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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 139 The Hunting Stories Podcast: John Stallone
When John Stallone first glimpsed the whitetail buck he'd later nickname "Swamp Donkey," he had no idea their relationship would span four hunting seasons and become one of his most memorable pursuits. This remarkable story of patience, strategy, and persistence takes us through the small woodlots of Long Island, where hunting happens in a surprisingly complex patchwork of swamps, fields, and suburban boundaries.
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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 John Stallone. If you don't know him, he wears a lot of hats, but in my opinion, the thing that he's doing that's the coolest is, he is one of the founders of Howl for Wildlife. If you aren't paying attention to Howl for Wildlife, please do log in.
Speaker 1:Links to everything are in the show notes, but they're basically keeping hunters ahead of the curve when it comes to political issues. An example would be Colorado with the wolves or the mountain lions, or actually, most recently, the SB 25, 12, 58 or whatever it was. I use them personally to make sure that I'm monitoring all the political comings and goings of hunting, and you guys should too. But beyond that, john's a great guy. He's a guide, he's a business owner, a hunter, and he has some great stories for us. Today I got a lot of feedback about we need more Whitetail stories, and John helps us out with just exactly that. So I'll stop there. Let's kick this thing off. Let's let John tell you some of his stories. Thank you, guys for tuning in and enjoy another great episode.
Speaker 1:All right, john, welcome to the Hunting Stories Podcast, brother. How are you? I'm good, I'm good. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, man, I'm excited to talk to you. I've heard a lot about you. This is actually the first time we've met, but we do have a mutual friend. We've both been out hunting with the billy goat, jermaine Hodge, you the year before me. That guy's got a lot of energy tough to keep up with, but he had nothing but good things to say about you, man, so I'm excited to chat with you today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Jermaine's an awesome guy. Love the guy. Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1:He's fueled by.
Speaker 2:Mountain Dew and candy. Right right. He bounces off the walls all the time.
Speaker 1:He's got so much energy. I remember I mean, I'm a bigger guy I struggled to keep up with him, but fortunately I was like, if I can stay in between him and Pat, then I don't feel like I'm slowing anybody down here, and so I managed to just barely keep pace, but I was happy with it. But let's do this, john, why don't you introduce yourself so the folks know who they're? Hearing some hunting stories from today, sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, john Stallone, I wear many hats. Actually. I'm the vice president of Half of Wildlife. I've been a writer. I've gotten several books out there. I've written articles for the last 25 years. I've been in some way shape or form been in the industry getting professionally paid since 2001. So when I started with Matthews on their pro staff and then, you know, developed into other things at a TV show, I own the hunting channel online I started and pioneered online TV. Um yeah, guide, been a guy for a very long time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm. Yeah, Guide, been a guide for a very long time. There are political issues. You guys make it so easy. Literally, you just like find your state, all the political issues, click a button and we're sending custom messages to every person that we need to let them know that we have a problem with. Whatever the issue may be it's wolves in Colorado or it's mountain lion bands. For me, I've used your site regularly, man, so thank you for making that so easy.
Speaker 1:I think it makes a big difference. I know the crazies that are trying to stop hunting. They're like they're using AI bots, but really it's just you guys helping hunters do it themselves and it's awesome. So thank you for doing that man. It's really cool. It's fun to see the other side panicking because we're finally getting ourselves together and I think how's a big part of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's pretty huge and you. So you said one thing that I kind of want to, I kind of want to hit. You said find your state. I think that it's important that we recognize that it doesn't matter whether you're an alligator hunter in Florida or a bear hunter in Washington that you should get involved in all issues.
Speaker 2:It's a good place. We are all in this together. We're all interconnected and I'm not going to take a bunch of time upon this podcast explain that to you, but hear me when I say it when you lose a portion of hunting, any type of hunting, any method anywhere, it eventually will trickle down to you and what you love.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's important that you stand up for every and all hunting, whether it's something you partake in or not.
Speaker 1:I agree, and you're right, it is about more than just where you live, and I've actually filled out probably three to four different states issues and sent this stuff out. So good catch.
Speaker 2:Sorry for that, but you are 100% correct, perfect.
Speaker 1:Well, cool, Well, yeah, but like I said, I don't normally do this kind of stuff. Normally we just tell hunting stories, but I do think what you guys are doing is important. So my listeners there's a couple thousand of you get out there and check out how for wildlife it's really important.
Speaker 2:Please join. I'm a member, absolutely, it's. It's super important. It helps keep the lights on too. We do a lot. We do a lot of work.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'll also say that, like I got on there and there were all sorts of things going on that I had no idea about. That doesn't get the big, the, you know the, the big noteworthy stuff, like the the mountain lion band in Colorado. There's all sorts of issues that people aren't aware of. So just a good way to keep yourself educated, as well as to make sure that your legislature, the people that are representing you, know that we care about that stuff. So yeah, but that's not why we're here, john. I mean, it's important, it's really important, but we're here to hear your hunting stories, man. So what do you got for us? Let's. Why don't you set the stage?
Speaker 2:Well, um, so when you asked me to be on, I kind of thought about this. Obviously, I got a bunch of hunting stories, and I've been primarily a Western hunter since the early nineties, um, but my, my passion and my roots for hunting started whitetail hunting. So I was thinking about a story, and, um, it's a story of, about this buck I call I called swamp donkey.
Speaker 1:And it was kind of like that that's a great name.
Speaker 2:It was a four-year saga. So that's why I was like this is a good story to tell, yeah, and hopefully I can remember all the details now, because it's probably been 10 years now since I killed him and then it started four years before that. So, um, yeah, a little backstory. So, if you haven't heard it from my voice or my accent, rather, um, I was originally born in New York, I moved to Arizona in 1991 and, uh, you know, I would go back and forth every year. We'd go for a couple of days, whatever. We go back and forth every year, we'd go for a couple of days, whatever. We'd go back hunting in New York. And then, you know, I'd like, as a kid I say kid as a teenager, whatever I would spend my summers there. I'd go hunting, you know, on Long Island when I started bow hunting, yeah. And then I got married um 17 years ago, and my wife and her family are from Eastern Long Island, they're from, like the Hamptons, basically like got air riverhead.
Speaker 1:Did you meet her in New York before you moved to Arizona or did you meet her in Arizona? Okay, and her and the crazy thing about that.
Speaker 2:Arizona. No, I met her here, okay, and the crazy thing about that was I met her through hunting as well. Well, through hunting and my. So my other business is pool business. I build and remodel and service commercial swimming pools. Her dad was my shotcrete guy. He used to do the concrete from the shells of the pools and he was a hunter. Okay, and him and I became very good friends. Um, I used to, matter of fact, I used to go on double dates with him and his wife, with my ex-girlfriend before I married his daughter. That's funny, yeah, so, but we, we would go on all these crazy trips we'd, you know, go all over the country together, yeah and uh. So that's how I, that's how I met my wife, okay through through him.
