December 9, 2025 • 54 mins
In this episode, Ryan sits down with elk addict and Florida resident Scott Dunton to explore what it takes to build a western hunting lifestyle while living at sea level, working a demanding medical career, and managing type 1 diabetes. Scott opens with the contrast of his South Florida routine hunting invasive iguanas with a blowgun in his neighborhood before shifting into his annual migrations west to Montana and Wyoming. He recounts a brutal archery hunt in Montana’s Crazy Mountains, where he tagged a 6x6 bull on day one and immediately stepped into one of the hardest pack-outs of his life. From there, he and his buddy moved into Wyoming’s Bighorns on a rare once-in-two-decades tag, chasing a 360–370 class bull above timberline through miles of rugged country.
But the hunt took a shocking turn when their camp was raided in the middle of the night bows sabotaged, gear stolen, and their sense of safety shattered. Scott shares the psychological toll of knowing people, not predators, had been just feet from their tents, and how anti-hunter hostility has changed the way he thinks about backcountry safety. Still, the trip wasn’t lost; help from the folks at Paint Rock Lodge turned a nightmare into new friendships. The conversation closes with Scott’s gratitude for his father’s mentorship, why sharing meat matters more than antlers, stories from his spot-and-stalk bear and pig hunts, taking his 12-year-old daughter on her first whitetail hunt, and his best advice for newer hunters still trying to notch their first tag.
Key Takeaways
- Invasive species offer real hunting opportunities: Florida’s iguanas give Scott a year-round “mini-hunt” lifestyle and keep his skills sharp.
- The Crazy Mountains are unforgiving: Montana tested him with brutal terrain, deadfall, and a punishing pack-out after tagging his bull.
- Camp theft & anti-hunters are a real concern: Having bows cut and gear stolen in Wyoming did more psychological damage than physical—reminding hunters to stay vigilant.
- Hunting with health challenges is possible: As a type 1 diabetic, Scott proves that preparation and discipline can overcome serious obstacles in the backcountry.
- Mentorship accelerates success: His father’s guidance—slow down, glass more, read sign—has shaped almost every win in his elk-hunting journey.
- The real trophy is sharing meat: Giving elk steaks and jerky to friends and coworkers is one of Scott’s favorite parts of the hunt.
- Go “one more ridge”: When you’re ready to turn back, push farther. Most hunters won’t—and that’s why you’ll find elk.
Follow Scott Dunton: Instagram
Discount Codes:
- BSN KNG 10% OFF Promo Code: STEALTH
- BLK FLG 20% OFF Promo Code: STEALTH
- Muley Maniac’s 20% OFF Promo Code: STEALTH
- Sheepfeet 20% OFF Promo Code: STEALTH
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You're listening to the Hunt Stealth Podcast with Ryan
Uffins, the podcast where we dive head first into the wild,
whether you're an aspiring hunter or an adventurer seeking
the untamed. Together, we'll explore the
strategies and stories that leadto success in the great
outdoors. Hey guys, welcome to another
(00:22):
episode of the Hunt Stealth Podcast.
I am your host, Ryan Uffins. I'm excited to have Scott Dunton
on the podcast today. Scott, thanks for joining me,
man. Yeah, for sure.
Thanks for having me. So we we talked a little bit
last week and tell me, how did that iguana kill count go for
you? I.
(00:42):
Was actually just outside tryingto get this other one.
It it's so crazy to me. You know I I love hunting elk
and deer, but here in Florida itseems like the only thing that I
can constantly hunt is iguanas with a blow gun.
I feel like Cold Steel has definitely changed my life in
Florida. So for people that aren't
familiar with what's going on, tell people briefly why why
(01:05):
there's like free range on iguanas down there.
I don't know when they came overbut they're considered an
invasive species. And I mean I can shoot probably
20 a day in my neighborhood withwith a blow dirt gun.
People hunting with BB guns, pellet guns, bows.
I've shot him with just about everything that you can legally
(01:27):
shoot him with, but bloatdard gun seems to be the method of
choice in my house I think. Remember, my family has a
bloatdard gun. Knocking him down.
So. So you're in Florida.
Have you lived there your entirelife?
No, I moved here about 10-10 years ago with my ex-wife.
(01:50):
Long story there but have two kids with my ex-wife and kind of
got me stuck in Florida for a while so just making the best of
it. Hunting, diving, went to school
out here, so that made it a little bit easier.
And then I just work and fly outto Wyoming or Montana whenever I
(02:11):
can to get some topography in mylife.
OK, what do you do for work? I do anesthesia.
I got my doctorate in anesthesiaabout two years ago.
I finished school and work at a hospital here with a great group
of people and it's me, the opportunity to get out, get out
West a lot. That's awesome.
(02:33):
That's awesome. What have you been out here this
year hunting anything? Yeah, I was out there.
The flew out September 7th through October 1st, so just shy
of a month haunted about 10 daysin Montana.
We ended the crazy mountain range and then drew a really
good tag with one of my buddies in Wyoming at the Big Horns.
(02:57):
OK, right on. So you guys had a good time?
Yeah, got got lucky on the actually the first day in the
crazies and got a nice 6 by 6 bowl.
And then my buddies and I had tried to get them on on a bowl
but we ended up knocking down a couple bucks too.
So it was nice to get some mule deer in the in the cooler and
(03:18):
headed down to Wyoming after that.
So, so tell me a little bit. So the the elk that you got,
tell me how that transpired? Well, if anybody's haunted the
crazy mountain range in Montana,that is borderline the toughest
(03:38):
hunt I've ever done in my life. I mean the the elevation changes
there are insane and we've neverhaunted there.
I've haunted Montana for probably the last 12 years,
archery elk and always done really good, had amazing hunts,
have some really good friends out there and we share a lot of
(04:01):
waypoints. And my buddy was like you guys
should try the crazies and I wasdown.
So we flew in to Billings, drovestraight to the crazies.
We got there after sunset and hiked in in the dark to a
waypoint that my buddy had dropped for us as like a good
idea to a camp spot and it made part of Oregon look peaceful as
(04:27):
far as downfalls go or dead falls go.
I I probably took us on some terrible shortcuts that I
shouldn't have. But my two friends, Brad and
Craig, We got into camp, set up camping the 1st morning I wanted
to go check out this spring downthe bottom of this Canyon.
And my buddy Craig decided to sit on the spring And Brad and I
(04:50):
were going to go up around the top of this mountain And we
split up right towards the top. And I heard something coming up
the hill behind me from the spring.
And I thought it was my friend Craig.
And I started talking, you know,in my head about him.
I'm like, he didn't even make it20 minutes at the spring and
you're already coming back up. And I turned around and it was
actually a bowl that I don't know if he had spooked or but it
(05:13):
didn't. It was just literally cruising
up the trail 35 yards behind me and took a couple steps off the
trail to go off to the other side and it had no idea I was
there. And I, I don't really get bull
fever anymore. And I'll tell you what, I was
shaking. I was sitting right there and I
was, I was so not ready for it to be there and got really lucky
(05:36):
and got a good shot on him and he went down a couple 100 yards
back down the trail towards my buddy and we started the most
miserable Portage of trips out of the mountains I think I've
ever had. I want to tell you about Bison
King. It's the jerky I keep in my
truck, in my pack, and in my studio.
It's 100% American raised bisonsfor us from ranchers who
(05:59):
actually care about responsible meat production.
Every batch is handcrafted and done in small runs so it tastes
fresh every time. They come in big 5 oz bags with
three flavors to choose from. Teriyaki, it's the tender crowd
favorite, peppered for that boldbite.
And bison and salt. Just two clean ingredients for
those who want clean protein to power their day.
(06:20):
Why bison jerky? It gives you more protein per oz
than beef jerky. It's leaner and more nutrient
dense to fuel your day. And hey, since your wives are
always texting us links what they want for Christmas, send a
stocking stuffer idea back. Visit bisonking.com and save 10%
with code stealth. Again, that's bisonking.com code
stealth to save 10%. Bison King fuel made for those
(06:42):
who stand tall, charge hard and rule the wild, right.
There and I was. I was so not ready for it to be
there and got really lucky and got a good shot on him and he
went down a couple 100 yards back down the trail towards my
buddy and we started the most miserable poor Taj of trips out
(07:02):
of the mountains I think I've ever had.
What do you do? I mean, I, I talked to a lot of
guys because people that come out and start hunting in the
West, like trying to get ready for it.
There's, I've had a couple guys from Florida, they're like, it's
hard to like prepare physically and mentally for what you go
through and like you're dealing with a ton of deadfall like that
wears on you. I'm guessing you didn't take the
(07:24):
shortcuts out. No, we didn't and it just it
does wears on your it's more like just a mind game you start.
It's funny because on one of thepoor Tajes, my buddy, I went
back for the last load and I found a dead head of a moose and
I was like, oh, this thing's awesome.
I strap it to my pack and I had a hind quarter in my pack
(07:47):
already and I strap it to my pack and start going over these
dead falls. And I sat down for a second and
of course that skull got stuck on the limb behind me and I
ended up like a turtle on my back, like stuck.
I remember just ripping this moose head off and throwing.
I was like, I'll drop a pin if anybody wants it, but if this
thing's not making it with me, Ijust had like a mental
(08:07):
breakdown. It was tough.
But as far as training goes, to be honest, I, I don't really do
any physical training and that might bite me in the butt
sometimes out there. I mean, I know, well, most
people know that anesthesia is kind of just known for their
appreciation of chairs, I guess.And my buddy Brad that that I
(08:30):
hunt with, he's a firefighter down in Miami and he would send
me videos of him wearing like his, his 6200 loaded with like
weight packs and he's on a stairstepper at a micro.
You understand all you're doing is training to leave me behind
'cause I'm not not pushing it that way.
But I think the goal or the as soon as my mind knows there's
(08:55):
elk somewhere. You really couldn't, couldn't
slow me down or stop me. You're one of those guys, huh?
It just, it just has a motor in them that can just go.
No, yeah, I, I know a couple guys like that.
I go out there with them and I'mlike, what did you do?
And they're like nothing. And I'm going Judas Priest, man.
Like I, I, I, I trained, I did rocks, I did all sorts of stuff.
(09:18):
And, and that's fun, you know, to get out there and get after
it. It would be nice to, I mean, I
enjoy the training aspect of it,but it's fun that you're able to
get out there and, and get afterit.
So you guys so up in Montana as you get your, you get your buck
or your bowl down and then you said you guys were able to get a
couple bucks up there as well. Yeah, we we'd all drawn the big
(09:40):
game combo tag for Montana, so my buddy Craig and Brad both
shot some nice mule deer bucks. I was kind of in this mission of
I felt a little bit bad that I was the only one that's ever
shot a bowl before. And I was telling both of them,
I'm like, I got us in Montana. We get, we get out there and
(10:01):
I'll, I'll put you guys on some bowls and literally no one else
saw a bowl for like the first three days.
And I remember just sitting there feeling so guilty at camp.
Like I wish, I wish I wouldn't have told them we should all
split up and and go around different edges of this mountain
because I didn't want to be the first one and especially not the
only one to shoot a bull out there.
So. Was that day one too?
(10:22):
Was day one morning one right out of camp.
I never felt bad after shooting a bull and I felt bad.
These guys instantly went into for Taji and this all this meat
out of the out of the Canyon forthe next day and 1/2 and was
just like then we didn't see anything else in Montana and we
(10:43):
met some really great people up there though, and I'll tell you
how bad that hike out was when we were hiking the meat out, we
got to the trail and it we're only about maybe a mile from the
truck and I paid a guy $100 to take my pack full of meat to the
trailhead a mile away on his on his sidebar his four Wheeler
because I just couldn't do it anymore.
