Ep 147 The Hunting Stories Podcast: Jake Zander

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Howdy folks and welcome to the hunting stories
podcast.
I'm your host, michael, andonce again, we have a wonderful
episode for you today.
Today, we are connecting withanother listener, actually Jacob
Zander.
Jacob is out of Montana, has aton of amazing stories and is a
listener of the podcast, so he'sanother one of those brave
souls that went on to.

(00:25):
I don't know if it wasInstagram or the website or
where he found it specifically,but I have a little form you can
fill out.
If you have some stories youwant to share, please go there.
Fill out the form.
We will be in touch to hearsome of your great stories.
But that being said, guys, Iwant to thank Jake, of course,
for coming on the podcast.
I really couldn't have done itwithout him, and it is a really
fun episode.
So, jake, thank you.
Beyond that, guys, whateveryou're listening to, please give

(00:47):
us a review, a follow, help usbe found by more people by
helping out.
You know those crazy algorithmseveryone talks about, but
that's it, guys.
Let's, let's kick this thingoff.
Let's let jake tell you some ofhis stories.
Thank you all.
Right, jake?
Welcome to the hunting storiespodcast, brother.
How are you All right, jake?
Welcome to the Hunting StoriesPodcast.

(01:08):
Brother, how are you?
I'm doing good man, how are youdoing?
I am doing well, man.
I'm happy to have you here.
Once again, we have a listener.
I think I've got a little bitof a streak here of listeners
reaching out to come on thepodcast man.
So thank you so much for beingbrave filling out.
I don't know if you filled outmy form, if you just messaged me

(01:29):
on instagram, because I can'trecall these things, but thank
you for for for reaching out,man.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
I really do appreciate it.
Well, thanks for having me, man.
No, you got something specialgoing on here, so I'm glad to be
part of it I appreciate that,man.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
It's.
It's a lot of fun, um.
I get to meet a lot of coolpeople like yourself.
Well, let's do this, though whydon't we have you introduce
yourself, um, in our littlepre-chat?
I didn't ask anything about you, so I apologize for that.
So fill me in, man, who?
Who am I hearing some storiesfrom today?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
not a problem man.
So, uh, my name is jake zander.
Uh, I'm from southwest montana,uh, I work as a damn tender and
an irrigation ditch rider.
Um, I've been hunting prettymuch all my life ever since I
was a little kid, my old man was, uh, taking us out on hunts.
Um, you know, showing us theropes, really telling us, you

(02:12):
know, hey, hunting is about meat, and uh, that that was pretty
much what we got from him.
And then uh ended up goinghunting with him quite a bit and
uh, just really learning allthe lessons that these old
timers uh can teach us, sothat's awesome man I didn't have
any old timers to teach me, soI'm jealous um.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
It's something I wish I have.
It's something that I'm workingon building up for the next
generation.
But we'll get you know what youget, the cards you dealt um so
you live in montana your wholelife, are you uh?

Speaker 2 (02:42):
so um.
So I was born down in Missouri,okay.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Misery, yeah, yeah, misery.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
But we ended up moving up here when I was about
two and lived in Montana forquite a few years, moved back
down to Missouri, got intohunting quite a bit in Missouri.
Actually, that's where I tookmy first year at was in southern
Missouri.
And then we moved back up hereand I got dedicated into elk

(03:12):
hunting and that really justsoaked both feet into Western
Big Game and really, just reallyset myself for what I'm doing.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Just mountain chasing for animals is just, I mean,
you can't beat it, I meanthey're obviously you know
people from the midwest aregonna disagree with me, but um
dude every, every kind ofhunting is amazing in its own
right um it's.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
You know, they're all difficult in their own right.
I got a buddy who's from northcarolina and then my buddy
that's here in colorado, andthey always argue about which
one's harder and I I'm like,yeah, it's hard to hike up a
mountain it is, but it's alsohard as shit to sit in a blind
or a tree stand for eight hours.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
I don't know how you do that.
No, my patience does not wearas well as some of these
Midwestern folks, so they havebetter patience for sure.
Yeah, and it's a skill, it's atalent, it is a tower, for sure.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
And I'll tell you what I know personally that when
I'm sitting there doing nothingand then something comes in on
me, that's when I get thejitters, that's when I'm like,
oh, I can't stop my bow fromshaking.
This is going to be awful.
But when I'm hiking, and I rollup on something.
I'm cool as ice, so I don'tknow what the difference is.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Credit to all those people you know on the east that
hunt the whitetail like that,because yeah, for sure, those
guys.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Scary idea for me.
They got such a special youknow, they got a special way of
doing stuff down there.
So I really for sure man,everybody's got their own knack
and you know they're yeah, theygot us all gonna try it, all,
that's what's?
That's what's important?
Um for sure, let's kick thisthing off, man what stories you
got for us today uh, so I got acouple that I kind of pointed

(04:46):
out.
Uh, all of them been prior years, not this.
Last year, um, actually thisspring I just uh, on easter I
ended up uh taking a nice blackbear, um, but uh, it wasn't
really too much of a story, sowe're gonna leave it at that,
but uh, I've actually never beenbear hunting.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
I've had a bear tag, but like it's always been
supplemental to my it's, it's,uh, it's on my list.
I'm going to get I think next,next season, I might try.
Or maybe it's two years out,but I'm going to.
I'm going to make it happen.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah, that's a nice like fill in time in the
springtime.
you know you got shed huntingand then that's pretty much a
giant blank until hunting season, so having some spring bear is
kind of nice to have, so, um.
So I guess we'll start off withuh, I was graduating high
school, uh, 2017.
So, um, I was 26 now.

(05:37):
Uh, I had a buddy of mine thatI graduated with.
He's been my hunting partner,best man for his wedding, and
he's hunting partner best manfor his wedding, and he's going
to be best man for my weddingcoming up shortly.
Oh yeah, so he ended up drawinga cow tag for an area that is
pretty pretty.
Yeah, that word.

(06:00):
Just there's a lot of cow elkin that area.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Plenty, we'll say there's plenty of them, plenty.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, that word.
So we ended up getting a plantogether and being like, hey,
man, I know you've been workingall summer doing firefighting
and whatever.
Just let's get out and hang out.
And so I was like, yeah, man,I'd be, I'd love to hang out
with you.
And he's like, well, I drewthis tag and, um, you know, I
don't have really anybody elseto help me.

(06:31):
You know, help me out.
You know I don't want to pack acow elk out myself, I will do
it, but that guy, he, he wouldin a heartbeat.
He's a, he's a stone cone kill,stone cold killer for sure.
So, yeah, um.
So we piled up in the truck and, uh, it was a 12-hour drive and
, man, you know it's fun thefirst hour, you know how that
gets.
You know, first hour you'relike woohoo and then you know as

(06:53):
you start getting along.
You're like man, this drive,this road sucks.
So we uh, we end up getting tothe, to our camp spot on kind of
like a, a flat um above theriver that we were hunting at.
And the area we're hunting atis, uh, I don't know if you've
ever been near the badlands oranything like that, but it's,
it's.
It's like, uh, just crumbly andand steep and straight up and

(07:19):
down, but really rolly all theway down and the elevation holds
pretty well down to the river.
So we found a flat parking, gotcamp set up and I had a deer
tag um, and I was letting themknow.
You know, like, hey, I'd liketo film my tag while I'm here
and not just.
You know, help them pack out me.
I would help them do that.

(07:39):
But like, yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
Want to.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
I want to make it worth a while yeah, like I want
to make it worth our while yeah,so If you got a shot, you got
to take it right.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
So we get camp set up and we hike to this kind of
like knob about half a mile awayand we're glassing and looking
for elk and, like man, I ain'tseeing nothing.
And it's like, well, what aboutover there?
And I turned my head to theleft and I noticed a group of

(08:09):
mule deer, uh, two does and abuck and just a younger buck,
but they're in rut.
So I was wondering if maybethere was a bigger buck, um,
tailing them, but ended up onlyseeing those three.
He's like, oh, those, I meanthat that's, there's deer right
there.
You know, like what do youthink about shooting that?
He's like, well, that's one ofthe better bucks I've seen.
And, um, I'm sitting there andI'm like man, this guy's kind of

(08:29):
like a spindly guy.
You know he's a young buck.
I like, are you sure this isthe best buck you've seen?
Uh, yeah, man, I, you know Idon't really see bucks like that
around here.
So I'm sitting there, I'm likehim and han, and I'm like you
know what man like I came here,you know I'm I'm really about
the meat aspect of it but, likeyou know, like, try and taking
the, the mature deer, but I'lltake what I can get.

(08:50):
Yeah, so we're kind of him andhan, and they kind of catch a
look at us and drop down acooley and I'm like, ah, man,
I'll just I'll do it.
You know what tail with it, I'mgonna go shoot it.
And he kind of he comes up andabout 175 ish yards away he's
just stops and is looking at usand he stops right where a dead

(09:12):
branch is kind of blocking hisvitals and like, man, I ain't
got a shot.
You know, like I could scoot tothe left or right but he'd bust
, like you could tell he's aboutready to take off.
And if I rocked to the tip ofmy toes I could just barely see
his vitals.
So I'm sitting there and I'mlike, oh man, you're not gonna
like this one, but you know what, we'll try it.
And so I rocked to the tip ofmy toes, kind of sit on my heels

(09:35):
.
I got his, his vitals in myhead.
I'm like, all right, let's giveher a shot, roll up to the tip
of my toes and pull the trigger.
And man, I got knocked on mybutt so fast.
I mean just just boom right onmy ass.
And I'm like, oh, like lookingover, trying to see what
happened and my buddy's likedude, what were you shooting?
I gotta start with that uh, Iwas shooting a six, five creed

(09:57):
more, but like I was so offbalance with that, standing on
the toes like not, probably noton flat, stable ground.
No, it was it was like kind ofon a hillside, so like I was on
my toes on a rock and just justbarely could get the vitals.
So I pull the trigger, boom myass, oh perfect and uh.

