**Bonus Episode** Lessons Learned from a Hunting Trip: Adventures and Misadventures

Join us for a rollercoaster episode where we recount our unpredictable hunting adventure in Illinois! From the early morning excitement that took us on a journey filled with camaraderie, laughter, and a few unexpected obstacles, this experience stands as a testament to the joys of outdoor adventure. Our journey begins in Georgia, where the anticipation of hunting in new territory has us filled with excitement and dreams of the perfect hunt. However, as we set out, not everything goes to plan. An injury, a cold, and a series of closed campsites threaten to derail our adventure. We delve into these comedic blunders, highlighting the resilience of our group as we pivot and adapt, with plenty of humorous tales to share. 

What follows is a cannonball into our hunting experiences, from the frantic excitement of a goose hunt in Arkansas to the challenges faced in learning about the Illinois landscape. Our conversations cover everything from unexpected food choices and the camaraderie that hunting naturally stimulates. We walk you through the exhilarating moments of finding success, including the joy and sheer excitement felt when one of the guys finally bags a buck after battling through illness. 

We not only share laughs over the mishaps but also important lessons learned that every outdoor enthusiast can benefit from, such as the significance of preparation and the beauty of connecting with fellow hunters. Ultimately, we close this episode by emphasizing the rewarding experience that hunting trips provide—perfect for adventure seekers and outdoor enthusiasts alike. Join us, share in the laughter, and inspire yourself to take that leap into the great wide open. Don’t forget to subscribe, share your stories, and leave a review; we’d love to hear from you!

Thanks for joining us on The Bowtreader Podcast. Leave a comment to let us know where you are listening from as well as any topics that you would like to hear us cover. Be sure to like the episode and subscribe to follow along. 

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Transcript

Introduction and Guest Introductions

Speaker 1 1:19

you just talk. That's all it takes. As soon as I hit that button, wes stops talking. Like if I don't want him to talk, all I gotta do is hit that button, freezes up, he just immediately stops. I mean, I tell him all the time, there's only gonna be like one, maybe two people listen to this.

Speaker 2 1:34

Yeah, that's it. They may think you're stupid, but that's all right.

Speaker 1 1:44

I views you like after, to make sure it sounds good once it hits no I I listen to it before it gets published.

Speaker 4 1:49

Okay just to double check, but I listen to it on like 2x sound like a squirrel I was like, yeah, I never knew my voice was that high.

Speaker 1 1:56

anyway, all right. So we got a different group together for a podcast today. We got uh Dub sitting across the table over here. He may say something, he may not. Looks like we're leaning towards not at this point. And then we got Jackson from here in the shop. Jackson tell everybody, hey, how's it going? Guys, there you go. I mean, I just said hey, but it's all right. And then we got an old voice that may be familiar to some of you guys Griffin Hanson made the trip down from Augusta. Go ahead, griffin.

Speaker 3 2:29

What am I supposed to say? You got on them for not saying exactly what you want. Hey, that's perfect.

Speaker 1 2:35

Yeah, that's perfect. So Griffin was down in Statesboro today for a job fair Is that what you're doing, yeah, career fair.

Speaker 3 2:44

Career fair it's not a job, it's a career. It's a career.

Speaker 1 2:48

Gonna start a career? Yep. Apparently, we learned that referring to everyone as what's up playboy was not a very professional thing for somebody to do.

Speaker 3 2:59

I had to inform one of our employees that, so we don't know how it's gonna work out for him.

Speaker 4 3:03

One of your employees was saying that yeah, I had to inform one of our employees that, yeah, so we don't know how it's going to work out for him. One of your employees was saying that.

Speaker 3 3:05

Yeah, that's how he was introducing, that's how he was saying hey to all the fraternity brothers that he was meeting that day.

Speaker 1 3:11

Oh, there you go. So you know, it could just be a brief stopping point in his career, more of a job maybe, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. But anyway, we're gonna talk a little bit today about this. Is something I've been wanting to talk about. So last year not not the 2024 season, but the 2023 season we went on a travel hunt and we've never really talked about that, and I want to talk about it today. Oh yeah, just the whole thing, unfiltered.

Speaker 4 3:46

Jackson's just going to sit there like.

Speaker 2 3:49

I'm getting the stories today.

Speaker 1 3:51

Yeah, you're going to get the story today, for sure.

Speaker 3 3:52

You're going to ask us some of the questions to kind of make us elaborate a little bit more. Right, exactly, I think this is the first time you're hearing some of it.

Speaker 1 3:59

So we started out the trip at 4 am in statesboro. Now we're not going to go that detailed with it we could we could, but we'd be here for hours, I think atlanta.

Speaker 3 4:09

I think a key point, though, is that I drove down, I drove down, right, yeah, so I drove down from augusta, down from augusta, down to states.

Preparing for the Trip: The Anticipation

Speaker 3 4:18

For then we went back up to illinois, yeah, but anyways, drove down to states for the night before and was shooting the boat, the shop and everything and just like I mean, I took a sip of water. My throat kind of tightened up a little bit. I was like that's, that's weird, that that doesn't feel good. Yep, and so that night I was like man, I need to sleep. Good, I'm feeling I'm real excited about this hunt and everything that's coming up, even though we stayed up till like 11 am E-scouting. Yeah, we were scouting and plotting where we were going to set up some stands and everything and I was like, yeah, it's 11.30. I'll take some NyQuil, took NyQuil to wake up at what? 3.30? Yeah, that was like the worst fever dream of my life waking up and trying to take a shower that morning and coming off of that getting in the truck, yeah.

Speaker 1 5:03

So the trip was off to a good start.

Speaker 4 5:05

Something else happened. We left on a Saturday. That Friday I cut my leg as well.

Speaker 2 5:11

Oh yeah.

Speaker 4 5:11

And technically the doctor said it needed stitches. Gashed it open, but because of where it was right on my knee they couldn't give me stitches, because if I bend my knee, it just ripped all the stitches.

Speaker 3 5:22

Yeah, just rip it back open so he's sitting in that saddle. Real fun.

Speaker 4 5:25

Yeah, he's got a saddle. Wasn't that bad? The ride there was bad.

Speaker 1 5:30

He's got a pretty rad scar.

Speaker 4 5:32

This is pretty gnarly.

