When Leigh McClendon isn't captivating the internet with his viral cat antics, he's living a less-known, but equally engaging life as an ethical hunter. This episode takes you through the unexpected journey of a social media star who's just as comfortable with a rifle in hand as he is behind the camera. Leigh's candid discussion on the whirlwind of reactions from his audience, his heartfelt take on family hunting traditions, and the strategy behind a successful whitetail hunt make for a narrative that's both personal and profound.
Leigh's Links
Youtube
Facebook
Instagram
TikTok
When Leigh McClendon isn't captivating the internet with his viral cat antics, he's living a less-known, but equally engaging life as an ethical hunter. This episode takes you through the unexpected journey of a social media star who's just as comfortable with a rifle in hand as he is behind the camera. Leigh's candid discussion on the whirlwind of reactions from his audience, his heartfelt take on family hunting traditions, and the strategy behind a successful whitetail hunt make for a narrative that's both personal and profound.
Leigh's Links
Youtube
Facebook
Instagram
TikTok
Howdy folks, and welcome to the Hunting Stories podcast. I got a good one for you today. Today we're actually connecting with Lay McClendon. Lay is a little bit of a social media influencer. I didn't actually peg him as a hunter when I first discovered him and all sorts of people sent me his hilarious videos, but then one day I saw that he killed a deer, went in the comments and a whole bunch of people were hollering and saying unfollow. Other people were saying great job, man, great buck. So I was like you know what, let me try and get this guy in the podcast. I bet he's got some amazing stories to tell and Lay did not disappoint.
Speaker 1:So I want to say thank you to Lay, of course, for coming on the podcast. Couldn't have done it without him. Make sure you check him out. Links to everything are in the show notes so you can check out his YouTube and his Instagram etc. And, above and beyond that, guys, thank you for tuning in. Really, do appreciate it. If you have a story to tell, don't hesitate to reach out. And yeah, man, let's get this thing started. Let's let Lay tell you some of his stories. All right, lay, welcome to the Hunting Stories Podcast. Brother, how are you? I'm good. How are you? I am doing well, man, I'm doing real well. I want to thank you for being on the podcast, man. I'm very excited to have you. You're not our normal guest, you know. We have some of the people that hunt for a living, and then we have some listeners, but you're actually like a real social media influencer, like more so than most.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I feel like I'm such a wild card when it comes to the internet. I like doing what I do, I like making goofy stuff, and then I'll pull deer hunting out of my back pocket and people lose their minds. So I don't know where I fit. You know, I like, yeah, I like it's like a test. If I've got four bubbled answers, I'm picking D. All the above.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, man. That's awesome. Yeah, and that's exactly why I reach out to you. I mean, I get sent your videos from my wife because you do some hilarious cat videos. We have a main coon. We got one cat. He's massive and he can paint in my ass, but your videos are basically exactly him and then you do awesome videos. My parents are both teachers. I have kids. People send me your videos from like literally five different directions and so I'm constantly getting them and then all of a sudden, I see this deer, you know, on the ground and I'm like wait a minute.
Speaker 2:Hold on.
Speaker 1:This guy just jumped up the list here and then, of course, I clicked into the comments and I started seeing, you know, people saying, hell, yeah, get you know, here's a recipe for you. And then the other half are unfollow. Screw this guy. So I'm like, well, okay, well, let him tell the story, because I guarantee you can tell the good one.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, like half of the comments are. It's like a it's like an airport. You know everybody's got to announce that they're disappointed. I don't know.
Speaker 1:People are saying yeah, I can almost guarantee. Someone on there said why don't you just buy your meat from the grocery store like a regular person?
Speaker 2:Well, it's like okay, yeah, it's like how dare I how dare I choose to harvest my, my own meat that I eat, versus, you know, the pig that's been living in a small cage? You know, being kind of you know, I don't, I don't want to say tortured, I don't, I don't know how they go, but I mean, yeah, I'm not living as good a life as a free range stuff. Exactly, and me normally. If you, if you do the deer in the in the right spot, it doesn't take too long.
Speaker 2:So I don't know it's a lot of people trying to give input on stuff they don't know anything about 100%, 100%.
Speaker 1:And I took us down a weird path here at the beginning, but like, why don't we just start this thing off Letting you introduce yourself? I want to tell the people who you are and like a little bit about your history as far as hunting, like, when did you, when did you kick that off?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my name is Lay, lay McClendon, it's a. It's a strange name, you don't? I don't feel like anybody expects to find somebody named Lay in the deer world, but I've been. I was introduced to hunting years ago when I was young, probably like early elementary. My stepdad would take us to run dogs. I don't know if you know what that is, you know like where you probably do, but around here it used to be legal on government land.
Speaker 2:And he would get a lot of his friends on. They'd bring their kids and kind of set you up in spots and they would try to do these deer drives where they would run the dogs to you. But me, being so young, I didn't. I didn't have any successful.
Speaker 2:You know, kills during that time I remember the first time I shot at deer was during this, this running of dogs. I had two does run out in front of me, probably nowhere, probably no further than 40 yards, but we were using shotguns. Me being a dumb kid, I didn't know how to, what to do. I didn't know if I put the, the BB, on the deer or did I have to leave the shot into the deer. So I led the shot and I didn't hit any of the deer. And then I think a couple of years later, in middle school, I would spot hunt with him. He'd invite me to go hunt at our leaves government land and you know it got to where we didn't see a lot. But I remember in middle school. The reason I know the story so well is because I had braces and when I shot at this, this good buck, because all of a sudden he invited me to go hunting like right after.
Speaker 2:Thanksgiving and the first year that walks out was this good eight point and I'd always wanted a big trophy deer. You know I'd fantasize about having a wall mounted deer, but the gun we shot was not a gun that was sided in, so I guess you can understand where that left off is none of us hitting the deer. But when I shot I had braces and the gun hit me in the lip and pushed my braces into my skin and I remember having to grab my lip and kind of tear it out of my brace.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 2:And, to make matters worse, about missing that deer, my dad actually.
Speaker 1:Was it the butt of the gun or the scope, or what was it specifically that popped you? No, I think it was just. It's a blur and you have no idea.
Speaker 2:Well, I was young, you know, not very experienced at shooting guns. I think it was kind of like the side of the stock, maybe I had my chin pushed too far up on it. But to make matters worse, not only did I miss the deer, my dad brought a shotgun just in case. And I remember after I shot, that deer ran out in the middle of the lane running and he pulled up and shot and he said, oh yeah, we got him. And I sat there and I was like I remember every placement of where your BBs hit and all of them were behind the beer and I didn't want to hurt his feelings and I was like think we both meant, but I mean, yeah, but I don't know. That's kind of where I started and I think after that I took a long, a long break until, like my freshman year of college or my sophomore year college.
