EP. 222 Aaron Evans

In this episode we have on coyote decoy dogger, Aaron Evans. When he's not shooting long range or bird doggin', he's decoying. Another episode full of great information you don't want to miss!

Aaron's FB: https://www.facebook.com/aaron.evans.5836

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

All right, everybody, here we go. Do another show. One more time. Listen, we've done this show before, and Nathan done something with it. We blame it all on him. Don't know. I have no idea. It's it's a lot easier for me to lay the blame on somebody else than to be responsible. Way easier. So what we're doing, we're going to do this again. And uh I got uh Rusty, Ms. Joe are here with us tonight. And uh I got Mr. Aaron Aaron the decoy dog man. That's what I know him as. Aaron, what's your last name? Rusty won't tell me. Evans. Evans. Aaron Evans. You told me before, I think, but I think we did this the same time, same thing last time. So sounds pretty good. Well, give us a rundown on how you got to be famous, handsome, and uh hung like a field mouse and talk about these dogs.

SPEAKER_04 0:55

Oh I guess it was probably 15 or 16, 17 years ago. I don't know. Kind of time kind of gets away from me anymore. Uh I went cow hunting one time with the what's it actually turned out to be our neighbor, my neighbor, uh Kelly Jackson, and he had a couple of of uh he had one mountain cur. I don't remember what Peaches was across too.

SPEAKER_03 1:23

She's mountain current, something across.

SPEAKER_04 1:25

And then uh he had another little mountain cur Jack Terrier Cross, and we went over by uh Ranolette and we got into three or four sure enough alligator coyotes, and I mean they were spinning circles and the dust was flying, and I mean it was the craziest thing I ever seen in my life, and I'd always uh I'd always had quail dogs or coon dogs or something growing up, and quail kind of disappeared around here, so I kind of belled off in the decoy dog thing with Kelly and kind of followed his lead, to be honest with you. He kind of started the deal. And uh I got some of his bloodline still in my kennels today. So I uh if I go coward hunting anymore, if I'm not in a contest, I got a dog with me year round. I don't I don't go out without a dog anymore, whether it's summertime, wintertime, springtime, fall, it don't matter. I take a dog with me everywhere I go.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

I don't blame you, man. You uh now the the dogs that you have now, these are this is a bloodline that you you said you got from some of it from Kelly, and yeah, but you you breed all your own dogs, you don't buy them from other people, correct?

SPEAKER_04 2:49

I have not I have not yet had to. I bought a uh little jag a few years ago I was gonna breed, and uh ended up getting she ended up getting killed for I could use her, but uh ended up, I wound up with one of Kelly kind of retired and he gave me one of his better dogs, so I got her in a kennel now. And I'm gonna try to breed her to uh to my real good nacho dog. I I've actually put them together twice and it hasn't taken took yet, so uh I don't know. I'm hoping I'm hoping this next go round when she comes in it will take. So we'll see. If she does, it'll be some real good beast. Probably the probably the dogs I've been really wanting to get a hold of, you know. Size-wise, handle-wise, gritty-wise. What kind of size you you talking about?

SPEAKER_03 3:47

I mean, I really like a honestly a 20-pound dog is about what I want.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 3:54

But I want to go year-round too. And uh you take a big dog. Well, just like for instance, last I guess it was the night before last men and my wife went out and we was gonna go make a cow stand. We try to do something together, you know, once or twice a week, and uh I had uh I had sat down on a place that I hadn't hunted and uh cow backdoored me.

SPEAKER_03 4:21

And um I had that little terrier.

SPEAKER_04 4:25

She's she's probably what 25 pounds? What red dog? Yeah, she's 20 pounds. Yeah, she's probably 25 pounds maybe. Nacho's probably Nacho's 32, I think. But anyway, I had her with me, and that cow came in the back door. I seen him come around. He went right beside the can am, saw the can am. Uh it went back behind us, was bugger barking, and that little red dog went to him and worked him back to us, you know, a couple followbacks back to us, and and uh I was able to get out of my chair and walk around a little thicket and get him killed. But without a dog, you don't, you know, you ain't doing that, you know. And without the right dog, you're not doing that.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

Yeah, that's what I was gonna ask too. You know, it's which I mean I'm I'm familiar with with a good bit of it, but at the same time, a lot of the listeners that we have, you know, they're in in totally different genres of hunting, but everybody likes the dogs. And so w with the the size, like I said, we we uh I sat in with with Ricky from Lighthounds, and we talked with Seth Simpson last night, and and Seth is at the other end. He wants if I remember correctly, uh he wants a big dog. He wants a dog almost the size of the coyote. And and we were talking about Devin, I think Devin Staker, and he was talking about Devin likes a smaller dog and and all that. What is the purpose for that smaller dog? And how how how much of a handle do you have to have on your dog?

SPEAKER_04 6:01

Well, you want them to have a little bit of grip, but the problem with the big dog that I've ran into is intimidating single coyotes, you know. You here, you know, you might not always call in a family group. You may call in a single, you know, and the whole purpose of having a dog with you is helping you kill coyotes. Uh and I've I've never I I don't I don't know cess dogs, but I know a lot of the guys that run those bigger dogs, they got to find the right coyotes. I guess, you know. Uh, and if you don't find those alligator type, really territorial coyotes, you'll just run them off, you know.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Now he did say that. I do remember him saying that the the general consensus of where he's at, they have very, very aggressive coyotes. Yeah and that that's what we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_04 6:53

And we used to too. Okay. We used to too, but we killed a lot, you know, when you do this for 15 years and you stay on them. Well, a lot, yeah, them alligators, they start disappearing real quick. Those older coyotes, you know, they're not around no more. So then you gotta change your game plan. And with a smaller dog, you're throwing a bigger net, you know.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

And so I mean what how do you do your your training? That's why I know we're gonna get asked that question. I know people are gonna want to know about you know what's the method, uh, and and any tips or tricks or anything you got for that.

SPEAKER_04 7:33

Man, I would when I had a pup, I'd put a lease on her or a collar on it, her or him, and I would start with just fetch more than anything. And when I when I wanted them to go get the ball, I'd beep them once. When I want them to bring the ball back to me, I'd beep them twice. And uh that would kind of get them where they would go and come, go and come, go and come, you know. So then when you set them down on a coyote stand, you can sick them on a coyote, you know, and then when you want them to come back, beep twice and then they'll come back. And once you do that, you know, with a dog for you know, say you do it, say you put them on 50 coyotes, well, they're gonna figure it out after, you know, especially running with another older dog. I've had been very fortunate to always have with me a Kelly's dog or one of my older dogs, and those pups will fall right in with those dogs, you know. But the biggest thing is you don't as that as those co as those dogs see more and more coyotes, they get from they get better at reading the coyotes, you know, the body language of the coyotes, and uh they kind of understand the game that you're playing, which is pretty much cat and mouse. You know, you go out a little, coyote comes a little closer. Gotta go out a little bit, coyote comes a little closer. Next thing you know, it's in your lap. And so and you know, sometimes you don't with the right coyotes, they don't even have to work a dog. They're just gonna be on that sun gun. You know what I mean? Yeah. And that that that that that that that dog don't even have to work that coyote to get him close to you. He can that coyote's just coming no matter what, you know, he's coming to rip some ass. Well, that that's and if you get the right coyotes, man, it's sure, you know, it makes it a lot easier. But you know, I've seen I've seen my dogs actually go out and and lay down and just be totally submissive to a coyote just to get it where it would come closer, you know.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

And then bust his ass.

SPEAKER_04 9:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

Yeah, that's uh there's a guy I know named Rodney, and Rodney's bad about that. He'll he'll play real submissive, and then he'll get another guy in there. Next thing you know, Rodney's up on his ass. I'm telling you, dude, you gotta watch it. Yeah. No, the uh I I listen, all I do is talk shit constantly. Like I like joking and carrying on cutting up, but I also there's times where I get serious, and I and I do have a serious question to ask is like when you stand on the general consensus of of other people getting into this, getting into the decoy, like new newcomers is what I'm getting at. You know, being serious about it. Uh, because I I mean myself personally, I get people call me all the time, they're like, hey man, I need a good hog dog. I want to start hog hunting, and blah, blah, blah. And it's like, bro, uh, shit, we don't we're full. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? What what's your what's your stance on that?

SPEAKER_04 10:43

Oh, I think I mean last few years I don't hunt like I used to. I ain't gonna lie. You know, I used to I was gone every evening, you know. Yes, sir. And so I I I would I hate to be the guy and sit here and say, well, you need to you need to hunt that dog so much or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know.

SPEAKER_03 11:05

But I don't I think it's good to take any dog on a stand with you when you're coward hunting, to be honest with you. I think it uh it don't necessarily, I mean, you can take a little take whatever dog you want, you know. Uh some dogs will just naturally, you know, do it, you know.

SPEAKER_04 11:29

I don't know that I go spend thousands of dollars on a on a dog when I got two thousand acres to coyote hunt on, you know. That's the that's the biggest deal. I think a lot of guys don't have the have the country to to really do it with, you know. Yeah. But if you do take a dog on stand, that's what I was kind of getting at. So many guys ass up coyotes anymore. If you have that dog with you, you have a lot better chance of covering your ass with that dog with you. That makes sense. So a cow, when you turn a call on, you're lying, I mean, you're pretty well just you're lying. You know, you're trying to make you're making up a scenario that doesn't exist whatsoever. And if that cow comes in down window, you and busts you, or comes in, sees the call, gigs up, he knows something wasn't right. He has nothing to link that to except for the fact that there was a human there. But if you have a canine on on the ground with you, leaving that scent, peeing on trees, uh I think if you do ass up a stand, you have a lot better chance of going back and getting that cow killed later.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Okay. But well, I mean it makes a lot of sense. It's I I guess the in in like relate, you could you could put it in terms more like like turkey hunting with a with a decoy, you know. If you know, if a gobbler comes out and he sees a another gobbler decoy in a hen right there, well, he's got something to to go to. If nothing's there and he looks and he sees a fat red-headed guy by the tree, he's like, There's that sunbitch right there. He's not going back.

