It's Never Too Late To Get Into Bow Hunting | The Dreaded Archer's Story - Tre Reed

We sit down with Tre Reed AKA the Dreaded Archer to talk about his journey to getting into archery. Tre was a college football player who found himself looking for somewhere to place his energy and focus after football and fell in love with Archery while working in South Dakota. Tre also runs an awesome podcast called the "Dreaded Archer Podcast" and was awarded best podcast by Carbon TV in 2024.

You can find Tre on socials at da_dreadedarcher17!

Call or text 850-251-8650 or visit www.floridaducks.com to book your trip, Williamson Outfitters

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Chapters

• 0:00 Opening Banter & Guest Intro
• 0:27 Trey’s Move North And First Archery Spark
• 5:15 Mentorship At The Archery Shop
• 6:16 Sponsors And The First Shots That Hooked Him
• 9:00 First Deer, Field Dressing Via YouTube
• 12:00 From Athlete Identity To Archery As Therapy
• 15:30 Community, Camaraderie, And Unexpected Friendships
• 19:30 Urban Bowhunting In New York City
• 24:30 States Hunted, Borders, And Public Land Strategy
• 27:35 Permission, Etiquette, And Earning Access
• 33:20 Public Land Culture: Cooperation Over Conflict
• 38:00 Awards, CarbonTV, And Growing A Podcast
• 42:30 Saddles, Setup Systems, And Dark Timber Nerves
• 47:40 E‑Bikes, Farm Noise, And Deer Behavior
• 53:40 Pressure, Presence, And Shot Execution
• 59:30 Visualizing The Moment And Buck Fever
• 1:04:40 Elk Dreams: The 6x6 At 35 Yards
• 1:07:30 Gratitude, Invites, And Where To Find Trey
• 1:59:50 Closing Music

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:03

I've been stepping, I've been helping, riding on a bit not train. Going too fast now, thing off slow down, standing in the poli rain.

SPEAKER_03: 0:23

What's going on, guys? Tristan and Tony back from another episode of the One Hell of Life outdoor podcast. Today we got Trey Reed, is your last name, I believe? Yes, sir. Uh also known as the dreaded archer on Instagram and uh social medias, and I love that name.

SPEAKER_06: 0:36

Yes, can we get a love for that name?

SPEAKER_03: 0:39

And uh I know Trey's obviously a a bow hunter and just recently got back into duck hunting, but I know he has his own podcast as well that uh seems to do very well based on uh what I the research I've done. So super excited to just hop on and talk all kinds of hunting and uh podcast and whatever with you, man.

SPEAKER_06: 0:57

Yeah, yeah. I'm interested to hear your story.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00

Oh yeah, I mean, it's I I got a little bit of a wild story.

SPEAKER_06: 1:04

That's good. We like that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:06

A little wild. But yeah, uh, I'm Trey. Um I'm from uh Texas Arcana, Texas. Uh just moved back here, actually. Spent the last 10 years in South Dakota, which is where I found my love for Archery Hunt and all that. So yes. And I got the podcast, Dreaded Archer Podcast, and yeah, just love the outdoors.

SPEAKER_03: 1:25

That's awesome, man. Well, I guess uh, I mean, I can't not ask what brought you up to South Dakota?

SPEAKER_02: 1:31

Um Texas. My job. So I got recruited to work for RJ Reynolds Tobacco, so they handle like you know, Grizzly, Newport, uh Camel, and all that stuff. So I'm a uh tobacco sales rep. And uh yeah, they they called me one day and was like, hey, we want to give you a job. So I'm like, all right, sweet, I'll take it. At the time I was at a community college, and uh you guys worked in the education system, and it's but it sucks.

SPEAKER_03: 1:53

So right on. Well, we're we're both in sales too, so I feel we respect the grind.

SPEAKER_02: 1:59

Yeah, oh heck yeah. So uh they hired me and they originally placed me in San Jose, California, and uh, which I was like, cool. Um I just want to get out of Texas, bro. Right?

SPEAKER_06: 2:09

I know that's it. I know, man. It's a scary place to be, honestly. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 2:15

I mean, it's it's not too bad, but I was born and raised here, so I'm like, all right, I'm I left for college and then I came back. I'm like, okay, I want to leave again. But they called me like a week before I got ready to move and was like, Yeah, we made a mistake. We actually already filled San Jose. I was like, okay, but the moving truck already came and took all my stuff.

SPEAKER_03: 2:32

No way.

SPEAKER_02: 2:33

So, like, what I where am I going? It was like, well, will you go to Sioux Falls, South Dakota? Well, uh, yeah, okay, cool. So I they uh they uh bought me a plane ticket and South Dakota. I went.

SPEAKER_03: 2:47

Dang, man. So so take us through like getting into the deer hunt up there. I mean, growing up, were you into the outdoors and stuff? I mean, and that kind of led you to doing it up there, or what?

SPEAKER_02: 2:56

No, not at all. Like uh my dad, he hunted, but that was like his thing. So I remember being little, been at and been at his house, and like you know, during like when you're little, I don't really know like the months and stuff, but I know like in Texas, whenever you start getting cold and it's football season, that's when everybody starts hunting. So I knew I knew that. I was like, hey, yo, can I go hunting? And he was like, Oh, no, you're too young. So a couple years pass by. Hey, can I go hunting? No, you know, nope, not yet. So I remember I was like in I was in like the fourth grade, he got me a BB gun. I just came home one day and he had one. He was like, You can shoot if you can learn to shoot this BB gun and shoot the and hit these cans, I'll take you hunting. So I was like, all right, cool, let's do it. So every day after school, I'm going out shooting these cans, and I got I got really proficient with a BB gun. So I'm like, all right, now it's time for the time for the big gun, you know what I'm saying? And he was like, okay, and then he brought me some uh some hunting boots. So I was like, I got the at the time I'm thinking I can shoot a deer with a BB gun. I'm little, you know, so I'm like, I got the gun, I got the boots, it's time to go. And he just he never like he did, he just, you know, he went back on his word. So around that time I was like, all right, like you, you know, obviously you're not an honest person, you go back on your word. So I'm done trying to hunt with you. So I just like forgot about it and just started focusing more on sports. And so I yeah, I had no no outdoor background at all, like uh growing up.

SPEAKER_03: 4:23

So when when you went up to South Dakota, I mean, because bow hunting, like, I mean, you know this, like it's it's one of those things that's so hard to get into on your own. And like, I mean, there's a million different you know, sites and arrow weights and broadheads. I mean, the list goes on and on. So, I mean, did you like uh find like a mentor up there that kind of like showed you stuff or did you start winging it?

SPEAKER_02: 4:45

Oh yeah, um a guy named Kim Meester, he owns Archery Outfitters. Uh, he's actually like the guy that basically took me under his wing and was like, hey, like this is Archery. And it's it's all started because like you know, once I moved to South Dakota, and that was like the first year where like I'm not playing football.

SPEAKER_03: 5:03

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02: 5:04

So I can you graduate, you graduate from college, and it's like, okay, there's there's nothing left, there's no NFL, nothing. So my identity was wrapped up in football for so long, and the season, you know, for the season started ramping up, and I got like super, super depressed. So I was going out drinking every night, um, doing stuff I shouldn't be doing. And uh basically the girl I was dating at the time, she was like, Yo, you are super depressed. Like, we need to get out the house this weekend because something is something is off with you. So every morning on my route to work, I always passed this little wooden sign that says archery shop. I've never been in the one. So uh that day we actually drove by it. I was like, let's go in there. So we walked in, and uh Kim was there behind the counter, and uh he has a uh tech named uh Kurt. So Kim and Kurt's talking to me, and they're you know, just kind of give me the the give me the layout of the shop and everything. And Kim was like, You ever shot a bow? I was like, Not at all. He gives me a mission hammer and was like, go out there and shoot it on that range. Mind you, he's never he didn't tell me how to pull it back, nothing. So I'm just kind of like I'm thinking I knock the arrow and I just go back old school style.

SPEAKER_00: 6:16

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SPEAKER_02: 7:07

No release. He's like, oh man, I forgot, I gotta get your release. And uh I shot it, and the target was only at 10 yards. I shot it, and that it did something to me and like like sparked something up in me. I don't know. I tell people it's like some kind of ancestral DNA just like activated. Yes. And uh, so I got another arrow and I shot it, and then he pushed it, he pushed the target back, he adjusted my sight, shot it again. Next thing you know, I'm at 20 yards, I'm shooting, you know, my group's looking like this, but as the day goes on, it's getting smaller and smaller. And uh I walked in that shop at like 12 o'clock that afternoon. I didn't leave till like eight that night. Wow, and uh before I left, I was like, yo, I I want to buy a bow. He was like, Well, uh, come back tomorrow and we and you know we'll get some, we'll have some ready for you.

SPEAKER_06: 7:56

So I was yeah, they're like, Trey, get out of here, we're trying to go home, bud.

SPEAKER_02: 8:01

And uh, so I was like, what time you open tomorrow? And he's like, We opened at nine. I was there at eight o'clock in the parking lot, had my breakfast and everything. And because I I was I haven't been excited about anything uh like that for a long time. So I was like up and ready, and I went in that shop, I bought a mission hammer, not the one he let me shoot, but another one. He got me suited up, and I'm in that shop every single day after work, just shooting. And then this one guy, uh, I forgot his name now, but uh, he's always hanging out there, and he was like, Hey, you going hunting? And I'm like, You can hunt with this? And uh he was like, Yeah, and I'm like, Man, what I gotta do. So um he walked me to oh, his name is Bob. So he walked me through getting my hunter safety and all that, and then how to apply for tags and all that in South Dakota, and then the girl I was dating at the time, her family, they had like 12,000 acres in my hunting land in western South Dakota, which I didn't know was from hunting land. So her dad was like, I hear you, you you're in archery. And I'm like, I I just picked it up and he was like, Well, we got a ton of deer out in the back, you know, you're very welcome to go out there and hunt anytime you want to. So I'm like, all right, cool. Like, but I don't I don't know what I'm doing. So I literally just uh go I get a ground blind because that's I don't I didn't know how to get into a tree stand and pop the ground blind up and he dropped me off and was like, Hey, I like walk out there across this field and you know it's where your ground blind is. I'm like, all right, cool. Walk out there, sit in the ground blind, probably in there for about 30 minutes, and sun comes up and there's a doe that's like 20 yards in front of me. So I just like, oh, this this is great. Wow, let her have it. And she took off and I just started like shaking. I didn't know what I thought I was having a stroke or something. Yes, like shaking, and the only thing I could think to do was like I had a honey bun in my bag, so like grabbed it, I started eating on it, trying to like calm myself down and shaking what's going on. So I called him, I'm like, hey, I like the first deer. And he's like, Already? I'm like, Yeah. So he he comes out there and uh he's like, Well, you know, good job. He goes, You know how to feel dress a deer? And I was like, Not at all. He was like, Um, well, here's a knife, I'll see you later. And he walked.

SPEAKER_04: 10:22

Oh no, oh my god.

SPEAKER_02: 10:24

Hey, I did what I did best. I went to YouTube university, I looked up how to field dress a deer. I sat it up on this uh little, I had a little stick, put it in the ground, put my phone by it, and just watched the video and just paused it, listen, pause, and cut, and just going back and forth. And so I figured it out. And after that, dough, it was on and popping after that. I was like, I'm I'm an archer now, like, like let's let's go. So that's that's what that's what got me into it, man. Like depression and and just wandering into an archery shop.

SPEAKER_03: 10:53

Man, that's awesome, dude. Well, I mean, it sounds like just what uh drove you to be successful at football. Like, obviously, you didn't have that like that um that like uh what would what am I trying to say? Like you didn't have that like output or whatever to like you didn't have that place to put that energy, and then once you found that place to put that energy, like it sounds like it was just on.

SPEAKER_02: 11:12

Like, oh yeah, dude, it was on and popping and then I was like constantly like buying gear and just you know tinkering with this and that. And then like uh my brother, he was like, Hey dude, like you should like document like your journey. And I'm like, eh, nobody wants to hear that. And he was like, No, it's like somebody got to he was like, think about it, you know, you stopped playing football, you know, you were depressed. He goes, I'm sure there's other athletes out there that you know are dealing with the same thing that you're dealing with. So that's how the podcast originally started. It was just me reaching out to other former athletes and seeing how they were handling their depression with not being like in without football. Like I had one of my teammates, he ended up you know taking his own life like two years after we what you call it uh graduated. So I don't know if it was because of him missing the sport, but you know, who knows? But I was like, I want to be able to talk to people, and if they are dealing with something, maybe archery could be their outlet like it was for me. And then it just kind of just spiraled into what it is today.

SPEAKER_06: 12:13

That's awesome. That's so uh neat. You know, I mean, uh, you know, being a veteran, and you know, we got several friends that are, and obviously, you know, um there's we all know some how important it is that veterans have been connected with the outdoors, and it's saved tons of lives. We got a buddy of ours that runs Project Savior Outdoors out of Florida. Big shout out to Mike, Mike Dragic. Um, and uh, you know, he just got sick of his marine buddies. Uh I think uh I can't remember the number, but it's staggering um how many had committed suicide, you know. But and it's something that I see relatable because it's that camaraderie, right? It's that that that that push that man, me and my brother, dude. No matter what, we'll be in the trenches together, we're gonna fight together, you know, we're gonna play hard foot, but you know, whatever. It's the same mentality. I I can see the tie between the two. And it's interesting to me that I'd never heard that. Um, you know, as far as the sports go, but immediately as you're talking, I'm going, I see it. I mean, I see what that that tie is, and man, uh, good for you. I mean, goodness.