Speaker 1:A lot of hunters do that like high school they are interested in sports and women, and like there's a gap from for most male hunters yeah, quick question before we go into the high, sir, the college hunting go for it. You said, around here we can do dogs. Where's where's here.
Speaker 2:Louisiana okay you can't anymore. That was legal at the time. I think you can run dogs on private land, I think. Don't quote me on that, but during that time yeah, it was they had certain days, I believe got it.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, yeah, all right back to college, man. So tell us, tell us what got you back into it, like what we're fired back up.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I think I think my younger cousin got into it. He killed his first deer all of a sudden with a shotgun and I was like, huh, maybe I should pick hunting back up. We've got some family land that nobody hunted, nobody did anything on, and we kind of all got into hunting together. We would put little feeders out, because baiting here is legal and that seems to be something that a lot of people online don't realize, because I've said, oh, I'm like, if I put them on Instagram story or something, people are like oh, that's illegal.
Speaker 2:I'm like, no, not everywhere, some places, yes, yeah, colorado or yeah, or all of the East, all over the country, basically but I mean I kind of I don't know something just switched and I said you know what I want to? I want to kill my first deer. You know I hadn't. I haven't gotten to do that, but it turned into a lot of sitting and not seeing anything and I think that's what kind of caused me to stop hunting is because I really just thought, no, I guess all deer are just ghosts, because I would never see it. I'd see some, but they'd be so far and I was a kid I would just try my best and shoot, you know, a hundred something yards when it's close to dark and not really knowing proper shooting etiquette and stuff.
Speaker 2:But I remember, you know, this first year of really getting into it. You know, eventually I walked down a trail and got into this ladder stand and something about it for some reason seemed like I shouldn't be in that stand and like it was an evening hunt and I said you know what? I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna go back to this ground blind. So I got out and got in the ground blind and I guess, yeah, I didn't. I didn't really understand how well deer use their, their noses to survive. Yeah, as soon as I got in that ground blind. I I heard my first ever doe blowing. You know, at my scent I'm assuming, and you may not knowing that meant your hunts probably. You know, blown, no pun intended. Um, I thought it was cool. I said, oh, the deer here, there's deer here, I'm probably gonna kill one.
Speaker 2:And ironically I did like right after that, and it's, it was my. It was cool, for me it was. It was probably a real small doh font. I saw an ear flicker and it came out and I just pulled up and shot. I'd never got a chance to shoot a deer and as soon as I saw it drop, it was, it was. I might as well just shot a stray dog. Man, it wasn't, it was not big, but I never shot a deer before and I was always wanting to. And I just got up and I started doing the cha cha slide around it. I was so excited and it was so small, I threw it over my shoulders.
Speaker 1:I'm going back.
Speaker 2:You know it's probably my best. I'm not gonna see anything else, but I don't know. I didn't know a lot of hunting, hunting knowledge but I was super.
Speaker 1:I was super stoked man yeah, man, you gotta get on the board. You gotta start somewhere, right?
Speaker 2:oh yeah, for sure that's funny.
Speaker 1:It reminds me of. So this past elk season it was the I was. There's a second night of elk season and we see we go to this and I have a camera guy with me, because I ended up going with two world out calling champs. Yeah, and so they'll. Hey, can we video your hunt? I'm like hell, yeah, you can video as long as you guys are calling for me.
Speaker 1:I don't care what you do and I'm not sure if I tell this story on the recap episode or not, but we're we're going into this valley and we see some elk and there's one bull and four cows. And I'm sneaking in and it's like 600 yards or something like that and I see at all times three of the cows and the bull, but I have no idea where one of these cows is. I'm like well, I don't know, but whatever it's, let's just make a play and it's a, it's a fine bull. Nothing, nothing really get too excited about. But I get in there with the cameraman on my back, across a swamp, basically like 400, 500 yards, and I'm like 70, 80 yards from this, this bull. And next thing I know, I look at my left and there's a cow like 20 feet away, like, and it goes up and they bark rather than the you know the yeah whatever the white tailed noise is, but he's, she runs off, crosses this little creek, jumps to the side.
Speaker 1:But now she's upset that she's lost her pack and she starts just barking, barking. And so then they are over here and they run into the trees and they're barking. All of a sudden I've got elk in every direction of me just barking like man. This is cool, like just like you, like ignorance. I'm like whatever, this is fun, I don't care. I've got you know 30 days to hunt if I have to, and and just having that cool experience where you're hearing those noises for the first time, because I've never heard an elk bark before and now I'm literally in between a bunch of trying to get back together, but they're all like something's wrong just barking back and it's just super cool.
Speaker 1:Man it up.
Speaker 1:The bull got spooked by a moose of all damn things in Colorado and I didn't think y'all did, but that's pretty cool yeah, man, yeah, when I was sitting here after, you know, in the middle of this bark fest, there were it's a big field, it's like a mile and a half long and maybe I don't know 400 yards across, something like that. There were, at one point I counted, 15 elk and like four moose, all in the field at the same time. It was the craziest thing. It's ever happened, did you kid?
Speaker 2:could you shoot moose out there?
Speaker 1:if you have a tag yeah okay, but I did not have a tag and then that means system is entirely different, like in Colorado. You got over the counter where anybody can go up to the grocery store, just grab a tag, whether you're in state or out of state. There's a couple of the details I'm skipping over for elk, but so I could.
Speaker 2:Are you saying I could have gone to Colorado like this year and bought an over the counter tag for an elk?
Speaker 1:yes, sir, yes sir.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that. I thought I thought I was in Colorado Thanksgiving a week and for some reason everybody kept saying no, you have to draw for it. I didn't know, I could just do that. If somebody said yeah, you can do that with black bear, and I said I don't know the first thing about hunting black bear yeah, no, you can.
Speaker 1:There's a. Colorado has, like I don't know the number, but I want to say at least a hundred over-the-counter units the majority, the majority of the state is over the counter and you know it's not quite as easy just getting a tag, walking off into the woods and shooting something.
Speaker 1:But getting a tag is that easy, except for with moose, mountain goat and sheep where you have to get points for three years before you can have a chance, and then you have antelope. There's over the counter for antelope technically, then, then deer, for whatever reason, all draw. So there's three like three different systems in Colorado yeah, it's crazy and it's all changing in the next couple years. Okay, of course, yeah, but yeah, so, yeah, man, I it's cool to have that whitetail.
Speaker 1:You know that doe experience. I've had the same thing with elk. I haven't had it with whitetail yet, but I'm not a very experienced whitetail hunter.
Speaker 2:I've got the one over my shoulder here yeah, that's what the guy I met we I met him in an outfitter place in my uncle and dad invited me and he was a real cool guy. His name was tab shout out tab. But I was curious. I was just like, yeah, why are you coming all the way to Missouri to hunt? I mean, besides, they've got it's on the Missouri Iowa border, of course they've got giant deer out there. But he said where I live we don't have whitetail. And I said, really is that? I'm not used to that. I'm just I'm used to it being the opposite way. We don't have everything, y'all have everything. So it's weird to know that there are people that have all these other animals and we have the one that they don't get it. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, especially with Whitesdale being on most of the United States, like the entire East Coast. Oh yeah, I'm in Texas right now. If I were to walk into my backyard right now I could probably see 15 deer.
