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 140 The Hunting Stories Podcast: Jordan Farrar
The defining moment in Jordan Ferrari's hunting journey wasn't the trophy on his wall, but the day when his best friend took him partridge hunting in the North Maine Woods. One successful shot later, and the Maine contractor was completely hooked, his late-blooming hunting obsession putting him on a path that would lead to whitetails, black bears, and even mountain lions.
Jordan's stories from the Maine wilderness crackle with authenticity and self-deprecating humor. There's the time he nearly stranded his friend on an island after nearly capsizing their boat during deer season, the heart-stopping moment when he forgot to take the safety off his muzzleloader while staring down the biggest buck he'd ever seen, and a nail-biting encounter with a black bear that led to his guide admitting he'd never experienced anything quite so "sketchy" in the woods before. Enjoy
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Howdy folks, welcome to the Hunting Stories Podcast. I'm your host, michael, and we got another good episode for you today. Today, we're actually connecting with a listener. His name is Jordan Ferrari. He's out of Bangor, maine, which is cool, because I don't think we've had anyone formerly from Maine on the podcast before. So, that being said, jordan did fill out my little form that I have, which I do appreciate. If you have some stories, guys, please check out the link in my bio. It's on my website, it's on the podcast show notes, it's everywhere. If you want to come on the podcast, feel free to fill that out and we will be in touch and I'm excited to hear your stories.
Speaker 1:But for today, jordan tells us some amazing stories about his progression through hunting. He's only been doing it for a few years, but he has some amazing stories, so I want to say thank you to Jordan for coming on the podcast. Thank you, guys, for listening. Please make sure you give the podcast a five-star review. Let's go ahead and kick this thing off. Let Jordan tell you some of his stories. Thank you All right, jordan. Welcome to the Hunting Stories Podcast. Brother, how are you? I'm good, how are you? No-transcript.
Speaker 2:So I listen to a ton of the episodes, almost all of them. I'm a building contractor, so job site alone don't have my employees with me. I'm always on the stories podcast, whether I listen in depth the whole time, but it's always on in the background, that's what podcasts are about.
Speaker 1:Cool man. Well, I'm glad to have you here, brother, let's do this. Why don't you introduce yourself so the folks know who they're talking to or hearing stories from today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, my name is Jordan Parley. I'm from Bangor, maine, relatively new hunter. Didn't do it as a kid Too busy playing sports when I was a kid to realize, so there was a check. You're still on as a kid, yeah, making up a lost time now by diving fall in and oh yeah, just trying to uh to do that.
Speaker 1:So let me ask so you said you didn't do it as a kid because of sports. I get that I played sports as a kid and all that, but I didn't have anyone in my family that was like into hunting. You know a couple of relatives like twice removed or whatever, but did.
Speaker 2:Did anyone in your family do it and you just were too busy okay, my grandfather was the, the great white hunter that lived out in the woods, and every time he pulled into his driveway at the farm they'd be kind of tunneled off. Yeah, it would mortify my sister and as a teenage kid I just never had any interest. Okay, I went there and did it. He rode with the window down the whole time. In Maine when you go bear hunting and 4 o'clock in the morning when the window's down, it's awfully cold. So he got me up at the crack of dawn and made me ride with the window down. I was like, yeah, this isn't for me.
Speaker 2:That's funny man, that's funny.
Speaker 1:My grandpa was the only person that did it in my family too.
Speaker 1:He passed away, though, before I was old enough to join him, so but they, I remember yeah, thanksgiving they would always go out there and they'd, you know, quail and pheasant cause they were in Kansas and so they'd go bird hunting every Thanksgiving. My grandpa and his boys and I was like man, that'd be fun to go on. But I never and I never really thought about it until you just brought up, you know like you went with your grandpa bear hunting that one time. But very similar background man. So when did you fire it back up? When did you go? This is my thing, and what was the catalyst like? What got you? What got you going? Probably?
Speaker 2:be my best friends that went into it when I didn't realize it was gonna happen. It's kind of a slow progression from a bachelor party. We went to all go skeet shooting. Hell yeah, he handed me a shotgun. It was you know, me and all my best friends from childhood. He handed me a shotgun and I'm like, wow, this is really nice. He goes yeah, it's yours. So that was my wedding gift before, before the wedding. That's cool, all the bachelors, you know, or all the groomsmen, don't pay for it. Really, it was pretty much just it. So that's my best friend who gave me a shot and I'm like, oh cool, I guess I'll shoot skeet with it and stuff.
Speaker 2:Like I don't mind, we get married the following week and the following day after that I tell my wife, oh, I know what bird hunting was at. She said, what do you mean? You don't know where bird hunting was at? She said, what do you mean? You don't hunt? I'm like, well, try it and get us. So we went up into the North Main Woods and went bird hunting and I was just listening to all the cats and the snaps right there in the trucks until we see a car church at the front of the house. I was like get out. He was like sneak around the truck. I'm like you're going to shoot this one. So I shot it and that was my first experience with it. I'd never shot anything like this. I was like, man, this is just like I made them pull over off of a skidder chain. They're buried. I made a little cross for it and stuff like that no, so it's still good, it's pretty good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's pretty fine, but it was slightly hooked in. I wasn't quite there yet. I'm like I can do this. I like this. It was up to the West Forks and Sapphire. I can't find that. I had some whiskeys and I can't find it. I can do this. This is what hunting is all about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's just about the perfect picturesque hunting trip. You go out, you shoot a bird, you go back to camp whiskey friends. That's what it's all about. I'm not surprised you got hooked, even off of just a you know partridge or a grouse or whatever it is.
Speaker 2:You popped yep, yeah, so rough grouse. We call. For some reason they made a call. It's you go partridge hunting but you're not shooting a partridge. It's a rough grouse, but oh huh, interesting. So that's just what people say. Okay, so yeah, that was it. Kind of gave me that introduction. The following year that I'm going in or I'm going to go through the time series, got hooked on you know what? I think I want to train weight too. So hell, yeah, man.
Speaker 1:So, uh, the first time well, let me pause you real quick. I want to ask you one question and then I want to tell you a quick story, because I have a funny story about going skeet shooting on a bachelor party. Um, so, how long ago was this bachelor party? Or how long ago did you get married? So how long have you been hunting? Six years, six years, okay, so you are still pretty fresh, even fresher than me. How, ah, yes, finally someone who's hunted less than me, okay, um, all right. So here's my story. You just so.
Speaker 1:Two novem ago I have a buddy. Actually, you remind me a lot of him. We went to his bachelor party. We went to Nashville, went tubing one day, drank a bunch, hung out, did all the things the bachelor parties do. But one day we went to the Nashville like skeet shooting facility or whatever Huge event going on. There were hundreds, hundreds of people out there shooting Super cool. I had never actually shot like gonski shooting before, so I was like, wow, this would be fun. I bet I'm a terrible shot, let's see how this goes.
Speaker 1:Um, but it's like four or five of us, this one guy rolls into the shop.
Speaker 1:We rent the guns, we buy the ammo and, uh, this guy buys like really nice shooting gloves and a really nice hat, like just decks himself out, spends probably like 200 300 in gear and we're like, dude, he, he's taking this serious.
