk Hunters and I see this photo of this dead bull and my immediate thought was, wow, that looks just like my bull. That I couldn't find. And I read the caption Found this bull September 26th in Colorado unit same unit I was in.

Speaker 3: 30:29

Shot seems to be a bit high in the middle of the back, which would match where I think my exit was. If you're close to where, if you're close to where, if you're missing a bull and you message me, if you're close to where we found this, I'll give you the coordinates. The first thing I do is I take the picture, I send it to my buddy who I went out with and I go without me telling you anything. If I send you this picture, what do you think? And he goes that's the bull you shot. That looks exactly like the bull that you shot when we were out there.

Speaker 3: 31:02

So I message the guy, sent him a whole diatribe this trailhead north of this mountain, west of this mountain, we were hunting these ridges, this trail system, x, y, z Guy gets back to me Brother, we found your bull, that's exactly where we found him. So obviously not how you want to find them. Um, that bull ends up traveling almost three and a half miles, as the crow flies, from where I shot him, um, up and down three separate, three separate mountains, um, just chasing that herd of cows. I truly believe that that bull was dead as soon as I hit him. But uh, you know, he had that life left in him and he he was, he was horny, he was as rutted up as he's ever gonna be. And uh, he hears that herd bull because even after I shot that herd bull kept bugling. I think he just looks up and even though he's hurt, he's like I know those cows are over there, I'm just just going to keep following them. And even I told my buddy last night I was like either he's going to be down this hill.

Speaker 3: 32:07

We're going to find him tomorrow or he's going to take off after that herd and he's going to die somewhere miles away chasing after that herd. That's what he did. So it's unfortunate that we found him the way that we did, but I'm so thankful that we found him at all, and I pulled a lot of strings and I have the exact coordinates now and I have a buddy of mine going to pick that bull up for me sometime this week. So, fingers crossed, everything goes according to plan. I should have my hands on him by middle of November, I'm hoping. So that is my 2024 Colorado Elks story. Um, yeah, man, that's it.

Speaker 1: 32:51

Wow, and you know I will say I've been kind of kept up to date For the most part From Ethan, you know.

Speaker 1: 33:01

Got the phone call, you know, and then you know I got the text message, literally and literally my response, I think I said, I think I said like no fucking way, yeah, and exactly what I said, like you know what are the odds, like you know what, and it's I always say like man, it really sucks when you can't find it, but I think at the end of the day, you're just, you just got to appreciate that.

Speaker 1: 33:31

Then look at everything that you accomplished out there, and I know how hard you've been, you've been. This has been years in the making and everything like that, you know, and like I said, it's, it's not not how you wanted to go back then today, like damn, it got done. You know what I mean. Everything came together, you know, and I I can't wait to to hear that you finally get, get to put your your hands around this, this elk, and everything like that. But what a, what a crazy story, not too times, you hear, especially the fact that you found it on Facebook because you didn't mention that part. That's even wilder. What are the odds?

Speaker 3: 34:11

Some random dude that lives in Kentucky. Dude lives in. Kentucky and he had no service. So he left three days after he found the bull and as he was driving home to Kentucky he just was like let me just go put this on this facebook group.

Speaker 4: 34:25

just by happenstance. Oh yeah, I would have never even thought to do that.

Speaker 4: 34:30

Yeah, you can go play the lottery go play we often say that like you got to do like 10 out of 10 things right to shoot a mature buck or to have success shoot a turkey or whatever, you probably did like 99 out of 100 things right. It sounds like from your story, but it's just how it goes. That's why it's so hard. You know you know if that shot was what like four inches one way or you know, and you know like a, you know throw that you know could have been, you know different situation. You know probably would have think about that shot a lot, but you know it's that's how it goes sometimes. You know we all wish that the bull went down right away and you know nobody more than you. But you know it's still a great hunt and you know sure gets a fire in your belly to go back as soon as possible, I'd imagine.

Speaker 3: 35:25

Oh yeah, well, you know, we I mean I know mike, I talked to you on a couple other podcast episodes and uh, about the training that went into this trip and uh, we did the math between me and my buddy combined in some of the steepest stuff in the entire state to colorado, we put in 120.2 miles, 120.2 miles with I think I'd be willing to say that 60 percent of that was done above 10 000 feet wow yeah.