Speaker 1:I said did he set you up or did you just, we just around each other?
Speaker 2:enough that eventually you're like hey, her and I had been friends for like four or five years prior because I worked with her. Like when I called the office, that's who I spoke to. I spoke to her, got. But yes, he actually ended up setting us up. Okay, he kind of set the stage when my previous relationship fizzled out.
Speaker 1:He was ready, he was ready and waiting.
Speaker 2:Okay, him and his wife were him and my mother-in-law Georgia.
Speaker 1:they were always kind of scheming to get us, to get us to the mountain. Let's get this guy in the family.
Speaker 2:We need him in the family.
Speaker 2:That's a cool story, but keep going, sorry, okay yeah, so you know it was like 2012 and, like I said, my wife and my kids and I we'd go back east to go visit her family and kids and I we'd go back back East to go visit her family and a lot of times we'd go there for, like, halloween or fall break or whatever the case may be. And, um, so we went out and every time we'd go I'd go hunting. You know, uh, I became really close friends with her cousin Mike, which I call my cousin Mike and you'll I'll probably refer to him as my cousin Mike during the story story. Uh, I got him into bow hunting. Um, he was a rifle hunter before that, you know, went upstate once in a while, but I got him. I got him at the bow hunting anyway.
Speaker 2:So it's 2012, it's October, um, it was my first sit of that season and, uh, you know, I had gotten ready, as you do several hours before daylight, got myself out there to go sit in the stand, and so Long Island is like it's kind of crazy. You sit in these like smaller wood lots, you know it'd be like 15 acres, 20 acres, five acres, whatever, and then be in between houses and it's that's the public land hunting.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, there is private land hunting too, but the public land hunting most of the private stuff. It's like you just need to gain access to public land through, through private land. Okay, so, um, I had been hunting, so to set the stage to kind of get an idea, I had been hunting this like 15 acre wood lot. That was like bordered by on the East and on the West by swamps and houses.
Speaker 2:To the South and on the North side there was like an old junkyard and that old junkyard was abandoned and nobody lived there and nobody, uh, it wasn't operating anymore but it had like a five acre field. It was just like an overgrown feral field, um, where cars and stuff used to be parked, but there wasn't anything there anymore and that was like the jewel of my honey hole. You know this little five acre woodlot because or, excuse me, five acre field, because the deer would go there. They would do what they deer do at nighttime, eating whatever in that field, and then after daylight they whatever in that field, and then after daylight they would come back into the woods that was in between the swamps.
Speaker 2:And some of them would actually even go into the swamp. So what that would allow me to do is I would be able to slip into my stand. I would never bump any deer, would never run into anything. I would slip into my stand in the morning, uh, you know, at first light or before first light rather, and Climb up my stand, get ready and then Let the woods settle around me and then, like eight o'clock in the morning, like an hour after the light, all these deer would start coming back through into the woods, start filtering through.
Speaker 2:So I had set my stand up in, uh, in this tree, um, and we I called it the discovery tree after, after this happened. But it was this big Oak tree. It was on a, on a on, where two or three trails I can't remember if it was three, I think it was two for sure trails converged and you look down the trail, you can literally see rubs and scrapes the whole way. Oh, that's cool. It just bucks on everywhere. And it was just giant oak tree and had like a V at the top where the two main trunks split off. So I set my stand way up there, um, tall enough that I can look through the. I was high enough that I could look through the um, the V with my, you know when I turned around and look through it, but not, not tall enough to not high enough, rather, excuse me, to uh, to shoot through it, but anyway.
Speaker 2:So I set it up and then, you know, the morning, when is, as it usually did in there, um, bucks and little bucks and does and fawns were all filtering past me, and then, I don't know, it was probably eight, 39 o'clock, and it just stopped. There was nothing, you know. So I was just sitting there, kind of bored, whatever, but hoping as you do, and it just stopped. There was nothing, you know. So I was just sitting there, kind of bored, whatever, but hoping as you do when you're tree stand hunting, just hoping stuff was going to happen, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then, you know, I was starting to get really hungry and I was like man, I think I might just get out of the stand early. It was like 10, 30-ish, okay, maybe closer to 11. It was pretty early, you know, it's pretty, pretty late in the morning, but I usually would stick it out till about 12, 30 and um, I started hearing like this sound behind me, like something coming through the leaves, and I'm like, oh shit, I think that might be a deer. And I'm listening and I'm like, oh yeah, it is. So I stood up slow and I kind of it was coming straight behind me. So I had this big oak tree like covering me up. You couldn't see, unless I was standing and looking through that V, that I was talking about.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So I peer over that V and here comes a buck. He's like 125, 130 inch buck and in New York the mantra over there is brown is down. So when you see a 125, 130 buck, you see a poking young buck, you're like well, this is a shooter, you know this is a creep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no questions asked.
Speaker 2:Right, exactly, so I can see him when he's working this rub line. And he's working his way towards me. He's already in bow range. He's been in bow range, you know, working his way towards me. He's already in bow range. He's been in bow range, you know, and me, being a Western hunter, I you know, I at that time, especially back then, I would shoot really far.
Speaker 2:But, um, he was probably 30 yards from me at the at this point and he kept walking. And he stops again and he's like 10 yards behind my tree now and he's working this like a scrape and he, you know, kicks his head up to chew on a branch. And as he's chewing on this branch and I'm just sitting there, I'm like leaning up against the tree, I'm just kind of looking at him with one eye and I got like tension on the bow already waiting for him. He just got to come 15 yards, just pass the tree, and he's done, you know, 15 yards and he's gonna be five yards past the tree. Well, about the time that he's chewing on this branch, a squirrel jumps from the tree that he's on, uh, chewing on to the, to the limb that I'm leaning up against and like he looked at the squirrel. And the squirrel was right there, right right by me, like my face, right. So he just sat down, he stared and he stared, and he stared, and he sat down or the deer sat down.
Speaker 2:The deer didn't sit down, he just kind of sat. Okay, he was looking and it was like I felt like he was like looking through me, you know, and all he could see is my this, you know, from my neck up basically. But and I'm looking at him and he's like I'm not, I'm sorry, I'm trying not to look at him, I'm just kind of like looking at him out of the corner of my eye and he's just staring and staring and it felt like an eternity. I don't know, it was probably only a minute or two.
Speaker 2:And then he just turned around, wagged his tail and he walked back up the trail that he came down and I was like son of a bitch, like I was just so pissed I was like I can't believe this just happened, you know. And uh, I was going to kill that squirrel. I was like I'm going to shoot the damn squirrel. But then I was like, eh, you know what? I made a pact with myself at that I wasn't going to kill or anything that I wasn't going to. That didn't have purpose, you know, I wasn't going to eat or wasn't doing management or something Not out of anger.
