Have you ever felt the thrill of the chase, the exhilaration of the hunt, and the sweet satisfaction of a successful game? This episode gives you a front-row seat to one such adventure, featuring our guest, the intrepid hunter Calvin Jackson of British Columbia. Calvin, who had initially set out for a bison hunt, takes us through his unexpected moose hunting exploits.
Strap in as we journey through the grizzly terrain with a group of hunters. Their quest for bison takes a twist when they stumble upon bull moose. The high country is their playground, the land of fossils their discovery, and amidst the thrill of the hunt, they find time to indulge in a little fly fishing. We don’t just track, hunt, and conquer, but also pause to appreciate the stunning landscape that is our hunting ground.
Calvin on Instagram
Our Instagram
Have you ever felt the thrill of the chase, the exhilaration of the hunt, and the sweet satisfaction of a successful game? This episode gives you a front-row seat to one such adventure, featuring our guest, the intrepid hunter Calvin Jackson of British Columbia. Calvin, who had initially set out for a bison hunt, takes us through his unexpected moose hunting exploits.
Strap in as we journey through the grizzly terrain with a group of hunters. Their quest for bison takes a twist when they stumble upon bull moose. The high country is their playground, the land of fossils their discovery, and amidst the thrill of the hunt, they find time to indulge in a little fly fishing. We don’t just track, hunt, and conquer, but also pause to appreciate the stunning landscape that is our hunting ground.
Calvin on Instagram
Our Instagram
Howdy folks, welcome to the Hunting Stories Podcast. I'm your host, michael, and as usual, we've got another good one for you today. Today we actually connect with Calvin Jackson. Calvin is a listener who reached out and said man, I have a crazy story about bison hunt, loose hunt this turn. It's a fun story. But I do want to call him out as being another listener that had the balls, I guess, to reach out and say hey, I'd love to be on your podcast. So take a note from Calvin. He's an awesome guy, enjoy his stories. But if you have a good story, make sure you reach out to me as well, because I love listening to listener stories, I think, more than anything else. So thank you again to Calvin for coming on the podcast. Thank you, guys, for tuning into the podcast. Now let's go ahead and kick this thing off and let Calvin play some of his stories. All right, calvin, welcome to the Hunting Stories Podcast. Brother, how are you?
Speaker 2:Good. How are you doing?
Speaker 1:I'm doing real well, man, I'm doing real well, and, of course, I'm happy that you're here. You fall into the category of my personal favorite guests, which are when the listeners reach out and say man, I got a hell of a story for you. I'd love to be on the podcast. So, calvin, thank you for reaching out and I'm excited to hear your story. Why don't we start this thing off right and just let you introduce yourself, so that people know who they're hearing stories from today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my name is Calvin Jackson. I live up in Prince George, british Columbia, and, yeah, I've been hunting for since I was about 12. Most of that's unsuccessful until I moved a little further north and I've been having a heyday ever since.
Speaker 1:There you go, man that's awesome, I think you are.
Speaker 1:We've had a couple of Canadians, but I don't think anyone from your neck of the woods so excited to hear what you got for us and you have a unique accent, which is fun. It reminds me of my in-laws. They're from Canada, specifically Saskatchewan, so not exactly the same area, but they've got that same kind of I don't know. I'm from Texas now so I say drawl, but I don't know what. You have a unique tone in your voice, calvin, and I like it. It reminds me of some people that I love.
Speaker 2:All right. Yeah, I got a lot of family on Saskatchewan too, so I bet you they know each other at some point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I bet they do, I bet they do. So I know that you I mean, we're just going to jump right into this thing, but you sent me a pretty lengthy message kind of explaining this story to me, which I love and I hate. I told you that already. I love that you are that excited that you want to tell me the story, but I don't read them. And it's really hard for me not to read them because I want to experience something here first on the podcast man. So why don't?
Speaker 2:you set the stage.
Speaker 1:All I really know is it was a bison hunt, turn moose hunt. So fill us in. Calvin man, let's get into it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So earlier in the year my two buddies, they texted me and they they said, yeah, we won the limited entry bison hunt just up in Northern British Columbia there and and so they asked if I wanted to tag long. And sure enough I did, because I could be a good helping hand kind of thing, maybe shoot some other critters while we were out there. And so yeah, let me ask.
Speaker 1:So I've had one other guy who had a bison hunt on here and his was out of Utah and it was a once in a lifetime tag. Is that the case up in British Columbia? No, you more common than that.
Speaker 2:No, you can just buy bison tags over the counter up here.
Speaker 1:Oh, no way Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I assume that's just residents. As a non resident, you probably have to like get a guide and use their allocation or something right.
Speaker 2:No, it just gets really expensive if you're going to do it on your own from out of country.
