December 20, 2025 • 60 mins
Steven Rinella talks with Pablo Esquivel and Janis Putelis.
Topics discussed: Blow guns and sling shots; learning about ballistics; getting whopped as a kid for hunting illegally; cooking everything; when your ma designates your personal fry pan; coming to American; learning and hunting for a long time before getting a deer; and more.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
How do everybody? But this is the FOP FOP one
from me Eaters Live Christmas Tour. We're in Birmingham, Alabama.
Normally when you join the show, it's it's all everybody's
familiar with our producer Corin, with Phil the engineer. But
today we have our esteemed colleague Reva. Reva comes to
the house. Just so people know what's going on. This
is Reeva. She's living on the Bustle US. She's here
(00:21):
for the whole tour. She's always working on stuff. But
you never do this show. No, Reeva's here doing this
show today. Would you like to say anything to people?
Subscribe to? Oh, Reva would like you the Reva's one
ask is you subscribe to the YouTube feed at the
(00:42):
Mediator podcast YouTube channel. We're so what we're doing today
is we're joined by a ticket holder. Yeah, Pablo Escobell,
you're coming to the show tonight. Yeah, yeah, you excited
for the show?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Absolutely? Yeah, definitely because it's gonna be the first time too,
So yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Now I know you well. The reason I wanted to
talk about you. I know you well from coming on.
You've been on a handful of podcasts and I've listened
to your story on other podcasts The Southern Outdoorsman. Is
that what it's called? Southern outdoors podcast? Yanni sent that
to me saying, this guy's a riot and I've heard
of do you other interviews? And I thought, man, we're
down here. I want to meet you and have a
(01:18):
chance to talk to you and introduce you to our listeners,
to hear about some of your hunting adventures. Wow, and
kind of your strange trip towards becoming an American hunter.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah. Absolutely is an honor, man, I really appreciate it, definitely.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Can you before we get to Pablo, can you explain
FWOP case anybody isn't up to speed.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Oh yeah, I'd be happy to what it means? Is
this a lot of times we have this problem, I'm
addressing you listeners. We have this problem where we release
shows on Mondays. So we always run into this problem
where things will prevent us from releasing our show right away.
Do you know this why it's called that? So one
day I was saying that I wanted to be able
(02:02):
to do to record certain shows or just flop it
comes out flop being the noise made when it just
comes out like fop am.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
When I heard it, I felt like you were some
somehow going to compare the noise of it coming out
with the sound of you slapping meat, because you have
such an affinity for slapping meat. So I thought there
was some connection there.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
That's yeah, flop when you slap a back hand. No,
this just means it's gonna come out. We're gonna do three.
We're gonna do three flops here on live tour. This
is day one, this is the opening show. Everyone's nervous.
We have a we're doing. I'm looking around and see
who's listening because we're doing like a blowgun thing, and
we're very scared about getting in trouble with the venues.
(02:51):
So we asked one venue if we could bring Clay's mule.
They said no, so we didn't ask about the blowgun stunt.
It would be fine, I know, but I don't want to.
I don't want to bring it up ahead of time.
Now you shouldn't because if you bring it up ahead
of time, it's just gonna be no.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
But it's hopefully like the manager of the last venue
that we're having to won't this episode.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, we have a pretty so we bought some blowguns
from Tim Wells and he sends them with some wooden
darts which look unassuming.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Like a puncho. I'm in a pincho, my b.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yeah, and so I'm just no one's around right now.
It's a little nervous about the blowgun situation.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
What's a pincho?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Uh a Kebob, I'm sorry, yeah about pretty much, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Bob skewer.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So uh, Pablo Escabel, you grew up in Costa Rica. Yes,
and I didn't know this until today. You grew up
in Costa Rica and you were engaged in like hunting
activities in Costa Rica or you you experimented, you dam yes,
experiment Tell about that a little bit. I didn't know
about you.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
So the thing is when I was down there, man,
you know, hunting is legal down there, and yes it
is legal. Any kind of species is illegal.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Well you're saying illegal, like not legal.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Not legal? God eat ilegal. Yeah. So you know, as kids, man,
you developed your interest for sling shots, blowguns and things
like that because you have resources all over the place.
And then you know, you start kind of like getting
a little bit more curious, like I'm wondering if I
can take that bird down with this rock and next
thing you know, you start becoming efficient. And so yeah,
(04:32):
it was it was hunting with a sling shot and blowguns.
We used to go to the well the blowgun man.
It wasn't your particular blog, and it was just like
we used to go to the hardware store, the only store,
and they had like courting rods, like aluminum rod about
half an inch about a meter long, which is like
three feet three and a half. And then we used
(04:52):
to go to the river to the creek areas and
just dig some clay because it's clay everywhere, or keep
them in out like in a plastic bag in your pack,
a little bit of moist into it, keep whatting there
the clay so it stays nice and moist, it doesn't
dry right away. And man, I guess it became like
a muscle memory because you were just kind of like
doing your pellets with your fingers all the time and
keeping pellets in there, so the pellets were getting mush.
(05:15):
But then you just pull it back up and round
the back up, put it in there and just keep shooting.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Shooting soft clay. Yeah, but what were you hunting with
the soft clay? Birds that would have enough too oh, man,
you'd be amazed being soft. We didn't know anything about ballistics.
But I guess when they hid and they kind of
mush from I mean, we're talking about birds about this
big Oh, they don't understand the chance of twenty yards
(05:41):
like they coming down, you know. So would you ever
get any kind of furred animals like, I don't know
what they got in coast through Well, the guys that
they got like they got to have like uh labba paca.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Do you know pisoti. No, it's like a like a
coon with an elongated nose.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, we call him.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I forgot that money. Yes, Okay, there's some There's another
one is uh Watusa and te squinty. Those are like
a small cappy bar as as a reference, right, and
those used to be with the sling shots. But that
was not a one man job. Man. It used to
be like trying to put a snake upon him. You know,
three or four guys and everybody's gonna aim at the
(06:24):
same time, and somebody's gonna hit it. Somebody's gonna hit it. Good. Well,
you gotta aim with a rug right of the head,
So somebody's gonna hit him. We's gonna stung him, and
then we're gonna run to him and get him and
finish what we started. Yeah. So and you know and
unfortunately maybe one out of fifteen, one out of twenty
(06:47):
hounds worth successful. Okay, it's incredible.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
And you're just going out in the jungle.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah, rightther on the fields because you know, I grew
up in a place with a perfect balance in between
country and a teeny tiny city or teen tight in town.
You know, like there was a hospital in there, hardware store.
Of course, as the years went on and on, everything
started developing, but at the time when I was seven,
(07:12):
that was it. And the funniest thing, well the best
thing ever is that nobody had the internet. Nobody had
cell phones. Like we used to just go and knock
on somebody's door, trying to round everybody up because we're
going to go to the river later on, and everybody
will wait on the corner.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Like round up your hunting party.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah, or whoever wants to go. Which it was nothing
but kids, would you guys fish? Yes? A lot? And
I mean I look at this core. We used to
go to the hardware store and we were like, we
need some fishing line, man, and you will get lined
like for one thousand pounds morning just to go right
there to the creek to get brams by this big
(07:51):
you know.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Because you just didn't have access to sporting goods stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Now, they didn't have a rod, they didn't have nothing.
And we used to just like do you do you know,
are you familiar with the cuban? Yo? Yo? It's kind
of like a got one of those. It's kind of
like we used to have bottles, plastic bottles, and you
just kind of wrap your line around then long.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Would you guys cast off those two? I've seen dudes
down yeah, like down in South America cast with a bottle.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, Usually you cast towards the bottleneck like the end
of the bottle is going to be your stop. So
you cast. When you cast, kind of like tours.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
You're holding you're holding the bottom of the bottle.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Pretty much like this. You will cast like that so
the line will go that way, you know. And we
had a lot of fun, man, a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Uh would you guys, would you guys bring the stuff
home and your mom and daddy cook it?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
I did, I brought everything home. My mama used to
get so mad because you know, we didn't have much,
and the few things that she had, I was always
bringing everything into it. So she was like, this is
your pen that you ain't gonna cook anything else these attendsils,
this is going to be your pain. So I was
(09:03):
like okay, and I had the pen, and I used
to cook all kinds of birds and some of them mammals.
When we used to get Lucky cook him in there,
or go to a friend's house and they had like
a bigger pant so we could put a bunch of
pig lord on it and just defried them. Oh my goodness, man. Yeah,
it was good times, really really really good times. Of course,
(09:27):
how can I say this? It was a different time
runs as you know, everything else that is around us
has been evolved in the culture has maintained itself, you know,
and now unfortunately these days the loss is still the same.
And one of the things that I don't like is
that we just enjoyed the outdoors man like we did,
(09:49):
and the thrill of the chase, and you know, like
that was it. It was not just killed for killed now,
it was the thrill of the chase and then eating it.
But unfortunately we were caught up many times and I'm
telling you caught me. Oh yeah. Back in those days,
anybody was allowed to give you a whooping, regardless where
you were. If it was somebody that you know, Now
you're doing something wrong, somebody's gonna whoop you, you know.
(10:11):
And it happened like that many many times because they
grew up with them.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
You get caught and get whooped by someone, but not
a cop.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Now, no, the cops that only have batoons, they didn't
really care, you know, But anybody else were like, what
are y'all doing killing birds? I don't know, but just
whoop you, man. And it was like we got to
regroup and stay out of this place pretty much. And unfortunately, man,
people grow up with the mentality that the honor is
(10:38):
the uneducated, the honor is the ignorant, the honter is
the savage.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
You know. That's a sentiment in Costa Rica pretty.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Much, you know, and I truely respect it. Like I said,
the police is beautiful, man, don't get me wrong. And
he's a fisherman's paradise.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
You can't spearfish, can't hunt, can't spar and so so
this is where you I bet you love has changed
throughout the years and of course, with social media and
I was a lot easier to access everything else.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
But when I was down there, man, I never heard
anything like such about like fishing restrictions or regulations or
never like if you can catch a thousand of snappers,
catch them. You know that was back then, But we're
talking about like twenty years ago, right, so now these days,
I bet you they do have different regulations and things
(11:29):
of that nature back on place.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
So how is it that your mom came to the US.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
She get married with my stepdad, right, my stepdad Rick,
she get married with Let me take a sip of water,
because this is going to be a long story.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Well keep it short. We've got a lot of ground
to cover. We haven't even gotten the deer hunt yet.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah. Yeah, she gets married with Rick. She said. I. Well,
here's the thing. I didn't even know they were faxing
get married. My mom was kind of dating Rig. Rig
was kind of like going back and forth because of
raking all that stuff from America. Yeah right, he born
and raised in Alabama. So I didn't know English at all, nothing,
(12:09):
Like I was just like, hey, I was a teenager.
Then suddenly she's like, ayes on, we're gonna get married.
I'm going to the States, I said, cool, how are
you man? When she left, I was between fourteen and fifteen,
what I was about to be fifteen? My grandmother she
was going to be on charge with me. But OK,
(12:29):
but my grandma used to live on the other side
of town, which I called town, you know what I mean.
So on the bright side, I was the only teenager
without adult supervision, you know. I was like, let's go.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
But once she took off, what were you doing for money?
How did you support well?
Speaker 2 (12:48):
She said, did you stay in school, don't get in trouble,
and we pay the bills, which the bills was the water, electricity,
and food.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
So she split, Yeah, but you didn't view it that way.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
No, I just thought about like, I'm a man, dude.
Two weeks after my mama left, I felt it and
that's when I realized, man, I was miasing my mom
so bad. She was like, son, we have a process,
like we got you in a process. Oh, like in
the reason, I don't know. I got to ask her.
I don't remember why I didn't qualify as a dependent
(13:22):
right away. I want to say, because I was about
thirteen or fourteen. It's kind of like an immigration thing. Well,
the years go on and she keeps saying like, well,
we got to notice the documents have moved to a
different office and all that stuff. Man. To be honest,
I thought that it was never going to happen. So
I just kept on with my life. Got done with
high school. Then I went to a community college and
(13:45):
I took sport fishing. That's what I wanted to do.
I wanted to eventually become a captain of a sport
fishing vessel.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
You studied sport fishing, yeah, we said study.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
It was about like six months of classroom theory, learning
about species and how to rig lines and things like that.