Speaker 1 5:35

Yeah, it's pretty wild. So, anyway, the trip started out swimmingly. Yeah, it was great. And then so we're pulling this huge trailer, and I had an f-150 at the time, and this is not a knock against f-150s, but they are not made for pulling stuff. No it's not a big enclosed trailer, not a big and you know we got this 21 foot enclosed trailer, eight foot ceilings in it, and I mean it's like Full. It's got duck hunting stuff in it, it's got e-bikes in it, it's got Grills.

Speaker 4 6:07

Grills I mean everything, because we were camping.

Speaker 1 6:09

You know, the whole, the whole trip was a camping trip.

Speaker 4 6:12

And we were going to Arkansas and then LA.

Speaker 1 6:15

Excuse me. Yeah, so we went to Arkansas and then we went up to Illinois, and so we're basically stopping every 90 minutes to get gas. Oh, yeah, it was none of the gas mileage it was, yeah, it was drinking I think we got like eight or seven it was bad, it was, it was not good. It was not good, it was not budgeted no, no, it was it was a nasty gas bill, but anyway.

Speaker 1 6:41

so we're stopping. You know, like I literally every 90 minutes to get gas, I would pay more attention to the clock than I would to the fuel gauge because it would be lying. It would be like it'd say you know, you've got another 200 miles and then like 30 minutes later, it was like the fuel light was coming all the way down.

Speaker 1 6:57

Yeah, it was rough Sucking it down and like everywhere we stopped everybody was getting out buying gas station food and I'm like guys, what is wrong with y'all? Why are you eating all this crap? There'll be more about that part of the story later. I was going to say I thought I heard a story. Yeah, there'll be more about that later.

Speaker 3 7:24

So I'm like you know, no, we're going camping. I'm going to be really particular about what I put in my body because we're camping. Meanwhile I was like two corn dollars for a dollar. Yeah, I mean, you can't beat that.

Speaker 1 7:28

Yeah, yeah, griffin's over there, he's buying. We stopped at one gas station alabama truck stop and he goes and grabs a couple corn dogs and he's like he saw one of the other guys with mcdonald's. He's like it was the other way around.

Speaker 3 7:42

I had mcdonald's at first, and then I saw that they had corn dogs, so while I was eating my biscuit, I decided to no, no, no, you're mcgriddle, I'm mcgriddle.

Speaker 1 7:51

I decided to get two more corn dogs yeah, I mean, why wouldn't you might as well? Might as well, I mean, if you're gonna go go all the way, fresh, never frozen, right? So anyway. So we, we go to arkansas and we, we, we go on a goose hunt and that was cool, and you know, griffin was not able to go because his sickness um it took a, I mean it went downhill well it went. It went from uh zero to a hundred. Like in front of us, we watched him it was bad.

Speaker 4 8:22

We were at dinner and you saw Griffin start declining.

Speaker 1 8:25

We were like oh, no, we stopped at the Pyramid in Memphis and we were walking around grabbing some last minute things that we needed to get. There was rain in the forecast. We all grabbed some frog talk suits and stuff like that.

Speaker 4 8:43

Did we use those? I mine I didn't. I never, I've never opened I don't know, I'm still in the office, never been used. Still in the hunting box.

Speaker 1 8:52

Yep, so anyway it was. It was, uh, it was an exciting time and griffin was over there just like dying. And then we, we're, uh, we get to where we're staying in arkansas and, uh, we're eating supper and the food comes out and griffin's just like you know what guys? I don't know. I'm not hungry, I'm just gonna go into bed and I'm sitting here thinking all right, we're in trouble.

Speaker 3 9:13

I like I was. I thought I was so hungry and everything like the med, like all the cold medicine I've been taking at that point to like suppress it. I guess it caught up to me. I was like, oh, I'm starving. I took one bite of that fry. I was like I'm gonna throw up, yep, yep. I was like I'm going back to the and I I was so excited for this trip and like the thing was, is we're in one vehicle. I was like we can't just turn around and go home or anything. Um, so I was on. I didn't want to ruin the hunt for everyone and I was feeling so bad to the point where I was like I'm going to have to rent a car and drive back to Georgia. Like I feel so bad, I'm about to camp for four nights and everything Right there's no way, yeah, yep.

Speaker 1 9:50

So we, we all eat our meal and I kind of started talking to guys. I said yo guys listen, we, we kind we're going to finish it out, because Griffin had already said something about. You know, I might see if I can rent a car. I said we're going to finish it out. Yeah, let's all go to bed. We'll get a good night's rest. We'll get up and hunt in the morning. We'll see if Griffin wants to go or not. He didn't go on the goose hunt and we got back and we were outside Very interesting goose hunt.

Speaker 1 10:17

Yeah, it was pretty good. It was the guy that we went with. We went with a guide up there and he brought a dog with him. That was a puppy, basically Maybe like a year old or something like that, and she was not very good, it was just normal puppy.

Speaker 4 10:35

You could tell the dog had potential to be very good.

Speaker 1 10:38

Oh, I'm sure she's a great dog now, but at the time.

The Challenging Start: Injuries and Illness

Speaker 1 10:43

On that hunt. She kept going out of the blind was. I was sitting a pretty good ways down the blind. There was a couple more guys from new york in the blind with us and they were next to me. So I'm like there's, there's four of us from our group in the blind and then two guides and two guys from new york. So I'm I'm between our group and the guys from New York and, uh, I finally said I was like why in the heck did these birds keep flaring? And one of the guys looked down like this. He said the dog keeps going out of the blind. And I looked down the next group of birds that came in and they flared. And I looked down and, sure enough, the dog was outside of the blind, running around, you know. And I'm like all right, dude, come on, you know, put them on a lead. Yeah, do something. Keep that dog in the blind so we can. I mean, we're here to kill birds right yeah.

Speaker 1 11:32

Anyway, so we we killed some birds and we get back to the end, where we were staying, and um, um, we're outside in the parking lot cleaning geese. And we're outside in the parking lot cleaning geese and I go in and check on Griffin he's like trying to rent a car and all this stuff. I said, dude, you're not renting a car, you're not going anywhere. I said we'll just change our trip and we'll stay right here in Arkansas. We'll do some more duck hunting.

Speaker 3 11:56

Because we were at a hotel here, so you were relatively comfortable.

