February 3, 2025 • 70 mins
Join us on a gripping adventure as we explore the extraordinary life and experiences of Donnie Dust, a former Marine turned wilderness survival expert. Donnie's story unfolds from his days as an infantry machine gunner and counterintelligence agent to his current passion for teaching primitive survival skills and guiding hunts. Discover how Donnie utilizes his military background and love for nature to connect people with the world around them.
Prepare to be captivated by tales from the Amazon jungle, where Donnie faced a survival challenge alongside UK adventurer Ed Stafford. Armed with only a machete, they navigated the dense jungle, overcoming its formidable wildlife and unpredictable environment, all documented for the TV program "First Man Out." From crafting tools and foraging for food to building rafts and shelters, learn about the unique challenges and exhilarating experiences of surviving in one of the world's most demanding terrains.
Venture into the heart of hunting as Donnie shares his transition from primitive bow hunting to minimalistic rifle hunts in Colorado. With intriguing stories of tracking mule deer and elk, Donnie illustrates the profound emotional and practical aspects of hunting while emphasizing respect for nature. Together with his fiancée Missy, Donnie recounts the transformative bonding experience of hunting and the timeless joy of providing for family through traditional means, weaving together past and present in an unforgettable narrative.
🔭 Upgrade Your View with Vortex Optics! Experience unparalleled clarity and precision with our top-of-the-line binoculars, scopes, and more. Check out our full range at VortexOptics.com
Christensen Arms
Christensen Arms makes the best hunting and long-range rifles in the world. Made in the USA.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Howdy folks and welcome to the hunting stories
podcast.
I'm your host, michael, andwe've got an exciting episode
for today.
Today, we connect with someonewho's actually a listener, but
they're more than just that, andthey ended up randomly being
kind of a neighbor to me.
But Donnie Dust.
If you don't know Donnie, checkout his socials and give him a
follow.
I've been following him for along time because the guy is
super interesting.
But Donnie is a wildernesssurvival expert, professional
(00:29):
tracker, former military veteran.
He's known for his unique skillset and primitive survival
techniques, often like teachingpeople how to live off the land
using ancient methods.
Donnie also, his work has beenfeatured on multiple shows and
he's really passionate aboutconnecting people with nature in
a way that's both practical anddeeply rooted in tradition.
So check him out on alone.
Check him rooted in tradition.
So check him out on Alone.
Check him out on First man Out.
Check him out on his YouTubechannel.
But please do give Donnie afollow.
(00:51):
This episode is a really goodone.
So let's just jump into thisthing.
Let's let Donnie tell you someof his stories.
But thank you guys, so much fortuning in.
I do appreciate you All.
Right, donnie, welcome to theHunting Stories Podcast man, how
are you?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I'm doing exceptional .
Thank you so much for having me.
I appreciate it greatly.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, man, I'm so excited to have you here.
You followed me on Instagramand I was like no way, what's
this guy doing following me?
Because I've been a big fan ofyours for a long time.
Like I said before we startedrecording, like your videos were
like people like can you makethis?
Like of course I can make, ohyeah, like you just do awesome
stuff.
You're a really entertainingguy and I'm honored to have you
(01:35):
here.
Um so, thank you, man.
I really do appreciate it wellI appreciate you greatly.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I mean it like we were discussing it's.
I'm I'm horrible at the, sowhen I I listen to podcasts and
I hear different things,especially when I'm flint
napping or getting ready todrive somewhere, and then I
never really put two and twotogether.
I'll follow them on, you know,the podcast, spotify or whatever
the case may be, and I'm like,well, I should probably also go
hit them up on Instagram as welland follow them, and so that
(02:01):
was my fault and, ironically, welive probably less than 10
minutes from one another.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, I could probably walk to your house in
15 minutes, so that isabsolutely insane.
But let's do this.
Donnie, I want you to introduceyourself, but be as thorough or
not as you want, but you are animpressive person, man.
I mean you're an author.
You're a Marine, you do filmand movie stuff.
I mean, I know you say youdon't do social media, but I
(02:26):
found you on social media so Iassumed you were a little bit of
an influencer.
You probably don't like thattitle, but why don't?
you introduce yourself, becauseI wouldn't even know where to
start, because you do have animpressive background man, so go
ahead.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
All right, well, I appreciate it.
My name is Donnie Dust.
That is my name, it's not astage name or anything to that
extent.
Um, I live in uh, lafayette,colorado, and uh, united States
Marine Corps veteran.
I did uh 12 years in the Corps,served time as a infantry
machine gunner and then I was acounterintelligence, human
(02:59):
intelligence agent Uh did a lotof deployments uh to combat
zones, um zones really allaround the world where there is
sort of kind of uniquesituations that required some
counterintelligence work.
I could find myself there andafter about 12 years in the
Corps it was just time to getout.
You know, I had two young sonsand I wanted to be, you know,
(03:22):
present as a father and reallykind of guide them into whatever
kind of pursuits they, you know, wanted to explore or kind of
choose on their own happenings.
And after getting out of theCorps I worked a little bit of
government contracts and that'skind of a unique world and it
really just kind of brought meback into that, you know, that
war fighting phase.
So I decided to kind of pursuea lifelong passion of mine,
(03:46):
which was kind of the primitiveskills of survival, the remote
living and primitive hunting.
That I kind of did a lot as my,you know, in my youth and then
learned quite a bit while I wasin the Corps.
But I wanted to do that fulltime and it's hard for folks to
do that, to step away from youknow that guaranteed paycheck
and health insurance and allthose things.
But I think that was the Marinein me saying all right, you got
(04:09):
this.
You know you got to buckle downand and make it happen.
And from that time I've writtena couple of different books.
I've gone on social media andthat was kind of a slow phase in
my evolution to where I'm attoday.
I never really relied on, youknow, social media to promote
you know a business oropportunities and I kind of
(04:29):
started teaching skills, guidingsome hunts, really by sitting
at a parking lot throwing out alarge bison hide or a couple of
mule deer hides, doing somefriction fires and kind of using
my presence as my biggestadvertisement.
And that's where I could bookpeople on kind of remote living
experiences.
And you know, when we got intothat kind of hunting world I was
(04:50):
able to kind of add some ofthat expertise there as well.
And from that time I've beenlearning social media and kind
of understood the importance ofit and how it can present new
opportunities and it's beenpretty awesome.
And all through this time I'vebeen a hunter and I'm kind of I
consider myself I don't want toput myself in a category because
(05:13):
I think too many hunters dothat in a lot of different
landscapes.
You know you're a bow hunter,rifle hunter, primitive hunter.
I am a hunter and within that Ikind of live by the philosophy
of honoring the hunt and huntingis about resources for me and
for my family.
That is the hides, you seebehind me.
the meat, the sinew, the tendons, the intestines, the heart,
(05:34):
liver, lungs, all of thosethings can be consumed.
And things that come from ananimal, including its bones, are
all tools that I can use in thepursuits of, you know,
primitive living flint knapping,building bows, building
everything and anything.
So hunting for me is kind of myHome Depot, king Soopers.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
That's cool.
I like the way you think ofthat.
I do label myself I'm a hunterof opportunity because I suck so
bad at all of it.
I will just go as long as Ihave a chance like I'm happy,
whether it's rifle gun whatever.
I, like you, just want to kindof harvest the animal and do the
best I can.
Yeah, and I'm learning it.
I don't have the skills thatyou have by any means, but it's
(06:19):
I love the attitude that youbring to it.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Man, that's beautiful , I appreciate it and I think
what what people strive for inthe hunting community is a
ground truth, and that groundtruth is something that they
obtain through successes andfailures, cause you learn from
both and I do believe thatwhether you're a 10 year hunter
or five year or one year uh youknow individual looking to get
into hunting, you learn fromthose experiences and that is
your ground truth and you alwayskind of rely on that.
(06:42):
So I mean it even goes, youknow, this Sunday I'm going out.
I've taken a couple geese thisyear with a shotgun, waterfowl,
hunting, taking plenty of ducks.
But for me, I love goose meatand I also need the wings for
fletchings.
So it's finding those resourceswhere I can kind of
continuously fuel my adventuresand my endeavors, and hunting is
(07:03):
extremely important for me andmy family.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
So that's amazing, man, that's amazing.
And there's so many geesearound here.
I understand why you have takenus here so many geese around
here.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
So good, so delicious .
Do you like geese?
Speaker 1 (07:15):
you know, I've only so again I'm a new hunter.
I've only been goose huntingone time went down in texas, to
this area kind of west ofhouston that's supposedly just
known for just amazing goosehunting.
Get down there.
It's the middle of the night,we're setting up our spread and
I could hear geese like I'venever heard geese in my life.
It was just this likeoverwhelming noise and I'm like
(07:36):
that's just honking.
That is insane.
And I've never been moreexcited for the sun to rise
because I was like I'm going tosee a goose tornado it.
I've never been more excitedfor the sun to rise because I
was like I'm going to see agoose tornado.
It's going to be the best huntof my life.
Turns out, all the sandhillcranes spooked them all from our
area.
We had like 15 sandhill cranesabove us and you could see in
the distance like literallyblocking out the sky, blocking
out the skyline.
Geese everywhere around us, butabove us nothing.
(08:00):
Just absolutely nothing, so weshot I I want to say three geese
.
Um, I took one home.
I ate it.
It was delicious, but I I don'tthink I did a great job cooking
it.
I was just excited to have theone, but it was such a funny uh,
funny experience, just becauseI was just like so hyped and
there was just so many animalsbut it's hunting right, you,
just you can't control that.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
It's one of those things.
Yeah, you don't get that manyopportunities.
Yeah, you know whenopportunities when you see a
flock of geese flying over andthere's 100, 200, and there's
multiple wedges flying, you kindof get really excited.
And I think for me.
I love goose meat, my boys havegrown up eating goose meat.
But I've discovered this newrecipe where you actually take
your goose breasts, put them inyour crock pot, pour a full pot
(08:43):
of black coffee, like originalblack coffee, and you slow cook
it in that all day and it comesapart just like a pulled pork,
like a pot roast.
And it is it is amazing, it'sabsolutely no other seasonings.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Salt pepper anything else.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
No, yeah, I mean you could.
You could throw some stuff inthere.
I mean I'll put onions in there, some salt and pepper, but when
you pull it out it just shredsand it's.
It's top notch Cause before itwas always like you know.
You know burritos or tacoswhere you're covering it with
just like hot seasonings, no,just black coffee, a little bit
of onion, salt pepper, low andslow, that's interesting.
It's top notch.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Well, next time I get a goose man, that's going to
that's going to be my go-torecipe so cool?
Well, this isn't a cooking show, donnie.
This isn't a cooking show, allright, so cut that out.
Why don't you tell us how yougot those geese?
Let's start.
No, I'm just kidding, but let'sget to it, man.
Why don't you set the stage?
Um, where, where, where do youwant to take us, man?
I would love.
(09:38):
I'm excited to hear somestories.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah.
So I think for this first storywe're actually going to move
out of the country and we'regoing to head to the Amazon
jungle oh cool, yeah.
So this is kind of like alittle bit different, probably,
than what most people hear, aswell as some of their own
personal experiences.
Two years ago I had anopportunity to go down into the
(10:03):
Amazon jungle and race anotherman by the name of Ed Stafford,
who's from the UK, across theAmazon jungle with just a
machete no way.
That is so cool All right, itwas a pretty awesome experience,
but the whole objective was forhim and I to race, taking
different paths no maps, nocompass, no water bottles, no
(10:25):
fire, just a machete.
And we were to jump into theAmazon River off a barge, swim
across the river and then justhit land and then look for
different indicators ofelevation and then from that
elevation look for, likedownwater, different ravines and
draws and little gullies thatwould lead us to this river
(10:47):
called the Rio Negro, and thatwas our kind of exfil, and the
first person that could getthere was the first man out and
they kind of won this race.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Okay, so real quick.
What is the estimated?
Like bird flies distance fromone of these rivers to the other
.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
So we're probably looking over a hundred plus
miles for this, for this legbetween between the Amazon and
the Rio Negro, but with withthat, you know, I had never been
to the Amazon jungle.
Ed had an advantage where hehad walked the entire length of
South America.
It took him two years to do itbut he had kind of a ground
(11:25):
truth there.
So I've spent some time injungles, but never the Amazon.
So I was up for the challengeand I knew when we were going
out there there was going torequire kind of different
knowledge, skills and abilitiesto ultimately get stuff done.
So one of the things that youwould think in the jungle like
that, there are lots of foodopportunities and there are, but
a lot of them come in the formof insects or snakes, and I ate
(11:49):
my handful of grubs anddifferent larvae and was
drinking from water vines.
But one of the things that Ineeded was a legitimate element
of protein.
I needed food.
You can catch piranha and youcould probably try to locate a
caiman.
But with all those things, justlike in any sort of hunting,
there's certain, you know, risk,reward sort of benefits and for
(12:12):
me I was thinking I needsomething that I can reach out
and touch through the form of anatlatl or a bow and be able to
take that, that critter, if youwill, and be able to cook it
over fire, whatever it is.
So while I was there, I learneda couple different plants.
I got to spend some time withsome locals learning different
(12:33):
plants, and one of the thingsthat I was going to do was make
a bow out of a tree called themata mata and the mata mata is a
very unique tree where thattree will provide you the right
type of bow wood.
Its bark will also serve as yourcordage.
And then, from the differentpalm species that are out there,
there's hard tops to thesepalms that make pretty decent
(12:54):
arrows, maybe like atwo-and-a-half three-foot arrow,
fletching-less, but it willstill puncture a hole, draw
blood, lead to a bleed out, soon and so forth.
And one of the things that Ilearned quickly, what was on the
menu was electric eel, and fromthis so I've never hunted
(13:15):
electric eel, but being that wewere there in the rainy season,
a lot of the water had floodedup, and these electric eels are
extremely, extremely powerful,so powerful that they can
identify fruit trees, touch thebase of the fruit tree if it's,
you know, in the water, shock itand will drop those fruits and
eat those fruits out of thewater.
Wow so this thing really, reallypacks a punch.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
That's amazing, so this is all news to me.
You're blowing my mind.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Keep going.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Donnie, no worries.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
So as I'm traveling throughout the jungle, I'm
sleeping in a variety ofshelters up off the ground, I'm
avoiding bullet ants and poisondart frogs, and it seems like
something out of a movie and itabsolutely was in my mind.
But I was having a blast andeventually I got to this section
where I was able to find somewater and I had to craft a boat
and my biggest concern waspiranhas, caimans and electric
(14:06):
eels.
But prior to getting there, Iwas like you got to make this
bow, you got to get it dialed in, you got to be able to take
like a 10, 15 yard shot, maybesomething in a tree or something
in the water, but this is goingto be your means of getting
food.
And having a history of bowmaking, I had a lot of
confidence being able to makethis bow with just a machete.
So I find my right matamatatree, I craft my bow, my bow
(14:30):
string.
I get a couple of arrows thatare fletchingless, just long
heavier in the front, thattapered out and almost acts like
a tail and a fletching, and youknow 10, 12 yards.
I was pretty dialed in.
So I get to this low water andthe easiest way to navigate this
water is actually building aboat or a raft of some sort and
(14:51):
then moving from flooded waterto kind of dry land.
Flooded water to dry land.
So I built this raft out of avariety of different types of
woods, built a paddle andstarted paddling through.
And after a full day ofpaddling on this water I'm just
completely tuckered out and it'stime to make a shelter, because
(15:12):
you can't sleep on the groundin the Amazon.
You have to get up off theground because it's a completely
different sort of environment.
So I build this elevatedshelter, I get a fire going and
as I'm doing this my fire'srocking and rolling, I start to
see these ripples in the water.
And when I was learning fromthe locals they said sometimes
the ripples are caimans becausethey're just kind of moving high
(15:35):
up in the water.
Sometimes it can be an eel, itcan be a school of piranha.
But you have to be careful whenyou're approaching.
And in my mind I'm going backto all those like hunting
fundamentals of like playing thewind and kind of masking my
movements from tree to tree.