And then after that it was not in my fision
fishing fishing every single day and the wash man. It
was the greatest time ever, you know, even if we
didn't caut anything, it was it was the greatest. Well,
(14:16):
so as I'm going, man, think about this, I'm twenty one,
fiction be twenty two or I was twenty two, got
a life, the whole thing, you know, got the house
and pursuing a career. Friends, you know, childhood friends and
all that stuff. So only mom calls Mom used to
go every Christmas, you know, so only she calls. She says, son,
(14:41):
we got an appointment at the US Embassy, And I said, whatever,
like there's been so many years now, like we're probably
just gonna go in there, somebody's gonna read a paper
something like that, and then they're gonna say the documents
have moved to that office. Whatever. That's what I thought.
I said, We're just gonna be a quick ending. Now.
Little did I know. Three days later I was living
(15:05):
everything everything behind me. Jump through in a plane, which
I've never done before. No, didn't know the culture, didn't
know the language, have nobody, no land where Well we
jump Becausta Rica. We landed in Houston, but I was
with my mom because I was losing my mind when
(15:29):
I went. We landed in Houston Airport. I never seen
anything like that before in my life, man, so I
was just mind blowing. We landed in Houston, went through
the immigration office right there. The lady was asking me
all kind of questions. I was just like, yes, I
have no clue what she was asking because I didn't
speak English. Came in. We flew from Houston to Huntsville,
(15:51):
landed in Haunts full Then you know the idea that
you get from the States is like big cities, all
these big, big cities, and I'm looking out, don't see
nothing on the plane, you know, nothing feels like fields.
And I said, where's the city? She said what city?
I was like, the big the old building cities. She's like,
(16:12):
I was so, well, do you remember where you at?
And I said, yeah, Alabama. She said yeah, there's no
big cities in Alabama. And I was just looking down, like,
oh my god, what I got myself into.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
But you were excited and moving forward because so you're
going to be with your mom.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Absolutely, that was the main thing. Well, we landed, made
at home. Next day home I got.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I got back up on one kind of what he said,
what was the main selling point to come to America?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
But there's no selling point. It was pretty much like
a self explanatory thing. It's like, I'm gonna be with
my mom.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah, yeah, you know, it's just so you viewed it
like primarily a way to be reunited with your mom.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, with my mom and my little brother, you know,
because I have a little brother. Oh he was here, Yes,
he was here now. So I was like, it's this
is meant to be like this and whatever else is
up there for me. It's going to be there regardless.
Then we landed. Next day, wake up. First morning on
(17:17):
the stage is September. So I'm out there looking man like,
losing my mind on Rick's property we'll call it the farm.
And my mom, she said, and I'm gonna mention this
to you. They fixed some chocolate gravy biscuits and I
was like, this is the greatest day ever in my life.
And I mean I'm dunking them puppies in that gravy, man,
(17:40):
you know, just going out because I never tried it before.
First breakfast excellent. Then Mama says, ah, we got to talk.
Rick has to talk to you. She was translated because
Rick didn't speak Spanish and I didn't speak English, so
she was translated between us.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
And Rick said, ah, boy, no, it's you a good guy.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah, yeah, he is. Yeah, it's pretty much the backbone
of everything that I have accomplished. To be honest, he said,
a boy, we got to put some rules and things
that you got accomplished. And I said so. He says,
you got ninety days kind of like on the order
(18:20):
to get a job, get a vehicle, learn angry, learn
learn some English. Get a driver license and find an apartment. Now,
I just kind of lie for my mom, you know,
and she looked at me and she's like, he's serious,
Like you got ninety days to make that happen. And
I was like, well, crap, you know, I waited all
(18:41):
these years and now here we are. I didn't realize
I was in a courtroom, you know, like now I
got ninety days to make this happen. Man, All day
long that day, I just couldn't stop thinking like what
am I going to do? Like literally, what am I
going to do? Go in in that night to a
Mexican restaurant. I never been before in a Mexican restaurant.
(19:04):
We go in there and I was so pumped, and
on my way back home it click. I said, Man,
these people speak Spanish, then they speak English. This is it.
I didn't even have to wait to ride around. So
I called my mom and said, Mom, can you take
me to the spot I really want to go and
ask for She said, we dropped to it. Want to
wear to the Mexican restaurant?
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
We went back next day next morning, so I looked
for the manager and I said, man, I introduced myself
and I said, man, I really need a job. I
will do this is I cleaned the floors like you
tell me, But I need a job. Keyword I do
not to speak English. He said, okay, cool man, I
really like that attitude. I'm gonna teach you how to
(19:47):
wait tables. I was like, Doe, I just told you
I don't speak English. He's like, don't worry. I'm gonna
put you with this girl. She's gonna teach you and
don't worry about it. Little did I know? That day
I was standing in front of my wife.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
What right, that's who you're married too.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah, that's the lady. And it was like the Billy
Madison movie with the child board and all that stuff.
That's pretty much. But she was teaching me how to
do everything. Huh and well I started getting good at it,
and I said, honey, really like you. Would you like
to be my girlfriend? She said, my dad doesn't let
(20:27):
me have boyfriends. I was like, what you know? I said,
who's your dad? She said, he's seated out there. I said,
I give me one second, man. I just went straight
to him and I introduced myself and I said, sir,
I really like your daughter. I would like to see
if I can get permission to today or maybe to
go on a Why was he in the restaurant He
(20:48):
was eating. Oh yeah, that day, the day that I asked,
he was eating on the restaurant.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
So I said, you said this in Spanish.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, yeah, because he's Mexican. Yeah, so I'm asking him,
can I that your daughter? And also I mean, you're
more than welcome to come with us to a movie theater,
to another restaurant, it don't matter. And the dude don't
say nothing. He just staring at me like apayable, you know.
And I'm there like it's that yes or no? Like
(21:17):
is this a cultural thing that I'm not aware of?
So I said, well, sir, thank you so much for
your time. And I just came back and no answer, no, none,
and and and that's the beginning of one of the
craziest ride of my life, like one of the craziest ones.
And hm hmm, Well when when did he say yes?
(21:39):
He never did when you're married. But yeah, but here's
the thing. I go back to her. She said, what
did he say? I said, he didn't say nothing. She said,
oh my god, I'm in trouble. So I was like, God,
the money. Well, next day she doesn't show up the
work and now I'm kind of nervous. No, second day
(22:01):
she doesn't, and I was like, dude, I believe third day,
and I'm just gonna put it out there because everybody
knows that like it. It's not that big of a deal,
no more. It's a personal story, but it's not a
big of a deal no more. But she comes to
work and she has a little bit of purple on
her side, and I said, what happened to you? She said, well,
(22:21):
my dad had a little like one too many drinks
and he kind of like hit me a little too
hard because I've been talking to you. What I said?
I said, heck no, said do you want to go
with me? She said where? And I said I don't know.
She said, yeah, dude. The only thing that I needed
was a horse and a cowboy hat to make it
(22:45):
look like the Western style. And we just left on
my truck that day. Oh well, at the time, I
already had the truck, but I'm still living with Rick
on Rick's house.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Yeah, well, you stole her away. Well, she needed to.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Was eighteen, she was fixing to be nineteen, wow, And
I was twenty two. We left, and I said, uh,
I got to talk to my mom. Called my mom
and said, Mom, do you remember that girl that I
talked to you about that I like her? She said yeah,
Now she's with me. She said, Okay, what are y'all doing?
(23:23):
I said, well, we're running. And it was a brave pause.
She's like, in the name of Jesus, in the name
of Jesus, you stop what you at tell me right now.
And well it was a big deal. One of them
guys from the restaurant gave her dad my number, and
(23:45):
the news called me furious. It was, oh my god,
I'm gonna kill you. And I said, listen to chill.
I said, chill, let's speak like men, you know, let's
let's just be reasonable about this and let's just talk
like me. And I try to talk to you once
and you didn't talk to me. Let's just talk this time. Ah,
I meet you tomorrow the Walmart out there, well live
(24:08):
and I said, my ELA's my wife's just like, it's
not looking good and I said, no, no worries, Like
I got it. We get too, man. I pull up
to the parking lot. Then I get out of the
truck and this dude comes out running, flashing a gun,
like losing his mind. And I said listen, I said,
(24:29):
whoa chill. I said, listen first and foremost, let's fix him.
Call the cops. I said, put that thing up. If
you're trying to impress me, that's the wrong impression. I said,
I came here to talk to you, and you're behaving
like I don't even know how. Well, then the situation
gets weird because the dude starts crying m hm. And
I was like, well, as a dude, you just pointed
(24:50):
the gun at me, cussing me out. Now he's crying.
He started doing it, you know, his panic blessing and
all that stuff, and he said, I gotta give you
the blessing. I'm just kind of like, what's what's going
on with this dude? I mean, he grabs me by
my mouth and kiss me in my mouth? Her father, Yeah, yeah, dude,
(25:14):
I froze on time right there. And I said, hell, no, man,
that ain't no blessing, Like what's wrong with you? You know?
And and she was like no, no, I'm I'm sorry.
I don't understand, and well you're taking my little baby
and this and that, and I was like.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Well, back up, your wife views it as a blessing
or she No, she.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Was like, I never heard that he is he gay?
I hope it ain't because that they traumatized me.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
So there was an unexpected maneuver on his part.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Yeah, it was a carbal. I wasn't never respecting. I
was like, what's going on?
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Your wife wasn't expecting it?
Speaker 2 (25:54):
No, she was just like, well, this is this and
I was that my wife.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
She was surprised by it. Yeah, and our other dudes,
you know, from our other like Latino dudes that you know,
surprised by that.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Everybody said that one no blazing. I knew everybody. Man,
Everybody's like, I do that ain't no blazing. I said,
that's mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
You think it's a show of dominant.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
What kind of dominant? But I don't want to know
that dominance and what I mean, like.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
I get the feeling it's important. I heard Babo's story
about the kiss. Yeah, but my my, uh, the way
I would read it would be that he sounds like
he had his own issues. Sounds like maybe he didn't
have a plan.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Like you're getting an unstable vibe off ofim.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
I Yeah, and then maybe that like he was literally
overjoyed that you such a fine, young, upstanding man. Would
you know? I want to be with his daughter. And
the way that he expressed expressed himself in that moment
with a kiss.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
That's why I wait to express himself. And I wish
you would have just stroked my hand.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
That's really something I would have been thrown by that.
I had to go ask my wife's dad if I
could ask her to get married. He didn't do nothing
like that really, and I was like, I was like,
I didn't give a big old smooch.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah. I was like, there, you just like traumatized me
for that sure, And I said, from.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Now on this, So how did the interaction end?
Speaker 2 (27:30):
That was it?
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Well?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
He just keep saying some stuff. Man my head, he's
but how did he?
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Okay, I want to, I want to. This is great,
I want to. I just want to cover a couple
more things. But I just need to understand something. What
to your knowledge now looking back on it, what is
his state of mind from brandishing a pistol to a blessing,
(27:57):
a Catholic blessing to a kiss.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
I don't understand it.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
How many seconds, how many minutes we're talking about we're
talking about five four or five minutes.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
It was a blast.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
You know.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
The drill came out really good, I mean really quick.
He came out of that truck like if it was
a drug bust, you know, just and all.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
That stuff by himself.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yes, And then he kind of hit a breake ball.
I guess, because if you think about it in a
psychological aspect, he might have don't hit a breakball because
he wasn't impressing me. And I was telling him.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
You weren't intimidated, no, you know, with some part of
you wondering if he was gonna shoot you or do
you know he wasn't gonna shoot you?
Speaker 2 (28:37):
No?
Speaker 1 (28:37):
I knew, man, you knew he wasn't gonn shoot Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
I knew he was just bluffing. And it was just
the wrong cowboy to mess with, you know. So I
was like, man, then he hits that wall and he
realizes that, yeah, they like each other, and she's fixing
to go with him, and he starts going that and
then I guess his emotions just and crazy.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Is he a part of your life? Now?
Speaker 2 (29:03):
No? No, now that I cut ties, I said, man,
because Christmas later, I was like, hey, man, I'm gonna
go back to something else. The tension stayed in there.