SPEAKER_02: 13:20

Yeah, you start in that. You see, and he had it double time because like so. I went to the naval academy, that's where I went to college. Oh, so he remember as my uh my teammate, he was a marine officer, and then he ended up getting out. So now he's missing the military and football. Oh man, it's like we get a double time. And I I still talk to you know, guys I went to school with today, and a lot of them are now just starting to get out, and they're like, dude, I don't know what to do. Like, I'm still dealing with missing football, and now I don't have a structured life anymore. Like, I don't have to get up and go to formation, I don't have you know any kind of no duty to prefer to fulfill. So, like, what am I like what's what's living for? It's like, man, you gotta find something, bro. Right, they gotta find that next thing, either whether that be your family or hunting or something, but find something to fill that void, because if not, you you will get lost in it.

SPEAKER_06: 14:11

Yeah, yeah, that's it. That's good advice, man. And and maybe that's why, you know, all of us that and I I know you've experienced this two trades, just that, you know, man, and I'll tell you, you know, when you get my age, I feel like I say that a lot lately, but you know, you don't I don't look back when I was 12 years, I can't remember every deer I've shot. You know, I've I've shot tons of deer. But I can tell you when I was 15, whenever, you know, the first time a grunt call was invented. You know, when whenever my stepdad thought these guys were crazy, you know, like get he told me, he said, You're not hunting here this weekend. That's what he told me. He said, get that stupid thing out of this house right now. He said, I've been hunting since 1952, whatever. And I never heard a deer say that. You know, it's what he said. I never heard deer say that. But he's also the same one that after about a year, he goes, you know, I started listening for it. He goes, and I heard it. He goes, and I couldn't believe it. He goes, and I didn't admit to Kevin and Duane that I did, you know, because he just he could not believe it's just funny when you're not listening for something, how you don't hear it. You know, just like I mean, I think that the whole first part of my life I didn't really care about turkeys so much that I never heard them. But you know, when I started listening for them, all of a sudden I started hearing them, you know. So, but no, that's that's interesting.

SPEAKER_03: 15:33

Yeah, man, it's uh I I can relate a little bit because like I didn't play like college ball or anything, but like just leaving my life, like I love football, and that was like sport or the outdoors was kind of like what filled that void for me the exact same way. I mean, not so much in like the the depth, but like of you know being in a dark place or anything like that, but just like what do I do with like something I I work hard at and like I love to do, like where does that energy go? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_06: 16:02

Yeah, it's like it's those camaradic times that we remember as hunters. Yeah, yeah. You know, I mean that's what we remember most. And I guess that in our soul, like you said, you connected with something that day, you know. Um we also do that when we connect with other people that you know we don't know your hunting camp with, and you're like, Man, I didn't know a single person there. Yep, but I feel like at the end of the weekend I've known them all my life.

SPEAKER_02: 16:25

Well, yeah, I would I would get that all the time. Like, uh, I would just pack up and like go hunt like random public land in South Dakota, and I would it would take me to some small towns, yeah. And I'd walk into this diner, and if y'all don't know if y'all know South Dakota, but ain't a lot of you know black folks walking around stuff like that. I walk in, everybody kind of looking, and then they see the camo and they're like, Hey, you hunting? Like, yeah, you done that, and I tell them, and like, oh man, ain't no deer there, you gotta go over here, man. And then you sit down, and you know, you're there for two hours, y'all talking, drinking coffee, and it's like, man, you guys are you know 30, 40 years older than me, and we sitting there having a good conversation. Now I don't even want to go hunt, I'm ready to do it. It just brings you into like some wild places. And uh, I had a guy like three years ago message me on Instagram, hey, you ever Antelope Hunt? I'm like, nah, never. He's like, I want to take Antelope Hunt, come out to Rapid City. No kidding. I'm like, bro, I don't know you. Like, I pull up on you know and go and go hunt with you. But um, what you call it? So he gives me a call and we talk on the phone for like three hours. Dude, never met this guy in my life, and we just you know, talking or whatever. So uh I was like, you know, I um I'm gonna go out there and hunt with him. So uh got my got my uh got my tag and I drive out there like because Rapid City is like six hours from where I live in South Dakota. So I got up like like two in the morning and drove out there.

SPEAKER_03: 17:47

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02: 17:48

Get there, meet his family, everything's cool. Uh his name is Rob. He I want to say he was like 50, he's like 55. So go out there and start hunting. And we're sitting on the side of this hill and we're glassing. It's probably like you know, around noon. And I just started laughing, like giggling. And he was like, What's funny? I'm like, dude, like, never would I imagine I'd be out in rural South Dakota hunting with a 55-year-old white guy that I've never met before. And he was like, Yeah, man, it's kind of crazy. And like right around that time, we see this really nice buck. And I was like, Hey, like, man, we gotta go get him. Well, we started making a move on him. Well, we were on public land, so this other guy was like probably on the next hill over, and he saw the same buck. So he makes a move, ends up pushing him on private land. I'm like, bruh, this is terrible. Like, I drove way out here. I got a six-hour drive back home. This is not I I I gotta get this buck. Yeah, so we get on Onex. And at this time, I didn't even know what Onex was. I was like, they're gonna Onex and find out who owned that land. I'm like, yeah. What? So he shows me, I'm like, that's pretty dope. So we find this guy named Bradley Bauer, and so we like get on Google and find his address, and which he lives like five minutes down the road. So like we're super lucky. Pull up in this guy's yard, he walks outside and he's like, which field y'all want to hunt? Oh I'm like, Oh, he's like, Yeah, man, people drive up and down this dirt road all day. I gotta kick people off my land. No one ever thinks to come asked. You guys are the first guys in like 20 years to actually ask me to come hunt. Are you kidding me? Yeah. So I'm like, Yeah, we want to hunt that section like right over there, like five minutes down the road. He goes, Yep, go knock yourself.

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SPEAKER_02: 20:04

So we go over there. All you gotta do is ask. Right. We end up in the book, snuck up on his heel, and uh I got the shot off and put him down, and we're going crazy. So uh we go down, we start getting them, and all of a sudden we hear this truck just flying through the field. Blue truck goes over his heel, boom, comes over. It's Mr. Bowers. I heard the gunshot, boys. I heard the gunshot. And we're like, yeah, and we're like all three of us sitting there celebrating. Now, Rob 55, Mr. Bowers, probably in his late uh late 70s. We're out there just having a good ball because I got this buck. Wow. Um, and and we we became friends, like real good friends. Like, uh, I would go out and help him uh do a little fence work every once in a while and stuff like that. Just to you know, hey, you let me hunt your land. Yeah, I'll do a little work for you. Look, he let me hunt this land, you know. It's the trade. So it was it was dope, and um, but I just like I Dow Dorse have brought me or made me connect with people that I would have never probably come in contact with. And I'm still friends with them today, just every once in a while. You steal hunting, or I'll hit him up and ask them, you know, how the harvest is going and stuff like that. So I mean it's it's it's crazy what you know like the connection that hunting will you bring you.

SPEAKER_03: 21:23

Oh, a hundred percent, dude. Yeah, I mean, the the connections that I mean, just a social media message could, you know, what it could turn into are crazy. And I think you br brought up like a really good point, like about you know, asking for permission and like treating people's land with respect and stuff like that, because like I I didn't really realize this. I mean, so like a state like Arkansas for duck hunting, like the days of like knocking on a door and getting permission to hunt, like now it's over with, man. You know that. But like, you know, out west, like that's still still you can still find that, but farmers are getting, which you know this from living there. Farmers like uh, and we only know this from having people on the podcast. We've never experienced this, but it sounds like farmers are getting like pissed off because of so many people that have like treated their land wrong or like don't ask and go on. What do you mean we only unless smoke all those geese because something happened? I mean I'm talking about like South Dakota, North Dakota. That's what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_06: 22:24

But you're on a strong point there.

SPEAKER_03: 22:26

I mean, yeah, I guess it applies anywhere, really, you know.

SPEAKER_02: 22:28

Oh, yeah. See, this is a trick right here. This is this is what I've I've learned in South Dakota. Now I don't know if it worked anywhere else, but I know it worked in South Dakota. One, do not go like the day of or uh or like the week before the season. You want to go like in the summertime. Yeah, don't wear be don't be wearing camo. Come in some nice, you know, nice polo, some nice slacks, you know, everything be shaved up. Look, look presentable. That's right. And then go get some either some uh some kind of canned goods or jarred. Like I would say like honey. Like my um, my ex, her parents, they had a ton of honey because they let people raise bees on their land, so they gave them honey. So I'd have like honey or like some uh some pickles or something. And hey, my name is Trey. I was driving by, so you guys had some uh a buck over here the other day, some deer on your property. I'd really love, you know, if you guys would, you know, agree, uh down with it. I love they have permission to hunt your land this year. And sometimes they'd be like, Well, you know, we don't let nobody hunt. Oh, you know what, that's cool. Hey, I uh I got some fresh bread, some some jam, some pickles, whatever. Hey, here you go. Thanks for your time. But if you guys change your mind, here's my card. I always got a call back. Or they will say, you know what? You're the first person to come and actually bring something. Yeah, you you can have permission. You paid it forward. That's it. And if they say no, cool, they got some bread and some jam. But in the event, they say yeah, they got the bread and jam, and you get the hunt. I mean, that's a fair trade to me. Dude, that's smart, yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 24:03

No, it's so important. And you know, and and even too, you know, I mean, it's not might not be that way up there, but you know, it's something as simple as having a permission form. You know, like I know the state of Illinois has one, has one that you know, have the state of Illinois on it. So, you know, there's always the fear of any property owner if somebody's on my property and they get hurt, you know, I don't know this person. What's gonna happen, you know, if that happens, you know, and you having that just uh to set that that comfort is important. But you you hit the nail on the head though, man. I mean, look presentable, don't go the week before season, you know, when everybody else is, you know, but just go meet them and try to be friends with them.

SPEAKER_02: 24:47

Yep.

SPEAKER_06: 24:48

And yeah, I think it's it's just so important. I mean, we've done that over the years with a few people, you know, and and I crazy that we even had an instance where um my wife met somebody and she told my wife, she said, Hey, your your husband hunts, and I said, Yeah, and she said, Well, tell me, come hunt anytime he wants. And I went, say what? Right. I thought my wife was pulling a joke on me, bro. I really did. And I was like, Listen, that's not the way it works. And sure enough, um, we're still great friends with them today, you know. Big shout out to Matt and Jess.

SPEAKER_02: 25:22

Oh, yeah, it's nice, man. I tell people too, uh, sweat equity will go a long way. Like if you got a farmer and it's harvest season or you know, they're putting up some fence or or anything, moving grain. I don't know if they're doing any kind of work. Hey man, roll your sleeves up, get sweaty. That's right. And that'll that'll that'll tell them like oh he he's about putting that work in, he just don't want to hunt and leave. He's actually gonna give us something for actually, you know, letting letting him hunt our land. So a sweat equity can go a long way.

SPEAKER_06: 25:52

Right, right, right, right. You know, and you know, I mean, this is going back to when I was a kid, you know. If I saw my my parents do it, you know, and you know, still today, had my parents not went about it the right way, they got access to four square miles. They this was the largest singus single contiguous piece of privately owned land in northwestern Illinois in the Golden Triangle. All right, and had not been hunted in over 20 years, except by a relative, one gun hunter. And but my mom met, you know, and my stepdad met them and went over there, and I remember my mom saying we're going over to have dinner with them the next night, and she made us all dress up. She made me and my brother dress up, and we went over there. And I remember when we got done, the the farmer was German, and uh he he off when they got done with dinner, he offered some cognac. And my mom looked at me, which is who's German, looked at me and she said, Oh my gosh. I go, what? She goes, he's accepted us. I go, what? I said it's like a German culture thing. And I was like, so my my long story short with that is still today, those daughters of that family um are like they're like my my sisters, you know. I mean, they they really are, and I don't even I that state that that land unfortunately got taken over by the state. Long story with that. It's now a public land area that you can hunt. Um, but still the point is is we don't have nothing to do with hunting together at all. And I've made these guys are like my sisters, you know, and like an aunt to Tristan and everything else, you know, and it's just crazy what can stem from you walking up there and just putting a little hard work in for somebody, you know.

SPEAKER_02: 27:43

No, exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_03: 27:45

So so tell us a little bit. That was good stuff, guys. That was I I really enjoyed hearing that by the way, just your experience up there, Trey. That is, but um, you know, tell us a little bit about you know the podcast journey, man. Because I saw you got that uh so Carbon TV got like an award or something.

SPEAKER_02: 28:00

Oh yeah, yeah, my uh my hundred episodes. So uh I started the podcast and like I said, starting talk, I started talking to former athletes that were you know dealing with depression, and and then it just you know, just I started having people hit me up, like, hey man, I got a story. All right, cool. So I'd bring him on the show and and talk to him. And then I met this uh oh, I saw this guy on uh fucking it was Instagram. His name was Greg Gundela Jr. And he has uh big time uh it's a big time archery up in Pennsylvania. Brought him on a podcast because I outside of Kim, I didn't know anybody who who else who owned the art uh a bow shop. So I wanted to talk to him. So hit him up and we started talking and he was like, dude, I really like this show. I've been on a lot of podcasts, and like, dude, you you asked some really hard questions. He's like, I'm gonna I I have a show on Carbon TV. I'm gonna get you in contact with uh Julie McQueen, she's the president, and see if you know if they'll pick your show up. So I'm like, all right, cool, whatever. That's that's dope. Right. A couple weeks went by, I didn't hear nothing, and I'm like, oh man, yeah, he he faked, he didn't come through for it with me. But it's all it's all good, though. I had a good show, and then it was like a week, uh a week after I'm I was thinking, had that thought. I get an email from her assistant saying, Hey, uh, we want to sit down and meet with you. And I'm like, all right, cool. But I thought it was just the assistant. I didn't know, you know, you don't normally don't get to talk to the president of the company, right? And uh I was like, okay, cool. Like, what all do I need to have? And it's like, well, Julie wants you know you to have this, this, and this. And I'm like, oh, she's gonna be on the call. So they get on the call, and she was like, Well, just tell me about yourself. And I just basically told her the same thing I just told y'all. Yeah, and uh, she was like, Okay, sounds good, sounds good. And I'm like, dang, like it didn't work. So we'll we'll be getting back with you here pretty soon.

