SPEAKER_00 0:24

Hey guys, how's it going? Zach here with Echoes of the Hunt Behind the Hunt. And in today's episode, we have Seth Beatty on with us. And before we go any further, Echoes of the Hunt Behind the Hunt is also brought to you by the Boondocks Hunting family. So we got a treat for you guys today. So Seth bagged his bird just the other day, and I was able to write a story on it. And I wanted to get him on as fast as possible on this podcast so we could hear more about it. And that way he can actually get you guys as listeners and as readers more into the story that he has to tell us tonight. So Seth, welcome to the show, man. It's amazing to have you on here.

SPEAKER_03 1:05

I am thrilled to be here. Thank you, Zach.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Yeah, man, not a problem. So let's talk about this hunt that you went on. Um, your setup, you were what? Were you groundblind or were you tree or what were you doing?

SPEAKER_03 1:19

Well, the the day that I took this took the bird, I was actually in a ground blind. And normally I don't hunt ground blinds. That's just not my style. I I used to. And me and my cousin, over the years that we've been hunting together, we just finally was like, all right, this this one particular spot, you have to have a ground blind because of the way the field would roll off. We're like, okay, if we're gonna hunt this field any at all, we need to go ahead and put some blind up. And we we've been trying to stay away from this place for a couple seasons. Right. We had taken so many birds off of it in the last in the last five years. I know there was at least two seasons we took about two seasons, I think we took ten birds off this farm. Well, that was me, him. No, it was eight birds. It was me, my uncle, a total, we took a total of like uh ten birds off this farm. No, yeah, it was about ten birds that can two seasons combined. So I didn't want to say anything incriminating, but uh we took a bunch of birds off this farm, so we tried to give them some time off. But anyway, we put the blind up this season and we tried to stay away from it. So I started out the season with uh Chris, my cousin, he's the one that helped me get started with the baby boys outdoors. Well, we took our cameraman, Cody Smith. He'd never killed a turkey before, so we took him to one of the new spots we had just gained, just a couple miles down the road from my house. Well, we get out there, and my cousin said, Man, I forgot my gun. I was like, Oh my gosh, how do you do that? How do you do that? Don't even have we've had a lot going on this morning. I said, All right, whatever. Luckily, I had a gun. So we uh we're walking to the blind and uh we get set up. My cousin goes, So Cody, have you ever killed a bird? He goes, No, he goes, Okay, well then we'll let you shoot first. He said, That's this is a no-brainer. He said, We'll let you shoot first. He said, I'm happy with that. So we got plenty of time. So we got a bird goblin, he's hot. We get get my avian X decoy set out. I use uh the Avian X Jake, uh quarter strut Jake and Tom, uh lay down hen, sorry. And this bird, he's probably I'm gonna say he's at least 200 yards over in the woods. Locally he got just walking in to get set up. So and we're we're gonna blind in this field too, because there's nothing there's no tree line that you can really set up on because it's just this was just like a little eight-acre field, dude. I mean, it was it's a little honey hole right on the hang. I mean, you can you can look to your left and almost see the fairgrounds from where we're sitting. So we're sitting in the round line, that bird just hammering just every every time I touch that call. Well, he goes quiet for a minute, he finally comes out. I said, Uh oh, there he is at the back of the field. He just slowly worked his way back up the field. I mean, we probably watched him for 10 minutes just working his way back and forth up that field, and he got 35 yards. Cody squeezed that trigger, it turned turned him a backflip. Cody is such a chill dude. If he shot a booner, I doubt he would jump for joy, like like me or you probably would. Right. Well, I know I will.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Oh, yeah, I mean, me and Chris, we're just yeah, man, that's awesome. You know, we're just so excited for him. He's just over there just grinning. We're like, get excited, man. He's like, it's great.

SPEAKER_03 5:19

That's it. We take care down. I mean, he's he was an absolute stud of a bird, and my first bird.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

So yeah, there's just something about getting someone their first bird or first deer or first animal in general, and then seeing their face, and then realizing it's like, oh my gosh, I can do this. This is something that I can do. And a lot of people out there, yes, hunting is difficult. It's there's definitely different types of uh ways to hunt. You know, you got your blinds, you have your saddles, you have mobile hunting and everything. But when people start getting into it and they realize, like, this is for me, this is something that I can definitely do, and it just changes the way how they think their mindset changes completely. They're I feel like they're more grounded with nature, um, just because it's like they are finally starting to see what it's like to be out there and whatnot. That's something that I'd I've grown accustomed to around where I live currently. Right. Forgive me. Oh no, yeah, yeah, you're good, bro. Um, let's see if that looks like so. Was this the same hunt that he was on with you when you with uh your your story that we're talking about? No, actually. Okay, that's pretty that's pretty cool though. Like I love hearing animals being taken by someone who's never done that before, and sometimes they just don't know how to react. That's probably what happened with him. He's just like, this is cool, all right. I could do this, yeah. All right, so awesome.

SPEAKER_03 6:52

But we get the bird. I mean, it was it was early. I bet you I bet we hadn't been in the blind 30 minutes tops, and we take the bird, and I'll I'll back up a little bit as soon as we get in the blind. What made it such a um a fun hunt? Well, as soon as we get sit down in the blind, Chris and Cody, they sit down in their chairs. I've got one of them little little fold-out uh camo stools. Keep in mind this thing has been out in blinds, it's been out in all types of weather. I go to sit down in it. I hit the ground. I'm like, Great, all right, I can then see how this hunt's gonna go.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Yeah, that happened to me last year. I had my climber and I was climbing up the tree, and I sat down and I feel this little and I was like, really? And all of a sudden you just see me disappear, and I'm just like, This sucks. So I'm just sitting there and I'm like tying the seat together, and I'm like, all right, I guess I'll just make this work now. But I ended up getting a new seat for it that day. I was on just on my phone on Amazon and ordered a new one, but yeah, that was so funny. I was like, This sucks.

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SPEAKER_03 8:12

Right, yeah. You're like, all right, I'm gonna see how the rest of this hunt is gonna go.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Yeah, all nothing. I was like, well, yeah, that's probably what we're doing. Some deer was like idiot and just kept going about his business.