SPEAKER_04 13:15

You know, and even even if you have a dog and and that cow, even if you don't get that cow killed, at least in that coyote's relating what happened to that dog and not necessarily you. So he's not nearly as educated as he would be if he comes in directly downwind of you. You don't ever even see him and he leaves. You in your mind, there wasn't a coward on that stand, but more than likely there probably was, and you just didn't see it, you know, especially if you're especially if you're hunting in an area where there's a lot of coyotes. I don't think you guys understand how many cows they call in and never see, you know. And that's how this country gets assed up so fast. Yeah. So if you just take a dog with you, I think it's a great idea. Like I said, I don't I don't make a stand without a dog. I don't care what time of year it is. And that's that, but that goes back to me running a smaller dog that I can run year round.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

It's a little easier to to handle, a little easier to take care of. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:16

Less intimidating to the cow, too. And I promise you, that little jag terrier, that little red dog I got, she's a mean sum bitch. I mean, she might only weigh 20 pounds, but she's mean, I'm telling you, just tough.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

I I fully I understand. I've I've got some. I've been I've had them for around 20 years, and man, they're some of the most tenacious little dogs I've ever had. Those in Patterdale's are pretty rough, but I've got the some hide terriers now, and which we're we're working with the German Hide Terrier project with High Terrier USA, and I I like these dogs pretty good too. They're a little bigger, you know, but uh for what we're doing on the hogs, man, they're but I there's a few guys uh that are using them for decoying, and yeah, they they really like them.

SPEAKER_04 15:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:09

Like I said, I got nothing against anybody running a big dog, and I I mean like I said, I've just learned from from what I've experienced in the last 10 years, it works better for what I do. That's that's all I can say. You know, I I I have to go pick up my own coyote, so I won't they won't bring them back to me. But well damn. That's can't be that's a sacrifice I make. Can't have it all, buddy. Can't have it all. I have to get off my fat ass and go out there and get them. But I get my steps in.

SPEAKER_02 15:37

Yeah, get them 12,000 steps a day.

SPEAKER_04 15:40

Well, you take I mean in that in that sense, you take a dog like Aaron's got a dog out here named Dean. That I mean he's 45, 50 pounds. He's almost 50 pounds. That dog reads a coyote. I mean, that dog reads a coyote better than he's d any dog I've ever seen. And I mean, he knows when to be hard, he knows when to be soft, and I mean he'll he'll put one in your lap, you know, but that shouldn't be there. Yeah. He's really passive. Yeah, he is really he's a really passive dog.

SPEAKER_03 16:10

But we've probably killed what shit ton two, three thousand cows over something, no.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Damn. Old Bean.

SPEAKER_03 16:21

I like that.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

Old Bean. Old Beanhead. Yeah, I used to have a dog named Bean a long time ago. A little bean headed ass dog.

SPEAKER_04 16:28

He went I sold Bean though a few months ago, actually.

SPEAKER_03 16:33

He's in he's in western Oklahoma with a government trapper now.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Really?

SPEAKER_03 16:41

Uses him on the uses him on uh trap line.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Hell yeah. So do you y'all trap much?

SPEAKER_04 16:51

I don't. I don't. I don't nothing against it. I just ain't never Yeah, I got you.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

Well, I just I ain't never got into it. I was just curious. I didn't know because like so you but like some of the guys I know, I actually most of the guys I know that decoy it, that's what they were doing. They're government trappers or government work, and but they're hauling a dog with them all the time as well. So we uh so with the talking about calling, you know, and and with the dog helping cover your ass on some of the stuff. Seth, when uh we talked with him last night, he said that uh he felt like you know you needed to be get good at calling before you got into decoying if somebody knew was gonna get into it. What what kind of calls do you guys use and how important is that in your s on your side? Or does it matter?

SPEAKER_04 17:52

I've been doing so I've been I've been using the same old sounds for ever and ever and ever.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:57

I mean I think a cow's gonna come, a cow's gonna come, you know. Okay, that's my take on it. I mean I got a uh little canine puppy sound that I play that oh shit, dude. I I bet me and Kelly's killed shit. Probably 75% of our coyotes too, you know? It's just a little whine whiny ass canine puppy sound. Yeah, I mean it's it's honestly I I I think people need to spend more time working on working on killing coyotes than they do worrying about calling coyotes, to be honest with you. I think that's but but I think I think these these call guys anymore are trying to sell these coals, so they're making that the sounds are what makes you successful, and it's not. It's it's how well you can shoot, it's uh how well you can uh set up the stand right, know where your cows are coming from. I think if anything else, you need to go out and do some locating and find out where these cows are living at, so you know what wind to set up when, uh, how close to get. Uh like I said, I don't know Seth's situation up there. I'm just going off of what my situation is. And no, no, and that's exactly the majority of the majority of the guys I take where they mess up at it, they ain't playing the wrong sounds. They're just missing coyotes, and then they go back and try to call those coyotes again, and they won't they won't they won't act the same. You know, they won't, they're not you you're gonna fool coyote a couple times and you're you're uh you're you're they're done, you know. I got you. You're all you're gonna have them doing is booger barking at you. And yeah, I think I think learn your weapon more than more than anything and and don't let coyotes go. You know, I think so many guys go out and let let way too many cows go. If you kill those coyotes, other cyots in the area will filter right back into those spots. So don't be afraid to kill all them coyotes, you know. Oh yeah. Don't let anything go. Kelly Jackson taught me that a long time ago. You don't let coyotes go. No, for no reason whatsoever. No, don't let them go. Bust them. Kill them. Burn them down. Kill every one of them. You know, so what kind of that might be your last chance to kill them. You may never get another shot.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Yeah, because if if if they come in and you and they figured it out, then they're like, hey, I'm never coming back to that sound, you know. No, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_04 20:37

Then you wind up with, you know, there's so many guys that go out and you know, maybe they got three or four thousand acres of hunt, and the numbers that they tell me they call compared to what they kill is is uh it's unbelievable. It's it's uh it's ridiculous. And then they go back, you know, then there's another contest two weeks later, they go back and they try to hunt that same stuff, and then they go back again in three weeks and hunt that same stuff, and then they call me and ask me what sound to play. Like the sound that you called, the sound you played the first time you were out there when you killed all those or when you called all those cows, that's the sound you should be playing. But you done fucked that up. Yep, that's exactly right. You done fucked it up, and now you're gonna have to battle to uh you're gonna have to try to set up in a different spot, you're gonna have to uh try to change sounds. I mean, it's just just it just messes everything up, but that's just how definitely see that, ain't no doubt.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

So what's what's the weapon? You said know your weapon well, so what what kind of weapon are you guys using?

SPEAKER_04 21:54

I ru I shoot a twenty two creed more, rusty does too. Uh that's We found that's pretty well the gun that we've had the best success with. We we shot for a long time, we shot 22, 243 Ackley improves, but the brass prep on them was just stupid, you know. You had to take a 243, neck it down to 22, and then uh turn brass and then uh fire form it and then uh then reload it. It's stupid how much work it went into. When when you shot it when you shot a cow, you picked your brass up, you know.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

Yeah, exactly so. If it's all that work into it.

SPEAKER_04 22:43

We went to I went to a world to the World Cow Calling Championship probably 10 or 12 years ago, and that was when that uh oh that six five Creedmore was just coming out, right? And uh there was a boy there, and he was telling me how he had taken that six five and necked it down a twenty-two. This was back before the six Creedmoor even was around, you know. Oh, and I've been missing with this a while. Yeah, so we started necking that six five down and uh took twenty-two. It's worked out really good. We run them 75 burgers about 35, 3,600 feet a second, and man, they're devastating on coyotes out to a thousand yards, you know. Wow. Pretty incredible, really.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

That's probably a lot more common than it ever has been, but still at a a target, a live target, the size of a coyote, you know, that's a it's a heck of a shot. And to be consistent with it. Like you said, they need to to learn their their weapon and and know what they're doing instead of taking marginal shit and educate them.

SPEAKER_04 23:52

Yeah. Well, we have a thousand yard range here at the house, so me and Rusty don't have a reason why we shouldn't be good after a thousand.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 24:01

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

So now I know what to I can give Rusty a hard time if he misses something.

SPEAKER_04 24:07

I ain't saying we kill every cow at a thousand yards, but we're gonna scare the shit out of him, I promise you that.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Well yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:16

But yeah, we whenever I started hunting with Kelly, that was one of the main things that we worked on all the time. We'd go out to the shooting range and we might drink a couple, three or four beers and just dry fire, dry fire, dry fire, practice getting on our guns, practice different distances, practice when our trigger broke, practice everything. You know. I don't think anybody does that anymore. They they go out and call they go out and call coyotes and then and then they don't know their they don't know their weapons well enough to get them killed.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

Yeah, I d I don't think there's there's probably not a lot of people that do that in any situation anymore, uh as far as hunting goes, especially with with dog hunting. There's not a lot of people that do any prep work.

unknown 25:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:01

You know, like you get some guys. Let's just go out and hope let's go out and hope for the best. Go out and hope for the best. It it's ridiculous. You know, uh it is ridiculous. Uh we I go with guys all the time, and you know, we'll we'll get somewhere and have a have a hog, and I'm like, and they're just like like you said, they're just gung-ho. Let's just throw everything down and just let us poke and hope. And that's not I I need a plan. You know, I I want to have a plan. I I want to have it thought out the best I can in order to be able to be successful, but you know, not everybody does that. That's getting to be a thing of the past for sure. So well what kind of uh what kind of glass you got on your rifle?