Speaker 3: 35:59

So you know, for us, for us to put in that level of work and that much time and blood, sweat, tears, just for us to have the closure. Obviously, I'm crossing my fingers and praying to God that everything goes according to plan. I get that bull back to me in the next couple of weeks, but even if I don't, just to have the closure that we did kill that bull we we completed that it's. It's amazing, just just just to have that nail in the coffin, you know yeah, yeah something I'm curious about and that I've been kind of kicking around a lot.

Speaker 4: 36:40

I was actually just talking to my dad and some other people about this today. Could you go through your muzzleloader setup from gun to what powder you put pellets, what's your bullet, what's your scope? What is your muzzleloader setup? Because I'm going to Virginia and during the rut they have a muzzleloader season. I'm 99% sure it lines up when I'm going to be there. So I'm trying to get a setup, you know, in time, and I got some lined up, but I might just buy my own. But what? What is your muzzleloader setup?

Speaker 3: 37:15

because that's like a science in and of itself, yeah, so I didn't know anything about muzzleloaders at all until February of this year when I actually went to Georgia where the guy I went to Colorado with used to live. Now he lives in Florida. But I went down with him in February for a pig hunt and I brought my bow like an idiot and we were spot and stalking through like waist-deep water and it was a frigging mess. And after I missed I missed like two different opportunities on good pigs I was like dude, give me the muzzy, I'm not doing this bow thing anymore, I'm trying to bring home some meat. So he had a cheap cva wolf with, uh, whatever scope comes with it, it's like the whole package was like 220 bucks or 240 bucks or whatever and I've heard those are great.

Speaker 4: 38:01

That's what I got. I've heard that and interrupt. But I was talking. I was at Sportsman's Warehouse and I was talking to the guy and he seemed to know a lot and basically what it kind of comes down to is there's more expensive muzzleloaders but the CVAs are cheaper because their assembly lines are set up just for muzzleloaders, just for muzzleloaders, and that's why they can have those cheaper prices, not necessarily because it's quality but because, like, those other gun companies have to change how they. I could be totally wrong. This is what the guy told me. But it makes sense from like engineering manufacturing standpoint is like if you have to set up a separate line to like make one-off rifles, you have to change, charge a lot more to cover your kind of bottom line.

Speaker 3: 38:41

So I'm not as well versed in muzzleloaders as I am, compared to archery, but what I can tell you is I was out with him in georgia, got the cva wolf. I really liked it. I come home and I bought one for 150 off facebook marketplace and I uh, I tested a couple loads and so I had the cva wolf. And in colorado you can't use optics and you need to use granulated powder, so I couldn't use pellets. So my setup would definitely not be the same as most people's around here, because they're going to be using scopes and they're going to be using pellets. But I used 90 grains by weight of the Hogshin's 777 3F not the 2F, the 3F, because I think that burns a little bit better and I was using the Cheddar Light or whatever they are, like the blue and pink primers and 270-grain Federal Borlaug bullets. So 270-grain bullet, 90, 90 grains of powder. And I had that puppy traveling when I croned it I think it was 1940 feet per second, um, so he was kicking, no what's that powder?

Speaker 4: 40:00

is that like when you look at it? Is it cylinders? Is it cornflakes? What does the individual granules look like?

Speaker 3: 40:09

That's the difference between the 2F and the 3F. The 2F I don't understand the science behind it, but the 2F is a lot more coarse. Each individual piece is a little bit thicker, whereas the 3f is a lot finer. Um, honestly, I started shooting the 3f just because that's what they had at the store when I first started shooting it, but I have my own theory that I feel as though that might just burn a bit more consistent. But I have nothing to get rid of exactly what it is.

Speaker 4: 40:41

So I I work, I used to work in that kind of field and what it is it's like rate of reaction. So when you get like that flake, like that corn, like it looks like corn flakes, it's like higher surface area so it does burn cleaner. So you're exactly right and it you get a faster rate of reaction because there's more surface area to burn in a shorter amount of time, so it can burn faster and cleaner. So that is kind of what I was looking for as well. So it's good to hear that you know that's kind of what you were on the same page as it's going to be.

