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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 145 The Hunting Stories Podcast: Derrick Murray
Derrick Murray's journey as a hunter began at just five years old, wielding nothing but sticks and his grandfather's questionable advice about knocking squirrels from trees. Remarkably, that bizarre technique worked—creating one of many unforgettable hunting memories that would shape his life.
Through turkey hunts interrupted by oblivious mountain bikers and a troublesome rifle that morphed into a reluctant single-shot, Derrick shares authentic moments from a lifetime in the woods. His most memorable hunt features pants around his knees, deer running through his sights, and five shots in the fading minutes of deer season—a story that perfectly captures the unexpected nature of hunting success.
What makes Derrick's narrative especially powerful is how hunting became his anchor during recovery from addiction. After achieving sobriety nine years ago, his first turkey hunt represented more than just a successful harvest—it marked a reclamation of identity. Watching his young son's eyes light up at the sight of that turkey created a moment of pure connection that reinforced why hunting matters.
Now planning to introduce his five-year-old to the woods, Derrick exemplifies how hunting traditions pass through generations, creating bonds that transcend the simple act of harvest. His stories highlight the healing power of time spent outdoors and remind us that sometimes our most meaningful hunting moments happen when everything seems to be going wrong.
Whether you're a lifelong hunter or simply appreciate authentic outdoor stories, Derrick's experiences offer both humor and heart. Share your own hunting stories with us—we'd love to feature you on a future episode!
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Howdy folks and welcome to the hunting stories podcast. I'm your host, michael, and we have another amazing episode for you today. Today, we actually connect again with another listener, someone who reached out and said hey, I've got some stories I'd love to share with you, with your listeners, and so I want to introduce you guys to Derek Murray. Derek is a great guy, he's overcome a lot and he has some amazing stories for us today. I don't want to steal too much of his thunder, but I want to say, derek, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and sharing everything with us. It means a lot. I really do appreciate it For you listeners. Thank you, guys, so much for tuning in. I appreciate you as well. Please give us a review, a like, a follow, whatever you want to do on whatever platform you're listening to right now. But yeah, let's go ahead and kick this thing off, guys. Let's let Derek tell you some of his stories.
Speaker 2:Thank you Cool man All right, derek.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Hunting Stories podcast. Brother, how are you, good man? How are you? I am doing well, man, I'm doing well. I'm super excited to talk with you. Scheduled this thing out a little while ago and and finally made it, and despite some scheduling conflicts, where you've been sitting around for an hour, so sorry about that. Here we are man ready to hear some stories, so I'm excited I'm excited too, man.
Speaker 2:Um, you know I've been listening to your podcast for a while, so, uh, it's kind of cool to be on on it and uh, yeah, man, yeah, buddy so I say this every time I have a guest on that is a listener, but like, if you guys are listening and you want to come tell some of your stories, hit me up like it's it's easy, like we're all just having fun here.
Speaker 1:That's what this is all about. So, to the listeners, if you have a story or if you know someone who has a great story, reach out to us and we'll touch base and get you on here like Derek and Derek, let's do this. Man, why don't you introduce yourself so everyone knows who they're hearing some stories from today yeah, um, my name is Derek.
Speaker 2:I'm just a average guy from New York, uh, born and raised here and uh, ventured out cross country for a while, kind of got away from hunting um, not necessarily by choice, while kind of got away from hunting um not necessarily by choice. But uh, I grew up hunting. It's what I, what I loved doing as a kid growing up and uh, you know, that's that's kind of my first story man. It's the first kind of real hunting that I did and uh, I think it was like I think it was like my grandfather.
Speaker 2:He, uh man, don't hold me to this because I don't know if it's true or not my grandfather that's the best thing about hunting stories.
Speaker 2:They're all half true, yeah well, my grandfather I don't know if he told me and my cousins this just to get us out of his hair but he told us, if we find a squirrel that's bouncing around a tree, go up and hit the tree with a stick and that squirrel will run down so you can smack it and you know there's an easy meal. So okay, don't hold me to. I don't know if there's any merit behind that. I'll. It comes to play a little bit later in the story, but uh yeah, initially I'm getting you know, uh, what do they call them?
Speaker 1:Snape vibes. We're like hey, go, go look for that Snape and bang the sticks in the woods and you just get kids, just go looking for an animal that doesn't exist.
Speaker 2:That's, that's the vibe this has given me. But go ahead, well, I'll paint the picture. Pretty young I was five years old, five or six. My cousins are both one year and two years older than me, so it was five, six and seven or six, seven and eight, don't really remember the exact age. But uh, my parents set up a camper and our driveway and uh, we would go camping in it, you know, just in the driveway. Parents would be in the house and we'd be down in the camper having fun, playing all night, going out, campfire, type of thing.
Speaker 2:So we're all we're, we're all down there and uh, we decided the next morning we're going to run away and we're going, we're, we're all down there, and uh, we decide the next morning we're gonna run away and we're gonna go live off the land. Now, okay, as little kids and, uh, my grandfather, we, my whole family, lives on the same road. Basically, I mean, it's gotcha, right across the road is my aunt and uncle, right next door is my grandparents, two houses down is my uncle, and my grandfather, who lived next door, had 60 acres and it's all on a hill, all on a hill. So early that next morning, after we decided we're running away, we run up on my grandfather's hill and we build forts up there and do all that fun stuff. But you know, maybe around eight, nine o'clock, we started getting hungry. So what do we do? We listen to my grandfather's story and we start looking for squirrels up in the trees.
Speaker 2:And, uh, we find the squirrel and we start running after it, chasing, chasing it down, hitting the tree, hitting the trees with sticks. I mean, three kids running around, you know that squirrel should have been long gone. But lo and behold, that squirrel ran down that tree and my cousin got the hit on it. No, way.
