November 19, 2024 • 25 mins
Pliny and Daniel travel down to deep south Texas, practically Mexico, for another hunt in Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. This is the second hunting day in the refuge and the third episode of our semi-live series. The boys are starting to draw some blood in this one. Stay tuned for more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
All right, well, welcome back, y'all. It is the third episode,
third day. So first it was our scouting day yesterday.
We were all over the place, and then where do
we start with today? What a day? Opportunities and misfires?
I guess yeah, yeah, it was. I feel like there was.
What I have to keep telling myself is there were
(00:28):
so many things that went right with today. We're like,
we come up with a plan, put stuff together, find
animal like but then it just yeah. So this morning
we kind of like we talked about last night, we
went and checked out a new unit. So we got
up extra early and we were the first ones at
(00:49):
that parking spot. I think they were rolled in right
behind us, but we were there first. Yeah, and I
noticed like we were about ready, and I was still
like putting on my gators and stuff. As soon as
somebody pulled up, like we gotta go, I'm like, biking,
let's go. Let's make it really obvious where we're headed
so they don't get right on top of us. And
then I ended up seeing somebody later. I don't know
if it was them or somebody else, but biked in.
(01:11):
How far do we bake in? It's a mile and
a half. Yeah, so not super far, but just decent
bike ride.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
And I felt like we looked at the map and
there's a there's like a creek, so it was a
north wind and there's like a creek behind one of
the areas, but there's a ton of trails, and so
I'm like, I'm gonna go sit by that creek. And
I walk in there this morning and I'm just walking
through like marshland, and I'm hearing like all kinds of
noise in the water. So right away I got my
(01:39):
big gators on, but I'm creeped out about snakes, and
I'm like, man, I don't want to be sitting down somewhere.
We get to your gators on. Reminder, alligators, that's right.
So I'm like, oh gosh, I'm gonna I'm in a
fun area. So I ended up sitting on this tree,
but it was all wet and I moved and I
was telling plenty. I was like the whole time I
(02:00):
did not feel comfortable being there. Like the grass was
probably four feet tall, maybe four and a half feet tall,
and I was just sitting in an area where I'm like, man,
I hear stuff in the water behind me. I don't
love this, and I was. I was on some decent trails,
and I think if something came out, it would have
been good. But nothing came out. And then I got
(02:20):
a tection plenty.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Oh yeah, so my spot. I kind of went in
and then there was a big field that we'd seen before.
But one of the whole reasons that we chose this
area was because the wind direction was different. And I
realized it still wasn't quite what I wanted. So I
kept walking around the field edge and then found a
spot where it kind of opened up a little bit.
(02:43):
It was right where all the thick brush kind of
intersected the field edge with some stubbly little like yuckas
and bushes and stuff. And I set up and I
actually really loved where I was set up this morning.
And then not far into my hunt, I saw a
little dough come out and just nibbling, just knib bling
on a tree. I'm not sure what she was eating.
I think she was just eating like the little buds
(03:05):
off of it, I think. And she never came out
in the open, never out in the field. It's not
like so many people just think of deer hunting where
it's just you watch a deer come from a tree
line into an agfield like a wheat field or rye
grass or something, and you see the whole deer here.
I don't think any of the deer could have three legs,
and you wouldn't know it until you killed them, because
(03:26):
the grass is always at least at least as I
as their bellies, sometimes all the way up to their back,
and so that makes it tough. So I waited, and
then I was watching this deer for a while and
she was just so focused on nibbling that tree that
I'm like, ash, she's not coming any closer. Ranged her
range the tree at thirty six, so I'm like, cool,
there was probably thirty five died my sight, and I'm like, well,
(03:49):
maybe I'll wait, maybe she'ld get closer. But then I
saw some guys start walking across the field, and I'm like, well,
they haven't messed this up yet. Let me go ahead
and take take my shot. Flung an arrow sounded like
a great hit. Saw her like kind of basically just
jumped straight up, yeah, and then kind of run like
quartering to me, and then just kind of loop around
(04:11):
and just go crashing through some brush. So I gave
it a long time, just kind of just sat there, waited,
took down my little pop up blind, ate a snack,
drank some water, took a weird dump and texted Daniel.
Just just waited. Then I went and found the arrow
and one of the fletchings was scraped off of it,
(04:33):
and there was a little bit of blood, but it
was that blood that looks like when it just goes
through meat, so it was not bright red blood like
when you texted me.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
I was like, I'm gonna come help you look for it,
because I don't want to be in the spot anymore.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Yeah, I was like, no, hang on, don't don't come yet,
And You're like what, And my thought was just like,
well' freaking a good spot, don't you know? I might
be here a while. Don't don't end your hunt prematurely.
But the arrow was clearly a pass through, but the
blood on it was not great. Then took me a
little while to find first blood. Then I found just
(05:11):
a decent spot and then just drips and little drips
and little drips and kept following them, and man, I
was on my hands and knees and like thick stuff
looking for the smallest drips. Like at one point, I
literally found a deer hair on a branch and You're like,
which way is it pointing? I'm like, dude, it's one hairy.
(05:32):
And we kept searching and kept searching, and then I
think we just reached the conclusion that I must have
just hit her too high.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
And it was like thick brier patches and we were
probably what one hundred and fifty yards.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
In Yeah, yeah, something like that. It always fuels further
because it's so thick, because it's thick and you're you're
going so slow crawling under stuff. Yeah, so it was
at most by one hundred and fifty yards, but yeah,
going through all that stuff, and we just realized like
we don't have enough good sign and the sign just
kind of dried up, like we just don't have enough
(06:03):
good sign that we think we're gonna find her. So
that was unfortunate. But if it truly was a high shot,
she might be fine. It might have just cut her
through the backstraps and but or she might be a
kaya food tonight. Yeah, so don't don't really know, and
I can be bummed about it, but it is what
it is. I've got to just move on. And stay
positive and just keep doing everything as best as we can.