SPEAKER_03 9:22

But we'll fast forward. So we grab the bird, we sit back down, trying to enjoy the rest of the hunt, you know. Uh the rest of the morning hunt. Well, obviously, all we seen was just a few more hens. Still had a great time. Uh, memories to be made off uh 100%. I'm I'm all about that. So we get up, we go, go home, grab some lunch, come back a few hours later, went went and checked out another farm, actually. All we seen was a few hens on this place, which was the place where I had to miss. Right. So I go I have to go to work for a couple days. I took off Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So I'm I'm just pumped to be off work the rest of the week. I'm like, oh my gosh, just one more day. One more day. So I know the feeling. I've already got everything lined up, ready for the next morning. So I go I go out to this place. Um I go out there and I set up. I had probably four or five birds gobbling. I mean, it you can ask for more action for a setup other than obviously to take a bird off the farm. Yeah. But had uh had a team of three superjacks come up and they start Avian X Tom. I was like, guys, I don't want to, but you know, no, no, it's too expensive for y'all to for y'all to be messing up. Yeah, they finally go about their business after 30 minutes of messing with him. They luckily all they did was just kind of puffed up at him. I was like, Yeah, that's about all you're gonna do anyway. Get out of here. Yeah, yeah. So the day goes on. Nothing ever came of it. I ended up going to my uncle and cousin's farm and ended up walking a mile, no, probably two miles, all my gear on. All I heard was a jake. I go back to the field and sit back down the blind. I'm sitting there with 30 minutes left of the hunt. I hear something crunching behind me in the leaves. I look, here comes a hen just strolling past the blind. Like, which I got stayed here from the beginning to begin with. So I was like, all right, this was a bust. So I go out the next day, I'm hunting with my brother at the sp at the farm where I started at that morning. No, we started on another farm just down the road from my house. I didn't hear anything there. I checked another one right beside the house. So then we went all the way out to uh uh the Miss Farm. We get out there, I couldn't ask for for any more, again, more action. So two toms, five jakes, like eight hens, I think like eight hens out in the field. We're like, what do we do? So we try to try to sneak around the edge of the field, and it took us probably a good hour just to find out.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Yeah. The vision is so good.

SPEAKER_03 12:41

By the time we're set up, they've done went on to the other end of the field and we'll um we're sitting there. I felt like I was deer hunting turkey because the birds up here over here, I should say. Uh this season has been so weird. I know there's other people that have had great success, but uh, it seems like for us, the birds that I've been trying to work, they are it seems like their breeding season is already like it was like three weeks ago. Yeah. Excuse me. So we're sitting there, and here come the super jakes. Like, all right, here we go again. Well, I see the toms right behind them, just slowly making their way up. My brother's like, Oh, I'm gonna shoot one of these jakes. I said, Why would you settle for a Jake? Look what's behind him. I was like, I'm not shooting a Jake, look what's behind him. He's like, All right, cool. We watch him, they come back up. The tom's just still hanging right there at like a hundred yards. So the jakes he's on out, everything kind of moves off. So we called it a day. Well, he had to call it a day. We swing by the house uh by the farm by the house, check it out, see if there's anything in the field, checked another little spot real quick, drop him off at his truck, I go back, and I mean it is hot when I rolled up. I was like, my gosh, this might be a bad idea. I get all this gear on, I'm walking to walking to my little setup spot. I get set up and I look, and as I am setting out my time decoy, I look 700 yards away across the other side of the property and on the other end of the field. There go those two toms just side by side, walking from one little island of woods. I was like, you would do that. So well, they might get intimidated and get upset whenever they see this Tom and lay down hen. So I get set up and they would just they would kind of hang at the end of the end of the finger of some woods across the rock just kind of pop out, feed from it, go back in. Well, the one of them he popped out and I start calling at him just real loud. I start cutting and yelping. And he's like just starts looking at me. I was like, okay, well, I may have had his attention. And then 30 minutes after all that had transpired, they slowly start making their way around to me. And keep in mind, this took a good two hours. Oh, I was about to say probably a couple hours, yeah. Oh my gosh, it felt like forever and a day. And I could tell he was leering whenever he came across that ridge of the of the field on the property I was on. He gets about a hundred and about a hundred and twenty out, and he starts he starts clucking at me. I was like, I was like, him from now looking, it's him doing it. I'm like, okay, well, this is new, whatever. I start purring at him, he makes his way up, and I let him get about I thought he was at least 65 yards from what I checked, back my range. And I know people kill him all the time at 70, 75, and 80 yards with a uh a Mossberger 835 with three and a half inch shell. People do it all the time. I killed two last year, 55 and 60 yards, both shots. So I was like, okay, this will be a breeze. He steps out, thought I had a clear shot. I saw one off on him. He just goes flying. I was like, You have got kidding me. Because he was already leery. I was like, all right, I don't make a move, he's gonna yeah, that's devastating.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Oh my god. When when that happened, like immediately, what was your thought process? Was it do I move? Do I stay? Do I wait for the next day, or just pack up and go? Like, what was your thought process behind that whole situation?

SPEAKER_03 16:53

I immediately I waited for him to get out of sight. I was like, I wonder if I even nicked him. Maybe maybe feathers flew off, maybe I got him, he might die a minute later. I don't know. I get up and I walk over there, nothing on the ground. I find the wad for my shell. And the other bird that was with him, he was just stupid, I guess. He just slowly walked away. I was like, I was like, okay, I mean, I'll well, he finally went about his way. I didn't booger him or anything, so um, I just accepted defeat. I was like, all right, it's a it's a miss. It's a miss. I haven't missed a bird. I've won that makes twice I've ever missed a bird. Yeah. I mean, it eat at me all night. I finally I was just like, you know what, I'm just gonna go home. Man, uh shame back to the truck, and I go home and I'm dwelling on it all the way to the house, all the way into the to the night. I'm laying in bed, I'm like, I'm not gonna let this happen again. Oh god, yeah. Because I know that bird, I educated him. I don't think there would ever be a prayer of getting him back. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