Speaker 3: 41:11

That's going to get you those faster speeds, going to kick more yeah, yeah I have a lever action 45 70 and it's half the recoil compared to that muzzleloader there's no place for it to go, but straight through the breach what I will say is, even though my bull obviously the shot, placement wasn't perfect and a whole lot of things happened there, but with my, with my mule deer um, that was 55 yards offhand, um, and I put that bullet through both shoulders and she died instantaneously. She just, yeah, dropped right down. I mean it worked amazing on the deer.

Speaker 4: 41:48

I've also heard that mixing your own powder tends to can be better than the pellets, and I think it's that same thing with that rate.

Speaker 2: 41:54

Yeah, you know I'm no, yeah, I know people who have done it um, because I've muddled, mudzzleloader hunted for years. So I have the Thompson Center Omega and I shoot the actual, the Piratex pellets. I usually put two of those pellets I believe they're like 50 grains each, with a 240 grain Hornady bullet I think it's the XTP, I believe, and the 777 primers and I love that setup. Haven't had an issue with it. I mean it does suck when you got to clean it, but you know, other than that, I mean the gun shoots great Because actually I say it in my my gun, I could be dead on at 50 yards, at 200 yards I, with two pellets, I aim right on top of the deer's back and I'm like bullseye impressive, impressive boys.

Speaker 1: 43:01

I don't even know how we go from elk, and now I mean not even how we go, because what Peyton and I accomplished on Saturday is just absolutely incredible, but just completely different, just a little different. Our views were not not the same and we're we're getting pictures and and stuff like that for from ethan and I mean you can't there, there is no, I mean there's no comparison in this story, but the hard work that I would say that not only ethan but for us, and scouting new areas that we've we've never really stepped foot on before in a, was it even? It was even considered a tropical storm up here, right, and it wasn't even. It was just like I know it was raining.

Speaker 4: 44:00

You're getting hit with like little fine bands of rain.

Speaker 2: 44:03

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 44:07

Every hour or two, they'd clear up and it'd rain for an hour or two, which was great for scouting.

Speaker 1: 44:12

I really enjoy scouting, always in rain.

Speaker 4: 44:16

That's my favorite conditions to hunt in? I think early season Before the run, I think. I think that season before the run, I think totally just. I think that the deer move more when you get those little, especially like now we got a big temperature drop. That's what I've had the most success, Even in the run. I shot this buck up here. Exact same conditions. You can get in silent. I think your scent is you with those rains. You get more consistent winds.

Speaker 1: 44:48

That's when I've had a lot of my successes in those kind of conditions and I'll definitely say this I think if we weren't doing all the, I think we scouted for what at least two to three hours before our hunt. I think we scouted for what?

Speaker 4: 45:04

at least two to three hours before our hunt anymore. I think we scouted maybe three or four whichever.

Speaker 1: 45:12

I think, it would have been way more comfortable because we were when I started we were. It was in my head longer than I did the math, if you were right, we were stoked, so like, um, I had my rain gear on and everything like that, but you know it's still. You're sweating like. For me, I think the biggest part was inside, you know, my rain gear. I was soaking wet from sweat just like, just so much sweat.

Speaker 1: 45:44

Our pete and I and I said this to frank and ethan before he got on pete the smartest decision of the whole entire day was changing boots and socks. I think that was by far the most important. So I'm going to say this to anyone out there I always run anyway two to three different pairs in a boots in my truck and different pairs of socks. Honestly, I have random clothes in my truck during the season just because I know I may need clothes at some point. Right, you just never know what you're going to encounter in the in the hunting woods. But that, I think, made such a difference of when we're walking in with the fresh boots on fresh, dry socks. It was like, all right, we're ready to go kill some deer.

Speaker 4: 46:31

Everything else was still soaking wet, but yeah, having the fresh dry socks and the dry boots on it, just I couldn't be. I wasn't even thinking that the rest of me was drenched to my underwear.

Speaker 1: 46:43

Yeah, I wasn't until thinking that the rest of me was drenched to my underwear. Yeah, I, I wasn't, until we stopped moving. We got all set up and probably like two hours later you started to get cold, because now you're just wet inside and then the wind's blowing a little bit and you're not moving anymore.

Speaker 4: 46:55

But first you know a little chilly this season so far yeah, yeah, same here.