And as I'm doing this I'm likewalking up to this water's edge,
not really knowing what's inthis dark, murky, like black
(15:56):
water.
But when I get there I realizethat the water is mud leading up
to the edge is mud leading upto the edge.
So I have to kind of take aback step to where I can get to
a somewhat dry portion to seeactually what this is, in the
event that it was an electriceel.
So I moved to this dry land, Ijump up onto this kind of like
down tree and, lo and behold,there's this like six foot
(16:18):
electric eel that's probablyfour or five inches in diameter,
just slowly moving through thewater.
And like most you know, youknow hunters you always want to
be prepared.
So I had my bow, I had myarrows and as I'm looking at
this eel, I'm thinking to myselfif I shoot this eel, I have to
(16:39):
then get in the water with bloodin the water and these eels
will still kick out at chargeand that can be pretty darn
dangerous.
So as I'm precariouslymaneuvering through elevated
logs, I'm able to get a shot onthis electric eel with my bow.
It was probably like I don'tknow, maybe six, seven feet away
, and when I shot, my firstarrow missed and I was like, oh
(17:02):
my God, this is not good, I needsome food, you know.
So luckily I had another arrow,drew it out and I plugged them
right in the back of the headand when this thing got hit it
started to kick and just goabsolutely crazy in the water
and eventually it died.
Then it came the challenge ofme retrieving this eel from the
water, and it was jabbing itwith sticks, trying to to lift
(17:24):
it out, making sure that therewas nothing conducting any
electricity, because they canstill kind of have that charge
how do you know how long theycan hold that charge after they
expire?
I believe, like once their heartstops, they have probably like
another 30, 45 seconds wherethat charge is still kind of
radiating to the muscle.
It decreases in its and its youknow volatility, but it's still
(17:45):
kind of there, if you will justthe idea of an animal that
generates electricity is, I knowit's like outer space.
It doesn't make sense to me likethis is insane, but okay, keep
going yeah so eventually I'mable to get this eel out of the
water and I'm able to pull it upon this stick.
And when I finally pulled it upout of the water and I'm able
(18:05):
to pull it up on this stick, andwhen I finally pulled it up out
of the water, I swear it gotlike three feet longer.
It was just this monster whenI'm when I'm I'm not
exaggerating Like I was able tohold chunks of meat in my hand.
So we've all pulled out backstraps you know elk or mule,
deer or whatever the case may beand they're pretty girthy and
they're pretty thick.
I would say, to give you avisual, if you took four back
straps from an elk and put themall together, that's how thick
(18:28):
this electric eel was but onelittle yeah, one spine right
down the entire thing.
And um, I brought it over thefire, started chopping up with
my machete, stuck it on a skewerand just roasted it over this
fire ate like probably at leastfour or five pounds of electric
eel.
Tried to dry some out, um stucksome in my little uh.
(18:52):
It wasn't the best because it'sreally humid there and I was
kind of in this race so I justgorged as much as I could that
day, stuck some over the coal,so we just kind of keep kind of
roasting throughout the night,ate some more in the morning and
then uh took off the you knowthe next morning on my raft
again.
But it was one of those, one ofthose things where, even though
(19:14):
this was kind of a unique uhopportunity where something
presented itself in the form offood um, you know it's it's,
it's different than some of theconventional hunting that we
might experience these daysthose fundamentals still remain.
Like how do I retrieve myanimal?
What's the best way to processit?
You know all those sort offactors, but it was a completely
(19:34):
different world and completelynew to me.
But I was still able to kind ofrely on some of the things that
I knew, like all right, youknow you've eaten plenty of
snakes, you've eaten plenty ofthings.
Let's break this animal down.
It probably has a gut cavity,probably has an anus.
You're going to have to cleanthese things out.
Let's remove its head and ifit's one giant back straps.
You know swimming in the water.
It's a meal and it wasabsolutely delicious.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Absolutely yeah.
So a couple of questions Arethere any regulations in that
area, or is just kind of likethey dropped you off and they're
like just stay alive, killwhatever you want?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, as far as I know, there were no regulations.
I don't, I mean, we weren't onanyone's property, it was just
the, the Amazon jungle, yeah, soyou know, catching piranha.
I do believe the Caymans ummight have a harvest season, but
it wasn't anything that we hadto consider, it was whatever
presents itself.
Uh, you can totally consume.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So, okay, okay for me that was, that was it yeah, so
that was, I assume, your big oryour first big meal.
Was that eel, or am I placingit kind of in the wrong in the
wrong spot in the time?
Speaker 2 (20:39):
yeah, how many days really the, yeah, the only meal
that I had.
I mean there was grubs and,like Brazil, nuts and different
fruits you can come across, butit's just like anyone, like some
people need their peak refuelsor their harvest right Freeze
dried foods.
I needed, you know, fuel toreally energize my body.
After, you know, hiking andtrekking and building a boat and
(20:59):
then paddling this boat andthen having to, you know, no,
I'm going to have to do a longswim once I get into the Rio
Negro.
Um, it's, it's kind of one ofthose unique adventures where
food was absolutely a priorityand I enjoyed it cause it
allowed me to kind of stick tomy, uh, my fundamentals when it
comes to, you know, hunting and,and it was yeah, okay, cool,
(21:22):
unique place, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
So who won?
Uh, I did.
Yeah, boy, I was hoping thatwas the answer, um how much?
How far ahead were you of and Iforgot his name already.
I'm sorry, but how far, uh,yeah, how, how, how many days or
hours or minutes did you finishbefore him?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
so I finished several hours before him and I think my
biggest advantage was yeah,yeah, he's.
He's not the best swimmer, so Igot a huge leg as soon as we
jumped off the barge and therewas a lot of times where you
could go over land, where you'realong a water's edge or you
could swim across, and I thinkthat was the amphibious marine
(22:06):
being in me.
If I saw a 100, 200-meter sortof swim, I'm like I'm in the
water, and if there is a caimanin there or a piranha, hopefully
things will work out in myadvantage.
I would just, you know, I justjumped in the water and swam,
you know, machete at the hand,just going just in case, but, um
, I think that that really paidoff and made up some time and
(22:29):
was able to come out on top.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
That's so cool, okay, um, I have to assume you guys
did not film this.
It seems a little too intenseto like, so I guess who was
hosting it?
Like it's a race, right?
So was it just a little toointense to like, so I guess who
was hosting it?
Like it's a race, right?
So was it just a gentleman'shandshake or like what is the
organization that put this alltogether?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
this was um a part of a uh a tv program and ed has
raced people in various you knowplaces, but this was like his
big challenge, his big race.
Reason being is I mean, hespent two years in the amazon,
walking from the north of amazonall the way down to the south,
so this was kind of like hiscoming home sort of thing.
(23:06):
So there was a film crew thereso people can actually see all
of this in the flesh and in theaction.
It's called First man Out, but Imean, there was times where we
would lose them when you're on aboat and paddling, you know,
when you're running through thejungle, you know.
So they would kind of leapfrogin different areas, try to catch
you and see you.
But we were on two differentroutes and the only time I saw
(23:30):
Ed was once we got, we swamacross the Amazon, when we
jumped off the barge and thenwhen we got on the Rio Negro, I
could see him way back on hisboat.
He built a boat or a littleraft as well and, uh, mine was
more like a standup body board,standup paddleboard sort of
(23:51):
thing, with like a V hole that Icould use my arms and use a
paddle and really get some, um,some momentum.
Okay, yeah, people can watch it.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
That's crazy.
So there was a crew and theyprobably had all the gear that
they needed and food and allthat stuff and they were just
trying to keep up with itbasically.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Yeah, that was pretty much it Like when we would
hunker down for the night.
They'd give you a camera andsay you know, film yourself.
We're going to go, you know amile or two this way and do our
thing, and you're like, allright, well, this is it.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
You know Cool man Very cool.
Yeah, this is it, you know,cool man very cool.
Good adventure.
Okay, gotta last questionbefore we go to the next story
was this more difficult, or wasalone more difficult for you, or
were they both?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
kicklocks, I guess is another option you know, yeah,
you know, I think alone was, Imean, alone was difficult
because I got sick and thatreally kind of uh did me in and
you, you know, unfortunately Ididn't film a lot of my sickness
and so I shot a muskrat with mybow, ate the muskrat, but it
(24:47):
wasn't the muskrat that got mesick, it was a lot of the
berries that animals have beenpeeing on and defecating on and
I got a form of dysentery, kindof a similar to like a Girardia
Cryptosporidium, and it justbrought me down quick.
But I've been sick in the woodsand in the bush so many times
that I know there's differentplants and different things that
(25:08):
can kind of help you out.
And at this time it was just Icouldn't find anything and it
just kept going downhill anddownhill.
But they're all unique.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
I mean, I enjoy it alone.
I bet, I bet, I bet Cool, okay,next question or not next
question, but next story.
What else do you got for?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
us.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Donnie, you kind of overwhelmed me with that one,
but we'll keep going, no worries.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
So this past year I took a nice-sized mule deer and
most of my hunting is with aprimitive bow.
I mean, even in Colorado youcan hunt with a primitive bow.
You got to have your doubleedges with a one-inch base, some
sort of you know, steel kind ofbroadhead.
So most of my arrows that isabout as primitive as I can get
(25:51):
them, still meeting state regsfor archery.
And this year I was trying totransition into the idea of
saying, all right, you need moremeat.
Um, you got two teenage sons,um, you eat a lot of meat, you
need some more meat.
So let's go out there and let'sdo a rifle hunt, but let's take
away all of the advantages thatyou can that you can have in a
(26:14):
rifle hunt, meaning, uh, no food.
I'm not a food guy when it comesto that, um, minimal clothing,
like, uh, you know you're notbringing a lot of packs and
supplies, you're bringing thebare bones stuff You're going to
give yourself.
Uh, I brought five rounds and II was thinking of bringing more
(26:34):
, just the idea, you know, justto make sure everything is down
if that's the case.
But I was like, five rounds,you know what you're doing and I
wasn't going to take a shotthat was over 100 yards out.
I just kind of like to givemyself a little bit of a
challenge to make sure that I'menjoying this fun for everything
that it is.
Yeah, so I was shooting a 7-magrifle and it's a great rifle
(26:59):
for elk, mule deer, whatever thecase may be and I went out to
unit uh, this was 51 along thefront side and I'd spent a lot
of time in this unit.
There's a lot of caves outthere and I was sleeping in
those and that very first day wegot a bunch of snow and, like
most hunters, when it's muledeer season or even elk season,
that snow is a good indicator ofrecent habits.
(27:19):
Through track, through, throughground spore, you name it.
It gives you an opportunity tokind of learn a quick history of
that area.
So some snow fell and I'mcutting tracks left and right
over all these different areasand I couldn't pick up any
tracks.
Lots of fox, a couple ofmountain yotes, some pine martin
, things to that extent, but Iwasn't finding any mule deer.
(27:43):
And unit 51 is kind of a uniqueunit, so it's it's Douglas
County, colorado, up to likeSedalia, and then there's a
small chunk of it that sticksout towards West Creek Colorado
and if anybody knows anythingabout West Creek Colorado is
that probably about seven oreight years ago there was a fire
that swept through there and Ilove hunting, burn scars, burn
(28:06):
scars.
In my personal opinion, ifyou've got a unit where you can
get on a burn scar, there's alot of fresh growth.
It's relatively young.
You've got good visibility allaround you.
You'll find these clumps oftrees and these areas where
animals could bed down that aresomewhat isolated, so you almost
reduce a lot of that kind offoliage that could get your way
(28:28):
and you got good line of sight.
So I spent a couple days, twodays, up in the mountains and
then I was like you know what,let's go down to that burn scar.
So I headed west from likeRampart Range Road and went to
just behind west creek and I hadspent some time out in west
creek prior to that uh, firekicking off and I helped a
(28:49):
gentleman out there trap a bunchof coyotes that were tearing up
his, his rabbits and hischickens.
So I had a little bit of groundtruth familiarity with it.
But what I needed to do was getout and scout it because I
hadn't scouted that area sowhile I'm hunting, um, I just
kind of said, all right, leaveyour rifle one day.
You just got to get eyes onsome animals.
(29:10):
And where I was situationally ifyou think about a north to
south running hard ridge and ahard ridge is something where
it's kind of comes from a bowland then sweeps up high and hard
and it's almost like the spineon the back of like a dinosaur
or like certain sort of reptilesyeah and hunting a spine like
(29:31):
that, especially a north-southrunning spine, gives you a lot
of advantages and thoseadvantages are one you can play
the sun and two kind of in thoseburn scars.
You have a pretty consistentwind coming from west to east.
So I knew I was south of thatspine.
I had to make my way north ofit and then jump on the other
(29:52):
side of the spine and get anopportunity to do some glassing
to just get eyes on and see whatI could come across.
So I spent one whole day doingthat, woke up super early in the
morning because as soon as youcross that plane right, so if
the spine's running north, south, south north, I'm gonna have to
walk in front of it.
I can't necessarily walk behindit because eventually I was
encroaching onto some privateproperty.
(30:13):
So I'm like I'm gonna have topunch out at 3, 3.30 in the
morning, shoot out there, get tothe far side of it, jump across
that spine and then, when allthose animals start moving that
4.30, 5 o'clock, waiting forthat sun to come up, I can use
that spine as a method ofmasking to see where these
populations are, where they'rebedding out of, where they're
(30:34):
moving throughout the day wherethey're feeding and I can use
that knowledge to ultimately seewhat animals present themselves
.
So I did that for that thirdday, moved through that whole
spine, saw lots of does, sawlots of little yearlings, saw a
couple spikes, and then everyonce in a while I'd see like a
nice big buck kind of chasingdown a couple does.
But they're all on the run, allon the foot, so I'm thinking
(30:57):
something's spooking them.
It's still's.
It's still the rut, tail end ofthe rut.
Are these these older guys thatare kind of trying to chase
down these ladies?
But I'm like, for me it doesn'tmatter.
My tag was, uh, an antlered, um,an antlered mule deer and uh.
So I spent the day kind oflooking and looking and I didn't
see anything that would reallymeet the criteria.
(31:19):
It met my criteria as kind ofjust meat in the freezer and,
like I always say, you can't eatantlers.
But I use the antlers for footnapping tools.
So I'm like, all right, you'regoing to repeat the same action
tomorrow and you're going tobring your rifle and you're
going to get out there and youcan ultimately see better.
You'll have your scope thewhole nine yards.
So I did that same exact thingand ultimately see better,
(31:40):
you'll have your scope the wholenine yards.
So I did that same exact thing,but in my process I really paid
close attention to where I waswalking and exactly where I was
going.
More importantly, the wind.
The wind was hard.
It was blowing on my left sideas I was walking north, and one
of the things that I carry withme is a little wind gauge.
I don't know why I didn't bringit.
It's probably in my truck.
I assume a primitive one andnot just like a puffer bottle of
(32:07):
baby powder.
Okay, exactly, yeah, this one'sactually from Africa and I
learned this from a tribe memberout there that was considered a
poacher, then released by thegovernment because he's so good
at hunting and tracking.
The guy's between 70 and 80years old.
He's just a phenomenal hunterand tracker, and when I spent
some time out there, he gave methis wind gauge and it's just
this little plume of feathers.
So when you're shooting yourbow and you draw your bow, you
(32:27):
always have that wind inconsideration.
More importantly, I don't haveto pull anything out of my pack.
Do a little puffer.
I can just kind of throw my handup and situate my body and see
where that wind is.
So it's just a constant windgauge, because I'm worried about
wind for me, not from thee,because if they're upwind,
whatever.
Yeah, so I have this wind gaugeand I'm really paying close
(32:48):
attention, because sometimes inthe mountains wind will blow the
kind of that west to east butit will hit a unique sort of
terrain feature like a mountainthat's kind of in a bowl, and it
will start to swirl it and thatbecomes a problem.
I didn't see or feel any ofthat when the day before and I
was just making sure that Iwasn't going to kind of
experience it today or that day.
So I get to my hard line and Ijump across this ridge.
(33:11):
Sun's coming up right, so Ialways like the sun at my back.