(11:03):
We are so dead. That was definitely the toughest
experience I've had hiking out meat.
So you bumped into somebody up there with a quad?
Yeah, which it was so funny 'cause this guy, we were
talking, you know, the three of us as were walking and all kind
of just giving each other a hardtime.
And we run into this guy and, well, we heard a quad coming
(11:25):
down the trail and me with my full pack started literally just
running. Like I was like, we gotta catch
this guy. I've, I've got some cash.
I don't care what it costs whileI'm not carrying this thing.
And he ended up being like one of the nicest guys from, I think
it was South Dakota. And he's a firefighter.
And Long story short, knows a lot of people that my buddy Brad
(11:46):
knew and but he let me give him 100 bucks to take the pack out
that's for sure. Sweet, that's not a bad deal.
No, no, I would have paid 5. Well, that's fun.
So then you guys went down to Wyoming?
Yeah, my, my buddy Craig had to go back to Florida, so we
(12:06):
dropped him off in Billings and I'd scouted the the Big Horns.
My dad and I haunted it when I was younger a couple times and
he was actually up there the daybefore we got there and Brad and
I just bombed straight down. It was like 6 hours.
We dropped off the bull to my dad's wife and Cody and then
(12:28):
drove up into the big horns And the 1st morning we were there we
spotted amazing lookout place and we spotted this bull up on
the mountain and it was funny because he was so far away.
It was probably 4 miles out and he was at like 1212 thousand
feet is what we're guessing on using Onyx.
(12:50):
And we're at 9 where our camp was.
And I remember seeing this bowl and being like, we have to try
and go for him at least once. It might not be day one.
Maybe we need a day or two just to hang out at camp.
But this bowl had like 30 cows and I remember talking with Brad
and being like it, it's going tobe 1 hell of a hike.
But I think we should go at least once.
(13:11):
And we ended up going after thatbowl like 6 days in a row,
hiking, hiking up there every day 'cause he was so good, but I
just couldn't get him. There were a lot of days I
didn't even bring my bow 'cause I was trying to get him close to
Brad. And are you?
Calling him. Yeah, I was bugling the I got
into, I would say I hate that saying of like it's, it's not
(13:34):
all about killing an elk. Cause to me, 99% of it's about
killing an elk. That's, that's what puts the
meat in the freezer and makes, you know, feeds all your friends
and family. But if you could get as close to
killing an elk without doing it and enjoy the experience, that's
how it was for me. My buddy Brad was 120 yards from
(13:57):
this bowl and I bugled so many times back and forth with it,
but I had a sore throat the nextday.
Like I bet you I bugled 60 times.
I would cut him off and he wouldcut me off.
But we were just we were above the tree line and there was
nothing in between us. Like you couldn't find a a 12
(14:17):
inch rock. So it's just I was hiding on the
other side of this draw and I couldn't get him any closer.
It was. He just didn't care enough to
engage to leave his cows. Yeah.
That was kind of my experience where where we were hunting, we
could get them, they talked to us, but we could not get them to
engage. The one day that I think we
(14:38):
could have got him, there was a satellite that, that he was
chasing around and, and trying to fight off.
And we got all the way up there and literally we're, we're
probably 400 yards away and we're watching, I'm waiting for
the, the evening time. So the winds would switch and a
guy and well, like 3 guys on horseback come riding down over
(15:01):
the mountain right through him and blow everything out of the
country. And I was, I think I had some
words for the, for the guy on the horse, but that I think that
would have been our only chance 'cause he just didn't have,
there was no pressure. So he couldn't see me bugle in.
He'd come to the edge and look, but he, he didn't really have a
(15:23):
reason to leave those cows. And I felt terrible that I
couldn't get my buddy on it 'cause he was a trophy for sure.
That's awesome. Yeah.
It's it's kind of like that, youknow, Catch 22, you're out
there, you enjoy the experience.And I mean, at least for me,
like I've yet to arrow, you know, any big game animal.
(15:43):
And the one time that I could this year, it didn't have the
tag bold comes over this Ridge comes right up to me, like
probably like 10 feet from me looking at me and I'm going.
I just smoked him. I mean, he was he was a little 5
by 5, but he little by me. He was young.
(16:04):
But for me, like where I'm just going like, I just want to kill
something like I I just smoked him instead.
He just looks at me and he's like, I just ran all the way
over this Ridge back down into this Canyon.
And now he's sitting there looking at me going like I you
got to be kidding me. He like blows back down the
Canyon. And that was early.
(16:24):
That was that was in I was like end of August.
So like they weren't. I mean, you could bugle, but.
They. Weren't given 2 rips less about
you? Yeah, we had we had such amazing
experiences with him and I'd just getting to bugle with him
like that and and put my buddy on one thinking because for a
(16:47):
while I couldn't even see him. And I'm seeing this bull get
closer. And every time he'd bugle, I'd
cut him off and then he'd started like getting that deeper
growl bugles. And I was like, oh, he's fired
up, he's coming. And then he I'm like waiting,
waiting, waiting till dark. I see my buddy coming back and
he was just like, Mike, did you shoot him?
Did you shoot him? And he's like, dude, like he
(17:07):
never moved. He never came a little bit
further. I'm like, he's like, the only
thing I could see when he did hit 100 yards was his antler.
I was like, you should have shothim in the antler.
Like, what do you mean you didn't shoot him?
But it was tough. I mean, we saw some smaller
bulls and my buddy is so keen toshoot a bull that he's like, oh,
I would have shot that one. I was like, well that one up on
the mountain, like I probably would have shoulder mounted for
(17:30):
my wall. I bet you he was 36370.
Like he was just he was a stud and we haunted him hard.
But then, you know, I was telling you about all that drama
that we had up. There, let's get into some of
that. We so we are, we are haunted
that bull and round trip. I think that day we haunted, we
(17:51):
hiked like 12 miles because we got all the way up on top.
Then I decided we should go around this other side and we,
we ended up on like one of thosePeruvian death marches to get
back to, to the truck and we hadrented a, a Turo or on Turo like
a, a Jeep, just a normal 4 door Jeep.
(18:11):
And we get back to the trailheadand load up the Jeep.
And I was like, let's just go set up.
I know the spot right down the road when my dad and I camped,
you know, 15 years ago. That's it's got a great water
source right behind it will be golden what we got in the Jeep
and we start driving and you know, you're 35 miles in on a
dirt road and maybe a mile, halfmile from the trailhead walking
(18:36):
down this dirt Rd. It gives me goosebumps, a
chicken skin. Just just telling you the story.
There's a woman walking in a white dress dead center down the
road walking away from us. And I was like this, this is the
weirdest thing, you know, like we're cruising up behind her and
is Brad and I are talking and he's like, I don't, I don't know
(18:59):
if you should stop. My pistol's in the back.
And I was like, my pistol's in the back too.
And I was like, well, slow down.So I slowed way down and she had
a scarf and she like turns away from us towards the trees and
like kind of ducks towards into the trees.
And I was like, well, she doesn't seem to need help or
want to talk to us. So we just kept going.
And we we're end up camping at that spot about, I don't know,
(19:21):
maybe a mile and a half, two miles further down the road.
And we were talking about it like it was just so weird to see
a woman walking all by herself, let alone in a white dress at
you know, it's probably like 9:00 at night, just pitch black
in the mountains. And we eat our meals and get
ready to go to bed. And my buddy Brad comes walking
(19:42):
up to me and he's got my 10 mil in his hand.
He's like, Scott, sleep with this tonight.
I got a bad feeling about that Lady.
I was like, that's funny becauseit's the Big horns were like
such a relaxing time to me, 'cause I felt so comfortable
being up there so many years in a row.
And I wasn't worried about Grizzlies like Montana.
(20:02):
You sleep with your pistol on you the whole time.
And so I've been leaving it in my vinyl harness off to the
side. And he handed me my pistol and I
was like, I guess I'll, I guess I'll sleep with this thing.
So we're, I was sleeping in the Haven tent and I put it on that
thing above your head. You know that little and.
(20:24):
Right when we're going to sleep,he locked the car and it set off
the car alarm. And so I laughed, You know,
we're laughing. And the car was pointed like
it's probably 15 feet from whereour tents were, our hammocks.
And I talked a little, you know,shit to him about that.
We go to bed and then I wake up at like 11:30.
(20:47):
So it's only 2 1/2 hours later to the car alarm going off, the
headlights are flashing. So it's like it seemed like a
war scene to me. And I hear my mummy Brad yelling
my name and he's yelling they'rerobbing us.
And I was like it kind of like so tired from hiking all day and
you're like took me a second andhe's he's like literally
(21:09):
screaming my name. So I come out of my haven in
like boxers and A10 mil and I see two people running every
door on our car's open. The lights are on in it, the
headlights are flashed and the horns honk in and my buddy's
like crawling in the dirt comingback and he's like, they're
(21:31):
they're robbing us. They stole all our shit.
And out of instinct, I'd sent A10 mil round off like maybe 20
feet above what I would call head height.
It's because I'd have a hard time shooting someone in the
back, you know, running away. Like, that's just something, if
they were in the camp, you know,it'd be a different story.
But they were definitely fleeing.
(21:52):
But I thought, send a round off,let him hear the gun.
And then maybe it gives us time to, you know, figure out what's
happening. Gather yourselves.
Yeah, and my buddy had, he said he heard someone talking, but he
wasn't sure if he was like dreaming or not 'cause when he
woke up, he's like, it stopped and he's like, I couldn't figure
it out. Like I was like thought I heard
(22:13):
people talking. But then I unzipped, he unzipped
his hammock and got out and they, they took off running and
damn if they didn't steal just about everything out of our car.
And they ended up had they cut all our bow strings.
So they cut all the bow strings and the cables on our bows,
which ruined his bow. I have a Hoyt RX7 and they, they
(22:38):
didn't get my cables, but they got the main string.
So when I shot it turns out theywere, they were running across
this like, I don't know, maybe 50 yard wide pasture to where
the road was and there was a carwaiting for it.
So they'd cut the strings. And I don't know if it was
(22:58):
because when we talked to the game warden and a couple people
up there who said there's some anti hunters that are up in that
area and they like to mess with hunter stuff.
But I don't know if it was that or if they were both or they
were pissed off that both of us shoot left-handed bows.
Like maybe they were gonna stealour bows and they were like,
(23:19):
both these guys are left-handed.So they ended up just cutting
our cables, our strings and, andthrowing them on the road 'cause
we didn't we've, we realized allthe stuff was gone.
And then when we were starting to leave to chase them and see
if we can catch up to them in our Jeep, we saw the bows right
by the road. So they had thrown them before
they got in their car or I don'tknow if it was the gunshot that
(23:41):
that scared them enough to throwthe bows and take off running.
But we end up losing bows, a lotof our gear and like 3 days
worth of time because we had to drive all the way back to Cody
to get some new bows and get some strings and get all set up
again. Which, but I'll tell you what it
was, it was more rough on, I think just your mind space to
(24:06):
know that there were people like10 feet away just rummaging
through your stuff and. Just don't give a shit.
Yeah, it was. It was weird.
I had, I had a hard time though,even the rest of the we went
back to my dad's house and got new bows and got all hooked up
with the people that Rocky Mountain Sports and Cody.
They took care of us amazingly, but when we got back up into the
(24:30):
mountains, I'd I couldn't sleep.I'll tell you what, I'd woke up
like every you'd hear a stick break and normally in your mind
you're like, oh, it's a deer. You know, you could hear like
little, little things and up there the whole time I wasn't
ever thinking, Oh, it's a bear like you did in Montana.
But then you're like, you pull your pistol out in the middle of
the night for like what might have just been an acorn falling
(24:51):
because all of a sudden I'm like, they're back.