Speaker 2:It actually worked. Yeah, it worked. Again, I don't know if it was just dumb luck or if what my grandfather said had any merit to it whatsoever, but uh, five, six and seven years old, we're up there cooking up a squirrel.
Speaker 1:Now I don't know or anything, or did you just cook it with fur on, just my?
Speaker 2:cousin. He was seven years old. He was allowed to have a knife at that point, you know Okay okay.
Speaker 2:So we gutted it, we did everything we were supposed to and we scunned the thing. We built the fire, and one squirrel for three kids wasn't quite enough. So we ended up having to go back down and get food. But you know, my parents, my aunt and uncle, they knew exactly where we were the whole time. We're running away, but, uh, you know. So the moral that I guess there's is that, uh, you know, I started off hunting at a really early age, you know it was, that's too normal.
Speaker 1:It was normal for us was your grandpa proud that that you did that, that like? Or was he surprised maybe even that you went out there and killed a squirrel just by stumping it with a stick?
Speaker 2:You know my grandfather was kind of hard Native American type of guy and I don't ever remember him saying much about it. But you know he was more like hunt for food type of thing. He wasn't trophy, he wasn't you know, it was just a way of life for him type of thing. So us going up there and getting a squirrel and eating it, he was more happy that we ate the damn the dang thing you know and then just waste it and leave it up there on the sale yeah, that's awesome man.
Speaker 1:That's a great story. I love that I can't believe that it worked. Like I said, I could have sworn that you guys were just going to be. This story is going to be you and your brothers just banging on trees with sticks for hours and your grandpa laughing at you. But I'm glad it worked out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I don't know how long we're up there actually hitting sticks. I mean it's, you know, five years old.
Speaker 1:My memory is a little bit right. I didn't remember we got one. I didn't remember we ate there you go, man. That's a great story.
Speaker 2:Well, what else you got. So let's go forward a couple years, all right. So, um, I gotta say the first thing that really got me into hunting was turkey hunting. Turkey hunting. I loved it. I loved the fact that you can go out there and as a kid, as a young kid, I could call and have an interaction and, um, you know, my my first real encounter doing that. I believe I was probably eight or nine years old. I couldn't carry a gun in New York State yet um, but I went out hunting with my dad and, uh, my dad, he was late onset hunter. He never hunted, you know, as a kid, and he kind of just got into it because of my mom, his family or her family.
Speaker 1:Okay. Okay, so your grandpa's on the other side of the family, not your dad's dad.
Speaker 2:Correct.
Speaker 1:Correct, okay. Got it so did you ever ask him what got him started? Was it just being around your mom's family, or was there anything him what got him started? Was it just being around your, your mom's family, or was there anything else that got him involved was before that that was pretty much it.
Speaker 2:I mean, it was like my grandfather saying hey, we need, we need some meat because my, my, my grandfather had eight children.
Speaker 2:So I mean it was yeah, it was one of the things where it was definitely a food thing and uh, like hey, get up on the hill and bring, bring home some meat type of thing, um, but uh, so he's the one who really got my dad, it's the one who really got me into hunting type of thing. Um, he was always willing to take me out turkey hunting, always willing to go squirrel hunting, you know, actually with a gun, not sticks, but um, uh, I remember we went up to public land, which there's public land all around me. I mean, I live in a great area for public land and that's cool.
Speaker 1:I didn't know that. I just assumed most of the east coast was like texas right, where everything's private and it's impossible to get out of anything no, new york's actually really great, at least central new york where I'm at.
Speaker 2:I mean, there's okay cool, there's 900 acres less than five miles away from me to be able to hunt and uh wow, did you see run into many hunters out there, or is it pretty? Sparse. No, there's, yeah, hunters everywhere. I mean it's you're kind of, you're kind of hunting the hunters, you know not. You know, find a place where they're not, or you know that type a place where they're not, or you know that type of thing.
Speaker 2:I'll walk everybody or whatever. Okay, so that plays a factor in the stories where, where I'm going with it. Um, so we walk out on public land and, you know, my dad just let me call, let me call and when I was younger I used to be better at calling with just my mouth, not not any. Slate calls no, box calls nothing. So we're walking and I was calling, walking and I was calling, and we finally hear a gobble.
Speaker 2:So we're walking along a trail it's a marked trail, it's known for, you know, having hikers, bikers, everything and we hear this gobble and we set up maybe five yards off the trail. The bird was maybe 150, 200 yards away when we heard it starting to gobble. And we're, I'm calling, I'm calling my dad's setting up and he's, you know, he's getting ready, he thinks this is gonna happen. I think this is gonna happen. We see the bird come up over this, this knoll, probably about 80 yards away. He still has to come down into this creek and then come back up to actually for us to get a shot at him.
Speaker 2:And uh, he was. He was coming in on a string, like there was. He had one mindset and it was to get to us. And uh, he gets down to the bottom of this ravine and we hear some noise off to our our right. I believe it was all right, I'm like man that that doesn't sound like anything, any kind of animal. Next thing, you know, we hear hollering people riding down through with bikes on their bikes and you know, just blew the whole hunt type of thing, you know, and oh my, my dad my dad was angry.
Speaker 2:He stood up and you know the, the, the sound of the shotgun, the I mean those guys on the bikes just hit their brakes. I mean they were, they were, they were scared, you know, because my dad was just standing up letting them know we were there type of thing.
Speaker 1:He was, you know he might have been aggravated yeah that's funny man but um you know, I'm assuming you did you see that bird? You said went into a little ravine and then they, they. You heard the noise. Did you ever see that bird again? Did it come out of the ravine or did it hear the noise and booger off? I?
Speaker 2:never. I never saw it again. I mean as soon as they came down through I. I mean the noise that they were making. You know how? I mean we were five yards off the trail and they came between us and the bird, so I mean Okay, no, god, really that's funny. Yeah, there was no chance on that bird type of thing after that, but I'll tell you what Racking of a shotgun shell is a noise I think everyone knows and everyone understands.