Speaker 4 11:59

Right, yeah, it was a nice, this is the only night at a hotel.

Speaker 3 12:03

It was nice too.

Speaker 1 12:04

And I had checked with them and the rooms were available. We could just extend our stay or whatever. And I knew some other guides and one of the guys that was with us knew of some other guides that we could go do some duck hunting with and stuff. So I mean we were just going to completely change our trip up. Well, griff, he got, got a hold of a telehealth and they called some meds in for him and he said I said no, I think I'm going to be good. They called some meds in for me. Let's go over to the pharmacy and we'll get those.

Speaker 3 12:33

And let's, you know, go on with our trip and with calling that teledoc and everything. The first person that picked the phone some some like nerd of a doctor out of Georgia picked up the phone. Some some like nerd of a doctor out of georgia picked up the phone and I was like, hey, I really need this. And he goes. No, um, I can't give you any of that stuff. Like um, I'm not going to give you any prescription. You're going to have to go to a doctor and it's a sunday at this point, so nobody's open, right. And I was like man, come on, I'm in arkansas, I'm out of town. He's like, oh, you're in a different state, I can't do anything for you anyways. So I just hung up the phone on him. I was like, well, let me call back again, see if I can get like an arkansas doctor.

Speaker 3 13:06

And the next guy that picked up was like a good old boy, like southern accent and everything. I was like man, I'm on a hunting trip for the first time, like out of state, I've got to have something to get me through. And he goes, he goes. Well, you say your symptoms like man, it hasn't really been long enough for me to get anything, but if you've been coughing for more than five days. I can give you something I've been like. I've been hacking it up for the next five days. He's like I got you a steroid and a Z-Pak called in. Go get it and you'll have a good hunt and everything.

Speaker 1 13:39

So that was a blessing being able to get that and that steroid. I think we got the meds at the pharmacy and then we started making our way towards Illinois southern Illinois so it's not like we had to go way up into the state or anything. But there was more construction on that drive from Arkansas to Illinois than I've ever been through in my entire life. They were rebuilding the interstate. Yeah, I mean so they had it where the north and southbound lanes were all on the southbound side of the interstate.

Speaker 1 14:10

It was a single lane that transferred over.

Speaker 3 14:13

It just slowed everything down because it was like a two-lane highway or a divided highway. That was like a one lane. At this point. Shout out to Delta that was our sister company building that stuff out there.

Speaker 1 14:23

Oh there you go. How about that? So yeah, that was like a one lane. At this point, right, shout out to delta. That was our sister company building that stuff out there. Oh there you go. How about that? So yeah, that was awesome. And then we get to the um, we get to the campground that we're going to be staying at and this is like 11 at night.

Speaker 1 14:35

I mean it's it's, it's dark, I mean yeah, because we'd already gone to walmart and bought our tags and stuff, you know. So it was. It was it was late, late.

Speaker 3 14:43

We pull up to the campground and the gates closed and there's a sign hanging on the gate that says we'll reopen in spring keep in mind, we'd already called the like the, the recreational area, to the state park, like before, and we're like, hey, this place is open, right, yeah, and they're like yeah, and we're like the whole park is open to hunt, right. And they're like, yeah, so up there, I mean we had a good plan going into it, right, but yeah, at 1130 at night, when it's pitch black, and we're trying to figure out where we're going to stay, and I think we went to two different ones where we're like, well, there's another campsite right down. This way, we went up to that one Same thing.

Speaker 1 15:18

Gate was closed and then we found another one that was like up next to a lake or something. It was like in the wide open.

Speaker 3 15:26

The wind was whipping bad.

Speaker 1 15:27

Yeah, we could get in there, but it wasn't like technically a campsite or whatever. And we finally found a campsite and at some point on the trip Griffin actually pulled up on X because we'd done a bunch of e-scouting, you know, kind of plotting out where we were going to go, and then we had literally everywhere where we had dropped a pin now had red lines through it, so it was closed. Yeah, all the areas were completely closed because they did that special restricted area or something for a portion of the season well, they had done that.

Speaker 1 15:58

Uh, special youth hunt, yeah, that weekend, yeah, and so it closed after that special youth hunt. So everywhere where we had dropped pins was now you know that closed area, yeah, yep, where are y'all at in illinois?

Speaker 2 16:11

uh, we were close, close.

Speaker 3 16:12

Crab orchard was the name of the state park that we were hunting. Yeah, crab orchard, um, and so that's where all the I mean it was a huge lot track of land was like 40 000 acres like of a state 42 yeah, 42000 acres of like a state park, but this restricted area, I mean it cut it in half.

Speaker 1 16:29

Um well, I think it was, I think it was um. It was us fishing game, wasn't it?

Speaker 3 16:36

as far as state park or us, yeah, it was something along those lines Um but uh, lines, um but uh, but yeah, I mean the restricted area. They cut it practically in half in every single pin. All the e-scouting we had done the whole time, all of it was all. It was gone.

Speaker 1 16:50

I mean, every bit of it was gone. So we had to go. We had to find the office the next morning. Um, that monday, monday, monday morning, and we went over to the office and they were like, yeah, you could still hunt, but you gotta hunt this. And I was like, yeah, you can still hunt, but you got to hunt this. And I was like I said, listen, can somebody show me on a map where we can and cannot hunt? So they started showing it, you know, showing it to us, and everything, and we had to buy a vehicle pass and stuff like that. And so we got all that figured out. We finally found some spots to hunt. We met some really cool people while we were up there and we're still really good friends with them even to today and um, um, so we went that monday.

Speaker 3 17:33

We went we awoke up kind of late and everything well, because we knew we had to go to that office. We're like we're gonna go to the office. We're already kind of busted about these spots. Like let's wake up kind of late. Let's go get these tags, let's do as much scouting as we can, we'll go eat a good meal and then let's go sit in the stand the rest of the day now when he says go eat a good meal again, great meal again.

Unexpected Detours: Navigating Closed Campsites

Speaker 1 17:56

These guys went absolutely out of control. We went to this diner it's called the country cupboard worth it so good it was really good food, but it was like a lot of food it was, but the bad part was, you know, everybody is eating with their eyes and you know.

