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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 130 The Hunting Stories Podcast: Owen Neff
As a seasoned hunter from southeastern Pennsylvania, Owen Neff takes us on a journey through his many adventures, offering a lively look at the rich hunting traditions of the region. With tales ranging from the camaraderie of rifle season in the Poconos to the heart-pounding closeness of archery encounters, Owen spins stories that are as enlightening as they are entertaining. Owen’s experiences paint vivid pictures of the thrill and unpredictability that make hunting a beloved pursuit.
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Howdy folks and welcome to the hunting stories podcast. I'm your host, michael, and we got another good one for you today. Today we're actually connecting with one of our listeners. His name is Owen Neff and he has some great stories for us today. So, first off, of course, thank you, owen, for reaching out. Really do appreciate it to you listeners. Again, thank you, guys for tuning in. Merry Christmas, guys.
Speaker 1:I figured I'd drop an episode a couple days before Christmas. Hopefully you guys have some time to sneak it in while you're hanging out with your families and enjoying some festivities. But yeah, that's it, guys. Let's go ahead and kick this thing off, why not? And let Owen tell you some of his stories. Thank you, all right, owen, welcome to the Hunting Stories Podcast. Man, how are you Good? How are you man? I'm doing well, I'm doing well. I'm glad to be here talking to you, brother. So you reached out to me, said you've got some hunting stories and I always appreciate that. I love having my listeners on. So let's kick this thing off, right, man? And let's start off with you introducing yourself so the folks know who they're hearing some stories from today uh, my name is.
Speaker 2:I'm from southeastern pennsylvania, in the lancaster county area. I've been hunting just about as long as I can remember. Uh, currently, my wife and I live in a rental temporarily. Uh, I work doing residential roofing and general construction. Um, and that's actually what I was able to be on today because we got rained out. So get a nice free day off here to get some clean and done.
Speaker 1:That's fine. I got a buddy who's in construction. He's in North Carolina and he got rained out today too, so he's excited, like you are. But cool man. Well, let's just jump into it. Brother, I know you got some stories for us. I don't know if we've had anyone on the podcast from Pennsylvania before, so I'm excited about this. Maybe I don't think we have, so why don't you set the stage and just dive into your first story?
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know if it's embarrassing to get started just to give everybody a laugh. So I'm going to start with kind of the strong Pennsylvania camp tradition where everybody gets together before rifle season. And back when opening day was on Monday, we would go on Friday night, hang out on Saturday and get stuff ready at the cabin and then on Sunday we would do a big crew dinner at the club where we were a part of and then everybody would go out Monday morning.
Speaker 2:But this one year I want to say it was 2020 or 2019. 2019, I think Because it was 2020, or 2019 I think because it was my sophomore year of college. I was going to be able to get away and to miss opening day because I had a big exam that I couldn't miss. I was in Chambersburg, drove all the way over to the Poconos Eastern PA and we went out and we sat a little bit in the morning, didn't see anything. And then we made a move for the afternoon and the older guy that was with us, billy, was like well, I'm going to go up here and do a little bit of a push. You guys go sit down in the bottom of the valley. So I started walking down with my dad and we came up on a large stand and the rule in pennsylvania is.
Speaker 2:If it doesn't have a name on it, you're allowed to sit it, and we weren't planning on being there for any longer than a half hour to an hour, so we figured, all right, whatever, I'm not routine like the law to it, or is that like a general, like you know, tip of the hat to each other if you don't sit someone else's if they've labeled it generally speaking, it's the tip of the hat to each other.
Speaker 2:If I don't sit someone else's, if they've labeled it. Generally speaking it's the tip of the hat. You don't sit somebody else's. But the actual legislation is if there's no listed name on it or like a tag on it, then you're allowed to sit it legally. I don't like to do that, but my dad's in his fifties and was kind of just like I'm sitting here, I don't give a crap. So yeah. How often do you?
Speaker 1:actually find them Right, like, how often are you out there finding those things? It's like, hey, whatever, let's take advantage of the law the way it's written.
Speaker 2:Right. So on the other side he sat in that stand, um, and I was going to sit on a little bit. When I got down I didn't see anything. So, uh, it was like, what do I do? And I looked behind me and there was another ladder stand. I'm like, all right, well, I really hate doing this, but just one time I'll go ahead and do it. I swear I've never done that before, but I was like, yeah, I'm still going to do it.
Speaker 2:So I'm sitting for I don't know 20 minutes and about five does come running by and I don't have a doe tag. But I thought maybe there might be like a late rut buck pushing him or something. So I waited and then I felt a little bit of death. The vulva start kind of coming out and I'm like I'm going to have to get down. I say, and I'm like I'm going to walk around and disturb this person's spot. So I go behind the stand and I do my business, and I'm in the middle of pulling my pants up and I hear a gun cock behind me. Uh, just to not shit myself again, yeah, um. So it turned out that another member of the club actually lives right on the edge of the property line and she went into a 11 to come hunting, because she was hunting with her dad, who's 93 and he can't handle the cold in the morning oh, okay, that's that, that's it yeah, I don't know, I'm a ghost and I'm freaking out.
Speaker 2:She starts yelling. She's like he's shutting down in the fucking sky. I saw the bitch and I was like, oh no, this is a nightmare um so I was able to get the gun calmed down and she takes mine off you.
Speaker 2:I was like I'll bet I already dug a hole. She's like you're gonna take a shit with you and all this crap and I'm like, listen, if you just calm down for a second. There were five dough in here literally five minutes ago. I didn't ruin anything, I had to tell it out of there and I never hunted that property again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I bet so. Did she catch you like pulling your pants up? Or did she catch you, you know, mid dropping the kids off at the pool?
Speaker 2:No, I was like finishing with that's what, pulling my pants up. And she said, okay, moon, sticking out, jeez, okay.
Speaker 1:What did her? What did her 93 year old dad say he just said have shit.
Speaker 2:And stayed back by his stand like 20 yards behind it. Jeez okay. What did her 93-year-old dad say? He just said oh shit.