(06:25):
It's public land bowhunt, man. Yeah, yeah, it's not easy. Yeah.
So then coming out after that, we ran into a
guy there who didn't see anything this morning, but nice guy.
It's cool to see people who are just seem like
they know what they're doing and are just courteous about
this sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
He did say something interesting though, He said he saw
some or no sorry, he said his buddies were on
another track and heard like AT four or ATV's riding
around is what they're saying, which is not legal out here. Yeah,
And so we're kind of talking about he's like, I
don't know if there's like some disability waiver or something,
but he's like, my buddies were hearing these ATVs going
(07:02):
all over the place, and like, man, that's that's interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
But I don't know what to make about it, because
it's if it is somebody who's disabled, like that'll help you.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
But this is not probably the easiest place to hunt.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
There would there would be so many other challenges that
that wouldn't that wouldn't clench it for you. Yeah, Like
so I hate to be a downer about that, but
I mean it's tough enough mine as a disabled and
like it wouldn't be Oh if you could just run
on a TV, then you'd be able to do a
good job out here, right. I feel like if we
(07:37):
had a TV, so it would still be questionable. Yeah.
We just went to ride our bikes as far. Yeah. Yeah,
so we came back.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I took a five hour nap, yeah, which was unbelievable.
I was exhausted. So that was that was probably the
highlight of my day.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
I took like a three hour nap. It was. It
was good. Then we got back out and we're like, well,
let's kind of follow what we did last night because
I saw a two no guy, like, well, maybe instead
of going where you know, the mesquit edge where we were,
and Daniel saw that dough in a fawn, Let's go
a little further see if we can find those no
guy And turns out my map pen was actually like
(08:16):
right where they were because we were walking in. We
drove in about probably mile on the bikes, ditched the bikes,
walked in, found one spot. Daniel starts setting up. I
walked one hundred yards ahead of him and then just
froze and I realized there was a NOL guy standing
there staring right at me, and then there were two
other ones looking the other way, and I think they
(08:37):
basically were betted. I saw three. Apparently there was another one,
but I saw three, and they were betted, like with
their backs all together, looking in all different directions. And
I'm like, dude, these things are smart, like two cows
and two caps, and they were yeah, or if not smart,
like so incredibly situationally aware to back to back and
(09:01):
look all directions and so nothing can sneak up on them.
So I just like crouched down. Like the second, I
just try to be as still as I could. In
the second she turned her head, I just like crouched down.
So my hope was that she was like, I see
something over there. No I don't, No, I don't, kind
of like when I in the woods, I guess I
know it's a cactus. I didn't have the ability to
(09:24):
turn into a cactus. I would have if I could,
but after that, I didn't want to blow up Daniel's spot.
So I peeled off a little bit downwind and just
kind of did a big loop around to come up
on the other side of that same area. And I
wanted to be a little bit aggressive pushing into where
they came from. And I think there's just like it's
(09:45):
so big out here and there's so many possibilities that
there's just not a lot of room to like, Okay,
I think I'm in an okay spot. Let me just
hunt it five times, like, yeah, you can't, like, you
gotta be really aggressive. So I'm like, let me just
get in there and try to get in their bedroom.
(10:05):
And so I went around and it took me a
while to find a spot that I liked, and I
was just I would kind of move ten fifteen yards
to the brush stand there, listen, wait for a minute,
moved ten you fit like, and I just did that
for an hour and then I eventually got to a
spot I liked, and then I guess after.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
That, yeah, I was gosh, it was probably I don't know,
forty five minutes before last night, so son hadn't set yet,
but it was it was down and I was in
a spot where I had these mesquites's cover behind me,
but I felt like I was kind of open, like
wide open, but I saw about one hundred actually it
(10:45):
was one hundred ninety two yards.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
I ranged her.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I saw that same meal guy that you had seen
cow looking out towards me, and so I'm like, okay,
let's let's see if they make a play.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Were they pretty much in the open or were they back.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
They No, they were back in the masque, but like
on the edge of them, so they weren't like deep
in them, but they were on the edge, bedded down,
I think.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
So I was on it.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
They saw them, No, no, no, I saw one, and I
think the other three were betted, and then they all
kind of came out. But I was in a spot
where I was about forty yards from a trail and
then sixty yards from a cross trail, and so I
felt like I was in a pretty good spot. And
the neil guy started coming towards me, and I was like,
(11:27):
all right, here we go.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
It's game time.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
And so the cow neil guy that I shot there
was a cow two calves and another cow that was smaller.