Speaker 1:And you know, jared, he helped schedule this, call Jared's there, and so Jared and I go out there and we're the only hunters really of the group, but it's a bunch of guys going out that really haven't done this and Jared and I get the hang of it pretty quick.
Speaker 1:We're shooting these things out of the air. We get around and it's kind of like a golf course, right, you shoot three or four per and then you move on to the next, next little spot and you just you just roll around and by the end of it we realized the guy that had spent all that money had not hit one clay all day, not one, because we were like keeping score and we're like holy, I won't say his name, I don't think he listens, but I don't want to shame him too bad but I was like, holy shit, man, we just did like 15 rounds of like anywhere from shooting three to 10 in those different spots and you didn't hit one clay. And he was like, yeah, I didn't want to say anything, but it just reminded me of your bachelor party story.
Speaker 2:So, um, it sounds familiar because I bought a separate year this year, thinking to make sure that so no, that's not the way it works.
Speaker 1:That's not the way it works that's funny, man, man. Okay, I just wanted to tell that story because I always think whenever I think about someone skeet shooting, I always think about that guy and his like Beretta, like leather gloves and his hat just cracks me up every time.
Speaker 2:But okay, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:I know you have a couple of stories to tell. I don't know if it started with your first big game, whitetail hunter, where you want to start, but let's kick this thing off, jordan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of my first stories wanted to be just how I got into it, which was obviously from my friend Zach, like getting me in, getting me that little itch, and then you know I didn't. I think I went one time with him in the following year to try to whitetail hunt. We didn't see anything. I was like this is a waste of time. You say it's notoriously hard to be able to hunt a white tail or be able to mature a white tail anyways.
Speaker 1:I've been up there never hunting, but it looks like great deer country. I just don't know anything about it.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of woods and the guys that know how to do it. I mean to get in a big buck club. For me you have to shoot something over 200. So maybe we do have good size deer up here with good brands and stuff To get my big buck patch. That's the goal for next year.
Speaker 1:I think you're the first guy from Maine on the show. I do know that I'm drawing a blank on his name right now. He does the Order of man. Ryan Mickler. He shot a moose in Maine. On the podcast he told that story, which is pretty cool. I'm derailing us, but have you been putting in for that since you started hunting?
Speaker 2:Yes, I have. I've been solving 25 years. I've only put in. For five or six years I've been attempting to get one. I don't deserve one. It's not the same as I'm seeing.
Speaker 1:You never know man, I think Ryan got it. He only lived up there for like three or four years and he got it.
Speaker 2:So a lot of people are upset, so either way, okay, sorry.
Speaker 1:I keep interrupting Jordan, go ahead, no problem.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, the first year I really wanted to take serious that I was going to go deer hunting. I went to Old Town Trading Post a local gun company and walked in and the old man drinking the free coffee sitting there. I'm like, sir, I want to buy a bolt-action rifle. I don't really know where to start. If I had gone with my grandfather when I was young, I could have had a plethora of knowledge as far as hunting goes. Didn't have that, so I'm walking in blind. I see an old man drinking the free coffee. I'm like he's going to be the one who knows.
Speaker 1:Yeah or at least has strong opinions.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly so. I'm like I'm looking at these Brandon X bolts and I'm like I want to buy one of these guns. It's a carbine. I love the blind one. I was picking the gun stuff up. It's like seeing what it was actually going to do for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've all been there, so.
Speaker 2:I'm like I've got a 6.5 here and a 3.08 here. I'm like what would you recommend? He recommended the 6.5. Friends are a bunch of friends. They're sick, they're coming for my 6.5. So when I walked out of the barn and I was driving home and I realized, as a lefty, Are you actually left-handed or are you left-eye? Dominant. Yes, I can't even brush my teeth, okay.
Speaker 1:Your eye too, Because I'm right-hand dominant, but I'm left-eye dominant, so I shoot everything lefty. Oh yeah, I shoot everything left.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you can hear my bow. See, it's everything's left, okay, yeah. So I bought that gun. I bought it right when they're both actually calling them. So I'm like, okay, I'm going deer hunting my first season with a right-handed bolt action, which, uh, comes into play, um. So I ended up going out with a bunch of college buddies, including zach cook. We all went to the same college together, which is a post of me, okay, which. It's like there's no laws out there, it's just the law of the woods, yeah is there much for public land in maine?
Speaker 1:I don't even know. I always hear in the east there isn't.
Speaker 2:But okay, cool. No, there's a time. It's weird. I don't know how it is with that. There's a lot of understandings for you guys. I don't know. So, like, if it is not your land, you can hunt it here. Technically, it's that gray area. Yes, you should. If it was not posted, you can hunt it. It's just, if you like it, then you're going to have a conversation. Yeah, you can post it, okay.
Speaker 1:Interesting. So it's not like so. In the West you can't trespass at all. So Colorado, everyone has on X to make sure you're not tiptoeing anywhere on anybody's property, cause there are people that will give you hell for it. And I've done the same thing in Texas. People sit there waiting on property lines waiting for you. Um, so in in Maine, if it's kind of just like you don't really know, you just don't really worry about it, is that kind of what it is?
Speaker 2:It's one of those things. The correct thing to do is to go find that person. Okay, that's the ethical thing to do. But legally it's not technically illegal to go on to unposted, got it? It's just obviously ask everybody, yeah, yeah, okay. First you're just kind of figuring out. Well, there's no yellow post-it signs here, see. Ya, yeah, it reminds me when I was a kid.
Speaker 1:I just walked all over the place, didn't care who owned what I was. If it was open land, I was there. So I get that. Okay, cool man. Sorry for uh interrupting continue no problem.
Speaker 2:So we got off the ferry because you have to drive a truck onto a ferry. Get off on a couple of hours left. We go see if there's some deer and stuff while we're here and we drive up and we see six deer just flying. This is what deer hunting is like. You just see deer, yeah. So I go to the other side and sleep. That's like a little kid on. First miss him, get a deer to him. Everybody I was with they got a deer their whole life. So they're like join this every year.
Speaker 1:He's gonna be and she'll have that yeah, yeah, it doesn't happen like that anymore, no, but at least you know, you got a good group of guys when they're like, oh, the new guy, no, he can go last, like that sucks. But you had a group that's like, nope, we're gonna get it done for him, we're gonna get him hooked. Yeah, they didn't go to the back of the line forever, yeah yeah, so we went out that morning.
Speaker 2:We drove around a little bit just trying to, you know, spot something. Um, they ended up going down and there's always like sandbox that we go. It's a little like uninhabited as well. People gotcha dear love it out there, um. So a couple of my buddies go out and, yeah, we're just going to see if there's anything out there worth pursuing. Just sit here right out of the sand. If you see it, shoot it. If you see it, shoot it. Yeah, quick question.
Speaker 1:What month is this? Like October, november, and like what are the temperatures? November, november.
Speaker 2:So it's cold, it's supposed to be cold. Okay, it's in the 50s and it ticks off on selectively.
Speaker 1:No way.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, walking those sandbars, you just like pop the boots off and walk across, or are you guys wearing?
