December 11, 2025 • 41 mins
In this episode, Ryan sits down with Tim Maddock, founder of Madd Hunts, to break down how a family tradition evolved into one of the most accessible DIY Coues deer and Sonoran big-game operations in Mexico. Tim shares the 25-year journey of figuring out the entire Mexico hunting system on his own from contacting ranchers to securing gun permits and how that knowledge now allows everyday hunters to experience world-class trophy hunts at blue-collar prices. They discuss safety in Mexico, the mental game of long water-hole sits, Tim’s once-in-a-lifetime three-year quest for a Boone & Crockett typical buck, the differences between desert and mountain ranches, and the logistics hunters should understand before booking their first trip. Whether you're curious about DIY hunting in Sonora, planning a mule deer or Coues deer adventure, or wondering how the process works, this episode is packed with real insight from someone who has lived it for decades.
Tim learned every aspect of hunting in Mexico by doing it himself contacting ranchers, securing paperwork, and navigating logistics before turning it into a business with his sons.
Sitting 11–12 hours a day for multiple days requires discipline, patience, and a mindset shift—boredom followed by seconds of pure adrenaline.
Coues deer rut mid-January, mule deer rut earlier, and mountain vs desert ranches offer completely different hunting styles spot-and-stalk vs water-hole ambush.
5 Key Takeaways:
Mad Hunts was built on 25 years of firsthand experience: Tim learned every aspect of hunting in Mexico by doing it himself, contacting ranchers, securing paperwork, and navigating logistics before turning it into a business with his sons.
Safety concerns are often overstated: After decades of traveling to Sonora, Tim has had virtually no negative cartel encounters. Safety largely depends on the region and sticking to vetted routes and ranches.
Desert water-hole hunts are a mental game: Sitting 11–12 hours a day for multiple days requires discipline, patience, and a mindset shift… boredom followed by seconds of pure adrenaline.
Prime hunting windows vary by species and ranch type: Coues deer rut mid-January, mule deer rut earlier, and mountain vs desert ranches offer completely different hunting styles spot-and-stalk vs water-hole ambush.
DIY and semi-guided hunts make Mexico affordable and accessible: DIY hunts start around $4,500, semi-guided around $5,500, providing international trophy opportunities at a price point most guided U.S. hunts can’t compete with.
Instagram: Kade Maddock
Instagram: Connor Maddock
Discount Codes:
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- BLK FLG 20% OFF Promo Code: STEALTH
- Muley Maniac’s 20% OFF Promo Code: STEALTH
- Sheepfeet 20% OFF Promo Code: STEALTH
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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. Welcome to another episode of
(00:22):
the Hunt Stealth Podcast. Excited to have Tim Maddock on
the show today. Tim is the owner of Mad Hunts
that him and his boys, Kaden Connor run and excited to talk
to them and and see what's goingon and, and get you guys an
introduction to what Mad Hunts is all about.
Tim, thanks for joining me. Appreciate you having me.
(00:43):
Thank you. So, so tell me like with Mad
hunts, like how did how did thiswhole thing get started?
So mad Hunts started probably not literally, but figuratively
started probably 25 years ago. I started going to Mexico to
hunt Coos deer. Just the the quality of the deer
(01:05):
and the access to big trophy Coos deer was better in Mexico.
So I hired a guide at the time and, and I haunted with him for
three years. And we after that I went back
and, and did some other guides and some other ranches.
And over time I figured out how to go hunt in Mexico for Coos,
(01:30):
deer and other animals, other species.
But I figured out the process. I figured out how to contact the
ranchers. I figured out how to get the gun
permits. I figured out how to get the
paperwork. I figured out the entire process
of being able to go to Mexico and hunt over there and have
these trophy quality hunts on a do it yourself level on a do it
(01:52):
yourself budget, You know, no guides, just myself and my, my
two sons. Actually, it was three of my
sons back in the day going over there and just having a good old
time. And as my sons got older and
they fell in love with Mexico, we decided to turn it into a
business and, and to start bringing people that weren't
(02:12):
just friends and family to startbringing actual customers, paid
clients. And now we pride ourselves on
the, the DIY hunts and the semi guided hunts in bringing other
people down there, just like I did 25 years ago.
They can, they can have their own hunting ranch, their own
tags, their paperwork. We provide all of that and allow
(02:36):
other people to go down there and access the, you know, the
state of Sonora in Mexico, access all that it has to offer
and go on some of these great, great trophy quality haunts down
there. That's exciting.
Yeah. That's a good way to get into
it. I guess just go down there,
figure it out yourself and then say, hey, we can make it
possible for other people. So I, I know like there's a lot
(02:58):
of people, you know, I mean, we talked a little bit earlier just
with the climate between the USAand Mexico, and I don't even
know that it's so much USA and Mexico.
But one of the things I I think some people think about like is
it safe to go down to Mexico andhunt?
Well, what would you say to that?
Yeah, I mean, anywhere you go inthe world cannot be safe.
(03:18):
I mean, there's places in the United States that are not safe
for a family to travel through at certain times of the day or
night. So with that said, it's kind of
a loaded question, but I've beengoing down there 25 years.
I'm I'm still here. I'm still alive.
I've never. I've never.
Still making it back. Yeah, I've, I've never been
kidnapped by the cartel. I've never been held at gunpoint
(03:39):
by the cartel. The truth of the matter is I've,
I've had very, very few encounters with the cartel.
The extent of my encounters are driving down the highway and you
see a, you know, a black Escalade cruise by you 100 miles
an hour, and you just think to yourself, maybe that's the
cartel. I've brought the CIA, yeah.
(04:02):
Exactly. I've, I've brought my teenage
daughter down there, my friends have brought their younger
daughters and, and even wives down there.
I wouldn't do that if I didn't think that it was safe.
And, you know, we just don't have bad experiences.
Part of it is where you're goingin, in Mexico and, and not just
(04:23):
locally, staying out of bad areas locally, but but what part
of the state? The closer you are to the border
of Arizona, it seems like there's more issues with the
cartel. There's places further to the
West near Kaborka that seem to be really, really bad for areas
for the cartel. But most, for the most part
where we're going is is South ofthose areas down towards
(04:45):
Aramuccio. And we just have very little,
you know, interaction or or knowledge that the cartels even
there so. Yeah, no, I, I mean, I would
imagine it's just like you said,like anywhere there's, you know,
up until recently you couldn't go out after dark in DC.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, same thing. Yeah, no, I think that's good.
(05:10):
So, so tell me, like, what's been one of your favorite hunts
that you've been on down there in in in Sonora?
They're all good. You know, this, this buck right
here behind me has a special place in my heart that that buck
is a giant 3 point typical that I just killed.
(05:32):
A few years ago, my son Kade andI were driving down a dirt Rd.
on one of our ranches. We were setting up trail cameras
and this buck right here, he ranout in front of us and both of
our jaws hit the floor. We had had no knowledge of, you
know, the buck. We were kind of, I mean, he was,
(05:52):
he was close running across the road in front of us.
Like after he ran by, I just stopped the side by side and
looked at my son and we didn't know what to say.
We tried to hunt him. In fact, my son tried to hunt
him that season. And he never, never had the
opportunity to kill him. I came back or we all came back
(06:16):
the next year. And since my son had the the
year before, he went after him. I, I went after him this year
and I sat for him for 6 and 5 S about 11 days for about 12 hours
a day in a ground blind before he came in to water with a dough
and I was able to shoot him about 6065 yards.
(06:39):
And he actually is is the, the number one typical over the last
five year, three-year scoring period with Boone and Crockett.
I just got to take him to the convention this summer in in
Missouri and he was on display. And yeah.
The. Fanfare was kind of cool, but
(07:00):
he's he's just a big old buck and, and to kind of experience
it and have my son hunt him and I got to hunt him and it was, it
was just, it was a lot of fun. Yeah, man.
Yeah, well, he's gorgeous, Buck.I couldn't imagine, like you
said, like you're out there, seethat thing like walk by.
It's like. What on earth?
Where did this monster come from?
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Yeah, well, he's gorgeous, Buck.I couldn't imagine.
(08:25):
Like you said, like you're out there, see that thing, like walk
by. It's like, what on earth?
Where did this monster come from?
Right. We were, we were shocked, but
the the ranch puts out big caliber deer.
But we just, he surprised us. We didn't, we didn't know he was
there. We we didn't know anything about
him. So he surprised us.
(08:46):
So. So you were hunting him for 11
days? Is it 11-12 hour days?