Speaker 1 18:13

So I'm over there, I ordered, like I ordered scrambled eggs and bacon or something like that. You know, I was very conservative still, because I'm still camping. Yeah, you know, I'm being careful about what I'm putting in my body. And they're ordering and griffin's like dang, you can get biscuits and gravy added for 50 cents. So he did that and she comes out with his food. It's like this huge plate of food and then this giant plate of biscuits and gravy definitely not a regular side portion no, I think this is when it comes into play to to put this in perspective.

Speaker 3 18:45

So we drove out there. We've had a lot of gas station food and I've been taking cold medicine and now an antibiotic at this point and it's got me a little stopped up.

Speaker 2 18:55

Oh, he is completely shut down His blood's moving real slow.

Speaker 3 18:59

Nothing's moving. So I was like I need to eat a good meal that's going to help get things moving. Yeah, sadly it didn't.

Speaker 4 19:07

But it, just it did not work.

Speaker 3 19:09

It didn't work, but I ate it all. I still ate it all.

Speaker 1 19:11

Every bit, every drop. That was scary yeah. So I mentioned we were like oh no. I mentioned that we met some guys up there that we're still really good friends with now. One of the guys that was with us was Billy G. Anybody that's come in the shop before. You know Billy G. We did a shirt with Billy G's face on it, or as a goat Anyway, so Billy G is like he always seems ready to fight.

Speaker 4 19:44

That's one of his things. It's his biggest dream. We were talking about it right before he left. His dream is just to get in a fight with somebody. Yeah, it's his goal in life.

Speaker 1 19:55

Yeah, just for no reason, For no reason, he just wants to knock somebody out. So the night before he was trying to buy his tag, Bank showed his card down Because it's like a random charge $400 charge at this random Walmart in Illinois.

Speaker 4 20:09

You were just down in Arkansas right, yeah, so they.

Speaker 1 20:12

So they showed his card down so he wasn't able to buy his tag. Um, so I bought his tag that night and so the next morning he's calling his bank. You know, monday morning he calls the bank, says hey, you know, I am traveling, unlock my card or whatever. So he's outside walking around the parking lot while we all go inside and sit down. Well, this guy comes walking in and finds us. He comes walking up to the table. He says which one of you guys is John? And I'm like oh man, here we go. Billy G's out in the parking lot fighting somebody.

Speaker 1 20:44

And we're about to be out there and I said, yeah, that's me. And he said why don't you come out to the parking lot? Let me talk to you for a second. I'm like, oh man. I said, guys, don't y'all sit here? So of course they sat there and looked out the window while I go out there by myself. I had to finish my biscuit.

Speaker 3 21:02

Then I came out.

Speaker 1 21:04

I came out there our food hadn't even come out yet, Anyway. So we go out there and we talk to these guys. They have a lodge up in Illinois and we got to meet them and everything.

Speaker 1 21:14

They like the e-bikes on the back of the truck, yeah so we had all of our stuff on the truck at this point. We left the trailer back at the campsite, had all of our stuff on the truck. So he saw it and he's just like man, these guys are legit, these guys are the real deal. He had not met us yet, so certainly once he met us he realized that we had no idea what we were doing. But anyway. So we actually left from breakfast and we went over and saw the lodge and kind of saw their spot and everything.

Speaker 3 21:50

Awesome barn dominium stuff.

Speaker 1 21:52

Yeah, really really cool stuff, I mean really, really built around waterfowl hunting. Benji is the guy that owns that place. It's called BC Flats and Benji is the guy that owns it and he set it up to really guide waterfowl hunts and they've started doing whitetail hunts, guided hunts and um, so they wanted us to come and hunt on on their place and everything and we were like no you know we came up with a hunt public. We're gonna go do that. So we went and hunted public that afternoon and they told us.

Speaker 3 22:25

So they're like y'all need anything while you're up here. You got a friend, give us a call, we'll help you out with whatever we can help you out with right, and usually you know that's just people being nice you know being hospitable or whatever.

Speaker 1 22:37

Um, they didn't know that a few hours later I was going to be calling cashing in that favor. Um, so we all went hunting that afternoon. We got in the in the woods about one o'clock or so and we were gonna hunt until dark west killed a doe that afternoon and, uh, we were just on a piece of this public land. Uh, we dropped two of the guys off at a spot street pretty much yeah, we were hunting around some, some.

Speaker 3 23:01

I think there were soybean fields right, I was on a soybean we were on.

Speaker 1 23:05

We were on standing corn that's where we were at and um. So anyway, west killed a doe and um. And then it started raining and I mean, to start with it wasn't that bad, cool. And then, man, it started coming down, um, so we all got soaked. We got down, got everybody picked up and I called benji. I said hey, you have anywhere where we could put our stuff to dry it out? He's like yeah, come on over.

Speaker 3 23:34

So we went over to the to the shop in mind. We are still at this point. We have camp set up and everything, but we are some people are, you know, camping somebody's tent camping and everything. Yeah, so like we're, we're camping, we don't have any and we're out in the open. There's no way to drive this stuff before our next hunt, the next exactly yes, exactly right.

Speaker 1 23:53

Um, so we went over there and he's got like these infrared heaters up in the ceiling, so he has a. He has an earth moving business, excuse me, and um, so they'll bring their equipment in to work on it. Well, it gets a lot colder up there than it does here, you know yeah, here we would have ac units in the shop or fans or something but, up there.

Speaker 1 24:14

He had these heaters, so he laid these big tables out. We put all of our stuff out and he turned the heaters on and it was all of our stuff was drying out and, uh, we left and went and grabbed something to eat and came back and everything was mostly still soaking wet that night did we go get chilies that night?

Speaker 4 24:30

we went and got chilies that night, yep I've never had a better chilies experience, because we were so cold and wet and tired yeah, awesome.

Speaker 1 24:39

Yep, and griffin, you know, had a moment where he thought he was going to have the time of his life.

The Goose and Duck Hunts: Highs and Lows

Speaker 3 24:43

I mean, I got the triple dipper with every fried piece of food you could put on it to try and get things going and lots of sauce and ranch.

Speaker 1 24:51

Yeah, didn't work, didn't work, didn't work. So then, oh, got him. So then we hunted. The next day, went to a completely different part of the property, found what I think was the best spot that we hunted. Griffin was successful that morning.