Speaker 1:Got it, got it. Okay, I just asked Go ahead, Calvin, Sorry yeah no, it's all good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, yeah, they run, ramp it up there. So the other is not not too too difficult to go get a bison tag and hunt one down, but it was for us, for some reason.
Speaker 1:All right, that's good to hear.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no kidding, but. But yeah. So it was set for end of October and we were going up there with full expectations of being knee deep in snow and because I was up there a year prior in August on a moose hunt and ended up getting six inches of snow in August. So we were fully expecting an end of October bunch of snow get up there and it's 20 degrees the entire time, like nothing but blue skies and sunshine.
Speaker 1:Wow, I mean I don't know what that does for the critters, but it's nice to hunt in that weather.
Speaker 2:Oh, it sure is. So, yeah, we. So I'm waiting on my buddies to come and pick me up, because I'm eight hours north of them and I get a call. They say, yeah, we'll be there, probably around eight o'clock at night. We'll hop in the truck, we'll go the rest of the way and then eight o'clock rolls around. I phone them. Hey, where are you guys at? Oh, we forgot the quad key back at home. They got about halfway up and then turned around to go grab the quad keys back at home, and so now I'm too excited to sleep, so I'm up the whole time making sure I got all my gear. And yeah, they finally roll into my driveway, probably around 1.30 or 2 in the morning, and so we all pile in, hop in the truck and start making the rest of the trek up there.
Speaker 1:Gotcha man, how long was their delay? Like how much did they have to backtrack and then get back on the road? Like how much later did they arrive than they were supposed to?
Speaker 2:So yeah, they were supposed to be there around eight o'clock at night and they got there at two in the morning.
Speaker 1:So six extra hours damn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, six extra hours, but yeah, so we all get in the truck and start going up there and, fair enough, we stop in Fort St John that's just a little further north from Prince George and we grab breakfast and last minute necessities and then we drive the rest of the way out and we had this spot that we mapped out for months in advance and get out there and we're struggling to get up there and we finally get to the spot and there's a giant gate in the middle of the road. So we're like, okay, yeah, I guess this is where we disembark on the quad, and we only had the one quad at the time. And so first, two guys go in with a load of gear and you're going to get everything started and set up. And I was just going to hold down the truck and wait till my, it was my turn, kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And yeah, and so, sure enough, I think probably about four hours later he comes back for the second load and me and, and everything's fine, I was glassing up from the truck of a few mountain goats and just kind of taking in scenery. Yeah, so we get about I don't know, I'd say 20 minutes into the second trip here and the bolt that connects the ARM to the quad gives out and the quad doesn't know his dive and quads completely pooched. So we are not going anywhere. Our buddies, four hours into the bush, like four hour quad ride into the bush. So we're like, okay, well, grab as much as you can carry and let's start walking.
Speaker 2:And yeah, I think we hiked for about six hours in the Cougar Woods and eventually some other guys on their quad with the same bison tag, but just a little earlier in the year they came by and they're like why are you guys walking all this way? And like, yeah, quads broke down, we're trying to make it to our buddy a camp and all this. And that's like, oh, okay, well, but like, throw all your stuff on, we'll shuttle it out there and then we'll come back, pick you guys up and we'll drive you the rest of the way. So we're like, okay, yeah, sounds good. And at this point we've been walking for hours and hours and we're both tired, out of water, out of food, because that's all back at camp and finally get picked up, roll into camp and we're both beat. So we make a quick mountain house meal and pass out right away.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we're all thinking like what the hell are we going to do tomorrow?
Speaker 2:Because we're not seeing anything here, like we're kind of pooch, like if we shoot something, that's going to be a whole another thing. But just how, how are we getting out of here? What are we going to do for transportation? So while we were in there waiting on dinner and just kind of getting ready for bed, we saw like six other hunters in there with the exact same ideas we had. So we're like, yeah, let's, let's get everything out of here. We'll go try and band aid fix the quad and we'll go to the next mountain range cells from us here and we'll try hunting out there. Yeah, so, sure enough, sleep away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my one buddy who owned the quad he's gets up, packs his gear and he's gone first thing, like right at first light, and we're going to take down camp. He's going to band aid fix the quad, come, pick up everything. I was just going to walk the whole, the whole trek back, kind of thing. And so we start paring down camp. He's gone for hours.
Speaker 2:We get everything put out, put away and we start walking towards where the truck was parked and hopefully we'd run into him sooner than later. Well, I'm sure enough, we walked like 90% of the way and then we finally see him coming around the corner, biggest smile on his face, just happy as could be, comes wheeling up to us. We were like Whoa man, what the hell happened? I thought it was a band aid fix like limp it along and he goes. No, actually, one of the guys that we ran into last night it's a Polaris mechanic and we found the boy and so we fixed the quad as good as new. He put some Loctite on it. It's. It's running like a hot damn no.