Speaker 2:waders or no, they just keep. They kept their boots right on and walk right across it because the sandbar is up Above the water. Okay, yeah, cool. So they came across. Okay, they came walking all over through all the bushes and everything to see it. They said I'm sitting on a bench watching the sand. I'm sure they said, jordan, if you see a dog shooting like, just wait, because there's probably a buck behind it just wait.
Speaker 2:So they're doing their own thing. All of a sudden see a dog you know coming across that and first time seeing a deer hunting and he started shaking like a leaf and I have my right hand in bolt action and I could have waited for that thing to come in to 30 yards and the first year I didn't care. I was going to see my friends, I was going to get in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah 100-plus yards. I just started firing. No, it was embarrassing to look at it and not just start firing. Right-handed bolt action is all regional, it's just going all over it against right back up onto the island. A little while later, friends pop in. Do you see that big buck? I'm like, oh, there's a big buck. Yeah, no, I saw a doe. We told you not to shoot at the doe and they're going out here and trying to pursue this big buck. There's one out there on that island. How big is the island?
Speaker 2:this extra island, I mean 100 yards by 300 yards, not very big.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like my odds with that. Okay, cool.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, so they're just trying to stir something up. They're starting to come back across, like through the island. I'm looking for the deer, like the same I was going. You guys come across the same mark, as you know, yeah, and the same bar. One way the time came. I'm like guys like you can't walk across now, but they just, they were all just so focused on this. There's always a ton of understated, abandoned camps right there. It's probably a little bit like no, you shouldn't walk.
Speaker 1:Somebody's a little scared, you're not the first person on the podcast to do that.
Speaker 2:I was inexperienced. I didn on the podcast to do that. So I mean, I always yeah, I was inexperienced. I didn't know what to do. Desperation, this little skiff, push it in the water. The only branch there was no point or anything. The only branch I could find was a tree. Yeah, I'm saying to push myself across the sand. It's only like a foot deep at this point. Everybody was going to run. It seemed to be a full hunting section, and so I pushed myself across. I finally get to my final point, and then I was going to get the other two, which one of them was my best friend. He was 6'4", 350 pounds. That's a big boy. I'm a big guy, I'm 6'4" but pounds, that's a big boy.
Speaker 1:That's a big boy, I'm a big guy. I'm 6'4", but I'm like 240, 250.
Speaker 2:350 and 340,. It's a big boy, he's going to scold me on this. I'm not going to much, jordan, we'll see about that. He was the one that told me he didn't want to get in that boat. He ends up getting in the boat, coming back across with another guy, and the other guy's just using that little brown piece of birch to get us all back across and those two start getting pulled out. Oh, no.
Speaker 2:So we're desperately throwing a rope to him, trying to get him back in, and then all of a sudden we see a really nice buck swimming across the bay from Battle Island. And then all of a sudden we see a really nice buck swimming across the bay from the island back over to Vinal Haven. And we're like there he goes. I'm like, wow, that's a really nice deer, that's awesome, I'm like wait a minute.
Speaker 2:He ends up, he takes off Like everybody. We were in HR. So at this point we're thinking we called one of our buddies with a lobster boat and we have to put them up in the middle of the ocean. We ended up getting the rope out to him, getting back for him. He's strict panic. Zach isn't the big guy, he's holding you, he's just holding you. Know he moves, he's gonna tip that boat over.
Speaker 2:So I like zach already man yeah, he's, uh, he's the best guy in the world world. But I don't know if there's totally tech thoughts as a hunting story, because we're doing all kinds of stuff. It counts, it counts. But it was one of the best moments I've had because we got back before we could see.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We get them back and everybody, like a couple other pushes, didn't really have any luck, but everybody else has given up. Like a little after lunchtime I'm like, listen, first day of hunting, I want a deer. Like I had the opportunity to get a deer and I've been kicking myself the whole time. I got an opportunity to get a deer and it missed.
Speaker 1:How many rounds did you get off at that doe?
Speaker 2:I'd like to say we took, two took at least, so all right. So, unfortunately, and that's with a right-handed bolt action, just yeah clear pan like please let me get my first year, eyes closed, not looking through the scope just absolute inexperience, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, sense um, to only take ethical shots and stuff like that. It's just a pure adrenaline seeing the end of the starting shake like a leaf on the tree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think every hunter's had that moment, man every hunter has had that like first, like oh, I got a shot, just let her rip. And then they realize after the fact they're like well, that was, I mean fortunate, hopefully hopefully the hundred doesn't yeah exactly same with mine.
Speaker 1:I threw, I launched an arrow at a herd, just being like, well, maybe it'll get one of them, and then, like it dropped 30 yards in front of them because, like I didn't have a slider pin, so I had like 20, 30, 40 and 50 and so I was like, well, they're probably like 70, so I put it above my 50 pin above them and just let it launch. They were probably 120 yards. I had no idea what I was doing, so my arrow didn't even get close. But as soon as I let go of that arrow, I was like, why did I do that? I have no idea why. Like I didn't aim it at anything, I just sort of threw it above them and yeah, so we've all had that, a reason why you need to know what you're doing and pay attention. And absolutely you feel a little bit like an asshole.
Speaker 2:I've been there, so I get it so they stuck me out in a stand. I feel I'm showing jordan, if you see it. You see anything that makes you sorry to say it like, just don't take a shitty shot. So so I sat up in the tree standing. Yeah, right off the coast of the ocean those trees move. They move a lot, yeah. So I didn't realize that. So I'm sitting in my tree, that they had put me in, and all of a sudden that thing starts moving and I was definitely going to the tree stand and after a couple hours a nice mature bell comes back to my left side.
Speaker 2:The jazz lefty was perfect. I put her down, I dropped her with the first shot, but I never shot a deer and knew that they still kind of moved a little bit, but I didn't. So I took a second shot. I didn't do anything. She died quickly. I went down the tree shoe ceiling, walked, stood 20 yards away from her, terrified that she was going to jump back in town. Just wait, I'm calling my friends. I bought one. I bought my first gear case down because at that point nobody would come in. So you would. You know all the evidence. You would have thought I shot a bullet, get it. No, but it was just a doubt. My first day I was fucked. I was fully invested in the type of hunting at that point. That's all I wanted to do, like get me to go to work in the fall. No, I'm going to get. So it's just that's awesome, man.
Speaker 1:That's a great story. Were the other boys? Did the other boys have any luck on that particular trip, or or did it was just sort of after your dough was down and everyone was content? No, Well, so no.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think a couple of them got those, but the best part is you can get a deer.
Speaker 1:So rumor has it he's clinching on to that metal boat and won't let go. Absolutely. That's great man.
Speaker 2:I got into white tail hunting. I got a progression of it. I also got I don't know how long it took- however, you won is perfectly fine with me white tail is like what I love the most stories yeah, let's.
Speaker 1:Let's do them all um. One question I have for you about zach is he hunted his whole life or did he get into it late and pull you in with him?
Speaker 2:yeah, he's done it his whole life. Okay, you know he's nowhere of name. And yeah, he did his whole life, okay he's. He's like go out on your cycle, you're obsessed with this. I'm like, yeah, I got bit by the bug, you know late, it's a thing, man that's all I think about.