Speaker 3 25:09

Yeah, so I think, like honestly, so at this point we've been up in Illinois. We don't really know what we're doing. We're asking anybody for any kind of advice that we talk to as far as the public land goes, we talked to Benji a little bit. Far as the public land goes, um, we talked to benji a little bit. Uh, I remember we had to go into um a dicks that night to go get another sleeping bag for billy g because his rain flap did not stay on his.

Speaker 1 25:33

you know, yeah, he said when he got up that morning he he tripped on his, on his, uh, on his little tie down rope, on his rain flap, didn't think anything of it. He was like, oh whatever, yeah, it was well, we got. We got back to camp and his Eno and everything in it was full of water, just served yeah. Yeah, I mean because it rained a lot, yeah, I mean, it was like a storm came through.

Speaker 3 25:52

Yeah. So he was like I got to get another sleeping bag to like this the public stuff, like do you have any like advice? Have you ever hunted this area? And he's like, well, what I'm going to tell you is so we went up the weekend after the shotgun and rifle season had kind of happened it's just shotgun.

Speaker 3 26:18

Yeah, they don't have rifle season so like and any of the local residents, they all can get a local tag pretty easily and everything. And he goes and there's not a lot like all the serious hunters. They're hunting archery, they're hunting kind of season round and everything. But he's like everyone that just wants to shoot anything comes out that shotgun season and like so everyone and their mom are in the woods. Uh, come that weekend and he said that was just what was before y'all. And he's like pretty much these people they're not serious hunters, they're pretty much setting up on the road, they're walking like 15 yards into the woods and they're shooting whatever they see. He's like if y'all want to shoot something, y'all are going to have to. Y'all are going to have to hike. He's like y'all are probably going to need to get off the road and hike in as deep as you can to these spots that just your average person that wants to go out there and shoot a deer that weekend isn't going to hike down into.

Speaker 1 27:10

so which is where all of our pins are all of our original pins.

Speaker 3 27:14

They were dude, they were like, they were so deep in there, I mean we had spent so much time, you know around scouting looking at finding stuff, yeah yeah, but it just didn't work out and one thing that I didn't, I was not prepared for illinois was the l like in southern illinois is the elevation changes that happens.

Speaker 3 27:34

So I mean it is some thick, rolling hills oh, yeah, yeah I mean I you're, you're hiking down into valleys next thing you know, I mean you're hiking up this giant hill and everything I mean it was it was super hilly. So I mean, um, yeah, that next morning what we kind of did was we loaded up. He and I remember what wasn't, it was something falls road it was. It was some road that benji had kind of suggested. He's like, hey, this road kind of backs up to one of my properties and everything like um, it's a pretty good, good road, but it's really hilly and you really got to walk down. So that's what we did.

Speaker 3 28:14

We literally rode that road that morning and pretty much every half a mile apart we just dropped someone and we said walk as far as you can into the woods, so you run out of breath and then find a tree and climb up it and everything and that, and that's kind of what we did that morning yep, yep so, and we were sitting out there, it was like 11 30 that morning, it grief.

Speaker 1 28:38

It was like 11 30 that morning. Some of the guys were like all right, let's y'all, y'all about ready to call it. It was windy, I mean, it wasn't, it was it wasn't cold. Yeah, it wasn't great condition. Um and um, you know. So we're all texting back and forth and I'm sitting over there trying to sleep.

Speaker 3 28:53

I'm like guys he's taking a nap and yeah, I'll be good.

Speaker 1 28:56

Yeah, I said y'all just take a nap and just right there in the tree, just lay up against the tree and then we'll. You know, this is the time we need to be in the woods. So it was banter going back and forth for a few minutes. You know normal guy stuff, you know you're a sissy stuff like that and Griffin just goes silent Completely For like 10 minutes. Yeah, there's nothing from Griffin.

Speaker 1 29:23

My phone just buzz buzz buzz like in my pocket and then all of a sudden he comes back on. He's like all right, who's going to come over here and help me with this deer? We're like what the heck? You know I said you didn't kill anything.

Speaker 4 29:35

He's like no, he sent us a video. This buck like 60 yards from him, just in the dirt, just like this.

Speaker 1 29:47

Yeah, in the dirt, just like this, yeah, yeah, yep, so sure enough, you know he, he got one. So we got down, and me and wes, we were over a mile from the truck, we were obviously I was driving, so we were the last ones out of the truck, so we were over a mile from the truck and didn't really know exactly where griffin was. So I told him to drop us a pin and we worked our way over there to him and uh, yeah, so I mean, that was, that was awesome yeah, we got it done right and that was really the only the only one that we got that.

Speaker 1 30:13

You know, the only meat that we carried home off of that trip because, remember it rained really hard, so the doe that west shot we couldn't find there wasn't a blood trail worth anything was pouring rain.

Speaker 3 30:25

But yeah, that spot that I shot that buck at, um it like, like I said, rolling hills and everything walking in there, so that morning get dropped off from the truck and I'm walking in the woods as deep as I can keep in mind, like I'm still feeling like crap, like the steroids kind of kicking in like I can't breathe worth anything.

Speaker 3 30:44

And I mean I I walk into the point where I'm like I'm about to have to sit down, like my lungs are hurting and everything. But I was like, alright, I think I found a tree. For some reason picked up biggest tree I could have found. I mean I barely could throw my rope around the the tree to to tie my steps on and everything but, um, I remember I started climbing that thing. I got halfway up and I had to take a break. I had to sit there like I was so tired from climbing it and everything. Um, but got set up and I mean it was pretty cool. I overlooked like this really good bottom. I kind of got right above the canopy and everything, so I had some really good sight distance. Um, but yeah, like john said it was, it was kind of dead the whole morning.

Speaker 3 31:26

Um, just wind blowing and stuff it was wind blowing and most of the day, like the past two nights when we were driving around, the deer were super nocturnal. I mean they were out like they were out at night, like we saw them like crazy at night in the roads and everything. So, like the early morning, late afternoons they weren't really moving around, but we knew like around that lunch time they were still possibly going to be moving around at that point. So, like I said, I walked as far as I could from the road but I could still relatively hear it wasn't a busy road, but I could hear a car come by every once in a while. And I'm sitting up there and, like we said, we're going back and forth in the group message and everything and I hear a car lock up its brakes. I was like that's weird.

Speaker 3 32:10

Um, I bet you a deer ran across the road up that way. Um, and they almost hit a deer and so, sure enough, I I bust up your, your handy dandy little bleak call and I just hit that little can.