SPEAKER_03: 29:50

And you're like, Yeah, okay, maybe.

SPEAKER_02: 29:52

Yeah, so then we started talking again, like the conversation just started going on again. And right before we got off, she was like, Hey, before we leave, she was like, Want to know, uh, do you want to join a carbon TV family? And I'm like, yeah. So they faxed over, they faxed over the contract, and I read it, signed it, sent it back, and uh, I've been rocking with them ever since. Like they are no, uh, it's they're a small team, but they they they work, they do the work of you know, a hundred men. They're they're they're really good there. Um, they really helped the podcast get out there, help me find guests, and uh it's been great. And I just I like to talk to anybody that I think that's why a lot of people like the show is I'll reach out to somebody and they'll be like, Well, I'm not that big or I don't have that many followers. I'm like, I don't care, man. You run that's all I care about. I don't care about follower account, I don't care about who you sponsor by, what you shoot, any of that. If you if you shot a little spike and that's your first book, I'm gonna have you on the podcast. I don't, I don't, I don't care. I just want to talk to you about the outdoors and what it means to you and and how you how you got involved in it. And it just it it just spiraled to what it is now. And uh I won Carbon TV's best podcast last year, and that was uh that was a big goal because me and my brother went to the 10-year banquet and they was giving out awards and all that stuff. And we're sitting there and I forgot who won it that year. Um Christy Tylder, she won Best Podcast. And I looked at my brother, I was like, we're gonna win that joker next year. Yes. He was like, What? I was like, bro, we're gonna win that joker next year. And we flew back from Detroit uh April 22nd, and from that day on, I was just grinding. I'm talking like doing four and five shows a week.

SPEAKER_03: 31:33

I was upgraded my gear.

SPEAKER_02: 31:36

Like I like I was like laser focused. And uh then when I got nominated, I was like, okay, now I'm nominated, now I gotta win it. I'm in it, now I gotta win it, and uh just uh put out videos and just kind of like up my game, just just continue to do shows, and then they had the award ceremony. I won, and I was like, I now now it's time to go for number two. And I think at that at that time I was only like 30 episodes in. Wow, and I just like cut it on, boom, and just kept doing more, just four and five podcasts a week. Uh sometimes two and three a day. Like I was I was just rolling and I was just super motivated, and I was kept finding more and more people with interesting stories to talk to. And it's like, I don't know. I just I just love it. I love talking to people. I don't know. It was amen on that.

SPEAKER_03: 32:30

That's amazing. That is. I think one thing like that resonated with us out of that is like okay, and not to say like I'm not like throwing any sort of shade, because there's people like you talk to a bunch of different people, and like you know, somebody might have 200,000 followers and they might be like the most entertaining podcast guests ever, or they might be like very quiet and the whole time you're trying to like pull conversation out of them, which is fine, you know, like you know, everybody's different, but then it seems like there's I think part of it's probably like the guys that like are like you said, they're like, Oh, we don't have a following or whatever, but they're hunters. Like, sometimes the stories you get out of those guys, because like they you know, they don't have time for social media, a lot of these guys, right? All they're doing, man, they're just out there hunting, and just some of the stories is we we get off some of those podcasts sometimes we're like, dude, that was like the most interesting thing I've ever heard.

SPEAKER_06: 33:22

Well, uh let me let me say this, and and I know that all three of us will agree with this, and the rest of the world may not relate to it unless you do what we do, and that is every single person on this planet is unique. Yeah, you don't need a following to be unique, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 33:39

To be unique, no doubt.

SPEAKER_06: 33:41

You know, so if that's your thing, you don't want to be social media buff, that's fine. I know the world kind of pressures you that way that you need to do that, that kind of thing. But man, we have had, and I know you can say the same thing, Trey. We have been humbled to death.

SPEAKER_03: 33:56

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SPEAKER_06: 34:36

I mean, and that to me is something super special, something that I am so respectful for. I think they don't understand how much we respect it, you know. I mean, it it's truly an honor.

SPEAKER_03: 34:48

Let me uh let me ask you this, Trey. How many times, because I I we just experienced this recently with a guy that we've shared literally hundreds of hours of the duck line with. Yeah, we had him on the podcast for the first time, talked to him for an hour and a half or whatever it was, hour, and uh learned so many things we'd never known about this guy. Like, how often has that happened with your teammates or whoever you have on? Like, have you ever felt that way?

SPEAKER_02: 35:12

Oh, yeah. I I had a guy that uh I played football with, and like he was just big, just this this dude from uh South Philly, you would have like just the hardest person ever met, just old, mean, and all this. But I had him on the show, and we got to talking, and this dude has a love for cast iron skillets. He like he loves cast iron skillets. I'm like, I would have never pictured you to be a guy that not only cooks, but you love cooking in cast iron. Right eats cast iron skillets too. It's so tough. And he was like, Oh yeah, man, you can know he's telling me all different ways you gotta season it and all stuff. But I'm like, dude, I collect cast iron skillets. I'm like, how did how are we on the same team and didn't never that's that never came up? Right, right. Yeah, it's and it's just exactly dude. Weird like that. And um, I mean, there just means there's so many people that I I talk to and he's like, dude, I would have never known that. Like right, never never never got it. But that's what you get with a conversation when you're just you're talking and like um people open up and they're they're real vulnerable and they're willing to share the story with you, and like I I love it.

SPEAKER_06: 36:28

Yeah, man. No, no, the vulnerable is the word, and and and and man, that to me is always something that I cherish out of this podcast. Is that it, I I feel like it's uh it's a it's a it's a privilege. It is a privilege, 100% it is.

SPEAKER_02: 36:42

Oh, yeah. I know there was one guy, this is like early. This I think this was like my sixth or seventh show, but I was scrolling through uh Instagram and I saw this guy, he's sitting in camo on a subway. I'm like, sitting in full camo on a subway. So I messaged him like, yo, dude, saw your picture, you're sitting on a subway in camo with your bow. I gotta hear your story. He has bow on the on there too. Yeah, yeah. I hit him, so he he even back, he was like, bro, cool, I got a story. I love to share it with you. Never been on the podcast before, but I'm down for it. Coming to find out, this dude is part of a uh pretty large community in the Bronx of New York. And there's a a group of guys of black archery hunters, and in order to hunt in New York, the only piece of public land that's close to them is on uh it's the far east. So they have to get up in the morning at like one o'clock, take the taxi to the bus station, get on the bus, take the bus to the subway, get on the subway, go far east, and then there's a bus that runs called Metro East, get on that, and that bus actually has a bus stop at the walk-in spot.

SPEAKER_06: 37:56

Dude, no way. I'm like, Wow, I'm like, wait, what? Dude, I'm never gonna be a lazy hunter ever again. Ever, dude. That just tumbled the snot out of me. Oh my god. He's like, and he goes shout out to those guys.

SPEAKER_02: 38:07

Oh, definitely, man. Shout out to Cliff Cadet, man. Dude, he's he's a great guy. And he was like, um, and then in order for us to take our bows or our weapons, you know, you have to get like a special license from the state of New York, and you have to uh then get it approved by the bus department and all the public transportation and all that, and they gotta have it cased up at all times, and it's it's it's a whole big deal. But he goes, but the the crazy part is when he got his first buck, yeah. Like, so now what do you got? So I was like, I was like, so now I gotta hear this. He's like, Well, I got my first buck. He goes, so I gotta get as much as I can in my backpack, and then I give I'm and I gotta take the bus to the subway. He's I'm sitting on the subway with this deer sticking the head antler sticking out of my pack next to me, and the whole time I just got my head down because eyes are on me, and they see this game bag that's just covered in blood, and it's like I'm just sitting there just waiting for it. I'm like, dude, that is nuts. And then he was like, Yep, and then uh get home, and then I'll have all these game bags hanging up on my patio. Well, of course, people in New York, a lot of people don't hunt, so they looking at see blood covered sheets. Yeah, they calling, they calling you know, police are knocking on people's apartment doors, like, hey, yo, whose apartment is this? They finally find his like, yo, I went hunting. This is deer meat, no one was murdered.

SPEAKER_06: 39:43

Like, wow, isn't that wild though? I mean, my gosh, it's a different world, man.

SPEAKER_02: 39:49

Exactly. And then they got like, um, they don't have processors out there, but one of the guys he got a uh a van and converted it into basically his like a processing van. So he'll pull up to your parking lot in your apartment. You come down, he got a meat grinder in there. If uh he's got a sausage stuffer and he can do all that stuff out of his van. No way. It's wild how like you know, when you think of New York, you don't think about hunters, but there are there and they've adapted to they have a it's they're hunters, but they just do it a little different than a lot of us that you know have you know that live in you know on acreages or live in you know rural areas, they they just do it urbanly. It's it's it's it's dope, man. I I love talking to clips.

SPEAKER_03: 40:33

Dude, this is one of the coolest things I've heard about. Yeah, you must have just been like mind blown.

SPEAKER_02: 40:39

Oh, yeah, dude. I was shocked. Like we we talked for like three hours. Wow, like dude, like and I I've had him on a show several times, and I mean, it just it's it's wild that when you like saying when you think of New York, you don't think of anyone being in interested in the outdoors or anything like that, but there's a huge community of archers and hunters in the Bronx and Harlem, uh within the the five boroughs, and that they're one big you know community that they they help us. Isn't that cool as hell? They license and all that, it's it's dope, dude.

SPEAKER_03: 41:13

Yeah, no, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_06: 41:14

No, that listen, this this is gonna be again. As soon as we get off this podcast, Tris and I are gonna be high fiving about this because we're gonna be like, dude, what I'm being my soul is gonna be sucked tonight uh researching this stuff because what it really is doing for me right now is like my god, we always think about how we do it, right? We don't think about anything outside of your little box that we live in, dude. I mean, not just because I mean not because we're being selfish, it's just because it's just a stereotype, right? Maybe or something, but that is fascinating, and I would have to bet that there's probably from small groups to whatever in in maybe a lot of big cities, you know, like might be Shikom, might be here in L ATL, man. I mean, seriously, it's just uh um that is cool. That is so freaking it's one of the coolest things I've heard this hunting season so far. I mean, honestly, that is so cool.

SPEAKER_02: 42:13

Yeah, you you guys gotta check him out. His uh Instagram is uh Urban Archery NYC.

SPEAKER_03: 42:18

Okay, I'm gonna follow him.

SPEAKER_02: 42:19

We're doing it right now.

SPEAKER_03: 42:20

Yeah, okay. Well, I'm following him. So uh we work with frog togs, like they do like waterproof stuff and the waiters, a lot of duck hunting stuff, fishing.

SPEAKER_02: 42:30

Oh, yeah, I guess I got one of their um waterproof like suits when I was at the house.

SPEAKER_03: 42:34

Oh, nice. Yeah, exactly. Perfect. What was uh Urban Urban Archery NYC. So their uh new like marketing director guy, Donnie, lives up in New York, and um there was a couple other guys that are like also kind of do what we do that went up there and hunted with them. And they went to like it looks like they went to like downtown, like New York, all dressed up in camo like duck hunting gear, and did this promo video, dude. I'll send it to you on Instagram, Instagram. They did, but they dropped it today, and I'm like, this is amazing. Oh, okay. Here we go. I see this guy.

SPEAKER_02: 43:11

Sweet. Oh yeah, dude, New York is cool. They even have this thing called uh carps in the park. And uh my my my friend Brendan Dale, I met him just on Instagram, but he takes people out to Central Park and he got a special license from the state where he teaches people how to fly fish in Central Park and they catch carp and they catch them and throw them back, but it's just one of the things that they do out there in the outdoors. It's like it's it's super cool. And I'm like, man, I would have never guessed that you guys get down like that in New York. And he's like, Do we got some serious hunters out here?

SPEAKER_03: 43:46

No, yeah, you never would have guessed that.

SPEAKER_02: 43:48

No, so it's like you you I would have never known, like had I not, you know, got in the outdoors or hell, had I not even just reached out to him on Instagram, I would have never known that. If someone said, dude, I give you a million dollars, if you can guess how many archers are in New York, I told him maybe one or two.

SPEAKER_03: 44:04

Well, well, apparently, like upstate's like super country, right? Like super, like people are out hunting and all that up there.

SPEAKER_02: 44:10

Oh yeah, like by Albany and all that.

SPEAKER_03: 44:12

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_06: 44:13

Yeah, there's big, there's big deer in in excuse me, I got beer, but there's big deer in New York.

SPEAKER_03: 44:19

Yeah, no, I I believe it, man. Any of them northern states. Where um outside of South Dakota and Texas, I mean, what what states have you deer hunted in, man?