Even though animals havephenomenal perception of of of
sun and heat and wind and allthese things, it still gives me
my mental advantage where Ithink, like you know, if you've
ever been like overseas fightingterrorists, they always like to
have the sun at their back.
So if you got to turn and shootat them, you got the sun in
(33:32):
your eyes.
Yeah, kind of that samementality.
So I've got the sun at my backand I'm just working this ridge
and I just start seeing five orsix does and a couple young ones
and then you know a spike or afork kind of walking through and
I'm mentally in my head saying,all right, this is what you're
out here for, you're out herefor me, you're out here for, you
(33:52):
know, meeting your limit, let'sget it done.
So in that ridge I looked fordifferent windows.
That would be a great kind ofegress down, and the egress down
is just as important as yourwalk out to where you're going,
because that egress down is yourpoint of exposure where you're
not necessarily going tosilhouette yourself but you're
going to use the terrain to maskyour movement, to get within
(34:12):
kind of that ideal shot.
So I'd identified all my egresspoints and I know my third
egress point was my best point.
So in my mind I stay behind theridge and I move to that third
egress point and see whatpresents itself, and I did just
that.
So I knew that that populationof does was going to make their
(34:33):
way kind of down this draw andthere was some hard terrain at
the kind of southern edge of thespine and if I could get there.
It was probably a great spot totake a shot.
So I moved along this edge andthis is where the kid in me
comes out, cause I can tell youthere's probably five or six
times where I'd walk right up tothat edge and I kind of peek
over.
Yup, they're still there andpeek down.
(34:54):
Every time I'm doing thatthere's a possibility of
exposure.
Because animals watch ridges.
I love it.
They watch for the yeah ofexposure.
Because animals watch ridges Ilove it.
They watch for the yeah.
Every, everything watches forsilhouettes.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yeah, it's trying to stay alive, I just exactly, you
know.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
So I make my way down to that um, egress point and
soon as I kind of round thiskind of like rocky sort of ledge
, there are four or five, justbucks, just kind of wait, just
some dudes hanging out and I'mlike holy cow, okay, this is,
this is where you want to be.
But I was still out of my, myrange, and I don't have, you
(35:27):
know, a lot of tools out therewith me to kind of.
So I'm doing that rangeestimation.
A hundred football yard, that'skind of my, uh, my go-to Quick
question there.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
I know you said you wanted to shoot within a hundred
yards I assume you'reproficient outside of 100 but in
this case you just weren't atthe spot.
That you felt was sportingenough for you to do what you
wanted to do, right correct.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I think I was probably like, uh, right around
like 300 yards at that point,which, which is still a fine
shot.
But I think for me, alwayshunting with that primitive bow,
I like that just that little,because with a primitive bow to
get on those mule deer, you're,you're, I mean 12 yards, is like
most ideal.
It's, it's a hard stock, butit's, it's a juice, is worth the
(36:07):
squeeze.
I guess you could say, yeah.
So I hit that 30 grass and asI'm coming through a little bit
of rocks, they get a little bitof head turnings towards me.
They're watching I freeze andthey're like this guy's
obviously, and you know I've gotblaze orange on in my vest and
it's still in my mind.
I'm like they can see me and Iknow there's, you know that,
that mentality of like the wholeblaze orange.
(36:28):
But, um, but they kind of startto move over and they kind of
jumped to the other side of thislittle finger, cause it's kind
of multiple fingers going down.
I'm like that's perfect, wind'sstill in my favor.
Now I can push a little bitharder, a little bit quieter,
and I can get to that nextfinger, that little ridge, and I
can see where I'm at, make myway down, get to that ridge.
(36:49):
There's small little pockets ofsnow and I think when I hunt
it's kind of like a rock hoppingsort of thing Less sound, less
movements.
Snow's a crunch, leaves are acrunch Burn scar.
You got open terrain but theyalso have that visibility.
I get to that top of that ridgeand those three or four bucks,
(37:09):
um, were kind of just down belowstarting to make their way up
there, uh, up that other side ofthat ridge.
At that point I knew I was inwith that, uh, within that a
hundred yards, and uh, I kind ofjust got myself in like a good,
like high kneeling position,gave that like like one of those
where they're all kind ofstopped, turn, and then took
this nice buck and, um, he, Imean with the seven mag, within
(37:32):
a hundred yards, he went downlike instantly.
Um, I mean, yeah, I mean it wasa lot of firepower, but yeah,
that's what you got.
The rest took off.
And at that point, you know,waited my time, waited for him
to finish out I already knew hewas finished out Walked over
there and really started toprocess him out.
(37:53):
And part of that disadvantage Iwanted to create for myself
because, you know, I, I,creating hard opportunities
always kind of gives you adifferent award is?
You know, I had some stoneknives that I was going to gut
and process it, and when I shoota deer, everything's coming
back, and that is intestines,that is stomach, that's heart,
liver, lungs, the hide.
(38:14):
I mean I've got a bucket oflegs over there full of sinew,
like everything on.
That thing is a resource.
And I've got a small littlepack.
I little pack, I don't.
I mean kafaro sent me a nicepack.
After they heard about thisstory.
They're like we need to helpyou out.
I'm like, oh my, god, I feel soembarrassed like no, just please
, this is, this is our gift.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
I'm like okay, so I had this small little pack and
um how far back are you if, whenyou shot this, six miles, six
miles, okay, okay, yeah, andyou're bringing everything.
Six miles, six miles, okay,okay, yeah, and you're bringing
everything out, okay.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Yeah, six miles, three trips to pack it all out.
The only thing that reallydidn't come with me was a small
chunk of the large intestine,all the stomach contents, and
then a big chunk of the lungswhere I wound up shooting the
muley.
Yeah.
But so take it all apart, andpart of my process when I'm
taking an animal apart is itshide.
(39:06):
Is the cleanest thing out there, yeah.
So I take that hide off totallykind of pin it out onto the
ground and that's where I startpulling out my quarters, the
backstrap, the hearts, all myconsumables that I'm looking to
eat neck meat, the whole nineyards and the head is still
attached to that.
And I wrap all that up and, um,well, I kind of first off, like
(39:27):
like most hunters, you're likeI think I could carry this thing
out.
And there was no way I was ableto carry this guy.
I mean, I tried, like everycombat drag, I tried splitting
legs and shoving them through tocreate a backpack.
I was just too tired and so lowon fuel that it was just it was
(39:47):
no go.
But I was thinking to myselfall right, so you know how far
you got to walk back in, walkback out.
You're going to have to grabeverything and anything, so it's
going to take you some timeJust get it done.
So took a couple quarters, tookthe heart liver, did my first
track out, walked back out, didthat three times over six miles
(40:08):
with a little bit of jog.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Six each way, so 12 miles per trip.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Yeah, it was a lot.
I want to be honest with you.
It was one of those thingswhere it took pretty much all
day.
But the beautiful thing wasmost of it was kind of gradual
train leading up to where myactual truck was, and then it
was easy to actually get backdown.
Like when you have that goodline of sight, like you can find
(40:34):
that most optimal.
I'm not really dodging andtrees, it was just kind of like
in and then it was kind of outand six miles.
I could be exaggerating.
It was, it was, I would say sixmiles it was probably just
under six miles each way man.
But, uh, it was, uh, it wasworth it.
I finished out the last hall,got back to my truck and pretty
(40:55):
much like just collapsed of justyou know, pure exhaustion, just
like this is this is exactlywhat I wanted, how I wanted it,
but, um, it was, it was just topnotch.
And I think for me, uh, beingable to come home with
everything I mean I have thehide sitting over here, the
skull I boiled out my you knowmyself.
(41:15):
I sit there with dental picks,pick everything butchered, all
my own meat.
Um, but for me at that time,just like in any sort of hunting
, you know story and experience,it was about food for the
family, resources for me to havethat I continue to use.
And just like most hunters, youknow I get emotional in that
process.
You know you nobody likes tokill anything but, like, I
(41:39):
appreciate everything that thatanimal has given me from the day
that you know I started to, youknow, work in and get those
opportunities to hunt, you know,different animals to where it's
at now, like I've got some moreof its backstrap I'm eating
tonight for dinner.
It's those sorts of things thatreally make for me the story
even more beneficial because,yes, there is that, that hunt,
(42:01):
but now the story continues withits hide and its bones and
cracking its long leg bones toeat the raw marrow out of and
its antlers will become flintknapping tools and knives
handles.
So it's kind of a beautifulstory and I love it.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
I enjoy it, man, I love it.
I love all sorts of differentthings about that story from um,
just like your dedication todoing it your way.
I love the details that youremember.
I know a lot of guys that don'ttell stories all that great.
They're just like yeah, Iwalked in and I shot this deer,
like every single thing you canremember the topography.
(42:36):
You remember the differentpoints of access.
Like I love it when people canremember those kinds of details.
That that was a great story,man, Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Thank you, that was fun and uh.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
I can, I can feel the pack out uh the way that you
explained it.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
I was smoked, I had blood dreads, as I call them,
cause I got long hair.
They were just caked in bloodand just dreaded up and um, I
think at the very end I recordeda little video like last fall
out, and I I just called ithonoring the hunt Like you gotta
, you gotta work for it, yougotta want it.
Like I don't have ATVs orhorses or anything to that
(43:12):
extent, but I'm stronglyconsidering buying one.
But, um, and then you know,I've got.
I've got one other story,because that was in November and
about nine days later, the galthat I'm marrying, missy, this
was her first elk hunt and shehad pulled an antlerless elk.
I also had an antlerless elktag, but I said, hey, let's
(43:35):
focus on getting you an animal,let's focus on you getting out
there hunting.
And this was in Unit 58, rightin front of Mount Antero,
between Buena Vista and Salida,okay, and it's kind of a
populated unit, and I learnedwhat Onyx was.
So I've never hunted with anyof this stuff before in the past
(43:58):
.
I still like maps, I still likescouting, but she had Onyx and
she's like you should get onyxand I was like this is
absolutely amazing.
Like I had I mean, I knew I hadheard of it but I never really
knew its full capabilities.
Yeah, so her and I we loadedout in the truck and, um, she
has, you know, archery elkhunted, uh, before in the past,
but this was going to be herfirst go around with a rifle.
(44:20):
So we head up to the snowy area, kind of sitting right in front
of Mount Antero, and I say, assoon as we get there, we're
going to walk.
And now that I know about Onyx,because I felt like I was cool,
we can walk right up to thesekind of private property lines.
We won't infringe on those, butit's a good area because elk
like to move in and out andwe're going to use that to our
(44:42):
advantage.
So we spent a day walking in thesnow and then while we were
walking we just noticed and shekind of brought this to my
attention that there was a lotof cars moving along this kind
of North South road and theywere glassing down these fingers
.
And I think it was a reallyawesome experience for me and
for her because I was able tokind of give her a little bit of
.
You know, there's hunting andthen there's shooting and I just
(45:06):
explained to her like everybodyhas different capabilities and
limitations.
But for you to kind of continueto honor that hunt, you have to
get out and walk Like glassingfrom a road in your truck with
the heater on, looking for anysign or any sort of indication,
and then getting out and puttingon your stalk.
It's a way.
It's not necessarily the way,but that's not how I hunt and
(45:29):
that's not how she wants to hunt.
So we spent two days therewalking these different fingers
and unfortunately, when there'spine nuts on trees I usually get
distracted, start eating pinenuts.
But it's also a food indicator.
Didn't really see any track,didn't really see anything.
And we jumped down onto themain road and she found this
(45:50):
little insert that connected tosome BLM land and it was a hard
kind of road and we drove upthere and we parked and I said
let's get out, let's walk.
We're looking for ground spore,elevated midpoint and then
lower level ground spore,anything that will give us
indications.
Uh, that elk are in this area.
Uh, we had binos this time,which was kind of cool.
(46:10):
We had a laser range finder, wehad onyx I'm like this is this,
is this is amazing.
But it was, uh, it was excitingto use those tools because this
was her hunt and you know, withmy tag I was like focus is you?
And after we had moved to thatarea I said, well, what we're
going to do is we're going tohunker down near the truck it's
(46:32):
kind of hot and we're going toplay kind of the north-south
sides where animals are going tobe sitting in snow avoiding the
heat, and we're going to kindof let it get to about maybe
like 12, one o'clock when thatsun is really shifted, and we're
going to use that sun, thatterrain, kind of to our
advantage.
More importantly, I want to seethe elk moving through that
snow.
It's a good contrast, as sureas anything, I'd say.
(46:53):
Probably about 45 minutes afterus, sitting on this ridge, we
see four or five elk.
Now, hers was antlerless and wesee it, it's about 800 yards.
Actually, hers was antlerlessand we see it, it's about 800
yards.
Actually it was 836 yards,because that time we had a laser
, the range finder, but yeah,I'm not complaining about
technology, but it was like ohman, that's okay, that's pretty
(47:15):
cool, that's convenient.
Yeah, totally convenient,totally convenient.
So I'm like, all right, let'sput this stock on the convenient
, totally convenient.
So I'm like, all right, let'sput this stock on.
The wind was blowing kind offrom the southwest so it was
kind of blowing in our faces andwe had about seven or eight
kind of draws and fingers we hadto move between until I kind of
spotted this one ridge thatwould give us an advantage.
So, as I was explaining to her,we want to avoid the roller
(47:38):
coaster, we kind of want to dothe bumper cars where you're
kind of walking at the basis,which requires a little bit more
energy expenditure.
But I'm like avoidingsilhouettes is like a huge thing
.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
So we wind up making our way.
I'm going to use that.
By the way, I'm going to usethe bumper cars analogy, like no
roller coasters we're goingbumper cars, that's it, that's
it.
Speaker 2 (47:59):
So we get to the backside of this one kind of
draw and this little finger andwe're at, like I recall I think
it was like 130 yards, likesignificant hunt in this sort of
(48:24):
capacity, and I can, I can, Ican see her.
I can see her emotional stateslowly changing into I'm about
to take the life of this animal.
I'm about to kind of experiencesomething that not a lot of
people get to experience.
Those that choose to, we'llfind a way to do it.
But this is something prettysacred, something pretty
honorable.
And you know she has a sevenmag.
So she kind of takes a highknee, she's sitting in a little
bit of chunk of snow and there'sfour elk, four antlerless elk,
(48:48):
one's laying down in the snowand then there's one kind of
standing on the high point ofthe ridge and then two kind of
off to the side and I'm like Iwant you to think which one is
the most you know advantageousto take.
And she's like I think the onelaying down.
I said perfect Animals that laydown.
(49:09):
All that stuff is kind ofcompressed and kind of
compartmentalized in a littlebit tighter thoracic cavity.
She takes her shot kind ofblows her back a little bit,
yelk instantly kind of itdoesn't get up.
I see a big spurt of blood asit comes out of its mouth kind
of, kicks once or twice and laysdown and at that point, you
know, she came to tears and Iwas kind of in a you know
tearful sort of spot because itwas something we got to share
together and she suddenlyunderstood and I think she kind
(49:33):
of already knew, the importanceof hunting to me and for a lot
of men and women out there wereone, that experience and two,
now what you know ultimatelycomes after, but all of the
rewards, the, the food in the,the hides, like she was now part
of that living history, causeyou know, everyone in this in
this world, from you know 10,000to 10 million, you know 3.3
(49:56):
million years ago, are hunters.
And she now got to experiencethat in a different capacity but
now is going to really trulyunderstand what it is.
And we walked over to that elk,dragged it down the side.
Thank God it was in snow,because what it was?
It was like a little buttonbuck or a button bull, so it was
still antlerless but it was ayoung male and I quickly got
(50:20):
really nervous because as wepulled it down and she kind of
took a moment to put, you know,put her hand on it, and anything
I do in hunting I always dolike a last rites of food sort
of ceremony, where I takewhatever it's eating and I place
it in its mouth as its lastmeal.
So it consumes Now, we consumeit.
It's kind of that full circle,just to kind of show that
appreciation.
(50:40):
And as I was doing that, I kindof looked and I kind of saw
these two kind of you know,testicles that didn't quite
fully drop and I'm like what theheck?
