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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 133 The Hunting Stories Podcast: Noah Hines
Get ready to be captivated by the extraordinary hunting adventures of Noah Hines, our guest on this thrilling episode of the Hunting Stories Podcast. Noah, an army veteran from Lincoln, Nebraska, takes us through his lifelong journey in hunting, starting from his childhood pheasant hunts with family to his passion for bowhunting deer and turkey. With vivid tales of Nebraska's unique elk hunting opportunities and the friendly rivalry with Colorado, Noah's stories promise to ignite your own desire for outdoor escapades.
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Howdy folks and welcome to the hunting stories podcast. I'm your host, michael, and we've got another great episode for you today. Today, we actually connect with a listener of the podcast. His name is Noah Hines. Noah is an army vet.
Speaker 1:He is an avid hunter. He's been all over the world actually hunting and he tells some of those stories today. But also importantly is, Noah took the time to actually go to the little form that I put together and put on my Instagram page where, if you want to be a guest, you can request some information and get in touch with us.
Speaker 1:I actually forgot that I put that together and then he forgot that he requested. So it's actually funny, but hey, we got them on and so, noah, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Your stories are amazing. Your stories are amazing and to you listeners. If you want to come on and share some podcasts or, excuse me, share some stories, please go to the Instagram, check out the little Google Forms, fill it out and we will be in touch.
Speaker 1:Now that's it, guys. Let's go ahead and let Noah tell you some of his stories. Thank you All. Right, noah. Welcome to the Hunting Stories Podcast. Brother, how are you Good?
Speaker 2:man, how are you doing?
Speaker 1:I am doing well, noah, I'm doing real well Because you're here, man. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast A lot of my listeners don't know this because I don't think I even advertised it but I put together a little form on my Instagram that you can go and you can put your name and info in and we reach out and schedule some stuff, and you were one of the few brave individuals that actually use that form. I actually forgot. I built that thing for like months and then my friend was like hey, let me help you schedule some, some interviews. We pulled that thing up and there you were, man. So thank you for one, your patience with me getting back to you, and two, for coming on and being willing to share some hunting stories. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely and honestly. Until Jared reached out, I had totally forgot about that. I don't even remember. I think I was listening to the podcast and I don't know if I was driving somewhere or what, and I was just looking you up, you know, and I saw that and I was like well, heck, I'll put my name on there.
Speaker 1:So yeah, what's funny is I put it together thinking, oh, I'll just get a whole bunch of people asking me for stuff. And there were there was like 20 plus people on there, Um, but I didn't at any point set up like a notification. So I set it up thinking I would be getting emails or something when someone filled it out, but I got nothing. So until I reminded myself I mean, I'm not kidding like eight, nine months after I set it up to go and check on it, Um, to go and check on it. Yeah, so if you guys are listening and you have a story, be like Noah, be smarter than me and go on there and fill out that little form and either myself or my buddy Jared, who's helping me schedule some stuff now we'll reach out. But that's not important. Noah, why don't you introduce yourself? Man, I want to hear who we're hearing some stories from today, because we haven't ever talked before this moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so ever talked before this moment. So, yeah, so my name is Noah Hines. I'm from Lincoln, nebraska. Um, man, I I started hunting pretty young probably gosh, six, seven, eight Okay, I'm going out with my uncle and dad pheasant hunting. That's cool, yeah. And then, um, me and one of my good buddies were still really good buddies we just got back from Colorado here a month and a half ago hunting, but we both his dad didn't hunt too much um, and we kind of did some you know small game hunting and trapping and stuff. And, yeah, we wanted to get into deer hunting and so we start deer hunting and got into into archery and hunting deer with a bow and turkeys with a bow and that kind of just um expanded over the years and, yeah, here we are now.
Speaker 1:Um, that's awesome I have a couple quick questions for you, man. Yeah, um, first off, I know nebraska is sneaky good with hunting, especially like your gobblers and stuff like that and your deer, but you guys have elk there too, right, have you? Am I jumping the gun here with one of your stories? Have you ever hunted elk in Nebraska? Cause I hear there's a small herd?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we've got. We've got a pretty good herd. It's once in a lifetime for a bull.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And it's it's pretty tough to draw. It's a bonus point system so you can draw zero points okay um, I think I'm sitting right around max points right now and I still haven't drawn known a bunch of people that have you can max out like that.
Speaker 1:Do you have to like keep putting in and buying additional opportunities every year, or how does that work?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so they, I think in the and I'm. I might be wrong here, but in the past it was just kind of a. You put in every year um, that's our Bitcoin sheep is it's just a random draw, no points every year. You just have the same chance that everybody else.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And then around 10 years ago they started a point system and so, yeah, I've been putting in, I think shortly after that started, so I've got. I don't know. I think max points might be 10. I might have nine, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, that's cool, I'm rooting for you. I'll let you get into some stories here. I just want to tell you one of my favorite jokes, because I'm from Colorado and you're from Nebraska, so I have to. Right, I assume you're a Cornhusker fan. Yep, you know that the N on their helmet stands for knowledge.
Speaker 2:Yes, I have heard that one Sorry. I'm proud of it.
Speaker 1:I don't know if Nebraska necessarily thinks that Colorado is a rival, but Colorado thinks Nebraska's a rival. Maybe we're the little brother?
Speaker 2:I don't know, but I had to do that, so sorry about that, noah. No, that's good, that's good, cool man, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't know. Is there anything else you want to share about your backstory? Otherwise, let's dive into some stories.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we're just going to start off with a pretty good one. So I was in the Marine Corps right out of high school and my last year in the Marine Corps I got stationed in Zimbabwe. Oh cool, and part of that was my own doing, just kind of. I had basically had to take a, so I was a, the unit I was in I was a team leader and in order to get stationed over there, I they didn't have a team leader spot, so I kind of dropped down a little bit as far as a billet goes. But I had some friends that had been there, that had done some hunting, and so I knew that they'd been hunting there and I was like I'm going to my last year. That's, this is what I want to do so.
Speaker 1:that's why you picked Zimbabwe was because you knew you could dabble in hunting when you're out there.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's pretty cool and understandable, all right. Right. So I fly into Harare and I get picked up by the Marines there. We get to the house and I think one of the first things I asked the guys there was hey, who do I need to talk to to do some hunting? And they said, oh, you need to talk to this guy, steve. And so I said, all right, where do I get his number?
Speaker 1:And so one of the guys is like oh, I got his number, steve, military guy, or more like a locals in Bobway. No, he's a local, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so he's a professional hunter over there. Okay cool, and so I've been in the country for a couple hours and I texted him.
Speaker 1:I said hey, my name's Noah.
Speaker 2:I hear, you're the guy I talked to about hunting, and so he responds with, yep, let's go get breakfast tomorrow. So I said, okay, I can do that. We went and got breakfast and got to become really good friends with him In fact, one of my good buddies who is from Lincoln as well. I got him stationed out there too. It was one of my best friends. We were both out there too, so it was like one of my best friends. We were both out there. Um, so we we basically probably went out hunting or fishing two to three times a week for the 10 months that I was there. That's amazing. That's so cool.
Speaker 1:Let me ask so did he and he's a pH right, it's his job. Did he charge you to like do the hunting? Uh, I've I've heard from another friend that it's his job. Did he charge you to like do the hunting? Uh, I've heard from another friend that it's kind of like a a menu right, so like if you shoot it then you pay for it, but you can hunt all you want. It doesn't cost you anything until you put something down. Is that accurate?