Speaker 1:Wow, what are the odds of that man?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no kidding. And so we're like, oh, it's perfect. So we get back to the truck, load everything up in the truck, okay, we're going to try the other spot on the other side of the mountains here. And yeah, we're all like smiles ear to ear. And then we start going down the next road over to get into the range and we realized then it was the, it was a reservation. Okay, and the natives up there are not huge fans of, of white people. Okay. And so our one buddy that we were hunting with is from Chile. So me and my brother buddy, we go hide in the back seat of the truck while he's out with the window doing all the talking, and sure enough, they let us right through the super friendly and like, okay, so we found a Polaris mechanic and we've been led through basically into the promise line. Now I guess if you use up all your bad luck, all you got left is good luck, kind of thing right, you're telling me it's all news to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just a matter of how long you can stick out riding out the bad luck kind of thing. And so so, sure shit, we get to the other side and we set up camp and we're like we're on cloud nine at this point. We're, we're sitting in camp, we're already seeing signs of moose and deer and we're seeing and they don't range cattle out there either. So, and we're seeing cattle poo.
Speaker 2:So we're saying oh yeah no, that's, that's bison shit now. And so, yeah, we spend the night partway and we drive my buddies. We wake up the next morning, we drive the rest of the way into the back of the valley and, until the truck can't go any further, we're crossing these sketchy bridges where we we line the truck up just right for the last two boards that aren't rotten out on this bridge and shoot the truck across as fast as we could. And then we have the quad on the trailer and we just walked the quad trailer across the bridge, so nothing's falling through, and we're we get across like the third bridge, like this, and kind of thing like how the hell are we getting out of here? Because this is gonna suck and it is terrible across some bridges where I'm like.
Speaker 1:I don't know if this is a great idea. We got to find another way home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but this is the only road in and out, and so we're like, oh, okay, well, I guess we'll Literally cross that bridge when we get there. And uh, yeah, we finally make it across the last bridge. The road turns to hell, can't get the truck any further. So we're like, okay, now we're gonna take the quad out. So same same deal. The first two guys go in, start setting up camp. I'll wait behind and, uh, just kind of do some glass and hang out, listen to music, have a couple beers or something like that waiting for them.
Speaker 1:Yeah and uh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're gone for probably Again four hours. And buddy comes and picks me up. Sure, shit, we're hot back on the quad, everything's loaded up, quad spiel and solid this time. And, uh, we start booting down the road and there's old elk camps and moose camps from the guides that run back there and there's a couple cabins and we're checking all that out. It seems pretty cool. And Come around the corner, moose standing right on the road, probably 50 feet away from us. We're like oh, would you look at that? Oh, you know he's not big enough. Okay, pass them up, let's keep going.
Speaker 2:We're here for bison, not moose kind of thing, and so yeah it's fine to get out to, out to where we set up camp and it's just this gorgeous little strip. It's. You got two mountain wall, like the walls on both sides, and a perfect crystal clear little creek that runs right beside camp and it's just freaking gorgeous and it opens up into like some plains with some steep, wicked steep mountains on both sides. And so we get there kind of raid towards the end of the day and we go hike out this little knob just that's basically behind our camp and we started glassing and sure enough, there's I think there was like three really healthy sized white tails just sitting Raid on the other side of the hill from camp kind of thing. And so we were like, well, I mean, do do we want to have deer steaks for dinner tonight? Or like, what are we doing here?
Speaker 1:And sounds pretty good to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no kidding. And so we're kind of humming and humming like, yeah, well, we're here for bison, not deer. Like we can shoot deer anywhere in any time, basically. So like maybe we'll just watch them for tonight. If we don't see anything tomorrow, we'll crack one off. And yeah, it was pretty cool because we watched them for probably a good 45 minutes and we actually watched one of the one of the bucks breed, one of the does, and so Never seen that before. That's kind of cool. But like that might be your last one, buddy, and so. So, anyways, it gets dark, we can't see anything, go to bed, wake up and it's like it's still six degrees out and we're like, oh, my god, it is hot, hot, hot over here. And we're like, okay, well, let's go take a little walk. Like this is our first day of open season on the bison, and so we climb up on this little knob to see over all the willows and stuff in the bottom of the canyon, and I think that morning we probably glassed up Like six bull moose just from camp.
Speaker 1:Oh way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and yeah, from camp and so, and every single one of them was a shooter for sure, and so like, okay, well, yeah, well, at least we know there's noos here, but we're here for bison still. So we Hiked as far back into the canyon as we could and and we're seeing grizzly tracks left, right and center, and every south facing hillside looked like it was a golf ball. From the, from the grizzlies digging for roots and bugs and stuff like that in the spring right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So like okay, yeah, you know, I just this kind of keep our heads on a slope over here because this is sketchy, sketchy, sketchy, gets kind of thing. And sure enough, we walk from the start I'd say pretty well halfway through this valley and we stop, have lunch in the creek and we're not seeing anything. We're seeing tons of tracks, no bison, oh, lots of old bison sign, but nothing new and and every kind of thing and like, oh, they're probably in the high country if it's, if it's this warm, and the bison up there, I swear to god, they're closer to mountain goats in the archadel.