SPEAKER_03 25:48

I shoot a huskem off scope. Rusty shoots a knife for us. Uh I shoot that huskem off. It's got a real simple MOA tree in it. It's got a a hash mark every two minutes, and then I set my drops up to where my bullet drops two minutes every hundred yards.

SPEAKER_04 26:12

So it makes it real simple for me to shoot out to to eight hundred without dialing my scope. And it makes it makes it I'm I'm pretty simple-minded, and and shit happens fast in a cow stand, you gotta you gotta be quick, you know, you can't be fucking around with your scope. So it's what has worked for me, and that's what I've just always stuck with, you know. The night force has got an MOA tree in it also, but it's got like 20 minutes of a 20-minute tree in there, maybe 25-minute tree. And it's got a hash every minute, and it's just real busy, you know, it's got a lot in there, yeah. And it kind of messes with my mind when I'm trying to do my holdovers, you know, on a coyote. So I've just always shot that huskemall just because the tree and it's and it's a tough scope too.

SPEAKER_03 27:12

It's a really tough scope, and uh and it's good glass, and it just works for what I do, you know. It's pretty cool, pretty cool stuff.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Yeah, you might check them out. Huskemall optics.

SPEAKER_04 27:28

Yeah, I think they they I I found it one time. There's some guys down here shooting from like the best of the west. You ever heard of the best of the west? Yes. Yeah, and that's what they run, whereas them huskemalls, and and uh anyway, like I said, the tree kind of set up for my ballistics on my bullets, so I've just always kind of stuck with it, you know. Just hold every hundred yards is one hash mark. So keep a range finder, keep a range finder in your pocket, and and and it drops two inches at every hundred.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

Two two minutes.

SPEAKER_04 28:05

Two minutes, I mean not too much. Okay, yeah. Yeah, two minutes elevation every hundred yards, and it's consistent out to out to eight hundred. Pretty cool. It's pretty sweet, you know, it is pretty sweet, yeah. So it's made for a magnum type, you know, those big husbands are kind of bad. Yeah, they're made for those big guns, and uh, so it works out good for my little fast short, you know, my little fast 22 gun. Yeah, it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

You know, when when's uh when's the decoy season? When it you know, what time of year is it?

SPEAKER_03 28:39

I mean honestly June, July, and August has historically been the best, but I don't I'll go year round anymore, you know.

SPEAKER_04 28:52

Yeah the end of April I'll usually try to back off of them for a month and let them have their pups, you know. But and if and if I do go that time of year, I won't take out the whole family group, you know. Just used to I would, but I try not to go that time of year, that way I don't have to worry about it. But that time of year they're gonna have a a litter in the ground and and uh there'll be a female that's taking care of them and then there'll be a another helper bitch and a male around somewhere, you know, usually and if you wipe them all out and you wipe out the whole litter, you wipe out everything. So if you wait our rule of thumb around here is whenever the grasshoppers start coming out, you can go start killing cows because if you happen to wipe out a family group, that litter of cows will live off grasshoppers.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

So when you got uh like when they den up, d do they like return every year about to the same den? If you don't kill 'em, of course, you know?

SPEAKER_04 30:02

Like are they like creatures of habit or or territorial or well I th I've killed family groups and then historically they're still, you know, kill you you go in there and kill a family group and the next year you can go in there in the same spot and they're you know, you're pretty close to their den. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

That's what that's what I was getting at. If you know, even if you've knocked the whole group out, there there's more coming in.

SPEAKER_04 30:30

Yeah, yeah, I think it has more to do with the with the cover and the food source in the area and and and uh and pressure, you know, they want they want to go try to have their litter in an area that's pressure free, you know, away from away from everything with with a decent amount of cover and some and a food source. And if you can find that, you'll usually find a uh a den in that area.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

That's pretty sleek there. What's the biggest coyote you ever killed? Male and female. And don't start lying either. Because I don't rusty rusty, will I know Rusty to start telling lying a minute? So if you're hanging around with him, I have to watch you.

SPEAKER_04 31:11

I I think the biggest coyote I ever killed was 47 pounds. I just don't know. That's how I I could believe that. Yeah, and I but female, I don't know. I've I've never we killed 42 one time. Rusty says we killed a 42-found female.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

Well, you sound like you're not even sure about what Rusty said. You see what I'm getting at?

SPEAKER_04 31:33

Rusty keeps better track of that shit than I do. I don't pay no money. We did kill 42. I know one time we were in a contest and I killed five couchs by myself while Rusty sat there and watched me. You'll do that. And all five of them, all five of them were over 40 pounds, and I killed every one of them within what 10 feet of each other. And we went over there and picked them up, and every one of them was over 40 pounds. It's crazy. Damn, that's yeah, that's some big dogs there. That's that's one of them. But those are those are the type of cows you find with your decoy dogs in the middle of July. Makes good watching it. Yeah, that's that's the kind of alligators that that uh you're looking for. You know, it's just they're just hard to come by anymore. And I've got a lot of country to hunt. I mean, I've got a lot to hunt.

SPEAKER_02 32:22

So what what's the most coyotes that you that y'all killed in a in a day? Uh like a daytime hunt, daytime only hunt? What is it it just say in a 24-hour period? 43 46. Jesus Christ. You're like Parvo on the bastard foot.

SPEAKER_04 32:46

Yeah, some some nights you you find they just that's why I was talking about the whole calling deal. You know, there's certain times when you can go out there and I mean, I swear to God, you could take a recording of a baby crying and kill cats all night. You know, it's just when they're on, they're on, you know. It don't fucking matter what you play.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:09

You know, you don't want to go out there and play a whole something real crazy aggressive and run them off, you know, but as of sound-wise, it don't most of the time it don't matter.

SPEAKER_02 33:20

That's where I missed when I first the first few times I ever tried to call, I was gonna try to kill one with my bow. And I got I got too aggressive and run them off, you know, played the wrong sounds. I mean, they were there, so I was like, well, I'll get them to just run right in. No, they ran off. I was like, Well shit.

SPEAKER_04 33:40

Yeah, that didn't work out, you know. Yeah, it's kind of crazy how that works. You can really, you gotta start off slow and easy. And like I said, throw a big net, you know, throw a big net. The bigger net, the bigger net you can throw, the better off you are. You know, I a lot of these guys now are just starting off with fights and vocals. And I'm just like, man, you're killing some Kyos that sound, but you're missing a lot that ain't coming to those sounds, you know. Like male that I killed the night the night before last, for instance, you know, he was he was pretty uh pretty mellow, you know.

SPEAKER_03 34:28

He wouldn't have come to no fighting, you know.

SPEAKER_04 34:34

He was com he was coming to those little canine puppy sounds, you know. Well you get but I don't think a lot of a lot of people don't have the patience for it anymore, but just some kind of little can.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

Just sit for a while and just ease into it.

SPEAKER_04 34:49

Yeah, just you need to give it five or six minutes of of some rabbit or some bird or some puppies or or some I mean, hell anything really, you know, some deer, uh anything like that, any any type of uh rate of stress sound, you know, you need to give every stand four to five minutes of that before you even remotely get close to to turning into anything aggressive, in my opinion. And the same way with howls. If you want to howl on the you know, early morning, if you want to howl, it needs to be a real mellow, lone female, submissive type howl. You don't want to go in there and blare some you know aggressive male howl right off the bat, you know, because then you're you're you're taking coyotes that might be there and just doing away with them because they're not coming into that.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

I'm learning a lot of stuff on this.

SPEAKER_04 35:52

You uh you really limit your, you know, like I said, throw a big net. You you go in there and do that and your your net gets a lot smaller.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

Yeah, because he's just going in there going crazy, going buck wild with it.

SPEAKER_04 36:07

Yeah, and maybe you got a young a young male or a young female as you know, maybe he was last year's pup and he's on his own. He's he's all by himself. Yeah, you think he's gonna come into that?

SPEAKER_02 36:19

He ain't coming. I wouldn't either. No, hell no, because like I mean, he's he's worried now. He hears all that, he's like, oh shit, they fixing to get me.

SPEAKER_04 36:28

Exactly. Like if Rusty came and knocked on my door and started yelling at me, I'm running another way. Yeah, not do it.

SPEAKER_02 36:36

That's exactly right. That's how Rusty does stuff too, though. Sometimes he'll call me, God of money, he'll get to hollering. I I call I did answer the phone on on February the 13th in 2024. I think I answered the phone. That's right, yeah. Yeah. That is correct. That's one guy, he did I tell you about the guy that messaged me a while back. He and I I swear I did not see, it was on Facebook Messenger. I did not see the message. And I got I got about four or five messages in a row one day, and so I went back and I said, Well, hell, this guy messaged me. I said, I'll go through there this evening and contact him. It's mostly young guys asking questions, you know. Well, 30 minutes later, I get another message. He said, Well, I guess I'll just go fuck myself then since you don't want to talk. He said you never answer me and you ain't answered your phone. I was like, Oh fuck, brother, like you have no idea. And I just I was I just was taken by it. I was like, you gotta be kidding me. He really thought I was gonna fucking answer the phone within three minutes, like no. The people that's most important in my life, and Rusty is one of them, I hardly ever answer the damn phone still. Yeah, about once out of ten. But I'm getting better. I'm getting better. I'm getting better.