Speaker 2:uh, yeah. So basically what we did is he just had a daily rate um that we would pay just to cover his his time and mileage. We were driving his vehicle, we're using his firearms and everything Um, so we would pay that and then some of the like. A lot of the stuff we would hunt was free um, like problem animals, so we would go out and shoot baboons, hyenas, stuff like that, um, and so we didn't have to pay for that. The stuff we did pay for was, like Plains Game, zebra, impala, elan.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, kind of some of that stuff, and so we weren't so like traditionally. If you were to go on a hunt over there, you know, you would book a hunt with an outfitter and then they would have an area they could hunt and then you have so many things on the list that you can hunt.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:We were just going out on private landowners, um, and then doing some problem animal control Cause that's what a lot of what he does. So it was kind of just, you know, it wasn't like a week at a time or whatever, it was just, hey, you know, we can go out tomorrow. All right, you know, we'll figure out something to do. So we'd go somebody's place that he had lined up or whatever, and then we would just, you know, they'd have a kind of a list of this cost, this and this is what you can shoot. So you know, go, go hunt.
Speaker 1:That's pretty cool man. So I know that, like for most, like Americans specifically right, when you go to Africa you can't bring the meat back. It right, when you go to africa you can't bring the meat back, it's a legal thing. So I know that in general it's left there, it's it's you take into the butcher shop and they resell it. It's taken to villages and they eat it and it's it's taken care of. People eat it but did you have the opportunity to eat it yourself?
Speaker 1:or was this gentleman like hey, you know, we're just doing this, let me, because that's also part of the money that ph's make, right Cause they do get to resell that meat. So did you get much meat from from all this hunting? Or or did you let him take it and do his standard pH stuff with it?
Speaker 2:Um, so, yes, we did get to eat a lot of it. Um, a lot of it went to, just you know, the local people around there. Um, so we would, you know, shoot something and clean it, and then they would pull off the meat and then uh there was one place that we hunted and they they are a few places they kept the meat and then they would sell it.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Um, but yeah, so we got to eat. Oh man, lotta Impala. Um, what was your favorite? I think Eland is probably one of the best things I've had. I've heard it's good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, cool hippo porcupine, oh hippo. I imagine that's just like land whale, just blubber, or what is that? What is that? Like, um, like a giant frog, is something I imagine I could compare the taste of that too it.
Speaker 2:I would compare it to beef, like a very lean, very lean beef Tough.
Speaker 1:I never would have guessed that.
Speaker 2:I made jerky out of it. It was good. Okay, it was really good, that's cool man.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I'm kind of derailing your story with all my questions because you're in a unique circumstance that, like a lot of us Americans can't do. So I'm like really curious. But keep going, Tell us, I'm sure there's more to it.
Speaker 2:Right, so I guess. So one of the first nights that we went out, we were going out after some hyenas and so we'd hunt them at night. Call them, call them in, and these, these are big hyenas. They're the ones that we would go hunt. They're killing livestock. They're bringing hyenas. They're the ones that we would go hunt. They're killing livestock. They're bringing down cows. They're big animals. So we were hunting them with a 300 win mag. So this is one of my first hunts in Africa. We go out, we set up and Steve has a high rack in the back of his truck, and so we're set up in there. We brush in the truck and wait for the sun to go down and start calling, and so we're set up in there. We brush in the truck and wait for the sun to go down and start calling, and so we're doing. He's got basically these sounds that he's made off of videos, off of YouTube and stuff. Hyena calls and like dying goat, dying cow, pig, yeah, that's cool, resourceful, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we're calling and you can hear. You can hear the hyenas kind of come out of their den and they start. They make just some some crazy noises, but you can hear them. They kind of wake up. You know, the sun goes down, moon comes out, and they kind of wake up and you can hear them and they're answering our calls and so they're they're working closer and we're working closer and everybody's kind of getting excited and uh, and we're looking, we're using night vision and it's the one that I had. It's it mounts on your scope and then you have a screen that sits up above and so it's pretty bright. It's like I have a tarp that's over me so we don't spook them. Yeah, so we watch these hangers come out and they're moving around, moving around, and I get on the first one and shoot it, get on the second one, shoot it, and then, all of a sudden, we hear one right behind us, like it is 10 feet from the truck behind us.
Speaker 2:Oh, shit.
Speaker 1:So what are you? What are you hearing?
Speaker 2:You're hearing pying jarring howling Like what's no they're like I'm trying to think of how to explain what they sound like. It's feel free to do an impression. Oh, I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 1:They sound like it's. Feel free to do an impression. Oh, I'm not gonna do that it's I.
Speaker 2:I can't like you'd have to just look it up, I can't even. But I mean they're loud, they're really loud, okay, but it's like an audible noise that they're making from inside of their body, out their mouth.
Speaker 1:It's not like clapping of teeth or it's like no, yeah, it's okay right.
Speaker 2:So, uh, steve's like holy cow, it's right behind us and so, like we turn around and I mean it could easily jump in the back of the truck, like and it knows, something's up, it's mad, it's you know, and uh, so I'm like I can't see it because I've got this screen in my face, that's you know, bright, white and uh, and so, like my, you know, looking from that and then into the darkness, like I can't see and he's like it's right there Like I can't see it, man.
Speaker 2:And so he's like trying to get on, and it's 10 yards from us, yeah, and I'm like I cannot see it, man. And so he finally shoots it and dumps it. We turn around facing the front of the truck and another one comes out and I shot that. I think that night we shot five of them in total, but yeah, so that was, that was the first night, and so I mean it was awesome. So we go, you know, go find them, pick them up, and they're, they're huge, I mean they're, they're huge, I mean they're. You know, yeah, see pictures or whatever, um, and they don't look that big these ones are. I mean, they're living off of livestock.
Speaker 1:They're, yeah, they get, they get really big I'm assuming kind of like coyotes or wolves here in north america, like not really eat for eating, right, you're just kind of taking them out because they're probably pestering the livestock.
Speaker 2:Right, and they're. I mean, they kill people too.
Speaker 1:Okay, no shit.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, so they're endangering livestock and people, you know, because, like, when we would go out, you know we're setting up next to houses, basically yeah. So it's, yeah, it's because they've had a problem with these animals, um, and so we would go out and shoot them. I think that year we shot 10 hyenas total um, went out a bunch more times for them. Okay, ended up shooting. My buddy kyle shot a great big one, absolutely massive um later on in that year. But so yeah, just gotten gotten there, gone out, I'd gone, we'd gone out for a hippo before, like, my first hunt in zimbabwe was for hippo. We didn't find it was another problem animal didn't find it, um, so I, you know, call my buddy kyle.
Speaker 2:I'm like man, you gotta get out here it's this is amazing yeah, so probably the funniest story out there. Um so this is a few months later. Kyle had made it out and we had a call for some problem lions in this area.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So we took a couple of days off work and we drove. I think it was about eight hours away and the last three hours were on like washed out dirt roads. We were three hours from the closest paved road. So we get out there. We shot some baboons to kind of use as some bait, and we had one of Steve's, one of the guys that works for him, lawrence he's, I don't know. He's like the seven foot tall, huge guy, just awesome, okay, always, always laughing, always has jokes. But so he went with us, and then we had a Zimbabwe park stranger with us as well. So we go shoot some bad boobies.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, I heard that you need to have a park ranger for certain animals like lions right, okay. Right, that makes sense, got it.
Speaker 2:So we spin the afternoon, shoot some baboons, and we we set up that night and we're set up kind of up against this big hill, so it was pretty steep behind us, and then we're looking out over this, this field. So sun goes down, we're calling, you know, lion, challenge roars, we've got distress calls, all sorts of stuff, and tensions are pretty high.
Speaker 2:Right, this is you know it's not just calling in a coyote at night. So we're sitting there and we've been calling for a couple hours, hadn't seen anything. You know, we're scanning with lights, we're using some night vision, and so we're sitting there and everyone's getting a little bit tired. But I mean, obviously you're a little stressed out, you know yeah well, all of a sudden we hear this growl from right. I mean, it is right there. This is loud snarl and, michael, I jumped probably three feet straight in the air I believe it.
Speaker 1:I believe it. I don't think I would have jumped, because my pants would have been too full from crapping myself. So right, but I believe I believe a jump is also a perfectly warranted response.