What happened to me last year? I had uh I had been calling and calling nonstop, and I could hear I'm in between two fields. The first field was in early in the morning where you hear all the the hands clucking and everything. So I start immediately playing with mine a little bit. I had a decoy up there, and I'm in a blind, but I didn't even hear anything coming behind me, and all of a sudden I just hear this huge burge gobble, and I was like, uh oh, I thought I froze, and then that was it. And I was like, all right, is he gonna come around? What is he gonna do? Because I didn't want I wouldn't I didn't want to sit there and purr or anything. Excuse me, because I didn't want to like spook him off, but he never came back out. And so I was like, all right, so waited about 10 more minutes, started calling again, and this time I was on the chase. So I hear off in the other field a ton of gobbles go off, and I was like, all right, I'm I'm moving. So I grabbed my bow, I take him off running, I stomp him on every like 30 yards, hit another uh cut on the um on my slate, and then they start going nuts again, move another 30 yards, do the same thing again. At this point, I probably moved about maybe 200 yards, and then I see him just coming into the woods where I was at, and I was like, there he is. And he's probably no joke, 15 yards from me. I go to raise my bow, and I'm as I'm drawing back, one of the blades on my arrow catches this little line and unknocks my arrow. And I'm like, you've gotta be kidding me. And of course, the bird just sees me and he's like, peace out, and just takes off. I'm like, that just you know that still eats me alive to this day because I I then 20 minutes later, I see across the field that I was originally in two giant ponds, like enough to wear, and they're like four yards away, and I've glassed them, and you can see the blue on one of them. I was like, oh wow, he is beautiful. I get in this body, I low crawl. I get to this point where I have to cross. So if I take my boots off and I'm moving slow and trying to be quiet, and then I come. Yeah, I took my boots off so they couldn't hear the leaves crunch around me. Um, and so I literally am moving across and I see him, and he is, of course, 30 yards from me, full just strut, just staring at me. He's just like, Oh, really? You want to kill me? And just turns around and takes off. And I just I took off my hat and I threw it on the ground. I was like, I quit. Stupid birds, I quit. But yeah, that was all in one day.

SPEAKER_03 20:50

I was I was dead. That's what they would call a real kick in the knackers.

unknown 20:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:58

But most of what's up? So that's the most most polite way of saying that.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

It seriously is. So, but back to yours. So you you know, shot in the dark, hoping for a prayer that you see him again. And so you waited and you called it a day, got your wad. Um, and then what did you you packed up and went home and just pretty much had a glass of whiskey and called it a night? Just pissed off.

SPEAKER_03 21:27

Well, I went home and I had a glass of water. That's hot. I don't drink much. I I might great now and then. Um but I go home and I'm just dwelling on it. I'm like, all right, you know, what's the use in going back to this farm? Because that those are the only two birds on that farm that will actually come into this field. So I go to my uncle's farm where I've had I've had troubles there before too. Because those birds, they are smart. They're old. I don't know if the birds that we've taken off this this farm in the past have uh uh if we've just been educating all the other ones around there too, while we've been taking the young ones or what, but these old these birds are just old. So and they don't like they do not like a Tom Decoy or Jake. So I'm having to really play it cool whenever I go in here. Excuse me. I have to really play it cool. So I'm sitting there, I get in this field, I mean I wake up probably shoot 3 30, and it don't get daylight until 5 15. I mean, I was just that driven. I was like, I'm going to I'm going to put this to rest. I'm not gonna miss it on another bird. Right. I get out to the field, I get set up before they even start gobbling. I get set up, I've got my Jake and two hens out. So I'm sit I'm sitting there and excuse me, this weather's got me jacked up. Um I'm sitting there and I start hearing one just sounding off, and they're sound like they're just two farms over. I'm like, see how this is gonna go. All right, yeah. Oh, I'm sitting there and I just after maybe an hour after daylight, I finally just start giving like some little wake-up calls. Like then after after two sequences of that, I switch over to just doing my regular, regular yelps. I hear one gobble, sound like he's closer. I'm like, okay. So I start cutting at him hard, and then go back to yelping, switch back to cut for a couple, couple strikes, go back to yelp, and I just finish it off, let him know, hey, I'm I'm right here, I'm ready for you. I want to take you on a date. Come on, yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. So I'm sitting there, and it seemed like this bird just worked back and forth for two hours. And this was at 6 30, whenever I finally heard him just start actually gobbling at me. I was like, all right, he's gonna come in. He sounds like he's 300 yards away. I hear him gobble again, sounds like he's 800 yards away. I'm like, you've gotta be kidding me. This is so he goes, like I said, back and forth for at least two hours. I'm like, all right, whatever. I'm just gonna play it cool. Patience kills more birds than anything. So I'm just gonna be be patient, see what happens. Because I know that all the birds use this this particular spot of the field at some point this morning. So I'm sitting there and he sounds off. I went, oh man, he is close. So I go to talk back to him, I start calling. He cuts me off. I said, You just messed up, buddy. They cut you off. They're basically saying, Hey, buddy, I'm down to take a ride in the back of your truck. Yeah, so I call at him again, he gobbles again. I I call back one more time, then I just quit for probably a good 20 minutes. Then I don't hear him again for probably another 30 minutes. I was like, Okay, well, he's moving clearly. Yeah. So I'm sitting there, go through another regular call-in sequence. I hear one gobble, sound like he's probably 500 yards behind me. I was like, Yeah, well, that ain't that's not the word I'm after. That's I know that's not him, that's not possible. I hear him gobble again, and it sounded like there's another one with him. I was like, okay, well, this this could be a good ball game. Well, yeah, he uh he finally gobbles, and I was like, okay, he's on the edge of the field. I know exactly where he's at. About the time I see two hens start walking his way, I said, No, don't you dare. And they're about two, they're probably about 150 out. I was like, do not, no, because you know good and well as I do. If they see a hen, oh yeah, there's that's a lick of attention. Yeah. So he's got those hens down there, and they're just they're not making a sound. Well, I see one hen turn around, start walking towards me, just picking bugs. I was like, okay, he might he might follow them. Well, so I start soft purring, soft yelping at him, and I cut at him a couple times. He fired up. I mean, it sounded like he was in my pocket. I said, Dude, yeah, that's that's the best. Yes, I was like, Oh, yeah, I've got his attention now. So, and it and it still takes another 30 minutes for him to even get up there. I I could hear I could hear him spitting and drumming, I could just see his fan going up over the horizon of the field. I was like, okay, let's play cool, Seth. Don't do it don't do anything stupid like like yesterday. So I'm sitting there, he hasn't moved. I call hard hard at him, and I don't like doing that. If I'm if I know the bit the bird is in the field with me, I do not like to do that because I feel like it spooks him. Right. So, but I was like, you know what, I'm gonna take a chance. Let him know, hey, I really want this. So I call hard at him, he hammers down again. I said, okay, he's gonna come now. About that time I start seeing his his little white head start poking up over the grass.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