Speaker 2:But a part of Texas.
Speaker 1:New Bronfels, I don't know how familiar with Texas. It's kind of in between San Antonio and Austin.
Speaker 2:I was just in San Antonio Not too long ago.
Speaker 1:Cool man. Yeah, there's a lot of good hunting around here. Especially go south of San Antonio to the Golden Trials. That's where I got this guy. I got him with a shotgun as well.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:That's another crazy story, but I actually think this law was changed because of me. But you used to be able to hunt rivers, Rivers were public land in Texas and they still are, but they're no longer huntable, when they used to be huntable.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I would just go in a river, drive, riverbed, and I would hike until maybe I ran into something and that's how I got that guy.
Speaker 2:That's pretty cool. Did you get that? Is that a big horn sheep on your wall?
Speaker 1:That is a big horn sheep on my wall, but it is not mine.
Speaker 2:That's my one bucket list thing. I guess I kind of feel like I'm never going to achieve that because everybody keeps saying no, that's pretty much a once in a lifetime hunt and made me sad. I said like that's the one thing I would kill for you know.
Speaker 1:Man, I bet you can do it, they say. I think when they say once in a lifetime, most places, when you draw that tag and you're successful, you can't go in anymore. So it's not unrealistic to think that you can draw it, but once you've gotten it, you're done, and that's why they call it a once in a lifetime tag. Okay, yeah, man. Well, again, we'll talk afterwards about some draw stuff and I'll walk you through some of it.
Speaker 1:Sure, but it's. This is my father-in-law's. He actually lived in Canada, saskatchewan, and he passed away this past year, so I was like I'll take it.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry about that, yeah.
Speaker 1:They were about.
Speaker 2:They were about to throw it away and I was like no, no, I want that, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And everyone asked me about it.
Speaker 2:Everyone's like oh you were on a sheep hunt and I'm like no, no, I'm still on it, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, all right. Well, we went off topic, man, but all right, all right, leigh, what are the stories you got for us? I think we were. We were kind of talking about well, were you in college at this point?
Speaker 2:or do you have any?
Speaker 1:specific ones that you want to go over.
Speaker 2:Oh, I mean I can. My story is really not that elaborate but I can start where I left off. So I basically killed that dog what look? That's what people call small deer. And after that it wasn't a couple of weeks later I got. I was still into it. I was, I was in college, you know about, I think, an hour and a half away from where I was hunting, so like on my holiday breaks I would go and hunt and I killed a larger doe and I was like, okay, we upgraded, we killed something, pretty good. But I noticed something. I said you know, I'm seeing a lot of dobes. Where are the bucks I'm not seeing?
Speaker 2:any of that and I got to. I started talking to my stepdad you know we kind of that's when me and him started hanging out as well. You know I hang out with him all the time now, but now we just I'll go over and we'll talk deer hunting. But he said he gave me the advice. He said, if you ever get a chance, just watch the deer. You don't always have to shoot them. And I said, oh, that's a good point. So the rest of that season I said I'm just, I'm just going to watch deer and just see what they do, try to learn from them.
Speaker 2:And I think after that year was pretty, pretty slow. I didn't see much else, didn't kill anything else than the next year I said I'm not killing a doe, I don't have an interest in that, I've already done. It Didn't seem too hard. And I man, I sat out there all season long just hoping to see anything with horns. And I remember one super cold morning I had these two little like I guess there were nubbin bucks pop out and they started rubbing their heads together and a bigger deer popped out and I thought it was a doe, but there was a branch above its head and then they were all looking at me. I guess because I was so cold I was making my ground blind shake.
Speaker 2:And it turned to get out of there and I saw a flash of horns and I threw up a shot man, and I was still pretty inexperienced, but I was getting better and I got. I was so sad I said, man, I know it didn't hit that deer and I walked down there to look for blood and I stepped into the ride of the woods where it ran. I stepped back on the trail and it was sitting there on the trail. So if I would have just sat in my ground blind it might have come back out, but it wasn't wounded.
Speaker 1:It was just standing down the trail. No, it was just curious.
Speaker 2:I don't know Well, but I didn't hit it and I think that was the year 2016. I can remember all my years but I did not kill another deer until 2019. So from 2015 to 2019, that's like four years I waited because I said I want to kill a buck, I want to kill a buck, and I remember I kept learning about the rut, learning about when the times were for us, and that's normally around Thanksgiving a week and I find I think I sat out at our at our lease, and my dad said he said you know, you'll know. One thing you learn from those and deer is watch what they do. If they look behind them, odds are there's something else with them.
Speaker 2:And I remembered seeing a doe run by about 150 yards. She ran and then her fond came out halfway and looked behind her and I said, oh, she's doing that thing, she's doing that thing, he said. And as soon as it came out, I saw, I saw horns and I pulled up and shot and I saw the deer jump up and kick and I, man, I started checking. I got that. That was my first buck fever moment and it, you know it was one of. It was another learning experience as well, because I should have just, instead of rushing the shot, I should have checked it out. But I think I get a pass because, being my first buck, it wasn't anything but like a two year old eight point. Nothing, nothing fancy, but that's not the point. I just I still enjoyed the moment, man, and it was. It's all about the learning experiences with it.
Speaker 1:Um but I think I love how you've been like teaching yourself like you were, like this is something I want to get back into and you just going through making mistakes, acknowledging the mistakes, because we all do.
Speaker 1:I've done really stupid shit that some of it I've shared on the podcast, some of it I haven't. Um, but man, this that's, that's awesome. I love. I love hearing other hunters that don't necessarily have that same mentor that a lot of hunting people do. Man, I'm, I'm the same way. I've been struggling, struggling through it for about eight years now. Uh and just starting to see success.
Speaker 2:So oh yeah, um. Then after that, I think the next year, nothing happened. Our lease actually flooded. We had a beaver dam up a pond nearby and we, to get out to our stands you had to wear waist high waders to get out there and that year was pretty slow. A lot of dough movement and uh, and then the next year this was the year it's like a just a switch turned on and now things changed. Don't know why, but it did Um. So we had a good 10 point um on camera and we also that was that was a cool thing, is we got into cameras?
Speaker 2:So he kind of got you pumped, you would think no bucks were around because you didn't have cameras.