Speaker 2:That's what I want to do. Like I listen to you guys talking about all these Western hunts and stuff Friends out there Okay, you always say this Just got to go. I like the hunts as well, just pull the trigger, man, don't be scared.
Speaker 1:Find it like when I started hunting. I just went on like facebook groups and was like, hey, I need a hunting buddy. You'd be surprised how many people will hit you up. They're like live out here already. They're like yeah, if you want to jump into my camp like I've I've been in too many camps that I rolled into that I did not know a person until afterwards and now they're lifelong friends.
Speaker 2:So um that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got to be brave and get out there. Man, get out there, be uncomfortable. But yeah, you tell me we can go in chronological order or you just tell them whatever order you want, man.
Speaker 2:Well, if it's all right, I'll just keep going with the whitetail right now, the progression of it. It'll probably get turned into essentially one story.
Speaker 1:Perfect.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to give, given a small spike, my first spike the following season. So I'm like you know what? I'm not going to go every year. Like the next two years, I might as well start archery hunting. It's just too easy for me, okay said every hunter once yeah so I go out because I live in being in bangor.
Speaker 2:You're in city limits so it's expanded archery there. You can only archery hunt, um, can't rifle hunt. But the season is the first season this time, okay, um, so I go out there. I that winter I went, bought a Hoyt Axius because I'm a lefty and I'm a bigger guy. It's a smoking deal for a guy who gave it to me because it was used. What sold it to him? It's crazy. I bought a Hoyt and was super excited. I've been dealing with it for a while. I've been waiting for that store to go out of business for a while. You got my first've been dealing with it a lot, waiting for that story to go, been doing this for a while. Yeah, my first bow. Yeah, I still have that bow somewhere the Parker Poison 32.
Speaker 1:I just waited until it was 60% off, which you know. I didn't even know anyone who archery hunted, so I was like I can't spend $1,200 on a bow, my wife will kill me. I've never even shot one, but it worked out just fine. Now it's like my thing. Now my actual bow sits next to me and my kids aren't allowed to touch it. It's my little baby. What do you have now? I have a Hoyt RX-7 Ultra.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 1:I love my Hoyt.
Speaker 2:Axius, but I don't know anything different. It's just what I have. I finally got my first year with it this year, but that first year I went out. I'm sitting up against a tree. In May and October it's still we got tons of black flies. I'm sitting up against a tree saying I don't want to set up a tree scene or anything. I didn't do it. I didn't technically. I had permission to land, but they didn't own the land. It's like one line, it's spot, it's just putting one. It wasn't a good spot. So I went out that first morning, walking out into the pitch black, holding my bow, realizing that he was walking out into the pitch black. It was terrifying, yep.
Speaker 1:Your headlamp hit some raccoon eyes and you're like what the hell is that? What the hell is that? First morning, walking out, I hear something.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure a fox or something was eating me. I'm listening to something get crunched and munched and squealing. I don't really know that I want to hunt this bad, but this is interesting. So it's true. Yeah, I'm sure the deer are just going to get me. I'm going to sit right here I've had that mindset.
Speaker 2:When the light starts to see this room, it's all right, I'm just going to shoot it First time, no reason. But sit there. That day waited a couple hours to start to get hot and start to get sweaty. I'm getting eaten alive by black flies. So I'm just trying to turn, like at this point I'm just swinging face and all of a sudden I hear these noises. Those sound like really weird things. Time to find out. Those are when deer blow at you because they're staring at you. Idiot, I had never heard any of those before, but they were the lack of experience that led to that. So to that whole season. It was the following season.
Speaker 2:Okay, until I get something with my I'm not going to shoot with my rifle into the season, I'm just going to bow hunt. Until I get something, I'm sitting down and it starts pouring rain. I'm sitting down, I'm sitting down. I sat on this pinch point. I think something's going through Sunny, blue skies, beautiful weather. Only been sitting in it for a few minutes, it's just absolutely downpouring. I just want to go home. Yeah, and you know, sitting there for a few minutes, beautiful dark comes right through Just times the tree stands and stares at me. Because I'm still looking at the tree stand. I'm sitting in the chair by my coach and she said you know she did. I was sitting my first time. I know a lot of people like they in other states. So stuff like that, just a deer. Yeah, man, get that meat. I'm going to put it in the freezer and feed my family with it, even though I'm still working my life on that one. My kids love it. I swear to you, still breaking.
Speaker 1:Same man. My wife's not into whitetail. I don't know what it is, I've only shot one, so maybe it was just that guy. It just didn't taste all that good, I don't know. But uh, everything else she's fine with. But yeah, my, my kids, my kids love it no it was.
Speaker 1:It was south texas, um, and it was a pretty big buck, like uh I. I think he would have been a freak of tomorrow. I don't age, I don't know anything about whitetail, but he looked like a smaller bodied, like he didn't have that big droopy body that the older bucks have, um. So I want to say he was like two and a half three years old and if I let him live to like six to eight, I bet he would have been a monster.
Speaker 1:He was uh, and they say if the, if the point is taller than it is wide, it counts as a point, which would have made him like a 32 point, because he was in a place that's known for having like non-traditional crazy deer, um, and his, his tines. One goes backwards and the other one goes forwards and then other. But if you just kind of like the main tines, it's a I don't know 10 point or a five by five, like good buck. But I think he was young and I don't know, she's just not into it. I liked it, I ate every, every bit of it and my kids, my kids, love it, they love moose, they love elk, they love everything I've given them so far.
Speaker 2:Yeah so it's still a thing, obviously under a name. So we need to go home, so I'm looking forward to doing it, yeah who knows, maybe they'll come your way.
Speaker 1:I mean, they're out there in the east right, like pennsylvania's got a bunch now. I wouldn't be surprised if they start to migrate up to that area, because they're in canada too. So who knows, maybe you'll have a local way they're looking forward to.
Speaker 2:But no, no, my plan is I've already been looking at colorado over the counter towns and stuff like that to plan a trip out there, so well, if you need any help with that, I'm more than happy to over.
Speaker 1:The counter is gone for archery, just so you know it's only there for rifle.
Speaker 2:But if you want help after because that's not what we talk about here we don't talk about that crap, but afterwards you and I, you and I can go offline and talk about it, but let's keep going yeah, so going back into the following rifle season, I'm like you know, my deer with my bow. I'm good like I'm going back to my rifle now because hunted far and all this season Arrogantly, I think I should have already gotten deer that I just had enough. I don't want to spread out, I want to figure this out. It's just going to happen. That morning I woke up and there was a sound. You can't hunt Sundays, is that a religion thing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't remember what the terminology is. Essentially, you can't disturb the peace on Sundays. Okay, interesting. So Saturday All day, two months on Saturday. So wake up, it's morning, it's pouring rain. No, it's probably not going to be very good out there. I'm not going to see anything anywhere.
