The Hunting Stories Podcast
The Hunting Stories Podcast
Ep 104 The Hunting Stories Podcast: Baker Leavitt
Imagine taking down two deer with a single shot or trekking through the African wilderness under the cover of darkness. Join us for an enthralling conversation with the multi-faceted Baker Leavitt, a man whose hunting tales stretch from the fields of Georgia to the savannas of Africa. We delve into his diverse career at Black Rifle Coffee, Kill Cliff, and Outsider, and also uncover his insights as a political consultant and entrepreneur. Baker shares some eye-opening statistics about licensed hunters who skipped voting in recent elections, stressing the huge impact civic engagement can have on not just the hunting community, but society as a whole.
Our journey begins with Baker’s early hunting days, filled with adventure and camaraderie. Hear the heartwarming story of his first hunting trip at 15, where he bagged two deer with a single shot and sparked a lifelong passion. Baker’s fascination doesn’t stop at hunting; it extends to Native American culture and arrowhead hunting. Africa's vast wilderness and rich history have always captivated him, offering unparalleled experiences and tales of redemption, like the gripping nighttime hunt in the African bush and the inspiring story of Eli, a man who found redemption after a stint in prison.
Baker’s hunting escapades are not just about the thrill of the chase but also about the lessons learned along the way. From a solo elk hunt in Utah to the complexities of trophy hunting and managing hog overpopulation, each story is a blend of raw emotion, excitement, and achievement. Baker’s narrative emphasizes the importance of introducing new hunters to the field and mastering fundamental skills. This episode is a treasure trove of captivating stories and invaluable life lessons, making it a must-listen for hunting enthusiasts and anyone with a love for the great outdoors.
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Howdy folks and welcome to the hunting stories podcast. I'm your host, michael, and as usual, we got a really good episode for you today. Today we're actually connecting with Baker Levitt. Baker connected with me randomly out of the blue months ago and he's just been introducing me to some pretty awesome people. So I want to thank Baker, of course, for doing that and helping me just, you know, spread the good word about the, but more so for taking his time today to share some stories with us. Baker's done hunting all over the world, from Georgia to Utah to Africa, and he shares those with us today. So I hope you guys enjoy. Again, thank you, baker, for coming on the podcast and to all you listeners, don't forget, if you have a story, reach out to me. I'd love to hear it. Now let's kick this thing off and let Baker tell you some of his stories. Thank you, whoa. Hey, baker. Welcome to the Hunting Stories Podcast. Brother, how are you?
Speaker 2:Hey man, thanks for having me, I'm doing good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, I'm super excited to have you. We've been chatting for a few months and you've introduced me to some pretty interesting people, and out of the blue, so I wanted to say thank you for that. I think I can specifically say that you've helped my podcast grow, even though you had no idea who I was. You were just out there just spreading the love. So thank you, baker, I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do that a lot. I mean, I think, podcasts. I've been in the marketing space for 20 years. I'll be 49 in a month. If you look at the way that social media and big tech is going now, with censorship, especially amongst conservatives, it's pretty gnarly.
Speaker 2:Thank God for Elon Musk, but the podcast is really the only place where you can capture a person's a customer, a potential customer's attention for a solid hour. You look at Instagram or Facebook and you get a few seconds there and maybe you got a reel that's 20 seconds or whatever. A tweet, what have you? But nothing captures a person's attention for an hour at a minimum, like a podcast. I think they're great and so anytime I come across podcasts and I just kind of take a look at the you know their social page and just like is this do they know what they're doing? Are they, are they putting forth an effort? Are they taking it seriously? I'll introduce as many people as I possibly can because I think it's super important that, especially, especially in the hunting side, you know the 2A space, what we're up against. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Springport just came out, I don't know an hour ago, a couple hours ago, and dropped some rulings, and there's just, you know, constant war. We're constantly being attacked from the other side side and all we want to do is just be left alone 100%. You know what I mean, yeah.
Speaker 2:Which is interesting because I would like to. I'm not. I'm going to say something political. It's not about a candidate. It's not about a party. I'm going to go over. Voting is important. Voting has elections, have consequences, and this is a hunting podcast and I'm going to read you a couple numbers of the number of licensed hunters over the age of 18 that did not vote in the last election in a couple states all right, that's interesting.
Speaker 1:I want baker, I want you to do that, but before we do that, let's, let's just get you introduced so the people know who they're hearing these stats from, who they're gonna hear some stories from today, but I'm very interested to hear these numbers.
Speaker 2:Why don't?
Speaker 1:we kick it off. Introduce yourself real quick.
Speaker 2:So my name is Baker Levitt. A lot of people call me Black Baker. That's my middle name, that's my Instagram handle is Black Baker. I'm kind of like I'm a broker of expertise, as I like to say. I bring the razzle-dazzle to people, whether they like to admit it or not, to their lives. So I'm a director for Black Rifle Coffee. I'm a partner in one of the co-founders of a drink company called Kill Cliff. I'm a partner in a company called Outsider with Sam Mackey and Jay Cutler.
Speaker 2:And then I invest in companies and startups ProTech figure, ai, things like that Stay busy. I do political consulting as well and I started a company called Tupud back in December 2010, which I sold. It was a CrossFit apparel company which I sold about five years ago and, um, I've done all kinds of stuff and I've and I've made and lost a fortune in my life.
Speaker 2:I mean when the real estate market crashed from 2008 to 2010,. I lost about $15 million. It was like 30 years old. Um, it's like I said, made a fortune a couple of times, lost a fortune, a big one one time. But you know, life is like being on a treadmill it's not over until you get off of it. And I refuse to get off, I just like that All I've got to do is just kind of keep going forward.
Speaker 2:I mean I'm not quitting, I don't give a shit, yeah, but I want to talk about one thing that's super important. Then we'll start talking about me, which is like super interesting because you know I'm a super interesting person.