Speaker 1: 47:00

But you know what everything paid off, I mean from from the scouting that we did. We bumped Peyton, tried putting a stock on a dosh. We probably had her at, I think, 43 yards. I think I got to 25, 30. Yeah, but she had the upper hand on us because we were coming down this slope and we were making noise and everything like that, right off the road too.

Speaker 4: 47:23

We weren't even really expecting one to be there. I mean, we were just it would have been just legal, like just inside the road. Yeah, from the bow distance to the road, it would have been just, you know, within that legal distance. But, yeah, bumped that one, bumped another one that we walked back and forth past. But I think the smartest thing we did there was we went in and you know spots that we were like look good. And we were both saying but like like why is the fresh sign not here? And like the fresh poop wasn't there, there wasn't like there wasn't like oaks really dropping. And we had checked like two or three different spots and it just like wasn't great.

Speaker 4: 48:07

We were willing to, we were almost about to like set up in this one spot that was just like and looks like it would be good. But the sign's not there and I was like well, let's go check this one more spot. It's getting late, we only really have time for one spot. We can speed scout. And as soon as we get in there, it's like all right, this is what we were looking for. Fresh, wet poop, brows like fresh brows, you know, in a couple different spots with good wind, so I was like, all right, well, that was like the best decision I think we made back out of there and then go back to the truck put dry, besides the boots and the dry socks.

Speaker 4: 48:41

Yeah, yeah found a new access spot to the spot that we've been pretty hard. That we thought was. I tried to get in there from a different angle earlier that morning Same here. You couldn't get to it because of just how thick everything was and probably would have blown it out if I had gone in that way in hindsight. So you know, found that perfect kind of access, which was really cool.

Speaker 1: 49:09

Yeah, which is going to help us a lot in the long run. You know, I have a camera in by this area and the way that I took in was completely opposite side of where Peyton tried going in in the morning and it's just so thick, it's between two cornfields and then there's a screen that's from the river and everything like that, and you can only cross it if it's dry, and it hasn't been raining for two days here. Well, I mean that that's kind of. Those are kind of pretty obvious not obvious um, and it would.

Speaker 1: 49:54

It's a. It was always been a difficult spot to get into and now it's like all right, this has made it just so much easier. The access, and I don't.

Speaker 4: 50:02

I honestly don't know how many people know yeah, about this creative access spot, yeah, found, which is important, especially in new jersey where you know, relatively like for every place that you hunt, access is pretty good and none of the parcels are too big, so it's kind of hard. I mean, yeah, there are places in new jersey you go to the water gap, the federal land you go to, like some of those like northwest corner of jersey or the pine barrens. Yeah, there's big tracks that you can out walk people to go and get away, but for the most part in the state it's not really like that. So it's about finding that creative access. I think that's important. Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 3: 50:46

I know from experience the best buck I ever shot. I'm looking at him on the wall right here. I shot that buck on the smallest piece of ground I ever hunted. It was a little I don't know eight acre piece of public that ended up being a private piece that someone had owned just to store like heavy machinery and then they moved and sold it to the state and the state just added it on to a local piece of uh of already existing wma. That was right down the road and I went in there and it was covered up in sign and I parked the truck. I sat, I hung a stand like 40 yards from my truck and I'll never forget it.

Speaker 3: 51:25

That buck actually came out of his bed. He was bedded right next to my truck. When I got out of my truck I was probably 10 yards from him. He was better right by the road, he just didn't care. He walked right out and I drew my bow and I looked up and through the trees on the other side I could see like houses, like a development. I heard a little girl on a swing set and then I shot the biggest buck of my life right here, like those tiny little pieces that get overlooked so often, like that's, that's some, some of my favorite pieces are like that.

Speaker 1: 51:53

You know it's something that we we talk about a lot here, but I think you know, like you said, in a place like jersey or something like that, it's very crucial to to find pieces like like that and access like that. Um, you know. And then I would say, guys, what? First of all, peyton went two for two. I was like, oh, oh, peyton, how many deer did you say he goes two? I was like.

Speaker 2: 52:15

So this guy I went for like 20.

Speaker 1: 52:19

He went two for two, only saw two deer and shot two deer and I think what? How long? From when we set up to when you shot your your first year? It wasn't that much longer.