And I didn't realize, you know,from that distance, that it was
a young male, felt up on hishead just two tiny little nubs,
which is a great thing, and it'salso, you know, a bad thing
(51:03):
because you want, you know,animals to kind of be able to
grow and mature and do theirthing, uh, still meeting all
those legal limits.
But it was a larger, antlered,less animal.
So, um, we started and for youknow, you know, missy, she's 105
pounds, soaking wet.
She got to work, you know,gotten the animal out and
(51:26):
quartering it and just pullingeverything off of this animal
and then our walk back, uh, tothe truck.
Um, you know we did two tripsand it was just like around two
miles a mile and three quarterswas our, our, our total after we
kind of walked in and out.
But, um, she was, she was superexcited for the experience and
(51:47):
the most beautiful part about itwas once we actually came home,
um pulled out the fleshing beamand the butchering tables and
she cut that animal up intosteaks and just roasts and stews
.
Everything mean we still havebones sitting in the freezer
that we use for bone broth andum, but everything she got to
experience the hunting that youknow I've learned to really
(52:11):
appreciate over the years.
She kind of got to see itfirsthand and really had an
opportunity and her, her brother, jt, runs a Delta waterfowl
down in Texas.
So she was absolutely sendinghim texts right off the bat like
have you got an elk?
You know that sort of thing.
But it was an amazingexperience to share with her
because you know we are gettingmarried here in the future.
(52:31):
She loves hunting, she's fromTexas but she's been able.
I was, I was appreciative of herwillingness to kind of go the
path that I like to choose butstill incorporating, um, some of
the the conveniences of, uh youknow, for achieving that level
of success.
But I'll tell you what for 105pounds she packed out quarters,
hearts, livers, I mean she, sheput in the work and it's uh,
(52:55):
yeah, you know, post-holingthrough some snow and get where
we need to go.
But, um, yeah, that night wekind of, uh, we stayed back out
on that ridge, kind of enjoyedthe stars and the night and then
all the hard work that wasgoing to come in the next couple
of days.
But once we got back, I'd saywithin, oh God, I think within
three days, hide was flushed andstretched, all the meat was
(53:19):
processed Meat's always first,but got all the meat done.
Then we'd go to the hide andthen we boil out the skull and I
start making tools out ofanything and anything that's
left behind.
But yeah, I think for us, on thegrand scheme, it was just a, it
was a great, it was a greatbonding experience.
So, for all you husbands outthere and all you ladies that
(53:41):
are listening, go hunting withyour partner, with your
significant one, your lover,because it is a amazing thing to
have that story of going outand truly like obtaining and
then providing for your family.
Speaker 1 (53:56):
It's absolutely rewarding, that's so cool man so
she's hooked I assume, so she'sgoing every year.
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (54:03):
And that's the funny part is like I don't.
I've never done an elk camp.
I've never done a mule deercamp.
I've always been like a, a solohunter.
I've had a handful of people onstandby that I could call if I
needed help packing somethingout, if I didn't think I could
do it.
But I've never been to an elkcamp where there's coolers and
four wheelers and you knowbreakfast is being cooked, it's,
(54:24):
it's.
It's never been my um one.
I've never been invited to.
It's never been my thing andthere's not.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But I just I like the, thesoloness of the hunting.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (54:36):
I'll go hog hunting with, with people in different
capacities, and waterfowlhunting, but when it comes to
like elk or mule deer or youknow, mountain lion hunting or
anything in that sort ofcapacity, I like that soleness.
But this was really that firsttime I got to share it with
somebody and it's it's evenbetter than I got to share with
someone that I love and going towind up marrying.
Speaker 1 (54:56):
That's awesome, that is so awesome.
Speaker 2 (54:58):
Right on, donnie.
I wish we had like six hours,because I feel like I could just
keep hearing stories.
Speaker 1 (55:06):
Man, I've got like a million questions.
Fire away, let's see the tech.
It was just a nice convenienceat the time, or are you going to
adopt any of those thingsmoving forward?
Speaker 2 (55:16):
You know I think that's a great question I still
have the Onyx app on my phone,Uh-oh.
Speaker 1 (55:22):
Uh-oh, I still have the Onyx app on my phone.
Speaker 2 (55:23):
I know, I know Well it's so I'll tell you what I
think I'm going to use it for alot of that scouting, a lot of
that initial planning as far asunderstanding, you know private
properties, blm, national Force,all that sort of stuff, and I
think I will.
I think I'll adopt it atcertain ways in certain times.
I think if I'm going with aprimitive bow I'll probably drop
(55:45):
the Onyx, go back to my, youknow, moccasins, loincloth, you
know that's just, that's just me.
But I think if we're, if we'regoing in a different capacity
somewhere else, I think Onyx isa great tool.
I think it will help build theconfidence of hunters and their
uncertainties of of terrain andunderstanding you know how far
they did walk or what.
What are some of those factorsin there?
Speaker 1 (56:06):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
I'm, I'm all for it.
Speaker 1 (56:08):
Okay, Very cool.
Um, you mentioned cougars.
You don't strike me as a havinga bunch of dogs, so do you just
?
You just go cut tracks and juststart following them.
I do, how do you okay?
Speaker 2 (56:20):
Snow, I wait for the snow, I wait for that.
I call up, just like you know.
Hey, whatever unit, uh, fivelines available and uh, I
haven't had any success withthat.
Um, but there has been ahandful of times.
This is when I was kind ofliving in Southern Colorado
where I just I just look fortracks, shooting across the road
(56:40):
, prominent trails, and I'vebeen able to see lions
definitely not within a shot,but it's cool and I think I've
learned so much from it.
But when that fresh snow ishitting, that's the most
opportune time.
Cut those tracks, see wherethey're going, see if they're
circling, you know, becauselions they breed year-round, so
there's always something therethat you know they going for
(57:02):
food or you know that thatpartner and um, I think that's
just.
I mean, if you can get eyes ona lion after cutting tracks and
following it for an hour or two,that's, that's rewarding.
Speaker 1 (57:11):
I mean it's hunting within itself about the uh, you
know the benefits, but I believeit for some buddies that have
taken lions.
That's the way to do it reallyokay, so do so, do you go with
your, you know like bow.
Speaker 2 (57:23):
You go with a bow, yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:24):
You are a crazy man, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (57:28):
Well, I think I mean, if hunting with rifles and
there's success, I feel like forme my success rate goes up,
with a rifle my success rategoes down, just like most
archery hunters, it goes down.
And then I think when you bringit down to a primitive bow, you
have to employ a wholedifferent set of different
skills, knowledge, skills andabilities to get that shot.
(57:53):
And I've taken elk with a bowand mule deer with a bow and all
sorts of things with a bow.
But I mean that's the challenge.
This year I was looking forsomething a little bit different
with Marissa.
I was looking for a a littlebit different with you know,
with Marissa I was looking for alittle bit something different
with myself because it was, itwas about those resources.
But years in the past, I mean, Itell you what I love.
Yeah, I love, I love archeryhunting, especially with a, you
know, a six foot primitive bowthat draws at 65 to 70 pounds.
(58:16):
You've made your arrows, youknow that thing is dialed in and
there's nothing wrong with youknow, compound, uh, hunting, um,
you know, pick, pick yourpoisons.
That's just how I enjoy, goodfor you, uh, doing it yeah, it's
good for you.
Speaker 1 (58:30):
I I can't imagine sneaking up dude you said like
10, 15 yards on a cougar that'snot treed with a stick bow like
whoo, okay, that got me fired up.
Speaker 2 (58:42):
I haven't gotten there.
Yeah, you'll get there.
I'm rooting for you.
I'm rooting for you.
I got one more question.
Speaker 1 (58:48):
Yeah, I'm worried that it's going to just like
open up this crazy story thatyou have to tell.
All right, you obviously have avery unique style of hunting.
Like, you're in the top 1% oflike.
I'm going to do it the way thatour ancestors did it.
Yeah, have you ever been on ahunt where you're like maybe I
pushed it too far?
Like, like, maybe maybe Ishouldn't have gone just like
(59:12):
like you know, like you're likeman, I wish I had a better
jacket or I wish, I like,whatever the circumstance with
any of the things that you kindof dial back on is has there
been.
I'm sure plenty of instancesand and I don't know.
Is there one that stands outthat you could share with us?
Yeah, I mean all of them.
Speaker 2 (59:29):
I'm always thinking every time you're an idiot but I
I.
So one of the reasons I love uh, you know, and I'll, I'll keep
it short archery hunting,primitive bow, especially in
Colorado.
Our bow season is typicallyaround September, right, and the
season that starts right beforethat I love hunting is marmot
(59:55):
whistle pigs.
Way up in elevation, you know,12, 13,000 feet, whistle pigs is
the perfect thoracic cavitysize of an elk, so it's great to
get dialed in on those.
Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
They taste delicious.
Oh, interesting and for me.
Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
Yeah, if you have a marmot hunted, I'll tell you
what.
Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
Never even thought about it.
Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
Oh man, it starts August 10th, typically 9th, 10th
, 11th and then ends the end ofOctober when the mountains start
getting heavy snow.
That's usually when they den up, but it starts Now.
During that season you'regetting dialed in on marmot and
you're way up in elevation soyou're really pushing yourself.
But I like to have the marmothunt overlap with that kind of
fall time, turkey and then intothat elk season because it is
(01:00:30):
opportunities for meals,especially the marmot.
And uh, there's been countlesstimes where I've been you know
it's archery season mule deerelk, whatever that case may be,
and um, I'm still be hunting forthose.
But I'm hunting for marmotbecause I want an aspect of food
.
You know a marmot looks like abig groundhog but they're clean
(01:00:51):
eaters.
They eat a lot of moss andflowers and grasses so they're
not really digging in the dirteating up worms and grubs and
crickets and stuff.
It's higher elevation worms andgrubs and crickets and stuff,
it's higher elevation.
So where I kick myself is likeyou need to start bringing some
supplementals where you canfocus more on the mule deer elk
hunt and not focus on getting amarmot that you're going to burn
(01:01:12):
8,000 calories trying to get.
Shoot it, cook it get maybe1,500 calories, and then you're
kind of back at square one, sothat sort of thing, having some
of those modern things justbeing able to take a form of
fuel, and that other fuel comesin the form of fishing.
But if you're trying to huntmeals, while you're trying to
(01:01:33):
hunt your primary targeteventually hunting all of those
meals catching fish, marmot,squirrels, whatever that
eventually becomes your priorityand you're missing out on your
opportunities to hunt, sosupplemental food, and then you
know I'm a big, I'm a big fan,especially, you know, august.
Into September.
Mountains are still beautiful,it's still warm in my opinion.
So it's absolutely great, butjust bringing some amenities to
(01:01:57):
aid in your sleep, instead ofsleeping in like a big leaf bed
or just having a wool blanket oryou know why not, you know,
bring a sleeping bag.
I mean, no one's going to judgeyou, it's just one of those
things where it's a littlelittle comfort.
Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
Come on, donnie.
Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
Yeah, and you wonder why I've never been invited to
an out camp.
Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
Yeah Right, they're like why doesn't Danny?
Donnie bring a tent or asleeping bag.
He's just sleeping in the yard,I know it's, it's, it's, that
thing.
Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
But I think you know, I'm 45, maybe, as time
progresses and maybe I'll, youknow, incorporate a lot more of
those amenities with withMarissa Missy.
Um, this, this go around, I hadsome of those modern amenities
and I could see why there is adraw and the advantages they
provide.
Uh, successes as well asfailures.
Um, I'm gonna, I'm gonnacontinue doing what I'm doing.
I mean, you know, putting ourtags in is is right around the
corner in my personal mind.
(01:02:49):
Um, so I mean, this year, allwe've already decided we're both
doing archery.
Now she can't draw fully on aprimitive bow, she, so she
shoots a compound bow.
So she's still working up to beable to draw on a primitive bow
, something around that 50 plus,still getting within a good
(01:03:10):
yardage.
I mean, she can meet all thestate regs.
But she really wants to huntwith that primitive bow and I'm
like, well, let's just work yourcompound until we can get where
you need to go, but she puts inthe arrows, without a doubt.
Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
This year we'll wind up putting in our archery tags
and we'll roll right from marmotto turkey and then right into
that elk.
But I will have some refueledmeals, because there's a thing
called a harvest right.
I'm not sure if you're familiarwith it, but it's a commercial
freeze dryer where you can getone at home.
(01:03:42):
Okay, so you can take all ofyour meals, of your meals that
you uh, you know you make alarge portion of it.
You have some leftovers.
You can actually freeze dry andturn it into your peak refuel.
Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
I've heard of people doing that.
Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
Yeah, yeah, and I'll tell you what it's.
Um, I learned about it from aguy named Sean Curtis up in
Wyoming.
He's a phenomenal and I keptseeing him eating.
He's like I'm having elk, youknow, like fajitas, and I'm like
it's June, like what the heck?
How do you still have some?
You know, he's kind of goingover how he did it.
So he kind of got me interestedand Missy got interested.
(01:04:15):
So now we have a lot of thosemeals that you know don't cost
you 15 bucks a pot but you canmake your own sort of stuff.
So, incorporating meals,incorporating some sleeping gear
and I don't know, maybe I'llkeep Onyx on the phone for a
little while longer, All rightWell.
I was just curious man.
Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
Don't change because of me, I just love what you do,
man, I've always been impressed.
I'm running out of time here,but I want to have you back on
again sometime soon, donnie.
Absolutely, but I want to haveyou back on again sometime soon,
donnie.
In fact, I'm thinking aboutgetting a group of guys locally
to do something in person.
So, yeah, I'll get you involvedwith that.
But let's do this, let's wrapthis up.
(01:04:50):
Wanted to tell the folks wherethey can find you if you want
them to find you.
If not, you can just run offwithout your sleeping bag into
the mountains.
It's up to you.
Speaker 2 (01:04:59):
Like I tell most people, you can find me in the
mountains or in the woods,somewhere like that.
But yeah, on most of the socialmedia it's just Donnie Dust,
d-o-n-n-y-d-u-s-t.
On my YouTube, where I go overa lot of prim skills and
survival sort of stuff.
It's Donnie Dust Paleo Tracks,all my books, all the things
(01:05:20):
that I make and different thingsthat I sell.
All you have to do is go toDonnieDustcom and that is really
your hub for anything you wantto learn or even just getting in
contact with me.
And I do want to stress tofolks that I respond personally.
I don't have a team of people,it's just me.
So if you send an email, you'regetting me and, more
(01:05:41):
importantly, if you leavecomments in any videos or
anything to that point, I try topersonally extend some of my
time to sharing with you.
I don't like the mentality ofposting and ghosting.
That is not how you build acommunity and for me it is about
reaching out to people,connecting, making new friends
and relationships.
(01:06:01):
Hell yeah.
So yeah, don't be a stranger,Reach out.
I'm happy to answer questionsand you know, shoot the shit.
Speaker 1 (01:06:07):
So to speak.
That's awesome, man.
Speaker 2 (01:06:09):
That's awesome Well, donnie thank you so much, man.
Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
You've.
You've always been like my, mypie in the sky dream of like
where I want to get to, so it'ssuper cool to get to meet you as
a newer hunter, like you seeguys like yourself and it's just
like oh my gosh, I wish so no,thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:06:26):
Well, you do you, man ?
I mean, that's the easiestthing to be just keep rocking
and rolling.
Well, I have a feeling we'regonna wind up getting together
sooner than later.
We live less than 10 minutesapart and, uh, we'll get out
there, we'll see what we cancome up with, and uh, we'll get
some meat in the freezer.
Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
That's what it's's about oh yeah, I'll have you
over.
So I shot a moose this year, soI'll have you over and we'll,
we'll, cook up some moose, ohshit, yes, sir oh man, that's
awesome yeah.
I actually want to talk to youabout bone broth Cause I got a
bag of bones in my freezer.
I appreciate you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:06:59):
Thank you, Michael.
I appreciate everyone listening.
Thanks for your time.
See you out there.
Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
Perfect.
All right, folks.
That's it.
