The Hunting Stories Podcast
Elk. Bear. Hog. Turkey. Deer and More. Hunting Stories that will make you laugh or maybe cry; real life chronicles from the field.
The Hunting Stories Podcast
Ep 126 The Hunting Stories Podcast: Ryan Michler
Ryan Michler, the dynamic founder of Order of Man and Iron Council, joins us for an electrifying episode filled with hunting tales that span the globe. From a late start in hunting, spurred by his friend Colin, Ryan's journey has taken him from financial planning to the wilds of Africa and beyond. Our adventure takes us to Molokai, where perfect weather and wildlife abound, setting the stage for incredible stories of camaraderie and personal transformation.
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Howdy folks and welcome to the hunting stories podcast. I'm your host, michael, and we got another great episode for you today. Today, we're actually connecting with someone that I met in Molokai when I went on that week-long axis deer hunt. Today we're connecting with Ryan Mickler. I'll tell you this I had heard about him before I went on that trip and man did he impress me. He's a great guy, he surrounds himself with great guys and man did he impress me. He's a great guy, he surrounds himself with great guys and he's doing some really cool stuff.
Speaker 1:If you aren't following him, check him out on Instagram, check out the show notes for all of his links. He's the founder of the Iron Council, which is the Order of man. He's just doing great stuff and he's helping men become better men, which is really all you can ask for. So I don't want to steal too much thunder. He does tell a different side to a story that we've heard on this podcast before, which I really appreciate, but he has some great stories for us and I'm sure we'll have him back again sometime in the future. So, ryan, thank you for coming on. Now let's go ahead and let Ryan tell you some of his stories. Thank you All, right, ryan. Welcome to the Hunting Stories Podcast. Brother, how are you?
Speaker 2:I'm good man, Glad to be here. It's been a little while since we were able to connect since Hawaii earlier in the year, but glad to be back with you, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, it's great to see your face. It brings back a lot of good memories and that was one of the most fun hunts I think I've ever been on, and nevermind the fact that it was just like constantly perfect weather, like you don't often get that when you're hunting, right.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I mean perfect weather, uh, good hunting, lots of animals, lots of success, um, obviously, good company out there. You shot a really nice, uh, axis buck, which was a beautiful buck that you shot Uh, what an incredible. I love hunting, I mean it's, it's awesome that we could all go out there and you know, the hunting aspect obviously is good, but the connections that you make and enjoying nature, there's so much to it I love.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I've stayed in contact with basically everybody from that trip. It's just it was a solid group. That's all I can say about it. But let's take a quick pause from this. But for those that don't, who is Ryan Mickler?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I'm a, I'm a father of four. First, I founded a company called order of man almost 10 years ago, which is wild to think. Yeah, I had a financial planning practice before that and started doing some podcasting with the financial planning practice and realized, man, I love this medium, which was relatively new at the time, and took off with it. But I realized I wanted to have a different conversation. So our organization is focused on helping men with the tools and resources they need to thrive in their own lives, which is what I needed then and I still need today. Uh, outside of that, I've been hunting for eight or nine years a mutual friend. Uh, outside of that, I've been hunting for eight or nine years. A mutual friend. Uh, Colin got us into, got me into hunting and also some of my friends as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did you not know that? No, colin got you into it. No, I did not. We'll put a pin in that. I want to hear that story Um but, yeah, I did not know that man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so he got me into into hunting, like I said eight years ago, and I caught the bug quick and man. I've been hunting everywhere since, not only here in the states, but I just went to africa earlier this year, so it's been a wild ride, an exciting one yeah, you've been going after.
Speaker 1:It seems like every time I send you a message being like hey, ryan, let's get on this podcast. Look at your social media. You're in africa or you're in I don't. Where were you recently?
Speaker 2:like wisconsin or something, hunting whitetail just you're always in a tree stand minnesota yeah, yeah, yeah, I was in, I was in minnesota, yeah that's cool.
Speaker 1:Do you have success?
Speaker 2:uh, you know no, uh, it was a good hunt, camp hunting but, yeah, I shot, I shot a doe and, uh, I thought I made a great shot on it. But just kind of reviewing it in my head, because I tracked her for hours and never could find her. And after thinking about it in my head, I hit her in the right space, just behind the shoulder, but I think she was a little bit more quartered to me than I initially thought and so my arrow didn't pass through and I almost wonder if it dug into her back hip and just pegged into her back hip, because I found the half of the arrow that went in and it broke, it broke off and plenty of blood followed it for a while and I just I never could find her, which was frustrating that is frustrating, especially I mean an arrow going that deep on a whitetail doe.
Speaker 1:I'm sure she's down, but oh, she's dead.
Speaker 2:She's dead 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but yeah she found a found a nice place to fall asleep, I guess.
Speaker 2:So too good of a place.
Speaker 1:But cool, ryan, man, I'm glad you're here. I want to hear whatever stories you want to tell us today, but I told you beforehand I do have one request, and that is I want to hear your side of one of my favorite stories, which is Rick's story, right when he's the two of you I don't know if it's your first year in Hawaii or second year in Hawaii but where he's chasing after a doe right after you killed one, or he's chasing after a buck and he just blows out his leg right.
Speaker 1:So I would love to hear your side of that story. You can start wherever you want in that story from your first harvest, or you can skip that part if you don't want to talk about it. Uh, you tell me, man, but that's, that's kind of where I wanted to start today.
Speaker 2:Let's just get into the, the funny version, and I think you've had rick on the podcast and he tells it way more hilariously than than I ever could?
Speaker 2:he's so funny, my eyes were so animated, yeah, watering yeah, no, I think it was my second year in hawaii, I think it was. It might have been his first, I don't. I don't quite remember, but this was probably four or five years ago. But yeah, we're out there, and axis deer in Hawaii they're hard to hunt, you know. Uh, they're twitchy, they're always turned on, they're fast, they're very aware and very assertive of their surroundings. So it's it's hard to shoot an axis deer.