Speaker 2:So I'm you know, I've got my like safeties off, looking around ready to go and everybody just starts laughing at me. Well, lawrence had climbed underneath the truck and was sleeping the whole time, and that was him snoring. Oh.
Speaker 1:That's awesome that is amazing.
Speaker 2:Everybody's laughing at me and I was like, hey, man, cut me some slack here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's too funny, man. When you're done, just tell me when you're done. I have a somewhat similar story that is not hunting but camping related, and I'll tell you that one. So you just let me know.
Speaker 2:All right, well, I've got one more funny one.
Speaker 1:Well, if you're done with that lion story, did you shoot any?
Speaker 2:lions? Let me ask that. No, we didn't. We didn't find any. Um couldn't call them and they'd come to find out. They'd kind of moved on because they you know they're, they're cats. Like they travel, they cover some areas. They moved on from the area. Yeah, we hung them for three days there. Um didn't run into them, so okay, gotcha.
Speaker 1:Um well, let me tell you my story real quick, just as long as we're on the funny stories here. So I'm camping this is college sometime I don't know and we're going out with a group of folks down to Canyon City, colorado. It's kind of south south central Colorado, a good drive from home, but either way, we are doing what college kids do when they camp. We're making a lot of noise. We are drinking, we're eating. We're making a lot of noise, we are drinking, we're eating. We're probably not cleaning up after ourselves. No, I will say all said and done, we leave campsites better than we got there.
Speaker 1:But in the moment we're not cleaning up as we go. Right If that makes sense Right.
Speaker 1:So there's, I think, two or three girls, three or four guys, and we're all having our fun, and I'm newly dating my wife, and so everyone wraps up the whole evening of whiskey and beer and we go back to our tent, we get to the point where we're naked. In the middle of the night, something stirs and we're like oh, what is that? Like oh my gosh. And so I'm like my now wife is like do you have the car keys or a gun or a knife? And I was like I don't have anything. I was like I went to bed drunk, like I don't know what to do right now, and we just hear something. We're like, oh, we didn't clean up the camp. We can hear cans being shuffled around. We can hear like bags of Doritos getting ruffled. We're like, oh God, there's a bear. And Like, if we move, like we can't even get dressed because we're afraid, we move, like the bear will come and eat us.
Speaker 1:And so we lay there just holding each other's hands naked, just terrified, for hours. As we hear this thing happen and it wanders off at some point, we're like, oh God, oh my God, and then he comes back. We're like, no, and again, just you can only be scared for so long before you eventually do become exhausted and we did fall back asleep.
Speaker 1:The next morning we wake up and we go and we finish cleaning up camp a little bit and we're like, oh God, and so we're having breakfast, like guys, did you guys hear that last night? And everyone's like what? I'm like, well, it was a bear in our camp. And everyone's like what? There was a bear in our camp, anything and this one guy goes.
Speaker 2:Wow, you know, I had a and again.
Speaker 1:All we heard was like sniffing and rustling. This guy goes. I had a stuffy nose so I got out of bed and started cleaning up camp and I didn't see anything and so so we were just terrified in our tent for hours because this guy had a stuffy nose, didn't want to wake up the people by doing it in his tent, so got out of his tent. He's like I walked off and went and peed and came back and we're like, oh yep, this all adds up. You are our bear, yeah so I was just completely terrified.
Speaker 1:For absolutely no reason. Is that's funny to this day? I remember being just being so scared, um, probably because I was still half drunk but that's my story about. Uh, so someone scaring the crap out of me that I didn't need to be scared about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, that's funny man, yeah, so what else you got?
Speaker 1:You got more. Any more stories from Africa. I'll ask. Yeah, so I've got one.
Speaker 2:I've got a baboon story. It's pretty good. So they have these. They're like these huge rock pile. They're like hundreds of feet tall. We call them gomus. It's kind of crazy. It's just like someone stacked up a bunch of boulders just straight up in the air. They're all over the place.
Speaker 2:The baboons, they love hanging out there. They come down, they raid fields and terrorize stuff. Then they kind of live up on those big rock formations. So generally whenever we'd see them, they they're, you know, we'd find them. They'd run up on there and you'd sit there and you'd glass and you'd kind of have all the little ones and the females would be up front, the younger males and they're kind of messing around, and then the big males, they would go up to the top above all the other baboons and they would hide, and so you'd sit there and just glass and you'd wait.
Speaker 2:And then pretty soon, you know, you'd see one poking his head out, looking, and he's up at the top. You know that's the big one. And then we, you know, make a move, get in position and shoot him, and so a lot of times it's a pretty long shot. I mean it's a couple hundred yards basically straight uphill. So this one time Lawrence was with us again and we find the big one. We get in a position and we shoot him and I don't remember if it was me shooting him or who it might have been. Me Shoot this one and he falls, falls out of the tree and falls.
Speaker 2:I mean 100 or more feet down.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Onto the ground. Well, Lawrence just takes off running after this thing. And they're mean. I don't know if you've ever seen their teeth. You know they're like that long. Yeah, they're mean?
Speaker 1:I mean, I've seen enough to know that you don't mess with big monkeys of any sort.
Speaker 2:Right, right, yeah. Well, so Lawrence doesn't have a gun. He doesn't have anything, he just takes off into the bush. Oh my God, is Lawrence a?
Speaker 1:seven-foot-tall funny guy.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, maybe he's got a shot. Okay, keep going.
Speaker 2:Right, right. So I mean come here, come here. So we take off running and we, you know, get part of the way up and here's Lawrence and he's yelling. He's sitting there holding two rocks in his hands and this bad moon is still very much alive.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And he's, he's like he's still alive. He's still alive. We're alive. We're like lawrence what are you gonna do with those rocks? And he was like uh I I don't know you know it just seemed like a good idea at the time. Well, this baboon, he had fallen and he he had wedged himself. There's these three rocks that came down and basically made a funnel okay and he had fallen and his butt was wedged down in this funnel. So he was stuck oh ass down okay, okay, yeah still alive.
Speaker 2:And so after we like because he's trying to move, so after we figure out he's stuck, he can't get out, and like, well, we have to finish this thing off. So how are we going to do it? Well, there's I mean he's rocks all around him and they're all pointed up, and so it's like there's a pretty good chance of getting a bullet coming back out of this thing after you shoot him. So we ended up taking steve at his 44 mag. So he kind of lines the pistol up, points it over the rock, you know, and hides bottom the other side and shoots. And we finally got it, took care of it. But it was just, yeah, lawrence had his two rocks and he was ready to go man.
Speaker 1:How many shots blind from behind the rock did it take before you connected?
Speaker 2:I think it was three. Okay, that's actually not terrible. That's pretty funny, man yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, dude, I've heard about like baboons are strong enough to like rip a man's arms off. Like everyone thinks about gorillas, but like baboons and chimps are just like freak strong like crazy strong and they have giant teeth. No thanks.
Speaker 2:I don't want to mess with those things. Their chests are just absolutely huge.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know they're small, but a lot of the ones we were shooting were they were big, yeah, and they, you know they're. They're kind of like wild hogs, you know, if you think of um, just kind of the damage that they do on crops and they'll I mean they've been known to steal babies you know out of, you know from houses and stuff. And I assume they have nefarious purposes with those babies.
Speaker 1:So, okay, I don't want to go too in depth into that. Well, that's crazy. So let me ask you this about Africa. So I think that was your last Africa story. Did you come home with any like cool trinkets, memorabilia from all of that hunting? Cause I know that you know some things are cooler than others, but what did you bring home with you?