Another couple stories in thebooks.
Again, I want to thank Donnie,of course, for coming on the
podcast.
It was super exciting to hearthat he's a listener, but just
to chat with the guy because hedoes such interesting stuff.
Again, if you aren't followinghim, give him a follow.
All the links you need are inthe show notes, his YouTube,
(01:07:26):
some of his socials.
I, immediately after recordingthis, went and watched that eel
story on First man Out and itwas epic.
So thank you, Donnie, forcoming on the podcast.
I really do appreciate it Toyou listeners.
Thank you, guys for tuning in.
Please give Donnie a follow.
Beyond that, guys, share uswith one person today and also
(01:07:48):
give us a review on whateveryou're listening on and now get
out there and make some storiesof your own.
Thank you.
Howdy folks and welcome to the hunting stories
podcast.
I'm your host, michael, andwe've got an exciting episode
for today.
Today, we connect with someonewho's actually a listener, but
they're more than just that, andthey ended up randomly being
kind of a neighbor to me.
But Donnie Dust.
If you don't know Donnie, checkout his socials and give him a
follow.
I've been following him for along time because the guy is
super interesting.
But Donnie is a wildernesssurvival expert, professional
(00:29):
tracker, former military veteran.
He's known for his unique skillset and primitive survival
techniques, often like teachingpeople how to live off the land
using ancient methods.
Donnie also, his work has beenfeatured on multiple shows and
he's really passionate aboutconnecting people with nature in
a way that's both practical anddeeply rooted in tradition.
So check him out on alone.
Check him rooted in tradition.
So check him out on Alone.
Check him out on First man Out.
Check him out on his YouTubechannel.
But please do give Donnie afollow.
(00:51):
This episode is a really goodone.
So let's just jump into thisthing.
Let's let Donnie tell you someof his stories.
But thank you guys, so much fortuning in.
I do appreciate you All.
Right, donnie, welcome to theHunting Stories Podcast man, how
are you?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I'm doing exceptional .
Thank you so much for having me.
I appreciate it greatly.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, man, I'm so excited to have you here.
You followed me on Instagramand I was like no way, what's
this guy doing following me?
Because I've been a big fan ofyours for a long time.
Like I said before we startedrecording, like your videos were
like people like can you makethis?
Like of course I can make, ohyeah, like you just do awesome
stuff.
You're a really entertainingguy and I'm honored to have you
(01:35):
here.
Um so, thank you, man.
I really do appreciate it wellI appreciate you greatly.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I mean it like we were discussing it's.
I'm I'm horrible at the, sowhen I I listen to podcasts and
I hear different things,especially when I'm flint
napping or getting ready todrive somewhere, and then I
never really put two and twotogether.
I'll follow them on, you know,the podcast, spotify or whatever
the case may be, and I'm like,well, I should probably also go
hit them up on Instagram as welland follow them, and so that
(02:01):
was my fault and, ironically, welive probably less than 10
minutes from one another.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, I could probably walk to your house in
15 minutes, so that isabsolutely insane.
But let's do this.
Donnie, I want you to introduceyourself, but be as thorough or
not as you want, but you are animpressive person, man.
I mean you're an author.
You're a Marine, you do filmand movie stuff.
I mean, I know you say youdon't do social media, but I
(02:26):
found you on social media so Iassumed you were a little bit of
an influencer.
You probably don't like thattitle, but why don't?
you introduce yourself, becauseI wouldn't even know where to
start, because you do have animpressive background man, so go
ahead.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
All right, well, I appreciate it.
My name is Donnie Dust.
That is my name, it's not astage name or anything to that
extent.
Um, I live in uh, lafayette,colorado, and uh, united States
Marine Corps veteran.
I did uh 12 years in the Corps,served time as a infantry
machine gunner and then I was acounterintelligence, human
(02:59):
intelligence agent Uh did a lotof deployments uh to combat
zones, um zones really allaround the world where there is
sort of kind of uniquesituations that required some
counterintelligence work.
I could find myself there andafter about 12 years in the
Corps it was just time to getout.
You know, I had two young sonsand I wanted to be, you know,
(03:22):
present as a father and reallykind of guide them into whatever
kind of pursuits they, you know, wanted to explore or kind of
choose on their own happenings.
And after getting out of theCorps I worked a little bit of
government contracts and that'skind of a unique world and it
really just kind of brought meback into that, you know, that
war fighting phase.
So I decided to kind of pursuea lifelong passion of mine,
(03:46):
which was kind of the primitiveskills of survival, the remote
living and primitive hunting.
That I kind of did a lot as my,you know, in my youth and then
learned quite a bit while I wasin the Corps.
But I wanted to do that fulltime and it's hard for folks to
do that, to step away from youknow that guaranteed paycheck
and health insurance and allthose things.
But I think that was the Marinein me saying all right, you got
(04:09):
this.
You know you got to buckle downand and make it happen.
And from that time I've writtena couple of different books.
I've gone on social media andthat was kind of a slow phase in
my evolution to where I'm attoday.
I never really relied on, youknow, social media to promote
you know a business oropportunities and I kind of
(04:29):
started teaching skills, guidingsome hunts, really by sitting
at a parking lot throwing out alarge bison hide or a couple of
mule deer hides, doing somefriction fires and kind of using
my presence as my biggestadvertisement.
And that's where I could bookpeople on kind of remote living
experiences.
And you know, when we got intothat kind of hunting world I was
(04:50):
able to kind of add some ofthat expertise there as well.
And from that time I've beenlearning social media and kind
of understood the importance ofit and how it can present new
opportunities and it's beenpretty awesome.
And all through this time I'vebeen a hunter and I'm kind of I
consider myself I don't want toput myself in a category because
(05:13):
I think too many hunters dothat in a lot of different
landscapes.
You know you're a bow hunter,rifle hunter, primitive hunter.
I am a hunter and within that Ikind of live by the philosophy
of honoring the hunt and huntingis about resources for me and
for my family.
That is the hides, you seebehind me.
the meat, the sinew, the tendons, the intestines, the heart,
(05:34):
liver, lungs, all of thosethings can be consumed.
And things that come from ananimal, including its bones, are
all tools that I can use in thepursuits of, you know,
primitive living flint knapping,building bows, building
everything and anything.
So hunting for me is kind of myHome Depot, king Soopers.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
That's cool.
I like the way you think ofthat.
I do label myself I'm a hunterof opportunity because I suck so
bad at all of it.
I will just go as long as Ihave a chance like I'm happy,
whether it's rifle gun whatever.
I, like you, just want to kindof harvest the animal and do the
best I can.
Yeah, and I'm learning it.
I don't have the skills thatyou have by any means, but it's
(06:19):
I love the attitude that youbring to it.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Man, that's beautiful , I appreciate it and I think
what what people strive for inthe hunting community is a
ground truth, and that groundtruth is something that they
obtain through successes andfailures, cause you learn from
both and I do believe thatwhether you're a 10 year hunter
or five year or one year uh youknow individual looking to get
into hunting, you learn fromthose experiences and that is
your ground truth and you alwayskind of rely on that.
(06:42):
So I mean it even goes, youknow, this Sunday I'm going out.
I've taken a couple geese thisyear with a shotgun, waterfowl,
hunting, taking plenty of ducks.
But for me, I love goose meatand I also need the wings for
fletchings.
So it's finding those resourceswhere I can kind of
continuously fuel my adventuresand my endeavors, and hunting is
(07:03):
extremely important for me andmy family.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
So that's amazing, man, that's amazing.
And there's so many geesearound here.
I understand why you have takenus here so many geese around
here.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
So good, so delicious .
Do you like geese?
Speaker 1 (07:15):
you know, I've only so again I'm a new hunter.
I've only been goose huntingone time went down in texas, to
this area kind of west ofhouston that's supposedly just
known for just amazing goosehunting.
Get down there.
It's the middle of the night,we're setting up our spread and
I could hear geese like I'venever heard geese in my life.
It was just this likeoverwhelming noise and I'm like
(07:36):
that's just honking.
That is insane.
And I've never been moreexcited for the sun to rise
because I was like I'm going tosee a goose tornado it.
I've never been more excitedfor the sun to rise because I
was like I'm going to see agoose tornado.
It's going to be the best huntof my life.
Turns out, all the sandhillcranes spooked them all from our
area.
We had like 15 sandhill cranesabove us and you could see in
the distance like literallyblocking out the sky, blocking
out the skyline.
Geese everywhere around us, butabove us nothing.
(08:00):
Just absolutely nothing, so weshot I I want to say three geese
.
Um, I took one home.
I ate it.
It was delicious, but I I don'tthink I did a great job cooking
it.
I was just excited to have theone, but it was such a funny uh,
funny experience, just becauseI was just like so hyped and
there was just so many animalsbut it's hunting right, you,
just you can't control that.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
It's one of those things.
Yeah, you don't get that manyopportunities.
Yeah, you know whenopportunities when you see a
flock of geese flying over andthere's 100, 200, and there's
multiple wedges flying, you kindof get really excited.
And I think for me.
I love goose meat, my boys havegrown up eating goose meat.
But I've discovered this newrecipe where you actually take
your goose breasts, put them inyour crock pot, pour a full pot
(08:43):
of black coffee, like originalblack coffee, and you slow cook
it in that all day and it comesapart just like a pulled pork,
like a pot roast.
And it is it is amazing, it'sabsolutely no other seasonings.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Salt pepper anything else.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
No, yeah, I mean you could.
You could throw some stuff inthere.
I mean I'll put onions in there, some salt and pepper, but when
you pull it out it just shredsand it's.
It's top notch Cause before itwas always like you know.
You know burritos or tacoswhere you're covering it with
just like hot seasonings, no,just black coffee, a little bit
of onion, salt pepper, low andslow, that's interesting.
It's top notch.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Well, next time I get a goose man, that's going to
that's going to be my go-torecipe so cool?
Well, this isn't a cooking show, donnie.
This isn't a cooking show, allright, so cut that out.
Why don't you tell us how yougot those geese?
Let's start.
No, I'm just kidding, but let'sget to it, man.
Why don't you set the stage?
Um, where, where, where do youwant to take us, man?
I would love.
(09:38):
I'm excited to hear somestories.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah.
So I think for this first storywe're actually going to move
out of the country and we'regoing to head to the Amazon
jungle oh cool, yeah.
So this is kind of like alittle bit different, probably,
than what most people hear, aswell as some of their own
personal experiences.
Two years ago I had anopportunity to go down into the
(10:03):
Amazon jungle and race anotherman by the name of Ed Stafford,
who's from the UK, across theAmazon jungle with just a
machete no way.
That is so cool All right, itwas a pretty awesome experience,
but the whole objective was forhim and I to race, taking
different paths no maps, nocompass, no water bottles, no
(10:25):
fire, just a machete.
And we were to jump into theAmazon River off a barge, swim
across the river and then justhit land and then look for
different indicators ofelevation and then from that
elevation look for, likedownwater, different ravines and
draws and little gullies thatwould lead us to this river
(10:47):
called the Rio Negro, and thatwas our kind of exfil, and the
first person that could getthere was the first man out and
they kind of won this race.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Okay, so real quick.
What is the estimated?
Like bird flies distance fromone of these rivers to the other
.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
So we're probably looking over a hundred plus
miles for this, for this legbetween between the Amazon and
the Rio Negro, but with withthat, you know, I had never been
to the Amazon jungle.
Ed had an advantage where hehad walked the entire length of
South America.
It took him two years to do itbut he had kind of a ground
(11:25):
truth there.
So I've spent some time injungles, but never the Amazon.
So I was up for the challengeand I knew when we were going
out there there was going torequire kind of different
knowledge, skills and abilitiesto ultimately get stuff done.
So one of the things that youwould think in the jungle like
that, there are lots of foodopportunities and there are, but
a lot of them come in the formof insects or snakes, and I ate
(11:49):
my handful of grubs anddifferent larvae and was
drinking from water vines.
But one of the things that Ineeded was a legitimate element
of protein.
I needed food.
You can catch piranha and youcould probably try to locate a
caiman.
But with all those things, justlike in any sort of hunting,
there's certain, you know, risk,reward sort of benefits and for
(12:12):
me I was thinking I needsomething that I can reach out
and touch through the form of anatlatl or a bow and be able to
take that, that critter, if youwill, and be able to cook it
over fire, whatever it is.
So while I was there, I learneda couple different plants.
I got to spend some time withsome locals learning different
(12:33):
plants, and one of the thingsthat I was going to do was make
a bow out of a tree called themata mata and the mata mata is a
very unique tree where thattree will provide you the right
type of bow wood.
Its bark will also serve as yourcordage.
And then, from the differentpalm species that are out there,
there's hard tops to thesepalms that make pretty decent
(12:54):
arrows, maybe like atwo-and-a-half three-foot arrow,
fletching-less, but it willstill puncture a hole, draw
blood, lead to a bleed out, soon and so forth.
And one of the things that Ilearned quickly, what was on the
menu was electric eel, and fromthis so I've never hunted
(13:15):
electric eel, but being that wewere there in the rainy season,
a lot of the water had floodedup, and these electric eels are
extremely, extremely powerful,so powerful that they can
identify fruit trees, touch thebase of the fruit tree if it's,
you know, in the water, shock itand will drop those fruits and
eat those fruits out of thewater.
Wow so this thing really, reallypacks a punch.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
That's amazing, so this is all news to me.
You're blowing my mind.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Keep going.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Donnie, no worries.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
So as I'm traveling throughout the jungle, I'm
sleeping in a variety ofshelters up off the ground, I'm
avoiding bullet ants and poisondart frogs, and it seems like
something out of a movie and itabsolutely was in my mind.
But I was having a blast andeventually I got to this section
where I was able to find somewater and I had to craft a boat
and my biggest concern waspiranhas, caimans and electric
(14:06):
eels.
But prior to getting there, Iwas like you got to make this
bow, you got to get it dialed in, you got to be able to take
like a 10, 15 yard shot, maybesomething in a tree or something
in the water, but this is goingto be your means of getting
food.
And having a history of bowmaking, I had a lot of
confidence being able to makethis bow with just a machete.
So I find my right matamatatree, I craft my bow, my bow
(14:30):
string.
I get a couple of arrows thatare fletchingless, just long
heavier in the front, thattapered out and almost acts like
a tail and a fletching, and youknow 10, 12 yards.
I was pretty dialed in.
So I get to this low water andthe easiest way to navigate this
water is actually building aboat or a raft of some sort and
(14:51):
then moving from flooded waterto kind of dry land.
Flooded water to dry land.
So I built this raft out of avariety of different types of
woods, built a paddle andstarted paddling through.
And after a full day ofpaddling on this water I'm just
completely tuckered out and it'stime to make a shelter, because
(15:12):
you can't sleep on the groundin the Amazon.
You have to get up off theground because it's a completely
different sort of environment.
So I build this elevatedshelter, I get a fire going and
as I'm doing this my fire'srocking and rolling, I start to
see these ripples in the water.
And when I was learning fromthe locals they said sometimes
the ripples are caimans becausethey're just kind of moving high
(15:35):
up in the water.
Sometimes it can be an eel, itcan be a school of piranha.
But you have to be careful whenyou're approaching.
And in my mind I'm going backto all those like hunting
fundamentals of like playing thewind and kind of masking my
movements from tree to tree.
And as I'm doing this I'm likewalking up to this water's edge,
not really knowing what's inthis dark, murky, like black
(15:56):
water.
But when I get there I realizethat the water is mud leading up
to the edge is mud leading upto the edge.
So I have to kind of take aback step to where I can get to
a somewhat dry portion to seeactually what this is, in the
event that it was an electriceel.
So I moved to this dry land, Ijump up onto this kind of like
down tree and, lo and behold,there's this like six foot
(16:18):
electric eel that's probablyfour or five inches in diameter,
just slowly moving through thewater.
And like most you know, youknow hunters you always want to
be prepared.
So I had my bow, I had myarrows and as I'm looking at
this eel, I'm thinking to myselfif I shoot this eel, I have to
(16:39):
then get in the water with bloodin the water and these eels
will still kick out at chargeand that can be pretty darn
dangerous.