Speaker 2:but uh, we had a good 10 point hanging around and then I would fantasize so much about seeing it. Uh, and I remember I was hunting hard and nobody else was hunting out there and then all of a sudden, uh, I go to sit out there and my uncle says, hey, I'm going to come hunt too. And we're not, we're not. But maybe 200 yards away and uh, right at dark, I hear a pal and I just text him. I said you get a buck? He said yeah, I had three of them chasing the dough and I sat there like this. I said I hate to say it, but I hope he killed a dink. And I walked out there and he killed that 10 point. And I was, I was so sad, I was like man, I've been trying to kill a good, good buck for the wall for I guess, like at that point, seven years, I just wanted to harvest a mature deer. But uh, uh, you know, after that I think it was three days later I shot a what I? It was a bigger buck than my first one.
Speaker 2:It was about a three year old deer. It's not the best rack, but it was my biggest and I threw it on the wall. I said you know what I'm happy about it. I feel like I earned it. Um, and then, like a week later after that, my uncle kills a real good eight point and then at the end of the month of December, I killed a good 10 point. It was the weirdest time. We never had success like that and it was just us going out there and hunting, but we got four good deer in one year. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:How many tags do you get in Louisiana when you, when you?
Speaker 2:um, I don't, I don't. I don't want to say it wrong. I think you get. I'm probably going to mess it up. I think technically I can tagging out on bucks, as you can kill three bucks. Okay, um, and I don't know, it might be like three. Does I could pull it up on my phone?
Speaker 1:but I think, yeah, I'm thinking about like Texas, texas, I think you get like upwards. Y'all can kill like five like five deer and like two mule deer and like all sorts of crazy stuff. You get a tag and they just like 15 animals are in trouble.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just got back from hunting in North Texas not too long ago and I didn't know that, like, if you kill a buck in one county, you have to go over to another county to kill one.
Speaker 1:I think that might be on a county by county basis.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:But I don't know. I always, whenever I plan on hunting somewhere in Texas, I always call the game board and be like what do I need to know that I that I don't know. What am I not asking about? Yeah, they usually fill you in which is a good, good habit to have for anywhere you hunt.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, but anyway, the year is 2021. I killed two bucks and I'm like, well, I guess technically I could try to tag out, but we didn't. We were pretty certain we didn't have any more good deer running around, at the least for that year. Uh, but I said you know what, I haven't hunted.
Speaker 2:Where I started in a while, where I was hunting when I killed those two doe, was on our family land, not at this lease that I hunted on Um and I said you know what, I'm going to go throw a camera up and just see. I think I had like two weeks of hunting left Um, and I threw out corn and put a feeder on it just to see if there was something. And, lo and behold, there was a massive 10 point super wide, and I I had two weeks to try to kill him, um, and I'd sit out there in the freezing cold, trying so hard I he was, he was a massive beer Um, but didn't see him, got a lot of pictures of him and I said you know what, I'm going to see if he's there for next year. And then, uh, when?
Speaker 2:the next season. When the next season came around, uh, you could tell his times kind of got a little shorter, but he turned from a 10 point to an 11 point, um, so I mean it was, I think it was October. I, you know, our season, I think, starts. I think archery season starts early October, but rifle season starts kind of late October and I didn't do any, um, I didn't do any archery hunting. I just didn't grow up that way. We just strictly rifle hunting, um, but I remember I would get pictures of them all the time I was having a hog problem, uh, but it I thought these hogs ran them out.
Speaker 2:I didn't get pictures of them for like two weeks and I said, well, I think the date was October 18th. No, it wasn't 18th, I don't know it was. It was super, super early in the season or something like that. I can't remember the date. But I said you know what? I'm going to just go sit and, uh, I'm going to see if these, what these deer are doing, to run. No, it was November 14th, my bad.
Speaker 2:Uh, I said you know what Our rut is during? You know, in a week, 10 days, something like that, I'm just going to go see what the deer are doing and I I think legal shooting hours were at 6, 15 that morning and at 6, 18,. I look at about 50 yards away I see a bigger silhouette of a deer and it's just breaking daylight. You can't really see too well, but she, I mean you can technically shoot, uh. And this deer is just staring in my direction. It's not doing what you would think a doe would do come out and walk around, it's just sitting, still just staring. And I said I started getting kind of nervous. I said that's kind of creepy, it's not, it's not doing what you think you should do.
Speaker 2:And then it was on a. It was on a lane and it started walking down the lane and it had its back facing to me and I said, all right, I'm going to scope it and just look at it. I'm sure it's just a big doe. And all of a sudden I just see this wide spread of horns and I just I didn't have time to say holy crap, I just immediately said he's about to walk on this right side and the only shot I'm going to have is he's going to quarter, he's going to quarter away. And I said I just got to shoot. It didn't happen so fast, man, but I shot and didn't say nothing. It was just too dark still to see anything. But I heard him running and like running and crashing through. I didn't know if it was like falling crash and it just sounded like he was breaking through every inch as he ran yeah, yeah, that's how'd you feel about that moment, man Like that's the big deer you've been waiting for.
Speaker 1:You're like I just really know what's going on, and then just, oh shit, there he is.
Speaker 2:I sat there, you know like five, three, I don't know, I don't do math five minutes after the shooting hours and he comes out. But I just sat there and I said I just, I did the typical thing. Text everybody that I've been telling about this deer hey, I just shot at him. I don't do that. I don't say I shot the deer, I tell him I shot at it, I'm like I don't, I don't know, I'm missing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not standing over it, so who knows.
Speaker 2:I don't ever want to tell somebody I shot the deer. I mean, it was dark, how am I going to know for a fact I shot him right there, I don't know. But anyway, I just told all my friends and stuff, uh, hey shot at the deer. And they're like, hey, I'd give him an hour, just let the sun come up, give him an hour and go check. And I did.
Speaker 2:And as soon as it was daylight I kind of walked out there on the trail and tried to see if I could see any blood where I shot him. And I didn't. I was too afraid to step in the woods to where he ran. I just didn't want to be disappointed. I actually got. I got that lump in my throat. I just said I bet I missed this stupid thing. I was so sad. I said I bet I missed it. But I took a couple steps in the woods and I see a big chunk of pink and red and I just I was like yeah, and I started. I started following blood and it kind of stopped for a minute and I called my dad. I said, hey, do you mind coming out me out here to help me look? And we found more blood and I was just looking around. I couldn't find nothing else. I just looked behind me and my dad sitting there with his phone up like this. He says you see it? He was trying to get my reaction. I'm like, oh, where the heck is it?
Speaker 1:But he saw it already.
Speaker 2:That's funny man, but we found the deer and dude. I was. I was on cloud nine and this is that's actually him, right here it was. I think the tax thermoscored him at like 149.
Speaker 1:But I mean I mean around here.