Speaker 2:I brought home a few rugs, um, because so over there, you know, they manage their wildlife a little bit different than we do. So if it is on your property, you own it, right, you can, you can capture it, you can sell it, you can, you can hunt it, you can have someone pay to come hunt it, and so we were hunting on private land. So it was 100 legal, but you don't have like a tag right, so I didn't have the documentation to be able to bring those a lot of those trophies home, gotcha. So, um, we did have some of the stuff mounted and just left it in the house there, um, so the other Marines, some of the cool stuff, but yeah, it was most of it. Just, you know, the meat went to local people, we went to, you know, we kept some of it and then, you know, taking some animals out there causing problems.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, I'm trying to do the math of like, if you went every other day or so for 10 months, that's a ton of hunting.
Speaker 2:That's that's pretty cool, yeah, and I mean we didn't shoot something every time I hunted. I think I hunted nine days for a Kudu and didn't get one.
Speaker 1:What are they? What are those called the? Something ghost?
Speaker 2:some the something ghost, some the gray ghost, the gray ghost. Yeah, those things are pretty cool. They're tough and it's man. It's amazing how well those animals blend in, like especially a zebra, you know. You think, oh, it's black and white you know yeah you can see that from a mile away, man, they blend in and it it really takes like it took a while to kind of get an eye for the wildlife and being able to pick it out.
Speaker 2:You know, because, like around here, you know you're driving down the road and like, oh, there's a deer, and your wife's like what, how do you see that? Or whatever. But being able to do that with a totally different animal, different shapes, colors and all this stuff, it took quite a while.
Speaker 1:Yeah, different terrain. It's just that broken up pattern. I bet is, and all this stuff. It took quite a while. Yeah, different terrain. It's just that broken up pattern, I bet, is what makes it difficult.
Speaker 2:But I've never thought about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I hear there's animals everywhere, but if you're looking for specific problem animals, it's probably not quite as easy as just going out and having fun shooting for meat.
Speaker 2:Right, and sometimes, like with the hyenas, sometimes you go out and it's just a slam dunk and you'd shoot a pile of them and sometimes maybe you get one, yeah, and you know, maybe not Cool, very cool man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right. Well, let's, let's, let's leave Africa. Where are we going next?
Speaker 2:All right, I moved back here after I left Africa and me and my buddy, we'd been playing elk hunt for quite a while. He had guided in Colorado for a couple of years and never actually hunted himself, and so he was like, hey, we need to go back to this place three point unit. And so, um, it was that. So I got back to the states in end of 2016, so it was 2017 september. We, we went out for elk. So we had six guys with us, we had horses, um, it was, it was a pretty big camp. It was the biggest camp that I've ever been on as far as the hunting trip goes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, six guys and horses is pretty substantial. Did you guys take a whole wall tent out, or what'd you guys do when you got out there with uh, we had.
Speaker 2:We had a big fifth wheel camper.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And then another guys no one of the guys that went he builds custom horse trailers okay that's his business. And so he brought out a big um fifth wheel, you know horse trailer with yeah like living quarters. And then we had another horse trail. So we had three trucks, three trailers, six guys, horses for everybody okay, cool so first morning my buddy Tanner.
Speaker 2:He says, hey, I've got a spot. It's like a two-hour ride in. It was a three-hour ride in, it was pretty far, but he's like there's usually always elk in that area. Let's go check that out first. It's like, all right, sounds good. So we leave early, ride up the trail. So there was three or four guys in camp, I mean they ranch their cowboys and so they, they know horses.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I am not a horse guy, yeah, so okay, my, my buddy tanner, he's lived on a horse for a pretty big portion of his life and so he's just going and I'm just stiff as a board. It's like man, this is tough. So, we get up there and I'm ready to park this thing and get off and I can walk, I'm good at walking, stretch the legs, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we get up to this hill, tie up the horses and get up over this ridge and just instantly we're glassing elk, they're bugling, they're messing around, they're doing a lot of stuff. And I'm like man day, one of my first elk hunt. This is awesome. I could probably get into this elk hunt thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:So we dropped down and chased after those elk and couldn't get close enough to really get into them. So then you know, they go up in bed. We found a wallow and we're just kind of taking a nap right there and about one o'clock we hear just a lazy bugle Pretty close. So it's like, well, let's, you know, pack up our stuff and head over there. So we get in, we sneak into pretty close to where we heard the bugle and we start calling right away and instantly I mean they are just fired up. Just getting after it we got bugles coming from every direction and so it's like, all right day one.
Speaker 1:You know, here we go. That's so awesome, man. I just started like talking about 2025 hunting and elk hunting and all this stuff and, man, you're getting me fired up.
Speaker 2:This is awesome I, I love, I love it okay keep going. We've got some more up stories too so all right um, so we get in there, and my buddy tanner, he was up. He was up to shoot first um.
Speaker 2:So I'm calling and we've got just elk screaming. And so he has one bull come in. He draws on. It Doesn't get a shot. He's holding, holding, let's down. That bull moves off. Another bull moves in, so we've got two bulls in. He pulls back his bow for the second bull and both are illegal Pulls. He draws the bow back and we're in some pretty thick stuff. Doesn't get a shot. He's holding, holding, holding. He lets it down and I don't know what happened, but he rolls his string off his cam.
Speaker 2:Oh, no way so he's up in front of me. We got elk screaming all around us close and he's looking at me like what you know, and so three hours into the back country, three plus hours gosh right.
Speaker 2:So we switch spots and he starts calling like this whole time it's like we're moving around, we're trying to figure out how to fix his bow and it's like, okay, we've got some duct tape and some 550 cord and you know, like this isn't gonna happen. So I moved down, set up and he starts calling in this bowl. It comes in quartering. So it comes in kind of in front of me, to my right a little bit, and it's moving left to right or right to left, sorry.
Speaker 2:So it's coming across and it comes in this little opening kind of turns a little bit to me and like man, it was perfect. Just sink, sink it right in them, right, the six point. So, like I mean, we were just, you know, just blowing up Like it was just, it was awesome. So it was like day one of my first elk hunt. I just shoot a six point bull. And we still so the you know, the bull whirls runs off and uh, and we've still got elk screaming like wanting to come in.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we had, we counted, five different bulls in that one area, um, so we sit down, you know, wait a little while, get up, and we actually bumped the elk. Um, after, you know, we waited an hour, or whatever, he bumped him. Well, what happened was is when, right when I shot, he was coming broadside, or he was broadside and right when I shot, he had stopped. And as I was squeezing that off, he turned 90 degrees towards me. So when I shot, he was actually quartering pretty hard to me. Okay, by the time the arrow got to him, Got it how far?
Speaker 1:roughly, I don't know if I mentioned that. Okay, not too far, that's good no. Don't know if I mentioned that, okay, not too far, that's good no no.
Speaker 2:So we waited an hour, we bumped him and we're like oh man, this isn't good, Sweet. And it was six and a half miles from camp is where we were at. So we were like okay, well, let's back out of here. There's obviously elk in this area. We don't want to mess it up. Um, we'll go fix tanner's bow or try to. It'll come back the next morning. Is he by chance?
Speaker 1:like similar draw length. Did you guys consider, like you, letting him use your bow, or is just not in the cards?
Speaker 2:not, not, not similar size um, yeah, he's, so I have, I have a 30 inch and he I think he's a 31.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it would have been tough, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So we come back the next morning. Uh, we find the bull right away and that arrow went in behind his shoulder and the broadhead was sticking out of his ass.
Speaker 1:Like, ooh, he was quartering hard, yeah, yeah so he didn't go very far.
Speaker 2:Um, so we found the trail that we came down. Originally it was pretty rough. Well, we found another trail that kind of went out the bottom and then wrapped around and went back up and then towards camp. Well, the funny thing is is there was an outfitter drop camp, like on the other side of the drainage, like just a couple hundred yards away. So there was a guy from New York sitting in there and he had heard the whole thing like total rough ass down, like right below camp. His son was out hunting in another area and so then, yeah, we come out packing this elk out on our horses, like the trail went right through their camp. So talked to them for a little bit.
Speaker 1:It was like the trail went right through their camp. So I talked to them for a little bit. How excited was he for you guys? Or was he more like oh, they took my elk.