SPEAKER_04 38:02

We sell these, we sell these kill racks out of the welding shop. You don't have been for the last four or five years. And the people that message me on Facebook on Friday at 8 30 or Saturday morning at I mean, it's just unbelievable. Blows my mind. Like, what are you thinking?

SPEAKER_02 38:24

Oh yeah. I get some of them at 1 30 or 3 o'clock in the fucking morning. That's the ones that's like, bro, like, what are you doing? It's like, what the fuck are you calling me for?

SPEAKER_04 38:34

Ace phone rings probably more than anybody I know. Hmm. Well, it's not a bad thing. Mine rings bunch, but A's rings a lot. I put that uh screening deal on my phone, it's really helps a lot. Mine does too. Uh I get if it don't, if it don't, if it ain't saved in my contacts, it won't ring.

SPEAKER_02 38:56

Yep. A lot of mine will show up as a spam risk. I don't I didn't put that on my phone, but actually it's not a bad thing though. Even if it's people that I know, but if it's not a local number, probably six or seven times out of ten, it'll show up as spam risk. And then I'll go back and check it, and it'll it'll actually have that person's name and stuff on it. I was like, oh fuck, so-and-so called me, you know. And I've had people that are like, Man, you didn't answer the phone's like, fuck, it didn't even ring. It showed it was a spam risk, you know. But then I I'll try to call them back whenever I get a chance.

SPEAKER_04 39:37

Yeah, that's all you can do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:39

But you know, a lot of people they think that you're not doing anything. Like Rusty, Rusty knows he's like, fuck. He said he'll call me back whenever fuck he gets the time to do it. But some people they don't see that. Like they they literally think you're sitting there holding the phone. One guy he said, Well, uh, I seen where you posted on Instagram. I was like, uh, have you ever heard a scheduled post? It's a crazy concept. I might have 10 of them together and just say, okay, we're gonna schedule one for each day of this week or however the fuck I do it. Bingo, you know. Well, I'm glad somebody else has to deal with a bunch of that shit too. Yeah. I'm glad.

SPEAKER_04 40:22

That's why I go hunt and get away from it.

SPEAKER_02 40:24

Run away from it. That's what you mean. Running running away from your shit. So tell us some good, good hunting stories about I know y'all go do these contests and stuff. I want to hear something about that. I know our listeners do too. Tell us some of the but tell us the best ones and the worst ones.

SPEAKER_04 40:50

My wife's sitting here listening to us.

SPEAKER_02 40:52

She's looking at both of them like, oh boy. Oh, listen, Lord Marcy. I've been cussing like crazy in that woman sitting there listening to me with a dirty mouth like I got.

SPEAKER_04 41:01

She's got a dirtier mouth than you cross. Jesus, Christ. Don't talk about her like that, Aaron.

SPEAKER_02 41:06

My God.

SPEAKER_04 41:10

Tell 'em. Rusty, tell them about uh winning the West Texas Big Bobcat most cow contests, and I'm going to check in. Yeah, we went. We hunted, you know, West Texas Big Bobcat. It's it's a big, you know, it'll be what was there, 700 and 780 something teams in it.

SPEAKER_02 41:29

Holy smokes.

SPEAKER_04 41:31

We hunted it in Mark, and they have like the bobcat deals separate. You know, they have it's what it is, you gotta kill five coats, and then you to weigh your bobcat. So you gotta kill a bobcat, but you gotta kill five cows to qualify that cat, you know, for the to weigh it. But we don't ever hunt for a cat. We just always we we always they have a most coyote pot that we hunt in. Well we we hunt for a cat too. We just don't usually kill one. Not really. But we hunted it in March last year, and we got in the coats pretty good and uh pretty good, and we was rolling pretty good, and they wanted our other partners. They was kept on me and A about going to try to find a big cat. Me and A was like, man, we're just gonna keep whacking coats. And anyway, they finally did. Well anyway, we killed 20. And we've seen, you know, we've seen 64. 64 is one of the fours. Yeah, 64, 50 a couple times, 40 several times, and you know, I mean, we just like we ain't gonna do no good. Well, no sense in driving. No sense in driving to the check-in. We went back for us for about an hour, and finally we didn't go to check-in, and we come home, got home, and 15 won it. Damn. Pretty good paycheck we left there. About eight thousand we left in San Angelo.

SPEAKER_02 43:09

Mm-mm. Boys, boys, boys. That's pretty rough.

SPEAKER_04 43:14

Pretty rough.

SPEAKER_03 43:15

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:15

We've done that. Yeah, we've done it.

SPEAKER_03 43:17

We've done that several times.

SPEAKER_04 43:19

We lost more hunts than most people's won by not going to check out. By not going, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:25

The the like we ain't shine, we ain't showing up with this number or whatever, you know.

SPEAKER_04 43:30

Yeah. Embarrassed because we had a shitty day. And then everybody else had a more shitty day, you know, not even go check in and lose.

SPEAKER_02 43:40

The last last tournament that we hunted, which I don't get to hunt very many, but it was a hog hunting tournament. Uh, I told Rodney, I was like, I said, we need to take every everything because we signed up for longest string or longest, you know, we signed up for everything. And sure enough, his little he's got a dog. BB and she is a piglet killing dog. Like that's all that son of a bitch wants to do. She's five years old and just now getting to where she'll actually bay a hog. But she loves a piglet or a choke. You know what I mean? And so there she had like two or three of them that she had done tore the back leg off, and one of them had the front hit leg tore off. I said, throw them in the buck in the bucket, don't matter. Throw them in there. Well, Rodney kept on, he's like, Well, I'm gonna throw these away. I was like, don't throw none of them away. They all count. Well, this asshole threw them up, threw them away. We wound up, we didn't lose, but we tied. To me, that's I would have rather just fucking lost. But we tied. And I turned around, I was like, they kept calling the number. I said, no, no, no. We have two more. It was 11, and I think 13, I thought we had 13, or it might have been 13, we had 15 either way. And and nobody said nothing. I looked, I said, You threw them some bitches in the ditch, didn't you? He said, Well, hell, it wasn't but half a pig. I said, Don't matter. I said, You just cost us a damn piece. Boy, I was so damn mad. I said, I couldn't stand it. So listen, you gotta take everything. You gotta go weigh in, and you gotta weigh in everything. But y'all know that for sure. Oh yeah. So what's the what's the good ones?

SPEAKER_03 45:28

Ah, we won the world last year. That was pretty cool. Yeah, we give them the best task today. We done it.

SPEAKER_04 45:39

We done it by we had we had to kill ours by 11. 12. 12. 12.

SPEAKER_03 45:45

We had to kill ours by 12. And then drive eight hours to catch you. Damn. Pretty good. Pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 45:54

Pretty good stuff. We won pretty good. What was that? What'd that one pay?

SPEAKER_02 45:58

21,000? Wind up splitting 21,000 or something. Good God almighty, 21,000. Y'all sound like Randy Durrell in there splitting up money. My gosh.

SPEAKER_04 46:12

Not quite that that type of money, but some of these hunts pay pretty good. They do pay good. He ain't won no million dollars or nothing, but like Randy has.

SPEAKER_02 46:22

Well, I mean, whatever. 21,000 is a lot. That's enough. It's a lot.

SPEAKER_04 46:31

We entered a weight hunt last year, year before last. And we killed 30 cows in 15 stands. Yeah, we made 15 stands. We killed 30 cows. It was a weight hunt, a five-stringer? Three-stringer weight hunt. And we had we had we had three big, I mean, that'll want any stringer hunting in Oklahoma. And we was hunting a late hunt in Texas. And this guy brought five coyotes in. He had four. Yeah. We had a 40, we had a 47, a 40, 47, a 44, and a 42-5 on a three-coyte string and got our ass kicked. Got beat.

SPEAKER_02 47:21

What?

SPEAKER_04 47:22

Oh yeah. Dude killed a 54, 49, and a 46 something.

SPEAKER_02 47:28

He probably wasn't even a coyote hunter.

SPEAKER_04 47:31

And uh oh, he asked and said, hey, uh I said, man, where'd he? I said, where are you hunting at? He said, I'll be honest, we said we was hunting right behind a damn dead pit in a Tyson chicken farm.

SPEAKER_02 47:43

Now you're talking. Yeah, that's what it was.

SPEAKER_04 47:48

Oh yeah, I mean, he was he was fat. That one that one damn guy looked like a Jeremy Shepard. That's the only time in my life I killed 30 cows. Probably had one of the better nights I've ever had. Yeah. And we get we don't even get second. We don't even get we went home with nothing. Damn it, boys. But about 30 dead stinking couchs in the bed of a truck. That's all we took home. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 48:16

So we don't do weight hunts no more. Yeah, I imagine not. Oh shit. So what it you know, explain to some of the listeners out there, you know, about these hunts and you know, like how you know how how they're coordinated, how they go. So that way they kind of get a grasp of it.

SPEAKER_04 48:37

Some of the bigger ones now are doing they're doing a a weight, like a three-stringer weight, and then a most most coyotes, and they'll cut the combine them. So you gotta enter both pots. So say you you enter a contest, 200 bucks goes to the weight side, the three-stringer coyote side, and the other half goes to most coyotes, and then the really good ones will have a Calcutta, they'll sell you know the teams. Oh, yeah. And if you can buy get yourself pot in a Calcutta affordable, uh, that's always nice. And then uh when you when you kill a coyote, most of them anymore. You I have to pull my phone out, or Russ's gotta pull his phone out, or Jake, whoever we're hunting with, and film us shaking the coyote. We gotta work the jaws, and then uh and then we gotta film like another person's phone, like for the time stamp. And then, well, some of them we have to put kill cards in their mouth, zip time shut. Uh and then when you get to weigh-in, they'll go over those videos, and a lot of times there'll be a a uh a uh lie detector, you know, that you'll have to pass, polygraph you have to pass. And then I've seen them even stick thermometers in their ass and check the temperature and make sure make sure that you the number co, like if your coyote's numbered one is colder than number two, okay, and two is colder than number three, three's colder than number four, and make sure that their their body temperature all lines up with what you've got down.