Speaker 1:And stayed back by his stand, like 20 yards behind it. Oh shit, that's accurate. That's funny man. That's funny. It could happen to anyone, though I don't know. Were you drinking the night before? Was it gas station burritos the morning of, or just a day that your gut didn't feel too good?
Speaker 2:I just wasn't doing good that morning. I don't know, I didn't even have coffee in the morning, but it just wasn't going well, so I had to take a brownie to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1:There you go, yeah All right, I don't want to ask any more questions. I don't want to get any more details, I think. But that's a funny story, thank. Thank you for sharing that. I appreciate that. Uh, what else you got for us, man?
Speaker 2:you gotta start off with something shitty to make the other stories look better, right, yeah, exactly, um, so I'm going to have to talk.
Speaker 2:Um, I'm gonna say I fancy myself the king of almost, because I hunt a pretty good amount not as much as some out there but yeah, I try my best to get out as much as I can before we had the baby anyway and, uh, I tend to have a lot of situations that just didn't come to fruition and then last second it doesn't work out. So I went to Penn State and I was up in Center County and I was hunting one time and I had two bow tags and my buck tag and it was the second week of archery season and I sat the whole morning didn't see nothing. I had two bow tags and my buck tag and it was the second week of archery season. I sat down in the morning, didn't see nothing, and I was walking out. I had about a two-and-a-half-mile walk back to the truck. I was in the middle of the walk and I looked to my right and there were two does standing there in the cut trail like the Logan Trail.
Speaker 1:Okay, are you rifle?
Speaker 2:hunting or archery hunting.
Speaker 1:This is archery Okay. And are you rifle hunting or archery hunting? This is archery Okay, do you typically?
Speaker 2:do just archery or all your story is going to be archery or kind of a mix.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to think I don't think I have a rifle story that I was planning on telling today.
Speaker 2:I prefer archery as much as I can Cool, yeah, it helps me Go ahead.
Speaker 2:Right, cool, yeah, go ahead. So I just immediately got to the ground and just wait, and it's super windy, kind of rainy this day, so I'm thinking I could maybe do like a still hunt stalk on them. And as soon as they disappeared behind a stack of brush, I get up and I land up the trail and it's like all grass, so it's completely silent. And then I duck into the right behind the tree and it's like all grass, so it's completely silent. And then I ducked into the right behind the tree and she looks back at me, the one doe, and she kind of sees me, but she doesn't really spook, she just kind of stays on alert and goes back to feeding. And it was a course of like I don't know what felt like an eternity, was probably only like 10 minutes.
Speaker 2:I ended up getting all the way down to about five yards from her. Oh, wow, it was. Yeah, it was like johnny's barbara honeysuckle mountain, super thick, so I could barely see the top of her back and she couldn't see me at all. And I'm like, well, how am I going to shut off? Um, and about two feet in front of me there's, there's a stump in front of me. So I'm like, all right, well, I'll just kind of kneel down, just put my knee up on the stump and then just come up and shoot right away. Uh, so I get there, I get on the stump, I drag my dad like I don't know if you're going to be posting the video, but I'm kind of like leaned over my knees and I'm trying to go sideways like this and then bring it around me and then when I wait for her to put her head down, I get up like this and to release the shot, instead of doing the stop and look thing like they do sometimes.
Speaker 2:She just heard the noise and immediately took off and I went back and did the paces and she was about roughly seven feet from me. Jeez, that's cool, yeah. So it was cool to get that close, man, even if you don't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, even if you don't harvest, it's cool to just be that close to an animal. Yeah, I've been that close to some elk and been like holy shit, they're going to stop me, you know.
Speaker 1:And then I called in an axis deer one time and I got that guy to like maybe 20 feet and I was like, oh man, this is just. I didn't even have a tag at that point because I had already gotten my buck tag and I was just like looking at this buck on an open hillside, just me and him sitting there. I'm like why did you get this close? I have no idea, but it super cool to see him. Just, he was staring at me, didn't know what I was, but just just being able to interact with the animals like that, I mean sure, yeah, it was in Hawaii, yeah, it was cool. Everywhere, literally everywhere, is just shrubs and I managed to call them into the one spot where there's nothing. I don't know if you remember the story, but I was like texting the group there's not tags, but we're all allotted one buck and no one else has shot a buck. So I'm like, come on, guys, let me shoot it.
Speaker 1:And while I'm waiting for a reply back, it shows up and I'm like, oh too late for that and I just enjoyed the experience. Man, it was crazy. I don't know if you can see behind me. That way, there's my access to your hide.
Speaker 2:I just see a turkey there it is. Oh man, that's awesome, man, I would have to be able to do that.
Speaker 1:It was a fun experience, man. Oh, mike, down, I'm back, okay, all right. Um, well, man, that's a cool story. Um, it sucks. It's funny how sometimes they do like look and one and one and are very curious and sometimes they're just gone. Um, I wish someone could tell me why one way or the other. But, uh, I appreciate that story, man. Uh, what else you got? Yep, uh.
Speaker 2:I want to jump from one to another story. I just want to be a success story, so bring it up to a better note, perfect. So I'm deer hunting at 12, which is the legal age of Pennsylvania, where you get your own license and you're not a mentored hunter and after only about a year of sitting I told my dad. I said I've been watching a lot of these videos, guys are using these bows and I want to get an archery hunt. And he hadn't done it for one season, like many moons ago. And he's like, alright, well, we'll go see. So for Christmas he got me a bow and got me all sighted in and I practiced all summer.
Speaker 2:I went the next year and I had many moments in a row of not killing anything because I was hunting a piece of permission of a friend of his, where it was a massive property like 2,800 acres, but I was only allowed to hunt. Yeah, but I was only allowed to hunt about 20 acres of it and I could only sit in a ladder stand that he had put up for me. I couldn't scout, I couldn't do cameras, I couldn't move for the like none of that and he took a shit like 20 yards behind the ladder stand right, and I was behind by his kids and stuff like that, and uh.
Speaker 2:so I have a stipulation that if you were going to shoot a buck, at the very least it had to be outside the ears.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, Got it. I was like why are you going to see it as?
Speaker 2:ears.