She was way out in front of the others, like
probably sixty yards in front of the others, and she
came right down that trail and she at one point
was I think about thirty five yards for me, maybe forty,
(11:49):
And so she put.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Her head down.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I drew and it startled her, so she like quickly
like busted backwards like ten fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I heard you or saw you, or I want to
say she saw me, because she looked in my directions
like pro fiel vision something like that.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
But the strange thing was, and this was probably thirty
twenty weah, maybe fifteen twenty minutes later when I went
and looked, I looked back and the sun was like
covering me perfectly. So I don't know, but she busted
back fifteen yards and it.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Could have been just like something moved, reflected or shined
your brodhead was shiny or something like that.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Something spooked her, but she didn't run off, and the
other ones were just sitting there. So she runs back
to about forty yards maybe forty two yards, and so
I was already drawn and I knew, like, all right,
she's spooked, she might run, so I put it on
her and I felt like it was such a great shot,
like everything lined up.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Sent it, and she just like jumped and ran.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
So at first I was like, man, I think I
missed her, And as I've been replaying it over and
over again, I don't think I missed her. I think
I might have hit her a little bit back, because
what happened was when I shot my bowl a couple
of years ago, when I when the impact happened, his
his ass like went down, like he was like oh,
and then ran she it was a cow.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
No, no, the bull a couple of years ago. Oh
sorry sorry at this one.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
And then the same thing happened with this cow. Like
her ass went down and then she hauled ass out. Yeah,
I missed a cow two years ago, and she jumped
my string.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
She literally dumped it. And this did not happen this
year feet like crazy. We have a video of it,
like it's wid dropping down three feet.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
And that was like a forty yard shot and she
just like absolutely juked it. So I didn't know if
like she jumped the string, but I put a forty
yard pin on her. I think she was between forty
and forty five yards, So I don't think I shot over.
I think it was I think it was a well
placed shot. My only concern was I think she lurched
for it. I might have gut shot her.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
So I was like, man, I don't know, I might
have missed her. I don't know what happened.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
The other cow just kind of stood there looking her,
and the calfs took off and the other cow ran
to And so I sat there for like thirty minutes,
and I couldn't find my my head, which has the
lighted knocks on it. So I'm like, man, when I
shot my bull last time, he ran off and he
only ran thirty yards, which is nice. Yeah, but he
had my arrow in him. Still, it didn't it didn't
(14:11):
have a full pass through, and I was like, maybe
that same thing happened.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
So as I'm doing that, all of a.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Sudden, I get a text from Plenty, probably fifteen minutes
after I shot mine.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
He's like, hey, I just shot a bull. Yeah. I'm like, dude,
are you kidding me? Man? I was back in the woods,
like sitting in this weird there were just it's kind
of no man's land, but it was a place where
I could I could see in the right direction, I
could see upwind, I could see kind of a crosswind
either side, and there are a few different trails. So
I'm like, I don't I've never been here before. I
(14:41):
have no reason to believe something's here, but I'm hunting
it in the right direction and there's potential. Sat there
for quite a while, didn't see anything, and then ride
as it was starting to get dark, probably about one
hundred yards from me, I saw some sort of just
kind of moving through the mesquites. It's like all these
(15:03):
these are just like real dried up, crackling mosquits to
all these just bright white limbs, and I just saw
something dark moving between them. And at first I thought
it was a deear because I'd been looking for like
the red of the cows, and it wasn't that. It
was just because what it's all we've seen his cows.
We hadn't seen a Yeah, it was just a dark blob.
And so I'm like, well, it's it's literally like five
fifty nine or five point fifty eight and last night
(15:25):
was like six ten or six. Yeah, And so I'm like,
I don't think I can wait for this to come
all the way towards me. How far was he when
you first saw them? One hundred yards? Oh wow? And
so I literally was about to pack off my all
my stuff and I'm like I can't. I don't know time.
I literally just dropped a pin on on X. It
just said gear, my chair, my pack and my water,
(15:48):
like my camera, everything. I just ditched it and like
kind of like hustled over to this like the wind
was in my face. So I knew that that would
give me a little bit of grace in terms of
being able to make a little bit of noise, and
so I just like hustled over there. And then I
saw this thing kind of moving and he was about
to be in this a little bit more open area,
(16:09):
and I'm like, I gotta get to this last tree.
I got to get out of the open before he
steps into the open. And I did it, and I
got right there, and then he started walking up that
trail and he looked right up at me, and I
think he just saw shape there, didn't know I was
a human, couldn't figure out what it was. And he
had walked around that tree at thirty five yards, and
(16:31):
I'm like, I think he's gonna keep coming closer. So
I went I had and dialed my site for twenty
five and just he like saw me and this bowl.
He was massive, he was I was eye to eye
with him, and his neck was just I just saw
you were standing up. Yeah I was standing up. Yeah. Yeah,
that's a good point. If I was It's like a
(16:55):
little dough ye, No, I was. I was absolutely standing
up to eye with him, and his neck was just thick,
and I just remember just seeing that white neck patch
and I was considering, I'm like, I'm gonna take an
ex shot. I'm just gonna aim for that white neck patch.
Was he just like he was pointed right at me,
and I just remember I'm like even pointed right at me,
(17:17):
just how wide his body was. I was like, this
is a really big animal. I'm like, I don't have
time for wait around for something to happen. I just
got to make a play here. And so I just
drew back my bow kind of in one motion, drew
back my bow and stepped out of the bush, and
he bolted about five steps and then stopped broadside and
(17:38):
turned at me, and I just put it on like
right behind his shoulder and popped him real quick, as
quick as I could. And I saw him start to
duck a little bit, but not much because it was
so close. Like it was more just he was just
kind of tensing up, and I heard just the loud
whack of the broadhead just hitting him. It was not
in the guts, it was it might have been scapula.
(18:01):
Maybe we'll find out at some point maybe not. But
it was right behind the shoulder. I still think it
might have been a little high, but it's it's exactly
where you would shoot a deer. Is right where I
put it. But I think these things are just so
big that you and you hit a rib like you
gotta get heart or heart and a lung or something
(18:23):
like that. But anyway, I saw the arrowberry into him,
but not like this same arrow is zip straight through
this dough this morning, like it didn't even slow down,
ripped a fletching off. And then I saw this arrow
go about halfway into him. And I saw my green
knock just bouncing and this thing, this nil guy, when
(18:43):
they run, they don't run like deer, they run like
horses and they just gallop off. And I saw it
like literally it was like kicking up dust behind him
and my little just green lighted knock just sting, dinging,
And I saw him run about one hundred yards down
to kind of a tree line, and then it looked
like he hooked or right at the tree line, and
that was the last I saw him. Well, I know
(19:06):
he had my arrow in him. I saw the air
of the entire distance, and I know if it's a
little high shot, it might even take a while for
it to bleed. So I'm not gonna look for it's
already late. It's already like a shot him three minutes
before the end of Legaleah. So I'm like, yeah, no
sense in looking for an arrow or blood. Let me
just go down to like the last place I saw.