That season. That season, the.
Prior season, my son Cade haunted him for it would have
been like closer to probably 14 days.
And then after all of this came about, we realized we did
(09:09):
actually have pictures of him the previous year.
We didn't know it was him, but afriend of mine had had tried to
hunt him for 11 days, I think itwas the previous year.
So we were after this buck for three days for three years and
it it finally happened on on my term.
(09:30):
So I was the I was the guy in the right place at the right
time and just had the opportunity to do it.
But some other guys had the chance before me and it just
didn't work out. So, so let me ask you this
question as somebody who suffersfrom ADHD and, and sitting
still, right? Like, like when I'm out hunting,
(09:51):
I'm Jason, mule deer or elk, it's like I'm, I'm chasing them,
which is probably my problem. But like, what is kind of like
the mindset that that you've learned to get you through those
days where you're sitting on a water hole all day long waiting
for, you know, an opportunity? Yeah.
So in Mexico there's kind of twodifferent ranches.
There's mountain ranches, which are big mountains and, and you
(10:12):
get out your your spotting scopes and binoculars and you're
glassing long distances and you're doing it oftentimes all
day, much more interactive. So you're out hiking and doing
all of that on the desert ranches.
And we have both types of ranches down there.
But you know, on the, on the desert ranches, these, these
mature deer will come into waterduring the rut because of either
(10:34):
they're thirsty or the dough that they're running is thirsty.
And so it takes a 12 hour, 11 or12 hour sit in order to get
them. And we've often explained it
that it's, you know, hours upon hours and days upon days of
sheer boredom, followed up by, you know, a few seconds of, of
(10:54):
adrenaline rush and pure excitement.
And that's about what it is. And, you know, I'm not a big
gamer on my phone. I know my sons like to to get on
their phones and, and play gamesduring the day and, and that
sort of thing. You count the number of ducks
that are sitting in the pond in front of you or you count, you
(11:15):
know, the javelina or, you know,you find ways to to cover the
boredom. The thing is, you can't like
doze off and sleep the deer comein so quietly that you, you, you
could miss an opportunity if you, if you were to even just
doze off for a few minutes. So you, you like I said, we, we
(11:38):
count ducks. We, you know, lizards will crawl
into our ground blinds and we'llplay with lizards.
And I mean just dumb stuff that if you're bored and, and you
just, but at the same time you're not working, you're not
at home working in an office or whatever you do.
So you don't have that. The phone's not ringing, There's
(11:59):
nobody there. So it is an opportunity to just
be out in God's creation and, and just enjoy some, some
weather, some nature, some, you know, the breeze running through
your blind. You just find ways to to cope
with it. I think I think that's part of
our like part of the issue, likewith with like my generation and
(12:22):
especially the younger generation, it's like you get
used to having that dopamine hitlike 24/7.
Like you have constant access. And I'm I'm not a gamer.
I don't play, you know, I don't do that stuff.
But I guess maybe you could takea book.
But but I think, I think with I,I think to your point, you know,
(12:43):
where we're, you just have to becomfortable sitting there, Amy,
you're there for a purpose, be alert and kind of find like a
mind space that you're going. I mean, I don't know, I didn't
serve in the military or anything, but I imagine it's
kind of like, I mean, that's whythey trained those guys the way
that they do. So they can sit someplace for
(13:04):
days on end and wait for, you know, a target or Intel what
they're trying to gather. And so maybe you play that mind
game that you're like, OK, I'm on a quest.
It is absolutely a mental game that you're playing.
It's not a physical game, although the only physical part
of it is trying not to sleep. You know, if you're prone to
dozing off and in a that kind ofthing, it can be a challenge.
(13:27):
But yeah, you're finding this space in your mind where you're
alone with your thoughts and you're alone in nature.
And you know, yeah, there's people that that bring books.
There's, there's different ways to occupy the time, but you,
you, you just learn to find a, aspace in your mind and deal with
it. I don't, I, I personally, I, I'm
(13:48):
not a reader, I don't read books, I'm not a gamer, so I
don't like to play, play the games.
I really just enjoy watching thedeer that come in.
Recently we've started to do a lot more videoing of the deer
and the javelina and you know, the animals that come in.
And so that will occupy some time if a, if a doe or a group
of does comes in. So you can, you can spend some
(14:09):
time getting some video and those kind of things.
So there's, there's ways to fillthe space and, and then there's
sheer boredom as well. And it can be hot or it can be
cold. I mean, you're, you're dealing
with the elements too. So, so on that hot and cold,
maybe shifting gears a little bit like what time of year is
(14:32):
kind of like open season when people can come down there and
go on the hunt? Because I I'm totally unfamiliar
with with with this type of hunt.
Right. So the season technically opens
in like the middle of November and closes after about the first
week or 10 days in February, primarily for the the desert
ranches sitting water. The, the better years are are
(14:55):
drier years where where the feeddoesn't have as much water, the
grass and the leaves and the brows, it doesn't have as much
water in it. And you know, they get a lot of
water from their feed. So on a year that's drier,
you'll tend to have more more deer that are coming into water.
A little more action. Yeah, it's not necessarily the
(15:16):
temperature. It can, you know, we've killed
deer at 40° outside, but the thefeed doesn't have enough water
in it. And so the deer are still, you
know, they're, they're running, they're running, they're active.
And so they need to come in and,and get some, some water.
But the best the the rut takes place about that second week in,
(15:38):
in January, give or take on these desert ranches.
We have mountain ranches and therut can take place, you know,
end of December into the first week or so of, of January.
But we we do good shooting, shooting some of these deer
before Christmas in December. The Bucks are starting to get a
(15:59):
little bit more or less nocturnal and they're getting a
little bit more active. They're, they're going to some
of these water holes as a socialvisit because they're looking
for where the doughs are going to be.
And so they're going to the water holes, not necessarily for
water, but to, to smell and to see and to, to start, you know,
(16:20):
looking around, where is everybody hanging up, hanging
out? Where is the party going to be
here in a month? Testosterone starting to flow?
Exactly. They're, they're starting to to
think about that and. Where's where's this party going
to happen? Exactly.
And and so they, they get more active and so we tend to to do
pretty good that week or or 10 days before before Christmas and
(16:47):
we usually bring a few hunters there.
It may not be the week that I would bring a first time Mexico
Cruise Deer Hunter to to hunt with us, but some of these guys
that have been doing it for for a few years, they know that that
oftentimes the best time to killa bigger buck, big mature buck
is going to be in December before Christmas.
(17:08):
OK. And what other, what other hunts
do you guys offer 'cause I do you guys do Javelina?
Yeah, we can. We can do javelina.
All these ranches have javelina on them.
Sometimes guys just want to shoot a javelina.
They're not that concerned with taking it home.
And so most, most of the time that can be an add on and we
just give the meat to the to theCowboys.
(17:29):
The Cowboys love it. They'll make tacos and tamales
and different, you know, meals with it, but they absolutely
love the the javelina. I'm not a huge fan of it.
They stink. You know, people love to say
that their way of cooking a javelina is better than
everybody else's. And I've, I've yet to find one
(17:49):
that that I would ever, you know, go.
To a it. Was so good that I'd pay for it
at a restaurant I've I've never eaten javelina that was that
good so I. Always kind of just pinch in
your nose when you eat it. You know, once you smell a
javelina it, it's very similar to a skunk, but once you smell
it, you, you can't get it out ofyour mind.
(18:10):
And so when, when your mind, when you're eating it, your mind
just reverts back to that smell.And for me anyway.
And I, I can't. Not that I'm smelling it while I
eat it, but my mind remembers that smell and I just, I can't.
It's like, this is what? This is what you're eating?
(18:31):
Yeah. This is what you're.
Eating. Why are you putting this in our
in our body? Yeah, they, they stink.
They're, they're nasty little animals and they're fun to hunt.
I love shooting them. And if you're going to shoot
them, just just shoot them rightin the head, especially if
you're sitting water or whatever, shoot them in the
head. And you know, that way the
Cowboys, they, they get more meat that way you're not
spoiling any meat. But we, we hunt javelina.
(18:53):
We have mule deer hunts down there.
There's some giant Sonoran mule deer and that, that we like to
do some predator hunts, some, you know, electronic collars and
stuff. That's not a, a big seller or
big ticket item, but it is a blast.
A lot of these ranches have never been predator called
(19:13):
before. And so it's not uncommon to
call, you know, two or three coyotes or a bobcat.