I'm like, Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 27:46

So I slowly get my gun up, and I've got my phone on a tripod trying uh trying to uh trying to get the shot, but it it it that didn't work out. I don't care, birds did. I raised my gun up. I'm waiting for him to get up between my my two hands, but well, let me back up to this part. Where I heard him gobble as he was like 200 yards away, I knew he was closing in. I ran up there and grabbed my Jake real quick and put him back in the blind. I said, I'm not messing this up. So smart man, yeah. So anyway, he comes up, he's probably 10 feet from being right in between my decoys. My lay-down hand and a uh feeding hen. He stretches his head out, I fire down at him. I mean, he's like, okay, he's gonna fall. He goes he tries to fly straight up, he smacks into a tree, falls down. I have to shoot him again, which I was like, I don't care, second shot or not, he's dead. I felt like I was king of the castle, and even though there's people in the in this county that's already done tagged out, and I'm happy for them. That's that's awesome. Yeah, yeah, but you're not. I think yeah, yeah. I just tagged one, and hey, I'm perfectly fine with that after the the season I've had so far, even though it's only been in a week. Exactly, yeah. But I made it through and I'm walking out of the field with this bird in my hand, and it just feels like after all that's happened, it feels like somebody just took 50 pounds of sandbags off of you. Yeah, man. Talk about redemption.

SPEAKER_00 29:30

That's awesome. Oh my gosh. I can't even imagine. Who was the first person that you hit up when you uh finally got them down?

SPEAKER_03 29:43

Do you hear me? Yeah, uh, I was trying to think. It was uh it was my cousin Chris. Yeah, he was and then the next person was uh Matt Jennings. I tried to I tried to FaceTime him, which he was in Indiana chasing birds. Oh, dude, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

Uh but uh there's a there's something about getting a bird down. Like I'm a huge white tail hunter, but when it comes to getting a turkey down on the ground, it's just like oh, that's some it's just it's like for me, it's like the hunt in between deer seasons, and it's just like I can't wait. And it just tells me like once turkey season ends, it's like deer season's right there. Like getting a bird on the ground is just like it just fills that itch just enough to get you through the hump into white tail season, and that's what I've been looking forward to.

SPEAKER_03 30:36

Absolutely, and I've said this for a long time. I would much rather hunt turkeys as I would whitetail deer. But after last season's hunt of Whitetail, I don't know, it's starting to climb the ladder pretty hard.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

You had a great season, man. Yeah, it was fun to watch you during uh just on Instagram watching that everything unfold for you. That was awesome. Oh, yeah, it's yeah, one heck of a season.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

That was a ride, and I'm not gonna make myself out to be something that I'm not. I obviously Ellis by any means. That man is hats off to you, Lee. Freaking player. But he worked. Uh but that season alone, my gosh, it I learned a lot out of that season. That season and the season before I learned so much. And I have to say, I learned a lot from Matt Jennings. He is one of my closest friends. The man is very not super smart, and I would say, all right, this deer's back, he's he's doing this. What do I do here? He would tell me the next move to make. He's like, just try this, see what happens. Well, after this was I'm talking in 2024 season, so next fast forward to 2025. I took everything that I had and I would just start doing a process of elimination of where he's going, where I think he's going, where he's not going. So I've got on this one farm, I had five cameras out in like a 10-acre span. So and I just finally watched his every move, and dude, it it I learned a lot just from pictures on my trail cameras. I will say, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

And I know there's a lot of people out there that that don't agree with cameras and stuff. And I mean, that's okay, but at the end of the day, like you're gathering information on an animal to help you get the most cleanest ethical kill possible. Um, and that's what I find having technology for drums. I think they're they're great for um use of recovering an animal, but I don't know. I'm just I'm just not gonna play the drums yet. I know that's like the future, but like I like the ground game more. I like having to get my camera out, figure out where I'm gonna put it, and then start moving my other cameras around where I spot that deer and start building his path of movement. Like to me, that's fun. That's what we enjoy.

SPEAKER_03 33:36

Yeah, you want to cover any of that on here. Say that again. I didn't know if you want to cover any of the hunt from last year on here or not. Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely, dude. I'm all about it. Well, if you want me to, I'll we'll rewind back to when we first saw the deer on camera in August maybe late July. Hold on a second. When you're still in velvet on the CN. Yeah, uh, my wife had just texted me. Little man's trying to get out of the living room. But uh I'm a garage, so they can't hear me. But anyway, uh, we seen him in velvet, and this deer, I was like, oh my gosh, this is a freaking giant. And my uncle and my cousin, we had all three leased this farm. And my uncle, he's like, he's like, Well, I'd really like to tag that deer because you both killed bigger deer than me. And I will say my uncle was one he foot, he put most of most of the bill for the for the lease payment. So I was like, I've got two more places to go.

SPEAKER_02 34:53

I don't care. That's fine.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

Yeah, that's that's how it goes sometimes. And honestly, at the end of the day, like I'm not really I wouldn't say picky. Um, but when someone like claims, like, oh, I want that deer, it's like if it comes on my way, like I will I'll take it, but if it doesn't, it then yeah, it's free game. But especially if it's like public land, but if it's private property, it's almost like if you see this deer, don't take it. It's like it's just it's yeah, I completely understand that. But now if it's public, that's free game, man.