Sure it was tangion, especially from my part, because I
(29:24):
was just looking at him.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Like you weird though, like yeah, yeah, yeah, well Christmas
and he'd hit your wife, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
And Christmas party comes along. He knew that I didn't
eat spies food at all, like spies spies. You don't
like spicy food, yeaheah. I ate something, but not like
fire right, okay. He fixed a plate for me and
it was dynamite with chicken. Literally, like my nose was
(29:50):
running ice. I mean you're talking about I was having
a bad time and he's just looking at I'm like,
how is it? Is it good? And I was like
it's delicious. I was an and I cleaned that plate
because I wasn't gonna let these men save me fumbling
right there. I was like, no, if I'm dying, I'm
dying and standing, you know. And it was a try
(30:11):
and she was like, don't eat that. The morning, I
said no, I'm not gonna give him the joy, you know,
when I'm finishing this. And that day I was like
this is it? Does it?
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (30:22):
I said, I don't give you many many chances and
you keep coming to kind of like a trying to
sucker punch me. And I said every time that I'm
you know, pretty much like opening myself up to you.
So after that, I just decide that for my personal interest,
it was better off if I just kind of kept
my distance, not interfered with the relationship between father and daughter,
(30:44):
because that's none of my business, you know what I mean?
Are they close kind of yeah, that's a story for
a different time. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Yeah, but wow, welcome to America.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yes, and all this happened. Ninety days are up, and.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
I got all this is all in the ninety days.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yes, And I was thinking, like, you're like.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
I'll do you one better. I'll find a girl.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah. And then at the end of the ninety days,
I had all the requirements that RIG wanted. Plus I
was moving into the apartment with my current wife, you know,
with my wife, we're moving into.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
The driver's license. Yes, I was a social Security number
I had.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
I had a two hour break on the restaurant. So
I had a dictionary and the driver license manual and
I was just trying to translate and make sense out
of it. I knew how to drive a vehicle kind
of but I knew that she was going to ask
me a bunch of questions. I felt the test four times,
no three, and I passed it on the fourth one
because she was like, let's do a three point maneuver.
(31:53):
And I was like, yes, keep driving. You didn't know
what she said, could ride and make and ride and
I was like okay, and until she was like pull over,
pull over, pulling with the wheeler of me. Then she
was like, ah, you see it on the passenger side.
And I was like, ah, I failed.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
What happened? And my mom what? And I was like,
what happened? So where you failed? That's what happened. I
was like, oh, so yeah, the fourth time I got it.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
So when, uh, when did you? Because because you've become
a very avid American hunter, here's when you got to America.
So we talked about growing up in Costa Rica and
you had like you you had like the drive. And
this is an interesting deal. My man was raised by
(32:47):
Italian immigrants. He's raised by his Italian immigrant grandparents. My
father they didn't know, there's no kind of He grew
up in the slums in the South Side of Chicago,
but he knew he don't know where it came from,
but he knew he was supposed to be a fisherman
and a hunter, and he would go fish on the
(33:08):
pier in Lake Michigan. He would go try to jump
on a train and ride a train out and try
to hunt rabbits along the railroad tracks outside of the city.
He was called to it, right, So you had the
calling when you came to the US. How long did
it take for you to put together that you'd landed
in like a hunting fishing paradise.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
It took me a little bit because everything was a process, right,
and I was kind of like an evolving as I
was going and understanding a little bit more at the time.
And then I start seeing deer on the side of
the road being hit by a car whatever I live,
and I was like, oh my god, Well, my stepdad's
never been a hunter before.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
He was a farmer.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
No, he had a construction business.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
He had a farmer, didn't farm.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
We just called it the farmer. Yeah, the only animal.
And there was my little brother's dog. So I said, Rick,
how do you hunt? And he was like, no, man, uh,
you know, you gotta have property, you gotta have land,
and you know, and I was like, really, my mom
was kind of translating me. So they turned direct to view.
At the time, it was direct to view memory. It
(34:13):
was no big social media like it is right now.
I ain't know anything about anything. And well it was
this deer hunting shows from the Promised Land, you know,
the Midwest. I have no clue just watching. He was like,
this guy's got thousands of acres manages, as is anything else. Well,
(34:34):
there's public gun but if you go to public line,
everybody's going to be shooting out you. You don't want
to go there. And all that I remember about a
year or two went by, and I was like, man,
I really really want to, like because I brought my
sling shot with me, the frame I practicing. My little
brother had a baby gun. Then I got a baby
gun man, and I was in the middle of the
(34:56):
first thing that Rick told me is like, donoculate anything.
I was like, why, He's like, there's rules and regulations.
Well that was another chapter to me understanding why we
do the things that we do right here right now,
why we have laws of conservation, and why do we
follow the things that we follow, you know, which it
was a really good like mine opening bread fresh and
(35:18):
I was like, oh my god, these people really do
the right thing. As he kept going. I was very
interested at the time because I was just shooting pellets
and clays and things about on the backyards of targets.
You know. Well, we're doing a work on a construction business.
(35:39):
This gentleman pulls up and he says, man, can I
speak with the foreman? I just want to know. He
was leading some concrete on the side. Well, they asked
me if I wanted to participate on that Saturday, and
I said sure. So we go and we're pulling the
conquer and all that stuff. My step that comes by home.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
You're at a job site. Yes, I was another huge
shows up to inquire about some concrete work.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Pretty much to get out to get out an estimate.
Now you got to remember I was on the Mexicans.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Take it as a side job and you jump in
on it.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
I was on the Mexican restaurant about three months and
I said, you know what, I got it. I'm good.
I'm I can go through the world. I know how
to speak English and which I didn't, but I was
very confident, like I now I know what I'm doing. Well, literally,
I know. Man, I go to get a job on
construction and I'm going I'm going to a stand their
system and I'm coming from a metric system. M hm,
(36:35):
well back to square one. And I was like, God,
I'm mighty yards miles.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Inches the dumbest shit in the world.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Man, Everything is just backwards. So I was like, God,
I'm mighty. Anyways, I get better at it. It's been
three years. I saw it as a groundsman with no
experiencing anything, didn't understood anything. And I move up to
a concrete finisher so that they were doing that job.
My stepdad comes out. I've been watching the shows, keep
(37:08):
constantly watching these shows. My stepdad comes out, he said, son,
let me show you something. He's like, come over here.
So we go on the back of this property where
we pouring the concrete as mister Tony Mile's residence. Right.
We walk on the backside and there is giant one
hundred and sixty plus class bucks all over one seventies
(37:32):
one eighties state records, you name.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
It all over on the wall.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Yeah text so yeah, shoulder mounds and a bunch of
euro mounds. So I'm losing my mind and never seen
this before. And I was like, oh my god. First
thing that came to my mind. I said, he probabably
sells them. I said, do you sell them? Mister Tony
was kind of laughing. He said no, I don't. I said,
what did you kill him? He said right up there?
(38:00):
And I was like, what is that? And I asked
my stepdad the name of the place. He's like, well,
that's public. I was like, oh my god, and I'm
admiring and all that stuff. Well, the country is drying up,
so I have to go back. At went back, I
got a brief talk with mister Tawny and uh Man,
I came back home and I just couldn't stop thinking
about it. I just couldn't stop thinking about it. How
(38:22):
magnificent these animals were, decides everything. Never seen anything like
that for my life. So as a rick, I really
want to go hunt. He said, well, first thing you
gotta do is take the Hunter Education course. And I said, ah,
So I took it online, got it done. That was
(38:43):
in twenty thirteen. I said, okay.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
He's like, oh, well, did they have that in Spanish?
You did it in English? No?
Speaker 2 (38:51):
In English? Yeah. At the time I was able to
comprehend way more than what I was able to speak,
Like I could comprehend, but I can speak anything, which
I'm still you know, fumbling here and there. But got
it done, you know, based on the pamphlet and all
that stuff. I said, Okay, so you can hunt from
this day to this day, you know, from like October
(39:15):
the fifteenth until January the thirty as an example. Right,
so good. I want to bowt like the guys from
the show. So they take me to a big buck store, man,
and they try to give me a right handed bowt,
but I'm left handed. So I'm growing the thing like this.
It doesn't feel good, and I'm like, no, I can't.
(39:37):
Eventually they found a left handed boat and the so
called technician is called another technician who is calling another
technician just to try to help me set it up,
set the peep side, and I said, I'm going home, man,
I go home to set the boat. Watch a few videos,
and I said, I I'm gonna set it up. The
(39:57):
first shot that smoked my forearm, I mean I'm talking
about like that, and put several shots through the siding
of the house. Uh, several hours disappear. By the grace
of God, there was no neighbors because I sent a
lot of broheads. They just said, you know, and I
(40:18):
got good. It's been three years. Well hold on because
this is one. It's a shame. But I went to Walmart.
It's my first day, first day ever. Man, I'm ready.
I'm gonna do an evening hunt. So I go to
Walmart and I told the lady on the hunting section,
can I get some saying deer sing, you know, because
these dudes are spraying all the time in the shows.
(40:41):
He said, dear saying and I said yes, and she
said dear pin. I said yes, you know, Like what.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
Do I know?
Speaker 2 (40:49):
She gives me a big bottle. Man, I go jump
out of the truck, and that's what these guys are doing.
And the first pump, I was like, god, money, I said,
this crap is this tout? Yeah? Yeah, but I just
go out it man yourself in that deer pa and
I'm guging.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Well.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
It was diestrous. Later that I know all these dudes
are spraying with say killer man. I didn't know the difference,
you know, So that was a really rough lesson that day.
I was like, don't spread this crap on yourself. You
know what I mean, I was like, god man made
(41:29):
at home and I walked in. She said, how do
you get out? What is the smell? And I was like,
guess what they used? And she was like, nobody's using
that kind of crap? What's wrong with you? Anyways? You
know how to get rid of that thing? And I
was mimicking what I was watching the shows.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
So how long did you hunt for? You got a
deer hold on.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
It's been three years, so at this point you hunted
three long seasons, mimicking what they.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Do all bowl hunting.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Yeah on Iowa, Kansas, Illinois. Down here in Alabama, you're.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Taking those moves and you're hunting an Albanion.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
I mean, it's like Halloween and I'm entering rather than
they don't run into January. Right, never saw a thing
until finally I start seeing deer poop and I was
like at the time, I had the phone and I
was like, how those deer poop looks like? And I
was like, oh my god, I'm on And I was like,
I'm getting very close and never seeing the thing. So
(42:32):
I said, Rick, something's gonna have to change, man, I said,
do you remember mister Tony? He said, yeah, I said,
do you know if she still lives in there? He said,
I don't know. I said, I'm going to go. I
know the concrete, so I'm going to go find them.
He said, oh man, I'll go out there and look
(42:53):
at the house. Found the concrete and I said, that's him.
That's the house. Doesn't seem to be nobody. And I
said two things. Something is gonna happen. I'm gonna find
Tony or I'm gonna catch around. But you know, I'm
gonna fix it. A gay shot. Knock on the front door. Nobody,
and I was like, I remember we went on the back. Now.
(43:14):
I was just bracing myself for the impact, you know,
because it's the South, you know how it goes. And
then if you use the stereotypes, he has an accent,
he has the tears, you know what I mean. So
I said, here we go. I went back there, knocking
the door. Miss Donna comes out. She's like, can I
help you? And I was like, hello, Hey, do you
remember me? No, No, who are you? I said, it's
(43:38):
mister Tony Holmes. She said he's honey. He was back
later on, so I'll be back. I just went and
sat in the party for like six hours and then
I seen his stroke pull in. I said, all right,
here we go, pull back in. Man. He recognized me.
Oh hey, buddy, coming in. I remember, man, it's been
three years. Then I started talking with Tawny and he
(44:01):
realized that I was a grown man with the experience
of a three year old kid on the woods and
and he said, man, we got a lot of work
to do. We're gonna start from zero. I said, I
(44:21):
do you know your feet? Trees? And I was like
what is that? Do you know your seasons? The road
and I was like what is the road? Man? Feeding
wise and all that stuff. I ended up getting a
book that says Alabama plants and bushes, you know, like native,
just to get a better understanding of all the different species.
He was like, Okay, this is a white oak, this
(44:42):
is a red oak. I had no clue. And when
you know, whenever they get full of acorns, they're fixing
the drop and I was like, what they're going to drop?