I was with my daughter, we called in a a bobcat and a Gray
fox and a coyote all into one set.
But some the the calling for predators can be fantastic down
there and it's a lot of fun and it's helpful to manage the the
(19:35):
predator numbers on the ranch. Yeah, I've heard that bobcat
hunting can be pretty fun here. Their coats are amazing.
It is, yeah. Yeah.
So is, is that all like, I mean,do all those different hunts is
like mule deer in that same timeframe as like the Coos deer or
(19:55):
is that like a different season?So they're all the same season.
Technically, the mule deer will tend to rut a week or two ahead
of the Coos deer. Mule deer cover a lot of ground.
The A Coos deer is a homebody and they tend to live.
In a very small area and it might most of the year the area
(20:16):
might be less than a square mileand during the rut that area
could be two or three or four square miles.
But it's not a very big, that's still not a very big area.
A mule deer on these flat desertranches can, can move 5 or 10
miles, 15 miles overnight. And so they're, they cover a
(20:38):
much, much broader range of, of country.
And so they tend to be a little bit more active longer.
So Coosier really it's based on the rut.
You could still find mule deer that are out and moving in in
late November and through December and into January
(21:01):
because they're just more prone to covering a lot of country and
and they're just out and moving on, on these big, big open,
they're not open always, but these big flats, choya flats and
Mesquite flats that they like tolive in.
And and then their predator, is that kind of like the sit like
cause all those things kind of like the same time or like you
(21:23):
said, are they add-ons that someone can do?
Yeah, sometimes with with the predators, if somebody shoots
their their target animal early on and we've got more days in
the hunt before it's time to go home, then we'll take them out
just to keep everybody occupied and and it's fun.
We'll take them out. Predator calling.
We also we can we bring predatorhunters specifically for
(21:49):
electronic predator calling. We'll do that.
But usually that'll be like February and March.
We don't like to do it too much to.
In season. Right.
It conflicts with our other hunters.
We don't want to step on their toes.
So if we have a hunter during the season that we're going to
take predator calling, we take them far away from everybody
(22:09):
else so we're not booger and deer that that deer hunters want
to kill. No, that makes sense.
That makes sense. So if, if somebody like is
thinking like, hey, I want to try this about, you know, they,
they look at the coup steer. I mean, I think that's probably
one of the biggest draws for a lot of people down there 'cause
it's just kind of like unique. And but like when, when should
(22:34):
they start planning? Like what would they need to
have like walk me through like getting somebody kind of like
organized and set up to to prepare for one of these type of
hunts with you guys? So the the best time to plan for
is, is now is when you're thinking about it, when, when
you're interested in it. It's funny, we're, we're a month
away from going into our season and I still have guys that are
(22:57):
calling me saying, hey, do you have openings for this year?
And sometimes we do, but trying to, to put gun permits and, and,
you know, put the logistics together for a, a hunt like
this. Sometimes it can't be done in
the way that you want to do it. So anytime, I mean we've already
booked hunters for next season, but the big time for us is as
(23:18):
soon as we're done with our deerseason and in the end of
January, beginning of February, we go right into the booking
season. All of those hunters that
haunted with us this season thatwant to come back next year, we
give them first, right, a refusal on the ranch and the
dates and everything. So those guys are all putting
their deposits down and you know, if if you've never haunted
(23:40):
with us before, the sooner you can get in our queue and get get
a hunt booked, the better opportunities, the better
ranches, the better scenario we can set you up with.
Very cool. And if somebody comes down
there, is it just rifle? If somebody wants to do like an
archery hunt, is that something that they can do as well?
(24:01):
Yeah, that's a great question. One of the things we really
pride ourselves is, is having a variation of ranches.
Like I said before, there's mountain ranches and desert
ranches. The mountain ranches where
you're doing the spot and stalk and really physical and
glassing, those are are definitely better suited for a
rifle hunt. I'm not saying that archery
(24:23):
hunters can't do it or don't have any success there at all,
but it's, it's tough. The desert is loud, crunchy
leaves and cactus needles and, and just the gravelly rocks that
you're walking on. It's really difficult to get in
close enough to kill a Coos deerwith a bow.
That's why on the desert ranches, we sit the water and
(24:44):
our archery hunters love sitting, sitting water holes.
We killed some big, big deer over water holes.
So we, we have that, but we're up close on these water holes.
We can get guys set up in that 25 to 35 yard range.
These are little tiny coosier, little tiny deer.
So you know, they're 100 to 120 lbs body size down there.
(25:06):
Live weight. But we do both hunts, even our
mule deer hunts. We, we, we high rack a lot for
mule deer. Pretty much every ranch in
Mexico is going to do a lot of that safari style high racking,
but we have feeder stations and water stations.
Corrals. For what it's worth, while I'm
thinking about it, we don't do any high fence in Mexico or
(25:31):
anywhere for that matter. None of the branches that we
promote or sell tags on are highfence.
They're all fair, fair chase, low fence ranches.
But sometimes we do have little corrals to keep the cows out and
inside the corral we have a water through or a feeder and
the the deer will come in to eatthe protein feed and to drink
(25:52):
the water. And those are great places to
set up, whether it's a mule deerhunt or a coosier hunt, those
are those are fantastic places to set up to, to kill trophy
animals. I mean, livestock is like the
bane of my existence when I've been out hunting.
It's like if I if I had a a cow tag.
Yeah. I'd I'd punch out every single,
(26:13):
every single year that I've beenout.
But but yeah, no, that's, I mean, it's nice.
They've got some type of way to keep them corralled, right?
Yeah, and I agree. The cattle and all the ranches
that we're on, all the ranches in Mexico, they're working
cattle ranches. You're not going to find a ranch
that doesn't have cows. Certain pastures may not have
(26:34):
cows in them, and those can be real productive.
But yeah, they're the bane of myexistence.
When we set trail cameras, we get to look at 10s of thousands
of cows. The cows lick our cameras, they
break our cameras, they move ourcameras.
So they, they hinder us in that regard.
But yeah, I I don't. I like to eat cows, but I don't
(26:58):
like cattle on the range. Yeah, no, I get that.
So hey, one one other and another question.
I have just thought that it came, it came to mind for
somebody thinking about this paperwork.
I know you said like you get thetag, like you help coordinate
the tag. Do they just?
I mean really all they need is like a passport, correct?
(27:20):
Yeah. So there there's a couple
things. There's a gun permit.
If you're bringing a gun, you need to have some special
paperwork to bring that gun. If you're bringing a bow,
archery equipment, crossbow, youdon't need any special paperwork
for that. So with the gun, we need
passport photos, we need driver's license photos, we need
your name and contact information.
And then we need your gun, your rifle information, your make
(27:42):
model serial number, the caliberwe need, your scope make model
serial number and and the the zoom variable variable zoom
range that is listed for the scope.
We have to actually submit that paperwork ahead of time.
I've already done it for this year.
I usually do it in September andOctober.
(28:03):
But you submit that and it takesa month or sometimes longer to
get those gun permits back. And you know, you need that
permit in order to bring a rifleinto Sonora, into Mexico.
Don't ever try bringing a rifle in there without having that
permit. You'll you'll wind up in a lot
of trouble. So if if someone, let's say
(28:25):
someone were to try and book a trip with you guys this year and
and they can't bring their own rifle, do you have rifles at
camp that they could use or how does that work?
Do they have to have their own? That's a good question.
We do have some, but it's, it's limited.
And I would say this for, for this year, there's very limited
(28:47):
opportunity. If somebody wants to go this
year, they they need to call me and like call me today kind of
thing. It's it, it's not out of the
realm of possibilities, but there's a few options here and
there. But sometimes, sometimes we let
them use our own rifles like like the I'm allowed to bring 2
(29:07):
rifles down on one permit. So every year I bring my 2
rifles down and you know, sometimes archery guys think
that they are going to kill something with a bow and it's
not working out. And sometimes they'll come back
to camp and say hey, I'd really like to change things up,
wouldn't mind using a rifle and I'm happy to to let them borrow
my rifle. Sometimes the ranchers have a
(29:29):
rifle, sometimes they have a good rifle and sometimes they
have a rifle. So there's a difference.
But, you know, there's, there's some options there, but the
ideal scenario is that they're bringing their own gun that
they're familiar with and and know how to shoot.
So as we discussed earlier, if you're want, if this is
something you're wanting to do, plan it in advance so you can
(29:52):
take the time. I mean, especially if you're
wanting to bring like your own, your own weapon.