Speaker 2:I mean it's kind of unheard of. I know other people are like that's nothing. I see 250 inch deer, you know, just off the wall stuff. But apparently I got so many messages saying hey man, I've been hunting that deer for you know, six years and the tax thermoscete was six years old. So I said that's, that's pretty cool. But I don't. I don't think there will ever be a deer that I'm more proud of and here's the ironic part is my grandma. Since this was right behind my grandma's house, I'd always tell her man, I'd like to kill a big deer behind your house. And that was the last hunting season I had with my grandma until then she passed away. So I said, oh man, to me that's just like a gift from God, almost. So I thought it was meant to be man, that's a super cool.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's, of course, sad that your grandma passed away and I'm sorry to hear that, man, but it is. It is a beautiful story that, like that's something you always wanted and you know you snuck it in there and it's a huge deer. The one behind me is the only white tail I've ever shot and he's like, I think, like 120 maybe.
Speaker 2:So like another 20. He's got an interesting rack though.
Speaker 1:Oh, dude, he's super weird. He's a and he's, if I had to guess, I'm down in the Golden Triangle of South Texas and I think he was only like three years old.
Speaker 2:He's still a good looking deer though.
Speaker 1:I don't.
Speaker 2:The whole age thing to me is if you like to deer man, take it. There's so many people that give people a hard time on what they harvest and I don't ever want to get spoiled. To me a good looking 121, 30 deer I don't ever want to get to where I'm like I don't know, I can't shoot it. He's to me it still excites me, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I mean Texas public land. I didn't have access to any private.
Speaker 2:So I had no other choice.
Speaker 1:I was going to get a spike out of an ecstatic.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Absolutely Well, that's like 120. Hell yeah Right.
Speaker 1:And yeah, he's got his, his, both of his brow tines twist and have a whole bunch of other stuff going on. Yeah one of them has like three extra points on it.
Speaker 2:That's cool. That's super cool.
Speaker 1:But man, that's a great story. That's a great story. What did you? Did you take the deer back to grandma's?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, I've got a picture. I definitely got it framed, but I got a picture to bring from a pitch along. I don't see that well.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, no man, that's awesome. Yeah, look at her. She's like she looks just as happy as you do.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, no, I had to pick her up and put her out there. I she was kind of getting weak, um, and I said, no, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta give me this picture, so. But she wanted it too, so it was cool. That's amazing man.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. And when? What year was that?
Speaker 2:Uh, that was 2022. So last time I see some, you know not too long ago.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. And then you've had a fair amount of success since then. Am I right? Yeah?
Speaker 2:After that, that's when that's when hunting kind of seemed to get a little weird Not in a bad way, you know really interesting, because shortly after I killed this one, my uncle, he's got a friend in Oklahoma where they've got a ranch where they try to really manage the deer over there. Yeah, he was like, yeah, I'll shot a 170 out here. That I didn't hit and kill, but the catch was that you can only use bows and I had zero experience with it. And he said hey, man, if you want to try my crossbow, you can come out here for a couple of days. So I did that and, uh, you know, I didn't, I didn't. I didn't know what to expect, but I mean I had a blast out there.
Speaker 2:Um, I remember the first morning just being so many does that? This is crazy cool and they said it was the rut, but I hadn't seen anything. But I remember the first morning out there I saw a doe and I didn't think nothing of it and I looked away and then I saw the reflection of the box blinds, uh, windows. I saw her looking at my stand. I said I wonder what she's doing. And I kind of looked further into the reflection and I see a big, giant buck with her and I just my heart starts pounding. I'm like I don't. I don't know the first thing about shooting this crossbow, but ended up trotting off Um, and he followed with her and, uh, the the only I didn't.
Speaker 2:I didn't really shoot anything the first day, but uh, I did kind of spend that time learning how to use my range finder and kind of how to judge distance, because once again I had no experience with that. But after that the next morning I, you know, slow in the net in the first year I saw was this real big deer, I think my uncle. He got him on camera. Uh, he said he probably scored at the time like 160, 160 inches.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But he just sat there kind of doing what my big deer did, uh, back home. He just sat there looking, he didn't move. It's kind of weird how those big bucks like to do that just sit still and stare, um, but I guess that's why they're big, um. But he, he came out about I don't I don't want to get it wrong I think maybe 65 yards, you know. Some would say, yeah, that's, you can shoot that with a crossbow. But my uncle was saying you know, I wouldn't go over 50, me being a rifle. He gave me broadside and stood still and I said I Can't not, I can't not let a narrow fly.
Speaker 1:But the only see when you got a trigger right, you got a. Oh yeah, you gotta send it.
Speaker 2:But the the only bad thing about it in this in, you know it's it's definitely not a Good hunting moment. On my end that morning I actually forgot to bring my rangefinder, but I had been sitting there the morning before kind of scoping out little landmarks that I'm like, okay, that's 30 yards, that's 40, and I thought I had it right. But it was definitely a learning experience to make sure you don't forget that thing. It's pretty important when you're using those. I don't, but I hit it. I hit the deer, but I believe we hit it kind of hot, kind of high, because we found blood, but it was. We gave him a couple of couple of hours but we tracked them for about 2,000 yards and found spare blood and Just kind of came to the conclusion that he lived. But they actually got pictures of him this year so he was still alive and kicking.
Speaker 2:So yeah and I'm gonna go, I'm gonna talk myself out of breath, but um that, that kind of wrapped up 20, 22. After that I was pretty much done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I bet I bet I've had, I've had a similar moment, man, and I think all hunters do. Where you're like, you just sort of get in a moment and you let something fly, whether it's Bullet, an arrow, a bolt, whatever. Oh yeah my the first, the first opportunity that I ever had on elk. I'm at like 40 yards on this bowl, but he's laying down in front of a log so I can't see anything except his head and so I'm just hanging out and I'm waiting, my buddy comes in from another angle.
Speaker 1:I've told this story before On my podcast. But he comes in at another angle and my buddy doesn't even know what a wind checker is, so he's just crawling in and the wind goes straight to. So I see for elk when I'm standing there waiting just patiently, and all within 40, 50 yards, but I don't have a shot on anything. And all of a sudden 30 elk stand up on this hill. Man 30.
Speaker 2:I'm like holy shit.
Speaker 1:But. But I'm not a full draw, I book it and they run around me basically 90 degrees and I'm like I have a stationary pin, stationary pins on my bow, so I have like a 30 30, 50, 60 and I'm like all right, well, I'll put my 60 pin at the top of its back and I'll let it rip, because I was like I won an elk.
Speaker 1:I've been trying so hard of years and years of hiking and running the mountains and I let it rip and as soon as I did I was like I have no idea how the fire that elk is and thank God that arrow dropped like 30 yards in front of all of the elk. Probably they were probably like 80 or 90 yards and I just had no idea. But I just, I just sent it and as soon as I did I was like that was dumb and Never found my arrow because there was snow everywhere is just a ridiculous event, but it's just the nature of the beast man.
Speaker 1:You get into the moment, yeah yeah, I'm sure and and not everything stays. You know what it is when you're sitting there where there's no deer.