SPEAKER_02: 44:28

Um, so Arkansas, Colorado, um, Wyoming, Iowa, uh, North Dakota, Minnesota. Wow. Uh, and that's yes, oh, Oklahoma, and that's it. Oh, that's it. So where I live, I actually live on the border of Texas and Arkansas. So like we have a street that runs through the middle of town. So I can stand on one side of the street and I'm in Texas. On the other side, I'm in Arkansas. So like I can get I saw I I'm closer to Arkansas than I am, Texas, and there's more public land in Arkansas than there is Texas. So I get tags in both states, but I mainly hunt Arkansas when I'm here.

SPEAKER_03: 45:08

Oh, nice. Yeah, you can kind of double dip or play the seasons how, you know. And I and I would imagine too, like the the ruts probably like, you know, depending on where you're at in Arkansas and Texas, probably, you know, could be a couple weeks apart, right?

SPEAKER_02: 45:21

Well, where I'm at is about the same. Oh, like I'm I I can literally like if I'm at my mom's house, I can see Arkansas from my mom's house.

SPEAKER_04: 45:30

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 45:34

There's one public land spot in Texas Canada, Texas, that's it's like 10 minutes from my house. But if I go literally five minutes uh w east, five minutes west, I have access to thousands, thousands of acres of public land over on Arkansas side.

SPEAKER_03: 45:51

So how how do uh how do you hunt now? Do you do lock-ons? Are you a saddle guy or what?

SPEAKER_02: 45:57

I'm a saddle guy.

SPEAKER_03: 45:58

Nice. So how like okay, so this is interesting. So I like we've I mean, all my dad's ever done was you know lock-ons, and that's you know what I've always done just because of like grown up hunting with him. But like the saddle thing kind of feels a little intimidating to me, and I get like the the flexibility aspect, especially on public land. I mean, it I mean it seems you can't argue with it from that standpoint, but like from your perspective, coming from somebody that didn't even hunt until like a certain age, like how was it like making that jump to saddle?

SPEAKER_02: 46:30

Oh yeah, it was pretty easy because what I did was yeah, because I I got the saddle and then in my backyard I had a tree, so I just would you know practice on uh I wouldn't I wouldn't go too high, it's probably like two, like maybe two sticks. I'm like, okay, I I got the system down, and then I would just do that. I did that every day for about like a month. And then I went out to uh the archery shop and they got you know real big trees out there. So I just started going, all right, I'm gonna go three steps now, get see how high I can get. All right, do that for a little bit. Then I add another step. Okay, I'm four steps up, I'm pretty dang high. This seems to be good. And then it's just I would I I'd practice just falling, just trusting the string. And once I could trust that all the ropes was good, I'm like, all right, I'm good. And I just never I was never intimidated by it, but I my thing was I was intimidated in the dark. That's where I didn't that's where that's the one variable that I left out. When you practice putting the guns up, it's easy. Yeah, when it's dark and you just got that little red light, it's it's a whole different story. So I just had to like get a system down where I would put all my gear in the bag in order that I would take it out. So once I knew that feel and that routine, then I can it could be pitch black, and I can if it's as long as it's it's a straight up tree, there's no branches sticking out, I can pretty much get get up there quick, about five minutes. Okay.

SPEAKER_06: 47:58

I crack up and I see it every year. It's just I know you guys have seen the reel of somebody, and it's somebody walking through the woods in the dark, and it's just Jesus loves me.

SPEAKER_05: 48:06

Yes, I know.

SPEAKER_02: 48:08

I'm not dude, like I've all been there. When I first started hunting, I would not sit till it got dark. I was waiting and like, yeah, yep, time for me to get out. And I boom. And my buddy's like, dude, you're never going to kill a big buck, you know, leaving early because they come out the last 15-20 minutes before like after you know sun starts going down. So one night I'm in the stand, I'm on public land and I'm sitting there and I was like, you know, 15 minutes, I'm waiting. Yeah, and nothing came out. As I'm getting down, I hear something behind me go like something like it jumped. So I just now I'm stuck on my ladder and this book walks right behind me, and he's just I I can hear him and I I can see the silhouette. Oh no, even if I was up there, I wouldn't be able to see him. So now I'm just stuck because I don't want to scare him because I plan on coming back the next day. I was there for like 30 minutes, just like stuck. And then I was like, Well, I do got my little, I got my uh Lyman's rope, so I just kind of just like hung there and sat there and just watched him. And that was the first time I heard uh heard a butt go like uh because I'm like your stepdad. I didn't say, man, deer don't do that because I've never heard that I heard and I heard him and I'm like, oh snap. But I did, but I've always had a grunt in my bag because everybody gotta have a grunt. But I was like, right, I never heard no deer say no say that or do that. Right, right, right. Sweet. But on my way down, I'm walking and it's like it's something behind me. And as soon as I could see the parking lot and see my my car, I just took off. And then I got to my car, I'm like, I'm safe. And I'm I got breath and everything. I'm like, I gotta get better at this. So now I got a little red headlight. As long as I can see something, I'm good. My brother, he's 6'4, 280, scared of the dark. He would not he will not hunt. You cannot get him to go to the stands early in the morning or stay late.

SPEAKER_03: 50:09

Oh, dude, that is funny. I feel like when I was younger, like I I'm still like I get kind of nervous out there, but like uh when I was younger, like if you know, back in the day, like it would maybe be a walkie-talkie, like, and maybe he had a phone, but I didn't have a phone when I was like 11, 12, 13, whatever. And I I like sometimes would almost be about to cry because I'm like, dude, did he is he leaving me out here? I'm like, is he ever coming?

SPEAKER_06: 50:37

All right, listen, it's story time. Listen, you got time for a story trade.

SPEAKER_02: 50:41

I got I got all night, man.

SPEAKER_06: 50:42

All right, so my brother-in-law, and I'm gonna tell this as fast as I can. I of course, you know, as outdoors may want to get people in the sport, younger people is great, whatever. I'm in my 20s. My brother-in-law is, you know, uh seven, 16, 17 years old. And I said, Hey, you know, you want to try hunting? He's like, Man, I don't know how to hunt, you know. So I taught him some things, got him in a bow and all that. Well, uh, I said, Well, you got to complete your safety hunter safety course. Well, back then, you know, we lived right by the Olin Winchester plant, and Winchester always hosted that, which is pretty cool. And you have to go there on a Saturday all day long, you know, and then a part of a Sunday, it wasn't all online. And I said, I'll do it with you, you know. So we do it, and he he doesn't pay attention for very long. And I told him, I said, dude, you better be paying attention to what this guy's saying. And he's over there farting around, everything. And right then they're telling a story, they're saying, We're going over the part of what you do in an emergency situation, all right? And he goes through it all and he said, But the very last thing you do is light three fires in the shape of a triangle. By all means, you don't want to catch the woods on fire, right? So anyway, he's fiddle farting around, and about that time the instructor sees that shit and says, Hey, you young man, he goes, What's the first thing you do when you get lost? He said, Light three fires. He said, Yo! This guy screamed in front of the whole class. Well, fast forward all that, he ended up passing. And I told him, I said, Stay in the deer stand until I get there. I go back there, he's not there, and I had to walk about 150 yards off this fire lane to go back there. And I said, Why'd you get down? He said, Well, you know, I didn't know like what happened if you don't come get me. He goes, I was just kind of fed him for myself, and I was like, All right, he's a young guy, whatever. But I said, Listen, tomorrow night, do not get down. I promise you, unless I die. I mean, we didn't have cell phones to do this, and I said, unless I get killed, I will be there, I promise you. And I wanted to be comfortable with it. Well, he decides to get down again, and one of my buddies hit a deer, and I'm running a little bit late, and he starts to get down. Well, he gets lost. And so about that time, my buddy that we had I had that I had a two-way radio with, he texts me, he goes, Dude, your brother-in-law's screaming through the forest help. And I go, What? He goes, All I can hear in the back, he goes, through the forest is help, help, help. He goes, So me and my dad are on the way to go get him because they can get to him quicker than we could. But but man, he learned the hard way uh that that night. That's the point of the story. But anyway, so it man, yeah. No, there's something that dark does to you. There's something about being scared. It still happens to me today. I swear I had a Sasquatch follow me in Illinois whenever I was about 25. Something followed me, paralleled me on a hillside for a quarter of a mile, and watched me get in my tree, and then wherever sasquatches go, it went because it wasn't there. When the light I exactly where I heard it stop as I climbed my tree, I watched that spot the whole time. And I'm like, dude, there's definitely gonna be something standing there. Nope.

SPEAKER_02: 54:20

Nothing, nothing. I tried to scare my brother one time. We were out in South Dakota hunting on some public, and I was like, hey man, uh like what happens if we see a Sasquatch? And without hesitation, he was like, Well, she we'll be eating some Sasquatch tonight. He's one of those guys, he he's he's funny, but he's one of those guys like we'll like he'll go, we'll walk to a tree stand in the dark if he if he's with me. But before we even start walking, he just in case, man. Like, just in case. You never know. This might be the 101st time this guy.

SPEAKER_06: 55:06

All right, man. Nothing will say nothing will like instantly make you piss your pants than when you blow up a whole bunch of turkeys. Oh, yeah. You're walking through the woods and turkeys explode. I don't care who you are. If you listen, it's impossible to watch a punch without blinking. It's impossible to not piss your pants blowing up a bunch of turkeys over here. Turkey pheasants, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 55:30

I bet you are pheasants, right?

SPEAKER_02: 55:32

Man, I I hate pheasants. I don't like I don't like I know it's coming, especially like if you walk into like a Milo field or something, I know it's gonna happen, and it's like like that sound they make that woof, yeah, and they fly off here, like, oh my god, and you just like it sends chills through you like man all the time, even like deer, like you're out there, and a deer will run through a field and spook a pheasant, get you get me every time.

SPEAKER_05: 56:02

No disrespect to pheasants forever, but I can see you walking through the field with a shirt on as Pheasants Forever with a circle on the line.

SPEAKER_06: 56:10

Yeah, you're like, no, no way, buddy. You're not getting my money. I'll give it to the deer and the cattle farmers and everybody else.

SPEAKER_02: 56:17

I do I like everybody in South Dakota, they look as hunting. I hated it because it's a bunch of walking, it's a bunch of walking, and you get three birds a day. I can't do nothing with three birds, right? Right, right.

SPEAKER_03: 56:29

Right, yeah, okay, cool. That's like uh dinner.

SPEAKER_02: 56:32

That's it. That's one meal, and that's the thing. A lot of guys will go out there. Like, I get it. If you are a resident and you're hunting pheasant, you got all year long. But if you are a non-resident, you get five days, you gotta pay like$400 for the tag, you get three birds a day, and then if you go into like one of these lodges, you know, they're charging$1,500,$1,600 a gun. Man, that's some expensive turtle, that's some expensive pheasant meat.

SPEAKER_06: 57:00

God, man, you ain't lying. Well, I tell you one thing that I do love about Idaho, because we got a we got a couple folks that we're friends with from Idaho, is that you got y'all do have some of the best waterfowl limits in the country.

SPEAKER_03: 57:13

I mean, as far as you talking about Idaho.

SPEAKER_06: 57:15

Oh, sorry. I just South Dakota. No, why did I think Sioux Falls, Idaho? No, sorry, old man's mine.

SPEAKER_03: 57:24

I'm like, bro, we ain't even talking about it. Oh, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_06: 57:26

You're calling it Sioux Falls Idaho. No, oh my god.

SPEAKER_03: 57:29

No, I know what you're about to say though, Jason, because out in Idaho, you can shoot seven mallards. So that's what you're about to say.

SPEAKER_06: 57:35

Yeah, yeah, no, no. And I don't know what South Dakota's uh me neither.

SPEAKER_02: 57:40

I didn't I didn't try to waterfowls there at all. Nope.

SPEAKER_03: 57:44

Man, do you look back on that? You're like, shoot, man, that might have been uh something to take advantage of.

SPEAKER_02: 57:49

Yeah, matter of fact, it was uh like 2020, we had like some crazy flooding uh late in the year, like uh September and uh September and October, like all the cornfields like flooded. So a bunch of the farmers was like, you know, we we've lost this crop for the year, you know what I'm saying? Uh so they basically let people come up and come out and duck hunt. And I I never did it, but I had buddies go out there and like, dude, this is like the best it's been in like years. Like, you got all this no standing corn, it's flooded. They go out and get there, no, get a six-man limit, like like that. Wow, and I was like, Man, maybe I should have got into it, but eh, well, but like it was weird in South because it opens up in zones, so like the zone I lived in would be zone three, so you don't get to hunt until you know mid-December. It's cold. Oh man, they're not trying to be out there, and then all the ducts are gone. By the time it gets to me, they they out of there.

SPEAKER_03: 58:48

So, like duck deer hunting out there, like because when you picture like South Dakota, it seems so like open. Like, was deer hunting out there like I mean, like a spot and stalk game, or like were you able like what what was deer hunting like out there?

SPEAKER_02: 59:01

All right, so where I lived at in Sioux Falls on the east side of the state, that's more um sitting in a tree stand or ground blind, it's uh it's it's wooden.

SPEAKER_03: 59:13

Okay, so more like traditional.

SPEAKER_02: 59:15

When you go out, huh?

SPEAKER_03: 59:16

More like a traditional kind of hunting.

SPEAKER_02: 59:18

Yeah, it is traditional hunting, but then when you go out west to like um towards like the black hills, like where Mount Rushmore is and all that, when it comes to whitetails, yeah, you can you can sit in a tree and and hunt them. That's that's more traditional. But when it comes to like mule deer, it's all spot and stock, um, elk, spot and stock, antelope. And if you get lucky enough and you can draw a bighorn sheep tag, then that's spotted stock as well. Man, that's that's a once in a lifetime tag, or you can governor's tag, but that's gonna cost you some bread.