It's interesting that they want the serial numbers for the
scopes. Do do you know why that is?
Well, I don't know why I they just started doing it.
I want to say this is either thesecond or third year.
Up until two or three years ago,they didn't care about our
(30:16):
scopes. And this year or two or three
years ago they started asking for the the scope make model
serial number. A lot of your scopes nowadays
have serial numbers, but some ofthe older ones or some of the
lesser quality ones don't have serial numbers.
And so it's sort of a challenge.And, you know, sometimes the
(30:38):
serial numbers are under the turret and I literally have to
get my phone camera out at a weird angle and have somebody
shine a flashlight so I can takea picture of a serial number so
that I can put, I'm not even joking with you.
And then when we get to Mexico, they want to check the serial
numbers. So we're getting mirrors and
cameras to, to try to find them in these obscure places, but
(31:00):
they want the serial numbers. And you know, who are we?
You know, if we want to go hunting, we got to play by their
rules and we we get them their serial numbers.
Yeah. Well, that's it.
That's interesting. It is.
Well, so if and, and we'll make sure we'll put a link in the
show notes if anybody's wanting to try and reach out and and
(31:25):
maybe fill up on these last spots that you have available.
If if not, at minimum, start planning for next year.
But they can visit your website.It's Mad Hunts, maddhunts.com
and I know people can also, you know they can.
Your boys are on social. So there it's Cade Maddox and
Connor Maddox and I'll get thoselinks.
(31:47):
We could put those in there as well 'cause as they go down
there and and help. But this is primarily ADIY type
hunt, right? Like you kind of get people down
there and get them set up in theright locations.
Yeah, We offer basically two types of hunts.
We're trying to set ourselves apart from the the guided
hunters or guided Outfitters outthere.
(32:09):
We are set up primarily for DIY do it yourself hunts and we also
have a hunt that we call a semi guided hunt.
The semi guided hunt is more of a more designed for somebody
that's never been to Mexico before.
If you've not gone hunting in Mexico, then I don't necessarily
want to send you with a gun and these paperworks and trying to
(32:31):
know the insurance and outs of coming and going on a hunting
trip in Mexico by yourself without being trained or seeing
how to do it first hand. So on a, on a semi guided hunt,
one of the mad hunts guys, either me or my two sons or some
of the other guys that we work with, we'll we'll meet you or in
(32:51):
your group at the border. And so we'll take you across the
border. We're there more as a tour guide
than a hunting guide. So we meet you at the border, we
cross the border, we check your guns, we take you to the ranch,
we show you the ranch. The hunting is all on your own
at that point. We're not there to guide you on
the hunt. You go out, you glass or you sit
a ground blind or those things. But you're you're on your own to
(33:13):
hunt at that point. We do bring a cook into the into
the semi guided camps. So there is a camp cook for us,
which is fantastic, by the way. It's worth going just for the,
the food down there. But so that's, that's your semi
guided hunt. Then then we're there to bring
you back across the the border and get all the paperwork and,
and get you back home. A do it yourself hunt is more
(33:37):
designed for somebody that's been down there before and
haunted down there before. And they know the system and
they know the process. They're really looking for a
ranch. They're looking for tags in a
ranch where they can go with their son, their daughter, their
buddies, their, their friends. And, and a lot of these DIY
camps are, are in groups of two or three or four or five guys.
(33:57):
And essentially what we're doingis we're getting you the tag,
we're getting you the gun permit.
We're providing you the, the paperwork that you're going to
need to fill out in order to getyour, your trophies back home.
And you know, it's almost like what if you're an Eastern
hunter? They call it a lease, a hunting
lease. It's, it's that type of thing
where we're providing the land. There's a house to stay in,
(34:21):
There's a kitchen to cook in. Some of them are rougher than
others. Some of the houses and kitchens
are pretty nice, Others are pretty, pretty rough.
But you know, some of our hunters are, are in it for
comfort and others are just in it for trophies.
And they don't care if they're staying in a, in a woodshed in,
in the, you know, back 40 somewhere.
They, they just want to go for the trophy quality.
So we've got, we've got ranches for everybody, rifle hunters,
(34:44):
archery hunters, you know, we'vegot, we've got a ranch.
I have more ranches than than I have people to sell them to.
So we can definitely get you setup if you want to go back and
forth every year, all of those scenarios.
Yeah. So like what, Like what's a
somebody going Like I, I'd like to do that, but I don't know if
(35:05):
I can afford it. Like what?
What's like a price range for people to kind of expect on
something like this? That's why we're doing this is
to, to connect to those blue collar guys as people that are
wanting to go on a trophy quality hunt and try to, you
know, they're working class individuals are Coos, deer, DIY
hunts across the border, pretty much all $4500 and that there's
(35:29):
a gun permit that you'll need topay for.
On top of that, if you choose tobring a gun, it's $350.00 and
you can put two rifles on one permit.
So $4500 is about as as inexpensive of a hunt you're
going to find these days. There may be a few out there,
but to, to go hunt internationally, have a private
ranch and, and usually, you know, 20 to 50 square miles of,
(35:54):
of hunting access just for you and a small group of people.
It's, it's pretty nice. Our semi guided hunts are $5500.
Again, if you're bringing a rifle, there's a $350.00 gun
permit. We have a few exceptions to that
and it's just based on, you know, the ranches and how much
we're paying for those tags. Sometimes it could be a little
(36:16):
bit less or sometimes it could be a little bit more, but 45 and
$5500 is pretty much where we'reat for the DIY and semi guided
hunts right now. And, and, and as far as getting
down there and that, and I think, I think that's, I mean,
that price range that you gave me is I mean, I think that like
you said for international Hunt,I think it's super affordable.
(36:38):
I mean, it makes, I mean, you look at some of the other type
of big game hunts that you want to go do and you're going to
drop 15 grand to get to get a, agood tag.
So the, the one of the questionsthat I had for people that are
going down there, do people, when you say get them across the
(36:58):
border, do you drive down? Do they fly down?
Like what's I mean, depending onwhere people are coming from,
like maybe maybe walk folks through what that might look
like. Yeah, so that's a good question.
And it depends on the hunter. It depends on where they're
hunting. So there's a lot of different
scenarios. The DIY hunters, they're doing
it themselves. So they're they're bringing
their own trucks, their own sideby sides, 4 Wheelers.
(37:22):
They're on their own. And again, we're there to help
them. And if they need some logistical
support and they need to know how to get a, a permit to, to
bring something down or whatever, we're there to help
them. But they're those guys are
completely on their own. The semi guided hunts, we will
pick people up at the Phoenix orthe Tucson airports and bring
(37:43):
them down with us if if that's what they need.
We do that more on our archery ranches or our desert ranches
where we're hunting out of ground blinds.
I've got guys that are coming infrom other states this year that
I'm picking up in Tucson and I'mbringing them down and I will be
the one taking them back and forth from the ranch house to
(38:06):
their ground blind each morning.So that's a possibility.
We also have have hunters that'll fly into Hermosillo and
we'll have somebody pick them upat the airport and bring them.
Usually those are mule deer hunters, but we'll, we, we can
do it with Coosier hunters as well.
But, but sometimes you guys willfly into Hermosillo and, and
we'll pick them up and bring them to their ranch.
(38:29):
It just like I said it it depends on on each individual
scenario I think. So most of the time you people
are driving across the border, they're in through Arizona.
Yeah, I like to go through Nogales.
We have some some hunts where Agua Prieta is, is the way to
go. But I like to go through the
Nogales port. And so once you make it past the
(38:52):
border, like what's kind of likethe average time frame to get to
the ranches that people are going to be hunting?
Anywhere from from 2 to 4 hours,so it.
Not too bad. No, it's it's not too bad at
all. It it really isn't a bad
scenario. OK.
Well, if, if, if somebody wants to do this again, I would
(39:16):
encourage you guys to go to madhunts.com again.
We'll put link in the show notes, but it is there any like
other little bits of advice maybe you would want to share
with somebody? That's the first time we're
thinking about it. That's wanting to head down and
and maybe try and hunt some Koosdeer in Sonora.
Yeah, it, it's, it's really doable.
(39:38):
And I, I mean, 4500 dollars is $4500.
I get that and everybody has different budgets and things
like that, but call me on the phone.
I love to talk to Koos Deer. I love to meet different people,
but call me on the phone and there may be a way that that we
can make it work for you. If you don't, if you don't call,
then you're never going to make it happen.