He was like acrons and I was like what is
an acorn? He was like this and I was like,
what is it? There's gonna eat it. And the process
went like that. Next year, I'm sitting on this piece
of public first time ever a deer.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Well.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
I was climbing at the time. I was wearing a
steel climber by choice, because you golumb about one hundred
yards from the truck man circulations to your arms. Everything
is cut like this, everything is purple, you know what
I mean. It's so heavy and climb up and there
is a deer like I can actually see and it
(45:32):
has antlers. Man, So I never understood this by buck
fever Man, I thought I was having a heart attack,
Like I couldn't stop shaking. My blood pressure was up
to the roof, and I was like, oh my god,
this is it, this is it. And the thing comes
right in like textbook. I ain't no telling where I'll
send that error, man, there's no telling where that era
(45:56):
went to. That in takes up running and I was
like looking at the error and the deer just disappears
there he's went three years.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
How old are you now?
Speaker 2 (46:12):
I was like six, and I'm not gonna lie. I
cry like a kid that day because I was like,
this is what he said, like, this is what he
was like. He just came down to this moment.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
Tears of joy or frustration, frustration.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
And I was like, and I blew it. That guy
blew it out of the water. Well. I came home heartbroken,
told my wife I ain't never doing this again. Period.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
You're done.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
What happened? I said, I missed? Deer's in deer and
he had antlers and I missed. He said, well, just
try harder, and I was like, it's not that, is it?
Speaker 1 (46:57):
You know?
Speaker 2 (46:58):
She doesn't hunt. About three days later, I was off
the whole week. She says, so you're not going back
to the woods and I said.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
No, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
I'm done with that, never ever again. She said, just
go and walk and kind of clear your mind. Now.
She left the work in about twelve twelve thirty. I said,
you know what, She's right, I'm just going to go
for a walk. So I went back to the place
(47:29):
where I missed. Look up and I was like about
to cry again. I was like, I'm right here, walking
about one hundred yards south, sat on the ground.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
How far was that shot that you missed?
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Thirteen or fourteen yards? Like he was right there? And
I had a ready sure, man, we've all been there. Man,
you don't need to be Costa Rican the miss man.
We've also missed all kinds of stuff. Oh yeah, And
I sat on the ground that that evening. I says,
screw it, I'm just going to sit here for the evening.
(48:03):
And I remember this like if it was yesterday. Man
had a street stumped behind me, a lug and a
previous head. I'm just pretty much in the same position
that I'm at right now, looking at it was a trail,
but I have no idea that it was a trail
that was the opening right here. So I was sitting
here with a little bit of sand and stick, just
(48:24):
kind of like making the time go a little bit faster.
Next thing I know, I heard some footsteps and I said,
I said, squirrel. And I look up and the same book,
the small a pointer is walking my way. So I
was like, dude, and well, I'm on panic mode. I
cannot get my release on the boat. I'm shaking so
(48:47):
bout I'm having a sei shure attack man. And I'm
on the ground, yes, seating, And next thing I know,
that book is right there, Man like right there just
looking at me.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
But how far ten twelve again dodging around?
Speaker 2 (49:00):
Yeah, Bob in his head like, what is that thing?
Speaker 1 (49:02):
Man?
Speaker 2 (49:02):
I don't remember seeing the peep side. I don't remember
am I just know I did this and I heard
that tump boom that thing mume kicks stakes up running
and I thought that I seen him pile up because
I seen him come like going, and I was like,
oh my god. Now panic set seen because I was like,
they're gonna find us both dead right here, like I'm
(49:24):
facing to have a heart attack, you know what I mean.
Settled myself down a little bit, went to the air man.
The errors covered up with blood, and I said, I
gotta get out of here now. So I got out.
Called my wife and I was like, honey, I killed him.
Instead of being supportive, She's like, are you sure like
you like you kill him like you didn't miss like
(49:45):
last time. And she got on my head back man,
and I was like, you know what, she She might
have been right. I could have just spooked him. I
don't even know if I hit him, man. Man, talk
about a pickle. You know. Well, at the time, I
didn't have ONIX. The only light that I have was
(50:08):
my cell phone. So I'm trying to find this stump.
It's already dark and I'm trying to find the stump
where I was sitting to go look for my arrow,
to try to find that.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
You can't even remember where you were alone, I have
no clue.
Speaker 2 (50:24):
About two hours go by, I was like, right here
there it is. The air was torching blood. I was like,
oh my god, I hit the thing. I hit him,
and man, I keep looking and look, well there was
a blood trail about this big and I just keep
walking over and never saw it. You know, I was
about to start crying again. Next thing, you know, that
buck was like maybe from here to where real was at? Yeah,
(50:50):
and I lost my mind dragging him out. The first
thing that they went to Tony's house. He was so pumped
about it. Man, you take the buck and showed him. Yeah,
he was like, it's nothing but a small two and
a half year old a point basket, a pointer. I
showed them mound that book. I swear to God because
(51:11):
it was is the first deer that I ever shot
in my life and it was a buck. So I
showed him A guy him out end of the house.
And after that, you know, the processes start getting better.
Now I'm hooked birth man, Yes, but but this is
like I don't like I was able to taste it,
(51:31):
you know, what I mean?
Speaker 1 (51:33):
And did you just get your You got your biggest buck.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
To date this year day before Christmas.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
I'm public laying here. The first one I got home
day before Christmas, so you got no I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
Day before Thanksgiving this year. The biggest book ever of
my life happened in Halloween. And literally, I know, three
weeks later I was gonna kill the biggest buck ever.
You know, I broke my pebe and freaking said like
that two times.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
This is both on public ground.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
Yes this picture, yeah sure, And I'm going to show
you the one that I killed the day before Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (52:09):
So this is the second biggest bug.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
I was like a man, you ain't never gonna make
this happen again. And uh, next thing, you know, this
hold on this one is there? It is.
Speaker 1 (52:24):
Holy cow man.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
Yeah man, that's Alabama public book guys in Alabama public land. Giant.
Look look at the one right here here.
Speaker 1 (52:37):
We even filmed that with your camera.
Speaker 2 (52:39):
Look the inside is spread of that thing.
Speaker 3 (52:42):
How how wide is it?
Speaker 2 (52:44):
Nineteen and a half.
Speaker 1 (52:45):
That's a cool picture. Filming out with your camera. Even
you want to film something, you're getting a good shot
of it. Dude. You know what I like about all that.
I mean, I like everything about that story. But the
biggest thing is this is an observation I make all
the time. And I've mentioned a bunch. It doesn't matter
(53:08):
where you go in the country, and me and Jani
eve been fortunate to go everywhere, all over the place
talking to guys that hunt, talking to guys of fish
everywhere around the country. Everywhere you go, there's two kinds
of guys, and man, they live next door to each other.
There's the guys that like it all sucks now. Fishing
(53:29):
game ruined it, the mung ruined it, the wolves ruined it,
the out of staters ruined it. It all sucks right,
And next door to him everywhere you go in the
country is the guy that can't scratch the surface. There's
(53:50):
so much to do and he's so excited to be
alive and he can't get to it all. And you're
that guy.
Speaker 2 (53:57):
I appreciate it. I like that. The crazy thing is
that you know, after well, mister Tunny introduced me with
mister Michael Perry, mister Jamie McKay, and the ball keeps
on rolling, Parking McDonald, then Williams and everybody just started
like pitching in, you know, to educate you, to educate, Yes,
(54:17):
And I started learning from all these killers. Man, Like
everybody's like, I'm doing good this lesson that mister Tony
taught me, and I think it was the most valuable
thing that he could said to me. He was, you
got to put some deer under your belt. Don't think
that you're gonna just go out there and shoot one
(54:38):
of these.
Speaker 1 (54:38):
Just get it figured out.
Speaker 2 (54:39):
Yes, I said, I'm so. I kill a bunch of spikes,
a bunch of them and those and four pointers, and
just keep shooting with my boat with the rifle. If
it was legal, I was shooting it just to learn, yes.
And he was like, eventually he's gonna click.
Speaker 1 (55:00):
Well.
Speaker 2 (55:00):
I had several encounters with really big dear. Couldn't take
a shot, got busted five years ago Christmas going to
be five years ago. Put a shot on that monster
with my bow. He was running, man, and I hit
him a little too far back. I couldn't stop it.
I was like, man, man, man, man, we got dogs
(55:21):
that I was shut him at by nine o'clock in
the morning. It was like four o'clock in the morning
next day.
Speaker 1 (55:27):
Never found him.
Speaker 2 (55:28):
Never man. The blood went dry and heartbreaker. But it
was incredible. It was one of the best moments ever
because I was like, good, that confirms, you know that
what I'm learning and the process that I've been following
is actually paying off. Now now I took like put
a step inside of what these guys do, you know,
(55:49):
Like I had an encounter and it's really good that
I have this experience because now I can relate with
them because this will happen, and He's going to happen.
You know, I think that killing that deer would have
steered me on the wrong direction. I could have got cocky.
Oh I don't got it all figured out?
Speaker 1 (56:10):
Oh gotcha?
Speaker 2 (56:11):
I did just killed and all. You know what I mean.
So it was a very humbling experience. There's a lot
more work to do, and it has to start with
myself practicing throughout the whole year. Then well, one of
those days with Daniel racking my mom, they gave me
my first rifle ever in my life ever, never own
(56:34):
one of arm. It's a thirty or six Remington seventy
seven thirty or six. Then throughout the years, I've been
having issues missing, you know, so I was like kind
of weird. Then Daniels said, like, when was the last
time you side this thing in?
Speaker 1 (56:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (56:50):
And I was like, what what do you mean signing
litter that? I know? You know you gotta take this
character range And I have no clue. I thought they
just go out there.
Speaker 1 (57:01):
It was it was brought to you with the scope
on it.
Speaker 2 (57:03):
Yeah, And I just thought that you put that cross
where he's at. And because man, I had a dough,
I hit it boom and she hunched over and I
went crazy, and man, and it looked like a battle.
Feel like they're just blowing all over her. You know,
she was kind of like helping around. I just keep shooting,
reloading four more shots in the magazine. I end up
(57:24):
enting twelve shots that day. And I was like, what's
going on? I bet everybody in that public piece was like,
what's going on in the hall or you know? And yeah,
to make it short, man, I never found it dough
never did you know?
Speaker 1 (57:41):
I learned your lesson there too.
Speaker 2 (57:43):
Yeah, that's I said, Daniel. He said what happened? And
I said, I'm means And then that's when he brought
up like, when was the last time you saw this thing?
So what're me in? He's like you shot at our target,
say a deer. He's like, wait, like eight targeting and
say I never, like I just due can wing honting.
(58:05):
He was like, oh my god, no, man, it was
like your typical goodwill twenty nine ninety nine dollars is cope.
You know you got to try to like you just
spend five minutes trying to find the thing and finally
you find it. He looks awful. Yeah, I thought that's
what he was. And it was pretty funny. It was
(58:25):
a very fun experience.
Speaker 1 (58:27):
Well, Papa, listen, man, we got to get ready for
the show. This is awesome to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (58:30):
Though, I know, man, is that this is a very
unique opportunity. I really appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1 (58:35):
I'd like to have you on to tell more of
the hunting stories. But that's a good background prime right there.
Speaker 3 (58:39):
Definitely, the enthusiasm is both like jealousy inducing and motivating.
You know, appreciate it because I think part of the
thing that we sometimes battle, at least I do, is
because we get to do it so much. I sometimes
find myself like I'm like I should be more excited
in this moment. I just got to kill an other
(59:00):
beautiful mule deer buck in the mountains of whatever Western state. Man, man,
And I'm here in the moment, but like, I don't
have the enthusiasm that you're experiencing for shooting spikes and dose.
Speaker 2 (59:12):
Man, I get it with a dough like as we speak.
I get lacer sharp on the moment as soon as
that arrow or that bullet leaves. It's like a dumb
But I don't know how. And this, oh man, uh,
this been the best season ever. Two bucks out of state.
I gotta give a shot to Clay really quick. Gave
(59:35):
me his bebs, got clays newcomes bebes. They didn't even
wash them as I ain't even gonna wash them because
it got Clay's look.
Speaker 1 (59:44):
Put him on.
Speaker 2 (59:46):
Went to Kansas by myself. Just jump on my truck
and drop shot a buck. Color friend. They're like a man, nice,
We're heading to Missouri, I said, can I join? Yeah?
Went down to Missouri, shot a buck the still with
my boat, came home and shot to one of them
being that bay when the riba was showing y'all with
(01:00:07):
with all of them with Kay's beebe son excellent. Man
has something you know, I've never been supertitious, but.
Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
This I might have to get a parent. I want,
I want to welcome you to America.
Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Man.
Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
Thank you, man, welcome to me in your life. Thank
you all.
Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
I appreciate y'all. Thank you. How A good one
How do everybody? But this is the FOP FOP one
from me Eaters Live Christmas Tour. We're in Birmingham, Alabama.
Normally when you join the show, it's it's all everybody's
familiar with our producer Corin, with Phil the engineer. But
today we have our esteemed colleague Reva. Reva comes to
the house. Just so people know what's going on. This
is Reeva. She's living on the Bustle US. She's here
(00:21):
for the whole tour. She's always working on stuff. But
you never do this show. No, Reeva's here doing this
show today. Would you like to say anything to people?
Subscribe to? Oh, Reva would like you the Reva's one
ask is you subscribe to the YouTube feed at the
(00:42):
Mediator podcast YouTube channel. We're so what we're doing today
is we're joined by a ticket holder. Yeah, Pablo Escobell,
you're coming to the show tonight. Yeah, yeah, you excited
for the show?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Absolutely? Yeah, definitely because it's gonna be the first time too,
So yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Now I know you well. The reason I wanted to
talk about you. I know you well from coming on.
You've been on a handful of podcasts and I've listened
to your story on other podcasts The Southern Outdoorsman. Is
that what it's called? Southern outdoors podcast? Yanni sent that
to me saying, this guy's a riot and I've heard
of do you other interviews? And I thought, man, we're
down here. I want to meet you and have a
(01:18):
chance to talk to you and introduce you to our listeners,
to hear about some of your hunting adventures. Wow, and
kind of your strange trip towards becoming an American hunter.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah. Absolutely is an honor, man, I really appreciate it, definitely.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Can you before we get to Pablo, can you explain
FWOP case anybody isn't up to speed.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Oh yeah, I'd be happy to what it means? Is
this a lot of times we have this problem, I'm
addressing you listeners. We have this problem where we release
shows on Mondays. So we always run into this problem
where things will prevent us from releasing our show right away.
Do you know this why it's called that? So one
day I was saying that I wanted to be able
(02:02):
to do to record certain shows or just flop it
comes out flop being the noise made when it just
comes out like fop am.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
When I heard it, I felt like you were some
somehow going to compare the noise of it coming out
with the sound of you slapping meat, because you have
such an affinity for slapping meat. So I thought there
was some connection there.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
That's yeah, flop when you slap a back hand. No,
this just means it's gonna come out. We're gonna do three.
We're gonna do three flops here on live tour. This
is day one, this is the opening show. Everyone's nervous.
We have a we're doing. I'm looking around and see
who's listening because we're doing like a blowgun thing, and
we're very scared about getting in trouble with the venues.
(02:51):
So we asked one venue if we could bring Clay's mule.
They said no, so we didn't ask about the blowgun stunt.
It would be fine, I know, but I don't want to.
I don't want to bring it up ahead of time.
Now you shouldn't because if you bring it up ahead
of time, it's just gonna be no.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
But it's hopefully like the manager of the last venue
that we're having to won't this episode.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, we have a pretty so we bought some blowguns
from Tim Wells and he sends them with some wooden
darts which look unassuming.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Like a puncho. I'm in a pincho, my b.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yeah, and so I'm just no one's around right now.
It's a little nervous about the blowgun situation.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
What's a pincho?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Uh a Kebob, I'm sorry, yeah about pretty much, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Bob skewer.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So uh, Pablo Escabel, you grew up in Costa Rica. Yes,
and I didn't know this until today. You grew up
in Costa Rica and you were engaged in like hunting
activities in Costa Rica or you you experimented, you dam yes,
experiment Tell about that a little bit. I didn't know
about you.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
So the thing is when I was down there, man,
you know, hunting is legal down there, and yes it
is legal. Any kind of species is illegal.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Well you're saying illegal, like not legal.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Not legal? God eat ilegal. Yeah. So you know, as kids, man,
you developed your interest for sling shots, blowguns and things
like that because you have resources all over the place.
And then you know, you start kind of like getting
a little bit more curious, like I'm wondering if I
can take that bird down with this rock and next
thing you know, you start becoming efficient. And so yeah,
(04:32):
it was it was hunting with a sling shot and blowguns.
We used to go to the well the blowgun man.
It wasn't your particular blog, and it was just like
we used to go to the hardware store, the only store,
and they had like courting rods, like aluminum rod about
half an inch about a meter long, which is like
three feet three and a half. And then we used
(04:52):
to go to the river to the creek areas and
just dig some clay because it's clay everywhere, or keep
them in out like in a plastic bag in your pack,
a little bit of moist into it, keep whatting there
the clay so it stays nice and moist, it doesn't
dry right away. And man, I guess it became like
a muscle memory because you were just kind of like
doing your pellets with your fingers all the time and
keeping pellets in there, so the pellets were getting mush.
(05:15):
But then you just pull it back up and round
the back up, put it in there and just keep shooting.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Shooting soft clay. Yeah, but what were you hunting with
the soft clay? Birds that would have enough too oh, man,
you'd be amazed being soft. We didn't know anything about ballistics.
But I guess when they hid and they kind of
mush from I mean, we're talking about birds about this
big Oh, they don't understand the chance of twenty yards
(05:41):
like they coming down, you know. So would you ever
get any kind of furred animals like, I don't know
what they got in coast through Well, the guys that
they got like they got to have like uh labba paca.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Do you know pisoti. No, it's like a like a
coon with an elongated nose.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, we call him.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I forgot that money. Yes, Okay, there's some There's another
one is uh Watusa and te squinty. Those are like
a small cappy bar as as a reference, right, and
those used to be with the sling shots. But that
was not a one man job. Man. It used to
be like trying to put a snake upon him. You know,
three or four guys and everybody's gonna aim at the
(06:24):
same time, and somebody's gonna hit it. Somebody's gonna hit it. Good. Well,
you gotta aim with a rug right of the head,
So somebody's gonna hit him. We's gonna stung him, and
then we're gonna run to him and get him and
finish what we started. Yeah. So and you know and
unfortunately maybe one out of fifteen, one out of twenty
(06:47):
hounds worth successful. Okay, it's incredible.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
And you're just going out in the jungle.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah, rightther on the fields because you know, I grew
up in a place with a perfect balance in between
country and a teeny tiny city or teen tight in town.
You know, like there was a hospital in there, hardware store.
Of course, as the years went on and on, everything
started developing, but at the time when I was seven,
(07:12):
that was it. And the funniest thing, well the best
thing ever is that nobody had the internet. Nobody had
cell phones. Like we used to just go and knock
on somebody's door, trying to round everybody up because we're
going to go to the river later on, and everybody
will wait on the corner.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Like round up your hunting party.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah, or whoever wants to go. Which it was nothing
but kids, would you guys fish? Yes? A lot? And
I mean I look at this core. We used to
go to the hardware store and we were like, we
need some fishing line, man, and you will get lined
like for one thousand pounds morning just to go right
there to the creek to get brams by this big
(07:51):
you know.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Because you just didn't have access to sporting goods stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Now, they didn't have a rod, they didn't have nothing.
And we used to just like do you do you know,
are you familiar with the cuban? Yo? Yo? It's kind
of like a got one of those. It's kind of
like we used to have bottles, plastic bottles, and you
just kind of wrap your line around then long.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Would you guys cast off those two? I've seen dudes
down yeah, like down in South America cast with a bottle.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, Usually you cast towards the bottleneck like the end
of the bottle is going to be your stop. So
you cast. When you cast, kind of like tours.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
You're holding you're holding the bottom of the bottle.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Pretty much like this. You will cast like that so
the line will go that way, you know. And we
had a lot of fun, man, a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Uh would you guys, would you guys bring the stuff
home and your mom and daddy cook it?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
I did, I brought everything home. My mama used to
get so mad because you know, we didn't have much,
and the few things that she had, I was always
bringing everything into it. So she was like, this is
your pen that you ain't gonna cook anything else these attendsils,
this is going to be your pain. So I was
(09:03):
like okay, and I had the pen, and I used
to cook all kinds of birds and some of them mammals.
When we used to get Lucky cook him in there,
or go to a friend's house and they had like
a bigger pant so we could put a bunch of
pig lord on it and just defried them. Oh my goodness, man. Yeah,
it was good times, really really really good times. Of course,
(09:27):
how can I say this? It was a different time
runs as you know, everything else that is around us
has been evolved in the culture has maintained itself, you know,
and now unfortunately these days the loss is still the same.
And one of the things that I don't like is
that we just enjoyed the outdoors man like we did,
(09:49):
and the thrill of the chase, and you know, like
that was it. It was not just killed for killed now,
it was the thrill of the chase and then eating it.
But unfortunately we were caught up many times and I'm
telling you caught me. Oh yeah. Back in those days,
anybody was allowed to give you a whooping, regardless where
you were. If it was somebody that you know, Now
you're doing something wrong, somebody's gonna whoop you, you know.
(10:11):
And it happened like that many many times because they
grew up with them.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
You get caught and get whooped by someone, but not
a cop.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Now, no, the cops that only have batoons, they didn't
really care, you know, But anybody else were like, what
are y'all doing killing birds? I don't know, but just
whoop you, man. And it was like we got to
regroup and stay out of this place pretty much. And unfortunately, man,
people grow up with the mentality that the honor is
(10:38):
the uneducated, the honor is the ignorant, the honter is
the savage.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
You know. That's a sentiment in Costa Rica pretty.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Much, you know, and I truely respect it. Like I said,
the police is beautiful, man, don't get me wrong. And
he's a fisherman's paradise.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
You can't spearfish, can't hunt, can't spar and so so
this is where you I bet you love has changed
throughout the years and of course, with social media and
I was a lot easier to access everything else.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
But when I was down there, man, I never heard
anything like such about like fishing restrictions or regulations or
never like if you can catch a thousand of snappers,
catch them. You know that was back then, But we're
talking about like twenty years ago, right, so now these days,
I bet you they do have different regulations and things
(11:29):
of that nature back on place.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
So how is it that your mom came to the US.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
She get married with my stepdad, right, my stepdad Rick,
she get married with Let me take a sip of water,
because this is going to be a long story.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Well keep it short. We've got a lot of ground
to cover. We haven't even gotten the deer hunt yet.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah. Yeah, she gets married with Rick. She said. I. Well,
here's the thing. I didn't even know they were faxing
get married. My mom was kind of dating Rig. Rig
was kind of like going back and forth because of
raking all that stuff from America. Yeah right, he born
and raised in Alabama. So I didn't know English at all, nothing,
(12:09):
Like I was just like, hey, I was a teenager.
Then suddenly she's like, ayes on, we're gonna get married.
I'm going to the States, I said, cool, how are
you man? When she left, I was between fourteen and fifteen,
what I was about to be fifteen? My grandmother she
was going to be on charge with me. But OK,
(12:29):
but my grandma used to live on the other side
of town, which I called town, you know what I mean.
So on the bright side, I was the only teenager
without adult supervision, you know. I was like, let's go.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
But once she took off, what were you doing for money?
How did you support well?
Speaker 2 (12:48):
She said, did you stay in school, don't get in trouble,
and we pay the bills, which the bills was the water, electricity,
and food.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
So she split, Yeah, but you didn't view it that way.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
No, I just thought about like, I'm a man, dude.
Two weeks after my mama left, I felt it and
that's when I realized, man, I was miasing my mom
so bad. She was like, son, we have a process,
like we got you in a process. Oh, like in
the reason, I don't know. I got to ask her.
I don't remember why I didn't qualify as a dependent
(13:22):
right away. I want to say, because I was about
thirteen or fourteen. It's kind of like an immigration thing. Well,
the years go on and she keeps saying like, well,
we got to notice the documents have moved to a
different office and all that stuff. Man. To be honest,
I thought that it was never going to happen. So
I just kept on with my life. Got done with
high school. Then I went to a community college and
(13:45):
I took sport fishing. That's what I wanted to do.
I wanted to eventually become a captain of a sport
fishing vessel.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
You studied sport fishing, yeah, we said study.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
It was about like six months of classroom theory, learning
about species and how to rig lines and things like that.