Speaker 1:So that's pretty funny that that's what your dad did yeah, he's, uh, he's a character at times.
Speaker 2:I mean he just he. I don't know how to explain my dad in a in a practical way. He's a hard-working dude and you know. But yeah when, when he, when you start to set him off or get him irritated type thing, he he turns funny. You know the little things that he does, you know? Yeah, funny to me anyways yeah, that's great.
Speaker 1:So when your dad became a hunter is, is now he in love with it, kind of like you are where it's like your life, or did he just kind of do it because it was a part of the family and a thing that was like kind of expected of him?
Speaker 2:it's um, he, he enjoys it, he really does enjoy it. He um okay, but not, I feel like, not to the extent that I took it. You know he, he okay, he got in his own lane type of thing. Like he enjoys to go out and hunt, he loves to do it, and he loves to do it with me, you know. And now his grandchildren, um, who he's you know, gonna be able to go out this year with um, so he's he's excited about that fact of it.
Speaker 1:Um, that's cool when.
Speaker 2:so when I left new y I left New York nine years ago Um, he didn't do a lot of hunting. Um, since I've been gone, there's other things like health issues with my, with my mother and and that type of thing, that kind of prevented him from hunting.
Speaker 2:But uh, now that I'm back in New York. We got to go out last winter for deer season and, uh, we weren't successful. But you know he's still. You know he was waking up in the morning with his pants on. As soon as I'm pulling in the driveway he's loading up his truck type of thing, you know.
Speaker 1:Awesome, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Those are going to be some great memories, especially once you get your kid out there with him. Like that'll be. That's what it's all about, like, like your first story, right, your grandpa, and this you know, banging sticks to kill squirrels.
Speaker 2:Who knows what your dad will tell your, your kiddo? So, yeah, no, exactly I'm, I'm excited for it. I mean, I'm really excited because, you know, this is the first year that I'm taking my son. I believe our kids are pretty much the same age. I have a boy that's five, a girl that's three, and then I got a three-month-old.
Speaker 1:There you go man Racking them up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no more, three's enough. Well, cool man.
Speaker 1:Well, very cool. Yeah, I almost got my son out for turkey hunting this year. The problem is it's like out here you got to really hike, and so I'm trying to find a place that I can get on birds without like having to go on a too long of a hike, because of several reasons. One, he just doesn't want to hike that far, and then, secondly, like you want to get in when it's relatively dark, and asking a five-year-old or six-year-old to walk too far into the rocky mountains and the pitch black is just not going to work. So I'm trying to find a way to like get something. I I've got a friend who's got the property that backs up to some national forest that no one else has access to, so I was thinking of putting a blind back there, hanging out at my friend's house until right when the sun comes up and then shooting out there with him, something like that, so he doesn't get too scared of the dark.
Speaker 1:So we'll see, we'll see, I'll figure it out eventually. When's the?
Speaker 2:turkey season already started there, or is it?
Speaker 1:By the time this episode comes out? Yes, by the time this episode comes out. Yes, but not yet. It starts on Friday or, excuse me, saturday, so I think in two days.
Speaker 2:Man, I'm jealous. I got to wait until. May 1st oh yeah, you have to watch people all over the country.
Speaker 1:I think in Texas it's been like two weeks it's been open already. It's been crazy.
Speaker 2:New York is one of the latest seasons that I think they have in the States. I don't know why. I mean, there's birds out there gobbling their heads off right now and it's just driving me nuts, like you know. I can't wait to get out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, who knows, maybe it's like the farther you go north, the later that they actually get to that. Like I don't know, it's not the rut, I don't know what it is for birds, but we'll call it the rut but maybe they just need to get to the point where they know they're breeding um, and that's why the seasons are pushed out a little bit, to make sure that the breeding happens before everybody starts shooting at them. So who knows?
Speaker 2:yeah, who knows?
Speaker 1:either way, I'm sure there's some reason, but yeah yeah, some biologist somewhere ruining all your fun, but that's just what life is All right, derek. What else you got for us man?
Speaker 2:Um, you know, I actually wanted to kind of so so. So last year I was hunting in New Jersey. So actually, you know what? Let me back up a little bit. So I left New York and I got a job traveling the country building old folks homes. So I got to go out to. You know, most of the states apply never get any, you know, draw anything.
Speaker 2:But when I was actually actually the last place, last state that we were in was new jersey and uh, surprisingly, new jersey has a really good deer hunting program, like in the south southern tier of new jersey. Like I couldn't believe the amount of tags that I got got for a non-resident. There's no draw or anything like that, it's just like you pay the money, you get the tags.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did you get a bear tag? I know New Jersey's got the most bears per capita of any state in the country, which is crazy.
Speaker 2:I didn't get a bear tag. I thought about it, but I I went archery only um okay so I didn't. I didn't get to do any gun hunts, I didn't even try to do that, it was just strictly archery.
Speaker 2:The the piece of public land that I found was only 50, 60 acres um, which was near an rv park that I was staying at uh, okay so you know, and that's the other thing too I mean, if I got a bear and I brought it back to the rv park and had to process it, and you know, might might get a couple weird looks, or might get, you know some complaints called on me, type of thing slightly different conversation than bringing back a deer, I guess yeah yeah, I mean, I got looks when I brought back deer too, but uh, you know, I can explain that one a little bit better than a bear, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah but, um, okay, okay. Anyways, I was surprised that new jersey's um deer tags and I went out, like I said, fully archery, um and uh, I went out and the amount of tree stands that I found out in this little piece of private or public land was crazy. I mean, there was, like every other tree there was, a tree stand bolted to it. I thought that was, oh yeah, I thought that was insane. Like you couldn't, I was like man, are people actually hunting it this hard? But I never saw anybody in them, so they just leave them there all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I mean, I ended up leaving mine. I I cable locked it to the tree, Um, you know, and I I was, I was hunting pretty much the whole season, every chance I could get, um, so I was there quite, quite regularly. But, um, I wanted to bring up this story because I learned something from this podcast that I made the same mistake I believe you did no, we're not you.