(10:17):
So I'm sitting there on my assand I like look around this log
and there's that deer justlaying down.
Like no way, I just likeknocked this deer down there you
go.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
You did the important part right yeah, so my buddy's
sitting there.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
He's like, dude, you got him.
I'm like no way.
So we get up and we walk downto him and this buck is still
alive and I'm like oh no, Ispined him and so I, we left
everything at camp.
When I mean like I just grabbedmy, my rifle and like the clip
that was it or orange, and thatwas it.
So we're sitting there and I'mlike, what the hell do I do with

(10:50):
this deer?
He's still alive.
You know, I could shoot itagain.
He's like, yeah, that'dprobably be the best bet.
So we put another round in himand, uh, get him quartered out
and and he was just like thatdeer was at an, a perfect bench
to where we could drive histruck from camp across, like
some off-roading a little bit,load it in the back of the truck

(11:12):
and take it back to camp.
And so yeah, this is super easy.
So he did that and uh like boom, first part of the trip success
ready to rock and roll.
So wake up about four o'clockand we're getting ready to go
get his elk.
You know deer's hung up.
We're not really worried aboutbear yet because they hadn't

(11:33):
made their way across the plains.
Quite yet this is a couple yearsago back before they've started
seeing grizzlies kind of movetheir way across the front.
So we just kind of hung it uphigh enough to keep the coyotes
out, and that was pretty much it.
So we start the day off hiking,and I mean just hiking and
hiking and hiking and up anddown coolies in and out of you

(11:55):
know, ridges working our waydown to the river, because we
know that the elk kind of aremoving their way to the river
and we hit about midday.
I'm like man, I'm hungry, I'mtaking lunch, I don't care what
you're doing, he like walks alittle bit further, he's like
man, are you sure?
I'm like, yeah, no, I'm, I'mhungry man.
So, yeah, I sit down, I startcracking open lunch, and he
started.

(12:15):
He comes back and startscracking open lunch and we're
we're eating, and I happen tojust see that way.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
It sounds like you're just having beers for lunch.
Well, there was a couple ofcold lunches, you know.
Yeah, yeah, that was that'slater snacks, for sure.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, some some uh Colorado cold snacks.
Um so we're sitting there andwe're just like, uh eaten.
And all of a sudden I look overand I thought I spotted
something move, kind of like adark brown, and I'm like man,
that looked kind of like whatwe're looking for, yeah, so I
whipped my head over and, sureenough, there's a herd of about
250 ish elk oh, wow way off inthe distance, like probably four

(12:56):
miles away.
okay, so I'm looking at my buddyand I'm like this is obviously
kind of the earlier stages of myhunting career and I'm like, oh
man, get down.
So like I'm thinking these elkcan see us, right, this is
obviously kind of the earlierstages of my hunting career and
I'm like, oh man, get down.
So I'm thinking these Alcacias,right.
So we're on our stomachs and weback up all the way over to the
ridge and they're so far awayfrom us, man, like I don't know

(13:17):
what I was thinking.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
I was just like man hit the ground, so we're safe
and sorry.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, for sure.
So we're sitting there andwe're we're watching them and
they start making their way downoff of the, the knob that
they're on, and they're headingtowards the river and we're like
, oh man, like there's tons ofgood cow, elk and and bulls in
that group, but we can't shootbulls, obviously we've got a cat
tag.
So I'm like let's, let's, let'shustle up and let's get to the

(13:44):
next couple of ridges and tryand beat them before they get
down to the river.
And this is like.
This is like five, six miles infrom camp.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
And it's, it's pretty .

Speaker 2 (13:53):
It's pretty easy, uh, going down the elevation kind
of fall in the ridges, but likeyou don't realize how far away
you are until you start lookingat Onyx, yeah away, you are
until you start looking at onyx.
Yeah and uh.
So we're just chasing these elk, just practically mirroring
them on the opposite hillside,staying out of sight, keeping
wind pretty good, and we getalmost all the way down to the

(14:15):
river.
And it's about four o'clock,five o'clock in november and so
we're.
It's getting dark pretty quickand yeah, so we're sitting there
we're kind of eyeballing himand he's like man, I think, I
think I got him and I'm like allright, man, just just take a
shot.
You know, make a good shot.
And he ended up posting up onthis hill and he was in the

(14:37):
worst shooting position ever man.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
Just like was he on his tippy toes oh, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
This is like like curled over like a medicine ball
at the gym type shooting.
Yeah, he's like full on, likeover this ridge, and I'm like,
man, are you, you feeling good?
You know you're shooting.
Good.
He's like yeah, man, I got this.
I'm like all right, perfect.
And so the elk kind of like hitthe last set of mountains before
you hit the valley flats in theriver and they start cutting

(15:05):
back up and I'm like, all right,man, you know that there's a
couple cows and I'm just kind ofsitting there waiting.
I'm sitting there waiting andwaiting like man, is this guy
ever gonna shoot, you know?
So I'm filling with my thumbs,I'm kind of kicking some dirt
around.
You know, just bide in time andjust boom like whoa, all right,
just drops a nice size cow, elkand, uh, the rest of the herd

(15:30):
scatter head straight down tothe river.
I'm looking at them and there'sa couple nice bulls in there.
I can't shoot them, obviously,but like it's nice to see the
wildlife, you know so absolutely, yeah, I'm watching these.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Heard that big.
It's so cool to see that manyelk at one time yeah, especially
all of them running the sameway.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
You know, they just all pour over the mountainside.
So I'm looking at them and I'mlike man, that's a cool looking.
You know, those are some coollooking elk, you know.
All of a sudden I look backover, I'm like where did it?
Oh, there's this cow, and it'sjust right ledge of one of the

(16:08):
coolies that drops like 25 feetinto this like v.
So we're sitting there and allthe elk move off and we get over
to where this cow is made aperfect shot.
I mean, that guy just smokedhim.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
He's like, yeah, just drop in place, or did it drop
in place pretty much, yeah, justkind of rolled once and just
stopped um.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
So we got over there.
He got his picture and uh,we're sitting there and we're
like, well, what do we do now?
Like it, the angle of this hillis too steep to drag her head
uphill and there's nothing belowus to really roll her down to a
flat.
So we're kind of looking aroundtrying to figure it out.

(16:45):
He's like man, you know what?
The best thing we're gonna dois just roll her down to this
drainage.
And I was like, oh, I knewyou're gonna say that.
So this guy and I kick this cowelk down this drainage into
this v and it just boom, boomlike 25, 30, just head like hoof

(17:06):
and head just all the way downthe mountain stops at the bottom
and the bottom is flat.
It's like a probably a 10 footwide bottom.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
So enough room to, like, do some work.
You know, get get to work.
So we start cutting it up andgetting it cleaned out and,
being young as we are, we'relike, oh man, we'll just drag
this thing out out.
And, being young as we are,we're like, oh man, we'll just
drag this thing out.
Meanwhile, we're eight milesfrom the nearest boat launch and
15 miles from camp.
Yeah, so we're sitting thereand we're like, oh, we'll just

(17:35):
drag it down.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
That don't know what the hell we were thinking how
far did you actually make itdragging like probably we got,
actually we got to about 100yards and we were we were smoked
dude and this you know, I wasdoing wildland firefighting.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
He was in the gym all the time, so we were in pretty
good shape but, we were smokeddude, I would have given up way
before 100 yards so we cut herin half and we drag half and
half probably 200 yards to afence and I'm like man, here's
the problem.
We're going to get to that boatlaunch and we're gonna have to

(18:11):
hike 22 miles back to camp toget the truck.
That's not like, that's not agood idea.
Why don't you hike back up?
You get the truck and meet meat the boat launch and I'll just
start cutting her up.
He's like all right, that's agreat idea.
So he goes up and he, he leavesme there with this elk.
Mind you, I was mentioningcoyotes earlier.

(18:33):
We were watching probably fiveor six of them just kind of
playing around on the ice,running around.
I don't know what they weredoing, they were just it was
frozen over, so they werecrossing the river, and so I'm
cutting her up and it gets darkand I'm cutting and cutting and
we finally get her broken downenough to start packing her out
and I get a hind and a shoulderand I start hiking her out.