So as I'm precariouslymaneuvering through elevated
logs, I'm able to get a shot onthis electric eel with my bow.
It was probably like I don'tknow, maybe six, seven feet away
, and when I shot, my firstarrow missed and I was like, oh
(17:02):
my God, this is not good, I needsome food, you know.
So luckily I had another arrow,drew it out and I plugged them
right in the back of the headand when this thing got hit it
started to kick and just goabsolutely crazy in the water
and eventually it died.
Then it came the challenge ofme retrieving this eel from the
water, and it was jabbing itwith sticks, trying to to lift
(17:24):
it out, making sure that therewas nothing conducting any
electricity, because they canstill kind of have that charge
how do you know how long theycan hold that charge after they
expire?
I believe, like once their heartstops, they have probably like
another 30, 45 seconds wherethat charge is still kind of
radiating to the muscle.
It decreases in its and its youknow volatility, but it's still
(17:45):
kind of there, if you will justthe idea of an animal that
generates electricity is, I knowit's like outer space.
It doesn't make sense to me likethis is insane, but okay, keep
going yeah so eventually I'mable to get this eel out of the
water and I'm able to pull it upon this stick.
And when I finally pulled it upout of the water and I'm able
(18:05):
to pull it up on this stick, andwhen I finally pulled it up out
of the water, I swear it gotlike three feet longer.
It was just this monster whenI'm when I'm I'm not
exaggerating Like I was able tohold chunks of meat in my hand.
So we've all pulled out backstraps you know elk or mule,
deer or whatever the case may beand they're pretty girthy and
they're pretty thick.
I would say, to give you avisual, if you took four back
straps from an elk and put themall together, that's how thick
(18:28):
this electric eel was but onelittle yeah, one spine right
down the entire thing.
And um, I brought it over thefire, started chopping up with
my machete, stuck it on a skewerand just roasted it over this
fire ate like probably at leastfour or five pounds of electric
eel.
Tried to dry some out, um stucksome in my little uh.
(18:52):
It wasn't the best because it'sreally humid there and I was
kind of in this race so I justgorged as much as I could that
day, stuck some over the coal,so we just kind of keep kind of
roasting throughout the night,ate some more in the morning and
then uh took off the you knowthe next morning on my raft
again.
But it was one of those, one ofthose things where, even though
(19:14):
this was kind of a unique uhopportunity where something
presented itself in the form offood um, you know it's it's,
it's different than some of theconventional hunting that we
might experience these daysthose fundamentals still remain.
Like how do I retrieve myanimal?
What's the best way to processit?
You know all those sort offactors, but it was a completely
(19:34):
different world and completelynew to me.
But I was still able to kind ofrely on some of the things that
I knew, like all right, youknow you've eaten plenty of
snakes, you've eaten plenty ofthings.
Let's break this animal down.
It probably has a gut cavity,probably has an anus.
You're going to have to cleanthese things out.
Let's remove its head and ifit's one giant back straps.
You know swimming in the water.
It's a meal and it wasabsolutely delicious.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Absolutely yeah.
So a couple of questions Arethere any regulations in that
area, or is just kind of likethey dropped you off and they're
like just stay alive, killwhatever you want?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, as far as I know, there were no regulations.
I don't, I mean, we weren't onanyone's property, it was just
the, the Amazon jungle, yeah, soyou know, catching piranha.
I do believe the Caymans ummight have a harvest season, but
it wasn't anything that we hadto consider, it was whatever
presents itself.
Uh, you can totally consume.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So, okay, okay for me that was, that was it yeah, so
that was, I assume, your big oryour first big meal.
Was that eel, or am I placingit kind of in the wrong in the
wrong spot in the time?
Speaker 2 (20:39):
yeah, how many days really the, yeah, the only meal
that I had.
I mean there was grubs and,like Brazil, nuts and different
fruits you can come across, butit's just like anyone, like some
people need their peak refuelsor their harvest right Freeze
dried foods.
I needed, you know, fuel toreally energize my body.
After, you know, hiking andtrekking and building a boat and
(20:59):
then paddling this boat andthen having to, you know, no,
I'm going to have to do a longswim once I get into the Rio
Negro.
Um, it's, it's kind of one ofthose unique adventures where
food was absolutely a priorityand I enjoyed it cause it
allowed me to kind of stick tomy, uh, my fundamentals when it
comes to, you know, hunting and,and it was yeah, okay, cool,
(21:22):
unique place, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
So who won?
Uh, I did.
Yeah, boy, I was hoping thatwas the answer, um how much?
How far ahead were you of and Iforgot his name already.
I'm sorry, but how far, uh,yeah, how, how, how many days or
hours or minutes did you finishbefore him?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
so I finished several hours before him and I think my
biggest advantage was yeah,yeah, he's.
He's not the best swimmer, so Igot a huge leg as soon as we
jumped off the barge and therewas a lot of times where you
could go over land, where you'realong a water's edge or you
could swim across, and I thinkthat was the amphibious marine
(22:06):
being in me.
If I saw a 100, 200-meter sortof swim, I'm like I'm in the
water, and if there is a caimanin there or a piranha, hopefully
things will work out in myadvantage.
I would just, you know, I justjumped in the water and swam,
you know, machete at the hand,just going just in case, but, um
, I think that that really paidoff and made up some time and
(22:29):
was able to come out on top.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
That's so cool, okay, um, I have to assume you guys
did not film this.
It seems a little too intenseto like, so I guess who was
hosting it?
Like it's a race, right?
So was it just a little toointense to like, so I guess who
was hosting it?
Like it's a race, right?
So was it just a gentleman'shandshake or like what is the
organization that put this alltogether?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
this was um a part of a uh a tv program and ed has
raced people in various you knowplaces, but this was like his
big challenge, his big race.
Reason being is I mean, hespent two years in the amazon,
walking from the north of amazonall the way down to the south,
so this was kind of like hiscoming home sort of thing.
(23:06):
So there was a film crew thereso people can actually see all
of this in the flesh and in theaction.
It's called First man Out, but Imean, there was times where we
would lose them when you're on aboat and paddling, you know,
when you're running through thejungle, you know.
So they would kind of leapfrogin different areas, try to catch
you and see you.
But we were on two differentroutes and the only time I saw
(23:30):
Ed was once we got, we swamacross the Amazon, when we
jumped off the barge and thenwhen we got on the Rio Negro, I
could see him way back on hisboat.
He built a boat or a littleraft as well and, uh, mine was
more like a standup body board,standup paddleboard sort of
(23:51):
thing, with like a V hole that Icould use my arms and use a
paddle and really get some, um,some momentum.
Okay, yeah, people can watch it.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
That's crazy.
So there was a crew and theyprobably had all the gear that
they needed and food and allthat stuff and they were just
trying to keep up with itbasically.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Yeah, that was pretty much it Like when we would
hunker down for the night.
They'd give you a camera andsay you know, film yourself.
We're going to go, you know amile or two this way and do our
thing, and you're like, allright, well, this is it.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
You know Cool man Very cool.
Yeah, this is it, you know,cool man very cool.
Good adventure.
Okay, gotta last questionbefore we go to the next story
was this more difficult, or wasalone more difficult for you, or
were they both?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
kicklocks, I guess is another option you know, yeah,
you know, I think alone was, Imean, alone was difficult
because I got sick and thatreally kind of uh did me in and
you, you know, unfortunately Ididn't film a lot of my sickness
and so I shot a muskrat with mybow, ate the muskrat, but it
(24:47):
wasn't the muskrat that got mesick, it was a lot of the
berries that animals have beenpeeing on and defecating on and
I got a form of dysentery, kindof a similar to like a Girardia
Cryptosporidium, and it justbrought me down quick.
But I've been sick in the woodsand in the bush so many times
that I know there's differentplants and different things that
(25:08):
can kind of help you out.
And at this time it was just Icouldn't find anything and it
just kept going downhill anddownhill.
But they're all unique.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
I mean, I enjoy it alone.
I bet, I bet, I bet Cool, okay,next question or not next
question, but next story.
What else do you got for?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
us.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Donnie, you kind of overwhelmed me with that one,
but we'll keep going, no worries.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
So this past year I took a nice-sized mule deer and
most of my hunting is with aprimitive bow.
I mean, even in Colorado youcan hunt with a primitive bow.
You got to have your doubleedges with a one-inch base, some
sort of you know, steel kind ofbroadhead.
So most of my arrows that isabout as primitive as I can get
(25:51):
them, still meeting state regsfor archery.
And this year I was trying totransition into the idea of
saying, all right, you need moremeat.
Um, you got two teenage sons,um, you eat a lot of meat, you
need some more meat.
So let's go out there and let'sdo a rifle hunt, but let's take
away all of the advantages thatyou can that you can have in a
(26:14):
rifle hunt, meaning, uh, no food.
I'm not a food guy when it comesto that, um, minimal clothing,
like, uh, you know you're notbringing a lot of packs and
supplies, you're bringing thebare bones stuff You're going to
give yourself.
Uh, I brought five rounds and II was thinking of bringing more
(26:34):
, just the idea, you know, justto make sure everything is down
if that's the case.
But I was like, five rounds,you know what you're doing and I
wasn't going to take a shotthat was over 100 yards out.
I just kind of like to givemyself a little bit of a
challenge to make sure that I'menjoying this fun for everything
that it is.
Yeah, so I was shooting a 7-magrifle and it's a great rifle
(26:59):
for elk, mule deer, whatever thecase may be and I went out to
unit uh, this was 51 along thefront side and I'd spent a lot
of time in this unit.
There's a lot of caves outthere and I was sleeping in
those and that very first day wegot a bunch of snow and, like
most hunters, when it's muledeer season or even elk season,
that snow is a good indicator ofrecent habits.
(27:19):
Through track, through, throughground spore, you name it.
It gives you an opportunity tokind of learn a quick history of
that area.
So some snow fell and I'mcutting tracks left and right
over all these different areasand I couldn't pick up any
tracks.
Lots of fox, a couple ofmountain yotes, some pine martin
, things to that extent, but Iwasn't finding any mule deer.
(27:43):
And unit 51 is kind of a uniqueunit, so it's it's Douglas
County, colorado, up to likeSedalia, and then there's a
small chunk of it that sticksout towards West Creek Colorado
and if anybody knows anythingabout West Creek Colorado is
that probably about seven oreight years ago there was a fire
that swept through there and Ilove hunting, burn scars, burn
(28:06):
scars.
In my personal opinion, ifyou've got a unit where you can
get on a burn scar, there's alot of fresh growth.
It's relatively young.
You've got good visibility allaround you.
You'll find these clumps oftrees and these areas where
animals could bed down that aresomewhat isolated, so you almost
reduce a lot of that kind offoliage that could get your way
(28:28):
and you got good line of sight.
So I spent a couple days, twodays, up in the mountains and
then I was like you know what,let's go down to that burn scar.
So I headed west from likeRampart Range Road and went to
just behind west creek and I hadspent some time out in west
creek prior to that uh, firekicking off and I helped a
(28:49):
gentleman out there trap a bunchof coyotes that were tearing up
his, his rabbits and hischickens.
So I had a little bit of groundtruth familiarity with it.
But what I needed to do was getout and scout it because I
hadn't scouted that area sowhile I'm hunting, um, I just
kind of said, all right, leaveyour rifle one day.
You just got to get eyes onsome animals.
(29:10):
And where I was situationally ifyou think about a north to
south running hard ridge and ahard ridge is something where
it's kind of comes from a bowland then sweeps up high and hard
and it's almost like the spineon the back of like a dinosaur
or like certain sort of reptilesyeah and hunting a spine like
(29:31):
that, especially a north-southrunning spine, gives you a lot
of advantages and thoseadvantages are one you can play
the sun and two kind of in thoseburn scars.
You have a pretty consistentwind coming from west to east.
So I knew I was south of thatspine.
I had to make my way north ofit and then jump on the other
(29:52):
side of the spine and get anopportunity to do some glassing
to just get eyes on and see whatI could come across.
So I spent one whole day doingthat, woke up super early in the
morning because as soon as youcross that plane right, so if
the spine's running north, south, south north, I'm gonna have to
walk in front of it.
I can't necessarily walk behindit because eventually I was
encroaching onto some privateproperty.
(30:13):
So I'm like I'm gonna have topunch out at 3, 3.30 in the
morning, shoot out there, get tothe far side of it, jump across
that spine and then, when allthose animals start moving that
4.30, 5 o'clock, waiting forthat sun to come up, I can use
that spine as a method ofmasking to see where these
populations are, where they'rebedding out of, where they're
(30:34):
moving throughout the day wherethey're feeding and I can use
that knowledge to ultimately seewhat animals present themselves
.
So I did that for that thirdday, moved through that whole
spine, saw lots of does, sawlots of little yearlings, saw a
couple spikes, and then everyonce in a while I'd see like a
nice big buck kind of chasingdown a couple does.
But they're all on the run, allon the foot, so I'm thinking
(30:57):
something's spooking them.
It's still's.
It's still the rut, tail end ofthe rut.
Are these these older guys thatare kind of trying to chase
down these ladies?
But I'm like, for me it doesn'tmatter.
My tag was, uh, an antlered, um,an antlered mule deer and uh.
So I spent the day kind oflooking and looking and I didn't
see anything that would reallymeet the criteria.
(31:19):
It met my criteria as kind ofjust meat in the freezer and,
like I always say, you can't eatantlers.
But I use the antlers for footnapping tools.
So I'm like, all right, you'regoing to repeat the same action
tomorrow and you're going tobring your rifle and you're
going to get out there and youcan ultimately see better.
You'll have your scope thewhole nine yards.
So I did that same exact thingand ultimately see better,
(31:40):
you'll have your scope the wholenine yards.
So I did that same exact thing,but in my process I really paid
close attention to where I waswalking and exactly where I was
going.
More importantly, the wind.
The wind was hard.
It was blowing on my left sideas I was walking north, and one
of the things that I carry withme is a little wind gauge.
I don't know why I didn't bringit.
It's probably in my truck.
I assume a primitive one andnot just like a puffer bottle of
(32:07):
baby powder.
Okay, exactly, yeah, this one'sactually from Africa and I
learned this from a tribe memberout there that was considered a
poacher, then released by thegovernment because he's so good
at hunting and tracking.
The guy's between 70 and 80years old.
He's just a phenomenal hunterand tracker, and when I spent
some time out there, he gave methis wind gauge and it's just
this little plume of feathers.
So when you're shooting yourbow and you draw your bow, you
(32:27):
always have that wind inconsideration.
More importantly, I don't haveto pull anything out of my pack.
Do a little puffer.
I can just kind of throw my handup and situate my body and see
where that wind is.
So it's just a constant windgauge, because I'm worried about
wind for me, not from thee,because if they're upwind,
whatever.
Yeah, so I have this wind gaugeand I'm really paying close
(32:48):
attention, because sometimes inthe mountains wind will blow the
kind of that west to east butit will hit a unique sort of
terrain feature like a mountainthat's kind of in a bowl, and it
will start to swirl it and thatbecomes a problem.
I didn't see or feel any ofthat when the day before and I
was just making sure that Iwasn't going to kind of
experience it today or that day.
So I get to my hard line and Ijump across this ridge.
(33:11):
Sun's coming up right, so Ialways like the sun at my back.
Even though animals havephenomenal perception of of of
sun and heat and wind and allthese things, it still gives me
my mental advantage where Ithink, like you know, if you've
ever been like overseas fightingterrorists, they always like to
have the sun at their back.
So if you got to turn and shootat them, you got the sun in
(33:32):
your eyes.
Yeah, kind of that samementality.
So I've got the sun at my backand I'm just working this ridge
and I just start seeing five orsix does and a couple young ones
and then you know a spike or afork kind of walking through and
I'm mentally in my head saying,all right, this is what you're
out here for, you're out herefor me, you're out here for, you
(33:52):
know, meeting your limit, let'sget it done.
So in that ridge I looked fordifferent windows.