Speaker 1:I say it all the time. We're not supposed to learn things on this podcast, it's just supposed to be fun, it is fun, damn it. What'd you learn? All right, keep going.
Speaker 2:I believe you had a story about an elk that came within 20, 30 yards behind some brush.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Was it the one where I left my muzzle loader on the other side of a big rock?
Speaker 2:it might. It might be. I could you know, I could be wrong in this story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tell the story and we'll see what I, what I recall. Maybe it's me, maybe it's I mean, I can't remember every story, but we'll see so trophy deer have eluded me every hunting season I mean, it's not that I don't see them, it's not that I don't get with the range.
Speaker 2:It's just that I do something you know messed up or whatever it is, and my trophy deer is probably a lot different than somebody else's trophy deer, but uh yeah I had my stand set up and I had the nicest, nicest 10-point walk in within 20 yards, came to full draw, had no idea I was there whatsoever in my tree stand, pulled back, hit the release and I shot in front of him. Now I was like man, my bow's not off. That's a 20-yard shot. I know I got that shot all day long. Why did I miss that?
Speaker 1:shot because missing missing in front means you're missing by like 12 to 16 inches, that's, that's that's off that's interesting so what, what?
Speaker 2:what I think it was is I looked at the pin, but I never looked through my peep sight.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:So when I was at full draw you know my head angle pushed my arrow over in front of his chest because he came from right to left and that's the only thing I could think of. But the part where I actually learned something is a week later. I kept seeing these deer that were crossing 50, 60 yards up where I couldn't get a shot. So a week later I decided, after sitting all morning, that I was going to get down and just walk up there and see if I can find a new spot to set up relatively close to where I was. 10.30 in the afternoon, 11 o'clock in the afternoon, I'm out of my stand walking up through, I have my arrow knocked, just walking up through, just by chance, and down comes this 10-point.
Speaker 2:Same exact deer Came right down 15 yards in front of me and stopped behind a bush and I went a full draw on him, made sure I was looking through the peep site this time and uh, I was waiting for him to take that step right past that brush and uh, he never did. He saw me, you know, he was staring me down. He kicked off and he ran back the other way and I never, I never took the shot and I swear it was probably a week later. I was listening to your podcast at work and, uh, you told that story to somebody, or somebody told that story to you. All I remember is that I heard it on the podcast and it was, I believe it was.
Speaker 1:But huh, I don't know, if I have one with an elk, so maybe. But huh, I don't know. If I have one with an elk, so maybe somebody else. It does make me think of the one time I uh almost killed a. It was in texas. I was in a blind. Long story short because I've told the story probably five times or whatnot on the podcast.
Speaker 1:but I pull, I go folder on a turkey that I had called in um. But I was basically ready to pack up and I wasn't hunting turkey, I was hunting axis deer. So I was like whatever for turkeys, here it's turkey season, I'm gonna shoot it um. And in texas you can use a rifle, you don't have to use a you know, shotgun or a bow or whatever, and you can do that in colorado too, but only in the fall seasons. Either way, I pull back and there's brush in front of the turkey. So I and I was a novice, like I don't, I had killed one other turkey with a bow, but I'd never really really killed anything else and that turkey it was 15 yards, nothing in between us.
Speaker 1:This one, there's brush, it wasn't a lot, it was really just grass like tall grass, and I just didn't know, because I never shot through enough of that stuff to know how it would affect my arrow, and I was like I don't want to hurt this thing. So I let down, put my bow down and pick my rifle up and rifle up and I look and I can't find it.
Speaker 1:So then I set the rifle back down and at the time I couldn't mouth call. So I bring out my slate call and he pops up and now, but he went from like 20 yards to like 50. So I got my rifle up and I put it on him. Next thing, you know, I'm like I can't see shit Cause I'm dialed up to 10. I pull it back down, and I dial it back down to three, and I pull it up and there's that bird and he's strutting and I just uh and took him down. So I've told that story plenty of times and there's a little bit more to it than that. But, um, it does remind me of yours where, like, I went full draw on an animal in front of the brush and and I'm sure I've heard plenty of stories well, that happening to a lot of people man it it's a, it's an unfortunate thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I mean, like, like you said, you just said that you're kind of a novice. I consider myself a novice too, especially when it comes with a bow. You know I I'm pretty deadly with a rifle, other than this year apparently but uh, I got a love hate relationship with my gun man. I got a love hate relationship.
Speaker 1:That's funny, man. I have only killed that turkey that I just told you about with a rifle. Otherwise, I've killed a white tail deer with a shotgun, another turkey with a shotgun and everything else with my bow, like everything else I've hunted Like, and it's crazy to me that like the harder it gets. For some reason that's where I seem to have success, cause I I don't even find animals when I'm using easier weapons, now that they're easier when I'm using guns.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, I mean, my first successful harvest was in New Jersey with a bow, so I mean that was whitetail doe and you know it was not much of a story.
Speaker 2:She came to 30 yards. You know she ran 20 yards and that was. That was the end of her type of thing. But um, yeah, yeah, there was. I mean there was a lot of time that went into that. You know that actually put me in that position, but you know it's, it's just how many, how many days do you think you put in there in new jersey?
Speaker 2:oh, their season started in september and ended january, january like 20th or something like that, but uh, I probably hunted probably every weekend, except two, you know okay throughout that, throughout the whole time and then whenever I could on the weekdays, if I got off of work early I'd go hit the stand.
