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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 131 The Hunting Stories Podcast: Matt Rege
Matt Rege, a daring stuntman turned passionate hunter, takes center stage once again with tales from his exhilarating 2024 hunting season. From the rugged terrains of Arizona to the chilling wilderness of Montana, Matt's journey is packed with adventure and the lessons learned from his pursuit of elusive game. Discover how he expertly navigates the challenges of long-range archery, culminating in the thrilling capture of a big mule deer and a javelina—each story layered with insights into the art and science of the hunt.
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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 someone who's been on the podcast before, matt Rigi. He was episode 62. If you remember his episode, he got shot at, nearly died. He's a stuntman, lives in California, he's a newer hunter, but he's really been crushing it.
Speaker 1:And so Matt reached out and said hey, man, I had an amazing 24 season. I would love to connect with you and kind of give you some of these crazy stories that happened to him this past year. So I was happy to have him back on because he's a super interesting guy and he has some amazing stories. So, matt, thank you for reaching out and, of course, for sharing your stories with us today. To you listeners, make sure you give Matt a follow. I got a bunch of stuff in the show notes as far as where to find him. Please do that and you know, whatever you're listening to, give us a five-star review and a follow. Now let's go ahead and let Matt tell you some of his stories. Thank you All right, matt. Welcome to the Hunting Stories podcast again. Brother, how are you doing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude, it's actually welcome back. I was episode 62 and I'm doing great. How are you, man? Yeah?
Speaker 1:dude, I'm doing real well. I'm glad to have you here. I mean, people don't need to know this, but we have a little technical issues and this is attempt two to get episode two of you being on here, man. So thank you for bearing with me and the technical issues. But for the people that haven't listened to your episode already, why don't you introduce yourself, man, just so they know who they're listening to today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, if you haven't listened to episode 62, you probably should go back and listen to that one, because I talk about getting shot at, but animal stories, hunting stories, obviously. So, yeah, if you haven't heard that but my name is Matt, you may recognize me. Sometimes I'll be in like the Muley Freak booth at the Hunt Expo. I've been doing some stuff with Clean Freak and what else I do like a lot of social media stuff outside the hunt world, so we're doing like some world record stuff coming up. So you may recognize me, um, from that stuff. I also hosted the california section of the full draw film tour, so maybe you recognize. If you didn't recognize me, um, yeah, I'm just matt. I'm 38 years old, been hunting since 2016, been been getting okay at it. I think, um, I think you're crushing it, but so I've been out there hammering.
Speaker 2:I just spend a lot more time than most people, you know, and that's kind of kind of all I do nowadays. So that's that's kind of what I'm about. And I got some crazy hunt stories today for you. We got some, uh, some stuff from arizona, some my first time guiding this year I know, michael, you're a guy about some guiding stuff, um yeah, and a couple couple other cool stories. I shot a big mule deer this year, so we're going to get into all that stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let me ask you this. So you said hunting is all you do these days, besides the social media and everything like that, but you were hopefully you still are a stuntman. Is that the case, and where are we at with that man?
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude. So I kind of do like a couple video that planned that uh might be like a little illegal, but um, I'm just a little mostly been doing like some pyrotechnics and some engineering. I just built built some air cannons and stuff like that. So I'm still in the in the digital media world. Um, preferably not wrecking my body as much, but uh, if they offer enough money I'm gonna do anything, you know that's cool man, that's cool.
Speaker 1:Well, matt man, I'm glad to have you back. We've you know, that's cool man, that's cool. Well, matt man, I'm glad to have you back. We've been, you know, shooting the shit back and forth on social media and you know encouraging each other, and I'm glad that you reached back out saying, hey, I've got a great season worth of stories to tell you, so let's just kick it off. Man, where do you want to start?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, because it's just a cool little story for like some new guys and stuff but starts out in Arizona.
Speaker 2:I was hunting a like a two-point draw rifle tag and it was a nine-day hunt, which usually Arizona is nine-day hunt. So I'm hunting out there and, man, I am struggling. It's like November, it's too early because those deer don't even rut till like December, january, so it's super early. I'm hunting a new species like the Sonoran mule deer. So they're you know, I'm learning that they're way out in these flatlands, just in these arroyos, like in these canyons. And I was struggling, man, I was seeing. I think I seen 150 does before I seen my first buck.
Speaker 1:He probably wasn't a shooter either, was he?
Speaker 2:No, he fuck. He probably wasn't a shooter either, was he? No, he was just a little guy and it was like it was like day four and I was planned to stay there the whole time. I was solo hunting, so I was out there just grinding it away. So what happened was I ended up.
Speaker 2:Somebody ended up finding out where I was and they had talked to a guy they know that guides there in that same unit okay so the guide was like so nice, like I can't remember what his company was or his name or such, but he was such a nice guy. He's like hey, I have this buck, and on on a camera back when they used to be able to run cameras.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like I have this buck on here. He's like none of my clients could go get it.
Speaker 1:You're welcome to it if you want.
Speaker 2:He sent me his exact bedding location.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's awesome well dude, yeah well dude. It was until I found out it was nine miles in there so did, does he said his guides the people he's guiding can't go get it.
Speaker 2:Is it because it's too far, or well, yeah, I'll tell you one story about his clients at the same time. But yeah, he just didn't have like that clientele to go like that deep in there, okay, yeah maybe like not didn't have guys to backpack in there or such, you know. But yeah, he just kind of said he's like I ain't got the guys to go in there. You're welcome to this deer. And I was like man, that's freaking super cool, you know, like yeah, that is super cool thanks for the info, especially the free info right yeah
Speaker 2:so I ended up, uh, hunting a couple more days, kind of out closer to where his guys were hunting, and I had heard this guy shoot like seven times and it was just like continuous right. Yeah. So it ended up being that one of the, the outfitter and one of his guides and their client. Well, that client had missed a big three by three, six times what, and I think it was with his seventh shot. He shot the spike that was with him. Well, I guess what happened was that spike came out where the three by three was and the client thought that that was him.
Speaker 1:He just saw Brown and was seeing red.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it was like a seventh shot. He ended up shooting a spike, which is legal, and yeah but I guess the guide was like super upset so yeah it was just kind of funny, so maybe that's why the clientele wasn't experienced to go in there, you know. But dude, it was brutal. I did, did that. I was looking for that deer for four days and it was. It was 18 miles a day because I didn't have no backpacking stuff jeez, I was wondering if there's like any way to like get a.
Speaker 2:Do you have a horse or nothing, just just walking in and out dude that's a brutal day there was just like no cell service where I was and I was just by myself so I would hike in like at like 3, 4 am was like I couldn't. I did see like a lot of smaller bucks in there and I was like, oh, it's a good buck, but that big, it was like a big 180-inch 4x4. He just would not show up.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:I could not find him.
Speaker 1:That's how we got big right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's not where the story ends Like I could not find this buck. But what I did end up finding is I come up over this crest towards that GPS pin and there is a giant bighorn sheep there just standing there, probably 40 yards. And I was like wow, and I had enough time to get pictures of him with my cell phone. So I got pictures and when I got to cell service I sent it to the guide and was like hey, did you know that? And I ended up seeing 10 other bachelor rams by themselves. So I seen them them 10, and then the one by himself. So I ended up sending it back to the guy to go hey, did you know there's a giant ram in here. And he had no clue, he had no idea that ram was in there.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:So I sent it back to him and he had a client that had the bighorn sheep tag, a client that had the, the bighorn sheep tag. So he ended up taking the the client in there to where I you know, sent him the pin for that ram and they ended up getting him and he ended up scoring 182 inch that's awesome.
Speaker 1:So I don't know anything about ram scoring.
Speaker 2:I know I have one behind me, but it's not mine. I'm not familiar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like, what is what is like? Uh, you know average, what's like respectable? Do you have any idea or no?
Speaker 2:so I was talking to the epic outdoor guys because they were doing like an article on that ram and I was talking to them and they were saying, like anything over like 170 is big, but like 180 is like trophy, like class and okay, this ram was the biggest one I've ever seen yeah, I saw one.
Speaker 1:it uh, it was a backcountry hunters and anglers event and it was actually the biggest ram ever found in Colorado. It wasn't killed, they just found it on a military base where no one can hunt. It was like 218 or something like that, something ludicrous. I was like I've got a ram in my office. He doesn't look anything like this guy. It was crazy. But again, he just lived somewhere you can't hunt and just lived forever, until he just fell asleep one day and didn't wake up you can't hunt.
Speaker 2:And just lived until you know forever, until he just fell asleep one day. Didn't wake up. Yeah, I've seen some big ones, but I've never seen one that big. But it's kind of a cool story that he gave me the free info and then I kind of guided for or I kind of scouted for him and ending that Ram and I think it was like. I think they said it was like top five Ram in Arizona that year. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's super cool.