Speaker 2:No, he was an older gentleman, super nice. He was really excited about it. That's so cool, yeah, yeah. So we let's see that week. So the first couple of days were really good and they shut down. It was pretty hot. They shut down for most of the week, um, and then we had a little bit of action towards the end, um, but I think I called in eight bowls that week, damn, um called one in for another guy and he I don't remember if he missed it or if we couldn't find it Um, but yeah, one.
Speaker 2:One of the really cool stories from that trip is so me and my buddy Tanner, we went, instead of going kind of up the trailhead from camp, we went down wrapped around, so it's right on the edge of of private and public and there were some cabins.
Speaker 2:Kind of up the trailhead from camp we went down, wrapped around, so it's right on the edge of of private and public and there were some cabins kind of right there. We're looking down into this drainage on the public, so we're kind of glassing there to, you know, listening and glassing for the evening. So we're hiking back out in the dark and as we're hiking back we can hear elk moving through the trees and this bull is. I mean he's glunking, it's loud, yeah, it's like man, these elk are right here, so it's dark, full moon. I mean obviously we can't shoot him. It's like, hey, let's mess with these things a little bit. So I start calling in this bull. So he's glunking, messing with his cows and I just I think I just let out a bugle in messing with his cows and I just, I think I just let out a bugle and he, like he just came in on a string.
Speaker 2:Like you could hear him just, and it's pretty dark, so like you just hear him just crashing through, just coming straight at us yeah so I'm just like squatting down in the trail and my buddy's like standing next to a tree and this bull, he came up to eight yards from us and just screamed in our faces and it's like oh man like feel, you know just the sound, just you're just rattling your whole body and it's like that's cool.
Speaker 1:I've never experienced that but I want to. So bad man I've. I've been out with some great callers and we've had some milk bugle back, but most of them came in just silent, like not interested and really playing. They just wanted to see what was going on and uh I've never had that like sub 20 yard bugle and I, oh god, that'd be so cool.
Speaker 2:I've been pretty fortunate. I've gotten some some pretty good view on actually over the years. But so that was. That was first elk, first day, um, so after that I was hooked okay, I was like I'm, I'm going elk hunting I don't care how or when, or you know how, or you know, but this is going to happen.
Speaker 2:so the next year got tagged for idaho, went up, um, and it was just me and another guy, and you know it makes a big difference when there's a guy that knows the area so we went. We just basically, you know, put a finger on the map and Idaho's like well, we get attacked there.
Speaker 2:We went out, started walking we it took us all week to figure out where the elk were and the last day we got into some really good bugling action, um. I guess we had a few other elk that we found um and some other guys got in them before we did Um. But last I hunted Idaho a couple of years and I never shot one in Idaho. But my last year I got a pretty good tag Um, and this was three years ago. Yeah, three years ago I got a really good tag in Idaho. I was out there for two weeks and I'm I was pretty lucky.
Speaker 2:Um so we at the time we had three kids, we had a baby and I went out. I'll come for two weeks.
Speaker 1:Um, how, how you say baby? Are we talking like one month old? Are we talking like six months? Eight we talking like six months, eight months old, eight months? Okay, that's more reasonable, but still, your wife's a saint brother. Yeah, yeah, I am I'm super fortunate.
Speaker 2:Usually she's pretty worn out by the end of hunting season with. Yeah, um, I usually go on two, two big trips a year, one or two so cool. She's pretty worn out by the end of the season, but how old? Is the whole tribe. You've got five, three, three in a year and a half.
Speaker 1:Oh dang. Okay, I thought you said you had three and one of them was a baby, but you had twins at one point, okay.
Speaker 2:Good for you, man, good for you.
Speaker 1:I have a, I have a five. He turned six next week in a, in a three, three. Awesome, I understand your wife being tuckered, because that's a lot man Good for both of you.
Speaker 2:I don't think I could do it if the rules were reversed. So I was out for two weeks and I did not shoot a bull and I did not shoot a bull, but I had 11 bulls within 30 yards and I was in bugling bulls every morning and every night for two weeks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just no clear lanes or just what happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just Bumping every time. No, just I didn't have clear shooting lanes a lot of time or I messed up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that happens.
Speaker 2:You know. So, yeah, a lot of the areas I was hunting was just really really thick and so, like at one point I had a bull at five yards and we were basically in a brush pile, because how I hunt now is I don't call too much anymore Basically just find one beagling and just sneak in on them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and a lot of times when you're in that thick stuff and you're walking, you're making a lot of noise and they just come to you. So I was trying to get around to where I could kind of get some elevation on him and he just came right to me and, you know know, just kind of met me halfway when I was in a bad spot yeah I'm sitting there looking at this thing face on. That's cool, did he?
Speaker 1:did he see you and know what you were, or did he see you and like not quite understand?
Speaker 2:I, I don't know, he ended up running off okay so this kind of goes into a pretty cool encounter.
Speaker 2:So he was bugling, I was moving through this really thick maple brush. He comes to me. We kind of meet at three or five yards. He was close. So we're sitting there looking at each other. I'm just kind of stuck. He turns around and runs off. Well, right shortly after he runs off I hear a bugle from up top. Like well, maybe he wasn't that spooked so I just take off running up the hill after him. So I'm sprinting up the hill through this brush, I get to the top and there's kind of an opening and I bust out of there and there's two guys that are sitting up there. So they bugle and all of a sudden this guy just come running, you know, out of the brush and is, um, like I surprised them, they surprised me. I was like do you see that bull? And they're like what bull? I was like man, there's a bullet ran right through here and they're like no, we, we didn't see him.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh man, like I was like I don't mind to ruin your hunt, but can I sit down and take a breath here, like, like I'm.
Speaker 1:I'm winning. That's awesome yeah.
Speaker 2:So they're like, yeah, no, that's fine. So they're really nice guys, local guys, and so we sat there and visited for a while and so I was like, well, hey, you know, I kind of popped in your spot here. You know, I don't want to ruin your hunt. Where are you, you guys, going? I said, well, we forgot something down in the bottom, so we were going to head back down that way and said, all right, cool, I'll go around the other side. So I go to on the other side of the Ridge and as soon as I get around I hear two bulls just fighting like crazy on the next Ridge over.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just going at it. I was like all right?
Speaker 1:well, here we go. So I take off running down the hill.
Speaker 2:I run back up the other side and as soon as I get up kind of the elevation there, they just stop, stop bugling just nothing.
Speaker 2:And it was getting right, you know, later in the morning when you know so they're getting ready to bed down. So it's like, well, they must just have enough. And I was like they got to be in here. It's not like they went very far and it was a really good bedding area. So I got around up above them and I tucked into these rocks and it was pretty open in that bedding area so I didn't feel really comfortable getting down and sneaking through there without busting them out and by the sound of the bulls fighting like they weren't little, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna play this safe, I'm just gonna hang out.
Speaker 2:So I kind of hung out for the afternoon up there and, you know, getting I I don't remember what, about what time, but I heard one bugle a bull, you know get up and bugle. It's like all right, he's awake. So I started moving down. Next time he bugled he was in the bottom. It's like, oh man, okay, he's gonna make this tough for me, so I'm dropping down. And the next time he bugles he's like around the ridge. It's like, oh man, okay, here we go. So I I'm like dropping down, kind of angling down this finger, and I hear him bugle kind of on the other side, and of course he's in this maple brush again. So then he bugles again.