People are robbing us again. Like there's a big mind.
It's. You feel violated, right?
And when you come in and you can't, you can't trust your
surroundings. Like you said, you grew up up
there going with your dad, superfamiliar surroundings.
And then all of a sudden that's changed.
So did they break windows or were they with?
(25:14):
What they did was they popped I,I think personally, because they
didn't break any windows. And I know that he locked the
car because he set the car alarmoff trying to do it before he
went to bed. And they popped that back window
open on the Jeep. And I think it's because you
can, you could wiggle that thingenough to to pop the back open.
But I mean, they, they had pulled everything out of that
(25:37):
Jeep and it, it blew my mind that I was 15 feet away and
these people just. I mean, you got to think
everyone up in those mountains has a gun on them and they
didn't care. Yeah.
If they've been rough and the thing that I was most bummed
about was well, our bows was tough because I mean, that's a
(26:00):
18 and now it's a 19 preference point tag.
So we only had limited days up there anyways.
And now I'm not going to draw that tag again in my life.
Are you kidding me? Sucked to lose a third of the
time that we had hunting to having to go into town to get
new bows. But.
Well, and the thing, the thing that these if it was anti
(26:22):
hunters or, I don't know, maybe it's like the Blair Witch
Project or some shit like that where you you've got some
crazies out there. But but yeah, you go, you go
into a camp and start like stealing shit.
Like, yeah, you're, you're asking, you're asking for it.
Especially up there with hunters, like you said, like
pretty much everybody up there has got a gun on them and to go
(26:46):
into camp. They, I feel bad for whoever
tries that at my camp because I just don't sleep.
Like I do not sleep at all when we're up there.
So it's like I end up going out.We, you know, we hike in then I
sleep during the day while I'm waiting for, you know, the
evening stuff to start. But at night, for whatever
(27:06):
reason, like it doesn't matter the set up, if, if I'm in a
tent, if I'm on a COD, if I'm, you know, in a trailer, like I
just for whatever, it's miserable, 'cause it's like day
four and I'm like, I would love to sleep again, you know, at
night. But but yeah, so, so that you
never found anything on them. So they, they did get away with
(27:26):
gear. They cut your strings.
Yep. And I mean, there's only one Rd.
in, but it's it, like I said, it's 35 miles and it's a, a
rough dirt Rd. But I think we followed the
tracks for a while and I, I literally think they just flew
down the mountain because by thetime we got all our stuff, I
mean, we didn't want to just leave everything we had there
(27:48):
because then you don't know if someone else is coming back if
you leave all your shit to chaseafter him.
Yeah, if they left with somebodybehind.
Yeah, so we loaded up all our stuff into the into the Jeep and
took off. And by the time you got all the
way down there to where you had cell phone service, you know, we
call the sheriff and he's like, well, did you guys get a plate?
And, you know, you say some smart remark because there's no
(28:10):
way. And it was kind of like the end
of it. They're like, that's that's
probably what it was. We get a lot of people up here
slashing tires and spray painting on people's cars and
they're anti hunters. And I'm like, man, the one thing
I was mad about though was I've had, I know it seems stupid, but
I've had this leather belt sinceI was 16 years old.
(28:31):
And I'm like, so it dawned on melike the next day that that was
gone. And I was telling my buddy Brad,
as we're driving back up there, I'm like, look it, if we stop
and we talk to people, you see anybody with my belt just know
that we're, we're putting hands down like there's someone's
life's about to change if we seesomeone wearing this belt.
(28:52):
And we actually got all the way back up there and I found my
belt laying in this field. Not it, it made it OK for me.
Like there's one thing like a sentimental thing I've had in my
whole life, like it's been on every L cunt.
I've used to carry bulls heads out like I was like that that
belt means something. And but I remember I was texting
(29:13):
with my fiance afterwards and she's like, I'm so thankful that
you found your belt and you didn't find it on someone
because I think I was more worried about you catching some
sort of felony chart, what you did.
I just thought like. Having to get bailed out of
jail. Yeah, it would have.
It would have been rough, but wewe made the best of it.
We've got back up there. We had, we didn't get a bowl for
(29:36):
Brad, but we did have a good hunt.
And I spent the rest of the timenot sleeping at night.
And we, we, we made the best of it.
I made an amazing friend up there at Paint Rock Outfitters.
There's a guy, a guy named Joe that we met and who actually
runs the lodge up there on in the Big Horns and just turned
(29:59):
out to be one of the nicest guysof all time.
And the last night we were there, he's like, let us stay at
the lodge and cook dinner and just, you know, sometimes you,
you go through some shit, but then it turns out you meet some
really cool people on the other side of it and.
There's some, there's some shitty people in the world and
then there's some good people that just like give you hope for
(30:20):
humanity and that so, well, that's cool.
And is it? What was the name of his lodge?
It's up at Pink Rock. He has Paint rock outfitting and
it's a Pink Rock Lodge and it's right there.
I want to say it's Medicine Creek.
OK. And it was.
It was just a good experience, turned out to be good, although
(30:41):
I spent the rest of my time looking for that Lady in the
white dress. To be honest with you, I had a
different time. Do you think she had something
to do with those guys? I do I I feel like she was.
She was doing some spotting. Yeah, and just the feeling that
you got when we saw her walking,like both me and Brad were both
(31:03):
there was just something so off about it.
Unsettling. Yeah, we should have known
better. And just if I could go back in
time, I'd have been sitting there, sitting there in the
dark, waiting. Yeah, yeah, it almost, it almost
makes you like, you know, hear something like that.
It's like, OK, I'm going to takemy trail cams up and just set
(31:23):
them around camp. So if somebody does try
something, there's like some type of evidence.
I doubt they'd be stupid enough to drive right up to where you
can get a license plate. But you know, if they are anti
hunters, I mean, I don't I don'tget why somebody who's anti
hunting, it's like the more you do stuff like that and you try
(31:44):
and you like damaged property, you steal property.
Like you just give hunters like that much more resolve against
you. Oh.
My God, yeah. I went from I'm shooting a
trophy bowl. This is a once in, you know, 20
year tag to if I see a calf, I'mgoing to skin it and camp.
(32:07):
Yeah, we definitely, definitely changed everything.
But like I said, we rolled into Rocky Mountain Sports there in
Cody. And it's funny because my Brad's
bow was just destroyed from themcutting the cables too.
And my RX7 was just needed new strings.
(32:29):
So I told Brad I'm like, hey, I know you don't want to.
The only bow left-handed bow that they had in there was RX-9,
but it was left-handed. And I was like, I know you don't
want to spend that much money, but if you buy my bow, then it's
like it cuts the price of the RX-9 in half.
So then I'll buy the RX-9 and weboth get new bows.
(32:52):
And so it worked out. He got.
So you did get the new RX-9. Yeah, it was totally justified
to me at that point though, and I got it for half off because my
buddy bought mine. Yeah, yeah.
That's I mean, it's good that you can see like the silver
lining in it, but still that, that it's not cool, man.
(33:17):
I don't understand why, why these guys it it, it's like the
guy like I see like these protesters that are like, you
know, no more petroleum and they're going in and ruining art
that's like hundreds of years old or like gluing themselves to
it. And I'm like.
I. Like what?
What do you think this is going to accomplish?
(33:40):
Yeah, it, it's so sad, like watching that scroll through
Instagram and it's just like themost depressing things, watching
how people are acting. It was.
It's terrible. Yeah, so, Scott, tell, tell me,
what is your favorite animal to hunt?
(34:03):
By far, it's elk. Elk.
Yeah, I mean that that bull up on the wall behind me, that's
the first bull I ever killed when I was younger.
I haven't tattooed on my arm like it's it's kind of just it's
my favorite thing. And hearing them bugle just
getting in there during archery season during their rat is is so
good. So how how old were you when you
(34:25):
shot that thing? I think it was 21.
OK. Long story, but my dad is just,
I didn't talk to my dad for 10 years until I found out at the
age of 21 I was having a son. And it turns out my dad and I
(34:46):
are just identical. And that was a bull that I
killed with him the first year that I went out cutting with
him. And I've never looked back.
It's been every year, every state that I can apply for.
That's all I want to do, and I owe the world to that guy.
That's awesome. So you guys go out hunting quite
(35:06):
a bit then? Yeah, I mean, he's he's getting
older and he's slowing down a bit now.
He's turning into like the world's best camp chef.
He'll pick you up in the side byside with a bottle of fireball
and have dinner ready at camp. And but I'll tell you what, I've
learned so much from him. Elk cunning.
And it's it's funny because I was telling Brad as we're
(35:29):
driving down to go meet my dad and I'm like, he's, he's intense
about hunting, but I'll tell youwhat, he'll spot an animal 5
minutes before I will he'll he'll stop and see a track that
you don't even see. And then we got in the side by
side with my dad and we're driving and he stops all quick
and he's like, wait, we got to get out and look at this and we
stop and I'm like, here it goes.I told you.
(35:52):
And we stop and there's like a wet spot in the in the dirt Rd.
He's like something pissed righthere.
And I was like, could have been a hunter for all I know.
Dad like what is that? And you know he's but he's just
he's just so on with being out there.
He's been out there for I think 30 years almost and that's all
(36:12):
that's all he cares about and all he wants to do and just
learning from him has been absolutely priceless to my
hunting. It's made me successful and
that's awesome ways that I find shouldn't have been without him.
That's awesome. So, yeah, I mean, as somebody
who didn't grow up hunting, I mean, I started when I was 41
(36:33):
hunting and still trying to figure it out.
It is, it is interesting. Like the more time you spend out
there, the more kind of like in tune you get with your
surroundings and what to look for.
I mean, I look back and I'm going like, I wonder how many
opportunities I missed before because of like not being aware
of like what was going on aroundme.
Whereas now it's like when I like I'm hunting to the spot
(36:57):
that I'm going to when I'm there, I got my head on a
swivel. Like you kind of learn to look
for different, you know, keys oror hints that you're in the
right area or, you know, elk sign, I guess, if you will,
aside from the obvious bugling. But so, so tell me something,
since you're talking about your dad, like what's been like the
(37:18):
greatest thing that you've learned from him that's helped
you become a better hunter for for people that are new that
maybe you're going like, how do I get the job done?
I would say it's he's taught me to slow down.
I think just being young and excited to be out there,
especially now being like stuck in Florida all the time, he's
(37:38):
taught me to just slow down. Like that man reads tracks and
he's so sure about it. And I'm like, I don't even know
which way that track is facing, you know, and he'll be like, oh,
look, it was probably eating this rose hip right here turned
a little bit and then so we should probably follow this
trail. And I'm like, it's something I
would have, I would have walked over that and been like, oh,
(38:00):
that's a three day old track. It doesn't really matter.
You know, you kind of just thinkmore of this track isn't fresh.
What's, what does it really matter?
And my dad just sits there and reads tracks and walks slow and
hears stuff and uses glass more than more than he uses his legs.
And I don't think you can reallygo wrong with that.
(38:22):
I, I think there's a part where you got to get off the trail,
you know, the common path where everyone's driving by on their
side by sides. So maybe for the first mile I'll
walk a little faster, but then Itry to hear him and and slow way
down and listen and glass a lot more because he's definitely
stopped me in my tracks. But you know, with the little
(38:42):
and point and like, oh shit, I didn't even see that.
Like is right there the whole time.
And other times I would have blown it out without him.
Yeah. I think that's great advice.
So, so Scott, tell tell me a little bit about that first
bowl. Tell me the story.
I. Want to that That bowl was in
Wyoming. It was with my dad and his
(39:05):
friend and his friend's son who's my age.