Speaker 2:Well there's the thing that, uh, hunting, you really have to get over your own impatience Because you know, if you've sat there, if you have five days to hunt, in four days you don't see much, you don't get many chances. You know that fifth day You're, you're pretty much a Daredevil. At that point You're like I'll shoot through the tree to get this year. You know, you start getting desperate and if anybody says I don't get that way, you're a liar.
Speaker 1:No, I think you're kind of right. Yeah, I try my best to say I'll shoot on day one when I shoot on the last day. But yeah you definitely get a lot more desperate as the days go, man, oh, for sure.
Speaker 2:Speaking of compound bows, that's actually, um, my, my task for next year is I want to. I want to go to a bow shop kind of shoot a couple bows, see what I like and try to get into it. You know I've been enjoying crossbows but I mean there, it's one of those things. Yeah, you got to know the range, but it is kind of like shooting rifle, but I'm not hating on it, I still enjoy it. But I feel like if I'm getting into hunting, like I am, might as well Make sure I hit the whole trifecta.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely man. Yeah, I switched from rifle and muzzle loader to archery only because I wanted to hunt in warmer weather. Like that's it, I was like screw this cold shit. Like I'm tired of this. This sucks, especially Colorado. I remember my first Colorado hunt. The temperature didn't get above 20 degrees, like warmest part of the day was 20 and I'm like this is stupid. Why am?
Speaker 2:I doing this.
Speaker 1:I'm switched to archery and then just ended up falling in love with it and it's, it's a really fun. My recommendation to anyone listening and you man is a 3d archery specifically Don't just shoot it Shoot in a paper. I found it super boring and as soon as I discovered shooting it like foam animals, I was like yep, this is my personality.
Speaker 2:now, yeah, it's not a bad personality to have, and I know it's not gonna compare, but I would shoot. I used to work at a summer camp and they had archery there and, of course, shooting kids, bose, you know you don't think anything of it, but yeah, part of me feels like when I get into it I'm probably not gonna be too bad at it. So I don't know. I'm excited to see what happens with it.
Speaker 1:Good man. Good. That's exciting. Do you have any stories from 2023?
Speaker 2:Otherwise, yeah, plenty of time, man, I mean you tell me yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna listen all night, if you'll let me. Otherwise, we can wrap it up.
Speaker 2:Oh, we can wrap it up at this year, this new year, this new year's been, I think, the most interesting, and I'm hoping that it only gets more Interesting from here on out, because just the experience is the loan has been the coolest part. So this year is the. I've killed a deer in four different states this year and that's that's like. I'm not used to that. What's the 100 in Louisiana, to start for a little while.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I don't know what it was. Just on all my cameras and I know cameras don't always, you know Exactly, tell you if you have a big deer around or not, because it seems like those big deer like to. They like to walk anywhere, but in front of these cameras. But back home, when it started, the season started, I didn't see much. I Really did. I just wasn't seeing any does or anything. It was just so slow.
Speaker 2:Um, but in October, my uncle and dad, they invited me to go to the outfitters in Missouri where we were only doing bow hunting and we had five days to do it. But we, when we went, it seemed kind of slow, we weren't seeing many, you know good great deer running around, even though we knew there were plenty of them. But I think on the second evening of our five days, um, I, everybody was hunting in these like draws, these little open areas, and I said you know, do you have any creek bottoms? He said yep, we've got one called the gut shot stand. And I said, why is it called that? And I said, well, there's a story behind it. You can probably understand why. Um, but I said, put me there, because all I know is back home. You know, all this putting it on the open for me just doesn't make sense because what I've been told is dear like cover. So I said put me in this gut, shot stand.
Speaker 2:And I I said you know what, I'm not a big rattling guy, I'm not a big calling guy, but I'm gonna try it out. I had a. I just brought a rattle bag out there and I think I had two does come by. And then I had a spike about a hundred and thirty yards and I said I'm gonna try the rattle thing see becomes. And he sure did. He came and hung around and left and I called him again. He left, caught him a third time. He left and I someone try the fourth time.
Speaker 2:And when I did it the fourth time, I looked to my right and I just saw this bigger deer Making a rub on a tree and he started coming my way with his ears back and I said, oh god, that's, I've never seen that happen before. And I got he's fired up. Yeah, yeah, his tail kind of out, his head was down and I didn't really get a chance to see if he was what he was. But I could. His body was big. I said I, but I mean, dear Missouri, are just so much different from what we have here. Um, but I ended up I had to stand up to even get a shot and kind of turn my body.
Speaker 2:And as soon as he got to these trees, I said you know what, I'm gonna hit him with? That old, that old-fashioned man, that little stop and sound, just so I can get a good look at him. But he did this stupid thing where when I did it he didn't see, he didn't want to stop where I wanted him to. Instead he wanted to put it in the in the middle of a tree. So I only saw one side of the antlers and I said, you know, it looks good to me and I shot him. So I ended up killing a. He was probably around 250 pounds, but it was a good-looking nine point. And I I said you know, I'm gonna take him home and put him somewhere. I haven't gotten him back yet, but I felt proud of it, man.
Speaker 2:I decided where I wanted to sit just because of what I felt was right and I got to rattle in my first year and that was my first bow buck, my first crossbow buck, so I thought it was cool.
Speaker 1:And like going to an outfitter and be like this is where I want to be, this is what makes sense to me. Yeah like you put the plan together that feels. That feels good. Like I was saying, I went with two world champion elk callers and yeah the morning. The morning we killed my bowl. I was like here's what I'm thinking we should do, boys, and like these guys have so much more experience than me.
Speaker 1:But I'm just like trying to participate in you know you know the strategy sessions and it worked out and I'm like I.
Speaker 2:They said if you only go sit out for a dough, you can. And I started sleeping in. Everybody else was in the cold. But I said on the fourth, the fourth morning, I said I'll go sit out near my dad and Saw pretty, pretty wide, big 10 point come out about 20 yards for me at daylight and I said I I would have liked to take that one, but Wait, in can either pay off or it can um, yeah but after that, um, I my season kind of turned back to normal.
Speaker 2:I started hunting back at home. But then I got invited to jump on a podcast with deer and deer hunting TV Mm-hmm. I jumped on that and the Dan Schmidt at, the host of the show, he, um, he's been to like me a lot and he said, hey, we need to make sure we set up a hunt with him. And I said, oh, that's cool, that'd be really fun.
Speaker 2:And uh, we, they said they were trying to get Some outfitter's permissions to go out there and record a hunt with me and it just didn't seem like they were getting much, um, I Guess many, offers um. But I said, you know what it's cool. They said we'll just try to make it happen for next year. Oh, but the, the guide, the outfit or Missouri, kind of convinced me, said, hey, you want to come back for a rifle season? You can. And I kind of told that to the deer and deer hunting people. They said, hey, if you do, we'll come record it. So that was kind of. My answer is that I'm going back to Missouri, same place, um, because we knew they had some great deer out there. It's just, you can't always connect with a bow. Let's try to. Let's try to get a good one with with a rifle and I don't know. You just remember what I said sometimes Shooting early is good, sometimes it's not, but anyway, we had a camera guy come out and I was real worried.