SPEAKER_03 35:26

Oh, yeah. No, I I did. Well, I said, if you're gonna kill this deer, you better get out of here, open a weekend, you better have a stand hung quick. And yeah, for real, Bo, because of his shoulder. He's he's in his 60s, so he can't pull a compound anymore. That sucks. So we're watching the deer on camera, and this is a crop farm. That this year it was in beans, or this past year it was in beans, I should say. So I've got two cameras out on each side of these beans watching him. And when the first pictures that he the first time he hit on the camera, I went, oh, my eyes about pop. Saucers. Oh my god, so much mass and so many points. And I counted 15 points on the deer. Yeah that's just from one camera angle. Well, no, no, no, no, that's that's at the end of the hunt. I'll tell more about that later in a minute. Okay, I could tell the deer had a bunch of points. I could tell he's a mainframe 12. I was like, okay, this deer is he's a freak of nature. I I want this deer. After a few more pictures, that's whenever I started to really be like, okay, you better let me know if you're gonna kill this thing. Because then my uncle started going back and forth because he wants to kill a 200-inch deer, and there's nothing wrong with that. He's like, that's my bucket list before I'm before I die, and before I'm able to, or before I have to give up hunting, you know, before I get to the age where I can't do it. Like, I want to kill 200-inch deer. I said, Don't we all, but yeah, don't we all? So he's gone back and forth on it, and the deer sheds his velvet. Like, well, we ain't gonna pattern him now. So yeah, he's still on my mind. We had another absolute giant. I know this deer was at least a 160, at least 165. I'm gonna, I have to guess. Mid-160s, I'll just say it like that. On the other side of the farm, and he was a heavy mainframe tan with two crab claws. Uh they just did the corn across the property. So they pushed him out of his bedding over to us. And of course, that freaking deer daylights while I'm at work at 8:30 in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 38:03

Gotta love it.

SPEAKER_03 38:05

Like, all right, whatever. So I go in to hunt this deer because I like a big, clean, heavy mainframe. Right. I'll take one of those, I'll take one of those over a deer with all kinds of stickers any day. So I go in one afternoon to hunt this deer. Cause he'd been showing up like 10, 20, 30 minutes after daylight every day. Like, okay, he's gonna mess up. He's gonna mess up. I go in, I park my truck. I am walking down this gravel road on this farm down to the field where I was gonna hunt. I look over to my right and I hear something running. I look, there he goes through the woods. He had bedded so close to the bull wiggle.

SPEAKER_00 38:54

Jeez, Bull Wickle got the jump on you and took off.

SPEAKER_03 38:58

Oh my gosh, it made me sick. I was like, Well, that probably ain't gonna happen. So yeah. So I ain't I go to my stand anyway. I'm I'm sitting there and a few a few sets had passed by, nothing ever happened to it. So I was like, whatever. Gun season, gun season was just around the corner. I think two weeks before gun season, I had gone to a stand or to a part of the farm I'd called the back 40 because that's my ride. I was like, all right, I'm gonna chase this deer, the first one we initially seen on the farm, because the mainframe 10, he just went MIA. I don't know where I hadn't seen him on camera, hadn't seen him in the area at all. No team. So I start trying to sink my teeth into this other deer that we first seen. I put my cameras out in the back of the farm. I call it the back 40 stand because I mean it is when I say it's back 40, buddy, it is some walking. I was like, oh my gosh, I this is a bad idea. So I I'm walking down this hill where it the timber had been logged a long time ago. I'm packing a stand and I'm packing the platform and the ladders in one hand. I got a backpack on my back with all the straps and uh everything else in it. And keep in mind, I had just hunted the other side of the farm that morning. So I had all kinds of layers on, and I finally pick out a tree. So I get set up on the tree, put my camera out just below it. Like this this looks like the main funnelway where they're all passing through. So about a week had passed. I hadn't seen the deer on camera. I was like, yeah, that might be a bust. Right. Lo and behold, this deer shows up at 7:30 on a Sunday morning. I went, oh boy. I called my cousin, I said, Chris, that deer was just in there at 7:30, and I sent him the the video from the trail camera. He said, Uh, you better be in that stand by one o'clock today. We had a chili supper at church that me and my wife Nick was going to because we're trying to get more involved with our church. So I was like, okay, I'm going. I'm sitting at this chili supper. Camera hits. He's in front of my stand at two o'clock. No, he's in front of my stand by like four o'clock. I went, you've got to be kidding me. Oh my god, okay. Bowl of chilies going inbound into somebody's face. Yeah, like thank you, Lord. This is for you. I still want to kill that deer.

SPEAKER_00 41:52

Person next to me would be bitch, chilies all in their face. That'd be me.

SPEAKER_03 42:00

Oh, I was I was hot. I looked at my wife and said, You know how I feel right now. You drug me in here tonight. She goes, Seth, the Lord and I. You're right, you're right. So anyway, the next day starts my my week of vacation. So we had a bunch of snow coming in that day. I go in and set I go in and sit in a uh an elevated blind on the other side of the farm where that heavy tin was. I was like, Well, I'm gonna sit here during all that snow and wind, because I mean it got cold that morning. Well, I believe it. Dude, it snowed so hard I couldn't see across the field. I hate that. So I'm sitting there, I've got uh as much as I hate to say it, I had my rifle sitting in that blind with me. Snow stopped. I had never seen this deer. There was a giant seven point. When I say a giant seven point, I'm talking he had main beams at least an inch and a half around. I was like, Oh my gosh, you yeah, we have one of those running around my buddy's property right now. Oh, he was he was nice. I was like, okay, this is well, like, no, no, no, no. Say it, you know what you're here for. So anyway, that hunt goes on empty for the morning. They go empty-handed. I go back to the truck, eat me some lunch. This was at like 10 o'clock, scarf down my lunch, and I head to the back 40. It's like there's snow on, it's cold. This deer is gonna move. Well, I go back there and sit for the rest of the day, freezing. I think I seen like three or four does and a couple small bucks that afternoon, considering the weather we just had. I was like, okay, and this is my first setback here, so this is pretty good. I'll take that as a win. Well, a couple more evenings passed. I hear something crunching behind me. I look, I thought it was the big buck. I I thought it was the one, the one from uh early season veil, but I was like, that's him, because just the way the shadows hit and everything in the limbs. I was like, okay, that's him. I let him go on around behind me. I draw and I shoot. I was like, just smoked him. Couldn't find no blood, no arrow. All I found was the light that fell off. I was like, oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, it was an awful feeling. So We come back out. I come back out the next day. Me and my cousin trying to look empty-handed. That same day, he sends me a trail camera picture. I'm embarrassed to even tell you this, but I'm going to because a little bitty buck showed up on the other side of the farm with a perfect cut in his shoulder. So, well, you know what? I will take that victory because that deer is alive and he's doing just fine.