And then after that it was not in my fision
fishing fishing every single day and the wash man. It
was the greatest time ever, you know, even if we
didn't caut anything, it was it was the greatest. Well,
(14:16):
so as I'm going, man, think about this, I'm twenty one,
fiction be twenty two or I was twenty two, got
a life, the whole thing, you know, got the house
and pursuing a career. Friends, you know, childhood friends and
all that stuff. So only mom calls Mom used to
go every Christmas, you know, so only she calls. She says, son,
(14:41):
we got an appointment at the US Embassy, And I said, whatever,
like there's been so many years now, like we're probably
just gonna go in there, somebody's gonna read a paper
something like that, and then they're gonna say the documents
have moved to that office. Whatever. That's what I thought.
I said, We're just gonna be a quick ending. Now.
Little did I know. Three days later I was living
(15:05):
everything everything behind me. Jump through in a plane, which
I've never done before. No, didn't know the culture, didn't
know the language, have nobody, no land where Well we
jump Becausta Rica. We landed in Houston, but I was
with my mom because I was losing my mind when
(15:29):
I went. We landed in Houston Airport. I never seen
anything like that before in my life, man, so I
was just mind blowing. We landed in Houston, went through
the immigration office right there. The lady was asking me
all kind of questions. I was just like, yes, I
have no clue what she was asking because I didn't
speak English. Came in. We flew from Houston to Huntsville,
(15:51):
landed in Haunts full Then you know the idea that
you get from the States is like big cities, all
these big, big cities, and I'm looking out, don't see
nothing on the plane, you know, nothing feels like fields.
And I said, where's the city? She said what city?
I was like, the big the old building cities. She's like,
(16:12):
I was so, well, do you remember where you at?
And I said, yeah, Alabama. She said yeah, there's no
big cities in Alabama. And I was just looking down, like,
oh my god, what I got myself into.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
But you were excited and moving forward because so you're
going to be with your mom.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Absolutely, that was the main thing. Well, we landed, made
at home. Next day home I got.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I got back up on one kind of what he said,
what was the main selling point to come to America?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
But there's no selling point. It was pretty much like
a self explanatory thing. It's like, I'm gonna be with
my mom.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah, yeah, you know, it's just so you viewed it
like primarily a way to be reunited with your mom.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, with my mom and my little brother, you know,
because I have a little brother. Oh he was here, Yes,
he was here now. So I was like, it's this
is meant to be like this and whatever else is
up there for me. It's going to be there regardless.
Then we landed. Next day, wake up. First morning on
(17:17):
the stage is September. So I'm out there looking man like,
losing my mind on Rick's property we'll call it the farm.
And my mom, she said, and I'm gonna mention this
to you. They fixed some chocolate gravy biscuits and I
was like, this is the greatest day ever in my life.
And I mean I'm dunking them puppies in that gravy, man,
(17:40):
you know, just going out because I never tried it before.
First breakfast excellent. Then Mama says, ah, we got to talk.
Rick has to talk to you. She was translated because
Rick didn't speak Spanish and I didn't speak English, so
she was translated between us.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
And Rick said, ah, boy, no, it's you a good guy.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah, yeah, he is. Yeah, it's pretty much the backbone
of everything that I have accomplished. To be honest, he said,
a boy, we got to put some rules and things
that you got accomplished. And I said so. He says,
you got ninety days kind of like on the order
(18:20):
to get a job, get a vehicle, learn angry, learn
learn some English. Get a driver license and find an apartment. Now,
I just kind of lie for my mom, you know,
and she looked at me and she's like, he's serious,
Like you got ninety days to make that happen. And
I was like, well, crap, you know, I waited all
(18:41):
these years and now here we are. I didn't realize
I was in a courtroom, you know, like now I
got ninety days to make this happen. Man, All day
long that day, I just couldn't stop thinking like what
am I going to do? Like literally, what am I
going to do? Go in in that night to a
Mexican restaurant. I never been before in a Mexican restaurant.
(19:04):
We go in there and I was so pumped, and
on my way back home it click. I said, Man,
these people speak Spanish, then they speak English. This is it.
I didn't even have to wait to ride around. So
I called my mom and said, Mom, can you take
me to the spot I really want to go and
ask for She said, we dropped to it. Want to
wear to the Mexican restaurant?
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
We went back next day next morning, so I looked
for the manager and I said, man, I introduced myself
and I said, man, I really need a job. I
will do this is I cleaned the floors like you
tell me, But I need a job. Keyword I do
not to speak English. He said, okay, cool man, I
really like that attitude. I'm gonna teach you how to
(19:47):
wait tables. I was like, Doe, I just told you
I don't speak English. He's like, don't worry. I'm gonna
put you with this girl. She's gonna teach you and
don't worry about it. Little did I know? That day
I was standing in front of my wife.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
What right, that's who you're married too.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah, that's the lady. And it was like the Billy
Madison movie with the child board and all that stuff.
That's pretty much. But she was teaching me how to
do everything. Huh and well I started getting good at it,
and I said, honey, really like you. Would you like
to be my girlfriend? She said, my dad doesn't let
(20:27):
me have boyfriends. I was like, what you know? I said,
who's your dad? She said, he's seated out there. I said,
I give me one second, man. I just went straight
to him and I introduced myself and I said, sir,
I really like your daughter. I would like to see
if I can get permission to today or maybe to
go on a Why was he in the restaurant He
(20:48):
was eating. Oh yeah, that day, the day that I asked,
he was eating on the restaurant.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
So I said, you said this in Spanish.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, yeah, because he's Mexican. Yeah, so I'm asking him,
can I that your daughter? And also I mean, you're
more than welcome to come with us to a movie theater,
to another restaurant, it don't matter. And the dude don't
say nothing. He just staring at me like apayable, you know.
And I'm there like it's that yes or no? Like
(21:17):
is this a cultural thing that I'm not aware of?
So I said, well, sir, thank you so much for
your time. And I just came back and no answer, no, none,
and and and that's the beginning of one of the
craziest ride of my life, like one of the craziest ones.
And hm hmm, Well when when did he say yes?
(21:39):
He never did when you're married. But yeah, but here's
the thing. I go back to her. She said, what
did he say? I said, he didn't say nothing. She said,
oh my god, I'm in trouble. So I was like, God,
the money. Well, next day she doesn't show up the
work and now I'm kind of nervous. No, second day
(22:01):
she doesn't, and I was like, dude, I believe third day,
and I'm just gonna put it out there because everybody
knows that like it. It's not that big of a deal,
no more. It's a personal story, but it's not a
big of a deal no more. But she comes to
work and she has a little bit of purple on
her side, and I said, what happened to you? She said, well,
(22:21):
my dad had a little like one too many drinks
and he kind of like hit me a little too
hard because I've been talking to you. What I said?
I said, heck no, said do you want to go
with me? She said where? And I said I don't know.
She said, yeah, dude. The only thing that I needed
was a horse and a cowboy hat to make it
(22:45):
look like the Western style. And we just left on
my truck that day. Oh well, at the time, I
already had the truck, but I'm still living with Rick
on Rick's house.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Yeah, well, you stole her away. Well, she needed to.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Was eighteen, she was fixing to be nineteen, wow, And
I was twenty two. We left, and I said, uh,
I got to talk to my mom. Called my mom
and said, Mom, do you remember that girl that I
talked to you about that I like her? She said yeah,
Now she's with me. She said, Okay, what are y'all doing?
(23:23):
I said, well, we're running. And it was a brave pause.
She's like, in the name of Jesus, in the name
of Jesus, you stop what you at tell me right now.
And well it was a big deal. One of them
guys from the restaurant gave her dad my number, and
(23:45):
the news called me furious. It was, oh my god,
I'm gonna kill you. And I said, listen to chill.
I said, chill, let's speak like men, you know, let's
let's just be reasonable about this and let's just talk
like me. And I try to talk to you once
and you didn't talk to me. Let's just talk this time. Ah,
I meet you tomorrow the Walmart out there, well live
(24:08):
and I said, my ELA's my wife's just like, it's
not looking good and I said, no, no worries, Like
I got it. We get too, man. I pull up
to the parking lot. Then I get out of the
truck and this dude comes out running, flashing a gun,
like losing his mind. And I said listen, I said,
(24:29):
whoa chill. I said, listen first and foremost, let's fix him.
Call the cops. I said, put that thing up. If
you're trying to impress me, that's the wrong impression. I said,
I came here to talk to you, and you're behaving
like I don't even know how. Well, then the situation
gets weird because the dude starts crying m hm. And
I was like, well, as a dude, you just pointed
(24:50):
the gun at me, cussing me out. Now he's crying.
He started doing it, you know, his panic blessing and
all that stuff, and he said, I gotta give you
the blessing. I'm just kind of like, what's what's going
on with this dude? I mean, he grabs me by
my mouth and kiss me in my mouth? Her father, Yeah, yeah, dude,
(25:14):
I froze on time right there. And I said, hell, no, man,
that ain't no blessing, Like what's wrong with you? You know?
And and she was like no, no, I'm I'm sorry.
I don't understand, and well you're taking my little baby
and this and that, and I was like.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Well, back up, your wife views it as a blessing
or she No, she.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Was like, I never heard that he is he gay?
I hope it ain't because that they traumatized me.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
So there was an unexpected maneuver on his part.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Yeah, it was a carbal. I wasn't never respecting. I
was like, what's going on?
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Your wife wasn't expecting it?
Speaker 2 (25:54):
No, she was just like, well, this is this and
I was that my wife.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
She was surprised by it. Yeah, and our other dudes,
you know, from our other like Latino dudes that you know,
surprised by that.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Everybody said that one no blazing. I knew everybody. Man,
Everybody's like, I do that ain't no blazing. I said,
that's mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
You think it's a show of dominant.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
What kind of dominant? But I don't want to know
that dominance and what I mean, like.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
I get the feeling it's important. I heard Babo's story
about the kiss. Yeah, but my my, uh, the way
I would read it would be that he sounds like
he had his own issues. Sounds like maybe he didn't
have a plan.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Like you're getting an unstable vibe off ofim.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
I Yeah, and then maybe that like he was literally
overjoyed that you such a fine, young, upstanding man. Would
you know? I want to be with his daughter. And
the way that he expressed expressed himself in that moment
with a kiss.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
That's why I wait to express himself. And I wish
you would have just stroked my hand.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
That's really something I would have been thrown by that.
I had to go ask my wife's dad if I
could ask her to get married. He didn't do nothing
like that really, and I was like, I was like,
I didn't give a big old smooch.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah. I was like, there, you just like traumatized me
for that sure, And I said, from.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Now on this, So how did the interaction end?
Speaker 2 (27:30):
That was it?
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Well?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
He just keep saying some stuff. Man my head, he's
but how did he?
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Okay, I want to, I want to. This is great,
I want to. I just want to cover a couple
more things. But I just need to understand something. What
to your knowledge now looking back on it, what is
his state of mind from brandishing a pistol to a blessing,
(27:57):
a Catholic blessing to a kiss.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
I don't understand it.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
How many seconds, how many minutes we're talking about we're
talking about five four or five minutes.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
It was a blast.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
You know.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
The drill came out really good, I mean really quick.
He came out of that truck like if it was
a drug bust, you know, just and all.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
That stuff by himself.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yes, And then he kind of hit a breake ball.
I guess, because if you think about it in a
psychological aspect, he might have don't hit a breakball because
he wasn't impressing me. And I was telling him.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
You weren't intimidated, no, you know, with some part of
you wondering if he was gonna shoot you or do
you know he wasn't gonna shoot you?
Speaker 2 (28:37):
No?
Speaker 1 (28:37):
I knew, man, you knew he wasn't gonn shoot Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
I knew he was just bluffing. And it was just
the wrong cowboy to mess with, you know. So I
was like, man, then he hits that wall and he
realizes that, yeah, they like each other, and she's fixing
to go with him, and he starts going that and
then I guess his emotions just and crazy.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Is he a part of your life? Now?
Speaker 2 (29:03):
No? No, now that I cut ties, I said, man,
because Christmas later, I was like, hey, man, I'm gonna
go back to something else. The tension stayed in there.
Sure it was tangion, especially from my part, because I
(29:24):
was just looking at him.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Like you weird though, like yeah, yeah, yeah, well Christmas
and he'd hit your wife, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
And Christmas party comes along. He knew that I didn't
eat spies food at all, like spies spies. You don't
like spicy food, yeaheah. I ate something, but not like
fire right, okay. He fixed a plate for me and
it was dynamite with chicken. Literally, like my nose was
(29:50):
running ice. I mean you're talking about I was having
a bad time and he's just looking at I'm like,
how is it? Is it good? And I was like
it's delicious. I was an and I cleaned that plate
because I wasn't gonna let these men save me fumbling
right there. I was like, no, if I'm dying, I'm
dying and standing, you know. And it was a try
(30:11):
and she was like, don't eat that. The morning, I
said no, I'm not gonna give him the joy, you know,
when I'm finishing this. And that day I was like
this is it? Does it?