Speaker 1:But anyway, I'm in colorado, so, yeah, voting's important for sure, because we're getting under our attack here for sure okay, this is gonna blow your socks off oh no, I'm gonna blow you, I'm gonna knock, I'm gonna melt your face off a couple times.
Speaker 2:And what I'm about to tell you? There was 147 000 hunters over the age of 18, licensed hunters in the state of colorado. Did not, did that, did not vote in the last election. Jesus, and that ain't shit that's.
Speaker 1:That's enough right there to uh to stop the wolf reintroduction Right there.
Speaker 2:You change everything. Yeah, 3%, that's all you need. All right, here's some wild numbers. Tell me some states you hunt in. I lived in Texas for a little bit and I've hunted down there 669,000 licensed hunters did not vote in the last election in the state of Texas.
Speaker 1:That's crazy, that's absolutely crazy.
Speaker 2:Georgia, my home state, 350,000. Florida, where I live, 639,000 licensed hunters. Indiana, 251,000. Illinois, which is a cesspool, 305,000. Michigan, swing swing state 370 000. Minnesota 261 000. Missouri, 281 000. Uh, hunters, licensed hunters didn't.
Speaker 2:But new jersey 156 000 um that's insane no, no, no, dude, it's about to get way worse. New york, new york, 326 000 uh licensed hunters. This is the one that absolutely breaks my heart and disgusts me. The state of pennsylvania has more licensed, I think, in whitetail hunters. I think it has more. I think pennsylvania sells more hunting licenses each year than any other state in the country.
Speaker 2:Really 515,000 licensed hunters over the age of 18 did not vote in that last election. Ohio 625,000. Virginia swing state 277,000. Virginia swing state 277,000. In Wisconsin, another swing state 338,000 licensed hunters did not vote in the last election.
Speaker 1:That's absolutely insane. It's appalling. What is the, if you have this number, the congregate of all of these states? What is the United States? How many licensed hunters didn't vote in the United States? I think it's 10 million, jesus, okay.
Speaker 2:Here's the funny thing about the elections Lauren Boebert, who's from Colorado. I'm not a huge Lauren Boebert fan personally.
Speaker 1:Me either.
Speaker 2:I think she's a little bit of a wingnut. She won her congressional district by 30 votes. Man, Really that's it man Really? That's it, 30. Brandon Herrera just ran against Tony Gonzalez. Brandon Herrera is a dear friend of mine. He's a gun YouTube guy. 2a dude Ran in Texas, 23,. Lost by 407 votes. Jeez. Tim Sheehy lives. He lives in Montana. He's running for Senate. Tim's a former SEAL. He went to the Naval Academy Super hard right. Hard.
Speaker 2:Was a SEAL for eight years. Multiple combat deployments Purple Heart, bronze Star. With a V-device Got a couple Purple Hearts IED injured. He's an officer, so he's kind of pushed out, so to speak, just because if you're beat up there's a bunch of younger guys, healthy, ready to go and you're going to get into your useful life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's sometimes hard to follow people that can't physically do the same things that you're asking them to do, right, yeah, which he was fine.
Speaker 2:But it's like, hey, we've got this guy that's been blown up a couple times. Then we've got this young officer who's raring to go Tim you sure you want to, you know what I mean Kind of pushed out politely or taken off the battlefield into like an admin role. So he got out of the military, started an aeronautical fire suppressiononautical uh fire suppression company and um sold it for $350 million. Wow, so he's done a lot of hard stuff.
Speaker 2:He's very successful in business. A couple of months ago and he was on vacation in Florida, saw people some people drowning swam out there and saved them. Didn't talk about it, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:That's a scary thing to do. I saved one lady one time and if it weren't for the fact I'm 6'4", if it weren't for the fact that I could stand in the water where she was drowning, she would have pulled me right under man. It's scary to rescue people, so good on him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the first thing you do is you knock the shit out of him. You come out of the water to your waist and slap him as hard as you can. Yeah. And it gets their attention and then you save them. But he's only 38 years old. He's only 38. He's accomplished all this and he's running for Senate. For him to unseat John Tester in Montana, he needs 3,000 votes, that's it, 3,000.
Speaker 1:Which is doable. Yeah, it's easily doable. Oh that's nothing.
Speaker 2:That's nothing. That's nothing For Dave McCormick to win the Senate race in Pennsylvania. You're looking at, I think, 4,500 votes. These are tiny, tiny margins. It's really amazing. So, if you are a hunter or a gun owner or you're a 2A supporter, go to votethenumber4americaorg. Register to vote. The challenge and I'm not telling you who to vote for or any of that stuff, or what party to vote for, but the challenge is elections have consequences. Find one person that hasn't voted. Whoever's listening, you've probably spoken to several people that don't vote. All you can do is recruit one person, take them to the polls with you on election day or get them to vote early, which is super important. That's the challenge. So get that out of my system.
Speaker 1:I like it.
Speaker 2:One other campaign thing that I'm working on is it's a campaign called Smokeless Vets smokelessvetsorg and we're trying to get a half a million veterans to quit smoking by 2030. And um the va like they prescribe. Patches don't work. Nicotine gum doesn't work. Lozenges don't work. Um, and there's some studies on that website um, one in switzerland, one in sweden and one in england that uh show the best way to quit smoking is basically transitioning from smoking cigarettes onto other forms, less harmful forms, of nicotine. Interesting.
Speaker 2:And that's the best way to quit. So check out those two websites. I just had to get those two plugs out of the way, yeah.
Speaker 1:Question about the smoking one. I have one friend that was a big smoker. He got hypnotized and never smoked again. Do you know anything about statistics of that working.
Speaker 2:I think hypnotizing people on its face is super hokey. I agree. I have a friend who's a very prideful individual, full of hubris and shit. I watched him get hypnotized one night and he did a bunch of things that he would never do for a million dollars no shit, and so I think it. I mean, yeah, I think hypnotizing is a thing yeah I don't know much about it. I believe in ghosts too.