Speaker 1:And um, rick and I had kind of split up half my arrows actually right before I realized I need to make some adjustments. I was out of my arrows, so yeah, I know it goes, it goes fast, yeah.
Speaker 2:But so rick rick and I had split up and I was kind of holed up looking for deer and I saw a deer and I started working my way over there and as I was walking over I I found the deer and I'm like, okay, I'm going to stock up on him, I'm going to make this approach. And uh, Rick is like laying on the ground, Like I bumped, I ran into him and he's I'm like he's laying on the ground. I'm like what the hell are you doing? He's like incapacitated and he's like, dude, I hurt myself. I'm like be quiet, there's a deer right there. And he's like I know I shot him. I'm like, no, right there, there's a deer. He's like, yeah, I shot him. And I'm like, well, what are you doing? And I guess what had happened is he was, he shot the deer and then he was running to him and he had pulled his hamstring or his hip.
Speaker 1:I don't know what he did, but he's on the ground and he's like flew out his knee.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he thought he, he thought he broke his leg. Actually, I remember him saying okay, and so he thought his leg was broken and he, I'm like there's a deer and he's wounded. I can see now that the deer is wounded Cause I know he's been shot. So I'm, I'm telling Rick, I'm like, and I'm telling him to be quiet Cause he's loud and noisy and he's like crawling on his arms, dragging his broken leg behind him, just totally incapacitated. And I don't know how many arrows we shot into that deer. That was the most resilient deer. I think I ended up shooting him again and I kind of walked in, I shot him again and then rick kind of like stumbled up and got up on his knees and he shot him and the thing was just bedded down and I think, if I remember correctly, what, and he shot him and the thing was just bedded down and I think, if I remember correctly, what happened is shot him again.
Speaker 1:He, yeah, he didn't tell that story, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure. And then what ended up happening is the deer stood up and I shot him one more time and the deer just finally. I mean he wouldn't go down, but finally you could see the blood pouring out of the deer and he's just standing there. I'm like is this deer going to go down or what? And finally he goes down. So I'm like sweet Rick can't help me drag this thing out of, out of the jungle? And we knew our guys were a ways back. And so I'm like Rick, you stay here, I'm going to go get some help, cause we need help with the deer and we need help with you. So I walked back to the, to the truck or wherever the guys are, and Rick's laying there just feeling all the pain but all the joy of having harvested this really nice axis deer buck.
Speaker 2:And it's getting dark at that point and I know Rick's out there by himself and I know he's I don't know his side of it, but I know he's freaked out. You know he's sitting in the Hawaiian jungle just with nobody around. He's got a dead deer laying next to him. He doesn't know if his leg is broken. And we get over there. And we had a friend his name is Brandon Lilly, who was there with us on on the hunt. And Brandon Lilly is a world-class power lifter. Uh had some injuries that kind of took him out of his career, but the man is a beast of a human being, strong, strong.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just massive and shaved head and beard and tatted up. He's a very intimidating figure. If you didn't know him, he's the nicest guy in the world, but if you didn't know him you'd be very intimidated by him. And so the way that Rick tells it is it's dusk on this hawaiian island, it's, nobody else is out there, it's getting dark and you can see a little bit of fog setting in and the dust kicking up. And rick looks up and he sees through this dust, in this dusk, that there's this just mountain of the man walking through this cloud of dust and fog. And he's like Rick, where are you? And?
Speaker 2:and Rick, is like Brandon, I'm over here and he had these lighted knocks on his, on his arrow so he's waving his arrow with the lighted knock and Brandon comes over and the way Rick says it is just kind of scoops him up like, baskets him in his arms and he's like I got you Rick. And he walks him out of the jungle as he's carrying Rick, and Rick's not a small human being he's 6'5" he's probably 250. And Brandon's just carrying him like he's a little child. It's hilarious.
Speaker 2:So, anyways, we get out there and because of Brandon's background in sports medicine and recovery and the things that he went through. He said it's a level two, meniscus, something, something tear, and it'll be good in three days. And, sure enough, three days later Rick's back on his feet. But man, that was one of them, that was one of our. It's funny with Rick and I. We have a tendency of shooting each other's animals.
Speaker 1:I don't know what it is yeah, he said that.
Speaker 2:We have five stories where I've shot one of his. To kill it, he shot one of mine. It happens all the time and I don't understand why, but I like having Rick around because my success rate goes up when he's with me.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's awesome. Let me ask you this when it comes to you both shooting an animal, say it's like a trophy buck, right, whether it's an axis buck or a whitetail buck or whatever, who gets it, who shoots it first or who who puts it down?
Speaker 2:uh, the general rule is whoever draws first blood. That's the general rule.
Speaker 1:Okay, you know that's I was curious.
Speaker 2:I think that's just generally a rule, but that's what rick and I because look, at the end of the day, the animals that he shot and the animals that I've shot, they all been fatal shots, but for whatever reason. I can tell a bunch of other stories. Yeah, it's just, hey, let's, let's put this thing out of its misery and wrap this thing up, and it just works out like that. Sometimes it's very weird circumstances, uh, very odd stuff that happens. But yeah, I shot a big buck in Minnesota three or four years ago and it was a beast. It was 296 pounds, 296 pound, white tail on the hoof. Um, not a huge rack. Good, good, mature buck.
Speaker 2:Um, nice thickness, nice mass, not thick you know, not as big as it should have been based on his body size, but one of the biggest physical deers that I've ever shot before and that was one of those stories where him and I did that together I made a fatal shot. I got charged by that deer. In fact, I had to dodge because it charged at me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was hilarious.
Speaker 2:That's one of my favorite experiences, for sure.
Speaker 1:Well, hey, if you want to dive into that story, I'd love to hear it. And also, the reason I ask is my first hunting kill ever. My brother-in-law shot an elk with a muzzleloader and then there were multiple elks so I just thought I was shooting a different elk I shot ended up being the same elk. So I was just curious how you guys go about who gets the third bull.