And I remember I have some really cool pictures of it
actually. We we lost him for like 2 hours.
We had to go around this Canyon to get to where I shot him.
It was with a rifle and my, my dad's friend had shot a bowl
(39:25):
too, in the same same herd that we pushed out of this Canyon up
onto the other side. I remember it probably sounding
like, you know, some Wild West movie.
I think I shot at that bull fourtimes before I hit it.
I was so excited and my, my dad's friends bull ended up
getting drug off by Grizzlies bythe time we got there.
(39:46):
And the Grizzlies coming out of Yellowstone are just thick, even
at my dad's house. I mean, he lives up to North
Fork right outside of Cody and he's got him on his back porch a
couple times in the last year and.
That was my first experience with Grizzlies.
We got over there and I'm like, where's that other bull?
And they're like, the bears got it.
And I was like, oh shit, really.Like that's a thing.
(40:10):
And this, this bull was, I mean,he's a 6 by 6.
He's not the biggest bull in theworld, but he, he definitely
means the most to me that that hunt with my dad just being like
the first real hunt that we got to do together.
I don't know. I've definitely raised a lot,
lot bigger bowls. There's one on my safe in the
(40:32):
bedroom that's monumental compared to this thing, but it
probably means the most to me out of all of them.
Yeah, I think, I think it takinglike your first big game animal,
like it doesn't matter like whatthe size of it is.
It's just like being out there putting in the work, learning
how to get it done. Like I'm pretty sure I'm going
to be like a wreck once I finally like down like my first
(40:56):
animal because it's, I mean, youdo like that.
That's the other thing back to these people that are like anti
hunting, even like they, they think that we're out there like
hunting out of hate and it's like it's out of love and
appreciation for the animal And you know, the work that you have
to put in to be able to get the job done.
Like that's no joke. I I mean, especially archery
(41:17):
hunting, which is like the only thing that I'm doing right now,
like you beat yourself up like on the regular.
Like it, it is a grind. And, and then and, and I know
it's like everyone who talks about like the anti hunters and,
and that like, oh, you're killing the animals and it's
like beating a dead horse. But it's like they either get
(41:37):
eaten by another animal like a grizzly bear like you just
talked about. And the Grizzlies typically
aren't taking the big bulls. They're taking the little calves
steps that they can catch, you know, I mean, or they're
starving to death or they're freezing to death.
You know, a well placed shot is actually like a pretty humane
(42:00):
way to take these animals, at least in my opinion.
And and I know a lot of people agree with that, But but to go
out there and just like like ruin somebody's trip, like you
said, like it's like once in a lifetime, you know, hunt for
you, for someone to go in and ruin that.
I think that's, you know, very short sighted on their part at a
(42:21):
minimum. I think so too, and and just the
feeling of like since I've been home, I've taken sausage, you
know, jerky made so much jerky, but steaks everything to to my
work, my neighbors like I love the feeling of sharing it.
It's so fun to bring that and belike, here, try this.
This is, you know, you asked me about my trip, like I'll bring
(42:43):
you some meat tomorrow and you could try it.
Like it's, I think there's so much more honor in that than
there is going and just buying asteak.
Like giving that meat to somebody feels better than any
part of the hunt to me. I mean, especially with like,
like you said, I mean, during that 3 1/2 weeks we were there,
(43:04):
I think I had it marked on my Instagram like a week ago, I
think, but it was like 156 milesor something.
We hiked and I mean, that was itwas rough.
I'm a type 1 diabetic and I'll tell you what, my buddy Brad
saved my ass out there a couple times.
Like everybody else is packing, you know, all their stuff and
(43:27):
half my packs candy, just tryingto make sure that when my blood
sugar drops, I have something toget it back and to get back to
that people breaking into our car.
They, they took everything. And I remember being like, you
guys don't even know the medicalsupplies that that you steal and
break. Like that's that's literally my
(43:47):
lifeline out here. And you're doing it for if it
was anti hunters. I don't if it could have been
tweakers for all I know. But whoever it was, it's like
you're robbing someone 35 miles from a paved road, 100 miles
from town and stealing everything and like, medicine,
(44:08):
everything. Like, it just it's crazy to me
that humanity is that low. Yeah, but that's just a a thing
that people are doing to each other.
Yeah, it's crazy. It's a crazy world we're living
in right now for sure, man. Hey Scott, have you done any
like predator hunting like with your with your dad like bears or
anything out there? Yeah, I've haunted a couple
(44:30):
black bears with my dad. Amazing time.
I I haven't never shot one at both times I've been with him,
he's shot 1 I think because I always bring my bow and he
brings a rifle and I'm like wow,we're not going to get that
close. And I'm like, well, let's just
try and then. So you guys do spot in stock
then when you're bear hunting? Yeah.
(44:51):
So you're not just going out there, you know, giving him
something that. Can be done.
No, I've never never haunted himover bait, although I wouldn't
be against it if if I could get to Canada and go shoot one up
there, I would definitely be interested in doing it.
But he's all about spot and stock and that's kind of my
favorite way to hunt. I do a lot with him of that and
(45:14):
at least in Florida doing some coyote hunting, but a lot of a
lot of pig hunting with my bow. That's a That's a fun thing to
hunt, like hunting another. Invasive species.
Yeah, and they're just, they're fun.
Like there's something, there's something fun about hunting
pigs, like just big boars in the, in the thick grass of
Florida. They have a, they call it small
(45:36):
game season where the whole thing you can hunt with is a
shotgun. And to go walk through like 6
foot tall Guinea grass with a shotgun is is a lot of fun.
I've never heard of that, that that would be, that would be a
blast to get out there and do that.
I know I'm planning. I'm going to go do a black bear
(45:57):
hunt next, next fall up in NorthCarolina, going up with Nathan
Cox, who's a game warden up there and I had him on on the
podcast. He's a good dude.
He's a good dude figure if you're going someplace you're
(46:17):
unfamiliar with, your best bet is to go with somebody who's a
game warden. Definitely be able to keep your
your butt out of trouble. But if they're cool, if they're
cool, he's. He's a well, yeah, I mean, I
guess if, if you're going with him, it's probably, it's got to
be pretty cool. He's a cool dude.
I, I, I think most game wardens are pretty chill.
Like if you get to know him, I know there's some guys that have
(46:38):
had bad experiences, but, but I don't know.
I mean, I guess I've just been lucky.
I haven't done anything stupid enough to really get me into any
type of trouble right now. But but Nathan's a good dude.
He's a good dude. I'm excited to get up there and
do that hunt next year. I think that's going to be a lot
of fun. But that'll be a great hunt.
Have you got anything else coming up you're going to be
hunting this year? I'm going to go to Texas here.
(47:01):
My daughter's birthday. She doesn't know this yet, but
my daughter's birthday is in 10 days and she's turning 12.
And I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she said to
shoot a deer. And I was like, Dang, I don't
know that you'll ever say that again.
So I should definitely take takeit, take it up on it.
So I'm going to take her. One of my really good friends
(47:22):
and kind of a mentor through anesthesia school was he owns a
ranch out there called the Four O 6 Ranch just outside of San
Antonio. And I'm going to take her to go
shoot a deer, a management buck.He's got a yeah, whitetail.
He's got a, a buck that I've been watching for the last
(47:44):
probably year on game cams from him that's it's got to be
pushing 200 inches. And I call it the handlebar buck
that I just want him. I don't really know why it's his
his ranch is it's high fenced onthree sides.
So it's not guaranteed that thisbuck will still be there.
(48:07):
But he's been on the ranch for for the last year and a half at
least. And it's got to be most
impressive buck I've seen in a while.
So I didn't want, I thought about letting my daughter shoot
that one. And then I was like, if she
shoots a 200 inch whitetail for her first animal ever, she's
going to be ruined for hunting. You're never going to.
(48:28):
You're never going to have any excitement again.
Either that or you'll have her hooked.
Yeah, I guess it is a gamble. Well, that'll be fun.
Try to try to get in on that. My dad's got a elk tag that he
he haunted, like I would say 2 weeks ago he was hunting and
didn't get on one outside of Casper rifle elk tag that he
(48:52):
gets a couple more days in December, like December, 10 days
or something. So I'll probably go out there
for that. I'd like to, I don't know.
You never know how many more hunts somebody has.
So anytime I can get him, get him into the woods with my dad,
I'd take care of that. Yeah, yeah.
At some point the body just kindof stops being able to do all
(49:14):
the all the hard type of hunting.
So that'll be good for you guys to get out there and spend some
time together and, and that's fun.
You get to take your daughter down to Texas and do a do a
little hunting. That'll be it.
Has she been hunting before withyou?
Yeah, I, I take my kids, all three of them, I mean, anytime I
can into the woods here, even ifit's with a shotgun for pigs.
(49:35):
Yeah, I took my son out. He's 16 now, but he was
probably, I don't know, six. The first time I took him
hunting and I had him on my shoulders and I knew where there
were a bunch of pigs and I heard.
Then someone else started shooting on the other side and I
picked him up and I put him on my shoulders and I'm like hey,
(49:59):
I'm going to start shooting in aminute because I know those pigs
are going to come towards us. And I think I shot 5 pigs with a
12 gauge with him on my shoulders as they were just
running down this dirt road right at us.
And you couldn't have asked for a better pig hunting experience
for him. That's.
Super cool. But they they all want to go elk
(50:19):
hunting. I just feel like they're not
quite there yet as far as I don't really elk hunt from the
truck and and it's a it's a rough, it's a rough trip.
I mean, so I think that'll wait.I'd like to go out to Hawaii.
I have a lot of friends and family out in Hawaii probably in
February. And I don't know if you've been
(50:41):
out there to hunt, but there's great access deer hunting like
no bag limits, no anything. They're just such a nuisance
animal on some of the islands. But the pig hunting on on the
Big Island where I grew up most of my young adulthood is is
unreal and actually where I got into bow hunting with have a
(51:04):
great friend out there, Mario, who who hunts them with just
dogs and a roping rope and a knife.
And if you ever wanted to have some fun going out there and
hunting pigs like that is, it's fun.
Wow, that's crazy. But if you ever want to come to
Florida and do a shotgun only season here with me, I'd be down
(51:24):
to put you on some pigs for sure.
Yeah, man, I'm down. When is that season?
I think it opens November 15th through like the middle of
January and. It's just over the counter tag.
Over the counter, all you need is a license and even the neat
thing about Florida is like if you it's your first time hunting
(51:47):
here, you you don't even have tohave your hunter safety or a
hunting license. It's like some, you know,
introduction to hunting. You go with somebody that has
one and go shoot some pigs. Right on.
Yeah, man, we'll have to talk more about that for sure.
I think that'd be a blast. Plus it's always fun to get to a
little bit warmer place when, you know, I'm in Utah.
(52:09):
So yeah, the cold is the cold isstarting to set in here a little
bit. I'm so jealous.
It's I do enjoy it. I mean, it the change in season
super nice. But but yeah, once once the snow
starts hitting and it gets cold,like you really quickly start
getting ready for for spring andsummer to come.
(52:29):
But Scott, hey, as as we wrap uphere, like any last little bit
of advice you'd give to anybody that just is out there hunting
that you know, we'll make it funfor them.
I would say the I would more often than not, the times I've
gotten besides this year, this is this last hunting season was
(52:53):
just a total fluke shooting thatbull on the first day.
I think it's like that one more Ridge thing, like if you just go
one more Ridge when you're readyto stop.
So many times that's put me on something that that I wouldn't
have gotten and a lot of times it's gotten me a long walk back
(53:14):
in the dark. But I think it's just all about
going a little bit deeper. Go a little bit deeper than
everybody else. Go a little bit harder than
everybody else and you're going to find them.