(19:27):
So started looking down there, sent you a pin you
were looking for yours, and then we ended up just
meeting up and man, we just like kept looking and
looking and looking.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
And but the crazy thing is is I was coming down,
so I was on like the complete opposite end of
the property, and I'm coming down and I'm near plenty
before I saw his headlamp and I look out into
the like there there's private property on the other side,
but there's like this little mound before that, and then
a river and then another.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
The irrigation ditch, and so I think they basically build
two burms to channel the water. And I saw on
the burn. I flashed my head light up there and
I saw a Neil guy.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Like I saw the eyes light up and you could
tell it was definitely a Neil guy, and I'm like, okay,
that might be plenties. And then so I went and
found plenty and we kind of circled back and then
we saw it again.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yeah, but I think it was, and then we didn't
see it, and then we didn't see it.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Then it just disappeared like I thought we were on it,
and we were like, all right, let's just wait here,
let it lay down and die. When but I found
you and ten minutes later we saw it again, which
is kind of wild.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
To the point that we were literally like, we're going
to walk in this thing. We're yelling. Yeah. We were
like because we've heard a bad story. It was at
a different tract. It was at the lower Rio Grand
Valley Refuge when it was like a father and son
walked up on a wounded bowl and like got gordy.
It was bad, which we did not want to happen. No,
(20:50):
So we're like, dude, if this is a wounded bowl,
like we need to be really careful. So we walked
in there like yelling, shining flash lights. I had my
hand on the hilt of my knife. Yeah, like like
maybe that would help me. I don't know, I don't
don't really want to get a knife. Yeah, probably, but
we never found anything, and so we had like message
(21:13):
the refuge just because you're supposed to be out like
pretty quick. I think it's an hour after out at
the They just don't want people standing in there all
night or spotlight and stuff or whatever, which I don't
blame them. I think it's a good rule, but if
you do have something down, you notify them that just like, hey,
we're still looking, we're still looking, we'll be out a
little late. They're super cool about it, and I think
(21:34):
they just notify the game warden just so if they
ever get reports or something like, they know what's going on.
They know we're back there. And we looked for from
the time of shot on mine it was a little
over two hours I think, looked and looked and looked
and just never found anything.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Yeah, it was it was an exciting day. I think
net Net we both got to fling some arrows. Yeah,
And I don't think I'm upset, just disappointed that we
didn't find either of those Neil I mean. The coolest
thing is like, at one point, Plenty and I looked
at each other because when we had seen the Neil
guy again, seen its eyes were like, dude, we're I
don't know whose it is. It's either mine or yours.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Like that's a wounded animal. Yeah that we just need
to give it some time. And then we got this thing.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
But it was I mean, it was an awesome feeling, like, hey,
we're tracking two different Neil guys right now.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
How awesome is that? And then yeah, disappointing because we
didn't find either. But yeah, dude, for all we know,
like tomorrow we might find something out there with an
arrow in it, or we might see it running around still. Yeah,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
That's the crazy thing about these animals is they're so big,
Like if you only got through one lung, that thing
might still be alive tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Dude, he was running like I had just slapped him
on the ass. Yeah it's wild, dude, They're so so tough.
But all I have to, like, rest on is just
think about like we were safe. We didn't get hurt.
I mean, we're eating up by bugs and we all
(23:05):
pricked up by caxes and stuff, but but we're okay.
We didn't really break any gear. Yeap. A whole lot
of things went right. I think we hunted well. We
had a good strategy. We knew the wind was going
to change, we adapted, we biked in, we got into
a great place. We both we both found nil guy,
we both got shots, we both connected. Like so many
(23:27):
things went right, all of them.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
It's just it's wild, Like I just want to take
a rifle and shoot one in the head now.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Just to make sure it drops where it is. Yeah,
if I was on a rifle hunt, I mean, it's
so easy to say. We've said it every day. We're like, well,
if I had a rifle with me, five dead nail
guy already. Yeah, yeah, dude, I'd be headshot gang for sure,
for sure. Sixty yards. I don't want to track. These
things are so off it.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Don't They just are tough. They run, they're fast, they
can make so much ground. So like, even if you
shot him and he died three minutes later, in that
three minutes, he's six seven hundred yards away.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Yeah, I mean, they're so crazy fast. Yeah, they run
like horses. So I guess that's the report for the
day where we're doing a lot of things right, but
not all of them, and we're mentally struggling with balancing that.
We're both I think sitting here pretty disappointed, but not
(24:33):
so bummed out that we're gonna quit. No, there's always tomorrow.
We're gonna keep hammering, keep going after it. So I'm
some more broadheads. I'm running out of arrows pretty quick.
And I still think game plan stays the same. Dude. Now,
if I see a little dinky buck, like, yes, I'm
gonna send it. It's just like we're down here for
(24:55):
cool opportunities of cool animals. I still think I'll pass
on a pig.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Yeah, I think any legal game, you know, I think
if I see a dough or buck or a Neil guy,
obviously it's it's go time.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yeah, So that's that's the night. Anything else said, that's it, man,
Let's go catch some fish. Yeah yeah, trout time. All right,
thanks y'all, hopefully, Well we'll chat to you tomorrow. That's right,
all right, by
Speaker 2 (25:21):
H
All right, well, welcome back, y'all. It is the third episode,
third day. So first it was our scouting day yesterday.