Speaker 1:I mean like I've got two friends one quit smoking and the other one, like your friend, wouldn't do this, but he got in front of at the university of colorado, in front of the entire student union in college, got up and was flapping around saying I'm tinkerbell, queen of the fairies and like that, and he's been tinkerbell ever since, is his nickname um, and there's no way that he would do that. Like it just doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2:But no, yeah, no, no, yeah, chris downing was like dancing about and stuff. Like he just wouldn't do that. Like um, it's funny you mentioned nicknames. So like I played football in high school, I played football in college. I was in a fraternity in college. Like I don't, I don't haze people, it's not my thing, I've never I don't. I just it's just not my not. Like I have kids carrying my pads and stuff. Like I would never like physically harm someone or bully them. I just it just kind of turns me off Cause. Like I'd rather be if we're on the same team or we're in the same group or fraternity, whatever. Like we're friends. Like I don't want you to ever hold a grudge against me. Like Henry Marks messed with me, messed with me when I was a pledge and the only reason that Henry would have ever done that to me was because he was in a position of authority over me. Like I would pick up, I would literally crush henry marks his head like a grape, yeah and that's what I mean like that.
Speaker 2:So anyway. So the back to the point about the nickname, this one kid and I don't even know. So I'm 48. Otter is probably 46. Okay 45. And I made him hold a popsicle in his butt cheeks one time until it melted, because he pissed me off and he deserved this punishment. This wasn't me bullying him. No, he's Otter Pop, it's not in his butt, Just hold it between your butt cheeks until it melted. And to this day he's still known by Otter.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 2:It's funny, that's a funny one.
Speaker 1:Now, that's not hazing.
Speaker 2:That was not hazing. That was punishing him for being bad and disobedient.
Speaker 2:But yeah, nicknames are funny, man, they stick with people for a long time and a lot of my buddies in like the special ops community, like like you'll run into guys and talk to people and like like team names or you know basically guys nicknames, like that's what they go by, you know. Like you know taco, you know dan cerillo, who taco? Oh yeah, I know taco. You know what I mean. It's like it's just funny, it's really really. Yeah, so anyway it's funny. But here we go, let's. It's really really funny, so anyway it's funny.
Speaker 3:But here we are, let's get back on track real quick.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you this, Baker. So you talked a lot about your, like, professional history. When did you start hunting? You been doing it your whole life, or did you pick it up, you know, somewhere in the middle?
Speaker 2:Dude, I started hunting when I was 15. I taught myself to hunt and, like, I've hunted on four continents and probably 24 states in my life and I hated hunting. When I was younger, I didn't hate it, I did it like in this, where I'm from georgia, not, you know, in the south like that's just what you do you play football, you hunt, and I just remember sitting in stands and just having to sit still for so long.
Speaker 2:I was like man, this sucks I hated it, but then, as I got older, um, I started to just absolutely fall in love with it. Uh, it's my second favorite thing in the world to do, besides look for arrowheads, which is now number one. But okay, it's gonna go hand in hand, you know what?
Speaker 1:what kept you going like? If you hated it so much, why did you? Why did you keep showing up?
Speaker 2:because I've I've always been in love with the, the process, the journey okay um, I've always loved planning a hunting trip. You know, hey, we're going to the farm this weekend. I love talking about it, I love doing everything, but like the first few years, like in high school and stuff, like I just hated sitting still in a deer stand gotcha gotcha just sitting there waiting that's.
Speaker 2:That's the toughest part um but the my favorite part about hunting is the adventure and the journey and the process leading up to it. Camp I love camp life. Um, I love after the conversations that take place after deer camp.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, man, I love that. Yeah, that's a lot of the same stuff that I love as well. One other question before we can jump into your first story man 15, you got into it and you taught yourself At 15, was it just like you were looking for an adventure and you just thought you'd try it, or what?
Speaker 2:got you into it at 15?. A relative I thought it was cool looking, okay, yeah, other relative I thought it was cool looking. You know like, okay, yeah, the magazines and books and and so, um, I just remember a bard of 30 out six from someone and my brother and I was thanksgiving and we drove up this ties into, like one of my favorite hunting stories my first deer ever killed. I didn't know anything, I didn't know what to do yeah.
Speaker 2:so we just drove out to the farm at like 5 30 sun was setting at six, you know and walked up to the fence at like 5.30. Sun was setting at 6. And walked up to the fence and looked out in one of the pastures and there was like eight deer there. I was like oh my God, and I just put the rifle in the fence post, put it right behind the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. It was a Browning .30-06 with 165 grain Winchester silver tip ammo. Okay,
Speaker 2:boom. And I thought, you know, like in movies you shoot something that drops dead and a deer run off. And I was like, oh man, I think I missed. We walked down there and there wasn't a deer there, and so we got back in the car and drove back to the house and I was like, yeah, I think I shot a big buck. They're like, oh, we'll go look for it in the morning, and so then that. But I was like, yeah, but I didn't see it, it wasn't there. They're like, well, did you look? And I was like, yeah, but right where? Right where it was, we didn't walk around or
Speaker 2:anything. So next morning we're kind of going through the field and all of a sudden um, we walked up on it. By that time my grandfather was driving out of the field and I was like, oh my god, here it is, go get tom, that's our grandfather. So my brother takes off running and he runs about 20 yards and he goes oh my god, here's another one. So I killed two deer with my first shot. No way, I didn't even see the yearling behind it.
Speaker 1:So you introduced me to Tom. I'm drawing a blank on his last name from Secure. It right, Cubanick. Cubanick, did you know that he did the exact same thing on his first deer? First, two deer? Yeah, that's one of the stories that he did the exact same thing on his first year first. Yeah, he that's one of the stories that he told was the like, very similar. He was a little bit older because he didn't get into it until he was an adult, but he shot two deer with his first shot, which is crazy.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, yeah, and like so that was, that was a great story. I mean, I've had a lot of like really like wild hunting experiences. Like I've been to Africa a lot, you know, and growing up in the south you know it was either, you know it was cowboys and Indians Like I still am obsessed with native Americans and that culture and Plains Indians and I've read a ton of books on it. And like I, I'm obsessed with arrowheads. Like I literally, um, we got a new farm and we're clearing, we're doing a bunch of work on it in Georgia and I was up there three to three and a half days last week and then, dude, like I was literally walking like 15, 16 000 steps a day just looking for arrowheads.