Speaker 2:Exactly. So I let the squirrel go anyway. So I started thinking about it and I'm like man, um, although this was my first sit, only my first sit, I only had like two days to hunt. So I called my wife. I said, babe, we need to change our tickets. You know, we were on Southwest. I'm like we need to change it. Our kids weren't in school. Yeah, this was young, they were still young. Um, actually, with my oldest was in school, but my my. At the time I only had two. I have three now. Um, and I was like, okay, change the tickets, let's extend it like three, three more days, cause I found the giant book, you know Long Island giant book, and I'm going to haunt him.
Speaker 2:Well, I knew I couldn't stay in that tree. I knew I had to kind of like move up that trail that he came down. In my head I was like I need to move up that trail because if he comes back down here, the first thing he's going to do is he's going to look up in that tree, he's going to check. If he comes down this trail again, he's going to check that tree and if he sees me or any outline of me, he's going to not come and if he sees me or any outline of me he's going to not come. So I started looking for another set and I followed this trail that he came down, which I didn't really like now I know a little bit more about it Like that's a. It was like a straight up buck trail, just a real faint trail, but it had rubs on it, no-transcript I say. All the way back was like a hundred yards Right and it dropped off into this little bottom and there was a beach tree right at the edge, which later on we we called, we nicknamed the killing tree.
Speaker 2:It's still a tree stand that I, your tree stand spot that I use a lot, right, okay, yeah. So, um, down there there was like converging trails, rubs and scrapes, and it was just like and I can see distinct trails coming out of the swamp, because it was right on the edge of the swamp I was like, oh, this is, this is great. So I set the stand up really high and went up like 25, maybe even 30 feet and, uh, I set it in a way that I wouldn't have to stand, that I could sit, shooting the whole time, minimize any amount of movement. Well, anyway, so I hunted. The next few days I was letting lesser bucks go by, um and does and whatnot, and I even had Turkey walk through. And then, uh, the last day that I had to hunt, a Nor'easter came, and a Nor'easter. If anybody knows what that is, it's kind of like a monsoon on the East coast right.
Speaker 2:That's what it's called the North. They're called Nor'easters. It's a crazy rainy windstorm. Well, we weren't getting any of the rains, but we were getting the winds bad and everybody's like you're freaking crazy, you're gonna go sit in that tree and the winds it was so windy. By the end of the day then, actually the next day, I felt like I had did the most amazing ab workout I have ever done in my life, because I was just like swaying back and forth like this the whole time.
Speaker 2:I believe it, man, just dumb young guy shit. Yeah, it's funny, I really wasn't that young, I was in my 30s.
Speaker 1:I've been out hunting a bunch and like cold doesn't get me, heat doesn't get me, the wind, wind is the one thing that gets me and puts me down, so I probably couldn't have done it. I couldn't have done it, man, that's impressive and I believe that how you would hate working in South.
Speaker 2:Dakota. Then it literally blows 25 miles an hour every day, Anyway. So I sat, I sat there, literally, I had it in my head. I said I'm going to sit from sunup to sundown and I sat the whole day and I didn't see anything. Now I got about 15 minutes left of light and all of a sudden the wind kind of sort of calmed down Like I say calm down. It went from, like you know, 25 mile an hour gust to 10 mile an hour gust, Calm down a little bit and all of a sudden I see this doe, she's acting like she's being chased by a buck.
Speaker 2:I'm like man, it's early, I don't know, it's late October, but typically the rut doesn't happen there until like second week of November and um, anyway, so I see it being. I see her acting like she's getting chased. I'm thinking, oh shit, she's got a, she's got a buck behind her. And you know, I started like pleading it in your I don't know if you ever had tree stand hunted or not, but you're like, oh, please, come my way, Please come my way. You know, I'm just like.
Speaker 2:Oh and I can see, emerging out of the brush, a big eight point with a sticker on it. I didn't, I didn't mention that when I would describe him. So it was, he was an eight point. What a, what a sticker off one side on his uh, G2. Um, and so I'm like, man, that's him, that's, it's gotta be him, you know it w it was kind of getting dark and it was. You know, I had like five or six minutes left of shooting light, let's put it that way.
Speaker 2:I hit bleak call twice. I'm like I got to call this over like bleak twice. And here they come. Oh my God, they're coming right at me and I, I draw back and I'm like swaying back and forth and I'm like and I knew it was going to be short, you know, close shot like under 10 yards. So he steps out. And as soon as he stepped out, I like mustered up all the strength I possibly can to steady myself and I shot him. Perfect shot Runs off. I can hear him crash Immediately. Get on the phone with Mike, Mike, Mike, you gotta, you gotta, come over here and help me. We're going to track this thing. I'm going to need your help to drag him out. Mike gets there so fast. Work, Just find him. We don't even have to track him, Just super easy to track. And I find him. I get there and I'm like, oh shit, this isn't the same buck I had shot like a 115-ish buck.
Speaker 1:Good, a good buck, but that's crazy that another buck was there. Did you not know that there was a second buck, or just no.
Speaker 2:Well, here's the thing and I started to second guess myself. I was like man, maybe I was imagining how big he was, you know, adding inches or whatever but I'm like it's the wrong buck. Man, that's not the buck. That's not Swamp Docky, that's not the buck that I was targeting. He's a good buck, I was happy with him, but I'm like this is either his brother I said I could tell you for sure that other buck was at least three and a half years old. This buck is a two and a half year old buck.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:He would have been a stud, like if I would have known and let him grow um he he probably would have been a stud.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:But drag him out anyway. So now I'm like man, I was kind of like I was beside myself, you know. So I returned back home, returned back to Arizona, and I, you know, I started pouring over topo maps and Google earth and I spent countless hours, you know, talking to him, talking to Mike, Cause Mike, would you know, he lived there and he was continuing to hunt those stands, so and you know, he went pretty much the whole rest of the season and never saw this swamp donkey that I was talking about. And I was like man, I I must've just grew inches on this thing's head Right, it must've been the same one. And I think it was like the last day that Mike was able to go hunt, he was playing around on his phone and he caught movement and he turned to look at it and he's like, oh shit, that swamp donkey could see the bigger frame.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:See the big cheater or the big sticker, rather, and, um, I get a text from him the swamp, the swamp donkey lives. So I felt like vindicated. I was like, oh man, you know, I was like you don't even have to kill him. At that point I was like, yes, somebody else saw him. I'm not making shit up, you know so. Anyway. Up, you know so. Anyway, fast forward to the next season.
