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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 152 The Hunting Stories Podcast: Jonathan Bottoms
Meet Jonathan Bottoms, the self-proclaimed "worst hunter in Southeast Texas," whose three-year journey from complete novice to dedicated sportsman will leave you both entertained and inspired. Jonathan's path began not through family tradition but with a spontaneous invitation to hunt in Mexico armed with nothing but a bow retrieved from beneath someone's porch. That first successful harvest created dangerously unrealistic expectations, setting the stage for the wild adventures that followed.
Leaving behind Colorado's mountains for Texas swamplands, Jonathan found himself navigating challenges no YouTube hunting tutorial could prepare him for. Chest-deep water, water moccasins, alligators, and terrain unlike anything in popular hunting media required him to develop a completely different approach. His stories range from heart-stopping (stepping on two venomous snakes back-to-back) to hilarious (pursuing a modest buck he named Dave while repeatedly calling in his "buddy" Larry, a spike with Napoleon syndrome).
What truly sets Jonathan's approach apart is his unwavering persistence. Despite an exploding bow at the moment of truth, riding a tree through a hurricane, and confronting poachers on public land, he maintained his enthusiasm, hunting every possible morning and evening throughout the season. This dedication eventually led to his proudest achievement – harvesting a buck that represented not impressive measurements, but the culmination of countless hours learning the woods.
For new hunters feeling overwhelmed, Jonathan's message resonates deeply: "Just keep doing it. I might fail, but I learn and do it different next time. What matters is getting out there... if you're lucky, you get something. If not, you still get to spend your day in the woods." This authentic perspective reminds us that hunting's true value lies not in the harvest but in the journey itself.
https://www.instagram.com/jonathan_bottoms/
https://www.facebook.com/jbotttoms/
https://www.christianfellowship.church/
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Howdy folks and welcome to the hunting stories podcast. I'm your host, michael, and we got another great episode for you today. Today we actually connect with Jonathan Bottoms. Jonathan is another listener who reached out, said he had some great stories to tell, and he did have some great stories to tell. He's also got a unique story. He is a newer hunter, only been doing it for a few years. He's a self-proclaimed worst hunter in east texas. Um, I don't necessarily agree with that, but he does have some fun stories for us today. So, jonathan, thank you so much for reaching out. Really do appreciate it, um, to coming on and and sharing your stories and then do listeners. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. I, of course, appreciate you. Uh, make sure you share the podcast with one person. Give us a review. Now let's go ahead and let jonathan tell you some of his stories.
Speaker 1:Thank you all right jonathan, welcome to the hunting stories podcast. Man, how are you?
Speaker 2:I'm doing all right, man, how are you?
Speaker 1:I am doing well. Sir, I'm happy to have you here. I was running late, so I apologize for that, but you were here when I logged in, so let's do it. Man, why don't you introduce yourself to to the folks? They know who they're hearing some stories from today.
Speaker 2:Hi, my name is Jonathan Bottoms. I'm a pastor down in Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Texas area, and I'm the worst hunter in Southeast Texas.
Speaker 1:Perfect. I love where we're starting off with this one. This is probably going to be fun. Let me ask you this. I know you started and you said you were raised in Colorado, moved to Texas.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:Was it being a pastor that got you down to Texas and finding your path? It is Okay.
Speaker 2:I grew up in Strasburg, colorado. That's about 30 minutes east of Denver, down the flat area, and my dad was a pastor there. It's east of Denver, down the flat area, and my dad was a pastor there, and so I grew up and at some point I felt like God was calling me into the ministry. My two siblings did not end up in the ministry, probably for good reasons. If you grow up in it, it can sour you on the job pretty quickly. So I went to a school right outside of Dallas for ministry, met my wife, got married and ended up in Beaumont, texas, back in 2016. So almost 10 years ago, gotcha man.
Speaker 1:And I've just been down here in the swamps. Hell yeah, let me see. What did I want to ask Hunting. How long have you been hunting? Your whole life, or is it that you picked up and moved to Texas? No, actually.
Speaker 2:So I've been hunting for three years. Okay, so I grew up. My dad is a big outdoorsy guy, real big, in fact. He's actually you may know his name. He's running for governor of Colorado. Oh, I'm voting for him right now.
Speaker 1:What's his name?
Speaker 2:His name is Scott Bottoms.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And he's run for governor of Colorado. We've always been big outdoorsy people and so we've always I've been on a lot of elk hunts, but never as the hunter. Um, we were really into backpacking and camping and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:And um, we would. We would have people from the South that said, hey, we want to, we want to go elk hunting, do you have an area? And we're like, yeah, you know. So we would backpack in and stay with them and chop wood or hang out and like camp and stuff like that, and they would go on elk hunts and then when they came back we had firewood or just hanging out backpacking and stuff.
Speaker 2:So I grew up doing that. When I got to I didn't actually get into hunting until like three years ago. I moved down here to the swamps and a lot of good old boys down here. And deer hunting is a it's a way of life and so they got me in and actually the first time I ever hunted. We can, if you want, we, drop right into the stories, um yeah let's do it.
Speaker 1:I was gonna, I was gonna talk a little bit about how carl definitely needs a new governor, because the current governor's I don't know boyfriend, husband, whatever it is. He's an animal rights activist. He's responsible for the wolves which seem to be dying left and right, but like we need someone a little bit more wildlife. Yeah, yeah, so yeah and that's tell your dad he's got my vote, even though I haven't really looked into his stuff.
Speaker 2:He'll be very happy to hear it. Um, yeah, I'm not crazy politically active. Uh, I mean, like I have, I'm a single voter, I'm a single issue voter. I care about cervid numbers and. Um, I live in texas, so we got deer everywhere you know. But uh, my dad is a big. He's huge on like, uh, wildlife, nature hunting, right, you know um you've probably seen viral clips of him going off in the house about wolves, yeah I believe it, I believe it.
Speaker 2:So, uh, yeah, uh no, and this isn't a politics podcast, that wasn't. I tricked you so I could get yeah right Either way, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:Let's get into your stories, because otherwise we can talk about this and I now have like a not a political podcast, but I don't know if you noticed, on Fridays I now have that, like the Hunter's Brief, the Hunter's.
Speaker 1:Brief. Yeah, yeah, the hunter's brief. So it's like hey, check that stuff out, guys, I'm going to talk about it. I'm probably this week going to talk about that herd in Texas that just got culled from Texas Park and Wildlife. They've been fighting for years to try and keep his private herd alive and Texas Park and Wildlife had no evidence but killed them all. But that's not what we're here to talk about. Yeah, that's it. One other thing I'll mention Jonathan, I've been hunting in three years. You're not the worst hunter in East Texas, you're just a new hunter. We've all been there.
Speaker 2:Well, let's wait until you hear the stories, buddy. Okay. Okay, let's wait until I tell you about my journey. But no, yeah, you know, with my dad he's all that stuff. I actually was hoping him, being governor, would figure out a way that I could hunt cheaper. But he's uncorruptible, which is a shame. I've been trying to figure out how I can leverage that in my direction. He ain't going to do it.
Speaker 1:That is the exact thing you want from a politician which I don't think many are Uncorruptible.
Speaker 2:That's a good way to put it. I want a cheap way to hunt elk.
Speaker 1:Come on, Dad.
Speaker 2:Come on, give me that governor's tag, give me that. But no, he's uncorrect, he won't even, he won't even fold for me, which is a real shame. But um, but yeah, uh, we could I'll. I could start you up right where I started hunting, if you want let's do it. Let's do it, man, all right um, I started hunting actually the first year ever. It was like three years ago. And there's a guy in my church um, it's all oil industry down here, pipeline oil, all that stuff, and so they.
Speaker 1:That's a pretty big business you know, really big, and so I think I've heard of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know just the single biggest business in America. But so he he, he runs all this and so he has a ranch in Mexico where he hunts. And so he invited me one time. He's like, hey, do you want to come hunt in mexico on this ranch? And um, I'd never hunted. I mean, I shot some like rabbits and stuff growing up, but nothing big. But I was like, yeah, I would love to. He's like, well, it's an archery ranch, you need a bow, oh, and we leave in a month trial my fire okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was like, okay, fine so um I started asking around for a bow that I could borrow, and my buddy uh, his name is dirty steve. Uh, good man, tell you what? It's the south, everybody's got an adjective as a first name. But uh he goes I, I got a bow for you that you can use yeah, I'm like all right cool.