Speaker 4: 52:32

I mean, it was still very early, cause I I texted you when I got set up um, yeah, I think it might have been 45 minutes, which is really early, especially for this time of year. I think I shot that deer at four o'clock, um, which is early, I think, for this time of year. Uh, yeah, so I thought she could think I shot that deer at uh, let's see, yeah, I texted you. Uh, you said all set at 3 30. I was about the same at 3 30 and I shot that deer at 4 12. So I mean we were in the stand for 45 minutes, maybe not even, yeah, which is yeah, I think or like. So let's just see sunsets like end of shooting lights, like 7, 15 ish this time of year. Um, so, yeah, I mean that was quick, got it done quick, wanted to put meat in the freezer first one stepped out big nanny doe, like giant nanny doe, um, came out alone. Um, which is good, is what I'm looking for. I don't want to. Not a huge fan of shooting, especially this time of year. Shooting does with fawns, um, so that's what I was looking for. Came out and then actually kind of didn't even see her, so she was like right under. I picked this tree because it was the only one in this row like uh, that had like some cover and uh, she was like on the cover, I couldn't see her and she busted. I think she caught like maybe like a little hint of scent or something, was looking back the way she came, not anywhere near me, kind of bounded 30 yards past blue a little bit, and was looking back the way she came and I was just hugging the tree Like God, please don't look up here. And then just hug in the tree and she eventually, for whatever reason, walked back the way she came to, I guess, investigate like what had bothered her, and as soon as her head went behind the tree I got the bow over, got to the weak side in the saddle and I think I was at full draw, because then she stepped out into the only opening and I was at full draw but she was facing away. So I held full draw for like two minutes before she eventually gave me that quartering away shot, a perfect broadside, and the mega meats did, did all right, I think first time shooting mechanicals in a while, my dad said, and my dad and somebody else last year both separately told me about how much they love these and it's a good design. I'm not a huge fan of mechanicals, but the way these deploy, um, I think it's like the perfect kind of perfect kind of deployment method in my opinion. Um, but that was the only one.

Speaker 4: 55:03

I had my quiver and I was like debating, like getting down, but then the way I would have to get out I'd have to screw up mike because he was where he was set up. So I'm just gonna set up, knock another arrow, we'll see if something else comes by. I know that deer's dead. I know it's dead close. I heard her crash. Um, I was like all right, I'll just. You know the weather, it's good. There's only like three hours max that it's gonna be here. Um, I'm not gonna worry about like meat spoiling. I know where it is.

Speaker 4: 55:33

Then, uh, I think it was like you know, an hour and a half later, here comes another one out the same. I get down, find my arrow, find good blood and stick the arrow out of the ground so that I know where to find it. When I go back and the deer actually walks right by the arrow sticking out of the ground and I shot the other one, comes back around and then I smoke her on the other direction quartering away at another 20 yard chip shot. Then I see her go down dirty and I was like, well, I gotta get down now. I can't keep. I can't keep up. I don't know. I mean I got two does down. I'm limited out now, I'm just setting myself up for disaster.

Speaker 4: 56:14

I gotta get down now. I have no choice. So I end up working out, walk right by the one you know, get back to the truck, get the sled, get all you know everything, get my pens and my knives, and then go back in and by that time mike is seeing deer run all around him. Yeah, I don't think I think I actually bumped two deer towards you on accident that I don't know if you saw. I think they went the other way. Yeah, I don't think I think I actually bumped two deer towards you on accident that I don't know if you saw.

Speaker 1: 56:36

I think they went the other way yeah, I, I think so, from when you shot the first one. I after that I was on high alert because those deer were moving early and I think it's because of all the rain and everything like that and they were taking advantage of when it was slowing down and things like that. So it was a really great decision for us to just get in extremely early, as early as we could after scouting, and I mean, deer just started going everywhere and I remember I was walking to the tree that I was going to pick and Peyton goes yeah, this is a perfect spot.

Speaker 4: 57:12

It's only going to affect you if they come straight from behind you and what do you think I think was gonna be just based on the nature of how it was. It was very open and I didn't.

Speaker 2: 57:23

I was like the way they're gonna run, but they use that crazy, but they did they.

Speaker 4: 57:29

They didn't care that it was wide open and yeah 20 to about 20 deer.