SPEAKER_00 45:28

They're resilient, man. They are so resilient. I've seen so many animals take a hit from a bow or even a rifle. And then the trail camera the next day, just like nothing happened. They're like, that would be impossible. They're probably dead six feet under, but like, and they are just not to like, I'm sure the point like this really hurts right now, but like to us, they're just like just doing deer things, you know, just grazing, trying not to die. Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_03 46:00

Right, and we're over here trying to unalive them.

SPEAKER_00 46:04

Yeah, for real.

SPEAKER_03 46:06

It's crazy. My uncle and my cousin, of course, they're over there just rolling, laughing. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, at least that at least he's not dead. I at least I don't have to eat tag soup on a mistake. So that frustrated me even more. Just I was frustrated at myself. I guess I probably got I don't know, I probably got buck fever. I I don't know how to explain that other than I swear it did look like him from the lighting and the limbs and everything that was going on.

SPEAKER_00 46:38

So it's like that meme that everyone talks about. It's like, man, I swear this thing had pen on one side, and then you come up and it's a spike, and you're just like, uh-huh. I had to walk five miles into the woods to get this and drag it out with you, and it's a spike. Like, dude, I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_02 46:54

I don't know what somebody else is doing here.

SPEAKER_03 46:58

Yeah. Oh yeah, man. Dude. But so gun season comes and goes, and I had plenty of action, seeing all kinds of all kinds of does and other small bugs. I actually walked into this stand one day during during I think like frut was starting to taper off. I walk in, I was like, that's a deer landing there. Like, that's a doe. Is she alive? Well, I'm getting closer and closer. She's not moving. I'm talking, I'm probably 10, 12 feet, 10, 12 feet from her back legs. I'm like, oh my gosh, she's dead. So somebody shot this deer and she's dead. So I pick up a stick and throw it at her, lands right beside her. And as I'm crouching down to pick up another one, she just kind of wakes up and comes to and realizes, oh shoot, these people are real. She off through the woods and she is running into trees. I was like, something's wrong with her. So I called Jim, dude. Have you ever seen a deer do this? He goes, Yes, said it is prime rut where you're at. She's been chased very hard. She's exhausted. He said, That's gonna happen. I was like, Okay, okay, I've never seen it before. I go on down to the stand. I'm uh I'm sitting there, I hit the grunt call, clash the antlers together a little bit. I could hear him, but I couldn't see him. Here, here come a buck just off the hill in front of me. And where I was at, it was thick. I had very few windows to shoot through. Uh but anyway, it the buck had come over the hill, he's grunting. I was like, okay, this might be the one. Could hear him, but could never see him. I finally just catch a glimpse of the body. It had to be him. He had a bruiser of body. He stayed up on this little ridge just where I couldn't see him. He was watching a dough. I walked, watched her walk down to a creek below me. I was like, okay, I know that's him. He's too thick-bodied. I know that's him. The doe never would come my way, nothing. No matter how much I uh bleeded it at him, tried to uh do the fawn call it at her, nothing. So rifle season's over with. Obviously, I'm empty-handed. So I was like, okay, rifle season's over with. I hunt one more day down there. I was like, I'm gonna hunt this morning. If nothing happens, I'm pulling the stand and I'm gonna make a move. Just seen a button buck and a doe, and a button buck and two does that morning. I was like, Yeah, whatever. I'm pulling the stand. I'm walking up out of this hill with all my hunting gear on, my bow in one hand, my backpack on, the platform ladders in this hand, and I felt like I was about to die coming up out of this mountain. I feel that I stopped at the top of the hill.

SPEAKER_00 50:12

I'm like it's like that camel.