Speaker 2:So I start moving in and it's probably four o'clock in the afternoon and I hear him raking. So I'm moving up and I'm trying to get up above him so I can get a shot opportunity. And there's these, so it's this maple brush and there's little open pockets, you know, in the maple brush. So I'm kind of going, moving in and out, and I see him raking this tree. But he's facing me. So it's like, okay, I got to get around him. So I start moving up and I get almost above him Not quite, he was probably, so I was probably 40 yards above him and he was maybe another 20 yards above to my left.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, he saw me. So he turns and starts walking to my right and I I was standing in the open of this. This little I mean, it was only maybe 10 yards across, maybe maybe 10 by 20 yards, just this little opening. I'm kind of standing in the middle. They caught me right there but like there's enough brush to where he couldn't, like he could see movement, but he couldn't see that it was a person. So he starts walking to the right and I'm kind of watching him trying to figure out what I'm going to do here and he turns and comes up the hill towards me, comes into my opening. So he's 10 yards at me, you know, 10 yards from me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Staying there with my boat. He turns in this whole time, you know his head swaying back and forth, and he's just panting and just drooling and I'm standing there just shaking like a leaf and this bull is eight yards from me and you know he's just swaying his head and I can see the whites of his eyes and he's eyeballing me, you know. And so I'm sitting there like okay, how's this? And he, it's a, he was a good bull, he. I got some pictures of him later on and he, he probably would have gone three, 20, three, 30. It's a good bull. His sword point on one side was broke off the other side it was probably 30 inches long. Wow, that's crazy. Just yeah, so I got this bull eight yards. So he gets behind this little clump of trees and I'm like oh well, this now or never.
Speaker 2:And I you know, obviously you think back on. It's like man, there's so many different things I could have done here. Probably killed this bull, yeah. But just in just in the moment, it's like oh, I got to try and draw on him, so I drew and of course he spooked, so he kind of runs down the hill, but he wasn't super spooked, so he stops, so I start bugling at him and I ended up bumping him again and so then he runs off, gets up with his cows, I find him again and he's bugling the whole time, so I chase him till dark and of course they just ended up going way back in there into this hell hole.
Speaker 2:Sun goes down and I I think I was six miles in and the whole time I was looking at my Onyx and there was a trail that kind of went all the way back to the road. I was like, okay, I can just kind of jump a couple ridges over and get back on this trail. Well, that trail didn't exist, oh shit. So I got back to the truck. It it was shortly after midnight. Yeah, that's, that's the track man, that's the track, yeah but that's a cool experience.
Speaker 1:Like I said, I've never I mean, I've been within 10 yards of a bull, but not with him fired up. Not well, I not with him talking or anything like that, but that's super cool. The thing I like most about that story and I think this is funny with a lot of hunters is just the sheer detail. I was thinking to myself I was like man, I can't remember a conversation I had with my wife at noon today, but here you are telling this story with all these details.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you can even think about which direction the wind was going from what at this point eight years ago or something like that.
Speaker 2:So this was three years ago. Three years ago, okay.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, still it's good. It's just so funny Like the amount of detail that stick with us on these stories and it's really cool. So thanks for sharing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so I got, so I didn't shoot one on that trip and then I'm going to. I'm going to share a story from not this year, but the year before. Okay, so I was hunting in Wyoming with a good buddy of mine. He lives in Wyoming, so we this. This was a pretty crazy hunt. So he got out there on Friday. He left, he gets Fridays off, so he left on Friday. Got out there on Friday, he left, he gets Fridays off, so he left on Friday. Got out there, I left Saturday morning. So I got into camp around five or six Saturday afternoon so he was already out hunting.
Speaker 2:So I get everything unloaded, get on my four-wheeler, drive up this trail, find some elk, Um, and so, you know, son goes down, I go back to camp, he comes back later and, um, we're kind of just sharing some information and stuff. So we, we go back up the next day and we ran into some elk but nothing was really fired up, Um. So we ended up bumping some elk. Um, we had one bull that was kind of bugling but not enough for us to really get on him, Um, so this was a new area for us and he, he had killed a bull and another, a different area, the year before.
Speaker 2:So we're like well, the elk aren't really talking too much here, let's just go back to this other area that you know a little bit better and see what we can find there. So we pack up camp and it's like 10 miles as the crow flies, but it takes a couple hours to drive around. So we get to the new spot, set up camp head out that afternoon and we just we run into sheep. I mean, it's just, you know, grazed their sheep everywhere. It's like, well, okay, there's our number one spot.
Speaker 1:Just full of sheep. You're like farm sheep. You're not talking like bighorn Right Like bighorn right like okay, like you know, yeah, I don't know if you ever ran into sheep. Yeah, while you're out, I haven't no, but like we're talking, lamb sheep.
Speaker 2:I've heard.
Speaker 1:I've heard some people running into sheep yeah, I've heard of heard of people running into those and then they've got like, uh, a shepherd, like they're like south american shepherd guys that like live with these sheep all summer long, did you?
Speaker 2:did see that? Was he out there? You're a shepherd, okay, yeah. So you know they're sheep dogs, yeah. So, speaking of sheep and bighorn sheep, so I'm going to do this side. So we were hunting mule deer in Colorado this year, second season, second rifle and the buck that I shot. We were stalking up on him and we ended up bumping two different herds of bighorn sheep, so like we're up on the back side of this ridge and I've got my buck down below and we've got bighorn sheep just blown out everywhere.
Speaker 2:It's like are you kidding me like I think we counted 30 yeah 30 ewes and small rams that's crazy and they. It ended up. They ran down the the east side and the deer was on the west side and ended up getting shot. So back to Wyoming. So we run into sheep, sheep dogs, you know, and they make a lot of noises, right? So the guys are, they're calling to the sheep. You know, some of the sheep have bells on them, they've got their sheep dogs and so generally, when the sheep move in, they'll move.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we were like okay, you know this, we're going to have to figure out a new game plan. So there's another area that we wanted to go into, but it was pretty far trek. Most people go in with horses. So we're sitting there like, well, we could go back to camp and, you know, grab our bivvy stuff and then head in tonight, cause it was still early enough, it's kind of midday. We could just head in there tonight, bivvy out, and then we'll just hunt, you know, in there for a day or two. It's like, okay, that's our plan. So we start heading back and we are we've got our gear packed up about to head out.
Speaker 2:Another one of our friends. He was hunting in idaho. He texts us on the in reach and he was like, hey, uh, it's been super dead out here. I'm gonna come drive out, hang out with you guys for a couple days. So you know, I don't know if you ever use in reach. There's just like a lot of times, a huge delay, yeah. So we're like, well, we're just about to leave for the night and now he's saying he's going to be here at midnight. So then we're like trying to figure out what's going on. So we ended up staying. So he gets into camp and we're sitting there, we're having some beers and stayed up a little too late. So there's like midnight, it's like okay, well, we don't for tomorrow, what are we going to do? And my, my buddy taylor, he's like well, I know a spot, it's kind of right off the highway that he's like I got an elk like right off the highway last year and it's just a horse trail, so it's pretty easy walking.
Speaker 1:It's like, all right, let's do that I've heard plenty of people say like if you, if you can't hear cars anymore, you've gone too far. Like they hang out in that area. That's like out of sight, but not too far, not too deep.
Speaker 2:Right, and that's usually. Usually most of the elk that I run into are within two or three miles from the road. Yeah, you know so so we start hiking up this. And you know we stayed up too late, and so it's like Taylor, you said the elk were going to be right here, and he's like well, they were last year. You know we stayed up too late. And so it's like, taylor, you said the elk were going to be right here and he's like well, they were last year, you know.
Speaker 2:So he's like I don't know man, you know, so we keep hiking, hiking. It's like two and a half miles up this horse trail. It kind of wraps around. There's all these, well, it follows a creek and so then on the other side there's all those dark timber and these, you know, different tran ranges and bowls that come down.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we're just kind of going from one listing to one to the next. So we've ended up making it all the way up and it gets up to this ridge and then it splits.
Speaker 2:You can go north or most people, just kind of get up there and they get above all that dark timber. You walk on the bottom and they just make a loop back and then a lot of times the guys, the horses, go to the north. You can get back in there a little farther. Well, if you go to the west it opens up and there's it's like probably a mile of just sage, maybe half a mile sage, and then there's a big ridge that goes north to south and man it a big ridge that goes North to South and man, it's awesome.