(18:56):
Well, it gets really dark.
So I'm like, oh, I'll grab myheadlamp.
I forgot my headlamp at home.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
Oh no.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
And the only thing I had was one of those Walmart hat
clamps.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
Okay, like lights Better than nothing.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
It's probably 15 yards max.
I can see.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
So I'm packing, you know, I'm just moving along and
I get kind of to the area wherethose coyotes were and I kind of
see a flash and like a kick upof dust and some movement and
I'm like, all right, hang on,wait a minute, what's going on
here?
So I stopped, I'm lookingaround and I just see this
yellowish, greenish tinge, kindof at the peripheral of where I

(19:36):
can see like the very big, likeprobably 30 yards away.
I'm like ain't no way thesesuckers are messing around with
me.
And I had a pistol with me atthe time so I just pulled it out
, pointed it right between theeyes, just pulled the trigger.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
I don't know if I hit it, I don't care.
I was just trying to scare some.
I was trying to get them awayfrom me.
I don't care.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
Understandable.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, so I'm working.
They're not a problem untilthey are yeah exactly,
especially when there's morethan like two of them.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
So we're working on.
I'm working my way down theriver and I just I keep hearing
noises around me.
Man, and you know your mindplays tricks on you.
But like it doesn't help thatthis Walmart hat lamp is not
keeping your, your vision verywell.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah, so cone of silence, exactly so.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
I'm kind of like talking to myself, playing music
on my phone, walking down thisriver, and I just get to a point
where I'm like man, I can't goforward, I can't go back without
hearing noises.
And so I move my way closesttowards, like the base of a hill
, and I just build a fire.
I just build a big old fire and, um, probably two hours, my

(20:48):
buddy, I see a set of headlampwalking down and uh, my buddy's
like hey man, what are you doing?
I don't know, man, I waspacking this out and I just kept
seeing eyes and hearing soundsand I just sat down.
I said I have had enough.
And he's like right on, man, onman.
Well, you know, the truck'sprobably about four and a half
miles away.

(21:09):
Let's just, you know you canmake it the rest of the way
there.
I'll go, grab the rest of thepack and I'm like man that might
just let's split this pack andwe'll make it one trip on the
way back.
So we'll make it in three trips.
So we argued for a bit and he'slike all right, man, whatever,
we'll just grab the truck.
The well, we're walking out andwe get to the truck, drop off
our load, come back and as we'repassing that fire that I built,

(21:32):
there's just tracks all overthe snow, just coyote tracks
everywhere.
And so I'm like, see man, Itold you this time I have one of
his spare headlamps on me andI'm like there's just tracks
everywhere.
They were following me.
So we make our way back to thecarcass and see some tracks
around the carcass, some somelike hide tore up.

(21:52):
Nothing.
Crazy though we were, we werepretty confident that with the
two of us it wasn't a big deal.
Yeah, so we load up both thepacks and, uh, we make our way
all the way back to the truckand my buddy he was keeping his
Onyx on on the tracking mode andwe ended up putting down about

(22:12):
24 miles that day, chasing elk,shooting those elk, getting it
packed out.
We didn't get to camp untilabout 3 am 4 am in the morning.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
Damn.
I want to say kudos to thatguy's phone battery as well.
My phone wouldn't make it 24miles on the tracking mode for
on-air.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
Well, what he did is?
He ended up putting it onairplane mode, but he's pretty
stewardess about packing thoseportable chargers.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
And so he just always , anytime his phone starts dying
off, he just slaps thatportable charger on and just
walks with it.
But we ended up getting itpacked out and, uh, we ended up
leaving that next morning umpretty early.
We ended up leaving about eighto'clock in the morning this is
like young guy energy, you know,just not a care in the world,

(22:59):
ragdolled and ready to get homeand sleep.
So but uh, yeah, he, he is, uh,he was, uh, definitely,
definitely kind of like a beaconof hope walking down that river
, because I couldn't seeanything, man?

Speaker 1 (23:16):
I bet he's never gone out without a headlight since
that seems like one of thosetimes where it's like the best
lessons are self-taught.
That was a self-taught lessonwhere you were like that sucked.
I hated every moment of that.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
I will never not have a good headlamp again yeah, no,
I've, I've, uh, I've purchaseduh two of them, two of them sit
in my pack and one of them'srechargeable.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
So yep, yeah, I have like three or four at any
hunting camp I go to like.
Two of them are really solid,great, like rechargeable ones
the emergency one and like then.
The fourth one is just becauseI know eventually someone else
will forget one and I'm likethat ain't happening to me yeah,
that was, that was me man dudeyeah, I believe it.
Um, I even have like shoelaces.

(23:55):
I keep a pair of shoelacesbecause that's happened to me
where I went out and my bootlaces just exploded like three
miles from camp I'm like thissucks.
Fortunately, you know, likeboots you have so much lace that
even though it split like and Ilost a fourth of it if I unlace
the whole thing and thenrelaced it even I still was able
to tie it like around the baseof my foot, just not like the
top of the boot.
So I got out of there.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
But yeah, never again .
Now there's laces.
I bet your ankles were feelingthat one.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah, yeah, that was a.
I don't know if you I know youlistened to the podcast, but it
was, like I want to say, threeelk seasons ago and I fell.
It was when I was walking backwith my boot lace, all fucked up
, that I fell and I pinched anerve in my hip and I literally
couldn't walk for three months.
Oh shoot man.
So yeah, I don't remember myfoot or ankle being sore because

(24:45):
I'd hurt my hip so bad or likethe nerve in my hip.
It was a brutal year, Brutalyear, damn, you know.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
And it always happens when you know you're having fun
and then all of a sudden itjust like one thing just leads
to another thing, to anotherthing and, man, it just starts
piling up.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
Yeah, so, you know, and now that I've actually
talking this out with you, Ithink that maybe I only pinched
my hip because my boot wasn'ttight, so I probably was walking
funny, and then when I fellthen it pinched that nerve who
knows, who knows, who knows.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
I know that when I lace my ankle up, I lace my feet
and then my ankle, and thatankle helps stability a lot.
So I canpping and, and you know, not having that support, just
yeah, it was a pretty mild fall.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
I'll tell you that I was pretty disappointed with how
hurt I was, for how small thefall was.
Um, but I'm not a doctor, Ijust play one on a podcast.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
So uh, what else you got for us, jake?

Speaker 1 (25:41):
what other?
Uh, what are the stories yougot, man?

Speaker 2 (25:43):
well, I uh, I got a story about me and my fiance now
wife um hunting and getting abear.
Actually, you can see it righthere.
I'll turn the camera a littlebit.
This, this black bear here hell, yeah, right here.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
And what?
What kind of lizard you're yougot in that?
Oh, that's, that's my wife'spet project.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
It's a uh sahara sand boa, so it's a little snake
yeah, he, he hides in the sandand never, never really shows
his head until nighttime.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
So I don't have to worry about it.
A chick who likes snakes, yougot yourself like Selma Hayek in
.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Dust.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
Kildon, don't you.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Well, she also hunts too.
I don't know what I found, butshe's a keeper for sure.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
That's awesome, man Cool, tell us about this fiance
black bear story.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
So we were hunting in an area that I had hunted
previously.
Um, I showed up there probablya week before looking for elk
and I'm I'm a, I really lovearchery, elk hunting.
I I've heard you know thepodcast enough to know you love
archery as as well as I do.
Um, and so, anyways, huntingelk, and, uh, I was in an area
where it was really prominent.

(26:56):
I kept seeing like a couple ofblack bears in these parks and,
and these parks, um, they'rejust wide open grassland on a
steep hillside.
Okay, so we're, I'm watchingthem.
I'm like cool, you know, I'llgo up there.
I know there's elk up there.
I've seen them migrate kind oflike above that where those
bears were, and kind of movetheir way down.
And uh, so I was chasing elkand calling and they were just

(27:20):
bugling back and forth and I gotto a spot where the hillside
was a little steep and it kindof does like a uh it's, it holds
the elevation all the wayacross and then it divots and to
like a little coulee where thewater can move down.
And uh, so I'm sitting there.

(27:42):
I've been chasing these elk allday.
I have a tag for either sex, soI'm looking for whatever.
I'm looking for meat and I'mworking my way across and I just
hear commotion Above me and Imean like Not like elk
stampeding, like elk runningaway from something, and I'm
like Kind of odd whatever.

(28:03):
So I'm hearing, I'm listening,I'm moving my way towards this
ridge and I I park myself prettymuch about 20 yards away from
this, this little ridge, beforeit kind of drops off and all of
a sudden there's about three orfour cow elk that just come
bolting down this ridge and Imean running for their lives and
I don't know what's chasingthem.
I'm just like cool elk, youknow, like I might be able to

(28:24):
fill my tag.
So yeah but they blow.
They blow right past me.
I mean just gone.
So I'm sitting there, I'm likehuh, I wonder what's going on.
So I have my bow out and I'mlooking up the hill and still
just crazy commotion above, andthen I see this cow elk
sprinting down and a black bearchasing it following, following

(28:45):
it like probably five to tenyards behind it, just booking it
down.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
The hillside, no way.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
So I'm sitting there and I'm watching this happen and
I'm like bow or pistol.
So I have my bow out and I'mwatching him run down this
hillside and the bear stops,just slams on the brakes.
So as soon as I see that bearslam on the brakes and she's
about 20 to 25 yards from me, II just I put my bow down and

(29:11):
pull my pistol out.
I'm like man, I ain't playingthis game and this bear has this
awesome, probably seven toeight inch wide white patch
going all the way down thesternum of this, this bear I
don't know if it a female boar,I couldn't quite get a good look
at it.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
But it slams on the brakes and is looking dead at me
and I'm like man, come on now,like so.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
I pulled the pistol out, yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
So I pulled the pistol out and I'm aiming it at
her and she just bolts, and Imean like bolts across the
hillside in front of me all theway, like I dropped my pack off
probably about 20 yards behindme.
So I was like, oh shit, she'sgetting into my pack like or
something.
I don't know what I wasthinking, I just knew that that
that's the general area she'sgoing.
So I track her and I follow herall the way.