Speaker 2:I think like the, I think the state records like like a little bit below 190 maybe. So he was pretty good. Yeah, Okay, yeah, so it's a cool little story, so it's, it's, it's a. It's a good lesson to learn that. Just, you know, don't always hoarding the information. If you've got a deer and you like aren't going to else hunt it, you know, cause they may find something you don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, absolutely I'll. I'll say this as well, man, like, if someone gives you information, respect the information that they're giving you and expect that person Um, don't just blow that spot up and send that spot to all your friends. I know that my moose this year I was asking people and people were more than willing to drop pins for me and send information, and I'm keeping all that to myself. But one buddy dropped a pin. He's like I saw a moose here like three years ago, go check it out. And we're walking in and there was a moose that couldn't have been sitting more than five feet from exactly where that pin was Just bedded. We ended up busting her out and so we thought the evening hunt was done.
Speaker 1:But later my buddies went up a little bit higher and texted me uh, cause we had satellite texting, and I ended up killing my moose about probably 400 yards from that exact pin. Um, just up in the next draw. Uh, which is awesome, tons of meat, um, but yeah, just, you know, don't hoard the information, just make sure you're giving it to someone respectful and if you're getting it you know, take, take care of that information and take care of the person that gave it to you Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not super weird Like about people know where I hunt. Like I'm like this is the zone I hunt in in California, Right, Cause that's where I'm from. And then if, if people go there, I'm like good luck, Cause I spent years and it's like yeah they harvest about 40 deer a year. So like good luck, but also if I tell you that information, but also if I tell you that information, yeah it goes nowhere else Like it's between me and you, yeah yeah, that's really important.
Speaker 1:That's really important, but that's cool that you're willing to share. I know some guys, you know you ask them what state they did something in, and I think Sam Soholt said the state of happiness. That's where I did it.
Speaker 2:And that's a good answer.
Speaker 1:But yeah, you know, but if, if I see you're outputting the word and you need a little help like I'll, I'll kind of tell you what I know.
Speaker 2:Or or send me your spot and be like, hey, have you ever hunted this? And I'd be like, yeah, you know, but give, give, give a little to get a little also too, you know. For sure For sure man For sure. Well, because they got that giant ram, but what?
Speaker 2:happened to you this year, man? Oh, so this year started out in, uh, january, so I ended up shooting a buck january 24 I'm gonna assume, now that we're in 25, yeah, january 24. Yeah, okay, I haven't it's. But I ended up shooting a deer in arizona um december 28 and he was. He was riding, which isn't happening this year yet that I've seen. Um, so with that one it's not too exciting.
Speaker 2:I ended up finding picked a new spot on the map. I ended up drawing a javelina tag, cause somebody told me like, hey, like, apply here for javelinas. So I was like, oh, if I'm going to hunt there, I'm going to hunt the over the counter archery tag there also, cause it's still open. So the way Arizona works is once so many deer are harvested, then they close it. So it was true. So I ended up spotting this buck the weekend before, tried to move in on him and, man, when you get in this Arizona desert it all just blends in. It's so weird. So I had a buddy with me at that time and I got close and I guess that buck was just kind of circling me and I could not see him behind anything. So I ended up going back the next weekend and found the same buck in the same exact location and he was rutting this one doe. This time the previous weekend he was with like 10 does okay so this time it's just him and her right.
Speaker 2:So I literally, you know, I arranged him. He was like 8, 8, 50 maybe, and then I went 8, 50 on my onyx mark that out to where I thought he was going to be and kind of had that general vicinity of where he was and I in arizona in this, these type of deer you have, and when they're in the flats you have to count like like no joke, cactuses, potentially josh trees, you know palo verdes. So I sneak into him and I'm by myself. So I'm looking back at the mountain, I'm ranging the mountaintop I was on trying to judge my location to where you know that 850 yards was. So I'm sneaking up and once you're down there everything looks the same.
Speaker 2:So I'm getting to these palo verdes. I'm like man, like I am just not looking, like I know where I'm at, you know, I just kind of know. So finally I get to this one palo verde. I'm like oh, this is it like this is the last one to where he's going to be bedded right behind this. So I range back to the hill. Um, I'm like you know 750 or whatever.
Speaker 2:So I'm like perfect okay so I slowly start creeping up to him and all of a sudden I could just see him just standing there, but I could see the doe out of my peripheral. They're bedded probably 80 yards away from each other, so I see. So I kind of see her like like kind of stomping her feet, and I see him just quartered away staring at her. So I had time, he wasn't even looking at me. I arranged him at 90, I set, I dialed my pen to 90 and I stepped out from that palo verde and, uh, just shot him a perfect pass through at 90 and he ran 45 yards and died that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've never shot. I've shot at things at 90 yards antelope, like a few days of spot and stock where I was just like exhausted and so tired of trying, and one standing at 90 I'm like why the hell not?
Speaker 2:yeah, uh, never connected on anything, but man, that's a hell of a shot yeah, it was like I want to do it all the time but there was like perfect, perfect, like he was quartered away. My favorite shot is a quarter away deer. Yeah, he was kind of elevated because there was kind of a drainage. He didn't know I was there, so it was like perfect, right, I ended up actually to go back. I shot one a couple weeks before that at 30 yards and kind of hit him like in the shoulder and I have him on camera still survived, so that 90 yard shot was more lethal than my 30 yard shot, just to be on that placement, you know. So for sure man, take a 90 yard shot.
Speaker 1:But the circumstances were just dialed, you know yeah, man, when I, when I shot that at that antelope at 90 yards, it's like 93 yards I dialed and I'm like, well, he's just standing there like why not? And he was broadside, so I let it rip and, uh, that arrow missed high by maybe one inch. Oh shoot, yeah, like, just like I wouldn't be surprised if my fletching smacked him on the ass or smacked him on the spine, and I didn't account for probably like the 10 mile an hour wind directly behind me, so you know 90 yards of wind going straight at it Like he was winning me, he was staring at me and he just let me shoot and he just let that arrow land past him. But yeah, there's just a lot of variables that you got to think about when you're doing that kind of stuff, but if you're comfortable with it, man, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, I shoot normally like 140 yards. No shit oh damn yeah, the center at the East End well down here, in San Diego will let me shoot 140 yards.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty like lethal at like. I can hit a paper plate at 140. No way Okay. East on, no way okay. So 90 is like most people's, 50 or 60, but you know, this year I haven't been practicing as much so 90 is not on the table this year, like 60 max probably this year.
Speaker 1:But uh gotcha the farthest I've ever shot is, I think, 123 yards. It was at a tack event in san antonio.
Speaker 1:It was at a moose in a field in my, I think my my dial went to like 100, maybe, maybe 110. And I was like, well, I got to go another 13 yards. I don't even know what to do. So I dropped it, my bottom pin, to the 110 or whatever number I had, and then I just aimed. I was like I don't want to blow my arrow up, so I'm going to aim for its leg and then I'm going to go straight up from its leg up to its top of its antler and I let go right there and I hit it in the hoof. But that's the only time I've ever done it, but I was like I just want to hit foam.
Speaker 2:Foam wins right, yeah, foam is five points yeah exactly. In like a competition sense. Yeah, so it's super far. So that was kind of the last story what? Was I going to say, oh yeah, what else was I going to say? But yeah, practice super long range and you'll become deadly. The farthest I've shot is 380 yards what? And then we just did a video not too long ago. We shot 220 and I hit the 10 ring with my sixth arrow at 220 yards.
Speaker 1:That is insane. I don't even think my arrows can go that far. Yeah, what grain are your arrows?
Speaker 2:I don't know, I'm can go that far. Yeah, what grain are your arrows? I don't know, I'm not that technical guy. Okay, I think maybe their total weight is like maybe 480, I think.
Speaker 1:Okay, and do you have like a custom dial or something, or are you just sort of eyeballing it being like I think I've got it rolled down to 110, and I'm just going to throw it up into the air this high and see if I can hit and just throw enough arrows until you get it, so it's super fun, so anybody should try this right If you're worried about losing your arrows on Amazon, you could get arrows for like two bucks, which are actually like a decent arrow.
Speaker 2:They're just from China without the brand names on them, for like two bucks. So what we do is we always set up to where there's a mountain range behind us so we could put our site and like pick rocks.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's smart. I was thinking, looking into the sky and just guessing. But that's smart to have a mountain behind it.
Speaker 2:Chris B just did a long range video where he had this post sticking out from like a redneck blind. He would put his site on the post and keep his feet in the same spot. So the post was like where he would put his pen and I was like, oh, that was pretty smart so I might try that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, huh. Well, that's cool. Yeah, I got to try that. I don't even know if I know a place that I could shoot that far than just like running into the woods somewhere, but that's a good idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's fun to try, but yeah and then uh, so January, we ended up jumping back down there into Javelinas. Just try to fill that tag, because Javelina runs January 1st through the 30th for the archery season.