Speaker 2:You know I'm pretty particular about getting in super early if I'm hunting in the afternoon or, you know, getting in two hours before daylight in the morning, type of thing. So if I don't meet those parameters it's just I don't even. You know, I try not to go at least to the spot where my stand set up. I might go somewhere else where I can just kind of get in, scout and hunt type of thing, but I won't go to anywhere where I don't want to blow anything up, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, there's nothing wrong with that. It's a good strategy, getting in there nice and early. I struggle with that. I need to be better. I'll tell you that I get in there in the dark, but not two hours in the dark. I think that would be pretty epic to get in there and have that quiet time in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's cool for the first 30 minutes and, depending on the time of year, my opinion, it gets pretty cold by daybreak. You're waiting for that sun to hit you.
Speaker 1:That's the truth, man. That's the truth. Cool man, what other stories you got for us, derek? I know you said you have a handful of little guys. We'll just keep rattling through these things, man yeah, man.
Speaker 2:So let me get to my love hate relationship with my with my rifle there we go.
Speaker 2:So, uh, again, while I was traveling, I I would come back to New York. I have a lifetime license here. Um, so I get, you know, tags mailed to me every year, um and uh. So my dad had my tags, I was in Iowa and I was like you know what, I think I can make it back home for the opening week of deer season this year. And, uh, I hadn't had my 308 out since I was in arizona, which was probably four years prior, when I went on a coos deer hunt that I didn't even get the rifle but, um, I didn't get drawn. But so, anyways, I'm in iowa and I go to, I drive over to new york. I think I got the last two days of archery where I brought my bow too, and I didn't see anything.
Speaker 2:But I went out and was all right, let's make sure 308 sighted in, let's go out back. And you know, make sure, make sure I'm dialed. So go out back, pull up and I shoot. And I'm like, all right, it's a little off. So I start turning some things and uh, go, man, it seems like I'm getting way off here. Like, no matter what I'm doing, I'm how am I not sighting this gun in and, uh, I go to put my clip in my clips, not staying in my gun. There's a little. The little through underneath there fell out which actually helps hold the barrel down. So my barrel's bouncing way out of the stock and I'm in my dad's yard. I don't know where the screw is I'm looking around oh yeah, I couldn't find it.
Speaker 2:Actually my dad did find it, but uh, but not before that deer season. Um, so that screw held in the the spot that actually the clip actually clips to. So my clip okay wouldn't stay in. I found a screw with the same thread pattern. I had to put like two washers in it just so that my stock wouldn't be coming off my. You know, my barrel wouldn't be coming off my stock and it turned my my bolt action 308 into a single shot 308 so oh my god that's the start of it.
Speaker 2:It gets better. Okay, I start. All right, cool, I got the barrel fixed. Now I'm gonna sight the gun back in. You know, now everything's off. So I go and shoot it, maybe twice, and my cross there's just completely go sideways in my gun and start rattling around in there yeah on my scope. So I'm like, wow, this scope is garbage. Now you know, I gotta go buy a new scope did someone drop it?
Speaker 1:like what made that happen? I've never heard of, uh, the the actual crosshairs moving around I have no idea what happened.
Speaker 2:I mean it's I bought the gun with that scope on it. I don't know if, you know, I traveled cross country. I kept it in a box, um like a. You know, I traveled cross country. I kept it in a box, um, like a gun. You know a gun box. But um, I don't know what happened to it. But anyways, I go and buy, go, buy a new scope. The lenses are way better on this, my new scope anyway. So I'm kind of happy. It happened, um, but uh, so I put, I mount the scope on and the first shot I take I didn't tighten one of those screws down to put the scope on the rail all the way and that scope came flying back off, smoked me in the face. I got blood pouring down my face. I mean I'm like getting ready to sell this gun immediately.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that one, that one, derek. Well, I mean a little operator error. At this point, man, we're going to start worrying about you more than the gun, but go ahead.
Speaker 2:No, no, I get you that one was completely me. But you know, it's just like one thing after another man, I'm like I can't get this gun right. It's a single shot. Now, you know, after another man, I'm like I can't get this gun right. It's a single shot.
Speaker 1:now, you know, scope's flying off hitting me in the face and um did the scope actually come off or did you just get scoped? I've seen guys get scope before.
Speaker 2:It's funny every time no, the scope actually came off like I I've I learned my lesson young about getting scoped. I mean, it still happens occasionally, but you know, um yeah, the scope been flying off. Landed on the ground, I was worried about my new scope that I just bought, you know, and ended up putting it back on the gun, sighted it and everything was fine.
Speaker 2:Um okay like I said at the beginning of the story, I had a week to hunt new york before I had to go back to iowa for work and, uh, I hunted every single day from sun up to sundown and I saw one deer until the last day, damn yeah okay now, this is all public land.
Speaker 2:And you know I got a couple buddies like, hey, why don't you come over here with me this day? And you know why don't you come over here? And you know we'd go and let's do some deer drive, let's try and drive some deer, and just nothing was moving. Um huh, yeah, I mean I walked across 10 gut piles. You know where someone else has done a small buck.
Speaker 1:You know that's about all I could.
Speaker 2:They're there no, yeah, they're there, it's just I'm not there when they are.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So on the last day of the hunt I go out to a place that I never liked going. I mean there's deer there. I know there's deer there. It's a hard place to get to. I mean it's just a straight hill. It's, you know the old story uphill both ways, no matter which way you go. Okay, three and a half feet of snow on the ground. I didn't really want to go there, but my buddy's like come on, let's yeah. He's like let's go.
Speaker 1:So I go out. Do the deer even move around when there's that much snow? That's so much snow, yeah they still move.
Speaker 2:I mean, it definitely slows, you know, but they got to eat, they still got to eat, they still got to drink, they got to do all the normal stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:But it got down to the last 10 minutes of shooting light and I hadn't seen a deer. And I stand up, I'm freezing. I'm on the side of this hill. The wind's blasting me in the face for the two hours I've been sitting there not seeing anything. I'm not even seeing squirrels around. Third point and I said, all right, I got to go take take a piss. So I learned my lesson from being younger. I brought my gun with me and I stand, I'm standing up against this tree and I just unzip my pants and I look over to my right and I see probably 10 deer running. Oh no. So I picked up my gun. My pants are down at my knees at this point. I don't have any number.