Speaker 1:No way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you'll see, I never even thought they'd go up a mountain.
Speaker 1:I just assumed they would stay in like prairies and stuff. I don't, I don't know enough about them, I guess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know these, these things, they'll climb like a straight up Hill face if it means that they're gonna be a little more comfortable. I don't know what, what they're on, but they're on song, but yeah. And so we kind of get about halfway, have our lunch, sit down, kind of make a game plan, and we're like okay, well, you know what, we'll Keep our eyes out on the way back to camp, but tomorrow we'll We'll climb one of the One of the major mountains out here and see if we can't get a bird's eye view of the whole valley, maybe bump into them up in the alpine, and so we're kind of hanging out. We keep going through the day. We're seeing more moose, so we're seeing those same deer that we saw the night before, and I have a good night in camp and I rest up because we know we're gonna be hiking miles and miles tomorrow, yeah and so, yeah, wake up right before first light and Head out up this whole hillside that's been dug out by the grizzlies for the past I don't know how long.
Speaker 2:So we're like, yeah, you know we've done some stupid stuff in the past, but shit, I think that's gotta be one of the dumbest. Yeah, like we're walking on trails with Grizzly prints that had to have been eight or nine foot bears, jesus. And we find a little saddle that's a little shorter to cut up and we keep going. I'm kind of bringing up the rears. I'm the biggest guy out of the group, out of the group and, sure enough, we stop at a little, uh little pond, get a quick drink and keep marching. And we're going up and we get to the point where the trees start to thin out and there's nothing but these giant gray slate rocks and we're walking behind my buddy's like yo, that's a fossil in the rock here. I'm like, oh yeah, that's pretty cool, it's a giant seashell and we're kind of checking it out, having a break, eating lunch again, and keep going a little further and we get to where it's true alpine and nothing but rocks.
Speaker 2:And, sure enough, every single rock is made up of nothing but old seashell fossils and so we're going through all these fossils, we're trying to find the biggest one, and whoever's got the biggest one's got to carry all the dishes to the river and when we get back, kind of thing, and yeah. So we keep walking up a little further I found a really nice six point elk, shed up in the saddle from just that spring, so it wasn't bleached out yet, it's still nice and brown and just perfect condition. Nice, hadn't gone to it yet. And it's kind of about this point where I'm thinking like man, I really got to take a dump and you're like, okay, who's got the wet wipes, and everybody's like I do, but I'm not going through my backpack yet. I was like, okay, that's fine, oh, my god, I'm gonna save this for the top of the mountain, kind of like a scoop with a view. And so, yeah, we hiked the rest of the way up and we were seeing like some crazy wicked country from this point you can just see for miles and miles.
Speaker 2:And sure enough, we get to the top and all of our phones start going off, because this is like the third day of no service and now all of a sudden we got service. So everybody's phone mom, dad and girlfriends and wives and all that right, yeah, and I was like man, I still really got to go to the washroom and so I ripped through my buddy's bag and do my thing. And then we're like, oh yeah, we came up here to glass, not to phone home, kind of thing. So we glass for a little while and while somebody goes like, wow, who leaves two sheets of plywood hung up in the willows out in the middle of nowhere, my other buddy goes like no, that's a moose, like that's a really, really big moose. And so two sheets of plywood.
Speaker 1:God, that's a crazy visual. That's a really cool way of explaining it, good yeah, no, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so so we're going like holy shit, like we are, because I think we climb two kilometers in elevation in a four kilometer hike. And so we are way the hell up there all of a sudden and we can still see this moose without even binoculars, let alone a spotting scope or anything like that. Wow. And then so my one buddy's like yeah, we're gone, we're moving, and I'm I'm tired and I'm kind of like oh man, I kind of wouldn't mind having a water break, and like we just got up here and haven't really done much. Glassing is like no, we're moving.
Speaker 2:And so he's just gone, before I even know what's happening down back down the hill. And I'm like holy shit, man, like wait up, we get, we get down to the bottom, that's right by camp there. I'm just beaten. He goes no, you go ahead, you shoot it. I was like no man, you found it, you shoot it. He's like, no, I'm not shooting this thing, we're walking away, if you're not. So I'm like, oh you, okay, fine, I was like you, you know what, whatever.