Speaker 2:I sat on the corner of my bed for 20 minutes and I'm like you should really stay home. You're doing one night. At this point, you should stay home With your wife and kid. At this point, it's not a good thing to go. Stay home. Yeah, you know what? Like half of my life is me that I really need to go out there. So I throw all my stuff on and throw the rifle in the back and one of the concrete companies I work oh, it's really giving me permission. So I'm drinking my fucking bonus coffee and drowning out there, just filling myself full of cold burning things. Take a shit. While I'm drowning out there, just do that. And I get out there. I'm like, should I go back to the store or should I just go home? Maybe I should go home. This doesn't show up. It doesn't come into play with some of your other stories. Finally mustering up the ambition to get out of the truck and apartment and it was just whipping in my face.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I grabbed my rifle and I started heading down through the gravel pit. I worked my way up through. I spent a few hours seeing glass and everything looking over. That's the closest thing to Western Lincoln I guess I've experienced is seeing all these big spots from the top of a sand dune looking down through that. It's just seeing. It's not going to be as smooth. This is a one-step walk. From the top I end up going to cut up a sand dune to the top to look down into another ground. Something like stirred me, caused me to flinch, but I didn't realize what it was. So I just kept going up and came back. You know what? Just go home and hang out with your wife or kid. She's been nice enough to let you go hunting, but don't start at the side of them. You shouldn't be hunting. You should be sitting with your family.
Speaker 1:Those internal thoughts when you're all alone, man, they take you all sorts of places, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I get to the bottom, I look up to my right, standing up on top of the sandbar, the only place that had a little bit of wind. I'm probably making this up somewhat. There was just a light above them. Is that a nice rain?
Speaker 1:You're like. Is that a beautiful deer? Is that Jesus? I can't tell.
Speaker 2:He was staring at me, but it was so stormy and windy and stuff. He was just at me, but it was so stormy and windy and stuff. He was just standing there. Yeah, I think I'm going to get my first leg in this spot here. I raised my gun somewhat in the corner, but a little bit calm, he was just standing there. I didn't even know if he was real at this point, zoomed my scope all the way in looking at him, completely covered in rainwater. So I'm like and wiping it still, put it on, just on my shoulder, pull the trigger. He's not there. Okay, I think I missed it, so I sprint across, obviously. So I sprint across. Obviously I should have winged it a little bit. I sprint across the gravel.
Speaker 2:How far was he when you shot roughly? So, in all honesty, probably 150 yards. Okay. So climb up the ground, get up there. It was a beautiful 8.1. Just to be like, you can go 30 miles, cool, it was just laying there. That's awesome. It was the first good buck. Like in a man. Like a good buck is hard to say that we live. I don't think it's like shooting Kansas or something like that. He was a good buck, but he's not something that I would shoot out there. He was a beautiful buck to me. He was a great step in the next stage for me. I'm sure I'm going to set this one.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:For everyone who's going to the theater. Youtube wouldn't let me go there so I could finish downloading. To be able to do that, so I had to call one of my employees. He came up with these great numbers of deer throughout his life and he came up with me. I'm like, get that out. I'm like I'm going to see it this year, this year, going into this year, it's only going to go for a big sure, taking some big steps.
Speaker 1:here You're progressing.
Speaker 2:Moving fast. That's just what I do, moving fast. Going into this year, I passed on a bunch of bucks Just a small one and a little bit of two, and I saved a bunch of money. Exactly, I passed on a like just a small one and, to say exactly, I passed on a few smaller bucks. That led to missing out full season. I didn't get any season, but we have a lot of you know you're, you have that for the season for you, that's right.
Speaker 1:Muzzleloader is smack dab in the center of archery season here in colorado. So, like archery season in colorado is basically the month of september, and I want to say I want to say that this coming year, 2025, muzzleloaders is like september 15th through 21st, so right dabbing, right dab in the middle. But when I've hunted muzzleloader was in washington. Washington, you got the september archery season and it's like the first week of October is muzzleloader, and so that's when I've hunted it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so muzzleloader. Here is the only season, so we have archery, then archery, then archery rifle and then muzzleloader.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you this In Maine in Colorado, you can use any lesser weapon. So if it's a rifle season, you can use a muzzleloader. You can also use a bow. If it's muzzleloader season, you can use it. Well, obviously you can use a bow, but like, if you have the tag for a specific method of take, you can use a lesser weapon. Can you do that in Maine?
Speaker 2:I'll double check on that because I've tried to do it Once. I just go through the seasons, especially for expanded archery. You stay in one zone with that In rifle season. Yes, you can still use.
Speaker 1:Okay, I've thought about it, but I'm not a good enough hunter to go out there with my bow. I'm like I just need to get something. I'll just take my gun.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's kind of my philosophy at this point, because I was very humble when I started hunting on both when I fell hunting. Yeah so then, but still got to be a better rifle hunter too. So, absolutely, I went and bought my muzzleloader because for the first year I was on deer and I didn't get a nice buck, so a decent buck. So I was going to go out with a muzzleloader and it's just going to be sad. So just to see what.
Speaker 1:It's fun to shoot man. They're real fun to shoot. It was so see what.
Speaker 2:They're fun to shoot, man, they're real fun to shoot. It was different, that's for sure. I did a shooting with the muzzleloader which it was locked on, the yeah, so I'd like to muzzleloader season season is the last week that muzzleloader. She's the last week in muzzleloader Monday we got a little bit of fresh power. Checking the data For this day, I can go and see what's up my way through.
Speaker 2:It probably took me 30 to 40 minutes to go a few hundred yards because I take two or three steps to do the difficult scale and to get almost to the ball. Right before I get to the tree line I step on a branch in the center. I slowly go a little bit down and grab a branch and there's a branch and there's a branch in the ground two, there's ground two. So I went a couple of grounds and there's a flat chaos. I see a dog on one, a dog on the other one and a nice, nice spot. I'm seeing bullets and right across me, right inside of me, 40 yards and everything just moved in such slow motion. But at the same time I'm so fast I spun around and at the same time I'm probably crossing my lines and flinching. Get that scope on that buck, the biggest buck I've seen or have seen so far. Pull the trigger and nothing happens.
Speaker 1:Muscle ladders, damn it Nope.
Speaker 2:I didn't take the safety off.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, Well then there's still hope. Maybe, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and instead of like clicking that safety off, moving over to the left, waiting for that to come on the other side of all those downed trees, I just stood there, I just froze and ended up waiting a couple minutes Instead of trying to move, to get to it at the vantage point, to get deer again, I just froze.
Speaker 1:It was awful I can see it still hurts you. I can see it still yeah, it's very fresh.
Speaker 2:um, call my friend. I'm like I just saw the biggest buck I've ever seen, and he for the last three years in a row. He, he's a new hunting buddy of mine. He's harvested incredible deer. So I'm like, okay, I'm going to do whatever you do, I'm coming with you. He pulled out his first stamp this year. It was 225 trucks, huge, mature, beautiful deer, awesome, the biggest deer I've ever seen. Okay, so is it dead in front of you? Well, no, I didn't pull the trigger on my safety. Why are you calling?
Speaker 2:me yeah, I'm like I don't know man. Should I go after it or should I just give up on that one and go try to find another one? Hang up the phone with me right now, because you have fresh powder on the ground. What are you doing? Go give up on that one and go try to find another one. Hang up the phone with me right now, yeah, cause you have fresh powder on the ground. What are you doing? Go, yeah. So I ended up tracking that deer for four hours. I've never tracked a deer. I bumped it out in a couple of beds. I learned more in that four hours than I have in the four plus years. That's awesome. Making those mistakes Never met up with him, but it was the end of the season.