Speaker 2:Um went about the same time. I brought a camera with me and we never set up cameras in our in, uh, new york, because they get stolen, doesn't matter. From there we get vandalized, doesn't matter if you put them in a bear box or whatever. But I was like I needed more intel. Yeah, all, so I hung a stand, excuse me, hung the camera and you know whatever. I ended up again just hunting, got to the last day and I shot. I ended up shooting like 120 inch, three and a half year old buck Wasn't swamp donkey, but I shot him on the last night, or sorry, the second to last night.
Speaker 2:I shot him. Okay, I was just, you know, forget about it, I'm not, I'm not gonna see swamp donkey and I'm not I, I have a hard time not filling tags. So, um, I shoot him, but I hit him a little far back and it's a night time and he goes running off and I didn't want to get up and go push him because, like I explained, you're in smaller woodlocks. He can end up in somebody's backyard. You know we don't play that game. So let him sit overnight. And there's no coyotes there. So there's foxes but there's no coyotes, so there's no worry about him like getting found by a coyote and getting eaten or whatever.
Speaker 2:So I let him lay and I got up later the next morning. I was like I didn't want to go in there traipsing around when deer were up and moving. I got on the blood trail. I start following him and I follow him right out of my woodlot across that field that I was talking about, and he crossed the road that I was talking about and he crossed the road and he went into this other, um, lot of woods that's actually bigger than the one that I was hunting, um, and has more swamp. Okay, so in order for me to get in there, I got permission from this lady that lived across the street. I said can I cross your yard to access the wood behind your house? She said go ahead, no problem. So I track and I'm tracking them and I'm starting to feel like something's watching me and I'm like man, this is creepy, like.
Speaker 2:I felt like someone was watching me and I kind of like, I'm like looking down intently for the, you know, for the blood, and I look up and 40 yards down the trail and I'm like a stupid moron, I didn't bring my bow, but I look up and there he is. He's standing there and he's standing over my dead buck.
Speaker 1:No way, shit, you know.
Speaker 2:Standing over the dead buck and I'm like am I imagining this? Is this like real? Is this really happening right now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know. Let me ask a question about New York. So if you buy a license, how? Many tags do you get?
Speaker 2:Uh, two buck tags and two dough tags.
Speaker 1:Okay, so yeah, yeah, you should have had your bow with you. Okay, that's crazy. He's just standing over the buck that you shot.
Speaker 2:And this is the second second year you've been chasing swamp donkey, correct? Okay? So, um, anyway, I go over there and I kind of what he never runs. He just kind of like walks off and I watched where he went into the swamp and I went and kind of like did an investigation and I started putting some more pieces of the puzzle together. I'm like, holy shit, I think this son of a bitch lives here, I think he lives on this side and he lives in this swamp right here. This is where he beds, this is where he resides.
Speaker 2:There was this big like Oak flat, um, right where my deer had died, and this big Oak flat. Oak flat was bordered on houses on one side and the swamp on the other, and I think that's what they were doing, right. So I started looking at this a little bit harder and I'm like man, I'm going to have to hunt this. So I got permission, I got my buck out, I got permission from the lady. She's like, yeah, anytime you want, I was just giving, I would give her meat for years. Like, yeah, anytime you want, I was just given, I would give her meat. Yeah, for years. Anyway, but the next year, the next year, I passed, I was unable to go. It was 2015. I was unable to go because I drew an Ibex tag in New Mexico.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that trumps Whitetail and Long Island yeah exactly Right.
Speaker 2:So I didn't go. But, mike, we picked a tree out in this oak flat and this tree, like it's kind of a I don't even it's kind of a, I don't even it's, it's kind of a weird. We call it the tree fort, okay. And um, there, there, there was cause, there was actually a fort there and uh, it was kind of like the, the lapitated, whatever, and it like led right into this, these two trails that came out of the swamp, led right into this, these two trails that came out of the swamp. So he sat there for a very, you know, for that whole season never saw a swamp donkey.
Speaker 2:But I had this hypothesis in my head about the loop and remember how I was saying you know, I was allowed to uh, the, the way the deer were using the other side. I could slip in there in the morning side, I could slip in there in the morning. Well, this was the opposite. Got it this side, the deer were all right there in that oak flat in the morning and would go back into the swamp to go bed. Excuse me for the day. So this was like a late morning. So this was like a late morning. Like you, you wouldn't want to get in there until like 11 am ish, and, and then the evening they would come out back there.
Speaker 2:well, mike didn't know that okay um, I don't think I voiced that to him and I probably should have, but I figured this out, you know, over the next day or two gotcha was he seeing deer and just not swamp donkey?
Speaker 1:or was he just not seeing anything?
Speaker 2:He would see some does and stuff.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:But the does you know, would be like he would bump deer every time he'd go in, so he'd never know what the heck he was bumping, got it Anyway. So I missed that year. I ended up getting an Ibex. It was awesome. And then it's crazy. So in 2016, the very next year, I drew an Ibex tag again back-to-back years. But I was going to Long Island later because Maria's other cousin, mike's older brother, was getting married in November Okay, and we usually go in October. Brother was getting married in November Okay, and we usually go in October, so we were going in November.
Speaker 2:So it was actually an opportunity for me to one hunt the rut, which I hadn't hunted in New York for a while and two, I could do both hunts. Well, I didn't score, I didn't get, I didn't fill my tag on 2016. I had a lot of great opportunities. I didn't fill my tag on 2016. Um, I had a lot of great opportunities and fill my tag in 2016 on Ibex and I knew, for some reason I'm like man, I didn't. I used to have this feeling when, when I didn't get something that I thought I was going to make happen, I always did the next thing or whatever tag I had next was going to be the one. Yeah, so positive reinforcement. I just kind of like knew. I just kind of knew that I was going to, I was going to catch up with slump donkey.
Speaker 2:So the the first morning I go sit in the original stand the the killing tree. I go sit there in the morning and then that, uh, around 1030, I get down and I cross the street and I go climb up in, uh, the tree fort. I was going to, yeah, I was going to go climb up in the tree fort. And as I'm going up into going to get in the tree fort, I started looking and I see this rub that is like obscured from everything else, and it's like down the trail. And I'm like, oh, this is one of those little buck trails that I was talking about. And the more I went down it, the more rubs I saw. And it was like an elk had walked through there and made rubs because it was just like big saplings bent over, broken, and just twist it up. I was like this is a big deer. I don't know, I didn't know if it was swamp donkey, yeah, but I knew it was a big deer. It wasn't 120 inch, 115 inch deer, right.
Speaker 2:So I'm like I need to move my stand here. I could actually see the? Um, the exit or entrance to where where the killing or, excuse me, where the tree fort was. Um, it was still like 30 yards. I could still kind of shoot to it. So if something came out there, it was just like a better position all the way around. It kind of covered the whole Oak flat, covered the all the main trails coming out, and I was like this is, this is the spot. So I moved the stand, okay, and then I moved the stand. I was like I made a bunch of commotion, I'm gonna back out.