Speaker 2:I mean like just surface hunting, not digging, just surface hunting, um and so um, you know, you guys either want to hunt out west or you want to go to africa, and for me it was always Africa, always, because Africa is just big and wild and just you know like that's, you know where mankind's from, you know. So I've always been obsessed with Africa and I've got a million stories from that place. But, like my favorite, my favorite story from over there God, there's so many, but yeah. So one of my favorite recent hunting stories was two summers ago I took my wife, melissa, with me to Africa.
Speaker 2:And she'd never been. And I was like melissa uh, with me to africa and she'd never been and, like you know, she's like I was like you're coming with me.
Speaker 2:She's like, all right, this is awesome, so um I've which country and if you don't mind me asking, south africa and I've shot almost everything in south africa, like all the plains animals, um, all the plains game species. Um, I had, you know, some stuff left on my bucket list, like eland was one of them, and eland looks like a massive, massive brahma bull, but six feet tall with, um, and bigger with massive, thick, super thick horns um, that it's a spiral horned uh, species. So, um, I was like, yeah, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna take an elan on this trip and some other stuff. And so, um, we were in the east cape, which is mountainous, and it was the first morning. It was like 19 degrees we're scraping ice off the windshield like 11, 30, like I'm applying my second thing of sunscreen because it was super hot. It's wild weather over there, yeah, so we spotted some really big elan, like on day two or three, and it was at I don't know, 8,500 feet.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Where they were, and so I think my shot. I ended up shooting that thing, god Dude, they're so big, they're such massive animals and I ended up shooting it like five times with a 300 Win Mag before it finally goes down.
Speaker 1:No way.
Speaker 2:We think it's down, and so we go.
Speaker 1:From what distance, if you don't mind me asking like how far was your?
Speaker 2:shot 560 was my first shot. I think my final shot. The final shot was at 20 yards. But, the first shot was at 568, I think 562.
Speaker 1:Yeah, three wind mags should drop most things at that distance. But yeah, that's crazy Five shots.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, one of my shots hit it in its foreleg, okay, Like right below the shoulder and like when you put your hands on it, it's just, it is so massive it didn't really do anything. No way.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, it's wild dude. So we finally get up there to where it is, to where it is she was with with our tracker and the land rover, um, or spotting scope as we're stalking in on this thing. So I shot up, um, and so it, we finally get up to where it is and it jumps up and starts running and we're just like, oh god, keep running, keep running, run down the hill, um. And so we, I shot again and it drops and we get up to it and I was like, well, where's Melissa and Chris the tracker? And he's like over there. And I was like, how far is that? He's like about a mile and a half. So I was like, well, what's the closest they can get to us? He goes down there at the bottom of this mountain. He's like, how far down there at the bottom of this mountain, yeah, how far away is that? He's like about a mile and a half. And I was like, oh shit we're in it.
Speaker 2:I was like we made a mistake. He goes, baker, we have made a massive mistake. So this thing is like I'm as strong as anyone needs to be hunting, like like there has never been a time when I wasn't strong enough to do something on a hunting trip. I mean, I've loaded a zebra into the back of the truck by myself and I have a witness witness for holy shit um she got some yeah, a couple of state records in power lifting.
Speaker 2:Like it's very strong, you I'm just. I'm built for manual labor and poverty. Like, if you need someone to go work, pick boulders up in the field, call me. Like that's what I'm designed for. I could not manipulate this thing for photo no way yeah, it's 2500 pounds.
Speaker 2:Man like this is a beast of an animal, so, and it's dark. So, melissa, we see them driving down the mountain that they're on to get to where we are. They're driving down the ridge and so by the time they get down to the bottom of where we are, we have Melissa and the tracker coming up in pitch black darkness, no way to tell them where we are, and we have Hugh Boy and another group of trackers coming from a different direction and everyone's like yelling back and forth, trying to communicate like geolocate, by sound and stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so, um and dude, it was there. I mean an African man, dude, there's so many, there's thorn bushes and all they do is eat you alive. They just chew you up and eat you alive. Everything in africa wants to kill you or hurt you or just fuck you up. All right, and melissa's. Melissa is one of the. If she's she's game, she's down like she's very, very tough. She owns a crossfit gym. She's been training exercise, physiology training at a high level for 15 years, like she can do whatever she wants. She doesn't get tired, she's great in the mountains, she's strong, she thinks shit like this is super cool. And so after about an hour and a half they finally start getting into pretty close ear range and there's flashlights going everywhere and everyone's lost. Anyway, she finally she's never called me a motherfucker before in her life and she's like motherfucker. And I was like oh shit. And they finally made it up to us. I'm drenched in sweat and I've been standing on the side of a mountain now for an hour and a half and I'm freezing. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And, um dude, that was a nightmare getting that thing off the mountain. Oh my God, that was brutal. So we've got like trackers and skinners and the whole kit caboodle and we took the head and the hide and some of the um hams off and we had to go back up the next day to get the rest of it because it was just, it was brutal, yeah I googled it to see what it looked like and like compared to a human and like it.
Speaker 1:I mean it's a cool animal because it looks like an ox, basically from the next neck back, just like a giant ox, just meaty body, and then this like little antelope head so I learned a valuable lesson on that one.
Speaker 2:I'll never shoot an eland at elevation again as long as I live um yeah, that was wild.