SPEAKER_02 50:30

Because people doing what, freezing them and and shit like that, just cheating.

SPEAKER_04 50:37

Or putting them in a putting them in a pen and hell, there's I don't know how all they cheat. I've never cheated, so I can't tell you how to cheat, you know what I mean? But I understand. I'm sure there's plenty of fucking ways to do it. I like that West Tech down there, you know, they're like that deal, like first place in that West Texas deal, pay fifty-five, fifty-six thousand dollars for a bobcat.

SPEAKER_02 51:02

Holy smokes.

SPEAKER_04 51:04

They they went as far as DNAing them. Now they'll DNA them and you know, make sure that that they hadn't been tampered with. You know, several how long ago was that on that dude? There was a dude, there was a dude that was uh injecting blood in them cats making them heavier. And uh what? Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, that kind of money, man, you I mean, it's it's amazing the lengths people will go to, you know, to try to try to get an edge on something.

SPEAKER_02 51:34

Well, being an honest person kind of sucks sometimes.

SPEAKER_04 51:37

Yeah. Those guys got those guys got caught. Yeah, they got caught.

SPEAKER_02 51:42

Yeah, they they need they need their ass beat, you know, doing stupid shit like that.

SPEAKER_04 51:46

That but now but now I think they won. I think they cheated some cheated everybody out of well over 150 grand. Now they won out of the out of those hunts that they got caught cheating in. They won West Texas twice. Yeah. And then Clay's hunt.

SPEAKER_02 52:04

So so won in Oklahoma City. How how do they make that right? You you know what I'm saying? Like if if like a while back, there were some guys that got caught cheating in a hog hunting tournament this past year or last year too. And so it but you got it it was already over with it when they when they finally found out, and then here you are a couple months later. Uh so who was second place moved up, you know. I I just always curious of uh do they do they try to try to make it right, or they just say, hey, these guys are a piece of shit. Sorry, it happened, and we just try again next year.

SPEAKER_04 52:46

I don't know if they ever prosecuted those guys or not. I heard that they were. Uh I didn't really ever follow up and see what all went down, but you're right. They didn't find out about the majority of them till the last till they got caught and they done cheated, you know, five or six hunts, you know.

SPEAKER_02 53:04

Now, Rusty, what were you saying on that when I was talking about the hunt? You said what what about it? The one that was the hog hunt?

SPEAKER_04 53:11

Oh uh oh, I was talking about them guys that was oh, they were I call them like that whole I mean that's a they wind up being like a whole ring of them, deal, but I mean they're banned from ever ever hunting, big hunting contest they are. You know, I mean it's a like one of them names pop up, they're kicked out. Yeah, there were seven or eight of them in a ring, and they were working together and sending different guys to weigh in, you know.

SPEAKER_02 53:41

You know, it's gotta suck to to be like that. You gotta sit back sometimes and sit down and think, man, I ain't worth the fuck. You know, like my dogs suck, my life sucks, my wife, my kids, everybody sucks. If if you're doing that, that has to be, you gotta have that moment of clarity at some point in time.

SPEAKER_04 54:04

I don't know. I think they're just sorry ass people that don't care about being sorry ass people, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_02 54:10

So I think if you caught one of them cheating in a contest and they said, Okay, guys, y'all can do whatever y'all want to to make this right, well, how would you handle it, Aaron? Let's just hear this.

SPEAKER_04 54:25

Man, I just call Clay Reed.

SPEAKER_02 54:27

Clay beat the shit out of every time I've heard anything about Clay Reed, he's he's whooping somebody's ass or getting he'd get punched in the face.

SPEAKER_04 54:35

Yeah, I just call Clay Reed and tell him to handle it for me. And he would. Yeah. And he would. And he would. That's how I'd handle it. You're going to Clay Reed court, bud.

SPEAKER_02 54:50

I, you know, I've never I've never talked to to Clay, uh, but I've I've seen him on a bunch of stuff, you know, and he is just tickles the shit out of me.

SPEAKER_04 55:01

He's hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 55:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:03

Oh yeah. Yeah, old Clay. He thinks you can decoy with any old cow dog.

SPEAKER_02 55:12

Which I mean, I mean, you know, you need to get him on here one time, I don't know. Oh still. He probably wouldn't waste his time talking to a little old fella like us. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:23

I'm sure, I'm sure if he don't know anything to talk about, he'll make it up.

SPEAKER_02 55:30

Well, ain't nothing wrong with that, you know.

SPEAKER_04 55:32

No, you know a guy named Pat Lewin? I bet you somewhere down the line, Clay Reed's had some hog dogs at some point.

SPEAKER_02 55:42

Yeah. Probably so. I I know where you're going with it, yeah. Probably is.

SPEAKER_03 55:47

You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 55:48

Yeah. Oh. That's crazy. So what's the uh what's the what's the most money that y'all won in a in a tournament in a hunt?

SPEAKER_03 56:01

Right, the world.

SPEAKER_04 56:02

Yeah, world. World's biggest hunt.

SPEAKER_01 56:05

Oh, okay. Yeah. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 56:06

I hunted a oh, I hunted a Colorado, me and Kelly hunted Colorado Classic.

SPEAKER_04 56:14

Oh, probably 10, 11, 12 years ago. And I can't remember what it paid, but it was pretty good. We hunted uh I had to drive to Colorado and register us, and then I turned around and drove home. I think it was nine hours up there, nine or ten hours up there. I drove ten hours home. I jumped in the truck at the Warika Quick Mart with Kelly. We hunted all day long because we could only hunt in the daytime here, and then uh we left that morning at we left that next day, one o'clock in the morning, and drove back to Colorado, won the hunt, and then turned around and drove back again. So I drove like 46 hours that weekend. Yeah, dope. My tired was hanging out.

SPEAKER_02 57:03

Yeah, that's uh a lot of damn driving. But I got a cool buckle and some money. Yeah. That's always a damn plus.

SPEAKER_04 57:14

Yeah, and and we beat some dudes that were legitimate towel hunters, you know, legitimate dudes.

SPEAKER_03 57:20

It was a good contest.

SPEAKER_04 57:22

Yeah, it used to be big. Colorado Classic used to be pretty big. They didn't like us, Oakies coming in and winning, I promise you that. Oh, I bet.

SPEAKER_02 57:31

I bet they don't nobody like it if you're not from that area.

SPEAKER_04 57:36

We almost got DQ'd on our uh our videos were an hour off once we got up there.

SPEAKER_02 57:43

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_04 57:45

To our timesheet, because they adjusted the time on the videos compared to what time you know what I'm saying, it like we wrote it down, and then when we got up there adjusted an hour, so like we had written down code killed at one o'clock. Well, it was an hour off when we got up there. The video said it was at two o'clock. Oh, I got you.

SPEAKER_03 58:08

Because of the the time change and uh we almost got DQ'd. Huh.

SPEAKER_02 58:17

So what I mean, how how did that play out? I mean, or well, we had to take the lie detector.

SPEAKER_03 58:24

Really? We had to take the lie detector, and uh I it it was one of the first lie detectors I'd ever taken, and I was fucking nervous, man.

SPEAKER_04 58:37

I was nervous. I'd been I hadn't slept, I hadn't ate anything hardly. Been living off coffee and you know, caffeine and nicotine, and and then sat down in one of those chairs in a quiet room with some dude you don't know to ask you a bunch of questions that are weird.

SPEAKER_03 58:56

And so I uh he he he he tried to fool me. I ain't sitting you, he tried to fool me. He did.

SPEAKER_02 59:07

What kind of questions did he call did he ask me?

SPEAKER_04 59:10

You say some they ask you weird, they ask you some weird shit like like uh have you ever uh intentionally said something to to hurt somebody's feelings? Oh shit.

SPEAKER_02 59:24

Oh man.

SPEAKER_04 59:26

So they'll ask you a bunch of those questions like that, and then they go back afterward, they get their readings off of that, and then they go back and ask you questions about the hunt. Everybody's said something in their life. Oh yeah. So intentionally hurt somebody's feelings.