Speaker 2:I didn't hunt that afternoon and um, so I returned the next morning and I didn't even go sit in the killing tree. I waited to about 10.30, 11 o'clock and I went straight to the new tree stand, okay, so in the new tree stand I get up there and I get up there. I think it was like 1130. And then by one o'clock I hear some noises behind me and I'm like, oh shit. So it kind of like same scenarios the first time coming straight from behind me and I kind of peer up around the tree and that's swamp donkey and he's coming down coming down the trail and he's swamp donkey and he's coming down, coming down the trail and he's got like a limp and he doesn't look as big as the last time. So I'm kind of leaving some of the stuff out of stories. Actually, um, I think, I think I might've missed a whole year in there actually, but I shot two bucks. I shot two bucks in two days Um. I actually put a film out about. It's called two bucks, two days. Um, somewhere in between there.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And so, anyway, this is actually this stand. I already had been, I already had hunted it one year prior, so I didn't, I didn't miss a year. I shot the two bucks out of this stand. Anyway, that's either here nor there. So I'm like I had seen Swamp Donkey that year, but I saw him from a distance and I snapped a picture of him with my phone and zoomed in all the way and you can see he's probably at the time he was probably pushing 170, just a big white tail and he had double cheaters, double stickers at that point, Anyway. So I see him coming down the trail and he's got a limp and I could tell he's got this scar and I just kind of guess maybe he got hit by a car or something and he's not as big as he was, he's probably 160-ish, maybe now Still a great deer, though, yeah.
Speaker 2:Still a huge deer, especially for wild. And so he's coming down and I'm like, oh my God, I'm going to get this guy. And I turn on my camera and I flip it to right where. I'm like he's going to go to this scrape. I know he's going to go to this scrape. I know he's going to go to this scrape. I flip it to that scrape. Sure as shit, he keeps going and he stops, he stops and he stops in a spot where I can't shoot him. He's within range but I can't shoot him. And I'm having a flashback to the first day and I'm like, oh my God, he's not gonna give me the opportunity. And then, I don't know, I I have to say at least five or six minutes came by and he was just kind of like scanning, looking, looking.
Speaker 2:Never was looking up at me, though, so that's why I was like kind of still feeling good about it okay and then all of a sudden he starts walking again, flicks his tail and he starts walking again and I'm like he's going to that scrape Hit record. He steps out, I draw back. I didn't stand up, nothing, just sitting down waiting he comes and I got this like shooting lane between these two saplings and he's going underneath a beech tree and I don't know if you know what beach trees look like, but beach trees they're kind of almost evergreen. They have leaves most of the year. Okay, um and um, you know.
Speaker 2:So it's quite a bit to kind of like to to maneuver an arrow through there. So he and he second he gets to, that's great. I didn't even wait, like the second he got there, I touched it off, hit him, perfect shot, kicks his back heel and he runs into the, into the swamp, right down that trail that the tree fort was in. And uh, man, I was just like I was beside myself, just like, oh my God, I just shot swamp donkey. You know, I just shot swamp donkey. I gotta keep like like reassuring myself that I actually, that it actually happened. So I get down, I walk and literally he died, like right underneath the tree for stand. Um and uh, yeah, that was the. The rest was history. I guess that's cool.
Speaker 1:I really love those whitetail stories where people play chess for years with these deer. I've never had that experience, but it's so cool to hear these stories because a lot of guys get out there and do that and so it's awesome that you did it. Not only that, but you got a hold of him, um, and, and so you think, when you actually got close to him, that it was a car that hit him and not like, yeah, or by another gear I don't think so.
Speaker 2:It was a big, you know big scar.
Speaker 1:I didn't have any point type deals gotcha kind of got hit and like road rash off of the bounce or something like that. Yeah, I think that's crazy, that's crazy um, but still so.
Speaker 2:That's crazy, that's crazy Um, but still so what did he find?
Speaker 1:Did you have you scored? Him?
Speaker 2:I never. I never officially scored him. Okay, Um, I'll send you a picture.
Speaker 1:Okay, awesome, I want to see that. Yeah, but um what did uncle Mike say or not uncle Mike, cousin Mike what did he say when you finally got him?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, he came and helped me out. Man, we were high-fiving and over time so we made friends with one of the guys across the street who was a chiropractor of all things and had him in on it too. It was just like a cool thing. So over the years me, mike, mike's friend, mike, this other guy, brian, who's the chiropractor we all became you know, we'd all share intel and figure out what's going on. And there's been other bucks. There's been some other target bucks too that we've over the years gone after and had some success with, but Swamp Donkey is still the original.
Speaker 1:That's cool. Are you still hunting that same little spot?
Speaker 2:That's awesome, I do. Yeah, previous to that I had another spot that we would hunt and I did very well there. There were a lot of deer. It was just a lot more dealing with, uh, homeowners and whatnot. It wasn't, as there's a lot of interconnectedness, so the deer kind of had to funnel, pass through past you and stuff Um it, it. You know you can pretty much set up on a tree, stand anywhere on a trail, and you were going to have deer pass you at some point. It wasn't. You didn't have to think about it as much, or maybe had I thought about it a lot more, maybe I would have been able to score a bigger buck there, gotcha.
Speaker 1:When a whitetail has the choice, it's on the land, there it gets shot, and its choice are swamp or home. Typically, do they dive towards the swamp, away from houses, or is it kind of just a crapshoot?
Speaker 2:whatever direction they're facing, I'd say most of the time they go to swamp.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, most of the time they want to go towards where they feel safe. They don't know that they got shot, they just know that there's something happened and they need to avoid danger.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, that makes sense, man. Well, that's a great story. I loved it. Like I told you, I've had lots of people asking for more Whitetail stories and I think that was perfect. So, thank you, john, you're welcome. Do you have any other ones that come to the top of mind you want to share? Otherwise, we can wrap this thing up. It's kind of up to you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I got kind of a similar saga story. It won't be as long-winded and it only really I think it only really takes place over two years. At least two years in my mind that stand out. Yeah, two years in my mind, that stand out. So a couple of years ago I shot a nice mule deer buck here in Arizona. I had nicknamed him Megatron and the reason why he just gnarly man just not typical.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't think he was actually going to be a super high scoring buck, but I guess it turns out he is, um, but he's got two inline points, one that comes out the front and one that comes out the back on the opposite, so they're like opposite of each other. So he's interesting, essentially a five by five mule deer with eye guards, so I guess in the Eastern terminology is a six by six, but or, he's sorry, he's a 12 pointer, gotcha. Anyway, so I had hunted for this buck. I was actually stalking another buck. I was with my cousin Anthony and I was stalking another buck and, uh, he was trying to talk me in.