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (30:22):
I said, I don't give you many many chances and
you keep coming to kind of like a trying to
sucker punch me. And I said every time that I'm
you know, pretty much like opening myself up to you.
So after that, I just decide that for my personal interest,
it was better off if I just kind of kept
my distance, not interfered with the relationship between father and daughter,
(30:44):
because that's none of my business, you know what I mean?
Are they close kind of yeah, that's a story for
a different time. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Yeah, but wow, welcome to America.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yes, and all this happened. Ninety days are up, and.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
I got all this is all in the ninety days.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yes, And I was thinking, like, you're like.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
I'll do you one better. I'll find a girl.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah. And then at the end of the ninety days,
I had all the requirements that RIG wanted. Plus I
was moving into the apartment with my current wife, you know,
with my wife, we're moving into.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
The driver's license. Yes, I was a social Security number
I had.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
I had a two hour break on the restaurant. So
I had a dictionary and the driver license manual and
I was just trying to translate and make sense out
of it. I knew how to drive a vehicle kind
of but I knew that she was going to ask
me a bunch of questions. I felt the test four times,
no three, and I passed it on the fourth one
because she was like, let's do a three point maneuver.
(31:53):
And I was like, yes, keep driving. You didn't know
what she said, could ride and make and ride and
I was like okay, and until she was like pull over,
pull over, pulling with the wheeler of me. Then she
was like, ah, you see it on the passenger side.
And I was like, ah, I failed.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
What happened? And my mom what? And I was like,
what happened? So where you failed? That's what happened. I
was like, oh, so yeah, the fourth time I got it.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
So when, uh, when did you? Because because you've become
a very avid American hunter, here's when you got to America.
So we talked about growing up in Costa Rica and
you had like you you had like the drive. And
this is an interesting deal. My man was raised by
(32:47):
Italian immigrants. He's raised by his Italian immigrant grandparents. My
father they didn't know, there's no kind of He grew
up in the slums in the South Side of Chicago,
but he knew he don't know where it came from,
but he knew he was supposed to be a fisherman
and a hunter, and he would go fish on the
(33:08):
pier in Lake Michigan. He would go try to jump
on a train and ride a train out and try
to hunt rabbits along the railroad tracks outside of the city.
He was called to it, right, So you had the
calling when you came to the US. How long did
it take for you to put together that you'd landed
in like a hunting fishing paradise.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
It took me a little bit because everything was a process, right,
and I was kind of like an evolving as I
was going and understanding a little bit more at the time.
And then I start seeing deer on the side of
the road being hit by a car whatever I live,
and I was like, oh my god, Well, my stepdad's
never been a hunter before.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
He was a farmer.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
No, he had a construction business.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
He had a farmer, didn't farm.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
We just called it the farmer. Yeah, the only animal.
And there was my little brother's dog. So I said, Rick,
how do you hunt? And he was like, no, man, uh,
you know, you gotta have property, you gotta have land,
and you know, and I was like, really, my mom
was kind of translating me. So they turned direct to view.
At the time, it was direct to view memory. It
(34:13):
was no big social media like it is right now.
I ain't know anything about anything. And well it was
this deer hunting shows from the Promised Land, you know,
the Midwest. I have no clue just watching. He was like,
this guy's got thousands of acres manages, as is anything else. Well,
(34:34):
there's public gun but if you go to public line,
everybody's going to be shooting out you. You don't want
to go there. And all that I remember about a
year or two went by, and I was like, man,
I really really want to, like because I brought my
sling shot with me, the frame I practicing. My little
brother had a baby gun. Then I got a baby
gun man, and I was in the middle of the
(34:56):
first thing that Rick told me is like, donoculate anything.
I was like, why, He's like, there's rules and regulations.
Well that was another chapter to me understanding why we
do the things that we do right here right now,
why we have laws of conservation, and why do we
follow the things that we follow, you know, which it
was a really good like mine opening bread fresh and
(35:18):
I was like, oh my god, these people really do
the right thing. As he kept going. I was very
interested at the time because I was just shooting pellets
and clays and things about on the backyards of targets.
You know. Well, we're doing a work on a construction business.
(35:39):
This gentleman pulls up and he says, man, can I
speak with the foreman? I just want to know. He
was leading some concrete on the side. Well, they asked
me if I wanted to participate on that Saturday, and
I said sure. So we go and we're pulling the
conquer and all that stuff. My step that comes by home.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
You're at a job site. Yes, I was another huge
shows up to inquire about some concrete work.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Pretty much to get out to get out an estimate.
Now you got to remember I was on the Mexicans.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Take it as a side job and you jump in
on it.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
I was on the Mexican restaurant about three months and
I said, you know what, I got it. I'm good.
I'm I can go through the world. I know how
to speak English and which I didn't, but I was
very confident, like I now I know what I'm doing. Well, literally,
I know. Man, I go to get a job on
construction and I'm going I'm going to a stand their
system and I'm coming from a metric system. M hm,
(36:35):
well back to square one. And I was like, God,
I'm mighty yards miles.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Inches the dumbest shit in the world.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Man, Everything is just backwards. So I was like, God,
I'm mighty. Anyways, I get better at it. It's been
three years. I saw it as a groundsman with no
experiencing anything, didn't understood anything. And I move up to
a concrete finisher so that they were doing that job.
My stepdad comes out. I've been watching the shows, keep
(37:08):
constantly watching these shows. My stepdad comes out, he said, son,
let me show you something. He's like, come over here.
So we go on the back of this property where
we pouring the concrete as mister Tony Mile's residence. Right.
We walk on the backside and there is giant one
hundred and sixty plus class bucks all over one seventies
(37:32):
one eighties state records, you name.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
It all over on the wall.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Yeah text so yeah, shoulder mounds and a bunch of
euro mounds. So I'm losing my mind and never seen
this before. And I was like, oh my god. First
thing that came to my mind. I said, he probabably
sells them. I said, do you sell them? Mister Tony
was kind of laughing. He said no, I don't. I said,
what did you kill him? He said right up there?
(38:00):
And I was like, what is that? And I asked
my stepdad the name of the place. He's like, well,
that's public. I was like, oh my god, and I'm
admiring and all that stuff. Well, the country is drying up,
so I have to go back. At went back, I
got a brief talk with mister Tawny and uh Man,
I came back home and I just couldn't stop thinking
about it. I just couldn't stop thinking about it. How
(38:22):
magnificent these animals were, decides everything. Never seen anything like
that for my life. So as a rick, I really
want to go hunt. He said, well, first thing you
gotta do is take the Hunter Education course. And I said, ah,
So I took it online, got it done. That was
(38:43):
in twenty thirteen. I said, okay.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
He's like, oh, well, did they have that in Spanish?
You did it in English? No?
Speaker 2 (38:51):
In English? Yeah. At the time I was able to
comprehend way more than what I was able to speak,
Like I could comprehend, but I can speak anything, which
I'm still you know, fumbling here and there. But got
it done, you know, based on the pamphlet and all
that stuff. I said, Okay, so you can hunt from
this day to this day, you know, from like October
(39:15):
the fifteenth until January the thirty as an example. Right,
so good. I want to bowt like the guys from
the show. So they take me to a big buck store, man,
and they try to give me a right handed bowt,
but I'm left handed. So I'm growing the thing like this.
It doesn't feel good, and I'm like, no, I can't.
(39:37):
Eventually they found a left handed boat and the so
called technician is called another technician who is calling another
technician just to try to help me set it up,
set the peep side, and I said, I'm going home, man,
I go home to set the boat. Watch a few videos,
and I said, I I'm gonna set it up. The
(39:57):
first shot that smoked my forearm, I mean I'm talking
about like that, and put several shots through the siding
of the house. Uh, several hours disappear. By the grace
of God, there was no neighbors because I sent a
lot of broheads. They just said, you know, and I
(40:18):
got good. It's been three years. Well hold on because
this is one. It's a shame. But I went to Walmart.
It's my first day, first day ever. Man, I'm ready.
I'm gonna do an evening hunt. So I go to
Walmart and I told the lady on the hunting section,
can I get some saying deer sing, you know, because
these dudes are spraying all the time in the shows.
(40:41):
He said, dear saying and I said yes, and she
said dear pin. I said yes, you know, Like what.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
Do I know?
Speaker 2 (40:49):
She gives me a big bottle. Man, I go jump
out of the truck, and that's what these guys are doing.
And the first pump, I was like, god, money, I said,
this crap is this tout? Yeah? Yeah, but I just
go out it man yourself in that deer pa and
I'm guging.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Well.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
It was diestrous. Later that I know all these dudes
are spraying with say killer man. I didn't know the difference,
you know, So that was a really rough lesson that day.
I was like, don't spread this crap on yourself. You
know what I mean, I was like, god man made
(41:29):
at home and I walked in. She said, how do
you get out? What is the smell? And I was like,
guess what they used? And she was like, nobody's using
that kind of crap? What's wrong with you? Anyways? You
know how to get rid of that thing? And I
was mimicking what I was watching the shows.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
So how long did you hunt for? You got a
deer hold on.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
It's been three years, so at this point you hunted
three long seasons, mimicking what they.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Do all bowl hunting.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Yeah on Iowa, Kansas, Illinois. Down here in Alabama, you're.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Taking those moves and you're hunting an Albanion.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
I mean, it's like Halloween and I'm entering rather than
they don't run into January. Right, never saw a thing
until finally I start seeing deer poop and I was
like at the time, I had the phone and I
was like, how those deer poop looks like? And I
was like, oh my god, I'm on And I was like,
I'm getting very close and never seeing the thing. So
(42:32):
I said, Rick, something's gonna have to change, man, I said,
do you remember mister Tony? He said, yeah, I said,
do you know if she still lives in there? He said,
I don't know. I said, I'm going to go. I
know the concrete, so I'm going to go find them.
He said, oh man, I'll go out there and look
(42:53):
at the house. Found the concrete and I said, that's him.
That's the house. Doesn't seem to be nobody. And I
said two things. Something is gonna happen. I'm gonna find
Tony or I'm gonna catch around. But you know, I'm
gonna fix it. A gay shot. Knock on the front door. Nobody,
and I was like, I remember we went on the back. Now.
(43:14):
I was just bracing myself for the impact, you know,
because it's the South, you know how it goes. And
then if you use the stereotypes, he has an accent,
he has the tears, you know what I mean. So
I said, here we go. I went back there, knocking
the door. Miss Donna comes out. She's like, can I
help you? And I was like, hello, Hey, do you
remember me? No, No, who are you? I said, it's
(43:38):
mister Tony Holmes. She said he's honey. He was back
later on, so I'll be back. I just went and
sat in the party for like six hours and then
I seen his stroke pull in. I said, all right,
here we go, pull back in. Man. He recognized me.
Oh hey, buddy, coming in. I remember, man, it's been
three years. Then I started talking with Tawny and he
(44:01):
realized that I was a grown man with the experience
of a three year old kid on the woods and
and he said, man, we got a lot of work
to do. We're gonna start from zero. I said, I
(44:21):
do you know your feet? Trees? And I was like
what is that? Do you know your seasons? The road
and I was like what is the road? Man? Feeding
wise and all that stuff. I ended up getting a
book that says Alabama plants and bushes, you know, like native,
just to get a better understanding of all the different species.
He was like, Okay, this is a white oak, this
(44:42):
is a red oak. I had no clue. And when
you know, whenever they get full of acorns, they're fixing
the drop and I was like, what they're going to drop?
He was like acrons and I was like what is
an acorn? He was like this and I was like,
what is it? There's gonna eat it. And the process
went like that. Next year, I'm sitting on this piece
of public first time ever a deer.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Well.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
I was climbing at the time. I was wearing a
steel climber by choice, because you golumb about one hundred
yards from the truck man circulations to your arms. Everything
is cut like this, everything is purple, you know what
I mean. It's so heavy and climb up and there
is a deer like I can actually see and it
(45:32):
has antlers. Man, So I never understood this by buck
fever Man, I thought I was having a heart attack,
Like I couldn't stop shaking. My blood pressure was up
to the roof, and I was like, oh my god,
this is it, this is it. And the thing comes
right in like textbook. I ain't no telling where I'll
send that error, man, there's no telling where that era
(45:56):
went to. That in takes up running and I was
like looking at the error and the deer just disappears
there he's went three years.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
How old are you now?