(30:00):
So I start walking after her tomake sure she doesn't mess with
my pack and uh, I like what thehell just happened?
I just had a herd of elk justrun past me.
There's a black bear just cutin front of me Not just just a
whole shit show of events.
And uh, so I'm like well, Iheard a bull in that group.

(30:21):
I might as well give it a, youknow, give it a try.
And I give a cow call out, andthat bull is like 30 yards away
from me just ripping throughthis thick brush.
So I'm like no way.
So I put the pistol back intothe holster, pull my bow back
out and I'm looking for thisbull and he comes probably 25
yards from me, and just no clearshot facing me, just trees in

(30:43):
the way, but I can see his head,his eyes.
He's just staring me down.
I couldn't do nothing about it,so I'm like oh well, whatever,
that was a cool experience.
So I made a mental note of thatarea.
I'm like this is kind of anarea where there's bear and elk
that are co-living, basically.
So I called my wife my now wifeand I was like hey, are you

(31:08):
wanting to go hunting?
So she's like yeah, absolutely.
And so I'm like, cool, you knowthere's.
We should have good weather, itshould be a good time.
So I pick her up and we headback to kind of a hill stop
where we can kind of see thatwhole area.
Mm-hmm, and I see about fourblack bears just sitting on the

(31:31):
hillside in that park justmunching away on grass and and
whatever the hell they're eating.
And I'm like, geez, there's alot of black, like I have a
black bear tag.
And I'm like man, there's a lotof black bear.
And she's like, yeah, that'scool, I'm really not about it.
But whatever, you know, she'slike I don't want to mess with
them.
I'm like I don't blame you yeahbut if one gets in front of me,
you know.
So we set up the camp prettymuch at the site we were

(31:53):
glassing from and that night itstormed.
And when I'm in it stormed.
It was blowing like 30 mile anhour, winds raining sideways
jeez ripped our walmart tent inhalf pretty much.
So we were both just soaking wet, miserable.
Our dog was in the truck.
He was with us that trip.
We couldn't find anybody towatch him, which he'll tag on to

(32:16):
the story in a bit.
So we're sitting there justlike well, it's raining all day.
The next day it's just downcastdownpour.
We're like well, let's go tothe laundromat downtown.
You know it's probably twohours to the nearest town.
Let's, let's dry our stuff out.
So I get to the laundromat anduh, good move.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
By the way, that's like, uh, that's a moral win,
like when you're having a toughhunt.
I one time drove two hours.
It's actually that same tripthat my boot broke and then I
fell and and then we're going totown anyways, but I got
shoelaces and a boot dryerbecause my boot was soaked and,
good God, having a nice dry pairof boots is just a moral win,
man, and it can get you a lotfarther over a hill.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
Oh yeah, for sure.
And it doesn't matter if it'sjust the small things, man, they
matter.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
Dude, they add up, Especially with your wife.
Man Kudos to you guys for goingback and drying off your
clothes.
That probably made you hunttwice as hard.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
Oh yeah for sure.
And especially gave me kudopoints with the wife.
Because I mean who?
I mean what missus wants tohang around with a guy soaking
wet all day?
I?

Speaker 1 (33:24):
was going to make some kind of joke about making
your wife do laundry.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
Oh, so we get to the laundromat, we get all our stuff
dried out and it's just finally, after all day of just downpour
, it finally lets out.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
And so we head back up to the spot that we were at
and so we get into an area andit's probably about 12, 30 ish,
it finally stopped.
I'm like, well, let's just hikearound and see what we can do.
And the elk were bugling still.
They weren't as active as whenI was there but they were still

(34:02):
calling and bugling and rakingand all that stuff.
So I make my way up the ridgewith her and I'm cow calling and
up bugling just trying to getsome response.
And uh, we get a coupleresponses.
But man, they're just so faraway and they're across a couple
canyons like I'm not gonna dragher through pretty much hell

(34:23):
and back just to get a shot.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
That would make it miserable for her yeah, I wanted
to come back, no, and that's my.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
My point is, I want to make sure that she comes back
, you know.
So I'm like, well, let's just,let's just go to this park.
That, if you know and this isearly october, so it's kind of
like it rains and then it islike sunshine and 60 degrees, so
it's just beautiful out.
So you get to this park andwe're just napping in the sun.
We got our dog with us.
Um, he's, he's, uh, just kindof just been hanging around.

(34:53):
He's a pretty decent at huntinganytime.
I split off, though, and he'sgonna stay.
He don't like it.
He starts winding, startsmaking noise, and this, this
will tie in.
Um, so we're taking a nap andI'm like man, those bears were
just in that park that was likeright below us, and it was about
two o'clock, three o'clock inthe afternoon.
I'm like I'm going to go andwe've been napping for pretty

(35:15):
much an hour and a half, justsleeping off the horrible night
before.
Okay.
And uh, I'm sitting there.
I'm like I'm going to go take apeek down here and I'll come
back up and it's steep, it'svery steep.
Um, it is you could hands andhands and feet still making
contact the entire way.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
Just steeper than hell.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
So I'm like I'm going to go down here you know, keep
the dog quiet while I go downthere and just kind of mosey
around.
And uh, I started making my waydown and I just see this kind
of mosey around.
And uh, I start making my waydown and I just see this, this
black shape just bedded on thathillside.
I'm like no way.
So I look up at her becauseshe's she's kind of keeping tabs

(35:58):
on me and holding the dog andI'm like you know, I I make like
the the three finger claw markbear side to her and she kind of
is like she doesn't understand,but she knows there's something
going on, so she she keeps thedog quiet and stays up there.
I take my shoes off, um, and Irange them.
The first time I ranged themwas about 130 yards away and

(36:20):
even with a steep angle it wasprobably 150.
So I started sneaking my waydown and, uh, I took my shoes
off, I'm in my socks and I'mjust working my way down, just
creeping and creeping andcreeping, staying out of sight,
out of mind, playing the wind,and I get about 70 yards from
him and I'm I've been prettyaccurate with my bow, um, out to

(36:42):
90 yards so I felt veryconfident shooting 70, 80 yards,
and so I drew back kind of likewalking side hill, drew back at
a super steep angle and when Iranged it it said 78 yards.
But my range finder doesn'taccount for that type of angle

(37:02):
at the time.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
Oh really.

Speaker 2 (37:04):
So I put it at 72 on my slider.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
Okay, and so I'm creeping sideways.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
Yeah, and that was, that was from previous mistakes,
uh, that earlier year of, justyou know, shooting at a steep
angle and just it just goingcompletely over its back, um, an
elk's back.
So I'm side hill and side hilland and that bear is just
napping away Same thing we weredoing, just napping in that park
.
And I'm holding that draw and Ijust put it right.

(37:31):
And with bears you know how theheart's kind of more centered
than like deer and elk.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
Their heart's kind of further back.
All their vitals are pushed alittle further back.
So I put it pretty much I aimshoulder and then probably three
inches to the left and just lether fly.
And I just hear this like I'veheard rock skipping.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
I'm like oh, no, like I just missed it?

Speaker 2 (37:56):
well, this bear jumps probably three feet in the air,
bites at its side turns aroundand takes off yeah, so it was a
complete pass through when wegutted him out it.
It severed the top of his heartcompletely.
Um, just complete pass through,no bones, no sound, it just all
I heard was rock.
So I was like, oh I, I missedhim, shit, I missed him.

(38:20):
So.
But when I saw him turn andbite, I was like man, that's
like a telltale sign of anyanimal, you know they, he got
hit and he got hit good.
So we're sitting there and Iwatched him take off down this
hill, you know, across thehillside, and disappear into the
brush.
And uh, my wife was like thefirst person.
I mean, like I've seen her move.
I've never seen her move thisfast.

(38:42):
She was just hauling ass downthis hill and I was like if you
fall you're not stopping, dude,like it's steep.
So she's hauling with the dogand we both get to kind of a
spot where we can talk.
I'm like man, that shot feltgood and she was like that
seemed like you were in control.
Everything looked good.
She shoots with me in thebackyard all the time.
She knows how I shoot, but mydog's just losing his shit.

(39:07):
I mean just yeah whining andyipping and oh yeah, crazy so I
put a leash on him because inmontana you can have a dog with
you as long as you're not usinghim to actively hunt animals,
you know yeah if you want him totrack, you can hook up a leash
to him and then, as long as theyhave like I believe it's 50
feet of lead, you're, you'relegal.

(39:29):
Um, he was kind of on a shotcaller slash lead the entire
time.
We were up so, um, but anyways,uh, so we give it about half an
hour, an hour, and I droppeddown and I have the dog with me
and she stayed up there.
She's like I don't want no partof if that bear's still alive.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
I don't want any part of it I'm like understandable
man.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
But come on, like you know, you're supposed to be my
ride or die and she's like not,not with the bear, she's like
well, fair enough.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
She's like let's work on the ride, not the die part.
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
So I'm sitting there.
I'm like, oh, cool.
And uh, me and the dog walkeddown there and I, I mean
immediately, you just see bloodeverywhere.
And so I was like, all right,buddy, you know, this is his
first time tracking somethingwith blood.
Um, he's a shed dog, so he, he,he uses his nose.
Um, I didn't know how well he'duse it, but I wanted to give
him a shot.
So we were walking across thehillside.