Speaker 2:But all right, yeah. So I had to pass a number of bucks over the next uh, I don't know five or six years. And then, my freshman year at college, I came home for one weekend during the ironically the October lull. Uh, as they say, I don't really believe in the October lull, it's just a matter of smaller amounts of movement, but, um, I guess I just happened to be in the chips that day.
Speaker 2:Um, I had basketball practice the following evening, so I knew I had a small window, small window and I sat in the stand for probably I don't know two hours, so I'm about 10 down. I was going to shoot one, but she stepped behind the tree before I could get a shot off and it turned out to be to my benefit. And about 20 minutes after that I had this five-point come down. About 20 minutes after that I had this uh point come down. He was two on one side, three on the other. Um, just a nice little basket rack buck, and being young and having never killed a buck with any weapon before, I was pretty amped up to shoot. Um, but I I answered that was my restraint and respect to the landowner because he's a good friend of mine too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, and I watched that one all the way until I couldn't see it at like 120 yards the other side of me, and then, uh, trying to think which one was next, I think it was a uh spite came out and I heard more noise behind it. And here comes another buck and it's an eight point. It's a super weird rack. It's three on one side, five on the other and the three yeah, it was so strange and the three that was on the one side, kind of like in the main game, that did the regular curve, um real small basket, so not like wide or anything. But then the other two points like kind of went forward. It's kind of hard to explain, like you know, like the g2s and g3s on whitetails sometimes have like a forward lean, yeah, those ones were like it was almost like.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you know, if you follow the parallel with the ground.
Speaker 1:No, I don't, I don't.
Speaker 2:There's one guy. He showed up in Ohio last year where it basically looked like the rack went up a couple inches and then the whole rack pointed forward instead of going up.
Speaker 1:So the three on the one side were anything broken, or was it just three? Nothing broken off.
Speaker 2:No, just super genetics.
Speaker 1:That's weird, I hear if they get injured it's the reversed back, like if their back left side is hurt, their right side, antlers.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Maybe he had an injury in previous years or something. Maybe somebody shot him in the ass.
Speaker 2:It doesn't surprise me. It's certainly not a bunch of Mennonites that shoot anything that comes past them. So, um, so again, I won't shoot, especially with the weird characteristics. I'm just, I don't know. I'm very tall and typical, but for me, when it comes to whitetail, I like that super, not the freak nasty stuff, but just the weird genetics like unicorn bucks, stuff like that. Yeah, um, but I passed him and then I texted my dad in Orlando and they're marching today. I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 2:And I had another eight point come by me, but this one is like I can't believe it had eight points.
Speaker 2:It probably measured like 40 inches as an eight point it's how I'm taking it so smart, so I didn't even get my get my heart jumping. But I'm like, well, maybe something will come in. And it started getting towards the last loop and I hear a noise behind my left shoulder and I look up the hill towards the landowner's house and there's a good buck, nothing monstrous, but plenty good enough for the rules of the property in Pennsylvania. And I'm like, well, he's got two lanes he could take, and one of them he is going to be right up in my grill and one of them he's going to be at about 35, which is kind of a poke and it's a little through brush. I was hoping he wouldn't take that and for having a few times I'd be lucky in the woods. He took the trail to the right and came down towards me. Um, so I stood up grabbing my bow and I didn't think I was gonna drop, because he actually brushed against my tree behind it.
Speaker 2:oh, no way he's like directly underneath you, okay, yeah um, but instead of, like, wrapping the tree and coming directly in front of me, he went past this honeysuckle bush and then took a left to get down to the main trail. I think he was searching for, like a really early doe, uh, even on the pre-wet, yet I just think he was getting prepped for scrape week, um, and he ended up stepping out at about five yards from my tree, uh, and when he got behind that honeysuckle, I was able to draw, and, and when he got behind that honeysuckle, I was able to draw, and. At this point in time, I'm shooting like a 50 pound bow. I have no experience deep diving into all the worlds of podcasts and YouTube university and learning about and all this stuff and I drew that.
Speaker 2:stop a little bit and put it into the loom. He ran about 30 yards and dropped his head into the swamp and went end over end and I actually had to catch myself from falling out of the tree. I had my safety harness on, but I was shaken so bad I misstepped and fell forward. Okay, Awesome. And I grabbed the tree stand and then sat myself down and I couldn't even pick up my phone and call my dad or anything yet, because I was shaken bad. I had to give myself like five minutes.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's amazing. And how old were you at this point?
Speaker 2:Uh, 18. Okay, that's awesome. Yeah, it was. It was fantastic. It was a great way to have my first buck. Um, so I found out he had my phone out, called my dad. He's like why are you calling me this late? And I'm like I did shout a monster. He's like you're shitting me and I'm like, no, I swear to you Like, and for me this is a monster. Um, and he, he like you know so through the phone, like in excitement, and on, uh, he's like I'll do it as quick as I can. Um, so I know it's going to be a little, because where he fell in the swamp I've got about 85 to 90 yards to go and it's pretty much entirely uphill at about a 30 to 40% grade and it's like half gravel yeah, that sucks.
Speaker 1:I dragged an antelope maybe 60 yards uphill, but not a 30% to 40% grade, like we're talking, 12% maybe, and me and my buddy were like, well, okay, this is a lot harder than we expected, especially getting him over one barbed wire fence man. That sucks yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know if I had a dancing task in front of me, but I was like it was just like whatever I'm gonna do, whatever it takes, um, and I had another safety system, and they, the one that I had, came with a drag rope where you can hook a carabiner to your belt loop and then tuck it around the neck of the deer and drag it behind you.
Speaker 1:but at the time I was, I would imagine your belt loop would just bust out pants.
Speaker 2:It's the belt loop of the harness.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 2:That makes sense At the time. I'm 6'3", but I'm only like a buck 60. So this dude is hammering the plate. Last time I was running, it took me two and a half hours to get it down 85 yards up the hill, um when did your dad show up?
Speaker 2:Right, right, when you arrived, he, he, that's the way it was. So we could I think I told you that around the tree so that we can get the dam up, that last leap where it goes like straight up, yeah, um. And then this was probably my favorite moment hunting. And then I saw how nice it was, turned around for me, facing into the woods and screamed at the top of his lungs like a wolf, howl in excitement, like that awesome it was.