Speaker 2:You're going number two, huh no, no, no, it was just. I got 15 layers on. Once I start taking the belts off, I gotta pull them all down to get get stuff out. You know yeah have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, have you ever heard it? What do they say? It's like it's that season where you got to get two inches of pecker out of four inches of Carhartt, or something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, eight inches or two inches of pecker out of eight inches of clothing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was what was going on. Three and a half feet of snow.
Speaker 2:So these deer are running. I pick up my rifle, I pull up, boom, I shot this deer on a dead run. I knew it was a doe, it was a group of does. I had two doe tags and, uh, I watched her pile right up dead run, you know, smoked her. One of the other does that was behind her stopped right over top of her. She was piled up and she stopped right on top of her.
Speaker 2:I'm like, well, you're there, okay, might as well yeah, I got two tags yep, and so I pull back up, shoot again, and this I I hit her and she starts running towards me. Mind you, you single shot. Now I'm putting another one in it because I mean, it's the last 10 minutes of shooting light here. I don't really want her to run off too far. I got to drag her up this hill as it is and I put three more rounds into her before she finally fell at 10 yards away from me and I was thinking I was missing her the whole time.
Speaker 2:But when we processed her we processed our own deer. There was four bullet holes in her Wow.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. She just not hit any vitals, or she just jacked up on adrenaline or whatever.
Speaker 2:I believe the first shot. I clipped one lung and then the other ones were all in the front shoulder. I mean, it was just I. I I know I was sitting vital area. I don't know exactly what I hit. It was pretty mangled actually when I when I opened her up, but I believe it three or four shots with a 308 from 10 yards. Yeah, I believe it. Well, it started at like 120 and then worked up to 10 yards away.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, that's pretty funny and your scope held on the whole time.
Speaker 2:The scope held on the whole time and you know, love-hate relationship with that thing. So what?
Speaker 1:point did you pull your pants back up, though? What point did your pants come off of the knees and ankles?
Speaker 2:Probably about the time my buddy came running up over the hill.
Speaker 1:Man. He must have thought there was a battle going on, because you're like I'm going to go piss Next thing he knows five rounds are fired and two deer are down. He goes.
Speaker 2:I thought you were shooting, a single shot, you know.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I'm pulling up my pants and I'm yelling. I'm like, hey, go make sure that deer is down. I got to go check this other one. And he's yelling you got two of them. I'm like, yeah, there's two of them down. We got to drag two of them out of here.
Speaker 1:Oh man, that's awesome. That's an epic little moment there. I I learned that lesson about leaving your rifle while you go piss or do whatever. Everybody has to learn that lesson once. Man, I'm glad, I'm glad you'd already learned that lesson and that story ended that way rather than, uh, with the deer just walking away yeah, man, it was.
Speaker 2:It was. Uh, it was a fun night because I mean, we were up till one o'clock in the morning processing after that point and, uh, I had to drive back to iowa, which was a 16 hour drive the next morning, so it was how, uh, how far out was the drag for the deer? Oh, probably I wasn't. It wasn't terribly far, it wasn't like any colorado packing out that thing. It was a mile or two, it wasn't anything okay, not not too crazy up a hill like this. I mean it was you know.
Speaker 1:They were at the bottom of that hill when, when they died and uh, so when you kill those things and you shoot them at the bottom of that hill, when they died, so when you kill those things and you shoot them at the bottom of a hill, does it just not cross eastern hunters' minds to like take it apart, throw it in a bag and walk out with it? Or do you guys all just drag it out? Because in Colorado, like obviously elk, even mule deer, you're not dragging those things anywhere. Often you're too far back, but they're also just way too damn big. But not dragging those things anywhere, often you're too far back, but they're also just way too damn big. Um, but I've killed one whitetail and man. I quartered that thing right up because I didn't know any better, and uh and I and I packed it out. So is that just not something that's done in the east?
Speaker 2:I mean I, I don't know, I don't. I've never really hunted the west. I mean I hear everyone packing them out, but it's just kind of what I grew up doing. So, like you know, I still do it.
Speaker 1:I mean I like to.
Speaker 2:I also like to let my deer hang, if I can. You know, if it's cold enough and I can bring them back, I'll let them hang for 10 days before I even really touch them.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So I mean, I don't know if that's part of it, I just do it because that's how I was taught to do it. You know, it was just you got them in the field. That's a good enough answer. You throw the heart and the liver back inside of her and or him, whatever it is, and drag it back out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, huh, that's interesting, man, it's. It's interesting like a cultural difference between how you, how you deal with, uh, deal with the once they're down, because, yeah, all the small animals I've ever killed, I still just quartered them up. I just didn't like it. Like you don't know any better with your strategy, I don't know any better with mine. And I've killed an axis deer in hawaii. It was again. It was two miles back there and I'm like I'm not lugging this thing out of here so I just started skinning it and put it all.
Speaker 1:I had game bags. I threw them all in my pack and I, of course, I have a pack that has a great frame on it, so it's like not a big deal to throw, you know, a hundred pounds on it.
Speaker 2:So I don't even own one with a frame. You know like my backpack holds. You know my extra clothing.
Speaker 1:You know that's yeah, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and that's about it.
Speaker 2:You know I'm not, you know I, I'm not one of those hunters that takes food out with me. I don't know what it is I just, oh, okay, I, I do not take food out with me now. I'm, mind you, I'm not going out camping or I'm not like like I might hike in five miles, but I'm hiking out five miles and going home to my bed. You know type of thing yeah, um, yeah.