Speaker 2:I said man, I don't know if it's just gonna be this Rough and tough country deer hunter that's gonna kind of judge me every move I make, you know. But it wasn't. It was this younger guy that really didn't do a lot of hunting, so that was kind of funny but super nice guy. And the first morning of our hunt we had a pretty good wide eight-point come out and I said you know my, my Louisiana Family land mindset came in. I said I'm shooting this year and I put it in the scope. I said no, I Told myself I was gonna be patient. His he's not. He's not a monster. But I said I'm gonna be patient, I let it, I let him go. Didn't see much that day. And then the third, third morning I think it was the morning or the evening I was in that gut shot stand where I shot the nine point Um and I started doing rattling again and I had a big, big, heavy-bodied here come out exactly where I shot the nine and he just kind of stared at us.
Speaker 2:I really didn't know if he was. He had a lot of um Branches above us near his head so I couldn't really make out what he was. But I would have had to shoot him left-handed if I would have shot him anyway. But looking back on the film he looked like a good deer, but just not that monster. I wanted to see if I could get.
Speaker 2:And now the fourth morning we sat in another stand. They called the hooch. It didn't. It didn't see much, but we he's Ian, the camera guy. Ian said hey, there's a doe right there. And all of a sudden through the tall grass you just see the way I explained, it is a huge capital U of horns Hopping through the grass our way and I just started panicking us and I said oh, that's him, that's the one we want. And it was. It was in like a second and he never showed himself again. Oh, he probably scored in the high 150s if we had to had to guess, but it was. It was super cool to see on. But they had a Empty Creek bottom right in front of us and I guarantee he went down in there and hung out with her because all you could smell Is that really musky smell, um.
Speaker 2:But then after that it was a five and it turned into that situation. It's like maybe we should have shot one of these early deer. But yeah, that day five morning didn't see nothing. And Bruce, the guy there, he texted us saying, hey, man, from the lodge I saw there was a bit a good looking buck bed down with a doe, south of you guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he said if y'all want, I can just come pick you up, but I think it'll scare the deer off. If y'all want to try to stalk up on it, you can. And I said this on that it's, it's the last morning, let's try it out. And we kind of snuck up and I didn't see it. We got, I think, 150 yards from it and all of a sudden I see the doe jump up and run and I said, oh god, there's the buck. And he was a good eight, he was real tall, uh, and he was running and I put, put my scope on him and shot him running. So I and we had been joking all weeks and watch me have to shoot a running deer and I shot him and hit him, so it was. I was super stoked about that.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, and he just dropped right there. Did you have a little bit of a second job?
Speaker 2:He's. No, he flipped right there. I think I shot maybe a little high up on his spawn, but I definitely had to put another one in him. Nobody likes to do that, I mean. But that's.
Speaker 1:That's right thing to do. Sometimes that happens. Yeah, man, that's awesome oh. Yeah that's great. So that was two in Missouri and one of the area in it.
Speaker 2:Well, I didn't kill one in Louisiana yet. Oh, I can keep going, though I I did another podcast with some people. There was a YouTube channel called the element, and the show meat eater actually bought their, their business. So now they record YouTube punts for meat eater and they wanted me to do their podcast. And then they did the same thing. They said hey, do you want to hunt north Texas? And I said yeah, I do.
Speaker 2:So we we hunted and they didn't really have a lot of monsters on camera. They had one good non points that the guy who invited me he actually ended up shooting last evening. Um, but that was such a cool experience to me because it kind of just threw everything I learned out the window, because that place that's just so open, with Theater trees placed around and you're just like, how do, how do deer get around?
Speaker 2:here how do they eat what? What do they eat? Yeah, oh, but but it seemed like the only thing they would plant for food plots was, like wheat, wheat fields, um, so it was just. It was so cool to just Be able to hunt two different states and see how that goes. But I think our third, third afternoon, um, we were sitting in this box, blind and, uh, we could see these Kind of does bedded down in this, these, this thin layer of cedars, uh, and then all of a sudden, I said, hey, I told my camera guy camera guy, yeah, I can't say the word. Camera guy, greg, I see the butt of a deer and he, he put his binos on it and said, hey, that's a, that's a good looking deer, that's, that's a good deer. And uh, you know, I said okay, I checked it out myself and I said it's not a bad looking deer. I know they said in north texas they really don't get at three years old, they really don't get huge.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, but uh you know, he south south texas is where they are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, easy and also like 75 points of just weirdness.
Speaker 1:And they breed them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would love to kill a south texas deer. I think the ones that get that that dark horn I've loved to kill. I don't know, there's something about a texas deer. They get these sandy colored horns and I think it's super cool. Yeah. But we were rifle hunting this time and that deer was about 300 yards and I said, well, that feeder is gonna go off soon and I'm gonna pull the trigger at 300. You can see, said, well, if you feel comfortable, you can try to. I said I've never had to shoot that far.
Speaker 1:But had you ever practiced at that distance? No, this was the first time ever.
Speaker 2:But I mean, we kind of talked about it. We were like I I mean this is gonna sound nerdy. I used to play a bunch of shooting video games and I said, oh, I know that when you shoot farther you have to shoot a little higher. And we both have kind of agreed shoot a little above his back and when I shot him, he, he don't get kicked. So I said, okay, I hit him. But we looked at the video and it looked low. But he kind of ran behind a cedar and gave us this back and the camera guy said shoot him again. I did. He said shoot him again, shot him again. And then we kind of wrapped.
Speaker 2:After that we decided to Wrap around the heels and see if we could get above him, just to make sure he was you know, dad. And it turns out the first shot was lethal. It's shot low, but it's like it ricocheted off the ribs or something and it double lunged him and came out perfectly in the middle on the other side. Super weird. But uh, he was. He was a good looking, younger, younger, seven point. And uh, that's what I was gonna say You've got a euro texas buck there, and that's what I'm doing to my this euro mountain.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's awesome man. That's, that's cool. I feel like I owe you a hunt. Now that you've been on my podcast, let me, I'll work on that All right.
Speaker 2:Man Don't feel obligated, but I I know you.
Speaker 1:I know you won't. I know you won't. I think I can outdo white tail. I got a buddy with an awedad ranch. Maybe I could talk him into it.
Speaker 2:I know he listens to John.
Speaker 1:Let's, let's, let's get laid out there, man.
Speaker 2:Um but.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you're familiar with awedad man. They're super cool barberry sheep from afghanistan.