Speaker 2:he was so excited that it made me even more excited. It was a great moment to share with him. Um, but he's the buck, I'll turn it. He's, I have him right here.
Speaker 1:That's a good buck man. So I don't know like, is Pennsylvania known for having big bucks, or is it like? You know everyone's like damn Iowa, known for having big bucks, or is it? Like you know, everyone's like damn iowa, man, that's where you go to get monsters. What's pennsylvania? What's a big buck in pennsylvania? And what is that guy?
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, the average hunter in pennsylvania would consider a pope and young a big buck like a 120, 125. Okay, the 200 show that, pennsylvania 200, but that's more in recent years and that's not common at all. It's like maybe one a year if that, and we have the greatest number of hunters per capita per square mile. Okay, so, considering 350, some thousand people being in the woods and only one monster getting shot a year, there are a lot of big ones, but I would say the average guy would consider a 120, like a really, really good buck. In Pennsylvania he ended up measuring out at 103.7.
Speaker 2:So I was very happy for our first buck, but the weight is the thing that would throw most people off. So then the farm raised here, and I don't mean in the high sense, but he spent his entire life on this property. I had two years of pictures of him and, uh, he ate corn and soybeans all summer long, all the beginning of fall yeah, and then he went to the house and it was loaded with like uh, this will be thorn brush, uh, buckthorn, uh, multiple rooms, acorns, all all that.
Speaker 2:So we undressed him and then I headed on back to college. So my dad took him to the butcher the next day to get him caped out for the mountain and everything. He actually ended up weighing 250 field dressed. Oh wow, that's a big buck, yeah. So that gave me a little bit of now. You got to take me that long to get that far, seeing as how I weighed 160 pounds, yeah.
Speaker 1:He probably weighed what 300, 320. Not something like that, jeez.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like his neck was absolutely consistent, so that's awesome.
Speaker 1:That's cool. That's super cool. Uh, I also love the visual of your dad showing up, looking at it and then then just turning around. Why did he turn around? I don't know, but I love that. He's like I've got to get this emotion out and I'm going to point it that way.
Speaker 2:That's pretty cool. The funny part was he told me after we got there that he was out to dinner with his girlfriend for his parents' anniversary and he left in the middle of dinner, before the food got delivered to the table to come. That's amazing. Hopefully they boxed it up for him. Anyway, his girlfriend was kind of like I'm not going to go right now, but her mom was like I know how special this is Go be with your son, so it was pretty cool. I'm glad that they were understanding.
Speaker 1:That is cool. That is son, so it was. It was pretty cool.
Speaker 2:I'm glad that they were understanding so that is cool. That is cool Are they uh, is it still his girlfriend? Uh, it's his wife. Now no wife, okay, okay, so she got over it, that's good.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, that's a great story, man. I love it. I respectful following the rules and then being there at a time when most people would say it's not worth your time and you just kill your biggest buck. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:And he's a good-looking buck. Yeah thanks, I'm very focused on him.
Speaker 1:Does your dad archery hunt, or did he just set you up to do it?
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know. I was telling him before, many moons ago I think. He got sent up to do it and he was potentially going to go out west to do an elk hunt, um, and then the ones that he was going to go with wanted to do rifle. So they went rifle didn't kill anything. And then he came back and he hunted pennsylvania with a bow for two years didn't kill anything.
Speaker 2:And he said I'm tired of this and he hung a bow up and now he doesn't do hunts anymore, he only does it just to do do family get-togethers and stuff like that, just to spend the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you got to get him out there, man, get one of those two-seater ladder seats or whatever, and get him out there.
Speaker 2:We've got a family that goes hunting together. Okay, my son is gearing up to move to Oklahoma next year and I plan on getting him out on a of good bucks out there once we move.
Speaker 1:So yeah, man, yeah, let me know when you do that. I know a couple of folks out there that might be interested in, uh, in taking you out, and I know some folks in Southeast Kansas and near Oklahoma city. So, um, I I'd love to connect you and see if maybe the hunting spots are sacred. So who knows what they might? Just say for sure f off, but they might be interested in helping out. So we'll see all right what else you got man let's keep going all right, um.
Speaker 2:So let's mention that. Um, I'm trying to remember back through your episodes.
Speaker 1:I don't recall if you've ever had a waterfall story before.
Speaker 2:If you haven't, I'm guessing it's just one we've, we've had a handful um, we've had.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's right, we've we one.
Speaker 2:We've had a handful. Oh, that's right.
Speaker 1:That's right. I've had a couple different. A lot of times the duck hunters and waterfowl guys say it's kind of like fishing stories. They're all kind of the same, but occasionally you find one and it often involves someone almost dying because their waders fill up or something like that. So I don't know if that's where your story is going, but I'd love to hear it. I've also even heard one story, I think, gentlemen, there's the goose tornado that everyone hears about, but somebody saw ducks do a tornado, which is pretty crazy.
Speaker 1:We've had a handful of them, but not enough. I'll tell you that All right.
Speaker 2:Well, it doesn't have anybody died Still to this day. It's probably one of the most incredible experiences I've ever had. I swear to you. I remember it was yesterday and I was only 14, and I'm 27 now. It's quite a number of years ago.
Speaker 2:We're out hunting and we're going to hunt in the DC here in PA. I don't have any access to farm ponds or anything like that, so we field hunt. We're going to use I don't have any access to farm ponds or anything like that, so we field hunt. And this one field right off the edge of a big reservoir that's unhuntable. They have it fenced off, it's like a project refuge and we have a pit in the field, like right in the field. And there were five of us out that day and the limit at the time was three, so we could kill 15 birds um. So the only limit is I ended up killing nine of the 15 um. I can say that, I think because the statute of limitations is over on it, because we're not supposed to party out in pennsylvania, I'm supposed to kill my three and unload my gov.
Speaker 1:That's a hard thing to judge when everybody's shooting, though you know, right, right, I'm going to definitely talk my way out of it.