SPEAKER_03: 59:49

Didn't uh didn't Steve like I don't know how close he followed like meat eater and all that, but I I feel like uh Steve Rurnello like pulled one of those. I might have read about it in like One of his books or something, but it took him like like you said, like his whole life to finally pull that tag. Like, yep.

SPEAKER_06: 1:00:07

If I'm I feel like I might have just watched that episode. Maybe that's why I'm playing. Was this the Flintlock Moseloader thing? I don't know, man. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:14

Yeah, no. Well, I have to do some research on that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:16

But uh yeah, the the big horn sheep in South Dakota, so you can do the um you can apply for it and they they give it like five. And it's literally a it's a once-in-a-lifetime tag. Once you draw it, you will never draw it again. And normally it's like guys that are in their you know, mid-50s and up that draw that tag, or you can go to like do the auction and do the governor's tag, but those tags go for two, 200, 300 grand.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:47

No kidding.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:48

And then that, yeah, it's it's a it's an auction.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:51

Damn, dude. So when you were out there, uh, did you do any like elk or mule deer hunting?

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:57

Nope, elk's the same way. So the the elk is um it's a once-in-a-lifetime tag per weapon, uh, depending on what season you hunt them in. But um, I knew I know guys up there that's got 30, 40 years preference points, haven't you know, haven't uh drawn a tag. And then I know I know a family. This was what 20 this was 2021. This family moved in from Utah, came to the archery shop, and they're like, hey, you know, we're news to town, trying to find a you know, um a shop, uh, a shop to call home. So we're like, oh, we're all talking to him, whatever. And it was like, well, yeah, can we hunt elk out here? And we're like, yeah, get in line, it's gonna take y'all a minute to draw a tag. So they applied for the tag. The husband did not draw, but the wife first time drew, like drew, and you had some salty cats at the at the shop, man. You draw like Kim, the owner, he he had like I want to say 36 or maybe 40 some years of preference points. Are you kidding me? And here's the kicker if you do not apply every year, you lose those points. So if you miss a season and don't get your preference points, or at least apply, once it closes, you lose all your points and you don't get them back. Oh no, you got so you gotta be on it, yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 1:02:16

Well, I mean, I guess there's something to be said about that. I mean, it's a weed, let's be honest. I mean, that's gonna weed out people that oh yeah, true. Yeah, I mean, if you're really passionate about that, well, I mean, you won't miss it, right? I guess, you know, I guess that's that's the theory.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:31

Guys got that in a phone, yeah. That's in a phone, like when it opens up, like get your preference points or at least or apply. And if you don't draw, then you get your preference point, but at least apply. Like you have to apply, and it's uh and or you can wait till like um the leftover tags, which is why I never under really understood South Dakota's elk draw system, because there'll be like you know, unit H3, which is like one of the holly side units, they're giving out 200 tags. So they'll have the first draw and there'll be like 800 people applied, but then they'll do a second draw. Like, how like y'all didn't get the first 200 out of the 800?

SPEAKER_04: 1:03:11

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:11

Like, so how does this work? And like to this day, no one's ever explained to me how the South Dakota elk system works. But you can get um like at the end of the season, there's like a couple units that are like not like no one really hunts. You could draw a cow tag easy, and that won't go and that won't count against you getting your your bull tag. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, at least there's no. But those units are garbage. Like they garbage, they garbage.

SPEAKER_03: 1:03:38

Dude, speaking of preference points, so like Georgia is such a water uh what's such a terrible waterfowl state that like there's a few opportunities in the state that are, you know, I guess you know, preference point lottery hunt type opportunities, and you gotta have like seven preference points to pull one of these waterfowl hunts. It's one time, one hunt, one day. Like, oh no, isn't that crazy, dude? And like, I mean, there like people that have like private ponds and private, like, you know, whatever, like you can find birds here, but it's like not, I mean, it's a fraction of what you know the Mississippi flyway is or what they get way out west. Like, it's just not even the same thing. So, yeah, we're at like I think I'm at four points. So, and I think once you get six, you have like a 50% chance of pulling it, and then once you get seven, it's almost a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_02: 1:04:30

So, oh heck yeah. See, I I'm only like I'm like an hour and 40 minutes from Stuttgart, Arkansas. Oh, sweet. There's some crazy duck. Like, I've never been out there, but my buddy Rex goes out there every year, and dude, I mean, there's some duck, some duck hunters out there, and there's some ducks out there, but like people get like you when you get to the um like the boat ramp, they give you a a number so you can like you know, if you got number one, you can be the first boat to get out there because it's so competitive to get to these uh some of those sloughs to the point where some people will get like uh they'll recruit a cross country runner, yeah, yeah, yeah. Run through the woods and find a find a spot and sit in the waterhole, and then when people drive by, they just flash the flashlight, like I'm already here, so they can save the spot for people. Um, this is like 2015. My buddy was out there, and these guys they had this honey hole, they were just smacking ducks. Well, some guys got jealous and went out there and threw corn in their water hole. Oh no, shut it down for the year. You can't hunt it now, it's over with. You cannot hunt it. So that's the kind of stuff they go down in Arkansas when it comes to duck hunting. If you got a honey hole in public and you you hunt it every single week and you smacking and getting a limit, you best believe somebody's gonna go out there and throw corn in your hole.

SPEAKER_03: 1:05:48

Oh, dude, it's it's crazy. So, like, we we hunt, we're actually gonna be out there the next weekend out in Jonesboro. We hunt um northeast Arkansas a lot.

SPEAKER_02: 1:05:56

Bro, I'm I'm literally like I think I'm like two hours from Jonesboro. No kidding. I'm right down the road.

SPEAKER_03: 1:06:03

Oh shoot, dude. We gotta connect at some point.

SPEAKER_02: 1:06:06

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:06:07

Uh, but man, we we've been fortunate enough to like spend a little bit of time out on the public land out there. And I mean, I don't know. I say fortunate lightly, I guess, because I don't know, man. It's it's a different beast out there, and people like you mentioned like the games and stuff people play. Like, uh there's people that will like intentionally like team up boat-wise and like block places channels off, channels off so people can't get to like other holes. Because like in low water situations, you can't get to everywhere, and there might be one or two ways to get back to all these holes or whatever, but yeah, they'll intentionally like block holes, or you know, they'll I I just heard a story the other day of oh, they'll shoot shots over your head, try to intimidate you. I I heard a story the other day where there's no ducks, yeah. Like literally 16 tank on your boat. I heard a story the other day where I guess these guys at the end of their hunt or whatever left up headlamps. I'm assuming that's what they did, or they snuck back out there after hours or whatever. But these guys go to go out and hunt in the morning, and this was uh Lucas Haget on TikTok that was talking about this. He said they went to hunt in the morning, and uh they're like, Oh, we can't go over there. Those guys got that spot held down, and they drive the boat back in there, and I guess they just took the headlamps off, so they just had the headlamps hanging to look like there was people out in those spots. Like, and I don't know when they put them up or whatever, but Bro, we did that.

SPEAKER_06: 1:07:30

What do you mean you don't remember that? We did that out in Georgia.

SPEAKER_03: 1:07:34

Yeah, but we were out there.

SPEAKER_06: 1:07:36

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:07:36

They weren't even they were in Georgia, you can stay all night. In Arkansas, you can't stay out there.

SPEAKER_06: 1:07:41

But do you remember we put a headlamp out in the spot where we were gonna set up? Yes, but we but we could see it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:07:47

Yeah, and we you can stay all night in Georgia. You can go anywhere on the like you can stay.

SPEAKER_06: 1:07:50

You can stay all night anywhere you want, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:07:52

Well like at least on waterfowl like situations. So you might not be able to like get out there and hunt. Obviously, you can't hunt, but like in Arkansas, regardless, after like 12 p.m. you gotta be off the WMA. Yeah, so that's wild. Four in the morning, yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 1:08:08

Yeah, yeah. No, it it and you know, I think a lot of that's changing. Um, we talk about it so much.

SPEAKER_03: 1:08:15

Um I hope it's changing.

SPEAKER_06: 1:08:16

Uh I mean I feel like there's such a strong push of positivity flowing through our our sport um on both sides. Uh when I say both sides, I'm talking about white tails and I'm talking about ducks. All right. We talk about turkeys, that's a totally different thing. But I feel like I really do feel like I've uh I think that there's so many people that we associate with, especially when you talk about big names out there, like uh 24-7, when you talk about uh Dr. Duck, you know, you talk about really anybody represents a great brand on TV, you know, uh the Foul Life, anybody like that, um there's such a strong push for positivity and you know, working with working with others, hunting, you know, having relationships that you'll never forget, all that kind of stuff. Okay, come over here and hunt with us. Like I've always said, if you think that somebody's sitting up next to you on public land, they did it on purpose. I don't care what you're hunting, ducks or deer. Most of the time, it's not on purpose. Right, it's either they don't know what they're doing, and you're best off to approach them in a very nice way. Don't you don't have to be aggressive, you know, be nice and just say, hey, you know, uh look, you'll most times, like even deer hunting, when we run into those situations where people are hunting, we figured it out with them. You know what I mean? I mean, it's just like, hey, I'll go over here, you go over there, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_03: 1:09:50

Or you know, it just happened a few weeks ago. I was I was super thankful this guy was a saddle hunter because we went out to this public land that's archery only up here, and uh, we had like hung like the week before or something, we hung a you know, hung a set up there. A double set, yeah, for me and him. And uh this guy's like, man, I was planning on going right there, and he's pulling up on X and whatever, and we're like, shoot, man, he's like, but you know what? Like, I got a saddle, like I can just go up like 200 yards, 300 yards and set up. And it all worked out, and I'm like, thank god, because if we would have had to move our stuff, it would have been a lot harder.

SPEAKER_06: 1:10:25

Yeah, well, and then he ended up he ended up doing some predator control and smoked coyote, yeah, which is nice, you know.

SPEAKER_02: 1:10:31

So anyway, but most of some when you like talk to people, yeah, they're pretty cool. Like, and I know in South Dakota, a lot of guys you pull up to a parking lot in the morning, there's normally like two or three trucks there. But once it's time to get out and start walking, everybody will get out the trucks and like, hey man, where are you going? I'm going north, I'm going over this way, and then you break, and everybody break it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:10:52

That's right, that's right. Well, and I used to if you shoot one, let me know, I'll help you drag it out. Exactly.

SPEAKER_06: 1:10:57

Yeah, and I've said this before. I come from a culture of public land deer hunting, you know, in in the Golden Triangle uh of Illinois. And what we always did was because there were so many of us that did it all the time, that you know, when I grew up, the only thing I knew was to love your other hunter, you know. I mean, these people like I remember one year that it was worth it to everybody that we got this pavilion and it was an outdoor one because it didn't have windows, and they went as far as putting plastic all around it, and all of us had a Thanksgiving dinner together, and these are people I'm talking 60, 70 bow hunters, man. I mean, if you were to say you were to walk into a place that had 60 or 70 bow hunters in today's world, most people would be like, ah, you know, oh my god, you know, but everybody knew where everybody hunted. They did. We talked about it, you know, everybody gave respect for the person that was up there in June, July, sweating their asses off, doing the work, putting it in, you know, and you have to give that up. You know, you have to give that up, that person. But that culture still exists today in this specific uh area I'm talking about in Illinois, and it's a really special place to hunt. And and my goal is that I hope that we can keep uh pushing that and spreading that message and understand that it's okay for all of us. Look, dude, you're over here, one camping spot over. We should be having a beer. You know what I mean? Some deer chili sitting around a fire, all that stuff. So um I'm excited. My whole point with this whole all this was I do feel like there's a very great positive movement from some big names way bigger than us in this business that are doing a great job. And uh I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_02: 1:12:50

Oh, yeah, and I I try to pass it on. Like I don't have a big name, but I try to you know do my part and pass it on to other people. Uh, this was like three years ago. I'm in South Dakota, and I I got I had stands all over. Like I would just go out and put stands up on the weekend, but I had to stand up in Chamberlain, South Dakota, which is like three hours from what the town I lived in. And um, in South Dakota, you have to put your little tag on it, it's got your name, your hunter's license, your phone number on it. So I got it on a stand, and so it's probably like six o'clock on a like Thursday night. I get a phone call. I don't know what the phone number, but I answer it, and this guy's like, Hey, I can't remember the kid's name, but he was like, Hey, I'm I'm this is my first year archery hunting. I'm out on the public land, uh you know, east of the uh Missouri River. Can I hunt your stand? I just I see it. Are you coming out here to hunt today? And I'm like, nah, bro. And he was like, You can hunt it, just leave it how you found it. He was like, Cool. So that was it. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_06: 1:13:52

Wow, isn't that cool? I mean, it gets better.

SPEAKER_02: 1:13:56

He calls me back at like nine o'clock. Um, uh, I shot my first puck. Oh, I just I just found him. Uh can you help can you help me drag him out? And I'm like, dude, I would love to. I am three hours away. There's no way that I'm going to, you know, uh I by the time I get there, dude's gonna be late. Yeah, right. Like, what how do I feel dress it? So I literally get on YouTube, find the exact same Stevenella video that I used to feel dress my deer, like, watch this. Nice. So I was like, call me in the morning. So the next day he calls me at like seven in the morning. I got the deer out. It took me a minute, but I got them out and uh watched a video and I got them all good and everything, but I don't I don't know what to do with them next. I'm like, take them to a processor, you don't gotta do it yourself. And uh and I I never heard from that kid again, but I went back to that stand and he left it like how he found it. Like, and I was like, hey, hopefully one day somebody will call him and say, Hey man, I found your stand. Can you hunt it? And but I end up not getting that stand out, it's like still there. So I don't know, I don't know that I forgot the kid's name, but if you listen to his podcast, you remember calling Mr. Reed.