Speaker 2:So, um, I go over to his house and he crawls underneath his porch and he's right there, my bows yeah, he's under there for a while and eventually he comes out with a bow case and he's like here's a bow for you. And so I pulled out this bow and, um, it's obviously been under there a while because, like the rubber is like melted, all, like the bell are like melted, you don't need all that anyway, it's just for vibration. So he's pulling all this melted rubber and he hands me this boat. He's like have a great.
Speaker 1:And so I didn't even practice with it you just rolled into Mexico with a bow you found under a porch. You need arrows.
Speaker 2:So I went to a bow shop, got some arrows. They're like yeah, it'll probably fit you.
Speaker 1:You can tell these guys like he has no idea what he's doing. So.
Speaker 2:I threw this bow in the back of my truck. We drove to Mexico and the first time I ever shot a bow was pointing at a deer.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so I remember we get it's this huge ranch, it's like 25,000 acres, this massive ranch and the deer on there are these monster deer, and my job is I cull bucks, so I'm shooting trash.
Speaker 2:Now what I didn't know is this was going to give me a horrible first impression of hunting, because the trash there is 150 inches, you know, like oh my gosh so we go out and, uh, the first night there, I sit down and I get in a stand with my buddy and he goes all right, this is how you shoot a bow. Because he's like you haven't shot. I was like, nah, he's like okay, this is how you shoot it. You know, he's like, he's like all of a sudden I said okay, and so this doe comes out at like 20 yards and we're like whispering, which later you don't have to whisper. I threw a Red Bull can at a buck and he just like looked at me and then kept eating and so he goes all right, he's like, there she is, you know like go ahead and take your time, and so I just pulled the bow back, put the side on and I shot.
Speaker 2:It took me like three seconds total, maybe less a second and a half, and I just nailed this doe just that's amazing.
Speaker 1:I can. I was not expecting that. I'll tell you right now it's.
Speaker 2:You know, I nail her. She flips over on her back. She doesn't even run, she just flips on her back and dies and he goes. Why did you go so fast? I was like I didn't. I didn't know you're supposed to take a while, I just thought you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like, are you supposed to hold it?
Speaker 2:Yeah and so immediately we drag her up and I get her to the camp and it's in Mexico. So there's all these guys that are skinning them and I looked at them and I was like guys, this hunting thing is easy.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, it's easy, oh it's easy, oh my goodness, oh my goodness yeah, which I did.
Speaker 2:Now, if somebody said that to me like you just wait, buddy, you just wait yeah but I was like this is this isn't, it's not hard like, you just point at it and you pull the, you know, you shoot the bow and um, and so they're like, okay, we'll see. And so, uh, for the rest of that week, um, I was calling deer, you know, and, um, I wish, I wish I never would have shot that first year. Uh, because that the addiction that it caused in me, um, has been crippling uh, my wife, my wife, if she has to hear about another deer, will lose her mind, but, uh, she just can't handle it. Um, but so I, I spent the whole week shooting these deer, and the bow that I shot could only pull back, like it was like a youth bow or something I don't know. It was like a 50 pound draw and it was maxed out, okay, you know.
Speaker 2:And so quickly I realized that I didn't have the ability, the power, to really kill these huge bucks, um, and also I sucked at shooting. So over the course of a week I spined like six deer and uh, and I only had five arrows for the whole week. So I couldn't afford to like use these arrows. So I have, so for a week, I just spent a week like killing deer with my pocket knife. You know like just yeah it'll kill you inside.
Speaker 1:That's like, yeah, that's a tough week like thousand yards there.
Speaker 2:I came back and my wife was like how, how was it? I was like there's a sadness in me, but so I came out of mexico being like deer hunting is easy dude like yeah they just walk out to the feeder. You stand up and you shoot them, and so, um, I have a question for you about your bow, I gotta ask.
Speaker 1:So like you didn't shoot it at all until you got there and you shot that doe at any point from that point forward, did you sight it in and see like? Because, like you know, you got some arrows, yeah, but like eventually did you and then like how far off was it when you eventually did. Is it gonna be my question?
Speaker 2:um, so I didn't sight that bow in at all that week um okay, I just shot it and I just figured chances are.
Speaker 2:It need to be sighted in and I just figured I was a bad shot, so I'm hitting these deer just all over, you know just all over by the end of the week I was down to one arrow because I kept like missing and they would shatter on stuff, and so I'm like reusing this one arrow. I'm bending my mechanical broadhead back into shape, you know, because and I'm just like folding them back up and like I would show them the. Nah, that's probably fine. At one point some guy was like I can give you a broadhead and I'm like nah, nah, nah, look, it clicks right back in. We're good, I'm shooting these little Rage 2 blades.
Speaker 1:Dental floss around them to keep them tight tight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the ones with no collar, so you could just like you know and yeah and so, like I come home with like all this deer meat, one arrow left and um, and the first thing I do is I told my wife I was like I'm buying a bow, yeah, and she's like wow, I was like this one can't cut it. You know, like I'm gonna buy it. And so I went off and I bought a bow. I bought a matthews vxr like a used one, um, beautiful bow, like just a great bow. I got it super cheap, uh, like for like 600 bucks.
Speaker 2:There was a dude who, uh, in my church who knew a guy who owned a bow shop and he cut me a deal, you know and uh and so I'd get this bow and I sided it back in and um, and then I just waited till the next season, yeah, yeah, so for a whole off season. I'm just shooting this bow non-stop side net, shooting it my front yard. I live in the middle of beaumont, in the city and um, but my yard is 60 yards long, so I have. I spray painted lines across my yard in my driveway. My wife didn't like that. I would shoot this bow in my front yard, you know, yeah and uh, and that was how I got into deer hunting is like.
Speaker 2:I was like this is easy, you know, they just come out, you shoot them and then the Mexican guys skin them for you, no problem. And uh and yeah so. So I started off hunting thinking like I'm the greatest hunter that's ever lived like, with no practice whatsoever. I'm just a slayer, you know, just a slayer.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I learned very quickly that that's not true.
Speaker 1:I believe that. Quick question about the Mexico trip Was it like drive across the border Mexico, or was it like jump on a plane fly somewhere?
Speaker 2:It's about an eight-hour drive it was right over the border. So we would drive to the border and drive across and hunt there, there's tags there, and then you bring it all back.
Speaker 1:And whitetail. I'm assuming, because I know there's mule deer down there too.
Speaker 2:There's a lot. Actually, we would mostly shoot whitetail and neal guy. Okay. If you're a neal guy, yeah. They're like evil looking cows right yeah, just it's like a mix between an antelope and a moose, you know just the ugliest looking dude. Um, but there's a. There are a lot of meat and neil guy tags in mexico are cheap like 35 bucks you know I think neil guy in austin is a great restaurant.
Speaker 1:Died duet. Jesse griffith owns it. Um, he's been on the podcast. He's a meat eater guy and I've had neil guy there.
Speaker 2:It's delicious it's not bad. When you cook it, when you open up and it's raw, it smells a little off Um, but that's just how it smells. Um, and I tell everybody I'm like, once you cook it, it's fine Um, but it's a little gamier than whitetail. My wife doesn't like it as much, but we use it for spaghetti, tacos. You know all that it's. It's real good for that.
Speaker 1:What was the season also for Mexico? Can you hunt year-round, and what month were you there?
Speaker 2:No, it's during deer season, so I was there probably around like November, december. Actually, I think I went like October-ish, but it's real similar to Texas' deer season.
Speaker 2:Okay cool, so I was there during that. You can hunt into January in Mexico, which sometimes you canxas, depending on how the season falls, um, but so, yeah, there's that they have wildebeest there. Um, yeah, of course, I got a story about hanging out of the side of a truck going like 40 miles an hour chasing wildebeest, trying to shoot him with a rifle. Um, it's, you know, it's a good you are from texas aren't you the problem is I'm I've never killed an animal with a rifle. I'm horrible with a rifle.