Speaker 2:So we start walking in, we have an idea about where he is, but we never put a pin on him on our phone or anything like that. And and we're in these willows that are 12 feet tall and I'm like guys, we could be standing beside him and have no idea. I kind of don't want to get run over by this moose if we scare the hell out of him. So we walk a little further in and we're taking like a really wide berth and all of a sudden he just vanished. We have no idea where he went, because we could see him the whole walk down and he was just gone all of a sudden.
Speaker 1:Oh no that's all with that, you know yeah.
Speaker 2:And so like how the hell do you lose a house with antlers? And so really like, okay, whatever, we'll climb up to the little little glassing knob I can't see if we can't find him from there, yep, sure enough he's gone. Nowhere to be found. It's like, oh, sure, okay. And so we keep kind of that. By this point it's like the end of the day we head back to camp and we're just kind of hanging out and over the next couple of days we're just finding moose, but no more, no more. Deer and the bison just seem to be nowhere to be found. And so my two buddies they're big into fly fishing, so on I think, day six, they're like, yeah, you know what, we're just gonna take a day to go fly fish this creek good for that?
Speaker 1:is this area known to have like a good buffalo population, or is it, like you know, hit or miss, and that's why the tags are so easy to get.
Speaker 2:I it's. It's pretty well guaranteed. But you gotta usually hit them in the late season, like kind of January time, because then they really are. They're moving around in the in the downloads and just not an issue to find. But for some reason it was so abnormally hot that year that uh, yeah, they were just gone gotcha, gotcha yeah.
Speaker 2:But uh yeah. So these guys are going out fly fishing and I'm like, oh, I'm screwed you guys. I don't have my fly fishing rod and I don't even know how to fly fish. So I'm gonna go hunting still, because that's what we're here to do and see if I can't find anything. So I walk into the deeper chunk of the valley and I found a, an old bison deadhead in the creek bottom, and so I was like, oh, that's pretty damn cool. And so I got walking around in the middle of nowhere, kind of throwing out a few out bugles to see if I can't get anything to start talking back. But no such luck. So I'm walking back into camp with this bison skulls like, guys, look what I found. This is pretty cool, like at least we know they're here here. And my one buddy, he's like man, we saw a huge moose right on the road this morning when we were heading out fishing. I was like, get the hell out of here. So if I turn left instead of right, they'd be a moose hanging in camp.
Speaker 1:He's like, yep, you're right did they not, so I know that they were fishing, but do they have boost tags too, or were you the only one with a moose?
Speaker 2:tag. Uh, it was just my one buddy that didn't have a moose tag, so the the other two of us here, it was kind of on site, but he, in his infinite wisdom, left his rifle in camp of course okay in in grizzly country too, nonetheless. So I don't know what is thinking there.
Speaker 1:What is thinking was there, but uh yeah man, the only way to guarantee that you're gonna see what you're supposed to be hunting is to leave your weapon behind. That's the only guaranteed way.
Speaker 2:Yeah to the game you're looking for yeah, no kidding, but yeah and so, uh, we were. So we were kind of talking back to camp and it's this kind of sun's going down and everybody goes, you know what? We're gonna take a walk back there and see if he's come back. We're gonna go go try, take two of this kind of thing. And yeah, I've got the 300 win mag and my other buddy's got a little lever action 30, 30 and those are the only two rifles we had in camp.
Speaker 2:And sure enough, we're all just talking, walking, not paying attention or anything. But he looks up there, he is right on the road. He's like everybody, stop, stop, just sit down. So I'm like, oh my god. And he's looking right at us. We are so busted like he knows we are there.
Speaker 2:And uh, so he's, he's like, okay, well, you found this one. Or I told him, you found this one this morning, this one's all you and you cannot change my mind about that. And he's like, okay, okay, yeah, I'm gonna go push left in the bushes and see if I can't get nice and close to him. And then the moose is just looking at us, doesn't care, it goes back to munching away. He just he's looking at us and then, yep, goes back again to munching. He's just sitting there, he's not wandering off or anything, and my buddy's putting the stock on him. But it's like a 50 yard stock, it's not like a, not anything crazy. And I look at him like use my gun, don't use your 30, 30, use my gun. And so he's like okay, okay, he's sited in for like 100 yards. I was like yeah, you're not even gonna be able to really push it out any further than 50 feet, kind of thing yeah, you're like, all you're gonna see is brown yeah, I was like it's on minimum zoom, like this is a close shot.
Speaker 2:If you screw it up, I'm never inviting you along, ever again, kind of thing. Yeah, and so sure enough, he, the bull like, he starts walking around to kind of get a broadside shot, and the bull wanders off. He's like oh my god. And then I just see him huffing it across the road and then I see the moves down a little ways and it's just silent. I'm waiting for the shot, waiting for the shot. I look at my other buddy and I say you think he's gonna shoot or what? And then just I'm saying that just boom, I See this moves, do a back flip and just lay out on the ground. We're like, holy shit, nice shot, kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so we Walk up and it still got a bit of life left in it. So he takes his 30 30 back and it shoots it, I think, like three more times before it no way on the expires and In the leg or what the hell was he shooting it?