Speaker 2 (46:12):
I was like six, and I'm not gonna lie. I
cry like a kid that day because I was like,
this is what he said, like, this is what he
was like. He just came down to this moment.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
Tears of joy or frustration, frustration.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
And I was like, and I blew it. That guy
blew it out of the water. Well. I came home heartbroken,
told my wife I ain't never doing this again. Period.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
You're done.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
What happened? I said, I missed? Deer's in deer and
he had antlers and I missed. He said, well, just
try harder, and I was like, it's not that, is it?
Speaker 1 (46:57):
You know?
Speaker 2 (46:58):
She doesn't hunt. About three days later, I was off
the whole week. She says, so you're not going back
to the woods and I said.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
No, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
I'm done with that, never ever again. She said, just
go and walk and kind of clear your mind. Now.
She left the work in about twelve twelve thirty. I said,
you know what, She's right, I'm just going to go
for a walk. So I went back to the place
(47:29):
where I missed. Look up and I was like about
to cry again. I was like, I'm right here, walking
about one hundred yards south, sat on the ground.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
How far was that shot that you missed?
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Thirteen or fourteen yards? Like he was right there? And
I had a ready sure, man, we've all been there. Man,
you don't need to be Costa Rican the miss man.
We've also missed all kinds of stuff. Oh yeah, And
I sat on the ground that that evening. I says,
screw it, I'm just going to sit here for the evening.
(48:03):
And I remember this like if it was yesterday. Man
had a street stumped behind me, a lug and a
previous head. I'm just pretty much in the same position
that I'm at right now, looking at it was a trail,
but I have no idea that it was a trail
that was the opening right here. So I was sitting
here with a little bit of sand and stick, just
(48:24):
kind of like making the time go a little bit faster.
Next thing I know, I heard some footsteps and I said,
I said, squirrel. And I look up and the same book,
the small a pointer is walking my way. So I
was like, dude, and well, I'm on panic mode. I
cannot get my release on the boat. I'm shaking so
(48:47):
bout I'm having a sei shure attack man. And I'm
on the ground, yes, seating, And next thing I know,
that book is right there, Man like right there just
looking at me.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
But how far ten twelve again dodging around?
Speaker 2 (49:00):
Yeah, Bob in his head like, what is that thing?
Speaker 1 (49:02):
Man?
Speaker 2 (49:02):
I don't remember seeing the peep side. I don't remember
am I just know I did this and I heard
that tump boom that thing mume kicks stakes up running
and I thought that I seen him pile up because
I seen him come like going, and I was like,
oh my god. Now panic set seen because I was like,
they're gonna find us both dead right here, like I'm
(49:24):
facing to have a heart attack, you know what I mean.
Settled myself down a little bit, went to the air man.
The errors covered up with blood, and I said, I
gotta get out of here now. So I got out.
Called my wife and I was like, honey, I killed him.
Instead of being supportive, She's like, are you sure like
you like you kill him like you didn't miss like
(49:45):
last time. And she got on my head back man,
and I was like, you know what, she She might
have been right. I could have just spooked him. I
don't even know if I hit him, man. Man, talk
about a pickle. You know. Well, at the time, I
didn't have ONIX. The only light that I have was
(50:08):
my cell phone. So I'm trying to find this stump.
It's already dark and I'm trying to find the stump
where I was sitting to go look for my arrow,
to try to find that.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
You can't even remember where you were alone, I have
no clue.
Speaker 2 (50:24):
About two hours go by, I was like, right here
there it is. The air was torching blood. I was like,
oh my god, I hit the thing. I hit him,
and man, I keep looking and look, well there was
a blood trail about this big and I just keep
walking over and never saw it. You know, I was
about to start crying again. Next thing, you know, that
buck was like maybe from here to where real was at? Yeah,
(50:50):
and I lost my mind dragging him out. The first
thing that they went to Tony's house. He was so pumped
about it. Man, you take the buck and showed him. Yeah,
he was like, it's nothing but a small two and
a half year old a point basket, a pointer. I
showed them mound that book. I swear to God because
(51:11):
it was is the first deer that I ever shot
in my life and it was a buck. So I
showed him A guy him out end of the house.
And after that, you know, the processes start getting better.
Now I'm hooked birth man, Yes, but but this is
like I don't like I was able to taste it,
(51:31):
you know, what I mean?
Speaker 1 (51:33):
And did you just get your You got your biggest buck.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
To date this year day before Christmas.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
I'm public laying here. The first one I got home
day before Christmas, so you got no I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
Day before Thanksgiving this year. The biggest book ever of
my life happened in Halloween. And literally, I know, three
weeks later I was gonna kill the biggest buck ever.
You know, I broke my pebe and freaking said like
that two times.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
This is both on public ground.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
Yes this picture, yeah sure, And I'm going to show
you the one that I killed the day before Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (52:09):
So this is the second biggest bug.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
I was like a man, you ain't never gonna make
this happen again. And uh, next thing, you know, this
hold on this one is there? It is.
Speaker 1 (52:24):
Holy cow man.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
Yeah man, that's Alabama public book guys in Alabama public land. Giant.
Look look at the one right here here.
Speaker 1 (52:37):
We even filmed that with your camera.
Speaker 2 (52:39):
Look the inside is spread of that thing.
Speaker 3 (52:42):
How how wide is it?
Speaker 2 (52:44):
Nineteen and a half.
Speaker 1 (52:45):
That's a cool picture. Filming out with your camera. Even
you want to film something, you're getting a good shot
of it. Dude. You know what I like about all that.
I mean, I like everything about that story. But the
biggest thing is this is an observation I make all
the time. And I've mentioned a bunch. It doesn't matter
(53:08):
where you go in the country, and me and Jani
eve been fortunate to go everywhere, all over the place
talking to guys that hunt, talking to guys of fish
everywhere around the country. Everywhere you go, there's two kinds
of guys, and man, they live next door to each other.
There's the guys that like it all sucks now. Fishing
(53:29):
game ruined it, the mung ruined it, the wolves ruined it,
the out of staters ruined it. It all sucks right,
And next door to him everywhere you go in the
country is the guy that can't scratch the surface. There's
(53:50):
so much to do and he's so excited to be
alive and he can't get to it all. And you're
that guy.
Speaker 2 (53:57):
I appreciate it. I like that. The crazy thing is
that you know, after well, mister Tunny introduced me with
mister Michael Perry, mister Jamie McKay, and the ball keeps
on rolling, Parking McDonald, then Williams and everybody just started
like pitching in, you know, to educate you, to educate, Yes,
(54:17):
And I started learning from all these killers. Man, Like
everybody's like, I'm doing good this lesson that mister Tony
taught me, and I think it was the most valuable
thing that he could said to me. He was, you
got to put some deer under your belt. Don't think
that you're gonna just go out there and shoot one
(54:38):
of these.
Speaker 1 (54:38):
Just get it figured out.
Speaker 2 (54:39):
Yes, I said, I'm so. I kill a bunch of spikes,
a bunch of them and those and four pointers, and
just keep shooting with my boat with the rifle. If
it was legal, I was shooting it just to learn, yes.
And he was like, eventually he's gonna click.
Speaker 1 (55:00):
Well.
Speaker 2 (55:00):
I had several encounters with really big dear. Couldn't take
a shot, got busted five years ago Christmas going to
be five years ago. Put a shot on that monster
with my bow. He was running, man, and I hit
him a little too far back. I couldn't stop it.
I was like, man, man, man, man, we got dogs
(55:21):
that I was shut him at by nine o'clock in
the morning. It was like four o'clock in the morning
next day.
Speaker 1 (55:27):
Never found him.
Speaker 2 (55:28):
Never man. The blood went dry and heartbreaker. But it
was incredible. It was one of the best moments ever
because I was like, good, that confirms, you know that
what I'm learning and the process that I've been following
is actually paying off. Now now I took like put
a step inside of what these guys do, you know,
(55:49):
Like I had an encounter and it's really good that
I have this experience because now I can relate with
them because this will happen, and He's going to happen.
You know, I think that killing that deer would have
steered me on the wrong direction. I could have got cocky.
Oh I don't got it all figured out?
Speaker 1 (56:10):
Oh gotcha?
Speaker 2 (56:11):
I did just killed and all. You know what I mean.
So it was a very humbling experience. There's a lot
more work to do, and it has to start with
myself practicing throughout the whole year. Then well, one of
those days with Daniel racking my mom, they gave me
my first rifle ever in my life ever, never own
(56:34):
one of arm. It's a thirty or six Remington seventy
seven thirty or six. Then throughout the years, I've been
having issues missing, you know, so I was like kind
of weird. Then Daniels said, like, when was the last
time you side this thing in?
Speaker 1 (56:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (56:50):
And I was like, what what do you mean signing
litter that? I know? You know you gotta take this
character range And I have no clue. I thought they
just go out there.
Speaker 1 (57:01):
It was it was brought to you with the scope
on it.
Speaker 2 (57:03):
Yeah, And I just thought that you put that cross
where he's at. And because man, I had a dough,
I hit it boom and she hunched over and I
went crazy, and man, and it looked like a battle.
Feel like they're just blowing all over her. You know,
she was kind of like helping around. I just keep shooting,
reloading four more shots in the magazine. I end up
(57:24):
enting twelve shots that day. And I was like, what's
going on? I bet everybody in that public piece was like,
what's going on in the hall or you know? And yeah,
to make it short, man, I never found it dough
never did you know?
Speaker 1 (57:41):
I learned your lesson there too.
Speaker 2 (57:43):
Yeah, that's I said, Daniel. He said what happened? And
I said, I'm means And then that's when he brought
up like, when was the last time you saw this thing?
So what're me in? He's like you shot at our target,
say a deer. He's like, wait, like eight targeting and
say I never, like I just due can wing honting.
(58:05):
He was like, oh my god, no, man, it was
like your typical goodwill twenty nine ninety nine dollars is cope.
You know you got to try to like you just
spend five minutes trying to find the thing and finally
you find it. He looks awful. Yeah, I thought that's
what he was. And it was pretty funny. It was
(58:25):
a very fun experience.
Speaker 1 (58:27):
Well, Papa, listen, man, we got to get ready for
the show. This is awesome to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (58:30):
Though, I know, man, is that this is a very
unique opportunity. I really appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1 (58:35):
I'd like to have you on to tell more of
the hunting stories. But that's a good background prime right there.
Speaker 3 (58:39):
Definitely, the enthusiasm is both like jealousy inducing and motivating.
You know, appreciate it because I think part of the
thing that we sometimes battle, at least I do, is
because we get to do it so much. I sometimes
find myself like I'm like I should be more excited
in this moment. I just got to kill an other
(59:00):
beautiful mule deer buck in the mountains of whatever Western state. Man, man,
And I'm here in the moment, but like, I don't
have the enthusiasm that you're experiencing for shooting spikes and dose.
Speaker 2 (59:12):
Man, I get it with a dough like as we speak.
I get lacer sharp on the moment as soon as
that arrow or that bullet leaves. It's like a dumb
But I don't know how. And this, oh man, uh,
this been the best season ever. Two bucks out of state.
I gotta give a shot to Clay really quick. Gave
(59:35):
me his bebs, got clays newcomes bebes. They didn't even
wash them as I ain't even gonna wash them because
it got Clay's look.
Speaker 1 (59:44):
Put him on.
Speaker 2 (59:46):
Went to Kansas by myself. Just jump on my truck
and drop shot a buck. Color friend. They're like a man, nice,
We're heading to Missouri, I said, can I join? Yeah?
Went down to Missouri, shot a buck the still with
my boat, came home and shot to one of them
being that bay when the riba was showing y'all with
(01:00:07):
with all of them with Kay's beebe son excellent. Man
has something you know, I've never been supertitious, but.
Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
This I might have to get a parent. I want,
I want to welcome you to America.
Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Man.
Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
Thank you, man, welcome to me in your life. Thank
you all.
Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
I appreciate y'all. Thank you. How A good one
Host
Steven Rinella
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