Speaker 1: 57:34

However, whatever I saw, all came out from the same side, all ran across, almost all of them ran towards me, in my direction, but would get hung up at like 70 or 80 yards and then would keep working. And I know I I noticed one. This was probably like the 10th or 11th year before he even Peyton shot the second one. This doe booked it all the way across the field, got downwind of me and then, I think, picked up our scent from where both Peyton and I had walked in from and she was on high alert the whole entire time. What was starting to make her way towards me, and I was.

Speaker 1: 58:22

I was like all right, like it's go time, like I had the bow in the hand and everything like that, like she's slowly closed and I think she got within I don't know probably like 50-ish yards to my left, my offhand side, and then I think there was just this gust of wind and she didn't no blowing, no, nothing like that. She just tucked, tailed and the tail went up and she just ran way out of bow range and she went all the way back into some plot of woods and then by the time peyton had shot his second one and he's getting down. He's like, all right, like I'm gonna start heading to the truck and I'm like, okay, cool, it's clear, the field's clear, like you can come. Now all of a sudden I'm like, oh no, no, no, do not come right now.

Speaker 1: 59:10

Yeah, there's deer that just came out you do not come out to the field right. And those deer made it all the way to me where they got within 35, probably like 35 yards and they were there. They were in the open field and then they cut through and they went to where the corn was and I'm like all right, finally, like it's gonna happen. First of all, meanwhile, guys, this is the first hunt in new jersey this year that I've seen does finally no bucks, all does first, like it's been crazy, right, really, really bizarre season. So I'm I'm blood's pumping, like all right, I'm gonna smoke one. I'm gonna smoke one.

Speaker 1: 59:53

All of a sudden, a doe just goes flying like 100 miles per hour just past me. I'm like what the hell? So I see the others and this doe comes flying back yet again and I'm like Jesus Christ, this doe just like did some cocaine or something. It was going absolutely insane. And you know what they did. They didn't come my way, they cut in through the cornfield and I actually think they went all the way out to my other camera. Um, so, unfortunately, no, no shot for me. But, dude, after dragging two deer out, one at the same time, we were kind of thankful that we didn't shoot another one like yeah, it was it was rough um, it was wet, we were slipping, it was muddy, it was, it was rough yeah, it was.

Speaker 1: 1:00:47

and you know what it was? God works in mysterious ways, he. He said nope, you guys are going to be out here all freaking night if you get another one. So you know it was the two. Peyton's two was enough for us. And you know what? No, no, no shot opportunity there and we're kind of thankful for it because, dude, I was beat after, I was beat after was beat after it was a great hunt.

Speaker 4: 1:01:17

I mean it really was one of my best public land hunts, you know, for not seeing any bucks and anything, it was a great hunt.

Speaker 4: 1:01:24

I mean, have those two does come in close. I mean they were both on high alert too and it was just a lot of patience required and it was a great confidence builder. Um, you know, after having kind of a rough season not, you know, not a rough season, it's very short and I was able to get one on opening day but it was not seeing a lot of deer um, you know, delaware was good, but you know, just having those deer work and do exactly what you wanted. You know, after you made that setup and that was the first time I've hunted there this year, so you're just know, just going to go in, find a spot, get up in the tree and shoot two, just like that was all really good. So I got some full freezer Freezer's getting not full but freezer's getting filled back up. So it was low on deer meat, so I'm going to try to keep chipping away at it. Shoot a couple more does this year Hopefully something with horns.

Speaker 3: 1:02:18

It's a good start to the season, so far. Yeah, Collectively the whole group has done pretty well so far.

Speaker 4: 1:02:24

To start off Frank's got one, you've got three does including the mule deer. I've got three Mike's got.

Speaker 1: 1:02:38

Well, mike's got. Well, I've seen a lot of deer he's got one last year.

Speaker 4: 1:02:45

What we shot? How many deer did we shoot last year? Just two deer.

Speaker 1: 1:02:50

A bear justin shot last year, last year was, was pretty light, not here last year, or rough this year, I think our number. And then you know we can, we can add in ethan's elk. So you got one elk, one muley, you got five, seven does already like seven, seven, seven does one. One mule, deer doe, one elk. Um and what? And september is just ending, tomorrow is october 1st and then our, you know, squatch is going to be out in the woods and he gets his season started here tomorrow. So you know, that's a lot, of, a lot of animals already on the ground and we're just one month, one month into the season. Yeah, one month, because we started. We started what, august 30th down in delaware, or september 1st, september 1st maybe it was, uh it was labor day.