SPEAKER_03 50:19

But I felt like the longest start can of corn, can of corn, and I'll be fine, can of course. Yeah, but uh so I take all my stuff back to the truck. I start examining the field after I drop all that stuff back off. I come back up on the my side by side, and I'm just looking around the field. I find some fresh scrapes at the very tip top of this field where I was set up underneath of or behind. I was like, that's gotta be from him. That only makes sense. So I take some uh I take some scrape down from nose-down deer scents, make a mock scrape, and I take some uh I take some bully buck and get the mock scrape started beside his. I take some tarsalic string spray on the limb on a licking branch, made a mock licking branch beside him too. The same night after I hung a camera right behind where I threw a little bit of big and j out just to see what would stop through, because in Kentucky you can bait. I know there's some places that don't allow some people frown on that, but anyway, I've got some big and J out. The same night my Target Buck hit on that camera at 10 o'clock that night and stayed there for like an hour or two. I said, he's been right under my nose this entire time. Yeah, so I go back the next day. No, I went ahead and hung my stand that same afternoon. I was like, I'm just gonna take the gamble. I'll go ahead and hang the stand right here. Took me probably 30 minutes to even find a tree worth getting up in. So that night I looked at the camera and then it just like you said in the story, it it I it turned me uh, it turned something primal on inside of me. I was like, I'm killing this deer. Yeah, for real. And so I start trying to trying to play it by the weather. I'm playing thermals, uh, which way my wind is, which where I was at, I had a terrible wind. But I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna take all the all the steps I know to be to be cool with a scent elimination that I can right here. So every night whenever I would get through hunting, I would take my clothes off, hang them up outside, right outside my garage, let them air out, and I would spray them down with uh where did it go? Oh, the uh eliminate from nose down. I would spray them down with that, let them sit, and I would let them continue to hang outside until it was either going to rain or I was going hunting. So we had some more snow coming up, so I go out there, I sit, get snow on my gloves, climbing up this ladder. My hands are froze at the end of the hunt. I can this was the coldest my hands had ever been. I said, Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? I think we all end up there at some point. Gosh, that was probably the coldest. Like I said, I think that was the coldest my hands have ever been. As I was warming them up, it felt like my hands were on fire from the inside out. So I'm talking to I'm talking to somebody's and I was talking to Jennings. He said, I was like, man, I'm just about ready to just give up on this thing. He said, sis, I've been there. He said, I promise you, you would like right now, you would like to just give up, hang it up, call the season, but I know you you're not gonna do that. He said, How bad do you want it, big boy? I said, Here, I'll just show you how bad I want it. So I start watching the weather. I'm watching, I'm waiting for these temperatures to rise and fall. Well, a few days later, uh, we had some we had some pretty skies. I was like, okay, it's a pretty day. He'll be out today. No, no. Even if he wasn't, I was like, you know what, it's just a chance I'm gonna have to take. You don't know, you have to just hunt him. So the next week they called for like a half inch of snow and super cold temperatures. I was like, okay, whatever. And keep in mind, every night, he'd been on that camera every night until uh he was showing up like 30 minutes to an hour after I would leave every night. So he was starting to pattern. Excuse me. So he uh he started getting closer and closer to daylight. I was like, this deer is gonna mess up. I know he's going to. So I had switched over, um, switched over my arrows and my broadheads to a new newer and lighter setup. I get those dialed in, and all I can think about is that freaking deer. I just imagine that deer on my target. Imagine that it's him. Right. So I'm driving nails, my bow is lined in, I'm ready to go. Snow come, the deer wasn't on the camera for two nights. I was like, he'll be out there the third day. He wouldn't, he ended up on a camera on the other end of the farm where there's nothing to eat. So I was like, he I said, he'll be over here, he'll be over here tonight, or he'll be over there tomorrow night to eat. And then the next night come, or the night before, he wasn't on any of the cameras. The next night before I killed him, it was whenever I seen him on the camera on the other end of the farm. The next night, I said, okay, I gotta make a move today. Well, I was on standby for my for my job, and I took off work two hours early. I was like, I'm going to kill this deer tonight. My boss said, Good luck, man. I hope you do. He said, You call me as soon as you do. So I've got every all my gear on before I even uh maybe 15 minutes after I get off work because I live five minutes from my office, so I've got all my gear on, stopped by my uncle's office to get a battery pack, and I make a beeline down to the down to the lease. I walk in, I'm sitting there, I was like, oh, it's gonna happen. I've done seen a dough or two, so I was like, he's gonna move, he's gonna move early tonight. Looking around, looking around. I hear something crunched to my right right behind me. I look over my right shoulder, like, I don't know what that is. I turn around, look to my left, and went, oh shoot, that's him. I was like, Oh, this is real. Okay, well, he he's coming up a hill behind me. He I was expecting him to come in to my left. No, he came in directly behind me. He's coming up this hill. And if you ever watched a buck, they don't walk like a normal deer, they they walk a certain way anywhere they go. He takes a few steps, he stops, he's analyzing everything, checking the wind. It felt like it took him an hour to get into the field. It took him maybe 10 minutes. Yeah, the tree I was on, I was on the edge of this field, and behind me where he was at, the woods fell off to nothing. So I didn't have much of a backdrop or anything to help cover my to help hide myself very well. And I before I got up, I'd actually cut a bunch of limbs off and stuffed them inside the lanyard of my safety harness. Uh just to help. Oh, yeah, just to help break it up some more. I was like, if I don't do this, and that ear comes out, I'm done. So I see I grab slowly grab my bow, it's still on the hanger. He's just easing his way up. He checks, he scent checks everything before he gets into this field probably three times. And he steps behind a little cedar tree. I draw back, I mean, I'm already a full draw before he's even in the field. Like, I'm not letting him get away. He hopped the fence, he stepped out about 30, no, about 20 feet into the field, and he's about 30 yards. And I remembered what what one of my buddies told me a few years ago. Never shoot them with their head down, make him look at him, make him look at you. I made I had him look right into my soul, and I squeezed off his enemy. He hits the ground, he shoves his nose across the ground, he goes into the woods. I felt like a schoolgirl, dude.

SPEAKER_01 59:46

I'm sounds like oh, he's a dead deer.

SPEAKER_03 59:52

Sounds like a pig in the in the woods, just oh my nose, yeah. And that's why I say deer hunting for me is climbing the ladder of being my more favorite of the animals to hunt. Uh so I call Chris, and I'm uh I mean, you know how you are if you kill big deer, you go yeah, your drill is going you're shaking. Oh, yeah. I'm just shook up. He said, Uh Bub, he said, You may have just shot a booner. I said, Yeah, I'm well aware of that. What I said, I'm gonna need you to help me come down here and load this thing up. Well, keep in mind his office is 50 minutes from from the county we live from the hometown where we're at. Right. I didn't know this, but as I was on the phone with him, his uh receptionist secretary, whatever she is, at the main office in our hometown. She was on uh she was on the phone with him with her work phones, and he had me on speakerphone so she could hear everything I was saying. And she uh I went to school with this girl, and so she she has watched us build build up our platform to what we are now, which we're nothing we're nothing spectacular by any means. But uh she found out I killed this deer, and I immediately get a message. That's awesome. I cannot wait to see pictures of this deer. I was like, Yeah, well, you're gonna have to wait a little while just like everybody else. So I called Jennings. He he said, dude, this feels like a proud father moment for me. He said, Well, so what happened? I tell him everything that goes on. He goes, give him 15 minutes, then get down. If he hit the ground, if his nose hit the ground before he entered the woods, he's dead. Yeah, so I climbed down after regathering my composure. I'm walking up to where he broke the arrow off, blood all over it. It didn't make a pass through. I know it, I knew it hit him in the shoulder because I could see half of it sticking out, but there was still blood all over it, and I could see the light and knock. I look and see where he skidded through the woods, and luckily it was still enough light I could see into the woods. I look over in about 65 yards. There's that white belly laying there. That's the best feeling. Dude, I called my wife and I was dang near crying. Well, it just so happened they were having a gathering at our mom and dad's. She said, I had a feeling that I would get this phone call tonight. I'm on the phone with her, I'm walking with this deer. I am freaking out. I see where he had ran into the woods and stopped. Dude, it it looked like a spot, maybe like a maybe like a five by five circle of where he had just been pouring blood. I get up to him, I hit him in the shoulder, and he piled up right there. Well, luckily he stopped where he did. A log caught him because he was on the edge of the freaking hillside where I'd just been hunting the two two or three weeks before. He stopped right there. Thank god. Oh my god, uh yeah. I get down to him. I'm counting the points, counted 15 points total. That's awesome, man. That's amazing. Good for you, and what a freaking weight that was lifted off of me after the the what had happened that season and the season before, I shot one and hit him in the back strap. He's still alive to this day, and that was just a real kick in the knackers. But after everything that happened, I walked out of those woods going to my side by side, thanking God. And it's truly, it's truly a feeling you have to experience. Yeah. You really can't put it into words how you feel after shooting your target bug. Um, so I go down and I'm talking to the no, let me back up before I even do that. I probably made 10 phone calls right there in the woods FaceTime. Yeah, I know I know the feeling. So I call uh I call my buddy Timmy, uh that uh he's a engineer for bear archery. I call him. He's like, Well, I'm assuming you killed him because you wouldn't be calling me this time of evening. I said, I'm standing here looking at him at my feet right now, dude. He said, That's awesome, dude. I said, Yeah, now tell bears to start paying me.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:03