Speaker 2:So in Arizona we use radios, um, during the archery season, especially cause we hunt these big flats We'll get up on. They're called flat. We call them flats but they're really not flat. There's very broken up, undulating, rolling type For mule deer. That's what we tend to look for. So we try to get up on high points real far away, and you know it's very easy to get lost going in. So you have a guy kind of like, kind of point you in the right direction, got it. So, excuse me, we see this buck that I had been chasing since the year before and he's just this big, wide, typical four-point, just good-looking buck man. I don't know what he would have scored, probably 160, 170-ish. He was a nice buck.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'm stalking this buck buck and I'm making my way and, according to what the Intel I'm getting from Anthony and what I remember where he was at before I left, my site picture one of the things I do actually a lot of times, I'll take a picture through my binoculars before I take off so I can get an understanding of positioning and whatever of of the terrain and vegetation and I could tell I'm getting fairly close to this other buck and I don't know something. I was just kind of like the. The buck should have been to. If I'm, if my, if I'm looking at 12 o'clock, the buck that I was after should have been at my 1 o'clock. For some reason I turn and I look at 9 o'clock and at 9 o'clock I see a white muzzle laying down 100 yards from me and I'm like that's a buck laying down right there and I could just see the, you know the white tip that his nose, and maybe the first, like two, three inches of the muzzle. But I know it's a buck because it's white right, the bushes laying up against a super thick. So I kind of like maneuver my way to kind of get a better look at him and at this point.
Speaker 2:Anthony kind of loses visual on the buck that I'm after and I'm like I kind of radio back up to Anthony. I'm like I got another buck over here and he can't see it. Anthony can't see it. He can't even see me because of the way I'm at and the way that the terrain is. I'm like I'm just going to go in I know where.
Speaker 2:Where he's at, I'm going to make this happen, assuming that he's a good deer. I don't know if he's a good deer or not, but usually they don't have really white white muscles until they get more mature. Okay, the four and a half and older, they start getting really white. So I kind of make my way and I look around and I'm like, oh sheesh, this is a, this is a good buck. And he's crazy looking. This is Megatron laying there, anyway. So I could feel the wind not right. And I'm like man, I got to back up and I got to come at him from a different angle. So I back up and I make this long loop and man, I was like I feel like I was doing my best Puma, puma impression I ever did in my life. I was just moving.
Speaker 2:I was like cause I was only like 115 yards from, I was close.
Speaker 2:You know, I know a lot of guys that would have spun their, spun their uh and just waited for me to stand, you know, but, um, I don't shoot a slider, and nothing against people who do, but I have to limit myself to 80 yards or less. So I'm like I got to get around and I kind of moved and I got, I got around and I got in that position and I'm just not seeing this deer and I'm like man, where the hell is he? And I'm looking, and I'm looking, I'm looking, and man, nothing, nothing. And I'm just keep inching my way closer and getting a little bit better angle into where I know he was at and all of a sudden I see tips of antlers and I'm like whoa, how the hell did he get over there? He's coming at me. How the hell did he get over there? He's coming at me.
Speaker 2:And then I'm like, oh man, that's another buck, it's a little three point buck and he comes over the rise and he goes right to the bushes, where, where I saw Megatron laying down and I'm just like what is going on here, where I saw Megatron laying down and I'm just like what is going on here. So I finally get over there, get a really good look into where, and there's no Megatron. That other little buck was literally laying down in the same bed that Megatron was, and I'm like so in my head, I'm like how did this guy Houdini me? I?
Speaker 1:really don't know, and your buddy didn't see him bolt out of there or anything like that.
Speaker 2:No, my cousin could not see him. Okay, this whole scenario nobody could see but me. Okay, just because it was down in a depression and there was no way he could see. Well, I surmised that Megatron must've saw this three point, got up and like ran him off, whatever, and then cause me getting around. I made it sound like it was a short thing. You know, it took me like 45 minutes, so I'm just assuming he ran him off or he caught wind of a doe, whatever. Like I said, he was fairly close to the other buck that I was going after. The other buck I was going after was running around with those.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So he might have just took off, I don't know. Well, anthony catches a glimpse of the first buck that I was going after, I kind of make my way towards him. It falls apart. Not that it didn't bust him, but they just kept moving and I couldn't catch up with them. So the rest of December goes by and I see bits and pieces of them here and there out in the flats and I've tried to put stalks on them. I was by myself several times so it didn't work out. Well, then I get COVID and I don't hunt all of january. So january is usually the best time to hunt here in arizona because it's the otc tag and I I don't hunt at all. My buddy dave actually spots them with anthony a couple times and, um, they, they chase them. They don't catch up with them.
Speaker 2:So fast forward the following year, charles from Howlful Wildlife, the president, my great friend Charles. He comes out to come hunting with me and before he gets there, it's like a couple days after Christmas and I spot Megatron again and I'm like, oh, he's alive. Okay, good, nobody got him, I'm going to haunt him. Well, I don't see him. Charles shows up, like January 3rd or something like that, and we head out and my cousin Joe's with us now and I got a lot of cousins, I'm Italian Joe's with us and we spot that one buck that I originally went after the year before and we sent Charles after him. Charles gets back up on the mountain oh, sorry, before that happens, sorry, I'm like messing up the sequence of everything. So we spot up Megatron's right at the base of the mountain that I'm on, or the hill that I'm on, and he's with a bunch of does and I'm like, oh my God, I got to go after this buck, make my way down there. I get to like 88 yards or something and the wind is just not doing well. I'm like, oh my God, I'm going to get busted. And a spike ends up busting me, they blow out and they run off. So I climb back up the hill and then we spot this other buck. Charles spots up this other buck, and so Charles goes after this buck. We're kind of like trying to help him out.
Speaker 2:My cousin Joe turns around and he looks and he sees Megatron out in the flats again. Okay, you know, and I'm like, all right, well, I don't know if you could do this, joe, but if you can keep tabs on this guy for Charles and Megatron, for me, let's make it happen, right? Well, I go after Megatron and I'm just like shadowing him. So Joe got me to a position where I can keep eyes on him and I was just like 150 yards out and every time they'd move, I'd like move from bush to bush, and I just kept cutting the distance a little bit by, a little bit, a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. So I'm not relying on him and he's helped. I can hear him talking. I'm listening to him talking to Charles and trying to talk him into that, and I'm doing my thing. And then every once in a while, he'd come back and give me vital information that I need, like when I need to drop into something to get more cover, whatever, and I would lose sight of him. Well, he talks me into it.