SPEAKER_02 59:44

I say it uh about every day. I probably shouldn't, but like uh I do. And I get I'm getting better at it, you know. I don't say it as much, but I think uh I think that's kind of bullshit the way if they ask those kind of questions because they're setting you up for failure. They're like, this guy's fixing a lie, watching.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:07

Yep, that's exactly right. They want to see if you're lying on that or not.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:11

I mean, have you ever hurt anybody's feelings? No, because you don't want to look like a jerk, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:17

Well, what happens is is your mind starts racing trying to remember back to the last time you said something intentionally to hurt somebody's feelings.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:24

Yeah. That question would be easy for me, though. I try not to, but it just I can't help it. You you you snap right back to the last time. Yeah, oh yeah, like it was about eight minutes ago before we started this.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:38

Yeah, you don't have to quit picking on Rodney that much.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:44

No, it wasn't even Rodney. It was one of the guys that worked with us. Uh he just he just he can't help it. He can't help it. He's a good dude, he's dumb as hell though. He's dumber than a box of shit, is what I said. I said, You are dumber than a box of shit. He's like, What's that mean? I said, my case in point. There you go. And he just kind of looked at me. He was sad a little bit, but and I laughed. It wasn't because I was being mean, I just the expression on his face was comical. But I know the guy, and I do anything. He needed something, and I stopped and drove all the way over to his house, brought him something, didn't come back home. But I hurt his feelings you know while I was there.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:33

You know. I've been there, buddy. I've hurt quite a few feelings over the years, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:38

I bet you do, I bet you do it shit all the time.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:41

One time we were I had been saving this spot, and I knew there was a family group of coyotes there.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:50

We were in a contest, and I wasn't hunting, I was just calling and spotting.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:56

We were up in the hi rack and I kicked the call on, and here comes the four coyotes that I expect to show up.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:06

And uh the two shooters in their basket wind up well, I'll just tell you the four coyotes that came in, all four of them left.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:19

Oh my god. Yeah, I was pretty pissed.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:23

Oh yeah. Yeah, I was pretty pissed. I don't remember what I said.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:27

Something along the lines of that can't happen. That can't happen.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:32

Yeah, so that can't happen. That cannot happen. Let's see, let me translate that. God damn, you're dumb as shit. Y'all can't shoot what the fuck. I don't even think they shot. Oh my god. Oh man. I don't know. I don't know. So you do a lot of you do a lot of guided hunts. Is that predominantly what you do, Aaron?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:58

Do one then?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:59

I said, do you do a lot of guided hunts?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:03

Or coyotes?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:04

Yeah, or just in general.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:07

No, I I guide uh I guide deer hunters on the ranch here next door to me, and then I guide uh uh canned quail hunts. I still got some third dogs. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:21

What what kind of bird do you have?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:22

So I do I got two pointers and a Brittany.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:26

Actually, the Britney ain't even mine, but Yeah, I've never worked I've never worked with the um a Britney of my own. I've had some nice pointers, some real nice English ones.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:37

Yeah, I got a couple of pretty good pointers. The Britney's real good too. Really? So but we just do. So I go, we got a guy that raises a quail for us, and I go pick them up and I put them in a pillowcase, you know, three or four at a time, and make me a little cubby, and uh I put them to sleep and then I put them out and then take these guys through there, point them, and let them shoot them. So I got you. It ain't uh it ain't that glorifying, but it pays well.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:14

Yeah, and we used to haul quite a bit of coil from here to places in Texas. Well, I mean, we we'd go to Georgia and Kentucky, a few other places, but it was mostly in Texas where we went. Yeah. Where we carried it out there. And uh I had never had never been on one of the hunts or anything like that. So we just tagged along one day. We weren't hunting at all. Uh like I said, we were we were delivering, like we wouldn't ride around with guns or none of that shit, you know? Yeah, and uh the guy was like, You want to go? I was like, we got a couple hours to kill. Uh yeah, that's fine, you know. We'll just hang out. And I was kind of like you said, it was like, I was like, damn, that that's it. He's like, yeah. And then he told me how much it paid. I was like, shit, it's not bad. It's not a bad day. That's a pretty good gig. We we hauled we for the season, I think the last season was 120,000 birds, and the most we'd hauled was like 160 to that one particular place. Wow, wow, that's a lot of birds. Oh, yeah. It was, I mean, every two weeks we were carrying between 5,000 and 7,500.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:26

That's crazy. Oh, dude, it was it's ridiculous. Those plantations, they they turn them loose and leave them out there all year, though, right? Or do they do they do like I do and just take them and set them out?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:38

Well, most of them are just set out, you know, like it some of them, of course, they don't get shot, but uh the birds that we were hauling were were pretty heavy birds, but they flew well.

unknown 1:05:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:50

And they would put them in holding houses. Yeah. And then in the mornings, you know, go down there and put them in a in a box and take out, you know, I think usually it was like six. Birds.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:01

They would take them out. And generally, you know, if if whatever didn't get shot, then it just stayed out there. But of course, uh, I've never seen that many predators anywhere in my life. There was there were skunks, dude. There were skunks everywhere. I was like, holy shit.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:18

Well, that's the key to that, dude. I found is having birds that can fly. You gotta have birds that fly well. If you don't, you it's rough. You wind up get a dog shot or yes. But if you if you have good birds that fly that that have been in some good plot pens, that's pretty it's pretty fun, you know? Yeah. We uh we we I've got a little Johnny house that that I actually collected probably. And I bet there was 60 birds in there at one time, you know, just left over that have made their way back to that to that house.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:55

Really? Yeah. That's pretty cool. Yeah. We've got we've got some wild cubbies on some of my my private property that I have here. Uh I just got me and my my sons, we have a little lease. And uh it's just you know, just for us. And uh it's uh it's one of the few places that I've seen here in Alabama that that still has any wild quail. We we of course we do there's no hunting, but we uh go up there every now and then we'll kick some up.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:27

I found quite a few uh out there on those those fields that I do my quail hunts on.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:33

Yeah, I put Milo out, and then we went back and and uh no-till drilled into it with some ryegrass and shit. And uh there was some wild cubbies. We wound up we wound up finding some wild cubbies while we were uh chasing those pen raised birds.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:52

That's that's nice. We we've got a lot of damn, a lot of woodcock here now.

unknown 1:07:58

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:59

Oh wow. Yeah. Um at first I've I had never been around a lot of them, you know, or I'd see you'd see one every great once in a while. But like right at dark, like when that sun's when it's getting to where you can't hardly see in the woods, you shit, them them fuckers everywhere where we got our lease at.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:21

I've never seen one, I'm guessing.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:22

Pretty wild, it's they're they're pretty badass. Uh Nate was talking about getting him a dog and and starting hunting, but I think he was talking about taking one of the the terriers that we have and because they're versatile little dogs, like you can you can you can work them to to do something, you know, do a little bit of everything. And I think he was talking about messing with one of them this year. I think it'd be pretty pretty sweet to do that. Like I said though, woodcock, it's it's uh they look like a snipe. You know what they are, you know what I'm talking about, but uh they got that big bill. That's what I thought they were at first. I thought it was snipe. And uh we were up there one evening, Nate said that's woodcock. I was like, Well, I thought it was snipe.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:07

I've seen a picture of one, I've never seen one in person of one.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:12

Bring the dogs in here and was with spaniels, don't they? The ones you usually use little spaniels. Little cocker spaniels. Yeah, that's what I was raised up with.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:23

That and game dogs. My dad had one of the weirdest, it was it was it was weird. His house dog was a cocker spaniel, and then we had all the damn fighting dogs out on the yard.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:37

It was weird.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:39

But but no, the little the little cocker spaniel that we had now, that was a hunting little bastard. Oh, I bet. Dude, that that some gun would hunt and was smart, very smart. We we had several of them over the years, but that's what that uh that place we hauled them quail to out there in in Bernie, Texas, that's what they were using. Most most of their dogs were cocker spaniels.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:03

Yeah, I bet they'd be good for that. My point is sometimes I gotta really I gotta keep them reeled in. I mean, because they'll be they'll be two cubbies ahead of me, you know. So with those pen raised birds, you gotta kind of keep them reeled in pretty close. Yeah. That Britt work that Brittany probably works a lot like that Spaniel does. He he does he probably does better at what we do just because he hunts in close and he ain't gonna run past nothing, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:33

Yeah, that's I you know that's something I feel like a lot of people they kind of they'll let shit pass on a dog, you know, because the dog's hunting so fast and so hard. I'm like, you know, well, what's he running past?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:48

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:49

You know, what's it what's he running past? But you you probably don't have to deal with that kind of stuff with the decoy dogs, do you?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:57

No, not usually.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:59

Not running past nothing.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:01

No, no, most of the time they're I I like to keep my dogs kind of up close by me where at least one of them that's always watching, you know. Because if you a lot of times if you have all three of them out there or two of them, say you're hunting with two dogs or three dogs and they're all out looking, a cow slips in, they don't ever even see the coyote, you know. Yeah. But if you got a dog up there kind of by you, at least one, you know. If I take just one dog, I usually take Nacho and he just sits right there beside me and watches everything. He'll even get up on his hind legs if we're in tall grass and he'll stand up on his hind legs and spin circles.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:40

That's the one I've I've seen a video or something.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:44

Yeah, it's a nacho.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:45

Yeah, it's nacho. He's standing up on his back legs, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's pretty he's pretty cool. He's definitely figured it out, you know. What what's that's what he he's got one eye that's bad. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:04

We were out there hunting the night before last. Oh, he actually there was a wire in his dog kennel he ran into, I think's what happened. Even with one eye last night or night before last, one of the other dogs was down in the trees probably three or probably 300 yards and just slipping through the trees, it was red dog. And Nacho seen it, you know, from that far it shot off like a you know, like a rocket. He was gone. But pretty crazy how well he could see with just one eye.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:41

Yeah, that's pretty wild there. What's the most coyotes that you what's the most that y'all ever had come in on a stand? Eight?