Speaker 2:So we went to the first one. We come in really late. It was a super foggy, rainy, I was kind of sleeping a little bit and the first one I came in surprisingly late with that weather at like I don't know, 830, 840, and the one guy that hunts in our pit chooses a freaking 10 gauge absolute cannon and he shoots building clays about 250 out of 365 days a year. So he's a good shot. So he just calls the shot, pulls it up, drafts the bird it's just one, the other's flittered before we can get a shot. So I'm like, all right, well, it's going to be a long haul, hopefully the morning gets better.
Speaker 2:A big group comes in, probably 50 to 60 birds, and they're coming in off my end. I'm on my end and I 50 to 60 birds and they're coming in off my end. I'm on the end, um, and I have a petted master choke, full-size choke, in my long barrel 12 gauge um. So I can, I can reach out there pretty good, like I've shot a crow at 90 yards with it before. Oh, wow, damn, yeah, um, and when we set up we call the shot. I'm just going to know.
Speaker 2:maybe like the first ones touched down, but we call the shot. I'm just going to let the first ones touch down, but we call the shot. I pull out and I pick the last bird that I can find flat on the ground so I don't have to worry about wind taking care of it. I shoot and my choke is so solid holding those pallets together, I drop two birds in one shot and then I spin to the right and I'm doing my next two shells um the birds after we shot and, like I said, we probably should wait a little longer. So it was a bit of a poke. I didn't hit anything, but one of the birds from the lower flank was like circling around back and somebody was does anybody still have a shell in their gun? And I went nope, grabbed the shell, wrapped it, spun out in one motion, let it drop the bird at 75 yards.
Speaker 1:No shit.
Speaker 2:Hell yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. That was long time At 13,.
Speaker 1:you did all that At 13, yeah, 14. Damn Damn, I couldn't do that in a day if I wanted to. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know if that was a good shot or anything, but it was a good day. I was doing well that day. So that put us at. Let's see how many did they kill in that flock? They killed another three, so that's eight birds. Yeah, eight. A pair comes in, we pull up to shoot. I shot it. They missed the other one.
Speaker 2:Sometimes with geese and ducks, after the group gets shot, I don't know what just happened, so they'll kind of do like a circle back and fly over. Well, this time I hadn't gotten out of the pit and was running after the bird because I only winged it and it was trying to run over the hill. I had just gotten to the crest of the hill and they went get down. So I dropped on my face and was just kind of like looking up like this to the side, and here the other part of the pair had circled back and was coming and I went down so that it could guard it up and it kind of hung up right above me and it was only like 40 yards above my head and I looked back and they yelled shoot it. So I stood up, pulled my gun up and shot it and basically caught the bird. It fell right in my hand no way, that's awesome did you end?
Speaker 1:up. Did you get to the bird that you winged before you fell? That or laid down no or no.
Speaker 2:I shot my own drop. I moved it away from my feet, ran down the hill, shot the one I dropped. I moved it away from my feet, ran down the hill, shot the other bird again and then brought it back up.
Speaker 1:That's awesome man.
Speaker 2:That's a hell of a day.
Speaker 1:I don't think we've gotten to nine yet, or however many shots, so we'll keep going.
Speaker 2:We're going to get to 15 when I've shot four of them, I think already or no. One, two, three, four, five. I've shot five, I think already or not. One, two, three, four, five. And another guy comes in and it looks like they're going to set up on the older guy's side that uses the 10 gauge and they pick up at the last second, spin back around and come in on my side. I think the wind was swirling. They had to land into the wind, so, um and um.
Speaker 2:Only two of us ended up shooting because we had to call the shot the way they were flying a little early. Uh, and I went one, two, three, three birds down with three shells, Um, and the guy to my left shot one Um, so that put us at, I think, 14, I might be getting these numbers off a little bit, but I think that right now you're at eight for you and 14 for the group, I believe so, yeah, yeah, one more one more, uh, and then it stopped sleeping and raining and it started snowing, uh, and I mean like blizzard level snow from dropped in we can't see anything.
Speaker 2:Um, and I said I started flying late at like 8, 30, 8, 40. All of this had occurred before 945. Oh wow.
Speaker 2:It was a good hour At this time. Typically we don't get those big flocks unless we have weathered bread and butter, like singles and pairs that are just looking for a flock to lay down with. That's why we just need another pair something to come over. Uh, we have a phone from a bank for them to come over, but they were so tightly punched that we were afraid to shoot and shoot too many. So we ended up letting them fly over at like 30 yards, didn't shoot, and then the breaker spun off the flock and come back. He's like guys, I'm not flying anymore, I'm eating some corn. He came to my end and I called my own shot. I called my own shot, pulled the trigger and did one shot and that was it. That was a five man limit, 15 burns and I killed nine of them.
Speaker 1:There you go. So it sounds to me like only two of you actually shot anything.
Speaker 2:Did the other three kill any, or is just the old timer, Just the boys on the end. The old timer shot that first one and then the one where I said I shot three with three shells. At the end there, the guy to my left, which would have been my dad, I think, shot and killed one. The first flock. At the end there, the guy to my left, which would have been my dad, I think, shot and killed one. The first flop where I shot two with one shot, and then that long one out back, the other two guys next to my dad were shooting in front of me and killed a couple, which was what put us to like six or seven or whatever Gotcha. So yeah, like I said I might have the numbers a little bit off, but I know that cemented in my mind we killed 15 birds. I shot nine of them.
Speaker 1:So that's cool man, so I'll never forget. I believe it. I believe it. So I don't. I don't have a lot of, uh, waterfowl experience and I'm trying to get more. I actually have a couple of folks I'm gonna go out with this year. Um, but in that scenario, scenario, obviously your dad's like hell, yeah, son, like turning around howling into the wind, uh, do the other guys? Were they like this 14 year old kicks ass. This is awesome, so happy to have him here. Or were they like man, he killed everything and nothing for us? Like, what's the mentality in the, in the, in the blind here, after, after, um, take a look, most of the guys are pretty chill.
Speaker 2:We're kind of a typical guys group where we bust each other's balls off. That's how it should be. So they moved in after I checked like six of them and then I put your damn gun down, you're done. And then they left. But when I pulled up on that initial fork and shot two with one shell, I don't know if he was a younger guy at the time. I think he would have been 17 or 18.