That would be a great kind ofegress down, and the egress down
is just as important as yourwalk out to where you're going,
because that egress down is yourpoint of exposure where you're
not necessarily going tosilhouette yourself but you're
going to use the terrain to maskyour movement, to get within
(34:12):
kind of that ideal shot.
So I'd identified all my egresspoints and I know my third
egress point was my best point.
So in my mind I stay behind theridge and I move to that third
egress point and see whatpresents itself, and I did just
that.
So I knew that that populationof does was going to make their
(34:33):
way kind of down this draw andthere was some hard terrain at
the kind of southern edge of thespine and if I could get there.
It was probably a great spot totake a shot.
So I moved along this edge andthis is where the kid in me
comes out, cause I can tell youthere's probably five or six
times where I'd walk right up tothat edge and I kind of peek
over.
Yup, they're still there andpeek down.
(34:54):
Every time I'm doing thatthere's a possibility of
exposure.
Because animals watch ridges.
I love it.
They watch for the yeah ofexposure.
Because animals watch ridges Ilove it.
They watch for the yeah.
Every, everything watches forsilhouettes.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yeah, it's trying to stay alive, I just exactly, you
know.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
So I make my way down to that um, egress point and
soon as I kind of round thiskind of like rocky sort of ledge
, there are four or five, justbucks, just kind of wait, just
some dudes hanging out and I'mlike holy cow, okay, this is,
this is where you want to be.
But I was still out of my, myrange, and I don't have, you
(35:27):
know, a lot of tools out therewith me to kind of.
So I'm doing that rangeestimation.
A hundred football yard, that'skind of my, uh, my go-to Quick
question there.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
I know you said you wanted to shoot within a hundred
yards I assume you'reproficient outside of 100 but in
this case you just weren't atthe spot.
That you felt was sportingenough for you to do what you
wanted to do, right correct.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I think I was probably like, uh, right around
like 300 yards at that point,which, which is still a fine
shot.
But I think for me, alwayshunting with that primitive bow,
I like that just that little,because with a primitive bow to
get on those mule deer, you're,you're, I mean 12 yards, is like
most ideal.
It's, it's a hard stock, butit's, it's a juice, is worth the
(36:07):
squeeze.
I guess you could say, yeah.
So I hit that 30 grass and asI'm coming through a little bit
of rocks, they get a little bitof head turnings towards me.
They're watching I freeze andthey're like this guy's
obviously, and you know I've gotblaze orange on in my vest and
it's still in my mind.
I'm like they can see me and Iknow there's, you know that,
that mentality of like the wholeblaze orange.
(36:28):
But, um, but they kind of startto move over and they kind of
jumped to the other side of thislittle finger, cause it's kind
of multiple fingers going down.
I'm like that's perfect, wind'sstill in my favor.
Now I can push a little bitharder, a little bit quieter,
and I can get to that nextfinger, that little ridge, and I
can see where I'm at, make myway down, get to that ridge.
(36:49):
There's small little pockets ofsnow and I think when I hunt
it's kind of like a rock hoppingsort of thing Less sound, less
movements.
Snow's a crunch, leaves are acrunch Burn scar.
You got open terrain but theyalso have that visibility.
I get to that top of that ridgeand those three or four bucks,
(37:09):
um, were kind of just down belowstarting to make their way up
there, uh, up that other side ofthat ridge.
At that point I knew I was inwith that, uh, within that a
hundred yards, and uh, I kind ofjust got myself in like a good,
like high kneeling position,gave that like like one of those
where they're all kind ofstopped, turn, and then took
this nice buck and, um, he, Imean with the seven mag, within
(37:32):
a hundred yards, he went downlike instantly.
Um, I mean, yeah, I mean it wasa lot of firepower, but yeah,
that's what you got.
The rest took off.
And at that point, you know,waited my time, waited for him
to finish out I already knew hewas finished out Walked over
there and really started toprocess him out.
(37:53):
And part of that disadvantage Iwanted to create for myself
because, you know, I, I,creating hard opportunities
always kind of gives you adifferent award is?
You know, I had some stoneknives that I was going to gut
and process it, and when I shoota deer, everything's coming
back, and that is intestines,that is stomach, that's heart,
liver, lungs, the hide.
(38:14):
I mean I've got a bucket oflegs over there full of sinew,
like everything on.
That thing is a resource.
And I've got a small littlepack.
I little pack, I don't.
I mean kafaro sent me a nicepack.
After they heard about thisstory.
They're like we need to helpyou out.
I'm like, oh my, god, I feel soembarrassed like no, just please
, this is, this is our gift.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
I'm like okay, so I had this small little pack and
um how far back are you if, whenyou shot this, six miles, six
miles, okay, okay, yeah, andyou're bringing everything.
Six miles, six miles, okay,okay, yeah, and you're bringing
everything out, okay.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Yeah, six miles, three trips to pack it all out.
The only thing that reallydidn't come with me was a small
chunk of the large intestine,all the stomach contents, and
then a big chunk of the lungswhere I wound up shooting the
muley.
Yeah.
But so take it all apart, andpart of my process when I'm
taking an animal apart is itshide.
(39:06):
Is the cleanest thing out there, yeah.
So I take that hide off totallykind of pin it out onto the
ground and that's where I startpulling out my quarters, the
backstrap, the hearts, all myconsumables that I'm looking to
eat neck meat, the whole nineyards and the head is still
attached to that.
And I wrap all that up and, um,well, I kind of first off, like
(39:27):
like most hunters, you're likeI think I could carry this thing
out.
And there was no way I was ableto carry this guy.
I mean, I tried, like everycombat drag, I tried splitting
legs and shoving them through tocreate a backpack.
I was just too tired and so lowon fuel that it was just it was
(39:47):
no go.
But I was thinking to myselfall right, so you know how far
you got to walk back in, walkback out.
You're going to have to grabeverything and anything, so it's
going to take you some timeJust get it done.
So took a couple quarters, tookthe heart liver, did my first
track out, walked back out, didthat three times over six miles
(40:08):
with a little bit of jog.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Six each way, so 12 miles per trip.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Yeah, it was a lot.
I want to be honest with you.
It was one of those thingswhere it took pretty much all
day.
But the beautiful thing wasmost of it was kind of gradual
train leading up to where myactual truck was, and then it
was easy to actually get backdown.
Like when you have that goodline of sight, like you can find
(40:34):
that most optimal.
I'm not really dodging andtrees, it was just kind of like
in and then it was kind of outand six miles.
I could be exaggerating.
It was, it was, I would say sixmiles it was probably just
under six miles each way man.
But, uh, it was, uh, it wasworth it.
I finished out the last hall,got back to my truck and pretty
(40:55):
much like just collapsed of justyou know, pure exhaustion, just
like this is this is exactlywhat I wanted, how I wanted it,
but, um, it was, it was just topnotch.
And I think for me, uh, beingable to come home with
everything I mean I have thehide sitting over here, the
skull I boiled out my you knowmyself.
(41:15):
I sit there with dental picks,pick everything butchered, all
my own meat.
Um, but for me at that time,just like in any sort of hunting
, you know story and experience,it was about food for the
family, resources for me to havethat I continue to use.
And just like most hunters, youknow I get emotional in that
process.
You know you nobody likes tokill anything but, like, I
(41:39):
appreciate everything that thatanimal has given me from the day
that you know I started to, youknow, work in and get those
opportunities to hunt, you know,different animals to where it's
at now, like I've got some moreof its backstrap I'm eating
tonight for dinner.
It's those sorts of things thatreally make for me the story
even more beneficial because,yes, there is that, that hunt,
(42:01):
but now the story continues withits hide and its bones and
cracking its long leg bones toeat the raw marrow out of and
its antlers will become flintknapping tools and knives
handles.
So it's kind of a beautifulstory and I love it.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
I enjoy it, man, I love it.
I love all sorts of differentthings about that story from um,
just like your dedication todoing it your way.
I love the details that youremember.
I know a lot of guys that don'ttell stories all that great.
They're just like yeah, Iwalked in and I shot this deer,
like every single thing you canremember the topography.
(42:36):
You remember the differentpoints of access.
Like I love it when people canremember those kinds of details.
That that was a great story,man, Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Thank you, that was fun and uh.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
I can, I can feel the pack out uh the way that you
explained it.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
I was smoked, I had blood dreads, as I call them,
cause I got long hair.
They were just caked in bloodand just dreaded up and um, I
think at the very end I recordeda little video like last fall
out, and I I just called ithonoring the hunt Like you gotta
, you gotta work for it, yougotta want it.
Like I don't have ATVs orhorses or anything to that
(43:12):
extent, but I'm stronglyconsidering buying one.
But, um, and then you know,I've got.
I've got one other story,because that was in November and
about nine days later, the galthat I'm marrying, missy, this
was her first elk hunt and shehad pulled an antlerless elk.
I also had an antlerless elktag, but I said, hey, let's
(43:35):
focus on getting you an animal,let's focus on you getting out
there hunting.
And this was in Unit 58, rightin front of Mount Antero,
between Buena Vista and Salida,okay, and it's kind of a
populated unit, and I learnedwhat Onyx was.
So I've never hunted with anyof this stuff before in the past
(43:58):
.
I still like maps, I still likescouting, but she had Onyx and
she's like you should get onyxand I was like this is
absolutely amazing.
Like I had I mean, I knew I hadheard of it but I never really
knew its full capabilities.
Yeah, so her and I we loadedout in the truck and, um, she
has, you know, archery elkhunted, uh, before in the past,
but this was going to be herfirst go around with a rifle.
(44:20):
So we head up to the snowy area, kind of sitting right in front
of Mount Antero, and I say, assoon as we get there, we're
going to walk.
And now that I know about Onyx,because I felt like I was cool,
we can walk right up to thesekind of private property lines.
We won't infringe on those, butit's a good area because elk
like to move in and out andwe're going to use that to our
(44:42):
advantage.
So we spent a day walking in thesnow and then while we were
walking we just noticed and shekind of brought this to my
attention that there was a lotof cars moving along this kind
of North South road and theywere glassing down these fingers
.
And I think it was a reallyawesome experience for me and
for her because I was able tokind of give her a little bit of
.
You know, there's hunting andthen there's shooting and I just
(45:06):
explained to her like everybodyhas different capabilities and
limitations.
But for you to kind of continueto honor that hunt, you have to
get out and walk Like glassingfrom a road in your truck with
the heater on, looking for anysign or any sort of indication,
and then getting out and puttingon your stalk.
It's a way.
It's not necessarily the way,but that's not how I hunt and
(45:29):
that's not how she wants to hunt.
So we spent two days therewalking these different fingers
and unfortunately, when there'spine nuts on trees I usually get
distracted, start eating pinenuts.
But it's also a food indicator.
Didn't really see any track,didn't really see anything.
And we jumped down onto themain road and she found this
(45:50):
little insert that connected tosome BLM land and it was a hard
kind of road and we drove upthere and we parked and I said
let's get out, let's walk.
We're looking for ground spore,elevated midpoint and then
lower level ground spore,anything that will give us
indications.
Uh, that elk are in this area.
Uh, we had binos this time,which was kind of cool.
(46:10):
We had a laser range finder, wehad onyx I'm like this is this,
is this is amazing.
But it was, uh, it was excitingto use those tools because this
was her hunt and you know, withmy tag I was like focus is you?
And after we had moved to thatarea I said, well, what we're
going to do is we're going tohunker down near the truck it's
(46:32):
kind of hot and we're going toplay kind of the north-south
sides where animals are going tobe sitting in snow avoiding the
heat, and we're going to kindof let it get to about maybe
like 12, one o'clock when thatsun is really shifted, and we're
going to use that sun, thatterrain, kind of to our
advantage.
More importantly, I want to seethe elk moving through that
snow.
It's a good contrast, as sureas anything, I'd say.
(46:53):
Probably about 45 minutes afterus, sitting on this ridge, we
see four or five elk.
Now, hers was antlerless and wesee it, it's about 800 yards.
Actually, hers was antlerlessand we see it, it's about 800
yards.
Actually it was 836 yards,because that time we had a laser
, the range finder, but yeah,I'm not complaining about
technology, but it was like ohman, that's okay, that's pretty
(47:15):
cool, that's convenient.
Yeah, totally convenient,totally convenient.
So I'm like, all right, let'sput this stock on the convenient
, totally convenient.
So I'm like, all right, let'sput this stock on.
The wind was blowing kind offrom the southwest so it was
kind of blowing in our faces andwe had about seven or eight
kind of draws and fingers we hadto move between until I kind of
spotted this one ridge thatwould give us an advantage.
So, as I was explaining to her,we want to avoid the roller
(47:38):
coaster, we kind of want to dothe bumper cars where you're
kind of walking at the basis,which requires a little bit more
energy expenditure.
But I'm like avoidingsilhouettes is like a huge thing
.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
So we wind up making our way.
I'm going to use that.
By the way, I'm going to usethe bumper cars analogy, like no
roller coasters we're goingbumper cars, that's it, that's
it.
Speaker 2 (47:59):
So we get to the backside of this one kind of
draw and this little finger andwe're at, like I recall I think
it was like 130 yards, likesignificant hunt in this sort of
(48:24):
capacity, and I can, I can, Ican see her.
I can see her emotional stateslowly changing into I'm about
to take the life of this animal.
I'm about to kind of experiencesomething that not a lot of
people get to experience.
Those that choose to, we'llfind a way to do it.
But this is something prettysacred, something pretty
honorable.
And you know she has a sevenmag.
So she kind of takes a highknee, she's sitting in a little
bit of chunk of snow and there'sfour elk, four antlerless elk,
(48:48):
one's laying down in the snowand then there's one kind of
standing on the high point ofthe ridge and then two kind of
off to the side and I'm like Iwant you to think which one is
the most you know advantageousto take.
And she's like I think the onelaying down.
I said perfect Animals that laydown.
(49:09):
All that stuff is kind ofcompressed and kind of
compartmentalized in a littlebit tighter thoracic cavity.
She takes her shot kind ofblows her back a little bit,
yelk instantly kind of itdoesn't get up.
I see a big spurt of blood asit comes out of its mouth kind
of, kicks once or twice and laysdown and at that point, you
know, she came to tears and Iwas kind of in a you know
tearful sort of spot because itwas something we got to share
together and she suddenlyunderstood and I think she kind
(49:33):
of already knew, the importanceof hunting to me and for a lot
of men and women out there wereone, that experience and two,
now what you know ultimatelycomes after, but all of the
rewards, the, the food in the,the hides, like she was now part
of that living history, causeyou know, everyone in this in
this world, from you know 10,000to 10 million, you know 3.3
(49:56):
million years ago, are hunters.
And she now got to experiencethat in a different capacity but
now is going to really trulyunderstand what it is.
And we walked over to that elk,dragged it down the side.
Thank God it was in snow,because what it was?
It was like a little buttonbuck or a button bull, so it was
still antlerless but it was ayoung male and I quickly got
(50:20):
really nervous because as wepulled it down and she kind of
took a moment to put, you know,put her hand on it, and anything
I do in hunting I always dolike a last rites of food sort
of ceremony, where I takewhatever it's eating and I place
it in its mouth as its lastmeal.
So it consumes Now, we consumeit.
It's kind of that full circle,just to kind of show that
appreciation.
(50:40):
And as I was doing that, I kindof looked and I kind of saw
these two kind of you know,testicles that didn't quite
fully drop and I'm like what theheck?
And I didn't realize, you know,from that distance, that it was
a young male, felt up on hishead just two tiny little nubs,
which is a great thing, and it'salso, you know, a bad thing
(51:03):
because you want, you know,animals to kind of be able to
grow and mature and do theirthing, uh, still meeting all
those legal limits.
But it was a larger, antlered,less animal.
So, um, we started and for youknow, you know, missy, she's 105
pounds, soaking wet.
She got to work, you know,gotten the animal out and
(51:26):
quartering it and just pullingeverything off of this animal
and then our walk back, uh, tothe truck.
Um, you know we did two tripsand it was just like around two
miles a mile and three quarterswas our, our, our total after we
kind of walked in and out.