Speaker 1:I've only killed a turkey. Same thing man. I've gotten like four or five animals down with my bow and a turkey with my 270, and that is it and we're shooting like 300 Win Mag, these big old rifles.
Speaker 2:I've missed shots 20 feet from a wildebeest, which is not a small animal, but I just can't, I don't know. I'm horrible with a rifle, which is fine, I like bow hunting, so that's what I do. But yeah, so we came in and the next season I was like all right, I'm going to hunt and I'm in this area, I don't have a lease or anything. I can't afford a lease. I don't. Pastors don't make good money, you know. So like I can't afford a lease. But what my job does give me is I pick my own hours. So with that I was like we're just gonna hunt, you know, and um, so I just decided to start hunting. I didn't know a thing, uh, and so I just started going into the woods, yeah, just a Great way to start.
Speaker 2:Look at, I borrowed a climbing stand from some guy one time, but I got about 30 feet in the air and then the top of it fell and it's this old, rusty climbing stand and I was like I'm going to die up here, and so I quit using a climbing stand for a while. The next season I bought a saddle. I like a little more, but so I just I started just like hunting and figuring out how to hunt you know, Okay, I started watching a lot of, like you know, hunting YouTube channels, hunting public meat eater.
Speaker 2:You know all those guys. The problem is that all those guys hunt the Midwest and there's a reason they don't film hunting videos in the south, like down where we're at, is because it's hard you know yeah, and so I I would work off these hunting videos and, uh, I realize nothing that they're doing there is working for me. You know the sign's not quite the same. There's water everywhere, like I'm walking through my chest deep water you know like they don't have swamps.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you never see them dealing with water moccasins or alligators, you know, and, uh, that's stuff that we got down here and so like, eventually, I was just like, okay, well, what they're doing? I spent a whole season hunting and um, and I think I got within shooting range of a doe one time yeah, like that's it. Uh, it just it's thick, you can't see and um, the one time I got into within shooting range of a doe one time, yeah, like that's it, uh, it just it's thick, you can't see and, um, the one time I got into within shooting range of a doe, my bow exploded. Uh, I didn't know what to do was it?
Speaker 1:where did you have an arrow knocked, or was it some other? Yeah, I had an arrow knocked um.
Speaker 2:that's actually. That's what I'd been hunting this doe the whole season and at this point, like I found a little piece of property that somebody would let me hunt as long as I maintained it, so I would like mow it, so I had this little feeder out there and all I knew is feeder hunting, like that's what I started on.
Speaker 2:So I had this feeder out there and there's this buck that keeps showing up, but it's always when I'm not there. There and um, there's this buck that keeps showing up, but it's always when I'm not there. You know, now that I know what I'm doing, I realized he was betting down behind me and he was winning me literally every time I was out there, but I didn't know that and I'm hunting every single morning and evening for a whole deer season because I have I can pick my schedule, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I'm hunting every morning and every evening, but every now and then this doe would come out and uh, and I won't. She spotted me one time and I got scared, but she would come out every morning. So finally I was like I'm killing this doe. She blows on me every time. I'm here Like I'm killing this doe, and so she walks out one morning and she walks out and she's at the feeder and she's 20 yards from me. I'm in a tree, 20 yards from the feeder, like I'm over the feeder. I was like you can't miss if you're close, yeah, and I pull back my bow and I guess when I went to shoot it's the first time I'd ever shot I didn't know. You should practice shooting out of a saddle before you actually do it. Everything I do is just.
Speaker 1:I just I buy it. All right, just go it. Everything I do is just I just I buy them, all right, just go. Let's go on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, figure it out somehow I guess I twisted my hand when I went to let go of my release or something, but when I shot the bow I I just heard this round bang, you know and like and like, my titty hurt, like it went me.
Speaker 1:I had this nasty bruise, you know, and I was like what just happened.
Speaker 2:And I look at my bow and it's just like the string had come off the cams when I like when I released. Like what just happened, and I look at my bow and it's just like the string had come off the cans when I like when I released it. And I go and I look down and somehow I hit this freaking doe. No way I was aiming at her bread basket and I hit her far back and up so I spined her like above the butt right but I hit this doe and I'm like it's okay, we've trained for this, we know how to kill a doe without a bow Pocket knife.
Speaker 2:Pocket knife. So immediately like I look at my bow, I'm like, well, I can't kill her with this. Yeah, I climbed down the tree and I go to look for my pocket knife. I booked it out of the woods into my all the way out to my truck.
Speaker 2:you know, come through, find a pocket knife in my truck come back and I finish her and um and immediately I'm like well, now my bow is like in my head it's ruined. You know like it's done. Yeah, so I'm just like well, so I skin out this dough, um which I'm skinning this dough in the front yard in the middle of the city, in my in my house.
Speaker 1:You know all my neighbors.
Speaker 2:Neighbors are looking at me, I'm covered in blood. But we had to get her done and so I take it to the bow shop and they're like no, actually all we have to fix is this one little one of my servos. They're like we'll fix that, we'll restring it, it should be fine.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got so lucky because I thought my season was done.
Speaker 1:I awesome. Yeah, I got so lucky because I thought my season was done. I've done the same thing. So last last season I go shooting with some buddies and we're just at a 3d course just shooting and we're talking and messing around and, um, I arranged this, I got, I put an arrow in range of turkey, go to shoot and go or like, don't put the arrow in, I'm holding it and I range it. And then I put the range finder down, started it and I'm like what was, what was that number? So I put the the, I put the arrow away, range it again and then pull my bow up and I didn't realize I put my, my arrow. So now I'm about to dry fire this thing. So I pull it up and this is dumb.
Speaker 1:The guy's like recording me in slow-mo from like three feet away, like super close shot of just like me looking cool as could be right. I fire it and then to the, just like, the string pops off and everyone's like whoa, one guy goes dude, your arrow flew off that way. And I'm like what? And then so we're like oh, what just happened? That didn't make any sense. Um, and all I remember is that guy just saying your arrow just flew off this way. We watched the video and we're watching this thing in slow-mo for like 15, 20 seconds and I'm like, oh, I know what happened. And everyone's like what, what? And I'm like, well, something's missing.
Speaker 1:I didn't knock an arrow and so I was like, oh my goodness, like how stupid am I and I remember everything I did, and I remember exactly when I put my arrow back and I'm like, oh, that was so dumb. And I'm like, what's your problem, man? Where did my arrow go? Like what?
Speaker 2:are you talking about? I got eyes on it.
Speaker 1:I got eyes on yeah, yeah I took it to the shop, dude, and they were like no, your bow's fine, like totally fine, don't worry about it. And then I ended up getting some strings from summit bow strings, a texas company out of new brunfels, um, and and I'd actually never replaced my strings before, so it was actually a good thing and and my bow shoots so sweet now, now that I have like new strings on it. But yeah, man, I got lucky too. I didn't shoot anything.
Speaker 2:I finally put new strings on it, because I was like we've been a season, two seasons on, like this string that came up. My cans are bent, you know like I'm like bending them back, and so I was like we'll get new everything. And I so, uh, I was like we'll get new everything and I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1:Like it, she's like a dream you know, yeah, it's so nice, you don't?
Speaker 2:even realize. But uh, but yeah. So I got my boat fixed. I was good to go, you know, and um, that's how my season ended. I spent the whole season I probably hunted. I I'm not lying, I hunted every single day twice. I have a wonderful wife who just she's willing to be a single mother for four months out of the year, you know.
Speaker 1:And um I got two kids. I got a five year old, seven year old. She is wonderful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's wonderful. Now I've got, now I've been taking them I I work at this church and so out in the field behind our church there's like six bucks that hang out back there. So I have a feeder back there and a little stand and that's where I take my kids, because we can just walk 20 feet out behind the church, get in a stand and see deer.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're never going to get within a shooting range of a deer with a five-year-old and a seven-year-old, but they're, they like it. Yeah, we're out there.