Speaker 2:What did you guys decide First?
Speaker 1:uh, first, first shot um, so he took over the head and we and we split the meat, so it wasn't a big deal. I'm just curious, it was a 300 inch bull, so massive bull, but the reason I ask is I also interviewed cody rich. Not sure if you know who that is, but he's a big western big game guy, perfect. So he, he, uh, he hunted a lot in oregon and apparently the state law in oregon is the last shooter gets it, so he would he has two stories that he had on my podcast where he, or someone he was out hunting with, shot a bull.
Speaker 1:They're tracking the bull, Somebody. They hear another shot. As they're getting close, they go up and they're like oh huh, Like somebody took their, took his harvest from him legally in Oregon. That's how it works. So I was. I was just curious how other people manage those situations.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. The hard part is how do you know which shot was which and which one was the fatal one? I think it starts to get a little convoluted. So I've always said and thought that whoever draws first blood, if you shoot and miss, that's not your deer, but if you shoot it and hit it.
Speaker 1:Even if it's non-fatal, I still would consider that somebody else's. I would not consider that my dear. Yeah, I'm kind of with you on that one I gave. I didn't think twice about it, um, until somebody meant and I think I talked to cody and cody was like yeah, no second, second shooter gets it and I'm like interesting, make all that much sense, but I guess whatever, either way, there's a lot.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of hunting rules that don't make a lot of sense, so that's yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, let's, let's hear that whitetail story. You're getting charged. I'd love to hear that one man.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I'm up in a stand and I've been hunting Minnesota at that point for four or five years and had never harvested a big mature bull or buck, excuse me. Um. So I'm sitting in this, this, this tree stand, and this guy comes in and I know what kind of deer they have out there and I could see that he didn't have a huge rack and I'm kind of him and Han around like is this the deer I want to shoot? I don't know, maybe.
Speaker 2:So I'm just sitting there watching him, not really anticipating I'm going to shoot him, I'm going to wait, yeah, and he comes in a little further and I realize, oh boy, like this guy's big, this is a big, mature deer, I gonna shoot him. So I draw back and I shoot and I thought I made a good shot and when I hit him I knew I didn't. I thought I hit him far back, more in the in the hip crease than behind the shoulder. I'm like I made a bad shot and it hit him and he he ran about five yards and he stood behind this tree that was maybe two or three inches thick and that two or three inches was right in front of his vitals. But he's just standing there.
Speaker 1:I know he's already hit.
Speaker 2:I'm like I got to hit him again and try to get him on the ground or get another arrow in him. So he's standing there. I draw back, I shoot and I peg one right into the tree that he's standing behind and it's only like three inches and it pegs right into the tree. I'm like are you kidding? So he runs off. So you know, a couple, an hour later or whatever, towards evening, I get down. I find blood. We're tracking him. We're tracking him.
Speaker 2:My friend comes out who owns the property. We're looking for him and we spent, gosh, maybe an hour and a half and it's getting dark and he's like you know what, let's come back out in the morning. Uh, we'll pick up blood. We'll Mark last blood, we'll pick it up, we'll. We'll get this done. I'm like awesome. He's like, in the meantime, rick on the other end of the property and these guys in Minnesota they've got I don't know six, seven, 8,000 acres of land out there and none of it's high fenced or anything, it's all accessible, but they do such a good job managing their property. Anyways, he said that Rick had shot a doe on the other side of the property. He's like let's go help him find him.
Speaker 2:So we drive over to Rick and we find blood immediately and it's just blood spray everywhere on both sides. So I'm thinking at any moment we're going to find his deer. We're going to come around a little turn and the deer is just going to be balled up right there and we keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, never can find the thing. Then eventually we find the arrow and it's leading this blood trails, leading into a patch up in front of us, and Rick, six, five. So he's got an angle, I'm five, 10. So he's got an angle. You can see better than I can.
Speaker 2:And he's like, oh, there, there it is, there's a deer and you can see this deer's eyes in this little patch of of brush. And so I'm like, cool, that that's your deer, let's go finish it off. And he's like, no, that's not my deer. And I'm like, no, of course it's your deer. He's like, no, that's a buck. And like, really, I'm like, let me see. So I look and it was my buck. And I knew it was my buck because he had a broken one tine, I believe on his left side g3 or g4, I can't remember right off hand I've got out here, but one of his tines was broken off in half and this one had that same.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh, that's my buck, how, how did it get over here, like it went as far as it possibly could in that in that night and stayed on the property, which is amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and bedded down right to a place that we walked up to. That's so weird. So so Rick's like, well, that's your deer, and I'm with Rick and Matt and I think maybe Matt's dad and maybe one or two other guys, and I'm like sweet, and they're like we'll shoot it. I'm like, well, I don't have my bow Cause I didn't come out looking for my deer, looking to hunt, like I came out to help Rick kill his deer. So I drive back to the shop, grab my bow, come back. The deer is still bedded up and it's nighttime, he's bedded down, so I shoot him and I miss cause it's nighttime. He's bedded down, so I shoot him and I miss because it's dark. I'm like okay, and he's just laying there. So I draw back, I shoot another one and I just peg him. He gets up and he's about 15 yards from me. He gets up, he runs straight at me. I've got my bow in one hand and I'm trying to wonder which way he's charging at at me and he gets close and finally I dive out of the way and all of a sudden I hear don't shoot, don't shoot. This is matt saying don't shoot, and rick on the run shoots the thing at on the run and hits it and uh, it runs off and we hear it run crashing through about maybe 10, 15 yards, runs into a ditch filled with water. So we go over there and we're like cool, he's got to be dead. We heard him splashing around, he's got to be dead.