Speaker 3 32:21

Yeah, I've had some luck with those, yeah little doe, can I mean I really haven't had a ton of luck in georgia with it, um, but I I mean I've seen it's worked a little bit and everything. But when I say I hit that thing twice and sure enough I see this set of antlers coming through me like a, like a on a line to me, um, so I'm shaking at this point. I hadn't seen deer this whole time. I kind of written it off. I was like man, we're on this public land, we've we've been skunk these past two days and everything.

Lessons in Patience: Waiting for the Perfect Deer

Speaker 3 32:50

I kind of written off like it was a fun trip and everything. But I don't think we're gonna see a deer right. But this guy's coming up to me now and I'm shaking and I've got my, my dang range finder. I accidentally, like I got nervous and I zipped it up too tight up against my chest and I couldn't reach my eye with it, so I'm like trying to pull it off over my head. Um, I I mean I'm making so much noise and I was like I can't believe I actually shot this deer. But I guess that was just the time, like I mean they were still kind of in the rut when we were up there.

Speaker 2 33:19

It was a little on the later part of it.

Speaker 3 33:21

But they were still in the rut, dumb, blind buck. All he's thinking about is chasing that tail. He heard that noise and he was coming to it. I actually drew on him twice. He was at like 40 yards on me and I drew on him but I didn't really like the shot. I was like man, I know I'm'm only gonna get one chance at this and I think he's gonna come in a little bit closer. So I managed to let it down and I had my radius of trees that I had ranged out and I was like he stepped inside my 20 yard pin radius like I'm a, I'm a smoker right here. And, um, sure enough, he, he made a perfect turn broadside and, um, we, we let it, we let that RX five eat.

Speaker 1 34:03

There you go, there you go.

Speaker 3 34:05

I mean it was awesome, I mean I shot it and, um, I mean he didn't go 15 yards, fell over and I saw him kick the legs and everything. I was like I mean I don't even have to track him, I saw him go, anything right, but to shoot him and see that area go through and then see him fall, not but 15, 20 yards from it, like I mean I was excited. I was like, is he? I didn't have to do the izzy down, I knew he was down yeah, yeah, I remember, I like yeah um, uh, I remember I was up in the stand.

Speaker 3 34:38

I I called my dad while I was still up in the stand. I was like he's down. I got one, down in front of me, my dad's yelling on the phone all the way back in Georgia, excited that I got one. But yeah, then at that point, just texting the group message, I was like buck and they were like what are you talking about? I was like I need someone to help come clean this buck.

Speaker 2 35:02

I got one. Didn't believe that I'd seen anything?

Speaker 1 35:03

yep, yep, but anyway, sounds like deer up there work. How deer supposed to work?

Speaker 2 35:05

yeah, they respond to calling and stuff a whole lot better.

Speaker 1 35:07

Yeah, that's one thing that I've learned up there, like especially like um, rattling antlers, yep, they, they respond really well to that um. So that's, that's a cool part that we've learned with, with going up there and hunting, and you know, like down here I never hunt on a field, like I never get on a field edge but up there the thickest stuff you can find, yeah but up there, like it makes sense to do that if you're in the right spot edge, yeah well, especially after this year.

Speaker 2 35:32

I know you and brandon did a podcast on it after the hurricane, the weird way the deer were moving oh yeah, it's a whole different yeah yeah, it was a different, different concept for sure.

Speaker 3 35:42

Um, but anyway, that night cooking, that back strap up I don't know if I don't know if we were just starving or if it was the best back strap we'd ever had, like it was a big back, it was a big deer.

Speaker 4 35:53

Yeah, it was a big deer. Yeah, it was good. What was he? A six point? He didn't probably brow time yeah, I mean.

Speaker 3 35:58

So I didn't see when I was. Obviously I was so excited to see a buck when he came up and I just saw the mass on him in the, in the spread on him, so I was like, oh, it's a shooter and everything, um, and I thought just like through the man, what were those things called the, the spiky? I have no idea there was like this.

Speaker 1 36:14

They were terrible.

Speaker 3 36:15

Yeah, it was they. They grew up like a weed or whatnot. It was like a plant that grew straight up like a piece of bamboo, almost yeah, it was like spiky bamboo yeah, but it grew up about chest height up there and that stuff would tear you up.

Speaker 3 36:28

But honestly, when you got on the ground your visibility was really hard to see like much further in front of you because they're everywhere, and so I didn't know. When I saw him coming through the thick I was like I think I mean, he's a shooter and everything, and obviously I was still happy with the size of the deer. But right, yeah, if he had had his brow times it would have been a stud of an eight point. But yeah, I got up to him. I was like what the heck? He's missing these brow times. But we'll take it a public land hunt on your first year.

Speaker 2 36:52

So yeah, I was still ecstatic for it yeah, I saw a picture of that that was a good deer.

Speaker 3 36:56

yeah, I mean, learn how to hold them right too, and the right angle on it, people are like oh, that thing's massive.

Speaker 2 37:01

You can fool them with a good picture. It was a good picture, that's right.

Speaker 4 37:04

Did you ever score him.

Speaker 3 37:07

No, we never scored.

Speaker 1 37:08

Those backstraps were 100. Yeah, the backstraps were 100.

Speaker 3 37:12

Very good. So the funny thing is, so we roll around that night and I was like, well, obviously I'm not going the money to get this, this head, mounted and everything. Um, I just want a cool euro mount from it. But the problem is is up there they're really strict about when you come across state lines coming back in well, anywhere yeah, even in georgia they're crazy they're.

Speaker 3 37:29

They're just really strict about crossing state lines with that deer as any kind of brain matter and stuff. So, uh, we're sitting around and we're like, well, we've always just boiled the head and everything like that's, that's how we get it clean. But we didn't have a. We didn't have a, a pot or anything. So we went to tractor supply and bought well, it was a real king.

Speaker 1 37:47

That's where we went. That was the name oh, yeah, yeah, king yeah, we got like this galvanized bucket and then we took it and uh, put it over the campsite, put it over the campsite the little fire pit, like grill they had over the and uh

Speaker 3 38:01

boiled. That thing didn't work great. I mean it got.