(40:20):
He darts straight downhill likeno, no, no, he kept running
side hill, buddy.
Well, he came up and he keptpulling me back to that spot and
I couldn't find him on thatside hill.
I'm like I should probablytrust the dog, he probably knows
what's going on.
And, um, I dropped down andprobably 30 yards down down that
hill, uh, he was piled up in ahuge timber of sagebrush and and

(40:42):
uh, uh, uh, deadfall.

Speaker 1 (40:44):
So just was right.
Yeah, yeah so the bear justbasically shot side hill until
out of sight and then basicallyyou turned it 30 yards down.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
Yeah.
So he ran about 15 yards,leaned against a tree, bled
everywhere and just died andjust fell downhill.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
Okay, fell downhill.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
That makes more sense , okay, yeah so we went downhill
and we got our pictures and thewife was super happy, super
excited.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
She's, she's a little weird, she likes, uh, um,
helping me, gut, and skinanimals, so like kudos to her,
but uh, that doesn't surprise meyeah exactly.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
So she, she helped me out and, uh, we got it packed
out, ended up being a pretty,pretty good size bear.
He's six foot, uh, nose to tailnice man yeah, just a solid
size bear.
I made him a nice rug.
He takes up half my wall yeah,good looking bear.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
I mean, I can only see what looks like his ass half
.
But yeah, here I'll turn himaround.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
Yeah, he takes up yeah, that's huge quite a bit,
but yeah he was.
Uh, it's cool he was uh firstbear I've ever shot with and
first bear I ever shot with abow, and uh, it was.
It was an experience and I Icherish it all the time now I'm
a spring bear hunter.
I'm a fall bear hunter.

Speaker 1 (42:01):
I love it.
Yeah, he ended up only a fallbear.
I really want, I really wishthey still had spring bear, but
they got rid of that years ago,before I even started hunting.
But oh man, what about?
Who knows there's a lot ofbears in colorado.
Maybe they'll bring it back.
Probably not.
Maybe because they hate huntingin colorado.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
But I know it's such a shame always be positive,
always be positive.
But yeah he uh, he uh ended upbeing like 12 years old.
Um, yeah, we at first.
Um, I'll show you the the skullafter we're done, but he
doesn't have any teeth left.
Okay, he has like four teeth,um, on the upper half and like

(42:36):
two teeth on the bottom it'sjust crazy split crack canines.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
Just he was not gonna make it another year, so shitty
way to go, like that's whatlike people are gonna just let
him die of old age and be happy,and I'm like, well, if you
imagine your teeth rotting outand falling out and you can't
even eat anymore, that's that'sthe best way out according to
you.
Like that ain't I'd rather.
I'd rather take an arrow to theheart any day yeah, for sure a
year of jaw pain and just misery.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
So yeah, and starving like especially that is the
biggest old age problem I have.
When people are like, well, whydo you kill when they'll die of
old age, I'm like you realizethat last like couple of months
of their life they don't eatanything.
They just put food in theirmouth and it drops out.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
Yeah, they don't die of old age.
They starve to death becausetheir teeth died of old age.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
For sure, and that was a huge thing, uh, but
anyways, yeah, so he turned outto be uh terrible eating, um
yeah, it was yeah, it was.
It was pretty bad eating um.
I ate as much as I could umwhat do you think like?

Speaker 1 (43:42):
was it just because he was old and gnarly had he got
?
I think something, because Iknow that bears taste a lot like
a diet.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
I wasn't the only hunter up there, so I'm thinking
there's like Karen he waschewing on just like rotting
flesh that would like melt inhis mouth so he didn't have to
chew on it.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
That would do it.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
Yeah, and so he had no fat on him eating Karen.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
It was just not a pleasant bear to eat, so but I
want to get one of them big oldfat bears that, like, has found
a berry patch.
Oh yeah, their meat's likepurple and they taste like
blueberries.
That's the kind of bear I wantto hunt.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
Absolutely, you can go to Alaska.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
Inland Alaska.
Those coastal ones are justsmell and taste like salmon.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
I've heard yeah for sure.
Actually a couple podcasts.
Some other guy I was listeningto, he led a buddy of his smoke
brown bear and he's like I don'tknow if you smoke salmon in
this thing, but I can't cookanything in this smoker anymore.
So yeah it just.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
I think I heard that too on like the.
I think it must have been danstaten or something like elk
shape.
Yeah, I think it was elk shapeyeah, I think it was elk shape,
where he says that like he goesto the smoker to smoke and he's
like dude, do you, how muchsalmon do you smoke in there?
He's like yeah, yeah any salmonin that smoker.
I've only smoked black bearsand yeah or not.
Black bears could be brownbears, coastal brown bears,
which is so crazy, but that'snot.

Speaker 2 (45:08):
This sounds gross yeah, what else you got, man,
what else you got, yeah?
Well, I uh, you wouldn't catchme eating no salmon.
Bears, man that no, that'srough um, I got one more story,
I guess, and then, um, if youwant to have me back on some
other time, I got a couple, acouple more fun stories that are
are interesting and potentiallylife-threatening.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Perfect, let's do the last one you got.
That's good timing Then.
I'll dive off and watch someColorado sports and hopefully
they all can live to playanother day.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
Alright, let's go Avalanche.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
Yeah, and Nuggets this story is this guy.
I know you can see it, listen'tsee it, but this guy this guy
right here um does he have alittle kicker on that left?

Speaker 2 (45:54):
yeah, yeah, he does.
He's got a little palmatiankind of.
I know that light is kind ofblocking it, but he's got a
little kicker in between that'scool his uh whale time and uh g5
and that's a.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
I'm going to call that a.
Six by seven.
That's a good bull.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
Yeah, he's he.
I call it as well, cause it'suh what I remember you saying.
If it's longer than it is wide,it counts as a point.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
So I've heard that with white tail.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
I don't know about elk, but I think Living in
Montana you get some good elkpopulations running through here
, the migration coming fromYellowstone and just everywhere.
There's a lot of elk up here.

(46:38):
But don't put that in thepodcast, it's too late.

Speaker 1 (46:42):
It's already in, too late, it's already in.
Everybody knows where there'selk.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
Yeah for sure.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
If you don't know, if they haven't Googled it already
, you're not sharing anything.
I'm helping new hunters is whatI'm doing.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
I'm throwing them a bone.
So I'm bow hunting nearYellowstone, pretty close to the
border, probably 35, 40 milesaway from the border, and huge
grizz country, huge wolf country, but also some good bull
country and good elk country.
I found a spot.

(47:16):
My uncle turned me up to a spot.
He he's been up before.
He said you know they're,they're always up there, elk are
always up in this area.
Go, go check it out, and so Iwas like all right, you know I'm
I'm like 20 at the time brokehis shit, have no money, a
shitty truck.
That barely gets me pointed topoint B.
I'm like to hell with it.
You know I ain't got nothingelse to lose.
So I took two weeks off throughevery cent I had in gas and

(47:44):
just headed straight fromNorthwest Montana down to
Southwest or Southern Montanaand uh, so I get there and I
immediately just I'm ready forabout three or four days.
just some solid, steep, horrible, whatever life throws at me
yeah so I'm going up, hiking up,hiking up, hiking up, and it

(48:07):
just starts getting windy, and Imean just windier than windy
gets.
It's the worst and uh, so I'msitting there.
I'm like, man, this reallysucks.
And I'm in this thick timberpatch.
I'm like, is there a stormblowing in?
And I get to this knob andthere's just like this black
wall that's coming towards me.
I'm like cool, all right, I gotabout an hour and a half to get

(48:28):
to my camp, get it set up andthen just like start sleeping.
And or just like get to campand just set there yeah I ended
up making it um and just settingcamp up in the blizzard, uh,
but it was.
It was, uh, not fun.
It was pretty, pretty roughwinds just ripping all the all
your, your ties and and youryour tarps, just ripping it all

(48:50):
in half.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
And you're just like man, this sucks yeah, how, uh,
how much did it snow?
It was a full-on blizzard itsnowed about six inches uh, up
there, and then just collapsed.
Some tents man yeah yeah, forsure it.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
I mean you don't think until it starts melting.
You know, you never would guessthat it does it.
Well, I was also sleeping in ahammock so I had a.
I had a hammock and then a tarp, and then the tarp was draped
over a line and it kind of keepsthe snow off me, but still it
kind of kind of sucked yeah, Idon't want a hammock when it's
busy now, but all right so sleptthat night and got up and I

(49:27):
mean, elk sign was everywhere,like they were.
They were in that area, um, notwhen I was there, though they I
mean just they were tearing upwallows and the snow melted with
probably about three o'clockthe next day.
Um, it ended up being like 60degrees the next day.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
So you know, montana.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
If you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes
, it'll change.
And uh.
So I ended up walking down someridges, not really seeing much
other than just lots of sign,and um, I happened to look back
where my camp was and I saw agrizzly bear started making his
way back towards my camp and I'mlike, oh, no way this sucker's
gonna come into my camp andtrash it and I had all my food

(50:08):
on me, so he just must havesmelt me walking or something,
and so I turned around and Ijust booked it straight back to
camp.
I was like this guy is not goingto tear my camp up, he's not
going to be a jerk, he's ayounger bear.
So I wasn't really too worriedabout him and I cut his tracks
before I got to camp so I knewhe didn't mess with my camp.