Speaker 2:So, man, I tell anybody that's my new favorite spores. Javelina hunts, yeah yeah, I remember on episode 62, I was telling you that they were charging me. Well, now I've learned that they're just blind. Like they're just blind. So if you get into a herd of them you could sneak in pretty close. Like once you get into 100, if the wind's good you could sneak in so close right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 2:So I was hunting deer and javelina at the same time, come, I think it was like the first week of January, like the next week after I shot my deer and I see this nice buck and I got my new archery tag. So I'm like I'm gonna stalk this buck, you know, and he's running so hard. So I ended up stalking him and, um, he was like 70 and I missed that shot because he was pushing does so hard. Yeah, I ended up setting my beanie down right, just like so I could get I don't know, I don't know why. So I shot at him. He kind of kept right and he started pushing bucks more closer to me after I shot and I was almost gonna get another shot, didn't happen. So I ended up trying to find my beanie, dude, because you know like you set something down, yeah, and then you're like, where did I put it?
Speaker 1:because you're just in the mode yep, yep, I've taken my boots off and had that same oh shit, moment, moment Like we're, and even on like an open hillside no bushes. And I'm like, why can't I find my damn boots? They should be right here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do that with Pat all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yep.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I'm searching for my beanie after these bucks push off and all of a sudden all these javelinas jump up like right where I just was, probably five yards from me. They just were like hunkered down so I ended up. One goes and stops. I'm like I don't know 50, and I draw back and shoot right over its back. These things are. They're tiny, like, yeah, super small. So I ended up shooting at five more hamilinas throughout that day and the next day, right, yeah, and I just cannot hit these things. And even one was just walking down this trail.
Speaker 2:I ranged at 60, still missed I'm like what the heck is happening like I thought maybe my bow was off. It wasn't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was me, you know yeah, you have bad days, everybody has bad days.
Speaker 2:So I ended up uh, I'm still kind of looking for these javelinas and one is just walking on this hillside. I'm like, oh, I'm gonna get in front of them. So I ended up he's working this way, I'm working this way. He kind of. I see there's a big drainage. I'm like he's not going to cross that, he's going to run that rim towards me. So he ends up working the 30 yards and I ended up passing through an arrow because they're thin. Their hair is so thin Like I've never seen thin hair, or really, yeah, I've actually never hunted, avalina.
Speaker 1:I'd love to you have to do it, it's so much fun. Yeah, do you eat? I've heard some people eat them. What do you think? Have you tried?
Speaker 2:I had. It just tastes like pulled pork like I don't okay, people are. But you also think people say deer is and elk is bad because it's gamey, but it's all how it's prepared and yeah, I agree that you're of like most people have their grandpa's deer that he just threw in the back of the truck and it just sat there for a couple of days, you know, and that's good. Yeah, I made like pulled pork sandwiches with it and it tasted just like kind of a pork flavor. I don't know Huh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll try it. I have. No, I have no problem trying it. I just haven't had the opportunity to go hunt it. I haven't had the opportunity to go hunting. I've heard the same thing. It's all about how you take care of your meat with like antelope um audad. I don't know if you've hunted audad much, but they're like goats. And I've eaten audad. It's delicious, but a lot of people say it's disgusting and I think it's because it's shot when it's 100 degrees out and they don't take care of the meat yeah, I always think, like I see who's like, I kind of judge people, like saying I'm like well, how much do you know how to like process your meat?
Speaker 2:You leave it in an ice chest for a week, you know. But no, it's really good. I recommend anybody hunts javelina. It is the funnest thing ever. It's action-packed. If you have like a new hunter, like a new archery hunter or like maybe your girlfriend wants to go hunt, that's a good one to get her in. Okay, it's a real action-packed these things from anywhere.
Speaker 1:They're always kind of moving and yeah, it's interesting, interesting, huh. Yeah, I'll have to check it out sometime. I I don't even know where I would go for that. I guess arizona, new mexico. I hear they're in texas. But I, I, you know it's hard to tell the difference between a hog and a javelina to the untrained eye it's just like that white, that white thing that's on their back, that like I don't know it's fur or what it is, but yeah, the little like a little weird hairs.
Speaker 2:But no, I tell anybody to hunt the javelina tag in january, because you can hunt deer at the run at the same time okay, is that for non-resident as well? Yeah, over the counter it's. Uh, they do a 2900 quota roughly and first come, first serve. So if you buy that, and then you get the javelina tag, then you can hunt two animals at the same time. So yeah, you that wants to come in for 10 days, you got a couple animals to pick from, you know that's cool.
Speaker 1:All right, man, I'm gonna keep that in mind, yeah yeah, and then uh, yeah, I'm gonna jump into august.
Speaker 2:We uh went, like high country arizona deer hunting and the story is not too spectacular because you know I shot my first tree hey, there you go.
Speaker 2:I'm connected with a tree and, uh, we were just kind of still hunting down through these flats because I had some big bucks spotted up in the higher country and they just weren't up there at this time, you know. So I ended up dropping down the flats and started seeing more bucks. So I was just kind of still hunting through this you know rolling type uh, pine trees, and I ended up looking around a corner and I see this bucks, uh, bedded there at 90 yards. I could just see his antlers kind of shaking, you know, like he's trying to like lick some flies off him or something. Yeah and uh. So I sneak in uh 50 and he, he ends up no, like knowing I was there. So he stood up and he walked and I was waiting for him to take one more step and I was at full draw for I don don't know 40 seconds.
Speaker 2:It doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a lot yeah yeah, and 40 seconds at full draw feels like 10 minutes. Yeah, so I ended up. He needed to take one more step and I was dialed so he wasn't taking it. I was getting tired, so he knew I was there. So I kind of took a step left and I tried to squeeze it through some trees.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I didn't squeeze through the trees. I shot the tree. I have it marked on my GPS. I might go cut it down and make it firewood. There you go. Teach it a lesson for getting in the way. It's my first tree, so I need to save it for something. You know. At least get warm, you know. Yeah, but on that hunt I ended up finding the coolest bear I've ever seen. It was probably like the state record bear. He was, oh no way giant bear blackhead albino body it was like white.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, yeah, blackhead blackhead white body.
Speaker 2:It was insane. Like that's cool, did you get a picture of him? No, he was 900 yards away but no picture. But he was moving on this hillside just looking for food. It was like the last 30 minutes of daylight.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's pretty cool man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I you know I jumped back over there with a bear tag later that season. No luck finding him, no sign, nothing where he was, so I don't know if he just got pushed in there. I did record that. That five minute elk fight that's going viral. So I ended up selling that to uh viral hog. So that's probably gonna be like all kinds of platforms, that video. So I it's cool that I didn't see the bear, but at least I got that elk fighting video so there's always gonna be something good that happens in the upwards.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, absolutely man. But you know, it may be, you may have to shoot a tree once in a while.
Speaker 1:But yeah, that's right. Did you see my? I have a viral video.
Speaker 1:It's got like 1.5 million views yeah it's uh, it's stupid, it's like so it was my very first it was last season, so two septembers ago elk hunting and there's a small herd like four cows and a and like a raghorn. But I'm like whatever, I just want to go get a rep, like get a stock in, and if I get close I'll decide whether or not I'm gonna shoot that raghorn and I'm going in, I'm hiking in just straight across this like marshy swamp stuff, but it's high enough that I can kind of hide and I'm like I see three cows in the bowl. I'm just going to assume that fourth cow's over there. The video is my buddies being like realizing the cow's, maybe 30 yards to my left and just staring at me and they're like no, nobody, no, michael, michael Turner, and it's just like the cow busting and running off and just me looking like an idiot.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it's got like 1.5 million. It ended up. It was a cool. It was a really cool situation because it ran off and apparently I split it from its calf and so it split off this way. Eventually I went a little bit farther.
Speaker 1:A moose came in and then spooked the little group that I was dealing with and it had a calf moose, and then there was another herd of elk at the top of the valley, because it was like a mile-long valley, and so there's like 10 more elk up there and I'm sitting here in the middle of probably these four or five elk. They don't know that I'm there, except for the one, and they're just barking. So I'm like 50 yards in every direction from these. Elk can't really move. Bunch of cows and I don't have a cow tag, I can only shoot a bull. It's just barking all over the place. For like five minutes I was like this is pretty cool, um, but yeah, the moose spooked a bull from me, dang, it Didn't make it happen. But that's the story of my viral video. It's not nearly as cool as your epic bullfight. Mine's just me being an idiot.
Speaker 2:No, but dude, sell it to one of the video stories and make some money off that thing.
Speaker 1:I don't know anything about that. We'll connect afterwards.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll tell everybody to post them even like some camera photos.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so I'm gonna jump into the story. That's kind of that one. Uh, it's gonna kind of go into this next story here in a couple stories about the bear, um. So yeah, so it's my first year guiding. Uh, the story starts at the hunt expo and I was going to hunt expo with muley freak and you know, I mentioned to my mom my mom's nose I'm kind of a nomad. She's like, oh, what are you up to? And I was like, oh, I'm going to go to Salt Lake and help out Muley Freak in their booth. And she's like my mom's real, like oh, is she? Are they paying you? And I was like, well, I don't really care. Like I'm going. That's my motto is, anywhere I go, somebody I might meet will make me 10 grand.
Speaker 1:It's a good motto, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I go there right, not thinking of me. I help the guys get through their booths and stuff, and they did offer me like a huge wad of cash and I just like turned it down. I was like, well, thanks for the opportunity to let me display my personality. You know, like I just wanted. I love talking to people and you know one day it's going to come back to me. I let them keep the cash Because they're going to remember me for kind of turning down the cash.