Speaker 2:And then another amazing story god, there's just so many. I'm trying like I'll you know what? I'm gonna tell you my favorite that's not my favorite that's the story that involves her. It's kind of special. It's hard to really convey what was special about that if you weren't there. This is my favorite hunting story of all time. I just I just registered it all right. So, um, you heard me talk about growing up in the south, right and southerners. Like an elk hunt is an aspirational thing for us. Like we don't know. We don't know how to hunt them, we don't know anything about them. Whitetail different story I met a guy by the name of Eli in Africa in 2015. We were sitting around the campfire the first night. There was like 12 of us. He's telling this story and he mentioned he's like you know, during my time in federal prison and I thought I'm going to make a note of that because that is not something. I hear very often yeah right.
Speaker 2:So Eli's daughter, ariana, actually shot a giraffe on that trip and I don't know if you recall back in 2015 when, like the world went crazy over this girl that shot a giraffe I think the image um ended up, within the first four days had 35 million views on it yeah, I don't.
Speaker 1:I wasn't a hunter in 2015, so it made it. I'm sure I saw it, but yeah, it was crazy.
Speaker 2:She ended up going on Piers Morgan and all these daytime talk shows, attacked relentlessly. I mean, it was brutal dude so anyway.
Speaker 2:So the next morning, uh, he and I both woke up really, really early. We were the first two people awake and we're sitting around the fire and I was like, hey, man, like you made a comment about federal prison. What does that mean? And he was like, oh yeah, I did. And I was like what? So? He's like, oh yeah, I did. And I was like what? So he's like you ever seen that show breaking bad? And I was like, yeah, he goes. That was me man. I was like bullshit. He's like no dude.
Speaker 2:I was taught how to make crystal meth by a chemistry professor from Utah state university. No way. And I was like what? So this story is wild. So he's telling me this story and everything. And like he ends up he has two kids. He ends up getting arrested, takes responsibility. His wife was like his number one salesperson, but like he took the fall, yeah, wife got the kids, moves to Tennessee. He goes to prison for a couple of years and was like prison, super hard, it's really gnarly. And like there's a lot of guys that are miserable. And he like stood up one day and was like listen, we're all in here for one reason or another, innocent or guilty, it doesn't matter, but we all have to do this, do our time together. We might as well make the best of it and he ended up getting like 300 and something. Guys like their GED or started on college courses all this crazy stuff Ends up.
Speaker 2:He's such a good inmate and does so much, he ends up getting a pardon, full pardon. He gets out of jail, gets a full pardon from the governor of Utah and the guy's like you are 1% of 1%. You're a textbook example of what rehabilitation looks like. Full pardon.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So he ends up starting an exercise like home gym repair company where he services like Nautilus and whatever the names of those in-house exercise machines are, yeah, and he gets his kids in the summer and some holidays and stuff. His wife ex-wife went to nursing school, was a nurse in the Tennessee state correctional system, so she's a prison nurse. He's in Utah, she's in Tennessee and it was one summer and he gets a phone call and his kids are playing in his pool.
Speaker 2:It's like this is federal Marshall, so-and-so Do you know where your kids are? I mean, I speak to you like Gordon. This is he. He's like do you know where your kids are? He's like yeah, I know where my kids are. They're in my pool. He's like are you sitting down? He's like what are you talking about? He's like I need you to have a seat, I have something to tell you. And Eli's like racking his brain, like, oh my God, am I going back to jail? What did I forget? Have I done something? You know what I Marshall was like. Your wife was just involved in helping an inmate escape and ended up shooting and killing a corrections officer. And we think she's coming to you. And he was like what? So he's out of jail, living a good life, making money, contributing member of society, paying taxes, doing the thing, and his wife ends up killing a prison guard helping her prison boyfriend escape crazy.
Speaker 1:So he tells me this is an episode of breaking bed this this is a Netflix episode. Yeah.
Speaker 2:He's like, oh, man, tell me about it. He's like, and I've got tons of those stories, so anyway, so he and I. He's like, yeah, you should. We became friends on that trip. He's like, yeah, you should come elk hunting with me In Utah. I was like, dude, I would love to. I've never been, I've always wanted to shoot an elk. He's like, yeah, bring your bow so that september. Dude, like I drove I lived in washington state at the time I drove down to utah, um and uh, he had a timeshare in, uh, in east canyon ranch, and so we stayed there and like the first morning, like we get up and hike in, crack it like middle of the night, hike in. And you know it was awesome and it was a Saturday. And he's like, all right, you're going to sit on this wallow and I'm going to take Ariana over here to this other spot. And I was like, so, I'm going to be by myself. He goes, yeah, yeah. And so I'm like what, how do? I don't even know how this works, so he gives me a hoochie.
Speaker 1:Mama cow call, I get a hoochie mama cow call are you? Rifle or archery hunting, just to set the month with the bow.
Speaker 2:Okay with the bow, and so I get a hoochie, mama, uh, cow call, and I'm sitting on this wallow and I'm just thinking, like you know, if it's a, I'm just going to pretend it's a big deer, and when it comes in, I'm just going to shoot it like it's a deer. You know, if, if, if I see an elk, like I didn't think I was going to see anything, and so I am a diehard Georgia Bulldog football fan. That is.
Speaker 2:I am a I don't miss games. I watch them all. I follow recruiting every day, heavily emotionally invested in University of Georgia football. I hate Notre Dame. I despise that program. I hate their fans Like I can't stand them. They're an independent. They're not in a conference Like screw them, they get an independent. They're not in a conference Like screw them, they get special treatment. I hate it. Anyway. So Georgia was playing Notre Dame that night and game kicked off at it was game kicked 7 o'clock game in South Bend.
Speaker 2:I'm sitting on this wallow and I've got like one bar on the cell phone and I'm roaming. I can't text out but I can sporadically get text. And so my brother, also a diehard Georgia Bulldog fan, he's texting me. And so I'm sitting there and like the game had just started and I was like well, you know, I'm not going to see an elk, probably Not being negative, just like what are the chances? You know, like I don't even know how this works and I thought an elk was this mythical creature that was impossible to find. So I heard this noise that I'd never heard in nature before ever. I was like what is that? And so I knocked an arrow and I slipped down. So it was a wallow that I was on and then there was a meadow. So I slipped down this meadow with an arrow knocked, like what's making all this noise? And I get down to the bottom and there's this massive hardwood that had fallen over and was kind of like just like a guardrail at the base of the meadow. Okay.