(50:28):
But I knew he was around thearea and I was like there ain't
gonna be any elk in this areabecause of that.
So that night I was sleepingeat, you know, I ate food.
Put you know, do the whole foodthing with your.
Uh, you pack it away probably100 yards from camp and then
hoist it in a tree and, uh, I'msitting there eating.

(50:48):
I just keep hearing noisesaround me.
I'm like, yeah, this isfreaking fun, you know, seeing a
grizzly bear.

Speaker 1 (50:54):
And hearing noises those damn coyotes again.
Yeah, that's what I wasthinking.
I was like these damn coyotesare after me, man.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
They have a blood pact with me or something.
They're just hating me.
So jump in the hammock and I'm,you know, sleeping through the
night, actually pretty soundly.
The wind was pretty heavy so Icouldn't hear any noises, so I
just kind of was like well well,it's not going to eat me at the
moment, it's going to be fine.
I kept that 44 in my hand on mychest the entire night but, uh,

(51:24):
I just I kept hearing some likesticks breaking in between wind
gusts and I was like that'swrong.
Sit up and click on my light.
It's something glinting,probably 300 yards away, and I'm
like, nope, I'm not dealingwith that, clicked it back off
and went back to sleep.
I said nope.
I said nope, I could have.
I was like, nope, I'm not gonnaworry about that.
If it gets me, it gets me.

(51:44):
I don't care, I need to sleep,I'm tired.
I've been hiking all day.
So woke up probably about fouro'clock in the morning when the
sun was first right like barelyyou could even see light, and
just didn't even, didn't evencare.
I packed up camp and left thatnight after that and, uh, as I
was walking down towards mytruck, I noticed that there was

(52:07):
a shit ton of elk in this valleybottom, and in this valley
bottom there's just agriculturefields everywhere, just alfalfa
and hay fields all over theplace, and all those elk were
just hanging out in those fieldsand I'm like, well, no kidding,
they're not going to be up here.
You know they're out rutting,they're out getting some ladies,
they're out eating the fat foodwhile they got a chance.

(52:29):
You know I don't blame them,but like I'm in the wrong spot,
yeah, so I dropped down anddropped down all the way to my
truck and get into some, someflats.
That uh has a bunch of stateland and a bunch of uh just
areas where you can accessnational forests.
And I'm in the flats and Inoticed an elk herd, kind of on
a plateau.

(52:49):
They couldn't drop towards theriverside because it was just a
cliff face.
It was a straight 30 foot drop.
But on the far side there's analfalfa field and in between
there's some state land and so Iwas like, oh sweet, you know I
could actually cut them offbefore they could get to this,
this alfalfa field.
So I'd jump in the truck, drivethat shitty old yoda just as

(53:13):
fast as that thing would go,just making putting sounds the
entire way, yeah, about ready toblow up.
And I get around and get infront of them a ways I could.
I could see them.
They're still probably threequarters of a mile out, and so I
jump out of my truck, I grab mybinosos, my range finder, my
bow, and I just start sprintingacross cross and this plateau
has a it's kind of a doublesided plateau.

(53:37):
One side is only like a 10 footdrop with like a bunch of uh,
alley routes for those elk tocross down and get into this
alfalfa field.
Okay, and so I'm hauling asscrosses, cause I know where
they're going.
They're going to the spot wherethey don't have to drop this
cliff.
You know they don't want todrop that cliff, they want a
nice easy roll into this alfalfafield.
As I'm running, I bump into ahunter who's hiding in a bush,

(54:00):
just like chill there.
And I'm like you know, okay,he's doing the same thing I'm
doing, except for I'm trying tobeat him to it.
So I bump into him hey man,how's it going?
He's like oh good, what are youdoing here?
I'm like there's like a herd oflike 60 elk coming your way.
I'm like I'm gonna move downfurther past so I don't ruin

(54:20):
your hunt.
But I wanted, if you shootsomething, you come back and let
me know.
I'll help you pack it out.
But I'd like the same in return.
You know, I, I wouldn't mind ifI shot something, you come help
me.
You know, just a friendly.
You know like a quick, veryquick, because they were on the
move.
I was like I got to go, but,like you know, if you shoot one,
let me know If I shoot one.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
I'll let you know.
Enjoy your bush sir.
Enjoy your bush sir.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
And I'm gone.
You know, I'm just runningcliff band and it kind of rolls
into these rolling hills andthen there's this one mound with
a rock, that kind of blocks uma silhouette out there, okay.
And so I work my way up to thisrock and I'm sitting there and
I'm waiting and I see a couplecows walk.
I'm like, oh, no way they'recoming right through this, this

(55:05):
draw.
And I arranged one of the cowsin 82 yards and I've been
practicing.
Like I said, man, I regularlypractice 70, 80, 90, 100 yard
shots, just because I know howit is.
You know western montana,either you're in tight timber or
you're in the wide open flats.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
So you have to be prepared for whatever.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
So 82 yards, I arranged her and I'm like, cool,
all right, they're gonna comeright here, put the range finder
away, the sun's at my back,there's no wind.
I'm like I feel prettyconfident and this bull right
here comes, just sniffing hisway through bugling, chasing
this cow down, and I'm like, ohman, this is my time.

(55:46):
I drew back.
Everything felt solid and I'mwatching him and he just keeps
moving.
He doesn't stop.
I'm like no, no, stop.
I'm like make it sounds, hedoesn't stop.
So I let off.
I'm like crap, man, I missed myopportunity.
Well, he drops down the left,kind of like.
So if you're looking at it, Iwas on the right where the elk

(56:07):
were coming down he ended upbanking left and around a knob
and I knew he's coming backbecause there was another cow
that was kind of held up.
I think she either saw me move,I don't know what, but she was
held up and he was not having it.
So he drops down, comes aroundand starts pushing that cow out.
Well, him and another one ofhis buddies, a younger, five by

(56:29):
five was kind of cruising sideby side with them.
I'm like man, I want this bigone, but I'll take this young
one.
I do not care Whatever I'll, Ijust need to get one of these
guys.
So you know, this trip is worthit, cause.
I'm missing work.
I'm not getting paid for this,I'm I've got no money in my
account.
I have enough, maybe, to getget home.

(56:50):
This is just like all ornothing boils all down to this
moment.
And uh, so I draw and I make itlike a chirp noise and that
first bowl stops, but thatsecond bowl keeps walking.
This guy here keeps walking thatseven by six and I'm like no
way and so I make a loud, likemeow sound just to get him to

(57:11):
stop.
And he so the first one stopped, the second one finally stopped
just a ways away and I was likeman, 80 yards, you know
broadside sun's on my back.
He doesn't know I'm here.
He just heard the sound andstopped and I just let that fly.
Oh same thing, man, I just hearthis like cl, like the sound of

(57:31):
just rock and metal hitting,and I'm like, oh my God, I can't
believe I just messed that up.
Yeah Well, all the elk run offand that elk turns the same way.
He started pushing that cow andonce he got about pretty much
perpendicular with me, it lookedlike somebody was taking red
paint and just sloshing it allover the ground.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
He was just that's awesome pouring blood out that's
great.
What broadhead do you use?

Speaker 2 (57:56):
I gotta ask now that we're just getting completely
silent pass-throughs dude, Idon't know what it is.
I don't know if it's passingwithout like hitting ribs or
what, not whether it's but I'mshooting montex actually okay
g5s, huh, and I never, I'venever everybody I talked to they
just they're great rod headsbut they never leave a blood

(58:16):
trail.
Well, the past two kills I'vehad with these guys no sound
other than rocks and just bloodeverywhere.
So that's crazy.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
I've never had a blood trail like everything I,
everything I've shot, has diedwithin like 100 yards.
Just like lungs and heart justimmediately dead, but never
found any blood.
Like just crazy, just stumbledon the animal.

Speaker 2 (58:40):
Yeah, it's crazy.
It is crazy.
What do you shoot then?

Speaker 1 (58:44):
A mixture of things.
My elk I shot with an iron willNot a drop of blood.
Not a drop of blood, not a dropof blood, but a complete pass
through.
Uh, my axis deer right here,this guy all right, which way am
I trying to point that way?
Um, I shot him with a sever andthat was not a pass through,
but he was courting away and Iput it right in his pump station
and I'm positive it just hitthe back shoulder blade, but he

(59:06):
ran.
I saw the arrow sticking out ofhim, he jumped and it flew out.
Uh, but no blood.
But they're known for notbleeding, so I wasn't too upset
with that one.
Um shot another axis deer withan iron will no blood, uh my
moose with a god.
What did I use?
Um, I'll have to get back toyou on my moose, but I went to a
three blade being like okay,those tanto points aren't doing

(59:28):
it for me, I need something witha little more, open up a bigger
wound, um, and the moose.
It had no blood as well, but itwas quartering two and I shot
you know right where theshoulder blade goes down, or the
, the, yeah, the shoulder blade,then the kind of I guess called
the forward kneecap.
Then it comes back for sure Ihit right in that triangle and
it went out the back andactually pulled the guts out the
back hole, jesus so that threeblade worked, but like no blood

(59:51):
or nothing, huh no blood, but Imean the back hole was clogged.
Um, she ran a big old loop Icouldn't even tell you how far,
I would say maybe 100 yards um,she passed away like 80 yards
away from where I was standing.
So I saw her lay down as thesun was going down and was like,
well, I think she laid downthere.
But then we waited an hour,look for blood.
And we, we found one drop ofblood.