Speaker 2:We get there and the water's up to his back essentially and he's just, he's stuck, he's almost dead, he's stuck. So I knock another arrow. I'm like we got to kill this thing and I shoot him in the high shoulder, kind of the back, because that's all that was showing in the in the ditch. The rest of them was covered by water and he just kind of looks at me and like shrugs his shoulders like it was no big deal. Jeez, I'm like what in the world? And they're like we'll shoot him again. I'm like I'm out of arrows. I had shot two arrows at at the, the food plot, where I shot him. I had shot two arrows uh when, once I found him and then I shot one more arrow, uh, when he was in the ditch. I'm like I'm out of arrows, like he would have died, and I'm like you shoot him rick, so rick shoots him and you know, 20, 30 seconds later, the thing finally dies, but we drag the thing out of there.
Speaker 1:He's things that are moving. Yeah, we drag the thing out of there.
Speaker 2:He's almost 300 pounds I mean the biggest deer I ever shot and Tom, so that's the guy who owns the property. He's a great person. He's a great guy. He's like let's get this deer out of here before people start landing here. It looks like a runway strip Because this deer's got four arrows sticking out of it with all the knocks on and people are that's insane.
Speaker 1:How far was the deer from you? I know that you said matt was going don't shoot, don't shoot and rick shot. How far was the deer from you after charging you when rick hit it?
Speaker 2:20 30 yards. Tops probably 20 yards yeah, I was worried.
Speaker 1:It was even closer than that.
Speaker 2:But no, it may have been. I don't remember because I was on the ground getting up after this deer charged me and I hear don't shoot. And then I hear thwack.
Speaker 1:So even even being closer, I don't know that's amazing that's and that's with rick's old bow right, his 30 year old he still has tech or whatever, yeah yeah, he got some new limbs for it and, uh, he's a killer with that thing.
Speaker 2:He bought a new bow and then, and then he returned it because he didn't like it and got some new limbs for his old bow and he, he I'm not going to get into it, but he broke his bow on this last hunt.
Speaker 1:Frustration or like after he got new limbs and then broke it and then broke it yeah.
Speaker 2:It wasn't frustration, he, he fell on it oh.
Speaker 1:Jesus. Did he fall out of a tree stand or something, or what?
Speaker 2:yeah, he fell off the stairs of a box, blind. Okay he's, he's already afraid of heights as it is and so he missed. He put his hand somewhere where I guess there wasn't a rail where he put his hand and over corrected and fell off. Fell off, he was fine. But I think he smashed his bow and broke something. I don't know something on it and it broke.
Speaker 1:That's crazy man. I actually blew up my bow a week before antelope season after.
Speaker 2:Hawaii.
Speaker 1:I was out shooting a 3D range with some buddies, which there's the start to the problem. But it's a turkey. It's 20 yards. I'm like no big deal. I put the arrow in and I'm like, did I range this? And I did range it, but I couldn't remember the range. So then I take my arrow out, put it back in my quiver. That's it. Range it again. Put my range finder back down and just pull back and the guy it's funny because I've got the bow full back.
Speaker 1:They're recording me in super slow-mo. So I've got this stupid video. Um, and the funniest thing is, I fire and my string just pops off. Yeah, pops off, and I'm like what the hell just happened? And my buddy's like I don't know, man, but your arrow went way over there. And I'm like, oh, did it. And so then we watched the video. And we're watching the video for like oh, five, like five, ten seconds before. I'm like there's, there is no arrow.
Speaker 1:No, I'm talking about my arrows way over there. Are you crazy? But yeah, I just blew it up. Fortunately I was shooting a Hoyt, took it into the shop, took it into two different shops just to get you know, make sure I have some good opinions on the thing. And every person when I walked in was like good thing, you got a Hoyt, cause if you had a, I won't name the other brands but if you would have exploded, but he's like hoitser tanks. So fortunately I was able to get a new set of strings from um, a buddy of mine down in texas, and he sent them up, got them very strong, sighted in and shot an antelope. So it worked out.
Speaker 1:It worked out just fine, um in fact, I'd actually never replaced my strings before, so it's kind of something I've been meaning to do and, uh, bow shot better than it ever has, but I'm lucky it didn't explode yeah, I've dry fired my bow doing something very, very similar just jack and john, a 3d course, and drew back and cam stops, when it probably was part of your bow that flew back, cam stops or something that flew back that looked like maybe it was the arrow.
Speaker 2:Actually, just a couple of weeks ago, before minnesota, I was out outside, outside of my backyard here, and I was, you know, just doing some practice shots and I I draw my bow back and all of a sudden it just goes and my, my release I shoot a thumb release rips out of my hand. It goes 20, 30 yards to the side of me. My arrow just drops down 20 yards below the target. I'm like what happened? Because the release just pulled out of my hand. I'm like did I let go of the release without doing the thing? It just ripped out of my hand? I'm like what in the world? So I go over, I get my arrow and then I walk over to get my release and I'm like what is happening with my release? The little hinge on it, um, that you, that you click in on the thumb release, that thing had just blown out. So when I pulled it back, the actual mechanic, the, the little hinge, just snapped, busted and it ripped it out of my hand. Good thing my bow didn't blow up that's terrifying, man.
Speaker 1:yeah, I guess you probably. Your arrow is probably in there enough to give it a little bit of uh, relief from that. Yeah, it's your power that comes from a bow, and I was all the way.
Speaker 2:I think I was either all the way drawn back right at the end of the stop. I mean I was close anyways, but yeah, yeah, big old chunk taken out of my bow because the release hit the chunk on the riser. It's crazy.
Speaker 1:Jeez man, there's a new fear unlocked for me. I didn't know I had to be worried about that. Well, hey, I got another one. I want to hear, ryan. So I drew a moose tag this year cow moose. I did get it on opening day, but I know that you got, I think, a bull moose up in the Northeast.