So. So, and again, you were saying,
(40:00):
Tim, you and I were talking a little bit before we started
recording, but if they go to madhunts.com and they call the
phone number on there, that's your personal cell phone.
That's my cell phone. The the number that's listed on
the the home page and the contact page on our website.
That's my cell phone. I text and I take phone calls.
I'm not a big social media guy. If you do our social media,
(40:20):
you're probably going to talk tomy son Kate or my son Connor.
And that's great. They love to talk as well.
You're, you're more than welcometo, to hit them up on Instagram
or TikTok or whatever the fancy social media sites are these
days. We have a YouTube channel and,
and we put a lot of our content and video on on our, our YouTube
channel. That's also Matt Hunt's, but you
(40:44):
know, look us up, talk to us andand we'd love to to see about
getting you set up for whether it's this year or the next year,
you know, some point in the future, we can we can definitely
make something happen for you. Awesome, Tim, thank you so much.
I really appreciate your time again you guys.
Go give them a follow. Check out their website,
madhunt.com, maddhunts.com and then we'll put links to the
(41:07):
YouTube and all the socials and everything in the show notes.
And again, thank you guys for listening to another episode of
the Hunt Stealth Podcast. We are the fastest growing
hunting podcast in America. 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. Welcome to another episode of
(00:22):
the Hunt Stealth Podcast. Excited to have Tim Maddock on
the show today. Tim is the owner of Mad Hunts
that him and his boys, Kaden Connor run and excited to talk
to them and and see what's goingon and, and get you guys an
introduction to what Mad Hunts is all about.
Tim, thanks for joining me. Appreciate you having me.
(00:43):
Thank you. So, so tell me like with Mad
hunts, like how did how did thiswhole thing get started?
So mad Hunts started probably not literally, but figuratively
started probably 25 years ago. I started going to Mexico to
hunt Coos deer. Just the the quality of the deer
(01:05):
and the access to big trophy Coos deer was better in Mexico.
So I hired a guide at the time and, and I haunted with him for
three years. And we after that I went back
and, and did some other guides and some other ranches.
And over time I figured out how to go hunt in Mexico for Coos,
(01:30):
deer and other animals, other species.
But I figured out the process. I figured out how to contact the
ranchers. I figured out how to get the gun
permits. I figured out how to get the
paperwork. I figured out the entire process
of being able to go to Mexico and hunt over there and have
these trophy quality hunts on a do it yourself level on a do it
(01:52):
yourself budget, You know, no guides, just myself and my, my
two sons. Actually, it was three of my
sons back in the day going over there and just having a good old
time. And as my sons got older and
they fell in love with Mexico, we decided to turn it into a
business and, and to start bringing people that weren't
(02:12):
just friends and family to startbringing actual customers, paid
clients. And now we pride ourselves on
the, the DIY hunts and the semi guided hunts in bringing other
people down there, just like I did 25 years ago.
They can, they can have their own hunting ranch, their own
tags, their paperwork. We provide all of that and allow
(02:36):
other people to go down there and access the, you know, the
state of Sonora in Mexico, access all that it has to offer
and go on some of these great, great trophy quality haunts down
there. That's exciting.
Yeah. That's a good way to get into
it. I guess just go down there,
figure it out yourself and then say, hey, we can make it
possible for other people. So I, I know like there's a lot
(02:58):
of people, you know, I mean, we talked a little bit earlier just
with the climate between the USAand Mexico, and I don't even
know that it's so much USA and Mexico.
But one of the things I I think some people think about like is
it safe to go down to Mexico andhunt?
Well, what would you say to that?
Yeah, I mean, anywhere you go inthe world cannot be safe.
(03:18):
I mean, there's places in the United States that are not safe
for a family to travel through at certain times of the day or
night. So with that said, it's kind of
a loaded question, but I've beengoing down there 25 years.
I'm I'm still here. I'm still alive.
I've never. I've never.
Still making it back. Yeah, I've, I've never been
kidnapped by the cartel. I've never been held at gunpoint
(03:39):
by the cartel. The truth of the matter is I've,
I've had very, very few encounters with the cartel.
The extent of my encounters are driving down the highway and you
see a, you know, a black Escalade cruise by you 100 miles
an hour, and you just think to yourself, maybe that's the
cartel. I've brought the CIA, yeah.
(04:02):
Exactly. I've, I've brought my teenage
daughter down there, my friends have brought their younger
daughters and, and even wives down there.
I wouldn't do that if I didn't think that it was safe.
And, you know, we just don't have bad experiences.
Part of it is where you're goingin, in Mexico and, and not just
(04:23):
locally, staying out of bad areas locally, but but what part
of the state? The closer you are to the border
of Arizona, it seems like there's more issues with the
cartel. There's places further to the
West near Kaborka that seem to be really, really bad for areas
for the cartel. But most, for the most part
where we're going is is South ofthose areas down towards
(04:45):
Aramuccio. And we just have very little,
you know, interaction or or knowledge that the cartels even
there so. Yeah, no, I, I mean, I would
imagine it's just like you said,like anywhere there's, you know,
up until recently you couldn't go out after dark in DC.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, same thing. Yeah, no, I think that's good.
(05:10):
So, so tell me, like, what's been one of your favorite hunts
that you've been on down there in in in Sonora?
They're all good. You know, this, this buck right
here behind me has a special place in my heart that that buck
is a giant 3 point typical that I just killed.
(05:32):
A few years ago, my son Kade andI were driving down a dirt Rd.
on one of our ranches. We were setting up trail cameras
and this buck right here, he ranout in front of us and both of
our jaws hit the floor. We had had no knowledge of, you
know, the buck. We were kind of, I mean, he was,
(05:52):
he was close running across the road in front of us.
Like after he ran by, I just stopped the side by side and
looked at my son and we didn't know what to say.
We tried to hunt him. In fact, my son tried to hunt
him that season. And he never, never had the
opportunity to kill him. I came back or we all came back
(06:16):
the next year. And since my son had the the
year before, he went after him. I, I went after him this year
and I sat for him for 6 and 5 S about 11 days for about 12 hours
a day in a ground blind before he came in to water with a dough
and I was able to shoot him about 6065 yards.
(06:39):
And he actually is is the, the number one typical over the last
five year, three-year scoring period with Boone and Crockett.
I just got to take him to the convention this summer in in
Missouri and he was on display. And yeah.
The. Fanfare was kind of cool, but
(07:00):
he's he's just a big old buck and, and to kind of experience
it and have my son hunt him and I got to hunt him and it was, it
was just, it was a lot of fun. Yeah, man.
Yeah, well, he's gorgeous, Buck.I couldn't imagine, like you
said, like you're out there, seethat thing like walk by.
It's like. What on earth?
Where did this monster come from?
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Yeah, well, he's gorgeous, Buck.I couldn't imagine.
(08:25):
Like you said, like you're out there, see that thing, like walk
by. It's like, what on earth?
Where did this monster come from?
Right. We were, we were shocked, but
the the ranch puts out big caliber deer.
But we just, he surprised us. We didn't, we didn't know he was
there. We we didn't know anything about
him. So he surprised us.
(08:46):
So. So you were hunting him for 11
days? Is it 11-12 hour days?
That season. That season, the.
Prior season, my son Cade haunted him for it would have
been like closer to probably 14 days.
And then after all of this came about, we realized we did
(09:09):
actually have pictures of him the previous year.
We didn't know it was him, but afriend of mine had had tried to
hunt him for 11 days, I think itwas the previous year.
So we were after this buck for three days for three years and
it it finally happened on on my term.
(09:30):
So I was the I was the guy in the right place at the right
time and just had the opportunity to do it.
But some other guys had the chance before me and it just
didn't work out. So, so let me ask you this
question as somebody who suffersfrom ADHD and, and sitting
still, right? Like, like when I'm out hunting,
(09:51):
I'm Jason, mule deer or elk, it's like I'm, I'm chasing them,
which is probably my problem. But like, what is kind of like
the mindset that that you've learned to get you through those
days where you're sitting on a water hole all day long waiting
for, you know, an opportunity? Yeah.
So in Mexico there's kind of twodifferent ranches.
There's mountain ranches, which are big mountains and, and you
(10:12):
get out your your spotting scopes and binoculars and you're
glassing long distances and you're doing it oftentimes all
day, much more interactive. So you're out hiking and doing
all of that on the desert ranches.
And we have both types of ranches down there.