Speaker 1:If they see one, they're like, oh, we're hunting.
Speaker 2:That's all there is to. They're seeing them, they're having a good time, and so I do that. So it's a little easier on my wife now. But, yeah, and so I ended my season hunting all those hours for, like this tiny little doe that I killed out of spite, you know, but it was meat in the freezer, so my wife couldn't say I was a failure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, why do all your deer keep coming back with these tiny little stab wounds.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So like this, then the off season comes, I'm like, all right, this time we're like I'm gonna practice shooting. So now I'm like up in a tree in my front yard in a saddle, you know, shooting this bow and my name. Every season my neighbors think I'm more crazy. I've stood on the roof and I shoot off my roof, you know, like whatever I can to get you know elevation. But uh, and so I got ready, and so then this last season, this season was the season that I was like, okay, we're doing it Like we're going to hit public land, we're going to find deer and we're going to do our thing.
Speaker 2:You know, like I'm going to, I want to do public land and and this was the season where, like most of my stories come from, and this was the season where, like most of my stories come from, I mean this season, like I had one morning where I stepped on two water moccasins, like back to back. You know, I ran into poachers this summer. You know, I rode a top of a tree through a hurricane, like you name it, like we can go over all the stories.
Speaker 2:But uh, yeah, but so with this season I decided I was like, okay, we're gonna do it, we're gonna get, we're gonna get there. And so, like I go into this area where, like okay, there's deer moving here, yeah, I their side, we're good. And um, I sit up and like I got my saddle and everything up there and, uh, I leave an arrow knocked on my bow all the time because I don't want to dry fire it, so I just leave an arrow on there and hang it.
Speaker 2:Okay, and throughout this season I chase this one buck all season and he is my proudest buck to date. I haven't measured him yet because he's probably going to be 90 inches, Like he's the tiniest little. He's this goofy little trash bug and he sits in the main place. I have all these big deer from Mexico and this is the one, this goofy little bug and my wife's like wow, I was like I worked so hard for this deer.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like it is, it is my deer. And so I get into this area and, um, in this area there's a lot of deer coming by, um, but, uh, I have to get back in there to get there. And so when I'm getting up in there, like I'm I'm hunting like deep, and I remember the first time I saw him, uh, there was this little spike, that spike bug that came out. I named him Larry. We have Larry Larry's probably the dumbest deer I've ever met in my life. Like he. He just hangs out like. I spent a lot of time this last season with this little spike bug, just like 20 feet below me Best buddy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just he would, and. But the problem was he would come and try and eat here, and every now and then I have a cell camera. I would get this slightly bigger buck. That would bully him and chase him off. And this little spike buck is like tearing up the woods. I'll stand there and just watch him tear up every tree around me. He's stomping, he's grunting.
Speaker 1:He's just like this Napoleon syndrome.
Speaker 2:He's got nothing but he wants everything 100%, and every now and then this big deer would come and bully him. So at some point I'm like I have to defend this spike bug, like he's getting bullied by this other dude, you know yeah I just, I was like that's the deer I'm gonna shoot. You know is this? I called him dave.
Speaker 1:I was like I'm shooting dave like larry and dave, man can't take him anywhere yeah, you know, I give my dear people names I like that normally it's like megatron or you know, like whatever, but I like larry and dave.
Speaker 2:Yeah and uh and so eventually I'm sitting out here and I remember I was sitting in the woods and the first time I saw this buck, uh, I hear some walking and I look over and about 100 yards away he's just walking through the woods, yeah, and so I'm like, all right, I'm going to call him. Yeah, I bought the Southern Outdoorsman deer, call you know, I'm so proud of this call.
Speaker 1:I'm like this is where it's at.
Speaker 2:You know, this is what we do. So I'm over there. Yeah, I don't know how to call. I just bought, I got the call walked out. I was like it makes a noise and so I call. I'm calling him and he looks up and my direction and it just goes back to eating and all of a sudden I hear something behind me and I turn around and Larry's just like standing there.
Speaker 1:He just showed up.
Speaker 2:And I, he just showed up and I was like, dang it, larry, yeah. So I like wait. And eventually he, this little spike, wanders off. And I'm like, all right, I'm gonna call again. And I call and this little spike comes running right back out, larry man. And over the course of two hours I called in this spike buck about seven times like he just kept. He would leave and I would rattle or grunt and he would come running back again and I, I want to just like in, I'm like I just want to be like hey, I'm up here.
Speaker 1:Like you're going to die. I love you at this point.
Speaker 2:But this bigger bike. He never came and I spent like two months just like hunting this area and eventually, after about two months, months it clicked in my head, you know, because, keep in mind, nobody's ever taught me to do this. Yeah, I'm just trying to figure it out. It clicked in my head. I was like, oh wait, I can go over to where he keeps walking by, I don't have to stay here he's right over there yeah, I just walked over there and there's just this rub line.
Speaker 2:You know very clearly like he's been rubbing these woods. Yeah, yeah, I just walked over there and there's just this rub line. You know very clearly like he's been rubbing these woods yeah, yeah I was like, oh, this is where he's at. So I just stuck a cell camera right there and I was like we'll see you know yeah whatever.
Speaker 2:and then I left and we drove to dallas to go to my university for an alumni day and stuff like that, and um, and so we're sitting there at our alumni day and as we're doing it all of, and so we're sitting there at our alumni day and as we're doing it, all of a sudden my sales paying right in the evening, right around the same time, about five, 30 to six o'clock, it's pinging and it's this buck walking by every evening right on this line, same spot, and um, it's these two rub lines that converge right in the spot and go out into this like plane, this open area, yeah, and there's, does that eat out there?
Speaker 2:So he's checking, he said checking these, does it's right in the rut and uh, and so I'm sitting here just like stuck five hours away, watching this deer every night, you know, and my wife's getting upset because I'm watching this deer every night. Um, so we finish it. And uh, my wife's like okay, okay, we should. It's like noon and she's like we'll just stay and we'll leave tomorrow morning. I was like no, we should really get back tonight.
Speaker 1:And I told her I was like so I can hunt in the morning. She's like okay, fine, I could already. I could feel her rolling her eyes.
Speaker 2:Yes, she's like whatever. So we get in the car and I start driving back about noon and all of a sudden it clicks in my head. I was like if I get back there in time tonight I could hunt tonight. Yeah, so my wife and kids go to sleep and I drove 110 miles an hour like all the way back, just cruising, you know and just watching the clock and I pull into the driveway at my house at like 4 30, yeah, and uh, where I'm hunting is like 30 minutes away.
Speaker 2:I pull in at like 4 30 and I just grabbed the suitcase and set it in the living room and grabbed my ghillie suit, put it on.
Speaker 2:I was like I'll see you, you know, and I just took off, yeah, and when I get out there, it's like drizzly raining, you know, and off and on raining, and I get it's about the water's, about shin heights, and I'm when I get out there, it's like drizzly raining, you know, and off and on raining, and I get it's about the water's, about shin heights, where I'm hunting, and I just run, I leg it out there, I get up in this tree and I just sit.
Speaker 2:I'm like all right, he's gonna show up in 15 minutes, yeah, yeah, like we're good, my wind is perfect, and so I just start sitting and just waiting, you know, and um, and all of a sudden, as I'm sitting there and waiting, all these does come out in the field and they're eating and my wind's blowing right at them so they can smell me. So they're like stopping and looking, you know, into the trees where I'm at, yeah, and I'm just like watching them and all of a sudden I hear this twig snap and I was like, and I look down and he's rubbing up against my tree. This little bit, the tree you're in, yeah, the tree I'm in. Like I look down, I can see him through the the slots in my platform yeah, yeah he's down there and so immediately I'm just like, yeah, just shake it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm like this is it, this is what we tried for, yeah. And so he comes, like walking through, and he's about to walk down this trail that he normally walks down, and he starts turning to head towards my wind and I was like, nope, we have to shoot him right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like right now.
Speaker 2:So I pulled my bow back and I didn't even range him. But you didn't need to. He was seven yards from me, I didn't even range, I just pulled my bow back. And I remember I pulled my bow back and right as I go to release, he turns and looks up in the tree and we meet eye to eye.