(01:00:14):
Really, and then we were likeyou know what?
It's too dark.
We hear some.
If you know moose country, it'skind of swampy a little bit
yeah, for sure Like hello.
Yeah, we heard somebody theycalled it a squanch or something
, but the and.
So we're like oh, is shegetting up to move?
Let's just get out of here.

(01:00:36):
So we just got out, came backthe next day and I put a pin
where I thought she would be andshe was within five feet of
that pin.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
It was so, so, so awesome that she was right there
.
Uh, yeah, no blood man, not adrop.
That's weird.
Well, yeah, it's.
It's pretty weird that, uh, youknow, certain broadheads, they,
they either, and also I, Idon't know if it's I mean,
obviously you killed them, butlike I don't know if it's I mean
obviously you killed him, butlike I don't know if it's
placement where the blood reallyflows, out or what but, um,
both my animals that have shotuh Montech G5s, and they just
they bled like like somebodystuck them with a knife and they

(01:01:03):
just ran off you just bledeverywhere.
So my antelope.

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
I shot with a sever as well and but he, I, he, I was
full draw on him and he lookedat me and I went oh shit, I just
hit the trigger, slapped it noshot process and it hit him.
And then I think it hit him andthen he moved and so it caused
some carnage inside, but thatarrow was out on each side, so
it was a pass-through, but itwas in his body on each side.

(01:01:27):
I don't know why it didn'tfinish the trip.
I think it's because he wasmoving so much and he bled like
crazy.
But he also inflated in an hourno, in half an hour that it
took us to get him in the truckand then back to camp.
He was like double in size,like I don't know what.
I hit inside him.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
That like caused the gas bomb to go off, but he was
huge yeah, I've noticed withthat with antelope, uh, I drew a
uh archery antelope and uh, Ididn't shoot one, but I mean, it
seems like that's.
It's so hot out, uh, when I Iwent out I don't know how hot it
was for you, but now it waslike a blow usually yes, but I

(01:02:01):
shot it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
So the season opened it's like in august to october
is the season and I killed mymoose.
I stole the tag.
I was like, let's go, I have acouple more days to hunt.
So it was like at 9,000 feet inColorado.
Oh man At this spot where it'snice and flat, big rolling hills
, sagebrush, and there's a shitton of antelope, and I shot him

(01:02:22):
at last light and it wasprobably 40 degrees when I shot
him.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
Oh man.

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
Well, what a treat that was, because I bet he
tasted pretty good after that.
Ah, you know, I, I the groundthat I've had has been great.
His back straps are inedible,I'm thinking.
So let me get this skull foryou.
Hold on, no one else can seethis.
Oh, you're good so if you look,his prong got snapped off right
there oh, shoot okay so I thinkthat he got in a fight and was
all jacked full of testosterone,and that's why his back straps
are just completely inedible.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
Man that's a dandy antelope.
Man that's a great-lookingantelope.

Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like a Harry Potter wand
on one side.
Yeah, as smelly as this one,yeah, right.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
But yeah, that's.
I mean it goes back to liketaking care of your meat.
I mean it goes back to liketaking care of your meat.
No, that's how the best meattastes is when, however, you
take care of it, or if theanimals jacked up on
testosterone and adrenaline.
I mean, I just think he was.

Speaker 1 (01:03:18):
I think he had just lost that fight and was just
like and that's why I even gothim like archery antelope, I
don't want to do it again.
That was too hard.
I found one that was exhaustedand it was just like tired and
didn't want to run anymore, andI got him oh, hey, that's good,
I did your story.
Where are we?
You shot them.
You shot him.
The arrow went right through.
I asked about broadheads and wewent down a deep rabbit hole.

(01:03:38):
So where are we back in yourstory?

Speaker 2 (01:03:40):
so, uh, he was spilling buckets I mean just
five gallon buckets out his sideum and he ran probably 80 yards
and then tipped over and didhis death kicks um and man, I
was just ecstatic.
I was so ecstatic I I've neverkilled anything at that time

(01:04:00):
with my bow yeah um, I've beenpracticing every day.
I was shooting 110 yards everyday, you know I'd walk it out
from 20 to 110, shooting 15, 10arrows a day and really just I
mean it was.
It was a bunch of work allaccumulated into one point and I
was just ecstatic that's all Igot to watch him, thanks I got

(01:04:23):
to watch him kick over and thatwas that was the biggest.
Uh, I think the biggest pointfor me was when he tipped over
and just was kicking.
I was like, oh my gosh, that'scool like this elk is huge, his
body's huge.
I just I was ecstatic so Iended up, uh, I I'm one to take.
Uh, I'm a very excitedindividual.

(01:04:45):
I really enjoy you know a lotand uh maybe, maybe more like a
healer, you know, just reallyexcited about everything and uh
so I started doing, you know, Istarted making dirt angels and
and I was, I was like I laid myboat out.
I was doing dirt angels.
Well, I should have paidattention where I was laying,
because I ended up doing it ontop of two or three cactus

(01:05:08):
patches.
Oh no, oh yeah.
So, oh no, jake, I didn't, butI didn't feel it.
You know, I was so hyped up onadrenaline.
I was just rolling in the dirtkicking and, yeah, squeal I was
having, I was hooping and I waslike, oh shit, that guy behind
me, oh, that guy behind me shutup really quick still in his
bush yeah, yeah.

(01:05:28):
So I shut up really quickly andand I worked my way back to him
just trying to.
I wanted to help him get thatother bull because that 5x5 was
still hanging around in thatalfalfa flat.
So I cut behind a bunch ofhills and started working my way
back to him and he was sittingthere.
He's like hey man.

(01:05:48):
I was like hey, dude, I justshot a bull, there's another
bull over here, if you want toshoot it.
And he goes just like colordrained in his face, everything
in his life just came crashingdown.
And he just looks at me, goesreally like yeah, dude, I just
killed this nice bull.
Like there's another bull overhere.
It's like oh man, I'll just,I'll sit here I was like what

(01:06:09):
all right, yeah, so that's whatI said.
I was like what all right, man,whatever.
So I worked my way back quietlyin case he wanted to go chase
him, and those elk ended upmoving off very slowly.
Actually he could havedefinitely gotten onto him.
But um, I walked out and uh,was you know trying to situate
this, this bull elk, by myselfto make pictures really quick?

(01:06:31):
You know the grip and grin.
I don't like doing it, but thatone I felt deserved it.
Um, memories.
Yeah, for sure, I've got a.
I'll probably send you thatpicture.
Um, but uh, this guy, he justhe ended up just like I don't
know what he was doing.
He just ended up staying inthat bush.
I don't know what he thought,but, um, he ended up staying in

(01:06:55):
that bush.
I don't know what he thought,but, um, he ended up.
I was, as, I'm like, gettingthis bull situated and after the
elk left, I look over and Ijust see this car and I noticed
the guy had there was only onecar there and it was my truck in
his car and he just drove off.
I mean just didn't look at me,didn't stop and say what's up,
he just got in his car and droveoff.

(01:07:17):
I'm like cool.

Speaker 1 (01:07:19):
He must have thought that was his elk and was too
pissed, or something.
That's what I was thinking too.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
I was like well, I mean, I would have been ecstatic
either way.
I just wanted to see theseawesome beasts in person, up
close.
I was excited, but he ended upjust thinking it wasn't.
His opportunity got ruined bysome stupid 20-year-old.

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
When you bumped into him and you were like hey, Mr
Bush, did he know the elk werecoming, or was he just sitting
there and waiting for some.

Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
He was just sitting there.

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
He was just waiting for elks to show up.

Speaker 2 (01:07:54):
He knew that they there was a bunch of paths,
obvious paths that they werewalking down and then, his bush
was like right next to one, andit was like, man, they're not
going to be here, they're goingto be probably further past.
But like you know, you do, you,man, I'm not telling you to you
know, do whatever.
Just you, man, I'm not tellingyou to you know, do whatever,
just you know, I'd noticed thatthey were pushed a lot further

(01:08:15):
than where he wanted to comedown at, so I just I just moved
past him.
I was like I'm not, you know, Ididn't want to waste time and I
also didn't want to argue withsomebody trying to tell him
where elk were.
So yeah, yeah, I tried to helphim out yeah, I tried to help
him out and he just obviously hewas pretty upset that I moved
past him and and capitalized onan opportunity.

Speaker 1 (01:08:34):
So um, that's right.
If you hear his story it's notnearly as interesting as yours,
but I bet he tells it all thetime.

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
Oh, I bet, I bet.
That damn 20 year old camesneaking up on me stole my that
seven by six.

Speaker 1 (01:08:47):
I had scouted for six months.
Oh, I scouted for six months.
Oh, probably.

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
Damn bastard.
But that was just, you know,luck of the draw movement and
just a lot of practice.

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
It is what it is, finally coming together.
Just be happy for anyone whogets one down.
It's a lot easier, absolutelyyeah, it's not easy.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
Yeah, it's a lot easier to be happy for somebody
than be kind of an asshole andgrumpy with them.

Speaker 1 (01:09:07):
Yeah, also, that you were there did not mean that you
, he didn't get one, like youweren't there.
It's not saying that he wouldhave gotten one.
It probably the exact samething would have happened,
except they would have justwalked on and he never would
have.
Sure for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:09:17):
And I think it was because they didn't want to drop
down this like 10 foot ravineyeah I mean it's hot out, I
wouldn't.
I mean if I was an elk Iwouldn't want to drop down a 10
foot ravine.
So anyways.