But you know, on the, on the desert ranches, these, these
mature deer will come into waterduring the rut because of either
(10:34):
they're thirsty or the dough that they're running is thirsty.
And so it takes a 12 hour, 11 or12 hour sit in order to get
them. And we've often explained it
that it's, you know, hours upon hours and days upon days of
sheer boredom, followed up by, you know, a few seconds of, of
(10:54):
adrenaline rush and pure excitement.
And that's about what it is. And, you know, I'm not a big
gamer on my phone. I know my sons like to to get on
their phones and, and play gamesduring the day and, and that
sort of thing. You count the number of ducks
that are sitting in the pond in front of you or you count, you
(11:15):
know, the javelina or, you know,you find ways to to cover the
boredom. The thing is, you can't like
doze off and sleep the deer comein so quietly that you, you, you
could miss an opportunity if you, if you were to even just
doze off for a few minutes. So you, you like I said, we, we
(11:38):
count ducks. We, you know, lizards will crawl
into our ground blinds and we'llplay with lizards.
And I mean just dumb stuff that if you're bored and, and you
just, but at the same time you're not working, you're not
at home working in an office or whatever you do.
So you don't have that. The phone's not ringing, There's
(11:59):
nobody there. So it is an opportunity to just
be out in God's creation and, and just enjoy some, some
weather, some nature, some, you know, the breeze running through
your blind. You just find ways to to cope
with it. I think I think that's part of
our like part of the issue, likewith with like my generation and
(12:22):
especially the younger generation, it's like you get
used to having that dopamine hitlike 24/7.
Like you have constant access. And I'm I'm not a gamer.
I don't play, you know, I don't do that stuff.
But I guess maybe you could takea book.
But but I think, I think with I,I think to your point, you know,
(12:43):
where we're, you just have to becomfortable sitting there, Amy,
you're there for a purpose, be alert and kind of find like a
mind space that you're going. I mean, I don't know, I didn't
serve in the military or anything, but I imagine it's
kind of like, I mean, that's whythey trained those guys the way
that they do. So they can sit someplace for
(13:04):
days on end and wait for, you know, a target or Intel what
they're trying to gather. And so maybe you play that mind
game that you're like, OK, I'm on a quest.
It is absolutely a mental game that you're playing.
It's not a physical game, although the only physical part
of it is trying not to sleep. You know, if you're prone to
dozing off and in a that kind ofthing, it can be a challenge.
(13:27):
But yeah, you're finding this space in your mind where you're
alone with your thoughts and you're alone in nature.
And you know, yeah, there's people that that bring books.
There's, there's different ways to occupy the time, but you,
you, you just learn to find a, aspace in your mind and deal with
it. I don't, I, I personally, I, I'm
(13:48):
not a reader, I don't read books, I'm not a gamer, so I
don't like to play, play the games.
I really just enjoy watching thedeer that come in.
Recently we've started to do a lot more videoing of the deer
and the javelina and you know, the animals that come in.
And so that will occupy some time if a, if a doe or a group
of does comes in. So you can, you can spend some
(14:09):
time getting some video and those kind of things.
So there's, there's ways to fillthe space and, and then there's
sheer boredom as well. And it can be hot or it can be
cold. I mean, you're, you're dealing
with the elements too. So, so on that hot and cold,
maybe shifting gears a little bit like what time of year is
(14:32):
kind of like open season when people can come down there and
go on the hunt? Because I I'm totally unfamiliar
with with with this type of hunt.
Right. So the season technically opens
in like the middle of November and closes after about the first
week or 10 days in February, primarily for the the desert
ranches sitting water. The, the better years are are
(14:55):
drier years where where the feeddoesn't have as much water, the
grass and the leaves and the brows, it doesn't have as much
water in it. And you know, they get a lot of
water from their feed. So on a year that's drier,
you'll tend to have more more deer that are coming into water.
A little more action. Yeah, it's not necessarily the
(15:16):
temperature. It can, you know, we've killed
deer at 40° outside, but the thefeed doesn't have enough water
in it. And so the deer are still, you
know, they're, they're running, they're running, they're active.
And so they need to come in and,and get some, some water.
But the best the the rut takes place about that second week in,
(15:38):
in January, give or take on these desert ranches.
We have mountain ranches and therut can take place, you know,
end of December into the first week or so of, of January.
But we we do good shooting, shooting some of these deer
before Christmas in December. The Bucks are starting to get a
(15:59):
little bit more or less nocturnal and they're getting a
little bit more active. They're, they're going to some
of these water holes as a socialvisit because they're looking
for where the doughs are going to be.
And so they're going to the water holes, not necessarily for
water, but to, to smell and to see and to, to start, you know,
(16:20):
looking around, where is everybody hanging up, hanging
out? Where is the party going to be
here in a month? Testosterone starting to flow?
Exactly. They're, they're starting to to
think about that and. Where's where's this party going
to happen? Exactly.
And and so they, they get more active and so we tend to to do
pretty good that week or or 10 days before before Christmas and
(16:47):
we usually bring a few hunters there.
It may not be the week that I would bring a first time Mexico
Cruise Deer Hunter to to hunt with us, but some of these guys
that have been doing it for for a few years, they know that that
oftentimes the best time to killa bigger buck, big mature buck
is going to be in December before Christmas.
(17:08):
OK. And what other, what other hunts
do you guys offer 'cause I do you guys do Javelina?
Yeah, we can. We can do javelina.
All these ranches have javelina on them.
Sometimes guys just want to shoot a javelina.
They're not that concerned with taking it home.
And so most, most of the time that can be an add on and we
just give the meat to the to theCowboys.
(17:29):
The Cowboys love it. They'll make tacos and tamales
and different, you know, meals with it, but they absolutely
love the the javelina. I'm not a huge fan of it.
They stink. You know, people love to say
that their way of cooking a javelina is better than
everybody else's. And I've, I've yet to find one
(17:49):
that that I would ever, you know, go.
To a it. Was so good that I'd pay for it
at a restaurant I've I've never eaten javelina that was that
good so I. Always kind of just pinch in
your nose when you eat it. You know, once you smell a
javelina it, it's very similar to a skunk, but once you smell
it, you, you can't get it out ofyour mind.
(18:10):
And so when, when your mind, when you're eating it, your mind
just reverts back to that smell.And for me anyway.
And I, I can't. Not that I'm smelling it while I
eat it, but my mind remembers that smell and I just, I can't.
It's like, this is what? This is what you're eating?
(18:31):
Yeah. This is what you're.
Eating. Why are you putting this in our
in our body? Yeah, they, they stink.
They're, they're nasty little animals and they're fun to hunt.
I love shooting them. And if you're going to shoot
them, just just shoot them rightin the head, especially if
you're sitting water or whatever, shoot them in the
head. And you know, that way the
Cowboys, they, they get more meat that way you're not
spoiling any meat. But we, we hunt javelina.
(18:53):
We have mule deer hunts down there.
There's some giant Sonoran mule deer and that, that we like to
do some predator hunts, some, you know, electronic collars and
stuff. That's not a, a big seller or
big ticket item, but it is a blast.
A lot of these ranches have never been predator called
(19:13):
before. And so it's not uncommon to
call, you know, two or three coyotes or a bobcat.
I was with my daughter, we called in a a bobcat and a Gray
fox and a coyote all into one set.
But some the the calling for predators can be fantastic down
there and it's a lot of fun and it's helpful to manage the the
(19:35):
predator numbers on the ranch. Yeah, I've heard that bobcat
hunting can be pretty fun here. Their coats are amazing.
It is, yeah. Yeah.
So is, is that all like, I mean,do all those different hunts is
like mule deer in that same timeframe as like the Coos deer or
(19:55):
is that like a different season?So they're all the same season.
Technically, the mule deer will tend to rut a week or two ahead
of the Coos deer. Mule deer cover a lot of ground.
The A Coos deer is a homebody and they tend to live.
In a very small area and it might most of the year the area
(20:16):
might be less than a square mileand during the rut that area
could be two or three or four square miles.
But it's not a very big, that's still not a very big area.
A mule deer on these flat desertranches can, can move 5 or 10
miles, 15 miles overnight. And so they're, they cover a
(20:38):
much, much broader range of, of country.
And so they tend to be a little bit more active longer.
So Coosier really it's based on the rut.
You could still find mule deer that are out and moving in in
late November and through December and into January
(21:01):
because they're just more prone to covering a lot of country and
and they're just out and moving on, on these big, big open,
they're not open always, but these big flats, choya flats and
Mesquite flats that they like tolive in.