I mean, especially elk, you people push them and they go,
you know, 4 ridges over and stop.
And there's a lot of people thataren't willing to walk four or
(53:34):
three ridges over and not go that 4.
You know, you just got to keep, keep going.
And I think that's that's what'spaid off the most for me over
the years is just putting the boots on the ground.
Excellent advice Scott. If somebody want to find wants
to follow you on social, how canthey find you?
I think my Instagram is just, myname is Scott Dunton on
(53:55):
Instagram. It's pretty much the only thing
that I use a lot of anesthesia photos and stuff, but it's not
anesthesia. It's hunting.
And right now it's probably a lot of iguana posts here.
We. Go Well, we'll put we'll put a
link in the show notes for people to follow you.
Scott, man, it's been great to talk to you and and get to know
you a little bit better. Really, really enjoy your time.
(54:18):
Appreciate you coming on the show.
Thanks man. For sure, Ryan and I had I had a
great time with you as well and always watching the podcast.
So keep it up and I'll look forward to hearing it checking
out, see how you do on your bearhunt.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah.
I'll let you know. I'll send you some pics once we
get that done. But anyway, hey guys, thanks for
listening to another episode of the Hunt Stealth Podcast.
(54:39):
We are the fastest growing hunting podcast in the nation.
Stay safe and God bless.
You're listening to the Hunt Stealth Podcast with Ryan
Uffins, the podcast where we dive head first into the wild,
whether you're an aspiring hunter or an adventurer seeking
the untamed. Together, we'll explore the
strategies and stories that leadto success in the great
outdoors. Hey guys, welcome to another
(00:22):
episode of the Hunt Stealth Podcast.
I am your host, Ryan Uffins. I'm excited to have Scott Dunton
on the podcast today. Scott, thanks for joining me,
man. Yeah, for sure.
Thanks for having me. So we we talked a little bit
last week and tell me, how did that iguana kill count go for
you? I.
(00:42):
Was actually just outside tryingto get this other one.
It it's so crazy to me. You know I I love hunting elk
and deer, but here in Florida itseems like the only thing that I
can constantly hunt is iguanas with a blow gun.
I feel like Cold Steel has definitely changed my life in
Florida. So for people that aren't
familiar with what's going on, tell people briefly why why
(01:05):
there's like free range on iguanas down there.
I don't know when they came overbut they're considered an
invasive species. And I mean I can shoot probably
20 a day in my neighborhood withwith a blow dirt gun.
People hunting with BB guns, pellet guns, bows.
I've shot him with just about everything that you can legally
(01:27):
shoot him with, but bloatdard gun seems to be the method of
choice in my house I think. Remember, my family has a
bloatdard gun. Knocking him down.
So. So you're in Florida.
Have you lived there your entirelife?
No, I moved here about 10-10 years ago with my ex-wife.
(01:50):
Long story there but have two kids with my ex-wife and kind of
got me stuck in Florida for a while so just making the best of
it. Hunting, diving, went to school
out here, so that made it a little bit easier.
And then I just work and fly outto Wyoming or Montana whenever I
(02:11):
can to get some topography in mylife.
OK, what do you do for work? I do anesthesia.
I got my doctorate in anesthesiaabout two years ago.
I finished school and work at a hospital here with a great group
of people and it's me, the opportunity to get out, get out
West a lot. That's awesome.
(02:33):
That's awesome. What have you been out here this
year hunting anything? Yeah, I was out there.
The flew out September 7th through October 1st, so just shy
of a month haunted about 10 daysin Montana.
We ended the crazy mountain range and then drew a really
good tag with one of my buddies in Wyoming at the Big Horns.
(02:57):
OK, right on. So you guys had a good time?
Yeah, got got lucky on the actually the first day in the
crazies and got a nice 6 by 6 bowl.
And then my buddies and I had tried to get them on on a bowl
but we ended up knocking down a couple bucks too.
So it was nice to get some mule deer in the in the cooler and
(03:18):
headed down to Wyoming after that.
So, so tell me a little bit. So the the elk that you got,
tell me how that transpired? Well, if anybody's haunted the
crazy mountain range in Montana,that is borderline the toughest
(03:38):
hunt I've ever done in my life. I mean the the elevation changes
there are insane and we've neverhaunted there.
I've haunted Montana for probably the last 12 years,
archery elk and always done really good, had amazing hunts,
have some really good friends out there and we share a lot of
(04:01):
waypoints. And my buddy was like you guys
should try the crazies and I wasdown.
So we flew in to Billings, drovestraight to the crazies.
We got there after sunset and hiked in in the dark to a
waypoint that my buddy had dropped for us as like a good
idea to a camp spot and it made part of Oregon look peaceful as
(04:27):
far as downfalls go or dead falls go.
I I probably took us on some terrible shortcuts that I
shouldn't have. But my two friends, Brad and
Craig, We got into camp, set up camping the 1st morning I wanted
to go check out this spring downthe bottom of this Canyon.
And my buddy Craig decided to sit on the spring And Brad and I
(04:50):
were going to go up around the top of this mountain And we
split up right towards the top. And I heard something coming up
the hill behind me from the spring.
And I thought it was my friend Craig.
And I started talking, you know,in my head about him.
I'm like, he didn't even make it20 minutes at the spring and
you're already coming back up. And I turned around and it was
actually a bowl that I don't know if he had spooked or but it
(05:13):
didn't. It was just literally cruising
up the trail 35 yards behind me and took a couple steps off the
trail to go off to the other side and it had no idea I was
there. And I, I don't really get bull
fever anymore. And I'll tell you what, I was
shaking. I was sitting right there and I
was, I was so not ready for it to be there and got really lucky
(05:36):
and got a good shot on him and he went down a couple 100 yards
back down the trail towards my buddy and we started the most
miserable Portage of trips out of the mountains I think I've
ever had. I want to tell you about Bison
King. It's the jerky I keep in my
truck, in my pack, and in my studio.
It's 100% American raised bisonsfor us from ranchers who
(05:59):
actually care about responsible meat production.
Every batch is handcrafted and done in small runs so it tastes
fresh every time. They come in big 5 oz bags with
three flavors to choose from. Teriyaki, it's the tender crowd
favorite, peppered for that boldbite.
And bison and salt. Just two clean ingredients for
those who want clean protein to power their day.
(06:20):
Why bison jerky? It gives you more protein per oz
than beef jerky. It's leaner and more nutrient
dense to fuel your day. And hey, since your wives are
always texting us links what they want for Christmas, send a
stocking stuffer idea back. Visit bisonking.com and save 10%
with code stealth. Again, that's bisonking.com code
stealth to save 10%. Bison King fuel made for those
(06:42):
who stand tall, charge hard and rule the wild, right.
There and I was. I was so not ready for it to be
there and got really lucky and got a good shot on him and he
went down a couple 100 yards back down the trail towards my
buddy and we started the most miserable poor Taj of trips out
(07:02):
of the mountains I think I've ever had.
What do you do? I mean, I, I talked to a lot of
guys because people that come out and start hunting in the
West, like trying to get ready for it.
There's, I've had a couple guys from Florida, they're like, it's
hard to like prepare physically and mentally for what you go
through and like you're dealing with a ton of deadfall like that
wears on you. I'm guessing you didn't take the
(07:24):
shortcuts out. No, we didn't and it just it
does wears on your it's more like just a mind game you start.
It's funny because on one of thepoor Tajes, my buddy, I went
back for the last load and I found a dead head of a moose and
I was like, oh, this thing's awesome.
I strap it to my pack and I had a hind quarter in my pack
(07:47):
already and I strap it to my pack and start going over these
dead falls. And I sat down for a second and
of course that skull got stuck on the limb behind me and I
ended up like a turtle on my back, like stuck.
I remember just ripping this moose head off and throwing.
I was like, I'll drop a pin if anybody wants it, but if this
thing's not making it with me, Ijust had like a mental
(08:07):
breakdown. It was tough.
But as far as training goes, to be honest, I, I don't really do
any physical training and that might bite me in the butt
sometimes out there. I mean, I know, well, most
people know that anesthesia is kind of just known for their
appreciation of chairs, I guess.And my buddy Brad that that I
(08:30):
hunt with, he's a firefighter down in Miami and he would send
me videos of him wearing like his, his 6200 loaded with like
weight packs and he's on a stairstepper at a micro.
You understand all you're doing is training to leave me behind
'cause I'm not not pushing it that way.
But I think the goal or the as soon as my mind knows there's
(08:55):
elk somewhere. You really couldn't, couldn't
slow me down or stop me. You're one of those guys, huh?
It just, it just has a motor in them that can just go.
No, yeah, I, I know a couple guys like that.
I go out there with them and I'mlike, what did you do?
And they're like nothing. And I'm going Judas Priest, man.
Like I, I, I, I trained, I did rocks, I did all sorts of stuff.
(09:18):
And, and that's fun, you know, to get out there and get after
it. It would be nice to, I mean, I
enjoy the training aspect of it,but it's fun that you're able to
get out there and, and get afterit.
So you guys so up in Montana as you get your, you get your buck
or your bowl down and then you said you guys were able to get a
couple bucks up there as well. Yeah, we we'd all drawn the big
(09:40):
game combo tag for Montana, so my buddy Craig and Brad both
shot some nice mule deer bucks. I was kind of in this mission of
I felt a little bit bad that I was the only one that's ever
shot a bowl before. And I was telling both of them,
I'm like, I got us in Montana. We get, we get out there and
(10:01):
I'll, I'll put you guys on some bowls and literally no one else
saw a bowl for like the first three days.
And I remember just sitting there feeling so guilty at camp.
Like I wish, I wish I wouldn't have told them we should all
split up and and go around different edges of this mountain
because I didn't want to be the first one and especially not the
only one to shoot a bull out there.
So. Was that day one too?
(10:22):
Was day one morning one right out of camp.
I never felt bad after shooting a bull and I felt bad.
These guys instantly went into for Taji and this all this meat
out of the out of the Canyon forthe next day and 1/2 and was
just like then we didn't see anything else in Montana and we
(10:43):
met some really great people up there though, and I'll tell you
how bad that hike out was when we were hiking the meat out, we
got to the trail and it we're only about maybe a mile from the
truck and I paid a guy $100 to take my pack full of meat to the
trailhead a mile away on his on his sidebar his four Wheeler
because I just couldn't do it anymore.
(11:03):
We are so dead. That was definitely the toughest
experience I've had hiking out meat.
So you bumped into somebody up there with a quad?
Yeah, which it was so funny 'cause this guy, we were
talking, you know, the three of us as were walking and all kind
of just giving each other a hardtime.
And we run into this guy and, well, we heard a quad coming
(11:25):
down the trail and me with my full pack started literally just
running. Like I was like, we gotta catch
this guy. I've, I've got some cash.
I don't care what it costs whileI'm not carrying this thing.
And he ended up being like one of the nicest guys from, I think
it was South Dakota. And he's a firefighter.
And Long story short, knows a lot of people that my buddy Brad
(11:46):
knew and but he let me give him 100 bucks to take the pack out
that's for sure. Sweet, that's not a bad deal.
No, no, I would have paid 5. Well, that's fun.
So then you guys went down to Wyoming?
Yeah, my, my buddy Craig had to go back to Florida, so we
(12:06):
dropped him off in Billings and I'd scouted the the Big Horns.
My dad and I haunted it when I was younger a couple times and
he was actually up there the daybefore we got there and Brad and
I just bombed straight down. It was like 6 hours.
We dropped off the bull to my dad's wife and Cody and then
(12:28):
drove up into the big horns And the 1st morning we were there we
spotted amazing lookout place and we spotted this bull up on
the mountain and it was funny because he was so far away.