Speaker 2:Like this year I'm taking the cash right, so now I'm up for bid, so I'm going to be in a booth this year. I just don't know which booth I'm going to be in yet, so probably the highest bidder is yeah, that's coming up again in February here, right?
Speaker 2:So in about a month or so it's going to be a good time, so I'll be there, um, so for four days on that. But, um, I ended up having this, this uh girl and her boyfriend come by the booth and she was a photographer. So I told her. I was like hey man, like bring, I love what you're doing. She's trying to be an outdoor photographer. I said, come by the booth secretly, don't tell anybody, just take some candid photos of all the guys and I'll use some cash, you know. So she ended up doing that, gave me all the pictures and stuff, and I was like awesome, you know, like. So some of the pictures were good, you know, some weren't, but I gave her like I think maybe like 100 bucks. Yes, gave her the opportunity. I was like, if you want to be outdoor, here's your shot to take some photos and post them, you know? So, come, like what was it?
Speaker 2:I stayed in touch with her a little bit, ended up being august. She texts me and goes. She goes hey, I see what you're doing on instagram. Do you want to become a guide? And I was like sure I could, I could kill some mule deer. You know like, I will guide. Yeah, you know some mule deer. So she goes, okay, and by the time she got off the phone the outfitter was calling me and it was just like a friend of a friend thing. They were looking for somebody and you know, and I was just hunting full-time pretty much. So they offered. So the guy, the guy calls me, he's just running down like you know, you good at this, like yeah, I'm like dude, I kill some mule deer. I could do this here's, here's kind of what I do. You know, he's like cool, he's like he goes, you know, and I go yeah.
Speaker 1:I just. That's the only lie I told the guy. Sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, whatever you need. This whole time it was mule deer, because I'm like the mule deer guy, right, yeah. So I'm like, yeah, I know how to be able. I think I was on speakerphone like or on Phelps, like I need this. I was going in like three weeks.
Speaker 1:Oh, no shit, that's not too much time to learn.
Speaker 2:So in that podcast we were talking about a couple of times like how do you become a guide? And like I tell people I'm like you know, instagram is like your portfolio and your personality is your resume, right, so just be super personable, and stuff. So yeah, I ended up finding out that I'm guiding some elk hunts. Hell yeah, I never talked about elk hunting in my life, bro.
Speaker 2:That's awesome I was like I was, you know, elk 101 just watching all these videos and I was bugling all the way to arizona, just, you know, learning how all this stuff right yeah so they gave me this opportunity and I found out that they were kind of just hiring me to be, like some of their friends, like safety guy Right. Okay, Like it was it was more of just a hangout Like the one of the guys was 85. He's like furniture dealer in Nashville. He just wanted to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just wanted to be in the woods here. A bugle here there he's.
Speaker 2:He's been bow hunting for 15 years. He's had one opportunity in that time, okay, so I was like, oh, this is gonna be a hangout.
Speaker 2:So I treated it like that, like we're gonna be buddies, we're gonna, you know, laugh, joke and stuff, and I'm gonna try to get you on a bull there you go so I go out there and, um, I had three days to scout this area and I ended up finding probably 400 elk and like 20 something bulls in the first three days. So I'm like, oh, and you know, let me tell you, when you rip your first bugle in the wilderness, you're like I hope nobody hears this. So I ripped my first bugle, just like a location bugle, and an elk responds dude, and I was like, oh, I got this like yeah, so easy, just so easy.
Speaker 2:So I ended up playing around for three days, you know, I ended up seeing a bunch of animals, a bunch of elk, got a bunch of spots. My favorite spot I found with the biggest bulls my client couldn't get to it, oh no, he could. He super nice guy. Just he was just getting over covid. He has two knee replacements that he got done last month. So I kind of was just wanting to hit this one spot. It's always on my mind and I was like, please, let me hit this one spot. So I guided him for five days. I ended up calling in this five-point raghorn bull from 900 yards for an hour. He was just coming and coming and coming.
Speaker 2:So I ended up uh, he, I had him set up on this other bull that was kind of coming on our back door okay and then this bull pops out and my client sees it, but he's like 75 yards, which he has like a kind of an old school bow, and he's only good for like 40 yards okay, that's reasonable that bull couldn't come in right yeah, he's probably not pulling back 80 pounds.
Speaker 1:Either he's probably got like 50 pound or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was very minimal. So that bull is sitting there barking at us like I'm trying to get him to come in. I knew he wasn't going to come in because we were just like too high, he wasn't going to come up that hill. But my client got to see that bull for about five minutes just standing there, 75 yards, you know, circling. I would stop him and he'd bark at us and you kind of move on and my client hasn't had that happen but once in 15 years.
Speaker 2:So he was like he was like so happy he wanted to cry. He was like that's all he's like, that's all I wanted that's a win, that's a way he's like. All I wanted was like some kind of interaction like that. So we you know we got on some other bugles just kind of really make it happen so with him. But he was like super grateful. You know, I was happy that I was able to provide, whatever I was, you know, a great experience kind of thing.
Speaker 1:That's super cool, man, especially like just I mean going out a little bit out of your comfort zone and getting out there elk hunting when you're a mule, deer guy, and just be like, yeah, let's do it. And then getting out there and actually making it happen and, like this old man, like he's going to remember that forever. He's going to tell his kids about it, he's going to tell his grandkids about it, like you're, you are a part of his, like core memory that's what I was like super happy about, you know, and I was like I will like always take an opportunity if somebody offers me opportunity.
Speaker 2:Now, like I'm always gonna take it. Because it just like panned out, was I nervous going in? Heck, yeah, dude. The first night I got to the lodge they were having a party like at the lodge with all like there's people that just gonna use it as like a hotel. Okay, so nervous, I just went to my bedroom and just like chilled. It was like I was so like just overwhelmed with I just chilled and like people were texting me like, hey, dinner's done. I was like I just can't do that right now.
Speaker 2:I got too much going on, you know? Yeah, man.
Speaker 1:You got to jump on those opportunities when they come up. Yeah, I'm thinking of like my trip to Molokai this year in Hawaii. Like I got invited and I'm like man, I'm going with like five stone cold killers on this hunt and like I'm just an average hunter here, like I don't think I've even killed one thing with my bow ever, should I even do this? And I was like, whatever, let's go, let's have some fun. Totally normal guys, some of them absolute killers, some of them just as green as I am, and we had a great time and, man, I would never trade that trip for anything.
Speaker 2:So you just gotta say yes, man. Yeah, just say like yes to opportunities, you know, if it's your budget or whatever like that just worked out perfectly. I was just doing social media stuff and you know, doing tiktoks, not the dancing oh sure, whatever you're dancing actually about to do the world record soda mentos challenge. No shit, yeah, like the reaction okay, the, what is the?
Speaker 1:or are you even allowed to speak about it? Well, what is the world record like? What are the numbers associated to the world record attempt?
Speaker 2:the thing is there's not really a world record, so we're kind of setting it. But we have, like I think it's 80 something gallons of diet coke damn, but not mentos. We're using the, the mentos chemical okay it's not like actually the little mentos, it's the chemical that does it yeah, the reaction chemical.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, you put in like a, like a pool, or what are you putting that in?
Speaker 2:now we have a huge like aquarium cylinder. Okay, we had a huge like aquarium cylinder.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:We had a guy design like a funnel for the top to shoot it out like a geyser. You know, yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that's what we're working on next. So luckily I had the time to take off and go to Montana.
Speaker 2:By the way I was in Montana, so yeah, so I ended up. I was supposed to get this other client but he ended up hurting his hip with another guy like a couple days before and his hip was bothering him real bad. Okay, so he kind of took some days off and during the time at the lodge they do some solo hunter stuff. So you could go there, just utilize the professional shaft, the bedrooms and the lodging and go hunt by yourself. Yeah, so he was actually friends of the, the owners of the outfitter, and they were like well, he has a hurt hip, matt wants to hike, you like to hike? Do you want to go out with matt? Like we'll just well, we won't charge you extra, but you could go out with him as a guide, you know. Yeah, so I'm like awesome, I get to go to that spot, that's fine yeah so we, we jump up there.
Speaker 2:It's like 4 am, we start hiking and it's like three miles to get into where I actually want to go, you know how much elevation? Um 2200 gain okay, that's pretty substantial yeah, it used to be like an old road, so there's kind of a trail cut in, so it wasn't. We did end up in some blow down on accident the first time we went in there.
Speaker 1:Okay. But, yeah, always does, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we get to this spot and I had seen some bulls there when I was scouting I could glass them up there. So we ended up like right on top of them and I look out into the flats, probably two miles away, and I seen three like 380 inch bulls just walking across the flats. They're, they're miles away. Yeah, but this is the first time we got the sun was coming up at the spot. I'm like, oh, there's three big bulls and like 20 cows.
Speaker 2:I'm like this is kind of paying off, like we're able to see what's going on, you know yeah so I ended up, uh, ripping a locator bugle, and one responds back probably 150 yards from us, just right, right where we're going, and I was like yeah.