Speaker 2:Lauren stopped shooting because he was getting his gun up as he saw me drop them with one shell and he started laughing so hard he couldn't shoot, so he had to wait a second. And then he shot at the ones that flew across the front um, that's awesome. And then when I shot that one out the back, they were in the same plane and then watched the boom fell and my dad had just turned his head as it happened and he was like and then the other guy that was there was like your son and he goes, I don't know man. So that was a good day. That's awesome. That's not why you took my line or anything, it was just a good day.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:No, I'd rather be lucky than good any day, right, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:That's cool and it sounds to me like you need to be surrounded by good people. No-transcript. There are great spots, but the public spots are not that great, so I gotta figure that out and right. We haven't planned it yet, but I just know that a couple guys have asked to ask to go out and do it, so sounds good to me. I'm sure. Like twice yeah, I've only been twice, man, and I just went by myself a buddy gave me like a bunch of decoys. He's like I'm not gonna do this anymore here, take them, shipped them from washington to me and I went out and set up, set up the decoys it's just like 12 of them, nothing crazy, um. But I set them up and, uh, the very first day, like I didn't shoot anything. I think I what is it? A scoot? I think that's what I shot, yeah. Then I texted my buddy and I'm like, ah shit, this isn't a duck. What is this? Am I in trouble? Like not knowing.
Speaker 2:I think it's like a coot.
Speaker 1:A coot. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I shot a coot Um and I was like man, am I going to do? I need to call a game ward trouble. And he's like, no, that's cool, that's fine. He's like, don't eat it. But yeah, it's not a big deal. Um, and then I I realized in general that like I had made a pretty poor decoy setup, so the next time I went out again by myself, set up a little bit better, got a little closer to the water and um ended up shooting two ducks and I think I've told this story on because it's not super long. But shoot one. Another one comes in, shoot that one, and they're both. What is the duck with the flat bill? That's what they are.
Speaker 2:Spoonbill.
Speaker 1:Spoonbill. So, yeah, I shot two of those. And so I start walking out there and I'm in a reservoir and the reservoir is really low, the water level is really low. So this little stick blind is built way out basically in the reservoir. And so way out basically in the reservoir, um, and so I set up my decoys. But shortly after my decoys the water level or the the ground drops. So like I go from you know ankle deep to like we're talking nipple, nipple deep, uh, in in my waders. I'm looking at the edges of them and I'm like I've got about an inch before. I'm underwater, uh, underwater, and the birds are farther out. So I'm like shit, what do I do? So I waddle back to my decoys, grab one of them and I'm fishing with my decoy. So I'm throwing the decoy beyond the bird, holding onto the string and then trying to reel them in. And I was able to get one of them back, but the other one unfortunately floated away to who knows where. But I was pretty happy to have the one bird.
Speaker 1:So but yeah but I I learned a little bit. You know, every time you go, you're like okay, I realize what I'm doing wrong here, uh, and hopefully next time I shoot more than the the two birds, so we'll see if you let it twice, by yourself, with no experience, and you killed three birds, that's pretty good the coot. I don't know if there were plenty of coots. I I probably am missing a couple coots that I shot that second trip but I just didn't mention.
Speaker 2:But the first time when I didn't know what a coot was.
Speaker 1:That's when I was like, oh god, I'm in trouble this is definitely not yeah, yep, as it turns out, they're, they're everywhere and yeah, yeah, I will say that I probably. What is it called? When they're sitting on the water and you shoot at them? I feel like there's a name for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I try not to do it if I don't have to.
Speaker 1:But yeah, Well.
Speaker 2:I mean, I was bored.
Speaker 1:Coots are sitting there and I'm like, well, if it's legal, I'll go ahead and take some shots practice. So, yeah, got to practice, right you?
Speaker 2:got to practice, right, you got to learn somewhere. Yep, all right, I just lost my other headset. Give me one second here. But what other stories you got for us, man, let's see. Oh, okay, this one will be fun. Okay, this was the story of an illegal turkey. It was not me.
Speaker 1:I have one of those that I haven't told but maybe I'll share. I don't know what the statute of limitations is for South Dakota, but I have a buddy who did the same thing. Go ahead.
Speaker 2:Okay, that was a friend of mine. It was a stranger, so I'm playing on that. There you go. I was in Center County, not too far from State College, and I texted my buddy and he was. I just haven't convinced him to go on your podcast. He's not a real big talker, but the stories he could tell you is he's one of the most intense hunters I've ever met in my life. He kills like, uh, like nine turkeys a year in like seven different States and yeah he's, he's an animal, um so we'll we'll, so we'll convince him.
Speaker 1:All right, all right, um.
Speaker 2:I said listen, I've barely had any chance to scout since it starts tomorrow. Is there something I could go try to roost some birds now that you know is a spot you're not gonna? So he sent me a pin and said five or six years ago back here there were some birds now that you know is a spot you're not gonna hunt.
Speaker 2:So he sent me a pen and said five or six years ago back here there were some birds you might be able to find, them, give or handle. So I went in there the night before. Um didn't go too far down because I didn't want to mess anything up, because you know turkeys are super spooky.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, and I started hearing them. Uh, so my friend fell in and was doing some welts and cutting a little bit, um, and just trying to hear them sound off as they fly up to roost. So I know where they're going to be in the morning. Uh, I end up listening for birds, um, all within a general locality. I'm like, all right, this is great, I'll come back here way early in the morning, we'll be good, um, so again. Oh man, oh, dark, 30, like three, 15, something like that. Okay, yeah, maybe you can actually access at the fraternity house.
Speaker 2:And then um hopped in the truck and throw it out to the spot and I was set up probably an hour and 35 minutes before even the crack of daylight hits. I was texting my buddy because he was hunting somewhere else. I was like, well, he's going to be the only other soul I know that's awake at this point. I had some time texting him. Right about 45 minutes before light, I hear one flying just like I don't know, 100 yards away. I'm like, oh, shoot, I am in the chips. And a couple minutes later he hits again and then it fires up. Two of the other ones Turns out I'm basically like in a bowl in the bottom of the valley. Three of the four of them are like around me.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Um and that's yeah it was.