Speaker 2:Right now he was shooting it right in the chest. He shot one in the neck, like I don't know how this thing was still kicking, but it it didn't take too too long. But yeah, so we were cutting it open and Again that this was the big one that we saw earlier in the trip and this thing is huge. Like I'm, we couldn't even put our fingertips from one side of the antlers to the others, kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or do you have, do you? I'm assuming you got some photos that you share with me?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I'll send you the pictures right after this perfect but yeah, and so we were cutting them up, we were keeping them out and we got the one guy standing guard for bears and wolves and all that, and we're just getting to work and we start taking the, the hideoff around his butt and we're like what the hell is that? I think, oh, somebody like shot him in the ass earlier, like there's this giant kind of like pus bubble in his butt, and we're we're kind of looking at it and like no, that's a like he got chased out of somewhere because that's a, that's an antler that's stabbed into his butt, kind of thing. And so we're like holy shit, so this isn't the one that we saw yesterday, because he's the one that would have done it.
Speaker 2:Yeah and so we're like all your batter moose out there somewhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we're like, okay, Well, we know he's still around, at least, but yeah, so we get to, we get back to working and and there's like these crazy, weird bruises around his ribs and we're like what the hell is causing that? And then we get to his belly and I find 3, 30, 30 bullets stuck in this moose and what was happening is the bullet would go in but didn't have enough Power to actually leave the hide on the other side, so it just gets stuck in his skin and run underneath his skin into his belly and those are the shots from your buddy or those from previous hunters.
Speaker 2:No, those are the shots from my buddy, from like four feet away trying to put this moose. That's crazy and so they weren't making it all the way through the other side of the moose. But but they did some serious carnage on the inside. So we're like, oh well, good thing we didn't use your rifle for the initial shot, because he wouldn't have gone down. I don't think no.
Speaker 1:He would have run miles probably. Yeah, yeah, so sure enough.
Speaker 2:We, yeah, yeah, I guess, so, yeah.
Speaker 2:So get them all cut up or hanging them back in camp and You're like oh my god, like this thing is freaking huge and we're eating like these giant Tomahawk steaks after I like to in the morning because that's by the time we get back to camp and I, holy shit, like a total caveman picture here, yeah, and go to bed and Like, oh my god, I can't believe how big that moose is ended up not seeing that bigger bowl never Ended up finding a bison.
Speaker 2:Didn't see one, didn't hear one, didn't smell one, nothing. So we're like, oh damn it, like whatever, such as life will come back later, come back next year or something like that, and yeah, and so we Finally get all camp packed up. It's time to head home. And we're packing the moose out and we see these other guys coming in. They're like, oh yeah, like clearly you guys had a pretty good trip out here. Like Is, that is a Back shoulder? There was like no, that's Backward, no, that's his front. For like, holy shit, we haven't seen a moose that big out here in a while.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're like yeah, by the way, there's a bigger one. You just gotta find it because he disappears pretty quick. Yeah. So like holy Jesus, okay, so they're gone. In a heartbeat we finally get everything packed out the can or packed out to the truck and like, oh yeah, we forgot about all the shitty bridges. Like, oh, this is gonna suck. Like we're all just exhausted and now we're Finally starting to hit some colder weather. Now it's like minus two on the quad ride back, which isn't bad, but we're all sweaty and yeah.
Speaker 2:So it was weird all freezing and not feeling like working anymore and yeah, yeah sure enough is a bit. We get to the first bridge and we're like yeah that river's picked up quite a bit from in there last year. We better make sure that we do this right the first time. So we're gonna be stuck out here for a lot longer than we wanted to be. And yeah, sure enough, the truck just barely made it across one board, started cracking pretty Good, but never ended up falling through. And, yeah, I made it back out to camp and drove the 13 hours back home.
Speaker 1:I'm so. I was really worried that you guys are gonna fall in on those bridges. The telly stories usually go.
Speaker 2:Oh I, I really think that. Yeah, there's no way that we shouldn't have, but somehow it made it. Yeah, I got a question taking quads across it, let alone a truck.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I've never taken my truck across any sketchy bridges, but I've walked across some logs that it's like why am I doing this? This is so dumb. And then not only do I like I'm getting a cross, but now then I gotta figure out how to get back like it's just it never. But you do it right, and I was just going for a turkey, of all things, when I was doing that stupid thing. You're not even like a buffalo or a moose something cool, damn yeah.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what if I'd kill the turkey there's? I don't know. I would have had like to throw the bird across the river. I don't know how I got across. I couldn't have done it holding the bird. I'll tell you that right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, it's one of those things where you're like okay, it's, we either toss them or we're going in, we're swimming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, right. Well, man, that's a great story, but I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm sad you didn't get your your bison, or your buddy didn't get his bison, but it's a pretty cool moose story and it's yeah. Man, I love that. That like when your buddy's like man who would staple to plywood boards to you know the trees, like that's a cool visual. I immediately was like, oh god, what is that?