And and then their predator, is that kind of like the sit like
cause all those things kind of like the same time or like you
(21:23):
said, are they add-ons that someone can do?
Yeah, sometimes with with the predators, if somebody shoots
their their target animal early on and we've got more days in
the hunt before it's time to go home, then we'll take them out
just to keep everybody occupied and and it's fun.
We'll take them out. Predator calling.
We also we can we bring predatorhunters specifically for
(21:49):
electronic predator calling. We'll do that.
But usually that'll be like February and March.
We don't like to do it too much to.
In season. Right.
It conflicts with our other hunters.
We don't want to step on their toes.
So if we have a hunter during the season that we're going to
take predator calling, we take them far away from everybody
(22:09):
else so we're not booger and deer that that deer hunters want
to kill. No, that makes sense.
That makes sense. So if, if somebody like is
thinking like, hey, I want to try this about, you know, they,
they look at the coup steer. I mean, I think that's probably
one of the biggest draws for a lot of people down there 'cause
it's just kind of like unique. And but like when, when should
(22:34):
they start planning? Like what would they need to
have like walk me through like getting somebody kind of like
organized and set up to to prepare for one of these type of
hunts with you guys? So the the best time to plan for
is, is now is when you're thinking about it, when, when
you're interested in it. It's funny, we're, we're a month
away from going into our season and I still have guys that are
(22:57):
calling me saying, hey, do you have openings for this year?
And sometimes we do, but trying to, to put gun permits and, and,
you know, put the logistics together for a, a hunt like
this. Sometimes it can't be done in
the way that you want to do it. So anytime, I mean we've already
booked hunters for next season, but the big time for us is as
(23:18):
soon as we're done with our deerseason and in the end of
January, beginning of February, we go right into the booking
season. All of those hunters that
haunted with us this season thatwant to come back next year, we
give them first, right, a refusal on the ranch and the
dates and everything. So those guys are all putting
their deposits down and you know, if if you've never haunted
(23:40):
with us before, the sooner you can get in our queue and get get
a hunt booked, the better opportunities, the better
ranches, the better scenario we can set you up with.
Very cool. And if somebody comes down
there, is it just rifle? If somebody wants to do like an
archery hunt, is that something that they can do as well?
(24:01):
Yeah, that's a great question. One of the things we really
pride ourselves is, is having a variation of ranches.
Like I said before, there's mountain ranches and desert
ranches. The mountain ranches where
you're doing the spot and stalk and really physical and
glassing, those are are definitely better suited for a
rifle hunt. I'm not saying that archery
(24:23):
hunters can't do it or don't have any success there at all,
but it's, it's tough. The desert is loud, crunchy
leaves and cactus needles and, and just the gravelly rocks that
you're walking on. It's really difficult to get in
close enough to kill a Coos deerwith a bow.
That's why on the desert ranches, we sit the water and
(24:44):
our archery hunters love sitting, sitting water holes.
We killed some big, big deer over water holes.
So we, we have that, but we're up close on these water holes.
We can get guys set up in that 25 to 35 yard range.
These are little tiny coosier, little tiny deer.
So you know, they're 100 to 120 lbs body size down there.
(25:06):
Live weight. But we do both hunts, even our
mule deer hunts. We, we, we high rack a lot for
mule deer. Pretty much every ranch in
Mexico is going to do a lot of that safari style high racking,
but we have feeder stations and water stations.
Corrals. For what it's worth, while I'm
thinking about it, we don't do any high fence in Mexico or
(25:31):
anywhere for that matter. None of the branches that we
promote or sell tags on are highfence.
They're all fair, fair chase, low fence ranches.
But sometimes we do have little corrals to keep the cows out and
inside the corral we have a water through or a feeder and
the the deer will come in to eatthe protein feed and to drink
(25:52):
the water. And those are great places to
set up, whether it's a mule deerhunt or a coosier hunt, those
are those are fantastic places to set up to, to kill trophy
animals. I mean, livestock is like the
bane of my existence when I've been out hunting.
It's like if I if I had a a cow tag.
Yeah. I'd I'd punch out every single,
(26:13):
every single year that I've beenout.
But but yeah, no, that's, I mean, it's nice.
They've got some type of way to keep them corralled, right?
Yeah, and I agree. The cattle and all the ranches
that we're on, all the ranches in Mexico, they're working
cattle ranches. You're not going to find a ranch
that doesn't have cows. Certain pastures may not have
(26:34):
cows in them, and those can be real productive.
But yeah, they're the bane of myexistence.
When we set trail cameras, we get to look at 10s of thousands
of cows. The cows lick our cameras, they
break our cameras, they move ourcameras.
So they, they hinder us in that regard.
But yeah, I I don't. I like to eat cows, but I don't
(26:58):
like cattle on the range. Yeah, no, I get that.
So hey, one one other and another question.
I have just thought that it came, it came to mind for
somebody thinking about this paperwork.
I know you said like you get thetag, like you help coordinate
the tag. Do they just?
I mean really all they need is like a passport, correct?
(27:20):
Yeah. So there there's a couple
things. There's a gun permit.
If you're bringing a gun, you need to have some special
paperwork to bring that gun. If you're bringing a bow,
archery equipment, crossbow, youdon't need any special paperwork
for that. So with the gun, we need
passport photos, we need driver's license photos, we need
your name and contact information.
And then we need your gun, your rifle information, your make
(27:42):
model serial number, the caliberwe need, your scope make model
serial number and and the the zoom variable variable zoom
range that is listed for the scope.
We have to actually submit that paperwork ahead of time.
I've already done it for this year.
I usually do it in September andOctober.
(28:03):
But you submit that and it takesa month or sometimes longer to
get those gun permits back. And you know, you need that
permit in order to bring a rifleinto Sonora, into Mexico.
Don't ever try bringing a rifle in there without having that
permit. You'll you'll wind up in a lot
of trouble. So if if someone, let's say
(28:25):
someone were to try and book a trip with you guys this year and
and they can't bring their own rifle, do you have rifles at
camp that they could use or how does that work?
Do they have to have their own? That's a good question.
We do have some, but it's, it's limited.
And I would say this for, for this year, there's very limited
(28:47):
opportunity. If somebody wants to go this
year, they they need to call me and like call me today kind of
thing. It's it, it's not out of the
realm of possibilities, but there's a few options here and
there. But sometimes, sometimes we let
them use our own rifles like like the I'm allowed to bring 2
(29:07):
rifles down on one permit. So every year I bring my 2
rifles down and you know, sometimes archery guys think
that they are going to kill something with a bow and it's
not working out. And sometimes they'll come back
to camp and say hey, I'd really like to change things up,
wouldn't mind using a rifle and I'm happy to to let them borrow
my rifle. Sometimes the ranchers have a
(29:29):
rifle, sometimes they have a good rifle and sometimes they
have a rifle. So there's a difference.
But, you know, there's, there's some options there, but the
ideal scenario is that they're bringing their own gun that
they're familiar with and and know how to shoot.
So as we discussed earlier, if you're want, if this is
something you're wanting to do, plan it in advance so you can
(29:52):
take the time. I mean, especially if you're
wanting to bring like your own, your own weapon.
It's interesting that they want the serial numbers for the
scopes. Do do you know why that is?
Well, I don't know why I they just started doing it.
I want to say this is either thesecond or third year.
Up until two or three years ago,they didn't care about our
(30:16):
scopes. And this year or two or three
years ago they started asking for the the scope make model
serial number. A lot of your scopes nowadays
have serial numbers, but some ofthe older ones or some of the
lesser quality ones don't have serial numbers.
And so it's sort of a challenge.And, you know, sometimes the
(30:38):
serial numbers are under the turret and I literally have to
get my phone camera out at a weird angle and have somebody
shine a flashlight so I can takea picture of a serial number so
that I can put, I'm not even joking with you.
And then when we get to Mexico, they want to check the serial
numbers. So we're getting mirrors and
cameras to, to try to find them in these obscure places, but
(31:00):
they want the serial numbers. And you know, who are we?
You know, if we want to go hunting, we got to play by their
rules and we we get them their serial numbers.
Yeah. Well, that's it.
That's interesting. It is.
Well, so if and, and we'll make sure we'll put a link in the
show notes if anybody's wanting to try and reach out and and
(31:25):
maybe fill up on these last spots that you have available.
If if not, at minimum, start planning for next year.