Speaker 2:They got this long chest domain. Super, that'd be cool, super, yeah, I'm down for anything. And then I've got one more story and I'll be done shortly after that. My uncle and I see back to oklahoma and uh, he the most. The first morning out there I saw a good look in eight in a cold, a cold seven. But I didn't shoot anything that first morning. And uh, so I think the third night I didn't really see much. Uh, you'd see a lot of does and young bucks. But the third night he said, hey, do you see this? This younger sticks, shoot it. We don't, we don't want him breeding and stuff. I don't. I don't know what I believe in in calling, but hey, they told me to shoot it. So I did, uh, so I shot that one. And when my uncle came to pick me up he said I killed the tall eight. So he killed a good looking eight, point. So we kind of it was kind of cool to be able to share that moment of kind of doubling up.
Speaker 2:So the last morning we were there. He said, hey, you can go hunt if you want. I almost sit here and clean up for his friend that owns the place. And I said, cool, and I was out there and as soon as daybreak happens, about 20 yards in front of me I'm sitting kind of at an angle, but I, when I sat there before and had all these good looking bucks come out, they came straight. But it happened in four seconds. I just see a giant crown of white. It passed through about 20 yards for me and my heart in four seconds. My heart was beating out my chest, um, and I said that it was one of those, no questions asked, that was, that was a good deer.
Speaker 2:I think he probably scored my uncle. He, after I told him about it, he said was it this deer? And he showed me a picture and I said that, uh, that looks like the deer. Um, but he, he said, yeah, that deer score was probably like mid one sixties. And I said I would have liked to take that that deer home. He was a, he was. He was like a real thick horned 10 point, just real tall, real wide, just real pretty it. But that it's one of those things towards like, instead of sitting angle to the left, I wish I would have been sitting angle to the right, yeah, because I would have been able to see him coming and had a shot, but he just he. He didn't walk slow, he was our power walking through, and that's that's how my year has gone so far. And then I came back in, my stepdad needed meat and I went to the least and shot him a small doe, and that's that's how I got my fourth year for the fourth state.
Speaker 1:But that's a damn good year, man. That's a good year.
Speaker 2:I still don't consider it over. I'm just the season's still here, I can still rifle hunting everything, and I actually I'm taking my, my fiance hunting for the first time this Friday. So I went out and stayed and kind of threw out corn and stuff and cleaned up some stuff and see if I can't get her to see some deer.
Speaker 1:That's cool man. Does she have any hunting background, or you know?
Speaker 2:anyone else in her family.
Speaker 1:No, no, no no, no, my wife's father did and her brother does, but like she's got no interest, I'm trying to get in somehow excited, especially because, like we got deer all over our yard, the main reason I can't shoot them is, she says I can't shoot them.
Speaker 2:Oh no, steve, and that's the cool thing. And she's like oh, you should try to, you should try to kill one of these, and so so I think it's cool that she's all for it, and she also has a son that's seven. So I think I think after I take her, he's got to be next. So maybe I can start his deer hunting journey. I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, that's cool. Pass it on to the next generation. Teach them all the stuff that you've been teaching yourself, that's all oh yeah. I've said this a hundred times on the podcast. I know that I'm always going to be a mediocre hunter, but I hope to learn enough to make my son a pretty damn good hunter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, I tell people all the time when it comes to hunting, I'm never going to sit there and play like I know the best, because as I've grown I've learned some. And then some of these people I've asked for advice. I've heard them give some terrible advice. When I started learning, I'm like, oh, I don't want to be like that. I want to meet people that I trust that. I'm like, yeah, they've got a good resume, I can believe what they say and just compile up a lot of knowledge. I get from people and go from there and spread it out.
Speaker 1:For sure, man, I think you mentioned some advice that you got from someone. I don't remember who gave it to you. It might have been your stepdad, but it was just go out there and watch the deer and like just watching the animals you'll learn so much about them Now that. I've all this deer running on my yard with no intent in shooting them.
Speaker 1:I'm starting to pay attention to like what they do in different times of the year, and granted, I don't get much white tail hunting in my life, but like I feel like living where I live right now, I'm a better white tail hunter than before, so just watch the animals is some great advice.
Speaker 2:And another piece of good advice he gave me that I'm sure he heard from a TV show Can't kill them on the couch, so that's the best one.
Speaker 1:Can't kill them from home. That's right.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it's just flat out right place, right time.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, Absolutely Well, lay man. This was fun. This was fun. I appreciate you taking some time to share your stories with us. Hopefully you got another four deers worth of stories next year. We're going to have you back, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that'd be cool. Yeah, yeah, I hope so.
Speaker 1:Let's do this. Let's tell the people where they could find you so they can see some of your amazing, hilarious videos, most of them aren't hunting stuff. But yeah, no, they're weird. They're super weird that you do a surprisingly good like eight year old girl impression. I don't know, man.
Speaker 2:I'm just got that, I don't know. Some people say I've got that dog in me, I've got that weird in me.
Speaker 1:That's good, but I like to surround myself by weird people. It's more entertaining than normal.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, more boring people Some.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Believe it or not, I used to do deer hunting skits when I first started making videos.
Speaker 1:But I just did.
Speaker 2:And well, I'm starting to think if I'm getting all these hunting show toms, because the one in Texas was recorded, missouri was recorded. I'm actually going in February on an alligator hunt with a guy named Blaine Anthony. He has a show called Bear Whisper Cool. So if I'm becoming, if hunting seems to be becoming, a second job, you know I might as well bring hunting skits back. But they can find all my weirdness on any platform, at Lay McNasty. It's leogh underscore McNasty.
Speaker 1:There you go, and I'll put a link to it, of course, in the show notes, man, but thank you. Ok, this was a lot of fun. Again, I appreciate your time. I know I kicked the can down the road one time on you, so I appreciate you being patient.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's OK. No, I understand life happens. But no, I appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man yeah, and who knows, maybe I'll find a hunt for us to go on here. Hey, surely.
Speaker 2:I don't have a life anymore and hunting is. Hunting normally trumps everything.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, yeah, other than other than family. It's right there, so all right.
Speaker 2:Lay well, thank you man, thank you again.
Speaker 1:I really do appreciate it. Yeah, man, we'll stay in touch, all right.
Speaker 2:Sounds good.
Speaker 1:All right, guys. That's it Another couple of stories in the book. So I want to thank Lay again for coming on the podcast. It was really fun getting to talk with him. Hopefully with a hunter-gatherer sometime in the future. But beyond that, guys, please check out the show notes. Go check out what Lay's throwing down. It's a pretty fun and content, especially if you're a parent, teacher, like cats or whatever. Whatever it might be. He's got all sorts of stuff and hopefully he starts doing more hunting related content as well. Beyond that, guys, I said it earlier, but if you have a story, if you know anyone who has a crazy story, reach out to me. I'd love to have you on as a guest. And then, of course, get out there and make sure you review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform, whether that's Spotify, apple or, of course, carbon TV, which we are now streaming on every week, In fact, slowly uploading all of our episodes. But that's it, guys. Thank you again for tuning in. Really, do appreciate it. Now, get out there and make some stories. You.