Speaker 1:So there you go, man, there you go. That's a positive attitude. I was worried that your muzzleloader just misfired.
Speaker 1:I've done that like, and I don't know if you ever gone to a range and like fired a bunch of rounds, but like, occasionally you shoot and that blast cap just doesn't go off and you're like well, who knows, dude, it sucks yeah so in washington and I don't know if it's the case in maine, but in washington your breach plug, right where you like put the the blast cap, it has to be open to the elements, so there's like five holes all over it, so it's wide open, basically.
Speaker 1:So, like any moisture and it's washington, like washington's known for rain, so like you're just like it just would happen where a little bit of moisture would get in there, ruin the blast cap, you're like, but did it. So you have to like sit there and just wait because, like, if you move, it might go off in 30 seconds, it might go off in 10 seconds. Just like, sit there for minutes with it on your shoulder, you can't like set it down. They're fun to shoot, but when they don't shoot it's a little scary. Yeah Well, that's a crazy story, man, I'm sorry it didn't work out for you, but at least you got the attitude that you know where he's at. He'll be there.
Speaker 2:He's there, and he's one of the last ones out there, because I know the other guys are hunting him this season. Are you going to?
Speaker 1:go put up cams and try and figure him out for September. Yep, Nice man.
Speaker 2:I want to hear how that goes.
Speaker 1:Keep me in the loop. I'm curious.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. He was a beautiful deer last year, but he had potential for this year, yeah.
Speaker 1:So he looked like a good age, like maybe 5, 5'6, something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say in four and a half or something. Okay, he was great. So, yeah, he's going to be back this year. Awesome man. Well, good luck. His son is a hero. I'm going after him next year. He's the target buck in my life.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 2:I love it. I've never had a.
Speaker 1:Target buck in my life. I love it. I love it. I've never had a Target anything, but I do love when guys get Target bucks and they start to name that crap. So what's his name?
Speaker 2:I haven't even given him one yet, but I'll come up with something good. Okay, A choke job sounds pretty good right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, cool man, all right. Well, that wraps up your whitetail. That's a pretty good six-year span, some good fun stories, and you put down a lot of deer. Whether or not they were any giants or not, you still had success and you fed your family, so that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that leads into black. Okay, my first time hunting black. It was the season it was playing turkey. I'm hunting, but it was the season of spring turkey. It was my first season that I could get to to really start hunting this year. So I decided that I was going to go hunting with relatively close friends. So I'm going to work on it. We're going to go sit out with the ducks.
Speaker 1:Okay, so is this stock bear. Is this over bait?
Speaker 2:Or how's it done? This is over bait, it's over bait, so you can hunt over bait. And then you can hunt over dogs. Okay, oh cool, so it's over bait. So it's hunting with dogs. Incredible journey.
Speaker 1:I bet, I bet, yeah, yeah, I got some buddies that are they run dogs from mountain lions out here man do I want like, and it's like this weird click where, like, you can pay for it. I don't want to pay for it, but I, but I want to just go, I don't I don't need to bring a weapon with me.
Speaker 1:I just I've never seen a mountain lion in the wild like I spent a lot of time in the woods and I've never seen one. And I know they're there, I've seen their tracks, I've seen their scat and uh, I just can't imagine, especially the stories I've heard and all that. Just it would be so much fun and I imagine black bears with dogs is very similar, yeah, so I want to also do.
Speaker 2:Oh cool yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, let's okay. So you're sitting in the stand. Man. What's going on with your black bear?
Speaker 2:so I'm sitting in blind, um, that first night, not really, you know, expecting to see anything like okay, I just had good experiences with that, okay, that's fine. So so the point where I didn't check my phone, see whether or not it was legal light or what the time was for that, sat out there all night and started to get just dark enough I decided to pull my phone out of my shirt and pull it out and put it in pictures my wife is sending me. At that time she was four or five months old, pulling out pictures and just scrolling through the pictures making your face bright, blue for any critters that walk by, exactly so I pop my phone back in my pocket and my eyes are readjusting to the light when they do all of a sudden so freely.
Speaker 2:10 yards in front of me is saying that it's headed like looking in my bar. What's that bright light in there? I'm sitting in a chair with my feet crossed and my rifle between my legs. I'm just like. I understand. They say they're more scared of you than you are and they're comfortable right in this situation. I saw a movie way before I saw it and it was just trying to figure out what it was. So I'm sitting there and my film in 30 minutes was 30 seconds or a minute. He's turning, he swarks his way on the trail, gets up on the bait, doesn't stay. I'm watching it and like a 12-year-old which we might go because I think it's legal time at this point, because it felt like yeah, yeah, making sound.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no big deal. And then I'm pulling my phone back out and it's the guy which they have cameras out there. He goes hey, that's a good bear, why aren't you shooting that bear? I'm getting all these messages. Shoot that fucking bear. Oh my god, like at that point I didn't get those messages for a couple minutes and there was not a single time, like we only had a couple minutes and it wasn't a big deal to me. It wasn't a big beautiful deal, it wasn't a big beautiful, it just was, you know, a small female, not a big deal. It would be a good first and I guess for me, but it wasn't what I wanted. So I wake up and go to work, kicking myself the whole day. Sugar shark, it's an opportunity, yeah, it's just nothing.
Speaker 2:Kicked myself all day, finished up, gave my dad a scene of what they need to do for the next couple of hours while I go back to the woods, go back out, sit down next night and I'm sitting there. Any, I see that is a bag that the guys won't be minding it. I'm harvesting that bag on the first bite. I'm like what's that? So I sit down and sit down. I don't think I can see anything. Finally, I see a little bit of flesh. A little bit of flesh on these trees. All of a sudden the bear steps out. Okay, that must be her. All of a sudden he stands up and puts his paw on that tree, looking straight in my direction. He wasn't looking at me, he was looking in my direction. I'm 240 pounds and 6 foot. That bear is bigger than me, it's gotta be over six feet. It drops back down onto its feet. I'm like that's not the same thing. Oh my god, I'm gonna shoot it. I shot that thing. It flipped up onto its back and way down and I caught one back in. At this point I have a left-handed bolt action, so I throw another one in as fast as I can and I'm waiting for that bear to send back. I don't want it to suffer. I need to pray as quick as I can Suffer.
Speaker 2:I thought it was done and it flipped back up and went to take off. So I put another one in it and the collar was just shaking. As soon as I put it on, I called the floor. I got my first bear. I got my first pair. I got my first pair. It's going to be right there. Yeah, it's so awesome, but we're still at work. See you later. So he calls me. He's like okay, you better sit there until dark in the morning. I'll find this pair. Oh my God, I know I did it good. I know I I hit it good. So he shows up. We start jumping. Obviously, my deer plugs those holes quick. Yeah, he's like we're not going to find a lot of blood. That guy was incredible. He had his hands and knees crawling. He had purple bushes. I'm going to drop here. I'm going to drop there.
Speaker 1:Some guys have that talent, man, I don't. That's awesome he was incredible.
Speaker 2:But he crawled all through there and I'm walking behind him. I'm just feeling like a teenage boy. I'm walking behind this guy at the point, just letting him do all the work. I'm just trying to track him. I started to worry because he's like I'm going to find this guy. He's not looking. So I'm kicking the gutter, feeling sorry for myself. You showed up and didn't kill it quickly. You might.