Speaker 2:But yeah, man, yeah, go ahead. Oh, I was just gonna say, but it was also like pretty surreal, because it feels like you're like the bottom of that valley, it's, it's like your prairie, like just nice and flat, tall grass, willow thickets and alders and all that, and then on both sides you could look up that pretty well any point we're counting stone sheep and we're glass-numped mountain goats and all that. So it was. It was like a damn Disney movie every day that we woke up out there. That's awesome and that's epic.
Speaker 1:I had a. I had my first event, kind of like that, where I was like I was just in a spot and I was like man, there are 15 animals in this valley with me and it was. It was elk, there were moose, there's just. It's so much going on. I'm like this is you know, even if nothing happens? You know, even if nothing happens, this is pretty cool scenario I happen to get myself into. So I get that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, yeah, and it was funny too, because my like one of the guys that we're, I was out at camp with there. He, we were flying out to Vegas the day that we got back from our trip. Okay, and so we go from absolute cut off from the outside world to nothing but flash and lights and and all and all the biggest and it's glory kind of thing.
Speaker 2:And so we we were chilling by the pool and we're like, yeah, I wonder how cold it is up in pink mountain right now, and we Pull up the weather app the day after we left to drop down to minus 30 and snow about two feet.
Speaker 1:And I bet all the buffalo just showed up right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we're sitting there and we're like yeah, I bet you they're all right at camp right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had camps set up.
Speaker 2:I bet you they're all hanging out.
Speaker 1:That's too funny, man, that's too Well. Hey, I know you. You reached out to me saying you had this one store. You got to tell. I got asked you have any other stories you want to tell us today or you want to wrap it up right there, man, that was, that was a good one, so it's your call.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean all the other stories are pretty, pretty uneventful, but I sent you that picture of the buck that I shot just just in early November. Yeah and it was funny too, because I was Was just driving around like mid-morning and it's kind of thinking like man.
Speaker 1:I'm hungover.
Speaker 2:I don't really want to be out here right now. I'm, I'm tired, I'm just gonna go home and maybe we'll check out one more spot. But we'll see. And I drive to the end of this road trying to find a turnaround and, sure enough, it starts going into like a mud bog. And I'm just driving my daily truck everywhere. So I'm like, okay, yeah, that's a pretty good excuse to turn around right away, sure enough, back into a pullout. And I see a Muley walking through the old cut block and so like, oh yeah, oh, he's just one right there. And at this point it's got to have four points or better. And I'm like, okay, come on, come on, have antlers having. Oh, okay, yeah, it's got antlers. And I'm listening to that One episode you had with the lady from Alberta who did the wolf hunting and all that.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, Brittany Kitchton.
Speaker 2:Brittany Kitchton. Yeah, so I was listening to that episode and I'm like, oh, okay, that's kind of interesting. And yeah, I see that buck. And I'm like, okay, he's got antlers. And then you, he turns his head. I was like, oh, he's got four, he's going down and so get out of the truck and Shot him through I think it's got to be about four or five trees, just bushwhacking. That shot and he pulled it up in a heartbeat. He was down and out and so I was like, oh my god, like that's the biggest deer to date. He was huge, he was old, fat neck, huge, huge, god on them and walk up to him like just on, just freaking out, so, just so cool, yeah he looks, I mean he's that tube right his neck is just doesn't even exist and his antlers are super unique.
Speaker 1:They're not like Uh and my friend germane hodge knows this term and he's told it to me like 300 times but I can't remember it but they're like fat, they're like uh, almost like they're like a moose paddle, but then they kind of split like the mule deer do right there a little bit thicker, um at the bases of the.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was starting to palm out because he was so old and I think I actually got him just in time because, uh, he was definitely. You could definitely tell he was starting to lose antler growth every year at that point. So I got him just under as big as I'd say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, he's a guy who's a very cool deer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so I'm looking at him. I'm like how the hell am I gonna get this thing out like? This is a 220 pound deer. There's no way in hell. I'm dragging this thing out on my own.