Speaker 2:So I'm like let's go. So we try to jump behind this bull and he's he's bugling by himself. So we're kind of like trying to cut in between him and like get behind him, you know, and he ends up moving down. So we kind of set up, I tried to pull him to us and he ended up being farther than I thought. So we set up again, I tried to pull him in and he just kept moving off and I was like he's just still moving, you know. So finally I we dive in there deep and we get probably a hundred yards from him.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And I bugle, and there's five bugles back, no shit, and it just starts this frenzy for like seven or eight minutes and I think what happened was we had five or six bulls screaming at us at 100 yards but the big bull I ended up seeing him kind of break off and he was like moving to my left and I had my client set up like 50 yards ahead of me at this little knob where these elk were going to come over.
Speaker 2:This bull ends up circling me and it took him a long time to get to me but he ended up about five yards from me just staring at me and I could see him. He's quiet. I could see him staring at me and I'm still bugling at these ones to try to get them to come by my client because there's the most of them over there. So this bull sees me and kind of stutter, steps and just walks back to the pack and starts bugling with them again. What? Yeah, I just see him walk right back to the herd and just starts bugling at us again. So these five or six bulls are just screaming at us for like seven or eight minutes and I cannot get one to come in like to commit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, other than the one that came five yards from you. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that one he kind of backdoored us on the wind, like trying to get the wind right.
Speaker 2:So I was like he's the more mature bull. I assume you know he tried to back doors. So, anyways, I'm like challenging these bulls, challenging these bulls. And uh, the guy that I'm hunting with has been hunting elk for 15 years and he's been pretty successful with them. A boy ends up coming walking over this six point, six by six, comes walking over and he puts one center of his chest at like probably 30 yards, oh yeah, but it was too high, oh no. I've seen the bull come over and I've seen, like kind of where, like the angle of. I'm like, ah, he frontaled him. You know which, I would too, but I'm putting it like lower.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, you have to get it below that sternum, that that hard part right in the center, so dude that most blood ever.
Speaker 2:Right, we're tracking this. We get. We get them like some time and there's actually fresh snow on the ground.
Speaker 1:So it's blood everywhere.
Speaker 2:We trapped this bull for four miles.
Speaker 1:No shit.
Speaker 2:Anytime he would go down there'd be blood, but when he would go up there was no blood. So we ended up tracking him for four miles and I'm pretty sure he was bugling at us, because every time we were tracking him there was always a bull ahead of us bugling by itself. Huh, and I was pretty sure it was him because anytime we were on his tracks 100 yards ahead there was a bugle like and we were in like some dense pines, yeah did it sound like gurgly at all, or was it just totally normal bugle?
Speaker 2:no, he I ended up chalking it up to he was healthy because the blood ended up running out and he, just he, walked for four miles.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:He was in bed once. There was no pools. There was just like a constant drip of blood. By the time we got to four miles.
Speaker 1:That's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's so crazy. Yeah, Tough animals man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we ended up grating for the rest of the day because the snow ended up melting and we were grating for the rest of the day and I chalked it up that he survived because there was no way he was going that far and just kept walking, didn't stop once, just cruised.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did you see the penetration on the arrow? Did it get too deep or did it stop?
Speaker 2:like, just right away with that, like shoulder, because did we ever? We never found the arrow, they never found the arrow. So yeah, I don't know what. I don't know what happened. But, um, when we were tracking him, though, I seen there was this 380 bull standing like 40 yards from me. I'm like, oh man, he never even joined that group, like he just walked right past this group.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's the king.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so he just cruised past this group of does and this 380 bull just kept going.
Speaker 1:Man, we tracked him, is this unit, one that takes a bunch of points? Or is this one that's like a?
Speaker 2:general unit. It's like two points man.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's crazy man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was like general season and I'm finding like all these wolves and I'm like man Montana is awesome you know, yeah, that's cool man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we ended up next day we went back and we gridded the whole area and then there was still like a little bit of snow in there and then there was grizzly tracks. Yeah, so it was a little butt pucker, but I noticed a lot of people live in fear of, like, the grizzlies, and I was aware of the grizzlies, but I don't really live in fear of everything. Yeah, luckily I didn't see one, because I probably would have been like you know, oh crap. But yeah, there was perhaps grizzly tracks kind of over by where that elk was. We grazed it forever.
Speaker 2:We just could never find the elk. We're pretty sure he survived, and then all the guides in the rifle season never found a dead elk either. Huh, yeah, so, yeah. So we talked to the outfitter and she, kind of you know, told us she's like, yeah, he's alive. I'm like that's what. I'm pretty sure too, because the blood wasn't like great blood, it wasn't lung blood, you know, it wasn't pumping out anything. Yeah, so so the.
Speaker 1:The shot that he took did the it did. It's like the bull came in and he just took the first shot he had, or was it like a like one opportunity between some trees? If he turned, he's behind, behind logs, or you know what was the circumstance yeah.
Speaker 2:So he kind of told me he was like yeah, that bull came in and kind of I was like, did he see you? He's like no, and I was like so it kind of came in, adam, I guess, like kind of straight on I guess. So my typical thing, what I probably would have did is, you know, kind of waited for him to pass me, to get to me, you know yeah the way he went was kind of a weird direction from where you know they were calling from so they circled up and then came down, which was very weird, you know.
Speaker 2:So I was like you know what the, what, the heck?
Speaker 1:but also I did great, you know, like I did, yeah, yeah, you crushed it, you got him on a bull, you got him a shot. That's all you can ask for as a guide yeah.
Speaker 2:So we uh, yeah man, we ended up, uh, just search for him. The whole next day we just gritted like all this stuff, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just no luck. So, sadly, they decided that they wanted to go hunt another one. They decided that he was going to live and I agree with them. I was like he's definitely going to live, you know? Yeah, Just from what I've seen. So we jumped back out there and we looked for him that second day and then we went back to the same spot and we were still looking for him, but he had a bow in his hand this time and, yeah, because there was a 380 bull up there. I'm like if that 380 bull shows up, we probably should shoot him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or you find the one that's already injured. Have your bow with you, right? You put another arrow on him.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we ended up, uh, kind of hunting a different direction out in this other spot I was looking at so it was a you know four miles back to the utv, and we go this other spot, like let's go try this other spot. I like feel like it's a canyon, like nobody's gonna to really go over there. So we go over that way and what happens? We end up getting. We're exhausted, right, we're doing the I think it was like 14 mile a day as we're getting doing the hop and zigzagging and the emotional stuff of not seeing him and that kind of thing and my client's like all night he would like text me, like you know, I him and yeah kind of thing.
Speaker 1:And my clients like all night he would like text me, like you know, I feel like the shot was good and I was like I don't know like.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it was just like too high, you know, or or like off to, because to me it looked like it was in the shoulder right yeah, it could hit that shoulder blade just sort of peeled away from all vitals just yeah, and they can pretty much any meat injury. They're gonna survive I'm pretty sure that's what it was all night. I was super happy that he was like so butthurt, like not butthurt but so like emotional about it.
Speaker 2:Yes to make it so I was like you know what? You know, we'll, we'll pump it up. So we're exhausted, we're heading back to the utv that you know two days later and, uh, I guess there's one basin and we're calling, but the wind is just too. I'm like I can't hear if anything's down there. So we circle around to where I could actually get out of the wind and like call yeah all right, I call and uh, bull beagles.
Speaker 2:And I'm like, oh heck, yeah, I'm like I'm not gonna say nothing, let's jump down it, let's dive down there. We ain't got much light left. Um, it's not raining right now. Let's jump down there.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna go down, I'm gonna do a cow call and see if he shows up okay so we go down there and I try to set up, but the wind's like kind of iffy, I'm like crap. So we, we move over and I do one cow call and I can hear his antlers smacking a tree. I'm like he's coming. So that bull walks out broadside at 30 yards and he shoots him and, um, I, I don't know if he passed through him. Yeah, he passed it. He passed through. It was a pass through, but we couldn't find his arrow.
Speaker 1:That's what it was Okay, got it 30, 30 yard shot.
Speaker 2:Uh, big five by five bull, not big, but nice, nice five by four. Yeah and um, we're tracking blood right. It starts raining right after you shoot god, I told him I was like we have to get on the blood now. Yeah, to track now. So we're tracking for, like you know, the next hour and then we're in the dark in grizzly country what does the blood look like?
Speaker 1:is it like foamy? Is it dark?
Speaker 2:there's a couple drops of blood and it looked like heart blood to me.
Speaker 1:It was like like heart. Well, that's, that's a good sign.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I thought he went one way. But then I was like looking at this trail and I was like I think he might've went, took this main trail. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I was like I feel like I thought heded this way and it got dark, um, so I was like let's come back tomorrow and the whole time he's like I shot him good. I was like, dude, I seen it. Like you shot him good, the blood's good, he's going to be dead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the whole time I had to like have a emotional talk with him on the way three mile hike out in the dark in grizzly country so dark, in grizzly country.