It was probably 4 miles out and he was at like 1212 thousand
feet is what we're guessing on using Onyx.
(12:50):
And we're at 9 where our camp was.
And I remember seeing this bowl and being like, we have to try
and go for him at least once. It might not be day one.
Maybe we need a day or two just to hang out at camp.
But this bowl had like 30 cows and I remember talking with Brad
and being like it, it's going tobe 1 hell of a hike.
But I think we should go at least once.
(13:11):
And we ended up going after thatbowl like 6 days in a row,
hiking, hiking up there every day 'cause he was so good, but I
just couldn't get him. There were a lot of days I
didn't even bring my bow 'cause I was trying to get him close to
Brad. And are you?
Calling him. Yeah, I was bugling the I got
into, I would say I hate that saying of like it's, it's not
(13:34):
all about killing an elk. Cause to me, 99% of it's about
killing an elk. That's, that's what puts the
meat in the freezer and makes, you know, feeds all your friends
and family. But if you could get as close to
killing an elk without doing it and enjoy the experience, that's
how it was for me. My buddy Brad was 120 yards from
(13:57):
this bowl and I bugled so many times back and forth with it,
but I had a sore throat the nextday.
Like I bet you I bugled 60 times.
I would cut him off and he wouldcut me off.
But we were just we were above the tree line and there was
nothing in between us. Like you couldn't find a a 12
(14:17):
inch rock. So it's just I was hiding on the
other side of this draw and I couldn't get him any closer.
It was. He just didn't care enough to
engage to leave his cows. Yeah.
That was kind of my experience where where we were hunting, we
could get them, they talked to us, but we could not get them to
engage. The one day that I think we
(14:38):
could have got him, there was a satellite that, that he was
chasing around and, and trying to fight off.
And we got all the way up there and literally we're, we're
probably 400 yards away and we're watching, I'm waiting for
the, the evening time. So the winds would switch and a
guy and well, like 3 guys on horseback come riding down over
(15:01):
the mountain right through him and blow everything out of the
country. And I was, I think I had some
words for the, for the guy on the horse, but that I think that
would have been our only chance 'cause he just didn't have,
there was no pressure. So he couldn't see me bugle in.
He'd come to the edge and look, but he, he didn't really have a
(15:23):
reason to leave those cows. And I felt terrible that I
couldn't get my buddy on it 'cause he was a trophy for sure.
That's awesome. Yeah.
It's it's kind of like that, youknow, Catch 22, you're out
there, you enjoy the experience.And I mean, at least for me,
like I've yet to arrow, you know, any big game animal.
(15:43):
And the one time that I could this year, it didn't have the
tag bold comes over this Ridge comes right up to me, like
probably like 10 feet from me looking at me and I'm going.
I just smoked him. I mean, he was he was a little 5
by 5, but he little by me. He was young.
(16:04):
But for me, like where I'm just going like, I just want to kill
something like I I just smoked him instead.
He just looks at me and he's like, I just ran all the way
over this Ridge back down into this Canyon.
And now he's sitting there looking at me going like I you
got to be kidding me. He like blows back down the
Canyon. And that was early.
(16:24):
That was that was in I was like end of August.
So like they weren't. I mean, you could bugle, but.
They. Weren't given 2 rips less about
you? Yeah, we had we had such amazing
experiences with him and I'd just getting to bugle with him
like that and and put my buddy on one thinking because for a
(16:47):
while I couldn't even see him. And I'm seeing this bull get
closer. And every time he'd bugle, I'd
cut him off and then he'd started like getting that deeper
growl bugles. And I was like, oh, he's fired
up, he's coming. And then he I'm like waiting,
waiting, waiting till dark. I see my buddy coming back and
he was just like, Mike, did you shoot him?
Did you shoot him? And he's like, dude, like he
(17:07):
never moved. He never came a little bit
further. I'm like, he's like, the only
thing I could see when he did hit 100 yards was his antler.
I was like, you should have shothim in the antler.
Like, what do you mean you didn't shoot him?
But it was tough. I mean, we saw some smaller
bulls and my buddy is so keen toshoot a bull that he's like, oh,
I would have shot that one. I was like, well that one up on
the mountain, like I probably would have shoulder mounted for
(17:30):
my wall. I bet you he was 36370.
Like he was just he was a stud and we haunted him hard.
But then, you know, I was telling you about all that drama
that we had up. There, let's get into some of
that. We so we are, we are haunted
that bull and round trip. I think that day we haunted, we
(17:51):
hiked like 12 miles because we got all the way up on top.
Then I decided we should go around this other side and we,
we ended up on like one of thosePeruvian death marches to get
back to, to the truck and we hadrented a, a Turo or on Turo like
a, a Jeep, just a normal 4 door Jeep.
(18:11):
And we get back to the trailheadand load up the Jeep.
And I was like, let's just go set up.
I know the spot right down the road when my dad and I camped,
you know, 15 years ago. That's it's got a great water
source right behind it will be golden what we got in the Jeep
and we start driving and you know, you're 35 miles in on a
dirt road and maybe a mile, halfmile from the trailhead walking
(18:36):
down this dirt Rd. It gives me goosebumps, a
chicken skin. Just just telling you the story.
There's a woman walking in a white dress dead center down the
road walking away from us. And I was like this, this is the
weirdest thing, you know, like we're cruising up behind her and
is Brad and I are talking and he's like, I don't, I don't know
(18:59):
if you should stop. My pistol's in the back.
And I was like, my pistol's in the back too.
And I was like, well, slow down.So I slowed way down and she had
a scarf and she like turns away from us towards the trees and
like kind of ducks towards into the trees.
And I was like, well, she doesn't seem to need help or
want to talk to us. So we just kept going.
And we we're end up camping at that spot about, I don't know,
(19:21):
maybe a mile and a half, two miles further down the road.
And we were talking about it like it was just so weird to see
a woman walking all by herself, let alone in a white dress at
you know, it's probably like 9:00 at night, just pitch black
in the mountains. And we eat our meals and get
ready to go to bed. And my buddy Brad comes walking
(19:42):
up to me and he's got my 10 mil in his hand.
He's like, Scott, sleep with this tonight.
I got a bad feeling about that Lady.
I was like, that's funny becauseit's the Big horns were like
such a relaxing time to me, 'cause I felt so comfortable
being up there so many years in a row.
And I wasn't worried about Grizzlies like Montana.
(20:02):
You sleep with your pistol on you the whole time.
And so I've been leaving it in my vinyl harness off to the
side. And he handed me my pistol and I
was like, I guess I'll, I guess I'll sleep with this thing.
So we're, I was sleeping in the Haven tent and I put it on that
thing above your head. You know that little and.
(20:24):
Right when we're going to sleep,he locked the car and it set off
the car alarm. And so I laughed, You know,
we're laughing. And the car was pointed like
it's probably 15 feet from whereour tents were, our hammocks.
And I talked a little, you know,shit to him about that.
We go to bed and then I wake up at like 11:30.
(20:47):
So it's only 2 1/2 hours later to the car alarm going off, the
headlights are flashing. So it's like it seemed like a
war scene to me. And I hear my mummy Brad yelling
my name and he's yelling they'rerobbing us.
And I was like it kind of like so tired from hiking all day and
you're like took me a second andhe's he's like literally
(21:09):
screaming my name. So I come out of my haven in
like boxers and A10 mil and I see two people running every
door on our car's open. The lights are on in it, the
headlights are flashed and the horns honk in and my buddy's
like crawling in the dirt comingback and he's like, they're
(21:31):
they're robbing us. They stole all our shit.
And out of instinct, I'd sent A10 mil round off like maybe 20
feet above what I would call head height.
It's because I'd have a hard time shooting someone in the
back, you know, running away. Like, that's just something, if
they were in the camp, you know,it'd be a different story.
But they were definitely fleeing.
(21:52):
But I thought, send a round off,let him hear the gun.
And then maybe it gives us time to, you know, figure out what's
happening. Gather yourselves.
Yeah, and my buddy had, he said he heard someone talking, but he
wasn't sure if he was like dreaming or not 'cause when he
woke up, he's like, it stopped and he's like, I couldn't figure
it out. Like I was like thought I heard
(22:13):
people talking. But then I unzipped, he unzipped
his hammock and got out and they, they took off running and
damn if they didn't steal just about everything out of our car.
And they ended up had they cut all our bow strings.
So they cut all the bow strings and the cables on our bows,
which ruined his bow. I have a Hoyt RX7 and they, they
(22:38):
didn't get my cables, but they got the main string.
So when I shot it turns out theywere, they were running across
this like, I don't know, maybe 50 yard wide pasture to where
the road was and there was a carwaiting for it.
So they'd cut the strings. And I don't know if it was
(22:58):
because when we talked to the game warden and a couple people
up there who said there's some anti hunters that are up in that
area and they like to mess with hunter stuff.
But I don't know if it was that or if they were both or they
were pissed off that both of us shoot left-handed bows.
Like maybe they were gonna stealour bows and they were like,
(23:19):
both these guys are left-handed.So they ended up just cutting
our cables, our strings and, andthrowing them on the road 'cause
we didn't we've, we realized allthe stuff was gone.
And then when we were starting to leave to chase them and see
if we can catch up to them in our Jeep, we saw the bows right
by the road. So they had thrown them before
they got in their car or I don'tknow if it was the gunshot that
(23:41):
that scared them enough to throwthe bows and take off running.
But we end up losing bows, a lotof our gear and like 3 days
worth of time because we had to drive all the way back to Cody
to get some new bows and get some strings and get all set up
again. Which, but I'll tell you what it
was, it was more rough on, I think just your mind space to
(24:06):
know that there were people like10 feet away just rummaging
through your stuff and. Just don't give a shit.
Yeah, it was. It was weird.
I had, I had a hard time though,even the rest of the we went
back to my dad's house and got new bows and got all hooked up
with the people that Rocky Mountain Sports and Cody.
They took care of us amazingly, but when we got back up into the
(24:30):
mountains, I'd I couldn't sleep.I'll tell you what, I'd woke up
like every you'd hear a stick break and normally in your mind
you're like, oh, it's a deer. You know, you could hear like
little, little things and up there the whole time I wasn't
ever thinking, Oh, it's a bear like you did in Montana.
But then you're like, you pull your pistol out in the middle of
the night for like what might have just been an acorn falling
(24:51):
because all of a sudden I'm like, they're back.
People are robbing us again. Like there's a big mind.
It's. You feel violated, right?
And when you come in and you can't, you can't trust your
surroundings. Like you said, you grew up up
there going with your dad, superfamiliar surroundings.
And then all of a sudden that's changed.
So did they break windows or were they with?
(25:14):
What they did was they popped I,I think personally, because they
didn't break any windows. And I know that he locked the
car because he set the car alarmoff trying to do it before he
went to bed. And they popped that back window
open on the Jeep. And I think it's because you
can, you could wiggle that thingenough to to pop the back open.
But I mean, they, they had pulled everything out of that
(25:37):
Jeep and it, it blew my mind that I was 15 feet away and
these people just. I mean, you got to think
everyone up in those mountains has a gun on them and they
didn't care. Yeah.
If they've been rough and the thing that I was most bummed
about was well, our bows was tough because I mean, that's a
(26:00):
18 and now it's a 19 preference point tag.
So we only had limited days up there anyways.
And now I'm not going to draw that tag again in my life.
Are you kidding me? Sucked to lose a third of the
time that we had hunting to having to go into town to get
new bows. But.
Well, and the thing, the thing that these if it was anti
(26:22):
hunters or, I don't know, maybe it's like the Blair Witch
Project or some shit like that where you you've got some
crazies out there. But but yeah, you go, you go
into a camp and start like stealing shit.