We were all over the place, and then where do
we start with today? What a day? Opportunities and misfires?
I guess yeah, yeah, it was. I feel like there was.
What I have to keep telling myself is there were
(00:28):
so many things that went right with today. We're like,
we come up with a plan, put stuff together, find
animal like but then it just yeah. So this morning
we kind of like we talked about last night, we
went and checked out a new unit. So we got
up extra early and we were the first ones at
(00:49):
that parking spot. I think they were rolled in right
behind us, but we were there first. Yeah, and I
noticed like we were about ready, and I was still
like putting on my gators and stuff. As soon as
somebody pulled up, like we gotta go, I'm like, biking,
let's go. Let's make it really obvious where we're headed
so they don't get right on top of us. And
then I ended up seeing somebody later. I don't know
if it was them or somebody else, but biked in.
(01:11):
How far do we bake in? It's a mile and
a half. Yeah, so not super far, but just decent
bike ride.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
And I felt like we looked at the map and
there's a there's like a creek, so it was a
north wind and there's like a creek behind one of
the areas, but there's a ton of trails, and so
I'm like, I'm gonna go sit by that creek. And
I walk in there this morning and I'm just walking
through like marshland, and I'm hearing like all kinds of
noise in the water. So right away I got my
(01:39):
big gators on, but I'm creeped out about snakes, and
I'm like, man, I don't want to be sitting down somewhere.
We get to your gators on. Reminder, alligators, that's right.
So I'm like, oh gosh, I'm gonna I'm in a
fun area. So I ended up sitting on this tree,
but it was all wet and I moved and I
was telling plenty. I was like the whole time I
(02:00):
did not feel comfortable being there. Like the grass was
probably four feet tall, maybe four and a half feet tall,
and I was just sitting in an area where I'm like, man,
I hear stuff in the water behind me. I don't
love this, and I was. I was on some decent trails,
and I think if something came out, it would have
been good. But nothing came out. And then I got
(02:20):
a tection plenty.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Oh yeah, so my spot. I kind of went in
and then there was a big field that we'd seen before.
But one of the whole reasons that we chose this
area was because the wind direction was different. And I
realized it still wasn't quite what I wanted. So I
kept walking around the field edge and then found a
spot where it kind of opened up a little bit.
(02:43):
It was right where all the thick brush kind of
intersected the field edge with some stubbly little like yuckas
and bushes and stuff. And I set up and I
actually really loved where I was set up this morning.
And then not far into my hunt, I saw a
little dough come out and just nibbling, just knib bling
on a tree. I'm not sure what she was eating.
I think she was just eating like the little buds
(03:05):
off of it, I think. And she never came out
in the open, never out in the field. It's not
like so many people just think of deer hunting where
it's just you watch a deer come from a tree
line into an agfield like a wheat field or rye
grass or something, and you see the whole deer here.
I don't think any of the deer could have three legs,
and you wouldn't know it until you killed them, because
(03:26):
the grass is always at least at least as I
as their bellies, sometimes all the way up to their back,
and so that makes it tough. So I waited, and
then I was watching this deer for a while and
she was just so focused on nibbling that tree that
I'm like, ash, she's not coming any closer. Ranged her
range the tree at thirty six, so I'm like, cool,
there was probably thirty five died my sight, and I'm like, well,
(03:49):
maybe I'll wait, maybe she'ld get closer. But then I
saw some guys start walking across the field, and I'm like, well,
they haven't messed this up yet. Let me go ahead
and take take my shot. Flung an arrow sounded like
a great hit. Saw her like kind of basically just
jumped straight up, yeah, and then kind of run like
quartering to me, and then just kind of loop around
(04:11):
and just go crashing through some brush. So I gave
it a long time, just kind of just sat there, waited,
took down my little pop up blind, ate a snack,
drank some water, took a weird dump and texted Daniel.
Just just waited. Then I went and found the arrow
and one of the fletchings was scraped off of it,
(04:33):
and there was a little bit of blood, but it
was that blood that looks like when it just goes
through meat, so it was not bright red blood like
when you texted me.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
I was like, I'm gonna come help you look for it,
because I don't want to be in the spot anymore.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Yeah, I was like, no, hang on, don't don't come yet,
And You're like what, And my thought was just like,
well' freaking a good spot, don't you know? I might
be here a while. Don't don't end your hunt prematurely.
But the arrow was clearly a pass through, but the
blood on it was not great. Then took me a
little while to find first blood. Then I found just
(05:11):
a decent spot and then just drips and little drips
and little drips and kept following them, and man, I
was on my hands and knees and like thick stuff
looking for the smallest drips. Like at one point, I
literally found a deer hair on a branch and You're like,
which way is it pointing? I'm like, dude, it's one hairy.
(05:32):
And we kept searching and kept searching, and then I
think we just reached the conclusion that I must have
just hit her too high.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
And it was like thick brier patches and we were
probably what one hundred and fifty yards.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
In Yeah, yeah, something like that. It always fuels further
because it's so thick, because it's thick and you're you're
going so slow crawling under stuff. Yeah, so it was
at most by one hundred and fifty yards, but yeah,
going through all that stuff, and we just realized like
we don't have enough good sign and the sign just
kind of dried up, like we just don't have enough
(06:03):
good sign that we think we're gonna find her. So
that was unfortunate. But if it truly was a high shot,
she might be fine. It might have just cut her
through the backstraps and but or she might be a
kaya food tonight. Yeah, so don't don't really know, and
I can be bummed about it, but it is what
it is. I've got to just move on. And stay
positive and just keep doing everything as best as we can.