SPEAKER_06: 1:15:10

He's probably shot seven of them since then. That's so funny.

SPEAKER_02: 1:15:16

Yeah, now because it was hey, I can tell you this for him to find that stand, he hey, he he walked in. He did some work, he did some work. Yeah, I don't know what he was doing. I guess he was just walking, but hey, you found it. Respect, man. That is so awesome.

SPEAKER_06: 1:15:38

That is so cool.

SPEAKER_02: 1:15:40

But I but in South Dakota, like man, guys freak out about like their spot. Like if they've been hunting this one public land in this corner for 20 years, like it's like this is mine. You can't hunt it. Even if you get there and there's no tree stands there, and you put a tree stand up, you you basically you'll come back, you'll find a note. Hey, me and my son have been hunting this spot for the last 30 years. You got to move your stand, or they'll just take it down for you. Wow, you won't find it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:16:08

Bro, that is insane.

SPEAKER_06: 1:16:10

Yeah, that's all that that that is insane. I always use the analogy of saying, you know, public land isn't yours because you piss on the spot, right? It's not your territory because you go up and pee on it, but I pay my taxes. That's right, that's right, you know. But I guess I mean what there's there's two sides to that, right? I mean, I guess if it was you and if it was, you know, uh trade. Let's say me and you have been hunting a spot all our lives, right? And some some new person comes in, I don't know that I'm gonna write them a note. I'm probably gonna try to to shake their hand if I can. But I guess I mean I guess you can't tell somebody where they can't hunt, right? But at the same time, I'm not gonna I'm gonna help that person, right? Because Tristan, you know me, like we've got that public land up there in Illinois, and I know it. I literally know every ditch in 6,000 acres. I mean, I know I can tell you trees that I've watched grow. And I help people out all the time, you know, especially like what you're not going up there. I tell them, hey, but there's still today, there's areas up there that I get calls every year from people, and they'll be like, You coming up here this year? And I said, Nope. And they're like, hot damn, you know, that's what they say. But I appreciate that, you know. But man, what a what a tough thing, it's it's such a tough thing to deal with. But I feel like if if I do run into that situation, I gotta help this person out, you know. Or man, you know, maybe Tristan can't go with me. Why don't you come with me that day? Or what you know, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03: 1:17:53

Um one topic I I thought was interesting today that I'll run by you guys. So I saw his video today of this guy, uh e-bike goes past him and he goes, Oh, another, you know, expletive on a uh on an e-bike. And I'm I'm breaking it down in my head. I'm like thinking, I'm like, man, like I would be pissed, honestly, if I was walking into a spot and it was like 45 minutes or an hour, and like I'm walking out to that spot, putting in the work, knowing I'm like doing like doing the most to try to kill a deer right now, and then an e-bike goes past me, I would be kind of pissed, but it's kind of one of those things like I also get the e-bike perspective, you know, working smarter, not harder. But I think like I don't know, man. I I was breaking it down in my head, and I'm like, I gotta talk about this on the podcast. Are you jealous about it? I think ultimately if they like ban that estate that I was hunting, Illinois banned, I'd be cool with it.

SPEAKER_06: 1:18:46

You can't use it in Illinois.

SPEAKER_03: 1:18:48

If if not, I understand. You know what I mean? What do you guys think?

SPEAKER_06: 1:18:51

So no, Illinois, you can't use it. You could have the same.

SPEAKER_03: 1:18:54

Yeah, but that's not an answer. I'm I understand. But what's what do you think about it?

SPEAKER_06: 1:18:59

I think that if they allow it, I would definitely I would definitely buy one at 53. I mean, before, you know, yeah, but if I was 20 something and they're allowed and somebody came past me, I'd be like touche. That's how I'd feel. I mean, honestly, even if I couldn't afford it, because the inner part of you has to admit, whether you want to admit it or not, that this guy or gal is working smarter than I am or has more money than I do, you know.

SPEAKER_03: 1:19:29

So what do you think, Trey?

SPEAKER_02: 1:19:31

So I used to be against them, but it was because I didn't I didn't know nothing about them. But this year we were in uh me and my buddy Rex Rad in Colorado, and we're walking down this trail and just you know, calling elk and we we hunted this weird this weird unit in Colorado where you ain't spotting a stock and elk, you literally getting up in a tree and hoping you see one. Wow, and this dude come flying by on a uh e-bike. I never heard it, even when he drove it. It was like it's not like a hybrid car, just real faint. And I'm like, all right, we need one of them because like I don't know what brand he got. That joker is quiet. Now, I mean, you're gonna run over sticks and leaves and stuff like that, so that's making noise, but the actual bike I didn't hear. Uh I'm I'm I'm for it, but like I'm uh like I feel like the it's it's gonna scare something away. So I mean if you can use it, cool. I'm not gonna get one, but like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03: 1:20:32

I'm I know that's how I admit it.

SPEAKER_06: 1:20:35

But yeah, I well then think about this too. We know for certain, and and and I know that there's a lot of people that'll be listening to this podcast right now that has their own private land, and they will say that the deer don't mind you nothing as long as I'm in the side by side, or I'm in the truck. And I've even hunted places where they're like, we're gonna drop you off in my truck right at the base of your tree stand because there's a uh a road that goes by it or whatever. And in my mind, I'm like, are they crazy? You know, and they're like, trust me, the deer, like you're better off doing this than walking your scent that three or four hundred yards, or whatever. So I guess there's something to be said about what deer are used to, but if they're not used to it, then I I gotta think that if I was a deer and I saw somebody ripping by on a bike, I'd be like, all right, I'm running. I'm gone, yeah. All right, because that dude's trying to keep up with me, and that we might get caught. Those those people walking down the road, yeah, we know them. We can run away from them. We can't get away from this guy on the bike.

SPEAKER_02: 1:21:45

Yeah, you move a little quick. I just get I used to get mad because like uh like my ex, her brother, they're all farmers, so like during this hunting season, sometime they will start combining like either corn or soybeans or whatever, and I'd be like, they know I'm hunting. Why are they doing that? Yes. I was like, hey man, like I know you gotta get this done, but like I'm hunting today. He was like right by the fence. He's like, dude, they they're not worried about this combine. They see this combine every single year, they know I'm not trying to hurt them, so they'll yeah, they'll if they're in front of it, they'll run, but for the most part, they'll step to the side and just keep on trucking, like, dude, you ain't got nothing to worry about. And I'm like, Oh, I never thought about that.

SPEAKER_06: 1:22:23

Dude, I remember feeling that same way. Uh, whenever I first uh the first time I hunted some private land was with my step uncle, and you know, he's out there combining, and I'm like, man, this is gonna mess up all the deer hunting. No, dude, it's a it's a dinner bell. That's what it is. It's a dinner bell when it comes to now. The only thing that isn't the most frustrating when you're hunting public land, or I mean sorry, private land happen to you is if it's happening to you while you're hunting or it happens before you go hunt. And that's when you go show up and you're like, dude, there's this cut corn field, dude. The deer are gonna be smoking it. Yep. And then you show up the next week and you're like, they plowed it. Yep. And you're like, gosh dang it. I mean, I went to my I went to my step uncle one time and I go, uh, what could I what could we work out? You know, if if about you uh plowing under that corn so fast, he goes, not a damn thing. I go, what do you mean? There's gotta be a dollar. He goes, no, listen, it's so important that I do that immediately because of the soil and everything. Yeah, because corn is the worst. Yes, it drains the very worst, it drains the life out of it. And I mean, oh, don't even get me going on the whole corn thing. But but it's true, and uh, but but you know, beans, you won't see that so much. You know, beans, you'll see them get cut, and if the only thing that happens usually there, there's they're not gonna plow it, they're going to drill um winter wheat.

SPEAKER_02: 1:23:58

Yeah, winter wheat or like rashes or something.

SPEAKER_06: 1:24:01

Yeah, yeah, but no, there's nothing worse than you having a piece of privately leased land, and I swear that I will never lease another piece of private land without confirming with the farmer that do you plow your corn? Because if he tells me he does, I'm gonna be like, nope, I'm done. Nope, I ain't doing it. Are you better but knock thousands off?

SPEAKER_02: 1:24:24

Well, yeah, I I used to uh I would hate because like the guys I like the guys I started hunting with, they would drive their side by sides right underneath the tree. I'm like, why y'all doing that? It it would bug me. And but I thought, well, maybe it's just me. And then my buddy Will, he told me the story, which is is crazy. He had this huge buck, it was a nice 10-point on his camera. And he would drive his truck probably maybe like 200 yards from his stand and then walk in. He'd never see the deer. He'd get in his truck, and by the time he got down the road, he'd get a notification on his phone deer's in the food plot. So he's like, what is going on? So he'd drive out there the next day. This deer was coming out every morning about like 10 30 during the road. So he's like, I just can't figure this deer out. Like, I he's coming out every morning when I'm not there at 10. The days I'm there, he knows come out. I'll sit all day, he won't come out. So his brother was like, hey man, how about this? Because obviously you're doing something that's alerting the deer that you're there. But he just couldn't figure it out. So he was like, How about this? I'm gonna sit in your truck. You walk in and about 10 o'clock, I'm gonna dip. I'm gonna shut I'm gonna get out, slam the door, crank it up, and drive out. So then like two weeks later, they go and they do this. Now I'm not saying that what they did work, maybe that was just the day he came out, but as soon as Josh got in the truck and drove off, maybe about 15, 20 minutes later, this deer comes walking into the food plot.

SPEAKER_03: 1:26:01

No way.

SPEAKER_02: 1:26:02

We'll put some down, we'll put some down. So after he puts him, he gets he gets him and everything, he starts walking to where he came from and finds his trail. Goes back and it kind of bend like bent around. Where he was bedded up at, he if you lay down in the bed, you can see Will's truck in the parking lot.

SPEAKER_03: 1:26:21

No way. I believe it.

SPEAKER_02: 1:26:23

He can see the parking lot, and when you come into this this walk-in spot, it's a gravel road, so you hear the gravel. So as I'm in my mind, he told me the story. I'm thinking, okay, cool. The deer can hear the gravel getting louder, so that means somebody's coming. Right. Hear the door shut, I'm staying put.

unknown: 1:26:42

Right?

SPEAKER_02: 1:26:42

Then when he hear it. They know what a normal day feels like. Yeah, and when he hears the second time, okay, whatever was around is gone. I'm gonna come on out. And he heard that truck leave about 15, 20 minutes later, he walked out, got an arrow in his side. I believe it, dude. I 100% believe it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:26:59

Wow, that's so cool to like think out of the box like that and make something. I mean, gr granted it could have just been that day, like you said.

SPEAKER_02: 1:27:05

Yeah, as far as like, man, you but still just that day.

SPEAKER_03: 1:27:09

But still, just thinking out of the box like that, I mean, might work for you, man. Might work.

SPEAKER_06: 1:27:14

Well, isn't that funny when you really break it down? Is that that we you know the deer hear the vehicle coming and or vehicles, right? And then we get to there and we go like, don't slam the door. Don't slam the door. You know, like I remember the first when first time one of the first times I took Tristan hunting, he slammed the door, I go, Hey, don't ever slam the door. You know what I mean? As a dad, you know, but it really didn't, like I guess Cade would say, didn't make a shit. It it probably didn't matter, you know, but no, there's a reason why big bucks are big. Yeah, you know, it's and what I think we all forget about is that a hundred percent of their life, and we don't give enough respect to those, they're all dear, but a hundred percent of their lives, they are learning. Yeah, a hundred. So why do we everybody goes, oh, that's the dumb button buck, it's the dumb spike. Yeah, guess what? Yeah, they're dumb.

SPEAKER_04: 1:28:12

But guess what?

SPEAKER_06: 1:28:13

They are learning their ass the hard way right then, and they're doing this 365 days, 24-7, 100% of the time that they are on this planet is avoiding predators. Yeah, so listen. I need to implement some of that with my wife, maybe. I just try to think about being being better. That maybe I need to maybe I need to focus more like all the time on like making her happy, that way she doesn't get mad at me about hunting. No, no, but but I'm saying my stepdad used to say if you if you walk, if you owned a house and you have everything the way it is, and somebody walks into your living room and moves something, when you walk in there, you're gonna notice. Deer do that, they notice in every way. Things being cut, cars, like you said, the steps, all that stuff. Because that's all they do. That's all they do.

SPEAKER_02: 1:29:23

Yeah, it it's survival. Like uh my brother, he was like when I was when he started hunting, he was coming to me for all kinds of information, like about scent and all that stuff, because he thought it didn't matter. I said, bro, peep this. I said, think about this. If someone came to your house to hunt you and they came inside your house, you know your house more than anybody. Yeah, you know every corner, every room, all that. So you wouldn't, like you said, you would know if something moved or if you hear a sound that you don't normally hear, now you're on high alert. If you're being hunted, yeah, like I I mean, I'm sure they don't know, like I don't think they know they're being hunted, but If you if you're terrified, you're scared of whatever's coming, your whole entire life. They they live their whole entire life on alert. Yeah. Yo, they they pay attention to the smallest thing. I've even heard someone say, like, if you step on some grass, they can they know that the grass has been stepped on like 22 days or something after you're gone. I'm like, I don't know how true it is. I hear a lot of stuff in the hunting world that I don't haven't gotten confirmation if it's true. You got the turkey hunters, right? Yep. Well, we're we're we're amateurs.