Speaker 1 38:04

It got a lot of the meat off of the face and everything I'd already cleaned it up, got eyeballs out and all that kind of stuff, and uh, then the next morning we had called westchester.

Speaker 3 38:12

That's who we called. Yeah, we were like hey, how do you? What do you do when he goes? I'm gonna tell you what you do. You find yourself the cheapest car wash you can find that's still got the pressure washer hands and you go clean the brains out of that thing.

Speaker 1 38:25

We did. I pulled my truck into the bay and just set the head down right there in the car wash bay no it was in front of the truck, oh yeah, and there was stuff flying all over the place.

Speaker 2 38:37

Brains and everything.

Speaker 1 38:40

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 38:43

I was like man, man, that that guy. Yeah, we're like, don't let an employee walk over here.

Speaker 2 38:45

We try to clean up the best we could after, yeah, smelling for days. Nah, it wasn't that bad we boiled it.

Speaker 3 38:50

It was all cooked at this point.

Speaker 1 38:51

Yeah, just just a little bit of fat, no, but yeah, we got it cleaned up and then we, we, uh, we got out of there, started heading back home. So we, we kind of planned on maybe trying to hunt that morning, but I was like we were so tired after like.

Speaker 3 39:07

I'll tell you what, though I slept like a baby at that campsite. Oh yeah, it was yeah you had a little tent mansion.

Speaker 4 39:14

He had a nightstand, he brought a nightstand.

Speaker 3 39:16

He had a nightstand.

Speaker 1 39:20

And then a framed picture. No, I didn't have the framed picture.

Speaker 2 39:24

He had a framed picture. He had a framed picture. It was of Kirby Smart.

Speaker 3 39:27

Well. So I mean we were having a pack light and I was like, are we needing a pack light, tight or anything? He's like, no, I'm bringing the trailer. I was like y'all can sleep in Enos, but if we're taking a trailer, I'm bringing a tent. Logan actually ended up sleeping in the trailer because his stuff was so wet and everything. Billy G, I brought a tent, I had a cot. I slept like a baby, I had a little lamp, I had a little nightstand in there.

Speaker 1 39:51

Dude, I slept great in that Eno.

Speaker 3 39:54

All I remember is one night though it was the first night we woke up to go like the first night we camped there to go hunt. I woke up at like 4 o'clock. Couldn't breathe, worth anything.

Speaker 3 40:02

I'll tell you one thing those showers got blazing hot, yeah I went I literally at like 3 am in the morning I was like I can't breathe, I need like steam on my face and everything and I sat. I well, I didn't sit that. The showers were kind of gross. You wanted to make sure you weren't touching the walls or anything but I wore my Crocs in the shower, yeah but I stood in that shower for like an hour to like 40.

Speaker 1 40:25

Yeah, that was like our last stop at the Walmart, when we bought our tags. I asked everybody if they had some shower shoes and they were like what are you talking about?

Speaker 4 40:35

I said, guys, you got to have.

Speaker 1 40:37

Don't step on the floor in these showers.

Speaker 3 40:39

I'm pretty sure we had to buy like a pair of pink flip flops for me or two of the guys.

Speaker 1 40:43

Yeah, yeah, it was. It was pretty comical. We should have gotten a picture of that, but we didn't. But anyway, um, so we start making our way home and um Thanksgiving. You know this is Tuesday, right yeah?

Speaker 3 40:57

Tuesday we're heading home on.

Speaker 1 40:59

Wednesday.

Speaker 4 40:59

We're heading home on Wednesday. Yeah, okay, so it's Wednesday. You killed on Tuesday. Yeah, Tuesday.

Speaker 1 41:05

Yeah. So we hunted more on Tuesday, all day Tuesday. Basically Nobody else got anything, Nobody else saw anything to get a shot on, and we headed back home Wednesday morning, the whole trip I'd done so good, I'm like guys, y'all are idiots.

Speaker 4 41:25

I can't believe you're eating this food. Yeah, all this kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 41:27

I forgot about this I gave in to peer pressure. Jackson, it was terrible. What'd you have?

Speaker 3 41:34

we stopped at a bucky's it was worth it, I'll tell you a bucky's burrito so good, 100 no, it no, it's a steak and cheese burrito.

Speaker 2 41:45

Southwest chicken burrito.

Speaker 4 41:46

I'm getting sick just y'all talking about it.

Speaker 1 41:49

Yummy, I got so sick when I ate this thing. He took two bites of it.

Speaker 4 41:54

Yeah, I didn't even eat the whole thing.

Speaker 1 41:56

I ate a little bit of it. I was like, nah, I don't think this is a good idea. You had two, right? Yeah, he ate two of them and some of the freaking chips that you can buy.

Speaker 3 42:09

I mean, he's just over there like pouring sauce on top of it just just eating it like this point, still haven't had any.

Speaker 1 42:12

I mean he's, he's casting a brick in his colon on this whole trip and he's over there eating this food. And so we're at this, we're at this bucky's in northern alab, athens, alabama, I think is where it was at.

Speaker 4 42:22

Yeah.

Speaker 1 42:24

And you know. So I kind of ate a little bit of it and I was like eh, I think I'm good, I don't need anything to eat. I bet you we didn't get an hour down the road. All of a sudden I feel the truck lock up.

Speaker 3 42:37

I was like halfway in and out of sleep and I feel this truck lock up on a ramp or like an exit ramp or something.

Speaker 1 42:43

I know. We were on a two-lane road. Cutting our way through, we were on a two-lane road and I saw an opportunity to stop. There's probably a trail cam picture of me somewhere All.

Speaker 3 42:58

I remember is this guy Middle of the woods Stopping, and I see him running towards the woods but then I see him running back up towards towards the truck with the biggest panic I've ever seen in a man's eyes and he I rolled down the window. He goes where the dude wipes. Yeah, throw a roll of toilet paper to him and then he's taking that coffee, I disappear into the night.

Speaker 4 43:23

He disappears for like two minutes.

Speaker 1 43:27

He comes back Biggest sigh ever I come back I said, boys, I'm glad I didn't eat that whole burrito, because that would have been bad.

Speaker 2 43:36

It might have been multiple stops if he ate that whole thing.

Speaker 1 43:38

Oh my gosh. No, there was more stops, Trust me, but anyway. So we made our way home.