Speaker 1:You're like this is for.
Speaker 2:Larry, there's this look on his face like I messed up and I'm like, yes, you did. So, I buried it in his chest and it was a great shot, like a beautiful shot, and that sucker ran like 250 yards.
Speaker 1:Isn't that funny. You've been spying in all these animals, which is not necessarily a good shot they all just drop right there, but you get a perfect shot and it goes 200 yards into a swamp.
Speaker 2:I didn't find him till the next morning. I looked until 11 30 that night, but it's raining and so my blood's washing away and eventually my flashlight died and I just was so sad. You know I'm covered in mosquitoes and I lost this deer, you know. But the next morning I walked out and I just walked where I thought he'd be and I found him 250 years away. It was an arrow in his heart, like I don't know how he ran that far with an arrow in his heart, but isn't?
Speaker 2:that crazy he did yeah and uh, so I didn't get to keep the meat because it's hot where we live, and by the time I found him he was a balloon, you know yeah, yeah, but that water probably didn't do too good on his energy, that gross swamp water and so I call the game warrens and I tell him like hey, there's a deer, you know I'm keeping the head, but the body's out here just say, you know, do all the stuff.
Speaker 2:And I take his head home and like I got him european mounted and yeah that, to this day, that is my proudest achievement, is that a boy, the trashiest buck you've ever seen I, I posted a picture on facebook and um and I easily outweigh the deer by 60 pounds.
Speaker 2:you know, I'm like, behold the, the, the giant of the woods, you know, and I'm holding and like I, I work out. You know, I, I have muscle and they're like dude, you're bigger than the deer, like I just drug him out. But that's my, that's my most prized deer and, like everything I did for that deer this season was so hard.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you this, man, for being the worst hunter in East Texas. You have harvested a lot of animals, so I'm still holding it. I'm saying you're not doing it to half bad. I'm trying to compliment you.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't count the Mexico animals. Okay, okay, it's not the same you know, Okay, I went back recently and like it's fun because you get meat, you know, but it's not. It's just not hunting you know, yeah, these.
Speaker 1:You know there will be a 180, 80 inch deer out there and I'm not allowed to shoot it. So which? Whatever, I don't care either way. But uh, so I, how do they, how do they determine what you can shoot?
Speaker 2:I know you said 150 inch deer but like I don't know if I can tell 150 inch deer on the hook versus 180. So the rule is we're looking for mature deer that are on the smaller side. So if it's eight points but you can tell it's five or six years old, um, he's not going to get any bigger, that's not going to be a trophy deer. It's okay to shoot, um, and so you get real good at aging them and sizing them and then, when in doubt, you just snap a picture of them, send it and be like yes or no. Yeah, they hang out at the feeder. For a while I stood up and peed out of the deer, blind this last time, and the deer just watched me my goodness, is it a high fence or is it just there?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's not that precious okay yeah and, like I said, they have there's giraffes there. You know, like I had, I had a you're like it's got tiny antlers.
Speaker 1:I should probably take it yeah, I had a.
Speaker 2:Well, you can't shoot them, but they'll ruin your hunt like they'll. Yeah, I had a bug get run off. I was like what's going on? And then I looked to my left. I'm in this old windmill and there's just a giraffe right next to me, just like eating, you know. And you're like thanks a lot, dude, I'm trying to do something here.
Speaker 1:Here's a giraffe trivia. Do you know what's actually? Well, it's kind of the reverse. So what American animal is genetically similar? In fact, the giraffe is the most similar genetically to this animal man, I have no idea. Pronghorn, real american pronghorn, yep.
Speaker 2:Its closest genetic relative is the giraffe which, if you look at them, you're like, okay, they kind of look a little similar, but minus the fact that the giraffe is like 5 000 pounds or huge or whatever it is, but yeah, that's a little environment, yeah, exactly but yeah, that's a when I, when I go hunting for something, I typically dive deep into the research of the animal.
Speaker 1:I want to know everything I can about them and, uh, I struggled with antelope for a while, so I've been researching yeah, that's a I I've heard a few years.
Speaker 2:I heard you had the worst bow hunting experience with animal oh my gosh guys do it on youtube. Like you're just out in this wide, open plains, like how are you getting within 40, 50 yards of an antelope luck?
Speaker 1:luck. Yeah, I can't imagine it's a dream one day.
Speaker 2:Uh, next year I'm hunting an elk is? I'm going to call it my parents are call it springs. I'm going to try to try to get up there and do a hunt. Um, great man, I've never, never shot an elk with a bow. But that's the plan, you know.
Speaker 1:And uh, you already have your tag cause they don't have over the counter anymore for archery. Are you going to go rifle?
Speaker 2:Oh no, I did not know. They changed that.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I'll have to put him for a draw but when the draw draws over. So, yeah, I, I put in for a draw in Colorado this last offseason and I put in for Nevada too. A buddy that lives in Nevada, he actually he's the one who showed me this podcast, austin, if you're listening what's up? But he's there and I'll try to get in, but whenever I guess now.
Speaker 1:My plan was over the counter. We'll talk about it offline. I'll help you out. I'll give about it offline. I'll help you out, I'll give you some insight.
Speaker 2:I would very much appreciate it. The course of this deer season. I'm similar to you.
Speaker 2:I fixate on things. My whole deal is I obsess. This whole summer I've walked this 11,000-acre piece of public land. I've walked the whole thing. Yeah, I'm out there, I'm looking for a sign, I'm looking for all this stuff. So, just being out there all the time, you tend to make a lot of mistakes because you don't know what you're doing. You run into stuff. One morning, my first season hunting public land, I get out there real early and there's about three inches of water on the ground.
Speaker 2:And I'm hiking through and the sun's just now starting to come up and I did not know that water moccasins were a thing here. Okay, I'm new.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know. Off Colorado there's no water moccasins.
Speaker 2:First time I ran into an alligator I was like oh crap. No, that makes sense yeah.
Speaker 1:They live here. You need to go back with an alligator tag. You can get that in some parts of Texas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's guys that do it right out of their backyards, yeah. But so I'm walking through and all of a sudden I step on like the weirdest feeling stick I've ever stepped on in my life and I look down and it's just this big old water, moccasin and um, and he just like freaks out and takes off. He didn't bite me, you know yeah and I, I remember I paused, I was like oh man, that was close, like I got lucky, you know.
Speaker 2:And then I stepped around the tree and stepped on to a second one immediately, just right away, and so immediately, like I'm like, all right, I'm not moving till the sun comes up right here. So I just stood, you know I just stood in this swamp for like an hour until the sun was up.
Speaker 1:I was like now we can see, yeah I love that I could see myself doing the same thing, but like nope, I quit.
Speaker 2:I'm son, I need the sun I'm not moving, but literally the second one was 10 seconds later. I was like, okay, we're getting yeah, do you wear.
Speaker 1:uh, do you wear snake gaiters? I know some people in Texas do I don't.
Speaker 2:I've looked them up. Right after that I looked them up.
Speaker 1:I assume you at least got big rubber boots on right Because you're in the swamp.
Speaker 2:I wear a pair of Timberlands. Okay, so probably no, I should probably have. I hunt pretty deep in a few miles in and you're walking through swamps. So everything is waist-high water, chest-high water. You're in the bayou, and so I've just found I just wear clothes that dry easy and.
Speaker 1:I just gut it Get up in your tree, take your boots off or whatever, or do you leave them on and just soak them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I leave them on. I have I cut holes in the bottom so that they drain, okay, the bottom so that they drain, okay and uh, and then like right in the side of the leather, um, because I read at one time dudes and uh, dudes in uh, vietnam would do that, and I was like, all right, then I'll do that. Yeah, um, ruined a good pair of, uh, ruined a good pair of boots. But, um, but yeah, I last season my soul came off my boot at one point so I just cocked it. You know, I just took some cock, some roofing cock, and just cocked it.