But, um, she was, she was superexcited for the experience and
(51:47):
the most beautiful part about itwas once we actually came home,
um pulled out the fleshing beamand the butchering tables and
she cut that animal up intosteaks and just roasts and stews
.
Everything mean we still havebones sitting in the freezer
that we use for bone broth andum, but everything she got to
experience the hunting that youknow I've learned to really
(52:11):
appreciate over the years.
She kind of got to see itfirsthand and really had an
opportunity and her, her brother, jt, runs a Delta waterfowl
down in Texas.
So she was absolutely sendinghim texts right off the bat like
have you got an elk?
You know that sort of thing.
But it was an amazingexperience to share with her
because you know we are gettingmarried here in the future.
(52:31):
She loves hunting, she's fromTexas but she's been able.
I was, I was appreciative of herwillingness to kind of go the
path that I like to choose butstill incorporating, um, some of
the the conveniences of, uh youknow, for achieving that level
of success.
But I'll tell you what for 105pounds she packed out quarters,
hearts, livers, I mean she, sheput in the work and it's uh,
(52:55):
yeah, you know, post-holingthrough some snow and get where
we need to go.
But, um, yeah, that night wekind of, uh, we stayed back out
on that ridge, kind of enjoyedthe stars and the night and then
all the hard work that wasgoing to come in the next couple
of days.
But once we got back, I'd saywithin, oh God, I think within
three days, hide was flushed andstretched, all the meat was
(53:19):
processed Meat's always first,but got all the meat done.
Then we'd go to the hide andthen we boil out the skull and I
start making tools out ofanything and anything that's
left behind.
But yeah, I think for us, on thegrand scheme, it was just a, it
was a great, it was a greatbonding experience.
So, for all you husbands outthere and all you ladies that
(53:41):
are listening, go hunting withyour partner, with your
significant one, your lover,because it is a amazing thing to
have that story of going outand truly like obtaining and
then providing for your family.
Speaker 1 (53:56):
It's absolutely rewarding, that's so cool man so
she's hooked I assume, so she'sgoing every year.
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (54:03):
And that's the funny part is like I don't.
I've never done an elk camp.
I've never done a mule deercamp.
I've always been like a, a solohunter.
I've had a handful of people onstandby that I could call if I
needed help packing somethingout, if I didn't think I could
do it.
But I've never been to an elkcamp where there's coolers and
four wheelers and you knowbreakfast is being cooked, it's,
(54:24):
it's.
It's never been my um one.
I've never been invited to.
It's never been my thing andthere's not.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But I just I like the, thesoloness of the hunting.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (54:36):
I'll go hog hunting with, with people in different
capacities, and waterfowlhunting, but when it comes to
like elk or mule deer or youknow, mountain lion hunting or
anything in that sort ofcapacity, I like that soleness.
But this was really that firsttime I got to share it with
somebody and it's it's evenbetter than I got to share with
someone that I love and going towind up marrying.
Speaker 1 (54:56):
That's awesome, that is so awesome.
Speaker 2 (54:58):
Right on, donnie.
I wish we had like six hours,because I feel like I could just
keep hearing stories.
Speaker 1 (55:06):
Man, I've got like a million questions.
Fire away, let's see the tech.
It was just a nice convenienceat the time, or are you going to
adopt any of those thingsmoving forward?
Speaker 2 (55:16):
You know I think that's a great question I still
have the Onyx app on my phone,Uh-oh.
Speaker 1 (55:22):
Uh-oh, I still have the Onyx app on my phone.
Speaker 2 (55:23):
I know, I know Well it's so I'll tell you what I
think I'm going to use it for alot of that scouting, a lot of
that initial planning as far asunderstanding, you know private
properties, blm, national Force,all that sort of stuff, and I
think I will.
I think I'll adopt it atcertain ways in certain times.
I think if I'm going with aprimitive bow I'll probably drop
(55:45):
the Onyx, go back to my, youknow, moccasins, loincloth, you
know that's just, that's just me.
But I think if we're, if we'regoing in a different capacity
somewhere else, I think Onyx isa great tool.
I think it will help build theconfidence of hunters and their
uncertainties of of terrain andunderstanding you know how far
they did walk or what.
What are some of those factorsin there?
Speaker 1 (56:06):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
I'm, I'm all for it.
Speaker 1 (56:08):
Okay, Very cool.
Um, you mentioned cougars.
You don't strike me as a havinga bunch of dogs, so do you just
?
You just go cut tracks and juststart following them.
I do, how do you okay?
Speaker 2 (56:20):
Snow, I wait for the snow, I wait for that.
I call up, just like you know.
Hey, whatever unit, uh, fivelines available and uh, I
haven't had any success withthat.
Um, but there has been ahandful of times.
This is when I was kind ofliving in Southern Colorado
where I just I just look fortracks, shooting across the road
(56:40):
, prominent trails, and I'vebeen able to see lions
definitely not within a shot,but it's cool and I think I've
learned so much from it.
But when that fresh snow ishitting, that's the most
opportune time.
Cut those tracks, see wherethey're going, see if they're
circling, you know, becauselions they breed year-round, so
there's always something therethat you know they going for
(57:02):
food or you know that thatpartner and um, I think that's
just.
I mean, if you can get eyes ona lion after cutting tracks and
following it for an hour or two,that's, that's rewarding.
Speaker 1 (57:11):
I mean it's hunting within itself about the uh, you
know the benefits, but I believeit for some buddies that have
taken lions.
That's the way to do it reallyokay, so do so, do you go with
your, you know like bow.
Speaker 2 (57:23):
You go with a bow, yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:24):
You are a crazy man, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (57:28):
Well, I think I mean, if hunting with rifles and
there's success, I feel like forme my success rate goes up,
with a rifle my success rategoes down, just like most
archery hunters, it goes down.
And then I think when you bringit down to a primitive bow, you
have to employ a wholedifferent set of different
skills, knowledge, skills andabilities to get that shot.
(57:53):
And I've taken elk with a bowand mule deer with a bow and all
sorts of things with a bow.
But I mean that's the challenge.
This year I was looking forsomething a little bit different
with Marissa.
I was looking for a a littlebit different with you know,
with Marissa I was looking for alittle bit something different
with myself because it was, itwas about those resources.
But years in the past, I mean, Itell you what I love.
Yeah, I love, I love archeryhunting, especially with a, you
know, a six foot primitive bowthat draws at 65 to 70 pounds.
(58:16):
You've made your arrows, youknow that thing is dialed in and
there's nothing wrong with youknow, compound, uh, hunting, um,
you know, pick, pick yourpoisons.
That's just how I enjoy, goodfor you, uh, doing it yeah, it's
good for you.
Speaker 1 (58:30):
I I can't imagine sneaking up dude you said like
10, 15 yards on a cougar that'snot treed with a stick bow like
whoo, okay, that got me fired up.
Speaker 2 (58:42):
I haven't gotten there.
Yeah, you'll get there.
I'm rooting for you.
I'm rooting for you.
I got one more question.
Speaker 1 (58:48):
Yeah, I'm worried that it's going to just like
open up this crazy story thatyou have to tell.
All right, you obviously have avery unique style of hunting.
Like, you're in the top 1% oflike.
I'm going to do it the way thatour ancestors did it.
Yeah, have you ever been on ahunt where you're like maybe I
pushed it too far?
Like, like, maybe maybe Ishouldn't have gone just like
(59:12):
like you know, like you're likeman, I wish I had a better
jacket or I wish, I like,whatever the circumstance with
any of the things that you kindof dial back on is has there
been.
I'm sure plenty of instancesand and I don't know.
Is there one that stands outthat you could share with us?
Yeah, I mean all of them.
Speaker 2 (59:29):
I'm always thinking every time you're an idiot but I
I.
So one of the reasons I love uh, you know, and I'll, I'll keep
it short archery hunting,primitive bow, especially in
Colorado.
Our bow season is typicallyaround September, right, and the
season that starts right beforethat I love hunting is marmot
(59:55):
whistle pigs.
Way up in elevation, you know,12, 13,000 feet, whistle pigs is
the perfect thoracic cavitysize of an elk, so it's great to
get dialed in on those.
Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
They taste delicious.
Oh, interesting and for me.
Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
Yeah, if you have a marmot hunted, I'll tell you
what.
Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
Never even thought about it.
Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
Oh man, it starts August 10th, typically 9th, 10th
, 11th and then ends the end ofOctober when the mountains start
getting heavy snow.
That's usually when they den up, but it starts Now.
During that season you'regetting dialed in on marmot and
you're way up in elevation soyou're really pushing yourself.
But I like to have the marmothunt overlap with that kind of
fall time, turkey and then intothat elk season because it is
(01:00:30):
opportunities for meals,especially the marmot.
And uh, there's been countlesstimes where I've been you know
it's archery season mule deerelk, whatever that case may be,
and um, I'm still be hunting forthose.
But I'm hunting for marmotbecause I want an aspect of food
.
You know a marmot looks like abig groundhog but they're clean
(01:00:51):
eaters.
They eat a lot of moss andflowers and grasses so they're
not really digging in the dirteating up worms and grubs and
crickets and stuff.
It's higher elevation worms andgrubs and crickets and stuff,
it's higher elevation.
So where I kick myself is likeyou need to start bringing some
supplementals where you canfocus more on the mule deer elk
hunt and not focus on getting amarmot that you're going to burn
(01:01:12):
8,000 calories trying to get.
Shoot it, cook it get maybe1,500 calories, and then you're
kind of back at square one, sothat sort of thing, having some
of those modern things justbeing able to take a form of
fuel, and that other fuel comesin the form of fishing.
But if you're trying to huntmeals, while you're trying to
(01:01:33):
hunt your primary targeteventually hunting all of those
meals catching fish, marmot,squirrels, whatever that
eventually becomes your priorityand you're missing out on your
opportunities to hunt, sosupplemental food, and then you
know I'm a big, I'm a big fan,especially, you know, august.
Into September.
Mountains are still beautiful,it's still warm in my opinion.
So it's absolutely great, butjust bringing some amenities to
(01:01:57):
aid in your sleep, instead ofsleeping in like a big leaf bed
or just having a wool blanket oryou know why not, you know,
bring a sleeping bag.
I mean, no one's going to judgeyou, it's just one of those
things where it's a littlelittle comfort.
Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
Come on, donnie.
Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
Yeah, and you wonder why I've never been invited to
an out camp.
Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
Yeah Right, they're like why doesn't Danny?
Donnie bring a tent or asleeping bag.
He's just sleeping in the yard,I know it's, it's, it's, that
thing.
Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
But I think you know, I'm 45, maybe, as time
progresses and maybe I'll, youknow, incorporate a lot more of
those amenities with withMarissa Missy.
Um, this, this go around, I hadsome of those modern amenities
and I could see why there is adraw and the advantages they
provide.
Uh, successes as well asfailures.
Um, I'm gonna, I'm gonnacontinue doing what I'm doing.
I mean, you know, putting ourtags in is is right around the
corner in my personal mind.
(01:02:49):
Um, so I mean, this year, allwe've already decided we're both
doing archery.
Now she can't draw fully on aprimitive bow, she, so she
shoots a compound bow.
So she's still working up to beable to draw on a primitive bow
, something around that 50 plus,still getting within a good
(01:03:10):
yardage.
I mean, she can meet all thestate regs.
But she really wants to huntwith that primitive bow and I'm
like, well, let's just work yourcompound until we can get where
you need to go, but she puts inthe arrows, without a doubt.
Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
This year we'll wind up putting in our archery tags
and we'll roll right from marmotto turkey and then right into
that elk.
But I will have some refueledmeals, because there's a thing
called a harvest right.
I'm not sure if you're familiarwith it, but it's a commercial
freeze dryer where you can getone at home.
(01:03:42):
Okay, so you can take all ofyour meals, of your meals that
you uh, you know you make alarge portion of it.
You have some leftovers.
You can actually freeze dry andturn it into your peak refuel.
Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
I've heard of people doing that.
Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
Yeah, yeah, and I'll tell you what it's.
Um, I learned about it from aguy named Sean Curtis up in
Wyoming.
He's a phenomenal and I keptseeing him eating.
He's like I'm having elk, youknow, like fajitas, and I'm like
it's June, like what the heck?
How do you still have some?
You know, he's kind of goingover how he did it.
So he kind of got me interestedand Missy got interested.
(01:04:15):
So now we have a lot of thosemeals that you know don't cost
you 15 bucks a pot but you canmake your own sort of stuff.
So, incorporating meals,incorporating some sleeping gear
and I don't know, maybe I'llkeep Onyx on the phone for a
little while longer, All rightWell.
I was just curious man.
Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
Don't change because of me, I just love what you do,
man, I've always been impressed.
I'm running out of time here,but I want to have you back on
again sometime soon, donnie.
Absolutely, but I want to haveyou back on again sometime soon,
donnie.
In fact, I'm thinking aboutgetting a group of guys locally
to do something in person.
So, yeah, I'll get you involvedwith that.
But let's do this, let's wrapthis up.
(01:04:50):
Wanted to tell the folks wherethey can find you if you want
them to find you.
If not, you can just run offwithout your sleeping bag into
the mountains.
It's up to you.
Speaker 2 (01:04:59):
Like I tell most people, you can find me in the
mountains or in the woods,somewhere like that.
But yeah, on most of the socialmedia it's just Donnie Dust,
d-o-n-n-y-d-u-s-t.
On my YouTube, where I go overa lot of prim skills and
survival sort of stuff.
It's Donnie Dust Paleo Tracks,all my books, all the things
(01:05:20):
that I make and different thingsthat I sell.
All you have to do is go toDonnieDustcom and that is really
your hub for anything you wantto learn or even just getting in
contact with me.
And I do want to stress tofolks that I respond personally.
I don't have a team of people,it's just me.
So if you send an email, you'regetting me and, more
(01:05:41):
importantly, if you leavecomments in any videos or
anything to that point, I try topersonally extend some of my
time to sharing with you.
I don't like the mentality ofposting and ghosting.
That is not how you build acommunity and for me it is about
reaching out to people,connecting, making new friends
and relationships.
(01:06:01):
Hell yeah.
So yeah, don't be a stranger,Reach out.
I'm happy to answer questionsand you know, shoot the shit.
Speaker 1 (01:06:07):
So to speak.
That's awesome, man.
Speaker 2 (01:06:09):
That's awesome Well, donnie thank you so much, man.
Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
You've.
You've always been like my, mypie in the sky dream of like
where I want to get to, so it'ssuper cool to get to meet you as
a newer hunter, like you seeguys like yourself and it's just
like oh my gosh, I wish so no,thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:06:26):
Well, you do you, man ?
I mean, that's the easiestthing to be just keep rocking
and rolling.
Well, I have a feeling we'regonna wind up getting together
sooner than later.
We live less than 10 minutesapart and, uh, we'll get out
there, we'll see what we cancome up with, and uh, we'll get
some meat in the freezer.
Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
That's what it's's about oh yeah, I'll have you
over.
So I shot a moose this year, soI'll have you over and we'll,
we'll, cook up some moose, ohshit, yes, sir oh man, that's
awesome yeah.
I actually want to talk to youabout bone broth Cause I got a
bag of bones in my freezer.
I appreciate you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:06:59):
Thank you, Michael.
I appreciate everyone listening.
Thanks for your time.
See you out there.
Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
Perfect.
All right, folks.
That's it.
Another couple stories in thebooks.
Again, I want to thank Donnie,of course, for coming on the
podcast.
It was super exciting to hearthat he's a listener, but just
to chat with the guy because hedoes such interesting stuff.
Again, if you aren't followinghim, give him a follow.
All the links you need are inthe show notes, his YouTube,
(01:07:26):
some of his socials.
I, immediately after recordingthis, went and watched that eel
story on First man Out and itwas epic.
So thank you, Donnie, forcoming on the podcast.
I really do appreciate it Toyou listeners.
Thank you, guys for tuning in.
Please give Donnie a follow.
Beyond that, guys, share uswith one person today and also
(01:07:48):
give us a review on whateveryou're listening on and now get
out there and make some storiesof your own.
Thank you.
Popular Podcasts
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
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