Speaker 2:Just it's going to go away either god damn man, I'm just kicking myself having the worst feelings go through my head, and then I want to keep this as polite as possible for anybody listening to me, so I won't say what the main Redman actually said. He said something along the lines of heck, yeah, that's a good question, though, and I just I lit up. I was so excited.
Speaker 1:What did he say? Just say it, just say it, just say it.
Speaker 2:I don't want to, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:That's a good fucking day. There we go.
Speaker 2:And I was so excited. Like I went up I got that bear. We took our pictures. As we're taking the pictures, he gets a call from the other guy. He goes hey, did you guys leave your jet sled at the beach site? Yeah, we're going to go back and get that thing so we can get this done. No-transcript no way, because they popped on the camera. There was two pops in a on the monitor, oh jesus eating and he goes.
Speaker 2:Well, we have to go get that jet sled and I'm like it's a bitch fly. We're going to walk back in the direction towards where we know there's three bears right now what is a jet sled? I'm drawing a blank on that so it's a lot of times used for fishing and stuff. It's a big sled but you can put a ton of stuff in like it may use jet sleds to drag okay, I think, I think I know what it is okay kind of looks like a dog mushing sled, except it's electric.
Speaker 2:Well, it's not electric or gas.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you're just saying it's a big plastic thing you just tug along with you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, I've seen those okay, so yeah, but yeah, jet sled is the brain, I guess, here. But yeah, so you just grab the jet sled, throw something in it and drag it through the woods. Um, so we got to go back and get that thing. There's no way come to find out, like after, even in the jet sled. It was a horrible drag out. But, um, without that thing it would have been near impossible to drag that thing out yeah, yeah, no, I wouldn't even try to drag an elk out.
Speaker 1:I mean the ones, the one I've killed 800 on the hoof, something like that. Like it's not going anywhere. Yeah, yeah, it took two of us just to flip it over to get its antlers out of the ground, because it reared up and fell down backwards and so its antlers were speared into the ground and it took jermaine and I had to do it like first off, carefully, because if it's like spring loaded, you're gonna spear yourself. So you have to like do it carefully.
Speaker 2:Uh, yeah, it's a pain in the ass no way in hell am I ever dragging that out. Incredible dude, I mean. He's started being legit and stuff, dude, I mean he's a little guy.
Speaker 1:He's a little guy, I'll give him that, but he's a monster. He is a monster. But yeah, okay. But how big was this bear man Like? Did you get it weighed?
Speaker 2:Or like Well, so the story continues from Okay, he's like, no, we have to go get that sled. Really we're going to watch walking the pitch black back towards that and get that. Like, well, yeah, we have to. So we start walking, walking, even as bigger walking time. Yeah right, I'm squeezing my rifle like it's a little BB gun, like walking that through, like behind him he's got fists a lot, he's a little fist along, but you can tell he's a little unsure of himself and it's like, yeah, okay, we get close and it's right, here something's going up one tree, something's going to get the tree, and then we just hear the bomb start and her jaw together. Yeah, jesus man, this isn't like my thing. I really want that bear, but I don't know that I want it this bad.
Speaker 1:I might appreciate this in a year or so, but not right now.
Speaker 2:I can't wait to tell the story on the 100 Post Stories podcast. I don't know how long it's going to be. He ends up being like all right, we're going to go back out to the truck, she's going to get her gear. So we get back to the truck and he's going, so we're going to go back in. That was really fucking sketchy. I've never done that in my life. I'm like are you serious? He goes yeah, no, I've never had that. That was uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what a guide, what a guide.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was a great guy. I just assumed he'd tell me, fuck, end up going back and getting the jet-sledded Horrible journey. But we got in the middle. It was a 250-pound blackboard. It was cool. That's awesome. I go hunting again, but then of course I go home. I'm still so adrenaline. I'm already looking at grizzly bears.
Speaker 1:Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:I don't know if that's my next step after getting chomped at by a mama bear Like a mama black bear is like okay, that was exciting.
Speaker 1:Let's do it with a bigger bear, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm like'm like, what's next? So what could definitely kill me really fast? Yeah, so god man, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. That's a great story though. So, uh, I mean, I don't really know bear. I've never been on a bear hunt. I need to go on a bear hunt, um, but is that a good size bear for maine? I know the redneck seemed to think think so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was definitely a good bear. So. I think anything above 200 for Maine is a good bear, that's awesome. It's a good male, so I was happy with him. Cool, I have him on my office walls in no time.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, and that was a spring bear.
Speaker 2:That was a fall bear.
Speaker 1:Fall bear okay.
Speaker 2:I want both Early in fall?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want both. I want a fall bear because they've got all that fat right. They're filling themselves up. Did you manage to harvest much of that and take it home and reduce?
Speaker 2:it into cooking oil. I'm toning it out in the freezer right now. I turned most of it into Italian sausage and kept a bunch of it as the roast and stuff like that. That's awesome. Stuff like that, that's awesome, is it just?
Speaker 1:absolutely delicious. I'm curious about the fat in particular. I've heard great things, like Steven Rinella says in all of the old Western pioneer books, that the Western explorers they kill bears for food, they kill deer for their hides, for making stuff and I'm super curious to try it. But I've heard bear fat is just awesome.
Speaker 2:Just an awesome, awesome thing. I got really mixed reviews when I shopped. They're like make sure you tell the butcher to cut all the fat on it. You don't want any of that on there, really. I've got other people that talk like that, where they say you've got to get the fat and put them under it down. You can do all that stuff. I've loved it. So the Italian sauce is incredible. I've still got the roast out there, which I've got to try to do it. It's just tough, like I've got to have a couple of buddies over, cause there's no way I'm getting my wife to eat that. Yeah, yeah, I'm going to waver down a little bit more for that.
Speaker 1:You cook those roasts medium well, or what do you? How do you go? Yes, exactly, okay, so I haven't done it yet. So, yeah, and I need to, something I've always been curious about, and I need to find a food scientist or something like some kind of meat scientist. Uh, because you can't eat predators rare right there. What is it? Trichinosis, is that what?
Speaker 2:they got yeah so.
Speaker 1:But I've also known that, like when you use a sous vide, you know sous vide I've heard you talk about it, but okay, so than that I haven't heard of it.
Speaker 1:So it's like this pipe and then you probably know exactly where I'm going with this. But there's a tub of water and it rotates the water at exactly the temperature you want the meat to be, and typically you cook chicken to whatever temperature, because at exactly that temperature you know everything in it is dead. But you can cook it 50 degrees less for an hour and it will kill all the same stuff over that course of that hour. Um, and I'm curious, like, at what temperature range will trichinosis die if cooked at that range for like an hour and a half? So you could like cook a medium rare bear steak, and how or how would that be? You know, I think that would be amazing.
Speaker 1:Well, just let me uh grab something else let me let me talk to a meat scientist first, because I don't want to risk trichinosis I hear that's a shitty time. All right, cool man well, that was a great story, man. I uh. It reminded me of a bunch of things. I don't know if you listen to the eric boone episode it's one of my favorite ones but where he has a bear run up the tree and then piss on his home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just absolutely ridiculous. I'm trying to get out and bear hunt with that guy at some point.