Like, yeah, you're, you're asking, you're asking for it.
Especially up there with hunters, like you said, like
pretty much everybody up there has got a gun on them and to go
(26:46):
into camp. They, I feel bad for whoever
tries that at my camp because I just don't sleep.
Like I do not sleep at all when we're up there.
So it's like I end up going out.We, you know, we hike in then I
sleep during the day while I'm waiting for, you know, the
evening stuff to start. But at night, for whatever
(27:06):
reason, like it doesn't matter the set up, if, if I'm in a
tent, if I'm on a COD, if I'm, you know, in a trailer, like I
just for whatever, it's miserable, 'cause it's like day
four and I'm like, I would love to sleep again, you know, at
night. But but yeah, so, so that you
never found anything on them. So they, they did get away with
(27:26):
gear. They cut your strings.
Yep. And I mean, there's only one Rd.
in, but it's it, like I said, it's 35 miles and it's a, a
rough dirt Rd. But I think we followed the
tracks for a while and I, I literally think they just flew
down the mountain because by thetime we got all our stuff, I
mean, we didn't want to just leave everything we had there
(27:48):
because then you don't know if someone else is coming back if
you leave all your shit to chaseafter him.
Yeah, if they left with somebodybehind.
Yeah, so we loaded up all our stuff into the into the Jeep and
took off. And by the time you got all the
way down there to where you had cell phone service, you know, we
call the sheriff and he's like, well, did you guys get a plate?
And, you know, you say some smart remark because there's no
(28:10):
way. And it was kind of like the end
of it. They're like, that's that's
probably what it was. We get a lot of people up here
slashing tires and spray painting on people's cars and
they're anti hunters. And I'm like, man, the one thing
I was mad about though was I've had, I know it seems stupid, but
I've had this leather belt sinceI was 16 years old.
(28:31):
And I'm like, so it dawned on melike the next day that that was
gone. And I was telling my buddy Brad,
as we're driving back up there, I'm like, look it, if we stop
and we talk to people, you see anybody with my belt just know
that we're, we're putting hands down like there's someone's
life's about to change if we seesomeone wearing this belt.
(28:52):
And we actually got all the way back up there and I found my
belt laying in this field. Not it, it made it OK for me.
Like there's one thing like a sentimental thing I've had in my
whole life, like it's been on every L cunt.
I've used to carry bulls heads out like I was like that that
belt means something. And but I remember I was texting
(29:13):
with my fiance afterwards and she's like, I'm so thankful that
you found your belt and you didn't find it on someone
because I think I was more worried about you catching some
sort of felony chart, what you did.
I just thought like. Having to get bailed out of
jail. Yeah, it would have.
It would have been rough, but wewe made the best of it.
We've got back up there. We had, we didn't get a bowl for
(29:36):
Brad, but we did have a good hunt.
And I spent the rest of the timenot sleeping at night.
And we, we, we made the best of it.
I made an amazing friend up there at Paint Rock Outfitters.
There's a guy, a guy named Joe that we met and who actually
runs the lodge up there on in the Big Horns and just turned
(29:59):
out to be one of the nicest guysof all time.
And the last night we were there, he's like, let us stay at
the lodge and cook dinner and just, you know, sometimes you,
you go through some shit, but then it turns out you meet some
really cool people on the other side of it and.
There's some, there's some shitty people in the world and
then there's some good people that just like give you hope for
(30:20):
humanity and that so, well, that's cool.
And is it? What was the name of his lodge?
It's up at Pink Rock. He has Paint rock outfitting and
it's a Pink Rock Lodge and it's right there.
I want to say it's Medicine Creek.
OK. And it was.
It was just a good experience, turned out to be good, although
(30:41):
I spent the rest of my time looking for that Lady in the
white dress. To be honest with you, I had a
different time. Do you think she had something
to do with those guys? I do I I feel like she was.
She was doing some spotting. Yeah, and just the feeling that
you got when we saw her walking,like both me and Brad were both
(31:03):
there was just something so off about it.
Unsettling. Yeah, we should have known
better. And just if I could go back in
time, I'd have been sitting there, sitting there in the
dark, waiting. Yeah, yeah, it almost, it almost
makes you like, you know, hear something like that.
It's like, OK, I'm going to takemy trail cams up and just set
(31:23):
them around camp. So if somebody does try
something, there's like some type of evidence.
I doubt they'd be stupid enough to drive right up to where you
can get a license plate. But you know, if they are anti
hunters, I mean, I don't I don'tget why somebody who's anti
hunting, it's like the more you do stuff like that and you try
(31:44):
and you like damaged property, you steal property.
Like you just give hunters like that much more resolve against
you. Oh.
My God, yeah. I went from I'm shooting a
trophy bowl. This is a once in, you know, 20
year tag to if I see a calf, I'mgoing to skin it and camp.
(32:07):
Yeah, we definitely, definitely changed everything.
But like I said, we rolled into Rocky Mountain Sports there in
Cody. And it's funny because my Brad's
bow was just destroyed from themcutting the cables too.
And my RX7 was just needed new strings.
(32:29):
So I told Brad I'm like, hey, I know you don't want to.
The only bow left-handed bow that they had in there was RX-9,
but it was left-handed. And I was like, I know you don't
want to spend that much money, but if you buy my bow, then it's
like it cuts the price of the RX-9 in half.
So then I'll buy the RX-9 and weboth get new bows.
(32:52):
And so it worked out. He got.
So you did get the new RX-9. Yeah, it was totally justified
to me at that point though, and I got it for half off because my
buddy bought mine. Yeah, yeah.
That's I mean, it's good that you can see like the silver
lining in it, but still that, that it's not cool, man.
(33:17):
I don't understand why, why these guys it it, it's like the
guy like I see like these protesters that are like, you
know, no more petroleum and they're going in and ruining art
that's like hundreds of years old or like gluing themselves to
it. And I'm like.
I. Like what?
What do you think this is going to accomplish?
(33:40):
Yeah, it, it's so sad, like watching that scroll through
Instagram and it's just like themost depressing things, watching
how people are acting. It was.
It's terrible. Yeah, so, Scott, tell, tell me,
what is your favorite animal to hunt?
(34:03):
By far, it's elk. Elk.
Yeah, I mean that that bull up on the wall behind me, that's
the first bull I ever killed when I was younger.
I haven't tattooed on my arm like it's it's kind of just it's
my favorite thing. And hearing them bugle just
getting in there during archery season during their rat is is so
good. So how how old were you when you
(34:25):
shot that thing? I think it was 21.
OK. Long story, but my dad is just,
I didn't talk to my dad for 10 years until I found out at the
age of 21 I was having a son. And it turns out my dad and I
(34:46):
are just identical. And that was a bull that I
killed with him the first year that I went out cutting with
him. And I've never looked back.
It's been every year, every state that I can apply for.
That's all I want to do, and I owe the world to that guy.
That's awesome. So you guys go out hunting quite
(35:06):
a bit then? Yeah, I mean, he's he's getting
older and he's slowing down a bit now.
He's turning into like the world's best camp chef.
He'll pick you up in the side byside with a bottle of fireball
and have dinner ready at camp. And but I'll tell you what, I've
learned so much from him. Elk cunning.
And it's it's funny because I was telling Brad as we're
(35:29):
driving down to go meet my dad and I'm like, he's, he's intense
about hunting, but I'll tell youwhat, he'll spot an animal 5
minutes before I will he'll he'll stop and see a track that
you don't even see. And then we got in the side by
side with my dad and we're driving and he stops all quick
and he's like, wait, we got to get out and look at this and we
stop and I'm like, here it goes.I told you.
(35:52):
And we stop and there's like a wet spot in the in the dirt Rd.
He's like something pissed righthere.
And I was like, could have been a hunter for all I know.
Dad like what is that? And you know he's but he's just
he's just so on with being out there.
He's been out there for I think 30 years almost and that's all
(36:12):
that's all he cares about and all he wants to do and just
learning from him has been absolutely priceless to my
hunting. It's made me successful and
that's awesome ways that I find shouldn't have been without him.
That's awesome. So, yeah, I mean, as somebody
who didn't grow up hunting, I mean, I started when I was 41
(36:33):
hunting and still trying to figure it out.
It is, it is interesting. Like the more time you spend out
there, the more kind of like in tune you get with your
surroundings and what to look for.
I mean, I look back and I'm going like, I wonder how many
opportunities I missed before because of like not being aware
of like what was going on aroundme.
Whereas now it's like when I like I'm hunting to the spot
(36:57):
that I'm going to when I'm there, I got my head on a
swivel. Like you kind of learn to look
for different, you know, keys oror hints that you're in the
right area or, you know, elk sign, I guess, if you will,
aside from the obvious bugling. But so, so tell me something,
since you're talking about your dad, like what's been like the
(37:18):
greatest thing that you've learned from him that's helped
you become a better hunter for for people that are new that
maybe you're going like, how do I get the job done?
I would say it's he's taught me to slow down.
I think just being young and excited to be out there,
especially now being like stuck in Florida all the time, he's
(37:38):
taught me to just slow down. Like that man reads tracks and
he's so sure about it. And I'm like, I don't even know
which way that track is facing, you know, and he'll be like, oh,
look, it was probably eating this rose hip right here turned
a little bit and then so we should probably follow this
trail. And I'm like, it's something I
would have, I would have walked over that and been like, oh,
(38:00):
that's a three day old track. It doesn't really matter.
You know, you kind of just thinkmore of this track isn't fresh.
What's, what does it really matter?
And my dad just sits there and reads tracks and walks slow and
hears stuff and uses glass more than more than he uses his legs.
And I don't think you can reallygo wrong with that.
(38:22):
I, I think there's a part where you got to get off the trail,
you know, the common path where everyone's driving by on their
side by sides. So maybe for the first mile I'll
walk a little faster, but then Itry to hear him and and slow way
down and listen and glass a lot more because he's definitely
stopped me in my tracks. But you know, with the little
(38:42):
and point and like, oh shit, I didn't even see that.
Like is right there the whole time.
And other times I would have blown it out without him.
Yeah. I think that's great advice.
So, so Scott, tell tell me a little bit about that first
bowl. Tell me the story.
I. Want to that That bowl was in
Wyoming. It was with my dad and his
(39:05):
friend and his friend's son who's my age.
And I remember I have some really cool pictures of it
actually. We we lost him for like 2 hours.
We had to go around this Canyon to get to where I shot him.
It was with a rifle and my, my dad's friend had shot a bowl
(39:25):
too, in the same same herd that we pushed out of this Canyon up
onto the other side. I remember it probably sounding
like, you know, some Wild West movie.
I think I shot at that bull fourtimes before I hit it.
I was so excited and my, my dad's friends bull ended up
getting drug off by Grizzlies bythe time we got there.
(39:46):
And the Grizzlies coming out of Yellowstone are just thick, even
at my dad's house. I mean, he lives up to North
Fork right outside of Cody and he's got him on his back porch a
couple times in the last year and.
That was my first experience with Grizzlies.
We got over there and I'm like, where's that other bull?
And they're like, the bears got it.
And I was like, oh shit, really.Like that's a thing.
(40:10):
And this, this bull was, I mean,he's a 6 by 6.
He's not the biggest bull in theworld, but he, he definitely
means the most to me that that hunt with my dad just being like
the first real hunt that we got to do together.
I don't know. I've definitely raised a lot,
lot bigger bowls. There's one on my safe in the
(40:32):
bedroom that's monumental compared to this thing, but it
probably means the most to me out of all of them.
Yeah, I think, I think it takinglike your first big game animal,
like it doesn't matter like whatthe size of it is.