Speaker 2:We get into this like a cholla field, and cholla fields are real dense and they're not the greatest to stalk in, because if you just rush up against them you're going to get cholla on you. So we see the buck. He tells me the buck's out there. I can see the buck. I can't see the buck at this point, but I can see the doe. I can't see the buck at this point, but I can see the doe and she's kind of. I could see her ears at the tips of the tops of this cholla field and I could see her walking, not necessarily in my direction, but walking out to a clearing. I say a clearing, it was like a 10-yard opening.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Right and I'm ranging her, her and I'm like, oh my, she's going to come in at like 60. When she hits that opening she's going to be like 60 yards. So I kind of got myself into this position and ensures all hell, she comes out there and stops, she looks around, puts her head down, starts feeding and I know he's going to stop right there where she stopped, because that's what bucks do when they're running. If a doe stops he's got to go smell, taste, whatever they do for one of those stops. And here he comes and I could see the tips of the antlers and I could see his head coming through and he's coming right to that same spot. So I draw back. I rearranged it like 30 times when the doe was there. He comes out and he stops, but he doesn't come all the way and all I got is this neck shot, and I don't know what made him do it or not, but he kind of turned and quartered to me. So it made it even worse of a neck shot, like it was quartering to me okay yeah and I was like man, I think this is now or never yeah, 60 yards right
Speaker 2:yeah, 60 yards, and I don't know why. What made me think that at that point, except for the fact so I'm leaving this part of the story when we were hunting. It's not a secret spot. There's probably and I know several of the other hunters there that hunt that area and we communicate and you know whatever, share and tell. But there was probably four or five other guys hunting that buck, maybe not at that minute, but I'm like if we don't, if I don't make this happen now, this buck's gonna get killed in the next couple days.
Speaker 2:And it was already to the point where I was like having to wake up at 3 30 in the morning to get out to the glassing spot that I wanted a glass from, to see him to beat other guys. That's how bad it was. So it was a high traffic, high traffic area. But so he, he made that little turn and he's kind of quartering to me and he's looked like not looking in my direction. He's not looking at me like alert, but he's kind of like looking in that direction. Yeah, and I'm like all right, so I shoot, I hit him right where I was aiming and he runs off and I'm kind of like freaking out. Now I'm like did I make a good shot? Was that the smart decision to make? Yeah, I was kind of beating myself up because my cousin, joe, was looking at me, because I already told him that it was about to go down and I wanted him to keep track of the deer. He saw him run off. He's like he ran Joe up until this point, was doing amazing, yeah, amazing, like giving me perfect intel. He's like he ran 300 yards and now I lost sight of him. I don't see him anymore. He went behind this thing and when he said 300 yards, I'm like, oh my God, I must have made a shitty shot. So I'm thinking to myself man, this is bad.
Speaker 2:So I go over to where I shot. I find my arrows right, there was a pass through quite a bit of blood, like all right, good. So I walk like five yards down the trail and there's a lot more blood and I'm like, okay, that's promising, yeah, right. So I'm like let me just chill out, just let me air on the safe side. I sat down, I, I uh, I played on my phone.
Speaker 2:I didn't have my backpack, I dropped my backpack so I couldn't drink or eat or anything, but I was like I'm going to let at least 20 minutes go by. So I'm like I called my other cousin called Anthony, who originally was with me. I'm like, and I'm pretty sure I just killed this buck. If you got time, come up, I'm like I called my other cousin called Anthony, who originally was with me. I'm like Ant, I'm pretty sure I just killed this buck. If you got time, come up, I'm going to let Joe help Charles out and you come up and help me and we'll, you know, we'll cut this guy up and we'll pack him out. No-transcript. Better and better and better, okay good for you, bad for dear.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, I'm like okay, sweet, yes. And then I get to this next spot where he must've like, cause Joe had said he stopped for a couple of seconds, he must've stopped there for like I don't know 10 seconds, and it was just like massacre blood everywhere, just everywhere. And I'm like, okay, now, at this point I'm like I was just like I got to find a deer. This deer is dead. Yeah Well, yeah Well. I go like another, and still in the back of my head I'm thinking 300 yards, though Like I've only gone like 50.
Speaker 2:Okay 60 yards, baby. So I go like another 30 yards down the trail and the blood stops. 100%, no way. And I'm like what the freak is going on, man? I'm like no, no, this is not happening. I must've missed something. But I could see his tracks and I'm like kind of like, and there's a couple of little specs here and there, and I'm like looking for the specs and I'm standing there and I'm like, oh my God, I cannot believe I'm going to lose this deer. I'm radioing a Joe. I'm like you sure, where did you see him go? And dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. And I'm standing there and I'm talking to him and I look over and the deer is dead in a bush, like 10 feet away from me. I had no freaking clue, just piled up in this cactus like all whatever. He just he, he just died. He went not even 100 yards, about 100 yards maybe, huh, and he told me 300, and I was like you know, that's why I was freaking out.
Speaker 1:Maybe he bumped another deer and that deer ran off just because of the chaos.
Speaker 2:I really don't know. I think Joe was just so excited that it all went down.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:All perspective and plus listen, I'll give him this he was like a mile from where I was. Okay. So looking into, like you know, the perspective changes quite a bit. So anyway, then Anthony showed up, had him meet me, picked up my pack, brought it to me, we took some pictures, processed them, we got them out. That was the story of Megatron.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That's awesome. There's some highs and lows in that story. I really like it. Man, I can imagine. I can just feel like your heart dropped when he's like he ran 300 yards and you're like no, no way.
Speaker 2:I was like I can't believe it. That was my worst fear too, because I was like I don't, I don't, sometimes I go on autopilot and I went the majority of my hunting career, my air quotes there, um, being a very excellent archer and making some pretty amazing shots, like, but well, I guess even at that point, you know, I I'm still. I feel like I'm still good, but I am nowhere near the the John Stallone of 2017, 2018, and back maybe even 2019, since 2020 to now, I haven't practiced the way I used to practice. I used to practice religiously. Yeah, I've had injuries, so I don't.
Speaker 2:I'm not as strong as I used to be. I don't. I just I'm not the Archer that I used to be and in my head, I'm still John Stallone of 2019. Right, and you know I, I there's almost a cockiness about my, my thought process and I feel like you've got to kind of be that way. You got to believe in yourself, you got to have the confidence or you can't make things happen. But I get this like John Stallone is the greatest archer of all time like mentality, which I know is not true. I didn't think it and I don't think it now.
Speaker 1:Um, if you don't think you're going to hit a shot at 20 yards, you're going to miss the shot you have to believe that you're going to do what you're going to try and do Exactly. You always, you always get no chance.