Speaker 1:No, that that makes sense, man, that makes sense. I'm. I'm the kind of hunter that has to take food. I'm just a big guy guy. I run out of gas, so I got to have food with me. I got to have like peak refuels put in 4,000 calories, otherwise I can't go.
Speaker 2:I grew up wrestling as a sport, so I mean going without food is normal for me.
Speaker 1:There you go, there you go. All right, we got off track. We went down one of them rabbit holes.
Speaker 2:What else you got for us, derek? Um, yeah I got another turkey one for you I think, all right, let's do it, man. Uh, so this is this is. This is a cool one for me because it was the first time I got back into hunting, which I didn't really tell you. I mean, it was just basically, I left new york and, um know, it was a bunch of drug related stuff and I'm clean and sober for nine years and but took me on hunting for a while. Good for you.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you took that journey and got out of it. That's what's important. So congratulations, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome. Again, it wasn't my choice at the time, but it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Good man you.
Speaker 1:Again, it wasn't my choice at the time, but it was the best thing that ever happened to me Good man.
Speaker 2:I'm glad to hear it it was, and it took a while to refine myself and, you know, get back into hunting, type of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Which I didn't realize was such an integral part of who I am and what I really love to do. And I, you know, I eat, sleep and breathe that type of thing. Now it's like what I what I wake up hearing. But this was my first hunt after being sober. Hell, yeah, very cool. My son, which he was like I don't know two years old at the time, maybe he didn't get to go with me, but he was there to enjoy it afterwards, which was really cool.
Speaker 2:So I don't remember where I was, but my wife and I drove back to New York with my son and, um, it was like middle of May for Turkey season and uh, you know, I went back to New York with the plan to go turkey hunting and then obviously visit family, because I hadn't seen a lot of family you know me being gone for for a couple of years and so I, I was using my dad's shotgun I did not have my own shotgun yet, own shotgun yet and uh, my grandfather's hill, again right next door to my dad's house, um, I was going up there every single morning, every single morning that I could, and there wasn't a single bird goblin. I couldn't hear anything, I mean, and I don't know where it's, what it's like elsewhere, but in new york you can only hunt till noon um during the springtime for turkeys um, oh, that's interesting.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that yeah, so, um, you know, I was hunting from sun up till noon and and and not getting anything. And when I was a kid I had my grandfather's hill pretty well pegged down for where the turkeys were going to be and where I needed to set up. Being gone for three or four years, everything changed. My grandfather had cows. He didn't have cows at that point in time, so now different wildlife was moving around, eating in different places, type of thing. About a mile up on my grandfather's hill he has a cabin and behind the cabin is this big field which half of it he owns and half of it a neighbor owns, and I never really liked hunting up there, but I know there's birds up there.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So, after hunting for a couple days not hearing any birds, I decided you know what a couple days not hearing any birds I I decided, you know what, I'm gonna take my dad's truck, drive up to the cabin, park his truck and then walk the rest of the way up to that field and sit in that field. And uh, that was my plan in the morning, which never happened. I got up. I got up and started driving the hill, driving up the hill, and maybe a quarter mile up the hill there's this weird hill with a bend on it, okay, and uh, there's trees lining both sides of the road.
Speaker 2:For some reason this morning was muddier than the rest of the mornings. I've been up there. My dad's truck, four-wheel drive, wasn't making it up through this mud. The truck was sliding sideways down into the trees. I'm like I can't let my dad's truck go into the trees. I'm getting out, I'm cutting pine boughs, putting them underneath the tires, trying to get it out of the mud. Now it's like, you know, it's still before sun up and I'm I'm just like come on, man, I just want to get up to this field and uh, okay.
Speaker 2:I'm fighting it the whole way and, uh, finally, I'm like man, I gotta, I gotta like try and back out of here, like without hitting this tree, like you know, and I'm I'm not gonna get this hunt. You know, sun's up right now and yeah, I'm like for shits and giggles, I'm gonna hit my slate call. I hit my slate call and 200 yards away I get three gobbles Like hammering.
Speaker 1:No way, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:And the day before sorry I'm bouncing around a little bit, but the day before my dad took me down to our local sporting goods store and he bought me my own gun, my own 12-gauge, and it was kind of like yeah, it was kind of like a yeah, it was kind of like, hey, man, I'm glad you're doing good, I want you to get back in stuff that you love. I'm buying this gun for you. And, uh, that was the first, the first day I really owned that gun. As you know, I'm taking this thing out and I got three birds hammering at my sleigh call.
Speaker 2:My dad's truck is stuck in the mud, about to hit a tree. So I I grab a log, I shove it behind the tire, throw all my my, my vest on and I'm going towards the turkeys. You know I'm, I'm, I'm hitting it, making sure where their location is. I'd sit down and be like, oh, they're coming. I hit the slate calls a couple times and they'd come down a little bit closer and then I'd hear them start drifting off. I'm like, all right, I got to get up and move. I'm going back towards them Another 50 yards, towards these birds. They come in another 10, 20 yards and then back off, and by the time I knew it, I'm half a mile past my dad's truck you know, just working these steps every time and you know I, I get up to man.
Speaker 2:I hunted this spot like three days in a row. Not a single gobble, not a single bird, nothing. I get up to it and I set up and right, I don't even have a chance to hit my slate call after I set up here and I'm like on a log just so I could see over top of it with my gun, like, and they can't really see me that there's no real like I'm going to find this tree and set up and like have a nice setup.
Speaker 2:I'm like laying across this log type of thing, Just like, please don't see me, just do what you can yeah. And these birds come down 15 yards and first day with the new gun I blast them. You know Hell yeah. And so it drops, and you know, and Hell yeah, so it drops, and you know, I run up, I'm super pumped, I'm, you know, I'm like yelling because this is like the best thing, that's happened to me, you know, in a long time.
Speaker 2:And yeah, there's a lot of things that happen to me, but, like hunting wise, I was like dude, this is it, this is what I'm this is what I'm doing here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's awesome.