Speaker 1 (01:09:28):
Uh, I was getting it corded up.
I'm not an elephant.
I don't want to go down a10-foot ravine.

Speaker 2 (01:09:32):
No, I don't either.
So I was getting it cut up andit was getting late.
It was probably by the timethat everything was said and
done.
I got the picture taken atabout 7.30.
Dark came around 8, and I wascutting up by myself, and so to

(01:09:52):
pack it to my truck was probablyabout three quarters to a mile
away.
So it wasn't terrible, but Iwas by myself, man.

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
And that's I mean a couple of trips.

Speaker 2 (01:10:01):
I don't care who you are, man Packing an elk out by
yourself sucks.

Speaker 1 (01:10:05):
You know you don't have that fun commodity
bullshitting on the way to thetruck, it's just quiet.

Speaker 2 (01:10:11):
You're sweating.

Speaker 1 (01:10:12):
It sucks Dude when I shot my first bull, pat Latrell,
who's been on the podcast.
He's a world outcalling champ.
He had a lighter pack than me,so he ran ahead, dropped his
pack off and then came back forthe last 100 yards and played.
He must have had it downloadedon his phone because we didn't
have reception.

Speaker 2 (01:10:39):
But he played the.
He must have had to download iton his phone because we didn't
have reception, but he playedthe like the rocky theme song.
Oh, no way coming back to thetruck.

Speaker 1 (01:10:43):
So that's a, that's a homeboy.
I was like, yeah, let's go.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
And then we dropped off that giant pack and ran back
and got one even heavier heckyeah, man, dude, that's a
homeboy right there, that's a,that's a hunting partner for
life.
It's a good memory man, it's agoodboy right there, that's a
hunting partner for life, man.
That's awesome, it's a goodmemory, man.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
It's a good way to take like a two and a half three
mile shitty hike and like makea big smile at the end and it's
not just about the truck.

Speaker 2 (01:11:01):
Absolutely man, and that's huge yeah absolutely, but
sorry, I keep interrupting.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
No, you're good man, no.

Speaker 2 (01:11:07):
I love, love hearing this.
Uh, that's what stories areabout, but anyways, so I'm
working my way.
Uh, I get two trips in.
I did a back leg and, uh, frontshoulder, and then I was tired
so I did spare me and back legand then shoulder and some other
stuff and then head as I'mcoming out with the third load.

(01:11:28):
Uh, I just man, I don't knowwhat it is with kayotes to me,
man, but I just see eyes at thefar end of this field and I'm
like no way, you know, I'm in anarea where I would expect bears
, wolves, coyotes, but stilljust seeing one.
I'm just pissed off, you know,I'm just like why are you here
every time?
so I'm too far away to even hitthis thing, to do anything.

(01:11:51):
But I pull out that 44 and Iunload like three shells at the
eyes, just like I'm just I don'teven care, I know, nobody's
back there, I like there's ahillside.
Even if I don't hit anything,it's fine.
But just seeing those eyes, man, just pissed me off.
I was by myself, I didn't havehelp, and so I just click and

(01:12:14):
it's a single action or it's adouble action, but I I like
using the single action, justthe lever and then pull the
trigger yeah, and so I'm justlike I have a gun that's exact
same 357, mag same thing.

Speaker 1 (01:12:22):
Yeah, yeah, just john wayne, it's fun, man, it's fun
it is fun and uh.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
So I just end up just john wayne and just pulling the
, holding the trigger open andjust slamming that hammer.
Action, just that thing tookoff so fast.
Oh, it just didn't even not,didn't stop, didn't look back,
just took off and ran so so uhended up getting the uh elk in
the truck, and the story doesn'tend there, thank god.

Speaker 1 (01:12:49):
Um, it gets pretty good, uh at this point, so I
don't know where it's gonna gonow, but oh, it's fun, uh.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
So I'm on my way back and I'm running out of gas and
I'm like, oh, cool man, you knowlike I'll just stop the gas
station, throw some ice in thecooler.
And you know, I've been tryingto go pro the whole.
I didn't get the gopro footageon the elk.
I was busy, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
I left it in the truck thinking yeah it, just it
didn't happen I didn't feel mymind that people have the mental
fortitude to like like.
I need to record this I knowjust crazy.
I have nothing else going on.
I it's me and the animal, andthere's no way I'm turning on my
phone or gopro.
Just just blows my mind.

Speaker 2 (01:13:28):
But yeah it, people are just really good at it, yeah
yeah, and especially, like youknow, those people that do the
uh um all-ins or the uh phonescopes.
You know those guys are justthey film it, they kill the
animal and it's still on therelike crazy yeah, so anyways, I
uh, I loaded the elk up in theback of this toyota t5 pickup

(01:13:49):
and I'm driving out and I hitthis town and I'm out of gas.
I'm like, okay, I'll pull in,I'll get some gas and I'll head
home and I check everywhere mywallet is gone oh no, my wallet
and I only do cash gone I haveno money in any account, and

(01:14:11):
this is like two o'clock in themorning, and so I pull up to
this gas station and this lady,this lovely lady I can't
remember her name.
I wish I only hope the best forher I'm covered in blood and
just like I'm like miss, youknow I do you have any free ice?
I can have to keep this out,cool, so I don't ruin this meat.
And she's like I want you topull the truck up around back

(01:14:33):
and take as much ice as you want.
Oh, that's awesome I take thiselk and just douse it and like I
have a tarp underneath it and Ijust put, probably I don't know
, 10 gallons, 6, 16 gallons ofice on top of this elk, and for
free.
And this lady is just just kindof soul.

Speaker 1 (01:14:53):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:14:54):
So I'm sitting there and I'm like, well, you know, I
was telling her my story aboutkilling it, about losing my
wallet.
And she goes I have a son aboutyour age.
Uh, I'm gonna throw 20 bucks inyour pump so you can get to
Bozeman.
And uh, hell yeah and uh, hellyeah, I was like no way.

(01:15:15):
Yeah, you know, oh, dude, justI I hope.
I mean, I don't know if thiswill ever reach her.
If this does reach you, man,bless your heart, you're so kind
.
So she gave me 20 bucks to getme to bozeman and I ended up
pawning my gopro in bozeman and,uh, that got me, that got me
home so no way yeah that thatlady just saved my bacon, saved
my life.

(01:15:36):
man, I didn't have to call anyrelatives begging for money, she
was just.
If she hears this, man, you'reamazing.
I thank you to this day.

Speaker 1 (01:15:46):
That's a pretty awesome little way to end that.
I mean, I'm sorry, your GoPro'sgone.

Speaker 2 (01:15:50):
No, it's all good man , oh, but Jake man, that's a
great story.

Speaker 1 (01:15:56):
All of your stories today were really fun.
I really like your storytelling.
I think, that you have a goodknack for details and it was fun
and you could tell that youwere living these moments over
again, which is really what I'maiming for here.
It's like I just want to livethese moments with the people
that are telling them to me.
So thank you, man, I really doappreciate it for sure, Michael.

Speaker 2 (01:16:16):
Thanks for having me, man.

Speaker 1 (01:16:17):
Thanks for everybody listening man.

Speaker 2 (01:16:20):
That's the half of it .
Is the people listening?
So?

Speaker 1 (01:16:22):
yeah, and we'll have you back, but for now, where can
the people find you, or do youwant them to find you?
Do you want to just get lost orice donations?
What do you want to share?

Speaker 2 (01:16:40):
well, um, I do have an instagram.
I don't post very often oninstagram.
I got into that instagram reeluh, basically trap for a while.
And then I was like man, Ican't, can't, do this.
And then uh heard your podcast,man, I downloaded again.
So damn you for making medownload again no, you're good,

(01:17:03):
but uh, yeah, you can find me atmontana guy jz 22 all lowercase
on instagram, and then I reallypost on tiktok because my
wife's on it all the time and Ilike letting her see it and
that's at.

Speaker 1 (01:17:20):
MontanaGuy22.
Give me a follow there too.
I don't post much because theyalways take my shit down and
they threaten to take my accountaway.

Speaker 2 (01:17:27):
Yeah, to hell with them.
Yeah, cool man Well thanksagain.

Speaker 1 (01:17:34):
I do appreciate it.
Guys, give jake a follow if youwant or don't.
Either way, thank you very much, sir.
I appreciate you.
This was a lot of fun and we'lldefinitely have you back in the
future, man all right, man.

Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
Thank you so much for having me of course, brother.

Speaker 1 (01:17:50):
All right, guys, that's it.
Another couple stories in thebooks.
Again, I want to thank Jake forcoming on the podcast Couldn't
have done it without him.
I had a ton of fun.
We actually chatted for a whileafterwards just talking shit to
each other, so I think we'regoing to be buddies for a while.
So, jake, thank you man.
I appreciate you.
Listeners, if you guys have agreat story, please do reach out
.
I love just having people reachout and telling me they have

(01:18:11):
great stories and not having tospend time finding great stories
, um, cause y'all got them.
Everybody's got a great huntingstory.
Uh, beyond that, guys, makesure you give us a review, a
like, a share, make sure youeveryone you know knows about
your favorite podcast, assumingthis is one of your favorite
podcasts and that's it, guys.
Thank you so much.
Have a wonderful day Now getout there and make some stories
of your.