(06:25):
It's public land bowhunt, man. Yeah, yeah, it's not easy. Yeah.
So then coming out after that, we ran into a
guy there who didn't see anything this morning, but nice guy.
It's cool to see people who are just seem like
they know what they're doing and are just courteous about
this sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
He did say something interesting though, He said he saw
some or no sorry, he said his buddies were on
another track and heard like AT four or ATV's riding
around is what they're saying, which is not legal out here. Yeah,
And so we're kind of talking about he's like, I
don't know if there's like some disability waiver or something,
but he's like, my buddies were hearing these ATVs going
(07:02):
all over the place, and like, man, that's that's interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
But I don't know what to make about it, because
it's if it is somebody who's disabled, like that'll help you.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
But this is not probably the easiest place to hunt.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
There would there would be so many other challenges that
that wouldn't that wouldn't clench it for you. Yeah, Like
so I hate to be a downer about that, but
I mean it's tough enough mine as a disabled and
like it wouldn't be Oh if you could just run
on a TV, then you'd be able to do a
good job out here, right. I feel like if we
(07:37):
had a TV, so it would still be questionable. Yeah.
We just went to ride our bikes as far. Yeah. Yeah,
so we came back.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I took a five hour nap, yeah, which was unbelievable.
I was exhausted. So that was that was probably the
highlight of my day.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
I took like a three hour nap. It was. It
was good. Then we got back out and we're like, well,
let's kind of follow what we did last night because
I saw a two no guy, like, well, maybe instead
of going where you know, the mesquit edge where we were,
and Daniel saw that dough in a fawn, Let's go
a little further see if we can find those no
guy And turns out my map pen was actually like
(08:16):
right where they were because we were walking in. We
drove in about probably mile on the bikes, ditched the bikes,
walked in, found one spot. Daniel starts setting up. I
walked one hundred yards ahead of him and then just
froze and I realized there was a NOL guy standing
there staring right at me, and then there were two
other ones looking the other way, and I think they
(08:37):
basically were betted. I saw three. Apparently there was another one,
but I saw three, and they were betted, like with
their backs all together, looking in all different directions. And
I'm like, dude, these things are smart, like two cows
and two caps, and they were yeah, or if not smart,
like so incredibly situationally aware to back to back and
(09:01):
look all directions and so nothing can sneak up on them.
So I just like crouched down. Like the second, I
just try to be as still as I could. In
the second she turned her head, I just like crouched down.
So my hope was that she was like, I see
something over there. No I don't, No, I don't, kind
of like when I in the woods, I guess I
know it's a cactus. I didn't have the ability to
(09:24):
turn into a cactus. I would have if I could,
but after that, I didn't want to blow up Daniel's spot.
So I peeled off a little bit downwind and just
kind of did a big loop around to come up
on the other side of that same area. And I
wanted to be a little bit aggressive pushing into where
they came from. And I think there's just like it's
(09:45):
so big out here and there's so many possibilities that
there's just not a lot of room to like, Okay,
I think I'm in an okay spot. Let me just
hunt it five times, like, yeah, you can't, like, you
gotta be really aggressive. So I'm like, let me just
get in there and try to get in their bedroom.
(10:05):
And so I went around and it took me a
while to find a spot that I liked, and I
was just I would kind of move ten fifteen yards
to the brush stand there, listen, wait for a minute,
moved ten you fit like, and I just did that
for an hour and then I eventually got to a
spot I liked, and then I guess after.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
That, yeah, I was gosh, it was probably I don't know,
forty five minutes before last night, so son hadn't set yet,
but it was it was down and I was in
a spot where I had these mesquites's cover behind me,
but I felt like I was kind of open, like
wide open, but I saw about one hundred actually it
(10:45):
was one hundred ninety two yards.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
I ranged her.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I saw that same meal guy that you had seen
cow looking out towards me, and so I'm like, okay,
let's let's see if they make a play.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Were they pretty much in the open or were they back.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
They No, they were back in the masque, but like
on the edge of them, so they weren't like deep
in them, but they were on the edge, bedded down,
I think.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
So I was on it.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
They saw them, No, no, no, I saw one, and I
think the other three were betted, and then they all
kind of came out. But I was in a spot
where I was about forty yards from a trail and
then sixty yards from a cross trail, and so I
felt like I was in a pretty good spot. And
the neil guy started coming towards me, and I was like,
(11:27):
all right, here we go.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
It's game time.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
And so the cow neil guy that I shot there
was a cow two calves and another cow that was smaller.
She was way out in front of the others, like
probably sixty yards in front of the others, and she
came right down that trail and she at one point
was I think about thirty five yards for me, maybe forty,
(11:49):
And so she put.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Her head down.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I drew and it startled her, so she like quickly
like busted backwards like ten fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I heard you or saw you, or I want to
say she saw me, because she looked in my directions
like pro fiel vision something like that.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
But the strange thing was, and this was probably thirty
twenty weah, maybe fifteen twenty minutes later when I went
and looked, I looked back and the sun was like
covering me perfectly. So I don't know, but she busted
back fifteen yards and it.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Could have been just like something moved, reflected or shined
your brodhead was shiny or something like that.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Something spooked her, but she didn't run off, and the
other ones were just sitting there. So she runs back
to about forty yards maybe forty two yards, and so
I was already drawn and I knew, like, all right,
she's spooked, she might run, so I put it on
her and I felt like it was such a great shot,
like everything lined up.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Sent it, and she just like jumped and ran.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
So at first I was like, man, I think I
missed her, And as I've been replaying it over and
over again, I don't think I missed her. I think
I might have hit her a little bit back, because
what happened was when I shot my bowl a couple
of years ago, when I when the impact happened, his
his ass like went down, like he was like oh,
and then ran she it was a cow.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
No, no, the bull a couple of years ago. Oh
sorry sorry at this one.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
And then the same thing happened with this cow. Like
her ass went down and then she hauled ass out. Yeah,
I missed a cow two years ago, and she jumped
my string.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
She literally dumped it. And this did not happen this
year feet like crazy. We have a video of it,
like it's wid dropping down three feet.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
And that was like a forty yard shot and she
just like absolutely juked it. So I didn't know if
like she jumped the string, but I put a forty
yard pin on her. I think she was between forty
and forty five yards, So I don't think I shot over.