Speaker 2:And I was like that's like perfectly straight. Wow, that's kind of crazy. And I looked to my right there's this massive cow moose okay, and I was like is that what the noise was? Well, I was like what an absurd looking animal.
Speaker 2:Like they're kind of silly looking this thing was huge and I was like, well get, I guess that's okay. So I'm hearing an animal splash in water. That that's what I hear. That's obviously what was making the noise. And I was like, but wait a minute, that animal is completely dry. And right then, dude. I kind of looked back in front of me and I just saw G1s and G2s coming up over this little hill.
Speaker 1:No shit.
Speaker 2:With mud falling off of it.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh my God, that's an. I was like, oh my god, that's an elk and it's a bull, and it's a good bull. And I, so I'm just standing there. I was like, what are the chances, man? And then I was like I don't have a shot.
Speaker 2:I was like, but it so that tree that fell over, it hung. It hung a left to me, it took a right and I was like, well, if it goes over there in between those trees, that'll give me an open shot. So not only did it walk over there and like stop, it turned and opened its shoulder and I drew back and, dude, I didn't, I think I put both pins on its rib cage, the 20 and the 30, and just let it fly. Just saw brown boom nailed. It didn't see where the arrow went and I was just like, oh my god, I just shot an elk. I had no idea, I didn't know where I hit it.
Speaker 2:Um, and I just remember, like looking down, and my leg was just jackhammer, and I pulled up my phone and recorded my leg and I was like, what am I doing? This is just why am I recording my leg? Put my phone up, so I'm standing there and I was like, what about what now? And I was like, all right, I'm gonna wait 30 minutes, then I'm gonna go look. And so I counted to like 10 seconds and I was like I'll just walk over there and see if I can find the hero yeah so I'll walk over there 30 seconds or 30 minutes.
Speaker 2:Came 10 seconds quick yeah, yeah, 10 seconds later I walk over there where I, where it was standing and I was like, oh shit, I missed. I don't see the arrow. And I looked to my left dude, and a two-year-old could attract this thing to the through the woods.
Speaker 2:It looked like a haunted house, there was blood everywhere and I mean there was blood eight feet in the air in some spots because it busted brush yeah and dude, and so I followed that blood trail for 85 yards and it got to a clearing uh, like a power line basically and where the elk had apparently got to that clearing and stopped and looked which way he was going to go. And you know, obviously he wasn't running, so blood wasn't spraying everywhere and I found this clump of mud covered in blood. Now you know, doubt creeps in constantly when you're chasing these things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was like, well, I must have gut shot him, which is the most outrageous thing I've ever thought in my hunting career. You know, yeah. And so I remember I walked down, I walked around, I looked out, I checked my phone and I had some football updates for my brother and I was like I just shot an elk, yeah, and like I didn't really get a chance to read his updates about the game and it was like we scored first, they scored, then they scored, they were leading. You know, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm like I'm reading that, but at the same time I'm like I just shot this elk and I've got a million emotions.
Speaker 2:So I texted Eli. I was like, hey, dude, I just shot an elk. He's like, yeah, I just heard it. I heard it fall. I was like what do you mean? You heard it fall. So he comes to. I tracked back to where I shot it and he meets me there, or he's like coming through the woods and he's like, dude, look at this blood trail. And I was like, yeah, he's like, yeah, I heard it fall. I was like are you certain?
Speaker 1:He's like, yeah, how far away was he when he heard it.
Speaker 2:He was across. He was actually A couple hundred yards away from the wallow the elk was in. Okay. And he watched it leave, got it. So we walked to the clearing. He's like, yeah, it's right there. So like it literally hit that clearing and walked like 10 feet and fell over dead. I just didn't look, I was panicked dude, it was understandable one of the most amazing.
Speaker 2:It was the most amazing hunt, one of the most amazing hunts of my life, because I was like, oh my god, I killed an elk. No one can ever take this away from me. Yeah, I did it by myself, on a wall. And so he's like all right, we're going to break this down. So we broke it down and then we still had plenty of time. He's like well, I'm going to go sit with Ari, ariana, you know, we got like another hour left and I was like, all right, cool. So like I, we, we hiked everything down to like a skid row road and so I'm sitting there, like sitting on this elk, like on cloud nine, and like trying to shitty signal, trying to follow this Georgia Notre Dame game. Yeah, and like they, it was the fourth quarter, they took the lead, they were up by two, and then so and you know, eli and ariana come, we're packing it out back to the truck, and the last text I had was like they took the lead oh no, I was like you know what man.
Speaker 2:I shot an elk. Like this is the best day ever, and I don't pray very much and I certainly don't ask for things in prayer. I was like God, if you could, let, let us pull this game out. This will be the greatest day of my life and I will never ask you for anything again. And so we finally get out of the truck, we start driving out of the canyon and I get a bunch of text messages like congrats, congrats, congrats. And I was like how do these people know I shot an elk. And then all of a sudden, like it came through for my brother. He's like we won.
Speaker 2:So I shot my first elk with a bow shot, my first elk and with a bow on public land by myself and we, georgia, beat Notre Dame and I was like man, this is the best day ever.
Speaker 2:I'm never asking for anything again that's, that's my most meaningful hunt, because that was a long pack out and like every step was better and better and better, because I was like this is so freaking cool, because here I have this big elk rack on my on my back and I got a way too. I'm carrying way more than I should, but like this is amazing, and I've shot an elk every fall since then oh, no way Good for you. Absolutely, oh yeah. And every year they've gotten bigger and bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1:Wow, uh, yeah, I, I just got my first elk this past year. But it's the visual you gave us of, like when you saw the, the, the, the antlers come out covered in mud, like that's just what everybody wants. It's just like that dirty, filthy bowl, just rutted up, ready to go.