Speaker 4: 1:03:51

Labor day, so I think it was september 3rd, so it's gonna be the whole month of september, we haunted and it's good. Yeah, I mean, I think we're I'm pretty happy with you, know, I think everybody's pretty happy with how their season's gone so far getting yeah, meeting the free you know, and tags and you know, learning a lot I I kept the journal.

Speaker 3: 1:04:11

I kept the journal last year of every hunt that I was on, the weather time, the whole nine, and I closed in on Right here I think 50. Yeah, I think I closed in on 50 sits. I think I was just under 50 sits and at the end of it I was over 80% of my sits. I didn't see a deer.

Speaker 4: 1:04:31

Yeah, yeah, last year was rough.

Speaker 2: 1:04:34

Yeah, last year was. Last year was rough. I think like yeah, last year was rough.

Speaker 1: 1:04:38

Um, I I will say already, without shooting a deer, and I know people like, oh, you haven't killed a deer and it's yet again, it's still very successful, like I've done the alastata hunt, where I've seen what those at least two, two shooters and then one that's supposed to be a shooter in new jersey but because his spread isn't like you know, I've seen well, I think 15, I think, in delaware, and two to three hunts. I've seen at least 30 deer already, you know, and few of them being mature bucks. Um, you know, then I come back here to new jersey and you know what I see a bunch of deer. I've seen a lot of deer. I haven't seen the when I needed to shoot does I didn't see toes when I can. You know it's flipped, but you know what it's, it's been very now you can just shoot whatever walks out that's yeah now.

Speaker 1: 1:05:33

Now, now I can shoot, which I'm happy. There's still so much time left. I'm not going to put the not putting the pressure on killing. There's no pressure. We still have October, November. We still have plenty of time. Eventually it will start to kick up, but the amount of deer that we've seen down there and everything like that, I'm just very um, there's a lot to be hopeful for and payton can definitely understand. We barely saw does last year. I mean, that's the one thing that we, we barely saw last year. I can't really remember seeing those.

Speaker 4: 1:06:11

The doe density was just terrible and yeah, I don't know it was just.

Speaker 2: 1:06:16

I don't know what it was last year um, where we were hunting.

Speaker 4: 1:06:20

I guess we weren't on the. I think this year what I'm doing better is I was thinking about this earlier is last year. A lot of it was just this like to pop. I wasn't putting together all the pieces. I'd be like this place looks good, the topography looks good, that looks like good bedding, but I wasn't finding, I wasn't hunting. The freshest sign and that's what I've been trying to focus on this year is like a hunt sign that's 24 hours or so old, and if it's not, then move on, and I think that was good proof of concept on Saturday.

Speaker 1: 1:06:46

So yeah, definitely, you know so. And you know, Ethan, I, I take the journal too. Same thing as last year. I need to do that better. And this year, this year, I'm going, I'm going a hundred, I'm trying to get to a hundred hunts, but that's within, and I think I talked about this with Frank. That's deer bear, that's going to be waterfowl, that's going to be squirrel, that's going to be everything in one, Not, I hope it's not a hundred deer sets. You know, I hope it's not a hundred deer, since, you know, I hope it's just a broad thing of just everything you know. And I would like to get to at least one or two more States. I know Ethan and I are going to going to be doing a PA hunt, so looking forward to that, and then, you know, I'd still like to get at least another state or two under under my belt. Hopefully hit up upstate New York, which is opening, like we said tomorrow. So all you upstate New York, which is opening, like we said tomorrow. So all you upstate New York hunters.

Speaker 2: 1:07:39

Good luck, Frank you getting out for after work, I'll probably hunt Jersey, but I'm going to head up state to our, to our property. I'm going to leave Friday night and I plan to hunt there Saturday and Sunday.

Speaker 1: 1:07:51

So the plan is to get a buck down, you know, saturday morning that's always the plan, um, so very excited now we can officially say everyone probably has kicked off their seasons, um, and you know we're looking forward to a lot. That's gonna conclude field notes number six for us, and what an exciting one. You know we had elk talk. We had, you know, rainy deer talk. Um, I hope everyone enjoyed this episode, um, and we will. We'll see you guys next time.