SPEAKER_04 1:12:53

Damn. Oh, remember that time across the road? There was ten in that, or was there nine or ten in that one? Yeah, nine or ten.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:01

Most I've ever killed on a stand by myself was seven. That's a lot of damn. I think we've caught I think the other nine over there by headquarters, we killed we called it nine. But at nighttime, it's a little bit different. Them cows come from a long ways, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:26

So if you get in between if you happen to set up in between two or three or four family groups, and they all they all come, that's kind of how that happens, you know. Yeah. Y'all have mile sections there?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:43

No. Now, down south with it, there's some agriculture, and it's it's probably uh I'd say about three-hour drive from here to where you start getting in any flat land. Yeah. And uh well, there'll be some stuff down there, but nothing's sectioned off any that I know of.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:04

Most a lot of the stuff here is in sections, mile sections. Yeah. And you can almost you can almost bet that if there's decent cover and decent food, there's a coyote in each section. At least one. Sometimes a family group, sometimes a single, you know, old nomad just got kicked out or too old, can't run with them anymore, or or family group of some sort, you know, whether it be two coats or six coyotes. But about every section, you can kind of kind of pretty well bet on a code in that in that section. That makes sense. And I think they use those section lines as kind of territory markers. Yeah, territory markers. I think that's why you see them shitting on the roads, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:51

That's pretty cool. Like we it will if we have like logging roads and stuff here, like there, there's that's where you're gonna, you know, find the the most sign, I guess, that's visible for us. Because it's it's a heavily, it's very dense forest around here. There's it's heavily wooded. And like we have a big population of coats, but you don't really see them.

unknown 1:15:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:17

If that makes sense, you know what I mean. So there's there's a few guys around that's that's that I know of that's done got into they done got into calling and pretty heavy, you know, and and they're they're knocking down some some pretty good numbers. But like you said, there's a lot of them are just uh they're learning the hard way. They're learning on their own because there's there's there's nobody here that's done it. Yeah. And uh, so they're probably there's a lot of coaches that are getting educated, and they're they they're probably calling in a lot more than they see. I'm sure they are.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:56

You know, where we're we're pretty fortunate with these mile sections where we can go around and get the wind right on about anything, you know. We don't have to necessarily hunt a stand. A stand's not necessarily a north, south, east, or west wind. You can work it however you want to, you know, you can go around and move around, you know. That's that's and those guys that those guys that hunt in that thick stuff, man, that's that's tough. That's tough. It's hard to throw up big numbers, you know, and that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:28

Yeah, here it's uh like especially in our immediate area. If you if you pull like on our lease, if you pull in the gate, you drive straight down the road, and it's a couple miles long, and it just ends. And there's nothing for thousands of acres, there's no other roads, there's no trails, there's no access of any kind.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:53

Yep. And so see, they're automatically at a disadvantage because they don't really know where the cows are or where they're gonna come from or anything else. That's where that locating probably down there would be pretty handy. You know, I know a lot of guys like in Arizona, New Mexico, that hunt that real heavy brush stuff, they do a lot of locating. Yeah. Uh that way they know the next morning, you know, pretty well where that family group of cows is at, and then they can set up on them the right way, you know. But here we're we're at a huge advantage where you know it's mostly wheat fields, mesquite trees, you know, creeks, draws. We we know where the cows are gonna come from, you know, especially after you hunted them, you know, for 10, 12, 15 years, you know exactly where the cows are gonna come from. Yeah. So that gives us a huge advantage over those guys that are hunting that big stuff. If I had to hunt that stuff, I'd probably quit.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:54

I hear you shit. I I'm the same way. It's like it was like that with the hog dogs. I mean, it's it's it's it's tough. I mean, you like I said, it's it you you pull in a gate and the road just ends and there's nothing else there. So you can't get ahead of your dogs, you can't you can't cut them off, you can't pack to them, you you can't do all these things that you can do in other places. But at the same time, it it I feel like it makes a better dog and a better hunter. You know, because you got you got to pay attention to a lot of things. Definitely gotta be in better shape. Oh, yeah, without a doubt. I'm I'm I'm I'm fat and out of shape, but I promise you, we get we get around here, we start going up and down these hills. There's a lot of these young guys that turn around and look, they're like, I I can't believe that you're here. I said, give them about another hour.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:48

And then just get warmed up.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:50

Yeah, and then they're sitting there and I'm like, I do this all day, every day. I don't get no big hurry anymore, you know, but like I might have to walk 10 or 12 miles and it's all uphill. It's it sucks. I ain't gonna lie, but that's true I don't really pants. Do I? Yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm I need to do it in no pants.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:18

That's we sat down on we sat down on a stand one time and we killed me and Rusty killed a quad, I think. Either a triple or a quad. Triple. We walked in 300 yards and then we killed the coats at 300 yards. Then we had to walk out there and drag them out. Rusty had put on a pair of wool britches that morning. Oh, it was about 60. It was cold. It was cold that morning. Yeah. I thought I was gonna have to give that motherfucker mouth to mouth.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:50

Rough, ain't it? I didn't think you I know I thought I was gonna have to drag him in. I don't doubt it. I probably need to. Damn wool pants, that shit's rough.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:06

Yeah, it was bad.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:07

And that's all he brought. That's all he brought.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:08

He had to wear them all day.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:11

Hey, he looked back here and he said, You gonna make it? I said, Oh the man down, boys. It's bad shape. It was bad. Yeah, it was bad.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:24

I didn't wear them very long. I ain't worn them much since. I'll put them on with it, don't get cold enough around here to wear no wool fans. Lord have mercy. Not in this part of the country.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:37

I I used to say that about here, but man, this dude, there's a couple of times this year it was cold. It was bad cold. We had some cold weather, but we had some cold.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:50

We actually had a pretty mild winter, actually. We did we had we got down in the teens a couple times, but that's about all we got this year.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:59

We had some single digits and a couple of zero and below zero days, but I mean for here that's extreme, you know. Um generally, if we get down in the 20s, you know, that's that's that's cold, bad cold. And man, we had weeks this year, it would stay hell, it never gone freezing. I was like, what in the hell is going on? Well, hell we went to Uncle Earl's. That's why I was telling Rusty, like that Sunday, let's say Sunday, it was 86 degrees right before dark that day. I mean, it was hot. I got sunburnt. I was thought I'd done dehydrated, sweated so much. And at nine o'clock the next morning, we got three inches of snow. I I didn't know what the fuck was going on. I saw that Oklahoma stuff there. That shit blew my mind. I was like, what in the hell is happening? And it stayed like that for a couple of days. When we were down there in Louisiana, it was still cold here. And then it warmed up about the time we got back home. And uh, well shit, I don't know what y'all's weather's been like, but it's been cold this week.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:15

It's been nice either.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:18

I don't say cold, but it's it's been it's been cool. I'll put it that way. It's it's more about what spring's supposed to be. Yeah, it's been nice, either. You know, in the 30s in the mornings, and but it's warming up into high sixties in the evenings.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:36

Yeah, we ain't got nowhere near 30.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:39

Oh, yeah, it was this morning it was 37 or 38. Yesterday and day before it, yesterday morning was pretty cold, but the day before it was fucking cold. I don't know what like I said, I don't know what the deal is with cold shit.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:58

Well, I can tell you I can tell you right now where I live, I'll never live any further north than right now. I'm not I'm talking not even a hundred yards further north.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:11

So you don't care nothing about the cold, huh?

SPEAKER_04 1:23:14

No. I like the cow hunting shorts, flip-flops.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:19

I hear you. Well, here it's like that. It's fucking hot and humid.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:26

We gotta watch for watch out for snakes. Yes. We we we have to deal with that a lot. Y'all got rattlesnakes there? Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:37

I'll be down. Yep. So do. We got all kind of damn snakes.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:43

We got a lot of who's that boy that does all that shotgun and stuff and makes all those sounds for Tory Cook? Yeah, Tory Cook. Is he in Alabama? No, he's in Kentucky. I seem to say I thought he was in Kentucky, yeah. Yeah, but he hunts a lot of that thick corn shit, corn trees. I see a lot of stuff like shotgun in the timber. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:06

He's shooting them real close too, huh? Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:11

That's where like I mean, like here, I mean our average shot, if we ain't got I mean, if we're hunting contests, it's three, two fifty, three hundred. I I don't I don't like to shoot a cow any closer than 150 yards, I'll be honest with you. Especially in a contest. If I don't have a dog with me, I don't want it any closer than that. But some of those guys, they like it out of their lap. I don't I don't want no part of it. Whole lot of room for air there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:41

Yeah, I could definitely see that.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:43

There's a lot thing. They if you keep them at a distance, they don't ever they don't ever actually figure out what you're doing, you know. Yeah, if you let them come in and get in your lap, then they figure it out pretty quick, you know. Plastic call hanging in the tree, dude smells right there, you know. Yep, yep. But you can kill them at 150, 200 yards, and hell a lot of times they won't even run off when you kill their buddy, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:12

Damn, I would somebody kill my buddy, I'm gone.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:15

Get the hell out of there. Everybody says, That ain't calling. That ain't calling, Kyle. Well, in a contest, it's all about how many you put in the truck, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:27

How many contests a year do you guys try to hunt?