Speaker 2:When your arrow leaves your bow or your bullet leaves your gun, you can't hope that it's going to hit your dream. You have to know that it's going to hit. Yeah, and I feel like I've been doing a lot more hoping than I have been knowing lately in the last several years. So that was in the back, like in the moment I am John Sloan's greatest archer in the whole wide world, but I know that my skill level is not where it used to be. So, and a lot of it has to do with my eyesight too, like I don't have the same acuity that I had, like I could. I used to aim at like a tic-tac and I can aim at it and I can hit it, and now I don't have the same acuity that I had. I used to aim at like a tic-tac and I can aim at it and I can hit it, and now I don't think I can even see that tic-tac. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:So it's like Got to get a different color tic-tac John.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:I believe in you, man, I believe in you.
Speaker 2:A different color and a much larger one. Yeah, right, um, so you know, I, I was just, uh, the the amount of doubt that I had after making that shot was it was pretty, it was pretty intense, cause I didn't, I, I was really fearful that I I just screwed up and possibly mortally wounded a buck of you know, of a lifetime, in my opinion. But yeah.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I understand that, I understand that entirely. I shot a moose this year and in the moment I was like game over, yes, I am the best. And then, you know, she ran off and I thought I saw her pile up but it was like very last light. So it got dark quick. My range finder, I couldn't range where I thought she laid down and you got just false. You're like, oh, did I, did I get a good shot?
Speaker 1:She was quartering towards like I just don't know, conveniently, found the arrow lighted, knock, you know, quartering two full pass through blood on everything, ended up nicking her heart and she, she died almost immediately. But we came back the next day just because, like, there's no blood, no blood at all, which is crazy to me. I think it's just the exit wound because she's quartering too right, I'm going to take the shot because I had hunted hard, but it pulled out just a little bit of the guts on the backside, so there was no exit hole and I think that's kind of why we didn't find any blood. Sure, sure, but either way, I know the feeling. It's tough. You feel so good in the moment and then you just unless they pile up in front of you. It's just, it's tough, it's easy to doubt. So thanks for sharing man, because I think that's a very relatable story, minus the fact that it's such an awesome buck, because not everyone gets to kill amazing bucks, but the rest of it's very relatable. Man so cool.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:Well, I know I've taken you for more time than I asked for, so I want to say thank you for that, john, but why don't you wrap things up? Let the people know where they can find you?
Speaker 2:What other information you want to share? Sure, yeah, I mean, if you want to follow me in any capacity, it's just John Stallone on Instagram. Usually is my kind of where I do most of my social communicating um Instagram and, uh, youtube. I'm never on Facebook, even though I have a Facebook, um, so don't, uh, don't look me up there. I very, very, very, very rarely ever post there. But Howlful Wildlife it's howl on the scoreorg or, excuse me, howl on the scoreorg on Instagram. That's where we do most of our communication stuff with actions we're doing with. You know what stuff we're being involved in and just go to howlfulwildlifeorg and join.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Check it out. Look what's going on. We actually we partnered. We just got this is a cool deal. I should probably explain this to you and your listeners. Um, we partnered with the elk bros, or, and those guys are awesome with them. Um, yeah, they're super great, super great guys and, um, they understand what's going on, which is which is fantastic. So we partnered with them. We have a elk brothers membership and for it's $299 for the year, you get the how. For wildlife membership, you get the blue collar elk hunting academy, which is like their online course. It's like the most you know comprehensive, yeah, uh, elk hunting course that I've ever seen online.
Speaker 1:It's awesome but also just to talk to the course a little bit, because I know joe, he comes from kind of an education coach background which gives him a very good perspective on teaching people, versus a lot of people that put those things together come from I. I'm an elk hunter, let me try and share my skills. He's like I'm an elk hunter and I'm a teacher. I'm a coach, let me get you where you need to be, and it's a great program.
Speaker 2:I went through a lot of that growing up. I read books and I would read books and the books were like if you want to kill big deer, you got to go with big deer. Are that's helpful?
Speaker 1:Yeah, where are the big deer? How do?
Speaker 2:I find the big deer, you know Okay. But so yeah, they had that. We had the course. We have the Adventure Club, which is like a discount club to purchase gear and so on and so forth. Most people could actually recoup their membership just in the savings that they would get through that. It's like 20 to 50% off or something. Okay, um, on Excel gives you a Onyx elite gift card. So even if you have Onyx, you can add the gift card to it and you'll add a year of time to whatever you got. Um, and that's a excuse me, a hundred dollars. Then you's, excuse me, $100. Then you get the Howell membership, which is a $30 deal, and there's some other stuff. It's like $460 worth of baked-in value into that $299 membership. But the cool thing about it this is the super cool thing about it, I didn't care about any of the other stuff you have a 1 in 100 chance to win a coached elk hunt with the elk bros. That's awesome, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Every hundred people that join we're going to draw one, one hunter to go on an elk hunt. It's archery muzzleloader rifle, but it's all bull elk hunts, all on private land and we capped that off at 2 000 members. So if you're one of the first 2 000 you have one in 100 chance of winning this. It's like a I don't know 13, 14 000 hunt yeah, and those boys know what they're doing.
Speaker 1:I think Joe is what 28 elk he's killed in 27 years, or something like that. Yeah, they're awesome yeah.
Speaker 2:For me it's like I don't know. I just put out 200. I'm going to lose $215 in Wyoming just for applying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good I don't you know?
Speaker 2:it's better odds and you know what I mean. Not that $300 is a is a drop in the bucket for anybody, but it's like, hey, well, this is the game we play, right.
Speaker 1:So that's a good point. Yeah, like you would have a better draw odds than some of the peak units in Wyoming and other places by doing this.
Speaker 2:Well, you got to bet yeah, better than here in Arizona, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:Right, so okay, well, cool. Anything else you want to share, john? Otherwise we'll wrap this thing up, brother.
Speaker 2:Nope, that's it.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much for having me on scheduling and my technology. I owe it to you, buddy um, and hopefully we'll have you back on, because I'm sure you'll think of some more stories as soon as we wrap this thing up all right, thanks, all right see you, bud, bye.
Speaker 1:All right, guys, that's it. Another couple stories in the books. Again, I want to thank john for coming on the podcast with some technical issues with scheduling, but we got it done. Um, thank you again, sir, for coming on sharing your. We had some technical issues with scheduling, but we got it done. Thank you again, sir, for coming on, sharing your stories and, of course, what you're doing within the hunting industry itself. Guys, really howellorg, check it out. Links are in the show notes. Join up, if nothing else, check in regularly to see what's going on around the nation and how people are trying to take hunting away from all of us. So that's it, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in. I really do appreciate it. Please share the podcast with I don't know five other people, one other people, I don't care. Share it with somebody. Whatever you're listening to, give us a review, give us a five-star rating and, guys, now get out there and make some stories of your own. Thank you.