Speaker 2:So I'm like, bro, let me tell you, stop worrying about it, let's focus on getting out of here alive. Yep, as we're in grizzly country, it's just me and you right, let's just. You know, let's, let's handle this and we'll figure it out when we get back. But I know for sure you smoked them. So, um, we end up going back in the next day and we had another guide with us that didn't have a client. He's like I'll go with you guys. So he ended up going with us.
Speaker 2:Um, thank god he did so I as a solo hunter forgot my in reach in the utb okay luckily the guide had one right yeah well, we get up on the mountain. His ain't working oh god so we have no communication with our pack team because we have you know, we have pack mules, we have people on standby. I was like stay on standby, we're gonna need four guys. We got a four mile pack out, so we end up hiking in and we grid and I found my first moose paddle, which I was stoked about hey, that's sweet.
Speaker 2:so we were looking for him. And then sure, and then sure enough, we grid and we, we found him dead. They're probably, I think he went 120 yards. Oh, that's not bad at all, no, no, it's not bad at all. So we, we ended up finding him. It was raining the whole day. It was miserably cold. Yeah, we had one guy on standby with a revolver at all times, because there's definitely a lot of grizzlies signed in that canyon.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Luckily no encounters. So yeah, we couldn't call our packout team, so we deboned the whole elk head. Did we take the cape? He didn't take the cape, so everything, and we packed it out four miles, the three of us oh, that's crazy a whole elk too. Like I don't mess around, I take trim, I take, yeah, you know, flat meat, all that stuff, ribs, every rib meat, all that I thought I was gonna die dude yeah it was brutal, brutal, brutal.
Speaker 2:But like I love to be in pain like that because, like the, the week after it's like I did that, you know. Yeah, but the whole time like the, the guys were kind of cussing me like bro, you forgot the in reach. I'm like man, like we got this, you know yeah we didn't have it.
Speaker 2:we had to take so many breaks. Yeah. So, man, we ended up making it back to the lodge and everybody was like super happy and and the guy the guy was guiding he has been hunting for 15 years, like I said, and he said that was the best elk experience I've ever had in 15 years. He said I never heard that many bulls bugle. He's like I've never had that many encounters. He's like I mostly shoot them with a rifle. So he was like so emotional.
Speaker 2:He's like that's the best time I've ever had in the woods and that's awesome, and it was just the guy in the lodge I was just kind of hanging out with you, know?
Speaker 1:yeah luckily that guy actually owns irt fishing reels.
Speaker 2:Okay, so he owns that. And then he also owns a company where they buy land, turning it into hunting properties with food plots and then sells it as hunt land. Oh, cool, cool, yeah. So yeah, montana, that was like the super cool story. So I was super successful in my first season. Um, you're going to go back next year? Yeah, so they invited me. They said I could stay. They said, just knock on the door, I'm welcome. Um, I could stay as long as I want.
Speaker 1:I have a and one from new mexico. Okay, but man, that montana gig was nice like I can't even tell the outfitter, because I don't want nobody to go in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, chef, I had my own room. Um, I had my utv to take. I had a different truck to take, so I didn't have to take my truck yeah uh, all the gas was paid. Like it was super super, that's awesome I mean all the people were like so, so cool, so yeah, even all my offers, I still don't think they're going to be able to to beat that Montana gig. Yeah so stay um, do the rifle season if I want all that stuff.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, yeah, that's awesome Looking to go back. Man, I gotta, I gotta get some experience under my belt.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all of a sudden you're an elk hunter. Who knew?
Speaker 2:All of a sudden, yeah, so now I'm like I've been applying for like rifle elk and I'm now applying for archery elk because I'm like it's way easier. Archery elk hunting is easier than these Sonora mule deer we're chasing down here with our bows.
Speaker 1:You say that, but maybe I think you've got a natural talent for this man, archery. Elk hunting has a, I think, a five percent to ten percent success rate, like across the board, so it ain't that easy.
Speaker 2:It may be easy for you, matt, but not not most of us I know it's not easy, but you know, when I, when I go like shed hunting and stuff during rifle season, I could see the disconnect between them talking and not talking yeah, so for sure if I should be tagged during the rut, obviously. That's why I want to hunt that tag, you know yeah, yeah, calling is fun.
Speaker 1:I've I've had one season that was just epic calling. Just one point I was with jermaine hodge and I don't know if you know who that is, but he's a world out calling champ. He called in five bulls in like under a five minute period, like there were so many bulls that we couldn't shoot at them because we bust another one. It was just. It was crazy. They literally three of them piled up on each other because like one came charging in, stopped saw us. The other two were right behind it, just piled up as, oh god, there's nothing like, uh, september, elk hunting, nothing like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's. I want to do it every year, like whether I just love help watching people like I was very just as emotional if I shot the elk as them, you know, I was just as happy, you know and I was happy I was able to work hard like I want to do, you know. But I was also happy to just get a five-day easy payday, you know.
Speaker 1:But yeah, for sure man I don't work hard, you know now are you gonna start saving up points and hunt that unit yourself sometime?
Speaker 2:yeah, so actually, um, they're gonna let me go do the outfitter draw because I work for them. Oh cool, I get that little like extra, like point system.
Speaker 1:I guess I'm not too familiar with the point system I don't know anything about it, but that sounds sounds uh nice, it sounds nice there's like two draws an outfitter and then a regular one.
Speaker 2:If you're with an outfitter you get higher point like prep uh percentage okay but if you go regular you get a like a lower percentage of draws. So then let me go through them and then I don't have to pay the fees because I'm guiding for them. So on my couple off days, or if I go a week earlier, then I can hunt elk by myself, or maybe with like another guide, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Maybe while you're scouting you can bring your bow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this is no bragging rights. This is me just like emphasizing to take an opportunity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but.
Speaker 2:I was the only guide successful in the archery season.
Speaker 1:Interesting.
Speaker 2:There was four other guides that were experienced, but I was the only one that was successful in the archery season.
Speaker 1:Huh, did they all have, like you know, like your guy that was 85 years old? Did they have guys that were similar in age, that like just tough clients, or was it, you know, tough year? Were you just like fresh eyes, or what do you think was the difference maker?
Speaker 2:Just like a. It was like everybody was just a tough season season, but I had this one spot picked and I knew it was going to be like a okay, but yeah, they, they had some opportunities and just like couldn't make it happen, and whether it was like the bull just want to come in or anything like that. So I don't know exactly, I'm not experienced enough to know exactly their setups and stuff but I know they had a couple opportunities but some days they weren't bugling and they were bugling for us.
Speaker 2:So maybe I was in the right place at the right time, but that's all there is to it. Yeah, so I was happy to capitalize on that and I guess I'm a, I'm an elk guy now.
Speaker 1:There you go, there you go, cool man. Well, you got any other stories, or is that kind of where your season wrapped up?
Speaker 2:I got two more stories for you, so yeah, let's get going with that guy I met in montana. He owns irt reels, which is a high-end fishing reel company, and he has his properties everywhere he goes. Hey, you want to hunt sika deer? In uh october and I was like so sika is s-i-k-a, not s-i-t-k-a, right so I was like yeah, I was like heck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm like what do we do that? He goes well, buy your Maryland stuff, get your Maryland license. I think it cost me under 200 bucks for all the licenses and in Maryland they could shoot like 52 deer a year. No shit. Yeah, it's like so many secret deer with a bow, so many with a rifle, so many with a muzzleloader, and then same with white tails.
Speaker 1:Okay, and secret deer are smaller than white tails, right? Bro, they are tiny, they're so small yeah, that's what I thought, and they kind of bugle like elk, though, don't they? Yeah, they do so, yeah it's, it's cool.
Speaker 2:It's cool experience like we're in this tall grass, it's marsh, it's just wet everywhere. We're in rain boots. I'm in blinds, right, yeah, so we're trying to target these, these elk looking deer, but they're like so tiny, right, and it's a new state for me, a new type of hunting. I never hunted out of a tree stand or anything. I'm a spot and stock guy. Yeah, and again this, again this like redneck blind, which is it's kind of like a homemade one. He, it's kind of like a homemade one. He's got them all over his property, super well-managed property. They're bugling everywhere. That's cool. I think that's what they called them.
Speaker 1:I know it sounds not too far off from a bugle if it was like a midget elk. So yeah, we'll just call it a bugle.
Speaker 2:It's definitely cool, because midday you get in nothing and all of a sudden they start sounding off You're like oh, here we go Like it's just like elk hunting. But so I ended up having some does come in and his, his, his blind was kind of turned the wrong way for the way the feeder was. So I drew my bow back and it was like clunk into the wall.
Speaker 1:Oh no.
Speaker 2:So I couldn't like draw my bow. And then the feeder was too close and it was just a seek a doe, so there was some fawns there, and then this big doe walks in and I was like of doe, so there was some fawns there, and then this big doe walks in and I was like, oh, okay, like I could tell which one. The difference is right, yeah, so I draw back and I could not get the angle out the window on it, so I ended up like trying to move and my bow went off and it shot my arrow. I'm like brutal, but it was just like the setup. So he's was hunting with me, but out of a tree stand, okay, so he was able to shoot a doe that night.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So, dude, I'm sitting there in this blind for like three days and I'm looking at these deer and I can't tell if it's mature or not because they're so small. Yeah, they're the smallest little deer and I'm like is that what-?