Speaker 2:No-transcript in Maine for about four years and from the time that we'd moved there I'd been putting in for a moose tag. And three years into it I get a phone call from a friend of mine, john milan. He, uh or john mylon, sorry, he um said hey, man, you drew out congratulations. I'm like, drew out for what? What are you talking about? He's like you drew a bull moose tag. And I'm like, really, he's like yeah. I'm like oh my gosh, because there's guys I knew there that had been putting in for 25 years and had drawn out. So I'm like like, really. He's like yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I looked at the zone and I knew a fish and game guy up there and I was like, hey, what zone should I put in for? And he's like do this order? And so I looked at the zone and it was the my first pick, it was the best zone. I'm like this is awesome. So the way that it works in Maine is that you have I think they call it a sub-permitty. So I was the permit holder, I had the tag itself. But in Maine you can have this sub-permitty and the sub-permitty, uh, can go out and actually shoot with you. So it's kind of a party hunt between two people. You just have to designate who your sub-permitty is, and I think they do it that way because it's such a low success rate as far as getting a tag goes that they want to make sure the moose is on the ground.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to make that harvest rate high. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we're, we're out there and I go out there a day before my son does. We got an outfitter and it's really cool, really cool place. And this guy had a hundred percent success rate and I'm like, cool, we'll go with you and I go out there a day before and my son, I think, had a football game, so we couldn't go and I said, well, if I see a moose, do you want me to shoot it? He's like I only want you to shoot it if it's like a main state record, but outside of that I don't want you to shoot it.
Speaker 2:I'm like okay, yeah, we can do that, no problem. So I go out there and within the first hour.
Speaker 1:That's a real good answer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, within the first hour I see this, um, I see this, uh, decent bull moose, and I turned to Mike. That's my guide. I'm like Mike, is this a shooter? He's like yeah, that's probably a shooter. He's like do you want to shoot it? I'm. I'm like is it? Yeah, it's a shooter. Or it's a shooter. And he's like it's pretty good, it's maybe not a first day shooter, but it's a pretty good bull, yeah. And I'm like well, my son's not here, I'm gonna pass. He's like no problem, I understand. So we passed on that.
Speaker 2:The next day, brecken comes out and we see this, we find this really nice bull and we try to work ourselves into it. But he blew out of there and then we got busted by another smaller bull. He's like do you want to shoot that one? I'm like, no, that one's small compared to all of them, and so we passed on that, I think. The next day I saw a little guy on the road. We passed on him and then the next day it got really warm and it we didn't see a moose for like three days. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'm like, oh, no this is a six day hunt and that's it. Yeah. So I'm like, oh no, like we should have shot the two or three that we've seen before. We didn't see another moose. And the last day we're driving up the road kind of going to this place that we're going to glass a little bit, and about 300 yards in front of us we see two bull moose standing up there on the road and they look like decent bulls.
Speaker 2:So we get out of the truck, we start working our way in a little bit. I've got my gun. I left my binoculars in the truck but I've got my gun. So I'm binoculars in the truck, but I've got my gun. So I'm looking through the site and I can see that there's two of them and Mike's. Like we can't shoot right here because we don't know which one's which. So like let's go get our shooting sticks and we'll try to work in a little bit closer and see if we can isolate one and make a shot. So we're like cool. So I had zoomed all the way in on my optic to see what they were, and so we start walking back to the truck and as we're walking back I see this cow pop up, just to the side of us, maybe 40, 50 yards. Nice bull stands up right behind her at about 80 yards and he just stands up there and looks at us Now.
Speaker 2:Bracken and I had made the plan that's, my son had made the plan that we were going to do like a 3-2-1 fire shoot kind of thing. So both of us get shot and hopefully we hit and kill the animal.
Speaker 1:Oh so shooting at the same animal, same time.
Speaker 2:Same animal, same time. We just want to get led, and that's what our guide said Get as much lead to that animal, Cause they're hard to kill. I'm like okay, Okay. So Bracken's like all right, dad, you ready? And we don't have our sticks. So Bracken's like all right, three, two. I'm like hold on, hold on, Because my optic was zoomed in all the way.
Speaker 2:It was so far zoomed in I couldn't see. So I'm trying to zoom out and he's like three, two, one, and he starts shooting. And I hadn't even zoomed out my optic. So he's shooting and he takes, I think, three shots and misses all three of them. No way, all three of them, no way.
Speaker 1:And and I'm thinking, to myself I'm like finally I find it, I shoot, I miss.
Speaker 2:So now we shot pointer, still just no it's standing broadside at 80 yards both of us are just excited as hell, so we both miss. So he shoots three times, misses I shoot once, I miss and then, time I remember, just slowed down. I'm like I can't believe this thing's still standing here, but it is. I have one more shot on this animal. So I remember, you know, chambering the next round, shooting, and the thing just drops, boom, drops on the ground and Brecken. He's young at this time, he's like 12 or 13, maybe 13.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that he's just rattling off rounds, though, oh he's didn't have a care, he's just getting after it.
Speaker 2:And so, brecken, as soon as the thing drops, brecken runs over to it and I'm like whoa, whoa, wait, breck. And mike's yelling I'm stop, stop, stop. Finally we get him to stop and both of us look at him like what are you doing? He's like I don't know. I'm excited, I'm like just wait a second. And so he stops. And then, all of a sudden, four big bulls stand up in the same place and run off.
Speaker 2:No way, and so I'm thinking oh, dude, I shot this, I shot this bull, but he's, he ran off, like he got up and ran off with these other three or four bulls, these other three bulls that ran off with him, yeah, so they're running off and we wait for a minute and we go look and I'm like, okay, where's blood? We're going to have to track this animal and then finally kill him. But where is it? And so we're walking and walking, and walking and I'm like man, I don, and all of a sudden Brecken's got a great eye. He's like there he is, and sure enough, he was just balled up right where I shot him. He had just dropped right there. And, man, I'll never forget the hug, like when we walked up, the hug that Brecken gave me and just the success that we had on it. Um, you know, it didn't like it wasn't, it didn't go flawlessly, but it's a story that I'll remember forever.