SPEAKER_04 1:25:31

We usually have enough country to really uh compete in five or six, you know, bigger contests. We don't do any of those little little contests anymore. We just do the bigger stuff. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:47

Used to, they'd have every value every volunteer fire department in the area to have a hunt. And uh but they keep so much percentage of it, you know, and just got where it wasn't worth it. You know, go out and bust your ass all day long and not make no money.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:06

Yeah, that would get that'd get old, I guess. You know, especially like you said, you're you're doing it for you know the competition side of it. You know, if you if it ain't worth it, then hell, why do it? Just do it for the enjoyment if you're gonna do that. If you're gonna go out there and work your ass off and not get get paid.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:26

Well, most of these hunts anymore pay 100%, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:29

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:31

Sweet. They'll pay 100% and then of course they'll keep, you know, they'll get their sponsors that'll sponsor the hunt, they'll make some money that way, and then uh they'll take out what it cost them to put the hunt on, but as of taking a percentage of it, they don't do it anymore, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:50

Yeah, I mean I definitely see that uh you know, take taking out what it costs to put it on. Because I I've put on some hunts before, and I've done quite a few of them where I didn't take anything out, I just put it all, you know, paid it all out. And it, you know, it cost me. Uh and I don't compete with it.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:09

Well, it can't it can't cost you.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:11

Yeah, and and that's the thing about it, and and if you can do one or two, but after that, that's it's it. If it goes, if it's costing you, then it just doesn't make any sense. Because I was I was just hell-bent on like it's gonna be 100% payback, you know, I'm not taking nothing. And then it got to uh it was like, dude, I at least need to get the money back from what I spent because at that point in time we weren't have we didn't have any sponsors. And then the last two that I think the last two that we done, we had some sponsors that that put in but Rusty was one he bought, you know, sponsored a buckle and stuff for the hunts, and and that really, really helped a lot of stuff. Oh, yeah. You know, it it it really did. I was like, man, this is you can I felt a whole lot less pressure of being able to you know, to to accommodate. And and so those guys that are putting on the the big, big tournaments like that, yeah, they definitely you gotta get get out what you're you're putting in it at least.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:12

I think some of them they're making some money on now. Yeah. I bet you I bet they're that West Texas deal. I bet I bet they make pretty good chips on it. Because a lot there's a lot of work in that shit. Eight 800 teams come you know couldn't possibly show up to check in. That's a lot, you know. Yeah. But they've got a lot of sponsors and I mean that thing's grown. It's grown so bad, I mean so big that they do, you know, they've done three hunts a year. They do one January, February, and March. And every every month it gets bigger and bigger. Every year it gets bigger and bigger.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:52

Well I mean that's good. It's a good thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:56

But all you gotta have is a 30 pound bobcat and five cows to win it, you know? Yeah, that's it. Ain't nothing to it.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:05

So pretty pretty easy stuff.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:08

Sounds like it don't I've never I've only killed one cow or one bobcat close to 30 pounds so that's a big cat. They won't let us Oakies in it no more since those guys cheated over there on Eastern Ophoma. Well now you gotta hunt in Texas.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:26

Damn they shouldn't we hunt what's it we hunt we got in Texas. So you have to hunt it you have to hunt in Texas.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:37

Yeah yep gotcha that's pretty crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:43

Which I mean I I see some of the you know some of the the the view on that I've I've been to some tournaments to where it's like if I if I hunted at the house you know it I would have I feel like I'd have a whole lot better chance. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:00

But I mean that's I mean it's I mean that goes back to anything you know I mean it's it's hard I mean just like coming down there to y'all you know I mean somebody comes in your backyard it'd be hell beaten you like somebody shows up in minor A's backyard they're gonna have hell beaten us. But you know I mean that's just the way it the way it is you know I mean we know the country we know you know we'd remember been you know hunted it so long it's one of them deal.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:32

Yes sir home field advantage goes a long way yeah that and I've had people you know they're like oh that that don't even matter I'm like yeah I I feel I think it does to me you know the home field advantage deal it it it matters to me. It does if you got the country.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:51

Yeah you know I mean country plays a huge part in all of it. In every bit of it yes sir I mean especially if you know that good if you know the good country then I mean that takes a lot a lot off your plate right there.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:10

All you gotta do is go do what you do what you know you can do and do it.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:16

Yep we have it knocked out so talking about home field advantage on contest yeah yeah yeah every time we've ever gone anywhere and hunted somewhere else we sucked Lord mercy but y'all got any y'all got any hunts coming up soon?

SPEAKER_02 1:31:37

We're done we're done for the year oh done for the year got you till about November December fire back up. Get it going then huh so what do y'all do in the in the off season? Just go hunt just just go call them up or dog them decoy them?

SPEAKER_04 1:31:57

Yeah I didn't do a little bit maybe for the next couple weeks and then I'll probably quit till June yeah I still won't I I ain't gonna get after them like I used to there for what three or four years hunting every morning every every weekend you know sometimes in the evenings.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:19

Yeah well I mean I shouldn't say you get mad at 'em I ain't mad at them no more. There you go well y'all got uh y'all got anything else y'all want to want to discuss or bring up on here? We got about an hour and a half hour and 40 minutes in on this one if you got something else you want to tell the world got a question I just want to hear a good hunting story. And and I mean like a a good one not no bullshit I want to hear a Clay Reed good story like that. She talking to the wrong two people for that damn I I mean hell every time I hear a story it's like he's like he bulldog a bite a buffalo he whooped five guys he was at a college party and he was a mechanic and he was on Yellowstone and I think he was in World War III.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:23

I don't remember it was a bunch of shit I was like good God almighty he's exciting I ain't no telling about that unit funny as hell boy I'm talking about hilarious I'm feeling he's and he's one of my good friends yeah if you ain't having fun if you can't have fun around clay read you can't have fun that's right my father in law he's on I think he's on TikTok the only social media he's on and he's like a few weeks ago he said you know you know the coyote man I said clay reed oh yeah it's like man he's funny so he's already spread all over TikTok and hotel oh he's he's all he's on tick tock now I see I seen him on there the other day jogging that damn oh yeah he's getting ready for the Iron Man Iron Man but didn't he break his shoulder yeah he breast dogs broke now he's on the AI for a little while he's on yeah he's he's a hoot he's something out time to get after the hogs yeah pretty good all time on the boards I know I'm ready mighty it's it seems like it seems like it's been forever since I caught hogs which I I caught one last week but shit that's the first one I caught in a while I caught I don't know y'all went night four last caught three yeah that's when you you said you was gonna is that the night you sent you said you was gonna send Pearl up there yeah well I was talking to you I think I was talking to you on the phone yeah I caught I caught three of them there's a bunch of them pigs out there in that hay pile and it was probably 25 of them little I bet little foot balls and I turned pearl out and she ran over there and barked at him three or four times and looked at me like are you gonna make me chase these damn things and I called her back and I went down the road and put her on a pretty good board that was with that group and how she ran him for an hour and a half around that damn section. Hell yeah she done she she looked at me and she was on the little pigs like what in the hell have you got me doing yeah she's like I ain't wasting my time doing this shit she's almost too smart for her own good yeah yeah I'm fixing as soon as as soon as all this turkey season's over with that's me and Jewel we're gonna have us a I think I'm gonna take about a month and just me and her hunt.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:21

Well I mean I'm gonna hunt the other dogs too but you know what I'm saying but like at least a a couple days a week just me and her go.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:29

Yeah and uh because I I she's she's ready she's ready and I got that I've been running on one of them little folks that I raised down this last letter but really really doing pretty good eight well that'll be a year old year old and uh there's several of them I really really like they're doing pretty good well we're gonna try to try to get up that way and come come visit and hunt with you yeah come on get your house and everything done I'm trying to get as much of mine done as I can ought to be done with framing oh by the weekend over I might have it wired by the end of the weekend but I bet I hear you I think I know for sure I'll have I'll have it all framed on the inside by by Sunday and I start wiring it. Maybe I can get some insulation in it next week or two.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:48

Yeah. Well this is it's supposed to be pretty dry here for the next 10 days or so so like we're doing the same thing we're trying to trying to get some shit done yeah for sure yeah but man we uh but yeah hell I'm glad y'all hopped back on here that last one like I said we we had a had a good episode and I don't know what happened. That's what Nate said he told me he's like I don't know what happened dad I was like well it's how it goes sometimes. Oh yeah but we appreciate y'all getting back on here and talking shit with us oh yeah anytime if y'all come down in the summer holler at me I'll take you on decoy yeah I'd I definitely like to go definitely like to check that out I like to see old Nacho out there hopping around.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:35

Yeah holler at me if y'all come down in June or July or even August.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:39

Okay. Well like I said we're whenever y'all still yeah we're gonna we're gonna try to come up and uh spend a few days hunt with Rusty and visit and all that good stuff and because wait we're gonna wait till after he gets done with his house that way we ain't put no more pressure on him than he already got. Because we're doing the same stuff we're well we're remodeling a bunch of ours our stuff and it's just never ending it's never ending all right yeah shit you buddy uh the way all your shit went there last year I was like oh my god I said I just I didn't feel so damn bad after that I sat there I scratched my head a couple days and then all that happened I said Lord bless him Lord bless him yeah all right fellas oh well well we appreciate y'all and uh y'all come see us all right then all right y'all be good buddy we'll see you later what's the info uh there we go with some coyote guys of course y'all know Rusty and uh Mr. Aaron he's dude he's got some kick ass dogs I've watched a lot of videos and stuff of him and uh them guys they get after it on the coyote hunts uh like they they do those tournaments I've talked with Rusty and you know over the past few years and it's it's crazy that the amount of coyotes that they have in those areas they they have to do this I mean just imagine if they didn't do that to even keep them in check. If if there's that many there now and they're constantly taking some up taking some out of the herd can you imagine what it'd be like if they didn't it'd be insane. You wouldn't be able to walk down the road you'd be getting attacked. All you damn house cats and your pets and all this stuff they'd be getting eat up constantly so you know you got to keep that in mind. I know a lot of people they're like oh man they're doing this and that blah blah blah look somebody's got to do the work it might be dirty work but it's got to be done and so but anyway hey we appreciate y'all thank you so much and remember if and then look I want to throw this out there my buddy Ryan Rankin I think about this all the time he uh he's a he's a big advocate on on mental health if if you feel like something's something's going on and it's too much to handle call somebody call me okay I mean call me I don't care what time it is you could call right you you know reach out you don't have to fight the fight alone and trust me a lot of us have have been in those situations where it's it's too much and if you get the feeling where it is if you if you feel like it's just the world's beating you up and all that sometimes just talking to somebody ease that ease your mind put a smile on your face give us a holler man just you know remember that hey we love you and and God loves you and it don't cost nothing to know him. Hey we appreciate y'all until the next one we'll see you