Speaker 2:It was super cool. I wish I would have known about like video hunting back then that I could have gotten it on camera. But I ended up having all four of them within 120 yards roughly and I didn't see them. But you can kind of like gauge the depth based on how loud they are. Um, especially when you're in like a bowl and stuff. Uh, and I'm texting him, I'm like dude, they are ripping, should I start cutting now? And he goes yeah, dude, if they gobble again, cut them off, make them mad. Um, so I did that and then was doing some like some uh tree helps for hens to try and let them know like there's some hot mamas over here. Um, and I'm telling my buddy, I'm like dude, I wouldn't be surprised if all four of these come in here and I get like my pick of the freaking flock. Like this is going to be amazing. I'm so excited for a phenomenal hunt and and you're just smiling right, like you.
Speaker 1:You just know they're there, you're not making a peep and they're just talking.
Speaker 2:That's what I was talking about when I said cutting. I decided for the first like 15 minutes and he told me to start calling so I was doing like it's called cutting, it's where it's like okay, it's a really fast, aggressive call and I do it as soon as they also cut some off and it pisses them off and they're like you bitch, you just like I'm going to let you know, yeah, and then the hen churros is like a real soft like and it's nice to go ahead and that's still on the loose so that he can get down before her and get over here.
Speaker 2:So when she flies down, he can breed her God flies down, he can breed her. God. That makes sense and I sent him the text that I'm fired up and this is going to be the hunt of a lifetime. I swear to you. I hear, 25 minutes before daylight, this dude unhunted three shells into one of the gumballs while it was still in the tree.
Speaker 1:No way what an it was still in the tree.
Speaker 2:No way, what an asshole. Yeah, something that I didn't know. Yeah, from me. And I'm like I literally just went shit, like I'm, I'm done Like there was no way Like that, and it was the closest bird to me, so I'm going to come in yet, yeah. So I texted him. I'm afraid they aren't going to come in yet, so I text him. I'm like this is what just happened. And he was like well, do a couple more yelps, and if they don't respond, it's probably not with Stan. So I wrote something more. I get no responses. I'm like him and Han, this is such a good spot, I don't want to leave. But at the same time, like got to be smart, I texted him back. I was like I just can't believe this guy just screwed my hunt up and he goes. Oh yeah, I've been shot at that spot before Jesus.
Speaker 1:Thanks for the info, man, I'm going to say dude, I haven't shot so much.
Speaker 2:That's why I keep him on. This is ridiculous. As soon as he texted me, I jumped up and I grabbed the head and equaled. I literally sprinted 300 yards back to my truck. I said I'm not messing around with fricking Jim Bob in the corner here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, God man dude, that's that. That's like need to know information. You don't need to know everything about a spot If he's giving you a spot. But I think if someone's shot at him there, I think that's need to know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially when, yeah, especially then. That would be the reason he's not going to stick there to hunt like is that why? Yeah, I mean that's, that's not for me.
Speaker 2:That's funny, man. So I got. I wasn't. I don't tend to keep a grudge, so I wasn't really that upset. I was just like, damn, dude, why didn't you tell me um? So I went back to the fraternity house, didn't hunt the. You know, that's great. I got a decent spot I'll take you. And it's not the same spot. I went to a different place that I personally had been to with this other uh, not the buddy had never hunted, but the one who's like the turkey guru and we had found in pennsylvania how many turkey tags you get when you buy a license uh, straight with your license.
Speaker 2:You get one and then you can buy a bonus tag for 25 bucks, okay, cool. Um. So I went to this spot where we can see the turkey scout and we were in there, uh, scouting preseason, um, and it's one of those spots where you don't really have to walk in far Like there's a old County road, it's all gravel. You park, you walk in maybe a hundred yards and you're like in the chips of like scratch and scat and stuff. So I take this buddy out there. He's a uh, he was in rtc at the time. He's a military guy, um, and he's not been hunting much period, but definitely never turkeys. So when we got into the spot where we passed uh, on the men in trail where there had been some turkey scratch, I'm like all right, well, they're definitely in here, we need to sit and listen for a second. And I heard one fire off and it wasn't that far away. So we set up just off the trail 15 yards off the trail, don't even set a decoy up. I start calling. I got two gobblers fired up at about 200 yards. Um, they start, we can hear them falling down. It's that quiet that morning even though they're 200 yards away and they start, they're gobbling, they're getting closer and closer over time and like 20 minutes after light we get a noise to our desk and we look over and here, freaking jim bob joe is walking in the trail like 20 minutes after light, just straight down the trail like dude, this is turkey hunting. You can't like. It's not like still hunting for deer. And I was like, dude, stop, we gotta think it. Things on this trail. And they're on their way.
Speaker 2:I didn't say you can't hunt here. I wouldn't have cared if you had a setup. I would have sat back and called and let the two of them double on the gobblers. I don't care. I was just saying don't go any further because these birds are coming and just goes and then turns around and walks out. And I looked at my buddy, jeremy, and was like well, I mean, that's his loss. I wasn't telling him he had to leave, I was just saying don't walk any further.
Speaker 2:So they're only getting all the way down to like 120 yards, roughly just over the crest of the hill, and they go silent. So I just get super aggressive and start calling and I hear them babble the hill and they like go silent. So I just get super aggressive and start calling and I hear them gobble again and they're further away and I'm like what the heck? Like why I'm so confused, why are they further away? Uh, and then I'm talking about 150 and then just stayed there for like 20 minutes just hung up on this ridge, um. So I'm like, dude, we got on your sneakers. And he goes yeah, I'm like we're gonna have be silent. We got to try and close distance. This isn't going to work.
Speaker 2:So we get down onto the trail and we start running and we don't even take 10 steps and I hear this super flapping noise and I look up and there was a head still on roost 45 minutes after light, like 40 yards from where we were sitting away. Yeah, so she realized and I looked at him. I'm like, uh, we might be hosed here, but we don't have a choice. We've got to keep walking because those birds aren't going to come, especially now. Uh, so we've been up to the top where they had well, we had the closest point that we had gotten them to and as we're gobbling to them and walking to them, they're gobbling and getting further away. So we're basically chasing them at this point, but they're still talking um. And we get to when they had gotten at that hangout spot at like 150 yards, and I hear a noise to my right and I look up and there's a hunter sitting right there and I'm like shit, I feel like such a dick.