Speaker 1:But yeah God, it's high on my to-do list. In Colorado you get a complimentary tag, Like if you get an elk tag, a lot of units you could just slap on a bear tag. But, that being said, there's not that many bears.
Speaker 2:Is there a population?
Speaker 1:Man I've only seen. Like I've lived here most of my life and I've been on the woods a lot, I've only, like laid eyes on five bears, like just not that common.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, yeah, living right in town, we had two moms, or a mom and two kids right in the spring.
Speaker 1:So crazy, crazy yeah bark is bigger than the bite cool man, absolutely well, uh, do you have any other stories for us, jordan? Otherwise we're. We're about a time. I know this is what I booked you for, so anything else you want to share with us? Otherwise, man, let's wrap this thing up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean sometime, if you ever want me to come in and talk about my shot, about getting a chin or something like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, how long does that story take, because I've got time right now, if you do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no.
Speaker 1:I've got time because I haven't heard any screams from upstairs yet, so we're good for a few minutes and just for the people listening. That's because his wife is with his kids, not any other nefarious reasons.
Speaker 2:His wife is with the kids and she's very sick, so she's been like I don't know what to do with this.
Speaker 1:Let's do it. I mean don't skip the important stuff, but let's get this one through so you can get back to your wonderful wife through so you can get back to your wonderful wife.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I hit the road first thing in the morning, went out with a guy that a lot of people that I respect a lot highly recommend him. I feel like I would like to do a podcast and I don't know where to start.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:This year I got a chance to get a podcast. I met this guy, paul Laney, and going with him man, I'm a big guy that obviously let the wife cook and make me fat for a little while. So I I've been working hard to get back in the gym and get back in shape. I thought I had gotten back in decent shape. I'm going to find out. Going with a guy like him, no, no, I'm not in good shape.
Speaker 2:It's, those guys move through the woods different, yeah, and he's like you gotta follow me. He goes so on the cat, like we've got. We're going up over the rocks. We're going up over trees like you keep all through there. I'm just wheezing. Looks like the dog is just walking, but I'm running after him trying to keep up and he just glides on through the woods. I'm just like, yeah, this is humbling. When I made the joke in the college you don't joke with guys like that At that point it was very focused on that. We had to get to that point. We were there for a couple of hours. The dogs are all over that town moving. It all over the coast is where we were hunting. After a couple hours, finally, I got a glimpse of that cat just slinking through. I think it's right there. Should I take a shot? It's not a dog.
Speaker 1:I'm not taking a shot, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it came slinking on through A couple of glimpses of it. Finally, it's more closer and closer. Those dogs were running. They didn't have a tree. They ended up bailing it out on the rocks, the beach or the ocean right in between Canada and Maine. If that thing had swam through the water it could have just went over to Canada and would have got away from us. But I get down to it and everything, and I had water hunted over dogs. So it was a weird experience. The dogs did all the work. They should have put in enough work for this. I'm looking at them like it's a game. I always had the moment of hesitation because that part jumped off the rocks into the water, the ocean, and the dogs didn't. I'm feeling like I'm in the ocean, which was is everything okay here? He goes. Yeah, no, you're good, he goes. You should probably shoot that cat. I like this guy.
Speaker 1:He's like don't shoot my dog. You probably should shoot that cat. I don't want to shoot my dog.
Speaker 2:It's water either. I think he's like, yeah, no, you need to shoot this cat. I flinched, I flinched and I'm like it looks like a cat. Oh, this cat. Yeah, I flinched and I'm like it looks like a cat. Oh, my god, my cat flinched for a moment and that cat came out of the water and just mumbled on to one of the faces like you know, a tent, the ball of yarn. Yeah, it's, you know 30 something times. And that thing is next to you and me. I'm mumbling onto them. He's like you need to shoot the fucking cow. Yeah, I'm like, okay, yes, sir, he got the dog away from it. And you know, the shot, the cat, this is the cat even there. I mean, it's on the wall and it's just. It's just one of those stories that like it happens so quick that it's not a long, long story about this stuff. It's a story on Dude, that visual. Yeah, it just made this nasty guttural and just jumped out of the water and just muffled out of the water.
Speaker 1:God, it was like okay, never mind, that's not my problem, we gotta harvest that Dude that's a cool visual of coming out of the forest in the snow, going into the ocean, the dogs and the cat in the ocean brawling the redneck guide yelling at you for not doing your job.
Speaker 2:I love it. It did not make for good photos. A sopping wet cat that's all frozen and covered in snow didn't make for that good grip and grin, I guess they call it. But that's fine with me, because it's going to look like a beautiful animal up on my office walls.
Speaker 1:And you'll be able to tell your daughter that story.
Speaker 2:And that's a good story Mortifile high school friends and stuff when they come in and see them all over the place.
Speaker 1:Right, it's funny, man, my little girl. She's three and she is absolutely a hunter, she's a killer. Every time I bring home a head, she's like. Every morning she's like hey, let's go look at the heads, cause they're in the freezer. It's so funny.
Speaker 2:It's awesome. This morning my daughter she named one of her stuff. Where'd you get that from? Yeah, and she's getting a little. There you go, man. I told my wife I want to take her to the park and take her with me next year, so I have some work to do. I always said I was going to just go with the 22 instead of the fall. I'll take her and do some shadowlifting this year. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know if you listened to the mark canyon episode, but when he took his son turkey hunting but it wasn't turkey season I'm doing that with my three-year-old and six-year-old this year. I cannot wait.
Speaker 2:There you go man, there you go well jordan man.
Speaker 1:This was a lot of fun. You had had a lot of unique stories. Thank you for bringing the Maine perspective. I really appreciate that. Do you want to share? You know I don't know anything with the listeners where you know social media, where you know something you're trying to do personally, you know, you tell me love listening to this podcast and I, just as I listen to it, I'm like I've got to make more connections with the guys out west to the.
Speaker 2:It's my curious. Go hunt with them, and if you want to come hunt with me, feel free to get a hold of me and we can make that happen so sounds fun to me, man.
Speaker 1:We'll stay in touch for sure. All right, brother. Well, thank you. I appreciate you. And uh, to you listeners guys, be like jordan, you know, take a risk, sign up for my, my list, and then you know one guy in Colorado. There you go, sounds good All right buddy, see you, man.
Speaker 1:All right guys, that's it. Another couple stories in the books. So thank you so much to Jordan for reaching out, being brave, asking to come on and share some of his stories. Then, of course, for sharing some amazing stories. As a relatively hunter he he's obviously done a lot in the last few years. It was really fun to listen to him. I'm glad he's fallen in love with it, like I have as an adult onset hunter for you guys, thank you so much for tuning in. I really do appreciate it. Uh, if you could give us a review on whatever you're listening to Spotify, apple podcasts or any other place I would appreciate that. And then, uh, then, if you could share the podcast with at least one other person. Help us keep growing. Help more people reach out or learn about us so that they can come on and share their stories. Thank you guys so much. I really appreciate it. Hope you're having a great day and now get out there and make some stories you want.