Speaker 2:So that's, that's an awesome experience, man there wasn't a hair on its body that wasn't covered in mud that's disgusting and awesome. It's what you, what you want I didn't know what his rat looked like until I saw him on the ground, because I saw g1 and I went shooter and, uh, I mean I had a shot, whatever it was. You know, non-resident, utah, utah, any elk is literally any elk, you can shoot whatever you want and I would have shot anything. But I was like, oh wow, it's a trophy bull.
Speaker 2:And I never looked and his rack was on the ground.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Do you mind if I ask how big Did you get it measured, or no?
Speaker 2:305.
Speaker 1:305. That's a damn good bull. Five by six, and everyone's been bigger since.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the next year was Idaho, was a little bit bigger. The year after that was New Mexico, which was a little bit bigger than that. And then I went to the Hill Ranch in southern Colorado and shot Well then Colorado, then the, then the hill the actually the one in the first one in northern colorado was a dink, was a dinker. I didn't give it, I just that was not bigger. But then the next year was the hill ranch.
Speaker 2:That was 381 inches holy shit, that's a giant bull and uh, the the shipper just picked it up from my taxidermist ovis wildlife in colorado monday, so it's on the way to florida now that's awesome.
Speaker 1:And then I've shot a 330 inch in utah. Last year was 340 man in utah, you're getting on them. My, my bowl was uh 313 and I'm I love it. I can't wait. It's still at the taxidermist.
Speaker 2:I haven't heard when it's going to get back to me, though so the the elk over our bed is, um, it's just perfectly symmetrical and just it's like three at 330, and when my 340 from this year came in, I was like, oh, let's put this one over the bed. It's a Euromount. And I put it up there. I was like, eh, I like the smaller one better. It just looks a lot better. Melissa was like, yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2:So, the big spot to my left is where that, the one from the Hill Ranch, was 381. That's a pedestal mount coming in, so that one's going to go here. I mean, I've got, dude, I have a storage unit that just has Texas Army in it. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:I have two Dude. It's too much In this room. So above my head is a kudu. I've got a bush buck there. I've got a big white tail. To my left I've got a duiker, a hill country white tail, a steam buck, four or five warthog skulls on this table over here, but I mean, I have too much.
Speaker 1:I have too much, yeah, my wife is not open to the idea quite yet, so, like she was like no, nothing with eyeballs, and I was like, tough luck, I'm getting my elk. I'm getting a shoulder mount and so I'm hoping she likes it enough to let me keep going with it. But I have a couple of Euro mounts and she's not into it yet, but I'm easing her into it.
Speaker 2:In the garage. I've got a full strut turkey I need to do something with. I've got a big, huge meala bull In the bedroom. I've got a massive mule deer and the elk, I and the elk and I've got an axis. I've got all kinds of stuff gotcha in the back bedroom. I've got a massive warthog. I've got one of the biggest warthogs ever killed 15 inches inside, inside, outside to outside from tusk to tusk, I'm guessing just from the gum, 15 inches on each side huge no way.
Speaker 2:That's massive inches on each side. It's huge.
Speaker 1:No, that's invasive.
Speaker 2:That's cool I like shooting pigs man Like I just warthogs man, I freaking love warthogs. And then the farms in Georgia we shoot. If I see a pig, I shoot it. Yeah, the bullet goes yeah I don't like I don't their problem down there it's massive dude. We farm our farms like they destroy crops. Um, I mean, we've got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of acres of agriculture and they destroy it um, yeah, I met a guy.
Speaker 1:He was a uh, agricultural insurance claims person and he says 99 of his because he's in Texas is hogs. The rest is weather, but 99% of the damage done is hogs.
Speaker 2:A newborn piglet at 19 days will start eating solid food off the ground in addition to off its mother. At six months they go into heat for the first time. They get pregnant within 24 hours of going into heat. All right, 90 days later three-month gestation cycle they drop a litter. Within 72 hours of dropping a litter, they go back into heat. Rinse and repeat.
Speaker 1:The litter can be what like five to seven pigs, something like that six to sixteen sixteen jesus okay massive yeah, they're a problem. They're a problem. I have no problem shooting hogs either. Um, when I was down there in texas, I tried to shoot as much as I could you don't know ethical shots.
Speaker 2:Now, if I see its foot, I'm shooting in the foot. If I see its ass, I'm shooting the ass. I'll shoot in the ear, I'll shoot it in the nose, I don't care, I will. Just the amount of damage that they do is it would blow your mind, like to see it like because texas is hard soil, like if you come to, like georgia, where it's soft soil and you can see what the rooting damage they've done yeah it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1:I was uh, I was hunting up by dallas one time. I live down more towards san antonio, but I was hunting in dallas one time and they had some softer soil. There's still a lot of rocks. But I turned this corner and I just went holy shit, it looked like the top two feet of dirt had just been flipped upside down on an entire field and I was like I've never anything like that.
Speaker 2:That's your OI horizon on your soil profile and that's your most fertile. So when you flip it and the sun bleaches it, it kills all the nutrients, it damages your soil. Yeah, huh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, I know pigs are a problem, but I did not know that about the soil.
Speaker 2:Oh the bad news. Well, baker.
Speaker 1:I know that I booked about an hour of your time and we're running into that, so I want to be respectful of that. Do you have any more stories you want to tell? Otherwise?
Speaker 2:we can wrap it up for the day and maybe have you back another day.
Speaker 1:Up to you, sir.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let me find one more Perfect.
Speaker 1:Love it.
Speaker 2:I'll listen all day, no-transcript planning and the adventure and the journey and all that stuff. I've always been uh, that's always been my favorite part and it still is. Um, but as far as like shooting the animals and stuff, now I mean like I'd rather have someone that just hasn't done it as much pull the trigger because we have to shoot a lot of does at our farms like a ton I mean a lot of does.
Speaker 2:We have depredation tags and everything and, like you know, you take someone from the midwest that they don't even get to shoot does, um, and you know they come down, you let them shoot two, three, four, five, six, does, and they're're just, they're losing their mind. Yeah. And it's just fun to see, you know, because one, it's a ton of meat they get to take home with them, and two, it's like it's just something they haven't had to experience, like they don't get to see the volume of deer that we do.