Speaker 2:Like we're good you know running there you go and so like with all this stuff, like I'm out here in these swamps and I'm just like trying to figure it out. You know, I rode a tree through a hurricane. I got up in this I was watching the weather weather and it said it was going to be a little rainy and I was like, well, that's no big deal, but it's right in the middle of hurricane season. You know, I'm like that's, that's fine. So I climb up in the tree and I get about 30 feet up. You know I have all these sticks and I get up there and as I get up there, all of a sudden like my phone starts getting all these storm warnings. You know, like bad storm. It's like seek, you know seek, a safe place on stuff.
Speaker 1:And um, I'm a firm believer of it'll buff out, you know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I'm like, ow, we're fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just water, just water.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so I'm sitting there, and pretty soon it starts raining and downpour you know, and I'm like, oh, I'm going to be really wet, but I've committed, yeah, I will fail all day if it means there's a chance I can succeed, I just don't get deterred. So I'm like, riding this, and pretty soon my wife's texting me like are you OK? I'm like, I'm fine, you know like it's going to blow over. And then pretty soon the wind starts blowing. And pretty soon the wind starts blowing and pretty soon my whole tree, my tree's like this big around you know, probably four inches in width and I'm up at the top and pretty soon.
Speaker 2:it's like leaning, you know.
Speaker 1:So I'm like riding this tree and it's just like blowing.
Speaker 2:And common sense would tell you a deer's not going to wander around in that. But in my head I'm like like.
Speaker 1:But what if? Yeah, yeah, this is the day he's on camera I'm gonna be.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I gotta defend larry, I can't leave and so like I'm just riding this tree and pretty soon the wind's blowing bad, like it's hard to hang on and like twice I fell off my platform, but I'm tied in you know.
Speaker 2:So I followed my platform, my hanging, and I kind of like scramble up on my platform and I just rode. It was the longest hour of my life just riding this tree through this hurricane and the whole time like lightning's going like should I get down? But can I get down with the wind blowing like this?
Speaker 2:I was like yeah, I just stay, and finally the storm ends and it's right. It's like January, december, january, you know, end of the season, and the storm ends and it gets right. It's like january, december january, you know, end of the season. And the storm ends and it gets so cold and I'm just soaked. Yeah, so I'm up in this tree like freezing and I made it all the way to night.
Speaker 1:I made it all the way to nighttime, but when I got home I had to sit in the shower for like two hours and just run hot water on my feet, you know, and obviously a deer never came by here's a question I have could the water level in the swamp rise like I'd be worried about? Like you're saying, you're waist, high chest, high water, like if you're going through that and then a storm rolls in, can you even get out?
Speaker 2:uh, yeah, you, you can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're like, I know how to swim.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not ideal uh, so where I hunt when the water's high, it's about chest high, okay. When the water's low, it's about waist high, um, and I don't hunt in that. But I have to cross through the bayou, you know, to get to where I'm going. Where I'm going if the water's high, there's about seven inches of water on the ground, yeah, but I found that the deer don't care, okay, like they just wander around in the water, like they're used to being in the swamps anyway, they're really quiet in the water somehow, like I hear them on dry leaves way better than I do in the water, like all of a sudden you'll look up and they'll just be there, um, but the deer don't care. And so if the deer don't care, then I don't care. Yeah, like I'll, I'll get out there, but yeah, I've. I've been there where, like a storm comes in and then you get back in the bayou is a lot higher and it's a lot colder.
Speaker 2:But you just you hold your bow above your head, you know and you just get through. I know areas where, like there's trees that are falling, that you can walk across higher points okay, yeah, make sure you're not anywhere where like gators are actively at you, just cross and you head on.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, interesting man, how many how many other hunters you run into, how many people are as dedicated? Uh slash crazy.
Speaker 2:You know, as you um not a lot I imagine so public hunting is not a it's not the big thing here in the south you know yeah the majority of tents is private. Uh, the standard hunting is sit over a feeder, you know, for you know you sit until 9 am and then you get back at five and you sit until dark, you know, and that's how you hunt, um, but it just doesn't do it for me you know, like I get bored and uh, and I like the adventure.
Speaker 2:You know, I like going out there and being like what can I do? How can I find these things? So I, especially during the off season nobody scouts in the summer here, because it's 104 degrees and 80 percent humidity, but all I see is that means I'm the only one that's out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm cool with that, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2:That's a great attitude, man, that'll get you some deer for sure. Maybe We'll see this summer. I'm, but also I like being in the woods. Yeah, I like being out in the woods, I like finding sheds and I like seeing. Like I just take pictures of the swamps. My Instagram has a bunch of pictures of swampland and like I just like it out there.
Speaker 2:I like seeing a piece of land I've never seen before. That's awesome, and so I, the only people I've run out to. I actually I ran this summer. I ran into some poachers, um, and it was kind of a tense situation.
Speaker 1:How do you know the poachers?
Speaker 2:Well, okay. So the first time I I'm looking on my map, I'm like if I was a deer I would be right here, like right there. So I hike in. It's about two miles in and the water's high then, so it's real high, so I'm really crossing. And when I get out there there's this deer sign everywhere, Like rubs. They're tearing up the woods right here, and I'm like, okay, I'm on the money, you know. And so as I'm walking, all of a sudden I come across this bag of corn on the ground, like an empty bag of corn. I was like, well, that's not like somebody's corning out here, Like that's not cool. And then I look up and there's a feeder hanging in the tree.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Right at where I wanted to put my stand, which says one thing I read the map really well because somebody agrees, and so I'm like okay, so I start taking pictures of this feeder. Okay, and it's clearly on public land, so that's poaching, oh.
Speaker 1:I didn't even put a feeder on public land.
Speaker 2:We cannot feed on public land, you can feed on private.
Speaker 1:You cannot feed on public.
Speaker 2:Is that always been the case? I've been doing it three years and it has since I've been yeah, okay, the public land. There's no feeding. They don't like you to leave your stuff out there. You need to bring it out with you. Cameras, you can leave, but in the off season they'll come by and clean them up. So it's kind of they're like if you lose it it's up to you. But yeah, so we're not feeding on public land.
Speaker 1:Okay, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:Well, poaching is also a very popular thing down here. So, as you're walking through public land, you'll see peanut butter jar lids screwed into the tree where they're coming by later and screwed on peanut butter jars, so the deer will come and lick them. And, like you know, it's always this game of dudes trying to get around the law and poaching just gets on my nerves, yeah.
Speaker 1:That makes sense.
Speaker 2:What's the point of winning if you didn't play by the rules? That's? That's, that's how you know you won. You know if you did it by the rules and still won. But, um, so I start taking pictures of all those feeders and all this stuff and um, and then I'll, and I'm sending it to the game warden. Um, I text these game wardens and so I'm, I'm sending it to the game wardens and I'm sending them gps coordinates. And also I look to my left and there's a camera right here next to my head just taking pictures of me, yeah, yeah, so I just took a picture of the camera, you know and send it all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know and like and they're like don't cut it down, leave it up, we'll come and do it. I'm like, all right, cool, and um. So I didn't see them, then I just left. You know, I I've been hiking all day. I hiked back out and like two weeks later I I'm hiking back in there and I was like, you know, I'm going to go see if they did something about the feeder.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I'm going to come in from the back route. I'm going to come in a different direction because I haven't seen this area yet and I want to. So I go in and I get up to this bayou and I have to cross. It's about four and a half feet of water deep, but a long value to cross over to where I am. And when I go to cross over there, that where this feeder is supposed to be is around the other side. And I go to cross over and I look up and there's a dude standing there. And so right away I'm like, okay, it's weird that there's somebody else out here, because nobody else is ever out here when I'm out here.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And he's standing there. And he's standing in the middle of the trail that leads up to this feeder and he's in between me and the feeder and he's just standing there and he doesn't say a word. And I'm like, hey, dude, what's up? And he's just like, doesn't say anything, he's just standing there. Yeah, I was like what you doing, what do you say? Yeah, howdy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the whole time I'm doing this, I'm like, okay, obviously this guy is not happy. I'm here, but I haven't quite put together what's going on, but I didn't bring my gun. I don't have a handgun. I going on, um, but it's, I didn't bring my gun. You know, I don't have a handgun. I'm like I'm just here, um, yeah, and I can see behind him. He's got a four-wheeler with a trailer and a bunch of corn on this trailer wow, all the way out in.