Speaker 3 43:43

I think we wound up getting home at like 4 am or something it was two and then I got home at four because I turned around, just got in the truck and drove back to augusta yeah, yeah, because we got home.

Speaker 4 43:54

2 am thanksgiving morning. You had to drive to augusta. Bill, billy G and Dawson drove to.

Speaker 1 44:03

Billy G drove to Moultrie.

Speaker 4 44:05

Drove to Moultrie and then.

Speaker 1 44:06

Dawson drove to.

Speaker 4 44:08

Dawson drove to Valdosta and duck hunted that morning. He said he didn't sleep. And about that Thanksgiving nap.

Speaker 1 44:18

They do a duck hunt every Thanksgiving morning. He didn't think he was gonna make it for it, but we wound up we wound up making it back, so, but anyway, yeah, that's what our, that's what our first out-of-state hunting experience was like for deer sounds like quite the experience.

Speaker 3 44:34

It was, it was, uh, it was one for the record books for sure we are talk about a trip of like flying by the seat of your pants. I mean that that's what it was we had no clue what we were doing, no clue what we were walking into all the plans that we thought we had planned, just thrown out the window right when we got up there. But I mean, we made it happen yeah it was a lot of fun, though.

Speaker 1 44:56

I mean we learned a lot. You know, we've, we've uh, like I said, we've gotten to be really good friends with Benji. We went up there this past season and hunted on his place.

Speaker 3 45:05

We did learn, we went way too early this past season.

Celebrating Success: The Big Buck is Down

Speaker 1 45:07

Yeah, we went the first week of November and we just did not hit it. I mean, it just wasn't happening, Hot Way too hot, it was hot.

Speaker 3 45:18

The rut really hadn't started at all. So they weren't responding to anything. So we're still learning it. We're still learning it.

Speaker 1 45:25

Yeah, for sure it was a good time. I mean, it was always fun to go hang out with Benji and Brent, so we enjoyed that and I would encourage people to go and do it. So we tell this story because, you know, we want to share our experience. We want to laugh at ourselves, you know, because, yeah, we made some mistakes. We put in all this effort and called, and you know, to try to make sure that the spots we were going to be going to were what we thought they were and all this kind of stuff, and just wound up with some bad intel going into it. But we still found a way to make it a good trip. We still had a lot of fun. We got some really cool stories out of it, we got some meat out of the deal, you know, and um, got some antlers got some antlers.

Speaker 1 46:12

That was cool too, and um, but anyway, I would encourage you that if you, if you've been thinking about going out of state and doing some hunting, just do it.

Speaker 3 46:22

Yeah, it's not as intimidating as you think it would be, because I think that's where I was before. I was like man, that's so intimidating to just drive and go out of state. Just try it. I mean the game wardens are there to help you call up there, because I actually had to call them about some licensing issues that I had when I went to repurchase my license. I mean they were helpful and everything. I mean that's what they're there for. They're not only there to give you tickets, they are there to help you out and everything. So call the local areas that you're going to and ask them hey, what do I need to do license-wise? Where can I buy these licenses? Like, what does it look like? And they're going to help you out.

Speaker 1 47:02

Right, yeah, for sure, do it. Yeah, I say do it. If you didn't hear anything else out of this story, I say do it. Go to Illinois, yeah, go to Illinois. Go to Kentucky, Go to Nebraska, go to Iowa, wherever you want to go.

Speaker 4 47:10

There's a lot of public land.

Speaker 3 47:18

Yeah, I mean there's more public land. I don't think we have. We do have public land, but it's nothing like when, when I've noticed when we go out of state, I mean they just had there was like standing corn and like nice food plots and it's well managed everyone around georgia like you're having to manage.

Speaker 1 47:35

You're in a, you're in a hunting club and everything that's how you're hunting, like these nicer, bigger tracts of land, but up there they're nice big tracks of land or public land and I'd say this, though I'd add this kind of caveat to it if you don't have time, get a guide, yes, and do your due diligence when you're finding that guide. You know, get some references about him and everything, and find you a guide to go with that can put you on some spots to do some hunting. If you've got time and I think for us just going up there, you can get there in a day. But if we were going to go to Colorado, on an elk hunt or something.

Speaker 1 48:16

I just don't know that I'd want to do that my first go around without a guide. Yeah, without somebody, without some kind of boots on the ground, that I'd want to do that my first go around without a guide? Yeah, you know, without somebody, without some kind of boots on the ground. You know like I wouldn't trust myself enough to go out there and elk hunt number one, because I've never done it before and I don't know anything about it. You know, a whitetail is a whitetail. Yeah, I mean, I feel like we can go almost anywhere where whitetail are and figure out how to hunt them. You know, because that's what we've, all of us sitting here, that's what we've spent our lives doing as far as a hunting standpoint is going after whitetail and that tails and turkeys?

Speaker 1 48:48

yeah, I mean they're, they're pretty much going to respond, you know, in a pretty similar way, maybe not exactly the same way, but, um, yeah, I say I say go do it and and build stories that, uh, that you'll never forget, because that's what we get out of the trip. We still give each other a hard time about it. Every time I go on a trip traveling somewhere, everybody wants to know if I went to Buc-ee's. The answer is always no, what?

Speaker 2 49:14

is it steak and egg burrito? Is that what it was?

Speaker 4 49:17

Steak cheese and peppers Awesome.

Speaker 2 49:22

I passed by Buc bucky's. I'm going to tennessee this weekend.

Speaker 3 49:25

I might have to try it out yeah, I may regret it, southwest chicken burrito, I mean, can't beat it I'm, I'm, you can beat it, you can definitely definitely better out there john did not beat it, it beat him it very, very much it whipped me, it was just so bad it whipped him, like Philadelphia whipped Kansas City it might have been worse.

Speaker 2 49:47

I definitely scored no points in that game you got blown out.

Speaker 1 49:52

Oh man, anyway, but that's it. We just wanted to talk about that. We'll post up some pictures from that exciting excursion whenever we drop this podcast episode. But anyway, thanks for listening. Griffin, thanks for being here, absolutely.

Speaker 4 50:07

A lot of fun.

Speaker 1 50:08

And Jackson, thanks for being here asking some questions and laughing at us Yep and don't worry you'll get your chance. I hope so. Yeah, you'll get your chance where we'll be able to have some stories about you that are mildly incriminating at some point. All right,