Speaker 2:It's little patches of dark timber maples, aspens, just patches, and that's what we really like to hunt kind of more of that patchy stuff. I feel like you can see the elk. You can still move around in them. They've, you know, their bedding areas a little more condensed than hunting. Some of the stuff like you have is just miles of dark timber. It's like I don't even know where to start. Yeah, yeah. So we, we get up there and right off the bat a couple of bulls are just fired up and we can see one is in this little opening just raking this tree fired up.
Speaker 1:It's like all right well let's get over there.
Speaker 2:So we hustle down kind of around this deal just trying to keep some cover, and finally coming down. So there's, you got to come down, there's a Creek, and then we got to go up the Ridge that they're on. So we're just like running across the Sage in the wide open just trying to get to them. And so we're just we're booking it. And Taylor's like I don't know, I feel like we're out in the openlor's, like I don't know, I feel like we're out in the open too much. And our other buddy's just like well, let's go. And he's, he's a really, really good elk hunter, um, he's killed quite a few bulls. And he's like, nope, we just gotta go. So we, we get down, cross the creek and we're making our way up to kind of where they're into, like we're just getting into the timber patch that they're in.
Speaker 2:So I'm in front, our one buddy that came from Idaho, he's in the middle and then Taylor's behind him and all of a sudden I hear one of the guys say hey, right, right, right. And two bulls come running down the hill like 15 yards past me. So I draw and they don't stop. The first one passes me and stops 10 yards from Taylor and just stops. And it's just because the one bull is chasing the other one. He stops and just looks right at Taylor. And man, he was awesome. He's like, I have my bow drawn and I'm tracking him and as soon as he stops, taylor is just right there, full draw, and just puts one frontal right through this thing.
Speaker 2:Oh, man and it just barrels over the hill. And so then here comes the other bull running down the hill. So I run up and it's trying to figure out what's going on. So it's kind of like we're in the timber. And then there's, you know, at the kind of the break of the ridge, and there's sage. He's, you know, right on the edge of the sage, and so he's looking, trying to figure out what's going on. Well, come find out.
Speaker 2:He could see that bull dead laying there on the other side. We couldn't see him, but he just piled up on the other side, yeah, so he's sitting there looking and I'm trying to sneak to get a shot. And so I ended up chasing this bull up a little ways, um, and didn't get a shot on him. So we sit down, we wait a little while, or an hour or whatever go over and there's Taylor's bull sitting there and it is a nice six point. So we get it cut up, pack half of it out. So the next morning we're like okay, we still got half a bull to pack out. We're going to get in there.
Speaker 2:I have a tag, so I'm going to you know we're going to see if we can hunt our way in there or whatever, and then if we don't get anything, we'll pack the rest of the bull out. So we hike back in there the next morning and the elk are in the same spot, okay, so we get up in there and we end up going a little bit farther than we did the day before, um, I. So I was in the front, I I hear some elk and we ended up going a little bit farther than we did the day before. So I was in the front, I hear some elk. I had a bullet, 20 yards with no shooting lean, so I drew on him and then he ended up turning around and we bumped into those elk a couple times but they didn't really spook. We just kind of kept bumping into them, but we couldn't get a shot.
Speaker 2:And they weren't talking at all. They're just, they're quiet. So it's pretty tough. So, after messing with them for a while, we said, okay, let's leave these out, let's go try to find some other ones. So we get to the top of that Ridge. As soon as we get to the top, elk are just bugling like crazy on the other side and it is a steep hill down, it is a steep hill up and basically the ridge that those elk are on the top of it is the idaho border oh, no shit, okay so so we're sitting there and of course we didn't have.
Speaker 2:We didn't bring any food and hardly any water or anything. So we have empty packs cause we're going to pack out and up.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:So Taylor, he had like a, a big knot in his shoulder so he wasn't really liking having this pack on and stuff and this. I mean it is steep down and steep up and we're sitting there like well, did it go after these bowls? And if they're like another mile, you know past, and I was like well, I might as well. I got a tag and tail. I was like I don't know man, I might just sit here and watch you guys.
Speaker 2:Well, he ended down the hill, but we, so we run down this hill and it was probably 800 yards down, really steep, yeah. And then on the other side they were in this little patch of timber up top and on the back side it was a bunch of um, it was a like a burn, so a bunch of blow down and just nasty stuff.
Speaker 2:so we get to the other side and we're like picking our way through all this deadfall and we get up to the same level and we're coming around, you know, because they're on the north side and we're coming up the south side. So like we're coming around this, this ridge, and I can you know those bulls bugling like crazy, I can hear them glunking and it's probably 40 yards from me the herd bull.
Speaker 2:So I'm trying to sneak in. I'm on this trail and all of a sudden I see this elk coming on the same trail that I'm on and it was a nice six point. So he's coming right in front of me and he stops and he had no idea. I was there and of course I have a bush right in front of me and I was there and of course I have a bush right in front of me and I'm yeah kind of out in the open so I can't really move.
Speaker 2:And this bull is just sitting there. You know he's kind of eating on some leaves. He's listening to the herd bull. You know the herd bull's glunking and bugling.
Speaker 1:He's just watching and it's a nice six point.
Speaker 2:I'm just like, oh man, like crap. So I sat there for probably 10 minutes watching this bull. Finally he turns around and moves off, and so the other guys are kind of back behind me and I said, hey, why don't you bugle? And let's see if we can get this herd bull pulled up here, because obviously I can't move too much farther than there's elk right here. So they bugle, and as soon as they bugle, just everything breaks loose.
Speaker 2:I mean elk start running everywhere no shit like I mean just one bugle and they just took off running. We had elk that were, I mean, just running out the bottom, running around the side, just going everywhere.
Speaker 2:So we're sitting there like well that didn't work what so I mean, and we're watching elk pour out the bottom, they're going up that steep hill on the other side there's out going north, south and just running, and we're just like, well, they're still coming out the bottom, we might as well run down through all this deadfall and see if we, you know what we can run into. So we get down in the bottom and by then they kind of all cleared out. We're still watching elk just panting coming up, you know, going up over this Ridge that we just came down to get in there, and uh, so we hiked down along the bottom. There's a Creek down there, so we're hiking.
Speaker 2:Finally we stop and we're like, well, do you have any water? Well, I got a little bit. Do you have any water? Well, I got a little bit. And do you have any food? Because it's like one o'clock in the afternoon, so we're sitting there sharing, you know, leftover chip crumbs that you have in the bottom, you know the ziploc on your back or whatever like we're literally eating, yeah, barbecue frito twists like just the crumbs and all of a sudden we hear this bull sound off.
Speaker 2:So if you follow this, this bottom, this Creek down, it tees off. So, like you know, it's a steep hill on either side of this, this Creek bottom, and then it kind of comes to a T and there's a ridge that runs east to west. Well, there's a bull over there bugling and it, and I'm skipping some stuff, but at this point I'd already drawn on like four different elk that day, so I was getting pretty discouraged.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that sounds like a good day, but I get it yeah.
Speaker 2:So you know, I was kind of discouraged like, oh man, so many close calls couldn't make it happen. So we're like, well, we might as well go after this one.
Speaker 2:We're already back in here and we're, we're over five miles in from, yeah, from the road, so we take off trekking towards this thing. So the this t um kind of the. You know, the creek comes into another creek and makes a t and then there's a ridge that goes east to west on the other side and there was a a little saddle up there with two little fingers that came down off of it and this bull was up there in the top of the saddle.
Speaker 2:And he is just, I mean he's bugling every 30 seconds. He's just trying to get his cows back. So we start trucking up there and we get about halfway up and I can hear an elk on the other finger on the other side and I was like hey, there's an elk right over here. And our other buddy's like no.