Speaker 2:So we, you know, we cleaned them up right there as best we could got them pulled out of there. Um, you know, I think he had, if I remember correctly, a 47 or 48 inch span and he ended up being 900. Yeah, for that. So there's a couple of different um species. So you have, like your yukon, like your alaskan moose those are going to be like a big moose would be, you know, like 60 inches would be a good size moose um, shiris, I believe they're called, which is what these were. Uh, you know, 48 inches, 50, 52 53 they're, they're big, they're big.
Speaker 2:So this was a big we have in colorado?
Speaker 1:yeah, they're. I don't think I've ever seen one that big here in colorado so I've seen some big bodied moose, but their antlers are just.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're fine no, this thing was a monster weighed 920 pounds and you know we got into the back of the truck that afternoon, or that you know, late that morning, early afternoon, and drove home and got to the butcher that afternoon. It was it was awesome, man and so yeah that's, I had him shit back from maine because I'm in southern utah now. But he's on the wall out front and it the he is four feet wide by four feet deep from nose to shoulder and four feet tall.
Speaker 1:So it's this huge, massive animal god, I mean, I wouldn't even have a place to put that in my house. That's amazing, man yeah, hopefully.
Speaker 2:Fortunately, we have some vaulted ceilings in the living room, so there's enough of a pitch that gives us some room. It's turning into a wildlife museum out there, though, especially with our animals coming back from africa and my deer and my goats I've. I have so many stories, man, it's awesome that's amazing, yeah, I've got.
Speaker 1:I. Uh, I shot my first archery elk last year and I had a taxidermied. My wife was like, yeah, it's great, no more taxidermy. Really yeah, that's the one I got and I have like a high entryway and I was able to put that guy up. I w I won't say he's quite four by four by four, but um big 310, 313 inch bull that's awesome yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm no longer allowed to uh, to have to have like fully taxed him. She doesn't like the fake eyes, she doesn't like things looking at her, so Euro mounts point forward for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I do. So. I have some Euro mounts, like my Hawaiian animals, the first year I ever shot, with Colin, in fact, like I was telling you, uh, that's a Euro mount, um, but I, I don't know. I like shoulder mounts. They always look nice and clean and you know the moose isn't the highest quality. At some point he'll need to be redone, which I'm kind of frustrated with, but it is what it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, you still have the memories, which is what's important. Um, well, thanks for, for I'm glad I know a couple of your stories, but are there any ones, ryan, that stand out to you, that you were like? I got to tell this story because, you know, I don't know all your stories, I just know a handful.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think one of the ones that I like the most is going out with Colin on my very first hunt. You know, I think, because a lot of people like they want to get into hunting. They don't know how or, you know, they think it's hard or whatever. And it is hard, it's challenging, but they don't think they can do it. And they can. But yeah, I went out there with Colin. He reached out I'm kind of speeding up the story a little bit about how he got to be connected, but Colin's a guy who just always followed through on his commitments to me and keeps his word. And so he, he reached out to me. I didn't know him real well. We had gone to SHOT Show in Vegas earlier in the year and he reached out to me and he said hey, man, do you want to come on a hunt? And I'm like well, I don't, I've never been hunting before. He's like I know I want to take you on your first hunt. I'm like, well, that sounds cool.
Speaker 1:What do I need?
Speaker 2:He's like out and bought a? Um uh, what is it called? Ruger 308, um american?
Speaker 1:I think it's called american 308 that's, that's my, uh, my first main rifle to ruger american and I got it in the 270 oh yeah good rifle cool.
Speaker 2:It's a great rifle. That's actually what I shot my moose with and a lot of my deer with. Oh wow, if I was rifling, yeah. So I wasn't sure if it would be strong enough, powerful enough for the moose, but it was one one one. The one shot the one bullet that hit, dropped it, the thing in his track.
Speaker 1:So it was. It was hitting the heart.
Speaker 2:I assume. No, I actually hit it in the neck and it just dropped. Yeah, damn.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, um, yeah, it was kind of like the front shoulder neck area. It was where it hit him, anyways. So, yeah, I went out there with my rifle. I also got a bow, and the first day I was out there we went out to this place in Texas because this guy needed to, uh, call the herd a little bit. He had some, he had some bucks in there and some bad genetics that he wanted out of there. And it wasn't high fenced, it was. It was private property but not high fence, but he still is trying to manage the land real well.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I go out there and Colin and I are sitting in a blind and a deer walks in a buck and it looks small to me. I don't, I don't really know, I just I just saw like a. I looked like a spike to me is what it looked like? Yeah and um, I'm like, should I shoot that one? He's like, yeah, I'm like I don't know, it's small, isn't it? He's like he's like these are the ones they want to get out of their property. I'm like, oh, he's not young. He's like, no, I don't think he's young, I think it's just bad genetics.
Speaker 2:I'm like, okay, so I line up to take the shot and I had my phone on my knee and it, as I was lining up, it fell off and Siri accidentally bumped Siri and Siri's like I'm sorry, I cannot understand your request, or whatever. And I'm like, oh boy, and I thought the deer would run, but the deer just stayed there. So I'm like, okay, it just stayed there, so lined up, took the shot Like I said, 75, 80 yards and it ran off and I I'm a new hunter, I don't know anything about it, so it runs off. And I'm like, oh, him. And Colin's like no, you didn't miss him, you hit him. I'm like he ran off. He's like, yeah, they do that, like they don't just always just drop where you shoot them.
Speaker 2:Like, oh, really yeah so I run up there or we walk up there, we wait, like you know, 30, 40 minutes. He's like it's a good shot, it's dead. We walk up and we find where I shot it, but there's only a little bit of blood there. And then we just couldn't find any blood. But we did follow it where it ran and so we walked over there and it was 40 yards from where I shot it and it was dead. And uh, yeah, it was. It was a really bittersweet moment, cause that's what I went out there to do, and but then you see this animal lying on the ground that you killed and you're it's like, oh, I took that animal's life, it doesn't bother me. Now I mean, it's not like it's not that it's, I want to be out and just be like some sort of ruthless killer. It doesn't bother me, it is part of the circle of life. But that first one was a bit of a challenge for me and so, yeah, I still have the first deer I ever put out.