I think it was I think it was a well
placed shot. My only concern was I think she lurched
for it. I might have gut shot her.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
So I was like, man, I don't know, I might
have missed her. I don't know what happened.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
The other cow just kind of stood there looking her,
and the calfs took off and the other cow ran
to And so I sat there for like thirty minutes,
and I couldn't find my my head, which has the
lighted knocks on it. So I'm like, man, when I
shot my bull last time, he ran off and he
only ran thirty yards, which is nice. Yeah, but he
had my arrow in him. Still, it didn't it didn't
(14:11):
have a full pass through, and I was like, maybe
that same thing happened.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
So as I'm doing that, all of a.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Sudden, I get a text from Plenty, probably fifteen minutes
after I shot mine.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
He's like, hey, I just shot a bull. Yeah. I'm like, dude,
are you kidding me? Man? I was back in the woods,
like sitting in this weird there were just it's kind
of no man's land, but it was a place where
I could I could see in the right direction, I
could see upwind, I could see kind of a crosswind
either side, and there are a few different trails. So
I'm like, I don't I've never been here before. I
(14:41):
have no reason to believe something's here, but I'm hunting
it in the right direction and there's potential. Sat there
for quite a while, didn't see anything, and then ride
as it was starting to get dark, probably about one
hundred yards from me, I saw some sort of just
kind of moving through the mesquites. It's like all these
(15:03):
these are just like real dried up, crackling mosquits to
all these just bright white limbs, and I just saw
something dark moving between them. And at first I thought
it was a deear because I'd been looking for like
the red of the cows, and it wasn't that. It
was just because what it's all we've seen his cows.
We hadn't seen a Yeah, it was just a dark blob.
And so I'm like, well, it's it's literally like five
fifty nine or five point fifty eight and last night
(15:25):
was like six ten or six. Yeah, And so I'm like,
I don't think I can wait for this to come
all the way towards me. How far was he when
you first saw them? One hundred yards? Oh wow? And
so I literally was about to pack off my all
my stuff and I'm like I can't. I don't know time.
I literally just dropped a pin on on X. It
just said gear, my chair, my pack and my water,
(15:48):
like my camera, everything. I just ditched it and like
kind of like hustled over to this like the wind
was in my face. So I knew that that would
give me a little bit of grace in terms of
being able to make a little bit of noise, and
so I just like hustled over there. And then I
saw this thing kind of moving and he was about
to be in this a little bit more open area,
(16:09):
and I'm like, I gotta get to this last tree.
I got to get out of the open before he
steps into the open. And I did it, and I
got right there, and then he started walking up that
trail and he looked right up at me, and I
think he just saw shape there, didn't know I was
a human, couldn't figure out what it was. And he
had walked around that tree at thirty five yards, and
(16:31):
I'm like, I think he's gonna keep coming closer. So
I went I had and dialed my site for twenty
five and just he like saw me and this bowl.
He was massive, he was I was eye to eye
with him, and his neck was just I just saw
you were standing up. Yeah I was standing up. Yeah. Yeah,
that's a good point. If I was It's like a
(16:55):
little dough ye, No, I was. I was absolutely standing
up to eye with him, and his neck was just thick,
and I just remember just seeing that white neck patch
and I was considering, I'm like, I'm gonna take an
ex shot. I'm just gonna aim for that white neck patch.
Was he just like he was pointed right at me,
and I just remember I'm like even pointed right at me,
(17:17):
just how wide his body was. I was like, this
is a really big animal. I'm like, I don't have
time for wait around for something to happen. I just
got to make a play here. And so I just
drew back my bow kind of in one motion, drew
back my bow and stepped out of the bush, and
he bolted about five steps and then stopped broadside and
(17:38):
turned at me, and I just put it on like
right behind his shoulder and popped him real quick, as
quick as I could. And I saw him start to
duck a little bit, but not much because it was
so close. Like it was more just he was just
kind of tensing up, and I heard just the loud
whack of the broadhead just hitting him. It was not
in the guts, it was it might have been scapula.
(18:01):
Maybe we'll find out at some point maybe not. But
it was right behind the shoulder. I still think it
might have been a little high, but it's it's exactly
where you would shoot a deer. Is right where I
put it. But I think these things are just so
big that you and you hit a rib like you
gotta get heart or heart and a lung or something
(18:23):
like that. But anyway, I saw the arrowberry into him,
but not like this same arrow is zip straight through
this dough this morning, like it didn't even slow down,
ripped a fletching off. And then I saw this arrow
go about halfway into him. And I saw my green
knock just bouncing and this thing, this nil guy, when
(18:43):
they run, they don't run like deer, they run like
horses and they just gallop off. And I saw it
like literally it was like kicking up dust behind him
and my little just green lighted knock just sting, dinging,
And I saw him run about one hundred yards down
to kind of a tree line, and then it looked
like he hooked or right at the tree line, and
that was the last I saw him. Well, I know
(19:06):
he had my arrow in him. I saw the air
of the entire distance, and I know if it's a
little high shot, it might even take a while for
it to bleed. So I'm not gonna look for it's
already late. It's already like a shot him three minutes
before the end of Legaleah. So I'm like, yeah, no
sense in looking for an arrow or blood. Let me
just go down to like the last place I saw.