Right, I know the feelings like I finally got this block, let's do this. Just give me the contract, let's go. I know exactly what you mean, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:11

That isn't that hadn't happened, and that's okay. I'll still forever shoot bare bows. That's okay. Yeah, that's that's how I am with Hoyt. Like, I just I love Hoyt. But I probably called, like I said, 10 people, and I bet you I spent 30 minutes just making phone calls and FaceTime calls, just just celebrating. Then after I get off the phone, I just lay down the leaves right beside that deer. Just you know how you feel when you've laid down the bed after a long day of work. Oh yeah, you're just I know that feeling it feels amazing. Oh dude, it it was amazing. So I go down tell the tell the old man, the farmer, he said, where'd you get him? Yep. He said, Well, where is he? I said, that's the problem. I need you to help me load him up because Chris was Chris was still uh on his way back from work, and I was on standby, keep in mind. So I was like, I gotta load it up and get to the house and get him skinned out before before I get called out. So brings his track up there, scoops him up, loads him in the bed of Murano. I take the deer to my in-laws. My father-in-law used to hunt, and he he'd give it up, and he just he just didn't he just lost the fire for it. So now all he does is bass fish. And that's that's fine. You love what you love.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:46

Um, so my wife's cousin's husband, he comes out and he's looking at the deer, and then my wife's papa, he's looking at the deer. Well. Everybody everybody gets gets through looking at the deer and uh all the kids they they want to see it. My son calls them a reindeer. Of course. He said, Daddy, you shoot the reindeer? I said, Yeah, buddy, I did. He did. Adorable. They get they get through looking at the deer, and uh I take them home, unload them in the garage, and just as soon as me and Chris unload him at the back of the rhino, knowing that I finally get to take that deer into my garage and do work with him. Again, that is that that goes along with that feeling of that sense of accomplishment. Yeah, man, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:44

So it's just that sense of aurora of everything coming together, and you're able to finally in this chapter or in this book that you were just been writing through this whole entire time, and now it's finally the last paragraph of your chapter and of the book, and you can just close it and have that memory for your family, for your kids, and for your legacy. That's what's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:12

Oh, dude, it's it's just I th I I can't thank God enough for giving me this life, truly, because before the deer hunting really took over my my, I guess you could call my hobby time. I was all about riding horses and the farm life. And don't get me wrong, farm life is still a part of my life, but it's a very small part now because the lifestyle I've chosen I've come to accept that the fact is who I am now. And I live now, I still own a horse. I just can't I can't ride anymore because it's just too expensive to keep them up. So he stays down at my my family farm 20 minutes away from where me and my wife live. Uh you know, my my family they've been very supportive of everything that I'm trying to do in this industry and trying to accomplish. And I told my wife probably four three or four years ago, I said, this is what I want to do. I said, I'm I'm gonna try it and just see where it goes. She said, Well, I support you. I said, could you get that in writing for me? She goes, Yeah, I get it. So how much time do we have?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:46

Oh, I mean, we've already broken an hour and it's fine, but I know we could go into it all night. Um, but I think this is actually a good closing point for for this chapter for you, man, and for this podcast. You have gone first and foremost, thank you for coming on to the show, Seth. It means a lot that you're willing to take time out of your day and just share your stories with us and get your name out there and just honestly just sharing, man. Um, and what I'd like to do is like I would like to close this out in prayer. Um, and just thanking you for coming on, man. So, Lord, I just want to thank you for Seth and the opportunities that you have presented him in his life to allow him to write this book, to write his life out at your feet, Lord, and that you are just guiding him in this path of what he wants to do, and that you are allowing him the time to do that and you are providing for him, Lord. Um, once again, I just thank you for the time that you presented us, God. And I thank you for everything you've done. In your name I pray, amen. Uh, if you guys have not checked out um the baby boys outdoors on Instagram, I encourage you guys to go check him out. Give him a follow. Uh, continue to follow his stories. I'm sure you guys are gonna see him on my page more often, um, especially when you know deer season comes around. I get really busy with writing. Um, and also I just want to say thank you to all the sponsors out there uh from Kool-Aid, Sever, Ossier. Thank you guys so much for everything you guys have done for us. It means the world to us. Um, and then Black Flag, thank you guys for sharing all of the uh energy supplements that we can use. And if you guys want any energy, go ahead and hit up their website, use EOTH20 for 20% off at checkout. Um, and then of course, please check out BD hunting, give a page a follow. Follow our team's uh season that's gonna be coming up for this turkey season. And then, yeah, I guess we'll catch you guys next time. Seth, once again, thank you so much for for coming on to the show.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:52

Thank you, man. Everybody, just keep up. Gonna be a busy season. Got a lot to accomplish this season. Amen, dude. Everybody, stay tuned.