Speaker 2:We call him crab claw. He was uh, I'll have to show you a picture sometime but he's an eight or nine year old deer and he's got. He's got one the main beams, and he's got just two small little eye guards very small little eye guards main beam, but they're thick, they're like this thick main beam and then right at the end just two little crab claws right at the end. He is the. He's the funkiest, weirdest deer I've ever shot and I got them back and the guy that we went with was like dude, this is exactly the kind of deer I need to get out of here, cause it's just bad genetics, yeah, and I'm thinking to myself making a lot of babies, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm thinking to myself this deer is rad, like he's so weird looking and I love weird deer, like the deer that I shot last year in minnesota is he's a. He's the biggest deer I've ever shot. Um, he's, he's an eight point, but on his left side is a split beam and his, his beam, his main beam, is probably this thick.
Speaker 1:It's massive was that four inches thick, jesus? At least yeah, and it's, it's split, it's a split beam is what it is and so it's massive.
Speaker 2:Was that four inches thick, jesus? At least? Yeah, and it's, it's split, it's a split beam is what it is, and so it's really weird. But he's my favorite deer because I like the weird one. I don't like your tip, I like them. Sure, if I saw a big typical, I'd shoot it, and I do have a couple of typicals in the house but I like the, the weird, the non-typical, the funky, that's. That's the kind of deer I like that's cool.
Speaker 1:I've only shot one white tail ever and, uh, he's pretty typical, minus the fact he's got a bunch of little like weird points coming off. Like I shot him down in south texas where they have I think he was a pretty young deer, but I was hunting public land, so I was like I don't care, I'm gonna shoot whatever I can shoot what you, what you can, I would guess he was two and a half to three years, somewhere in that range.
Speaker 1:I don't really know these things. His body wasn't very big, but he's 120 inches, like big antlers. But again. This is an area that's known to have 400 inch freak, non-typical deer like crazy things.
Speaker 2:So I was like hey, I'm just gonna shoot.
Speaker 1:What if I see anything? It's going down and it was with a shotgun, but his, his brow tines, one like swoops down and the other one swoops back.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:The rest of it's pretty normal, but his brow tines are just doing all sorts of crazy stuff he's got. I mean, the rule is if it's taller than it is wide, you can technically count it as a point, and in that case he's like a 30-pointer because he's got a whole bunch of these little bumps that are starting to grow Um but they're, but they're tiny, they're tiny little things, they're just slightly taller than 30 point buck man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess you could say that, but really he's a, I don't know, like a five, I don't know, five by five, he's, he's, he's a cool buck. I love him, and he hadn't been whitetail hunting that many times, I love.
Speaker 2:I like whitetail better than mule deer. I know I've never shot a mule deer. Um, I've been on mule deer hunts and I've been skunk two or three times. That's what they have here in Utah is mule deer. You know mostly the Southwest, uh, but I love going to the Midwest, you know Minnesota, and that's really the only other place I've hunted. Whitetail anyways, uh, and I tail anyways, uh, and I, I love white tail. I. I think they're just amazing creatures. They're delicious, like, they're just fun to hunt and we always have a good crew in minnesota with us as well that's cool man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just haven't had much experience. I do have a buddy who is a couple hundred acres in southeast kansas. I'm gonna try and go out next year oh, he's got like 180 inch here so we'll see. I'm sure you know my wife doesn't love there yeah, my wife doesn't love whitetail, but she's only had texas whitetail where it's hot.
Speaker 2:Maybe the meat's not processed quick enough so I'm hoping to do it in a colder weather and see if she's into it, because yeah, if it's not going to be my family what they're eating, I'm not going to go out, true, yeah, true, I mean, if you're in kansas and they're, and they're over a food plot or they're eating corn, you know, and like you're gonna, it's gonna be good meat, for sure yeah, yeah, I'm talking about weird antlers.
Speaker 1:I shot this antelope this year. I don't know if you can see this, but he had completely snapped off his tine or his oh, yeah, I can see that he's missing that. Yeah, that is weird so it's just like one of them's just a horn straight.
Speaker 2:That's cool, super cool. That's really super cool old beast.
Speaker 1:He made one mistake and that's uh. I got very lucky antelope hunting for archery antelope hunting. I don't know if I want to do it again. It's, it's too hard it's tough.
Speaker 2:What so were you in a blind? Or how do you do that with antelope?
Speaker 1:no, I wasn't a blind to start that day. I put in a lot of days. But yeah, spot and stock, there I'm in this particular unit. They're everywhere, literally all over the place, and you see them. And it got like at first we see them, we attack. And then we started to realize, okay, there's no point in attacking them if they have any clue?
Speaker 1:all over the place, yeah yeah, and they hang out at like 120 yards where they know they can't shoot you and they'll just run. And so, like we'd find some that were bedded looking the other way, and I I have a foot of elevation and a foot of bush and I'm trying to sneak in in that two feet of cover, 500 yards. I got to uh like 100 yards and then he stood up and I just laid face down in the dirt for an hour, just like because he didn't know what I was, he didn't recognize me. Just miserable experience, um.
Speaker 1:But at the end of the day, we're driving around, I actually have access, a small, uh, private property, and so we go down there and I actually stock into like 30 yards on a herd, cause it was just that low, that super low light that gives you really long shadows and anything walking in those shadows is invisible. So I just had this perfect scenario. I walked in on all of these antelope turns out, all those, all those, not one buck in that herd, and I was just so frustrated to get back to the truck where my buddy's watching me and laughing at me and it gets cold quick and we're driving back and as we're driving down the highway, we just keep on X on to see. You know, hey, maybe we're next to public, so let's just leave it on. So we're driving down and we see him on the side of the road, probably about a hundred yards off the side of the road, and we're like hey, he's actually kind of on the other side of the hill. So we pull over, turn around, drive back and we don't see him and we're like shit, what just happened?