Speaker 1:This is the swampy stuff too yeah, but they'd come in through.
Speaker 2:There's this bit of marsh that's private land right next to this. And um, later he said the first thing he does I'm like what are you doing? Goes, we have permission to hunt on this marsh. And I said we're not in the marsh, the marsh is 300 yards. That way he goes yeah, I know, but we have permission to hunt over here. We're hunting hogs. So immediately I'm like okay, they came in through the marsh, yeah that makes sense.
Speaker 2:There's feeders up over there on private land. I I've wandered over there and seen it and I'm like, oh, I'm on private land and I get off, so I know where he's at. And immediately in my head I click and I go oh, these guys are the ones who hung this feeder here. They've just edged into the public land and they're about 300, 400 yards in the public land. They're feeding on the public land and so I'm talking to him. I was like, okay, that's cool. I was like, okay, that's cool. I was like, but this isn't the marsh and he goes. I know, but we're hunting hogs and he's got one of the dog collar clickers, you know and I'd heard his dogs running all over when I was around, um.
Speaker 2:So I'm like all right then that's what?
Speaker 2:probably why he has the rifle, you know, and his buddies around the corner, because he keeps leaning back and saying something to his buddy, um, but I can't hear what his buddy's saying yeah and, and so I'm standing on the other side of the sink and the area I want to scout after this feeder is across this bayou by him and then to the right down this path. And so I told him. I was like well, and immediately I'm like OK, I'm in trouble. And he's looking at me and I remember he has pictures of me from a week ago taking pictures of all his stuff, yeah, and I'm like this is a tense situation, yeah, I'm in trouble, and uh.
Speaker 2:So I was like well, I was gonna cross right here and he goes it's too deep for you to cross. And I said, no, it's not. I, I've crossed here before. Um, I said, but I'm gonna go the other way, away from you guys. Yeah, you cool with that. He's like sure, I was like okay, then I'm going to cross now. So I start wandering into this by you and it's like up to my waist, you know, and I finally I get across the by you and I'm standing right next to him and I was like so I'm going to go the other way, is that cool? And he goes, that's fine. I said okay, and I turned around and I started walking through the trees and for like the next 45 minutes. I'm like God, please don't let them come shoot me. My family will never find me.
Speaker 1:Feed you to the gators and the hogs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would just disappear. And I finally got far enough. Down there's all this deer movement, you know, and I'm looking at all this stuff and I loop all the way around Like I added an extra two hours to my hike all the way around them and got out and immediately I texted my wife. I was like I'm going to download a tracker on my phone. So, you know, there's no reason to be afraid.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no reason, just an idea I had but uh, but it was.
Speaker 2:that's the one moment that I was in the woods I was like I'm not safe, right now. You know, like it's, uh, I don't know it's. You just don't ever want to run into somebody breaking the law in an area where there's no witnesses. You know.
Speaker 1:And like.
Speaker 2:But I've been back there since then and they cut the feet, the game wardens that come and cut the feeder down on stuff I planted on Hutton right there this season Nice.
Speaker 1:It's a great spot. Yeah, there's deer everywhere. I've been in bed for a while, so it would be a shame to waste it.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so it's. You know it's. If you're in the off season and you run into people in the woods where I'm at, chances are you don't want to. Yeah. Yeah, and I believe that it's probably not a group of people that you want to meet.
Speaker 1:I've never run into any poachers, but I have been in a group when I hunted Hawaii, which was actually a year ago, like this week you can see my access to your hide right there, yeah, week, you see my access to your hide right there. Um, the uh, one of the gentlemen, the guy who organized the whole thing, was sitting there and is blind, and three guys walked by barefoot and like we're on private land, like everything. There's private land, there's no public land, everything's.
Speaker 1:So we're on private and we know that we're the only ones hunting this land, and so, and then he sees three guys walk by with rifles. He was just like like I'm going to hide. He just ducked down. It's a funny visual for me, because this guy would go out into the Hawaiian brush with a gallon of milk and just sit there in his blind and drink milk. I imagine him just hiding with his milk, isn't it?
Speaker 1:I don't know, man, he just drinks it quick enough, I don't know, but he would just drink milk all day and he would send photos to. Well, no, there's. I mean, it's not a real blind, it's like a brush blind right so it's just just open, basically with a couple branches.
Speaker 2:I just imagine the farts coming out of that brush.
Speaker 1:Blind have got to be horrible with the amount of milk that man's drinking maybe, maybe, either way we, we texted the guy who, like, was managing the property. We hey, three guys just walked by with guns. And the question that he asked we still don't know but why he asked it he's like were they wearing shoes? And we're like we weren't looking. I guess maybe, but that was the first thing that the land manager asked was did they have shoes on?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that means it's got to be a reoccurring problem he's having you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's got to be a reoccurring problem he's having. Yeah, either way. But yeah, fortunately for me, I've never had to deal with poachers, but I imagine it being a pretty uncomfortable situation. I'm trying to get this one guy I think his name is Charles Beatty, he calls himself. He's like the self-proclaimed king of poaching Texas guy. Oh, he's got a book. Yeah, he's got, I think, two books at this point. Um, older gentlemen, I've had him scheduled several times but then his AC goes out and he, I think he lives in a trailer and so he's like I can't do it, or his computer dies.
Speaker 1:That's Southern living buddy, yep, so I'm trying to get him on, not that I encourage poaching by any means, but I I just imagine that guy has to have the most interesting story.
Speaker 2:Have you read any of his books?
Speaker 1:I have not no no I try and come into these interviews like not knowing what I'm getting into, so it's like fun every time. I'm trying not to dive into too much of that, but I'll get him on at some point, yeah he's a he'll be a fascinating guest um yeah, but no yeah in the south.
Speaker 2:here poaching is a a thing you know. Uh, it drives me nuts, but it's almost like a way of life for a certain group of people around here and it's just common and so it's a regular thing you run onto is people hunting land that they shouldn't be hunting or people breaking the rules, and the game wardens are always on top of it.
Speaker 2:And they should start paying me a salary, because the amount of times I find stuff out there and I just text them like here it is, I'm the only dude wandering around in the summer, so I just like here it is. I'm the only dude wandering around in the summer, so I just find stuff. But no, it's a thing.
Speaker 1:I believe it, man. I know a couple of folks in Texas that they have these giant properties. Game board is never going to show up, so they'll sometimes harvest outside of season, which is also perching. So I understand it is a I don't know. I don't want to call it a lifestyle, but it's a thing. It's a I don't know I don't want to call it a lifestyle, but it's a thing, it's a thing down there.
Speaker 2:It's a cultural thing and it depends because it's a hard divide. There's a group of guys that are poachers and then the rest of us are like the reason we don't have big deer down here is because people are hunting them year-round. The reason we don't have big deer is because we're not following the, not following the limits you know and like, and so that's why, like, a trophy deer down here is like 140 inches, 150 inches. It's because, like, we just don't. And there's, the limits are there. For a reason you know and don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2:I would love to hunt you around but but that's not hogs.
Speaker 1:You can technically, you got hogs hogs or something.
Speaker 2:We hunt you around, uh, and we do, and it's a good time, it keeps you up, it keeps you up on your bow, you know it gives you something to shoot at, keeps you sharp. Yeah, they make good Italian sausage.
Speaker 1:They do Good chorizo too. But, Jonathan, you got any more stories for us?
Speaker 2:I know we've actually gotten a lot for three years so I'm kind of impressed I do it so in the last three years I've hunted apparently way more than most, but it's because my schedule works and my church knows like, in the mornings, in the evenings, this is where I'm at. On my days off, this is where I'm at. I mean, I got a few. I got chased by a group of hogs in the woods the first season I was hunting.
Speaker 1:Let's do that one and then. I might have to wrap it up, because I've got to get to some other stuff, but let's do that hog one and then tell the people where they can find you, so go ahead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not a problem. So the first season I'm hunting, I'm wandering in the woods and I'm looking for something, anything. I don't know what sign looks like and I find what looks like deer tracks. Now I know the difference between hog tracks and deer tracks, but I was like, oh my gosh, the biggest group of deer I've ever seen just walks through here and they're digging for something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what are all these deer digging?