Speaker 1:I'll come down with that attitude, calvin. Come on, man, you got it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But so, like I got him out and, um, I'm still just super stoked. I shot him in the one spot that had service too. So I'm following my parents. I'm like, yeah, look what I did. And like, oh, jesus Christ, you got your work cut out for you now. And so I drag him a little ways, and then it's just nothing but dead falls and everything through there. So so I'm like, yeah, there's, there's no way I'm getting them through this, like Not a chance, and without cutting them up at least. And so I phone my buddy and he's like, yeah, I'm there, I'll be there in a minute. I'm only like two hours out, I'll see you soon. And so, sure enough, he gets to my Pan early, he gets to as far as he knows to go. And I'm like, okay, these are the directions. Just if you follow these lines, you'll, you'll get there. Just fine, you'll see my truck. I'm parked across the road like a total out of ass and you'll know it when you see it kind of thing. And so couple hours goes by and he's like, man, your direction suck. I'm so lost. I was like, oh yeah, so Just as I'm on the phone with them, I hear all the wolves on the other side of my truck gipping off in there, going nuts.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh shit, did I just snipe this deer out from underneath these wolves, like were they in the middle of hunting this thing down? And I was like, okay, well, we got to move fast. And so I hop in my truck and I just start taking off over there like a bad out of hell and Just rallying my truck through like washouts and deactivations. I'm like, oh my god, this is the most expensive deer I've ever had, kind of thing. And so, finally get back to pavement. He meets me there. We hop in scoot right back out there as fast as we could. It absolutely bangs some shit on my truck. There's no way I didn't at least ruin 90% of my front end. And so, yeah, I get out there, and in the time that I was gone, his entire gut pile disappeared.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I was maybe gone for half an hour and all of it was gone. So we're like holy shit. So, yeah, get them loaded into the truck, had a beverage and yeah, I scooted on back home and I'm living with my buddy too. So his girlfriend comes out and she's like what the hell did you do? And open the tailgate. She's like Jesus Christ, you guys are kind of things like what are you guys doing with that? Like what are you going to do with that? How are you going to manage it?
Speaker 2:And so we get it into the shop and we get it all tied up and kind of use my quad to keep this thing Elevated. And, sure enough, it starts to actually like pick the quad up off the ground, of course. And we're like, okay, this is stupid, and like we're gonna bring down the roof trying to lift this thing. So we ended up cutting it up back at the house and get it all skinned out. And and yeah, so my buddy is like, dude, I better be getting some at least a few steaks in the package of pepperoni for helping you drag that stupid thing or the bush over all those dead falls, because that was brutal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, that's awful, that's awful, that's a great story man, that's how that's. Those are the most fun, right? Um, let me ask you, did you have a wolf tag or no, or no, or in your?
Speaker 2:You can't. You don't even need to buy wolf tags up here. You can shoot through the ears just as you see them.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool. Yeah, did you have one, or did you not lay eyes on the wolf, or?
Speaker 2:I caught the one that was Like like I swear it was the ball's the most one, because I saw him like bootin through the trees. But I couldn't crack one shot off Atom fast enough, and so I was like, okay, you can live till the snow flies and then I'm coming back for you guys. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Very cool man. Those are fun, calvin. Well, you got any other ones, or are we wrapping it up here? You tell me my guy.
Speaker 2:Oh, I got a few more, but maybe I'll save them for another time if you'll have me back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, I'd be happy to, I'd be happy. Well then, let's do this, kevin. Let's uh, let's wrap it up. Why don't you tell the people where they can find you? Maybe you'll get a couple followers, maybe you won't, I don't know. Can't promise anything, but yeah, no why don't you share it?
Speaker 2:It'd be great. Yeah, no, you can find me on instagram at last. Buyer underscore outdoors and, uh, that's the only place that I'm ever really active, so it's where you can find me. And yeah, there we go man.
Speaker 1:There we go. Well, hey, Calvin, I appreciate you reaching out. Man, Um, I say this to you, but I mean to all listeners I love it when you guys reach out and have stories for me. Um, I find it's the most fun. You guys are the most fun to talk to, Uh and uh. You know, those are the stories that I get the best feedback from from my listeners. Being like man.
Speaker 1:I guarantee people will be like you, kidding me with Calvin stories, um, and, and that's the kind of stuff that I loved, uh love, to read. So thank you, man, I appreciate it and we'll definitely have you back sometime soon.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, thank you very much for having me. It was great chatting with you.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, brother. All right, guys, that's it. Another couple stories of the books. Again, I want to thank Calvin for being brave enough to reach out, putting up with me through through all the scheduling conflicts, um, and, of course, for for sharing his story with me and, of course, all of you listeners, um. So thank you again, calvin. I appreciate you, brother.
Speaker 1:Uh, make sure you give him a follow on instagram. Uh, it's last spire, underscore outdoors. I will make sure to put a link to that in the show notes so it's easy to find um. But beyond that, guys, uh, make sure you go and follow us as well. It's uh hunting stories underscore official On on instagram. Um, also give us a review. However, you're listening to this today, um, give us a review. Whatever you think. We deserve two stars, five stars, whatever you think it's worth, but give us review and that way, more people will find us. So thank you very much for your time. Um, please reach out. If you have some stories of your own, speaking of stories of your own, let's get out there and start making more stories. Thank you.