Speaker 1:What dog would you compare them to in size?
Speaker 2:Like smallest little deer and I was like is that what dog? Would you compare them to in size? Like a big lab? Okay, that is pretty small for a deer, though they're small like and yeah, you know, for me like hunting these 350 pound mule deer in arizona, these little tiny things. I'm looking at it and I like I would pass it up, because I was like I know I could shoot a little doe, like give me a mature doe, and I would like I would get some videos of it and I would pass it up, cause I was like I know I can shoot a little doe, like give me a mature doe, and I was like I would get some videos of it and I was sent to him. He's like oh, that's a mature doe. I'm like God, dang it.
Speaker 1:I wanted to shoot one, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I only had like an encounter with one big what do they call it? It's not a bull, it's huh stag. They call them stags and hinds. Okay, so I actually had a stag come out, um, but he was like 90 yards and it was like out of range. He just kept moving. They. You hear them walking before you see them in the grass, so you hear like the water splashing. Okay, so I had a chance at him. I had a chance at a couple other does and I just kept passing them because I thought they were too small. Um, we ended up jumping into some white tail spots and they just didn't come in. Um, but we ended up. We went fishing on the boat. I got to use his reels and his reels were like high-end stuff. So I was helped. I'm helping him with some social media stuff for that. So we went on that to goshen. We're fishing for some uh, some fish a little bit. We were crabbing right off his docks catching blue crabs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:So we were eating blue crabs every night, fresh with some Old Bay. It was a great trip. I didn't end up harvesting which I could have, but I just kept passing a lot. I just didn't want to shoot them, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so he killed one. Did you get the opportunity to like taste the Sika deer or no?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so he ended up shooting a couple does while we were there out of the tree stand and then the week after I left, like the rut picked up a lot so he ended up shooting that that big I think it was that big a stag that I ended up seeing 90 yards. So he ended up shooting him the next week. But he ended up get. I was pretty mad about it. He's like like take this seca home with you. I'm like, bro, I didn't shoot it, I don't want like uh, participation trophies, I take it. The guy shoots like 60 deer a year yeah, yeah, I believe it take it and I was like I got tired of arguing with him.
Speaker 2:I was like I'll take it and it's really good. I was kind of glad I took it. I was like throw some crabs in there too, man.
Speaker 1:I want some. Can you compare it to any other deer, or? Or where would you stack rank it?
Speaker 2:It's. It's probably between deer and elk, Like it's better. Yeah, it's like it's a different type. It's more like elk.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's like in between, but it's really delicious. Yeah, yeah, I have a freezer full of that. There you go. Yeah, it was a great opportunity and and luckily you know that I was able to you know my I'll make ten thousand dollars at the hunt expo turned into a guiding gig. That guiding gig turned into a trip to maryland for me yeah we're hunting private land for free, you know.
Speaker 2:And now he just shot some giants in iowa and he said next year I could go to Iowa with him on his farm in Iowa.
Speaker 1:Damn. There you go, iowa's got monsters, I hear.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he shot a couple of decent ones with some kickers and stuff. That's awesome. He's like they're coal bucks and I was like oh yeah, I'll coal that buck for sure, Like I'm not passing it. Yeah, Like, dude, that buck for sure, like I'm not passing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like dude, they're like 160 white tails, 160 white. So is he looking to like get rid of the ones with like the kickers and the drop tines and those things and he's just looking for real typical stuff or what's? What's his deal trash?
Speaker 2:but he said that property he only considers it like a buck if it's 180 inch white toes jesus yeah, I will Sign me up, all right.
Speaker 2:So we're set up to, uh, I'm going to guide him again in Montana and then I'm going to go to Iowa with him next year. So, yeah, it was a great trip. I mean, if anybody wants, like has opportunity to hunt Maryland, do it, because it's, you know, super worth it. Yeah, yeah and yeah, man, my, my last story is my, uh, my deer hunt this year, and it's a pretty wild one.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's go, I can't wait.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, man, it was California hunt. And what month was it? It was October. So right after getting back from Maryland I jumped out there, I hunted a little bit of my bow man, but it just, it just wasn't producing. Like Arizona is just going down, you know. And yeah, we ended up finding some dude. And you know, I kind of had some social media stuff happen where, like, some people were talking bad about me on podcasts and I was yeah, sorry about that, yeah, but uh, yeah, man, I was like I was a little bummed out and just like not really into
Speaker 2:the season too much. And you know, I was kind of like pushing around, you know, and I just was like not really like that. I didn't have that drive this year. So my buddy hits me up and I'm not usually taking anybody, I'm usually just preferring to solo hunt so my buddy hits me up, he goes hey, man, like, uh, can I jump out there with you for a few days? And I was like, of course you can, like come meet with me, let's, let's go have some, you know, a good hunt if we can.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so he ended up showing up and we hunted for like a couple days and, um, we seen a couple little bucks, just nothing real big for him, you know. And you know he was set up on this spike. He was ready for me to say it was a forky and he was, he was gonna put her down, put him down, you know. But yeah, we just didn't see that much like nothing was really happening. So he ended up leaving I. So I stayed hunting a little bit and I was just going to one of my glass and knobs where, like the spot, I ended up shooting a buckler the year before. So I go, this glass and knob right and I get to the part where I park, and do you know who marlin holden is?
Speaker 1:I don't. The name somewhat rings a bell, but I'm not drawing any anything but gray light hunter on Instagram okay, I know that gray light hunter yeah so he's uh, he's a really successful hunter.
Speaker 2:I think he's got like six archery deer this year just 2024. So he ends up pulling to the same spot as me and I was like wow, like I've never seen anybody over here, you know. And he, you know, he gets some big deer where I hunt also, you know yeah so he's super cool.
Speaker 2:Know, like a lot of people had told me they're like that's a jerk and I was like, well, you know, I've learned, like I learned last year, that I'm only going to judge people if I judge them myself. Right, let's get my opinion of them, because you know also there's this guy named James Visser from the bow disciples. Everybody's like the guy's a prick and I and a guy, nicest guy ever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I met James too. I've had him on the podcast. Awesome guy, Really fun. Yeah, Really fun guy to just talk with. Like we similar to you and me when we we chat, you know, outside of the podcast I do it with James as well and he's a great dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I love that guy now and I was like, oh, what's up, man. He's like super nice guy and he's like you going there and I'm like, yeah, he's like, I'm like, well, it looks like we're hunting together today and I had, I had a rifle and he, he only bow hunts. Okay, like, yeah, let's go up there. You know. So luckily I was hanging out with him and it was like getting my camaraderie up and like getting the mood kind of changing, like my mindset a little bit. Hell yeah, so we're up there glassing and he ends up leaving at about 10.30. He's like I got to go pick up my kid and drive. He drove five hours to go hunt for like the morning. I'm like, yeah, that's what it takes. You know, like he tells me he spends like 200 days in the field hunting.
Speaker 2:Luckily, you know, that kind of fired me up a little bit. I'm like, yeah, let's, let's. I was kind of like motivated, like I, you know, got out of my funk and just hunting by myself and just being kind of lazy in a sense, you know. So I ended up he leaves. I'm like it's so windy, nothing's moving, it's midday. I'm like let me go, just still hunt some of these, you know, junipers. So I get down there and I'm on this little like I don't know it's about a 50 foot knob and I could see this coyote out there, kind of like digging for um, like some rodents maybe and I don't hunt coyotes, I haven't shot one in probably six years, but I've always wanted to get one with my handgun.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So I had a handgun with me, guy hunt solo, so I'm carrying a handgun. You know episode 62, I almost got killed. Yep, I carry carry a handgun at all times not when I bow hunt, cause that's illegal. But um yeah, so I was carrying this handgun. I'm like, let me try to sneak up on this coyote, so I snuck up to this coyote at five yards and was able to put down a coyote with my handgun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that was right after, you know, my buddy had left, uh, marlon had left, and I was, you know, feeling a little better. So I ended up getting my first coyote with a handgun.
Speaker 2:that's always something I always want to do yeah so I ended up, uh, working back to my vehicle um, no luck really, looking for bucks. And I decide to go the next morning, climb the same glass and knob. I'm like, let me see what happens. You know, a little cold, cold fronts kind of coming in and me and marlin are like, uh, any minute, man, they're gonna start, you know, start working, working themselves up. So, yeah, my last day to hunt because I was going to Glamis to work for Clean Freak, the natural body wipe company big in the hunting world, so I had one day to hunt I told myself I'm going to hunt until 11. So I'm glassing on this knob and Marlon had said he usually sees the bucks on the right, I usually see them on the left. So I'm glassing the left, I'm not seeing nothing. I glass over to where Marlon said he was seeing and all of a sudden the wind stops, the sun like peers out of the clouds and I could just see this reflection of this antler and I'm like, oh, thank you Jesus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a little moment of zen man.