It's just like being out there putting in the work, learning
how to get it done. Like I'm pretty sure I'm going
to be like a wreck once I finally like down like my first
(40:56):
animal because it's, I mean, youdo like that.
That's the other thing back to these people that are like anti
hunting, even like they, they think that we're out there like
hunting out of hate and it's like it's out of love and
appreciation for the animal And you know, the work that you have
to put in to be able to get the job done.
Like that's no joke. I I mean, especially archery
(41:17):
hunting, which is like the only thing that I'm doing right now,
like you beat yourself up like on the regular.
Like it, it is a grind. And, and then and, and I know
it's like everyone who talks about like the anti hunters and,
and that like, oh, you're killing the animals and it's
like beating a dead horse. But it's like they either get
(41:37):
eaten by another animal like a grizzly bear like you just
talked about. And the Grizzlies typically
aren't taking the big bulls. They're taking the little calves
steps that they can catch, you know, I mean, or they're
starving to death or they're freezing to death.
You know, a well placed shot is actually like a pretty humane
(42:00):
way to take these animals, at least in my opinion.
And and I know a lot of people agree with that, But but to go
out there and just like like ruin somebody's trip, like you
said, like it's like once in a lifetime, you know, hunt for
you, for someone to go in and ruin that.
I think that's, you know, very short sighted on their part at a
(42:21):
minimum. I think so too, and and just the
feeling of like since I've been home, I've taken sausage, you
know, jerky made so much jerky, but steaks everything to to my
work, my neighbors like I love the feeling of sharing it.
It's so fun to bring that and belike, here, try this.
This is, you know, you asked me about my trip, like I'll bring
(42:43):
you some meat tomorrow and you could try it.
Like it's, I think there's so much more honor in that than
there is going and just buying asteak.
Like giving that meat to somebody feels better than any
part of the hunt to me. I mean, especially with like,
like you said, I mean, during that 3 1/2 weeks we were there,
(43:04):
I think I had it marked on my Instagram like a week ago, I
think, but it was like 156 milesor something.
We hiked and I mean, that was itwas rough.
I'm a type 1 diabetic and I'll tell you what, my buddy Brad
saved my ass out there a couple times.
Like everybody else is packing, you know, all their stuff and
(43:27):
half my packs candy, just tryingto make sure that when my blood
sugar drops, I have something toget it back and to get back to
that people breaking into our car.
They, they took everything. And I remember being like, you
guys don't even know the medicalsupplies that that you steal and
break. Like that's that's literally my
(43:47):
lifeline out here. And you're doing it for if it
was anti hunters. I don't if it could have been
tweakers for all I know. But whoever it was, it's like
you're robbing someone 35 miles from a paved road, 100 miles
from town and stealing everything and like, medicine,
(44:08):
everything. Like, it just it's crazy to me
that humanity is that low. Yeah, but that's just a a thing
that people are doing to each other.
Yeah, it's crazy. It's a crazy world we're living
in right now for sure, man. Hey Scott, have you done any
like predator hunting like with your with your dad like bears or
anything out there? Yeah, I've haunted a couple
(44:30):
black bears with my dad. Amazing time.
I I haven't never shot one at both times I've been with him,
he's shot 1 I think because I always bring my bow and he
brings a rifle and I'm like wow,we're not going to get that
close. And I'm like, well, let's just
try and then. So you guys do spot in stock
then when you're bear hunting? Yeah.
(44:51):
So you're not just going out there, you know, giving him
something that. Can be done.
No, I've never never haunted himover bait, although I wouldn't
be against it if if I could get to Canada and go shoot one up
there, I would definitely be interested in doing it.
But he's all about spot and stock and that's kind of my
favorite way to hunt. I do a lot with him of that and
(45:14):
at least in Florida doing some coyote hunting, but a lot of a
lot of pig hunting with my bow. That's a That's a fun thing to
hunt, like hunting another. Invasive species.
Yeah, and they're just, they're fun.
Like there's something, there's something fun about hunting
pigs, like just big boars in the, in the thick grass of
Florida. They have a, they call it small
(45:36):
game season where the whole thing you can hunt with is a
shotgun. And to go walk through like 6
foot tall Guinea grass with a shotgun is is a lot of fun.
I've never heard of that, that that would be, that would be a
blast to get out there and do that.
I know I'm planning. I'm going to go do a black bear
(45:57):
hunt next, next fall up in NorthCarolina, going up with Nathan
Cox, who's a game warden up there and I had him on on the
podcast. He's a good dude.
He's a good dude figure if you're going someplace you're
(46:17):
unfamiliar with, your best bet is to go with somebody who's a
game warden. Definitely be able to keep your
your butt out of trouble. But if they're cool, if they're
cool, he's. He's a well, yeah, I mean, I
guess if, if you're going with him, it's probably, it's got to
be pretty cool. He's a cool dude.
I, I, I think most game wardens are pretty chill.
Like if you get to know him, I know there's some guys that have
(46:38):
had bad experiences, but, but I don't know.
I mean, I guess I've just been lucky.
I haven't done anything stupid enough to really get me into any
type of trouble right now. But but Nathan's a good dude.
He's a good dude. I'm excited to get up there and
do that hunt next year. I think that's going to be a lot
of fun. But that'll be a great hunt.
Have you got anything else coming up you're going to be
hunting this year? I'm going to go to Texas here.
(47:01):
My daughter's birthday. She doesn't know this yet, but
my daughter's birthday is in 10 days and she's turning 12.
And I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she said to
shoot a deer. And I was like, Dang, I don't
know that you'll ever say that again.
So I should definitely take takeit, take it up on it.
So I'm going to take her. One of my really good friends
(47:22):
and kind of a mentor through anesthesia school was he owns a
ranch out there called the Four O 6 Ranch just outside of San
Antonio. And I'm going to take her to go
shoot a deer, a management buck.He's got a yeah, whitetail.
He's got a, a buck that I've been watching for the last
(47:44):
probably year on game cams from him that's it's got to be
pushing 200 inches. And I call it the handlebar buck
that I just want him. I don't really know why it's his
his ranch is it's high fenced onthree sides.
So it's not guaranteed that thisbuck will still be there.
(48:07):
But he's been on the ranch for for the last year and a half at
least. And it's got to be most
impressive buck I've seen in a while.
So I didn't want, I thought about letting my daughter shoot
that one. And then I was like, if she
shoots a 200 inch whitetail for her first animal ever, she's
going to be ruined for hunting. You're never going to.
(48:28):
You're never going to have any excitement again.
Either that or you'll have her hooked.
Yeah, I guess it is a gamble. Well, that'll be fun.
Try to try to get in on that. My dad's got a elk tag that he
he haunted, like I would say 2 weeks ago he was hunting and
didn't get on one outside of Casper rifle elk tag that he
(48:52):
gets a couple more days in December, like December, 10 days
or something. So I'll probably go out there
for that. I'd like to, I don't know.
You never know how many more hunts somebody has.
So anytime I can get him, get him into the woods with my dad,
I'd take care of that. Yeah, yeah.
At some point the body just kindof stops being able to do all
(49:14):
the all the hard type of hunting.
So that'll be good for you guys to get out there and spend some
time together and, and that's fun.
You get to take your daughter down to Texas and do a do a
little hunting. That'll be it.
Has she been hunting before withyou?
Yeah, I, I take my kids, all three of them, I mean, anytime I
can into the woods here, even ifit's with a shotgun for pigs.
(49:35):
Yeah, I took my son out. He's 16 now, but he was
probably, I don't know, six. The first time I took him
hunting and I had him on my shoulders and I knew where there
were a bunch of pigs and I heard.
Then someone else started shooting on the other side and I
picked him up and I put him on my shoulders and I'm like hey,
(49:59):
I'm going to start shooting in aminute because I know those pigs
are going to come towards us. And I think I shot 5 pigs with a
12 gauge with him on my shoulders as they were just
running down this dirt road right at us.
And you couldn't have asked for a better pig hunting experience
for him. That's.
Super cool. But they they all want to go elk
(50:19):
hunting. I just feel like they're not
quite there yet as far as I don't really elk hunt from the
truck and and it's a it's a rough, it's a rough trip.
I mean, so I think that'll wait.I'd like to go out to Hawaii.
I have a lot of friends and family out in Hawaii probably in
February. And I don't know if you've been
(50:41):
out there to hunt, but there's great access deer hunting like
no bag limits, no anything. They're just such a nuisance
animal on some of the islands. But the pig hunting on on the
Big Island where I grew up most of my young adulthood is is
unreal and actually where I got into bow hunting with have a
(51:04):
great friend out there, Mario, who who hunts them with just
dogs and a roping rope and a knife.
And if you ever wanted to have some fun going out there and
hunting pigs like that is, it's fun.
Wow, that's crazy. But if you ever want to come to
Florida and do a shotgun only season here with me, I'd be down
(51:24):
to put you on some pigs for sure.
Yeah, man, I'm down. When is that season?
I think it opens November 15th through like the middle of
January and. It's just over the counter tag.
Over the counter, all you need is a license and even the neat
thing about Florida is like if you it's your first time hunting
(51:47):
here, you you don't even have tohave your hunter safety or a
hunting license. It's like some, you know,
introduction to hunting. You go with somebody that has
one and go shoot some pigs. Right on.
Yeah, man, we'll have to talk more about that for sure.
I think that'd be a blast. Plus it's always fun to get to a
little bit warmer place when, you know, I'm in Utah.
(52:09):
So yeah, the cold is the cold isstarting to set in here a little
bit. I'm so jealous.
It's I do enjoy it. I mean, it the change in season
super nice. But but yeah, once once the snow
starts hitting and it gets cold,like you really quickly start
getting ready for for spring andsummer to come.
(52:29):
But Scott, hey, as as we wrap uphere, like any last little bit
of advice you'd give to anybody that just is out there hunting
that you know, we'll make it funfor them.
I would say the I would more often than not, the times I've
gotten besides this year, this is this last hunting season was
(52:53):
just a total fluke shooting thatbull on the first day.
I think it's like that one more Ridge thing, like if you just go
one more Ridge when you're readyto stop.
So many times that's put me on something that that I wouldn't
have gotten and a lot of times it's gotten me a long walk back
(53:14):
in the dark. But I think it's just all about
going a little bit deeper. Go a little bit deeper than
everybody else. Go a little bit harder than
everybody else and you're going to find them.
I mean, especially elk, you people push them and they go,
you know, 4 ridges over and stop.
And there's a lot of people thataren't willing to walk four or
(53:34):
three ridges over and not go that 4.
You know, you just got to keep, keep going.
And I think that's that's what'spaid off the most for me over
the years is just putting the boots on the ground.
Excellent advice Scott. If somebody want to find wants
to follow you on social, how canthey find you?
I think my Instagram is just, myname is Scott Dunton on
(53:55):
Instagram. It's pretty much the only thing
that I use a lot of anesthesia photos and stuff, but it's not
anesthesia. It's hunting.
And right now it's probably a lot of iguana posts here.
We. Go Well, we'll put we'll put a
link in the show notes for people to follow you.
Scott, man, it's been great to talk to you and and get to know
you a little bit better. Really, really enjoy your time.
(54:18):
Appreciate you coming on the show.
Thanks man. For sure, Ryan and I had I had a
great time with you as well and always watching the podcast.
So keep it up and I'll look forward to hearing it checking
out, see how you do on your bearhunt.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah.
I'll let you know. I'll send you some pics once we
get that done. But anyway, hey guys, thanks for
listening to another episode of the Hunt Stealth Podcast.
(54:39):
We are the fastest growing hunting podcast in the nation.
Stay safe and God bless.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Betrayal: Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a brand new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack. And make sure to check out Seasons 1-4 of Betrayal, along with Betrayal Weekly Season 1.