Speaker 2:yeah, I just following this trail, yeah, yeah. And as I'm following it, all of a sudden, like I start hearing stuff moving around in the woods around me, you know. And so in my head I'm like we're right on them. Yeah, yeah, we're in it, dude. Like this is what the videos look like. And so as I'm walking, like I'm hearing it, and they're moving, and pretty soon it's more and more, and pretty soon I realized this isn't deer, yeah, it's a. They're too loud, you know, and they're everywhere Like they're surrounding me. And so once my head starts to click into place, I'm like, oh, I think I've run into a group of hogs, you know, right about that time I realize I'm surrounded by them and they're moving. They're like going through the woods. I can hear them on my left and my right and they're running around what time of day is this?
Speaker 1:Midday morning evening? It's probably about 10 am.
Speaker 2:Okay, but when the water rises, the hogs push to different areas, you know. So they can root, and so the water is high and they've pushed in, and so rises is going on. I start to realize like, oh, I'm in trouble, yeah, like I'm way out here and there's hogs all over, and like I don't know what to do. And at this point I didn't carry a handgun on me, I didn't know you were supposed to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all I have is my bow, and so I was like, well, we're gonna figure it out and so, uh, all of a sudden they start coming through and I can hear them running up in front of me. They're like grouping and coming down this trail that's in front of me, and so I knock an arrow on my bow and I draw and I'm just waiting. Yeah, I'm like the first hog that comes out, I'm taking one of them with me. Yeah, so I'm just waiting, and pretty soon, all these hogs just come running around the scene and they're just running at me and, um, and immediately I shot my bow and ran at the same time. Um, so I never you know, I'm real brave until it's happening.
Speaker 1:And then I'm like this is a mistake.
Speaker 2:I fired my arrow just somewhere, just into the sky, for all I know, and I just took off running dude and I could hear him running behind me and I'm just booking it and I don't know how far I ran. In my head it was a mile.
Speaker 1:It was probably 70 yards. You know it was a mile.
Speaker 2:It was probably 70 yards, you know, but I just run and I run up to this tree and I just start kind of like shimmying up this tree and they ran right underneath me and just kept on running and I shimmy down and just went and finished my hunt. You know, that's crazy. But it was this wild moment. That's the first time I realized like I used to make fun of people when they'd be like they show up in packs of 30, you know, and I'm like whatever dude, and no, they straight up do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I've been chased by hogs. One time it wasn't really chased, but it's a funny story. So I'm hunting riverbeds in Texas and I park my truck on the side, empty our shotguns, because we've got to kind of like scramble up these rocks to get out of this river. So our shotguns we're hunting with double out buckshot are empty. And we get up and we look at my truck and there's 20 hogs, like basically on this highway, on the side of the road, just surrounding my truck. And so I'm like I don't know what to do, and my buddy's like me either, and so we kind of take a step forward. They notice us and they start bluff charging, like two or three of them at a time. We'll just charge in.
Speaker 1:I'm like, oh god, what do we like? What like we're thinking about using our shotguns as, like you know, beat, beat down sticks, um. So I'm like I don't know what to do, like we can't shoot on the highway. So I call the game warden and I'm like, sir, uh, there's a bunch of hogs, um, uh, can we shoot them? And he's like, well, yeah, mean, shoot a hog. And I'm like, okay, well, they're next to our truck, which is right off the highway. He's like, no, you can't shoot on the highway. I'm like, well, they're charging us. And he's like, oh, shoot them, son, shoot them.
Speaker 2:And so he's like you can defend yourself. That's fine. Down here nobody would hold it If a game war showed up.
Speaker 1:you'd be like we shoot them a little bit and got in the back of the truck and they hung around for a minute or two and eventually scurried off. But no hogs were harmed on that particular day, but it was a pretty scary moment because they were charging and there was like 20 of them.
Speaker 2:Well, and they're mean, they'll gore you I find dogs all the time Hog dogs wander up while you're in the woods and they're just bleeding and you just kind like take them somewhere and patch them up or you try and find who owns them.
Speaker 1:Like they're mean yeah but they're crazy species, man. It's crazy that, like they're basically domestic pigs right, there's nothing genetically every now that you'll find one with an ear tag.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it'll be a little like somebody's pig got out and they turn feral within like two weeks yeah, it's like three months, they start growing tusks yeah they don't have them on farms, but for something about getting out there where they're.
Speaker 1:Like I gotta defend myself like I'm just gonna grow some teeth they grow tusks, they grow hair thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's crazy. They can have like 10 babies at a time and they can do it like every six months. Yeah, yeah, like it's wild yeah, I've the.
Speaker 1:I've said this before on the podcast, but like I remember hunting, remember hunting Texas one time, turning a corner and just being like what the hell happened here and it just it looked like two feet of earth had been flipped upside down for like a football field.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I was like somebody irrigated a field. You know the plant.
Speaker 1:And it's just hogs just rooting it up and that's like this guy was like and I was like deal, and then I didn't see another hog.
Speaker 2:That's how it works. Wait till two in the morning, they'll be there. Yeah, we always take a five-gallon bucket full of deer corn and you pour a whole bunch of water and Kool-Aid mix in there and then you leave it in the sun for a week and it'll just sour. It gets so gross and then we go dump that in the woods and they'll just show up, you know. And then you shoot them off, the sour corn. There you go.
Speaker 1:There you go. There's a little recipe for everybody. We don't normally do recipes, but we got one today there you go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, put it in your book. It tastes horrible. There you go All right, jonathan.
Speaker 1:Well, man, this was fun. This is a lot of fun, and I bet there's a lot of new hunters that are really going to enjoy your stories. So thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for new hunters out there. Like just keep doing it. You know like I might fail, I just learn and I do it different next time. But like what matters is getting out there. Like we're hunting we're having a good time and if you're lucky, you get something. If not, you still get to spend your day in the woods.
Speaker 1:Best lessons are self-taught man. I was like why don't I just move over there? The deer's right over there.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's really difficult to figure it out, but we did yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, let's do this, man.
Speaker 2:Why don't you share? Um, my Instagram is Jonathan underscore bottoms. If you want to follow me, uh, it's always something. You know, I have a million hobbies so I do stuff like that. Say, jonathan bottoms on Facebook. If you're in the Southeast Texas area, look up our church, christian fellowshipchurch. Uh, we're just good people.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Living life serving God and if you're interested, come and check us out. We'd love to have you, you know we'll go hunt together.
Speaker 1:There we go, man. I'll put links to everything in the show notes. Guys, if you're interested in a new church, if you're in the area, I'd have you as my pastor man.
Speaker 2:That'd be fun. Deer stories I tell because the church makes fun of me.
Speaker 1:but I saw uh, it was like a social media post a preacher like in church, uh, preaching about something and using his bow as the example yeah, I don't want to.
Speaker 2:I try. I get afraid of being corny. If I'm not, you know if I'm doing too many things, but like we're here, you know and I'll talk about hunting all day. Show up at the church. We'll do it, dude, there we go man.
Speaker 1:All man, all right, jonathan. Well, this was fun, man. I appreciate you. Thanks again for reaching out and really thank you for sharing the stories. Those were great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no problem man.
Speaker 1:All right, guys. That's it. Another couple stories in the books. Again, I want to thank Jonathan for coming on the podcast sharing his stories, sharing his follies, sharing his fun. It was super cool to hear the stories of the poachers and the swamp, and it's just something that I really have no experience with, so it's super fun to hear those stories. So, jonathan, thank you again for being brave enough to reach out and say, hey, I've got some stories to tell, and then, of course, for sharing your stories with us. As for you listeners, thank you, guys. Again, I really do appreciate it. I would love it if you could review the podcast on whatever you're listening to. I would really appreciate that. Beyond that, if you could share it with one person and, most importantly, if you have some fun hunting stories, reach out to me. I'd love to hear them. But that's it, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in. Get out there and