Speaker 1:So we go up farther, turn around, come back the way we were originally coming, and he's there again, and so my buddy just literally flies off the road and it's not like there's an obvious place to pull over. We're going over like a two-foot little drop off the road into this hill and so I jump out and there's a fence there and I don't even remember going over it. But I run out of the car, jump over the fence and I'm walking up this hill with my range finder out and I'm like where is he? Where is he? And all of a sudden I see that big white rump and I'm just like holy crap. And I range him it's 39 yards and I'm like no way, like I must be hitting some grass or something in between me and him, like there's no way, he can't see you at this point I mean he could.
Speaker 1:He's just pointed the other way, fortunately right, that's what I mean he's not he doesn't see you though, yeah yeah, my, my guess is he just broke off that prong and he was eating and resting and he had just been in a brawl and was just tired, um, because he was not doing typical antelope thing, so I think he just was, was a little beat up right then. So, yeah, so I arranged him like four times and I'm like, all right, here we go. And so I pull back and you know, occasionally when you pull back, your your arrow sort of rattles inside of your, uh, your arrow rest yeah, that rattle, he turns his head and I'm like whoop.
Speaker 1:So with my moose, which was like four days earlier, it it was the perfect, you know, perfect release, surprise release. The arrow went exactly when I wanted. With the antelope it was like, oh shit, boom, punch that trigger. And I just flung that arrow as quick as I could because I saw him see me and, for the people that don't know, antelope are the fastest animal in North America, animal in the world. Man, they are crazy and they're not even antelope, they are goats, uh. But yeah, I just let it rip.
Speaker 1:It dropped in right behind his shoulder because he was courting away. Uh, it went through, but it didn't pass through. So I had arrow on both sides of him. I turn around and I'm pumping my fists like I can't believe I did it. I can't believe it. And then I'm like, wait a minute, I should. And this is last light, like last last lights. I'm like I should actually see where this animal goes, in case he runs for four miles. Unfortunately, when I turned around, I saw my lighted knock and he was about 100 yards down the road, uh, and he was just circling and piled up probably in under 10 seconds.
Speaker 2:So he made a mistake and I got lucky.
Speaker 1:That's all there is to it.
Speaker 2:No, that's not luck, man, that's skill. You guys are in the right place. You made a good shot, you stocked up on him, like I mean, maybe there's some a series of fortunate events, the fact that you even saw, yes, but the rest of it's not lucky, it's just just work hey, I'll take lucky over good.
Speaker 1:Any day I mean, I spent of that day, I had probably spent four hours crawling through sagebrush stock.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you put in the work, man was 10 seconds from. When we pulled over to like over the fence and shot and that's what people don't see, is they? They think, oh, it's easy, you know, you just walk up, hop out of the fence, shoot an animal at 40 yards, it's done. It's like no, you didn't see the, you know the 17 missed shots, or the, the 10 blown stocks, or you know, you didn't see all that stuff, you just saw the last one and thought that's how it went that's true.
Speaker 1:That's true, I was. I was coming up on losing the rest of my arrows that I had still from our hawaiian hunt I was getting low, that's for sure. Um well, cool, ryan, you got any other stories for us? I know we're running low on time here, um if not, man, I could things up, man.
Speaker 2:No, I mean I could. I could talk for for days about these stories like gosh. I mean one, one, one story like last year. I mean, I might do that I had a really cool um goat hunt in hawaii last year. I almost died on father's day with my son.
Speaker 1:Um, that was an interesting one yeah so well, let's, let's see this I mean unless you have the time, because I know that you said yeah, I actually do have to go, but we can do a round two.
Speaker 2:I'd love to do that.
Speaker 1:Perfect brother, all right. Well then, let's do this. Why don't we tell the folks where they can find you, whether it's your social medias or the order of man or wherever you want to filter people to? Um, and I do highly encourage everyone to to take this seriously and follow up with Ryan, because he's doing some cool stuff, so go ahead.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it, man. Biggest thing if you want to follow and connect with me is at Ryan Mickler. My last name is M-I-C-H-L-E-R on Instagram. That's where I'm most active. If you want to know more about our organization, what we do, orderofmancom will get you to our website and you can find the podcast at Order of man and everything else that you need. If you just type that in Order of man, you'll find everything.
Speaker 1:Perfect. I'll put links to everything in the show notes as well, so people just go in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you, and I'll say this I've met like 10 to 15 guys that are part of the Order of man and they're all amazing guys that go out of their way to just check up on me randomly and see how I'm doing. And I'll admit I'm not a member of the Order of men. I've, I've definitely thought about it and you know I've been looking for a job for these couple months here, but uh, it's something that I plan on doing when I, when I can get there. But, man, you're, you're breeding a great group of guys. So thank you for what you're doing.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that. Yep, I'm really grateful for the opportunities that we have and not this opportunity to be here on this podcast with you, so hopefully we'll get some more hunts in together and keep you know having some of these good stories to share.
Speaker 1:Sounds good, man. Thank you again.
Speaker 2:Thank you, brother.
Speaker 1:All right, guys, that's it. Another couple stories in the books. Again, I want to thank Ryan, of course, for coming on the podcast. Ryan, I really do appreciate it. I know you're a very busy man and I do hope we get to have you back on in the future, because I know you got plenty of more stories to tell. But beyond that, guys I said it at the beginning I really do encourage you to check out what he's doing, check out the show notes, check him out on Instagram, Facebook, check out the order of man, all of those things.
Speaker 1:If you are struggling or just want to be a better man, it's a great place to start and surround yourself with some great guys. So that's it, guys. Final notes, I guess. Thank you, ryan, and if you guys are listening whatever you're listening to right now please give us a review. Also, give us a follow and share the podcast with one other person. That way, we get some other people reaching out to me, going hey, I got some crazy stories and get more episodes coming to you as quickly as we can. So that's it, guys. Thank you very much. Appreciate you all. Now get out there and make some stories of your own. Thank you.