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:30

Yeah, I said we're like half-hearted turkey hunters.

SPEAKER_02: 1:30:33

Yeah, I'm asked y'all this because someone told me this and I still ain't got an answer yet. I've even talked to like veteran turkey hunters, and they like, yeah, it sounds about right, but I don't believe them. They said that a turkey's eyesight is so good that they can see a tick on a leaf at 300 yards. I believe it.

SPEAKER_06: 1:30:47

I don't believe I do, I don't and let me tell you why I believe it. I don't believe it. Listen, listen.

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:52

No, you don't.

SPEAKER_06: 1:30:53

No, no, no, no, listen. I don't believe that. Listen, I'm gonna tell you why I believe it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:58

Listen, now you might have yards. I believe the bigger metaphor by what they're saying, you know.

SPEAKER_06: 1:31:05

I believe it. Listen, they can see a tick move if that's what they're focused on. I guarantee you they can because listen, bird eye sight is incredible. Hawks, uh uh Falcons, Eagles, dude, they're seeing shit on a way different level. I will tell you this. Not 300 yards, listen, Trey.

SPEAKER_03: 1:31:26

Yeah, they might they might see me at 300 yards.

SPEAKER_06: 1:31:29

Listen, I'm talking, he's talking. All right, but all right, so is that through the woods, or is it you know open and there's just one tree with a tick walking on it? Yes, they would see that tick move. No, yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_03: 1:31:40

Nope.

SPEAKER_02: 1:31:42

If it's true, not in the woods, no turkey.

SPEAKER_06: 1:31:44

I'm not I'm not believing it. I will tell you this, man. Bullshit. I I used to joke around, I will put turkeys, let me let me let me bridge this gap. All my life growing up in Illinois bow hunting, I tried to be in position for a turkey while I'm deer hunting, because in Illinois you can shoot a turkey during uh um fall, and I just wanted to kill everything, so that was alright. And dude, every single time for 30 something years of my bow hunting career, and I'm talking about 150, 200 hours a year in a tree stand, I never could get to full draw on a turkey. Ever. As soon as I tried, and there they go. I'm like, there is no way. There is like I remember one time I had three turkeys out in front of me, and I turned my head so slow that I didn't even notice it move. And I don't know if they saw the color my white face or whatever, and I'm like, there they go. So they didn't hear me. Or they didn't hear me, they saw me.

SPEAKER_03: 1:32:56

You're also a lot bigger than a tick, I will say. Yeah, but what I will say too, so I have shot one with my bow, which I know you have too, but deer hunting and I had two. I had I know, I just said you have two. But the only reason why I shot one is because it went past me and I shot in the ass. Okay, so there's this morning trade. Honestly, it's I probably like the best hunting morning in my ever like my entire life. Long story short, I shot a hen turkey and a uh eight-pointer the same morning. I'm like, that's never happening again. Well, these uh 17 or 18 hens or whatever came walking in, and I'm I knew about their eyesight, so I was like, I'm letting them all get past me, and I'm gonna shoot the last one when they're all looking away. And to your point, I drew back, and some and I thought every single set of eyes was like forward. Somehow they knew, and they just started walking real fast, and thankfully that one when I drew back was maybe five yards. So, like by the time like I'm like following her at full draw and I just let one go and hit her, but like they knew somehow, and they started walking real fast.

SPEAKER_06: 1:33:55

I mean, point being is their eyes are just incredible. I mean, they just are they they are, but I do believe in an open field, if there's a if there's a tree out there, if there's an oak out in the middle of an open field in South Dakota, and you see that one tree and there's a tick walking up it, that turkey might be like, Yep.

SPEAKER_03: 1:34:16

Trade, did you did you know you just opened up this can of work?

SPEAKER_02: 1:34:24

A guy told me on on one of my shows, so I put the clip out and dude on TikTok and I had people, man, it ain't true. Oh no, it is true. Man, it was probably 50-50. Like, so I don't know. I I gotta ask the turkey, man. How far can you see a tick?

SPEAKER_03: 1:34:40

That's good stuff.

SPEAKER_05: 1:34:41

That is, man.

SPEAKER_03: 1:34:42

Uh one thing I wanted to ask you, man. So, you know, like one of the biggest things for me, like in my bow hunting journey, was like like I'd messed it up so many times when I was younger because you know, I I think when I was shooting deer when I was younger, honestly, half of it was just getting lucky because like dealing with the adrenaline rush and like staying present in that moment and like executing and putting a good shot on the deer. I mean, I could have shot twice as many deer if I had as I have right now if I wouldn't have messed up so many opportunities. Oh man, we all do you like being like as a an older onset hunter, not somebody just grew up doing it as a kid. Like, do you have any like advice, I guess, for people like in executing in that moment, I guess? Good question. Or something that helped you.

SPEAKER_02: 1:35:26

Man, what would help me is uh honestly, I tell people this that asked me that question before, man, football helped me because like in the heat of the moment, you gotta you gotta be gotta have your composure about yourself. If not, you can get your head knocked off. So like a deer's not trying to kill me. So I can pretty much I can control my you know, adrenaline and all that in the moment. And then once it's you know the deed is done, then I'm now I I can't control myself. So I tell people just like try to practice it. You know, you can do all the sit-ups and push-ups and stuff and then go shoot your bow. That's it's it don't really help. No, I'm sorry. I people gonna laugh at me or say something. I don't care. It don't really help. But the best thing you can do is just get out in the woods and just and remember your like go through your shot sequence. Like, yeah, don't think don't think about the antlers, don't think about um don't think about you know what you're gonna do with it. Cause I get I'm gonna I'm guilty of that. I think about how the back strap's gonna taste before I even just like don't focus on the rack, you know. If it's a buck, just focus on putting that arrow where it needs to go, go through your shot sequence and and execute. And that's every time you're you pull your bow back. Like if you're in your backyard, don't just you know, a lot of us do it, we just pull back and shoot. Like, really focus on all right, like I I do this, I'm like, all right, there's my I have a 3D target in the back, and I'm like and I'm just kind of go through it, put my pen where I need to, you know, find my spot and just do just do the same thing over and over and over again. That way when it's when it's game time, it's second nature, you don't even think about it, you just automatically just get there. So we just practice a lot and don't take any reps for granted.

SPEAKER_03: 1:37:16

That's yeah, great advice. Yeah, that's awesome. That's you know that's well, just like to circle the loop on my qu that question and all that, like to your point, that's the that's what changed it for me was like being present. Like there was a guy on Joe Rogan, it might have been um it might have been John Dudley, I don't remember who exactly it was. It was one of those like big archery guys, and he was talking about being extremely present in the moment, and the only way you can make yourself be present is if you think through every single thing. So I think it was green treats. When when I get in a stand, like I pull back my bow one time just to like make sure like I get the arrow on, pull it back one time, and just make sure that like everything's good. And when I do that, I think about like visually seeing the deer, putting it where I want to be, making sure I don't punch the trigger when I let go, like all those little things to your point shot sequence. But I'm I'm glad you said that because that's that's what helped me too, is you know.

SPEAKER_06: 1:38:09

Well, you know, and that's why Paul Vadale used to always say pick a spot. Yeah, because it I really there's been some that there's been two sentences in my life that have been so short but meant so much that I didn't realize until later in life. And one is pick a spot, two is go to church. All right. I mean, seriously, I didn't know how powerful my grandfather said go to church. I didn't realize. I just thought it was I just said go to church. I didn't realize what the impact it might have in my life. Same thing with pick a spot. What what Jerry was teaching me by saying that is is staying focused. Yeah, staying focused on that spot because it's so hard, you know. You just you can't recreate in a situation where uh a buck's walking in, you're gonna shoot him at 15 yards, choo, choo, choo, boom, jumps real quick, sturts aside, something like that, you know, and and you gotta make a split-second decision on whether you're gonna try to harvest this animal or not.

SPEAKER_03: 1:39:15

Or here's another one you're you pull back when he's behind that tree, and then he stops, and now you can't let your bow down. Yeah, now you're at full draw for a minute or two minutes, and you haven't practiced that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:39:26

Hey, at that point, hey, it's gotta he's got a man up at that point. Yeah, bro, I know.

SPEAKER_06: 1:39:33

They're smart son of a guns, and sometimes this dear one, us, no, nothing, right? I mean, it's just the way it works, and that's why we love it so much, you know. Um, I had probably before I before I harvest my first puppin' young buck, I have got 20 years of stories. I know that sounds like you two might be sitting there going, I can't even imagine that. But a failure. A failure, failure. We didn't have trail cameras, we didn't have releases, we shot fingers, shot luminum arrows, you know, all these things. And I can tell you, we could I could do a podcast on it. Just that alone of telling failures, like literally, I I try I I almost quit hunting three or four times in my life, and one for sure, and you know that story. Yeah, um, but it but that's what drives us, right? And that's where you you in my life, that was the perseverance piece of me. Yeah, you know, and that has stemmed forward to my professional career. All these things I I believe it has in my mind, you know, that just same thing with football, right? Diversity, right? You know, you get your ass kicked one night, you know. Adversity. Adversity. I said adversity. Diversity. So adversity. No, but but you know, you're getting your ass kicked one night, you don't know why. You know, you just do, and it's a humbling moment. And you wake up the next day as a team and you go, all right, listen, what are we gonna do to fix this? And you know, maybe it's getting in that that presence that you talked about, right? Level bringing up your level of of expertise, your that, you know, like I told Tristan, I said, um, this is a great story, but he he made a game-saving tackle as a little league football player in triple overtime. Saved the game, they won the game. I I remember telling him when he was little, 11 or 12 years old, I said, This is what professional athletes do every play. I go, when you knew that I've got to make this tackle right now, I've got to make it. That's what they do. Professional athletes do it every play. That's the presence they bring. And that's the difference outside of skill is yeah, I mean, and and and God gifts. No, but yeah, mindset, obviously. But but I love that you brought that up when it comes to sports because it really is um it really is something that you can't recreate. I mean, you can't you can't make it up.

SPEAKER_03: 1:42:06

If you don't play, you gotta prepare for it. Tackle football, how are you gonna recreate that?

SPEAKER_06: 1:42:10

Right, no, no, you gotta you gotta just put it in the work. Like you said, taking the shots, you know, going through all that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:42:16

Yeah, it's one of the biggest things I get on my brother about because he's one of those guys that he'll pick his bow up a week before the season, go out and shoot a couple shots, get it, make sure it's dialed in, and then he won't pull his bow back again until he's pulling back on a deer. Or he will won't pull it out until we're getting ready to go to a total archery challenge or something like that. And I'm like, dude, you gotta shoot more because what are you gonna do when that uh that book comes out? Well, just like a 3D target, I'll be ready. All right, I like I I'm at this point in my life, all right, but I'm gonna let you have it. So last season he sends me his picture, he got this this nice eight-point that's been showing up in front of a stand. I said, hey bro, go get him. This be this will be your first archery deer. Probably won't be there opening day, but you know what? I'm I good luck to you. Sure enough, that bad boy walked out that morning 30 yards and he shot him over the back. Went back that afternoon, that buck comes up because he hunts over corn. That buck came back to that feeder and shot underneath him. Like he was like, dude, I I don't know what's going on. Like, I pulled my bow back and I get to shake and I'm like, yeah, that's because you you're not going through your shot sequence, and you've never felt that you never pulled back on a animal before. So that's a it's a whole different feeling. And I was like, that's why you gotta shoot more. And this like this summer, he was shooting every single day. Good for him. Even if he's like, Man, I got 15 minutes, you know, before I gotta take the girls to dance, I'm getting out in the yard. That's all you need. You can sling, you can get 30, 40 year olds slang in 15 minutes, right? You know, so like and he's practicing. I I could even sit in his face. Now I've done a couple sits with him, and he's focused. He's not on his phone. I mean, he's paying attention to everything, he's in the moment. Like last weekend, we were we're out sitting, and this crow landed on this like dead branch, and the branch fell down, and the crow started freaking out. He was like, Bro, we would have never damn he wasn't out here, man. Like, we we in the moment, right?

SPEAKER_03: 1:44:18

I've been telling you, bro.

SPEAKER_02: 1:44:20

Let's go. That's what I've been telling you. He's like, man, the air smell different, and it's and we're and we're hunting a different part of a property we that we haven't hunted before. And he's like, dude, this is this is dope. I'm like, yeah, man, you got you gotta be in the moment. Yes, because when like when you get up, like when that deer, because he has a really nice uh A-point on his cameras, he's been seeing. So bro, when that deer come out, you're gonna be ready. Like, I I I see it in your face now. And I'm I'm I'm I know he's out hunting right now. I've been looking at my phone hoping he'd get I get a call, but I ain't got one yet. But uh I that like that like that's the thing, and I try to tell people like you can't recreate none of that, man. Like when you when you're in that moment, ain't there's nothing that I can I can create, uh you can recreate or uh do like um you guys know Derek Wolf?

SPEAKER_03: 1:45:07

Yeah, the uh diff defensive tackle for the uh Broncos, right? That's a B Hunter, right?

SPEAKER_02: 1:45:12

He retired, obviously, but he's about to I had him on the show uh no way. Oh yeah, he's he's dope. And I asked him, I was like, you know, what like how how does it feel to how did it feel to get your first elk? And he was like, dude, I sacked Tom Brady in the AFC championship game, got up screaming like a wolf with a hundred or something, thousand people yelling my name, and the first time I pulled back on the elk, he goes, That there's no comparison to that. No way, you got 100,000 people hollering your name and that adrenaline, he goes, the adrenaline rush you get from that elk hunt, he goes, That ain't nothing like it. Wow, dude. You can't think that's something you can't recreate. If if you can't get if you can't get there, I don't, I don't, I don't know what how to tell you.