Speaker 2:I hate like the kind of person that'll see somebody sitting there hunting well, without him and just keep walking like Like if I already I'm going to be done it twice this year in rifle season, if I see orange in a tree, I am turning around and going the other way. I do not want to be the person that messes up somebody else's hunt. I don't care if it's public land or not, like I'm just not that kind of guy. So I was like I'm yeah, you ruined it. They were here at like 50 yards and they turned around and ran. When you came up the trail and I thought about for a second I'm like, if they were right there at 50 yards, why didn't you shoot? Yeah, I was still just a super apologetic turn around, walked out, we got back to the trail and I was my buddy. I was like dude, that sucks. I thought for sure we were calling those birds in. And here somebody was up higher, he goes. You didn't even recognize him, did you? So what do you mean?
Speaker 2:well, I guess most of you guys get this like uh parka thing I don't know what you call it. It's like that tab with the front of the ends that they like wrap around their head when they're in the desert and stuff. Okay, I don't know, if you've ever seen before. It's like a green or black with black print on it. While doing that, that my friend was in ROTC. He has some of them.
Speaker 2:The other guy had one and he recognized it. This dickhead that walked in on us in the morning that we said, stop, there's birds coming around. He went back out, got in his car, drove up past us 100 yards, piped and then tried to cut off the birds we were calling in.
Speaker 1:Oh interesting.
Speaker 2:So he walked all the way down into the trail and that was probably why he didn't shoot them at 50 yards and he just wanted to say you walked up here and you spooked them, but really, if they're not at 50 yards, they were probably on the trail. He got to 50, and they heard him and ran away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, his story's not adding up, man, that's, that's, that's too bad especially because you went out of your way to like help him. It's not your fault that he ran off like you would have let him in, and then of course yeah that sucks, but you know, not every hunter is uh polite, uh a gem to meet, like yourself, owen. So they're not all like you. Yeah well, is that the end of that story?
Speaker 2:just like your buddy realizing that that's the same guy yeah, he had to go home for something that next, that following weekend, and then the season was over the weekend after that, so we didn't end up getting back out. So, uh, it was unfortunate, but um, that's why I'm the king of almost, because, whether it's from another hunter, a mistake I made or a deer noticing, I'm there like I'm constantly running the chips and it just doesn't happen.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, yeah, no, that's, that's why it's hunting and not killing man. I know it's. It's funny having this podcast. It's like I hear so many guys like, yeah, I'm just lucky, I just kill one every time. But like, realistically, no, that's not most people, that's not me. I'm out there and if I have an opportunity, like I'm super happy and if I don't kill something like that's par for the course.
Speaker 1:So it's just, it is what it is um, but I'll tell you a quick story and then I think we're about out of time, so we'll probably wrap this thing up. But, uh, I wanted to tell you my friend's turkey poaching story and this. There's a lesson in this one for everyone. They were actually a group of guys I won't mention any of them because I don't know anything about legality of this but they were hunting South Dakota is what I'll say. They were duck hunting and they had a pretty good day.
Speaker 1:I think they had limited out in the area that they were there were just turkeys everywhere. And they're in like a residential neighborhood and there's just turkeys, turkeys, and of course they're rolling back and forth between their duck hunting and coming back. So they've got the shotguns and at one point they're literally at their house and in the neighbor's driveway are five turkeys and they just like I think three shots killed all five of them, just like two guys shot a total of three times all five of the birds down. They're like, oh shit, like they didn't expect that to quite happen. That way they grab the birds, they run inside, they process the birds. There's not much to that story. The interesting part is that, like he was a pretty, you know successful hunter up to that point. From that point on, after he I mean, let's call spade spade. He poached the birds right. Um, and it's midday, uh, he has not killed a thing. So there's some hunting karma in the world out there guys.
Speaker 1:So be good in the woods, respect the animals, respect your fellow hunters. Because you know, I believe in karma, I think it's a real thing and I think that was 2020, right?
Speaker 1:So here we are almost 2025. And he is still looking for his next harvest, since he poached those birds. I don't know about the other guy because, like I said, there were two of them, but the one that I know I'm like well, you know, you dug your own coffin or you dug your own grave here For sure. Cool, owen, I know you probably have a couple more stories, but we are running out of time, man, so we'll have you back for sure, because all of your stories have been fun, man. I've really enjoyed listening to them. I really like crazy successful bird hunting stories. I had one other guy who like went, what was he hunting? Like pigeons or whatever that is called? And he shot one and he caught it and was like, yep, I'm done here. Boys Saluted his friends and walked off the pitch.
Speaker 1:And like just great stories like that man. I love it. So thank you for reaching out to me in the first place, man, and then, of course, coming on and sharing your stories, and it sounds like you got some friends you got to introduce me to. But where can the people find you if you want them to?
Speaker 2:Or do you just want to walk off into the sunset? I'll just walk off into the sunset because I have only a couple of socials and I'm not super active on any of them and, to be honest with you, I don't really remember any of the usernames.
Speaker 1:So I can't really tell you. Cool brother. Well, hey, I appreciate you. Thank you very much for coming on and to you. Listeners be brave like Owen man. Reach out to me. I'd love to have more people on that are listeners that have some fun stories. So, thank you, owen. Yeah, tom.
Speaker 2:Appreciate you having me have a good day. You too, take care All right, guys.
Speaker 1:That's it. Thanks again for tuning in. I hope you guys have a wonderful holidays. Owen, thank you for sharing your stories with me, man. I really do appreciate it To you listeners. Guys, please do reach out to me. If you have some stories, I'd love to hear them. All the listeners would love to hear them and, frankly, you're a better storyteller than you think. That's the number one thing people tell me is I don't tell good stories, but promise me or I promise you you do. Again, guys, happy holidays, merry Christmas, all that stuff. Thank you again, owen. Now, guys, get out there and make some stories of your own.