Speaker 2:And then the realization of like, oh, I still got to go get my dad's truck unstuck. And I'm, you know, I'm, I'm calling him, I'm calling my cousin. I'm like, hey man, are you? Are you at work, you know? And everyone's like's like, yeah, I'm at work, I can't come help you until this afternoon, type of thing. And I'm like, ah, what am I gonna do? And I mean that eventually I just stuck more pine boughs underneath there and I got it away from the tree a little bit and kind of slid down onto an old, old road and, uh, was able to get my dad's truck out of there and go back down. And it was. I walked into my dad's household in turkey and my son maybe was awake for five minutes prior to this and just to see his eyes light up man, it was, was amazing oh man, I can't believe it instagram him, him sitting on my lap with that turkey man he was.
Speaker 2:I think he was just as happy as I was. Um, you know seeing that thing and you know he's he's pumped for this year he really is, man he's I got one of those ground blinds. I don't know if you've seen them, the ones the I believe it's tide we where you can see through them yeah, yeah I've got one of those too, man.
Speaker 1:I've got an older model that's super cool and sometimes I feel like I can see right through it, but sometimes, when I'm trying to look through it, I'm like I can't see shit.
Speaker 2:I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1:It's like when you're concentrating you can't, but when you're not concentrating you can look right through it, but that's mine, Again mine.
Speaker 2:I's. That's the whole reason why I got it, cause I mean I'm perfectly fine with sitting on, sitting next to a tree or, you know, climbing to a stand, which I'm not going to bring my son into a stand with me, and you know I want them to have that movement ability, you know. And where. I mean to get a five-year-old to sit. Still, I mean, you know it's, it's gonna be a challenge type of impossible impossible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just bring like a little rug, put them on the floor, not even a chair, chair, that'd make too much noise. But, um, that's exactly my plan. Man, using that same blind, I'll get my boy out there eventually. If I kill a turkey this weekend, I might even go out with him another time and just put the blind out, like not, I only have one tag. Um, but I go out in there and just like just call from the blind to like we'll just make the best out of it and pretend like we're hunting yeah that's, that's what I did when we were in new jersey with my son, with uh, bow hunting.
Speaker 2:You know I brought him out there with no intention of you know, if one walked by obviously I was gonna shoot it, but you know it was just bringing him out there to the exposure and he found a turkey feather while he was out there and he was, you know, all happy about finding the turkey feather and it was just. You know, that's what it's about man getting them going and 100 100 man.
Speaker 1:I can't wait to get my kiddos involved. I'm excited you got to keep me in the loop and let me know how it goes with your kiddo. I want to. I want to hear how he managed um and any tips and tricks you got when you went and she could pass it my way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I, I for sure will do, but uh, I'm just winging it, okay cool.
Speaker 1:All right, derek man. Well, this was fun, brother, I appreciate you telling us your stories. I, I, I love kind of like the um. You know, of course everybody likes the one big grandiose story but like the like the quick hitters, that all are just like really fun and entertaining. Always fun to listen to man. So thank you very much for for reaching out and uh and sharing your stories with us, man, and your story of your, your successes with you know, getting off of whatever you were on getting away from drugs, that's, that's awesome. And I'm glad that you got back to hunting, it's. I'm glad that that's taken and filled that spot for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I mean, it's just like any, anything I can do, hunting related, I mean, and you know if, if you're struggling, if somebody's struggling with addiction, I mean there's, there's hope there. There's, there's hope out there, you know, just taking that next step and doing the next indicated thing uh the next right indicated step uh type of thing. And uh, you know it's, it's. Uh, it's been a pleasure being on here with you, man. I mean, I've listened to every single one of your podcasts, I believe.
Speaker 1:And uh, you know it's way too much of my voice.
Speaker 2:Hey, man, it's awesome While I'm at work. I believe you had someone on recently too, man. It was like I, when I was listening to him, it was like he was telling my story. Man, he's like at work, listening to you all day long and I believe he's in, he was in construction and everything and it was just.
Speaker 1:It was awesome listening to that guy too, man trying to blank on his name right now, but that's the gentleman from maine. That's not what that sounds like. Yeah, um, but yeah no it's uh, yeah, that's what this is all about, just hearing, having fun with it, and I'm glad you listened in, man, I really do appreciate that.
Speaker 2:And once again I'll tell the listeners.
Speaker 1:man, if you guys have a good story, reach out. Be like Derek. Derek's brave Got on here. We had a good time. At least I had a good time. Hopefully you did too, derek. I'm always looking for more guests, and I'd rather have the average Joe Hunter on than an influencer, because you guys are more fun. So let's do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks again. Do you want to share your socials or you just want to walk off into the sunset? I'm not going to force you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I'll share my socials. I mean, it's Derek1536 on Instagram, I believe, and there's not much on there. But uh, you know, feel free.
Speaker 1:Cool, cool man. I'll link it in the show notes. If people want to hit you up, I mean, who knows, maybe someone's got a similar journey and they want to just like bounce some things off of you, who knows? We're all here to help each other. But, derek, thank you again, man, I appreciate you. This was a ton of fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man I appreciate you.
Speaker 1:This was a ton of fun. Yeah, man, I appreciate it. Man, all right, guys, that's it Again. I want to thank Derek for coming on the podcast Couldn't have done it without him but of course, you guys for tuning in as well. I really do appreciate it. I hope you guys enjoy hearing these stories as much as I do, because I really do enjoy them. If you have a great story, get on my website, go to the Instagram, wherever it is. I've got the form kind of all over the place. It's even in the show notes. Fill it out, Let me know that you're interested in connecting and we will be in touch and we'll hear some more stories from amazing hunters around the country, even around the world, actually. So that's it, guys. Beyond that, review us, like us, share us with a friend, but, most importantly, get out there and make some stories of your own. Thank you.