(19:27):
So started looking down there, sent you a pin you
were looking for yours, and then we ended up just
meeting up and man, we just like kept looking and
looking and looking.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
And but the crazy thing is is I was coming down,
so I was on like the complete opposite end of
the property, and I'm coming down and I'm near plenty
before I saw his headlamp and I look out into
the like there there's private property on the other side,
but there's like this little mound before that, and then
a river and then another.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
The irrigation ditch, and so I think they basically build
two burms to channel the water. And I saw on
the burn. I flashed my head light up there and
I saw a Neil guy.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Like I saw the eyes light up and you could
tell it was definitely a Neil guy, and I'm like, okay,
that might be plenties. And then so I went and
found plenty and we kind of circled back and then
we saw it again.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yeah, but I think it was, and then we didn't
see it, and then we didn't see it.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Then it just disappeared like I thought we were on it,
and we were like, all right, let's just wait here,
let it lay down and die. When but I found
you and ten minutes later we saw it again, which
is kind of wild.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
To the point that we were literally like, we're going
to walk in this thing. We're yelling. Yeah. We were
like because we've heard a bad story. It was at
a different tract. It was at the lower Rio Grand
Valley Refuge when it was like a father and son
walked up on a wounded bowl and like got gordy.
It was bad, which we did not want to happen. No,
(20:50):
So we're like, dude, if this is a wounded bowl,
like we need to be really careful. So we walked
in there like yelling, shining flash lights. I had my
hand on the hilt of my knife. Yeah, like like
maybe that would help me. I don't know, I don't
don't really want to get a knife. Yeah, probably, but
we never found anything, and so we had like message
(21:13):
the refuge just because you're supposed to be out like
pretty quick. I think it's an hour after out at
the They just don't want people standing in there all
night or spotlight and stuff or whatever, which I don't
blame them. I think it's a good rule, but if
you do have something down, you notify them that just like, hey,
we're still looking, we're still looking, we'll be out a
little late. They're super cool about it, and I think
(21:34):
they just notify the game warden just so if they
ever get reports or something like, they know what's going on.
They know we're back there. And we looked for from
the time of shot on mine it was a little
over two hours I think, looked and looked and looked
and just never found anything.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Yeah, it was it was an exciting day. I think
net Net we both got to fling some arrows. Yeah,
And I don't think I'm upset, just disappointed that we
didn't find either of those Neil I mean. The coolest
thing is like, at one point, Plenty and I looked
at each other because when we had seen the Neil
guy again, seen its eyes were like, dude, we're I
don't know whose it is. It's either mine or yours.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Like that's a wounded animal. Yeah that we just need
to give it some time. And then we got this thing.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
But it was I mean, it was an awesome feeling, like, hey,
we're tracking two different Neil guys right now.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
How awesome is that? And then yeah, disappointing because we
didn't find either. But yeah, dude, for all we know,
like tomorrow we might find something out there with an
arrow in it, or we might see it running around still. Yeah,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
That's the crazy thing about these animals is they're so big,
Like if you only got through one lung, that thing
might still be alive tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Dude, he was running like I had just slapped him
on the ass. Yeah it's wild, dude, They're so so tough.
But all I have to, like, rest on is just
think about like we were safe. We didn't get hurt.
I mean, we're eating up by bugs and we all
(23:05):
pricked up by caxes and stuff, but but we're okay.
We didn't really break any gear. Yeap. A whole lot
of things went right. I think we hunted well. We
had a good strategy. We knew the wind was going
to change, we adapted, we biked in, we got into
a great place. We both we both found nil guy,
we both got shots, we both connected. Like so many
(23:27):
things went right, all of them.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
It's just it's wild, Like I just want to take
a rifle and shoot one in the head now.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Just to make sure it drops where it is. Yeah,
if I was on a rifle hunt, I mean, it's
so easy to say. We've said it every day. We're like, well,
if I had a rifle with me, five dead nail
guy already. Yeah, yeah, dude, I'd be headshot gang for sure,
for sure. Sixty yards. I don't want to track. These
things are so off it.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Don't They just are tough. They run, they're fast, they
can make so much ground. So like, even if you
shot him and he died three minutes later, in that
three minutes, he's six seven hundred yards away.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Yeah, I mean, they're so crazy fast. Yeah, they run
like horses. So I guess that's the report for the
day where we're doing a lot of things right, but
not all of them, and we're mentally struggling with balancing that.
We're both I think sitting here pretty disappointed, but not
(24:33):
so bummed out that we're gonna quit. No, there's always tomorrow.
We're gonna keep hammering, keep going after it. So I'm
some more broadheads. I'm running out of arrows pretty quick.
And I still think game plan stays the same. Dude. Now,
if I see a little dinky buck, like, yes, I'm
gonna send it. It's just like we're down here for
(24:55):
cool opportunities of cool animals. I still think I'll pass
on a pig.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Yeah, I think any legal game, you know, I think
if I see a dough or buck or a Neil guy,
obviously it's it's go time.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yeah, So that's that's the night. Anything else said, that's it, man,
Let's go catch some fish. Yeah yeah, trout time. All right,
thanks y'all, hopefully, Well we'll chat to you tomorrow. That's right,
all right, by
Speaker 2 (25:21):
H
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