Speaker 2:And they're like you went there, well, he's up top, go up there. So I start making my way up and I get to the top and like I can hear this bull bugling, he's got to be close. I just can't see him yet, like probably within 50 yards.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I'm sitting there just trying to figure out where he's at before I move you know too much and all of a sudden, here come his cows, just come running up from the bottom. They get it right up past me and I'm like there's the wind's right, there's no way. They spooked me, like they were just coming to his bugle. Well, he gets those cows and he takes off and they go to the next ridge over, you know like another 500 yards, and it was like I'm shot, I'm beat, I'm not going after them.
Speaker 2:Out of freedom of dust. I get it. Yeah, out of freedom of dust. So, right, as the other guys had kind of held back, I'd gone up by myself to try to sneak in on this bull. Right after that happened and I'd kind of given up.
Speaker 2:I hear this other elk, I was like, oh well, that must have been that smaller bull or whatever that we passed on the way up. So I cow called. Well, that herd bull heard me cow call and he bugled right back and I was like, okay, so I cow called again and the next time he was half the distance.
Speaker 1:He thought he forgot one of his cows and he's coming back.
Speaker 2:The next time he calls he's within bow range. And here I see him come and he's up on the ridge. So I'm kind of in this saddle and it's timber on my right side and it's open on my left and I have some shooting lanes, but I need him to stay up high. Of course. He comes up, screams 20 yards away and then moves down towards my right where I can't shoot him, so he's moving across. Well, my buddies had snuck up behind me. I didn't know this.
Speaker 2:And they let out a bugle cross. Well, my buddies had snuck up behind me, I didn't know this and they let out a bugle. And this bull turns 90 degrees bugles and comes running towards me, like at them yeah right.
Speaker 2:So I was already at full draw, because when I saw him at 20 yards come up over the hill, I drew. So he comes past me at eight yards, I shoot him. Him right, he didn't even know he was shot. He kept going, stopped. So he's like behind me at this point trying to figure out what's going on and I can see just blood pumping out of him and I'm just shaking. So he turns around and takes off running kind of down the hill, kind of side-hilling, and stops at 35 yards. I knock another arrow and there's a big dead pine tree in between me and him and there's a spot probably the size of a pie plate. I was like I think I can get an arrow in there. So I kneel down.
Speaker 1:I shoot him again. He takes off.
Speaker 2:Threw a log, he takes off maybe another 10 yards and just piles up right there. It was like holy cow guys, so you know, they come up running and he's just laying right there and it's like that went from basically giving up on the day. It's like okay, well, I'm out of water, I'm out of food and I just, you know, had I think I drew four times that day on different elk. I was like, didn't make it happen. Now I get to pack out half an elk.
Speaker 1:What spurred them to change their plan and come up to you without telling you? That's a recipe for disaster in a lot of circumstances. Now, in your case, it worked out great, but why did they leave where they said they would be?
Speaker 2:Well, we didn't really have like, hey, we're going to stay here. It was just like we were getting close, and so it was like, hey, I'm going to go up ahead because we weren't calling. We're just sneaking in on them, got it?
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So three guys versus just one, yeah, but they had kind of just kept creeping up and they could hear me calling and stuff, so they knew something was going on. So they just kind of kept moving and they saw that bull when he came over the hill too, and so then, yeah, they bugled out and it just, I mean, he screamed right in our face and turned and just came right after us.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, man, that's such a cool story. So he was the herd bull. Was he a big fella?
Speaker 2:No, so it was a general unit. Um, so he was a five point really nice five point um.
Speaker 1:But he was just mean that's cool. That's cool, yeah, and fill the freezer regardless. But that's. That was a great story, man, I love, I love it. Um, you make elk hunting sound really, for the most part, pretty easy. I want everyone to understand. I went hunting and I think it went like four years before I even saw an elk. I I was worried that when I saw my first elk I wouldn't know the difference between an elk and a deer turns out that's an easy thing to figure out but uh man, you've had some.
Speaker 1:You've had some great seasons yeah, I this year was.
Speaker 2:This year was really good too. I shot a shot a bull with my bow. I shot a my first mule deer in colorado, and then I shot a really nice white tail here at home this year. Hell, yeah, hell yeah, man.
Speaker 1:Well, congratulations, um, I had a good year. I didn't go elk hunting, which felt weird. This is the first time since I started hunting that I didn't go elk hunting. Um, but I did shoot a cow, moose and an antelope with my bow, so like and I went to Hawaii and shot. Axis deer so.
Speaker 2:I had a good year. That's cool. I had a plenty of years, a very good year.
Speaker 1:Cool, noah man, this was fun. Do you have any other stories for us, or are we wrapping this thing up?
Speaker 2:I think those are kind of the highlights, I guess.
Speaker 1:Cool man.
Speaker 2:Well then, at this point it's up to you whether you want to walk off into the sunset or if you want to share some kind of social media, something or another, and we can have some people follow you. So I do have social media. It's not hunting related, it's for my business.
Speaker 1:What do you do?
Speaker 2:I'm a trim carpenter so I do trim houses, do custom built-ins cabinet, install stuff like that. So that's Heinz underscore carpentry.
Speaker 1:Cool, I'll throw it into the show notes. If anyone's in Nebraska, yeah, give our boy a call, noah man this was a ton of fun. I really appreciate again that you reached out in the first place and then you took the time on this evening here, to share some pretty amazing hunting stories. I'm jealous and also fired up for.
Speaker 2:September.
Speaker 2:Hopefully I have a half half the encounters that you have in an average season. Yeah, it's, I've been, I mean it took. So I started elk hunting in 2017, gone every year since, and it's, I mean it. There's definitely a learning curve. You know, I got super lucky on my first year but then, yeah, I hadn't shot a bull until that five point. We just talked about that and that was last year. But the year before that I kind of felt like it felt like that two weeks just being able to be out. For two weeks I was solo for most of that. I did have a buddy in camp, but he didn't really hunt with me too much, he was more fishing, yeah, so I got two weeks of just solo running around chasing elk in a really good unit. So I got to kind of try out some things, figure out some stuff, kind of learn how they work a little bit. That's cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I shot a bull the last two years so sounds to me like you have something that is also very helpful for for elk hunting, which is like you work hard, like it's. You're like we just dropped down this mountain and went two miles away to that mountain. A lot of folks do that and I think that's probably why you have the success that you do, man so well, and it's my, my buddy tay, buddy Taylor, he's probably more.
Speaker 2:he gets more fired up about elk hunting than I do and he lives for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you know he's in the gym every day and then we get out to elk hunt, you know, and he's like man, you don't even work out that much and you're still out hiking me. It's like, yeah, but I'm carrying around a 20-pound tool bag every day, walking upstairs, carrying stuff up scaffolding. You know, it's like you stay in pretty decent shape.
Speaker 1:Also, some guys are just hikers. I know some folks that like they don't really need to do anything all year long and they can just hike Like it's just. Some people are half billy goat, I guess.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty tall and lean so I got the long leg advantage. That definitely helps. Good advantage, that definitely helps.
Speaker 1:I'm tall but I'm not lean. So all right, noah man, let's wrap this thing up. Thank you again, man. I appreciate you. Um, I have a feeling in a couple of years we'll get you back on with a whole mess of new stories for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I got. I got some more too, so I got some.
Speaker 1:I got some pretty good ones but all right, cool man, we'll do it. Thanks again, all right, thanks, michael. All right, guys. That's it. Another couple stories in the books. Thanks again for tuning in. I do appreciate you, guys. I also want to thank noah, of course, for coming on the podcast and taking the time to go fill out the little form that you can get to from, uh, I guess, our instagram page. I'll find a way to get on the website, but for now, the uh the instagram page. But yeah, guys, if you have any stories, please connect with us. If you know someone who has any stories, please send them our way. Beyond that, give us a review. Whatever you're listening to right now, if you could give us whatever star view you think is acceptable and then give us a follow, I would greatly appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Now get out there and make some stories of your own. Thank you.