Speaker 2:The buck I ended up shooting is just standing there with a doe and I'm like, yes, finally a buck, like just give me the opportunity, right. So he ends up going and bedding down in like this sagebrush flat and I could kind of see him on these rolling hills. So I sneak up probably 300 yards closer and I still have maybe a hundred foot elevation gain on him and I'm kind of looking for him and I still have maybe a hundred foot elevation gain on him and I'm kind of looking for him and finally I could catch his head just bedded there. But I was having like a hard time ranging him because it was a heel, a valley than him. So I was kind of picking up the hill, picking up him and then picking up behind. So I kind of worked it up that he was 380 yards. Well, he finally stands up right and it's a slow motion. I got my gun set up prone. You know my gun's all level. I have him set up 380 I. He stands there, he's looking at his down broadside.
Speaker 2:I'm like perfect, and I squeeze off my new 300 win mag that I designed for bear hunting, that I wanted to shoot something with right squeeze that off this can and I swear all these birds flew up it and I still was able to see him in the scope and he, like takes a step, and I was like, oh, I hit him right because he did this like weird little step.
Speaker 1:Oh, I hit him right.
Speaker 2:Because he did this weird little step. Yeah, oh, I hit him so hard, right, so I'm like he's still standing, I'm going to put another one in him, so I rack another one, get all set up.
Speaker 2:Just I told within five miles where I was told everybody so then I look on the side of the scope and I see my bullet hit the dirt like 10 feet away, and I'm like what the heck? I'm like, dude, I'm not even close. So I'm like, oh crap, you know like, and I took this gun to arizona on that bear hunt and I must have bumped it because this gun dialed to 700 yeah, it's a 700 dial, so I must have bumped it jeez.
Speaker 1:So you're missing left right, you're not missing up down no, up to down is good right okay, okay the, the dough that he was with is still feeding.
Speaker 2:He is still on his dough, doesn't even care I'm ripping. I mean they're like 10 feet away. Yeah. So I dial like left like what's 10 feet on my meals. You know, I did like. So I'm like oh, this is it. He set up, she's feeding. He's still standing there. Shoot, another one missed again. But I'm like closer right, bloody hell. So I did the math again. I'm like oh, if I did that not like, I hate to like. You know, spray these things.
Speaker 1:Moa trying to figure it out in the field while the deer's walking away.
Speaker 2:Yeah god boom, shoot another one right like bloody hell. I miss right. I run out of ammo because I'm like yeah and they don't even care. They're still feeding at 380 yards. They don't care, like they didn't know care. So I'm usually the guy I'm like, if I miss a couple times, like they're gone right yeah so he ends up coming to 200 yards and they go in bed. So I'm like, oh crap, like what am I gonna do? I'm out of ammo.
Speaker 2:My, my truck is two miles away yeah so what I did is I set my my, my gun, up and I boresighted it at 300 yards on this rock and it was like still off. So I corrected it and I go, I got to get in the bow range, like that's where I'm good, like archery hunting, you know. So I run back, so he ends up betting and I mark it on my. He ends up moving out to like 300. I mark it on my GPS. I'm like he's behind this bush.
Speaker 2:So I run back to my truck, I get more ammo, I, I drive, I drive up the road to get the wind a little better and I come in on the other side, right, yeah. So I'm like I'm not giving up on this, like I'm not giving up until, you know, the fat lady sings. So I was like I have to get in bow range because my gun's like obviously so far off that I want to get close to where it's, perfect, you know. So I ended up feeding in and you know I had it perfectly marked. I'm looking at where I was glassing from and, um, I'm not really like thinking I was in the right spot. I'm like I think I need to be 100 yards this way. So I kind of marked. I marked the wrong spot on my my onyx jeez I'm like let me still hunt this way.
Speaker 2:So I start still hunting over. Boom, I see a doe standing there behind this tree. She's just standing there. So I I kind of got this cactus in front of me so I kind of just kneel down and just I'm just patient. She's just standing there. She's kind of kicking her feet a little bit like stomping, a little bit like hey, I don't like that, you know. Yeah, I know that buck is on the right hand side of her because that's where he bedded. I'm like all right, I'm just gonna chill, just gonna be patient. But she's like I go, she's probably gonna feed forward, because usually, usually when you see a deer stand, they're gonna feed forward. Right, yeah, they're gonna feed forward a little bit. So she feeds forward and I see her just walking. I'm like that buck's gonna go. So I'm sitting there on one knee, 80 yards, brother, 80 yards from these deer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he walks out, stops, looks at me and I dumped him with a 300 wind maggot, 80 yards and dumped him dead yeah and I was so happy, I was like man, I didn't give up, uh it, you know, the plan went to crap, real good, but I, like you know, I was able to, uh, you know, kind of jump in there and like make it happen still and it was, uh, you know, uh, my biggest buck to date ended up. That's awesome, man.
Speaker 1:This year. Yeah man, that's amazing. I can't believe you ran like four miles to get around just to get another shot in him. Two miles each way, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:I ended up packing him out by myself. A couple of buddies ended up wanting to come um to help me and I was like I got this by myself so I didn't make it two more trips and it was like a 10 mile day, um couple miles, with him on my pack. I made two trips with him. He was a very heavy. I ended up producing 84 pounds of meat, damn, and uh, I gave him to the butcher at 99 pounds.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, man, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's, uh, that was my success this year, man, that those are my hunting stories, I think that's. Let me check my notes, but I think that's pretty much it, man. It was a, it was a wild season. Um, the only other thing I did that was really fun I want to mention to people is go bow fishing for carp. Oh yeah, cause I went with um the catch and release camel guys in Idaho this year and it is it's like just like have Lena hunt blown down the snake river at night with some lights on bow fishing. I highly recommend it.
Speaker 2:If you get it do it, it's so much fun.
Speaker 1:I still have my like old bow and I've been thinking about just attaching, like all that, that fishing reel thing to it. I know I have a. My wife worked with someone who has a contact with those guys so I'm thinking about trying to get one put on there, but I don't even know where to start with that. But I think that would be so much fun. I can't imagine having more fun than bow hunting for fish. I know that you're supposed to aim like six inches high or low to the refraction of the light and they're not actually where you see them. Um, how hard was it to get your first fish.
Speaker 2:It took a while, man, I think I, I think I ended up getting nine out of our 27 and I think I shot maybe 50 or 60 times. Okay, okay yeah my success.
Speaker 2:Right, because like the farther they are, the lower you have to shoot. Okay, but I was shooting some at like one foot off the boat because we would like drift across them and I would shoot ones like straight down. Obviously those are easy ones, but when they start getting out there it's like you know. But yeah, it was a, it was a blast man. Um, luckily the catch release camera guys paid for me to go, so it was a guided deal. He had all the equipment. I just kind of showed up and just slate some cart man. But I highly recommend people do that. Uh on with your buddies, man that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Googling like how do I buy a bow fishing boat, like what's kind of just sold, just completely sold.
Speaker 2:It's so much fun that's awesome, man.
Speaker 1:Man, well, thanks for first off, for just reaching out. Uh, obviously, to come back on the podcast, it's always fun having you, man. Um, let's do this. Why don't you tell the people that haven't heard your episode 62 already? Where can they find you? Where do you want people to follow you, et cetera.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, um, I love to help anybody out in hunting world or like, talk, talk spots, talk anything. So anybody, uh, please hit me up, I love just chatting, hunting Uh, all my ex-girlfriends hated it, but I'll talk to hunting about anybody, so hit me up on Instagram or um, just my name.
Speaker 2:It's M A T T R E G E. There's no dots, no underscores, anything like that. Um, or just put it in Google and some of my like movie stuff will pop up. Um, yeah, like I said in episode 62, if you haven't heard it, go back and listen to it, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:You almost getting killed. And then, yeah, like, uh, we always invite people on like to our movie sets and stuff. So if you guys are local to california or if we're filming somewhere local, like, stay following me because, uh, we have some opportunities coming up that you guys may want to get in and maybe I could uh help with you guys. One day.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, hopefully, matt, we get to. I'm gonna you're gonna have to take me javelina hunting man let's go, man.
Speaker 2:It's a date, javelina dude, I'll take you out there we go, brother, all right man well, thanks again, I appreciate.
Speaker 1:Now we'll let you get back to your evening and guys, make sure you follow Matt.
Speaker 1:Thanks, matt, appreciate it, of course, brother. All right, guys, that's it. Another couple stories in the books. Again, matt, thank you so much for reaching out. Man, it was a pleasure to catch up with you. We have stayed in contact, but there's nothing like you know, arguably, face to face. Here we're doing it over, kind of a zoom call, but there's nothing like catching up with with some good buddies. So, thank you, man, your stories are amazing. At least no one shot at you this time. So that's good, but, guys, please do follow him on his socials. He's doing some cool stuff. He's a great hunter, despite being relatively new at it, and he's a really fun guy to follow. So thank you again, matt. Appreciate you Listeners. Thank you, guys for tuning in. Please share the podcast with at least one person today. Beyond that, give us a five-star review. Follow us on whatever app you're listening to and get out there and make some stories of your own. Thank you.