Speaker 3:So like you'll be sitting out like during deer season you'll see 20 to 40, 50 deer in a field.
Speaker 1:You know it's just a ton. Yeah, that's crazy. I have a story for you about, once you've wrapped up about taking new people. I have a quick story about taking somebody. So I went to molokai for axis deer. Um, a couple weeks, just a couple weeks ago, um, and everybody had killed the deer, except for one guy, and I don't know how experienced he is. I know that he's like shot rabbits and stuff in his yard, but I don't know if he'd killed a ton. Um, and over the course of the week we were there, I had found a spot that no one had hunted. There was water. When I got there, there was 200 deer. It was absolutely crazy.
Speaker 1:And then the next morning I went back and I shot a 30 inch axis deer. So I was like, hey, I'm I to go to this spot. And he's like you know, I don't know, it's dark, I don't know where it is, cause he was going to go to the morning hunt. And I was like, man, I will happily go with you, happily go with you and I'll just sit behind you, I'll help you out, I'll range, do whatever we can do to get you on something and get you a deer, cause he was the spooks and he doesn't lose an arrow. A couple more coming.
Speaker 1:We see about four coming down this road that we can see, but it turns out there's about eight. So we're hanging out and these deer get right in front of us and he gets ready and he pulls back and they spook, but he gets them to stop and he takes his arrow and he fires and it was a perfect shot. The problem that he had is he hit a branch right in front of him and it just took enough momentum away that it landed right between and I have this whole thing on video, it's really funny it lands right under the legs of the doe and it hit the pipe that is filling the water trough, perfectly, and it shoots water 20 feet in the air and we're both like what the hell is going on and it sprays all the deer with water and we're and it's uh, we're at the top of this mountain, so like it's pressurized, so it's not just, like you know, drip line filling that thing. You know, whenever it gets low, it's pressure coming up to this point and it just soaks all the deer, creates this huge muddy mess and the guy's like, oh God. He's like I'm done, I'm not hunting anymore.
Speaker 1:It took us the rest of the day to hike a couple miles out On Molokai. There's not much for hardware shops, so we had to go to find something to just get the pieces to put it all together. But yeah, I'm with you. I mean, I thought of the story because taking guys with you that that maybe haven't gotten it done before, I do love that as well. Um, not that I'm super, uh effective at hunting I only put down a couple animals, but it is. It is really great to take someone new or take someone who hasn't done it before and get them out into the woods.
Speaker 2:Um, and then, of course, when it ends in a folly, it's even better here's the thing about hunting and this kind of carries through into life as well. You don't have to be an expert to be successful. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You just have to understand the basics and if you stick with the basics you will be successful. And here's a really good example that I'm going to close with on the basics of life. So baseball, major league baseball they play 162 games a year, all right. And then they have the postseason and you win game one of the season by getting runners on base and scoring runs. Okay, you win game seven of the World Series by getting runners on base and scoring runs. The basics work in the beginning and the basics work at the end, and a lot of people get bored with the basics. Yeah, but it's perfect.
Speaker 2:Practice makes perfect. So learn the basics. Wind judging, wind ranging, shoot your bow, shoot your rifle, become comfortable with it, it become proficient and it's. Just stick with the basics. Don't worry about cover scent, which doesn't work, and all that other mickey mouse bullshit and all these strategies and tactics and advance this and advance that shit. Throw that out the window and just learn the basics and focus on the basics and don't ever get sick of the basics 100%.
Speaker 1:It's put in the effort right, like if you've got the basics and you're in the woods, you'll see success eventually. That's all there is to it, and wind.
Speaker 2:Animals smell us because we release VOCs, which is volatile organic compounds. 95% of all VOCs are created by our mouth. Huh, think about that I did not know that. Don't hold your breath. Breathe, but that's how important wind is, because you can literally encapsulate your entire body where no scent got anywhere. But you still have to breathe, and that's where 95% of your VOCs come from is your mouth, and nose.
Speaker 1:Huh, that's super interesting. I had no idea that 90% of our scent trail came from our mouth. 95. And that makes me yeah, that makes me, very like less interested in worrying about anything else.
Speaker 2:Worry about the wind. Yeah. And you know animals like we smell. Oh, somebody's cooking, somebody's grilling out. We smell hamburgers. Animals smell in layers, so they smell a cheeseburger. They smell the bun, the pickle, the lettuce, the tomato, the mayonnaise, the onion, the cheese, the bacon, the meat, the bun. They smell everything individually and animals don't care if you've been there, they only care if you're there yeah they're like.
Speaker 2:You'll hear people like man. My scent was so good he walked over my trail. It's like you walked in four hours earlier. Your scent had dissipated. He knew that you had been there, but he knew you weren't there. That's the thing. They don't care if you've been there, they care if you're there. If you are there, a big trophy animal, a smart old animal, will sit there and he will look until he finds you. And when he finds you, he won't ever come back.
Speaker 1:Yep, that makes sense, that's it.
Speaker 2:And I got a call now with Christian Crankhead, so I got to jump.
Speaker 1:All right, sir. Well, thank you. I don't know if you want to share any social medias or anything like that, um black baker on instagram perfect, sir. Well, thank you. I appreciate you, um, and we'll have you back on here again sometime soon all right, thanks, man, talk to you soon yeah all right, guys.
Speaker 1:That's it. Another couple stories in the books. Again, I want to thank Baker for coming on the podcast, for sharing plenty of contacts with me and then, of course, sharing his stories with all of you listeners. So thank you, baker. I really do appreciate it For you listeners. If you guys have stories or if someone in your family, friend, whatever it is, has some crazy stories, get me introduced. I love talking to people and I love talking to people and I love hearing crazier and crazier stories. But that's it, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in. I wish you all the best. Now get out there and make some stories of your own. Thank you.