SPEAKER_03: 1:45:57

Well, you know, oh my god, that's insane.

SPEAKER_06: 1:45:59

That is insane. Um, we were talking a little bit after off air, and if you guys follow us, you know a little bit about my mom, but I was sharing a little bit of that with Trey. And um one thing of advice that I I will pass on that my mom was a big believer in, and I still believe in it today, is is you gotta visualize. You gotta visualize, like if you've got that buck, right, and you know what he what he looks like, right, and you know you've done all the work, you've put in, you've set your tree stand up, you know, you're playing the wind, you're doing all these things, you clo like I guess the best thing I've seen recently that helps in helps you like uh um visualize it is remember that thing on the blue angels that we watch? All right, and they sit there and they sit there in formation, yeah. In a conference room, and they're all sitting in their chairs like they're in jets, and they're going, all right, left wing one, you know, all this, and they walk through it because they're visualizing it. And my mom would say that, she goes, because she never wounded a deer, dude. Not one, all three of those bucks were shot and killed, done. And she waited sometimes three, four years for each one of those opportunities, and what it was is that she found comfort in visualizing it. You know, put yourself there, sit down, take a time out, sit there in the couch, shut everything off, put your phone down, TV off, all that stuff. And if you're really wanting to shoot a big buck, think about where he's gonna come from, what's that gonna feel like, what's that gonna look like? And that only helps you in those situations.

SPEAKER_03: 1:47:38

Yeah, and just to piggyback off that, like, and I don't know your thoughts on this, Trey, but like how how often you know you're in that moment, and like this is just me flashing back to when I was younger. Like, you know, I'm I might have been thinking like it would have been this like slow walk up of this buck or whatever. They come in hot sometimes, and then you gotta sit your full draw and you say, man, and then you get them to stop, and then you're freaking out. You like the buck doesn't stop where you want to. But that whole like I the first time I did that, I shot over the back of the deer because he came running down this creek behind me, and it was like right about dark. Um, you know, still shooting light, but getting close to dark, and I stopped him in the creek, shot right over his back. It's because mentally I had not walked through that scenario and just paint, like, I don't know what happened. Probably used my wrong pen. I don't even know.

SPEAKER_02: 1:48:23

Yeah, dude, I would I would do it when I was uh when I played football, like I would just I would sit on the bus and you know, a lot of guys talking and stuff, and I'm just like just going through this play in my head. Okay, if the linebacker does this, I'm gonna do this. Okay, I'm gonna do this. I'm I'm just in visualizing it, like what I'm gonna do. And when I even though you know, I say this, it was my first archery deer was a doe. Like, I remember walking to the stand, like, I want she come out. If a deer come out, I'm just gonna pull back, I'm gonna put the pen where it's supposed to be and I'm gonna let it go. Like, and because that's just now I was just basic. I didn't know built in your nature from football. I was like, that's that's how I got that's how I gotta do it. Now, I didn't account for the the book fever this thing. I didn't account for that, but it's like I'm I'm not gonna execute the shot unless I unless I see it. Like I I gotta see, envision an arrow hidden her right, but like right in the the battle V, boom, done, game over. And I just kept seeing it, seeing it now in my head it was a buck, it wasn't no dough. But it's the same thing.

SPEAKER_06: 1:49:32

Oh dude, I mean, you know, I've had it doesn't matter. I mean, there's been deer, I know there's been does that have jacked me up way worse than like you know, you're like, I need some meat. So here comes this doe walking in early season. You're like, she's coming right down this 12-yard run. You're like, here we go, all right. This is all this is a piece of cake, right? And then she, for some reason, two steps before you're gonna shoot, stops and looks right at you and does that. And they start throwing that body language at you, right? Yeah, dude. Just like they throw that body language, and you're like, I don't like the body language, I don't like the body language, and you know, dude, I don't care. Like it that's what I love still at 53 years old, man. Uh uh, whatever I'm trying to harvest deer-wise, they can mess you up, dude. Because that means so it's so important to you, right? Whatever that scenario is, and man, I still love that part of it, even with failure.

SPEAKER_02: 1:50:39

You know when buck fever really hits you?

SPEAKER_03: 1:50:42

What's that?

SPEAKER_02: 1:50:42

What's that when you pay for a hunt and it's the last day?

SPEAKER_03: 1:50:46

Oh yeah, I can see that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:50:50

I paid for a ram hunt last October, and like my uh my fiance, she killed a hog, my brother killed a hog. I was the only one hunting the ram. And uh last day, and I ain't seen the ram all week long. I'm like, I can't well I've been seeing them, but I can't get a shot on them. They just they're so skittish. And finally they get like 20 yards from me. I'm like, all right, chip shot, and then I go to full draw and it just hits me. If I miss this shot, that's fifteen hundred dollars gone, and I'm gonna end it. And I was really starting like shaking.

SPEAKER_06: 1:51:23

Yeah, it just all hit you all at once.

SPEAKER_02: 1:51:25

Well, put a shot on it, but I'm like, man, like I'm like, I ain't never I ain't got book people like this bad in a long time. And my brother goes, Yeah, because you paid for the hunt. Ain't no coming back tomorrow. Yeah, true that that's great.

SPEAKER_06: 1:51:38

I remember thinking about this. I mean, just a quick story about uh approach of the deer. I remember this 10-pointer that I had pegged on this private land. He was coming out to this clover field every night. We knew it, and when he decided to come out this night, he was gonna F up some trees, and he messed up some trees, he hit some branches and made like three rubs. And I know to this day, I know when I originally shot and missed that I said there was a branch, but I know it's because I was so jacked up, bro. I had not expect that deer to come in like that, and he had me so wired out that I I don't even remember the shot really. It's just like you said, you know, I mean, I was just like you don't even know what happened. I don't even know what happened. I mean, I was just so my adrenaline shot up so high with all that. Like, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, you know, oh my goodness, what a sport we we love.

SPEAKER_03: 1:52:36

I know, I love it. Well, man, Trey, we we could talk for seven hours, it seems like at this pace.

SPEAKER_06: 1:52:42

Oh yeah, I'm I'm all good. Oh bro, we gotta do this more.

SPEAKER_03: 1:52:46

I I want to hear, uh, I guess before we get out of here, man, like uh of the time of like hunting, you know, your deer hunting, your whatever you've hunted, ram, you know, like what's what's been like been the pinnacle of it so far, man.

SPEAKER_02: 1:52:58

Oh, the the pinnacle would be and I've told the story before.

SPEAKER_03: 1:53:06

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02: 1:53:06

It and it don't it don't end with me getting an animal, but uh it was my very first elk hunt. Me and my buddy Rex go out to Colorado, and uh we're just walking, calling, walking, calling, and this bull comes running in. And mind you, up until this hunt, I've never seen a bull in the wild, only on TV.

SPEAKER_03: 1:53:28

Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_02: 1:53:30

This uh six by six comes running in. And he's at when we first saw him, he was probably like 80 yards away. And by the time we could get like set up, he like closed the gap. He's at like 35 yards, and there's like a big pine tree between me and him. Well, I mean the pine tree was like a spruce tree between me and him. So I'm at full draw and he's walking, walking, and then there's like a little small gap, and then there's another big spruce tree. He walks right behind that tree, it's at the end of it, and I can just see his head, but no vitals. And I'm at full draw and he like stops. And I can smell him at this point. Like he, I'm like, oh, he's re-reeks, like I'm oh, I can't wait. And then he bugles heard a bugle for the first time, and it just sent chills down my spine.

SPEAKER_03: 1:54:21

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02: 1:54:22

Oh my gosh, my my because at this point I've only been Archie Hunting like two years, and it's like, oh man, all this is let us this moment right here is going down. It is the first day. Oh, it we it's it's it, and he just stands there and he bugles again. And I'm thinking my buddy's gonna like cow call, but he's in awe because he never heard no elk bugle. So he's standing there with with the call in his hand. I was like, we'll draw it. I'm looking back at him like, hey man, like you know, chirp back to him, do something. Then he like I could feel the wind shift and it hit the back of my neck, and he got my scent, and he just like runs off and he gets you know, probably like 50, 60 yards from me. And I I was not about to shoot that elk at 50, 60 yards. I just wasn't experienced enough. And he like looked back at us and like he's ran off. And I he was gone, and I'm still standing there at full draw, and I'm like, and this is what this shit is all about. Man, like this is what it's all about, man. Like it it's like it didn't end in uh me getting a harvesting uh elk, but it's just like a memory of a lifetime. Yeah, I see why people do this. Like I got one, it's my first elk hunt. I got to see a bull, he bugled at us twice, ran off, stepped back, let us get a good look at him, like, yeah, you ain't never gonna get this, baby. And he took off and man, like, we didn't see another elk that week, but that just that that whole hunt was just so cool because we got to see, like, I'd never been to Colorado before. Well, I've been to Colorado, I've been in the Air Force Academy, but I'd never what you call it, uh, on a visit, but I never like went out in the woods in Colorado. But I what you call it, um I had never actually been out and seen the world of Colorado and seen the woods and and the the vast woods and all of God's creation. Like, I ain't never seen none of that before. Yeah, it was like this is like this is amazing, and all the amazing just being there, right? It was amazing, and uh, and then of course I had aptitude sickness, so I won't forget that. I was all sick and dehydrated, but I it the the whole trip was just like dope. And uh I'll never forget it. Like, one because I didn't shoot that elk, but just the show he gave us, and it was just it was it was just amazing. And I I and out of all my hunts, even the ones that ended with me taking the animal, that one is the one that stands up to me because it was just everything I wanted in the elk hunt, my minus you know, harvesting one, it was all everything bundled up in one, and I just I love it. That's awesome. That's awesome. What a great story.

SPEAKER_03: 1:56:59

Well, man, thank you so much for spending the time to us tonight, dude. Like, especially just me reaching out like randomly, like, hey dude, I uh your page looks cool. You want to come on the podcast?

SPEAKER_02: 1:57:08

But that's how you do it, though. I tell all I tell like Cat's be like, man, how'd you get such and such on your show? I just messaged him, man. Like, hey, you got you you miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take. Hey, man, you want to call my right, right? Uh my mom always said a closed mouth don't get fed. So there it is, man. Say something. That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_03: 1:57:29

Well, thank you, man. Tell me. No, Trey, thank you, man. We really appreciate your time. The podcast and all that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:57:34

Oh, yeah, man. You can find the podcast on Carbon TV, you can find it over on Spotify, Apple Podcast. Um, my TikTok is no the dreaded archer, uh, dreaded DA underscore dreaded archer 17. Instagram is the same thing, DA underscore dreaded archer 17. Um, Facebook is DeAndre Reed. You can hit me up. I'm I normally answer right back and real quick. Um, but yeah, I I I really appreciate you guys reaching out to me. And I mean, I enjoyed this, and we definitely gotta do it more, man. I'm I'm I'm always down for it.

SPEAKER_06: 1:58:04

Well, you gotta we tell everybody this too because you know um you get through the ATL area, man, need a place to crash or something like that. Tris and I both more than welcome.

SPEAKER_02: 1:58:15

Man, I was supposed to be in Atlanta uh the first of this month because I was gonna do an event at the sickle store down there. Oh, okay, yeah, sure. But I I was with this group was called the New Jack Archers, and it was just some some bad stuff happened, and we ended up breaking up. So that whole deal went under. But I was looking forward to coming to Atlanta to be at the sickest store.

SPEAKER_03: 1:58:37

Well, dude, yeah, if you ever end up doing that, making that trip, let me know. I'd love to. I've been out there for a um well, first of all, like the Braves stadiums right there. Yep. So like we got a lot of the Braves games, but um Delta Waterfowl uh has had a couple of events down at the sicker store, so I've gone down a couple times for that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:58:53

Hey man, hey, if you get if it's open invitation, I I plane, I hop in the car, I I drive. I'm always like I I love because I've only been to Atlanta at the airport.

SPEAKER_03: 1:59:04

Yeah, it's that's everybody, bro.

SPEAKER_02: 1:59:07

And you guys got some restaurants that I need to get down there and try because I plan my vacations around what I'm gonna eat.

SPEAKER_03: 1:59:12

Oh, dude, we've been trying to get better. Like, I'll keep the short. We've been trying to get better. So, like, we live in this part of town called Duluth, and it's like northeast, and for whatever reason, there's a huge Vietnamese population here, and like Korean and all that, but like their food is insane, and like all these people trap travel from like downtown Atlanta to come eat at these spots. And me and my wife are like trying to get better about like venturing out like once a month at least, you know, and trying some of these spots.

SPEAKER_02: 1:59:39

Y'all got a spot down there called the breakfast bar I'm trying to slide to.

SPEAKER_03: 1:59:43

Oh, yeah. So I'm feeding network. There you go. Well, cool, man. Well, thank you so much, man.

SPEAKER_06: 1:59:49

Yeah, no, dude. Super appreciate your time. Can't wait to connect with you again. Hopefully, it's uh our our way to harvest some animal.

SPEAKER_02: 1:59:56

Yeah. I'm down for it, man. Y'all call me. I'm down. And if you guys ever want to come to Texas and hunt some hogs or something, let me know. We can get something set up.

SPEAKER_06: 2:00:05

That's a good time. Sounds good, man. Thank you. All right, brother. You take care now. All right, you too. See ya. Thank you. Later.

SPEAKER_01: 2:00:12

I've been southbound. I've been hellbound. Riding on a midnight train. Going too fast now. Thing all so down, standing in the pouring rain.