But they can visit your website.It's Mad Hunts, maddhunts.com
and I know people can also, you know they can.
Your boys are on social. So there it's Cade Maddox and
Connor Maddox and I'll get thoselinks.
(31:47):
We could put those in there as well 'cause as they go down
there and and help. But this is primarily ADIY type
hunt, right? Like you kind of get people down
there and get them set up in theright locations.
Yeah, We offer basically two types of hunts.
We're trying to set ourselves apart from the the guided
hunters or guided Outfitters outthere.
(32:09):
We are set up primarily for DIY do it yourself hunts and we also
have a hunt that we call a semi guided hunt.
The semi guided hunt is more of a more designed for somebody
that's never been to Mexico before.
If you've not gone hunting in Mexico, then I don't necessarily
want to send you with a gun and these paperworks and trying to
(32:31):
know the insurance and outs of coming and going on a hunting
trip in Mexico by yourself without being trained or seeing
how to do it first hand. So on a, on a semi guided hunt,
one of the mad hunts guys, either me or my two sons or some
of the other guys that we work with, we'll we'll meet you or in
(32:51):
your group at the border. And so we'll take you across the
border. We're there more as a tour guide
than a hunting guide. So we meet you at the border, we
cross the border, we check your guns, we take you to the ranch,
we show you the ranch. The hunting is all on your own
at that point. We're not there to guide you on
the hunt. You go out, you glass or you sit
a ground blind or those things. But you're you're on your own to
(33:13):
hunt at that point. We do bring a cook into the into
the semi guided camps. So there is a camp cook for us,
which is fantastic, by the way. It's worth going just for the,
the food down there. But so that's, that's your semi
guided hunt. Then then we're there to bring
you back across the the border and get all the paperwork and,
and get you back home. A do it yourself hunt is more
(33:37):
designed for somebody that's been down there before and
haunted down there before. And they know the system and
they know the process. They're really looking for a
ranch. They're looking for tags in a
ranch where they can go with their son, their daughter, their
buddies, their, their friends. And, and a lot of these DIY
camps are, are in groups of two or three or four or five guys.
(33:57):
And essentially what we're doingis we're getting you the tag,
we're getting you the gun permit.
We're providing you the, the paperwork that you're going to
need to fill out in order to getyour, your trophies back home.
And you know, it's almost like what if you're an Eastern
hunter? They call it a lease, a hunting
lease. It's, it's that type of thing
where we're providing the land. There's a house to stay in,
(34:21):
There's a kitchen to cook in. Some of them are rougher than
others. Some of the houses and kitchens
are pretty nice, Others are pretty, pretty rough.
But you know, some of our hunters are, are in it for
comfort and others are just in it for trophies.
And they don't care if they're staying in a, in a woodshed in,
in the, you know, back 40 somewhere.
They, they just want to go for the trophy quality.
So we've got, we've got ranches for everybody, rifle hunters,
(34:44):
archery hunters, you know, we'vegot, we've got a ranch.
I have more ranches than than I have people to sell them to.
So we can definitely get you setup if you want to go back and
forth every year, all of those scenarios.
Yeah. So like what, Like what's a
somebody going Like I, I'd like to do that, but I don't know if
(35:05):
I can afford it. Like what?
What's like a price range for people to kind of expect on
something like this? That's why we're doing this is
to, to connect to those blue collar guys as people that are
wanting to go on a trophy quality hunt and try to, you
know, they're working class individuals are Coos, deer, DIY
hunts across the border, pretty much all $4500 and that there's
(35:29):
a gun permit that you'll need topay for.
On top of that, if you choose tobring a gun, it's $350.00 and
you can put two rifles on one permit.
So $4500 is about as as inexpensive of a hunt you're
going to find these days. There may be a few out there,
but to, to go hunt internationally, have a private
ranch and, and usually, you know, 20 to 50 square miles of,
(35:54):
of hunting access just for you and a small group of people.
It's, it's pretty nice. Our semi guided hunts are $5500.
Again, if you're bringing a rifle, there's a $350.00 gun
permit. We have a few exceptions to that
and it's just based on, you know, the ranches and how much
we're paying for those tags. Sometimes it could be a little
(36:16):
bit less or sometimes it could be a little bit more, but 45 and
$5500 is pretty much where we'reat for the DIY and semi guided
hunts right now. And, and, and as far as getting
down there and that, and I think, I think that's, I mean,
that price range that you gave me is I mean, I think that like
you said for international Hunt,I think it's super affordable.
(36:38):
I mean, it makes, I mean, you look at some of the other type
of big game hunts that you want to go do and you're going to
drop 15 grand to get to get a, agood tag.
So the, the one of the questionsthat I had for people that are
going down there, do people, when you say get them across the
(36:58):
border, do you drive down? Do they fly down?
Like what's I mean, depending onwhere people are coming from,
like maybe maybe walk folks through what that might look
like. Yeah, so that's a good question.
And it depends on the hunter. It depends on where they're
hunting. So there's a lot of different
scenarios. The DIY hunters, they're doing
it themselves. So they're they're bringing
their own trucks, their own sideby sides, 4 Wheelers.
(37:22):
They're on their own. And again, we're there to help
them. And if they need some logistical
support and they need to know how to get a, a permit to, to
bring something down or whatever, we're there to help
them. But they're those guys are
completely on their own. The semi guided hunts, we will
pick people up at the Phoenix orthe Tucson airports and bring
(37:43):
them down with us if if that's what they need.
We do that more on our archery ranches or our desert ranches
where we're hunting out of ground blinds.
I've got guys that are coming infrom other states this year that
I'm picking up in Tucson and I'mbringing them down and I will be
the one taking them back and forth from the ranch house to
(38:06):
their ground blind each morning.So that's a possibility.
We also have have hunters that'll fly into Hermosillo and
we'll have somebody pick them upat the airport and bring them.
Usually those are mule deer hunters, but we'll, we, we can
do it with Coosier hunters as well.
But, but sometimes you guys willfly into Hermosillo and, and
we'll pick them up and bring them to their ranch.
(38:29):
It just like I said it it depends on on each individual
scenario I think. So most of the time you people
are driving across the border, they're in through Arizona.
Yeah, I like to go through Nogales.
We have some some hunts where Agua Prieta is, is the way to
go. But I like to go through the
Nogales port. And so once you make it past the
(38:52):
border, like what's kind of likethe average time frame to get to
the ranches that people are going to be hunting?
Anywhere from from 2 to 4 hours,so it.
Not too bad. No, it's it's not too bad at
all. It it really isn't a bad
scenario. OK.
Well, if, if, if somebody wants to do this again, I would
(39:16):
encourage you guys to go to madhunts.com again.
We'll put link in the show notes, but it is there any like
other little bits of advice maybe you would want to share
with somebody? That's the first time we're
thinking about it. That's wanting to head down and
and maybe try and hunt some Koosdeer in Sonora.
Yeah, it, it's, it's really doable.
(39:38):
And I, I mean, 4500 dollars is $4500.
I get that and everybody has different budgets and things
like that, but call me on the phone.
I love to talk to Koos Deer. I love to meet different people,
but call me on the phone and there may be a way that that we
can make it work for you. If you don't, if you don't call,
then you're never going to make it happen.
So. So, and again, you were saying,
(40:00):
Tim, you and I were talking a little bit before we started
recording, but if they go to madhunts.com and they call the
phone number on there, that's your personal cell phone.
That's my cell phone. The the number that's listed on
the the home page and the contact page on our website.
That's my cell phone. I text and I take phone calls.
I'm not a big social media guy. If you do our social media,
(40:20):
you're probably going to talk tomy son Kate or my son Connor.
And that's great. They love to talk as well.
You're, you're more than welcometo, to hit them up on Instagram
or TikTok or whatever the fancy social media sites are these
days. We have a YouTube channel and,
and we put a lot of our content and video on on our, our YouTube
channel. That's also Matt Hunt's, but you
(40:44):
know, look us up, talk to us andand we'd love to to see about
getting you set up for whether it's this year or the next year,
you know, some point in the future, we can we can definitely
make something happen for you. Awesome, Tim, thank you so much.
I really appreciate your time again you guys.
Go give them a follow. Check out their website,
madhunt.com, maddhunts.com and then we'll put links to the
(41:07):
YouTube and all the socials and everything in the show notes.
And again, thank you guys for listening to another episode of
the Hunt Stealth Podcast. We are the fastest growing
hunting podcast in America. Stay safe and God bless.
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